Author: ArtsJournal2

We Know Who Wrote Citizen Kane

Sorry, Netflix viewers, and sorry, Gary Oldman: It wasn’t Mank. “Robert L. Carringer examined seven drafts of the screenplay in great detail and concluded that the writing Mankiewicz had done in Victorville, Calif., during the period depicted in the film ‘elaborated the plot logic and laid down the overall story contours,’ but that Welles, principally, transformed the script ‘from a solid basis for a story into an authentic plan for a masterpiece.'” – The New York Times

Oh, An All-Streaming World Is What You Want? Think Again

It’s not going to be great, friends. “If the movie theater experience, as a cultural force, winds up withering on the vine, then it’s likely that movies as we’ve known them will also wither on the vine. Pauline Kael said it best in the ’70s, when she was writing — witheringly — about the phenomenon of TV-movies. She said that what you make for television isn’t a movie. What you make for television is a TV show.” – Variety

Roald Dahl’s Family Apologizes For The Author’s Antisemitism

The author’s antisemitism was well known and public, including in a 1983 interview in which he claimed “There is a trait in the Jewish character that does provoke animosity. … Even a stinker like Hitler didn’t just pick on them for no reason.” The apology statement is buried, but present, on the author’s site, but “no mention is made of Dahl’s antisemitic views in the author’s official biography on the site. The family’s apology was not sent to Jewish organisations.” – The Guardian (UK)

Thelma Pepper, Canada’s Photographer Of The Prairies, 100

Pepper didn’t pick up a camera until she was 60 – and then didn’t waste a day. “As an outsider coming to the Prairies, Pepper was moved by her subject’s stories of how families struggled in the early days on the farm and how women did so many small, little heartfelt things to hold their families and communities together. ‘She just wanted to give those women their due that she felt they had not received during the course of their lifetimes.'” – CBC

We All Know The Crown Is Fiction, So Why Is The British Government So Concerned?

As the author points out tartly, “The presence of actors is a strong clue” that the Netflix series isn’t a documentary. And yet there is a source for this discomfort: “The real source of unease with The Crown comes from the dissonance between the high naturalism of the program’s costumes, staging, and set design and the liberties taken with its plotlines. The current discussion would not be happening if the show were not so rigorously faithful to the historical record in every department except for its script.” – The Atlantic

A Group Of Young Men Chanting ‘Christ Is King’ Remove California Monolith And Install A Cross

Elaborate prank? Culture war? Should we be paying attention to this at all? Seriously: “The men, wearing night vision goggles and camo gear, chanted in the grainy video as they toppled the shiny structure, in a video that was posted to the streaming site DLive.tv by someone using the name CultureWarCriminal, but later removed, according to The San Luis Obispo Tribune. The Tribune described the video as ‘at times racist and homophobic’ and said that the men sang along to country songs.” – The New York Times

It’s Hard To Write About America

Not that you would know it from the number of books out there – but capturing the country isn’t easy. “Gross simplification comes along with trying to describe America. I’m convinced that trying to do this is like pouring Lake Michigan into a shot glass. It just can’t be done.” And yet. – LitHub