You are now listening to the Someone's Favorite Productions podcast Network.
Hello there, and welcome back to The Disconnected, here for the second time with mister Daniel Kramer, contributor, director, filmmaker, incredible person overall. Daniel, Thanks for doing this again.
It's a great pleasure to be.
Back on the show.
It's one of those things where I looked back to the last time you were on here and I realized it has been far too long. For some reason, I felt like it was last year, but it's been It's been almost two full years now, and you have had some massive life changes since then. First of all, you moved. You moved south from from Frisco to Pasadena. How's been the transition downward for you?
Uh, it's been great.
I moved down because my then fiance and now husband got a job at Claremont McKenna College. He's a in the math department, very very different from me, but so otherwise I probably wouldn't have left the you know, the Bay area. I was very much at home, but no. Being being in the LA area has been has been great. I'm able to connect with a lot of the a lot of the people that I work with on a on a pretty regular normal basis, including Alan Arkish, David
del Valle, Howard Berger. You know, I see the guys that I work with on these extras and these tracks a great deal more than I used to.
So that's been great.
I have access immediate access to the Margaret Herrick Library and a lot of the local resources and a lot of the local events. So and and Pasadena I was you know, I was down and I was very down on LA for a long time, just on an on an aesthetic level, on a kind of ethos level. But like Pasadena is really my speed and my husband's speed. It's a very nice little burg here.
Uh so we all genuinely compared to the rest of l A.
Yeah, it's it's it's its own little little kind of burg.
It's its own little hamlets. So we we.
I mean, my husband and I have a great time just kind of like you know, they're they're endless places to eat around here, like the restaurants are. It's a never ending supply, like we're always like we're like almost a year and a half or more into our time here where we're still finding places.
So that it's been great. It's been great.
I do miss the Bay Area, but as far as being anywhere else goes, Pasadenas is a pretty uh pretty boss.
It's a giving you opportunities to strike up friendships, like with the Elliott Gould. That's been pretty cool to watch growing with you. What happened there?
Oh my lord?
I met Elliott years ago at a party that was thrown by Henry Jagulin, and I met a lot of great people at those Jaguline parties.
I chatted up Diane.
Cannon, I remember at one of them, and another one, I mean, Richard Benjamin and Paul Apprentiss would come, Monty Hellman.
Would be there.
It's like all the old Hollywood that I love was of the seventies and whatnot, where many of them were there. I wouldn't know what to do in a room of modern celebrities. If I were in a room with Ryan Gosling and you know, Emma Watson or whatever else, I wouldn't know what to say to them. But I had plenty to say to Richard Benjamin and Paula Apprentiss and Monty Hillman and Diane Cannon and Mary Crosby who shot J R.
On Dallas, and I met other all kinds of here.
But Elliott was one of the people who was a bit of a and at least in those days, a prankster. And I would hang out with him and David Profile from the he was Richly Aprile on the Sopranos, and David has who made a longtime friend, and we would be off on a corner and Elliott would be pulling these little playful pranks on people at the party. And I kept his number for years. I never called it. I ran into him again at the Karen Black Memorial
and then we we caught up briefly there. Then when I when they were doing the Capricorn one set at Imprint, I was like, oh, I don't have to go through the agents and the managers, which can be a real
pain in the in the in the tush. So I get his column and you know, we we had a series of phone conversations about doing not just an interview for Capricorn one, but for two other well, A Bridge Too Far, which did come out and was properly released on the four K package from Imprint, I believe, and uh, then there's one more coming. So it was a three It was a three part interview on three different titles,
and so I called him. I was like, you know, so where you know Elliott very very you know, it's a proper interesting way of a pattern of speech.
He goes, well, where would you want to shoot this?
And I was like, well, we could do it at your places? Like, oh, I I can't do it there.
I was like, well I can.
We can come to you. I can bring you to my place. It's like, oh, is that possible. I would love to do that. I was like, okay, well I can pick you up. And I was like yes, I'll give you my address, and he did. I picked him up and and and I drove him back to my to our place. Here, Evan comes out of our bedroom and he was like.
Hi, nice. Nice.
It was hysterical and and uh He's like, oh a nice to meet you. And it's like, you know, my son Jason is also gay, and you know, he goes, but he was a delightful man, and we had a nice drive to and from and we had a great interview.
And uh.
But yes, he I you know, when I came, it looked like just a brief aside, it looked like his house and looks like the place a bit where his character lives in the Long Goodbye. It's not an elevator, but it's a flight up. And I comment, it's like, you can do the Long Goodbye to here.
Elliott. Uh, it's like, oh you think so well.
Robert Altman and I were talking about doing a sequel for many years and it never happened. But yes, he's uh, that was an interesting adventure. And then we of course, like we met our couple friends that that weekend. It's like, hey, we just had Elliott Gould over our house. They're like we did.
What That's gonna be a nice perk for Evan coming into a relationship randomly you come out of the bathroom to Elliott and Gould.
Well, his mother was just like, you know, like you brought Elliott Gould to your place, Like did you clean up? Of course that's the first thing that she asked.
But it was like.
That's great. I mean, I uh, there's another friend that happened to meet him. I think he was in line for donuts in Koreatown or bagels or something like that, and he was thrilled with him. But everybody's like, yeah, he's so nice. I said, yeah, my friend Daniel has been like getting real close to him lately, so yeah, it's just everybody's having a good time with Elliott Gould in La.
Yeah, and he would call me at a pretty regular clip after that, and he wanted to talk about election things, and because he was very he's very into what he was reading in politics and everything else, and I was and we talked about it the bid on the drives, so he was you know, he would call me and do we just talk about like what's going on in the election cycle.
So that was fun.
But yeah, he's he's a very fun guy and a very very interesting person.
To be around. And of course, you know has his memory.
You know, he's he has a very jocular tongue in cheeks sense a lot of the time. And so you ask him about uh, Telly Savalas, like, well, whenever I mentioned the name of Telly Savalas, I have to pay him a certain amount. It's like Ellie's and I used
to play poker together. Buddy and I used to play poker together, and it was like, you know, so, yeah, he's very uh and when I it's funny when I interviewed Brenda Vacaro for the same package, I was like, so you were acting alongside both James Brolin and Ellie Gould, both of whom were married to Barbara streisand and she she's she's just fun, you know. But so Brenda's like, yeah, isn't that interesting? I should have asked him which one's your favorite?
I think I think Brolin is Brenda. But they're still married, but I.
Would hope that would be the answer.
Whenever Elliott mentioned he was like, well, my my former wife. And I was like, and then you have to think and he's like, yeah, I know, you mean Barbara streisand there.
Well, you got to take the good and the bad in moving to Pasadena. Elliott is a perk, of course, but this last few months the fires, you guys were pretty impacted by that.
Yeah, we were down in uh, San Diego. We had gotten legally married in December, and Evan had a conference, he had a this statistician conference down and San Diego says like, you want to come with, We'll make it a little mini honeymoon for the legal ceremony. Anyways, Like, yeah, it is a hotel full of like these really elaborate, wonderful water slides, which I'd never been on since I was a kid.
So that was fun.
And then we had people watching our cat who's right up here, and she and we were getting the constant reports was like in all the fires getting out of control and the windstorm and everything else, and we were like, well,
we're let's us hanging here for now. And then it became more and more apparent that our cat sitters were going to have to evacuate and that the fires were inching ever so much closer to where we lived, and it's like, we need to get back home, like, you know, we need to cut the short and get back home.
So we did. We it didn't really come that close to us.
