Richard Brody uncovers the Lost 1926 “Gatsby” Movie: http://nyr.kr/15KlkiG

David Denby on “The Great Gatsby”: “Luhrmann’s vulgarity is designed to win over the young audience, and it suggests that he’s less a filmmaker than a music-video director with endless resources and a stunning absence of taste.” http://nyr.kr/1414CXu

   Before there was François Truffaut, with his gargantuan series of interviews with Alfred Hitchcock that became a book, there was Peter Bogdanovich, who, in his early twenties—fifty years ago—was, in effect, New York’s première activist on behalf of the classic American cinema and its luminaries (most of whom were still alive and working)… 

Richard Brody on Peter Bogdanovich and Alfred Hitchcock: http://nyr.kr/10dViND

Photograph: NBC.

(Source: newyorker.com)

A few weeks ago… several overseas Congolese writers were back in Brazzaville. So were a hundred or so Parisian intellectuals, Belgian essayists, hip Nigerian authors, South African slam poets, and writers and filmmakers from across Africa, especially its French-speaking countries. A special overseas edition of Etonnants Voyageurs, a major French literature and film festival, had landed in Brazzaville like a U.F.O., disgorging these characters into the city, along with a substantial, mostly French, press corps, and assorted international lit-fest habitués. The festival had held previous African editions in Bamako, Mali, but decided to change venue even before the current conflict flared up there, and Mabanckou, its co-director, helped steer it to Brazzaville. TheFrancophonieorganization of French-speaking countries provided support, as did Congo’s government, in part channelled through the semi-official media house that publishes the country’s only daily newspaper,Les Dépêches de Brazzaville.

Etonnants Voyageurs means “surprising travellers.” Perhaps those most surprised in Brazzaville were members of the local hardscrabble writers’ community, who operate with no publishing infrastructure or institutional support, as they watched the festival apparatus spread across the city, with its workshops, readings, screenings, concerts, and parties…

Continue reading Siddhartha Mitter’s dispatch from a Congo literary festival: http://nyr.kr/13FmvNW

Photograph by Gaël Le Ny.

Though I’m a great admirer of the First Lady, I found Michelle Obama’s appearance… wildly inappropriate in its affirmation of the hard power behind the soft power—the connection of real politics to the representational politics of the movies, of the peculiar and long-standing symbiosis of Washington and Hollywood… 

Richard Brody reviews the 2013 Oscars: http://nyr.kr/139DkAK

Katniss Wins! Sasha Weiss grades last night’s Oscar fashion: http://nyr.kr/13a9eNu

John Cassidy asks, “Is it rational to watch the Oscars?” http://nyr.kr/YwjPua

1. Photograph by Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty. 2. Photograph by Jason Merritt/Getty. 3. Official White House Photo by Pete Souza.

(Source: newyorker.com)

This week on newyorker.com, Richard Brody forecast which films are likely to win Oscar’s favor. Now, join Brody and our Culture Editor, Michael Agger to watch the ceremony and discuss it live: http://nyr.kr/WfLwIn

 The magazine piece that became ”Argo” almost wasn’t assigned. Here, Nicholas Thompson tells the story of its origins: http://nyr.kr/15zE5Cy

There’s no point to letting indignation, or even just personal preference, override the rational effort to forecast the Academy’s likely misjudgments. The Oscars are the way that Hollywood’s insiders want to be perceived by the world. The following predictions are less their view of the industry’s best achievements than of the choice of work that they’d elect to represent them; the awards are the industry’s advertisement for itself.

Richard Brody casts his Oscar ballot: http://nyr.kr/11XQz7S

(Source: newyorker.com)

(Source: newyorker.com)

McElwee challenges his viewers to respect his privacy, and in return his films never have a dynamic of unearned disclosure.

Jessica Weisberg on the autobiographical documentary filmmaker Ross McElwee: http://nyr.kr/X2FMEY