PODCAST: UNCOVER: ESCAPING NXIVM

PODCAST: UNCOVER: ESCAPING NXIVM

XIVM calls itself a humanitarian community. Experts and critics call it a cult. Uncover: Escaping NXIVM is a new CBC investigative podcast series about the group, its leader, Keith Raniere, and one woman's journey to get out. Read about what drew Sarah Edmondson to Raniere and his followers and how she ended up turning on him.

MY VERDICT: I loved this podcast, I loved how it laid out the facts, opinions, and both sides of the arguments and asked some really difficult questions. Questions like; what makes a cult a cult? How can someone be in a cult and not know? How do you escape a cult?

I would recommend listening to this podcast, you get a unique view on a fascinating story and it’s ongoing so there’s still lots to learn. 

FILM 1801: COLOSSAL

FILM 1801: COLOSSAL

TRIVIA:Anne Hathaway was in the second trimester of her pregnancy while filming the movie.

Was hit by a lawsuit in May 2015, claiming it had too many similarities to Godzilla (2014).

PODCAST: HEAVEN’S GATE

In 1997, thirty-nine people took their own lives in an apparent mass suicide. The events captivated the media and had people across the planet asking the same question...‘Why?’ 20 years later, those who lost loved ones and those who still believe - tell their story. Hosted by Glynn Washington of Snap Judgment.

MY VERDICT: I knew a little about the cult known as Heaven’s Gate before I listened to this podcast so I wasn’t expecting to hear much that I didn’t know. I was wrong. All the information I’d heard before were mostly about the leader of the cult, Marshall Applewhite, and how his life had lead him to become a cult leader. (The best example of this is the Heaven’s Gate episode on Last Podcast on the Left)

This podcast started with interviweing people who had joined the cult, it was fascinating to hear from some survivors. It meant questions could be asked of them that you couldn’t ask to the 39 people who killed themselves in the 90s. We were able to hear what made the cult a desirable group for some to join, and it was interesting to hear stories about the good times that they had, a side that is rarely noted on most documentaries or tellings of this cult’s story.

I think the most compelling thing about this podcast, was the host. The man who put this podcast together, Glynn Washington, had a unique perspective into a story about a cult, as he used to be in one. I found this perspective fascinating. His main point was, that we should not think of these cult members as crazy or mentally ill because he knew that normal people joined cults and they were easier to fall into than some people thought.

This podcast does a good job of telling the whole story, Washington is able to get a lot of interviews with integral characters in the cult’s history that I’d never heard from before, including the families of some of the members of the cult who participated in the mass suicide and the daughter of one of the cult leaders. Which meant we saw yet more sides to these people.

I would thoroughly recommend this podcast, it’s more like listening to a documentary than a traditional podcast and the only down side I could mention is very random long pauses (I’ve noticed this in a few podcasts and I have no idea why they exist.)

See more here:

https://www.heavensgate.show

FILM 1735: THE DISASTER ARTIST

TRIVIA: Greg Sestero stated that when he was writing the book, Tommy Wiseau said that only two actors could play him in the adaptation: James Franco or Johnny Depp. Wiseau, who claims to have once lived in New Orleans, was a fan of Franco's performance in the film Sonny (2002).

James Franco spoke like Tommy Wiseau throughout each day's filming, and even directed using Wiseau's distinctive voice and syntax, though Jason Mantzoukas said that Franco did not direct in character and only spoke like Wiseau. Seth Rogen admitted he had a hard time being directed by Franco while being interviewed on The Howard Stern Show. Rogen said during the first two days, he had a hard time containing his laughter as Franco was speaking as Tommy Wiseau with his notable European accent. Franco told Rogen he would get used to it, which he eventually did.

To promote the film the distributor rented the same billboard on Highland Avenue in Los Angeles that Tommy Wiseau rented for five years to promote The Room (2003), mimicking the layout of the original billboard and including a phone number to RSVP to screenings.

In almost every interview for The Disaster Artist, James Franco mentions that Tommy Wiseau approves of "99.9%" of the film. His only objections were the lighting of the first scene, which Franco believes was because Tommy was wearing sunglasses when watching the scene, and also for the poor way James threw the football.

Besides an interview for Esquire and a video for Funnyordie.com, brothers James and Dave Franco have never worked together or appeared on-screen together until this film. Dave Franco almost appeared as himself with his brother in This Is the End, but he was later excluded because his charcter would have had to die and it was considered too sad for the already dark comedy. James was also considered for a role in 21 Jump Street (2012) respectively starring his brother Dave.

All three stars of podcast 'How Did This Get Made?' (Paul Scheer, June Diane Raphael and Jason Mantzoukas) appear in the film. In a Variety article, it was revealed that the podcast episode featuring The Room which Greg Sestero appeared on, was a contributing factor not only in the source book being completed but also served as an inspiration for the screenwriters.

FILM 1681: FAULTS

TRIVIA: This movie is directed by Mary Elizabeth Winstead's husband.

FILM 1657: AGUIRRE, WRATH OF GOD

TRIVIA: Werner Herzog claims to have written the screenplay in two and a half days. He wrote a good portion of it while traveling with his soccer team, during games and on bus rides. Following one game, the team was very drunk, and the player seated behind Herzog vomited on his typewriter, ruining many pages of the script. Herzog was unable to salvage the pages, and tossed them out the window. He was also unable to recall what he'd written on them.

