We?re looking at the 1971 film from James Bidgood, Pink Narcissus. It?s a wordless film which tells the story of a young hustler played by Bobby Kendall who engages in a series of fantasies throughout an evening. The film was shot on 8mm but still presents a lush, fantastic color palette and incredible sets that are even more incredible when the viewer remembers that this was all shot in Bidgood?s Hell?s Kitchen apartment.

Maitland McDonagh and David Kittredge join Mike to discuss lyrical pornography, New York real estate, and the importance of finishing projects.

Jess Byard and Heather Drain join Mike to discuss the Panic Movement and Fernando Arrabal's freshman film, Viva La Muerte. It's the surrealistic tale of Fando, a boy whose mother sold his father out to the fascists during the Spanish Civil War.

Daniel Kremer and Jarrod Labine join Mike to discuss The Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart. Based loosely on Robert T. Westbrook?s book of the same name, the film follows the exploits of the unlikely-named protagonist who?s not very likable, Stanley Sweetheart (Don Johnson). He fancies himself an underground filmmaker and Lothario. The film follows him on his exploits as he navigates life, women, and the scene in 1970?s New York.

Our episode features interviews with Robert Westbrook, actress Linda Gillen, and actor Brandon Maggart.

Bro, on this special episode of The Projection Booth we're looking at the 2001 movie from R. D. Robb, Don's Plum. The film remains officially unreleased in the U.S. while available legally in other parts of the world. The film stars a group of young actors known as "The Pussy Posse" including Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Macguire. It's about a group of guys who bring their dates to the titular diner where they talk, boast, and engage in bathroom-bound monologues.

Mike Sullivan (Shock Cinema, Cinema Sewer) and Andrew Rausch (My Best Friend's Birthday: The Making of a Tarantino Film) join Mike to boast, debase women, and talk about the history of the film. Producer Dale Wheatley provides insights from behind-the-scenes.

French Month concludes with a look at Jean Rollin's Lips of Blood (1975). The film stars Jean-Loup Philippe as Frederic, a man who, one night at a party, sees a photograph of a gothic castle that triggers a memory. He suddenly recalls a time when he was young when a young woman gave him shelter for the night. After that he's plagued by visions of her and feels the need to reconnect.

Maitland McDonagh and Samm Deighan join Mike to talk about Rollin, cinemafantastique, and Suck Me, Vampire.

French Month continues with a look at Henri-Georges Clouzot?s Le Corbeau. Also known as The Raven, the film was released in 1943 and made by Continental Films, a German company operated in France during World War II. It?s the story of the small town of Saint Robin which is plagued by a poison pen letter writer who torments citizens with scandalous details of their lives, turning people against one another and casting a net of suspicion across the entire region.

Special guest Judith Mayne (Woman at the Keyhole) discusses Occupation Cinema in general and Le Corbeau in particular. Kat Ellinger and Ken Stanley help Mike unpack this incredibly fascinating film.

On this special episode of The Projection Booth we?re looking at a new series called Time Warp: The Greatest Cult Films of All Time. Directed by Danny Wolf, the title might tip you off that this is a documentary about cult movies with an audacious title and scope.

Rod Lott and Chris Stachiw join Mike to discuss this 5 1/2 hour, 3 part series.

French Month continues with a look at Alain Renais's Last Year at Marienbad (1961). Based on a script by Alain Robbe-Grillet, the film tells the tale of three characters, M, A, and X, as they wander the halls and grounds of a vast hotel in Marienbad. What are their relationships? What are they doing in Marienbad? How does this film take apart everything that we think we know about narrative storytelling? We'll try to figure some of that out as we go along.

Jim Vendiola and Samm Deighan join Mike to discuss this challenging film.

On this special episode, Mike talks with director Andrew Ahn (Spa Night) about his latest film, Driveways. It's a touching story of a mother and son who are cleaning up a relative's house after her death. The son makes friends with their new neighbor, played by Brian Dennehy in one of his final performances.

