Film Forum Podcasts

BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES: (1946) On their flight back from WWII, three servicemen look down on their city: Army Sergeant Fredric March (Best Actor Oscar) returns to wife Myrna Loy and daughter Teresa Wright, but finds his bank exec job needs booze lubrication; ex-soda jerk, ex-B-17 pilot Dana Andrews finds pre-war wife-of-a-month Virginia Mayo wants him as little as he wants her... but then meets Wright; and handless seaman Harold Russell — an actual amputee who’d never acted before (and yet won two Oscars, one honorary and one for Best Supporting Actor) — faces Cathy O’Donnell, the girl he left behind; and through their meetings at Hoagy Carmichael’s bar, these very disparate lives intertwine. An evocation of the experience of a generation, a tour de force of deep focus photography by Citizen Kane’s Gregg Toland, and Wyler’s most personal picture — the March/Loy reunion echoed his own with his wife, he was reprimanded for taking a poke at a bigoted civilian, and on his last bombing run for a documentary, he permanently lost his hearing — and an overwhelming box office and critical hit that nabbed 7 Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director. Approx. 168 min. This podcast is a recording of the introduction by Mark Harris, recorded June 6, 2014 before a screening of the film at Film Forum.

Growing Up Mankiewicz: TCM host Ben Mankiewicz interviews his father, legendary journalist and screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz about life in Hollywood and Washington, recorded June 1, 2014, at a screening of the film at Film Forum

SOL LEWITT: Could two American artists have less in common than Sol LeWitt and Llyn Foulkes? Yet both, in their own way, help define what is exciting and cutting-edge in contemporary art. LeWitt (1928-2007) – a notoriously camera-shy, self-effacing, and generous soul – counts among the 20th century’s most esteemed conceptual artists. Dutch filmmaker Chris Teerink weaves together rare archival material with footage of the 2011 installation of Wall Drawing #801: Spiral – a glorious white line spiraling down the black wall of a cupola for more than 3 miles. Llyn Foulkes is the West Coast wild man to LeWitt’s ascetic East Coast intellectual. Whether talking about his work and life, painting at all hours of the day or night, or making music (he literally is a one-man band), Foulkes embodies the obsessive rebel -- filled with anger, regret, fear, and narcissism – plus a great many hilarious stories about the L.A. art world. His wonderfully macabre paintings and constructions (some incorporating small dead animals) have recently been rediscovered, and his 8-years-in-the-making magnum opus, The Lost Frontier, was purchased by L.A.’s Hammer Museum. This podcast is a recording of a Q & A with SOL LEWITT filmmaker Chris Teerink, record May 8, 2014, at a screening of the film at Film Forum.

LYN FOULKES ONE MAN BAND: Could two American artists have less in common than Sol LeWitt and Llyn Foulkes? Yet both, in their own way, help define what is exciting and cutting-edge in contemporary art. LeWitt (1928-2007) – a notoriously camera-shy, self-effacing, and generous soul – counts among the 20th century’s most esteemed conceptual artists. Dutch filmmaker Chris Teerink weaves together rare archival material with footage of the 2011 installation of Wall Drawing #801: Spiral – a glorious white line spiraling down the black wall of a cupola for more than 3 miles. Llyn Foulkes is the West Coast wild man to LeWitt’s ascetic East Coast intellectual. Whether talking about his work and life, painting at all hours of the day or night, or making music (he literally is a one-man band), Foulkes embodies the obsessive rebel -- filled with anger, regret, fear, and narcissism – plus a great many hilarious stories about the L.A. art world. His wonderfully macabre paintings and constructions (some incorporating small dead animals) have recently been rediscovered, and his 8-years-in-the-making magnum opus, The Lost Frontier, was purchased by L.A.’s Hammer Museum. This podcast is a recording of a Q & A with filmmakers Tamar Halpern and Chris Quilty, recorded May 7, 2014, at a screening of the film at Film Forum.

BREAKING AWAY: Great, we’ve graduated, so now what?, gripe Dennis Christopher, Dennis Quaid, Jackie Earle Haley, and Daniel Stern (in his debut), as they hang around an abandoned quarry — but then Christopher discovers Italian-accented bicycle racing, to the befuddlement of his ex-stonecutter dad Paul Dooley. Shot in Bloomington, Indiana and based on a true story by Oscar-winning scripter Steve Tesich. This podcast is a recording of the interview with Paul Dooley, also known for his work in the films of Robert Altman (The Player, A Wedding, Perfect Couple etc.; he was Wimpy in Popeye), as Cheryl’s father on Curb Your Enthusiasm, and for scores of other movies and TV shows. He wasinterviewed onstage by historian and film professor Brian Rose on Feb. 24, 2014, at a screening of the film at Film Forum.

