Shows
ACFmovie podcastACF Critic Series #62 Harold & MaudeACF Critic Series #62 Harold & Maude by Titus Techera2025-06-231h 28
Razib Khan's Unsupervised LearningTitus Techera: Post-Modern Conservative in a post-national EuropeOn this episode of Unsupervised Learning, Razib talks to Titus Techera, a Romanian living in Budapest, but commenting extensively on American and European culture. He is the Executive Director of the American Cinema Foundation, International Coordinator of the National Conservatism Conference and is a primary contributor to the Substack PostModernConservative. Techera also hosts a podcast for the American Cinema Foundation. Razib first talks to Techera about the 2024 Romanian presidential election that was overturned by the courts over accusations of Russian interference. Techera explains the social and cultural context of the candidate initially declared victorious against a backdrop of Roma...2025-03-041h 26
The Aaron Renn ShowMedia Evolution and American Character | Titus TecheraIn this wide-ranging conversation, writer and editor Titus Techera explores how media has evolved from America's founding to today's social media landscape. We discuss how different forms of media - from Revolutionary War pamphlets to modern podcasts - have shaped American democracy and character.Techera breaks down how technological changes have repeatedly disrupted elite institutional control, and why legacy media's attempts to maintain power in the digital age keep backfiring. We explore the roles of figures like Joe Rogan, Christopher Rufo, and Elon Musk in transforming modern media dynamics.The Third Wave of Journalism: https...2025-02-1753 min
Razib Khan's Unsupervised LearningTitus Techera: Post-Modern Conservative in a post-national EuropeThis is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.razibkhan.comOn this episode of Unsupervised Learning, Razib talks to Titus Techera, a Romanian living in Budapest, but commenting extensively on American and European culture. He is the Executive Director of the American Cinema Foundation, International Coordinator of the National Conservatism Conference and is a primary contributor to the Substack PostModernConservative. Techera also hosts a podcast for the American Cinema Foundation.Razib first talks to Techera about the 2024 Romanian presidential election that was overturned by the courts over accusations of...2025-02-1530 min
The Carousel Podcast141. Titus TecheraTalking with fascinating poster Titus Techera about his article “The Third Wave of Journalism,” in which he argues that the era of heroic objective journalism was no more than a fleeting manifestation of Boomer naivety, and that the internet has heralded a return to the natural state of pamphleteering.“The three waves of journalism—the successive attempts to connect political technologies, that is, institutions, to the people, corresponding to the major communications technologies, print, radio/TV, and the Internet—have dealt with this in somewhat different ways. Originally, American pamphleteering was vicious, pompous, and nakedly corrupt—but it was also...2024-10-111h 26
ACFmovie podcastACF Critic Series #54 No Country For Old MenTitus Techera & Lafayette Lee discuss No Country For Old Men, the Coen Bros. movie & the Cormac McCarthy novel it's based on. We talk about manliness & war, confrontations with evil, & the transformations of America, North & South in their influence on the West, the 60s, & our world now...2023-07-071h 11
The Moral ImaginationEp. 51 Titus Techera: Dune and Bladerunner Science Fiction, Dystopia and Humanity in American LifeIn this episode I speak with Titus Techera about Dune, Bladerunner, science fiction, dystopian film, technocratic view of humanity, and the formative power of science fiction on the imagination. We discuss contemporary technological society, social breakdown, loneliness, men and women and decline in marriage, technology and trans-humanism/ transgenderism, and the predictive power of dystopian film. We talk about what it means to be human and the relationship between digital technology and humanity. Titus argues that much of sport, military, modern manliness and excellence has been reduced to science and creatures of technology. He argues that one of...2023-02-012h 01The Moral ImaginationEp. 51 Titus Techera: Dune and Bladerunner Science Fiction, Dystopia and Humanity in American LifeIn this episode I speak with Titus Techera about Dune, Bladerunner, science fiction, dystopian film, technocratic view of humanity, and the formative power of science fiction on the imagination. We discuss contemporary technological society, social breakdown, loneliness, men and women and decline in marriage, technology and trans-humanism/ transgenderism, and the predictive power of dystopian film. We talk about what it means to be human and the relationship between digital technology and humanity. Titus argues that much of sport, military, modern manliness and excellence has been reduced to science and creatures of technology. He argues that one of...2023-02-012h 01
Hillsdale College Podcast Network SuperfeedDavid Azerrad, Titus Techera, Ken Calvert, & David RandallTOPICS: "Cancel culture" on a college campus, themes in film noir, the rise and fall of Greek democracy, & civics taught in K-12 schoolsHost Scot Bertram talks with David Azerrad, Assistant Professor and Research Fellow at Hillsdale College’s Van Andel Graduate School of Government in Washington, D.C., about his recent lecture at Saint Vincent College and the reaction from students and school officials. Titus Techera, Executive Director of the American Cinema Foundation, takes us into the world of film noir and the movie LAURA. Ken Calvert, Professor of Ancient History at Hillsdale, tells us about the ri...2022-05-1353 minThe Radio Free Hillsdale HourDavid Azerrad, Titus Techera, Ken Calvert, & David RandallTOPICS: "Cancel culture" on a college campus, themes in film noir, the rise and fall of Greek democracy, & civics taught in K-12 schoolsHost Scot Bertram talks with David Azerrad, Assistant Professor and Research Fellow at Hillsdale College’s Van Andel Graduate School of Government in Washington, D.C., about his recent lecture at Saint Vincent College and the reaction from students and school officials. Titus Techera, Executive Director of the American Cinema Foundation, takes us into the world of film noir and the movie LAURA. Ken Calvert, Professor of Ancient History at Hillsdale, tells us about the ri...2022-05-1353 min
In The Trenches PodcastAfter Hours Special: End of the Year Movie Review w/Eric McDonough & Titus TecheraIn this speical episode, Seth decides to close out the year 2021 with a few of his friends that are very insightful when it comes to movies. Seth, Eric and Titus talk about the Hollywood's relationship to China, the movies they saw this year, and about John Ford, who is the greatest film director in America.
