The Sundae Presents – Details, episodes & analysis

A minosode! Again!

The Sundae Presents returns to our primordial ooze to talk about great performances that are only one scene long. This time: David Bowie as Pontius Pilate in one scene in The Last Temptation of Christ (1988).

The scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXGsio9H1xs

The Sundae: https://thesundae.net/

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NOTE: We received a message from Spotify for Creators stating that it had identified copyrighted third-party content in our podcast. This is incorrect.

The theme music for our podcast is Antonin Vivaldi Violin Concerto in G Minor, RV315 ‘Summer’. The particular recording used was downloaded from Musopen.com, a non-profit which produces and disseminates public domain music via recordings, sheet music and educational resources concerning Western classical music. The licence for using this specific download was identified on Musopen.com as Public Domain Mark 1.0 Universal.

That this is the only recording we have used, yet has been flagged as six separate recordings within the nine published versions of the podcast, with both Universal Music and Euphoria Ltd set as rights holders. This should demonstrate the difficulty with regard to copyright enforcement for performances of classical music, and differentiating between public domain recordings and copyrighted recordings.

This podcast has no ads, or any paid subscription or other mechanism for making any money whatsoever, a fact we hope will allow the descendants of Antonin Vivaldi to rest soundly in their beds.

Summary and Links:

In the quintus episode of FFS, Ciara and Conor continue their discussion of the giallo genre with a deep dive on Lucio Fulci's 1972 masterpiece, Don't Torture a Duckling. Spoilers abound!

The Giallo Files: ⁠⁠https://giallofiles.blogspot.com/⁠Ciara's Fangoria article about Don't Torture a Duckling: ⁠https://www.fangoria.com/lucio-fulci-so-much-more-than-the-godfather-of-gore-dont-torture-a-duckling-at-50/⁠

Ciara makes Dean finally watch Winter Brothers, the debut film of their favourite Icelandic director, Hlynur Pálmason. They talk about its desolate landscapes, haunting ambiguities and floppy dicks.

Visit The Sundae: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://thesundae.net/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Follow us on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/sundaeblog/⁠

Jessica Kiang's review of Winter Brothers: https://variety.com/2017/film/reviews/winter-brothers-review-1202513383/

Roger Ebert's review of Joe Versus the Volcano: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/joe-versus-the-volcano-1990

Professor Martyn Poliakoff explains the iodine clock reaction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWJpKNQfXWo

Dean makes Ciara watch a fourth film shot in his hometown, an Arthurian epic by Exorcist II director John Boorman: Excalibur, which features zero locust POV and tons of before-they-were-famous casting. They talk about Cahir Castle, Gabriel Byrne's soap opera career, and what are movies even supposed to be like, anyway?

Visit The Sundae: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://thesundae.net/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Follow us on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/sundaeblog/⁠

Top Gun: Maverick: The Sundae Presents Bonus Episode 5: https://thesundae.net/2023/07/30/top-gun-maverick-the-sundae-presents-bonus-episode-5/

SCTV - Jerry Lewis Live on the Champs Elysees: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgwVdVmazYA

For the first episode of the year, Ciara chose John Ford's late career masterpiece The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance as Dean's third encounter with both Ford and John Wayne. They talk about its unusually unscenic take on the frontier, the role of violence in politics and how it reflects on the western's place in American culture.

Visit The Sundae: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://thesundae.net/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Follow us on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/sundaeblog/⁠

David Coursen on The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance: https://parallax-view.org/2009/05/21/john-fords-wilderness-the-man-who-shot-liberty-valance/

Kent Jones on Quentin Tarantino on John Ford: https://www.filmcomment.com/article/intolerance-quentin-tarantino-john-ford/

2024 is gonna be jerkin'. Keep your eyes peeled. Or your ears, I guess.

In our Christmas special, Ciara makes Dean fulfil his only goal before turning 30: finally watching Die Hard. They talk about masculinity, Christmas movies, and who was offered the role before Bruce Willis.

Visit The Sundae: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://thesundae.net/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Follow us on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/sundaeblog/⁠

Dean fulfils a long-held ambition to introduce Ciara to his boys, director Joseph Losey and actor Dirk Bogarde, with their 1963 film The Servant. They talk about its homoeroticism, the class anxieties of 60s London and whether Dean hates James Fox.

Visit The Sundae: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://thesundae.net/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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Josephine Botting on The Servant for BFI: https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/servant-dirk-bogarde-joseph-losey-harold-pinter

Colm Tóibín on The Servant for Criterion: https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/8180-the-servant-a-cruel-servility

Ciara gets to show Dean a film for the first time in months, and it's a big one: John Schlesinger's multi-Oscar-winning Midnight Cowboy. They talk about disability, poverty and sexuality, its satire of Andy Warhol's Factory and how dumb Joe Buck is.

Visit The Sundae: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://thesundae.net/⁠⁠⁠⁠

Follow us on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/sundaeblog/⁠

Roger Ebert on Midnight Cowboy in the 90s: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/midnight-cowboy-1969-1

For our third Halloween Spooktacular, Dean shows Ciara one of the most iconic horror films of their adolescence: Saw. They talk about how it riffs on and/or rips off Se7en, the strange politics of John Kramer, and the shadow of the real torture of the Bush administration.

Visit The Sundae: ⁠⁠⁠https://thesundae.net/⁠⁠⁠

Follow us on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/sundaeblog/⁠

"Hollywood, the Bush Years, and America’s Memory Hole" by Ciara in Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/2020/11/hollywood-the-bush-years-and-americas-memory-hole

The Sundae Presents, Episode 8: The Evil Dead / Evil Dead II: https://thesundae.net/2021/10/24/the-evil-dead-evil-dead-ii-the-sundae-presents-episode-8/