Daisy Miller (1974)

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s… Daisy Miller? This week we talk society (we love society, but there’s not enough of it in Europe), Peter & Cybill, and the Roman fever, all thanks to the 1870s it girl Daisy Miller. Bogdanovich undertook the first (and only cinematic) adaptation of Daisy Miller at the suggestion of his friend Orson Welles, and boy, was it certainly a decision he made. A period piece made before the rise of Merchant Ivory costumes dramas and with a distinctly American protagonist played by Cybill Shepherd, Daisy Miller was not well received at the time. Partly due to the film itself and also partly because everyone in Hollywood kinda hated Cybill and Peter at this point. We try to parse through it! We also talk about Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, the privilege of hosting Orson Welles in your home, getting jumpscared by the name Ezra Miller, doing impressions of Bogdanovich doing impressions of Cary Grant, and our favorite Adam McKay masterpiece, Don’t Look Up. Next Episode: At Long Last Love (1975) Further “Reading” By Bogdanovich (2011) Picture Shows: The Life and Films of Peter Bogdanovich by Andrew Yule Picturing Peter Bogdanovich by Peter Tonguette Cybil Disobedience by Cybill Shepherd with Aimee Lee Ball Daisy Miller by Henry James Daisy Miller: A Comedy in Three Acts by Henry James Daisy Miller Episode 1, a 5-part 2017 BBC Radio 4 production The Friedkin Connection: A Memoir by William Friedkin Cinema Speculation by Quentin Tarantino “'I made movies' an interview with Henry Hathaway” by Scott Eyman for Take One (v05 n01, September-October 1974) “Three's Company” by Peter Bart for Variety (December 6, 2004) [archived on FilmScoreMonthly forum] “Between Cut and Action” by John Gallagher for National Board of Review (August 2004) “‘Daisy Miller,’ Once Dismissed as Embarrassing Vanity Project, Is the Equal to ‘Last Picture Show’” by Jim Hemphill for IndieWire (May 15, 2024) “‘Daisy’ is an Unexpected Triumph" by Vincent Canby (June 16, 1974) Daisy Miller Kino Lorber Blu-ray release Daisy Miller Carlotta Films Blu-ray release (France) Theme music by Ryan (twitter.com/molecularlioneI) Support your local independent cinemas and video stores! Follow Us! Sort By: Earliest instagram.com/sortby_earliest/ Jonah letterboxd.com/jonahp97/ twitter.com/jon_ahhhh Journey letterboxd.com/journeyb/ instagram.com/journey_brad/