Podcasts about Film Comment

Ep. 328: Michael Koresky on his new book Sick and Dirty: Hollywood's Gay Golden Age and the Making of Modern Queerness - The Children's Hour, These Three, Tea and Sympathy, Dance Girl Dance, and more Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. I was a huge fan of Michael Koresky's last book, Films of Endearment, and so I leapt into action when I heard about his latest, Sick and Dirty: Hollywood's Gay Golden Age and the Making of Modern Queerness. Koresky is now Senior Curator of Film at Museum of the Moving Image, and, as he points out, his book has roots in his column I had the privilege of editing at Film Comment, Queer and Now and Then. I spoke with him about some pivotal titles in his deeply researched chronicle of under-the-radar queer cinema from the 1930s to the 1960s, and the fascinating work that could emerge under Hollywood's censorship regime: These Three and The Children's Hour, two adaptations of Lillian Hellman's play, both directed by William Wyler; Dorothy Arzner's Dance, Girl, Dance; Vincente Minnelli's oft-maligned Tea & Sympathy; and more. “Sick and Dirty: Hollywood's Gay Golden Age and the Making of Modern Queerness” by Michael Koresky is available now, published by Bloomsbury. On June 22, Tea & Sympathy will screen with Koresky in conversation at the Museum of the Moving Image as part of a special book event. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Cannes 2025 is wrapping up this weekend—and our intrepid on-the-Croisette crew of Film Comment contributors has been high-tailing it from screening to screening, cutting through the noise with a series of thoughtful dispatches, interviews, and podcasts. For our ninth episode from the sunny shores of southern France, all-star critics Justin Chang, Tim Grierson, and Allison Willmore join Editor Devika Girish for our final on-the-ground panel conversation from this year's edition. The four dig into two of the most anticipated films from the festival's later days, including Bi Gan's Resurrection (4:30) and Kelly Reichardt's The Mastermind (26:10), before touching on some heretofore undiscussed competition selections: Wes Anderson's The Phoenician Scheme (45:00), Saeed Roustayi's Woman and Child (46:25), the Dardenne Brothers's Young Mothers (50:40), and Mario Martone's Fuori (1:02:05). Subscribe today to The Film Comment Letter for a steady stream of Cannes coverage, providing everything you need to know about the 2025 edition.

Cannes 2025 has arrived—and you can count on our on-the-Croisette crew of Film Comment contributors to cut through the noise with thoughtful dispatches, interviews, and Podcasts. This year's festival is packed with exciting premieres, including new films from Richard Linklater, Lynne Ramsay, Spike Lee, Bi Gan, Julia Ducournau, Wes Anderson, and many more. For our fifth episode from the French Riviera, Film Comment Editor Devika Girish is joined by critics Abby Sun, Beatrice Loayza, and Giovanni Marchini Camia to discuss some late-festival premieres, including Joachim Trier's Sentimental Value, Carla Simón's Romería, Oliver Hermanus's The History of Sound and Nadav Lapid's Yes. Subscribe today to The Film Comment Letter for a steady stream of Cannes coverage, providing everything you need to know about the 2025 edition.

Cannes 2025 is in full swing—and you can count on our on-the-Croisette crew of Film Comment contributors to cut through the noise with thoughtful dispatches, interviews, and Podcasts. This year's festival is packed with exciting premieres, including new films from Richard Linklater, Lynne Ramsay, Spike Lee, Bi Gan, Julia Ducournau, Wes Anderson, and many more. For our seventh episode from the film world's grandest event, Film Comment Editor Devika Girish is joined by critics Kong Rithdee (back by popular demand!) and Inney Prakash to debate two recent premieres from legendary auteurs: Jafar Panahi's It Was Just an Accident (2:33) and Lav Diaz's Magellan (14:12). Next, the group discusses one of the highlights of this year's Cannes Classics section, T'ang Shu Shuen's 1968 film The Arch (23:14), before turning to Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke's A Useful Ghost (29:09), which just won the Grand Prize at Cannes Critics' Week. Subscribe today to The Film Comment Letter for a steady stream of Cannes coverage, providing everything you need to know about the 2025 edition. Note: Around 18:00, we experienced some equipment problems that resulted in slight glitches on the audio track. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Cannes 2025 has arrived—and you can count on our on-the-Croisette crew of Film Comment contributors to cut through the noise with thoughtful dispatches, interviews, and Podcasts. This year's festival is packed with exciting premieres, including new films from Richard Linklater, Lynne Ramsay, Spike Lee, Bi Gan, Julia Ducournau, Wes Anderson, and many more. For our sixth episode from the French Riviera, Film Comment Editor Devika Girish is joined by critics and FC stalwarts Miriam Bale, Robert Daniels, and Jessica Kiang to discuss their recent viewing at the fest, including Spike Lee's Highest 2 Lowest, Julia Ducournau's Alpha (23:09), Akinola Davies Jr.'s My Father's Shadow, and Hlynur Pálmason's The Love That Remains (49:25). Subscribe today to The Film Comment Letter for a steady stream of Cannes coverage, providing everything you need to know about the 2025 edition.

Cannes 2025 has arrived—and you can count on our on-the-Croisette crew of Film Comment contributors to cut through the noise with thoughtful dispatches, interviews, and Podcasts. This year's festival is packed with exciting premieres, including new films from Richard Linklater, Lynne Ramsay, Spike Lee, Bi Gan, Julia Ducournau, Wes Anderson, and many more. For our fifth episode from the French Riviera, Film Comment Editor Devika Girish is joined by critic Kong Rithdee and scholar Neta Alexander to discuss some of the most highly anticipated premieres to screen to date, including Christian Petzold's Mirrors No. 3 (2:30), Sebastián Lelio's The Wave (16:50), and Kleber Mendonça Filho's The Secret Agent (27:14). Subscribe today to The Film Comment Letter for a steady stream of Cannes coverage, providing everything you need to know about the 2025 edition.

Cannes 2025 has arrived—and you can count on our on-the-Croisette crew of Film Comment contributors to cut through the noise with thoughtful dispatches, interviews, and Podcasts. This year's festival is packed with exciting premieres, including new films from Richard Linklater, Lynne Ramsay, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Spike Lee, Bi Gan, Julia Ducournau, Wes Anderson, and many more. For our fourth episode from the sunny shores of southern France, Film Comment contributor Mark Asch and critics Kong Rithdee, and Isabel Stevens join Editor Devika Girish to discuss some of the festival's buzziest titles, including Kristen Stewart's The Chronology of Water (3:35), Lynne Ramsey's Die My Love (12:00), Richard Linklater's Nouvelle Vague (29:22), and Harris Dickinson's Urchin (40:35). Subscribe today to The Film Comment Letter for a steady stream of Cannes coverage, providing everything you need to know about the 2025 edition.

