S1: It's time for Midday Edition on Kpbs. Today we're talking about some of the arts and culture happenings in San Diego this weekend. I'm Andrew Bracken here with conversations that keep you informed , inspired , and make you think. One upcoming event shares the work of artist Kehinde Wiley and what it means to Decolonise art.
S2: And it is about hearing the voice of those who of those whose voices have been stifled or ignored.
S1: And we hear from the playwright of a new play about scandal and blackmail at San Diego Cygnet Theatre. Plus , Midday Movies is back with some frightening flicks for Halloween. That's ahead on midday edition. Kehinde Wiley is at the forefront of the art world today. He's the first African American artist to paint a presidential portrait that was of President Barack Obama , and one of his pieces is now on display at the Timken Museum of Art in Balboa Park. The Timken is hosting an event this Sunday , October 29th , called Decolonizing Symbols of Power in the Art of Kehinde Wiley. Denise Rogers is the featured speaker. She's a professor of art history at San Diego Mesa College. Professor Rogers , welcome to midday edition.
S2: Thank you. Thank you for having me.
S1: So one thing I always find difficult about talking about visual art on the radio is how to communicate that art itself.
S2: Drawing upon the history of equestrian portraits and female as well as male figures , and and redefining the way or adding to the narrative of black masculinity , which makes us step back and think about how it works or how we perceive male bodies. But the striking color and the pattern and the contrast with his images. And , you know , he's a he's a portrait painter. And so engaging with the subjects , I mean , they're the way he paints faces and bodies and all of the other items that are accompanying the figures is so precise.
S1: And Wiley said he likes to quote , play with the language of power.
S2: They are decked out in all of their iconography , their symbolism that communicates their role. There's a celebratory nature. Viewers are made to feel almost smaller , insignificant in relation to the way that they're represented. And what Wiley does is he challenges that history. He challenges forms of representation by inserting random , everyday people that he meets by chance , and by placing them in that position. He's challenging the way that we have elevated the status of certain figures while diminishing others , and it's a real experience for people to feel underrepresented when they're going into a museum , not seeing themselves reflected in certain paintings. And so what he does is he places the everyday person walking down the street. I'll just say New York , because that's where he was. That's where he started this , this series. He takes the everyday person who people would just either not pay attention to or categorize stereotype in a certain way , and he elevates them to that status.
S1: He grew up in South Los Angeles in the 80s and 90s.
S2: Some of that , you know , it still exists today , but it was a a time period where his path could have been very different. But he describes his mother made a concerted effort to ensure that he and his his brothers and sisters , his family. I believe there are 5 or 6 , six of them. She made sure , as a single mother that they were introduced to tools or people experiences that would lead them on a different path. And so as early as 11 years old , he was already painting. At 12 years old , his mother , through a grant , was able to send him and his brother to Russia on an exchange program to study painting. And so , I mean to grow up in an environment where he could have been , you know , engulfed by , you know , tragedy and violence. He was able to see art as an avenue to leave that environment , but still come back and recreate that environment. I mean , he never. Laugh the the people. He used his art as a tool to elevate the people from the neighborhood.
S1: Yeah , and one of his portraits is actually on view at the Timken.
S2: It's a rumors of Rumors of War series , and he chooses a very popular type of image used for leaders going all the way back to the ancient Roman Empire , the equestrian portrait. And so and many people are familiar with seeing a soldier , a leader on a horse , leading the troops. And that's a symbol of power. It's symbol of ultimate power. And so he's looking at that history , and then he's inserting , as I said , finding these street models , just people he meets by chance , and then he inserts them into those positions of power. And so this painting , the equestrian portrait of Prince Tomaso , which is on view at The Timken , it's one example from this series where the the young black male is on the horse and the horse is rearing back , and he's looking out at the viewer and he's making this statement about , look at me , I am important , I am significant , recognize who I am , recognize my individuality. And the entire series repeats this. And for the viewer , it's , you know , we'll have to say it was interesting for me going into the gallery and hearing the responses of of the people coming into the Timken and they some would say , well , this seems out of place. Why is this here ? You know , because it's a it's a monumental portrait. And they usually have portraits from 1718 , 19th century , but also it's a monumental portrait of a black male on a horse. So it seemed kind of out of context , which for me was interesting for a couple of reasons. One , it was because they weren't accustomed to seeing a black male represented that way. And then the other is that it was it was again , a contemporary artist in a museum that is known for its again going back to medieval modern works of art. And the Timken is , is , you know , they had several contemporary artists in the galleries right now. But this it really made an impact walking into the gallery space and seeing the the pinks and the blues and the greens and then this , this large horse rearing back. And then you see the , the male and him being celebrated in that way. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. And I feel like this really speaks to this decolonization of art.
