The Film Stage Presents

The Film Stage Presents

Subscribe for conversations presented by The Film Stage, your spotlight on cinema since 2008.

  1. 6d ago

    Emulsion Ep. 26 - Rob Tregenza on FAST

    When, a few years ago, I agreed to interview the filmmaker Rob Tregenza on the eve of his career-spanning retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, I did not anticipate it would, before long, lead to a producing credit on his new film. Nor a whole other feature in the time between that he thanked me for helping motivate, or an extended interview on his strange experiences working with Béla Tarr. This week marks the release of Tregenza’s sixth feature, Fast, a characteristically audacious and formally virtuosic that opens at MoMA on Wednesday, August 12 for a world-premiere one-week run, followed by an opening at Los Angeles’ Laemmle cinemas on August 21. If you suspect I’m biased in the movie’s favor, good work; you are correct. But I also have as many questions about it as anyone else, and wanted to speak to Tregenza about Fast’s particulars and peculiarities. Thus this conversation that I hope you—whether you choose to be the listener or the reader—find as illuminating as I, the interviewer.

    Emulsion Ep. 26 - Rob Tregenza on FAST

  2. Jul 30

    Emulsion Ep. 25 - Amber A’Lee Frost & Chris Wade on Chunks and Chapo Trap House

    There’s podcasts about movies (hello) and there are movies about podcasts. A podcast helping create a movie that is not itself about the podcast, but reflects its worldviews and the sense of humor that has become a kind of lingua franca among people in their 20s and 30s: that is novel. Thus: Chunks. If you’re a regular listener of Chapo Trap House, you’ve probably heard ads for the film proffered by the show’s producer Chris Wade, who has also taken up producing duties on this film, which is a comedy anthology that moves between public-access TV, animation, live-streamed poker, and more straight-ahead narrative projects that still reflect something of screen life and the modern dystopia. Chunks was spearheaded by Amber A'Lee Frost, a longtime contributor to Chapo who has since started ColdFeet, a production entity that previously supported Eephus. It was my pleasure speaking with Chis and Amber about Chunks, translating the Chapo sensibility to cinema, and ColdFeet’s forthcoming projects. Music courtesy of Lex Walton: “Love Theme from an Unreleased Film” from the album Giving It Up.

    Emulsion Ep. 25 - Amber A’Lee Frost & Chris Wade on Chunks and Chapo Trap House

  3. Jul 28

    The B-Side Ep. 188 – Michael Mann (with Blake Howard)

    Welcome to The B-Side! Here we talk about movie directors! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between. Today we discuss the great Michael Mann! Our B-Sides are The Keep, Public Enemies, Blackhat, and Ferrari. Our guest is the iconic Blake Howard of One Heat Minute Productions. We discuss the troubled making of The Keep, as well as that incredible Tangerine Dream score. The legendary Twilight Zone episode “The Howling Man” also comes up. There’s also mention of how many movies about the French-Indian War there are (spoiler alert: not many!) Blake, Conor, and Dan Mecca discuss the legacy of Mann and his recent output of underappreciated films. Why is it that Michael Mann’s films are often released to lesser success than their long-term reputations suggest? There’s celebration of Mann’s ever-evolving digital aesthetic, conversation about the contentious star-director relationship on the set of Public Enemies, and his demanding, exacting instincts. As legendary producer Amy Pascal once put working with the director: “You forget about the pain of childbirth too. I mean, whatever you go through, you still want another baby. It’s like that with Michael too.”

    The B-Side Ep. 188 – Michael Mann (with Blake Howard)

  4. Jul 16

    The B-Side Ep. 187 – Christopher Nolan (with Blake Howard)

    Welcome to The B-Side! Here we talk about movie directors! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between.  Today we discuss perhaps the most popular filmmaker alive today: Christopher Nolan! Our B-Sides are Insomnia, The Prestige, and Tenet. Our guest is the legendary Blake Howard of One Heat Minute Productions.  We chat about late-period Al Pacino, the unexpected success of Batman Begins, and those other magician movies that came out around The Prestige in 2006. There’s appreciation for the unique Nolan commentary for Insomnia and that Entertainment Weekly cover for Batman Begins, and the great character actor Martin Donovan.

