Subscribe to Film Comment today . At this year’s Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland, Film Comment participated in a fascinating experimental event called “A Long Night of Dreaming about the Future of Intelligence.” Curated by Rafael Dernbach in collaboration with the Università della Svizzera italiana and Locarno Film Festival BaseCamp, the event began at sunset on August 9 and ended at sunrise on August 10, and involved a series of talks and workshops about the many connotations of “intellige...
Aug 22, 2023•53 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . At this year’s Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland, Film Comment participated in a fascinating experimental event called “A Long Night of Dreaming about the Future of Intelligence.” Curated by Rafael Dernbach, a researcher at the Università della Svizzera italiana, the event began at sunset on August 9 and ended at sunrise on August 10, and involved a series of talks and workshops about the many connotations of “intelligence,” how A.I. is changing our relations...
Aug 17, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . Over the course of his storied career, filmmaker Steve James has delved into the many ways in which individuals—frequently residents of his native Chicago—are subject to the whims of history, society, and life itself. Whether detailing the struggles of young athletes in his watershed 1994 documentary Hoop Dreams, the heroic efforts of anti-violence activists in 2011’s The Interrupters, or the daily experience of high schoolers in his 2018 series America to Me, J...
Aug 08, 2023•41 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . If you’re a follower of contemporary world cinema, chances are, you’re a fan of Franz Rogowski. Known for his distinctive screen presence and extraordinary physicality, the German actor has blazed a trail through some of the most well-regarded movies of the last few years, including Michel Haneke’s Happy End, Christian Petzold’s Transit and Undine, Terrence Malick’s A Hidden Life, Angela Schanelec’s I Was At Home, But…, to name only a few. His latest role is as ...
Aug 01, 2023•38 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster Oppenheimer, a biopic of J. Robert Oppenheimer, one of the key leaders of the Manhattan Project, has sold out movie theaters all over the country. With its three-hour runtime, notoriously large 70mm IMAX reels, and star-stuffed cast, it is nothing less than an epic. The film spans nearly four decades, from Oppenheimer’s days as a physics student in Europe, to his time teaching at UC Berkeley during World War II, to his days develo...
Jul 25, 2023•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . Last February, the magazine The New Republic invited a host of film critics to participate in a new poll, curated by esteemed critic and longtime Film Comment contributor J. Hoberman: a list of the 100 Most Significant Political Films of All Time. Not best or favorite political films, mind you—most significant. The New Republic unveiled the results of the poll on June 22, along with an essay by Hoberman analyzing the results. Topped by The Battle of Algiers, the...
Jul 04, 2023•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . Musician, filmmaker, and wearer of (many) hats Boots Riley has a new series streaming on Amazon Prime Video, called I’m a Virgo. It’s as bizarre, serious, and original as his breakout feature, 2018’s Sorry to Bother You, a workplace comedy set in a telemarketing office that unfurls as a scathing satire of life under late capitalism. I’m a Virgo is also about the urgent need to redistribute wealth, though it begins as a strange, sweet coming-of-age tale about a 1...
Jun 27, 2023•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . This week, we take a peek into the world of Robert M. Rubin, a New York–based collector of film scripts. An architectural and art historian by trade, Bob began buying rare and historical significant screenplays seriously in the 1990s, and has now amassed an archive of what he calls “exformation”—that is, the ephemera that was often discarded in the process of moviemaking, but now reveals hidden and forgotten histories. Film Comment editors Clinton Krute and Devi...
Jun 21, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . You may know Trinh T. Minh-ha from her groundbreaking films, like Reassemblage (1982) and Sur Name Viet Given Name Nam (1989); from her foundational books, like Woman, Native, Other: Writing Postcoloniality on Feminism (1989) and When the Moon Waxes Red: Representation, Gender and Cultural Politics (1991); or her wide-ranging scholarship and multimedia projects, which have been presented at museums and institutions worldwide. In a body of work spanning decades, ...
Jun 07, 2023•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . If you've been following the podcast and the Film Comment Letter, you'll know that for the last two weeks, we've been reporting from the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. Before the festival ended last Sunday, Devika Girish, Co-Deputy Editor of FC, gathered Justin Chang, Dennis Lim, and Rachel Rosen—all of whom serve on the selection committee of the New York Film Festival—for a look back at the Cannes that was. As experienced festival veterans, the three reflected on ...
May 30, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . Cannes 2023 has wrapped—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. As the tide of cinema ebbs from the shores of the Riviera, FC Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish was joined by Frédéric Jaeg...
May 28, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . Cannes 2023 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. For our latest episode from the shores of the Riviera, critics Mark Asch, Miriam Bale, and Kevin B. Lee join FC Co-Deputy Ed...
May 25, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . Cannes 2023 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. On today’s episode, FC co-deputy editor Devika Girish is joined by Dennis Lim, Artistic Director of the New York Film Festiv...
May 24, 2023•28 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . Cannes 2023 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. Our latest episode covers Cannes 2023 as it crosses the midpoint, with critics Lovia Gyarkye, Abby Sun, and Kelli Weston joi...
May 23, 2023•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . Cannes 2023 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. On our latest episode from sunny shores of Southern France, critics Jonathan Romney and Giovanni Marchini Camia join FC co-d...
May 22, 2023•36 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . On today’s episode, FC co-deputy editor Devika Girish sits down with Oscar-winning filmmaker Steve McQueen, whose new documentary Occupied City was one of the early standouts at the festival. It’s a more than four-hour opus that combines a voiceover drawn from a book written by Bianca Stigter, McQueen’s collaborator and spouse, about the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam, with footage of the city shot by McQueen in the last three years. The result is a haunting super...
