The Daily Show: Ears Edition - TDS Time Machine | Filmmakers

Episode Date: August 6, 2025

Celebrate summer movie season with interviews with some of the best directors in the biz. Jon Stewart talks with Martin Scorsese about his love letter to movies, Hugo. Jordan Peele sits down with Trevor Noah to talk Get Out. Greta Gerwig visits TDS to discuss Ladybird. Taika Waititi and Trevor talk about the unfortunate relevance of his film Jojo Rabbit. George Lucas is cornered by Jon to unpack his Star Wars legacy. Brady Corbet joins Jordan Klepper to discuss The Brutalist. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Book club on Monday. Gym on Tuesday. Date night on Wednesday. Out on the town on Thursday. Quiet night in on Friday. It's good to have a routine. And it's good for your eyes too. Because with regular comprehensive eye exams at Specsavers,

you'll know just how healthy they are. Visit Spexsavers.cavers.cai to book your next eye exam. Eye exams provided by independent optometrists. You're listening to Comedy Central. Please welcome Martin Scorsese. Thank you. First of all, let me tell you, thank you so much for being here tonight. Today is your birthday, for goodness.

That's right. And it's... He's trying to get you a flaw. But it's so nice to see you. I went and saw this film last night. I don't normally do that because I don't normally respect the... respect, my guests. It's a beautiful film,

not the body count that I normally like to see in one of your films. But a beautiful, just a really wonderful, lovely ode, a love letter almost to filmmaking. Yeah, that's part of it. I mean, of course, is that boy who is 12 years old, Aza Butterfield in the film, and he's living in the walls of the old Montparnasse station

in Paris. in 1931, this isolated kid gets involved with the older gentleman you saw played by Van Kingsley, who turns out to be George Meliers, who was one of the great inventors and pioneers of cinema. And actually, he did have a toy store at Montparnasse, 16 years after he had, his whole life had been destroyed after he created what we do, everything we do now in cinema from what Jim Cameron, Spilberg, Lucas, all comes from what Melendez did. And he was discovered at Montparnasse station, so it does have a happy ending. It has a wonderful ending.

Yeah, he really did. But I didn't realize it, because it's got so many fantastic and fantastical elements, but I grabbed a little Wikipedia today. It's a true story. There's this. Yeah, well, it's true. George Melieres, yes, it was true. He made over about 500 films.

Yes. When they found him at the station, 1928, a couple of Sinias had gone by, and they said he looks just like Malie. And he says, yes, I am. I don't talk about my films. I don't see them anymore. They're destroyed. He lost basically most of his financing through when the bigger companies came in.

And what happened also, Edison here also at that time, there was a lot going on with copyright and not copyright. And that sort of thing. But in any event, they said, you know, they took him in, again, the Lejean d'Neure. He was fetid everywhere around the world, really, but I think he died in 1938. Oh, wow.

And he was hoping to come to Hollywood to work on a fantasy film. in Hollywood. That's tremendous. You know, there's a story that Edison had taken one of his films, brought to America, and showed it, and it became enormously popular in America, but Edison decided not to pay, I guess, what we would call it in these days, royalties. That's right. That's right. So what happened is that he, the film, I think, was the famous one, a trip to the moon. Right. With the, when the moon gets hit in the eye with the... They were just taking the films and making dupes of them, and so that, one of the reasons why he was finished financially, ultimately.

So in some ways, Edison, also the inventor of the phonograph and all those things, invented pirating movies in China. Yes, he does. Oh, yes. It's a great idea. If you want to see a film, put a nickel in here, that's great. That's what I'm talking about. That's as it went through.

Now, when you were doing, this is a 3D movie. Is this your first 3D? So you pitched a movie to the studios who said, I've got this idea for a movie. It's a 3D movie about the inside of a clock. Yeah, that's right. But it looks great inside that clock. Boy, it looks... I was in it.

I went up to the clock and inside this. Gerd de Leon or Gerdin Nord in Paris. I went up there and I was those... That's what it is. That's what it is. It's amazing. I mean, we amplified somewhat. Right.

