The Film Comment Podcast

Latest Episodes:

The Future of Attention, with Kamal Aljafari Aug 19, 2022

Show notes

At this year's Locarno Film Festival, Film Comment Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish participated in a fascinating experimental event called “The Future of Attention”, curated by Rafael Dernbach, a researcher at the Universita della Svizzera italiana. A continuous 24-hour live talk moderated by three hosts—including Devika—and involving a new guest each hour, the event began at noon on August 10 and went on all the way to noon on August 11. Attendees were invited to sit, lounge, or even sleep in the audience as and when they wished. The idea was to not just discuss the workings of attention in contemporary film and media culture, but also to actively experience and challenge the various forms our attention may take over a sustained period of time. Over the next two weeks, we’ll be sharing excerpts from Devika's hosting shift at the event, which featured some exciting guests: filmmakers Helena Wittmann and Kamal Aljafari; curator Giovanni Carmine; this year's Golden Leopard–winner, Julia Murat; artist Hito Steyerl; and scholars Kevin B. Lee and Noa Levin, among others. Today's episode features Aljafari, who discusses his new short, Paradiso XXXI, 108, and the ways in which his filmmaking draws attention to what he calls the “camera of the dispossessed.”

The Future of Attention, with Helena Wittmann Aug 17, 2022

Show notes

At this year's Locarno Film Festival, Film Comment Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish participated in a fascinating experimental event called “The Future of Attention”, curated by Rafael Dernbach, a researcher at the Universita della Svizzera Italiana. A continuous 24-hour live talk moderated by three hosts—including Devika—and involving a new guest each hour, the event began at noon on August 10 and went on all the way to noon on August 11. Attendees were invited to sit, lounge, or even sleep in the audience as and when they wished. The idea was to not just discuss the workings of attention in contemporary film and media culture, but also to actively experience and challenge the various forms our attention may take over a sustained period of time. Over the next two weeks, we’ll be sharing excerpts from Devika's hosting shift at the event, which featured some exciting guests: filmmakers Helena Wittmann and Kamal Aljafari; curator Giovanni Carmine; this year's Golden Leopard–winner, Julia Murat; artist Hito Steyerl; and scholars Kevin B. Lee and Noa Levin, among others. First up is Wittmann, who talks about her new film, Human Flowers of Flesh, and the ways in which her practice is rooted in embodied and communal experiences of time and space. Check back here for our next episode from “The Future of Attention” at the Locarno Film Festival, featuring Kamal Aljafari.

Irma Vep and The Rehearsal, with Adam Nayman and Beatrice Loayza Aug 04, 2022

Show notes

This week's podcast initially began as a sequel to our episode about Irma Vep from a few weeks ago, in which Adam Nayman and Beatrice Loayza joined us to discuss Olivier Assayas's new HBO series. We had only seen four episodes at the time, and we wanted to reconvene our guests, now that the miniseries has finished its run of eight episodes. But as we dug into the film-within-a-film rabbit holes of Irma Vep, its commentaries on auteurism and autofiction, and how it blurs the lines between reality, narrative, and fantasy, we realized that it echoed the themes of another series everyone has been talking about recently: The Rehearsal, by Nathan Fielder. So this episode brings you a double dose of meta: Irma Vep and The Rehearsal, and the ethics of making movies about oneself, other people, and movie-making itself.

Nathaniel Dorsky & Jerome Hiler on NYC's Underground Cinema Jul 27, 2022

Show notes

This week we have a special treat for listeners: a conversation with avant-garde filmmaking legends Nathaniel Dorsky and Jerome Hiler, and programmer and Light Industry co-founder Thomas Beard. Thomas, along with Film at Lincoln Center programmer Dan Sullivan, has curated New York, 1962–1964: Underground and Experimental Cinema, an upcoming series spotlighting the rise of what Jonas Mekas described as the "New American Cinema." Opening on July 29, the series takes place in conjunction with related programs at the Jewish Museum and Film Forum. In a wide-ranging conversation about a pivotal moment in American film history, Dorsky—whose Ingreen (1964) screens as part of the FLC series—and Hiler regaled us with anecdotes about their partnership in life and filmmaking, the state of moviegoing and movie-making in the New York of the '60s, and the culture-shifting exploits of Jonas Mekas, Gregory J. Markopoulous, Stan Brakhage, Bruce Connor, and others. We also chatted about Hiler's fascinating in-progress project about medieval stained glass, "Cinema Before 1300," and a new book, Illuminated Hours. Nathaniel Dorsky and Jerome Hiler, which was published in Spanish earlier this year and will be available soon in English.

Restoration and preservation with Ina Archer and Shivendra Singh Dungarpur Jul 19, 2022

Show notes

In a recent Film Comment Letter interview, Academy Film Archive preservationist Mark Toscano said: “to me, restoration has a variable definition, because it’s not embodying any specific technique or approach. It is more of a conceptual process by which you’re making sure that the film retains its qualities as a work that was made by a person—especially experimental work made by an individual.” Film Comment editors Clinton Krute and Devika Girish wanted to dig a little deeper into Mark’s comments, and into the technically and philosophically challenging ins and outs of film preservation and restoration, so they invited two experts to join the podcast and guide them through the subject: critic and media conservator Ina Archer and Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, founder and director of the Film Heritage Foundation. Both also provide details on some exciting projects they’re engaged in: Ina talks about preserving Robert Goodwin’s independent blaxploitation flick Black Chariot and Jessie Maple’s 1981 drama Will, while Shivendra breaks down the restorations of two major works by Indian filmmaker Govindan Aravindan, Kummatty and Thamp̄.

