Why the Internet Loves Euphoria but Hates the Man Who Made It

Madeline Ducharne at Slate

While the plentiful male and female nudity in Euphoria has stirred a bit of controversy since its 2019 premiere, a recent interview in the Independent with actress Sydney Sweeney prompted a social media furor that invigorated the drama to an all-time high—and directly pointed it at Levinson. Sweeney mentioned how, in the process of filming, she requested that her character Cassie not appear topless in certain scenes, even though they were initially written by Levinson that way. Though Sweeney took great care to clarify Levinson’s openness and agreeability to these requests, many fans began to note that Cassie is still regularly featured naked in the show and questioned whether it should be an actor’s responsibility to dial down the nudity on a show about teenagers. Some viewers have even claimed (with varying degrees of seriousness) that Levinson’s writing of Cassie is exploitative of Sweeney.

Another big drama involves actress Barbie Ferreira’s fan-favorite character, Kat. So far in season two, Kat has gone from a confident cam-girl leading lady to a dissatisfied, self-loathing, C-plot girlfriend. Compounding her absence on screen are rumors about creative differences and a fight on the set between Levinson and Ferreira, which have been swirling on Deuxmoi and other anonymous gossip accounts. That post alleged that Ferreira didn’t agree with Kat’s second season plot, got into an argument with Levinson about it, walked off the set, and in retaliation, Levinson cut her role down dramatically.

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An adventure in shorts at Clermont-Ferrand International Film Festival

By Laurence Boyce at Little White Lies

The short film medium is often resistant to the commercial trappings that feature films generally become enmeshed within. As such, shorts are often a playground for experimentalism, for provocation, for young talents to find their voice and established artists to play with the boundaries of cinema. Yet to divorce the medium of short film from any kind of commercial imperative would also be unfair. Shorts become a proving ground for many a director who will make a mark on the feature film world in the years to come. And, perhaps more than ever before, the opportunities for short films to reach a global audience are much more diverse with established platforms such as MUBI showcasing shorts amongst their feature film offerings or new players such as Argo offering dedicated spaces for short content.

Generally considered to be the largest dedicated short film festival in the world, the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival embraces many of the contradictions that lie at the heart of the medium it champions. Commercially it boasts impressive numbers: in normal years audience number can be in excess of 150’000 which makes it second only to Cannes in terms of film festival attendance in France. The parallel short film market welcomes more than 3000 distributors, buyers and festivals showing that – while the industry for shorts is smaller than the feature film world – an industry does exist.

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George-Alex Nagle’s “Mate”: an interview

One of the more prestigious short film festivals in Europe would have to be the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival. Established in 1979, the festival regularly draws attendance in excess of 150,000, showcasing a diverse and expansive collection of short films from around the globe. This year, one Australian production was selected to screen, the compelling social drama MATE, directed by George-Alex Nagle and starring Joshua Brennan (The Long Road Home) and Jeremy Blewitt (Between two Worlds).

“I questioned what it was they were latching onto throughout the entire span of the festival.” Explains George-Alex Nagle, considering the unlikely popularity his film found with the festivals European audience. “For those who don’t know, Clermont-Ferrand is a very big festival with lots of screenings. As opposed to something like say Sydney and Melbourne, where your short film may play twice in a program, it plays at least eight times in Clermont. So, I got to witness a lot of audiences interacting with MATE. But I couldn’t really tell you what was connecting with them and what wasn’t.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Netflix to pause all future projects, acquisitions in Russia

Russia-Ukraine war: In the wake of Ukraine crisis, Netflix Inc has temporarily stopped all future projects and acquisitions in Russia as it assesses the impact of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. Netflix had four Russian-language series in production and post-production, including “Zato”, a detective drama.

Earlier this week, Netflix said that in the current circumstances it has no plans to add state-run channels to its Russian service, despite a regulation that would require it to distribute state-backed channels. Russia is one of the 190 countries where Netflix is available.

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Joel Coen’s “The Tragedy of Macbeth”, Reviewed by Ethan Coen

In The Tragedy of Macbeth, long-time Hollywood presence Joel Coen — who has 18 prior films to his credit — takes sole creative control of a project for the first time. The result, not unlike the tale of Macbeth itself, is a tragedy of epic proportions.

In the interest of full disclosure, my editor has requested that I mention that I was Mr. Coen’s writing partner, producer, and creative collaborator on the aforementioned 18 films. I am also his brother. We parted ways prior to Macbeth in a split that the press described as completely amicable. Despite my prior association with Mr. Coen, I feel that I am entirely capable of reviewing his work in a fair and objective way.

Macbeth is Joel Coen’s shittiest movie by several billion light years. If all the elephants in all the world crapped into the same canyon for 100 years, you would still not have a pile of shit half a large as Joel Coen’s dumb-as-a-dog-dick rendering of this classic tale.

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