Episode Transcript
[00:00:06] Speaker A: Welcome to five Minute Film Finder, brought to you by Pioneer Library System.
[00:00:13] Speaker B: Hello, and welcome to another episode of five Minute Film Finder, the podcast brought to you by Pioneer Library System, where we take some time, five minutes exactly, to sell you on a movie that's available on our streaming services, Hoopla or Kanopy. I'm Jamie, and today I'm really excited because I have someone with me who's never been on the show before and my very good friend and coworker, Coral.
[00:00:43] Speaker C: Hello, everyone. I'm Coral. Thank you so much for having me on. I'm a huge movie fan, and I'm low key offended. I haven't been on yet.
[00:00:51] Speaker B: Yeah, you know, it's something I thought I was like, I need to have Coral on. And I just kind of, you know, like, I need to do that. I need to ask Ben. I need to ask Ben. And I just kept forgetting. Sorry.
But, yeah, I knew you would be a good, good host on here because I know how much you love movies and you see, like, everything, even stuff I've probably not even heard of. But, yeah, so.
But the format here, Coral, is, yeah, we each take a turn talking about a movie that we watched, and we get five minutes to do it. We have our good friend Wilhelm, who will time us here. He will let us know when our time starts and when our time ends.
And, yeah, so today we kind of had, like, a theme going here where we both chose movies like, kind of like crime drama, thriller types. And I don't want to give too many spoilers, but anyway, yeah, definitely two.
[00:01:49] Speaker C: Movies that kind of dig in deep to one specific case and kind of keep you guessing the whole way. And I feel like the audience is trying to solve the mystery alongside the characters.
[00:01:59] Speaker B: Right. And they both were at different times at the Cannes Film Festival.
My choice.
Zodiac was nominated for the Palme d' or, but your choice.
[00:02:10] Speaker C: My choice won the Palme d' or, so it's a big deal. It is a French film, so that gives you a little bit of an edge up.
[00:02:18] Speaker B: But, yeah, so, yeah. So my choice today was Zodiac, which is directed by David Fincher. Had you ever seen it before?
[00:02:27] Speaker C: I saw it a few years ago. I think it was one of those movies I watched during COVID where I was like, I've never seen this, but I have to ask, is that your favorite Fincher movie?
[00:02:39] Speaker B: Probably.
I haven't seen everything, but I was looking at his filmography, and I was like, I forget all these things that he's done. He did seven. He did Gone Girl, the Social Network, Fight Club.
So I think. Yeah, I think. I think he's probably my favorite. He also worked on the Netflix series Mindhunter, which I love. And I'm really sad that he didn't want to do season three. Really upset about that because I love that show. I thought that was really good.
So, yeah, I think this is definitely my favorite Fincher film.
[00:03:11] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm a gone girl purist, so I'm a little biased towards that one.
[00:03:17] Speaker B: It was good. I liked it. Yeah.
I thought it was just a little bit of background, I guess, about the movie before we get into our five minutes.
But Fincher grew up in the San Francisco area, which for those maybe that haven't seen the movie or aren't familiar with the case. It's about the zodiac serial killer of the 60s and 70s who terrorized that area, but he grew up in the area. And then he.
There's a story where he remembers his dad telling him about.
I guess he noticed Fincher had noticed as a boy on the school bus that highway patrol was following the school buses for a couple weeks. And so his dad told him, like, oh, yeah, there's a serial killer who's killed four or five people, and he has threatened to take. Has threatened school children. So I think that kind of led to Fincher being interested in the case.
And then when they filmed the movie or before they filmed the movie, he and the screenwriter and a producer actually spent time, like, doing their own investigation. I can't remember the time period. I wrote it down somewhere, but they, like, interviewed witnesses. They interviewed the police officers that worked on the case.
Yeah. Family members of suspects, the two surviving victims. So I feel like that really gave the movie some authenticity. But anyway, so what about your choice?
[00:04:53] Speaker C: So, yeah, my choice is Anatomy of a Fall.
[00:04:56] Speaker B: Okay, hang on. I guess I should say. Do you want to go. You want to go ahead and do your five minutes?
[00:05:01] Speaker C: Let's jump in. Let's do our five minutes.
[00:05:03] Speaker B: All right. So, Wilhelm, if you will start the timer, please.
[00:05:08] Speaker C: Anatomy of a Fall came out in 2023, so it's a pretty recent release.
Its main title is actually in French. I will not offend any French speaking listeners with my attempts at that. But it was directed Justine Tria.
It is a legal thriller with a little bit of a psychological drama mixed in. So you kind of get both sides of that.
And the film is in French, German and English, so there's a mixture of some languages in it.
But I think this is a really approachable film if you are only An English speaker and you've never watched a subtitled film before. I think this is a great one to start with.
The reason I, I became interested in it is because it was nominated for six Academy Awards since 2014. I want to say I have watched every best Picture nominee.
[00:06:02] Speaker B: Wow.
So, yeah, you are movie buff.
[00:06:05] Speaker C: But you know, it's like an obsession now. Like I have to see all of them every year.
