Ep. 525 – Poor Things (with Hannah Strong) The Film Stage Presents podcast

1:56:27

Welcome to The B-Side! Here we talk about movie directors! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between. Today we talk about two American icons: Joel and Ethan Coen. Our guest is an icon all his own: Stephen Sajdak from the We Hate Movies podcast! We discuss the B-Sides The Hudsucker Proxy, The Man Who Wasn't There, Intolerable Cruelty, and Burn After Reading. There’s also time given to their remake The Ladykillers. We make many references to Adam Nayman’s well-researched and well-considered book The Coen Brothers This Book Really Ties the Films Together, explore the critical success the filmmakers had with Fargo, and how they filmed The Man Who Wasn't There in color and then printed it to black-and-white film. Other topics include the Coen Brothers’ film Hail Caesar! and their childhood fascination with biblical epics like Quo Vadis, their amazing commentary on The Man Who Wasn’t There disc, Spielberg’s advice to George Clooney on how to become a movie star, or that time Clooney recalled being bewildered that Quentin Tarantino thought the two of them looked alike while they were promoting From Dusk Till Dawn. Finally, Tracy Zooms In comes up (obviously), the new Barry Levinson gangster picture The Alto Knights, and the James Gandolfini holiday picture Surviving Christmas.…

The Film Stage Presents

1
Emulsion Ep. 4 - Zach Lewis on Henry Fonda for President 50:22

14 дней назад50:22

50:22

Alexander Horwath's Henry Fonda for President stands among the most notable releases of a still-young year, is certainly the most lauded essay film in recent memory, and was assuredly of personal interest when my friend Zach Lewis offered his approval. As adventurous and open-minded a cinephile as any I know, Zach has equal-parts interest in both the films of Henry Fonda and essayistic, landscape-centered cinema––some Thom Anderson or Harun Farocki come to mind with the former, James Benning the latter––in which Horwath is trading here. I couldn't have been happier to connect with him to discuss the film, and hope our chat is fruitful for you in turn.…

The Film Stage Presents

1
The Encampments Director on Documenting Pro-Palestine Protests 19:01

15 дней назад19:01

19:01

An essential document of a moment in time for a story very much still unfolding, The Encampments is a thorough, engrossing portrait of the Gaza Solidarity Encampment. Beginning in April 2024, the protest was formed by Columbia University students who called for their university to divest from U.S. and Israeli weapons companies that are aiding in the deaths of thousands upon thousands of Palestinian people. Following an opening weekend that resulted in the highest-grossing per-theater average for a documentary in history, Michael T. Workman and Kei Pritsker's film now playing in theaters nationwide. As The Film Stage's Editor-in-Chief Jordan Raup in his review, "With insights from those most directly involved in the protests––including many now fearing for their safety and future as America’s newly instated fascist regime continues to strip rights––the documentary becomes a sobering, infuriating look at the dismantling of free speech and nefarious, calculated ways those in power will go to any lengths to silence those that are of opposing interests. Rather than employing a bleak view of persistent struggle, directors Michael T. Workman and Kei Pritsker find the unfolding story’s hope and inspiration, crafting a powerful, clarifying portrait of collective action. As other universities and organizations drew inspiration, we witness how small acts of courage can cause ripple effects worldwide." Jordan had the opportunity to speak with Pritsker about being trusted to film from inside the encampment, why it was important to show a side that mainstream media wasn't portraying, inviting those with opposing views to watch the film and judge for themselves, the corporatization of universities, fast-tracking the theatrical release, and dedicating his life to the Palestinian struggle.…

The Film Stage Presents

1
Emulsion Ep. 3 - Edward McCarry on Shinji Somai and Love Hotel 38:39

22 дня назад38:39

38:39

The restoration and release of Shinji Somai's Love Hotel is no small occasion, and dovetails nicely with this show's ambition to speak with people outside the well-known confines of film culture. Thus this new episode is an interview with Edward McCarry, whose work at Cinema Guild has made the Japanese master, by leagues and bounds, more accessible than was ever thought possible. In our conversation, McCarry shares his passion for Somai, the thrill of sharing his films with larger audiences, some particulars of successfully marketing work with so little commercial imprint, and a preview of the next filmmakers Cinema Guild hopes to give a greater platform.…

