Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: I've gotta pause it.
[00:00:07] Speaker B: Should we just start the whole episode over?
[00:00:10] Speaker A: I think maybe we should.
Welcome to five Minute Film Finder, brought to you by Pioneer Library System.
[00:00:27] Speaker B: Hello and welcome to five Minute Film Finder, a Pioneer Library System podcast where we tell you about movies that you can watch with your Pioneer Library System library card. My name is Tracy, and today I'm joined by Ben.
[00:00:38] Speaker A: Hi, Ben. Hello.
[00:00:40] Speaker B: It's been a little bit since we recorded an episode together.
[00:00:42] Speaker A: Yeah, it's been a minute since I've been on an episode.
[00:00:45] Speaker B: Well, I'm so glad that I asked you if you wanted to do an episode with me.
[00:00:49] Speaker A: Yeah, me too.
[00:00:50] Speaker B: And we're pulling from a really great curated category on Kanopy this month. We pulled both of these films from their Black History Month category.
[00:00:59] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:00:59] Speaker B: Which has a lot of great films.
[00:01:01] Speaker A: In there and such a wide range.
[00:01:04] Speaker B: And I think we are covering.
[00:01:05] Speaker A: Not a very narrow thing.
[00:01:06] Speaker B: No, we are covering an unbelievable range of films just in what is.
[00:01:12] Speaker A: We are at the too far ends of the spectrum.
[00:01:15] Speaker B: We really are. Because we are covering technically. Both of our films are independent black cinema, which I think is very cool. But one is very traditional cinema from 1997, and one is definitely art cinema from 2021.
[00:01:27] Speaker A: Yeah. I think it may be the most straight art film that we've done on the podcast.
[00:01:32] Speaker B: I think. Yes. Do you want to go ahead and jump into it so we can start talking about it?
[00:01:36] Speaker A: I mean, we may as well.
[00:01:37] Speaker B: Let's do it.
[00:01:38] Speaker A: Let me get old Wilhelm on the clock.
[00:01:42] Speaker B: He's taking a nap.
[00:01:44] Speaker A: Classic Wilhelm.
[00:01:45] Speaker B: Classic Wilhelm.
[00:01:47] Speaker A: So I'll be talking about Neptune's or Neptune Frost. I keep trying to say Neptune's Frost. It is Neptune Frost. It's Neptune Frost from 2021. This is directed by Saul Williams, who is an American hip hop and poetry artist, musician, primarily known for that. But this is a film he directed in Rwanda, primarily in Rwandan.
Some English, several different.
[00:02:15] Speaker B: It's also been. Some French.
[00:02:17] Speaker A: Yes. Yes. Some French as well. Yeah.
But we talked a little bit before we started. This is a hard to define movie.
[00:02:25] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:02:27] Speaker A: It is absolutely an art film. It is a musical which I did.
[00:02:34] Speaker B: Not know going in.
[00:02:35] Speaker A: Oh, great. Even better. It is absolutely in the Afro futurist genre.
[00:02:41] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:02:42] Speaker A: Which is so cool. It's kind of like cyberpunk, but also like very like African centric.
[00:02:49] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:02:50] Speaker A: Art and style.
It is hard to define the plot.
[00:02:57] Speaker B: It is. I think that the sentence that's on IMDb is maybe not even a full sentence. It's just like there Are people. This is what they created.
[00:03:08] Speaker A: Yeah. So the IMDb synopsis is an intersex African hacker, a coltan minor, and the virtual marvel born as a result of their union.
I think that is just saying the characters that are focused on in this. Yeah.
[00:03:22] Speaker B: I didn't.
I didn't realize it wasn't a full sentence until I was looking over it before we started recording. But I think that it. The movie is really, really interesting to watch.
[00:03:34] Speaker A: Oh, man. Like, there's so many moments that I was just like, you can easily become captivated by this. Such a word for it. Despite not being in your language. Despite being not a typical structure for a movie.
