All right, here we go. Quiet. Roll up. Hello and welcome to The Big Picture Podcast, where we take a look at the latest movie news, the films of today and yesterday, and then we try to put it into some sort of context.
I don't know how well we do. Seated across the mic... Confidence inspiring. I know, I know.
But I don't have much confidence today. I'm just one of those days. I know. Not that I don't have confidence in you.
Anyway, sitting across the microphone from me today, as always, is Film Buff Online editor-in-chief, Richard Dreyfuss. And seated across the microphone from me is a very non-confidence inspiring, best friend of mine and Film Buff Online contributing editor, Natasha Boguski. How you doing? How are we doing?
This is the worst opening we've ever done. Really? I love this opening. It feels so real.
So natural. We just dived right into our bullshit. I love it. Okay, fair enough.
Hey guys, welcome back! Yeah, you missed us for this whole week. Anyways, it's been a week. I've been, let's see, recovering from New York Comic-Con.
Con hangover? Yeah, a bit of con hangover, which is more a symptom of the soul than of the body. Yeah. Oh yeah, you're tired, but there's a, I miss my people kind of a thing going on too.
But yeah, turned right around and three days later I was neck deep into the Philadelphia Film Festival. You did not have much of a turnaround on that. No, no, just barely enough time to do some laundry and thankfully. And, yeah, let's see, opening night film was American Fiction with Jeffrey Wright.
You had a lot of things that were good to say about that. Yes, I did. My review is up on the site already. One of the year's best films, honestly.
It's scathingly funny, witty, sharply insightful. Jeffrey Wright gives a performance that if I hate to jinx it, but if he's not nominated for an Oscar, I am burning down all of Hollywood. Well, the thing is, is Jeffrey Wright should have been nominated for an Oscar by now. He's so good in everything.
I actually recently discovered the Angels in America film that they did for HBO in the early aughts. Holy shit, he's good in that. Yes, he's good in everything. But here, he's allowed to be comedic.
I mean, yeah, he's in a couple of Wes Anderson films. I was just gonna say, have you seen Wes Anderson films? But this is a different style of comedy. You know, Wes Anderson stuff is very formalized, and I love it for that.
Here, the comedy is much more about his character's reactions to situations. This person is very acerbic. And so if he gives a withering insult, it is a withering insult. And it's just even like the small stuff.
Some of his reactions at things are just small but hilarious. It's a fantastic performance in a movie full of some great performances. Sterling K. Brown is fantastic.
Issa Rae. Leslie Uggams as his mother, who is slowly succumbing to Alzheimer's, is heartbreaking. Just a fantastic film. I also got to see Alexander Payne's new film, The Holdovers, with Paul Giamatti.
I know you were looking forward to that. Yes, it's fantastic. I'd say it's maybe a half star below American Fiction. Really enjoyed it.
This new actor who plays the kid opposite Giamatti, it's his first film. He holds his own against Paul Giamatti, for goodness' sake. That's impressive. Yes, that's a feat.
That is a feat of magic. There are times, though, where kids have just come out of nowhere and delivered such the most beautiful, natural performances that you know that they're just going to be big stars. What? Oh, I thought you were gonna go against Paul Giamatti and bring up that movie, Blank Check, from the aughts.
Never seen it. It's a kid's movie where he's kind of basically the bad guy against Frankie Muniz. Oh, that's not Blank Check, that's Big Fat Liar. Or Big Fat Liar, whatever.
I was about to pick up a... All of it is just like some giant kind of like monofil film. I would expect to see the little blue man. I remember it very well.
It's all just like one kind of monosyllabic film that just existed for kids that I noted existed and didn't give a crap about because I wasn't the audience. Don't forget, he was in Big Mama's House, too. That's true. We all got to pay our dues.
Wow. Okay, can we talk about his very, very small performance as one of the servants at the Laramie House in the remake of Sabrina that came out in 95? Wow, that's a deep cut. It's one of my favorites.
Hey, look, all I know is I first saw Paul Giamatti pretty much when he burst into the film in Private Parts as Howard Stern's station manager. And I just remembered that was another film where I was just like, holy crap, who is this guy? I need to watch everything he does ever again. Not realizing he was going to be in a movie with Frankie Muniz.
