Cinematalk

Cinematalk Podcast #18: THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN In support of the Wisconsin Science Festival and the Cinematheque’s virtual engagement of a classic science fiction double feature, this episode of Cinematalk features Cinematheque Programmers Jim Healy and Ben Reiser in a spoiler filled-conversation about The Incredible Shrinking Man. For a fun and digressive discussion on Silent Running, we in...

As part of the Cinematheque’s tribute to the legendary independent distribution company Cinema 5, this episode of Cinematalk features an interview with Ira Deutchmann, director of Searching for Mr. Rugoff, and himself an important and influential figure in independent movie distribution.

This week on the podcast we welcome Director Jim Cricchi and writer and producer Susan Peters. Jim and Susan first came to our attention with the short documentary, LOS LECHEROS which premiered at our 2018 Wisconsin Film Festival. Jim and Susan were scheduled to present CAN YOU HEAR US NOW at this year’s Wisconsin Film Festival, and we are delighted to have them with us today for the online equiva...

In conjunction with the Cinematheque's free view-at-home presentation of Martha Shane's documentary Narrowsburg, this episode features Martha Shane in conversation with Cinematheque Programmer Mike King. Their discussion touches on the making of Narrowsburg, the reluctance of her interview subjects, the "underworld connections" of Richie Castellano, film fest fraud, and more!

As a supplement to the Cinematheque's view-at-home presentation of Werner Herzog's Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin, this episode of Cinematalk features Cinematheque Director of Programming Jim Healy in conversation with Rob Thomas, Film Critic for Madison's Capital Times. The discussion revolves around Nomad and its relation to Herzog's prolific body of work. Plus, Rob reports from the fr...

In conjunction with UW Cinematheque's view-at-home presentation of the newly restored Jazz on a Summer's Day (1959), this episode of Cinematalk takes a close look at the influential concert documentary filmed at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival. In the first segment, UW Madison Film Professor Jeff Smith talks with the Cinematheque's Mike King about the cultural and historical significance of the art...

This week’s Cinematalk guests are two of the most exciting and forward-thinking contemporary American filmmakers, Bill and Turner Ross, who join us to discuss their new film, Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets. Originally scheduled to play the 2020 Wisconsin Film Festival, the film is set at the last night of a dive bar on the outskirts of Las Vegas. The Ross Brothers shed light on the unusual production...

July 2020 marks 40 years since the death of the brilliant actor and comedian Peter Sellers (1925-1980). In conjunction with the Cinematheque's "Peter Sellers: Lost and Found" selections, this episode features Cinematheque Programmers Jim Healy and Ben Reiser discussing The Ghost of Peter Sellers, Peter Medak's new documentary about the making - and unmaking - of his unreleased Sellers comedy Ghost...

As a complement to our earlier podcast with David Bordwell discussing Hill of Freedom and the cinema of Hong Sang-soo, episode 11 of Cinematalk takes a closer look at another superb and semi-autobiographical Hong feature, Woman on the Beach (2006). In Woman on the Beach, a filmmaker travels to a sparsely populated seaside resort town to get some writing done on his next project. While seeking insp...

On Cinematalk this week, we are privileged to welcome one of the finest of all contemporary filmmakers, Alexander Payne. Our discussion begins with a look at THE GREAT SILENCE and the mythic qualities of the Western genre. We also touch on the development of his cinephilia and the future of moviegoing. Usually writing in collaboration with Jim Taylor, Alexander Payne is the renowned director of so...

This week, we are delighted to be joined on the podcast by the great film scholar David Bordwell. David Bordwell is the Jacques Ledoux Professor of Film Studies right here at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and is the author of numerous essential texts on cinema, including Planet Hong Kong, Ozu and the Poetics of Cinema, and most recently Reinventing Hollywood: How 1940s Filmmakers Changed Mo...

Bill Forsyth is our very special guest on Cinematalk this week. Forsyth’s achievements as a Scottish filmmaker are pioneering to say the least. He started a career in film at age 18 and spent nearly a decade and a half making commissioned documentaries and industrial films. This experience partly explains why his sublime and distinctly personal brand of filmmaking was fully realized when he made h...

The show focuses on The Grey Fox through an interview with the film's producer Peter O'Brian, who remembers Phillip Borsos and the "Tax Shelter" era of Canadian Film Production. Later on in the podcast, a chat with Mary Sweeney, co-writer, producer and editor of The Straight Story, who shares her memories of Grey Fox and Straight Story leading man Richard Farnsworth.

On the first segment of the podcast, Cinematheque programmers, Jim Healy and Ben Reiser discuss Ice Cold in Alex and assess the fascinating career of director Thompson. In the second segment, we are joined by our special guest, UW Madison alum and esteemed editor Mark Goldblatt. Goldblatt offers his own praise of Ice Cold in Alex and reflects on his time as the editor of J. Lee Thompson’s 1984 mov...

On this week's Cinematalk, the official podcast of the UW Cinematheque, a conversation with writer/director Dan Sallitt. Sallitt's fifth and latest feature, entitled Fourteen, is his first movie since The Unspeakable Act, which screened at the 2013 Wisconsin Film Festival. In the words of Cinematheque Programmer Mike King, Fourteen "is an absorbing and deeply moving portrait of long-term friendshi...

Jim Healy and Ben Reiser bring you up-to-date on what's been happening with UW Cinematheque and Wisconsin Film Festival, as well as future plans, and they discuss the film, Spaceship Earth. Mike King and Kelley Conway discuss the film, Deerskin.

An in-depth conversation with Bob Furmanek of 3-D Film Archive about the history of 3-D filmmaking and exhibition.

We were recently joined in the studio by James Runde, a Madison Wisconsin based filmmaker and graduate of the Communication Arts department here at the UW. James has had four films in as many years at the Wisconsin Film Festival, starting with a short film at the 2016 Festival called WHITE AND LAZY. In 2017 he brought the super short animated piece, PATTI to the festival, in 2018 we premiered LESL...

On March 20, 2019, 20th Century Fox ceased to exist when the Walt Disney Co. completed its acquisition of what was once one of Hollywood’s six major studios. Although their catalogue stretches back more than 100 years, 20th Century Fox was officially formed in 1935 with the merging of two smaller studios, Fox Film Corporation and 20th Century Pictures. To commemorate this significant moment in cin...

For our maiden voyage on Cinematalk, we are pleased to bring you a conversation with Manohla Dargis, co-chief Film Critic of the New York Times and one of the most widely read film journalists in the country. Prior to her current position, she wrote film criticism for The Village Voice, L.A. Weekly, and The Los Angeles Times. On October 31, Manohla Dargis visited our Communication Arts Department...