Episode 4- Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) Jim Jarmusch

Join Xi and special guest Lucas and his pick, Jim Jarmusch's vampire romance film from 2013, "Only Lover's Left Alive" starring Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton. This is the most modern thing we've touched on the show so far. Real fun stuff in the chamber for you, we talk music, Shakespeare, and we even throw a little Roald Dahl into the mix! 

Check out Lucas' and his partners band "Cheer" with their first cross platform single "Hopeful Heart" wherever you stream your music, and shoot them an insta follow @cheerisnotavailable

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:08

Hello and welcome to the Film Trance and Movie Podcast. I'm Zai and uh we're doing something a little new today. We're gonna have our first guest. Um joining me is my friend Lucas. Um uh Andy's not gonna be here for this one, but Lucas is gonna be plenty of fun filling in for Andy. So uh Lucas, you wanna tell us a little bit about um what you love about movies?

SPEAKER_03 0:38

Yeah. Um I just realized I shouldn't have just given like the the visual announcing my presence here, too. That's all good. But um so I think uh I guess my earliest memories of movies were just watching with my parents. My parents always wanted to watch movies. Um we didn't really do they never wanted to play board games or anything like that. So like we hardly had any, and I think this, you know, when they finished whatever they were doing for the day, or we finished dinner or whatever, they just wanted to watch TV. So with them it was movies, and then as Sam, my brother and I got older, us and our friends, like we also just kept watching movies because we played um we you know we played competitive tennis, and then my brother was doing football, so pretty much we get home at the end of the day, we just wanted to do nothing. Nice wanted to lay down and say, you know, TV and movies, yeah, sometimes Xbox. Um, and that was that was the ticket back in the day, yeah. And I guess like became a habit. We got pretty into it and then just kept it going. Nice. Awesome, awesome.

SPEAKER_01 1:51

Yeah, and this is uh also a first on the podcast. This is our first uh two people in the same room episode because Lucas is out here in New York with me. Two people and a dog, two people and a dog, yeah. Um so uh Lucas, you want to introduce the title of our movie? Yeah, so um we're talking about only lovers left alive. Well, it's uh 2013, uh directed by written and directed by Jim Jarmouche. Um it's probably our most recent movie we've done so far. Uh but yeah, uh so there's a little IMDB synopsis. Uh a depressed musician reunites with his lover, however, the romance, which has already endured several centuries, is disrupted by the arrival of her uncontrollable younger sister. Not a big fan of the IMDB synopsis, it doesn't it doesn't really capture the essence of the movie to me. Um agreed. Yeah, it's uh it doesn't say anything about vampires. I guess because the word vampire isn't really used in the movie.

SPEAKER_03 3:02

And they also really oversell the sister's role in the movie.

SPEAKER_01 3:06

Yeah, yeah, I feel that way as well. I feel that way as well because uh she's only like a small, small section of the whole thing. Um so what what's your uh relationship to this movie? What what do you love about it?

SPEAKER_03 3:21

Um well I to be honest, I'm trying to think about it, and I cannot remember when I first watched it. I've I mean I've rewatched it so many times since then. But yeah, I don't really remember when I first watched it. But um I think that I watched it with Brennan, but basically, um I I liked I liked the love story between the two characters. I thought that was pretty cool. I like the music a lot. Um I think that like the tone that it set for the whole film is really um really engaging and engaging, especially considering how much I guess how slow the movie kind of is. You know, there's a lot there's a lot of just kind of sitting there like thinking, like looking, you know, silent moving characters. Yeah. Um but I um I like those aspects, you know, mu music and all that. And then um and I guess that I just really like yeah, that's it, that was it, the music and the um love story between the two of them. Especially because you I don't know, I mean the the uh the first example that comes to me is you know how stark of a contrast it is to Twilight, for instance. Yeah, yeah, the other vampire like love story. Um and I guess that it's you know this movie is just way less in your face about most of that, which I like. And I think like what you were saying a second ago, um it almost is like it's just about two characters who happen to be vampires. Yeah, you know, yeah, like that only and obviously like there are parts of it that you know there are plot elements that only occur because they're vampires, you know. You know the relationship with the doctor, yeah, having to like get their supply and stuff than like supply issues like throughout the movie, you know. So obviously those things are hinging on them being vampires, but it just seems to be much more on the periphery of the whole thing, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

You know, yeah, definitely. It's a it's a very very fun movie. Um, and yeah, that's like the only time that like vampires really come into play is when it comes to like their survival or when they're talking about something that they did like a long time ago that they were part of. Um yeah, so that's uh it's a good good uh reason why you love it. Um do you do you watch a lot of Jim Jarmouche? You seen any of his other movies?

SPEAKER_03 6:11

I pretty much because of this movie, I started to watch a few others. Um I watched um So The Dead Don't Die. I think I might have seen that shortly after it came out. So the Bill Murray um zombie movie with Adam Driver. Oh, cool. Um I only watched it once, it was a long time ago. I thought it was I don't know, maybe this will be kind of a hot take, but I thought it was pretty boring. But I think I think the point of that movie, though, was at least in part to make a boring zombie movie. Oh, okay. Because he made a point of like the zombies, they moved very slowly.

SPEAKER_02 6:52

Like no one was in danger of being caught by them, really, or anything like that.

SPEAKER_03 6:57

Right. And there's a lot more just kind of like um, sort of just confusion amongst the characters, but a lot of time to debate it, they'd be like, well, what are we gonna do about this? Yeah. Like, you know, there's a zombie slowly walking across the field or something. Um so there's that one. There he's got another movie called Patterson. Um Adam Driver's also believing that um he's a bus driver. Okay. That was a cool movie. Um I guess both those movies, it's like there's a lot of dead space, you know. Yeah. Um it's kind of slow-moving films.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

Yeah. Um he seems to utilize Adam Driver a lot these days. Yeah. I think that movie he just had come out. What is it? Oh, yeah, the newest one. Um Father, mother, sister, brother. I haven't seen it. He's also in the I haven't seen it either. But um Yeah, it seems like he's a big fan of Adam Driver because he's been in.

SPEAKER_03 7:56

Yeah, and I don't think there's normally that much like recurrence with actors in it. Because um Yeah, I mean Tom Middlesen, I don't think, has been in any of his other ones.

SPEAKER_01 8:06

Yeah, how about Tilda Tilda Swinton?

SPEAKER_03 8:08

I don't know. She wasn't in those other two with Adam Driver at least. Um, so I don't know. And I guess the only other one I've seen is um one with uh uh Johnny Depp. And it's called um shoot. Dead man, I think, is awesome the title, or Dead, something like that, but it's uh Western. Oh, it's black and white. Um and I remember it being kind of a strange, quirky movie. Um I saw it a while ago as well, and I only watched it once, but I've been meaning to re-watch that one. I I remember that being the one that I would want to like you know, watch again. But I do remember it being very strange. I I just remember the scenes being very disjointed from one another. It's like um in each scene, it's almost like you just entered into like a new room, you know, that was sort of completely separate from what had happened before.

SPEAKER_01 9:09

Oh, that's cool.

SPEAKER_03 9:10

Yeah, which is interesting. Yeah. Um seems like he's very unconventional with his filmmaking. Yeah, I think so. And if anything, I think The Only Lovers Left Alive is actually one of the more linear um films of his that I've watched. Interesting. Interesting.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

Yeah, because it feels almost kind of slice of life-esque, because there's um there's like quite a few like loose ends that they don't really like tie up, but it's also because you know it's it's more of like real life than a movie, so to speak. And so this thing doesn't come back up because you know, in real life, sometimes those things just don't come back up, you know. Yeah, so to speak. But um which which things are you thinking about? Like the the wooden bullet is a good that's true, you know. Um she finds the wooden bullet, she like That's true, yeah. It's like the one of the most dramatic scenes in the movie, and then um he like takes it away from her and it never comes back up at all. And I was I thought the wooden bullet was gonna be a huge part of the movie when I first watched it.

SPEAKER_03 10:16

And it's funny, like now that you're saying that, I completely agree. In in most movies that you watch nowadays, if they have something like that come up and then put it away, you know there's gonna be a scene where someone gets shot with that bullet at the end of the movie.

SPEAKER_01 10:31

Yeah, and that's kind of like I was waiting for that the whole movie, but then I got to the end and I was like, okay, that was just you know, it's it's a lot, but it makes it feel a lot realer. And I always appreciate realism and truth in movies, even a movie about vampires, you know.

SPEAKER_04 10:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:50

Um so yeah, I have a few few production notes. It's actually like a pretty pretty self-contained production. Um, it only was seven million dollars, which I found surprising. That's that's really low for a movie. Seven million dollars.

SPEAKER_03 11:07

Um I have very little frame of reference for production costs. I mean, what um give me a few off the top of your head.

SPEAKER_01 11:14

I mean Okay, so most PTA movies are between 40 and 60 million.

SPEAKER_03 11:20

Okay, well, it's almost like ten times what they put into this.

SPEAKER_01 11:25

Yeah. Um, unless I'm mistaken, and if I am a trim that out. But I'm pretty sure his his movies are usually about 40 to 60 million. Um all vampires in the movie are wearing wigs made with animal fur, which is uh they either use yak or wolf or some other kind of uh livestock to make their wigs, and every vampire in the movie is wearing a wig. Which uh interesting. You can tell with Tom Hiddleston for sure, but with uh I just thought they did something with like hairspray and like heat or something. Yeah, and she's the one who has the wolf hair actually in her in her wig. I'm surprised that Jim Jarvish was okay with that.

SPEAKER_03 12:08

I mean, he's a vegan. He makes a big point in being a vegan, too. Maybe they weren't harmed. Trying to pluck all those wolf hairs.

SPEAKER_01 12:21

Yeah, I didn't know he was vegan, though. Yeah. Goodness. Yeah, I didn't know they were vegan. That's cool. Yeah. Um, yeah, uh the cinematographer is Yorick Lassaw. Um, and he only does one other movie with Jim Jarmouche, which is the movie that came out this year, uh Father, Mother, Sister, Brother. But something I noticed that's not really just uh like particular to him, but Jim Jarmouche seems to really like filming people driving in cars. Like he likes to have like front, like you're on the hood of the car looking at people driving. Because um, what was the movie? Um Night on Earth or People on Earth, the one that has Jenna Rollins that I it's like the only other movie I've seen by him. That movie is just people driving, like that's the whole movie, is people driving in different parts of the world. Um, this uh cinematographer also did High Life with Robert Pattinson. Have you ever seen that? I have, yeah. That was a stressing movie, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 13:26

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:27

Claire Denise, she's she's a stressful director, honestly. I remember like when I man.

SPEAKER_03 13:33

I watched that in Boulder. I was definitely I was ready for I was up for some kind of sci-fi weirdness, but that ended up being much weirder than I expected. And that's the one too, where he like he like goes into black into the black hole at the end. Yeah, I'm pretty sure. Right? Yeah, and they're geez, and they're like screaming and all that.

SPEAKER_01 13:57

Yeah. Yeah, and he has like the the daughter that he's raising throughout the movie, the little girl. Yes. Um, he also did uh Greta Gerwig's Little Women, which was I think the movie she did before Barbie. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 14:12

So I loved that movie. Yeah. I thought that her little women adaptation was without a doubt the best one.

SPEAKER_01 14:19

Yeah, yeah, definitely. It is a good one. So he's he's got a pretty uh dynamic body of work in terms of his cinematography for sure. Um and one of the things I really liked about the cinematography is like uh in the beginning, you have like it's almost like the camera's on a fan and it's like going around the room.

SPEAKER_04 14:40

Oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:41

And uh like it intercuts between him and her.

SPEAKER_03 14:44

And they do it like the same um, or at least like a complimentary tempo to the music.

SPEAKER_01 14:49

Yeah. As it's going around. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. Um it was filmed digitally, even though Jim Jarmouche seems to have a huge distaste for digital, uh, it was really hard for them to get budgeting for this movie. So he used a lot of low lighting and very specific film lenses to get like the film effect in the movie. Yeah, I thought that was interesting. Yeah. Because uh, you know, he seems like such a purist from what I've read about him when it comes to film. Um, but you know, if you only have money to do digital, what else are you gonna do?

SPEAKER_03 15:27

Yeah, and I'm also kind of surprised that he wasn't able to attract a bigger budget for this, considering that you know, Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston were gonna do it. Yeah. Um but I guess I don't really know which aspect comes first. You know, if you generally have like your money lined up before you cast something or what?

SPEAKER_01 15:47

Yeah, actually, um when he was coming up with it, he had Tilda Swinton, um John I forget his last name. I'm a horrible host. Uh the the old guy in the movie. Um he was already cast. John Hurt, right? John Hurt, yes. I knew it was.

SPEAKER_03 16:06

You know why I actually remember that? What is it? It's because of um it's because of an Alt J song called The Gospel of John Hurt, and I didn't know I mean I when I was like very first starting to like get in interested in music, I think that was when Um An Awesome Wave just came out. So this was like on their second one. Um and the um I saw that song title, I had no idea who John Hurt was, and then I Googled it and it was about him and Alien.

SPEAKER_04 16:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:41

Um yeah. So then yeah, I recognized him, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 16:45

Yeah, I recognized him from Snowpiercer, if you've ever seen it. Yeah, yeah. Just like the old guy. That's the movie on the train, right? Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 16:52

Yeah, he's like the old guy. I've not seen that in a long time, too. It's pretty good, pretty good movie. I remember watching that though when I was a kid, and I was shocked that they were it's like they're just gonna be on this train. Yeah. It's a big train though. Yeah, it's a big train.

SPEAKER_01 17:10

There's a lot going on on that train. Yeah. Yeah. But um, in terms of the budget, yeah, um, he had this kind of he had this idea, and it seems like when Jim Jarmouche has an idea, he kind of jumps onto it and gets it going. But this movie, it took them a little over seven years to get it going, um, which is surprising because he did have Tilda Swinton on from the beginning. She was ready for it. Yeah. Um, but it actually was originally supposed to be Michael Fossbender as Adam.

SPEAKER_03 17:42

I could see it.

SPEAKER_01 17:43

Yeah, yeah. I could see it.

unknown 17:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:47

But to be honest, I think that I think that Tom Hiddleston brings a much more delicate aspect to the character, which I think it I don't know, for me, I I find more fitting. Michael Fassbender is just so much more of like uh not so much in your face, but I just see him as a more like macho man.

SPEAKER_01 18:11

Yeah, he's he's a he's a bigger presence for sure. Yeah. And like Tom Hiddleston, he's got the he's like smaller, kind of more contained. He does seem more kind of like sensitive. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. A little more dainty. He um but because it took so long for them to get it, and it was a really frustrating time for Jim Jarmouche. Um, when they were finally able to get the funding, uh, Fastbender had other projects going on, so they went with Tom Hiddleston instead. But most of the other characters were already on board. Uh most of the other actors were already on board, uh, like when he was first conceptualizing the movie seven years before.

SPEAKER_03 18:51

I just can't believe it. Seven years is such a long time. Yeah, that's like typical in this.

SPEAKER_01 18:56

It can be, it can be uh typical. Uh there's definitely a lot of like production hell in in movies and stuff, but it seems it seems kind of weird for Jim Jarmouche. Uh it seems like it was really frustrating for him because I think he, like I said, I I don't know too much about him, but it seems like when he has an idea, he like gets it going. You know, he starts filming, yeah, breaks ground as soon as he can. Um he's he seems like a really cool guy. He's it seems like a bit of an auteur. Um, definitely likes to have like control over a lot of aspects of his movies. Um his band Squirrel does the primary is the primary soundtrack for this movie. Uh I didn't even know he was in a band. Um and I I love the soundtrack for this movie.

SPEAKER_03 19:48

Me too.

SPEAKER_01 19:49

It's uh probably one of my favorite parts of the movie is the soundtrack and seeing Tom Hiddleston go through recording processes uh throughout and him playing his drums. He's very analog too, so you're watching all these like analog techniques and he's like hitting the guitar with the drumstick and stuff.

SPEAKER_03 20:07

Yeah, and then I think he did it also with like a bow.

SPEAKER_01 20:10

Yeah, one of the I think he does, yeah. No, it's I I like that too. It's really cool. Um there's also an industrial goth musician named Zola Jesus, contributes a lot to the soundtrack.

SPEAKER_03 20:23

Oh, she is was she the vocalist on the um the intro track to the movie?

SPEAKER_01 20:31

Uh no, that was actually, I forgot to write it down. That was actually an older song. Um, I forgot who it was by. Um and then the girl singing at the end, I believe, is Lebanese vocalist Yasmin Hamdan. Um But yeah, that's just some some fun little little stuff about the production. I don't have as much production notes as I usually do because like I said, this was a pretty self-contained production. Um seems like it was also pretty straightforward and was really just waiting for the uh waiting for the funding. Took some time. But uh yeah. You do you have anything um interesting about production that you you know about from the movie? I don't really know.

SPEAKER_03 21:19

And honestly, like I just don't that's why I guess part of the reason why I was so interested in that seven-year thing is because I have um very, very little exposure to all that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:33

Um so yeah, so I mean seven years of shock to me. Yeah, and this seven years before 2013, that's what, 2006? Right, yeah. Wow, such a different time. 2006. So, like all the actors who were ready to do it were also a lot younger. I don't think Tom Hiddleston was really a household name yet either.

