Film Forum Podcasts

KINGS OF PASTRY: From the makers of the documentary classics DONT LOOK BACK and THE WAR ROOM. Pennebaker and Hegedus are simply the best — so when they turn their sights on the competition for the Meilleurs Ouvriers de France (MOF), France’s Nobel Prize for pastry, you’re in for a treat. Sixteen chefs whip up the most gorgeous, delectable, gravity-defying concoctions, and there is edge-of-the seat drama as they deliver their fantastical, spun-sugar desserts to the display table. The inevitable disasters prove both poignant and hilarious. When the film played in the U.K., critics dubbed it “the culinary HURT LOCKER”; “gastro-porn of the highest quality…as thrilling as any Olympic final”; and “quite possibly one of the most delicious films ever committed to celluloid.” Yum. This podcast episode is a recording of the Q & A with KINGS OF PASTRY filmmakers CHRIS HEGEDUS and D.A. PENNEBAKER, with film subject JACQUY PFIEFFER and famed pastry chef JACQUES TORRES, recorded September 15, 2010 at Film Forum during a screening of the film.

Paul and Sandra Fierlinger’s animated interpretation of J.R. Ackerley’s droll and tender 1956 memoir does justice to the highly personal nature of this man-and-beast love story. Ackerley remains British to the bone, and Tulip never fails both to delight and embarrass him in her choice of mates and in her canine indiscretions. Christopher Plummer gives voice to the unflappable, wry Ackerley and the late, great Lynn Redgrave is the sister who comes to share his flat and vie with him for the dog’s loyalty. Isabella Rossellini is Tulip’s sensitive and sensible veterinarian. The Fierlingers’ animated designs combine naturalism and visual wit, and their profound feelings for both dog and man are unmatched by conventional doggie cartooning. “No one is more observant, more loving toward dogs and at the same time less sentimental about them… An eloquent, carefully structured study in love and adaptation.” — Edward Guthmann, Bark magazine. This podcast episode is a recording of the Q & A with filmmakers PAUL & SANDRA FIERLINGER that was held at Film Forum on September 1, 2010.

Paul and Sandra Fierlinger’s animated interpretation of J.R. Ackerley’s droll and tender 1956 memoir does justice to the highly personal nature of this man-and-beast love story. Ackerley remains British to the bone, and Tulip never fails both to delight and embarrass him in her choice of mates and in her canine indiscretions. Christopher Plummer gives voice to the unflappable, wry Ackerley and the late, great Lynn Redgrave is the sister who comes to share his flat and vie with him for the dog’s loyalty. Isabella Rossellini is Tulip’s sensitive and sensible veterinarian. The Fierlingers’ animated designs combine naturalism and visual wit, and their profound feelings for both dog and man are unmatched by conventional doggie cartooning. “No one is more observant, more loving toward dogs and at the same time less sentimental about them… An eloquent, carefully structured study in love and adaptation.” — Edward Guthmann, Bark magazine. This podcast episode is a recording of the Q & A with filmmakers PAUL & SANDRA FIERLINGER that was held at Film Forum on September 2, 2010, moderated by animator GEORGE GRIFFIN.

Since the end of WWII, one copy of a 60-minute (unfinished) propaganda film, shot by the Nazis in the Warsaw Ghetto in May 1942, labeled simply “Ghetto,” sat undisturbed in an East German archive. A FILM UNFINISHED presents the entire film, carefully noting fictionalized sequences (e.g. dozens of Jewish patrons at an elegant restaurant; a luxurious funeral cortege). The film’s documentary footage is of an entirely different nature: corpses on sidewalks, beggars pacing the streets, children ravaged by hunger. The film includes a revealing interview with the only cinematographer identified with the production, as well as scenes in which now-elderly former residents of the Warsaw Ghetto review footage and occasionally recognize their neighbors. This is a film of enormous import: it documents some of the worst horrors of our time and the efforts (however imperfect) of the perpetrators to recast those events to suggest an entirely different scenario. This podcast episode is a recording of the Q & A with A FILM UNFINISHED filmmaker YAEL HERSONSKI, recorded August 20, 2010 at Film Forum

