We interview Julian Schnabel, director of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, opening tonight. Karina and I cross wires on its watch worthiness. We also interview Brian Poyser, director of Dear Pillow. It’s a complicated, divisive, raw look at porn leading Kevin and I into some verbal wrastlin’.
FilmCouch 47
(Subscribe to FilmCouch in the iTunes store and an episode will download each Friday.)
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Dear Pillow
Tags: Art, Movie, Movie news
In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I’d like to give thanks for how much fun I have making FilmCouch each week with Kevin and Karina. I’m pulling out an old television sitcom convention. When the cast is on vacation, get a few actors around a table to reminisce and create a show of flashbacks to previous shows. Kevin and I debated doing just that, but decided it’s less annoying for me to just highlight my favorite shows from the past year here.
This is not our definitive “best of” list, but shows I have a personal love for. (Hence, I talk a lot in them.)
FilmCouch #28 - Rolf de Heer I hung up the phone after interviewing Rolf de Heer (Ten Canoes) feeling like I’d had a conversation I’ll still be unpacking when I’m 80. He simply amazed me.
FilmCouch #21 - Appropriation In talking about filmmakers who take footage they did not shoot and make a new movie out of it, we got to–I think–the very essence of filmmaking.
FilmCouch #18 - Sympathy for the Devil A little girl’s question leads to dissecting what makes a villain a villain. The answer is not just interesting, but essential in making our most beloved bad guys.
FilmCouch #11 - Jennifer Venditti At SXSW 2007, a serendipitous encounter with first-time filmmaker Jennifer Venditti (Billy the Kid) leads not only to seeing our favorite doc of the fest, but opens Venditti’s struggle over how she “uses” the subject of her documentary.
Tags: Art, Movie, Movie news
Fame. Money. Success. These are the accolades reserved for only the Hollywood elite, the great artists of the silver screen. Or not. Some adored filmmakers leave us scratching our heads. Paul and Kevin look at Ridley Scott’s latest, American Gangster, in light of his yet-again re-released classic Blade Runner. Does he belong in the pantheon of great gangster-epic directors or is he just an imitator? Karina questions whether the Coen brothers are anything more than competent genre directors. She calls Erica Rowell, author of The Brothers Grim: The Films of Ethan and Joel Coen, to discuss No Country for Old Men and other their other “masterpieces.”
Tags: Art, Movie, Movie news
Tom Cruise’s tabloid covers have lined a lot of bird cages, however we saw something fascinating behind his orthodontic masterpiece smile. Once a Hollywood boy-wonder, in recent years he has deconstructed his all-american persona. Now, with the release of the political thriller Lions for Lambs, Cruise tries his hand as studio mogul, heading United Artists. Will it work? What does the future hold for Cruise? Most interesting: What does a deep look into Cruise reveal about our culture’s progress or lack there of?
Movies mentioned: Risky Business, Taps, Legend, Eyes Wide Shut, Magnolia, Vanilla Sky
Tags: Art, Movie, Movie newsA few weeks back, listener DJP requested a show on spirituality, which coincides nicely with the Film + Faith blog-a-thon kicking off this week. As we thought about it, the spiritual is so broad and pervasive in movies it’s hard to know where to start. Somehow, Kevin and I sojourn on The Dareeling Limited, Children of Men and A Woman Under the Influence.
Karina investigates the “curse” surrounding one of the most spiritual characters in moviedom, Joan of Arc.
(Subscribe to FilmCouch in the iTunes store and an episode will download each Friday.)
Clockwise from top left: Jean Seberg Saint Joan (1957), Ingrid Bergman Joan of Arc (1948), Renée Maria Falconetti The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928), Milla Jovovich The Messenger (1999)