The Big Picture · Interview
June 23, 2020/ 64 min/ Sean Fennessey
Two interviews: screenwriter-director David Koepp on his Blumhouse horror You Should Have Left and 30 years of blockbusters, then You Must Remember This host Karina Longworth on Polly Platt.
28 films across 2 segments.
AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.
David Koeppon You Should Have Left and a career in Hollywood
The new Blumhouse horror, written and directed by Koepp from Daniel Kehlmann's novella, with Kevin Bacon. A marriage-horror pitch that started with Bacon; Koepp cites Rosemary's Baby as his all-time favorite for the domestic-dread setting.
The sequel he found much harder than the first; says Spielberg would agree you leave your good ideas on the field the first time.
Written alongside Robert Towne in different hotels; he and De Palma stayed 'war buddies.'
His Richard Matheson adaptation; a formative influence he speaks about often.
An apocalyptic story cranked down to one small group's point of view; he ties it to the Twilight Zone episode 'The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street' and thinks its best shot is the crane-high highway of cars all fleeing one way.
Same technique as Trigger Effect: a huge world event seen only through one small group's eyes.
He calls it underrated; the New York bike shoot had nine straight days of ER visits and left Joseph Gordon-Levitt a scar.
The film he's proudest of as a director; written with John Kamps, with a touching Ricky Gervais.
His last-great-thing pick: a patient, restrained 1950s sci-fi on Amazon, crafty on a tiny budget.
Karina Longworthon You Must Remember This and the season on Polly Platt
Polly Platt's production design for Bogdanovich, the work Longworth's season sets out to properly credit.
Platt was a huge part of making it; the season argues her producer-like role went uncredited.
Another Bogdanovich film where Platt's contribution wasn't credited.
Platt kept working with Bogdanovich after they broke up personally.
The last of the post-breakup collaborations before the creative split.
Platt wrote and produced it; Longworth reads it as a critique of Hollywood fetishizing young women, not the pedophilia fest its reputation assumes. Episode six of the season.
Platt, credited only as producer, grabbed a can of red paint and touched up the frame herself before James L. Brooks could call action; currently Longworth's favorite of Platt's films.
Platt earned an Oscar nomination ten years after she and Bogdanovich stopped working together.
Among the incredible films Platt worked on even as she never got over losing Peter as a collaborator.
Late-career Platt, cited in the episode intro alongside her Bogdanovich and Brooks work.
Longworth's favorite film of all time; the Judy Garland version, which reveals the sickness of stardom while still working as first-rate propaganda for Hollywood.
Her last-great-thing pick: Wim Wenders' five-hour cut on Criterion, which she now thinks about every day.
Also mentioned raised along the way
Koepp on other people's films Rosemary's BabyHigh NoonPoltergeistThe Social Network
In passing Sorority House Massacre 3
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV The Twilight ZoneLittle Girl LostThe Monsters Are Due on Maple StreetThe Last Tycoon
Podcasts You Must Remember ThisSlow News DayNBA DesktopThe Bill Simmons PodcastThe RewatchablesHigher Learning
Ads PeroniMasterClass
Books Yard Work
Unproduced Bride of FrankensteinBlackhawkSlaughterhouse 2