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TSP EP 147 Part 2: Color and Audio are Done for our Feature! Or Ten Years Later!
32 Plays1 month ago
In this episode, Tom and Steve conclude their conversation; they discuss Spike Lee and his films, adaptations, and childhood abuse! What could be more fun!?
So come along with us as we discuss a thing or two!
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Transcript
Introduction and Adaptation Experiences
00:00:00
Speaker
and said Okay, no politics. We don't know shit. um So what's the main topic? so The main topic is ah is about adaptations, which we've kind of talked about before. So the title of this episode is Lost in Translation, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying About and Love the Adaptation.
00:00:19
Speaker
And I have a quote. This is from an author. Okay, you went a little deep. i I could tell you felt bad about the scripts. So now you were like, let me put a little into this with the quotes.
00:00:29
Speaker
ah having your book turned and Having your book turned into a movie is like seeing your oxen turned into bullion cubes. John Le Carr, which I thought was kind of ah i thought that was kind of funny, kind of cute.
00:00:47
Speaker
Yeah. ah Because, right, you don't want to see your oxen essentially turned into bullion. Used to make beef stock.
00:00:58
Speaker
Like the lowest of quality. Wow. Okay, yeah. And had looked up what he wrote, but I'm drunk and I forgot. Can I go on a little tangent here while you look it up? Yes. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is what he wrote.
00:01:14
Speaker
Okay. That movie sucked. I saw Highest to Lowest, which is High and Low. And my God, that was one of the worst movies I've ever seen.
00:01:30
Speaker
You should watch it. it would It is one of the most disjointed films I've ever seen what where like the editing was so bad, dude. like The editing was bad. They they had like cuts, and then they cut to something else that was obviously a different take and not the same reaction, and nothing was reading. It was like, Spike, fuck you, dude. You had like two movies. You had...
00:01:53
Speaker
ah Do the Right Thing and Malcolm X. No. 25th Hour, Inside Man. Those are okay. Those are okay.
00:02:04
Speaker
You had two great films. Oh, great? Yes. Yeah, because Do the Right Thing is great. That's a great film. Malcolm X is great. No doubt that's a great film. Malcolm X is a fucking a great film. These are masterpiece films.
00:02:20
Speaker
But he's riding those co coattails, like Kevin Smith rides the coattails of clerks. And then I saw Heist Lois. It was like, dude, that's so awful. Now, I don't know if you remember, but you were talking to Stephen about it.
00:02:36
Speaker
And Stephen loved it. Stephen Arpiz. And he liked that he said they have like a little ah rap battle or I don't know what you call it between Denzel and the guy.
00:02:48
Speaker
And I saw it, and i was like, okay, that's really well done. It was really good. And it wasn't like what you might think when you hear rap battle. It it was just really, really well done, that part.
00:03:00
Speaker
But there are just so many elements that were so bad because i because I did have to leave the movie at some point to take care of the kids. So I didn't really watch most of it. But I saw the opening and it was digital, of course.
00:03:13
Speaker
But it was very clean. Very clean digital, like no grain, no nothing. And it looked nice. It's like, okay, this is what digital can be. Like just make this very just smooth, glossy image. Mm-hmm.
00:03:31
Speaker
And it was like, okay, and then I left. And then I came back and then there was like inserts of gritty film on weird stock that had tint.
00:03:44
Speaker
And it was like, you're trying to emulate film, but I know you didn't because you're definitely a shooting digital because you suck. And then they had like elements where like this there's people on the subway and they're like, Boston sucks.
00:03:57
Speaker
Boston sucks. And then the guy looks at camera he's like, Boston fucking sucks. And it's like, okay, you're trying to do do the right thing where you're kind of breaking the fourth wall here. But it ain't working, dude. It just ain't working. None of this is working.
Challenges in Book-to-Film Adaptations
00:04:12
Speaker
And I know this isn't like an adaptation, right? It is. It is? Yeah. So then that adaptation of that, and it was like... Because it's a book. Yeah, that's true. It is book. King's Ransom is the name of the book. But Stephen said it was based off the book. In the credits that I saw, it said it's based off of Kurosawa's High and Low.
00:04:32
Speaker
So it's more of a retelling of High and Low than the book. At least credit wise. And it was just like, Jesus Christ, this is garbage. I mean, it was offensive.
00:04:49
Speaker
It was offensive. to me You know what's funny? Because ah Spike Lee, what do you do you think he has just the world's biggest balls to essentially remake two Asian masterpieces? Oh, because he did Old Boy. Did you ever see that? I never saw his Old Boy. Oh, I can't see Old Boy.
00:05:07
Speaker
I call myself Old Boy all the time. ah Just be careful with that. You have two daughters now. That's a good point, buddy. I like that. I just meant that I'm old and like a boy.
00:05:23
Speaker
ah Yeah, okay. I will ah but scratch that one for the record. Shit. But, dude, like it'd be like going and saying, like well, I'm going to make Seven Samurai, and which they did, right? Yeah. Because I was missing seven. And that's supposedly a great film. I've never seen the original.
00:05:43
Speaker
I saw the remake. I've seen the original. It's solid, right? It's good. Yeah. With Charles Bronson. But that's that's different, though, because like – You know, samurai flicks, westerns, they were just kind of piggybacking off of each other. And and now would that's that's a much different thing.
00:06:01
Speaker
um Yeah. But but like to make Seven Samurai now, like I don't know if you saw it, the new one with Denzel and Chris Pratt. I did.
00:06:12
Speaker
I thought it was pretty bad. It was so bad. but I mean, I liked it because I liked the actors. i knew i was I knew I would never watch Highest to Lois just like I'll never watch Oldboy. You know have to just for like and education and commentary. comment i know for the for a fact. Oldboy has Josh Brolin.
00:06:34
Speaker
Yeah, and um Elizabeth... Olsen? Olsen. Really? She's the daughter. Oh. boom Yeah. I'll never look at it Elizabeth Olsen the same way again. or Josh Brolin. um But it's it's like...
00:06:56
Speaker
i think I can't remember who said it, but we shouldn't remake masterpieces. We should remake shit movies. At least, And then you have a chance of making it better. was Red Letter Media, think. Wasn't Red Letter Media? I think they said that. Because it's such a true statement because, dude, you're not going to... There's no way Spike Lee's going to make a better high and low. That movie is so fucking good. um And then, like you said, like there's a couple aspects of it that are good.
00:07:22
Speaker
But holy shit, it's so bad. And it's really hard to adapt things. And that's kind of why I wanted to talk about Because I've been doing, i do it at this a lot where I listen to the book and then I'll watch the movie.
00:07:34
Speaker
um And I always find it fascinating how adaptations kind of happen and what you keep in what you leave out.
00:07:47
Speaker
And as a storyteller, it's like essentially you are given... like this giant jigsaw puzzle, and you have to figure out what pieces you can remove while still keeping it ah intact because you can never actually fit everything into a book or from a book.
00:08:05
Speaker
Here's to go off on a bit of a tangent. Sure. Where does adaptation fit in that, right? Because Charlie Kaufman... Was hired to write. This book.
00:08:16
Speaker
And then he made adaptation. Which has. It's basically Gonzo. Adaptation. Because it has nothing to do about the book. And everything to do with Charlie Kaufman. The wild orchids. Or the blue orchid. Or it is. Like wild white orchid. Or something like that.
