The future of reading. "On March 8, the New York Times unveiled a new app called NYT
Now that signals a major shift in how publishers package the news. For
$8 a month, NYT Now will offer users access to a limited number of
stories, and those stories will be presented in a totally new way (for
the Times, that is): as a series of cards, one per story, with
an image and, at most, two bullet points summing up the news. "It's not a
news summary app," is the first thing Cliff Levy,
the two-time Pulitzer Prize winner tapped to lead the NYT Now team,
told me in a phone interview. I got a detailed description of how it
works, how it looks, and what its aims are, and here's my takeaway: NYT
Now is a news summary app. But thanks to its design, it may actually
work as intended--and what's intended is to be as native to mobile as
the newest version of NYTimes.com is to the web". Full article in Fast Company. E.T.P 9'
Kogonada is a South Korean filmmaker and regular contributor to Sight &
Sound whose projects have been featured on NPR, The Atlantic, Canal+ and
Der Spiegel, and have screened internationally. The pays a little homage to Wes Anderson and his beloved symmetry in this short: Wes Anderson // Centered. Have a look in his Vimeo. E.T.P. 2'30''
Juman Malouf's Character Sketches. "The Grand Budapest Hotel
recreates a by-gone era through its arresting visuals and dialogue. The
charm and vibrant colours of the film gradually darken with a sense of
melancholy as the forces of history conspire against a vanishing world.
Juman Malouf – a writer and an artist in her own right – has recreated
the eccentric characters in the film as sketches, a kind of flattening
of their personalities, distilled into the thin lines and fine details
of her penned efforts. With a paper-doll poise, these sketches sit
alongside an illustrated screenplay of the film, published by Faber & Faber." The Grand Budapest Hotel will be in UK theaters March 7th. Read full article and watch the sketches in Dazed Digital. E.T.P. 4'
Photo via The Playlist
The Act of Killing is one of the greatest documentaries I've ever seen. It is as impeccable as it is disheartening and definitely worth see it. The Playlist presents an interview with director Joshua Oppenheimer. "While the field is a tight bunch of worthy contenders, it's arguable
that few of the Best Documentary nominees this year boast the level of
critical acclaim that has greeted "The Act Of Killing." The BAFTA for Best Documentary, and the Berlin Film Festival Panorama Audience Award are among a slew of honors the film, produced by Errol Morris and Werner Herzog, and directed by Joshua Oppenheimer,
has received. If you've watched the film, you know there's a lot to
discuss, so why not spend nearly an hour with the filmmaker about how it
put it all together?" Watch the video in The Playlist website. E.T.P. 54'
Dazed Magazine share with us its must-see list for the Berlinale: "The Berlin Film Festival kicks off next week. From the director’s cut of Lars Von Trier’s sex addict epic Nymphomanic to the on-form latests from Richard Linklater and Wes Anderson, here’s what not to miss if you can make it to Potsdamer Platz to soak up the goodness". Read full article and watch some cool trailers in Dazed Digital. E.T.P. 15'
Michel Gondry selfie at The Berlinale via Télérama
Also in the Berlinale mood Michel Gondry decided to document the beginning of the festival with his phone and share some selfies with the world. Silly but cute. Have a look in Télérama. E.T.P. 2'
Mia Farrow, Woody Allen, and their children Dylan and Ronan, January 1988.Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images via The New York Times.
Finally, I don't know if this article belongs to the Culture & Entertainment section, but due to a better section to be placed is here. Woody Allen responded in a letter published by The New York Times to the revived accusations made by her daughter Dylan Farrow in a letter published recently also in the NYT. This whole Farrow-Allen thing makes me think of the term 'character', but in a sort of legal way (as portrayed in TV). When someone is testifying in court (in TV court, that is), sometimes the lawyers share with the jury facts about that witness' life to help them see his 'character', because ultimately what he is saying and what he considers the truth will be filtered by its morality and his beliefs. Perception can be more powerful than facts.
By reading the comment section on every article published about this whole thing you can tell that most of the people commenting already made their minds long before the article was published, the section was just an opportunity to air their opinions. Maybe because it was an old issue, or because these are very public figures, but one thing is clear: they listen what they want to listen and ignore or disregard the rest. I'm not saying that there is no one out there that on the light of these new letters being exchanged, changed his or her mind about Woody or Mia (Dylan, unfortunately is a victim no matter what), I'm just saying that I haven't seen one single comment that doesn't seem to come from a person who already though that Farrow was a lying snake or Allen was an old perv.
Sometimes manipulating people seems to be the easiest thing on earth, sometimes changing one person's mind proves to be an impossible task. I am, of course, one of the persons that already have an opinion and probably won't change it. What about you? What do you think? Read Woody Allen's letter in The New York Times. E.T.P. 6'
