ArtiFact: Books, Art, Culture

Woody Allen's "Husbands and Wives" (1992) remains one of his harshest and darkest films. Not only does it examine two failing marriages, but also fresh romances which will end in yet more failed marriages. Its use of black humor, villains who say "correct" things, and unexpected character arcs give it an arresting quality which takes fans by surprise.

The world's leading Woody Allen critic, Alex Sheremet (author of "Woody Allen: Reel to Real"), offers an in-depth analysis of "Husbands and Wives" (1992) alongside actress Christina Behnke.

You can also watch this discussion on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0l0Cj4pjAPE

Read Alex Sheremet's in-depth review of Woody Allen's "Husbands and Wives": https://www.automachination.com/woody-allen-husbands-and-wives-review-analysis/

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Learn about our debut film, "From There To There: Bruce Ario, the Minneapolis Poet": https://www.automachination.com/cityboy-bruce-ario-great-american-novel/

Read more from the automachination universe: https://automachination.com

Read Alex Sheremet's (archived) essays: https://alexsheremet.com

Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/automachination

Timestamps:

0:00 -- what is Woody Allen REALLY up to?

1:08 -- Mia Farrow makes it all about herself; Judy Davis's iconic performance; Easter Eggs in "Husbands and Wives" 

7:41 -- mockumentary as conceit; a nature documentary; the more these marriages are examined, the more they break

11:56 -- is Sally the best of the bunch; the first to disengage; Sally as an Enneagram 5w4

14:24 -- Woody Allen and Mia Farrow mirror each other; grading Sydney Pollack

17:03 -- Mia Farrow as the shrewd and prescient villain; why does Woody Allen stay?

20:31 -- age gaps; Woody Allen is frozen in time; Juliette Lewis as a gray character

23:34 -- dating a psychoanalyst; Rain as superficially "mature"; Rain vs. Mariel Hemingway

35:39 -- the film's only happy scene...

36:46 -- Judy Davis's first date; character physicality; who disengaged from whom?

46:35 -- "Husbands and Wives" as Woody Allen's phantom life

Tags: #WoodyAllen #filmcritic #HusbandsAndWives

Analyzing Kane Parsons' (Kane Pixels) "Backrooms" (2026), the film fails AND succeeds -- though not always on its own terms...

Reddit and 4chan have narrowed and defined Kane Parsons' world, while A24 Films hired the wrong scriptwriter for his ambitions. Stylistically rich, it nonetheless has things to say of Internet culture, new concepts such as liminal spaces, and artificial intelligence.

You can also watch this discussion on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ghHnm2ZdaJo

Read poet/critic Ezekiel Yu's analysis of BACKROOMS: https://www.automachination.com/review-kane-parsons-backrooms-analysis/

Learn about our debut film, "From There To There: Bruce Ario, the Minneapolis Poet": https://www.automachination.com/cityboy-bruce-ario-great-american-novel/

Become a patron to support our work: https://www.patreon.com/c/automachination 

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Read more from the automachination universe: https://automachination.com

Read Alex Sheremet's (archived) essays: https://alexsheremet.com

Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/automachination

Timestamps:

0:00 -- Kane Parsons needs to lose his scriptwriter...

0:53 -- why the ending sucks; "Backrooms" doesn't follow its own internal logic; dumbest possible action; analyzing a particularly bad line; lack of closure

5:34 -- Reddit Backrooms; art needs to be stripped of too-specific reference points

7:12 -- the Woody Allen connection; acting and technicals save Backrooms; bedroom iterations; sooo deep that we can't talk about it!

9:42 -- liminal spaces; Christina's recurring liminal space; Alex's experience of Russia's White Nights (St. Petersburg)

14:02 -- psychology in "Backrooms"; Kane Parsons and artificial intelligence; Reddit's self-propagation

18:31 -- horror and therapy; the film wastes too much time; the business side of "Backrooms"

24:41 -- Seth Rogan's Pineapple Express as contrast; horror's lack of substance; notes on cinematography

Tags: #Backrooms #KaneParsons #A24

Wallace Stevens's "The Emperor of Ice-Cream" is a widely misunderstood poem. Poet and filmmaker Alex Sheremet is joined by poet and critic Dan Schneider to tackle not only the bad analysis of Wallace Stevens's poetry, but also that of Robert Frost in "The Road Not Taken" -- another work of art that is both far more simple, and far more complex, than it's given credit for.

