The Film Comment Podcast - podcast cover

The Film Comment Podcast

Film Comment Magazinewww.filmcomment.com
Founded in 1962, Film Comment has been the home of independent film journalism for over 50 years, publishing in-depth interviews, critical analysis, and feature coverage of mainstream, art-house, and avant-garde filmmaking from around the world. The Film Comment Podcast, hosted by editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute, is a weekly space for critical conversation about film, with a look at topical issues, new releases, and the big picture. Film Comment is a nonprofit publication that relies on the support of readers. Support film culture. Support Film Comment.
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Episodes

Toronto 2022 #1, with Jordan Cronk, Inney Prakash, and Bedatri Choudhury

Subscribe to Film Comment today . Once again we’ve arrived at that special time of year known as festival season. Today we kick off our coverage of one of the fall’s major film events, the Toronto International Film Festival, which runs from September 8 to 18. Throughout this year’s festival, we’ll be on the ground, covering all the highlights (and lowlights) from this year’s lineup, alongside our rotating crew of critics and special guests. First up, Film Comment Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish ...

Sep 12, 202250 minEp. 1

Fall 2022 Rep Report, with Gina Telaroli, Inney Prakash, and Steve Macfarlane

Subscribe to Film Comment today . This week, Clint surveys the wealth of cinematic delights on offer this fall across repertory calendars, both in person in New York City and online. To guide him through the thicket of newly rediscovered gems, lost classics, and thematic programs, he is joined by three experts: critic and filmmaker Gina Telaroli; Inney Prakash, programmer and founder of the Prismatic Ground festival; and Steve Macfarlane, programmer at Spectacle Theater and department assistant ...

Sep 06, 20221 hr 6 minEp. 1

The Future of Attention, with Kevin B. Lee

Subscribe to Film Comment today . At this year’s Locarno Film Festival, Film Comment Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish participated in a fascinating experimental event called “The Future of Attention”, curated by Rafael Dernbach, a researcher at the Universita della Svizzera italiana. A continuous 24-hour live talk moderated by three hosts—including Devika—and involving a new guest each hour, the event began at noon on August 10 and went on all the way to noon on August 11. Attendees were invited t...

Sep 01, 20221 hr 5 minEp. 1

The Future of Attention with Hito Steyerl

Subscribe to Film Comment today . Welcome to the Film Comment Podcast! I'm Devika Girish, the Co-Deputy Editor of Film Comment. Recently, I was at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland, where I participated in a fascinating experimental event called The Future of Attention, curated by Rafael Dernbach, a researcher at the Universita della Svizzera Italiana. It was a continuous 24-hour live talk, moderated by 3 hosts—including yours truly—and involving a new guest each hour. The event began at ...

Aug 30, 202250 minEp. 1

The Future of Attention, with Julia Murat

Subscribe to Film Comment today . At this year’s Locarno Film Festival, Film Comment Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish participated in a fascinating experimental event called “The Future of Attention”, curated by Rafael Dernbach, a researcher at the Universita della Svizzera italiana. A continuous 24-hour live talk moderated by three hosts—including Devika—and involving a new guest each hour, the event began at noon on August 10 and went on all the way to noon on August 11. Attendees were invited t...

Aug 25, 20221 hr 21 minEp. 1

The Future of Attention, with Noa Levin and Giovanni Carmine

Subscribe to Film Comment today . At this year’s Locarno Film Festival, Film Comment Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish participated in a fascinating experimental event called “The Future of Attention”, curated by Rafael Dernbach, a researcher at the Universita della Svizzera italiana. A continuous 24-hour live talk moderated by three hosts—including Devika—and involving a new guest each hour, the event began at noon on August 10 and went on all the way to noon on August 11. Attendees were invited t...

Aug 23, 20221 hr 4 minEp. 1

The Future of Attention, with Kamal Aljafari

Subscribe to Film Comment today . At this year's Locarno Film Festival, Film Comment Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish participated in a fascinating experimental event called “The Future of Attention”, curated by Rafael Dernbach, a researcher at the Universita della Svizzera italiana. A continuous 24-hour live talk moderated by three hosts—including Devika—and involving a new guest each hour, the event began at noon on August 10 and went on all the way to noon on August 11. Attendees were invited t...