SPEAKER_04 21:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:54

Um and also in 2013, I mean that while he had been Loki. At that point. Yeah. I guess they hadn't done all the spin-offs.

SPEAKER_01 22:06

Yeah, they hadn't gotten major with the head. Yeah. But yeah, okay. One of the other fun things that I read was that Eve is supposed to be like a few thousand years old. Okay. And Adam is like five or six hundred years old. And they don't say that in the movie, but Jim Jarmouche told the actors that so that they could, you know, have that in mind while they're playing their characters. And when I read that, I was like, wow, you can kind of see that like he's the younger one.

SPEAKER_04 22:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:34

She's definitely much more embraced in this lifestyle of uh being a vampire.

SPEAKER_03 22:41

And then John Hurt, I guess, must have been quite a bit older. Yeah, yeah. He's a good one. And I just assumed he was like, You're probably gonna have to cut this out because this comment's gonna make me look like an idiot. Like, I I don't know. Like when they were talking about that stuff about um Shakespeare, um, and you know how John Hurt was saying, like, you know, Shakespeare is illiterate basically, and like the I don't know if they flat out said this or just like kind of like um suggested that John Hurt had written some of the stuff and Shakespeare had used it, or at least based his like work off of John Hurt. Um, what was Shakespeare around?

SPEAKER_01 23:23

What like years? I actually don't know the years that Shakespeare was around, but the funny thing is his name is Marlowe. Uh I forget the first name, something Marlowe. And um this is uh an actual person who existed, and he either died or disappeared um right before Shakespeare released his first play. And a lot of people think that he Yeah, a lot of people think that he could have been a ghostwriter for Shakespeare, okay, or that he made up Shakespeare in order to release these plays.

SPEAKER_04 24:00

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 24:01

So uh there's some fun little bit.

SPEAKER_03 24:08

Well, I mean like would it just be like uh kind of like a patsy that they like you know, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:13

Well, I mean, like they didn't have like uh cameras back then, so it's like all drawings of Shakespeare, you know. So but there are like also they could have just been yeah, you gotta crop that shit out of here.

SPEAKER_03 24:30

Oh fuck, yeah, of course they didn't fucking camera just back then.

SPEAKER_01 24:36

It's all good. It's like it's 11 o'clock at night. God damn, I mean you rolled with that.

SPEAKER_03 24:41

I'm sure that you heard damn, you're really you're professional, man. You really rolled with that.

SPEAKER_02 24:46

You're good, man. You're good. No, it's uh, you know.

SPEAKER_03 24:50

Now that then okay. That's interesting then. And it's that's also something interesting to think about, too, that like you know, back then they could have just created this completely fictional person. Yeah. You know, and made him know it knows the wiser. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:07

Yeah. It's a really uh really fun like theory that I I like that they uh to play around with this because a lot of people think that um Shakespeare's wife wrote most of his stuff too. Because a lot of people have said that they don't think he did it.

SPEAKER_04 25:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:24

Yeah. Why also? Like what's the basis for thinking that he didn't do it?

SPEAKER_01 25:28

I don't I don't really know. Um I think I don't know. I think that there's maybe evidence that he didn't do it, but I think uh another aspect is it is people just love to discredit, you know, established established giant. Like because he's like a behemoth, yeah. Um I mean what movie or or even TV show have you seen that doesn't have something from a Shakespearean aspect in it, you know? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:01

I bet you're right, there's gotta be some kind of basis, but like it could be uh could be thin.

SPEAKER_01 26:08

Yeah, it could be. Um but there's just uh throughout throughout my life I've heard quite a few different uh like ghostwriter type uh theories, and then more recently I heard that like maybe he didn't even exist. They just falsified him. Yeah. Which would be sick if that ever came out to be true. That would be really cool. That would be cool.

SPEAKER_03 26:32

I mean that yeah, and then there would just start you down a whole other diet. It's like, you know, who came up with that idea?

SPEAKER_01 26:38

Yeah, that would be like my favorite Shakespeare fact, though. Like my favorite thing about Shakespeare would be like he never existed.

SPEAKER_03 26:45

Maybe if you just accept that fact to be true on your podcast because this is a film trance fact.

SPEAKER_01 26:51

Shakespeare was never real.

SPEAKER_02 26:56

There it is. There it is. You heard it here.

SPEAKER_01 26:58

Well, maybe not first, but you heard it here. You heard it here uh to our 23 listeners. Um yeah, I'm gonna try to do a little plot summary from memory. Um, I was trying to scratch it up a little bit today. Um, but this is uh probably my least written film plot summary. So we're gonna have a little bit of fun with this. You can fill in the blanks if there's anything you want to throw at me.

SPEAKER_04 27:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:24

Um so yeah, there's the the opening shot or the opening kind of thing that feels like uh like you're on the ceiling watching them, like you're on a fan. Uh that really drew me in. I think there's like a hypnotic aspect to it, especially like you said with the music. Um we're first introduced to Adam, though, and he's a depressed reclusive vampire musician. Which is every everybody's dream guy, right?

SPEAKER_03 27:52

When you put it that way, it sounds so much more like Tanger Swift song or something.

SPEAKER_01 27:56

Yeah, it does sound uh it does sound kind of twilight-y, even you know.

SPEAKER_02 28:03

People take that with a grain of salt.

SPEAKER_01 28:04

Yeah, it's much more character study-esque approach to the depressed vampire musician. Um he seems to only interact with two other beings, and they're both human. One of them is a younger uh, I think he's a musician named Ian, and he uh sells instruments and other things to him. He tells Ian he wants him to get him a wooden bullet. He's kind of his concierge. Yeah, yeah. He is like a he's he's like got the list, and he's like anything else you need. Yeah. Um and he never lets him use the bathroom, which I thought was funny. He's like, go piss in the garden. Uh, and he gets really upset anytime he tries to use the bathroom. Or fix it for him. Yeah, he offers to fix it. He offers to get a guy to fix it, and he's like, No, be it, you know, gets really pissed at him. Um, the other human he interacts with is uh a blood lab technician, I believe. Yeah, who's played by played by uh God, I'm really fumbling names today. Yeah, uh Jeffrey Wright. He's really good in like everything I've seen in it.

SPEAKER_03 29:19

Yeah, he's in a lot of Wes Anderson movies. That's true, but that that like also just suddenly started, you know. Yeah. Um, but it was like he was in one, then he was in all of them. Yeah, he's been in every one since um the French dispatch, I think. I have to say though, I think that he this might have to get cut from the podcast. But I think that um Wes Anderson is he's been on the decline.

SPEAKER_01 29:48

Yeah, no, I agree. I agree. I mean it's like I'm not editing that out. I agree. Yeah, and it's like it's tough because he's like I mean the last thing I really like genuinely enjoyed was Grand Budapest Hotel.

SPEAKER_03 30:07

Yeah, and I and I thought French Dispatch, though, I could get into some stuff about it. And I got this book um that he put out. It was all of the so basically with French Dispatch, it was all these New Yorker stories that he really liked that were the basis for a lot of these characters. Yeah. He put out a book that was just a compilation of stories that he used, and I think I can't remember a hundred like completely, but like either in the book or just online, he made it clear like certain characters or like plot elements that were from different based on different stories, yeah, or like the writers who you know wrote them. Um and I really enjoyed reading those stories, yeah. Really getting that whole background and then like putting that behind the characters when I watched the movie. And so I thought that that movie grew on me. I when I first watched French Dispatch, it was definitely like low on my list Bes Anderson movies, but it grew on me. But since then it has just been tough.

SPEAKER_01 31:10

Yeah, it's been really tough. Um did you watch his short films? Yeah, the Netflix ones, like the Ratcatcher and stuff. I didn't like any of those. Um have you read Rolled Doll stuff?

SPEAKER_03 31:22

I I that prompted me to read his stuff, and I was grateful for Wes Anderson's stuff for making me read them because I thought they were really fun. Yeah, actually. Um like I thought that Henry Sugar was really great. And I know it's weird because it's a children's story that I read when I was like 29.

SPEAKER_01 31:42

But I mean, I really like um the BFG.

SPEAKER_03 31:46

I grew up reading the BFG. Yeah. Someone stooped that the other day, and I I picked it up.

SPEAKER_02 31:52

Oh, really? Yeah, so reading. I know they left it for a child, probably, but I took that too.

SPEAKER_01 32:00

Your inner child, that's who they left it for. Um, so yeah, Jeffrey Wright is a blood lab technician who sells typo blood to Adam, Tom Hiddleston. Um, because typo blood seems to be their favorite, and they it's almost like uh when they when they ingest it, they almost look like they're like doing heroin or something. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:21

Definitely euphoric for them.

