S6E21: Star Charts and Biorhythms
Added 2022-10-17 22:42:57 +0000 UTCBret Easton Ellis discusses turning a faded fashion interest into the foundation of a legacy novel, being overwhelmed by the sound of Robert Wise's music and having had enough of an annoying screen legend as he fields questions from Platinum listeners on the air.
Comments
Great thoughts and insights from the host.
paul dakota
2023-04-05 14:00:25 +0000 UTCWatched Barbarian after listening to the pod - horror is not my favorite. But this was more of a thriller and "Boogeyman" or Boogeywoman as it was... anyway, enjoyed it.
Travis Films
2022-11-22 18:14:54 +0000 UTClol. you guys are great. i literally did laugh out loud. many times.
grainpulp
2022-11-18 22:14:44 +0000 UTCPlease consider Sheree Rose: lifelong Angeleno & former partner of the late Bob Flanagan…still doing S&M well into her 80s.
Jordan
2022-11-13 02:54:32 +0000 UTCSilence of the Lambs cannot POSSIBLY be great, or even good (and that's a fact) because movies began to look real post 1990 (and that's a fact) and the exaggerated, sensationalized techniques of '70s and '80s filmmaking wouldn't work for a real-looking film, like it would for Manhunter cause it came out in 1986. Manhunter wins by default. No (formal) contest ✌🏼
Neil G.
2022-11-07 23:24:58 +0000 UTCMark laita (Soft white Underbelly) Mark Kemode Lex Friedman (exchange notes on Kanye talk) Michael Jasmin Nick Gillespie Scott Galloway Chuck Klosterman Brad Listi Tao Lin
Frank Formica
2022-11-06 18:44:19 +0000 UTCNo. Just Anna Khachiyan.
A B
2022-10-27 02:11:10 +0000 UTCPatrik and or Paul Cupo. Please no Tim Dillon… gawd no.
A B
2022-10-27 02:10:36 +0000 UTCDon’t go full retard.
Steven Mills
2022-10-26 12:25:15 +0000 UTCPaulo Cupo or Patrick Sandberg!
clay
2022-10-25 23:03:50 +0000 UTCThe Q&As are always great. Yes, Dustin Hoffman in Rainman is grating. Tom Cruise is fantastic btw.
Tommy Stronach
2022-10-25 22:56:04 +0000 UTCI want to weigh in on the Manhunter / Silence of the Lambs Controversy. SOL is great, obviously. A masterwork. BUT it does not contain any moment as SUBLIME as the scene in Manhunter when the killer takes the blind woman to feel the drugged tiger. Pure sensory psychedelia.
Emmalea
2022-10-23 22:15:27 +0000 UTCKlute for me is the best, but all 3 are so awesome. I'd like to rewatch Zodiac with the Pakula trilogy in mind. I know Harris Savides based the SF Chronicle newsroom lighting and photography on the newsroom scenes in All the Presidents Men.
Ben
2022-10-23 20:35:42 +0000 UTCAgreed. Watching it now.
Paul Richardson
2022-10-23 20:09:57 +0000 UTCIt blows me away how so few people have seen Straight Time. One of Hoffman's most interesting rolls, plus it has such an awesome cast.
Ben
2022-10-23 08:25:48 +0000 UTCTo Live and Die in LA is a masterpiece and my favorite Friedkin picture. The energy and attitude is so unabashedly over the top in a way that movies aren't anymore and it's thrilling. Agreed that Manhunter sort of falls flat. Too bad for William Peterson. It could have been an epic follow up movie for him. With his love of procedural detail and nighttime settings, it should have been an easy win for Michael Mann. I think the least compelling part is the ending. It just sort of seems like they ran out of money or interest.
Ben
2022-10-23 08:10:25 +0000 UTCLiked Hoffman in Wag the Dog
Mary Walker
2022-10-23 01:52:25 +0000 UTCIt’s a better film than Presidents imho. To me, The Parallax View is the best film in the “trilogy” by a mile.
Thomas Matich
2022-10-22 15:47:43 +0000 UTCI'd like to suggest Adam Lehrer of the Safety Propaganda substack and System of Systems Patreon. I first learned of him via his compelling Euphoria essay where he makes an argument for an emerging crypto-transgression in pop culture. Jack Mason was a recent guest on his podcast discussing Blonde. Adam could likely talk for hours on a wide range of cultural and literary topics. I've linked the essay and Patreon below. https://safetypropaganda.substack.com/p/instances-of-crypto-transgression https://www.patreon.com/systemofsystems
Mike B
2022-10-22 12:11:37 +0000 UTCHow to Find Zodiac is my book of the year so far. Seriously great.
