Episode 124. Death in Venice: Don’t Look Now (1973)

 
Andrea and Alex delve into the murky depths of Nicolas Roeg’s classic to uncover the film’s themes of mysticism, misogyny and the ethics of mourning. 
 
 

REQUIRED READING

Don’t Look Now. Dir. Nicolas Roeg, 1973.
 

EXTRA CREDIT


The Year of Magical Thinking. Joan Didion’s memoir of the year following her husband’s death.

Mysticism as a Female Path. Mary Sharratt’s look and the intertwining history of mysticism and women.

Take Some Pills for Your Hysteria, Lady. A history of men putting women on pills.
 
Devil’s Advocates: Don’t Look Now by Jessica Gildersleeve – accessible thru JStor via your local library perhaps?
 
The Social Regulation of Grief by Martha R. Fowlkes. Some emotional attachments are socially undervalued.
 

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Episode 123. Love Bites: The Hunger (1983) and Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)

In this episode Andrea and Alex delve into some truly long-term relationships and their lasting implications. From ageless vampires to hipster gentrification, sometimes loving someone “forever and ever” isn’t as fun as it seems. 
 
 

REQUIRED READING

The Hunger. Dir. Tony Scott, 1983. 
Only Lovers Left Alive. Dir. Jim Jarmusch, 2013. 
 

EXTRA CREDIT

Not All Fangs are Phallic. James Craig Holte’s investigation of the female vampire film. 
 
Why hipsters could be seen as modern-day colonisers. The article by Melissa Tandiwe Myambo on the political and cultural effects of gentrification. 
 
Rising costs and gentrification force locals out of Detroit’s downtown and Midtown. Detroit Metro Time’s piece on seniors being forced out of their subsidized housing due to market inflation. 
 
Contemporary myths on boredom. An emergent field of study about when people feel out of sync with the present.
 

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Episode 122. Homecoming: IT Chapter 1 (2017) and IT Chapter 2 (2019)

We all float down here… or we’ll lose our minds trying to make sense of Andy Muschietti’s blockbuster horror films based on Stephen King’s classic novel. In this episode, Andrea and Alex investigate the depths of Derry’s sewer system, summer holidays and sexual awakenings.
 
 

REQUIRED READING

It Chapter 1 and It Chapter 2. Dir.  Andy Muschietti, 2017 and 2019.
 

EXTRA CREDIT

Danse Macabre. Stephen King’s treatise on horror. 
 
Why do Students Get Summers Off? A history of getting to play hooky in the summer. 
 
The American Small Town in the Age of the US Empire. The dream and reality of the American small town. 
 
Return of the Repressed. Robin Wood’s iconic essay about the American horror film. 
 

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Episode 121. Close Quarters: Single White Female (1992)

What kind of person could you live with? Barbet Shroeder’s paranoid erotic thriller seeks to answer that question and more as it delves into queer fear, sexual conservatism, property rights and female intimacy. 
 
 
If you’re Toronto, catch Alex’s lecture on Brexit in the modern British horror film on October 17 at the Revue Cinema – get your tickets here. 
 

REQUIRED READING

Single White Female. Dir. Barbet Schroeder, 1992. 
 

EXTRA CREDIT

You Must Remember This. Katrina Longworth’s in-depth look at Hollywood, including the last two seasons on the Erotic ’80s and ’90s
 
The Rise and Fall of the Erotic Thriller. An overview of the complicated sub-genre. 
 
 
A Room Of One’s Own. Virginia Woolfe’s treatise on women and access to private spaces. 
 
 
Queersighted: The Gay Best Friend Criterion Collections video discussion of the problematic trope
 
 

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