July 1, 2019 • 50 mins
Tune in today for a Mini Crush special ep. Casey is back from Paris, guys! Let's hear all about it, shall we?
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Movie Crush, a production of I Heart Radio. Hey, everybody,
(00:29):
you welcome to Mini Crush. This is a special edition folks,
because well I needed to get one in the can
because Noel and I had a travel schedule situation in
b I wanted to do a special app with Casey
here about his well I call it Casey on Can,
but it was actually Casey in Paris. Yeah, that's the thing.
(00:50):
And I I'm half of mine to just start telling
people I was a Can and like simplify streamline it
a little bit because people go, oh my god, we're
you were in you were in Can? Like what you know?
What directors do you bump elbows with whatever? It's like, well,
it's cannon Paris, It's you know. Yeah, So what's the deal.
Let's break it down just so everyone knows Casey every
year goes to uh France. True, you go to Paris.
(01:14):
This is what your fifth year? Oh? No, six, ninth?
Oh nine? Yeah yeah that's great. Well it might be
the eighth. It's the ninth trip because I went twice
one year, um, and I skipped a year, So I
think it's about the eighth or ninth year. They going, right,
it's a city you love. Indeed, yes, people that you love,
a culture that you love, and you're a cinophile. So
(01:34):
it all kind of all dovetails nicely at all dovetails
into these trips that you take, usually around the can
Film Festival. Yeah, the last I think three years, um,
since I kind of learned that this, you know, was
something that anybody could do. Um. When the can Film
Festival is running, which is like mid May, um, the
last three days of the festival typically they will replay
(01:58):
a selection the competition films in Paris and so uh,
those last three days you just go online when the
when the lineup is announced by the tickets in your
golden and it is this is something that you have
to buy like before your trip. Yes, well I do,
just because you know, I don't want stuff to sell
out on you. But in in in my experience, I
(02:19):
don't know if I've ever been to a completely sold
out screening. It's a really large theater that they do
the screenings in. It's the gomant Um Opera right by
the Paras Opera House. Described the theater it's huge. It
is a huge, huge theater. Um very very um technically
superior kind of facilities, huge screen, great sound. Um, kind
(02:42):
of one of those where there's like not a bad
seat in the house, even if you're slightly off access
or a little bit further back. Um, I've never had
a bad seat in that theater, and I've been you know,
everything from like the front row, like far left side.
I think I saw the Neon Demon that way. That
was a particularly kind of sold out screening, so I
just kind of squeezed in at the front. But um, yeah,
(03:06):
it's it's it's incredible, and they they even go out
of their way to make it a little more can
like the the atmosphere in the theater. They have like
a red carpet outside where you line up before the
movie opens. They have you know, various kind of can
themed posters, and you get a real program that has
all the competition films, like the same handbill that would
(03:26):
be given out in Can. Is the theater like ornate inside.
I mean it's a multiplex. Yeah, it's it's somewhere between
American shopping mall and maybe slightly more innate. But there's
definitely like more movie palace type places in Paris, like
the Grand Rex or the Luxe or something that are
a little more that that kind of old timey feel.
(03:47):
This is more like just a very up to date,
you know, extremely competent projectory and kind of so, uh,
is the city itself sort of celebrating can or is
it just the one pocket where this movie theater is.
It feels a little bit more like a pocket. Although
if you're looking at you know, all the all the
sort of advertisements in the metro, all the kind of
(04:09):
ones that you'll walk past on the street, they'll often
be for films that are playing and can, or oftentimes
stuff will play and can and then go into general
theatrical lease in France like a few days later. It
kind of depends. Some stuff doesn't play until like later
in the fall um, but a lot of stuff it's
almost like they kind of use can as like a
launching point, so they get all the press and the
(04:32):
coverage and you know, people chomping at the bit to
see what all the fuss is about, and then they
put it out in theaters like a week later, which
is completely different than what we experience here in the States,
where it's kind of like you hear about it and
can and then you might not see it in general
theatrical lease until later in the year or even next year.
Sometimes you might only be able to catch it on
like a video for streaming kind of release. Um. So
(04:55):
it's definitely that's part of the appeal is to be
able to see this stuff when it's hot off the
presses and all the kind of like online film conversation
is centering around these movies, all the debates and controversies
and stuff, and you get to see it within like
a few days of that happening, which is great. Yeah,
it's it's really fun um. And then it's interesting too
because there's almost like a second wave when the stuff
(05:17):
does eventually come out in the States, it's like, oh yeah,
I remember seeing that like a year ago or six
months ago, and you kind of get to see how
the lapse in time, how something is received differently here.
Ersson can because can because you pack in so many
screenings every day, it gets to be a little fatiguing
and it gets to be sort of there's certain movies
(05:38):
that don't land properly because it's the three hour epic
slotted in between like three or four other things. You
have the one on that day. So you know, films
that require a little more patients or a little more
subtle or something. Sometimes those will get boot it can
or or just get kind of middling reviews. Um. But
then you know they open in the States or they
play other festivals around the world, it's not so jam
(06:01):
packed and people are like, oh, this is really a beautiful,
quiet film or something. You know. So there's always that
kind of can distortion feel the into account for and
it's kind of interesting to see the way something has
written about and talked about in its immediate release versus
where the conversation ultimately kind of falls like later on. UM.
I remember, like last year seeing uh Lars Vontua film
(06:24):
The House that Jack Built, and right away it was
kind of like hyped up as like it's so ultra violent,
it's so controversial, you can't believe he made this film,
and you know they're gonna have to edit it for
the US release and all this kind of stuff, and
I found it to be rather tame actually, um. Not
that there's not a few rough scenes in there, but
I mean it's it's it's you know, it's it's an
(06:45):
A rated film. It's it's not that crazy. Um. But
just kind of seeing like the hype of like massive
walkouts during the Can premiere and uh there's even like
a warning printed on people's tickets like this film contains
extreme violence and if you're upset by this, you know,
maybe consider not going, and which which all plays into
lars on Treers like provocatur thing like he wants that,
(07:08):
you know, he wants people to walk out, he wants
people to you know, throw up and whatever. You know,
just like um that if if they're not doing that,
then he feels like he hasn't done his job. But um,
to me, it was just kind of it was just interesting.
And also the conversation in France culturally is a little
different than the conversation in America culturally. Yeah, that's what
I was gonna ask next, Like what is the film
(07:30):
going audience? Like? Um, not just like especially for these films,
because I imagine this is the people like you. Yeah,
it's it's cinephile audience. It's like it's like a subsection
of you know, people who you know more broadly speaking,
or like the movie audience in France. Yeah, Like what's
it like in there? What's different? It's very I mean
(07:51):
with all the Cans screenings, there's there's an energy and
excitement and anticipation. Um. People. You can tell everybody around
you is probably been reading the same blogs and and
and like following the same accounts on Twitter and reading
the same reactions out of Can and so on. Um,
they're familiar with the previous works of the filmmaker, like
they're they're just steeped in that. In that feeling, there's
(08:13):
a lot of um, people that are you know, like
university age, their students, their film students that are again
like their whole they eat, breathe and sleep cinema kind
of thing. So there's yeah and um, and then there's
there's also like older like you know, professorial types or
just people that are you know, somewhere beyond student age
(08:36):
that are you know, cinophiles, And they're not necessarily like
involved in it professionally, but they are just these die
hard Parisian cinophiles that you see it every screening kind
of thing. Have you heard booing or clapping or hissing. Yeah,
there's there's um, not so much booing. Um, the booing
definitely happens and can and I think it happens. They're
(08:58):
more because oftentimes the casting crew are present so they
it's like, yeah, it's like a direct kind of response
thing where it's like there's no filter. You know, even
if you're one of those filmmakers, it's like, I don't
read reviews, you know, you want to say what they say. UM.
There's there's no filter in can And they will definitely
they'll boo your movie, they'll walk out of your movie,
(09:19):
or they'll give it a ten minute standing ovation, like
you know, you're gonna know one way or the other
where where people land on things. And there's always like
one or two movies a year. I feel like the
curators of can UM do this somewhat deliberately, like they
always program something in the main competition that you know
is going to cause polarizing it's going to cause some
(09:41):
kind of big reaction. Last year it was a large
one treer movie. They want articles to be written about
what's going on. Yeah, I mean, they are in a
changing media landscape. They're they're in a world. I mean,
the last few years of can have been kind of,
I don't know, haunted by the specter of Netflix, like
the debate like should a Netflix film play and can
(10:02):
should it not? Um? There were several high profile instances where,
for instance, um Alfonso Quorn's Roma was going to be
in Can and then Netflix pulled it because Can was
kind of being you know, Kenny about about their inclusion
the year before. I think there have been several films
from Netflix that were included, like Noah, Bomb Box, um
(10:26):
Myrowits Stories, Um, several other kind of hope, high profile ones.
Where do you land on that. It's really tricky because
these are movies, Yeah, there are There are movies, and
some of them are great movies, like like a Roma
that is absolutely made to be seen in a theater,
even though it may only get a symbolic theatrical release. Unfortunately,
(10:46):
it's a tough call. Aile, It's a tough call. Um. Yeah,
it would encourage people to still go out and see
these things. Yeah. And and also because of the realities
of the rest of the industry where it's moved, it's
shifted in this direction of like you know, Marvel and
and franchise pictures and so on are like some of
the only things getting made by major studios the whole
(11:08):
like mid level otur like grown ups in a room
talking style cinema really has become the domain of like Netflix,
and Amazon people like that that are still willing to,
you know, put ten twenty million on a budget for
a respected filmmaker to make something kind of quiet and adult.
