Phi Phenomenon

After an initial hesitance from a few film fans, Michael Mann’s Heat has cemented itself as an all-timer, as both a great Los Angeles movie, an actors’ showcase, and, more importantly, an expansively novelistic character study inside a cops-and-robbers heist movie. So, when the Heat-universe expanded last year into book form, co-authored by Meg Gardiner, and became a bestseller, did the film world rejoice? On this episode is Mann-fanatic Ted Haycraft, who explains:

- the long history of the Heat universe as a project;
- the odd circumstances its initial version, the TV-pilot-turned-TV-movie LA Takedown;
- why Ted took so long to finish the book extension of one of his favorite movies.

Also:

- this novel as a Rosetta stone for all of Mann’s themes;
- the Godfather II structure of the sequel novel;
- and casting speculation for an eventual, hopeful, inevitable film adaptation.

Ted Haycraft is film critic for WFIE-14 and co-hosts Cinema Chat on its Midday show. He can also be found on Cinema Chat’s Facebook page.

Heat 2 is published by Harper Collins and is now available in paperback.

First declared as Europe’s answer to D.W. Griffith, later (after emigrating to Hollywood) credited as the creator of the modern musical and, as Jean Renoir said, the creator of modern Hollywood, Ernst Lubitsch was also one of the first celebrity directors. And while the “Lubitsch touch” started as a piece of marketing, its influence is still felt over 100 years later. On today’s episode I’m joined by writer/director/author Nicholas Meyer, no stranger himself to classy, erudite wit, to discuss Lubitsch’s fiercely felt WWII take on Hitler. On this episode, we talk:

- how is it that Lubitsch’s 100 year old movies are more adult and modern than many current Hollywood movies;
- why is someone who never took a writers’ credit known for some of Hollywood’s best post-talkies writing;
- and the brilliance of the “heist” in the Lubitsch-produced, Frank Borzage-directed Desire.

Also:

- how the Mel Brooks-produced remake, along with popular Shop Around the Corner remake You Got Mail, are as good of illustrations to be found of the “Lubitsch touch”;
- why many modern viewers come to Lubitsch through filmmakers he’s influenced, from Billy Wilder to Wes Anderson;
- and which famous French filmmaker told Meyer that To Be or Not to Be was his favorite film.

Nicholas Meyer is a director and Oscar-nominated screenwriter. He’s written over 11 books, including his Sherlock Holmes novels, the most recent of which is The Return of the Pharaoh, from the Reminiscences of John H.Watson, M.D.  His films as director include Time After Time, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, The Day After, and Star Trek IV: The Undiscovered Country. He lives in Santa Monica, California; more information can be found at his website.

To Be or Not to Be is streaming on both Max and the Criterion Channel, and is available on Blu-ray from Criterion.

Over the course of his career, but mainly in a period from 1950-59, French director Robert Bresson kept a notebook of advice to himself on keeping his very distinct filmmaking technique. In 1975, he published Notes to the Cinematographer, which was then translated and published in the United States two years later. In 2011, a Sight & Sound poll of 51 critics named it the second best book on filmmaking. On this episode, I’m joined by editor Keith Fraase.

Keith Fraase has edited such narratives features as To the Wonder, Knight of Cups, Song to Song, Chappaquiddick, and A Mouthful of Air, along with the documentaries Voyage of Time and Long Strange Trip. His most recent edited film, Celine Song’s Past Lives, is one of the most critically acclaimed films of 2023.

Robert Bresson’s Notes on the Cinematographer is current published in the U.S. by the New York Review Book (under the translated title Notes on the Cinematograph).

Hollywood and Wall Street have obvious reasons to be obsessed with I.P. (Intellectual Property) because its consistently proven moneymaking abilities. But, how does it actually enrich the storytelling experience? In 2008, Henry Jenkins was asking these questions in his book, Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. I’m joined on this episode by Rehman Nizar Ali, as we discuss:

- The Matrix (a trilogy at the point of the book’s publication) as the ideal model of transmedia;
- how the “mothership” transmedia model has dominated;
- what the abandonment of Star Wars canon means for — up to this point — the most sophisticated canon.

Also:

- There are still more James Bond movies than MCU movies;
- the super-hero genre, fatigued or not, as one of empowerment;
- what video game to film adaptation has the best potential to work;
- and Fredric Wertham’s resurgent reputation.

Henry Jenkins is a professor at the University of Southern California; previously, he was the director of the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program. He is the author and/or editor of twenty books on various aspects of media and popular culture, including Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture, Hop on Pop: The Politics and Pleasures of Popular Culture, From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and Computer Games, Spreadable Media: Creating Meaning and Value in a Networked Culture, and By Any Media Necessary: The New Youth Activism. He also co-hosts How Do You Like It So Far?, a podcast about popular culture in a changing world. More can be found on his blog.

Rehman Nizar Ali is co-editor of recent films for Terrence Malick including A Hidden Life, Song to Song, and Voyage of Time. Other works include commercials for Facebook, Google, Guerlain, and most recently the museum video installation Dioses y Maquinas! You can also find him at his website.

Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide is published by NYU Press, and is available online or brick and mortar bookstores.

