Poh Ling Yeow and Moonstruck

Gooday, my name's Peter Hally.

Welcome to you Ain't Seen Nothing Yet the movie podcast, where I chat to a movie lover about a classic or beloved movie they haven't quite got around to watching until now. And today's guest is artist, chef, actress writer poling Yow.

All below, I want to stay here with you. Gay to the jobble.

My hat, snake shut hil couldn't happening right, So don't See Nothing Yet.

Poe ling Yow has become one of the most creative and interesting people on the Australian TV landscape. She burst onto our scenes, of course in two thousand and nine in the Jugnaut that was Master Chef Australia. Now, if you don't remember that time, that was one of the biggest shows, well it is one of the biggest shows in Australian TV history and Poe was a big reason why Mars Chef Australia took off. In two thousand and nine. She finished runner up to the lovely and very talented

Pass Poe.

In my series It's a Date, which was on the ABC for two seasons. Poe was in one of the first episodes I think we wrote and put together where she appeared alongside Dave Lawson.

It was an anthology series.

It looked at dating and they had a wonderful date involving a dead rabbit, a miniature golf course and the proposal, and also a window washer urinating on Poe.

We'll talk.

We'll talk to Poe about that during our chat. Perhaps it was such a fun episode and she was incredible in it. Poe, you may not realize it's not just a chef and a host now on television and an actress. As I pointed out, she's also critically acclaimed art that she largely works with acrylic paints on canvases and her work.

Has this is pre mass chef.

Her work has been highly acclaimed and these available to see and galleries around Australia. Poe also went into the jungles an I'm a celebrity, Get Me Out of the Alumni she did at season eight. I was in season nine she warmed the Jungle up for me, and she was also great to watch in there.

She's in there with my good friend Kel Wilson. And if all that isn't enough, Poe has this launched. She's basically gone into.

The Red Rock Officers the Great Chips that I read rock, and she's gone in there and said, I reckon, I can make some better flavors. There's not enough new flavors of chips, and she has released soon new flavors. They are crispy Chicken with garlic and sweet soy and it's their body lovely. Poe actually sent me a packet of those, and she also sent me the other flavors that she's done, which I think is the superstar flavor, which is Malaysian beef.

With her today.

Hi.

My name is Poe and my three best films are The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill.

Is it your perky nods?

The Wild.

Gambo said?

You take care of your granny.

Yeah, she's sick to either. Yeah, I have to scumber up with a big sponge.

And Midnight Cowboy.

I'm walking here.

Up until this week, I hadn't seen Moonstruck. Lovest kid, who.

Wow, the moon hits you like a bigger bit supply that's more.

Yes, I literally don't make movies like this anymore.

Moonstruck is a soup fla of a romantic comedy that isn't completely flaky.

It's light better that has substance.

Global Ameni and icon Chef plays Italian Loretta, a widow whose husband got hit by a bus, which has convinced her superstitious family, in particular her father, played by the brilliant Vincent Gardenia, that she is cursed. This curse is given the opportunity to lift when Loretta proposed to by her slightly reticent fellow Johnny the always excellent Danny a Yellow.

Directed by the great Norman Jewison.

Written by John Patrick Shanley, who took out the best screenplay Oscar that year.

It also net to share her best actress, Oscar.

It also brought to the big screen the undeniable presence and glory that is Olympia Dukacas, who also took home a gold statuette that night. Considered one of the great American romantic comedies. I feeling about those looking for love and those waiting for death? Poe, Are you somebody who looks up at the moon?

I do look up at the moon.

Peo you're a moon gazer.

Yeah, a moon gazer. Yeah. Yeah, my bedroom when it's full moon, I can actually see it from my bed.

So and you do you find yourself yeah, contemplating life and love when you're looking.

Up at a full moon.

Yeah, I do.

I do.

Actually, do you believe that a full moon? Can you know, alter people's behavior? And are you into any of that stuff?

I do believe it. I'm not I'm not usually that kind of person, but I do feel like the moon because I'm into gardening. You know how people have like there are things about planting at certain types at certain times where stages of the moon, and I do. I do believe in it because I feel everything is tied together.

And now do you've announced that you're into gardening? Is very nervous. Now he's He's just messaged me saying a Danu Laine Poe.

Yeah, No, I don't worry.

I'm such a haphazard gardener. I've gotten nothing on him.

Now.

Obviously, there's a lot of films that you can choose from. I provide a list. You don't have to choose from that list, But there are basically the thoughts starters. Why did Moonstruck jump out at you as one to cover.

Okay, it's one of those I've always loved sir as an actress actor actress, and I've when we used to have go to the video shop that covers it just was always there. And for some reason I never watched it because there was no one on the cover to entice me. It's just that that moon, and so for some reason I never went for it. But I've always been so curious.

Yeah, I'm a bit the same. I'd never seen it, so it was a real joy for me to sit down and watch this film this week. And I remember seeing like the trailer in the cinema, and you know, it probably came out.

When did it come out? I think there's eighty seven, isn't and.

Yeah eighty seven?

Yeah, I'm twelve.

It probably doesn't necessarily speak to a twelve year old, and so nothing really grabbing, but I always thought it looked interesting. I think maybe Share slapping Nick Cage and you know those famous kind of scenes of snap out of it, which you'll get to kind of this this state in my mind, and then obviously share One wins the oscar for it, and it becomes a great remnut comedy, which is referred to quite a bit, so I always thought I will get around to watching it at some point,

With difficulty? Because so many favorite films and they're wildly different. Because I was married to a filmmate at one point, so I went through this stage where it was just all art house films, which Gumo is and while parrots of Telegraphy, Oh my god, I forgot another one, Yes Stem, this absolute like one that came out of nowhere. I just randomly switched on SBS one night. So that's another one. That's a polish one.

What's that one called?

Yes Stem but with a J. Yes. It's kind of a love story between two kids, and it's a really oh it's just so beautiful. I just bored my eyes out through the whole thing. This kid who's essentially orphaned and lives on the streets at befriends this girl from quite a wealthy family and they secret meet, secretly meet in this barge that he squats in. She brings him food and it's essentially a little love story between two

I haven't seen Gammo.

