The Film Comment Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Boots Riley on I'm a Virgo Jun 27, 2023

Show notes

Musician, filmmaker, and wearer of (many) hats Boots Riley has a new series streaming on Amazon Prime Video, called I’m a Virgo. It’s as bizarre, serious, and original as his breakout feature, 2018’s Sorry to Bother You, a workplace comedy set in a telemarketing office that unfurls as a scathing satire of life under late capitalism. I’m a Virgo is also about the urgent need to redistribute wealth, though it begins as a strange, sweet coming-of-age tale about a 13-foot-tall Black man named Cootie, played by Jharrel Jerome. Having been raised in hiding by his protective aunt and uncle, Cootie stumbles, in the series's opening, into a world of drugs, sex, and radical politics with a ragtag crew of youngsters, navigating an Oakland that is only slightly more dystopian than reality. Riley draws on a wide range of sources, from comic books and superhero movies to T.V. commercials and socialist propaganda, for a tale that is as much a furious critique of the failures of capitalism as it is a rollicking joyride. (There’s also cameo from Slavoj Zizek.) Riey joined us for a wide-ranging conversation that touched on the CIA funding of Abstract Expressionism, the history of the Communist Party of the USA, the Writers Guild of America strike, and the challenge of making politically engaged art in an industry dominated by corporations.

The Art of Script Collecting, with Robert M. Rubin and Erin McGuirl Jun 21, 2023

Show notes

This week, we take a peek into the world of Robert M. Rubin, a New York–based collector of film scripts. An architectural and art historian by trade, Bob began buying rare and historical significant screenplays seriously in the 1990s, and has now amassed an archive of what he calls “exformation”—that is, the ephemera that was often discarded in the process of moviemaking, but now reveals hidden and forgotten histories. Film Comment editors Clinton Krute and Devika Girish sat down with Bob and bibliographer Erin McGuirl, who manages the collection, to leaf through some of these treasures. These include variant copies of classics like Citizen Kane and Notorious, editor Louis Lombardo’s working scripts for Robert Altman’s films, Ben Gazzara’s personal copies of the script for The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, and much more. They delved into the ways in which this material—with its pictures, notations, and scribbles—challenges our understanding of auteurism and sheds light on the crucial roles played by script supervisors, secretaries, and writers in Hollywood. Stay tuned for supplementary photos of the collection, included in this week’s edition of The Film Comment Letter. Subscribe here: https://www.filmcomment.com/newsletter-sign-up/

In Conversation with Trinh T. Minh-ha Jun 07, 2023

Show notes

You may know Trinh T. Minh-ha from her groundbreaking films, like Reassemblage (1982) and Sur Name Viet Given Name Nam (1989); from her foundational books, like Woman, Native, Other: Writing Postcoloniality on Feminism (1989) and When the Moon Waxes Red: Representation, Gender and Cultural Politics (1991); or her wide-ranging scholarship and multimedia projects, which have been presented at museums and institutions worldwide. In a body of work spanning decades, the multi-hyphenate theorist and artist has challenged and reshaped how we think of documentary, visual culture, feminism, nationalism, and race. A new artist book by Minh-ha, titled The Twofold Commitment, traces all of these threads in her film Forgetting Vietnam, which was released in 2015, 40 years after the end of the Vietnam War. Published by Primary Information, the book features the film’s script, paired with creatively arranged stills, as well as conversations between Minh-ha and various scholars. To mark the launch of The Twofold Commitment in May, Minh-ha joined us on the podcast for a rich discussion about the genesis of the book; the different functions of voice, text, and image in her practice; how she turns familiarity and alienness into productive ways of looking at the world; and more.

