Another Kind Of Distance: A Time Travel, Twin Peaks, Film, Doom Patrol And Nostalgia Podcast

In this week's Jennifer Jones episode, we view our heroine in two new lights: as wife (in Nunnally Johnson's 1956 social problem epic, THE MAN IN THE GRAY FLANNEL SUIT) and spinster (in Henry Koster's GOOD MORNING, MISS DOVE 1955). Then, in our Moviegoing Section, we discuss Joseph Mankiewicz's THE GHOST & MRS. MUIR (1947) as the Hollywood Gertrud, along with Bresson and the pleasure of asceticism.   Time Codes: 0h 01m 00s:          The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956; dir: Nunnally Johnson) 0h 36m 16s:          Good Morning, Miss Dove (1955; dir: Henry Koster) 0h 50m 04s:          Winter cinemagoing: The Ghost & Mrs. Muir (1946; dir: Joseph Mankiewicz) @ The Paradise on Bloor; Week One of The Poetry of Precision – TIFF Cinematheque’s Robert Bresson retrospective – Les anges du péché (1943); Journal d’un curé de campagne (1951); Un condamné à mort s’est échappé (1956); Procès de Jeanne d’Arc (1962); The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956; dir: Alfred Hitchcock)   +++ * Check out our Complete Upcoming Epi

LONELY WIVES (dir. Russell Mack) meet KEPT HUSBANDS (dir. Lloyd Bacon) in our RKO 1931 episode of The Studios Year-by-Year. Edward Everett Horton sex farce or battle-of-the-sexes melodrama-played-for-farce—this one has got it all. And in our Moviegoing in Toronto section, a Mary Pickford and Clara Bow double feature has us thinking about feisty Victorian maidens and heroic modern gals. Time Codes: 0h 01m 00s:          Kept Husbands (dir: Lloyd Bacon) 0h 29m 44s:          Lonely Wives (dir. Russell Mack)      0h 56m 04s:          Winter cinemagoing: ROSITA (1923; dir: Ernst Lubitsch) @ TIFF Lightbox; IT (1927; dirs: Clarence G. Badger & Josef von Sternberg) @ The Fox Theatre; THE NAKED SPUR (1953; dir: Anthony Mann) @ TIFF Lightbox; THE STRANGE CASE OF ANGELICA (2010; dir: Manoel de Oliveira) @ TIFF Lightbox +++ * Check out our Complete Upcoming Episode Schedule * Find Elise’s latest published film piece “Making America Strange Again: Gangs of New York” in issue #80 Bright Wall/Dark Room* *And Read Elise

This time on our Jennifer Jones ‘cast it's two movies based on novels by Communists, bafflingly made during the early Cold War era, one a failure and one a hit. We start with the failure, the original Dirtbag Left hang-out movie, John Huston's BEAT THE DEVIL (1953). It was based on a novel by Claud Cockburn (one-time Stalin apologist), with script contributions from Cockburn and a hot young novelist named Truman Capote. Then we turn to another critique of colonialism, Henry King's Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955), based on the semi-autobiographical novel by Han Suyin (future Mao apologist). It's a radical field day!   Time Codes: 0h 01m 00s:          Beat the Devil (1953; dir: John Huston) 0h 39m 59s:          Love is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955; dir: Henry King)   +++ * Check out our Complete Upcoming Episode Schedule * Find Elise’s latest published film piece – “Elaine May’s Male Gaze” – in the Elaine May issue of Bright Wall/Dark Room* *And Read Elise’s Writing at Bright Wall/Dark Room, Cléo, and 

What better befits a Valentine's episode than a couple of films about star-crossed lovers. First, it's punk (Nicholas Cage, in his first starring role) meets prep in Martha Coolidge's low-key, surprisingly affecting teensploitation cult classic VALLEY GIRL (1983). Then, John Travolta in his sex symbol prime drifts up on the beach of middle-aged one percenter Lily Tomlin in MOMENT BY MOMENT (1978), the only movie directed by Tomlin's partner and collaborator, Jane Wagner. We find out whether it's really the unprecedented-in-cinematic-history disaster that the internet continues to claim it is. Time Codes: 0h 01m 00s:          Valley Girl (1983; dir: Martha Coolidge) 0h 45m 10s:          Moment By Moment (1978; dir.: Jane Wagner) 1h 26m 44s:          Winter cinemagoing: Angela Schanelec retrospective + our coverage announcement; NOW, VOYAGER (1942; dir: Irving Rapper); THE KILLERS (1946; Robert Siodmak); THE KILLERS (1964; dir: Don Siegel) +++ * Check out our Complete Upcoming Episode Schedule * Find Elise’s

