Bruno Bettati

In 1962, Don Draper went to see La Notte and loved it. He's up on his cinema, and that's no surprise. When someone asked if he'd seen The Bridge on the River Kwai, he responded, "I've seen everything, and I have the ticket stubs to prove it." Not that Don could assimilate Antonioni into advertising that quickly. He's much more likely to use Bye Bye Birdie as a starting point for his work; foreign innovations are, for now (the show's up to 1964), just that. As Kieron Clark pointed out, "Advertising then did exactly as it does now: it co-opted, re-used and ripped-off cinematic culture, both high and low. As both Don Draper and Matthew Weiner know only too well, the Mad Men of Madison Avenue ignore the movies at their peril." Right now, Don's viewing choices may not have much to do with his work. Soon, they may have to if he wants to survive the '60s gracefully.

Style-wise, the show's oft-muted colors make the '60s seem more modern than a meticulous recreation: its influences are ahead of the chronological period, even as the characters fight to keep pace with the '60s. As James Wolcott notes, Don's living in "Gordon Willis dark" rooms "without Godfather justification," a man out of time in a way that’s not fashionable yet. Maybe not quite The Godfather— although Draper brooding in the dark in the fourth season's premiere episode isn't far off either—but visually, Don's ahead of the times, meanwhile struggling to keep up with them.

">The Antonionian Ennui of Mad Men

Think of this as an addendum to our podcast recorded during last year's New York Film Festival, in which Armond White, Andrew Grant and myself (along with party crasher Sylvia Miles) debated Welcome to the Dollhouse and Palindromes auteur Todd Solondz's newly released Life During Wartime:

Part sequel, part variation on his acclaimed and controversial Happiness, the newest film from celebrated director Todd Solondz assembles an amazing ensemble cast including Allison Janney, Shirley Henderson, Paul Reubens, Michael Kenneth Williams, Ally Sheedy, Charlotte Rampling, and Ciáran Hinds in an utterly hilarious exploration of the boundaries of forgiveness, family, and love.

Ten years have passed since shocking revelations shattered the world of the Jordan family, and now sisters Joy (Henderson), Trish (Janney), and Helen (Sheedy), each embroiled in their own unique dilemmas, struggle to find their place in an unpredictable and volatile world. The past now haunts their family both literally and otherwise, and jeopardizes the future. Alternately hilarious and tragic, outrageous and poignant, Life During Wartime is an audacious comedy with unexpected resonance.

I met up recently with Solondz at the SoHo Grand Hotel Lounge to discuss his thoughts on forgiveness, The Wire, the political undertones of his new film, being accused of misanthropy, and whether (as I once heard him say in 2002) he still disliked filmmaking as the medium for telling his stories.

To listen to the podcast, click here. (16:44)

Podcast Music
INTRO: Talking Heads: "Life During Wartime (Alt. Version)"
OUTRO: Daniel Rey: "Welcome to the Dollhouse"

[Life During Wartime is now playing in limited release and on demand. For more information, please visit the official site.]">PODCAST: Todd Solondz

Many film festivals seek to start a conversation amongst cinephiles and the wider community in which the films are screened, and to do that they need space. And the lobbies of many film festival venues are often antithetical to discussion. They become cramped spaces of rugby-like scrums of people trying to queue for a seat, the bathroom, a snack, a friend they see in the distance, and, when the film ends, a convenient exit. Once outdoors, the scrum continues, pushed out into the cramped sidewalk where one has to join the strolling pedestrians often obstructed by those in queue for the next film. This year's San Francisco Silent Film Festival provided an opportunity to see how an addition of public space, The Castro Commons, could enhance or detract from the typical experience at the festival.

The Silent Film Festival takes place at the Castro Theatre partly because said theatre was built in the time of silent films and it is one of the few theaters in San Francisco able to project silent films properly. Equally important, the Castro Theatre has a foundation from which to build upon of regular theater-goers attuned to the importance of silent films. The Castro Theatre is half a block away from an awkward five-point intersection. And since the Castro is quite a scene at all times during the day and night, attracting tourists and locals to the queer-friendly bars, restaurants, and shops, this already awkward intersection is made more complicated by the heavy foot traffic.

