April 9, 2024 • 33 mins
July 3rd, 1985 - a day that a little time travel movie produced by Steven Spielberg and directed by Robert Zemeckis called Back to the Future was released to the public. This podcast will dive into the world of BTTF, and discuss the movies, characters, and behind-the-scenes details on one of the greatest trilogies of all time. So buckle in, make sure your flux capacitor is fluxing, and enjoy the 88 mile per hour adventure of the Back to the Future trilogy. Order the "Back from the Future" paperback with expanded material!
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Back to the Future: The Podcast is produced and presented by Brad Gilmore, and is not affiliated with the Back to the Future franchise. This show is meant for entertainment and documentary purposes only, and does not intend to infringe on any copyrights of Universal Pictures, Back to the Future, or any of its characters, clips or music. Brad Gilmore expresses views and statements which represent that of the hosts and the guests of the program alone. The statements made on this program are in no way intended to represent views of any other organization affiliated with the hosts or guests and in no way represent the views of the sponsors.
Amazon- https://bit.ly/BackFromTheFutureBook
Bookshop- https://bit.ly/BackFromTheFuturebook
Barnes and Noble- https://bit.ly/BackFromtheFutureBook
Mango- https://bit.ly/BackfromTheFutureBook
Chapters indigo- https://bit.ly/BackFromThefutureBook
Back to the Future: The Podcast is produced and presented by Brad Gilmore, and is not affiliated with the Back to the Future franchise. This show is meant for entertainment and documentary purposes only, and does not intend to infringe on any copyrights of Universal Pictures, Back to the Future, or any of its characters, clips or music. Brad Gilmore expresses views and statements which represent that of the hosts and the guests of the program alone. The statements made on this program are in no way intended to represent views of any other organization affiliated with the hosts or guests and in no way represent the views of the sponsors.
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(00:00):
Hey guys, Brad Gilmour here.Want to give a big shout out to
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(00:29):
around the world, TV host,best selling author and radio personality, Brad
Gilmour brings you a collection of conversationswith stars from movies. Matthew McConaughey,
Brad Gilmore, Mark Wohlberg, Hey, how are you the legendary mister Christopher
Lloyd Christopher? How are we doing? I'm doing good? Great introduction television.
(00:51):
Jimmy Fallon joins us this morning.Jimmy, how you doing, my
friend? Good morning? Thank youso much Brad for having me. I
appreciate this. Bud Kelly Ripper,thank you for having me. Jay Leno
joins us, Jay, how youdoing? Chris Tucker is in the Bill
and Chris Tucker. Good morning toyou, Hey, good morning to you.
How are you, Gabriel Fluffy Iglesias, Good morning music, Lola men
(01:12):
Bro, thank you, thank youfor having me. The legendary front man
of ac DC. Brian Johnson joinsus right now, Brian, how you
doing. Good morning, Brad FunnyGrammy Award winner Maya joins us. Are
you and more and more? Thisis the collection. Now your hosts the
(01:34):
boat Brad Gilmore and I am soexcited to be able to talk to this
person right now on the show.An acclaimed documentarian, an award winning documentarian
here to talk about the new movieor the new documentary. Excuse me,
grand Horizontals. It is the oneand only Leslie Zimekis. How are you?
(01:55):
I'm great, Thanks for having me. Let's let's look. I love
docum memories of all kinds. I'mactually fascinated by the documentary process, like
from concept to you know, layingit all out, doing the research,
putting it together. But first andforemost, talk to me about why this
particular subject matter attracted you to wantto work on this film. Well,
(02:22):
for me, my documentaries have alwaysanswered a question that I was curious about,
whether it was what is the historyof burlasque from the women's point of
view, What was it like tobe in a freak show? What courage
did it take to walk into acage full of tigers? Which were my
first three documentaries, and then thisone. It's like, who really were
(02:46):
these women behind the labels? Andwere society that has always been about labeling
and dismissing certain kinds of women,in particular circus, freak stripper and courtisan,
you know. So, so Ireally wanted to take a dive.
Who really were these people, thesewomen, and where did they come from
(03:08):
and what was their life like?So to me, that's how it starts,
and it's just my curiosity and tome you as you said, there's
the theme that you have in yourdocumentaries, as you just laid out this
one. What I liked about itis I had zero idea of the subject
(03:29):
matter at all, you know,I had no information about it. And
normally I find myself when I gowatch a documentary, maybe I have a
surface level understanding of it, maybeI know a little bit about the backstory.
And of course, you know,we've heard names, as you say
at the beginning of the film,like Marie Duplessi, and we knew I've
heard the name and somewhat aware,but the depth that you go through in
(03:50):
this one, it is nice forthe first time person coming to this subject
matter for you to want to coverthough the breadth of this subject when you're
framing out the documentary, where doyou start? Well, always historically,
and these women in particular, itwas a particular time in France, in
(04:13):
Paris where these women were from,you know, the Second Empire, Napoleon
the Third roughly eighteen fifty two toseventy one. It was very particular time
and history where France was doing reallywell economically, you know, department stores
are coming in, the middle classis coming up, the richer getting richer,
(04:34):
and it was all about showing yourwealth, and these women really thrived
in that. And part of itwas because the men, they weren't kept
secret. If you were seen witha certain kind of woman, and there
weren't very many of the grand horizontalsbecause you had to really have a lot
(04:54):
of money to afford them. Butif you were seen with when you looked
really good, knew how much youwere paying for that, or other people
knew, you know, it wasreally a status symbol to be with these
women. Yeah, and you youliken them to the pop stars of today,
is what it says. In thedistrict completely were they absolutely were.
(05:15):
People would go to the Bland Bonner, which I'm probably slaughtering the name the
big park, and they would watchthem ride in their carriages, and then
in the paper it would be everythingthey wore they went to the offer,
they went here. I mean Matt'swho was being written about obsessively. Now
when you talk about somebody like likea Marie du Plessi, how do you
(05:35):
when doing the research, how doyou separate, you know, historical fact
from some of the myth mythology.Excuse me around someone like her, because
there is a lot out there.Right, Well, she's a good one
because there is a lot of documentationon her. I go through old newspapers
(05:56):
and there and a lot of themwere in America. They were they were
so famous they were writing them themhere. So it's just a deep dive.
And I do ninety nine point ninepercent of the research myself, so
I can keep all the names,I can keep all the threads, but
it's really just doing a deep dive. I went to Paris, I went
to one of the houses that's stillthere, of one of these women they
(06:17):
let me film, and there area couple of times and now I just
go back and I'm like, canI sit in this room? It's incredible.
So I was lucky enough to behands on to go where a lot
of these women were, and it'sjust a deep, deep dive. I've
been reading on this subject matter fora good ten to fifteen years only because
(06:39):
I was just fascinated by these women. And when was okay, so you're
reading it for ten to fifteen years, when was the point where you said,
Okay, you know what, it'stime. I'm done reading about it.
