Hello and welcome back to Clear and Present Dudes, the podcast
where the knives smile before they cut.
I am Mike Dunbar. I'm joined as always by Rory
James O'Toole. Hello and Sonia Bjorkson.
Hello everyone. Tonight we are diving deep into
our beloved Jello adjacent cinema, an Italian film with a
rare Hollywood pedigree, 1973's Goncharov.
Yes, tonight we are going to Gaslight, Gatekeeper, Gilbos and
Goncharov. First let me remind you to like
and subscribe on on YouTube. If you are on Spotify and it
appears on your home feed anyway and you feel like you don't need
to follow it, please just do it anyway and make it official.
Really helps us out on the the old algorithm.
Also spoiler warning spoiler for for 1973's Contrara.
If you haven't seen it, you know, wait a little bit.
We'll we'll be we'll be right here.
Come back in a couple of hours. Cool.
Right, guys, before I get into the plot stops, like what's your
first impressions in this film? What's not the love?
Well, we're we're obviously still all waiting for Ghansharov
to I have to use the sentence. Definitely one of the movies of
all time, at least initially. Also great form for for someone
not like me who has a tendency to sometimes be a bit of a
menswear guy. Thoroughly enjoyable.
Oh, sure. It's tremendously, totally right
there. This is one of the horniest
films imaginable yet also not because there is a massive
amount of sexual tension between people that the kind of
narrative would just. It would be, if you know what I
mean, It's like Ginsharov and Katya, you know, there is no
chemistry between them. Yeah.
They are meant to be the romantic leads.
Yeah. Yeah.
But because they are off on the road, romantic side quests as
Sunny said, costumes amazing, tensions just fantastic through
the whole thing. Literally I think civil shabbats
one of our one of our top 2 or top three big screen rules.
Honestly the tension between her and Sophia Loren is just mental.
It's like. Yeah, this is.
This is great for her, isn't it? Yeah, this is like quite early
in her career. This is like around sort of was
it 1973? So but she's just done the last
picture show in 71, doesn't she? So she's come off the back of
that obviously pre taxi driver. So yeah, she's on the rise.
Really good time for her. Hey, Shall shall I put the
trailer on and then we'll come back and we'll go through it
properly? You are a time bomb.
Dig, dig. Digging.
And I have no intention of being.
Around for the boom. And now you should know I could
have killed you when I walked through the door.
Cool, right? So Goncharov 1973 is an Italian
American Co produced art house crime filler written by maybe
directed by Matteos Scheczy, stylized in the credits, really
weird. Produced by Dominico Pocacci, an
executive produced but also maybe directed by Martin
Scorsese. And that was maybe an on de
plume. I couldn't find a lot of detail
about that. There's a lot of like
conflicting information online. But either way, he was
incredibly involved in the production.
Starring Robert De Niro as the eponymous Celestroniero
Koncharov and Co. Starring A stacked cast
including Cybil Shepherd, Al Pacino, Harvey Katel, Gene
Hackman, John Kazale, Sofia Loren, an incredibly
unaccredited Linda Carr. We'll get into that in a bit.
Yeah, wow. Film follows the eponymous
Koncharov, a crime boss from Moscow looking to expand his
empire by coming back to maybe Naples with his wife, who is a
Cybil Shepherd, and he intends to set up his own rival criminal
empire against the Neapolitan mafia.
As you mentioned, Rory, the film's pretty Derek.
It's time for showing some queer love stories.
So there's a we'll get into it. But there's a there's a thing
between Harvey Cattell and and Robert De Niro.
There's a thing between Sapira Renn and Cybil Shepherd.
There's a thing between John Kazali and everybody.
John Kazali, but. Really.
Just there like, you know, Yeah,
he wants. He's a very deeply lonely person
and he's trying to collect with everybody here can.
Yeah, Really, really, really random.
The film's production was tumultuous for numerous issues
that I'm sure we'll discuss in in due course regarding like
distribution rights, conflicting filming projects for the other
lead actors. Yeah, just an absolute mess.
Sensitive issues. The Soviet Union, like
government got involved at one point.
So yeah, like film was was more or less lost for a long time.
Got a big resurgence in the 90s. Really weird.
This is a really weird detail. George Lucas started
distributing VHS bootlegs of it. Not like officially, but he was
hosting like showings of it during the 1994 Cannes Film
Festival, like in his hotel, which apparently really pissed
off Quintero Tino really funny. But yeah, so anyway, this year
it is getting a Criterion restoration.
And I think the four hour cuts I don't think is restored, but the
four hour cut is on the disc as well.
And Scorsese, he's been really massively involved in that
because he's massively involved in film restoration generally.
So we're doing that, but we're not, we haven't watched the four
hour cut. We have watched the original two
hour and 18 minute cut, which is enough.
So, so yeah, that's that's my introduction to like what the
film is. Dude, I thought this film barely
made sense, Like, and I don't mean that like in a mean way.
I mean it in the same way that like mean streets doesn't really
make a huge deal of sense to me when I watch it.
There's a lot going on. Is it a character piece?
Is it a thriller? Is it really about the crime?
Is it about the passion? Like I just, I just, there's all
those weird like occurring motifs that seem a bit
heavy-handed now in like our modern view, but at the time
we're probably standard business like the clocks and the
cigarettes and like the music and stuff.
The the clock ticking freaking shower off full kind of motif is
something that it really bangs the drum about a lot.
I mean, it works, It works, but I don't think you could kind of
slip it into a film that was made and like current, yeah, you
cannot actually have you handed clock symbolism and certain
characters wearing a watch and almost every scene but a pivotal
one, that kind of thing and stuff like that, you know?
Yeah, yeah, I took it at Ryan's Field and it's not the first
time we're going to talk about this film in Serpico, which was
being made at the same time. So the.
So both films go out in 1973. Both films were produced in the
summer of 72, right. Albertina was filming both.
That film starts anyway with like a really simple opening
credit, like a black screen, just text on there and like the
wailing of like a a police siren or like an ambulance siren.
You don't know what it is. Turns out it's in an ambulance
because it's it's it's the titular Cyprocal of being like
rushed off spots of being shot in the face.
This is a similar sort of thing where you get like, well, I'll
just start. So Kotorov opens on a on a rain
suit night in Naples and we get like a it's not like steady
calm. It's like handhelds Cam kind of
walking through the narrow streets unlimited by dim St
lights and we get like you get like a view that you got to view
the docks. So that's a recurring movie for
seeing the docks in this film as you like doc creams loom of the
harbour, you get like silhouette against the dark sea.
And then we get like it's all like street noise, not music.
It's all like street noise. And then we get to like a bit of
a montage of like tonnes of clocks, like the clock tower
clock, like people's wristwatches clocks.
There's a clock in a bar and there's like tick.
And sound in the tick from tick and Chorley sound isn't there,
it's. Yeah, it's like, yeah.
And it's it's really like oppressive and train doors
opening. And then we got like the feet
stepping out onto the platform. You get like another shot of
like the clock on the train platform.
And then we get a shot of like a wristwatch, which we're going to
see the same wristwatch. We're going to see it loads.
