“Much as Flaubert’s novels and Beethoven’s symphonies, concertos and string quartets are continually regenerated by way of the new directions they paved, and the new generations of work following such directions, so Antonioni‘s work—and L’avventura in particular—is regenerated by the subsequent cinema that came in its wake.” That’s the gist of the weekend’s must-read, Robert Koehler‘s case for Antonioni’s 1960 masterpiece as a contender for Sight & Sound‘s “Greatest Films of All Time” poll.
Meantime, a new restoration of Antonioni’s Red Desert (1964) is playing at BFI Southbank and the Curzon Soho in London before making its away across the Isles over the next few months. For S&S, Sam Wigley compares reviews that have appeared in the British papers this week with initial reactions from nearly 50 years ago now. One of the new ones he’s missed is Celluloid Liberation Front‘s in the New Statesman: “Antonioni captured the moral degradation and emotional apathy of the ‘affluent society’ like no other.”
New York. David Schwartz moderates a terrific conversation at Moving Image Source: Todd Haynes, production designer Mark Friedberg, and costume designer Sandy Powell discuss their collaboration on Far From Heaven (2002). The occasion is the exhibition PERSOL MAGNIFICENT OBSESSIONS: thirty stories of craftsmanship in film, on view at Museum of the Moving Image through August 19.
MoMA‘s fifth annual Film Benefit will honor Quentin Tarantino on December 3.
In the works. The next project for Ben Wheatley (Kill List, Sightseers) will be Freakshift, his first American production, reports the Playlist‘s Kevin Jagernauth. Wheatley: “It’s about a crew that’s built up this armored vehicle and they go out and have to respond to 911 calls about these big monsters that have come out of the ground.”
Obit. Lupe Ontiveros, perhaps best known for her performance as Yolanda Saldivar in Selena, has died of cancer. She was 69. Ontiveros also appeared in As Good As It Gets, Real Women Have Curves, The Goonies and Chuck & Buck. The AP: “The actress, born Guadalupe Moreno in Texas, once estimated she had played a maid more than 300 times.”
For news and tips throughout the day every day, follow @KeyframeDaily on Twitter and/or the RSS feed. Get Keyframe Daily in your inbox by signing in at fandor.com/daily.
