Saturday, April 12, 2014

The Cinephiliacs !

There are so many interesting film books being published but only so few places for thoughtful reviews of them. To cite some examples: Cineaste is probably the best place for book reviews as in each issue there are reviews of five or six of the more specialized titles, sometimes in different languages, by notable critics whose stance is usually critical, which is great against that of mild summaries and appreciations. Though they appear less frequent the reviews in Cinema Scope and those by Jim Hoberman and Will Sloan are good too.

This lack of writing on film books is one of the reasons why Peter Labuza's The Cinephiliacs is so great. In it you can hear New York cinephiles talk at length about their cinephilia and film criticism. Labuza is a good host as in his amicable, fast-speaking and encyclopedic manner he brings a wealth of knowledge and research to each interview. The podcast have been around since 2012 and there has been thirty-five of them so far.

Some of the highlights include:
- Mark Harris on his new book Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War.
 - Kent Jones on his career as a film critic, at the World Cinema Project, and at the New York Film Festival.
- Noah Isenberg on his new book Edgar G. Ulmer: A Filmmaker at the Margins.
- A special Andrew Sarris roundtable.
- James Hansen on NYFF's Views from the Avant-Garde.
- Jordan Cronk on Los Angeles cinema. 
- A.O. Scott on being a film critic at the New York Times.
Ignatiy Vishnevetsky on his work at Roger Ebert's At the Movies..
Dan Sallitt on his cinephile life and The Unspeakable Act.

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