So it was nominated for best Picture Director Sandra Hooler was nominated for Best Actress, Film Editing. And then the one that it won was Original screenplay, which is very important to me because that is usually my favorite. Usually the movie that I like the most wins Best Original Screenplay.
You know, things like Promising Young Woman, Manchester by the Sea, her, those typically win, are my favorites of the year and then they win that.
So I love good writing in a, in a movie. I think it sets it apart from other movies and this one specifically, despite it not being in my native English language. You can just tell how well it's written, despite the translation, despite the fact you're reading subtitles.
[00:06:57] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I'll just say, like as someone who. Of a certain age whose hearing is getting worse, like I already. I watch everything with subtitles now anyway, even in English, so.
[00:07:08] Speaker C: So it just feels natural.
[00:07:09] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:12] Speaker C: But the film, if you don't know it, follows Samuel and Sandra. They are married, they're both writers. Sandra is originally from Germany and they live in this little French house, very secluded. And they live there with their son Daniel and their dog Snoop.
Daniel is. He's. He's not blind, but he, he lacks a lot of vision. There was an accident, so he only has partial vision.
One day. Samuel. This happens at the very beginning of the movie. So not a spoiler.
[00:07:43] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:43] Speaker C: Samuel dies, he falls. He's doing some repairs in the attic of his house, of their home, and he falls. And the police come and they believe that he was pushed where the family is saying, no, he was just working on the house and he fell.
Daniel, the son, is out on a walk and he misses most of it. And Sandra is the only other person at home, so she is considered the prime suspect to the police.
So you have that opening scene, but then you go into the court case, but you flashback to events that happened leading up to the scene as well. So you have some flashback scenes, you have some non linear storytelling, but it really is a great movie because one of the big themes about it is do moments define you? Because there is this really great moment where they have a recording of an argument that Sandra And Samuel had at an earlier. And you have to kind of sit there and you're like, does this define their whole relationship?
Does this define Sandra? Like, is this.
Is this who this person is and what this relationship is? Or is this just a moment in time?
It's very tense in parts. There's definitely some content warnings that is rated R.
There's some moments where you're just like, what is happening? Or there's moments where you're like, I know exactly what happens. I'm 100% sure this is how this movie is gonna end.
[00:09:05] Speaker B: Yeah. I kind of went back and forth like, did she do it?
[00:09:09] Speaker C: Did she not?
Keeps you guessing, keeps you on the edge of your seat. It's a very small cast, but everyone is really talented.
The child in it who plays Daniel, he's very talented.
His performance is very haunting, as is the dog, Snoop.
[00:09:25] Speaker B: Yes. Oh, my gosh. He might have been the best actor. No, I'm just kidding.
[00:09:28] Speaker C: He was up there. He's definitely one of the top ones.
And some kind of other just fun facts about this movie. So it did win the Palme d' or at Cannes, but it was actually part of a big controversy. I don't know if you know this.
[00:09:43] Speaker B: I don't.
[00:09:43] Speaker C: But a lot of people thought that because it won that it was going to be the foreign language French pick for the Academy Awards.
But when Justine Tria came up there to accept the award, she actually made some very political statements. And so they did not nominate it. France did not pick it.
[00:10:04] Speaker B: There is Wilhelm.
[00:10:05] Speaker C: Well, that's okay, because the fun. You can Google that as you wish. You can kind of find out about that. See what happened with the film. They did submit as that. But overall, great film. Totally recommend it.
[00:10:17] Speaker B: Nice. Okay. Oh, is it. I can't remember if you said, is it on Hoopla or Kanopy?
[00:10:21] Speaker C: It is on Kanopy, so.
[00:10:23] Speaker B: All right. Well, thank you, Coral. So we're going to take a quick break, and then we'll be back, and I'll tell you more about Zodiac.
Okay. Welcome back to Five Minute Film Finder. So Coral just told us about Anatomy of a Fall. So now I'm going to take my five minutes to tell you about Zodiac. So, Wilhelm, will you start the timer?
Okay, so Zodiac is a 2007 kind of mystery thriller film.
It is available on Hoopla and Kanopy. It is rated R.
I actually saw this in theaters when it first came out, and I remember, like.
And then, I don't know, I just kind of forgot about it. So When I watched it again for this, I forgot, like, how much I like this movie.
But, yeah, it is directed by David Fincher, written by James Vanderbilt. It was based on Robert Graysmith's book Zodiac. And Robert is actually a character in the movie. He's played by Jake Gyllenhaal. He was a cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle. And back in the 60s and 70s, you know, the San Francisco area, like I said, was kind of being terrorized by this person who called himself the Zodiac, who's killing people.
And the movie is actually not really about, like, the search for the killer. I mean, it is. I mean, it's not mostly about, like, the murders, but it is about kind of how the search for him sort of took over some people's lives, including Graysmith.
It has a stellar cast. I mean, I can't even name all the people in it. It would take the full five minutes, probably. But we've got Jake Gyllenhaal, of course. Robert Downey Jr. Plays Paul Avery, who was a crime reporter at the Chron, and Mark Ruffalo plays Dave Tosche, who was an inspector with the San Francisco Police Department. And these three were all real people.