It's fucking crazy and he's walking in a kind of like
TikTok, TikTok rhythm as well and like like the the gains
obviously right up on the boom magnet here is here his feet and
it's like we get it, man clocks. Blocks.
Yeah. And like, yeah.
And as that's going on, this is this is really confusing.
So there's like, So what we're what we're seeing is control of
getting off a train in Naples, right.
Meanwhile, we're getting like a voice over.
But it's not from control of, it's from, it's from, it's from
Harvey Ketel's character, Andre Didano.
Or you might get called the banker during the movie as well.
And so he's saying like love, truth, power, three things men
spend their whole lives chasing. Some men think if they catch one
of them, the others will follow. But Naples is a city that eats
those kind of men. It doesn't matter where you came
from, if you're rich or poor, doesn't matter if it came here
as a Papa or a king, sooner or later the sooner reminds you of
something. Time always wins since we can
clocks right. The story is about a man who
thought he could have runtime his name was Gunter of for a
while he almost did. And that's, and then we got the
camera like pan up and it's like Rob De Niro there with his
moustache because he's got a moustache in this movie.
You look so fucking cool in this film, man.
Yeah yeah he's like bro, like totally in like 2 of the birds
yeah really, really, really stops you on and then it's like
bumps Gunter of total card yeah, wild.
And then it gets really confusing because then the next
thing you see is like 20 years earlier and it's like 22 kids in
like rags, basically like running around the streets of
like, undisclosed Eastern European location.
I think. I think it's obviously meant to
be like Moscow, but it doesn't. It doesn't say like Moscow 1953.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's like 2-2 teenage kids
running for the the alley. One of them's sculpture of the
other one is Andre. We are, I guess, expected to
assume, but it's again, not not not totally clear.
And I don't know if you caught this, but like the the kids who
are playing like the young Gunter of an Andrea, like it's
really it's really randomness. I had a double check, so I
couldn't believe it. One of them is Stanley Tucci
who's like 13 and the one is fuck.
Off. And the other one mate, this is
going to blew a fucking like the one is John Lucas Amo.
This was 13 and they look fuck all like because that which is
why it was so confusing because like what the fuck are he's
doing? How the fuck did they get cast
in this film at that age? That's so weird.
And they get out and I don't know where they filmed this.
They probably filmed in New York, but it's obviously meant
to look like Moscow or something.
Yeah. But they just.
Put like the Russian philtre over the camera.
Yeah, just like it's a bit blue. It's a bit like.
Yeah, it's, it's, it's a bit blue, the founded area, but
there's like whether there's whether there's just some like a
bit more like standing water on the asphalt and stuff and like,
and like there's more broken windows and.
Shit, it was cool. And like, yeah, like I see.
Breath and the fucking stop with the feet and that just to just
to like lay down the whole cool thing.
Yeah, it's just a little strum of a fucking Bala Laker in the
background, but it's like Rush, I felt a replied.
Ambient supplies, that's all. So you get that you don't seem
up close here. It's not it wasn't like I saw
them as like outstanding Tuchy. They're quite far out when I go
and they're just like a kind of classic 70s pushing.
And it's the two kids and like one of them.
I think it's like Rosambo is like running interference with
like a a stall guy at a market. Meanwhile, like Tucci is like
like shoplifting quietly. And then as soon as soon, as
soon as the guy catches them, like they run away.
And there's a whole like, there's no music here, by the
way, which I thought was weird, like I took go so long.
But anyway, yeah, they saw like a chase start.
They like duck into an alleyway. And then we get like the two
kids get stopped because of the guy stood in the alleyway.
And it's this big tall dude who is his name's Ilya.
What's his name? And he laughs at their face
because like, he's obviously like one of the local gang guys.
He's like he's got like a suit on as well.
He looks like together, but he's young as well.
He's got like a like a what looks like a fresh scar on his
face. And he tells the kids like,
like, if you're going to steal, find your own turf, you little
pigs, or, or join a gang. Find your own turf, you little
pigs. I love them, but it's an
absolute bar. And he's like, I recommend, I
recommend getting some employment.
And then like that's it's assumes that they like join a
gang and that's how their life of crime starts and organised
crime anyway, because it would obviously just shoplifting.
So it implies also that they're really close, like they've known
each other a long time as well. It's still not really clear that
like the guy overheard at the beginning of the voice is the
guy who's not being picked like bizarre with 13 year olds.
So I felt that really confusing in my first.
Yeah, right, absolutely. Yeah, it was like, but obviously
I mean straight up it took me a couple of watches to to focus
walkers watches because it takes it took me watching it a couple
of times to fully I think get what was going on with it.
Of course, of course for an autistic may stop it a few times
like identify some guns and some of the kind of more like less
less focused kind of scenes of face interest from the TV.
But yeah I I think I worked it out after 2 watches.
I think. Viewings.
It's, I mean, it's not like Tenet or anything.
It's not like totally mental. Well, Tenet is that bad, but
like there's a lot of interpretation.
Good, odd. Definitely, definitely.
That's the next scene, for example, really, really threw
me. So it cuts back to the present
day, but it's not like the present day.
It's like 1919 years, 11 months, like 30 days and, and 23 hours
because it's, because it's like, it's like, it's like what
happened immediately before Gontarov got off the train
because they're back on the train.
I will say that even that kind of like time timey wimey stuff
doesn't fully disengage her from the film.
It isn't too much for speed bump money watching it.
It's still I think a well put together film, just it's the
chronology of its storytelling. Right at the opening is a bit
weird, but it's not too jarring, you know?
Yeah, yeah, so you get So what it does it just the classic like
cut forward to that presentation, see where they are
now from those humble beginnings.
Gun drops like in the train car. He's he's all suited birds.
He sat next to it like Iya, but you can tell the same guy
because he's all the now, but he's still got the scar.
And they are having like a really kind of perfunctory
conversation about how they're going to set up their permanent
foothold in Naples, particularly the harbours, lucrative
smuggling routes, which is like their big thing is they're doing
like smuggling of like booze and tobacco and maybe arms and
stuff. Doesn't really say yet.
Yeah, like it's kind of like, it's kind of like, like it's a
generic crime set up, isn't it? It's almost as effect in the
storytelling. The actual crimes don't kind of
matter. Yeah, exactly that.
So you kind of get that. So he's like somebody already
owns this town kind of thing. Yeah.
And then as they say that it like cuts to like the other side
of town and we get like our first scene of Al Pacino as
crime boss Mario Ambrosini. Yeah.
This is this is wild. So this is, as I mentioned
earlier on, this is like Al Pacino.
He's done The Godfather. Serbiko is is definitely 73.
So he's shooting that at the same time as he's shooting this,
which is great. Does need some kind of weird
continuity issues with a Pacino where they have to kind of cover
the fact that he's got a beard. Yeah.
So like, all right. So the day is during the
shooting of Serpico. That film was filmed
sequentially, like in the order it happened.
Right. Yeah, got you.
Because it starts with his career as a young New York
Police cop and he's like clean shaven and he just like
undercover work and he gets like a moustache.
And then he goes like full. I don't know how you I was
describe it. He was like full pirate.
