The one thing Peter Bogdanovich loved more than making movies was talking about them. And that is exactly what the late auteur does in a marvelous new podcast called One Handshake Away.
It’s both a conversation and a cinematic séance featuring some of the most notable filmmakers of our day—Guillermo del Toro, Quentin Tarantino, Greta Gerwig, Rian Johnson, Ken Burns—in “conversation” with the legendary directors of Hollywood’s golden age, whom we know (thanks in no small part to Bogdanovich himself) by their last names—Ford, Hawks, Hitchcock, Welles.
While still in his early 20s, Bogdanovich searched for any opportunity to speak with and learn from directors whom he revered, whether it was for Esquire magazine, or an obscure film journal, or a retrospective at MoMA. Carrying a reel-to-reel tape recorder that his parents had given him as a Christmas present, Bogdanovich looked for ways to record and preserve his idols’ memories.
“It’s a journey that’s come full circle,” explains Louise Stratten, Bogdanovich’s wife for 13 years, whom he returned to toward the end of his life, and who is the co-pilot for the podcast, which debuted last week.
Bogdanovich had already published several now classic books on film, including Who the Devil Made It: Conversations with Legendary Film Directors (1997) and Who the Hell’s in It: Portraits and Conversations (2004). Then along came the podcast boom, giving Peter a new way to bring his recordings to life. In 2020, Turner Classic Movies devoted the first of its podcast series, The Plot Thickens, to the director’s own life and career.
“Peter had a lot of great responses to the TCM podcasts,” Stratten recalls, “and he already had his interviews with older directors housed at the University of Indiana’s Lilly Library, where John Ford and Orson Welles have their archives. He wanted to be there with these greats.”
Rather than simply release these archival interviews, Bogdanovich decided to pair each legend with a contemporary director. “Peter would tell me, ‘Podcasts. So old it’s new,’” Stratten explains. “‘Orson did The War of the Worlds on radio, but it was like one of the first podcasts.’ He was excited about this new-old medium.”
But the music suddenly stopped when Bogdanovich died, two years ago, at the age of 82. At that point, he had only completed the first four episodes. “I needed to somehow finish the podcast,” Stratten says. It was the actress Colleen Camp, a lifelong friend of Bogdanovich’s and something of a director whisperer, who was instrumental in persuading del Toro to take his place in the director’s chair for the remainder of the episodes. Bogdanovich’s two daughters, filmmaker Antonia Bogdanovich and Sashy Welles Bogdanovich (named after her godfather, Orson), gave their blessing, and the project was completed.
“It was a little scary for me to take this on,” Stratten explains. “It was like learning a stick shift in the middle of driving on the highway. After Peter, it was very much Guillermo in the director’s chair, but it was always Peter’s spirit.”
“Peter would tell me, ‘Podcasts. So old it’s new,’” Stratten explains. “‘Orson did The War of the Worlds on radio, but it was like one of the first podcasts.’”
Each episode of the podcast features three legendary directors—one Old Hollywood legend, one contemporary filmmaker at the top of their game, and either Bogdanovich or del Toro—all in conversation. Johnson and Bogdanovich attempt to peel the onion that was Orson Welles, with Welles’s Voice of God in the room with them. Del Toro talks about Hitchcock (both were schooled by Jesuits), with Hitchcock’s voice right there taking part. Tarantino can be heard enthusing with the great action director Don Siegel (Dirty Harry, Escape from Alcatraz, The Shootist).
Burns contemplates the Western with the black-eyepatch-wearing legend John Ford. “Peter was a dear friend with unequaled knowledge about the history of all things film, and a love for stories,” Burns says. “Every thought he had led to a deeper, more interesting conversation.”
Stratten wanted more women on the podcast, so she invited actress and filmmaker Julie Delpy, who chose Fritz Lang for her episode. Tarantino recommended Allison Anders (Gas Food Lodging; Mi Vida Loca), who chose that other black-eyepatch-wearing director Raoul Walsh (They Drive by Night, White Heat). And “at the eleventh hour, we got Greta to participate,” Stratten says. Listeners are thus treated to Gerwig in conversation with del Toro and Howard Hawks.
“I felt so lucky to know Peter,” Johnson recalls, “and with or without a mike present, it was always a hell of a privilege to sit down with him and talk movies. Can’t wait to hear the other conversations—this is going to be one for the books.”
In a poignant coda to One Handshake Away, directors Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach—whom Bogdanovich called his “sons” and who in turn called him “Pop”—are doing a bonus podcast about Bogdanovich himself and how his work and friendship influenced their own films. It’s the best film school you’ll ever hear.
Sam Kashner is a Writer at Large at AIR MAIL. Previously a contributing editor at Vanity Fair, he is the author or co-author of several books, including Sinatraland: A Novel, When I Was Cool: My Life at the Jack Kerouac School, and Life Isn’t Everything: Mike Nichols, as Remembered by 150 of His Closest Friends