It's time to put some pin tothe paper some of some films on
the screen. Well, it's neveran idea that I would do a documentary
on them, because my other documentaryis always made sure that there was enough
(07:01):
footage. I didn't want to justhave photographs, but I thought, you
know, so many art paintings,photographs was the early days of photographs were
taken of these women, and Ithought I can do a little bit of
recreating. I found three girls inparticular, three or four god I can't
(07:23):
remember now, that looked exactly likesome of these women, and I hired
them to do some light recreation.You know, if it's a film about
sex, you have to have alittle bit of not sex, but nudity
and beautiful, you know, tomirror the artwork that they posed for.
(07:45):
So that's what really drove me once. I was like, this is how
I can tell the story. Ican tell them through the paintings. I
can tell them through the books thatthey were the subject of. And these
girls were incredible. Yeah, andyou know when you're watching the film from
the very get go, I meanthe first word you see on the screen
or you're like, okay, we'rein Oka's Okay, we're here, we're
(08:09):
going, We're going for it.So I guess again, so you have
this research and this information about it, what is like the timeline process,
do you say, Because to me, it's different from let's say a film
where you know, Okay, thisis the character, this is the arc,
these are the beats I want tohave happen. You have control of
the narrative if you're the screenwriter,but the documentarian has to tell the story
(08:31):
with fidelity, but also know howto tell the right parts of the story
and what isn't maybe necessary information.I don't know how you discern between them.
Well, this I don't know.I just took a narrow focus and
wrote the narration of course and everything. So I wanted it understood. I
wanted he had understood historically. Iwanted you to see what each woman went
(08:56):
through as much as possible, toreally have an understanding of really where they
came from and what women's lives werelike in those days. In Paris in
particular. You know, if youwere a shop girl and you were born
to a certain class, you're notleaving that class. If you're a shop
(09:18):
girl, you're making pennies or theequivalent of it. So there was really
no way to get out of that, and I wanted to show the contrast
for these girls who women who didthe best that they absolutely could and led
extravagant, amazing lives, I meanreally extravagant. Yeah, the you know,
(09:43):
the pomp and circumstance I guess withthe courtisants is kind of what you
know, surprised me because again,like when you look, we use the
terminology of the pop stars of theirday and it's not something you would think
of, but kind of in someways it is still like that to right,
I mean, especially with you know, the way that I think that
(10:03):
Instagram is blown up, and thenthen there's this the social media and the
Instagram model, the only fans accounts. It's still a thing that's kind of
around today in a different format,but still would you agree with that?
Yeah, And it's you know,it's like you know, putting on your
face and that's certain clothes and thesecertain jewels before you leave, you know,
(10:24):
your house for other people to seeand write about you. Yeah,
it is. And there was onecharacter Castiglione who who took over I think
two hundred photographs of herself, soshe was, you know, doing that
first selfie thing. Yeah, shewas on the train very early on,
a very early adopter of it.How do you think, how do you
(10:46):
I guess also, I guess howdo you decide between you know, and
ride the line between entertainment and informationin a documentary because you have to keep
so un engaged and to me nowadays, the TikTok brain is what it is,
and people you know, want tostay engaged in the in the entertainment
(11:07):
factor and the sensationalism, but alsothe documentary needs to tell the information part
of the narrative as well. Howdo you balance the two well beautiful semi
and totally nude girls. You know, usually we'll keep people's interesting, you
know, and it's I like touse more modern music. I wouldn't say
(11:30):
there's fast cuts, but there's somethat it just I think you just keep
the pace. I don't know.I just I have that brain too,
It's like, okay, time tomove on, Time to move on.
What during your research and putting thefilm together was the part that stoock out
to you the most is the mostinteresting thing that you learned on this journey.
(11:50):
I think it was really contrasting themwith married women's life of any stature.
That you could be a wealthy womanand you marry your husband who's also
wealthy. Your home's not in yourname, your wealth isn't isn't in your
name. To spend that money,you must go through your husband. You
(12:13):
can't divorce your husband at the time, he could divorce you, so if
it's a bad marriage, you knowyou're stuck. And really that there was
just no choices where there was thisindependence and the freedom of the cortisongs because
they weren't dependent on usually one protector. They could have as many as they
wanted. They chose the man,and that was just kind of revelatory to
(12:39):
me. You know, you think, oh, they're with this guy and
they're dependent on him, and ifhe, you know, decides to go
with another woman. But it's usuallythey were the ones deciding who they were
going to see and who they weregoing to be with, and who was
going to buy them the house.They're many houses, many chateaus, you
know, and villains as it were. Yeah, a few years years ago,
(13:00):
I had the opportunity to write abook. And when I approached and
I pitched it and they went withit, I said, oh, great,
you know, I got the greenlight to do this thing. And
then I thought, wait a minute, now I actually have to do it.
And then when I went through theprocess, it was the most arduous
thing I'd ever done, and Isaid, I never want to do that
again. And then six months laterI had another idea that I wanted to
go pitch. Is it the samewith documentary like where you're like, hey,
(13:22):
I had this idea, I'm goingto do it, and then you're
like, this is the most youknow, I mean, sometimes frustrating,
challenging process I've ever gone through.Why am I submitting myself to this.
I don't know. I think Iwrite books too. I like to go
between them, like usually have abook out and then a documentary. It
kind of balances that hard work becausethey're different, but they're similar. But
(13:50):
I just wait until a subject absolutelyjust takes over and I'm just obsessed by
it and want to explore it moreand then to show it to people,
part like childbirth. What are thebiggest differences? That's interesting, What are
the big differences between you know,maybe outlining a book and writing one versus
(14:11):
a documentary. Well, how they'resimilar to me? I think of my
films as chapters. It's like here'sthis chapter, this chapter, this chapter,
and the timelines. But obviously thedocumentary it's visual, so sometimes you
can just take a break and Idon't have to find the right word.
I can just scroll for an imageor or some footage to show that part
(14:35):
of the story. So I thinkthat's a little bit of a relief on
the brain. Sometimes you know,if you're struggling for that perfect sentence,
it's not working, but you canan image in the documentary can take over
and do so much work for you. How hard is it whenever you are
going through it, and then yousay, okay, I'm going through the
(14:56):
edits, I've put it together.It feels good. How how hard is
it for you to lock picture andfeel like it's finished? Or do you
go back and say, oh,man, I could have done this,
I should have changed that, Icould have put this matter music. I
think there's just a point you're like, I'm done, I want this out.
WHOA like I don't want to lookat one more at it. I
(15:16):
don't want to, you know,sit in front of my abb and one
more day. You know, it'slike and you want you want. You
get excited that you want people tosee your story, right, yeah,
go be free, and at somepoint you just have to live with it,
right you say, look, thisis the best it's going to get.
