The Brattle Film Podcast

Dec 03 2024 81 ep. 93 mins 33

The Brattle Film Podcast artwork

The official podcast of Boston's unofficial film school: The Brattle Theatre. Since 1953 the Brattle has been a home for film lovers to gather and share great cinema; showing an eclectic mix of classic, cutting-edge, foreign, cult, and art-house movies on 35mm film, digital projection, and now virtually.

Copy RSS

Subscribe on Podcast Addict

Episode 76: Talkin' Movies with Poppy War Author RF Kuang

Dec 03 2024 75 mins

In November, The Brattle invited bestselling author, cinephile, and Brattle regular Rebbeca Kuang to program a day of movies in conjunction with the release of a special collector's edition of her first novel, The Poppy War. That whole day of screenings sold out rapidly, so we invited her onto the podcast to share her thoughts on watching movies, how movies differ from novels, how

Episode 75: Outside The Box October

Oct 17 2024 130 mins

For this year's "spooky season" episode, we take a look at some outside-the-box options for October viewing. From those lesser-known or under-celebrated horror movies to counter-programing options to comedies and thrillers with a cozy, Halloweeny vibe, Ian, Ivy, Ned, Alissa, and our listeners have suggestions for you.

Episode 74: Lauren Bacall Centennial Tribute

Sep 09 2024 150 mins

We pay tribute to one of our favorite movie stars on the occasion of what would have been her 100th birthday. Lauren Bacall's early films played a major role in the history of the Brattle Theatre, and she's a figure all four of us have long admired. We take a deep dive into some of Bacall's most revered pictures as well as some of her lesser-known films, discuss her life and work,

Episode 73: Cruel Summer

Jul 23 2024 120 mins

As the dog days of summer approach, we take a look at the sweatiest movies we can think of. Many of these films artfully showcase how oppressive heat leads to conflict.

Episode 72: Desperately Seeking Susan Seidelman

Jul 01 2024 85 mins

We welcome Susan Seidelman to the podcast in celebration of her new memoir and her upcoming live appearance at the Brattle on July 18th. In addition to listening to stories about her life in film, we talk about what her films have meant to us and what it was like revisiting many of them while reading her book. We also dive into the past couple of months of listener mail.

Episode 71: Reunion Week: 1949, 1974, 1999

May 20 2024 165 mins

We kick off Season 5 with our annual Reunion Week show, talking about films celebrating their 75th, 50th, and 25th anniversaries. This year, that's 1949, the year of the first televised Oscar ceremony; 1974, one of the greatest movie years of all time; and 1999, a pivotal, trendsetting year for cinema. While our discussion is tied to the series running at the Brattle, we touch on a

Episode 70: Needle Drops

Apr 23 2024 113 mins

We close out our 4th season with a show about needle drops, those brilliant and sometimes lazy pop music choices filmmakers employ to set a tone, evoke an era, express a character's unspoken emotions, or just give the film a burst of energy.

Episode 69: Boston Underground Film Festival

Mar 18 2024 62 mins

Boston Underground Film Festival programmers Kevin Monahan and Nicole McControversy join us to discuss the history of this unique fest and their 2024 lineup.

Episode 68: More of the Best of 2023

Feb 28 2024 120 mins

We wrap up awards season with more thoughts on the terrific year in film that was 2023, including discussions about the 10 Best Picture nominees, the documentary and international feature nominees, the idiocy of this year's Oscar controversies as well as other internet hot takes that surrounded the big movies before and after their releases, and we shine our appreciation on the big

Episode 67: Some of the Best of 2023

Jan 17 2024 135 mins

We begin our deep dive into the abundance of excellent films of 2023, a year that still saw fewer new releases than is typical of pre-pandemic cinema but gave us far more exciting, risky, and unusual movies of quality than we've gotten used to. It was a year of big swings by filmmakers, actors, and studios—most of which paid off, and familiar "comfort fair" from old favorites tha