And um. So a lot of these movies that are
(11:31):
like the kind of movies I care about are getting
financed way more by these streaming services than are getting
these kind of like theatrical uh you know, origins. So
for all those reasons, I mean, I'm kind of like
loosely in favor of it, But at the same time,
I don't like what Netflix is doing in terms of
(11:51):
how they release these films where they really will go
almost straight to on demand or or like a week
later go to on demand and some times no theatrical
at all if there's not if it's not like a
question of awards sea um, but you know, I mean
something like um, the upcoming Scorsese film The Irishman, which
(12:13):
I think the budget for that is somewhere between two
and three million, and they're and they're paying to have
all these d aging effects done for Robert de Niro. UM,
which has been like a passion project of Scorsese's for
a while, and it never would have been made at
a major studio because nobody's going to put that kind
of money in. You know, Netflix can have a little
(12:33):
bit different of a calculation where it's like, we may
not make our money back on this exact picture one
to one, but we will drive people to subscribe our service,
make a name for ourselves on the international scene, and
so on. So I don't know. I think. I think
film distribution in Hollywood and the industry is a ever changing,
evolving landscape and at the moment, there's a lot of
(12:56):
good reasons, valid reasons for people, you know, high caliber
filmmak is do me making stuff with Netflix or Amazon,
and so I don't know. I think I think you
have to look at them as films basically. But but
Becan has arrived at this position now where basically they're
not including the Netflix stuff in the selection, and it's
(13:18):
a whole separate argument about uh, theatrical distribution in France.
So it's like, if a film has theatrical distribution in
France lined up and it's not going to immediately go
to streaming, then they will consider it as like a
theatrical release. If it's something that's going to go straight
to streaming, and Netflix doesn't want to guarantee any kind
of theatrical release there, then they may not, you know,
(13:41):
see it that way. And there's also there's a similar
tension just between like TV in general and because you know,
for instance, like Twin Peaks, the return had sort of
a screening of a few episodes and can this year
they showed the new UM Nicholas Winding refin series Too
Old to Die Young. They would like a couple episodes
(14:01):
that were almost combined in like a mini feature and
like a special screening. So they still they still have
like their favorite kind of tours and people that they
will kind of been the rules were exactly for David
Lynch or something. So what is uh films aside? How
(14:27):
long are you over there? Three weeks? Yeah, what's going
on day to day? So yeah, the day to day
existence for me? Uh, this time, I stayed in the
ninth Aarondy Small um close to UM. I stayed there
deliberately because it was kind of walking distance, about a
fifteen minute walk from the second Arandy Small which is Opera,
(14:50):
which is where the screenings happen. It just makes it
easier because I don't have to like plan like a
thirty minute metro trip. I can just literally walk out
of the apart men, and I know, any time of day,
any conditions, you know, strike or no strike or whatever, like,
I can just be there in like fifteen minutes time. Um,
So for the three days that the actual festival screenings
(15:13):
are happening, it's jam packed. It's like, get up, make
it to your first screening, maybe at like ten am,
and then they're they're staggered, but only by like five
or ten minutes screenings and they all happen in the
same room. So one screening ends, you have to walk out,
get back in line, and you're running right back in
and you're lucky if you have enough time for like
(15:34):
a bathroom break or you know, grabbing something from like
one of the convenience machines. So how many movies are
you seeing in a day? Probably like four, three to four,
maybe five. That happens over the course of three days
three days. If you were if you were going to
pack in all the screenings that are offered, it would
be somewhere between like say twelve and fifteen screenings in
(15:57):
those three days. The film's only play once, and so
it's like you're either there you're not there, and It's
very interesting because a lot of these films, like obviously
the high profile stuff will have a lot of coverage.
Some of the smaller, lesser known like maybe first time
filmmakers or just things that are not as much on
the radar might only have one or two reviews by
(16:19):
the time you're deciding whether or not you want to
go see it, So you really have to kind of
go on maybe just like a line or two, like
a log line on IMDb or something, to really know
what this is. UM. So that can be quite interesting,
like uh, taking taking a chance on just a random
thing and walking in and sometimes it pays off and
sometimes it doesn't. But for those three days, it is
(16:41):
like the only thing you're doing basically is sitting in
this dark room watching these movies and kind of, like
I said, scrambling to your next screening, or once in
a while, I'll hit upon something that I don't want
to see UM and so I'll be like, Okay, that's
a deal break. You know, I can actually go off
site and like sit down for a nice meal for
like an hour and a half two hours, make it
(17:02):
back to the theater and pick up. So before we
get into these films, Um, I still don't have enough
a painted picture. So so besides those three days, like
what are you doing? Are you walking around? I'm sleeping
as a Parisian, Yeah, sleep when I'm sleeping in. I'm
definitely not sending an alarm clock most days unless there's
some specific reason. I'm walking everywhere as much as possible. Um.
(17:26):
I do take the metro, but I prefer to walk
when I can, just to see the city, feel like
you're in the city and you know, across random stuff,
notice things. Um, the metro is a little bit more
like teleportation, so you don't feel the same connection. So
do you have an agenda most days, like I want
to go to this museum and do this thing or
(17:47):
is it mainly like I'm just gonna go see where
the day takes me. You know. The most planning I
will do typically is I will go online and look
at all the schedules for all the different cinema that
I'm interested in. Uh, And I do have like a
group of maybe five or ten that I tend to
like frequent the most that are more like repertory kind
(18:08):
of programming, and so I will look at those schedules
and then I'll make kind of like notes in my calendar,
and not with the intention that I'm going to make
it every one of the screenings, because Parents is one
of the cities that you immediately realize, even if I
wanted to, I could not literally physically be in all
these places in the same twenty four hour period. So
(18:30):
you have to you have to trade things off. You
have to say, if I go to this one, I'm
not going to make it across town to this other
thing that starts like fifteen minutes later. So which of
these two and then from there, maybe this one puts
me on the side or on the right side of
town for this third thing or whatever, because you also
want to enjoy Paris and exactly exactly, and so I
do reserve the right any time to abandon plans and
(18:52):
just be like, you know what, even though there's like
something playing at thirty five one time today that I'm
probably never going to see again, I just need some
time outside. I've been I've been endorsed too much. Yeah,
and it's it's fine. You realize there's always going to
be something else a day or two later that's gonna
be just as compelling pretty much. So yeah, I mean
(19:12):
my My routine is walking around taking a lot of pictures,
sometimes doing some some you know, some moving pictures as well.
Imagine Parison may is beautiful typically not this year. It
rained like a lot here, but Paris is beautiful in
the rain. It is beautiful in the rain too, but
at a certain points, like all right, cut it out.
I want some sunlight and I want some like hard shadows.
(19:33):
I don't just want like overcast for every every picture
I take. Um. But yeah, it's it's that, it's going
to nice restaurants. It's you know, seeing my friends that
live there there. Yeah. Absolutely, Yeah. I've got kind of
a core of like three or four pals that you've
met while traveling, that I've met. Well, this is this
(19:53):
kind of it's a side track a little bit. But
no Chandler, who also works here, he hasn't done a
movie crush I see, okay, um, But Chandler also big cinephile. Um.
He put me in touch with somebody who was a
Canadian expat friend of his who had lived in Atlanta
(20:13):
like during high school. So they went to high school together.
And then uh, this guy, because he has Irish grandparents,
was able to get an EU passport. Just I'm so
one of these if anybody you can do that. Um,
and I've met numerous you know. It's it's you always
ask everybody like, how did you how did you end
up here? How do you how do you stay? It
(20:34):
is really the key question. And it's like, oh, yeah,
Irish grandparents or this or that thing have dual citizenship.
It's like, because it's not so easy for someone like
myself who has just bog standard British English kind of
Anglo origins. There's there's no special program for that, you know,
feel sorry for us, you know. Um. So uh, he
(20:59):
put me in touch with this friend of a friend
kind of thing, and so I met him. Through him,
I met more people and and and through those other
people who are more kind of like ex pat types
as well. I'm that some like Parisians that are you know,
willing to be friends with ex pats, which is not
every Parision. Parisians um tend to be a little insular.
(21:21):
They tend to be a little private. Um. They tend
to kind of stick to their social circle, and those
social circles don't necessarily overlap very much with their professional world.
So you can work with somebody for years and years
and not even know if they're married or have kids,
or never be invited over to their house for any
kind of thing. So it's like, you know, and it's
(21:42):
considered kind of rude to like when you meet a
person for the first time to be like, what do
you do? You know, that's like the least interesting thing
to talk about. Um, it's more like what do you
do when you're not at work? Like what is your passion?
What do you really you know? So yeah, I mean
it's it's it's definitely a work to live rather than
live to work. Yeah thing, and um, not so much. No, No,
(22:05):
I'm not like a real I'm not like a real
wine connoisseur. I'm not even particularly a food person. So
a lot of my meals are more functional, you know, Yeah,
a lot of a lot of McDonald's, surprisingly because specifically
in the geography of where that theater, the opera theater is,
(22:26):
there's a McDonald's literally like next door to it. So
if you have to get the quick meal, yeah, I
mean I know, I can be in and out of
there in like ten fifteen minutes. Yeah, well, with chicken nuggets,
it's kind of my go to you thing like a
true child. Um, because it's just it's fast, man, and
it's predictable. And I mean the dining in Paris is
(22:46):
a complete opposite. They assume you're there to hang out
and like when you're when you're finished with a meal,
they don't bring you the check or anything like that's
your real estate if you want to sit there for
hours and hours and read a book or drinking, do whatever,
or like it's it's yours. You know, you you have
claim over that thing. And they're not trying to rotate
in you know, X number of more groups or seatings
(23:08):
or whatever. So um, there's this weird standoff that happens
where you've like finished the meal and you're kind of
like trying to catch the eye of the person and
be like that is the only soup thing, um And
uh and yeah, that can that can easily add twenty
minutes to a meal sometimes and that could be the
critical difference between gettings where you want to be or not.
(23:31):
So you know, I have gotten to the point where
it's just like I know I can run over here,
do you know, get some calories in my body and
then just like run back in for another screening. How's
your French these days? Perfect? I would say it's perfect. Um.
I think for it to be like completely fluent, I
would just need to live there for a period of time.
But it's it's good. Oh yeah, yeah, And um, I
(23:55):
do as much as I can here to keep it fresh.
When I'm not there, it kind of ebbs and flows.
