Trylove

“If it was necessary to climb down into hell and wrestle a film out of the claws of the devil,” Werner Herzog once said, “I would do so.” If it was necessary.

In FITZCARRALDO, a man whose dream to host opera in the jungle leads him to risk and lose indigenous lives on a harebrained scheme to drag a boat over a mountain – all so he can steal natural resources to fund his manic vision. Its production, including the real-life towing of a real-life boat over a real-life mountain in Peru, was similarly plagued by injury, death, and exploitation.

Herzog’s biggest movie makes you feel like you’re falling into a trap. Can the value of a dream realized outweigh the cost of realizing it? No. The answer’s no. That’s why FITZCARRALDO can be hard to swallow: It’s a monumental Movie-movie about the persistence of the human spirit that is itself an example of how the products of pointless dreams – fame, riches, opera in the jungle, a movie about fame and riches and opera in the jungle – crumble in comparison to the sacrifices made to realize them.

In this episode, we discuss how we feel FITZCARRALDO’s hubris, imperialist undercurrents, and literal loss of life (both on-screen and behind the camera) all but rob the movie of its essential point and reason for being.

Resources

“Making Films, Taking Lives: How the Present Looms Large in Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo” by Chris Polley for Perisphere, the Trylon blog: https://www.perisphere.org/2021/11/16/making-films-taking-lives-how-the-present-looms-large-in-herzogs-fitzcarraldo/

Werner Herzog promoting FITZCARRALDO on Late Night with David Letterman, October 11, 1982: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruY1FrVW9KE

Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/trylovepodcast and email us at [email protected] to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at https://www.trylon.org/.

Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Outro music: “Bella Figlia Dell'Amore” from Verdi’s “Rigoletto” sung by Enrico Caruso (tenor), Bessie Abott (soprano), Louise Homer (contralto) and Antonio Scotti (baritone), 1907.

0:00 - Episode 146: FITZCARRALDO (1982)

1:38 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary (patent pending)

4:13 - Jason’s thoughts

8:31 - Cody’s thoughts

13:06 - Harry’s thoughts

20:41 - A dream as disgusting as the tools used to realize it

25:39 - Contrasts in FITZCARRALDO

37:30 - Satire?

39:55 - Why self-aware readings of FITZCARRALDO fall flat

43:21 - Final thoughts

53:51 - Cody’s Noteys: Fitzca-runtime (runtime-based trivia)

Klaus Kinski again appears as That Freaky Guy Who Insists On Going To The Jungle, this time portraying Francisco Manoel da Silva (better known by his outlaw codename, “Cobra Verde”), who’s chased there by his plantation owner boss who has no interest in being his father-in-law after Francisco impregnates the baron’s three teenage daughters. Oops!

Cobra Verde’s attempts to kickstart the cold engine of the slave trade on the West African coast, and everything that derail them, make up the rest of an inscrutable plot. In this episode, we discuss our confusion over how the titular character is built, where the movie’s satirical lens is pointed, its fairly misguided attempts at ‘authentic’ portrayal of African cultures, and how the surly, perfectly pitched magic of AGUIRRE, THE WRATH OF GOD (1972) and NOSFERATU THE VAMPYRE (1979) don’t seem to have rubbed off on this one.

Also check out:

- “Picturesque savagery: Primitivism and authenticity in Cobra Verde” by Sam Storey https://www.academia.edu/30156985/Picturesque_savagery_Primitivism_and_authenticity_in_Cobra_Verde

Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/trylovepodcast and email us at [email protected] to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at https://www.trylon.org/.

Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Choir performance from COBRA VERDE.

0:00 - Episode 145: COBRA VERDE (1987)

2:37 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary

4:43 - Jason’s thoughts

7:57 - Cody’s thoughts

12:04 - Harry’s thoughts

16:42 - Aaron’s thoughts

22:41 - Where the film’s sardonic lens is pointed

28:44 - The line between ‘adding authenticity’ and ‘exoticizing’

36:06 - Who is Cobra Verde?: A discussion

47:06 - Da animals D:

48:40 - A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971) and the systems that grind us all

53:51 - Cody’s Noteys: Snakelove (snake-themed trivia)

You don’t have to squint to see what AGUIRRE, THE WRATH OF GOD is saying about European imperialists hunting for an imaginary city of riches in South America in 1560. It’s saying they’re evil! And stupid! And in that disarming straightforwardness, it’s making an interesting point about what people expect of fiction – of what they expect from movies – and how sometimes, there’s only one right way to tell a story about evil, deluded people: In the meanest, most pejorative way possible.

Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/trylovepodcast and email us at [email protected] to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at https://www.trylon.org/.

Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Music: Peruvian pipe music and ambiance from AGUIRRE, THE WRATH OF GOD.

0:00 - Episode 144: AGUIRRE, THE WRATH OF GOD (1972)

2:21 - The episode actually starts

3:18 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary

5:06 - Jason’s thoughts

10:09 - Cody’s thoughts

14:05 - Harry’s thoughts

20:21 - Aaron’s thoughts

25:09 - How the deeply stupid, cruel, pathetic conquistadors differ from The Heart of Darkness

44:20 - The false idea of agency, self-determination, and control in the jungle

50:37 - The inherently evil humanity of imperialists

54:10 - Da animals D:

56:59 - Cody’s Noteys: Trylibs Expedition (Madlibs)

A strikingly stylized reimagining of the classic creature figure, NOSFERATU THE VAMPYRE indicts the driven for the death of passion. Following the broad strokes of F.W. Murnau’s 1922 expressionist horror film, Werner Herzog’s late-70s take on the myth paints the titular non-human as a pathetic figure marked more by his maudlin, passionless philosophies than his bloodlust.

“Give me some of your love,” Dracula commands Isabelle Adjani’s Lucy Harker. “I won't even give that love to God,” she replies, laying clear the philosophical divide at the heart of the movie. It’s a cold, focused, problematic, weird, subtly sexy movie, and we had a blast picking it apart.

Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/trylovepodcast and email us at [email protected] to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at https://www.trylon.org/.

Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Music: “Morning Sun Rays" by Popol Vuh from the NOSFERATU THE VAMPYRE soundtrack.

0:00 - Episode 143: NOSFERATU THE VAMPYRE (1979)

2:34 - The episode actually starts

4:05 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary (under exclusive license from AG Enterprises, LLC)

6:12 - Jason’s thoughts

12:31 - Cody’s thoughts

18:48 - Harry’s thoughts

24:20 - What makes Jonathan such a perfect victim

33:06 - Jonathan and the #workaholic #grindset

37:11 - There’s no dressing up the devil

42:45 - Freedom and captivity

50:21 - The sympathetic, loathsome Dracula

55:28 - Lucy as messiah

59:40 - The German and English versions of the film

1:01:54 - Final thoughts

1:03:39 - Cody’s Noteys: The Werner Herzog Guessing Game

Featuring returning guest Seth Zarate (https://twitter.com/snzarate)!

It’s that time of year again: Four of us hit up the fifth annual all-night Horrorthon at the Trylon!

Featuring only horror movie sequels, Horrorthon V: Son of Horrorthon was a surprise collection of some real wild choices: PSYCHO II (1983), PHANTASM II (1988), HALLOWEEN III: SEASON OF THE WITCH (1982), DAY OF THE DEAD (1985), CRITTERS 2 (1988), and NIGHT OF THE DEMONS 2 (1994).

In our first in-person episode since March 10, 2020, we dedicate exactly eight minutes to dump all our thoughts on each movie before giving our personal rankings. Hope you enjoy the format shakeup – apologies for the quality difference from our usual, but we were just having a bunch of fun this time around.

Follow Seth on Twitter at https://twitter.com/snzarate and Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/snzarate/

Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/trylovepodcast and email us at [email protected] to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at https://www.trylon.org/.

Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Music: “Silver Shamrock Commercial Theme” by John Carpenter and Alan Howarth from the HALLOWEEN III: SEASON OF THE WITCH soundtrack.

0:00 - Episode 142: Horrorthon V: Son of Horrorthon

6:18 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary

8:02 - The vibe at Horrorthon V

9:45 - The non-feature programming

16:54 - PSYCHO II (1983)

24:57 - PHANTASM II (1988)

33:37 - HALLOWEEN III: SEASON OF THE WITCH (1982)

42:10 - DAY OF THE DEAD (1985)

50:22 - CRITTERS 2 (1988)

58:38 - NIGHT OF THE DEMONS 2 (1994)

1:07:07 - Comparing all-nighters at the Trylon

1:08:16 - Ranking the movies of Horrorthon V

When was the last time a movie made you consider who you were before, during, and after watching it? Or where those people came from? Or what you do with those thoughts?

The final installment in Apichatpong Weerasethakul's "Primitive" project, UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES is an oft-cited example of slow cinema and the movie that made Weerasethakul a darling on the international stage.

In this episode, we try to go further than the ‘WTF’ reactions and knee-jerk defenses we found on the internet. We just so happen to pick up a few ghosts along the way and leave little versions of ourselves behind – like the text you're reading or the podcast you might listen to in a few minutes. Say hello to those guys for us, would you?

Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/trylovepodcast and email us at [email protected] to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at https://www.trylon.org/.

Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Music: “Acrophobia” by Jettamon Malayota (Penguin Villa) from the UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES soundtrack.

0:00 - Episode 141: UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES (2010)

2:19 - The episode actually starts

3:01 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary (franchised by Harry Mackin)

6:06 - Jason’s thoughts

9:54 - Cody’s thoughts

14:34 - Harry’s thoughts

20:38 - Boonmee and modes of being

34:06 - Understanding the movie’s impact on three levels

37:54 - Haunting mundanity

41:31 - The power of images

46:54 - Boonmee dies as he lived: A man

50:33 - Intentional, necessary abstraction & ambiguity

53:43 - A lamentation for the end of the film

1:03:03 - Final thoughts

1:08:43 - Cody’s Noteys: Uncle Notey (trivia)

It’s impossible to deny the charm of HARVEY, because if you do, you’re choosing ‘smart’ over ‘pleasant.’ Of those two, you know which we’d recommend.

The titular non-character might be described as an invisible, six-foot-three-and-a-half-inch, anthropomorphic rabbit, but Harvey is so much more than a “benign but mischievous creature”: it’s a highlight of the inherent value of personhood, an appeal to consciousness of the other, and a rejection of the bourgeois pressures of society – all wrapped in an all-time Jimmy Stewart performance. For a generation of people (including many of us) that came of age amid a cultural wave that deified sourness, pretense, and irony, its warmth and crucial insistence on pleasantness elevates it above feel-good cinema and into a personal entreaty.

Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/trylovepodcast and email us at [email protected] to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at https://www.trylon.org/.

Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Music: “Hippy Hippy Hop” from HARVEY (sung by Aileen Carlyle as Miss Tewksbury).

0:00 - Episode 140: HARVEY (1950)

5:37 - The episode actually starts

8:00 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary

9:55 - Jason’s thoughts

15:12 - Cody’s thoughts

19:46 - Harry’s thoughts

25:29 - Aaron’s thoughts

29:49 - Empathy vs. society

34:21 - The Ghibli-like scene where Elwood peaks

41:01 - Elwood as catalyst for social consciousness

44:19 - The mystery of Harvey the pooka

50:29 - Could’ve been edited as a horror film à la THE BABADOOK (2014)

52:26 - What makes Harvey more than a coping mechanism for Elwood’s grief

55:53 - Should they have shown the rabbit?

57:39 - The implications of Harvey being real

1:00:11 - Final thoughts

1:04:17 - Cody’s Noteys: Force of Rabbit (trivia)

Featuring special guest Seth Zarate (https://twitter.com/snzarate)!

With one eye on Chinese martial arts and one eye on American ‘tude, RUMBLE IN THE BRONX was Jackie Chan’s breakout Western hit. There’s dirtbike gangs in the streets, diamond-peddling crime syndicates, a hoverboat – everything you’d expect from an American action comedy, just with 100% more Jackie Chan.

More violent, more outspoken, more plot-heavy, and just a bit less fun than Jackie’s Hong Kong films, RUMBLE also functions, unintentionally, as a sort of inverse commentary on ethnocentrism in American filmmaking: the same stereotyping cultural lens Hollywood points at Asia is pointed back at the USA in a movie where Vancouver is an unconvincing stand-in for the Big Apple and gun-toting mafiosos tear down a grocery store with tow cables for the hell of it.

Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/trylovepodcast and email us at [email protected] to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at https://www.trylon.org/.

Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Music: Credits theme from the RUMBLE IN THE BRONX soundtrack (Hong Kong release).

0:00 - Episode 139: RUMBLE IN THE BRONX (1995)

3:05 - The podcast actually starts

5:26 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary

7:57 - Seth’s thoughts

11:38 - Jason’s thoughts

19:11 - Cody’s thoughts

23:25 - Harry’s thoughts

29:54 - Aaron’s thoughts

36:20 - The contrast of excellent action and a throwaway plot

42:56 - Familiar faces in a new context

48:01 - Danny

51:04 - Final thoughts

57:28 - Cody’s Noteys (Triplove: A Podquest [location trivia])

Featuring special guest Chris Polley (https://twitter.com/qhrizpolley) of Film Trace (https://linktr.ee/filmtrace)!

