![]() Assembling this mystery reel was particularly fun with Bob Furmanak, who was Jerry Lewis’s archivist in the ’80s. I sourced all these different prints from some interesting people I’ve known who collect. I have a lot of friends who are animation historians or private film collectors and have mined comic books and a lot of different junk that I like. When was the last time they played at Lincoln Center? Maybe in the era of Cinema 16 and Amos Vogel, who the hell knows? But that was really fun. ![]() A lot of the movies that I was thinking about when making this, in terms of theme and tone, it felt natural to me to choose them. But I also thought about the movies that just naturally tattooed themselves on my brain in high school that formed me and my friends’ sensibilities and expanded our collective sense of humor. I thought about what I wanted to see on that screen. ![]() But the movies that I programmed for this, I tried to forget where I was programming: Lincoln Center. I just grew up with the rep movie scene and saved every single ticket stub I ever had. Growing up in New York, having the Film Forum calendar on my fridge for as long as I can remember, working at Anthology, trekking out to MoMA for some series…for my entire life, three o’clock rolled around, and I could get out of high school and go to see something. How do you approach the nature of the canon? With the two repertory series that you’re programming in New York prior to Funny Pages, you’re expanding and exploding it with some of these unexpected pairings. There’s plenty of movies that I think just deserve to be represented, and I think that’s ultimately what’s important about it. I’m still figuring out what it exactly means to me, so I approached it in a pretty personal way. My favorite movies of all time I don’t necessarily think are the greatest of all time. Well, I’m still trying to grasp the exercise. So, Vertigo and Citizen Kane aren’t battling it out at the top of your ballot? I was just talking with a friend of mine who said she got you sorted out for access to the Sight & Sound greatest films of all time poll. Our conversation covered his approach to curating two repertory programs in New York associated with the film, why he embraces archetypes in his approach to characterization, and how he crafted an uproarious comedy with no overt jokes. ![]() I spoke with Kline in the days prior to the theatrical release of Funny Pages. But Funny Pages goes in its own uniquely, unexpected comedic direction with great inventiveness and introspection. Kline’s film captures the scrappy, scuzzy, and ultimately sincere underbelly of the Tristate area, much like the Safdies do across their own work. This takes him to Trenton to apply his talents as a courtroom sketch artist, where he crosses paths with the wacky Wallace (Matthew Maher), a former employee of the comics industry. Kline appeared in the Safdie brothers’ 2010 short film John’s Gone, and now the Safdies have returned the favor by executive-producing his feature-length directorial debut.įunny Pages chronicles the misadventures of Robert (Daniel Zolghadri), a young aspiring comic artist looking to break free from his cloistered upbringing in Princeton, New Jersey, and have the sort of real experiences that he can then use in his drawings. Between curatorial work at Anthology Film Archives and his exploration of creating underground comic art, a unique sensibility emerged.Īt the same time, Kline linked up with Ben and Josh Safdie-with whom he shared a formative high school teacher-as they began to cut their own unique path through the industry. Shortly after his performance in Noah Baumbach’s The Squid and the Whale drew considerable acclaim, Kline opted to pursue visual art rather than dive deeper into acting. Though Owen Kline’s famous pedigree immediately presents itself in his surname, the more pertinent parentage to Funny Pages is that of New York City’s repertory cinema scene.
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