The Film Stage Presents

1
The B-Side – Remembering Val Kilmer 2:08:40

22 дня назад2:08:40

2:08:40

In honor of the legendary Val Kilmer, who has passed away at the age of 65, we're sharing The B-Side's episode from 2022 discussing his career and most overlooked films. Subscribe to The B-Side: https://pod.link/520164968 See the original description below: Today, we discuss one of the most intriguing actors of his generation: Val Kilmer! To tackle such an enigma, we bring in the legendary Katie Walsh! A must-follow on Twitter, a co-host of the insatiably-entertaining Miami Nice Podcast, and an accomplished writer. The B-Sides featured today are: Kill Me Again, At First Sight, The Salton Sea, and Mindhunters. We discuss how Kilmer was a prodigy––the youngest student admitted into Juilliard’s drama department––before his Broadway debut in the (ultimately) star-studded Slab Boys. There’s talk of his well-documented penchant to be difficult on set, as well as those who defended him and his abilities. We confront Dan’s deep admiration for the poorly-aged The Salton Sea, make brief mention of other B-Sides like Thunderheart, The Real McCoy, and Spartan, and reference both Kilmer’s autobiography I’m Your Huckleberry and the 2021 documentary Val. Finally, we acknowledge that perhaps Val Kilmer was ultimately a movie star that never really wanted to be a movie star.…

The Film Stage Presents

1
The B-Side Ep. 158 - Powell and Pressburger (with Katie Walsh) 1:52:45

5 weeks назад1:52:45

1:52:45

Welcome to The B-Side! Here we talk about movie directors! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between. Today we talk about two legends: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger! Our B-Sides include I Know Where I’m Going!, The Small Back Room, Gone to Earth, and The Elusive Pimpernel. Our guest is the legend Katie Walsh, podcaster and film critic at the Tribune News Service & LA Times. We talk about her lovely experiences watching Powell & Pressburger restoration prints on the big screen, the extent of moviegoing etiquette (put that phone down please!), and the Frank Marshall creature feature Arachnophobia. Also discussed is Powell’s infamous (and masterful) opus Peeping Tom, the duo’s later work (Oh... Rosalinda!!, The Battle of the River Plate), Powell’s autobiography, and the career of Jennifer Jones.…

The Film Stage Presents

1
Emulsion Ep. 2 - Alan Rudolph on Choose Me 59:41

5 weeks назад59:41

59:41

This week consecrates a major turn in the 50-year career of Alan Rudolph, which began as an assistant to and screenwriter for Robert Altman before transitioning into decades writing and directing original, romantic, occasionally unnerving American cinema at a time parallel to (if never quite reaching the fame or acclaim of) Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Brian De Palma, Francis Ford Coppola, Terrence Malick, and David Lynch. The turn is not a new film, but Criterion anointing 1984’s Choose Me, perhaps the best entry point into his corpus, with a 4K release that marks an astonishing restoration of both the film itself and its long-neglected reputation. For this release Nick Newman had the fortune of speaking with Rudolph in an hour-long conversation that detailed Choose Me's creation, how his films both before and after are now defined by it, and honest perspectives on a career just slightly outside the celebrity-auteur spotlight.…

The Film Stage Presents

1
The B-Side Ep. 157 - Amy Irving and Peter Riegert on Crossing Delancey 1:15:47

6 weeks назад1:15:47

1:15:47

Welcome to The B-Side! Here we talk to movie stars! About a movie that people love and the hidden gems they've also made! Dan Mecca and Conor O'Donnell were lucky enough to speak with Amy Irving and Peter Riegert, on the occasion of the Criterion release of Joan Micklin Silver’s Crossing Delancey. We discuss the legacy of the film nearly forty years later. With Irving we touch on Honeysuckle Rose, Carried Away, and her new music album. With Riegert we talk about Chilly Scenes of Winter (also directed by Micklin Silver), the feature he directed King of the Corner, and the eclectic range of characters he’s played over the years. Additionally, we mention Steven Soderbergh’s oeuvre (they were both in Traffic!), the actor’s directorial debuts Riegert starred in (Infinity and Jerry & Tom specifically), and how they’ve both grown as performers over time.…

