2018 Countdown With Keith Uhlich (Part 2)

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It's easy to claim art serves a purpose, but what exactly is that purpose? How do artists and critics reckon with the images, ideas, and worlds they've created—for better and worse? If art only builds a monument to itself, what value does that hold? In the second part of Peter and Keith Uhlich's look back at the year 2018 in movies, these questions come to the forefront. It's not just what art is but how it strikes us, how it is purposed (or repurposed), and how it becomes part of a dialogue. Though covering just one year of cinema, a list that expands back over a century. The big surprise: who topped their list with film and who topped it with television? Surprises abound in this invigorating discussion.

0:00–2:41 Opening
2:41–26:34 Picks for #5
26:34–41:40 Picks for #4
41:40–1:00:41 Picks for #3
1:01:20–1:03:59 Sponsorship Section
1:04:47–1:27:08 Picks for #2
1:27:08–1:30:02 Guest Picks
1:30:02–1:59:56 Picks for #1
1:59:56–2:04:39 Wrap Up 
2:05:36–2:08:35 Close / Outtake

Episode #108 - James Naremore (A Cottage on Dartmoor)

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"My cinephilia began with directors, and I still defend that old fashioned way of working."

When Peter first began studying criticism, one person seemed to have the aspirational career he wanted: James Naremore. Not only was he able to teach the history of cinema, but he had written some of the most influential books on Orson Welles, screen acting, and film noir. Now Professor Emeritus at Indiana University, Bloomington, Naremore continues to write and research while still blending a line between film criticism and film academia, but always with a rigor and appreciation that makes him entirely unique. James sits down with Peter to talk about going from English literature to film studies, to his appreciation of classical criticism, and the politics of writing a study of Charles Burnett. Finally, they talk about a rarity that few have seen: the 1929 British silent film A Cottage on Dartmoor, which represents one of the great "last breaths of silent techniques" before sound would change filmmaking, which even gets its own strange cameo in the movie!

0:00-4:10  Opening
5:12-11:34 Establishing Shots — Edmond O'Brien The Noirish Chameleon
12:18-49:18 Deep Focus — James Naremore
49:54-54:04  Sponsorship Section
54:47-1:08:48 Double Exposure — A Cottage on Dartmoor (Anthony Asquish)

1:08:53-1:10:31 Close 

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.