Climax – S11 E86 - Shoot The Hostage

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Hello and welcome to Shoot the Hostage with me Sarah and my partner Dan. We're a movie podcast and we cover eight films per season on a specific theme. Now, we swear we chat major spoilers and we occasionally cover triggering topics. So, please do use listener discretion. If you like what we do and want to support us, consider hitting five stars on Spotify or maybe subscribing or even reviewing on your platform of choice. We also have a Patreon with a free tier for lineups and updates and two paid tiers with extra content and early adree uploads. Right, on with the show. I would have thought that we would end with the movie climax. Why are we doing it? in the number four spot and not at the end cuz it is the climax.

(00:01):
Okay. Well, my reasons are twofold. So, the first reason is that it sort of mirrors the um the movie itself because we hit the peak, the climax if you will, at the midway point of the movie
where the title card comes up.
Yes.
Yeah. That's interesting. And I did think of that too, not in relation to the lineup of the season,
but also um I didn't want to end on this because cuz you would hate me.
I don't know. I prefer something a little bit lighter to end this uh the seasons with.
Yeah. So, you agree then that this is a very grim movie.
Yeah.
Of course. It's not like a fun family time.
No.
Oh, how uplifting. Have you seen Gas Mano's new movie? Said nobody ever.
Yeah. I haven't said that. I haven't seen any of his previous movies. This is the only one of his films I've seen and I've seen this one. Twice.
Interesting.
Both times because of you.
Yes. Um I've seen this film I can't I don't know if it's three or four times. I know that the first time I watched it, I watched it twice in a week.
Yep. And then you covered it.
Yeah. The only other modern film I can think of that I did that with was The Neon Demon. They were both films that I came to a year or two after they'd been released. So I was a little bit late to them both. And as soon as they ended, I was like, I want to watch that again immediately. M
and I don't know, maybe that's something I need to discuss with a therapist.
Yeah, maybe. Or or Gaspano.
I don't really want to talk to Gaspan Noi about anything to be honest. Seems like kind of a prick.
What if we got a phone call from Johnny Press and they said, "Hello, shoot the hostage Sarah specifically. Please could you interview Casper Noi for an episode?"

(00:22):
Okay.
What would you say?
I'd say yes. And I would begin my questioning with what's wrong with you, sir? Why are you like this?
Yeah,
I don't think I'd get much. I was going to say sense. He does he does speak sense. He's he does seem to have mellowed a little bit. I've watched quite a few interviews with him in the run-up to this show. And I don't know, he he's not my favorite director, that's for sure. I think his work is really, really interesting, but in terms of how much I get out of his work, it is hit or miss for me personally.
Okay.
I haven't seen all of his films.
You've seen I I Say again, only one I've seen is Climax. You've seen Irreversible.
I have. That was a one and done.
Okay. I've heard that.
I'll never watch that again.
Yep.
Like, and I'm I have a a pretty high tolerance for bleak s***, but even that was too much for me.
Yeah. Uh, Love, I I haven't seen that obviously. Yeah, that was a movie with a real life ejaculate in it.
There was a lot of unsimulated sex. Yes.
Right. Bon real. on my phone.
Yes.
Unsimulated as X.
Well, to the lay person, just shagging in it.
Yeah.
But yeah, I I would say that's probably the thing that most people took away from that movie because there wasn't a great deal else about it. It was it was sort of a relationship drama um with Bon.

(00:43):
Do his films tend to be I I don't know if I want to say lacking in theme, but do they tend to be quite a like just a a portrayal of something and then the audience member is invited to bring their own sort of ideas to it?
Is that the sort of thing that we're doing?
I don't even know if the audience is encouraged to bring their own ideas to it encouraged to do.
Um, well, he seems to delight in other people's revulsion
because I remember when Climax was released and it got a pretty good uh critical perception. I think unlike a lot of his other films, his previous work, the critics were kind of all over this one for the most part, not everybody obviously.
And he he was kind of ticked off about that
cuz he wants people to hate his stuff or he wants
he's the ultimate edge lord.
Does he just want a more divided kind of thing?
I I get the impression he wants people to hate his films. I think they he wants them to be disgusted.
Okay.
I think he kind of It's hard to say. I think he kind of gets off on it a little bit,
right?
Um because there's been many a video essay about things like Enter the Void, which I do think is a good film. I enjoy that one a lot.
Didn't you watch that the other week?
No, I didn't.
No, you didn't watch it yet.
I I watched it once years ago.
Um and didn't quite know what to make of it, but I'm quite keen to watch it again. It's much like Climax. It is just sort of a hallucinary experience rather than like a series of events in any sort of linear narrative,
right?
So, um but but a lot of people have kind of picked that one apart and talked about themes of like what happens when we die and the idea of uh reincarnation and all that stuff and he's just like no

(01:04):
not interested.
He's he kind of has shot some of those theories down.
Okay.
He's just like this is just what it is.
All right.
But I think it's I think he is an interesting director to have in this season because he's also talked openly about drug taking.
Oh, interesting. Okay. Is that how he came up with the idea for this movie? Was he on a lot of acid?
Probably. Um I I couldn't tell you. I know. Um going quickly back to Enter the Void, I know that he was on Mushrooms walking through Paris and that's kind of where a lot of that came to him.
Really?
Yes.
Oh, interesting. Okay.
And he's he's talked about that quite openly in interviews.
So, yeah, I I think um according to Gaspinoa, drugs get the thumbs up.
Okay. Allegedly. But not in climax. They don't.
I think that they do.
I don't think anybody's having a good time in this movie.
Oh yeah, they don't have a good time, do they? That's why I blanked that out of my memory.
Yeah, you've already like recconed it. Like, nope, that didn't happen.
You're like, "Let's talk about Climax." And my brain's like, "Yeah, what? The one talking cars?" Yeah. Yeah. No, Dan. You're thinking of Cars 2 again. Can't we watch Cars 2 again instead?
What about Herby?
Herby? Herby would be a Great shot.

(01:25):
I used to love those movies when I was a kid.
Herby Rides Again. And what was the first one even called? I was I remember
it was Herby Goes Bananas.
Yeah.
Which I enjoyed a lot as a kid.
Herby Goes Fully Loaded with Lindsay Lohan in 2004.
Herby Fully Loaded. Um I don't know.
Wasn't it I remember just being absolutely shocked and amazed that the first movie wasn't called Herby. It was just called The Love Bug.
Yeah.
Was that No, but it's Herby.
But he hadn't been established. There was No. Herby cinematic universe at that point.
No, there should be they should reincarnate that now.
Yeah. Was it a Volkswagen Beetle?
It was. Was it French? Was Herby French?
I don't.
I mean, it's a German car.
Remember,
that would be strange, wouldn't it?
Yeah.
This movie is French.
This movie is French. Maybe Gaspino is a reincarnation of Herby.

(01:46):
Well, Gaspino isn't French.
Oh, where's he from then? I thought he was French.
He's Argentinian, but he he lives in France. Okay.
He's sort of based in France and makes well works with a lot of French actors. So
I mean it you pro maybe I would hope you'd forgive me for thinking that he was French because he's it does feel like a very French filmmaker as well, right? Like just in terms of
shocking and probably thinking about a certain type of French movie or what's that what's that like shocking French stuff? What's that called?
Oh, you're talking about new French uh uh extremity.
Yeah, sure. Yeah. You know me like Switchblade Romance and and frontiers and martyrs, that sort of stuff.
Martyrs. Yeah, that's
the really gnarly stuff.
Yeah, that's a nasty movie, isn't it? Apparently,
Pascal Loier. Okay.
Filmmakers like that. Yeah.
So, I guess I I sort of having obviously only seen one, but kind of aware of his other movies. Being a film fan, you you sort of absorb things like Irreversible in kind of just in by proximity. So, I sort of was aware of him and just think he's a very he does seem like he wants to shock.
Yeah.
And I don't know. If maybe that's part of the reason why I don't really get on with this film.
Yeah, that's You're not about that, are you?
No, in general. No, I don't mind a shock, but like there has toI think because his films are so notorious as well, you'd be forgiven for thinking he was a lot more prolific, but he hasn't actually made that many fulllength movies.
Yeah,
I've never seen I stand alone. I haven't seen Vortex, but that's for personal reasons cuz it um I'm dealing with some dementia in my family and it's about an old couple with dementia,
one of whom is Dario Arento.

