Stuff You Should Know - Selects: Some Movies That Changed Filmmaking

Episode Date: July 30, 2022

An estimated 50,000 films were made worldwide in 2009 alone. Many are surely clunkers, but in this episode Chuck and Josh talk about the ones that emerged throughout cinema history to change the course of all movies that followed. Get your popcorn and lean back while you enjoy this classic episode.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey friends when you're staying at an Airbnb you might be like me wondering could my place be an Airbnb and if it could what could it earn? So I was pretty surprised to hear about Lisa in Manitoba who got the idea to Airbnb the backyard guest house over childhood home now The extra income helps pay her mortgage. So yeah, you might not realize it But you might have an Airbnb to find out what your place could be earning at air bnb.ca Slash host hey, I'm Lance Bass host of the new I hard podcast frosted tips with Lance Bass Do you ever think to yourself? What advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation if you do you've come to the right place? Because I'm here to help and a different hot sexy teen crush boy bander each week to guide you through life

Tell everybody yeah, everybody About my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never ever have to say bye bye bye Listen to frosted tips with Lance Bass on the I heart radio app Apple podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts Hey everybody, it's me Josh and since it's summertime. It's movie time. I am oh, so I've chosen our super interesting 2015 movie talk episode some movies that changed film making you don't have to be a cinema file to enjoy this episode So don't be scared off and there's a part right around the beginning of listener mail Where we talk about making a movie podcast that I now wonder was possibly the seed that Chuck's movie crush podcast sprouted from maybe Which if you like this go listen to the extensive movie crush catalog anywhere you get your podcasts in the meantime

I hope you enjoy Welcome to stuff you should know a production of I heart radio Hey and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant a.k.a Siskel and Ebert save a C. I'll see and Jerry's over there. I guess she's Jean shallot That's the stuff you should know try I don't know why that tickled me so much because Jean sell it's a funny looking I guess yeah, Jerry's not I'm just picturing her with a big afro and a moustache and like a tweed jacket and bad opinions about movies Jean shallot had a look for sure still that he's around right?

Oh, yeah, I think so. Yeah, RIP both Siskel and Ebert so sad. I know Um, have you seen the Roger Ebert documentary? No, I've heard nothing but good things really really good very touching. Yeah What is it? Something life life Like mine life with me life on top life itself life with thumbs life itself life itself It was really great and I watched it on it made the mistake of watching on a plane and I was just like my allergies are acting up Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, I was I was watering because of your allergies. No because it was sad

It was crying. Do you want me to say it? Oh, yeah crying on a plane? I was confused there for a second That's better than when I watch other movies that are on my laptop that are like If like bad violence or or nudity or something I'm always just like oh and I kind of lower the laptop and it's like I didn't realize this was in here and the lady next to me He's just like oh You disgust me. Yeah, cuz I don't you don't want to be sensitive to people around me You know, I'm not one of those jerks. It's like just lives in my own bubble. It's like watching some sex scene on a plane You're like elbowing the lady. So yeah

No, I hated it. It was so embarrassed that happened to me a couple of times I'm like I needed to start going PG on movies. Yeah, you just like airplanes Judd Apatow. Huh? Am I right? He's unpredictable. Yeah All right, so Chuck this is your episode to shine man. Is it? Yes, you're a movie guy too though. I like movies, but I've I almost consciously don't let myself Watch movies on a like a film aficionado level. Oh, right. You're just pure enjoyment. Yeah I don't ever want to see the individual shots and just be like oh well that could have been better Whatever. Yeah, and just miss the movie as a whole. Yeah, I fall somewhere in the middle of that

I try to let go but um like our our video producer director Casey is pretty bad about that and our buddy Scotty Who shot our TV show? Uh-huh. Oh, he's the worst. Yeah, he's just uh Camera working that lighting in that scene Scott's awesome. Hey Scott. Hey Casey They're all in here with this in spirit and hey, this is the last show in this studio Yeah, last episode in the old office. Yep murder room couldn't feel more neutral about it I actually feel less than neutral less than zero. It's it's weird. That was a good movie. Thank you great shots Yeah, I say thank you as if I directed it. Well, right. I not only directed it. I also played Andrew McCarthy

Yeah, I'm ready to get the heck out of here man can't wait to get in that new office and that yeah, it's gonna be good Tiny little dedicated studio whole new world. All right Let's do this. Okay, so Chuck films. You've seen one or two of them in your time. Sure Have you seen any of the ones in this list? I know you've seen a few of them But have you seen like some of the early ones? I've seen well We'll just go piece by piece because I have not seen battleship Potamkin. Okay But I do love Mandy Potamkin It's a little different. Yes in spelling pronunciation

Meaning the whole thing. Uh-huh But it's close I guess But we're talking of course about films that change filmmaking In some way or another and the first one on the list is from 1925 battleship Potamkin That's hard for me to say which is not the first movie by the way The first screen movie was workers leaving the Lumiere factory, which is 47 seconds long I'm the most boring piece of celluloid anyone's ever put together, but it was the first that's right This was many years. That was a full 30 years before battleship Potamkin by the time 30 years had passed

Like we were doing like narratives and there was banning and all sorts of great stuff. Yeah and battleship Potamkin fell under Both of those umbrellas. It was a narrative story. It was a silent movie That's right, but it told a pretty clear story, and it was a bit of Russian propaganda as well Yeah, it tells the story of a 1905 uprising and where there were Russian sailors Basically, there was a mutiny aboard a ship and then the bad guys the Cossacks came in looking for Revenge, yeah 1905 that would have been rising up against tyranny would have been rising up against the Roman off Monarchy, I guess nice, but it was made in 1925. So this is a time when you know Lenin and Chotsky and all those dudes were running around trying to do the great experiment. Yeah, and

It ends up turns out that the battleship Potamkin Was banned in some countries some countries are like we don't want this Rusky propaganda, right? But Russia itself later on banned it when Stalin came to power because he was a self-aware dictator Was that the deal? Yeah, okay. He knew this could be a A metaphor for rising up against my dictatorship. So I'm gonna just ban this movie. Oh, yeah, even though it's Russian propaganda Well Filmatically, I need to bring the history by the way Filmatically speaking it was a landmark film because of the montage

most notably the Russian or Soviet theory of montage, which is basically that Your impact is gonna come from juxtaposition of shots and not necessarily a smooth sequence of shots, right? and it should be rhythmic instead of necessarily being tied to the story it was like a Rhythmic series of shots and This one is popular. It was the Odessa step sequence as one of the five acts and It is huge because it has been aped and and mimicked and mocked and