We kick off French Month with a look at Jean-Pierre Melville?s Le Doulos. The second of his several and seminal gangster films, Le Doulos is the story of two men -- Silien (Jean-Paul Belmondo) and Faugel (Serge Reggiani). They are denizens of the underworld where loyalty and honor are everything. When a burglary Faugel has planned goes awry he thinks that it?s Silien who set him up. Is Silien the titular ?Doulos,? an informer?

Samm Deighan and Ken Stanley join Mike to wax fondly about Jean-Pierre Melville and his rich career.

We wrap up Polish Month on the Projection Booth with a look at Wojciech Has's Hourglass Sanatorium. Based on a 1937 book from Bruno Schulz, the 1973 film stars Jan Nowiki as Josef, a man who travels to the titular sanatorium to see his father who is somewhere between life and death. Things only get stranger from there.

Polish month continues with a look at Walerian Borowczyk's Goto, Island of Love. Released in that magical year of 1969, the film tells the tale of a thief (Guy Saint-Jean) on the Island of Goto which is ruled over by Governor Goto III (Pierre Brasseur). After being pitted in armed combat and somehow surviving he is put in charge of the Governor?s dogs, boots, and the killing of flies.

Daniel Bird (Camera Obscura: The Walerian Borowczyk Collection) and Kat Ellinger join Mike to discuss Borowczyk's live action feature debut as well as his early shorts.

On this special episode of The Projection Booth, Mike talks to director Ben Kasulke who's had a long career as a cinematographer, working often with Lynn Shelton, Guy Maddin, and Todd Rohal. Ben's feature debut, Banana Split, is an endearing coming-of-age story and is now available on Amazon Prime.

Released in 2005, Shane Black?s KISS KISS BANG BANG stars Robert Downey Jr. as Harry Lockhart, a two-bit thief who lucks his way into a Hollywood audition which puts him on a very crooked path of playing a detective along with Val Kilmer as Gay Perry. The film pays homage to pulp detectives of old by way of the slick writing style of Black in his directing debut.

On this special report, author Mark Edlitz talks with Mike about his latest book, The Many Lives of James Bond: How the Creators of 007 Have Decoded the Superspy.

We continue Polish Month with a look at two films from Andrzej ?u?awski. First up is his feature debut, Third Part of the Night (1970) which is a horror thriller regarding lice, the apocalypse, and doubles. We also discuss The Devil (1972) in which a man jailed for regicide is freed, given a straight razor, and pointed to all the people he feels have betrayed him.

Samm Deighan and Rondo-Award Winner Kat Ellinger join Mike to discuss these early works in Andrzej ?u?awski's filmography.

On this special episode of The Projection Booth, Mike talks with Joseph Lanza, author of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: The Film That Terrified a Rattled Nation.

On this episode we?re looking at a pair of films from Roman Polanski. First up we?re discussing the 1962 film Knife in the Water. It?s about a couple, Andrej and Krystyna, who run across a young man without a name. After that we discuss another film with a trio of characters, 1994's Death and the Maiden.

We continue our examination of the films of 1969 with a look at Dariush Merhjui?s The Cow. The film stars Ezzatolah Entezami as Hassan, a man with a very high status in his village. He?s the proud owner of the sole cow. When he goes away for a morning his cow mysteriously dies and the rest of the villagers conspire to cover this up by telling him that the animal has run away. Let?s just say that Hassan doesn?t take the news so well?.

On this special episode of The Projection Booth we?re looking at Ken Russell?s Tommy. Released in 1975 this is an interpretation of The Who?s Rock Opera of the same name which stars Roger Daltry as the titular Tommy. After witnessing a scene of his mother and her lover killing his father, Tommy is rendered psychosomatically blind, deaf, and mute. He becomes a wiz at pinball, starts a religion, and is eventually brought low as a false prophet.