(02:07):
Okay.
Bizarrely,
who's a really good actor, you were saying the other day.
I don't know. I don't know. I've never seen it, so I couldn't tell you.
Right. He's for that famous actor from Italy, isn't he?
Mhm. Yeah. He's most wellknown for his acting.
He portrayed Monkey in that movie.
Mhm.
What was it? Dunston Checks in. That's the one.
I think you're thinking of Phenomena.
Yeah, that's the one. Yeah, he
was called Inger.
Really? The Why? I remember that.
You don't forget a monkeyy's name, do you?
No.
You never You never forget a monkey's name.
Dston, Inger, Caesar. All right,
they're all in there.
Here's a test for you. Show that you don't like Friends. There was a monkey in it. What was it called?
Marcel.
There you go.

(02:28):
Never forget a monkey.
I hate friends as well.
Yeah, but you love monkeys.
You do.
Especially ones that have been anthropomorphized by people.
Especially when you put a nappy on it and you just you f****** carry it around set against It will doesn't matter if it wants to spit it or not. You just sort of drag it around. Just give it more drugs. Just Just you know, tranquilize it.
Spike it drink.
Spike it drink. Spike it drink with acid. Can you imagine a monkey on acid?
I can. That would be terrifying.
Lord.
Yeah.
No. Don't go in that zoo, sir. Or put some people in that zoo like Farage.
Put him in there.
Yeah. All right.
Monkeys on acid versus Farage. You know those Do you get those Tik Toks where it's like a million zombies versus 5 million Terminators or whatever? No,
you don't.
I've never like a recreation of a battle and like it's a few minutes long and you sort of watch what side is likely to do better.
Maybe we could do one Nigel Farah Farad versus a million acid drugged monkeys
versus one chimp on acid.
Just one?
Yeah.

(02:49):
Don't would Don't you want to see an enormous rampage of chimps just piling on top of Farad?
No, I want him taken out by one single chimp cuz I think that would be more embarrassing for him.
Do you?
And he probably live but be horribly disfigured.
So, you're going for the long term.
It might improve the way he looks. I don't know. I mean, maybe he'd look less like a thumb.
But anyway,
less like a c***.
Let's go back to climax, shall we?
Shall we?
So, it opens on I think it's an aerial shot that we start with, isn't it? In the snow.
And the the you get the woman crawling through the snow.
She's like hysterically sobbing. Falls to the ground. starts making bloody snow angels,
which is interesting. Visually interesting at least.
I always like the just the visual of blood on snow. It's something very
satisfying, isn't it?
Yeah. I remember thinking that about um vampire movie. Let the right one in.
Right. Yeah.
And and the kind of the colors with that, the red and the the red and the white. But it is an interesting way to open the movie. I I wasn't sure
until about 15 minutes before record in who that character was at the start. I thought it was uh uh Sophia Battella's character, Silva.
Oh, yeah. I thought it was her. I just assumed it was her cuz she's kind of the main person in this big cast. It's an ensemble movie. They're all ensembles.

(03:10):
It's an ensemble movie about a dance ensemble.
Yeah. But uh yeah, I didn't realize it was the Is it the one that later on you find out is pregnant? Is it that one? Okay. Interesting.
Cuz she was kind of slicing up her own arms. So, I'm guessing That's where the blood came from.
Okay. Yeah. And then uh and then you go straight to the the videos, the the interviews of all of the dancers, which goes on for quite a while.
It Yeah, it was um it went on longer than I remembered actually.
Me too.
Yeah.
I remember I mean I remember very vividly watching this movie for the first time during lockdown. Yeah.
If you can imagine such uplifting material being consumed at such a wonderful joyous time moment in all of our lives.
I was never happier than during that first lockdown. It was bliss. The streets empty. There was nobody around. Loved it.
The fear of like a new plague was somewhat anxietyinduced, but
besides that, it was pretty great.
Just put a mask on, you'll be all right.
Yeah. And the lack of toilet paper wasn't fun.
No.
Otherwise, brilliant.
Yeah. Brilliant. But I I decided to improve my life at the time by watching Climax based on your recommendation. You you forced me to watch.
I wouldn't say I recommended it to you.
What would you say?
I I would say I watched it and loved it and told you that I loved it and then very quickly said, "Oh, we're covering it for Radio Gore Press." And you were like, "I guess I'll have to watch it then." So, some of it's on you.
Yes.

(03:31):
Some of it like 25%.
75% you.
Yeah.
I'll take that. I'll take that deal. Yeah.
But I Yeah, I did find it I remember it very vivid vividly. I did find it particularly um like a what's the word I'm looking for? Like uh just draining and bleak and grim and just really tough to get through. Despite there being obviously some technical brilliance in it and visually and just the skill and artistry involved with a lot of this film still to me I was like oh man but it got to about the hour mark and I had to have a break the movie. Yeah, I remember I remember very clearly and I suppose there's there's quite a there are relatively few movies that I go I remember exactly what I was doing when I first movie. There's a handful maybe.
Yeah,
I can think of.
That's something.
It made an impression.
Yeah.
So,
that was that was fairly early on in our relationship as well. Were you not at that point like I could just back away?
I listen, I'm not going to lie, there was a point where I was thinking very hard about the next steps based on your love of this incredibly depressing movie and what it means and like Oh, am I going to be have to watching these movies also?
Yes.
Answer to that is yes.
5 years later.
Yes.
Sorry. You had your chance.
I did have my chance. Yeah. Well, I got to see it again. I got to see it again. And uh was I looking forward to this movie? No, not particularly cuz I don't I still don't love this movie.
Did you get more out of it this time?
Cuz second second viewing can be so different from the first.

(03:52):
It was slightly different. It wasn't massively different from the first, but it was slightly again
say this a lot, but it's very different to watch a movie on your own
without any just all you're doing is watching that film, but it's very different to be watching it in mind of recording a podcast and trying to think about what you think about the movie. So, it was a different experience from that perspective, but still not a pleasant one.
Well, I did appreciate a lot more of it now. And it's been a few years, well, five years since since my last watch, and I've watched a lot of movies since then. And um we've spoken about a lot of movies as well. So I feel like I'm looking out for different things now at this point in my life.
And so I did get more out of it.
Yeah.
Visually, the dancing just the actual dancing itself is incredibly well done. And the se the sequences and just on a technical level, I'm like, how did you f****** do this in such a short time as well? It was shot in 15 days.
Yeah, that's crazy.
It's mental like how quickly this film got made as well from January 2018, I think, when they had the idea. They cast it next month. Shooting it within a month, 15 day shoot, and it was out in the same year.
He doesn't f*** around.
He doesn't He doesn't f*** around, does he? So, like, yeah, I appreciate it way more, but just as an experience watching it. Like, I don't I don't want to be watching this.
That's fair enough. It's not for everybody.
I want to be watching True Liars.
Okay.
Or The Rock. You know,
I I would pick pick Climax Over the Rock any day of the week you would.
But I know I'm in a very small minority of people there and that's fine.
Yeah, that is fine.
Although this film does have a lot of fans, I found out
but he's I mean going back to the critics's response when it was released in can and it people loved it and that
that you say that it pissed him off.