Based on Brian's book, Brian Selznick. Yes, yes, yes. But no, what happened was that... Five years I was going to make the picture. Things didn't turn out. Graham King gave my wife Helen the book and she read it and read this thing. It's perfect for you, et cetera.

And in the meantime... In the meantime, in the meantime, 12 years ago... We've had a little girl. We had a little girl. In the meantime, all this time, the little kid, you know, when the kids come, they're small. They put them in their hand. But they're not hamsters. No, no, but then that's the point.

That's the point. They grow. When they grow, you know, they start to walk, they start to ask you questions, start to talk to you. You're living with this, you know, a person. Yes. And then you have to answer these things. So what happens, the kid reads a book. She likes the book.

Helen loves the book. And finally, they all look at me and say, why don't you make a picture, your kid could see for once. Why not? What is the matter with you? I said, I can't. Look at the thing. I said, it's nice.

A boy, you're the boy, isolated like I was when I had asthma all the time. When I was a kid, I was always isolated. I couldn't play sports or anything like that. So I was kept in like a room, you know. I did go out a little bit. They wouldn't let me out. They just kept you in a room somewhere. In the apartment, yeah.

Then I went out. I went out. I went to school and stuff like that, but I wasn't allowed to run or laugh. What? Well, the laughter, well, the point is that you start, I start laughing and, you know, you get it right here with asthma. But you met such a great laugh.

Well, that's why now. So you sat in a room as a boy working on your laugh. Yes. You had to. Oh, where I came from you. Can I say this? Why isn't this a movie? Because this, what an incredible film that would be.

We're thinking of it, Nick Pellegi and I working on a script on it. It's true. I think it would be wonderful. Do you know how to fix clocks? Because we could. No, I didn't know any of that. I don't know how to camera works or anything like that. Has then this person that has grown in your house

seen this film? Yes, she has only seen it three times, though. Yeah, I know. I know. I said, come on now, you've got to do your obligation. You got to get in that. Exactly. Yeah, but the minute I said we were going to do the films,

all her and her friends, all her friends, they all yelled, in 3D, right? Had to be in 3D. Yeah. So now that she's seen it, does she now comprehend what you do and has? Well, she was excited when that shut her island open. Of course, she couldn't see any of that. So the kid is asking, it's like nine years old. She's asking, like, you know, Dad, that's that film is Leo's in this. Look what's happening. It's something for those. So finally, we were doing some of the shots in London on Yugo, and she was there. It was the summer.

And she was driving back in the car, and she leaned over to me and said, you know, I think this might be really interesting in this film. I think, no offense. There's no offense about Shutter Island, but I think this might be. I said, no, listen, tell me. And she had another idea, too, which was interesting, which was it. Why don't you find out what people like? And then make a film.

I said, no, I never thought of that. So you're thinking this way. So what happens is that, yes, the kids in the movie were wondering. They were wonderful. They were wonderful. Yeah. And it's a wonderful film. It really is.

It's just, you know, thank God I was wearing 3D glasses because I was crying like an idiot right there. It was a wonderful film. But Hugo, it's in the theaters on November 23rd. Happy birthday to you, sir. And thank you so much for you. Thank you. Please welcome, Jordan Peel. Thank you.

All right, that was nice. Thank you. I feel like we all miss you, man. We miss you everywhere. We miss you on Key & Peel, and then now you're behind the camera, so we just miss your face. How's your face doing?

My face is okay. I'm keeping it together. I have a five-month-year-old, so there's vomit on it sometimes. You have a five-month-old. I have a five-month-old. Like your own, five-month-old? My own. Oh, because you never know that it's like,

it could be like, I just have one. I found one on the streets, and congratulations. Give it out to the man. I'm a daddy. Wait, wait, let me ask you this. You've got a five-month-old. Yeah. Get out as a film that costs $4.5 million to make.

Yeah. And then went on to make $253 million. So you had an amazing 2017. This was, it's never going to be 2017. In difficulty or in fun, and the best, of course, was having my son, baby Beau. But the second best was hearing audiences respond to this movie that, you know, for me, for so long it was this passion project of, like, I want to make the horror film that I wish somebody would make for me.