CHARLIE VICTOR ROMEO: When you board an airplane, you put your life in the hands of the pilot and co-pilot. What happens in the cockpit when these professionals are faced with impending disaster? CHARLIE VICTOR ROMEO (code for “cockpit voice recorder”) dramatizes actual black box recordings of six harrowing airline emergencies, using the sparest of elements to foreground the unabashedly heroic professionalism of these unsung men and women. Adapted from a critically-acclaimed theatrical production, the movie – shot and projected in 3-D – puts you in the cockpit as they do everything possible to land under near-impossible circumstances: a plane that can only make right turns; blown engines due to bird strikes; or failed hydraulics, resulting from maintenance negligence. This podcast is a recording of Q & A with co-directors Robert Berger, Patrick Daniels, and Karlyn Michelson, recorded January 29, 2014, at a screening of the film at Film Forum.

AFTER TILLER: Since the assassination of Dr. George Tiller in 2009, only four doctors in America openly perform third-trimester abortions. AFTER TILLER is an absorbing, moving, and enlightening look at the lives of these four remarkable individuals. This podcast is a recording of the Q & A with AFTER TILLER filmmakers Martha Shane & Lana Wilson, recorded September 20, 2013, at a screening of the film at Film Forum.

NEWLYWEEDS: Variety calls this debut feature by Brooklyn filmmaker Shaka King an “alternately romantic, comedic and melancholy look at barely functioning dopeheads.” The story of a hip young couple trying to keep their lives and relationship together while sharing a voracious appetite for cannabis, NEWLYWEEDS feels like no other stoner comedy. Set in Bed-Stuy, the film follows Lyle (Amari Cheatom) as he spends days reclaiming property for Manny’s Rent-to-Own, and nights with Nina (Trae Harris), a tour guide for the Brooklyn Children’s Museum. Their grass habit stokes an hallucinatory safe zone for them to dream of grander lives, but also provokes a series of wacky mishaps and questionable choices. Neither an endorsement nor a condemnation of marijuana, NEWLYWEEDS plays like a Spike Lee and “Louie” mashup — a subtle, nuanced and often endearingly funny depiction of struggling urban coupledom. This podcast is a recording of the Q & A with NEWLYWEEDS writer/director Shaka King, producer Gbenga Akinnagbe and actor Hassan Johnson, recorded September 19, 2013, at a screening of the film at Film Forum. Note: explicit

CONTEMPT (1963) That's what ex-typist Brigitte Bardot has for husband playwright/screenwriter Michel Piccoli—but why? Does she think he used her to get that lucrative assignment (to rewrite an adaptation of The Odyssey) from overbearing American producer Jack Palance (“I like gods. I know exactly how they feel”)? Was it that (innocent) fanny pat to multilingual interpreter Giorgia Moll? Or does she just “not love him anymore?” New Wave wild man Godard, given international stars, a best selling novel by Alberto Moravia, two high-maintenance producers (Joseph E. Levine and Carlo Ponti), and the biggest budget of his career, still succeeded, as usual, in overturning the conventions of mainstream filmmaking, while producing a meditation on post-Hollywood filmmaking; the pitfalls of international productions; CinemaScope (“only for snakes and funerals,” chortles Lang); imposing modern psychological interpretations on classical themes; and Bardot’s derrière. From the beginning, as Godard’s voiceover recites the credits and his cameraman Raoul Coutard films at Rome’s Cinecittà; Piccoli meets Palance amid endless side-tracking shots; Lang (playing “Fritz Lang”), in the screening room, casually switches from English to French to German—with a Prego thrown in—as Giorgia Moll simultaneously translates (sometimes with a twist) for monoglots Palance and Piccoli; and a studiedly fake death scene; we’re obviously in Godardland. But a tour de force 30-minute sequence that never strays from the Bardot/Piccoli apartment, with the couple hashing over their problems in seeming “real time” amid carefully complex mise en scène, could fit easily into a Bergman heart-searcher. (Although Piccoli also sports a cigar and hat in his bath in homage to Dean Martin in Some Came Running.) Godard’s most sun-splashed production, unfolding amid the airiest and most fabulous of apartments and villas, and against dazzling seascapes, with a complex color scheme featuring a retina-searing red - always the same shade - on robes, railings, convertibles, etc. And with Godard himself as Lang’s Assistant Director in the final scene. This podcast is a recording of the introduction to CONTEMPT by Phillip Lopate, recorded September 6, 2013, at a screening of the film at Film Forum.