I'll go through periods where like I'm reading a novel
or something in French and I'm really kind of tied
into it, where there will be like a podcast in
French that I'm kind of checking every week. Um, We're
seeing French films, Yeah, seeing French films and um, even
going to like meet up groups where people talk French
(24:15):
and that kind of thing. A Predium, you know, Fredium
near the Midtown Art there's there's a monthly when they're Um,
there's there's a few things. There's like the Alliance Front
says in Atlanta you can take classes and go to
meet ups and stuff and no, no, I mean that's
you know, that's one thing you learned about Paris is
that it's not all striped shirts and berets, French poodles
(24:38):
and and all that. So let's go through a couple
of like, let's maybe pick out your three favorite films
that you saw. It looks like you saw about what
from the Yeah, from the main from the main competition,
and also from the sidebar competitions, because there's also in
addition to the main competition, there's these sidebars during the
festival like Uncertain and Regard, h Directors Fortnite, Critics Week,
(25:03):
Um a Seed, and a few others that are not
considered part of the official festival per se, but they
are tertiary to the festival, And especially like Uncertain, Regard
and Director's Fortnite, there's a lot of really good stuff
that ends up in those that for one reason or another,
maybe because the filmmaker is not as politically like favored
by the can selection committee and so on. There's a
(25:26):
lot of like behind the scenes stuff favoritism that goes
on um where sometimes the really compelling stuff will end
up in these sidebars. And so the sidebar films will
play in the weeks following the main competition repris Sou
and those are more exhaustive in their scope, which is
great too, because one of the main frustrations of the
(25:47):
main competition stuff is you never know what's going to
get picked and what's not or for some other reason,
like maybe the distributor doesn't even want to replay it
in Paris. So, for instance, there were two kind of
heartbreakers this year, the Terence Malick film Hidden Life and
the Tarantino film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Both
of those are missing from Paris. And you know, it's
(26:09):
just one of the sayings where sometimes you get the
big ones and sometimes you don't. Probably it's a case
in both where the distributor doesn't necessarily have an incentive
to replay it in Paris and have like another five
dred thousand people see it when they could just build
the hype longer and keep the word of mouth, the
buzz going and open it like you know, over the summer,
(26:32):
in the fall or something. Yeah, I'm sure you wanted
to see those and apparently that I'm sure you know.
But the Terence Malick film is getting pretty good marks.
It did of a return to form. Absolutely, yes, a
movie with an actual sort of coherent had he had
he had more of a screenplay this time. And uh,
and you know, as as one critic described it, there
are actual scenes of people in a room talking to
(26:52):
each other, for a sustained amount of time where we
don't suddenly jump forward backward chronologically or what somebody's thinking
about out or a memory they're having or whatever. Yeah, Um,
here's what we'll do. I'll pick out one and then
(27:12):
you pick out one. Um, because I want to hear
a little bit and you know, don't give too much away,
but just maybe your overall thought. Yeah, I'll try not
to anything, but I would love to hear a little
bit about the Lighthouse. Yes, Robert Egger's follow up to
The Witch, which is incredible to to think that, for
(27:32):
me to think, having seen it already, there's not even
a trailer yet. I think there's just without one production
still of Robert Pattinson standing in front of the lighthouse
and black and white. This movie is important to me
because I wrote a script thriller period in this movie.
I read about it after I had written that script
and I was gonna make it on a very small
(27:54):
budget basis and the money fell through, and then I've
heard about this movie and I was like, son of
a bitch, If I remember right, yours had more of
like a intruders coming from the outside vibe. Yeah, So
how do you like this boy. Um, this is a
tough one to talk about because I was a little
mixed on it, even though even though I think it's
(28:16):
extremely strong filmmaking from from Eggers and and everybody involved.
The performances are super compelling to watch. I mean, it's
just great, especially Willam Nafoe hearing him do this kind
of like Herman Melville, like Pirates. Yeah, there's a lot
of humor. There's there's a lot of like like body
(28:39):
kind of like uh, there's there's you know, multiple fart
jokes throughout the movie, which which you kind of don't
expect necessarily in something, you know whatever. Um. Yeah, I
mean it's it's a very like intense psychological kind of thriller. Um.
It's it's very much about I'm and I would compare
(29:00):
it in some ways to The Shining. It's about somebody
going through kind of a mental breakdown, let's say, and
uh and having visions and seeing things that you're not
sure are real or not real. Um. And also yes,
the isolation of being on this island where nobody else's
you know, it's kind of the cabin fever sort of thing. Um.
(29:22):
But it's remarkable the way they shot it with these
old cameras that I believe date to like the silent
film era, and lenses that certainly are are quite old
as well. Again kind of the uncoded lenses that don't
quote unquote perform optically as well as a newer lens today,
but has more of a character to it. Um. It
(29:43):
is in black and white, and it is in a
very narrow, tall aspect ratio one point one nine to one.
That's not even square, is it. No, it's like narrower
than square. And you really don't say that exactly. Um,
you really don't see that aspect ratio used very much. Um,
And uh yeah, it gives I mean, obviously it's a
(30:06):
film about a lighthouse, which is kind of a tall,
narrow thing, so so it's obviously well suited for that,
but it also just immediately puts you in this whole
other aesthetic universe of Um. Yeah, like parts of it
kind of reminded me of like Tarkovsky for instance, or Bergman,
some of Bergman's really intense kind of black and white films. Um.
(30:27):
It absolutely has this like art house kind of aesthetic
to it. It's i mean every shot you could kind
of freeze frame and you know it's it's yeah, exactly exactly,
and um, so the reason I was mixed on the
film was that there's so many things about it that
are super compelling, and that it's just kind of firing
on all cylinders. The ultimate underlying story of what happens
(30:51):
is a little threadbare. It's a little kind of like
there's all this kind of sound and fury around it,
but if you kind of reduce it down, there's not
as much thematically happening as for instance, in The Witch,
which I think was a more overall better kind of
controlled and paced film, had more atmosphere to it. I mean,
(31:12):
the Lighthouse has a ton of atmosphere as well, Um,
just that that's setting on the island, and um, the
sound of the seagulls and the waves crashing in the isolation,
and um, the just like the starkness of the of
the surroundings. Definitely, there's there's tons of atmosphere. But I
think The Witch had more of like a patience and
a and a slow burned quality to it that really
(31:33):
ratcheted up the horror and the tension as the film progressed.
Whereas this one kind of like the shining, like it's
sort of the thing where Jack Nicholson's already half crazy
when he's driving up in the car, like it just
kind of feels like it jumps into it, and then
it just kind of like it's like a sledge hammer.
It just kind of like keeps getting more and more
and more and more intense. But afterwards there was less
(31:55):
for me to kind of digest, Let's say, then with
The Witch, where you could really dig into all the
themes about you know, what it means for like this
young woman to be the witch and to be kind
of there's almost like a sort of like a feminist
subtext about it, about you know, the history of the
witch trials and women's sexuality and all this kind of stuff.
This was a little more kind of just a crazy yarn,
(32:19):
you know. And and it's as I said, I mean,
I will I will gladly go see it in when
it opens here. I think people will be I think
a lot of people will really love this film. I
think it won't work for everybody necessarily, um, but I
do think it's it's going to be one of the
more talked about movies this year for sure. And uh,
and like I said, um, visually, just like unmatched, but
(32:42):
you know, versus pretty much anything else I saw. Um,
why don't we let you pick your favorite film that
you saw. Okay, let's see. I mean I'm seeing names
on here. There's a few. Yes, Well, the the yeah,
oh god, the ken Loach was heartbreaking, heartbreaking. Yeah, maybe
(33:03):
that's the one to talk about because sorry, sorry, we
missed you, Sorry, we missed you. And that that's a
reference to kind of the whole gig economy, Amazon Prime
world of you know, same day delivery. Um, these these
kind of couriers who um are our contract workers or
there their independent contractor they're they're not full employees who
(33:25):
are working for this company. So they assume all the
risk by either renting or purchasing this delivery van. And uh,
it's kind of like it's on them to make their
route and make their schedule. And it doesn't matter if
somebody's not home and you need a signature, doesn't matter
if the neighbor's home and he hates the guy that
(33:46):
the delivery is being made for. He says, screw that guy,
I'm not going to sign for him. And it's like police,
or I have ten more of these deliveries. I need
to make if I have to double back here, it's
not going to work out. Only in the world of
is that a movie? I know, I know, but what's
you know that that? So there's that going on. But
of course it's also the story of not just the
delivery driver but his family too. It's a very very
(34:09):
fleshed out portrait of these these four people husband, wife
and two kids, a son and a daughter and um
and you see how um the wife is working as
like a like a part time nurse, kind of like
she she does in home care. So she will kind
of like go by somebody's house, an elderly person that's
(34:31):
living by themselves, maybe doesn't have anybody else to look
out after them, and um, and you know, just make
sure they're getting on well you know, UM clean anything
that needs to be cleaned up. But she has such
a human touch with him. She has like a real
genuine relationship with this with these people, they're like friends
(34:51):
and she really cares and invests in them emotionally. And
yet the the employer that she works for is very
like metric driven, and you know, you have this many
minutes to get in and out, and there's no such
thing as extenuating circumstances and so on. So it is
it is that that that conflict between like what what
(35:14):
Loaches saying about, like maybe a slightly older world idea
of people taking their time and and and being patient
and and kind of working with someone that way versus
this sort of like on demand economy where we're we're
measuring things down into like milliseconds, you know, and it's
(35:35):
all about increased efficiency and revenue and and um, you know,
quarterly growth and all the rest of it. So um
always a champion of the uh, the working working class. Yeah,
I mean he's he's he's made a career out of
this since the nineteen sixtiesies. Yeah, small little socialist films.
(35:57):
Yeah yeah, yeah yeah yeah, socialist realism of kitchen st
dramas really interesting. But like what was so what was
so great? Because I'm I don't always get on that
well with Ken Loach's films, and even the one he
made right before this one, uh, which I can't I'm
blaking on the names Daniel Blake, I can't remember his name,
I Daniel Blake. Um, that one to me felt a
(36:20):
little more schematic and a little more like these are
less three dimensional characters, and they're more sort of all
the kind of parts we need to show that the
NHS is being savage by kind of austerity. Um in
in in um there's a sense where sometimes you feel
(36:41):
like character or secondary to like the political point he
wants to make, and sometimes things are a little too
convenient or a little too on the nose. But with
Sorry we missed You, it did not feel that way
at all. I've just felt so so much empathy for
this person, for the for the whole family. And again
it's like we were saying about about birth, where everybody
(37:03):
has their reasons, everybody has their own motivations, and they
are at odds with each other, but you understand everybody's
position and you just want the best for everybody, and
you realize that the tension is just getting more and
more ratcheted up, and you know things are things are
going wrong and there's no margin of error, and it
just gets it just goes from bad to worse. And
(37:24):
it was one of those films and like for days after,
like if if I even tried to like summarize the
plot for somebody, I would get kind of choked up
about it, you know, because they really do feel like
real people. And after the movie is over, it ends
on kind of an open end of note where it's
it's not all bad and it's not all good. You
kind of just understand you've seen a window into this
(37:45):
person's life and experience for maybe a month, you know,
and they're gonna go on and there's gonna be more
ups and downs, but so you kind of you're left
with this, like, I wonder how he's doing now. I
don't wonder how the family is getting on. You know,
you really do, you really do live with them within you.