Homaged probably more than I don't know about more but a lot of times in film history. Well, yeah, the montage. It's like a go-to Editing technique, right? Oh, yeah. Well the montage in general, but specifically the Odessa steps. Oh, okay There are two notable parts in that sequence. One is the You know, it's basically a big charge on these these grand steps leading up to a building in a big battle, you know, death Odessa Odessa Texas and There's a part of it where there's the old the old baby carriage Going down the steps, you know, what's gonna happen to the baby? And it sounds tired because we've seen that in You know the untouchables. Yeah, notably I did not find it tiresome

Naked gun 33 and a third Yeah, everything is illuminated the great movie by Leo Schreiber That was from directly from the Odessa step sequence in Battleship Potamkin the baby carriage. Yeah, and the old Shot through the shot in the eye through the glasses. Oh, cool. That comes from this movie, too They were the first ones to do it. Yeah, and you've seen that in Woody Allen's Love and Death and Bananas And of course the godfather Oh, yeah sequence where Mo greens getting the massage and he looks up and puts on his glasses during a montage Yeah, that's a whole sequence destination montage. Yeah, because there was an assassination on the steps as well

Oh, yeah, so that was definitely a double who was that that was Francis Ford Coppola Oh, yeah, he was clearly aware of Battleship Potamkin clearly I was trying to think of other examples of montages and the only thing I could come up with was the a team Building something but that counts as a montage, right? Yeah Yeah, it's like a some related in some way related shots that are kind of put together that a little bit transcend Like until a story in itself. Yeah, like Rocky training for a fight. Yeah, that's another good lot of times is set to music Yeah, I love that that's the only one you can think of yeah And in the great movie Brazil too has the shot through the glasses bit as I like to call it

So that's Battleship Potamkin doesn't one of the Nazis and Raiders of the Lost Ark gets shot through the glasses Maybe That wouldn't surprise me It's been it's been oft homage Yeah, yeah, so Battleship Potamkin was a it made a pretty big splash in 1925 in 1926 the following year The next movie on the list It wasn't his first but it really solidified I think is stardom Buster Keaton stardom. Yeah, the general rightfully so too Yeah, he was one of the great

Well, some people call him the greatest stuntman to ever live it he's done some stuff that I think earns him that yeah I mean this is back in the day too where he was Legitimately risking his life, right? You know like that the very famously where he's standing on the street in front of a house And then the whole front of the house falls over him and the window just goes right around him Yeah, I watched that again today. Yeah, it is I I can't believe he did that you in there's actually a half of a second where his arm jerks up because he startled as the house Finally makes its way like into his peripheral vision. Yeah, and it has to be one of the most dangerous things that human beings ever done on film Oh, yeah, I'm sure the whole time

Before that was like we did the math right you did the math do the math again do the math again Show me the math right show me the math. Yeah, because that's all it was it was math and measurements, right? But yeah, he could have been squashed and killed very easily and he had a lot of faith in Everybody who was pulling off the stunt with him, you know, he had to just stand there That was his whole thing was he had to just stand there and his bit was that he was he played it straight constantly He was a stone-faced actor. Yeah, deadpan. Yeah, he kind of started that whole thing because his big I was about to say rival, but I guess Just contemporary Charlie Chaplin while similar in some ways was completely different because Chaplin

Was constantly mugging for the camera and like asking for the audience's sympathy right raising his eyebrows or yeah, like look what's happening to me Come on come on whereas Buster Keaton was just he had that deadpan look the whole time Yeah, he would go from like a house falling around him to jumping on a train or something like that with just the same blank facial expression Yeah, and the reason this is a highly influential film the general is because it kind of showcases the best of both The the amazing stunts that would be mimicked and throughout the years and built upon and then the deadpan Style that influenced everyone from obviously Bill Murray is one of the great deadpan actors of all time Yeah, like you can count the number of time Bill Murray even smiles in a movie on like two hands

Sure much less like apes or laughs or anything Michael Sarah's mentioned in here And I'm like he I think he might have Bill Murray beat as far as deadpan actor goes. Yeah Well, Zach Galifianakis is on the list. He's super deadpan Leslie Nielsen, of course Amy Poehler. I think is a woman that's a very deadpan. Yeah has a deadpan style Jason Swartzman Yes, but people say this is this all is a direct descendant of Buster Keaton's work Yeah, and if you think we're overstating this go watch any Buster Keaton movie Yeah, you will be thrilled and delighted and if your attention span has been shredded to ribbons by the internet Just go on to YouTube and type in Buster Keaton and it'll bring up all sorts of

Clips of his awesome stunts pretty great. You will be thrilled and amazed. I promise Yeah, and I think I made a note here by the way that we have a fatty arbuckle retraction to make Remember when we we called him out as the rapist to murderer. I didn't say murder Well, we said rapist at least right, but we were taken in task by a fan He was he had he was acquitted of all that stuff and apparently didn't do either act and His career and life and family name were ruined forever Huh, so he was evidently done a grave misjustice and we sort of cavalierly just

Still called him that today. Yeah, I need to look into it more All right, so next up we have the jazz singer the 1927 edition not the Neil Diamond one No, and there was one in between two with Danny Thomas. Oh, yeah, I believe I like Neil diamonds It's good. I never saw it. You ever see it. No, no, it's not bad But this is the original from Alan Crossland and it is notable because it was the first feature-length Movie that was

At least 25% spoken dialogue, right? Does that make sense? Yeah, it's totally new Yeah, it wasn't it wasn't the first talky because they had short films that were talkies right and there was a movie the next year I'm sorry yet in 1928 called lights of New York that had 100% full spoken dialogue But the jazz singer had a mix of music and spoken dialogue, right? The first big big daddy feature-length film to do so right with substantial dialogue, right? Yeah, and they they Did it in the most roundabout difficult way that you could possibly do it Which is to record

