The Projection Booth

Our examination of 1969 continues with a look at Pier Paolo Pasolini's Porcile. Based on a play Pasolini wrote, the film cross-cuts between an Italian enclave in Germany in 1967 and a rogue cannibal in an unknown time around Mt. Etna. Ken Stanley and Jonathan Owen join Mike to dissect this oblique film. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Become a supporter of this podca...

Based on a book by Vasilis Vasilikos, Costa-Gavras’s Z (1969) stars Yves Montand as a political activist who is killed after a rally. The film also stars Jean-Louis Trintignant as the investigator of the incident who manages to uncover a vast conspiracy. Keith Gordon and Eric Cohen join Mike to discuss this political thriller which is a thinly veiled re-telling of the events in Greece of 1963 and...

We're kicking off our discussion of the films of 1969 with a look at Yoshishige Yoshida's Eros + Massacre. The film tells two parallel stories - one in the early 1920s and the other in contemporary 1969. Samm Deighan and Chris Stachiw join Mike to smugly discuss the film. We're joined by special guest Professor Dick Stegewerns author of Kiju Yoshida and ATG - The Reluctant Partner. Learn more abou...

For the last episode in our Sci-Fi December series it's a five hour journey into Douglas Trumbull's Brainstorm (1983) which stars Christopher Walken as scientist Michael Brace who has helped in the discovery of a new technology that records the sensations of a person and allows for playback directly into another person's brain. Interviews include Trumbull, actress Louise Fletcher, screenwriters Br...

Sci Fi December continues with a look at the 1986 film from Georgiy Daneliya, Kin Dza Dza. It’s the story of two men who are transported to the planet Pluke where they have to navigate the barren landscape and strange cultures of the people there. Jennifer Handorf and Dan Martin join Mike to unpack the rituals and anthropological implications of Pluke as well as dicuss the 2013 animated remake, Ku...

Sci-Fi December rolls along with a look at 1989’s Millennium. Directed by Michael Anderson, the film stars Kris Kristofferson as an airline disaster investigator who stumbles onto something unexpected at the site of a mid-air collision. It will lead him into a tangled web of time traveling shenanigans. Jedidiah Ayres and Chris Bricklemyer join Mike to discuss the film, John Varley's source novel,...

Sci-Fi December continues with a look at The Creation of the Humanoids. Copyrighted 1960, the film was directed by Wesley Barry and written by Jay Simms. It plays like a stage play about a post-Apocalyptic world in which androids are a large part of society and human beings fear being replaced by them. Jennifer Handorf and Dan Martin join Mike to discuss the film, science fiction as allegory, and...

We kick off sci-fi December with a look at Nicolas Roeg’s The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976). Based on the book by Walter Tevis, the film stars David Bowie as Thomas Jerome Newton, a strange man who appears in the office of a patent attorney with some big ideas that help him start on the road to untold wealth. Along the way he meets colorful characters such as Candy Clark as Mary Lou, a hotel worker...

On this special episode Mike talks to Stew Buck, the writer/director/producer of a pair of upcoming documentaries -- A World War II Fairy Tale: The Making of Michael Mann's "The Keep" and Uncovering Wolfen.  Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support . Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionboot...

Noirvember 2019 wraps up with Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity (1944). With a screenplay co-written by Wilder and Raymond Chandler and based on a story by James M. Cain, the film is one of the seminal works of film noir. It stars Fred MacMurray as fast-talking Walter Neff, an insurance agent who gets played for a dope by a dame. The dame in question, Phyllis Dietrichsen, is played by the one and on...

Noirvember 2019 continues with a look at The Conversation (1974). Sandwiched between the first two Godfather films, The Conversation is writer/director Francis Ford Coppola’s paean to European art films of the 1960s, most notably Antonioni’s Blow-Up. Instead of swinging London, however, The Conversation is set in San Francisco and stars Gene Hackman as Harry Caul, a schlubby nudnik whose life revo...

Daniel Kremer returns to the Projection Booth as a director rather than a co-host with a discussion of his film Overwhelm the Sky (2019) along with the film's lead actor, Alexander Hero. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support . Become a supporter of The Projection Boot...

