Quentin Tarantino and Edgar Wright keep shop talk to a lean 3 hours on The Empire Film Podcast
Aux Features Quentin Tarantino
Griefcast
Ruth Coker Burks
Each week on Griefcast, comedian Cariad Lloyd invites a guest to talk about the death of someone close to them and how they coped with the pain. This week, it’s the amazing Ruth Coker Burks, who speaks about the nearly 30 years she spent administering care to dying AIDS sufferers from her home in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Burks’ story begins in 1984, when she was horrified by the scorn and neglect shown to a young man succumbing to the AIDS virus by the nursing staff of a hospital where she was visiting a friend. She took it upon herself to care for the frightened man, who had seemingly been abandoned by everyone (including a family who already considered him dead because he was gay). From there, word spread of the compassionate woman who was not afraid to help AIDS patients in a society where the government, medical establishment, and church had all turned their backs on the sick. It is an emotionally draining listen—Burks recounts having to attend up to three funerals a day—but her warmth, humor, and message of kindness will inspire listeners, especially right now. [Anthony D Herrera]
Reply All
The Test Kitchen, Chapter 1
As Reply All rounded out 2020 with post-election coverage (including multiple noteworthy installments from new co-host Emmanuel Dzotsi), producer Sruthi Pinnamaneni was hard at work following up on the reckoning at luxury food publication Bon Appetit that had begun back in June. In an effort to understand the experiences of those who had been marginalized within BA’s “high school” office culture, Pinnamaneni spoke with “all the people of color who worked there, like almost all of them, going back ten years ago, to the moment when the modern version of Bon Appetit was first launched.” In the first chapter, she details how former editor-in-chief Adam Rapoport had been brought aboard to revive Conde Nast’s anemic cooking magazine, lending his GQ sensibilities to food in a way that revitalized the brand. But every decision that was made thereafter only reinforced an age-old problem: the centering of white voices, “traditional” American cuisine, and the opinions of higher-ups who outright considered certain foods “smelly” or otherwise undesirable. It’s a close, uncomfortable look at an internal unraveling that started slowly, then unspooled faster the more America paid attention to it. Pinnamaneni is giving the story all due proofing time—and the series even includes the chefs’ recipes in the show notes for all to enjoy.
Tales Of Our Sisters
Expression Is Our Birthright
Cynthia Francillon’s new storytelling podcast is gorgeous audio by a Black woman, about and for Black women, showcasing their stories and their genius, across time and place. This episode is a flowing audio essay inspired by Stephanie Fields’ “Solange Beats The Deadly Clock Constraining Black Women Creatives.” Francillon guides the audience through Fields’ essay about how Solange and artists like her have had to create faster than anyone else—particularly the amazing Kathleen Collins—because they simply did not have as much time. It’s followed by a passionate and exhilarating foreword to a podcast Francillon has made, one that will bring Black women storytellers to the table in order to talk about their history and their future. If you are seeking a masterclass in emotional narrative, in linking past and present, Francillon’s portrait of how “it shouldn’t be a privilege to express yourself” is required listening. Crucially, however, this is for every Black woman who is seeking some support in the push to create: “What stories are you holding onto out of fear that your voice isn’t big enough to speak?” [Elena Fernández Collins]
The Empire Film Podcast
A Celebration Of Cinema: Edgar Wright and Quentin Tarantino In Conversation
Film Twitter was in hog heaven when British film mag Empire dropped an epic three-hour podcast featuring the voices of filmmakers/devoted film nerds Edgar Wright (who guest-edited the latest issue) and Quentin Tarantino (coming in from an iPad in Tel Aviv). Tarantino was also dragged a bit in the media for saying how the climactic showdown between Joaquin Phoenix and Robert De Niro in Joker was a profound cinematic experience for him. (Hey, nobody’s perfect.) But mostly, as you would expect, it’s basically two film junkies having a grand ol’ time riffing on what they love about movies and moviegoing, with moderator Chris Hewitt occasionally chiming in with topics of discussion. QT is his usual, pontificating self, dropping lengthy anecdotes about his first time seeing Aliens and his undying love for the ’70s revenge flick Rolling Thunder (a.k.a. the film Tarantino named his short-lived film distribution company after). Wright brings up what bothers him about watching movies on streaming sites and how Martin Scorsese made him check out more classic films from Wright’s own British homeland. [Craig D. Lindsey]
You Can’t Handle The Genre
Boogie Nights
For every movie, it seems there’s at least one podcast dedicated to obsessively unpacking it. On You Can’t Handle The Genre, hosts Ndegwa McCloud and John Ortegon instead make the clever decision to curate their cinema commentary based on how a movie fits into a greater cinematic genre. This month, the genre of choice is drama, and McCloud and Ortegon turn their attention to Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights. Despite the movie’s central plot about pornography, both hosts agree that the film itself is ultimately about family, and their passionate discussion is like overhearing a pair of film fanatics in the lobby of a movie theatre or in line at a film festival—something many of us feel nostalgic for, to say the least. (In a very cathartic sidebar, the hosts also air some justifiable annoyance with folks who use their phones while watching movies.) [Jose Nateras]
16 Comments
I can highly recommend the Empire podcast with Quentin and Edgar. Three hours of good geeky content.