This week we're excited to present a conversation from the 2025 edition of the New York African Film Festival with Black Tea director Abderrahmane Sissako and producer Kessen Tall. This conversation was moderated by Film Comment editor Devika Girish. After saying no on her wedding day, Aya leaves the Ivory Coast for a new life in the buzzing “Chocolate City” of Guangzhou, China. In this district where the African diaspora meets Chinese culture, she gets hired in a tea boutique owned by Cai, a Chinese man. In the secrecy of the back shop, Cai decides to initiate Aya to the tea ceremony. Through the teaching of this ancient art, their relationship slowly turns into tender love. But for their burgeoning passion to lead to mutual trust, they must let go of their burdens and face their past. Having made its New York Premiere at Film at Lincoln Center earlier this month, Black Tea is currently playing in select theaters, courtesy of Cohen Media Group.

Cannes 2025 has arrived—and you can count on our on-the-Croisette crew of Film Comment contributors to cut through the noise with thoughtful dispatches, interviews, and Podcasts. This year's festival is packed with exciting premieres, including new films from Richard Linklater, Lynne Ramsay, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Spike Lee, Bi Gan, Julia Ducournau, Wes Anderson, and many more. For our third episode from the sunny shores of southern France, Film Comment contributors Mark Asch and Beatrice Loayza join Editor Devika Girish to unpack two of the most go-for-broke selections to screen so far—Oliver Laxe's Sirât (2:25) and Ari Aster's Eddington (21:20)—before turning to the more modest charms of Hafsia Herzi's The Little Sister (41:20). Subscribe today to The Film Comment Letter for a steady stream of Cannes coverage, providing everything you need to know about the 2025 edition.

Cannes 2025 has arrived—and you can count on our on-the-Croisette crew of Film Comment contributors to cut through the noise with thoughtful dispatches, interviews, and Podcasts. This year's festival is packed with exciting premieres, including new films from Richard Linklater, Lynne Ramsay, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Spike Lee, Bi Gan, Julia Ducournau, Wes Anderson, and many more. For our second Podcast from the French Riviera, Isabel Stevens and Thomas Flew from Sight and Sound sit down with Film Comment Editor Devika Girish to discuss Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, the purported final installment of the long-running action series. To set things up, Isabel talks about her recent career-spanning interview with Tom Cruise, the cover story of the latest issue of Sight and Sound, before the group leans into the high-octane pyrotechnics of the film. Next, they turn to two other hotly anticipated premieres: Two Prosecutors (19:55), from Ukrainian auteur Sergei Loznitsa, and Left-Handed Girl (32:20), directed by longtime Sean Baker–collaborator Shih-Ching Tsou. Subscribe today to the Film Comment Letter for a steady stream of Cannes coverage, providing everything you need to know about the 2025 edition.

Cannes 2025 has at last arrived—and while news of standing ovations and walkouts, throwaway raves and pans, spit takes and hot takes flood your feed, you can count on our on-the-Croisette crew of Film Comment contributors to cut through the noise with thoughtful dispatches, interviews, and Podcasts. This year's festival is packed with exciting premieres, including new films from Richard Linklater, Lynne Ramsay, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Spike Lee, Bi Gan, Julia Ducournau, Wes Anderson, and many more. To kick off our patented daily Cannes Podcasts, Film Comment Editor Devika Girish gathered FC Podcast veterans Jonathan Romney and Guy Lodge to discuss the first day's offerings. Jonathan begins by describing the Opening Night selection, Amélie Bonnin's Leave One Day (7:00), before the group debates other early festival premieres like Robin Campillo's Enzo (11:20) and Mascha Schilinski's Sound of Falling (22:17).

A new film by David Cronenberg is always a major event for all of us at Film Comment, especially after his 2022 opus Crimes of the Future was voted the Best Film of the Year by our contributors. So with Cronenberg's latest, The Shrouds, opening in cinemas this weekend, we invited this singular auteur to talk about his strange and thrilling new movie.  Like much of Cronenberg's work, The Shrouds is obsessed with sex and death, body and technology. But it's also funnier and more personal than almost anything the Canadian filmmaker has made before. Written in the wake of his wife Carolyn Cronenberg's death, the film follows a grieving entrepreneur named Karsh (Vincent Cassell), who has invented software that allows people to monitor the decaying bodies of their deceased loved ones. When some of Karsh's high-tech graves are vandalized, a complicated mystery arises, embroiling a number of eccentric characters—including the lookalike sister of Karsh's dead wife, played by Diane Kruger, and her ex-husband, a software developer played by Guy Pearce. As questions and conspiracies proliferate in the film, answers become more and more elusive. In the process, The Shrouds emerges as an extremely intelligent and moving film about our desperation for explanations in the face of the unknowable. For today's episode, Film Comment Editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute chat with Cronenberg about making art to process loss, the eroticism of conspiracy theories, and why The Shrouds is very much a Toronto film.

durée : 00:03:56 - Visite guidée au Capitole après les dernières rénovations - Les 33.000 supporters du Stadium de Toulouse ont vécu en direct une scène folle ce dimanche : un des parachutistes qui devaient apporter le ballon sur le terrain est resté accroché à une poutre du stade, juste avant la rencontre de 8e de finale de la Champions Cup entre Toulouse et Sale.

Spring is finally in the air, and, for New York City cinephiles, that means it's time for another edition of New Directors/New Films, the annual showcase for standout works by emerging filmmakers co-hosted by Film at Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art. The festival is always a reliable sign of trends to come and talents to look out for—past editions have featured early films by Spike Lee, Christopher Nolan, and Kelly Reichardt, among others. This year's iteration opens tonight and runs through April 13. Over the past few years, Film Comment has established our own annual tradition of previewing the best movies in the ND/NF lineup with some of our favorite critics. This time around, FC Editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute invited Mark Asch and Natalia Keogan for a rundown of some of the gems in the 2025 edition, including Opening Night selection Familiar Touch (3:45); Mad Bills to Pay (or Destiny, dile que no soy malo) (18:55); Lost Chapters (28:41); Invention (37:06); Drowning Dry (45:45); Holy Electricity (53:52); and more.

