Lucy Talks Movies - Powered by PodTech.net

Going for an Oscar and they just might get it!

editor — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 16:19:13 +0000

Editor Tim Sternberg has directed his first documentary short and it’s a peach. Salim Baba, about a man in Kalkota who takes his Lumiere projector into the street to show movies to kids. This talk is with Sternberg and his inspired camera operator, Francisco Bello.

Sadly, this is my last vodcast for podtech. I am grateful they got me started and there is so much more for me to learn. But my goal was to offer a full range of people engaged in movies and I think I succeeded there. I think it’s harder after seeing my 27 shows to say that movie making is nearly over. And it’s easier to see how the internet has given the business new life. In keeping with the open spirit I offer “Going for an Oscar and they might just get it!”

Tags: Tim Sternberg, Salim Baba, Lumiere, Francisco Bello

There Will Be Blood

editor — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 19:03:39 +0000

Daniel Day-Lewis and Paul Thomas Anderson have made a new movie called There Will Be Blood, based on the Upton Sinclair novel, “Oil.” After seeing a special edition of Moby Dick, made by Arion Press, they called the San Francisco publisher of fine art edition books to make the title sequence for the film. Kenny Howard responded.

Tags: Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood, Upton Sinclair, Moby Dick, Kenny Howard

Allan Arkush

editor — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 17:58:40 +0000

Allan Arkush is an executive producer and director of the TV series, “Heroes”, which begins a new season on September 24th. The series is such a hit that it has engendered spin-offs. Arkush, who was trained by Roger Corman, doing promotional films, has come a long way — and he’s enjoyed every bit of it.

Tags: Allan Arkush

Ken Burns

editor — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 20:03:12 +0000

Ken Burns was at the Telluride Film Festival last weekend, where I spoke with him on the street, before he came to San Francisco for a special screening of his new series, The War, this weekend at the Letterman Digital Arts Center. “The War” airs on television September 23rd.

Tags: Ken Burns, Telluride Film Festival, The War, Letterman Digital Arts Center

Eddie Muller

editor — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 07:01:17 +0000

Eddie Muller, the Czar of Noir, talks about all his books beginning with Grindhouse: The Forbidden World of ‘Adults Only’ Cinema and Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir all the way up to the movie he just finished shooting based on his new short story, The Grand Inquisitor.

Tags: Eddie Muller, Czar of Noir

Casting

editor — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 18:02:06 +0000

This conversation about casting for movies is with Davia Nelson, who has worked with Francis Coppola, Phil Kaufman, Barbet Shroeder and she has become a Peabody Award-winning radio creator of Hidden Kitchens on NPR. One of those shows is now the basis of a Broadway musical that she is involved in casting. Also, Grammy-winning documentary filmmakers Dayna Goldfine and Dan Geller talk about casting their film, Ballet Russes, and the one they are leaving to shoot in the Galapagoes Islands, Satan Came to Eden.

Tags: Davia Nelson, Francis Coppola, Phil Kaufman, Barbet Shroeder, Hidden Kitchens, NPR, Dayna Goldfine, Dan Geller, Ballet Russes, Galapagoes Islands

Lynn Hershman Leeson

editor — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 05:03:56 +0000

Lynn Hershman Leeson has twenty-six venues to show her film, Strange Culture all over the world. She’s also nearly finished editing a documentary she’s been working on for forty years, called Women + Art = Revolution. There are trailers for both films after a talk about her entire career beginning in the 1950s.

Tags: Lynn Hershman Leeson, Strange Culture, documentary, Women + Art = Revolution

Robert Ryan and Dana Andrews Had Daughters

editor — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 19:38:29 +0000

Robert Ryan became a movie star working for Paramount Pictures and then RKO in the 1940s while Dana Andrews worked simultaneously for Samuel Goldwyn and Twentieth Century Fox. Their daughters, Lisa Ryan and Susan Andrews, talk about growing up with their famous fathers in Hollywood in the 1950s and coming to San Francisco in the 1960s where they live and work today.

Tags: Robert Ryan, Paramount Pictures, RKO, Dana Andrews, Samuel Goldwyn, Twentieth Century Fox, Lisa Ryan, Susan Andrews, Hollywood

Diane Johnson

editor — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 00:40:48 +0000

Diane Johnson is best known for her novels set in Paris “Le Divorce”, “Le Mariage” and “L’Affaire”. She is in San Francisco for the summer and putting the final touches on her latest novel to be called “Complicity” or “The Virginity Test”. It’s a spy novel that deals with Islam. She puts all of her variety of books and essays for “The New York Review of Books” and “The New York Times” in a context.

Tags: Diane Johnson, Le Divorce, Le Mariage, L’Affaire, Complicity, The Virginity Test, Islam, The New York Review of Books, The New York Times

Charlie Chaplin

editor — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 16:03:02 +0000

Niles is a town in the Bay Area that is dedicated to its Silent Film History. Charlie Chaplin had a formative year there where he created his character, The Tramp. And when you think about his impoverished background growing up in London, it’s amazing to imagine him in the excellently-well preserved Niles.

Tags: Niles, Charlie Chaplin, The Tramp

Tina Brown

editor — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 01:46:43 +0000

Tina Brown, turnaround editor of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, has written her first book, The Diana Chronicles. A bestseller about Lady Diana Spencer, the Princess of Wales, the book is very well-researched and thought out and ultimately as dull as the royal family.

Tags: Tina Brown, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, The Diana Chronicles, Lady Diana Spencer

Red Without Blue: Mark and Clair Farley

editor — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 19:30:56 +0000

Mark Farley and Clair Farley were born identical male twins. Six months ago, Clair changed her gender. Their story is told in a lovely, heartfelt documentary film, Red Without Blue. The film showed at Frameline 31, the LGBT Film Festival, and will be showing on the Sundance Channel.

Tags: Mark Farley, Clair Farley, Red Without Blue, Frameline 31, LGBT Film Festival, Sundance

Michael Ondaatje

editor — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 07:01:45 +0000

Michael Ondaatje is best known for his novel, The English Patient. He has a new book out called Divisadero. I spoke with him on the San Francisco street that gives the book its name, where he told me why it was the best title for a book set primarily in Petaluma and southern France.

Tags: Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient, Divisadero, Petaluma

Rob Reger

editor — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 17:52:30 +0000

Rob Reger is enjoying the thirteenth anniversary of his character “Emily the Strange.” Reger went to the graduate program at the San Francisco Art Institute, where he says he learned to push a project beyond its apparent limits. He has so far brought Emily from t-shirt phenomenon to a major motion picture.

Tags: Rob Reger, Emily the Strange

Faith Wheeler and Sara Barker

editor — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 03:53:48 +0000

Faith Wheeler and Sara Barker are two highly original and successful food and wine branders. In an effort to make something of their own, they have written their first screenplay, which they submitted to a contest at the San Francisco Digital School of Filmmaking. The winner gets their screenplay made into a film. We get a closer look at the creative process, and at the anticipation that takes over while waiting for the contest’s feedback.

Tags: Faith Wheeler, Sara Barker, branders, screenplay, San Francisco Digital School of Filmmaking

Michael Taylor

editor — Tue, 29 May 2007 19:50:05 +0000

Michael Taylor is the editor of the San Francisco Chronicle’s car section. He is also the son of screenwriter Samuel Taylor, who wrote plays and movies (including Sabrina and Vertigo, which was made in San Francisco fifty years ago).

Tags: Michael Taylor, San Francisco Chronicle, Samuel Taylor, Sabrina, Vertigo

Steven Bach

editor — Wed, 23 May 2007 01:29:35 +0000

Steven Bach was the head of worldwide production at United Artists when the movie Heaven’s Gate sank the company. Since then he’s written four books. The new one, Leni: The Life and Work of Leni Riefenstahl, has just come out. She was the evil genius director of movies for the Nazis (she died recently, at 101).

Tags: Steven Bach, United Artists, Heaven’s Gate

Peter Morgan

editor — Mon, 14 May 2007 01:16:28 +0000

Peter Morgan is perhaps the most celebrated screenwriter in the world right now, and he deserves to be. He’s written five plays — four screenplays and one stage play — that establish his oeuvre. He’s a great writer at the top of his game and we can only hope for more.

Tags: Peter Morgan, screenwriter

Lisa Loven

editor — Mon, 07 May 2007 17:41:58 +0000

Lisa Loven is an ingenue from Norway. Right now in her country she is the star of a national advertising campaign for a food product. She moved to Los Angeles four months ago to become a movie actress. People I know think she’s got a chance.

Tags: Lisa Loven

Graham Leggat

editor — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 04:34:22 +0000

The San Francisco International Film Society has a new director, Graham Leggat. He (and about 50 other people, he tells me) put on a spectacular opening night for the 50th Anniversary. It’s the oldest film festival in America and it’s had its ups and downs, but things are looking up under this director.

Tags: San Francisco International Film Society, Graham Leggat

Mick LaSalle and Amy Freed

editor — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 01:00:45 +0000

This is an interview with San Francisco Chronicle film critic Mick LaSalle and his wife, the playwright Amy Freed. She has written six plays that have been produced, which in itself is astounding, but one of them has also been a Pulitzer finalist. She also teaches at Stanford University.

Tags: San Francisco Chronicle, film critic, Mick LaSalle, Amy Freed

Opera Director Makes His First Movie

editor — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 23:12:27 +0000

Shi-Zheng Chen is a renowned singer, choreographer and director of operas all over the world. I spoke with him at the San Francisco Asian Fim Festival, where his directorial debut feature film, “Dark Matter” played closing night.

Tags: Shi-Zheng Chen, San Francisco Asian Fim Festival, Dark Matter

Lynn Hershman Leeson and Steve Kurtz

editor — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 01:05:03 +0000

Lynn Hershman Leeson was a very early digital filmmaker and creator of virtual realities. She has made three films for the American theatrical market but had terrible trouble with distribution. I spoke with her about her new documentary, “Strange Culture.” Ten seconds after her interview there is another one with the politically controversial subject of her documentary, Steve Kurtz.

Tags: Lynn Hershman Leeson, Strange Culture, Steve Kurtz

Tom Luddy Movie Picks

editor — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 04:00:42 +0000

Last weekend, the “Witness to War: Documentary Perspectives World War II to Iraq” was programmed by the inestimable and reliable Tom Luddy. He has had a long and varied career in the business that has, in part, resulted in him producing eleven movies. He also started the Telluride Film Festival thirty-three years ago, with Bill and Stella Pence, who retired in 2006. The festival is now run by Luddy, along with Gary Meyer.

Tags: Tom Luddy, Telluride Film Festival, Gary Meyer

Lucy Gray: Watching the Oscars With Walter Murch

editor — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 05:43:49 +0000

This year, like movie fans around the world, Lucy Gray watched the Academy Awards with friends. Her group of friends that night included nine-time Oscar nominee (and three-time winner) Walter Murch. Murch is a film editor whose professional credits include work on 22 films, including “The Godfather,” “The Conversation,” “American Graffiti,” “Romeo is Bleeding,” “The English Patient” and “Jarhead.” He was also the first big-time movie editor to use Final Cut Pro, and he helped write a book about the digital editing software.

Tags: Lucy Gray, Final Cut Pro