Episode 12 of the White City Cinema Radio Hour is now online. The episode begins with me talking to the fine film critic — and my Cine-File comrade — Kian S. Bergstrom about the career of French New Wave giant Jacques Rivette (with a brief detour into discussing the work of Paul Verhoeven; if you ever wanted to hear my defend Showgirls, here’s your chance!). In the second half of the episode, Kian and I call director John Hancock and talk to him about his cult classic horror film Let’s Scare Jessica to Death, which, incidentally, I will be hosting a screening of at Transistor Chicago on Saturday, May 28. Listen to the episode on buzzsprout here or via iTunes here.
More recently, on Sunday, May 1 at 2pm, I will be giving a talk at the Wilmette Public Library as part of the “One Book Everybody Reads” program, which is devoted this year to Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Russo. My talk is titled “Turning Novels Into Films” and here is the synopsis I wrote for the library’s “Off the Shelf” newsletter:
Local film studies professor and author Michael Glover Smith discusses the challenges of adapting literature for the big screen. The presentation will feature films from Hollywood’s golden age through the present day, including clips from such acclaimed films as Nobody’s Fool, The Grapes of Wrath, and Wise Blood, focusing on how the art of adaptation has evolved through the decades.
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