Today's episode marks another entry in our New Releases series, where we dig into the latest titles opening in theaters and offer recommendations on what's worth seeking out and what's better left skipped. With so many worthy films to choose from lately, Film Comment's Devika Girish and Clinton Krute invited critic Tim Grierson (Los Angeles Times, Screendaily, and elsewhere) to help us whittle down the selection. Tim starts things off with a brief report from the South by Southwest festival in Austin, which he's currently attending. The trio then digs into some of the buzziest titles out right now—including Mark Anthony Green's Opus (7:38) and Bong Joon Ho's Mickey 17 (19:00)—before showing some love for a couple smaller, but still unmissable movies: Alain Guiradie's Misericordia (41:30) and Carson Lund's Eephus (51:46).

In this special episode, host Eric Newman joins LARB senior editor Paul Thompson and Film Comment co-editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute for a look at this year's Oscar nominees ahead of this weekend's award ceremony. Surveying this rather strange year in film, the gang discusses the gory camp of The Substance, the omnipresence of Wicked, the multi-genre madness of Emilia Pérez, and much more.  

The Academy Awards take place on Sunday, March 2, bringing a strange and wonderful year in cinema—and an awards race filled with surprises and scandals—to an end. Will Emilia Perez win prizes despite the controversy surrounding its lead actress? Will Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan beat Adrien Brody as a brutalist architect in the Best Actor category? Will Oscar voters penalize films for using too much AI? We don't have all the answers to these pressing questions but, as usual, we do have a lot of opinions and (probably inaccurate) predictions. To sound those out, Film Comment editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute joined Los Angeles Review of Books editors Eric Newman and Paul Thompson on their Radio Hour program to hotly debate the relative merits of Anora, Nickel Boys, Conclave, A Complete Unknown, The Brutalist, and other films vying for a statuette or two on Sunday.

In this special episode, host Eric Newman joins LARB senior editor Paul Thompson and Film Comment co-editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute for a look at this year's Oscar nominees ahead of this weekend's award ceremony. Surveying this rather strange year in film, the gang discusses the gory camp of The Substance, the omnipresence of Wicked, the multi-genre madness of Emilia Pérez, and much more.

On January 31, Film at Lincoln Center opened a landmark new retrospective titled Frederick Wiseman: An American Institution. The series showcases new 4K restorations of over thirty of the filmmaker's works, which together form a monumental survey of modern American life—with a frequent focus on the intersections of individuals and institutions. Wiseman just turned 95 on New Year's Day, and the FLC series comes on the heels of similar retrospectives in Chicago, Portland, Maine, and Vancouver—with more planned for Paris, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Boston, and beyond. How does one even begin to consider a body of work so sprawling, so rigorous, and so significant? For today's episode, Film Comment hosted a “Wiseman Potluck,” where each guest was tasked with bringing one film that especially resonates with them to the discussion. Film Comment Editors Clinton Krute and Devika Girish were joined by Andrew Katzenstein, the author of a terrific new essay on Wiseman for the New York Review of Books; Genevieve Yue, who interviewed the legendary filmmaker for the Film Comment Letter in 2022; and FC‘s very own Michael Blair. The group covered the films Central Park (1990), At Berkeley (2013), Basic Training (1971), Aspen (1991), Blind (1986), and more, and reflected on Wiseman's politics of observation and striking eye for beauty. The Mains: Central Park (3:30) At Berkeley (17:30) Law and Order + Basic Training (23:10) Aspen (35:20) Blind (47:31) Some Desserts: The Store (1983) Un Couple (2022) Menus-Plaisirs – Les Troisgros (2023)

Hang onto your slipcases because Blake Howard (One Heat Minute Productions) and special guest Scout Tafoya (author of The Black Book: An Anthony Mann Reader) collaborate to dissect CRITERION COLLECTION physical media releases.Winchester '73Noirish shadows spread across the frontier in this landmark western, the first of the celebrated collaborations between director Anthony Mann and actor James Stewart that redefined the genre with their moral and psychological intensity. Beginning his midcareer transition into increasingly edgy roles, Stewart portrays an avenging sharpshooter whose stolen rifle becomes a harbinger of death as it is passed from one doomed hand to the next. Featuring a stellar cast that includes a touching Shelley Winters, a sensationally sleazy Dan Duryea, and a pre-stardom Rock Hudson, this elemental tale of violence begetting violence broke new ground with its evocation of the West as a no-man's-land of antiheroes and villains.4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURESNew 4K digital restoration, undertaken by Universal Pictures in collaboration with The Film Foundation, with uncompressed monaural soundtrackOne 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special featuresAudio commentary featuring actor James Stewart and film historian Paul LindenschmidtNew interview with film programmer Adam Piron on the portrayal of Native Americans in the western genreForces of Nature: Anthony Mann at Universal, a program on a key chapter in the director's careerLux Radio Theatre adaptation of the film from 1951TrailerEnglish subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearingPlus: An essay by critic Imogen Sara SmithNew cover by Gregory ManchessScout Tafoya - Buy THE BLACK BOOK hereScout Tafoya is a film critic, video essayist, filmmaker, and author of Cinemaphagy: On The Psychedelic Classical Form of Tobe Hooper, the first book-length critical study of the director of "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre." Originally from Doylestown, PA, he is the creator of RogerEbert.com's The Unloved, the longest-running video essay series on the web, about movies in need of a second look. His writing has appeared in the Village Voice, Film Comment, Nylon Magazine, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and The Film Stage, among others. He is the director of over 25 feature films, including "Eyam," "House of Little Deaths," and "Beata Virgo Viscera," which debuted on RogerEbert.com. His features and his extensive video essay work can be found at Patreon.com/honorszombie.Support: JOIN THE ONE HEAT MINUTE PATREON FOR AS LITTLE AS $1 A MONTHFollow the hosts:Blake Howard - Twitter & One Heat Minute Website Alexei Toliopoulos - Twitter & The Last Video StoreSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/one-heat-minute-productions/exclusive-contentAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It's late January, which means that the intrepid Film Comment crew is once again on the snowy slopes of Park City, Utah, bringing you dispatches, interviews, and podcasts covering all the highlights of this year's Sundance Film Festival. For the next week, we'll be gathering the best critics on the scene to talk about each day's premieres on the Podcast. On today's episode, Film Comment Editor Devika Girish is joined by critics Lovia Gyarkye (The Hollywood Reporter), Alana Pockros (The Nation), and Lisa Wong Macabasco (Vogue) to discuss two of the best films to premiere at the festival so far—Kahlil Joseph's BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions (2:45) and Mary Bronstein's If I Had Legs I'd Kick You (14:07). The group also debates Katarina Zhu's Bunnylovr (23:18), Hailey Gates's Atropia (35:40), and Charlie Shackleton's Zodiac Killer Project (46:42). Catch up on all of our Sundance 2025 coverage at filmcomment.com

