Tashpix Talks: Recent Episodes
Charles Tashiro
Reviews of classic films and more general thoughts. If you are familiar with my old podcast "So You Want to Be a Filmmaker," this is new material.
Gruesome but stylish Spanish horror with both Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing as good guys
No matter how questionable, Hollywood's stunningly affective combination of action and religion
The first and perhaps most famous of the collaborations between Harold Pinter and Joseph Losey
John Huston's adaptation of Carson McCuller's Southern Gothic novel, with Marlon Brando
Sergei Eisenstein's cross between horror and historical epic
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2018/10/07/ivan-the-terrible/
Andrei Tarkovsky's science fiction classic
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2023/05/07/solaris-1972/
Ken Russell’s almost unwatchable exercise in horror
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2018/10/21/the-devils/
Ken Russell’s film of The Who’s rock opera
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2018/11/04/tommy/
Roman Polanski takes on Shakespeare
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2018/11/18/macbeth-1971/
Godard before he jumped off the deep end
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2018/12/02/la-chinoise/
Sherlock Holmes meets Freud
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2018/12/16/the-seven-per-cent-solution/
A Hammer monster which unfortunately did not result in a series.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2018/12/30/the-gorgon/
Leni Riefenstahl’s controversial record of the 1934 Nazi Party rally
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2019/01/13/triumph-of-the-w…umph-des-willens/
Carol Reed and Graham Greene's classic exploration of decadent postwar Vienna
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2023/04/23/the-third-man/
Win Wenders’s neon and rain-soaked classic of New German cinema.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2019/01/27/the-american-fri…ikanische-freund/
Roberto Rossellini’s history film about the Greek philosopher
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2019/02/10/socrates-1971/
Bergman's look at artistic breakdown as horror
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2019/02/24/hour-of-the-wolf-vargtimmen/
One of Hollywood's most notorious films is not bad in the way you think.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2011/03/15/myra-breckinridge/
A film that needs no introduction.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2019/03/10/the-shining-1980/
Camouflaged Nazi hate.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2019/03/24/ohm-kruger/
Francis Coppola's "other" gangster film.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2019/04/07/the-cotton-club/
A glossy melodrama that is more entertaining than you might expect.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2023/04/09/grand-hotel/
Fellini's very dry vision of the 18th century
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2019/04/21/fellini-casanova…federico-fellini/
The first Technicolor feature has a lot to offer
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2019/04/28/becky-sharp/
The first Technicolor feature offers more than the cinematography.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2019/04/28/becky-sharp/
Art made kitsch
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2019/05/12/the-red-shoes/
Stylish French thriller with Alain Delon
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2019/05/05/le-samourai/
Polanski’s perverse classic
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2023/03/26/rosemarys-baby/
George Segal in a thriller without thrills
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2019/05/19/the-quiller-memorandum/
Nicholas Roeg’s hallucinatory vision of the Australian Outback.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2019/05/29/walkabout/
An alternately beautiful and harrowing two-part epic about 19th century migration.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2019/06/09/the-emigrants-and-the-new-land/
Little seen Orson Welles thriller.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2019/06/19/the-stranger-1946/
When imperialists feel guilty
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2023/03/12/khartoum/
Michelangelo Antonioni’s first color film
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2019/06/30/red-desert-il-deserto-rosso/
Herzog at his most hypnotic
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2019/07/10/aguirre-the-wrath-of-god-aguirre-der-zorn-gottes/
Early Bertolucci and classic Borges
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2019/07/21/the-spiders-strategem-strategia-del-ragno/
Roger Corman at his artiest
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2019/07/31/the-masque-of-the-red-death-1964/
Interesting WWII anti-Japanese propaganda
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2019/08/21/blood-on-the-sun/
Sophisticated propaganda
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2023/02/26/hangmen-also-die/
Life in the Hotel California
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2019/09/11/play-it-as-it-lays/
Angst and neurosis in the New York fashion world.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2019/09/22/puzzle-of-a-downfall-child/
German romantic tragedy from the Nazi era
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2019/10/02/romanze-in-moll-romance-in-a-minor-key/
Altman at his artiest
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2019/10/13/images/
Rupert Everett, Colin Firth and Cary Elwes before they became stars.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2023/02/12/another-country/
The moral ambiguities of all history.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2019/10/23/the-confessions-of-winifred-wagner/
Under-appreciated British crime drama
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2019/11/03/sapphire/
Interesting low-budget horror with a psychological bent.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2019/11/13/tormented/
A story about storytelling
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2019/11/24/the-saragossa-manuscript/
Dietrich and Lubitsch
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2023/01/29/angel-1937/
Not so much a whodunnit as a why bother?
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2019/12/04/the-murder-party/
Christopher Lee as the eponymous villain
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2019/12/15/the-face-of-fu-manchu/
Neglected Kubrick
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2012/08/14/lolita/
Peter Lorre as a Japanese?
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2019/12/29/think-fast-mr-moto/
Proof, should it be needed, that youthful rebellion does not age well.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2020/01/08/wild-in-the-streets/
Old style melodrama filtered through psychotherapy.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2023/01/15/kramer-vs-kramer/
One of Ken Russell’s early forays into artistic biography.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2020/01/19/song-of-summer/
As big, loud and brassy as an opera by Salieri
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2020/02/02/amadeus/
Classical camp, camp classic
This episode is also available as a blog entry at tashpix.wordpress.com/2020/02/16/hercules-1958/
Visually glossy, dramatically dull
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2020/03/01/anna-karenina-1935/
John Boorman's very messed up post-apocalyptic fantasy
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2012/05/29/zardoz-2/
The not-so-sweet life of Fellini’s 1960s Rome.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2020/03/15/la-dolce-vita/
Jules Verne meets Hollywood bloat
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2020/03/29/around-the-world-in-80-days-1956/
A vision of the future that tells us more about the past.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2020/04/12/things-to-come-1936/
Andrei Tarkovsky’s quest to answer "What do we really want?"
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2023/01/01/stalker/
Intrigue in what was Indochina
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2020/04/26/the-quiet-american-2002/
Victoriana à la Hammer
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2020/05/10/she-1965/
One of director Joseph Losey's loonier efforts.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2020/05/24/secret-ceremony/
Great performances, beautifully made, but grim.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2022/12/18/they-shoot-horses-dont-they/
When history meets film noir.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2020/06/07/the-black-book/
Truly awful
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2020/06/21/the-bad-seed/
Dietrich and von Sternberg at their best
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2020/07/05/shanghai-express/
An idiosyncratic "adventure" film from John Huston.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2020/07/19/beat-the-devil/
Hollywood plays catch-up with Italian Neorealism
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2020/08/02/the-house-on-92nd-street/
Calculated adolescent whimsy
This episode is also available as a blog entry at tashpix.wordpress.com/2022/12/04/king-of-hearts-le-roi-de-coeur/
Four near-features about sex, Italian style.
This episode was originally published as four separate blog entries:
Renzo e Luciana: https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2016/09/18/boccaccio-70-renzo-e-luciana/
Le tentazioni del dottor Antonio: https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2016/10/02/boccaccio-70-le-tentazioni-del-dottor-antonio/
Il lavoro: https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2016/10/16/boccaccio-70-il-lavoro/
La riffa: https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2016/10/30/boccaccio-70-la-riffa/
Alain Resnais's reverie on the '30s
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2020/08/30/stavisky/
A clever, insidious British crime thriller.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2020/08/16/dear-murderer/
An erotic melodrama amidst the pre-revolutionary French aristocracy.
This episodes is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2022/11/20/dangerous-liaisons-1988/
When bad taste is rendered too well.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2020/09/13/whos-afraid-of-virginia-woolf/
Famous for being famous
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2020/09/27/rope/
Half-baked anti-German propaganda from World War II
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2020/10/12/berlin-correspondent/
The entertainment value of "processed schlock."
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2020/10/25/they-call-it-murder/
A strange and awkward updating of an old story.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2022/11/06/pandora-and-the-flying-dutchman/
Robert Altman's riff on Raymond Chandler
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2020/11/08/the-long-goodbye/
Not terribly thrilling British thriller.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2020/12/06/the-naked-edge/
A not-so-nice classic of film noir.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2020/12/20/kiss-me-deadly/
How radicals become tyrants.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2022/10/23/the-confrontation-fenyes-szelek/
Great acting, but to what purpose?
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2021/01/03/the-caretaker/
Bergman does Mozart.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2021/01/17/the-magic-flute/
Orson Welles does Shakespeare.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2022/10/09/macbeth-1948/
A relatively unknown thriller from Fritz Lang
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2021/01/31/ministry-of-fear/
A sophisticated love triangle even with Joan Crawford.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2021/02/14/daisy-kenyon/
More or less pointless form from Bertolucci
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2021/02/28/besieged/
How war leads to national consciousness.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2021/03/28/the-rifleman/
One of Hollywood's loonier efforts.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2022/09/25/the-old-dark-house-1932/
Restored from a butchered version, but still somewhat opaque.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2011/03/22/ludwig-the-mad-king-of-bavaria/
The evils of slavery through detached calculation
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2021/04/25/el-otro-francisco-the-other-francisco/
Can Nazism be funny?
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2022/09/11/to-be-or-not-to-be-1942/
Visconti does Camus
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2021/05/09/lo-straniero-the-stranger/
Unhappy accident or just plain stupidity?
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2021/05/23/the-woman-in-the-window-1944/
Zeffirelli at his best or worst, depending on your point of view.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2021/06/06/romeo-and-juliet-1968/
Scientific method isn't enough.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2021/06/20/cartesius/
Looks great even if it doesn't make much sense.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2022/08/28/curse-of-the-mummys-tomb-1964/
Altman at his best.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2021/07/04/nashville/
Frivolity made tragic.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2021/07/18/the-earrings-of-madame-de/
Stop motion animation, Surrealism and Germanic legend.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2021/08/01/faust-1994/
For all Noel Coward's fans.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2022/08/14/blithe-spirit-1945/
When the selling matters more than the telling.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2021/08/15/the-house-on-haunted-hill-1959/
If only it were as funny as it thinks it is.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2021/08/29/the-assassination-bureau/
A masterpiece or a producer's mess?
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2021/09/12/eva/
Hag horror with Debbie Reynolds and Shelley Winters.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2021/09/26/whats-the-matter-with-helen/
Richard Widmark rushes through life as one big con.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2021/10/10/night-and-the-city/
Visconti's rarely screened Neorealist epic about Sicilian fishermen.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2021/10/24/la-terra-trema-the-earth-trembles/
Grim, but brilliant.
This epsiode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2022/07/31/winter-wind/
A "classic?" Maybe.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2016/05/15/last-tango-in-paris/
A low-budget thriller from the hero of poverty-row filmmaking, Edgar Ulmer.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2021/11/07/strange-illusion/
A big-budget costume melodrama from cult director Edgar Ulmer.
This episode is also available as a blog post at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2021/12/05/the-strange-woman/
Using horror as an excuse for arty techniques.
This episode is also available as blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2021/12/19/die-monster-die/
Loud and abusive.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2022/07/17/altered-states/
A mixture of melodrama and documentary realism.
This episode is also available as blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2021/11/21/call-northside-777/
Enjoyable even if it never quite makes sense.
This episode is also available as a blog post at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2022/01/02/this-island-earth-1955/
Fun sci-fi on the cheap.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2022/01/16/moon-zero-two/
Is this funny?
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2022/01/30/modesty-blaise/
The power of mediocrity.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2022/02/13/front-page-story/
Expensive horror of questionable long-term appeal.
This episode is also available as a blog post at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2022/07/03/the-exorcist/
Not quite as fun as it should be.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2021/04/11/master-and-commander/
The tragedy of not knowing who you are.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2012/05/15/mephisto/
Suspense over a foregone conclusion
This episode is also available as a blog post at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2011/07/05/the-day-of-the-jackal/
Way too relevant to today.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2022/06/19/z/
Feckless, but difficult to forget.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2022/02/27/fellini-satyricon/
What marks a TV movie as different from a feature?
This episode is also available as blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2015/08/05/the-legend-of-lizzie-borden/
When ideals become the corruption.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2011/11/01/danton/
Does anyone really find a mummy movie frightening?
This episode is also available as a blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2022/03/13/the-mummy-1932/
Hip meets formula in this biopic about Billie Holiday.
This episode is also available as a blog post at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2022/03/27/lady-sings-the-blues/
’30s Hollywood via F. Scott Fitzgerald and Harold Pinter.
This episode is also available as a blog post at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2022/06/05/the-last-tycoon-1976/
Art film, horror and more than a touch of porn add up to a loaded package.
This episode is also available as a blog post at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2017/04/03/daughters-of-darkness/
Even '80s films can occasionally be entertaining.
This episode is also available as a blog post at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2022/04/10/desperately-seeking-susan/
The second collaboration between director Joseph Losey and playwright Harold Pinter may be the most viciously funny.
This episode is also available as a blog post at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2019/08/11/accident/
Sometimes low-budget filmmaking is just bad.
This episode is also available as blog entry at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2022/05/22/mystery-liner/
Overrated? Maybe. Overstuffed? Definitely.
This episode is also available as a blot entry at
https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2011/12/27/my-fair-lady/
An overview of what to expect in my podcast episodes. Available as video for listeners in the USA.
Joseph Losey and Tom Stoppard combine to produce a sophisticated comedy.
This episode is also available as a blog post at
https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2011/09/27/the-romantic-englishwoman/
When a little censorship is good for you.
This episode is also available as a blog entry at
https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2012/09/25/the-picture-of-dorian-gray-1945/
A film that doesn't work, but is still fascinating.
This episode is also available as blog entry at
https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2022/05/08/the-day-of-the-locust/
A film that makes you ask "What were they thinking?"
This episode is also available as a blog post:
https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2012/02/14/la-vie-est-un-roman/
A good example of the pleasures possible with low-budget, no-name films.
This episode is also available as a blog post:
https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2017/02/05/plunder-road/
A discussion of the differences between two related media.
This episode is also available as a blog entry:
https://tashpix.wordpress.com/some-thoughts/photography-vs-cinematography/
Why we have no chance against insects.
This episode is also available as a blog entry:
https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2019/09/01/the-hellstrom-chronicle/
Franco Zeffirelli being Zeffirelli at the expense of St. Francis of Assisi.
This episode is also available as a blog entry:
https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2011/06/14/brother-sun-sister-moon/
A look at a Kubrick film that many love and others love to hate.
This episode is also available as a blog entry:
https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2011/06/28/barry-lyndon/
Joseph Losey's puzzling exercise in political and psychological obscurity.
This episode is also available as a blog post:
https://wordpress.com/posts/tashpix.wordpress.com?s=trotsky
Billy Wilder's "classic" comedy/drama about a low-level clerk using the system to his own ends.
This episode is also available as a blog post at https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2022/04/24/the-apartment/
This episode is also available as a blog post: https://tashpix.wordpress.com/2011/03/08/mr-klein/