Sure, SHERLOCK, JR. is a century-old masterwork of performance, direction, and editing that still rouses today – but it also demonstrates an awareness of its audience that’s been rarely seen since. In many ways, it democratized physical comedy and stunt craft in general, which is part of what makes it the case study for the value of human labor in practical effects that it is today. In others, it’s also an important entry in the canon of movies about movies and their power to guide and influence behaviors and attitudes.

Find Chris on Twitter at https://twitter.com/qhrizpolley and listen to Film Trace wherever you get podcasts (https://linktr.ee/filmtrace)

Resources/links

- “Sherlock Jr: My Favorite Film to Watch with Others” by Ryan Sanderson on Perisphere: https://www.perisphere.org/2021/09/24/sherlock-jr-my-favorite-film-to-watch-with-others/

Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/trylovepodcast and email us at [email protected] to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at https://www.trylon.org/.

Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Music by Matan Porat recorded from a live performance of SHERLOCK, JR. at the 2012 Cleveland ChamberFest.

0:00 - Episode 138: SHERLOCK, JR. (1924)

2:50 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary

4:29 - Chris’s thoughts

5:26 - Jason’s thoughts

8:31 - Cody’s thoughts

11:49 - Harry’s thoughts

15:26 - Aaron’s thoughts

19:14 - The active conditioning of the audience

28:27 - The value of practical effects in selling this kind of humor

31:02 - The labor struggle and democratizing stunt craft

33:48 - Connecting Keaton’s work to modern filmmaking

37:28 - The tension of the real

40:42 - Why doesn’t SHERLOCK, JR. feel tropey?

44:09 - The relationship of dreams to fantasy to cinema to audience

54:08 - Our favorite bits, stunts, jokes, and gags

1:01:54 - Cody’s Noteys – Trylibs: Detective (Madlibs)

Featuring special guests Emily Csuy (of Stoop Kidz!: A Hey Arnold! Podcast) and Charlie Mackin (https://twitter.com/charliemander13)!

BUT I’M A CHEERLEADER is Jamie Babbit’s tacky, iconic entry in the history of sardonic queer cinema, panned at release but brought back as a cult classic by the queer communities it was made for. Its dire subject matter (an all-American cheerleader discovers her homosexuality by force when she’s sent to conversion therapy) is wrapped in a bubblegum aesthetic and inflammatory, comedic writing, positioning it between somewhere between “quaint queer dramedy” and “John Waters camp”. Its insistence on subverting straight symbology and queering the “traditional Western lifestyle” expands its focus beyond a singular queer girl finding herself to include conversations we’re still having today on gender expression, matrimony, queer joy, and more.

Find Emily on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/emilycsuy/, listen to Stoop Kidz! wherever you get podcasts, and find the podcast on Twitter at https://twitter.com/StoopKidzPod and Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/stoopkidzpod/

Follow Charlie on Twitter at https://twitter.com/charliemander13 and Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/charliemander/

Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/trylovepodcast and email us at [email protected] to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at https://www.trylon.org/.

Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Music: “Glass Vase Cello Case” by Tattle Tale from the BUT I’M A CHEERLEADER soundtrack.

- Learn about the anti-LGBTQ practice of conversion therapy and what you can do to help outlaw it at https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/what-is-conversion-therapy-lgbtq/

- “The new girls of summer” cover story in OUT Magazine, July 2000: https://books.google.com/books?id=oWIEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false

- “Silk Chiffon” by MUNA feat. Phoebe Bridgers, a music video inspired by BUT I’M A CHEERLEADER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhyk9rchC2c

- Emily referenced “Cheerleader” by St. Vincent on her outro. It’s a good song. Listen to it here: https://youtu.be/LEY9GJAm8bA

0:00 - BUT I’M A CHEERLEADER (1999)

2:17 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary (licensed by Jason Dafnis)

4:51 - Emily’s thoughts

8:03 - Charlie’s thoughts

9:01 - Jason’s thoughts

14:07 - Cody’s thoughts

17:59 - Harry’s thoughts

22:39 - Should BUT I’M A CHEERLEADER be more transgressive?

33:59 - Shame, growth, and Megan + Graham

47:19 - The “ex-ex-gays” and finding community

52:30 - The problematic fifth step of conversion

1:00:13 - Cody’s Noteys (“But I’m a Trylover” trivia)