The audio and the the soundtrack both the dialogue and the music on do vinyl records Yeah, probably wax records really and then the projectionist had to sync the record up with the film strip So everything was in sync. Yeah, it was a device called a vitaphone that Warner Brothers sunk about half a million into This company called Western Electric who invented it and it was actually physically connected to the projectors motor So they did while they did have to sync it. It was it was a physical connection between the phonograph player and the projection Real I guess yeah, and it went on to gross three and a half million bucks for 1927 man lot of dough That's a ton of dough. That's like five six million dollars today at least. Yeah

but Was ineligible for the best picture because they were just like you can't compete with the rest. That's not fair Oh, wow because everything else is silent and everyone's gonna vote for you. Yeah, so that changed the whole game for sure We will continue on with our awesome and in grossing list right after this Hey friends when you're staying at an Airbnb You might be like me wondering could my place be an Airbnb and if it could what could it earn? So I was pretty surprised to hear about Lisa in Manitoba who got the idea to Airbnb the backyard guest house over childhood home now The extra income helps pay her mortgage. So yeah, you might not realize it

But you might have an Airbnb to find out what your place could be earning at air bnb.ca Slash host hey, I'm Lance Bass host of the new iHeart podcast frosted tips with Lance Bass the hardest thing can be knowing who to Turn to when questions arise or times get tough or you're at the end of the road Okay, I see what you're doing. Do you ever think to yourself? What advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation if you do you've come to the right place? Because I'm here to help this I promise you. Oh god, seriously I swear and you won't have to send an SOS because I'll be there for you Oh, man, and so my husband Michael. Um, hey, that's me. Yep

We know that Michael and a different hot sexy teen crush boy band or each week to guide you through life step by step Oh, not another one. Uh-huh kids relationships life in general can get messy You may be thinking this is the story of my life. Just stop now if so tell everybody yeah Everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen. So we'll never ever have to say bye-bye bye Listen to frosted tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart radio app Apple podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts I'm Mangeh Shatikathar and to be honest, I don't believe in astrology But from the moment I was born it's been a part of my life in India It's like smoking you might not smoke but you're gonna get secondhand astrology and lately

I've been wondering if the universe has been trying to tell me to stop running and pay attention Because maybe there is magic in the stars if you're willing to look for it So I rounded up some friends and we dove in and let me tell you it got weird fast Tantric curses major league baseball teams canceled marriages K-pop But just when I thought I had to handle on this sweet and curious show about astrology My whole world came crashing down situation doesn't look good. There is risk to father And my whole view on astrology It changed

Whether you're a skeptic or a believer, I think your ideas are gonna change too Listen to skyline drive and the I heart radio app Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts So Chuck if you'll notice the first three Movies in our list the first three films that changed everything Happened in 1925 26 and 27 things are changing fast. They really were I mean like we buy leaps and bounds Sure, but you can also make the case that there was a lot of new ground to cover So just about anybody who did anything new that was noteworthy Innovation. Yeah, it was a big innovation. Yeah. Yeah harder to innovate these days

It is and if you'll notice on the list So the the earliest ones were like technical editing innovations Now starting with Citizen Kane from 1941. We start to get into innovations in storytelling Which is a lot more nuanced than you know doing your own stunts or using a montage or something it's it's Figuring out how to tell a story in a much less linear Narrative fashion. Yeah, and Citizen Kane was one of the early ones to pioneer a non linear narrative. Yeah, did you you saw this?

Yeah, yeah, okay. I didn't see it till I mean it was probably like Probably about 15 years ago But like way later than you would think I would have seen this yeah as a big film buff I saw it in college at a In a film class. Yeah, sure. Yeah often. Yeah, if you sign up for a film class You're gonna study Citizen Kane. Exactly pretty much. I finally found out where Rosebud was Don't ruin it. I won't But it is a landmark film in every way and it is often been top of best films of all-time lists for great reasons

One of which like you said the non linear narrative was a really unique thing at the time Although flashback wasn't Brand new it was the first time it had been this extensive. Yeah and effective in the story Yeah, cuz I mean it's substantial enough that it really cuts up the flow. Oh, yeah You know, it's not like a quick flashback and they come back and the actors like staring off into space to Transition back into the present again. I mean like it was all over the place. Yeah, you know Some of the more concrete cinematic landmarks One was using deep focus

Director of photography Greg Toland legend used he had used deep focus before on a movie called long voyage home, but It's all over the place in Citizen Kane and that basically means if you see a shot where Something very far away is in focus in the shot Basically where everything's in focus with the background in the foreground in focus So you can press pause and look around exactly like you're sticking your head into a box. Yeah, that's called deep focus Yeah, and it was brand new as far as Citizen Kane goes. That's how extensive it used it Yeah, one of the other things was off-center framing. It was a big, you know, pretty common thing to just center whatever the main action was either the the character or the object and

Citizen Kane had a lot of things where the main focus of the scene the character may be even off-screen Which was really weird at the time people didn't know what to think of it, right? Expressionistic lighting Back then everything they just lit it. They're like make sure everything's well lit. Yeah But there's an auto-preminger also like a big pioneer with that. Yeah, I think so with them Dial him for murder. I think he directed that was a Hitchcock. I think that was Hitchcock Was it okay? Well auto-preminger directed stuff like that though, right? He was very he used moody lighting and shadows and stuff a lot

I probably messed that up people are gonna be dialing for murder. I think it was a premature. Okay But Orson Welles, of course, I don't think we even mentioned that too Wrote directed and started and produced and I think even edited it Citizen Kane. Yeah, I just assumed everybody knew that you know Yeah, he came from the theater where you create a mood with lighting only certain parts of the stage so he brought that into the movies and it was very Evocative and set the mood well and people are like man

Why are we lighting everything all bright all the time? Look at Citizen Kane. It's really worked. Yeah Couple of other things one of which I know you will appreciate sir is that he pretty much invented the wipe. Oh The Star White not the Star White But it followed. Yeah, the Star White followed. Okay, which I know is your favorite Transition in cinema. Yeah. Oh, it's all Star White because it almost makes a sound, you know And one of the way I want to say you're right down for murder was Hitchcock. Oh, was it? Yeah, okay What was premature? Did you look that up? He did one called Laura the man with the golden arm

