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.

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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 361: The Color of Pomegranates (1969)

Special Guests: Daniel Bird, James Steffen
Guest Co-Host: Larry Revene

We're looking at Sergei Parajanov’s The Color of Pomegranates. Released in 1969, the film is something of a look at the life of Armenian ashugh Sayat Nova told in an oblique and beautiful way.

Director and DP Larry Revene joins Mike to talk about this poetic film. Daniel Bird, director of The World is a Window: The Making of The Color of Pomegranates and James Steffen, the author of The Cinema of Sergei Parajanov, discuss the making of the film as well as the cuts imposed by Russian censors.

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Listen to "Episode 361: The Color of Pomegranates (1961)" on Spreaker.

Links:
Buy The Color of Pomegranates on Criterion Blu-Ray
Buy The Color of Pomegranates on Second Sight Blu-Ray
Read Cecilia Cenciarelli; “The restoration of ‘The Color of Pomegranates’ was Scorsese’s idea.” by Ruzan Bagratunyan
Read What Color is The Color of Pomegranates? A Critique of the 2014 World Cinema Project/L’Immagine Ritrovata Restoration of Parajanov’s Film by James Steffen

Music:
All music by Nicholas Jaar's Pomegranates

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Episode 334: La Marge (1976)

Special Guests: Jeremy Richey, Noël Véry, Michael Levy
Guest Co-Hosts: Daniel Bird, Samm Deighan

Also known as The Streetwalker, The Margin, and sometimes even as Emmanuel 77, La Marge film stars Joe Dallesandro as Sigismond, a loving husband who leaves his wife and child to head to Paris. While there he learns of the sudden, unexpected death of his aforementioned family and spends a few days living in fringes of society, spending most of his time with Diana, played by Sylvia Kristel, a prostitute. The 1976 film is one of several adaptations of André Pieyre de Mandiargues by director Walerian Borowczyk.

Samm Deighan and Daniel Bird school Mike in the work of Walerian Borowczyk with the help of Jeremy Richey (author of the upcoming Sylvia Kristel in the Seventies: From Emmanuelle to Chabrol), cinematographer and cameraman Noël Véry, and Walerian Borowczyk's assistant, Michael Levy.

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Listen to "Episode 334: La Marge (1976)" on Spreaker.

Jeremy Richey on Sylvia Kristel

Listen to "Special Report: Jeremy Richey on Sylvia Kristel" on Spreaker.

Links:
Buy Walerian Borowczyk: The Book by Daniel Bird
Buy Camera Obscura: The Walerian Borowczyk Collection on Blu-Ray
Visit the Friends of Walerian Borowczyk website
Watch On the Set of La Marge
Visit Art Decades magazine
Buy The Streetwalker (Bootleg) on DVD-R
Buy Boro, L'Île D'Amour: The Films of Walerian Borowczyk edited by Kamila Kuc
Buy The Margin by Andre Pieyre De Mandiargues
Buy Anatole Dauman: Pictures of a Producer by Jacques Gerber
Buy Fiction of Andre Pieyre de Mandiargues by David J. Bond
Buy Joe Dallesandro: Warhol Superstar, Underground Film Icon, Actor by Michael Ferguson
Read Bourdoir Bestiary by Daniel Bird
Read Interview with Daniel Bird on Walerian Borowczyk from Satanic Pandemonium
Read André Pieyre de Mandiargues by Edward Gauvin
Read The Desired Objects of La Marge (1976) by John Edmond
Read La Marge by Jeremy Richey
Read Amour Fou: Shuji Terayama’s Fruits of Passion: Story of O Continued by Heather Drain
Hear more of Samm Deighan on the Daughters of Darkness podcast
Buy Lost Girls: The Phantasmagorical Cinema of Jean Rollin edited by Samm Deighan

Music:
"Une femme" - Charles Dumont
"I'm not in love" - 10CC
"A Glass of Champagne" - Kick Joneses

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Episode 329: On the Silver Globe (1988)

Special Guest: Daniel Bird
Guest Co-Hosts: Heather Drain, Joe Yanick

Initially begun in 1977 and not released until (1988, Andrzej Zulawski, On the Silver Globe, is based on a series called The Lunar Trilogy by Zulawski's great uncle Jerzy.

Joe Yanick and Heather Drain join Mike in an attempt to unravel the Polish sci-fi epic.

Links:
Listen to the Stories From The Eastern West podcast on On the Silver Globe
Read The Origins of Polish Sci-Fi & The Legacy of Jerzy Żuławski by Adam Żuławski
Listen to our Possession episode
Listen to our Hard to be a God episode
Listen to the Daughters of Darkness Zulawski series
Read Film of the Week: On the Silver Globe by Jonathan Romney
Read Film Comment Selects: Andrzej Żuławski by Daniel Bird
Read The Second Life of a Prohibited Movie

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "Episode 329: On the Silver Globe (1988)" on Spreaker.

Music:
"On The Other Side Of The Moon" - Andrzej Korzyñski
"Antonin Artaud" - Bauhaus

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nsg_przedpo_berlin_prev from daniel bird on Vimeo.

