The Cinephiliacs: Recent Episodes
Peter Labuza
The Cinephiliacs is a podcast exploring the past and future of cinephelia. Film critic Peter Labuza has interviewed critics, programmers, academics, filmmakers, and more about their relationship to film and film culture. Additionally, each guest will bring in a particular favorite film and discuss it with Labuza. Indiewire declares, "If you want to hear film critics talk at length about their craft, there are few better places on the Internet" and Keyframe Daily has called it "Exhibit A" for the future of film culture
Three years of absence from the San Francisco Silent Film Festival has only left a longing in Peter's heart. And while The Cinephiliacs remains on permanent hiatus, the return of the best festival in the United States meant a necessary return to podcasting, especially when frequent co-host Victor Morton joining him. In this go around, they marvel at the masters, uncover the unknowns, and celebrate the colors. Watching films across Europe, Ukraine, and Japan, these films once again show us that silent film is not just about finding the old, but seeing anew through the incredible work of archivists, restoration work, and orchestras providing a highlight in the grand ol' Castro Theatre. This might just be a one-off episode, but what better than the Silent Fest to reignite the flames of cinephilia—particularly with fire on screen.
Today's episode features Jennifer Peterson, Professor and Chair of the Department of Communication at Woodbury University and author of Education in the School of Dreams: Travelogues and Early Nonfiction Film. We discuss her article for the "Medicine on Screen" program for the National Library of Medicine entitled "Darkening Day: Air Pollution Films and Environmental Awareness, 1960–1972." Peterson examines a select series of films from the postwar era, all sponsored by the United States government, that tackled growing concerns about air pollution and other environmental concerns in a world before the Environmental Protection Agency. The two look at unique aspects that make these films shocking today, not just for their strong anti-corporate advocacy but often their aesthetic qualities that reflected the experimental films of the era. But Peterson also acknowledges the limitations they held to advocate for positions by turning away from mass mobilization or community organizing by putting trust in the government, a position hard to rationalize in today's continuing climate emergency.
Today's episode features Anne Kaun, as Associate Professors at Södertörn University in the Department of Culture and Education, co-editor of Making Time for Digital Lives, and the author of Crisis and Critique: A Brief History of Media Participation in Times of Crisis. We discuss her co-authored article with Fredrik Stiernstedt entitled “Prison Media Work: From Manual Labor to the Work of Being Tracked,” from Media, Culture & Society. We discuss both the historical and global trends in the relationship between prison work and media infrastructures. Anne examines both the traditions of prison labor in building media as part of ,rehabilitation and professionalization, but also how it has evolved under neoliberal transformations to no longer reflect these goals. Most pointedly, she takes us through the new role of work for prisoners: acting as subjects for data analysis by large private companies looking to strengthen their algorithmic computation. Prisoners no longer do media work themselves as much as are a subject of being worked upon by media. In bringing light to this history, Kaun brings light to the complex network we live in that in many ways is shaped by prisons and the incarcerated without our knowledge.
Today's episode features Christina Lane, an Associate Professor of film studies and chair of the cinema department at the University of Miami and author of Feminist Hollywood: From Born in Flames to Point Break and Magnolia. We discuss her new book, Phantom Lady: Hollywood Producer Joan Harrison, The Forgotten Woman Behind Hitchcock, which narrates the oft-forgotten tale of one of the studio era's most notable female pioneers. As Lane explores, Harrison played a multi-faceted role in the 1930s and early 1940s for director Alfred Hitchcock that cannot be understated, and then went on to become one of the "girl producers" of the 1940s with fascinating noirish thrillers like Phantom Lady, Dark Waters, and Ride the Pink Horse. Through it all, Lane relishes in the details of the nimble yet prodigious navigator of the studio system, and in particular, her unique transition to television and central role as a proto-showrunner on Alfred Hitchcock Presents. As Lane suggests, Harrison was much more than a "gal Friday," and instead someone who balanced personal toil, political scrutiny, and of course, the misogyny of Hollywood—rarely receiving the credit due to her talents, and offering inspiration for us all today.
Today's episode features Christopher Yogerst, an assistant professor of communication, at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee and the author of From the Headlines to Hollywood: The Birth and Boom of Warner Bros. We discuss his new book, Hollywood Hates Hitler!: Jew-Baiting, Anti-Nazism, and the Senate Investigation into Warmongering in Motion Pictures, a fascinating look into the 1941 hearings in Congress over Hollywood's role in American life. Yogerst contextualizes an oft-forgotten event in the shadow of World War II, where isolationist Senators (many connected with the anti-Semitic America First Committee) attempted to argue a conspiracy against the film industry for making what they suggested was pro-war propaganda. As Yogerst details, the hearings revealed the follies of the Senate to actually understand the film industry, and highlighted the changing nature of the role of movies within the public. The result is a fascinating telling that would foretell the events that would soon grapple the industry—particularly the HUAC Investigations and the antitrust litigation—and has resonance for the continued role of Congress in its attempts to take on industries in Silicon Valley.
Today's episode features Hayley O'Malley, a Mellon postdoctoral fellow for the Black Arts Archive Sawyer Seminar at Northwestern University, who researches black women’s art and activism. We discuss her article, "Art on Her Mind: The Making of Kathleen Collins's Cinema of Interiority,” published in Black Camera. O'Malley looks across the broad spectrum of work, much of it unpublished, by the director of Losing Ground to find an artist continually using a subjective voice to define identity beyond the grounds of race and gender. Searching through her archives, she argues for a broader understanding of Collins as a writer in search of authentic experiences and attempting to tell personal stories without necessarily falling simply into autobiography. The research thus demonstrates a better understanding of this recently rediscovered filmmaker not just as a curios side note for film history, but perhaps a defining thinker and writer who influenced a number of writers, directors, and other artists in ways we might not realize.
Today's episode features Eleni Palis, an assistant professor of English and Cinema Studies at the University of Tennessee, who researches the intersections between classical and post-classical American cinema. We discuss her article, "Race, Authorship and Film Quotation in Post-Classical Cinema” published in Screen. Palis transforms our idea of the film quotation from a practice of canonization used by the directors of New Hollywood by looking at innovative practices by three African American filmmakers: Julie Dash, Cheryl Dunye, and Spike Lee. In her reading of their films, and particularly the use of manufactured and "fake"quotations, Palis demonstrates an alternative use to the practice that interrogates our own relationship to film histories, both real and imagined. Trough a generation of filmmakers who cannot necessarily look to the past for the same kind of inspiration, her article allows us to rethink our own relationship to Hollywood's own history.
Today's episode features Katie Bird, an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas, El Paso, who researches technology and craft histories in Hollywood film production. We discuss her video essay, "Feeling and Thought as They Take Form: Early Steadicam, Labor, and Technology (1974-1985),” published in the Journal of Videographic Film & Moving Image Studies. Bird emphasizes the operator's role in this unique technology's early history in both major films like The Shining and Halloween, as well as demo reels, industrial works, and more. She emphasizes how the choices of the operators—both physically and affectively, often referring to their own work closer to dancing—ultimately shaped the images we saw and how we respond to them. Bird challenges viewers to see the craft as labor beyond just invisibility, appreciating the art of production at every step.
Today's episode features JD Scnepf, a scholar of American Studies in Political Culture and Theory at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. We discuss her article, "Flood from Above: Disaster Mediation and Drone Humanitarianism," published in Media+Environment. Schnepf looks at the culture of the drone in humanitarian disasters like hurricanes and floods, studying how the private digital media infrastructure reveals the privatization of American life. Moreover, she explores how seeing and studying how drones work in these environmental situations demonstrates how we are taught to see drones as "life giving" objects, and how that provides a new critique of their military uses.
To suggest that Brian L. Frye has lived an eclectic life would be an understatement. A former experimental filmmaker, a collector of home movies, and a legal scholar of intellectual property among other strange, often quizzical projects at the University of Kentucky. After having Peter on his own podcast, Brian sat down tor return the favor. We discuss his oddball way into filmmaking (including his notorious film, Brian Frye Fails to Masturbate), his collaboration on the most curious documentary about home movies perhaps ever made—Our Nixon—and then look at much of his legal scholarship and the various avenues of exploration that has led him down (including how the defendant of one of the most important cases every 1L learns may have been lying the entire time). The discussion remains quite strange: from the Supreme Court nominee who was squashed by Flaming Creatures to the intellectual property history of the Zapruder film, to why you should plagiarize. Finally, the two discuss The Hart of London, Jack Chambers's amazing experimental film and the failure of words to possibly describe this monumental work.
0:00–5:57 Opening
6:43–1:21:44 Deep Focus — Brian L. Frye
1:22:21–1:27:24 MUBI Sponsorship Section
1:28:34–1:40:16 Double Exposure — The Hart of London (Jack Chambers)
1:40:22–1:41:59 Close
Desperate for bodies in motion, five quarantined cinephiles joined Peter and a number of podcast listeners on Zoom to talk about the recent non-fiction films they've been devouring on the world of athletics. Some shows favor the classic narratives; others a different approach. All made for a great happy hour. Join Peter alongside Carman Tse, Nate Fisher, Eric Marsh, Jake Mulligan, and Matt Ellis for a talk about ESPN and the NBA's ten hour "examination" into Michael Jordan and the 1998 Chicago Bulls with The Last Dance, Jon Bois and Alex Rubenstein's expose into the history of baseball's oddest team with The History of the Seattle Mariners, and Theo Anthony's 30 for 30 special on tennis replay, Subject to Review, which might not actually be about tennis but all society. Plus, they remember some guys. Man, remember those guys? Whatever happened to those guys????
0:00–5:16 Opening
6:07-51:41 The Last Dance (Jason Hehir [or Michael Jordan and the NBA])
52:29–56:23 Sponsorship Section
57:25–1:40:10 The History of the Seattle Mariners (Jon Bois and Alex Rubenstein)
1:41:18–2:03:48 Subject to Review (Theo Anthony)
2:04:05–1:56:51 Close
As a constant Instagram user, I find it hard not to love the numerous videos of mammals and other species in behavior whose response always comes down to "they're just like us!" But what about that history of cinema that shows us how animals are not like us, and perhaps encourages us to think outside our own worldview. In Zoological Surrealism, University of Toronto professor James Leo Cahill explores the wondrously strange history of filmmaker Jean Painlevé, best known for his documentary The Seahorse, and explores the numerous scientific films and how he and his collaborators essentially embraced a different worldview by merging art and science. In this long ranging history, James takes us through his first fascinations with cinema and animals as well as through the numerous unique theories he develops through tracing a transhistorical understanding of Painlevé. Finally, the two embrace every emotion through examining Pom Poko, a curious anime from Studio Ghibli that traces the last years of a dying species and celebrates the way we feel loss....a film quite appropriate for our current moment.
0:00–7:10 Opening
7:54-13:05 MUBI Sponsorship
13:50–1:32:30 Deep Focus — James Leo Cahill
1:34:35–1:37:35 OVID.TV Sponsorship Section
1:38:21–1:54:08 Double Exposure — Pom Poko (Isao Takahata)
1:54:56–1:56:51 Close
Nothing is more frustrating in our streaming era than turning on any specific app and suddenly staring hundreds of movie posters with only an algorithm trying to decide what you might like (especially if such product is actually made by the company to help its margins). But what if there was a streaming site that only offered a single movie a week, and maybe not even a feature but a short or medium-length feature? And what if it had circulated ultra-rare films by Claire Denis, Hong Sang-Soo, Matias Piñeiro, Jonas Mekas, and fascinating filmmakers you had never heard of? That's the promise Marie-Louise Khondji has brought to her site Le Cinéma Club. Marie sits down to talk about growing up with her father (the cinematographer Darius) and how she moved into management through distribution and production before starting a site to help filmmakers showcase work that needed an outlet and created to be accessible for all. Finally, the two talk about the wonderful Jonathan Glazer film Birth, and how it seems to capture a certain timeless stasis of its upper elite New York culture.
0:00–6:27 Opening
7:40-11:32 OVID.TV Sponsorship
12:17–45:51 Deep Focus — Marie-Louise Khondji
46:40–51:15 MUBI Sponsorship Section
52:31–1:03:47 Double Exposure — Birth (Jonathan Glazer)
1:04:12–1:06:42 Close
The podcast returns in our perilous times with a profile of the website all about what's playing in repertory and experimental cinemas across New York. And though the balconies remained closed and the popcorn machines without an ounce, there are plenty of reason to subscribe to Screen Slate and listen to this conversation with Jon Dieringer. Jon takes us to his early programming days and work on a few Hollywood movies before diving into the complex work preserving the history of experimental video at Electronic Arts Intermix. He then talks about the origins of Screen Slate (including its infamous and now defunct competitor) and how it continues to push the boundaries of what curious cinephiles can and should watch. Finally, the two dive into the absolute oddity that is Made in Hollywood, a proto-Lynch take on the industry from Bruce and Norman Yonemoto with Patricia Arquette that is both highly artificial and highly bizarre.
0:00–6:18 Opening
7:27-10:43 OVID.TV Sponsorship
11:28–1:20:21 Deep Focus — Jon Dieringer
1:21:32–1:24:57 MUBI Sponsorship Section
1:25:37–1:40:32 Double Exposure — Made in Hollywood (Bruce and Norman Yonemoto)
1:40:36–1:42:33 Close // Outtake
If cinema enters what might be its 100th identity crisis since its birth, there is at least a more appropriate question to ask: where will cinema take place? As the first guest of 2020, Peter brings in Art House Convergence director Alison Kozberg to tackle how the art house scene has changed less in Los Angeles and New York but instead transformed cities like Tuscon and Charleston. Alison charts her life as a repertory-goer in the 1990s to learning the tricks of programming for both classic Hollywood and experimental works in places like Minneapolis, Boston, and South Carolina. She then looks at the new challenges—but more so, opportunities—for art houses to engage and create new community spaces. Finally, the two dive back into her teen years to examine Gregg Araki's apocalyptic teenage satire Nowhere, which Alison argues as a rare breakthrough film of the time to openly accept queer identities as normative.
0:00–5:06 Opening
5:52–51:11 Deep Focus — Alison Kozberg
52:28–57:34 Sponsorship Section
58:57–1:17:03 Double Exposure — Nowhere (Gregg Araki)
1:17:28–1:19:21 Close
In some regards, cinephilia often defines itself in knowing what is good from what is bad, highlighting the rarity of intention and execution in a select few texts from the rest of the trash. But what about those supposedly bad films? Do they not offer insight into our culture as well? In Double Negative, Associate Professor Racquel Gates explores the supposed bad mirror image of black cinema and television from the 1980s and beyond. Looking at a set of nearly forgotten works, Gates examines how these texts reveal insights into black popular culture often ignored by the mainstream. As Peter and Racquel discuss, these texts often aim to show a slice of American life what is usually acceptable in white popular culture—if only simply showing suburban middle-class life. In their final segment, they dissect the topic of whiteness with the 2004 Wayans Brother flick White Chicks, a very silly film with a very insightful dissection of privilege and femininity, as well as absolute sheer gross-out humor.
0:00–3:03 Opening
3:41–11:37 Establishing Shots — At the Mill Valley Film Festival
12:23–49:33 Deep Focus — Racquel Gates
50:52–54:23 Sponsorship Section
55:33–1:06:04 Double Exposure — White Chicks (Keenen Ivory Wayans)
1:06:25–1:08:17 Close / Outtake
As much as many will espouse the "universal language" of cinema, the experience of both making and watching films from location to location is full of fascinating difference. As someone who grew up watching films in both America and Colombia, Daniel Steinhart became attuned to look for these differences as he traveled film festivals as well. But his book, Runaway Hollywood, moves from the audience to the filmmakers who escaped the studio lot and made works across the globe in the postwar era. Peter and Dan discuss this fascinating taxonomy of taxes and tea, gaffers and genre, politics and panning shots. How exactly could this cultural exchange create a change in film style? Finally, they dive into an oddball thriller from Otto Preminger shot in London, Bunny Lake Is Missing, examining how this film balances both its unique locale and the demands of its auteur.
0:00–3:28 Opening
5:11–12:52 Establishing Shots — Gilberto Perez's The Eloquent Screen13:37–1:07:22 Deep Focus — Daniel Steinhart
1:08:06–1:11:33 Sponsorship Section
1:12:52–1:33:02 Double Exposure — Bunny Lake Is Missing (Otto Preminger)
1:33:07–1:35:50 Close
Being the metropolitan area newspaper's film critic has its set of burdens and responsibilities to a number of diverse audiences, but for Justin Chang, those challenges are multiplied by the the odd nature of Los Angeles as the movie capital of the world. In this final episode from the City of Angels as Peter says adios to the city he's called home for the last five years, he sits down with the former Variety and current Los Angeles Times critic to explore how to look and consider the industry and the various entanglements that expand out from it. Justin explains his growth from intern to critic within the city's oldest trade publication to the issues of representation and politics within Hollywood today. The two cap off their conversation by looking at Hou Hsiao-Hsien's strange and hypnotic Flowers of Shanghai, looking at how the director lays clues throughout to explore a 19th century brothel wrapped into a romantic mystery.
0:00–3:11 Opening
3:51–11:39 Establishing Shots — Celebrating Seven Years of The Cinephiliacs
12:24–1:04:31 Deep Focus — Justin Chang
1:05:28–1:09:15 Sponsorship Section
1:10:27–1:28:49 Double Exposure — Flowers of Shanghai (Hou Hsiao-Hsien)
1:29:02–1:31:29 Close / Outtake
As this podcast has aimed to define, those who watch cinema can often be more revealing of culture than cinema itself. In her book, Lewd Looks, Elena Gorfinkel explores the sexploitation era of the 1960s. However, she looks past the texts to consider some of the more aspects of spectators and the public who shaped this unique era. The result is a fascinating text that considers cinephilia's history in ways that imagines both a more dynamic and complex past alongside a new way of formulating our current moment. Peter and Elena go on to discuss the issues surrounding cinephilia today and Elena's own work outside of the academic halls. Finally, Elena brings in the fascinating experimental work The Color of Love from filmmaker Peggy Ahwesh, considering how this work literally found in a dumpster becomes a cinephilie love letter to another forgotten filmmaker.
0:00–3:16 Opening
4:01–1:03:33 Deep Focus — Elena Gorfinkel
1:04:30–1:03:33 Sponsorship Section
1:08:24–1:25:14 Double Exposure — The Color of Love (Peggy Ahwesh)
1:25:19–1:26:52 Close
For anyone whose lived in Los Angeles or New York, it's easy to see when a film cheats its its locales. Just watch John Wick 3 and see the eponymous character seemingly make the trip from Midtown to Chinatown in a matter of minutes—and all by foot. But why has location shooting evolved such as it is? Joshua Gleich, a historian making his home at the University of Arizona, Tuscon, explores this by looking at the city of fog, San Francisco. Less an exploration of which films "get it right" or "get it wrong," Gleich's new book explores the evolution of location shooting from the 1940s to the 1970s, and how curiously the films of SF soon diverted from its actual life, attempting to mimic the urban nightmares that took up the imagination of Hollywood. Josh talks about his new book with Peter, exploring a number of classic films and the production contexts that made them. Finally, the two explore Blake Edwards's alcoholic drama Days of Wine and Roses and how a little location shooting can help pepper an entire film, especially one that breaks many of the molds of the classic Hollywood melodrama. Plus, Peter praises the work of the back-in-action Le Cinema Club and its opener with a rare Claire Denis short made in New York.
0:00–3:28 Opening
3:51–8:37 Establishing Shots — Le Cinema Club and Claire Denis
9:21–59:20 Deep Focus — Joshua Gleich
1:00:23–1:03:49 Sponsorship Section
1:05:44–1:19:21 Double Exposure — Days of Wine and Roses (Blake Edwards)
1:19:27–1:26:52 Close
After a year hiatus, Peter returns to the Castro Theatre alongside Victor Morton to check back in with the good folks at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, now in their 24th iteration. It's more proof that this cinephile culture is alive and well and always expanding toward new avenues despite its century longevity. This year includes discoveries from both the studio era of filmmaking as well as unique corners of the globe, featuring narratives of fallen women, activist women, and women willing to push their vanity to death itself (also the occasional man). The surprise of the festival in part is seeing this period of history both in its innovations as well as its regressions, which sometimes work to turn seemingly simple works into complex objects. Within this, great artists appear: some known and others now reclaimed. Join Peter and Victor as they work their way through this excellent set of films.
0:00–2:41 Opening
2:42–15:00 The Signal Tower (Clarence Brown, 1924)
16:36–30:56 Tonka of the Gallows (Karel Anton, 1931)
32:11–49:33 Color Extravaganza!
50:30–53:30 Sponsorship Section
54:16–1:05:08 Goona Goona (André Roosevelt and Armand Denis, 1932)
1:06:03–1:24:03 Romance, Comedy and Otherwise
1:24:52–1:37:38 The Wedding March (Erich Von Stroheim, 1928)
1:37:42–1:26:52 Close
In the search for reclaiming masterpieces, creating streaming services that put every film at our fingertips, and investigating narratives that simply continue variations of the canon, what have we missed? What happens when we put our foot on the breaks and reconsider not just the what's of cinema and media history but the hows? In her extraordinary body of research, Professor Katherine Groo has been looking toward the objects that film history often ignores, simply because it seems there is nothing to do with them. The result in her new book, Bad Film Histories, considers some methods and ideas of how to approach a particular set of objects: early ethnographic film. From there, Peter and Katherine look into her much discussed op-ed for the Washington Post on the role of streaming services like FilmStruck and end by examining not a film but an archive: a set of films and glass plates collected to create an archive of the world by Albert Kahn. Needless to say, it is the odds and ends there that remain more fascinating than considering the body of work itself.
0:00–4:37 Opening
5:23–58:48 Deep Focus — Katherine Groo
1:00:09–1:04:36 Sponsorship Section
1:05:46–1:25:08 Double Exposure — Archives de la Planète
1:25:13–1:26:52 Close
Unless you've had your head in the sand, the awareness of the women dominated Hollywood of the 1910s has moved out of academic circles and into popular discourse. Instead of asking what happened to these women, film scholar Jane Gaines has another: why has this only now become part of our history? A pioneering scholar in mixed-race films, copyright, and documentary, Gaines's latest, long gestating book Pink Slipped mines film studies's own history to look at the reasons and problems of telling history through this one paradigm. In this winding conversation, Jane explores her own history and what led her to explore this problem and where history goes from here. They end their conversation looking at one particularly fascinating woman—Gene Gauntier—who beat out Pearl White and Helen Holmes as the first serial star by playing a cross-dressing confederate spy. A not to be missed discussion! Plus, Peter delivers some thoughts on a rediscovered and restored British drama exploring the Jamaican diaspora.