He has like big flowy shirts, big beard like wears big hats,
has has an earring, owns a bird like.
He basically turns into that like a guy who's like
chronically undercover from Brooklyn 99, right?
The guy who's like just a total fucking psycho.
The one. Who's going out with Diaz?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just, it's just in
Matsukas's Pimento. Yeah, yeah.
It's fucking brilliant. Yeah, that's what he does.
So you'd already sung us that movie.
So this is a weird one. So the production here, I think
in the in the US, there was some kind of weird deal where it was,
it was distributed through like De Laurentiis and but Serbico
was like actually produced by Dino De Laurentiis.
And he'd already signed up for that.
It's a Sydney Glimet film, 1973. And he already signed up for
that. And he was shooting that
substantially on his contract. And then he had the opportunity
to work on this kind of came in as a super sub because he
already worked with some of the people in this before.
Like, I think he really wanted to work with De Niro, hadn't had
a chance to work with him yet. Obviously he's right high off
like the Godfather coupler and all that kind of stuff.
So he wanted to crime again. Yeah.
So he agrees to do this, but then he has to keep flying
backwards, of course, between New York and then the location
shoots in Naples. And there's some stuff he has to
do in New York in a separate little set with a second
director. Right.
So we we meet Marion Bruschini. He, of course, is another like,
you know, standard crime boss, smart, dressed in his club kind
of thing. He's got an office.
He's you just kind of see him running the place.
And I think he's talking to someone off screen about like
he's heard the word that like Russia's coming for his turf
kind of thing. And that's it.
It's like it's really basic controls gets off the train.
He's talking to Ilya and he talks about his wife.
His wife had already come to Naples.
She's been here for a little while.
He was taking care of business back in like, I guess Moscow
doesn't really say that Ilya. I think he knows Katya.
So I think, I think the idea is a lot of people in the
organisation like obviously know Gun Trove and Katya because like
they're like kind of the royal family sort of thing.
And I think Ilya's known Guntrov obviously since he was like a, a
kid. So he feels he feels emboldened
enough to like give him the real picture, you know, So he says,
like when you stayed behind, you left behind more than you know,
she's too good a woman for you, Guntrov.
I think you know this already. And Guntrov doesn't say
anything. Yeah, I love his lack of
reaction and and then not seeing it's like it's credible.
It's a weird performance, isn't it?
From, from Deniro? He's right.
Very laconic. He doesn't say it very much.
It's it's kind of not like him like he's he's got this dynamism
about him even even in his for one of the better words later
years. Like I think he's fucking
tremendous in the mini series 0 day that came out last year or
the year before. He plays like an ex president of
the United States who gets pulled in to run this like run
this like kind of counterterrorism operation
against this like massive cyber attack thing.
And he's fucking brilliant. It's so good, man.
And it's like this is energy. There's dynamism.
Like he's like he's like threatening a water board some
guy. And it's like he's a
legitimately scary man even as currently age.
And he's dynamic, he's energetic and he's really just laconic in
this film. Like you said, he's that's a
down back performance that that works in an uncanny valley kind
of way because it's like that's De Niro, but it's not.
Our it's a bit like, well, you know what we want to, we want to
of Travis, Travis Bickle, right? Yeah.
Resources is going to come a few years later.
Yeah, yeah. Travis Bickle, though, gets to,
like, explode it into the front, doesn't he?
Yeah, Yeah. And and I don't know if Contra
truly gets to, like, cast off his shackles.
He kind of stays. I don't think he's the same guy
always at the end. Yeah.
It's a really flat arc, which is
weird because he's a particular character when actually really,
for me, the the the the real focus of the film is either
either Catcher, right, or either your boy Andre.
Yeah. Yeah, the ones who get the most
kind of fluctuation. I think in the story you only
get a couple of scenes, but I speak, Joe gets more to do I
speak. Joe the fan favourite as well.
Yeah, yeah. Man.
Meeting you from the train station is Andrea Adidano, who
is like obviously they were like street that's together.
Now he's like this refined financial opera.
He's known for the criminal world as the banker US elegant
suit. He's kind of he's he's a mob
accountant who I think the Russian will be already
installed in in the area to kind of get a little land and now
he's and now he's they're going to meet up and stuff.
Obviously that's like the top level story.
What what hasn't kind of been explained yet is that Andre's
already LinkedIn with the Nepalitan mafia and he's already
kind of like, this all happened like before this the film
started. He's already portrayed.
He's already portrayed control like the first time.
Yeah, here, this flips. I mean, I again, I don't like
watching several times to figure out what's going on.
This film like flips and flops several times and Andre
basically betrays everybody at some point.
Really the character. Absolutely mental, man.
It's like this film, kind of. It almost seems like the film
expects you to know a lot about backgrounds of characters and
stuff more than just there was St rats together kind of thing.
The the film kind of expects the viewer to almost confabulate
what's going on and and it's crazy.
It's like it could have done more storytelling.
Yeah. Or it could have just gone in
with none, but instead it almost comes out like, hey, why don't
you make up what you think happened in the past?
Why don't you confabulate it within your head?
Man, what was? Really going on?
What's up with you? Yeah, all that stuff.
It's it's wild. There aren't any.
Yeah. And it's not like forthcoming
with the clues. So like when Gun Trove and Andre
meet, it's really warm. Like he puts him on the arm.
Yeah. Again, like for for like a it's
really warm for like a such a state performance, you know,
puts him on the arm and he's like Andre, my brother kind of
thing. Like, how is the city shooting
you? And he goes like Naples.
He says it's a city that eats the week.
Gun Trove and Andre talk about their like their operation.
They walk around like a a warehouse.
Some of the minor workers are there and kind of spot him.
And there's a little bit of like, ADR off screen of like,
he's the man who survived the fires of Moscow.
Survived the fires of Moscow. That's crazy in itself because I
almost took that line. And being there like you survive
like both the like, political suppression of the crime gangs
and also like the literal like, combat between various factions
of the Bratzo or whatever, or the Vodiff Zagonya, if that's
what you're going to call them. That kind of thing.
You know, Like it's like he survived double.
He survived the brutality of the Moscow regime and he survived
his peers coming after. Him not sure when this film was
set like like is this film set for the present day?
So they they shoot in 72 it's going to be set in 72 or is it
set like fucking 61? There's a set in like 53 is
Stalin just died like. It's interesting.
I mean even if it was set at that point, he would have he the
main card himself would have be. I mean, how old do you think he
is in the film? How?
How old was was De Niro when he made this movie?
So he's 3030 years old when this one comes out.
So yeah, he's assuming the film is set when it's shot.
Yeah, as far as dating it with like the weaponry and stuff
involved, I can't fully place a date on it.
But there's nothing that's like a future weapon brought out in
1872 or whatever. Like I mean it's like because
iconically carries Thompson gun, Katya uses Nagant, I think.
I mean in 97 revolver I should see in Holden one-on-one scene,
Brett, a model, I want to say 934 or something, the little 22
long rifle one because it's a 22 bounce around death round.
So there's nothing there that's like newer than like I would say
the 50s, but it doesn't. But it doesn't feel like the
film set then because the cars and stuff so.
It's yeah, it's tricky, isn't it?