It's out there now. Let thepeople consume it. Absolutely now is
(15:39):
and it's great when you get youknow, it doesn't I think it wouldn't
matter as much. But it's alsonice to get a bunch of awards for
your Well. I was really surprisedthis did. I wasn't sure, you
know, the subject matter and thenudity how much that would But yeah it
did great. Yeah, It's niceto get the pad on the back right
(16:00):
and know that people responded to thestory, you know. I mean sometimes
you wonder like are people actually goingto gravitate to it or they're going to
care about it as much as Ido. And obviously people are responding.
You know, that's got to bea great feeling. Yeah, is was
documentary? Being a documentarian and writing? Was this always part of the plan?
Was this always in the field thevision documentarian? No? Writing?
(16:25):
Yes? And then I just onceI started it, I was like,
I like this art form very verymuch. You know, you can.
I was just teaching a documentary classthe other night at UCSB up here,
and I said, there is adocumentary for everybody. You can whatever subject
matter it is. It may maybeit's short, maybe it's long. You're
(16:47):
going to find people to like yourdocumentary, to want to watch your documentary.
It's more forgiving in that way thanthe commitment of a film and the
money that you've got to put intoa film. There is just you know,
people are interested by these weird,true stories. And it's kind of
(17:07):
been somewhat of a renaissance for documentarieslately with all the streaming platforms where this
film will be available. People arereally binging more on documentaries than ever before.
But and the thing is, look, I am no filmmaker, trust
me, I am not anywhere close. But I've always had that itch.
I'm like, oh, man,I would love to There's like a couple
stories that I've always wanted to,Like, man, this would be really
(17:29):
fun to put together. And Ithought maybe an audio documentary. Maybe this
may be that. But I don'teven know where to start. Where does
somebody start other than the research?Well, when it's time to put it
together, like is there a stepone, two three? Or is each
process different? I think it couldbe each process as different. But I
thought, I tell you know,my book community, and also tell my
filmmaking community, to build community soyou can go find, you know,
(17:53):
a DP. My first film.I went to my friend Sherry Hellard and
I said, she was an actingclass with me, and I want to
do this documentary and blasque, let'sget a camera and do it. So
it's finding that people are like,yeah, okay, I'll do it,
you know, and then you learnalong the way. You just you just
do it, you know. It'snot like, oh, I've got to
(18:14):
read a book. I've got todo step step step. You of course,
watch a ton of documentaries, youread a ton of books, figure
out how how you tell a storyand then start shooting it and then edit
it. Yeah, but it allcomes together in the edit, right,
That's what everyone always says it.And then how do you know? Though?
Like, because this one was Ifelt like the perfect length this documentary
(18:36):
was it. It got into themeat of the story. You were engaged,
like I said, from the veryfirst word that comes on the screen,
You're engaged the whole way through.And I didn't feel like I needed,
you know, any like anything wasleft on the table. It was
very concise, but perfectly paced.How do you find that as a director.
I think it's just a feeling againof no of really knowing story and
(18:59):
not like like oh I need tomake it a certain length, I need
to make it longer. It waslike, no, my story is told.
Do you do you seek feedback?Like? Do you do you go
and ask for feedback from people?Or do you trust your own vision?
Not a lot sometimes I if it'sa subject matter that maybe isn't familiar,
(19:22):
although I didn't on this one likemy first one. You know, I
went to my husband. I waslike, do you understand the story?
And that would be important to me. And it's also my editor. I
mean I do the first edit ofall my films and then my editor comes
in, so it's like, doyou get this? So it's like just
having that fresh eye, this makessense to you because I'm so close to
(19:44):
it, I think, you know, everybody's going to understand. But I
don't take it out far and wide, you know, because you start getting
a bunch of feedback and it's like, no, this is what I'm doing.
I'm I'm super confident about what thestory is all I want to tell
I think that is important when you'reso in the weeds on a certain subject,
though, and you know so muchabout it, to try to make
(20:07):
sure, hey, this is goingto translate. People are going to understand
the world that I'm setting up.And I guess that's something that you probably
have to really think about the waythat you're going to introduce this story.
Tell me how the opening frames ofthis one came to you? Boy?
You know it's it's I just startedlooking up all the because most people don't
know what the word cortisan is,right and they don't know a grand horizontal
(20:33):
And I thought, what are allthese words that we have used for women?
And you know, I just stayedthem all and I thought, you
know, let's take away, hopefullya little sting of some of these words,
like the first word being whore.It's like pep okay, you want
to call me her that? Lookat what my life was like. You
(20:57):
know, it's just taking back atowning it. And I think they did
own it. Oh yeah, yeah, I feel like I don't know.
I mean from my understanding of fromwatching the documentary and then actually doing a
little supplementary reading, it seemed asthough they didn't really they didn't really care
too much about any vernacular thrown theirway because they were living these these lavish
(21:22):
lifestyles, which to me, againwas so interesting. I just never knew
about this subject and just about everythingthat came along with it. I really
was fascinated and enthralled from beginning toend. And then when you screen this
the first time, like what isthat process? Like? Do you do
you get a group of close friendstogether? Do you want to Usually it's
(21:45):
like the cast and crew. Ithink that was the first who saw it
before we went to all the festivals, and that's you know, you always
that's nerve wracking. Are they goingto get it? Are they gonna like
it? So you just hope.Do you get a sense in the room
though, like like when you're screeningit for the first time, you feel
(22:06):
the energy? Yeah, I meanyou can. You can feel when something's
playing or something's poignant and it's comingacross. Now, whenever I do anything,
you know, I've been married nowgoing on two years, going on
two years. I show my wifeeverything. I say, hey, what
do you think of this? Andagain I have weird interests, whether it
(22:29):
be pro wrestling or all these weirdthings right our music, And I go,
I said, what do you thinkof this? What do you think
of this? What do you thinkof this? Because I like the feedback
from somebody who I know is goingto give it to me straight. You
mentioned in early documentaries you went toyour husband, who's an accomplished filmaker in
his own right. You are youtrepidacious at all from somebody who has a
similar background in filmmaking, because maybethey would take a different approach at it.
(22:52):
So you don't really want to hearthat advice? No, And I
don't go pre had it's afterwards.It's for it'll be for story. And
you know, there was some thingsfrom my first film that he's like,
oh, you got to take thisout and this out and this out.
I was like, no, youcan't take that out. That person is
too important. I'm not doing it. My editor is like, he said,
(23:12):
take it out. I was like, you put that back in.
I'm right, what mean? It'syour story, right, and everyone's going
to have it different import and there'scertain things that I knew about. It
was like, you can't cut outthat person right now? Do you do
you go to him for any ofthose of the technical things, not so
much story of like hey, isthere a way that I could maybe do
this more effectively or anything like that. No, a lot of that I'll
(23:36):
do to my editor. The technicalstop. It's like, you know,
we need like an interesting cut hereto get to this to that transition.