0:00–4:22 Opening
5:14–10:30 Establishing Shots — Franco Rosso's Babylon11:16–51:53 Deep Focus — Jane Gaines
52:53–56:54 Sponsorship Section
57:19–1:06:52 Double Exposure — The Girl Spy Before Vicksburg (Gene Gauntier)
1:06:57–1:09:58 Close / Outtake
In a time of Easy Riders and Raging Bulls, the opportunities for directors of New Hollywood to make ambitious, artistic, and socially conscious movies blossomed in a way the industry had never allowed—but those outside the categories of white and male had a different story. But despite the gender disparity, sixteen daring women broke through. Some of their names are known; others in need of rediscovery. Either way, UCLA's Maya Montañez Smukler saw her goal to tell their narratives, showing how the rise of second wave feminism started the fight against the industry's sexism that continues today. In this wide ranging interview, Maya discusses her early history working for women-focused cinema organizations and how that eventually led to her book Liberating Hollywood. Peter and Maya explore the legal and cultural bookends that make up her project, and contextualize these directors in both their moment and ours. Finally, the two dive into Old Boyfriends, a truly oddball debut feature from Nashville screenwriter Joan Tewkesbury with a screenplay by Taxi Driver's Paul Schrader and an all-star cast.
0:00–3:36 Opening
4:21–1:05:42 Deep Focus — Maya Montañez Smukler
1:06:34–1:2:05 Sponsorship Section
1:12:45–1:27:34 Double Exposure — Old Boyfriends (Joan Tewkesbury)
1:27:39–1:29:29 Close / Outtake
It's easy to claim art serves a purpose, but what exactly is that purpose? How do artists and critics reckon with the images, ideas, and worlds they've created—for better and worse? If art only builds a monument to itself, what value does that hold? In the second part of Peter and Keith Uhlich's look back at the year 2018 in movies, these questions come to the forefront. It's not just what art is but how it strikes us, how it is purposed (or repurposed), and how it becomes part of a dialogue. Though covering just one year of cinema, a list that expands back over a century. The big surprise: who topped their list with film and who topped it with television? Surprises abound in this invigorating discussion.
0:00–2:41 Opening
2:41–26:34 Picks for #5
26:34–41:40 Picks for #4
41:40–1:00:41 Picks for #3
1:01:20–1:03:59 Sponsorship Section
1:04:47–1:27:08 Picks for #2
1:27:08–1:30:02 Guest Picks
1:30:02–1:59:56 Picks for #1
1:59:56–2:04:39 Wrap Up
2:05:36–2:08:35 Close / Outtake
Witches, Worship, and White People: Oh my! Keith Uhlich returns for another year of counting down films, television, and other media of 2018 in this Part 1 of 2. The choices remain as eclectic as always, but the spirit of debate shifts toward not just what constitutes not just what cinema is but when it is (2017? 1972? Who Knows!)—part of the larger flux in our ever expanding digital world. Each challenges the other for a statement of principals to understand not just what films get made and who gets to make them, throwing wrenches into questions surrounding the systems that hold the keys and the role of representation on screen. Strap on (!) in for another series of conversations on what might not be the best films of the year, but the ones that engaged us most into a winding conversation.
0:00-2:52 Opening
2:52-27:04 Picks for #10
27:04-50:21 Picks for #9
51:08-55:07 Sponsorship Section
55:29-1:21:01 Picks for #8
1:21:01-1:43:53 Picks for #7
1:43:53-2:05:26 Picks for #6
2:06:02-2:06:35 Wrap Up
2:06:44 -2:08:52 Close / Outtake
Given the ever growing plethora of criticism, it makes it more and more difficult to find critics whose every word feels inspired, and more than that, fewer critics who are even given spaces to write on films that create impassioned, reflective, and incisive prose and arguments. Houston-based writer Michael Sicinski is one of the rarities left today. His criticism makes experimental films that might alienate audiences feel accessible and who takes the liberal Hollywood schmaltz and demonstrates how alienating it can be. In this broad ranging interview, Michael takes Peter through his move from art history to cinema, the academic sphere to the internet, and from writing to teaching. The two then dive into Su Friedrich's haunting memory film Sink or Swim, and look at how a work that demonstrates formal rigor at every moment is also imbued with emotion that any audience can feel as well. Plus, Peter checks back in with former guest Eric Allen Hatch and his new non-profit video store in Baltimore, looking at how a seemingly "outdated" model of cinephilia might just save its future.
0:00-3:33 Opening
4:25-15:42 Establishing Shots — Beyond Video with Eric Allen Hatch
16:28-1:24:12 Deep Focus — Michael Sicinski
1:25:25-1:29:50 Sponsorship Section
1:31:05-1:52:43 Double Exposure — Sink or Swim (Su Friedrich)
1:52:48-2:00:37 Close / Outtake
The fine line between art and pornography is as old as visual culture itself, but only recently have those within the industry crafted their narratives for large scale audiences by avoiding the old hat critiques often placed on the profession. Cam, a new horror thriller financed by Blumhouse and made by the creative duo of Isa Mazzei and Daniel Goldhaber, does exactly that by following a cam girl as she fights to reclaim her identity. Dan sits down in this long ranging interview to discuss his creative apprenticeships on documentaries and the lessons he learned from Harvard, the work he and Isa did crafting pornography that thought seriously about aesthetics, and the creative workarounds necessary to make a good film about screen life. Finally, the two talk about Showgirls, a tricky film that nonetheless influenced Cam—Peter and Dan examine how and where the film takes these burlesque dancers seriously, and how the film straddles its campy existence. Plus, Carman Tse joins the show to talk about a few restorations that played the recent AFI Film Festival.
0:00-3:10 Opening
4:13-27:48 Establishing Shots — Repertory Talk at AFI Fest with Carman Tsse
28:33-1:36:45 Deep Focus — Daniel Goldhaber
1:38:00-1:42:00 Sponsorship Section
1:43:08-1:58:40 Double Exposure — Showgirls (Paul Vehoven)
1:58:48-2:00:37 Close / Outtake
Faint memories of adventures abroad, the streets lined with buildings of the past, and the Disneyland rides long replaced. All memories of others, but preserved for us through the magic of 8 and 16mm celluloid. In this special episode, Peter travels inside the land of Home Movie Day is the show's first "experiential" podcast, recording the sounds and voices of this special event. Hear archivists, projectionists, and others who drudged up canisters from their attics discover the magic of this unique event in which no one knew what was going to be shown. From "Keystone Nuns" from Hungary to the Los Angeles Dodgers and King George II, learn about how home movies provide both historical and emotional experiences that these truly personal films could provide.
0:00-3:06 Opening
3:06-27:57 Home Movie Day Part 1
28:54-32:55 Sponsorship Section
33:23-59:53 Home Movie Day Part 2
59:58-1:01:55 Close
So often when it comes to cinema we can make easy assumptions, but the questions underneath them are brimming to push boundaries. What exactly should film archives contain and what are their social responsibilities? Could an independent cinema exist under state sponsorship? Why is the goal of scholarship a book or article? What if instead you made films in caves, or highlighted contributions to our history through gravestones? Through her unique career, Terri Francis has brought some of these questions to light in a different way that makes the work of academia feel not just groundbreaking but emotionally powerful. In this long-ranging conversation, the Indiana University professor and director of the Black Film Center/Archive explores a range of topics related to Josephine Baker, Jamaica Film, and understanding and expanding black identity and cinephilia in a time where the very nature of the premise is changing. Finally, Terri and Peter discuss Losing Ground, a pioneering and celebratory melodrama from indie filmmaker Kathleen Collins—Terri tells the story of how the film went from obscurity to the stunning restoration that's made it part of the new canon.
0:00-3:46 Opening
4:29-11:11 Establishing Shots — New Streaming Platforms, New Avenues
11:57-1:09:32 Deep Focus — Terri Francis
1:10:30-1:14:16 Sponsorship Section
1:15:36-1:38:44 Double Exposure — Losing Ground (Kathleen Collins)
1:38:49-1:40:33 Close / Outtake
When Peter first began studying criticism, one person seemed to have the aspirational career he wanted: James Naremore. Not only was he able to teach the history of cinema, but he had written some of the most influential books on Orson Welles, screen acting, and film noir. Now Professor Emeritus at Indiana University, Bloomington, Naremore continues to write and research while still blending a line between film criticism and film academia, but always with a rigor and appreciation that makes him entirely unique. James sits down with Peter to talk about going from English literature to film studies, to his appreciation of classical criticism, and the politics of writing a study of Charles Burnett. Finally, they talk about a rarity that few have seen: the 1929 British silent film A Cottage on Dartmoor, which represents one of the great "last breaths of silent techniques" before sound would change filmmaking, which even gets its own strange cameo in the movie!
0:00-4:10 Opening
5:12-11:34 Establishing Shots — Edmond O'Brien The Noirish Chameleon
12:18-49:18 Deep Focus — James Naremore
49:54-54:04 Sponsorship Section
54:47-1:08:48 Double Exposure — A Cottage on Dartmoor (Anthony Asquith)
1:08:53-1:10:31 Close
It is easy to get caught up in the names that have already become known throughout the cinephile world and their accomplishments and great works. But who will carry the torch through the future? One curious fellow worth noting to the is Toronto-based writer and filmmaker Neil Bahaduer. With his iconoclastic ramblings, larky wit, and soft-spoken but all so engrossing enthusiasm, Neil's writing on cinema seems to be pointing toward something different that splices together the past and the future in hope of creating a cinema entirely alien to what we often limit. Peter talks to Neil about his writings on silent films in conversation with more recent art house filmmakers, the role of the marketplace in cinema that hopes to speak politically, and his ambitous first film, From Nine to Nine. They then dive into D.W. Griffith's first feature length film, Judith of Bethulia, and examine how this curious expansion into length allowed the pioneer to bring together questions of aesthetics and politics. Plus, former guest and eating expert Carman Tse joins Peter to discuss the legacy of one of their favorite all time critics, food writer Jonathan Gold.
0:00-4:01 Opening
6:02-28:59 Establishing Shots — Remembering Jonathan Gold with Carman Tse
29:45-1:26:57 Deep Focus — Neil Bahaduer
1:27:58-1:31:34 Sponsorship Section
1:32:34-1:48:10 Double Exposure — Judith of Bethulia (D.W. Griffith)
1:48:16-1:50:00 Close / Outtake
What does it mean to study the means of production? Is one deconstructing the way an industry might operate, its cultural and political signification, or is simply one reproducing an apologia for capitalism itself? In a lively and spirited conversation, Peter explores these questions with one of his all-time academic heroes, Janet Staiger. The author of Interpreting Films, Perverse Spectators, and co-author of The Classical Hollywood Cinema examines the various political undertones that have always peppered her work, and where the future of media studies can go in today's political age, whether it be studying the way images are made or the way they are received. But there's also a lot of fun to be had, including the unique connections between Zombieland, a recent "romantic comedy" that just happens to feature blood and gore, and a certain 2017 film of fashionable elegance. Plus, Peter recaps his recent trip to Il Cinema Ritrovato with Welsh critic Christopher Small, where the two debate whether the films or the gelato stood out more.
0:00-4:00 Opening
4:58-29:48 Establishing Shots — Il Cinema Ritrovato with Christopher Small
30:33-1:05:47 Deep Focus — Janet Staiger
1:06:45-1:11:40 Sponsorship Section
1:13:06-1:26:35 Double Exposure — Zombieland (Ruben Fleischer)
1:26:39-1:28:18 Close
While hardly a new problem in the media landscape, issues of representation both in front and behind screen have reached new peaks in the cultural discourse through campaigns like #OscarsSoWhite. But what does the path forward look like? Kristen Warner, a scholar of media industries, brings her unique research to the podcast to look at issues of colorblind casting and what she calls "plastic representation." Kristen and Peter look at a number of televisual milieus in which representational politics play out on our screens, and Kristen challenges a lot of issues to ask when real authentic people of color actually appear. Finally, the two discuss Magic Mike XXL, one of the most unique films of the last decade and a rare site where people of color have been in some way given their space. Kristen explains how a film with a white director and almost all-white cast somehow envisions a utopic vision of diverse American culture.
0:00-4:16 Opening
5:48-11:46 Establishing Shots — Bill Hader and Barry12:32-48:40 Deep Focus — Kristen Warner
49:39-52:28 Sponsorship Section
53:40-1:06:08 Double Exposure — Magic Mike XXL (Gregory Jacobs)
1:06:49-1:08:41 Close
Perhaps in danger of becoming a new cliché for the show, Peter remains fascinated by actors: what is this business they do and how do they do it, especially those stars that littered the studios in Hollywood's Golden Age? Answering that question is film and theatre critic Dan Callahan, who has gone in depth on many of those actors. His new book, The Art of American Screen Acting, explores the Classical Hollywood style of performance through twenty essays on Hollywood's best and brightest. Peter asks about the genesis of the book as well as various technical aspects remarked upon, as well as on Dan's other two totems on Barbara Stanwyck and Vanessa Redgrave. Finally, the two look at the site of a true clash in William Wyler's The Heiress, where four titans of Hollywood—all with different styles—produce one of the most confounding and wondrous mixtures of screen performance one could possibly imagine.
0:00-2:48 Opening
4:27-12:56 Establishing Shots — Old Masters, Digital Tricks
13:42-1:05:00 Deep Focus — Dan Callahan
1:05:41-1:10:01 Sponsorship Section
1:11:23-1:31:48 Double Exposure — The Heiress (William Wyler)
1:31:53-1:34:27 Close / Outtake
The skyline of Rochester is filled with the industrial ghosts of the 20th century. However, the haunt is a more than a pleasant one, and perhaps the essential keeper of its history is the George Eastman Museum—a glowing monument to the history of both photography and the moving image. Jared Case has worked the Museum for over 18 years, and in particular has helped steer what has quickly become one of the go-to destinations for cinephiles: The Nitrate Picture Show. Peter attended the 4th iteration of the festival dedicated to the silvery, flammable material that preserved up cinema half-century, and then sat immediately down to discuss with Jared the work behind the scenes of such a wondrous event. Jared also explains the nuances of cataloging motion pictures, the development of a Technicolor database, and how to bring film preservation to the masses. Finally, the two look at John Cromwell's devilish noir Dead Reckoning with a witty Humphrey Bogart and the black hole of evil that is noir's most bad, bad girl, Lizabeth Scott. And as a bonus, Peter takes a tour of the Eastman Museum's frigid vaults to examine their 24,000 reels of film with Deborah Stoiber.
0:00-4:00 Opening
5:23-28:20 Establishing Shots — Touring the Nitrate Vaults With Deborah Stoiber
29:05-1:15:39 Deep Focus — Jared Case
1:16:41-1:20:29 Sponsorship Section
1:21:35-1:41:38 Double Exposure — Dead Reckoning (John Cromwell)
1:41:56-1:43:387 Close
Every guest of The Cinephiliacs has had their chance in the hot seat to be questioned by Peter on a myriad of topics, but never the other way around. In this very special 100th episode, it is the guests who have control of the mic. Friend of the show Keith Uhlich plays host for an episode to ask Peter about his first cinematic memory, how the podcast got started, and why he turned to film history. Along the way, many other former friends call in to ask their own questions about his favorite theaters, the films he just doesn't understand, and the lessons he's learned through the course of the show. Finally, Peter finally chooses the film and goes with John Ford's enigmatic biopic The Long Gray Line, a story of the military and America in a way that neither Keith nor Peter can wrap their heads entirely around, but find themselves in tears at the end nonetheless. Is it shallow patriotism, or is Ford crafting the most mysterious anti-war film ever made?
0:00-4:27 Opening
5:12-1:38:44 Deep Focus — Peter Labuza
1:39:24-1:43:24 Sponsorship Section
1:44:44-2:18:11 Double Exposure — The Long Gray Line (John Ford)
2:18:56-2:24:10 Final Questions / Thanks
2:24:12-2:25:54 Close
The avant-garde just doesn't "happen." It has relied on institutional networks that create any sort of art world to help it find its publics. These networks are just as critical as they were 50 years ago, and Antonella Bonfanti works to keep that tradition alive. The director of the San Francisco based Canyon Cinema sits down to discuss how she fell in love with the tactile form of film and found herself working with home movies and other amateur formats before joining the famed distribution company for experimental cinema. She then explains how Canyon continues to operate and its bright future in finding audiences in the digital age. Finally, she and Peter put on their jazz hands to highlight the work of Bob Fosse's Cabaret, which of course turns into what else but a Liza Love Fest.
0:00-3:08 Opening
4:17-11:00 Establishing Shots — New Cinemas Hit Manhattan
11:46-58:53 Deep Focus — Antonella Bonfanti
1:00:05-1:04:18 Sponsorship Section
1:06:05-1:19:15 Double Exposure — Cabaret (Bob Fosse)
1:19:42-1:22:43 Close
The avant-garde just doesn't "happen." It has relied on institutional networks that create any sort of art world to help it find its publics. These networks are just as critical as they were 50 years ago, and Antonella Bonfanti works to keep that tradition alive. The director of the San Francisco based Canyon Cinema sits down to discuss how she fell in love with the tactile form of film and found herself working with home movies and other amateur formats before joining the famed distribution company for experimental cinema. She then explains how Canyon continues to operate and its bright future in finding audiences in the digital age. Finally, she and Peter put on their jazz hands to highlight the work of Bob Fosse's Cabaret, which of course turns into what else but a Liza Love Fest.
0:00-3:08 Opening
4:17-11:00 Establishing Shots — New Cinemas Hit Manhattan
11:46-58:53 Deep Focus — Antonella Bonfanti
1:00:05-1:04:18 Sponsorship Section
1:06:05-1:19:15 Double Exposure — Cabaret (Bob Fosse)
1:19:42-1:22:43 Close
One of the most critical ways that women can break the overwhelming male-controlled industry in Hollywood is acknowledging how central they have always been to its existence. UC Santa Cruz Professor Shelley Stamp has been on the forefront of that narrative, exploring how women dominated silent film culture both in terms of their moviegoing habits and the films they created. The author of Movie-Struck Girls and Lois Weber in Early Hollywood sits down with Peter to discuss the critical wave of film historiography that blossomed during her early career and the pre-internet research methods she used to create these and other texts, as well as what the future of the field may hold. Finally, they dive into Ida Lupino's directorial debut Not Wanted and look at both the similarities and differences between her and Lois Weber as the actor charted a new type of social problem film for the noir era.
0:00-3:59 Opening
4:44-1:05:43 Deep Focus — Shelley Stamp
1:06:48-1:10:01 Sponsorship Section
1:12:06-1:26:23 Double Exposure — Not Wanted (Lupino)
1:26:27-1:18:40 Close
Watching an actor transform in an unexpected way—even if the particular action is so simple and its context so mundane—can be a revelatory experience, and the kind that draws us into the movies we adore. James Urbaniak has made that something of a career, giving us the quiet internal rage inside Simon Grim in Henry Fool, the secretly menacing stares of Grant in the TV series Review, and the dozens upon dozens of strange voices he's taken on for series like The Venture Brothers. In this episode, James sits down with Peter to get into the technical and philosophical ideas that drive his character actor career in a number of shows, while also discussing how his love of Classical Hollywood has influenced his decisions—including his noir homage series, A Night Called Tomorrow. Finally, the two dive into Billy Wilder's The Apartment to explore how they actors take the screwball zaniness of the script and make it melancholy, and turn the film's dramatic shifts into comedy.
0:00-2:52 Opening
3:34-9:42 Establish Shots — Contemplating Curtiz
10:28-50:19 Deep Focus — James Urbaniak
51:11-54:02 Sponsorship Section
55:33-1:15:49 Double Exposure — The Apartment (Wilder)
1:16:36-1:18:40 Close
On one hand, cinema has mutated. It is no longer contained to the theater and its methods no longer simply produce simply 3 act narrative features. But was it ever so limited? The first films were hand cranked into a box at a parlor on 34th street. The military in WWII made cinema portable in order to bring secrets across enemy lines. Films taught people their trades. Video tape launched a spiritual and later political revolution against the dominant mode. The medium was never the message, so let's just celebrate what was seen and experienced—the movement was not just in the image but in our bodies (the real movement...was love). All is this to say, Keith and Peter have good fun exploring their favorite works of 2017, debating the nature of reality in a series of works either attempting to pull it from other the rug or expose it through unsuspecting places. Is it future? Or is it past? Or is it simply the now in which me must live. And live we must.
0:00-2:27 Opening
2:28-47:16 Picks for #5
47:16-1:16:00 Picks for #4
1:16:01-1:34:31 Picks for #3
1:35:14-1:39:05 Sponsorship Section
1:40:07-2:09:39 Picks for #2
2:09:40-2:25:07 Pick for #1
2:25:08-2:27:14 Final Thoughts
2:27:31-2:29:57 Close
A love of cinema does not necessitate a love of a total work. Often it is a moment—a person, a camera movement, a lighting choice, or an emotional beat—that strikes us. When Peter and Keith discussed returning once again for their annual countdown, they decided that the first half of their lists should do something different. Instead of highlight their 6 through 10 picks for the year, they instead have chosen five "Moments Out Of Time" within often good (though perhaps bad) films that surprised, challenged, and delighted. With such a list, they discuss a plethora of topics, including a serious examination of the structures within Hollywood that have maintained and sustained diminishing standards under increasingly dubious and especially harmful authorities. Individual artists strive to rise above the system, and here, the two critics aim to find out why that is, and what could be done to uplift the system.
0:00-6:08 Opening
6:09-31:49 Picks for #5
31:50-56:49 Picks for #4
56:50-1:23:54 Picks for #3
1:25:08-1:28:10 Sponsorship Section
1:28:36-1:51:48 Picks for #2
1:51:49-2:18:07 Picks for #1
2:18:08-2:26:07 Repertory Picks of the Year
2:26:11-2:28:04 Close / Outtake
While every single restoration brings unique challenges, Mark Toscano sometimes has to ask a very strange question: did the filmmaker intend that scratch or speck or slice or anything that might appear like a problem or mistake as actually critical to the film? It's questions like these that bring energy to Mark as he works as a film preservationist at the Academy Film Archive, helping preserve and restore hundreds of experimental cinema works. Peter sits down with Mark to discuss his road from the George Eastman house to Canyon Cinema to the Academy, and some of the unique questions and relationships he builds as the canon of experimental cinema continue to expand under his purview. Finally, the two dive into the complex and wondrous world of Chick Strand in Soft Fiction, whose detailing of the sexual experiences and desires of women under her lyrical eye has gained complexity in today's discussions of sex and power.
