Author Archives: Alice Thirteen

Pather Panchali + Kajillionaire

Pather Panchali + Kajillionaire

Differing poverties. Turns out, this is not a cheeky Double Feature. A fresh breath of filmmaking in Pather Panchali, a movie many people are still discovering for the first time. The way current films address diversity is still condescending. The problem of getting audience to accept leaving their confort zone. New countries make movies – seeing the democratization of film making again and again as each country gets its own new wave. The punctuation of Pather Panchali’s impulsive nature & mood inserts. Give due respect to Miranda July. Kajillionaire’s surreal look at the modern day struggle with crony-capitalism. In addition to society, Kajillionaire takes on con artists, parenting, arrested development, isolation, existentialism, second changes, self-love, and so much more. Continue reading

Angst + The Guilty

Angst + The Guilty

Two intense films on opposite sides of the coin. Angst is a truly underground film, even today. Double Feature settles where in the the world these films actually come from. The internet hasn’t yet recognized the banned film Angst, and it’s about time someone gives it a minute. Home invasion from an outrageous new perspective. A movie that appears to be about and also made by mad men. Psychopathic camera. The Guilty – and not the Netflix made for TV movie. Trying to deconstructive the elusive recipe of The Guilty. How does a movie paint so many vivid scenes without ever showing them to the audience? All the amazing places you go in The Guilty without leaving the room. What makes The Guilty unlike any other bottle movie that’s ever appeared on Double Feature. Continue reading

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes + The Love Witch

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes + The Love Witch

A deep dive into Technicolor. The experiment inspired by The Love Witch – what can be learned about technicolor by watch back to back? Plus, how Technicolor became a powerful influence on the style of the 1950s and how it’s remembered today. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, a 1953 movie filmed on three strip technicolor film and processed using Technicolor’s dye imbibition development process. The Love Witch, a 2016 movie painstakingly recreating the feeling of 1950s cinema, using many of the same techniques of the 1950s, and shot on 35mm film – but importantly, without the ability to utility long-obsolete technicolor film or processing. Bonus theme for people who don’t care about any of this nonsense: decade separate contrasts on feminism! First up, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes provides an amazing example of spectacle technicolor Continue reading

The Wild Angels + Baise-moi

The Wild Angels + Baise-moi

The second chapter of the Exploitation + New French Extremity journey. This times, files that can be viewed around the world! Fortune smiles upon Double Feature as a theme of freedom and rebellion ties the parallel film movements together. The Wild Angels as a biker exploitation arthouse film. Roger Corman was a filmmaker’s producer…kind of! The many notable directors and writers that came from the Corman camp. Baise-moi as a misunderstood entry in what would later become known as The New French Extreme. The developing trend in French extremity toward unstimulated sex. What is Baise-moi actually about? Continue reading

Suspiria (2018) + Belladonna of Sadness

Suspiria (2018) + Belladonna of Sadness

Artful witches have an odd way. A coven helps break down the mise-en-scène with Suspiria (2018). The feeling of European arthouse films may have been buried in the 80s but it was resurrected by Suspiria in 2018. Mise-en-scène is a french term from the Cahiers du Cinéma world of criticism, but at least one pretentious fuck uses it in practice and they also host a podcast called Double Feature. If Mise-en-scène can be used to craft an immersive film, it can be used to reverse engineer one. Belladonna of Sadness is an honest and moving story about the stages a rape survivor goes through. It’s also a psychedelic slide show with a bunch of silly dicks. At the same goddamn time. Continue reading

Kiki’s Delivery Service + The House with a Clock in Its Walls

Kiki’s Delivery Service + The House with a Clock in Its Walls

A walk through youthful breezy films with a robust set of interpretive tools. Looking at Kiki’s Delivery Service after everything learned on the grand Ghibli journey. One tiny witch, one big village. Independence, it’s everything you ever wanted and nothing you were prepared for! Eli? Roth? The House with a Clock in Its Walls as an Amblin film. The real secret to immersive filmmaking doesn’t rely on the picture – and actually, it’s not just the sound either! So what is it? It’s inside this podcast, so stop reading this lengthy description and listen to the episode. You’ll have a good time. Really, you will. And you deserve it, don’t you? Don’t you? Continue reading

Ghost World + Wiener Dog

Ghost World + Wiener Dog

Independent, and maybe Independent As Fuck. One of the all-time greatest comic book adaptations, Ghost World. It seems illegal to watch these actors in this film. A debate on whether or not every single person in Ghost World is fucking boring. An extended exercise in writing a logline and what it can tell us about about films that refuse to be put in a box. Todd Solondz’s film Wiener Dog as a collection of stories connected to the presence of the eponymous doggo who goes from owner to owner. Alice refuses to speak french, even for Bresson. The impossibility of Dawn Wiener and the Todd Solondz multiverse. A case for every Solondz film’s gallery-quality. A whimsical anthology gets two wieners out of a possible five. In conversation: a twenty-first century meditation on dick jokes contained within podcast descriptions. In a special bonus chapter, a human continues writing lengthy descriptions for the purposes of robot organization based on outdated assumptions about search engines. Continue reading

Chungking Express + Fallen Angels

Chungking Express + Fallen Angels

Enter the world of Wong Kar-wai with Chungking Express and the spiritual successor Fallen Angels. A day and night Hong Kong pair from a director who should have been on Double Feature a long time ago. The filmsboth explore themes of loneliness and isolation, as well as the search for connection and meaning in a fast-paced and often impersonal urban environment. Both films also employ unconventional narrative structures and use elements of fantasy and surrealism to portray the inner lives and emotional states of their characters. However, while Chungking Express is a romantic and dreamy exploration of love and loss, Fallen Angels is a darker and more cynical look at the dangers of desire and the corrupting influence of money and power. Both films are also notable for their innovative use of music, montage, and non-linear storytelling, as well as their visual and stylistic flourishes, which help to create a unique and immersive cinematic experience. Continue reading

Ready or Not + Would You Rather

Ready or Not + Would You Rather

Bottle films where mad men (of various numbers) make one or more participants play a deadly children’s game. Bonus points: films that are very aesthetically of their moment (or maybe even more specifically, a moment that summarizes the most popular color grades of the prior decade). Ready or Not, a film that gets away with it by surpassing expectations. How the arc, character dynamics and overall writing make Ready or Not stand out from the usual suspects. Samara Weaving is out here winning hearts and minds and everyone knows it. Looking at Would You Rather as a midnight film, which is probably the best way to watch it today. The crushed contrast of the 2000’s hate-film. Torture, abuse, and other fun things we did in the cinemas for some reason. The particular challenges of this kind of high-concept film (and how each movie attempts to overcome them or even use them to their advantage). Continue reading

Cockfighter + A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence

Cockfighter + A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence

The rough and tumble birds of existential cinema. Cockfighter as the rare Corman underdog. The drifter and the road film. Holding strong onto the extended bird metaphor. Don’t call Pigeons sky-rats. The composition of A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence. An easy look at obtuse arthouse that you can try at home. Using a logline to figure out what a film is about (when the film itself isn’t a lot of help). What it’s like to see The Pigeon with people and the strange ambivalence to cruelty when watching in isolation. On the ground reporting: New York City has something hopeful to offer. Continue reading