S2: Black artists , Latino artists , Asian artists are typically not represented in , you know , the art history surveys. And so with that , I see with Kehinde Wiley by decolonizing , he does this in several ways. First , it's the representation of black men. And he also does this with with black women that is not in a in , in a traditional way , you know , stereotyping or demeaning or a colonized subject or an ethnographic photograph like your a scientific study or a specimen. And so for me , by him inserting the male into these paintings , that is an example of decolonizing because he's changing the narrative and he's representing those who are part of communities , they are part of the public to not have them represented , just like the Art history survey. I mean , what contributions did you make ? What mean how what is your history ? What is your story ? And you have to go back to the time when the continent of of the Americas , as well as the continent of Africa and parts of Asia were colonized. And there was this mindset , there was this forced assimilation. There's this mindset that you are less than because you don't fit the certain model. And so to decolonize is to remove those stigmas , to remove those stereotypes , to redefine the narrative and represent or a more a truer representation of peoples of color or peoples who are from these , these regions that were colonized by Europeans. And so by decolonizing , it means we hear the term inclusion , we hear the term equity. And , you know , these are terms that are thrown around quite a bit , but it is about representation , and it is about hearing the voice of those who of those whose voices have been stifled or ignored. And so it's again within the within courses for me specifically. As an instructor , but as well as in museums , it's having a more universal or a more inclusive representation of peoples across the world as producers of art as well as subjects of art. And so decolonizing because of the history of art , where there's this absence , it's it's this move to include those who have been excluded.
S1: You'll be speaking at an event this Sunday at the Timken Museum in Balboa Park. The talk is called Decolonizing Symbols of Power in the Art of Kehinde Wiley.
S2: And so there is a cocktail hour and I believe it starts at five. And then the lecture starts at six. So there's a chance for people to come in and see the painting. There's just one painting by by Wiley. But it's it's an excellent example of his work. You can see his technique , the detail , I mean , the precise way that he , you know , creates these layers of images , these symbols of that have various meaning into the work. And it is an equestrian portrait of the male that's in the gallery. And then I'll be speaking from six to about 645 and will be it's it's meant to be a conversation. And so we can talk about some of the issues that Wiley addresses , not only in the painting and the Temkin , but I'll be showing you some examples from this Rumors of War series , as well as some of the examples , some photographs I took of the show in San Francisco. And so as well as a discussion of , you know , monuments. One monument he did for in Richmond , Virginia , replacing one of the Confederate statues. So there are a lot of subjects that we are going to touch upon. But it's meant to be a time to to look at his work. And I will give the audience some background and some history and some of the interpretations that have been written about his work , but it's really meant to be a dialogue where the audience gets to respond , because that's what that's how I see painting and that's , you know , for many artists , it's they are speaking , but they also exhibit their work so that they can hear from the audiences. What is the what is the image saying to you and what this black masculinity means to you ? And so I would like to hear that from the audience as well.
S1: Thank you so much for joining us today.
S2: Thank you so much for having me. And I hope you all can make it on Sunday.
S1: And again , the event is called Decolonizing Symbols of Power in the Art of Kehinde Wiley. It will be this Sunday , October 29th at the Timken Museum of Art in Balboa Park. When Midday Edition returns , we hear about a new play about an IT girl from the 1800s.
S3: This play is loosely based on her life , using her life in a real theatrical exploration of what it means when love becomes transactional.
S1: That's next on Midday Edition. Welcome back to Kpbs Midday Edition. I'm Andrew Bracken in for Jade Heinemann for our weekend preview. We have contemporary dance , visual art and a new play about the world's oldest profession. Joining me with all the details is Kpbs arts producer and editor Julia Dixon Evans. Hey , Julia.
S4: Hey , Andrea. Thanks for having me.
S1: Great to have you here. Let's start with the world premiere of The Little Fellow or the Queen of tarts tells all at Cygnet Theater. Tell us about it.