Not western in its form at all.
[00:03:51] Speaker B: Not even a little bit.
[00:03:53] Speaker A: It's. So here's another synopsis that actually gives you a little bit of the substance of the arc of the film. A group of escaped coltan miners from an anti colonialist computer hacker collective in the hilltops of Burundi. They soon attempt a takeover of the authoritarian regime that's exploiting the region's natural resources and its people.
[00:04:13] Speaker B: Yes. Which all of those things do happen in the movie.
[00:04:16] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:04:17] Speaker B: But also in between there are some segments that are dream sequences that I didn't realize sometimes they were dream sequences until a little bit in.
[00:04:25] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:25] Speaker B: But then once you locked into them, they were. I mean, so much of this film was just so stunning to look at.
[00:04:33] Speaker A: It is. I think the contrast of that too is so fascinating. Is like there's shots where it'd be like a wide shot of this incredibly costumed person in a beautiful lush greenscape where I was just like, whoa. Like I'd like literally taken aback by how beautiful it. But then there's other like incredibly like almost like punk DIY feeling moments where you're just like, this is not like high cinema. This is not incredibly well shot, but incredibly effective at a particular emotion.
[00:05:02] Speaker B: One of the things that I loved most about this movie is that I do love low budget sci fi that puts its whole body into being like, we're going to make these like thousand dollars that we have to make this movie work and we're gonna make it look as cool as possible. There is this fabulous dream sequence where I don't know who this person was. It was some sort of divine entity that was talking to them.
[00:05:26] Speaker A: Was this the Bicycle man?
[00:05:28] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:05:28] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:05:30] Speaker B: Wearing a headdress made entirely of like neon painted bicycle wheels.
[00:05:34] Speaker A: And they're all spinning.
[00:05:36] Speaker B: Yes. And you can tell that they're neon painted bicycle wheels. You know what went into making that headdress but also it looked amazing. And I was just like, look at that person.
Oh my God, look at that person. And they look amazing. Like, it just. So many of the things were. And then later on when they get. They sort of. It's a whole bunch of people forming together to form a rebellious techno collective is what this film ends up being. When they're at the rebellious techno collective, everybody has like these really cool, kind of almost punky looking outfits. Our main character, Madalusa, is wearing like. Or one of our main characters, Madaloosa, is wearing this jacket that's made entirely of, like, flexible keyboards. And it sort of looks like Mad Max.
[00:06:22] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:06:22] Speaker B: Meets, like the Office.
[00:06:23] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:06:24] Speaker B: And it was very, very cool. And everyone is wearing these, like, incredibly sculptural hairstyles that like, literally have wire in them.
[00:06:31] Speaker A: Yes. Those hairstyles were incredible.
[00:06:35] Speaker B: Beautiful to look. I'm just like, stunning. Everybody looked so cool.
[00:06:39] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:06:40] Speaker B: That I was sort of like, I don't know what's happening.
I don't know if I.
[00:06:45] Speaker A: That's our time, but we also have to talk. The music in this is also incredible. And like, it's such a specific vibe. And also, like, plays with the format and plays with the expectations of the viewer. Like, there's this one point where one of the characters is playing a traditional instrument, but what you hear is. Is a gnarly synthesizer. And he's singing over. And it was like such a fun, interesting, cool moment of just like, here's something really fun you can do without spending a bunch of money. It's just like, oh, he was probably just strumming on this instrument. And then they're just like, okay, we'll just lay it over.
[00:07:21] Speaker B: Well, I don't even have a hip hop producer working for you.
[00:07:24] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:07:24] Speaker B: Like directing and writing your movie.
[00:07:26] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, do it. Yeah. And like, I think the most fun moments were like the big, like, collective music moments where, like, everybody's dancing and, like, there's choruses of singing or, like choruses of drumming. Those moments were real.
[00:07:40] Speaker B: One of the first moments in the movie, there's all this drumming. And at first I was like, is this real? It was. I thought it was a dream sequence.