The latest from Danish filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn (Bronson, The Pusher Trilogy) is the austere and brutal 12th-century epic Valhalla Rising, what I elsewhere called "a trippy nightmare of savage poetry burning slow across bleak and otherworldly landscapes." These ain't your daddy's Vikings:

For years, the fearsome figure known only as One Eye (Mads Mikkelsen of Pusher, Flame & Citron and Casino Royale) has defeated everyone he's encountered, but he's treated more like an animal than a warrior. The only person he has any relationship with is the young boy who brings him food and water daily. Constantly caged and shackled, One Eye has drawn the attention of a new force now sweeping the countryside and displacing the society's leaders: Christians.

Before the film's premiere, Refn called from sunny California to discuss his "hallucinogenic drug" Valhalla Rising, how he made both this film and last year's Bronson simultaneously, and why Mads Mikkelsen never gets invited to his birthday parties.

To listen to the podcast, click here. (11:32)

Podcast Music
INTRO: Led Zeppelin: "Immigrant Song"
OUTRO: Aritomo: "Voice of Only One Eye"

[Valhalla Rising premieres July 16 in limited release and on demand. For more information, please visit the official site.]">PODCAST: Nicolas Winding Refn

It might seem counterintuitive to craft a feature-length documentary around a viral clip concerning one man's explicit outtakes during a 1989 industrial video production, but Winnebago Man director, producer and cowriter Ben Steinbauer has truly made an entertaining portrait with a complicated range of emotions:

Jack Rebney is the most famous man you've never heard of—an RV salesman whose hilarious, foul-mouthed outbursts circulated underground on VHS tapes in the '90s before turning into a full-blown Internet phenomenon in 2005. Today, the "Winnebago Man" has been seen by more than 20 million people worldwide, and is regarded as one of the first and funniest viral videos. Filmmaker Ben Steinbauer goes in search of Rebney—and finds him living alone on a mountain top, unaware of his fame. WINNEBAGO MAN is a laugh-out-loud look at viral culture and an unexpectedly poignant tale of one man's response to unintended celebrity.

While in New York for the film's premiere, I sat down with Steinbauer at the Ace Hotel to discuss the film's themes, what can happen to analog recordings in the digital age, and who will play his subject in the inevitable Hollywood remake. As a bonus, the Winnebago Man team invited me to have a post-screening chat with the man himself, Jack Rebney. It seemed timely to discuss Mel Gibson's recorded outbursts before allowing him his soapbox to address all you %#$@ers directly.

To listen to the podcast, click here. (21:21)

Podcast Music
INTRO: Dead Kennedys: "Winnebago Warrior"
OUTRO: Band of Horses: "The General Specific"

[Winnebago Man is now playing in New York, and will open in nearly 30 cities throughout the summer. For more information, please visit the official site.]">PODCAST: Winnebago Man (Ben Steinbauer and Jack Rebney)

I'm in love with Lisbeth Salander. I'm unrepentantly coming out with this information, despite at least three reasons this is a stupid way to feel:

1.) Lisbeth Salander is a fictional character from the late Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy—a series of books I haven't read (I struggled through 10 pages of an Amazon.com preview before giving up on them)—and two movies I've seen for work that I'd call absolute shit. Salander is a better character than either franchise deserves. Furthermore, I’m assuredly not in love with Noomi Rapace, who plays Lisbeth in the movies; she looks much cuter in character.

2.) As conceived, Salander isn't even "my type," nor is there anything really appealing about her personality. She’s a pretty good hacker, but aside from that suffers from Asperger's, is prone to (as Liz Phair said) "fuck and run," and doesn’t have a noticeable sense of humor. Her issues will keep a dedicated therapist in practice for decades, let alone any unlucky partner.

3.) Although some stone-cold shit is done to Salander, her violent retaliations would get an enthusiastic thumbs-up from the waifish sociopath from Audition. Just saying.

">The Boy With the Dragon Tattoo Crush

Lisa Cholodenko's well-received 1998 debut High Art was a major landmark for lesbian filmmaking in the '90s, even if the writer-director makes films more to please herself than to fill any LGBT niches. After moving from New York to Los Angeles (where she shot 2002's titularly set ensemble drama Laurel Canyon—which, coincidentally, was centered around straight people), dealing with distribution troubles and working in television (directing episodes of The L Word and the short-lived Push, Nevada), the 46 year-old auteur returns to the big screen with her finest and most widely released effort yet, The Kids Are All Right.