So it's UM beautiful film. I you know, I can't
wait to see it again. I'm gonna pick the next
(38:08):
one because I'm always curious what Pedro Almodovar is doing next.
And he has a film called Paint and Glory. Yeah, Um,
what's that all about. It's one of his best movies
and in a long time, I think, Um, and it's
kind of his Wild Strawberries if you've seen that one
uh Bergman film as well. Not um, it's it's about somebody.
(38:30):
It's about a filmmaker, um, his painting Glory. I'm talking
about about a filmmaker who has had many kind of
critical successes throughout his career. Who is the filmmaker It's
played by Antonio Benderes. Of course, you know it's it's
a fictional filmmaker, but you know, and it's it's sort
of a loosely based on a motivar himself. Um so
(38:51):
his he has like the same kind of hair and
beard as a motive art um and he lives in
this apartment that you can you can just imagine this
is probably how a motivar has his apartment decorated in
terms of like these really bold reds and yellows, and
you know, he's kind of very modernist, artistic, beautiful, beautifully
uh furnished apartment. Um that that kind of feels like,
(39:14):
I mean, the character says at one point, like I
don't I don't have a lot of money in the bank,
I don't have a lot of investments. Like this apartment
is everything to me. You know, this is like my
life's work sort of is summed up in this space
they's built. And so he he's been asked to show
up at a screening of a restoration of one of
his earlier films. That's it's been maybe twenty or thirty
(39:36):
years since it came out. And on that film, he
had this this kind of contentious relationship with his main actor,
who we come to find out was like on a
lot of drugs during the making of the film, and
the character himself was also written to beyond drugs during
the film, but they were different drugs. So as written
in the film, he's supposed to be like a cocaine
(39:58):
kind of guy, end in reality he was like strung
out on heroin. So the performance that he gave in
the film was very low energy, very like restraint, very
kind of chilled out, um, whereas the director was going
for this more like energetic, talking ninety miles a minute
kind of thing. And so for that reason, um, they
(40:19):
had a falling out and they actually have not spoken
since that film. And so now the film has been
restored and they are asking him to come present it
and they also want him to have the lead actor
come presented as well, and so it's sort of like,
after all this time a part um the filmmakers also
we we we meet him at a moment in his
life where he's had uh some major surgeries done. His
(40:42):
health is not what it used to be. He has
difficulty getting around he has like a lot of back pain,
and so we're kind of seeing him at this moment
later in his career where he actually feels like he
can't make films anymore because he can't be as physically
dedicated to the role of the director as he used
to be. So he's in this weird moment where he's
sort of like becoming the legend, you know, he's becoming
(41:04):
like the lifetime Achievement award phase of the career where
it's like, you know, on the one hand, it's great
to be given these awards in this recognition and all
this respect and so on, but at the same time,
it's kind of like saying, your time is over and
you're past it, and yeah, yeah, and so yeah. I mean,
it's it's the story of these two friends kind of
(41:25):
reconnecting with each other, and ultimately the story of this
filmmaker kind of learning to live again, learning to uh,
you know, embrace life and not be so like fatalistic
about everything. And there's a numerous like flashbacks to his
childhood where Penelope Cruz plays his mother, and those are
some extremely moving scenes where I think he captures so
(41:49):
beautifully the quality of his childhood and um, just those
those kind of like formative moments where in the case
of this character, he's kind of coming to terms with
his sexuality. It's he he's realizing he's having the first
inklings that he's gay. And um, which is a common
theme obviously in a lot of them, one of our films,
um and UM. Yeah, I mean it's just a beautiful
(42:13):
film about life, about a lot of things, about aging,
about um an artist who has had their moment and
their moments kind of passed, and and and also sort
of realizing that these people that he made the films
with over the years, we're just that people, you know,
and that there's more to it than just whether he's
happy with the film or not, you know, and that
(42:34):
there's these relationships that he's maybe discarded a little bit thoughtlessly,
that he's actually able to, you know, begin again. Uh.
I think we have time maybe for one more. Um,
maybe you can pick this one because some of these
I don't really know, Um what what what? What? Whether
the film really stood out to you with something that
(42:56):
you loved and like something that you really would like
to recommend. How about this pick one that you would
really like to recommend people see that they might otherwise not. Yeah, okay,
So then the one I won't pick because I think
a lot of people will will see this anyway as
parasite the Bong Junehoe film. Um, just because he's he's
(43:16):
made a number of great films and um, this one
won the top prize, the Palm Door, and um is
you know, lives up to the hype. Let's say. So
when that one opens, absolutely go see it. If you're
a fan of Bong Junehoe. Um that it definitely delivers.
But I won't say anything more than that, other than
it's a very well made film. It's funny, it's violent,
(43:38):
it's suspenseful, and it's just the kind of like extremely
confidently made film that we see less and less these days.
I think it it harkens back to another era of
like just the rock solid screenplay and you know, the
director of firing on all cylinders kind of. So the
one I think my favorite film overall out of everything
(44:01):
that I saw a French film by I don't know
how you pronounce her name, Saline Siama or Skyma Portrait
of a Lady on Fire, which is a little bit
of a it's not a great translation. The French title
is um puto gin fie alpha, which is young young lady,
like young woman on fire. UM. And the young is
(44:23):
important because you know, it is it is like a
youthful love story. So it's essentially about it's it's like
a two hander. It's these two young women. Uh. One
is kind of lives in this like castle almost you know,
it's it's it's like a mansion, let's say on the
(44:43):
coast of France somewhere, and um in in sort of
relative isolation. Um has a wealthy mother, and the wealthy
mother wants to marry off her young daughter. And the
way they're going to accomplish this is by having her
portrait painted. This is like say, probably like the nineteenth
(45:04):
century sometimes and and by having this portrait made, they
will show this portrait too wealthy you know, uh, eligible
men and you know, maybe drum up some interest and
and and having this marriage happened. So that's her tender profile. Yeah, exactly,
that's that's that's the profipic and uh. And so this
(45:25):
young painter comes from Paris and and it's basically given
this assignment to stay with her two three weeks and
you know, get to know the subject, get get to
to know just to be familiar with what she looks like, um,
what she truly looks like, you know, to get an
impression of the person, not like a photographic one to
(45:46):
one of like in that particular moment they look this way,
but just a broader sense of who this is. And
so it's kind of like the paint what you know,
not what you see sort of thing. He's trying to
capture an essence exactly exactly. It's a she, it's a woman,
and so, uh so she comes there and then slowly,
(46:06):
um she She makes several attempts to to do this
painting and then kind of discards them because none of
them are really living up to capturing this essence that
she's aiming for. But in the back story, like kind
of in the background of all this, they're also sort
of like getting feelings for each other. They're starting to
fall in love and uh and so the mother goes
(46:27):
away for a number of weeks. It's not really specified
exactly how long. I think we know what happens next,
but yeah, but it's kind of like by the time
I get back, I want this portrait to be done
and you to be out of your sort of thing.
And that's obviously when their relationship really takes off to
this level. And yeah, it's like this beautiful love story
(46:47):
and they get the painting just right, you know. And
then there's this realization of like, now everybody's back, and
there's like the strange young man downstairs and I don't
really know this guy, and he is here to kind
of size me up, and you know, and and of
course in front of the mother, they have to keep
up appearances and not have this big emotional goodbye, and
(47:09):
so it's it's very restrained and your heart is kind
of in your throat because you you want to see
this this uh, this beautiful relationship continue, and you know
it for all these different reasons, it probably can't in
that time. And so there's that separation. But then there's
kind of like a wink and a nod at the
end that's sort of does not tell you that they're
(47:31):
going to be together, but tells you that that they
their their feelings for each other persistent. And so what
what I found so compelling about the film, Number One,
the performances are excellent. Uh, the cinematography is beautiful. It
is that sort of beautiful Painter Lee image that we
(47:53):
don't see all the time in cinema. Um, it's it's
a very like gent, whole quiet film. There's not a
lot of score. Um, the editing is kind of razor sharp.
You get into scenes and out of scenes at exactly
the right time, and there's there's just so much happening
in in the faces, in the way that they look
(48:14):
at each other, in the things that go unspoken, and
just felt that you just feel like you were watching
these two real people up on screen. And um, yeah,
I was just like so thoroughly impressed with the film.
It also won one of the top prizes, the Best
Screenplay Prize. I do believe it has been picked up.
(48:36):
I forget by who, but somebody has picked it up
for distribution, so it will see a release and hopefully, um, yeah,
more and more to come. Awesome. Yeah, dude, this was fun. Yeah.
I think there's so much more. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely, there's
um there's a million more things to talk about. But
that's just a little sampling of You know what we
(48:58):
can do is, uh, maybe when the releases, we can
just put out a list of other recommendations on the
Facebook page from you and just get that over to
me and I'll post it. Yeah, and because I know
people are always looking for for good recks like this. Yeah,
and there's there's a whole other, you know, sidebar of
all the stuff that I was able to catch outside
of ken right in Paris that you know informs these
(49:21):
trips as well. Just make a big old list. Yeah,
do whatever you want. You can hidcheck my Facebook page
for all. All right, thanks dude, and I hope everyone
enjoyed this, and we'll be back next Monday with a
regular silly mini with Nolan I doing our dumb stuff.
But we thought we'd take a hyghbrow for a week
and I appreciate you stopping by. Oh, this is has
been so much fun, So thanks brother. Yeah. Thanks for
(49:57):
more podcasts for my heart radio, visit the I heart
Rate eo app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.
Welcome to Movie Crush, a production of I Heart Radio. Hey, everybody,
(00:29):
you welcome to Mini Crush. This is a special edition folks,
because well I needed to get one in the can
because Noel and I had a travel schedule situation in
b I wanted to do a special app with Casey
here about his well I call it Casey on Can,
but it was actually Casey in Paris. Yeah, that's the thing.
(00:50):
And I I'm half of mine to just start telling
people I was a Can and like simplify streamline it
a little bit because people go, oh my god, we're
you were in you were in Can? Like what you know?
What directors do you bump elbows with whatever? It's like, well,
it's cannon Paris, It's you know. Yeah, So what's the deal.
Let's break it down just so everyone knows Casey every
year goes to uh France. True, you go to Paris.
(01:14):
This is what your fifth year? Oh? No, six, ninth?
Oh nine? Yeah yeah that's great. Well it might be
the eighth. It's the ninth trip because I went twice
one year, um, and I skipped a year, So I
think it's about the eighth or ninth year. They going, right,
it's a city you love. Indeed, yes, people that you love,
a culture that you love, and you're a cinophile. So
(01:34):
it all kind of all dovetails nicely at all dovetails
into these trips that you take, usually around the can
Film Festival. Yeah, the last I think three years, um,
since I kind of learned that this, you know, was
something that anybody could do. Um. When the can Film
Festival is running, which is like mid May, um, the
last three days of the festival typically they will replay
(01:58):
a selection the competition films in Paris and so uh,
those last three days you just go online when the
when the lineup is announced by the tickets in your
golden and it is this is something that you have
to buy like before your trip. Yes, well I do,
just because you know, I don't want stuff to sell
out on you. But in in in my experience, I
(02:19):
don't know if I've ever been to a completely sold
out screening. It's a really large theater that they do
the screenings in. It's the gomant Um Opera right by
the Paras Opera House. Described the theater it's huge. It
is a huge, huge theater. Um very very um technically
superior kind of facilities, huge screen, great sound. Um, kind
(02:42):
of one of those where there's like not a bad
seat in the house, even if you're slightly off access
or a little bit further back. Um, I've never had
a bad seat in that theater, and I've been you know,
everything from like the front row, like far left side.
I think I saw the Neon Demon that way. That
was a particularly kind of sold out screening, so I
just kind of squeezed in at the front. But um, yeah,
(03:06):
it's it's it's incredible, and they they even go out
of their way to make it a little more can
like the the atmosphere in the theater. They have like
a red carpet outside where you line up before the
movie opens. They have you know, various kind of can
themed posters, and you get a real program that has
all the competition films, like the same handbill that would
(03:26):
be given out in Can. Is the theater like ornate inside.
I mean it's a multiplex. Yeah, it's it's somewhere between
American shopping mall and maybe slightly more innate. But there's
definitely like more movie palace type places in Paris, like
the Grand Rex or the Luxe or something that are
a little more that that kind of old timey feel.
(03:47):
This is more like just a very up to date,
you know, extremely competent projectory and kind of so, uh,
is the city itself sort of celebrating can or is
it just the one pocket where this movie theater is.
It feels a little bit more like a pocket. Although
if you're looking at you know, all the all the
sort of advertisements in the metro, all the kind of
(04:09):
ones that you'll walk past on the street, they'll often
be for films that are playing and can, or oftentimes
stuff will play and can and then go into general
theatrical lease in France like a few days later. It
kind of depends. Some stuff doesn't play until like later
in the fall um, but a lot of stuff it's
almost like they kind of use can as like a
launching point, so they get all the press and the
(04:32):
coverage and you know, people chomping at the bit to
see what all the fuss is about, and then they
put it out in theaters like a week later, which
is completely different than what we experience here in the States,
where it's kind of like you hear about it and
can and then you might not see it in general
theatrical lease until later in the year or even next year.
Sometimes you might only be able to catch it on
like a video for streaming kind of release. Um. So
(04:55):
it's definitely that's part of the appeal is to be
able to see this stuff when it's hot off the
presses and all the kind of like online film conversation
is centering around these movies, all the debates and controversies
and stuff, and you get to see it within like
a few days of that happening, which is great. Yeah,
it's it's really fun um. And then it's interesting too
because there's almost like a second wave when the stuff
(05:17):
does eventually come out in the States, it's like, oh yeah,
I remember seeing that like a year ago or six
months ago, and you kind of get to see how
the lapse in time, how something is received differently here.
Ersson can because can because you pack in so many
screenings every day, it gets to be a little fatiguing
and it gets to be sort of there's certain movies
(05:38):
that don't land properly because it's the three hour epic
slotted in between like three or four other things. You
have the one on that day. So you know, films
that require a little more patients or a little more
subtle or something. Sometimes those will get boot it can
or or just get kind of middling reviews. Um. But
then you know they open in the States or they
play other festivals around the world, it's not so jam
(06:01):
packed and people are like, oh, this is really a beautiful,
quiet film or something. You know. So there's always that
kind of can distortion feel the into account for and
it's kind of interesting to see the way something has
written about and talked about in its immediate release versus
where the conversation ultimately kind of falls like later on. UM.
I remember, like last year seeing uh Lars Vontua film
(06:24):
The House that Jack Built, and right away it was
kind of like hyped up as like it's so ultra violent,
it's so controversial, you can't believe he made this film,
and you know they're gonna have to edit it for
the US release and all this kind of stuff, and
I found it to be rather tame actually, um. Not
that there's not a few rough scenes in there, but
I mean it's it's it's you know, it's it's an
(06:45):
A rated film. It's it's not that crazy. Um. But
just kind of seeing like the hype of like massive
walkouts during the Can premiere and uh there's even like
a warning printed on people's tickets like this film contains
extreme violence and if you're upset by this, you know,
maybe consider not going, and which which all plays into
lars on Treers like provocatur thing like he wants that,
(07:08):
you know, he wants people to walk out, he wants
people to you know, throw up and whatever. You know,
just like um that if if they're not doing that,
then he feels like he hasn't done his job. But um,
to me, it was just kind of it was just interesting.
And also the conversation in France culturally is a little
different than the conversation in America culturally. Yeah, that's what
I was gonna ask next, Like what is the film
(07:30):
going audience? Like? Um, not just like especially for these films,
because I imagine this is the people like you. Yeah,
it's it's cinephile audience. It's like it's like a subsection
of you know, people who you know more broadly speaking,
or like the movie audience in France. Yeah, Like what's
it like in there? What's different? It's very I mean
(07:51):
with all the Cans screenings, there's there's an energy and
excitement and anticipation. Um. People. You can tell everybody around
you is probably been reading the same blogs and and
and like following the same accounts on Twitter and reading
the same reactions out of Can and so on. Um,
they're familiar with the previous works of the filmmaker, like
they're they're just steeped in that. In that feeling, there's
(08:13):
a lot of um, people that are you know, like
university age, their students, their film students that are again
like their whole they eat, breathe and sleep cinema kind
of thing. So there's yeah and um, and then there's
there's also like older like you know, professorial types or
just people that are you know, somewhere beyond student age
(08:36):
that are you know, cinophiles, And they're not necessarily like
involved in it professionally, but they are just these die
hard Parisian cinophiles that you see it every screening kind
of thing. Have you heard booing or clapping or hissing. Yeah,
there's there's um, not so much booing. Um, the booing
definitely happens and can and I think it happens. They're
(08:58):
more because oftentimes the casting crew are present so they
it's like, yeah, it's like a direct kind of response
thing where it's like there's no filter. You know, even
if you're one of those filmmakers, it's like, I don't
read reviews, you know, you want to say what they say. UM.
There's there's no filter in can And they will definitely
they'll boo your movie, they'll walk out of your movie,
(09:19):
or they'll give it a ten minute standing ovation, like
you know, you're gonna know one way or the other
where where people land on things. And there's always like
one or two movies a year. I feel like the
curators of can UM do this somewhat deliberately, like they
always program something in the main competition that you know
is going to cause polarizing it's going to cause some
(09:41):
kind of big reaction. Last year it was a large
one treer movie. They want articles to be written about
what's going on. Yeah, I mean, they are in a
changing media landscape. They're they're in a world. I mean,
the last few years of can have been kind of,
I don't know, haunted by the specter of Netflix, like
the debate like should a Netflix film play and can
(10:02):
should it not? Um? There were several high profile instances where,
for instance, um Alfonso Quorn's Roma was going to be
in Can and then Netflix pulled it because Can was
kind of being you know, Kenny about about their inclusion
the year before. I think there have been several films
from Netflix that were included, like Noah, Bomb Box, um
(10:26):
Myrowits Stories, Um, several other kind of hope, high profile ones.
Where do you land on that. It's really tricky because
these are movies, Yeah, there are There are movies, and
some of them are great movies, like like a Roma
that is absolutely made to be seen in a theater,
even though it may only get a symbolic theatrical release. Unfortunately,
(10:46):
it's a tough call. Aile, It's a tough call. Um. Yeah,
it would encourage people to still go out and see
these things. Yeah. And and also because of the realities
of the rest of the industry where it's moved, it's
shifted in this direction of like you know, Marvel and
and franchise pictures and so on are like some of
the only things getting made by major studios the whole
(11:08):
like mid level otur like grown ups in a room
talking style cinema really has become the domain of like Netflix,
and Amazon people like that that are still willing to,
you know, put ten twenty million on a budget for
a respected filmmaker to make something kind of quiet and adult.
And um. So a lot of these movies that are
(11:31):
like the kind of movies I care about are getting
financed way more by these streaming services than are getting
these kind of like theatrical uh you know, origins. So
for all those reasons, I mean, I'm kind of like
loosely in favor of it, But at the same time,
I don't like what Netflix is doing in terms of
(11:51):
how they release these films where they really will go
almost straight to on demand or or like a week
later go to on demand and some times no theatrical
at all if there's not if it's not like a
question of awards sea um, but you know, I mean
something like um, the upcoming Scorsese film The Irishman, which
(12:13):
I think the budget for that is somewhere between two
and three million, and they're and they're paying to have
all these d aging effects done for Robert de Niro. UM,
which has been like a passion project of Scorsese's for
a while, and it never would have been made at
a major studio because nobody's going to put that kind
of money in. You know, Netflix can have a little
(12:33):
bit different of a calculation where it's like, we may
not make our money back on this exact picture one
to one, but we will drive people to subscribe our service,
make a name for ourselves on the international scene, and
so on. So I don't know. I think. I think
film distribution in Hollywood and the industry is a ever changing,
evolving landscape and at the moment, there's a lot of
(12:56):
good reasons, valid reasons for people, you know, high caliber
filmmak is do me making stuff with Netflix or Amazon,
and so I don't know. I think I think you
have to look at them as films basically. But but
Becan has arrived at this position now where basically they're
not including the Netflix stuff in the selection, and it's
(13:18):
a whole separate argument about uh, theatrical distribution in France.
So it's like, if a film has theatrical distribution in
France lined up and it's not going to immediately go
to streaming, then they will consider it as like a
theatrical release. If it's something that's going to go straight
to streaming, and Netflix doesn't want to guarantee any kind
of theatrical release there, then they may not, you know,
(13:41):
see it that way. And there's also there's a similar
tension just between like TV in general and because you know,
for instance, like Twin Peaks, the return had sort of
a screening of a few episodes and can this year
they showed the new UM Nicholas Winding refin series Too
Old to Die Young. They would like a couple episodes
(14:01):
that were almost combined in like a mini feature and
like a special screening. So they still they still have
like their favorite kind of tours and people that they
will kind of been the rules were exactly for David
Lynch or something. So what is uh films aside? How
(14:27):
long are you over there? Three weeks? Yeah, what's going
on day to day? So yeah, the day to day
existence for me? Uh, this time, I stayed in the
ninth Aarondy Small um close to UM. I stayed there
deliberately because it was kind of walking distance, about a
fifteen minute walk from the second Arandy Small which is Opera,
(14:50):
which is where the screenings happen. It just makes it
easier because I don't have to like plan like a
thirty minute metro trip. I can just literally walk out
of the apart men, and I know, any time of day,
any conditions, you know, strike or no strike or whatever, like,
I can just be there in like fifteen minutes time. Um,
So for the three days that the actual festival screenings
(15:13):
are happening, it's jam packed. It's like, get up, make
it to your first screening, maybe at like ten am,
and then they're they're staggered, but only by like five
or ten minutes screenings and they all happen in the
same room. So one screening ends, you have to walk out,
get back in line, and you're running right back in
and you're lucky if you have enough time for like
(15:34):
a bathroom break or you know, grabbing something from like
one of the convenience machines. So how many movies are
you seeing in a day? Probably like four, three to four,
maybe five. That happens over the course of three days
three days. If you were if you were going to
pack in all the screenings that are offered, it would
be somewhere between like say twelve and fifteen screenings in
(15:57):
those three days. The film's only play once, and so
it's like you're either there you're not there, and It's
very interesting because a lot of these films, like obviously
the high profile stuff will have a lot of coverage.
Some of the smaller, lesser known like maybe first time
filmmakers or just things that are not as much on
the radar might only have one or two reviews by
(16:19):
the time you're deciding whether or not you want to
go see it, So you really have to kind of
go on maybe just like a line or two, like
a log line on IMDb or something, to really know
what this is. UM. So that can be quite interesting,
like uh, taking taking a chance on just a random
thing and walking in and sometimes it pays off and
sometimes it doesn't. But for those three days, it is
(16:41):
like the only thing you're doing basically is sitting in
this dark room watching these movies and kind of, like
I said, scrambling to your next screening, or once in
a while, I'll hit upon something that I don't want
to see UM and so I'll be like, Okay, that's
a deal break. You know, I can actually go off
site and like sit down for a nice meal for
like an hour and a half two hours, make it
(17:02):
back to the theater and pick up. So before we
get into these films, Um, I still don't have enough
a painted picture. So so besides those three days, like
what are you doing? Are you walking around? I'm sleeping
as a Parisian, Yeah, sleep when I'm sleeping in. I'm
definitely not sending an alarm clock most days unless there's
some specific reason. I'm walking everywhere as much as possible. Um.
(17:26):
I do take the metro, but I prefer to walk
when I can, just to see the city, feel like
you're in the city and you know, across random stuff,
notice things. Um, the metro is a little bit more
like teleportation, so you don't feel the same connection. So
do you have an agenda most days, like I want
to go to this museum and do this thing or
(17:47):
is it mainly like I'm just gonna go see where
the day takes me. You know. The most planning I
will do typically is I will go online and look
at all the schedules for all the different cinema that
I'm interested in. Uh, And I do have like a
group of maybe five or ten that I tend to
like frequent the most that are more like repertory kind
(18:08):
of programming, and so I will look at those schedules
and then I'll make kind of like notes in my calendar,
and not with the intention that I'm going to make
it every one of the screenings, because Parents is one
of the cities that you immediately realize, even if I
wanted to, I could not literally physically be in all
these places in the same twenty four hour period. So
(18:30):
you have to you have to trade things off. You
have to say, if I go to this one, I'm
not going to make it across town to this other
thing that starts like fifteen minutes later. So which of
these two and then from there, maybe this one puts
me on the side or on the right side of
town for this third thing or whatever, because you also
want to enjoy Paris and exactly exactly, and so I
do reserve the right any time to abandon plans and
(18:52):
just be like, you know what, even though there's like
something playing at thirty five one time today that I'm
probably never going to see again, I just need some
time outside. I've been I've been endorsed too much. Yeah,
and it's it's fine. You realize there's always going to
be something else a day or two later that's gonna
be just as compelling pretty much. So yeah, I mean
(19:12):
my My routine is walking around taking a lot of pictures,
sometimes doing some some you know, some moving pictures as well.
Imagine Parison may is beautiful typically not this year. It
rained like a lot here, but Paris is beautiful in
the rain. It is beautiful in the rain too, but
at a certain points, like all right, cut it out.
I want some sunlight and I want some like hard shadows.
(19:33):
I don't just want like overcast for every every picture
I take. Um. But yeah, it's it's that, it's going
to nice restaurants. It's you know, seeing my friends that
live there there. Yeah. Absolutely, Yeah. I've got kind of
a core of like three or four pals that you've
met while traveling, that I've met. Well, this is this
(19:53):
kind of it's a side track a little bit. But
no Chandler, who also works here, he hasn't done a
movie crush I see, okay, um, But Chandler also big cinephile. Um.
He put me in touch with somebody who was a
Canadian expat friend of his who had lived in Atlanta
(20:13):
like during high school. So they went to high school together.
And then uh, this guy, because he has Irish grandparents,
was able to get an EU passport. Just I'm so
one of these if anybody you can do that. Um,
and I've met numerous you know. It's it's you always
ask everybody like, how did you how did you end
up here? How do you how do you stay? It
(20:34):
is really the key question. And it's like, oh, yeah,
Irish grandparents or this or that thing have dual citizenship.
It's like, because it's not so easy for someone like
myself who has just bog standard British English kind of
Anglo origins. There's there's no special program for that, you know,
feel sorry for us, you know. Um. So uh, he
(20:59):
put me in touch with this friend of a friend
kind of thing, and so I met him. Through him,
I met more people and and and through those other
people who are more kind of like ex pat types
as well. I'm that some like Parisians that are you know,
willing to be friends with ex pats, which is not
every Parision. Parisians um tend to be a little insular.
(21:21):
They tend to be a little private. Um. They tend
to kind of stick to their social circle, and those
social circles don't necessarily overlap very much with their professional world.
So you can work with somebody for years and years
and not even know if they're married or have kids,
or never be invited over to their house for any
kind of thing. So it's like, you know, and it's
(21:42):
considered kind of rude to like when you meet a
person for the first time to be like, what do
you do? You know, that's like the least interesting thing
to talk about. Um, it's more like what do you
do when you're not at work? Like what is your passion?
What do you really you know? So yeah, I mean
it's it's it's definitely a work to live rather than
live to work. Yeah thing, and um, not so much. No, No,
(22:05):
I'm not like a real I'm not like a real
wine connoisseur. I'm not even particularly a food person. So
a lot of my meals are more functional, you know, Yeah,
a lot of a lot of McDonald's, surprisingly because specifically
in the geography of where that theater, the opera theater is,
(22:26):
there's a McDonald's literally like next door to it. So
if you have to get the quick meal, yeah, I
mean I know, I can be in and out of
there in like ten fifteen minutes. Yeah, well, with chicken nuggets,
it's kind of my go to you thing like a
true child. Um, because it's just it's fast, man, and
it's predictable. And I mean the dining in Paris is
(22:46):
a complete opposite. They assume you're there to hang out
and like when you're when you're finished with a meal,
they don't bring you the check or anything like that's
your real estate if you want to sit there for
hours and hours and read a book or drinking, do whatever,
or like it's it's yours. You know, you you have
claim over that thing. And they're not trying to rotate
in you know, X number of more groups or seatings
(23:08):
or whatever. So um, there's this weird standoff that happens
where you've like finished the meal and you're kind of
like trying to catch the eye of the person and
be like that is the only soup thing, um And
uh and yeah, that can that can easily add twenty
minutes to a meal sometimes and that could be the
critical difference between gettings where you want to be or not.
(23:31):
So you know, I have gotten to the point where
it's just like I know I can run over here,
do you know, get some calories in my body and
then just like run back in for another screening. How's
your French these days? Perfect? I would say it's perfect. Um.
I think for it to be like completely fluent, I
would just need to live there for a period of time.
But it's it's good. Oh yeah, yeah, And um, I
(23:55):
do as much as I can here to keep it fresh.
When I'm not there, it kind of ebbs and flows.
I'll go through periods where like I'm reading a novel
or something in French and I'm really kind of tied
into it, where there will be like a podcast in
French that I'm kind of checking every week. Um, We're
seeing French films, Yeah, seeing French films and um, even
going to like meet up groups where people talk French
(24:15):
and that kind of thing. A Predium, you know, Fredium
near the Midtown Art there's there's a monthly when they're Um,
there's there's a few things. There's like the Alliance Front
says in Atlanta you can take classes and go to
meet ups and stuff and no, no, I mean that's
you know, that's one thing you learned about Paris is
that it's not all striped shirts and berets, French poodles
(24:38):
and and all that. So let's go through a couple
of like, let's maybe pick out your three favorite films
that you saw. It looks like you saw about what
from the Yeah, from the main from the main competition,
and also from the sidebar competitions, because there's also in
addition to the main competition, there's these sidebars during the
festival like Uncertain and Regard, h Directors Fortnite, Critics Week,
(25:03):
Um a Seed, and a few others that are not
considered part of the official festival per se, but they
are tertiary to the festival, And especially like Uncertain, Regard
and Director's Fortnite, there's a lot of really good stuff
that ends up in those that for one reason or another,
maybe because the filmmaker is not as politically like favored
by the can selection committee and so on. There's a
(25:26):
lot of like behind the scenes stuff favoritism that goes
on um where sometimes the really compelling stuff will end
up in these sidebars. And so the sidebar films will
play in the weeks following the main competition repris Sou
and those are more exhaustive in their scope, which is
great too, because one of the main frustrations of the
(25:47):
main competition stuff is you never know what's going to
get picked and what's not or for some other reason,
like maybe the distributor doesn't even want to replay it
in Paris. So, for instance, there were two kind of
heartbreakers this year, the Terence Malick film Hidden Life and
the Tarantino film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Both
of those are missing from Paris. And you know, it's
(26:09):
just one of the sayings where sometimes you get the
big ones and sometimes you don't. Probably it's a case
in both where the distributor doesn't necessarily have an incentive
to replay it in Paris and have like another five
dred thousand people see it when they could just build
the hype longer and keep the word of mouth, the
buzz going and open it like you know, over the summer,
(26:32):
in the fall or something. Yeah, I'm sure you wanted
to see those and apparently that I'm sure you know.
But the Terence Malick film is getting pretty good marks.
It did of a return to form. Absolutely, yes, a
movie with an actual sort of coherent had he had
he had more of a screenplay this time. And uh,
and you know, as as one critic described it, there
are actual scenes of people in a room talking to
(26:52):
each other, for a sustained amount of time where we
don't suddenly jump forward backward chronologically or what somebody's thinking
about out or a memory they're having or whatever. Yeah, Um,
here's what we'll do. I'll pick out one and then
(27:12):
you pick out one. Um, because I want to hear
a little bit and you know, don't give too much away,
but just maybe your overall thought. Yeah, I'll try not
to anything, but I would love to hear a little
bit about the Lighthouse. Yes, Robert Egger's follow up to
The Witch, which is incredible to to think that, for
(27:32):
me to think, having seen it already, there's not even
a trailer yet. I think there's just without one production
still of Robert Pattinson standing in front of the lighthouse
and black and white. This movie is important to me
because I wrote a script thriller period in this movie.
I read about it after I had written that script
and I was gonna make it on a very small
(27:54):
budget basis and the money fell through, and then I've
heard about this movie and I was like, son of
a bitch, If I remember right, yours had more of
like a intruders coming from the outside vibe. Yeah, So
how do you like this boy. Um, this is a
tough one to talk about because I was a little
mixed on it, even though even though I think it's
(28:16):
extremely strong filmmaking from from Eggers and and everybody involved.
The performances are super compelling to watch. I mean, it's
just great, especially Willam Nafoe hearing him do this kind
of like Herman Melville, like Pirates. Yeah, there's a lot
of humor. There's there's a lot of like like body
(28:39):
kind of like uh, there's there's you know, multiple fart
jokes throughout the movie, which which you kind of don't
expect necessarily in something, you know whatever. Um. Yeah, I
mean it's it's a very like intense psychological kind of thriller. Um.
It's it's very much about I'm and I would compare
(29:00):
it in some ways to The Shining. It's about somebody
going through kind of a mental breakdown, let's say, and
uh and having visions and seeing things that you're not
sure are real or not real. Um. And also yes,
the isolation of being on this island where nobody else's
you know, it's kind of the cabin fever sort of thing. Um.
(29:22):
But it's remarkable the way they shot it with these
old cameras that I believe date to like the silent
film era, and lenses that certainly are are quite old
as well. Again kind of the uncoded lenses that don't
quote unquote perform optically as well as a newer lens today,
but has more of a character to it. Um. It
(29:43):
is in black and white, and it is in a
very narrow, tall aspect ratio one point one nine to one.
That's not even square, is it. No, it's like narrower
than square. And you really don't say that exactly. Um,
you really don't see that aspect ratio used very much. Um,
And uh yeah, it gives I mean, obviously it's a
(30:06):
film about a lighthouse, which is kind of a tall,
narrow thing, so so it's obviously well suited for that,
but it also just immediately puts you in this whole
other aesthetic universe of Um. Yeah, like parts of it
kind of reminded me of like Tarkovsky for instance, or Bergman,
some of Bergman's really intense kind of black and white films. Um.
(30:27):
It absolutely has this like art house kind of aesthetic
to it. It's i mean every shot you could kind
of freeze frame and you know it's it's yeah, exactly exactly,
and um, so the reason I was mixed on the
film was that there's so many things about it that
are super compelling, and that it's just kind of firing
on all cylinders. The ultimate underlying story of what happens
(30:51):
is a little threadbare. It's a little kind of like
there's all this kind of sound and fury around it,
but if you kind of reduce it down, there's not
as much thematically happening as for instance, in The Witch,
which I think was a more overall better kind of
controlled and paced film, had more atmosphere to it. I mean,
(31:12):
the Lighthouse has a ton of atmosphere as well, Um,
just that that's setting on the island, and um, the
sound of the seagulls and the waves crashing in the isolation,
and um, the just like the starkness of the of
the surroundings. Definitely, there's there's tons of atmosphere. But I
think The Witch had more of like a patience and
a and a slow burned quality to it that really
(31:33):
ratcheted up the horror and the tension as the film progressed.
Whereas this one kind of like the shining, like it's
sort of the thing where Jack Nicholson's already half crazy
when he's driving up in the car, like it just
kind of feels like it jumps into it, and then
it just kind of like it's like a sledge hammer.
It just kind of like keeps getting more and more
and more and more intense. But afterwards there was less
(31:55):
for me to kind of digest, Let's say, then with
The Witch, where you could really dig into all the
themes about you know, what it means for like this
young woman to be the witch and to be kind
of there's almost like a sort of like a feminist
subtext about it, about you know, the history of the
witch trials and women's sexuality and all this kind of stuff.
This was a little more kind of just a crazy yarn,
(32:19):
you know. And and it's as I said, I mean,
I will I will gladly go see it in when
it opens here. I think people will be I think
a lot of people will really love this film. I
think it won't work for everybody necessarily, um, but I
do think it's it's going to be one of the
more talked about movies this year for sure. And uh,
and like I said, um, visually, just like unmatched, but
(32:42):
you know, versus pretty much anything else I saw. Um,
why don't we let you pick your favorite film that
you saw. Okay, let's see. I mean I'm seeing names
on here. There's a few. Yes, Well, the the yeah,
oh god, the ken Loach was heartbreaking, heartbreaking. Yeah, maybe
(33:03):
that's the one to talk about because sorry, sorry, we
missed you, Sorry, we missed you. And that that's a
reference to kind of the whole gig economy, Amazon Prime
world of you know, same day delivery. Um, these these
kind of couriers who um are our contract workers or
there their independent contractor they're they're not full employees who
(33:25):
are working for this company. So they assume all the
risk by either renting or purchasing this delivery van. And uh,
it's kind of like it's on them to make their
route and make their schedule. And it doesn't matter if
somebody's not home and you need a signature, doesn't matter
if the neighbor's home and he hates the guy that
(33:46):
the delivery is being made for. He says, screw that guy,
I'm not going to sign for him. And it's like police,
or I have ten more of these deliveries. I need
to make if I have to double back here, it's
not going to work out. Only in the world of
is that a movie? I know, I know, but what's
you know that that? So there's that going on. But
of course it's also the story of not just the
delivery driver but his family too. It's a very very
(34:09):
fleshed out portrait of these these four people husband, wife
and two kids, a son and a daughter and um
and you see how um the wife is working as
like a like a part time nurse, kind of like
she she does in home care. So she will kind
of like go by somebody's house, an elderly person that's
(34:31):
living by themselves, maybe doesn't have anybody else to look
out after them, and um, and you know, just make
sure they're getting on well you know, UM clean anything
that needs to be cleaned up. But she has such
a human touch with him. She has like a real
genuine relationship with this with these people, they're like friends
(34:51):
and she really cares and invests in them emotionally. And
yet the the employer that she works for is very
like metric driven, and you know, you have this many
minutes to get in and out, and there's no such
thing as extenuating circumstances and so on. So it is
it is that that that conflict between like what what
(35:14):
Loaches saying about, like maybe a slightly older world idea
of people taking their time and and and being patient
and and kind of working with someone that way versus
this sort of like on demand economy where we're we're
measuring things down into like milliseconds, you know, and it's
(35:35):
all about increased efficiency and revenue and and um, you know,
quarterly growth and all the rest of it. So um
always a champion of the uh, the working working class. Yeah,
I mean he's he's he's made a career out of
this since the nineteen sixtiesies. Yeah, small little socialist films.
(35:57):
Yeah yeah, yeah yeah yeah, socialist realism of kitchen st
dramas really interesting. But like what was so what was
so great? Because I'm I don't always get on that
well with Ken Loach's films, and even the one he
made right before this one, uh, which I can't I'm
blaking on the names Daniel Blake, I can't remember his name,
I Daniel Blake. Um, that one to me felt a
(36:20):
little more schematic and a little more like these are
less three dimensional characters, and they're more sort of all
the kind of parts we need to show that the
NHS is being savage by kind of austerity. Um in
in in um there's a sense where sometimes you feel
(36:41):
like character or secondary to like the political point he
wants to make, and sometimes things are a little too
convenient or a little too on the nose. But with
Sorry we missed You, it did not feel that way
at all. I've just felt so so much empathy for
this person, for the for the whole family. And again
it's like we were saying about about birth, where everybody
(37:03):
has their reasons, everybody has their own motivations, and they
are at odds with each other, but you understand everybody's
position and you just want the best for everybody, and
you realize that the tension is just getting more and
more ratcheted up, and you know things are things are
going wrong and there's no margin of error, and it
just gets it just goes from bad to worse. And
(37:24):
it was one of those films and like for days after,
like if if I even tried to like summarize the
plot for somebody, I would get kind of choked up
about it, you know, because they really do feel like
real people. And after the movie is over, it ends
on kind of an open end of note where it's
it's not all bad and it's not all good. You
kind of just understand you've seen a window into this
(37:45):
person's life and experience for maybe a month, you know,
and they're gonna go on and there's gonna be more
ups and downs, but so you kind of you're left
with this, like, I wonder how he's doing now. I
don't wonder how the family is getting on. You know,
you really do, you really do live with them within you.