Enjoy!
P.S- If you want to follow Eric and Titus, here are their twitter handles:
@confilmbuff
@titusfilm
2021-12-311h 21In The Trenches PodcastAfter Hours Special: The good, the bad and the ugly w/Titus Techera and Eric McDonoughIn this episode, Seth sits down and has a conversation with Eric McDonough, also known as @confilmbuff, and Titus Techera, the Executive Director of America Cinema Foundation, about their movie viewing habits during the lockdown, the movie industry, and countercultural movies like Metropolitian, Justice League, and Greyhound.
Enjoy.
For those that would like to watch some of the movies that both of the guests recommend, here is a link to their respective trailers:
Wrath of Man
Tenet
Zack Snyder's Justice League
Metropolitan
Greyhound
A Hidden Life
Those Who Wish Me Dead
2021-05-2144 min
The Moral ImaginationEp. 31: Titus Techera and Flagg Taylor: Communism and Film: Deceit, Privacy, Art, and the Effects of Tyranny on the SoulIn this episode, I speak with Titus Techera and Flagg Taylor about several films that address communism and the effects of tyranny and deceit on the human soul. We discuss themes of courage, freedom, privacy, shame, the purpose and role of art, and how we can become comprised over time by assenting to falsehood. We discuss how these films portray the challenges for regular people and how the experience of living under communism has lessons for us today. We also discuss the question of art and its relation to beauty, truth, and morality. Films we discuss include...2021-03-302h 14The Moral ImaginationEp. 31: Titus Techera and Flagg Taylor: Communism and Film: Deceit, Privacy, Art, and the Effects of Tyranny on the SoulIn this episode, I speak with Titus Techera and Flagg Taylor about several films that address communism and the effects of tyranny and deceit on the human soul. We discuss themes of courage, freedom, privacy, shame, the purpose and role of art, and how we can become comprised over time by assenting to falsehood. We discuss how these films portray the challenges for regular people and how the experience of living under communism has lessons for us today. We also discuss the question of art and its relation to beauty, truth, and morality. Films we discuss include...2021-03-302h 14
ACFmovie podcastACF Masters #10 Palm Beach StoryTitus & Zena Hitz talk Sturges' very popular solution to the money problem in a marriage--be astonishingly beautiful & not too moral. Money & images are twin themes in America, in politics as much as in the movies, since we're all trying to figure out what we want, what we're chasing after, & how to get it. We also talk about Zena's other love--Frank Capra, & a preview of coming attractions...2020-09-1046 min
ACFmovie podcastACF Masters #9 The Lady EveTitus & Zena Hitz talk about The Lady Eve, Preston Sturges's most wonderful romantic comedy, or The Pratfall of Man. Comedy may seem an unlikely candidate to fix the problems of modern woman, but Sturges suggests, this is the way to the altar.2020-09-0349 min
ACFmovie podcastACF PoMoCon #27 Carl Eric ScottTitus & Carl Eric Scott talk about Peter Lawler & PostModern Conservative, the dissident conservative blog where we began our work of cultural criticism, Carl in music criticism, me in movies, sometimes overlapping. We talk about Peter's Tocquevillian insights & manner of looking at America, about The Restless Mind, & wrap up with Carl's Rock Songbook.2020-08-311h 06
ACFmovie podcastACF Critic #40 The Press GangTitus & Armond White & Matt Zoller Seitz & Godfrey Cheshire talk about their new book of film criticism, covering the 1991-2011 period, & the 90s in cinema--the new works by the masters of the 70s, the new indie cinema, & the new possibilities of film criticism at that time, just before print collapsed & everything was reduced to content...2020-08-2532 min
ACFmovie podcastACF PoMoCon #26 Flagg TaylorTitus & Flagg Taylor talk about the late Peter Lawler--his Tocquevillian teaching & his comic manner of reaching his audience, some of his impressive or amusing observations, & our friendship at Postmodern Conservative, Peter's attempt to offer liberal arts thought to the broad audience.2020-08-121h 03
ACFmovie podcastACF PoMoCon #25 Tom HarmonTitus & Tom Harmon talk education guided by Peter Lawler's thoughts--about what's wrong with America's cognitive elites, the new ruling class, how come it's got such a powerful effect on conservative and Republican elites, too, and how we might help conservatives who opt for homeschooling and classical schools.2020-08-081h 10
ACFmovie podcastACF Founders #6 Lucas MorelTitus & Lucas Morel talk about the professor's new book on Lincoln & the Founding--the needed civic education for our times, the teaching of equal freedom & natural rights, its importance for Lincoln, the greatest American, & its relevance to our times & the tyrannical temptations undermining equal protection of the laws today.2020-08-0646 min
ACFmovie podcastACF Critic #39 Novels & CinemaTitus & Jody Bottum & Armond White discuss novels & cinema, adaptations, when & how the movies improve on literature, as well as the difficulties facing the translation of narration into performance.2020-07-311h 20
