The inimitably stylish worlds of American Film Noir and pre Nouvelle Vague French crime cinema collide in the most commanding display of technical execution ever implemented in translating the artistry of the heist to the silver screen. After getting caught in the crosshairs of Hollywood's blacklisting during the McCarthy Era, director Jules Dassin found himself excommunicated to France, with nary an opportunity to reinvigorate his career in sight. With a meager budget and a cast of relative unknowns, including himself, Dassin set about making a film which reflected his desolate state of being, basking in the fabulously dark aesthetics of Film Noir and aided by all the salacious attributes of contemporary French cinema at his disposal. Rififi is most famous for its thirty-six minute long heist sequence, which plays out in almost complete silence. It is a high watermark for both the genre at large and for technical filmmaking in the abstract, as meticulously planned and executed as the crack team of jewel thieves demonstrate themselves to be throughout the film. We are joined this week by fellow The Twin Geeks staff member Stephen Gillespie, who has just returned from his double dose of festival coverage alongside Calvin, doling out the details for the highs and lows of both Fantasia Festival and Japan Cuts. We follow up last week's documentary discourse of Robert Epstein's The Celluloid Closet (1995) with his earlier, more resounding success, The Times of Harvey Milk (1984). All of this and more from your independent resource on classic and contemporary cinema.

Timestamps:

0:00: Stephen and Calvin go to Fantasia Festival

11:13 Stephen and Calvin go to Japan Cuts

26:00 The Times of Harvey Milk (1984)

38:22 Rififi

Summer is coming to a close, but before we pack it in for the season we’ve got one last major thrill to end it on. Point Break is the ludicrous, amazing, exhilarating action spectacle which still defines the high point of Kathryn Bigelow’s directorial career. It embodies the best of what we love about Keanu Reeves and is brimming with career-best performances from the likes of Patrick Swayze, Lori Petty, Gary Busey, and a number of others. The fusion of high-octane sports spectacle like surfing and sky diving melds beautifully with the adrenaline of heist movie action, brilliantly delivered by Bigelow’s peerless eye in numerous unforgettable action sequences that still stand as some of the best of all time today. As autumn rears its head over the horizon we’ve got new films to cover as well, like the box office success of Nia DaCosta’s Candyman before jumping back into the ’90s to revisit the history of another important minority group in the movies with a review of The Celluloid Closet (1995). All of this and more from your independent resource on classic and contemporary cinema.

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The titanic scale and legacy of Fritz Lang's monolithic Sci-Fi epic is undeniable, despite a tumultuous and storied history of arduous ambition, calamitous failure, enduring influence, and eventual resurrection. The history of Metropolis' evolution within the public conscious is at least as fascinating as the innovative film itself. Its nearly complete form has only existed for little more than a decade at this point, making its all-encompassing influence all the more impressive. Seeing it in any form, however, it's not difficult to understand why its maintained such a high status in the canon of Sci-Fi classics. The visual splendor and grandeur of Lang's dystopian masterpiece is awe-inspiring in a way that dwarfs most ever other film produced in its ninety-year shadow. The story is simple yet poignantly effective for its immense scale to capture, providing a straightforward vehicle through which the spectacle of Lang's vision can truly transcend. Along with chronicling its mammoth impact and fascinating legacy we dive into the complex lineage of the beloved Neon Genesis Evangelion series, along with a lengthy look at the propaganda films produced by affluent Hollywood directors as chronicled in Mark Harris' seminal biography on the subject, Five Came Back. To round things out Calvin attempts to seduce David to the offerings of Apple TV+ with the recent offerings of the deaf coming of age film CODA as well as the plethora of prestige television offerings to come from the service as of late. All of this and more from your independent resource on classic and contemporary cinema.

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Paul Newman and Robert Redford pair as another couple of aces in this sleek, stylish portrait of a fantastical Depression Era Chicago in which grifters and gamblers run amok making their way the only way they know how. The Sting is a textbook example of great screenwriting, with a meticulously crafted narrative brimming with colorful characters and satisfying twists, you can't help but be enraptured by its carefully plotting and sensational sleight of hand. The film is a brilliant testimony to the nature of artifice as a form of trickery, swapping out the standard facade of technical wizardry for cleverly incorporated narrative subversion. It's all backed by a lush setting and intoxicating style, set to the sounds of an anachronistic Ragtime score that intentionally operates nondiegetically to immerse us in its beguilingly faux world. We start the show off with a lengthy discussion of the rock/jazz-infused band Steely Dan, as promised last week, working off the in-depth deconstruction of their 1977 album Aja from the Classic Albums documentary series, running through what makes the band so unique and our favorite tracks and albums they've bestowed us with. All of this and more from your independent resource on classic and contemporary cinema.