It's not who I'm thinking of I'm thinking of a director named Otto who directed in like the 20s or 30s And he directed like moody Like like moody Movies like yeah murder movies. Yeah, I feel more. Yes film noir. That's exactly what I was going for and I don't remember who it was Maybe his name was Otto film noir He's French And then one final thing of course that you could study Citizen Kane for a week in a film class. Mm-hmm So this is an overview, but um

the low-angle shots People didn't use a lot of lower high-angle shots back then it was kind of just shot from straight on and Orson Welles even dug out cut out the floor a lot of times to get the camera lower Well, and for the first time we saw ceilings in view In a movie because quite often things were shot on a soundstage where you don't have ceilings and He wanted those low-angle shots. So they used fabric most times to act as a ceiling but very effective shots of from below of Orson Welles as I mean it wasn't exactly William Randolph-Hurst, but it was an approximation of William Randolph-Hurst

Right. It's a very effective low-angle stuff that now. I mean we take for granted all these things But you know there would be no pulp fiction and that Nonlinear storytelling if there was no well, maybe somebody would have done it, but maybe eventually but you know he did the first and That's why it was innovative exactly. It's Fritz Lang that I was yeah, there you go. Yeah Fritz Lang Metropolis and M just M. That's okay. Yeah, it's all making sense now get confused. Yeah, but you were right on you were right there Fritz and Otto are not close. I mean they're both German, but that's about it. Yeah, but you know the difference between M and dial M Just a telephone What's up next Chuck breathless one of my faves

So I am going to rely on you mostly for this one because I looked up What the French new wave really did what did it count it for yeah, and like all of the essays I found were Hard to they were dense. Yeah, and I didn't really understand I understood that the French new wave like changed everything yeah, and that a lot of the movies that I know and love today are The offspring of the French new wave, but I still didn't get exactly Specifically what the French new wave did So you weren't gonna rely on me to summarize this. Yeah, no brush. No Well for me the French new wave basically ushered in an era of

What now I think most people might associate with indie filmmaking. Okay, okay like Handheld camera work and what some people at the time considered amateurish camera work Movies where maybe not a lot seemingly happens, you know, nothing grand happens Which was the case in breathless a lot of people didn't like it at the time because it was like, you know, not much happens You know that the the two leads in the movie Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg weren't really like Didn't show express a whole lot of deep love and you know there weren't these big moments of love and affection and These huge action sequences and it was described as flat by a lot of people

And I think a lot of indie movies do that just kind of show life as it happens Yeah, so without breathless, we wouldn't have like bottle rocket Maybe what's Anderson's definitely a big French new wave guy. Yeah for sure But Godard John Luke Godard who directed it and Truffaut and some other French new wave Forefathers were film critics at first. Oh, yeah. Yeah, and they decided as a group like we want to look at cinema in a new way and Do something different so they went and started making their own movies. That's like James Fenimore Cooper

Yeah, the guy who wrote last of the Mohicans. Oh, really? Yeah, he apparently used to complain that like nobody wrote good books anymore And so I think his wife or something said well Why don't you do it big shot and he did and the books he wrote really weren't so great But he went and wrote them and he wrote a bunch of them, too One of my favorite far sides ever is the second to the last of the Mohicans It's just a line of Native Americans in the second to the last one. They're online facing away Uh-huh, you just sort of turning around and waving it

I guess the camera at Gary Larson's hand So breathless is notable for those reasons it kind of kicked off the French new wave But the use of jump cut editing which we see so much now It was the first movie and it was very jarring at the time to see jump cuts in a movie Yeah, but and that's when you're showing like I I guess the best way to describe it is multiple shots of the same Subject or thing from different angles, right?

It's like you Indicate the progression of time or movement or something by just cutting quickly rather than Focusing on somebody walking down the street for five minutes Yeah You cut a couple of times and all of a sudden they're just closer to the camera and then closer and closer and then they're past the camera So jump cut yeah, or even a simple something as simple as like you're going to leave the house So you go and pick up your keys and you put on your coat instead of showing all that you come out of the bedroom boom You're putting on your coat boom you're putting the keys in the door, right?

Exactly, you're just showing the high highlights of this progression of stuff where that would otherwise be boring to watch the whole thing Yeah, but it also is Used to create tension to yeah because it's it's jarring Yeah, I guess is probably why it creates tension and Scorsese famously used it in Goodfellas Oh, yes at the end when Henry Hill is like like trying to sell some guns the cocaine sequence Nero yeah He's cooked to the gills right and he's like trying to sell some guns that Nero But they don't fit the silencers and like he's the helicopters following him

He's got the sauce going and all this stuff is being represented and compressed in a very short amount of time by The use of jump cuts. Yeah, very effective and for budding filmmakers. It's a great way to hide mistakes Oh, yeah things you may not have gotten that you thought you got Jump cutting is a really easy way to just sort of Yeah to hide your errors. Yeah, I did a lot in other words when I was making those shorts. I Was I realized in my head I was referencing the shot in SoulTaker, you know, have you ever seen that Mr. Science 3000 with it's

His last name is Estevez is Martin Sheen's brother and he is a soul taker and he's next to this guy Who's a soul taker? You just have to see this but anyway, they're they're walking down the road and this jump cut like has this progression of them, right? It's so unnecessary, but it's like a great use of jump cut. You could tell the director was like I can't wait to use a jump cut and that's what she did. She used it on but go Watch that msc3k. It's a good one, man. You did you see every single one of those episodes? No, it's still I Still run across ones that I haven't seen. Yeah, nice Hey and a shout out to Bill Corbett who I know is a listener. Oh, yeah, he is isn't yeah

I don't know if he's gonna hear this one, but I'm the great Bill Corbett soul taker Next we are gonna move on to Federico Fellini's Eight and a half you ever seen this one. No, I haven't it's good now. I understand why it's called that though yeah, it was one of the first although not the first movies about moviemaking and starting the great Marcello, Mastriani, Mastro Iani

from La Dolce Vida Amuse of Fellini's over the years too and this one This one really kicked off the surrealist filmmaking and sort of saying you can play around and Shoot a dream sequence where the the guys in traffic and then he leaves his car and floats up in the air and is You know being pulled down to the ground on the beach from a rope tied around his ankle just like go nuts Yeah, and successive filmmakers did go nuts like Gondry did Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind. Oh, yeah, he's hugely influenced Um Darren Aronofsky. Mm-hmm. Did some weird stuff here or there? Yeah, David Lynch and Terry Gilliam, of course

