Transcript
Speaker: A kiss on the hand may be quite continental, but diamonds are girl's best friend. Hello and welcome to One Week, One Year, a podcast where we watch and discuss every year of film history in order, starting in 1895, the dawn of cinema. And this episode is 1953. I'm one of your hosts, Chris Ellie. I'm a film projectionist. And joining me is Marie Antoinette, my muse.
Speaker: Oh, just for the audio people, this is... ah I'm holding up a ah very realistic head. it's It almost looks like a real head. Marie Antoinette.
Speaker: Who are you? i am the other host, Glenn Covell. And my gimmick is that... Today, my video camera is in cinemascope. Widescreen.
Speaker: Again, also doesn't make a difference in audio, so that's fun. You know, you can you can watch it. You can consume our content. However... uh, however you see fit, but, uh, and we've got little, we've got little bonuses in each form. Also for reasons we'll probably get into later. Not, it's not technically in cinema scope. It's just an anamorphic widescreen, but.
Speaker: Oh, I am so ready to hear. I'm so ready to hear you talk about lenses. Uh, But ah yeah, I mean, we had to pull out all these gimmicks like CinemaScope and the 3D glasses and the head that I held up because we've got to um we've got a lot of increasing competition from ah from video podcasts.
Speaker: ah And so from from YouTube, ah from Twitch streams. Yeah, that's it. We've got a lot of ah we've got a lot of competition from Twitch streams. So you got to pull out all the stops. We've got a widescreen podcast now.
Speaker: ah What's up, Glenn? but Not much. I got a widescreen podcast. That's fun. um ah Yeah, I don't know. Just live living life, I guess.
Speaker: Living large in the Big Apple. Sure, yeah. So the hottest hottest ah ticket of summer 2016? 2016. 2026. you're talking about um Arrival? that's not That's not the hottest ticket, I guess. that's my It's the best movie of 2016. Sure, yeah. We'll get there. We'll get there. yeah ah You're talking about The Odyssey, which i which i saw as well.
Speaker: i drove Six hours each way to go see it on the second biggest screen in the country, but the biggest iMac 70 millimeter screen in the country. And I thought it was okay.
Speaker: I liked it more than okay. But ah I feel like we're... There's stuff I do actually want to talk about with the Odyssey in relation to o at least one of the movies that we watched. for this At least one. Okay. Because I do think it it is is ah is relevant.
Speaker: We do have a movie that features um mohawk helmets, a la olden times. sure um and And bigger than normal screens. So...
Speaker: Indeed. Indeed. Yes. ah I feel like such a hater because all of the movies that everyone loved this summer, ah which were Project Hail Mary, The Odyssey and Obsession.
Speaker: i I all thought I thought all of them were just OK. And um and I'm like, that's that's allowed. Yeah. No, I mean, you know, despite what the Internet may say, that is allowed.
Speaker: I feel like I get accused of being a contrarian sometimes in some respects. And, uh, and this is not helping my case, but, uh, uh, but on the other hand, and there was a there was a moment where I was like, am I capable of feeling?
Speaker: Have I, have I lost, have I lost everything? And then I watched sound of music and I was like, Oh, I could feel, I could feel, um, and music pretty good.
Speaker: Yeah, and we'll get to that much sooner. But anyway, we like to... This is going be a long one because we've a lot of movies we're talking about. So let's get rolling. Let's get rolling. Let's hear a little bit of context for was going on in the world while we were watching these movies. What was the news the year 1953? The news of the year 1953.
Speaker: butno of the year nineteen fifty three Saucers in the skies! The CIA creates a scientific committee to investigate UFO sightings in the DC area. Watson and Crick discovered the double helix structure of the DNA molecule.
Speaker: A new era begins in the Soviet Union as Premier Joseph Stalin dies. The first effective polio vaccine test is conducted. Jackie Cochran becomes the first supersonic woman in an F-86 saber.
Speaker: Queen Elizabeth II is coronated, beginning her record-breaking reign. Man reaches the highest peak. Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay become the first to summit Mount Everest.
Speaker: The U.S. Treasury gives a new name to one of its divisions, the Internal Revenue Service. An armistice ends the Korean War. A demilitarized zone separates the capitalist South and communist North, but no peace treaty is signed.
Speaker: The CIA instigates a coup d'etat in Iran, overthrowing their democratically elected leader and stalling a friendly one. France's prison colony Devil's Island closes, and the prisoners are returned to the mainland.
Speaker: At the Soviets' behest, the People's Republic of China is accepted it into the United Nations. All eyes on Lucy. 73.9% or 44 million Americans tune in to watch the I Love Lucy episode where she gives birth to her son.
Speaker: The 25th Academy Awards is held, the first to be broadcast on television. And that is... All the news fit to yell.
Speaker: right You should end everyone that way. That's that's all the news that's good to yell. This I love Lucy thing. We ah it's really making me go like, man, like I i feel i feel like we're not covering TV and like we're not. coming out tv but like We got do a separate podcast of covering all of television. i think that's that can be its own thing.
Speaker: But yeah, I Love Lucy, huge deal, of course. um Sure. yeah I guess it's worth mentioning ah that I Love Lucy is probably... that You know, I shouldn't speak without knowing precisely, but I feel like it's the the mega hit first TV show, in a way. First, that's and the the Big Bang Theory of its day. Oh, God. I mean, it is relevant in that 1953 is a notable for its sort of, like, cinema gimmicks, and it's sort of, like...
Speaker: this this escalation against television where like TV is blowing up. Everyone's watching I Love Lucy. Movie theaters and movie studios are like, we got to up our game. We got to make the screens bigger. We got to have stuff popping out. We got to, you know.
Speaker: And they didn't have Tom Cruise to welcome people back to the movies. I don't think he was that he was born yet at this point. Sadly, they had no Tom Cruise to fall back on. that beat BT. is It was maybe seven years BT. Yeah.
Speaker: B I should have said BC because it's before before Cruz. Yeah, sure. Yeah, I was just thinking before Tom. But anyway, ah we've got a couple of shorts to start us off a little aperitif of a Looney to a daffy duck aperitif a little daffy double feature. So let's get into one week one reel and talk about want to do Duck Dodgers.
Speaker: Sure. I like Duck Dodgers is the, I guess they're they're both notable. Duck Dodgers is the the debut of a sort of, I don't know, subcategory of Daffy Duck.
Speaker: A Daffy Duck specific character debuting this year. Well, yeah, we're we're saying Duck Dodgers. This is actually Duck Dodgers in the 24th and a half century.
Speaker: true. You got to say the whole thing every time. I lean away from the mic to breathe in and to yell. ah But yeah, um this is this You know, watching this was really underscoring to me how much of Looney Tunes was like just contemporary parodies.
Speaker: I think like old episodes of The Simpsons, Looney Tunes was kind of riffing off of things that were common in the day, that were popular in the day, and making like pop culture references.
Speaker: ah But they they have been... Because it's all in the past, it all feels like... This is just what it was instead of something gimmicky like a pop culture reference.
Speaker: It weirdly gets kind of lost now because we're like, oh, yeah, Duck Rogers in the 24th and a half century. That's just like Looney Tunes thing. And it's like, no, it's a very direct, like, parody of something else.
Speaker: Buck Rogers. which we should say, but yes. um Which, unless you're a weird sci-fi nerd like me, you might not even have heard of Buck Rogers. I feel like Buck Rogers does not have a ah big cultural footprint anymore.
Speaker: If I'm remembering correctly, for my entire life, um my parents have had two pinball machines in the basement that have never functioned. ah But one of them is a Buck Rogers pinball machine. And I would love to someday get that get that working. Mm-hmm.
Speaker: it's got This has got a lot of really cool like mid-century retro-futurist imagery in it. Does it ever? Yeah. Kind of Jetson's aesthetic, but to maybe riff off something a little more visually well-known. I was thinking, you know I haven't really watched much Buck Rogers or any Buck Rogers, but like...
Speaker: You think about how animation... With animation, you can kind of create such, like, um exaggerated sets and landscapes that would be difficult to pull off in live action because you would have to build it or do a matte painting or something like that. Difficult, but not impossible.
Speaker: Not impossible. ah But yeah, they have um they have a lot of ah really cool just kind of like space stations and rocket ships and ray guns in this. Yeah, disintegrator guns, um ultimatum guns.
Speaker: ah lots of Lots of great. ah I do love how everything is labeled. Also, love to see, apparently Acme is still in business in the 24th and a half century. Despite the lawsuits. Celebrating, yeah.
Speaker: ha Acme's celebrating their, you know, 500th year in business, I suppose. Yeah. And I mean, their products do seem to work maybe a little bit better in this in this short. so I mean, the disintegrator gun does what it says that it does, which is that when you... As does the integrator gun. The disintegrator gun, ah you fire it, and then it disintegrates.
Speaker: and and And it was Daffy's problem that he didn't understand what they meant. um Yeah, a lot of good lot of gri gags in this one. Lots of fun Looney Tunes-y like visual jokes. The alphabet planets.
Speaker: They're looking for planet X and they go through like the whole alphabet and there's just planets with giant letters on them. love and Lovely. I love it. Yeah.
Speaker: I was definitely getting some kind of like critique of colonialism vibes in this oh yeah and this short. you know the The flag planting, the arbitrary like who got there first kind of ness of it all.
Speaker: Yeah, like i I stake my claim of this place and, you know, in their fighting for the the place that they have just decided is theirs, they end up destroying the thing that they that they claimed they wanted. ah it leaves out a neighbor situation.
Speaker: he Exactly. yeah is Is Duck Dodgers communist? But yeah, I think, um you know, it's it's ah it's not the most rich critique. It's only seven minutes long, but ah it it almost reads like a bit of a parable in a way.
Speaker: Sure. i I do think it's like, I don't know how much of that is like directly intentional, but it also wouldn't surprise me if, you know, the Looney Tunes animators are a little a little lefty in this time period. Got a lot of Daffy yelling in this one. ah Yelling Duck Dodgers in the 24th and a half century. But yes, another ah Looney Tunes short that features a lot of Daffy Duck yelling.
Speaker: ah This thing is, um actually, this this short is entirely Daffy Duck yelling, which is ah Duck Amok, which... Yeah. a legendary, legendary Looney Tunes short.
Speaker: Which I'm kind of surprised I don't think I'd ever seen before. No way. Really? Yeah. Isn't this incredible? Yeah. And it's funny how much it reminded me of like really early, like 1900s animation. With its like very direct acknowledgement of like there was someone drawing things.
Speaker: There was this like other presence of an animator throughout the whole thing. It's like very direct, like kind of reference and like acknowledgement that like there is someone drawing pictures and that's what we're seeing.
Speaker: Yeah, the setup of this one is basically Daffy is trying to do a regular Looney Tunes short and things keep going wrong on the metatextual level of the animator not cooperating with Daffy. yeah It imagines Daffy as a living person who is participating in the making of the cartoon, With the person drawing the cartoon. But I guess he can't see the animator. Because then he would realize that it was Bugs Bunny messing with him the whole time. Indeed.
Speaker: What a reveal. And what a great use usage of... Ain't I a stinker? like... cheered when that happened. It's so... I try to look at it. It's not the first instance of Bugs Bunny saying, anin'an ain't I a stinker? But it's my favorite that I have seen.
Speaker: It's kind of a catchphrase, yeah. Right. But i like right it was an established catchphrase at this point. yeah like i I love the way that this... Short uses like weird like 2D logic. Like Daffy will look behind him at like the background.
Speaker: But then would also look forward like towards, you know, the screen, towards the audience and be addressing the animator. And it's this thing where it's like, what, right, what is Daffy supposed to be seeing? Like Daffy isn't really existing in 3D space.
Speaker: Yeah, it's like Daffy lives on the piece of paper. We're seeing the final version. Yeah. But he can't see outside. he of his he can't it seems like what he can see is more or less what we can see.
Speaker: He lives on ah and a flat land, I suppose. Which is, i think, a very common like cartoon thing. It's like... What exists outside of the... Like, nothing exists outside of the frame of what we see.
Speaker: But I think, interestingly, this is very much engaging with the idea of the frame specifically. ah this This is just you know just under seven minutes long, and it is imagining every...
Speaker: like every possible joke that could come from, uh, an ant, like ah a cartoon character who is fighting with the person making the cartoon up to and including some kind of stuff where like the film slips out of frame or the animator starts making the frame, the shape of the frame start like sagging from the roof or something. Right. As if it's like a tent or like a curtain.
Speaker: Yeah, there's a part where like Daffy says to like zoom in for a close up and then it just gets to like a really small square covering like the distant area that he's in. So it's like black on almost the entire screen. But then it like just makes like a little vignette around him really far away. It's like.
Speaker: it's calling attention to the the thing itself in yeah in terms of like a physicality or an imagined physicality, but also funny ways to yell at the animator.
Speaker: Sure, yeah. It is is quite meta, I suppose. It also reminded me of... ah the sega genesis game comic zone which i'm sure you're familiar with thanks to you yes which is all of like it's a 2d side scroller where there is a a villainous sort of like animator who's drawing in enemies on the screen they have to fight who knows maybe comic zone is directly inspired by this lingo toon short used to say There's like a really popular flash animation from like 20 years ago to called animator versus animation.
Speaker: ah oh yeah. it's Like the stick figure guy that is leaping out of macro media flash at the time. And and like moving around on the desktop and fighting with the person operating the computer and like grabbing the mouse and that sort of thing. uh yeah pretty cool pretty um pretty smart i ah it definitely feels like just like the animators having fun with this one like post-modernism has arrived at looney tunes absolutely yeah uh should we uh move on to one of our many feature films feature presentation feature presentation now we're pleased to bring you our feature presentation
Speaker: Oh, animation, it's hard to have these really wacky, surreal settings in live action. But a movie that I think does pretty job of doing that is The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. Yeah.
Speaker: Which is like a wild title. And when I heard the title, i thought it was some kind of you know creature that had 5,000 fingers. ah I couldn't imagine what it was referring to. ah But yes, it's about ah it's about a a dream. The whole movie is a dream sequence, basically, of a kid who feels oppressed by his disciplinarian piano teacher and has a dream... ah ah where he's in a the ah Dr. Seussian world where his piano teacher is trying to enslave 500 children to create a 5,000 fingered piano.
Speaker: ah and incredible film. I mean, you said Dr. Seussian, which is quite apt as this is the only feature film written by dr Seuss. Script and ah song lyrics, since this is also a musical,
Speaker: I think I had like vaguely heard of this movie before I'd seen it um as this like, you know, weird cultural object. I do think it is easily the the best like Dr. Seuss's books have been translated to to film. Like I think it is notable how there have been multiple live action adaptations of Dr. Seuss books that I think all are are missing some key ingredient that this movie is not. This movie really does feel like it captures Dr. Seuss's whole deal yeah much better than any of those do, which makes sense since he was directly involved with it.
Speaker: And yeah, I mean, like when you say his whole deal, like the, the, his handwriting, like is like on like the, the, some of the signage. ah I feel like Dr. Seuss has a lot of like things with gloves on them. Yeah. disembodied gloved hands yeah is the big thing with Dr. Seuss like yeah like the the architecture the props like the visuals of this movie I think are so cool insane and incredible and kind of genuinely unlike anything I've seen before or since like
Speaker: Because it is so much of a like direct translation of like Dr. Seuss' artwork into live action. Every time somebody makes a movie this visually distinct, I'm like, why are we not doing this all the time? you know yeah like like why Why are there not Fury roads Why are there not do difficult to five thousand fingers i mean i i do think the answer is because it is incredibly difficult to do what I don't think that people are dedicated to doing it I think that the the pursuit of realism is folly. Well, sure. No, I do agree that ah sort of realism and naturalism in just all storytelling is is a bit overrated, in my opinion. Yeah, like the the sets in this movie are just absolutely...
