Special Report: Joseph Lanza on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Special Guests: Joseph Lanza

On this special episode of The Projection Booth, Mike talks to author Joseph Lanza about his latest book, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: The Film That Terrified a Rattled Nation. He discusses the conditions that led to Tobe Hooper and Kim Henkel to create one of the most terrifying and groundbreaking films of the 20th Century.

Opening clips from Summer School.

Music:
"Dead Babies" - Alice Cooper
"Texas Chainsaw Square Dance Massacre" - The Fools
"Lumberjack" - Jackyl

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "Special Report: Joseph Lanza on The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" on Spreaker.

Links:
Buy The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: The Film That Terrified a Rattled Nation by Joseph Lanza

Watch:

Episode 461: Knife in the Water (1962)

Guest Co-Hosts: Samm Deighan, Spencer Parsons

We're kicking off Polish Month with a pair of films from Roman Polanski. First up we're discussing Polanski's first feature from 1962, Knife in the Water. It's about a couple, Andrej (Leon Niemczyk) and Krystyna (Jolanta Umecka), who run across an unnamed young man (Zygmunt Malanowicz) who joins them on a sailing trip.

Up next we're discussing another film with a trio of characters, Death and the Maiden (1994) which stars Sigourney Weaver as a survivor of rape and torture who may have encountered her former tormentor (Ben Kingsley).

Samm Deighan and Spencer Parsons join Mike to discuss this pair of Polanski films.

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "Episode 461: Knife in the Water (1962)" on Spreaker.

Links:
Buy Knife in the Water on Blu-Ray
Buy Death and the Maiden on DVD

Music:
"Knife in the Water" - Metz
"Ballad for Bernt" - Krzysztof Komeda

Watch:

Episode 460: The Cow (1969)

Guest Co-Hosts: Chris Stachiw, Heather Drain

We continue our examination of the films of 1969 with a look at Dariush Mehrjui's The Cow. The film star Ezzatolah Entezami as Hassan, a man with a very high status in his village. He's the proud owner of the sole cow. When he goes away for a morning his cow mysteriously dies and the rest of the villagers conspire to cover this up by telling him that the animal has run away. Let's just say that Hassan doesn’t take the news so well.

Chris Stachiw and Heather Drain join Mike to scratch the surface on Iranian cinema.

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "Episode 460: The Cow (1969)" on Spreaker.

Links:
Buy The Cow on DVD
Buy The Mourners of Bayal by Gholam-Hossein Saedi

Music:
"For All the Cows" - The Foo Fighters

Watch:

Journey of an Aesthete Podcast

I was interviewed a little while back for the Journey of an Aesthete Podcast. Here are the show notes:

In this episode I discuss with Mike White his movie podcast The Projection Booth, the movies he loves, his approach to interviews and podcasting and all matters of cinephilia.

I first discovered Mike White through his wonderful cinema podcast, The Projection Booth. There are two reasons I love it, and I am speaking as a cinephile, I hasten to say. One is that he has really long form explorations of single films, thus treating the films as artistic texts to be taken seriously, in terms of analysis. There is no cute thumbs up.thumbs down brevity. Secondly, he does this from the perspective of a regular guy/gal. That is, he exhibits the joy and love for cinema of people who are not necessarily academic experts while at the same time delving deep into film as an art. Thus, he achieves a balance rarely found in discussions of this kind. Also I really appreciate his civility. He always talks with guests in the most gracious and respectful manner, never lording it over anybody or indulging in overwrought pretensions.

Listening to his podcast gave me inspiration for my own podcast, actually even though our sensibilities are different in certain respects. his relation with discussion gave me one model for how to behave on a podcast. And, last but not least, I like the way he themes his show, centered around a single film. This goes back to turning attention to the text itself which is also one of my guiding principles on my show. I learned a lot on this episode. We discussed the zine culture of the '90s, his background in the American Midwest, and much more.

He was every bit the gracious conversationalist I knew he would be.

Listen/Download Now:

Links:
Subscribe to Journey of an Aesthete

Special Report: Tommy (1975)

Special Guests: Kit Power, Arthur Brown
Guest Co-Hosts: Heather Drain, Skizz Cyzyk

On this special episode of The Projection Booth we’re looking at Ken Russell's Tommy. Released in 1975 this is an interpretation of The Who's Rock Opera of the same name which stars Roger Daltry as the titular Tommy. After witnessing a scene of his mother and her lover killing his father, Tommy is rendered psychosomatically blind, deaf, and mute. He becomes a wiz at pinball, starts a religion, and is eventually brought low as a false prophet.