S4: So this is a play by playwright Kate Hamill , and she started writing it about a decade ago , and then kind of tucked it away in a drawer , moved on. But it was selected as Cygnet Theater's Bill and Judy Garrett Finish Line commission in 2019 to kind of finish off that playwriting process. And it's about this real historical person called Harriet Wilson , who earned a reputation as being this kind of girl courtesan among the ranks of England's ruling class in the 19th century. And we know who she is because she wrote her memoirs. This tell all account partly to tell her story and find her own voice , and partly just as a kind of black male. And this book was wildly popular at the time.
S1: Yeah , it sounds like quite the scandal or , I don't know , something like from TMZ today , I guess. So she was basically asking for hush money from her former lovers to stay out of this memoir.
S4: Right ? And technically , it was something that some of them had had promised her in the first place , and she was really well taken care of while she was in business. And she lived mostly in luxury , and some of her clients that were the most attached to her promised her that they would set her up with a place to settle down if she ever wanted to get out of that lifestyle and payments to live on. And when that did not happen , she decided to basically go public , and she told the men that if they didn't want to be revealed in the memoir , they could send her a cheque and she'd leave them out. But apparently the vast majority of the men said no. And I spoke with Kate Hamill , the playwright , this week , and I started out by asking her to tell us what it was about this woman , Harriet Wilson , that made her want to write a play about her. Great.
S1: Great. Let's take a listen.
S3: This play is loosely based on her life. She was an iconic class. She was. They called her the little fellow because she was quite boyish , vulgar , liked where men's clothes fat drank. They said she had the manners of a wild schoolboy. But in addition to sort of conquering that world , she was very influential in her day. We could kind of compare her to the Kim Kardashian of her day. She set fashions. She was very , very popular. I thought she was a really interesting character and one that's been kind of overlooked. So this play is loosely based on her life , using her life in a real theatrical exploration of what it means when love becomes transactional , when it means to put a transaction on human interaction , and exploring gender and social and class roles that still affect us today.
S4: So her memoir is I actually started to read this. It's available online and I got totally sucked in. What do you know about this book , and what did it mean for a woman to write something like that in the early 1900s was when it was published , if I believe.
S3: Well , what's interesting about Harriet is she's not I wouldn't say she's a , you know , feminist heroine. She is not she was not particularly a feminist. She was more like a Harriet ist. She was a kind of problematic person. So even though she's very interesting. So some of her memoirs are in fact exaggerations or not factual , and some of them are very factual. And what's interesting about her actual memoirs when I read them , is in addition to being quite , you know , fun to read and in their ways , sort of gossipy and joyful , there's a lot of actual like anger and sadness and grief and rage beneath it. So this play is a loose exploration of all that.
S4: I'd love to hear where you got the idea for writing The Little Fellow. You've built this career as a playwright , adapting classic characters into into these feminist stories.
S3: This was in fact the second play. I wrote , the second full length play I ever wrote , because I had been doing research for my adaptation of Vanity Fair , and I ran across the story of Harriet Wilson in a footnote on a book on the sex lives of. Regency and Victorian women. And I was like , who is this woman ? Why don't we know about her ? I mean , she's analogous to a lot of stories that we still have that are still covered in a very particular way of quote unquote , mistresses who bring quote unquote , powerful men down. But she was infamous in her day and , again , quite problematic. I was really interested in building a story that was about , you know , what is the cost of winning in an unjust system about a woman who is shaped by the patriarchy that she , you know , starts working very closely within , as indeed which of us can stop , withhold from working the patriarchy , unfortunately. But she starts working in it when she's very , very young. So it's about the ways that that can shape and warp you , even against your will , and the way that an exploited person can become an exploiter. But what's interesting about it is Cygnet Theatre. And in fact , my friend Robbie Levy , who's directing the piece Robbie brought me in because Cygnet has a commissioning series called the Bill and Judy Garrick Commissioning Series. So in 2019 , I came out here and I was working with Robbie , and I totally rewrote the play. And this play that is being produced at Cygnet is that refurbished work.
S4: So you touched on this a little bit. The little fellow is also the study of how sex workers are treated and portrayed in society. And on a broader level , it's about class. And I'm wondering if you could speak to that a little bit more.
