Episode 674: Midnight Cowboy (1969)

Special Guest: Glenn Frankel
Guest Co-Hosts: Jon Towlson, Chris Stachiw

On this special episode of The Projection Booth we’re looking at John Schlesinger's Midnight Cowboy (1969). It’s the story of Joe Buck (Jon Voight), a hick from Texas who goes to the big city to become a hustler. Instead, he’s hustled by everyone he meets including "Ratso" Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman ). The two form an unlikely friendship as they try to survive in New York.

Chris Stachiw (The Kulturecast) and Jon Towlson (author of the Queer Cinema Classics book on Midnight Cowboy) join Mike to discuss the movie. Author Glenn Frankel discusses his book, Shooting Midnight Cowboy: Art, Sex, Loneliness, Liberation, and the Making of a Dark Classic, and the documentary it inspired.

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "Episode 674: Midnight Cowboy (1969)" on Spreaker.

Links:
Become a supporter of The Projection Booth
Buy Midnight Cowboy on Blu-Ray
Buy Midnight Cowboy by James Leo Herlihy
Buy Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy on DVD
Buy Midnight Cowboy Queer Film Classics by Jon Towlson
Visit the official Glenn Frankel website
Buy Midnight Cowboy by James Kendrick

Music:
"Midnight Cowboy" - Faith No More

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Episode 530: Sabata (1969)

Guest Co-Hosts: Heather Drain. Mark Begley

Spaghetti Western month continues with a look at the Sabata films -- it's something of a trilogy, but not really. And some might say that there are seven films in the series… but, really, there’re just two. The original film, Sabata (1969), was written and directed by Gianfranco Parolini and stars Lee Van Cleef as the titular gunfighter who’s no stranger to gadgets.

Mark Begley and Heather Drain join Mike to discuss the three official Sabata films and four of the knock-offs which have little to nothing to do with the titular gunfighter.

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "Episode 530: Sabata (1969)" on Spreaker.

Links:
Become a supporter of The Projection Booth
Buy The Sabata Trilogy on DVD
Buy The Sabata Trilogy on Blu-Ray

Music:
Sabata Themes - Marcello Giombini

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Episode 487: Fruit of Paradise (1969)

Guest Co-Hosts: Samm Deighan, Kat Ellinger

We conclude Czechtember 2020 with a look at Vera Chytilova's Fruit of Paradise (1969). This may be the most experimental and unusual movies we’ve covered as part of Czechtember. It’s a re-telling of the Adam and Eve story directed by Chytilova and co-written by her and Ester Krumbachova.

Kat Ellinger and Samm Deighan join Mike to discuss this experimental narrative and squeeze oranges.

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "Episode 487: Fruit of Paradise (1969)" on Spreaker.

Links:
Buy Fruit of Paradise on DVD
Buy Daisies on Blu-Ray
Read Fruit of Paradise by Stefan Solomon
Read Red and White All Over: Transgressive Female Sexuality by Zoe Aiano

Music:
"The Passion of Lovers" - Bauhaus

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Episode 486: Birds, Orphans, and Fools (1969)

Guest Co-Hosts: Kat Ellinger, Jonathan Owen

We continue #Czechtember 2020 with the 1969 Slovakian film Birds, Orphans, and Fools by Juraj Jakubisko. It’s a story of three young people in the turbulent year and place of 1968 Slovakia. There are birds, the characters are orphans, and they often play the fool as we experience a slice of their lives.

Kat Ellinger and Jonathan Owen join Mike to discuss the film, Jakubisco's other work, and his fellow Slovakian filmmakers.

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "Episode 486: Birds, Orphans, and Fools (1969)" on Spreaker.

Links:
Buy Birds, Orphans, and Fools on DVD
Read Birds, Orphans and Fools (1969): the Rule of Three in Juraj Jakubisko’s Exemplary Gallows Bacchanalia by Cerise Howard
Visit the official Juraj Jakubisko website

Music:
"My Orphanage" - Rasputina

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Episode 483: All My Good Countrymen (1969)

Guest Co-Hosts: Spencer Parsons, Chris Stachiw

We're doing something a little different for Czechtember 2020 with two commentary track episodes. First up, a discussion of Vojtech Jasný's All My Good Countrymen (1969), a tragic tale of a group of friends in post-WWII Czechoslovakia.

