Episode 54 is our 2024 Page to Screen podcast where The Boston Sisters talk about 5 books related to historical drama series and films for summer reading.

This year we’re highlighting books that provide a deeper dive into the films and series featured on the podcast since its launch in November 2021 up to our recent 3rd season. 

• Miss Dior: A Story of Courage and Couture by Justine Picardie (2023) | THE NEW LOOK (Ep. 53)

• The French Chef in America: Julia Child’s Second Act by Alex Prud’homme (2017) | JULIA (Ep. 44)

• Passing by Nella Larsen (1929) | PASSING (Ep. 2)

• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925) | THE GREAT GATSBY (Ep. 50)

• A Pipe for February by Charles H. Red Corn (2003) | KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON (Ep. 48)

Correction Note: The complete title of Alex Prud’homme’s Julia Child biography is The French Chef in America: Julia Child’s Second Act - correction to the book recap.

Transcript are available on the webpage for this episode at https://michonbostongroup.com/bostonsisters.

PLEASE NOTE: TRANSCRIPTS ARE GENERATED USING A COMBINATION OF SPEECH RECOGNITION SOFTWARE AND HUMAN TRANSCRIBERS, AND MAY CONTAIN ERRORS.

TIMESTAMPS

1:25 - Intro to 2024 Page to Screen Books, Screen Adaptations and Related Podcast Episodes

2:38 - Miss Dior: A Story of Courage and Couture by Justine Picardie Catherine Dior and Women in the French Resistance

7:19 - The French Chef in America: Julia Child's Second Act by Alex Prud'homme

10:58 - Julia Child's life, cookbooks, and TV Shows14:37 Break16:51 Passing by Nella Larsen

17:17 - Race and Social Status28:41 The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

29:48 - Race, identity, and class passing in Passing and The Great Gatsby
35:52 A Pipe for February by Charles H. Red Corn

39:03 - Osage Nation's adaptation to modernity while preserving culture and traditions

47:04 - Book recap

47:43 - Where to purchase books (affiliate bookstore)

48:08 - Where to watch screen adaptations of books

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In episode 53, Michon and Taquiena aka The Boston Sisters talk about THE NEW LOOK and why they selected the Apple TV+ series as a binge-worthy historical drama. 

THE NEW LOOK isn’t a "fashionista" story about designers Christian Dior (Ben Mendelsohn) and Coco Chanel (Juliette Binoche). Created by Todd Kessler and inspired by real events during World War II, THE NEW LOOK focuses on the impact of the 4-year Nazi occupation of France and the early months of Liberation on Paris’s community of haute couture designers, Resistance fighters, business owners, and everyday people all struggling to survive.

The series interweaves the complex choices of the two iconic fashion designers, Dior and Chanel, who ultimately would change fashion forever. However, Catherine Dior (Maisie Williams), the French Resistance fighter and younger sister of Christian Dior adds an important and overlooked chapter to World War II history.

PLEASE NOTE: TRANSCRIPTS ARE GENERATED USING A COMBINATION OF SPEECH RECOGNITION SOFTWARE AND HUMAN TRANSCRIBERS, AND MAY CONTAIN ERRORS.

0:08 WW 2 French Resistance and Haute Couture

5:05 THE NEW LOOK, "the Sophie's Choice of fashion"

8:07 French survival strategies in Nazi occupied France: creativity, collaboration, resistance, compromise

14:05 Catherine Dior, French Resistance fighter and Nazi concentration camp survivor

15:36 MISS DIOR: A STORY OF COURAGE AND COUTURE a biography of Catherine Dior by Justine Picardie (available from our affiliate bookstore)

20:54 Changing the WW2 narrative: Best Years of Our Lives, Saving Private Ryan, Zone of Interest, and THE NEW LOOK

31:54 Fashion restoring hope after WW2

42:15 Fashion, history, and culture through interviews and analysis of books and TV series

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Preview episode 53 where The Boston Sisters (Michon and Taquiena) talk about first impressions watching the Apple TV+ series THE NEW LOOK. 

THE NEW LOOK surprised us because it isn’t a story about  haute couture fashion by Christian Dior (Ben Mendelsohn) and Coco Chanel (Juliette Binoche). Created by Todd Kessler and inspired by real events during World War II,THE NEW LOOK focuses on the impact of the 4-year Nazi occupation of France and the early months of Liberation on Paris’s community of haute couture designers, Resistance fighters, business owners, and everyday people all struggling to survive.