S3: Well , one of the gifts of the longer process on this particular play was I was really able to educate myself more about sex work and , you know , sex work in the 19th century , in some ways was very different from sex work now , but in some ways it was very analogous. There was a measure of agency that the higher paid sex workers like Harriet Wilson commanded , and in some ways she had much more freedom than other women of her day , and much more agency and much more power. But there are extreme pitfalls and dangers and wounds that are caused by that kind of catering to often these men in particular , that she is working with are not nice guys. So it's a very interesting juxtaposition. I think the same many of the same issues come up in sex work that come up in the working world writ large , and I think that that is still true. So it was a really interesting way to explore some of those dynamics through a filtered lens , through a period lens , which sometimes lets people absorb it more.
S4: And and what is it about that time period and the British Regency that lends itself to these enduring stories that continue to draw , as in.
S3: Well , I think it speaks a lot to our society today , and particularly American society is a time of great wealth and inequality. It's a time of great social change. It's a time when gender roles were quite stratified , but also bending , and those collisions of interests and a sort of new world coming because , you know , like if you look at the 19th century in particular , that is really we're starting to change into the modern era. It's analogous to what we're going through now. No one knows quite what's going to happen in our world. One of the things I've done a lot of is Jane Austen adaptations. I'm almost through her work , and there's a real conception that people have. These times were very different from ours , and people were very different , and everything was much more polite. But actually , people have never been very different from the way that they were. This world of Harriet Wilson and sex work was all happening at the same time as she announced in and her contemporaries. In fact , Jane Austen wrote , mentions Harriet Wilson in one of her letters and the resulting scandal. So I'm very interested in the sort of underbelly of human nature and exploring it in a really theatrical , sometimes funny , sometimes ridiculous way.
S1: You're listening to Kpbs Midday Edition , and that was playwright Kate Hamill and her play The Little Fellow. Or the Queen of tarts tells all. And it just opened for previews at Cygnet Theatre. I'm Andrew Bracken here with Kpbs. Producer and editor Julia Dixon Evans , and we're talking about what's going on in arts and culture this weekend. So let's see what's happening in the visual art world. New exhibits opening at San Diego Museum of Art. It's called Korea in Color. Tell us about it. Yeah.
S4: Yeah. So what's exciting to me about this exhibit is that it pairs contemporary Korean artists with Korean works from the 19th century , the turn of the century. And while those older works are significant , there's just a handful of the traditional works. And the focus then is on these 50 something works made in the last handful of decades. And it's all about this technique called Jessica , which is a term applied not only to a style of Korean polychrome painting as opposed to monochrome painting , which is also a really popular style of Korean art , but also this more like essential , meaningful definition about the purpose of those paintings. It became sort of this folk art and families would have this art in their homes to bring good luck. And in fact , the exhibit's actually the full title is Korea in Color A Legacy of Auspicious Images. So it really leans into these concepts of fortune and prosperity and warding off evil. And one of the most striking pieces to me in this exhibit is , is this 2019 to 2020 sculpture by artist Kim Seng Don. It's called cart. It looks like a traditional Korean ceremonial funeral boat made of painted wood with these little figurines , but it's set atop a grocery store shopping cart. It's this big sculpture. And the the little traditional figurines in these prosperous images on On the cart feature representations of capitalism and kind of like an information overload. So very modern , modern problems. And there's this tiny figure. One of the figures in there is holding a little video camera with tears streaming down their face. It's really striking. And other than that , there's also a bunch of video works and performance works and some big murals too , in addition to to wall works. And this opens officially to the public on Saturday , and then it'll be on view through early March.
S1: Very cool. And just in time for Halloween , local contemporary dance company The Rosin Box Project brings back its annual Ghost Light Masquerade production this weekend.
S4: And the Rosenbach says these beautifully produced shows are very immersive , so you can expect some really gorgeous sets and costumes. And the type of dance they do is contemporary ballet , which is this really nice blend of contemporary movements and styles with the structures and the foot movements of ballet. And these , these dancers are all so gifted and expressive. And it's also at the Horton Grand Hotel , which is allegedly haunted. So that sets the stage for you right there , their shows every night through Sunday.