You can also watch this discussion on YouTube: https://youtu.be/cwVEbW1K9Xw

Read Alex Sheremet's in-depth analysis of Wallace Stevens's "The Emperor of Ice-Cream": https://www.automachination.com/analysis-wallace-stevens-emperor-of-ice-cream

Read Dan Schneider's classic essay on Wallace Stevens and William Shakespeare: http://www.cosmoetica.com/S3-DES3.htm

Become a patron to support our work: https://www.patreon.com/c/automachination 

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Learn about our debut film, "From There To There: Bruce Ario, the Minneapolis Poet": https://www.automachination.com/cityboy-bruce-ario-great-american-novel/

Read more from the automachination universe: https://automachination.com

Read Alex Sheremet's (archived) essays: https://alexsheremet.com

Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/automachination

Timestamps:

0:00 -- through the eyes of Wallace Stevens

1:44 -- Dana Gioia's awful reading and interpretation of "The Emperor of Ice-Cream"

3:35 -- Wallace Stevens and playful poetry; the "roller of big cigars" is not the undertaker; Wallace Stevens's relationship to New York City; sights on the Coney Island boardwalk

10:32 -- the BEST reading of "The Emperor of Ice-Cream"; why do critics miss sexual innuendo; does the first stanza have ANY intimation of death; debunking the "Caribbean funeral" myth; Wallace Stevens celebrates life and sexuality

16:04 -- explaining the second stanza; "deal" vs DEAL; sexuality in "The Emperor of Ice-Cream"

24:00 -- Wallace Stevens was THINKING of death, even if he wasn't WRITING about it; every sexual image explained; why bad critics bring Shakespeare's "Hamlet" into this poem

29:24 -- images of feminine seduction; "Yellow Afternoon" as a dark, death poem; why "The Emperor of Ice-Cream" is great

36:36 -- Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken"; debunking the most common reading

39:12 -- self-justification; why Robert Frost's mirage is so appealing; poetry and memory; Wallace Stevens vs. Robert Frost; why art is failing; Dana Gioia is an ignoramus!

52:00 -- Bruce Ario vs. Robert Frost

57:00 -- preview: Woody Allen's "Husbands and Wives"; "Annie Hall" vs. Woody's greater works

Tags: #WallaceStevens #RobertFrost #PoetryAnalysis

Woody Allen's "Crimes and Misdemeanors" deserves a second look not only for its frightening depiction of an otherwise "normal" killer, but also for how it masks an equally frightening comedy with dark humor. For example, Dolores (Anjelica Huston) is both a murder victim as well as a villain. Cliff Stern (Woody Allen) has noble aspirations but little talent. And Mia Farrow's character is gentle and kind, yet also a social climber who is willing to look past serious faults to grow her career.

In ArtiFact #73, the world's leading Woody Allen critic, Alex Sheremet, is joined by Belgian-Kazakh critic Ruslan Gallopyn and Pakistan's Waqas Jani to analyzes the film's characters and themes. Is the blind rabbi, Ben (Sam Waterston), as blind as he seems? Is Judah Rosenthal even worse than his gangster brother? And what can be said about the relationship between comedy and drama not only in "Crimes and Misdemeanors," but Woody Allen's filmography as a whole?

You can watch this discussion on YouTube: https://youtu.be/xybyMEzWLv4

Read Alex Sheremet's essay on "Crimes and Misdemeanors": https://www.automachination.com/art-review-woody-allen-crimes-and-misdemeanors/

Become a patron and get the full show ad-free: https://www.patreon.com/c/automachination 

Bonus show topics: Louis Levy seems like a trite philosopher without much to offer; the symbolism of Ben dancing with his daughter; on Ben's blindness; Ben vs. Flynn ("Interiors"); does "Crimes and Misdemeanors" suffer from a major cliche?; the contradictions of Dolores (Anjelica Huston); is Dolores a projection of the young women Woody Allen dated; Judah vs. other cinematic killers; the comedy side seems just as frightening as the film's drama; self-knowledge in relationships; Alex's nightmare-girlfriend; Waqas reveals EVERYTHING; Indians vs. West Indians; teaching in Pakistan, Belgium, and the United States

Subscribe to the ArtiFact podcast on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3xw2M4D

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Podbean: https://bit.ly/3yzLuUo

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Learn about our debut film, "From There To There: Bruce Ario, the Minneapolis Poet": https://www.automachination.com/cityboy-bruce-ario-great-american-novel/

Read more from the automachination universe: https://automachination.com

Read Alex Sheremet's (archived) essays: https://alexsheremet.com

Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/automachination

Timestamps:

0:00 -- Martin Landau pretends he isn't a murderer

0:45 -- why the film's final speech is so frightening; Judah's false nervous breakdown

3:38 -- Ruslan Gallopyn on the WEAK ending of Dostoyevsky's "Crime and Punishment"; is perpetual guilt realistic; Judah as psychopath; he is compromised even before committing murder

8:15 -- social murder vs. war; killing by the push of a button or a signature

10:00 -- the world's top expert on Woody Allen explains why the director is universally loved

11:38 -- Waqas on why a man from rural Pakistan loves Woody Allen films; Woody Allen as Hollywood anti-Hollywood

15:04 -- how young men fall into the Woody Trap; Woody Allen & Europe; Alex credits Woody Allen for clarity on human relationships; comedy vs. drama in Crimes and Misdemeanors; the film packs so much in the first five minutes

21:37 -- are the eyes of God really upon us; an objective observer exists even without God; Ruslan: Judah's "eyes of God" is nothing more than his social status; ironically, Judah gets accountability through art; how image and sound cross-connect scenes 

28:49 -- Clifford is a coward; Lester (Alan Alda) and Clifford are actually quite similar; Clifford as a do-nothing creep; Woody Allen's virtue signals

42:03 -- absurdity of plagiarizing James Joyce letters; the viewer begins to empathize with Clifford's bad wife; Hailey (Mia Farrow) is also a fraught character with Clifford's problems

49:04 -- Alex's dating advice to young and dumb; everyone is committing at least a misdemeanor; Woody Allen's most iconic scene; Judah's mass manipulations; Jack, Judah, and Dolores; "reason" as a euphemism

Tags: #CrimesAndMisdemeanors #WoodyAllen #FilmAnalysis #MovieReview #FilmPodcast #Existentialism #MoralAmbiguity #MoralPhilosophy #PhilosophicalFilm #DarkComedy #ClassicCinema #CinemaDiscussion #WoodyAllenFilm #PodcastEpisode #GuiltAndJustice

Mariel Hemingway dominates "Manhattan" (1979) as she plays the role of Tracy -- Woody Allen's own projection. While "Manhattan" has become a controversial film due to the substantial age gap relationship (Woody Allen's character, Isaac, is 42, while Tracy is 17), this was not the case upon its release. Instead, it was universally praised and further cemented Woody Allen as a master of both drama and comedy.

The world's leading Woody Allen critic, Alex Sheremet, is joined by Irish poet Laura Woods for a discussion of the film's illusions and the changing POVs around it.

You can also watch this discussion on YouTube: https://youtu.be/HTHBvojj-vc

Read Alex Sheremet's essay on "Manhattan": https://www.automachination.com/illusions-woody-allen-manhattan-review/

Subscribe to Patreon and get the full show ad-free: https://www.patreon.com/c/automachination 

Bonus show topics: more controversy surrounding Mariel Hemingway; how Tracy's precociousness fails; the meaning of the great planetarium imagery; more cinematography; Isaac's bout of self-recognition; why Meryl Streep kept Isaac's last name; the "gay son"; the theme of "surprise" divorces; vicarious relationships in real life; Roger Ebert weasels out of praising "Manhattan"; black and white vs. color; Alex goes to Guyana for photography; why Dan Schneider listens to podcasts of himself; why "Annie Hall" is popular among women; Alex previews his Burma/Palestine research; why pre-Christian Jews fought other Abrahamic Jews; how theology adapts to heresy; Israel vs. Judea; AI art; milestones of world poetry; Shakespeare trutherism; Alex's literary run-in with a Mormon missionary; it's much easier to find great photography than great poetry

Subscribe to the ArtiFact podcast on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3xw2M4D

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Podbean: https://bit.ly/3yzLuUo

iHeartRadio: https://ihr.fm/3AK942L

Learn about our debut film, "From There To There: Bruce Ario, the Minneapolis Poet": https://www.automachination.com/cityboy-bruce-ario-great-american-novel/

Read more from the automachination universe: https://automachination.com

Read Alex Sheremet's (archived) essays: https://alexsheremet.com

Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/automachination

Timestamps:

0:00 -- Mariel Hemingway dominates Woody Allen's "Manhattan"

0:47 -- the film's illusions

2:27 -- Laura's soft spot for "Manhattan"; drawing the viewer into illusions and delusions

5:16 -- unreliable narrators; Isaac Davis is supposed to be a bad artist

12:22 -- Diane Keaton's anxieties; Woody Allen is merely depicting the artists he's known; how art gets misused by the elites

20:30 -- art is high stakes; not everyone can be a genius!; the artistic character of New York vs. Midwest; Laura on Diane Keaton's great artistic range

26:40 -- Mariel Hemingway dominates the film as an idealized male projection; Mariel Hemingway as a composite of Woody Allen's teen girlfriends; how men show off young women; why "Manhattan" is slightly better than "Annie Hall"

33:23 -- Woody Allen's "fake" vehicular homicide joke; the men in "Manhattan" have a strict moral code meant to miss the big picture; Woody Allen's peculiar use of self-delusion

37:47 -- Mariel Hemingway is the only one who "gets" Diane Keaton; how realistic is Mariel Hemingway's character; Tracy will probably grow out of Woody Allen's character

48:50 -- the DARK ending of "Manhattan"; how Woody Allen plays both sides; reviewers didn't analyze the film's more controversial themes in 1979; UK/Irish perceptions of relationship power dynamics

58:08 -- patron preview

Tags: #woodyallen  #filmpodcast #cinematography

Woody Allen's "Hannah and Her Sisters" remains an undisputed classic in the director's filmography, yet just like "Manhattan", "Interiors," and "Annie Hall," it is often misunderstood. The film's ending, for example, is not what it appears to be, while Woody Allen's fixation on death masks an even darker fixation on the meaninglessness of his own life.

In ArtiFact 71, the world's leading Woody Allen critic, Alex Sheremet, is joined by actresses Christina Behnke and Jacklyn Collier to discuss the film's daring use of music, psychoanalyze the dynamics between characters, and touch on separating the artist from the art.

You can also watch this discussion on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JrO8BrjR9s

Read Alex Sheremet's essay on "Hannah and Her Sisters": https://www.automachination.com/greatness-woody-allen-hannah-sisters/

Subscribe to Patreon and get the full show ad-free: https://www.patreon.com/c/automachination

Follow Jacklyn Collier on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jacklyncollier/

Follow Christina Behnke on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christina_behnke/

Subscribe to the ArtiFact podcast on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3xw2M4D

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Podbean: https://bit.ly/3yzLuUo

iHeartRadio: https://ihr.fm/3AK942L

Learn about our debut film, "From There To There: Bruce Ario, the Minneapolis Poet": https://www.automachination.com/cityboy-bruce-ario-great-american-novel/

Read more from the automachination universe: https://automachination.com

Read Alex Sheremet's (archived) essays: https://alexsheremet.com

Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/automachination

Timestamps:

0:00 -- Woody Allen's fixation on death

0:54 -- introduction; Alex Sheremet's book on Woody Allen's filmography; when Woody Allen was cool; culture vs. posture; perception vs. reality in "Hannah and Her Sisters"; Woody Allen as didactic art; how Alex got over his initial "dislike" of the film

8:29 -- the three sisters dynamic in Woody's films; Christina: this was my first experience of female dramatic complexity on film; 3 siblings means ever-shifting partnerships; illusions in "Hannah and Her Sisters" and "Manhattan"; how Woody Allen makes you root for bad behavior and characters

15:15 -- is Hannah actually a benign character; Hannah as the resented caretaker; Jacklyn: the scene that wrecked me!; marital dysfunction in Hannah's relationships; poor relationship dynamics are always co-created; psychoanalyzing the parallels between Elliot & Hannah / Frederick & Lee