May 20, 2023•29 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . Cannes 2023 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. For our second episode from the Riviera, critics Beatrice Loayza and James Wham and programmer and critic Inney Prakash join...
May 19, 2023•56 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . Cannes 2023 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, critics and frequent FC contributors Jordan Cronk and Jessica Kiang join FC co-deputy editor Devika Girish to open...
May 17, 2023•40 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . The 30th edition of the New York African Film Festival runs May 10 to 16 at Film at Lincoln Center, with a showcase that spans the historic past and the vital present of cinema from Africa. Last weekend, the festival hosted a special conversation in tribute to the great filmmaker Safi Faye, who passed away in February. Faye is best known as the first woman from Sub-Saharan Africa to ever direct a commercial feature film—1976’s Kaddu Beykat—but the Senegalese pio...
May 09, 2023•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . Writer Malcolm Harris has a new book out called Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World. It’s as sweeping as the title suggests: a lively biography of the author’s hometown that covers nearly two centuries. In the book, Harris traces the connections between the settling of California and the advent of the railroad, the establishment of Stanford University, the technological boom of the long 20th century, and own data-driven present. What yo...
Apr 25, 2023•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . This week we’re celebrating the recipient of Film at Lincoln Center’s 48th Chaplin Award, one of America’s preeminent actresses: Viola Davis, who has dazzled us for over three decades on the stage and the screen, and whose life story is as inspirational as her craft. A couple of days ago, I sat down with Davis to dig into some of the most memorable on-screen moments from her career, and how she shapes her formidable performances by being a keen observer of life....
Apr 21, 2023•54 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . The last few years have seen several new restorations of the films of Peter Greenaway, the British director known for classics like The Draughtsman’s Contract and The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover. His films are formally exacting and erudite, yet full of play and perversion, and are as provocative today as they were upon release. The latest Greenaway film to receive a restoration is Drowning by Numbers, which has just been re-released by Severin Film...
Apr 11, 2023•46 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . Kelly Reichardt’s latest feature, Showing Up, is a delicate, witty, yet deeply profound film about the messy ways in which living and surviving can get in the way of art-making. The film follows a ceramics artist, Lizzy (Michelle Williams), who prepares for an upcoming gallery show while wrangling family issues, the interpersonal politics of her day job at an art school, and problems with her landlord, who happens to be none other than her more successful collea...
Apr 04, 2023•40 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . Every spring the New Directors/New Films festival at Film at Lincoln Center and MoMA puts on an exciting showcase of movies by the best emerging filmmakers around the world. It’s always a reliable sign of the trends to come and the talents to look out for—past editions have featured early films by Spike Lee, Christopher Nolan, Kelly Reichardt, and others. Over the past few years, Film Comment has established our own annual tradition of previewing the best movies...
Mar 28, 2023•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . This year’s Rendezvous with French Cinema festival (March 2-12), Film at Lincoln Center’s annual showcase of contemporary French filmmaking, was something of a Louis Garrel convention—the French actor and director appeared in three movies in the lineup. He directed and stars in The Innocent, a comedy inspired by his own life, about a young man whose mother marries a heist robber newly released from prison. He also stars along with his sisters, Esther and Lena Ga...
Mar 14, 2023•34 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . Last weekend, Film Comment Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish was at the True/False Film Festival: an annual documentary festival in Columbia, Missouri that has, over the years, become an exciting site to discover the latest developments in nonfiction cinema. This year, a prominent trend in the lineup was personal filmmaking—films in which directors drew upon on their memories, families, and relationships to craft something universal or even political. Two films in ...
Mar 07, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . This week, Film Comment is reporting from Berlin, where the 2023 Berlinale is currently winding down. Throughout the festival, we’ll be sharing daily podcasts, dispatches, and interviews covering all the highlights of this year’s selection, including new films by Christian Petzold, Angela Schanelec, Hong Sangsoo, James Benning, and many more. On today’s episode, FC co-editor Devika Girish is joined by critics Giovanni Marchini Camia (Fireflies Press), Victor Gui...
Feb 24, 2023•56 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . This week, Film Comment is reporting from Berlin, where the 2023 Berlinale is currently underway. Throughout the festival, we’ll be sharing daily podcasts, dispatches, and interviews covering all the highlights of this year’s selection, including new films by Christian Petzold, Angela Schanelec, Hong Sangsoo, James Benning, and many more. On today’s episode, FC co-editor Devika Girish is joined by programmers Inney Prakash (Prismatic Ground) and Edo Choi (Musuem...
Feb 23, 2023•48 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . This week, Film Comment is reporting from Berlin, where the 2023 Berlinale is currently underway. Throughout the festival, we’ll be sharing daily podcasts, dispatches, and interviews covering all the highlights of this year’s selection, including new films by Christian Petzold, Angela Schanelec, Hong Sangsoo, James Benning, and many more. On today’s episode, FC co-deputy editor Clinton Krute sat down with writer/director Dustin Guy Defa and actor Michael Cera to...
Feb 22, 2023•37 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . This week, Film Comment is reporting from Berlin, where the 2023 Berlinale is currently underway. Throughout the festival, we’ll be sharing daily podcasts, dispatches, and interviews covering all the highlights of this year’s selection, including new films by Christian Petzold, Angela Schanelec, Hong Sangsoo, James Benning, and many more. On today’s episode, FC co-editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute are joined by curator and critic Antoine Thirion and critic...
Feb 20, 2023•43 min•Ep. 1