Speaker: incredible and wild this movie really reminded me of powell and pressburger movies only i think with a lot less it takes us itself a lot less seriously than those do like powell and pressburger movies do feel very much like they are dramas aimed at at an adult audience whereas this is very much a like musical for children and yet i think it also never really talks down to the audience And it is like about very like childlike ideas. Like it's, it operates on sort of kid logic a lot of the time because it is also right. The whole movie is like a child's nightmare.
Speaker: that we're watching Yeah. Yeah. And it's also like, yeah, I think I think the the narrative it does. I think it's interesting in that if it very much feels like it's built built for kids, too. But like the things that it's talking about feel like very kid oriented struggles.
Speaker: I know that this movie was like a big box office bomb and like was not well reviewed at all upon release. um And I think kind of had sort of got a sort of infamous reputation for that.
Speaker: ah Despite the fact that i I genuinely think this movie is like a near masterpiece. I love this movie so much. And I think the like the kind of um childishness of it is ah a feature, not a bug.
Speaker: like i love how much it by dr se right but I love how much it commits to like not remotely trying to like have the story make sense on like adult terms. It is like also things happen because that is just like what a child thinks happens, you know? And I i love that about it so much. And I think it is like a rarity in movies for something to be like this. i think it is a lot more common in animation.
Speaker: A lot of this movie does feel like animation because of how like surreal and and dreamlike it is. Yeah, I feel like we keep talking about it, but it's like a hard not to like overstate how just strange like visually like every frame is like yeah it is. There are no straight lines in this entire film. Yeah, ah yeah like all sorts of like weird spires. I mean, like you know visually you could say it's like riffing off of Caligari in certain ways. Yeah, it does feel very like German Expressionist.
Speaker: At least in in its sort of approaches of like, the sets aren't going to look like real places. They're all going to be weird shapes. The lighting is going to be super dramatic and like stark. I think even like the main kid, Tommy Reddick is the actor's name, looks like a Dr. Seuss drawing.
Speaker: Like he's so well cast in that it's like if they found a child actor that looks like he was drawn by Dr. Seuss. He also just looks like the most generic nineteen fifty s kid. That too. Right. And I also love that.
Speaker: like Like a stripy shirt for most of the movie. He's wearing like ah like a like silly hat with a with a hand on top of it. Yeah. Yeah. And yeah, he's just like a, gee, I gotta go play stickball. It's the 50s. Right. he's he He's getting forced into playing piano all the live long day by his his strict piano teacher, Dr. Terwilliger.
Speaker: um And he feels sort of betrayed by his his mother who is and enabling this. And it's forcing him to play to learn piano. And so he has this, he falls asleep at the piano and has this nightmare about Dr. Terwilliger being this like oppressive, like warlord who has this piano ah ah institute And is is forcing 500 children to play piano for him.
Speaker: Yeah, it's it's a whole city that's like built around this giant, like multi tiered piano. Yeah. Surrounded by electrified barbed wire full of like guards. It's yeah like like like Dr. Seussie looking goons. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: And then his ah his plumber is there, too, who becomes his other plumber who he wants to be his dad because his his dad is is never specified what happened to his dad. I feel like it is maybe subtly implied that he had died in World War Two. I think this movie does have a lot of like it feels very distinctly 1950s. It has a lot of like 50s, like post World War Two.
Speaker: angst to it sure yeah it feels very like of its time and that it i think can easily see this movie as a ah like a metaphor for mccarthyism i think there's a lot of like you know atomic age anxiety happening yeah there's a man i'm forgetting what the exact thing is at the end but there's like a threat with an object and then uh uh dr twilliger goes is it atomic Yeah. um Right. It's like, ooh, this thing is dangerous. It might even be atomic.
Speaker: And it is like totally ah it's like some liquid with a bunch of stuff put in it. That's right. Yeah. Which is like the most child logic thing in the whole movie is that they take a bottle of called air fix. And it just says in the bottle air fix. It fixes air. Incredible. And then they modify that using generic science.
Speaker: Yeah, some music. So it when music is in the air, it captures it in the bottle. But the way they do that is just like, I got a bunch of stuff in my pockets, some gum, yo yo, some string. Just that is generic 50s kid objects.
Speaker: It's the coolest like kid logic thing of its just like, I'm going to do, i'm going to do a science experiment. I'm just going to like take all these things and mix them together and then make something that sucks music out of the air. Like this is affecting sound. We need something that, that affects sound. So they steal a a hearing aid from one of the guards and just like plop that in the bottle. And like, okay, it does stuff with a sound now.
Speaker: it It's like, it's so captures the feeling of like, a child imagination of just sort of like, no, like this, this is what I say it is because I say it is this thing.
Speaker: There's a lot of scenes in Dr. T's kind of, I don't know, penthouse, uh, uh, realm at the top of, you know, this spire you, you go, you go in through like a, like a trap door in the, in the floor. It's like a hole in the floor. that you Yeah. It's like a, it's like a, a fireman's pole. Yeah.
Speaker: I think the sets in there specifically, they feel like they feel almost like 70s queer art kind of stuff. Like the very like, like, I mean, Dr. T in the dream looks like a gay music wizard, you know? Sure. Yeah. I think gay music wizard is a pretty apt description of Dr. T.
Speaker: And like it it just has like a I don't know, I would say like 20 years early, it has some kind of you know Rocky Horror-esque aesthetics. um that like Just the the kind of garishness involved. When you're doing really wacky stuff visually, you're going to you might end up hitting on something that feels a little ahead of its time. and I think in some ways that does.
Speaker: Yeah, right. i i I think there's like so much in this movie to like unpack. I think it's like on its surface, it is like very straightforward and simplistic. And yet I think there is there's there's a lot of like very timely subtext to to pull from it.
Speaker: um it It feels like a very rich text, I guess, which is all the more frustrating that it was like so kind of dismissed when it came out. and And cut down a whole lot.
Speaker: ah There's like a lot of music that is missing from the movie ah because they they cut it they cut it way down after um test screenings. Also worth noting, one of the songs in this movie ah makes me cry because I find it very poignant, which is um called Because We're Kids.
Speaker: And it is ah the main character. What's his name? Bartholomew. Or Bart. a little A little scamp named Bart. What what ah what a concept.
Speaker: And he has this song where he sings about, like... ah feeling pushed around because he's small and that his voice isn't very loud. And it is like so... don't know. It's very surface level. It cuts right to my heart for some reason. It My partner cried during that scene too. It is like... And I think a of that is also due to just like the performance is like just feels so earnest.
Speaker: of Just like ah he's like you have no right to push me around just because I'm small and you're bigger than me and I'm just like ah Also, I mean i don't know as a as a child I I was I was often the the youngest kid in in whatever group I was in i have I have two older brothers and so like I do feel like I was often like the smallest kid in any Like group of children until I was a bit older Yeah, I mean, in our group, you were older. Right. by the time By the time that I knew you, right, I was, like, one of the old kids in, in like, the social group.
Speaker: But um it took a while for me to get there. To get your crown. Yeah, exactly. And so, yeah, it just, like, it really... it it ah i feel like i I get this movie. Like, this movie really speaks to me. In that it's, like... It is so much about, like...
Speaker: ah like childhood nonconformity and about like don't ask me to just like sit and like do your boring adult shit like that's on you like let me do fun kid stuff let me go outside like the movie ends with him waking up from the dream and like everyone else leaves and he just immediately runs outside with a baseball and a and a glove and it's like presumably gonna have a great day running around outside as 50s children ought to
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. Really cool movie. Really. i mean, I hadn't heard of it until you told me about it. And so I'm very glad. that Yeah. um The only reason I i saw this movie is because it was playing at the Nighthawk in Brooklyn as part of the like ah they had a ah series of Steven Soderbergh selected like movies that had inspired him.
Speaker: his whole life and they were they were all like by different decade. And so the one from the 1950s was this movie and it apparently was a movie that he saw as a kid. And then and has been like one of his favorite movies since this would be a great movie to show to a kid.
Speaker: Right? i I think so. um I think it's like it is like a great kids movie in that it is like, it is so clearly aimed at kids and like about right like childlike concerns and yet it it doesn't feel like it is ever like trying to compromise by like being more adult focused. It it never feels like it's talking down to the audience.
Speaker: It's just, it's great. Yeah. Speaking of another movie relating to nonconformity and ah hey speaks to speaks to Glenn, we we also watched the movie Glenn or Glenda.
Speaker: ah yeah The original the original title being I changed my sex exclamation point exclamation point, which is still on the poster. yeah I think it's like a tagline on the poster, more or less. Sort of live, die, repeat situation. Precisely. ah Directed by ed Wood. ah Yeah, our first Ed Wood picture. This is the first ed Wood pet picture as as as a feature. And this is an absurdly personal movie that um kind of mixes narrative and documentary and like abstract, um like...
Speaker: lynchian uh sequences and stock footage and bella lugosi yeah it's to to varying degrees of success i would say yeah it's a very strange movie but also i was kind of i was a little shocked at how much of it kind of worked yeah i think i think this movie's reputation is really as a sort of like I don't know. I guess Ed Wood's reputation in general as this inept kind of schlock director.
Speaker: Yeah. Leonard Maltin called this perhaps the worst movie ever made. And I think that's a ridiculous thing to say. It's so absurd to say. Yeah. like I think that even the stuff that doesn't work, you can tell that they...
Speaker: failed at what they were doing i think it creates something interesting in the process anyway sure yeah right i i'm i'm curious to watch more ed wood movies that are kind of more like direct just kind of like genre like kind of genre schlock because this feels so like intensely personal yeah in a way that really surprised me Yeah, this movie is, was kind of, came about because some people are trying to make an exploitation movie, sort of riffing, riffing off of the, the ripped from the headlines, uh, Christine, Christine Jorgensen, who, uh, It was the American ah trans woman who had like a a gender reassignment operation in Denmark and like made headlines for for being a... XGI becomes blonde bombshell.
Speaker: And then they contacted Ed Wood, who was kind of... a frequent cross-dresser that contacted him to make this movie. ah He was a cross-dresser and that was, and or a transvestite. And that's sort of like how they refer to how he refers to himself and how they refer to them in the movie. But this is very clearly, they didn't quite have the lingo for it, but this is like a trans movie. And Ed Wood said,
Speaker: I think a friend of Edwards, like, asked him, like, if he could have anything, like, what would it be? And he said to be born as, like, a ah blonde woman instead, right? So I think we're very clearly, like, dealing with, like, a proto-trans kind of situation here.
Speaker: But... Yeah, structurally, this movie explores gender stuff. Structurally, it's kind of hard to even say what's going on in this movie. Structurally, this movie is a complete mess, I think. But I do think it is like, I was, I kind of went to this movie being like, oh boy, here we go. Like a movie from the 50s about gender stuff. Yikes.
Speaker: And I was really surprised by how, for the time, like how incredibly progressive it is. Yeah. And how like it, right. Like you were saying, like the vocabulary is not there. Like we've clearly made a lot of strides as an American society of like how to discuss gender and like, um and yet I feel like this movie is so so earnest and so like coming from kind of like real place and that it is, there's like elements of it that are like insanely exploitative and there are elements of it that feel like just real,
Speaker: I don't know. ah and A very genuine expression. It feels like it's coming fresh yeah from from a really deep place of pain and yearning.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah. This movie, like, there are points where the movie... And and empathy, too. I think this movie feels... yeah for the most part, very empathetic. I think there's parts of it that feel less so. but Yeah, to what you to what you're saying, like I feel like the main thing that this movie is doing is like pleading to people to please accept trans people.
Speaker: but yeah That is... what the movie is mostly like the movie has a narrator just kind of saying like, you should treat these people. Well, like they just were born the wrong body and want to wear women's clothes. And it's kind of incredible. It's kind of incredible how like, you know, earnestly supportive it is because it's being made by somebody who, you know, to actually, i mean, we can more or less say was trans. Yeah.
Speaker: Right. And it is like, right ah and i don't think Edward ever, like, during his lifetime said that. But at the same time, it's sort of like the language didn't really exist. And so based on things that he did say, that I don't think it's an unreasonable, like, assumption to make. Yeah, I mean, I think I think I'm i'm basing this.
Speaker: i mean, Edward cross dressed a lot and he was known for doing so. And I'm basing this on, you know, somebody else saying that he wishes that he was born as a woman, like as a blonde woman.
Speaker: Yeah, I think I think something that I mean, another thing speaking to the kind of personal nature of this movie is that there are ways that it almost that it gets like kind of misogynistic specifically because it has this like seething jealousy of being a woman. like which is Which is like a wild thing that's going on in this movie. But like, it's just talking about like, women have it so nice. they think theyre like They think everything's like so good for them. They wear these comfortable clothes. They get to wear these things that fit nice. They don't have to wear hats that restrict the blood flow in their head and make them bald. Right. There's a section of the movie that is just like ragging on men's clothing and being like women's clothing is just better, okay? Just like... Just like...
Speaker: Like women's clubs are just objectively be better. They look better. They're more comfortable. There's way more variety. And I'm like, these are all pretty good points. Except that, like, women's clothing is often uncomfortable, right? Like, this is the era where everybody had to wear the the Mad Men time, where ah everybody had to wear high heels and stuff. But, like... Yeah.
Speaker: But, yeah, like... It's like, just let me wear a fuzzy sweater, please. Yeah. I say, you know, the narrator is saying all of this stuff, but there's, like, two narrators, um, because... Like, the...
Speaker: Where it's like, who even knows what's going on? Because we've got the BBC of it all. It needs to be addressed. Like the way i roughly what this movie is. um I'll start. I'll work from the inside out. There is a person named Glenn who likes to wear women's clothes and played by Edward played by Edward.
Speaker: even more confessional, I think. And his girlfriend played by his girlfriend. And, and it's like this character trying to, trying to, to figure out like how to reveal this to the, the fiance and scenes of, ah of, of Glenn yearning to ah become Glenda and,
Speaker: All of this is being narrated by... ah as like a story that had happened in the past by a psychiatrist who is being interviewed by a cop ah to learn about transness, basically. And the cop is doing this because he happened upon... or or like the he was recently working a case where there was a trans woman who...
Speaker: committed suicide and in her letter she said i would rather like wear these clothes like i can't i got arrested so many times for wearing these clothes in public um and i can't like the world won't let me wear them in life so let me wear them in death which is like that's like a whole like woof you know that's like but then at the same time So there's that stuff that's being narrated as told to the cop. ah But then at the same time, Bela Lugosi is there as like a scientist who is just saying just things about i mean society or whatever. Scientists in the sense, in the like, you know...
Speaker: universal horror movie idea of a scientist like he's there in a room full of like skulls and beakers yeah dude he's kind of just saying like bella lugosi shit like it yeah doesn't really it doesn't really like connect to anything else the movie is saying he's just saying a bunch of spooky stuff And it's unclear like yeah how much he has to do with the movie. There's a point later in the movie where he sort of gets like involved in what's happening, where the movie gets a little more like dream sequence-y toward the end. And then Bela Lugosi is reacting to what is happening in the dream sequence.
Speaker: There's a New York Times thing talking about it where they said that Lugosi presides over the action like some sex change deity, which I think is kind of... Which is kind of...
Speaker: gets at what is going on with that to the extent that you can get at that you can understand what's going on with it. Yeah, it is like, I do find this movie really interesting in the way that it is often using kind of like the language of genre film, like kind of specifically like universal horror movies to talk about like gender nonconformity, hey which i I still think is sort of often a thing that had like ah happens in genre films.
Speaker: And it's like, there's such clear inspiration in this from like Todd Browning and James Whale movies. Sure. both of Both of whom also made movies about like nonconformity.
Speaker: Right. And it's like, Like ah at at points reminded me of freaks in it. It is like a very old movie about, and it's like using very sort of archaic language, but is ultimately like very empathetic. It's got good intentions, right? You know, there's a title card at the beginning that says, uh, you are society judge ye not.