My favorite movie that doesn't exist, and it worked. And people, you know, the conversation has been just awesome. With the Golden Globes, I'm sure you saw people online going crazy, and they were like, wait, why is Get Out being considered for best comedy? They're like, Get Out is not a comedy, Get Out's not a comedy. And then you tweeted out, Get Out is a documentary. And I'm sure some people are like, wait. They're like, wait, what, Jordan, no, we were going to drama.

What are you doing, man? You're throwing us off. Like, how do you frame the film? Well, that's the thing. It's, you know, it's not a film that can really be boiled down to a genre. It, you know, there's satirical elements. They're dramatic elements. They're horror. The movie I set out to make was a horror.

And so that's what I call it. And a social thriller is also what I call it. But I also am like, why do we have to call it anything? It's get out. It's true. And then let me ask you this. Thanksgiving is coming up. Do you think that now there's going to be, you know,

mixed couples going to each other's houses where it's just like, okay, okay, I see you. I see you looking at me? Yeah, it's. Have you made it uncomfortable, you think? I, you know, I kind of hope so. I'm like, I love, I love provoking. I love a little bit of mischief.

But, you know, this movie was about accessing things that felt right and felt true. And the part of the movie I'd never seen in a film before is in the party sequence. He's at the party, and it's the one black guy at the party with a bunch of old white people. And it's like this assembly line of people coming up to him being like, you know, I know Tiger.

I know Tiger. Or, you know, I, what's your basketball team? You know, that kind of thing. And that is, you know, that is what, you know, I think people usually associate the word racism with, you know, the typical. Of course, the clan, the torch, the madness, yeah. Jews will not replace us, style, racist.

which is right. They are racist. But I wanted to point out that, you know, a lot of people who claim that they don't have racism are still participating in this system that is oppressive. And that puts people in the sunken place. Before I let you go, where do we see you now?

What are you looking forward to directing? I mean, the world is your oyster right now. Okay, so I'm a lot of projects. I want to, first of all, with my production company, Monkey Paul Productions. I'm going to, thank you. One person, mom, thank you. I'm going to help other artists, other voices

that I haven't seen represented get to tell their stories because I think that's important. I'm gonna make another movie with Universal. I'm gonna make another thriller. And that's what I'm going to do. I'm excited. I'm going to pitch you, Get Out 2. You don't say yes or no now.

It's Get Out 2. It's a story about a black doctor who gets tricked into working for the White House. And he's like, he's in the sunken place all the time. Is he capable of performing brain surgery on himself? Yeah, that's how they, that's like the next level of the whole thing. And he's like, I'm not racist. I'm just black. It's just going to be, it's going to be an amazing movie.

I'll pitch you, bro. $250 million. Please welcome, Greta Gowig. Hi. Hi. Welcome to the show. Oh, thank you so much for having me. I'm a big fan of yours, and if they aren't,

they really should be, because that clip is just a tiny piece of the amazingness that is this film. If you were to distill it into one thing, because I feel like it's every story. What would you say the main story in Lady Bird is? Well, the main story is a kind of a love story between Lady Bird and her mother. And it's a conflict-ridden relationship

because she's 17, and her mom is like, oh, my God, am I done raising you yet? I'm going to send you out into the world. But there's, like, a lot of love there. And I find mother-daughter relationships to be really rich and exciting. And I wanted to make a whole movie about it. It was an interesting story in that it was told from a completely different perspective.

You know, so many times it feels like stories are told from the outside where people who think this is how a mother and daughter would fight. But I know all the women I spoke to who watched the movie went like, that was me. That was my mom. We fought, but we loved. But it was complex as opposed to being a caricature. Is that something you strove for when you wrote that? Is that why you wrote to yourself?

Yeah, well, I mean, I've always loved like a great mother-daughter story. like, you know, Terms of Endearment is one of my favorite movies, but I feel like there aren't enough of them. And I felt like when I had, so when I had the script, I brought it around to different producers, most of whom are men who have money to make movies. And if they had, if they, I'm just saying, it's just true. And if they had daughters, or if they'd been raised with sisters,

they were like, totally know what this is. But if they hadn't, they were like, do women fight like this? And I was like, oh, yes, no, it's. It's crazy down here. It's also interesting to watch a movie where women are on screen for the entire movie, and it's not about men.