[00:07:47] Speaker A: And that was like. That was what set me. That was the first thing that set me off is like, oh, this is gonna be a journey.
[00:07:53] Speaker B: It was beautiful. And. Yeah.
I don't know. Once again, I don't think we talked about the plot of this movie at all. Cause there is one. But it is.
It's vignettes.
[00:08:05] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:05] Speaker B: It's Pieces. Yeah. I think what is. What is most stunning about it is just the overall kind of vibe of it.
[00:08:13] Speaker A: Yes, absolutely.
[00:08:15] Speaker B: It's art cinema, for sure.
[00:08:16] Speaker A: Absolutely.
The hardest thing I had was, like, parsing what was metaphor versus what was, like, literal.
That was like.
And that is, like, that's usually the struggle with an art film. And that is the intended struggle is like, okay.
[00:08:32] Speaker B: What I did think about Eraserhead a lot while I was watching this. I thought about Eraserhead a lot, where it was just like, I don't know what's real and what's not, but I'm into it.
[00:08:43] Speaker A: Yeah. I was thinking a lot about David lynch while we were watching this. I was also thinking a lot about Kubrick. Yeah, like, both of those came to mind. I was like, there's elements of both of these in, like, shots and moments in this movie and, like, in the coolest way. Absolutely.
[00:09:01] Speaker B: Absolutely. Yes.
[00:09:03] Speaker A: So I think we would say we recommend this movie if you are an adventurous and patient watcher.
[00:09:10] Speaker B: I would say. Yeah, adventurous, for sure. And also if you're just, like, willing to open your doors to an entirely different experience. Because, like you said, this is one of the least, like, western, you know, kind of films I've ever seen. Seen or I've seen in a really long time.
But I think if you just kind of let yourself get into it, there is just something really, really cool about it.
[00:09:34] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, there are so many incredible movies that, like, I won't be able to remember a visual from. There are a lot of visuals from this that are in my brain now.
[00:09:44] Speaker B: I will remember the first visual that comes back of Neptune in the headpiece with the cool make and.
Yeah, I mean, yeah, absolutely. Cool.
[00:09:55] Speaker A: Yeah, it is a feast for the eyes, for sure.
Well, with that, we'll take a quick break, and then we'll get into our second film, and we'll be right back.
[00:10:13] Speaker B: And we're back, and we're gonna talk about our second film, which was the film I chose. So if Wilm Helm can start the timer, I chose 1997's Eve's Bayou. Now, Ben, a lot of the time I come onto this podcast, and I apologize to you for the film that I've picked. I will not be doing that today. This movie rules.
[00:10:35] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:10:36] Speaker B: So the IMDb plot synopsis is, what did little Eve see, and how will it haunt her husband, father and womanizer? Louis Baptiste is the head of an affluent family, but it's the women who rule this gothic world of secrets that lies and mystic forces and Boy, howdy, do they ever.
So this was the first film, both writing and directing by director Casey Lemons. She's directed a few things. Directed a movie called Talk to Me. She directed the Harriet movie that Cynthia Erivo was nominated for an Oscar for.
She was also an actress prior to this, and I think also during some of this, she's the best friend in the Candyman movie, which is cool. Yeah.
So she wrote and directed this. It stars kind of a stacked cast.
[00:11:22] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Of people, like, pretty early in his career. Samuel L. Jackson.
[00:11:27] Speaker B: Yes. So he was one of the people who got this movie funded because this was like, just post the Tarantino movie that I just forgot the name of Pulp Fiction. Thank you.
[00:11:36] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh. Wow.
[00:11:38] Speaker B: So he kind of was.
[00:11:39] Speaker A: It's hard to imagine this at the same time.
[00:11:41] Speaker B: Yeah. It's not long after Pulp Fiction that he's kind of gotten just famous enough that he gets.
Him wanting to do this movie is what got it funded. So it's Samuel L. Jackson. It's little baby Jurnee Smollett, who is hitting balls out of the park this whole movie.
