The Cinephiliacs

Latest Episodes:

TC #34 - Dana Stevens (Letter From An Unknown Woman) Mar 17, 2014

Show notes

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 Opening2:01-8:20 Establishing Shots - RIP Alain Resnais / Donations9:05-36:38 Deep Focus - Dana Stevens38:34-1:01:32 Double Exposure - Letter from an Unknown Woman (Max Ophuls)1:01:34-1:03:16 Close / Outtake

TC #33 - Kent Jones (Spawn of the North) Feb 24, 2014

Show notes

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 Opening2:47-8:47 Establishing Shots - John Ford's Young Mr. Lincoln / Donations9:32-1:16:20 Deep Focus - Kent Jones1:17:28-1:36:48 Double Exposure - Spawn of the North (Henry Hathaway)1:36:52-1:38:31 Close

TC #32 - Richard Peña (Memories of Underdevelopment) Feb 02, 2014

Show notes

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 Opening2:48-6:50 Establishing Shots - Alain Guiraudie8:42-51:03 Deep Focus - Richard Peña51:58-1:08:09 Double Exposure - Memories of Underdevelopment (Tomás Gutiérrez Alea)1:08:14-1:09:53 Close

TC #31 - Noah Isenberg (Ruthless) Jan 20, 2014

Show notes

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 Opening2:31-9:42 Establishing Shots - Los Angeles Plays Itself / Donations10:27-1:17:13 Deep Focus - Noah Isenberg1:18:12-1:36:35 Double Exposure - Ruthless (Edgar Ulmer)1:36:38-1:38:41 Close / Outtake

TC - 2013 Favorites (Part 2) Jan 05, 2014

Show notes

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 / Introduction2:53-11:58 Favorite Repertory Picks12:55-26:25 Picks for #528:33-1:05:20 Picks for #4-31:09:05-1:50:15 Picks for #2-11:50:20-1:51:59 Close

TC - 2013 Favorites (Part 1) Jan 03, 2014

Show notes

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 / Introduction2:04-33:11 Picks for #10-#935:00-1:07:49 Picks for #8-71:11:06-1:25:24 Picks for #61:25:25-1:37:01 Picks for Unreleased Films1:38:00-1:39:40 Close

TC #30 - Genevieve Yue (Café Lumière) Dec 23, 2013

Show notes

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 Opening2:24-7:32 Establishing Shots - George Cukor and Sylvia Scarlett / Sponsor8:17-59:15 Deep Focus - Genevieve Yue1:00:24-1:19:48 Double Exposure - Café Lumière (Hou Hsiao-Hsien)1:19:52-1:21:31 Close

TC #29 - Nellie Killian (Five Year Diary) Dec 09, 2013

Show notes

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 Opening2:27-6:55 Establishing Shots - Mauvais Sang / Donations7:40-1:04:33 Deep Focus - Nellie Killian1:06:01-1:22:28 Double Exposure - Five Year Diary (Anne Charlotte Roberton)1:22:32-1:24:47 Close / Outtake

TC #28 - Imogen Sara Smith (In A Lonely Place) Nov 18, 2013

Show notes

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 Opening2:15-5:12 Establishing Shots - In The Mouth of Madness5:28-10:18 Listener Feedback11:03-1:12:57 Deep Focus - Imogen Sara Smith1:13:56-1:36:45 Double Exposure - In A Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray)1:36:47-1:39:19 Close / Outtake

TC - Andrew Sarris Roundtable Oct 31, 2013

Show notes

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 Opening3:25-57:16 Sarris Roundtable (Part I)57:49-59:05 Advertisement1:00:06-1:23:22 Sarris Roundtable (Part II)1:23:25-1:25:17 Close / Outtake

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