Well, here's the thing, and why I bring up, and we'll get into this in a few minutes, although this would make an incredible segue into what we're going to talk about today. I think that the remake of Sabrina from 95 with the wonderful Julia Armand and Harrison Ford and Greg Kinnear is one of the better examples of times where remakes are just as good as the originals. It's not quite as good, but it's still a decent movie. It's right.
I would say... Okay, so I think they're both fantastic. And I think that the 95 one has a little bit more rewatchability status. But the original Billy Wilder with Audrey Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart is just such a classic.
It's so beautiful and charming. It's just sometimes if you're looking for something that's just a little easier to swallow, I'd go ahead and throw on the 95 version because it's still going to give me that vibe. True. But yeah, so I saw those two.
I saw Maestro, the new Bradley Cooper film that looks at the life of... Leonard Bernstein. Leonard Bernstein, yes. And I liked it in bits and pieces.
I'm not sure it entirely gelled for me. I only saw it about 14 hours ago, so I'm still kind of processing it a little bit. I wish I liked it better. There are things I admire about it.
And I was like, oh, this is a neat choice. And then they'd go do some other things that I didn't like quite as much. Some great performances in it, though. You know, nothing I can...
Are we looking at nominations for Carey Mulligan? Oh, my God. Yeah. So obviously Carey Mulligan is gonna have a nomination.
Bradley Cooper is probably gonna get one or two out of this whole thing. You know who's really good in it? As Leonard Bernstein's sister, Sarah Silverman. Really?
Yes, absolutely. I kind of was like sitting there going, this actress looks a little like Sarah Silverman. And then it wasn't until later in the movie I was like, oh, wait, it is Sarah Silverman. Not a trace of comedy in this role.
It's in a pure dramatic role, just as the sister who kind of maybe needles him a little bit and provides a little bit of support to his wife. Things like that. It's not a big character arc or anything like that through the movie. But it was a nice supporting role that I was really impressed with.
Well, I'm kind of glad because it... So Sarah Silverman actually gave a little bit, I think it was part of one of her stand-up specials. I may be wrong here. Don't quote me on it.
But she gave a little bit of a speech about a lot of Jewish roles in the community being played by non-Jewish actors. Obviously, we knew there was a little bit of controversy when Bradley Cooper was released with some prosthetics. Yes. But he had the blessing of the Bernstein family.
And honestly, that's the only thing I care about. That's the only thing I care about, too. And to be frankly honest here, and to quote Ocean's 13, the nose plays. I don't think it distracted me.
Okay, well, that's good. But I like the idea of, you know, you're telling a story of someone who was a pillar of that community and just a genius all around when it came to music. So having Sarah Silverman kind of come in, it's saying, we hear the argument that you have been making. We agree with it.
Come join us and be a part of the solution. Yeah. Yeah. I wish the solution were a slightly better movie.
Wow. I'm not saying that in a negative way, but it's a darn good movie. You will admit it will get her more notice for being a dramatic player now, correct? Yes.
I hope to see more from her in this vein because I thought she was very good. At the closest we've ever seen her in dramatic roles before, to my knowledge off the top of my head, is when she would be like a supporting character on a sitcom, like Greg the Bunny, back in the 90s, where she didn't get a whole lot of the comedy, but, you know, she was just kind of part of the ensemble. So this was a very nice new side of her to see. Still got a couple of more films at the festival that I will be seeing over this coming week, and I'm looking very excited to it.
A couple of films that they have on the schedule that I've already seen, thanks to Sundance and Tribeca. I How much is she going to change filmmaking? Yeah, she did $92.8 million for that opening weekend, and that includes Thursday night previews. That's pretty damn close.
And considering that they really didn't know that they were going to have previews until, I mean, a lot of things. Literally about 24 hours beforehand. And that includes the theater change. We talked about that last week.
Which is insane to me because if they had let people know that they were going to have previews, they would have done bigger box office because they would have fucking sold out that night. Yeah, there are some mistakes that have been made with this for as savvy as a business move that it ultimately is appearing to be. I mean, as of right now, with just this Thursday and Friday, we're recording on a Sunday, the October 22nd. So I don't have any numbers from any concrete numbers that I'm seeing from yesterday or today, but it's looking to be approximately a $30 to $32 million weekend.