Spencer Parsons and Chris Stachiw join Mike to discuss Jasny's lyrical film which was banned by Czech authorities. We also talk about the unofficial "remake", The Moravian Land (1978) and the sequel, Return to Paradise Lost (1999).

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "Episode 483: All My Good Countrymen (1969)" on Spreaker.

Links:
Buy the (Region 2) DVD
Watch Life & Film, The Labyrinthine Biographies of Vojtech Jasny

Watch:

Episode 477: Macunaíma (1969)

Guest Co-Hosts: David Kittredge, Chris Stachiw

Cinema Novo month continues with a look at Joaquim Pedro de Andrade's Macunaíma (1969). Based on the 1928 Modernist novel of the same name by Mário de Andrade (no relation).

Some see the Cinema Novo movement ending around 1967 while others say that it simply entered another phase. Regardless, Macunaíma is unlike any other movie we’ve discussed this month so far and it might be in the running as a favorite film overall. It’s wild, colorful, and filled with enough subtext to choke a horse.

Chris Stachiw and David Kittredge join Mike to discuss this wild tale of jungle and urban life in Brazil in 1969.

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "Episode 477: Macunaíma (1969)" on Spreaker.

Links:
Buy Macunaima on Blu-Ray
Buy Macunaima by Mario de Andrade
Read a review of Macunaima at Shock Cinema magazine

Music:
"Macunaima" - Iara Rennó

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Episode 464: Goto, Island of Love (1964)

Guest Co-Hosts: Daniel Bird, Kat Ellinger

Polish month continues with a look at Walerian Borowczyk's Goto, Island of Love. Released in that magical year of 1969, the film tells the tale of a thief (Guy Saint-Jean) on the Island of Goto which is ruled over by Governor Goto III (Pierre Brasseur). After being pitted in armed combat and somehow surviving he is put in charge of the Governor’s dogs, boots, and the killing of flies.

Daniel Bird (Camera Obscura: The Walerian Borowczyk Collection) and Kat Ellinger join Mike to discuss Borowczyk's live action feature debut as well as his early shorts.

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "Episode 464: Goto, Island of Love (1969)" on Spreaker.

Links:
Buy The Walerian Borowczyk Collection
Buy Goto, Island of Love on UK Blu-Ray
Buy the Boro: Walerian Borowczyk book

Music:
"Concerto No 11 opus 7" - Georg Frideric Handel

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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

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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

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Episode 457: The Big Dig (1969)

Special Guest: Rafi Kishon
Guest Co-Hosts: Maurice Bursztynski, Yaniv Eidelstein

Our appreciation of 1969 continues with a look at The Big Dig. Also known as The Blaumilch Canal, the film was written and directed by Ephraim Kishon and stars Bomba Tzur as the titular Blaumilch, an escaped mental patient with a mania for digging. When he finds a jack hammer in downtown Tel Aviv he kicks off a chain of events that demonstrates the absurdity of bureaucracy.

Yaniv Eidelstein and Maurice Bursztynski join Mike to discuss this delightful Israeli film as well as other entries in Kishon's filmography. Special guest Rafi Kishon recounts growing up with his father's work.

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "Episode 457: The Big Dig (1969)" on Spreaker.

Links:
Buy The Big Dig on DVD
Buy Look Back, Mrs Lot! or, Anything Can Happen in Israel by Ephraim Kishon
Read 5 films, short and satirical: Homage to Ephraim Kishon as he would have like
Read Book honors Israeli author Kishon decade after death

Music:
בלדה לאיש הפשוט - Edna Goren
דוגי-דיג - Edna Goren

Watch:

Blaumilch English preview from Yaniv Eidelstein on Vimeo.

Episode 456: Fuego! (1969)

Guest Co-Hosts: Heather Drain, Rod Lott

Our exploration of 1969 continues this week as we head from Europe to Argentina to check out Armando Bo's Fuego. It’s the story of Laura who’s played by the one and only Isabel Sarli. She is a woman driven by her passions. After she marries Carlos (Bo), she realizes what a hopeless nymphomaniac she is.

Heather Drain and Rod Lott join Mike to talk about the film and Sarli, a South American firecracker.

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "Episode 456: Fuego (1969)" on Spreaker.