Yeah, just basically surrealism is what I'm taking Fellini introduced into this. Yeah for real and besides the surrealism That opening sequence of eight and a half where the director of he's the director in the movie Guido is stuck in traffic. It's really claustrophobic feeling and that's why he floats away and escapes, you know that that traffic jam But that was directly mimicked in like REM's everybody hurts video. Oh, yeah And the beginning of the movie falling down. Do you remember that? Uh-huh. That started with the traffic jam Yeah, Michael Douglas just left. He doesn't float. He gets like an oozy. I saw that again the other day most of it hold up

It's weird it alternately felt way ahead of its time and also very dated Yeah, because the stuff that Michael Douglas is doing felt way ahead of its time But then there was I just forgot about that whole weird Subplots with Robert Duvall retiring and he had this wife that was henpecking them and like this retirement party They were trying to throw on forgot about that too. Yeah, it was just so unnecessary and felt really weird and out of place the other day Yeah, when I was watching it Was there like a jump cut montage where he's putting on his watch this gold retirement watch?

No But then to the Barbara Hershey You know is it in Venice at home with the daughter and he spends a whole day coming there to Grab them basically and the whole time she just keeps calling the cops like I know he's coming I know he's coming And I was watching the other day. It's like freaking leave. Oh, yeah, what are you doing there? Yeah? That's a movie character thing Yeah, you know, that's just bad writing bad directing when you just walk right past the ability to leave There's you you missed a huge step. Where were we falling down? Yeah, I think that pretty much sums up eight and a half

I think so too falling down boom. So Chuck we got a little more left. We got more films. Is this making you want to watch films? Yeah, me too. I feel like eating Ice cream watching a film and scratching from poison ivy lately. Yeah and burning this office down You know if that happens now suspicions gonna fall on you for saying that. That's all right We'll be right back after this Hey everybody when you're staying at an Airbnb you might be like me wondering could my place be an Airbnb and if it could What could it earn? So I was pretty surprised to hear about Lauren and Nova Scotia who realized she could Airbnb her cozy backyard tree house And the extra income helps cover her bills and pays for her travel

So, yeah, you might not realize it, but you might have an Airbnb too find out what your place could be earning at air bnb.ca Slash host hey, I'm Lance Bass host of the new I hard podcast frosted tips with Lance Bass The hardest thing can be knowing who to turn to when questions arise or times get tough or you're at the end of the road Okay, I see what you're doing. Do you ever think to yourself? What advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation if you do you've come to the right place? Because I'm here to help this I promise you. Oh god. Seriously. I swear and you won't have to send an SOS because I'll be there for you. Oh man. And so my husband Michael Um, hey, that's me. Yeah, we know that Michael and a different hot sexy teen crush boy bander each week to guide you through life

Step by step not another one kids relationships life in general can get messy You may be thinking this is the story of my life. Just stop now. If so tell everybody Yeah, everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen So we'll never ever have to say bye bye bye Listen to frosted tips with the Lance Bass on the iHeart radio app Apple podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts I'm Mangeh Shatikular and to be honest, I don't believe in astrology But from the moment I was born, it's been a part of my life in India It's like smoking you might not smoke

But you're gonna get second-hand astrology and lately I've been wondering if the universe has been trying to tell me to stop running and pay attention Because maybe there is magic in the stars if you're willing to look for it So I rounded up some friends and we dove in and let me tell you it got weird fast Tantric curses major league baseball teams canceled marriages kpop But just when I thought I had to handle on this sweet and curious show about astrology My whole world can crashing down Situation doesn't look good. There is risk to father

And my whole view on astrology It changed Whether you're a skeptic or a believer, I think your ideas are gonna change too Listen to skyline drive and the iHeart radio app Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts All right, so we're back with our awesome jingles, which by the way, we we have to thank John Beggin yeah John begin Begin to begin he even emailed with the pronunciation name, but he the original guy who did our jingle the first jingle ever rusty Mattias or Mattias

Man not good with the pronunciation. Well, anyway rusty who's banned the sheepdogs are on tour right now Yeah Just because his work was so original we contacted him and said hey We've got this other guy who's done like covers of your work. Can we use these? It's like totally mash it up. Yeah, and John's been making awesome like versions of it ever since yeah, they're both great and talented Thanks to you both and go check out. I think that would you say they're on tour, right? Yeah, the sheepdogs. Yeah, go check out the sheepdogs Yeah And in town near you. Yeah. All right, let's finish with these two in reverse order

Okay, toy story was a big one hugely innovative Huge oh, yeah, and again, it's one of those things where now almost everything about it seems pedestrian sure or what it did Yeah, yeah, it's still a great movie. I'm sure oh, yeah But the the innovations that it undertook are just seem pedestrian But at the time it was totally groundbreaking. Yeah game changer It was the first um the first CGI movie all CGI movie ever. Yeah, that was enormous Well, yeah, and I remember at the time seeing it and just being like wow This is the future of animated films. What's the best all CGI animated film you've ever seen visually?

Uh, well, I haven't seen a lot of them these days because Emily doesn't like those So I probably wouldn't be the best person to ask Holly from stuff mom or a mist in history class Yeah, she probably the one to ask for my money. Have you seen the Adventures of Tintin? Oh, yeah, that was amazing mind Blowing yeah, I saw that on your recommendation really really liked it Yeah, the story was great. The action was great. The characters were great, but the CGI the computer animation is But I think possibly the best ever done. Yeah, and that's a bit of a different style than say like up or the Incredibles It's not nearly as cartoons. It's like the what I think it's the motion capture. Yeah, I think that's what they did for that Oh, yeah with up it would strictly be totally just animation, right? Yeah, but I mean they're both animation, right?