Speaker: um Oh, it's also funny how much like this is like a very earnest movie and yet is using such sort of like very like kind of ah not absurd, but just like very dramatic, like horror movie language to talk about stuff like there's there. Yeah, because i Julie mentions like Morpheus, God of Sleep. And it's like he's just talking about going to bed like that's. ah Yeah, yeah. There's like... there You know, another kind of weird layer to this movie is that it's sort of this exploitative, like, gawking sort of thing. and i think that's nominally what it was made for, is to be like, it's an exploitation film. Like, you're going like...
Speaker: look at this bizarre thing, you know, like point at it you know? Edward was he hired to make an exploitation film. Yeah. and And instead made a very personal film.
Speaker: Right. Cause he was like, you know, I am that. So I'm going to ah just say what I feel about it. Yeah. But like, so there's like the horror movie part of it, but then, you know, in the parts that are being narrated by the psychiatrist, it has this like,
Speaker: 1950s informational film right kind of vibe. It does kind of feel like a PSA. always Always check your bike for but have for bombs planted by commie spies, you know?
Speaker: Yeah, it is like it's like caught in this weird place kind of between exploitation movie and kind of like very... very earnest, like PSA and kind of like called call for like empathy and acceptance.
Speaker: And you can kind of feel it getting like pulled in either direction at certain points. Right. Because there's the whole like weird, surreal, like Kuleshov effect striptease section in the middle that feels totally out of place with the rest of it. And i apparently was not not something that Edward shot. It was like stuff that was added.
Speaker: Outside of his work. Huh? Which makes a lot of sense because it's the most directly exploitive part of the whole thing. And is is it feels very kind of strange and and awkward in the way that it just like, well, it it was like, and now we're cutting to this other thing with absolutely zero explanation or lead up or context. But, do you know, somehow like the movie is so kind of all over the place and surreal that like, right. It's getting more. doesn't break it that much. Yeah. Yeah. Just kind of like along for the ride. But I think that's the point where it really just verges into the Lynchian, uh, is, is the, the striptease part. Uh, and apparently David Lynch was a big fan of this movie. You, I think you can really see,
Speaker: You can really see the the David Lynch in this movie. And it like it makes a lot of sense. There's like there's a section where Edward is wearing like a dark suit in a weird like living room set. And it feels like he's in the he looks like Agent Cooper in the Black Lodge.
Speaker: Yeah, like like and that's the thing. it's like I can tell... You can see in every way how inept this movie is. but like And so it seems like it like stumbles backwards into something a little magical and Lynchian, almost. like it is not I don't think it's really intending to do everything that it does.
Speaker: Uh... But I was kind of shocked at how well whatever it is came together, you know. ah Right. Yeah. It establishes a feeling that carries itself through all of its kind of detours and and ineptitude. Hmm.
Speaker: There is like, there's a bit, I forget exactly what the context was, but there's like the the narrator is talking about like, basically just like describing the the backlash against cross-dressing or of like gender nonconformity in general.
Speaker: And the they in the the very like typical nineteen fifty s narrator way is like, silly, certainly. And I'm like, that is a great way to respond to bigotry is like, yes, this is silly. Like, shut up.
Speaker: Who cares? um yeah And I do like how that this movie is like Really is right in in very blunt language being like Yeah, like what what's what's going on here? Yeah, it's it's like, you know, it's making a lot of the beginning of the movie, before we even get to Glenn's story, is making a case of just like, you know, God said, if God said that we should be the way that we were when we were born, why don't you, why you wearing glasses? Why you driving a car? ah And it's like, you know it's not wrong, you know? Yeah, it's like, right, the sort of applying sort of like God...
Speaker: like God's will to to things. Right. It's like, if God had intended us to, there's like, right. The, the really like obnoxious voice, like if God had intended us to fly, it would have given us wings. and it's like, what about airplanes? You got a problem with airplanes now too? Yeah. And the movie is literally saying this, which honestly, you know, people are still making these kinds of arguments, right? Right. Like this is a movie from 70 years ago, 70, 75 years ago. And like, it is making a case for accepting gender nonconformity.
Speaker: in a way that still people need to hear, you know? Yes, I think I think that I think the people who are are against ah who are against all of this stuff are not necessarily going to be convinced by this movie, but it it uses some valid arguments that people yeah are still using today.
Speaker: Right. There's also right. There's like the the back half of the movie um is about ah another character. anne i was born Alan. who I think is also sort of somewhat based off of Ed Wood and k Christine Jorgensen a little bit, because Anne is a GI, as Ed Wood was, who then gets sex reassignment surgery.
Speaker: um and like But i was the movie never misgenders her. like It refers to Anne as her the whole time. And I was like, it's such a simple thing that I was like still surprised at the movie stuck to.
Speaker: yeah Yeah. That's interesting. I mean, cause it like, cause it respects these people. I think that is the thing. Right. The movie respects, respects them. And the stuff, the way the movie ends up, which I don't know how, you know, intentional, like there's a lot that you can tell comes from the heart with this movie from Ed Wood's heart. But like, ah you know, there's the way that it wraps up, which is like,
Speaker: you know, maybe nominally Hays Code following of, you know, the the the the right thing has to happen in the end. And so the movie does this kind of weird thing where it it reminded me a lot of the um the Lois Weber movie, um Where Are My Children, which is a movie that, you know, from the early 20s, I think, ah that um is a plea for allowing abortion, but not for rich, frivolous people, only for poor people, because it's also advocating for eugenics, right? It's like ah it's like when you look a movie that when you look at it from our modern context, it's like, the what are you even talking about? yeah know yeah And this movie is like... I think that's kind of what I expected this movie to be, and I was surprised that it...
Speaker: Well, in the end, and I don't think this really comes from a place where the movie that the movie necessarily actually believes in, but in the end, what it says is ah getting, you know, gender-confirming surgery is okay if you're intersex, but not if you're not. ah Like, if, you know, it it makes a distinction between and who was born with male and female organs, and then they just corrected it in the direction that felt correct for Anne, right? And where Glenn, or Glenda, had some kind of weird psychosexual thing going on, and it ended up that ah Glenn learned to be a man at the end, you know? what ands And then the movie goes, that's how it's supposed to be. But like, yeah what why are you drawing that line there? and it right is It is a bit a bit maybe simplistic in its in its worldview. and But i I do like how it at least it ends that story on a note at least of like his girlfriend accepting him.
Speaker: And right, it's like she is handing over her fuzzy sweater to him as this way of like, no, no, no, you should wear the fuzzy sweater. But right, it is, it's a bit, yeah, I guess just overly simplistic. Like it is not...
Speaker: It is still a movie from the 50s at the end of the day. And also it's just confused. This movie is confused at every possible level that it could be confused. Yeah. It's also like we haven't talked about like a very common Ed Wood thing. It's like this movie is like 75% stock footage.
Speaker: There's a lot of narration. It's like all the sets look like they were built in about 10 minutes. um But um yeah, I mean, as an introduction to, i mean, I've seen the the Tim Burton movie about Ed Wood. So i was familiar with like the entire oeuvre, I guess. But i'm I'm very curious to see more Ed Wood movies.
Speaker: i do i doubt I doubt any of them will feel as personal as this or as much of a kind of like unique character. kind of piece of outsider art as this does yeah but i also i'm curious to see it's just sort of like vampire atomic monster movies also yeah i haven't seen plan nine from outer space and i i'm very interested to see it by the way ah ed wood from poughkeepsie represent that's right yeah so yeah filmmakers from poughkeepsie we should have ed wood on the podcast if only speaking of a movie that smacks of gender
Speaker: ah Let's do gentlemen prefer blondes. Unless you another one that you wanted to go to. No, yeah i think that that that's a good is that's a good ah segue as any i suppose.
Speaker: Right. um Movies that also, i don't know, just have sort of like 50s, like kitsch attached to them a little bit. Yeah, this is a big Technicolor Marilyn Monroe musical. Howard Hawks as well.
Speaker: Right. Directed by Howard Hawks, co-starring Jane Russell also. And we, I mean, we had seen About Eve earlier. where um lyn murroe was like a supporting character she wasn't in very much of the movie um this is i think the first kind of like star vehicle that we've watched for the show we're in we're in full maryland mode right which also 1953 was like like she was in like five movies this year um like niagara is also this year ah how to marry a millionaire there's a bunch of them
Speaker: In her kind of small role in All About Eve, she's kind of acting like a normal person where I think now she is like she has found a shtick that she is doing at all moments. She's doing that shtick in All About Eve also, but I think it is it is a sort of a little bit of an unrefined version of that shtick. Yeah. Whereas as a lead character, you can feel that that shtick has sort of melded into a more cohesive persona.
Speaker: when When she... i feel like I see her just slipping into the shtick every time she starts talking. And the shtick being like, you know, she'll be kind of like...
Speaker: Sitting and posed like a normal person. And then she starts talking. And then like her eyelids kind of fall halfway down. And she just like kind of whispered, like kind of sexily whispers everything, I guess, you know? this I think it's this is a good place to talk about how like marilyn Monroe is,
Speaker: is a character like Marilyn Monroe is a persona created for the movies. e Right. Like Norma Jean Mortensen, her birth name, did not have naturally blonde hair.
Speaker: Didn't talk in a whisper at all times. Like was a, was an actress, was a person. But like, I also think it's funny how this movie, gentlemen, for blondes, like actively acknowledges that like,
Speaker: the cultural image of Marilyn Monroe that we think of is very much a persona because it also, it also has Jane Russell playing that character, right? Like Jane Russell at some point is sort of pretending to be Marilyn Monroe's character. And is like, yeah, puts on a blonde wig, does the voice.
Speaker: And it's like, it's like actively acknowledging this thing. It's like, right. The, the person that we think of as Marilyn Monroe is this like manufactured character. Persona h That I get like I knew before But I think it's like I think this movie kind of like really puts it into like pretty Stark terms how much You're like star persona is this like Curated thing A lot of what this movie is about and a lot of what it involves is like women kind of, or at least specifically Marilyn Monroe's character, shrewdly manufacturing the way that she presents herself in order to get ahead. And, ah in this, she wants to marry a millionaire. Um, and, uh,
Speaker: If only there were some other movie with that same premise from the same year. So ah this is the film where Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend comes from. ah And it is an incredible musical number. i Yeah, it is.
Speaker: And and like speak like Technicolor, like, oh my god, the way that red pops in that scene. Yeah, this is really ah very much one of those sort of like... technical They don't make technicalnicle movies like Technicolor anymore. like The Technicolor of this movie is so bright and vivid and poppy.
Speaker: Yeah, it's great. I think this this movie is a fun time. It's a fun time. it is it is It's kind of a loose movie. It's it's not really... loose it's very it's very cartoonish like yeah there are like cartoon sound effects when people are dizzy like yeah which i love i love that like it it's not nearly as cartoonish as this but it reminded me a little bit of um in that moment reminded me of uh barb and star go to vista del mar h which is an incredible film if you haven't seen it i have but i don't remember it very well you can This is also a movie that like you can really see its influence in a lot of things since, I guess.
Speaker: um I guess one other thing about like the Marilyn Monroe of it all is like I think before I had started watching... i mean, I've only seen her in this and... All About Eve. And I guess I i hadn't... right like With the the kind of like you know classic cultural image of like her in the dress from 70 Rich.
Speaker: Right? That's the movie with the with the white dress, I think? Oh, i don't know. I'm not sure. I feel like it's it's not... I don't know if she's remembered enough as a like a comedic performer. Right. She's just a sex symbol. She is a symbol.
Speaker: but like Right. But it's like it's not... I feel like I didn't get... the sense before watching these movies they're like oh no it's like this is a comic character like she's being goofy and funny the whole time yeah definitely yeah she is she is like the dumb blonde and doing jokes based on being the dumb blonde Right, I guess, but it's like, the I thought it was just like, oh, it's the 50s. Like, they they had they had simpler ideas of womanhood back then, which is also true.
Speaker: But I, mean like, it's it's more of, it's a bit more of a, like, satirical thing that I and i ah realized it was before actually watching.
Speaker: Which, I mean, I think, you know, maybe connects ah to... You know, one other thing that, you know, as we're, you know, we saw proto Marilyn Monroe. Now we see Marilyn Monroe, like fully formed. And a lot of the shots that you see of her, you're just like, oh, she's just posed and framed exactly like she is in the Andy Warhol paintings. Right.
Speaker: Like she just tilts her head a certain way. And then she just becomes the image of Marilyn Monroe instead of like a person. But it's like this movie is acknowledging that like, no, she is doing that on a purpose. Like she is again posing. Andy Warhol did not do anything interesting.
Speaker: i shouldn't i shouldn't I shouldn't say that so definitively. But every time I've seen Andy Warhol do something, I'm like, OK, come on, you know, like. And the way that you're talking about this, it's like, yeah oh, he's talking about the nature of celebrity and artificialness and whatever, like when he and like and all this stuff when he just makes his infinitely replicated Marilyn Monroe images.
Speaker: But she was already doing that, you know, but that was just what she was. Right, it's a bit of a like scary movie being a parody of Scream. And like Scream is already a like post-modern meta comedy about slasher movies. That is so wild that you compared andy Warhol to Scary Movie. We got there.
Speaker: ah Because I don't disagree, but that's awesome. When you put it that way, it's very funny. Yeah, I think this movie is super funny. It's got a lot of great ah it's like screwball comedy shit going on that we haven't even talked about. Yeah. it's all ah Most of it's set on like an ocean liner, which I feel like is a great like setting for a screwball comedy Yeah.
Speaker: We had... ah Not All About Eve. What's the other one? um the The one with... um ah The Lady Eve. The Lady Eve. Yeah. And I think similar to The Lady Eve, these are both Hays Code movies that are both like obscenely horny. This is a ridiculously horny movie. And it is... The main two characters are really just... Their main deal is being horny. Yes. Well, I feel like...
Speaker: Marilyn Monroe's character, Lorelai. Yeah. Her main thing is she really wants to marry someone who's wealthy. Yeah, she's she's a gold digger. Where ah Jane Russell's character is sings a song all about how she wants to have sex with every Olympic swimmer that she can. And they're all like, oh, sorry, we have to go to bed at like 6 p.m. because we're Olympians and we yeah we need our beauty sleep. And she's so mad about that.
Speaker: there's There's also a part in this movie where, like, ah you know, like, just speaking of just the horniness that is dripping through this movie, there's, like, a part where she, where, like, Marilyn Monroe gets, like, is trying to climb out of a port window and gets, like, stuck halfway out of the window.
Speaker: And I am like, this is just, this is just, this just half-disguised fetish content right here. This is, like, yeah this is, like... But I don't think the movie, it doesn't feel leering, I think, because... it Yeah, i didn't I didn't find it, because it also is, like, at least, you know, directed by a male director, but it is, the lead characters are both women, and it is very much from their perspective.
Speaker: it is It's maybe a li a little leering, but not in a way that I found to be particularly egregious. I think that, ah you know, the characters are owning their sexuality and they're doing it very intentionally. There's also a lot of there Jane Russell leering at shirtless men in this movie. So, you know, something for everybody.
Speaker: She's ah she's ah such an effective chaperone in this film. Sure. Oh, right. She has one line at some point where she says, I want to find happiness. Stop having fun. Like, you're not allowed to do fun things. You need to be happy. You need to get married and settle down.
Speaker: But even that is sort of like, I think it is, it's making fun of the sort of, i what I think as like a very stereotypical, like 50s kind of like conformity thing of like,
Speaker: You know, don't sleep around. Get married to someone wealthy. And this movie is just like, don't know who who cu gives a shit. Yeah. Yeah. You do you be happy.
Speaker: And yeah, the people telling them not to are the like, you know, lame stick in the muds who are ruining everything. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I quite enjoyed this this film.
Speaker: Well, on the cruise ship, they're heading to. Europe. They're going on a holiday. That they are.
Speaker: Perhaps a Roman holiday. Roman holiday. Introducing Audrey Hepburn. Yeah. Actually gets the introducing credit, which is fun to see.
