The Video Archives Podcast with Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary

“The iconic filmmaker teams up again with “Pulp Fiction” co-screenwriter and fellow former Video Archives coworker Roger Avary to discuss the classic collection of cult films. The duo met back in 1983 when working at the famed video rental store in Manhattan Beach, California. The long-closed shop housed close to 8,000 VHS tapes and DVDs, which Tarantino purchased in 1995, the same year he and Avary won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for “Pulp Fiction.”

Now, in “The Video Archives Podcast,” Tarantino and Avary rewatch the original tapes from the Video Archives collection, featuring movies like “Dark Star,” “Moon Raker,” “Demonoid,” “Messenger of Death,” and “Piranha.” The podcast launches July 19 and is produced by SiriusXM subsidiary Stitcher.”

-Samantha Bergeson, “‘Video Archives Podcast’ Trailer: Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary Rewatch Cult VHS Tapes.” IndieWire. June 3, 2022.

A podcast where Quentin Tarantino talks about cult films? Yeah, I’d listen to that.

Edited By

“A survey of two hundred and six editors who invented, developed, fine-tuned, and revolutionized the art of film editing.”

http://womenfilmeditors.princeton.edu/

“A momentous event in online film culture went mostly unnoticed earlier this year [2019]: the unveiling of Edited By, Su Friedrich’s large and invaluable web resource devoted to women film editors. Friedrich, a renowned experimental filmmaker with a body of work spanning over four decades, tells the story of coming upon a film history book, turning to the editing chapter, and finding that each reference to a film mentioned the director—but never the editor. Looking up the cited films on IMDb, she discovered that most of them were edited by women. Out of this seed of curiosity grew the enormous research effort that has now resulted in the website.

Edited By is global in scope, even if the majority of its entries are devoted to American women. Friedrich points to the unjust lack of attention to editors everywhere, contrasting their relative invisibility to the much greater awareness of directors, writers, and even cinematographers that exists in film culture. “It’s time to stop imagining that ‘it’s really the director’ who does the editing,” she writes. This neglect applies to both male and female editors, but it has had a special impact on the latter by occluding the fact that women have a rich but little-known history as editors, especially in American cinema.”

-Giresh Shambu, “Hidden Histories: The Story of Women Film Editors.” The Criterion Collection. September 12, 2019.

Movie Review: West Side Story

I’ve always thought the original West Side Story (1961) was close to perfect. I was not excited to see a remake of it. Remakes should focus on flawed films and make them better.

Much to my surprise, the new West Side Story (2021) shows the flaws in the original I simply didn’t see before. It’s a better movie is every way that matters. Highly recommended.

Thanksgiving Movie: The Last Waltz

Robbie Robertson – Guitar: [Last lines] The road was our school. At the end it was our sense of survival. It taught us all we know. There’s not much left that we can really take from the road. We’ve had our share of, or, maybe it’s just superstitious.

Martin Scorsese – Interviewer: Superstitious in what way?

Robbie Robertson – Guitar: No. You can press your luck. The road has taken a lot of great ones. Hank Williams. Buddy Holly. Otis Redding. Janis. Jimi Hendrix. Elvis. Its a goddamn impossible way of life.

Martin Scorsese – Interviewer: It is, isn’t it.

Robbie Robertson – Guitar: No question about it.

The Last Waltz

Probably can be said of any way of life. It’ll teach you everything you know, and it will kill you, if you let it. My preferred Thanksgiving movie, although Planes, Trains & Automobiles is also a worthy choice.

Letterboxd

“What is Letterboxd?

Letterboxd is a global social network for grass-roots film discussion and discovery. Use it as a diary to record and share your opinion about films as you watch them, or just to keep track of films you’ve seen in the past. Showcase your favorites on your profile page. Rate, review and tag films as you add them. Find and follow your friends to see what they’re enjoying. Keep a watchlist of films you’d like to see, and create lists/collections on any given topic. We’ve been described as “like GoodReads for movies”.

https://letterboxd.com

New to me. IMDB doesn’t really do this that well. So, hopefully, this will be an improvement.