Cannes 2023 #9, with Justin Chang, Dennis Lim, and Rachel Rosen May 30, 2023

Show notes

If you've been following the podcast and the Film Comment Letter, you'll know that for the last two weeks, we've been reporting from the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. Before the festival ended last Sunday, Devika Girish, Co-Deputy Editor of FC, gathered Justin Chang, Dennis Lim, and Rachel Rosen—all of whom serve on the selection committee of the New York Film Festival—for a look back at the Cannes that was. As experienced festival veterans, the three reflected on the trends of this year's festival, including the preponderance of long films, experiments with historical representation, and hybrids of fiction and documentary. They also discussed some of the festival's late premieres, including films by Catherine Breillat and Hong Sangsoo. We hope you enjoy the conversation—and keep your eyes on filmcomment.com for more Cannes wrap coverage, coming later this week: https://www.filmcomment.com/blog/category/festivals/cannes/cannes-2023/

Cannes 2023 #8, with Caitlin Doherty, Frédéric Jaeger, and James Wham May 28, 2023

Show notes

Cannes 2023 has wrapped—and as news of standing ovations and walkouts, throwaway raves and pans, spit takes and hot takes flood the feed, we’ll be reporting on all the cinematic goings-on, with our on-the-Croisette crew of Film Comment contributors ready to cut through the noise with a series of thoughtful dispatches, interviews, and podcasts. As the tide of cinema ebbs from the shores of the Riviera, FC Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish was joined by Frédéric Jaeger (editor at critic.de and programmer), Caitlin Doherty (editor at the New Left Review), and critic James Wham to discuss later-day standouts including Alice Rohrwacher’s La chimera, Ken Loach’s The Old Oak, Wim Wenders’s Perfect Days, Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s About Dry Grasses, Tran Anh Hung’s The Pot-au-Feu, and more. Subscribe to the Film Comment Letter today for a steady stream of Cannes coverage, providing everything you need to know about the 2023 edition: www.filmcomment.com/newsletter-sign-up/

Cannes 2023 #7, with Mark Asch, Miriam Bale, and Kevin B. Lee May 25, 2023

Show notes

Cannes 2023 #6: Todd Haynes on May December May 24, 2023

Show notes

Cannes 2023 is here—and as news of standing ovations and walkouts, throwaway raves and pans, spit takes and hot takes flood the feed, we’ll be reporting on all the cinematic goings-on, with our on-the-Croisette crew of Film Comment contributors ready to cut through the noise with a series of thoughtful dispatches, interviews, and podcasts. On today’s episode, FC co-deputy editor Devika Girish is joined by Dennis Lim, Artistic Director of the New York Film Festival, for a special joint interview with Todd Haynes, whose new film, May December, is one of the unanimous favorites of this year’s lineup. The film was inspired by one of the great scandals of the 1990s: Julianne Moore plays Gracie, a woman who, twenty years ago, was convicted of having an affair with a 13-year-old, a lover (played by Charles Melton) with whom she now lives a cozy married life. Natalie Portman plays an actress who arrives at Gracie’s home to do research for a movie based on the affair and starts probing into the couple’s lives, slowly pulling down bother both their and her own façades. Haynes turns the tabloid-fodder source of the script into a remarkably witty, dark, and intelligent meditation on the ways in which we construct and consume identity. Devika and Dennis talked to Haynes about his references for the movie, his thoughts on the term camp, why he loves zooms, and much more. Subscribe to the Film Comment Letter today for a steady stream of Cannes coverage, providing everything you need to know about the 2023 edition: www.filmcomment.com/newsletter-sign-up/

Cannes 2023 #5, with Lovia Gyarkye, Abby Sun, and Kelli Weston May 23, 2023

Show notes

Cannes 2023 #4, with Jonathan Romney and Giovanni Marchini Camia May 22, 2023

Show notes

Cannes 2023 #3: Steve McQueen on Occupied City May 20, 2023

Show notes

On today’s episode, FC co-deputy editor Devika Girish sits down with Oscar-winning filmmaker Steve McQueen, whose new documentary Occupied City was one of the early standouts at the festival. It’s a more than four-hour opus that combines a voiceover drawn from a book written by Bianca Stigter, McQueen’s collaborator and spouse, about the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam, with footage of the city shot by McQueen in the last three years. The result is a haunting superimposition of the past and the present that makes us think about the ways in which the spaces we occupy today are resonant with history. Devika talked to McQueen about the genesis of the film, the experience of making it during the pandemic, and why it feels so crucial to revisit history right now. Subscribe to the Film Comment Letter today for a steady stream of Cannes coverage, providing everything you need to know about the 2023 edition: www.filmcomment.com/newsletter-sign-up/

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected