The Film Comment Podcast

Two episodes in, Olivier Assayas’s new, mind-bendingly metatextual HBO series, Irma Vep, has already proven to be catnip for cinephiles. An audacious expansion and reinvention of Assayas's 1996 film of the same title—in which an aging French filmmaker attempts to remake Louis Feuillade’s classic silent serial, Les vampires, with Maggie Cheung as the criminal vamp Irma Vep—the eight-part series features a nearly dizzying mise-en-abyme structure. Here, a neurotic filmmaker (seemingly modeled on Assayas) recreates Feuillade’s serial for a contemporary, binge-TV audience. Alicia Vikander plays Mira Harberg, an American pop heroine who is cast as Irma Vep among a glossy, transnational crew of actors. In the four episodes available to critics so far, Irma Vep engages with its multiple sources, its medium, and the lives of its creators in increasingly surprising and thought-provoking ways. On this week’s podcast, Film Comment editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute invited critics Adam Nayman and Beatrice Loayza to dig into the series’ endless rabbit holes and riffs on the history of serials, cinema, and, err, "content."

Léa Seydoux had an enviable and prolific 2021 with standout turns in Cary Fukunaga’s No Time to Die, Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch, Ildikó Enyedi’s The Story of My Wife, Bruno Dumont’s France, and Arnaud Desplechin’s Deception. At this year’s Cannes, she continued her streak with starring roles in two excellent, very different movies: One Fine Morning by Mia Hansen-Løve, where Seydoux plays a young mother grieving the cognitive decline of her father; and Crimes of the Future by David Cronenberg, where the actress is a dystopian performance artist alongside Viggo Mortensen. For our latest podcast, Film Comment Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish sat down with Seydoux for a windswept conversation on a rooftop on the Croisette (with a surprise cameo by Viggo Mortensen!). Seydoux discussed her experiences working with Hansen-Løve and Cronenberg, the intricacies of being an object versus a subject as an actor, her thoughts on beauty in cinema, and more.

With Cannes 2022 winding to a close, the last stretch has proved especially rich with standouts. On today’s podcast, FC Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish sat down with Dennis Lim (artistic director of the New York Film Festival), Jean-Michel Frodon (critic and former editor in chief of Cahiers du Cinéma), and Antoine Thirion (curator and critic) to discuss the festival that was. They talk about Kelly Reichardt’s Showing Up, Albert Serra’s Pacifiction, Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Broker, Annie Ernaux’s The Super 8 Years, and much more. Subscribe to the Film Comment Letter for a steady stream of festival coverage at filmcomment.com

With Cannes 2022 beginning to wind down, the last stretch has proved especially rich with standouts. One of these eleventh-hour highlights is Albert Serra’s latest feature, Pacifiction. An epic yet elliptical political thriller, the film follows a high commissioner in French Polynesia, played by Benoît Magimel, as he snakes his way through a dense, sensorially overwhelming landscape, schmoozing with locals, activists, and other politicians, while never quite revealing his true colors. After the film’s premiere at Cannes yesterday, Dennis Lim, the artistic director of the New York Film Festival, sat down with Serra for a special Film Comment Podcast interview. Subscribe to the Film Comment Letter at filmcomment.com to catch up on all of our festival coverage.

With Cannes 2022 winding to a close, Film Comment is on the ground, reporting on all the cinematic excitement at the film industry’s grandest annual event with the help of our on-the-Croisette crew of contributors. On today’s podcast, FC Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish talks to FC Podcast superstars Jonathan Romney and Jessican Kiang about the festival’s denouement, touching on Baz Luhrmann’s batshit Elvis; the latest slice of la vie quotidienne from the Dardenne Brothers, Tori and Lokita; the devisive new Claire Denis film The Stars at Noon; and two films from Ukraine: Maksym Nakonechnyi's Butterfly Vision and Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk’s Pamfir. Subscribe to the Film Comment Letter for a steady stream of festival coverage at filmcomment.com

With Cannes 2022 in full swing, Film Comment is on the ground, reporting on all the cinematic excitement at the film world’s grandest annual event. For today’s podcast, Devika sits down with critic Mark Asch and Miriam Bale, artistic director of the Indie Memphis Film Festival, for an conversation that gravitates, like a mosquito to a well-toned ab, toward the festival’s thirst traps, including David Cronenberg’s Crimes of the Future, Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness, Louis Garrel’s The Innocent, Serge Bozon’s Don Juan, João Pedro Rodrigues’s Will-o’-the-Wisp, Kristoffer Borgli’s Sick of Myself, and more. Catch up on all our daily Cannes 2022 podcasts at filmcomment.com.

With Cannes 2022 in full swing, Film Comment is on the ground, reporting on all the cinematic excitement at the film world’s grandest annual event. On today's podcast, Devika is joined by Justin Chang, film critic of the Los Angeles Times and NPR’s “Fresh Air”, for a conversation about about David Cronenberg’s Crimes of the Future, Ali Abbasi’s Holy Spider, Cristian Mungiu’s R.M.N., Park Chan-wook’s Decision to Leave, and more. Catch up on all our daily Cannes 2022 podcasts here. And keep your eyes (and ears) on this space for more soon...

With Cannes 2022 kicking off this week, Film Comment is on the ground, reporting on all the cinematic excitement at the film industry’s grandest annual event with the help of our on-the-Croisette crew of contributors. On today’s podcast, FC Publisher Eugene Hernandez sits down with Arianna Bocco, President of IFC Films, to take the temperature of Cannes, mid-way through. The two talk about her history with festival, how Cannes’ role in the film industry has evolved over the years, and how seeing 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days from Cristian Mungiu (director of this year’s standout drama R.M.N.) changed her career. Don’t forget to subscribe to the Film Comment Letter today for early access to a steady stream of our Cannes 2022 coverage, including interviews, dispatches, and podcasts, at filmcomment.com.

With Cannes 2022 in full swing, Film Comment is on the ground, reporting on all the cinematic excitement at the film industry’s grandest annual event with the help of our on-the-Croisette crew of contributors. On today’s podcast, FC Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish was joined by FC contributors Jordan Cronk and Giovanni Marchini Camia to discuss some recent highlights from the fest, including James Gray’s Armageddon Time, Ruben Östland’s Triangle of Sadness, Christian Mungiu’s R.M.N, and more. Subscribe to the Film Comment Letter today for early access to a steady stream of our Cannes 2022 coverage, including interviews, dispatches, and podcasts.

With Cannes 2022 in full swing, Film Comment is on the ground, reporting on all the cinematic excitement at the film industry’s grandest annual event with the help of our on-the-Croisette crew of contributors. On today’s podcast, FC Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish was joined by Inney Prakash (programmer and founder of the Prismatic Ground Festival) and Vadim Rizov (director of editorial operations at Filmmaker Magazine), to discuss some recent highlights from the fest, including Saela Davis and Anna Rose Holmer’s God’s Creatures, Mark Jenkin’s Enys Men, Arnaud Desplechin’s Brother and Sister, Jerzy Skolimowsk’s EO, and more. Don’t forget to subscribe to the Film Comment Letter today for early access to a steady stream of our Cannes 2022 coverage, including interviews, dispatches, and podcasts.