The two ten was the dividing line between evacuation zones and non evacuation zones. We're near old town old town Pasadena, so we were pretty safe. But yeah, it was pretty pretty unsettled and disconcerting watching all that unfold and calling friends and making sure they were okay. And we knew quite a few people who were evacuated, and my husband's carpool to call as a college carpool. Many of those people and I lived in Altadena and did lose their
homes and are rebuilding. But yeah, it was quite quite quite a trauma and a just an unbelievable thing to see unfold.
Yeah.
I visited shortly to California for a few days at the end of January, and just the amount of people that impacted and you know, stuff that you could see, it was just it's kind of kind of crazy to think about the I don't know, like the breadth of the impact here for the amount of people that these all affected, because it was so many at once too. That was the biggest thing is alternate routes were even affected for a lot of these people that were leaving. Travel alone was just immensely impacted.
Yeah, it was multiple fires.
I mean Malibu as we know, and uh on the Palisades, just parts were completely decimated.
Yeah, that's unbelievable.
And then I mentioned Henry Henry Jagulain earlier. You know, I see him fairly often lunches and everything. Uh, he's down in the in the Santa Monica area. He had to briefly move out of his place and you know, and it was I think it was a he only had to wait a few days.
Then.
Randall Kleiser is another friend who directed Greece. He's up in the in the running Canyon area.
He did.
He had to evacuate a lot of people that I know had to had to evacuate her within close Joe Dante almost had to evacuate I know. So yeah, but yeah, it was constantly checking in with everyone that you know, including other commentators in David del val I think almost almost vacated.
But didn't.
You know other people in the commentary, you know, just that they're doing these things all the time, or you know friends. Yeah, you're checking in on everybody constantly, you know.
Yeah, first time you were here, we primarily were focused on Sydney j Fury. It was a big deal for you at the time with that box set coming from Imprint, I knew it was going to be here today. That's perfect. Imprint, though, has become more of a collaborator, like common partner for You've done quite a bit for them over the last couple of years. Uh, how's how's the relationship there? How do you? How do you like Imprint?
Uh?
My fingerprints are all over their back on this one, but uh, I think they're I think they're very happy with the with the response, and it's been wonderful to be able to go to them and uh, really this project was birthed by the fact that my husband, who as I mentioned, is a statistician, went away for a number of months during the campaign season because he works in uh, public data, political data, health data, all that stuff. So that ALEC season was it is like prime time
for him. So he was away, you know, you know, on the on the campaign trail, and I was left home alone and very much missing him. And you know, you had multiple options there. I could have drowned my sorrows. I could have I could have become a public drunk, and I could have curled up in a fetal position under the covers for all that time.
But I really wanted this. This really began this whole Sylvia.
Ratzano set that I'm sure we're going to be diving more into, but I'll cut to the chase. It began when Vinegar Syndrome released Sylvia Ratzano's The Sky Is Falling with Dennis Hopper and Carol Baker as part of their Villages of the Damned set. And this is a film I had seen via its other title blood Bath on VHS for a long while, and uh on the VH, I mean the VHS is and I I tend to defend VHS, but this particular VHS was unwatchable. It was unwatchable.
And I feature a sample of the VHS in there to to kind of demonstrate to people that this is what they what people were seeing all these years. It's so dark in the in the exterior shots, you can't make out anything that's going on. You just it's completely
unintelligible on you know, you just it's unwatchable. But when they released the Blu ray with this beautiful new scan and the exteriors looks so vibrant and colorful and uh, and that you could finally experience the movie, which is you know, an acquired taste as my as my husband says, oh, that the rankings on letterbox for that movie have a uniform uniform distribution, meaning meaning that across the board, the ones, that the ones and a half, the two's and so
on up until about four four and a half is like equal lead, you know, dispersed, it's not like hanging to one side or the other. Opinion was incredible, incredibly divided on that thing, and I was absolutely fascinated by it as a you know, as not just the queer subtext in it, but the queer text in it, I guess, and I connected with David del Valle on it because both of us are interested in and that and that type of thing talking about that thing, whether the hidden
and unhidden gay aspects of movies. And it's like, isn't The Sky is Falling incredible? I was like, yes, it really, it really is an unbelievable thing to kind of like hold and look at and break down. And it's like, yeah, I'm I'm really I feel like I want to do
a nrazanothon now I've seen this. And it was upon seeing a movie called Young Shoulders, which is his last movie, which is very much au I mean, it's it's it's a Swan song, but it's kind of a way that he got through mourning the death of his of his longtime partner, win Wells, who wrote The Sky's Falling and died too young. And that was in seeing that movie which floored me. I mean, my my jaw was on the floor with a number of the things in that film. I was so taken aback and so astounded by it.
It was as as a style pieces, as a piece of a personal cinema, as a kind of almost a very almost too intimate diary entry the way that you know the sky is falling was. You know, it was at that point that I said, I have to do something on this guy. I don't know what that's going to look like. I could probably never sell a book project on him. No publisher would have it, even with the whatever funky name I have. You know, I would
never be able to sell it as a book. I don't know if would it be an essay, would it be a monograph, I don't know. I got to do something about and so you know, Josh Hibbard got a bless him at imprint.
Every once in a while. So I was like, all right, what do you want to see?
Uh?
And the you know we got we got this paramount deal, what do you want from us? That that began as an impression but didn't go well.
For the people that have ever talked to Josh. That was pretty spot on at first.
Well, I might he always says, Josh, if you're listening, sorry that was awful, but h but I said no, I'd like Blue is a film that I had revisited, uh with the knowledge that I had accrued from seeing these other Arizona films and I'd become refascinated by that. I'd always liked it, but I was like it was had revealed itself anew to me, and I was like, Oh, if you can get blue with uh fade in the movie that was shot on the back of Blue on the set and everything, that would be an amazing set
and I could do something about nerit for that. And it's like, all right, it sounds good. He put it on the list, And then so when Evan, my husband, went off, I was like, we would rather than wait for the green light, what I could basically, uh, sublimate my my grief and my whatever into making something a little more ambitious and a little more all encompassing, and I could really invest everything into this this project for the time that he's away, uh, which is what I did.
So like then, Evan was checking in on me at one point, It's like, are you okay, you're hanging It's like no, I'm good, now, I'm good, And I was like, I miss you, but like I've got I've got something. And by the time he came back, I was like, hey, I got It was the fastest turnaround time for any feature length thing I've ever done, and it was really like it was seeing around that time made in England, the Palm Pressburger movie Pressburger. That was that was narrated
by Scorsese. Now, now that to me wasn't just your average nonfiction or biopic doc. It wasn't like you're It wasn't like a you know, people magazine kind of survey of like this happened, then that happened, and then you know, put the pieces together like a PBS kind of thing.