Julianne Moore and Annette Bening star as a lesbian couple raising two teenagers. It's the final summer before their daughter (Mia Wasikowska) goes to college and her younger brother (Josh Hutcherson) wants to meet their sperm donor dad (Mark Ruffalo), creating more drama than anyone might've anticipated. (Life certainly imitates art: Cholodenko and her partner are raising a four year-old son, also helped by a sperm donor.) Working for the first time with co-writer Stuart Blumberg (The Girl Next Door), The Kids Are All Right is a superbly written, vivid character study with a genuinely erotic texture, a warmer and more humane summer movie amidst a slew of soulless blockbusters. While visiting San Francisco, Cholodenko sat down with me to discuss the film.

">INTERVIEW: Lisa Cholodenko

Willie Nelson's 4th of July Celebration
Directed by Yabo Yablonski
1979, 100 minutes, USA
(screening July 3, 4 at Anthology Film Archives)

To a central Texan, celebrating Independence Day means more than fireworks, BBQ, baseball games and parades, as this weekend marks the 37th year of aging outlaw-country legend Willie Nelson's "4th of July Picnic," a laid back and Southern-fried Lollapalooza that this former Austin-based writer once attended in the late '90s.

Over three days in 1974, a reported 25,000 turned out in College Station for the second annual extravaganza, a dirty, shadelessly sun-assaulted, Lone Star beer-soaked (and sponsored!), marijuana-smoky affair that was filmed but rarely screened. Woodstock may be the countercultural touchstone of the era, but the mysterious Yabo Yablonski's chilled-out concert movie is the more mesmeric drug, better encapsulating an entire subculture of regional hippiedom and music. (To think, Willie and company's tunes would be labeled "alt-country" if newly released today.)

">FILM OF THE WEEK: Willie Nelson's 4th of July Celebration

Although neither New York-based journalist Sebastian Junger nor Liverpool-born photographer Tim Hetherington are strangers to combat zones, feature filmmaking was indeed a new war to be fought. In their brave and riveting documentary debut Restrepo, which won the Grand Jury Prize at this year's Sundance, the two seasoned professionals used their fact-finding instincts to depict an experience I had never before felt with such heart-in-my-throat immediacy:

RESTREPO is a feature-length documentary that chronicles the deployment of a platoon of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley. The movie focuses on a remote 15-man outpost, "Restrepo," named after a platoon medic who was killed in action. It was considered one of the most dangerous postings in the U.S. military. This is an entirely experiential film: the cameras never leave the valley; there are no interviews with generals or diplomats. The only goal is to make viewers feel as if they have just been through a 94-minute deployment. This is war, full stop. The conclusions are up to you.

Sitting down with Junger and Hetherington this past week, the three of us discussed the risk and reward in making Restrepo, politics versus morality, why they should be seen as journalists instead of activist filmmakers, and how—in justifiable comparison to their doc—The Hurt Locker isn't quite a fair portrayal of the soldier's experience.

To listen to the podcast, click here. (16:52)

Podcast Music
INTRO: The Raconteurs: "Broken Boy Soldier"
OUTRO: Casualty: "Military Intervention"

[Restrepo is now playing in New York and Los Angeles, with more cities to follow beginning July 2. For more information, please visit the official site.]">PODCAST: Restrepo (Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington)

Having now seen Dogtooth three times, which I not-so-hyperbolically called "the most original, challenging, and perverse film of the year so far" in the Village Voice, I was thrilled to speak with Greek filmmaker Georgios Lanthimos (Kinetta) about his must-see second feature:

A hyper-stylized mixture of physical violence and verbal comedy, DOGTOOTH is a darkly funny look at three teenagers confined to their parents's isolated country estate and kept under strict rule and regimen—an inscrutable scenario that suggests a warped experiment in social conditioning and control. Terrorized into submission by their father, the children spend their days devising their own games and learning an invented vocabulary (a salt shaker is a "telephone," an armchair is "the sea")—until a trusted outsider, brought in to satisfy the son’s libidinal urges, starts offering forbidden VHS tapes in return for sexual favors.

Having done a full year's round of press since the film won the Prix Un Certain Regard at Cannes '09, Lanthimos was gracious enough to spare a few more minutes before leaving his New York hotel and returning home to Greece. We discussed his initial story concept, Dogtooth's ambiguous take on American pop culture, the non-existent props audiences have projected into his film, and feeling isolated himself.

To listen to the podcast, click here. (14:02)

Podcast Music
INTRO: Islands: "Kids Don't Know Shit"
OUTRO: Irene Cara: "Flashdance... What a Feeling"

[Dogtooth opens this Friday in New York and July 9 in Chicago, with more dates to follow. For more information, please visit the official site.]">PODCAST: Dogtooth (Yorgos Lanthimos)