(04:13):
Yeah, that's interesting. But like uh so I guess it's probably his most critically or less divisive film maybe is the the term to use because I feel like a the irreversible obviously I know the conceit of that movie and I know ex kind of not exactly what happens but loosely what happens.
Yeah.
And and um I gather that that film is divided as a divided opinion amongst movie fans. You either love it or you hate it. It's probably very few people that's going to be in between. Right.
I would count myself as kind of being in between, you know, because I think it is a I don't know. Would I would I say it's an excellent film? I do think it's a good film. I think it's very interesting. I think there were some techniques in that film like he's he's so fond of this spinning camera technique.
It seems to crop up in quite a lot of his stuff, but um that kind of coupled with um I know he used like a noise at the beginning of Irreversible that was set at a certain decel that was designed to make you feel ill.
Oh, lovely.
Yeah. Just uncomfortable.
Just as an added assault on the senses.
Yeah.
Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. I think he, as you say, I think technically excellent, especially here, there's a 43minute take.
It's mad.
That's wild.
I don't And I I don't think going back to my first time watch, don't think I'd notice that the first time round and it's something I love in in film. When I see a long take, I get very excited about it.
And again, like 15 days shoot
including a 40 40 odd minute take with uh all of these dancers. doing this. You got another long take. I think it was the 12 12minute take at the beginning of the movie
from when they cut from the the intro videos and then they do the song the dance and I think that first part is 12 minutes.
Mhm.
And they did apparently 16 takes of that initial dance sequence.
Okay.
And they used the 15th take,
right?

(04:34):
But uh and they did apparently they did no rehearsal.
What?
Yeah. I don't know. I I don't know. Like
that seems crazy to me. Like you just did this on a date.
Yeah, he purposely cast dancers and not necessarily actors.
Did he do that for realism? Not just just like real realism in that
these people are obviously dancers. They're not actors plus dancers.
Yeah. I mean with the exception of Sophia obviously who is both.
Well, she was in Ato atomic blonde
but yeah, but I believe she started off dancing. I think that's what she did predominantly. Um and I think can tell that they're not actors for the most part. I think I actually think most of it is pretty good. But there are some performances that are a little bit like even with the language barrier, you're just like, "Yeah, okay."
Okay.
But if you accept it in terms of like it just being a naturalistic kind of performance, like something we watched recently was Andrea Arnold's Fish Tank, and I think the the lead in that was I think she's called Katie Jarvis, and she was found on arguing with her boyfriend at a train station.
Yeah.
Had never acted before.
Yeah.
Um but that's what she was going for. That's what Andrea Arnold kind of likes is this sort of real social realism naturalistic dialogue. Um so I'm guessing that was the intention here as well because they weren't really given any scripts.
No, I I heard this too. But again again makes me go back to I it's kind of a miracle that this film ever got made. The limited research that I was doing slightly before we recorded looking at all this stuff shot so quickly all completely done and dusted within a year getting all of these people that are not actors. They're doing improvising and they're shooting all this in 15 days. Like it's it's crazy that they managed to nail this. I don't know if it's luck
or skill or probably a combination of of many things.
I think so. Yeah,
I think so. But it does sort of make me hate some of them a little bit more because I I don't think there were really any nice characters in this movie. Well, I was going to say I don't think necessarily you're meant to be rooting for all of these people. And some of the point is that these some of these people like rip off the veneer are assholes and are going to f*** s*** up for all of us.
Mhm.

(04:55):
Yeah. So that is that's interesting. I I kind of wonder what direction they were given like talk about women as though they're property for 5 minutes. We're just going to film you riffing on that.
Well, apparently he did give like loose ideas about where the story was going.
Okay. So I guess uh and and they're familiar at this point they're probably familiar with the works of Gasper now. So they know that they're going to need to be controversial in what they're talking about transgressive.
So they probably are trying to push the boundaries so
what occurs to me is that that they're uh because they're they were just sort of told oh just improvise do what you want. It does add a layer of how much is this acting and how much is it like does it starts to blur that boundary a little bit. Yeah,
cuz apparently on set as well he was like to the actors like all right who do you want to kiss? Like who do you want to punch and was sort of trying to trying to shepherd scenes in that way. So
you say shepherd scenes I say s*** stirring
s*** staring. Yeah that's he probably did lace the uh it was probably him that did the acid in the sangria or not.
Yeah,
not the other person.
Psyche.
Psyche. Is that her name? Okay.
Yeah. So going back to the to camera interviews at the start.
Yeah. I was I'm glad you went back there. Yeah. I wanted to ask you about the videotapes.
Okay, go for it.
Did you see the video tapes?
I did. I did. I made a note of some of them. I kind of loved that on second watch because it really tells you everything that you're about to see.
Yeah. Well, Sesperia's the one that my reference point my eyes sort of naturally gravitated towards.
Well, there's other obscure stuff. And
Seria obviously about a dance school where s*** is going weird in predominantly primary color. lighting.
I was going to say lots of reds, lots of bright reds and and Yeah.

(05:16):
So, visually a lot in common. They've got like zombie I think is there, which I believe is the FYI
movie, which in England is zombie flesh eaters. Yeah. I mean, humans sort of stripped back to their most animalistic state.
Um, one of them I think is salo or 20 120 days of Saddam.
Oh, is that the one about Bumin? It's it's a super super controversial movie. It's basically about a bunch of kind of government officials, um, heads of state, that sort of thing, kind of getting together, I think it's 10 boys, 10 girls, and just forcing them to do the most depraved stuff in this big stately home.
Oh, okay.
So, again,
that sounds like very Gaspino. Oh,
he loves that film. Yeah,
he loves it. There's a bit um there's a you know the Criterion interviews where the people in the industry are kind of in the Criterion closet
is in the cupboard.
Yeah.
Um there's a there's a YouTube clip of him doing that and he picks out and it just like stares at it in silence for a good sort of 8 to 10 seconds.
Got a boner.
He loves it.
That to me is a one and done.
Yeah.
I don't understand. why people would buy that. Even I've got my limits apparently.
There are definitely some films where it's like, I've seen that, I'm never watching it again. But I guess some people just don't have that.
Yeah.
Whatever that that that thing is.
Yeah. I mean, you think it's deeply odd that I've seen this this film as many times as I have.

(05:37):
I don't I mean, it would be odd for me because it makes me feel just a bit f****** bleak.
Yeah.
Uh but it doesn't Does does it make you feel depressed or or or uneasy or or like just bad at all? Cuz it makes me feel bad and I don't want to feel bad when I'm just want entertainment.
It doesn't make me feel bad. No.
So maybe I am a bit broken.
It does make me feel uneasy in places.
Yeah.
But not bad. No. I'm just sort of transfixed by everything. I find the whole thing and I think largely down to the to the long takes and the tracking shots throughout the building. I just find it hypnotic.
It It does have an air of that definitely and I got more of that from the second time around. I think because I think because I was used to or or I'd seen it and I knew what to expect from the movie, it did allow me a little bit like of space to actually soak in some of the other details.
Yeah.
Like I remember the first time watching it when you get to the halfway point and the title comes up climax. I remember being like what the f***? And and You see it you've seen it a bit more of late in in in a few films. Uh what was that one we saw the action movie on a train kill that's the probably the most egregious example of that that I can think of recently and I was like stood up and clapped I think
um yeah it was great but I remember being like quite jarred by that the first time I saw this movie and then this time knowing that that was coming again just an example of like what I can concentrate on oh this is seems like a longer take. or wow their their movements are all interesting like individually and when they come together and that's impressive isn't it but later on a child is going to die and
some people are going to cut themselves and that set their hair on fire
poor Tito
Tito yeah
yeah
that bit that bit when it cuts to him and he's drinking acid and having a dance that killed me sorry wrong turn of phrase
yeah
but like seeing it knowing what was coming as well for that kid I'm sorry. I It made me laugh.
Yeah.
And that probably makes me a bad person,