Aug 19, 20221 hr 9 minEp. 1

The Future of Attention, with Helena Wittmann

Subscribe to Film Comment today . At this year's Locarno Film Festival, Film Comment Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish participated in a fascinating experimental event called “The Future of Attention”, curated by Rafael Dernbach, a researcher at the Universita della Svizzera Italiana. A continuous 24-hour live talk moderated by three hosts—including Devika—and involving a new guest each hour, the event began at noon on August 10 and went on all the way to noon on August 11. Attendees were invited t...

Aug 18, 20221 hr 3 minEp. 1

Irma Vep and The Rehearsal, with Adam Nayman and Beatrice Loayza

Subscribe to Film Comment today . This week's podcast initially began as a sequel to our episode about Irma Vep from a few weeks ago, in which Adam Nayman and Beatrice Loayza joined us to discuss Olivier Assayas's new HBO series. We had only seen four episodes at the time, and we wanted to reconvene our guests, now that the miniseries has finished its run of eight episodes. But as we dug into the film-within-a-film rabbit holes of Irma Vep, its commentaries on auteurism and autofiction, and how ...

Aug 04, 20221 hr 2 minEp. 1

Nathaniel Dorsky & Jerome Hiler on NYC's Underground Cinema

Subscribe to Film Comment today . This week we have a special treat for listeners: a conversation with avant-garde filmmaking legends Nathaniel Dorsky and Jerome Hiler, and programmer and Light Industry co-founder Thomas Beard. Thomas, along with Film at Lincoln Center programmer Dan Sullivan, has curated New York, 1962–1964: Underground and Experimental Cinema, an upcoming series spotlighting the rise of what Jonas Mekas described as the "New American Cinema." Opening on July 29, the series tak...

Jul 27, 20221 hr 19 minEp. 1

Restoration and preservation with Ina Archer and Shivendra Singh Dungarpur

Subscribe to Film Comment today . In a recent Film Comment Letter interview, Academy Film Archive preservationist Mark Toscano said: “to me, restoration has a variable definition, because it’s not embodying any specific technique or approach. It is more of a conceptual process by which you’re making sure that the film retains its qualities as a work that was made by a person—especially experimental work made by an individual.” Film Comment editors Clinton Krute and Devika Girish wanted to dig a ...

Jul 19, 202257 minEp. 1

Cinematographer Hélène Louvart on Murina and more

Subscribe to Film Comment today . This week, Film Comment editors Clinton Krute and Devika Girish talk to a cinematographer who’s worked with everyone from Agnès Varda to Wim Wenders to Eliza Hittman to Alice Rohrwacher. Over the last three decades, Hélène Louvart has acquired a reputation for her gorgeous lensing of women’s stories and her ability to capture movement with rare immediacy and grace. Hélène’s talents are on striking display in Murina, a new coming-of-age film directed by Antoneta ...

Jul 12, 202247 minEp. 1

Movie Gifts with Nathan Lee and Gavin Smith

Subscribe to Film Comment today . This week sees another episode of our Movie Gifts podcast. It’s like Secret Santa but for movies—each participant picks a title for another that the recipient hasn’t seen. It’s a fun way to share enthusiasms and gain new insights on old favorites. For this round, Film Comment co-deputy editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute invited FC contributor Nathan Lee and former FC editor Gavin Smith, two longtime friends, who were eager to assign each other movies. For G...

Jun 28, 202259 minEp. 1

Top Gun and Nationalist Cinema with Blair McClendon and Ed Halter

Subscribe to Film Comment today . Today’s podcast is spurred by something Film Comment Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish wrote in her dispatch from Cannes a few weeks ago: “the undeniable thrills and pleasures of Top Gun: Maverick … are not entirely separable from the American-exceptionalist fervor of its narrative or the military resources poured into its making. It isn’t “a good film but with bad politics”; it’s a good film in part because of its bad politics.” This thought was the catalyst for o...

Jun 21, 202258 minEp. 1

Olivier Assayas's Irma Vep with Adam Nayman and Beatrice Loayza

Subscribe to Film Comment today . Two episodes in, Olivier Assayas’s new, mind-bendingly metatextual HBO series, Irma Vep, has already proven to be catnip for cinephiles. An audacious expansion and reinvention of Assayas's 1996 film of the same title—in which an aging French filmmaker attempts to remake Louis Feuillade’s classic silent serial, Les vampires, with Maggie Cheung as the criminal vamp Irma Vep—the eight-part series features a nearly dizzying mise-en-abyme structure. Here, a neurotic ...