Speaker: Pretty good introduction, too. Very charming, that Audrey Hepburn. Not gonna lie. Hot take. Audrey Hepburn, pretty charming. Yeah, coming right out of the gate with some intense Manic Pixie Dream Girl kind of energy on one.
Speaker: But also the sort of like royalty in disguise thing, which I feel like is very that it feels almost like is there a Shakespeare play with that? There must be. There must be. Yeah, like swapping places with ah with a a royal who feels confined or whatever. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Right. ah Someone of, ah you know, authority and leadership ah disguising themselves as someone else, much like Odysseus in the Odyssey. See, I made it work.
Speaker: Oh, is that why want? No, I just popped through my head just now. I'm like, I'm trying to make really sweaty connections to that. um That'll be that'll be further down the line. Sweaty connections.
Speaker: They were trying to make sweaty connections in the last movie. Oh, that they were. And this will and this movie too, to be fair. Well, this this movie is a lot of... um I mean, so this is structured like a kind of, you know...
Speaker: a screwball romantic comedy kind of situation. It's, it's got a very familiar setup of, um you know, somebody ah ah there's like one character who, you know, has a sort of, um I don't know what's, what's the term. I sort of like surreptitious reason for getting close to the other character. And then they realize, you know, they realize that they love each other. it's like, I, I, I know I was spying on you to write a news story about you, but I love you. Right. The setup is that Audrey Hepburn is a princess from a you know fictional, unspecified European monarchy who's fed up with the snooty princess life. She wants to you know live life as a normal person.
Speaker: Just for one day. And so escapes the palace and winds up in the home of a journalist, Gregor Peck, as Joe Bradley, because he thinks she's drunk and she's actually just tired.
Speaker: um And then so but then it's like she's been given a lot of sleep medications and she's trying to fight against them and yeah see the medidrel hat man, I guess.
Speaker: And so ah then he finds out that she is secretly the princess but doesn't tell her this because he wants to write a news story about it because then like the princess is missing. And so there's sort of you know multi multi-level sort of people hiding each other from hiding things from each other.
Speaker: ah Great setup for any romantic comedy. It's maybe a little bit like... This movie gets like gets right up to the edge of being like there's too much lying happening.
Speaker: where i'm like, these people are doing a lot of lying to each other. i feel like that that sort of is offset a little bit by I think there's a point where they are kind of suspecting enough what is happening with the other person that they're they almost are keeping up a lie that they know the other person doesn't believe. and yeah, they they are believing a lie because they want to ah when they kind of know that it's not true. It is. It is very much like many romantic comedies. Like it is a situation that if you actually like think about it in real world terms, you're like, that is kind of fucked up.
Speaker: But because the actors and the writing is so goddamn charming, you're just like, I don't know more of this, please. Yeah. Old Hollywood romantic comedies and and charmingness. Yeah. And it's just got all the, you know, riding around on a Vespa and, you know, sitting in cafes. and This movie is just like...
Speaker: stupid this movie is stupidly romantic both in this sort of like very direct sense but also in this sort of just like romanticism of like european life much like um american in paris i think too i'm just like i want to sit in a cafe and drink a cappuccino i want to ride a vespa through rome we still need to make our pilgrimage to la cittat station and yeah we we we should have our one week one year uh european vacation European tour? i mean, sure. Yeah, great. Sign me up. You and me, we're going to ride around on a Vespa. I'm manifesting this.
Speaker: Toward the end of the movie, you know, I think that... A lot of other films would find some way for them, for their love, to lift them out of their positions. And, you know, they would find some way to be together.
Speaker: But this movie kind of drops down into a sense of realism. And, like, they have their kind of whirlwind day where they experience everything that they would like to. You know, they they really get to see each other and and and experience each other. And then they go back to their lives because she is a princess and he is a struggling, like, newsman. She is the face of an entire nation.
Speaker: And so the movie ends in this kind of... you know, unlike a lot of other similar films, it ends in this really kind of bittersweet way. Very bittersweet. Yeah. Where they kind of wordlessly, they're at like a press conference and Gregory Peck and the and the photographer that he was working with, that they were all posing as friends the entire time. They kind of wordlessly acknowledge that yes, we were taking pictures of you and writing about you, but we're not releasing it because we care about you. And that moment was for you and me and us. and
Speaker: And like the moment can just be what we had, but goodbye. you know You're a princess. And yeah, it hits. It hits. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, Gregor Peck just like, us right, it's like the the press conference like dissipates, you know, all the all the other reporters leave and he's just like standing alone in this giant like palace hall.
Speaker: And he like really kind of like just like slowly walks out of the room and it's like, oh, God, its so it's just like his echoing footsteps, no music. Yeah. It really sells that like bittersweet feeling.
Speaker: I did. I was thinking like during that and like during that press conference, right? They're like making such intense eye contact. They're not they're not actually acknowledging the like, you know, romantic day they had a day previously. These are some weirdly oblivious news people who i can't help but think about i all the other other reporters in this news conference being like, whoa, the princess and this one guy just have insane chemistry. Yeah.
Speaker: and And the end of this, by the way, like, I feel like so much of that, like, oh, what if, you know, it it has that kind of end of La La Land kind of vibe, you know, like sure yeah never ever it was never meant to be.
Speaker: um i don't think it's it's never meant to be, but it was just like this thing that we shared is finite. And I think that that. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. i don't know I think that that is also an incredibly romantic idea. That it's like, no, no, no. This is a finite thing.
Speaker: That's all it was ever going to be. But the fact that it was it's so kind of contained and it's just like, it will not continue. And yet it was like, for what it was, it was it was exactly what it needed to be.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. ah one One little thing about this movie. There was a moment where I did the the Leonardo pointing meme. um Because ah there is ah kind of the last moment that they have together is at this kind of like dance or like party ah on a dock, I guess, like or like a docked boat. um And there's some like string lights and there's like ah they're trying to get away from people who are trying to get her back to they hired some people to to track her down and get her back to the palace. Yeah, that's sort of and the royal men in black get sent out after her.
Speaker: And there's like a sort of fight scene in a way where they're like trying to get away from these guys. And she like takes a guitar and smashes it on ah on one of their heads. And I was like, oh, because they they remade that scene exactly in the movie of Paprika. ah Oh, shit. Really?
Speaker: yes yeah so paprika has like a bunch of like very specific movie references it's got the greatest show on earth in it and it's got uh and it's got that specific scene of like you know ah the character taking the picture of her while she smashes the the the acoustic guitar over someone's head and yeah i've watched paprika so many times and i've been watching paprika for like so long i was like oh my god, it's from Paprika. But, you know, that's kind of just a boss baby situation.
Speaker: I mean, no, I mean, i i was ah one thing that I like about doing the show is like seeing all these sort of like little moments in older movies where like, oh shit, I've seen that before.
Speaker: Yeah, and it is like the smallest moment. It's like seven seconds or something like that. I mean, also a good reminder to rewatch Paprika, which is... Oh, it's always something worth doing. Always a good idea. Yeah, exactly. Well, should we go east then?
Speaker: I guess another bittersweet movie. Mm. Is Tokyo Story. Yeah, this is ah this is Ozu's big daddy right here.
Speaker: Sure. Well, I guess I know I feel like Ozu has some other big. Big movies. But this is kind of this is kind of considered his his magnum opus, perhaps? Yeah.
Speaker: This is Ozu's modus operandi. yes Sure, sure. And I don't know. I i think between this and was last one we watched? Late Spring, right? I don't know. i i I don't know if Ozu's... I don't know if i if I'm vibing with Ozu. Which no one is more upset by that than than me, but i don't I found this movie very difficult. Oh, if there might be a commenter on YouTube who's more upset about it than you. ah um I think this is a very good movie that I just didn't, I did not connect with.
Speaker: Um, yeah, the opposite reaction as the 5000, Dr. T come at me, YouTube commenters. I'm more of a 5,000 visit of dr of Dr. T guy than an Ozu guy, I guess. sit tell Tell them about your your opinion on the Marx Brothers to Marx Brothers. ah Probably funny on stage, not as funny in movies a lot of the time.
Speaker: So, yeah, I mean, i think. I like this better than late spring. Yeah. I think it captivated. i wouldn't say it captivated me, but it captivated me more than late spring did. i have you know similar difficulties with both, I think. I mean, I think that is just Ozu difficulties. Well, that's the thing. I also I really liked um the first one that we watched from the late The silent movie.
Speaker: Yeah. um I was I was born, but. yeah And I think a lot of the things that are associated with those of you that are sort of considered difficult, like the pacing, the you know the lack of things happening, um those aren't the things that bother me.
Speaker: Like, I'm actually... I'm all i'm all for that. I think that's... to I think there's just a... It's almost just like the worldview presented in this in late spring. I just find so...
Speaker: I just, I don't, I don't connect with on like a pretty fundamental level, I think. Interesting. Well, I mean, the worldview of this movie, this, this movie is a soft remake of a film that we've covered already, which is make way for tomorrow.
Speaker: Uh, this, uh, and so, i mean, i don't know if I'd go so far as say it's a soft remake. No, it it is. is some No, it is like, like intentionally a a soft remake. Yes. oh dang I don't think that Ozu himself had seen Make Way for Tomorrow, but I think um the co-screenwriter had,
Speaker: and um and so they were riffing off of that specifically. Because he hadn't seen it, I think they they have some similar...
Speaker: plot elements and they have some similar theming. um But this is a very Japanese story um and didn't make its way to the States for a long time because it was considered to be a very Japanese story. But yeah, the worldview of this movie is that the movie is exploring relationships between generations, which I think is kind of Ozu's big thing.
Speaker: yeah I think that the the one angle on that that this movie is the most focused on, although there are others, is um adult children...
Speaker: ah feeling like their parents are a burden and not respecting them that much. And not appreciating them while they're still around. And that is the stuff that shares with Make Way for Tomorrow as long as as well as certain things about like, oh, we're going on a visit and then we get split up and then um like like, is somebody going to die? That sort of thing. Mm-hmm.
Speaker: Yeah. But yeah, i I appreciate the slowness and I had an easier time with it in this movie than I did with late spring. But I do think that sometimes i ah I'm feeling like with Ozu stuff, I appreciate the slowness conceptually more than I do experientially. sure And you can say that that's because my mind is ruined by TikTok and whatever, which it probably is. But also...
Speaker: You know, it is a real choice to make a movie this slow and this boring. you know and I mean, i I had an interesting sort of like experience watching this movie because like I was like, all right, Ozu, here we go.
Speaker: Get ready for some slow cinema. Here we go, Zu. Exactly. kind of two-thirds of the way into the movie, I was like, i don't know about this one. I am not feeling this. And then, ah you know, the the big thing, the one big thing and that happens in the movie happens, which is the, spoilers, the the mom of the family dies.
Speaker: And I... During that moment, I was like, or during that kind of like section of the movie, i I found it very emotional, like very emotionally affecting. And I was like, this is now contextualizing everything that has come before. so yeah, yeah, for sure. All these scenes that feel like they're just very slice of life, like nothing is really happening now feel like they're incredibly important.
Speaker: And I've all been leading to this one thing. life is given meaning by its end, right? Yes. And I think that now was like, I get it. Like, this movie is ah brilliant. And then yeah kind of... And then it lost me again after that. Oh, really? Actually, no. And now I'm, like, suddenly, like, really put off by it again. And I i don't know. Put off?
Speaker: tell Tell me more. Kind put off. I think the... um You know, I hesitate to compare this movie too much to Kiryu, right? I mean, is it is about... Generational differences it is about death and sort of like looking back on someone's life It's got it's got some of the the the the you're talking about comparing the end of a curu where it's like sure and also right Yeah, Akira has this sort of like Kind of moment of of sort of like ah we we have it all figured out, you know Like we we know how to we know how to live life now and then it is immediately is undercut with like actually there Nothing has changed
Speaker: Right. And I found that to be very emotional and like very affecting in Akiru. And I was like, yeah, this is, this is the right way to end this movie. Whereas I think there is a kind of a similar thing in this where like there is, right. They come together to like acknowledge their, that their mother has died. And there's this like very emotional section movie during the funeral.
Speaker: And then it kind of ends on more of this note of like, actually now one of the daughters like just wants to like get all of her mom's stuff now that she's dead. Right. And like the the it it left kind of a sour taste on my mouth at the end of it. And I mean, I i get annoyed sometimes when people ah take dialogue in a movie to be like, that is the movie talking directly to the audience. Like...
Speaker: you depiction does not equal ah endorsement. um But there's a line towards the end of this movie where someone says, isn't life disappointing? And someone says, yes, it is.
Speaker: And I couldn't help but kind of see that as a little bit of a a thematic, you know, mission statement for this movie. Like it is very much about like expectation versus reality. And like the the grand life that we imagine for ourselves when we're young versus looking back at life and being like, oh yeah, I didn't do any of that stuff.
Speaker: Oh, well. And I'm like, fuck you, movie. I don't want it. I like i don't want to. What are you showing what are you showing me this for? I feel like the kid at in in Princess Bride when he's like, no one kills up with that. He lives. And he's like, Jesus, Grandpa, what are you reading me this thing for?
Speaker: You know, which i get like, i'm I'm not whatever. Come at me in the comments. That's how that's how I was left feeling from this. movie See, I think I have a bit of a different perspective on all of that, because to me and this is similar to make way for tomorrow.
Speaker: I don't think that the kids really do ever learn. I think, i don't think that, ah you know, sure. They're not like so callous that they don't care that their mom died, but I think they are relatively callous through the whole movie. And I think it only becomes more and more clear through the movie that like, they are more concerned with their own,
Speaker: you know Oh, I've got to go to work. Let's put this off. Oh, I'm being like inconvenienced by having to go book a train to you know to go visit my sick mom. there is They don't say this, but there's almost like an implication when they're talking about bringing your morning clothes of like...
Speaker: hopefully she's dying because i don't want to take this train all the way over here like as right yeah which i will say is like it does feel so real though of this thing of like acknowledging almost that it's like when something like really dramatic and big is happening there is all there's all these other just like factors going on right the thing where it's like you know come you know come visit us it's like what the train is so long they're i'm never gonna do that Yeah.
Speaker: the the the When the grandparents are saying like, we're visiting you. It was a long train journey. Don't bother visiting us. They're just saying like, this is the last time we'll ever see you because we're going to die soon. And there's this portent over the whole movie of that kind of impending death. like You feel like the the the parents are like, really, they're like, they know what they're saying. They're like, we are trying to tell you without saying it out loud that like, this is the last time we're going to see you.
Speaker: yeah And the kids are like, okay, bye, cool. Yeah, sure, maybe we'll visit. and it go hop up Go hop on a tour bus or whatever. It feels like right they are not they're not hearing it you know in in the subtext, which is like so incredibly frustrating to watch, but is also, like um I think, a great example of, like we can tell through the way that the dialogue is being performed and the way that it is being presented to us and as an audience what is being said, and the characters are not picking up on that sub subtext. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, and I think that like you know where I feel like this movie is going, I don't think that there is a moment where the kids learn. I think that... you know Through the course of the film, you get more and more clear of a picture how kind of callous and selfish and self-concerned the kids are.
Speaker: And what starts shining more and more out of that is ah the the daughter-in-law, the the widow of one of the kids. Mm-hmm.
Speaker: where like through the whole visit of the parents to Tokyo, she's kind of the only one who is just like, yeah, like, let's spend some time together. Like, I really care about you, you know? Like, it's not a problem for you to stay with me. Like, ah like she there's a They go like, why are you... You're not even blood related to us. like but But you know she finds like a real meaning in their connection because she chose to. like like The other kids are kind of taking it for granted. a bit Yeah. She specifically chose to keep this relationship with her in-laws of a husband who died, what, eight years ago or something. right And so the moment after...
Speaker: the mother dies, i don't really see it as like the kids didn't learn the lesson. I i kind of see it as like the kids were never going to learn a lesson. Oh, sure. yeah I see it as like now we take a moment to let Noriko, the daughter-in-law, let her connect even more with them because now...
