Wednesday, August 13, 2014

FISHING WITH JOHN: SEASON SIX


This season is probably the best mix of household names, important indie filmmakers, close personal friends/collaborators & obscure (almost unknown) figures in the world of film.
For the first time John will go overseas due to one of the guest's phobia of flying and we also have our first walk off.

Enjoy…


EPISODE 601: Quentin Tarantino


Relationship/connection:
1. none that I can think of but Quentin Tarantino was heavily influenced by quite a few films that John Lurie acted in or composed music for.

This episode is a quick one. At first QT would just ramble on & on about cool violent movies like he always does but eventually John Lurie would ask him about Jim Jarmusch’s subtle influence on his work which would then in turn piss QT off causing him to storm off the boat leaving John to fish by himself.
It's probably better this way. Who seriously wants to listen too Quentin Tarantino talk endlessly about how cool Sam Fuller is or how awesome Japanese movies are? I certainly don't...



EPISODE 602: Kevin Smith & Ben Affleck


Relationship/connection
none that I know of...

Look...it was the late 90's. This had to happen. Between '97-'99 these two guys were everywhere. Kevin Smith was on a pretty good run (Clerks through Dogma) and Ben Affleck was about to win his first academy award (Good Will Hunting). Behind the scenes I feel like John wouldn't be too thrilled about this one at first, but eventually he'd warm up to these guys. 
This appearance would give Kevin Smith a good opportunity to show folks that he knows more about movies than just Star Wars references (say what you want about his movies, but Kevin Smith is quite the cinephile).



EPISODE 603: Chris Parker

John Lurie (L) & Chris Parker (R) in Permanent Vacation
Relatipnship/connection:
1. John Lurie did the music for Permanent Vacation, which starred Chris Parker

A few years ago I attended a Tom Jarmusch retrospective at Anthology Film Archives and one of the shorts they screened featured Chris Parker - star of Jim Jarmusch's feature film debut Permanent Vacation, which featured a cameo appearance from Lurie. Apparently this short film was made in the mid/late 90's. I approached Tom after the screening and asked if Chris Parker was still alive and to my surprise he assured me that he has

yeah sure, he's still around - Tom Jarmusch (2010)

This surprised me because based on what little I know about Parker, he seemed like a mysterious guy. Not like a shadowy figure, but more like a lost free spirit who could easily go off the grid without warning (during the filming of Permanent Vacation Jim Jarmusch & Sara Driver spent hours tracking him down each morning because he didn't have a phone or a steady place to live). Plus his IMDB profile is pretty spotty.
This episode would act as a great "where are they know?" Chris Parker seems like an interesting/twitchy character which makes for a good guest.




EPISODE 604: Tom Jarmusch


Relationship/Connection:
1. Tom helped on the production of Stranger Than Paradise

I know a lot of these episodes are Jim Jarmusch-related in some way, but this is a film site, Jim Jarmusch is a PINNLAND EMPIRE favorite and Lurie was involved in his first four films. Deal with it...

Tom Jarmusch, Jim's brother, is an unsung figure in the world of semi-recent avante garde American cinema. I wasn't even aware of his work until that retrospective at Anthology film archives that spoke of in the previous episode (I knew he made a super 8 documentary on the making of Stranger Than Paradise, but other than that, I didn't know he was a filmmaker). Although Tom's work wasn't screening at any big art house cinemas at the time this episode would have taken place, he was still very active, churning out a bunch of work. His appearance on Fishing with John would expose him to a whole new audience...




EPISODE 605: Tom Dicillo


Relationship/connection:
1. Tom shot the first two films John acted in

By '97 Tom Dicillo had moved on from being just a cinematographer (which is how he and John know each other) to becoming a fairly well known director during the American independent renaissance of the 90's (Johnny Suede, Living In Oblivion & Box Of Moonlight). John & Tom would catch up and reminisce about old times while promoting Tom's latest film; The Real Blonde.




EPISODE 606: Lars Von Trier & Udo Kier


Relationship/connection:
1. none that I know of but Lurie & Von Trier were both involved in films that premiered at the '84 Cannes film festival. Perhaps they crossed paths without realizing it?

For those that don't know, Lars Von Trier only travels by car, boat or train and has never been off the continent of Europe. Because of this, John would have to get on a plane to Denmark to meet up with Von Trier and his muse Udo Kier. Given Von Trier's many documented phobias, I imagine it would take him a while to build up the courage to get on the fishing boat with John, but after a while he'd finally overcome his fear.
In this season finale, Von Trier, who wasn't the super controversial figure that we know of today, would discuss his "beef" with Roman Polanski that started at the '91 Cannes film festival, the Dogma movement which was right around the corner and Udo Kier would reminisce about working with Rainer Werner Fassbender.

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