2017 Favorites With Keith Uhlich (Part 1 — Moments Out of Time)

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A love of cinema does not necessitate a love of a total work. Often it is a moment—a person, a camera movement, a lighting choice, or an emotional beat—that strikes us. When Peter and Keith discussed returning once again for their annual countdown, they decided that the first half of their lists should do something different. Instead of highlight their 6 through 10 picks for the year, they instead have chosen five "Moments Out Of Time" within often good (though perhaps bad) films that surprised, challenged, and delighted. With such a list, they discuss a plethora of topics, including a serious examination of the structures within Hollywood that have maintained and sustained diminishing standards under increasingly dubious and especially harmful authorities. Individual artists strive to rise above the system, and here, the two critics aim to find out why that is, and what could be done to uplift the system.

0:00-6:08  Opening
6:09-31:49 Picks for #5
31:50-56:49 Picks for #4
56:50-1:23:54 Picks for #3
1:25:08-1:28:10  Sponsorship Section
1:28:36-1:51:48  Picks for #2
1:51:49-2:18:07 Picks for #1
2:18:08-2:26:07 Repertory Picks of the Year

2:26:11-2:28:04 Close / Outtake

Let Us Now Praise Jacques Rivette

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"I care more about the grace of the actors’ gestures and the quality of their voices than what they actually do or say."

The names of the French New Wave have become staples for both French Cinema and beyond. The critics of Cahiers Du Cinema like Jean-Luc Godard, Francois Truffaut, and Eric Rohmer all turned to filmmaking to put into practice the meanings they had pulled from their valorization of Hollywood Cinema. But the most passionaite of those critics, and perhaps the most creative of those filmmakers was Jacques Rivette, who passed away on January 29th at the age of 87. In this new podcast, former guests of the show (Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, Miriam Bale, and Matt Prigge) join in a roundtable discussion of the critic and filmmaker. They analyze his films, his writings, and his attention to collaboration, all of which made him a wholly unique individual in the history of cinema. Torn between his obsessions with realism and fantasy, Rivette captured the essence of the medium's paradoxical specificity.

0:00-3:33 Opening

3:33-28:18 Rivette Discussion Part 1

29:00-33:09 Sponsorship Section
33:47-1:02:30 Rivette Discussion Part 2

1:02:34-1:05:07 Close / Outtakes

Read Dave Kehr's obituary of Jacques Rivette, and find numerous resources on the filmmaker at this website here.

Out 1 is available on Kino Lorber DVD and Fandor. Le Pont Du Nord is available from Kino Lorber. Duelle, Noroit, and Merry-Go-Round can be found on Blu-Ray in this Arrow Films Box Set. Paris Belongs To Us is available through Hulu+ and The Criterion Collection. L'Amour Fou is on YouTube.

Follow Our Guests on Twitter: Miriam Bale, Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, Matt Prigge.

Episode #72 - David Bordwell (Daisy Kenyon)

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"How much can we squeeze out if we treat films very simple? Sometimes going simple, even with complicated filmmakers, yields things that are often taken for granted."

Truffaut remarked there was cinema before Godard and cinema after Godard. The academic discipline of Film Studies could be said to have its own Godard in David Bordwell, the author of some of the most influential books in understanding the history of film style. In this sprawling conversation, David discusses his upbringing that led him to movies and his first steps in helping spearhead the neo-formalist movement of film criticism. He looks back at the formation of poetics, his role in thinking about the conventions that tell us a film story, the role of auteurism as problem-solvers, and how popular film criticism has influenced in his more recent work. They swing through conversations on art history, Jean-Luc Godard, new media, Hong Kong filmmaking, and Robin Wood. Finally, David and Peter discuss Daisy Kenyon, a 1947 Joan Crawford-Dana Andrews-Henry Fonda melodrama from Otto Preminger with so many radical choices in its delivery of narrative one might mistake it for being a subversive text, even if it's all convention.

0:00-2:40 Opening

3:27-10:22  Establishing Shots - Texture and Claire Denis
11:07-1:27:05 Deep Focus - David Bordwell

1:28:10-1:30:37 Mubi Sponsorship
1:32:20-1:52:00 Double Exposure - Daisy Kenyon (Otto Preminger)

1:52:02-1:56:23 Close

Read David Bordwell at Observations on Film Art alongside Kristin Thompson.
David's books include: Film Art: An Introduction, The Classical Hollywood Cinema, Ozu and the Poetics of Cinema, Planet Hong Kong, Figures Traced in Light, On The History of Film Style, Post Theory: Reconstructing Film Studies, Making Meaning: Inference and Rhetoric in the Interpretation of Cinema, Narration in the Fiction Film, Poetics of Cinema, 

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 #64 - Brandon Colvin (Hail Mary)

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"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. 

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.

Episode #39 - Phillip Lopate (Charulata)

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"What I've learned from all my writing, is I can take my character and make him be a guide that can go out and fetch the world...and he wanders into my film writing."

Phillip Lopate has been writing for over five decades on a number of subjects - New York, family, marriage, art - but his initial love was the movies. Having seen the New Wave arrive in New York first hand (as well as watch the tide recede), Phillip recounts the stories behind many of his most celebrated essays in this conversation with Peter. He maps out his cinephilia over the years, including finding spirituality through contemplative films, considering the possibility of an essay-film, and thinking through the paradox of making a films about marriage. Finally, the two look at a fascinating work by Indian director Satyajit Ray, Charulata, examining how Ray finds a fascinating tension between East and West in a parable of a tragic housewife, as well as some of the most gorgeously poetic sequences put to screen.

0:00-1:38 Opening 

2:31-9:32 Establishing Shots - Lau Kar-Leung / Donations

10:17-1:03:18 Deep Focus - Phillip Lopate

1:05:53-1:21:26 Double Exposure - Charulata (Satyajit Ray)

1:21:30-1:23:09 Close

Purchase a number of Phillip Lopate's books on Amazon, including Totally, Tenderly, Tragically, American Movie Critics: From Silents Until Now, and The Art of the Personal Essay.

Special Episode - Cannes Film Festival 2014

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The Cannes Film Festival has been the premiere location for the more masterworks in cinema than likely any other festival in the medium's history. And with its 67th iteration, Peter finally made it to the Croisette to see what the fuss was about. Thankfully, he was not alone, so in this special episode of the podcast, Keith Uhlich, Glenn Heath Jr., and Jordan Cronk join Peter to discuss some of the highlights that made a splash during their last day at the festival. From heavy-hitting works as far as Turkey and Mali, auteurs working with unexpected performers, and Jean-Luc Godard's 3D extravaganza, the festival provides more than enough fascinating material to simply scrape the surface of these enormous works. 

0:00-1:16 Opening

1:17-7:16 Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako)
7:52-14:22 Winter Sleep (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
14:23-20:05 Jauja (Lisandro Alonso)
20:55-30:04 Clouds of Sils Maria (Olivier Assyas)
30:57-37:15 Two Days, One Night (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)
37:16-48:28 National Gallery (Frederick Wiseman)
49:27-1:02:06 Goodbye to Language (Jean-Luc Godard)
1:02:08-1:14:12 Critics Picks
1:14:13-1:16:32 Close / Outtake

Read Keith Uhlich at Time Out New York, Glenn Heath Jr. at Fandor, and Jordan Cronk at Fandor and Reverse Shot.
Twitters: Keith, Glenn, Jordan.