Nightcap 2/28/16 Rendez-Vous With French Cinema starts this week, Why don't we really cover news and Randi's links

This week the annual Rendez Vous With French Cinema begins. The series brings some of the best films from France to the United States. Running from the 3rd through the 11th the film is going to give anyone with a love of things French much to see and enjoy.

I’m sorry that sounds like advertising copy. That wasn’t my intention. I really like the series and over the years its brought me a great deal of joy as I’ve discovered a whole slew of great films that have become close to my heart. This really is a great series where you can find some great films.

Over the years our coverage has been up and down. Some years we got to a whole bunch of films and some years we got to only a single title. Its not for lack of love, rather it scheduling conflicts. Rendez Vous always collides with the great spring awakening of the New York film world and I end up pulled in four different directions. This year our coverage is only going to be three or four films simply because that’s all we could get to.

But you all don’t have my schedule so you have no excuse. To get tickets and for more information go to the Festival webpage here.
---
Just a heads up the Jason Sudekis romantic comedy TUMBLEDOWN is hitting home video on April 5. Those of you who haven’t seen it yet will get your chance when it it hits Bluray and DVD. (The film is currently in theaters and streaming)
----
Why doesn’t Unseen really cover film news?

It’s a question that I never really had to answer because pretty much most people reading don’t care. People aren’t coming to us for news. Yes we’ve covered news, yes I’ve posted press releases for film festivals such as the New York Asian Film Festival, Oxford or several other small fests. Yes I will post information on events that run across our desks, but to be quite honest anything that I post is getting pushed because we find it cool. These are events, or festivals that we find really cool. They are stuff that either we are going to cover or wish we could. And yes occasionally we do favors for friends and get newsy stuff up.

I was thinking about the question of covering news because of a couple of things that happened. First Lesley Coffin is putting together a new film site and it is expressly not going to have film news on it. Her attitude is that there are so many other sites simply reporting the news that another one isn’t necessary. Its an attitude I agree with and based on the readership numbers can back up. The other reason I’ve been thinking about it is because a couple of friends who work for other websites are now cranking out news pieces which simply parrot other sites and even simply link to the other sites. While they do catch stuff I miss, the deeper I get into Unseen the more news I miss, most of the stories are things I’ve seen elsewhere. While I understand why the pieces are going up-it’s a combination of click bait to reveal to advertisers that there are readers, and more importantly each piece means that they get a pay check, its not something I want to do with Unseen,

As much as I would love to get new readers, getting them via stories that they probably read elsewhere is pointless since I doubt most people who cared about BATMAN/SUPERMAN are going to care about the inde and foreign films
----
And now lots of links from Randi

John Hurt reads Dr Who speeches
A traveling Winnie the Pooh exhibit
Ricky Jay's Exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Another piece
Sophie Tucker
Death Changes How You Think
The Legacy of The Good The Bad and The Ugly
Miyazaki confirms a fan theory
The director of BOY AND THE WORLD speaks
Music to soothe cats
Supernatural dolls
The Modern Adventures of the Solos
Lipreader deciphers whats said in WW1 footage
Ryan Reynolds crashes Hugh Jackman's junket 
Best review Ever?
Steve Martin did Stand up for the first time in 35 years
Ten hours of Looney Tunes
What I learned on the Appalachian Trail