We continue Noirvember 2019 with a look at Max Ophul’s The Reckless Moment. Released in 1949, the film tells the story of Lucia Harper (Joan Bennett), a mother who’s out to protect her family from the forces of evil including Ted Darby, a swindler who’s making moves on her 17 year old daughter. Mrs. Harper will go to extremes to keep her family safe. Cullen Gallagher and Samm Deighan join Mike to...

We kick-off Noirvember 2019 with a look at Joseph H. Lewis’s The Big Combo (1955). Written by Philip Yordan, the film stars Cornel Wilde as Lt. Leonard Diamond. He’s a cop with a soft spot for Susan Lowell (Jean Wallace), the main squeeze of Mr. Brown (Richard Conte). Diamond and Brown play a strange game of cat and mouse as Diamond seems to pursue justice while Brown is a psychopathic thug who th...

The 1984 film from Adam Small and Peter Stuart, Another State of Mind, documents an international tour by two west coast punk bands, Youth Brigade and Social Distortion; capturing the attitudes, ethos, and lifestyles of the time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support...

On a very special episode of The Projection Booth, Bill Ackerman and Maitland McDonagh join Mike to discuss Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz's Messiah of Evil. Released under a number of titles (including The Second Coming), the film is a creepy, atmospheric horror film about a young woman who goes in search of her father only to find something far-more-sinister than she could have ever imagined. Lea...

We wrap up #Shocktober2019 with an episode on Mark Goldblatt’s 1988 film Dead Heat. The film stars Treat Williams as Roger Mortis who, along with his partner Doug Bigelow (Joe Piscopo) investigate a perplexing case that throws them into the world of the supernatural. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/...

#Shocktober2019 continues with a look at Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby (1968). Based very faithfully on the book by Ira Levin, the film stars Mia Farrow as the titular Rosemary who, with her husband Guy (John Cassavetes) move to a new apartment in New York where some strange things play out. Suzen Tekla Kruglinska and Kat Ellinger join Mike to talk about this seminal film as well as its made-fo...

#Shocktober2019 continues with a look at the 1981 movie from director Michael Wadleigh, Wolfen. Based loosely on the 1978 book by Whitley Streiber, the film stars Albert Finney as Dewey Wilson, a world weary New York City cop who is assigned the macabre murder of real estate mogul Peter Vanderveer. Initially thought to be a terrorist plot, Wilson is assigned a psychologist, Neff (Diane Venora), to...

On this special episode of The Projection Booth, Mike talks with filmmaker Sheona McDonald about her work including her latest documentary, Candice, all about the life of feminist, actress, filmmaker, and activist Candida Royalle (nee Candice Marion Vadala). Learn more at candicemovie.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www...

On this special episode of The Projection Booth, Mike talks to filmmaker Jacqueline Olive about her documentary Always in Season (2019) which tells the stories of Lennon Lacy, a young man found hanging near his home in 2014, as well as historic cases of lynchings from America's not-so-distant past. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Become a supporter of this podcast: h...

#Shocktober2019 continues with a look at the 1980 film from director Vernon Zimmerman, Fade to Black. The film stars Dennis Christopher as Eric Binford, a youth who spends too much of his time watching and obsessing about movies. Unfortunately, Eric’s a little mentally unstable thanks in part to his family which consists of his harridan Aunt Stella. Heather Drain and Bill Ackerman join Mike to dis...

On this special episode, Maurice Bursztynski and David Kettridge join Mike to discuss the 1980 film Die Laughing. It stars Robbie Benson as Pinsky -- a cab driver by day and folk singer/songwriter by night who gets involved in a web of international intrigue when a secret-bearing monkey comes into his life. Director Jeff Werner and co-star Carel Struycken share their experiences working on the fil...

On this special episode of The Projection Booth, Mike talks to filmmaker James D. Stern about his work as a producer and director on Broadway, television, and at the movies. Stern has produced works as diverse as Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, Self/Less, Snowden, Murder Mystery, American Chaos, and Looper. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Become a supporter of thi...

Dahlia Schweitzer and Patrick Bromley join Mike to kick off Shocktober 2019 with a look at World War Z. It's not necessarily based on Max Brooks’s book of the same name though he gets a credit at the beginning. It’s a zombie apocalypse film starring Brad Pitt that takes Pitt around the world looking for the cause of and cure for a zombie plague. Special guest Dr. Sarah Juliet Lauro, author of The...