Kael Your Idols: A New Hollywood Podcast

This week we have a change of pace for the show. Instead of an episode on a single movie, Elena and Sam turn their focus onto the career of a filmmaker - namely the legendary Sidney Lumet. This is the first of many special episodes we have planned focusing on the figures (writers, actors, directors, even studio execs) who made New Hollywood what it was. There will no doubt be individual episodes o...

In this episode Sam and Elena sink their teeth into one of the most influential films of all time: George Romero’s independently produced Night of the Living Dead (1968). A gripping flick about flesh eating Ghouls and the people trying to fight them off - it also happens to be one of our favorite films ever made. The movie is so rich in social commentary that it could only be a product of the 60s...

When we found out that the 70s classic The Exorcist was to be the latest victim in Hollywood’s obsession with Legacy Sequels, a terrifying truth became all too clear: we would have to cover BOTH films on the podcast. This week your hosts braved the original William Friedkin film; widely considered to be a genre-defining work that changed the future of cinema, and the newly released The Exorcist: B...

This week Elena and Sam bring a somewhat *ahem* personal touch to the podcast in discussing Paul Mazursky’s tale of two upper-class couples in the late 60s doing what swingin’ 60s couples were wont to doooo. The New Hollywood touches are myriad with this film from the styles of acting on display, the particular performers chosen for the project (first appearance of New Hollywood Icon Elliott Gould...

The One-Two punch that began New Hollywood continues with the suburban dramedy, “The Graduate”. This sophomore effort from  director Mike Nichols is a highly quotable tale of a listless youngster falling into an affair with first the wife, and then daughter of a family friend. The movie still resonates (for some people at least…), due in no small part to the bravura performances by Dustin Hoffman...

At long last: the central conceit of the podcast has arrived! We celebrate New Hollywood officially beginning with… what else but Warner Bros. megahit “Bonnie and Clyde”. In this episode, Kael Your Idols’ own dynamic duo explores the fascinating critical response to this divisive classic. Known for its extreme violence and fascinating central relationship, the film launched almost everyone involve...

In this episode Sam and Elena continue to explore the foreign film movements that served as precursors to New Hollywood. The focus is on Japan and its studio-mandated ‘New Wave’ which allowed for salacious sex, violence, and a more anti-nationalistic worldview. In the spotlight are two very different films: Crazed Fruit directed by Kō Nakahira and Tokyo Drifter by Seijun Suzuki. Topics include: th...

On the previous episode we discussed Jean-Luc Godard and the influence of Cahiers du Cinéma, the famed French film magazine. This week we tell the tale of Agnès Varda and the other half of the French New Wave: the filmmakers associated with the ‘Left Bank’. Varda’s debut film, La Pointe Courte, is an intriguing first stab at many of the themes she would come to later refine through her amazing 7-d...

New Hollywood didn’t just come out of nowhere, ya know! European and Asian art movements from the 50s and 60s had a profound impact on American filmmakers and inspired many of the revolutionary impulses they brought to mainstream USA. The next few episodes of the pod focus on a couple different groups of these foreign precursors. This episode the show is zeroing in on the French New Wave filmmaker...

We've seen Old Hollywood at its best, now let's see it at its worst. Recall how last episode was a splashy Old Hollywood Musical? Well, this episode is basically the same thing except instead of a delightful masterpiece, it’s a godawful film that bankrupted a studio and helped push the entire movie biz in a different direction. That’s right friends, we’re talking about arguably the weake...

Ready for more New Hollywood? Hold your horses! Let’s first see what the films of the late 60s and 70s were reacting to by going *back* to the eras and movements that directly preceded New Hollywood. This week finds Elena and Sam traveling back to the zenith of Old Hollywood to discuss Walt Disney’s Mary Poppins. Topics include the film’s depiction of the women’s suffrage movement, the world of ch...

In this episode Elena and Sam begin their journey through New Hollywood by jumping nearly to the end of the era as they discuss Francis Ford Coppola's controversial masterpiece Apocalypse Now. Topics include: the nature of celebrity, the drug culture, Marlon Brando's brilliant/stupid improvisations and the portrayal of coolness in war movies.

This is a preview episode. Elena reveals her lack of film knowledge surrounding New Hollywood. Sam quizzes her about the film movement's historical context. They discuss the conceit of the podcast. What fun.