I was thinking like what cars is everything I was going to look
at. So like I, I don't know what
cars. What I was going to say is what
we really did is like in Marisa Tomei from like My Cousin Vinny
to come and say here like like identify the cars or as based on
like tyre tracks and stuff. Oh man, the defence is wrong.
So good, Ricardo. Maybe it's too equal.
Left tie marks that pause attraction.
You can't be close to marks without pause attraction.
So good my. God.
Yeah, you might be hot, but you miss a Tomei hot.
In in the words of George Costanza, Marissa Tomei, that's.
So good, man. OK.
So we've had a bunch of scenes and then we go to it's a casino
scene. Yes.
Yeah, it's OCK worker. It's OCK worker.
Sorry. Before that, so I skipped a bit.
I was to this. Yeah.
So before that we also got like the inspection of the warehouse
from Inspector Valeri Mikhailov. Yeah, by who was inexplicably
Russian. It's so wild, right?
He's wearing his fucking ushanka in Italy.
It's it's fucking. Battle.
Doesn't make any sense. Like is he an Italian policeman?
Is he like a Russian soldier? Like, I have no idea who he is,
but I do know he said he's Hollywood's holiest man.
Gene Hackman, right? God, God, God, rest his soul.
Yeah. Yeah, it is.
It is wild. That baffled me.
It's like there is no way that the police forces of the Soviet
Union would send the the fucking cop over in like a red heat.
Kind of such a witch. I mean, that's a whole different
movie. If this was like a fucking
action buddy comedy in which an Italian competent and a Soviet
cop tried to take down gunshot off, you know, it's like that
wouldn't have been a good film. Like, I don't understand, like
his remit and I don't think it's right.
Here's the thing. The there's obviously the four
hour cut, which we haven't watched.
Yeah. Yeah.
There's also rumours online of like a nine hour cut which is
which is which is insane. Directed by the ghost of Sergey
Aisles style. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and and
whenever, whenever, like a plot T So this comes up.
I just think it must be in the four hour cut or it must be in
an hour cut. Like there's there's so like,
what the fuck is going on anyway?
Mikhilov is is like at the warehouse.
He's like he's obviously on the case.
Like he knows this is the beginning of the smoking
operation and he knows that he like, you know, it's a classic
thing where the cop knows the bad guys are are guilty.
He just needs to prove it. So he needs to like find a
smoking gun to a raid or that kind of thing.
But he's there all the time. This seems like very much like
business as usual. They pretty much have to fuck
off. And he gets like, has a bit of
like a rude back and forwards with like one of the dock
workers. And then and then he's basically
sent pack it after he punches a guy.
He punches a guy in the face. Yeah.
And he's like, I'm the fucking law in this town.
And then they all laugh at him. And then he like walks away and
they're all like, I think he put down.
I think he put down like like. It's fucking amazing man.
Like it's inventioned. Yeah, he is totally inventioned
and then he gets into his little Italian police car, which makes
not making sense. No sense at all.
It's like it should be a beat ass fucking larder with like
Moscow number plates or something and he just drives
away listening to like the fucking red.
I'll be choir on it's eight track player.
Yeah. So he's kind of he's actually
like the the, the Frank Zipper of the film because he's like
the one I thought it makes no sense.
He's Russian. He's like, he's like the one
honest cop of the movie. So like he refuses the bribe.
So they try and bribe him, but they do it like as if they've
done it 1000 times before and they like they'll know he'll
reject it. So he like he basically takes
the envelope and like just throws it like into the into
into the water and then punches the guy in the face.
I mean, it's a slamming indictment of like the Italian
police force that the only, only good cop in Italy is some
fucking Russian guy who's there because reasons, because that
narrative needs would be there. Yeah, yeah.
It's ridiculous. Yeah.
So he gets into his car, he's he's driving away.
He's got, he's a little assistant.
He was an Italian actor. I don't know what his name is or
he was kind of his predator. He is.
I forget this guy's name but I checked and he hasn't been in
any Jello films. So yeah, no interest in
monitoring his career further. Well.
It doesn't matter because we barely see him again.
We see him in this. We see him in this scene and we
see him. I think there's a scene where
like a body is discovered later on and he's back there again
with like, the forensics. But like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So he's here at ABC says, like, have you heard that the the
Kardashians have arrived? You must have known that kind of
thing. And he's like our visitor from
the east didn't come here for the weather.
And then then he'd be like laughs.
He was like, never the Jew because he points at the
Shanker. But yeah.
And that's, that's it. So we've met Gene Hackman.
Yeah. Right now we're in Mario's
casino club. So again, like, really confusing
storytelling here. So we haven't seen Katya yet.
So this is how we are introduced to Katya.
And she's like a major character in the film.
But like, we see her for the first time just like
inexplicably, like on Gunter of his arm.
They've talked about it, but we haven't seen her.
So yeah, she's she's literally just there.
They walk inside this club. The club is like dark, like dini
lit like it's all like drenched in red that there's like some
sort of like Italian jazz, little like.
Jello Jazz. Yeah, like it's like like 4
piece, like on the stage, Yeah. And expected believe there's
like a couple of dancers, one which is fucking Lynda Carter.
I know that's mental. What the fuck did you did?
You owe someone a favour. I mean, you know, man,
safeguard. I'm not going, I'm not going to,
you know, be be upset and then I can't be on the screen because,
you know, but. So she's like in a sequin dress.
There's another woman next door who's in a really similar sequin
dress, except she's also got like the Chiquisa banana kind of
headdress with like fruit and veg.
It's almost as if this is like written, it's like some kind of
like fever dream of what the fucking 11 year old Kinsharov
thinks capitalism looks like. Like, like he's living in, he's
living in just some horrible part of like Soviet Russia.
And he's like thinking, yeah, what does the capitalist scum
doing with the banana headdresses and the Lynda Carter
and the beautiful bottom, you know?
So we walk in and it's like the classic kind of thing, like
you've got to be out in society. You go if you're showing.
So she's like dressed to the nines.
He's like in a sharp suit as always.
He walks in and he's kind of scooping the place out.
The first thing we see this is like Mario Ambrosini and him
meeting. So like he's like at a table
like in like a bufferio, like a little VIP type section.
And he's got like, you know, all these two of these around him
and stuff. And he's got like a girl on his
arm who'd be doing even like, I'm not sure we see again.
Yeah. And there's a bit where like
they look at each other, they look at each other kind of
thing. What happens a control of like
finds a table, 1 of Ambrosini's guys comes over and it's like Mr
Ambrosin, you would like to have a word.
He's taking care of your drinks kind of thing, you know, like
points towards like Al Pacino and he's there.
You know that guy, like Ambrosino's guy, and that's an
actual Italian actor as well. I forget as the amount, but I
looked him in. He was in one of our film, which
was a jello film. 10 years later, he was in this incredibly
fucking violent Jello film called Las Trotsino and it's
horrific. I've heard like it literally had
like a theatre release in in Italy and that was this.
And I've, I've heard it's just insanely violent.
So I want to hunt it down one day.
But yeah, that's the only Jello link really this film has.
I'm sorry, but you know, I'm the Jello mentioned guy.
Yeah. That's not seen though.
Yeah, that's cool. It's the blackmailer, I think.
In Italian, Yeah. Yeah, but it that's cool.
Yeah. So I didn't, I didn't recognise
him at all. Maybe there I was just exactly
Googling who is this guy and then like I went down a fucking
rabbit hole on this man. I drunk like 3 tonnes a monster
and became 1/4. You know, so as this develops,
what will happens? Guntrove gets up and use the
table. He apologises to catch you.
Like I'll just be a minute ago. I've got to talk to business.
She looks bored as fuck anyway. He has, She really does.
Something she's stunning. She looks amazing, but she looks
bored as fuck, right? So she kind of like does this
sort of like, uh huh, and pouts and like kind of looks around
and like swigs takes a big swig from her drink, which has
arrived and it's. Well, what is she drinking?
What is she drinking? It's got like, it's in a, it's
in a martini glass. Yeah.
It's a cocktail of some kind, right?
Yeah, Yeah. It seems like hard liquor is in
there. Yeah.
Like but but she drinks it in such a casual manner.
Yeah. Like I like it's implied that
she's got like a well advanced alcohol problem.
Yeah, I mean, like, it's so say get up.
Well, she's Russian as a source, assume she was drinking vodka
before she was drinking water, that kind of thing.
It's like I grew up on mother's milk and vodka, you know?
Stoli straight up. Stoli straight up.
Yeah. OK, Gal.
Yeah. Like, and yeah, she's she's it
is really like, kind of believable because some, some
actors don't look good pretending to drink alcohol.
Tom Cruise. Oh yeah.
You you put a fucking tight in Tom Cruise's hand and and it's
like this. Katya looks in in in some like a
good hang. She looks like should be fun to
hang out with on a night out, you know?
Well, I think it would go like. Either way, it looks like it
would start fun and then, you know, she'd I think she'd
probably like hit the mascara thinner a bit a bit too hard.
Yeah, and probably then and then like and then like straight up
have sex with your wife, so. This song This song is.
All about me, It's all about me. She fucking smokes a cigarette
backwards then destroys your marriage by taking your wife to
whatever it'd be. Fucking girl boss.
I love her, that she's amazing. Scrubs, scrubs like I won't get
no love from me he. Scrubs me up.
Oh yeah, so the band strikes up her another song and it's a
tango. Yeah, it's a tango of.
Music. Yeah, like it's this.
Isn't this isn't this isn't the tango scene, but it's like the
first tango scene. It is a film that has so many
kind of moments. It's a tango scene, but it's not
the tango scene. It's a scene where they play a
chess, but it's not the. Chess the scene.
Yeah, yeah. It's not that one.
No, it's like. It's a scene at the docks, but
it's not the scene at the docks. It's honestly.
It feels like rewrites, but I can't quite fully agree with
myself for that. I feel like I didn't, right.
Whenever you whenever you talk to people like night in the 70s
cinema, people always go like the 70s were a great like New
Hollywood. You know, that's what they call
it, New Hollywood because it's like the people like Coppola
coming in, Spielberg coming in, you know, like the likes of that
George Lucas coming in, like Anthony J Pakula, you know, like
all these great names, they're always great moves, like like
Clete, you know. Yeah, great movie watched it
last night and it's like all these brave films are like not
afraid to look at like the grimy side of life or to be like slow
and developed like these complex stories will be like character
pieces in the frame of a of a of a different genre movie.
What do you think? Like New Hollywood, you think of
that. So you don't think of like
executive meddling. But I think because this movie
was like a Co produced in Italy, it was going to be distributed
in America. But like has a very like at a
height of the Cold War, the Cold War be cold.
And you know, I think there's a lot of executive meddling and
people were like, not sure how they're going to sell it.
And I think, yeah, there was probably a lot of rewrites
brought in. That's probably part of the
reason why like iceberg Jew is just like appears without any
set up. And you get like you get you get
this tango scene, you get the violin, the violin scene, which
is kind of a tango scene in the sense that he's playing like the
same kind of music. And then literally right after
that you get another tango scene.
So what the fuck is going on, man?
Anyway. The town going, apparently.
They they run out of ways to like go like right, so spoilers
for like like 20 minutes, but like to get like catcher and
Sophia to have chemistry. They're like right, just have
them dance again. Just make them do another dance,
make them listen to some more music, just more dancing just
like what the fuck guys? Why do they why can't they go
curling? Why can't they like go for a
walk? Why can't they go?
We could have had a coffee. We.
Exactly, they could have done literally anything.
It's Italy. It's not like there's nothing to
do there. They could have they could have
gone in a museum, got gone the day trip of Venice, got on a
gondola, joined the carabinieri, bought a had a had a pizza
driven. They could have driven around
homoerotically like those two cops and that it's your Tashi
film, Live like a man, died like a cop, I think it's called.
But it's just these two good looking dudes, including the
bargain basement, Robert Redford, just driving around
Rome, embracing each other, run like a little motorbike,
violently executing criminals, running trains on witnesses and
sleeping in the same bed in a very heterosexual way.
And they could have done that. They could have done that man.
And and that was made at a similar time too.
So they could have just borrowed the motorbike of those two
roommates and roommated around Naples.
Yeah, yeah. But they didn't.
That's what they should have done.
In fact, that's what their character should have done.
Like instead of the rest of the film.
I mean the world. Fucking come on.
That's Katya coded, right? That's it.
Get motorbike. We could drive now, Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, I was watching. So I guess I was watching.
I was clued last night yeah, and Jane Fondas character and that
pre Daniels give me big capture energy, like really similar
characters. Like she's a she's like a high
class prostitute who does it because she's an aspiring
actress and model. And it's almost like she's
addicted. Like she can't quit.
Like she stopped hooking like full time and just takes on
really like, but whenever she's like feels the need to perform
and wants to disappear from herself, she like calls up and
gets a gets a client and then she like acts basically for the
client. And she's like, she's just she's
doing therapy in the movie and she like talks to a therapist
about how like for that one hour, I'm the best actress in
Hollywood. And that's kind of like her
whole deal. I feel like catch is really the
same. Like catch is like not she's a
constantly play acting as somebody else.
She's not being her own true self.
I mean, but you only see her true self for like sadly about
30 seconds at the end of the war and obviously the couple of
scenes that she has was for fear, even though it's a bit
coded. I mean, it's kind of like a
comment really on the kind of trope like like the mob wife,
isn't it? Because like you're a mob wife,
you in general and for storytelling films and stuff
goes, you don't have much going other than you being like the
wife of a gangster, right. It's it's, you know, I mean, I,
I guess it kind of gets hit by its head with, with the Linda
Laplan novel and the and later film Widows, which is about mob
widows doing, doing mob things. But in general a mob White's
character isn't fleshed out and stuff.
So, yeah, kind of very much like that.
Yeah, it's weird, isn't it? Because this has obviously come
out after The Godfather. Yeah.
Like the the two that mob could women that you think of from
that film are Talia Shire from Rocky.
And, and sorry, this this film shares a producer with Rocky, by
the way, fucking what's his name?
Irvin Winkler. Yeah.