S1:
S4: It starts with what they're calling their Haunted pavilion. You can do a spooky tour of the organ pavilion , and there's two options. There's one that's supposedly very scary and another that's kid friendly. That all starts at 5 p.m. and then at 630 , they're going to be live scoring with organ music , some silent movies. And there's also a dance performance set to Michael Jackson's Thriller. And then on Sunday , it's their fall family concert. And the San Diego civic organist Raul Prieto Ramirez will perform alongside the San Diego Youth Symphony. They're going to play some Halloween themed pieces , and the performers also will be in their Halloween costumes. That's Sunday at 2 p.m. and these concerts are all free , which is written into the deed from when the Spreckels brothers gifted the organ to the city in 1915. Everything has to be free to the public.
S1: And you can find details on these and more arts events at Kpbs slash Arts. And there you can also sign up for Julia's weekly arts newsletter. I've been speaking with Kpbs Arts producer and editor Julia Dixon Evans. Julia , thanks so much , and happy Halloween.
S4: You too. Andrea.
S1: Coming up , Midday Movies is back with picks for the scariest time of year.
S5: I decided that for my picks , I would only recommend films that actually take place on Halloween. Otherwise the pool of films was just too big.
S1: That's next on Midday Edition. Welcome back. You're listening to Kpbs Midday Edition. I'm Andrew Bracken in for Jade Hyneman. Halloween's almost here. So we decided to call upon our midday movies , film critics for some movie recommendations to get scared to. Once again , Kpbs Cinema Junkie Beth Accomando and movie Wallace Yazdi stopped by to talk about movies. But first , this message from Silver Shamrock.
UU: We have. We still worship.
S5: That's right. Halloween is just around the corner , and Yazdi and I decided to come up with a list of films for you to watch on Halloween night. As usual , our biggest challenge is narrowing down our selection to just a few titles. I decided that for my picks , I would only recommend films that actually take place on Halloween. Otherwise , the pool of films was just too big.
S6:
S5: To start with. You picked a recent Indian horror film , and before you tell us the title , I wanted you to tell us a little bit about the horror genre in India , because it feels like to me that every country kind of has a unique flavor to their horror. If you think about South Korean films , they make you care deeply about the characters and then do horrific things to them. Italian horror tends to be kind of operatic and very stylish.
S6: And there were the famous Ramsey brothers , which made they had a factory house of horror films. They would churn out very popular because the movie showed a little bit of skin. They were also a little bit of a little bit scary. And , you know , the midnight audience would lap up those films. But I really like the resurgence of horror , which has happened in the last 5 to 10 years in Indian cinema. And these are filmmakers who are really steeping their films completely within Indian folklore and using Indian mythology and , you know , demons and gods and those kinds of things to kind of ground their films. And I really , I think that adds so much more flavor to those films , especially to Western audiences who may not be familiar with a lot of the Indian mythology. When it comes to horror.
S5: All right. I haven't seen this one , but I did watch the trailer , which looked fabulous. So tell us what this first pick is.
S6: So my first pick is a movie called bad , which is screening on Amazon Prime. And this film takes Indian folklore and blends it with horror so effortlessly to create something entirely unique. The premise of the movie is that there is an evil being which is trapped in the womb of a goddess who watches over an abandoned mansion and protects a treasure that no one can get to for fear of their life. Until a child who has grown up under the terror of that creature grows up to figure out how to get at that treasure. The film is shot in constantly rainy , muddy tones , and it's frankly a marvel of cinematography. It taps into the theme of the deadly price of human greed , but it does it with remarkable finesse. I mean , this is just a very good looking movie to watch. It's a visual treat to see and one that effectively manages to scare as well. Is that hauntingly beautiful or is it beautifully haunting ? You decide.
S5: And my first pick also has some haunting beauty and children in it. And it's the 2016 Australian film called boys in the Trees by Nicholas Verso. And I know there are a lot of popular and well-known films that are set on Halloween , but I did like you want to try and find some titles that are not as commonly recommended for a Halloween viewing. So I love finding something new , and I found this coming of age film dressed up in the tropes of a horror movie. So it's set on Halloween night with all the trappings of a horror film.
S7: Is the night , the night of the Graves delight and the warlocks are at their play. Did you think that without the wild wind shout ? But no , it is they. It is that.
S5: And what I love about this film is how all the familiar Halloween scares of ghosts and werewolves turn out to be metaphors for much scarier real world horrors like bullying or betrayal , or just someone's loss of their dreams. So there are no jump scares or gory kills , but there's lots of Halloween atmosphere and a really beautiful visual style. Sometimes it might be a bit too on the nose with the analogies , but I really love the care and craft of this film.