This almost felt like a diary entry or like a diary, like an extended diary where Scorsese went not only went into the biographical details, but like what the individual films meant to him emotionally, intellectually, spiritually, how they were kind of touchstones in his own development as a as an artist. And I was like, well, what a way to be taken through a canon and a career and on all these films as like that would be that would be
fun to do. It's like maybe I'll do that for Nrazano, but I'll pace my commentary and then I'll invite other people to come. Because I had written in one point, like David del val film historian David Delvall in my narration, I say, like David del Val says this, that, and the other things, like well, why don't just go down to David and interview and to get him on camera,
and that that would be so much better. And I was like, Okay, this is integrating well to my my very kind of deep into the weeds narration, why don't I try to get other people? So, you know, I was like I was asking, you know, Nathaniel Thompson, who
became really the heartbeat of the entire thing. You know, Nathaniel was so eloquent but at the same time concise and at the same time like he knew what he wanted to say, how he wanted to say it, and it came out perfectly so like he could he could have timed the movie rhythmically by the heartbeat of what he said. So that was very helpful. And then I just continued finding people who were willing to speak about this filmmaker that most Cinophiles didn't know about. There was
a wonderful guy who runs a blog, Ken Anderson. I emailed him because he had written about Di Die my Darling, and he had written about one of the others, and I said, like, you know, can I interview, you had some great things this say that are useful to me about Die Die, my darling. And it's like, yeah, but there there are other people that you could interview. You can you know, why, why do you know I'm not an expert, Like, no one is an expert, No one
knows about this guy. You have a head start. Believe me, you have something of value to add. So he acquiesced and we had a great time getting him on camera. But and then I had gathered all these interviews and everything, and I was like, this is going to be pretty epic in terms of just like, you know, I like what I have to say, what they have to say. And as it's a two and a quarter hour film, and I figure, like, you know, I'll leave it long, and this is probably going to be the only thing
ever done about Sylvia and Artzano. It got good notice, It got good feedback from some important people. Patrick McGilligan, who was in the editor of the book series had written formative texts on Hitchcock and Q Coore and Eastwood and all these folks gave it a wonderful write up. And Nat sigal Off, my dear friend, gave it also some great feedback and Tim Lucas Alonso de Raaldi and by the time they were all praising, I was like, yeah, I'm just gonna leave it. It's two and a quarter hours.
It'll be the definitive text on Neritzano. And that's that's the way it'll it'll be. And I'm sure people will get into it once they're there, that they'll bulk at the initial run time, but then you know they'll they'll probably nestle into it the more that they the more that they watch on So that's how the movie was born. And then of course the ending dedication is to Evan.
This movie wouldn't have existed without you, which is very true because I wouldn't have completely dove in and drowned myself in the in the thrill of making this big, blumbering,
ambitious documentary if he hadn't gone away. So and of course there's a very tender element of the story which involves Silvio losing his partner, his life partner, win Wells, mourning him, and then basically giving up filmmaking, giving up the you know, basically chucking at all because he couldn't function and you know, was in was in psych words for depression and was at a Buddhist retreat for a while, was at a Christian retreat.
For a while.
He just like you know, was figuring out ways to cope with with being left there by his partner.
So there's a tender aspect to the to the story as well. And how that.
How basically Sylvia was constantly trying to come to terms with with who he was and trying choosing between because he was married to a woman at one point and uh, it was around the time that he made Blue that he was basically choosing to live out loud.
For who he was.
And that movie definitely is very personal and reflective of that. It's about a man who doesn't fit in to either culture, really having to choose to live on his own terms and not really succeeding and doing so. But you have, you know, the the Terrence Stamp character who has Nathaniel Thompson says, is like a Greek god who is like who's dropped into this these this environment and doesn't quite
fit in anywhere. The accent, you know, being part of that, and to me, he's almost like an alien who fell to earth, and in some regard he's not at home with these banditos. He the opening scene is him kissing the man that he kills on the lips. He like lifts him up on his horse, kisses him square on the lips, drops him, and then shoots him. And then they go back to the hacienda to and to celebrate
their their heist or whatever. And the woman who is about to be you know, another one of the bendino's about the of his way with this woman. And the woman says blue Asul will kiss the lips of the of the man, but he will not. He will not kiss the lips of Yez. And like Terrence Stample, does he not say anything.
He doesn't.
He doesn't say a word for like forty five minutes. And then finally he takes up with this this Seddler family, the white Seddler family, returns to his his own ethnic group, I guess to a certain extent. And he doesn't fit in there either, And he like join a petit. When they're about to get hot and heavy and they're about to consummate their their budding romance in the in the
heat of passion, he leaves. He gets up and leaves, And to me, it's just an incredibly personal text, where like Silvia is having to choose between the two worlds.
Here like where do I go? How do I live? You know?
And I was like, Wow, this is an incredibly personal film and it was his favorite of all the films he made. He continued that was the apple of his eye to the very end, that that particular film. So I'm happy that that's the film that people are going to be seeing it as a critically shaky reputation, but I don't think people were ready to see it in nineteen sixty eighth the way that they maybe are today. So we'll see. But I do hope that the doc
is a guide. It's at least a window into how the art is personal, even if you don't like it or find pleasure or enjoy it. I think at the end of the dock, my hope is that people will recognize it all this work is incredibly personal. And as I say in the documentary, if Sylvia and Artsano ain't
an O Tier, no one is an O Tier. These films are so intensely personal to him, so obviously they like leap out and scream like you know that, you know, essentially, so I felt like I needed it's a film that I needed to do that it was a project I needed to take on. And then finally Josh is like, okay, we got the masters for Blue and fade In.
We're ready to go. Get things ready.
I was like, great, all right, good, you know, so God bless Imprint for doing this again, because this is you know, I wouldn't say it's a commercial sure thing. This is another going a limb for them, and we're promoting as much as I can, and I think I think it's a gamble that people will appreciate ultimately taking. If they're think if they're debating whether or not to get it, I think they will.
They will.
It'll be a discovery for them, at least in the terms of the the doc seeing a filmmaker who was hidden, you know, fell between the cracks under the surface, who was very much loud and proud with his with his identity as well as his aesthetic approach and his approach to making films.
Well, all this is coming in a pretty wonderful looking package from Imprint. We've got Blue, We've got fade In, We've got your Dock on a third disc, all coming in a hard box release. These are releasing end of July, and for you know, what is the best way to say this, to to lend credence to the idea behind Silvio as an identity. Your doc which I had the opportunity from you thankfully to watch last fall, is it's
the perfect roadmap for stuff like this. And now you know, this is the second time that you are, you know, ringing the bell for a filmmaker that was underserved in their time, under known in today's you know, physical media climate, in the retrospective climate of what we're showing in theaters at many rep theaters across the country, and all of these different things are gonna, you know, lead people to realize you're going to be one of the leading voices
for these underappreciated directors. And to point out something that really hit hard for me, you mentioned the link that two hours, two and aqu hours for a filmmaker that most people have never heard the name of. Literally, that is a huge risk to take to say I'm embarking on a documentary like this. However, with your stuff, it is so continuous that for like five minutes in, I went, well,
hold on, let me pause it. I need to get a notepad because the amount of things I'm learning right now I have to go follow up on because everything is so immediately like I have to know more about it. And the story about Silvio being essentially left and needing to find a coping method. I love that. That's how you basically birthed this documentary. You were left in a situation and to cope. You poured your heart into this and because of that, like Silvio stuff, especially with Blue,
this doc feels immensely personal. Every single the talking head that jumps in at that perfect moment, in every other scene that you're doing here, and even the narration, it feels like it's coming from a heart of just shaking somebody uncontrollably by the neck and saying, listen, Silvio is important. You have to know more about this. And it's done in a way that is like directed personally to a certain viewer, and at that moment, the viewer was me.
It was so perfectly attuned to, like I just want to know more about this guy. This is this is an incredible feat.