It’s a super, super good time!
The Empire podcast is very enjoyable, especially the second half involving the discussion of Scorsese’s list of underrated British films.It’s fascinating to listen to Mr Cinema Tarantino willfully admit blind spots and his enthusiasm for filmmakers and actors, whose work he had only known for their international/American productions.Here are some of my thoughts about the films and filmmakers mentioned.- Tarantino come to greater appreciate the range of Richard Attenborough and Dirk Bogarde. I agree that Attenborough is truly great in “Guns at Batasi”, a very underrated siege film, while his work in “Seance on a Wet Afternoon” is just as fine as Kim Stanley’s Oscar-nominated searing turn. And Bogarde has to rank as one of the greatest screen actors never to be Oscar nominated. You only have to look at his work in the Losey-Pinter films “The Servant” and “Accident” to see his dimension and range he brought to his gentlemanly persona while tackling “Victim” at that time was a truly brave choice.- Tarantino and Wright discuss the importance of race in some of Basil Dearden’s films and Tarantino praised the director as being as daring as Sam Fuller. I don’t agree with their love for “Sapphire”, but “All Night One” is truly underrated and one of the great Shakespeare adaptations.- Tarantino had not seen “Queen of Spades”, but Wright had and loved it. Thorold Dickinson’s film is so visually striking and the script is filled with strange and ambiguous touches. The performance from Anton Walbrook, too, is really something.
I really recommend a romance novel podcast called “Heaving Bosoms” to everyone who is into romance novels or interested. I’ve been reading more romance lately and was recommended several romance novel podcasts but this one is my favourite. Separately, I’ve got behind on WTF with Marc Maron lately, people who are caught up, have there been any episodes you would particularly recommend?
Tarantino was also dragged a bit in the media for saying how the
climactic showdown between Joaquin Phoenix and Robert De Niro in Joker was a profound cinematic experience for him.
Tarantino is the Film Nerds’ Film Nerd — so of course seeing DeNiro’s Travis Bickle face-to-face with the 21st Century version of himself in Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck would give him a raging happy!
I’m sure if Christoph Waltz had just done a run-in, Tarantino would’ve lost it with joy….
I won’t lie: I’m a film nerd and I kind of enjoyed that as well. I thought the picture (Joker) took a bit too long and tried to nostalgia off of the much better Scorsese films, but that scene was pretty fucking great.
21st century Rupert Pupkin
That, too.
Can I get some love for APPOINTMENT TELEVISION? It’s this television and culture podcast featuring THE WIRECUTTER’s Andrew Cunningham, VULTURE’s Kathryn VanArendonk, and freelance writer/librarian/very out bisexual Margaret H. Willison.
They’re three close friends who joke on topics ranging from how awful Aaron Sorkin can be as a writer (THE NEWSROOM) to Margaret’s tendency to “Wikipedia” her way out of not watching more than one episode of most series! They get serious on topics like #metoo and how sexually-predatory executives like the CBS’s late boss Les Moonves encouraged a culture of sexually predatory male celebrities like Charlie Rose and Michael Weatherly, as well as how it cut off female voices like Linda Bloodworth-Thomason and Diane English (both of whom had been successful showrunners for CBS before Moonves came on board) — but not by getting all sententious about it.I’ve really come to love this podcast, and think a lot of you would, too.
I looked it up and will probably try it out. I’m glad it’s not just 3 dude’s talking or something, or 2 as is the case with a lot of podcasts. There’s a lot of bro y stuff out there.
This is very much not that.
Quentin Tarantino and Edgar Wright keep shop talk to a lean 3 hoursWhen you get Tarantino started on talking about movies, he doesn’t stop. So those 3 hours to him were probably just a nice way to spend an afternoon.
Yeah but what about those in Texas right now? They can’t listen to it because the snow storm is like
I can highly recommend the Empire podcast with Quentin and Edgar. Three hours of good geeky content. http://www.youse.in
I’m curious about how many film ideas Tarantino can propose in three hours, thanks for the link.
Ugh. Well. Here it comes…Cariad Lloyd is hot!I know it’s not cool of me to comment on people’s looks and I apologise to all those who are offended. But, if I get divorced and she gets divorced, then I want this opinion recorded as my opening gambit.