Had a lovely time today talking to Matthew Weiner, the Executive Producer of Mad Men, the most excellent AMC series. I was talking to Weiner for USA Weekend about The Apartment, the Billy Wilder classic now in a Collectors’ Edition DVD. Weiner was so smart and articulate about the film, and very generous with his time. Matt, as it turns out, was born in Baltimore (his father was on the faculty of Johns Hopkins); oddly, just before talking to Matt, I had been emailing Tom Callahan, author of a terrific biography of Johnny Unitas (Johnny U: The Life and Times of John Unitas). Why did I suddenly want crab cakes for lunch? I enjoyed talking to Matt immensely, and I barely got to ask him about his series or about his work on The Sopranos. One preview comment from Matt: for a movie that has been called cynical and dark, The Apartment is a film that takes love very, very seriously. Yes! Exactly! Scratch a cynic, and you’ll find a disappointed (but undaunted) romantic.
(I took this photo of Matt a couple weeks after I interviewed him, at an appearance he made at the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville.)