Thanks to Monica Eng and Justin Kaufmann for their kind attention to the podcast in the Axios Chicago Newsletter:
Lloyd Sachs uncovers decades-old chats with filmmakers on new podcast
Veteran Chicago arts writer Lloyd Sachs had the misfortune of covering film at the Chicago Sun-Times during the Roger Ebert era.
- Meaning that no matter how astutely Sachs wrote about cinema, he’d always work in the shadow of perhaps the most influential film critic of all time.
Why it matters: The writer’s film coverage is enjoying fresh life in the new podcast, “Sachs and the Cinema,” featuring fascinating 1980s-era interviews he conducted in Chicago hotel rooms with some of the world’s most important filmmakers.
The subjects: Directors John Carpenter (“Halloween”), Terry Gilliam (“Brazil”), Bernardo Bertolucci (“Last Tango In Paris”) and more.
- Each 30-minute episode lets you eavesdrop on thoughtful chats never meant for broadcast, with snacking, real phones ringing and coffee cups clinking in the background.
The inspiration: “When informed of the tapes and my desire to launch them out there in the share-o-verse, young people who know this stuff said I was sitting on a ‘gold mine’ — interest-wise, not money-wise — and that I should go pod,” Sachs tells Axios.
His biggest surprise: “How few dumb questions my younger self asked.”
His hope: “That listeners gain a deeper appreciation of these great artists, and the film art, through spending some quality ‘down’ time with them.”
Sachs’ favorite moments: “Hearing hallowed masters Michael Powell (‘The Red Shoes’) and Bertrand Tavernier (‘Round Midnight’) break out in giggles over a comment. … What great company they were!”
Subscribe to Sachs and the Cinema here.
And subscribe to the Axios Chicago Newsletter here.
LLOYD SACHS 