It's late January, which means that the intrepid Film Comment crew is once again on the snowy slopes of Park City, Utah, bringing you dispatches, interviews, and podcasts covering all the highlights of this year's Sundance Film Festival. For the next week, we'll be gathering the best critics on the scene to talk about each day's premieres on the Podcast. On today's episode, Film Comment Editor Devika Girish is joined by Vadim Rizov (Filmmaker Magazine) and Ruun Nuur (co-founder of Evil Eye Cinema; features programmer at Cleveland International Film Festival) to discuss festival selections Predators (2:30), The Stringer (20:10), Khartoum (29:25), Mad Bills to Pay (or Destiny, dile que no soy malo) (34:58), and Peter Hujar's Day (45:30). Catch up on all of our Sundance 2025 coverage at filmcomment.com

It's late January, which means that the intrepid Film Comment crew is once again on the snowy slopes of Park City, Utah, bringing you dispatches, interviews, and podcasts covering all the highlights of this year's Sundance Film Festival. For the next week and a half, we'll be gathering the best critics on the scene to talk about each day's premieres on the Podcast. Today, Film Comment Editor Devika Girish is joined by critics Robert Daniels (rogerebert.com) and Tim Grierson (Screen International, Los Angeles Times, and more) to discuss early festival selections Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore (2:35), Rabbit Trap (11:40), Twinless (25:40), and By Design (36:26). Catch up on all of our Sundance 2025 coverage at filmcomment.com

It's late January, which means that the intrepid Film Comment crew is once again on the snowy slopes of Park City, Utah, bringing you dispatches, interviews, and podcasts covering all the highlights of this year's Sundance Film Festival. For the next week and a half, we'll be gathering the best critics on the scene to talk about each day's premieres on the Podcast. To kick things off, Film Comment Editor Devika Girish gathered Maddie Whittle (programmer at Film at Lincoln Center; FC contributor), Ruun Nuur (co-founder of Evil Eye Cinema; features programmer at Cleveland International Film Festival), and Vadim Rizov (Filmmaker Magazine) to share their responses to the films premiering during the first few days of the fest. The group discusses SLY LIVES! (aka the Burden of Black Genius) (3:07), Pee-wee as Himself (20:48), All That's Left of You , and The Perfect Neighbor.  Stay tuned for more of our Sundance 2025 coverage!

The Author Events Series presents Carrie Rickey | A Complicated Passion, The Life and Work of Agnès Varda  REGISTER In conversation with Gary Kramer Born in Los Angeles, Carrie Rickey is an award-winning film critic, art critic, and film historian. She was the film critic at the Philadelphia Inquirer for twenty-five years and has also written for Artforum, Art in America, Film Comment, the New York Times, the Village Voice, and Politico. She has taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Pennsylvania. She lives in Philadelphia. A Complicated Passion, The Life and Work of Agnès Varda is the first major biography of the storied French filmmaker, who was hailed by Martin Scorsese as ''one of the Gods of cinema.'' Over the course of her sixty-five-year career, the longest of any female filmmaker, Agnès Varda (1928 – 2019) wrote and directed some of the most acclaimed films of her era, from her tour de force Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962), a classic of modernist cinema, to the beloved documentary The Gleaners and I (2000) four decades later. She helped to define the French New Wave, inspired an entire generation of filmmakers, and was recognized with major awards at the Cannes, Berlin, and Venice Film Festivals, as well as an honorary Oscar at the Academy Awards. In this lively biography, former Philadelphia Inquirer film critic Carrie Rickey explores the ''complicated passions'' that informed Varda's charmed life and indelible work. Rickey traces Varda's three remarkable careers - as still photographer, as filmmaker, and as installation artist. She explains how Varda was a pioneer in blurring the lines between documentary and fiction, using the latest digital technology and carving a path for women in the movie industry. She demonstrates how Varda was years ahead of her time in addressing sexism, abortion, labor exploitation, immigrant rights, and race relations with candor and incisiveness. She makes clear Varda's impact on contemporary figures like Ava DuVernay, Greta Gerwig, Barry Jenkins, the Safdie brothers, and Martin Scorsese, who called her one of the Gods of cinema. And she delves into Varda's incredibly rich social life with figures such as Harrison Ford, Jean-Luc Godard, Jim Morrison, Susan Sontag, and Andy Warhol, and her nearly forty-year marriage to the celebrated director Jacques Demy. A Complicated Passion is the vibrant biography that Varda, regarded by many as the greatest female filmmaker of all time, has long deserved. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night The views expressed by the authors and moderators are strictly their own and do not represent the opinions of the Free Library of Philadelphia or its employees. (recorded 9/16/2024)

Two enigmatic icons with enduring holds on the Western imagination are currently lighting up multiplex screens: fearsome Transylvanian vampire Dracula and Nobel Prize–winning American treasure Bob Dylan. Both released on Christmas Day, Robert Eggers's Nosferatu and James Mangold's A Complete Unknown are ambitious efforts at crafting new and absorbing tales out of these two mainstays of pop culture. Nosferatu stars Bill Skarsgård, Lily Rose-Depp, and Nicholas Hoult in the latest adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel, joining a cinematic canon established by filmmakers like F.W. Murnau, Francis Ford Coppola, and Werner Herzog. A Complete Unknown features Timothée Chalamet as the young Dylan, tracing his arrival in New York in 1961 to his set at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, where he famously decided to “go electric.” On this week's Podcast, Film Comment editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute invited Lovia Gyarkye, film critic at The Hollywood Reporter, and FC's very own Michael Blair (a Dylan aficionado) to debate the successes and failures of the two films—for both loyalists and neophytes of Dylan & Dracula. The group also discussed a few other Christmas Week releases, including Barry Jenkins's Mufasa and Rachel Morrison's The Fire Inside—and if you stay till the very end, you can also listen to their thoughts on Peter Watkins's monumental La Commune (Paris, 1871) (2000), which the Film Comment team viewed this past weekend at Anthology Film Archives. Sections: A Complete Unknown (7:25) Nosferatu (31:20) Mufasa (48:00) The Fire Inside (52:16) La Commune (Paris, 1871) (55:56)