So it's UM beautiful film. I you know, I can't
wait to see it again. I'm gonna pick the next
(38:08):
one because I'm always curious what Pedro Almodovar is doing next.
And he has a film called Paint and Glory. Yeah, Um,
what's that all about. It's one of his best movies
and in a long time, I think, Um, and it's
kind of his Wild Strawberries if you've seen that one
uh Bergman film as well. Not um, it's it's about somebody.
(38:30):
It's about a filmmaker, um, his painting Glory. I'm talking
about about a filmmaker who has had many kind of
critical successes throughout his career. Who is the filmmaker It's
played by Antonio Benderes. Of course, you know it's it's
a fictional filmmaker, but you know, and it's it's sort
of a loosely based on a motivar himself. Um so
(38:51):
his he has like the same kind of hair and
beard as a motive art um and he lives in
this apartment that you can you can just imagine this
is probably how a motivar has his apartment decorated in
terms of like these really bold reds and yellows, and
you know, he's kind of very modernist, artistic, beautiful, beautifully
uh furnished apartment. Um that that kind of feels like,
(39:14):
I mean, the character says at one point, like I
don't I don't have a lot of money in the bank,
I don't have a lot of investments. Like this apartment
is everything to me. You know, this is like my
life's work sort of is summed up in this space
they's built. And so he he's been asked to show
up at a screening of a restoration of one of
his earlier films. That's it's been maybe twenty or thirty
(39:36):
years since it came out. And on that film, he
had this this kind of contentious relationship with his main actor,
who we come to find out was like on a
lot of drugs during the making of the film, and
the character himself was also written to beyond drugs during
the film, but they were different drugs. So as written
in the film, he's supposed to be like a cocaine
(39:58):
kind of guy, end in reality he was like strung
out on heroin. So the performance that he gave in
the film was very low energy, very like restraint, very
kind of chilled out, um, whereas the director was going
for this more like energetic, talking ninety miles a minute
kind of thing. And so for that reason, um, they
(40:19):
had a falling out and they actually have not spoken
since that film. And so now the film has been
restored and they are asking him to come present it
and they also want him to have the lead actor
come presented as well, and so it's sort of like,
after all this time a part um the filmmakers also
we we we meet him at a moment in his
life where he's had uh some major surgeries done. His
(40:42):
health is not what it used to be. He has
difficulty getting around he has like a lot of back pain,
and so we're kind of seeing him at this moment
later in his career where he actually feels like he
can't make films anymore because he can't be as physically
dedicated to the role of the director as he used
to be. So he's in this weird moment where he's
sort of like becoming the legend, you know, he's becoming
(41:04):
like the lifetime Achievement award phase of the career where
it's like, you know, on the one hand, it's great
to be given these awards in this recognition and all
this respect and so on, but at the same time,
it's kind of like saying, your time is over and
you're past it, and yeah, yeah, and so yeah. I mean,
it's it's the story of these two friends kind of
(41:25):
reconnecting with each other, and ultimately the story of this
filmmaker kind of learning to live again, learning to uh,
you know, embrace life and not be so like fatalistic
about everything. And there's a numerous like flashbacks to his
childhood where Penelope Cruz plays his mother, and those are
some extremely moving scenes where I think he captures so
(41:49):
beautifully the quality of his childhood and um, just those
those kind of like formative moments where in the case
of this character, he's kind of coming to terms with
his sexuality. It's he he's realizing he's having the first
inklings that he's gay. And um, which is a common
theme obviously in a lot of them, one of our films,
um and UM. Yeah, I mean it's just a beautiful
(42:13):
film about life, about a lot of things, about aging,
about um an artist who has had their moment and
their moments kind of passed, and and and also sort
of realizing that these people that he made the films
with over the years, we're just that people, you know,
and that there's more to it than just whether he's
happy with the film or not, you know, and that
(42:34):
there's these relationships that he's maybe discarded a little bit thoughtlessly,
that he's actually able to, you know, begin again. Uh.
I think we have time maybe for one more. Um,
maybe you can pick this one because some of these
I don't really know, Um what what what? What? Whether
the film really stood out to you with something that
(42:56):
you loved and like something that you really would like
to recommend. How about this pick one that you would
really like to recommend people see that they might otherwise not. Yeah, okay,
So then the one I won't pick because I think
a lot of people will will see this anyway as
parasite the Bong Junehoe film. Um, just because he's he's
(43:16):
made a number of great films and um, this one
won the top prize, the Palm Door, and um is
you know, lives up to the hype. Let's say. So
when that one opens, absolutely go see it. If you're
a fan of Bong Junehoe. Um that it definitely delivers.
But I won't say anything more than that, other than
it's a very well made film. It's funny, it's violent,
(43:38):
it's suspenseful, and it's just the kind of like extremely
confidently made film that we see less and less these days.
I think it it harkens back to another era of
like just the rock solid screenplay and you know, the
director of firing on all cylinders kind of. So the
one I think my favorite film overall out of everything
(44:01):
that I saw a French film by I don't know
how you pronounce her name, Saline Siama or Skyma Portrait
of a Lady on Fire, which is a little bit
of a it's not a great translation. The French title
is um puto gin fie alpha, which is young young lady,
like young woman on fire. UM. And the young is
(44:23):
important because you know, it is it is like a
youthful love story. So it's essentially about it's it's like
a two hander. It's these two young women. Uh. One
is kind of lives in this like castle almost you know,
it's it's it's like a mansion, let's say on the
(44:43):
coast of France somewhere, and um in in sort of
relative isolation. Um has a wealthy mother, and the wealthy
mother wants to marry off her young daughter. And the
way they're going to accomplish this is by having her
portrait painted. This is like say, probably like the nineteenth
(45:04):
century sometimes and and by having this portrait made, they
will show this portrait too wealthy you know, uh, eligible
men and you know, maybe drum up some interest and
and and having this marriage happened. So that's her tender profile. Yeah, exactly,
that's that's that's the profipic and uh. And so this
(45:25):
young painter comes from Paris and and it's basically given
this assignment to stay with her two three weeks and
you know, get to know the subject, get get to
to know just to be familiar with what she looks like, um,
what she truly looks like, you know, to get an
impression of the person, not like a photographic one to
(45:46):
one of like in that particular moment they look this way,
but just a broader sense of who this is. And
so it's kind of like the paint what you know,
not what you see sort of thing. He's trying to
capture an essence exactly exactly. It's a she, it's a woman,
and so, uh so she comes there and then slowly,
(46:06):
um she She makes several attempts to to do this
painting and then kind of discards them because none of
them are really living up to capturing this essence that
she's aiming for. But in the back story, like kind
of in the background of all this, they're also sort
of like getting feelings for each other. They're starting to
fall in love and uh and so the mother goes
(46:27):
away for a number of weeks. It's not really specified
exactly how long. I think we know what happens next,
but yeah, but it's kind of like by the time
I get back, I want this portrait to be done
and you to be out of your sort of thing.
And that's obviously when their relationship really takes off to
this level. And yeah, it's like this beautiful love story
(46:47):
and they get the painting just right, you know. And
then there's this realization of like, now everybody's back, and
there's like the strange young man downstairs and I don't
really know this guy, and he is here to kind
of size me up, and you know, and and of
course in front of the mother, they have to keep
up appearances and not have this big emotional goodbye, and
(47:09):
so it's it's very restrained and your heart is kind
of in your throat because you you want to see
this this uh, this beautiful relationship continue, and you know
it for all these different reasons, it probably can't in
that time. And so there's that separation. But then there's
kind of like a wink and a nod at the
end that's sort of does not tell you that they're
(47:31):
going to be together, but tells you that that they
their their feelings for each other persistent. And so what
what I found so compelling about the film, Number One,
the performances are excellent. Uh, the cinematography is beautiful. It
is that sort of beautiful Painter Lee image that we
(47:53):
don't see all the time in cinema. Um, it's it's
a very like gent, whole quiet film. There's not a
lot of score. Um, the editing is kind of razor sharp.
You get into scenes and out of scenes at exactly
the right time, and there's there's just so much happening
in in the faces, in the way that they look
(48:14):
at each other, in the things that go unspoken, and
just felt that you just feel like you were watching
these two real people up on screen. And um, yeah,
I was just like so thoroughly impressed with the film.
It also won one of the top prizes, the Best
Screenplay Prize. I do believe it has been picked up.
(48:36):
I forget by who, but somebody has picked it up
for distribution, so it will see a release and hopefully, um, yeah,
more and more to come. Awesome. Yeah, dude, this was fun. Yeah.
I think there's so much more. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely, there's
um there's a million more things to talk about. But
that's just a little sampling of You know what we
(48:58):
can do is, uh, maybe when the releases, we can
just put out a list of other recommendations on the
Facebook page from you and just get that over to
me and I'll post it. Yeah, and because I know
people are always looking for for good recks like this. Yeah,
and there's there's a whole other, you know, sidebar of
all the stuff that I was able to catch outside
of ken right in Paris that you know informs these
(49:21):
trips as well. Just make a big old list. Yeah,
do whatever you want. You can hidcheck my Facebook page
for all. All right, thanks dude, and I hope everyone
enjoyed this, and we'll be back next Monday with a
regular silly mini with Nolan I doing our dumb stuff.
But we thought we'd take a hyghbrow for a week
and I appreciate you stopping by. Oh, this is has
been so much fun, So thanks brother. Yeah. Thanks for
(49:57):
more podcasts for my heart radio, visit the I heart
Rate eo app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.
Movie Crush News
Host
Chuck Bryant
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