I think, thank you, thank you. I you know it's it is. There's a British critic who said, like, you know, I feel like, I need to really invest myself because this is a really much more of a deep dive than I thought it was going to be, so I need this isn't like, you know, it could be a casual watch, but you know, at the same time, if you really are the curious film goer or the curious sinophile,
this is going to be buried treasure revealed. So you know, it's like, I feel like I need to I need a little more time with it because I feel like I'm I don't want to miss anything. So it's uh, you know, and those are the those are the things
that excite me the most. I'm working now. I got the idea within the last month to do a collection of my writings on mostly underappreciated UH filmmakers UH directors, things I've already written, just in a collection, many of them being like video essay UH scripts that are that are put in kind of readable form and kind of showcasing, like fury in Aritzano and Ted Katschef for my my Darling, you know Canadians, but also like American uh O tiers that that were missed by the the cognition anti as
as as they were that they were as they are, and just kind of the idea of turning the the you know, the the spotlight that's trained on the popular populist and and very well known and sometimes it was very well extremely well covered filmmakers, and turning the spotlight there into more of a search flight finding these guys who were buried but had something to offer, more than
they were originally given credit for. And a lot of that has to do with you know, uh o tist readings at the time being kind of constrained to a certain I think, uh m, a certain kind of purview missing kind of a lot of queer voices actually a lot of like gay, gay oriented or gay sympathetic voices. Fury who is not gay but is definitely with movies
like The Leather Boys and and uh and others. You know, that's not the type of masculinity or a masculine model that many filmgoers and uh the O tier kind of barons were known for, h We're known for championing and they liked the the manly man, you know, uh, you know,
John Wayne was their model for the manly man. So you know that whereas like a more feminine Western hero or a more kind of ambiguous Western hero like Blue, like like the the Terrence Stamp character in uh in that film, with that, and amid a glut of fire hose of Westerns, like you know, there were so many
Westerns and critics were getting fatigued by them. So amid all that, this is like a film that completely fell and you know, it was the lampooned for a while, because like, how could you cast Terrence Stamp in a role like this. He's like with that accent, you can't get rid of it. It's like, you know, it's like, well the accent. Get over that for a moment, and then you'll see how that works weirdly in the movie's
favor and in an almost experimental way. And then like you you couple that with with the score by Manas Haji Dakas, and you couple that with all these other touches. You couple it with like the fact that Stanley Cortez shoots the American Southwest like it's the you know, the surface of Mars or something like this dafferent night work is like, you know, it's eye popping. And then you see, like this is trying to be a little different here, and I think people weren't ready for that.
At the time.
On multiple levels. I mean, you know, the difference in filmmaking, the difference in you know, gay depictions in film even today, you know, they're they're continuously not just shown up for.
They're not the criticals, critical successes or even financial successes that many of them deserve to be through through the filmmaking at its core, which it's it's an embarrassing oversight through you know, many decades that we can look back at things like this and say, well, what were you doing, how how didn't you show up At the same time modern filmmaking, we're seeing a lot of that same thing happening.
Yeah, it's funny.
You know, my my husband and I after the election, we were you know, kind of down.
So we we went on this like, uh, we're.
Gonna we're just gonna watch movies in bed for months until Evan had to go back to back to work, back to back to you know.
The spring semester.
So one of the movies that we watched is one that I've always you know, I'm not gonna say it's a great movie, but one that I've always enjoyed.
Called Married to It by Arthur Hiller.
It's it's it's it's like the you know, the Four Seasons is out is now popular again because of the of the Tina Face series. But it's the same type of a model of three couples all kind of you know, gathering together, and and it's kind of a comedy or dramedy. I guess about that. And Evan is Evan and I watched it at the time because like, I like this movie.
You might like it too.
Is a character driven little movie. It's not like amazing, but it's it's fun. I've I've caught up with it once every few years, and I've always I've always loved seeing it again. And Evan was like, this is good. I was like, hey, isn't it And then like look at the critics back in nineteen ninety three what they
had to say about crashed it. They mouthacurred it, and it's like, you know, if this because there was a glut of that type of adult dramedy and like you know that all these people saying like, oh, it's just knockoff Woody or whatever, and but now, like you know, I mean Four Seasons as a new audience, people are because there's no longer that glut. People are ready to receive you know, the you know, the four Seasons. They're they're there. That's the number one show on Netflix now.
And the original, the Alan Alda original, is also on there with it, and people are looking at that again. They're ready to look at that with a fresh pair of eyes. And I said, like, you don't you believe that if Married to It came out now, that it would be more of a hit like Netflix movie at least,
Like it's very well written. It's maybe a little corny in spots, but that's it's you know, I'm endeared by the cornball touches sometimes, but like, you know, I have to believe that, Like, you know, people were critics were responding not necessarily to the material.
But they were.
They were just, uh, critics are human like all of us. They get fatigued by by the same type of things, seeing them over and over again.
Now we want those things.
Now, we want these like great you know, uh, adult dramedies that we can just enjoy with our partners or.
Spouses or whatever.
And like now that's like and I haven't agreed, Like, yeah, if if Married to It were out today, I can I can imagine it getting doing very well on you know, the Rotten Tomatoes and everything else. Yeah, I didn't at the time. So you know, things things that these movies stay the same, but.
We we change.
I guess, you know, funny enough, one of the other things I was gonna bring up, I'll just switch till now because it's kind of really relevant for this. I really feel like Cinematograph and Justin the Liberty has been making similar curation choices. A lot of these titles that were overlooked in their time or even literally lampooned in their time as great are now being released in these lavish packages and getting repraised. Things like drop Zone that just got out, and you've done I like six or
seven with Justin Now he clearly likes your stuff. Hasn't been working on the Cinematograph titles.
Justin has been wonderful to work with. I'm honored that he keeps coming back for more. Yeah, it's been wonderful working with Cinematograph, and I love the titles that keep coming down the pike, and I hope we can keep on working together. I'm doing a couple of things for him right now, so well, you know, they'll stay tuned.
Some of the ones that I really got to throw out there. I mean Going South is one that I know it's got to mean something to you because it's a lot of the old Hollywood type, I mean, the classic Jack Nicholson in a way that most people don't perceive him, you know, in a film that has been looked down on for quite some time and now being given this deluxe treatment, that's got to feel at least some ounts of you know, redemption in a way for a film like this.
Yeah, I love I love the the psychology aspect of champion, championing, championing unknown o tears like with drop Zone. You know, Justin got to me and said like, can you make a video? I say, just on the the career and the films overall of John Badam, I said, yeah, I like John Badam's movies.
You know.
I was like, I I wonder if I can find through line and like merely hoppon looking at them closely and reading Uh. Well, I read a review of drop Zone Lisa schwartz Bom I think who said that John Badam is a subculture specialist. I was like, Oh, that's interesting. I got that that's an angle. Yeah, I can see that.
And then like the more I got, like wait, the dark charismatic is a trip as well, Like Tony Manero is charismatic, but he's he's he's kind of a messed up guy with a real big dark side and I know what about who whose life is it?
Anyway?
This charismatic guy who cannot move his arms and legs, he's a he's a quadriplegic, and he captivates this hospital staff and they love him. But underneath it all, he wants to die and he wants to know and war games.
Like David Lightman, the Matthew Broderick character is this class clown charismatic guy who like you know, is uh who is admired I think by by Ali Sheety and her her cord h in the in the in the classroom, and he seems very bunch, you know, the master of his domain, on his on his ship, and uh, you realize that there's a dark side to him as well as like, yeah, he's really attract And then the hard way the James Woods character, it's like, well he's he's attracted to dark charismatics.
Like that's another thing.
Then like you'd look at other things like Wow, there's more to John Baddam than anyone ever knew?
Who who would who would have done? Yeah?
I talked to John because I was like, I noticed that you were you were credited with a John Badham film up until Stakeout. Then then you began doing a John Badam movie. What's that about? And he had an answer, it's in the piece.
But you know, it's like what what?
