So the Oscars are coming up. I’ve written a long series of essays on American artists & the uses & misuses of mid- & late-century nostalgia at the Oscars for my friends at the Acton Institute. Well, here’s also the most wonderful Oscar movie, an Italian movie, a Sorrentino movie. I reviewed it for Law&Liberty, but I liked it enough to talk to an Italian friend about it at some length, so here’s the podcast! Readers of pomocon know my friend Sebastian from my long & amusing Italian interviews last year (parts one & two). Now, you get to listen to him, too!
P.S. I made one important mistake—we were taken away by our admiration for photographer Luca Bigazzi, I forgot to say that this newest movie was shot by a Neapolitan lady, Daria D'Antonio. She’s really good at her job!
Also, the quote Sebastian likes so much about building cathedrals—that’s Heinrich Heine, Über die Französische Bühne, #9:
Teurer Alphonse, die Menschen in jener alten Zeit hatten Überzeugungen, wir Neueren haben nur Meinungen, & es gehört etwas mehr als eine bloße Meinung dazu, um so einen gotischen Dom aufzurichten.
Based on your friend's wise comments around 38, I'd say he'd like Turturro's 90s indie film Mac.
His directorial debut!