No, I mean, yeah. I mean, there are men in the movie, wonderful men, male actors? I mean, I just have to say I have a brilliant cast, and Timothy Chalame, who's also in Call Me By Your Name, is in it, and Lucas Hedges,

and Tracy Letts and Stephen McKinley-Henderson, and it's a great cast of men, But their stories are secondary, and it was actually amazing because most of the time women have to be the secondary supporting characters for the men's story. And then these wonderful actors so sweet, they were like, oh, we just love being here for you guys. I just love the idea that they're like,

no, no, please, carry on, no, please. You're like, you do all the acting stuff. We'll just be here. No, they're wonderful in the movie. When you're directing your first film, it must come with all the pressure in the world. it must come with all the fear in the world. And you've gone from what I assume is maybe a nervousness

to now having your film be the most highly rated film ever on Rotten Tomatoes, right? I think beating the previous record, which was set by Toy Story 2. Yes, Toy Story 2, but my brother thinks that Toy Story 2 was, like, pretty perfect, and he texted me, and he was like, I don't know. He's gonna drop your tomatoes by one?

Yeah. Yeah. No, I mean, it's amazing. It's, I mean, one of my favorite things about filmmaking is what a collaborative art it is. Right. Because it's, you know, you have your entire cast, which they're so amazing, and they bring themselves to it. And then you have your crew and your design team making it with you. So even though it was a huge leap for me, it was not like I was doing it alone. I was doing it with all these people who gave so much to it. And also, I've wanted to direct forever.

You also have a lot of people who see you as, you know, an indie voice, an indie star. They go, like, you are the star of that world. Do you think you'd ever have aspirations to go into a mainstream film? Would you ever want to direct, like, a blockbuster movie, or are you against that? No, I would love to. Because I have this movie right now, no, I'm kidding. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. But you would be into that?

You have to send it to my agent. Oh, wow. No, no, no, I'm kidding! I'm kidding! I'm kidding, you guys. I accept unsolicited material. No, no, I would love to. I mean, one of the big inspirations for me this year was watching, you know, Patty Jenkins directing Wonder Woman. It was so amazing.

And I just, like, for me, you know, she made Monster, which is an incredible movie in Indy, and then she made this leap. And I'm interested in all different sized canvases. And I hope I just keep making movies. And I hope some of them are big fantasy lands and other are tiny life stories. And I just want to do it all.

I will tell you this after watching the film, I will not be shocked when I hear your name nominated for an Oscar. Thank you so much for being here. Why just survive back to school when you can thrive by creating a space that does it all for you, no matter the size. Whether you're taking over your parents' basement

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Thank you very much for having me. I am a big fan of your work. You have been making some of the funniest films that we have had the pleasure of enjoying in the cinema. Thank God. But Jojo Rabbit is truly one of the strangest films people will go and watch in an amazing way. Yeah. How do you even begin to pitch to a studio,

Hey, guys, I'm going to make a movie about a young boy who's growing up in Nazi Germany and his imaginary friend is Hitler. You say, hey, guys, and you stop there. It's a very hard film to pitch. Oh, so this is a film about a young boy in the Hitler youth. Most people are, that's enough for me. Not interested. But I actually just ended up having to write the script.

and let that do all the talking for me. Right. It is a very hard thing to pitch, because tonally, it shifts around quite a lot. There's a lot of comedy and drama and tragedy, and it is a real mix. It kind of... Yeah, it really is sharp in its satirical voice as well

because, you know, you're commenting on something that we all know happened. But what's really interesting is you're commenting on something that I think a lot of people don't talk enough about today in the world, and that is how we are conditioned from the time we are children. You see this little child who is born in nine,

Germany, and he is only taught to be a Nazi, and we like him, because we sort of understand that he had no other choice, and we see the conflict that he has with being a Nazi, and then his mother going like, no, you can be a good person. Yeah, that's right. And when children were indoctrinated into the Hitler youth, the first lesson they were taught was to rebel against your parents. Don't listen to your parents and what they try and tell you, listen to us. Hitler is now your father, listen to us, listen to your teachers.

