Episode #65 - Jim Healy (The Mind Reader)

Click here to listen to the episode

"I've been able to find audiences that want enriching films whether they're old or new."

What would you show to the public if you had access to one of the largest film archives in the world? For 9 years, Jim Healy had to figure that out as he served as the programmer at the George Eastman House in Rochester, NY, and now serves as the programmer for the UW Cinematheque in Madison. Jim traces his early years going to the movies with his brother Pat and his lucky break into programming at the Chicago International Film Festival. The two discuss the work he did at the archive and now serving the University as well as the public, the challenges of digital and 35mm, and how international audiences react to the work of John Cassavetes. Finally, Jim digs up an old treasure waiting for rediscover: The Mind Reader, a Warner Brothers Pre-Code classic with Warren William conning his way from circuses to Park Avenue. 

0:00-2:11 Opening

3:18-8:04  Establishing Shots - The Mend
8:50-1:02:01 Deep Focus - Jim Healy

1:02:52-1:05:08 Mubi Sponsorship
1:06:15-1:22:37 Double Exposure - The Mind Reader (Roy Del Ruth)

1:22:42-1:25:27 Close 

Jim Healy's web page, and the website for the UW Cinematheque Program.
The Mind Reader is streaming on YouTube and available as part of WB's "Forbidden Hollywood." 

Episode #64 - Brandon Colvin (Hail Mary)

Click here to listen to the episode

"I always think about filmmaking as trying to get it down to the most 

essential thing that has to be there."

What exactly is acting, and how can we pull apart its elements for our analysis? Madison-based cinephile Brandon Colvin has been trying to figure that out, whether through his academic studies, his programming, and most importantly, his own filmmaking. Colvin is the filmmaker behind two of the smallest but most unique films this side of American independent cinema, Frames and Sabbatical, and in this interview with Peter, discusses how he merged his own filmmaking interests with his academic interests, creating and exploring the relationship between directors and performers in the current landscape of today's films. Later, they dive into one of Jean-Luc Godard's most spiritual features, the aptly named Hail Mary, and talk through why this may be the most emotional film the French legend ever made.

0:00-2:20 Opening

3:10-7:54  Establishing Shots - Hill of Freedom
8:38-58:48 Deep Focus - Brandon Colvin

59:55-1:02:32 Mubi Sponsorship
1:03:41-1:21:42 Double Exposure - Hail Mary (Jean-Luc Godard)

1:21:48-1:24:37 Close 

Watch Sabbatical and Frames on Vimeo.
Check out the site for Brandon's production company, Moss Garden Films.
Follow Brandon on Twitter.
Hail Mary is available on Google Play, iTunes, and Blu-Ray. 

Episode #63 - Lea Jacobs (Only Angels Have Wings)

Click here to listen to the episode

"These delicate tolerances, which are what produce a good pace for a film, are something that all film creators live with."

So often we spend our time thinking about what we see in movies, that it can be easy to forget that cinema is experienced through time, and that experience depends on a tempo. Professor Lea Jacobs at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, has been curious about how rhythm creates film, and her new book, Film Rhythm After Sound, attempts to answer what it meant for movies to not just take on sound in the 1930s, but work through new types of interactions between shots, gestures, edits, sounds, speeds, and more. Jacobs also discusses her work on theatrical stage acting in the 1910s, understanding the Production Code as an industry as opposed to just a censor board, and the importance of historical research as part of Madison's legendary film department. Finally, the two dive into Howard Hawks's masterpiece, Only Angels Have Wings, and  theorize a relationship between the film's rhythmic patterns and its unique relationship to sentiment. 

0:00-2:19 Opening

2:58-8:31  Establishing Shots - Bojack Horseman, Season 2
9:16-1:02:36 Deep Focus - Lea Jacobs

1:03:16-1:05:31 Mubi Sponsorship
1:06:45-1:20:14 Double Exposure - Only Angels Have Wings (Howard Hawks)

1:20:19-1:21:57 Close 

Lea Jacob's homepage for UW Madison.
Read her books: The Wages of Sin: Censorship and the Fallen Woman Film, Theatre to Cinema: Stage Pictorialism and the Early Feature Film, The Decline of Sentiment: American Film in the 1920s, and Film Rhythm After Sound: Technology, Music,and Performance.