Criterion Close-Up

Mark, Aaron and Eric Ford begin a month of horror with the micro-budget cult classic, Carnival of Souls. We talk about what makes this such an enduring classic that has held up over time, the bizarre story about how it was made, its influences and what it has influenced, and what type of artistic aims the filmmakers tried to reach.

About the film:

A young woman in a small Kansas town survives a drag race accident, then agrees to take a job as a church organist in Salt Lake City. En route, she is haunted by a bizarre apparition that compels her toward an abandoned lakeside pavilion. Made by industrial filmmakers on a small budget, the eerily effective B-movie classic Carnival of Souls was intended to have “the look of a Bergman and the feel of a Cocteau”—and, with its strikingly used locations and spooky organ score, it succeeds. Herk Harvey’s macabre masterpiece gained a cult following on late-night television and continues to inspire filmmakers today.

Buy The Films On Amazon:

Episode Links & Notes

Special Guest: Eric Ford from The Burlington Film Society and the Vermont International Film Festival.

1:10 – Welcome Eric Ford from Burlington Film Society, Vermont International Film Festival.

4:10 – Vermont International Film Festival

11:20 – Short Takes (Angst, The Neon Demon, Son of Saul, The Brood, Neon Bull, Anomalisa)

31:45 – Carnival of Souls

• VTIFF – A-Z
• Aaron’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind review
• Wrong Reel 181: TIFF
• Dana Gould as Dr. Zaius/Mark Twain
• Rifftrax – Carnival of Souls
• Criterion – Carnival of Souls
• IMDB – Carnival of Souls

Episode Credits

• Mark Hurne: Twitter | Letterboxd
• Aaron West: Twitter | Blog | Letterboxd
• Criterion Close-Up: Facebook | Twitter | Email
• Music from Ben Model: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

Next time on the podcast: The Vanishing

Mark and Aaron are joined by Marcus Pinn to explore the filmography of Jim Jarmusch, beginning with Mystery Train (1989). We explore the triple storyline, the coalescence of the director’s indie experience and arthouse sensibilities, and the film’s sense of place. We then dive into his library and style, and choose our five favorite Jarmusch films.

About the film:

Aloof teenage Japanese tourists, a frazzled Italian widow, and a disgruntled British immigrant all converge in the city of dreams—which, in Mystery Train, from Jim Jarmusch, is Memphis. Made with its director’s customary precision and wit, this triptych of stories pays playful tribute to the home of Stax Records, Sun Studio, Graceland, Carl Perkins, and, of course, the King, who presides over the film like a spirit. Mystery Train is one of Jarmusch’s very best movies, a boozy and beautiful pilgrimage to an iconic American ghost town and a paean to the music it gave the world.

Buy The Films On Amazon:

Special Guest: Marcus Pinn from Pinnland Empire. You can follow him on Twitter.

2:15 – TIFF talk with Marcus

17:40 – Criterion Connection “Shelved”

19:00 – Mystery Train

1:01:00 – Jim Jarmusch

• The Pink Smoke
• Cut Print Film
• Wrong Reel 181: TIFF
• Marcus’ Interview with Claire Denis
• Criterion Completion
• Mystery Train – IMDB
• Mystery Train – Criterion
• Marcus’ History – Stranger than Paradise
• Aaron’s Essay on Down by Law
• The Newsstand 64 – December 2016 Releases

Episode Credits

• Mark Hurne: Twitter | Letterboxd
• Aaron West: Twitter | Blog | Letterboxd
• Criterion Close-Up: Facebook | Twitter | Email
• Music from Ben Model: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

Next time on the podcast: Carnival of Souls

Mark, Aaron and Scott Nye kick off the first of a seven episode series about French cinema in the 1930s. We give an overview of the decade and some historical context, and discuss the French silent tradition and how that it transitioned to sound. We also get into detail about two important filmmakers, Jacques Feyder and Jean Vigo. Feyder was an important filmmaker in his time, but his works are not as prominent today, whereas Vigo was nearly forgotten in the 1930s and discovered after the war.

Episode Links & Notes

Special Guest: Scott Nye from CriterionCast and Battleship Pretension. You can follow him on Twitter.

3:15 – Dedication and Thanks

9:35 – Intro to French Film Series

28:15 – From Silent to Sound

46:30 – Jacques Feyder

1:13:30 – Jean Vigo

• Criterion Collection: Poetic Realism
• Flicker Alley: The House of Mystery
• French Masterworks: Russian Émigrés in Paris 1923-1929
• Flicker Alley: L’Inhumaine
• Flicker Alley – Vimeo Channel
• Aaron West – 3 from Jean Vigo

Recommended Films

• Napoleon
• Un chien andalou
• Coeur fidèle
• Crainquebille
• Visage d’enfants
• Le grand jeu
• Carnival in Flanders
• À Propos de Nice
• Zéro de conduite
• L’Atalante

Episode Credits

• Mark Hurne: Twitter | Letterboxd
• Aaron West: Twitter | Blog | Letterboxd
• Criterion Close-Up: Facebook | Twitter | Email
• Music from Ben Model: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

Next time on the podcast: Mystery Train and Jim Jarmusch

We change things up by focusing on a boutique label, Twilight Time, that has found success through a unique business model. Mark and Aaron happen to be big fans, and feel that we have directly contributed towards some of their profits. We talk about the company, their business model, why they have succeeded, and we address some common critiques. We also review a few discs each, and finally count down our favorite Twilight Time titles.

