Category: media

“If one were to create a stylistic spectrum of great writers in the twentieth century, Harold Pinter and Marcel Proust would likely wind up on opposite ends of it. … So, when choosing a writer to adapt In Search of Lost Time for the screen, one would not be inclined to think first of Pinter – and yet, that is what happened.”

So why, besides the usual Hollywood shallowness, are we not getting films that match the frustration many Americans still feel, or that capture the lives they’re living? And will we ever get them?

And if you’re in the States, you can’t see it until next fall. Yet it took in $46 million its opening weekend and will probably make a lot more just this month.

“Harvey Weinstein wants less carnage in films. But ‘less’ and ‘more’ aren’t helpful terms when answering questions of how on-screen mayhem influences real-world mayhem.”

This was a huge deal. “‘Kiss him, Felix,’ urged thousands of viewers of Globo TV’s popular soap Amor à Vida … The campaign for it was partly led by a politician, and it took place online using Facebook and Twitter.”

“Together, the two controversies are this year’s contribution to an emerging insistence by many who watch the Oscar process, and some who participate in it, that Academy members should take into account moral, ethical and social factors when marking a ballot or enforcing the rules.”

During three different awards ceremonies, ‘Her,’ ‘Frozen,’ and ‘Gravity’ all look good in some of the final awards before the Oscars.

“The original screenplay category matched up five-for-five in nominations with the Academy Awards, perhaps tipping the hand of what awards-watchers may expect to see at the Oscars in a few weeks.”

“What’s surprising to me is that anything gets made at all because it’s really, really hard.”

Big-budget films dropped from 87 in 2011 to 62 last year, and small-budget films fell dramatically to less than 200 – though in the same time period, total investment rose. What’s going on?