ACFmovie podcastACF PoMoCon #24 Paul SeatonTitus & Paul Seaton remember the late Peter Lawler on the anniversary of his birth. We talk about his intellectual development--his broadening interests from American politics through Tocqueville to French thinkers like Manent & del Sol, as well as through Pascal to Augustinian theology--but always in the service of understanding & helping along the great American experiment.2020-07-301h 11
ACFmovie podcastACF PoMoCon #23 Republican collapseTitus & Pete Spiliakos offer our third annual report on the catastrophic oligarchy in our two parties, with special attention to the suicide of the Republican party, which won everything in 2016 only to succumb to zombie Reaganism...2020-07-211h 42
ACFmovie podcastACF PoMoCon #22 Brian SmithTitus & Brian Smith talk about Peter Lawler's example of generosity, his teaching of relational being, & how to think about our crisis in light of Tocqueville's insight that the American mind is restless, anxious, even miserable in the midst of prosperity.2020-07-1752 min
ACFmovie podcastACF Founders #5 BurkeTitus & Gregory Collins talk about his book on Edmund Burke's political economy--manners & commerce, America & France, empire & freedom. Burke is a founder of modern political conservatism, a modernizer & a liberal, but one dedicated to preventing the madness of revolution & preserving tradition as much as possible.2020-07-1459 min
ACFmovie podcastACF PoMoCon #21 Dan MahoneyTitus & Dan Mahoney talk about Peter Lawler's reflection on the human being as person--both individual & relational, defined by wondering & wandering, not fully at home in the world, but at home with homelessness inasmuch community make being a self-conscious mortal being worthwhile.2020-07-091h 30
ACFmovie podcastACF PoMoCon #20 Mark HenrieTitus & Mark Henrie talk about Peter Lawler--his work as the ISI to teach political philosophy to young conservative academic elites, his life & his family, his heritage as a Catholic, & finally his work in appreciation of Whit Stillman.2020-07-0155 min
ACFmovie podcastACF PoMoCon #19 Yuval LevinTitus & Yuval Levin talk about Peter Lawler--their work together on the President's Council on Bioethics, Peter's understanding of modern & American dignity, & the necessity for institutions, moderation, & a realistic estimation of our abilities & the challenges we face.2020-06-2539 min
ACFmovie podcastACF Europe #11 Mr JonesTitus & Flagg Taylor talk about the new Agnieszka Holland movie about Stalin's starvation of the Ukrainians, the Holodomor, & the liberal conspiracy to conceal the truth, orchestrated by Pulitzer winner Walter Duranty (the NYT never returned the prize).2020-06-2457 min
ACFmovie podcastACF PoMoCon #18 Richard ReinschTitus & Richard Reinsch talk about our late friend Peter Lawler, their work on Orestes Brownson's American Republic, & the broader them of the complexity of American life & politics, our need to restore our relational life after a long series of excesses in the name of individualism, & the move to a new conservative majority.2020-06-1846 min
ACFmovie podcastACF PoMoCon #17 Ben Sixsmith, Defend the statuesTitus & Ben Sixsmith talk about the riots defacing national memorials in the UK, the weakness & vacillation of authorities that were eagerly harassing law-abiding citizens until the day before yesterday, but now find themselves suddenly meek & accommodating, & the disappointment of Boris Johnson as a PM. After all, Macron has been far more serious...2020-06-1538 min
ACFmovie podcastACF PoMoCon #16 Pat DeneenTitus & Pat Deneen talk about Peter Lawler, the late professor of political philosophy & public intellectual, the postmodern conservative that gave us our series name. Post-modern conservatism is an attempt to correct the excesses of modernity by retrieving our pre-modern inheritance.2020-06-131h 10
ACFmovie podcastACF Asia #9 Stray DogTitus & John Wilson & Jody Bottum talk about Stray Dog, Kurosawa's movie about the honor of the police facing Japan's catastrophic war & need for refounding. In a new world of democracy & individual rights, the police bear witness to the misery & confusion of an entire generation of young Japanese survivors whose future was stolen.2020-06-041h 10
ACFmovie podcastACF Critic #38 Dark CityTitus & Justin Lee talk about Dark City, the Alex Proyas sci-fi neo-noir cult hit--we talk tragedy & science, Plato's cave, soul & the divine spark in men, reanimated corpses & behavioral psychology...2020-05-291h 13
ACFmovie podcastACF Masters #8 Sullivan's TravelsTitus & Zena Hitz talk about Sullivan's Travels, Preston Sturges's great comedy about the place of comedy & storytelling in America, the difficulties with bleeding heart liberalism, & the importance of dignity, community, & Christianity.2020-05-221h 11
ACFmovie podcastACF Asia #8 Drunken AngelTitus & Chris Wolfe talk about Kurosawa's first story confronting Enlightenment & Japan's past--a doctor in a slum in post-war Japan tries to save a beautiful young yakuza from death by TB, only to be caught up in the intrigues of organized crime. Everything from equality for women to the place of science in the regime to the other elements of the influence of America is packed into this story.2020-05-1235 min
ACFmovie podcastACF Founders #4 An Independent EmpireTitus & Michael Kochin discuss his new book, An Independent Empire, on the American founding--empire means domination of land and people and American politicians from the beginning were decided on dominating the vast continent, in face of hostile Indian tribes and European powers.2020-05-0744 min
