Special Guest: Shane Black Guest Co-Hosts: Jedidiah Ayres, Andrew Nette
Released in 2005, Shane Black's Kiss Kiss Bang Bang stars Robert Downey Jr. as Harry Lockhart, a two-bit thief who lucks his way into a Hollywood audition which puts him on a very crooked path of playing a detective along with Val Kilmer as Gay Perry. The film pays homage to pulp detectives of old by way of the slick writing style of Black in his directing debut.
Music:
"James Bond" - Naked City
"James Bond Theme (Moby's Re-Version)" - Moby
"The James Bond Theme" - John Arnold
"Twiggy Twiggy - Twiggy Vs. James Bond" - Pizzicato Five
We continue Polish Month with a look at two films from Andrzej Żuławski. First up is his feature debut, Third Part of the Night (1970) which is a horror thriller regarding lice, the apocalypse, and doubles. We also discuss The Devil (1972) in which a man (Leszek Teleszynski) jailed for regicide is freed, given a straight razor, and pointed to all the people he feels have betrayed him.
Samm Deighan and Rondo-Award Winner Kat Ellinger join Mike to discuss these early works in Andrzej Żuławski's filmography.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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
Special Guest: Shane Black
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I was interviewed a little while back for the Journey of an Aesthete Podcast. Here are the show notes:
Special Guests: