The Projectors

The Big Sleep (1946)

It’s a sordid world all this month for the theme we’re calling THE LEFT HAND ENDEAVOR. That means we’re watching classic film noir every weekday all March long and every Monday we’re zeroing in on a film adaptation of author Raymond Chandler’s iconic hard-boiled detective, Philip Marlowe. It’s the first of our MARLOWE MONDAYS and we’re hitting it off with what is probably the most iconic of the Philip Marlowe adaptations, the 1946 film “THE BIG SLEEP” directed by Howard Hawks and starring one of the all-timer Hollywood couples, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. Explaining the plot to this one is quite the feat but despite the muddled story, the characterizations, dialogue and danger all play out very nicely. One significant factor being the sizzle between our two leads. Bogart swags his way through one of the greatest Philip Marlow performances of all time. Elliot Gould is second greatest if you happened to be wondering.
 
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Double Indemnity (1944)

Hot damn! It’s March! That means it’s time for a whole new MOVIEHUMPERS theme and all month long we will discussing a whole “orgy” of underworld endeavors that we’re calling “THE LEFT HAND ENDEAVOR”. Maybe not too much “orgy” though because most of our talks fall under the Hollywood Hayes code which needlessly censored subject US movies but sometimes presented parameters that lent films to some creative techniques. It’s classic film noir all damn month. Every weekday we discuss a classic film noir in the same vein as our “HALLOWEEN HUMPFEST” month. Let’s get this started right with a Billy Wilder standard setter co-written by the great influencer of the genre, Raymond Chandler. This one pushed the boundaries of the code in a sordid tale of lust, fraud and murder and enthusiasts already know we’re discussing the 1944 film noir classic “DOUBLE INDEMNITY” starring Fred MacMurray in a fairly uncommon role for him, Barbera Stanwick as the lethal bombshell and Edward G. Robinson in a clever and unique role himself. See for yourself why this movie gets near universal acclaim by clicking on this link: https://archive.org/details/1944-double-indemnity-billy-wilder-vose and make sure you hang out with us all month long for a plethora of classic noir discussions.
 
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Epidemic (1987)

This year really seems like it’s gonna be a von Trier kinda year. Sad and cruel with a warped sense of humor. That’s why we’re gonna be discussing Lars von Trier movies about once a month all year long. Twelve of these movies with the last one being about a serial killer. That will be perfect for Christmastime but it is the end of February right now and we’re halfway through the Europe Trilogy with 1987’s “EPIDEMIC” It does have an epidemic occurring within it but it’s also an epidemic movie that is being written within the movie and it stars von Trier and his co-writer Niels Vørsel. They can’t remember that they wrote the previous movie we discussed so they write and pandemic movie and the lead character in “Epidemic” is also the carrier of the epidemic but you know that ahead of time. Also, there is an epidemic.  There are moments of tedious horror but this is very much more of a comedy. And that song. You’ll hear it if you hit this up. These will get drearier as we go further.
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Mulholland Dr. (2001)

This is it. The last of our selections for February’s theme of WOMEN IN CRISIS and it’s time to dive into some Hollywood nights and strange blue realms for a dreamy tale of an amnesiac woman and an up and coming actress who get wrapped up in a mystery of missing pieces that they may not want to really solve. What is the key? Is there no band? What are the cowboy and the dirty man trying to convey? Is Billy Ray Cyrus raw dogging my wife? Who are all of these people, truly? Dive into the dark box with us as we close out the theme with David Lynch’s highly regarded 2001 film “MULHOLLAND DR.” Starring Naomi Watts, Laura Elena Harring, Justin Theroux and many more. They literally got him the best espresso in the world. What more do these people want? Uncle David loves to clown us.
 
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Past Lives (2023)

We wrap up what is left of the 2024 Academy Awards Best Picture Nominees that we hadn’t gotten to yet with a nice little romantic drama about love, destiny and the nature of relationships. Nora left her childhood love, Hae Sung, in Korea when her family emigrated to Canada. They reconnect in their twenties online for a friendship with overwhelming emotion. Years later Nora has married a man she met on a writing retreat while Hae Sung served in the military and traveled to China. Now Hae Sung comes to New York to finally meet, in person, the woman he has been emotionally tethered to for the first time since their childhood. We’re talking about Celine Song’s “PAST LIVES” starring Greta Lee, Teo Yoo & John Magaro. It probably won’t get all the awards. It’s only nominated for two Oscars and one of them is fuckin’ best picture. Damn I woulda probably nominated Greta Lee & Teo Yoo. They did some good stuff here. Ah well. Ain’t our ceremony. We’re predicting that they will pick Oppenheimer.  The funniest Best Picture winner would be Maestro, hands down. Anyway, you can watch “PAST LIVES” on Paramount Plus as of this drop so trade your Netflix password for your cousin’s Paramount password and check this one out. Fucking feel it.
 
