The Columbine massacre was on this date in 1999. Instead of energizing our country to get gun violence under control, it kicked off a new normal. One of the best explanations ever of journalism's destructive impact on mass shootings came from Roger Ebert in his review of Gus Van Sant’s “Elephant.”
A testament to how succinct Redes (1936) is in its portrayal of a a fishing community throwing off its shackles and how blatant its Marxism is, is the fact that this is our shortest episode in a long while. Don't need to do tortured leftist readings when the text itself is so anti-capitalist.
Exactly one year ago today:
A new study from UC Santa Barbara shows that watching experimental animation expands creativity and opens new ways of seeing the world.
#Animation #ExperimentalAnimation #MentalHealth #BrainRot
We kick off Martin Scorcese's World Cinema Project Vol. 1 with the first film from Africa (at least, directed by an African) the Criterion has ever shown us in like 700 movies, Touki Bouki (1971) from Senegalese director Djibril Diop Mambéty.
In 1985, Wendy Carlos spoke about the reaction to her transition: "The public turned out to be amazingly tolerant or, if you wish, indifferent ... There had never been any need of this charade to have taken place. It had proven a monstrous waste of years of my life."
I'm sorry but Donald Trump should not be the cause of my learning too much about weird Catholic history. That is Luis Buñuel's job.
The three interviews with Robert Altman on the Criterion Nashville (1975) release are Bilbo Baggins saying "After all, why shouldn't I keep it?" about being called an "Auteur". We still love you Robert, but come on.
Page one: text on black background, “WAKE UP!”. Eyes open, a baby sea turtle with an eggshell helmet says, “you need to wake up!”
Page 2: helmet turtle says to a green baby sea turtle, who is waking up out off his egg, “we need to get moving.” CRASH! A cormorant breaks through the ceiling of their nest hole. Helmet turtle says MOVE!
Page 3: “when you’re out there, beeline to the water. Don’t stop. Don’t be a hero. Godspeed.” The helmet turtle kicks baby green turtle out the hole off a cliff onto the beach below.
Page 4: baby green turtle lands on the sand. The distance between him and the water is quite large. Another baby sea turtle is being devoured by a seagull and is screaming for help.
I dreamt of the beach (1/4)
We celebrate 100 Patreon bonus episodes this month, looking back at Spine #100 for inspiration and watching Palm Pictures' Directors Label Vol 1: The Works of Spike Jonze.
Just $1 gets you access at www.patreon.com/lostincriter...
Wishing a peaceful trans day to all, visible or otherwise. May your circumstances improve.
David Lynch "FIX YOUR HEARTS OR DIE!"
Happy Trans Day of Visibility ❤️🏳️⚧️❤️
I talked to the legend Wallace Shawn about being radicalized by his own work, reviving The Fever in the middle of a "big war," and why it's harder for the outspoken socialist to make political art now.
A film director who rejects auteur theory ("movies are collaborations"), rejects the new wave, and just wants to make pop films with radical politics? Is Elio Petri our new favorite director? Criterion only has one of his movies, so he must be!
Yesterday I filmed several baby birds walking across a street directly at my camera and asked Bluesky to suggest music
Several dozen folks did
Some even dubbed music over the original clip.
I haven't been able to get this out of my head.
So I give you
A Bluesky exclusive:
Reservoir Ducks
🐣 🪶
This is an extremely personal and intense essay about one of the most important musicians and authors on the planet for me. His lyrics shaped who I am. I had no idea of the struggles he went through. I'm happy that Samson Fellows seems to have found serenity.
Our friend Casey B. joins us to talk about Frances Ha (2012), the delightful film where Greta Gerwig as writer and star eclipses director Noah Baumbach.
I know we joked about it on the Patreon episodes, but discussing City Lights this week I think it's apparent that after Zatoichi we need to relearn how to do the podcast. Thankfully, Criterion is giving us an amazing run of films to recover with.
Everyone go watch this! Excellent performances and really good costuming to boot.
youtu.be/obX-HGs-PS8
Post-Zatoichi I feel like the Criterion Collection is apologizing to us: Chaplin at his nearly his best in City Lights, Gerwig eclipsing Baumbach in Frances Ha, then the greatest anti-cop movie ever made (Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion).
I don't get it. Why can't she hear his heartbeat? Why hasn't she cut something in half yet? Did Zatoichi lie to me?
If Pat's household is made to consume one more Zatoichi film I think that I will never be welcome there.
All of them are a little fun (except In Desperation) and some of them are really great, but like with a lot of Criterion boxsets, if we were watching them more leisurely I think we'd be more into them.
The Zatoichi boxset ends on an entirely middling note, but at least Ichi gets to hide in a container too small to contain him.
Finally moving on from the Zatoichi boxset and most of my notes for the next episode are just "wow Charlie Chaplin is so much better at making movies than Shintaro Katsu."
Just posted our February Patreon Bonus. Supporters voted for Best in Show (Christopher Guest, 2000) from a list in honor of the late Catherine O'Hara, and like last month's bonus, we're mostly just happy to not be talking about Zatoichi. $1 gets you access at www.patreon.com/lostincriter...
Remember, the enemy of the enemy is not your friend. Because a fascist is mad at a company led by a eugenics cult doesn't mean you should align with the latter.
This week we talk about the best Zatoichi movie and one that is in the running for worst thing we've seen in the Criterion Collection in 13 years of the podcast. And also there's Zatoichi at Large.
The films that could benefit from being added to the collection are mostly shorts so let say:
- Short films by Michaël Dudok de Wit
- Short films by Paul Driessen
- A collection of significant shorts like La Maison en Petits Cubes, The Diary of Tortov Roddle, The Village, Asparagus, etc.
On the bright side, all of my nephews who are currently obsessed with it will be old enough to have taken over the podcast already.