Um, but yeah, man Tintin that was really good. It was good. I was surprised how much I like that But up was good too and Toy Story was good too And but all of these things came as a result of the ground that Toy Story broke absolutely in 1995 Like you said what seems like a common thing today. I mean, you don't see cell animation anymore. It's almost I know I kind of miss it. I totally miss like the new Mickey Mouse is all weird and CG like stuff from our generation should have just been discontinued Yeah, and then you just come up with all new stuff that CGI strawberry shortcake not supposed to be CGI It just all looks weird now. Yeah, I wish there would have

People would have done a little bit of both still Because I think cell animation like I think the Iron Giant came out after Toy Story and they did cell animation Yeah, and that was great. Yeah, great movie. I haven't seen that. Oh, it's really good. You'd like it Like it was a movie for grown-ups and Toy Story sort of laid the way for that because It was one of the first movies. I guess get cartoony kids movies To really have a lot of dialogue that flew over kids heads that adults got a little nod in the wink what toy story Yeah, yeah, not like dirty humor, but it's not like fritz the cat No, no, no, but a little entendre here and there that adults might appreciate the kids won't understand, right?

Those are the best jokes And Now we have you know best animated Feature in the Oscars which definitely came straight out of the original toy story because Movie started being considered before they created its own category Up in Toy Story 3 were actually nominated for a regular best picture Yeah, and I think everyone's like who we need to get them their own category because you can't have an animated movie when best picture Can't well up would have come after

The the best animated picture category came out Oh, really so that kind of goes as a testament to just how amazing that movie is. Yeah, that's right That it was still up for best picture. Oh, it was both I don't know if it was up for it probably was up for best animated as well But it was definitely also up for best picture. Oh, wow while there was an animated category. Yeah, I never considered that Bam, that was a good movie. Yeah It was sweet. Um, so I got nothing else on Toy Story. Well, then what about the last one? Yeah

2001 a space Odyssey Quite a film you sent this essay on Criterion I think criterion calm, but you know the criterion collection. Yeah, it was written. I guess in 1988 Even though it says posted in 1988 It's like there wasn't an internet to post it on in 1988. Maybe it means posted it like in the mail. Maybe But I realized like I can read Film essays about Stanley Kubrick's work all day long. Yeah, me too. Like I love that documentary room 227 E was it 227 237 246 237 247

You know the one about the shining conspiracy theories. Yeah, the number of the room is amazing I can't remember though. Um, I I read a bunch of articles is I think 237 Um, I read a bunch of articles around the release of that documentary Yeah, which were basically like film essays on the shining. I read this one amazing one From several years ago about eyes wide shut. Oh, yeah, how it's like a masterpiece of sociology. I love that movie A lot of people hate that movie. Yeah Um, and then now this like 2001. I'm sure there's tons out there to consume But I can just read that stuff all day long because that guy was so

Just amazingly detailed as a director. Yeah, I agree. I can read more about his Work critical essays on his work than any other director. Right. It's just unbelievable. It's almost like it's its own genre It is, you know, Kubrick Ian. Yeah, it's got a word named after it. Yeah, and well it should um So 2001 a space odyssey 1968, um Blue minds back then blows minds today one for its Just the amazing look and the technical achievement Um, it ages really well. I mean if you see a movie from 1968 about outer space, it still looks like the future

Yeah, he don't expect it to hold up well, but it totally does Um, so much so that a lot of the, you know, George Lucas and Ridley Scott were just like it's done Right, like we might as well give up. Yeah, George Lucas when Star Wars came out said Star Wars is Technically comparable, but for my money 2001 is by far the better movie Yeah, everyone was sort of intimidated. I think by how talented Kubrick was. Well plus also, um You have to take into account that he made this movie at a time when other sci-fi movies were just pure schlock Oh, yeah So not only to to make the movie in this way this visually amazing and

Amazing with an audio soundtrack and just totally innovative It also took like that mindset It's just completely going a different direction that everybody else has as well Yeah, of course, I think about Ridley Scott saying that and then he goes on to make alien and bladerunner after that so I mean he he helped Prometheus man Yeah, I people don't like Prometheus. I don't care. It's a cool movie. No, I like the two I thought okay one flaw the big flaw to me was

And I'm sure it's like part of the subtext or the context or one of the texts but um The the the engineer Coming back to life or coming out of heart hibernation after however long and just immediately like inflicting violence on these P-brained humans who are showing him no threat whatsoever. Yeah, I just thought it was a little It wasn't explained well enough, I think for my taste. Yeah, I think I agree with you But when I'm watching a Ridley Scott movie, I just assume if I'm missing something He has an explanation for it. I'm just not catching it. Yeah. I know what you mean

I'd like I think I read some stuff about how it tied into the alien Canon and realized I need to go see it again with all this Knowledge that I wasn't really thinking about. Yeah, and maybe I'd like it more. Yeah, but I haven't done that yet So back to 2001. Oh, yeah, it was also notable for Being bookended basically with 30 minutes of silence on both ends of the movie The first 30 minutes are and when I say silent, I mean no dialogue right and the last 30 minutes have no dialogue

Yeah, the last line comes like a full 30 minutes before the end Yeah, and over the 146 minutes. There are only 40 minutes of dialogue and the whole thing and um That's why I just when people compare something like interstellar And call it Kubrickian. I just want to smash Did you not like interstellar? Not really. Oh, I liked it. I was super let down despite McConaughey doing Wooderson

in the future I still liked it. I even liked him in it. I liked a lot of the parts of it, but um To me it's anti Kubrickian because Every 10 minutes they're explaining everything that's going on. Oh, yeah, that was another thing just like inception Ellen Page's entire character was written in to explain what was going on every 10 minutes. Yeah, and I felt like interstellar was the same way It's like Christopher Nolan needs to just trust his audience a little bit like Kubrick did and say figure it out or don't Yeah, no, that's that's I'm not gonna Stop every 10 minutes just to explain everything. Yeah, here's what's going on. Remember?