0:00-3:39 Opening
4:54-12:11 Establishing Shot — UCLA's Recuerdos de un cine en español
12:57-1:25:05 Deep Focus — Mark Toscano
1:26:08-1:29:13 Sponsorship Section
1:30:41-1:51:30 Double Exposure — Soft Fiction (Chick Strand)
1:51:35-1:53:20 Close / Outtake
This year's slate of unique films on the festival circuits are works defined by individuals. Some follow how they define themselves to others—romantically or otherwise—while others follow their relationship to work, the state, and to their own being. Performers of dynamic and unique range create compelling faces and bodies to follow through spaces both familiar and alien, traversing time through aesthetic choices. Directors thus create tones through defining space and helping us see what is beyond the camera's gaze. In this report from the AFI Film Festival in Los Angeles, Peter invites on a cornucopia of wonderous guests to discuss some of the fall's most unique films. Works by Hong Sang-Soo, Claire Denis, Sergei Lonznista, Aaron Katz, and Valeska Grisebach explore the contemporary landscape with conviction, empathy, and pathos.
0:00-3:43 Opening
4:37-25:27 The Day After and Claire's Camera with Aret Frost
26:28-43:39 A Gentle Creature with Carson Lund
44:37-48:31 Sponsorship Section
50:10-1:03:31 Gemini with Gabriel Anderson
1:04:39-1:29:47 Western and Bright Sunshine In with Carman Tse
1:30:37-1:32:49 Close / Outtake
Since debuting in the fairgrounds during the Fin de siècle of the late 19th century, movies have never been inseparable from our culture around them. So how does one write about them in a way that gives both the text and the world a fair shake? Over at The Ringer, K. Austin Collins has been using his writing to explore how films operate as cultural artifacts, even as the machine of Hollywood has attempted to vacuum itself from any discussion. Kam dives into his interest in writing as a practice and how he moved from the academic sphere into the weekly reviewing gig, and how he finds ways to bring his training to even writing about blockbusters. The two have a long discussion in particular about movie stars and the particular pleasures of watching them and seeing them create identities. Finally, Kam brings on Kenneth Lonergan's almost lost to litigation masterpiece Margaret with Anna Paquin, which leads to a discussion of what exactly is melodrama and how and why do movies affect us.
0:00-3:22 Opening
4:07-1:11:48 Deep Focus — K. Austin Collins
1:12:48-1:16:33 Sponsorship Section
1:17:56-1:45:33 Double Exposure — Margaret (Kenneth Lonergan)
1:46:37-1:48:36 Close
As this podcast has explored, the limits of non-fiction have been continually pushed and pulled by daring filmmakers who refuse to understand the limits of what they can do. This week looks at two new releases from three creators asking questions of space, memory, history, and often themselves. First of all, Peter sits down with legendary French New Wave filmmaker Agnès Varda to discuss her new film, Visage Villages (in English, Faces Places), alongside her co-conspirator, the elusive street artist known as JR. They discuss the ins and outs of collaboration when their work ethics seemingly clash, the personalities they present on screen, and the "work" of their images. Then, Peter meets up with Baltimore filmmaker Theo Anthony to dissect his bold directorial debut, Rat Film. They discuss the alien style of the film and its interest in both the collection of data and the relation of its human subjects, all while asking how a film can provoke emotion and ideas in a diversity of ways without ever posing obvious solutions.
0:00-5:07 Opening
6:05-29:58 Agnès Varda and JR (Visage Villages)
30:43-35:22 Sponsorship Section
36:22-1:00:56 Theo Anthony (Rat Film)
1:01:02-1:02:46 Close / Outtake
If more and more people are interested in shooting on film and projecting on film, there's one crucial step in between: how does film get from camera to screen? Through a lab obviously. But what does the lab do? Laura Major has been a staple at the Maryland based Colorlab for a number of years, helping the studio produce new 35mm negatives and positives of documentaries, experimental films, archival orphans, and more. Today, she sits down with Peter to trace out her own history from South Carolina to experimental film lover to a technician. They discuss the ins and outs of film processing and how Colorlab has integrated itself as a critical player in the future of celluloid. Finally, they dive into the Warren Beatty directed, Elaine May co-written Heaven Can Wait, a comedy built around a number of great performances and the strange odyssey that is the (now once again) Los Angeles Rams.
0:00-3:07 Opening
4:12-12:24 Establish Shots — Frederick Wiseman's Ex Libris
13:10-48:50 Deep Focus — Laua Major
50:34-53:18 Sponsorship Section
54:48-1:10:57 Double Exposure — Heaven Can Wait (Warren Beatty)
1:11:20-1:14:09 Close / Outtake
In a summer where blockbusters felt stale and indie films became rote, cinephilia thrived every Sunday night as David Lynch put on an 18-hour spectacle on primetime television. Twin Peaks: The Return saw the filmmaker behind Blue Velvet and Mulholland Dr. return to the soap opera that would in part define two decades of serialized television. He created not just a new spin on the story of Dale Cooper and Laura Palmer, but instead delved into a mystery that felt more aesthetically, narratively, and emotionally involved than any other visual story this year. As the boundaries between cinema, television, streaming, and other categories have become less defined, Twin Peaks: The Return lept past these debates to simply create an utterly singular work about the never ending battle between good and evil. To celebrate the show's culmination (and perhaps the capstone of Lynch's career), Peter invites a Roadhouse worthy group of guests—Alison Herman of The Ringer, Scott Nye of Battleship Pretension and Criterion Cast, and Nate Fisher of Mubi Notebook—to dissect the show's use of nostalgic devices, moral dichotomies, and employment of experimental cinema techniques. Grab a coffee, watch out for the tulpas, and don't give anyone a light, we're all Twin Peaks this week on the podcast.
0:00-4:16 Opening
4:16-46:35 Discussing Twin Peaks: The Return
47:05-49:44 Sponsorship Section
50:36-1:3019 More on The Return
1:31:14-1:34:19 Close / Outtake
When it comes to a cinephilic appreciation of comedy, who better represented it than The Total Film-Maker, Le Roi du Crazy, the Nutty Professor? Jerry Lewis was a totem in the hall of cinephilia and with good reason. No one worked harder to create an entirely unique style of filmmaking that no one else could come close to matching—to the ire of some but to the adoration of a select few. While his collabrators—Dean Martin, Hal Wallis, Frank Tashlin, and Martin Scorsese among others—are equally legendary, it is impossible to take one's eyes off Jerry and what he did, breaking the rules in order to get the funniest of laughs. To celebrate the passing of one of the last titans of Classical Hollywood (even though he never seemed to fit it), Jaime Christley of The Village Voice and Slant Magazine joins Peter to discuss elements of what made this filmmaker so unique and why they still can't stop laughing at his gags.
0:00-3:53 Opening
3:53-32:05 Discussing Jerry Lewis
32:48-36:08 Sponsorship Section
36:56-48:39 Jerry and the Critics
48:39-1:07:48 Favorite Jerry Moments
1:08:56-1:10:51 Close / Outtake
For many historians, what made the 20th century so unique from the time before was the idea of the visual, the idea that we as a society began responding to images (both still and moving) rather than text. This visual life did not just happen through Hollywood, but in films made by advertising groups, for school children, and by families across the world as we documented the world's beauties and scars. Saving a particular section of these images has become the goal of Chicago Film Archives. The institution has spent over a decade finding and saving the images that define the Great Lakes city and the surrounding area, demonstrating how visual images capture and display American life through the 20th century. In this episode, Peter sits down with multiple members of the archives (Michelle Puetz—Curator of Programming; Brian Belak—Collections Manager; Amy Belotti—Digital Collections Manager) to discuss its history and its future. They end their conversation examining one of its most prized works, American Revolution 2, in which ideology along the left becomes an increasingly impossible debate.
0:00-3:42 Opening
4:17-12:27 Establishing Shots — Blockbuster Auteurs (Dunkirk and Logan Lucky)
13:12-50:19 Deep Focus — Chicago Film Archives
50:57-54:10 Sponsorship Section
55:19-1:12:19 Double Exposure — American Revolution 2 (Howard Alk and the Film Group)
1:12:23-1:14:00 Close
Before anything else, films are objects that present a sensorial experience. To understand how they function—as industrial products, as societal mirrors, as ideological machines—we must understand how they interact with our minds and make us think. For the five year anniversary of The Cinephiliacs, Manohla Dargis joins the cast to talk exactly that. The New York Times critic discusses her childhood movie love of watching objects without inhibition and her writing as a form of translating the way of watching films. She also chats about the past and future of the Times, and how the institutional changes have affected the practice of criticism in a digital age. Finally, Manohla and Peter examine Charles Burnett's independent masterpiece Killer of Sheep, examining how the filmmaker's stark portrayal of impoverished black life resonates to today through poetic realism. Plus, a brief chat with James N. Kienitz Wilkins and Robin Schavoir, whose new film, The Republic, is currently streaming on MUBI.
0:00-3:09 Opening
4:23-14:00 Establishing Shots — Five Years of The Cinephiliacs
14:46-47:15 Deep Focus — Manohla Dargis
48:28-1:07:42 Sponsorship Section — An Interview with The Republic team, James N. Kienitz Wilkins and Robin Schavoir
1:09:00-1:23:28 Double Exposure — Killer of Sheep (Charles Burnett)
1:23:32-1:28:38 Close / Outtake
Cross-dressing air pirates, parades of mechanical dolls, directors doing their own stunts in frigid waters, and a psychological battle for the soul of Ukraine. Now attending for their third and fourth time respectively, Peter and guest Victor Morton always find a Pandora's Box of surprises at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. Not so much for its relevance to today (sorry, no Age of Trump discussion here), but instead for the sheer amount of creativity and engagement with the world that can sometimes feel more thoughtful than contemporary cinema. This year they dive into films from eight countries over three decades, with a few from silent cinema's canonical directors, a couple from directors in need of major recognition, and finally some films that simply baffle for their sheer WTFness. It's another wrap up in the latest discoveries in silent cinema in the East Bay.
0:00-2:45 Opening
2:46-14:32 A Page of Madness (Teinosuke Kinugasa, Japan, 1926)
15:37-27:40 Magic & Mirth: A Tribute to David Shepard / Filibus (Mario Roncoroni, Italy, 1915)
28:36-38:09 Body & Soul (Oscar Micheaux, USA, 1925)
38:34-42:10 Sponsorship Section
43:33-54:27 A Man There Was (Victor Sjöström, Sweden, 1917)
55:09-1:06:07 *Two Days* (Heorhii Stabovyi, Ukraine / USSR, 1927)
1:07:07-1:16:12 *The Doll* (Ernst Lubitsch, Germany, 1919)
1:17:03-1:18:42 Close
If the cinephilia of lining up on small streets of Paris and New York for obscure rare prints of art films and the auteurs of Hollywood to appreciate the wind in the trees has died with Susan Sontag, what has replaced it? This is one of many questions asked by blogger Girish Shambu in his book The New Cinephilia. In this final report from SCMS, Girish discusses his childhood in India and how he became interested in not just film but the kind of critical discourses it creates, and how he sees himself functioning within that world. The two talk about the opportunities and challenges that cinephilia faces in our current moment, both in terms of the expanding definition of media and its relation to politics. Finally, they turn their eyes toward the ever nebulous group of coy German filmmakers known as the Berlin School, and in particular, Thomas Arslan's Klondike-trekking western Gold with Phoenix star Nina Hoss.
0:00-3:03 Opening
3:57-12:15 Establishing Shots — A Tale of Twin Peaks
13:07-52:22 Deep Focus — Girish Shambu
53:14-56:13 Sponsorship Section
57:17-1:16:58 Double Exposure — Gold (Thomas Arslan)
1:17:03-1:18:42 Close
Jonathan Demme began his film career 50 years ago while working for Joseph Levine's production company in 1967, carving a path that resembled no other director in American film. His narrative films ranged from the grindhouse to Oscar prestige pictures to indies and more. Beyond fiction, he made documentaries about musicians and politics, music videos for the coolest bands, and a number of television episodes that gave life to the so-called writer's medium. While the word humanist gets thrown around carelessly, Demme deserved that term for the worlds his films enveloped and the generosity he showed each and every character while often creating an implied utopian vision of diversity. This special episode mourns the death of one of the great directors, as Peter invites on Jake Mulligan and Willow Maclay to discuss the multifaceted career of a director destined to cement a place in the canon. Plus, we revisit that oft-discussed director with three Double Exposure discussions with former guests.
0:00-4:12 Opening
4:12-43:27 Discussion with Jake Mulligan and Willow Maclay
44:34-47:26 Sponsorship Section
48:41-1:04:20 Beloved with Stephen Cone
1:05:21-1:28:18 The Truth About Charlie with Keith Uhlich
1:29:27-1:52:13 Stop Making Sense with Tim Grierson
1:52:40-1:22:02 Close
While Peter sometimes has questioned what digital cameras have wrought, there is no question that the digital revolution has changed the ways we can relate to our cinematic experiences (Exhibit A: this podcast). UK film scholar Catherine Grant has always seemed to be on the precipice of these changes. Her blog, Film Studies for Free, brought the idea of Open Access within the field to a whole array of scholars, and her pioneering work in video essays transformed the way that film scholarship can come closer to their objects of study than ever before. In this interview conducted in the heart of the annual SCMS conference, Catherine discusses her discovery of art cinema, her research on world cinema and auteurism in the digital age, and the role that these new visual tools have changed the way she approaches cinema. They top off their conversation by turning to The Headless Woman and how Argentine director Lucrecia Martel creates a hyper-attentive spectator in the most breathtaking drama of recent memory.
0:00-3:26 Opening
4:25-9:14 Establishing Shots — Preview of "This American Life — Jonathan Demme"
9:59-1:00:05 Deep Focus — Catherine Grant
1:00:55-1:03:11 Sponsorship Section
1:04:09-1:1:39 Double Exposure — The Headless Woman (Lucrecia Martel) 1:19:43-1:22:02 Close / Outtake
You can learn a lot about the person behind a camera by watching what he saw in front. But you can learn so much more when you explore the short stories he wrote, the ideas he scribbled down, the cartoon drawings he made, the FBI memos investigating him, and the amateur footage of death he shot while serving in World War II. Film scholar Marsha Gordon has done exactly that in her extraordinary new work, Film is Like A Battleground: Sam Fuller's War Movies. In this podcast, Marsha discusses her impulses to explore both the center of Hollywood and the very margins of filmmaking practices with her research on orphan films. They dissect the role that these seemingly forgotten films have shown a diversity of cultural practices throughout the 20th century. And then they dive head onto the cigar-chomping auteur, examining what it meant to be a political filmmaker as opposed to making films that feature politics statements. They end their conversation by looking at Fuller's The Steel Helmet, a complex Korean war portrayal of men not as heroes but as flawed individuals, fighting for dignity in a situation that provides none.
0:00-3:39 Opening
3:44-14:50 Establishing Shots — Old Guests, New Material (Mark Harris's Five Came Back; James Gray's The Lost City of Z)
15:35-57:29 Deep Focus — Marsha Gordon
58:33-1:00:30 Sponsorship Section
1:01:39-1:18:03 Double Exposure — The Steel Helmet (Sam Fuller)
1:18:09-1:19:46 Close
Cinema is not just watching: it's shivering, sweating, and screaming. Those aspects of the moves are part of what drives Australian film critic Alexandra Heller-Nicholas. The co-editor of Senses of Cinema discusses her interest in horror films through a number of multimedia projects from radio to image collages on Twitter. They also dive deep on her books on rape-revenge, Dario Argento's Suspria, and now her latest on Abel Ferrara's exploitation classic, Ms. 45...or does the film actually belong to its lead actress Zoë Lund? The two look at the unique tension between director and performer, and how this surprisingly complex film has become an icon for feminist horror buffs.
0:00-2:51 Opening
3:44-10:20 Establishing Shots — Song to Song
11:06-53:39 Deep Focus — Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
54:47-57:04 Sponsorship Section
58:15-1:25:52 Double Exposure — Ms. 45 (Abel Ferrara and Zoë Lund)
1:25:59-1:27:47 Close / Outtake
What does cinephilia look like when your local theaters are not filled with Hollywood's spectacle driven blockbusters, but films that feature action, romance, and musical numbers all at the same time? And how does that change the way you look at art cinema or festivals in general? Mumbai film critic Laya Maheshwari has thought about his own views for much of his career, and now shares those experiences with Peter. From the international travel to festivals both in Europe and elsewhere (including North Korea), to the continually evolving industry of Bollywood, Laya provides insights that are often missed from the perspective of the West, and grapples with what it means to be both a cinephile and yet often turn to only writing about what occurs locally. The two top it off with a look at one of the all time (no country specification needed) great films: Sholay. How did this masala film become the defining phenomenon as it has?
0:00-2:36 Opening
3:46-9:36 Establishing Shots — At Long Last Love
10:22-1:14:40 Deep Focus — Laya Maheshwari
1:15:29-1:17:28 Sponsorship Section
1:18:30-1:42:20 Double Exposure — Sholay (Ramesh Sippy)
1:42:29-1:44:05 Close
You can get a panoramic view of Los Angeles from the office of Charles Cohen, a real estate mogul who about a decade ago returned to his true passion for cinema. But Cohen does not need to impress with optics: his commitment to restoration and exhibition of silent films, Classical Hollywood, art cinema, and new foreign language works speaks for itself. With a new theater in New York on the way, Cohen has also taken a handful of the titles from his expanding cinema library and is now presenting them on public television through KCET. In this roundtable interview at the Pacific Design Center, Cohen discusses his background and continuing plans to develop cinephilia, and what separates him from the other financial giants whose role in film development alongside their political affiliations has many asking questions about who makes what we watch.
Boston-bred and born guest Jake Mulligan has always been something of a kindred spirit with Peter. Not just in terms of their approach to aesthetics, but also how and what they see the goal of film criticism can be. So it was perhaps inevitable that they would turn their interview into something of a state of the union in how and what writers should be doing when it comes to analyzing films and film culture. Jake recalls his entry into cinema through the bro film canon and how his path toward journalism has shaped his role in deciding what (and more importantly how) visual media should be worth covering. They then discuss how streaming and digital has affected the role that critics play, and perhaps shed some light on other alternative approaches of what is an increasingly robotic profession. But after letting out some steam, they get to the bread and butter by going deep into the political aesthetics of Preston Sturges's war time comedy, Hail The Conquering Hero, asking the very difficult question of what exactly is direction when it comes to Classical Hollywood screwball comedy.
0:00-2:37 Opening
3:15-10:14 Establishing Shots — Charles Cohen Preview
10:59-1:16:58 Deep Focus — Jake Mulligan
1:18:00-1:46:49 Double Exposure — Hail The Conquering Hero (Preston Sturges)
1:46:53-1:49:05 Close / Outtake
Often, we ask questions about what can cinema do. Perhaps the more important question, however, is to ask what should cinema do. As Keith Uhlich and Peter Labuza countdown their favorite media objects of 2016, this question plays out in a myriad of discussion. From the trascendence of genre to the nature of longform, to the act of describing to the disection of popular entertainment. And finally, the two enter a long debate about the nature of non-fiction and reality, as well as the very act of seeing death in cinema. What function should the camera perform, not just for us but the people who hold it? And is there something unique about art and its function in the surrounding world? Plus, former guests of the show call in with their favorite films of the year.
0:00-2:57 Opening
2:57-27:45 Picks for #5
29:06-49:34 Picks for #4
49:34-1:08:04 Picks for #3
1:09:47-1:12:29 Sponsorship Section
1:13-40-1:39:20 Picks for #2
1:40:40-2:11:53 Picks for #1
2:11:53-2:13:37 Closing Thoughts
2:13:47-2:15:27 Close / Outtake
In times of crisis, sometimes the easy answer is to escape to the cinema. But the movies of 2016 did not necessarily bring escape, whether it was the mortgage crisis in Texas, homophobia in Miami, or misogyny in Montana. But in these cinematic works of art, some relief or euphoria can transform real life into something more bareable (or if you're Rob Zombie, even more screwed up). Keith Uhlich joins the podcast for his 5th time to countdown the favorites of 2016. Discussions range from the nature of experimental cinema, to the nature of historical fact, to what it means to go past idenity and into specificity. Plus, Peter and Keith list their favorites repertory discoveries of the year.
0:00-3:20 Opening
3:20-22:39 Picks for #10
22:39-39:42 Picks for #9
39:42-1:13:06 Picks for #8
1:13:53-1:16:12 Sponsorship Section
1:17-00-1:36:26 Picks for #7
1:36:26-1:57:00 Picks for #6
1:57:00-2:10:33 Favorite Repertory Picks of 2016
2:10:51-2:12:46 Close
You've probably seen Citizen Kane, but have you seen its Swedish lesbian equivilant made in the 1950s? Chances are you haven't even heard of it, nor the filmmaker behind it—Hasse Ekman. But for cinephile Fredrik Gustafsson, Ekamn's ingenious and playful films represent some of the best of cinema, and he made it his mission to make them known through his new book, The Man from the Third Row. Hasse Ekman, Swedish Cinema and the Long Shadow of Ingmar Bergman. In the first episode of The Cinephiliacs Global Initiative, Fredrik joins the podcast from Stockholm to discuss his discovery of cinematic loves, his work and research as the Swedish Film Institute, and the many twisting and interesting narratives surrounding Ekman's varied career. Finally, the two look at a much too often negelted period of cinema—Britain in the postwar years—and examine the many cinematic devices David Lean uses to turn his Dickens adaptation of Great Expectations into a blissfully quixotic work of art.
0:00-6:07 Opening / The Cinephiliacs Global Intiative
7:22-13:10 Establishing Shots — 20th Century Women and Julieta
13:55-1:03:46 Deep Focus — Fredrik Gustafsson
1:04:33-1:06:59 Sponsorship Section
1:08:21-1:27:17 Double Exposure — Great Expectations (David Lean)
1:27:22-1:29:00 Close
In a podcast first, the podcast...repeats itself. But in a thematic way! To celebrate the end of Shocktober alongside Halloween, Peter returns to five different conversations exploring the horror genre in some way. First, Michael Koresky talks about the fear-inducing but plainly stylized The Seventh Victim, which turns classical continuity into a source of horror. Then, Kim Morgan explores trauma in the highly underrated rape drama Something Wild with Carroll Baker. Then it's back to Classical Hollywood with Farran Nehme-Smith's choice of Three Strangers, a supernatural film noir where a promise from a Chinese goddess only leads to doom for Geraldine Fitzgerald, Sydney Greetstreet, and poor Peter Lorre. Then the line between horror, comedy, documentary, and general "WTF" is truly bent with Matt Singer's choice of The Buried Secret of M. Night Shaymalan, which (inadvertently?) explores the limits and literalism of auteurism. Finally, we go to the purest horror film of all time with Angela Catalano's choice of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, a film that knows no boundaries when it comes to showing unadulterated malice. It's time to revisit our most frightening conversations!
