The esteemed critic and author discusses his new book, "The Oliver Stone Experience," and befriending the controversial and brilliant filmmaker.
You just moderated a discussion with Oliver Stone, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and, over Skype, Edward Snowden, a conversation that was beamed to 800 theaters sneak-peaking “Snowden.” What on earth is it like talking to Edward Snowden? It was incredible. I talk to a lot of interesting people over the course of my job, but it’s very rare that I meet someone who actually moves me. This guy actually moves me. There was a part where I said to him, “There are a lot of people who say, ‘If you have nothing to hide, what are you worried about?’” And it was like Jimmy Stewart had come back from the dead. This monologue he gave, it was like “Mr. Smith Goes to Russia.” He concluded by saying, “Saying you’re worried about your lack of privacy because you have nothing to hide is like saying you’re not concerned about your right to free speech because you have nothing to say.” I’m not even kidding when I tell you this: If Edward Snowden moves back to the United States and runs for public office, I will quit whatever job I have to go work for him. I’d stuff envelopes for that guy. Read more
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The Film Stage: Reading your book, a comparison came to mind for Stone; Samuel Fuller. He was a soldier, journalist, pulp writer, and filmmaker. Is that a fair comparison?
Matt Zoller Seitz: I think that’s a very fair comparison. In fact, we talked briefly about Samuel Fuller, particularly The Big Red One. It’s a memoir of his service in the pacific in World War II. Of course, that movie came out 35 years after Fuller’s experience, and Platoon came out approximately 20 after Stone’s in Vietnam. That’s a fair comparison. And, also, the left-wing politics. You bring up the various criticisms Stone has received on a number of his films regarding treatment of certain ethnicities or female characters. But now that we’re in an age where films are judged far, far more on the basis of ideology, how much worse do you think these controversies would’ve been today? I don’t know if they would’ve been better or worse, but they would’ve been more immediate, I think. I think people kind of forget nowadays that movies open on 2,000 screens and then they’re gone in a month. Everything happens faster now, like the way movies are released and the reaction to them on social media. Back in the day, Platoon played in a lot of theaters for three months, six months — nine months, in some cases. And there was plenty of time for a reaction to sort of build, and it happened in slow-motion. I don’t necessarily know if it would be worse, but certainly it would be more simultaneous. Read more Matt Zoller Seitz, editor-in-chief of RogerEbert.com, joins the guys this week as a special guest. They talk about his latest book, “The Oliver Stone Experience,” and discuss the importance of fostering a diverse array of voices and perspectives in conversations about film. Wade and Kevin then turn their attention to the BEN-HUR remake. Is it a worthy successor to previous versions of the story, or does it crash before crossing the finish line?
Listen to Episode 74 Q. Nostalgia for certain periods is a touchstone of Wes Anderson films. How old are you, and do you personally respond to particular elements because they evoke nostalgia for your own childhood?
A. I just turned 46 a couple of weeks ago, so Wes and I do share some of the same film-geek touchstones, like the original “Star Wars” trilogy, which obsessed us both and kind of jump-started Wes’s fascination with building entire worlds on-screen. And we were both into 1970s American dramas and 1960s European art films, and of course the animated “Peanuts” specials directed by Bill Melendez, who’s a huge influence on Wes. But I don’t think I respond to Wes’s films because they’re pushing generational buttons. It’s more about the combination of an extremely precise, rich style and very messy, at times melancholy, emotions. Is it true that “The Life Aquatic” is your favorite to date, or did “Grand Budapest” supplant it? “The Grand Budapest Hotel” is an incredibly rich film, one of his best, definitely the most logistically and maybe thematically complex. It’s kind of every Wes Anderson film stacked one on top of the other, like a wedding cake. But yeah, “Aquatic” is my favorite. It’s his least perfect movie. I think even Wes would cop to that, though “Bottle Rocket” might be in there with it because it was his first and he wasn’t in creative control of it. But it’s the one that hits me the hardest. I went through a period of my life when I lost my wife, my best friend and my stepmother in the space of three years. “The Life Aquatic” speaks to that. It’s about accepting that death is a part of life, and it’s not personal, and you just have to let it go or move through it. “Grand Budapest” has a touch of that as well. Most of his films do. Read more
Twenty-five years ago this week, ‘Seinfeld’ debuted on NBC, and would quickly become one of television’s all-time greatest hits. Hardball guest host Steve Kornacki talks with actor John O’Hurley and Matt Zoller Seitz about the show’s success and legacy.
This interview took place between New York and Melbourne, via Skype.
- James Robert Douglas I. ON VINDICATED BELIEFS TLB: Could explain a little bit about the genesis of The Wes Anderson Collection? MZS: What do you mean, like how the book came about? TLB: I think it’s your first book, as far as I can tell. Is that right? MZS: It is actually my second book. I wrote a quickie biography of Brad Pitt almost twenty years ago, and it paid for my move to New York. TLB: Who published the Brad Pitt biography? MZS: This publisher in Dallas—who normally published, like, baseball card collectors manuals—decided he was going to get into the celebrity biography business, and called me up one day and said “hey, I’ll pay you ten thousand dollars to write a biography of Brad Pitt, but you have to finish it in the next three months and there won’t be any royalties.” And I said that’s fine. My wife and I were about to move to New York, anyway, and we needed the money. And so I wrote it. It was that simple. I don’t even remember the name of the publisher, but they were local, and the guy operated out of an office in a warehouse district. It was really tiny. It was kind of a fly by night operation. Read More ScreenAnarchy - When did your love for Wes Anderson films begin?
Seitz - My love for Wes Anderson's films started when I came across his short film Bottle Rocket. This was during the period that I was viewing shorts that were going to play the USA Film Festival in Dallas, where I was working as a young alternative press film critic. I was immediately captivated by how confident and assured Wes' style was, and even more impressed when I found out that he was about my age, maybe 23 or 24 at the time. He and his collaborators, Luke and Owen Wilson, struck me as incredibly talented and people who were likely to have long careers ahead of them. The prospect of writing about people like that at the beginning of their career was incredibly exciting and I ended up writing three pieces about them for that newspaper. I stayed in touch with Wes after that, communicating with him here and there over the next couple of decades. This book is the ultimate result of all that. Read More |
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