I think if you were expecting anything less than “No Church in the Wild” from the preview for Baz Luhrmann’s take on The Great Gatsby, then you probably didn’t get a little weepy when the church choir sang “When Doves Cry” in Romeo and Juliet.
Richard Hell Talks Robert Bresson at BAM
At a screening of Robert Bresson’s 1977 film The Devil, Probably, part of BAM’s series Bresson, Richard Hell brought both his punk lineage and his knowledge of film history to open a discussion of the film. Yet Hell wasn’t simply there to extol the virtues of The Devil, Probably; instead, his take on the film was an unorthodox one, both laudatory and — at times — brutally honest about its flaws. For a film with a focus on uncomfortable moments […]
Secrets of the “Girls” Melville House Internship Scene: Revealed
Folks with a fondness for indie presses who watched the first episode of Girls may have had a similar experience as they watched Lena Dunham’s character awkwardly attempting to parlay her internship into a full-time job. Specifically, they may have uttered some variation on the following: “Hey, wait a minute — is she working at Melville House?” From the books on the walls behind her, it looks like that might be the case.
Hey, It’s a Short Film Adapted From Matt Bell’s “The Cartographer’s Girl”
Here’s a short film adapted by Philip Hirzel from Matt Bell’s story “The Cartographer’s Girl.” By some coincidence, Mr. Bell will be reading at RAC on May 1st. Follow Vol. 1 Brooklyn on Twitter, Facebook, Google + and our Tumblr.
History is Made at Night: Whit Stillman, Lena Dunham, and Chris Eigeman at BAM’s “The Last Days of Disco” Screening
Last Thursday night I saw something rare and rich: movie stars not only living up to who you want them to be in person, but behaving the way they do in their best films. Whit Stillman and Chris Eigeman share a rapport that is not only delightful, but feels true to the words that Stillman has been writing for Eigeman’s roles in his movies for over twenty years. As the two bantered back and forth with a kind of artful, […]
The Dwindling Prominence of Historical Memoirs in a Post-Historical World: Claude Lanzmann’s “The Patagonian Hare”
The Patagonian Hare: A Memoir by Claude Lanzmann Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux; 544 p. Memoirs used to belong to the realm of the accomplished. In this sense, an essential question has always haunted the memoir i.e. why should I read about your life? We used to know the answer. After a singular life of historic importance a person felt obligated or entitled to write their life story. Now memoirs belong to the young, to the not yet accomplished. Whereas memoirs […]
Matt Bell’s “Cataclysm Baby” Video Excerpt
Adaptation: Five Books That Must Never Be Adapted For Film
When David Cronenberg turned William Burroughs’s masterwork Naked Lunch into a somewhat linear, entertaining narrative, literary fans everywhere were pleasantly, if not resentfully surprised. Cronenberg, in doing so, proved himself not only a master storyteller, but able to do something that few directors could, adapt dense, postmodern classic novels into solid films. On the other hand, when director Gary Walkow attempted to turn William Burroughs’s seminal novel Queer into a film by combining it with the story of Burroughs’s wife’s […]