The Film Comment Podcast

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Families on Film Nov 21, 2018

Show notes

In marketing parlance, a “family film” has tended to mean an anodyne product, something that all could enjoy and that couldn't possibly offend anyone. For our latest Film Comment Podcast, we’re taking our cue instead from movies actually about families, with all of the love, mundanity, and cringing horror left intact. That includes not only Shoplifters—a new release from that auteur of the comforts and complications of home, Hirokazu Kore-eda—but also the likes of Jodie Foster’s Home for the Holidays, Orson Welles’s The Magnificent Ambersons, Yasujiro Ozu’s Equinox Flower, and a couple more that may surprise you. Film Comment’s Michael Koresky was joined for this discussion by K. Austin Collins of Vanity Fair; Aliza Ma, head programmer of Metrograph; and Farihah Zaman, filmmaker and FC contributor.

Ida Lupino Nov 14, 2018

Show notes

Ida Lupino was an original. A Warner Brothers star who went on to become an independent director, writer, and producer, Lupino holds a singular place in American film history, and she is currently the subject of an ongoing retrospective at New York’s Film Forum. On the latest Film Comment Podcast, I was joined by Farran Smith Nehme, critic and author of Missing Reels; and Sheila O’Malley, frequent FC contributor and critic at Rogerebert.com, to discuss the work of this legend, including films she starred in, such as Moontide (which O’Malley wrote about in the March/April issue of the magazine), and those she directed, such as the unforgettable The Hitchhiker and Outrage.

The Rep Report #1 Nov 09, 2018

Show notes

There’s an abundance of riches in movie houses across our fair city of New York—and, of course, beyond. We’ve long wanted to feature discussions among our contributors about the many options out there, and we‘re pleased to dive right in with the first of a new strand in the Film Comment Podcast family. In the first half, we go deep into the repertory side with Screen Slate’s John Dieringer and FC Contributing Editor (and Screen Slate board member) Nellie Killian, including titles by Margarethe von Trotta and the largely unknown James Robert Baker (Blonde Death); then, frequent FC contributors Sheila O’Malley and Nick Pinkerton glance across the slate of new and recent releases and give us their thoughts on such titles as Private Life, Burning, and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.

Sandi Tan (Shirkers) Nov 07, 2018

Show notes

“With Shirkers, Sandi Tan . . . revisits the long-lost footage from her unfinished narrative feature shot in Tan’s native Singapore in 1992, also called Shirkers, and in the process reckons with both why the film was never finished and how several relationships were forever changed in its wake,” Eric Hynes wrote in our March/April 2018 issue, about Sandi Tan’s Sundance prize-winning film. For our latest Film Comment Talk at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, Tan sat down to talk about her experience making Shirkers, joined by FC contributor Farihah Zaman, also a filmmaker. Shirkers opened October 26 and is available to view on Netflix.

Ghosts Oct 31, 2018

Show notes

Cinema and ghosts both offer the promise of life after death. On the latest Film Comment Podcast, just in time for Halloween, we talked about the fascinating role ghosts play in movies. We start with the 1940s, when ghosts seemed to exert a special hold on Hollywood cinema of wartime and postwar era. From there, it's off to the spooky races, all the way up to the 1970s and Personal Shopper and (the great) beyond. For this haunting discussion, I was joined by Imogen Sara Smith, critic and author of our Phantom Light column; and Michael Koresky, director of editorial and creative strategy at the Film Society of Lincoln Center.

Paul Dano and Richard Ford Oct 29, 2018

Show notes

Our latest Film Comment Talk brought together Paul Dano, director and co-writer of Wildlife, and Richard Ford, author of the book from which the film was adapted. It was a rare occasion in many ways, with Ford and Dano exchanging illuminating insights on writing and filming fiction. Film Comment columnist Eric Hynes, curator of film at the Museum of the Moving Image, moderated the conversation.

Peter Bogdanovich Oct 23, 2018

Show notes

As a chronicler of film history, director Peter Bogdanovich has assembled what amounts to an insider’s oral history of classic Hollywood, across books and films and assorted individual interviews. His documentary on the silent great Buster Keaton, aptly titled The Great Buster, is yet another important project, which opened earlier this month. But Bogdanovich himself surfaces this month in another piece of film history—Orson Welles’s The Other Side of the Wind, one of cinema’s most anticipated unfinished works, which will be released onNovember 2 after an extensive reconstruction effort. For a special interview episode of The Film Comment Podcast, Nick Pinkerton sat down with Bogdanovich for a conversation about Keaton, Welles, and more.

NYFF56 Festival Wrap Oct 17, 2018

Show notes

Toward the end of the New York Film Festival, our all-star team of Film Comment contributors came together to talk about the highlights. It was the third and final Film Comment Talk during the festival (following our Cinema of Experience event and our Filmmakers Chat, coming soon). You’ll hear all about Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Favourite, Barry Jenkins’s If Beale Street Could Talk, Claire Denis’s High Life, Alex Ross Perry’s Her Smell, the new Orson Welles reconstruction The Other Side of the Wind, and more. Film Comment Editor-in-Chief Nicolas Rapold was joined by Molly Haskell, author of the foundational text From Reverence to Rape and a Yale University monograph of Steven Spielberg; K. Austin Collins, film critic at Vanity Fair; Eric Hynes, film curator at the Museum of the Moving Image; Michael Koresky, the creative and editorial director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center; and Aliza Ma, head programmer of Metrograph.

NYFF56 Projections Oct 11, 2018

Show notes

For this week's podcast, we take a close look at Projections, the New York Film Festival’s program of experimental work from around the globe. Film Comment Editor-in-Chief Nicolas Rapold is joined by Nellie Killian, programmer and Film Comment contributing editor, and Becca Voelcker, doctoral student at Harvard and contributor, for a review of Projections highlights by Beatrice Gibson, Zachary Epcar, Jeremy Shaw, Sky Hopinka, and Laida Lertxundi, as well as the unique nature of the experimental film community.

NYFF56 Live: Cinema of Experience Oct 03, 2018

Show notes

The 56th New York Film Festival features three special Film Comment Talks, the first of which was our latest “Cinema of Experience” roundtable. On the occasion of our September/October cover featuring Burning star Steven Yeun—interviewed by Devika Girish about the notion of authenticity, and the excitement of working with director Lee Changdong—the focus of the talk was Asian and Asian American experience on and off screen. At the Film Society of Lincoln Center, I was joined by a stellar cast of commentators with an array of professional perspectives: Andrew Chan, web editor of the Criterion Collection; David Ninh, director of press and publicity; Genevieve Yue, assistant professor of culture and media at the New School; and Andrew Ahn, director of the film Spa Night. The 25th anniversary of The Joy Luck Club became the starting point for a thoughtful and movingly personal discussion. Stay tuned (or drop on by) for our next two talks: a chat with NYFF filmmakers and our critics' wrap-up of the films.

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