During the 2024 New York Film Festival, Film Comment's Devika Girish had the chance to chat with Julianne Moore, one of the great American actresses of the last three decades and more. She was at the festival for the premiere of The Room Next Door, the first English-language feature film by Pedro Almodóvar, which stars Moore as a writer in New York who reconnects with an old friend, now in the late stages of cancer, played by Tilda Swinton. The friend makes a strange request of Moore's character: to give her company in a house in upstate New York where she plans to take her own life using a euthanasia pill. Almodóvar's film unfolds like a chamber drama, honing in on the awkward but tender companionship of two women in an absurd and dark situation, as they try to figure out how to enjoy the day-to-day of their togetherness while anticipating death. The Room Next Door hinges on its lead performances, and Moore and Swinton rise to the task with luminous turns that imbue the beautifully designed, fantasy world of Almodovar's film with a rough-edged, piercing emotional realism. Devika's conversation with Moore delves into the challenge of inhabiting the unreal worlds of Almodóvar with realism, as well as Moore's relationship with Swinton, how she acts with her voice, and whether it's difficult to play a good person in the movies.

When Payal Kapadia won a historic Grand Prix at this year's Cannes Film Festival for her second feature, All We Imagine as Light (the first Indian film to play in competition at Cannes in 30 years), she paid homage to another Cannes prizewinner whose work has deeply influenced her: Miguel Gomes, whose Grand Tour won the award for Best Director. The resonances between their latest films go beyond Cannes laurels and directorial inspiration. All We Imagine as Light, which opens in American theaters this Friday, traces the stories of three women in present-day Mumbai, while Grand Tour follows a British colonial officer and his fiancée as they traipse across various East Asian cities in 1918—but both films are city symphonies that center love stories within broader political contexts and are driven by the pulsings of female desire. Last month at the New York Film Festival, Film Comment editor Devika Girish moderated a conversation with Kapadia and Gomes—both practitioners of artful docufiction—which touched on their influences, aspirations, and methods.

The films of Robert Kramer blend fiction and documentary modes to engage with, and expand on, traditions of militant political cinema and subjective essay filmmaking. A founding member of the New Left activist film collective Newsreel in 1967, Kramer devoted himself to the group's radical ethos, but he also began to make his own hermetic and probing fiction films—like The Edge (1967) and Ice (1969)—which turned the camera back onto the mostly white middle-class milieu of his comrades, posing thorny questions about the nature of political commitment. This process reached its peak with the sprawling, 3-hour plus Milestones (1975, co-directed with John Douglas), a vast mosaic featuring a cast of over 50 fellow travelers, union organizers, dropouts, Free Vermont commune dwellers, and more, all navigating the demands of their personal and political lives in the wake of the Vietnam War. At the end of '70s, Kramer decamped to France, where his films had been championed by critics like Serge Daney, and proceeded to work in a wide variety of contexts across Europe and beyond, making films like Guns (1980), Our Nazi (1984), Doc's Kingdom (1988), Route One/USA (1989), and Walk the Walk (1996).  Over the past several years, the French DVD company Re:Voir has been beautifully restoring and re-releasing his films, and Kramer, who passed away suddenly in 1999, is currently the subject of a major retrospective at the Viennale, running through the end of November. The retrospective is accompanied by a new book, Starting Places, published by the Austrian Film Museum, which reproduces a 1997 interview with Kramer by the French critic Bernard Eisenchitz alongside several essays written by Kramer himself. To mark the occasion, Film Comment's Clinton Krute and Michael Blair invited Erika Balsom and Benjamin Crais, two noted critics who each proudly own original Milestones posters, to discuss Kramer's life and work. A few short audio clips of Kramer talking about his films, sourced from the original 1997 interview tapes, are interspersed throughout the conversation, providing their own points of departure into this undersung filmmaker's richly heterogenous, and endlessly fascinating, body of work.   Special thanks to Volker Pantenburg. Show Notes: “The Traveller” by Benjamin Crais (Sidecar, 2023): https://newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/the-traveller “Milestones” by Erika Balsom (4Columns, 2020): https://4columns.org/balsom-erika/milestones Serge Daney on Milestones and Route One/USA (originally published in Cahiers du cinéma, 1975 and 1989): https://sergedaney.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-aquarium-milestones.html; https://sergedaney.blogspot.com/2014/05/murmur-of-world.html  Robert Kramer: Notes de la forteresse (1967-1999) (edited by Cyril Béghin. Re:Voir, 2019):https://re-voir.com/shop/en/books/1101-robert-kramer-notes-de-la-forteresse-1967-1999.html

As the 62nd New York Film Festival drew to a close last weekend, it was once again time for Film Comment's Festival Report, our annual live overview of the NYFF that was. This year, the end-of-fest ritual took place in collaboration with the New York Film Critics Circle, which will celebrate its 90th anniversary in 2025. Devika and Clint were joined by NYFCC members Bilge Ebiri and Lovia Gyarkye for a spirited wrap-up analysis of the highlights and lowlights from the NYFF62 lineup. In front of a lively audience, the panel discussed and debated RaMell Ross's Nickel Boys, Brady Corbet's The Brutalist, Mike Leigh's Hard Truths, David Cronenberg's The Shrouds, Pedro Almodóvar's The Room Next Door, Payal Kapadia's All We Imagine as Light, Trương Minh Quý's Việt and Nam, and many more. The Questions: Favorite moment in an NYFF62 film? (4:25) Favorite performance? (19:30) Best film about a real person? (32:30) A film that you can't shake, for good or bad? (50:17)

The films of Christopher Harris are haunting and cerebral in equal measure—blending the sensorial power of analog avant-garde cinema with a thoroughly researched and deeply felt engagement with African-American history. Starting in 2001 with the 16mm feature still/here, which was also his MFA thesis at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Harris has created a rich and versatile body of work that draws on the legacy of the slave trade, the present-day realities of racism and capitalism, and the construction and destruction of urban space. Last week in New York City, Harris celebrated a major career milestone—his latest shorts, Speaking in Tongues: Take One and b/w, screened as part of the 2024 Whitney Biennial, and a weeklong retrospective of his work kicked off at Anthology Film Archives. In the midst of these screenings and speaking engagements, Harris joined Film Comment editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute to talk about the origins of his filmmaking in his youthful ambition to be musician, his interest in stillness and silence as structuring concepts, and why his work is always as fun as it is challenging and erudite.

