The Playlist

The obsessives' guide to contemporary cinema via film discussion, news, reviews, features, nostalgia, movie music, soundtracks, DVDs and more.

Interviews

Yes Please: Daft Punk Have Met With Brian De Palma For Some Mystery Project

By Drew Taylor
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May 14, 2013 1:44 PM
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4 Comments

News

Next week sees the release of "Random Access Memories," the jaw-dropping new album by French electro robots Daft Punk. The album is a sprawling, visionary, singularly weird affair, elegantly toggling between at least a half dozen genres and styles, with live instrumentation that simultaneously suggests music's distant past while boldly pushing it forward. It's one of those timeless, album-with-a-capital-a albums, and in the lead-up to the release, the reclusive Frenchmen, who appear in public as glittery androids, have been granting some rare interviews. In one of these interviews, the pair suggest that they might be collaborating with one of their biggest heroes – director Brian De Palma.

By Kevin Jagernauth
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December 6, 2012 6:08 PM
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0 Comments

News

If you ever thought that a trippy fantasy set against the backdrop of Fascist Spain in 1944 would make for a great night of musical theater, well today is your lucky day -- Guillermo Del Toro's beloved and critically acclaimed film "Pan's Labyrinth" is headed to the stage.

By Drew Taylor
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June 8, 2012 1:59 PM
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0 Comments

News

Singer/songwriter Paul Williams, as Stephen Kessler’s brilliant (and occasionally heartbreaking) new documentary “Paul Williams: Still Alive” teaches us, is indeed, still very much alive. The versatile entertainer has had a profound impact on popular culture, writing songs for The Carpenters (“We’ve Only Just Begun,” as the documentary points out, originated from a television jingle), Helen Reddy, and Elvis Presley. Williams made nearly constant appearances on 1970s television, not only as a performer and guest on countless talk shows but also in episodic dramas like “Hawaii Five-O” and “The Love Boat.” He wrote “Rainbow Connection” for “The Muppet Movie,” won an Oscar for “Evergreen” from the Streisand/Kristofferson “A Star Is Born,” and wrote the songs, score, and co-starred in Brian De Palma’s cult classic “Phantom of the Paradise.” We sat down with Williams and Kessler to discuss making the film, how it became a buddy movie between the two of them, the Muppets, and Williams’ involvement in the new Daft Punk record.