Episode #58 - Fernando F. Croce (Once Upon A Honeymoon)

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"I think of films at these points where older films go into and newer films come out of."

Reading Fernando F. Croce's work, you get the sense that his criticism is more of an ode to the gods that create cinema than descriptions of moral material. They are filled with such romanticism and specificity that each line feels as intensely sculpted as the contours of a Bernini. So Peter was absolutely delighted to travel up to San Jose to talk about film with the Brazilian born critic, including the influence of Manny Farber, seeing art as a great unconscious that spills between films and beyond, and the two pillars that hold up this great art. The two then dive into the truly unique world of Once Upon A Honeymoon, a Leo McCarey romantic comedy following Cary Grant and Ginger Rodgers as they flee the Nazi invasion of Europe, creating a pathos that includes both sexual innuendo as well as sympathy for the plight of a soon to be exterminated people.

0:00-2:28 Opening

3:24-9:52 Establishing Shots - Rossellini's India: Matri Bhumi

10:37-53:20  Deep Focus - Fernando F Croce

54:05-56:40 Mubi Sponsorship - Boarding Gate and A Spell To Ward Off the Darkness

58:10 -1:24:36 Double Exposure - Once Upon A Honeymoon (Leo McCarey)

1:24:41-1:26:19 Close

Read Fernando F Croce at his website CinePassion, as well as on Slant, Mubi, Reverse Shot, and Keyframe Daily. Follow him on Twitter.
Watch Once Upon A Honeymoon on YouTube or Amazon.

Episode #17 - Vadim Rizov (Le Cercle Rouge)

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"When people are not sympathetic to a filmmaker, they will fall into a stance...I don't want to act like I'm saying things that are obvious to me and therefore they should be obvious to everyone else."

Strongly opinionated but never dogmatically so, the prolific Vadim Rizov ranks among the best of the new generation of cinephiles in Peter's opnion. So the young writer joins him to discuss his unique voice in the critical community. Vadim discusses his early forays into cinema at a young age, and how his frustrations with Austin's film scene led him to New York (only to more frustrations at NYU). The two then get into his fascinating writing style and how it stands against the majority of contemporary film writing, his interest in the evolving contemporary cinema, and why he goes back again and again to the True/False Film Festival. The two then dive into Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Cercle Rouge, a type of closed circuit movie that might be out of style with many cinephiles today, but is full of wondrous pleasures for those that pry its pieces apart.

0:00-1:05 Opening 

1:55 -5:50 Establishing Shots - Roberto Rossellini's Voyage to Italy / Trivia Round

6:34-56:56 Deep Focus - Vadim Rizov

57:49-1:20:04 Double Exposure - Le Cercle Rouge (Jean-Pierre Melville)

1:20:06-1:22:22 Close

Read Vadim Rizov at Letterboxd, Filmmaker Magazine, The AV Club, Green Screen Daily, Little White Lies, Film.Com, L Magazine, The Village Voice, Time Out, IFC.Com, and The House Next Door. (Sight and Sound is not online). More reviews via Rotten Tomatoes.

Follow Vadim on Twitter.