Reel 59: TANSTAAFL

For the record: Sean kinda hates this title, but there was nothing we workshopped that was any better, so.

For the uninitiated, “TANSTAAFL” is an acronym meaning “There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.” It derives from Robert Heinlein’s novel The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. It’s one of my favorites of his, although there are a couple of things in it that don’t make a ton of sense. But if you’re along for the ride, you don’t really mind so much. Also, if you’ve read the book, check out the audiobook. The reader puts a neat spin on it that gave me a whole new perspective.

Where was I? Oh, yeah. Reel 59.

In this episode we look at a couple of unconventional families who are caught up in the dark side of capitalism. We start with 2018’s Shoplifters, written and directed by Hirokazu Koreeda. It’s a Japanese film about a family that succeeds, largely through various forms of deception. And it works—until it doesn’t. There are some moments of high drama, others with comedy, and a couple of really  sweet scenes involving these folks just spending time together and exploring their relationships with one another.

In Part Two we jump to Korea and 2019’s Parasite, directed and co-written by Bong Joon Ho. It’s a comedy throughout until, again, everything goes wrong and the tone changes. But, like Shoplifters (and, for that matter, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress), you’re already so enthralled by the story that you’re going to want to ride it out. Parasite is so good that it won four Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best International Feature Film. And my personal opinion is that these awards will stand up to scrutiny in later years (looking at you, Rocky, Crash and Forrest Gump).

On the ‘Gram

Hi, folks:

Since we’re looking to move away from a certain other social media platform because Elon Killed the Blue Bird, we’ve finally created an Instagram feed. You can find us at:

https://www.instagram.com/wordsandmoviespod

because we’re clever that way.

Reel 60: Hail Oceania

Yes, yes, we know. We skipped #59. There’s an explanation at the beginning of this episode, and Mea Culpa. #59 will be the next one we drop. And THAT, rather than this, will finish our tour Around the World in Twenty  Films. (So, never mind what Sean says about it being the last stop.)

The thing that strikes me as interesting, retrospective to our conversation, is that in both of this episode’s films, we’re dealing with the sins of the past. And not the long past, but as part of living memory.

First up, we’re reviewing 1994’s Once Were Warriors, directed by Lee Tamahori. It’s a look at the Hekes, a lower-class New Zealand family, and how they deal with some of their personal struggles. You kind of feel for some of them, then you feel for others, then you’re not sure what to think, and if this sounds confusing, it is, but in a good way. Ultimately, you will not be dissatisfied by the ending.

From there we jump to Western Australia, to check out Rabbit-Proof Fence, directed by Philip Noyce. It’s based on a true story about three young girls and a very, very long walk they take across the continent. This one doesn’t so much confront Australia’s past as it pushes the viewer into confronting it, especially when you realize that these events – as outmoded as they sound – took place during the lifetimes of people who are still alive today.

COMING ATTRACTIONS:
As noted above, our next episode will be the one that was supposed to happen here. We’ll be reviewing Parasite and Shoplifters, though not in that order.

Reel 58: This Woman’s Work

So many times, it seems, films where women are the central characters seem to treat those women as rather monolithic

That may not be quite the right word; let me amend that to say that they’re often treated the same way. Too many of them fail the Bechdel Test*, and that’s a pity.

In our continued journey Around the World in Twenty Films, the women in this film fail as well, but there’s a different dynamic involved so it’s not as glaringly obvious.

We start with 1960’s When a Woman Ascends the Stairs, a Japanese film directed by Mikio Naruse. It’s a look at the Geisha life that follows one of the veterans of the craft and her struggle to achieve a specific dream.

From there it’s a jump to Spain and 1988, for Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, directed by Pedro Almodóvar. It’s a rather dark story played as a comedy, and you’ll have a bunch of fun following all the odd coincidences that allow this story to unfold the way it does.

COMING ATTRACTIONS: 

Our journey takes us back to Asia, with 2018’s Shoplifters, a Japanese film that manages to re-define family ties in a way you won’t necessarily argue with. And then it’s off to Korea and 2019’s Parasite, a film that won four Oscar awards—three of them in the big categories.