00:08:34
Speaker
Like.
00:08:37
Speaker
That's like meta. Just meta, meta. so meta. It's like layers of meta commentary. Because that's mean, it's called adaptation. Yeah. which is Which is hilarious. I mean, that movie is hilarious. But um the thing is you have to respect the source material, make it your own, and then still
00:09:03
Speaker
somehow Like also, ah no that's really it, right? Respect the source material and make it your own. Because
00:09:16
Speaker
you can't really go exactly like the book does because you can never really capture that on film. I mean, you're you're being told things that don't make sense.
Contrasting Book and Film Elements
00:09:31
Speaker
Oh, so some of the books slash movies I've been listening to and then watching would be the Truman Capote novel In Cold Blood. And then the corresponding film is also called In Cold Blood. It's about two men recently out of prison travel to do meet up and go to do the perfect job, which is to rob this family of all its money and their plan is like, leave no witnesses. So the book is also like this, like a very true crime, like maybe even like the first true kind of crime kind of novel in cold blood.
00:10:18
Speaker
And then the other book I, other Truman Capote book I listened to and then watched was ah breakfast at Tiffany's who read it.
00:10:29
Speaker
ah You mean like who was the narrator? Yeah. It was ah Michael C. Hall, the guy that plays Dexter. And then Holly Golightly. Holly Golightly, yeah. um Fantastic book.
00:10:44
Speaker
The book is so much better than the movie. The movie's a classic, but the book is so much better. so much The thing I've i've noticed, and i I think a lot of this has to do with just ah the visual aspect of watching people act these things out is books are are movies adaptations are almost always they always almost always like a lack of maturity and they always tone down aspects of the book to make things more palatable for audiences.
00:11:17
Speaker
Like what? ah for example Specifically ah Breakfast at Tiffany's. For Breakfast at Tiffany's, she is a prostitute. that Oh, it's clear. Yeah. It is. ah Yes. And she's like, well, i I've only slept with 11 men. and And it also brings up.
00:11:33
Speaker
That's not too bad. Her getting married at 14 and running away from home. But when her husband catches up with her, because he does it in the movie as well.
00:11:44
Speaker
When Doc Golightly catches up with her in the book, she spends the night banging him and giving him a proper send off. And it's like, well, I took care of Doc, and he knows that, you know, right? He's like, he knows that I'm a different person now and that I can never go back to be, you know, with him.
00:12:06
Speaker
Which is like, holy shit, you just, like, you're, what? but Oh, go ahead and top me off.
00:12:15
Speaker
All right, we killed two turkeys today. i want a proper send-off. Yeah. Right? but And then it's also like, damn, the story is just so much darker.
00:12:26
Speaker
And the movie the movie's good because of Audrey Hepburn's performances, the set design and everything. Because ah in the book, it's like there's a party ah in the movie and in the book where...
00:12:40
Speaker
um The author is never named in the in the book. The guy that is lives above her, he's a writer. Oh, he's never named. He's never named because she always gives him new names.
00:12:52
Speaker
Because she's like, you remind me of my my brother Frank. Or whatever the hell her brother's name is. I can't remember. Maybe it's Fred. Fred. You remind me of my brother Fred. I just always think of Fred it's like my default name. You remind me of my brother Fred. So going to call you Fred. And she's like sleeping in bed with him. and then he goes downstairs to be like, hey, you know, is everything okay? And he walks in and there's just like 45 men in her apartment.
00:13:16
Speaker
And in the movie, in that party, there's like women and people talking, but it's like, nah, it's like all her suitors. All these very rich and wealthy men that are trying to essentially like control and own her. Yeah, that's so much gross. And he's like...
00:13:32
Speaker
He doesn't want to like interact and talk with them because they're gross. Yeah. But then he starts to like talk with them and realize like all these men want the same thing. like They want to tame the wild stallion. Does he see himself in them too?
00:13:47
Speaker
He doesn't yet. because But also he falls in love with her instantly. And I think she just that's what the book is trying to describe is she's that type of girl that every man just falls in love with instantly. yeah She's essentially the perfect Jennifer. in our Right?
00:14:02
Speaker
yeah Yeah. From Dickhead. She's Jennifer. She lived. And yeah, and it's kind of like she uses her, like she just wants to be like this carefree ah manic pixie kind of girl. And like in the book, the the main thing in the book too is she leaves her cat behind.
00:14:25
Speaker
She doesn't take her cat. She doesn't stay with the guy. She literally just is like, she's going to go to jail because she's been informing for the drug kingpin in prison. And ah she kind of gets off on the charge, but she's still like, I'm fleeing. Like, I'm leaving. Like, no one's going to lock me up. So she flees and she leaves everything. yeah because she never wants to be controlled.
00:14:48
Speaker
Yeah. So she just flees because she's go to she just goes to Brazil because she has a ticket to Brazil and she's like never heard from again. And that's how the book kind of ends. Oh, that's so much better than the movie.
00:15:02
Speaker
Yeah. And the whole thing is- more dour. And the whole thing is like, he hates her at this point. He's like, you're fucking leaving everything. You're leaving us. Like, I love you. Like, you don't get it. I love you. I'm in love with you. I would do anything to like, have you be my girl. And she's just like, I'm nobody's baby. Like, I gotta go. Baby, I'm free. yeah And he holds this candle for her his entire life. Because the start of the book, it's like 10 or maybe 5 or 10 years later.
00:15:32
Speaker
And he gets a call from the bar owner that they would always go to the same bar that was across the street or down the street. And he's like, I got a letter saying that she was spotted in Africa with these African men.
00:15:47
Speaker
And he brings up all these stories. And that's what he gets in into telling the story of her. Okay. Holly Golightly. Yeah. And it's like he's still madly in love with her like years later. the bartender's madly in love with her years later. Like everyone is just, right? But she's just this ghost of a person. She's in and out of people's lives.
00:16:05
Speaker
Oh, I know. Holly Golightly. Oh, we all know a Holly Golightly. That's for sure. and like Well, yeah. And that's how he touches on that, right? Because it's like you all know Holly Golightly. Because she goes lightly. Yeah, and she does. And it's like it's so heartbreaking.
00:16:23
Speaker
But yeah you know and what a book, a movie can never be a book. Right. Right. Because a movie is done in, let's say, four hours max.
00:16:35
Speaker
Right? You ain't going beyond that. like If you ain't finished in four hours, you're a miniseries. Whereas a book, I mean, it can take days, months to finish. And you're with these characters. You're going through elements of story that you would never go through in a film because it'd be a waste.
00:16:56
Speaker
Yeah. and would It wouldn't be focused enough. And so that's that's where I don't like where people always are taking from...
00:17:10
Speaker
books Because it's like, it's really just not the same thing. I mean, if anything, just take from plays, you know, just copy Shakespeare. Because that's more finely tuned of a translation. Right. um But that's always the thing, right?
00:17:28
Speaker
I mean, they always say the book is better than the movie.
Storytelling Differences in Adaptations
00:17:31
Speaker
There's only one instance where I can think offhand where I've seen a movie be better than a book, and that's Fight Club.