(05:58):
but it's a fictional It's a fictional child.
Yeah. The kid, I'm sure, is fine.
Yeah.
Um I wouldn't necessarily, if I was a parent, I wouldn't necessarily allow my children to be in a Gaspino movie, but that's just me. Different styles of parenting. Clearly,
maybe they didn't know. Maybe they saw the movie. Maybe they just like tell them you're doing a Tom and Jerry movie.
It's um it's the new Chris Columbus movie. It's it's a familyfriendly romp. Um,
a wizard.
Yeah. But, um, yeah, going back to the to the interviews and the the tapes and stuff around them, I think I remember seeing Possession, the Andre Jalowski.
Oh, yeah. It's a director we've become familiar with lately. Well, you were already familiar with, but
we did go and see The Devil,
which was a very is another very normal movie.
All these normal movies that I get to watch with you. It's great.
Totally normal. But I can definitely see the Shilovski influence like peppered throughout climax. And I think the scene where Selva is kind of losing her s*** when she's by herself and backed by that wallpaper that sort of looks like a forest.
Ooh, interesting.
It's a really interesting shot and an interesting choice, but when she's kind of losing it and sticking her hand down her tights and just screaming and flipping out and stuff, that's that to me is so reminiscent of the Isabella Johnny subway scene in possession.
Yeah.
So, there has to be some heavy Scholski influence here going on.
Well, I mean, it's unquestionable, right? Because he he has that thing. He has the the the tapes.
He's telling you he's telling you he's not being subtle about it. And I do I do appreciate that. Like, oh, if you're clever enough, you might see, but it's like, no, look, this is all look this is what to expect. And I suppose I go back like 5 years ago, I probably didn't know quite a lot of those movies because you had not introduced me to them. And uh so I didn't quite get that reference point, but that's now like, oh, I can can see what he's doing there and and what sort of movie this is going to be. Uh, probably if I saw that now, there was another movie that opened like that within five or 10 minutes, then I'd be like, okay, this is not going to be for me.
Yeah.
I don't Did I enjoy Possession?

(06:19):
I don't think so.
No. Okay.
It's been a while since we've seen it. Maybe that should be um
It's not been that It's been like years.
That's
It's one of my favorites, though.
Okay. needs to come back into heavy rotation.
We haven't even watched Spade together yet.
But yeah, and there's a bunch of other stuff like Unian Andaloo, which is a really really early sort of shortish film. The most famous scene in which is um somebody's a woman's eyeball kind of being sliced with a razor.
I've seen that.
So all really sort of transgressive uh controversial stuff when it was released.
Yeah. Yeah. And he's following suit.
What was he was he gonna say something about uh the character's psyche in the introduction videos.
Well, I mean, even that's laid bare, isn't it? Because she's talking about her roommate in inverted quotes that does acid through his eyeballs.
That's right.
So, it's it's all there.
And she was the baddie. She was the baddie.
Yeah. On Second Watch, that's really obvious as well because she doesn't actually appear during the dance into the I think it's like 4 minutes into the dance before she even appears. She starts that that piss on the floor.
But she because she was absent for that bit of the film, not even kind of on the sides like most of them.
She's really the only one that had the opportunity to to have spiked it.
Oh, I see. Yeah. Just in in terms of physical like location, where is this character at the time? Yeah.

(06:40):
Like proximity and everything. So,
how much time do you think has passed from the audition tapes to the what we see in the movie, the the the night this night of celebration and joy?
Um Let me get this right. Am I right in thinking I know this is something they talked about, but we watched this movie a couple weeks ago now, so I'm going from memory. Am I right in thinking that it's it's a celebration because they finished all of their their practice stuff and they're ready to sort of perform it for real?
I
So this is like their celebration night.
It's roughly what I read on Wikipedia. Yeah.
Right. Cuz I think they were sort of working and living there for a solid 3 days. Like it was sort of a really intense kind of dance boot camp together. thing together. So, I think we see them on the yay, we've nailed it.
Okay,
let's have some punch. Nice.
So, I guess the reason that I'm asking that is because I just wanted to know I wanted to try and figure out whether Psyche was kind of planning this from the beginning.
I think she was probably planning it. Yeah, I I see her as sort of a master of puppets kind of figure because she just
sort of stands back and watches the chaos unfold and she's kind of used to it so she plays it up. like literally pissing on the floor, but she's not as she's not as out of it as everybody else is
because she's a she's a pro at acid.
And she seems lovely. Just like
delightful.
Lovely, delightful person.
Mhm. Not coic, not not b*****.
No.
No.
Everyone in this movie, it's like watching a Richard Curtis movie when you just love all of the characters, you know?
Oh, yeah. This is just like Love Actually.

(07:01):
Yeah.
I'd rather watch Climax.
And we love all the characters in Love. including the person that's trying to steal his best friend's wife who is 17year-old Kieran or whatever she was in her.
I hate that movie so much.
It's bad. That's why you hate it.
Yeah.
No offense if you love actually.
Some offense.
If you love love actually that you ain't watching you ain't listening to this, are you? But maybe you are. And that's fine. We love you too.
Nobody's perfect.
That's true. Yeah. I like some Absolutely. ass. So,
I know you do.
I have some terrible movies in my collection.
Oh, yeah. There was I forget the season, but you were really keen to put Mac on it.
That was Flops. That was last season.
Yeah.
I could have gone in Aliens to be fair.
I'm sure you'll get it on at some point cuz, you know, advertising season or or whatever we do.
Obnoxious product placement season.
Yeah.
Yeah. Uh characters. Who's the character that you find the least detestable in this? I framed that question very specifically because no one's great.

(07:22):
Yeah, none of them are really likable.
One, I would say
maybe Silva
or the pregnant girl.
Yeah, I suppose Silva doesn't do much, does she? That's kind of unforgivable.
She's not as nearly as detestable as some of the others,
I suppose. So, yeah.
And she kind of, besides the massive freakout, kind of gets off unscathed compared to a lot of other people. Cuz obviously very early on into the psychosis, they shot I think it's Omar out in the cold cuz there's a snowstorm outside and we find out at the end he effectively froze to death.
Yeah, I forgot about that.
Yeah, he's the first first one to die, I think.
I think I think Silva's very complicit in a lot of this stuff in her inaction. She doesn't Yeah, she she just she's upset by the child being locked in the electrical cupboard. And you know, I'm not saying that the mom's getting off scot-free, but she also is there.
Somewhat bad parenting that you turned you back and let your kid drink the punch anyway cuz presumably it's alcoholic.
Yeah, kids can drink alcohol, can't they?
He was like five.
Yeah, it's all right. You're in the safety. Nothing's going to happen.
Oh, yeah.
Except for when you get electrocuted and cut.
That was the worst thing about that moment is that the music went off. That's what Sorry, that was what the characters were thinking.
Definitely not me.
Yeah, none of them seem to have a shred of empathy really.
No, there's that. I go back to that conversation that you brought up earlier about the guys and just talking like being lads. It's a f****** pub lad discussion and it's horrible, but you're just like, "Oh, these are just nasty people

(07:43):
and you it's not very enjoyable to to watch or listen to. I just want it to end and it goes on for ages. And that's part of this reason that I'm like, I just can't I can't sit there and watch these people for an hour and a half. And I do appreciate that it's an hour and a half. I think if this movie was 2 hours or two and a half hours, I think I'd have way more of a problem with it. I think
I would like to watch Enter the Void with you cuz I think that's close to two and a half hours.
Well, you were going to put it on the other night, but but we decided not to. Time was getting on. Yeah.
So, um that was a shame.
Yeah. I think I think maybe that's One of the reasons that I don't find this film to be too much of a bomber, though,
because they're all horrible people. So, I'm I'm okay to put up with these vile conversations because I know that where they're headed is for a really bad time. So, it's almost like poetic in that way.
What did uh the weird arms guy do to any to arm anyone? He didn't even say a word, did he in this thing? He's just standing around every 10 minutes. He just the camera just whips to him and he's doing this thing with his arms
just contortionists wig me out.
It was It's very um
It's impressive.
It's 100 It's definitely impressive, but it is weird to look at and it doesn't look natural and it's it makes it's makes you feel anxious and uneasy and it's a very effective uh tool to I don't know why more movies don't just go even if it's not part of the story just just flash to a contortionist. Yeah.
An alien alien the next alien movie Alvarez is like I don't know how to up the stakes in the alien movies like just put
make him super bendy.
Yeah. But Pedro Pascau had it.
But yeah, I um I I don't know why more why more productions don't utilize things like that. I know um I can't remember the guy's name. I think Oh, Twisty Troy. There's a guy called Twisty Troy.
Twisty Troy.
And he was in I think maybe season 3 of Channel Zero. And he was great. He was playing a character called Pretzel Jack that was like from this child's nightmare. And and just a complete absence of CGI. It It's super uncanny valley because it looks real. You know, it's real. It doesn't look fake because you can, you know, make people do that in post, but it's not the same.
Sure.
Um and I honestly don't know why more people don't more directors don't utilize people like that.
Yeah.
I think it's great.

