The Projection Booth

We’re discussing the 1988 film from Karen Shakhnazarov, Zero City. The film stars Leonid Filatov as Aleksei Varakin, he’s from a Moscow Mechanical Plant and comes to a small town to meet with a man about air conditioners. He soon finds himself in an absurdist nightmare where he’s served a cake that looks like his own head by a chef who is not his father and commits suicide. Samm Deighan and Alista...

The rest of Mike's interview with Andrew Birkin about his vast career from his early days as a photographer to The Name of the Rose, to The Cement Garden, and more. 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/projectionbooth 

Mike talks with Assistant Professor of Modern Japanese Cultural Studies at the University of Alberta and guest curator Will Carroll (Suzuki Seijun and Postwar Japanese Cinema) and Peter Tatara, the brand-new Director of Film at Japan Society and founder of Anime NYC about the Japan Society's Seijun Suzuki Centennial. Celebrating 100 years of iconoclast director Seijun Suzuki (1923-2017), a singula...

Jim Donahue and Richard Hatem join Mike to discuss this formerly hard-to-find film while writer/director Juleen Compton discusses her career and struggles with Hollywood film making. in her at her titular Plastic Dome, a large structure which comes to act like a tent in a holy revival. Jim Donahue and Richard Hatem join Mike to discuss this formerly hard-to-find film while writer/director Juleen C...

On this special episode, Mike spoke with writer/director/actress Wendy McColm about her sophomore feature Fuzzy Head (2023) which plays at this year's Slamdance Film Festival . 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/projectionbooth 

Mike talks with Mark Shapiro about the documentary he co-directed with Douglas Brian Miller, Downwind, a searing documentary about the over 900 nuclear tests that took place in Nevada over a half century and the affects they've had on the generations of people that live downwind from the radiation. Downwind has its premiere at Slamdance on Jan 23, 2023. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://...

We’re confronting some of our biggest fears and learning that maybe what we’re running from… maybe we’re just running from ourselves. Yes, of course, we’re talking about Orgazmo. Released in 1997 the film was directed by and stars Trey Parker who plays Joe Young, a Mormon on his mission in the big bad city of Los Angeles where he happens upon a porn shoot and gets recruited to play an adult superh...

Uwe Boll unofficially "retired" in 2016 but now he's back with a few films underway and a few more in pre-production. Hear what Dr. Boll has been up to and what he has planned. 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/projectionbooth 

Mike talks with Paul Farber, the host of WHYY's podcast The Statue and Monument Lab's Co-Founder and Director, about The Statue -- a limited-series about the statue of Rocky Balboa and its storied history as a movie prop and source of inspiration. Listen and subscribe at: https://link.chtbl.com/0ozNBj6P?sid=ProjectionBooth Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-pr...

Maurice Bursztynski joins Mike in the latest self-indulgent exercise in ego wherein Mike answers listener questions and goes off on meandering tangents. 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/projectionbooth 

We’re discussing the 1984 film from Stewart Raffill, The Ice Pirates . The film stars Robert Urich as Jason and Michael D. Rhodes as Roscoe. They’re two of titular Ice Pirates, intergalactic privateers who try to rob the ships of the Templars of their most precious cargo, Ice. Fresh water is at a premium and government overreach is at a maximum. Along with more of their crew and some really awful...

We’re revisiting a movie we talked about ten years ago, Eyes Wide Shut. The final film from director Stanley Kubrick, we’re checking in on the film some 23 years after its release. We’ll be discussing the film, an interesting fan edit of the movie, and a 2019 book about the film from authors Robert P. Kolker and Nathan Abrams. Matthew Asprey Gear and Rob St. Mary join Mike to see how they've chang...

We wrap up 2022 with a look at Mario Bava’s 1968 pop sensation Danger: Diabolik. Based on the fumetti by Angela and Luciana Guisanna, the film stars John Phillip Law as the titular Diabolik, an atomic age superthief who gets the girl, gets the gold,, and spoils the lives of every policeman in Italy including Michel Piccoli as Inspector Ginko. Father Malone and Samm Deighan join Mike in discussing...

We’re looking at the 1951 film from Alexander Mackendrick, the Man in the White Suit. The film stars Alec Guinness as Sidney Stratton, an inventor who comes up with a fabric that will never wear out and never get dirty. He soon comes to the attention of both the bosses at the textile mills as well as the workers, and quickly learns that his good intentions are not appreciated in the least, with th...

We’re looking at Nic Roeg and Donald Cammell Performance (1970), the story of a gangster (James Fox) who kills an old friend and goes into hiding at the chateau of a rock star (Mick Jagger). Ben Slater and Maitland McDonagh join Mike to discuss the film and its themes of duality while Professor Sam Umland talks about Donald Cammell and Keiron Pim shines a light on David Litvinoff. Become a support...

On this episode I’m talking to Jesse Pires, director and curator at the Lightbox Film Center. We’re discussing his work down in Philadelphia as well as the work Lightbox is doing on restoration on things like Wayne Wang’s Life is Cheap, but Toilet Paper is Expensive. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support . Become a supporter of T...

On this special episode Mike talks with Vanessa Vasquez about her acting and producing career including her role in East Los High, her recent turns in the comedy Divorce Bait, and Disney+'s National Treasure: Edge of History. 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....

Noirvember and Shocktober meet on this episode as we discuss Roman Polanski’s 1999 film The Ninth Gate. Based on the book The Club Dumas, the film tells the tale of Dean Corso (Johnny Depp), a book detective who gets put on a case by the diabolical Boris Balkan (Frank Langella). He’s to compare three volumes of the same book, a tome which holds the secret of summoning the dark lord himself. Matthe...

On this special episode, Mike talks to writer/director Casper Kelly about his latest film, the surprise movie, Adult Swim's Yule Log (AKA The Fire Place). It's the story of a log burning in the fireplace and the strange things going on around it. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support . Become a supporter of The Projection Booth a...

On this special episode Mike talks to Rachael Stoeltje and Laura Rooney of the The Association of Moving Image Archivists about the AMIA 2022 conference and the good work that they're doing in media preservation. Find out more at https://amianet.org/ Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support . Become a supporter of The Projection Boo...

On this special episode, Mike talks to writer/director Eric Pennycoff and actor Graham Skipper about the recent horror thriller, The Leech. In it, Skipper plays Father David, a devout priest who welcomes a struggling couple into his house at Christmas time. What begins as a simple act of kindness quickly becomes the ultimate test of faith once the sanctity of his home -- and his faith -- is jeopar...

It’s the 600th episode of The Projection Booth and we’re celebrating with a special episode all about Bill Forsyth’s Local Hero. Released in 1983, the film stars Peter Riegert as MacIntyre, a corporate exec who’s really more of a Telex man but gets sent to Scotland by his boss, Felix Happer (Burt Lancaster), to secure needed land for the Knox oil corporation. Rob St. Mary and Jonathan Melville (au...

Mike geeks out talking to Swedish dynamo Peter Stormare about his latest film, Food and Romance (2022). 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/projectionbooth 

We conclude #Noirvember 2022 with a look at Billy Wilder’s Sunset Blvd. Released in 1950, the film tells the story of Joe Gillis (William Holden), a screenwriter who meets a faded star of yesteryear, Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson). Gillis becomes a kept man while helping to fuel Norma’s Desmond’s delusion that she’s returning to the silver screen in a lavish production of Salome. Agatha Luz (Cinem...

It was so great talking with Lisa Eichhorn that I asked her about a lot more than Cutter's Way. We discussed her work with John Schlesinger, her friendship with Alan Rickman, and more. 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/projectionbooth