Thanks so much for the show, guys. It was great to hear Dax back!

The section where you discuss Playtime and Night of the Hunter was a nice change of pace from the regular main reviews where you focus on the kinda dull releases of today. I think Frank started out his thoughts on Playtime by saying “there might be things I didn’t get…”, I think that is clear after hearing the following conversation.

Tati’s films are certainly extremely dense but I also find them at the same time immensely rewarding. If you don’t get the commentary on technology and modernization I think there are surely enough beautifully constructed comedic ‘set pieces’ to soak up.

Going forward I think the films Frank should be prescribed should be maybe more American and less about themes or filmmaking.

One thing that bugs me though is the idea that if Frank doesn’t like a film nobody else can like it without being influenced by an outside factor. There are a multitude of reasons why Playtime is a masterpiece and the fact that it’s old, French, and on criterion don’t rank among them.

Thanks again for the show.

I know Jay didn’t want any listener suggestions, but if they do kind of want to stick towards some foreign films for Frank, maybe a few films by Jean-Pierre Melville might appeal to Frank. Jay has compared Melville to Tarantino in the past and Frank loves some QT, and Melville’s style has influenced a lot Western crime films as well.

There’s two or three Melville films I could think of that might appeal to Frank.

I still need to see that one (been on my short list for over a year). Le Samourai is the only Melville I’ve seen, but it’s pretty great.

i kinda agree with Frank about Playtime. There were moments that were really enjoyable, but there are other moments that were boring.

I love Night of the Hunter (it’s on my top 100), but on a first time watch it can be difficult to digest, particularly the staginess of the sets and their subsequent artificiality. It requires a viewer apply a storybook aspect to the proceedings.
The book by Davis Grubb is fantastic and by virtue of its medium does not have this issue.
While no fan of remakes, a case could be made for a new adaptation of this (ignoring the Richard Chamberlain t.v. movie). The Coen Brothers would nail the depression era Southern setting and the river chase. Though no one could touch Mitchum’s Harry Powell (compare True Grit’s Jeff Bridges’ Cogburn character to John Wayne’s- no contest, the Duke is monumental), other aspects could be given a more naturalistic spin.

Jumping into non-narrative driven films is hard to do. I think liking films like Playtime, or even some of the documentaries Jay’s spoken about like Sweetgrass, might not ever be in the cards for certain people. For instance, I found Playtime difficult/frustrating for a lot of the same reasons Frank talked about and I’m not sure it’s the kind of film I’d ever list as something I enjoy watching. That said, I certainly appreciate it’s impact on film, its ideas, and how it’ll probably change my perspective on movies, in some way, going forward. In the end isn’t that the goal of pushing yourself to watch films that are outside of your comfort zone, regardless of whether you like them?

With that said, I don’t know exactly where you go next with the “prescribing” films stuff. If “Criterionitis” claims are just going to become the new go-to thing for giving an older movie a bad grade then I’d say to just forget about the whole thing. I think it’s a really useless concept that just frustrates discussion and doesn’t mean anything.

In lieu of Gone Girl (and next week’s podcast), you can stream the full score at NPR. I definitely got a bit of a Badelamenti/Twin Peaks vibe with much of the soundtrack.
http://www.npr.org/2014/09/25/350948108/first-listen-trent-reznor-atticus-ross-gone-girl-motion-picture-soundtrack

I would really want to challenge Frank just a little bit.
How about “Stranger by the lake” and “Blue is the warmest color”!

That’s not a bad suggestion, and Wise Blood is even vaguely connected to The Master, which might be a selling point.

Jay has talked about World on a Wire before. I think Sean would really be into Fassbinder’s stuff. I know when Kieslowski’s Decalogue was brought up in a junk mail they had never heard of it so seemingly they haven’t heard of him. Jay might really dig his work.

I like the Glossary..
but, what we really need is a Wikipedia page,

How is it that so many newbie podcasts are able to have one but not filmjunk. This is absolute rubbish.

Wasn’t “Poltergeist” the first Frank prescription? Luckily it no longer takes as many spoonfuls of Jay sugar to help the medicine go down.

I believe some people tried to make one in the past and it got deleted almost immediately. Apparently we’re not big enough to be immortalized in Wikipedia. I don’t really understand what the criteria is for inclusion.

Frank, If you’re going to accuse people of Criterionitis, don’t make things up to describe it. It came across as condescending to say to any film fan. I’d like to never see this term in the FJ Glossary unless it has a super clear definition =)

so I challenged the deletion, and a super awesome guy named Paul Erik came and agreed so Jay now is officially @ wikipedia .. Now, I will let that sit for a while and then strike again by adding Film junk into the list of film podcast wiki page.. and then… hopefully we can go about to create the wiki site.. do you guys have links to some of your awards or anything that could be used as a reference? ..these guys love references..

Will you keep editing the wiki for Jay? I would say it would be useful regarding Beauty Day to mention the Genie nomination and the Golden Eye nomination at Zurich Film Festival at the very least. I don’t know how the Wikipedia system works, but it would suck if it was possible for another drive-by deletion to occur.

It’s time for the King of Conspiracy to step in.

Looks like we got ourselves a good ol’ fashioned wikipedia edit war. Yeehaw!

One of the moments on film that really gets me going is the part in The Stand at the beginning where the song Don’t Fear The Reaper starts playing. I just love the way that sets the mood of the film (even though it’s not the original version of the song, it’s well done).