The Prestige

Rob & Chris delve deeper into Wes Anderson with his 2014 film, THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL.

Rob & Chris continue their wade into the whimsical world of Wes Anderson, looking at his 2004 film, The Aquatic Life Of Steve Zissou

With Sam off being bigger and better things for a month, we're roped in Chris from The Space Jam Continuum to fill in his shoes, as we discuss Wes Anderson's debut hit, Bottle Rocket.

This Week

Over The Garden Wall (2014)
Goliath (2016)
Queer Eye (2018)

Recommendations

Palookaville (1995)
Fargo (1996)
Whip It (2009)

We conclude our Ben Wheatley season with his most recent offering, 2016’s FREE FIRE. After our initial responses to the film, we go on to talk about claustrophobia, empathising with the IRA (!), and whether or not Wheatley has made the ‘step up’ to Hollywood (CA) direction.

Next Week
Our next director is one on which Sam will sadly (good luck, Rob!) be missing out: Wes Anderson. The first film recommended by Sam’s very able replacement, Chris MacLennan, is his debut, 1995’s BOTTLE ROCKET. Get hold of it here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bottle-Rocket-Luke-Wilson/dp/B00ET02BX6

This Week’s Media
THE HANDMAID’S TALE (2017–): Margaret Atwood, Bruce Miller, Elizabeth Moss
STATH LETS FLATS (2018): Tom Kingsley, Jamie Demetriou, Robert Popper
MORTIMER AND WHITEHOUSE: GONE FISHING (2018): Bob Mortimer, Paul Whitehouse

Recommendations
KONG: SKULL ISLAND (2017): Jordan Vogt-Roberts, Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson
28 WEEKS LATER (2007): Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, Robert Carlyle, Rose Byrne
DISTRICT 9 (2009): Neill Blomkamp, Sharlto Copley, David James
BABY DRIVER (2017): Edgar Wright, Ansel Elgort, Jon Bernthal

Footnotes
For an introduction to Cecil B de Mille and some of his spectacular early Hollywood blockbusters, see this book: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=YLPTleQHkrUC&printsec=frontcover&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false On the use of space in cinema, this article is good: https://filmanalysis.coursepress.yale.edu/mise-en-scene Should you want to brush up on your knowledge of some of the paramilitary organisations who may or may not be represented in the film, knock yourself out: https://www.thoughtco.com/guide-to-the-irish-republican-army-3209135 , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afrikaner_Weerstandsbeweging , https://www.history.com/topics/black-panthers And finally, here’s more on the ‘180 Degree Rule’ that Rob talks about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4wX_dmh8_g

This week we conclude our Baz Luhrmann season with his most recent film, 2013’s THE GREAT GATSBY. We have disparate opinions on this — and differing levels of familiarity with the story — but then we move onto a discussion of the movie’s presentation of different ideas about wealth, concepts of class and race on-screen in various countries, and the extent to which the film works as a presentation of the very social dislocation that is its subject.

Next Week
Next week we begin our Ben Wheatley season with his 2009 film DOWN TERRACE — find it here: https://www.amazon.co. uk/Down-Terrace-Julia-Deakin/ dp/B00FYO0A0W.

This Week’s Media
R.I.P.D. (2013): Robert Schwentke, Jeff Bridges, Ryan Reynolds
DEADPOOL 2 (2018): David Leitch, Ryan Reynolds, Josh Broli

Recommendations
GANGS OF NEW YORK (2002): Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis
VALERIAN AND THE CITY OF A THOUSAND PLANETS (2017): Luc Besson, Dane DeHaan, Cara Delivigne
THE DEPARTED (2006): Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon
THE ICE STORM (1997): Ang Lee, Kevin Kline, Joan Allen

Footnotes
For more on the original 1925 novel, see here: https://en.m.wikipedia. org/wiki/The_Great_Gatsby. As a reminder of the Brechtian separation we were talking about with ROMEO + JULIET the other week, there’s this: https://en.m.wikipedia. org/wiki/Separation_of_the_ elements. Here are articles on ideas of dramatic archetypes and dramatic dislocation: http:// dramaticapedia.com/2012/08/17/ the-8-archetypal-characters-2 and http://tvtropes.org/ pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ DramaticDislocation. This book is good on twentieth-century history, including The Great Depression and The American Dream: https://books.google. co.uk/books/about/America_in_ the_Twentieth_Century.html?id= sJ2KPwAACAAJ&redir_esc=y. And this is good on outsiders in US history: https://books.google. co.uk/books/about/Deportation_ Nation.html?id=irgpGACppy0C& redir_esc=y. Finally, Sam mentions THE BIRTH OF A NATION; if you really want to depress yourself, check out the 1915 original (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/ wiki/The_Birth_of_a_Nation) or the 2016 remake (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/ wiki/The_Birth_of_a_Nation_( 2016_film)).

This week our focus shifts to Luhrmann’s sweeping Antipodean magnum opus, AUSTRALIA. We sort of already know what there is to be said about this film, so we spend a lot of time talking about the movie’s politics, its visuals, and how it tries to do many different things, but doesn’t always succeed — and how this isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Next Week
Our final Baz Luhrmann film is his latest: the 2013 adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s THE GREAT GATSBY, available here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-Gatsby-Leonardo-Dicaprio/dp/B00IHS048U

This Week’s Media
JESSICA JONES S2 (2018): Melissa Rosenberg, Kristen Ritter, Rachael Taylor
THE MACHINE GIRL (2008): Noboru Iguchi, Minase Yashiro, Asami

Recommendations
THE MATRIX: REVOLUTIONS (2003): the Wachowskis, Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne
THE SEARCHERS (1956): John Ford, John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter
PADDINGTON (2014): Paul King, Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins
RABBIT-PROOF FENCE (2002): Paul Noyce, Everlyn Sampi, Kenneth Branagh

Footnotes
Firstly, this book is particularly good on the postcolonial ethics behind some of the debates in this film: https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=difIAAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=info:pOGIhm_SRvAJ:scholar.google.com/&ots=vjWkvAM_7a&sig=X6s8WO9L1LED6xQgI-Q3xO_HzXI#v=onepage&q=Stolen%20generations&f=false (Chapter 4 is especially good on the Stolen Generations). There’s more here: https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=5zHAGNPTkqIC&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=info:zNarV2dx7-MJ:scholar.google.com/&ots=PRKYmalN5f&sig=_hpxr3pmZr49SzWeVbAjMyA6uTM#v=onepage&q&f=false. We don’t have space to focus on MOULIN ROUGE this month, but it’s the only Luhrmann film we don’t deal with, and is an...interesting watch! https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00ET1OQ2E For some alternative viewing — and some other touchstones we mention this week — have a look at CROCODILE DUNDEE (https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00FYO5KIE/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1527329695&sr=8-4&pi=PI_PJPrime-Sash-Extra-Large-2017,TopLeft,0,0_AC_SX118_SY170&keywords=crocodile+dundee+video&dpPl=1&dpID=61y8Q6LV0-L&ref=plSrch) or BUTCH CASSIDY (https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00YI9PSY2/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1527329750&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=butch+cassidy+video&dpPl=1&dpID=51v0SQEjnVL&ref=plSrch). Here’s the apology to the Stolen Generations issued by then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in 2008: https://www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/our-country/our-people/apology-to-australias-indigenous-peoples. Finally, this is a good treatment of the epic film genre: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=pxCRAgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false.