ACFmovie podcastACF PoMoCon #15 Chris Arnade, DignityTitus & Chris Arnade discuss front row & back row America, the new educational elite & the people they have forsaken--the way community is built around McDonald's--the difficulty of pointing out the importance of dignity & the indignity of the federal bureaucracy, the failures of liberal institutionalism & the need to help out the worst off among us.2020-04-3051 min
ACFmovie podcastACF Asia #7 The Bad Sleep WellTitus & Jody Bottum & John Wilson discuss The Bad Sleep Well, Kurosawa's harshest criticism of the corruption of modern Japan, which leads to the destruction of the noble & the weak alike. The combination of private traditionalism & public deference to superiors creates not patriarchy, but mere oligarchy.2020-04-231h 03
ACFmovie podcastACF PoMoCon #14 Scott Beauchamp, Honor & celebrityTitus & Scott Beauchamp discuss the view of America from the military--what knowledge of honor, ritual, traditions, hierarchy, & community adds to understanding what's missing in our culture, in our lives, & even in the way we think about our longings. To begin with, we've replaced honor with celebrity.2020-04-1740 min
ACFmovie podcastACF PoMoCon #13 Tanner Greer, Very Online ConservatismTitus & Tanner Greer discuss the future of conservatism, the conflicting ideas about what will replace the previous Republican consensus, & the varieties of Very Online ideologies & cults counter-attacking elite liberalism's woke theology. While older conservatives look back in shock at the 2016 elections, younger conservatives look forward in fear of the unfolding Great Awokening that started around 2014.2020-04-0752 min
ACFmovie podcastACF PoMoCon #12 Plague PoliticsTitus & Pete Spiliakos talk about politics in the age of the plague--what's so insane about supply-side economics, what it means to think politically & prudentially, what the common good requires, & how to understand our weaknesses & what we may do to deal with them.2020-04-031h 13
ACFmovie podcastACF PoMoCon #11 Oliver Traldi, Three Waves Of LiberalismTitus & Oliver Traldi talk about Progress, liberalism, the IDW, the transformation of the internet, generational politics, & also Aristotle's treatise on the soul!2020-03-141h 55
ACFmovie podcastACF Critic #37 NetworkTitus & Telly Davidson talk about Paddy Chayefsky's Network, a satire of TV's effect on America, turning everything from news to terrorism into fantasies on screen. Liberalism's Enlightenment dreams turn into madness & fear for America replaces mid-century confidence.2020-03-081h 26
ACFmovie podcastACF PoMoCon #10 Rod Dreher, The Benedict OptionTitus & Rod Dreher talk about traditional conservatism & Christianity under attack by the Pink Police State--kink not only approved, but mandated by power. We talk about his books Crunchy Cons, The Benedict Option, & the upcoming Live Not By Lies, about what we learn from Christians who survived totalitarian persecution, & what faith may do for communities in the near future.2020-02-291h 00
ACFmovie podcastACF Asia #6 High & LowTitus & Jody Bottum & John Wilson discuss Kurosawa's view of modern nihilism in his last modern movie--High & Low, or Paradise & Inferno, a movie about the class differences in post-War Japan, where envy, resentment, & a Dostoevskian crime lead to the downfall of a titan of industry.2020-02-1747 min
ACFmovie podcastACF Asia #5 ParasiteTitus & Peter Paik discuss this year's Best Picture Oscar winner, Bong Joon-ho's Parasite, a character study set among the conemporary Korean middle class, where the desire to avoid suffering & secure comfort leads to tragedy.2020-02-121h 15
ACFmovie podcastACF Middlebrow #34 Die Hard ChristmasTitus & Chris Wolfe talk about our generation's Christmas movie--Die Hard, a story of an unlikely redeemer come in the thick of winter. Seriously, we're talking about the redemption of Sgt. Al Powell, the importance of his friendship with John McClane, & the redemption of America, faced with an elitist temptation.2019-12-2146 min
ACFmovie podcastACF PoMoCon #9 Henry Olsen, Elections!Titus & Henry Olsen discuss the angry democracy of our times--very high turnout in elections, parties & politicians that cannot get a hold of their electorates, much less represent them, increasing distrust in elections that seem to not even lead to the formation of stable governments, much less sound policy, & the possible path, by way of crisis, to a new majority coalition, & tranquility.2019-12-0848 min
ACFmovie podcastACF PoMoCon #8 Scott Beauchamp, Did you kill anyone?Titus & Scott Beauchamp discuss his new book on his war experience, on becoming a man & a writer, & on what the military taught him about what's wrong with society in an age of individualism & consumership. We talk about community & honor, about the need to make sense of uncertain times & to know on what to rely, as well as the difficulties with talking seriously about our predicament in the first place, given our anxiety about what's coming next.2019-11-2652 min
ACFmovie podcastACF Pomocon #7 Oliver Traldi, Intellectual Dark WebTitus & Oliver Traldi talk about the origins of the Intellectual Dark Web--online culture & wokeness in academia clashing to produce a backlash of academics calling bullishit on Progressive pieties, tactics, & habits.