Nice. Sorry, that was a bit of trivia,
but Diane Keaton, right? Sorry, sorry, stupid.
I bet Irvin Winkler got a lot of investment and provided little
kind of input on the film. I think he was, he was.
He was a money trained for this film.
Yeah, I I love, I actually generally really love the first
Rocky film. I mean as fuck, I love them all.
I love them all. But the first place is like a
safeguard. Brilliant film.
Yeah, so, right, So God fucking up.
We're still in the casino nightclub scene, right?
So what's happened is Gontrop's gone over to Mario's table,
right? This is their first time meeting
or Meanwhile, the last thing we see of catchers is she gets like
bored, she gets up and she walks her from the table.
We don't know where she's walking towards, but I think
there's people dancing on a dance floor.
So she's going towards the dance floor, right?
But over at Mario's table, it's Mario's.
It's relaxed fingers resting on a chess piece from 1/2 finished
game on the table. First of many chess games we're
going to see and. I was just like, straight up
fucking just like fucking casually playing chess at the
nightclub, by the way. In the nightclub, it's.
It's like, and that's like Kramer level behaviour.
That's ridiculous. It's like, it's like just as we
understand you what Kramer was. Because I think I might make
more references to it later mate.
Do you want to give us a bit about Kramer?
Yeah, I can't remember. I don't know who made it, but
there was about 15 years ago, there was a Twitter account
calls Kramer. And what it was is it was like a
fake 1970s style. A crime detective show that was
tweeted out in bits and it starred, and it was all full of,
like, hilarious misspellings. Crimer is the hero, and he's a
criminal, a criminal mastermind. But he doesn't work for the
mastermind. He's just a criminal.
He's like a chaotic, like a true what?
What would you say? Chaotic Neutral.
Neutral, Yeah. Definitely, whereas whereas or
as brainiest as more chaotic evil, right?
Exactly. Brainy brainiest is the real bad
guy. He was like the, the, the, the
real, the real kind of like, yeah, exactly as you say, like
kind of either either like true, true evil or lawful evil or or
curse evil. And then you've got on the other
side of the police side, you've got detective.
He was the the policeman who's trying to take down Crimea.
He has he has a dog called Puppet and puppet puppet and and
the whole the whole show was I was just like tweets, tweets up
where Lucy stood together to form some kind of plot about
about that. Fucking spelled as well.
And then occasionally they would put out like like TV Guide style
pages saying like what what tonight's episode was about kind
of thing. And there was a very
occasionally bits of like title card art, but there was never
any like people drawn. But I loved it.
We got we were obsessed with it in 2012.
So fucking good it was all we talked about by the Saudi of
made by for fucking insufferable.
Yeah. We were really fucking fucking
bad. I'm just pulling up some some
fucking crime stuff now on, on Twitter.
I'm I'm I'm I'm kind of cut to 1, like the bump of like the
kind of brainiest arc that like just kind of took it away from
it's like to the streets gritty cop drama.
Yeah, because it started off as like a gritty cop drama to to
dangerous so. Right, so Crimea, the amount of
muni input into this place, brackets puts on sunglasses and
no red carpet bracket tuts. Unlucky then welcome Matt the
following tweet, Detective wife. I'm get it you got to go, but be
car fool. You're a daddy now the tetkaif I
am promise brackets open doors bracket or who?
I'm on call me doors full of flu hours.
Sadia is brilliant. I.
Am going to go on. I was going to say it's like
basically all the tropes from like any any 70s cop drama, but
like with a bit a bit extra silly.
So like that vibe there is very much like the the the
untouchables, Elliott Ness and his wife and.
Come on Elliott, put another fucking baby in me.
Please man, I'm a God damn tried wife.
I need to be barefoot and fucking pregnant all times.
Elliott, you can load that Thompson.
Good. Why can't you load me?
Wow. Yeah, so I'll, I'll get back to
the movie. So, so, so Gontro finally, after
25 minutes, arrives at Mario's table.
Yes, officer, there. It's.
Arresting now. Come on, I'm just saying, man.
So Mario's like welcome to Naples.
And then Gontrol sits and goes like nice city.
Mario smiles. Yes, we're very proud of it.
A waitress comes and puts some like wine stuff on the table.
Mario like paws like a massive like a ridiculously huge glass
of like red wine for them both takes ages and then goes Mario,
Mario. Mario's like Naples is delicate,
a beautiful machine. Every piece has its place and
drinks And then Gunter of like big long paws and goes machines
break ha ha ha. Which which?
Which is actually a bar. It is.
It is a big cry about, but it's actually a bar as well.
Machines break. 2 words Perfect. No, no.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is it.
So we talked in like about two words stints for the whole
movie. Yeah, it's Mario again,
performance like sometimes, but usually only when someone new
arrives and starts pulling levers they do not understand.
And then then we got like a Dolly around the table.
So it's like each guy's in in profile and then right in the
middle of the frame for fucking no reason is the is the like the
Chiquita banana lady dancing? Oh, great.
And she's and she's like spinning.
It's spinning, it's spinning. And then, like, the jazz music's
playing and someone goes like as she's spinning.
The corner back on she's. A little cut to edit to Mario's
face again. He's like, tell me Gunter of do
you enjoy Naples? And Gunter was like, I just
arrived and he's like of. Of course, but life does not
make sense. Did you enjoy Naples?
I just arrived. Yeah, And then he's like, yes,
of course you must understand something.
This city belongs to Neapolitans.
We speak the language, we know the tides, we know when the
storms are coming and then gone. To our shrugs goes.
Storms come anyway, ha. Ha ha, ha.
And I said, yeah, he's he's the guy.
The guy, right? He talks like Steven Seagal
movie titles, these like 2-2 or three word sentences at times.
Hard to kill a good man. Pink don't hurt.
It's like, yeah, he's like, he's like Patrick Swayze in the start
of Roadhouse. Just like pink don't hurt like.
Pink don't hurt. Yeah.
So then the camera kind of does like a game, steady, calm.
It's like handheld shaky Cam, but kind of like walks away from
them and kind of does like a big like what would become like the
Scorsese wanna like all the way through like the restaurant bit
of the where the tables are in the club and then onto the dance
floor. Scorsese, it takes ages.
It's like not good here. It's not like the sort of good
fillets where it's like brilliant.
It's just a bit like, why has he done that on the middle of a
scene anyway? Does this and then eventually
like into frame steps. I do like this catcher steps
into frame and it's like, ah, we're following catcher rugby
and catcher stands in the dance floor and they're like couples
dancing around her, but she's got nobody.
And then she sees Sofia Loren dancing with like an ancient,
ancient man. An ancient man, but.
Take about to get back in time with me.
It'll be humans never existed, no technology.
I hope that Lady is doing well. Yeah, so do I.
And then like Sophia is dancing this guy, he.
Looks super fucking into it by the way.
He looks super he's like I am 3000 years old.
This is my I have lived 3 millennia to put my hands on
Sofia Lorenz bare shoulders. That's why I will die.
Basically, he probably went home, but he gooned himself to
death that night. Yeah, there's a Clute mentioned.