That's mostly now when you screen theseafter the cast and crew screening, do
you ever go back and then say, oh, you know what, while
I was watching, I did seethat, and maybe I want to change
this, this and that, orby the time he gets there, it's
it's pretty much fished. Yeah,by the time it's it gets there,
(24:00):
you've you know, watched it fivethousand times and made it all those changes
already. Yeah, it's like,please lock it, send it away.
Is it hard when you go tothe festivals then to have to watch it
again? No, it's kind ofbecause then you've got a bigger audience and
you're like, oh, you know, what is like people that don't know
you, what is their reaction goingto be? So that's always fun.
(24:22):
And to see it on a bigscreen in different places, that's that's great.
Do you have that like anticipation oflike, okay, wait till they
get to this part. I wantto see the reaction here? Sometimes well,
like I know, like I lovethe first word, I love the
first friend that comes up. Andwhat's been the reaction from audiences? Like
when they see that? Is theirlaughter? Is it like oh okay?
Or or what do you get inthe in the theater? I just think
(24:47):
there's like a silence and like Ican feel them kind of Okay, I'm
here because what am I going toget next? You're leaning in right?
Yeah? Now are there were there? I guess when you when you first
start the filmmaking process in general.Were there blueprints that you had, where
there films or documentaries that you lovethat you would watch and say, I
(25:07):
kind of want to do something likethis. Uh not Well, always Ken
Burns, he's my hero. Ithink he tells a beautiful, really clean,
really compelling story, and he's alwaysinterested in the truth. He's always
interested in the history. So Iwould say that. But I like to
(25:30):
watch a wide variety. You know, I'm looking at angles, I'm looking
at cuts, like how are theyyou know, what are they bringing to
it? Oh? I like this. I don't like this, so I
try and just watch, you know, when I'm working out, I'll just
put on a doc and just explore. Is there is there a subject matter
(25:55):
that you have your eye on currentlythat you're like, Okay, this is
going to be something that I reallywant to dive too soon? Yeah,
I think so. I'm about towrite a little pitch for one. I
think there's actually two. Yeah.Has there been a documentary you've seen lately
that you really stuck with you?Like? I watched one before yours.
I saw this one called the GreatestNight in the History of Pop. I
don't know if you know what thisis it's about the making of We Are
(26:18):
the World, the song We Arethe World, and it's on Netflix,
and it's really great because it's allthis footage I've never seen before, and
I'm a music buff and historian,and that really grabbed me. And I
didn't think about I didn't know themovie was or the song was made all
in one night, and this wassomething that was a new thing that kind
of grabbed me. Was there onethat's recently touched you? Not recently,
(26:38):
but in light of what's happened TheNavogna one I thought was just and I
thought when I watched it, youknow, a year ago, how compelling
it was. I really want togo back and watch it again, just
because he's so right into the cameraand that's gone now. So that's that's
interesting what they captured. Do youfeel like streaming has made documentaries a bigger
(27:03):
medium than they were previously, becauseI feel, as we talked about on
Netflix or Amazon, Hulu, iTunes, you Apple, they all have this
platform that you can reach so manypeople in their homes to where I felt
like documentaries were all, well,you know, they you'd catch them on
TV. The King Burns on PBSor what have you. But now they're
so accessible and I feel like peopleyou flock to documentaries more than they used
(27:27):
to. Yeah, it's great havingthat accessibility. I mean I hear stuff
all the time. It's like,oh, I'm gonna go watch it.
It's not like you have this liketiny window and then it's gone and you
might never see it again or ever. So yeah, I think that's really
made it accessible. And I hearpeople all the time suggesting, look at
(27:48):
this. I watched this dog.This was good. Yeah, it's great
now other than some of the stuffthat we've talked about before, for grand
horizontals, What do you want peopleto take away from this when they see
it? Oh? I just wantthem, you know, like I do
with I think everything I've done isto look behind the label, you know,
and and to see what these womenwere dealing with. And you know,
(28:15):
there's I have a line in thething. It's we don't need to
condemn that. We don't need tocondone them, but we don't need to
condemn them either. That's true,you know, you know, it's like
it's just have an understanding and opennessinstead of just you know, shutting down
what the subject is or or preconideas of what a certain life is like.
(28:40):
Now for me, at being sucha movie fan as I am,
you know, I'm always fascinated tooby what films other people go to,
So like, what are your goto rewatches like documentary, TV, show,
film, whatever, what are themovies that you like to cling to.
Well, I'm I think I'm onmy third run of The Sopranos,
(29:03):
So I mean, you just reallycan't beat it. I remember watching it
obviously a long time ago, andthen during the pandemic, I said to
my kids, you really got towatch this, and then I start back
again. It's just it was anamazing show and it still is, and
(29:27):
you know, it's still shocking,and it's still funny, and it's still
relevant, and it's just the actingsinsane. Yeah. When I watched Sopranos
when I was younger, it frightenedme more. And what i've watched.
I actually started rewatching it as well, about a month ago, and rewatching
the first season, which I thinkis man, what a great way to
(29:48):
start a show. That first seasonis so spectacular. But I find myself
finding more of the humor in itthan I did when I was younger.
It is a really funny show.It's really funny. I mean, they'd
be doing the most awful things andit's funny. And that's what you know.
I try. And I was sayingin this class, I gave them
the night. No matter what thesubject is, you got to find that
(30:11):
humor. I mean, it justbreaks things for people, you know,
it gives them a relief of like, oh my god, I'm seeing this,
this and this, oh you know, and I think they just I
mean, there's just that's that waslike once in a lifetime show and cast
and everything. So that's kind ofmy go to. I don't know,
it's so funny. People are like, oh, have you seen this news
(30:32):
show? And I'm like, well, I'm about to watch the Sopranos again.
I'm a serial rewatcher too. Irewatch stuff all the time. I
get a lot of stuff, youknow, I get out of it.
You know, I don't catch everythingthe first time. There's no way you
can There's no way you can takeAnd I'm sure I'm going to go back
and watch. I want to watchyour documentary again with my wife because I
feel like I would love to hearher perspective on it, and I feel
(30:55):
like I'm going to catch stuff againthat I didn't pick up the first time.
Because again, there's so many elementsthat can come into play when you're
watching something. And that's why Ilove the rewatch. I feel like movies
and TV shows are like songs.I just need to keep listening and keep
watching. Yeah, you get something, and I try and really pack mine
in with just so much information becauseI don't know. I just I love
(31:18):
information well, and you know,and you might as well give it all
to them while you got them.Was there something you had? Was there
something you had to leave out ofthis? Like that you're like, oh,
this is a really interesting story,but it just doesn't really make it
doesn't fit into the narrative exactly.No, No, this one was really
(31:38):
just tight. It was it wasyou got it, you nailed it.