Links:
Buy Fuego on DVD-R
Buy the Incredibly Strange Films book
Watch the dubbed version of Fuego
See more Isabel Sarli movies at Something Weird Video

Music:
"Ruby Don't Take Your Love to Town" - Kenny Rogers

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Episode 455: The Seed of Man (1969)

Special Guest: Nicoletta Ercole
Guest Co-Hosts: Heather Drain, Kat Ellinger

It's less than two minutes to midnight on the Doomsday Clock. Our Eastern Neighbors are being quarantined from the corona virus. And here we are talking about the end of the world as shown in 1969 by director Marco Ferreri. The Seed of Man / Il seme dell'uomo stars Marzio Margine as Cino and Anne Wiazemsky as Dora, the only lovers left alive after a plague has wiped out most of the world's population. The two live in a seaside home where Cino has a museum of trivial objects. He feels that he has to repopulate the world but Dora has other ideas.

Heather Drain and Kat Ellinger join Mike to discuss the work of Marco Ferreri while special guest Nicoletta Ercole discusses her film Marco Ferreri: Dangerous But Necessary.

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "Episode 455: Seed of Man (1969)" on Spreaker.

Links:
Buy The Seed of Man on DVD
Read Marco Ferreri: The Veterinarian of Wo/mankind

Music:
"End of the World" - Aphrodite's Child

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Episode 454: The Laughing Woman (1969)

Guest Co-Hosts: Kat Ellinger, Elric Kane

Our appreciation of 1969 continues with a look at Piero Schivazappa's Femina Ridens / The Laughing Woman. Also sometimes known as The Frightened Woman, the film stars Philipe Leroy as Sayer, the head of a charity foundation, and Dagmar Lassander as Maria, one of his employees. She she expresses an interest in writing an article about male sterilization, he takes that as his cue to invite her to his house and enslave her. What else can a good chauvinist do?

Elric Kane and Kat Ellinger join Mike to discuss the film, Niki de Saint-Phalle, Men's Rights, and more.

Big thanks to Ashley West of The Rialto Report.

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "Episode 454: The Laughing Woman (1969)" on Spreaker.

Links:
Buy The Frightened Woman on DVD
Buy The Laughing Woman by Hardian Keene

Music:
Femina Ridens Soundtrack - Stelvio Cipriani

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Episode 453: Blind Beast (1969)

Guest Co-Hosts: Coffin Jon, Elric Kane

Our appreciation of 1969 continues with our second look at an adaptation of Edogawa Rampo’s work, Blind Beast. Directed by Yasuzô Masumura, the film stars Mako Midori as Aki Shima, a model, and Eiji Funakoshi as Michio, a blind sculptor who becomes obsessed with her. He and his mother kidnap Aki and keep her in his warehouse studio where the two become engaged in a game of cat and mouse as he tries to create a new form of art that only the blind can appreciate.

Coffin Jon and Elric Kane join Mike to discuss the film specifically and Masumura's work generally.

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "Episode 453: Blind Beast (1969)" on Spreaker.

Links:
Buy Blind Beast on DVD
Buy Blind Beast by Edogawa Rampo

Music:
"Blind Love" - Tom Waits

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Episode 452: Horrors of Malformed Men (1969)

Guest Co-Hosts: Jess Byard, Ben Buckingham

Our appreciation of 1969 continues with a look at Teruo Ishii's Horrors of Malformed Men. Based on the writings of Edogawa Rampo, the movie tells the tale of Hirosuke Hitomi (Teruo Yoshida) who we first see locked up in an insane asylum. Things only go downhill from there...

Ben Buckingham and Jess Byard join Mike to delve into the ero-guro genre.

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "Episode 452: Horrors of Malformed Men (1969)" on Spreaker.

Links:
Buy Horrors of Malformed Men on Blu-Ray
Buy The Strange Case of Panorama Island by Edogawa Rampo
Buy The Edogawa Rampo Reader

Music:
"Fireworks" - Siouxsie & the Banshees

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Episode 451: Venus in Furs (1969)

Guest Co-Hosts: Samm Deighan, Brad Jones

Taking its title from the notorious book by Leopold von Sacher-Mascoch, Jess Franco's Venus in Furs (1969) stars James Darren as Jimmy Logan, a musician who can blow a cool horn. He finds the corpse of a woman he had seen at a party, the mysterious Wanda (Maria Rohm). When Wanda shows up -- alive and seducing -- shortly thereafter, Jimmy becomes obsessed with her, despite his loving relationship with chanteuse Rita (Barbara McNair).