00:17:39
Speaker
i wrote and that's what I put in the notes. i I think. I wrote, I know you often bring, I know you bring up often that Fight Club is better a film than the book. I think it's rare that that that is, ah that the film is better due to the nature of prose. You can write and describe as much as you wish internal dialogues. Sorry. Another page.
00:18:01
Speaker
Give so much insight to a character which has to be conveyed through an actor's emotional delivery, which is incredibly fucking difficult. Yeah. And I think the only instance I can think of offhand, I know there's two, but the only one I can think of right now with how I'm feeling is Fight Club.
00:18:19
Speaker
And because I have the book, I read it. It's not too hard to read. It's like 100 and so pages, maybe 200 and so. But man, that movie is just... It conveyed everything the book wanted to and then it went even beyond.
00:18:34
Speaker
You know, that's how I feel about... and and you probably would disagree, but American Psycho. I think the movie is better than the book. Oh, no. Because the the problem with the book...
00:18:45
Speaker
to me, is that it just goes to it goes too into the the tailspin of insanity, right? But that's the whole point. That's the whole point. But the movie almost makes it like... The the reason why the movie is so ah good and so successful, I think, is people are like they people aspire to be Patrick Bateman, but when you read the book, no one's like... and and there well said to a fight club It's like, like, no, no, like, no, no, no,
00:19:10
Speaker
No, no, no, you're not understanding things. You don't want to be Tyler Durden. Yeah. I mean, yes, there's a lucrative aspect. But you don't want to go down that route. It's cautionary. Yeah.
00:19:21
Speaker
Yeah, and I think that's very – it's so obvious in the book that you do not want to be Patrick Bateman, that the film kind of gets away with it in the end where ah the Patrick almost kind of like – at the end, he's like – he just goes back to normal life almost. No, no, no. In the book, it's quite clear you do not want to be Patrick no, In the book, goes – he goes Full fucking crazy where he starts like completely hallucinating his television. That Good Morning Sally orre whatever he watches every morning. And then Tom Cruise in the elevator. and Yeah.
00:19:54
Speaker
I think he goes to a Bruce Springsteen concert and then Bruce is just singing right to him. And he's like, I don't want to suck his dick, but I think I might have to. Dude. Yeah. I'll say American Psycho was one of the few books that I read it that I was actually – disturbed and wanted to close it because what really got to me in the book he describes putting like a i think a car battery and hooking it up to a woman's nipples and then her breasts just like melt away from it yeah but that's not as bad as the rat well for me the that that battery scene i was just like
00:20:37
Speaker
Holy shit, this is fucking... Well, because in the book, he develops a method of getting a rat to burrow inside of this living girl. Yeah. By lighting the end of the tube on fire and the rat burrows inside of her. Deeper.
00:20:52
Speaker
And, yeah, and like he just essentially does all the worst torturous things that you could possibly imagine. too What got to me was a whole battery connected to the art, melting the breast. And I was just like.
00:21:06
Speaker
But to me, it's also like. This is so. I hope any woman that I'm dating or seeing at the time does not see that book on my shelf. Because that was like.
00:21:19
Speaker
Because, you know, like movies could be visceral. Books, it's very hard to be visceral with prose. Yeah. Because it's just words. And there's only so much description can do to paint the picture. Yeah. To actually see it. As opposed to seeing it. Yeah. I mean, I've screamed way more times watching films than I have ever reading a book. but I've never screamed reading a book in my life. no, no. Like just, just like scream. Oh, thought you said scream. No, queen never scream. screamed. Ah, it's scary. No. Well, if you watch it with my dad and brother, they scream and it's awesome watching scary movies with them. Yeah.
00:21:57
Speaker
Oh, I loved watching your dad watch 2001. Oh, he he got so mad at me when I i stopped to watch Put On Predator. And he was mad at me. was so into it. I was like, what? You wanted to watch it? Who wants to watch 2001 at a party? he was so into it. I was like, dude, I love fucking Ernie. I love your dad. He was very mad because I was hearing about that for days after because he hung out for days after. And they're like, dude, you turned off his movie. was like...
00:22:27
Speaker
I didn't know anyone wanted to watch 2001. That's not like a party movie. I just figured we would put on in the background, you know, and enjoy it. but um But I was also getting into it with him. I was like, well, do you see, like, this is what this means. and That's probably why he liked it so much because of what you were telling him. Yeah.
00:22:44
Speaker
Because that's not something he would enjoy. Like my mom watching Ghost Story. It's like. That's not their kind of film. But then I hear my mom like, I love Ghost Story. It's like, what? You love this movie? I'm like, I love it too.
00:23:01
Speaker
But you love it? Yeah. Like, wow, that's crazy shit. um But yeah, yeah. American Psycho, the book, disturbed me so much more than the movie and you know when I remember seeing the movie because I saw it when it first came out we saw it in theaters so I was a child at the time like probably 12 mm-hmm now you had have been 15 I think because I came in 2000 yeah thank you buddy yeah yeah and I remember watching and we were just like ah what ah what is this and then I watched it again I was like yeah this this film is amazing
00:23:44
Speaker
I appreciate – here, I want to say this real quick. Real quick, real quick. Well, hold on. Can I say this real quick? But with American Psycho, it's so over the top with everything, like Terrifier in a sense, where you just have to laugh.
00:23:57
Speaker
Yes. Because you can't take it seriously. Because if you take it seriously, you're like disturbed. So you just have to be like, he's dropping a chainsaw on a girl going down the stairs. And that's what I think the movie does a little bit better than the book. Because obviously you can't show, well you could probably could now.
00:24:18
Speaker
You probably could have shown it then. i don't really know. But the thing is, like the book just, it's like there's... There's like the the possibility of reality in the movie where it's like, wow, maybe he actually is a psycho. Yeah. But in the book, it's like, he is just full blown fucking crazy. He is a psycho. Yeah.
00:24:41
Speaker
Nothing is actually happening. Yeah. Like, he's hallucinating and imagining, like, all of this shit. Like, is he even Patrick Bateman? But the thing, too, is, like, the book, and maybe there's a genius, too, Brett Easton Ellison or whatever his name I think so. Because...
00:24:58
Speaker
It's like he will go from ah like five chapters talking about men's belts need to match the color of men's shoes. And you go from the shoe belt. Yeah, that's literally a whole chapter. Yeah, you know you go from the shoe to the belt, not the shirt to the belt. because you don' it's But it's riveting. It's riveting in the book. like You're like...
00:25:16
Speaker
Well, because it's like a group of yuppies just sitting around a table at a fancy restaurant. Yeah, just discussing, like, how can the belt match the shoes? Like, you got to consider the suit. Yeah, exactly. got to consider the suit. And it's like, no, you simpletons don't understand that you go- You have a brown belt and brown shoes with a black suit. Yeah. You just can't. You just can't. You can't do it.
00:25:39
Speaker
Yeah. Right? and it's like and but And it's like, that would not make good movie. Yeah. Material. no not at all. You could not like it happens. Like that's why the Mary here on. I think her name is the lady that that wrote and directed the movie.
00:25:58
Speaker
You know, they're doing in a sequel or a reboot. Really? And they're talking about.
00:26:04
Speaker
Marco Robbie being Patrick Bateman. They're going to shift it that way. It would be so bad. It makes no sense.
