The Cinema 360 Degrees Podcast

Martin Scorsese's "The King of Comedy" (1982) remains a film as prescient and relevant as ever. It gets under our skin as one of the early and best realized "uncomfortable humour" films, mostly due to the familiar and complicated character of Rupert Pupkin. Scorsese and Robert De Niro make this character in turns sympathetic, annoying, frightening, ridiculous, deluded, and irritatingly relatable. What is escapism all about? Join me as I share some of my thoughts with you.

Mohsen Makhmalbaf's "Gabbeh" (1996) is a film that packs an enormous amount of beauty, startling imagery, music, and ideas into its less than 80 minute running time. There are many ways to look at it, it defies any simple explanation, but one theme that gives it a melancholic edge is time. Is time circular, or linear? In some way, this is a question of the ancient vs. the modern. Can we escape circular time in which the nomadic Kashkai of Iran exist? And if so, what has modern Iran offered as an alternative? Join me as I share some of my thoughts with you.

Shohei Imamura's "The Ballad of Narayama" (1983) depicts a bleak, desolate world that exists in a timeless place, where time moves in circles rather than forwards. But inside this world there is also a vitality. Is this the "truth" about humanity that Imamura is constantly searching for in his films? Join me as I share some of my thoughts with you.

Satyajit Ray's "The Music Room" (1956) is a work that exists simultaneously on two planes: the war between an aristocratic of the old world and the new, modern, business minded upstart, and the plane of music, contemplative, meditative, that hovers above, moving in its own time and history, beckoning us to look up and learn something. It brings something fresh and poetic to the musicality that's ubiquitous in Indian films. Join me as I share some of my thoughts with you.

Luis Bunuel's "Belle de Jour" (1967) is a deceptively simple film, that teases with the possibilities of eroticism and unbridled sexuality, but instead presents a pessimistic, virtually impenetrable labyrinth of dreams, fantasies, allusions and symbols that can be overwhelming. But what do they all mean, if anything? Join me as I share some of my thoughts with you.

David Lynch's "The Straight Story" (1999) is a dreamy, languid and gentle film with some burn in its core. It is filled with a resigned expectation for death and what that will lead us to, which it expresses through stars, beautiful landscapes and sunsets, and the grace of our fellow man. An unexpected but beautiful Disney film from David Lynch. Join me as I share some of my thoughts with you.