The only features Peyton Reed has directed for the past decade have been Ant-Man films for Marvel. Before that, for a brief period in the late aughts, he was the studios go-to for adult romantic comedies. Before that, his finest (two) hour(s) — all due respect to Bring It On — was the Rock Hudson/Doris Day riff, Down With Love, a period parody filled with a digitally ’60s Manhattan and pre-sexual revolution, pre-Mad Men glee. On this episode, guest Lani Gonzalez and I discuss:

- Pillow Talk, the most specific parody subject for Down With Love;
- the Oscar-winning lineage of Hudson/Day series;
- why Lani, lover of Bring It On, disagrees about it being Reed’s finest (two) hour(s).

Also:

- Peyton Reed’s pre-MCU work, from Mr. Show to the Back to the Future Saturday morning cartoon;
- how Reed turned a pitch for a pre-MCU ’60s-period Fantastic Four into most of Down With Love’s New York “locations”;
- and his post-Love period of adult romantic comedies.

Lani Gonzalez writes about film for both Book and Film Globe and, alongside her husband (and former guest-host) AJ, their blog Cinema Then and Now.

Both Down With Love and Pillow Talk is available to buy and rent digitally and, also, on physical media.

Why have there been so few episodes this year? Because I’ve been directing a low-budget feature film since February! And Monday, we launched a crowdfunding campaign alongside a promo for the film!

This episode contains a brief description of the film of influence for the feature. But also, check out the promo on YouTube

It’s been a year-end tradition that me, Aaron Smith, and Ted Haycraft usually meet sometime after Christmas but before New Years at an IHOP or Denny’s, recap the year among friends, and eventually get into an argument as to whether Richard Lester is the father of the music video. It happens. Every year. For the third podcasting year, we’ve continued away from in-person dining to the podcast episode, where the three of us talk:

- why Ted after three years of doing this, forgot to make a list this year;
- if Jordan Peele’s Nope overrated of this generation’s Jaws;
- and the difference between a normal top ten list and spectacle experiences in-person at the theater.

Also:

- the mutual love of The Northmen from different directions;
- our mutual best surprise of the year coming from late summer;
- and my surprise and enthusiastic pick for #2, which barely appeared on other critics’ top ten lists.

Aaron Smith is the lead manager at Showplace Cinemas Newburgh in Evansville, IN.

Ted Haycraft is film critic for WFIE-14 and co-hosts Cinema Chat on its Midday show. He can also be found on Cinema Chat’s Facebook page.

Roughly since 2007, the assertion that Die Hard -- a movie that takes place at Christmas -- is a Christmas movie has been met with either strong support or opposition. On this episode, along with Ted Haycraft and writer/director Tyler Savage, we discuss the history of the heated debate, while also debating ourselves:

- has this debate ever happened IRL, off of Twitter?;
- if so, were the debaters online journalists or bots?;
- have any of these IRL debates lasted any longer than three minutes?
- and did the debate’s resolution involve anything other than the participants realizing it all comes down to one’s own definition of a “Christmas movie”?

Also:

- the careers of Steven E. de Souza and John McTiernan;
- their assertions in the debate, along with Bruce Willis’s and his mom’s;
- Die Hard’s origin as a sequel to a novel that was adapted into The Detective, starring Frank Sinatra;
- and the film as a progression in action filmmmaking.

Tyler Savage’s latest film, Stalker, is currently streaming on Hulu, while his first feature, Inheritance, is currently streaming on Amazon Prime. His latest short, “Oddities,” starring Adrienne Barbeau, Logan Miller, and Ariela Barer, is currently making its festival run for 2023.

Sight & Sound magazine and the British Film Institute put out their once-every-decade poll of greatest films. The top ten:

1. Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
2. Vertigo
3. Citizen Kane
4. Tokyo Story
5. In the Mood for Love
6. 2001: A Space Odyssey
7. Beau Travail
8. Mulholland Dr.
9. Man with a Movie Camera
10. Singin’ in the Rain

The poll, which first started in 1952 and had come to be the definitive film list, now has a controversial and brand new #1 film for this decade: Chantal Ackerman’s 1975 piece of slow cinema. And this episode, we discuss:

- the expansion of the voter-base leading to the controversy
- Paul Schrader’s reaction on Facebook decrying the poll being “woke”;
- which titles were dropped between 2012 and 2022;
- and the distinction between polls of “favorites” and “GREATEST.”

Also:

- how the poll ensconced Citizen Kane into the top spot for so long;
- the poll’s history of top tens;
- the age of those top ten titles at the time each decade’s poll;
- and the lists’ preference for titles over filmographies.

The Sight & Sound/BFI list can be found here.

Though it had been widely predicted to happen sometime later this decade, China managed to surpass North America during the pandemic 2020 — during the first year of decade — in domestic box-office. A big part of that was the fact that China had built more movie theaters than North America. On this episode, we discuss:

• whether I say something in this interview that disqualifies me from ever working for a studio movie that needs China’s box office;

• the definition of “dumb money” investors, and how this applies to the China’s access to the American moviemaking process

• why did a movie like Wolf Warrior 2, the first movie in the worldwide top-ten, get completely ignored domestically in America?

• what contribution the Russo Bros., famously of the Marvel Avenger movies, added to Wolf Warrior 2?

Also:

• the Eastern ethos and religious philosophies that are being applied to Chinese big-budget productions like The Wandering Earth,

• alongside what the Asian crossover effect of K-Pop, Parasite, and Squid Game;

• the difference between Russia’s successful mid-50s film production/censorship from China’s current state-based film distribution.

Erich Schwartzel covers the film industry in the Wall Street Journal's Los Angeles bureau. He joined the Journal in 2013 and has written dozens of front-page stories on life and business in Hollywood, specializing in features where commerce meets culture. His work can be found here.

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