Jun 14, 20221 hr 10 minEp. 1

Léa Seydoux on Crimes of the Future and One Fine Morning

Subscribe to Film Comment today . Léa Seydoux had an enviable and prolific 2021 with standout turns in Cary Fukunaga’s No Time to Die, Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch, Ildikó Enyedi’s The Story of My Wife, Bruno Dumont’s France, and Arnaud Desplechin’s Deception. At this year’s Cannes, she continued her streak with starring roles in two excellent, very different movies: One Fine Morning by Mia Hansen-Løve, where Seydoux plays a young mother grieving the cognitive decline of her father; and Cr...

May 31, 202225 minEp. 1

Cannes 2022 #11 with Dennis Lim, Jean-Michel Frodon, and Antoine Thirion

Subscribe to Film Comment today . With Cannes 2022 winding to a close, the last stretch has proved especially rich with standouts. On today’s podcast, FC Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish sat down with Dennis Lim (artistic director of the New York Film Festival), Jean-Michel Frodon (critic and former editor in chief of Cahiers du Cinéma), and Antoine Thirion (curator and critic) to discuss the festival that was. They talk about Kelly Reichardt’s Showing Up, Albert Serra’s Pacifiction, Hirokazu Kore...

May 28, 20221 hr 5 minEp. 1

Cannes 2022 #10: Albert Serra and Dennis Lim on Pacifiction

Subscribe to Film Comment today . With Cannes 2022 beginning to wind down, the last stretch has proved especially rich with standouts. One of these eleventh-hour highlights is Albert Serra’s latest feature, Pacifiction. An epic yet elliptical political thriller, the film follows a high commissioner in French Polynesia, played by Benoît Magimel, as he snakes his way through a dense, sensorially overwhelming landscape, schmoozing with locals, activists, and other politicians, while never quite rev...

May 27, 202231 minEp. 1

Cannes 2022 #9 with Jonathan Romney and Jessica Kiang

Subscribe to Film Comment today . With Cannes 2022 winding to a close, Film Comment is on the ground, reporting on all the cinematic excitement at the film industry’s grandest annual event with the help of our on-the-Croisette crew of contributors. On today’s podcast, FC Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish talks to FC Podcast superstars Jonathan Romney and Jessican Kiang about the festival’s denouement, touching on Baz Luhrmann’s batshit Elvis; the latest slice of la vie quotidienne from the Dardenne...

May 26, 202258 minEp. 1

Cannes 2022 #8 with Miriam Bale and Mark Asch

Subscribe to Film Comment today . With Cannes 2022 in full swing, Film Comment is on the ground, reporting on all the cinematic excitement at the film world’s grandest annual event. For today’s podcast, Devika sits down with critic Mark Asch and Miriam Bale, artistic director of the Indie Memphis Film Festival, for an conversation that gravitates, like a mosquito to a well-toned ab, toward the festival’s thirst traps, including David Cronenberg’s Crimes of the Future, Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of...

May 25, 202259 minEp. 1

Cannes 2022 #7 with Justin Chang

Subscribe to Film Comment today . With Cannes 2022 in full swing, Film Comment is on the ground, reporting on all the cinematic excitement at the film world’s grandest annual event. On today's podcast, Devika is joined by Justin Chang, film critic of the Los Angeles Times and NPR’s “Fresh Air”, for a conversation about about David Cronenberg’s Crimes of the Future, Ali Abbasi’s Holy Spider, Cristian Mungiu’s R.M.N., Park Chan-wook’s Decision to Leave, and more. Catch up on all our daily Cannes 2...

May 24, 20221 hr 5 minEp. 1

Cannes 2022 Industry #2 with Arianna Bocco

Subscribe to Film Comment today . With Cannes 2022 kicking off this week, Film Comment is on the ground, reporting on all the cinematic excitement at the film industry’s grandest annual event with the help of our on-the-Croisette crew of contributors. On today’s podcast, FC Publisher Eugene Hernandez sits down with Arianna Bocco, President of IFC Films, to take the temperature of Cannes, mid-way through. The two talk about her history with festival, how Cannes’ role in the film industry has evol...

