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