And so for parents in those times, if you wanted to try and convince your child, don't be a Nazi. That was a very dangerous thing to do, because they would say, if your parents, if they judge us or if they criticize the party, tell us, and we'll take care of that. We'll take care of your parents. Right. And you see that in the story. And I really wish I could explain it to people.

I don't want to give anything away, but it's like it really is, it is a weird movie in that you're laughing and then you're sad and then you're angry and then there's moments where you're like, this feels like what's happening today. You know, you feel people who are radicalized and you go, why do you have this hate or why do you feel the way you do? And they're like, well, that's all I've known. Isn't that weird that in 2019,

someone still has to make a movie trying to explain to people not to be a Nazi? Wasn't it awkward for you, like looking in the mirror? I mean, like, did your family say anything? Because, I mean, you know, you... Well, my mother came just to visit set. Because a lot of people don't know this about you, but you're Jewish.

And then like, like, you have Jewish families. And that makes it okay. Well, what I'm saying, like, that makes it more awkward, I think. Is that like, oh, for sure. So like your family's just like, wait, so you're going to be Hitler? It's double the guilt going on. It's double the guilt going on. So I, no, I put the costume on for the first time.

On paper, you seem to say, this is going to be a great idea. Then you put it all on, you put that ridiculous moustache on, and you look in the mirror. And, I mean, really, the main word to describe it all is embarrassed. Oh, that's right, I was embarrassed. Right. And imagine trying to direct people. Dress like that.

You know, because you go through most of your day. You don't really remember what you look like. And I was like, I'll be directing people. Hey, that's really good. It's really good, Scarlett. So, look, why don't we just try to do another one where you go over there and you can see the... She'll go...

And I catch a little glimpse of myself in a reflection and realize, oh, my God, that's right. I'm dressed like this guy. Yes. And so instantly I said, so you don't have to do what I say. That's not an order. I'm not forcing you to do that. It's your choice.

You're a free person, you know, in 2018. Hey, you do what you want. I'm not directing. I'm suggesting. I'm not directing. I'm suggesting. You're doing it. The power suggestion.

You have a really stellar cost. I mean, the young man who we see there playing Jojo the rabbit. He's phenomenal. and, I mean, like, all these young kids in the movie are so amazing in playing the story. And then you got Scarlett Johansson, who's also phenomenal as the mom in the story. Why did you choose to center the story around the kids?

Because it's not a story told through the lens of the adults. The adults are in the story, but it is really through the lens of children. Why? Well, I've never really seen films set, you know, with the backdrop of conflict or wars, really from a child's point of view. And I really wanted to explore that world.

And I've worked with a lot of kids in my family. films. A lot of my films, you know, they deal with, you know, young, young boys with dad issues. Yeah, but so I've always worked with these kids and the boy who plays Jojo, Roman Griffin Davis. Incredibly beautiful, sensitive young guy who really carries a film and really saves me from embarrassment. I think there's nothing to be embarrassed about. It's truly one of the most original, funny, fantastic films I've watched in a very long time. Thank you so much for being on the show. Thank you for making the movie. Please welcome to the program, George Lucas.

A hundred four. Come and sit. Sit. Please, for you. We're very excited to see you. We've waited a long time in the cold weather. It's so nice to see it. Thank you for coming by.

I guess my first question is Senator Organa takes Leah to Alderon and and and Darth Sidious doesn't feel a disturbance in the force. I mean, seriously, you expect me to believe that he can raise Leah on Alderon and the Sith lords, the Sith lords, they're not going to pick up anything. I mean, Kenobi is on Tatouine. He's living right up the street. I mean, nobody's going to pick up on this. I mean, oh, God! I never thought of that I know you didn't

but I've been thinking about it for 13 years yeah but you had to have talked to me about 40 years ago before I would have included it so I was very young at the time and how crazy is it that this the love and adoration and respect that people have for these movies

also the flip side is the resentment and like do you how do you deal with the duality that you get Life is duality. Whoa. Yeah. Page 324. Done.

Are you able to retain a sense of humor? Do you feel... You have to. You have to answer your critics. Do you feel... Where is it in your mindset? It's a work of fiction. It's a metaphor.

