SEVEN SAMURAI 4k restoration (trailer)
Take my money, again and again…
links/2024w06
Experimenting with returning links to being their own weekly post (or perhaps twice-weekly, on Weds and Sat?), a hodgepodge of trailers and quotes and more. Plus it’s easier to update these at the last minute than it is trying to update the newsletter before it sends (and K said she enjoys clicking through them so there). Anyhow…
Fans Flock to Witness a Single Chord Change in John Cage’s 639-Year-Long Organ Performance | artnet
See Stunning Photos of Pompeii’s Wall Paintings and Mosaics, Now Compiled in a New Book | artnet
You may take my money now. Dan Trachtenberg To Direct New Standalone ‘Predator’ Movie ‘Badlands’ As 20th Century Expands On Universe | Deadline
Her work is amazing, modern art in quilt form: Mary Lee Bendolph, Gee’s Bend Quilter | American Age Fashion
HIGH AND LOW is my favorite Kurosawa film; I'm hopeful that this will be better than the last time Spike Lee remade the work of an Asian filmmaker: Denzel Washington & Spike Lee Reunite For High And Low Remake | Bleeding Cool
A Portfolio: Ji Zou | Juxtapoz Magazine
Just finished A RAGE IN HARLEM, and Himes has already become one of my favorite authors. Good timing, NYT: The Crime Novelist Who Was Also a Great American Novelist | NYT (paywall)
And finally, an intriguing read on the notion of embodiment and the potential for prostheses to become a mix of personal sculpture and human augmentation: Why prosthetic limbs need not look like real ones | The Economist (paywall):
HIGH AND LOW (Akira Kurosawa, 1963)
(Directed by Akira Kurosawa from a script by Ryūzō Kikushima, Hideo Oguni, Elijiro Hisaita, and Akira Kurosawa; starring Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Kyōko Kagawa, Tatsuya Mihashi, Tsutomo Yamazaki, and Yutaka Sada. Released 01 March 1963; watched 2023w51 via Criterion Channel)
Had to restart because I was too exhausted to appreciate it on first viewing, but once I did, it handily became my favorite Kurosawa film: tight, taut, and at the same time, free-flowing – especially in the second half (similar structure to IKIRU) –, unafraid to take lengthy divergencies into the intricacies and frustrations of police work (reminded me of Jules Dassin's THE NAKED CITY in its procedural aspects – the briefing / report sequence was riveting – and its eye for locational verisimilitude). Mifune is, unsurprisingly, electrifying – never have I been as inspired to consider shoes so passionately – as is Tsutomo Yamazaki as the desperate, deadly, and ultimately broken kidnapper (how inspired, I wonder, was Frank Miller by the shot pictured above when he designed Kevin in the first SIN CITY yarn?). One of the essential crime films - and perhaps one of my favorite films: if it's not on the list, it's certainly nearing it. Will be adding to the collection post haste.
Ryuichi Sakamato’s virtual encore
While it sounds like the tech leaves something to be desired, the execution and intent of the project as a whole seems a poignant farewell to one of the greats. Love the IKIRU homage.
Picked up Sakamoto's final album, 12, on vinyl this week and it’s sublime.