Kit Power, author of the Midnight Movie Monograph on Tommy and legendary singer Arthur Brown speak about the making of the film.

Heather Drain and Skizz Cyzyk join Mike to put on their green coats and discuss the good and bad of Tommy.

01:15:00 - Kit Power
02:11:12 - Arthur Brown
03:09:33 - Music Mix

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "Special Report: Tommy (1975)" on Spreaker.

Links:
Buy Tommy on Blu-Ray
Buy the Tommy movie soundtrack
Buy the original Tommy CD by The Who
Buy The God Of Hellfire: The Crazy Life And Times Of Arthur Brown by Polly Marshall
Buy The Crazy World of Arthur Brown on CD

Music:
"Sparks" - The Who
"Heinz Baked Beans" - The Who
"Eyesight To The Blind (The Hawker)" - Arthur Brown
"We're Not Gonna Take It" - The Who
"Pinball Wizard / Folsom Prison Blues" - Puddles the Clown
"Come and Buy" - The Crazy World of Arthur Brown
"Behind Blue Eyes" - The Who
"I'm Free (Live at Leeds)" - The Who
"Concrete Jungle Boy" - Neil Innes
"Amazing Journey (Demo Version)" - The Who

Watch:

Episode 459: They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969)

Guest Co-Hosts: Emily Intravia, Scott Frank

Yowza, yowza, yowza... Our examination of 1969 continues with the first American film we've discussed this year, They Shoot Horses, Don't They? Directed by Sydney Pollack and based on a novel by Horace McCoy, the film stars Michael Sarrazin as Robert and Jane Fonda as Gloria, a pair who get thrown together in a marathon dance contest during the depression.

Scott Frank and Emily Intravia join Mike to discuss dance marathons, Red Buttons, and Arthur Fonzerelli.

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "Episode 459: They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969)" on Spreaker.

Links:
Buy They Shoot Horses, Don't They? on Blu-Ray
Buy They Shoot Horses, Don't They? by Horace McCoy
Buy Cinematic License: Editorial Imprints on the Hollywood Novels of Horace McCoy by Laura Rattray

Music:
"The Best Things in Life are Free" - Bonnie Bedelia
"They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" - The Dark Horses

Watch:

Episode 458: L'Amour Fou (1969)

Guest Co-Hosts: Samm Deighan, Jonathan Owen

Our look at 1969 continues with a discussion of Jacques Rivette's L'Amour Fou. The story of a director, Sebastien (Jean-Pierre Kalfon), and an actress, Claire (Bulle Ogier). We watch them work together on the play Andromaque -- seeing the crafting of the production via behind-the-scenes 16mm footage as well as the 35mm film cameras that capture the real behind-the-scenes footage of Sebastien and Claire’s fizzling relationship.

Jonathan Owen and Samm Deighan join Mike to discuss the film and the overall cinema of Jacques Rivette.

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "Episode 458: L'Amour Fou (1969)" on Spreaker.

Links:
Read Jacques Rivette by Mary Wiles

Music:
"Crazy" - Patsy Cline

Watch:

Special Report: Ego Fest IX

Special Guest: Andrea White
Guest Co-Host: Heather Drain

Heather Drain joins Mike to take listener questions, rail against the Rondos, and give a peek behind the podcast curtain as we celebrate nine years of The Projection Booth.

Learn all about acromegaly, Robert Wuhl's xenophobia, and upcoming screenings of Icepick to the Moon.

Huge thanks to all of our Patreon donors!

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "Special Report: Ego Fest IX (2020)" on Spreaker.

Addendum:
Listen to "Special Report: Covid-19 Update 3.17.2020" on Spreaker.

Links:
Buy The Bizarro Encyclopedia of Film Volume 1 by John Skipp & Heather Drain
Come out and see Icepick to the Moon!
Read Cultural Details You Missed in Parasite by ZenKimchi
Read the Ronnie Rocket and One Saliva Bubble screenplays by David Lynch
Hear more of Heather Drain on the Hell's Belles podcast
Listen to our Holy Mountain episode

Music:
"Parasite" - KISS
"Making Time" - The Creation
"PPAP" - Pikotaro

Watch:

Symphony in Slang from Movie Memories on Vimeo.