'Don't tell me not to link, I've simply got to... 🎵 '

This Week's Must Read: Everyone has been talking about the cast changes at Funny Girl on Broadway and it's been very messy. Daily Beast has the gorey details in an inside scoop on how things have played out as Beanie Feldstein announced an early departure and Lea Michele prepares for the iconic titular role.

More after the jump including new projects for Jonathan Bailey, Chris Hemsworth, a second season for The Bear, an Amy Winehouse biopic, and appreciations of Nicole Kidman, the Three Colors trilogy, and the year's best action films...

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Cannes at Home: Day 4

by Cláudio Alves

Benedetta has arrived! Going into Cannes, Paul Verhoeven's promised delirium of Baroque nunsploitation was one of the most anticipated titles in competition. As the mixed reactions pour out of the Croisette, international expectations have only increased; Unanimous praise would be disappointing for such a film. Beyond Verhoeven in the Competition lineup, Catherine Corsini also premiered her latest La Fracture. Other promising new titles outside the competition slate are Eva Husson's Mothering Sunday and Karim Aïnouz's Mariner of the Mountains. As we wait for those four gourmet prospects to be released or come to a future festival near us, we look back at these directors' past works, to find many visions of carnality, both sensual and disturbing...

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Sundance: The wondrous poetry of "Summertime"

by Abe Fried-Tanzer

Carlos Lopez Estrada, the director, with the cast of "Summertime" at Sundance

When Blindspotting premiered at Sundance on the opening night of the 2018 festival, the word was that two hundred ticket holders were turned away. They scheduled other screenings (where I saw the film), but it was clear that music video director Carlos López Estrada had something important to say that people wanted to hear. Just two years later, Estrada is back at Sundance opening the festival with his second feature…

In his first film, Estrada’s partner was Broadway star Daveed Diggs. This time he's working with twenty-seven spoken word artists, mostly between the ages of eighteen and twenty-six...

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A Year with Kate: Summertime (1955)

Episode 29 of 52: In which David Lean's beautiful romantic classic gives Katharine Hepburn an eye infection and me a headache

I admit it. The spinster movies confuse me. When Nick and Nathaniel invited me on the podcast (Have you listened to the podcast? Go listen to the podcast), I stated outright that I don’t like Summertime. As a fan, I take almost personal offense hearing my idol continuously called “plain” or (at best) “interesting-looking.”

But as a cinephile, David Lean’s 1955 love letter to Venice engages me. I can’t help it. I’m a sucker for a scopophilic travelogue cinematography. And trains. And Technicolor films that overuse the color red. And judging from last year's Hit Me With Your Best Shot submissions for Summertime, many of you share my inner conflict.

Summertime is more a mood piece than a plot-driven story. David Lean exorcised most of the third act from Arthur Laurents’ original play, Time of the Cuckoo, in order to create a sweetly romantic view of Venice, love, and September romance. Kate plays Jane Hudson, a secretary from Akron, Ohio who comes to Venice for… something. Adventure, maybe? Hanging out the window of the train to the city with her 8mm camera rolling, Jane proves herself immediately to be a curious and active observer.

Red goblets be damned; that 8mm camera is most important object in David Lean's movie. [More...]

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Podcast: Katharine with a side of Bette!

In this special edition of the podcast, Nathaniel welcomes two Katharine Hepburn buffs Nick Davis and Anne Marie Kelly to talk about their (shared) first Actress Obsession. Naturally Kate the Great isn't the only diva that finds her way into the conversation. Expect supporting roles or cameos: Bette Davis, Cary Grant, Barbara Stanwyck, Tennessee Williams, Deborah Kerr, Spencer Tracy, Audrey Hepburn, George Cukor and more...

You can listen at the bottom of the post or download the conversation on iTunes. Continue the conversation in the comments.

00:00 Intro. Plus Middle School drama: Hilariously "intense" early obsessions
13:00 Types, Genres, and Suddenly Last Summer
17:00 Her autobiography and films she loathed like Dragon Seed
22:00 Chemistry and co-stars
33:00 Revisiting unsatisfying movies -- raise a cocktail to this peculiar cinephile habit
40:00 The Spinster & The Magic Penis
47:00 Bette Davis and why we compare them. Silliness before the sign off.

Further Reading
Hit Me With Your Best Shot: Summertime 
Nick's Hepburn Oscar Profile
A Year With Kate: Pat & Mike
A Year With Kate: Dragon Seed 
A Year With Kate: Christopher Strong
Me: Stories of My Life (Book)
The Making of the African Queen (Book)
Alex Von Tunzelmann & Self Styled Siren (Twitter) 

Kate with a side of Bette