Robert here peeking my head in to say that my series Distant Relatives, where we compare one contemporary film to one classic film and explore the many, sometimes surprising ways they're related will be returning for its second season this month. Check out the first season here. As for the upcoming season, we'll have fun tackling all sorts of cinematic conventions and themes including myths of the Old West (especially when it comes down to who shot who), relationship breakdowns with child and without (and sometimes because of), and how extra-marital longing can be a little sweet and a little sad, whether on a train platform or in a recording studio.
Charlie and Buster live on in modern times, generally speaking.
We'll walkabout with Gus Van Sant, visit Sam Rockwell and his replicants and compare cinema's greatest fantasy epic to its greatest epic based in real-life. But there's more! We'll reopen the old Chaplin/Keaton debate as it fits neatly into the Pixar/Dreamworks rivalry. We'll revisit the same great classic three times and see its influence in three very different modern films. No need for secrets here: that classic will be The Bicycle Thief and if by featuring it three times in a row I can convince just one of you who hasn't seen it to do so, I'll be satisfied with my accomplishments in this world. And we're going to start it all off with a special request from Nathaniel himself.
Speaking of requests, I'd like to honor as many as I can this season. So if you've got an old movie, a new movie, and a thread between them that you find fascinating and/or unexpected, please share it with me in the comments. I'd love to know where you find distant relatives in cinema's long-stretching family tree.