It's another one that I reckon you would have seen at the video store. It's got a picture of a kid holding a boy holding an accordion topless with Bunny is sitting on a toilet. Does that at all ring a bell?

I'm I'm gonna look it up right now, because I surely I would have remembered that, And that's that seems maybe my local blockbuster didn't actually stock it.

But I definitely would have been an art house. And it is a weird ass movie about these two hit kids from this tiny town.

The poster that's got that I'm looking at is a like almost a portra of Keith from the profile signe.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, that's that's one of the main protagonists, right, yeah, yeah, So it's his two kids that are just wandering around glue sniffing haphazardly, and just all these bizarre characters he meets in this town that just been ravaged by a tornado, and it's just art house filmmaker. It's like you really are taken through a journey of wildly strange characters and it's an experience, that's all I can say.

Is more character driven than say narrative.

Yeah, yeah, well there's not much dialogue really, it's kind of just it's very experiential and harmony. Karin as the filmmaker, and he's well known for being very sort of alternative that he did Kids.

I don't know if you yes that film, Yeah, I knew that name and the Okay Kids, Yeah.

Yeah, And from what I understand, a lot of those a lot of the actors he pretty much just found in the town and said you want to be in this film, and that's how he made the film. So it's it's very it's very strange, but it really pushes the film medium, which I really love, which is something that I love about Midnight Cowboy.

Well, well that is I mean mid that Cowboy is. I again watched that film for the first time for this podcast. Cats Stewart really Yeah, Catch Stewart watched it for the first time for us, and what what an incredible film with two incredible performances.

Yeah, legends. And there's something about those types of the films from that era and that type of actor, that caliber of actor. It's like it will never be repeated again. You know, those those my best thing. And I always talk about the end credits with like, you know, that classic sex sex kind of soundtrack makes sense, so wistful. Yeah, and the classic tunes, like you know, you know, the tunes even before the film sometimes.

Yeah, as soon as you hear those opening chords and you know, and the graduate you know around that time was yeah, yeah, you know the Simon and Garth uncle kind of sounds. Yeah, beautiful, And that's why I love when Goodwill Hunting came along. That was one of the things that strike me in the most. It's kind of Elliott Smith was kind of a bit of a throwback

Yeah, just came back to Midnight Cowboy that I just find. It's so the characters are so compelling and it's just like this perfect odd couple thing that is that I love and I love that film, just like the how the directors really pushed the medium in that there's some parts where it's almost just steals and they've just superimposed like dialogue over it as a thought track, Like I love those breaks from film convention and yeah, so that's one one of the things that I really love about it.

And also those films feel like the characters are driving the movie as opposed to you know, actually, you know, narrative driving the movie and yeah, he just exists in that world for a little while, as opposed to kind of having this kind of story forced upon you, which obviously works many, many, many times, and that's you know,

And I think we Night Cowboy does that really well.

One of my favorite scenes in it is when hang on, what's dustin is it?

Yeah?

Yeah, when he's got his bum leg and he hops up on a still to make it darker and he fixes like baked beans or something, Yeah, the Cowboy to eat and it's just such just the aosm of him, like stirring the tin and like stirring the pot, and him trying to look after this guy even though he's just on his ars essentially, like just surviving. It's just something so beautiful about that.

It's a love story, really, isn't it.

You know, two strangers who are found He's outsiders have found each other, you know, and anyone could read into whatever they want to read into what their relationship may have been based on, but you don't really even have to, Like, it's just it's two strangers who have found each other's unlikely friends. In a way, it's beautiful.

So yeah, while parhaps of Telegraph Hill that was another brand that was a Yeah, we borrowed that from the video shop and it's a documentary about this guy who basically moved to San Francisco in the seventies with the hopes and dreams of becoming a rock star like everyone did back in the day, and ended up just squatting kind of penniless and ended up has ended up squatting on the side of Telegraph Hill where this flock of

Yeah, and that's from I think two thousand and two. I've just looked that up. Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hillia.

Check that out. And they're not all art houses. You're not only watching art house movies.

Because you did mention to me when we spoke on phone the other day that your love of a movie that I have a love for as well, which is The Cable Guy.

Oh, that's the film of my twenties. Like that is probably that would be number one comedy. Yeah, I reckon, Like we just quoted, like my whole crew, we just quoted from that like NonStop, right into like our late thirties. My favorite line from it is he who has a teats Master Beats.

It's so funny, isn't it, Because I'm sure when I'm sure when Jim Carrey kind of out of that line, he probably didn't even think about it again, not thinking this is a line. But here on the other side of the world, there's there's a woman who watched that in the early twenties who is still quoting that line. Like that's the magic of movies. And you never know

Such a there's so many amazing lines in that, like friends are supposed to speak to you like that, Stephen.

It's so I mean that the porno passwords scenes are so funny. And if you haven't seen it, it's it's it's a darker kind of comedy. And it's directed by Ben Stiller, written by Jad Apatao. I think basically wrote it. Yeah I must, I think, I think I musure if you got the full credit for it. But apparently he largely basically wrote wrote this. And and it's the first time we really probably have seen Owen Wilson. He plays a great, you know, kind of swami jerk.

Yeah boyfriend.

On the date I spotted that, I was like, that guy is amazing. I love it when you watch films. I love watching the people that do the bit part and absolutely nail it so hard that it haunts you for a little like distance in a movie where you're like that guy was amazing. He literally had like three lines, and it's still he's still on my mind, you know, And then he just went on to do huge things after that. Obviously.

Yeah, I was a bit the same with Bradley, and I certainly noticed I'm Wilson in Caba guys. While it's kind of if you're actually watching and you're knowing how difficult that kind of role can be, he plays it really well. And another kind of guy who did a similar kind of role in the movie had a bigger role was Bradley Cooper in Wedding Crashes. He was like such kind of a jerk in that movie, and I was like, but buddy, hell he's good, Like he's just

Yeah, she's a star, yeah yeah, and she yeah, She's obviously gone on to do huge scenes.

All great films. No doubt about that.

Well, I mean I haven't seen a couple of them Gumo or check out in the Wild Parents of Telegraph Hill check those out. And we know Cowboy and the Cable Guy Getting Some Love and the Polish film again is called.