0:00-3:52 Opening
5:16-19:03 The Seventh Victim with Michael Koresky
20:45-34:50 Something Wild with Kim Morgan
36:48-55:08 Three Strangers with Farran Nehme-Smith
56:11-59:13 Sponsorship Section
1:00:59-1:20:45 The Buried Secret of M. Night Shaymalan with Matt Singer
1:21:52-1:38:48 The Texas Chain Saw Massacre with Angela Catalano
1:38:53-1:40:48 Close
If cinema can achieve more than simply be art but a form of action, how does one negotiate the role that the camera plays in reality. Celebrating its 50th Year, Kartemquin Films has used cinema as a tool for addressing social, political, and economic inequality through the documentary from, spearheaded by its co-founder Gordon Quinn. In this wide-ranging interview, Gordon reflects on the early days of the collective—from films about retirement homes and the general state of happiness to more direct political engagement through filming labor strikes. He talks with Peter about negotiating the role of the subject, the role of his own identity in filming the stories of others, the importance of character, and the fickle nature between making a statement and making a dollar. Finally, the two discuss a film that shows all of the work in action: Sara Gomez's landmark documentary One Way Or Another, which stages fabricated drama in the midst of real turmoil in 1970s Cuba to a powerful effect.
0:00-3:29 Opening
4:19-10:04 Establishing Shots — Kelly Reichardt's Certain Women
10:49-1:20:13 Deep Focus — Gordon Quinn
1:20:56-51:51 Sponsorship Section
1:24:33-1:42:01 Double Exposure — One Way or Another (Sara Gomez)
1:42:05-1:43:44 Close
In our growing and expanding media moment, cinephiles are recognizing more and more that only watching theatrically released feature films limits one's cinematic worldview. Whether it be amateur home movies, the avant-garde, or even instructional demonstrations, these films can both inspire a new way to look at art and history. One organization has helped spearhead this movement: The National Film Preservation Foundation, now led by its Executive Director Jeff Lambert. Jeff joins the show to discuss his first wave of cinephilia at the video store to his eventual job at the NFPF, explaining the various tasks to distribute funding to archives to keep our national history alive. Plus, the two examine the film-digital divide from the archival perspective, the building of an avant-garde canon, and Jeff's predilection for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Finally, the two dive into Stranger Than Paradise, Jim Jarmusch's 1984 film and discuss how the film that birthed hundreds of hipster indies still remains unique to this day.
0:00-3:23 Opening
4:12-9:13 Establishing Shots — Jet Pilot
9:59-48:39 Deep Focus — Jeff Lambert
49:24-51:51 Sponsorship Section
53:32-1:09:21 Double Exposure — Stranger Than Paradise (Jim Jarmusch)
1:09:25-1:11:04 Close
Criticism is often described as an act of interpretation—explaining how or why a film works. But the act of cinema at its most basic level is an experience of image, sound, bodies, gestures, materiality, and everything in between. Stanford Professor Scott Bukatman has explored that experiential level of art in all of its forms from high to low. Scott and Peter cross boundaries of genre and time to discuss post-modern science fiction and its most abstract moments, performative bodies that explained our new technological moment, and even gravitational expectations in the new digital landscape. They also discuss cinema's closest (and often problematic) cousin, the comic book, alongside Scott's new exploration of Hellboy and how the act of reading itself can (and should) be reconsidered in the act of discussing a text. Finally, the two dive deep on Vincent Minnelli's Some Came Running, and truly ask what is it that makes a performance, especially in a melodrama in which the art of acting is key to everything.
0:00-4:10 Opening
5:13-11:16 Establishing Shots — Digital Restorations at The Academy
12:00-1:06:48 Deep Focus — Scott Bukatman
1:07:21-1:11:32 Sponsorship Section
1:10:59-1:32:14 Double Exposure — Some Came Running (Vincente Minnelli)
1:32:18-1:33:56 Close / Outtake
While this show has often staked its interest in the kinds of audiovisual materials we come to praise as art, there are many different types of moving image materials out there. None feels more pertinent to our moment today than the discussions around the introduction of police body-worn cameras alongside the amateur videos that display evidence of police brutality toward members of the African American community. To address these topics is often to approach them from one of politics, but a surrounding series of questions deals with many of the same questions that cinema-minded people might find familiar: what can we learn from analyzing how they were made? What elements are manipulation are present? How will these videos be stored? What access should the public have? What is the emotional affect of viewing them?
Today's guest, Snowden Becker, has worked as a program manager for UCLA's Moving Image Archive program and the co-founder of Home Movie Day. She's also spent over a decade researching the judicial system's management of audiovisual material, and is the co-manager of this week's National Forum, "On The Record, All The Time: Setting An Agenda for Audiovisual Management," which will bring together legal scholars, social justice activists, camera manufacturers, and the LAPD among others to workshop these issues. In this episode of the podcast, Snowden discusses many of the issues that come out of a cinephile interest when it comes to thinking about these types of videos, as well as what it means to be a public citizen engaging in this emerging genre.
0:00-4:10 Opening
5:13-11:16 Establishing Shots — O.J.: Made in America
12:00-1:06:48 Deep Focus — Snowden Becker
1:07:21-1:11:32 Sponsorship Section
1:10:59-1:32:14 Double Exposure — Police Body Cameras and Evidentiary Videos
1:32:18-1:33:56 Close
How does one reconcile the ideas of artistry in cinema, the kind of magic of cinephilia that we see each time we look up at the screen, with the business practices that often painted as limiting it? James Schamus has somehow made a career of toeing this (likely constructed) dichotomy, helping produce some of the early independent films of the 1990s before becoming the co-founder of Focus Features, which made films like The Pianist, Atonement, Brokeback Mountain, and Moonrise Kingdom, as well as a collaborator of Ang Lee, writing the screenplays for The Ice Storm, Ride With The Devil, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. James discusses this work between the politics of making art for specialty audiences, as well as his interest in the very nature of art through his work as a theorist and professor at Columbia University. They then turn to his directorial debut, an adaptation of Philip Roth's Indignation, and what it means to modulate performance. Finally, the two discuss Budd Boetticher's 1957 hostage western The Tall T, and what a specialty art house producer can learn from watching Randolph Scott contemplate existence in this low budget western.
0:00-3:57 Opening
5:08-17:11 Establishing Shots — 4 Years of The Cinephiliacs
17:56-1:06:20 Deep Focus — James Schamus
1:07:21-1:11:32 Sponsorship Section
1:12:33-1:22:44 Double Exposure — The Tall T (Budd Boetticher)
1:22:50-1:27:00 Close // Outtake
Abbas Kiarostami, born in 1940 in Tehran, turned to filmmaking in 1970 when he helped set up the Institute for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults. He had made a half dozen shorts and one feature, The Report in 1977, before the Iranian Revolution changed the public face of his country. While many filmmakers moved away in search of more creative freedom, Kiarostami continued to direct. Around the early 1990s, his films suddenly found an international foothold at festivals via the Koker trilogy and his most famous work, Close-Up. In 1997, he won a Palm D’Or for Taste of Cherry, helping paint the way for Iranian filmmakers to find an audience abroad. His filmmaking only became more cryptic and complex, especially with his early adoption of digital cinema with Ten and the self-reflexive documentary, Ten on Ten. His final films, Certified Copy and Like Someone In Love, were his only made outside his native Iran. Kiarostami passed away on July 4, 2016. In this special episode of the podcast, Amir Soltani, Tina Hassania, and Carson Lund join the podcast to celebrate the life and work of one of the legendary filmmakers to emerge on the world cinema stage.
0:00-2:49 Opening
2:49-46:18 Abbas Kiarostami — Part 1
47:16-52:02 Sponsorship Section
52:48-1:32:07 Abbas Kiarostami — Part 2
1:32:10-1:33:22 Close
If you know a bit about Classical Hollywood, you probably know that as much as the stars of the 1930s showed glitz and glamour on screen, they were often slaves to the whims of the studios that owned them. Or did they? Emily Carman of Chapman University joins Peter to discuss her book, Independent Stardom: Freelance Women in the Hollywood Studio System, which explores the legal contracts behind stars like Carole Lombard and Irene Dunne, who were able to find control over the films and public image they made in an unprecedented matter decades before the independent takeover. Emily also discusses the importance of thinking about archives in film research, the tactile nature of film studies, and rethinking how to approach a feminist film history. Finally, Emily brings her knowledge of the city of Reno to a discussion of John Huston's The Misfits, a film with stars morbidly moving through a dying space that Peter declares it "the death of classical cinema."
0:00-3:53 Opening
4:42-10:54 Establishing Shots — Tsai Ming-Liang's Goodbye, Dragon Inn
11:40-1:14:57 Deep Focus — Emily Carman
1:15:46-1:20:30 Sponsorship Section
1:21:45-1:43:15 Double Exposure — The Misfits (John Huston)
1:43:20-1:45:15 Close // Outtake
Amazing on location photography in harsh environments...progressive films about controversial political women...groundbreaking special effects that dazzle with a flurry of colors. These films might sound like what showed up at the Oscars last year, but they were all made during the silent era. In his second trip to San Francisco's epic weekend of gems of the first decades of cinema, Peter once again finds himself in awe of the talent on display: whether it be the work of the archivists in discovering and restoring these prints, the cornucopia of musicians providing unique accompaniment, or the grand scale of the Castro Theatre itself. Silent Film devotee Victor Morton once again joins Peter as they tackle films from five countries with hobos, pie fights, cross-dressing, and split screens (take that, Brian De Palma!)
0:00-2:25 Opening
2:25-15:40 Varieté (E.A. Dupont, Germany, 1925)
16:14-25:38 Beggars of Life (William Wellman, USA, 1927)
26:05-37:20 The Battle of the Century (Clyde Brukman, USA, 1927)
38:06-41:42 Sponsorship Section
42:50-52:15 Restoring Napoleón with the Cinémathèque Française
53:17-1:03:42 I Don't Want To Be A Man (Ernst Lubitsch, Germnay, 1928)
1:05:06-1:15:43 The Strongest (Axel Lindblom and Alf Sjöberg, Sweeden, 1929)
1:16:19-1:28:36 Two Timid Souls (René Clair, France, 1928)
1:28:41-1:30:19 Close
In an age where cinephiles are now open to experiences from every little corner of the globe, something about French cinema will always remain a cornerstone of fascination. At the vibrant Cinefamily repertory house near Hollywood, Kalyane Lévy brings audiences into the illusions of the French going experience with her monthly program La Collectionneuse. Kalyane sat down with Peter to discusses her childhood filled with art in France and her migration to Los Angeles. She opens up about the challenges of a programmer of international cinema as well as the rewards of audiences excited about works of esoteric love (as well as the unique atmosphere of the screenings). Finally, the two dissect a very off beat film, Going Places by Bertrand Blier starring Gérard Depardieu and Patrick Dewaere as a couple of horrifying horndogs terrifying the women of France...or perhaps they are actually opening up their desires?
0:00-2:33 Opening
3:53-8:57 Establishing Shots — De Palma
9:42-32:31 Deep Focus — Kalyane Lévy
33:47-35:24 Sponsorship Section
36:24-57:37 Double Exposure — Going Places (Bertrand Blier)
57:42-59:40 Close / Outtake
History is a malleable object, and how we understand the past begins with important events, speeches, documents, and objects, and then the connections we make between them. But movies can tell us just as much about the past, and for Professor Thomas Doherty, the story of Hollywood is very much the story of American culture. Doherty sat down with Peter during the annual Society for Cinema and Media Studies conference to discuss how he found his way into the emerging field of film history, and his interest in everything from teenage exploitation films to "the most important man in Hollywood" who had his hands of every studio film. They explore the morality of history, and how one examines "characters" of the past and understanding their perspective (especially when it's their relationship with the Third Reich). Finally, the two look at the ultimate film noir, Out of the Past, and question how and why this seemingly frivolous B-movie has risen to an all time canonical classic.
0:00-2:59 Opening
3:50-10:56 Establishing Shots — Terence Davies's Sunset Song
11:41-1:00:55 Deep Focus — Thomas Doherty
1:02:11-1:04:58 Sponsorship Section
1:05:52-1:22:22 Double Exposure — Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur)
1:22:26-1:24:04 Close
Baltimore rarely gets a mention on the list of great film cities, but in the 1970s, six different theatres all played Robert Downey's Putney Swope. That's just some of the historical digging Eric Allen Hatch has done, who now continues the legacy by programming the Maryland Film Festival, which has quickly risen the ranks to become one of the most essential micro-film festivals in the nation. In his talk with Peter, Eric discusses his initial entry into classical Hollywood and art cinema, and his desire to keep Baltimore as a place for off-beat culture that appeals across spectrums, as well as his strange obsession with photoshopping Paul Blart into canonical classics. Afterwards, the two talk about the Isabelle Adjani-starrer Possession, perhaps the psychological horror film. Who knew that a film that features a bloody space monster could speak so well to their romantic relationships?
0:00-3:47 Opening
4:44-11: 35 Establishing Shots — Eddie Bracken and Grace Moore
12:19-40:45 Deep Focus — Eric Allen Hatch
41:21-43:39 Sponsorship Section
45:31-1:02:56 Double Exposure — Possession (Andrzej Zulawski)
1:03:01-1:04:39 Close
Eric Hynes may not want to be boxed in for his work on documentaries, but it seems more and more to be where his interests as a writer for Reverse Shot and Film Comment alongside programming duties at the Museum of the Moving Image have taken him. But Eric is so much more, and has become one of the most valued writers of criticism and beyond—someone who shows passion and acute judgement within his sentences without ever condescending nor falling into cliché. In his interview with Peter, Eric traces his way into writing through music criticism and books, his decade-long tenure at one of the most important institutions in online film writing, and a continuing love of Star Wars. Then, the two turn to a truly forgotten gem of 90s cinema: Bill Murray and Howard Franklin's Quick Change, perhaps the last film to show New York City when it was truly the worst, in the best way possible.
0:00-3:37 Opening
4:22-54:46 Deep Focus — Eric Hynes
55:52-1:00:23 Sponsorship Section
1:02:08-1:21:46 Double Exposure — Quick Change (Billy Murray and Howard Franklin)
1:21:51-1:23:30 Close
David Wilson had a vision for his dream film festival—and now he has it. The co-founder of Columbia, Missouri's RagTag cinema and now one of the creative heads behind the True/False Film Festival, David has succeeded in transforming the way people can think, imagine, and design a film festival without the prohibitive nature of bending to the economic whims of Hollywood, while also engaging with the most aesthetically groundbreaking cinema without alienating audiences. Peter was lucky to catch David right in the middle of the flurry, and talk to him about his interest in coming back to the Midwest, his own documentary work, and why True/False captures the heart of so many filmgoers, whether they would call themselves cinephiles or not. Finally, the two discuss Harmony Korine's Gummo, a film that David hated so much because of its fictional representation, until it began to appear more and more like a documentary.
0:00-3:10 Opening
4:03-10:30 Establishing Shots — Desperately Seeking Susan and Lá-Bas
11:15-39:50 Deep Focus — David Wilson
40:37-44:10 Sponsorship Section
45:38-1:01:54 Double Exposure — Gummo (Harmony Korine)
1:01:57-1:03:35 Close
One might not expect much from a film festival right in the dead center of America's Heartland, but for thirteen years, True/False has been changing the way to think about the micro-film festival as well as the form of cinema in major ways. In this dispatch from Columbia, Missouri, Peter sits with critics Sam Adams, Tim Grierson, and (eventually) Scott Tobias to look at how the documentary-oriented festival puts aesthetics into the conversation while remaining politically engaged. While the subjects can be galvanizing—the US prison system, delinquent teenage girls in Tehran, Chinese miners, the fall of Iraq—the films continually break the mold for how one thinks about the format by exploring the relationship between the filmmaker and their subject. Plus, a discussion about Concerned Student 1950, a student-made documentary addressing the issues of the University of Missouri protests in 2015, and what its premiere could mean for the future of the festival.
0:00-2:50 Opening
2:50-8:00 Concerned Student 1950
8:00-49:35 True/False Favorites
50:47-54:16 Sponsorship Section
55:05-1:19:05 True/False Favorite Scenes
1:19:08-1:20:47 Close
What does it mean to view a stereoscopic image, to see films in a way that's at once closer to our daily life perception while also expanding it beyond anything we could ever see? Blake Williams is one of many filmmakers working in the avant-garde who has been exploring this question—through filmmaking, criticism, and historical research. Williams joins the podcast to trace his lineage as both a critic and a filmmaker, and the very nature of 3D images that has made this such an exploratory visual medium to work in, using it to explore heady concepts in both literal and theoretical terms. Peter and Blake then turn to a narrative filmmaker who created his own long experimental: David Lynch's INLAND EMPIRE. The two debate the use of narrative in the film while also examining the nature of its low-grade digital imagery, which can be sublime or absolutely terrifying.
0:00-3:02 Opening
3:40-11:14 Establishing Shots — The Mermaid and Mountains May Depart
11:59-1:10:24 Deep Focus — Blake Williams
1:11:26-1:15:24 Sponsorship Section
1:16:39-1:39:33 Double Exposure — INLAND EMPIRE (David Lynch)
1:39:36-1:41:14 Close
The names of the French New Wave have become staples for both French Cinema and beyond. The critics of Cahiers Du Cinema like Jean-Luc Godard, Francois Truffaut, and Eric Rohmer all turned to filmmaking to put into practice the meanings they had pulled from their valorization of Hollywood Cinema. But the most passionaite of those critics, and perhaps the most creative of those filmmakers was Jacques Rivette, who passed away on January 29th at the age of 87. In this new podcast, former guests of the show (Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, Miriam Bale, and Matt Prigge) join in a roundtable discussion of the critic and filmmaker. They analyze his films, his writings, and his attention to collaboration, all of which made him a wholly unique individual in the history of cinema. Torn between his obsessions with realism and fantasy, Rivette captured the essence of the medium's paradoxical specificity.
0:00-3:33 Opening
3:33-28:18 Rivette Discussion Part 1
29:00-33:09 Sponsorship Section
33:47-1:02:30 Rivette Discussion Part 2
1:02:34-1:05:07 Close / Outtakes
Can movies think? Or how could we think through the movies? Highly influenced by the work of Stanley Cavell, Ryland Walker Knight has explored the possibilities of thinking and language in cinema, whether it be a work from a beloved art house master or a brash and loud Hollywood blockbuster. Ryland discusses his childhood raised on double features, his critical work, his recent short film, Inside Voices, and his latest project, a video essay series exploring some of the imagery and hidden narratives in the work of Michael Mann (with a little help from Beach House). Finally, the two turn to The Awful Truth, and discuss how Le McCarey's attention to how voices sound and bodies move create some of its most indelible humor, and intelligent insights.
0:00-2:22 Opening
2:56-12:16 Establishing Shots - A War and 13 Hours
13:02-50:52 Deep Focus - Ryland Walker Knight
51:10-53:21 Sponsorship Section
54:04-1:04:18 Double Exposure - The Awful Truth (Leo McCarey)
1:04:22-1:06:00 Close
If one were to imagine the cinema of the 1940s, the likely images would be of lonely streets, men in trenchcoats, and slender blondes lighting cigarettes while drenched in shadow. The French coined a term for it: film noir, and since then it has been a gateway drug for many cinephiles interested in classical Hollywood's most lurid pictures. Eddie Muller has been called the Czar of Noir, and he deserves the title: he heads programming for Noir City, a San Francisco-based film festival that presents the city with the best of noir movies, and then heads the Film Noir Foundation to discover those lost works that no one even knows. Eddie talks about his entrance into the world of film in SF's many rep screenings and his tutelage under avant-garde artists George Kuchar, before turning to writing about the world of grindhouse movies and this lost genre. Finally, Peter and Eddie look at one of the canonical films of this era, Gun Crazy, and explore the strange production story behind one of the most violent-obsessed movies ever made.
0:00-2:36 Opening
3:52-10:40 Establishing Shots - Lewis Klahr's Sixty Six / Garrel Giveaway Winners
11:25-55:06 Deep Focus - Eddie Muller
55:35-59:24 Sponsorship Section
1:00:27-1:22:36 Double Exposure - Gun Crazy (Joseph H Lewis)
1:22:41-1:24:36 Close / Outtake
If you took cinema at its essence, it's simply recorded bits of the present. This includes bits of physical reality, personal psychology, formal techniques through technologies, and projections of possibility. And thus by putting a capstone on the year with this countdwon, Peter and guest Keith Uhlich hope to investigate just a bit of those bits that become the history of film, as well as history itself. Their final picks travel from New York City to 9th Century China to Southern Plantations and the Planet of Arkanar. They emphasize stories of small people in the large waves around them—each one trying to craft their own little spot within their universe. And whether the world goes into the digital ad infinitum or will become covered in shit, it is the human at the center of these films: the joys, the sorrows, all wrapped in one. These are our favorite works of 2015.
0:00-2:32 Opening
3:56-26:41 Choices for #5
28:07-42:29 Choices for #4
44:33-1:04:56 Choices for #3
1:05:46-1:09:21 Mubi Sponsorship and Garrel Giveaway
1:10:28-1:30:18 Choices for #2
1:30:18-1:52:18 Choices for #1
1:52:18-1:55:16 Closing Thoughts / Credits / Outtakes
Another year of movies, another countdown. In this 2015 iteration of The Cinephiliacs countdown, Keith Uhlich once again joins Peter on a cinematic odyssey from big screens and small ones, as well as streaming services beyond the States. A diverse group of films define this year's crop: things that push the boundaries of digital cinema to the absolute mainstream of Hollywood, new spins on old hat genres, and new tales from around the world finally given voices. But as it turns out, whatever the story, it's the technique that centers these films: shot-reverse shot, breathtaking long takes, smartly composed compositions, and a deep commitment to humanity. Part II will be up Friday, January 8th.
0:00-7:20 Opening
7:20-33:15 Choices for #10
33:15-47:40 Choices for #9
47:40-1:05:25 Choices for #8
1:067:14-1:09:36 Mubi Sponsorship and Garrel Giveaway
1:10:14-1:29:54 Choices for #7
1:29:54-1:43:40 Choices for #6
1:52:52-2:08:32 Favorite Discoveries of the Year
2:08:35-2:09:56 Close
Truffaut remarked there was cinema before Godard and cinema after Godard. The academic discipline of Film Studies could be said to have its own Godard in David Bordwell, the author of some of the most influential books in understanding the history of film style. In this sprawling conversation, David discusses his upbringing that led him to movies and his first steps in helping spearhead the neo-formalist movement of film criticism. He looks back at the formation of poetics, his role in thinking about the conventions that tell us a film story, the role of auteurism as problem-solvers, and how popular film criticism has influenced in his more recent work. They swing through conversations on art history, Jean-Luc Godard, new media, Hong Kong filmmaking, and Robin Wood. Finally, David and Peter discuss Daisy Kenyon, a 1947 Joan Crawford-Dana Andrews-Henry Fonda melodrama from Otto Preminger with so many radical choices in its delivery of narrative one might mistake it for being a subversive text, even if it's all convention.
