Episode 142 · Film year 1982
Eating Raoul (1982)
- Special Guests
- Mary Woronov, Dick Blackburn, Susan Saiger, Jed Feuer
Show notes
Just in time for Thanksgiving, it's a story of Reagan-era morality and economics gone wild, Eating Raoul (1982) put "cult filmmaker" Paul Bartel on the map with a surprise mainstream hit about Paul and Mary Bland, two Puritanical folks who kill swingers for cash to fulfill their "American Dream."
We speak to screenwriter Richard Blackburn, actresses Mary Woronov and Susan Saiger as well as the musician behind the Eating Raoul musical, Jed Feuer.
Get ready to dig in as guest co-host: Adam Spiegelman of the Proudly Resents (opens in a new tab) podcast joins us once again to dig into this "Bland Enchilada" paired with Château Lafite Rothschild.
Download Episode Now:
We speak to screenwriter Richard Blackburn, actresses Mary Woronov and Susan Saiger as well as the musician behind the Eating Raoul musical, Jed Feuer.
Get ready to dig in as guest co-host: Adam Spiegelman of the Proudly Resents (opens in a new tab) podcast joins us once again to dig into this "Bland Enchilada" paired with Château Lafite Rothschild.
Download Episode Now:
Labels: Adam Spiegelman Dick Blackburn Don Steele Edie McClurg John Paragon Mary Woronov Paul Bartel Proudly Resents Robert Beltran Roger Corman
Watch
Links & resources
- Visit the official Proudly Resents website (opens in a new tab)
- Buy Eating Raoul on DVD (opens in a new tab)
- Visit the Criterion Collection page for Eating Raoul (opens in a new tab)
- Buy the Eating Raoul soundtrack on vinyl (opens in a new tab)
- Buy the musical Eating Raoul soundtrack (opens in a new tab)
- Learn more about Eating Raoul - The Musical (opens in a new tab)
- Buy Eating Raoul - The Comic Book (opens in a new tab)
- Visit the official Mary Woronov website (opens in a new tab)
- Buy Mary Woronov's "Swimming Underground: My time at Andy Warhol's Factory" (opens in a new tab)
- Learn more about Confessions of a Cult Queen the Mary Woronov documentary (opens in a new tab)
- Contribute to the making of Confessions of a Cult Queen (opens in a new tab)
- Visit the official Susan Saiger website (opens in a new tab)
- Visit the official Jed Feuer website (opens in a new tab)
- Contribute to the Humane Society (opens in a new tab)
- Listen to our episode on "Death Race 2000" (opens in a new tab)
Related episodes
Episodes that share keywords with this one.
Death Race 2000 (1975)
Shared: Director Paul Bartel, Charles B. Griffith, Mary Woronov
Rock 'N' Roll High School (1979)
Shared: Paul Bartel, Mary Woronov, Don Steele
Allan Arkush, Dean Cundey, Russ Dvonch, Clint Howard and others
Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (1988)
Shared: Edie McClurg, John Paragon
Frank Collison, Sam Egan, Josh Hadley, John Pilate
Night of the Comet (1984)
Shared: Robert Beltran, Mary Woronov
Thom Eberhardt, Catherine Mary Stewart, Kelli Maroney, Angela Mac and others
Punisher: War Zone (2008)
Shared: Proudly Resents, Adam Spiegelman
Lexi Alexander, Gerry Conway, Doug Hutchison, Adam Spiegelman
Comments (5)
The Foreign Viewer Great show. Was Beltran not available for an interview or did he refuse? Anyway, here's a cool retrospective of each of Bartel's feature length movies - even those impossible to find like Shelf Life (1993) or Nancy Allen's screwball vehicle Not for Publication (1984). http://zacksfilmthoughts.blogspot.rs/2012_05_01_archive.htmlMike White He never responded to our requests.The Foreign Viewer I see. Unfortunately, I can't say I'm surprised to hear that. If you see some of his recent interviews like this one from 2013 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyYGhlzI2vs he seems to have become somewhat of a cynical recluse (except for the annual Star Trek: Voyager conventions). Too bad. Thanks for clearing this up.The Foreign Viewer One final note. Just saw Bartel's short Secret Cinema (1968) and the Amazing Stories remake. Incomparable. One is almost a horror, the other quite fluffy and lighthearted. See the original as well as Bartel's comical short take on kink porn - Naughty Nurse (1969).Rev. Joel Kazoo - AAS I love this movie. Thank you so much for featuring it. For me, the trick to a successful black comedy is to present topics that shouldn't be laughed at in such a way that they come off as ridiculous, and thus easy to laugh at. Cannibalism, murder, and sexual assault are not topics that should be laughed at with casual company, but because Bartel sticks them into a world that teeters on the ridiculous, it's easy to elicit genuine belly laughs out of such situations. The beginning scene itself is a perfect example: armed robberies of liquor stores and death resulting from such violent crime isn't funny at all, but if you make the liquor store owner pull out a gigantic gun and blow the perp away without a second thought, and then go right back to yelling at Bland like nothing happened, suddenly I'm laughing like an idiot. Compared to someone like Tod Solondz, whose idea of "comedy" is to make the audience so uncomfortable they have to laugh so they don't start crying (don't get me wrong, I actually really enjoyed "Happiness", but don't you dare tell me it's a comedy), Bartel allows us to step inside the Bland's world and take vicarious delight in their debauchery, laughing with the characters rather than at them. I could go on and on about how much I love this film, but think I'll stop now,. Just know it's easily my all-time favorite black comedy, if not in my top 10 all-time favorite movies, period. Have you considered doing Lust in the Dust and/or Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills? Those would make interesting episodes.