Enter The Void

ENTER THE VOID is back for our fifth season, and this time around Renan and Bill have set themselves the task of talking about only films by directors they haven't covered on the show. How did they do? Pretty good! Except for the last episode, but we think you'll find it a forgivable exception. Starting next week, ETV will appear in your podcast feed each Wednesday, and here is the lineup so you can watch ahead:

1. Solaris (Tarkovsky, 1972)
2. The Lobster (Lanthimos, 2015)
3. Heavy Metal (Potterton, 1981)
4. Another Earth (Cahill, 2011)
5. Melancholia (Von Trier, 2011)
6. El Topo (Jodorowsky, 1970)
7. Coherence (Byrkit, 2013)
8. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (Lynch, 1992)

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At last it is the final episode of the fourth season of Enter The Void. And to mark the occasion we're not just talking about Wong Kar-wai's 2046 (2004) but also the two films with which it forms a loose trilogy: 1990's Days of Being Wild and especially 2000's In the Mood for Love. Better still, Bill and Renan are joined by Wong aficionado Samarth Bhaskar from the New York Times. In this, they cover: lucking into a theatrical screening of Wong's films; a valiant attempt to describe what happens in 2046; how the three films relate to each other; what exactly the number "2046" is supposed to represent; how the films relate to Hong Kong's precarious political situation; which camera angles Wong favors for his actresses; what Quentin Tarantino thought about 2046, and why TF is this movie so damn hard to find?

Film links:

• 2046 on IMDb
• 2046 on Wikipedia
• In the Mood for Love on IMDb
• In the Mood for Love on Wikipedia
• Days of Being Wild on IMDb
• Days of Being Wild on Wikipedia
• Film Comment on 2046
• Manohla Dargis on 2046
• Fran Kranz in The Dissolve about 2046
• Analysis of the three films as a trilogy
• One country, two systems at Wikipedia

Guest links:

• Samarth Bhaskar on Twitter
• Samarth Bhaskar on Letterboxd

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Our penultimate episode of season 4 is about Richard Linklater's A SCANNER DARKLY, a 2006 adaptation of Philip K Dick's quasi-autobiographical novel of the same name. A blip on the screen—er, scanner?—at the time it was released, the film is now remembered best for its innovative rotoscope technique. But it's also a showcase for Robert Downey Jr. just before he became a superstar, a rare bright spot for Winona Ryder in her wilderness years, and also Keanu Reeves is here, being Keanu. In this episode, Bill and Renan also talk about other Philip K Dick adaptations, drug movies, Radiohead, Alex Jones, and the new FilmStruck streaming service.

Film links:

• A Scanner Darkly on IMDb
• A Scanner Darkly on Wikipedia
• Den of Geek on A Scanner Darkly
• Dissolve essay on A Scanner Darkly
• AV Club comparison of book and movie
• Dissolve interview with Bob Sabiston
• Wired on behind-the-scenes trouble
• Analysis of the novel and drugs
• Snack and Drink on Vimeo

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This week Renan and Bill welcome back season 2 guest Mark Netter to talk about what might just be the original mindfuck movie: 1961's French-language LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD, directed by Alain Resnais in collaboration with novelist Alain Robbe-Grillet. If you've never seen Marienbad, worry not, there is nothing we can say about it that will ruin this movie. Even after multiple viewings and a long discussion, we still don't know what it means—but that doesn't stop your hosts from trying! Also discussed: how Bill and Renan failed Marienbad on first viewing; how WWII and the Nazi occupation influenced the filmmakers; what major philosophical rabbit holes the movie opens up; how Resnais staged things to disorient the viewer; what that matchstick game is all about; how it was received in Paris and New York upon release; what Kubrick and Lynch and the Nolans—and even Blur—borrowed from it; plus, the "cameo" by none other than Alfred Hitchcock.

Film links:

• Marienbad at IMDB
• Marienbad at Wikipedia
• Ebert on Marienbad
• Criterion on Marienbad
• Mark Harris on Marienbad
• AV Club on Marienbad
• Senses of Cinema on Marienbad
• NYT, 1961: "Paris Still Stirred..." ($)
• NYT, 1961: "L'Affaire 'Marienbad'" ($)
• NYT, 1961: "Director of Enigmas" ($)
• NYT, 1962: Bosley Crowther review
• Pauline Kael's negative review ($)
• More Kael trashing Marienbad
• WSJ on Marienbad's 50th anniv.
• "Minotaur" theory of Marienbad
• Essay on Descartes and Marienbad
• Night and Fog at Wikipedia
• Nim game on Wikipedia
• Movies inspired by Marienbad
• Blur's "To The End" music video
• 1987 Calvin Klein Obsession TV ad
• LAST YEAR AT THE OVERLOOK

Guest links:

• Mark Netter on Twitter
• Nightmare Code trailer
• Nightmare Code on the web
• Nightmare Code on IMDb
• Nightmare Code on iTunes
• Nightmare Code on Amazon
• Nightmare Code on Facebook

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For the first time since ETV began, Renan and Bill examine a film that is actually in theaters at the time of recording: Denis Villeneuve's ARRIVAL, starring Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, and Forest Whitaker. It is not every day that Hollywood releases a sci-fi movie aimed at adults, let alone one that messes with your head like this one does, and it's certainly rare for a film to be built around linguistic theory. Also in this episode: other big budget "puzzle" films and how they get made; examining the work of the Nolan brothers, Twin Peaks and Westworld in particular; the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis and Fermat's principle of least time; the short stories of Ted Chiang (and George Saunders, for good measure); and Bill has a bit of a cold, so bear with us here.

