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00:00 - 21:16 - INTROS - This week on Travis Bickle on the Riviera, we're crossing the streams, possibly endangering the entire Factual Opinion Podcast Universe by getting chocolate in the peanut butter of our interpersonal conversations. That's right, Joe McCulloch, of the Comic Books Are Held in Burundi podcast, is here for a special in-house Stunt Casting episode which will eventually devolve into some sort of Beat It-style gang/ dance/ knife fight in a comics warehouse behind a movie theater. HIT IT EDDIE.
This week our entire episode is heavily focused on the FAB press book House of Psychotic Women: An Autobiographical Topography Of Female Neurosis In Horor And Exploitation Films by Kier-La Janisse from last year. Both of us read this recently and we thought it would be great to cover on this here old podcast. Different from the traditional Travis Bickle Book Club by-laws of "Tucker reads old school film criticism" and "Sean reads navel-gazing books written by directors" by being neither of those things. If you're interested in reading more Joe has already written about the book over in his Comics Journal column. Cinefamily recently put on a film festival based on this book, the very awesome trailer for which you can see here, edited by Kyle Reiter who has been directing some really smart and great-looking stuff on Channel 101 for a while now.
Also in this section we talk about Anne Frank, Joe's secret origin in horror criticism, Cinema Sewer and Sleazy Slice (the other cartoonist FAB publishes is Rick Trembles and his book Motion Picture Purgatory), Black Swan, Stephen Thrower and other FAB press books, Man Ray's The Mysteries of the Chateau du De, Maya Deren's Meshes of the Afternoon, Multiple Maniacs, Moustapha Akkad's religious films (not the other Halloween producer Irwin Yablans, like I say on the podcast), If Footmen Tire You, What Will Horses Do? by Ron Ormond (Blood Freak was actually directed by Brad F. Grinter) , and Men Women and Chainsaws by Carol J Clover.
21:17 - 38:03 - HOMEWORK - This week Joe was asked to watched Antichrist (2009), directed by Lars Von Trier, starring Charlotte Gainsbourg and Willem Dafoe. In this section we talk about other work by Von Trier (including his USA - Land of Opportunities trilogy), the direct influence on the film of Tarkovsky (specifically The Mirror), Dave Sim, Eric Clapton, Night of the Lepus, and Garth Marenghi's Dark Place. We were wrong about the fox having Von Trier's voice, which is Dafoe's voice not his. Oh and Joe compares Nymphomaniac to Twilight: Breaking Dawn, which is the best.
38:04 -50:38 - Sean watched The Brood (1979), directed by David Cronenberg, starring Oliver Reed, Samantha Eggar, Art Hindle, and Cindy Hinds; and both of us watched Possession (1982), directed by Andrej Zulawski, starring Isabelle Adjani and Sam Neill, with effects from Alien-suit builder Carlo Rambaldi. Also talked about in this section: Alan Moore, Zulawski's On the Silver Globe, Enki Bilal (and the interview about the two men meeting that I think is in this issue of the The Comics Journal - the only issue of the 80s old school Comics Journal that Sean ever read), Alphaville, the subway scene freakout scene in Possession, and Zulawski's Szamanka (which was not inspired by Zulawski's divorce, Possession was). And it turns out Zulawski's most recent film was La fidélité. It has been released on dvd, but in fairly small-run editions from various nations... apparently the only legit release in print right now is an Italian edition that lacks the original French audio.
50:39 - 1:00:11 - Joe watched Nightbirds (1970), directed by Andy Milligan, starring Julie Shaw, Berwick Kaler, Elaine Shore, and Bill Clancy. Milligan is a self-declared misogynist, which is an interesting position to take, and we talk about Jimmy McDonough's autobiography of Milligan's The Ghastly One, and Milligan's short film Vapors, and Birth of a Nation.
1:00:12 - 1:11:51 - HOMEWORK - This week Sean had to watch Living Dead Girl (1982), directed by Jean Rollin, starring Marina Pierro, Francoise Blanchard, Mike Marshall, and Carina Barone. In this section we also talk about Rollin's other films especially Requiem for the Vampire, the Rob Zombie song and video named after the film, and the Cabinet of Dr Caligari (directed by Robert Weine and found in its entirety on youtube here), The Hunger, Vampyros Lesbos, Heavenly Creatures, Louis Feuillade, and Cat O'Nine Tails.
Next week someone else will be here to discuss something with some other person, it's a crap shoot who knows who it'll be? I don't! So come back if you enjoy a lack of stability!
(Extra special thanks to Joe for his help with this week's show notes!)
I have to say that I'm loving these "Stunt Casting" episodes. I miss good ol' Tucker Stone, but these have been all been solid. There's been some especially good variety in subjects lately.
On Lars Von Tier -- I completely admit not knowing much about him, but I'm sort of fascinated to learn about his struggle with depression. I've always thought he had this "I am the greatest director IN THE WORLD" persona that I guess I've taken way too literally.
Posted by: Alex S. | 2013.03.19 at 03:27