“If you have an historical imagination, and that’s what the book demands — in fact, it’s what every work of art demands, in fact, it’s what life demands — if you have an historical imagination then (a) you won’t rename Abraham Lincoln high school, right? And (b) you’ll be open to this book and other books that try to deal honestly with the times that they’re writing about.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 02/26/2021
“You transform pain into other things as you go through life. That was all him working through it. I like stories about storytellers and I like stories within stories. Obviously, I wrote and directed a movie that starts with a twelve-minute bedtime story. I love that. I know that other people don’t love it as much as I do, so I have to be careful about it.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 02/17/2021
My November conversation with the legendary Frederick Wiseman is part of the Coolidge Corner Theatre’s satellite programming for the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. Discussing his latest masterpiece City Hall, the filmmaker reflects on the heroism of local government and the madness of Donald Trump. Also, I got to tell Fred about Four Seasons Total Landscaping. – Coolidge Corner Theatre, 01/29/2021
“There are all kinds of ways a ‘bad’ cultural object can be redeemed. What’s amazing about Showgirls is that it ticks nearly every box: it’s been reclaimed as camp, as kitsch, a grist for the academic mill, as auteurism, as ideology, as a fun night out with friends, as everything. Maybe this resurgence is simply a case of an idea whose time has come.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 08/15/2018
Last night living legend Paul Schrader brought his stunning First Reformed to the Independent Film Festival Boston. Starring Ethan Hawke as a pastor struggling with his faith, the movie feels like a culmination of the obsessions with which this filmmaker has been wrestling onscreen for more than four decades. Some edited highlights from his Q&A moderated by critic Jason Gorber:
Just shy of a year after winning Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival for her brilliant remake of Don Siegel’s The Beguiled, Sofia Coppola dropped by the Harvard Film Archive for a special screening and a wide-ranging Q&A with HFA curator Haden Guest. Some edited highlights of the conversation:
“I’m seeing a shot of Jane sort of being composed looking out somewhere. And then at end of the shot, before it flares out, I see her look over to the camera and start smiling. I instantly recognize what’s happening, in that she’s breaking down that fourth wall and we’re going to be able to tell this love story in a rather unique manner.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 11/03/2017
“Harry made it look so easy for sixty years. His work doesn’t seem like anything’s happening. He walks onscreen fully in life, three-dimensional with his own key light and his own shadow. He lived that way, and he played that way. That is an estimable thing. That is something to be inspired by and aspire to. I’m so happy we got this movie made.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 10/06/2017
“The tragedy of the film is that it’s about a fellow who is put in situations with other men where violence and force is the common coin. It’s the tool that he has to deal with the situations in which he finds himself, and it’s also the thing that separates him from everything in life he wants, including finally the love of a woman. It’s made by someone who knows this.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 07/26/2017
“Scripts are sort of slippery documents. You write this stuff and it’s real easy to write and it’s really, really hard to do. The next step would be storyboarding, but again storyboarding can be full of bullshit as well. It lulls you into a false sense of security that it’s actually doable. So then we built models and stuff and started to plan it out, and I eventually used Minecraft.” – Boston Reel, 04/22/2017
