Episode 83: Special Announcement

We interrupt your Oscar weekend with a Special Announcement. The show is changing names and changing homes. Nothing else major will change. The show will still be in the same format and be found on the same podcast feed. But we're moving the show over to Seattle Screen Scene in an attempt to streamline our endeavors. Hopefully this will cause very little disruption in all of our lives.

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Episode 82: The Razor's Edge, Canyon Passage and the Best of 2015

In anticipation of next week's Academy Awards, Mike and Sean run down their picks in the top categories, both who they think will win and who should win the awards, out of all the films and performances from 2015. They also start their year-long exploration of the films of 1946 with one of that year's Best Picture contenders, The Razor's Edge, with Gene Tierney and Tyrone Power, and Jacques Tourneur's Western Canyon Passage, starring Dana Andrews, in some circles now one of the highly regarded films of that year, but which then received only one Oscar nomination (for Best Song).

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Episode 81: The Bad Sleep Well and Bastards

This week, Mike and Sean tackle two harrowing films about revenge and economics from master auteurs. First up is Akira Kurosawa's 1960 The Bad Sleep Well, starring Toshiro Mifune, Masayuki Mori and Takashi Shimura, that's followed by Claire Denis's 2013 film Bastards, with Vincent Lindon, Chiara Mastroianni and Michel Subor. They also pick their essential Capitalism is the Devil movies, discuss the career of Toshiro Mifune and check out What Mike's been Watching.

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Episode 80: Iron Monkey and Mismatched Couples

This week on The Donnie Yen Show, Mike and Sean discuss two of the star's collaborations with director Yuen Woo-ping: 1993's kung fu epic Iron Monkey and 1985's breakdancing comedy Mismatched Couples. They also take a look at Donnie's latest release, Ip Man 3 and pick their Essential Dance Fights. They'll also examine Donnie's career as a whole and this week's music comes from the man himself.

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Episode 79: Noroît and The Black Pirate

In anticipation of the local premiere of Jacques Rivette's monumental 1971 serial Out 1, this week Mike and Sean take a look at his 1976 pirate film Noroît, starring Geraldine Chaplin. Continuing the theme, they discuss Douglas Fairbanks's 1926 classic The Black Pirate, make their picks for Essential Pirate Film and talk about the career of the greatest swashbuckler of them all, Errol Flynn. And, we promise, nobody talks like a pirate.

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Episode 78: Help!, A Pistol for Ringo and the Best of 1965

It's time for the annual end of the year George Sanders Show, completing their year-long look at the best films of 1965. Sean and Mike discuss The Beatles in Richard Lester's Help!, along with Duccio Tessari's spaghetti Western A Pistol for Ringo. They also name the best performances, screenplays, directors and films of 1965.

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Episode 77: The Force Awakens

Unable to contain their excitement for the latest Star Wars film, Mike and Sean get together for a special bonus episode to discuss The Force Awakens. What was supposed to be a quick little episode stretched to over an hour (and could have gone for a lot longer) because it's Star Wars and they really could talk about it for hours and hours.

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Episode 76: Alexander, Nightmare Alley and 2015 Discoveries

For their third annual Discoveries episode, Mike and Sean take a look back at some of the best older movies they watched for the first time in 2015. From Sean's list of first-time views, Mike chose to discuss Oliver Stone's 2004 historical epic Alexander, in its Ultimate Cut version. From Mike's list, Sean chose the Tyrone Power carny noir Nightmare Alley, directed by Edmund Goulding in 1947.

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Episode 75: Star Wars and Turkish Star Wars (The Man Who Saves the World)

In anticipation of the upcoming The Force Awakens, Sean and Mike take a look back at the first film either of them ever saw, George Lucas's 1977 Star Wars. And in celebration of Thanksgiving, they also talk about Çetin İnanç's 1982 epic The Man Who Saves the World, also known as Turkish Star Wars. They also talk about the singular, wildly successful and somewhat disappointing career of George Lucas and make their picks for the essential Blockbuster Saga.

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Some Corrections:

At one point Sean identifies the composer of the Planet of the Apes score as John Barry, of course it is Jerry Goldsmith.

Mike states that this is Episode 76 of The George Sanders Show. In fact it is Episode 75.

Episode 74: Major Dundee and The Heroes of Telemark

This week, on the annual Veteran's Day War Movie episode, Mike and Sean watch a pair of 1965 films from a pair of great directors, both of which just happen to star Richard Harris. First is Sam Peckinpah's Civil War-era Major Dundee, with Charlton Heston, then Anthony Mann's The Heroes of Telemark with Kirk Douglas leading a band of Norwegians against the Nazis. They also talk about Peckinpah's career in general and pick their Essential Resistance Films.

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Episode 73: Planet of the Vampires and Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell

For the annual Halloween episode, Mike and Sean take a look at a couple low budget films from the mid 1960s, Maria Bava's AIP co-production Planet of the Vampires and Hajime Sato's Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell. Both films feature inventive special effects, zombification, questionable acting and a whole lot of dread. They also talk about the career of the late Maureen O'Hara, lament the demise of Grantland, pick their Essential Cinematic Vampires and see what's playing around the multiplexes.