May 23, 202236 minEp. 1

Cannes 2022 #5 with Jordan Cronk and Giovanni Marchini Camia

Subscribe to Film Comment today . With Cannes 2022 in full swing, Film Comment is on the ground, reporting on all the cinematic excitement at the film industry’s grandest annual event with the help of our on-the-Croisette crew of contributors. On today’s podcast, FC Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish was joined by FC contributors Jordan Cronk and Giovanni Marchini Camia to discuss some recent highlights from the fest, including James Gray’s Armageddon Time, Ruben Östland’s Triangle of Sadness, Chris...

May 23, 202240 minEp. 1

Cannes 2022 #4 with Inney Prakash and Vadim Rizov

Subscribe to Film Comment today . With Cannes 2022 in full swing, Film Comment is on the ground, reporting on all the cinematic excitement at the film industry’s grandest annual event with the help of our on-the-Croisette crew of contributors. On today’s podcast, FC Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish was joined by Inney Prakash (programmer and founder of the Prismatic Ground Festival) and Vadim Rizov (director of editorial operations at Filmmaker Magazine), to discuss some recent highlights from the...

May 22, 202247 minEp. 1

Cannes 2022 #3 with Jordan Cronk and Jessica Kiang

Subscribe to Film Comment today . With Cannes 2022 kicking off this week, Film Comment is on the ground, reporting on all the cinematic excitement at the film industry’s grandest annual event with the help of our on-the-Croisette crew of contributors. On today’s podcast, FC Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish found a quiet corner to chat with frequent FC contributors Jessica Kiang and Jordan Cronk about their hot takes from the first three days of the fest. They discuss Kirill Serebrennikov’s Tchaiko...

May 19, 202235 minEp. 1

Cannes 2022 Industry Preview with Eugene Hernandez and Lizzie Francke

Subscribe to Film Comment today . With Cannes 2022 kicking off this week, Film Comment is on the ground, reporting on all the cinematic excitement at the film industry’s grandest annual event with the help of our on-the-Croisette crew of contributors. On today’s podcast, Film Comment Publisher Eugene Hernandez sits down with Lizzie Francke(producer and Editor at Large at the BFI) to provide an inside-the-industry take on this year’s festival. They also touch on some lesser known films that they’...

May 18, 202240 minEp. 1

Cannes 2022 Preview with Jonathan Romney and Jessica Kiang

Subscribe to Film Comment today . Cannes 2022 is here—and as news of standing ovations and walkouts, throwaway raves and pans, spit takes and hot takes flood the feed, we’ll be reporting on all the cinematic goings-on, with our on-the-Croisette crew of Film Comment contributors ready to cut through the noise with a series of thoughtful dispatches, interviews, and podcasts. First up, we welcome FC contributing editor Jonathan Romney and frequent FC contributor Jessica Kiang on the podcast to prev...

May 17, 20221 hr 3 minEp. 1

The Hong Show with Dennis Lim

Subscribe to Film Comment today . Everything you always wanted to know about Hong Sangsoo… but were afraid to ask! To celebrate Film at Lincoln Center’s two-part retrospective of the films of Hong, we hosted a special live conversation with NYFF Artistic Director Dennis Lim about the playful, profound, and soju-soaked filmography of one of world cinema’s most influential and ingenious artists. Dennis, the author of a forthcoming monograph on Hong’s Tale of Cinema from Fireflies Press, had his ex...

May 10, 202256 minEp. 1

Forgotten Filmmakers of the French New Wave & Prismatic Ground

Subscribe to Film Comment today . This week's special two-parter episode spotlights a pair of upcoming must-see programs in New York City. In the first half, FC co-editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute chat with the critic, scholar, and former Cahiers du Cinema editor Jean-Michel Frodon, who has curated a revelatory series for the Museum of Modern Art, “Forgotten Filmmakers of the French New Wave.” In an enlightening conversation, Jean-Michel tells us about the origins and mutations of the ter...

May 03, 20221 hr 15 minEp. 1

Céline Sciamma on Petite Maman

Subscribe to Film Comment today . After 2019’s Portrait of a Lady of Fire, we were eagerly awaiting Céline Sciamma’s next feature. Her new film, Petite Maman, is now finally in theaters, and it’s something of a surprise: a sweet, magical-realist story about a little girl who meets and befriends a younger version of her grieving mother. It’s a more modest film than the swooning period romance of Portrait of a Lady on Fire, but Petite Maman is just as profound in its play with gender roles and wom...

Apr 26, 202249 minEp. 1
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