Toronto-based writer and film critic Angelo Muredda joins the pod for a discussion of David Cronenberg’s Canuxploitation classic Rabid (1977), a depiction of a horrifying viral epidemic sweeping the city of Montreal that is fascinating to reconsider today as we approach the one year anniversary of the start of lockdowns in Canada related to the real-world Coronavirus pandemic. We discuss Cronenberg’s use of limited resources and the banality of seventies Canadian architecture and interior design to generate dread, his depictions of institutions and the scientist-monster heroes that serve as his usual protagonists, and we muse aloud about how Ontario Premier Doug Ford would respond if he had to preside over a Rabid-style pandemic.

Plus: a discussion about the latest essay from Martin Scorsese: in a world of media conglomerates controlling public access to what they consider “content” and streaming services algorithmically determining what audiences should see next, what will this do to the art of cinema?

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Rabid (David Cronenberg, 1977) - trailer

Martin Scorsese’s essay "Il Maestro: Federico Fellini and the Lost Magic of Cinema”, Harper’s Magazine, March 2021 issue