(08:04):
I guess in this movie he was specifically looking for dancers and weird and unusual dancers and that's kind of how he sort of started the casting process.
And I think someone else maybe had suggested to him that uh maybe that he should get some actors with a bit of experience at least in the in the lead role.
Okay.
Because she has more to do, more to carry.
Yeah,
I guess.
Speaking of
Speaking of,
you're talking about the dancers. What did you think of the actual dancing?
Really skilled. Like really impressive to look at.
Mhm.
Really well shot and Yeah. fun to watch, I guess. But because
you don't sound too sure. No, it's I don't know. I think because
Are you just struggling to say that any of this movie is fun to watch? Does that feel wrong?
Um I don't know. I wouldn't I wouldn't go that far. It's just that because I know what's coming.
Like if you watch that scene in isolation. Yes. Okay. That's that's probably I wouldn't do that cuz I'm not a big dance person. I don't find I won't wouldn't watch dance for entertainment. Although I appreciate it as an artistic and highly skilled craft.
It's not not something that I turn to for entertainment,
whereas I do.
Okay,
so that's another reason I love this movie.
But it's very impressive and it looks amazing and the way that they dance independently and come together and it's like this weird it sort of fits in with the the style of the movie as well. And the I guess there's not really a sto much of a story, but like there is a kind of people are basically shitbags, aren't they? They're going to screw each other over at some point or something. They all one apparently they're either morons or holes.

(08:25):
The the gossip, the s***** gossip is horrible.
But um yeah, I I do really love that overall because there there are so many different styles of dance incorporated. It's not just one thing. Um which I find just super interesting to look at and I'd love to know how they went about fitting it all together because
on a day apparently like well f****** doing
just winged it. Yeah. But they the the dancers are obviously all playing to their individual strengths and I think that's such a art play, but there's like super heavy influence from like the drag ballroom scene kind of New York based in the 80s.
Okay.
There's a really really good documentary called Paris is Burning which is largely about that.
But yeah, I I really appreciate that there are so many different styles and it helps to kind of date it as well because I think that coupled with the the VHS tapes and the aspect ratio at the start, I think it's a 133 aspect ratio and the film is set in 199 6, which you're never told, but I think the the styles of dance, the VHS tapes, the costumeuming, it's somewhat obvious that it's not present day.
Yeah, I suppose it's not something that I picked up on on my first watch.
It was only kind of via research that I picked that up.
Didn't really think about it. I don't think the era is important to
No, it doesn't impact the viewing much.
No, but I I I guess it's because it's it's he got the idea from a real life event, didn't he, where a dance troop were actually drugged with acid in a in a their beverage. It might not have been sangria, but um nothing like this happened.
No, they were all fine.
They're all fine. Yeah. But I think that's where he got the idea. So, and I think that was in the '9s, so he's probably just trying to sell it and like an alternate timeline maybe kind of situation wherewhere things went this way instead
and they still had the cornicopa on the fruit of the loom t-shirt
and it was the Baron Stain. Bears and not the Baronstein Bears.
That's right. Yeah.
Yeah. Um
and Independence Day Resurgence was a good movie.
I don't think that happened in any timeline, did it?
So,

(08:46):
so you've mentioned it already, but the title card popping up at the midway point. I I talked about it at the beginning of the show, but it's not something that hit me until second, third watch that the choice of the title card is clearly because that's where the their high is like peaking.
Yeah.
I mean, I'm assuming I've never done LSD, so I've known firsthand
allegedly. No, I haven't.
Okay.
I've never done LSD.
Um I'm a bit scared to to be honest.
Me neither.
I'm I'm too anxious. But um I presume it's sort of the the high kind of peaking and then from that moment on everything starts to go wrong cuz it's after the title card that they start going,
I don't feel good. What was in the punch?
Yeah, 100%. It ties in with the the trip that Then yeah,
and I really like that as a decision, but it didn't occur to me until second or third viewing.
And it's also it's another warning to the audience, isn't it? It's like this is the best it's going to get now.
Yeah.
Um
it's not been great so far.
Maybe if you just watch the film up until that point. I was say I was about to say that maybe it is a joyous watch if you just watch it up to that point, but it's not the assholes.
Yeah. Talking about how much they want to do anal at someone.
Mhm. At someone.
Yeah. On Someone
at someone sounds violent. That's horrible.

(09:07):
Yeah, I guess in someone is the appropriate use of that term.
That um Yeah, that makes more sense.
Yeah, I use the term appropriate very loosely.
Be like the a******.
Oh, terrible
too much.
We're talking about a Gasper No Way film. I feel like I can say whatever the f*** I like on this episode.
Yeah, you probably haven't gone far enough anywhere near as bad as what this this guy does does on film.
Yeah,
I think uh Going back to some of the characters, right?
I find it a bit frustrating because there are characters that I loathe and there are characters that I think are almost they could have been good.
Like I
somewhat redeemable.
They could have been,
but they don't really do that in this film. Like the the daddy character,
DJ, I quite enjoy him in at the start of the movie. He's fun and uh seems to be kind of protective over the people around him. He's playing some tunes as well. and uh and I like him, but then it gets to the point where he's off of his tits as well, and he's he just sort of doesn't take any interest in the s*** that everyone else is going through. He just doesn't give a f***. And I guess that's like a lot of these characters in this. And I find that disappointing. And that's part of the reason why I find it difficult cuz even the people that I'm like at the start of the movie, I quite like this person.
Yeah.
I don't quite remember their arc and then they just let me down.
Well, so once again, never done LSD, so I don't have any frame of reference, but do you give a s*** about anybody beyond your own trip?
Once again, I mean neither, so I wouldn't know.
Okay, I'm just assuming. So, I guess I assumed wrong, but um yeah, I don't know. I I'm I'm fine sort of writing that off as them just having like LSD blinkers on, I guess. Like you're not necessarily thinking about, oh, that person's head's on fire. I should probably do something about that.

(09:28):
You're just like, oh no, my world is caving in. What do I do? Cuz it must be terrifying. if you're not expecting it.
Yeah. But he didn't seem particularly scared of anything or concerned with anything. He just was enjoying
Where's that wig?
Yeah, exactly. And he does that thing where he's sort of shaking the wig around and like a lion or something.
And I didn't I don't know what I was meant to think in that scene, but I enjoyed it.
Were you aroused?
No.
Um I wasn't aroused in any of this movie.
No, I would say this is a deeply unsexy film actually. Maybe maybe the most unsexy movie.
Yeah. What what have gases?
No.
No.
No. I was That's what I was just like, do I edit this comment? Um, no. None of them are particularly sexy. Even the one with actual
boning in.
Yeah. Yeah. Silva as well. Like I said, because she could have done something. I know she was off her tits as well. And like I say, I've never done LSD, but from what I hear,
from what I've been told by other people that weren't me, that have done LSD.
Okay.
Is that it's very much dependent on your like the vibe, the situation that you're in.
Yeah, I can imagine. So, if everybody around you is freaking out and that's going to be a bad time.
Yes. You would presume so it' be a bad time. Maybe s*** wouldn't go down exactly like this. No,
but it's not impossible I guess.