SPEAKER_01 32:22

Yeah, it gets very euphoric for them. Um after we see some of that. Oh, the kind of the funny thing is that when he goes to see Jeffrey Wright, he puts on this ridiculous doctor disguise with sunglasses, and he looks like um the guy from that uh Stanley Kubrick movie, uh Dr. Strangelove. Yeah, Dr. Strangel. And he calls him Doctor Strangel. I thought that was so funny. And he calls him Dr. Caligari, which is uh pretty funny too. Yeah. That's like one of the first horror movies ever made.

SPEAKER_03 32:58

It's funny too that like, you know, he he goes walking in the hospital like that, and this is it. This is like two or three in the morning, and like all these other dice show I'm going past dogs with a doctor's nail, just like, doctor?

SPEAKER_02 33:13

Doctor, like you guys kidding me. Nobody's like, who is that guy? Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 33:19

Like, I just you know, I I sort of and I get the the point of doing that, like to be like, you know, no, no one was the wiser, basically, but like I have to imagine that if these doctors wouldn't notice that there's a weirdo in sunglasses walking around in there that they've never seen before, I think they probably would not also be giving him a nod saying, Doc, I think they might maybe look at him be like that's weird and then go on with their night.

SPEAKER_02 33:49

Yeah, but I don't think that they would just be proactively being like, hey, good to see it again, man.

SPEAKER_01 33:54

Yeah. Um yeah, and I that's one of the fun uh kind of themes of the movie that kind of gets hammered um on the head quite a few times is that like humanity is really out of touch and to the point where they call them zombies, yeah, you know, and like the word zombie is used in the movie a lot. The word vampire is not, you know. Um and a lot of it has to do with like how technology's you know taking humanity out of um being in touch with themselves and their environments, and so there's a lot of moments like that where um like that one specifically is one of the big ones where like you know, as regular people we're like, man, if I saw, you know, if I was at work and this dude just showed up with sunglasses all the time, I would probably be like, Does that guy work with us? You know, I never see him in the cafeteria or you know, he only shows up like once a week. It's always it's always three in the morning, yeah, yeah. With his 1960s stethoscope.

SPEAKER_03 35:01

But that that was a funny thing that they made a point of too, you know. And I yeah, and I really liked um his uh I've already forgotten that actor's name. Um, Jeffrey Wright? Jeffrey Wright. I thought in his comment that like you know, the cat must be from Cleveland. That was hilarious. Yeah, and I like my mom used to live in Cleveland. Oh wow, and I've I've been there for tennis tournaments a couple times. Um I can see it.

SPEAKER_01 35:33

Yeah, I can see it. Actually, Jim Jarmouche grew up um like not too far from Cleveland. Oh, that's another reason why he threw that in there, is because like yeah. Have you ever seen Jim Jarmouche? He kind of looks like a vampire. Yeah, he does. He's a wild-looking guy. Oh he's got some big hair. Yeah. Tilda Swinton uh said that um this might be one of his most autobiographical movies because he really only likes to go out at night. He's not really a daytime person. And he means a lot about his look too.

SPEAKER_03 36:09

Yeah, definitely is a little pale.

SPEAKER_01 36:11

Yeah, he looks like he needs some vitamin D. Um, and then uh he also is, you know, he can be kind of snobby, which you know, Tom Hiddleston's character especially is like pretty snobby. I'm watching the movie and I'm like, wow, he wrote these characters like really snobby, but then he makes sure to let you know he's aware of that when uh they're kicking the sister out and she's like, You guys are pretentious, you know, um self-righteous.

SPEAKER_03 36:40

And I think there are other moments too when um some of like this, and I'm not gonna be able to think of a specific example of this, I don't think, but there are moments when Tom Hiddleston will do these kind of snobby things, and I think it's with Tilda Swinton, and she kind of points out, you know, the error in his logic where you know he's kind of being a bit of a baby. Yeah, you know, and it's you know, and I I think that um it's sort of if this is meant to be kind of autobiographical like that, I think it's interesting that Jim Jarmish is like kind of like showing through Tom Hiddleston that he does this and like accepting that you know it's maybe it's stupid that he does this.

SPEAKER_01 37:21

Yeah, and the movie's dedicated partially to his um longtime partner, and so I think she might be an insert for the Tilda Swinton character, and he's an insert for um for Adam. Uh and that brings us to Eve, um, who lives in Tangier, Morocco, and she seems to be a much happier vampire than Adam. Uh, but she also has like uh like more of a network. She's not like a lonely vampire. Um, she's got uh the older guy, I think his kit is like his nickname. Yeah. Um and he's the one who gets them blood because he has like a doctor. Um, but eventually Adam in his uh isolation and loneliness reaches out to Eve and tells her he wants her to come see him. Uh and she tries to get him to come to Tangier at first, but um, he's like, No, like you gotta come to Detroit because that's where it's at, you know.

SPEAKER_03 38:21

And sort of just like particularly suicidal, maybe at all.

SPEAKER_01 38:26

Yeah, yeah. And uh she's like, Yeah, I gotta go see, I gotta go see this guy. And uh yeah, he's living in Detroit and he only goes at out at night in Detroit, so I can understand why he's so depressed. Um, I've never been to Detroit, but the movie doesn't do it a whole lot of favors.

SPEAKER_03 38:45

And even the aspect of like um I I think after moving to New York when I watched this, I was thinking about how at least here, or I get okay. So in Detroit, he made that comment about like, you know, we could go to the Motown Museum, but there's not that much to look at from the outside. And I was and I remember like I was thinking, like, oh, you know, maybe they could go during like daylight savings or something, like, you know, because it gets dark there at like 4 30. Yeah, you know, so they could probably go before it closes. And then I was thinking about how like, you know, in New York things are open super late. So like, you know, as a vampire you could actually like partake of many more aspects of society, yeah, definitely. You know, whereas like you know, Detroit stuff on. Yeah, it was stuff.

SPEAKER_01 39:28

Definitely, yeah. Definitely, but they reunite, um, they're very happy to be together. Um, yeah, they you know, and that's where you get to the the driving around at night shots that Jim Jarmouche really likes because Adam's driving uh Eve around. What kind of car is that?

SPEAKER_03 39:49

I don't remember.

SPEAKER_01 39:49

It was a wild-lucky one though, wasn't it? Yeah, yeah, it was kind of uh retro vibe for sure. Yeah, it was like it was white, it was strange looking. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:00

He uh he hates technology, so he like cuts off all of his wiring to his house and makes his own generator. Yeah, he's look at that shit. Yeah. Yeah. Anytime he sees wires, he's like, look at that shit, and he hates it. And so yeah, he makes his own generator, which is like I mean, when they show the generator, I'm like, wow, that must be like half the budget just to put that in digitally. Because that thing was crazy looking. Um and they mention that they've both been having dreams of her sister Ava, and there's definitely some uh reluctance that they have. They're neither of them is really excited about Ava, and uh he's especially not very excited because uh he kind of hates her because of something that happened in Paris, which I'm sure is similar to what happens in the movie. But uh he's like, I hope she's somewhere with a stake in her heart, you know. Um and then she kind of just shows up, and um she just is in their house, uh in uh Adam's house slash music studio, and she's like saying that she's heard his music in the club uh when she's out at night and stuff, and he's like, How's my music getting out there? Like, I know he's so upset. Yeah, yeah. The more I think about it, the more I like really enjoy Tom Hiddleston's character is just like this. He's just like such a hipster, you know.

SPEAKER_03 41:34

He's very hipster, totally, and he yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:37

He yeah, I he doesn't really seem to get how he kind of undermines himself a little bit, yeah, you know, yeah, because he's there's even that scene where like uh Eve is like, oh, she'll be famous one day, and he's like, Well, that would be a shame. Yeah, hopefully not. That would be that would be horrible. It's because he doesn't want to be famous. Um so Ava is the little sister, she shows up, and Eve is reluctant, but she lets her stay, and Adam is not happy about it at all. Um, and she's just like always messing with his stuff, and she's always getting like messing with his instruments, messing with his recording stuff. But I do kind of feel like sometimes she's just she's the kid.

SPEAKER_03 42:24

She's just trying to have fun. Yeah, yeah. But it's weird in retrospect, thinking that she was probably older than him. Yeah, quite a bit. Yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_01 42:31

She's she's Eve's sister, she's gotta be quite a bit older than him. Yeah, but yeah, she was just she's messing with Paul's stuff. Yeah, yeah, she's very like the carefree, childish vampire. Um almost risks like blowing their covers several times just because she wants like social leverage over Adam.

