Enter The Void

Our long national nightmare is over! Wait, no it's not. But at least here's some good news: Season 8 of ENTER THE VOID is coming! Renan and Bill are back with today's preview episode, giving you the rundown on what you need to watch to keep up with us over the next eight weeks. And a big shout-out to our fans in our Podcast Club, who picked every single one of this season's films. Here's the lineup:

1. American Psycho (Harron, 2000)
2. Stalker (Tarkovsky, 1979)
3. Audition (Miike, 1999)
4. Repo Man (Cox, 1984)
5. The Holy Mountain (Jodorowsky, 1973)
6. Under the Skin (Glazer, 2014)
7. Moon (Jones, 2009)
8. Battle Royale (Fukasaku, 2000)

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P.S. Big thanks to Michelle LeClerc for the new logo! (The previous ones were hers, too.) You should follow her on Twitter @michelleleclerc.

For the final installment of the seventh season, Bill and Renan welcome back third season guest Ray Patnaude to discuss ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND. Chances are good you not only have heard of it, but it's very possibly a favorite film of almost everyone you know. In this finale episode, the trio discuss how they felt about it on release and upon revisiting; the techniques director Michel Gondry and writer Charlie Kaufman deploy to make it both emotionally effective as well as dream-like and disorienting; Gondry's music videos and the film careers of his fellow video directors; plus, what else belongs in the list of best films of the century so far?

Eternal Sunshine links:

• Eternal Sunshine on IMDb
• Eternal Sunshine on Wikipedia
• Roger Ebert's Eternal Sunshine review
• David Edelstein's Eternal Sunshine review
• IndieWire 10-year retrospective
• IndieWire on the deleted scenes
• Slate on the science of Eternal Sunshine
• Flavorwire on "manic pixie dream girl" trope
• TV Tropes entry for Eternal Sunshine
• Gondry's video for "Fell in Love With a Girl"
• Gondry's video for "Lucas With the Lid Off"
• Gondry's video for "Let Forever Be"
• NYT's best films of the 21st century

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Which FUNNY GAMES is your favorite? Is it the Michael Haneke film about a bourgeois couple subjected to home invasion by a pair of sadistic killers from 1997, or the Michael Haneke film about a bourgeois couple subjected to home invasion by a pair of sadistic killers from 2007? Is either of these films your favorite telling of this particular story? In today's episode, Renan and Bill compare the two versions, try to understand what Haneke was trying to say with them, explore what is compelling about them in spite of the subject matter, make unexpected comparisons to the filmography of James O. Incandenza, and discuss other close remakes.

Funny Games links:

• Funny Games (1997) on IMDb
• Funny Games (2007) on IMDb
• Funny Games (1997) on Wikipedia
• Funny Games (2007) on Wikipedia
• AO Scott review of Funny Games (2007)
• Anthony Lane review of Funny Games (2007)
• Jim Emerson on Funny Games as thesis
• Naomi Watts interview with MTV News
• AV Club on Funny Games remake
• Haneke interview with Filmmaker
• Haneke interview with CinemaBlend
• Haneke interview with EW

Show links:

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Today we're talking about arguably 2017's most controversial film, and one of the most controversial on this podcast: Darren Aronofsky's MOTHER! (technically, mother!) starring JLaw, JBard, Ed Harris, and Michelle Pfeiffer. Plus, joining us to bring a skeptical point of view is Vulture's movies editor, Rachel Handler! In this episode: mother! as Biblical allegory and environmental parable; or, is the movie actually all about being a demanding artist?; the religious concept of eternal return vs. scientific concept of the oscillating universe; plus: what's that yellow substance, and how obvious is it he wrote it in five days?

mother! links:

• mother! on IMDb
• mother! on Wikipedia
• AO Scott review of mother!
• Richard Brody review of mother!
• Vulture on interpreting mother!
• Reddit on interpreting mother!
• NY Times profile with the principals
• Rachel's mother! quiz on Vulture
• Aronofsky interview at EW
• Aronofsky interview at Vulture
• Aronofsky interview at IndieWire
• W on mother!'s F CinemaScore
• Rachel Handler on Twitter

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Jean-Luc Godard's 1967 WEEKEND (or WEEK-END, if you prefer) is a scathing political satire if you understand what's going on, or a long strange trip if you don't. Your hosts have been on both sides of this divide, and today they come together to talk about seeing the film as a clueless undergrad; Tarantino and Wheatley as JLG fans and other films it influenced; the automobile and capitalist society; anti-colonialist speeches with sandwiches; a digression on the legacies of Hunter S. Thompson and Jann Wenner; Black Mirror, Get Out and other contemporary satires; and the puzzles of Lewis Carroll.

Weekend links:

• Weekend on IMDb
• Weekend on Wikipedia
• Roger Ebert review
• Pauline Kael review
• Renata Adler review
• Richard Brody review
• Criterion essay
• Columbia essay
• Pop Matters essay
• Senses of Cinema essay
• Ben Wheatley on Weekend
• Rolling Stone interview with Godard
• Sticky Fingers NYT review
• Solution to Lewis Carroll puzzle
• More Lewis Carroll puzzles

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To discuss Ben Wheatley's 2015 dystopian drama HIGH-RISE—based on the J.G. Ballard novel of the same name, adapted for the screen by Amy Jump, and starring Tom Hiddleston and Jeremy Irons—we welcome to the show Simon Owens, a past colleague of Bill and Renan's and a journalist based in DC. The film looks and sounds amazing, the source material is first-rate, and the acting is all around superb. So why does this movie actually make less sense than some of the crazier movies we've talked about this season? Debate ensues.

High-Rise links:

• High-Rise on IMDb
• High-Rise on Wikipedia
• Glenn Kenny review
• Mark Kermode review
• Peter Bradshaw review
• Vice on Ballard's High-Rise
• Ballardian on Wheatley's High-Rise
• Spectator UK on J.G. Ballard's politics
• The Paris Review on translating Ballard
• City Lab on High-Rise and luxury architecture
• Wikipedia: List of tallest residential buildings
• New York on "fancy prisons for billionaires"
• Simon Owens at Medium
• Simon Owens on Twitter

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Today ENTER THE VOID considers its first (and maybe last?) Coen Brothers film, 1991's BARTON FINK, starring John Turturro and John Goodman. Examined in detail: how this movie swept Cannes and is somewhat overlooked today; what it has to say about about writers and writing; Barton Fink's real-life influences and Hollywood wrestling pictures; its amazingly detailed Wikipedia page; and, is this a classic mind-bender of the sort this podcast is supposed to be about?

Barton Fink links:

• Barton Fink on IMDb
• Barton Fink on Wikipedia
• Roger Ebert favorable review
• Vincent Canby very favorable review
• Owen Gleiberman semi-favorable review
• The Atlantic unfavorable review
• Coenesque on Barton Fink
• Barton Fink film script
• Piotrowski essay on Barton Fink and writing

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Nobuhiko Obayashi's 1977 HAUSU (or ハウス, or HOUSE) is possibly the most insane movie we've ever discussed on Enter The Void Podcast—and that's really saying something! This week Renan and Bill are joined by Teo Bugbee, who brought this psychedelic slapstick haunted house bubblegum horror comedy to our attention. And yet, as crazy as it is, it's also immensely enjoyable, and worthy of discussion for its distillation of childhood fears, commentary on the atom bomb, debatable feminist content, and of course its pure sensory overload.

Hausu links:

• Hausu on IMDb
• Hausu on Wikipedia
• Hausu trailer
• Manohla Dargis NYT review
• AV Club review
• Kogonada video essay
• Lady Problems podcast
• io9 on Hausu's insanity
• Blcklst on Hausu's feminist content
• Smug Film on Hausu's questionable content
• Obayashi / Charles Bronson cologne ad

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Alex Proyas' DARK CITY is a tough one to properly summarize. It's not just that it's part film noir, part horror and part science fiction. It's also that its critical esteem, cult status, and lasting influence have never really found a point of consensus. In this episode, Bill and Renan try to figure out how to regard the film's reputation, especially in light (so to speak) of the 2008 director's cut. Plus: if Dark City was made today, would it be a video game?; why Roger Ebert loved it so much; eerie similarities to The Matrix (and The Force Awakens); and so many questions left unresolved.

Dark City links:

• Dark City on IMDb
• Dark City on Wikipedia
• Dark City theatrical trailer
• Roger Ebert's Dark City review
• Time interview with Alex Proyas
• CBR interview with Alex Proyas
• AV Club on Dark City
• Nerdist on Dark City
• Tor on Dark City
• BioShock and Dark City
• IndieWire on The Matrix vs. Dark City
• TV Tropes entry for Dark City
• Multiple discovery on Wikipedia

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Season 7 of ENTER THE VOID is nearly upon us! In today's preview episode, Renan and Bill quickly run through the list of films to be discussed over the next eight episodes, so you can watch with us and get the most out of these discussions. The films are:

1. Dark City (Proyas, 1998)
2. Hausu (Obayashi, 1977)
3. Barton Fink (Coens, 1991)
4. High-Rise (Wheatley, 2015)
5. Weekend (Godard, 1967)
6. mother! (Aronofsky, 2017)
7. Funny Games (Haneke, 1997)
8. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Gondry, 2004)

Show links:

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• Archives: enterthevoid.fm
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