Film at Lincoln Center Podcast

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#367 - Céline Sciamma on Petite Maman Oct 10, 2021

Show notes

Welcome to the Film at Lincoln Center podcast! On today’s episode of our daily NYFF59 edition, NYFF Director Eugene Hernandez sits down with director Céline Sciamma to discuss Petite Maman, a selection in the Main Slate section of this year’s festival. Following such singular inquiries into gender as Tomboy, Girlhood, and Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Céline Sciamma proves again that she’s among the most accomplished and unpredictable of all contemporary French filmmakers with the gentle yet richly emotional time-bender Petite Maman. Following the death of her grandmother, 8-year-old Nelly (Joséphine Sanz) accompanies her parents to her mother’s childhood home to begin the difficult process of sorting and removing its cherished objects. While exploring the nearby woods, Nelly encounters a neighbor her own age, with whom she finds she has a remarkable amount in common. Sciamma’s scrupulously constructed jewel uses the most delicate of touches to palpate profound ideas about grief, memory, and the past. Learn more about NYFF59 at filmlinc.org/nyff

#366 - Pedro Almodóvar, Penélope Cruz & Milena Smit on Parallel Mothers Oct 09, 2021

Show notes

On today’s episode of our daily NYFF59 podcasts, NYFF Director Eugene Hernandez sits down with director Pedro Almodóvar and cast members Penélope Cruz and Milena Smit to discuss Parallel Mothers, the Closing Night selection of the 59th New York Film Festival. In this muted contemporary melodrama, two women, a generation apart, find themselves inextricably linked by their brief time together in a maternity ward. The circumstances that brought them to the Madrid hospital are quite different—one accidental, the other traumatic—and a secret, hiding the truth of the bond that connects these two, is a powerful story that tackles a deep trauma in Spanish history. Penélope Cruz’s Janis is a uniquely complex, flawed, but ultimately alluring lead character, who finds herself in a morally and emotionally treacherous situation. She’s viewed in contrast with Ana, radiantly portrayed by newcomer Milena Smit, a discovery who brings a palpable innocence, pain, and longing to this interwoven portrait of women and motherhood. These charismatic stars inhabit characters who are singular among those drawn by Almodóvar in a career defined by striking portraits of women. A Sony Pictures Classics release. Learn more about NYFF59 at filmlinc.org/nyff

#365 - Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Tilda Swinton on Memoria Oct 08, 2021

Show notes

On today’s episode of our daily NYFF59 podcasts, NYFF Director of Programming Dennis Lim sits down with director Apichatpong Weerasethakul and actress Tilda Swinton to discuss Memoria, a selection in the Main Slate section of this year’s festival. Collective and personal ghosts hover over every frame of Memoria, somehow the grandest yet most becalmed of Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s works. Inspired by the Thai director’s own memories and those of people he encountered while traveling across Colombia, the film follows Jessica (a wholly immersed Tilda Swinton), an expat botanist visiting her hospitalized sister in Bogotá; while there, she becomes ever more disturbed by an abyssal sound that haunts her sleepless nights and bleary-eyed days, compelling her to seek help in identifying its origins. Thus begins a personal journey that’s also historical excavation, in a film of profound serenity that, like Jessica’s sound, lodges itself in the viewer’s brain as it traverses city and country, climaxing in an extraordinary extended encounter with a rural farmer that exists on a precipice between life and death. Winner of the Jury Prize at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival. Explore what's playing at NYFF59 and get tickets at filmlinc.org/nyff.