SPEAKER_03 42:55

There's one scene I think that they like um I think that they must have kept to take it like they kind of started laughing afterwards or something. Um because I don't I don't remember the name of the woman who acted out, um, Ava. Yeah, it's like her last name's like Wajowski. I think it's Mia. Yeah, Mia Wojowski. I think that sounds right. Something like that. But um they were all sitting this was not like the first night they were she was there. I think it was the second night maybe. Um but they were all sitting together on the couches and stuff, and then saying that she wanted to go out and stuff and do things, and then I think that Eve was also trying to convince him to go out. And finally he ends up being like, you know, um, like, yeah, sure, we can go out. And she's like and then she's like, and I forget she said, but just something like, yeah, we're gonna go out, and then he was like, No, or something, just then like you know, she kind of shut her down, and then like the boy uh Tulsa wins at some, and then just like yeah. Take us out. And I put it on her, and she was like clearly, I think, like, not I think she was laughing in a much less like staged or professional type of way. I think she was just kind of like fucking around. And she did that. And like the even like the way that the camera was on her, it seemed like, you know, their alignment. I guess that's one thing with Jim Jarmish. I feel like he, or at least in this movie, it's almost the way it's similar to the way that like old-time painters would set scenes. It's like, you know, the camera position is very specific, and it's like everyone is sitting in a very particular way. Like in the opening credits, you see that with um, you know, Tilliswin, obviously Tilliswin like laying down on her books and stuff, but then Adam like also like on his um chair, you know, like on the camera circling. And I think there are a lot of moments where you know, I don't know this for sure, but like it seems like he was almost recreating like portraits or things like that that he'd seen definitely everyone's lined up.

SPEAKER_01 45:00

Yeah, it was um blocking. Okay, blocking that is uh the orientation of actors on the on the screen, okay. Depending on how you want to visually tell the story or uh how you how many people's faces you want to see. Um yeah, it's it's called blocking. Uh one of my favorite directors, Akita Kutosawa, he's like the king of blocking, okay, like setting it up. But yeah, I definitely caught caught onto that as well. Uh Jim Jarmouche seems to be really good at blocking and um the feeling of everything being kind of like a painting for yeah, right.

SPEAKER_03 45:32

And I I have to you have to put me on some of that other director stuff because I think that's I really find those things very pleasing to look at, those kind of scenes. So I mean I would I would like to watch more of it.

SPEAKER_01 45:43

Oh, yeah. I can definitely do that. You know, I got I got a few at home, and then um there's quite a few streaming in different places. So um our first episode is about one of my favorite movies. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's it's spelled Ran, but it's it's Japanese, so it's pronounced um actually pronounced Don. But yeah, it's a really sick 1984 Japanese chaos movie.

SPEAKER_03 46:13

Um it's from 1984.

SPEAKER_01 46:17

Yeah, yeah. Well, a lot of his other stuff is like he was really prominent in the late 50s and then the 60s, and then he had some trouble in the 70s with like production because he's kind of a control freak with his movies, and so film studios weren't really wanting to work with him. And then um George Lucas was heavily inspired by him in making Star Wars because he made a lot of samurai movies, a lot of those inspired Star Wars. Okay, and George Lucas, after getting a bunch of money, was like, Hey, where's the Kuta Kudusawa? You know, where'd that guy go? And so like him and a few other like French directors and American directors, they like went and found him and they were like, Hey, here's some money, make whatever you want. But yeah, it's a it's a really sick, really sick story. Um I talk about it a little a little bit more in the first episode, but like he storyboarded the whole movie by painting everything in those 10 years that he was kind of isolated. Yeah, he like storyboarded the whole movie painting like every single movie.

SPEAKER_03 47:20

Amazing like the time periods that movies can, you know, just kind of sit, permeate, yeah, ferment. It's like what are these guys doing every day in the meantime? Yeah, you know, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:32

We I guess in a lot of cases probably kind of flipping out, yeah, flipping out or just doing that all the time.

SPEAKER_03 47:38

Yeah. But that's that's cool. I would definitely I'll watch that one. Yeah. Because I really I do find very pleasing to look at those kinds of things. And this I guess though that this scene that I've I have to believe was like I don't know, sort of an accident. Part of the thing that feels that is like the little like I think even the little camera shot of her when she does that is not lined up the same way that it was in the scene right before that. I just don't really notice that kind of thing with his movies very often. Yeah. You know, so I was thinking that maybe they just liked her reaction in that and they just kept it. And I also thought it was funny the way that she was like kind of like like like laughing when she did it.

SPEAKER_01 48:20

Um definitely, yeah. She's a she's a really fun character to the movie. I wish there was more of her in the movie, um, because she was definitely like the big problem for the movie.

SPEAKER_03 48:32

And I mean, based on the synopsis, I mean they intended her to be the big problem. Yeah. But it's funny because like I would have also been cool with it if you know, if if they if she just didn't happen at all, and that I still think that they had enough there. Obviously, they would have had to find a way to like have them at risk of being exposed, so they had to flee. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:55

But you know, there was already a lot of a lot of avenues for that.

SPEAKER_03 48:59

There were, yeah, and I think they could if they had picked a much more like mundane, you know, thing to bridge that gap, I would have still been cool with that, I think. Yeah, I think the movie would have had enough of um movement.

SPEAKER_01 49:13

Yeah, because he had the rocker kids coming to his place every night, and that was already on his tail.

SPEAKER_03 49:18

Oh yeah, and remember when they went to that nightclub together, the um Ian. Yeah, and he had the vinyl handing out. We don't know what the deal is to do.

SPEAKER_01 49:26

Yeah, yeah, the next scene, like in this scene. I might have jumped your next scene. No, no, you're good. You're good. No, I don't have uh these this part written down. Um, but that was what we were gonna jump into next, so you you're fine. Um, so they go to the nightclub with Ava and uh Ian's there. I don't know why they decided to hang out with Ian, because that's like just uh a problem waiting to happen.

SPEAKER_03 49:49

That's true too. I mean, given that, you know, given how old the two of them are, yeah, you would think that one, you probably wouldn't meet Ian out. Yeah. Two, if you do, you don't leave together. Like you leave Ian there and you go home. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Right. They totally, they fucked that up.

SPEAKER_01 50:11

But I mean, Ian's kind of dumb too, because he's like, he already knows that Adam doesn't want like his shit like blowing up. But like in front of Adam, he walks over to this guy and he's like, Yeah, there's this record. Right. And then the way they said they're like yeah, and he doesn't, he's like trying to be so nonchalant about it, but Adam's like, huh. I'm pretty sure that's my music, you know. I'm pretty sure that's how Ava heard my music in a club somewhere.

SPEAKER_03 50:38

And it's also, you know, it's not like it's like a little CD or download card, it's a fucking full vinyl, like black vinyl, no labels on this sucker anywhere.

SPEAKER_02 50:49

It's like yeah.

SPEAKER_03 50:52

And it's funny, I I'm with you that has to even want their dam, but it just seems so like so heavy-handed.

SPEAKER_01 51:00

Yeah, very heavy-handed. And then there Ava's like got a flask full of the O negative blood, and she's like trying to pass it around, and like first Adam doesn't want to drink from it, and then Eve drinks from it, so he decides to drink from it, and then Ian's like, Oh, could I try some of that? Like, yeah, Ava goes to give him some, and he just he does that twice in the movie. He also does it when Tilda Swinton has the gun with the wooden bullet, and she tries it, he like swipes it really quick. But when he does it in front of Ian, Ian's like, Whoa, that was some like taekwondo shit or something like that. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 51:37

It's like, whoa.

SPEAKER_01 51:39

Yeah, yeah, and he just doesn't think anything of it. Wow. Um typical zombie, and then they're leaving, and they they decide to take Ian home with them, which not good, not good at all, because uh Ava's bad news, and then um Adam keeps trying to get Ian to leave, and then he just kind of gives up and goes to bed, and it's just Ava and Ian, and if um you already know, you already know what's gonna happen.

SPEAKER_03 52:11

And then I and honestly, talking about this more in retrospect, it's like you know, Adam could have been kind of pissed, but uh you should have seen that one comment. Yeah, I mean, come on, man. I think you should be more pissed at yourself, probably, than you are pissed at Ava.

SPEAKER_01 52:31

I mean, I don't know, you know, she was just kind of doing what she does. Yeah. But I mean, he was really only so pissed about Ian because his guitar is smashed. Oh, you think so? Yeah, because there's that scene where like ah damn, they're like he's a little more on the prick than you think. Because they're sitting on the couch with Ian's corpse between them, and he was like, he seemed like a good guy. And Adam's just like staring at his guitar, and he's just so broken up about his guitar being smashed, and like I don't even I don't even think he really talks too much about Ian, he just keeps talking about uh the uh the guitar, you know, and how much he loved the guitar again. So it's I thought that was really funny because humans don't I mean humans how much can a human be? They come and go, zombies, I mean. Um but that's when they decide they gotta they gotta flee. Yeah. So they go to um Tangier, where where Eve's living, and they show up just in time for John Hurt's character to be dying because he had uh tainted blood. Yeah. And that scene had me uh almost in tears for sure. I was pretty close to crying, yeah. I can get really emotionally connected to movies, so um, when a character dies, it's pretty pretty easy for me to be like, oh man, that was tough. Um but he's he's dying and he still uh is managing to talk shit about Shakespeare on his deathbed and stuff. Um and after that they realize they don't really have any blood, so they're kind of like walking around uh the streets of Morocco, just like, oh god, this is this could be the end for us, you know, because they also refuse uh to suck the blood of a human being. Um oh, and that is the one thing that he says about Ian is uh he says Ava could have at least turned him, right? You know, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 54:40

Yeah, he said, why didn't she just turn him?