[00:11:58] Speaker A: I love her, and I've loved her in some recent stuff. She was in the Order recently, and she's also in this Apple TV show called Smoke that I really enjoyed.
But I mostly know her as an adult actor, and it was fun to see how much of that personality was already there as that little kid.
[00:12:18] Speaker B: Yeah. So she. She was in Lovecraft country recently also. And then she's in this great movie called the Burial that I really love, that came out a couple years ago. That's like a law movie with Jamie Foxx and the guy from Men in.
[00:12:35] Speaker A: Black.
[00:12:37] Speaker B: Whose name I can't remember. That's not Will Smith. His name is.
[00:12:41] Speaker A: His name is Tommy Lee Jones. Tommy Lee Jones. Thank you.
All right.
[00:12:46] Speaker B: I just love. Jurnee Smollett is where that's landing other people in this movie. Lynne Whitfield, Debbie Morgan, who my mom said from the soap opera, and I said, yes, Megan. Good. And then the fabulous Diane Carroll from Dynasty plays El Zora, the witch woman.
[00:12:59] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:13:01] Speaker B: So this movie is about Eve, who is Jurnee Smollett's character. And sort of a long, hot summer in Louisiana. Her family is sort of well to do in the Louisiana Creole community.
Samuel L. Jackson. Her father is a doctor. He's much beloved. Her mother, played by Lynne Whitfield, is the most beautiful woman I've ever seen.
[00:13:23] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:13:26] Speaker B: Her older sister, played by meagan Good, is 14.
Her younger brother is Played by her own brother. The movie starts on a banger set of lines, which is memory is a selection of images, some elusive, others printed indelibly on the brain. The summer I killed my father, I was 10 years old.
[00:13:43] Speaker A: Oof.
[00:13:44] Speaker B: And that's where you start.
[00:13:45] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:13:47] Speaker B: So it's all about Eve realizing these things about herself, realizing these things about her family. A big part of this movie is that Eve's Aunt Moselle, played by Debbie Morgan, has the gift.
[00:14:00] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:14:01] Speaker B: She is psychic, and so she can see into the future, and she sees things. She gets paid to be a psychic counselor, I think, is what she says at one point, because she makes fun of El Zora, Diane Carroll's character, for just being a witch. She's like, I am not like that. Which I thought was really funny.
But Eve is starting to realize that maybe the man that she thought her father was and what she thought her family is, is maybe not the reality that she's always come to depend on.
And it's this Southern gothic coming of age story with a little bit of magic. Cause Eve also has the gift.
[00:14:43] Speaker A: Just a little bit, just a touch.
[00:14:44] Speaker B: That is the sight. Yes. It's just incredible to look at. It's shot unbelievably. There is a scene that I wanted to talk to you about, which is the mirror scene, which I thought was one of the most effective scenes in the movie.
[00:14:59] Speaker A: And they used the mirrors a few times, but the one I assume with the aunt. Yes, yes. That one is so good.
[00:15:06] Speaker B: It's so incredible. It's the scene where her Aunt Moselle has had three husbands. All of them have died. And she is explaining to Eve about her first husband. And it's all shot with her and Eve looking into this mirror. Wilhelm has just screamed. Her and Eve looking to this mirror. And then she, like, walks into the mirror and walks into the past, and all this stuff happens. It's all about this relationship between the past and the present and reality.
[00:15:36] Speaker A: And all those moments feel very much like a play, like in kind of a lovely way. I usually don't use that in a good way, but, like, it felt very like. Like staged in, like a very, like, intentional and lovely way.
I thought it was very effective. Yeah.
[00:15:53] Speaker B: Yeah. I think it's just apparently whenever it came out, a lot of people related it to Tennessee Williams work. So I think the play thing is good. I will say I'm always into looking up what Roger Ebert said about things.
