Episode #71 - Kristin Thompson (How Green Was My Valley)

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"You always start with saying, 'What is this film trying to do?'"

If you've taken a film studies course in the last couple decades, you likely came across Film Art on the required book purchases. Chances are you first learned how to investigate the structure of a film (narrative, editing, mise-en-scene, sound, etc) before learning how to recognize ideology, or apply psychoanalytic theories. Wherever one's interest lie in looking at cinema, the work by film scholar Kristin Thompson over the last four decades has provided intensive groundwork into looking at Hollywood cinema's most intuitive principles and beyond. Kristin sits down to traces her entrance into academic film studies and developing a method for understanding form as adapted from Russian theories, the history of classical structure as developed by Hollywood and its legacy both abroad in the silent era and continuing into even today's so-called "VFX-driven" movies, and her work on The Lord of the Rings franchise and its game-changing success in the new century. Finally, the two sit down to look at John Ford's How Green Was My Valley, which employs unique methods of narrative strategy and compositional staging to create a poetic "three-hankie picture" (and well deserving of its 1941 Oscar).

0:00-3:03 Opening

4:21-11:36  Establishing Shots - Manhunter
12:21-58:18 Deep Focus - Kristin Thompson

59:27-1:02:07 Mubi Sponsorship
1:03:49-1:22:27 Double Exposure - How Green Was My Valley (John Ford)

1:22:31-1:24:09 Close

Read Kristin Thompson at Observations on Film Art alongside David Bordwell.
Kristin's books include: Film Art: An Introduction, The Classical Hollywood Cinema, Breaking the Glass Armor,  Storytelling in New Hollywood, The Frodo Franchise, Eisenstein's Ivan The Terrible, Exporting Entertainment, and Herr Lubistch Goes to Hollywood.

Episode #70 - Jonathan Rosenbaum (Out 1)

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"The role of criticism was to improve the discourse, but as an intermediary function. The discourse around a film begins before the critic comes along, continues after the critic leaves. But if the critic is doing something right, more avenues are opened up.""

Dedicated listeners of The Cinephiliacs may be familiar with the phrase, "And then I discovered Jonathan Rosenbaum's writing," as countless cinephiles have been inspired by his many words in the Chicago Reader and beyond. Thus, this latest episode of the podcast interviews the man who championed films beyond the canon, exploring cinema through an essayistic, often deeply personal love for the movies. Jonathan discusses his upbringing in Alabama, seeing the French New Wave from the front lines, a short dip into academia, and his role in looking at the strange world of taste culture and its ties to the Hollywood industry. Then, the two dive into the recently restored mammoth of a film that has been waiting to enter the canon: Jacques Rivette's 13 hour Out 1. They discuss this work of connections in post-May '68 Paris that may or may not be a secret Balzac-influenced conspiracy, engaging the viewer to find the fiction in the documentary and the documentary in the fiction.

0:00-2:48 Opening

3:20-11:31  Establishing Shots - Reviews from AFI Fest
12:17-1:02:55 Deep Focus - Jonathan Rosenbaum

1:03:48-1:05:28 Mubi Sponsorship
1:06:32-1:31:10 Double Exposure - Out 1 (Jacques Rivette)

1:31:14-1:33:59 Close / Outtakes

Read Jonathan Rosenbaum's collected work on his website and a page with links to all of his publications.
Jacques Rivette's Out 1 will soon be playing London. Other screening info is here. More info on the UK box set release from Arrow Films and the upcoming US release from Kino Lorber.

 

Episode #69 - Glenn Heath Jr. (Dead Man)

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"A regional film festival forces you to realize that you aren't programming for yourself but to your audience, yet at the same time you want to challenge that audience."

Some film festivals have an easy time when their mission is set on any and all new movies with premieres from around the world. But how do you program for a niche? Glenn Heath Jr. works as the Managing Director for the Pacific Arts Movement, which is returning with another iteration of the San Diego Asian Film Festival. Some of the names will be familiar to cinephiles: Johnnie To, Sion Sono, Apichatpong Weerasethakul. But what about the big blockbusters that never come to American shores, or the Asian American filmmakers waiting to be discovered? Glenn talks about the delights and challenges of working on such a festival, as well as his work in film criticism in writing about lost and forgotten films while never throwing down the gauntlet. Finally, the two wrap up their conversation by turning to Jim Jarmusch's 1995 acid western Dead Man, and explore why the film's poetic tone and awkward humor allow it to transcend beyond a "revisionist western." Plus, excerpts from an interview with acclaimed Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-Hsien, who has returned to screens with his contemplative wuxia epic The Assassin.

0:00-3:35 Opening

4:30-12:42  Establishing Shots - Hou Hsiao-Hsien discusses The Assassin
13:27-1:12:03 Deep Focus - Glenn Heath Jr.

1:12:42-1:15:15 Mubi Sponsorship
1:16:20-1:46:09 Double Exposure - Dead Man (Jim Jarmusch)

1:46:13-1:47:51 Close 

Read Glenn Heath Jr. at San Diego City Beat, Slant Magazine, Mubi, Fandor, Little White Lies, Reverse Shot, The Brooklyn Rail, NotComing.Com, and his blog, Match Cuts.
More about the Pacific Arts Movement and this year's San Diego Asian Film Festival.
Follow Glenn on Twitter.