SPEAKER_01 54:42

Yeah. So he is bombed about it, but he's way more bummed about the guitar, I think.

SPEAKER_02 54:48

Or they're leaving.

SPEAKER_03 54:49

I don't know, but maybe you're just like, man, I would have been a lot more bummed about that guitar.

SPEAKER_01 54:54

Like that guy was an idiot. Uh and then they're leaving completing the house, and he's like, What about my instruments? I felt bad about him for that.

SPEAKER_03 55:03

Yeah. And also, you could have carried on two of them. They would have made you gate check them. Maybe. Bring your favorite guitar. Yeah, exactly. Like I um when I watched that again, you know, I guess like my pettiness kind of took over, but I was just like, you know, we could have taken a couple of those. Yeah. You know, you can hold one in each hand. You had the money for it, yeah, obviously. Exactly. And you know, Eve could have taken one in each hand. Yeah, it's not that big of a deal. But instead, yeah, they booked it without any of them.

SPEAKER_01 55:36

Yeah, and they they uh so they're in Morocco. Um give me all your money, baby. Oh yeah, yeah. And she's uh says she's gonna go get them a much better instrument. She says that line, which is which is great. Great delivery on that, Lucas. Uh and he hears too much. You know, that's that's that's the best movies to talk about, you know. Um as she's gone getting his instrument, he notices um, I believe a Lebanese singer, and he's like infatuated with the way that she's singing. Um Eve comes back with a loot. Pretty sure it's a loot. Yeah, it is. Yeah, yeah. Um, and he just kind of strums it. He seems like like happy about it, but he it also seems like he really misses like his sixth string.

SPEAKER_03 56:28

Yeah, you know. Yeah, it's almost just like sort of pacified a little bit. Yeah. I think it was I agree. But I I think that when I saw it at the time too, I wasn't so sure as you know if he was not fully satisfied with the instrument or if he was just crashing. Yeah. I think that the uh the blood thing might have been kind of.

SPEAKER_01 56:49

Yeah, because they're also like getting like you you can tell they're getting more sick, and yeah, for vampires they're getting pretty pale.

SPEAKER_03 56:58

Yeah. And their eyes start changing color.

SPEAKER_01 57:01

Yeah, yeah. And uh I I would have liked to have seen him throw down on the loot a little bit just because he had it.

SPEAKER_03 57:09

But um I don't think that he can really I think that he can play a little bit, but I don't think he can play that much. And I know, oh remember when he picked up the violin? Yeah. He was doing that. I thought it was really cool. I thought it was a cool thing they showed him being able to do that, so it's like he could do all these string instruments and whatnot. But they definitely made a very obvious choice of having him with his back, the camera. Yeah, and then all you could you couldn't really see the bow hand. Yeah, you can only see like the elbow, so you know it's moving, and then you know, you could see these fingers moving here. Yeah, you know, so we could see you know obviously, you know, staged, but like I remembered seeing that though at the same time and thinking that um they did a very convincing job of having him move his fingers with the movements in that song still. And I was curious, like if as you know, about his background, like if he played string instruments, you know, maybe Tom Hiddleston? Yeah, yeah, maybe because I thought that he had like finger control that at least a little bit, you know.

SPEAKER_01 58:13

Yeah. It could also just be somebody wearing a wig because it's from behind.

SPEAKER_03 58:18

Could you you're right, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 58:19

That could have been someone else. And then they could have I don't remember if they do like a close-up of his hands, but they could have just had a hand model doing the I don't think they did a close-up.

SPEAKER_03 58:28

I think it was just like here, yeah. But the thing is he might have had his face on the I don't know the pad, yeah, the penet here. So it's possible you can kind of see his face, but I guess they could always I'm assuming they could always like superimpose that.

SPEAKER_01 58:44

Yeah, or guess someone who looks just enough like him from this angle, you know. Yeah, that's true. I guess they can cast that type of thing.

SPEAKER_02 58:50

Yeah, but who knows? And that's a photo of your faith like this.

SPEAKER_01 58:54

Do you look like uh Tom Hiddleston? Um, he probably has people too. He probably has like because a lot of a lot of actors have designated, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 59:06

Imagine like casting for one of those things, too.

SPEAKER_01 59:09

Yeah, yeah, for like a stunt or to be like a double, a body double for an actor. Yeah. Yeah. Because a lot of body doubles, they might not even be on film, but like they can be standing in place of the actor when the actor wants to go do stuff while they're filming other things. Um, so like if me and you were filming this right now and you were talking to me, instead of having me here, I could have somebody who looks just like me so that you're still immersed in the scene. Yeah. And the camera's just looking at you, and you're talking to a double instead of me, you know.

SPEAKER_03 59:45

There's this movie called Personal Shopper with um with the oh my god. Twilight Woman. Uh uh Christian Stewart? Yeah. So if you want a redeeming movie with her, you should check that one out. Okay. And it's a ghost movie. It's it's actually like it was one it was like in the top five that I was thinking about you watch. Um I you know, I'm definitely more of a fan of the um Only Lovers, but Personal Shopper, um it's a wild one, but she the premise is that she um she shops for this one like really high profile actress fictional, like we don't you know, she's not a real actress in the world, yeah. But um she this actress, you know, kind of embodies like what you would expect or like imagine from these like bigger actors, like not respectful of other people's time, really, and stuff, and there are points when she has to do these shoots, but she just doesn't show up. Yeah, but um her personal shopper shows up with like wardrobe stuff and they ask her to stand in for some of these things because like you know, it'll save us a lot of time and a lot of money, yeah, yeah. Because we can just do this, and then you know, when she finally does show up, it'll take us like two seconds to her photos, exactly, you know. Um so yeah, I guess that was kind of a big sidetrack. Oh, that's great, that's kind of but I'd never really heard of the stand-in thing apart from that until you talked about it.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:16

Yeah, body doubles. They're um, you know, a lot of people think it's stunts, but no, it's yeah, you can be everything. You can be anything, yeah. Um so we're at the end of the movie. They look like they're about to give up. Um, and then they see this young couple making out. And they're like lot of sounds, a lot of mouth sounds, squishy mouth sounds.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:40

Every time I watch that, it's it just gets longer and longer apart.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:46

And they're just looking at them and they're just like, uh, like it's either we die right now after all this time, or we uh we drink their blood, you know? And and Eve says, I don't remember if it's Adam or Eve, but one of them says, like, okay, but we're just gonna turn them. Eve said it. Yeah. We're just gonna turn them. And Adam gave kind of like a half-hearted like that.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:10

Yeah, yeah. He's kind of like Oh, he might have even actually just said um the girl's mine or something.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:15

Yeah, he said, I I get the girl for sure. Yeah, he may not even really acknowledge the turn of the thing. And then they walk up to the couple, uh, the couple doesn't hear or see them coming up, and then Eve goes, excuse them, ah, which I wonder if they're like in a French-speaking part of Morocco, but they both turn, and uh the last thing you see is uh Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston fangs out uh attacking the camera, pretty much, you know? Yeah, and uh that is the only lovers left alive. Uh Zi-Zai plot summary.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:50

Good, a solid plot summary.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:52

Thank you, thank you. Yeah, this um I really enjoyed this movie. Uh I'll uh just give my my quick little rating and then we'll get your rating. But um I really enjoyed it. It's definitely a much better love story than Twilight. Um something else that I really appreciate about it is um I really um like a year or two ago I I got into the show uh What We Do in the Shadows.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:21

And like it it feels like that a lot. And then you you talked about the New York how vampires in New York would have it much easier and in in what we do in the shadows. They live in New York, they live in Staten Island. So um and Tilda Swinton kind of reappears as Eve in What We Do in the Shadows, which is fun. She's uh Oh, is she really? Yeah, there's a scene where she's like she's like a high counsel person for the vampires, and she uh like looks exactly like when I watched this movie, I was like, I was like, I've seen Tilda Swinton like this before. When was that? And then I realized, yeah, she shows up in like an episode maybe of it and kind of reprises the role of Eve. They don't call her Eve or anything, but you can tell. You can see it.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:04

Well, yeah, yeah, she's definitely she's got a pretty memorable look in this movie.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:08