Speaker: her and the, the, the grandpa, they share an experience of having lost a spouse. Right. And so like the last, the end of the movie is this kind of like even deeper strengthening of the the meaningfulness of their connection. And she ends up staying longer than everyone else. And she connects with him in a much deeper and realer way. And yes, she still has to, you know, go back to work. And that's like, almost just feels like a, like a kind of everyday tragedy instead of callousness. Right.
Speaker: And the kind of I'm saying the theme out loud moment for me was something that I think was said twice, which might have been some kind of I think they said it was like some Buddhist thing or whatever. It was just like um you can't serve your your parents after they're dead.
Speaker: Right. And so like, you know, seize the moments that you have with your parents and do what you can to like be there for them because eventually you won't be able to.
Speaker: Yeah, I think the the think the part, there's another kind of conspicuous line that is said, which is the last one in the movie, which really just feels like twisting the knife, which is like the grandpa is just like sitting in his now empty home after his wife has died and all of his kids and his daughter-in-law have left.
Speaker: And he's just sitting there with his new life by himself. Then his neighbor walks up and it's just like, man, you're going to be really lonely, huh? Anyway, bye. and then that's the end of the movie. Right. Right. Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, i i fully recognize that this this is an intentionally feel bad movie. and mean it like There were parts that I found like incredibly emotionally affecting, and I was like you know was so taken up in it.
Speaker: But I do think i just I often struggle with movies where part of the point, point in quotes, is like... is that nothing changed, you know? You like Seinfeld.
Speaker: ah No hugging, no learning. This is true. This is true. And right, that's kind of why I i i was starting to compare it Akira in my head a little bit. Like, that is partially, it like, part of what that movie is about is that nothing changed.
Speaker: um And yet I still find the ending to Akira to be, like, kind of optimistic somehow. Whereas i did not find I did not find the end of this movie to be a very optimistic.
Speaker: no No. And it just I just felt really kind of bummed afterwards. And I, you know. So, you right. it's It's less that I think this is a bad movie, and it's more that just this movie made me feel very bad.
Speaker: but Ozu's masterpiece. Listen, like, I don't want to, i don't want to poo-poo it. Like, I do think it is, like, a really, is is a great piece of filmmaking. But I do, I think, like, thematically, it just, it does a lot of things that i have problems with in stories.
Speaker: And maybe that's a me problem. Who knows? Clearly, Ozu was pretty well appreciated. so We were experiencing this with the last Ozu movie. where i Maybe I'm too American. I thought about that too. I have very Western sensibilities. And that's the thing, right? It's like, you know, Ozu, kind of known for his austerity in terms of storytelling and and camera...
Speaker: movement and all that kind of stuff like he considered this to be his most or like a very melodramatic movie for him a relatively melodramatic movie which you know this movie is way more austere than like any American movie has ever been you know and ah are my American sensibilities maybe a little more attuned to make way for tomorrow like right yeah I like this movie but I love make way for tomorrow right And and so similarly, even like Akira, another Japanese movie still is like Kurosawa has, a I think, a much more American sensibility as a storyteller.
Speaker: Yeah, I think he's much more inspired by American films and, you know, ended up inspiring a lot more American films afterwards, too. But like, I do think his like sensibilities are more in line with what like Hollywood movies were doing at the time.
Speaker: So, you know, I'm sure there's some of that in there, too. So, like, i don't want I don't want to dismiss this movie, but I also... i Yeah, I had trouble with it. But, yeah, I was watching this movie and just thinking...
Speaker: so much of Ozu's compositions are just so locked to the shape of the frame. I'm not sure if Ozu actually ever made a widescreen movie, but it's kind of hard to imagine him making one because his style just seems so locked in to that aspect ratio because it's just so many squares. so like Just an Ozu shot feels like it has to be 1-3-7.
Speaker: one three seven Yeah, I think so. And it is like, right, i we haven't really talked about like the cinematography of it, which is like so distinctive and so like, so tied to like Ozu's like identity as a filmmaker, I guess. Um, and it is like, right. Every single frame of this feels like so composed, like perfectly where it is like yeah every, every frame of painting truly like it is so very deliberate, very composed. Like there's, uh, I do think he gets like great depth out of stuff, right. Where you're like you're watching scenes from like down a hallway and right. It feels very observational. It does really feel like it so often. It feels like the audience is in like the next room and it's just, there's a conversation happening a room over that we're listening to.
Speaker: Hmm. Right. Which is like so different from theater. I think to have like read the theater of like, all right, this thing is unfolding in front of us that we're watching. Right. Whereas like Ozu is kind of placing you in into the movie in such a kind of distinct, unique way.
Speaker: ah What else happened to Japan this year? Oh, well, another ah big, a marquee film for its director, Kenji Mizuguchi's Ugetsu.
Speaker: A very different film from Tokyo Story. Yeah. Yeah. Much spookier and and quite a bit like, like right i think Tokyo Story is so much about sort of like contemporary Japanese life.
Speaker: And like, it is so kind of detailed in that of like the the everyday Tokyo it Troubles and just you know things are going on Whereas this movie is like fully A sort of ah like a fable Like a fantasy Fable yeah and set Set in olden times set in Japanese olden times ah With like warlords and Shoguns and that sort of thing Those those wass the same thing Spooky it's it's a movie that is like Nominally a ghost story But that's like a part of it And right
Speaker: Right. Partially a ghost story, but that is like a section of it. Yeah. Yeah. that This movie like goes to a lot of different places, but it all kind of feels tied together by, the you know, you call it like a fable.
Speaker: And it's like two of the main characters. They seem just completely powered by this like unnatural obsession with money and status.
Speaker: And I think the movie is kind of like, this is what happens when you're too obsessed with these. Right. I think the movie is kind of making the argument that it's not unnatural, that it is just this like dark human urge.
Speaker: Yes. Yes. I mean, I think the way that they act in this movie is almost as if like something unnatural. We're like they're activating that dark. Yeah. They're like compelled by greed. Yeah. Yes. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, like like putting themselves and their family like in danger and causing like measurable horrors on the women in their lives. there Basically, this is a movie where two husbands are just become obsessed by dumb things and then their wives suffer miserable fates just trying to like like yeah pick up the scraps afterward. I think the second Mizuguchi movie we've watched for the show.
Speaker: And they are both very much about, like, women suffering, which is... Yeah. As a theme, as a storyteller, I feel like that is a hell of a choice. I think it's coming from, you know, a good place, right? it's Yeah. I definitely... I found this movie a lot less dour than the story of The Last Chrysanthemum, which was the last one we watched. um I think that movie was, like, good, but it was... of the year, it was like, damn, dude, like, can, like, anything remotely happy happen in this whole movie? Yeah. Whereas this, I think, is it feels a bit more well-balanced, and I think it's it's it feels more fable-like, which I think helps that about it.
Speaker: And I do feel like it is the kind of moment-to-moment stuff. It does feel pretty grounded. I think even the like the supernatural elements, when they do come up, do feel... Part of what makes them really effective is that it's like...
Speaker: The movie isn't... The movie is, I guess, sort of like as ominous leading up to that. But one when it gets like explicitly supernatural, it feels like, whoa, this is like... This is scary now because this has not been a thing up until now.
Speaker: I never really felt like it was scary, but it's definitely got an eerie feeling. I thought it was really really effectively... Yeah, maybe not scary, but like really creepy in the way that I think ghost stories tend to be.
Speaker: the the thing where it's like, what's his name? Was it one of the one of the two husbands ends up at this this like palace castle um with this kind of wealthy woman who's like the benefactor is like buying his pottery. Yeah.
Speaker: come stay at my fancy castle. And then all the spooky stuff happens, which I'm sure we'll talk about a bit more. But then it's like the, the reveal that like that has been abandoned and like destroyed for decades. It's such a great ghost story twist. The castle hasn't been, she's been dead for years. Yeah. That bathroom hasn't been open for 30 years. Yeah.
Speaker: Which is such a classical ghost story thing, but is, i also feel like is it is deployed really effectively here. Because it isn't, it's it's like, it's drawing you into the sort of like spooky ghost story stuff slowly.
Speaker: So that when it does sort of like actually get creepy, you're like, whoa whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Now we're like, we're deep into this thing. And I didn't expect it to to go here. I think I had heard that this was a ghost story movie. And yet I had almost kind of forgotten about that by the time we get to that stuff in the movie.
Speaker: Oh, nice. Yeah. I was emphasizing how small of a part of the movie it is because I think, you know, a cool thing that this movie does is that it's not like about ghosts. It's just that like, there are some ghosts in it and right. Yeah. Like it's just one of a number of things that happen. And it's just, it's a movie that very like nonchalantly dips into the supernatural and then back out again, which I think is fun. You know, it's like, um,
Speaker: You know, things are just kind of happening as normal. And then they stumble into a a creepy mansion and then stumble back out again. you know Yeah, that that whole section feels very gothic to me, not just in that it has like spooky ghost stuff, but like, right, the idea of like this, like mysterious wealthy benefactor who's like, come live in my fancy house is like, that's like the most classic gothic setup there is. Yeah. And she's also kind of like a bit of a, like a succubus kind of figure, I guess, like,
Speaker: Genjiro is... ah That's what it is. He's the one that's like so driven by money, right? like He makes pots, like clay pots.
Speaker: He goes into the big city to sell them, and... one at the beginning of the movie he comes back and like he just did really really well selling his pots like they they he made so much money they're able to buy all the stuff that they couldn't before and then he gets bitten by this bug of just like i made so much money i can make so much more money like i need to just see if i made this much if i made this much money with this many pots if i have 10 times as many pots i will make 10 times the amount of money
Speaker: And if he enters a tunnel at 25 miles an hour holding 25 but then drops 20 them, how many pots does he have? And what time does he leave the tunnel? um I think he's the one that first kind of You see him just almost like acting irrationally from just like how obsessed he is with this like material objects. Right. He's obsessed with material objects and then gets lifted out of this material realm. ah But it is it is somewhat sort of like it is treating greed almost as this like supernatural like.
Speaker: predatory force almost that like overtakes people. Yeah, very much so. ah The other character, he is obsessed with like status. He wants to be ah like a samurai. And so and he gets told you can't be a sam You can't join us if you don't have your own armor and sword and you're too poor to afford that stuff.
Speaker: So a buzz off, guy. and then he becomes just single-mindedly obsessed with like, I'm helping this guy out selling pots that I can get money so that I can get armor and a sword.
Speaker: And then I can be seen, I can be respected. Meanwhile, by any every anytime he interacts with a samurai at this point early in the movie, they are like so dismissive of him. They're like get out of here, gross dude. We hate you. And he's like, I just want to be like them. And all this, like the backdrop of all of this is they're in this, you know, war torn town. There's like, you know, battles happening and, you know, horrors going on where they have to like evacuate. So like they're when bandits come and not bandits, so like people from the opposing team or whatever, come and, uh, just raid their houses after they've, uh, and take all their valuables after they've taken over the town. Uh, but then the guy's got to go back because his pottery's in the, in the kiln. Yeah. He's like, he's more worried about his kiln than his own life, his family's life, any of his other like material possessions.
Speaker: Yeah. His wife is telling him like, you have a kid and they're just clay pots. Um, leave it yeah like you're going also killing people in town yeah yeah and he doesn't listen and yeah they flee in the night because of right one of one of the enemy factions is just like raiding their town and it's him and this other married couple who are out out on the road and they they get split up i forget exactly why this was one of the one the first ones i watched so i don't remember it quite as well
Speaker: I mean, it's it's they sort of get split up because they're like somebody's got to watch over the kid. Yeah, right. It's like they're all on the run at first, and then right they kind of slowly splinter apart, and like people are left behind at certain places. and right The two couples split up, but then also both of them each...
Speaker: kind of leave their wives behind at some point because they're like, you got to stay here. I'm going to continue on and I'm gonna I'm going to, I'm gonna figure all this out. I'm going figure out a way to get us money and get us. I'm going to make it big and then come back and then forget to ever come back. Right. One of them is, you know, right. Uh, and Jura goes off and he's like, I'm going sell more pots because like, that's all I know how to do. And then,
Speaker: Tobe is like, I'm going to figure out how to be a samurai. And he like, right. He finds like at first finds the the samurai armor for sale and is like, I can afford this. I'm going to buy this instead of buying anything for my family. And I'm going to go off and be a samurai. Like, peace. Bye. See later.
Speaker: Yeah. To get to like, you know, the repercussions of that, like, you know, he just... grabs some money and takes off. And like, it just splits very quickly to go and buy the samurai armor. And he's just completely forgets about his wife. She's like chasing after him and she loses him. And she's like trying to find him all around town.
Speaker: And then while she's off in like a kind of dangerous area, I guess, a bunch of people come up and then just, rape her and they do it inside of a buddhist temple which is a wild thing that happens in this movie they like yeah take her they take her into a buddhist temple and rape her in front of a buddha statue and then they throw some coins on the ground when they're done it's like so insulting and horrifying yeah it is it is like i think it's partially because it is a japanese movie and it's not hollywood that it is like it is able to kind of
Speaker: go to such a dark place, I think. Like, I kind of can't imagine a Hollywood movie having that scene during this time period. like Definitely not. It's even weird. It's like, it's weird to see a movie this old be that dark, I guess.
Speaker: They don't show. They don't show. Yeah. But it's like it still is is very clear what's happening. Yeah. In a way that I i don't know if a Hays Code movie would allow. Oh, yeah. No, no shot. No way.
Speaker: Right. Tobe is like he's able to find success as a samurai, but only kind of through like happenstance. Yeah. Yeah. Like a guy dies in front of him and then he takes credit for killing him and is like, good job.
Speaker: Now, now you're a leader. Yeah. Which is like, so I feel like that is and like a a real thematic kind of exclamation point almost almost of like, this guy found the success he was looking for by lying about it, basically. Yeah. And then at the end of his story, like he encounters his wife again as he has been you know gotten his dream. And then she is like a prostitute. He and his cabal of of other samurai, they like you know encounter her in like a geisha hotel type place. And then she's just like, yeah, man, you like left me behind.
Speaker: Like all this bad stuff happened to me. You got what you want. Ain't that great for you? yeah Yeah. And that's basically the end of that part of the story is just like you just ruined my life and you got what you wanted. Isn't that isn't that lovely? Right. And then Genjiro has his whole ah ghost encounter where he's seduced by ghost woman.
Speaker: Also, the the music and that like the there's There's music in the ghost section, like when when things are starting... Once he starts to realize... That she is a ghost.
Speaker: Because he like talks to someone in the village. And he's like, hey, if you saw that woman, like do not talk to her. like Stay away. There's bad news. And he's like, what? what She's rich. She's giving me money for my pots. This is great. He's like no, no, no, no. no no Bad news.
Speaker: And it isn't too late that he realizes. He's like, oh, no. he that was That that ah ominous portent was true. And the music just has this really like discordant, creepy...
Speaker: creepy uh sound to it that i i was very impressed by and that's right his kind of his low point is then realizing that he's been seduced by a ghost and that you know this this nice new lifestyle living with a wealthy woman is uh not all it turned out to be and like everyone kind of then like meets back up and returns to their village having encountered all of these horrible ah escapades I mean, it just kind of ends on they're like, hey, i i guess I guess we've learned something from this. I guess we've learned not to not to like build our entire lives around this like pursuit of material things. Yeah, I think that there's there's one line that feels like the mission statement of this movie, like um like Tokyo Story has, where it says, ah so success always has a price in suffering.
Speaker: which is definitely the viewpoint of this movie sure yeah i mean yeah clearly mizuguchi is like very interested in just like unpacking like what causes suffering and like what suffering does to people i like this more than tokyo story i think just because uh i i do think it is it is also a feel bad movie but it's sort of like It's much more of a immediate. It's much more of a like grab you by the shoulders and shake you kind of feel bad movie. Yeah. You know?
Speaker: And also like it it does have this like very it has it's it's it's very clear and like what its mission statements are, I think. And I like the sort of like mythic fable like storytelling of it.