And given the fact that, you know, it's funny that, you know, there were no screenings of it Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. It's so funny to look at the one box office chart, which is just like a graph going up of showing, you know, where, where all the games are. It's a graph and then it plateaus, you know, because the X axis going up is the total domestic box office. So it's like, yes, we made some money and then we stopped and now we're making some more money again.
It's kind of comical to look at. Even worldwide. I mean, I think opening weekend, it brought the entire grouping to like $132 million worldwide opening weekend, which was not half bad. No, not at all.
But what's interesting is I'm looking at the figures on a website called thenumbers.com, which is a really good website for box office reporting. And what they do with their graph, they show you the actual total domestic box office as it goes. And it kind of shows you what the projections normally would be. You know, it gives you a range going forward.
And looking at the range as of October 22nd, which is today, you know, we're looking at roughly about, like I said, $130 million altogether domestically. But this could have been up above anywhere between $150 million to $200 million had they been out for those three days. That Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. They had screenings that day.
So again, I mean, I'm not sure what the thinking is, is the thinking that, well, that's, those are school nights for a majority of my fans. So maybe not do that. Or I think it's, I think it's a nice way of saying, I know that a lot of people are going to come see this on the weekend. So at least give other films during the week a chance to make money.
I don't know if that's the thinking there at all. I'm trying to be nice. Okay, fair. That's, that's a hell of a, that's a hell of a concession to make here.
You know I'm right. There's a reason why Exorcist Believer got pushed back an entire week instead of opening on Friday the 13th, which normally would have been like, oh, it's a spooky day during spooky month. Let's go see a spooky movie on this day. Instead, Taylor Swift took, took it because 13 is also her lucky number.
It's a big thing among Swifties for that number 13. No, I mean it, it's huge. And so they put her there and pushed Exorcist back a week. So at least Exorcist would have a chance at making some money.
The one thing that I'm a little irritated with, with some of this box office reporting though. Oh no, Taylor Swift beat out Killers of the Flower Moon. That only made $23 million this weekend. And it's like, you're not vying for the same audience here, people.
You're, okay, they're both long movies, but who cares beyond that? I mean, the Taylor Swift concert movie audience doesn't have a whole lot of crossover, I don't believe with Killers of the Flower Moon. I think it does. Okay, explain.
Explain yourself. Yeah, you're looking at, um, Taylor Swift's major demographic. Majority of it is women. Majority of it possibly has kids, but the majority of it is freaking millennials.
People who grew up with her since the beginning or may have come to it in the past few years, but you're, you're looking at people in the age range of between, and this is where it links over with Gen X a little, of being between 20 and 35. That's your big age range. And if you happen to not only just be a Swifty, but also be, you know, you like movies as well, you're going to have a lot of overlap in the middle there, probably between the ages of 26 and 32. I don't disagree with you.
I think maybe you're overestimating that audience size. No, I think it's actually a lot bigger than you think. We just ended up at a Sunday morning screening with a lot of kids. That's true too.
Yes. That is true. Because that's when parents could bring their kids. The little girl who was handing out the bracelets to you is probably not going to see Killers of the Flower Moon.
No, but the parents might. That's true. Yes. I wonder, are there parents?
I mean, well, probably not. No, actually, because Killers of the Flower Moon is a solid hour longer than, than, uh, the Eras tour. So how long is freaking Killers of the Flower Moon? It's like three and a half hours.
The Eras tour was three. Yeah. The Eras tour was two and a half. No.
Well, with the other three is bullcrap around it. It's three. You know, the trailers and stuff. The trailers weren't that many though.
But I dare say though, parents aren't going to want to drop their kids off to see one movie and see something else if the thing they're seeing is longer and their kids are just kind of like roaming around the lobby of the movie theater for 20 minutes. They're not prone to do that. True. But if they're all going in a group, then, like, their kids can go with their friends and maybe, like, an older sibling into see the Eras tour.
We're gonna go see it. We'll meet you back here. Here's some money for the arcade. Possible.
Yeah. I mean, there's, there's a lot of different, you know, combinations of. I'm not on that shit with my mom. I know.
There's a lot of different ways that, you know, that thing can work out. So maybe there is some crossover of parents dropping their kids off for Eras and going, you know what? We really need some grown-up alone time. So let's go see Killers of the Flower Moon.