#364 - Mike Mills, Joaquin Phoenix & Molly Webster on C'mon C'mon Oct 07, 2021

Show notes

On today’s episode of our daily NYFF59 podcasts, NYFF Director Eugene Hernandez sits down with director Mike Mills and actors Joaquin Phoenix and Molly Webster to discuss C’mon C’mon, a selection in the Spotlight section of this year’s festival. After gracing audiences with Beginners and 20th Century Women (NYFF54), writer-director Mike Mills returns with another warm, insightful, and gratifyingly askew portrait of American family life. A soulful Joaquin Phoenix plays Johnny, a kindhearted radio journalist deep into a project in which he interviews children across the U.S. about our world’s uncertain future. His sister, Viv (a marvelously intuitive Gaby Hoffmann), asks him to watch her 9-year-old son, Jesse (Woody Norman, in one of the most affecting breakout child performances in years), while she tends to the child’s father, who’s suffering from mental health issues. After agreeing, Johnny finds himself connecting with his nephew in ways he hadn’t expected, ultimately taking Jesse with him on a journey from Los Angeles to New York to New Orleans. Anchored by three remarkable actors, C’mon C’mon is a gentle yet impeccably crafted drama about coming to terms with personal trauma and historical legacies. An A24 release. Explore what's playing at NYFF59 and get tickets at filmlinc.org/nyff.

#363 - Gaspar Noé on Vortex Oct 06, 2021

Show notes

Welcome to the Film at Lincoln Center podcast! On today’s episode of our daily NYFF59 edition, NYFF Director of Programming Dennis Lim chats with filmmaker Gaspar Noé about his new film Vortex, a Main Slate selection of this year’s festival. Finding new depths of tenderness without forgoing the uncompromising fatalism that defines his work, Noé’s latest film guides us through a handful of dark days in the lives of an elderly couple in Paris: a retired psychiatrist (Françoise Lebrun) and a writer (Dario Argento) working on a book about the intersection of cinema and dreams. Explore what's playing at NYFF59 and get tickets at filmlinc.org/nyff.

#362 - Rebecca Hall, Tessa Thompson, Ruth Negga & André Holland on Passing Oct 05, 2021

Show notes

On today’s episode of our daily NYFF59 podcasts, NYFF Director Eugene Hernandez speaks with director Rebecca Hall and cast members Tessa Thompson, Ruth Negga, and André Holland about Passing, a Main Slate selection of the 59th New York Film Festival. A cornerstone work of Harlem Renaissance literature, Nella Larsen’s 1929 novel Passing is adapted to the screen with exquisite craft and skill by writer-director Rebecca Hall, who envelops the viewer in a bygone period that remains tragically present. The film’s extraordinary anchors are Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga, meticulous as middle-class Irene and Clare, reacquainted childhood friends whose lives have taken divergent paths. Clare has decided to “pass” as white to maintain her social standing, even hiding her identity from her racist white husband, John (Alexander Skarsgård); Irene, on the other hand, is married to a prominent Black doctor, Brian (André Holland), who is initially horrified at Clare’s choices. As the film progresses, and resentments and latent attractions bristle, Hall creates an increasingly claustrophobic world both constructed and destabilized by racism, identity performance, and sexual frustration, leading to a shocking conclusion. A Netflix release. Explore what's playing at NYFF59 and get tickets at filmlinc.org/nyff.

#361 - Wes Anderson and Cast on The French Dispatch Oct 04, 2021

Show notes

Welcome to the Film at Lincoln Center podcast! On today’s episode of our daily NYFF59 edition, NYFF Director Eugene Hernandez has a conversation with the team behind The French Dispatch: director Wes Anderson, producer Jeremy Dawson, and cast members Adrien Brody, Bill Murray, Steve Park, and Jason Schwartzman Zooming in from Spain, and cast members Anjelica Fellini, Lois Smith, Bob Balaban, Léa Seydoux, and Jeffrey Wright joining in person from New York. The French Dispatch is a selection in the Spotlight section of this year’s festival. Wes Anderson’s unmistakable cinematic style proves delightfully suited to periodical format in this missive from the eponymous expatriate journal. Brought to press by a corps of idiosyncratic correspondents, the issue includes reports on a criminal artist and his prison guard muse, student revolutionaries, and a memorable dinner with a police commissioner and his personal chef. As brimming with finely tuned texture as a juicy issue of a certain New York–based magazine to which the film pays homage, The French Dispatch features precision work from a full masthead of collaborators (including Bill Murray, Timothée Chalamet, Tilda Swinton, Benicio del Toro, Frances McDormand, and Jeffrey Wright), each propagating inventive dedication to detail. Explore what's playing at NYFF59 and get tickets at filmlinc.org/nyff.