What about this transition from film to movie and that that became a thing and I was like, and you know, before I knew it, I was like, hey, this is one of my better pieces.
You know, it's it's pretty good. I'm happy with it.
Like who would have thought that you could have found what most people would think is like a very skilled journeyman who's done a lot of popular movies, and you could have turned him into this like author, you know, who has kind of weird or not weird, but it has a very distinctive kind of aspects that he's attracted to and and in the material that that he takes on. So that then with with Jack Nicholson on Going South, Justin basically said like, can you do a piece on
Jack as a director? I said, sure, why not. And I was like being friendly with with Henry is like, you know, Henry's close with Jack, so I'll go down and talk to Henry about you know, and Henry is like, oh, yeah, Jack and I just wanted to be directors. I think Jack had no designs on being an actor. Originally he wanted to be a writer and a director and then like, okay, tell me more about that, and then that was that became the heart of the piece. But no, it's it's great.
I love Recently, I think I think pretty much the cats out of the bag. I've been working with Severin and uh, there's they they they've been promoting Medac, They've been promoting Peter Medak. Yeah, and uh, very I think people have basically figured it out by now. They're they've they're posting like these these clue videos. It's like it's easy to figure out. But uh and it's in the comments below, So I don't think I'm I'm actually spoiling. People have already figured it out. But you know, like
what what what unites Peter Medaks movies? And to me, that's just like, you know, people are always playing dress up in Peter Medac movies. You know, people are constantly playing these like weird sometimes fetishistic games of dress up.
You know, it's like, what's that about? And then like you go to Peter Medact's goes to Peter Seller's documentary, and then you see that, Oh my family were posing uh and uh as Christians uh to you know, protect ourselves from the Nazis, And I was constantly having to
play a game of make believe. It's like that's that explains a great deal about why you're like, you know, the day and of that of Joe Egg is like, you know, playing games, posing as other things, like playing the playing the incapacitated vegetable daughter, voicing her playing all kinds of like unmistakable rolling the ruling class. You know, his first he's Jesus and then he's Jack the Rippers. It's like this very very you know, very clear kind of voice of the author there.
So I love.
I love taking a director that very few people have I have thought much about, or they've they've considered terribly closely. Then looking at that, at them from a kind of psychological point of view and like, oh, what's what's really making these wheels turn? What's the what's kind of the perculsive juice or the energy that is that is making these movies move as as they do, what makes them unique to them, And it's fun. It's like a puzzle to me. Sometimes it's just like because I really I'm
a hardened o tourist. I am very hardcore and I believe that, you know, I've one particular friend is confronted me. It's like, sometimes directors just take jobs Dan, you know, it's like it's like no, but let normally yes, sometimes sometimes not not often, but sometimes the director will take a job because they don't believe in anything about the material.
They just need paycheck. But most of.
The time, most of the time they have the power to say no. Yeah, they can say I don't want to do this, I'll do this other thing that I was offered, Like what what makes a director? I'd be attracted to that piece of material that's offered them versus this other thing. Why did did Fury turned down everything from Funny Girl to Planet of the Apes, which which he thought, and I quote Plan the Apes. I thought it was stupid, like, you know, like I couldn't have
done what Franklin Schaffner did with it. But yeah, I didn't take it. I thought it was I thought it was stupid, like you know, then he wound up doing some other thing that he was attracted to, like a kotchef.
Ted Kotschiff is.
Another one of my the you know, one of my darlings and who died recently Ri I p. I knew him a bit and I was able to contact his uh his widow lay fund after he passed away, and you know, expressed her agreciation for my arguments. I made the video pieces I made, and I worked with him one on one. Probably the last thing that Ted did on any any professional or whatnot level was the North Dallas forty package and that that required some coaching and
some generous cutting. But you know, with Ted, it was just like you know, Ted is all about looking to get out. These people are often there most often their social climbers, Dirty Kravitz, the guys in Weekend at Bernie's, the two Schmucks and weekend at Bernie's quote unquote, you know, fun with Dick and Jane. They don't want to give up their upwardly mobile lifestyle and this new house that they're building, so they resort to crime. It's like the
common and Wake and Fright. The guy just wants to get out of the the the Yaba, that part of the outback. He just wants to get out of there, and like he wants to better himself, and he wants to get out of the classroom.
He's like unsatisfied in life now in North Dallas forty.
Nick Nolty wants to get out of you know, he feels taken advantage of by the powers that.
Be in the NFL.
So like he all, there's something that very clear that connects all of Ted Kotschiff's movies.
All characters.
Brambo is looking to get the fucking uh am I allowed to say, fucking I'm sorry. He's looking to get out of this podunk town. That's that's victim, and he's looking to move on and better himself and get rid of his demons and everything. And of course, like the sequels take that in a whole other direction. But First Blood as a as a text is ties right in with the KD.
Schieff vision.
So I love reading directors this way, and I think it's very clear most of the time what they're after and what they're interested in.
And then yeah, I funny enough that This is one of the main things I wanted to bring up to kind of put a bow on Sylvia at the end of this is that one of the reasons I have enjoyed your ees so much across the board is because you know, other people can argue a out tour theory as much as they want, but we don't really ingest films in a way that even gives credence to studying that in in an important way unless you're studying for something or pushing yourself to dive into like a Silvio.
And so for some of these things, it seems to me that you're almost uniquely qualified to discuss the idea behind the the a tourship of these directors because your passion for classic Hollywood, your passion for undersung directors, gives sort of this this need to watch somebody almost from start to finish, and then at that point you really go, oh damn, Like the first five films was this, and then, knowing what I know about their life, it changed this way.
Hence the next period was like this, and you know through you know this this brand new doc that hopefully everybody's gonna love. You know, you have the cruel the usual, the necessary of Silvio that is so you know, afterwards you feel so attached to it and just understanding of what made each of these movies tick for this director, which most people are never going to get unless they do that dive.
Yeah.
I probably my biggest pet peeve in the world of cinema is the the.
The obscene abuse of the of the term journeyman.
I hate people brandishing that word like it solves all the equations about whatever director. Stop calling people journeymen.
Stop. I beg you.
It's like, you know, just look closer. There's there are things in every and and any director worth talking about. There is something that is worth that is worth discussing, that is consistent. Yeah, like journeyman. I don't want to hear about journeymen. Journeyman. Fuck journeyman.
You know.
It's like, these are directors making making choices, making decisions, and those decisions impact what you're seeing and those those that that yes or no man is going to determine the experience that you have on a movie. What drives those yeses and no's, And you can get to know a director better than just saying like, oh, it's a good movie, but a Journeyman directed it. No, stop that, No, that's not the way to approach anything.
Well, and it sounds so discounted and dismissed by the person saying it immediately, there's still a lot you can glean from it.
Incredibly dismissive and and it like it stops the conversation cold. Its like, no, let's let's talk about this in a deeper way. Let's let's go into the weeds about this, like what you know, and then like some people have a problem you know, detecting this type of thing. If a director works in multiple genres, Yeah, that to me makes it more exciting, like, oh, how does this how does this purview or point of view or perspective manifest in this in these new trappings you know?
Yeah.
Uh.
One director that most people don't question this about is Scorsese, who you are also doing another piece about of a film again, uh, completely lambasted by most people. Still today New York, New York is getting a lavish release from Imprint. Go Ahead.
My favorite film by him, the first one I ever saw, The person one I ever saw. It was one of the few that were rated PG. So that was the first one I ever saw, and I am ten years old, I think I was. I was utterly captivated by it. I never saw anything like that. Uh, and I did the I did this, I guess effortless three hour commentary on the long version.
And exactly what I was going to talk about.
Yeah, from there, I could have kept on talking. I was like, there's so much to say about that film. Yeah, it's you know, the people don't like the improvational aspect of it, and they don't like that they the Oh, the Robert de Niro character is so unlikable and he's fiercely unlikable and all this kind of stuff like, yeah, but I don't need to like everyone. He's interesting. I don't care, like, I don't need to like the guy. He's interesting to watch. And there's the scene I love
the scene where it's just it's all done musically. It's all when they're at the club right before the big fight, right before like the big knockdown.
Drag out fight. In the car. He's plucked there playing sacks at the club.
She's just gotten a big like record deal and everything, and she's pregnant and everything, and she's like about she's making her way up to the stage where he's playing, and he's really surly and he's really kind of grim, and she's like she points, like as if to say, do you want me to sing?
Do you want me to join you? And you know she takes it for granted.
She is about to get up onto the stage and Robert de Niro gets up and he goes he changes the tune into this erratic like d D D D and like, you know, like, oh, well, that invite is crushed. Now she's got it like this fake little bow like to be like, oh well, you know, my mistake. And she's embarrassed, you see it. And then like she she begins to dance with all these other men on the floor, and like you see him losing his shit. But he's playing the sacks so intensely. He's about the he's about
the bust. He's about to like completely lose his mind. And it's all it's all done without a word of dialogue before the argument, which that where they have it out. But that's such things like that, things like you know,
putting the the improvisational thing. I work with improvisation a great deal in my in my fiction films, I do it with I always like to think what Joe Dante says about having developing an editor's brain, where like you when you're directing, you know, oh, if you're in improv in particularly like, oh, I know that I'll cut against that other thing that I got a couple of takes ago,
and I'm not going to like wallow in. And you know, improv can be very messy if you don't know what you're doing, and it.
Can be very tedious.
But if you can think like, oh, wait that I know, I can cut that against that, and then everything. So like the the improv to me is like putting that that uh, that looseness in front of the artifice of those of the boors Leven sets. I was completely That was like a venture into cinema to me when I was ten, that was very formative.
So I love that film. It's my It's still my favorite Swiss films.
Yes, I love Goodfellas, Yes I love King County, Yes I love all these other beloved films by him, But I love there's a special, very special place in my heart for New York, New York.
And you know, I post these announcements of upcoming physical media releases and I get a kick out of some of the comments sometimes, but the amount of people that on this film in particular are saying things like it's unwatchable.
I saw it makes no sense to me.
It's a Scorsese movie. The worst Corsese is even then, I'm not saying this is, but the worst Scorsese is what most other filmmakers would strive to achieve.
Yeah, yeah, I mean I like the the more feminine films of Scorsese because I think the film tends to fit. Film tends to favor Liza. But I love Alice doesn't live here anymore for that reason. I love I love when he gets a little, when he gets a little away from kind of mafia land. Those those films are great, don't get me wrong, But I tend to really nestle into the films that and get this warm, soap and water feeling when I watch those other the the the
the alter Scorsese. I guess you might even call it and New York New York in particular, because those that's that's musical Land. It's like MGM, the MGM musical homage, you know, including the the the detour sequence, the happy endings, you know, the musical detour, the you know, the show Stopper, which I did a whole peace on for the upcoming package. The history of those you know from American in Paris
has the Big American in Paris, LA. The Singing in the Rain has Broadway Melody, which basically these these sequences basically stop the movie cold and you're you're in, You're watching basically what is a mini movie. But in most cases those mini movies reflect the broader movie in some way. It holds up almost like a fun house mirror to those to the broader movie.
You know, yeah, you know you mentioned the almost three hour commentary. I as somebody that the last time we talked, I had not done any disc features. Now had my hand in some I am so intimidated by the fact that a three hour solo commentary is, you know, a daunting thing out there. How how do you do this?
I've done a few big three hour ones all by myself. The Voyage of the Damned, the long version that I supplied. I did that one because that was just like you know, there was some hesitation about including that because of the nineteen seventy nine tape quality, because that was a very antique, ancient tape, and I was like, well, i'll do it. I'll do a track for it.
I'll do it. It'll be fine. I'll do a track for it.
And for hell, if I got a you know, a long lost extended cut of a movie in whatever shape, I'd be very interested in seeing it if I liked the movie enough. But no, normally it's just like you know, you you can break down if the movie's good.
I did.
I did one for Fatal Vision, which is I think one hundred and ninety two minutes.
For Keno. I'm just obsessed with that particular true crime case, so that that made it been easy. I'm like I was.
I was really like an obsessive about the Jeffrey McDonald murder case first, so I just I just went on that that was no challenge.
Then.
I also, I've also provided some insight into David Green as a director, what he's into. He's into, as I said, perversion, not not not necessarily of the sexual variety, but multiple types of perversion, perversion of the family unit of you know, brothers sister relationship, And I start counting, that's that's there. But yeah, that's that's the kind of the David Green uh ethic there or aesthetic. But you know that one
was easy for me. Voyage of the Damned. You you get into the history of that particular of the of the Saint Louis and the the Jews on the on that, on that vote, and that whole affair, which is very shameful in the in the American history and and the broader world history that we turned them away. But you know, you can get into that, you can get into that amazing cast and uh well, the one of the best things about that packages I got to interview Malcolm McDowell,
which was a lot of fun. And that's funny, I I brief aside. I Malcolm is as you would expect him to be in life. He is in movies, so at least in my experience with him. But he told the he told the fade done away. He's like, I, you know, it's a downtime. I would take some fruit and juggle, juggle it behind fade back and everyone would laugh and she'd turn around and as and she's got.
What what are you doing? And I said, yell, nevern uh. As I was editing that.
I sent that over to Alan Arkish, who worked with Malcolm on.
I get crazy.
It's like Malcolm always Malcolm always always did have that anarchist brat energy or something like that to that effect that's perfect. And it's like, yes, I know it's very amusing, but uh, yeah, Voyage of the Dan was easy to talk about and New York, New York. I could have gone on. It's just you know that there's just between the the the use of color in the film, which are often blazing, and the that the sets that that that up club set with all the neon is it's
a marvel to me. It's it's a it's and the way that we as the Kovacs, lit the faces not just with the neon, but with this kind of amber glow. It's just like it's it's eye popping amazing stuff. The heritage and the history of the type of musicals that Scorsese was referencing and paying homage to, and Poll and Pressburger playing a role, and and uh, the way that uh Scorsese constructed the aesthetics in the movie, the history of the movie itself. There was just a lot to
talk about. So uh, it was pretty easy in that there there, I tell you the truth, there are like I've done I've done a couple hour and change movies that are harder to get through than these than those three three hour ones. But I did one recently which was a a not so great pre code movie, and it was that that I was really gasping for air at the end of that. It just depends on the movie,
you know, really depends on the movie. Sometimes you have a lot to say about it and you can keep on going, and another time there's nothing to say, and
you know you can you can. And then in certain cases you can talk about how like, you know, well, maybe a more skilled uh director would have shot it this way rather than dead on against a wall or whatever, which those some of the non non masters in the pre code area, some of like the the the more workmen like directors in the pre code era, we're shooting it kind of dead on, and that wasn't terribly all
that interesting. I'm sure if I were to look at those that these guys work back to back, maybe I'd find something. But then you talk about like, Okay, well, what he's doing here? I notice the y axis, notice the z acxis. Notice what's going on here? What could we have done to amplify the mood or what's happening, what the under the surface, the you know, the subtext
aspect of these things. So you know, that's you get through talking about a variety of different things, and then of course you you know, your your cheat sheet is ready to go if you you know, if you if you're going off, because I can normally go off. I can normally like if I'm if I'm on a point, I could just like you know, and then I'll just like vomit it all up and then uh like okay, what do I want to go now? I'll scroll down it like yeah, well, now that we're here, let's talk
about or it will just come to me. So that's that's the technique. It's not as easy as people might think it is. The commentary racket is I feel it incumbent upon me to constantly talk, like some people will take pauses. I feel guilty taking any pause, So I try to keep it going somehow when I'm doing this.