00:26:15
Speaker
Women have never had the power that men have had. When American Psycho came out, the movie, I mean, it was not regarded at all. It was just like, what the fuck? It's treated like the book. like You're deranged. like This isn't anything.
00:26:29
Speaker
But now, years later, it's kind of like, oh, yeah, this was a satire, a comedy, ah a dark comedy. yeah And then there's been respect given to it. um Because even when we saw we were just like, what the fuck? Well, it's hard to to realize that it's there's a possibility that it's all in his head well in the movie. well Also, the book makes it very obvious that Patrick hallucinates a lot.
00:26:56
Speaker
I always think about the scene in the book where he is coming down off the drugs and he's trying to find clothes to wear. And so he's just like robbing stores and he's just like stabbing waitresses and like he's just like murdering people with like. Yeah. He's just going.
00:27:14
Speaker
Yes. He's just like he's just deranged. It's like the middle of the day. Yeah. And he's just wandering around. He do like walks in the Macy's and like he steals clothes and then he murders somebody. He just murders someone because they like ask him a question like. right Yeah. Yeah. yeah and Yeah. And it's like obviously none of this is happening. And then he just like then he meets up with someone and has lunch and it's fine.
00:27:33
Speaker
Yeah. And then no one knows who he is. They're like, are even Patrick Bateman? He's like, not no. And I think the movie, the that's why, well okay, maybe it's like they're both masterpieces so they get away with it in a sense. And maybe I'm using a masterpiece a little loosely here. i don't know if american history x um American Psycho is a masterpiece, but it's really fucking well made. It's close. It's really well made.
00:28:00
Speaker
it might be It's like Shin Godzilla Close. It's genius. Yeah. it's It's genius. It's Shin Godzilla Close where it's like, I don't know if you are, but you might be. it's And ah a reason I brought up because it's genius in the same way that Fight Club is genius in that it uses the medium of film to tell the story in a way that is so effective that but you understand everything, every aspect of that movie makes sense after you're done watching it. will say like American Psycho and...
00:28:29
Speaker
Fight Club. The adaptation and the book are... The movie and the book are very close. close But I would say with Fight Club, definitely the movie is better than the book.
00:28:45
Speaker
I would say that. Maybe the book had a few elements that were better, but it was just like, nah. The movie is just so much better than the book.
00:28:57
Speaker
You know one that I think I would add? because a The movie is better than the book. Hold on. Can I tell you this? In Fight Club, that adapt tap the book, there's like an epilogue. And there's Tyler Durden, our the narrator, just like hanging out in a theme park.
00:29:13
Speaker
The guy's like, oh yeah, you got that open sword, your cheek. Yeah, we used to fight. And it was just like, this sucks. Yeah.
00:29:23
Speaker
no This fucking blows, dude. Well, dude, the end of Fight Club. And the movie, right? It's just... You captured everything that he was saying in the film. that's why that's why That's why I consider Fincher like ah one of the fine directors of our time. like He did Fight Club. He did Seven. It's like...
00:29:52
Speaker
Because, you know, me, i don't consider, like, the number of films he made. I just, if you made one great film. And it's like, yeah, Fincher's, he's ah just a master class filmmaker.
00:30:05
Speaker
Well, ah one I will say recently that i i I read the book and then I watched the movie and I thought the movie was better or maybe it's less, but it's better and more that it is perfectly adapted was One Flew Over the Cuckoo's
Character and Perspective in Adaptations
00:30:20
Speaker
Nest. Yeah.
00:30:21
Speaker
Oh. Because that book was good. I didn't finish the book, but I read the book is good. of it And I was like, damn, this is so well written. remember. well written. Oh, it's. No, the the the it's the writing is gorgeous, but it's such.
00:30:36
Speaker
It's. It's such a messy prose because it is literally from the perspective of an insane person. Because the Indian is insane. The chief, yes. He is full-blown schizophrenic. Like, he hears machines in the walls, and he talks about how there are these interconnected machines that you have to turn off and that that people are turning off and on. Oh, so he's – because in the movie, he's sane.
00:31:03
Speaker
He's perceived as sane because he never talks. but he said But that's what he said. He's like, I'm just brown and I don't talk. So they just thought I was crazy. Yeah.
00:31:14
Speaker
But in the book, he's fucking nuts. He's clearly sane. He is nuts. He is schizophrenic as fuck. Oh, okay. and So he belongs there. Yes.
00:31:25
Speaker
Okay, because in the movie, it's like he doesn' a he's the one person who doesn't belong, right? Because you think Jack Nicholson's the one person who doesn't belong, and it's like, no, no, no, it's the chief who doesn't belong. Right.
00:31:38
Speaker
And the beauty oh the beauty of it is he realizes that while he may not fit into society as it is, that nobody is normal. Right.
00:31:54
Speaker
in a sense, is kind of what it... So that's what it's trying to get to. is And the thing is... We're all a little bit insane. We're all a little bit crazy in it. And the fact and the thing that Jack Nicholson's character um does in the book that really um comes across as as interesting is...
00:32:11
Speaker
In the while he's a con book. Yeah. While he's a con man and he's very obviously like out for himself to do his own thing, it's like he's still human and he still has empathy and he still recognizes that. That's why he tries to do the right thing by them, even though he's in it for himself. Yeah.
00:32:30
Speaker
But yeah, so the book – because McMurphy is interesting in the book because –
00:32:36
Speaker
he Of course he bangs the girl first, right? And then he lets everyone else have a at her. um Yeah. There's the element of... Well, I don't know even... Like, the element of manipulation, right? Like, yeah, I got her and I'm done. So now you guys can have her. Yeah. Dude, that's so gross. He is gross. he's a scumbag. Yeah, he is. But that's not delivered in the film.
00:33:03
Speaker
Exactly. The film, but the reason I like the film so much is because it's not necessarily confounded into the chief's point of view.
00:33:14
Speaker
It's more of a a worldly point of view. or Not worldly, but it's more of this ensemble. Yeah, it's just, yeah, it's a great book.
00:33:26
Speaker
But I wanted to talk about, dont wait for Stephen to come back. He is out.
00:33:34
Speaker
There's three bullet points left.
00:33:38
Speaker
Yeah. So I wanted to bring up the master of adaptation.
Stanley Kubrick and Historical Villains
00:33:44
Speaker
Our boy, Stanley Kubrick.
00:33:48
Speaker
After Killer's Kiss, every single one of his films is an adaptation. Every single one. After Killer's Kiss? Yeah. Yeah. So from The Killing to Eyes Wide Shut, every one of those films is- I've never seen The Killing, so I can't say You haven't No, and I fell asleep on a the one with Kurt Douglas.
00:34:11
Speaker
Paths of Glory? Yes. I fell asleep on that. You should watch them. They're very good. It was good when I was awake. But yeah, those are great movies.
00:34:23
Speaker
Have you heard all the books? No. Because Barry Lyndon's a book? Mm-hmm. Okay. It's supposed to be a pretty good book. Paper Moons is a really good book. are Is it? Not only a book. It's really good movie. I love that movie.
00:34:39
Speaker
Because I remember you always told me, like, that's one to watch with the kids. And then I saw and I was like, damn, this is such a good movie. But then it's so sad when you know the backstory of Ryan O'Neill, like, beating the shit out of his kid for that.