Yes I should I should mention some other films that people these are pretty obscure. Taxi Drivers another one of mine. I love I love being outsiders, being put and being put through the ringer.

Essentially, all stories are basically if you're writing a film or you know, what you are trying to do is have your protagonists get to a destination that they believe they need and or they want, and then we will find out that they may need something else or you know, but what you're trying to do is create these obstacles in front of them and actually like really put your character through the ring and like you are like a god looking down and you need to be a vicious

That is exactly what you know. Good movies are generally a characters.

We want to see human beings at the testing point, you know, the pressure points.

Yeah, yeah, I think Also, like I've named films that have really really affected me in my twenties, and I felt like we're quite formative because I was going through a lot at that time. I don't know if you know about my past, but I was a Mormon then, so I was breaking out of this like deep sort

Yes?

Yeah, it's just beautiful film. Yeah, it's so beautiful, And I think that really woke me up to you know, cinema from other parts of the world, and it's just so beautifully filmed, and the story is just so powerful and it's an epic, so that one I love also. But yeah, I stop. I've stopped now. I stopped with my list of like thirty five favorite films.

You did, say to me, I'll just three starf fork, I mention a few more.

Can do whatever you like, do whatever you like, just going back though I probably don't know enough about the Mormon lifestyle and the and the commitments you make.

But we you're watching movies at all growing up?

Yes, yes, I was a huge avid movie watch. In fact, when I was going through the list, I was having a bit of a giggle because I watched American Werewolf in London when I was like six. That's not a good My parents had noe, you know. Back in the day. Parents were very like to likes. But I used to do this thing because of the way our couches were arranged in our lound room. I could, like I could crawl out of the hallway and hide behind the couch and watch movies when I wassed in be in bed

I mean, obviously you are so artistic, and I mentioned, you know, not just obviously the stuff we all know you from, you know, the TV shows, obviously Marsha when you exploded onto the scene.

But you're an artist.

And if I'm looking at you now and you have an amazing portrait of your I believe it's your grandmother, yeah, behind you. When did that kick off? What would you art always something that you were exploring growing up?

Or was that something?

Yeah? It was?

It was I felt like I was just one of those kids where I knew always that I was going to pursue something of an artistic nature. I think at the time I knew there was this little performer in me, but I was too shy and I didn't know if that would ever come out, and I think that was a massive frustration of mine, and so I poured all that into the art I drew from a really young age, and I could feel that that's where I felt really

Yeah, that's incredible, that's great to mar Okay, before we talk about this film, let's have it a Listen to a scene from Moon Striker.

I'm getting married again.

Yeah, you did this work before?

Didn't work out and the guy died.

And what killed him?

He got hit by a bus.

No bad luck. Your mother and I were married fifty two years. Nobody died. You were married one two years. Somebody's dead. Don't get married again, Loretta, it don't work out for you.

Who's the man, Johnny Cammerary.

He's a big baby and waiting to dear with.

You're telling me this because he's flying to Sicily.

His mother is dying.

More bad luck. Like his face, Loretta. Don't like his lips when he spiled. I can't see his teeth. What does he hide? When are you gonna do it?

In a month?

I won't come.

You gotta come. You gotta give me away.

I didn't give away the first.

Time, and I had bad luck. You know, maybe if you if you gave me away and I got married in a church in a wedding dress instead of down at the city hall with strangers standing outside the door, then maybe I wouldn't have had the bad.

Luck I had.

Maybe, you know, Pop, I had no reception.

No wedding peake, no nothing.

Johnny got do on his knees and proposed to me at the grand tune he did.

Yeah, I don't sound like Johnny Well.

With a ring here.

It looks stupid. It's a it's a baby, it's a madge ring.

It's temporary.

Everything is temporary.

Excuse, but you're coming.

It's gonna tell you.

I was going to share there with the Great Vincent A Gaddinia from Norman Jewison's Moonstrack from nineteen eighty seven, also starting the Cage, of course, and Olyma do Kacas who wins? And Oscar Ho Did you enjoy Moonstrack?

I think it's up there now as one of my favorites. I loved it so much, Pete, I loved it so much. Yeah, like I just it just resonated so hard. And it is from that era that I've already talked about that I love films of the eighties because I'm a child of the eighties and just I just relished every moment in that film, everything from all the little espressos, like there was just no the detail in that film, because I have huge I love every aspect of filmmaking, like

And all that.

It's just like I just I just didn't want the film to end. And what I find fascinating about that film if you look at it, it happens within a space of days.

Yeah, yeah, for these four days, and the full moon lasts four days.

Now I'm not I'm not an astronomer, but I'm pretty sure full moves don't last that long.

I know.

Not only that, but it's like, yeah, without like it being a spoiler, like all like it's a very fast sequence.

We came, by the way, to do spoilers for this movie. If you haven't seen it, you've certainly been one.

We will.

We can't talk about the movie without doing spoilers. So you know, watch the movie, but we are free to discuss.

Yeah, okay, okay, So like I just find it so nuts, just even the turnaround for when she meets Nick Cage's character Johnny too completely nuts to him declaring hisself literally within a.

Night, it is like and it goes against so you know, the most of the structure of most romantic comedies, where it's you know, boy meets girl, boy hates girl, you know, and and there's there's supposed to be this kind of tension, this tug of war of like will they won't they? This is like so quickly, oh they are. And then when they like, there's a thing where often it's it's

You know, you want a big kiss at the end.

In the end, our characters do sleep together kind of quite quickly, but then it all goes kind of pair shape. But with this they sleep together quickly and then it doesn't really go pair shaped at all. It's kind of just like it's kind of fine, Like there's a tension and we all know that there's she's engaged and the brother is going to come back eventually, but I.

Don't know, and it works. It's a magical film, but you know what it is.

It absolutely speaks of the fact that so many of them had OSCAR either nominations or won. I absolutely I can see why because it was absolutely related to the acting, like that cast was seamless, and the believability of really what's a bit of a ridiculous premise was complete, Like I just I was cool with that, like you just

The authenticity in this film as far as I mean, we do have some actors who aren't telling you who are playing family, but that's that, and that's not of me kind of going, you know, should they be playing That's just pointing out that there were share is an.

