Rachel Kushner’s Adventures in Moviegoing
18 Episodes
With her latest novel, "Creation Lake," hitting shelves this September, acclaimed writer Rachel Kushner—whose "The Flamethrowers" was recently named one of the best 100 books of the twenty-first century by the New York Times—sits down with Criterion Channel curator Aliza Ma to discuss her long-standing fascination with film and the ways in which cinema has influenced her own art. Reflecting on her favorite movies made in her onetime home of San Francisco, why Michelangelo Antonioni is always with her, and why she considers Barbara Loden’s WANDA to be the greatest film ever made about the United States, Kushner offers astute cultural insight into the filmgoing experience and the alchemical relationship between the cinematic image and the printed word.
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Rachel Kushner's Adventures in Moviegoing Teaser
Episode 1
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19:31Episode 2
Rachel Kushner in Conversation
Episode 2
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06:18Episode 3
Rachel Kushner on WANDA
Episode 3
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Wanda
Episode 4
Directed by Barbara Loden • 1970 • United States
Starring Barbara Loden, Michael HigginsWith her first and only feature film—a hard-luck drama she wrote, directed, and starred in—Barbara Loden turned in a groundbreaking work of American independent cinema, bringing to life a kind of characte...
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04:47Episode 5
Rachel Kushner on THE PIG
Episode 5
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The Pig
Episode 6
Directed by Jean Eustache and Jean-Michel Barjol • 1970 • France
Jean Eustache returned to his hometown, the farming community of Pessac, to create this cinema-verité record of the ritual slaughter of a pig, codirected with Jean-Michel Barjol. The documentary captures in unflinching detail—and i...
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06:44Episode 7
Rachel Kushner on L'ENFANCE NUE
Episode 7
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1:23:09Episode 8
L’enfance nue
Episode 8
Directed by Maurice Pialat • 1968 • France
Starring Michel Terrazon, Marie-Louise Thierry, René ThierryThe singular French director Maurice Pialat puts his distinctive stamp on the lost-youth film with this devastating portrait of a damaged foster child. We watch as ten-year-old François (Miche...
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06:35Episode 9
Rachel Kushner on MR. KLEIN
Episode 9
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Mr. Klein
Episode 10
Directed by Joseph Losey • 1976 • France
Starring Alain Delon, Jeanne Moreau, Francine BergéNeglected for decades, this chilling existentialist mystery has reemerged as one of director Joseph Losey’s most virtuosic works. In perhaps the finest performance of his career, Alain Delon stars as the...
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Rachel Kushner on MOTHER KÜSTERS GOES TO HEAVEN
Episode 11
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1:57:54Episode 12
Mother Küsters Goes to Heaven
Episode 12
Directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder • 1975 • Germany
Starring Brigitte Mira, Ingrid Caven, Margit CartensenOne of director Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s most provocative (the Berlin Film Festival banned it) variations on the Sirkian melodrama takes subversive, darkly comic aim at the media, polit...
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07:06Episode 13
Rachel Kushner on SANS SOLEIL
Episode 13
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1:44:01Episode 14
Sans Soleil
Episode 14
Directed by Chris Marker • 1983 • France
Chris Marker, filmmaker, poet, novelist, photographer, editor, and now videographer and digital multimedia artist, has been challenging moviegoers, philosophers, and himself for years with his complex queries about time, memory, and the rapid advancement ...
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07:35Episode 15
Rachel Kushner on TEOREMA
Episode 15
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Teorema
Episode 16
Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini • 1968 • Italy
Starring Terence Stamp, Silvana Mangano, Massimo GirottiOne of the iconoclastic Pier Paolo Pasolini’s most radical provocations finds the auteur moving beyond the poetic, proletarian earthiness that first won him renown and notoriety with a coolly ...
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07:06Episode 17
Rachel Kushner on THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH
Episode 17
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2:19:17Episode 18
The Man Who Fell to Earth
Episode 18
Directed by Nicolas Roeg • 1976 • United States
Starring David Bowie, Rip Torn, Candy ClarkTHE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH is a daring exploration of science fiction as an art form. The story of an alien on an elaborate rescue mission provides the launching pad for Nicolas Roeg’s visual tour de fo...