Podcast: Mother's Day Special
Sunday, May 11, 2014 at 2:00PM For this very special and ultimately quite spontaneous edition of the podcast, Nathaniel calls a few of his team members to grill them about their moms & the movies. Sadly the entire team was not available -- some of them were being good kids en route to visiting their mothers so they have a good excuse -- but you get to hear from a few of us and how our moms factor into our cinephila. Expect name-droppings of Margo Martindale, Susan Sarandon, I Remember Mama, The Lord of the Rings, A Separation and much more...
You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download the conversation on iTunes.
00:01 Intro
01:00 Amir
09:00 Abstew
14:00 Anne Marie
20:30 Tim Brayton
27:00 Funny Girl Interlude & Surprise Guest
32:00 The Guest of Honor, Nathaniel's Mom!
40:00 Exit Music "Baby Mine" with Bette Midler
Nathaniel's mom & dad in 1960I can't interview each and every one of you out there listening about how your moms shaped your moviegoing but if you have any key stories, please share them in the comments. I actually teared up making this one. Keep the love a-going. And call your mama or take her to a movie today!
Further Reading To Enhance This Podcast
Anne Marie's "A Year With Kate"
Tim's Home Schooling Essay on "Mean Girls"
Amir's "Hello Cinema"
How Many Barbra Streisand's Have You Seen?
Loretta Young, Nathaniel's Mom's Favorite
Reader Comments (12)
Happy Mother's Day!
My mom's favorite movies are Steel Magnolias and Fried Green Tomatoes, and both of those can always turn my day around if I'm feeling blue. My mom is a strong Southern woman who has known her fair share of heartache, just like M'Lynn.
I definitely see a resemblance between you and your dad, Nathaniel. :)
That was amazing, Nathaniel!
You mother! The Boyfriend! All the guest bloggers!
Just awesome.
My mother loves movies but my kind of love for cinema is more a result of reading sites like this than any childhood experiences.
I actually *just* called her to ask her what's the favorite movie but I couldn't find her.
Anyway, in a movie about her life my mother should be played by Alan Cummings because no woman looks like her :p
My mom passed away a few years ago sadly. One of my fondest memories is when we went to see Amelie together not only because we both loved it but because I usually went with my dad to the movies.
My mom is weird when it comes to movies. She sees many movies, can't recall hardly anything about any of them in two weeks time, and every now and then makes a reference joke out of the blue about a random movie of yore (last one was a Ben Stiller in Meet the Parents joke that came out of nowhere! Nowhere!). She does have a strong fondness for 1980's William Hurt and would not miss any of his movies at that time. He's her favorite movie actor.
In a biopic, since she's a tiny, energetic woman, who loves to chat up people and dance, even though she's a terrible dancer, I guess Rita Moreno would be a perfect fit. And I think Rita would have great fun playing my mom, so it would be good for her, too. And they'd have a blast together if they met backstage, so the behind the scenes footage would be pure, naturally-drunk delight.
Great topic! My mom and I go to a lot of movies together, and I'm really glad we do. One of our early favorites was Dead Poets Society; last year we loved Blue Jasmine.
My mom's favorite actor is Paul Newman, and I think my introduction to the Oscars was her repeated anger at Paul losing the Oscar, year after year. Now every year when I complain about the Oscars, she reminds me of how they took so long to finally give him his due.
There was a vintage film festival that my mom wanted to go see. It was an "operetta" series. Operettas are more frou-frou than regular musicals and make regular musicals look realistic and reasonable. My mom couldn't get anyone to go with her (go figure) and she was so annoyed. She didn't want to go alone.
So she took me. I was like in Grade 4, and it was on school nights. We saw about a dozen, including The Merry Widow ( my favorite), The Chocolate Soldier, and Bittersweet which made me cry and cry. She said she knew she shouldn't have taken me to that one. Darn that Noel Coward and his potent cheap music.
What a treat of a podcast! So sweet.
I'm not joking about this, but when I heard your mom's voice at the start of the call, Nathaniel, I thought it sounded like a Meryl Streep performance! I'm sure though that she's much nicer than any character Streep has played in recent years.
Happy Mother's Day to all!
Love this! Still wondering if I should cast Julie Andrews as my mom because of her musical love, or cast Rachel Weisz because they look similar. (We don't look much alike - I was laughing at the Susan Sarandon reference because I totally have her eyes.)
Side note, but love Bette's version of "Baby Mine." I mention Beaches a lot on this site, haha.
Margo Martindale was a pretty fucked-up Mom on Justified, too.
I absolutely adore this podcast! What a great idea! Loved everyone's stories and Bette made me teary at the end.
My mom introduced me to Woody so I will be eternally grateful for that and a million other things. Her favorite actors are Paul Newman and Richard Gere. She's got pictures of both of them all over her bedroom (My dad is OK with that). She used to look like Diana Rigg so that would be an interesting choice for her biopic. I would love a mom with a British accent for a few hours!
Haha, the almost weary way your mom was like, "Well I'm not surprised" when you told her you carried a picture of Susan Sarandon in your wallet was the best thing ever, Nathaniel.
For the record, this podcast made me realize that I didn't know who my parents favourite actors were, and got me talking to my mom about movies went I back to my hometown this weekend.
My instinct was correct and she said Liz Taylor was her favourite actress (because she "liked the bad girls"), although I was surprised that Elvis was her favourite actor (because he was "a nice guy.")
She was also fond of Ann-Margret and Marilyn Monroe. Didn't have much awareness of Grace Kelly.
So thanks, TFE!