Olympic de carcass Is Greek. It doesn't. They're fantastic in the roles. I'm not. I'm not making a point of that. But the authenticity of the like.

You said, the stores in the daily and it's it's like, there's not It doesn't feel like there's a set in this movie at all. It feels like it's all shot on location. The food looks real, everything looks real, you.

Know, food scenes as you know, being someone food.

I was just like.

I couldn't get enough of it. I was just like glued, even the bit you know, and I love all the little details, like know when she gets home from her working her fifty jobs and then her grand the dogs come down the stairs, and not just one dog, there's like five dogs. And then I noticed there was like a little dog door at the top of the stairs. I was just like everything, there's been no story left unturned, you know, it's just amazing. And how's of that, Pete.

Oh, the girl who shed the tear, Yeah, yeah.

That was in love with him, and she was like tort to like just those little bits. I was like, they've squeezed in. It's a very compact film, isn't it.

It really is.

It's no lulls, No, absolutely not, And that there are things that shouldn't work or should maybe potentially take us out of the movie. That there's that woman who we haven't met before and we don't see after that just sheds a tear and talks about how she loves him, and she's almost talking to herself. She's not even saying it to Ronnie or to Loretta or to anyone else. She just basically says it to herself, like there's no real reason why the camera should be on.

That woman at that time.

It works, and it just the movie is stronger for having it not just about Ronnie and Loretta and then Johnny is that the thirdies, the brother who's gone to Sicily, but for having the parents you know as part of this, you know, and examining their relationship and the in laws and the grandfather with the wolf pack of dogs if you like, which obviously there are some motifs we can

Do you think they served as like really effective distractions, but in terms of stand alone it would have looked really unrealistic because it was right. But with all those distractions that were basically informing you of their community, their culture, all that kind of stuff, it just gave it this kind of home to sit in that made it believable, made the main premise of the story believable.

Yeah, And we were speaking earlier about those seventies films and sometimes just existing, you know, in people's lives, and sometimes it doesn't have to be narrative driven. This is obviously a narrative driven to a degree, but you can still build a world where you kind of love being in it and still be a narrative based film.

And this does it really well. Like I said, the authenticity of.

The every building they're in and the streets beautiful, and the family screwed up, you know, and that's fine that you know, that's there. There's love in the family. Still, it's been tested and you know, and there are obviously neither of I believe Italian, you know, so sometimes.

I feel I am because I talk with my hands a lot, and I love Italian food and cooking it.

And all the stereotypes are here, but they don't feel to me.

And if you're Italian listening to this, you can get onto the speak pipe and let us know what you think of this movie as an Italian.

But because you got the car, you've got the characters.

The superstition has very become a big you know, it's seen as very big, and they all hop larded.

They're overly dramatic families.

Everything they talk with their hands, it's pinching of cheeks, it is biting of hands, but it just doesn't feel so over the top. It kind of feels, I don't know, it doesn't feel too cliche, to be honest, even though they are certainly Italian and they're not hiding that at all.

This is a New York Italian movie.

Yeah, yeah, no, I absolutely yeah, I absolutely. You just you just fall into it effortlessly, even though, like you said, it's also sort of like cliche in a way, but it doesn't feel quick flick.

I don't.

I don't think it is. I think when something is done authentically.

If it comes from a place of love as well, and it's not. And this movie, I just you don't make this movie. If you're not in love with this movie. I don't think you know what, because it's not like an idea that kind of goes, oh, that movie must be made.

Like you said, you pitch, you pitch this movie.

You even show the script of somebody and they're gonna have a lot of questions and probably be a bit reticent, she apparently thought. As she was making the movie. He said to Olympia du Carcus, I think this movie is going to be a dud. Now they both end up whenning Oskarus for it, I'm not sure of Olympa Duacacus agreed with her, and she was this is a big breakthrough for her, you know, and at an older age, and you know where we kind of consider breakthroughs. But

I agree, and I think there's something very interesting about this film, and I think, like I said, I think it's all those supporting roles at Bolster and give life to the main what looks like the main storyline. And she's just got such an amazing presence in the film that that's what. Yeah, kind of she's the glue that holds everything together and just another thing as a woman watching that film, I was like, these are really awesome

It was so good because there's there's obviously a couple of motives here, and the wolf is one of them. Where there are there are wolves, there's references, you know, the obviously Well we might start actually with actually playing the bit where Loretta actually refers to brings up this idea that Ronnie the cage he is a wolf.

Look, you know I was raised that a girl gets married young.

I held out for love.

I got married when I.

Was I met a man, I loved him.

I married him.

And then if you want to have a baby right away, and I said no, that we should wait. And then he gets hit by a bus.

So what do I go?

I got no man, no baby, no nothing. You know, how did I know that that man was a gift? I could keep up my one chance of happiness.

You tell me the story and.

You act like you know what it means.

But I can see what the true story is and you can't. That woman didn't leave you. Okay, you can't see what you are and I see everything.

You're a wolf.

I'm a wolf.

Yeah, you know, the big part of you has has no words, and it's a wolf.

You know that woman was a trap for you.

She caught you and you couldn't get away, so you you chewed off your own foot. That was the price you had to pay for your freedom. You know, Johnny had nothing to do with it. You did what you had to do between you and you. And now now you're afraid because you know the big part of you is a wolf that has the courage to bite off its own hand to save itself from the trap of the wrong love. That's why there's been no woman since

What are you doing?

I'm telling you your life stop it.

No, Why are you marrying Johnny?

He's a fool because I have no love.

He he made me look the wrong way and I cut off my hand.

He could make you look the wrong way. You could lose your whole head.

I'm looking where I have to to become a bride, a bride head without a foot.

I mean, it's it's and there's a lot of wolf stuff going on before then there's even the couple at the liquor store that she says, argue about the way he looked at another woman. You look, he looked at her like a wolf dogs scene.

I love that scene.

And yeah, the little examples of romance she's given that flower rose at at the start, and but yeah, the dogs are hawling at the moon. They kind of is a pack of dogs, which gott to remind you of a pack of wolves. You know when when Ronnie, when Loretta first calls Ronnie, he kind of hangs up on her or he kind of, you know, dismisses her. And what she actually says is what an animal?

Animal is?

What an animal?