The Film Stage Presents

1
Andrew Davis on Gene Hackman and His New Novel Disturbing the Bones 35:02

6 weeks назад35:02

35:02

We love speaking with filmmaker Andrew Davis. In late 2023 The Fugitive director came on our podcast The B-Side to discuss a slew of hidden gems as well as the 4K release of the Harrison Ford blockbuster. Davis is back to talk about his novel Disturbing the Bones, a political thriller that reads like an entertaining, extrapolated version of some of his best films. The plot concerns an archaeological dig in Illinois wherein a body is discovered. It leads to a murder investigation amidst a global crisis spurned by a catastrophic, nuclear mistake. The B-Side co-host Dan Mecca spoke with Davis about the book, his Arnold Schwarzenegger action film Collateral Damage, his upcoming projects, and the state of both the film industry and the country.…

The Film Stage Presents

1
Emulsion Ep. 1 - Carson Lund on Eephus + Hesse Deni on CHAOS 39:59

7 weeks назад39:59

39:59

Presenting Nick Newman's Emulsion, a new podcast from The Film Stage. “WHY on EARTH is there another film podcast?” Is the question you, the reasonable listener, are asking while nevertheless hitting play on this pilot-of-sorts for yet another entry in perhaps the seventh art’s most undignified progeny. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: here is a show that strives to stand outside its peers. This is not a show informing you that the week’s big new release is pretty good, actually or a group of guys talking about ’80s movies so bad they’re riduclawesome or me digging up the ruddiest MKV file I can find and having a friend from the Internet talk about it with me for 46 minutes––but there will be some of that, because it’s better than talking about most other things. Rather, I’ve envisioned this as a multi-headed object: conversations among filmmakers, film programmers, and cinephiles mixed with monologues, reviews, streaming and repertory highlights––a podcast that takes you from the miked-up, pop-filtered confines of a professional-sounding show to the sturm und drang of chats among friends in a packed bar, which is where some of my most fruitful film discussions have been held and which often yields more valuable observations than, speaking hypothetically, someone stressing over saying just the right thing because they have a microphone in front of them and are emphatically aware that they’re on a film podcast. On this debut episode I talk with Carson Lund, the co-writer, director, and editor of Eephus, now in limited release; then Hesse Deni of Movie Mindset joins me to discuss Errol Morris’ CHAOS: The Manson Murders, which is now on Netflix. Music courtesy of Alex Walton: "Love Theme From an Unreleased Film" from the album Giving It Up.…

The Film Stage Presents

1
The B-Side – Remembering Gene Hackman 2:29:07

8 weeks назад2:29:07

2:29:07

In honor of the legendary Gene Hackman, who has passed away at the age of 95, we're sharing The B-Side's episode from 2022 discussing his career and most overlooked films. Subscribe to The B-Side below: https://open.spotify.com/show/4EJFEQMTuLFPIDTbsrbL62 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-b-side-a-film-stage-podcast/id1490472263 See the original description below: Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we talk about movie stars! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between. Today we discuss perhaps the greatest living actor: Gene Hackman! Dan Mecca and Conor O'Donnell are joined by one of our good, good friends Mitchell Beaupre! Senior Editor at Letterboxd, co-host of their Weekend Watchlist podcast (as well as the brand new podcast Acting Out with Ryan and Mitchell), and contributor to great sites like The Film Stage (!), Paste Magazine, The Playlist, and Little White Lies. Our B-Sides today are: All Night Long, The Package, Heartbreakers, and Welcome to Mooseport. We talk Hackman’s beginnings, Mitchell’s superb piece on Hackman’s spectacular 2001, the actor’s own reflections on his accomplished career, his mid-career hiatus, and – finally – his frequent combativeness with his directors. Additional topics include Tommy Lee Jones’ wild ‘90s, Jennifer Love Hewitt’s recollection of Heartbreakers (both the good and the bad), the work of René Descartes, Nicolas Roeg’s Hackman-starring epic Eureka, and the iconic Fox television show Party of Five.…

