Category: media

“In a next wave, China’s emerging film companies are proposing to reverse the equation, by finding Chinese stories with global appeal and just enough American content or backing to attract viewers who have grown comfortable with Hollywood-style movies.”

“Among the loudest critics has been Julie Maroh, the French writer who wrote the graphic novel of the same name, on which this film was based. On her blog in May, she described the sex scene as ‘ brutal and surgical display’ that turned the lovemaking between two women ‘into porn’.” (Many gay women seem to agree, but not all.)

“To get an “A” rating, a movie must pass the so-called Bechdel test, which means it must have at least two named female characters who talk to each other about something other than a man.”

Frank Rich: “Could this film possibly preach to the unconverted? Could it reach Americans who at this late date, in the 21st century, still haven’t gotten [Harriet Beecher] Stowe’s message? Will it even be seen by any of the millions who swear by Glenn Beck? This question might be asked of all the recent movies” – The Butler, Lincoln, Django Unchained, etc. – “that touch upon America’s unfinished racial business.”

“We would love to forget, I think. We would love to go back to the fairy tale, to the fantasy of Tara. But it’s too easy to try and erase the sins of the past and claim, ‘That wasn’t me.’ … I’ve heard disquieting chatter on both sides of the color line. Why do we have to revisit this again? Well, we have to revisit this again because all of us have forgotten!”

“Hyperbole aside, 2013 has been a hugely successful year for Mexican cinema… Mexican cinema has been on the crest of a wave of success for over a decade now. And it is still thriving despite the challenges of a global recession and fierce competition for international funding.”

Richard Brody: “The problem … is that they’re too good – too unusual, too challenging, too original – to be assimilated … to the familiar moviegoing experience. Their duration alone is exceptional, as is their emphasis on the physical struggle, the passionate and uninhibited athleticism of sex, the profound marking of the characters’ souls by their sexual relationship.”

“With the pace of delayed viewing increasing ever more rapidly, a chorus of network executives is pushing for a new change — payment for seven days of commercial viewing on everything from computer screens and tablets to TV sets.”

“The business models — and the marquee programs — of Netflix and Amazon bear surface similarities, but different agendas are at work.”

J.J. Abrams on the original Star Wars, before the sequels and prequels and books and toys and games and everything: “The beauty of that movie was that it was an unfamiliar world, and yet you wanted to see it expand and to see where it went.”