S6: This reminds me of one of my favorite films , which didn't make our list here , but Pan's Labyrinth by Guillermo del Toro , which also deals with the little girl who is kind of trying to deal with the gruesome things happening in the real world by virtue of the imaginary one that she concocts in her head.
S5: And since we're speaking of craft , your next pick is also one of my favorite movies , and this is Bone Tomahawk.
S6: I love this movie because it pulls off the most deft fusion of genres , it seems , for the most part , to be a sturdy western about a sheriff who enlists a posse of men to go save three people who are abducted by what seems at first a Native American tribe. And it is only when we find out more about the nature of this tribe that we realize the film's true horror ambitions.
S8: You know , did this.
S9: The only one group that hunts with these. Who.
S8: Who.
S9: Don't have a name kind of.
S8: Tribe , doesn't have a name.
S9: One that doesn't have a language. Cave dwellers.
S8: You know where they are.
S9: I have a general idea.
S8:
S9:
S8: Because you're an. Indian.
S9: Indian. Because I don't want to get killed.
S10: You're afraid of your own kind. They're not.
S9: My kind. You're a spoiled bloodline of inbred animals of rape and eat their own mothers.
S6: This is a cannibalistic tribe of troglodytes who will spare no mercy to get what they want. The film is thrillingly paced and gruesome and cruel. I believe this one deserves its place on the list of films with relentless.
S11: Terror , and this.
S5: Is one of those films that is a slow burn. It takes its time getting there , and when it gets to that point , it just like goes off a cliff. It takes a left turn that it does not come back from.
S6: I love that when the film gets in the last 15 to 30 minutes , it gets into this area where everything is dialed up to 11 , and from that point onwards it does not skip a beat. And you as the audience member , forget to breathe as well.
S5: And what's interesting about this film is I know that as Craig Zoller , the director , was asked to trim it down and was told , well , there seems to be scenes where nothing's really happening. But as with South Korean films , part of the the trick of this is he really makes you fall in love with these characters so that when horrific things happen , it really rips your heart and gut out.
S6: So Kurt Russell plays the sheriff and Patrick Wilson , all of these characters , you really grow to kind of like them , and you're invested in them so that when the script turns , it screws or it hurts. It really does hurt.
S5: Yeah , yes it does. And Bone Tomahawk uses kind of social structure , the town and kind of traditional things that you depend on for rescuing you or saving you , and they use it in an interesting way. And so does my next pick. So I picked a brand new film. And I have an author friend of mine , Cody Goodfellow , to thank for this , who just a couple of days ago said , if you haven't seen Dark Harvest , you need to stream it right away and it's on Prime right now. It's from director David Slade , who also made a film called hard Candy and 30 Days of Night.
S9: It Ain't Over.
S5: So it opens just a few days before Halloween in 1963. It's kind of a period film , but not 100% realistic. It's set in a small town that has a horrific annual Halloween ritual.
S12: One of your classmates will certainly die. That thing grows all year long in our fields , only to rise up every Halloween night with a single , solitary purpose to destroy our way of life. Your sacred duty. Is to take down Sawtooth Jack before that church bell rings at midnight. And to get you fat. Little Nancy's ready. We make you hungry for it. Three days. No food , no mommy , no nothing.
S5: One of the surprises about this film is it looked absolutely gorgeous. The cornfields were amazing. The nighttime shots , the pumpkin headed creature , it all looks spectacular. And it's really a shame that this went directly to streaming and never got a theatrical release. It has a little bit of kind of this American Gothic vibe to it , which is that everything in the town seems kind of white picket fence and pleasant , but there's something very dark underneath. It also has a little bit of the Purge vibe to it , but it feels much more cleverly plotted and with much more measured and beautifully shot violence. So I also like how it creates kind of a whole new Halloween folklore to go by. So I highly recommend this. And it's streaming so you can get to it very easily.
S6: So I didn't realize that this film that you just recommended is made by David Slade , who also made the film hard Candy. You mentioned about it , and hard Candy itself is certainly a great film to recommend for Halloween. It also stars Patrick Wilson , who is in Bone Tomahawk , and it's this cat and mouse game that occurs between two individuals. And there's it's almost a crime to give away more , but certainly this director knows what he's doing.
S5: And your final pick is also a favorite of mine. And it's from one of my favorite directors , David Cronenberg. And this film is proof that a remake can be good.
S6: As you mentioned , David Cronenberg , The Fly. The fly was a remake of a 1958 film and a short before that. And I think Cronenberg just elevates that story. And even now , 40 years later , when you watch it , you realize that the marvel of his craft remains undimmed. More than 40 years later , as we watch with equal parts amazement and queasiness , this is a story of a scientist trying to teleport himself , and he fails to see a fly that flew into the device , and initially he's quite invigorated by it.
S13: So I asked the computer if it had improved me , and it said it didn't know what I was talking about , and that's made me think very carefully about what I've been feeling and why. And I'm beginning to think that the sheer process of being taken apart , atom by atom and put back together again , why ? It's like coffee being put through a filter. It's somehow a purifying process. It's purified me , it's cleansed me. And I'll tell you , I think it's going to allow me to realize the personal potential I've been neglecting all these years that I've been obsessively pursuing goal after goal.
S5: But as we know with Cronenberg , it's not going to go well.
S6: Yes , it does not. And being a Cronenberg film , the lead character slowly but surely starts to realize that he himself is morphing into a fly at first behaviorally and then very much anatomically. This is a film again with effortless tension , and it's a very pleasing , glitzy looking movie. But it certainly has far more ambitions , and it certainly survived the test of time.
S5: And also it is strangely , a love story.
S6: Yeah , it's also a love story , because there's this tender romance at the heart between the Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis character. And , you know , you could see it as an allegory about two people who are right for each other until one of them literally changes. And , you know , how much can you change than than a human being becoming a fly ? Okay.
S5: And I am going to close out our picks with a very well known franchise , but I am going to go to a much maligned entry. I am going to suggest Halloween , but it's going to be Halloween three season of the witch , and this is the only Halloween film that does not feature Michael Myers. It's almost time , kids.
S14: The clock is ticking. Be in front of your TV sets for the horror thon. And remember the big giveaway at. Don't miss it.
UU: And don't forget to wear your masks. The clock is ticking. It's almost. Happy Halloween. Halloween.
S5: So that song and that commercial from the film is like an earworm that gets stuck in your head. John Carpenter and Debra Hill had the idea that maybe Halloween could be an anthology in which the holiday of Halloween was the anchor and the constant factor , rather than one of the characters. So the film bombed , and many still hate it , but I think it's a really fun horror flick , perfect for Halloween night. It involves a witchy plot to sell Halloween masks that will kill the wearer on Halloween night , and it has the great Tom Atkins in it. And I will gladly take this Halloween over any of the Rob Zombie or David Gordon Green ones. And plus and just love how that theme song gets stuck in your head. I mean.
S6: The first one is timeless. I mean , I would I could go back and watch that any number of times. It's it's really , again , a marvel of how to create a pressure cooker and , you know , 90 short minutes. Yeah. Again , one of those classics which will always be played.
S5: And yes , you can't go wrong with watching John Carpenter's original Halloween on Halloween night. But for a change of pace , I do suggest giving season of the Witch Halloween three a try. So , Yazdi , I want to thank you very much for being my partner in crime for midday movies.
S6: Likewise , but always a pleasure.
S1: That was Kpbs Cinema Junkie , Beth Accomando and Movie Wall's Yazdi with their suggestions for what to watch on Halloween night. That's our show for this week. To listen to all of our episodes. You can find the Kpbs Midday Edition podcast wherever you listen , and we'd love to hear from you. You can email us at midday at pbs.org , or leave us a message at (619) 452-0228. Jan from Vista had this to say in response to our conversation with Assembly Member David Alvarez , where he made the case for more housing for young people.
S15: And I was just curious. I heard Alvarez talking about the cost of living for young people and for people who are students in the area , and who I think he actually forgot about the lack of housing for seniors.
S1: Midday edition is produced by Giuliana Domingo , Brooke Ruth , Laura McCaffrey and Ariana Clay. Technical producers are Adrian Villalobos and Rebecca Chacon. Art segment contributors Beth Accomando and Julia Dixon Evans midday Edition's theme music is provided by San Diego's own Surefire Soul Ensemble. I'm Andrew Bracken. Jade Hyneman will be back next week with more conversations. Thanks for listening. I.