Listen to the complete podcast and find out more about why we think THE NEW LOOK is a binge-worthy historical drama.

Episode 53 goes LIVE Tuesday, May 14, 2024

THE NEW LOOK is available on Apple TV+. Check the Apple TV+ website for fee information.

In episode 52, we welcome back Ben Vanstone (ALL CREATURES GREAT & SMALL), showrunner, executive producer, and writer for the much-anticipated drama series, A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW (Paramount+ SHOWTIME). The 8-part series is based on author Amor Towles’s internationally bestselling novel of the same name (one of the podcast's recommended 2023 Summer Reads.)

The story centers on the life of Count Alexandre Rostov, played by Ewan McGregor, who, in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, finds that his gilded past has placed him on the wrong side of history. Spared immediate execution, Count Rostov is banished by a Soviet tribunal to an attic room in the opulent Hotel Metropol and threatened with death — that is he will be shot – if he ever sets foot outside again. As the years pass and some of the tumultuous decades in Russian history fold outside the hotel’s doors, Rostov’s reduced circumstances provide him entry into a much larger world of emotional discovery. As he builds a new life within the walls of the hotel, he discovers the true value of friendship, family, and love.

Download the transcript for Epsiode 52 from this link.

PLEASE NOTE: TRANSCRIPTS ARE GENERATED USING A COMBINATION OF SPEECH RECOGNITION SOFTWARE AND HUMAN TRANSCRIBERS, AND MAY CONTAIN ERRORS.

0:08 - A Gentleman in Moscow series synopsis and intro to Ben Vanstone

3:30 - Adapting a best selling novel for TV, creative choices and maintaining the novel's spirit

9:01 - Expanding character relationships while honoring the novel

14:10 - Diverse casting, recreating Hotel Metropol without going to Russia, creative collaborations with the production crews

20:58 - Kadinsky and Russian expressionism as inspiration for show titles

23:02 - Relationship and humanity in the face of adversity and change

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A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW, the Amor Towles must-read novel is now a must-stream series on Paramount+ adapted by Ben Vanstone, executive producer, writer, and showrunner .

Listen to a preview of Episode 52 (available April 23, 2024) where Ben talks about casting the A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW series to tell a universal story set in Russia. One doesn’t have to be Russian to connect with Count Alexandre Rostov’s (Ewan McGregor) evolving human story.

In this podcast episode we’re talking with Reinaldo Marcus Green who directed Paramount’s BOB MARLEY: ONE LOVE, starring Kingsley Ben-Adir as the Jamaican Reggae icon Bob Marley and Lashana Lynch as his wife, Rita Marley. BOB MARLEY: ONE LOVE premiered February 14 and debuted #1 at the box office. BOB MARLEY: ONE LOVE celebrates the life and music of Bob Marley who inspired generations through his message of love and unity. The film chronicles the reggae icon’s powerful story of overcoming adversity and the journey behind his revolutionary music. 

Reinaldo Marcus Green is a writer, director and producer. He is best known for directing the critically acclaimed Warner Bros. film KING RICHARD starring Will Smith. The film received six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, and earned Will Smith his first Oscar win for Best Performance by an Actor in a Lead Role.

Reinaldo’s first feature, MONSTERS AND MEN premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival and received a Special Jury Prize for Outstanding First Feature. Reinaldo’s other credits include: director and co-executive producer on the Netflix series, TOP BOY, executive produced by Drake and SpringHill Entertainment; director of (his sophomore) feature film JOE BELL, starring Mark Wahlberg, distributed by Amazon and Roadside Attractions; and director and co-producer for HBO’s limited series, WE OWN THIS CITY, written by George Pelecanos and David Simon.

PLEASE NOTE: TRANSCRIPTS ARE GENERATED USING A COMBINATION OF SPEECH RECOGNITION SOFTWARE AND HUMAN TRANSCRIBERS, AND MAY CONTAIN ERRORS.

