The Lost City of Z

Brody compares the film to the 1960 masterpiece La Ventura and also calls it a wise, loving political peon to the life of art and the art of living well.

We're talking to Shotaro today about what it actually costs to make these films, their time as director James Gray's assistant, what they learned working on his film, The Lost City of Z, and finally, how they feel about Richard Brody's review of their latest film.

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Hi, Shatara.

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So did you develop this process sort of just by loving Mike's work? Or did you learn this from working with other people? Because I recall when you left LA and went to Ireland to hang out with James Gray and shoot The Lost City of Z, but there's no way he works like that.

No, he doesn't.

Fawcett's story inspired books and films about the obsession.

There's a fantastic movie called The Lost City of Z with Charlie Hunnam.

It's long, but it's a good one.

Who's

He knew it was vast enough and dense enough to hide an empire.

He called it the Lost City of Z.

Now, he didn't believe it was a mythic city of gold like El Dorado.

He believed it was the cradle of human civilization, a lost outpost of Atlantis, or maybe an ancient, highly advanced race that had been completely forgotten by time.

Now, the jungle didn't just take Fawcett.

It also took everyone who came looking for him.

It was as if the Lost City of Z demanded a constant bloody sacrifice in order to keep its location hidden.

Then in the 1950s, a Brazilian tribe known as the Kalapalo claimed that they had killed Fawcett because he had disrespected their chief.

We're watching these all in a row so they're all feeling the same but they're just sturdy... good cinematography great acting everything is just solid throughout you know i

think paper tiger is going to be a return to this stuff for sure and i'm curious to know because obviously his he stylistically not really sign i mean genre wise he departed this yeah significantly i mean he goes to two lovers to space to lost city of z yep you know to space yeah the immigrant

you know so is this like his last crime movie really until yeah tigers you

think immigrants a little crimey yeah there's a con man thief stuff yeah there

I just watched it the year it came out.

I don't

remember Lost City of Z that much.

Oh, yeah.

Um, there's, it made me think of this author.

There's a really great author, um, David Grann is his name, and the most famous book, I think, that he wrote, it's called The Lost City of Z. Um, and it's about Percy Fawcett, who was the explorer in the, you know, around that exploration period when all the spots on the globe-

Mm-hmm

... at least as far as Europe was concerned, weren't filled in yet.

But this movie, Embrace of the Serpent, it's about... two scientists who travel into the amazon one in like i think it's like 1909 and then another one in like the early 1940s and the first one is um traveling in in the amazon and he's sick and he's trying to be healed and there's this um this native who's helping him and then in the 40s uh, the guy, the second scientist, is reading the diaries of the first one and kind of trying to follow in his steps.

I recently read The Lost City of Z, which is about Percy Fawcett in the Amazon.

So I've kind of been on this kick of wanting to know more about this and the culture there and the people there.

And this movie is really, really cool.

of just following these two guys and the way it weaves them in together with the uh the people who live in the amazon and um i really don't want to spoil anything because it's really a really cool story the way it's structured but um I don't know.

I think it's one of these big movies that gives you time to think about your own life and your place in it.

So it felt very meditative and reminded me of the lost city of Z.

So I really enjoyed this.

I'm Glenn Garland, and I'm joined by John Axelrad.

John has edited such excellent films as We on the Night, Two Lovers, Crazy Heart, The Lost City of Z, Papillon, Ed Astra, Antebellum, Chevalier, and Spaceman.

Now he has crafted the thrilling adventure, The End of Oak Street.

John, it's such a pleasure to have you.