THE SICILIAN GIRL: Based on the true story of Rita Atria and Judge Paolo Borsellino. ONE GIRL AGAINST THE MAFIA, a documentary by Marco Amenta, played in 2002 at Film Forum. THE SICILIAN GIRL is his dramatic retelling of Rita Atria’s story: how a 17-year-old Sicilian whose father and brother were both Mafia members (and victims) breaks the vow of silence that enshrouds that world, and gives evidence to famed anti-Mafia judge Borsellino. Drawing upon Rita’s extensive diaries, the filmmaker tells her story, beginning in Sicily in 1985. A small child experiences her beloved father as a respected member of the community, a man to whom neighbors turn for help when a rapacious landlord orders their eviction. Soon after, he’s shot dead in the sun-drenched village square as his daughter looks on. Six years later, her brother is murdered. In court, Rita’s words are denounced as “the ravings of a fanatical adolescent bent on revenge.” But are they? This podcast episode is a recording of the Q & A with filmmaker MARCO AMENTA, recorded August 4, 2010, at a screening of the film at Film Forum

THE AGONY AND ECSTASY OF PHIL SPECTOR: Legendary pop music genius, record producer Phil Spector created the “wall of sound” behind some of the greatest hits of the ’60s: Be My Baby, He’s a Rebel, Da Doo Ron Ron, You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling, to name just a few. Today he is imprisoned serving 19 yearsto- life for the murder of B-movie actress Lana Clarkson. During his first trial (a hung jury), Spector gives a rare freewheeling interview to Vikram Jayanti, filmed at his castle, seated before the white piano which he bought with John Lennon, for Imagine. He lucidly holds forth on his life and work: his father’s suicide when he was a child; the process through which he achieved his distinctive sound; his friendship with Lennon; and his case that (despite Paul McCartney’s position), he salvaged the Beatles’ album, Let It Be. Then there is Spector’s curious enmity toward Tony Bennett and Buddy Holly (“he got a postage stamp even though he was only in rock ’n’ roll three years”), and a grandiosity that has him likening himself to Bach, da Vinci, Michelangelo and Galileo. And, yes, there is an endless parade of hairstyles and flamboyant outfits. This podcast episode is a recording of the Q & A with original member of The Crystals LALA BROOKS, recorded July 20, 2010, before a screening of this film.

THE SCOUNDREL: (1935, Hecht & MacArthur) Hecht and MacArthur’s second Astoria production stars Noel Coward as a stiletto-tongued New York publisher returning to earth after a fatal shipwreck, with various Algonquinites adding to the authentic literary atmosphere. Academy Award, Best Original Story. Plus short Hollywood on the Hudson (1942). Program Approx. 86 minutes. This podcast episode is a recording of the introduction by Author/Film Historian RICHARD KOSZARSKI, recorded July 13, 2010 before a screening of this film.

STONEWALL UPRISING: “It was the Rosa Parks moment,” says one man. June 28, 1969: NYC police raid a Greenwich Village Mafia-run gay bar, The Stonewall Inn. For the first time, patrons refuse to be led into paddy wagons, setting off a 3-day riot that launches the Gay Rights Movement. Told by Stonewall patrons, Village Voice reporters and the cop who led the raid, STONEWALL UPRISING compellingly recalls the bad old days when psychoanalysts equated homosexuality with mental illness and advised aversion therapy, and even lobotomies; public service announcements warned youngsters against predatory homosexuals; and police entrapment was rampant. A treasure-trove of archival footage gives life to this all-too-recent reality, a time when Mike Wallace announced on a 1966 CBS Reports: “The average homosexual, if there be such, is promiscuous. He is not interested in, nor capable of, a lasting relationship like that of a heterosexual marriage.” At the height of this oppression, the cops raid Stonewall, triggering nights of pandemonium with tear gas, billy clubs and a small army of tactical police. The rest is history. This podcast episode is a recording of the Q & A with filmmakers KATE DAVIS & DAVID HEILBRONER and MARTIN BOYCE & DANNY GARVIN from the film, recorded June 17, 2010, at a screening of the film

BEETLE QUEEN CONQUERS TOKYO: What is it about the Japanese and bugs? Inside a Tokyo pet shop, a little boy delights in selecting his new pet, a rainbow beetle (cost: $57). Japanese aesthetics — whether textiles, architecture, gardening, graphics, brush painting or haiku — all reflect a highly refined appreciation for both the diminutive and the transient. BEETLE QUEEN explores the world of Japanese insect-lovers, from the sublime (families who visit the countryside to hear choruses of crickets or experience the yellow-green flashes of light emitted by thousands of fireflies) to the ridiculous (cartoon beetles that infest the zeitgeist). With unabashed humor and tremendous originality, Jessica Oreck looks at the religious, literary, and philosophical underpinnings of a nation’s entomological obsession. Warning: You may look more kindly upon your roaches after viewing. This recording of the iA recording of theQ & A with filmmaker JESSICA ORECK. Recorded May 12, 2010 at a screening of the film

This recording of the introduction to WOMAN OF THE YEAR by JIM LARDNER, followed by the unused ending of the film performed by THE FILM FORUM PLAYERS, recorded May 2, 2010, at a screening of the film during our THE NEWSPAPER PICTURE Series.