It's not real. And therefore, you can either like it or not like it. Whatever. It's not like... But, George, I've built my life around it. So to suggest that, obviously, means I have to go down into my panic room and make some changes. It's whatever you'd like it to be. You know, we had a piece earlier about nostalgia and about the way,

is some of it that people view things from their childhood with this glowing lens that... That was a great piece, absolutely great piece. And it's absolutely true. We have now three generations of Star Wars fans. The first generation saw episode four and the next two. And then when the next three came out, they hated it. They could not stand it. And that's when we first discovered that there was a whole new group of kids out there that loved it.

And they didn't like the first three. You know, they said episode four, it's boring. We don't want to see that. You know, they love Jar Jar Jar Binks. My son, and you met myself, my son's favorite movie is the Phantom Menace. And I'd explain to him, no, it's not. Your favorite movie is a new hope. And Empire St. Specter, and now we have a show on Cartoon Network, Clone Wars,

and there's a group of kids that are very young, and some teenagers and some older people, who can't get enough of Star Wars, who, that's their favorite show. And some of the kids have never seen any of the films. That's all they know is the Clone Wars. Right. Where's your mindset on it? Do you still have, like if I'm you, I'm up at the ranch, I'm in the R2 costume, naked,

at around three in the morning going, boop-be-poop-be-poop-poop-poop-poo-poo-po. You could do that. I'm not that short. I've put on my rubber Jar Jar-Jank's hat. You can fix my height and post, can't you? I can't fix mine. I assume your magic. working on mine for years, and if I can't fix mine, I can't fix yours either.

Do you feel, do you still have the imagination, the worlds that you've created, both in Indiana Jones and in Star Wars, are so vivid. And there's such attention to detail, and the joke earlier about the different questions and all that that occurs. Does that feel like a different guy created that? Is that you, does your mind still work in that fashion? Are you still thinking in terms of stories like that? What's your process been like now?

Yeah, I mean, it's, it's, I mean, I love doing Star Wars. At the beginning, I thought it was going to be one little movie, move on. It's not at all what I expected my life to be. So you're disappointed, I guess, in the way things are turned out. I expected to turn into something great. But, you know, you take what you get. That's got to be the title of your autobiography. George Lucas.

What are you going to do? But, you know, I'm having fun now doing television. It's a lot more goofy and fun, and, you know, you know what that's like. And I am working on a, producing a feature on African-American fighter pilots during World War II called Red Tales, about Tuskegee Airmen. So you're doing all kinds of things. And if people read this book, cover-to-cover, they will know how to make a blockbuster film that will spin off, I'm assuming, some sequels and some. You obviously haven't read it because there's nothing in it. No, it is.

It's the only way I could get on your show. No, that's not true. It's to create a doorstop. Because I know you love doorstop. I know that you're always talking about them. I knew if I presented you with a doorstop, I could get on the show. Can I tell you what I like about this? It's the crazy details.

Like you have all these charts in here about different films. Like the idea that Superman shot more footage than Gone with the Wind. I had no idea. Like, it's filled with those kinds of juxtapositions in facts that for someone like me, I find very interesting, but then again, I've memorized your films. Anybody who loves movies will love this book, because it's not the sort of ivory tower opinion of somebody about what's a good movie, what's a bad movie, and the art, and the whole thing.

And it's not a history, which I love the histories, you know, Kevin Brownlow, you know, very detailed history of film and stuff. This is like a history of the business and the technology and the art And how they all intersect with each other. It reminds me of those great James sports books, the ones that are just filled with great statistics and facts from all throughout baseball that you always love to look up and do all that stuff. And I love these kind of books. I did one before called Cause of Death, which didn't go very far. Couldn't even get me on the show.