It's here, it's here, It'sgrand horizontals leslie Zemeckis. Again, I
don't want to take up too muchof your time. I really appreciate you
doing this, and I appreciate youtelling stories and telling stories that make people
think, telling people tell stories thatmake people's perspectives maybe shift and their eyes
(32:02):
widen and their minds grow from somethingthat, like I said, I didn't
know about before and now, trustme, I'm gonna be dropping all this
knowledge and dinner conversations if people aregonna look at me like I'm educated,
and I'm gonna fool them again.Thanks to Leslie's amaking documentary, Yes you
need to go check this out onall the streamers. It is Grand Horizontals.
(32:23):
Thank you so much, Leslie's andMeccas for joining us today. Thank
you, thank you, awesome m
Hey guys, Brad Gilmour here.Want to give a big shout out to
our title sponsor, Walker Texas Lawyer. If you are a love would have
been injured in an accident, whetherthat be a car, truck, motorcycle
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dot com. Oh Broadcasting live fromHouston, Texas and around the world and
(00:29):
around the world, TV host,best selling author and radio personality, Brad
Gilmour brings you a collection of conversationswith stars from movies. Matthew McConaughey,
Brad Gilmore, Mark Wohlberg, Hey, how are you the legendary mister Christopher
Lloyd Christopher? How are we doing? I'm doing good? Great introduction television.
(00:51):
Jimmy Fallon joins us this morning.Jimmy, how you doing, my
friend? Good morning? Thank youso much Brad for having me. I
appreciate this. Bud Kelly Ripper,thank you for having me. Jay Leno
joins us, Jay, how youdoing? Chris Tucker is in the Bill
and Chris Tucker. Good morning toyou, Hey, good morning to you.
How are you, Gabriel Fluffy Iglesias, Good morning music, Lola men
(01:12):
Bro, thank you, thank youfor having me. The legendary front man
of ac DC. Brian Johnson joinsus right now, Brian, how you
doing. Good morning, Brad FunnyGrammy Award winner Maya joins us. Are
you and more and more? Thisis the collection. Now your hosts the
(01:34):
boat Brad Gilmore and I am soexcited to be able to talk to this
person right now on the show.An acclaimed documentarian, an award winning documentarian
here to talk about the new movieor the new documentary. Excuse me,
grand Horizontals. It is the oneand only Leslie Zimekis. How are you?
(01:55):
I'm great, Thanks for having me. Let's let's look. I love
docum memories of all kinds. I'mactually fascinated by the documentary process, like
from concept to you know, layingit all out, doing the research,
putting it together. But first andforemost, talk to me about why this
particular subject matter attracted you to wantto work on this film. Well,
(02:22):
for me, my documentaries have alwaysanswered a question that I was curious about,
whether it was what is the historyof burlasque from the women's point of
view, What was it like tobe in a freak show? What courage
did it take to walk into acage full of tigers? Which were my
first three documentaries, and then thisone. It's like, who really were
(02:46):
these women behind the labels? Andwere society that has always been about labeling
and dismissing certain kinds of women,in particular circus, freak stripper and courtisan,
you know. So, so Ireally wanted to take a dive.
Who really were these people, thesewomen, and where did they come from
(03:08):
and what was their life like?So to me, that's how it starts,
and it's just my curiosity and tome you as you said, there's
the theme that you have in yourdocumentaries, as you just laid out this
one. What I liked about itis I had zero idea of the subject
(03:29):
matter at all, you know,I had no information about it. And
normally I find myself when I gowatch a documentary, maybe I have a
surface level understanding of it, maybeI know a little bit about the backstory.
And of course, you know,we've heard names, as you say
at the beginning of the film,like Marie Duplessi, and we knew I've
heard the name and somewhat aware,but the depth that you go through in
(03:50):
this one, it is nice forthe first time person coming to this subject
matter for you to want to coverthough the breadth of this subject when you're
framing out the documentary, where doyou start? Well, always historically,
and these women in particular, itwas a particular time in France, in
(04:13):
Paris where these women were from,you know, the Second Empire, Napoleon
the Third roughly eighteen fifty two toseventy one. It was very particular time
and history where France was doing reallywell economically, you know, department stores
are coming in, the middle classis coming up, the richer getting richer,
(04:34):
and it was all about showing yourwealth, and these women really thrived
in that. And part of itwas because the men, they weren't kept
secret. If you were seen witha certain kind of woman, and there
weren't very many of the grand horizontalsbecause you had to really have a lot
(04:54):
of money to afford them. Butif you were seen with when you looked
really good, knew how much youwere paying for that, or other people
knew, you know, it wasreally a status symbol to be with these
women. Yeah, and you youliken them to the pop stars of today,
is what it says. In thedistrict completely were they absolutely were.
(05:15):
People would go to the Bland Bonner, which I'm probably slaughtering the name the
big park, and they would watchthem ride in their carriages, and then
in the paper it would be everythingthey wore they went to the offer,
they went here. I mean Matt'swho was being written about obsessively. Now
when you talk about somebody like likea Marie du Plessi, how do you
(05:35):
when doing the research, how doyou separate, you know, historical fact
from some of the myth mythology.Excuse me around someone like her, because
there is a lot out there.Right, Well, she's a good one
because there is a lot of documentationon her. I go through old newspapers
(05:56):
and there and a lot of themwere in America. They were they were
so famous they were writing them themhere. So it's just a deep dive.
And I do ninety nine point ninepercent of the research myself, so
I can keep all the names,I can keep all the threads, but
it's really just doing a deep dive. I went to Paris, I went
to one of the houses that's stillthere, of one of these women they
(06:17):
let me film, and there area couple of times and now I just
go back and I'm like, canI sit in this room? It's incredible.
So I was lucky enough to behands on to go where a lot
of these women were, and it'sjust a deep, deep dive. I've
been reading on this subject matter fora good ten to fifteen years only because
(06:39):
I was just fascinated by these women. And when was okay, so you're
reading it for ten to fifteen years, when was the point where you said,
Okay, you know what, it'stime. I'm done reading about it.
It's time to put some pin tothe paper some of some films on
the screen. Well, it's neveran idea that I would do a documentary
on them, because my other documentaryis always made sure that there was enough
(07:01):
footage. I didn't want to justhave photographs, but I thought, you
know, so many art paintings,photographs was the early days of photographs were
taken of these women, and Ithought I can do a little bit of
recreating. I found three girls inparticular, three or four god I can't
(07:23):
remember now, that looked exactly likesome of these women, and I hired
them to do some light recreation.You know, if it's a film about
sex, you have to have alittle bit of not sex, but nudity
and beautiful, you know, tomirror the artwork that they posed for.