00:34:58
Speaker
It's like, fuck, man. You took this wholesome, loving thing and turned it. It's like Weinstein, right?
00:35:09
Speaker
Because there's been a lot of good movies under Weinstein. Like for better or worse, Weinstein was a great producer. Yeah. I mean, I think Clerks was produced. Yes.
00:35:20
Speaker
By Weinstein. Every Tarantino movie. Are we talked about, ah there is a podcast we were listening to where we talk about Bill Cosby. I think it was the last podcast. And you're like, I want to be, I want Bill Cosby still to be my dad. That was so funny.
00:35:38
Speaker
But you know, it's like, fuck you guys, man. It's just like, you just have to rob us of this. Of this, you know? Yeah. Fuck, man. It's a shame.
00:35:54
Speaker
But again, Kubrick. Kubrick being the adapter. Because he was going to adapt a Holocaust film. Yeah, the Aryan Papers. That he had been working on for 10 years. Yeah.
00:36:06
Speaker
And then Schindler's List came out. And he's like, well, shit, that's the better Holocaust. That's the Holocaust movie that I wanted to make. But it's funny because I've seen a documentary where another guy who worked on Schindler's List or was attached to Kubrick, I don't know, but he was like, you saw Schindler's List, right?
00:36:25
Speaker
Where it had a happy ending. He's like, do you think Kubrick would have had that happy ending for the Holocaust? And it was like, Kubrick, you needed to make that film, dude.
00:36:39
Speaker
He needed to make a lot of movies. I mean, you know, because it's... Well, you know, with the Holocaust specifically, it's like, there's no happy ending on that shit. No, there's there was no ah rose-colored glasses to look back on.
00:36:56
Speaker
Right? It's just like... ah Oscar Schindler saved 69 Jews. What a good guy. goy. He's a goy. A goyum, or whatever the hell they say. It's it's just like, dude, the Holocaust is like... The worst. like Like, that's why it just blows my mind with like people nowadays being Nazis. It's just like... That's
00:37:24
Speaker
Nazis, man. You know, that's the worst of the worst. like Nazis? What the fuck? We defeated them and now people are becoming Nazis in the U.S.
00:37:35
Speaker
It's like, no, you don't fucking side with Nazis. You just don't side with Nazis. like The damn Jews are the Nazis now, which is crazy. right? With Gaza, it's just like, fuck, man. I don't know. I'm sorry. I shouldn't say Jews. I should say Israelis because they want to make a distinction because lot of people are like, we're the good Jews. I'm like, there are no good Jews now. Oh, shit. Uh-oh, didn't say that.
00:38:02
Speaker
I'm kidding, of course. If there are any attractive Jew women, i I'm sorry. um
00:38:10
Speaker
But, yeah, man, just the fact that like Nazis still exist in this day and age, it's just like, fuck, man. This is when you think humanity's fucked. like Well, humanity's been fucked. We're so... were i But you know what not what Nazis encapsulate, you know? it's It's just literally the worst of humanity. Yes.
00:38:34
Speaker
yes and it's It was nice of the Nazis to make themselves so obviously the bad guys that there was no- Yeah, that's the one good war, right? Like kill Nazis, that's a good war to sign onto. There are like two wars in the history of humanity where you're like, well, okay. yeah right but then even Civil war, we had to stop the South.
00:38:58
Speaker
they were They were just wanting to enslave black people all day, all night, every day. it's like They still do. They still do, dude. It's like, bro, ain't going to happen. And that's why fucking, not Andrew Jackson, Andrew Johnson is the worst one of the worst presidents.
00:39:13
Speaker
Fucking fuck you, Andrew Johnson, you piece of shit. But even with with Nazis, it's just like, that's that's just the worst of the worst. you know That just encapsulates the worst.
00:39:26
Speaker
And then so many people just want to embrace it now. And it's it's like, how How the fuck? I mean, i granted Nazis didn't exist that long ago. So there's a newness to it.
00:39:42
Speaker
Like with the time span of humanity, you know, the few million years we've been here. But it's like. Bro, that's the road you don't want to go down. That is the road you do not want to go down. There has literally never been more obvious a bad guy. Even World War I with like Kaiser Wilhelm. and like You could argue it. like maybe Maybe the Germans got a little screwed on that. Well, no, they did. oh Maybe they got screwed. Right. They used to be called Prussia. and then They had the pointy helmets where they stuck babies on their helmets, right? There's the propaganda. yeah Maybe they got a little screwed, but like...
00:40:19
Speaker
Nazis. It's so easy. it's They wore black leather. perfect The Gestapo wore black leather. Like, clearly they're the bad guys.
00:40:31
Speaker
There's never been a more obvious bad guy in human history. I mean, like Stalin was pretty obviously a bad guy. Very obviously a bad guy. But you know, Nazis. But he's the one guy. The Nazis are a group of people. It's like it's so obvious that the Nazis were bad. right like you You think of ah the guy, Mao in China. yeah It's like, okay, Mao's a pretty bad guy, but those were just villains, super villains.
00:40:56
Speaker
The Nazis, all of them were bad. There's no good Nazi. There's no such thing as a good Nazi. There were good Chinese people. Except for the swing kids. Well, the swing kids were just, you know, not nice Nazis. The gays and the swing kids got enrolled into being on the front lines and most of them died. Yeah, like they should have.
00:41:18
Speaker
Because Nazis are bad. Because Nazis are bad. Yeah, Nazis are evil. Regardless of their dancing ability, Nazis are bad. There's really no good Nazi
Financial Aspects of Adaptations
00:41:27
Speaker
story. And speaking of bad people, we're going to talk about poor people. Yeah.
00:41:32
Speaker
all Alright, so the next bullet point, buddy. I'll read this to you. Poor people half underscored exclamation point half to like original storytelling because we can't afford to license novels slash other people's work.
00:41:49
Speaker
Personally, I would love to adapt a few stories, but it's hard to justify that cost. I know Stephen King famously has given away rights for his novels for like 10 cents before.
00:42:00
Speaker
What do you think about Essentially the fact that you have to like pay to adapt stories and it's a good thing and a bad thing, of course. Well, you should. But, but my argument is,
00:42:13
Speaker
We don't have the money to do that. We can't go and make. Then don't. Tell your own story, you fucking loser. But that's what I'm saying is like. yeah that's what I'm saying. You're forced to to be at an original screenwriter. you're a nobody who has it to tell your own story? I'll cry me a river. Well, that was easy. Yeah.
00:42:32
Speaker
let me to and Let me ask you this. Anyway, we probably talked about Dickhead for four hours. So I figure we will keep. Hold on. Let me ask you this, though. I've never wanted to do an adaptation. I don't.
00:42:43
Speaker
But I thought about it. And there's only one adaptation I would like to do. i think it's Hamon Rai from Bukowski. And I wouldn't want to tell the whole story because I think that story is from when he's a kid to adulthood or like his 20s.
00:43:02
Speaker
I wouldn't want to tell the later half. I would want to tell the um younger years when he's a kid and he's getting abused by his father who is a German. Nazi. Fuck. Fucking Nazi.
