BULLETT

Today in culture: Henry James predicts the future, Guy Maddin weighs in on the ten best films of all time, David Cronenberg sells short.

-Watch Henry James forecast the ubiquity of new media in his 1888 novel, The Reverberator.

-See portraits of classrooms from around the world.

-See Stanley Kubrick’s personal copy of The Shining, replete with handwritten notes.

-Watch David Cronenberg ring the New York Stock Exchange Bell.

-Read Guy Maddin’s annotated list of best films for the Sight & Sound poll.

- ‘“Genre”—in the moviehead hierarchy it’s not unlike your Ketamine-snorting upstate cousin coming to visit unannounced at 3 AM, promising you nothing but lowdown fun you’ll regret as soon as you regain consciousness and look at the calendar.’ Michael Atkinson sums up all the reasons why you should see Pontypool, a ‘zombie flick with a difference’.

-How does the general Chicagoan populace feel about P.T. Anderson’s The Master? Just ask Twitter.

-The evolution of Gaumont films from Fantomas onward.

-The French Old Wave is playing at Film Forum until September 13th. There’s so much to love, but check out Liliom, Le Million, and Touchez Pas au Grisbi if nothing else.

-The New Yorker‘s David Denby takes a nasty double-header of Cosmopolis and Compliance in one.

-New fiction by Alice Munro.