If you didn't get it right here's what's going on again Well, I think if they are labeling something like interstellar is Kubrickian, right? One of the ways that you can interpret that is that he was He rooted his 2001 In Science fact. Yeah, right? So like the stuff that the the astronauts are like dealing with and the things that are going on and the the conditions of space

It was all factual Whereas with interstellar same thing They went to really great lengths to do what they could to make Everything scientifically factual aside from the fact that The idea that you could go into a black hole and then come back out or something like that Drifting in space that's not gonna happen. But for the most part interstellar was Because scientifically accurate. So maybe that's what they meant when they called it Kubrickian because you're absolutely right Like they did explain a lot

And went to great lengths to explain a lot whereas with with 2001 You just watch it the first five times like what just happened. Yeah, and apparently carry grant had that same reaction as well That was rock Hudson rock Hudson. That's right. Yeah, the original screening that Roger Ebert was at in LA Rock Hudson just left and said can somebody tell me what the hell that was about Yeah, and it wasn't even over yet. Yeah, yeah um Well, the reason it It uh

Has science fact and not science fiction is because Kubrick and Arthur C. Clark who oh, yeah, it wasn't actually a book that was made into a movie It was a movie a book made after a movie. Yeah, and they collaborated on both and um Um, they went to Carl Sagan, um, of course of cosmos and said he said you're gonna make billions and billions of dollars That was pretty good. Was it? Yeah, I don't send a lot like them. Um, they went to Carl Sagan said, hey, we want to portray these extraterrestrials Are they maybe the star child is uh Or they turn Dave into the star child, right? Are they humanoids? What are they gonna look like and Sagan was like

They were very unlikely to be humanoid. So Kubrick did the smart thing and was just like well We just won't show him right at all instead of making a fool of myself Like signs and making some dumb-looking. Oh man man Let me just not show the aliens very smart move. Yeah um Getting back to the story of uh 2001 Although I think the village is underrated

Yeah Yeah, I can stomach that one. What about uh, well you like the sixth sense, right? Everybody like the sixth sense. Sure Uh, I guess that was it for him. I loved unbreakable. Unbreakable. Yeah, that was one where like Yeah, I think it was maybe even better the second time. Yeah, I still like that movie Uh, but he also made that lady in the water movie and the the one with marky mark, uh The people were jumping off four brothers No Three kings

Is it the one in the elevator? No, he just produced. Oh, I know what you're talking about the one where people like jumping off of buildings and stuff Inexplicably. Yeah, I didn't even I didn't see that. I couldn't get through 10 minutes of that movie. So, um 2001 back to good movies Was uh, I had a three x three part structure But not a conventional three x structure that you might be used to in movies Which is why it confounded people like rock Hudson. Uh, the first they called the movements The first movement was the uh, the dawn of man sequence with the

The the apes with the monolith. Mm-hmm And uh, he has that great part where he throws his little bone tool up in the air, right? And then it morphs into well not morphs, but it Maybe it's a dissolve into the um spinning In outer space it's called a match cut. Yeah match cut and um Of the rotation of what we now know was a nuclear warhead Uh, because I read that little article 20 things you didn't know about 2001. I didn't know those were nuclear warheads necessarily in outer space They made it a little more vague and initially it was going to be

More explicit and they were going to explode it in outer space, right? But he said no, it's a little too close to uh, The ending of um strange love strange love. Yeah, so let's not do that. Yeah, probably good choice Yeah, but some as a result some people have taken it to mean that like it was a That match cut was supposed to show how far humans have come right from using a bone to murder somebody to Satellites in space But if you know that the satellite is actually loaded down with nuclear warheads That match cut demonstrates how little humans have changed. Oh, yeah from using a bone to murder somebody to Using satellites to murder somebody the motif is still the same and it's murder

Yeah He was going for some deep things. Oh, yeah a lot of metaphor happening Yeah I mean supposedly in every single shot because he started out as a still photographer, right? Yeah, yeah supposedly every frame of a Kubrick movie you there is nothing that isn't Unintentional in place there by him. He did a lot of his own set decorating Yeah, like the the pencil holder on the desk in the office of the guy at the shining hotel Right was where it's supposed to be right and if like it if it has like a picture of a goat head inscribed on it

That means something right. It's not accidental Yeah, although I will say room 237, which I think may have been the point Is a little bit like these people are crazy Not like oh man, I just see what they're saying and all this right I was just thinking these people are nuts right it's it was just kind of enjoyable to hear their interpretations of it Well, and I think it had a it was a comment on obsession and fandom more so than The shining for sure, but there I thought there some of their ideas were interesting totally I said room 227 didn't I like one of the conspiracy theories was like Mary

Wouldn't room 227 like a sitcom. Yeah, it was just called 227. Okay. Yeah, gotcha. Remember was jackay. She'd be like Mary Oh, okay. That's what my impression was. What'd you think I was doing? Well, I wasn't sure what you meant being a weirdo Yeah, okay The second movement was of course the the howl sequence the computer the howl Was it the howl 9000? Yeah Really creepy and howl ended up being a lot of people's favorite character Even though it was just a voice the super computer on the discovery ship. Remember he's like, what are you doing? It's so creepy. I had the mad magazine spoof of 2001 when I was a kid. It was great. Yeah

And then the third movement is when Dave moves on to The next stage of human development with these extraterrestrials that you know only here and Basically, it's when it comes full circle The third movement And the third movement is the one that has almost Well, it's really just the second movement that has dialogue. Yeah. Yeah Some of the alternate titles for 2001 journey beyond the stars

Terrible universe not bad. Yeah, okay tunnel to the stars Not so great planet fall That sounds bad sounds like a James Bond movie and then how the solar system was won As a play on how the west was won. Yeah, which like Uh movie geeks would find that appealing but everybody else would say that's um, you ruined everything Yeah, and uh Kubrick was uh, this is the last thing I have he was so obsessive Uh with protecting his material That he allegedly, uh, I don't think allegedly I think he did. Yeah have all the sets and props and miniatures destroyed

After he shot it so they would never be reused which is a common thing at the time. Yeah, okay. We're doing a space movie go get the Uh, go get that space ring from Stanley set. Yeah, let's reuse it for uh, planet fall he uh He also destroyed all of the footage that didn't make it into the original Theatrical release. Yeah destroyed. It's gone. Yeah, so they wouldn't one day after his death recut it Which they invariably probably would have done. Yep. He's a smart man Yeah, I could we should just do a podcast on Kubrick Okay, he was I I'm down for that challenge a ba

dude Yes, one of my heroes. Yeah, cinematically. You got anything else. I got nothing else Uh, if you want to know more about movies if you like this one, you probably also love our exploitation episode Exploitation movie episode. Fun. What else have we talked about movies in? Cannonball run. Oh, yeah That had a lot to do with the movie. Yeah, our James Bond episode. Yeah. Uh, yeah, we've had a few of these and people always Respond to these like you guys should have a spin-off show. Yeah, do an all-movie podcast. Sure. Maybe one day Maybe remember if you're looking for any of these, um, press control f or apple f in your web browser and search that way on our podcast archive page