We talk about the attempt to create a new etiquette & ideology for a class that defines itself by TED talks intellectualism--& the reaction of the dark parts of the internet that resent & mock that ideology.2019-11-211h 01
ACFmovie podcastACF Critic #36 Teachout, LA ConfidentialTitus & Terry Teachout discuss L.A. Confidential, another story about the origins of Los Angeles & the modern America of glamour. We have a reversal of the noir--the femme fatale helps redeem rather than damn protagonists who were corrupt before they came to make a serious moral decision. Curtis Hanson's movie makes for a revision a heroism away from noir's tragic destiny toward American drama, where happy ends are possible, in limited ways, for some of the people who deserve them,2019-11-0751 min
ACFmovie podcastACF Europe #10 RedTitus & Steven Fairchild discuss Red, the conclusion of Kieslowski's Colors Trilogy--the movie where the disjunction between what people want out of life & what modern society is arranged for is most shocking. Kieslowski treats his theme, abandonment, through desire this time, its fickleness & the way it is aroused & disappointed by technology.2019-11-0159 min
ACFmovie podcastACF Europe #9 WhiteTitus & Steven Fairchild talk about White, the centerpiece of Kieslowski's Colors Trilogy, the story of equality--where the theme of abandonment is treated through revenge, the need to get even, inflicting suffering repaying suffering incurred, desire returning as hatred. As with love, so also with France & Poland, & the EU.2019-10-1729 min
ACFmovie podcastACF Europe #8 BlueTitus & Steven Fairchild discuss Kieslowski's Colors Trilogy--starting with Blue, the movie about liberty presented as loneliness. Juliette Binoche plays a woman who, faced with a catastrophe, tries to abandon everything so that she may be herself, only to find herself drawn to her duties to dead & living together.2019-10-1139 min
ACFmovie podcastACF #25 Eyes Wide ShutTitus & Tyler Malone talk Kubrick--the erotic thriller, the possibility that love leads to horror, the strange education eros offers in its attack on morality & the stranger politics of elite corruption.2019-10-041h 14
ACFmovie podcastACF Asia #4 Hidden FortressTitus & Jody Bottum talk about Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress, a wonderful combination of history & comedy that reveals uniquely Kurosawa's vision of justice for Japan, a remarkable story about a young girl's transformation into a princess, & the movie where Toshiro Mifune assumes his full grandeur.2019-09-281h 16
ACFmovie podcastACF Asia #3 Lady VengeanceTitus & Peter Paik & George done complete our discussion of Park Chan-wook's Vengeance trilogy--after Oldboy, Lady Vengeance. A femme fatale who is also an angel of death becomes the necessary agent of justice for a number of bereaved families; Korea is modernizing, but the future turns out to be childless; the needs of punishment face the challenge of Christian forgiveness. A number of themes come together in a double plot, about hateful vengeance & a mother's love for her daughter, at the conclusion of which citizens deal with justice & look for grace.2019-09-171h 09
ACFmovie podcastACF #24 The Black DahliaTitus & John Presnall talk about The Black Dahlia, Brian De Palma's story about the corrupt origins of Hollywood, the aristocratic habit of concealing cruelty behind splendor, & the necessary violence involved in glamour.2019-09-051h 07
ACFmovie podcastACF Critic #35 Teachout, ChinatownTitus & Terry Teachout discuss Chinatown, a story about the origins of Los Angeles & the doomed attempt to learn the ugly truth about these origins. John Huston plays the grand, corrupt aristocrat, Jack Nicholson the petty, corrupt democrat & they come to fight over the future of America.2019-08-3054 min
ACFmovie podcastACF #23 Scarface part 2Titus & John Presnall conclude their discussion of Scarface, the tragedy of freedom, desire, and chasing after dreams. We talk about the description of politics in tragedy and also reveal the logic of the plot in relation to the cycle of regimes in Plato's Republic.2019-08-1945 min
ACFmovie podcastACF #22 ScarfaceTitus & John Presnall talk Scarface--Brian De Palma's most infamous movie & the most influential, the tragedy of American freedom. Desire leads to violence--as Rene Girard says, desire is imitative, creates competition, & leads to catastrophe. Hence, both liberal tolerance, not to say optimism, & conservative insistence on property rights, not to say pessimism, reach a crisis when commerce & immigration create a catastrophe by fulfilling dreams with cocaine.2019-08-1658 min
ACFmovie podcastACF Asia #2 OldboyTitus & George Dunn & Peter Paik discuss Park Chan-wook's Oldboy, the centerpiece of his vengeance trilogy, which won him the Palme d'Or in Cannes. Korea's transformation into a prosperous democracy & one man's transformation into a superman go together to first conceal & then reveal the dark secret at the foundation of civil society: The sacred law on which politics is based is the family, which must obey public laws.2019-08-101h 00