(09:49):
But then it's not impossible for people to just do this without LSD. And I think wasn't Caspo I heard somewhere perhaps it was on Wikipedia again that he was You you said earlier that he's not necessarily against drugs and he does drugs himself,
but he finds alcohol to be the biggest problem in society and this is this is more about the alcohol than it is about the acid.
Oh, interesting.
Yeah, apparently.
Um, yeah, I didn't get that from it.
Me neither.
I don't I don't think the punch was the thing that was the issue. No,
personally.
Um, no.
Yeah, I I guess I'm sort of on his side in terms of I don't understand why alcohol is legal when things like cannabis isn't.
Yeah.
But yeah, I don't I didn't see this as like a a kind of anti-B booze message.
I don't know if I'd go as far as to say an anti- booze message, but definitely a slight just a little little bonus, a little like um like bonus feature, like an Easter egg to say booze is kind of the worst thing. Like that will make you crazy. If they were just drinking pure acid, this probably would never have happened.
I suppose it would have been a lot harder to spike them
if there hadn't have been that punch. And also, I guess if you're getting a bit of a buzz on, it would have taken them longer to realize that, oh s***, I'm not drunk. There's something more going on.
Yeah. And but but lacing the acid with the
Does that compound the effects of it?
Uh well, I don't know if it would always say from what I've heard anyway, not my own personal experience, but you shouldn't really mix alcohol with other drugs,
right?
And uh
yeah, that seems ible.

(10:10):
Yeah. I mean, you can do I mean, don't don't cuz it's
Yeah, we do not advocate that.
No. No. And I
don't do anything that happened in this movie.
Don't do anything that happened in this movie. And don't do anything illegal unless it's putting Michael Farage Nigel Farage in a cage with an acid laden chip. You can do that.
I No, for legal purposes, we don't advocate that either. But if you did want to do it, then we're not going to stop you.
I think I might advocate it a little bit.
Okay. Well, he's not going to listen to this, so I think Fine. He's too busy washing milkshake off his head, probably. What a dude. What a guy.
Yeah,
I am. What are we saying about Climax now? I I'm not sure that things would go down exactly like this if they were all just on acid. But having said that though, I don't How much acid did she put in the punch? And people just get the impression it was a lot.
Neck in sangria. It's not like you do a little bit. From what I've heard, you do a little a bit of acid and see how you get on and then that's your trip. And then maybe next time you do a little bit more if you want more of a trip, but like you don't want to just be drinking f****** glasses of acid. That's going to be a bad time for you.
That's the thing though. I sort of get the impression that for the bulk of them, this was their first experience with it.
Yeah.
Which would be pretty terrifying. And if you know, if if it's in the amounts you're saying, then just a mind f***.
If you didn't know what was going on and you just started to feel weird.
I think I was going insane.
I think I would depend. It's hard to say, isn't it? Like I think I would clock at some point like I feel weird here. What's in this angria given that everyone else is also wigging out?
Let's go back. I want to go back a little bit. Sorry to stop you in the middle middle of your conversation. Um who's who is the worst character? Did we decide?
It's Psyche. She does all of the druging and she pisses on the floor. That's the worst thing that she did.
Yeah, but Dom kicks a pregnant lady in the stomach several times.
Oh, yeah. I'd forgotten about that.

(10:31):
And is the one who kind of gets Omar thrown out.
Yeah.
And then I wish I knew her name, but the pregnant lady, I sort of didn't necessarily understand what was going on the first time I watched it because she's obviously for obvious reasons, she's not drunk any of the sangria and yet she seems to lose her mind quite quickly. Obviously being kicked in the stomach knowing that you're pregnant would be horrific. unimaginably horrific, not to mention painful.
But then when she comes out and starts screaming at everybody that that's what's happened and Dom kind of sets the crowd on her and they're all just yelling at her, she seems to sort of lose it very quickly and starts cutting her arms and her face and that looked so real.
I think that was probably one of the most disturbing parts for me,
just seeing her cut herself.
Yeah, it's unpleasant. Definitely.
Yeah. I'd love to know how they achieved that because it really did look real. Particularly the cut on the face.
Oh, squeezy knife. Squeezy knife blood inside.
Yeah,
it looks it looks effective. It does look really good. But that's an interesting point. Yeah, Dom is an a******.
But it is difficult to to pick out which one is the worst a******.
It's a tough call.
There are like three or four layers of a****** in this movie.
Mhm. Much like three or four layers of hell that they go through.
Yeah. Right. They do end up No inferno.
Gaspo's Inferno. They do end up in the upside down, don't they?
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, and the contortionist guy is just
Yeah.
off on one in the red lighting. Yeah, that is
I remember watching this for the first time. When I got to this point, this is at this point when it went upside down

(10:52):
and Yeah, he loves the spinny camera thing. And
there's the camera thing. Yeah, he loves it.
But I remember I'd already had my break at this point. I think maybe I got to the hour point or maybe it was when it said it can't have been when and it said climax cuz it must have been when stuff started to get really dark.
But yeah, I remember getting to that point where they're upside down and just thinking, okay, this is interesting. But then when it goes on for like seven minutes,
I'm like,
can we I I actually physically stood up and put my head upside down cuz I couldn't see what was going. I wanted to understand or comprehend what was happening in this scene.
I don't think that's the point though.
He didn't intend for people to to put their heads upside down so they could see what was happening.
I don't think it necessarily matters. It's it's it's less about what you can see and make out and more just the overall experience. Yeah.
The sights and the sounds and and how deeply deeply unpleasant it all is.
Yeah.
And also something that I realized it's another film that I love that has incest in it.
Yeah. Yeah. I was going I'm glad you brought this up cuz I was
forgotten. We were watching it and you even said like, "Oh, isn't that the brother and sister that get together?" I'm like, "What?"
Oh, no. Oh s***. Yeah,
another incest Sarah special.
Look, I just like subversive stuff. And that is one of the biggest taboss, isn't it? I guess
I would say it's probably one of the biggest taboos. Yeah.
Yeah. So, it's something that subversive movie makers like to lean on. Yeah.
Is my excuse.
That's true. Yeah. You got you got No way. You've got um name escapes me. Lanamas got Lamos

(11:13):
playing with uh playing with that seems like the wrong way of phrasing exploring. No depicting
some stuff happens in dog tooth.
Yeah, stuff happens in dog tooth and an entire season of trapped movies apparently.
That season there was like incest in half the season.
I think it was three out of eight. Don't exaggerate.
Almost half.
Almost half. We got another one here. It's been a while.
But it's not even the worst thing that happens in this I know. I know.
It gets so much worse.
And that's why it's so much fun to watch.
Mhm. Cuz you're watching terrible people get their comeuppants.
Can't justify it.
I can I can try.
I get to the end of this movie and it's not often that my brain's like, "Oh, I really would love to watch an episode of Funhouse on YouTube." But I get to the end of this movie.
That's what I'm missing in my life right now. Pat Sharp.
I just want to see some kids racing around. Not in that way. Just see See him racing around an inflatable building doing on on go-karts with
grabbing things off the ceiling.
Yeah. Finding like
I wanted always wanted to do that when I was a kid.
Brain bleach. That's what I'm saying is you need brain bleach. And Fun House is a good one.
Sy and sweep in your life.