    The B-Side Ep. 187 – Christopher Nolan (with Blake Howard)

  5. Jul 10

    Emulsion Ep. 24 - Yasmina Tawil on BAM's Electronica

    Like the old song goes: summer’s here and the time is right for dancing in the street. While the theater has its benefits as a restrictive space, and we do not encourage interrupting those to your immediate left and right with heavy movement, one appreciates, at times, the excuse to tap your feet. Or at least a reminder that theaters aren’t just about a big screen, but a sound system better than the built-in speaker  situated behind your TV. Hence: Electronica. It’s a new series running at BAM from today, July 10, to July 14, featuring an "amalgam of films from across the globe boasting electronic-heavy soundtracks." Some titles you might know chapter and verse; others, I think, have not played in New York for at least the decade I’ve lived here. I was glad to speak with BAM’s Yasmina Tawil about Electronica, but what follows is really a discussion of programming in its finer points: when to screen and why; when you can’t screen but really want to; what attracts an audience, and how you attract the audience with something they don’t necessarily want; and how this is seemingly the one realm of cinema where people reject monetary offers. I hope you enjoy, and see something in Electronica as it’s running. Learn more: https://www.bam.org/film/2026/electronica

    Emulsion Ep. 24 - Yasmina Tawil on BAM's Electronica

  6. Jul 1

    The B-Side Ep. 186 – Julia Roberts (with Joe Reid)

    Welcome to The B-Side! Here we talk about movie stars! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between. Today we discuss America’s Sweetheart: Julia Roberts! Our B-Sides include: I Love Trouble, America’s Sweethearts, Full Frontal, and Larry Crowne. Our lovely guest is Joe Reid of Vulture and the This Had Oscar Buzz podcast. We discuss Julia’s frequent career peaks and valleys, that ridiculous People Magazine cover in 1993, the tumultuous production of I Love Trouble, and the aftermath of a difficult Hook shoot. There’s talk of the giant comeback that was My Best Friend’s Wedding and Julia’s knowing, clever subversion of the rom-com leading character in it. We make time for the rise and fall of Revolution Studios, Joe Roth’s passion project that had a tumultuous first seven years. Scooter gangs and the 2008 Recession come up in talking about Larry Crowne (naturally), and there’s debate over how successful Julia has been over these last couple of decades in her “legend era.”

    The B-Side Ep. 186 – Julia Roberts (with Joe Reid)

  7. Jun 18

    The B-Side Ep. 185 – Steven Spielberg (with Bilge Ebiri)

    Welcome to The B-Side! Here we talk about movie directors! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between. Today we discuss one of the greatest film directors to ever live: Steven Spielberg! Our B-Sides are 1941, Hook, Amistad, and The Adventures of Tintin. Our guest is dear friend and incredible writer Bilge Ebiri! As of this writing, he just published his piece The Raider of a Lost Art, an oral history about Spielberg in conjunction with the release of his new film Disclosure Day. He’s also discussed Spielberg with The Film Stage before! We chat about Spielberg’s early start and the difficult production of 1941, his stratospheric ‘80s, the successful failure of Hook, and his underrated Amistad. There’s a celebration of Spielberg’s improbable millennium run of films, from Saving Private Ryan through Munich. The three of us dig into why Bilge loves Hook so much, he speaks on some additional, unpublished gems from his oral history piece, we appreciate the genius of John Milius, and the impossible camera that injects so much energy into The Adventures of Tintin.

    The B-Side Ep. 185 – Steven Spielberg (with Bilge Ebiri)

  8. Jun 9

    The B-Side – In Conversation with John Sayles Part II

    The thing about filmmaker John Sayles is that he has done everything. Do you love Steven Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial or Tobe Hooper's Poltergeist? Sayles' unmade screenplay Night Skies is a piece of the source code for both classics. How about The Big Chill? Sayles' lovely Return of the Secaucus 7 (which he wrote and directed) investigated the curdling of the baby boomers' American dream long before Lawrence Kasdan took a crack at it. The man has been essential to the evolution of nearly every genre of American film, in one way or another. Ahead of TIFF Cinematheque's retrospective Declarations of Independence: The Cinema of John Sayles (curated by Adam Nayman and beginning this Thursday), we spoke with Sayles about this series and how they selected which films to screen. We also touch on his (hopefully) next film I Passed This Way, working with James Cameron, and which noir classics he's caught up with recently. Read more: https://thefilmstage.com/the-hard-work-is-in-the-screenwriting-john-sayles-on-resourceful-filmmaking-james-cameron-and-his-tiff-retrospective/

    The B-Side – In Conversation with John Sayles Part II
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Subscribe for conversations presented by The Film Stage, your spotlight on cinema since 2008.

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  • Creator
    The Film Stage Presents
  • Years Active
    2012 - 2026
  • Episodes
    446
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © All rights reserved
  • Show Website
    The Film Stage Presents

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