The Next Picture Show

We continue our shelter-in-place film series with a pair of films featuring magazine-perfect housewife archetypes struck by mysterious illnesses that are inextricably linked to their oppressive environments: Todd Haynes’ 1995 feature SAFE and Carlo Mirabella-Davis’ debut film SWALLOW. In this half we dig into the many shifting metaphors at play in SAFE, how they reflect both the film’s era and our current moment, and how they’re all held together by Julianne Moore’s remarkable central performance. And what to make of that ending? Is there any sense of optimism or closure to be drawn from Haynes’ film? All that, plus some feedback that uses specific movies as jumping-off points for some big, sprawling questions about film.

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about SAFE, SWALLOW, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.

Show Notes

Works Cited:

• “Todd Haynes on the unsafe world of Safe,” by Scott Tobias (thedissolve.com)

• “Safe: Nowhere to Hide,” by Dennis Lim (criterion.com)

Outro Music: Tom Lehrer, “Pollution”

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Steven Soderbergh’s viral thriller CONTAGION may have come out in 2011, but it’s never felt more timely than in the midst of the world’s current coronavirus crisis, which makes it a natural stand-in for the “current film” half of our pairing with Elia Kazan’s 1950 plague noir PANIC IN THE STREETS. Watched today, Soderbergh’s film, a kaleidoscopic treatment of an illness called MEV-1 with a startling 25 percent mortality rate, is both alarming in its prescience and comforting in its diversions from our current reality, a dichotomy we dig into on the way to debating whether it holds together as a film vs. as a scare tactic. Then we bring in PANIC IN THE STREETS to compare the two films’ depictions of the media, their use of time to foster a sense of urgency, and the untold stories playing out in the backgrounds of their high-stakes narratives. Plus, Your Next Picture Show, where we share recent filmgoing experiences in hopes of putting something new on your cinematic radar.

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about PANIC IN THE STREETS, CONTAGION, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.

Your Next Picture Show

• Tasha: Andrea Arnold’s AMERICAN HONEY

• Keith: Takashi Nomura’s A COLT IS MY PASSPORT

• Scott: Bridget Savage Cole and Danielle Krudy’s BLOW THE MAN DOWN

• Genevieve: Autumn DeWilde’s EMMA and Amy Heckerling’s CLUELESS

Outro music: The Police, “Don’t Stand So Close to Me”

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The 2020 coronavirus outbreak has affected virtually everything about our modern world, including the movies we watch, how we watch them, and how we podcast about them. It’s a sobering but fascinating lens through which to view past films that have wrestled with outbreaks, from Elia Kazan’s 1950 noir PANIC IN THE STREETS up through Steven Soderbergh’s 2011 pandemic procedural CONTAGION. We tackle the first half of that double-feature this week, unpacking the central metaphor — or lack thereof — in Kazan’s crime drama, along with its attitudes toward government and police, its subtle and canny use of locations, and the standout performances from Richard Widmark and a young Jack Palance. Plus, we use our usual feedback segment to check in with each from afar, and see how your Next Picture Podsters are navigating this strange new reality.

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about PANIC IN THE STREETS, CONTAGION, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.  

Outro Music: Warren Zevon, “Don’t Let Us Get Sick”

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Leigh Whannell’s new take on H.G. Wells’ 1897 novel THE INVISIBLE MAN is a Blumhouse film, so of course there has to be a twist — and in this case, it’s one that makes this version of INVISIBLE MAN less like the many adaptations that preceded it, and more like George Cukor’s 1944 film GASLIGHT, which is similarly focused on a man’s malicious manipulation of a woman at the expense of her own credibility. In this half of our gaslighting double feature, we talk over what makes this new INVISIBLE MAN work as well as it does — primarily Elisabeth Moss’s stellar central performance — before diving into what the two films share in their portrayals of manipulation, madness, and trauma, and how each uses atmosphere and physical space to to amplify their sense of unease and terror. Plus, Your Next Picture Show, where we share recent filmgoing experiences in hopes of putting something new on your cinematic radar.

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about GASLIGHT, THE INVISIBLE MAN, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730. 

Your Next Picture Show

• Scott: Jonathan Demme’s RACHEL GETTING MARRIED

• Tasha: Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia’s THE PLATFORM

• Keith: William Asher’s NIGHT WARNING, aka BUTCHER, BAKER, NIGHTMARE MAKER

Outro music: They Might Be Giants, “I Am Invisible”

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Leigh Whannell’s new take on THE INVISIBLE MAN comes with a modern twist, one based in a dynamic — a husband pushing his wife toward mental illness for personal gain — that was entrenched in the pop-cultural lexicon thanks in large part to George Cukor’s 1944 film GASLIGHT, starring Ingrid Bergman as a woman whose husband mounts a disinformation campaign against her for insidious purposes. In this half of our gaslighting double feature, we dig into how the film’s direction, design, and fine-tuned performances open up what could have been a very set-bound adaptation of Patrick Hamilton’s 1938 play, and how Cukor’s reputation as a “woman’s director” connects an otherwise varied filmography. Plus, Tasha responds to some pushback against her critiques of PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE in Feedback.

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about GASLIGHT, THE INVISIBLE MAN, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.

Outro Music: Dixie Chicks, “Gaslighter”

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Like the landmark 1991 film THELMA & LOUISE, the latest DC comics movie entry, BIRDS OF PREY (AND THE FANTABULOUS EMANCIPATION OF ONE HARLEY QUINN) uses a recognizable form to take its female protagonists to some unfamiliar places. The newer film hasn’t received that same sort of critical acclaim as its predecessor, but some on our panel — which this week once again includes Angelica Jade Bastién of Vulture.com — argue why perhaps it should have, on the way to discussing what the two films share in their attitudes about female emancipation in a man’s world, and in their refreshing depictions of women misbehaving without remorse. Plus, Your Next Picture Show, where we share recent filmgoing experiences in hopes of putting something new on your cinematic radar.