00:43:15
Speaker
And yeah, because he would eat ham on rye. But, you know, that's the only book that I would want to tell
Personal Anecdotes and Genre Exploration
00:43:24
Speaker
that is a story that's not my own would be, i think it, I'm pretty sure ham on rye where, and I would only want to tell the younger years when he's a child. you think people just aren't hungry enough?
00:43:38
Speaker
For ham on rye? I just mean like it's too easy to like get food stamps or people just don't starve like they used to. What are you, a conservative? No, I mean like literally. i think literally people just don't starve like they used to.
00:43:53
Speaker
No, I think. You could go suck a dick on 7th Street and like get enough money to buy like 45 packs of ramen. But that's only the U.S. Yeah. I don't give a shit about other countries. oh I'm American. Okay, We're getting a focus on the U.S. um I mean, genuinely. Because you talked about Bukowski and Hamon Ryan. One of the the major things about Bukowski was the motherfucker was he never knew when his next meal was coming in. Like, yeah literally, he couldn't. Hold on.
00:44:21
Speaker
But the thing about Hamon Ryan is his dad provided. It was when he left his dad and went on his own and became a drunkard. He could not provide. Yeah. Yeah.
00:44:32
Speaker
So that's the difference. Like he had it good at home. He just had to listen to his dad and his dad would have him mow the lawn and his dad would look at the grass. And if there was a single blade longer than any of the others, he'd fucking get the belt.
00:44:49
Speaker
And that's just saying what life is like no more. And that was like Bukowski's argument. It'd be like, dude, there's just like this fucking area I missed and you're going to fucking whip me with this belt with like razors and shit.
00:45:01
Speaker
Razors? I don't know. Why not? There are probably no razors. I remember getting beat once. And sorry, I'm going to go on a tangent about getting beat. remember getting beat once because Tim and I...
00:45:13
Speaker
We're playing with this teddy bear and I had hit him with the teddy bear and it like knocked a light over. So I smacked him with the teddy bear and then he fell into the light.
00:45:25
Speaker
Yeah. And I remember I got beat so bad for breaking that light. And I just, and it's something that has always stuck with me just thinking you' like, motherfucking bitch, like. He's the fucking one who fell over. Why am I getting beat? Because he landed in the light. Like, we were just fighting like normal kids should fight, right?
00:45:46
Speaker
He was the weak one to beat him. And I just remember getting paddled for that. And I will never forget getting paddled for, the light wasn't, it still worked.
00:45:57
Speaker
It just, you know, was like a little chipped or whatever, like. And I was like, you know, whenever if I ever have kids, i'll I will always be respect and understand that kids are fucking stupid.
00:46:11
Speaker
and I will never beat them for just dumb shit. You know, and that's a credit to you because I can tell you don't beat your kids. Maybe I need to beat the kids. That's what I'm like, did damn, just beat that one a little bit longer.
00:46:24
Speaker
But I fight so hard to not have make sure they don't have the child that I had, man. No, that's what being a parent is, right? a good parent. You know, we talked about- No, a good parent. Because my parents, what they went through, they never put me through what they went through.
00:46:43
Speaker
Maybe I got glimpses, you know? But it was like, shit, dude, I ain't never got what you went through. And I knew how bad it was for me. who So for what you went through, i can't even imagine. And then I give them a pass.
00:46:57
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:00
Speaker
but ah You say parents with an S. Well, yeah. I never had the S, dude. it was Well, both my parents got it fucking bad. I mean, you know, your daddy was like Osama bin Laden. He might as well have been, dude. Shit. We never seen Osama bin Laden and my dad in the same place at the same time. ah don't know. I just remember having to like hit him with a baseball bat to like stop beating my mom once. you know And it's like, you never...
00:47:29
Speaker
you never want your kids to but the same thing with the thing was though it's like the abuse the abuse the abuse that abuse was uh it was i'm sorry that abuse was both ways i had to get off my mama but you know my kids i don't ever want to go through that like yeah no shit you know that's what i just remember thinking like you know like he had like had her house robbed and shit. Yeah, no, dude, you went through some shit. Like, i I'm like, damn, because I try to compare, you know, like, well, you know, Tom went through a lot more shit than I went through.
00:48:05
Speaker
I guess bad as it was for me, there's levels. It's like Final Fantasy. There's fucking levels, you know. I'm just glad I was never raped, you know. like Yeah, you know, and there's levels. There's fucking levels. Yeah, buddy. I'm like, dude, you know.
00:48:22
Speaker
yeah At least you didn't stick that dick in me. There's fucking levels, man. We never went to the priest. There's levels, man. That's the saddest part. That's the worst of humanity, though. you know and And I understand why... it back to Trump, always. No, but you know I understand why like so many people are cynical and disillusioned with everything. And it's like, yeah, I get it. you know fucking It's bad.
00:48:48
Speaker
But at the same time, like I say... Guillermo del Toro just released Frankenstein. And we get to watch that on Netflix for free. You know, it's like... It's not free. Well, it is free because I stole Well, relatively free. You know, it it's not... The cost of Netflix for a month is still not the cost of a movie ticket.
00:49:09
Speaker
With popcorn and all that shit. Shit with popcorn? there you go Yeah, you get Netflix for a year. for a year So it's like... Yeah, I mean, I understand. Like, shit's bad.
00:49:20
Speaker
Bad, but also there's some good shit too. That's what I'm saying about People ain't hungry like they used to be. And that's a good thing. No, no, No, it's good. But that is a good thing. But think that suffering led to great art.
00:49:37
Speaker
Of course it did. Of course did. mean, look at Michelangelo, right? He was like a closeted gay man. Pay me the Sistine Chapel. Upside down. If they find out I suck dick, man, they're burning me on the pyre. They say the priests nowadays where they just want you to suck their dick. It's like they're going to burn you after you suck their dick.
00:49:58
Speaker
You know? like You didn't suck my dick right. Fire! Yeah, I mean, like dan dude we've made strides, and and that's something to be...
00:50:10
Speaker
You know, you can't focus on the bad because the bad is so bad. I mean, Nazis exist. Again, back to Nazis. Like, they fucking exist. They still exist. and like we were We were only somewhat joking when earlier when we said that the Gestapo are back. I mean, literally, ISIS, the Gestapo.
00:50:29
Speaker
I just read... You know what? Did you read the thing? The only hey you different way only difference is... that you say As far as I know, they're not gassing people. no, no. Did you see the thing about... ah The Republicans like six months ago, i didn't i didn't realize this happened, but six months ago, peep they voted into law that ICE can deport Americans.
00:50:51
Speaker
Yeah. But it's like, though you can't deport Americans. There's nowhere to deport them to. So you're sending them to exile? Yes. And it's like, what the fuck?
00:51:02
Speaker
Yeah. That's where we are? Yeah. You know what And I just think, It was all planned. All of this has been planned. Yeah. You know, Noam Chomsky was right. It's been planned since, like, fucking...
00:51:19
Speaker
I don't know, Nixon? I'm not an intellectual. I'm not an intellectual. I never could be on the Joe Rogan podcast, but Noam Chomsky. I always used to think Noam Chomsky was full of shit. He's not. Because Noam Chomsky was like, well, every president is actually a war criminal. And he would go through and he would explain why. And he would be like, Andrew Jackson did this. And then James Buchanan did this. And Zachary Tyler did this. And I'm like... You named three presidents didn't even know had names. I didn't even know they were presidents.