Back to Borzage for Fox 1931 with the inaptly-titled BAD GIRL, plus Raoul Walsh's THE YELLOW TICKET. Deconstructed masculinity in Depression-era New York! Sex worker registries in czarist Russia! Boxing ring cuddles! Nude bathing in women's prisons! Lionel Barrymore chewing the scenery, James Dunn having male hysterics! This episode has got it all. And then Elise tries to suss out connections between I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE (1943) and Maya Deren. Time Codes: 0h 01m 00s:          Bad Girl (dir. Frank Borzage) 0h 43m 19s:          The Yellow Ticket (dir. Raoul Walsh) 1h 11m 17s:          Winter cinemagoing at TIFF Lightbox: FILM SOCIALISME (2010; dir. Jean-Luc Godard); TAIPEI STORY (1985; dir. Edward Yang); I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE (1943; dir. Jacques Tourneur)   +++ * Check out our Complete Upcoming Episode Schedule * Find Elise’s latest published film piece – “Elaine May’s Male Gaze” – in the Elaine May issue of Bright Wall/Dark Room* *And Read Elise’s Writing at Bright Wall/Dark Room, Cléo, and Bright Lights.*

A transitional Jennifer Jones episode: from another summary of the Jones persona, King Vidor's RUBY GENTRY (1952), to a new era of filmmaking and a new kind of role in De Sica's TERMINAL STATION (1953). We give our verdict on the director's cut of the latter, the first time either of us has seen it. And in Moviegoing, Elise holds forth on PSYCHO and the Art of Hitchcock, and we briefly discuss Parajanov's THE COLOR OF POMEGRANATES and what's not funny about Lubitsch's THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER.   Time Codes: 0h 01m 00s:          Ruby Gentry (1952; dir. King Vidor) 1h 29m 50s:          Stazione Termini (1953; dir. Vittorio De Sica) 1h 01m 00s:         Winter Cinemagoing: Gone to Earth (1950) at The Royal; Psycho (1960; dir: Alfred Hitchcock), The Color of Pomegranates (1969; dir: Sergei Parajanov) and The Shop Around the Corner (1940; dir: Ernst Lubitsch)   +++ * Check out our Complete Upcoming Episode Schedule * Find Elise’s latest published film piece – “Elaine May’s Male Gaze” – in the Elaine May issue of

The alpha & omega of Josef von Sternberg's oeuvre, 1925's The SALVATION HUNTERS and 1953's ANATAHAN, prompt us to consider whether the stormy marriage of auteur and system can sometimes be more conducive to artistic accomplishment than creative independence. Then, prompted by recent moviegoing, we announce upcoming episodes/series on Ritwik Ghatak and Margaret Sullavan. Time Codes: 0h 01m 00s:          The Salvation Hunters (1925) 0h 32m 39s:          Anatahan (1953)  1h 01m 00s:          Winter Cinemagoing: The Cloud-Capped Star (1960; dir. Ritwik Ghatak) and The Mortal Storm (1940; dir Frank Borzage) – +++ * Check out our Complete Upcoming Episode Schedule * Find Elise’s latest published film piece – “Elaine May’s Male Gaze” – in the Elaine May issue of Bright Wall/Dark Room* *And Read Elise’s Writing at Bright Wall/Dark Room, Cléo, and Bright Lights.* Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com Theme Music: “What’s Yr Take on Cassavetes?” – Le Tigre

This week, for Warners Bros. 1931: THE MALTESE FALCON (dir. Roy Del Ruth) and THE LAST FLIGHT (dir. William Dieterle). Warners is an early adopter of Dashiell Hammett, but is his least political novel a good fit for the most political studio, or not? And Dieterle, in his first English-language film, turns Warners into Paramount and tackles the Lost Generation, introducing themes that he'll continue to explore in his WWII films with Joseph Cotten. Then, in our Moviegoing section: we exchange thoughts on a couple of new movies about young women becoming artists that couldn't be more different, Greta Gerwig's LITTLE WOMEN and Joanna Hogg's THE SOUVENIR.   Time Codes: 0h 01m 00s:          The Maltese Falcon (dir. Roy Del Ruth) 0h 30m 47s:          The Last Flight (dir. William Dieterle) 0h 59m 19s:          Winter cinemagoing section: LITTLE WOMEN (2019; dir. Greta Gerwig); THE SOUVENIR (2019; dir. Joanna Hogg); VERTIGO (1958; dir. Alfred Hitchcock) and THE CRUCIFIED LOVERS (1954; dir. Kenji Mizoguchi) – +++ * Ch

