Just in case you have a free hour…
Marc Maron’s interview of Paul Thomas Anderson for his podcast is FANTASTIC.
Right now my favorite part is Paul Thomas Anderson saying that watching Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies help him with sad days or dark moments and that those movies were the main inspiration for Punch Drunk Love. And that if he could go back in time, he would want to go back and work with Sterling Hayden. Heart-crack.
But the whole thing is great. Worth the time.
Do you listen to WTF frequently? The episodes are kind of hit or miss, but when they hit, I think I enjoy in them some of the same things I enjoy in your website. It makes me wonder whether you like and/or listen to WTF. Have you listened to the Robin Williams episode? It’s pretty great.
Boy you post a lot, I can’t believe how many pages I had to scroll back to comment on this!
Thanks for pointing me to this podcast, it was tremendous. PTA is my favorite living director (3 way tie w/ Scorcese and the Coens). It was amazing to hear his perspectives on his own movies. And also his background, growing up in “the scene”, and knowing that he wanted to direct since he was a kid. I love PTA for his willingness to talk about his work, talk about his process, and the way he seems to revel in the stories of filmmaking as much as me or any other fan.
I respect the reclusive directors like Malick, and maybe there is something to be said for an artist not commenting on his own work and letting it stand for itself. But since I obviously love analyzing movies (probably even more than watching them), I get such a thrill from all that PTA shares. I sense he is still in the process of self discovery, still trying to figure out how to make the perfect movie (although to me Boogie Nights is already perfect), and loves talking this stuff out as a way of discovery.
I loved how this started as a more traditional interview and then eventually just morphed into 2 guys who love movies having a conversation.
PTA: ” Yeah, The Killing, I was just talking about endings with John C Reilly, and we were talking about The Killing”.
I love the idea of PTA and Reilly just hanging out, talking about endings, that gives me such a smile.
Just stop smoking PTA!
Thanks for the link.
Todd – Glad you enjoyed! I love his openness to Maron’s thoughts on what didn’t work for Maron. He’s an artist. He does what he wants to do, for his own reasons, and sometimes it plays, sometimes it doesn’t, but he’s working for his own reasons. Like Magnolia being a response to his dad’s death. Not even realizing it consciously, but that was the movie he had to make.
These reasons are often not understood properly by people who don’t understand the importance of the unconscious in art.
Maron is great. His interview with Robin Williams, too, is killer – not sure if you’re a regular listener to Maron’s podcast. Highly recommend it, obviously. :)
And I will never be able to hear the word “nevertheless” again without cracking up! Ricky Jay may have the best stories in the world.
I haven’t heard any of his other podcasts, but now I will seek them out. I am only vaguely familiar with Maron, seen him on Real Time with Bill Maher a few times, and maybe somewhere on Comedy central doing something, but I loved his style with PTA. ” I saw Magnolia, and my first thought was dammit, what does this director want from me!”
By the way are you watching The Jinx on HBO about Robert Durst? From the same director as Capturing the Friedmans (I went to high school with him by the way…the director, not the Friedmans.) Seems right up your alley.
True crime stories do not get more riveting then The Jinx.
Todd – I don’t subscribe to many podcasts, but Maron’s is one of them.
And yes, The Jinx! My brother made me watch the first two episodes while I was staying with him. Amazing! I don’t have TV hookup, as I am sure everyone is tired of me mentioning – so I can’t watch stuff in real time. But GOD that story is fascinating. I remember it all when it went down – but had no idea the sheer level of insanity going on there.
Forgot your TV situation! Yeah I am currently fairly obsessed with the Durst case, feel like driving out to The Pine Barrens to look for Kathy’s remains.
As with Capturing the Friedmans (and JFK and Zodiac), there is a sense that if you just pay close enough attention to the movie you will be able to solve the case, but it somehow remains just barely out of grasp.
And Durst is just this fascinating cipher – his small facial tics, the hard blinking thing he does … the Macbeth-ish wife … I love the format: an entire series based on the examination of one case. Like Serial, although I was not a fan of Serial, and stopped listening after 4 podcasts. Just couldn’t with the narrator.
But my True Crime loving self was just engrossed in the Durst thing – the family – the “memory” of his mother committing suicide (my brother commented that that felt like a “false memory” to him, and I think that’s pretty insightful) – the cops in Galveston – lOVE those guys.
I don’t remember how the whole thing ended and certainly did not really pay attention to it closely while it was going on. I will be sure to catch up on it once episodes are available.
He is in the dictionary under reptilian. Such an odd fellow, yet he comes off strangely credible to me. The whole thing never really ended as far as I know.
There is also this layer of the viewing experience where you get the sense of the story still being created as you watch it. Which in a sense it is. The police are apparently paying close attention to the documentary. But why would he agree to the documentary and bring all this attention to himself unless he is innocent.? Unless that’s what he wants us to the think. I’m so riveted.
// But why would he agree to the documentary and bring all this attention to himself unless he is innocent.? //
I know, that is what is so fascinating to me!
Guilty people, though, are often brazen egotists in their declarations that they are truthful. It’s like a through the looking glass moment. Or like how serial killers or murderers try to be “helpful” to investigations, and detectives are always on the lookout for someone trying to insert themselves. It’s so creepy.