00:51:53
Speaker
And then I was like, oh, shit. Noam Chomsky might have a point. Yeah, no, dude. And then I read this thing about Noam Chomsky. Hold on, want to just tell you about this. Wait, are you fucking diddle kids too? No.
00:52:04
Speaker
Okay, thank God. No, it was just- Give me one. It was this thing about Noam Chomsky, and he was talking about how the Democratic Party wants to lose. and the And his argument is the Democratic Party wants to lose because it ultimately gets them more money.
00:52:23
Speaker
Because them losing means that they can ah push harder to get more donations and more support to fund their coffers because...
00:52:38
Speaker
it is good for them that the country is bad. Like when bad things happen in the country, the Democrats benefit because they get more financial support. Dude, well, look at us now.
00:52:50
Speaker
Has that ever felt more real than now? And I was, i because you know, you, growing up, Right? When we were kids in the 90s, it was always like, well, the Democrats bid. No, it was like, well, Super Nintendo came out and there's Mario and now there's Yoshi. Like, yay. And it was like, oh, if you beat Super Metroid in under an hour, you can see Samus in her bra. Yeah.
00:53:12
Speaker
And now it's like, Trump had Samus in her bra at 15. You want to see? no i' I don't think I want to see. Damn, dude. 15. 15.
00:53:25
Speaker
You know, I had this thought because it was Megyn Kelly that was talking about, I know we're getting back to politics. I'm sorry. It's hard not to, dude. Everyone else can just leave, I'm guessing. Well, art is in tune with politics. Yeah, it's a reflection of the time that you live in. ah That's part of what it means to be a storyteller is you tell the stories of your time. That's why Dickhead was very timely when it was was written. Yeah, it was. It was ahead of the Me Too movement.
00:53:54
Speaker
And the sad part is Dickhead is still timely. Yeah. Well, you know, you said it was really timely when first finished. Yeah, of course. it was It had its... We would have been the first Me Too movie.
00:54:08
Speaker
Yeah. If we finished on time. The thing, too, about Dickhead that is so interesting in the way it was written, or the story behind the all of it,
00:54:23
Speaker
is I feel like there was like, there is, there's like this, uh,
00:54:34
Speaker
accident, happy accident in a way that I don't know about you, but my knowledge of film and what, like, uh, like Italian cinema and all this was, it was pretty much like I seen, had seen Suspiria.
00:54:50
Speaker
Not even me for Italian films. I had seen, I had known about like the good, the bad, and the ugly. That was it. Like that was my depth of a Italian cinema was like, oh, they made American movies in ah Italy? Yeah. And they call spaghetti westerns?
00:55:08
Speaker
Okay. That was it. And then we write and we direct and then we have the podcast and we have all this time where we have essentially been educating ourselves more on film and educating ourselves more on the history of film.
00:55:27
Speaker
And then it's like, oh, we made a perfect American giallo on accident.
Modern vs Past Cinema Aesthetics
00:55:31
Speaker
Completely. On accident. Completely. We did not. we had We had never seen ah any of the major giallos. We had never seen.
00:55:41
Speaker
I'd never seen them. I hadn't. I had. The only Italian movie I had ever seen was probably, that point, was probably, I don't even know. Maybe Suspiria? hadn't seen any.
00:55:56
Speaker
But what was my point? I don't know. Something about MAGA? I don't know. They fucking suck and I got to piss. So you better pick it up. Come on. Pick it up. Let's just wrap it up. Let's wrap it up real quick. Let me pee Steven's going to pee.
00:56:14
Speaker
I will try to keep talking. So, i fuck, what was I talking about before?
00:56:21
Speaker
Poor people. Stephen King? i don't know. Maybe there was a point there, but I have lost it.
00:56:29
Speaker
The thing I wanted to bring up to all of you out there let just do it, man. But also do it intelligently, as intelligently as you can.
00:56:43
Speaker
i think there is a big problem with... Man, maybe I'm just a hipster and I can't... I don't know. It's tough.
00:56:54
Speaker
Modern cinema just looks and feels so bad compared to what has come before it. And I feel that there needs to be a resurgence there of like good storytelling with I don't know. It's tough. like um I'm to watch Frankenstein tonight.
00:57:19
Speaker
Maybe We can have a podcast about Frankenstein a little bit later in the future. can talk about this. Maybe we can even bring on Stephen Arpiz to bring talk about Frankenstein.
00:57:34
Speaker
Because there's just something about... I'm trying to think of a good word.
00:57:42
Speaker
Pseudo. like It's like a fake... There's like this fakeness that permeates modern cinema that... is so apparent.
00:57:54
Speaker
Yeah. I was reading an article today about how in the nineties photochemical development and tungsten lights were kind of perfected. And that's why so many nineties films look so good. Well, yeah, they had a specifically film and filters to um incorporate the lighting, the Calvin of Tungsten.
00:58:23
Speaker
And then it color cracks for it. Yeah. And then somewhere in the 90s, I think, Oh Brother or Art Thou was one of the first offenders. It was the first. It was the first film that was graded. The first digital film graded. and Because the it's not a digital film, but it was digitally graded.
00:58:42
Speaker
oh it so it was shot on film? It was shot on film. Oh, then they just digitally graded it. Yeah. Wow, okay. and I didn't know that. I thought it was just all digital. No, it was not digital. It shot on film.
00:58:53
Speaker
And there was it was the first digitally graded film. Or popularly digitally graded. i i'm I'm sure there were... I think it might have been literally the first graded film.
00:59:05
Speaker
And how essentially the reason that movies look and feel the way they do now has less to do with the technology and more to do with like...
00:59:19
Speaker
The yeah absence of that, of the of the an analog, um right? Films were processed very specifically and everything was very deliberate. Well, today every it gets like, oh, you have tungsten lights and LEDs.
00:59:38
Speaker
We can fix it in post. Where in the past, it was like if you had, well, LEDs didn't even exist. and If you had like a tungsten light and like a fire or torch, right? And they had different ah like ah white balances or whatever. Yeah, yeah. You had to account for that and adjust for that. Well, that's one of the issues we ran into DigCat is we used every light available to us. And so we use fluorescent lighting and fluorescent lighting is not constant. It flickers.
01:00:10
Speaker
And so you see that flicker at different shutter speeds. And in our film, we didn't account for that. So you see that flicker ah and some of the shots.
01:00:22
Speaker
who
01:00:25
Speaker
But it's just fascinating that as we go on, as film goes on it's coming so cold. In a sense.
01:00:35
Speaker
Well, that's- That's why I want it. That's why highest to lowest stood out to me because it was like, okay, Spike Lee is embracing digital and digital is fucking clean, dude. It's a clean ass image.
01:00:48
Speaker
And it was like, yeah, I can... With digital, I think you got to go all the way with digital. If you're going to go all the way with clean, go all the way with clean image.
01:01:00
Speaker
And there's something to that. i I don't know if I like it per se. I hate it. I really don't like I don't like the aesthetic of this. like it's There's like an uncanny valley of how clean it is. Yeah. No, it is so uncanny. Because if you see that opening, it's just like...
01:01:18
Speaker
God damn, this is so clean. but And I hate it. but Because you the imperfections are the art. like when i watch But you can respect it because you know that's what was the aim.