But they seem very committed to keeping Killers of the Flower Moon out. They spent $200 million on it. They're gonna keep that in theaters as long as they can through award season. And then it'll go straight to Apple where they're gonna make even more money on the streaming side of it.
Well, I mean, Apple doesn't care. No, Apple doesn't care. The stuff they produce is just so they can have some cool stuff to entice you to buy Apple products and watch it. Okay.
And that's where their money is. And that's where they get their money. Well, here's the thing. Obviously, we know that Prime and Netflix have had their, a lot of their award season films over the past few years picked up by Criterion.
And Martin Scorsese's last movie, The Irishman, got a Criterion release. Have we had one of those from Apple yet? A collaboration there? Yeah, yeah.
Coda is not in the Criterion collection as of now. Which is interesting to me because you would think that Criterion would want to preserve the first streaming film that won a Best Picture. It might not be a case of Criterion not wanting to do it. It might be a case where Apple doesn't want to get rid of it.
Doesn't want to license it out for Criterion. There's always two sides of a deal that need to come together. There are some interesting things that I'm afraid once they hit streaming after award season, they just disappear because they aren't, they aren't getting physical releases. I want a copy of Tragedy of Macbeth so bad because a lot of the shots in it are fucking paintings and black and white paintings.
They're stunning! Oh yeah! And the compression of streaming, no matter how good it is, still doesn't give you quite as good a picture as, you know, a 4K or a Blu-ray release. I'm concerned about Wes Anderson's oeuvre.
Oh, that's like... Yeah, the stuff on Netflix, these shorts. I don't think that will be a problem. Everything else Anderson does always winds up on the Criterion collection at some point.
I think he's the only director who has directed multiple, who has multiple credits to his name that has all of his work on Criterion. I don't think that'll be a problem because as we have seen, Netflix doesn't have an issue with collaborating with Criterion for releases. Obviously, Marriage Story, The Irishman, Prime is the same way. We've received Triangle of Sadness, and I had, like, One Night in Miami and a few others.
By the way, guys, if you haven't seen One Night in Miami, what the hell are you still doing listening to us? Go watch that movie. Hit pause. Come back.
Now that you're back, you're welcome. Go on. Amazing. Um, but yeah, no, I...
There are some things I feel like just... You need to have it. Yeah, for, you know, and I understand it's probably not coming all from the same person, Go find a copy of it because I don't have it here. And yeah, and it's like, oh, okay.
Of course, we always make sure that the films that we're planning to do there are available. And even what we're gonna talk about this week, Suspiria. Both of them are available on streaming. Yes.
The original is available on Paramount Plus and Criterion. And because it was an Amazon film, the remake is available. I don't know if it's a remake, but- I know. That's what I find very interesting about this.
The 2018 film that's called Suspiria, which shares a lot of similarities with the original version, is on Amazon Prime. So let's dive into that then. All right, here we go. I saw the original Suspiria years ago.
Liked it for what it was. Not my favorite Jessica Harper performance. And I mean, I appreciated it more than I liked it. I understood where it kind of stood in giallo films and that genre and where it stands and everything, but it wasn't one I went back to a lot.
I think I watched it once or twice and then re-watched it again this week amidst everything else I've been doing for this. And so that's why I was kind of a little standoffish about the 2018 remake because I was like, you know, you're just asking for trouble here, I think. And then when I heard the movie is like two and a half hours long, when the original is a lean 90 minutes. It's lean and mean.
And I'm like, that's not a lot of skeleton to hang extra meat on. What are you doing here, guys? But I wound up liking the new one. I told you!
I told you! I mean, it's nothing I'm gonna go back and re-watch just because I'm bored on a Friday night. You know, let's go re-watch this. When I want something that's just going to disturb me, that's a great one to watch.
Oh yeah, and there's some disturbing stuff in there. And some things I like. And, of course, I do like that they have Jessica Harper come back in a cameo. And there are things about it, though, I was like, okay, yeah, I guess there was enough skeleton to hang some more meat onto this movie.
It goes in different directions and arrives at a completely different ending. And it definitely, I think, ultimately has a different thing on its mind than the original. And if you're gonna remake something, I think maybe this is the way you do it. Thank you!
Thank you! Thank you! I have been saying this so many times. If you're gonna remake something, don't copy and paste the original work.