The monkeys that appear at the end of the film were somewhat difficult to acquire. According to Werner Herzog's commentary, he paid the men who were to provide them only half of what they asked for, as he didn't trust them and thought they would try to run off with the money without providing the monkeys. He was proved right, as they had sold the monkeys to someone else and they were to be flown to Florida. In desperation, Herzog pretended he was the veterinarian and that the monkeys didn't have their vaccination documents, which allowed him to finally get the monkeys and film their scenes. After this, all the monkeys were set free into the wild.

During a particularly rowdy night of production, Klaus Kinski, irritated by the noise from a hut where cast and crew were playing cards, repeatedly fired a Winchester rifle into it. One of the bullets took the tip of an unnamed extra's finger off. Werner Herzog immediately confiscated the weapon and it remains his property to this day.

This film, as well as several other early films by Werner Herzog, were shot on a 35mm camera that he stole as a young man from the Munich Film School, a predecessor to today's prestigious film school 'HFF München'. Herzog himself never was a film student there or anywhere. He readily admits to the theft but also justifies it with the significance of the films he's made with the camera and his right to artistic expression: "It was a very simple 35mm camera, one I used on many other films, so I do not consider it a theft. For me, it was truly a necessity. I wanted to make films and needed a camera. I had some sort of natural right to this tool. If you need air to breathe, and you are locked in a room, you have to take a chisel and hammer and break down a wall. It is your absolute right."[Cronin, 2003]

This was the first Werner Herzog film with Klaus Kinski. It was the start of an extremely stormy, and sometimes violent, professional relationship that lasted 15 years.

Although plot details and many of the characters in "Aguirre, the Wrath of God"(1972) come directly from Werner Herzog's own imagination, historians have pointed out that the film fairly accurately incorporates some 16th-century events and historical personages into a fictional narrative. The film's major characters, Aguirre, Ursúa, Don Fernando, Inez and Florés, were indeed involved in a 1560 expedition that left Peru to find the city of El Dorado. Commissioned by Peru's governor, Ursúa organized an expeditionary group of 300 men to travel by way of the Amazon River. He was accompanied by his mixed-race mistress, Doña Inez. At one point during the journey, Aguirre, a professional soldier, decided that he could use the 300 men to overthrow the Spanish rule of Peru. Aguirre had Ursúa murdered and proclaimed Fernando as "The Prince of Peru". Fernando himself was eventually murdered when he questioned Aguirre's scheme of sailing to the Atlantic, conquering Panama, crossing the isthmus and invading Peru. Many others who attempted to rebel against Aguirre were also killed. The surviving soldiers conquered Isla Margarita off the coast of Venezuela and made preparations to attack the mainland. However, by that time Spanish authorities had learned of Aguirre's plans, and when the rebels arrived in Venezuela, government agents offered full pardons to Aguirre's men. All of them accepted the deal. Immediately prior to his arrest, Aguirre murdered his daughter Florés, who had remained by his side during the entire journey. He was then captured and dismembered. Herzog's screenplay merged this 1560 expedition with the events of an earlier Amazonian journey, that took place in 1541 and 1542. Like Ursúa, Gonzalo Pizarro and his men entered the Amazon basin in search of El Dorado. Various troubles afflicted the expedition and, sure that El Dorado was very close, Pizarro set up a smaller group led by Francisco de Orellana to break off from the main force and forge ahead, then return with news of what they had found. This group utilized a brigantine to journey down the river. Accompanying Orellana was Spanish Dominican friar Gaspar de Carvajal, who kept a journal of the group's experiences. The historic Gaspar de Carvajal (1500-1584) had settled in Peru and dedicated himself to the conversion of the Indians. While Carvajal's diary does indeed exist, the content as presented in the film is mostly invented by writer/director Herzog himself.

The film was originally shot in English, the only language skills that all of the multi-national crew and cast members had in common. The original production sound was recorded on location, but finally not used because of its poor quality. The whole film was later post-synchronized into German. Director Werner Herzog claims that lead actor Klaus Kinski demanded too much money for the recording sessions and therefore another actor with a similar voice, Gerd Martienzen, dubbed him. Even audiences that have seen other performances of Kinski often can't tell the difference.

Francis Ford Coppola cited this film as an influence on Apocalypse Now (1979).

Aguirre's line "What is a throne but a plank red with velvet?" is an authentic quote from Napoleon Bonaparte.

In 1971, while Werner Herzog was location scouting for the film in Peru, he narrowly avoided taking LANSA Flight 508. Herzog's reservation was cancelled due to a last-minute change in itinerary. The plane was later struck by lightning and disintegrated, but one survivor lived after a free fall. Long haunted by the event, nearly 30 years later he made a documentary film Wings of Hope (2000) about it, which explored the story of the sole survivor Juliane Koepcke.

Werner Herzog explained how the choir-like sound was created, "We used a strange instrument, which we called a 'choir-organ.' It has inside it three dozen different tapes running parallel to each other in loops. ... All these tapes are running at the same time, and there is a keyboard on which you can play them like an organ so that [it will] sound just like a human choir but yet, at the same time, very artificial and really quite eerie."

Ranked #46 on Entertainment Weekly's "Top 50 Cult Films of All-Time"

Featured in the teen book "Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl" by Jesse Andrews.

Included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider.