Film at Lincoln Center Podcast

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#456 - Rebecca Zlotowski and Virginie Efira on Other People's Children Apr 14, 2023

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Welcome to a new episode of the Film at Lincoln Center podcast. This week we’re excited to present a Q&A from the 2023 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema premiere of Other People's Children, with director Rebecca Zlotowski and lead actress, Virginie Efira. Other People's Children opens in our theaters on Friday, April 21. Acclaimed writer-director Rebecca Zlotowski (An Easy Girl, 2020 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema) draws from her own life to depict the emotional trajectory of Rachel (Virginie Efira), a schoolteacher whose desire for a biological child seems increasingly unlikely to be fulfilled (as she’s informed by her gynecologist in a delightful cameo from Frederick Wiseman). When Rachel enters into a relationship with car designer Ali (Roschdy Zem), he’s slow to let her know that he’s a single father, but once she finds out she quickly grows to love his precocious daughter, Leila (Callie Ferreira-Goncalves). The stresses and strains of close relationships between adults and children are thoughtfully examined in this drama that’s as romantic in its evocation of new love blossoming in Paris as it is clear-headed about the myriad pressures that societal expectations impose on the lives of middle-aged women. A 2023 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema selection. Enjoy the conversation with Zlotowski and Efira, moderated by NYFF Artistic Director Dennis Lim, and don’t miss Other People's Children, opening in our theaters on Friday, April 21. Get tickets at filmlinc.org/children

#455 - Laura Citarella on Trenque Lauquen + Saim Sadiq, Ali Junejo & Rasti Farooq on Joyland Apr 07, 2023

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Welcome to a new episode of the Film at Lincoln Center podcast. This week we’re excited to present a Q&A from Trenque Laquen, a Main Slate selection of the 60th New York Film Festival, opening in our theaters on April 21 from director Laura Citarella, with Q&As with Citarella and actor Ezequiel Pierri on April 21 at 6pm and April 22 at 12:15pm and an intro at 6pm. But first, listen to a special Q&A with the team behind Joyland, a selection of the 52nd edition of New Directors/New Films currently in progress through Sunday, April 9. Director Saim Sadiq and cast members Ali Junejo and Rasti Farooq discuss the film with New Directors/New Films co-chair Florence Almozini. Co-presented by Film at Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art, tickets to New Directors/New Films are available at newdirectors.org Laura Citarella’s enormously pleasurable Trenque Lauquen takes viewers on a limitless journey through stories nested within stories set in and around the Argentinean city of Trenque Lauquen (“Round Lake”) and centered on the strange disappearance of a local academic named Laura (Laura Paredes). Through initial inquiries by two colleagues—older boyfriend Rafael and a driver named Ezequiel with whom Laura had grown secretly close—we learn about her recent discoveries, including a new, unclassified species of flower and a series of old love letters hidden at the local library, which may help track her down. Yet as flashbacks and anecdotes pile up, we—and the film’s intrepid investigators—begin to realize that this intricately structured tale is larger and stranger than we could have imagined. Citarella, a producer of the equally remarkable epic La Flor, has confidently crafted a series of interlocked romantic, biological, and ecological mysteries that create parallels between past lives and present dangers, invoke the rapture of obsessive pursuit, and salute the human need to find personal freedom and happiness. Enjoy the conversation with Citarella and NYFF Artistic Director Dennis Lim, and don’t miss Trenque Laquen, opening in our theaters on April 21. Get tickets at filmlinc.org/trenquelauquen.

#454 - Savanah Leaf, Tia Nomore, and Erika Alexander on Earth Mama Mar 31, 2023

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Welcome to a new episode of the Film at Lincoln Center podcast. This week we’re excited to present Q&A from Earth Mama, the opening night selection of the 52nd edition of New Directors/New Films. The conversation features writer/director Savanah Leaf and cast members Tia Nomore and Erika Alexander, and is moderated by New Directors/New Films co-chair, Florence Almozini. A devastating and evocative portrait of motherhood refracted through the prisms of race and class, Savanah Leaf’s auspicious, Bay Area–set debut feature follows a pregnant young African American woman (played with immense complexity by Oakland rapper Tia Nomore) as she grapples with whether to give her baby up for adoption amid utterly hostile socioeconomic conditions. Co-presented by Film at Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art, the 52nd edition of New Directors/New Films runs through April 9th and is made up of 27 features and 11 shorts. We’re excited to announce that this year we are offering the chance to see 5 films for only $50. Simply visit newdirectors.org to add five films to your cart and your discount will automatically be applied. We look forward to seeing you at this year’s New Directors/New Films. Visit newdirectors.org to view the schedule and purchase your tickets.

#453 - Mark Jenkin and Mary Woodvine on Enys Men Mar 24, 2023

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This week on the Film at Lincoln Center podcast, we’re featuring a Q&A from the 60th New York Film Festival with Enys Men director Mark Jenkin and lead Mary Woodvine, moderated by FLC Senior Director of Programming Florence Almozini. In 1973, on an uninhabited, windswept, rocky island off the coast of Cornwall in southwest England, an isolated middle-aged woman spends her days in enigmatic environmental study. When she’s not tending to the moss-covered stone cottage in which she lodges, her central preoccupation is a cluster of wildflowers at a cliff’s edge, the blossoms’ subtle changes noted in a daily ledger. She’s also increasingly haunted by her own nightmarish visitations, which seem both summoned from her own past and brought up from the very soil and ceremonial history of this mysterious place. Shot on enveloping, period-evocative 16mm, this eerie, texturally rich experience from Cornish filmmaker Mark Jenkin conjures works of classic British folk horror but remains its own strange being, a genuine transmission from a weird other world. Enys Men opens next Friday, March 31, with a filmmaker Q&A at 6pm, along with Jenkin's debut feature Bait, which also opens next Friday with a Q&A at 8:45pm. Don’t miss Enys Men on 35mm—only during opening weekend and get tickets at filmlinc.org/enys

#452 - Academy Award-Winning Composer M.M. Keeravani on RRR Mar 16, 2023

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This week on the Film at Lincoln Center podcast, we’re featuring a special Q&A from our recent screening of S. S. Rajamouli’s RRR with composer M.M. Keeravani, who recently won an Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Naatu Naatu." But first, listen to FLC programmers Maddie Whittle and Tyler Wilson preview our upcoming series, Unspeakable: The Films of Tod Browning, which kicks off tomorrow and runs through March 26. Explore the lineup, including new restorations, 35mm screenings, live musical accompaniment, and get tickets at filmlinc.org/browning. From an original story by V. Vijayendra Prasad, the historical action epic RRR (short for Rise, Roar, Revolt) follows the fictionalized paths of real-life freedom fighters Alluri Sitarama Raju (Charan) and Komaram Bheem (Rama Rao) as they come together in 1920s Delhi to battle the nefarious British Raj for the rescue of a kidnapped girl from Bheem’s tribe. Enjoy Academy Award-winning composer M.M. Keeravani’s conversation on working on the film’s score, his musical influences, and more.

#451 - Cauleen Smith on Drylongso Mar 10, 2023

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This week on the Film at Lincoln Center podcast, we’re featuring a special Q&A from the 60th New York Film Festival with Drylongso director Cauleen Smith, moderated by Director and President of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures Jacqueline Stewart. Cauleen Smith’s 1998 feature debut, a landmark in American independent cinema, follows Pica (Toby Smith), a woman in a photography class in Oakland, as she begins photographing the young Black men of her neighborhood, having witnessed so many of them fall victim to senseless murder and fearing the possibility of their becoming extinct altogether. This project serves as a point of departure for Smith to explore Pica’s relationship with her family, as well as her relationship with a friend (April Barnett) who becomes the victim of an enigmatic and elusive serial killer lurking in the background. An enduringly rich work of DIY filmmaking, Drylongso remains a resonant and visionary examination of violence (and its reverberations), friendship, and gender. An NYFF60 Revivals selection. The NYFF60 Revivals presentation of Drylongso was sponsored by Turner Classic Movies. The new 4K restoration of Drylongso opens next Friday, March 17, in our theaters with a filmmaker Q&A with Smith on opening night. On the occasion of the theatrical release of the NYFF60 selection, we are also showing two Shorts Programs of Smith’s short films on Friday, March 17, with an intro from Smith, and Sunday, March 19. Get tickets to Drylongso and both shorts programs and receive an automatic discount package of $20 for the general public and $15 for FLC Members. Explore showtimes and get tickets at filmlinc.org/drylongso

#450 - Huang Ji & Ryuji Otsuka on Stonewalling + Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2023 Preview Mar 02, 2023

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This week on the Film at Lincoln Center podcastm we’re featuring a Q&A from the 60th New York Film Festival with Stonewalling (opens March 10!) filmmakers Huang Ji and Ryuji Otsuka, moderated by FLC Senior Director of Programming Florence Almozini and interpreted by Vincent Cheng. Before that, listen to a special programmer’s preview of the 28th Rendez-Vous with French Cinema from FLC Assistant Programmer Maddie Whittle. Our annual festival celebrating the best works in contemporary French film is now taking place through March 12 with filmmaker Q&As, Free Talks, and more. Explore the lineup and get tickets at filmlinc.org/rdvFor more than a decade, Beijing-based wife-and-husband team Huang Ji and Ryuji Otsuka have been making films about the lives of young people in China—in many cases “left-behind children,” or those whose parents are forced to leave their families to find jobs in cities. Expanding their project, their gripping, humane yet uncompromising latest, shot with a precise formal economy by Otsuka (who also serves as cinematographer), focuses on a year in the life of Lynn, a flight-attendant-in-training whose plans to finish college are thrown into doubt when she discovers she’s pregnant. Not wanting an abortion (a decision she hides from her callow, absent boyfriend, away on modeling and party hosting gigs), she hopes to give the child away after carrying it to term, while staying afloat amidst a series of dead-end jobs. As incarnated by the filmmakers’ quietly potent recurring star Yao Honggui, Lynn—whose story continues after being the center of the filmmakers’ acclaimed The Foolish Bird (2017)—is both a fully rounded character and the vessel for an urgent critique of a modern-day social structure that has few options for women in need of care. Stonewalling opens on March 10 in our theaters, with in-person Q&As with directors Huang Ji and Ryuji Otsuka during opening weekend, and special screenings of Egg and Stone and The Foolish Bird. Get showtimes and tickets at filmlinc.org/stonewalling

#449 - Davy Chou and Park Ji-Min on Return to Seoul Feb 23, 2023

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This week on the Film at Lincoln Center podcast, we're featuring a conversation with Davy Chou and Park Ji-Min, discussing Return to Seoul at the 60th New York Film Festival with Artistic Director Dennis Lim. Freddie (Park Ji-Min), a young French woman, finds herself spontaneously tracking down the South Korean birth parents she has never met while on vacation in Seoul. From this seemingly simple premise, Cambodian-French filmmaker Davy Chou spins an unpredictable, careering narrative that takes place over the course of several years, always staying close on the roving heels of its impetuous protagonist, who moves to her own turbulent rhythms (as does the galvanizing Park, a singular new screen presence). Chou elegantly creates probing psychological portraiture from a character whose feelings of unbelonging have kept her at an emotional distance from nearly everyone in her life; it’s an enormously moving film made with verve, sensitivity, and boundless energy. A Sony Pictures Classics release.

#448 - Daniels on Everything Everywhere All at Once Feb 16, 2023

Show notes

This week on the Film at Lincoln Center podcast, we’re featuring a special Everything Everywhere All at Once Q&A from our recent series ‘Verse Jumping with Daniels with directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, and producer Jonathan Wang, moderated by FLC Programmer Tyler Wilson. In their second feature-film collaboration, Daniels evoke everyone from Wong Kar Wai, Harmony Korine, and Stephen Chow and everything from video games, YouTube algorithms, wire fu, Japanese anime, late 1990s Hollywood nihilism, and more: Golden Globe® Winner Michelle Yeoh delivers a career-defining performance as Evelyn Wang, a first-generation Chinese-American living above her laundromat business with her aging father (James Hong), her teenage daughter (Stephanie Hsu), and her kind but painfully naive husband (Golden Globe® Winner Ke Huy Quan). Amid an IRS audit (spearheaded by a nearly unrecognizable Jamie Lee Curtis) that reveals the cracks of her family and livelihood, Evelyn plunges into a multiversal war of “’verse jumpers” that puts the fate of every universe in her hands… This hardly describes the gag-a-minute, gleefully maximalist feature, whose high-wire achievement here is precisely in balancing the unwieldy tone promised by its title with a cinematically legible sense of infinity, all while issuing a profoundly emotional warning to our overstimulated present. An A24 release.

#447 - Albert Serra on Pacifiction & Dance on Camera Preview Feb 09, 2023

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This week on the Film at Lincoln Center podcast, we’re featuring a Q&A from the 60th New York Film Festival with director Albert Serra on Pacifiction, moderated by FLC’s Senior Director of Programming Florence Almozini, and a special programmers preview with the curators behind the 51st Dance on Camera Festival, taking place through Monday and featuring 30 new films from 35 countries. Get tickets to the longest-running dance film festival in the world at filmlinc.org/dance. Catalan filmmaker Albert Serra reconfirms his centrality in the contemporary cinematic landscape with this mesmerizing portrait of a French bureaucrat (a monumental Benoît Magimel) drifting through a fateful trip to a French Polynesian island with increasing anxiety. Pacifiction charts the various uneasy relationships that develop between Magimel’s autocratic yet avuncular High Commissioner, De Roller, and the Indigenous locals (including nonprofessional actor Pahoa Mahagafanau in a hypnotic breakthrough as De Roller’s trusted right hand and maybe lover) who operate essentially under his faux-benevolent thumb, many of whom we meet at a resort that caters to the prurient exoticism of foreign tourists. Serra’s gripping, atmospheric thriller is a slow-building fever dream that lulls before catching us by surprise with the depths of its darkness, a film that allows its incisive social commentary about the remnants of colonialism to surface through quiet observation and aesthetic audacity. Pacifiction opens February 17th in our theaters with in-person intros and Q&As with Serra on Feb. 17, 18 & 19. Get tickets at filmlinc.org/pacifiction.

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