Because then you're not putting your own stamp on it. This film, the 2018 version of Suspiria, is not a shot-for-shot remake. It is, we're taking the basic skeleton and we're creating our own muscles, arteries, organs, and then the skin on top of it. Which is not the same skin as an Argento film.
Like, the original went for, you know, really garish lighting in terms of, like, the giallo style they were taking from the original, like, Snow White movie. Really, it hits your eyeballs. And look at us from 2018, it's subtle. It's darker in terms of its palette.
Pops a color here or there, but not too much. Because we don't want to copy the original. It's so much a pendulum swing in terms of production design. Oh yeah.
And I'm not just saying, you know, because one looks like sets, you know, very set-bound, one, you know, the original is almost a captive of its lower budget in terms of its, you know, sets and things like that. But those work within the context of the film itself, I think. Whereas this new one, a lot of it's filmed on location. We're outside the school a lot more.
And it's, the color palette is virtually non-existent. It's a half-step away from being a black and white film. Yeah, but when they use red, man, they make it, they make it. The rope costumes of the Volk dance.
Yes. Man, they stick out in your head. Oh, gotcha. That was one of the main images of the promotion too.
Yeah. For me, it, I really liked that it kind of reminded me of dyed material, like hanging on a, like on a wash line, just after it had been pulled out. Because it felt like it was splashing across the actresses as they were moving, and creating a new palette, pretty much. I will say, though, one thing I had trouble connecting with in the new one is, not the setting of a ballet school, but the time period it was set in.
1977, in Germany, still dealing with, you know, World War II and the kind of social trauma from that. You're dealing with a terrorist incident that's ongoing in the background. That is an actual historical terrorist incident. And there were some things I was like, you know what?
I vaguely understand, you know, this setting. I don't know it well enough to really appreciate what the director is trying to say in terms of everything else in the film. And I haven't had a chance to go off and read three books on all of this or anything like that. So, so for that, I recognize that something's there, but it didn't work for me because of my lack of knowledge of that moment in German history.
And I can see why, at least in part, American audiences didn't show up for this movie. Because, you know, because that may have been off-putting. They're like, I don't know what's going on here, so why should I bother? I mean, I don't think that's the major reason why American audiences didn't show up for this film.
I think the major reason is just the IP name. The original Suspiria is such a marker of horror and of giallo films that, oh my God, they're remaking a classic. How dare they? How dare they?
Exactly. Yeah. Big time. And I think you and I had that conversation.
I vaguely remember this, in the car on the way to Philly for a critic screening in 2018. We probably did. We were stuck on the Schuylkill and we were having this conversation. That's always likely.
Wow, it only took us five years to get you to watch it. To get around to this movie, yes. Honestly, it took me five years to get around to the original. I didn't watch it until this past weekend before this podcast.
So where do you stand, then, on the original, on the skeleton, not on the media? So 13 minutes in, and our character of Pat Hingle and her friend get killed. And my face went, this is where it would be good to have a video podcast because my head was leaning back against the sofa. And I'm like, okay, okay, this is, and we're off.
And my head popped up. My eyes went wide and I'm like, they wasted no fucking time getting into this. Well, they only got 90 minutes. I didn't realize at the time just how short it was.
It's funny, too, because you texted me about that. You saw the video. Yeah, and you shot a little surprise video and sent it to me. And that happened in real time, too.
That's the funny part. And what was funny was, you don't live too far away from me, but it was like raining cats and dogs over here and it wasn't raining over there. And I was like, oh, this is perfect weather to watch this movie. And you're like, what are you talking about?
But anyways, I'm sorry. No, it's okay. I thought the colors are, like I said, they hit your corneas. I think some of the shots are absolutely gorgeous.
I can see where a lot of those could be taken for paintings as well. The barbed wire sequence. I actually kind of curled up on the sofa. I'm like, oh, oh, oh, no, thank you.
No. Oh, no, I don't want to see this. I think on my most recent rewatch, which was this past week, I finally thought, wait a minute. Why do they need barbed wire and why are they storing it there?
It's a ballet school. What are you trying to keep out or in? Well, okay. But still, it's like, well, let's hang up, you know, let's wad up all this barbed wire and stick it right here under a window.
Yeah, I was thinking of the same thing. It seems, you know, on its surface, it's crazy because, you know, oh, you land in it, the more you wiggle in it, the more you're screaming and writhing in pain, the more you're causing more pain. And it's awful. But what the fuck is the ballet school doing with barbed wire?