#360 - Todd Haynes on The Velvet Underground Oct 03, 2021

Show notes

On today’s episode of our daily NYFF59 podcasts, NYFF Director Eugene Hernandez speaks with director Todd Haynes about The Velvet Underground, a Main Slate selection of the 59th New York Film Festival. The Velvet Underground opens in our theaters on Wednesday, October 13th. Tickets are now on sale. Given the ingeniously imagined musical worlds of Velvet Goldmine and I’m Not There, it should come as no surprise that Todd Haynes’s documentary about the seminal band The Velvet Underground mirrors its members’ experimentation and formal innovation. Combining contemporary interviews and archival documentation with newscasts, advertisements, and a trove of avant-garde film from the era, Haynes constructs a vibrant cinematic collage that is as much about New York of the ’60s and ’70s as it is about the rise and fall of the group that has been called as influential as the Beatles. Filmed with the cooperation of surviving band members, this multifaceted portrait folds in an array of participants in the creative scene’s cultures and subcultures. Tracing influences and affinities both personal and artistic, Haynes unearths rich detail about Andy Warhol, The Factory, Nico, and others, adding vivid context and texture that never diminish the ultimate enigma of the band’s power. An Apple release. Explore what's playing at NYFF59 and get tickets at filmlinc.org/nyff.

#359 - Jane Campion, Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst & More on The Power of the Dog Oct 02, 2021

Show notes

On today’s episode of our daily NYFF59 podcasts, NYFF Director of Programming Dennis Lim speaks with director Jane Campion, cast members Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Kodi Smit-McPhee, and cinematographer Ari Wegner about The Power of the Dog, the Main Slate Centerpiece selection of the 59th New York Film Festival. With The Power of the Dog, her first film in nearly twelve years, Jane Campion reaffirms her status as one of the world’s greatest—and most gratifyingly eccentric—filmmakers. A mesmerizing, psychologically rich variation on the American western, it tells the story a melancholy young widow (played by Kirsten Dunst) who marries a rancher in 1920s Montana, where she and her young son are tormented by her new husband’s sullen and bullying brother (played by Benedict Cumberbatch). To learn more and get tickets for this year's NYFF, taking place through October 10 indoors and outdoors throughout NYC, visit filmlinc.org/nyff

#358 - Maggie Gyllenhaal, Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson & More on The Lost Daughter Sep 30, 2021

Show notes

On today’s episode of our daily NYFF59 podcasts, NYFF Director of Programming Dennis Lim is joined by The Lost Daughter writer & director Maggie Gyllenhaal and cast members Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson, Jessie Buckley, Ed Harris, Paul Mescal, Peter Sarsgaard, and Dagmara Dominczyk to discuss their Spotlight selection of this year’s festival. The NYFF59 screenings of The Lost Daughter are presented by Citi. Based on the 2006 novel by Elena Ferrante, Gyllenhaal's screen adaptation stars Olivia Colman as Leda, a divorced professor on a solitary summer vacation who becomes intrigued and then oddly involved in the lives of another family she meets there. Our wide-ranging discussion covers everything from hometown filmmaker Gyllenhaal's initial fascination with Ferrante's four Neapolitan Novels to how she eventually assembled her incredible cast. Also discussed are Johnson's breaking down the unique motivations of her character, Nina, as the story progresses, and how Mescal prepared for his role, his very first in a motion picture. Explore what’s playing at NYFF and get tickets: https://filmlinc.org/nyff

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