Speaker: Yeah, I guess I touched on this earlier, but I like how the the ghostliness is just the weird ghost zone is really just integrated into the rest of the world. It's not explicitly paranormal, but like all of that stuff had a bit of like an eyes wide shut sort of feel to it of like this um man who is like, like kind of ignoring his wife and kind of goes on this kind of strange journey. Like, like this like strange little odyssey like ah ah with some seductresses and whatever and and it just is a thing that like happens in his life and then there's like these weird repercussions that like emanate out from this kind of weird this strange night that he had much like the odyssey a guy abandons his wife and has a bunch of weird supernatural encounters Yeah. And, um you know, sometimes you think that something's real and it turns out not to be.
Speaker: And that's Wax House, baby. Hey, nice transition. Are we going to explain what that means? Well, our next film is The House of Wax, starring Vincent Price.
Speaker: Also known as Wax House, baby. Well, no, not this one. That's the 2005 remake. Okay. Very briefly, as briefly as possible. But also, ah we will link to this in the in the podcast. Sure.
Speaker: I think our, fate both of our favorite podcasts, maybe. Yes, I would say so. Is ah this podcast called Important If True, which does not necessarily have anything in particular that it's about. It's focused very much on emerging technology.
Speaker: Robots and wizards and genie wishes and buses that run on poop. um it is sure It is about all those things. Yeah. A lot of what they do is kind of take some kind of weird news story and then imagine the the horrible future that it could lead to. Sure. but Actually, that that might be the best...
Speaker: Short summation of it. There was one kind of... um There was a big reveal yeah was that was happened on that podcast, which is someone wrote in about how they had ah edited the Wikipedia page for the 2005 House of Wax movie and added it that it had an alternate title, which was Wax House Baby.
Speaker: Which then, despite and being entirely fabricated... And included citation right take citation a Canadian film magazine. And as revealed on that podcast, that lasted for years and was then just picked up by other pieces of the internet Pre, ah you know, LLM scraping um where it ended up on report on by other websites. Other articles would cite it as like that was ah the original title.
Speaker: And it all stemmed from just this very goofy Wikipedia edit. Wikipedia vandalism. Yes. sure And so Wax House Baby is kind of, you know, I think it's just kind of what you say when you think things are one way and it turns out Wax House Baby. Right. Well, it's like wrong the whole time. itling This idea of like in an Inception like way, a piece of misinformation that is planted and then spreads unchecked unintentionally. Disinformation, I suppose, if I remember the difference between those right. wow yeah But anyway, so that's why this that's why this episode is called Wax House Baby.
Speaker: It's very, very funny, and I recommend listening to that segment. And I have ah recommend i've shown that segment to so many people. And also, that podcast is incredible and so funny and so good. Very good, yeah.
Speaker: That is about the Paris Hilton 2005 podcast.
Speaker: Wax House House of Wax remake, which I saw recently and is pretty abysmal for the first half and pretty good in the second half. But ah to my knowledge, that is like barely remake of this movie.
Speaker: Yeah, no, it's it's there are people that are encased in wax. Yeah, that is that is This is definitely, I think, the most famous film version of this story.
Speaker: it was originally either a short story, a book, right? yeah This itself is a remake of an earlier film. Right. There's a 1933 mystery at the Wax Museum, i think.
Speaker: Yeah. Mystery of the Wax Museum. Of the Wax Museum. Excuse me. Directed by Michael Curtiz. Right. And I'm like, what? There's a Michael Curtiz directed Fay Wray version of this movie? Two-stripped Technicolor, too. Right. And I'm like, I never knew that existed. I think that one, at least a according to Wikipedia, is less of like a horror movie and more of like kind of a mystery like thriller.
Speaker: This 1950s version is certainly... A horror movie, although it is also a bit of a mystery. Very notable for its 3D. This is the first 3D movie released by a major studio.
Speaker: Right. So last episode, we did the first ah feature length 3D narrative film. This was the first like studio big release 3D movie. Also, I believe the first Vincent Price as a like horror lead actor movie also.
Speaker: I think so. Yeah. Which and he's like knocking it out of the park. Like he's so yeah, it is. heat Yeah. Immediately like that. Like, you know, Vincent Price horror persona is is there fully formed, I think.
Speaker: Also, much like Buona Devil, the the last one we watched, this movie is like 70 minutes long and has an intermission, which I think is a technical limitation. Right. Like. Because of the way that like 3D prints worked or something.
Speaker: Oh, I'm not sure. 88 minutes. It's not 70 minutes, but short, short and sweet. This movie. The thing I like about it is like it gets in, it gets out.
Speaker: This movie is very silly and in the best possible way. I think this movie is so fun. I agree. I think the the best word to describe this movie is macabre. Yes. ah It's got the Vincent Price. It's got it's got enough... like It's spooky without being like overly gruesome. it is just a It's just a good macabre time. o We're having fun. As I think you mentioned in your Letterboxd review, it gets away with being like very... Not gory, but just like...
Speaker: Right. There's like there's lots of, I guess, like violence being done to wax figures in this movie. So it it allows for like dismemberment and melting faces. It's the Samurai Jack principle where they're they're beheading robots, but it's OK. Right. Yeah. In a kid's show. Well, like the the inciting incident of this movie is that this famous wax sculptors wax museum burns down for the insurance money. And we see all the wax figures melting. And it is it is quite gruesome looking. Yeah. Like ah like opening the Ark of the Covenant kind of Yeah. Well, I mean, that's the totes face melting is wax. So it's very appropriate. Likely inspired by this movie.
Speaker: So, yeah. Then it's like we we do a kind a time jump. And if and there's there's been a series of murders happening. And then this this famous wax sculptor reemerges. And he's he's opening a new wax museum. But this time he's making it spooky.
Speaker: Yeah, he was like, he in the beginning, he was like, I'm an artist. Like, everyone wants me to make, like, the thing with wax museums is that they dip into the macabre, but I'm not like that. I'm a true artist. And I have taste.
Speaker: I'm working on my masterpiece. Yeah. Joan of Arc and my Marie Antoinette and oh my god like his voice the way he says everything the way that Vincent Price says everything Marie Antoinette he has such a perfect voice and right there's like the the section where he's like taking people on it, like the public on a tour through his new wax museum, the spooky one.
Speaker: And it's just Vincent Price narrating all of these different like wax figure scenes of like a guillotine and like someone being hung and stuff. And he's, he's just, he's chewing it up so well. Yeah.
Speaker: With his narration and it his sort of like, you know, horror hostness, I guess before that was even really a thing. Right. He has a he has a ah mute assistant named Igor.
Speaker: It's right. This movie is just so full of like really classical, like Halloweeny macabre bullshit. I say bullshit in the most affectionate way possible. this feels like along that kind of Halloween vibe, but also in terms of like, yeah, I don't think the movie is like graphic in a way that's like, um, I don't know.
Speaker: Out actually horrifying, but it's graphic in a way that like suggests a lot of things. it' ahack It's good right. It suggests see a lot of like really upsetting things. Yeah. This, this feels like the earliest example I've seen of a horror movie that feels relatively modern.
Speaker: um Like the Universal monster movies, they are kind of doing their own thing. they're They're kind of like an older, campier kind of thing. And there is camp in this movie for sure.
Speaker: But like, I think it is actually going for like something... more similar to what you would see in like a seventies horror movie, like especially toward the end. but There's there's so certainly a ah a luridness to it. Yeah. Yeah. When we do the time skip that we're introduced to some new characters, some kind of, I don't know, young people who.
Speaker: Yeah. Young people. But also we haven't mentioned this is all Victorian era. This is a very like sort of gas lamps and cobblestones and foggy streets. Yeah. it's It's set in 1902, I believe. Yeah. 1902 New York. Yes. But yeah, like we introduced were introduced to these new characters who were kind of not involved in this wax stuff. But then, um you know, one of them ah goes on a date with ah the hot older guy. ah it turns out to be Vincent Price.
Speaker: ah Disfigured Vincent Price with a wax covering on his face to look like a non-disfigured... As is the big reveal at the end of the movie is that, right, we've we've seen this sort of disfigured shadowy figure chasing people earlier in the movie.
Speaker: And it's like, ooh, who's this scary looking guy chasing people? And then Vincent Price sort of, you know, re-emerges, ah you know, looking a little older and he's in a wheelchair now. And he's like I'm reopening my wax museum.
Speaker: And then later we find out, one, he doesn't need the wheelchair, he can walk fine. And also his distinguished Vincent Price face is, yeah, a a wax covering... of his disfigured face, which i I love the reveal of that so much because it is just, it surprises face. And then we see off screen, someone hitting him and like a shattering sand. We see like a broken, almost like ceramic style face fall to the ground. And there's this melted face beneath where it's like, yeah hang on. excuse How did this work?
Speaker: and I love this. It's so stupid. But it's also, really but I love how much it doesn't make sense. I love how much, how hand wavy it is. But yeah, key key to like everything, ah kind of all of his crimes that he does, once you know once his masterpieces have all been ruined and he's been you know corrupted in this Phantom of the Opera type way, ah is that he can no longer sculpt. His hands are are messed up, were messed up in the fire, and he can't he can't do his craft anymore. And so he starts...
Speaker: And as his mind has been destroyed by all of the horrors that have happened to him, he decides, like, what difference does it make if I start killing some people in order to get the wax figures that I want? And so... Well, it's also, it's like, he has to sculpt from life. So what what better what better starting port than a real human face? So, yeah, he starts, like...
Speaker: Finding recently dead bodies or killing people himself and then taking them into his basement and coating the bodies in wax so that he can find the perfect face for his Joan of Arc or his Marie Antoinette and have it in wax.
Speaker: And get it himself. And so he has this machine that just straps, strips people down, straps them into this machine, and then starts covering them in 500 degree hot wax. Molten wax. them ah Yeah, to it to to encase them as as his his figurines forever, which also feels like another barely disguised fetish thing. too Maybe. Yeah, I do think getting tied down and all that, you know. Right.
Speaker: One thing about that, like the the wax coating machine is right. They show it being used on like a mannequin. Yeah, the full thing of like the wax going to heat it up and it's bubbling and then like it sprays out of the nozzles onto the mannequin and there's steam rises up and it's like they show you all that so that then later in the movie when a person is in that machine, like we know what it's going to do if it if it gets turned on. Right. Yeah. There's a lot of like James Bond machine like, ah you know, it's getting closer and closer. She's about to get killed by this hot wax.
Speaker: um But right having seen it happen to the mannequin we're like oh no like I know exactly what's going to happen now and I don't want to see that happen to a person because that would be very gruesome. Yeah. It does a really good job of like implying gruesomeness right and even like showing wax figures and being like there's a person under that one don't forget that one's a corpse that's covered in wax and you're like ooh spooky.
Speaker: Yeah. It's a very macabre concept. I think it's yeah really cool. And yeah. And so like the new characters that we get introduced to become kind of fodder for murder, but also fodder for, you know, one of them kind of goes into the wax museum and goes like,
Speaker: that Joan of Arc looks exactly like my friend who died recently. And it's it's really freaking me out. Like, what's going on here? She keeps, like, kind of poking at it. The ears are pierced. How would he know to pierce the ears on the wax statue just based on a photo of my friend who died? And that is that is one thing that the 2005 movie...
Speaker: two thousand and five movie keeps and now pays off on in a much more gruesome way where it's like the people are still alive inside of the wax and ah and just like suffering and and the wax is like fused to their skin and so when the person tries to like rescue their friend from out of the wax they like take the wax off their skin it like peels their skin off with it I mean, it sounds like a sounds a pretty cool effect. It does sound like definitely a much more of a 2005 concept than this movie would do.
Speaker: Also worth noting, Charles Bronson plays Igor. Oh. very Very young Charles Bronson, who I – initially I was like, this guy seems familiar. What have I seen this guy in? I'm like, oh, it's Charles Bronson when he's like 20. But he doesn't talk. So how would I know?
Speaker: um He also has like weird makeup on part of the time. He looks like he's kind of wearing Halloween makeup the whole time. The 3D, I think, is ah much like Buona Devil is like surprisingly tasteful.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. Except for one part. The paddle ball? I think so. Yeah, there's a guy that's like a carnival barker guy who is bringing people in on the wax museum's first day. And he's using his paddle ball to just grab everybody's attention and just does the paddle ball right of the camera. And they like hang a lampshade on it right afterward because like Vincent Price goes like, I know it's really tacky, but we'll only do it for a little while. yeah Right. But that's the thing. It's so self-aware. of It is a carnival barker who's doing the really obvious three d stuff.
Speaker: He was like, hey, check it out. It's coming right at you. Woo. And then immediately Vincent Price is like, that's a little old tasteless. Yeah. i I think it's funny, though. I like it. i think this whole movie is very funny and very intentionally comedic, too. like Yes. yeah There's a lot of really great like character writing and like character moments in this. like even but There's a moment where... ah couple Who's like the main gal, Sue, is up you know up in her apartment and screams because Vincent Price and his you know disfigured guys is broken in.
Speaker: And we we cut downstairs to like the the other people in the apartment complex... And there's a man and woman and they're like, oh, like we got to go help. And then the man immediately like grabs a woman next to him, like pushes her ahead of him as they go up the stairs, which is like it isn't. And it's never it never comes back. It's not remarked upon. It's just two characters who only appear in that one scene. But it's like that didn't.
Speaker: They didn't have to put that in there. It's just a weird character moment that kind of gives that scene a bit of lightness and a bit of like goofiness that wouldn't otherwise have. And the movie is full of that kind of stuff. i've Just like a little comedic little jabs and lots of lots kind of like sly winking sort of like, ah, spooky, right? We got you.
Speaker: I think there's another like kind of just fun. It's not even like a joke moment, but it's like this implied thing where they're all of the horrors that people are looking at in in the first day of the wax museum. And somebody faints and like he's just got smelling salts like at the ready. Right. Smelling salts.
Speaker: He just, he's got him in his pocket. He's like, I'm ready for this moment. You know, it's ah right. Yeah. And like Sue, not Sue, the um the Sue's roommate who becomes Joan of Arc.
Speaker: She like everything that she says are these like really weird, like petty jabs. An absurd cartoon character in this movie. Like, right. Everything she says is a joke, basically. And that's, I think I didn't, maybe didn't quite expect the movie to be quite as like,
Speaker: overtly comedic as it is. Like, it's it's really... it It feels very haunted house-y in just that it's like... It's going to scare you and then kind of laugh with you about scaring you, almost.
Speaker: It's a good... um It's a good mix. You know, it like... I think that, you know, I wouldn't have a problem with how macabre this would be if it wasn't funny. But I think the mix of being macabre and, like, it's having fun, it is that, like, perfect Halloween mix. don't know. I do feel like there's something about...
Speaker: macabreness that is a little tongue-in-cheek a little bit like at least the way I think of it and yeah I think this like the tone of this movie is like so so good and it's not quite like horror comedy but it is like it's there's a lot of lightness and a lot of comedy to it without undercutting the horror of it I should also say that this is a 3D movie that was directed by someone who could not see in 3D.
Speaker: ah Right. Insane. Insane that that is true. They got a guy with an eye with an eye patch for his whole life to direct a 3D movie, ah which is just ah an incredible, fun little detail there. Yeah. Yeah. Also, another thing I thought of during this movie is right. You mentioned fan Phantom of the Opera, which does feel like a sort of reference point.
Speaker: I was really reminded of, ah same Remy as the movie, dark man, which I, I had known was, uh, very heavily inspired by, ah the pulp character, the shadow. And you get this very clear reference there, but like the entire concept of like a guy being disfigured in a fire and then having like a different face that he puts on also just wearing like a dark, like Ivernus coat and a big floppy hat. Yeah.
Speaker: which is also what the shadow wears, but like the costume that sort of like, you know, ah creepy night prowler Vincent Price, his whole like a look is very similar Darkman.