This week, Film Comment is on the ground at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival, which began on September 5 and runs through September 15. This year, as ever, the festival's lineup is full of buzzy titles, including new films from directors like Luca Guadagnino, Pedro Almodóvar, Athina Rachel Tsangari, Brady Corbet, Dea Kulumbegashvili, and more. For our fourth and final Podcast from the shores of Lake Ontario, critics David Schwartz, Saffron Maeve, and Robert Daniels join Film Comment editor Devika Girish to discuss shorts from the boundary-pushing Wavelengths programs (3:05), as well as Muhammed Hamdy's Perfumed with Mint (21:40), the final two installments of Wang Bing's Youth trilogy (27:57), and Luca Guadagnino's Queer (35:16). Catch up with all of our coverage of TIFF 2024 at filmcomment.com

This week, Film Comment is on the ground at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival, which began on September 5 and runs through September 15. This year, as ever, the festival's lineup is full of buzzy titles, including premieres of new films from directors like Luca Guadagnino, Pedro Almodóvar, Athina Rachel Tsangari, Brady Corbet, Dea Kulumbegashvili, and more. For our third Podcast from the home of David Cronenberg, Drake, and the great Tim Hortons, Film Comment editor Devika Girish welcomes critics Adam Nayman and Beatrice Loayza to discuss some of the most anticipated films of this year's festival. Kicking things off, Adam, the noted Torontonian, gives a rundown on the Toronto-based movies at this year's edition (2:59) before the three critics move on to discuss Nicolás Pereda's Lázaro at Night (6:05), Jessica Sarah Rinland's Collective Monologue (12:32), Athina Rachel Tsangari's Harvest (22:09), Joshua Oppenheimer's The End (32:09), and Joseph Kahn's Ick (39:33). Catch up with all of our coverage of TIFF 2024 at filmcomment.com

This week, Film Comment is on the ground at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival, which began on September 5 and runs through September 15. This year, as ever, the festival's lineup is full of buzzy titles, including premieres of new films from directors like Luca Guadagnino, Pedro Almodóvar, Athina Rachel Tsangari, Brady Corbet, Dea Kulumbegashvili, and more. For our second Podcast from the Great White North, Film Comment editor Devika Girish welcomes programmer and critic Madeline Whittle and critic Mark Asch to discuss Mike Leigh's Hard Truths (2:56), Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Cloud (19:24), Neo Sora's Happyend (28:09), and Pedro Almodóvar's The Room Next Door (40:10). Stay tuned throughout this week for more Podcasts, dispatches, and more from TIFF 2024.

This week, Film Comment is on the ground at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival, which began on September 5 and runs through September 15. This year, as ever, the festival's lineup is full of buzzy titles, including premieres of new films from directors like Luca Guadagnino, Pedro Almodóvar, Athina Rachel Tsangari, Brady Corbet, Dea Kulumbegashvili, and more.  For our first Podcast from the land of maple syrup, hockey, and Guy Maddin, Film Comment editor Devika Girish welcomes critics Mark Asch and David Schwartz to discuss Gia Coppola's The Last Showgirl (3:23), Brady Corbert's The Brutalist (14:45), Raoul Peck's Ernest Cole: Lost and Found (26:45), John Crowley's We Live in Time (31:50), and Durga Chew-Bose's Bonjour Tristesse (40:01).  Stay tuned throughout this week for more Podcasts, dispatches, and more from TIFF 2024.

Last April, Film Comment invited writer Adam Shatz on the Podcast to talk about The Rebel's Clinic: The Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon, his new biography of the Martinican writer, psychiatrist, and anti-colonial revolutionary. The Podcast explored Fanon's lasting impression on the world of cinema since his untimely death in 1961—and it became the basis for a four-day series of screenings and talks we presented last weekend, called The Rebel's Cinema—Frantz Fanon on Screen. The series took place at four cinemas across New York City, beginning at Film at Lincoln Center with Michelangelo Antonioni's The Passenger (1975), moving to Maysles Documentary Center in Harlem for Gillo Pontecorvo's Burn!, (1969), winding down to the Brooklyn Academy of Music for Ivan Dixon's The Spook Who Sat by the Door (1973), and finishing up at Anthology Film Archives with Sarah Maldoror's Monangambeee (1969) and Assia Djebar's The Zerda and the Songs of Forgetting (1982). Each screening was followed by a Q&A with special guests, which we're excited to share this week on the Podcast. For our fourth and final episode, Film Comment editor Devika Girish welcomes Adam and filmmaker and artist Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich to discuss Maldoror's masterful 1969 directorial debut, Monagambeee, about a political prisoner in Portuguese-ruled Angola, as well as The Zerda and the Songs of Forgetting, novelist Djebar's 1982 archival elegy to the Algerian freedom struggle and women's place within it.

Last April, Film Comment invited writer Adam Shatz on the Podcast to talk about The Rebel's Clinic: The Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon, his new biography of the Martinican writer, psychiatrist, and anti-colonial revolutionary. The Podcast explored Fanon's lasting impression on the world of cinema since his untimely death in 1961—and it became the basis for a four-day series of screenings and talks we presented last weekend, called The Rebel's Cinema—Frantz Fanon on Screen. The series took place at four cinemas across New York City, beginning at Film at Lincoln Center with Michelangelo Antonioni's The Passenger (1975), moving to Maysles Documentary Center in Harlem for Gillo Pontecorvo's Burn!, (1969), winding down to the Brooklyn Academy of Music for Ivan Dixon's The Spook Who Sat by the Door (1973), and finishing up at Anthology Film Archives with Sarah Maldoror's Monangambeee (1969) and Assia Djebar's The Zerda and the Songs of Forgetting (1982). Each screening was followed by a Q&A with special guests, which we're excited to share this week on the Podcast. On today's episode, Film Comment editor Devika Girish welcomes Adam, writer Clifford Thompson, and editor and organizer Cheryl Rivera about The Spook Who Sat by the Door, Ivan Dixon's explosive 1973 adaptation of the novel by Sam Greenlee about a black CIA agent who uses his specialized training to build a guerrilla revolutionary army.

