In the following talk, Tim and Matt think about the career of Paul Thomas Anderson, his movies, Phantom Thread in particular, and where he sits at what is probably the midpoint of his career. In lieu of an actual podcast, we give you this lightly edited conversation. You can find Matt’s work here. Tim: After… Read More Baumann and Burch Conversations, #2: Paul Thomas Anderson
Dir. Billy Wilder. Starring Kirk Douglas, Jan Sterling, Ray Teal The father of the man who is trapped in an old Native American burying ground underneath “the Mountain of the Seven Vultures” is a hangdog type, one who may have doomed his son to tragedy via phrenology alone. Papa (John Berkes), or Dad, for he… Read More Ace in the Hole (1951)
Dir. Ingmar Bergman. Starring Harriet Andersson, Max von Sydow, Gunnar Bjornstrand. Remember the first time you had a nightmare because of something you saw on a screen? Mine was when I was six years old or so. I caught an episode of Wishbone which adapted The Time Machine, and the Morlocks were honest to goodness… Read More Through a Glass Darkly (1961)
Dir. Ingmar Bergman. Starring Max von Sydow, Gunnar Bjornstrand, Ingrid Thulin In The Seventh Seal, Max von Sydow comes across Bengt Ekerot. The knight, strong and tall with a noble face, meets Death himself, who is one of the most distinctive characters in movie history, a two-tone figure with a white face and an enormous black… Read More The Magician (1958)
Dir. Michael Haneke. Starring Isabelle Huppert, Benoit Magimel, Annie Girardot No director on the planet has Michael Haneke’s stomach, an organ which can eat rotting meat and human shame in equal portions without so much as a gurgle. Similarly, the number of performers with Isabelle Huppert’s willingness to embrace difficult material is a small one… Read More The Piano Teacher (2001)
Dir. Ingmar Bergman. Starring Bertil Guve, Ewa Froling, Jarl Kulle The first ninety minutes of Fanny and Alexander are among the most moving ninety minutes in Ingmar Bergman’s entire oeuvre, which sounds impossible because they are, by and large, intensely joyful. No one describes Christmas at Grandmother Ekdahl’s (Gunn Wallgren) as anything other than “joyful,” and it’s… Read More Fanny and Alexander (1982)
Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson. Starring Vicky Krieps, Daniel Day-Lewis, Lesley Manville Spoilers, for those averse to them. One of the interesting developments in Daniel Day-Lewis’ acting is how thin he’s gotten. The man has never been chunky, but it’s been twenty-five years since Last of the Mohicans and fifteen since Gangs of New York, two… Read More Phantom Thread (2017)
Dir. Stephen Frears. Starring Helen Mirren, Michael Sheen, James Cromwell The hoi polloi being interviewed about Diana’s death are certainly passionate, if nothing else, and in their grief they look for someone to blame. The royal family becomes the obvious target—although only an ironical Blair aide makes the case that the Windsors literally killed her—and… Read More The Queen (2006)
Dir. Yorgos Lanthimos. Starring Colin Farrell, Barry Keoghan, Nicole Kidman Spoilers below, for those who want to be surprised. There are two versions of the same story which don’t appear to us until late in the picture. They are fairly similar, as both acknowledge that the surgeon had had some alcohol in his system when… Read More The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)
Dir. Wolfgang Petersen. Starring Brad Pitt, Eric Bana, Rose Byrne One of my least favorite games to play, maybe because it’s too easy or maybe because it reminds me of horoscopes, is deciding how a movie is a “movie of the moment.” It is not merely enough for a film to be of its own… Read More Troy (2004)
Seeing Things Secondhand 