This week, Sam sits down with renowned writer, director, and former film critic, Peter Bogdanovich. They discuss the fragmentation of the old Hollywood studio system (06:17), Peter’s pivot from journalism to filmmaking (09:35), his tumultuous experience making The Last Picture Show (17:44), the origin of the title Paper Moon (26:15), navigating success and public envy (29:35), how he endured the tragedy of Dorothy Stratten (37:45), rediscovering his filmmaking roots in the ’80s (44:05), his ongoing relationship with Orson Welles (49:12), becoming “Pop” to Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach (54:13), reflecting on lessons from the greats (01:01:35) and, finally, what he still wants to do at 80 (01:03:22).
Show-notes
- Paper Moon, What’s Up Doc, and more of Peter Bogdanovich’s unequivocal films are available to stream on Prime Video.
- Throughout the years, Bogdanovich has published many books, mostly Film-related, all available here.
- Read this recent article in BFI for an additional take on Bogdanovich’s work.
Illustrations by Krishna Shenoi. Music by Dylan Peck. This episode of Talk Easy was taped at York Recording in Los Angeles, California. Special thanks to our engineer Tim Moore.
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