Roger Ebert called this one of his greatest films of 1997. And he said that lemons can make a film this good on the first try is like a rebuke to established filmmakers.
[00:16:17] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:16:17] Speaker B: Dropping bars.
[00:16:18] Speaker A: Oh, boy.
[00:16:19] Speaker B: And then he also said, if it is not nominated for Academy Awards, then the Academy is not paying attention. For the viewer, it is a reminder that sometimes films can venture into the realms of poetry and dreams.
[00:16:31] Speaker A: He loved this film.
[00:16:32] Speaker B: He loved this movie. It was not nominated for any Academy Awards. Even though everyone's performances in this are unreal.
[00:16:41] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:16:42] Speaker B: I think genuinely this is one of, like, an incredibly acted film from everyone, including 10 year old Jurnee Smollett, who, like I said, is pitching a no hitter this whole movie.
[00:16:54] Speaker A: Yeah. And the. The tone of this film, it.
[00:16:58] Speaker B: It's.
[00:16:58] Speaker A: I forget how, like, flexible films in the 90s could be, because it can be such high drama. And then like a real slapsticky joke moment to, like, some, like, real darkness and like, some real, like, ooh. Like, oh, we're into the witchcraft and the, like, the magic. And like, it does. You don't rub up against it at all.
[00:17:20] Speaker B: No.
It's really broad, like you're saying, but it. It feels really masterful in tone.
But yeah. And then it looks incredible.
[00:17:31] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:17:31] Speaker B: Just like every. You're like, yeah, we're in the swamp.
[00:17:33] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:34] Speaker B: The whole movie. I have known about this film for a long time. It's been one where I've always been like, I need to watch that movie. I need to watch that movie. So when I saw this in the collection, I was like, okay, here's my time. I'm gonna sit down and watch this movie. In 2018, it was selected by Library of Congress for preservation in States National Film Registry for being culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant.
[00:17:55] Speaker A: Great.
[00:17:55] Speaker B: Which I think this is a great story of, like, a black family. It is set in the 1960s.
[00:18:00] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:18:01] Speaker B: So there are some. Some historical elements, but also it's just an unbelievable movie.
[00:18:08] Speaker A: Yeah, it's. It's just cool.
Yeah. It has cool elements and moments and, like, some upsetting stuff. I mean, like, definitely.
[00:18:19] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:18:19] Speaker A: But, like, warning for anybody, there's, like some upsetting and unclear, unsettled moments.
[00:18:25] Speaker B: Yes. Yes. Between two family members.
[00:18:27] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:18:28] Speaker B: So it's definitely.
Yeah, it's definitely heavy, but then also sometimes light as air.
[00:18:34] Speaker A: Yeah. Truly.
[00:18:35] Speaker B: So I just. I think you should watch it. I think it's unbelievable. If you like something a little bit spooky, but not super spooky. I think this has got some spooky elements without being scary.
[00:18:45] Speaker A: It's right in that pocket, for sure.
[00:18:46] Speaker B: Except for the horrors of reality.
[00:18:48] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, it's more like, oh, adulthood is complicated. Oh, no.
[00:18:54] Speaker B: But then also it's very, very settled into the complication of life. And so, yeah, it's a real, it's a real coming of age film that I think is unbelievable. I'm going to be pushing this on people for the rest of my life.
[00:19:07] Speaker A: Great.
[00:19:09] Speaker B: Well, I think probably wrap it up.
[00:19:11] Speaker A: We did it.
[00:19:12] Speaker B: We did it.
[00:19:12] Speaker A: We nailed it.
[00:19:13] Speaker B: Thanks for coming to hang out with me today, Ben.
[00:19:15] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:19:16] Speaker B: If you'd like to send us an email, podcastioneerlibrarysystem.org comments, concerns, questions, all that good stuff. Otherwise, we'll see you next time.
[00:19:25] Speaker A: Bye.
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 of the host and not those of the organization.
Five Minute Film Finder is produced, recorded and mixed by Ben Si 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.