But yeah, I like to I like to talk, even if it's something small, if it's something you know that is less noticeable that you have to be kind of more observant to catch, you know, it's like, well, pay attention to I'm trying to think of an example in New York, New York, even the blazing red use of the light on the wall when Robert de Niro is auditioning, and then the the very dense blue jailed background of the guys watching him audition for the for the Frankie
Heart Band. From there, you can talk about you know that people people will be like, oh, that's a cool shot, but they're like, well, let's break down the elements here, What's what's going on and how does the reflect like the Timonelli, how does this reflect Palan Pressburger use of color in the Red Shoes, you know, whatever, you know, you can just kind of go, you know, and.
That's that's where your knowledge of classic Hollywood comes into play for a lot of these There's so many that, I mean, you could easily do a very surface level analysis on some of these movies, which we certainly get commentaries that are like that. But I mean, like for us lately, when we're doing a commentary, I've resorted to saying, well, let's just record an extra five or six minutes and fill in the gaps if we need to with the extra stuff at the end. Yeah, Terry work is so
much more research than people really think. I mean, even for the shorter movie seventy five minutes, that's a lot to speak on.
There is a.
The head of one of the one of the disc companies who I don't want to I fear misquoting him, so I'll just say he's a guy who is at a leadership position at one of these companies, said Oh, I wanted to try a commentary on one of my favorite movies, and it's it was a long movie, and I really was keen on doing it, and then I got half an hour in and I ran out of gas.
So I was like, at one point, I think he told me, He's like, I really appreciate that you guys can just let go, because, like, you know, I thought that I would be set for however long this thing lasted, and I lasted a half hour, and I was like, oh, yeah, Okay, I appreciate my my roster of commentators all the more now because it's my favorite movie. And you know, I read that's so easy to run out of gas.
Well, on that note, for anybody that has not ever seen anything from Sylvia, which again is going to be most people, let's give him a final pitch. What what would you say, is you know, some defining points of Sylvia's work and things that they can look forward to if they pick up this package and are getting your documentary included.
Well, first of all, there's just announced on my page anyway, and I'm sure Imprint is going to update their sales page soon. There's an hour long interview that David del Val conducted with the legendary cinematographer Stanley Cortez, whom I mentioned earlier, who shot The Magnificent Amberson's and The Knight of the Hunter and a lot of great cluent heat director.
He was the DP on for Fritz Long and it's a very revealing interview recorded in nineteen eighty four on an on analog tape on cassette tape that is now part of the The Blue Fade in Cruel Usual Necessary package. That's a perk and that's really worth I would say it's worth the entire set personally, because it's it's a very it's very can't like I'll say that Cortez actually breaks down crying in the middle of the interview when he's talking about what happened on Amberson's.
Attic. It was for him.
He was still bottled up and he was very emotional about it. Uh, it's David really got some amazing material out of him, and some moments that you know that you even hear David on the on the audio when he's crying, he goes, boy, it's like it's still it's still all in there, you know. But I mean, in terms of the doc there, I'm sure, like I'm sure many of of your listeners out there are fans of Howard Berger and Nathaniel Thompson and del Val and Michael Murphy.
The actor Michael Murphy who people will know him either from Woody Allen movies like Manhattan or Paulmerdirsky Unmarried Woman or Cloak and Dagger the you know the eighties you know Games movie which I saw. I said, you know, you scared the I told him when I met him on the call, I said.
You scared the ship out of me.
And Cloak and Dagger Man when he goes, you know, Henry Thomas like, I don't want to kill you.
I don't want to shoot you. And Michael Murphy with this deranged looking at it, I want to shoot you.
Do a thirteen year old kid, you scared the ship out of me. He but he's interviewed because he worked with Sylvia on the Class of Miss McMichael with where he was opposite Clinta Jackson, and uh, Michael Murphy doesn't look like he's aged to day. It's it was he jumped on. I wasn't he lives in Maine, I believe now that had to be a zoom interview. But he jumped on the call and he was like raring to go, smiling, looked like you know, it looked like he was like just Dorian.
Gray, you know. And I was like, Hey, nice to see you. And it's like he's animated telled some great stories and uh, that was there.
So the extended interview with with him is on there. But all the all the extended interviews are a lot of fun. Nathaniel Paul Lyndshoo directed prom Night is on there in an extended interview and in the movie itself, of course there there are a couple deleted sequences which I included, uh, which for no other reason than they didn't quite fit into the broader movie. But I think our interesting little little bits that I think will enhance.
Pete people's appreciation. Uh, Peter Medak.
Actually, when I was working with Peter recently through all the all the severan stuff, I got him to pay a special tribute to Silvio.
It's very warm.
It's a Sylvia the mention of his name, Sylvio, wonderful man, wonderful director, and showed showed us a picture of him with Silvio, and uh, it was a very nice short little tribute that Peter Medak gave to Silvia. Netzano is in there. And thank you to David Gregor for allowing me to repurpose that. And yeah, there's a lot of
good stuff on there. You know I'm doing I'm supposed to be doing the Blue Commentary within the next couple of days with David del vaugh And this is a track that we've been anticipating for quite a while because we got a lot to say on this one, a lot to say, yeah, and what else. Natt's sigle Off and I did the track for fade In. It's the only track I've done two of actually that one movie. I've done two tracks on one movie. The first time
that ever happened. I did the Keynot. I did a track for the Keynot release of fade In, and that one was fine, but with Nat on there. Nat was around the Paramount and the Paramount publicity team, and as I remember seeing fade In on the roster and then
it just vanished. And he knew Mark Crowley who wrote the Boys in the Band play but also wrote early drafts of fade In and everything, and so he has got more of an insider's dimension to this new commentary that I recorded with Nat, that is very worth a listen. And uh yeah, it's it's a lot of a lot of good stuff on there. Plus I think Josh has gotten other one more thing that has yet to be announced. I'm not gonna spoil it. There's one more thing that's
on the blue disc. So yeah, and plus the status Gil Alis for those who know that actor's name. He was the lead actor in America America, the Ealy Kazan movie. Uh, he's in blue and I was able to interview him on the phone. Status doesn't use, he doesn't use I was gonna say Vimeo, he doesn't use zoom and he doesn't you know, he's very kind of a kind of
a loud eye. But there's a phone interview with him that is very worth listening to talking about, you know, the goings on on the set and everything, and I'm hardened. I saw a couple of comments by people saying, like, you know, I was waiting to pull the trigger on on the Keynot edition of fade In, and no, not not to talk down to that release. It's it's it's a great release with another very good commentary, but that this person in the comment said, like, you know, Blue with fade In.
A whole hell of a lot more sense. And it's a package.
Yeah, it's a package, and you can send because you're you'll be watching you know, fade In, and then you'll wonder, like, what the hell is Ricardo Mantleblant doing in this thing? Like oh, what what the hell is Terrence Stamp doing here? Like you know, like and then he's in one scene and then that he don't see him really for the rest of the movie. It's like you don't understand fade In as well unless you have the context of Blue.
