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The Anthology Film Archives has delivered a treat to Martin Scorsese fans by making Jonas Mekas’ 2005 documentary “Notes on an American Film Director at Work: Martin Scorsese” available to stream for free on Vimeo. The late filmmaker Mekas was granted intimate access to record Scorsese behind the scenes as he directed “The Departed,” his crime thriller starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, and Jack Nicholson. “The Departed” is notable not only for winning Best Picture but for winning Scorsese his long overdue Oscar for Best Director.

“I was asked to make a five to ten minute film about Marty to introduce his retrospective. As it happened, Marty was shooting ‘The Departed’ at that time. I asked him if I could follow him for a week or two, and he said yes,” Mekas once said of the film. “So that’s how this film happened. Sebastian, my son, joined me with a second camera.

She’s always been fiercely individual, and it’s Kristen Stewart's uniqueness that landed her the front page of the 15th Anniversary edition of AnOther magazine.

The “Snow White and the Huntsman” hottie is one of four separate cover girls, in addition to Kate Moss, Grimes and Bjork.

AnOther says of the actress, “Her rebellious energy is given a romantic twist in photographs by Paolo Roversi, styled by AnOther Magazine’s Fashion Director Katie Shillingford. Accompanying the shoot is a Parisian tête-à-tête with actor and artist Benn Northover, in which the pair consider the strength of focus and subversive spirit which have landed Stewart supporting actress trophies from the New York Film Critic’s Circle and the César awards.”...

Let What is Broken So Remain: McGuiness’ Debut Familiar, Mesmerizing

“Ah, why should life all labor be?” asks Lord Alfred Tennyson in a line from his poem, The Lotus-Eaters, with which Alexandra McGuiness’ film debut shares its title. First referenced as the main source of food for sleepy island dwelling folk in Homer’s Odyssey, the lotus is a fruit and a flower that acts like a narcotic when consumed. It’s a fitting allusion for a film that deals with a posh group of London twentysomethings hollowly attending endless parties together as they apathetically pursue glamorously impenetrable careers.

Alice (Antonia Campbell-Hughes) suspects that she’s getting a titch too old to continue pursuing her career as model, and thus sets her sights on the next best thing—acting. She’s not quite over the break-up with her ex, Charlie (Johnny Flynn), who is addicted to heroin and rather self-involved...

Sigh. Strum. Strum strum strum. Sing. Sigh. Isn’t life hard? In Alexandra McGuinness‘ feature debut, Lotus Eaters, it sure looks like it, though it also looks plenty pretty. The Dublin-born, London-based filmmaker’s film centers on a group of young, hip, and hot Londoners who are all struggling mighty hard with some big problems and obsessions (like drink, drugs, and heartache). Ain’t that always the way? The film’s cast includes a bunch of rising British stars, including Antonia Campbell-Hughes, Benn Northover, Liam Browne, Jay Choi, Daisy Lewis, and our strummer himself - Johnny Flynn, who is (of course) also the frontman for the folk-rock band Johnny Flynn & The Sussex Wit. Sigh. Strum. Rinse. Repeat. Soak in some champagne-drenched bourgeois ennui with the first trailer for Lotus Eaters, after the break. Lotus Eaters will open the film in New York on April 5th, with expansion to Los Angeles and VOD on April 12th. [Thompson on Hollywood]...

Director: Alexandra McGuinness Writers: Alexandra McGuinness, Brendan Grant Starring: Antonia Campbell-Hughes, Johnny Flynn, Benn Northover, Cynthia Fortune Ryan In Greek mythology, the lotus-eaters are a race of people from an island near North Africa where narcotic lotus fruits and flowers are the primary food and the inhabitants sleep in peaceful apathy. Odysseus tells us about the lotus-eaters in Odyssey IX, as does Lord Tennyson (in his poem "The Lotos-Eaters") and James Joyce (in the fifth chapter of Ulysses). Writer-director Alexandra McGuinness (the daughter of Paul McGuinness, U2's manager) reveals the modern equivalent of the mythological lotus-eaters: an elite group of 20-something Londoners whose soulless lives consist merely of apathetically shooing away boredom with a 24-hour party of booze, drugs and sex. Money and gainful employment seem to be of no concern for them; their impeccable fashion sense, idyllically good looks and bourgeois pedigree are their tickets to ride. They...

Post work is currently being carried out on 'Lotus Eaters', a new feature film written by Brendan Grant and Alexandra McGuinness who is also directing. The drama stars Antonia Campbell Hughes (Bright Star), Benn Northover (Abyss), Cynthia Fortune (Every Thing) and Johnny Flynn (Crusade Jeans) . 'Lotus Eaters' shot for five weeks in August and September 2010 with Gareth Munden (Mike) on board as director of photography. It is currently being edited in Dublin's Optical Sandwich by Bert Hunger (Horses) and is due for delivery in April. The film's release date is Tbc.

I usually link to Making Light of It in these posts — when Jacob’s not disappearing on me — but I really want to make sure people look at Jacob’s most recent article, so I’m listing him first this week. Jacob’s scanned a bunch of covers of old Film Culture magazines that are really sweet looking. I don’t recognize everybody’s picture, but I see Stan Vanderbeek, Harry Smith, Robert Breer and more. And, I think Jacob has the second only photo ever of Ron Rice on the Internet, after mine. Fangoria conducted a fascinating interview with one of Bad Lit’s favorite people, C.W. Prather of the Spooky Movie Festival, which is currently going on. Funniest thing I saw this week — hell, funniest thing I’ve seen in months! — was the Twitter stream of Ted Nope, a parody of indie film producer Ted Hope’s airless Twitter musings.