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Episode 72: Je tu il elle, Le bonheur and VIFF Wrapup

This week Mike and Sean take a look at an early work by the late director Chantal Akerman, her feature debut Je tu il elle, along with a 1965 film by director Agnès Varda, Le bonheur. They also put a cap on their discussions of the 2015 Vancouver International Film festival, with some thoughts on Jia Zhangke's Mountains May Depart, Corneliu Porumboiu's The Treasure, Sylvia Chang's Murmur of the Hearts, Arnaud Desplechin's My Golden Days and, yet again, Hou Hsiao-hsien's The Assassin.

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Episode 71: VIFF Report #2

Mike and Sean are still at the Vancouver International Film Festival, and are joined for this second dispatch by fellow Seattle Screen Scene critic Melissa Tamminga. They discuss new films from Hong Sangsoo (Right Now, Wrong Then), Hou Hsiao-hsien (The Assassin), Miguel Gomes (Arabian Nights), Lee Kwangkuk (A Matter of Interpretation), Jafar Panahi (Taxi) and more.

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Episode 70: VIFF Report #1

Mike and Sean check-in with a first look at some of the films they've been seeing at this year's Vancouver International Film Festival. Discussed in this episode are new films from star auteurs Guy Maddin, Thom Andersen, and Miguel Gomes, as well as up-and-coming directors such as Lee Kwangkuk, Luo Li, Kim Gwangtae and Philip Yung.

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Seattle Screen Scene's VIFF Coverage

Episode 69: Office and Police, Adjective

In what is quickly becoming an annual tradition, Mike and Sean ventured out their local AMC theatre to record an episode on-location at the Seattle premiere of the new Johnnie To film. This year it's Office, a musical drama set in a financial firm in the midst of the 2008 collapse starring Chow Yun-fat, Tang Wei, Eason Chan and Sylvia Chang (who also adapted the screenplay from her own play, Design for Living). Chang as well has a film she's directed playing at this year's Vancouver International Film Festival, as does Romanian director Corneliu Porumboiu, whose 2009 film Police, Adjective they also discuss this week. In addition they talk about the work of Johnnie To in general and pick some under-the-radar films they're looking forward to seeing during at next week's trip to VIFF.

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Last Year's On-Location Episode on Don't Go Breaking My Heart 2
Episode 1 on Drug War
They Shot Pictures #13: Johnnie To

Episode 68: Top Ten Films of All-Time

On this very special episode, Sean and Mike make their fourth annual Top Ten Films of All-Time selections. Films noirs, Great Actresses, Silent Comedies, Hong Kong movies, terrible pronunciation of French words and much much more!

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Some Links:

Sean's 2012 Top Ten
Mike's 2012 Top Ten
The 2013 Top Ten Episode
The 2014 Top Ten Episode
A List of George Sanders Show Top Ten Films

Episode 67: Man of Aran and Neo Tokyo

This week, for a long and unimportant series of reasons, Mike and Sean take a look at Robert Flaherty's 1934 film Man of Aran and the 1987 anime anthology Neo Tokyo, directed by Rintaro, Yoshiaki Kawajiri and Katsuhiro Ōtomo. They also talk about realism in documentaries and danger in children's cartoons, make their picks for Essential Pseudo-Documentary and discuss a Mystery Person of the Week.

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Some Links:

Jonathan Rosenbaum on La Commune (Paris 1871)
The George Sanders Show Top 100 Films of All-Time Project

Episode 66: The Look of Silence and The Sound of Music

This week Mike and Sean talk about The Look of Silence, the latest film from director Joshua Oppenheimer, a companion piece to his acclaimed 2012 documentary on Indonesian genocide The Act of Killing. And they continue their quest through the films of 1965 with that year's Oscar winner for Best Picture, The Sound of Music. They take a look at the career of that film's director, Robert Wise, and make their picks for the Essential 1960s Musical Blockbuster.

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Episode 65: The Green Ray and X: The Man with X-Ray Eyes

Sean and Mike celebrate the Seattle release of the restored version of Satyajit Ray's Apu Trilogy in the most natural way possible: with Eric Rohmer's 1986 film The Green Ray and Roger Corman's 1963 X: The Man with X-Ray Eyes. They also talk about Corman in general, pick their Essential Non-Noir B-Movies and check-in on What Mike's Watching (hint: there's a Ray involved).

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Episode 64: Summer Interlude and Songs from the Second Floor

With Roy Andersson's latest set to open in Seattle in a few days, Sean and Mike decided to spend a cinematic summer in Sweden with Ingmar Bergman's 1951 film Summer Interlude and Andersson's own 2000 film Songs from the Second Floor. They also pick their Essential Swedish Movies, celebrate the greatest Swede of all, Ingrid Bergman, and lament the losses this week of Omar Sharif and The Dissolve.

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