Paul Richardson
2022-10-22 01:20:24 +0000 UTCam going to listen on my run. will say more later, after my run.
richard owain roberts
2022-10-21 20:12:15 +0000 UTCFilms in the “epistemology of truth” genre
Grant
2022-10-21 20:06:49 +0000 UTCA movie that might be a modern day All the President’s Men might be Zodiac? Not sure haven’t seen either in a while
Grant
2022-10-21 19:58:41 +0000 UTCTo even think of mismatching fashion pieces to show “madness on the page” is such a subtle brilliant concept
Normaling
2022-10-21 16:05:55 +0000 UTCI recently watched Sound of Music for the first time since childhood and was surprised how good it was.
Paul Richardson
2022-10-21 12:00:28 +0000 UTCSpeaking of Manhunter. The fictional Bret from The Shards reminded me to a degree of Will Graham, both as Thomas Harris wrote him and more particularly the Bryan Fuller version. Both characters suffer by what might be seen or described as their superpower, that being their imaginations. I don't see that portrayed a lot, but it's a very real thing. Maybe it gets passed off in life as high strung or paranoia -- maybe those are related things. If you have a deep capacity for imagination, sometimes there are gonna be some bumps and bruises before you learn how to deal with it. Seeing that play out in the Hannibal series is what drew me to that. Unless I'm mistaken, it's part of The Shards as well.
bpvalentine
2022-10-21 05:28:13 +0000 UTCI second the Vincent Gallo encouragement. He'd probably demand compensation. Actually, if he's on tour with his band, if he still has a band, then maybe on an L.A. date?
bpvalentine
2022-10-21 05:17:47 +0000 UTCTry out Filthy Armenian Adventures. Recently had David Thomson on. He gives a kalidoscopic portrait of LA and has had Jack the Perfume Nationalist on his show a few times. His opening monologues are great too.
P
2022-10-21 02:04:03 +0000 UTCWould love to see Honor Levy on here as well, but she has a book to finish first!
Thumperdinck
2022-10-20 22:54:44 +0000 UTCLove Anna, Dasha and Jack. Would love to hear from more of their ilk. Also YouTubers like The Kino Corner, close friend of Ariel Pink.
Thumperdinck
2022-10-20 22:53:56 +0000 UTCMaybe a little niche but I'm curious if you'd match well with Phil and J.F from the Weird Studies podcast. They have had some great talks on atmosphere in movies/Art and all it is really is trying to get "under the surface of things," which is something, as Don Delillo and Didion reader for instance, you'd be willing to engage with? (isn't that also and perhaps what that insistence on coldness in Glamorama is maybe hinting at (unconsciously or not)? ) Great pod as always, thank you!
Margaux
2022-10-20 21:14:58 +0000 UTCYou Must Remember This, The Film Cult Podcast and Badlands are all Podcasts/hosts that would make for great cross pollination.
Robert Lalonde
2022-10-20 19:30:44 +0000 UTCGreat pod! But Colin Farrell will win best actor for banshees!
Rory Kiberd
2022-10-20 16:49:55 +0000 UTCLove the Q& A’s! Longer!!! Bret musing on Pippi long stockings was amazing. Eli Roth would be cool to catch up with. Vincent Gallo=white whale guest.
R. M.
2022-10-20 15:57:54 +0000 UTCDope on Patreon: Nick Mullen & Adam Friedland of Cumtown and The Adam Friedland Show
Happyhead
2022-10-20 15:54:38 +0000 UTCMatt Lynch from The Suspense Is Killing Us!!
Steven Carrier
2022-10-20 03:41:27 +0000 UTCTim Dillon
Adam Marzec
2022-10-20 03:16:12 +0000 UTCGreat analysis
M. Nero Nava
2022-10-20 03:09:55 +0000 UTChaha. But you have to remember that The Keep is SORTA Mann's first THEATRICAL movie. Also his first (I think?) adaptation, which might be an extra challenge for a guy with such a singular point of view. I love Last of the Mohicans. Tho as an adaptation, it has the advantage of having a very Mann point of view built into it, right? By that I mean kind of a boilerplate genre idea that can handle these manic depressive swings between naturalism and romanticism, which Mann handles in a removed way where we might second guess ourselves about own interpretations of what's going on. I think what's going matters less than the mood Mann sets and his painterly framing in which more than a few times has contained marvelous (hey, I think that's the first time I've ever used that word out loud!!) acting other assorted Hollywood craftsmanship. I totally agree about Brian Cox. I really dig the guy as an actor. Yet occasionally doesn't he come off as kind of lazy or detached? I get nothing from those scenes in Manhunter with Cox playing Hannibal the Incredible Electric Waistcoat. (Sorry, lame joke.) By now everybody knows Hannibal is an important character that demands an actor to leave a stamp on it. It's like when an actor does Santa or Jesus or, erm, Batman. Nobody plays those rolls as just another job. Cox didn't know Hannibal was going to go to bigger things, and so we do end up with a psychopath, yet defanged and a little pathetic given where he is. Will Graham hauls ass out of the building after seeing Cox's Hannibal and boots his lunch right outside the fucking door! Very professional, Graham. I feel like Cox as an actor resorts to shouting and generally just going BIG to convey something to the audience. I don't like imagining what Silence of the Lambs might have been like with Mann and Cox (holy shit - what might Mann and his Cox have wrought?).