ACFmovie podcastACF Asia #1 RashomonTitus & Molly McGrath discuss Rashomon, Akira Kurosawa's finest movie about the problem of justice. We talk through the different contradictory testimonies which deepen the crisis of justice--the conventional lies lead gradually to the full collapse of honor--but also about the relationship between humility, telling the truth, & saving a baby. Human nature emerges not only in its ugliness, but also in its beauty. Rashomon is both a story about Japan's collapse in WWII & a counsel of hope that times of decay need not lead to chaos.2019-07-3159 min
ACFmovie podcastACF PoMoCon #6 Ben Sixsmith, Twitter cultureTitus & Ben Sixsmith talk about writing & audiences in the age of social media. Digital technology has rapidly democratized communications, turning broadcasting into narrow-casting & exposing everyone to the promise of access, interaction, & even celebrity. This has fostered not a brave new world, but serious political & social conflicts we discuss. The public space has been unwittingly privatized in the keep of a handful of tech corporations now facing a lot of hatred & with no sense of what the future holds!2019-07-231h 12
ACFmovie podcastACF #21 I ConfessTitus & Eric Cook talk about Hitchcock's Catholic movie, I confess, about the conflict between justice & faith, public & private, secular law & holy men. Monty Clift plays a priest who receives confession of a murder only to gradually see himself get accused of that murder. A seeming accident turns into the theologico-political problem.2019-07-171h 02
ACFmovie podcastACF #20 Strangers on a trainTitus & Eric Cook return to the Hitchcock series with Strangers on a train--a kind of companion piece to Rope. Both movies about murders committed out of enlightened immorality, one set among education elites in New York, the other among political elites in Washington--both stories about social climbers who have to face up to the ugliness of the elites they want to join & therefore warnings about the problems post-war liberalism will face.2019-07-1052 min
In The Trenches PodcastEpisode 6: Movies with Titus TecheraIn this episode, Seth Root is flying solo. His partner in crime, J Cal Davenport, is indisposed. Have no fear though because Titus Techera who is the Executive Director of American Cinema Foundation and host of ACF Podcast, saves the day and talks with Seth about movies! Enjoy!
2019-07-0850 min
ACFmovie podcastACF Critic #34 Paul Cantor, DeadwoodTitus & Paul Cantor talk about David Milch's most famous achievement, Deadwood--the movie & the TV show both: A lawless, but orderly vision of America. An America with commerce but without religion, with freedom but without equality--what kind of community & what kind of justice is possible in such a situation?2019-07-031h 24
ACFmovie podcastACF Critic #33 Alan MooreTitus & Peter Paik discuss Alan Moore's comics, which have made for a number of movie adaptations, few of which are successes. Zack Snyder's Watchmen is good. HBO is now making a series which looks terrible. The Wachawski's V for Vendetta was rather bad, as also From Hell. We try to explain why with reference to two themes that recur in Moore's stories--radical political change & the power of suffering to make for greatness, both ideas simply to be rejected in an End-of-History version of liberal politics. We also discuss Miracleman for one of Moore's depictions of such a realized End of...2019-06-261h 19
ACFmovie podcastACF Critic #32 Citizen Kane part 2Titus & Telly Davidson, critic & author of Culture War, a book about the 90s, return to Citizen Kane to wrap the discussion of the tyrannic soul, the erotic man who wants to be loved by everyone, & the characterization through love & friendship that helps us grasp what kind of man Kane was. We also talk about politics & media, how technology changes our situation & how we try to adapt to it.2019-06-201h 18
ACFmovie podcastACF Critic #31 Citizen KaneTitus & Telly Davidson talk about Citizen Kane, the story of politics & media technologies, the transformations radio brought to public & private lives, & the arrival of the fully erotic man--the tyrant-soul who wants to be loved by everyone. We also talk about transformations since Kane: TV & the internet, & the political, social, & cultural changes they've brought.2019-06-131h 12
ACFmovie podcastACF PoMoCon #5 EducationTitus & Spotted Toad talk about education, the experience of the teacher, the crisis in public education & how to rethink it in the present circumstances. We talk about his book--13 Ways Of Going On A Field Trip--about his ten years teaching science in New York & the place of nature in our attempt to become rational.2019-06-0750 min
ACFmovie podcastACF Critic #30 Teachout, North by NorthwestTitus & Terry Teachout talk about North by Northwest, Hitchcock's perfect comedy. We move by way of thriller from the noir to what it would take for a noir hero, betrayed by a beautiful woman, nevertheless to find his way to romance in the element of comedy. Cary Grant pulls off a performance by turns comic & tragic, trying to make sense of life in modern America, & end up getting married.2019-05-3051 min
ACFmovie podcastACF Critic #29 Paul Cantor, Walking DeadTitus & Paul Cantor continue discussing his new book, Pop Culture & The Dark Side Of The American Dream: Today we talk about The Walking Dead as a post-modern Western. What's American character like in absence of institutions & technology? Can there be any meaningful freedom in the state of nature?2019-05-2542 min
