Christine Smallwood’s new book on Chantal Akerman’s Proust adaptation, La Captive, is, among many things, a meditation on the act of criticism. Published as part of The Decadent Editions series from Fireflies Press, this slim, pocket-sized volume takes Akerman’s year-2000 feature as a jumping-off point for an exploration of the great Belgian filmmaker’s monumental career and life, Marcel Proust’s autobiographical tendencies, and Smallwood’s own turbulent, pandemic-era homelife. Blending criticism, biography, and memoir, Smallwood beautifully shows how watching, reading, and writing are inextricable from lived experience.
 
On today’s Podcast, Film Comment editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute sat down with the writer to talk about her book, the role of memory in their watching and reading, their favorite Akerman films, and, of course, La Captive itself: a brilliant, ambiguous, and Vertigo-inflected interpretation of what might be the most disturbing volume of In Search of Lost Time.

Christine Smallwood on Chantal Akerman’s La Captive

On the Stack podcast for the week of April 10, 2024, we've got new comic book reviews for Action Comics #1064, Ultimate X-Men #2, and so many more!

The Stack: Action Comics, Ultimate X-Men, And More

On this week's live show podcast, guests Tessa Hulls ("Feeding Ghosts") and Alex Schumacher ("The Effects Of Pickled Herring").

Comic Book Club: Tessa Hulls And Alex Schumacher

On a special episode of our DCU podcast, we're reacting to the just released Joker: Folie à Deux trailer. Particularly given at least one of us hated the original, what do we think about the first look at the musical trailer featuring Lady Gaga and Joaquin Phoenix?

Joker: Folie À Deux Trailer Breakdown

What if there was a 13th Warrior? What if there was a version of Beowulf so grounded in reality that the climactic battle with Grendel just kind of felt like a shrug? What if Antonio Banderas was the lead in Gladiator instead of Russell Crowe? We’re just asking questions! Filmmaker David Lowery makes his long-awaited return to the podcast to talk about John McTiernan’s Michael Crichton adaptation, a movie that should have kept the title of the original book - Eaters of the Dead. Such a sick title! Anyway, prepare yourself for plenty of Banderas talk, a loving deep-dive into the famous “Banderas learns the Viking language” scene, and a reveal of some Blank Check-related easter eggs in Lowery’s filmography (!).

This episode is sponsored by:
Storyblocks (storyblocks.com/check)
Bombas (bombas.com/check CODE: CHECK)
Indochino.com (CODE: CHECK)

Join our Patreon at patreon.com/blankcheck Follow us @blankcheckpod on Twitter and Instagram!

13th Warrior with David Lowery

We're recapping the epic fifth episode of X-Men '97 "Remember It" on our podcast, as everything changes forever, again. While Cyclops is wrestling with Jean Grey drama back at the mansion and getting grilled by Trish Tilby, Magneto, Rogue and Gambit head to Genosha. Once they get there, their own romantic tensions come to a head. And once things seem to be settled, they go as wrong as possible... Leading to multiple gigantic deaths, and the status quo changed possibly for good. Plus, we read and discuss writer Beau DeMayo's poignant statement on the episode.

X-Men '97 Episode 5 "Remember It" | Spoiler Review

Kevin Smith and Ralph Garman perform live at Flapper's Comedy Club on April 13, 2024.

Hollywood Babble-On  - SModcast.com

Hollywood Babble-On 409: 04/13/24

In his new book The Rebel’s Clinic: The Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon, Adam Shatz writes that, “The American poet Amiri Baraka described James Baldwin, who was born a year before Fanon, as ‘God’s Black revolutionary mouth.’ What Baldwin was for America, Fanon was for the world, especially the insurgent Third World, those subjects of European empires who had been denied what Edward Said called the ‘permission to narrate.’” Shatz’s book explores, in lucid detail, the complex life and thought of the Martinican psychiatrist and anticolonial theorist,  whose life was tragically cut short in 1961.

Fanon’s epochal books Black Skin, White Mask and The Wretched of the Earth have long been a source of inspiration for politically minded filmmakers, including Med Hondo, Claire Denis, and many others. Film Comment Editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute invited Adam on the podcast to talk about Fanon’s interest in cinema, filmmakers who’ve engaged the theorist’s works, and what exactly makes a movie “Fanonian.” In addition to films by Hondo and Denis, we talked about Ivan Dixon’s The Spook Who Sat by the Door, Antonioni’s The Passenger, Gillo Pontecorvo’s The Battle of Algiers, Ousmane Sembène’s Black Girl, and more.

Adam Shatz on Frantz Fanon in Cinema

On this week's live show podcast, guests David Pepose ("Space Ghost") and Christof Bogacs ("Under Kingdom").

Comic Book Club: David Pepose And Christof Bogacs

On the Stack podcast for the week of April 10, 2024, we've got new comic book reviews for Nightwing #113, Cobra Commander #4, and so many more!

The Stack: Nightwing, Cobra Commander, And More

The Flop House joins Blank Check to talk about this remake that was like okay, but definitely better than the last Demme remake. Is Meryl good or weird? Why is a pack of cards so sexy? How many films and TV shows are there about last men? How do you get rid of ants? What mysteries are still left unanswered? And what does the Flop House think about Trolls the Experience?

SFX: "Organ" by caquet; "movietheatreambience"  by NoiseCollector;  "curtain on rail" by Khanyi_190188; and "COUCH - falling on couch" by Jay6Waza. Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License.

Blank Check with Griffin & David

The Manchurian Candidate with the Flop House: Dan McCoy, Stuart Wellington, and Elliott Kalan

Not just another bad movie podcast, Blank Check reviews directors' complete filmographies episode to episode. Specifically, the auteurs whose early successes afforded them the rare ‘blank check’ from Hollywood to produce passion projects. Each new miniseries, hosts Griffin Newman and David Sims delve into the works of film’s most outsized personalities in painstakingly hilarious detail. Produced by Ben Hosley.

The Manchurian Candidate with the Flop House: Dan McCoy, Stuart Wellington, and Elliott Kalan

Blank Check Podcast

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