Episode #82 - James Schamus (The Tall T)

 

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"When adapting, the fundamentals you are left with are the words and gestures and actions and interactions of characters."

How does one reconcile the ideas of artistry in cinema, the kind of magic of cinephilia that we see each time we look up at the screen, with the business practices that often painted as limiting it? James Schamus has somehow made a career of toeing this (likely constructed) dichotomy, helping produce some of the early independent films of the 1990s before becoming the co-founder of Focus Features, which made films like The Pianist, Atonement, Brokeback Mountain, and Moonrise Kingdom, as well as a collaborator of Ang Lee, writing the screenplays for The Ice Storm, Ride With The Devil, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. James discusses this work between the politics of making art for specialty audiences, as well as his interest in the very nature of art through his work as a theorist and professor at Columbia University. They then turn to his directorial debut, an adaptation of Philip Roth's Indignation, and what it means to modulate performance. Finally, the two discuss Budd Boetticher's 1957 hostage western The Tall T, and what a specialty art house producer can learn from watching Randolph Scott contemplate existence in this low budget western.

0:00-3:57 Opening
5:08-17:11 Establishing Shots — 4 Years of The Cinephiliacs

17:56-1:06:20 Deep Focus — James Schamus

1:07:21-1:11:32 Sponsorship Section

1:12:33-1:22:44 Double Exposure — The Tall T (Budd Boetticher)

1:22:50-1:27:00 Close // Outtake

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. 

Episode #48 - Alex Ross Perry (Husbands and Wives)

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"When you aren't planning where you are going, you end up somewhere peculiar."

When most directors talk about the films that influence their work, they might mention one of two obvious citations. For writer-director Alex Ross Perry, there are literally hundreds that can range all over the history of movies. The director of Impolex, The Color Wheel, and his audacious new film, Listen Up Philip, comes on the show to discuss his work ethic, his rounds on the repertory scene, and his breakthrough onto the growing microbudget cinema. Alex talks about the making of his three features and their roles in forming an alternative to mainstream independent cinema, and how breaking traditional models has led him to the most fruitful of territory. Finally, Alex discusses one of the major influences on Listen Up Philip—Woody Allen's anti-Woody Allen film Husbands and Wives. The two discuss how the aesthetic choices made here are radically thrilling in a way rarely shown otherwise by the director, or any filmmaker for that matter.

0:00-2:10 Opening

2:54-9:45 Establishing Shots - People's Park / Approaching The End

10:29-1:13:00 Deep Focus - Alex Ross Perry
1:13:59-1:15:37 Mubi Sponsorship - The Color Wheel and Wuthering Heights

1:16:50-1:35:51 Double Exposure - Husbands and Wives (Woody Allen)

1:35:55-1:37:48 Close / Outtakes

Listen Up Philip is now in theaters and on iTunes.
View The Color Wheel on iTunes and Amazon. Impolex has appeared on No Budge.
Husbands and Wives on Amazon.