01:01:29
Speaker
You know what I'm saying? It's like, okay, that's what you're trying to accomplish. So it's like, okay, I'll give you the pass on that. If you want to be fair, then yes. because but do look but But it's an aesthetic, right? It's an aesthetic. The clean image versus the grating image. There's an aesthetic to that.
01:01:45
Speaker
But can we say there's a right and a wrong? No. No? There's no right and wrong in art. That's the problem because to me, emotionally, I'm so much more drawn into the of the image. Yeah.
01:02:04
Speaker
the imperfections of the image um Like I said to Stephen earlier, if you listen to the show, I had watched ah Bay of Blood by Mario Bava, which if you watch ah Blood and Black Lace, it's kind of the same thing where it's like the audio kind of sucks.
01:02:20
Speaker
There's this like crackling, popping sound of the audio throughout. It's like almost like a ah room tone of just like. Wow, the audio was bad?
Film Audio Quality Over Time
01:02:31
Speaker
Yeah. So how did, because we always, because I've always said like,
01:02:35
Speaker
You can fuck up an image, but you got to get audio. No, no, no Not this. There's like this this very distinct... And it was the same thing when I went to the new Bev and I watched Evil Dead, ah Superstition, and Trick or Treat in film, shot on film.
01:02:54
Speaker
It's like there's a distinct... like Maybe garbling isn't the right word, but it's like a noise floor that is apparent on these films that are our shot on film because they're using the the audio track from the film reel, right?
01:03:11
Speaker
Yeah. There's like a section of the thing that is left for the audio. um And I was like, you know what? It doesn't detract from the movie at all.
01:03:23
Speaker
Yeah. If anything, it just kind of adds this layer of...
01:03:30
Speaker
intentionality to the film where it's like okay the audio sucks everything is dubbed over i don't know it's tough to describe maybe and that's where i'm like where am i where does my hipster my hipsterness like intersect with because obviously if you go and watch marvel a marvel movie the audio is immaculate yeah it's perfect i mean avery every every syllable is delivered crisply. There's no pluratives. Pluratives?
01:04:03
Speaker
Plosives? Plosives, yeah. All the plosives have been digitally removed, right? Everyone sounds like they're speaking beyond perfectly, right? No one says... No one goes... you ever see this?
01:04:21
Speaker
It's Thanos. Stavlinsky. It's the witch test soldier. You know, everyone sounds perfect.
01:04:32
Speaker
um And that's just not human.
01:04:39
Speaker
the You know, the ah the hundred years of film, the hundred years of filmmaking, that has never been a thing. It's perfect audio recording and treatment.
01:04:53
Speaker
along with the same thing with the image, right? The the new films are treated... like the The way that digital captures low light is so unnatural.
01:05:06
Speaker
It's fucking weird, right? Am I crazy? like There's like a a look that digital has where... No, that's what I'm saying. like With highest to lowest, it was interesting because it was so clean, so was just so...
01:05:19
Speaker
it It just leaned so heavily into the aspect and it was like, okay, if we're going to go there, let's go there. And I don't necessarily agree with the aesthetic, but it's like, well, if you want to go there, let let's do it.
01:05:36
Speaker
And, you know, maybe I won't agree with it because...
01:05:42
Speaker
Who was it? Maybe Peter Jackson shot a film like that was... Oh, the 48 FPS? No, no, no. It was Guillermo with ah Frankenstein. That was shot at a high ah frame per second. So it looks like uncanny. Was it Guillermo with Frankenstein? Yeah. Because it was definitely Peter Jackson with The Hobbit. Yeah, Peter Jackson with The Hobbit. But I think Guillermo shot at a high FPS to make it just look like ultra, ultra realistic.
01:06:12
Speaker
And it's like, okay, if you if you guys want to go there, let's go there. um I don't know if I agree with that aesthetic, but I don't know. Let's try it.
01:06:27
Speaker
You're looking it up, huh? Yeah, no. Frankenstein was 24. twenty four It was? I thought it was shot at a different FPS. No, people are asking if it was. Because it looks weird, right?
01:06:41
Speaker
Yeah, no, they shot on 24 FPS. on An Arri Alexa 65 shooting 24 FPS with a light Thalia lens and a diffusion filter behind the lens.
01:06:54
Speaker
Some shots were shot at 96 FPS. But those were action shots, including the burning building, which i don't know. haven't seen the movie yet. i don't know. I haven't watched it.
01:07:06
Speaker
But I have read Frankenstein. So I'm curious because the the whole thing with Frankenstein is no movie has ever actually adapted the story very well.
Faithfulness in 'Frankenstein' Adaptations
01:07:16
Speaker
Well, there was, ah after ah Francis Ford Coppola did Bram Stoker's Dracula, then they did the... The Robert Downey, not Robert De Niro. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, yeah, with Robert De Niro. And wasn't um the English guy who did that movie Belfast?
01:07:42
Speaker
Kenneth Branagh. Kenneth Branagh. Yeah, his Frankenstein. Yeah, that was supposed to be like, okay, well now we're going to do an adaptation of the book. I don't even think that one was that good. I saw it. It was like, ew, this sucks.
01:07:56
Speaker
But it was cool because you start off with a boat in the Antarctic and he's like, he's coming for me. Who? my monster like that's pretty fucking cool right well that is monster is chasing him down into the atarctic well that's what i love about the book right is and that's where the book ends is he's like i've literally went to the end of the world to escape it and then he looks out onto the fucking snowfield is that how it ends yeah and what does he see oh the fucking monster followed me to the goddamn arctic and is that how the book is mm-hmm yeah
01:08:32
Speaker
And it's just like he's just going to catch me? Yeah. Damn, dude. It's like, dude, the monster has like no reason to being other than to make Victor's life shit.
01:08:43
Speaker
At that point, right? because like you made Because he's like, where's my girlfriend? And he's like, I tried to make you a girlfriend, but it it didn't work out. She didn't like you that much, Frankenstein's monster is just an incel, huh?
01:08:59
Speaker
monster is just an incel hu He really, he he's an insult that doesn't want to be. He's not, he's an involuntary. Right, exactly. He's involuntary. Yeah, he's an insult. He's like, I don't want to be this. I'm a monster. I want to fuck. And then it's like, yeah, sorry, bro.
01:09:17
Speaker
You're ugly. You're ugly. And your dick is like dead. that john Dead dick. Not dickhead, but... Well, that's the Twin Shadows podcast. um Next episode will most likely be an interview, would be my guess. Because we have three guests queued that have been waiting to be on the show.
01:09:41
Speaker
Yeah. ah Mario, the Sagat of the film world. So then the next episode we'll probably have Steven on.
01:09:53
Speaker
Four in the queue. Because he'll talk about ah the Temecula Valley Film Festival and then we'll bring on Mario. Yeah. And then we should talk all, we should also, maybe we should make sure we watch Frankenstein and then we can talk about the new. Let's watch it with Steven.
01:10:11
Speaker
The new Guillermo. Yeah. All right. Okay. Thank you for listening. um There was a lot of politics this episode, but
Conclusion and Political Opinions
01:10:22
Speaker
we... Fuck Trump.
01:10:23
Speaker
Fuck Trump. Cut. Cut. Fuck Trump. What a fucking cocksucker. Literally. say