There's a, there's a, there's a guy in Clute who's like he's
like one of the regular customers for Jane Fonda.
And he's like, he's like in his late 70s and he's like, and
there's a whole scene where like Donald Sutherland's like stood
in the shadows, like, like watching her and recording her
as she has this meeting with this John to like build up, like
compromise on her so that you will help her, that she will
help him even. And the whole thing is that
she's telling a story that didn't happen, but how she's
just come back from an incredible party from a from a
trip to Canada with, with a theatre troupe because she's,
she's like her, her kind of stories that she's this great
actress kind of thing. And this old dude is just there
like watching it. And she strips and the whole
dude's watching and like, Oh my God, amazing.
He like pulls like wine for her and stuff.
And then like, and then and then, and then it cuts to like
Jane Fonda kicking off at Donald Sutherland because she found out
he's been recording it. He's like this.
And it's like this old bad. It's like in his 70s and like
his wife died and like I see him like once a month.
He pays me $200. He never links a finger on me
and I'm all he's got. Wow.
Anyway, this old fuck is who's dancing with to feel around is
very similar. Yeah.
Yeah, right. So wild.
If you could feel anything below the belt it'd be fucking sickle.
But. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So the whole point of the scene is that for Sofia and Catcher to
make eye contact, which they do for a second, and then classic,
classic, like chase me, chase me Sofia kind of like looks at her,
doesn't really give an expression, but you can see this
like some underneath. Then she just turns her
attention away again and continues dunting with the old
guy. And then the dance ends and then
she walks away. Dancing with the fucking Crypt
keeper after like eye bag and cut.
Yeah. And it's like, yeah, well, we
are. We are picking up what this film
is putting down. Yeah, And before we get to enjoy
any more of that, even come back to the table with Mario and
Guntrov. Mario's like your ambitious
Guntrov Gutrose. Like, yes, ambition is
admirable, but Naples is not a lot of you climb is he goes.
It is a throne. And this is like the first
opportunity to like freak out. This is like proper like Vincent
Hannah level stuff. But like obviously he's still
young. But like Attica, Attica, it's
like you're around water. He's like he's like Naples is
not a lot of you climb. It's a throne and there's
already a king sitting on it. And then and then Gonzo is like.
He's really over egging the performance as well in like the
the nightclub and you can tell like the extras were told don't,
don't react and don't bounce at him, but a couple of them do.
That was like straight up fucking look over him.
And one of them, it looks like the film's edited at this point,
because I think one of those extras look like straight down
the barrel and it didn't realise until they were doing like kind
of like recuts and stuff. There's at least, there's at
least one more time, I think later on where somebody spikes
the lens and looks the way into it.
Yeah, big time. So that happens.
He does that. He spills his drink a little bit
and then Contra just like cold as fuck as like kings fall.
Again, it's just talking two word line as well, two or two or
three words. Kings 4.
It's like fucking half the things he says sound like strap
lines for film. Film like posters and trailers.
Machines break kings. Four, Yeah, yeah, yeah, soon as
that and then and then he's like, yes, yes, they do.
But when kings fall, Gunter of when kings fall, they take the
whole king do with them and then yeah, yeah, yeah, and then like
even and then this is like the she keep another woman.
Stop spinning. Yeah.
And it's like, what's going on? Everyone's like, what the fuck?
Like I think the guy sit next to the like Mario, like stand up,
like shit's gotta kick off. And then he does that kind of
like everyone sits back down again.
And he goes, So I ask you politely, Gunter off, wouldn't
you perhaps be happier somewhere else?
And then Gunter off just goes no, I like nipples.
And then he walks away. It's like what the?
Fuck is the scene it's. Meant man, it's like hashtag our
guy like, no, I like it here. I've just come all the way here.
I'm, I'm, I'm going to go away now.
Come. On and then yeah, exactly that
happens. And then the last thing to end
the scene is there's like a booth behind like the table that
Mario and that are all that which we don't even notice
because it's just like like maroon velvet.
It's all lit red anyway. You can barely see it.
Yeah. And then and but then, like
around the side of it just steps out.
Well, getting up, shuffling out. Is Harvey Cattell, Andre.
Yeah, that's when we see him. And then just before, and then
just before, like he looks at Mario.
Mario looks at him. And then it looks like they're
about to say something. And then it cuts and they're
like, oh, what the fuck was that?
Yeah. So that's that fucked up, man.
That was that's so mental. How far are we through now?
We're barely into it. We're barely into the film.
Like the fucking nightclub scenes early in the film, right?
And like. Why is he?
We've just met him and this guy's freaked the fuck out
straight away. We barely know him.
This is like the second time we've seen Mario and he's done
like a full freak out. So weird.
Italians be crazy, am I right? Yeah, I think we get like a bit
of a montage now of like the crime organisation being set up
from like gun troves. And part of what's happening
here is also getting like voiceover from Harvey Hotel
talking about how like fuck they was he say some bullshit about
like how they're not eating pastor at the docks anymore,
they're eating borscht or something.
Something really stupid like that.
Yeah. It's like it's, it's, it's well.
They're drinking. The sip involves girls stupid
like that. It's like some food.
Fashion drinking vodka and spiced tea or something yeah
double check it, but it's like. Russian caravan Fucking yeah,
whatever. Fucking Russian caravan ass tea
drinking and. Then we get the pig farm scene
and it's gone through himself as the pig farm, and then they
explain how whenever they have to kill people, they go out into
like the countryside and it's an old pig farm there.
It's about fucking Snatch. Actually.
I think Snatch nicked this. I think nicked this big time.
Yeah, big time, Dennis Farina. Millennium nicked it as well.
The bit with the judge and he's got the pigs.
Right. Yeah, There you go.
So it's exactly that. So right.
That's later on the point then. Basically they take the bodies
to a pig farm. The pigs eat the bodies, and the
farmer is this old big fat guy, Yeah, called Yevgeny, who's, you
know, I think they're meant to be like, he's one of the pigs
because he's got like little small glasses and the lies.
And it's so weird. It's like it's in Italy, but the
farmers are Russian, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Like, I mean, like, I mean like, they're not going back to Russia
to utilise a Russian pig farm. It's clearly in Italy, the way
it's shot, the fucking like montage of like driving past
olive Groves and shit on the way there.
Like it's still Italy and it's like fucking what it's like.
The dust of the mezzo Giorno, all that stuff.
Yeah, fucking fucked up. So yeah, again, he's like,
laughing. And he says, oh, and this is a
bit weird. It's in Russian language as
well. Yeah.
So he says in Russian to control he's speaking English about
maybe one of these days I'll be feeding new to these pigs as a
joke. Yeah.
And it's in it's in subtitles. Yeah.
And then like, and then gun
Trump doesn't laugh because he doesn't laugh at anything.
And he just gets just gets back into his car and is driven away.
He. Should have given like one of us
like looking two line responses like maybe so.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, probably yeah, baby.
So yeah. Pigsy, everyone.
Dies. Things are happening now.
I'm going to just do a quick position.
Guntarov and Andrea have a meeting.
Not not a meeting, but they meet up in a, in a, in a market.