Yes, exactly. I loved Joan Bennett. I grew up watching the original Dark Shadows TV show. So, like, seeing her in this and seeing her as Elizabeth Collins in the show, and I was like, and that was actually like a double hit.
And that one that really kind of hurt for me because this past week, Lara Parker, who played Angelique, our favorite witch on Dark Shadows, passed away. Yes. And so I was just, like, reminded of that as I was watching Suspiria. And I'm like, oh, Mrs.
Collins. Oh, Angelique. Like, it was funny. Unintentional side comments.
Yeah. And I think her presence, though, definitely helped sell the gothicness of the original. Oh, yeah, definitely. The original is very much a gothic horror film.
I don't think the new one is. She has to go into fright mode. I don't believe any look on her face. There's like so force.
Yeah, there's like three movies from around this time in her career that are considered like various levels of cult classic. Phantom of the Paradise, which she did in 74. This, which was what, 78, 77? And Shock Treatment from 1980, the semi-sequel to Rocky Horror, where she plays Janet.
And I would say this is probably the worst of her three. And I may be biased because I really do like Shock Treatment. I think Shock Treatment is her best performance of the three. I'm not a big Phantom of the Paradise fan, but I think she's really good in it.
I am not a fan of the music in that movie. And I know people have excoriated me for this opinion. But hey. Speaking of music, now that we're, I can segue back into 2018.
Okay. Can we talk about Tom York's hauntingly beautiful score? Really good work. Yeah.
Really good work. I really love the music of this. I've, I've used it in multiple things as well. It's just, I, I think it helps cement the vibe that this film is going for, which is disturbing, which is haunting.
It's on par with, I'm trying to think of some other disturbing horror films. I think it goes for, and I've seen bits and pieces of it. So I'm going to use this as a, a comparison, even though I've not actually seen the full film. And I told you I'm watching it later on this week.
The Others. Okay. It has like that serious garish dark vibe to it of supernatural drama and suspense than it does, you know, colorful. It's supposed to be a little more haunting and hard to watch.
Yeah, that's, that's, that's a good comparison there. I would, I would not disagree there. The music definitely, you know, helps to create that vibe along with the, the drab German country, well not countryside, cityscape that this movie is set in. It definitely puts you in a place and a mental state of nothing good is going to happen here.
Yeah. It's very depressing. Yeah. This is not a good date movie or not at least not a first date movie.
Unless you guys met at a goth club. But it's, it's, it's more goth than gothic. Yeah. I would say.
And I don't want to say goth in kind of like a disparaging way. I know I was just glib about it a moment ago. But yeah, it's, it's much more interesting in terms of the psychology it's trying to create in people, the viewer. And I've got to talk performances because throughout this film, there are just performances on top of performances that are really fucking good.
And we got to talk about the queen at the top. Not Dakota Johnson, although she's really good. She's really good. We got to talk Tilda.
Tilda Swinton, baby. Yeah. She's, she kind of shows up, knocks it out of the park three times. She's a monster in this.
And I love that even one character, when this film was released, if you watch the trailer, there's apparently a German actor, Lutz something, something as our professor. That's Tilda Swinton in prosthetics. Some great prosthetics. Great acting under said prosthetics.
Oh yeah. It's, it's not showy when other times you see actors doing multiple roles. Like Eddie Murphy. Eddie Murphy, Mike Myers.
I'm looking at you guys. Sometimes even the great Peter Sellers. Well, they're all more comedy actors than they are drama. Yeah.
And the comedy is kind of like, oh, there's so-and-so under the makeup. In a drama, when you see something like this, you start looking, wait, is there supposed to be a kind of, you know, what is the symbolism of having the characters play these two roles? And you have her as the mother figure, as the head of the ballet school. Madame Blanc.
And a father figure as the professor who, you know, is a psychiatrist who, you know, they go, you know, some of these girls go to, uh, to confess their fears about what's going on. So it does kind of become a patriarchy versus matriarchy kind of a struggle in terms of these two characters and to have them played by the same actor, I think is an interesting thing. And I will always stand by this argument. Tilda is one of those few actors.
