ACFmovie podcast

Titus & Caitlin Peartree discuss the poetic art of Wallace Stevens: 13 ways of looking at a blackbird. In 13 brief poems, Stevens reveals the natural temptation to make metaphors; the imaginative element in which the intellect does its work; & the need for a new poetry that can reveal human nature at work by arousing it to do the work--by coming up with images & thoughts that recall us to our basic experiences as ensouled beings.

Titus & Robert Tracinski discuss Groundhog Day on its 25th anniversary. We bring out the comedic theme, the inescapability of character, & the confrontation between American restlessness & the limits necessary to relational being & intellectual development. We talk about the confrontation of the big city & the small town. We talk about Toqvueville.

We talk about Hollywood doubles, movies that come out at about the same time with the same subject, from different studios. We talk about Deep Impact & Michael Bay's Armageddon; about Bill Murray in The man who knew too little & Michael Douglas in The game.

We talk about comic actors turning to drama, like Bill Murray, Tom Hanks, & then Robin Williams and his movie What dreams may come.

Titus & Caitlin Peartree discuss Wallace Stevens's poem about the all-important role played by poets in making sense of being & being human, The Idea of Order at Key West. Listen & marvel at the poet's "blessed rage for order". This is a poem you should compare to Hemingway's Old man & the sea; or to Pindar's first Olympian ode.

Titus & Armond White discuss the Better Than list summarizing 2017 in movies, in counter-cultural terms. We talk about Lady Bird & A quiet passion (the Emily Dickinson biopic), Valerian (the Luc Besson galactic blockbuster), & finally about Theo & Hugo & Call me by your name. The Better Than list is the only counter-cultural idea for awards season! Listen & share!

Titus & John Presnall conclude their discussion of the Godfather trilogy with the moral grandeur of tragedy. We see a third Corleone generation & we think about the similarities of character & the different fates that Americanization produces.

We compare the Corleone with the Adams family, America's first political dynasty! We discuss the importance of Sicily, Rome, & Europe the Old World-New World conflict at the core of the Godfather.

& we explain the Shakespearean sets of characters!

Titus & John Presnall complete their discussion of the Godfather--they look at how Part II reverses the structure of the original & completes the portrayals of Vito & Michael Corleone.

They discuss the all-American story of an immigrant family, of making it in New York, moving out West, & going international (Cuba). The Corleones rehearse American history & this changes the non-American Sicilian principle of true friendship Vito tries to adapt to the New World.

Titus & Paul Rahe, Professor of political science, discuss assigning the Godfather to college students so that they understand the fundamental modern & ancient political alternatives, the transformation of concepts of justice, & the diversity of cultures contained within America, as well as their transformations.

Then the discussion moves to Scorsese's Silence & its magisterial description of the conflict between Caesar & Christ in the case of late-medieval Japan.

The Prof. explains the importance of learning about fundamental political alternatives for the student of foreign affairs, for diplomacy & for the press, as well as the delusion that globalization has annihilated great differences between regimes, countries, & ways of organizing life & faith.

Titus & Armond White talk about the collapse of criticism & cultural journalism. The triumph of a shallow liberal ideology in several, maybe most, mass media has made both art & ideology invisible in ways that cause them to deteriorate.

Titus & Eric Cook offer a brief history of American Christmas. We talk about the great tradition of the war on Christmas, starting with the Puritans, who made Christmas illegal!

We talk about how all the parts of the American Christmas came together: Santa Claus, gifts, the feast, the Christmas tree, toys, shopping, and everything else!

Titus & John Presnall talk about the Godfather. What's new to be said about the most admired tragedy to come out of Hollywood? Two things: 1. How the story reflects on changes in American society & the twisting relationship between power & legitimacy. 2. How we see, starting with Sollozzo, the arrival of Machiavelli as political philosopher, which of course also has to do with politics & economics in America.