For five years in the 1990s, comedian and actor Patton Oswalt lived a double life as a movie junkie, a habit he picked up at the famed Los Angeles repertory house the New Beverley and which he documents in his memoir, “Silver Screen Fiend: Learning About Life from an Addiction to Film.” In this edition of Adventures in Moviegoing, Oswalt sits down with Alicia Malone to discuss the origins of his cinemania as well as some of his all-time favorite films, including a pair of Japanese New Wave crime dramas, the landmark concert documentary GIMME SHELTER (which he calls one of the greatest horror films ever made), and Kelly Reichardt’s revelatory breakout feature OLD JOY.
Comedian and actor Patton Oswalt sits down with Alicia Malone to talk about his early love of monster movies, coming of age as a cinephile in the video-store era, and how a Billy Wilder double feature turned him into a self-professed film addict.
Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger • 1943 • United Kingdom
Starring Roger Livesey, Anton Walbrook, Deborah Kerr
Considered by many to be the finest British film ever made, THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP, by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, is a stirring masterpiece like...
Directed by Koreyoshi Kurahara • 1960 • Japan
A juvenile delinquent gets out of the pen and immediately embarks on a rampage of untethered anger, most of it directed at the girlfriend of the journalist who helped send him up. Shot through with the same kind of bebop bravado that Godard was exper...
Directed by Jacques Demy • 1964 • France
Starring Catherine Deneuve, Nino Castelnuovo
The angelically beautiful Catherine Deneuve was launched to stardom by this dazzling musical heart-tugger from Jacques Demy. She plays an umbrella-shop owner’s delicate daughter, glowing with first love for a h...
Directed by Takashi Nomura • 1967 • Japan
Starring Joe Shishido, Chitose Kobayashi
One of Japanese cinema’s supreme emulations of American noir, Takashi Nomura’s A COLT IS MY PASSPORT is a down-and-dirty but gorgeously photographed yakuza film starring Joe Shishido as a hard-boiled hit man caugh...
Directed by David Maysles, Albert Maysles, and Charlotte Zwerin • 1970 • United States
Called the greatest rock film ever made, this landmark documentary follows the Rolling Stones on their notorious 1969 U.S. tour. When three hundred thousand members of the Love Generation collided with a few d...
Directed by Peter Weir • 1975 • Australia
Starring Rachel Roberts, Vivean Gray, Helen Morse
This sensual and striking chronicle of a disappearance and its aftermath put director Peter Weir on the map and helped usher in a new era of Australian cinema. Based on an acclaimed 1967 novel by Joan Lin...
Directed by Elaine May • 1976 • United States
Elaine May crafted a gangster film like no other in the nocturnal odyssey MIKEY AND NICKY, capitalizing on the chemistry between frequent collaborators John Cassavetes and Peter Falk by casting them together as small-time mobsters whose lifelong re...
Directed by Kelly Reichardt • 2006 • United States
Starring Daniel London, Will Oldham
Two old friends reunite for a quietly revelatory overnight camping trip in this breakout feature from Kelly Reichardt, a microbudget study of character and masculinity that introduced many viewers to one of co...