*for those not in the know, the Bechdel Test is defined as: a way of evaluating whether or not a film or other work of fiction portrays women in a way that is sexist or characterized by gender stereotyping. To pass the Bechdel test a work must feature at least two women, these women must talk to each other, and their conversation must concern something other than a man. It gets its name from the US cartoonist Alison Bechdel, who formulated the criteria in 1985 in a comic strip “The Rule “, part of the series Dykes To Watch Out For (1983–2008).

A Brief Intermission

Hi there, folks:

We know that you’ve been absolutely clamoring for the next episode (shhh, just let us have this), and we’re eager to get it to you. But we learned a couple of days ago that our opening/closing credits are outdated (more even than we thought when we first found out), and so we’re arranging for them to be re-recorded.

Let me pull back the curtain a little bit: The intro and outro for the show were recorded exactly once, and we just use it over and over again. Sean and I record the show, then during the post-production phase, it gets tacked on, along with the other piece we use when we break between show halves. We record episodes a couple of months ahead of release, so for a little while my opening and closing dialog may sound a little awkward because I’ll be patching in new audio as well. It’s a little bit of a process that we’re all going through in our own ways.

At any rate, thanks for your patience.

 

Reel 57: Wedding Blues

To quote from a certain Very Impressive Clergyman, “Mawage is wot bwings us togeder today.”

Weddings are kind of weird. You get a lot of friends and family together, and it’s a multi-day thing leading up to a relatively small amount of time for the ceremony and subsequent reception. (It reminds me of the Super Bowl in that respect.) And as we learn during this stop in our Twenty Films Around the World series, there’s a certain commonality to them. It doesn’t matter what the specific ritual is regarding the wedding itself. Lots of people come. Some are related, some aren’t. People get stressed. Tempers flare. Emotions run high and truths are revealed. And often, the wedding/reception leads to a couple of people becoming couples themselves.

And we see all of these things and more in today’s episode. First on the projector is 2001’s Monsoon Wedding, a comedy directed by Mira Nair. It’s a little bit Hollywood, a little bit Bollywood, and does a wonderful job of bringing multiple cultures together in one place. And there are a couple of subplots which start in one place but end in a very different one.

From there we jump to another Indian neighborhood, but only briefly, as the story for After the Wedding makes a jump to Denmark. Suzanne Bier’s 2006 film takes its main character to Copenhagen for what’s ostensibly a business deal, but it turns out that there’s a lot more than meets the eye. And, as I said earlier, truths are revealed.

COMING ATTRACTIONS:

Our journey Around the World in Twenty Films continues with visits to Japan and Spain. First up is When a Woman Ascends the Stairs, from 1960. Then it’s 1988’s Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, a slightly misleading translation of the original title. Go watch them! Then come back here!

Short Subject: Recent Changes at Turner Classic Movies

In this mini-episode recorded on June 27, Sean and Claude talk about the recent staffing changes over at Turner Classic Movies and the impact it’s having on people, not only the viewers but the people who are so intimately involved with the medium, such as Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg. Listen in, and worry along with us.

Incidentally, some sharp-eyed viewers (me among them) noticed that the TCM hosts have stopped doing commentary after the films, and took that as a bad sign. Fortunately  the complaints were heard, and the “outros” will return. Because of the long lead time from production to airing, Ben Mankiewicz will be back in September, and Dave Karger and Alicia Malone will return to outros in October.

Reel 56: Only Connect

See? Weren’t you promised an episode with this title a while back? We do the fan service pretty well, methinks. (Also, I don’t have an especially good reason for it, but I kind of like the artwork on this episode.)

This time around, “Only Connect” is a rather ironic title, because the films we’re looking at deal with many, many missed connections between people and events.

In the first film, Exotica (1994), Atom Egoyan takes us through a pair of parallel stories, plus a third storyline that actually manages to tie the other two together, even though (spoiler) it’s not concurrent with the other two. In this case the connections are there and it’s up to the viewer to pick up the breadcrumbs left behind.