ACFmovie podcastACF Critic #28 Paul Cantor, Breaking BadTitus & Paul Cantor talk about Breaking Bad--the Macbeth of Meth. We talk about the dark side of the American Dream, the new situation created by institutional failure, agonized manliness, & the desire to escape the middle class in the direction of excellence &, indeed, tyranny.2019-05-1645 min
ACFmovie podcastACF Masters #7 Ballad of Cable HogueTitus & John Marini wrap up a trilogy on Sam Peckinpah's Westerns with his most comic, least violent picture: The Ballad Of Cable Hogue. The only movie he made about a Founding also turns out to be his story about dealing with movability, mutability, & mortality in America. Progress is a killer, but human beings can remember their love of the natural, tranquil life. It's also Peckinpah's Lockean Western, where labor mixed with nature creates property & leads to a common good for a community!2019-05-0948 min
ACFmovie podcastACF Masters #6 Ride The High CountryTitus & John Marini discuss Sam Peckinpah's first Western, Ride The High Country, a story about the collapse of nobility. Joel McCrea & Randolph Scott are veteran marshals of the Old West who sign up for one last job hoping to make something for themselves & of themselves. We also talk about his great, if short-lived series The Westerner. before that.2019-04-231h 01
ACFmovie podcastACF Europe #7 Never Look AwayTitus & Carl Eric Scott & Flagg Taylor discuss Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's new movie, Never Look Away, a beautiful meditation on art & tyranny, on the changes of regime in Germany from the Nazis to Communist East Germany to the democratic West Germany, & the task of the artist in modern society.2019-04-121h 18
ACFmovie podcastACF Critic #27 Classical music isn't evilTitus & Theodore Gioia discuss how classical music, originally a source of ennobling characterization in Hollywood, turned into the specific soundtrack of evil, of mastermind villains like Hannibal Lecter--the way TV & pop music overwhelmed America's middlebrow settlement & replaced it with a demotic source of authenticity, connection to the audience, & historical relevance--& how things might change again!2019-04-1042 min
ACFmovie podcastACF Critic #26 Paul Cantor on Tim BurtonTitus & Paul Cantor celebrate our 100th episode at the ACF with a conversation about Tim Burton's first decade: Pee Wee's Big Adventure--Beetlejuice--Batman--Edward Scissorhands--Batman Returns--Ed Wood. The cinema of freaks, what it means not to be part of the majority opinion in America, & where art stands to all this!2019-04-011h 19
ACFmovie podcastACF PoMoCon #4 James Poulos, Digital vs. ElitesTitus & James Poulos, author of The Art of Being Free: How Alexis de Tocqueville Can Save Us From Ourselves & Executive Editor of American Mind, discuss the collapse of elite liberalism & the challenge we face as we transition to digital technology through the destruction of all forms of celebrity. We talk about political transformations in America & around the globe, the world after history restarts, & the possible revival of nations & peoples...2019-03-2055 min
ACFmovie podcastACF Critic Series #25 Teachout, PitfallTitus & Terry Teachout discuss Pitfall, the fine 1948 noir starring Dick Powell, Lizabeth Scott, Jane Wyatt, & Raymond Burr as the heavy! It's a story about post-war America, men dissatisfied with suburban happiness, & the dangers middle-class life is facing. You get the insurance business & people whose lives are tied up with fraud. You get two attitudes to danger, risk, & getting what you want.2019-03-1246 min
ACFmovie podcastACF Europe #6 Cold WarTitus & Flagg Taylor talk Pawlikowski again--Cold War, a beautiful tragedy by the preeminent Polish director of our times. After Ida, which won the Best Foreign Film Oscar, Cold War, which won the Palme D'or & the director prize in Cannes (& was nominated for three Oscars). After a story of devotion & divine love, a story about merely human love & shared suffering. Set in Poland, Berlin, Yugoslavia, & Paris, this is the story of a couple who go West & East across the Iron Curtain, trying to live well together.2019-03-0845 min
ACFmovie podcastACF Europe #5 IdaTitus & Flagg Taylor continue our series on Polish movies--& more broadly, movies about totalitarianism in Europe--turning to Pawel Pawlikowski, now at the top of his fame--nominated for the Oscars, a winner in Cannes, & finally making movies about his native Poland. We start with Ida, a movie about a young woman in the Poland of 1962, about to take her vows as a nun, who first has to learn about her family & their fate.2019-03-0538 min
ACFmovie podcastACF Critic #24 Paul Cantor, War Of The WorldsTitus & Paul Cantor discuss H.G. Wells's War of The Worlds, his remarkable imagination & his penchant for scientific tyranny both--then the famous Orson Welles radio show--then alien invasion movies. War of The Worlds, both the Cold War George Pal version and & the post-9/11 Spielberg, then Tim Burton's Mars Attacks & the flying saucer movies by which it was inspired.2019-03-011h 21
ACFmovie podcastACF Europe #4 KatynTitus & Flagg Taylor discuss Katyn, the great Polish director Andrzej Wajda's fourth & last Oscar-nominated film--his story about honor & prudence, about faith & suffering--about the Nazi-Soviet dismemberment of Poland, the Soviet massacres at Katyn, & the subsequent totalitarian propaganda & the Polish struggle to remember & retain their national identity. It is also his own family story, since his father was murdered at Katyn.2019-02-2651 min
ACFmovie podcastACF Critic #23 Interviewing TitusTitus & Flagg Taylor switch chairs: ACF President Flagg today interviews ACF Exec. Director Titus Techera--about the American Cinema Foundation, its past, its plans, & its projects, about his learning about movies in post-Communist Eastern Europe & coming to America, to writing, & cultural criticism, & about the future--digital cinema, education, & heroism.2019-02-1956 min
ACFmovie podcastACF Critic #22 Armond White, GodardTitus & Armond White discuss the great movies of 1968, especially the Godard pictures then first brought to America, Les Carabiniers ('63), Weekend, & La Chinoise ('67), which form a sort of trilogy of the past, present, & future of Europe--from war to revolution. (We also talk about his latest, The Image Book.) We focus on Godard's ironic documentary style & prophecies about modern society, his criticism of left-wing terrorism & right-wing consumerism--both versions of materialism. We also point to one of his signs of the alternative: Goethe.2019-02-1344 min
ACFmovie podcastACF Mod.Pod.7 Wallace Stevens, Man Carrying ThingTitus & Caitlin Peartree get to our fourth Wallace Stevens podcast--this time, we talk about the uncertainty that can get in the way of recognizing a human being & the existential implications of such an event. This is also the poem in which Stevens says he will illustrate his principle of poetry: The poem should resist the intellect almost successfully. Education & wisdom are involved in seeing that man is uncanny!2019-02-1025 min
ACFmovie podcastACF Middlebrow #33 The 13th WarriorTitus & Jody Bottum talk about Michael Crichton & his most unusual novel, Eaters Of The Dead, as well as the movie that was based on it, The 13th Warrior--directed by the great John McTiernan.2019-02-071h 09
ACFmovie podcastACF Critic #21 Sonny Bunch, WatchmenTitus & Sonny Bunch discuss Watchmen, the super-hero movie most dedicated to super-heroes, their tragic & all-American character. We also talk about Zack Snyder as auteur--a man who has managed to bring a cinematic style to blockbuster production.2019-01-3151 min
ACFmovie podcastACF Mod.Pod.6 Wallace Stevens, Of Mere BeingTitus & Caitlin Peartree continue their series of interpretations of poems by Wallace Stevens with Of Mere Being, one of the latest of his works, a brief statement on the separation between the beautiful & happiness, or the limits of human experience.2019-01-3029 min
ACFmovie podcastACF Critic #20 Teachout, Out of the pastTitus & Terry Teachout turn to Out Of The Past, Bob Mitchum's best noir, his defining role as a chump, & a great variation on the femme fatale & the corrupted noble man. This is a rare story for juxtaposing the morality of the small town & the corruption of the city, the erotic lawlessness South of the border with the disheartening unhappiness of American life, & then showing how erotic tragedy grows out of this opposition between innocence & experience. The corruption of glamour is the them, & it's all-American.2019-01-2559 min
ACFmovie podcastACF PoMoCon #3 Henry Olsen on demography & coalitionsTitus & Henry Olsen (Senior Fellow at EPPC, editor Unherd.com) continue the PostModern Conservative criticism of elite corruption & incompetence with a look at the coalitional, demographic, & electoral changes of recent decades--especially our elections since 2014. We show how far the electorate has moved from the elite & what a crisis is stirred by institutions & elites that no longer represent the majority.2019-01-2346 min
ACFmovie podcastACF #19 Blow OutTitus & John Presnall complete their trilogy on liberalism in the age of total surveillance with De Palma's Blow Out, which puts together image & sound, Antonioni's Blow-Up & Coppola's The Conversation, turning these theoretical studies of art & technology into a practical matter--where does art stand to corrupt politics in our world.2019-01-1759 min
ACFmovie podcastACF #18 The ConversationTitus & John Presnall continue their trilogy on liberalism in the age of total surveillance with Coppola's The Conversation. We go through the plot, what it means to want to hear the ugly truth, what it might mean to fear anyone learning your secrets, & how the invasion of secrecy was shamelessly advertised in American corporate capitalism. Listen to our conversation & be ready fora shock!2019-01-1155 min
ACFmovie podcastACF Middlebrow #32 Harold RamisTitus & Pete Spiliakos discuss Harold Ramis's attack on institutional authority in his 80s comedies: Caddyshack, Back To School, & Ghostbusters. Pete calls Ramis a prophet of Trump: A comic writer whose reprehensible protagonists nevertheless triumph over hypocritical & complacent elites.2019-01-0448 min
ACFmovie podcastACF Critic #12 Teachout, VertigoTitus & Terry Teachout celebrate the ACF podcast's first anniversary! The celebrated critic, playwright, musician, joins Titus to discuss Vertigo, Hitchcock's most daring artistic endeavor. We talk about actors, studios, performances, music, the character of the tragedy & the darkness in Hitchcock himself.2018-06-0749 min