Stephen King and Frank Darabont's second prison-set adaptation captures the same sense of literary and cinematic symbiosis that its more famous predecessor is most lauded for. Though The Shawshank Redemption (1994) reigns supreme amongst King adaptations, The Green Mile is perhaps an even more compelling reverse side of that same coin, aligning its perspective with the prison guards instead of the inmates this time. An all-star cast lead by Tom Hanks and featuring the likes of Michael Clarke Duncan, Harry Dean Stanton, Sam Rockwell, David Morse, James Cromwell, and numerous others, realize King's compelling conclave of dynamic characters for the screen, bringing to life the dramatic and engrossing story of these several prison guards and their relationships to the doomed men on death row. We bring a host of green-themed films this week, with coverage on David Lowery's recently acclaimed The Green Knight as well as a brief rundown on the history of the color green in the movies. All of this and more from your independent resource on classic and contemporary cinema.

Timestamps:

0:00 A celebration of Green in the movies

7:48 The Green Knight

18:34 The Green Mile

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The famous film that brought together the power couple of Bogie and Bacall, Howard Hawks' To Have and Have Not is an enigma of sensual fascination. Ostensibly an adaptation of the famous Ernest Hemingway novel of the same name, but in actuality anything but, Hawks' laissez faire pairing of the hard-boiled Bogart and the sumptuous ingénue Bacall marinates in electric chemistry sparked between its two leads, emphasizing little else beyond their seductive rapport. The tropical Martinique setting and World War II background help set the stage for the film's undercurrent and intrigue, but its appeal pales in comparison to the iconic romance of the soon-to-be real life couple. We explore all the reasons why the film works so well despite the hodgepodge nature of its construction as well as a litany of subjects ranging from the latest M. Night Shyamalan film to the maligned history of innovative children's cartoons to the complete rage-induced disaster of Woodstock '99. All of this and more from your independent resource on classic and contemporary cinema.

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As the fifth entry in his famous Six Moral Tales, Éric Rohmer's Claire's Knee tackles a range of sexual themes in a singular approach that is both laid back and biting in its criticisms. The careful maneuvering of Rohmer's storytelling, novelistic in nature, allows him to explore the fallibility of human desire and manipulative nature of lust and infatuation without outright demonizing the nuances of his characters. Claire's Knee is an incredibly human portrait of the world while also feeling like a dream at times, with its sumptuous summer setting near the gorgeous Lake Annecy of France and framed with equally warm affection towards its subjects. Listen as we also revisit some controversial news surrounding Morgan Neville's latest documentary, Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain, and another profile of a famous film face: Val. We catch up as well with Calvin at the North Bend Film Festival and hear the latest news from Cannes. All of this and more from your independent resource on classic and contemporary cinema.

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There are few things in the history of cinema more iconic than Chaplin's Little Tramp and his many adventures. His exploits in the snowy landscape of The Gold Rush (1925) are perhaps the most recognizable of all, from the innovative miniature trickery to the famous rolls dance which has permeated pop culture ever since. The purest rendition of Chaplin's indelible persona is perhaps also his most transformative, with two distinct versions to choose from which author varying perspectives on the director's authorial voice over the film. Similar subjects are explored as we take a look at Quinten Tarantino's recent novelization of his hit film Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019) and a magical trip back to the theaters for the first time since their year-long reprieve. All of this and more from your independent resource on classic and contemporary cinema.

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Often proclaimed as the greatest script ever written, the intricate detective plot, thoroughly sketched characters, grand unfolding conspiracy, and riveting narrative developments of Chinatown are undeniably difficult to compare. Adopting all the sensibilities from the highly stylized and sizzling American crime films from the 1940s to the less restricted and more politically astute era of the mid 1970s, Robert Towne's peerless script elevates the conventions of film noir to their most illustrious degree. The typical themes of indifference and cynicism towards an unjust world teeming with crime and corruption are bountiful in Chinatown, perfectly capturing a picturesque version of that romanticized era without polishing away the rotted core at the center of everything. Graham Austin returns to discuss all things Chinatown as well as his recent experience watching the Universal Horror classic Frankenstein (1931) in a uniquely atmospheric cemetery, alongside David's Documentary Discourse returning with a recent festival favorite: Hopper/Welles (2020). All of this and more from your independent resource on classic and contemporary cinema.

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We like to remember Billy Wilder today more for his outstanding efforts as the foremost comic director of his time, but before the days of Some Like it Hot (1959) and The Apartment (1960) Wilder's greatest successes were of the dramatic kind, and none more so than his multi-Oscar winning study on the disease of alcoholism. The Lost Weekend still resonates today because its subject is a perennial one. The pains and desperation experienced by Ray Milland's sickly writer extend beyond the inescapable grasp of the bottle, encompassing the wretched phenomenon of addiction itself. Wilder holds nothing back in depicting the bleak, horrifying, and debilitating tragedy of the drink here, balancing his penchant for humanistic wit with a cutting sense of pathos to balance the potentially histrionic elements of the depiction. But at the same time, that rawness and sense of overwrought emotion are the qualifying attributes that give credence to The Lost Weekend's endeavor to capture the true nature of alcoholism for the screen. It's a tough pill to swallow, even today, but a sobering and meticulously crafted one just the same, and goes down with the same level of sleekness as those more fondly remembered comedies of Wilder's celebrated oeuvre.

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