The Pink Smoke podcast

“Only pain and suffering will make you realize who you are.” A Halloween double feature! Hosts John Cribbs and Christopher Funderburg look at a pair of re-marriage thrillers in which the new spouse turns out to be diabolically psychotic: Audition and The Stepfather. Director Takashi Miike and screenwriter Donald E. Westlake (the respective creative forces behind each film) bring a masterful level of artistry and intelligence to the brutality (both physical and emotions) of the movies, taking genre filmmaking to its apex. The conversation compares the films’ depiction of the differences between feminine and masculine performance, their themes about abuse and exploitation, and what each one has to say about the nature of evil. Beware of your fantasies of a perfect family and a perfect spouse, they might kill you. All Pink Smoke Podcast episodes are made available a week early to our Patreon subscribers, the most decisive & thoughtful of all listeners. Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com The Pink Smoke on Twitter: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Christopher Funderburg on Twitter: twitter.com/cfunderburg John Cribbs on Twitter: twitter.com/TheLastMachine Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"

“I’ve looked into his eyes and seen the blackness of the beyond, the great nothing that waits for our warmth.” The podcast gets as metal as it will ever get: we’re joined by Tenebrous Kate of the Bad Books for Bad People podcast to discuss David Peak’s utterly indefensible horror novel Corpsepaint. Its snaking story slithers its way from a grimy travelogue about a pair of musicians traveling across Europe to the Ukraine to record an album into full-blown Lovecraftian apocalyptic horror. But wait, it gets worse! Murder, torture, school shootings, heroin withdraw, the cruelty of the old gods, evil goats and blood-caked fretboards, the story begins with black metal and ends with plague, cannibalism and mass death. The discussion touches on the traditions of cosmic horror, the definite but indefinable distinction between black and death metal, and the pleasures of artworks that will definitely fail any moral purity tests. Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke Listen to Bad Books for Bad People: www.badbooksbadpeople.com/ The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com Bad Books for Bad People on Twitter: twitter.com/badbooksbadppl The Pink Smoke on Twitter: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Christopher Funderburg on Twitter: twitter.com/cfunderburg John Cribbs on Twitter: twitter.com/TheLastMachine Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"

“The chaste woman loves to contemplate dawn.” Hosts John Cribbs and Christopher Funderburg sit down to discuss Henri-Georges Clouzot’s masterpiece of suspense, Les Diaboliques. The film follows a pair of abused women seeking revenge on their tormentor as it builds to one of cinema’s greatest (and most diabolical) twist endings. The conversation covers Clouzot’s controversial past and working methods, why the comparisons to Hitchcock are reductive, the artistic influence of his wife Vera, why Clouzot’s Le Corbeau made both furious the Nazis and French resistance furious, and the balance of power between Clouzot’s twins masterpieces Diaboliques and The Wages of Fear. Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com The Pink Smoke on Twitter: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Christopher Funderburg on Twitter: twitter.com/cfunderburg John Cribbs on Twitter: twitter.com/TheLastMachine Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"

“The trouble with us Americans is that we all want a tragedy with a happy ending.” Sophie won't tell anyone she's sleeping with her professor. He's young, handsome, and passionate - perfect for Sophie, who just wants to write about love. When they hook up, he drops everything and her notebook begins to fill with poetry. But while he's head-over-heels, she's about to write two important words: The End. We're joined by Pink Smoke 3rd mic Marcus Pinn (of Pinnland Empire) to discuss Hal Hartley's brilliant film Surviving Desire! The conversation looks at Hartley's vanishing place in the American film canon, why it's more important to repeatedly read a single paragraph from The Brothers Karamazov than to know Dostoevsky's biographical details, and the disappearance of the independent cinema landscape in which Hartley's work flourished. Support our Patreon: 
www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com Marcus Pinn on Twitter: twitter.com/PINNLAND_EMPIRE The Pink Smoke on Twitter: twitter.com/thepinksmoke John Cribbs on Twitter: twitter.com/TheLastMachine Christopher Funderburg on Twitter: twitter.com/cfunderburg Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"

For this episode in our Patreon-exclusive series on Franz Kafka’s The Trial, we’re joined by Martin Kessler to discuss unfinished masterpieces, over-finished masterpieces, post-humous puzzles, re-edits, rejiggerings, and all manner of ways in which the “completeness” of a masterpiece can remain unresolved. Naturally, Kafka’s work leads the way in the discussion, but quickly turns to artworks ranging from the various film versions of Don Quixote to Bizet’s Carmen to Blade Runner, The Confessions of Felix Krull, Zulawski’s On the Silver Globe, German’s It’s Hard to be a God, Billy Budd and The Good Soldier Schweik. Support our Patreon:
 www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site:
 www.thepinksmoke.com The Pink Smoke on Twitter: 
twitter.com/thepinksmoke Christopher Funderburg on Twitter:
 twitter.com/cfunderburg John Cribbs on Twitter: 
twitter.com/TheLastMachine Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two”
 Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"

