Double MacGuffin Ep. 4- Savage Messiah (Ken Russell) & Nightwatching (Peter Greenaway)

This week the theme of the podcast is biopics about visual artists.

Henry Griffin chose Ken Russell’s, Savage Messiah (1972) about French sculptor, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska. The film features the young Helen Mirren and Dorothy Tutin.

Jonathan Freilich picked Peter Greenaway’s, Nightwatching (2007) about Rembrandt’s painting of the Nightwatch and the murderous circumstances hidden in the painting. The film stars Martin Freeman as the Dutch master.

Two really interesting movies by iconic and singular British filmmakers.

Double MacGuffin Ep. 3- Prenom Carmen (1983) and Conspirators of Pleasure (1996)

This week we discuss two films where the theme is the shorter feature; less than 90 mins.

Henry Griffin’s choice:

Jan Svankmajer’s 1996 film, Conspirators of Pleasure.

Six outwardly average individuals have elaborate fetishes they indulge with surreptitious care. 

Jonathan Freilich’s Choice:

Prenom, Carmen- a Jean-Luc Godard film from 1983 starring Maruschka Detmers.

Carmen seems to be shooting a film with friends, but has no money. The gang tries to stage an armed bank robbery, but runs into fierce opposition from Joseph, a guard. Carmen and Joseph flee run away to stay in her Uncle Jean's (Jean Luc Godard) apartment. Jean is making a film set in a luxury hotel, but it is a pretext for a kidnapping attempt on a businessman. The plot is loosely framed around the famous Bizet opera, Carmen.

Double Macguffin Ep. 2- 'The tree of Wooden Clogs'(1978) and 'The Last Mistress'(2007)

This week we discuss two films that take us to times and worlds away from the Covid-19 scenario the world is currently navigating.

Henry Griffin’s choice—

Emma Olmi’s film, ‘The Tree of Wooden Clogs’. A visually stunning and intensely focused work directed, written, shot and edited by Olmi. The film focuses on 3 peasant families in rural Lombardy and evokes a long forgotten, pastoral world of emotionally moving simplicities, superstitions, removed from any semblance of modernity.

Jonathan Freilich’s choice—

‘The Last Mistress’ directed by Catherine Breillat. The film centers on a conflict between a socially condoned marriage into the aristocracy and the forbidden, sexually charged and passionate affair with his mistress, La Vellini (Asia Argento).

Donations to help with the costs of the cast!

Double MacGuffin 1- talking about 'Safe' (1995) and 'Silent Running' (1972)

This week we converse about 2 interesting films inspired by the Coronavirus quarantine scenario that we of the world find ourselves in currently.

Henry Griffin’s choice-

Todd Haynes’s film ‘Safe’ that starred Julianne Moore playing a woman who finds that she has a mysterious but debilitating reaction to environmental pollutants.

Jonathan Freilich’s choice-

The sci-fi cult classic, Silent Running starring Bruce Dern and directed by Douglas Trumball. The movie is set aboard a spaceship trying to save the flora and fauna of the world preserved in geodesic domes attached to the ship. Bruce Dern’s character rebels against an order to blow up the cargo and return to earth.

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Silent Running

Change of format and a new show name- The Double MacGuffin

The film podcast has moved from Nolascape.org. After a long Hiatus, Henry griffin and Jonathan Freilich are back to discussing films with a slightly different format; from now there will be two films discussed, one chosen by each of us, on a loosely established theme.

Hence:

Conversations 7- on 'Faces Places' by Agnes Varda

This time we reviewed a current film.  Our former podcast producer over at Nolascape.org says:

Agnes Varda’s delicious Faces Places (Visages Villages) had a brief run in Zeitgeist, then two showings in the French Film Festival at the Prytania last month. It is available on Amazon download now, for purchase or rental. It is rewarding to see, a few times.

Henry and Jonathan discuss the chemistry between Agnes Varda, with Godard the last of the Nouvelle Vague, and JR – a small woman of 89 years and an active, wiry guy of about 35. JR has a short, high, square van decorated as a giant lens equipped with a photo booth and a printer – I think they are called giclée – that makes poster prints about three feet by five feet that roll out through a  long slot in the side of the van. There is a lot more to this film than the photo van, of course, but making the process immediate and participatory, it catalyzes the interaction. The people are photographed in the booth or in outside scenes, the posters printed and the pasting up done almost immediately with the participation of the subjects and the village. Not just images, the photos are part of an event.