After the intermission, we’re going to Turkey to see The Edge of Heaven, a 2007 Turkish-German drama written and directed by Fatih Akın. This one will have you confused at first. Then, as the various pieces come together, you’ll get frustrated. But ultimately you’ll settle in and accept the way events worked out. (I think; that’s how it worked out for me, anyway.)


COMING ATTRACTIONS:

Put on your rented tuxedo, because we’re going to a couple of weddings. First, from 2001, it’s Monsoon Wedding, an Indian comedy-drama directed by Mira Nair. Although it takes place in India, you’ll recognize most of the drama that happens when extended families find themselves in one place.

From there we’re off to Denmark and 2007’s After the Wedding, a 2006 Danish-Swedish drama directed by Susanne Bier. It’s a complex story about people with complex motivations, and the people affected by them.

 

Reel 55: Another Brick in the Berlin Wall

Or, “Sean Gives Me Hell For Writing Another T00-Clever Title.”

Our tour Around the World in Twenty Films lands us in Germany this time around, and we begin with  The Lives of Others, a 2006 drama which is set in Communist East Germany in (go figure) 1984. Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck wrote and makes his directorial debut with this film. Sebastian Koch plays an East German playwright who winds up under government scrutiny not because of his political views, but because his girlfriend doesn’t want to date the Minister of Culture. There are lots of twist and turns in this film, and a couple of surprises besides, but while the ending has a little bit of a bleak feel, there’s also a lot of hope attached to it.

From there we move on to The Baader-Meinhof Complex, from 2008. This film, directed by Uli Edel, takes us on a ten-year journey as we follow the true-story activities of a terrorist group that had the political world of West Germany tied up in knots. As the group goes from simply causing damage to intentionally killing people, the pressure ratchets up to break the back of this group. Do they succeed? Go watch the film, or read a book. (You know there’s an expectation that you’ve seen the film before listening to the episode, right?) (Not that it matters, who are we to tell you what to do?) (Either way, we won’t tell.)

Our deep-dive into this film will settle a few mysteries except for the title. So be prepared to live with that.

COMING ATTRACTIONS: 

In Episode 56 we begin studying films from different countries rather than looking at same-nation pairs. We start with Exotica, a 1994 Canadian film written and directed by Atom Egoyan, and then we check out The Edge of Paradise, a German-Turkish film from 2007 with a non-linear storyline. Don’t worry; you’ll be able to follow it just fine.

Reel 54: Les Crimes Français

We continue our trip Around the World in Twenty Films with a stopover in France, and a look at a couple of crime dramas, told largely from the criminals’ point of view.

In Part One we’re reviewing Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless (À bout de souffle). This 1960 film stars Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg. Belmondo is a petty criminal who’s graduated to cold-blooded murder. Seberg is his old girlfriend, in whose apartment he’s hiding. The ending to the film is something that’s been debated for years. Do we solve the mystery? Of course not; who are we? However, we do provide some additional information that either seals the deal…or it further muddies the water. We’ll leave that part to you.

From Breathless we make a ten-year jump to 1970’s Le Cercle Rouge (The Red Circle). No, we don’t know why most people refer to one film by its English title and the other by its French title. Just go with it. This epic-length film, directed by Jean-Pierre Melville, stars Alain Delon. He and a host of other big-name French actors carry us through a complicated caper to steal jewelry.

Now, in Breathless the ending was (in our opinion) inevitable, but if you haven’t seen Le Cercle Rouge, it’s probably fair to say that you will be on the edge of your seat up until the ending, because everyone’s motivations are suspect. Also, you should see it before listening to the episode, because by now you should know that we are all about the spoilers.


COMING ATTRACTIONS: 

We reach the halfway mark with our world tour as we go to Germany. The films we’re screening show different ways that the Germans confront their past. First up is The Lives of Others, a 2006 drama that takes place on the other side of the Berlin wall. Then we move forward two years to review The Baader Meinhof Complex. You may have heard of the Baader Meinhof Phenomenon, which oddly enough is only loosely related to this film.