Yeah, so it's almost like uh if what we do in the shadows was uh about much realer, depressed loving vampires instead of like the insensitive, dysfunctional ones that they are in the show.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:21

Have you watched the movie version of what we do in the shadows? No, oh check it out. Yeah, yeah, it's with the guys from Flight of the Concords. Okay. Um, so that I think they're from New Zealand, those guys. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:35

Do you know who I'm talking about?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:37

No. Flight of the Concords. I remember seeing a clip from it, and uh, it looks really funny.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:44

Um these guys.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:47

So that that um invented Hamont guy. Yeah, and Taika Watiti, I think he also is like the the director or something.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:57

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:58

But I could be wrong. Yeah. But he shows up in the show a lot too. Okay. As as like a goofy vampire. Okay. Um, but yeah, I I really enjoyed that aspect. The soundtrack, I remember the other day I was telling you that uh Darjeeling Limited was like one of the only movie soundtracks that I would want to buy. I would probably buy this one. I really enjoyed the soundtrack. I don't know if it was because I was like watching the soundtrack, you know, hypothetically be made as I'm hearing it, but uh I really enjoyed like the the industrial goth uh approach to it. Um I did think it was funny that they're in the club and everybody's dancing to like this very like slow music, and then like the light splashing. It looks like they're at a rave, and it's just like the music that uh Adam's been making is as like slow, like dreary uh goth rock.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:55

Um but you know honestly, I'd be interested to go into a club that played back. kind of stuff. Yeah. I mean that'd be way better than you know cash out again. Like that. Yeah, I get that for sure. We actually have the so Brennan and I first moved to this place. So it was our second year in New York. I think it was in the f within the first week we were here. We knew that there was like the record store over there. Mm-hmm. And we went um because we just set everything up so we're gonna go to record. And on display right behind the counter they had like an old copy of Only Lovers Left Alive. Oh final. Oh tight. Did you get it? Yeah we got it. Oh it's cool it was sort of ripoff but it was a hundred percent worth like because it was it was the perfect like first buy for being here. Yeah it was awesome and the um yeah I love that soundtrack.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:49

Yeah it's a really good one. So um for me I do a a star a ratings of five uh my co-host Andy will sometimes throw a 10 at me but uh it's just whatever he's feeling that day. But uh for me it's uh I'd say around a 3.5 out of five stars. Um which no no that's that's a good rating because uh like 2.5 and below means I'll never watch it again. So I'll definitely watch it again. I really enjoyed the movie.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:19

He says he'll definitely watch it again but honestly 3.5 is much closer to 2.5 than it is to a five folks and it's equidistant to the 4.5 so we get close to getting cut from this list.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:39

No no 4.5 I mean 4.5 is good too you know it's close to 4.5 um shit i uh I enjoyed it more than uh the Matrix which that's gonna hurt Andy but it was it was it was uh it was a really good movie um oh man it's in brutal honest definitely something I like I guess yeah I know and I say I'm nicer on the podcast than in real life too uh I would definitely recommend it to people though it's it's a really enjoyable enjoyable movie um yeah what's your rating for it uh oh well I don't know I'm a little embarrassed to get my rating for it don't be embarrassed man you can give it a five if you're not embarrassed I mean I I think I would oh man I would have thought more about this rating thing before coming on um just because I don't want to like contradict myself because I feel like this is a world where like you know I should probably only give a couple of fives or you know but that being said it was one of the first movies that came to mind it was so yeah I would give it a five I would give it a five yeah and I can when I rewatched it there are a couple like issues I have with it maybe like you know that doctor's thing we were talking about like logistically that was a little thing you really need to do it's a movie though yeah it's that's true it is a movie um but I I think that I would give it a five um yeah after hearing your view that though definitely you know I would not put personal shopper on this show oh come on I think that that's a fun movie but I think it would get it probably get a significantly lower rate oh man come on you gotta you gotta bring whatever you want on the show my part of the reason I started this whole thing is like I want people to to show me movies I wouldn't usually watch you know movies I wouldn't seek out so I can I can branch out and experience more because I'm very um even the people who listen know that like I'm very uh film buffy but I'm also very uh pretentious for lack of a better term when it comes to movies. I think I mean even you've heard me talking about movies and you're like oh wow it's the Adam of movies.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:49

You're the Adam of movies.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:51

Yeah I am I you know uh I do resonate with the character of Adam a lot and you know um like I said I definitely will watch it again and after this conversation I think I'll enjoy it even more because uh just in this conversation I kind of fell in love with the Adam character more uh just uh because he's he's so silly uh but in such a brooding way you know yeah uh but I I did really enjoy it um and 3.5 in my rating system is a compliment and I'm just trying to be honest I know I'm cool with it and also like you know I like the fact that you give it an honest rating.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:28

I think that's definitely doing the podcast like knowing that like everybody you invite to be on this is going to pick probably like one of their favorite favorite movies. I mean that like puts you in kind of a tough position for sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:43

Yeah yeah dropping it on you while we're recording too I'm not telling you before which is probably good though too because I mean people aren't going to come on guarded maybe next time I will the first time we get a clean yeah we get some real real reactions here but I I enjoyed it it was fun thinking about all this yeah stuff but now you know I am thinking about like a few other ones that you know that could be fun to do on here.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:15

Love to love to love to have you bring them on man you're welcome you're welcome anytime I'll watch anything you want me to um so uh usually when to just kind of top off the episode I like to ask people well I'd like to ask the guests like uh what have you been watching lately you seen anything good or movie TV show no I mean I'm I'm well okay so I'm re Brent and I are because we've been in like it's now it's probably like a six month long show haul basically um yeah it's like we've now um we decided to re-watch um The Nick which I can't remember if it was on FX or something like that. It was on one of those shit type of channels Clive Owens the main character um yeah it was just talent Children of Men yeah yeah and he's uh surgeon in the years 1900 and he's in New York um and it's good it only ran two seasons and uh I never looked into it to see whether it canceled or if they planned on ending it but based on the way the finale was it seems like they it's a close call. It's possible they were gonna end it but it's also very likely they were not going to because there are a lot of things that were kind of left hanging. Yeah a lot of loose ends yeah but yeah it was cool but then yeah and I mean maybe this is kind of jumping the gun but like another while we were talking about this I was thinking that a really fun movie to talk about and then I'd be interested in learning about it and probably there'd be a lot more material out there about is have you seen Bullet with Steve McQueen? No um it's my favorite Steve McQueen movie. Okay and I've I've only seen basically because of Bullet I went on a like down the road of watching I probably watched like not in the grand scheme of his movies not that many but probably like eight of them. I still need to watch like the whatever it's called the Thomas Crown affair um I know that that one's pretty popular. But Bullet he is as Steve McQueen usually is he's either a cowboy or he's a cop he's a cop but um it's uh I think that you might kind of kick out it because it's really it's actually really subtly offbeat okay and there's like there is a lot of stuff that they did not tie up and they're just like left kind of open in that movie. And it certainly things were not like um like explicitly like there's not a moment where a character just kind of pronounces something that like puts things to bed. You know it's more just like stuff sort of happens and then it's like we're just kind of done. You know it's one of those movies which I thought was really interesting and at least as far as the movies that I've seen generally that are from I think that that would have been from the 70s um oh I love you're getting to into eras that I love.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:24

Yeah so that'd be a cool one maybe yeah 60s 70s 60s 70s 80s you throw a movie at me from there I'm probably gonna I'm probably gonna love it. Yeah okay so we've got some things perk related to the next yeah but uh again any movie you want to do uh shoot it at me and I'll check it out and cool um we'll talk about it on here because I I love doing it you know yeah cool um lately I I've uh been watching what have you been watching what this is I usually just start saying it um I I haven't seen anything really new it's been a lot of uh well I guess I went and saw ready or not to today in the theater with my friend uh Brian um it was the first one I've never seen the first one uh they got me a ticket so I went and saw it um it's a fun ride it's explosive don't think I'd watch it again um but you know they got the Hollywood Satanist stuff which is always fun because they get really uh they always get real dark with Hollywood Satanists having Hollywood was the first thing that exposed me to that concept yeah yeah that's this one is even more like it's not like it's like Hollywood's depiction of Satanists is what I should say um because they're like rich people and they like hunt other people and the whole time they're like hail satan and stuff it's it's just uh it's just like yeah it is spot on yeah sure sure um so I saw that today that's the most new one I've watched uh I went to IFC a few weeks ago and watched House um from the 70s it's a Japanese psychedelic horror movie that's really cool um I made my coworker Julian go watch this movie with me last week at Metrograph um have you been to any of the film centers out here?