Speaker: And so I have to wonder, it would not surprise me in the least if Sam Raimi is a fan of this movie. If Sam Raimi is a fan of funny, scary movies. Yeah. So that's, that's fun.
Speaker: I think like one kind of, I mean, I don't think it's like, awful in this movie, but like, I think something it happened enough times that I felt like I needed to call attention to it is that like,
Speaker: This movie is it's not egregious or it's not but whatever. What I'm trying to say is that this this movie, like many others, creates like a link between like disability as like a metaphor for like a corrupted soul or evil or something like that. it it like It depicts it as monstrous or it uses it as a shortcut. Yeah. Like, all of the bad guys, like, one, his body is burned and he's in a wheelchair. Another is deaf-mute.
Speaker: And another is, like, consumed by alcoholism. And, like, these are the things that, like, it's... it's a link that people would make as a sort of thematic resonance that people would end up finding tasteless later. Yeah. But, uh, it's interesting that like this movie almost seems like fixated on it in a way. Like, like if you're bad, it reflects in your body in some way.
Speaker: Right. Which I think, right, the the intent always is like great giving a character some kind of like physical... a way of like physically manifesting someone's inner, you know, turmoil or like brokenness. But I think that the side effect of that that is...
Speaker: why this is a bad thing to do in storytelling is that it's like then you're equating any sort of physical malady with monstrousness and it's like hang on now this is this is not good and yeah so like you like i as much as i don't think this movie is trying to like imply that like if you have burn scars you are a monster it is definitely it's not a great shorthand yeah this is still this is still very much a nineteen fifty s movie yeah one last thing that i i want to mention is that this movie has a checkoffs joan of arc which is kind of it's like it's like you see you see a wax joan of arc who is like on the pyre about to be burned and then they burn the building down and they see the joan of arc burning i'm like we knew it was gonna happen it's perfect yeah As this movie, big, big, ah big 3D push, right? Sort of like it's the new, it's the hot new thing, 3D. Yes. We love 3D. Check it out. Yes. One other big, big gimmicks of 1953, but arguably the only one that really stuck is CinemaScope.
Speaker: Left side, whoa. Right side, whoa. Exactly. Widescreen. Right. we're We're talking about The Rope, the first Cinemascope release. And it part of what this movie was marketed on was the lack of glasses required to watch it, which I think is very funny. I mean, those glasses are not fun.
Speaker: I have to say. It's true. They're they're very annoying to this day. And then it was also, i mean, i think Cinemascope or Animorphic widescreen in general is much closer to something like Cinerama, which this is kind of a direct comparator of.
Speaker: But unlike Cinerama, it only requires one camera and one projector, making it a lot more easy to deal with and cost efficient. Not just one camera and one projector, but also you don't need like a special camera or a special projector. All you need is all you need is a special lens, much like the one on my webcam right now. Oh, yeah. i think I think the reason why anamorphic widescreen was able to stick around was because it didn't it was a new form that could be just retrofitted onto old equipment. And yeah like that makes it so much more practical to install in theaters. I mean, I guess maybe you'd want to make a new screen or something like that. if you it did require new screens.
Speaker: And I think when it was first released, there were um only only so many screens that existed or that were were being built because this was like ah a brand new format, which again is like, i'm going to I'm going to keep bringing this up and comparing this movie to the Odyssey because i think there's a lot of ah parallels.
Speaker: But I think it's interesting. There's like all the discourse now about how like, The Odyssey is is only being shown on what, like 40 screens worldwide in full height IMAX.
Speaker: And it's the you know first movie to be shot 100% in full IMAX. And so I think it's interesting that the robe was there was also this sort of like, yeah, but you know, yeah, sure. It's shot in CinemaScope. like, where are you going to see it in CinemaScope? There's only so many screens that exist. Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, i'm I'm assuming there are even less CinemaScope screens in 1953. Yes, but, you know, CinemaScope also, it didn't necessarily require a new screen in the same way that Cinerama would. Right. Because you could just mask off the screen that you have already. ah You could just get a lens that emphasizes the width of your screens. I don't know if that that was really done, though. i I don't really think it was sort of like we're going to project a smaller image onto a normal sort of 133 square or screen. i but As far as I know, it was always like, no even if maybe the auditorium is wide enough that they can put in a wider screen.
Speaker: It's certainly, yeah, you're emphasizing. I think the the the beginning of scope... it's like a cinema scope. It is emphasizing the grandness and the wideness. And that's the whole point of scope.
Speaker: And to this day, there are honestly, well, more like starting recently, there have been a lot of people, a lot of movie theaters that build screens in a narrower aspect ratio. And so the like like the actual physical screen is a narrow aspect ratio. And so scope is supposed to be the thing that's big and extra and really, Oh, you know, and it ends up being smaller, uh, which is wrong.
Speaker: I don't like that. Sure. Yeah. Right. Right. Cause I think most, i don't know about most, but a lot of movie screens are, 185 to 1, which is, rough it's not the same, but it's like roughly a similar shape to it ah a modern TV screen, which is still wide, still wider than 99% of movies were in 1953.
Speaker: But it is funny, right, that like proper widescreen movies like this, and this is even wider than most widescreen movies are now, because this is what uh we're getting into really technical bullshit but hey that's that's why we watch this movie oh yeah also this movie is about like bunch of roman stuff uh who cares um do we want to talk about what actually happens in this movie we we should and we can but let's stick to we could stick to the technical stuff okay don't get technical with me oh we're getting real technical uh c-3po's mad sorry c-3po um
Speaker: to To sort of put it in the the greater terms of like what this show is about. I do think it's interesting that like we've been talking about Cinerama and 3D and these like kind of ways that movies are starting to kind of like try to come up with these like ways ways to make movies grander and bigger and more more of an event.
Speaker: And this is the one that stuck. Anamorphic widescreen. CinemaScope is a brand, so it has a specific variety. it was like And so CinemaScope doesn't really... What was CinemaScope then doesn't exist anymore, it doesn't get used anymore.
Speaker: But the concept of using an anamorphic lens, which is a lens that squeezes an image horizontally... i was about to say, you should explain that, yeah. And then de-squeezes it when you project it, so you get a really wide image on the same...
Speaker: size film when it's being filmed is still how it's, I wouldn't even say necessarily most movies, but it is like, there's, there's a, a, probably a very good chance that whatever movie ah first pops into your head that was, has been made since like 1959 was shot it with anamorphic lenses.
Speaker: Not all. There's plenty that weren't. And there's plenty that still aren't. It's roughly 50-50. I would maybe argue it's maybe more than that. But yeah, youre it's... who But it's like, you know, all the Star Wars movies, all the Indiana Jones movies, like Alien, Blade Runner, like ah famous famous stuff.
Speaker: It's still a very common way to make a movie. So like to to kind of like talk about the the the shapes that we're dealing with, like Academy ratio is 1.37 wide to one tall.
Speaker: ah That's that's like the ratio to one. And so it's a much squarer aspect ratio. It's relatively... Square, more or less. And that one was all of the movies up to now, effectively, were that aspect ratio. it was this square one like an old TV. Right. It's the shape of the image that you get on a piece of 35 millimeter film.
Speaker: Right. When it runs to the camera, it is square. And then you project that image and it's still square. And that's how it looks. Yeah. And when we start entering this widescreen era, ah there's a lot of different widescreen processes. But pretty quickly, ah but we're about to find out over the next few episodes. But pretty quickly...
Speaker: the Academy ratio, the square aspect ratio, more or less goes away. And that becomes relegated to television. Television is the square one now, and movies are wide, and they're all just different flavors of wide. And there were a lot of like proprietary wide ones, but what the cinema industry...
Speaker: has settled on, at least, i don't i don't I can't say exactly when it happened, but like probably like certainly since the 70s, the cinema industry settled on two different flavors of widescreen, flat and scope.
Speaker: Flat being the one that's a bit closer to the way that your TV or phone is. a sixteen but It's not 16 by 9, but it's pretty close, like you were saying. And then scope, which is the extra wide one.
Speaker: And typically, you know, when when we're talking, everything is widescreen at now. Comedies are flat. Dramas are scope.
Speaker: um Epic things are scope and adventure movies are scope. Right. And and documentaries are flat. And it's not universal, but it's like, you know, the different shapes kind of imply a different story in a lot of ways, which I think is sort of an interesting thing about these aspect ratios. I remember being a little surprised that Jurassic Park is flat.
Speaker: um Right. That's the size the height. Right. Exactly. Yeah. When as a projectionist, when you receive a movie, like one of the first thing and and and you're kind of getting it ready to go on screen, like one of the first things that you get you look at is, is it flat or is it scope?
Speaker: You know, because that changes certain aspects of your workflow and everything. And so I end up kind of having this like, You know, i there's a lot of movies that I can just tell you whether it's flat or scope if I've played them because I know like I have to interact with the aspect ratio. So you end up seeing certain connections with what type of movie it is and what aspect ratio it is. Yeah. So that's my long explanation of all that.
Speaker: I think movies that are scope also are associated with movies that are more expensive because anamorphic lenses are typically very expensive. They're harder to work with.
Speaker: It's harder to make a movie... in scope than it is if if you're using an actual andomorphic lens it's just required it's more work like they're harder to focus they have way more quirks and weird shit you have to account for ever this movie has some focus that does not right not and for i think that's what's one of the things that's really interesting about is this is the first one and it's like you can see a lot of you can see the things that they're having to overcome in it that are like still things that if a movie shot anamorphic like it's just that's gonna be there that you have to account for it one of the main ones that has been pretty much entirely corrected for now like any contemporary anamorphic lens unless it's like a really cheap one when they were the really early ones like the ones used in this movie the how much they're stretching the image so typically the like classical anamorphic lens what most movies use is a
Speaker: a two times anamorphic lens. So it's stretching it out by two times, right? It's twice as wide as it was to begin with. But when it when you focus it, that changes. The actual like squeeze of it is changing slightly.
Speaker: So when you focus on something that's really close to the lens, so like for a close-up, it's the... Is it less or is it more? I forget which, but it... It's more because then it's like if something's in the center of the screen, it'll get stretched out horizontally a little bit. So like actors, if they're really close to the lens and they're in focus, they look wider.
Speaker: Like their face is stretched out horizontally. And apparently that became a problem with all these new, you know, Cinemascope widescreen movies. It's like actors would be like no, I'm not. I don't want you to use that lens for my closeup because I'm going to look fat.
Speaker: Wow, that's interesting. Because it was a real problem. that's just just And it's just technical. There was no way to really account for it back then. Since then, like Panavision, which is still the kind of like gold standard of anamorphic lenses, I believe they invented i had new like a new mechanical way to focus so that that didn't happen. They corrected for that. So now it's like the squeeze doesn't change depending on the focus anymore.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, most scope movies um do not have this effect. But I guess, um you know, i I went ahead and watched 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ah for for the next episode recently. and And for this movie, and honestly, for ah scope movies that I've seen that have been notably low budget, like some kind of Hong Kong scope movies,
Speaker: ah it'll have this kind of shot perhaps shot scope exactly it'll have this like fisheye thing where like things that are things or people that are near the far edges of the screen get kind of like right they get squished yeah they get squished and they get kind of like warped so that they're like not straight they're kind of like they're kind of like curved toward the center like there's this big like fisheye kind of thing going on and i didn't really call that barrel distortion in the biz Ah, then also pincushion distortion, which is the opposite.
Speaker: I think right now this is the most that we've ever been. i'm a film projectionist and I'm a film maker.
Speaker: Yeah, I was just kind of noticing that in like cheaper scope movies. And then also some of these early ones. And I didn't really know that it was Panavision specifically. what is But that's, I mean, even the things that that like where things are squished at the edges, there's still lots of movies that have that too. Like um No Sudden Move, the Soderbergh movie. I forget what which specific lenses it uses. I think it's Kawa lenses. But it's like those have really pronounced...
Speaker: squishy edges where it's like if you pan side to side, you can really see like a lot of warping, a lot of distortion. The pan. Yeah. The pans on those movies is really, really comes out. A lot of these early movies, I think are like really trying to correct for that stuff.
Speaker: I mean, they're not able to, but I think right. we're probably going to see that stuff getting smoothed out. And then I think more recently, I think people have kind of embraced that a bit more. We're like, people want all those weird quirks and all those weird distortions and stuff. Yeah.
Speaker: Like the. Exactly. The most recent Batman movie, the Batman, they used like specifically broken anamorphic lenses to shoot that movie because they had all these weird quirks.
Speaker: um That the director just liked and was like, I like how these look. Like they have like a really, you know, distinct quality to them, even though they're technically broken, you know, and it's like, right. It's like abandoning technical perfection and embracing, you know, painterliness, which I, for the most part, I vibe with. I like when movies, as long as it's a deliberate choice, are sort of like embracing a little bit of a more painterly kind of like visual style. Yeah. It's interesting, though, because like stuff like that distortion at the edge of the screen, it's.
Speaker: There's a way that it can like pull you out of the movie, right? It's not like being used as like a momentary effect. It is like you take a moment and you go, oh, there's something wrong here, you know? Yeah, it is also like it makes you think about the process instead of like what's happening inside, which it might, you know, which is a tool that you could use on purpose. Yeah. but Yeah. yeah I think it Yeah, I think one another thing about an orific lenses that gets brought up I think was sort of part of the marketing for the robe also is that it does kind of give it a little bit of a slightly 3D quality where like stuff will kind of pop out from the background a bit like it it gives it this yeah weird shape.
Speaker: um and ah the The distortion does kind of give it this like slightly, yeah, like fisheye or like three d I wouldn't say 3D, actually. I would say, like, yeah so so I watched... It was described that way in 1953, which I think is sort of a marketing thing. Right.
Speaker: Well, like, i watched I watched this movie on a cinema screen, ah and I watched it and with the masking pulled all the way out. Nice. And what i what I can tell you is that what that fisheye effect had was...
Speaker: um almost a faux curved screen effect or like faux Cinerama effect where it's like, I feel like if you want to be using that, like that barrel distortion on purpose, what you're doing is like you like tricking your eye into making the flat screen feel like it's wrapping around you a little bit. Yeah. And so it's not like things are popping out at you. It's more that things are like surrounding you and the barrel distortion is trying to like evoke your natural field of view. Yeah.
Speaker: While, while you're watching a flat. And it's like Wes Anderson loves some anamorphic lenses. He loves weird distortion. Like, you know, there's, there's lots of that in his movies.
Speaker: And so it is, it's definitely thing that I think has, has been embraced as even more of a like, An aesthetic choice, I guess. This movie, I guess we should talk about the actual movie a little bit. I do think...
Speaker: uses the though the the widescreen of it all very well it is very much yeah like every part of this movie feels like it is optimized for being as wide and panoramic and big as possible i think a swords and sandals epic makes sense for being the first widescreen feature right it gives you like a lot of crowds and a lot of like giant But it gives you like a lot of crowds and a lot of like big like buildings to like really sell that sense of scope.
Speaker: Right. ah That sense of cinemascope. Hence the name. um I also think it is right to to compare to the Odyssey one more time. I think it's really interesting how like in 1953 everyone was like, no. Square screen, boring, bad. We don't like it. Widescreen. We like it as wide as possible.
Speaker: And now since then, especially this year, it's been this like push of like, no, no, no, tall screen. We need screen to be square again, just bigger.
Speaker: And it's like, right. It's like, there's all this, there's so much of the marketing around the Odyssey is hyping the IMAX of it all as well. It should. But I think it's, it's interesting and a little funny to me how it is like,
Speaker: and Because this is going back... IMAX has been a big selling point for over a decade at this point. Of like, look at the big square screen. It's so tall. It's so square. Where it's like... we Right.
Speaker: Like, movie theaters are... reverting back to embracing the square shaped screen. I mean, part of it's just a bigger streaming paranoia like this, right? but Even that, but like about TV paranoia, but like, right. Like the, the TV paranoia was like, Hey, TVs are square right now. It is like TVs are widescreen. They're like the equivalent of flat, not scope.