Last April, Film Comment invited writer Adam Shatz on the Podcast to talk about The Rebel's Clinic: The Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon, his new biography of the Martinican writer, psychiatrist, and anti-colonial revolutionary. The Podcast explored Fanon's lasting impression on the world of cinema since his untimely death in 1961—and it became the basis for a four-day series of screenings and talks we presented last weekend, called The Rebel's Cinema—Frantz Fanon on Screen. The series took place at four cinemas across New York City, beginning at Film at Lincoln Center with Michelangelo Antonioni's The Passenger (1975), moving to Maysles Documentary Center in Harlem for Gillo Pontecorvo's Burn!, (1969), winding down to the Brooklyn Academy of Music for Ivan Dixon's The Spook Who Sat by the Door (1973), and finishing up at Anthology Film Archives with Sarah Maldoror's Monangambeee (1969) and Assia Djebar's The Zerda and the Songs of Forgetting (1982). Each screening was followed by a Q&A with special guests, which we're excited to share this week on the Podcast. On today's episode, Film Comment editor Devika Girish welcomes Adam as well as Maysles executive director Kazembe Balagun and scholar and writer Brent Hayes Edwards to talk about the entanglements of race and class, and history and Hollywood in Pontecorvo's period epic Burn!, which stars Marlon Brando as a British agent provocateur who overthrows a Portuguese colony in the Caribbean by fomenting a slave revolt.

Last April, Film Comment invited writer Adam Shatz on the Podcast to talk about The Rebel's Clinic: The Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon, his new biography of the Martinican writer, psychiatrist, and anti-colonial revolutionary. The Podcast explored Fanon's lasting impression on the world of cinema since his untimely death in 1961—and it became the basis for a four-day series of screenings and talks we presented last weekend, called The Rebel's Cinema—Frantz Fanon on Screen. The series took place at four cinemas across New York City, beginning at Film at Lincoln Center with Michelangelo Antonioni's The Passenger (1975), moving to Maysles Documentary Center in Harlem for Gillo Pontecorvo's Burn!, (1969), winding down to the Brooklyn Academy of Music for Ivan Dixon's The Spook Who Sat by the Door (1973), and finishing up at Anthology Film Archives with Sarah Maldoror's Monangambeee (1969) and Assia Djebar's The Zerda and the Songs of Forgetting (1982). Each screening was followed by a Q&A with special guests, which we're excited to share this week on the Podcast. On today's episode, Film Comment editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute welcome Adam as well as critic and film editor Blair McClendon to discuss the Fanonian themes of alienation and objectivity in The Passenger, Antonioni's 1975 epic that stars Jack Nicholson as an American journalist who assumes the identity of a dead gunrunner caught up in a revolutionary conflict in Chad

As part of this year's Locarno Film Festival, scholars at the Università della Svizzera italiana organized a conference called Cinema Audiovisual Futures, with a series of panels and workshops exploring cinema's importance in constructing a new and alternative futures. As part of the conference, Film Comment editor Devika Girish moderated a panel with filmmaker Suneil Sanzgiri and writer and programmer Greg de Cuir called Digital Migrations. Their conversation delved into the ways in which digital media allows us to represent and respond to colonialism, diaspora, and violence, touching on Sanzgiri's films At Home But Not At Home (2019) and Golden Jubilee (2021), among others.

The Locarno Film Festival takes place every August in the Swiss town of Locarno, at the base of the Alps, with a robust mix of discovery titles, repertory selections, and premieres of films by major auteurs. Film Comment was on the ground this year, combing through the lineup for highlights, and this episode—featuring critics and curators Inney Prakash and Cici Peng in conversation with FC Editor Devika Girish—covers some of the notable titles: Kouté vwa (Listen to the Voices) by Maxime Jean-Baptiste, Fogo do vento (Fire of Wind) by Marta Mateus, Invention by Courtney Stephens, By the Stream by Hong Sangsoo, The Sparrow in the Chimney by Ramon Zürcher, and Youth (Hard Times) by Wang Bing.

Carrie Rickey is an award-winning critic and historian. She was the film critic at the Philadelphia Inquirer for twenty-five years and has also written for Artforum, Art in America, Film Comment, the New York Times, the Village Voice, and Politico. She has taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Pennsylvania. She has a new biography out titled A COMPLICATED PASSION: THE LIFE AND CAREER OF AGNÈS VARDA, which explores the “complicated passions” that informed the long career of the legendary filmmaker/photographer. I had the great pleasure of interviewing her about this and more. *I do not own any of the content used in this podcast. Follow Carrie Rickey at www.carrierickey.com and on Twitter: @CarrieRickey If you love this show, please leave us a review. Go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠RateThisPodcast.com/karereviewspodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and follow the simple instructions. Follow Kare Reviews at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.karereviews.net⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and on Twitter:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@KareReviews⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Also please visit the newly launched Patreon page:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/jeffreykare?fan_landing=true⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Jeffrey Kare on Twitter:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@JeffreyKare⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ If you like what you've heard here, please subscribe to any one of the following places where the Kare Reviews Podcast is available. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Anchor⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Google⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Breaker⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Overcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Pocket Casts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠RadioPublic --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/jeffrey-kare/support

For the third and final installment of our Summer Rep Report series, Sam Fleischner and Courtney Muller, the founding programmers of the Rockaway Film Festival, join Film Comment editor Devika Girish to discuss this year's edition, which runs from August 17 to 25. Launched in 2018 in the Queens, New York oceanside neighborhood, the festival draws upon the cultural history and environmental features of its location to offer a uniquely eclectic program that emphasizes the relationship between cinema and place. Courtney and Sam discuss the history of the festival and point out a few of this year's repertory highlights, including Edward Lachman's Report from Hollywood (1984), playing in a sparkling restoration at the festival; a wonderful retrospective program marking the centennial of pathbreaking animator Faith Hubley; the festival's closing night selection, Gabriel (1976), the only film completed by painter Agnes Martin; and more.

For Part 2 of our Summer Rep Report, film programmer Jessica Green joins to discuss Passing You By: Impostorism on Film, a new series she's programmed titled at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The series opens today and runs through August 15 and focuses on movies that all explore the act of passing—be it for another race, gender, class, or nationality.  Film Comment editors Clinton Krute and Devika Girish spoke with Jessica about some of the highlights from the lineup, including Rebecca Hall's Passing (2021), which adapts Nella Larsen's 1920s novel of the same name; Oscar Micheaux's silent-cinema classic, The Symbol of the Unconquered (1920), which was made in response to The Birth of a Nation (1915) and now features a score recorded by Max Roach; Omar (2013), a Palestinian film by director Hany-Abu Assad; as well as some lighter, yet thematically rich fare, like White Chicks (2004) and Coming to America (1988).