SPEAKER_03 1:16:29

No oh man we're gonna check some of those out of go I mean the the Nighthawk over here I don't really I guess I don't really know what a film center is but the Nighthawk at least plays a lot of films.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:41

Yeah yeah is that yeah that's legit that's essentially what a film center is um they'll play like one or two new movies to like keep people coming but usually it's like older movies okay um things that came out before um yeah so I went and saw nostalgia I'd never seen it before I kind of went on a blind date with that one and uh it's uh it's a Russian movie about a guy in Italy who uh hates being in Italy and uh it's very moody um it's by Andrei Tar Tarkovsky he's like really big uh in film circles but that was my first movie by him he was alright I wasn't crazy about it um I re-watched High and Low which is Akira Kutosawa uh which is a movie I'll probably have you watch okay um because it's really good blocking um it's black and white it's really fun uh procedural drama it's like a lot of people say it's like the birthplace of like the modern procedural police drama what does that mean procedural drama um so it's just like uh following the police like uh step by step through what they're what they're doing um to like solve uh uh a mystery okay um we watched uh my f my co-host Andy was in town you you met him uh last week and we watched Andy Hi Andy we watched uh Legend with Tom Cruise is Ridley Scott's like first movie watched that it's it's uh it's pretty weird it's a pretty weird movie but it's fun yeah okay it's like it's got a lot of like elements of like German folklore and stuff pretty cool which like I've had limited exposure to that but it seems like that's been a theme in some of like the horror movies in the last like five years yeah um European folklore like there was the one it was like a Netflix one they were just in the woods in Scandinavia basically it was like a group to like a hiking trip there's I was trying to hit some keywords see if maybe you knew it I can't remember it.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:55

But it was like it was definitely odd but I saw there was like a whole string of those types of things.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:59

Yeah the other thing is any horror movie after 1990 I probably haven't seen because I'm a big scaredy cat. What do you mean?

SPEAKER_03 1:19:07

Oh like you get scared during the movie?

SPEAKER_01 1:19:09

Yeah I get I get scared pretty easily sinister though right yeah yeah I watched that uh because my parents were also really big movie people um like Friday night was movie night at my house growing up and that was just one of the movies night of the week for movie night yeah yeah but that was one of the movies that um they got and it was either sit in my room and do nothing or watch a freaky movie with my parents and everybody was talking about Sinister at the time so I was like I gotta watch it. So I watched it watched it with my hands over my ears the whole and that movie that movie scared me. It's a scary one it's got yeah it's got some serious jumps in it. Um I just got uh the physical copy of A Woman under the influence because Criterion just uh released it as a solo movie so you don't need to get the the box set of the director's movies to watch it so I rewatched that for the first time since I watched it and uh still just a a wonderful uh freaky freaking movie yeah it's a wonderful experience but also a horrible experience um for better or worse one of the best movies ever made that's what I like to say yeah but yeah that's uh that's that's what I've been up to uh in terms of what I've been watching uh I'm also watching Trigon I don't usually watch too many animes but uh I'm watching Trigon right now and that's pretty cool and yeah so that's that's what I've been up to in terms of media consumption cool yeah um I think of movies I've watched lately I feel like I didn't really nearly contribute nearly as much to this one I've currently watching as you my list is always I guess I rewatched Donnie Darko the other day.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:57

Oh tight school that was a good one I haven't seen that in a while me neither that was the first time I'd watched that in a very long time that's a good that's a good movie.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:05

I thought that uh Did you know who directed that no no I just know Jake Jillenhall's in it and Maggie Jillenhall is yeah and like the um I've been meaning to rewatch Leon the Professional oh okay but I've not that I I love that movie yeah that was another like top pretender okay yeah I actually haven't seen that one so that would be no way yeah oh that's a good one man oh crap I gotta figure out how I want to spend my next watch see that's a that's what I'm that's what I'm saying like I I'm a movie guy but there's so many times in my life where somebody's like you haven't seen this like you're a film guy you know and so that's like one of the big concepts behind this podcast is like people are gonna finally start telling me like oh watch alien or watch aliens because I haven't seen those or never seen alien no no like kidding me no oh seriously how have you not just decided you gotta go watch it I don't know man it just uh it never never clicks for me you know it's like the same with the Matrix I didn't see the Matrix until Andy got me to watch it for the podcast so yeah this is a hot take but I think I think it like I liked Alien first one I think Prometheus was awesome though. Oh okay yeah I usually I have seen Prometheus even though I haven't seen Alien what I mean did you like it? Do you think it was alright? Yeah it was cool anytime I talk to an alien fan they're like nah but I mean that they're I don't know to quote I keep forgetting that actress's name but from from Only Lovers you know they're just a bunch of pretentious snobs.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:42

Oh yeah yeah um but I I thought that I thought Rapid's good yeah I um I enjoyed it I I enjoyed that movie uh and I saw it kind of recently like last few years I watched it because I was just like I don't know it's like alien gets bib biblical or something so that was fun you know yeah um so if there's uh not a whole lot else to talk about uh I was gonna say uh do you wanna plug anything anything you're doing projects you're working on or anything um I know you've got got some stuff streaming yeah I mean yeah music music is is you know Brennan's in my primary concern right now um and that is also another reason why I really liked this Jim Jarvish movie I think music's really cool I had this whole phase with trying to do like feedback shit um but I've just lived in uh first I was just too much of a wuss to like really crank stuff enough to get much feedback and then now I live in an apartment so it's like but I'm looking forward to moving into a bigger music space with you the host of this show my friend Zai and Makumi um and you know maybe we can mess with some feedback in there. Yeah but yeah but that was cool and the um there was some other like time oh yes actually the this whole staging thing something I was thinking about for a lot of these venues that were all right so Brenda's in my our our band is called cheer but we've been playing like exclusively with Zion Magumi so Zy's been playing drums and Magumi's been playing bass um and I think you know we really we've done one show so far we're setting up some more really in April we're gonna try to like play a good amount more shows and make a push to kind of get things going. Yeah on a bigger scale hopefully um mostly just so we can get out there and play more because that's I mean I enjoy it yeah you know and I but I think that the four of us have been playing really well together lately been getting pretty clean I think so yeah it's been good and you know yeah I think it's been really good um but for a lot of these venues out here um they want you to put together visual media for some stuff so um I think you probably saw like Brennan did the one um I guess Brent and I did like the like sort that old piece of paper actually um with some like basically just like an old time like font on it. Yeah. Oh yeah yeah and the big inspirations for this kind of thing. Yeah it's really cool um you know this kind of more gothic type of thing and that's also what we were going for with like our album cover. And so like the font for the Only Lovers movie was a big inspiration for that. And so we did a deep dive trying to figure out what font they used and like most of these things it was predominantly custom that some of them just do it yeah one off. So we were like for a while trying to emulate that but then like for this we just did something different. But yeah I like this a lot though I like it too right it's kind of cool isn't it oh actually yeah and I think that is the one that we use yeah I think it is we have a couple alternatives they're all on a standard bears but I that one that I gave you was the second choice. Oh tight but this is the one we used it was just a little more scaled back yeah but I do really like this one but the the the factor that like it's consistent was this like smaller lettering anyway like when we were deciding what to put together for that we were debating if we wanted to do like a picture of the two of us or something but I was thinking for future shows with the four of us we should stage ourselves like there um like the scene when um Tilda Swin Tom Hiddleston um Ava and then the uh the guy who gets all the stuff yeah yeah when they were all together in that bar with like sunglasses on the table. And I thought that that would be kind of fun and I I think I screenshotted um or otherwise saved the photo from that. I'm gonna have to find where I had it but basically it was like this type of thing but they were still there. Because Brent and I also thought about recreating this one which I think we will do at some point because I also think it's kind of a it'd be an interesting thing like me like holding on to her like that. Yeah definitely absolutely but it is it does just go back to how he put together these really cool things.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:33

This was the other one that I thought would be cool to recreate oh yeah yeah the the like the uh most used kind of picture for it.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:43

Yeah. Um but I think that um it'd be fun if the four of us got together and just took one of those. Yeah yeah for like our our shows and stuff. Um but yeah so I guess that is what we're doing. We're making decisions like that.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:59

Yeah And and uh they're streaming um on you're on Spotify?

SPEAKER_03 1:28:06

That's right. One of them is on all regular platforms. Um and then you know SoundCloud. There's a few of them. Um and we'll um we've got like a little more information on us on the SoundCloud, but yeah. I think generally yeah, we're gonna hopefully be putting more of that stuff together.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:27

Cool. And uh yeah, so that's Cheer um on Instagram. Their name is uh Cheer Is Not Available.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:35

Um you can shoot them a follow, shoot them a listen. And uh yeah, uh I think uh we've uh that's a wrap. Yeah, we've uh we've bottled, we we got a bottle uh we got it in the bottle. Got a bottle of Mexican Coke. Mexican Coke, yeah. Um so yeah, until next time, I'm I'm Zai uh with my good friend Lucas. And uh thanks for listening to a film trance. See you guys later.