Scene and Heard

Jackie and Greg mine one of Hollywood's most precious gems, Michael Curtiz's CASABLANCA from 1942, starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. Topics of discussion include the film's reputation as " the movie", the stacked cast of the greatest character actors of the day, the incredible economy of the script, the ambiguous morality of the characters, and why it's the ultimate product from the Hol...

Jackie and Greg arrive at the first Kurosawa on the list, the 1954 epic SEVEN SAMURAI. Topics of discussion include the film's pacing and structure, the animalistic performance of Toshiro Mifune, Kurosawa's little details, the humor peppered throughout, and how it continues to serve as a blueprint for all subsequent movie epics. #17 on Sight & Sound's 2012 "The 100 Greatest Films of All Time"...

Jackie and Greg are joined this week by Robert Reed Altman for their biggest episode yet, Robert Altman's New Hollywood masterpiece NASHVILLE from 1975. Topics of discussion include the sprawling cast of characters, the incredible musical numbers, how Altman perfected the ensemble drama, and why it's basically the greatest movie ever. Stay tuned for the second half of the episode where they sit do...

Jackie and Greg discuss the crown jewel of Armenian Cinema, THE COLOR OF POMEGRANATES from 1969. Topics of discussion include the parallels between filmmaker Sergei Parajanov’s life and the poet Sayat Nova’s, the sensual nature of the film and its themes, and the cultural representation of Armenia and Transcaucasia. They are joined by Anahit Mikayelyan, Director of the Sergei Parajanov Museum in Y...

It's Greg's turn to pick the film this week and he takes the opportunity to screen Robert Greenwald's roller disco XANADU for Jackie. Topics of discussion include the film's camp factor; the incredible music by Electric Light Orchestra, Cliff Richard, and The Tubes; a debate on whether it's better than GREASE; the animated interlude by Don Bluth; and how it makes for a fitting final bow from the g...

Jackie and Greg duke it out with each other in the name of Robert Bresson for their episode on AU HASARD BALTHAZAR. Topics of discussion include Bresson's aversion to "acting", the film as a parable of the Christ story, how divisive Bresson is as a filmmaker, and whether the film goes too far or not far enough to illustrate its main themes. #16 on Sight & Sound's 2012 "The 100 Greatest Films o...

Jackie and Greg take on Erich von Stroheim's partly-lost silent epic GREED from 1924. Topics of discussion include the film's grim subject material, von Stroheim as a liar and mythmaker, the episodic structure, and whether the 4-hour reconstructed version should be considered the definitive version of the film or not. #84 on Sight & Sound's 2012 "The 100 Greatest Films of All Time" list. https...

It's Jackie's turn to pick the film and she chooses one of the key pieces of her cinematic foundation, Baz Luhrmann's jukebox musical MOULIN ROUGE! from 2001. Topics of discussion include Luhrmann's opulent and frenetic style, the far-reaching cinematic inspiration using everything from Georges Méliès to Bollywood, how it revitalized the movie musical, and how it stacks up against other movie musi...

Jackie and Greg return to the world of Yasujiro Ozu for the first installment in his "Noriko Trilogy", LATE SPRING (Banshun) from 1949. Topics of discussion include post-war Japan, the quiet devastation of the film, Setsuko Hara's smile, pillow shots, and the enigmatic vase which appears before the film's climax. #15 on Sight & Sound's 2012 "The 100 Greatest Films of All Time" list. https://ww...

Jackie and Greg strap in for their longest film yet: Edward Yang's four-hour epic, A BRIGHTER SUMMER DAY from 1991. Topics of discussion include Yang's impeccable mise-en-scène, the scope of the production, how the film was designed to be shown without an intermission, and why it's ultimately hobbled by its mammoth runtime. #84 on Sight & Sound's 2012 "The 100 Greatest Films of All Time" list....

Jackie and Greg are back with another journey-down-a-river, descent-into-madness film, Francis Ford Coppola's APOCALYPSE NOW from 1979. Topics of discussion include the nightmare production, its colossal scale (and why it couldn't be made today), whether the last act with Marlon Brando works or not, and a comparison to one of the film's key inspirations, Werner Herzog's AGUIRRE, THE WRATH OF GOD....

Jackie and Greg are back for a very special episode this week, as they celebrate the 40th anniversary of Steven Spielberg’s E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL. Topics of discussion include its origins as “A Boy’s Life”, the storybook look and feel, how John Williams’ score elevates the film to opera, and why it’s endured for 40 years as an evergreen classic. Stay tuned for the second half of the episode w...