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about THELMA & LOUISE, BIRDS OF PREY, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730. 

Show Notes:

Works Cited

• “It Doesn’t Take Much to Be Seen As an Unruly Woman,” by Angelica Jade Bastién (Vulture.com)

Your Next Picture Show

• Genevieve: Hulu’s HIGH FIDELITY

• Angelica: Paul Mazursky’s AN UNMARRIED WOMAN

• Scott: Kitty Green’s THE ASSISTANT

• Keith: Hong-jin Na’s THE WAILING

Outro music: June Smollett-Bell, “It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World”

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The new BIRDS OF PREY: AND THE FANTABULOUS EMANCIPATION OF ONE HARLEY QUINN is part of an inconsistent and fitfully realized tradition of female-empowerment stories told within a high-gloss genre framework, a tradition that reached one of its too-rare high points with THELMA & LOUISE, a Ridley Scott-directed, Callie Khourie-scripted take on a buddy road movie/chase film that ruffled plenty of feathers when it became a sleeper hit in 1991. This week we’re joined by Vulture.com critic and friend of the podcast Angelica Jade Bastién to consider how the conversations THELMA & LOUISE inspired in 1991 would — or wouldn’t — be different today, how the film’s structure and performances subtly underline its feminist themes, and whether complaints about the film’s “cartoonish” male characters hold any water. Plus, we answer some feedback on our recent pairing of THE PIANO and PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE. 

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about THELMA & LOUISE, BIRDS OF PREY, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.

Show Notes

Works Cited:

• “Every Brad Pitt Movie Performance, Ranked,” by Angelica Jade Bastién (Vulture.com)

• “The Third Woman of ‘Thelma and Louise,” by Larry Rohter (The New York Times, June 5 1991)

Outro Music: Charlie XCX, “Vroom Vroom”

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With PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE, Céline Sciamma became the first woman director to win the Queer Palm at Cannes, an embarrassingly belated milestone reminiscent of Jane Campion becoming the first woman director to win the Palme d’Or in 1993 with THE PIANO. And while these two films have much more in common than their directors’ gender, as we discover when we put them in conversation this week, both Sciamma and Campion bring a distinct point of view to their respective stories of repressed desire in repressed times that feels inextricably tied to ideas about womanhood and an oppressive patriarchy. We get into how that point of view colors the two films in their expression of desire and consent, the artistic gaze, and the function of myth and legend. Plus, Your Next Picture Show, where we share recent filmgoing experiences in hopes of putting something new on your cinematic radar.

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about THE PIANO, PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730. 

Show Notes:

Works Cited

• “French filmmaker Céline Sciamma on looking, longing and falling in love in Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” CBC Radio

• “Portrait of a Director on a Hot Streak,” by Scott Tobias (theringer.com)

Your Next Picture Show

• Genevieve: Céline Sciamma’s GIRLHOOD

• Scott: Jane Campion’s IN THE CUT

• Keith: David Lynch’s WHAT DID JACK DO?

• Tasha: Christopher Landon’s HAPPY DEATH DAY and HAPPY DEATH DAY 2U

Outro music: Vivaldi’s Concerto No. 2 in G Minor (The Four Seasons, “Summer”)

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Céline Sciamma’s 2019 Cannes sensation PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE is a lush, romantic film set on an isolated island and concerned with irrepressible desires in deeply repressive times, a description that neatly applies to another Cannes breakout from 1993: Jane Campion’s THE PIANO. But the love affair at the heart of Campion’s film plays with a much trickier power imbalance, which we get into as we process THE PIANO’s complicated relationships, its most essential performances, and the conversation around it both now and then. Plus, we tackle some feedback from a couple of recent episodes regarding some details we got wrong, and some we got right.

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about THE PIANO, PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.

Works Cited:

• “Sexism and Misogyny: Who Takes the Rap? Misogyny, gangsta rap, and The Piano” by bell hooks (1994)

Outro music: Judy Garland, “I Love a Piano”

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We return to the trenches of the first World War to consider Sam Mendes’ 1917 within the greater history of World War I films generally, and as a companion to Peter Weir’s GALLIPOLI specifically. Following some debate over whether 1917’s continuous shot gimmick makes it more or less emotionally affecting, and an attempt to parse the film’s attitudes about war, we look at these two films in tandem to consider what they have to say about the failures of leadership in wartime, their respective depictions of young male friendship and communication, and to what extent each registers as an anti-war film. Plus, Your Next Picture Show, where we share recent filmgoing experiences in hopes of putting something new on your cinematic radar.

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about GALLIPOLI, 1917, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730. 

Works Cited

• “‘Full Metal Jacket’ Seduced My Generation and Sent Us to War,” by Anthony Swofford (The New York Times Magazine)

• “Before 1917: Revisiting the greatest first world war movies,” by Scott Tobias (theguardian.com) 

• “The 50 Greatest War Movies Ever Made,’ by Keith Phipps (vulture.com)

Your Next Picture Show

• Scott: King Vidor’s THE BIG PARADE and Lewis Milestone’s ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT

• Genevieve: John Chester’s THE BIGGEST LITTLE FARM

• Tasha: Sergio G. Sanchez’s MARROWBONE, Sebastian Schipper’s VICTORIA, and Makoto Shinkai’s WEATHERING WITH YOU

• Keith: Francis Ford Coppola’s THE COTTON CLUB

Outro music: “Wayfaring Stranger,” performed by John Stirratt 

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