The masterpieces keep coming in our Jennifer Jones series. This week it's Powell and Pressburger's Gone to Earth (1950), a meta melodrama that clearly gave Kate Bush some ideas, and William Wyler's Carrie (1952), a noirish costume drama about the precariousness of the American middle class. Then we say farewell to TIFF's Scorsese retrospective with our Top 10s and discussion of MEAN STREETS and AFTER HOURS. Time Codes: 0h 01m 00s:          Carrie (1952; dir. William Wyler) 0h 46m 24s:          Gone To Earth (1950; dir. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger) 1h 25m 16s:          Winter Cinemagoing Audio Journal – Hasty Scorsese Top 10s  +++ * Check out our Complete Upcoming Episode Schedule * Find Elise’s latest published film piece – “Elaine May’s Male Gaze” – in the Elaine May issue of Bright Wall/Dark Room* *And Read Elise’s Writing at Bright Wall/Dark Room, Cléo, and Bright Lights.* Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com Theme Music: “What’s Yr Take on Cassavetes?” – Le Ti

In our first MGM 1931 episode, we look at two very different fallen woman movies, POSSESSED (dir. Clarence Brown), starring Joan Crawford and Clark Gable, and SUSAN LENOX (HER FALL AND RISE) (dir. Robert Z. Leonard), with Gable supporting (in the technical sense only) Greta Garbo. POSSESSED, taking cognizance of the Depression, leans as far left as MGM will ever get, while SUSAN LENOX shows us how patriarchy can be worse for men than it is for women—and sister, is it ever bad for women. Then we talk Scorsese, historical accuracy, and why Jordan Belfort did nothing wrong, covering BRINGING OUT THE DEAD, GANGS OF NEW YORK, THE AVIATOR, and THE WOLF OF WALL STREET. Time Codes: 0h 01m 00s:          Possessed (dir. Clarence Brown) 0h 52m 59s:          Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise (dir. Robert Z. Leonard) 1h 26m 55s:          Holiday Cinemagoing – Scorsese and History                      +++ * Check out our Complete Upcoming Episode Schedule * Find Elise’s latest published film piece – “Elaine May’s Male Gaze”

In the first There's Sometimes a Buggy Christmas episode, we discuss two studio-era Hollywood movies that you never knew were Christmas movies: Michael Curtiz's FOUR DAUGHTERS (1938) and Preston Sturges's THE MIRACLE OF MORGAN'S CREEK (1944). Hear us explain how Four Daughters anticipates both Casablanca and Blue Velvet, and learn why Christianity is the ultimate comedy. Time Codes: 0h 01m 00s:          Four Daughters (1938; dir. Michael Curtiz) 0h 46m 55s:          Miracle of Morgan’s Creek (1944; dir. Preston Sturges)                               – +++ * Check out our Complete Upcoming Episode Schedule * Find Elise’s latest published film piece – “Elaine May’s Male Gaze” – in the Elaine May issue of Bright Wall/Dark Room* *And Read Elise’s Writing at Bright Wall/Dark Room, Cléo, and Bright Lights.* Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com Theme Music: “What’s Yr Take on Cassavetes?” – Le Tigre

In our 2nd episode devoted to a TIFF retrospective, we cover News From Home: The Films of Chantal Akerman and share with you our excitement about a new favourite director. Topics that come up in the course of discussing Akerman's obsessional-yet-variegated filmography include Freud, mothers, the historico-geographic basis of identity, the nature of desire, passivity, projection, politics, Hitchcock, comedy, ghosts, gender. Films discussed in depth include NO HOME MOVIE, JEANNE DIELMAN, LA CAPTIVE, JE TU IL ELLE, LES RENDEZ-VOUS D'ANNA, A COUCH IN NEW YORK, and the US-Mexico border documentary FROM THE OTHER SIDE. Then, in our Recently-Viewed section, we discuss two more Scorseses, THE AGE OF INNOCENCE and THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST, and two movies viewed in one day on either side of NO HOME MOVIE (like the two crucified thieves), William Wellman's 1937 A STAR IS BORN (the best version, in our opinion), and Michael Mann's epic cops-and-robbers movie HEAT, wherein an outrageous Pacino tenderly yet relentless