Several of the Agnes Varda films mentioned in the Conversation are on Filmstruck: Murs Murs, Vagabond, Cleo from 5 to 7, La Pointe Courte and Le Bonheur. Filmstruck has 14 Varda films – so far.

I learn a lot from Henry and Jonathan’s discussions, but to get the blend of simplicity and complexity in Faces Places – the visual and emotional charm and challenge of the places, the rapport of JR, who is about 35, and Agnes who is 89, their travels, projects and creative cooperation, somehow mixing successfully with visual and verbal reference to their own works and styles – try to see it.

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Conversations 6- on 'Morvern Callar' (2002) dir. Lynne Ramsay

Another episode of our podcast on film.  This week we are discussing the Scottish film, Morvern Callar.  A fascinating film that you may not have come across.

Morvern Callar is a 2002 film by Glaswegian director Lynne Ramsey, who then did not direct another until We Need to Talk about Kevin in 2011 – an uncomfortable film, now even more so in the wake of Parkland.

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Conversations 5- on 'Forty Guns' dir. Samuel Fuller

40 Guns is a very strange and interesting western by Sam Fuller.  Nolascape, who used to hosts our show said this:

       What a film.

        I had never seen or even heard of it until Henry and Jonathan put it in the frame for a Conversation.
         

From one point of view, it can look like a collection of horse opera clichés. A pace or two to the side to let the light hit it from another angle, and it is Sophocles set against the unfinished clapboard fronts of a prairie pioneer town instead of the columns of a Mycenaean palace. Are the two bath scenes just non-sequitur comedy skits with cowboy song musical accompaniment, or are they choral interludes in a play of destiny?

Henry and Jonathan will figure it out.

Indeed we will...and do.  And, you should too.  Improve your film buffery...get into the new film buffet- CONVERSATIONS.

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Conversations 4- On 'POPEYE' dir. Robert Altman

This was the third installment of the cool podcast on film hosted by Nolascape, Henry Griffin and Jonathan Freilich discuss Popeye, the incredibly unusual 1980 film, starring Robin Williams and Shelley Duvall.  It's art, music, and classic iconography all around.

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Nolascape said-

Popeye – an inspired selection for our movies series. It’s hard to think of an aspect of the art of film that is not superb in Popeye: a great director on top form directing superb actors, the sets, colors, sound, songs . . . but I should quiet down and let Henry and Jonathan tell you about it.

If you have seen Popeye, I am sure you will enjoy our NOLAscape movie duo drilling down into it. And if you haven’t, I hope they inspire you to get access to a copy and see what you have been missing.

Conversations 3- on 'In The Mood For Love' dir. Wong car-Wei

Nolascape used to host these film heavy conversations by Professor Henry Griffin and the author of this site. Now they are here! This one on a great movie by the singular director- Wong Kar Wai.  The film is just beautiful to look at, and there is far more beneath the surface...

Nolascape said-

In this episode Henry and Jonathan discuss In the Mood for Love. If you don’t know this film or the work of Chinese director Wong Kar-Wei, I would suggest diving in. In the Mood for Love is a visual and auditory feast that you can watch over and over, like you look at a great painting or statue again and again. Color, sound, image, movement, quiet passion, powerful emotion powerfully restrained – it’s special.

Suggestion from the amateur (me): think about the title again after you watch the film.

Some intro facts:

• Written and directed by Wong Kar-Wai (sometimes Kar-Wai Wong)

• Main actors: Tony Chiu-Wai Leung, Maggie Cheung,

• Locations: Hong Kong, Cambodia, Singapore.

• Release date: 2000

• Available on Filmstruck

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Conversations 2: on Tetro. Dir. Francis Ford Coppola

This was the first in a series of conversations on films with Professor Henry Griffin and the author of this site.  This first episode was about Francis Ford Coppola's film, Tetro, starring Vincent Gallo.  A great movie filmed in, and featuring Buenos Aires. The photography is striking as is the subject.

The relationship between film and sound is right in line with the fascinations that drive this website.  Loving film, we hope you will take a listen.  The conversations cover a lot of territory and contain much reflection on sound.  The podcasts are in a more focused than the meandering and exploratory conversations with musicians that are hosted here at Jonathan Freilich Presents, and suits the nature of the silver screened subject.  Originally these were hosted by  nolascape, Now they are here.

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As usual ours are also on iTunes.  The conversations on film are as well.