27:40 -- Woody Allen's use of humor in "Hannah and Her Sisters"; everyone catastrophizes except Hannah; how the nerdy, short, confident guy can be extremely charismatic; Woody Allen LIES about his own artistic achievements; Woody Allen's death-fixation is constantly made fun of, for good reason

34:25 -- Woody Allen's awareness of human nature; Dianne Wiest's cab scene with the architect (Sam Waterston); competition between women over men; the film's great use of music across 3 scenes; the film's faux happy endings; Dianne Wiest vs. Woody Allen chemistry; how characters talk about each other out of earshot

45:35 -- Stanley Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut" plays with the Tom Cruise/Nicole Kidman marriage, just like "Hannah and Her Sisters" and "Husbands and Wives" tackles Mia Farrow/Woody Allen's real lives; dysfunction in the Mia Farrow household; does Woody Allen critique Mia Farrow in "Alice"

54:00 -- why are women so tolerant of Woody Allen's art; will Woody Allen be remembered for his misdeeds or his art; film is too cumulative to erase everyone's contributions; separating the art from the artist; Alex: Woody Allen films improved my sense of self and moral compass

1:04:03 -- more humor in "Hannah and Her Sisters"; Woody is so Jewish that he doesn't understand Christian iconography; Woody Allen's Nazi jokes; Jacklyn: exploring art is exploring the self; the girls debate whether we've ever lightly & innocuously stalked anyone

1:12:55 -- how realistic are the film's rivalries; Alex: my grandma's frenemy

1:16:46 -- is there artistic value in bad decisions; how "Annie Hall" gets perceived by young immature men; Elliot's happy ending is only self-serving; support REAL podcasting!!!

Tags: #HannahAndHerSisters #WoodyAllen #FilmAnalysis

Woody Allen's "Interiors" is a poorly understood film, in part because it deals with artists and their foibles for a non-artistic audience. There are misunderstandings about Woody Allen's POV vs. the POV of his characters, misunderstandings about the nature of art and aesthetics, and even the role of cinematic influences on Allen, such as through Ingmar Bergman.

In this episode of the ArtiFact Podcast, the world's leading Woody Allen critic, Alex Sheremet, discusses "Interiors" with other film critics and artists, bringing the deepest and broadest conversation on the film.

You can also watch this discussion on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbZPk64mmTw

Subscribe to Patreon and get the full show ad-free: https://www.patreon.com/c/automachination

Read Alex Sheremet's essay on "Interiors": https://www.automachination.com/interiors-woody-allen-analysis-review

Subscribe to the ArtiFact podcast on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3xw2M4D

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Podbean: https://bit.ly/3yzLuUo

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Learn about our debut film, "From There To There: Bruce Ario, the Minneapolis Poet": https://www.automachination.com/cityboy-bruce-ario-great-american-novel/

Read more from the automachination universe: https://automachination.com

Read Alex Sheremet's (archived) essays: https://alexsheremet.com

Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/automachination

Bonus show topics: ranking Woody Allen films; differentiating Woody making fun of pseudo-intellectualism vs. critics' pseudo-intellectualism; nitpicking "Husbands & Wives"; John Ashbery's "Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror"; Alex discusses opening up new emotions in his poetry; "Grandma": Bruce Ario's poetry on grief; Alex's triptych of autobiography, novella, and book-length poem; Enneagram Type 5 vs. astrological Libra; why Alex's first film felt so magical; why Alex doesn't want to do fictional films; is pure writing more satisfying than filmmaking; Jessica Schneider's grave mishap; Zeke's conspicuous tattoo; "Blue Lagoon" discourse; why writing sucks now while photography/filmmaking is having a moment; AI hack-poetry is STILL better than academic hack-writing; why the HELL did Woody Allen destroy his life via Jeffrey Epstein; how kids get destroyed through private schooling; Jessica Schneider on PLAYGIRL; and much more...Timestamps:

0:42 -- the world's foremost Woody Allen expert chimes in; Woody's use of three sisters plays with viewer expectations; Joey (Mary Beth Hurt) as a non-creative archetype; Flyn as the self-aware "empty vessel"; Renata (Diane Keaton) as the viewer's perception; Frederick as the self-loathing hack; Geraldine Page is great as Eve

8:10 -- "Interiors" is very much a Woody Allen film, not an Ingmar Bergman one; Eve's fascination with artists; Eve represents the tension between art and aesthetics; Eve's use of purely aesthetic language hides her inability to really discuss art; why the $400 vase is barely shown on-screen

17:42 -- art seems to offer nothing to these characters; why would Michael stay with Joey?; the use of family members as meat-shields against one another; Michael's nurturing political side is desirable to Joey; the wounded-bird complex for men; relationships & passivity

28:40 -- all 3 men depicted are passive or weak; money does not buy self-respect; Renata is with Frederick because he is not as talented; Renata might not believe her own self-conception about art; Renata speaks to her therapist as if he is not even there

33:30 -- Woody Allen's nuanced characters; Flyn is both more self-aware and interesting than first assumed; Frederick isn't wrong, just wrong in his approach; deep down, these people are all superficial; Flyn's underlying sadness; we hear comments about Flyn only from others; Flyn has the purest reaction to Eve's death

44:30 -- Eve has problems, but Arthur is quite flawed too; "Interiors" & Former Gifted Kid Syndrome; Arthur marries Pearl after only a few weeks, but Pearl wants this too; what is Pearl hiding; everyone gets something out of dysfunctional relationships; Woody Allen was ready to compromise his own film!

53:53 -- is Woody Allen a people-pleaser; the film's color and cinematography; Woody Allen's underrated use of audio even without music; "September" vs. "Interiors"; Ezekiel Yu's comments on the film's composition; connections to "Long Day's Journey Into Night"

1:02:30 -- the film's ending: was that really Eve's final suicide attempt; Joey's potential fantasy; can Eve actually drive that far into Long Island; the death scene as an anti-symbol

1:08:05 -- the Joey archetype: emotional and expressionistic but uncreative; art as self-esteem; Joey's final journal entries are hopeful, as she is now expressing basic emotions; artists who can't create art; Renata's dishonesty with Joey; art vs. belonging

1:17:10 -- many "artists" just want validation, not great art; PATRON show preview...

Turkey's Nuri Bilge Ceylan is our greatest living filmmaker, and 2011's "Once Upon A Time In Anatolia" is still his greatest film. Set deep in the heart of an ancient land, the film probes both myth and psychology in seamless fashion.

In ArtiFact no. 69, filmmaker Alex Sheremet and critic Keith Jackewicz analyze the film in-depth.

You can watch this discussion on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMYGO5OLlZw

Subscribe to Patreon and get the full show ad-free: https://www.patreon.com/c/automachination

Read Dan Schneider's essay on "Once Upon A Time In Anatolia": https://www.automachination.com/masterpiece-nuri-bilge-ceylan-anatolia/

Bonus show topics: Ceylan's influences; favorite vs. best films; extracting artistic influence from less-than-great films; Alex's digital detox; Keith's frustration with a VERY foxlike dog; Alex's doglike cat; the ignorance of the Trump administration; Alex bullies Max "Shit Tank" Abrahms on Twitter; America was sold moronic propaganda about Iran; Persia as the fulcrum of the world; after crying wolf for decades, ACTUAL anti-Semitism is now coming to America; destroying the neoliberal dream; dissecting Professor Jiang Xueqin; is China "innately" anti-war; oppression in Xinjian vs. America's targeting of nonwhites; why is America so brutal in its punishments; Alex's VIRAL post attracts Japanese nationalist weirdos; Japan's Unit 731 vs. Germany's Josef Mengele; assessing the 2028 election contenders; and much more...

Subscribe to the ArtiFact podcast on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3xw2M4D

Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3wLpqEV

Amazon Music: https://amzn.to/2SVJIxB

Podbean: https://bit.ly/3yzLuUo

iHeartRadio: https://ihr.fm/3AK942L

Learn about our debut film, "From There To There: Bruce Ario, the Minneapolis Poet": https://www.automachination.com/cityboy-bruce-ario-great-american-novel/

Read more from the automachination universe: https://automachination.com

Read Alex Sheremet's (archived) essays: https://alexsheremet.com

Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/automachination

Timestamps:

0:00 -- why Nuri Bilge Ceylan is the greatest living filmmaker; the one question Keith didn't get to ask Ceylan; the John Cassavetes connection; why "Once Upon A Time In Anatolia" is difficult to discuss

6:20 -- Once Upon A Time In Anatolia vs. Once Upon A Time In The West; how the film plays with myth without touching mythology; the symbolism of time

16:15 -- landscape as psychology; viewer empathy for the film's "killers"; Ceylan's unique use of humor; Arab: slur or diminutive?

27:56 -- the poetic use of past tense dictation of present tense events; odd details during the autopsy scene

32:16 -- the trope of "gorgeous women"; Nuri Bilge Ceylan's use of masculinity; women are kept at a distance; how a stray comment becomes central to the film

38:50 -- cinematic contrasts; village teenager with a lamp vs. Michelangelo's "Creation of Adam"; Ceylan's idea that "everything must be earned these days"; psychological profiles

49:15 -- is light vs. dark a cinematic cliche; can we say definitively what happened (or didn't happen) with the murder; "Once Upon A Time In Anatolia" is the better version of Kurosawa's "Rashomon"; the lack of clarity is the point

59:55 -- Alex: as a viewer, I avoided creating "the" definitive narrative in my mind; the great symbolism of the squirt of blood at the autopsy

1:09:10 -- one of the few films worth the Blu-Ray release; the anti-symbol of the rolling apples; "Once Upon A Time In Anatolia" is 99/100; Nuri Bilge Ceylan has the GREATEST list of "best films ever"; Steve McQueen gave up his chance at being the world's greatest filmmaker

1:17:15 -- dream-like sequences in the film; did Kenan "see" his friend's asphyxiation; the dog at the film's start vs. the dog at the end; the more ethereal elements that go into great filmmaking

Tags: #film #turkey #türkiye

Derek Cianfrance's "Blue Valentine" (2010) remains one of the greatest and most realistic depictions of marriage on film. It eschews melodrama in favor of granularity, avoids the typical pitfalls of "relationship films," and probes both characters' psyches, ensuring that neither of them can avoid blame for the state of their marriage. Dean (Ryan Gosling) and Cindy (Michelle Williams) deliver great performances that the film's psychological realism demands.

You can also watch this discussion on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fI9c95zSC7A

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Learn about our debut film, "From There To There: Bruce Ario, the Minneapolis Poet": https://www.automachination.com/cityboy-bruce-ario-great-american-novel/

Read more from the automachination universe: https://automachination.com

Read Alex Sheremet's (archived) essays: https://alexsheremet.com

Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/automachination

Timestamps:

1:05 -- introducing Derek Cianfrance's "Blue Valentine"; who's that white girl???

2:59 -- initial and later impressions of the film; the effectiveness of its time-jumps; the symbolic and imagistic power of the opening scene; does Dean have a stronger relationship to Megan than her mother?

8:45 -- biases against Dean from female viewers; Dean is a playmate but not really a parent; Alex defends "feral children"; Dean is oddly good with women, but also fears them; Dean's alcoholism; Cindy might not be a drug addict, but she has other addictions and emotional dysregulation

15:49 -- she buys a lot of alcohol for the hotel; Cindy's many sexual partners and inability to connect emotionally; self-loathing & self-abnegation; how people pick and choose their addictions and patterns

21:16 -- substance vs. emotional abuse; Dean's romanticism kills him; personal neediness in both creates this relationship; limerence and projection

26:24 -- Dean says women settle, yet he settles; Dean only begins to drink after this marriage; do they have a deeper "reason" to be together; if she did not get pregnant by an ex, they would have broken up; why did Cindy refuse to go through the abortion?

30:28 -- men's simulated selflessness; Dean and Cindy knows each other's vulnerabilities; impulsivity in both; male/female hero complex; doing your best in the face of hypothetical "meaninglessness"

35:51 -- male sexual strategy in "Blue Valentine"; lack of attraction in this marriage; Alex: the male point of view is idealistic, but not innately unjust; relationships are the ONLY place for cosmic justice

40:36 -- their courtship is sweet and charming, but not necessarily romantic

44:48 -- Dean should have never made his offer; genuine moments of tenderness in "Blue Valentine"; is there an actual "good partner" for Cindy out there

52:12 -- don't start with relationships based on ambiguity; the bus scene soundtrack is rather creepy and ominous; "Blue Valentine" is one of the best depictions of relationships on film

57:42 -- "Blue Valentine" is tied to the times; the "meet cute" inversion; the endpoint of Millennial hipster culture; the Lena Dunham connection

1:00:44 -- the dangers of love at first sight; how fast crushes tend to flame out; Alex shares a GRIM story from his youth...