Our examination of 1969 continues with our first American film we?ve discussed this year, They Shoot Horses, Don?t They? Directed by Sydney Pollack and based on a novel by Horace McCoy, the film stars Michael Sarrazin as Robert and Jane Fonda as Gloria, a pair who get thrown together in a marathon dance contest during the Great Depression.

Our look at 1969 continues with a discussion of Jacques Rivette?s L?Amour Fou. The story of a director, Sebastien, and an actress, Claire. We watch them work together on the play Andromaque -- seeing the crafting of the production via behind-the-scenes 16mm footage as well as the 35mm film cameras that capture the real behind-the-scenes footage of Sebastien and Claire?s fizzling relationship.

Jonathan Owen and Samm Deighan join Mike to discuss this four hour epic which marks a radical change in Rivette's filmmaking.

Heather Drain joins Mike to take listener questions, rail against the Rondos, and give a peek behind the podcast curtain as we celebrate nine years of The Projection Booth.

Our appreciation of 1969 continues with a look at The Big Dig. Also known as The Blaumilch Canal, the film was written and directed by Ephraim Kishon and stars Bomba Tzur as the titular Blaumilch, an escaped mental patient with a mania for digging. When he finds a jack hammer in downtown Tel Aviv he kicks off a chain of events that demonstrates the absurdity of bureaucracy.

Our exploration of 1969 continues this week as we head from Europe to Argentina to check out Armando Bo?s FUEGO. It?s the story of Laura who?s played by the one and only Isabel Sarli. She is a woman driven by her passions. After she marries Carlos, played by Bo, she realizes what a hopeless nymphomaniac she is.

Heather Drain and Rod Lott join Mike in discussing this South American firecracker of a film.

It's less than two minutes to midnight on the Doomsday Clock. Our Eastern Neighbors are being quarantined from the corona virus. And here we are talking about the end of the world as shown in 1969 by director Marco Ferreri. The Seed of Man / Il seme dell'uomo stars Marzio Margine as Cino and Anne Wiazemsky as Dora, the only lovers left alive after a plague has wiped out most of the world's population. The two live in a seaside home where Cino has a museum of trivial objects. He feels that he has to repopulate the world but Dora has other ideas.

Our appreciation of 1969 continues with a look at Piero Schivazappa?s Femina Ridens / The Laughing Woman. Also sometimes known as The Frightened Woman, the film stars Phillipe Leroy as Sayer, the head of a charity foundation, and Dagmar Lassander as Maria, one of his employees. She she expresses an interest in writing an article about male sterilization, he takes that as his cue to invite her to his house and enslave her. What else can a good chauvinist do?

Elric Kane and Kat Ellinger join Mike to discuss the film, Niki de Saint-Phalle, Men's Rights, and more.

Our appreciation of 1969 continues with our second look at an adaptation of Edowaga Rampo?s work, Blind Beast. Directed by Yasuzo Masumura, the film stars Mako Midori as Aki Shima, a model, and Eiji Funakoshi as Michio, a blind sculptor who becomes obsessed with her. He and his mother kidnap Aki and keep her in his warehouse studio where the two become engaged in a game of cat and mouse as he tries to create a new form of art that only the blind can appreciate.

Our appreciation of 1969 continues with a look at Teruo Ishii?s Horrors of Malformed Men. Based on the writings of Edogawa Ranpo, the movie tells the tale of Hirosuke Hitomi played by Teruo Yoshida. When we first see him, he?s locked up in an insane asylum. And things only go downhill from there?

Ben Buckingham and Jess Byard join Mike to delve into the ero-guro.

Taking its title from the notorious book by Leopold von Sacher-Mascoch, Jess Franco's Venus in Furs (1969) stars James Darren as Jimmy Logan, a musician who can blow a cool horn. He finds the corpse of a woman he had seen at a party, the mysterious Wanda (Maria Rohm). When Wanda shows up -- alive and seducing -- shortly thereafter, Jimmy becomes obsessed with her, despite his loving relationship with chanteuse Rita (Barbara McNair).

Brad Jones and Samm Deighan join Mike to discuss Franco's film as well as an alternate cut of the movie along with a few other adaptations of the Sacher-Masoch story.