On to 1931 and back to Paramount for a Sylvia Sidney double feature: a genre exercise from Mamoulian (CITY STREETS) and a finger exercise from Sternberg (AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY). We debate whether Sternberg's version serves or travesties Dreiser's novel, and whether it matters. Then, the return of Scorsese Corner to discuss TAXI DRIVER, RAGING BULL, and (Dave's favourite Scorsese movie) NEW YORK, NEW YORK. Start spreading the news. Time Codes: 0h 01m 00s:          City Streets (dir. Rouben Mamoulian) 0h 28m 44s:          An American Tragedy (dir. Josef von Sternberg)                           0h 56M 36s:          Fall Cinemagoing Update – Paradise Cinema Opens! (Trouble in Paradise - 1932)                             + Scorsese Corner: Taxi Driver (1976); New York, New York (1977); and Raging Bull (1980) +++ * Check out our Complete Upcoming Episode Schedule * Find Elise’s latest published film piece – “Elaine May’s Male Gaze” – in the Elaine May issue of Bright Wall/Dark Room* *And Read Elise’s Writing at Brig

Jennifer Jones exhibits a new level of craft in two very different roles in two 1949 movies, WE WERE STRANGERS (dir. John Huston) and MADAME BOVARY (dir. Vincente Minnelli). Elise and Dave ponder how these movies, respectively daring for their revolutionary politics and gender politics, ever got made. Dave identifies the greatest scene in any movie ever. Elise tries to explain Flaubert's relationship to Romanticism, realism, aestheticism, and all other relevant isms. Time Codes: 0h 01m 00s:          We Were Strangers (1949; dir: John Huston) 0h 31m 20s:          Madame Bovary (1949; dir. Vincente Minnelli)                              +++ * Find Elise’s latest published film piece – “Elaine May’s Male Gaze” – in the Elaine May issue of Bright Wall/Dark Room* *And Read Elise’s Writing at Bright Wall/Dark Room, Cléo, and Bright Lights.* Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com Theme Music: “What’s Yr Take on Cassavetes?” – Le Tigre

Our first Universal 1930 episode veers from racial insanity, courtesy of John Murray Anderson's two-strip Technicolor musical KING OF JAZZ (spoiler: the King is a White Man), to grisly Christian sentimentality, via William Wyler's HELL'S HEROES (aka Several Corpses and a Baby), which also makes this an accidental Christmas episode. If that's not enough, we also bring Big Discussion of Scorsese and Akerman! Time Codes: 0h 01m 00s:          King of Jazz (dir. John Murray Anderson) 0h 30m 42s:          Hell’s Heroes (dir. William Wyler)                     1h 00m 39s:          Fall Cinemagoing Update – Akerman (Portrait d’une jeune fille de la fin des années 60 à Bruxelles) and Scorsese (Who’s That Knocking at My Door & Boxcar Bertha)  +++ * Check out our Complete Upcoming Episode Schedule * Find Elise’s latest published film piece – “Elaine May’s Male Gaze” – in the Elaine May issue of Bright Wall/Dark Room* *And Read Elise’s Writing at Bright Wall/Dark Room, Cléo, and Bright Lights.* Follow us on Twitter

We have a conversion experience with DUEL IN THE SUN (King Vidor, 1946) and return to PORTRAIT OF JENNIE (William Dieterle, 1948). Are these the two definitive Jennifer Jones movies? The best movies she made? The best movies that Selznick produced? We consider these questions as we continue to ponder the unfolding of Jones's persona. We also set up our Scorsese Corner and begin our floating discussion of the current TIFF retrospective with our first-impression reading of THE IRISHMAN. Elise opines that the lead actors look neither the right age nor even particularly human, but both agree that Pacino, especially, is marvellous. But does Scorsese go down too easy to be a major filmmaker? Time Codes: 0h 01m 00s:          Duel in the Sun (dir. King Vidor et al) 0h 49m 43s:          Portrait of Jennie (dir. William Dieterle)                           1h 30m 20s:          Fall Cinemagoing Update: Chantal Akerman continues and The Irishman (2019) +++ * Find Elise’s latest published film piece – “Elaine May’s Male Ga

