As much as we love it when a guest picks a pre-ordained canonical legend - a David Lynch, an Akira Kurosawa, a Martin Scorsese - there's a lot of value in the left-field choices. Like, say, Bruno Dumont. That was not a name we were expecting to hear when we asked guest David Caesar who he wanted to talk to us about, but it turned out to be one of the more fascinating and eclectic filmographies we've ever covered on the show.
Before we get into Dumont, David joins us to look back at some of the key films of the month, including Steven Soderbergh's basketball business drama High Flying Bird, Mimi Leder's Ruth Bader Ginsburg biopic On the Basis of Sex, Dan Gilroy's high-art horror-drama Velvet Buzzsaw, and Barry Jenkins's adaptation of James Baldwin's If Beale Street Could Talk.
Then, we talk look at some of the interviews Steven Soderbergh has been giving to promote High Flying Bird, and whether or not his approach to streaming distribution could help lift a flailing Australian film industry.
Further reading:
- We look at Steven Soderbergh's High Flying Bird this month. If you can't get enough Soderbergh (and, frankly, who can?) check out our Steven Soderbergh episode
- Before we reviewed On the Basis of Sex, we looked at the documentary RBG here, in what we're hoping will be a regular Ruth Bader Ginsburg review slot
- That episode of the podcast More Perfect that delves into RBG's approach of precedent-setting anti-sex discrimination cases by defending men, can be heard here
- The Steven Soderbergh interviews that sparked our middle topic can be read here: Deadline, Indiewire, The Atlantic
- Is David right about Netflix being US$10 billion in debt? Amazingly, yes
- Here's Bruno Dumont in The Guardian discussing the incredible Bernard Pruvost and his facial tics in P'tit Quinquin and Coincoin
- Yes, Australia lags behind the world in directors making more than one film
And finally, for those who doubt that Ruth Bader Ginsburg's husband is as handsome as Armie Hammer, here's a photo of RGB with her beloved:
Kidding. Here they are:
Outro music: Cause I Knew, written by Lisa Hartmann, performed by Lisa Hartmann and Didier Hennuyer, from P'tit Quinquin (2014)
The latest episode of Hell Is For Hyphenates, featuring David Caesar talking the films of Bruno Dumont, can be heard on Stitcher Smart Radio, subscribed to on iTunes, or downloaded/streamed directly from our website.