(11:34):
S and Sweep is a great brain bleach. Oh, this is Let's explore this.
If this movie really depressed you, what do you turn to to lift you up? When I was a kid and I would watch a scary horror film, one of the ones I remember most vividly is John Carpenters's Prince of Darkness and watching that movie and just the dread in it and getting to the end of it and being like,
"Wow." But I loved it and I still love it. But I my go-to was put on the news cuz somehow the news
Yeah. Because I think when a film like that really got under my skin and it's more like the I don't understand this world, put the news on and it's like, "Oh, that's reality." Even if it's like bad stuff going on
like bombings in Far East, but it's just like, oh well, at least the devil isn't real.
It's a white man in a suit delivering factual information.
Yeah.
Quote unquote,
depending on
completely unbiased, I'm sure.
Not if you're watching Alex Jones. He's not actual. Although
or unbiased.
No, no. As long as he's by his new topics, he's fine. Whatever. Just buy him. I don't care. Um, what was I saying about my f****** my experience watching um bad Yeah, but watching movies that uh affecting to me affect like make me feel depressed or like a very really strong negative emotion. I I guess then my my go-to would be the news funhouse. What else? Sie, you mentioned Si. What would you what would you go to? What else would you go to?
H Bad Boy Bobby.
Well, as an antidote,
I'm joking.
Roadrunner.
Um
that's one I used to love renting a VHS of Roadrunner when I was sick.
I don't really have bleach because films don't affect me in the same way that they do most other people. I guess I don't know. I It's funny because when I get depressed, I don't turn to comfort movies nine times out of 10. That's when I watch really bleak stuff. And I'm not saying it makes me feel better, but it doesn't make me feel any worse. I guess cuz I'm
maybe cuz I'm already a little bit numb

(11:55):
at that point. I don't find them as emotionally affecting.
I don't know. cat videos on Tik Tok. Let's go with that.
I think I do I do turn I turn to the news obviously Road Runner, but I do I do like a comfort film as well if I'm feeling a bit I guess if if we're sort of exploring like unrelated to watching a movie or whatever if I just feel a bit depressed and down at a particular time.
This is something you would give a wide birth to. I'm
go anywhere f****** near a gas. I wouldn't even look at a gas.
No. no chance. But I think yeah, in a in a particularly dark period, I turn to a commando.
Okay.
And when I'm feeling really good about myself and life's going well, I turn to a commando.
So, you want David Patrick Kelly in a massive suit
at all times.
At all times. Yeah. Oh, that's fair. That's fair.
Yeah. That's kind of my my uh it's kind of how I live my life
really. C at the time.
What about um David Patrick Kelly in a big suit? What about Starship Troopers? Dean Norris in a Big Suit.
Dean Norris in a big suit is also fun.
Yeah.
Yeah,
I do. Yeah. Starship Troopers is another one I would tell that that is a kind of a comfort movie for me. Also, all of your classics, your Robocops, your Terminators. Um, Driven is a kind of a comfort movie for me too now at this point, which we've spoken about at Noisy
way way more than I cared to.
Way more than you ever thought that you would.
Yeah.

(12:16):
But then again, I never thought that I would be talking about a Sorry. Argentinian filmmakers French movie. Um, that's very depressing. And this was uh it was shot in Paris. This this film,
I believe. So,
we haven't spoke about the film for about 15 minutes, so we should probably bring it back.
Well, he does he does live and work predominantly in France.
Yeah. But it was uh it was shot in Paris in an abandoned school.
Okay.
And uh that must have been a whole vibe.
Did you say that the crew were staying there or or did you say characters were meant to the characters are sort of working and living there? If the crew was
I wonder if they did do that. Like that would be interesting.
God, that would be stifling.
Yes.
You'd feel like it was happening for real.
I bet that's what happened if I had to put money on it because he it seems like everything else that this guy is doing is he's trying to shepherd like a a very real response and genuine
emotions and thoughts and stuff and just trying to depict
humanity and he f****** hates humanity, doesn't he?
I get that impression. Yeah, he thinks we should go extinct.
He doesn't seem to have any sympathy for any of the characters that that are in his movies.
Yeah,
I'll say that.
Yeah.
What is your opinion of him as a as a man and as a director from knowing the little that you know?

(12:37):
I don't I can't really have an opinion on Gaspanoi because my opinion my entire research of the man is just watching this movie and the limited Wikipedia reading that I did earlier. It's not surprising to me that you you say that he seems like a bit of an edge lord. It does seem like he's just trying to provoke a very visceral, like a very almost aggressive response from people. He wants people to be offended or at the very least really affected by his films.
That's something I would have gotten bored with as a teenager, but now I just find that attitude a bit juvenile.
Yeah. I I guess it's like what's the point of it? That that's what I when I'm watching a film, that's what I always come back to is don't mind watching intense violence,
but you want some meaning.
I want some meaning. Like this, I was watching Robocop when I was 5 years old, and I was seeing people getting shot in a chest and just a thousand squibs exploding off of them.
Yeah, but you can't have understood the satirical edge as a child.
Satirical edge. No, I didn't. As a child,
I just enjoyed it cuz it this is crazy and fun. It's almost cartoony. I guess that was the the kind of the appeal that it was for me. It was a a cop in a in a robot. suit. This is a the best car and I'm not watching cartoons. There's a man there's a real man in a robot suit and he's a cop and he drives up the ramp and it sparks every time he drives up. It's great.
Um, but the as I've gotten older, like I I watch that movie and the violence is integral to what that film is about and you know the the sat as you say the satire of that movie. But uh that's that. Yes. So there's a reason for it. There's a point to it. And I'm not saying there's no point to the the violence in this, but it it's almost it doesn't feel like it's trying to explore anything or looking for any redemptive qualities. It's just going humans are assholes,
and that's a bit depressing to me. I I've got a bit more hope than that.
So, it does give you an emotional response.
It definitely does. Yeah. And very few films do that to be fair. The last one that did it was last night when we watched F1.
I thought you were going to say something like pig. Oh, F1.
Yeah.
Right. Highbrow driven.
Yeah. Yeah. It's the same movie,
but good.
Yeah. Not everything about it is dog s***.
I haven't reviewed it on a letter box yet, but I was thinking maybe my review would be it's driven but good. And they're both four-st star movies.
Wrap your head around that one.
Yeah. No, I think I gave that one four and a half to be fair.

(12:58):
Is it strange to say that I find climax to be quite cathartic.
I understand what you're saying about it being draining.
Yeah,
it's an exhausting experience and much like you, I am really grateful at the run time. I think any longer than that and it would have been like an endurance test.
Do you think it would have been too much if it would have gone on longer than even
I do. Yeah. Yeah. I think it was the perfect length. I think that I think it's paced fairly well actually.
It is really well paced. Yeah.
I'm never bored. But yeah, I think when it when it's sort of gets to the end, I do feel a sense of catharsis and I I can't necessarily put my finger on why.
I think the only cathis that I would draw from it is, oh, thank god this is over.
Yeah,
that's for me like I can Oh, I can breathe now. I certainly felt that the first time that I watched it cuz watching it in two goes, I can't remember if it was the same night if I watched the second part the following day.
I'm amazed you went back to it to be honest.
Well, I felt like I had to because you were covering it and you made me
but I wanted to be I wanted to be part of the discussion and just understand what you were talking about but
I can't remember if I was more relieved the first time when I was like oh yeah I've watched this now that's good or the second time maybe I was more relieved the second time because
I had the added dread of it knowing that this was programmed into your season
and I'm going to have to f****** watch Climax again movie that you know I did not get on with the first time around. So yeah, when it got to the end, I was like, "Okay, now we've just got to talk about it. I'm not scot-free yet because I still got to think about this movie in my head. It's still got to live in my head." And then, "Oh, f***. It's not over yet, is it?"
No. So close.
No.
Yeah. I don't know. I I don't necessarily think that this is Gaspino purging anything, but it feels like it is. So, I think I kind of get that by proxy almost. That's my best guess at why I find it cathartic.
What's um what's your score on this movie? We don't do this very often, but I'm intrigued to know what you gave this unless

(13:19):
four and a half stars.
You're a four same as what I rated F1.
You gave it a four and a half. Wow.
Did I like it?
Yeah. Um well, I'm sort of adopting your rating technique more and more these days cuz I used to be a little bit more objective cuz something else we watched recently is Barry Lindon
and on a technical level That's a five-star movie. Every frame is a piece of art. It's so exquisitly beautiful, but I just I couldn't connect to it. So, I gave it three stars.
And that's a real That's something I went back and forth on a lot, but I'm like, "No, personally, my personal enjoyment was three stars."
Yeah.
So, I'm kind of I'm following in your footsteps there. I'm doing more subjective scores. than objective these days.
I do. Sometimes it's hard. I I mostly do more subjective scoring on movies. I The one I struggled with was with was The Devil,
right?
I did think about it a lot. I know I left it a few days before I rated it.
Yeah.
Did I love watching the movie? Would I if we were watching it at home, would I have necessarily paid attention to the whole thing?
No.
No.
Robert Edgars hadn't told you it was a masterpiece up front
and I like, "Oh, yeah, it's a masterpiece." And watching it, it's like, "Is this a masterpiece?" Yeah. Edgar said it is. because it goes
and uh did we do that at the bridge Charles? We didn't. No, we bottled it.
It was a packed screen. I was too nervous
and he seemed nervous actually.