So Paul Avery, he doesn't really take Grace Smith seriously at first because the Zodiac actually mails a letter to the Chronicle with a cipher, and Robert kind of tries to. Tries to see if he can solve it, but Avery kind of becomes impressed when Graysmith sort of provides some insight into Zodiac.
But the movie kind of spans several years, goes from 69 to 91. And, yeah, it's really about Graysmith's obsession with the case. You know, he takes over his whole life. He ends up losing his job. His wife leaves him.
He does start writing a book about it, of course, which is what the movie is based on. But I. Like I said, I think this film is excellent.
It is long. It's a little over two and a half hours, but to me, it didn't feel that long. I felt like the pacing is really good.
It kept my attention. But I like, like, kind of movies like that. Like, kind of like. Please. Procedural, but not, you know, like.
[00:13:18] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, yeah, the same.
[00:13:20] Speaker B: So to me, yeah, it felt.
It felt quick. I was invested in the characters and the story.
I think the cinematography was. The lighting, like, you know, it felt really.
Some of. You know, some of the dark.
I don't want to say too much, but there's one scene, the basement scene, that was really dense and I will say a little bit of trivia. I don't know if you know this, but the actor that played Bob Bond in this movie, he was the voice of Roger Rabbit. When I saw him, I was like, he looks so familiar.
I know him. So I had to look up IMDb and I was like, oh, my gosh, it's Roger Rabbit.
[00:13:57] Speaker C: But I feel like the whole movie is like that. I feel like the whole cast, because it's so sad.
[00:14:01] Speaker B: It's that guy and that guy. Yeah. I mean, yeah, Such a great cast. I just forget, like, how many people are in this movie.
But, yeah, great soundtrack.
I just.
I think that, like I said earlier about the fact that they did all this research and they even talked to, you know, people that were involved in the case. Really? Yeah. Gives it this authenticity.
And, yeah, like I said, it is, I think, my favorite Fincher film. So anything like, you know, mysteries or crime dramas, this is. Will probably be up your alley. If you're a fan of David Fincher, of course, and you haven't seen this. Highly recommend.
But, yeah. So those are my thoughts. Thoughts on Zodiac. Anything you want to add, Coral? Any.
[00:14:45] Speaker C: I think it's just like Anatomy of a Fall. It's one of those great movies where if you really want to, like, peel back, take a peek behind the curtain. For this one, it's more about police procedural in the media and how they kind of work through this live things that are ongoing. And for Anatomy of a Fall, it's more. How does someone who's going through the pains and the drama of going through a full trial for something that really affected their life, whether they're guilty or not, just the pains of that. Even me watching Anatomy of a Fall and knowing nothing about the French legal system, there's still moments where it's like, you know, no matter where you are in the world and you're going through something this heavy and something this intense, it's always interesting to peel back the curtain and look at how people, you know, get through things like this.
[00:15:34] Speaker B: Definitely. I will say there is one. You mentioned the media, and that reminded me of a funny part of this movie. There's Paul Avery gets threatened, and so then all the people at the Chronicles start wearing buttons that say, I am not Paul Avery. And there's a scene with Jake Gyllenhaal and Robert Downey Jr. And Jake Gyllenhaal is wearing the button. And that really. That made me laugh. So. Ah, there we go. But.
All right, well, hopefully these movies sound interesting to you if you haven't already seen them. Highly recommend both of them.
And I think anybody That's a fan of Fincher, a fan of these actors, especially in Zodiac. I mean, Robert Downey Jr. Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Edwards is in it. There's just so many people. I can't even.
I can't even remember all of them, but so many faces. You're like, there's that guy and that guy and that guy.
[00:16:29] Speaker C: And I think for Anatomy of a Fall, people who are interested in maybe branching out a little bit, trying a foreign language film. This is a great one because it's pretty accessible. I think the story is very clear. I feel like, besides maybe not completely understanding the French legal system, which you don't need to to understand this movie, other than that, it feels very. It feels like something you've seen before as an English movie, but this one just happens to be in French and German.
[00:16:55] Speaker B: But there is some English in it, so it's not.
[00:16:57] Speaker C: Yeah, there is some English in it, and it's just a really great film.
[00:17:01] Speaker B: And I think anybody that is a movie buff like yourself, that wants to see everything and see all the award winners like. Yeah. Should definitely check that out.
[00:17:08] Speaker C: That's a great choice.
[00:17:09] Speaker B: Yeah.
All right, well, thank you for joining me today, Coral.
[00:17:15] Speaker C: Thank you. And if you want to hear more of me and Jamie, check out the pioneer library system YouTube. We do a fun weekly show called Books and Banner where we talk about books instead of movies, but join us on there.
[00:17:26] Speaker B: All right, well, thanks everybody for listening.
[00:17:31] Speaker A: Five Minute Film Finder is a digital program brought to you by Pioneer Library System in Oklahoma.
All opinions expressed in this episode are those those of the host and not those of the organization.
Five Minute Film Finder is produced, recorded and mixed by Ben C. Theme music by Ben C.
If you have any questions, concerns or comments, please email podcastioneerlibrarysystem.org Remember to, like, review and subscribe.
Thanks for listening.