0:00-2:40 Opening
3:27-10:22 Establishing Shots - Texture and Claire Denis
11:07-1:27:05 Deep Focus - David Bordwell
1:28:10-1:30:37 Mubi Sponsorship
1:32:20-1:52:00 Double Exposure - Daisy Kenyon (Otto Preminger)
1:52:02-1:56:23 Close
If you've taken a film studies course in the last couple decades, you likely came across Film Art on the required book purchases. Chances are you first learned how to investigate the structure of a film (narrative, editing, mise-en-scene, sound, etc) before learning how to recognize ideology, or apply psychoanalytic theories. Wherever one's interest lie in looking at cinema, the work by film scholar Kristin Thompson over the last four decades has provided intensive groundwork into looking at Hollywood cinema's most intuitive principles and beyond. Kristin sits down to traces her entrance into academic film studies and developing a method for understanding form as adapted from Russian theories, the history of classical structure as developed by Hollywood and its legacy both abroad in the silent era and continuing into even today's so-called "VFX-driven" movies, and her work on The Lord of the Rings franchise and its game-changing success in the new century. Finally, the two sit down to look at John Ford's How Green Was My Valley, which employs unique methods of narrative strategy and compositional staging to create a poetic "three-hankie picture" (and well deserving of its 1941 Oscar).
0:00-3:03 Opening
4:21-11:36 Establishing Shots - Manhunter12:21-58:18 Deep Focus - Kristin Thompson
59:27-1:02:07 Mubi Sponsorship
1:03:49-1:22:27 Double Exposure - How Green Was My Valley (John Ford)
1:22:31-1:24:09 Close
Dedicated listeners of The Cinephiliacs may be familiar with the phrase, "And then I discovered Jonathan Rosenbaum's writing," as countless cinephiles have been inspired by his many words in the Chicago Reader and beyond. Thus, this latest episode of the podcast interviews the man who championed films beyond the canon, exploring cinema through an essayistic, often deeply personal love for the movies. Jonathan discusses his upbringing in Alabama, seeing the French New Wave from the front lines, a short dip into academia, and his role in looking at the strange world of taste culture and its ties to the Hollywood industry. Then, the two dive into the recently restored mammoth of a film that has been waiting to enter the canon: Jacques Rivette's 13 hour Out 1. They discuss this work of connections in post-May '68 Paris that may or may not be a secret Balzac-influenced conspiracy, engaging the viewer to find the fiction in the documentary and the documentary in the fiction.
0:00-2:48 Opening
3:20-11:31 Establishing Shots - Reviews from AFI Fest
12:17-1:02:55 Deep Focus - Jonathan Rosenbaum
1:03:48-1:05:28 Mubi Sponsorship
1:06:32-1:31:10 Double Exposure - Out 1 (Jacques Rivette)
1:31:14-1:33:59 Close / Outtakes
Some film festivals have an easy time when their mission is set on any and all new movies with premieres from around the world. But how do you program for a niche? Glenn Heath Jr. works as the Managing Director for the Pacific Arts Movement, which is returning with another iteration of the San Diego Asian Film Festival. Some of the names will be familiar to cinephiles: Johnnie To, Sion Sono, Apichatpong Weerasethakul. But what about the big blockbusters that never come to American shores, or the Asian American filmmakers waiting to be discovered? Glenn talks about the delights and challenges of working on such a festival, as well as his work in film criticism in writing about lost and forgotten films while never throwing down the gauntlet. Finally, the two wrap up their conversation by turning to Jim Jarmusch's 1995 acid western Dead Man, and explore why the film's poetic tone and awkward humor allow it to transcend beyond a "revisionist western." Plus, excerpts from an interview with acclaimed Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-Hsien, who has returned to screens with his contemplative wuxia epic The Assassin.
0:00-3:35 Opening
4:30-12:42 Establishing Shots - Hou Hsiao-Hsien discusses The Assassin
13:27-1:12:03 Deep Focus - Glenn Heath Jr.
1:12:42-1:15:15 Mubi Sponsorship
1:16:20-1:46:09 Double Exposure - Dead Man (Jim Jarmusch)
1:46:13-1:47:51 Close
She was born to Holocaust survivors and grew up poor in Belgium. She made her first film at 18. She came to New York with barely an understanding of English at the age of 21, where entering the world of avant-garde cinema. At 24, she made what is considered one of the greatest film's of all time, a break through for both minimalist cinema and feminist cinema. Her next feature ranks among the greatest documentaries ever made. Her career lasted almost 50 years, until last week, when Chantal Akerman died at the age of 65, leaving an array of masterpieces: Jeanne Dielman, News From Home, Rendezvous With Anna, Golden Eighties, and Almayer's Folly (among many more waiting to be discovered). In this special bonus issue, Peter Skypes (No Home Movie-style) with Montreal based critic Justine Smith on the legacy and impact of one of cinema's most essential heroes.
There are no curtains in the films of Stephen Cone. Well, there are literal curtains, but Cone never attempts to hide the surfaces of his characters, or really paint into anything than what they truly are. The Chicago based filmmaker sits down with Peter on the eve of the local premiere of his award-winning new film, Henry Gamble's Birthday Party. Stephen traces his cinephilia from Kentucky to New York to Chicago, discusses his respects for the craft of criticism, and explains his approach to collaborative sets and trust in making films like The Wise Kids and Black Box. Finally, the two dive into the show's third Jonathan Demme film, his adaptation of Toni Morrison's post-modernist novel Beloved. Declared a vanity project when initially released, the two explore the relationship between Demme and his actors, crafting an unflinching, truly humanist portrait of the American South by embracing subjectivity in the post-slavery era.
0:00-3:13 Opening
4:34-8:23 Establishing Shots - Excerpts from Remembering Chantal Akerman
9:09-56:36 Deep Focus - Stephen Cone
57:02-59:34 Mubi Sponsorship
1:00:50-1:18:45 Double Exposure - Beloved (Jonathan Demme)
1:18:50-1:20:27 Close
About 10 years ago, the word podcast would have often been lead by blank stares. Adam Kempenaar saw an article, and then got on the ground floor to begin Filmspotting, which has become the leading film discussion podcasts for the past decade (not to mention very influential in Peter's film upbringing). Peter sits down with Adam at Navy Pier to discuss his journey from Iowa to Chicago, and his motivation to talk films through that led to the creation of the podcast with Sam Van Hallgren. They discuss the necessity of structure and chemistry in creating a conversation, the show's exploration into classic films and blindspots, and Adam's obsession with the "Ecstatic Truth" in the collision of truth and fiction. Finally, the two visit an oddball—George Roy Hill's The World Acording to Garp with Robin Williams—and discuss how the film examines the creation of art in relation to life, and the necessity to flow between both.
0:00-2:14 Opening
3:07-9:02 Establishing Shots - Hasse Ekman at MoMA
9:47-1:22:42 Deep Focus - Adam Kempenaar
1:23:35-1:26:05 Mubi Sponsorship
1:27:17-1:51:54 Double Exposure - The World According to Garp (George Roy Hill)
1:51:58-1:54:17 Close / Outtakes
Matthew Dessem spent years observing the behind-the-scenes reality of Hollywood, so it's only natural that his book, The Gag Man, would take us behind the scenes of an essential collaborator to silent and sound comedians who all but disappeared behind the name of the stars. In this latest episode of the podcast, Dessem traces his movie upbringing to his eventual project searching through every piece of the Criterion canon, and eventually to his interest in exploring the legends of Hollywood that never made it, whether a screenplay or a collaboration. The two then go in depth on his new biography of Clyde Bruckman, a man with legendary credits but no legend until now. Finally, the two switch to a different legend, Brad Pitt's turn as the notorious outlaw and Casey Affleck as the man who shot him in The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford, which both embraces the mythology of the classic American genre, while also exposing it at its most ugly.
0:00-2:24 Opening
3:24-9:51 Establishing Shots - Mistress America
10:36-47:26 Deep Focus - Matthew Dessem
48:35-50:48 Mubi Sponsorship
51:42-1:08:37 Double Exposure - The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominick)
1:08:40-1:10:40 Close / Outtake
What would you show to the public if you had access to one of the largest film archives in the world? For 9 years, Jim Healy had to figure that out as he served as the programmer at the George Eastman House in Rochester, NY, and now serves as the programmer for the UW Cinematheque in Madison. Jim traces his early years going to the movies with his brother Pat and his lucky break into programming at the Chicago International Film Festival. The two discuss the work he did at the archive and now serving the University as well as the public, the challenges of digital and 35mm, and how international audiences react to the work of John Cassavetes. Finally, Jim digs up an old treasure waiting for rediscover: The Mind Reader, a Warner Brothers Pre-Code classic with Warren William conning his way from circuses to Park Avenue.
0:00-2:11 Opening
3:18-8:04 Establishing Shots - The Mend
8:50-1:02:01 Deep Focus - Jim Healy
1:02:52-1:05:08 Mubi Sponsorship
1:06:15-1:22:37 Double Exposure - The Mind Reader (Roy Del Ruth)
1:22:42-1:25:27 Close
What exactly is acting, and how can we pull apart its elements for our analysis? Madison-based cinephile Brandon Colvin has been trying to figure that out, whether through his academic sutidies, his programming, and most importantly, his own filmmaking. Colvin is the filmmaker behind two of the smallest but most unique films this side of American independent cinema, Frames and Sabbatical, and in this interview with Peter, discusses how he merged his own filmmaking interests with his academic interests, creating and exploring the relationship between directors and performers in the current landscape of today's films. Later, they dive into one of Jean-Luc Godard's most spiritual features, the aptly named Hail Mary, and talk through why this may be the most emotional film the French legend ever made.
0:00-2:20 Opening
3:10-7:54 Establishing Shots - Hill of Freedom
8:38-58:48 Deep Focus - Brandon Colvin
59:55-1:02:32 Mubi Sponsorship
1:03:41-1:21:42 Double Exposure - Hail Mary (Jean-Luc Godard)
1:21:48-1:24:37 Close
What exactly is acting, and how can we pull apart its elements for our analysis? Madison-based cinephile Brandon Colvin has been trying to figure that out, whether through his academic sutidies, his programming, and most importantly, his own filmmaking. Colvin is the filmmaker behind two of the smallest but most unique films this side of American independent cinema, Frames and Sabbatical, and in this interview with Peter, discusses how he merged his own filmmaking interests with his academic interests, creating and exploring the relationship between directors and performers in the current landscape of today's films. Later, they dive into one of Jean-Luc Godard's most spiritual features, the aptly named Hail Mary, and talk through why this may be the most emotional film the French legend ever made.
0:00-2:20 Opening
3:10-7:54 Establishing Shots - Hill of Freedom
8:38-58:48 Deep Focus - Brandon Colvin
59:55-1:02:32 Mubi Sponsorship
1:03:41-1:21:42 Double Exposure - Hail Mary (Jean-Luc Godard)
1:21:48-1:24:37 Close
So often we spend our time thinking about what we see in movies, that it can be easy to forget that cinema is experienced through time, and that experience depends on a tempo. Professor Lea Jacobs at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, has been curious about how rhythm creates film, and her new book, Film Rhythm After Sound, attempts to answer what it meant for movies to not just take on sound in the 1930s, but work through new types of interactions between shots, gestures, edits, sounds, speeds, and more. Jacobs also discusses her work on theatrical stage acting in the 1910s, understanding the Production Code as an industry as opposed to just a censor board, and the importance of historical research as part of Madison's legendary film department. Finally, the two dive into Howard Hawks's masterpiece, Only Angels Have Wings, and theorize a relationship between the film's rhythmic patterns and its unique relationship to sentiment.
0:00-2:19 Opening
2:58-8:31 Establishing Shots - Bojack Horseman, Season 2
9:16-1:02:36 Deep Focus - Lea Jacobs
1:03:16-1:05:31 Mubi Sponsorship
1:06:45-1:20:14 Double Exposure - Only Angels Have Wings (Howard Hawks)
1:20:19-1:21:57 Close
In an age in with the image friendly world of Twitter and Tumblr has made it all to easy to isolate our favorite shots in cinema, Adrian Martin wants to return us to movement. His new book, Mise en Scène And Film Style: From Classical Hollywood to New Media Art examines the historical and contemporary uses of the French term to describe how frames can turn in style, tone, and intensity, all without an edit. In this trans-Atlantic recorded interview, Adrian discusses his origins as a cinephile in Australia, how the Internet both gave him a voice and provided new challenges, and his continual search to allow films to speak to him in new ways. Finally, they discuss Gloria, a forgotten work by the legendary John Cassavetes, which takes the filmmakers intensely rhythmic style on to the streets of New York for a gangster thriller with Gena Rowlands.
0:00-2:21 Opening
3:45-8:06 Establishing Shots - Hype Williams's Belly
8:50-1:09:39 Deep Focus - Adrian Martin
1:10:33-1:12:44 Mubi Sponsorship
1:13:31-1:32:00 Double Exposure - Gloria (John Cassavetes)
1:32:05-1:33:45 Close
Cinephilia begins with one thing: the love of a gesture, a line of dialogue, the way a camera moves. In the contemporary landscape of filmmaking, whose work better inspires cinephilia that of James Gray? The filmmaker of Little Odessa, The Yards, We Own The Night, Two Lovers, and The Immigrant joins Peter on the podcast to discuss his meteoric rise in the world of filmmaking, his attention to detail in trying to build each of his characters, the production process behind some of his most breathtaking shots, and the importance of story in cinema. Finally the two turn to Federico Fellini's 1957 masterpiece Nights of Cabiria, examining how the film conveys the most important aspect that art can do: the fundamental human decency of any person.
0:00-2:29 Opening
3:18-10:15 Establishing Shots - 3 Years of The Cinephiliacs
11:00-1:06:41 Deep Focus - James Gray
1:07:21-1:09:12 Mubi Sponsorship
1:10:10-1:22:01 Double Exposure - Nights of Cabiria (Federico Fellini)
1:22:04-1:25:45 Close / Outtakes
After first watching Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing, Peter went through a phase of going through the albums of Public Enemy. They were loud, rambunctious, and meant something in the same way the films he watched. But what happened to them after the summer of 1989? Tim Grierson's new biography of the group examines that question of perhaps the most important hip hop artists of all time, tracking both their meteoric rise and through their much-more-interesting-than-you've-been-told years that followed. Since Tim also works as a film critic, he sits down to trace his origins as a Midwestern boy coming to Los Angeles, his mindset for writing, and of course his book (along with his struggle with understanding a group so different from his own identity). The two then close out the conversation with another music-movie: Joanthan Demme's concert movie of the Talking Heads, Stop Making Sense, a film of ebullient surprise and joy, while also one of the most meticulously constructed documentaries ever put on screen.
0:00-2:44 Opening
3:02-10:03 Establishing Shots - Results and Pitch Perfect 2
10:48-1:30:04 Deep Focus - Tim Grierson
1:30:55-1:32:55 Mubi Sponsorship
1:33:50-1:58:10 Double Exposure - Stop Making Sense (Jonathan Demme)
1:58:14-1:59:57 Close / Outtake
Peter may not have been able to attend the Cannes Film Festival this year, but a five hour drive to San Francisco resulted in discovering some of the most amazing and groundbreaking works of cinema...all made 80 years ago, and in a few cases, over a 100! Former podcast guest Victor Morton joins the podcast to discuss the 20th Annual San Francisco Silent Film Festival, a five day event at the Castro Theatre, premiering new restorations and discoveries from an era of movies in which new artifacts are constantly being found and challenging the history of moving image aesthetics as we know it. From a silent version of a sound classic, to the Rube Goldberg of silent comedy, to gangs of women and quarreling children—Victor and Peter stand in awe of the work of filmmakers they had never even heard of before, and go in depth to films that with some time and effort could become part of the new canon of silent cinema.
0:00-13:37 Opening / All Quiet on The Western Front (1930)
13:54-23:39 A Trip Down Market Street (1906)
23:55-37:33 Visages D'Enfants (1925)
37:55-39:49 Mubi Sponsorship
40:07-51:50 Shorts by Charley Bowers (1926-1928)
52:14-1:00:20 Norrtullsligan (1923)
1:04:46 -1:17:37 The Swallow and the Titmouse (1920)
1:17:40-1:19:34 Close / Outtake
May 16th, 1955—60 years ago before this recording—James Agee died of a heart attack in the back of a New York taxi at the all too young age of 45. In his wake, he left a mountain of unprecedented writing, including the foundations for the first wave of serious film criticism in America. In this special episode, Scott Nye and Kristen Sales join Peter to discuss Agee's work and life. From his Southern roots in literature, including his poetic depiction of the depression, to his adoration of the silent comedies and vitriolic defense of one of Charles Chaplin's most contentious films. The conversation spreads from criticism to narrative prose to photography and finally to Agee's work within the moving image, especially his contribution to one of the all time great films, The Night of the Hunter.
0:00-4:19 Opening
4:40-22:30 "Comedy's Greatest Era" and Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
23:05-33:39 On Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity and The Lost Weekend
34:20-51:37 Monsieur Verdoux and "Knoxville: Summer 1915"
52:36-1:00:20 In The Street
1:00:56-1:03:15 Mubi Sponsorship - Mother and We Can't Go Home Again
1:04:22 -1:22:38 The Night of the Hunter
1:22:42-1:24:49 Close / Outtake
From the ghostly fog of Vertigo to the vigilante ethos of Dirty Harry to the geometric paranoia of Zodiac, San Francisco has been a curious site for the movies. It's also an amazing land for cinephilia, and Brian Darr, a writer, programmer, and curator of the blog Hell on Frisco Bay, has made it his mission to trace how cinephilia continues to thrive through the city's repertory, experimental cinemas, and beyond. Brian traces his cinephilia from middle America to Thailand and back to San Francisco, slowly expanding his canon along the way. From there, the two discuss the way the city grew as an alternative to Hollywood, its use for both commercial and art filmmakers, and how the city grew such a reputation for celebrating the cinema of yesteryear. Finally, Brian brings in beat poet Christopher Maclaine's 1953 film The End, which presents both an apocalyptic discourse of living at the end of days, but also presents new ways of thinking and watching cinema.
0:00-2:16 Opening
3:02-51:32 Deep Focus -Brian Darr
52:40-54:56 Mubi Sponsorship - Blondes in the Jungle and Once Upon A Time in Anatolia
56:33 -1:15:10 Double Exposure - The End (Christopher MacLaine)
1:15:13-1:16:46 Close
Reading Fernando F. Croce's work, you get the sense that his criticism is more of an ode to the gods that create cinema than descriptions of moral material. They are filled with such romanticism and specificity that each line feels as intensely sculpted as the contours of a Bernini. So Peter was absolutely delighted to travel up to San Jose to talk about film with the Brazilian born critic, including the influence of Manny Farber, seeing art as a great unconscious that spills between films and beyond, and the two pillars that hold up this great art. The two then dive into the truly unique world of Once Upon A Honeymoon, a Leo McCarey romantic comedy following Cary Grant and Ginger Rodgers as they flee the Nazi invasion of Europe, creating a pathos that includes both sexual innuendo as well as sympathy for the plight of a soon to be exterminated people.
0:00-2:28 Opening
3:24-9:52 Establishing Shots - Rossellini's India: Matri Bhumi
10:37-53:20 Deep Focus - Fernando F Croce
54:05-56:40 Mubi Sponsorship - Boarding Gate, I'm Still Here, and A Spell To Ward Off the Darkness
58:10 -1:24:36 Double Exposure - Once Upon A Honeymoon (Leo McCarey)
1:24:41-1:26:19 Close
Kiva Reardon isn't one to completely define what her work is, but for the past two years, her new journal cléo has broadened the conversation around cinema and feminism in a unique and exciting way. In this second Toronto-based episode, Kiva talks to Peter about growing up with classic movies, trying to deconstruct pop culture items (including but not limited to: Drake), and the gestural bodily cinema of Claire Denis. They then move onto forming cleo, and why its diversity in terms of both content and form has been one of the key aspects to its success. Finally, Kiva brings in the 1945 Technicolor noir Leave Her To Heaven with Gene Tierney, and the two discuss it as a template for a more recent murderous melodrama: David Fincher's Gone Girl.
0:00-2:00 Opening
3:05-11:44 Establishing Shots - Also Like Life: The Films of Hou Hsiao-Hsien / Donations
12:28-48:35 Deep Focus - Kiva Reardon
49:47-51:27 Mubi Sponsorship - Jean Rollin and Tilda Swinton
53:00 -1:11:26 Double Exposure - Leave Her To Heaven (John M. Stahl)
1:11:30-1:13:34 Close / Outtakes
What is the "work" of film criticism? That question takes center stage in a lively new episode of the podcast, in which Peter travels to Toronto, Canada to talk movies with critic and writer Calum Marsh. Calum traces his cinephilia to his VHS and DVD days in suburban England, eventually developing via the influence of rigorous Jonathan Rosenbaum, and then swinging to an attempt to understand how film criticism can work more similarly to the great literary critics. They talk the beauty of Blackhat and the Kim's Video generation, but most of all they discuss prose and its function in describing a visual medium. They then top it off with a look at Whit Stillman's wondrous nostalgia critique, The Last Days of Disco, using Stillman's own novelization of his work as an examination of the different worlds of cinema and literature.
0:00-1:53 Opening
2:37-9:38 Establishing Shots - Gems from UCLA's Festival of Preservation
10:23-59:27 Deep Focus - Calum Marsh
1:00:04-1:02:16 Mubi Sponsorship - Travel Plans and Broken Specs
1:03:43 -1:26:57 Double Exposure - The Last Days of Disco (Whit Stillman)
1:27:01-1:28:58 Close / Outtake
Film, both the art and the physical medium, will only survive as long as there are those willing to protect and restore it. This is the job of Dr. Jan-Christopher Horak, a film scholar and head of the archive at the University of California, Los Angeles, which hosts its 16th Festival of Preservation this month. Dr. Horak discusses his route into the archive, from his graduate work uncovering the genre of German exile filmmakers, to his other historical work on the early American avant-garde and recently on Saul Bass. The discussion then goes into the heart of the archive—its history as an institution, its practices (both film and digital), and most importantly, its exhibition to audiences. Finally, the two look at Edgar Ulmer's Her Sister's Secret, a family melodrama that might not contain the usual German expressionism of the director, but subtly breaks patterns of morality against the conventions of Hollywood.
0:00-2:52 Opening
4:18-11:16 Establishing Shots - Abel Ferrara's Pasolini12:00-1:00:07 Deep Focus - Jan-Christopher Horak
1:03:22-1:14:12 Double Exposure - Her Sister's Secret (Edgar G. Ulmer)
1:14:15-1:15:56 Close
The Oscars aren't exactly Peter's favorite film event of any given year, but he does find the world they inhabit fascinating: how and why Hollywood presents itself to the rest of the world as it does? And if you are going to follow that universe, the collected journalistic sensibilities of Kristopher Tapley of In Contention is the right place to be. Peter talks to Kris about his start in filmmaking school before transitioning into writing, and uses his time to dispel the common myths many use to dismiss the Oscars. They also talk about his work highlighting the work of the technical support workers and memorable shots, before discussing a film that truly shows the work of below the line people: Oliver Stone's JFK. However, that certainly doesn't stop them from debating the conspiracy itself.
0:00-1:50 Opening
2:54-9:14 Establishing Shots - Mizoguchi's The 47 Ronin
10:00-47:38 Deep Focus - Kristopher Tapley
48:55-1:05:05 Double Exposure - JFK (Oliver Stone)
1:05:09-1:06:49 Close
Near the great down under, ex-pat Doug Dillaman has crafted his own cinephile life in New Zealand. Whether it's writing about movies, practicing the craft of editing for national television, or making his own movie, Jake, Doug has continually engaged in movies in a place often not thought about for its cinephile culture. So in this sit down with Peter, Doug talks about his origins of cinephila in Michigan and Texas, the idea of "leaning in" as a way to understand how an editor can tell a story, and how he crafted a supremely dark comedy about a man replaced in his own life. Finally, the two talk about My Neighbor Totoro, Hayao Miyazaki's impressionist vision of childhood magic, which leads Peter to reflect on how we discuss the feeling of delight in cinema.
0:00-2:30 Opening
3:22-8:54 Establishing Shots - On Charles Bronson
9:38-1:18:36 Deep Focus - Doug Dillaman
1:19:19-1:39:06 Double Exposure - My Neighbor Totoro (Hayao Miyazaki)
1:39:10-1:40:48 Close
When cinephiles think of international cinema today, there's a good chance they conjur up images of peasants walking through nature for an uninterrupted 10 (or 20!) minutes while trees rustle in the wind. The films of Argentinian director Matias Pineiro couldn't be further from that image, and are also an absolute delight: beautiful young adults mixed in love triangles through Buenos Aires, reciting history and Shakespeare all while constantly changing their identities (and all under 75 minutes!). His films—The Stolen Man, They All Life, Rosalinda, Viola, and now The Princess of France—represent some of the most exciting and unique contemporary filmmaking today. So Peter sat Matias down to investigate his upbringing in Bueno Aires, his adaptation process when working with great texts of literature, and how he integrates realism into his work to find fantastical elements. Finally, they discuss Jacques Rivette's B-movie homage, Duelle, a masterclass of documentary and the magical, and a film with a surprising connection to Argentina's cinematic history.
0:00-2:49 Opening
4:02-9:34 Establishing Shots - Michael Mann's Blackhat10:18-1:13:23 Deep Focus - Matias Pineiro
1:14:25-1:15:48 Mubi Sponsorship - Around A Small Mountain
1:16:58-1:36:32 Double Exposure - Duelle (Jacques Rivette)
1:36:35-1:38:27 Close / Outtakes
"Those lacking in imagination take refuge in reality." So speaks the first line to one of the ten eleven films that appear on Part 2 of Peter Labuza and Keith Uhlich's countdown of the best films of 2014. And what better describes their choices than fantastical images—prehistoric beasts, dogs (talking and non-talking), magical lands, and even more magical loves—bringing us closer to truth. From the snowy peaks of Zubrowka, the peaceful beaches off the coast of France, and inside a female uterus, Keith and Peter search for films that transform the way they see the world. The truth can be tough to swallow ("Well that's depressing," as one character might say), but these films make seeing it all the better.
0:00-6:51 Opening / Voicemails
6:52-21:54 Picks for #5
21:55-43:16 Picks for #4
43:17-1:01:45 Picks for #3
1:02:44-1:04:12 Mubi Sponsorship - Melancholia
1:04:13-1:30:33 Picks for #2
1:30:34-1:52:51 Picks for #1
1:52:52-1:56:02 Close / Outtakes
Another year, another cinema count down. Despite 2,500 miles between their locations, Peter couldn't resist sitting down Keith Uhlich—now of The AV Club, The L Magazine, and To Be (Cont'd)—to discuss their favorites of the year, so through the power of technology, the virtual balcony is open for this first of two parts. This year's freewheeling discussion takes us from the lore of Macedonia then up cabal cars to the gods of Nepal, the mundane moments of youth to the dystopic futures of simulacra takeover. And yes, even perhaps the realm of television might be crossed, but not without first fueling up on some cocaine from the good doctor. Plus, our favorite repertory picks of the year.
0:00-4:18 Opening Thoughts
4:19-22:34 Picks for #10
22:35-47:47 Picks for #9
47:48-1:04:41 Picks for #8
1:05:28-1:07:02 Mubi Sponsorship - Bluebeard and The Sleeping Beauty
1:08:05-1:24:18 Picks for #7
1:24:19-1:41:39 Picks for #6
1:41:40-1:56:10 Favorite Repertory Picks
1:56:13-1:58:26 Close / Outtakes
Up beyond the American border, Toronto based critic Tina Hassianna has formed a necessary voice that manages to combine a formal analysis of great works of American and world cinema with one concerned of how they socially operate. That made her a perfect candidate to write the first English language book examining the work of Iranian director Asgahr Farhadi, which has just been released. For her podcast with Peter, Tina talks about her late entry into the world of film, her interest in oddball works like Gus Van Sant's remake of Psycho, and her many thoughts on the cinema of her home country of Iran and what issues are at stake when Western critics analyze these works. Finally, the two turn back to Nora Ephron's You've Got Mail, which Tina and Peter look at as more than just a 90s romantic comedy, but a formally humorous remake that intelligently analyzes how online personas construct truer selves.
0:00-2:20 Opening
3:34-8:49 Establishing Shots - Clint Eastwood's American Sniper
9:35-57:34 Deep Focus - Tina Hassania
58:29-1:00:43 Mubi Sponsorship - You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet!
1:02:09-1:24:04 Double Exposure - You've Got Mail (Nora Ephron)
1:24:08-1:26:07 Close / Outtakes
Before film criticism and cinephilia moved from print and theaters to the screen and discussion boards, Mike D'Angelo was already there forming its basis for a serious minded engagement with movies. Mike sits down for this 50th episode of The Cinephiliacs to discuss his original path as a screenwriter and an actor, how he moved from an online phenomenon to a full time film critic, and the way the Internet helped in shaping his uniquely crafted voice. Peter also talks with Mike on his walk out policy, his obsession with puzzlebox movies, and the importance of rhythm in cinema. Finally, they look at one of the strangest American indies of recent memory—Vincent Gallo's Buffalo '66—and how the director-star constantly surprises by both engaging and then breaking with indie conventions.
0:00-2:29 Open
3:53-8:32 Establishing Shots - Robert Greene's Actress
9:18-1:07:04 Deep Focus - Mike D'Angelo
1:07:54-1:09:36 Mubi Sponsorship - Edvard Munch
1:10:53-1:31:03 Double Exposure - Buffalo '66 (Vincent Gallo)
1:31:08-1:33:28 Close / Outtakes
Kim Morgan talks straight. There's a directness in what she describes—about the way actors move, about what directors do with the camera, about sex, about gender, about everything. So in her interview with Peter, the blogger, critic, and programmer talks about her first love of movies through Raoul Walsh's High Sierra, her take on the strange sunny world that is Los Angeles, and her programming for the Telluride Film Festival alongside filmmaker Guy Maddin. The conversation also covers many of Kim's great movie loves: Irreversible, the tough worlds of Von Trier and Polanski, the delightful one of Pre-Codes, and especially Marilyn Monroe. Finally, the two sit down with Jack Garfien's Something Wild, a radical independent film starring Carroll Baker and Ralph Meeker that tackles the subject of rape trauma through a mix of hard hitting realism and psychological surrealism.
0:00-1:48 Opening
2:50-7:49 Establishing Shots - Lav Diaz's From What Is Before
8:33-55:14 Deep Focus - Kim Morgan
56:01-57:35 Mubi Sponsorship - Camille Claudel, 1915
59:33-1:15:41 Double Exposure - Something Wild (Jack Garfien)
1:15:44-1:17:23 Close
When most directors talk about the films that influence their work, they might mention one of two obvious citations. For writer-director Alex Ross Perry, there are literally hundreds that can range all over the history of movies. The director of Impolex, The Color Wheel, and his audacious new film, Listen Up Philip, comes on the show to discuss his work ethic, his rounds on the repertory scene, and his breakthrough onto the growing microbudget cinema. Alex talks about the making of his three features and their roles in forming an alternative to mainstream independent cinema, and how breaking traditional models has led him to the most fruitful of territory. Finally, Alex discusses one of the major influences on Listen Up Philip—Woody Allen's anti-Woody Allen film Husbands and Wives. The two discuss how the aesthetic choices made here are radically thrilling in a way rarely shown otherwise by the director, or any filmmaker for that matter.
0:00-2:10 Opening
2:54-9:45 Establishing Shots - People's Park / Approaching The End
10:29-1:13:00 Deep Focus - Alex Ross Perry
1:13:59-1:15:37 Mubi Sponsorship - The Color Wheel and Wuthering Heights
1:16:50-1:35:51 Double Exposure - Husbands and Wives (Woody Allen)
1:35:55-1:37:48 Close / Outtakes
If movie theaters are dying and 35mm is turning into a rarity, it's great to know that there are resistance fighters like Angela Catalano, who along with Travis Bird, founded a repertory cinema in New Orleans, Louisiana. Peter sits down with the co-founder of Shotgun Cinema to discuss her original passion for cinephilia in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and her work as the program manager for the city's regional film festival. We also talk about the challenges and pleasures of repertory programming in a city in a changing Hollywood landscape, and the influence of tax breaks in New Orleans's cinema culture. Finally, they discuss The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, a perfect horror movie—perhaps because it's completely unaware of any horror tropes.
0:00-2:14 Opening
3:03-7:22 Establishing Shots - The Color of Pomegranates8:05-54:20 Deep Focus - Angela Catalano
55:02-56:32 Mubi Sponsorship - Hatchet for the Honeymoon
57:55-1:15:59 Double Exposure - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Tobe Hooper)
1:16:02-1:17:41 Close
Peter doesn't listen to many other film podcasts, but one of his joys this year has been the transporting mysteries of You Must Remember This, hosted by former LA Weekly critic Karina Longworth. Karina discusses how her interest in writing about Hollywood's golden era brought her from the throes of academic writing to the world of online film writing and finally to her new podcast. The two also discuss her books on the careers on Al Pacino and Meryl Street, and her latest text, Hollywood Frame by Frame, which investigates the ins and outs of contact sheets. Finally, the two examine Barbara Loden's singular feminist triumph, Wanda, and how this tragic film explores the psychology of an "ordinary woman." Plus, an brief on the rarities from this year's CineCon, including films by John Ford and Allan Dwan.
0:00-1:50 Opening
2:45-7:18 Establishing Shots - CineCon
8:04-53:50 Deep Focus - Karina Longworth
57:03-1:10:00 Double Exposure - Wanda (Barbara Loden)
1:10:03-1:11:41 Close
It often seems like writing for a large general audience and maintaining an idiosyncratic voice could be on polar opposite planes, but Village Voice critic Stephanize Zacharek has proven for many years they go hand-in-hand. In his final New York episode, Peter sits down with Stephanie to discuss her origins as a writer and learning from Pauline Kael, her entrance into the online world with Salon.Com and the challenges Internet criticism faces, as well as her interests in keeping up with contemporary film in each little aspect. Finally, the two dive into the Dave Clark Five movie, Having A Wild Weekend, and look at its success as a post-Beatles film that happens to critique its culture as much as celebrate.
0:00-3:10 Opening / Location Announcement
3:52-9:38 Establishing Shots - Chris Marker's Level Five
10:23-50:00 Deep Focus - Stephanie Zacharek
52:46-1:10:50 Double Exposure - Having A Wild Weekend (John Boorman)
1:10:54-1:12:33 Close
Critic, programmer, and teacher Gabe Klinger isn't interested in what we know about the movies—his journey has been fueled by searching beyond the even the outskirts of the canon to many of the far reaches of cinephilia, bringing those films to light by any means necessary. In his interview with Peter, Gabe discusses his origins as a cinephile in Barcelona, his work as a programmer at a young age in Chicago, and the current state of the world film festival environment. They also discuss two major accomplishments: his co-edited volume on filmmaker Joe Dante and Double Play, a documentary that follows directors Richard Linklater and James Benning, finding the uncommon links between them. Finally, the two examine The Bowery, Raoul Walsh's pre-code historical comedy, and the unique similarities it shares between a 1900 actuality called Namo Village, which was shot in Indochina.
0:00-1:47 Opening
2:57-8:27 Establishing Shots - The Lovers on The Bridge9:12-1:07:20 Deep Focus - Gabe Klinger
1:10:06-1:29:11 Double Exposure - The Bowery (Raoul Walsh) with Namo Village (Gabriel Veyre)
1:29:15-1:30:53 Close
There are those who search out the most majestic works of cinema, and those who would rather search under the cracks for oddities and beyond. Dave Kehr, the former critic of the Chicago Reader and New York Times, and now a programmer at the Museum of Modern Art, certainly fits the latter bill. In his brief conversation with Peter, Dave talks about his origins as a cinephile in Chicago, the challenges of keeping the archive alive in the face of the digital programming switchover, and his recent series at MoMA—Lady in the Dark—dedicated to various crime films made at Columbia Pictures from the 30s to the 50s. Finally, the two investigate one series in particular, The Whistler starring Richard Dix, which features the former silent actor in terrifying and fatalistic situations, only to be reincarnated again and again.
0:00-1:27 Opening
2:49-8:12 Establishing Shots - Boyhood and Dazed and Confused
8:55-48:47 Deep Focus - Dave Kehr
51:07-1:01:15 Double Exposure - The Whistler Series (William Castle, Lew Landers, and George Sherman)
1:01:18-1:04:04 Close / Outtake
While his origins as a cinephile are based largely in his interest in the avant-garde, J. Hoberman has become one of the most influential critics through his examinations of Hollywood blockbusters, world cinema, the outer limits of experimental works, and most importantly, film history. In his appearance on the podcast, Hoberman talks to Peter about his adventures as a kid traversing New York City's film culture, his movement through the the city's underground scene, and eventually to his position at The Village Voice and creating a voice that often examined the relationship between politics and cinema. Finally, the two discuss Poor Little Rich Girl, Andy Warhol's out-of-focus and out of this world portraiture of Edie Sedgwick, which Hoberman describes as a work of "pure cinema."
0:00-1:38 Opening
2:03-10:18 Establishing Shots - 2 Years of Cinephiliacs / Donations and Reviews
11:02-1:09:29 Deep Focus - J. Hoberman
1:12:19-1:28:52 Double Exposure - Poor Little Rich Girl (Andy Warhol)
1:28:57-1:31:32 Close / Outtake
In a continent dominated by American cinema, it can be easy to forget how essential Toronto is for cinephilia: home of the famed film festival, base of the idiosyncratic magazine Cinema Scope, and the city where critic Adam Nayman has been writing and teaching. Nayman's latest writing opus is It Doesn't Suck, a fantastic book tracing the evolution of Paul Verhoeven's Showgirls from bomb to camp to cult to classic. Peter sits down with Adam to discuss the book, as well as his work for publications like Scope and Reverse Shot, his view of Canadian cinema, and much more. Finally, the two examine the first film from Mia Hansen-Love, All Is Forgiven, and how a film with seemingly little ambition can contain a great depth of feeling.
0:00-1:17 Opening
2:13-7:40 Establishing Shots - Blind Detective / Donations and Reviews
8:25-59:00 Deep Focus - Adam Nayman
59:44-1:09:09 It Doesn't Suck
1:21:24-1:41:35 Double Exposure - All Is Forgiven (Mia Hansen-Love)
1:41:42-1:43:32 Close / Outtake
It would probably take days to count the number of film publications that launched in the early years of the current millennium, but Reverse Shot, which Michael Koresky co-founded, has been a cornerstone of intelligent and dynamic film writing for over a decade now. Peter sits down with Michael to chart out the publication's origins, the voice the site created, Michael's own work with the Criterion Collection, and his upcoming book on British director Terrence Davies. Finally, the two examine the nothing-else-like-it horror film, The Seventh Victim, a Val Lewton produced existential drama that manages to bring chills down both their spines with one little phrase: "death is good."
0:00-1:36 Opening
2:24-8:40 Establishing Shots - BAMCinemafest (Ellie Lumme and Something, Anything)
9:25-54:02 Deep Focus - Michael Koresky
56:48-1:11:49 Double Exposure - The Seventh Victim (Mark Robson)
1:11:53-1:13:32 Close
Phillip Lopate has been writing for over five decades on a number of subjects - New York, family, marriage, art - but his initial love was the movies. Having seen the New Wave arrive in New York first hand (as well as watch the tide recede), Phillip recounts the stories behind many of his most celebrated essays in this conversation with Peter. He maps out his cinephilia over the years, including finding spirituality through contemplative films, considering the possibility of an essay-film, and thinking through the paradox of making a films about marriage. Finally, the two look at a fascinating work by Indian director Satyajit Ray, Charulata, examining how Ray finds a fascinating tension between East and West in a parable of a tragic housewife, as well as some of the most gorgeously poetic sequences put to screen.
0:00-1:38 Opening
2:31-9:32 Establishing Shots - Lau Kar-Leung / Donations
10:17-1:03:18 Deep Focus - Phillip Lopate
1:05:53-1:21:26 Double Exposure - Charulata (Satyajit Ray)
1:21:30-1:23:09 Close
The Cannes Film Festival has been the premiere location for the more masterworks in cinema than likely any other festival in the medium's history. And with its 67th iteration, Peter finally made it to the Croisette to see what the fuss was about. Thankfully, he was not alone, so in this special episode of the podcast, Keith Uhlich, Glenn Heath Jr., and Jordan Cronk join Peter to discuss some of the highlights that made a splash during their last day at the festival. From heavy-hitting works as far as Turkey and Mali, auteurs working with unexpected performers, and Jean-Luc Godard's 3D extravaganza, the festival provides more than enough fascinating material to simply scrape the surface of these enormous works.
0:00-1:16 Opening
1:17-7:16 Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako)
7:52-14:22 Winter Sleep (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
14:23-20:05 Jauja (Lisandro Alonso)
20:55-30:04 Clouds of Sils Maria (Olivier Assyas)
30:57-37:15 Two Days, One Night (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)
37:16-48:28 National Gallery (Frederick Wiseman)
49:27-1:02:06 Goodbye to Language (Jean-Luc Godard)
1:02:08-1:14:12 Critics Picks
1:14:13-1:16:32 Close / Outtake
Sam Adams may not be in the center of the criticism landscape from his home in Philadelphia, but his presence at the editor for the Criticwire blog has made his dialectic voice a reasoned and fascinating one in a world of polemics. In this latest episode, Peter sits down with Sam to talk about his first interest in criticism through his desire to talk through a film, his participation in the experimental Flaherty seminar, and his thoughts on the strange world of television criticism and its constant evolution. Finally, the two work through Robert Altman's 1973 hazy noir The Long Goodbye and consider how the director's comedic take on the Chandler hero with Elliot Gould might in some ways be more noir than most revisionist works.
0:00-1:25 Opening
2:46-9:13 Establishing Shots - Mann Noirs / Donations
9:59-1:15:19 Deep Focus - Sam Adams
1:16:45-1:42:42 Double Exposure - The Long Goodbye (Robert Altman)
1:42:45-1:44:40 Close / Outtake
From Los Angeles to New York, Carrie Rickey spent many of her years during the heyday of the Golden Age of Film Criticism, writing about some of the truly great movies as they were released, before moving cities for the Philadelphia Inquirer. No longer working the daily beat, Carrie found time in her busy schedule to sit down with Peter for a chat about her training under Manny Farber, that infamous Heaven's Gate screening, and her various pieces and pursuits in examining women and women's cinema. Finally, the two get like totally on board with Amy Heckerling's Clueless, which like is for sure Frank Tashlin except given this sweet makeover.
0:00-1:12 Opening
1:47-10:19 Establishing Shots - East Asia Films At Tribeca / Donations
11:02-56:25 Deep Focus - Carrie Rickey
57:58-1:13:03 Double Exposure - Clueless (Amy Heckerling)
1:14:06-1:15:56 Close / Outtake
In a world where streaming services have attempted to kill physical media, Scarecrow Video proudly boasts row after row of DVDs, VHS tapes, and more in its 120,000 title collection located out in Seattle, Washington. Matt Lynch has worked at Scarecrow for over 10 years, and knows the store in and out, from the location of every auteur to where you can find "Little Bastards" flicks. So Peter visited the store and sat down with Matt to get a sense of the independent video store's history and future, as well as talk movie violence in its utter grotesqueness and pure visceral pleasure. Finally, the two examine John Woo's 1992 Hong Kong blockbuster Hard Boiled, which not only features some of the most spectacularly crafted action sequences in any film, but examines its own violence through a deeply moralistic lens.
0:00-1:33 Opening
2:26-9:48 Establishing Shots - Dietrich and Von Sterberg / Donations
10:33-1:09:12 Deep Focus - Matt Lynch
1:10:44-1:29:32 Double Exposure - Hard Boiled (John Woo)
1:29:35-1:31:15 Close
During World War II, five of Hollywood's star directors, whose names had been behind some of the biggest box office hits and Oscar winners, dropped their entire careers to go to war. Their goal was not to fight, but to document. Besides being the only Oscar columnist worth reading, Mark Harris is now the author or Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War. In this podcast, Mark and Peter sit down to discuss this essential read, examining the relationship between Hollywood and the government, the problem of realism and re-creations, and the pains felt by men who returned to a system that seemed to have forgotten them. Finally, the two discuss William Wyler's The Best Years of Our Lives, a universal drama that has numerous touches of the director's own war experience.