Our examination of 1969 continues with a look at Pier Paolo Pasolini's Porcile. Based on a play Pasolini wrote, the film cross-cuts between an Italian enclave in Germany in 1967 and a rogue cannibal in an unknown time around Mt. Etna.

Ken Stanley and Jonathan Owen join Mike to dissect this oblique film.

Based on a book by Vasilis Vasilikos, Costa-Gavras?s Z (1969) stars Yves Montand as a political activist who is killed after a rally. The film also stars Jean-Louis Trintignant as the investigator of the incident who manages to uncover a vast conspiracy.

Keith Gordon and Eric Cohen join Mike to discuss this political thriller which is a thinly veiled re-telling of the events in Greece of 1963 and the assassination of Grigoris Lambrakis.

We're kicking off our discussion of the films of 1969 with a look at Yoshishige Yoshida's Eros + Massacre. The film tells two parallel stories - one in the early 1920s and the other in contemporary 1969.

Samm Deighan and Chris Stachiw join Mike to smugly discuss the film. We're joined by special guest Professor Dick Stegewerns author of Kiju Yoshida and ATG - The Reluctant Partner.

For the last episode in our Sci-Fi December series it's a five hour journey into Douglas Trumbull's Brainstorm (1983) which stars Christopher Walken as scientist Michael Brace who has helped in the discovery of a new technology that records the sensations of a person and allows for playback directly into another person's brain.

Interviews include Trumbull, actress Louise Fletcher, screenwriters Bruce Joel Rubin, Philip Messina, Robert Stitzel, and author Joseph Maddrey.

Co-hosts Samm Deighan and David Kittredge join Mike to discuss the film, the tragedy that overshadowed it, and its spiritual sequel, Strange Days (1995).

Sci Fi December continues with a look at the 1986 film from Georgiy Daneliya, Kin Dza Dza. It?s the story of two men who are transported to the planet Pluke where they have to navigate the barren landscape and strange cultures of the people there.

Jennifer Handorf and Dan Martin join Mike to unpack the rituals and anthropological implications of Pluke as well as dicuss the 2013 animated remake, Ku! Kin-Dza-Dza.

It's that time! Here's the 2019 Year End Music Mix that was inspired by episodes of The Projection Booth from the last year. Find the full track listing at soundcloud.com/projectionbooth/2019-music-mix

Rock on Detroit, Rock on Chicago, Wheaties: The Breakfast of Champions.

Sci-Fi December rolls along with a look at 1989?s Millennium. Directed by Michael Anderson, the film stars Kris Kristofferson as an airline disaster investigator who stumbles onto something unexpected at the site of a mid-air collision. It will lead him into a tangled web of time traveling shenanigans.

Jedidiah Ayres and Chris Bricklemyer join Mike to discuss the film, John Varley's source novel, and more.

Sci-Fi December continues with a look at The Creation of the Humanoids. Copyrighted 1960, the film was directed by Wesley Barry and written by Jay Simms. It plays like a stage play about a post-Apocalyptic world in which androids are a large part of society and human beings fear being replaced by them.

Jennifer Handorf and Dan Martin join Mike to discuss the film, science fiction as allegory, and intentional versus accidental genius.

We kick off sci-fi December with a look at Nicolas Roeg?s The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976). Based on the book by Walter Tevis, the film stars David Bowie as Thomas Jerome Newton, a strange man who appears in the office of a patent attorney with some big ideas that help him start on the road to untold wealth. Along the way he meets colorful characters such as Candy Clark as Mary Lou, a hotel worker, and Rip Torn, as Professor Bryce, a lascivious pedagogue.

Samm Deighan and Skizz Cyzyk join Mike to discuss the film. Interviews include Candy Clark, Sam Umland and Susan Compo.

On this special episode Mike talks to Stew Buck, the writer/director/producer of a pair of upcoming documentaries -- A World War II Fairy Tale: The Making of Michael Mann's "The Keep" and Uncovering Wolfen.