Did I suspect that the professor at the which is John Mahoney's character, who you know, he goes out with younger women and he kind of because he kind of sees the reflection he's only reflecting in their eyes and sees what he hopes to be or what he wanted to be or the younger version of himself. And then they realized that he's just an old guy, you know, gas bagging on and they end up throwing a water

Absolutely absolutely. Do you know what I also thought was really interesting is there's a lot of I felt like the step dressing and everything, there was a lot of negative space that you'd like fit for the audience to sort of read into, Like did you notice at his house he looked like he actually looked like a wolf when you found him in the ovens. When she went to see him, he was like he was like an animal. The way his monologue was amazing, So.

I mean, let's just talk about the monologue and the oh there's the over the top, and we now know Nick Cage to be who Nick Cage is, and he acts at a level like he acts fifteen out of ten, like you know, he takes it to two hundred percent instead of one percent.

He goes over the top.

And apparently like the studio did not want Nick Cage, you didn't test particularly well in audition.

Well, the Share fought for him.

They wanted Peter Gallagher, a very good actor, but Share fought in fact, in fact, I said, I'm not doing it if you don't cast Nick Cage because she thought he could bring this mannic crazy, crazy energy, and he delivers in spades.

The intensity of him and in that hot space and talking about him losing his hand, I reckon, that's one of the most intense, Like it's like scenes I've seen. It's just so it's just raw acting. You know. It's like you really can see why he became a star. It's just so much presence. But when you go to his house, just the contrast for a moment there, because she's wearing an apron and fixing him dinner. I'm like, hang on, wait she lives at home? Wait is this

And it's really interesting, like you're saying we're going to spoke about earlier where they're letting us join dots in a way, like you don't look at nic Cage when we meet him and go, oh, he'd be an opera guy. Like no, like he seems like the opposite of an opera guy. And then he says, there's two things I love. I love you and I love the opera. Say I can have those two things for one night that I'll

I don't know.

I think The Full Moon actually works somehow when you're watching it as well, like it casts a spell and it is that lovely.

I watched it twice this week.

The second time I watched it, it's like, this is like the most non Woody Allen, Woody Allen film I've seen. I think, like if it could easily be a Woody Allen film, and maybe because it's in New York, I agree.

I agree. No, No, it's got that kind of humor and it's not really laugh out loud stuff. It's just like the absurdity of life. And honestly, I related it. I related to it so much because I've had some pretty interesting twists and turns in my life where my ex husband is married to my best friend, and to me, this storyline is actually as much as it's the timeline that's absurd, it's not really the content to me, and

Yeah, And I think we forgive the genius of you could do this movie.

You've got to tempt this movie without the full moon playing being a character in the film. But what the full moon gives us is and it gives the filmmaker permission to kind of accelerate these things because they set up that there's something about the full moon, the magic of a moon, and I think I believe there's a

But that's that's a thing.

And you and you go through the characters and it's it's the it's the the uncle who you know, gets his youth back and his wife looks at him in this moonlight, you look, you're twenty five years old, and then they get.

It on and.

He's still going about it the next day in the daily he's almost like looking for high far and she's like, I'll stop it and stop it.

She's that scene as well, when he goes to snuggle up next to her and she's like kind of slapping him away. It is so beautiful, like that just warmed the cockles of my heart. I was like, that is just like, yeah, I love that scene.

Yeah, it's really it's really beautiful and it's really beautifully played. And you don't often see those kind of scenes of characters that age. And you have Olympiad Carcass. Well, you have actually Ronnie and Loretta who have have slept together. They both get up and watched it. They see the full moon that they're looking up at it. And then you have Rose Olympiad Carcass, who gets up and looks at it. I think she even goes to wake Cosmo, her husband, but he doesn't.

He sleeps through it.

And I think when the uncle tells the story originally when he first saw the full moon and where we set it up, that he caught a Cosmo's moon because he looked down and Cosmo was seeing it, and he thought he loved Rose so much that he had actually brought this full moon on and he was jealous of that kind of love. And now Cosmo has not ever been waking up for it.

No, no, and she's standing there wistfully. I think she's yeah, you can see her eyes are watery, you know, Yeah, because she knows, she knows what's happening.

Yes, and we know by this stage as well that he as he's seeing somebody on the side.

And yeah, so their marriage has been tested.

And I think we suspect because Rose is seems to be a very worldly character as far as she seems to be a very good reader of people that I think we know that she knows, and it's just about her, Like, deep down, I think she knows. She doesn't walk, she

It's a great little line.

It's a great look. There's so many of those in the film. Okay, I've written down my favorite line in the film. Can I Say it to you?

Absolutely?

Will is it?

Okay. It's when he's trying to convince her to come back into his apartment after the opera. She's like, no, no, no, you said it was just the opera. And he says, come on, we're here to ruin ourselves and to break our hearts and love the young people and die. The storybooks are bullshit. Now, I want you to come with me and get.

In my bed. He really does say, like get in my bed like he says it.

You know, we go on the bed like He's just like you really hear that line like get in my bed in real life or in movies. Let's have listened to that scene because it is nickkay Jones, Loretta, I love you.

Not like they told you. Love is And I didn't know this either. But love don't make things nice. It ruins everything.

It breaks your heart, It makes things a mess. We aren't here to make things perfect. Snowflakes are perfect, stars are perfect, not us, not us.

We are here to ruin ourselves and to break heart and love the wrong people and and die. I mean that the story books are bullshit. I want you to come upstairs with me and get in my bed.

I can't say I've given that speech at the front of the house or but it is. It's Nick Cage just absolutely going for it. I would love because it was early Nick Cage. I'd love to know what Norman Jewis and the director thought he was watching. Was he like, Okay, let's get a couple where we just turn it down a little bit, or was he saying, nah, keep going.

I mean they wanted a guy, and it works.

Because it's not just the moon that gives him permission to kind of accelerate this story. I think you need somebody who is thinking outside the norm and and thinking on another level, like a wolf in a way. And I think we see that Laretta. We can't believe because Loretta feels a bit like you. She had this bad luck and she's living with her parents, and she's she probably hasn't had that anyone. She probably never anyone like Ronnie.

Yeah, I think Also she's a really strong character, Like she's a very strong that's just she's just got this way about her, even though you know, she thinks she's been scourged with this bad luck, but she's very matter of fact. She really tackles live head on. Anyone who

There was a reception.

But every time someone said do you love him? No, I you know, did you do that yes? Like they were just it was very interesting and I found that so invigorating to watch as well.

Yeah, yeah, I did not notice that. That's that's that's that's really fascinating.

Yeah.

The other thing that's.

Going on in this movie, which I think separates her from other romantic comedies, is it's largely it's.

Also about death. Like death. They're obsessed with death. It's mentioned so many times.

In fact, the first scene we see there's some foreshadowing when Loretta walks into she's basically a book keeper, so she visits different businesses and takes care of their books. And the first one she does is a funeral parlor. She's taking care of, you know, the books for them. And then we learned that Loretta's previous husband was killed when he was hit by a bus. Johnny's mother is dying, by the way. That scene where he calls them the

Do you think it's also the whole death thing. It's a very cultural thing. I think like it's part of Catholicism as well, where it's just like births, deaths, marriages are still very much like a big deal with Italian communities. You know what I mean, because there's the christening and all that kind of stuff is very much part of

Yeah.

Yeah.

And the fact that Johnny goes back to Sicily to be at his mother's deathbed, which is not like I'm not saying, of course other cultures will do that. It's not like it's a reasonably sensible thing that you know, natural thing to do. But you do get there and she doesn't look like she is in bed, but she seems pretty sprightly for somebody. It's a pretty sprightly deathbed.

She's gotta got her hands up in the air at one point.

I'm not dead yet.

Yeah, yeah, I think I think he's been duped on that, But I think you're absolutely right you know, and this is all these references, like there's one where it's you know, the dad said.

Cosmo says, I can't sleep anymore. It's too much like death.

There's a there's a the the the The Love of Heem is a lot about death that also has the moon in there as well.

You know.

Rose wakes up when they wake her up, when they tell to tell her that Larette is getting married.

She wakes up.

First thing she says, who's dead. Rose says about Cosmo if he he believes, if he holds onto his money, he will never die. Rose is obsessed with the question why the men chase women, and.

Her beliefs the fear of death.

Yes, Ronnie, Ronnie. When we meet Ronnie, he says, bring me the big knife. I'm gonna I'm gonna. I'm gonna kill myself in front of you. I want you to watch me kill myself. This is how overly dramatic that scene was. Rose says, at some point, I'm going to kick you until you're dead about something not eat, you know, not eating what's on their plate.

Yeah, you know, he says. If she goes, oh, man, if you give another one of those one of my plates, to your dogs. I'm going to kick you, to.

Kick you to your dad. That is not dinner party conversation poet, But you know that scene.

That's it really sets her up as the matriarch. Yes, don't you reckon, because I reckon. There's a bit more lighting on her, and I think the dad's shrinking because he knows he's doing something bad. And it's just she's got these this presence and that's her father in law. She's talking to you as well, which is.

Like, yeah, yeah, yeah, well it is. It's a boss move, Loretta. After after Loretta and Ronnie sleep together, she says, you know, I should have taken a rock and killed myself, and she says, we're going to take this to our coffins. And even the dad sings about death. He's singing a little song at one point, and that's about death. Rose says to him, no matter what you do, you are going to die. It is just all through it, and I think it gives it. And I only really noticed

Yeah, but I actually think it's very realistic. Absolutely, I think, yeah, there's something within the absurdity. There was so much that was just incredibly realistic. And you feel that as a human, you know, you connect to that immediately.

Yeah.

So yeah, I loved it so much, Pete. Yeah, I can't stop thinking. I haven't stop thinking about it.

Oh that's so good.

And also, I mean the the we kind of allow ourselves we're at risk of judging, you know, Loretta for you know, the infidelity of you know, her fiance just gone away. And they do a very good job of we don't. We don't ever, I certainly never did that. I'm not sure if you did that, because you kind of go, you know, they do a good job. You know, Johnny seems like a nice enough guy, but we know they're not really well matched. No, as you said, we

So yeah, yeah, I love that line. We're here to ruin ourselves and break on and love the wrong people. I just so identify with that. And it's so funny because like in the last three years, like I often call Matt, who's like my closest confident and my ex husband. I've even called the second ex dating advice because I know me so well. Right, So I'm like, so, am I really like this is the thing that is really

You know.

We always want to think, oh, no, I'm going to do this and I'm get more strategic in this department that department. But you're just going to do what you're going to do because the heart what the heart wants. Right, a lot of times it doesn't make sense. That's just

You know, well, even.

We can jump to the end because no one. Jewison said this was one of the hardest scenes he's ever shot. For context, when you're watching a movie and you see like a dinner party scene or even like six characters at a dinner party, even for but you know, the more the more, it is a much harder scene to shoot, and it is more time consuming, and often if anyone moves that that creates complications.

So this was apparently a really tough one the shoot.

He actually got fined by the union because he basically got the crew out of the room and just work with the actors. And so we're not leaving until we kind of get the rhythm of this scene and we'll work out where he's going to move it, and then I'll set the cameras, which is is like that's often like when we did How to Stay Married and I was directing, and that's how we do things, and that's that's what I learned off the other directors. You basically get rid of the crew and then it's you and

But it works, It leaves you with a good feeling.

I watched him most in that scene because I was like, it's interesting because he has to react to her suddenly reacting to him not wanting to let her fiance, telling her he now no longer wants to be engaged to her and I just wanted to see how he managed that, and it was spot on. Yeah, Like it was so interesting to see him manage, like him meeting new people,

Let's have a listen to the final proposal from Nick Cage.

Loretta Castarini, Will you marry me?

Yes, Ronnie, in front of all these people, I'll marry you.

Do you love him? Loretta?

I love him?

Marfel Oh god, that's too bad.

She loves.

What's the matter?

Pop?

Confused?

Pop's confused?

It is.

He's just crying. It's very sweet. It's very sweet.

But and the Olympica Cacus again Rose is when she we didn't play it, but when she just quite matter of factly just says to her husband, stop, you know your your life is not built on nothing, you know, and again like, you know, you got this over the top performance by Nick Cage on the other hand, but you've got this quiet, steadfast performance from Olympida Carcass and her character and it's just it's beautiful.