Speaker: Although you can buy like big curved, super widescreen TVs too. That now, right, movies are, their way of interacting that is make it square again. Which is just, don't I find that very interesting and very kind of ironic somehow.
Speaker: it Just, just like, let's do whatever they're not doing. to za or Exactly, exactly. You know, that's something else for us. I mean, so here's, I have something to say about this, which is like, I agree with both what the robe is doing and what the Odyssey is doing, because this was like a kind of perspective that I came to a couple of years ago when I was thinking about different aspect ratios is square, like Academy ratio and wide scope ratio are both ah shapes that I think you need to compose your image very specifically for.
Speaker: If it's a scope thing, like if you're really only focusing on one little bit of it, then you're wasting all of the space next to you. Or you're using it as just empty space, which can be very effective.
Speaker: Definitely. But like, when I say, like, if you're used, if you're only using a little part of your frame intentionally, let's say, then there's a bunch of unintentional stuff that is just making itself very known because it's taking up most of the screen, right? You have to account for ah um a much bigger field of view. Yeah. With like a squarer, taller aspect ratio, you also have to compose very specifically because can be hard to fit everything that you want, horizontally speaking, into that square frame. And so you start wanting to use like depth a bit more, and you want to start like like creating some... To not have too much space floating on the top and bottom, and to like have an interesting frame, you need to work a little harder... Both of those are so extreme, like one's extreme tall, one's extreme wide, that they really evoke a feeling because of the the extremity of the shape. I think that 16 by 9 or flat, like the kind of narrower aspect, the the narrower widescreen that you would see on a typical TV or computer monitor or phone,
Speaker: It's not just that we've been overexposed to it, which we have. Right. Everything is 16 by nine. Now, again, your phone. It's the standard. Yeah. Like you're watching a moving image, it's probably going to be that.
Speaker: Yeah. Like menu boards at restaurants, you know, right? Like it is they're just using TVs. Yeah, everything is 16 by nine. And it's so it's very pedestrian now. It doesn't feel special because it's everywhere. But I don't think that that's the only thing. It is a problem that that one aspect ratio is everywhere. But I think that 16 by nine is a very efficient aspect ratio because it is the exact right.
Speaker: Yeah, it's the it's the right shape to comfortably have shot reverse shot. Yeah. like Like you have just enough space to have like a little bit of the back of someone's head, but mainly focusing on one person on one side of the screen and then do the same thing in reverse on the other side. And that is so much of what movies are, is shot in reverse shot of two people talking. And 16 by 9 is perfectly framed for making the same image with that every time. you know like If you're shooting two people talking to each other 16x9, it almost always looks the exact same because it's just like, this is obviously where you put the camera and this obviously how you frame it.
Speaker: um And so it is... it it I don't think that flat like lends itself to interesting compositions in the ways that the other ones do. I think it is, you can just put the camera down, like you put your phone up and it makes an, entry it makes a composition that gets the job done, which is why like all documentaries are 16 by nine. Cause you have a home camera, more or less all documentaries. You have like a, you have like a video camera that is 16 by nine.
Speaker: and you can film the stuff you need to film, and it gets on the camera, but it doesn't necessarily look too crafted. There's my spiel. I'm done with my spiel now. i don't i i I do agree. I don't necessarily think it's it doesn't lend itself to interesting conversation composition, but I think it's easier to get away with boring composition.
Speaker: And so people often do. Yeah, I mean, a lot of great aspect ratio talk in this episode. i' am I'm all here for it. Anyway, the robe. Anyway, the robe um right is big sword and sandals, kind historical-ish, like Bible epic kind of. It's not really a Bible epic, but it's like, you know.
Speaker: I saw someone on Letterboxd call it Bible fan fiction. Right, pretty much, yeah. I mean, it's ah it's our first Richard Burton film we're covering on the show. That's fun. Richard Burton plays ah Marcellus Gallio, who's a Roman officer, who is is the Roman officer who gives the order to crucify Jesus.
Speaker: who we never Jesus is like always conveniently framed out like we never actually see his face and then is like tormented by just the the sort of near supernatural guilt of that that he then embraces the the newfound following of Christianity and is becomes an enemy of of his former ah Roman masters. You know, big sweeping movie. It didn't do much for me personally, but also, you know, I'm a i'm a filthy heathen, so maybe that's part of it.
Speaker: um I do think, like, this movie looks incredible. Like, they they did they really put the work in on the costumes, the cinematography. The staging of it is, like, really quite impressive. Yeah, for the first movie that is made in this aspect ratio, i was kind of...
Speaker: surprised that they did it so well when it's also i think it's interesting it's the first one there's there's no close-ups in this movie really there's like some kind of medium ish close-ups but it is for the most part it's like entirely framed wide to show things off but i think also just because like they had one lens and that's what they could use so they were just like nope here we go here's the shot it's it's the room uh it has a i think it's interesting this movie is like is such kind of a a cultural i'm not a cultural but is it a very technical landmark and not at all a cultural landmark like there's lots of these like 50s sword and sandals epics that exist this one never gets talked about unless it's it's the first cinema scope movie like that is but far and away the most notable thing about it which is exactly the the ratio of how much we're talking about this movie exactly right of course go yeah But to talk about what the you know what actually happens in the movie, you know ah I haven't seen a lot of Richard Burton movies. I do think he's quite good in this, especially compared to some of the other actors in it. Not to rag on people too much, but Jay Robinson, who plays Caligula, who's kind of the main villain of this movie, is like so absurdly over the top. It made me laugh, but I do think it is a bad performance.
Speaker: It is like even in scenes where he isn't speaking, he's just like listening. He's doing way too much. He is. um But I also kind of love it. Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, yeah, he's doing something. He's being bigger than everyone. And like, I think that what they're trying to get across is that he is flamboyantly homosexual and therefore ah evil. ah But I think that. Yeah, I mean, maybe my mind doesn't immediately go there, but i I took it much more of just like this actor is milking this role. I think it's a little of both. Maybe, yeah. I thought that it was kind of interesting. I mean, like, you know, there you know this is a Christian movie, and and so I did kind of feel like they were sort of tying in, like, it's like gay coding, you know? It's like, you know, 1950s, 1960s gay coding of villains. It's definitely a big thing. Caligula, at least from the reputation of the movie called Caligula, I guess, is kind of known as a the degenerate, I suppose. Yeah.
Speaker: that Guy let's party, you know? Yeah. ah i did Nothing wrong with that. But i ah i don't think that the um I don't think that the movie is like massively making a statement along those lines. I think, you know, like the kind of awoke critique that we have of House of Wax, I think it's just kind of tying these things together in a way. Sure. Yeah. Sort of make it thematically resonate. Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, it's it's such a just like, it's so theatrical. It's so kind of just like, and it's got this very like English theater theater kind of voice.
Speaker: i don't know. i I don't think it is a good performance, but it's one that I enjoyed watching. This movie is, it does have some, like, really kind of high drama flourishes.
Speaker: i think made it stand out a little bit less to me, although it still definitely does. There's the Greek slave who is kind of the one of their first kind of people who's sort of converted over. ah And he's going around town and, like, asking people. He's trying to he heard that, like, there's an assassination plot. Or, like, a plot from Pontius Pilate to capture Jesus. Not assassination. But, um... He's trying to go and warn him. And so he's going around town going like, have you heard of Jesus? People are saying he's the Messiah. Have you heard of this guy, Jesus? Just like people have told me on the street. Have you heard of Jesus? And he was the first one.
Speaker: ah And there's a point where he goes up to this guy and he goes, he goes Jesus has been captured. And so that someone who was close to him betrayed him. ah Like it was it was horrible and he shouldn't have done it. and then And then the guy goes, what's your name? And he goes, my name is Judas.
Speaker: Underclap. Lightning sound. i laughed so hard at that. I loved it. It's like the most obvious. and that's thing is It's played totally sincerely in the movie and it's absurd. It's so silly. I think that that kind of sums up this movie. it's like It's so melodramatic, and it's so just like... It's so of its time. It feels like a real kind of classical 1950s, like, you know, biblical epic movie.
Speaker: I just think it it is it's so blunt, and it's so kind of like not... I think there is a lot of, I guess, sort of elegance in the visuals and like the, you know, the staging of it. Like the sets, incredible. Like the matte paintings, incredible. Yeah. Some amazing matte paintings in this movie.
Speaker: But the storytelling is incredibly blunt. But right, it is often blunt in entertaining way in that, especially in that scene. It's blunt. I mean, you know, to defend it a little bit, I think it's it's blunt in an entertaining, melodramatic, campy way. And then I think the other ways that are it's blunt make it feel like arch, I guess, but not like necessarily as like a criticism, you know? Like, because this movie is kind of just trying to be like, hone in on very, you know, specific ideas, specific Jesus themes, you know? It's like... it's like
Speaker: these people were bad, but I'm going to forgive him. I, through my forgiveness, I taught people how to forgive and how to be good. And it's like all of this like really big stuff. And it's like trying to just like,
Speaker: have all of these like kind of large themes reflect everywhere, which makes it kind of blunt, but I think it also kind of makes it like focus on what it's doing in a way that I think works. I'm also a heathen,
Speaker: Two self-identified heathens. I was watching this movie and like there were points where they were talking about like the inspiration that that people receive from Jesus. And I was like, oh yeah, wow. You know? I think for most of this movie's runtime, it does, i think it presents what I think is, are are the genuinely positive aspects about Christianity and about like what the teachings are, which are like,
Speaker: helping people that are in need. That's the thing. It's like, I think that like this movie doesn't really feel like it has any of the, like, like any of the yucky aspects of contemporary Christianity on it. I, I didn't think so until the very end. And then I was like, ah, I don't like this ending.
Speaker: Like the very, very end? The very, very end, yeah. The very, very end is so funny. It is very funny, but I did not like it. i i Yeah. the The, like, happily walking into death I just found to be, like, not grim, but just sort of, like, the... Right, it's supposed to be this, like, heroic moment of a sacrifice. of Like, there are two people who are dying for their ideals, right?
Speaker: Yes. And it the way that it is... kind of framed and shown in the movie is like so just so silly that I just yeah yeah it's someone going like um but I don't have to kill myself but I will and it will be a heroic moment and and we'll show it in this yeah in this like the visual way that they show it I think is the really funny part which is yeah they're just kind of like walking to their execution and then suddenly like the background fades away and like a heavenly clouds fade in Yeah. And I'm like, they're just walking up to heaven. Happy ending? Question mark? Yeah.
Speaker: it It takes some of the gruesomeness out of it, certainly. but Sure. i know it's It's the one part of the movie that take that felt kind of propagandistic to me, I guess. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I see that. Because I think the rest of the movie doesn't. I think the rest of the movie is is sort of engaging with like Christian ideals in a really kind of earnest, genuine way that I did appreciate.
Speaker: Yeah, I think it's ah like another interesting thing that the movie does, like being an explicitly Christian movie, right? It seems to take a bit of pains to not specifically like depict any supernatural stuff. Like it's stuff that like you could interpret as supernatural. I think something that was really interesting that the movie did was there's a character who like couldn't walk.
Speaker: And she was like angry at the world and like depressed about everything because of like because of this thing. And then you know you hear like Jesus healed her, right? Then you meet her later and she still can't walk.
Speaker: And the the the main character, this is before he kind of is converted to the teachings of Christ. He's like, what's up with that? Like, you said that Jesus healed her, but she still can't walk. But then you see that, like, it's like he healed her metaphorically and spiritually, you know, because, like,
Speaker: He like took her like awful outlook about the world and made her happy. And like, that was what healed her. And I think that's a really, that's a really interesting, like kind of like secular interpretation of like Jesus, you know? Yeah. And like a way that kind of makes what he did feel like really profound in a real way. And it doesn't need to resort to miracles or like supernatural stuff. Yeah. I was kind of surprised that an explicitly Christian movie that has Jesus in it would not, would like specifically shy away from depicting miracles as like a necessarily real thing.
Speaker: Yeah. One more technical thing just to sneak in there that I do think is very interesting is right. This being the first movie shot in Cinemascope, it was all, it was simultaneously shot. Normally, normally for 1953. So flat, you know, in 133.
Speaker: And that was, I guess, the the one that was shown on TV most of the time. And apparently it's like has some like alternate takes and stuff in it, too. Like because they were shot simultaneously, like some of the footage is actually like it's different. The performances are different.
Speaker: And that's that's also just like an interesting quirk of this movie that there is this kind of like alternate version of it. Kind of reminds me of like the the movies that in the silent era that would shoot like the versions for different countries at the same time. Right. Or yeah, even like right movies that are shot shot for sound or shot silent, you know, like kind of using different takes and things like that.
Speaker: I did not realize before watching this movie how much ah the movie Hail Caesar within the movie Hail Caesar. So there's the Coen Brothers movie Hail Caesar! And part of that movie is about a 1950s film production of a sword and sandals like Roman biblical epic called Hail Caesar.
Speaker: That is like a direct parody of this movie. Like very... I thought it was more of a generic thing. And after seeing this, I'm like, no, no, it's this specifically. So i I'm excited to rewatch that movie as we will probably do for our recap episode for the I feel like you're going watch Ed Wood too. Honestly, that seems like a great double feature for the 1950s recap episode. Because it's like it ties in very directly to a lot a lot of movies that we're we're watching. So...
Speaker: Yeah, that's that's the row. Widescreen is a thing now. We'll see where that goes in the coming years. What was your favorite of these flicks that we watched? You know, I know you're going to pick it, and so I'm just going to go with House of Wax.
Speaker: I thought House of Wax was a lot of fun. I thought House of Wax was fun, fun, fun. I really, really enjoyed it. I would watch it many times and probably not...
Speaker: in red and cyan 3D again because my dominant left eye makes that movie way too red but the first time I saw House of Wax I saw it in real D3D like in a movie theater and that was so much more pleasant I'm sure yeah I would love to see it like that I think House of Wax is a lot of fun in 2D and 3D. But the one that you're about to say, i i really enjoyed too.
Speaker: I mean, I got a big shout out to Roman Holiday. i really liked Roman Holiday a lot. I'd never seen it before, before watching it for this show. Liked that movie a whole bunch. But yeah, my favorite was, of course, The 5,000 Fingers Reductor A movie that I feel like no one has heard of or seen that genuinely deserves to be seen more and for people to check out. Because i I like fully unironically think that movie is great.
Speaker: Shout out to Steven Soderbergh for ah asking the Nighthawk to show it. Shout out Soderbergh. we'll We'll get to your movies eventually. Yeah, someday.
Speaker: Well, all right. That will do it for this movie. This this episode that where I think might be the only time so far, the first time that we have covered eight feature length films.
Speaker: But there was just too much to talk about. know. We couldn't take any out. And yeah so we didn't. and also And even there's a bunch that were like big movies from 1953 that we did not watch. We did not watch Wages of Fear. We did not watch From Here to Eternity. We didn't watch Peter Pan. We didn't watch War the Worlds.
Speaker: Oh, so much left out. And yet, you know, that's that's just a problem we're going to keep having is there are too many movies. come back to them. We'll come back to them. Yeah. Eventually. In 15 years, we'll be back on. night We're going to we're going to we're going to hit modern day and then we're going to reverse and start going back in time in reverse. i'm not I'm never sure if we should reverse or if we should start over again. I think it's funnier do it in reverse order. Cause then we have like, you know, 2025 episode, like separated by a couple of months and it's just, uh, whatever it was, what other movies didn't we watch? Well, that's going to do it for this one. Thank you all for,
Speaker: for watching and listening and doing all the, doing all the things. Appreciate every one of you. We're on the internet. I mean, mainly Instagram, I guess. Uh, and there'll be links and all that. And stick around for the next one. 19. 1954. Can you believe there's the four has some doozies to 1954 has some dang, some God dang doozies because we're going to be coming back with,
Speaker: Among others, Godzilla, Seventh Samurai, Rear Window. Are you kidding me ah So get ready for that one. Buckle in and see you next year.
Speaker: See you next year.