About Nick Redman:

London-born Nick Redman, one of Hollywood’s leading producers of movie music, is also an award-winning documentary filmmaker. An Academy Award nominee as producer of the 1996 Warner Brothers documentary, The Wild Bunch: An Album in Montage, he went on to write, produce, and direct A Turning of the Earth: John Ford, John Wayne and The Searchers (1998), which became a prize-winner at multiple film festivals.

As a consultant to the Fox Music Group (ongoing since 1993), he has developed and overseen Hollywood’s most comprehensive film music restoration program, personally producing more than 500 albums featuring the music of Alfred Newman, Bernard Herrmann, Jerry Goldsmith, John Williams, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Alex North, Hans Zimmer, James Horner, Michael Kamen and many more. His productions of the “Star Wars Trilogy” were certified Gold by the RIAA.

In 2007, he produced and directed Becoming John Ford, a feature-length documentary for Twentieth Century Fox, which premiered as a special selection at the Venice International Film Festival. The film details the creative and fractious relationship between the brittle, contentious director and his mentor / boss, studio chief Darryl F. Zanuck.

In his capacity as a film historian, he has presided over commentaries for dozens of DVDs. As producer and director, he has provided special materials—documentaries and commentaries—for numerous titles including Sam Peckinpah’s Legendary Westerns Collection, honored by Entertainment Weekly as the Number One DVD boxed set of 2006.

In 2011, he co-founded the independent label Twilight Time which releases classic films licensed from 20th Century Fox, Columbia/Sony, and MGM/UA on DVD and Blu-ray.

Nick has been a member of BAFTA Los Angeles for many years and has conducted numerous interviews for screening Q&A’s and the Heritage Archive, including Michael Apted, Malcolm McDowell, Sir Ben Kingsley, Ian McShane, Tilda Swinton, Kevin Brownlow and Millicent Martin.

About Brian Jamieson:

Jamieson first entered the film industry with the New Zealand branch of Warner Bros. in 1977. He was later transferred to the United Kingdom. After his success publicizing Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Peter Yates’ The Deep, he was named the International Publicist of the Year.

He moved to the United States in 1984. During the 1980s, he was in charge of all the company’s theatrical marketing in Latin America, the Far East, South Africa, Europe, Australia and New Zealand; he was later promoted to head of International Marketing and Publicity, which made him responsible for home video marketing internationally. He also collaborated with Stanley Kubrick to promote Full Metal Jacket; they continued to work together until Eyes Wide Shut, Kubrick’s last film before his death in 1999.

The Times Colonist called Jamieson a “respected film preservationist”. In his work at Warner Home Video, Jamieson shepherded the restorations of numerous classical films. In 2002, Jamieson helped produce Charlie: The Life and Art of Charles Chaplin, with Richard Schickel, which was shown at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival. Two years later, he collaborated with Schickel to reconstruct The Big Red One, by Sam Fuller. The two readded 47 minutes of previously cut material.The reconstruction won several awards, including the Seattle Film Critics Awards and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards. He later released a reconstruction of Sam Peckinpah’s 1969 film The Wild Bunch.

By March 2006 he had opened his own production agency, Redwind Productions, and in 2007 released the company’s first production, Cannes All Access, a look at the social impact of the Cannes Film Festival.

In 2010 he made his directorial debut with To Whom It May Concern: Ka Shen’s Journey, which tells how Nancy Kwan ensured that Asians could play Asian characters with her success in 1960’s The World of Suzie Wong. The film received several awards, including the Women’s International Film and Television Showcase (WIFTS) Diversity Award, as well as the Best Feature Documentary from both the American International Film Festival (AIFF) and the WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival. Jamieson himself received the Best Director award from the AIFF.

According to the WIFTS Foundation, Jamieson was one of the first directors to include documentaries with home video releases of clas...

Mark and Aaron take a trip down memory lane. This is not only the first Criterion Close-Up episode, but the first time that we had podcasted together. The episode is a little rough, as would be expected, but we hope you’ll enjoy hearing us as we learned our way.

Episode Credits

• Mark Hurne: Twitter | Letterboxd
• Aaron West: Twitter | Blog | Letterboxd
• Criterion Close-Up: Facebook | Twitter | Email