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 #40 - Michael Koresky (The Seventh Victim)

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"We decided there should a publication for a younger generation of film writers."

It would probably take days to count the number of film publications that launched in the early years of the current millennium, but Reverse Shot, which Michael Koresky co-founded, has been a cornerstone of intelligent and dynamic film writing for over a decade now. Peter sits down with Michael to chart out the publication's origins, the voice the site created, Michael's own work with the Criterion Collection, and his upcoming book on British director Terrence Davies. Finally, the two examine the nothing-else-like-it horror film, The Seventh Victim, a Val Lewton produced existential drama that manages to bring chills down both their spines with one little phrase: "death is good."

0:00-1:36 Opening 

2:24-8:40 Establishing Shots - BAMCinemafest (Ellie Lumme and Something, Anything)

9:25-54:02 Deep Focus - Michael Koresky

56:48-1:11:49 Double Exposure - The Seventh Victim (Mark Robson)

1:11:53-1:13:32 Close

Read Michael Koresky at Reverse Shot and at The Criterion Collection. Pre-Order his book on Terence Davies.

Episode #15 - Ignatiy Vishnevetsky (The Moderns)

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"If you see something or notice something in an image, you kind of have to go after it. To me, that's the essence of criticism. It's not really for the squeamish or the prudish. If something looks like something, you have to say it, and you have to think it, and you have to think it through."

In 2011, a young cinephile named Ignatiy Vishnevetsky became the poster boy for new cinephilia during the return of Roger Ebert's At the Movies. But there's much more to Mubi's esoteric and erudite critic than his days on public television. Recorded over two snowy Chicago days in January, Peter sits down with Ignaty to discuss how his Russian heritage influenced the way he watches movies, his interactions with the video store, and his very twisted process to writing criticism. They also discuss his obsession with images in 21st century filmmaking and cinephilia, the rise of vulgar auteurism, and the moral guidance than drives his writing. Finally, Ignatiy introduces Peter to the intoxicating world of Alan Rudolph through his impressionist work The Moderns, a film that might long for an image of the past, but asks us to question the context in which we view them.

0:00-4:59 Opening / Establishing Shots - The Essential Narrative

5:00-7:52 Trivia Round / Donations

8:38-1:31:02 Deep Focus - Ignatiy Vishnevetsky

1:31:50-1:59:52 Double Exposure - The Moderns (Alan Rudolph)

1:59:54-2:01:47 Close / Outtakes

Read Ignatiy's work on Mubi, Cine-File, the Chicago Reader, and his blog Sounds, Images. View episodes of Roger Ebert's At the Movies.

Follow Ignatiy on Twitter.

Episode #4 - Keith Uhlich (The Truth About Charlie)

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"I feel like there's all these voices out there, and I want to keep contributing my voice…I think the way film criticism survives in this uncertain landscape is by building a community. As long as you have a strong community of people – not necessarily like-minded on the same films – but people who accept that film criticism is an art that is well worth preserving and keeping around. I’m heartened by the number of different voices I see."

For a film critic who has to keep his reviews under 250 words, Time Out New York staff writer Keith Uhlich has quite a lot to say as he joins Peter for the podcast. Keith explains how he originally got the cinephile bug watching films like Popeye and Spaceballs, as well as his frustrations in making his own films at NYU. They then dive in deep to Keith's unique writing process and spar a bit over some of his more oddball opinions (a love of The Black Dahlia, anger toward Steven Soderbergh). Keith also explains his frustrations over the current state of independent LBGTQ cinema (never have the words “Fuck you, Tom Ford” been spoken with such force). Finally, the two discuss Jonathan Demme’s The Truth About Charlie, an often maligned remake of Charade that inspires both of them for its visual appreciation of Paris and its overlooked humanism.

0:00-4:50 - Opening/Act One: Establishing Shots - Remembering Tony Scott

5:05-1:40:50 - Act Two: Deep Focus - Keith Uhlich
1:41:40-2:06:18 - Act Three: Double Exposure - The Truth About Charlie (Jonathan Demme)
2:06:20-2:08:00 - Close/Outtake

Read Keith Uhlich at Time Out New York, Slant Magazine, The House of Next Door, Senses of Cinema, and Reverse Show. Also read his haiku reviews on Letterboxd.

Follow Keith on Twitter.