Well, we like to go a little more cheerful. This is the same kind of reading, which is if you're fascinated by this sort of thing, you would really enjoy it. Well, it's a pleasure to have you on the show. Thank you. And you come back again without having to write such a big book, please. because I'm delighted to have you on, and it's great to see it. Please welcome Brady Corby. Brady, I loved it. I loved it. I loved the Brutalus. I loved the Brutalist. I

I really did. I thought it's, what a beautiful piece of art. Thank you so much. I'm very grateful for that. Thank you. Here's the thing that also I love, when I start talking to people about the brutalist, moreover than not, people come up to me like, did you know, Laslo Toth, the main character, is not a real person? Like, there seems to be a confusion. A lot of people think that it's based on a real brutalist architect. And I can't tell whether that's a compliment for the world building that you do or just a commentary on American an ignorance. It's probably a little bit of both. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, the character is an amalgamation

of a lot of, you know, real historical figures like Marcel Breuer, Mies van dero, Lachlmah, Molle Molle Molle Noidg, and many others. So it should, you know, evoke a real person. I think that's a positive thing. Yeah, yeah. When you started creating this story, what was the nugget? What was the thing that got you interested? Um, you know, um, in all seriousness, uh, during, uh, Trump's first term, um, before we had a, uh, a brief, uh, intermzzo. Yeah, you're, uh, you're talking about a billion years ago, way back that. Yeah. There,

he had a mandate, uh, that was, there's called, you know, uh, make federalists buildings beautiful again. Um, um, he's creative. Yeah. Uh, and, you know, it's interesting, that 75 years on, you know, on, you know, since the term brutalism was coined, it's still so divisive. And it's interesting because for me, I really feel that post-war psychology and post-war architecture are intrinsically linked. And, you know, this film is, that's what it's mostly concerned with. Now, there's, it's interesting, this film, there's so many wonderful performances in it.

There's a scene that really stuck with me. There's a scene when Adrian Brody gets off the train and he sees his cousin for the first time. And his cousin lets him know that his wife is still alive. And they embrace, and the whole scene is shot so close. And there's so much physicality between the two of them. They're touching each other's face the whole time. It's so intimate and real and emotion.

I'm like curious, how do you direct something? Like, was the physicality and the closeness intentional in your direction there? How are you working with actors and something like that? Yeah, I mean, listen, I mean, it's two brilliant performers in that scene, Alessandro DiVola and Adrian Brody. And the screenplays are very, you know, precise,

mostly because they have to be. The film was shot in 33 days, and because the film was 170 pages long, it wasn't, you know, that much time. And so, you know, we don't storyboard mostly because I don't want to adhere too closely to a cartoon. But I want to show up to a space, respond to it, see what, you know, the light is doing, what the performers are doing. And, you know, I just told him I think it would be extremely moving if the two of you are very, very physical and very intimate together. Because, you know, when you see your uncle or your father, you know, the patriot.

or when they cry, it's like devastating. You just feel shattered by it because you see it so infrequently. So I just thought to see these two, you know, men approaching middle age sort of being that, you know, letting their guard down, especially in the late 1940s, because they just can't help themselves because they've missed each other so much.

I thought it was quite, quite beautiful. I truly love this film. I hope you have nothing but success at the Academy Awards. We had Francis Ford Coppola on this show, and he talked about his most recent film, And he really wanted to eventize film. He's like so many people are watching this at home now and going to see it in the theater,

experience an intermission with people at the theater, hearing people talk about it as they're getting popcorn, using the restroom. It's changing. It feels different than watching at home. It feels different than watching just a regular hour-and-a-half Marvel film. Do you think there might be some trend towards things that are a little bit longer,

that intermissions might be something that I want... I mean, listen, it wasn't that long ago, you know, in the 1970s, movies like Midnight Cowboy were commercially viable, and I really hope that we get back to that. Our industry changed for a lot of reasons, partially because of streaming, partially because of COVID,

partially because of the strikes, you know, and I understand why companies are more risk-averse than ever. However, if you look at the crop of nominees this year, you know, there are really radical, strange films. There's strange propositions. which I think should signal for everyone that audiences do want daring, original, provocative films. And I, you know, I think it's very...

I'm glad you agree. I really, you know, I respect audiences, and I believe that audiences, you know, are really, really clever, and they're more clever than ever, because there's so much information, out there about how movies are made, and there's an awareness of the post-production process and visual effects, et cetera. So, you know, they're really savvy, and I think it's important that we treat them with respect.

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