Early August is usually something of a lull in the film calendar, but this year, at least in New York City, it's proved to be a goldmine—particularly for repertory programming. We had planned to record a single episode of our Rep Report series this week, but there was so much good stuff out there that we ended up recording three different conversations about three different programs, which we'll be sharing over the next few days. Stay tuned!  On today's episode, Jed Rapfogel, film programmer at Anthology Film Archives, joins Film Comment editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute to discuss Verbatim, a new film series he's put together at the famed New York City theater. Verbatim features an exciting and wide-ranging lineup of titles, spanning features, shorts, experimental films, and made-for-TV titles that are all united by one theme: each of them makes verbatim use of a real-life transcript—be it a court document, a journalistic interview, a letter, or something else. Jed, Clint, and Devika share some of the highlights of the series, including James N. Kienitz Wilkins's Public Hearing (2012), which uses the transcript of a municipal town-hall about the expansion of a Walmart, James Benning's Landscape Suicide (1986), which recreates interviews with a pair of killers, and Elisabeth Subrin's short film, Maria Schneider, 1983 (2022), which offers three different riffs on an archival television interview with the titular actress. Verbatim runs at Anthology Film Archives through August 13. For interested viewers outside of New York City, check out filmcomment.com for streaming links to some of the featured films.

The guest on this week's episode will need little introduction to anyone who reads film criticism or follows film culture. Jonathan Rosenbaum, one of the most prolific and respected critics of the last half-century, began his career at publications like Film Comment and Sight and Sound in the '70s, and later became known for his writing at The Chicago Reader. More recently, he's gained notice for his website, jonathanrosenbaum.net. He is known for his erudite yet accessible writing, and his championing of international cinema, among other things. No less a figure than Jean-Luc Godard once compared him to Andre Bazin. Jonathan is also the author of numerous books and collections of film writing, the latest of which, In Dreams Begin Responsibilities, has just been published by Hat & Beard Press. He describes the career-spanning, chronologically arranged collection as an autobiography of sorts, opening with his earliest published film review from his college days at Bard, before diverging into his many non-film interests. The collection also includes his writings on jazz and literature, and emphasizes Jonathan's uniquely syncretic approach to criticism. Jonathan joined FC editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute via Zoom from his home in Chicago to discuss this new book, his time as Film Comment's Paris correspondent, his appearance as an extra in a Bresson film, and much, much more.

In April, Film Comment published an article by Phillip Vance Smith II, titled “Streaming Behind Bars.” Phillip is an incarcerated writer, and his piece delves into the ways in which people in prison watch movies—the technology they're able to use, the programming they can access, and the exorbitant costs involved. That piece was facilitated by Empowerment Avenue, an organization that supports incarcerated artists and writers. Empowerment Ave was founded by Rahsaan Thomas, a journalist who launched the initiative while he was himself in prison. Rahsaan is also an award-winning filmmaker who started making movies while he was behind bars—and now works with other incarcerated and system-impacted filmmakers to help them tell their stories. On today's episode, Film Comment Editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute are joined by Rahsaan and  fellow filmmaker and organizer Thanh Tran, who also started making films while incarcerated at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center in Northern California. The two of them share insights from their experience of directing films while imprisoned—the resources that made it possible, the unique challenges they faced, and why they felt it was important for them to take their narratives into their own hands. They also discuss Rahsaan's short film Friendly Signs, currently making its way around the festival circuit, Thanh's in-production documentary, Finding Ma, and the upcoming San Quentin Film Festival, which is being organized by Rahsaan and will take place at the prison.

In a recent essay, critic Isabel Stevens writes: “There is much discussion of childishness—popular cinema is often described as ‘infantilized'—but how often do we consider what children want and need from films, and what they are watching and where (outside the usual narrow, artificial controversies about the dangers film poses to their innocent minds)? How are their critical faculties and understanding of cinema being nurtured, or not…?”  For this week's episode, Film Comment managing editor Clinton Krute invited Stevens, managing editor of Sight and Sound, and FC contributor Genevieve Yue—both parents as well as critics—to discuss what they watch with their own kids, and why they choose the films they do. Of course, the kids themselves also jump in, with Isabel's 6-year-old son Rai offering his (very positive) assessment of Star Wars, and Genevieve's daughter Harriet discussing her experience working with her mother on a program of experimental films for children at Light Industry in Brooklyn. Unfortunately, Clint's daughter Agnes was tied up with summer camp, so we'll all have to wait to hear why the dreamy visuals of Frozen II make it a better film than the original. Check out the show notes at filmcomment.com for links to the many articles and films discussed—recommended, of course, for all ages.

In April 2021, Film Comment published a Trans Cinema Roundtable Podcast, in which two trans film critics and two trans filmmakers answered questions submitted by listeners on what constitutes a cinema of transness. Now, two of those panelists—Caden Mark Gardner and Willow Catelyn Maclay—are about to publish a new book on that very subject. Corpses, Fools and Monsters is a thorough inquiry into the history, present, and future of what Caden and Willow call the “trans film image”—not a fully developed cinema, yet, but gestures, glimpses, and traces that have been visible in film from its earliest days and have now gained a renewed creative force. On today's episode, Caden and Willow join Film Comment Editor Devika Girish to talk about the extensive research they understood for the book, why representation can be a complex term for trans cinephiles, and films from reappraised classics like Jonathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and Toshio Matsumoto's Funeral Parade of Roses (1969) to new works by trans filmmakers, including Vera Drew's The People's Joker and Jane Schoenbrun's I Saw the TV Glow.

For the last two weeks, our on-the-Croisette crew of Film Comment contributors has been reporting from the 2024 Cannes Film Festival with a series of thoughtful dispatches, interviews, and podcasts. Before the festival officially drew to a close last Saturday, Film Comment Editor Devika Girish moderated a panel about documentary ethics in the Cannes Docs section of the Marché du Film. Curated by the Documentary Association of Europe and presented with American Documentary, the live event featured a stellar lineup of speakers, including Kiyoko McCrae from Chicken and Egg Pictures; Adam Piron from the Sundance Institute's Indigenous Program; Alemberg Ang, a Philippines-based producer and filmmaker; and Viv Li, a Chinese filmmaker based in Berlin. Titled “Towards a Universal Values System in Documentary,” the panel explored a number of fascinating questions, such as what equitable collaboration looks like in nonfiction filmmaking, what it means to gain the consent of your subjects, and who gets to tell which stories.