Noirvember 2019 wraps up with Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity (1944). With a screenplay co-written by Wilder and Raymond Chandler and based on a story by James M. Cain, the film is one of the seminal works of film noir. It stars Fred MacMurray as fast-talking Walter Neff, an insurance agent who gets played for a dope by a dame. The dame in question, Phyllis Dietrichsen, is played by the one and only Barbara Stanwyk. The two cook up an insurance scam to pay off big after they bump off her husband.

Keith Gordon and Kat Ellinger join Mike to discuss Double Indemnity, it's 1973 remake, the adult adaptation Eruption (1977), Body Heat (1981), and the Body Heat/Double Indemnity mash-up, Jism (2003).

Noirvember 2019 continues with a look at The Conversation (1974). Sandwiched between the first two Godfather films, The Conversation is writer/director Francis Ford Coppola?s paean to European art films of the 1960s, most notably Antonioni?s Blow-Up.

Instead of swinging London, however, The Conversation is set in San Francisco and stars Gene Hackman as Harry Caul, a schlubby nudnik whose life revolves around audio surveillance, his own privacy, and violating the privacy of others.

Vincenzo Natali (In the Tall Grass) and Jamey Duvall (Movie Geeks United) join Mike to discuss the film and its spiritual sequel Enemy of the State.

Daniel Kremer returns to the Projection Booth as a director rather than a co-host with a discussion of his film Overwhelm the Sky (2019) along with the film's lead actor, Alexander Hero.

We continue Noirvember 2019 with a look at Max Ophul?s The Reckless Moment. Released in 1949, the film tells the story of Lucia Harper (Joan Bennett), a mother who?s out to protect her family from the forces of evil including Ted Darby, a swindler who?s making moves on her 17 year old daughter. Mrs. Harper will go to extremes to keep her family safe.

Cullen Gallagher and Samm Deighan join Mike to discuss the film. Our interview this week is with Lutz Bacher, author of Max Ophuls in the Hollywood Studios.

We kick-off Noirvember 2019 with a look at Joseph H. Lewis?s The Big Combo (1955). Written by Philip Yordan, the film stars Cornel Wilde as Lt. Leonard Diamond. He?s a cop with a soft spot for Susan Lowell (Jean Wallace), the main squeeze of Mr. Brown (Richard Conte). Diamond and Brown play a strange game of cat and mouse as Diamond seems to pursue justice while Brown is a psychopathic thug who thinks he?s anything but.

Jedidiah Ayres and Brian Hoyle join Mike to discuss the film and posit just what that big combo of the title can mean.

The 1984 film from Adam Small and Peter Stuart, Another State of Mind, documents an international tour by two west coast punk bands, Youth Brigade and Social Distortion; capturing the attitudes, ethos, and lifestyles of the time.

On a very special episode of The Projection Booth, Bill Ackerman and Maitland McDonagh join Mike to discuss Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz's Messiah of Evil. Released under a number of titles (including The Second Coming), the film is a creepy, atmospheric horror film about a young woman who goes in search of her father only to find something far-more-sinister than she could have ever imagined.

We wrap up #Shocktober2019 with an episode on Mark Goldblatt?s 1988 film Dead Heat. The film stars Treat Williams as Roger Mortis who, along with his partner Doug Bigelow (Joe Piscopo) investigate a perplexing case that throws them into the world of the supernatural.

#Shocktober2019 continues with a look at Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby (1968). Based very faithfully on the book by Ira Levin, the film stars Mia Farrow as the titular Rosemary who, with her husband Guy (John Cassavetes) move to a new apartment in New York where some strange things play out.

Suzen Tekla Kruglinska and Kat Ellinger join Mike to talk about this seminal film as well as its made-for-TV sequel movie, unrelated sequel book, and TV remake.

A music mix to go along with our Rosemary's Baby episode. For the full playlist see soundcloud.com/projectionbooth/rosemarys-music-mix