(13:40):
Did it? Do you think so?
Yeah.
Oh, I didn't pick up on it.
Yeah.
But that's that's the last one that I kind of struggled with. I think I ended up giving it a three and a half,
I think, cuz I was like, "Yeah, there's a lot to think about in this film." The context really helped from Megas. Thank you, Robert, if you're listening. Bob, we call it I call him Bobby Bobbyand he calls me Big D.
Does he?
Yeah. Like that. We're tight.
Mhm.
Um it's interesting that you're adopting the more subjective thing. For me, it's more about the entertainment. How many stars worth of entertainment did I get from the thing? But sometimes things can be different. Like when we talked about come and come and see like in terms of did I enjoy watching that movie? No, I f****** didn't. It it's it was hard to watch and that's the point of it. So
I think it's probably one of the bleakest films ever made. Exactly. But I can't I can't really score that movie on my enjoyment of it because that's not the point of the movie.
Yeah.
So I do adjust it depending on the movie. I don't have a hard and fast rule. For the most part, it's like how how much did I enjoy it? But
so with that in mind, what's your what would your score for climax be?
I'm at a two.
Two. Okay.
I think I was at a two the first time round and I'm still
even with the long take stuff and the
That's my two.
It's just a subjective two. Oh, right. Oh, it would be lower.
It's like I really respect the technical aspects of this film, how it got made, just how you did it in such a short time.

(14:01):
It's lit beautifully as well, and it seems to be mostly practical lighting, but I could be wrong.
Oh, I didn't think about the lighting actually. I remember being very struck by how it looked, the very vivid colors of the reds and stuff, very sesperia, magentto-esque as you said earlier.
So, it looks visually striking and I I love Sesperia. So, that was pleasing to see. But it's interesting that you say it looked like it was mostly mostly practical lighting. I didn't pick up on that.
I might be wrong,
but it certainly looked that way. I don't know how else they would necessarily achieve all of that with the long takes and the very little was hidden from view seemingly. So,
no, you're right. And it feels like the camera, it was definitely kind of free to go and explore Rome where it wanted to roam
and it needed to feel that way just because of the very nature of it. exploring the human experience and how how big of assholes we are.
He does he does that a lot with the camera,
does he? Quite just quite fluid and and flexible with where he needs to go. So mostly probably most of his movies are done with practical mostly practical lighting.
Yeah,
probably some that's built into the set. But
yeah, that makes sense actually.
Yeah, I'm at a I'm at a two because it's it's technically brilliant. It's I'm amazed that it got done. I think the performances for the most part of Incredible,
but you just don't enjoy it.
I enjoy it like a zero. I like No, I enjoy it like a one because because of the dancing probably at the start. And I'm like I say again, not a dancing guy, but I could look at it and go, "Wow." Like I thought you were going to say impressive.
It gets a one cuz the kid died.
Yeah, I love this movie.
Good. Good.
Two thumbs up.
Good. Yeah. Well, I'm glad you enjoy it. The second time you've covered the movie. First time I've covered the movie.
I'm glad I got to talk about it again actually because I feel like I've got way more of a handle on it than I did the first time around.

(14:22):
What do you mean in what
I think my frame of reference has expanded. Um
yeah, I mean for 5 years like I say 5 years ago I've seen way more movies and
you phrased way more articulately than I did. The frame of reference has definitely widened. Yeah.
Yeah.
And so you got like more from it this time or or feel like you understood it more cuz I feel like
Yeah. I don't I wouldn't say I got more out of it. Because I think on first watch I was at a 4 and a half out of five. Suicide has not changed.
No, it hasn't changed at all.
Five is reserved for perfection.
Yes. Or Robocop.
So perfection then?
Yeah. So perfection. Exactly. That's why we're together.
Yeah. So are you going to when's the next time you're going to watch Climax?
Whenever you're away.
I need to get another job. Do I work away from you can watch Climax again.
I think now that we've now that we've recorded this, I promise solemnly to never make you watch Climax ever again.
Really?
Really?
Okay. Thank you.
You're off the hook.
So, what you're saying is what if there's a f****** Gaspano Q&A at Prince Charles?

(14:43):
You're already walking it back, aren't you?
I don't know. I don't know if I'd rush to that one. I do find him reasonably Interesting.
What if there was a gaspa Q&A at the palace?
Yeah,
we only have to drive 30 minutes.
Yeah, it's closer to home. Sure. Yeah,
it's never going to happen. But um
so what you're saying is that you might make me watch this again.
I would never make you. No, I'll go on my own. It's fine.
Okay,
I've said it. It's recorded now.
Yes, the evidence is there. Listeners, back me up.
I might make you watch Enter the Void.
Uh really,
but I think you'll genuinely get more out of that. Do you? I do. Yeah.
I don't know. That's two and a half hours long. I feel like I'd rather watch a climax again.
Um maybe you should do some LSD and then watch it.
I I would never do that.
That would be a bad trip.
Yeah, I think.
Yeah. No, thank you. Do some acid and watch a Gasper No Way movie.

(15:04):
Do some acid and watch Road Runner.
Yes.
Instead.
Yes. Yeah. Do some acid and watch Transformers. I'm I've heard that from someone I know that wasn't me that that's a really fun experience.
Oh, it becomes tolerable, does it? Yes, cuz you're just transfixed on these cars turning into robots.
Okay, I'll bear that in mind.
Um, yeah, I'm glad we I'm glad we talked about it. I'm glad I chose it and I'm glad I programmed it where I did.
Yeah, it kind of feels sort of inevitable when you're choosing a theme of drugs. This was always going to be part of the mix, wasn't it?
Yes. I I kind of tried to think about different types of drugs. drugs as well. It wasn't it wasn't just the films. I wanted like the broadest variety of of everything of like types of films, but also types of drugs.
Um, and yeah, it was between this and something else
I haven't seen
that was focused on heroin, but we already did that with
We did heroin, didn't we, in episode one, didn't we?
Yeah. So, we did heroin, we did um fake drugs, synchronic,
we did uh like ecstasy.
Ecstasy. Now, we've done acid.
Yeah.
So, what drug are we doing next? Um, well, I believe we're covering Broke Down Palace next time.
Are we? Cuz I'm glad that you remembered cuz I didn't remember.
Well, I'm only saying that because you said earlier, I think we're doing Broke Down Palace next.
Do I need to check to make sure?

(15:25):
Maybe. Maybe you should check.
Do we accidentally announce what's coming after Broke Down Palace?
It's not Brokeown Palace again.
No, we're not doing it twice.
We're doing Broke Down Palace four times because the rest Wish.
Do I?
You're going to wish.
Will I?
Mhm.
It's taken ages to load.
I might Should I leave that pause in?
No.
I'm going to pretend that I don't edit any of it.
Okay.
Right. Right. All right. I've got the list.
Go on.
Yeah. It's broke down past.
Okay. Good. So, it was between that and something else. That's very similar in theme. So, we'll discuss that and its alternative next week.
Oh, yeah. I've just realized the one that I'm going to be uh depressed on.
Mhm.
That I haven't seen. But next time is Prodown Palace. And the drug that they're doing in that movie is

(15:46):
Well, they're not doing any drugs. They are accused of smuggling.
So, it's um bit of a different kind of kind of movie
smuggling movie. Smuggling things.
And I haven't seen it since It came out. So, might be awful.
I haven't seen it period.
Okay. First time for you. Interesting.
First time for me. Yeah.

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Climax – S11 E86

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Climax – S11 E86