Episode #67 - Adam Kempenaar (The World According To Garp)

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"Why we choose our favorites isn't because they're just good movies, but because they speak to something within us."

About 10 years ago, the word podcast would have often been lead by blank stares. Adam 
Kempenaar saw an article, and then got on the ground floor to begin Filmspotting, which has become the leading film discussion podcasts for the past decade (not to mention very influential in Peter's film upbringing). Peter sits down with Adam at Navy Pier to discuss his journey from Iowa to Chicago, and his motivation to talk films through that led to the creation of the podcast with Sam Van Hallgren. They discuss the necessity of structure and chemistry in creating a conversation, the show's exploration into classic films and blindspots, and Adam's obsession with the "Ecstatic Truth" in the collision of truth and fiction. Finally, the two visit an oddball—George Roy Hill's The World Acording to Garp with Robin Williams—and discuss how the film examines the creation of art in relation to life, and the necessity to flow between both.

0:00-2:14 Opening

3:07-9:02  Establishing Shots - Hasse Ekman at MoMA
9:47-1:22:42 Deep Focus - Adam Kempenaar

1:23:35-1:26:05 Mubi Sponsorship
1:27:17-1:51:54 Double Exposure - The World According to Garp (George Roy Hill)

1:51:58-1:54:17 Close / Outtakes

Listen to Adam on Filmspotting, and follow him on Twitter.

Episode #66 - Matthew Dessem (The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford)

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"I find these moments fascinating where a film might have been made but wasn't. I'm more interested in failure than success."

Matthew Dessem spent years observing the behind-the-scenes reality of Hollywood, so it's only natural that his book, The Gag Man, would take us behind the scenes of an essential collaborator to silent and sound comedians who all but disappeared behind the name of the stars. In this latest episode of the podcast, Dessem traces his movie upbringing to his eventual project searching through every piece of the Criterion canon, and eventually to his interest in exploring the legends of Hollywood that never made it, whether a screenplay or a collaboration. The two then go in depth on his new biography of Clyde Bruckman, a man with legendary credits but no legend until now. Finally, the two switch to a different legend, Brad Pitt's turn as the notorious outlaw and Casey Affleck as the man who shot him in The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford, which both embraces the mythology of the classic American genre, while also exposing it at its most ugly.

0:00-2:24 Opening

3:24-9:51  Establishing Shots - Mistress America
10:36-47:26 Deep Focus - Matthew Dessem

48:35-50:48 Mubi Sponsorship
51:42-1:08:37 Double Exposure - The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominick)

1:08:40-1:10:40 Close / Outtake 

Purchase The Gag Man through The Critical Press or Amazon. Check out Matthew's blog here, as well as his work for Slate and The Dissolve.