0:00-1:35 Opening
2:33-8:06 Establishing Shots - William Freidkin's Sorcerer8:50-1:26:40 Deep Focus - Mark Harris
1:27:53-1:46:58 Double Exposure - The Best Years of Our Lives (William Wyler)
1:47:02-1:48:41 Close
As one of the film criticism's public figures, Dana Stevens has carved out a niche for herself with a thoughtful and intelligent approach to contemporary film reviewing. So she joins Peter in the studio for a brief chat about her days as a Comparative Lit. PhD, the 6 hour writing process, and the joy of the occasional Slate-style pitch. Then the two dive into Max Ophuls's opulent drama Letter From An Unknown Woman, which Dana finds majesty in the film's tragic metaphor for love while Peter explores the film's unique texture between the artificial and the authentic. Plus, Peter remembers Alain Resnais by revisiting two of his classics.
0:00-1:20 Opening
2:01-8:20 Establishing Shots - RIP Alain Resnais / Donations
9:05-36:38 Deep Focus - Dana Stevens
38:34-1:01:32 Double Exposure - Letter from an Unknown Woman (Max Ophuls)
1:01:34-1:03:16 Close / Outtake
Kent Jones is truly one of the most essential voices for Peter. His writings are reflective, intelligent, and complex in a way few writers come close to, and his other work—A Letter To Elia, the World Cinema Project, and the New York Film Festival—are key to Peter's continuing exposure to cinema. So Kent sits down with Peter to discuss his first exposure to cinema, his mentorship under Manny Farber and Martin Scorsese, his complicated process of writing, working on making films and using images, and the auteurs that continue to inspire him. The two then end with a conversation on the rarely seen Spawn of the North, a Henry Hathaway film with Henry Fonda that finds something very physical in its Alaskan set border town.
0:00-1:20 Opening
2:47-8:47 Establishing Shots - John Ford's Young Mr. Lincoln / Donations
9:32-1:16:20 Deep Focus - Kent Jones
1:17:28-1:36:48 Double Exposure - Spawn of the North (Henry Hathaway)
1:36:52-1:38:31 Close
Without the help of Richard Peña, Peter would probably have never become interested in directors like István Szabó, Kim Ki-Young, or Souleymane Cisse, among countless others. As a professor at Columbia and the former programmer of the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the New York Film Festival, Richard used his years to expand the conversation of film history: as NYFF brought in directors from the cinemas of Iran, China, and Brazil, his yearly programming and classes expanded to search out those histories as well. Now a year out from his time at Lincoln Center, Richard sits down to recount his first curiosities toward cinema, his programming philosophies, and to lament the director he can never convince his students to love as much as he does. Finally, the two discuss Memories of Underdevelopment, a landmark film in Cuban film history, which provides a complex portrait of identity.
0:00-1:42 Opening
2:48-6:50 Establishing Shots - Alain Guiraudie
8:42-51:03 Deep Focus - Richard Peña
51:58-1:08:09 Double Exposure - Memories of Underdevelopment (Tomás Gutiérrez Alea)
1:08:14-1:09:53 Close
For the last decade, Noah Isenberg has dedicated his career to searching out the life of Edgar G. Ulmer, the director of Detour and the so-called "King of the Bs." His films included poverty row crime films, Italian epics made on the cheap, films for Yiddish and black communities, bizzaro science fiction works, and even a "nuddie" picture. To celebrate the release of Isenberg's fantastic new biography, Edgar G. Ulmer: A Filmmaker at the Margins, Peter brings on Noah to discuss how his original interest in German arts and cultures brought him to a search through one of the greatest alt-Hollywood directors to ever grace American shores.
0:00-1:34 Opening
2:31-9:42 Establishing Shots - Los Angeles Plays Itself / Donations
10:27-1:17:13 Deep Focus - Noah Isenberg
1:18:12-1:36:35 Double Exposure - Ruthless (Edgar Ulmer)
1:36:38-1:38:41 Close / Outtake
A film does not become something more than a mechanical work of reproduction until it is viewed. It only becomes art when it is presented to an audience, as masterpieces are born through the interaction between cinema and cinephile. It is these films that lead Peter and Time Out New York critic Keith Uhlich to their list of the the best films of 2013. They are films about possibilities of imagination both delightful and threatening. They are comedies, thrillers, documentaries, and romances. They are sensuous yet biting, philosophical yet bawdy. Two of them feature characters removing their heads. All in all, another year of cinema. Plus, the two mention their favorite repertory discoveries of the year, and a number of former guests chime in with their own picks.
This is Part 2. Visit www.thecinephiliacs.net or the iTunes Music Store to listen to Part 1.
0:00-1:34 Opening / Introduction
2:53-11:58 Favorite Repertory Picks
12:55-26:25 Picks for #5
28:33-1:05:20 Picks for #4-3
1:09:05-1:50:15 Picks for #2-1
1:50:20-1:51:59 Close
With another year wrapped up, it's time for another countdown, so once again Peter is joined by Time Out New York's Keith Uhlich to talk about some of the truly original and wondrous movies of the year. From the inner workings of drug cartels in China to the drug-fueled crooks of Wall Street, from films about performance by actors young and old to films that speak honestly about our ability to be "fuck ups" as well as truly decent, the two highlight the best in both American and world cinema. Plus, a number of Peter's former guests and friends call in with their own picks, and the two also name some of their favorite films that didn't make it to American theaters this year.
0:00-1:33 Opening / Introduction
2:04-33:11 Picks for #10-#9
35:00-1:07:49 Picks for #8-7
1:11:06-1:25:24 Picks for #6
1:25:25-1:37:01 Picks for Unreleased Films
1:38:00-1:39:40 Close
Between experimental cinema and the mainstream, between academic writing and teaching and mainstream criticism, New School professor and writer Genevieve Yue enjoys crossing the boundaries between the normally concrete lines of contemporary cinema and cinephilia. So in the latest episode, she sits down with Peter to talk about coming to experimental cinema through poetry, finding ways to teach and think about the avant-garde, and the transitional moment of Asian cinema. Plus, the two dive into Hou Hsiao-Hsien's Café Lumière, a film that allows for a cinema set in the spaces "in between" and one filled with layers of the past, whether cinematically or through the film's own narrative secrets.
0:00-1:34 Opening
2:24-7:32 Establishing Shots - George Cukor and Sylvia Scarlett / Sponsor
8:17-59:15 Deep Focus - Genevieve Yue
1:00:24-1:19:48 Double Exposure - Café Lumière (Hou Hsiao-Hsien)
1:19:52-1:21:31 Close
If repertory film culture is a slowly dying sect of cinephilia, then at least its final years will be lead by some of the most creative people possible, including BAMcinemtek's Nellie Killian. Nellie sits down with Peter to talk about growing up next to the Castro, finding an addiction to New York's repertory scene, and then becoming a programmer herself. The two then focus on Migrating Forms, an upcoming experimental film festival hosted at BAM December 11th-15th, which will feature audacious new works from the Harvard Sensory Ethnography Lab, a electronic arts show featuring Merce Cunningham's coreography, and Johnnie To comedies. The two will finally focus on a special project Nellie brought to the festival, Anne Charlotte Robertson's Five Year Diary project, and focus on how the film's portrayal of mental illness is unlike anything you've ever seen.
0:00-1:27 Opening
2:27-6:55 Establishing Shots - Mauvais Sang / Donations
7:40-1:04:33 Deep Focus - Nellie Killian
1:06:01-1:22:28 Double Exposure - Five Year Diary (Anne Charlotte Roberton)
1:22:32-1:24:47 Close / Outtake
While it can be fun to talk to critics who spend their time keeping up with contemporary cinema, Peter is glad to bring on Imogen Sara Smith, who has always dived into cinema's past worlds. The author of Buster Keaton: The Persistence of Comedy and In Lonely Places: Film Noir Beyond the City talks about her initial love of film via the Great Stoneface, her desire to write long in order to thoroughly engage with a topic, and her love of Pre-Code's subversive pleasures. The two also dive deeply into the many ends and odds of the strange cycle of film noir, engaging with questions of genre, psychology, and some underrated hits, before ending with one of noir's canonical masterpieces: Nicholas Ray's In A Lonely Place, a film so brutal in its depiction of love by being at first so intoxicating.
0:00-1:24 Opening
2:15-5:12 Establishing Shots - In The Mouth of Madness
5:28-10:18 Listener Feedback
11:03-1:12:57 Deep Focus - Imogen Sara Smith
1:13:56-1:36:45 Double Exposure - In A Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray)
1:36:47-1:39:19 Close / Outtake
It can only be underestimated how much of the ways we perceive and think about cinema today have been defined by Andrew Sarris. The importer of auteur theory from France and the long time champion of some of the greatest film artists who would have been ignored otherwise, Sarris's work in the Village Voice, the academic halls of Columbia, and his canonical book, The American Cinema, represents an invaluable legacy on cinephilia and criticism. Sarris passed away in June of 2012, but with October 31st, 2013 being what would have been his 85th Birthday, Peter is glad to host a round table featuring Dan Sallitt, Godfrey Cheshire, and David Schwartz to discuss the work of an essential critic and lover of movies.
0:00-1:37 Opening
3:25-57:16 Sarris Roundtable (Part I)
57:49-59:05 Advertisement
1:00:06-1:23:22 Sarris Roundtable (Part II)
1:23:25-1:25:17 Close / Outtake
One can spend their entire life just watching the movies and appreciating the work on screen, but often just as fascinating is seeing all the behind the scenes work. Craig Simpson, a blogger and occasional contributor to The House Next Door, has worked and organized the archival collections of some of the most unique film artists of the last century. So the Man From Porlock makes his journey from Bloomington, Indiana all the way to New York to talk about growing up a cinephile in the American Southwest, his skepticism to the cult of auteurism, and the treasures at the Lilly Library at Indiana University. Finally, they dive into the world of Paris, Texas, which Craig describes as a perfect test case of unweildy collaborators keeping each other in place.
0:00-1:06 Opening
2:56-6:34 Establishing Shots - Who The Hell is Howard Hawks?
7:19-50:57 Deep Focus - Craig Simpson
52:16-1:12:48 Double Exposure - Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders)
1:12:52-1:14:56 Close / Outtake
As the 51st New York Film Festival comes to a close, Peter finally takes on a number of the big American films (and one French!) of the year, though don't mention the "O word" around him. Just because these films are going to be discussed in the context of awards season does not make them any less essential viewing, as Peter is joined by House Next Door and Press Play blogger Tony Dayoub to discuss these works that dive into various aspects of the American past, present, and future. Peter and Tony make a visit to the American South and Midwest with films from Steve McQueen and Alexander Payne, as well the 1920s and the future with James Gray's The Immigrant and Spike Jonze's Her. Plus they dive into the controversial Cannes winner Blue is the Warmest Color before hanging with vampires Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddelston. Some are great; others maybe not so much. Find out which on the show.
0:00-1:40 Opening
3:01-17:04Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave
18:08-29:30 James Gray's The Immigrant
30:57-42:07 Alexander Payne's Nebraska
42:20-43:28 Trivia Round
44:24-53:51 Jim Jarmusch's Only Lovers Left Alive
54:43-1:08:12 Abdellatif Kechiche's Blue is the Warmest Color
1:09:40-1:22:42 Spike Jonze's Her
1:22:47-1:24:26 Close
With over 200 films spread over 40+ programs, how does one even begin to approach the New York Film Festival's Views from the Avant-Garde, especially someone as novice as Peter? Well, the only way is to dive in head first, as he did this year, and now brings on experimental film expert James Hansen to talk through approaches to these truly unique films. The two dish it out on canonical artists like Luther Price, Peter Hutton, and Nathaniel Dorsky, and rhapsodize about other favorites they've found along the way, including Peter's favorite film of the festival - a stop motion rock opera set to Dark Side of the Moon. Finally, they finish off with an appropriate feature, Stephanie Barber's Daredevils, which engages viewers in how to think about new ways to take risks and see things differently. (Make sure to check the notes below for a handful of excellent links to writings and videos of the various films).
0:00-8:00 Opening / Approaching the Avant-Garde
9:24-17:49 Luther Price
24:07-32:20 Landscapes, Peter Hutton, and Three Landscapes
32:20-37:52 Nathaniel Dorsky
38:51-48:26 Jodie Mack and Dusty Stacks of Mom
53:26-1:08:25 Stephanie Barber's Daredevils
1:08:27-1:10:24 Close / Outtake
Much of the fun of a festival like the New York Film Festival is experiencing the works of major auteurs from the front lines, but it's also about finding something small, unique, and truly exciting. For this second podcast report from the preeminent Manhattan film festival, Boston film critic Monica Castillo tracks her way down to coast to join Peter for another week through the festival, including the US premiere of the latest film from the Coen brothers, Inside Llewyn Davis. But beyond mellow 60s folk rock, there's surrealism in Taipei with the latest of Tsai Ming-Liang, melancholic love with Philipe Garrel, and another comedic head-scratcher from Romania. All this and more as NYFF continues its 51st run.
0:00-1:54 Opening
3:00-12:39 The Coens' Inside Llewyn Davis
13:38-23:30 Joanna Hogg's Exhibition
24:24-32:13 Corneliu Porumboiu's When Evening Falls on Bucharest or Metabolism
33:31-41:33 Phillipe Garrel's Jealousy
43:05-1:01:05 Tsai Ming-Liang's Stray Dogs
1:01:06-1:02:48 Close
Arguably the most excitingly and dynamically curated film festival in the world, Peter returns to the New York Film Festival, now in its 51st iteration, for his 8th (!) trip and he couldn't be more excited. Thus begins a series of podcasts dedicated to the various works being presented throughout the festival, now lead by its new head programmer Kent Jones. To help him work through many of the daunting works (in theme, aesthetic, and running time), Boston cinephile Carson Lund, a blogger covering the festival for In Review Online, joins Peter on a tour through violence in capitalist China, fascism in the Northern Philippines, cruising in France, alcoholism in South Korea, and melting ice cream in Nepal. If the rest of the films are as intriguing and exciting as those covered in this first podcast, NYFF51 might just be the best festival yet.
0:00-2:17 Opening
2:47-15:15 Zhangke's A Touch of Sin
15:39-26:27 Miyazaki's The Wind Rises
26:54-37:23 Guiraudie's Stranger By the Lake
37:36-39:48 Trivia Round
40:13-53:43 Diaz's Norte, End of History
54:54-1:06:28 Hong's Nobody's Daughter Haewon
1:07:16-1:20:30 MANAKAMANA
1:20:33-1:23:07 Close / Outtake
The city of Los Angeles might be where Hollywood's dreams come true, but for film critic Jordan Cronk, his mind often wanders toward the films of countries far and abroad, reflective works of the most avant-garde order. So when Jordan decided to make a pit stop in New York before heading off to the Toronto Film Festival, Peter had him drop by the studio for some chat on his work as a critic, the state of world cinema, Los Angeles's growing repertory theaters, how to approach music the same way as film, and his slight obsession with actress Shailene Woodley. They then dream of an LA they never knew with Alex Cox's crazy cult classic, Repo Man, whose humor and political allegory is uniquely distinct and worth deconstructing, as well as simply rocking along with.
0:00-1:01 Opening
2:09-8:31 Establishing Shots - Twixt / Trivia Round
9:16-51:41 Deep Focus - Jordan Cronk
53:05-1:12:11 Double Exposure - Repo Man (Alex Cox)
1:12:13-1:14:47 Close / Outtake
If you want to tell a story on film, you most likely are going to require actors, and hopefully great ones. But how does one talk about how actors do? Sheila O'Malley has more than enough experience in acting, and has become one of the most prolific bloggers of how to discuss the craft, so Peter invites her own to share her experiences and ideas about the profession. Sheila talks about her first acting love (James Dean) and her experience in The Actors Studio, before deciding to take the conversations of her friends and turn them into blog posts. The two also discuss many great iconic performances - Cary Grant in Notorious, Sissy Spacek in Badlands, Alain Delon in Le Samourai - and the way the different actors can approach different roles. Finally, the two work through a truly towering film, John Cassavetes's Opening Night, and examine how it both celebrates the world of acting as well as captures its most terrifying anxieties.
0:00-1:01 Opening
2:08-8:21Establishing Shots - Short Term 12 / Trivia Round
9:06-1:03:33 Deep Focus - Sheila O'Malley
1:05:32-1:29:57 Double Exposure - Opening Night (John Cassavetes)
1:30:00-1:31:41 Close
Robert Greene jokes that he badgered Peter into finally watching his two documentaries, Kati With An I and Fake It So Real. But he certainly didn't badger Peter's opinion of recognizing a true non-fiction talent, someone who is taking the form in new directions through both theory and practice. Robert joins Peter on the show to talk about how he went from a lover of 2001 and Star Wars to a man obsessed with non-fiction cinema, and discusses how he thinks filmmakers can approach their subjects with both approaches to form and content that can compete with the best fiction films. Peter then engages Robert to talk about his own practice to making films, and why limiting his options ultimately freed him in the form. Finally, Robert brings in Peter Watkins's Edvard Munch, a bafflingly brilliant film that the two find plenty to discuss in terms of making a non-fiction approach to a film to encompasses the shift from the 19th century to the 20th at both the cosmic and the micro level.
0:00-1:02 Opening
2:40-8:20 Establishing Shots - Frankenheimer's Seconds / Trivia Round / Donations
9:05-46:20 Deep Focus - Robert Greene
47:47-1:20:31 Kati With An I and Fake It So Real1:21:28-1:44:04 Double Exposure - Edvard Munch (Peter Watkins)
1:44:06-1:46:01 Close / Outtake
Many of Peter's guests have expressed their feelings about cinema through words. Gina Telaroli prefers images, both moving and still. The experimental filmmaker, image essay maker, and critic sits down with Peter for a very engaging conversation about her work and passion. The two dive into her frame-by-frame analysis of classic Hollywood films and the "unconscious cinema" she unlocks, as well as her obsession with Hollywood workmen Allan Dwan and William Wellman. Peter also gushes about Gina's film Traveling Light, and asks her numerous questions about what he sees as a spiritual work of cinema. Finally, Gina brings in Vincente Minnelli's Gene Kelly-Scottish set musical Brigadoon, a haunting work that both read as a metaphor for the magic and miracle that is cinema and 35mm.
0:00-1:08 Opening
1:48-6:50 Establishing Shots - Computer Chess
7:02-9:05 Trivia Round
9:49-1:10:50 Deep Focus - Gina Telaroli
1:12:07-1:32:48 Double Exposure - Brigadoon (Vincente Minnelli)
1:32:50-1:34:29 Close
One year into The Cinephiliacs, Peter brings in a critic that he's read for almost a decade now: A.O. Scott of the New York Times. Tony joins Peter for a traveled conversation about his entry into cinephilia at the repertory houses of Paris and Cambridge, his thoughts on the craft of writing, and how to think about films in the context of their audiences. Tony also explains how he comes up with those "trend" pieces, the phenomenon of "critic proof" movies and why they matter, and the patterns and differences between recent American literature and film. Finally, the two discuss Robert Altman's The Player, which continues to be the only contemporary successful satire of Hollywood, perhaps because it so closely plays the line between satire and seduction.
0:00-1:05 Opening
1:35-7:02 Establishing Shots -Montage of The Cinephiliacs: Year 1
7:17-9:13 Trivia Round
9:56-1:17:22 Deep Focus - A.O. Scott
1:18:59-1:40:53 Double Exposure - The Player (Robert Altman)
1:40:55-1:43:30 Close / Outtake - On The King of Comedy
Since film discussion has been on the Internet, so has Victor Morton. The very opinionted and didactic film blogger joins Peter for a journey through his cinephile life. Victor tells tales of growing up in both Scotland and Texas before finally finding a voice on the UseNet film groups of the early Internet. The two then discuss his approach to cinema as a political conservative, his approach to viewing films through a Catholic prism, and the continuing wonders of Romanian cinema. Finally, the two dive deep into Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne's Rosetta, which might not have any specific Christian motifs on its surface, but is so clearly a film that is deeply, deeply spiritual.
0:00-1:00 Opening
2:22-6:57 Establishing Shots - Allan Dwan / Trivia Round
7:42-1:29:03 Deep Focus - Victor Morton
1:29:54-1:59:27 Double Exposure - Rosetta (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)
1:59:28-2:02:51 Close / Outtake - Victor on A Clockwork Orange
Being a cinephile outside of places like New York or Chicago is a very different experience than what Peter is used to, so he treks to Northfield, Minnesota for this conversation with blogger Andreas Stoehr. Andreas discusses growing up on classic horror movies and how one manages a cinephile life when the town you live in doesn't even have a multiplex. The two also discuss the major challenges in the blogging universe, the fascinating creatures of horror movies, and the state of LBGTQ cinema. Finally, Andreas invites Peter to examine The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T, which is the only film ever written by Dr. Seuss and somehow manages to subvert every social anxiety of 1950s American life. Plus, in honor of Father's Day, Peter has a quick chat with his dad about his cinephile life.
0:00-0:57 Opening
2:22-9:55 Establishing Shots -A Father's Day Interview with Theodore Labuza
10:08-11:10 Trivia Round
11:55-1:07:52 Deep Focus - Andreas Stoehr
1:09:10-1:37:50 Double Exposure - The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T (Roy Rowland)
1:37:51-1:39:53 Close / Outtake
Exploring cinema doesn't just end when the final reel spools; it's also about learning the history and future of how moving images play into our daily lives. At the Museum of the Moving Image, David Schwartz programs the films that accompanying and work into the Astoria-based institution dedicated to this mission. In his conversation with Peter, David describes how he originally got hooked into New York's repertory film scene and how it eventually led him to programming. They discuss the importance of exploring new media and the avant-garde, the difficulties and advantages of the digital transition, and working with an ever changing audience. They finish off their conversation with a discussion of Andy Warhol's Beauty #2, an avant-garde work that David argues for the very precise control of the director in this apparently improvised movie.
0:00-0:57 Opening
2:03-6:00 Establishing Shots - Harris Savides / Trivia Round
6:45-1:00:42 Deep Focus - David Schwartz
1:02:07-1:25:18 Double Exposure - Beauty #2 (Andy Warhol)
1:25:20-1:27:17 Close / Outtake
Silent films were never truly silent: vaudeville acts, narrators, and of course, musical accompanists filled the air with sounds. Ben Model continues that tradition by performing musical accompaniments to both canonical and rare silent films throughout the nation, as well as curating and preserving films himself. Ben takes Peter through his strange path to the unique position, including his "Three Godfathers" who influenced him, and then explains the nuts and bolts of how to actually create music for a film with none at all. They discuss his techniques he learned from improvisation, the task of collecting and searching out rare and missing works, and the pains and pleasures of the analog to digital switch. Finally, Ben explains to Peter some of the hidden secrets behind Charlie Chaplin's masterwork Modern Times, including how under-cranking the film is the trick to star's balletic work.