Brad Jones and Samm Deighan join Mike to discuss Franco's film as well as an alternate cut of the movie along with a few other adaptations of the Sacher-Masoch story.

Listen/Download Now:

Links:
Buy Venus in Furs on DVD
Buy Venus in Furs by Leopold Von Sacher-Masoch

Music:
"Phantom From The Past" - Manfred Mann
"Venus in Furs" - Velvet Underground
"Venus In Furs (End Credits)" - Manfred Mann

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Episode 450: Porcile (1969)

Guest Co-Hosts: Jonathan Owen, Ken Stanley

Our appreciation of films from 1969 continues with a look at Pier Paolo Pasolini's Porcile. It's two stories in one -- the first is about a young man (Jean-Pierre Léaud) who doesn’t want to follow in his father’s capitalist footsteps nor in those of a student radical. The second is about a fine young cannibal (Pierre Clémenti) who ravages the countryside.

Ken Stanley and Jonathan Owen join Mike to discuss this oblique film.

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "Episode 450: Porcile (1969)" on Spreaker.

Links:
Buy Porcile on DVD

Music:
"Piggies" - R.A.M. Pietsch
"March of the Pigs" - Nine Inch Nails
"Pigs in Zen" - Jane's Addiction
"Do The Pig" - Merced Blue Notes
"Piggy in the Middle" - The Rutles

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Episode 449: Z (1969)

Guest Co-Hosts: Keith Gordon, Eric Cohen

Based on a book by Vasilis Vasilikos, Costa-Gavras’s Z (1969) stars Yves Montand as a political activist who is killed after a rally. The film also stars Jean-Louis Trintignant as the investigator of the incident who manages to uncover a vast conspiracy.

Keith Gordon and Eric Cohen join Mike to discuss this political thriller which is a thinly veiled re-telling of the events in Greece of 1963 and the assassination of Grigoris Lambrakis.

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "Episode 449: Z (1969)" on Spreaker.

Links:
Buy Z on DVD
Buy the Z soundtrack

Music:
"Psyche Rock" - Pierre Henry

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Episode 448: Eros + Massacre (1969)

Special Guest: Dick Stegewerns
Guest Co-Hosts: Chris Stachiw, Samm Deighan

We’re kicking off 2020 with one in a whole series of films that were released in 1969.

Up first is a film that captures the essence of the Japanese New Wave, Yoshishige "Kiju" Yoshida's Eros + Massacre. The film sets up two parallel stories, one set in the late teens/early twenties of the 1900s and the other in the contemporary 1969. The early story concerns the anarchist Osugi Kasae (Toshiyuki Hosokawa) and the three women in his life, most pointedly Ito Noe (Mariko Okada). These true figures from history are contrasted with the fictional characters of 1969 which include Eiko, Megumi, and Wada.

Samm Deighan and an irate Chris Stachiw join Mike to smugly discuss the film. We're joined by special guest Professor Dick Stegewerns, author of Kiju Yoshida: 50 Years of Avant-Garde Filmmaking in Post-War Japan.

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "Episode 448: Eros + Massacre (1969)" on Spreaker.

Listen to the Kulturecast episode on Eros + Massacre:
Listen to "Eros + Massacre" on Spreaker.

Links:
Buy the Love + Anarchism box set
Buy Eros Plus Massacre by David Desser
Buy Politics, Porn and Protest: Japanese Avant-Garde Cinema in the 1960s and 1970s by Isolde Standish

Music:
"The Lost Mother Land (Part 1)" - The Apryl Fool

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Episode 433: The Joke (1969)

Guest Co-Hosts: Kat Ellinger, Spencer Parsons

Czechtember 2019 continues with a look at Jaromil Jireš’s The Joke . Shot in 1968 and released in 1969, the film was adapted by Jires and Milan Kundera, the author of the book of the same name. It tells the tale of Ludvik (Josef Somr) who was ousted from the Communist party after the youthful indiscretion of making a joke. He spends the rest of his life feeling the effects of this including hatching a plan for revenge on the university student who ousted him that takes 15 years to fulfill.

Spencer Parsons and Kat Ellinger join Mike to discuss the film and how it resonates in today's world.

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "Episode 433: The Joke (1969)" on Spreaker.

Links:
Buy The Joke on DVD
Buy The Joke by Milan Kundera

Music:
"I Started a Joke" - Faith No More
"Laugh Laugh" - The Beau Brummels

Watch: