 Hello, welcome to Soluid Mirror. I'm your hostess, Betty St. LaVille. On this show, we talk about movies, film history, and film definitions. Today, we're going to go straight into the movies. This collection is called The Mixed Bag, and I'm going to do Mixed Bag part one today and Mixed Bag part two next week because I'm going to do the same three movies next week because I'm not going to touch on everything that I want to talk about in this episode. So also, I want to mention that I've had a bad earache lately, and thanks to Express Care, boom, boom, and they get shout out today because because of them, I'm able to do this show. My ear feels wonderful, but as I had the earache, I was watching a lot of WWW wrestling history. Worldwide Federation, World Championship Wrestling, especially Jim Cornetz, Smoky Mountain Wrestling Corporation. So I'm focusing on the 90s phenomenon of what were they called? The new attitude era. So I could actually write an article about it. At any rate, as I'm watching these great documentaries and a lot of crazy stuff, there's this one show called Beyond the Titan Tron, and it actually helped me with my show this week. So I wanted to give a shout out to them. I think the narrator is British, and it's a two-person outfit. Check it out. It's great if you want to know some stuff about the 90s history wrestling. When I was a kid, of course, in the 70s, me, Gramps, was watching wrestling with the light bulb hanging down, you know, over the mat. That was that type of wrestling. And the McMahon Hones, our fourth generation wrestling dynasty, their studio is larger, I'm sure, than Tyler Perry, who supposedly has the largest film studio of everyone, but they have an incredible studio. So anyway, I got to throw that in there. It helps me with my show today. Now, as I was watching Beyond the Titan, Titan Tron, I was also checking out, as usual, Esther, my gal at Once Upon a Crime, my gal over into the cold, the Nightmare Lady, All Crime Library, Hell's Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares, and not so much Edison and my friend Freshers and Annie. Anyway, when you watch other shows as a writer, it helps you with your show become a little bit more spicy. I hope that I can do that at some point now, and hope I'm doing it as we speak. Okay, so let's get into the movies. And again, check out all those shows. They're all, they're pretty funny, all right? They're all right. The first movie we're going to start out today is Federico Fellini's Beautiful La Dolce Vita. It stars Mocello Massaroni, Anita Eckberg, Enuka Me, Niko, remember anybody else, Rosemary Rod, and a cast of thousands. This movie's great, okay? For those of you who don't watch movies with subtitles, if you ever see the episodes of Sopranos where Carato is watching the TV and the Christ is flying over Rome, that's La Dolce Vita. And that's actually the first scene of the movie. So, Mocello, played by a leading actor, is a journalist from the provinces who has moved to Rome. He has a fantastic, glamorous job as a journalist. He even has a stalker girlfriend named Emma, who lives with him, believe me. She's, can you be a stalker and live with someone at the same time? Yes, you can, okay? And this stuff will prove it. On his beats, he meets various principices, one's played by Enuka Me, Count-loving Baron Marquis-loving Nazis, played by Niko, and Screens, Siren Sylvia, played by Anita Eckberg. And he also meets various royalty prostitutes, gigalos, and other various randy sweet meets. He learns about infatuation, self-destruction, deceit and disillusionment, okay? This is a great, beautiful movie. The first time I saw this movie, I was totally blown away by it. What one of us in our 20s does not leave home striking out and meets our adventures head on. So that is what this movie is about. And if you can run with the jet set, even more fun, correct? Okay, so the movie is a series of vignettes. There's a society party at a castle, various nightclub scenes, a visit from a member of his family, and a horrible tragedy, all right? And then a party at the end of the movie. The party at the end of the movie and the party at the castle are the parts of the movie I really enjoy. People are really getting down. There's lots of great dialogue. And you're getting a slice of life that must have existed back in 1964. The year I was born, okay. So Fellini filmed part of this movie in Pusso Scuro, which is 18 kilometers away from Rome. And my friend Alexandra, who grew up in Rome, and Barry can correct me on that. She says that Pusso Scuro now is part of the city at Rome, which tweaks me hard a little bit because it was a seashore, sunny place, and we pretty much, it's village town, but it was very quiet because it was off season. So I picked a lot of shells and had fun while Papa's at work and Mom would walk us along the beach. If I had known that we were living back then, I would have begged my parents to stay. So at one point Fellini shot a scene of his movie in Pusso Scuro. So I just, I love Rome, I love Italy, and I hope some of you all, or all of you all can visit it one day. Now the music in this movie is fantastic. At one point they're all getting down at the end of the movie and someone says, someone should do a striptease to Patricia, this great song. And various women stand up, but people are like, oh, we've seen you naked before. I'm like, good Lord. Okay, so finally the lady who's about to have a divorce who is also going to remarry very quickly decides to do the striptease and she does the most chaste, beautiful, you know, you can't imagine. This gal really works the floor and she does it all on high heels. So you check that out. Italian women are so beautiful. Now this movie is a sunny movie. It's filled with light, but it also has dark sunlight. Some of the sunlight is not pretty. And I just want to warn you all about that. This movie, I think that if you're 16 or 17, you should watch this movie because myself as an adolescent, I couldn't wait to be in the 20s. So I think that you could handle whatever, you know, parents, your teenage can handle what's going on this movie. Okay, so I feel that French filmmakers, they bring it. Look at Queen Margot. This is basically a movie. One of the key components we see is a St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre. All right? But it actually happened at night. They bring it. I mean, you see the pikes and everything. So I think about how Americans don't really bring it like that. And then with the Brits, the British will express it. So if you consider Foresight Saga or AFAP or Gauss there, they will present it. And by that, I mean, it's lovely to behold. It's a sight to see and you're laughing as they're talking. Okay? I think the Italians mix it up. All right? So if anyone has ever read the beautiful novel, I think it's Bread and Blood, Wine and Blood and Wine. It's a great anti-fascist novel. Parts of the movie, oh, pardon me. Parts of the book are very pragmatic. They're telling the story and then you start laughing because in darkness there's a lot of humor. And so you'll see that in La Dolce Vita. Okay? That's great. Any more notes? All right. So Anita Eckberg's pot in this movie. The Fountain of Trevi. All right. So every time we as family went by the Fountain of Trevi, Ma put in some lira. Ma wouldn't put in some lira. And then the second or last time that we were going to leave Italy, she put in a whole bag of lira. Okay? So the Fountain of Trevi is so beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. And I need to check this. I'm pretty sure that that's where Sylvia is when Marcello and her are hanging out that night. So Anita Eckberg is an extremely luminous present in this, presence in this movie. She's a sight to be seen. One of the great components of Parts of this movie is that as Marcello, the journalist, he happens to be at the party and they're dancing in this big cavern. It's a huge cavern of a nightclub and there's different canopies and tents to separate the tables. He's speaking words of love to her. Hey, dude, not hello to screen goddess. You got to be like a normal man. You can't be all gushy, right? So when her actor friend Frankie Stout comes in with a crowd of people, they're sort of nonchalantly walking in and the music's on the piano side. There's a little bit of saxophone. Frankie walks in and he sees Sylvia. Okay, so this is how the muse plays a part in all artists' great works of art. And so Anita Eckberg is really the muse for Fred Ricco, Fellini in this movie. So at any rate, as Frankie comes in, the party gets happening and it goes on for another, I don't know, six, seven, eight, nine, ten minutes. It's a great part of the movie. The actor playing Frankie Stout looks like a pan on crack. He looks like he smoked the pipe. He keeps gesturing and wiggling his eyebrows, but it's a great part of the movie. You're going to like it. Even though he's as pan and doing the chateau, he's a little bit creepy. Lex Barker is in this and whenever they decide to do the remake, Alec Baldwin will play him to a tee. Okay, Alex Baldwin can actually do Lex Barker better than Lex Barker. All right, enough said about that. Okay, so we'll go more into that one next week, okay? All right, so the second movie in our mixed bag today, I hope you all aren't laughing, but you're going to be surprised. It's not, suddenly, it does not have subtitles, okay? It is John Carpenter's They Live. That's right. Rowdy Rawdy, Piper, Keith David, and Meg Foster with those very scary eyes. Yes, Meg, they are very scary eyes, okay? Peter Jason and Buck, my man there, Buck Floua. He's in it. All right, Buck Floua, Meg Foster, and Raymond St. York as the preacher. Okay, the first time I saw this movie, I had just moved here to Central Vermont from Upper Valley where I'd grown up. And this movie scared the daylights out of me. I did not go out the entire month of October that year in the dark, okay? This movie is great. You know that you've had paid with a great movie when the director scares you to death, all right? On top of that, being served raised when I was younger in Roman Catholic, the initials JC really get me and me, Sister Laura would say she's always been loved with Jesus since she was little. Well, that's done now. I don't fall in love with guys that look like Jesus anymore. I like crew cuts with a little bit of silver right there. But John Carpenter will always have a special place in my heart and the fact that his initials are JC do not hurt. I love that Adrian Barbot too, but John Carpenter is our American trailblazer, horror movie filmmaker. It's not all about the gore and the slash, okay, when it comes to him. It's about the thrills and the chills and the great editing, all right? So, They Live is based on a short story called Eight O'Clock of the Morning by Ray Nelson. The music is done by Mr. Coppita and his pal Alan Hoveth and the editors are Gibb, Jaffe, and I believe Frank Genes. And the screenplays by Frank Armitage, which is a in-joke, I think that John Coppita wrote the script but he used Frank Armitage, but we'll go into that next week. So, Rowdy Roddy Piper is in this movie. I mean, Versa One Night and Mom and I are trying to pick out a movie and I'm like, they live and she goes, oh, that guy, connect, that guy, connect. And then, I mean, she kind of keeps saying it all through the movie. She goes, wow, for a wrestler, she goes, he connect and it's true. He is such a great actor. I mean, he's also really good looking but he's a great actor and that really helps the movie, too. The actors have to bring it. They have to translate the director and the screenwriter's vision in order for the audience to enjoy it. Now, let's see. Now, my crush, Steve Nash, he was diesel back in the 90s. I brush on him because I'm looking at all this stuff as I'm not feeling well. He is saying, I have the utter respect for Dwayne Johnson. Dwayne Johnson right now is the highest paid movie star on the planet. It used to be my man Robert Downey Jr., but now it's Dwayne Johnson. So, Steve Nash says, I have the utmost respect for Dwayne, the utmost respect until I watch Witch Mountain. Okay, now, okay, now I'm telling you right now, like, why make movies like that? Oh, it's okay. Anyway, Dwayne Johnson is very sexy, but he makes Roddy Piper as Marlon Brando compared to Mr. Johnson. Even though Mr. Johnson is a movie star, Roddy Piper is a good actor. Okay, I just want to make that point. And I think Steve Nash should go into acting, too. All right, now, everything unfolds slowly with this movie, even with the credits. Lorraine Turgeon who used to run the Vermont Film Commission in our brief conversation said something to me years ago that stuck with me. Writing a script is all about reveal, reveal, reveal. So, in the very first scene of this movie, we see some graffiti, and then we see a train rolling, I think, in the back of the bridge of the graffiti. And as the train departs on the screen, we see Mr. Piper. So, this movie does a lot with that technique. It reveals, reveals the plot, so I don't really want to throw the plot away. I'll watch the movie, especially before next week. All right, so is that it for that one today? I think it is. Yeah, so the only thing I do have to say with this is that, and I'll broach this more next week, politics, colonization, imperialism, consumer culture, skepticism, deceit, and Los Angeles all-in-one movie. Check it out. All right, you're going to love it. Now, for my third and last movie today, it's hysterical. It's an expag. Hmm, I wonder which one is next. Well, this one does have subtitles. And it's not set in the States. It's the beautiful The Last Emperor by Bernardo Berluci, starring John Lone, Joan Chen, Victor Wong, and Peter O'Toole. Ying Ruchuxiang, I think Dennis Stung, Maggie Han, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and I believe my man, Carrie, who is in the Bond movie there, and Planet The Eight, so I can't get his last name straight in the head for life to me, but I know that he played a portent. Okay, so the movie starts out, Mantua, 1950. The emperor is being held prisoner because of crimes against the state. However, even though he's the emperor, people are bowing and cowtowing to the station. So there unfolds a tale of an extraordinary man, except for, I don't know if he's all that extraordinary because he did lose his throne, but on the other hand, there were things set in motion on a political level that he probably might not have been able to rectify, so it's not really his fault, okay? However, the film slants towards the side of things were out of control before Puyi took over the throne, which is true, okay? Now, I decided, last night, I'm like, okay, mix back. What's going to be my third movie? I thought about it. I thought about it. I'm like, wow, Last Emperor. I'm such a sucker. So I go to YouTube. Now, YouTube is heartbreak land. It's hit or miss. You're either totally satisfied or you're like, damn, okay? So, pardon my language. So I go to Last Emperor. The music starts booming up and the music is done by Kong Si and David Byrne, by the way. The music starts booming up. I had seen it on the big screen at the hop years ago, Dartmouth, right? So, you know, I knew the movie. So I pause it, go get my cup of tea, you know, golden seal for me. You're like, sit down and it takes me 45 minutes to realize that I'm not looking at the English version. This is how great this movie is. I'm reading the subtitles. And finally, when Peter O'Toole comes on the screen, I start getting a little bit annoyed. I'm like, oh, okay, there's Peter O'Toole. The guardsman didn't shoot the students because Peter O'Toole's in the crowd. I'm like, okay, typical imperialism. And then I'm like thinking about it and I start looking. I'm like, when he's taught, when he gives the bike to Peter, I'm like, wait a minute. I've been watching it with the English subtitles. This is how beautiful this movie is. Please check it out. But I would suggest do the English version, please. It was beautiful in English. And what a feast for the senses. A feast for the eyes. I believe that the director got permission from the government to film in the Forbidden City. Please watch this movie. Okay. So I think that that's it for today because I'm going to go further into these movies next week and give you more information about the grosses, the locations, bibliographical information about the stars and the directors, and overall just winding it up. All right. So we have thanked Express Care today. Thank you. I was able to do my show. Ladies, please. I'm thanking the ladies. And if you all ever need to go there, I just felt really well taken care of. And families looked well. It was just a place of good vibes. So I'm also going to thank St. Leveau Consultations and St. Leveau Lemonade Company for being here today. You can catch St. Leveau Lemonade Company sometimes on Fridays. You never know where St. Leveau Lemonade Company will pump up. I also want to thank my librarians at Kellogg Hubbard Library who I've been forgetting to thank these past several weeks because they have been hooking me up with these movies, especially Mr. Scott. Thank you. Because of them, I'm able to access movies so I don't have my library or not at Kellogg Hubbard. So thank you. Thank you very much. You're making me show rock. And then Gender and Building Quality and Concrete Gender and Building for 45 years. You need some concrete done. Check them out. Okay, I'm Betty St. Leveau. I'll catch you all next week. Have a good day. You've been watching Celluloid Mirror. Comments on silver screen. Until next time, don't watch any bad movies. Ciao.