Uh, you can also search for this, uh, article on how stuff works by typing movies in and seeing what comes up And since I said how stuff works, it's time for listener mail Uh, I'm going to call this mic to do pot really clear something up for us on scientific method. Okay. Uh, hey guys, it was a great, um Well, actually he doesn't say it was great. I think I just made that up Hey guys, your scientific method podcast has a consistent misuse Of what a scientific law is in relation to uh, to the working of the scientific method It appears that you believe that a law e.g. Newton's law of gravity is in held Uh, in higher esteem than theory and that eventually a theory matures into a law

Um, I think I probably did think that because of politics. Right, you know, yeah, Bill becomes a law Right, exactly. He says when in fact theory is considerably more robust than a law A law is a mathematical model that describes observed behavior does not answer the why Right. Theory does, uh, answer why something happens. Did we not say that? I thought we did Like I knew that I remember finding that out from the research. I just can't believe it didn't come out of my mouth He claims we did not and I Feel like I'm learning this so I definitely did not. Okay. Go ahead. But you may have Uh, for example, Newton's law of gravitational attraction describes

The action of two bodies that can be used for pretty much everything. Um, it is perfect for describing what happens But it cannot tell you why the two items are attracted or drill down to the underlying mechanism Yeah, a law is like much more succinct It just is what it is Uh, nor is the law even universal and could not be used to explain the Perihelion procession of mercury's orbit burn in comparison Einstein's theory of general relativity was eventually used to solve the mercury issue. Oh, yeah, the mercury issue

Uh, and the standard model along with the recent discovery the Higgs boson my stern can answer the why do these two masses Uh, attracted to each other a question. I think what you mean is why are these two masses attracted to one another? Mike, it's pretty teleological Uh, theory is considerably more developed in richer than a scientific law Which is more of a tool that is applicable to a wide range of applications. Keep up the good work. That is Mike Dupont Thanks, Mike. Thanks for that of the valley forage duponts. I think so Huh, uh, have you seen fox catcher? Oh, no, I've heard it's good. Is it good? No, uh, really? I don't think so. No, I've heard it's kind of slow. It's beyond slow. Really? Oh, yeah

I I can understand why Um, the academy loved it or sure A lot of people I'm sure do like it. I I was not a fan of fox catcher I think people generally seeing like a turn by an actor like steve curl doing something really different. They're knocked out by that No, I still can't believe you didn't like bird man. No No, spoiler alert for people who have not seen bird man. The following conversation is full of spoilers Yes, what didn't you like about it? um

So I thought I thought michael keaton was good. Okay um Who plays his daughter emily blunt is that who that is? Uh emma stone emma stone excellent, okay Edward and even pretty good. Okay, so the acting was fine Uh, who is Naomi Watts was in it? Yeah, she did great. Uh, okay. So yes, the acting the acting was fine. Sure. The acting was fine Uh, I thought the photography was amazing. Yeah, the whole seemingly one take thing kind of knocked you out probably I didn't even pick up on that. But yes, it did. Um, it was more the uh

The for me the juxtaposition of the story. Mm-hmm, which was pretty Boring and in realistic and everyday life. Even though it was about a Broadway production. It was still about the everyday life of it Sure Against the surrealism that's like threaded and embedded in throughout the whole movie. I didn't like that. Okay It was like choose one or the other man. Gotcha. It irked me. Um, and uh, And then just so that one part with the critic or michael keaton tells off the critic I thought michael keaton did a wonderful job. Yeah, but just the whole point that it was in there of like the director You know using michael keaton's character to tell off all the critics. He's ever wanted to tell off in a movie

Yeah, I just thought it was pretentious And I thought it was kind of clumsy in that sense too. All right, and it was enough that it it Tainted it. Yeah, that's and then the ending I did not like the ending at all. Yeah at all That'll ruin a good movie because it was It completely went contrary to all the other stuff that he went out of his way to point out was fake or fraudulent Not real and then all of a sudden it is What?

Yeah, no choose one or the other the director Refused to make very important decisions and I think that that ruined the movie. That is a very well Thought out the criticism. I think thank you. Thank you very much. Sure Uh man, that was the end of listener mail even wasn't it? Yeah, because now I'm not like she's josh's weird. He didn't like bird man now. I'm like josh didn't like bird man He has good reasons. Thank you. Thank you. Um, I like justifying my opinion Don't we all uh, so if you want to get in touch with chuck and I uh, or gerry Who I apparently just spoiled bird man for um, you can contact us via twitter at sysk podcast

You can join us on facebook.com slash stuff. You should know you can send us an email the stuff podcast at house of works Dot com and as always join us at our home on the web stuff. You should know dot com Stuff you should know is a production of iHeart radio for more podcasts my heart radio visit the iHeart radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows Hey, I'm lance bass host of the new iHeart podcast frosted tips with lance bass. Do you ever think to yourself? What advice would lance bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do you've come to the right place because i'm here to help and a different hot sexy teen crush boy bander each week To guide you through life tell everybody you everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen

So we'll never ever have to say bye. Bye. Bye. Bye Listen to frosted tips with the lance bass on the iHeart radio app apple podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts I'm munga shatikler and it turns out astrology is way more widespread than any of us want to believe You can find in major league baseball international banks k-pop groups even the white house But just when I thought I had a handle on this subject Something completely unbelievable happened to me and my whole view on astrology changed Whether you're a skeptic or a believer give me a few minutes because I think your ideas are about to change too Listen to skyline drive on the iHeart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts

Hey, it's chuck wicks from love country talk to chuck where we bring you what's really happening in the country music family We also if you love country, here's the deal. You love country music. You can be on the podcast So if you're a fan country music or you can call in anytime you're like, oh, I wouldn't talk about this Hall kogan called in he's like chuck larkster. I love your podcast jason al dean jimmy allen carlie pierce lorna lana Listen to new episodes of love country talk to chuck every monday and thursday on the national podcast network available on the iHeart radio app Apple podcast or wherever you listen to podcast