This podcast is a recording of JIM HEALY's interview of director BILL FORSYTH, recorded April 15, 2010, at Film Forum.

THE SUN BEHIND THE CLOUDS updates the struggle for Tibetan independence, focusing upon the March 2008 demonstration against Chinese rule, the largest ever since the 1959 take-over of that nation. The Dalai Lama, living in exile in Northern India, is interviewed extensively and given the opportunity to explicate his “middle way,” a compromise position he has to date been unsuccessful in getting the Chinese to accept. Supporters of Tibetan independence who are devoted to the Dalai Lama, but who nonetheless feel “the middle way” is an ineffective solution, appear in the film, detailing their more militant position. This podcast is a recording of the Q & A with THE SUN BEHIND THE CLOUDS filmmakers RITU SARIN & TENZING SONAM, recorded March 31, 2010, at Film Forum at a screening of the film.

HARLAN – IN THE SHADOW OF JEW SÜSS: The infamous JEW SÜSS (1940), directed by Veit Harlan, and produced under Joseph Goebbels’s Ministry of Propaganda, was the Nazis’ most vicious anti-Semitic film. A drama set in 18th century Germany, it purports to tell the true story of a Jew who dresses incognito (as a Christian), corrupts a local Duke, restructures the government to bleed the people through punitive taxes, and forces himself upon a beautiful, married Christian woman (played by Kristina Söderbaum, Harlan’s third wife). At the war’s end, the filmmaker was prosecuted for crimes against humanity, but acquitted. Today, his children and grandchildren consider his legacy and the hard questions it continues to pose. Some have changed their name and left Germany. Others claim he was forced to direct the film and deride it as loathsome, crudely-made propaganda. HARLAN is a fascinating exploration into the murky waters of a family’s unique, disturbing relationship to one of history’s worst crimes. This podcast is a recording of the Q & A with filmmaker FELIX MOELLER and film subject Veit Harlan's granddaughter JESSICA JACOBY, recorded March 3, 2010 at Film Forum at a screening of the film.

THE RED SHOES: “Why do you want to dance?” “Why do you want to live?” Anton Walbrook’s Lermontov is not interested when red-tressed Moira Shearer desperately wants to join his troupe — but then he sees her dance. And then the Red Shoes ballet, based on Hans Christian Andersen’s tale of shoes that dance the wearer to death, will be her triumph. But when she finds romance with composer Marius Goring, it’s the eternal battle between Life and Art. Perhaps the greatest triumph of triply-credited (producers, writers, directors) “The Archers” — aka Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger — following their successive smashes A Matter of Life and Death and Black Narcissus, Powell agreed to film Pressburger’s decade-old script if they could create an original ballet from scratch and cast an actual ballerina in the lead — and then their discovery, 21-year-old non-actress Shearer, took almost a year to make up her mind. With Léonide Massine (actual Ballets Russes choreographer and Nijinsky’s successor as chief soloist) as the troupe’s maître de ballet, and also dancing the role of The Shoemaker; and Sir-to-be Robert Helpmann choreographing everyone else, the 17-minute ballet is a tour de force, its Oscar-winning score produced in record time by Brian Easdale when a predecessor’s attempt was rejected in toto. Shoes would run 110 straight weeks in New York alone; but in recent years, while relatively decent prints have been in circulation, none have come close to the brilliance of Jack Cardiff’s legendary original Technicolor photography. UCLA’s Robert Gitt and team have gone back to the damaged original nitrate materials, including the still-extant three-strip camera negs; his digital restoration led to a negative used to strike this breathtaking new 35mm print. This podcast is a recording of the Q & A with THELMA SCHOONMAKER, recorded February 19, 2010, at Film Forum at a screening of the film.

TAKING OFF: In desperate search for their runaway daughter through East Village hippie enclaves, Buck Henry and Lynn Carlin resort to the ultimate — trying marijuana themselves! Forman’s first American film gives not only the middle class squares, but also those would-be radicals, a comic workout. Color; Approx. 93 minutes. This podcast is a recording of the Q & A with director MILOS FORMAN, recorded January 5, 2010, at Film Forum after a screening of the film.