The Film Stage Presents

1
Bill Morrison on His Oscar-Nominated Short Incident 32:44

11 weeks назад32:44

32:44

Welcome to a special new podcast episode from The Film Stage. Here at the site we’ve long been fans of the work of Bill Morrison, who you may best know from his astounding 2016 archival documentary Dawson City: Frozen Time. The New York-based filmmaker received his first-ever Oscar nomination this year for his short film Incident, which reconstructs a 2018 police shooting in Chicago, reassembling the event and its immediate aftermath from a variety of sources, including surveillance, CCTV, dashboard, and body-worn cameras, as a synchronized split-screen montage. With the film now available to watch for free at The New Yorker, The Film Stage co-founder and host of The B-Side podcast, Dan Mecca, spoke with Morrison about the nomination, the Rashomon-influenced inception of the project, how we grasp memory over time as a series of images, and much more. Enjoy the conversation. Watch Incident here: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-documentary/incident-shows-how-officers-react-when-a-police-killing-is-caught-on-tape…

The Film Stage Presents

1
Bonus Ep. – Box Office Bonanza (July 21, 2000) 1:10:57

21 weeks назад1:10:57

1:10:57

As a special holiday gift to The Film Stage podcast feed, listen to a new Box Office Bonanza! Here we talk about random box office weekends and where they fit into our lives. The movies, the memories! This episode features Dan Mecca, Conor O’Donnell, Mitchell Beaupre, Jordan Raup, and Cory Everett. The box office weekend in question is July 21, 2000. The number one movie in the country was the Robert Zemeckis-directed, Clark Gregg-scripted, Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer-starring supernatural thriller What Lies Beneath. The number three movie was the second Pokémon feature film, Pokémon 2000. Gladiator was still in theaters, so was U-571. But at the start, we mount a passionate defense of the new Zemeckis epic Here, which has now arrived digitally. After that, we talk about Martin Lawrence movies. We talk about how horrible Greg Kinnear’s character is in Amy Heckerling’s Loser. We talk about Al Pacino’s new autobiography Sonny Boy. The sport doc Michael Jordan to the Max gets some discussion. An Office Space reference is completely ignored! There are too many 9/11 jokes! How many? You’ll have to listen to find out. We remember that great bit with Ben Stiller and Tom Cruise from the MTV Movie Awards (“He’s Harmless”). There’s an appreciation of Jesus’ Son as well. There’s a Saving Silverman reference, talk of yo-yos and Yu-Gi-Oh! There’s a remembrance of that time The Perfect Storm and The Patriot came out the same weekend. Finally, for a few moments I’m convinced that nobody has been recording the podcast! There’s a lot here, people! We’re thankful for you listening to us have fun! We hope you have some fun too! Check out The Film Stage’s 2024 Holiday Gift Guide and Cory Everett’s slew of Cinephile books and games! Enjoy this episode and we welcome other interesting box office weekends to cover in the future. Stay tuned in 2025 for more podcast news from The Film Stage!…

The Film Stage Presents

1
Farewell Episode – Megalopolis 2:15:18

27 weeks назад2:15:18

2:15:18

For the 550th episode of The Film Stage Show, Brian Roan and Robyn Bahr have a major announcement: after over 12 years, hundreds and hundreds of guests, and thousand-plus hours of discussions, The Film Stage Show is coming to an end. We bid farewell with a discussion of a film in the works decades before the podcast began: Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis. Thank you to all of our dedicated listeners! The Slack channel will still continue and be sure to follow Brian Roan and Robyn Bahr on their future movie-going adventures below: https://x.com/BrianJRoan https://x.com/RobynBahr If you don't subscribe yet, The B-Side: A Film Stage Podcast will continue and you can learn more here: https://thefilmstage.com/tag/the-b-side/ The Film Stage Show is supported by MUBI, a curated streaming service showcasing exceptional films from around the globe. Every day, MUBI premieres a new film. Whether it's a timeless classic, a cult favorite, or an acclaimed masterpiece — it’s guaranteed to be either a movie you’ve been dying to see or one you’ve never heard of before and there will always be something new to discover. Try it for free for 30 days at mubi.com/filmstage.…

The Film Stage Presents

1
Ep. 549 – Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (with Trace Sauveur) 1:57:48

30 weeks назад1:57:48