bpvalentine
2022-10-20 02:50:12 +0000 UTCPatrick Sandberg of Not Really would be perfect
Lydia
2022-10-20 02:19:28 +0000 UTCThoughts on Tár?
OSOS
2022-10-19 19:20:46 +0000 UTCIn terms of guests - it would be the 3rd time but you need to have David Shields on again. Bret references him constantly and he's one of the best guests you've had on the BEP
Bazayer
2022-10-19 19:15:20 +0000 UTCI think a great guest would be Michael Moynihan, co-host of the Fifth Column Podcast. He is incredibly knowledgeable about American 20th century culture. I feel like you two may have crossed paths but definitely would love to hear him on the podcast.
Caleb Jones
2022-10-19 19:14:40 +0000 UTCTim Dillon and Bret are the Patreon couple the WORLD NEEDS!!!
Jen Gray
2022-10-19 17:36:20 +0000 UTCEthan Strauss would be a great guest. He's the most followed sportswriter on Substack but he's also fluent in pop culture and mentions American Psycho on his podcast.
Kris Harris
2022-10-19 16:40:17 +0000 UTCI agree with Jorge - Tim Dillon would be a hilarious guest! He could join the bad gays of Podcasting!
Elizabeth
2022-10-19 00:58:01 +0000 UTCPure Cinema Podcast guys would be good guests. Should be easy to book since they are tight with QT. Also, what is the ordering for the questions? Seems random. My question is going to seem redundant/dated after having Tom Holland on but I asked it back in the beginning of September so yeah…
Thomas Matich
2022-10-18 16:48:59 +0000 UTCThe US comic book industry got woke and went broke.
Stevan Popovic
2022-10-18 13:05:55 +0000 UTCI am a big Manhunter fan. I think the ultra heavy handed stylization of Manhunter make it interesting. That being said I agree that Silence Of The Lambs is a nearly perfect movie, I can’t find any faults in it—where I feel Cox is fairly weak in Manhunter. Also, I was a fan of Mann but I recently saw The Keep at New Bev… man, it was so baffling and befuddling it made me reconsider all my respect for Michael Mann. I once met Carl Bernstein while shopping at Counter Point books. We began chatting about records. Someone brought him an All The Presidents Men , he politely signed it. I said “I would have opted for a Coming Around Again (Carly Simon) 12” He chuckled. I enjoyed this episode, good movie questions guys.
M. Nero Nava
2022-10-18 12:20:15 +0000 UTCTootsie? Please no! Oh, the humanity!
Thomas Edwards
2022-10-18 10:13:52 +0000 UTCI would like you to invite Tim Dillon. A comedian. He's a very successful Patreon podcaster. Bill Burr? Jonathan Littel? Probably a very difficult conversation, he doesn't seem to like interviews.
Jorge Espinha
2022-10-18 07:50:13 +0000 UTCAmerican Psycho graphic novel just in itself sounds preposterous and sophomoric — that being said, a really worked and crafted up and serious Pat Bateman short story 30 years later would be pretty fascinating
Seneca Garcia
2022-10-18 03:37:09 +0000 UTCIn regards to online personalities who are funny, brutally honest and living in LA, I would suggest Bridget Phetasy as a potential guest on the BEE podcast. She used to be on Patreon, but is currently active on Locals and YouTube. I think Bret and Bridget would have terrific chemistry on the show.
Chris Beaubien
2022-10-18 01:10:36 +0000 UTCLove these Q&A sessions. Thanks for the thoughtful answer to my question. (Will still keep a torch lit for the Todd interview one fine day, maybe with Adam interviewing you BOTH?!) Anyhoo…can’t wait until next week! 👊
Patrick
2022-10-18 00:22:02 +0000 UTCSo good … thanks for answering my question 👏🏻
PETER GREER
2022-10-17 23:33:41 +0000 UTC
