Episode #5 - Bilge Ebiri (Barry Lyndon)

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“I’d like to think while I’m watching a film, I try and approach it on its own terms. I think to myself ‘What is the review this movie wants? And what is the review this movie is going to get?’ But really it’s about asking what is the ideal version of this movie? What is it trying to be and to what extent does it get there?”

            New York Magazine film critic Bilge Ebiri loves films that he can constantly revisit and pry deeper and deeper, so Peter has no problem prying into Bilge’s own head for his conversation on The Cinephiliacs. Bilge talks about his early exposure to the Hollywood New Wave in Turkey as a young boy, and then traces his cinephilia through his desires to trying to become a filmmaker (including working on a film by Nikita Mikhalkov) before finding his voice as a critic. The two then discuss his love of films that indulge their wildest pleasures, some of his favorite auteurs (a list that includes Terrence Malick and Christopher Nolan side by side), and his own feature film, New Guy. Finally, the two dive into the truly daunting task of investigating Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece Barry Lyndon and try and make sense of a film that asks us to identify with “The Past,” yet always undercuts and manifests itself as something even more audacious.

0:00-4:48 Opening / Establishing Shots – Film Vs. Digital

5:04-1:14:17 Deep Focus – Bilge Ebiri

1:15:13-1:45:31 Double Exposure – Barry Lyndon (Stanley Kubrick)

1:45:32-1:47:58 Close / Outtake

Read Bilge Ebiri at They Live By Night, Vulture, New York Magazine, Nashville Scene, Moving Image Source, and IFC.Com.

Order a DVD of New Guy on Amazon, or stream the movie with a subscription to Fandor.

Follow Bilge on Twitter.

Episode #2 - Matt Zoller Seitz (Born on the Fourth of July)

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“I’m a formalist in some ways and a humanist in others. Those two things don’t reconcile very easily. But ultimately, I don’t see my criticism as anything other than a personal response to what I happen to be writing about, and a lot of that is bound up in where you are in your life.”

Peter sits down with New York Magazine TV critic Matt Zoller Seitz to talk about the many different hats he has worn during his cinephile life, which have included film critic, pop culture journalist, filmmaker, video essayist, blogger, and more. Matt discusses growing up in Texas, discovering New York City, and dissecting some of his favorite filmmakers. The two explore his nature as both a film and TV critic, his discovery and love of video essays, and how The New World inspired one of the best film criticism blogs today. Finally, they dig into the Oliver Stone’s Born on the Fourth of July, which Matt explains as one of the quintessential great narratives about a man discovering his true self.

0:00-4:00 – Act One: Establishing Shots — Think Pieces on Aurora

4:10-52:30 – Act Two: Deep Focus – Matt Zoller Seitz

53:33-1:11:38 – Act Three: Double Exposure – Born on the Fourth of July (Oliver Stone)

Read Matt Zoller Setiz’s work at New York Magazine, Salon, Moving Image Source, L Magazine, NY Press, the New York Times, the Dallas Observer, Press Play, and The House Next Door.

Follow Matt on Twitter.