Episode 324: The Lost One (1951)

Special Guests Stephen Youngkin
Guest Co-Hosts: Samm Deighan, Daniel Bird

In The Lost One (AKA Der Verlorene) (1951) we find Peter Lorre as Dr. Karl Rothe (AKA Dr. Karl Neumeister), working at a displaced persons camp after World War II. When a figure from his past, Hösch (AKA Nowak) (Karl John), appears at the camp the two men reminisce about their shared history during the war.

The film is a tense film noir by way of the German trümmerfilm (rubble film) and the only feature directed by Peter Lorre.

Daniel Bird and Samm Deighan join Mike to discuss The Lost One, Fritz Lang's M, and much more.

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Listen to "Episode 324: The Lost One (1951)" on Spreaker.

Links:
Buy The Lost One on DVD-R
Buy The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre by Stephen D. Youngkin
Buy Crime and Punishment on DVD
Keep up with Samm Deighan at Diabolique magazine
Listen to the Supporting Characters interview with Daniel Bird

Music:
"The Lost One" - Mette Henriette
"Lost One" - The Roots

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Episode 319: The Red Shoes (1948)

Guest Co-Hosts: Daniel Bird, Maitland McDonagh

Daniel Bird and Maitland McDonagh join Mike to discuss the 1948 film from Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, The Red Shoes. The film centers on the tumultuous world of dance, namely ballet. We follow Julian Craster (Marius Goring) and Vicky Page (Moira Shearer) through triumphs and misfortunes.

A favorite of Martin Scorsese, the film is a triumph of melodrama and includes several breathtaking dance sequences, most notably an adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's The Red Shoes.

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "Episode 319: The Red Shoes (1948)" on Spreaker.

Links:
Buy The Red Shoes on DVD
Buy A Life in Movies by Michael Powell
Buy Michael Powell: International Perspectives on an English Film-maker by Ian Christie (Editor)
Buy the books of Maitland McDonagh
Buy Tenebrae on Blu-Ray
Read an interview with Daniel Bird by Samm Deighan

Music:
"Red Shoes" - Tom Waits
"The Red Shoes" - Kate Bush

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Episode 269: The Dybbuk (1937)

Special Guest: Yossi Chajes
Guest Co-Host: Daniel Bird, John Walker

Based on Sholom Ansky's 1904 play, Michal Waszynski's 1937 Yiddish-language Polish film, The Dybbuk, tells the story of a broken promise and its consequences.

Joining Mike to discuss this expressionistic horror/romance film are movie scholar Daniel Bird and Movie Schmovie's John Walker. Special guest Yossi Chajes, author of Between Worlds, discusses Kabbalah and Dybbuks.

Listen / Download Now:

Listen to "Episode 269: The Dybbuk (1937)" on Spreaker.

Links:
Buy The Dybbuk on Blu-Ray
Buy Between Worlds: Dybbuks, Exorcists, and Early Modern Judaism by J.H. Chajes
Buy Bridge of Light: Yiddish Film between Two Worlds by J. Hoberman
Visit Movie Schmovie to hear more John Walker
Listen to Rosemary Stretch at Bandcamp

Music:
"The Dybbuk" - Gackt
"Dybbuk Shers" - The Klezmatics

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Episode 268: Hard to Be a God (2013)

Special Guest: Daniel Bird
Guest Co-Host: Carol Borden, Travis Crawford

Based on a book by the Strugatsky Brothers, Hard to Be a God is a three hour medieval sci-fi film from Aleksei German wherein the inhumanity of man comes to the fore.

The material was also the source of Peter Fleischmann's 1989 film Es ist nicht leicht ein Gott zu sein. Both films inform the discussion this week with Travis Crawford and The Cultural Gutter's Carol Borden.

Download Episode Now:

Listen to "Episode 268: Hard to Be a God (2015)" on Spreaker.

Bonus:
Hear more of Travis Crawford on the Supporting Characters podcast.

Links:
Buy Hard to Be a God (2013) on Blu-Ray
Buy the Arrow Films version of Hard to Be a God
Buy Hard to Be a God by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
Be sure to visit the Cultural Gutter

Music:
"Rumata & Pampa (The Ride)" - Jurgen Fritz
"Hard to Be a God" - Grant Stevens

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Episode 167: Possession (1981)

Special Guests: Frederic Tuten & Daniel Bird
Guest Co-Hosts: Chris Bricklemyer

We're joined by Mr. Chris of the Outside the Cinema and Are You Serious podcasts to talk about Andrzej Żulawski's 1981 film Possession, a beautiful and challenging tale of a marriage falling apart in Cold War Berlin.

Links:
Visit the official Frederic Tuten website
Visit the Andrzej Zulawski fan site
Read about the Mondo Vision release of Possession
Order the Mondo Vision Blu-Ray of Possession
Order the Second Site (UK) Blu-Ray of Possession
Buy House of Psychotic Women by Kier-la Janisse
Listen to the Are You Serious? podcast
Listen to the Outside the Cinema podcast
Buy the Outside the Cinema archives

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "Episode 167: Possession (1981)" on Spreaker.

Watch: