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

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"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.

2014 Favorites With Keith Uhlich (Part 2)

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"Those lacking in imagination take refuge in reality." So speaks the first line to one of the ten eleven films that appear on Part 2 of Peter Labuza and Keith Uhlich's countdown of the best films of 2014. And what better describes their choices than fantastical images—prehistoric beasts, dogs (talking and non-talking), magical lands, and even more magical loves—bringing us closer to truth. From the snowy peaks of Zubrowka, the peaceful beaches off the coast of France, and inside a female uterus, Keith and Peter search for films that transform the way they see the world. The truth can be tough to swallow ("Well that's depressing," as one character might say), but these films make seeing it all the better.

0:00-6:51 Opening / Voicemails

6:52-21:54 Picks for #5
21:55-43:16 Picks for #4
43:17-1:01:45 Picks for #3

1:02:44-1:04:12 Mubi Sponsorship - Melancholia

1:04:13-1:30:33 Picks for #2
1:30:34-1:52:51 Picks for #1
1:52:52-1:56:02 Close / Outtakes

Read Keith Uhlich at The AV Club, L Magazine, and To Be Cont'd.
Follow Keith on Twitter.