0:00-1:02 Opening
2:07 -6:56 Establishing Shots - Delmer Daves / Trivia Round / Donations
7:44-1:08:45 Deep Focus - Ben Model
1:09:54-1:30:33 Double Exposure - Modern Times (Charlie Chaplin)
1:30:35-1:32:34 Close / Outtake
Strongly opinionated but never dogmatically so, the prolific Vadim Rizov ranks among the best of the new generation of cinephiles in Peter's opnion. So the young writer joins him to discuss his unique voice in the critical community. Vadim discusses his early forays into cinema at a young age, and how his frustrations with Austin's film scene led him to New York (only to more frustrations at NYU). The two then get into his fascinating writing style and how it stands against the majority of contemporary film writing, his interest in the evolving contemporary cinema, and why he goes back again and again to the True/False Film Festival. The two then dive into Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Cercle Rouge, a type of closed circuit movie that might be out of style with many cinephiles today, but is full of wondrous pleasures for those that pry its pieces apart.
0:00-1:05 Opening
1:55 -5:50 Establishing Shots - Roberto Rossellini's Voyage to Italy / Trivia Round
6:34-56:56 Deep Focus - Vadim Rizov
57:49-1:20:04 Double Exposure - Le Cercle Rouge (Jean-Pierre Melville)
1:20:06-1:22:22 Close / Outtake
Miriam Bale is interested in cinema, but she's almost more interested in the conversations that develop out of cinema. So naturally, Peter thought it would be a great idea to bring the programmer and critic to discuss how she found her way to the movies. Miriam discusses her unorthodox discovery to cinema through music, her love of repertory cinema, and the love of unheralded genres as strange as Agatha Christie to cookbooks. The two also talk about her feminist film criticism and the journal Joan's Digest she started, as well the La Di Da Film Festival and the ways to build a new type of "community" film festival. Finally, they dig into Johnny Guitar, Nicholas Ray's intoxicating western starring Joan Crawford, which Miriam sees as a way to truly build surreal space and time.
0:00-1:05 Opening
1:45 -6:15 Establishing Shots - Michael Mann's Miami Vice / Trivia Round
6:57-1:06:07 Deep Focus - Miriam Bale
1:07:00-1:26:27 Double Exposure - Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray)
1:26:29-1:28:12 Close
On Thursday, April 4th, 2013, the film critic Roger Ebert passed away at the age of 70. It was hard to deny the influence of someone who was easily the most recognizable film critic of all time, so Peter felt compelled to dedicate an entire episode to his legacy and work. For this special episode of the podcast, Keith Uhlich, Matt Prigge, Kenji Fujishima, and Godfrey Cheshire all join Petter for a discussion of his life, work, and legacy of its legend. The topics run far and wide, from his honest writing style, to the critics he plucked and championed, to his reflections of life and death, and even his own admittance of occasional failure with certain films and filmmakers. The five dig into the times they encountered Ebert (some in person and some online), and attempt to honor someone who will be with them forever.
Where do great directors come from? Since 1969, the New Directors/New Films festival has searched around the globe for the directors and cinemas that will soon rank among the canon. And certainly it has a strong history for accomplishing that with names like Pedro Almodovar, Steven Spielberg, Wong Kar-Wai, Spike Lee, and Chantal Akerman. So in a world of digital releasing and festival saturation, what can ND/NF offer? Joined by the very smart Daniel Walber, Peter takes a look at this year's impressive slate, focusing on a trio of unique films as well as some of the other highlights. Does Shane Caruth's Upstream Color transcend its complex science fiction narrative? Does Viola's brief running time and light hand build something more textured? And why exactly is Leones and its director Jazmin Lopez the "future of cinema?" All this and more in this special episode.
0:00-3:30 Opening
4:15-15:02 Upstream Color (Shane Caruth)
15:53-31:54 Leones (Jazmin Lopez)
31:55-33:04 Trivia Round
33:34-41:12 Other Highlights
42:12-53:17 Viola (Matias Piñeiro)
53:19-55:19 Close / Outtakes
In 2011, a young cinephile named Ignatiy Vishnevetsky became the poster boy for new cinephilia during the return of Roger Ebert's At the Movies. But there's much, much more to Mubi's esoteric and erudite critic than his days on public television. Recorded over two snowy Chicago days in January, Peter sits down with Ignaty to discuss how his Russian heritage influenced the way he watches movies, his interactions with the video store, and his very twisted process to writing criticism. They also discuss his obsession with images in 21st century filmmaking and cinephilia, the rise of vulgar auteurism, and the moral guidance than drives his writing. Finally, Ignatiy introduces Peter to the intoxicating world of Alan Rudolph through his impressionist work The Moderns, a film that might long for an image of the past, but asks us to question the context in which we view them.
0:00-4:59 Opening / Establishing Shots - The Essential Narrative
5:00-7:52 Trivia Round / Donations
8:38-1:31:02 Deep Focus - Ignatiy Vishnevetsky
1:31:50-1:59:52 Double Exposure - The Moderns (Alan Rudolph)
1:59:54-2:01:47 Close / Outtakes
Dan Sallitt is someone Peter considers a cinephile par excellence. A thoughtful auteurist, an idiosyncratic and insightful writer, a dedicated repertory cinema viewer, and a truly accomplished filmmaker, Dan exemplifies everything you'd want in both the classical and new forms of cinephilia. So on the eve of the theatrical run of his latest film, The Unspeakable Act, Peter sits down with Dan to trace his cinephile life. Dan discusses his first encounter with Howard Hawks, his stint at the LA Reader, and his various connections to Bazinian theory in film. The two then have an extended conversation on Dan's three films and how he uses cinema to explore some truly unique subjects. Finally, they dive into Alan Clarke's Christine, a film as brutal as any work of social realism, yet abstracted to a point of pure beauty.
0:00-3:58 Opening / Trivia Round
4:59-55:43 Deep Focus - Dan Sallitt
58:00-1:32:02 Deep Focus Part 2 - The Film of Dan Sallitt
1:32:58-1:52:32 Double Exposure - Christine (Alan Clarke)
1:52:34-1:54:15 Close
It is a little odd how similar Peter and his guest C. Mason Wells are in certain ways. Both are New York cinephiles from the Midwest who are also passionate fans of Andrew Sarris Both went to Columbia University (and both participated in one of its oldest traditions), and now both are 35mm repertory junkies. However, Chris diverges in that often he's the one programming the great content, while Peter simply writes about it. Chris takes Peter through his journey of becoming a cinephile, including his work making films like LOL and The Color Wheel, and eventually how he found himself programming. The two give a look at his latest series, "Andrew Sarris: Expressive Esoterica," dedicated to the late critic, before diving into Chris's favorite film of all time, Kenji Mizoguchi's powerful 1939 drama, The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums.
0:00-1:18 Opening 2:08-4:57
Establishing Shots - Child Acting
5:58-57:35 Deep Focus - C. Mason Wells
58:38-1:18:55 Double Exposure - The Story of the Last Chrysnathemums (Kenji Mizoguchi)
1:18:58-1:23:44 Trivia Round, Close, and Outtake
When Peter sat down to do a video essay on his own a few years back, he primarly studied and examined the work of Kevin B. Lee. Luckily, Peter has gotten to know Kevin, and was thankful to sit him down for a podcast while in Chicago last month. Kevin explains his long winded path into filmmaking and finally film criticism. The two discuss the art and process of making video essays, the importance and frustrations with film canons, and his work in highlighting the work of independent Chinese filmmakers. Finally, they open up a can of worms with Richard Linklater's Slacker, a film Kevin describes as similar to today's Facebook and Twitter feeds.
0:00-1:20 Opening
1:20-4:22 Establishing Shots - Side Effects
5:20-1:14:10 Deep Focus - Kevin B. Lee
1:15:33-1:45:12 Double Exposure - Slacker (Richard Linklater)
1:45:13-1:48:57 Trivia Round, Close, and Outtake
One of the New Year's Resolutions for The Cinephiliacs this year is to explore the world of cinephiles outside of New York, so Peter decided to make a trip to Chicago to interview the windy city's best and brightest. First up: Keith Phipps, the former head of the pop culture monster The A.V. Club. Keith describes his movement from graduate school to VHS junkie at a local video store in Madison. The two then discuss the world of the AV Club, as well as Keith's own interest in road trip movies and James Bond. Finally, they close out the show with a discussion of a Richard Lester film that doesn't star The Beatles—Petulia, which might actually be the truer landmark of the 1960s.
0:00-1:23 Opening
1:23-6:07 Establishing Shots - Jackie Brown
6:24-44:10 Deep Focus - Keith Phipps 45:21-1:09:20
Double Exposure - Petulia (Richard Lester)
1:09:20-1:13:01 Trivia Round, Close, and Outtake
Peter believes that the Top 10 list is less of a summation of a year in film than a personal statement on how one view's cinema at that moment. So in this epic 2+ hour episode, he invites the idiosyncratic Keith Uhlich to join him on a journey through the year in film. They discuss terrorists and presidents, romances and mentors, artificial and stylized views of the world to authentic miracles. Plus some of Peter's former guests and friends of the show call in with their picks, and they also list some of the great films of years past that they finally caught up with. (This is Part 2 of the show. Please listen to Part 1 first).
0:00-2:25 Introduction to Part 2
2:26-8:22 Favorite Filmic Discoveries
8:23-1:30:01 Picks for #5 through #1
1:30:01-1:35:30 Picks for #20 through #11
1:35:30-1:39:14 Trivia Round / Close / Outtake
Peter believes that the Top 10 list is less of a summation of a year in film than a personal statement on how one view's cinema at that moment. So in this epic 2+ hour episode, he invites the idiosyncratic Keith Uhlich to join him on a journey through the year in film. They discuss terrorists and presidents, romances and mentors, artificial and stylized views of the world to authentic miracles. Plus some of Peter's former guests and friends of the show call in with their picks, and they also list some of the great films of years past that they finally caught up with. (Please make sure to also listen to Part 2)
0:00-1:42 Opening / Announcement
1:42-3:54 Introduction to Top 10s
3:55-1:01:04 Picks for #10 through #6
1:01:04-1:02:14 Close
Peter can often get lost in the history of cinema that he often forgets that movies were born in the industry, and Hollywood keeps that art alive. So for his last interview of the 2012 season, CinemaBlend editor-in-chief Katey Rich joins him for a lively conversation about the ins and outs of the movie industry. Katey discusses her origins as a moviegoer in South Carolina and her interest in why things were popular to the trials, tribulations, and pleasures of running a site that is always about the "now." They then get into some of the more interesting pieces she's written about the depiction of women in Hollywood, as well as why it's okay to nitpick. Finally, they dive into one of 2012's more intimate and underrated films, Take This Waltz, and discover how Sarah Polley can add real magic to a story as old as time.
0:00-1:01 Opening
1:52-5:37 Establishing Shots - Zero Dark Thirty5:52-46:16 Deep Focus - Katey Rich
47:11-1:01:19 Double Exposure - Take This Waltz (Sarah Polley)
1:01:19-1:09:10 Spoiler Discussion of Take This Waltz
1:09:12-1:12:03 Close and Outtakes
Godfrey Chesire has seen it all. From his early experiences with the Westerns of John Ford, to his experience of the 1970s films while abroad in Europe, to the discovery of Chinese and Iranian cinema in the 1990s, Cheshire has remained an essential voice about how to talk and think about cinema in an honest and humanizing way. So Peter is quite excited to take him back through a whirlwind tour of his career, from the alt-weeky The Spectator to the heyday of the New York Press, and through his experiences with Edward Yang and writing about the emergence of digital cinema. The two also discuss his documentary Moving Midway, a film that battles his own personal history and cultural history of the plantation, and end their discussion with Abbas Kiarostami's all-too-fascinating text Close-Up, which they easily declare the Citizen Kane of Iranian film.
0:00-1:27 Opening
1:27-4:47 Establishing Shots - Portrait of Jason Kickstarter
5:02-1:01:57 Deep Focus - Godfrey Cheshire
1:03:08-1:30:09 Double Exposure - Close-Up (Abbas Kiarostami)
1:30:11-1:31:50 Close
Peter remembers seeing Matt Singer during news and festival bits on the IFC channel back in the day, so he was quite excited to bring it the man to sit down to talk about his work on Criticwire and elsewhere. Matt discusses the winding path he took to entering film criticism, his genuine interest in working in various types of media, and of course his fascination of superstar Arnold Schwarzenegger. The two also explore his explanation for watching "bad" movies, the wonderful world of Internet commenters, and the ever notorious Kevin Smith. Finally, Matt brings in a strange pick for 'Double Exposure' - A TV documentary called The Buried Secret of M Night Shaymalan, that is truly one of the most maddening films ever produced, provoking a discussion that proves to be just as bonkers.
0:00-4:43 Opening / Establishing Shots - "To The Film Industry in Crisis"
4:57-58:25 Deep Focus - Matt Singer
59:21-1:20:30 Double Exposure - The Buried Secret Of M. Night Shaymalan
1:20:33-1:22:22 Close / Outtake
Peter takes cinema very seriously, but sometimes we all need a good laugh, and no one makes Peter howl in laughter than reading the work of Ali Arikan. So laughs are abound when Ali comes in from Turkey to join him on The Cinephiliacs. Ali discusses his early forays into movies while in his home country (as well the troubles with viewing films there) and the journey he took to becoming an established critic working for English language sites like The House Next Door, Press Play, and as a member of Roger Ebert's Far Flung Correspondents. From there, the two dive into the problem of nostalgia in film, a bonafide love for Steven Spielberg, and a defense of one of the most derided films in the last twenty years. Finally, Peter challenges Ali to make him lov;Withnail and I, a cult comedy from Bruce Robinson that might be more tragic than even its alcoholic protagonists realize.
0:00-0:56 Opening
1:43-4:40 Establishing Shots - Pierre Étaix and Le Grand Amour
4:56-1:01:56 Deep Focus - Ali Arikan
1:03:09-1:24:19 Double Exposure - Withnail and I (Bruce Robinson)
1:24:20-1:26:10 Close / Outtake
After three weeks of new movies, The Cinephiliacs returns by going to old school filmmaking as Peter sits down with Farran Smith Nehme, aka the Self-Styled Siren, blogger extraordinaire when it comes to classic Hollywood movies. The two discuss how she first fell in love with the movies of Hollywood's golden age, approaching classic cinema beyond the expected titles and myths, and living the dream by appearing on Turner Classic Movies. They close out the show by examining Three Strangers, a film noir by Jean Negulesco and co-written by John Huston that might not be the best film ever made, but damn if it doesn't have some out of this world sequences and killer performances by Sydney Greenstreet, Geraldine Fitzgerald, and Peter Lorre as a romantic lead, of all things!
0:00-1:13 Opening
1:14-4:58 Establishing Shots - Kant and Criticism
5:12-45:15 Deep Focus - Farran Smith Nehme
46:30-1:05:38 Double Exposure - Three Strangers (Jean Negulesco)
1:05:39-1:07:32 Close / Outtake
If there is one thing that has defined the New York Film Festival since its first year in 1963, the festival has always aligned itself with the most essential names in world cinema (the first film to play NYFF? Buñuel's Exterminating Angel). So as Peter closes out his coverage of the festival's 50th iteration, he brings on world cinema aficionado David Ehrlich from the Criterion Corner to discuss the biggest auteurs and their new ambitious movies. Included in this final dispatch are a story of love from Michael Haneke, a celebration of movement from Leos Carax, a cynical autobiography from Olivier Assayss, and a Tokyo-set puzzler from Abbas Kiarostami.
0:00-1:37 Opening
2:00-8:54 Amour (Michael Haneke)
9:01-15:33 Spoiler Discussion of Amour
16:08-26:59 Holy Motors (Leos Carax)
27:54-37:46 Something in the Air (Olivier Assayas)
38:01-52:45 Like Someone In Love (Abbas Kiarsotami)
52:46-54:46 Close/Outtake
Many of the films at this year's New York Film Festivals are filled with various cinematic references that can go over Peter's head without him ever realizing, so he brings Slant Magazine contributor Jaime Christley to help him parse through some of this week's fascinating films. The two dig into the big Hollywood opener Life of Pi from Ang Lee, as well as the extreme art house pleasures of new films from directors like Raoul Ruiz, Pedro Gomez, and the Taviani Brothers. Plus, documentaries on conspiracy theorists deconstructing Kubrick's The Shining, and another one about fishing in the Atlantic, but from the perspective from the fish.
0:00-2:01 Introduction
2:36-13:04Life of Pi (Ang Lee)
13:04-21:37Caesar Must Die (The Taviani Brothers)
21:37-29:30Night Across The Street (Raúl Ruiz)
30:07-43:31Room 237 (Rodney Ascher)
43:32-46:42Leviathan (Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Verena Paravel)
47:25-57:04 Tabu(Miguel Gomes)
57:04-58:22 Close
In this special edition of The Cinephiliacs, Peter averts from the regular format for the next three weeks to report back from his annual visit to the New York Film Festival, a favorite cinephile event of his. To help him break down the first week of films, freelancer extraordinaire Simon Abrams joins him to discuss a cornucopia of films that explore cinema, religion, history, and the imaginative process. They dive into the bold use of digital imagery in Brian De Palma's Passion, clash on the complex morality in Christian Mungiu's Beyond the Hills, and elate over the joy of Alain Renais's You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet. Also included in this episode are thoughts on Christian Petzold's Barbara, Noah Baumbach's Frances Ha, Valeria Sarmiento's Lines of Wellington, and Peter Strikland's Berberian Sound Studio.
0:00-2:11 Introduction
2:54-11:31 Passion (Brian De Palma)
11:31-21:26 Barbara (Christian Petzold)
21:26-23:49 Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach)
24:30-35:36 Beyond the Hills (Christian Mungiu)
35:36-43:53 You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet! (Alain Renias)
43:53-46:49 Lines of Wellington (Valeria Sarmiento)
47:16-53:27 Berberian Sound Studio (Peter Strikland)
53:29-54:45 Close
New York Magazine film critic Bilge Ebiri loves films that he can constantly revisit and pry deeper and deeper, so Peter has no problem prying into Bilge’s own head for his conversation on The Cinephiliacs. Bilge talks about his early exposure to the Hollywood New Wave in Turkey as a young boy, and then traces his cinephilia through his desires to trying to become a filmmaker (including working on a film by Nikita Mikhalkov) before finding his voice as a critic. The two then discuss his love of films that indulge their wildest pleasures, some of his favorite auteurs (a list that includes Terrence Malick and Christopher Nolan side by side), and his own feature film, New Guy. Finally, the two dive into the truly daunting task of investigating Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece Barry Lyndonand try and make sense of a film that asks us to identify with "The Past" yet always undercuts and manifests itself as something even more audacious.
0:00-4:48 Opening / Establishing Shots – Film Vs. Digital
5:04-1:14:17 Deep Focus – Bilge Ebiri
1:15:13-1:45:31 Double Exposure – Barry Lyndon (Stanley Kubrick)
1:45:32-1:47:58 Close / Outtake
For a film critic who has to keep his reviews under 250 words, Time Out New York staff writer Keith Uhlich has quite a lot to say as he joins Peter for the podcast. Keith explains how he originally got the cinephile bug watching films like Popeye and Spaceballs, as well as his frustrations in making his own films at NYU. They then dive in deep to Keith's unique writing process and spar a bit over some of his more oddball opinions (a love of The Black Dahlia, anger toward Steven Soderbergh). Keith also explains his frustrations over the current state of independent LBGTQ cinema (never have the words “Fuck you, Tom Ford” been spoken with such force). Finally, the two discuss Jonathan Demme’s The Truth About Charlie, an often maligned remake of Charade that inspires both of them for its visual appreciation of Paris and its overlooked humanism.
0:00-4:50 - Opening/Act One: Establishing Shots - Remembering Tony Scott
5:05-1:40:50 - Act Two: Deep Focus - Keith Uhlich
1:41:40-2:06:18 - Act Three: Double Exposure - The Truth About Charlie (Jonathan Demme)
2:06:20-2:08:00 - Close/Outtake
Kenji Fujishima might not have the wisdom that comes from age of Peter's previous guests, but the two have an excellent time talking about how he became a hardcore cinephile and writing for The House Next Door. Kenji discusses reading Pauline Kael at an early age, choosing to forgo his mother’s wishes to go into accounting, and becoming a consumer of arts beyond cinema. The two also chat about his blog My Life, 24 Frames Per Seconds, balancing emotion and formalism in writing, and the beauty of “cinematic recklessness.” Finally, they explore the dark beauty of Wong Kar-Wai’s Fallen Angels, which Kenji posits as the filmmaker’s most reflexive commentary on his own feelings to transition toward a new style.
0:00-5:00 - Act One: Establishing Shots - Sight & Sound Poll
5:16-52:13 - Act Two: Deep Focus - Kenji Fujishima
53:07-1:18:12 - Act Three: Double Exposure - Fallen Angels (Wong Kar-Wai)
1:18:13-1:19:50 - Close/Outtake
Peter sits down with New York Magazine TV critic Matt Zoller Seitz to talk about the many different hats he has worn during his cinephile life, which have included film critic, pop culture journalist, filmmaker, video essayist, blogger, and more. Matt discusses growing up in Texas, discovering New York City, and dissecting some of his favorite filmmakers. The two explore his nature as both a film and TV critic, his discovery and love of video essays, and how The New World inspired one of the best film criticism blogs today. Finally, they dig into the Oliver Stone’s Born on the Fourth of July, which Matt explains as one of the quintessential great narratives about a man discovering his true self.
0:00-4:00 – Act One: Establishing Shots — Think Pieces on Aurora
4:10-52:30 – Act Two: Deep Focus – Matt Zoller Seitz
53:33-1:11:38 – Act Three: Double Exposure – Born on the Fourth of July (Oliver Stone)
In episode #1 of The Cinephiliacs, Peter sits down with the former Premiere and current MSN Movies chief film critic Glenn Kenny to talk about his life reviewing movies. Glenn discusses his early childhood reading about films he never thought he would see, his days as a minor rock star and music critic, and eventually finding his way to Premiere. The two also explore his habit of policing bad criticism, his issues with Joe Swanberg, and his relationship with David Foster Wallace. Finally, they get into the Michelangelo Antonioni film, Blow-Up, examining how it refutes categorization (and how Antonioni turns a photo shoot into cinema’s greatest sex scene).
0:00-4:20 - Act One: Establishing Shots
4:37-1:35:37 - Act Two: Deep Focus – Glenn Kenny
1:36:25-1:52:12 - Act Three: Double Exposure – Blow-Up (Michaelangelo Antonioni)
1:52:13-1:53:29 - Close