Episode #87 - Fredrik Gustafsson (Great Expectations)

Click here to listen to the episode

"I like to write and study things that are less known."

You've probably seen Citizen Kane, but have you seen its Swedish lesbian equivalent made in the 1950s? Chances are you haven't even heard of it, nor the filmmaker behind it—Hasse Ekman. But for cinephile Fredrik Gustafsson, Ekman's ingenious and playful films represent some of the best of cinema, and he made it his mission to make them known through his new book, The Man from the Third Row. Hasse Ekman, Swedish Cinema and the Long Shadow of Ingmar Bergman. In the first episode of The Cinephiliacs Global Initiative, Fredrik joins the podcast from Stockholm to discuss his discovery of cinematic loves, his work and research at the Swedish Film Institute, and the many twisting and interesting narratives surrounding Ekman's varied career. Finally, the two look at a much too often neglected period of cinema—Britain in the postwar years—and examine the many cinematic devices David Lean uses to turn his Dickens adaptation of Great Expectations into a blissfully quixotic work of art.

0:00-6:07 Opening / The Cinephiliacs Global Initiative

7:22-13:10 Establishing Shots — 20th Century Women and Julieta

13:55-1:03:46 Deep Focus — Fredrik Gustafsson
1:04:33-1:06:59 Sponsorship Section
1:08:21-1:27:17 Double Exposure — Great Expectations (David Lean)
1:27:22-1:29:00 Close 

Episode #73 - Eddie Muller (Gun Crazy)

Click here to listen to the episode

"The more people who are involved in this, they'll open the film cans."

If one were to imagine the cinema of the 1940s, the likely images would be of lonely streets, men in trenchcoats, and slender blondes lighting cigarettes while drenched in shadow. The French coined a term for it: film noir, and since then it has been a gateway drug for many cinephiles interested in classical Hollywood's most lurid pictures. Eddie Muller has been called the Czar of Noir, and he deserves the title: he heads programming for Noir City, a San Francisco based film festival that presents the city with the best of noir movies, and then heads the Film Noir Foundation to discover those lost works that no one even knows. Eddie talks about his entrance into the world of film in SF's many rep screenings and his tutelage under avant-garde artists George Kuchar, before turning to writing about the world of grindhouse movies and this lost genre. Finally, Peter and Eddie look at one of the canonical films of this era, Gun Crazy, and explore the strange production story behind one of the most violent-obsessed movies ever made.

0:00-2:36 Opening

3:52-10:40  Establishing Shots - Lewis Klahr's Sixty Six / Garrel Giveaway Winners
11:25-55:06 Deep Focus - Eddie Muller

55:35-59:24 Sponsorship Section
1:00:27-1:22:36 Double Exposure - Gun Crazy (Joseph H Lewis)

1:22:41-1:24:36 Close / Outtake

Check out Eddie Muller's personal website, as well as the site for the Film Noir Foundation and Noir City.
Eddie's books include Grindhouse: The Forbidden World of Adults Only Cinema, Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir, The Art of Noir, and Gun Crazy: The Origin of American Outlaw Cinema.

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

Click here to listen to the episode

"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.