Hey, can I bring out one other, really hilarious, other, little tiny thing that I loved when it was at that couple's house scraping the pipes. Yeah, like pipe I don't know what to use.

Is a plumber, right, he's a plumber. He is committing that the copper pipe. You know it's more expensive, but you know it will save your money in the long run. Yeah, he's quite proud of I'm not exactly sure why that scene.

Needed to be there. I like it.

It's funny. It's it's funny, and it's it develops character. But yeah, and it wasn't problematically, Like I wasn't like why that sim didn't need to be there. But when I think about it, he could have not had that scene.

I'm glad. I'm glad it's there.

It's like it's like the girl at the bakery. You know, and like going back to that, I remember when she walks into the bakery, and even when the girl answered the phone the first time he ends up hanging.

Up on her.

The girl is a little bit like on her face, she's thinking, who's this girl? You could see that, Yeah, like she was already taking ownership over Johnny, Like you could see the crush and I was waiting for that to unfold, to see whether that was going to be his girlfriend, but it wasn't. And then she does that little thing, that little monologue or whatever, the little moment, and you're like, oh my god, it's these these things that are happening all around you. I think that's what

Yeah, and then everybody's going through something, and it might be that they're going through a good patch. Everything's kind of a phase. I always say that friends who've got babies or you know toddlers and they're like, oh, they they're not sleeping at the moment.

I just everything's a phase.

And that's probably true, and I haven't thought of it, but that's probably true of love as well, like and marriage, like you go through phases. You go through phase where things are a bit not going as well as they were, and then all of a sudden, sometimes you can identify why, but sometimes it's just that changes.

The mood changes and you have a you have a lovely phase and that might last my last weeks, months, years, but it is.

And so to have this kind of think about it, Yeah, this portrait of his family that you had a daughter and that you know father are both having these affairs, and you know that you can argue there's different severities as far as you know, it's a marriage of who knows how long it compared to being engaged, but it's still in fidelities and it's fascinating.

And I just wanted before we wrap up, I just want to play the.

Bit a bit from Olympic Drew Carcass because, like I said, I think she is the heart of the movie and this is her in the restaurant with I actually forget his name, but John Maloney's character.

I asked a question, Oh, go ahead, why a man chase women.

Nerves?

I think it's because they feared Jeff.

Well, maybe.

Listen, you want to know why I chase women. I find women charming. Teach's classes I talked for a million years, spun me and it went open for me. A long time ago, I started out. I was excited about something I wanted to share it. Now it's road multiplication table. Except so sometimes sometimes I'll be droning along and I look up and I'll see a fresh, beautiful, young face and it's all new to her, and I'm just this

Well, you don't know about women, there's a lot.

Well that's not what I hear.

I mean, he's got this great it's a really lovely monologue. Whether you agree with him or not, but it's it's really well performed and well written. And she just has this one line that puts it all in perspective that you know, almost on you're full of ship, but not in a way that is, you know, she still leaves with him, she lets him walk you, and you're not sure.

You're not sure because there's this thing going on with the color of red as well.

We know red with synonymous with love, and you have like Loretta has that change where she goes to the hairdresser and she gets you know, the makeup, and she gets from her grays and and she's you know, stunning, and and it's not like she wasn't we make it before like she was. You can see that she was a beautiful woman before, but it's like, oh, this is wow, so beautiful, so beautiful.

And she buys this, I think a red dress.

Well she wears a red dress of the opera, and so that's just you know, that's the woman that is the color of love.

You know, it's red.

And then she takes she takes this black coat with her, and it's kind of when she takes it off, it's almost her.

The way I read it was her.

I'm ready now to accept this love, even to the point where and I did find this out through another sauce. But she drinks white wine at the beginning when she's drinking with Johnny, and then it changes the red wine she gets home.

You get ready, Yeah, no, you're right.

Yeah.

I love all these little motifs in the film that make it so rich with like yeah, it just really enriches the film, Like, you know, her little routines, like she comes home, she always gets a glass of wine, and the fact that they do it every time. I love stuff like that in films.

If you watch it again, check out circles. Okay, Moon Moon the moon. So you have stuff like whenever there's a cup, it's usually two, Like glasses of champagne or wine or coffee being delivered, there's usually two and it's shut from a way where you can see basically see.

The two circles ellipses.

Yes, there's one where they walk in I think from into a bedroom in that and in the hallway there's two circles of two photos that are on the wall. And yeah, there's there's quite a few. The eggs, the eggs in their front pan. There's two eggs in the holes in the bread. So there's a lovely kind of quite subtle kind of motifs going on with using circles aka the moon.

But yes it is. I don't know.

I just think it's an extraordinary film. A few little fun facts before we we finish up. There are some age differences in the casting of this film. Danny A Yellow and Nicholas Cage are playing brothers here. They're thirty one years separated, Danny years older than the Nick. Obviously mother and daughter Elimitadakakas is only fifteen years older than Share in this movie, and as so as the lovers go, Share is eighteen years older than Nick Cage, which is wood.

That's so interesting.

Good on her and good on them because it kind of flies in the face of what usually happens in Hollywood movies, where it's usually the other way around.

So that is awesome.

Also, it was originally called Bride and the Wolf that was the original title. I think, oh really, yeah, I think Moonstrik is better, way better.

I think, yeah, I think so.

And they originally at the start of the film had some opera music from Labaheim playing and the test audience thought they got a bit fidgeting their seats and they thought, they'll hang, are we watching some artie film?

So they changed it to a bit gangster.

I think you always think of a like gangster.

So they threw some Dean Martin in and there and everything was everything was fixed.

There's some customers leaving the bakery when Share enters, and they are Charles and Catherine Scorsese, Martin's parents.

Oh my gosh, are in there.

That's awesome.

Yeah, And there is also this may excite you pot is actually only announced this year, but there in the early stages of adapting an operatic adaptation of Moonstruck. So there will be an opera Moonstruck for you to go and check out, hopefully sometime soon.

Wow.

That's so cool.

Well this comes with homework, So thank you so much. And I mentioned some of you're acting earlier in the intro, and I'll say in front of you and so you can hear it.

What a delight.