0:08 - Intro to BOB MARLEY: ONE LOVE

1:42 - BOB MARLEY: ONE LOVE synopsis

4:25 - Intro to Reinaldo Marcus Green

5:47 - Bob Marley's life and legacy

10:23 - Interpreting a Reggae legend

16:06 - Film making craft and professional growth

20:54 - How place creates authenticity

25:53 - Recreating historical drama environments

42:40 - Bob Marley's legacy and impact for younger generations

47:53 - Time Travel: Mets baseball, marriage certificate, hats

55:27 - Where to find BOB MARLEY: ONE LOVE

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It’s been 50 years since the release of the 1974 film adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, THE GREAT GATSBY. Highlighting the 50th anniversary of the 1974 version of THE GREAT GATSBY is another opportunity to talk with author and professor of English Emily Bernard about this 1920s novel adapted for film and the themes that continue to resonate with our own times. Our conversation with Emily about the film adaptation of Nella Larsen’s 1929 novel PASSING in episode 2 of the podcast, remains one of our most popular listens.

Directed by Jack Clayton, and featuring Robert Redford as Jay Gatsby, Mia Farrow as Daisy Buchanan, and Sam Waterston as Nick Carraway, the film is a window into the roaring 1920s or the "Jazz Age," as Fitzgerald is credited for coining the phrase. The story is also a mirror on American social constructs for wealth, class, and illusion, as well as the destructive power to recapture the past.

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Notes: "Negro" is used in its proper historical context in this conversation.

*Spoiler alert* for persons who've never seen any film or television adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's book "The Great Gatsby," or read the book.

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Download the Transcript for Episode 50

PLEASE NOTE: TRANSCRIPTS ARE GENERATED USING A COMBINATION OF SPEECH RECOGNITION SOFTWARE AND HUMAN TRANSCRIBERS, AND MAY CONTAIN ERRORS.

0:08 - Opening

1:22 - Intro to THE GREAT GATSBY novel and film 

6:11 - Intro to Emily Bernard, Professor, Scholar, Writer

16:12 - Wealth, power, identity, and narcissism in Fitzgerald's Novel

23:05 - Place and Identity in "The Great Gatsby"

24:48 - New York as symbol in F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Jazz Age"

31:12 - Race, identity, and adaptation

36:00 - American Class distinctions and the "American Dream"

41:14 - Daisy Buchanan, "the great white beauty"

47:55 - Break

48:00 - George Wilson, "true victim" in "The Great Gatsby"

57:07 - Race and performance in literature

58:01 - Class and "passing" in "The Great Gatsby"

1:02:25 - Authenticity and celebrity: Do we know what it means to be "natural?"

1:08:02 - Blackness, identity and cultural appropriation in 1920s America

1:11:59 - Race, power and privilege in literature and film

1:16:09 - Lothrop Stoddard, WEB DuBois, and legacy of racial  eugenics

1:20:21 - Gatsby's end (spoiler alert)

1:28:04 - "The Great Gatsby" film adaptations

1:30: 22 - Closing

1:31:51 - Disclaimer

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In Episode 49 we have a mother-daughter talk about season one of the Apple TV+ series PACHINKO, which premiered in 2022. PACHINKO is based on Min Jin Lee’s epic second novel about four generations of a Korean family trying to control their destiny in 20th-century Japan as exiles from their familiar home. PACHINKO was one of our 2023 "Page to Screen" summer book recommendations (Ep. 37).

Our guests for the conversation about PACHINKO, the book and the series, are Kat Turner and her daughter Taylor Turner.

Kat, a Korean-adoptee trying to figure out a way to spend more time in Korea, is a former broadcast journalist and blogs about everything Korean. Kat is our "go-to" for historical K-drama and was a previous guest on the podcast to talk about the K-drama MR. SUNSHINE (Ep. 17).

Taylor is a biracial Korean American writer, artist, entrepreneur, and expert thrifter.She’s an obsessed dog mom, proud ATINY or fan of ATEEZ a South Korean pop Boy band, and deep conversation enthusiast. Taylor's mother Kat is a proud ARMY — as in the South Korean Boy Band BTS. She says V is her bias, and the other six members are her bias wreckers! 

PLEASE NOTE: TRANSCRIPTS ARE GENERATED USING A COMBINATION OF SPEECH RECOGNITION SOFTWARE AND HUMAN TRANSCRIBERS, AND MAY CONTAIN ERRORS.