Not only do they have an androgynous look to them, but they just can seamlessly go back and forth between embodying the masculine or embodying the feminine. That's why she works so well as, um, it was Gabriel that she played, right? In Constantine? Yes.
Was it Gabriel or Michael? One of the archangels. One of the archangels. And then on top of it, Orlando.
That's like a. That's a tailor-made role for her. Exactly. But she does both so well that you can completely believe it.
And she has a slight air of otherworldliness around her. She does have an ethereal presence. Like if anybody had ever cast her and David Bowie as siblings, it would have been believable. There's actually, I believe there is a photo out there of those two together where she's dressed as David Bowie standing next to Bowie dressed as her.
Oh yes, that's right. I have seen that. Yeah. I have seen that.
That is definitely the film I would have loved to freaking see, is those two together. Yes. Yeah. That would have been.
Oh, my heart. But fantastic performances all around from Dakota Johnson, Mia Goth. You also have Chloe Grace Moretz. Just so many good performances.
I love how that film really kind of talks about femininity, female power, female rage through magic and sensuality and bloodlust in a society. German, which is considered to be more. When you talk about Germany, you don't say motherland, you say fatherland or fatherland. So it's definitely a patriarchal society.
So I think there was a lot to really unpack with that film. And man, the imagery. There's one particular scene that will always stand out to me, and it's the first major death in the film. You know which one I'm talking about.
Go ahead. The mirror scene. Go ahead. Yes, it's.
No, to talk about it. Well, I know your love for mirrors. I do love a good mirror shot, but that's a contortionist. It's disturbing.
And at first I was a little, you know, because I only had the experience with the original Suspiria. I was like, well, we're just giving away the whole secret of the show here, aren't we? You know that these are witches and not that there's a mystery to unsolve. And that's kind of the point of the scene, though, is to say, no, we are a different movie than the original.
We are a different type of story that we're telling and we're telling it in a much different way. And yes, it's horrific and disturbing. And you're like, oh, my gosh, are they making Dakota Johnson do this kind of magic and she doesn't realize it and she's therefore killing her friend? There's a tragic irony here that their power comes through their dancing, through their movement.
Yeah, it's fucking disturbing as shit watching that scene. Watching how her body can just move and contort. Even just by the end of it, seeing her bend over like a damn pretzel pissing herself was, you know, oh, this beats the barbed wire scene. Yes.
Yeah, it's, yeah, the barbed wire scene is kind of like the pain is coming from an exterior source. The razor wire cutting into the character, the knife slitting her throat ultimately to free her of that pain. Here it's coming from within. It's, it's someone's own body betraying them.
Yeah, and having no control over. And that is absolutely far more, far more scary and horrifying. Yeah. Yeah, the, the dancing on this is, is stunning.
I, I love how when you think about like you think of flowy and, and graceful kind of, as we see in the original, it went for a more classic take on ballet. Here they're doing more, um, interpretive dance. Yes, um, Martha Graham is mentioned at one point. Um, yeah, so I'm certain that it feels like that's kind of a, a source that they were drawing from in terms of how they were designing these movements that these women were doing.
You and I both know that through the theater company I work for, we take on a different style of theatrical philosophy. We don't use so much Stanislavski as, you know, Artone Grotowski. And a lot of that has to do with, or some of it has to do with movement based work. The Suspiria definitely has that.
Yes, and that was one thing I was like, I'm reasonably sure, uh, Justin, the person who runs your company, is a fan of this movie. I'm pretty sure, sure he's talked about it before around me. I couldn't remember an exact instance, but as I was watching all that movement based things going on in here, I was like, Oh yeah, this is definitely a Justin movie. Yeah.
Um, when I actually joined the company, I was, I was doing my readings and research and studying and all that. Uh, this was definitely one of those movies he had me watch to kind of be able to visualize an idea of how we would bring that onto stage. Um, I just, the, the whole vocal sequence is gorgeous to me. Um, there's a rigidness, but there's still a flow and it does feel like through the movements, there is witchcraft.
If I saw that stuff happening in front of me and I was just Remember, you can find us online at bigpicturepod.com, and we are now available on iTunes and Google Play. So either use the link in the show notes post or head directly there, search and hit subscribe. And if you like what you're listening to, please leave a positive review, because that always helps us connect with new listeners. We'll be back next time with a double feature review of Fright Night right here on The Big Picture Podcast.