It was to have you in mind series of a date all those years ago, and you were so funny in that. If you haven't seen it, check it out. I'm not sure it exactly where it is at the moment. It might be on ABC IV maybe, but you were so up for whatever we threw it you, including being urinated on through a sunscreen. And I remember, yeah, I remember on the day you were like, no more more. Were like, is it too much like having somebody urinate

Like, no more more?

Bringing up you're always always wanted more? And what was a really what was a really important thing? And it was kind of a real lesson. Hopefully I knew this leson before, but it was like a really it made a crystal clear because we brought all the actors into

But then if we even knew about it, I'm not sure we would have given that permission to do it.

Yeah, And so the power of having diversity in the room makes it more interesting and allows for your world and for your focus. The blinkers can come off and be wide, and your vision can be yeah, have been more on the periphery as opposed to this tunnel vision. So it was and it just ended up such a funny scene. You know, you basically wrote half of that scene.

Oh, Pete, you should be doing more acting. I'd love to see you do more acating.

I know that is sort of on the cards, but I just wanted to say that was a really Yeah, I don't know if I have I mean every time we bump into each other. I think I bring it up because it was a really big deal for me doing that and to be asked, because it's something that I'd always wanted to do, but it just had to be the right thing, and I love comedy and I'd

You just never know.

But if casting directors, you know it's not just me, come on, get ping through the rooms. And because yeah, just even look at that episode, I think you're you're so funny and and you know, and moments where it needed something different, you were great in there as well.

So yeah, well done, and yeah, more more of it. I did mention the Red Rock chipster.

By the way, I've said, I've said this see in person, but the Malaysian beef rend Dang is the most accurate chip I've ever eaten in my life.

It's pretty good. I have to give credit to Red Rock Deli. They nailed it, Like I gave them the recipes. We worked on it together. But I cannot believe it really because you know, with chips often it says the thing on the what did you say to me? What you said was social.

Yeah, because Bridge said before we had your chips, Bridge said, all the flavors, all these new flavors, they all taste like barbecue in the end.

And that's what I was scared of. I was like, it's just gonna be like barbecue with a bit of chili in it. But as soon as you open the packet, you get that, you get the coconut, and just that that richness that you get from a render. I don't know, So thank you so much. Can I also plug something else my art website, so art myypo dot com, because that's something that I've just has been waiting in the wings for me to get back to, and I'm sort of right back into the painting again. So yeah, I'm

Squidz art by Poe dot com dot Au, just dot com, Just dot com, just dot com art Bipoe dot com. And like I said, I mentioned your art at the start, but if you haven't, if you're not aware of the work that Poe has done as an artist outside of all the other stuff we know are from, go to the website even just just to have a look.

It's she's an extraordinary artist.

Like I said, I'm looking right now at the extraordinary portrait of your grandmother behind you, which I said was perfect. You know, walk away and you said, oh no, you spoke about skin tones and I'm like it looks good to mat Just walk away.

Let's walk away the next one. But you know, but I'll lee, I will trust you as the artist to to to do what you need to do.

But no, it's I think you're an extraordinary person and always a joy to hang out.

Thank you for being part of this and.

Likewise Pte, it's always a pleasure to you know, Chad, and yeah, we've yeah, we've always gone along so well. Thank you for inviting me to the audience. It's been such a pleasure and an honor.

Thanks mate.

I'm gonna marry do you hear me?

Last night never happened, and I'm going to marry him, and you and I are going to.

Take this two RCPs.

I can't do that.

Why not? I'm in love with you, Snap out of it.

I can't.

One of the iconic lines from Moonstruck, the double Slap Too, was very good Holing Yow what a legend she is and so insightful with her views on Moonstrike. I always love it when our guests loves the movie. There's no pressure on them to love the movie. We've had some very interesting episodes where they haven't loved the movie. Lim I didn't love with Nayla and I Rachael corbtt didn't love Castaway, Adam Christie didn't love War Street.

I thought it was ridiculous.

Hamis McDonald famously in Our Little Multiverse did not love Punstrung Love, which is one of my favorite films, and that's fine. We ended up having a discussion about it. But when somebody comes in they say they love it, and it's almost like this is now one of my favorite films. That gives me a little bit of joy. So thank you Hoe for walking through Moonstruck with us. I'm really glad I watched it for the first time too.

Good a Pete and listeners.

My dad's name is also Pete, and he's also a Collingwood supporter, So you've got you have one point there. I just wanted to see if anybody has looked at doing the movie Into the World, which was directed by Sean Penn. It had a lot of stars on the fringe of it, like Zach Gallavan Arkis and Fence Fawn. But yeah, I'd like to hear people talk about that because that's one of my favorite movies, along with Goodwill Hunting.

Keep up good work.

I really enjoyed the show, and I just finished listening to Dave Callen and on his take on pulp fiction.

All right, thanks, take it easy, go the pies, Go the Pies.

Indeed, I'll tell you what, you jump straight to the front of the queue if you give the pies a bit of a pump up. Thank you, Tim, and hopefully Yeah, it's a good month or so. As we record this episode for the Pies as we approached the finals, Into the Wild, I haven't it's not on our list, but yeah, I reckon I'd be happy enough to put that on the list.

I did enjoy it.

My memory of it me based on a true story, but a guy who basically sells his possessions and lives in the wild.

Yeah.

Directed by Sean Pan As he said, Emil Hirsh, Vince Vaughan I think was in there. Katherin, Keena, Marsha Gay Harden, who's always great. Also the soundtrack where the score was from Pearl Jam on the yuk of Lately for memory, maybe one some awards for that. So Into the Wild great suggestion. Kristin Stewart or so in that great, great cast. Yeah, maybe we'll give that a go. I'll put it on the list into the while. Thanks for joining us, get onto the speak pop. If you want to leave a

He's what we call a.

Comedians comedian they're gonna go when he's on stage meetings, will stick around to watch Greg will be watching. From nineteen ninety six, We're going to Tom Cruise again. Ciba Gooding Jr. It's what I think, one of the great romantic comedies because it's kind of a little bit dramatic. It's romantic, it's funny, it's got some sports in there. It's a perfect date movie. It's Jerry maguire. Of course, you've worked that out already, no doubt. Jerry McGuire for