LA MAISON DE LA RADIO: Radio France, the French equivalent of NPR or the BBC, is a beloved cultural institution that broadcasts a vast array of shows daily to “culture-loving, politics-mad, talk-obsessed France” (Variety). Philibert, whose documentary on a rural French schoolroom, TO BE AND TO HAVE (2002), was an international hit, collages the many faces of this complex enterprise, interweaving the station’s news reports, literary events, in-studio musical performances, celebrity guest interviews, quiz shows, sports broadcasts, et alia. This podcast is a recording of the Q & A with LA MAISON DE LA RADIO filmmaker Nicolas Philibert, recorded September 4, 2013, at a screening of the film at Film Forum.

INVASION OF THE BODYSNATCHERS: (1956, Don Siegel) Small town doctor Kevin McCarthy finds his waiting room is packed with people whose relatives and friends “are no longer their relatives and friends.” Mass hysteria? So what’s that giant pod doing on the billiard table? This podcast is a recording of the introduction to INVASION OF THE BODYSNATCHERS by Annette Insdorf, recorded August 23, 2013, at a screening of the film at Film Forum.

INVASION OF THE BODYSNATCHERS: (1978, Philip Kaufman) Health department colleagues Donald Sutherland and Brooke Adams find pink flowers turning into giant pods into … But wait a minute, is Leonard Nimoy’s Dr. Kibner one of “them”? This podcast is a recording of the introduction to INVASION OF THE BODYSNATCHERS by Abel Ferrara & Anthony Redman, recorded August 23, 2013, at a screening of the film at Film Forum. Note: Explicit

INTOLERANCE: (1916) Overwhelmingly spectacular (the assistant directors alone included W.S. Van Dyke, Tod Browning, and Erich von Stroheim) follow-up to Griffith’s Birth of a Nation, with Lillian Gish’s cradle-rocking tying together stories of Christ, the 16th-century St. Bartholomew Day Massacre, the fall of Babylon (complete with 300-foot high chariot-bearing battlements), and a modern day story capped by the original car vs. train race to the crossing to deliver the reprieve. Restored with original tinting and toning, with musical score by Carl Davis (Napoleon) performed by The Luxembourg Radio Symphony Orchestra. 167 minutes (plus intermission). DCP. This podcast is a recording of the introduction to INTOLERANCE by composer Carl Davis, recorded August 8, 2013, at a screening of the film at Film Forum

CAMILLE: “His eyes have made love to me all evening.” Greta Garbo’s tubercular courtesan Marguerite Gautier falls for Robert Taylor’s naive, but gorgeous, young suitor Armand Duval, despite the admonitions of his father Lionel Barrymore, in quintessential Hollywood adaptation of Dumas fils’ novel The Lady of the Camellias. This podcast is a recording of the tntroduction to CAMILLE by Julie Kavanagh & Liesl Schillinger, recorded July 1, 2013, at a screening of the film at Film Forum.

SING ME THE SONGS THAT SAY I LOVE YOU: Rufus and Martha Wainwright honored their legendary mother, folksinger Kate McGarrigle (1946 – 2010) with a Town Hall concert in NYC that included performances/appearances by Anna and Jane McGarrigle, Jimmy Fallon, Emmylou Harris, Norah Jones, Antony Hegarty, Teddy Thompson, and novelist Michael Ondaatje. Lian Lunson, director of LEONARD COHEN: I’M YOUR MAN, assembles home movie footage of the Wainwrights (their father is Loudon Wainwright III), archival footage, and family interviews that give resonance to the story of Kate’s life and the songs she wrote (many with her sisters); they draw upon romantic, carefree, and bittersweet memories that reference her life as an artist, wife, sister, and mother. Rufus’s rendition of Candles is a particularly poignant moment among many. This podcast is a recording of the introduction to SING ME THE SONGS THAT SAY I LOVE YOU by Rufus Wainwright and Q & A with Filmmaker Lian Lunson, recorded June 28, 2013, at a screening of the film at Film Forum