(07:45):
So that's what really drove me once. I was like, this is how
I can tell the story. Ican tell them through the paintings. I
can tell them through the books thatthey were the subject of. And these
girls were incredible. Yeah, andyou know when you're watching the film from
the very get go, I meanthe first word you see on the screen
or you're like, okay, we'rein Oka's Okay, we're here, we're
(08:09):
going, We're going for it.So I guess again, so you have
this research and this information about it, what is like the timeline process,
do you say, Because to me, it's different from let's say a film
where you know, Okay, thisis the character, this is the arc,
these are the beats I want tohave happen. You have control of
the narrative if you're the screenwriter,but the documentarian has to tell the story
(08:31):
with fidelity, but also know howto tell the right parts of the story
and what isn't maybe necessary information.I don't know how you discern between them.
Well, this I don't know.I just took a narrow focus and
wrote the narration of course and everything. So I wanted it understood. I
wanted he had understood historically. Iwanted you to see what each woman went
(08:56):
through as much as possible, toreally have an understanding of really where they
came from and what women's lives werelike in those days. In Paris in
particular. You know, if youwere a shop girl and you were born
to a certain class, you're notleaving that class. If you're a shop
(09:18):
girl, you're making pennies or theequivalent of it. So there was really
no way to get out of that, and I wanted to show the contrast
for these girls who women who didthe best that they absolutely could and led
extravagant, amazing lives, I meanreally extravagant. Yeah, the you know,
(09:43):
the pomp and circumstance I guess withthe courtisants is kind of what you
know, surprised me because again,like when you look, we use the
terminology of the pop stars of theirday and it's not something you would think
of, but kind of in someways it is still like that to right,
I mean, especially with you know, the way that I think that
(10:03):
Instagram is blown up, and thenthen there's this the social media and the
Instagram model, the only fans accounts. It's still a thing that's kind of
around today in a different format,but still would you agree with that?
Yeah, And it's you know,it's like you know, putting on your
face and that's certain clothes and thesecertain jewels before you leave, you know,
(10:24):
your house for other people to seeand write about you. Yeah,
it is. And there was onecharacter Castiglione who who took over I think
two hundred photographs of herself, soshe was, you know, doing that
first selfie thing. Yeah, shewas on the train very early on,
a very early adopter of it.How do you think, how do you
(10:46):
I guess also, I guess howdo you decide between you know, and
ride the line between entertainment and informationin a documentary because you have to keep
so un engaged and to me nowadays, the TikTok brain is what it is,
and people you know, want tostay engaged in the in the entertainment
(11:07):
factor and the sensationalism, but alsothe documentary needs to tell the information part
of the narrative as well. Howdo you balance the two well beautiful semi
and totally nude girls. You know, usually we'll keep people's interesting, you
know, and it's I like touse more modern music. I wouldn't say
(11:30):
there's fast cuts, but there's somethat it just I think you just keep
the pace. I don't know.I just I have that brain too,
It's like, okay, time tomove on, Time to move on.
What during your research and putting thefilm together was the part that stoock out
to you the most is the mostinteresting thing that you learned on this journey.
(11:50):
I think it was really contrasting themwith married women's life of any stature.
That you could be a wealthy womanand you marry your husband who's also
wealthy. Your home's not in yourname, your wealth isn't isn't in your
name. To spend that money,you must go through your husband. You
(12:13):
can't divorce your husband at the time, he could divorce you, so if
it's a bad marriage, you knowyou're stuck. And really that there was
just no choices where there was thisindependence and the freedom of the cortisongs because
they weren't dependent on usually one protector. They could have as many as they
wanted. They chose the man,and that was just kind of revelatory to
(12:39):
me. You know, you think, oh, they're with this guy and
they're dependent on him, and ifhe, you know, decides to go
with another woman. But it's usuallythey were the ones deciding who they were
going to see and who they weregoing to be with, and who was
going to buy them the house.They're many houses, many chateaus, you
know, and villains as it were. Yeah, a few years years ago,
(13:00):
I had the opportunity to write abook. And when I approached and
I pitched it and they went withit, I said, oh, great,
you know, I got the greenlight to do this thing. And
then I thought, wait a minute, now I actually have to do it.
And then when I went through theprocess, it was the most arduous
thing I'd ever done, and Isaid, I never want to do that
again. And then six months laterI had another idea that I wanted to
go pitch. Is it the samewith documentary like where you're like, hey,
(13:22):
I had this idea, I'm goingto do it, and then you're
like, this is the most youknow, I mean, sometimes frustrating,
challenging process I've ever gone through.Why am I submitting myself to this.
I don't know. I think Iwrite books too. I like to go
between them, like usually have abook out and then a documentary. It
kind of balances that hard work becausethey're different, but they're similar. But
(13:50):
I just wait until a subject absolutelyjust takes over and I'm just obsessed by
it and want to explore it moreand then to show it to people,
part like childbirth. What are thebiggest differences? That's interesting, What are
the big differences between you know,maybe outlining a book and writing one versus
(14:11):
a documentary. Well, how they'resimilar to me? I think of my
films as chapters. It's like here'sthis chapter, this chapter, this chapter,
and the timelines. But obviously thedocumentary it's visual, so sometimes you
can just take a break and Idon't have to find the right word.
I can just scroll for an imageor or some footage to show that part
(14:35):
of the story. So I thinkthat's a little bit of a relief on
the brain. Sometimes you know,if you're struggling for that perfect sentence,
it's not working, but you canan image in the documentary can take over
and do so much work for you. How hard is it whenever you are
going through it, and then yousay, okay, I'm going through the
(14:56):
edits, I've put it together.It feels good. How how hard is
it for you to lock picture andfeel like it's finished? Or do you
go back and say, oh,man, I could have done this,
I should have changed that, Icould have put this matter music. I
think there's just a point you're like, I'm done, I want this out.
WHOA like I don't want to lookat one more at it. I
(15:16):
don't want to, you know,sit in front of my abb and one
more day. You know, it'slike and you want you want. You
get excited that you want people tosee your story, right, yeah,
go be free, and at somepoint you just have to live with it,
right you say, look, thisis the best it's going to get.
It's out there now. Let thepeople consume it. Absolutely now is
(15:39):
and it's great when you get youknow, it doesn't I think it wouldn't
matter as much. But it's alsonice to get a bunch of awards for
your Well. I was really surprisedthis did. I wasn't sure, you
know, the subject matter and thenudity how much that would But yeah it
did great. Yeah, It's niceto get the pad on the back right
(16:00):
and know that people responded to thestory, you know. I mean sometimes
you wonder like are people actually goingto gravitate to it or they're going to
care about it as much as Ido. And obviously people are responding.
You know, that's got to bea great feeling. Yeah, is was
documentary? Being a documentarian and writing? Was this always part of the plan?
Was this always in the field thevision documentarian? No? Writing?
