Sunday
Jan152017
Podcast: "Silence" and "20th Century Women"
Sunday, January 15, 2017 at 10:00PM 
Nick and Nathaniel and special guest Chris Feil (who you read hear at TFE at least twice a week) talk new flicks in our post Golden Globe/DGA nominations world.
Index (43 minutes)
00:01 Globe & DGA intro...
04:00 Martin Scorsese's Silence
18:31 Extremely wandering conversation alert: Silence, 20th Century Women, Paterson, Rogue One, new movie trailers...
27:00 The brilliant 20th Century Women
39:50 Aquarius, Demon, Pervert Park
You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you? Are you planning to watch Aquarius on Netflix?
Reader Comments (13)
We need a link!
oops. fixed
Loved this. LOVED. I have to ask though, Nick, is Swank's batting average really that low? Between Boys Don't Cry, Conviction, Million Dollar Baby, The Homesman, and You're Not You, she's certainly in better shape resume-wise than Whitaker or Cage.
PS it would be amaaaazing if you could start a 2017 Acting Contenders page like you did last year.
Marcus -- ????
Oh should have been clear that the contenders page comment was to Nick, sorry!
Don't throw rocks at me, but I'm also on of those that wasn't that impressed with 20th Century Women. I did, however, mention a few weeks ago in another Film Experience post that I was also not that crazy about Beginners the first time I saw it in theaters, and now it's one of my favorite movies. (It's actually one of only 3 movies I've bought on iTunes because I watch it that often.) So, there's a chance I might love 20th Century Women after repeat viewings. Who knows? With that said, I was able to recognize how awesome Bening was in it. She's REALLY special.
Great discussion. As much as I liked "20th Century" I'm also not totally surprised that it isn't getting the consensus needed for awards contention. It's a more challenging film than the trailer suggests, and the tone is quite arch. This movie asks us to watch 5 restless philosophers for 2 hours, people who are incapable of a single sedentary moment. No one just lies on a bed, they squint into the middle distance and think great thoughts. No one just smokes a cigarette, they ponder it, they live in it and through it. It’s exhausting and bizarre and twitchy, but productively twitchy. So I could see audiences being really split on the final effect.
I think it’s telling that one of the only things the mother truly disapproves of in the entire film is when the son voluntarily gets knocked unconscious; it’s the only action throughout that feels spontaneous and unexamined.
The podcast has become my weekly highlight thanks for another great one. re 20th Century Women , I mentioned in another comment that people kept walking out of the film in the theatre I saw it in (3 different instances). I am not sure if the marketing didn't get it right or if people were just 'bored' as Dave mentions its a challenging film in a lot of ways and maybe audiences aren't ready for it yet?
I wish you all have talked longer about Aquarius!
Great podcast as usual and nice to hear your voice Chris!
I didn't like 20th Century Women. So maybe it was me who Nathaniel meant?
My issue wasn't the voiceover per se but the writing of the characters in general. Mills based them on people he knew and sometimes we cherish the people we love too much. So the characters came out forced and false. Their constant psychoanalysis of every situation and encounter is not how people behave. At least not in my experience.
It's written with love obviously but sometimes when we love deeply we lose sight of what's true. The characters came out idolized by the writer as opposed to uncovered. Bening though found a way to make Dorothea utterly believalble. I didn't love the film but I loved her in it.
Enjoyed this conversation. Count me as a definite enthusiast for Paterson, and I hope you follow up with a longer chat about it. What I appreciated about it is how it manages to sustain interest without offering anything in the way of a usual narrative arc, and I think this thwarting of expectations is the movie's subject, too: what kinds of interest can life or art (poetry, film) offer us in the absence of manufactured plotlines? I know it's not for everyone, but I found the movie's focus on pattern, variation, and reflection to be quite absorbing, and a lovely way of honoring the inspiration from William Carlos Williams. In a way, 20th Century Women, with its non-conventional narrative structure and its characters whose arcs refuse easy summary, seems to be working on something similar, but I think (and hope!) it can appeal more widely with its warm and generous sense of humor.
Just saw 20th Century Women today and LOVED IT, so this podcast was perfect timing. The voiceovers are great for the reasons you and Nick note, and the whole film is just so warm and heartfelt and thoughtful, and it treats its characters with such care. It's a shame that Annette Bening is fighting to even get a nomination. I'll be overjoyed if she gets in — but I am not holding my breath. :( I'm also surprised it's not a shoo-in for Original Screenplay, since this is the type of film that they often go for there.
I think I'm truly in the minority, but I found Silence to be extraordinary, one of Scorsese's greatest works. It seems to be a summation of all this themes throughout his filmography, and it does it with such cinematic ardor. I think it's one of the best films of last year.