0:08 Podcast Intro

1:17 Kat Turner and Taylor Turner Intros

3:08 Pachinko Series Based on Novel

5:33 Pachinko casting, Zainichi, and Korean identity

15:35 Split Lives and Double Consciousness

17:12 Noonchi, Cheong, Han Korean cultural values in Pachinko

26:29 Mental health in Korean culture and kdramas

34:21 Character growth and transformation in Pachinko

41:23 Pachinko series adaptation and departures from the novel

49:30 Break

52:45 Asian representation in films and television series

57:23 Representation and criticism in TV series

1:01:21 Book vs. film adaptation of Crazy Rich Asians

1:12:40 Centering women's stories in media

1:17:50 Personal history, cultural identity, and time capsules

1:22:39 Pachinko where to watch series and purchase novel

1:23:30 Outro

1:24: 53 Disclaimer

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In episode 48 of the podcast we talk about the film KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON with Dr. Moira RedCorn and her brother Yancey Red Corn, members of the Osage Nation. Yancey Red Corn appears in the Martin Scorsese film as Osage Chief Arthur Bonnicastle and Moira Red Corn was an extra in the film’s opening scene. 

Yancy and Moira’s father, the late Charles H. Red Corn authored the novel, “A Pipe for February,” published by the University of Oklahoma Press over 10 years before David Grann’s book “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Both books were optioned and adapted for KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON. Moira and Yancey talk about how they witnessed their father’s book come to life in the film.

KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON is nominated for 10 Academy Awards™ including Best Actress for Golden Globe winner Lily Gladstone, Best Costume Design (Jacqueline West), Best Editing (Thelma Schoonmaker), Best Original Song (Scott George), Best Director (Martin Scorsese), and Best Picture. 

Download the transcript for Episode 48

PLEASE NOTE: TRANSCRIPTS ARE GENERATED USING A COMBINATION OF SPEECH RECOGNITION SOFTWARE AND HUMAN TRANSCRIBERS, AND MAY CONTAIN ERRORS.

TIME STAMPS

0:08 - Introduction to Film and Podcast Guests

8:20 - “A Pipe for February” Puts Osage Culture in KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON

20:43 - Transmitting Osage culture and traditions

28:19 - Dual identity

41:52 - Break

42:29 - Oklahoma state bill and teaching Osage history

52:35 - KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON and Osage culture at Cannes

1:12:06 - Time Capsule

1:20:28 - Where to watch the film and purchase books

1:22:02 - Close

1:22:35 - Disclaimer

—--

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Buy “A Pipe for February” by Charles H. Red Corn, and “Killers of the Flower Moon” by David Grann.

Thank you for listening!

Colman Domingo is nominated for an Academy Award™ for his portrayal of civil rights activist and strategist Bayard Rustin in the biopic RUSTIN. This film and Bayard Rustin's life are the inspiration for our conversation with Robert Raben around organizing for justice and freedom, and reclaiming the hidden history of the foot soldiers of the movement.

Robert Raben, who grew up in the South, is founder of the March on Washington Film Festival, and the Raben Group, a strategic communications firm based in Washington, DC.

Directed by George C. Wolfe, RUSTIN tells the story of activist and organizer Bayard Rustin, the architect of 1963’s momentous March on Washington. Bayard Rustin  challenged authority, never apologized for who he was, what he believed, or whom he desired. He clashed with his contemporaries and inner circle leaders of the civil rights movement, and energized youth to get involved in making change in America. 

LANGUAGE Content: The word "horseshit" occurs at approximately 50:41

Download the transcript for Episode 47

PLEASE NOTE: TRANSCRIPTS ARE GENERATED USING A COMBINATION OF SPEECH RECOGNITION SOFTWARE AND HUMAN TRANSCRIBERS, AND MAY CONTAIN ERRORS.

0:08 - Baryard Rustin, forgotten Civil Rights leader

5:58 - Untold and Mis-told Stories

12:01 - Narrative film and social change

19:41 - Strategy and change in the Civil Rights Movement

30:48 BREAK

31:24 - American changemakers and revolutionary heroes (of social justice)

35:16 - Bayard Rustin, LGBTQ identity and social change

45:09 - Policy, legislation and social change

51:52 - We don't have a shared story

55:11 - Role of arts in social justice

1:00:05 - Race, Culture, and Storytelling

1:10:06 - Lightning Round

1:10:52 - Honoring Fannie Lou Hamer

1:14:00 - Closing (Stream, Like, Subscribe, Share)

1:15:54 - Disclaimer

STAY ENGAGED with HISTORICAL DRAMA WITH THE BOSTON SISTERS

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Thank you for listening!