Titus & Eric Cook of SPEAKING ABOUT SILENTS begin a series on the great achievements of D.W. Griffith, America's first visionary director, a self-made artist, entrepreneur, & aspiring prophet. We talk about The Birth of a Nation, a wonderful picture that's also morally repellant--from the beginning, cinema was powerful & dangerous! Artistic genius in the cause of injustice, animated by a philanthropic desire to bring everyone together! History & lost cause propaganda. Progressive racism, pacifist cruelty! Paradoxes & drama!

ACF Masters #13 Birth Of A Nation

TV & Film

Titus & Prof. William Allen discuss his new translation of Montesquieu's The Spirit of The Laws.

PoMoCon #46 Montesquieu

Titus & Miles Smith IV discuss Visconti's adaptation of the most famous 20th c. Italian novel, Lampedusa's Gattopardo. The end of the aristocracy, the beginning of the bourgeoisie, the problem beauty poses for art.

ACF Europe #24 The Leopard

Titus & Sebastian Edoardo di Giovanni talk about The Young Pope, Paolo Sorrentino's HBO comic miniseries about a reactionary American pope calling the modern world to account before the mystery of God!

ACF Europe #23 Young Pope

Titus & Joshua Steinman discuss the Coen Bros.' Hail Caesar, a vision of the American mid-century, the post-war moment when glamour & technology competed in Los Angeles, when the beautiful visions of the past  held sway & science had not yet replaced them.

ACF Critic Series #57 Hail Caesar

Titus & Chris Rufo discuss the last remarkable Peter Sellers film, Hal Ashby's Being There, a satire on Washington, D.C., but also an existential drama with a philosophical interest in the problem of nihilism. We touch on everything from the zombie Biden presidency to Heidegger's Dasein!

ACF Masters #13 Birth Of A Nation

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