I think anyway, I think most people think. So it's nice to say like, Okay, we can watch Blue and then you can watch the movie that was made on the back of Blue and you see like how they shared you know sets, and they were cavorting around each other and weaving in and out of each other and everything, and then you could see how one movie compliments another, how their companion films, and then you see that Sylvia produced Blue with Judd Bernard, and how this was a big, big,
high concept thing you know, that they were trying to do and it didn't quite work out the way they wanted it to. But yeah, it's the whole package. I think it's going to be as a cohesive whole. I think it's going to be very pleasing to film people and to see everything all together, see these two movies that are meant to be paired together next.
To this doc I think is going to be very nice.
On top of that, Another quick shout out to Imprint. I know that we kind of mentioned them earlier at the beginning of this and Josh and everything, but I'm always singing their praises of first time on HD anywhere
in the world disc that they do. But the other thing to highlight they are kind of leading the charge in amount of extras that they're putting on some of these or maybe not even amount, but like giving a proper slate of extras to even what people would say is like quote smaller films or this is just you should be grateful you're get this at all. Imprints like, no,
screw it. We're going to try to get as much as we possibly can to make it appealing and worthwhile for most of the releases that they can.
Yeah, I mean normally they they let me run with ideas, which is really incredible and refreshment. Yeah, rare New York.
New York is Like, I think it would be great to have a peace on the history of showstopper sequences because for those who are coming in with a little less education on that school or whatever, that the MGM musical and that genre and that particular type of musical will give them a little more context. We'll give them a little more to appreciate that. It'll make a lot more sense to them when then the movie stops for happy endings and then we are like, oh, okay, that's yeah.
But you know, because I think that tends to maybe perplex some viewers, but yeah, they're like, okay.
Good, you'll do that.
As like, Okay, I think I can track down very prime because Ray Primus is a friend of my friend David Proval, and I'm sure I can get right to him, like yeah, do that. And it's like I have the old VHS of New York, New York. There's a little intro on the original tapes that it would be nice that was included the original print when it was we re released in the director's cut that MGM has gotten rid of because now the the definitive cut is the
long cut, so they don't need it anymore. But like, you know, well, let's you know, I'll you can include the original title card that explained what they were going to be seeing, and they will put that on there, and you know, I'll justify that by putting a little informational track on like what we're seeing, like okay, good and then yeah, voyage of the day. And it was just like, you know, I have a three hour cut. It's a completely different cut in every way. It is
not even sequenced the same. They don't even use the same shots from from the scene to scene, like they're different coverage altogether. It's like, okay, you know, we'll get the we'll get the the transfer and then we did we did that.
Yeah.
There, They're very They're wonderful in that regard, and I know that. I was watching an interview the other day with Frank Tarzi and he was talking. He was asked by Heath Holland like, what do you allow h VHS quality to if there's a rare version of a movie, would you allow VHS? And he said yes, and and
I know that other companies have done that. I know that the two minute warning, the long version of that, the terrible TV cut of that with the all the jewel robbery scrap which has nothing to do with anything, but they they included that. Shout Factory included that cut even though it was taped off of TV and.
Has the water mark at the bottom.
That's that's valuable stuck D forensics or archaeology on any given movie. That's that that that's that's the good stuff, you know.
Yeah.
Uh, Indicator does that too. They do the all the old universal v tools. Uh, I don't know what you call them.
When when the you know, the studio guys went in to shoot additional stuff for the TV cuts of the movies and then it's a secret ceremony opens with these two psychologists talking about what the characters in the movie are up to and why they behave the way that they do, which I mean Joseph Losi was roiling over with rage at seeing that. I'm sure learning about that, but it's.
Cool to include that stuff though it's's.
Like the director doesn't like this, but let's see how people were experiencing this movie when they saw it on TV, on network TV.
You know, it's cool and I mean almost more important for some of these things, because you can't acts us access them anywhere else. And beyond that, some of these they can explain why an entire generation felt a certain way about a film because they literally watched a different film compared to what many of us are seeing.
I'm realizing I put it away.
There's a book behind me Movies on TV. It's a reference guide circa nineteen I think, published in nineteen ninety one. And I was talking with Howard Berger about this a while back over lunch and he's like, you know, yeah, that the guy I think Stephen Schuer was his name, It was the editor of that. Like, these guys were just like looking at movies on TV. Often they were mangled and they were they were judging them on that basis.
So like with Fury, you turn over, you know, you know, you really get quite bugged by that because you're not going to experience Sila Levine is dead in Living New York at all well and pandone.
Scan that you're going to lose a lot, a lot of information, you know.
By the way, for those who were curious about mister Fury, I did have a half hour conversation with him just two days ago. And he's having and he's very he's uh, he's he's happy, he's with he's with his family and a lot nowadays, and he's he's he's ninety two and he's he's enjoying, enjoying his time.
So uh, it was nice too.
It was nice to hear and just like you know, it had been a while since I had had that long of a conversation with him, and you know.
It was just it was very lovely. It was very lovely.
But anyway, I wanted to tell people he's he's he's hanging in there, he's doing well.
Well.
If I remember I too. I think you kind of tease that there was more Fury coming up in the next year or so, probably some more.
Right this month, there's a set that I can announce that's coming, that's going to be announced in the twenties in the May twenty something or other. That is that is fury oriented so nice. Yeah, so I worked on that. That'll be Uh. I can't mention the company, but it's I will say it is a UK company, So okay, from.
That what you will.
But yeah, that's that's coming up very soon. Yeah, so that's that's That's one of a number of things that are coming up. A lot of May announcements for me. For a lot of things I've been working on, Yeah, waiting for them to come to come along.
The Blue and Faden was the big one.
Well to see that the same month with New York New York is that You've got a lot happening right now.
No, it has never been busier. I swear it has never been busier. I've carved out a weird little cottage industry doing this type of stuff and I'm grateful and I'm lucky in many ways. But yeah, it's been It's never been busier. I don't know what's in the air, but I'm grateful to it.
I love it.
But yes, cinema is alive, I guess, and at least among this little collector sphere that we're part of.
Well, I'm lucky to have been able to speak to you at US. Thanks for your time, sir. I hope that everybody else is feeling like Cinema's alive as well.
Yeah, I hope they. I hope they appreciate it. Because now with the ease of access, you can do these deep, these psychoanalytic deep oak tiered deep dives that I do because it's so easy. You can get everything now, not everything, but you can get a lot of things, most most everything that you need now, and you can do marathons of directors that you that you even evince any interest
in building out from and seeing what they're about. And that's people even twenty years ago didn't really have that privilege it thirty years ago, forty years ago, shit, there was really you know, David Delval was in the Quartz interview, was having to rely on I his reference books. You know,
there was no IMDb then. So you know, it's right now with ease of access and availability, and people can get these things and they can become if they look close enough, they can become scholars in their own in their own right.
So that's a very exciting time.
Scholars and super fans, everybody should check both these releases out. I can't wait to hold them in my hand. The amount of stuff that you're doing with Cinematograph and Kino and all these other companies, exciting the upcoming stuff from Severn. I'm just so stoked that you're able to grab on these filmmakers and shake the life into somebody to appreciate them.
Yeah, thank you, Ryan, Thanks.
Daniel, talk soon. Thank you for listening to the Disconnected podcast. There's one big thing that you could do to help the show, and that is to leave a rating and review on the podcast service of your choice. Thank you tell me.
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