(16:25):
Yes? And then I just onceI started it, I was like,
I like this art form very verymuch. You know, you can.
I was just teaching a documentary classthe other night at UCSB up here,
and I said, there is adocumentary for everybody. You can whatever subject
matter it is. It may maybeit's short, maybe it's long. You're
(16:47):
going to find people to like yourdocumentary, to want to watch your documentary.
It's more forgiving in that way thanthe commitment of a film and the
money that you've got to put intoa film. There is just you know,
people are interested by these weird,true stories. And it's kind of
(17:07):
been somewhat of a renaissance for documentarieslately with all the streaming platforms where this
film will be available. People arereally binging more on documentaries than ever before.
But and the thing is, look, I am no filmmaker, trust
me, I am not anywhere close. But I've always had that itch.
I'm like, oh, man,I would love to There's like a couple
stories that I've always wanted to,Like, man, this would be really
(17:29):
fun to put together. And Ithought maybe an audio documentary. Maybe this
may be that. But I don'teven know where to start. Where does
somebody start other than the research?Well, when it's time to put it
together, like is there a stepone, two three? Or is each
process different? I think it couldbe each process as different. But I
thought, I tell you know,my book community, and also tell my
filmmaking community, to build community soyou can go find, you know,
(17:53):
a DP. My first film.I went to my friend Sherry Hellard and
I said, she was an actingclass with me, and I want to
do this documentary and blasque, let'sget a camera and do it. So
it's finding that people are like,yeah, okay, I'll do it,
you know, and then you learnalong the way. You just you just
do it, you know. It'snot like, oh, I've got to
(18:14):
read a book. I've got todo step step step. You of course,
watch a ton of documentaries, youread a ton of books, figure
out how how you tell a storyand then start shooting it and then edit
it. Yeah, but it allcomes together in the edit, right,
That's what everyone always says it.And then how do you know? Though?
Like, because this one was Ifelt like the perfect length this documentary
(18:36):
was it. It got into themeat of the story. You were engaged,
like I said, from the veryfirst word that comes on the screen,
You're engaged the whole way through.And I didn't feel like I needed,
you know, any like anything wasleft on the table. It was
very concise, but perfectly paced.How do you find that as a director.
I think it's just a feeling againof no of really knowing story and
(18:59):
not like like oh I need tomake it a certain length, I need
to make it longer. It waslike, no, my story is told.
Do you do you seek feedback?Like? Do you do you go
and ask for feedback from people?Or do you trust your own vision?
Not a lot sometimes I if it'sa subject matter that maybe isn't familiar,
(19:22):
although I didn't on this one likemy first one. You know, I
went to my husband. I waslike, do you understand the story?
And that would be important to me. And it's also my editor. I
mean I do the first edit ofall my films and then my editor comes
in, so it's like, doyou get this? So it's like just
having that fresh eye, this makessense to you because I'm so close to
(19:44):
it, I think, you know, everybody's going to understand. But I
don't take it out far and wide, you know, because you start getting
a bunch of feedback and it's like, no, this is what I'm doing.
I'm I'm super confident about what thestory is all I want to tell
I think that is important when you'reso in the weeds on a certain subject,
though, and you know so muchabout it, to try to make
(20:07):
sure, hey, this is goingto translate. People are going to understand
the world that I'm setting up.And I guess that's something that you probably
have to really think about the waythat you're going to introduce this story.
Tell me how the opening frames ofthis one came to you? Boy?
You know it's it's I just startedlooking up all the because most people don't
know what the word cortisan is,right and they don't know a grand horizontal
(20:33):
And I thought, what are allthese words that we have used for women?
And you know, I just stayedthem all and I thought, you
know, let's take away, hopefullya little sting of some of these words,
like the first word being whore.It's like pep okay, you want
to call me her that? Lookat what my life was like. You
(20:57):
know, it's just taking back atowning it. And I think they did
own it. Oh yeah, yeah, I feel like I don't know.
I mean from my understanding of fromwatching the documentary and then actually doing a
little supplementary reading, it seemed asthough they didn't really they didn't really care
too much about any vernacular thrown theirway because they were living these these lavish
(21:22):
lifestyles, which to me, againwas so interesting. I just never knew
about this subject and just about everythingthat came along with it. I really
was fascinated and enthralled from beginning toend. And then when you screen this
the first time, like what isthat process? Like? Do you do
you get a group of close friendstogether? Do you want to Usually it's
(21:45):
like the cast and crew. Ithink that was the first who saw it
before we went to all the festivals, and that's you know, you always
that's nerve wracking. Are they goingto get it? Are they gonna like
it? So you just hope.Do you get a sense in the room
though, like like when you're screeningit for the first time, you feel
(22:06):
the energy? Yeah, I meanyou can. You can feel when something's
playing or something's poignant and it's comingacross. Now, whenever I do anything,
you know, I've been married nowgoing on two years, going on
two years. I show my wifeeverything. I say, hey, what
do you think of this? Andagain I have weird interests, whether it
(22:29):
be pro wrestling or all these weirdthings right our music, And I go,
I said, what do you thinkof this? What do you think
of this? What do you thinkof this? Because I like the feedback
from somebody who I know is goingto give it to me straight. You
mentioned in early documentaries you went toyour husband, who's an accomplished filmaker in
his own right. You are youtrepidacious at all from somebody who has a
similar background in filmmaking, because maybethey would take a different approach at it.
(22:52):
So you don't really want to hearthat advice? No, And I
don't go pre had it's afterwards.It's for it'll be for story. And
you know, there was some thingsfrom my first film that he's like,
oh, you got to take thisout and this out and this out.
I was like, no, youcan't take that out. That person is
too important. I'm not doing it. My editor is like, he said,
(23:12):
take it out. I was like, you put that back in.
I'm right, what mean? It'syour story, right, and everyone's going
to have it different import and there'scertain things that I knew about. It
was like, you can't cut outthat person right now? Do you do
you go to him for any ofthose of the technical things, not so
much story of like hey, isthere a way that I could maybe do
this more effectively or anything like that. No, a lot of that I'll
(23:36):
do to my editor. The technicalstop. It's like, you know,
we need like an interesting cut hereto get to this to that transition.
That's mostly now when you screen theseafter the cast and crew screening, do
you ever go back and then say, oh, you know what, while
I was watching, I did seethat, and maybe I want to change
this, this and that, orby the time he gets there, it's
it's pretty much fished. Yeah,by the time it's it gets there,
(24:00):
you've you know, watched it fivethousand times and made it all those changes
already. Yeah, it's like,please lock it, send it away.
Is it hard when you go tothe festivals then to have to watch it
again? No, it's kind ofbecause then you've got a bigger audience and
you're like, oh, you know, what is like people that don't know
you, what is their reaction goingto be? So that's always fun.
(24:22):
And to see it on a bigscreen in different places, that's that's great.