Cinematographer Hélène Louvart on Murina and more Jul 12, 2022

Show notes

This week, Film Comment editors Clinton Krute and Devika Girish talk to a cinematographer who’s worked with everyone from Agnès Varda to Wim Wenders to Eliza Hittman to Alice Rohrwacher. Over the last three decades, Hélène Louvart has acquired a reputation for her gorgeous lensing of women’s stories and her ability to capture movement with rare immediacy and grace. Hélène’s talents are on striking display in Murina, a new coming-of-age film directed by Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic. Murina tells the story of a Croatian teen (played by newcomer Gracija Filipović) navigating a treacherous passage to adulthood in an intensely patriarchal milieu. With intimate close-ups, breathtaking underwater sequences, and beautiful shots of the island where the film is set, Hélène’s images give arresting form to the protagonist’s awakening to her own desires. The cinematographer called in from her home in Paris to talk about how she crafted the film’s visual language, the care required to capture women as both subjects and objects of the gaze, and the technical challenges and pleasures of shooting underwater.

Movie Gifts with Nathan Lee and Gavin Smith Jun 28, 2022

Show notes

This week sees another episode of our Movie Gifts podcast. It’s like Secret Santa but for movies—each participant picks a title for another that the recipient hasn’t seen. It’s a fun way to share enthusiasms and gain new insights on old favorites. For this round, Film Comment co-deputy editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute invited FC contributor Nathan Lee and former FC editor Gavin Smith, two longtime friends, who were eager to assign each other movies. For Gavin, Nathan selected Paul W. S. Anderson’s action-packed 2008 remake Death Race. For Nathan, Gavin chose Larry Cohen’s 1976 apocalyptic sci-fi stunner God Told Me To. Devika and Clint were a little less considerate to each other: Clint gifted Devika the toxic 1979 football drama North Dallas Forty, while Devika gifted Clint her childhood favorite, Baby’s Day Out, a madcap live-action cartoon about a sadistic baby running wild in the streets. Movie Gifts, or Movie Torture? Listen to find out. MUBI is offering a 30-day free trial for all Film Comment listeners. Get access to the special offer here: https://mubi.com/promos/flc?utm_source=film%20at%20lincoln%20center&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=us_mubigo_flcargento_filmcomment And be sure to learn more about how you can get a free ticket to a theater each week with MUBI GO, included with your subscription, here: https://mubi.com/go/us?utm_source=film%20at%20lincoln%20center&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=us_mubigo_flcargento_filmcomment

Top Gun and Nationalist Cinema with Blair McClendon and Ed Halter Jun 21, 2022

Show notes

Today’s podcast is spurred by something Film Comment Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish wrote in her dispatch from Cannes a few weeks ago: “the undeniable thrills and pleasures of Top Gun: Maverick … are not entirely separable from the American-exceptionalist fervor of its narrative or the military resources poured into its making. It isn’t “a good film but with bad politics”; it’s a good film in part because of its bad politics.” This thought was the catalyst for on ongoing conversation about the questions Tom Cruise’s world-dominating blockbuster raises—about nationalistic movies, star power, and the responsibilities of criticism and cinephilia. So this week, Devika and her fellow Co-Deputy Editor Clinton Krute invited two ideal interlocutors to join the conversation and help pick apart the Top Gun phenomenon: editor and critic Blair McClendon, and Ed Halter, whose brilliant review of the sequel appeared in 4Columns.

Olivier Assayas's Irma Vep with Adam Nayman and Beatrice Loayza Jun 14, 2022

Show notes

Two episodes in, Olivier Assayas’s new, mind-bendingly metatextual HBO series, Irma Vep, has already proven to be catnip for cinephiles. An audacious expansion and reinvention of Assayas's 1996 film of the same title—in which an aging French filmmaker attempts to remake Louis Feuillade’s classic silent serial, Les vampires, with Maggie Cheung as the criminal vamp Irma Vep—the eight-part series features a nearly dizzying mise-en-abyme structure. Here, a neurotic filmmaker (seemingly modeled on Assayas) recreates Feuillade’s serial for a contemporary, binge-TV audience. Alicia Vikander plays Mira Harberg, an American pop heroine who is cast as Irma Vep among a glossy, transnational crew of actors. In the four episodes available to critics so far, Irma Vep engages with its multiple sources, its medium, and the lives of its creators in increasingly surprising and thought-provoking ways. On this week’s podcast, Film Comment editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute invited critics Adam Nayman and Beatrice Loayza to dig into the series’ endless rabbit holes and riffs on the history of serials, cinema, and, err, "content."

Léa Seydoux on Crimes of the Future and One Fine Morning May 31, 2022

Show notes

Léa Seydoux had an enviable and prolific 2021 with standout turns in Cary Fukunaga’s No Time to Die, Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch, Ildikó Enyedi’s The Story of My Wife, Bruno Dumont’s France, and Arnaud Desplechin’s Deception. At this year’s Cannes, she continued her streak with starring roles in two excellent, very different movies: One Fine Morning by Mia Hansen-Løve, where Seydoux plays a young mother grieving the cognitive decline of her father; and Crimes of the Future by David Cronenberg, where the actress is a dystopian performance artist alongside Viggo Mortensen. For our latest podcast, Film Comment Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish sat down with Seydoux for a windswept conversation on a rooftop on the Croisette (with a surprise cameo by Viggo Mortensen!). Seydoux discussed her experiences working with Hansen-Løve and Cronenberg, the intricacies of being an object versus a subject as an actor, her thoughts on beauty in cinema, and more.

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