The Film Comment Podcast

Director Christian Petzold discusses his latest film 'Undine' at the Berlin International Film Festival. The film explores themes of love, betrayal, and the mystical undertones of a water nymph myth. Petzold reflects on the influence of literature, like Moby Dick, in shaping the film's narrative and talks about the potential for a new fairytale movie trilogy.

This week, The Film Comment Podcast reports from the Berlin International Film Festival, straight from, you guessed it, Berlin. It’s one of the year’s major festivals, and the 2020 edition has been highly anticipated because of its new leadership and impressive slate. We’ll be talking about the highlights including new films from Christian Petzold, Hong Sangsoo, and Abel Ferrara, as well as Natalia Meta’s El Prófugo and Victor Kossakovsky’s Gunda. Film Comment Editor-in-Chief Nicolas Rapold is joined on this episode by FC Assistant Editor Devika Girish and FC contributing editor Jonathan Romney, to discuss Ilya Khrzhanovskiy and Jekaterina Oertel’s DAU. Natasha, Hong Sangsoo’s The Woman Who Ran, Fabio & Damiano D'Innocenzo’s Bad Tales, and Benoît Delépine and Gustave Kervern’s Delete History.

This week, The Film Comment Podcast reports from the Berlin International Film Festival, straight from, you guessed it, Berlin. It’s one of the year’s major festivals, and the 2020 edition has been highly anticipated because of its new leadership and impressive slate. We’ll be talking about the highlights including new films from Christian Petzold, Hong Sangsoo, and Abel Ferrara, as well as Natalia Meta’s El Prófugo and Victor Kossakovsky’s Gunda. Film Comment Editor-in-Chief Nicolas Rapold is joined on this episode by FC Assistant Editor Devika Girish and Jessica Green, programmer and Artistic Director of the Houston Cinema Arts Society, to discuss Caetano Gotardo and Marco Dutra’s All the Dead Ones, Ferrara’s Siberia, Bassam Tariq’s Mogul Mowgli, and Bastian Günther’s One of These Days.

This week, The Film Comment Podcast reports from the Berlin International Film Festival, straight from, you guessed it, Berlin. It’s one of the year’s major festivals, and the 2020 edition has been highly anticipated because of its new leadership and impressive slate. We’ll be talking about the highlights including new films from Christian Petzold, Hong Sangsoo, and Abel Ferrara, as well as Natalia Meta’s El Prófugo and Victor Kossakovsky’s Gunda. Film Comment Editor in Chief Nicolas Rapold is joined on this episode by FC Assistant Editor Devika Girish, and a few special guests. Also check out our website for more in-depth coverage on the festival and filmmakers. Let’s go now to our latest conversation in Berlin.

Last fall saw the release of Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story, which joins a long tradition of marital dramas while adding its own fresh sense of candor. After featuring the film in our September-October 2019 issue, we launched our hit podcast series Marriage Stories. Actually, we’ve only done one so far, but we are excited to present another installment. The premise is simple: we invite couples on the podcast to talk about movies relating to marriage. So for the latest installment, FC Editor-in-Chief Nicolas Rapold sat down with R. Emmet Sweeney, a regular contributor to Film Comment, and Andrea Janes, a writer, entrepreneur, and past contributor to the magazine.

Last fall saw the release of Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story, which joins a long tradition of marital dramas while adding its own fresh sense of candor. After featuring the film in our September-October 2019 issue, we immediately thought, why not invite married couples on the podcast to talk about movies about marriage? We’re calling the series Marriage Stories, and the results have been wonderfully illuminating conversations freely weaving together critical and personal experiences across a wide selection of movies. For this special Valentine’s Day episode of Marriage Stories, Film Comment Editor-in-Chief Nicolas Rapold sat down with Chris Wisniewski, who wrote an essay on film education for FC last fall, and FC regular Michael Koresky. Be sure to look out for more Marriage Stories coming soon to The Film Comment Podcast.

The achievements of actors and actresses of color have long gone under-recognized in Hollywood. It’s a fact of the industry that has only gotten more glaring as the years go by. For the latest Film at Lincoln Center Talk hosted by Film Comment magazine, we gathered together to celebrate the craft of our favorite performers of color from current cinema. We also talked about key figures and overlooked talents from across film history. Our critical appreciation of specific actors naturally gave rise to a range of topics including issues of authenticity and gatekeeping. For the discussion, FC Editor-in-Chief Nicolas Rapold was joined by Soraya Nadia McDonald, writer for The Undefeated and contributing editor at Film Comment; Mayukh Sen, James Beard Award–winning food and culture writer; and Devika Girish, assistant editor at Film Comment.

As you may have noticed, Film Comment went to the Sundance film festival in Park City, Utah. We recorded a series of podcasts and now at last we have our thrilling conclusion. For our final episode in Park City, FC Editor-in-Chief Nicolas Rapold was joined by Manohla Dargis of The New York Times; Amy Taubin, contributing editor at Film Comment; and Devika Girish, our assistant editor. We talked about several movies including Eliza Hittman’s Never Rarely Sometimes Always, Lee Isaac Chung’s Minari, Benh Zeitlin’s long-awaited Wendy, and the documentary On the Record about accusations against hip hop mogul Russell Simmons. Plus, Miranda July’s Kajillionaire, Michael Almereyda’s Tesla, and more. For more on Sundance, be sure to listen to our previous podcasts and check our website for features. Let’s go now to our conversation.

This week we have been recording at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, talking about the highlights in its film lineup. One of the most anticipated movies there was the new film from Kirsten Johnson. Johnson’s first feature was the incredible Cameraperson, assembled partly from images she shot while working as a cinematographer on other films. Her new feature is called Dick Johnson Is Dead, and it’s innovative in a different way. It’s a portrait of her father and her relationship with him as he faces the challenges of growing old. But part of how Johnson expresses this coping process is through staged scenes, sometimes showing her father in heaven, sometimes having imaginary accidents. The result brings us closer to both the filmmaker and her father and to the inevitable horizon of mortality. At Sundance, after the film’s premiere, Film Comment Assistant Editor Devika Girish sat down with Johnson for a fascinating discussion of Dick Johnson Is Dead.

Welcome back to our ongoing series podcasts from the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. As we near the festival’s end, we’ve redoubled our efforts to bring our dedicated fans the content they crave: daily updates from Park City, covering all the great films and festive (film-related) goings-on. For today’s podcast, Film Comment Editor-in-Chief Nicolas Rapold sat down with Ashley Clark, Director of Film Programming at BAM, and FC Assistant Editor Devika Girish, for a discussion of Max Barbakow’s Palm Springs, Radha Blank’s The 40-Year-Old Version, Lee Isaac Chung’s Minari, Hubert Sauper’s Epicentro, and more.