Do you have that like anticipation oflike, okay, wait till they
get to this part. I wantto see the reaction here? Sometimes well,
like I know, like I lovethe first word, I love the
first friend that comes up. Andwhat's been the reaction from audiences? Like
when they see that? Is theirlaughter? Is it like oh okay?
Or or what do you get inthe in the theater? I just think
(24:47):
there's like a silence and like Ican feel them kind of Okay, I'm
here because what am I going toget next? You're leaning in right?
Yeah? Now are there were there? I guess when you when you first
start the filmmaking process in general.Were there blueprints that you had, where
there films or documentaries that you lovethat you would watch and say, I
(25:07):
kind of want to do something likethis. Uh not Well, always Ken
Burns, he's my hero. Ithink he tells a beautiful, really clean,
really compelling story, and he's alwaysinterested in the truth. He's always
interested in the history. So Iwould say that. But I like to
(25:30):
watch a wide variety. You know, I'm looking at angles, I'm looking
at cuts, like how are theyyou know, what are they bringing to
it? Oh? I like this. I don't like this, so I
try and just watch, you know, when I'm working out, I'll just
put on a doc and just explore. Is there is there a subject matter
(25:55):
that you have your eye on currentlythat you're like, Okay, this is
going to be something that I reallywant to dive too soon? Yeah,
I think so. I'm about towrite a little pitch for one. I
think there's actually two. Yeah.Has there been a documentary you've seen lately
that you really stuck with you?Like? I watched one before yours.
I saw this one called the GreatestNight in the History of Pop. I
don't know if you know what thisis it's about the making of We Are
(26:18):
the World, the song We Arethe World, and it's on Netflix,
and it's really great because it's allthis footage I've never seen before, and
I'm a music buff and historian,and that really grabbed me. And I
didn't think about I didn't know themovie was or the song was made all
in one night, and this wassomething that was a new thing that kind
of grabbed me. Was there onethat's recently touched you? Not recently,
(26:38):
but in light of what's happened TheNavogna one I thought was just and I
thought when I watched it, youknow, a year ago, how compelling
it was. I really want togo back and watch it again, just
because he's so right into the cameraand that's gone now. So that's that's
interesting what they captured. Do youfeel like streaming has made documentaries a bigger
(27:03):
medium than they were previously, becauseI feel, as we talked about on
Netflix or Amazon, Hulu, iTunes, you Apple, they all have this
platform that you can reach so manypeople in their homes to where I felt
like documentaries were all, well,you know, they you'd catch them on
TV. The King Burns on PBSor what have you. But now they're
so accessible and I feel like peopleyou flock to documentaries more than they used
(27:27):
to. Yeah, it's great havingthat accessibility. I mean I hear stuff
all the time. It's like,oh, I'm gonna go watch it.
It's not like you have this liketiny window and then it's gone and you
might never see it again or ever. So yeah, I think that's really
made it accessible. And I hearpeople all the time suggesting, look at
(27:48):
this. I watched this dog.This was good. Yeah, it's great
now other than some of the stuffthat we've talked about before, for grand
horizontals, What do you want peopleto take away from this when they see
it? Oh? I just wantthem, you know, like I do
with I think everything I've done isto look behind the label, you know,
and and to see what these womenwere dealing with. And you know,
(28:15):
there's I have a line in thething. It's we don't need to
condemn that. We don't need tocondone them, but we don't need to
condemn them either. That's true,you know, you know, it's like
it's just have an understanding and opennessinstead of just you know, shutting down
what the subject is or or preconideas of what a certain life is like.
(28:40):
Now for me, at being sucha movie fan as I am,
you know, I'm always fascinated tooby what films other people go to,
So like, what are your goto rewatches like documentary, TV, show,
film, whatever, what are themovies that you like to cling to.
Well, I'm I think I'm onmy third run of The Sopranos,
(29:03):
So I mean, you just reallycan't beat it. I remember watching it
obviously a long time ago, andthen during the pandemic, I said to
my kids, you really got towatch this, and then I start back
again. It's just it was anamazing show and it still is, and
(29:27):
you know, it's still shocking,and it's still funny, and it's still
relevant, and it's just the actingsinsane. Yeah. When I watched Sopranos
when I was younger, it frightenedme more. And what i've watched.
I actually started rewatching it as well, about a month ago, and rewatching
the first season, which I thinkis man, what a great way to
(29:48):
start a show. That first seasonis so spectacular. But I find myself
finding more of the humor in itthan I did when I was younger.
It is a really funny show.It's really funny. I mean, they'd
be doing the most awful things andit's funny. And that's what you know.
I try. And I was sayingin this class, I gave them
the night. No matter what thesubject is, you got to find that
(30:11):
humor. I mean, it justbreaks things for people, you know,
it gives them a relief of like, oh my god, I'm seeing this,
this and this, oh you know, and I think they just I
mean, there's just that's that waslike once in a lifetime show and cast
and everything. So that's kind ofmy go to. I don't know,
it's so funny. People are like, oh, have you seen this news
(30:32):
show? And I'm like, well, I'm about to watch the Sopranos again.
I'm a serial rewatcher too. Irewatch stuff all the time. I
get a lot of stuff, youknow, I get out of it.
You know, I don't catch everythingthe first time. There's no way you
can There's no way you can takeAnd I'm sure I'm going to go back
and watch. I want to watchyour documentary again with my wife because I
feel like I would love to hearher perspective on it, and I feel
(30:55):
like I'm going to catch stuff againthat I didn't pick up the first time.
Because again, there's so many elementsthat can come into play when you're
watching something. And that's why Ilove the rewatch. I feel like movies
and TV shows are like songs.I just need to keep listening and keep
watching. Yeah, you get something, and I try and really pack mine
in with just so much information becauseI don't know. I just I love
(31:18):
information well, and you know,and you might as well give it all
to them while you got them.Was there something you had? Was there
something you had to leave out ofthis? Like that you're like, oh,
this is a really interesting story,but it just doesn't really make it
doesn't fit into the narrative exactly.No, No, this one was really
(31:38):
just tight. It was it wasyou got it, you nailed it.
It's here, it's here, It'sgrand horizontals leslie Zemeckis. Again, I
don't want to take up too muchof your time. I really appreciate you
doing this, and I appreciate youtelling stories and telling stories that make people
think, telling people tell stories thatmake people's perspectives maybe shift and their eyes
(32:02):
widen and their minds grow from somethingthat, like I said, I didn't
know about before and now, trustme, I'm gonna be dropping all this
knowledge and dinner conversations if people aregonna look at me like I'm educated,
and I'm gonna fool them again.Thanks to Leslie's amaking documentary, Yes you
need to go check this out onall the streamers. It is Grand Horizontals.
(32:23):
Thank you so much, Leslie's andMeccas for joining us today. Thank
you, thank you, awesome m
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