Past Lives Oscar Nominations
 
Best Picture
Best Writing / Original Screenplay
 
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The Birds (1963)

We’re winding down February’s theme of WOMEN IN CRISIS and for our last vintage selection we got a case of Crisis in front of and behind the camera. We couldn’t wrap up without a little Hitchcock and the struggles of Tippi Hedren regarding some calculated aviary beasts. Alfred Hitchcock wanted Tippi to be his personal leading lady human doll that he could control and throw birds at. He got two films out of her before she ran away and today’s talk is of the first. We’re discussing the 1963 horror hit “THE BIRDS” starring Tippi, Rod Taylor, Jessica Tandy & Suzanne Pleshette. The birds couldn’t have picked a better idiot town than Bodega Bay to spiral these humans off into a local apocalypse. If I were a seagull, it would be fun as hell to dive bomb folks. I would be just like a typical seagull in that way. They should have had some California Condors plucking the small children off the street. Like any other horror that came after it, this movie is full of human beings making the worst decisions. Here’s a link if it still works: https://archive.org/details/the-birds
 
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A Woman Under the Influence (1974)

We’re heading into the last leg of February’s theme of WOMEN IN CRISIS and the mental state of women this month has been pretty rough. Imagine being a housewife in the 1970s and you’re pretty much losing it. Sure, you can get away with being “eccentric” much of the time but eventually the mask slips and all the devotion in the world can’t get in the way of the struggle. You can question the intensity and reactions of how love plays out, people certainly aren’t their best, but love may win no matter how bad it gets. Even in the face of madness. We break the seal on John Cassavetes with his 1974 film “A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE” featuring intense and emotional performances by Gena Rowlands and Peter Falk. Middle class dynamics have never been more tense while at the same time, decompressed, as though we’re an awkward guest peering on a marriage scene that we can’t quite figure out. So long as they figure it out then maybe, just maybe, it can work out. Of course you can watch it online. Try this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cur1RY4N58s&themeRefresh=1
 
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Anatomy of a Fall (2023)

We’re almost done discussing all of the Best Picture Oscar nominations and we’re talking about the other Sandra Hüller nominated movie in a VERY UNSPOILERY way. A crafty little mystery that is not so much about the mystery itself, but the culmination of pieces that form guilt and animosity in long term relationships. Did she kill her husband or did he do that himself? We’re going to the lovely French Alps in Justine Triet’s “ANATOMY OF A FALL” starring Sandra Hüller, Samuel Theis, Swann Arlaud, Milo Machado Garner & Antoine Reinhartz. Imagine if all of the troubles of your relationships were revealed? How do you think people would look at you? 
 
Anatomy of a Fall’s Oscar Nominations
Best Picture
Best Actress in a Leading Role
Best Director
Writing / Original Screenplay
Best Editing
 
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Under the Shadow (2016)

It’s WOMEN IN CRISIS month and we’re discussing several movies with several distraught women in them. Crisis comes in many forms and this movie has several obvious crisis layers to contend with. A fundamentalist government crisis. A crisis of war and an actual haunting. Persian style. For many in Islam, you don’t throw around the name of the fiend that haunts a mother and her child in this 2016  Netflix movie directed by Babak Anvari called “UNDER THE SHADOW” starring Narges Rashidi & Avon Manshadi. She’s under many shadows as we’ve stated. Literally under a SCUD missile that crashed through her building’s roof which might have let something sinister in the building that wants her kids plushies and your old college textbook. Maybe she’s being haunted by an internet book dealer? Take my medical textbook?? OH NO YOU DJINN’DN’T!!!! I just had to squeeze that in somewhere. Admittedly a little forced. She can’t even beat her 8 year old daughter in a fight. Maybe she should go to Granny’s.
 
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Gaslight (1944)

It’s WOMEN IN CRISIS all month long and our classic film discussion today is a little bit different. Most of our selections actually have women going through a detrimental mental change Our heroine in this movie is being completely manipulated into thinking she is crazy. Based on a play by Patrick Hamilton, this tale coined a very common term to signify emotional and mental manipulation in a relationship. Of course we’re referencing the term “gaslighting” and term was popularized by George Cukor’s 1944 film adaptation of the play, “GASLIGHT”. It stars Ingrid Bergman in full range of love and despair, an impressively villainous Charles Boyer and an extremely intuitive Joseph Cotton. It also features Angela Lansbury in her peak “would” era. Let’s be honest, we’d hit it in her “Murder She Wrote” era as well. She’d probably go crazier. Wilder. More experience there. Think about it, man. Here’s a link we found to this movie: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8i5me5
 
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