Film links:

• Arrival at IMDb
• Arrival at Wikipedia
• Story of Your Life at Wikipedia
• LA Times on alien language development
• The Verge on Arrival's plot twist
• Eric Heisserer on writing Arrival
• THR on Arrival's journey to screen
• Wired on Ted Chiang
• The Ringer on Arrival as a puzzle
• Sapir-Whorf hypothesis at Wikipedia
• Fermat's principle of least time at Wikipedia
• Emily Rome on Arrival and linguistics
• Evan Narcisse on the necessity of Arrival
• Arrival and the US election by Jia Tolentino
• Rod Dreher on religious aspects of Arrival

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In 1991, Wim Wenders leveraged the success of his crossover hit Wings of Desire to mount a project he'd dreamed of for years: a globe-trotting sci-fi epic he considered the "ultimate road movie". That film is UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD, and if you've never heard of it.... well. Warner Bros. made Wenders trim his nearly 5-hour cut by almost half, and the resulting film confused audiences and critics and sank without a trace. (But what a soundtrack!) And yet, the film all but predicted GPS navigation, smartphone addiction, and even free travel within the Euro area. Until very recently, American audiences had only seen the truncated version, but that is starting to change. This week, Bill and Renan watched one version or both—more than 10 hours' combined viewing between them!—and in this week's episode they unpack it and try to explain what worked, what didn't, and which version you should watch.

Film links:

• Until the End of the World on IMDb
• Until the End of the World on Wikipedia
• Differences between original and director's cut
• Boing Boing interview with Wim Wenders
• MovieLine interview with Wim Wenders
• Vulture interview with Wim Wenders
• Roger Ebert review of original release
• RogerEbert.com review of director's cut
• Guardian review of director's cut
• Village Voice review of director's cut
• New York Post review of director's cut
• CriterionCast review
• Film soundtrack on Spotify

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Today Bill and Renan are joined by season 2 guest host Brian Gluckman for a wide-ranging discussion centered around Park Chan-wook's 2003 South Korean thriller OLDBOY. Among the topics covered: that famous hammer-hallway scene, that famous octopus scene, Spike Lee's misbegotten 2013 American remake, did you even know there was an unofficial Bollywood remake?, how it compares to the original Japanese manga, other films of Park Chan-wook including this year's The Handmaiden, and other daring works by South Korean filmmakers. This is a fun one! (But the audio's a little hinky, we admit.)

Film links:

• Oldboy on Wikipedia
• Oldboy on IMDb
• Roger Ebert review
• Original Guardian review
• Sequart on Oldboy
• The Definitives on Oldboy
• The Handmaiden on Wikipedia
• Oldboy (U.S. remake) on Wikipedia
• Zinda (Bollywood remake) on Wikipedia
• Zinda (full movie) on YouTube
• ETV season 4 Spotify playlist

Guest links:

• @bgluckman

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Whoa, OK, have you ever seen a movie that's more a midnight movie than BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW? We're not sure that we have, and in this episode Renan and Bill get way into what at least they think Panos Cosmatos' 2010 custom-built mindfuckery is really all about. Discussed in this episode: the amazing music, the incredible art direction, and the kinda maybe just so-so story and characters. Whatever you take from Cosmatos' visionary project, after this you're totally gonna want to rewatch Tombstone.

Film links:

• BTBR official website
• BTBR on Wikipedia
• BTBR on IMDb
• BTBR trailer
• AV Club on BTBR
• 366 Weird movies on BTBR
• Chuck Kollar explains it all
• ETV season 4 Spotify playlist

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Read more at http://enterthevoidpodcast.libsyn.com/#2D42hLLgsYRuJE7t.99

Kicking off the fourth season of your favorite podcast about mindfuck movies, we look deep into ADVANTAGEOUS, a 2015 low-budget sci-fi darling of Sundance. Directed and co-written by Jennifer Phang, starring and co-written by Jacqueline Kim, with a welcome understated performance by Ken Jeong, the movie explores eternal themes amid a futuristic backdrop that looks all too familiar: How will competition for the best jobs work in a more crowded world? What happens when technology is good enough to make many careers obsolete? When it comes to self-improvement, how far is too far? And will we become almost totally inured to terrorism? This week, Bill and Renan are joined by Nisha Chittal, aka Renan's better half, who brings a feminist perspective to this subtly socio-political speculative fiction.

Film links:

• Watch Advantageous on Netflix
• Advantageous on IMDb
• Advantageous on Wikipedia
• Review at The Dissolve
• Review at WIRED
• Review at NY Times
• Review at Gizmodo
• Watch original short film on YouTube

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The wait is over: Season 4 of ENTER THE VOID is right around the corner. This season we'll be talking about eight new movies—one of them in fact brand new—with double the guest hosts, bringing new perspectives to Bill and Renan unpack some really, really strange films. This season ETV will take on:

1. Advantageous (Phang, 2015)
2. Beyond the Black Rainbow (Cosmatos, 2002)
3. Oldboy (Park, 2003)
4. Until the End of the World (Wenders, 1991)
5. Arrival (Villenueve, 2016)
6. Last Year at Marienbad (Resnais, 1961)
7. A Scanner Darkly (Linklater, 2006)
8. 2046 (Wong, 2004)

Show links

• Subscribe: iTunes
• Archives: enterthevoid.fm
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