We’re back. After an extended Covid, malaise and illness-induced hiatus, John Cribbs & Christopher Funderburg return to the 47th annual Toronto International Film Festival to watch all the best in the current world of le cinema. The preview follows their traditional format: each picks 3 must-see films, 3 films to avoid & a handful of wildcards! Included in this year’s slate are North American debuts of new movies by Hirokazu Kore-eda, Sarah Polley, Jafar Panahi, Steven Spielberg, Sally El Hosaini…choosing which titles among the 300+ entries to see is going to be tough. But the experience is always unique, there are always fun discoveries and unexpected screenings, hopefully our excitement for this always monumental event is palpable on the episode! Support our Patreon:
 www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site:
 www.thepinksmoke.com The Pink Smoke on Twitter: 
twitter.com/thepinksmoke Christopher Funderburg on Twitter: 
twitter.com/cfunderburg John Cribbs on Twitter: 
twitter.com/TheLastMachine Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two”

Parker, that stoic solo brute of independent career criminals, made his debut in the pages of Richard Stark's The Hunter 60 years ago. Stark (the pseudonym under which legendary crime fiction writer Donald E. Westlake chronicled the Parker stories) introduces the world to this ultimate anti-hero at his lowest: backstabbed by a coward, shot by his own wife, ripped off for his take from a bold heist, forced to kill his way out of a prison labor camp and travel penniless cross country to New York, where he expects to enact some savage revenge on those who crossed him. Hosts Christopher Funderburg and John Cribbs revisit this first entry in the 24-book Parker series to examine what made the character so instantly intriguing and why the novel, adapted twice as the Lee Marvin-starring Point Blank and Mel Gibson-ruined Payback, seems weirdly detached from the subsequent books. What does this very readable pulp thriller have to say about lazy corporations and bad luck and monogrammed belt buckles? And the big question of the episode: when does Parker become Parker? The Hunter artwork by Tony Stella. Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com The Pink Smoke on Twitter: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Christopher Funderburg on Twitter: twitter.com/cfunderburg John Cribbs on Twitter: twitter.com/TheLastMachine Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"

Host Christopher Funderburg is joined by critic & author Martin Kessler for the second of four episodes covering Errol Morris’ stunningly brilliant documentary television show, First Person. Filmed on Morris’ notorious documentary-interrogation device, The Interrotron, and touching on all his favorite obsessions, First Person brought Morris’ ground-breaking documentary style to the small screen. This podcast episode, titled “Wastebasket Taxon,” focuses on the episodes of First Person that looked at one of his favorite subjects: weird science. This episodes covers “Eyeball to Eyeball,” “I Dismember Mama,” “Harvesting Me,” and “Smiling in a Jar.” Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com Movie Kessler on Twitter: twitter.com/MovieKessler The Pink Smoke on Twitter: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Christopher Funderburg on Twitter: twitter.com/cfunderburg Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"

Host Christopher Funderburg is joined by critic & author Martin Kessler for the second of four episodes covering Errol Morris’ stunningly brilliant documentary television show, First Person. Filmed on Morris’ notorious documentary-interrogation device, The Interrotron, and touching on all his favorite obsessions, First Person brought Morris’ ground-breaking documentary style to the small screen. This podcast episode, titled “Likely Heroes,” focuses on the episodes of First Person that looked the rarest of all subjects in Morris’ oeuvre: heroes. Possibly. Maybe. Arguably heroes. This episodes covers “The Little Gray Man,” “Leaving the Earth,” “You’re Soaking in It!,” and “Mr. Debt.” Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com Movie Kessler on Twitter: twitter.com/MovieKessler The Pink Smoke on Twitter: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Christopher Funderburg on Twitter: twitter.com/cfunderburg Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"

Host Christopher Funderburg is joined by critic & author Martin Kessler for the second of four episodes covering Errol Morris’ stunningly brilliant documentary television show, First Person. Filmed on Morris’ notorious documentary-interrogation device, The Interrotron, and touching on all his favorite obsessions, First Person brought Morris’ ground-breaking documentary style to the small screen. This podcast episode, titled “Crime (Adjacent) Stories,” focuses on the episodes of First Person that looked at people embroiled in crime without being criminals themselves. This episodes covers “The Killer Inside Me,” “In The Kingdom of the Unabomber,” “The Only Truth,” “The Stalker,” and “The Parrot.” Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com Movie Kessler on Twitter: twitter.com/MovieKessler The Pink Smoke on Twitter: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Christopher Funderburg on Twitter: twitter.com/cfunderburg Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"