We look at the first three films of Li Yu, FISH AND ELEPHANT (2001), DAM STREET (2005), and LOST IN BEIJING (2007), the latter seen by us at the TIFF Cinematheque retrospective Seeing the Unseen: Re-Encountering Chinese Cinema, which focused on films by Sixth Generation directors that had trouble with government censorship in China. It's not difficult to see how the Verhoeven-meets-Renoir-esque LOST IN BEIJING got into this category. Trigger warnings for extensive discussion of violence against women and fish. We also touch on some of our other favourites from the retrospective, such as Jia Zhangke's A TOUCH OF SIN and Joan Chen's XIU XIU: THE SENT-DOWN GIRL.   Time Codes: 0h 01m 00s:          Brief overview of the retrospective – Seeing the Unseen: Re-                                           Encountering Chinese Cinema (October 2019) 0h 29m 58s:          Fish and Elephant 0h 45m 06s:          Dam Street 1h 04m 49s:          Lost in Beijing 1h 28m 01s:          Scorsese v. Marvel 1h 41m 22s:          Fall C

This week sees Elise fully convert to the studi-auteur theory, thanks to two more-or-less randomly chosen RKO features from 1930 by a couple of Georges, MIDNIGHT MYSTERY (B. Seitz, later of Andy Hardy movie fame) and THE SILVER HORDE (Archainbaud, who went on to direct the other Some Like It Hot... with Bob Hope), which illustrates the expanded romantic plot possibilities of the Pre-Code era. Also some discussion of Jean Arthur's struggle, in an early appearance, to portray a supercilious socialite. It's super silly! And the reappearance of our Correspondent from Reality, Todd Murry. Time Codes: 0h 01m 00s:          Midnight Mystery (dir. George B. Seitz) 0h 42m 22s:          The Silver Horde (dir. George Archainbaud)                  1h 11m 10s:          Fall Cinemagoing Update – Chantal Akerman & The Paradise Theatre 1h 16m 19s:          Listener mail with  Todd Murry +++ * Check out our Complete Upcoming Episode Schedule * Find Elise’s latest published film piece – “Elaine May’s Male Gaze” – in the El

Our first Halloween special looks at a monster for whom familiarity has bred unjustified contempt. Looking at Tod Browning's 1931 DRACULA and Francis Ford Coppola's misleadingly-titled BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA from 1992, we discuss the Cursed Count as a romantic and a sympathetic figure; the two films' departures from Bram Stoker's novel; xenophobia and monstrousness; their very different takes on Van Helsing; their problematic fascination with female sexuality; and Dwight Frye's unforgettable Renfield. And as a Bonus: our brief takes on two Halloween art movies we saw at rep theatres this season, James Whale's THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN and Charles Laughton's NIGHT OF THE HUNTER. We conclude that the universe posited in all four films is godless at best, or, at worst, illustrates Calvin's thesis that God hates us, every one. Spoilers! Time Codes: 0h 01m 00s:          Dracula (dir. Tod Browning) 0h 36m 32s:          Bram Stoker’s Dracula (dir. Francis Ford Coppola)                      1h 07m 23s:          Fall C

We declare the year 1930 CANCELLED prior to discussing John Ford's UP THE RIVER & Frank Borzage's LILIOM (little known today - but based on the same source as the musical CAROUSEL). We consider the different (maybe opposite) ways in which these Fox movies portray sympathy for the victims of class society without criticizing the system, in contrast to a Warner Bros.-style treatment of similar material.  Time Codes: 0h 01m 00s:          Up the River (dir. John Ford) 0h 39m 16s:          Liliom (dir. Frank Borzage)                 1h 15m 23s:          Fall Cinemagoing Update - Li Yu and TIFF’s "Seeing the Unseen"  +++ * Find Elise’s latest published film piece – “Elaine May’s Male Gaze” – in the Elaine May issue of Bright Wall/Dark Room* *And Read Elise’s Writing at Bright Wall/Dark Room, Cléo, and Bright Lights.* Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com Theme Music: “What’s Yr Take on Cassavetes?” – Le Tigre