Jackie and Greg swoop in like vultures to pick the meat off "Bloody Sam" Peckinpah's revisionist western from 1969. Topics of conversation include Peckinpah's personal life, Old Hollywood vs. New Hollywood, the film's staginess, the magic of Warren Oates, and why Peckinpah's face deserves to be blasted down off the Mount Rushmore of "Great American Filmmakers". You've never heard them this vicious...

Jackie and Greg finally get to the first Jean-Luc Godard on the list, BREATHLESS (À bout de souffle) from 1960.  Topics of discussion include the film's innovative editing, why it's considered the pinnacle of the French New Wave, how the actors themselves are intended to be more interesting than the characters they're playing, and why this ranks as one of Jackie's favorite films of all time....

Jackie and Greg return to the Seine for their third consecutive film set along a river, Jean Renoir's famously unfinished A DAY IN THE COUNTRY (PARTIE DE CAMPAGNE) from 1936. Topics of discussion include a chat on mid-length movies (the film runs 41 minutes), the male gaze, why the film went unfinished and what's missing, and whether Renoir intended the assault at the center of the film to be trou...

Jackie and Greg dig into Jean Vigo's only feature film, the highly revered L'ATALANTE from 1934. Topics of discussion include Vigo's anarchist roots, how the film subverts all other French films from the same era, the risqué sexual content, and Vigo's untimely death at age 29 from tuberculosis. Join them for their second consecutive journey down a cinematic river. #12 on Sight & Sound's 2012 "...

Jackie and Greg take on Werner Herzog's descent-into-madness pocket epic from 1972. Topics of discussion include Klaus Kinski's volatile working relationship with Herzog, the themes of colonialism and "playing kingdom", the jungle as a hellscape, Herzog's unusual filmmaking methods, and the far-reaching influence of the film. #90 on Sight & Sound's 2012 "The 100 Greatest Films of All Time" lis...

It's Greg's turn to pick the film and he goes for something very near and dear to his heart, Terry Gilliam's dystopian masterpiece BRAZIL. Topics of discussion include the film's visual and sonic design, its origins in Orwell and Monty Python, the subversive casting of Robert De Niro, the messy structure, and the film's torrid distribution story and how film critics ultimately saved the day. The c...

Jackie and Greg take on Sergei Eisenstein's landmark silent film from 1925. Topics of discussion include Eisenstein's montage theory, the Kuleshov effect, the film's origins as a piece of Soviet propaganda, and how the Odessa Steps sequence is probably the most iconic in all of cinema. #11 on Sight & Sound's 2012 "The 100 Greatest Films of All Time" list. https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound...

Jackie and Greg return to the realm of the Archers to discuss another of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's biggest hits, A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH from 1946. Topics include the use of Technicolor, Jack Cardiff's legendary photography, the film's contrarian stylistic choices, the British-American relations at the origin of the film, and how it’s basically the British version of IT’S A WONDER...

Jackie and Greg take on Federico Fellini's autobiographical fantasia from 1963. Topics of discussion include surrealism, the genesis and far-reaching influence of the film, Fellini's divisiveness as a filmmaker, artists calling themselves out in their work, and a discussion of meta movies in general. Join them for one of their most unconventional episodes, as Greg grapples with his true feelings f...

Join Jackie and Greg as they dig into one of the seminal films from the arthouse boom of the 1950s, Ingmar Bergman's THE SEVENTH SEAL. Topics of discussion include the idea of the "pocket epic," Bergman's accessibility, the running theme of faith throughout his work, and why Max von Sydow was the dreamiest of all the sad blonde boys. #93 on Sight & Sound's 2012 "The 100 Greatest Films of All T...

Jackie and Greg wrap up their string of silent films with perhaps the greatest of them all: Carl Theodor Dreyer's earth-shattering masterpiece from 1928. Topics of discussion include the constant use of close-ups, the various scores for the film over the years, comparisons to Robert Bresson's THE TRIAL OF JOAN OF ARC (and his distaste of Dreyer's film), and how Renée Falconetti's iconic performanc...

Jackie and Greg take on Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí's surrealist cannonball from 1929 that sent shockwaves throughout the art world. Topics of discussion include the film's origins; how Buñuel miscalculated his audience; id, ego, and suppressed human emotions; and and how the dreamlike imagery literally has no meaning. Join them as they talk excitedly about eyeballs, ants, and armpit hair. With...

Jackie and Greg discuss the highest-ranked documentary on the Sight & Sound list, Dziga Vertov's experimental montage film from 1929. Topics of discussion include the Kinoks collective, Vertov's newsreel background and his aversion to fiction, how meta the film is, the polarizing Alloy Orchestra score, and the playfulness of Vertov's city symphony. Why does Greg keep bringing up KOYAANISQATSI?...