Weekend links

15th January 2012

Yes, my friends, this is another Dickens-themed post (following on from the recent What larks and The film of the films of the books). Or at least the start of it is, because across the jump there’s the usual collection of recent links to interesting and relatively random stuff. But in this first paragraph I want to draw your attention to Charles Dickens, filmmaker, which is a wonderful filmography compiled by The Bioscope of silent film adaptations of Dickens. This includes all sorts of intriguing films, a good number of which are available on DVD, most notably on the invaluable Dickens Before Sound DVD from the BFI. But the image above comes courtesy of the Danish Film Institute from the 1922 David Copperfield directed in Denmark by the Dickens specialist A. W. Sandberg, and there are further stills and clips if you follow the link.

• Traditional TV has survived the net threat, but for how much longer?: valuable John Naughton reflections for the Guardian.

• How Google+ hangouts will transform traditional TV broadcasting: more news from Cory Bergman at the bleeding edge of social TV on the essential Lost Remote site.

• Upgrading BBC blogs – moving to a new blogging platform: Jessica Shiel writes about changes to BBC blogs, but there’s also interesting – and more general – stuff here about user preferences.

• Amanda Hocking, the writer who made millions by self-publishing online: Ed Pilkington’s story for the Guardian is a must-read for anyone interested in the future of fiction.

• The comedy stylings of Robert Bresson: at MUBI.com the always interesting Ignatiy Vishnevetsky kicks off a series of posts about the great director with one devoted to, um, his gags.

• DVD of the week – Voyage to Italy: Richard Brody for The New Yorker begins to get close to why Rossellini’s 1954 low-budget drama is one of my favourite films.

• The deplorable in pursuit of the unwatchable: David Cairns’ passionate post was one of the best things written on the David Cameron’s film policy thoughts this week…

• For want of a cultural film policy: … while Ieuan Franklin at the Channel 4 and British film culture site offers some a considered, historically-informed response.

• Pandora’s digital box – From the periphery to the center, or the one of many centers: a fascinating (and beautifully illustrated) post from David Bordwell about, well, the video compact disc format, 16mm, globalisation, Hong Kong cinema and a fair bit more.

• Witnessing excellence in David Milch’s Luck: for the Critical Studies in Television blog Justin Jacobs celebrates the new HBO drama with Dustin Hoffman.

• Paved, but still alive: Michael Kimmelman for The New York Times aims to take parking lots seriously.

• A “Phenomenal” survey at MCASD: Tyler Green at Modern Art Notes writes a piece that makes me want to get on a plane to San Diego right now.

• Do the classics have a future?: Mary Beard asks the question for The New York Review of Books.

• Lying about the past: and finally… I can’t decide whether this syllabus for a new course by Professor T. Mills Kelly dedicated to getting the students to hype up a historical hoax is dazzlingly inspired or simply idiotic – but I’m definitely tending to the former (thanks to @dancohen).