1:05:13 -- why Alex thinks their marriage might have ended; the anti-symbolism of the film's ending; why Dean has grown more than Cindy; filming around a dying battery; the conversation in the love motel

Tags: #film #review #relationships

Stanley Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut" was never meant to be an erotic thriller, but a supreme glimpse into human psychology. Alice (Nicole Kidman) and Bill (Tom Cruise) are well-suited for each other's inner dreamscapes. In fact, the entire film should be seen as a kind of dream: from the improbable action, to the way that certain characters mirror one another, to the ways in which even fantasy is ultimately defanged. This is Kubrick's only real "relationship" film, and it remains one of the greatest depictions of marriage on screen.

More recently, Stanley Kubrick and "Eyes Wide Shut" have been the subject of conspiracy theories. Jeffrey Epstein's crimes entangled many otherwise "respected" elites, and filmmaker Alex Sheremet and actress/producer Christina Behnke break down the implications.

 

You can also watch this discussion on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnDZNmplQzE

 

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Subscribe to the ArtiFact podcast on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3xw2M4D

Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3wLpqEV

Amazon Music: https://amzn.to/2SVJIxB

Podbean: https://bit.ly/3yzLuUo

iHeartRadio: https://ihr.fm/3AK942L

Learn about our debut film, "From There To There: Bruce Ario, the Minneapolis Poet": https://www.automachination.com/cityboy-bruce-ario-great-american-novel/

Read more from the automachination universe: https://automachination.com

Read Alex Sheremet's (archived) essays: https://alexsheremet.com

Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/automachination

Timestamps:

0:51 -- Stanley Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut" is not an erotic thriller; Lolita vs. Kubrick's peak film psychology; the relationship film; picking at the Jeffrey Epstein connection

03:34 -- Christina Behnke's lifelong relationship with "Eyes Wide Shut"; identifying with the characters; "Eyes Wide Shut" is a much better title than its source material, the novella "Dream Story"; the autopilot of marriage

9:05 -- "Eyes Wide Shut" as a dreamscape; the mirroring of characters & situations; the lack of consummation; the film's many blondes; Stanley Kubrick's NYC is like his dream of New York City; impossible physical dimensions; this is not the real Greenwich Village

16:06 -- Tom Cruise as actor and character; playing with the public marriage of Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise; connecting to Mia Farrow in Woody Allen's "Husbands and Wives"

21:40 -- the use of ambient vs. diegetic sound via Shostakovich; logical vs. illogical action; "Nicole Kidman's lovely body"; Alice is bored at the party; the Hungarian vs. "two models" sequence; is Alice really in control while dancing; superficiality in Bill & Alice; Catullus vs. Ovid

30:20 -- the overdose scene; Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman get home; "plain" cinematography furthers the dreamscape; jealousy

38:20 -- is Alice's fantasy a form of infidelity; Christina on Alice's psychology; Alex thinks Alice's fantasy is out of bounds for her own true self; how Kubrick makes "marital psychology" digestible and understandable

49:33 -- Alice should not be taken literally; are men more romantic than women; is a lack of jealousy an issue for relationships; Alex identifying with Bill; PEACH, Alex, PREACH; do women pity men

1:02:00 -- Bill get propositioned by his patient's daughter; Tom Cruise is further fed the worst fantasies; cultivating fantasy

1:06:00 -- the Jeffrey Epstein connection; dismissing the Stanley Kubrick & Eyes Wide Shut conspiracy theories; the Epstein class is bored and boring; Ziegler is crude & rude; Nick Nightingale calls forth sexual imagery in Ziegler

1:12:20 -- the "boring" orgy as a critique of the POINT, rather than on the film; 1999 tabloids for Eyes Wide Shut; the edited vs. unedited versions; is there such a thing as a non-boring orgy; the symbolism of the password, FIDELIO; the ceremony feels more exciting than the action

Patron show topics: Stanley Kubrick and "Jewishness"; more on Epstein psychology; Alex gets REAL about his super knavish year; the importance of the bed-mask scene; "Eyes Wide Shut" has a great ending...