So it's like, it's like a mirror image of when there were kids in
the market stealing. Now they're grown-ups in the
market, but they're like buying apples and shit.
We have God, yeah, we haven't ever seen, but this is our first
proper chess match between a Guntarov and Mario.
So they're like in a, it's like a club, like a gentlemen's club.
So I guess they're both members of the same fucking club.
Who the fuck is playing all this chess and nightclubs?
This shit's bizarrely Andrew Tate coded at this point.
Yeah, Yeah. So this is like a daytime meets,
but is the nightclub where I think, yeah, so there.
So it's like, you know, it's like the classic like go to the
nightclub during the day when no one's there and it's like just
the bad guys talking to you, that kind of thing.
So it's like it's empty. But them two are there like
having like a little Chianti and like playing a game of chess.
And they have the exact same fucking conversation again about
how like, you know, would you be happy somewhere else?
No, I like Naples. Do you like Moscow?
No, I like Naples. Like your wife catches really
beautiful. Thanks.
Like like he. Literally says thanks.
So he says thanks or thank you. And it's like, I mean, we, we,
we all have you all have significant others at this
point. If, if, if I don't want to meet
Rory or white street are beautiful.
I would say more fucking thanks. You know what?
I'm saying, well, he says, he says thanks and then he and then
he goes beauty is who erases and it's like, what the fuck does
that mean? Yeah, exactly.
It's like he, he, he, he, he, he says thanks, but then he just
kind of dunks on her a bit. I mean Jesus.
It's clear that they're not happy, right?
And they have problems. And whilst he's not comfortable
to, I don't know why he opens up about this to to Mario like it's
just fucked up. It's one of the many homoerotic
relationships developing for the film.
Well, yeah, I mean, he's just, he's, he's like feeling things
out, isn't he? Like he's feeling things out.
He's like, what if? What if I actually didn't find
my hot wife attractive? What if then what?
What if you know? Is there a is?
Is there a Mr? Cool.
So we have that catcher, right. OK, so then the final thing that
I think ends this bit is Catcher finally meets Sofia.
But it's a bit so. So Catcher is going to like,
she's like in a cafe and it's at night time.
Yeah, Yeah. And it looks really as she walks
into a cafe like normal, there's like normal ordinary people
there. She walks like through to the
back and goes into like a backroom.
And it turns out there's like like a meeting going on.
And I think it's like, I think it's like, I think it's the
Russian population in Naples are having some kind of like
political activist PC that is poorly describes.
Sophia is like mysterious, unknowable.
It seems a little bit aloof, but she does like she's clearly
returning whatever cat she's picking up, whatever cat she's
putting down kind of thing. The meeting ends.
So right, we've got Catcher. She's been to that meeting.
She goes to the catfish. She's met the political
activist, she's met Sofia, who's a charismatic, an independent
woman who's been organising protests against corruption in
the city. That's what it says in the
synopsis. I didn't catch that.
No, she's she's, she's investigating all the government
and political and financial corruption.
Yeah, Yeah, exactly. Yeah, all this national and
international corruption she knows is going on and she says
Sofia challenges can't. Yeah, men like your husband
think power makes them safe. And then Catcher studies of her
moment and she goes power makes men careless.
And that is like our hints that an emotional bond has been
formed between Katya and Sofia. Yeah, have to say now, Katya and
Sofia walked. So those two lesbian
revolutionaries and and OR could run.
Yes, that's such a good pull. Yeah, totally.
Oh my God. Yeah yeah.
Oh, bless them. Some interpretations.
This is from from the Wikipedia. Consider catcher's relationship
with Sofia is central to the film.
She may be the protagonist. Wins you 2 queer readings.
Sofia, A1 legged Jewish refugee. I didn't catch on to her having
one leg during the dancing season.
Still not at all I I think that's something that might
exist only in the script. Not a single thing about.
I suggest she was one legged. A1 Legged a Jewish refugee
hiding from fascists that becomes a catcher's confidante
and lover. Fans highlight again.
When is this film set? Yeah, what the fuck Ish ish
hiding? From.
Current day Italian fascists because what it's like this,
This was written by it just seems like it was lost words.
It feels like it was written by someone who had only the vaguest
idea of European politics in 1973 or whatever.
It's like she's spin the wheel and one leg spin the wheel.
Jewish woman who was hiding from spin, spin, spin, spin, spin and
spin. And it clicks on from like
communists, libertarians, trade unionists, fascists, hiding from
fascists. It's like, OK, cool, wild.
It's obviously insane, so Catcher confesses that she
envies Sofia's fearlessness and imagines flowers growing through
her bones. Bars.
That's an. Absolute fucking bar actually.
It's like what's online saying if you die flowers will grow
through your bones. It's.
Like, yeah. It's it's an absolute fucking.
It's also disturbingly redolent of the IRL put put sunflower
seeds in your pockets lying from that old lady.
Ture of the full skilled vision of your print, which is fucking
also bars from that old lady by the way.
The homoerotic subtext of their relationship has become a major
focus of Phantom Analysis, but not the only one.
The ACT ends with a pants hit, so again, very little set up to
this. I love some of these songs for
this stuff. Just happens they attempt to
hit. I think it's Mario's men attempt
to hit on Gunter of when he's at the train station under the
transition clock and on the platform.
And Mario's men, it's our first time we see, I speak Joe, but
he's not the focus of the camera.
Yeah. He's just like one of the guys
that's there still has the ice pick.
He's a sort of gun. And they ambush Gunter of the
Naples Central Air Station. A chaotic shootout takes place
that some people have since referred to as maybe the
inspiration for the Untouchables train station shootout.
But it's not. It's not as good as that.
It's just like literally opposite sides of a platform of
the trains line between them and it's going.
And it's not shot very well. A.
Lot of a lot of like night and 70s ass fucking shooting from
the hip as well. Yeah.
Yeah, like it's like. That noise.
Yeah, just like squibs, squibs popping off and like, it's it's
cool, but it's it's not the Untouchables.
There's no random Matlow's on leave getting shot in snow Bush
and with a try. My gosh.
Yeah, what does happen though is the clock on the platform gets
shot and it's and the glass slashes and it lands at gun
droves feet as he's like a bit shaken up for having survived
that assassination attempt. The police comes like whistles
and everyone flees the scene. And this time it's actual
Italian police and not a random fucking Russian guy running them
for whatever reason. Yeah, and so the first act of
Gontrov is about arrival and ambition, then the second act is
a erosion and instability. Alliances begin to crack,
personal loyalty's become uncertain and the characters
slowly realise that the game they have entered may not have a
winning outcome. This is my notes I made during
the week the the apps opens several weeks after Gontrov's
attempted assassination. In this time his influences are
expanded even more rapidly and Andre is very much painted as
like his sort of two IC like right hand man kind of thing.
Ever kind of run to the joint kind of vibe.
The Russian syndicate has secured smoking route through
the harbour and new connections with corrupt officials.
We get like a bit where like some local functionaries are
getting like glad handed, that kind of thing.
Mario Ambrosini is going skits. Yeah, Al Pacino is unhappy.
He's he's, he's knocking over Crystal where he's he's knocking
up, tabling his chess sets and he's throwing his fine.
Leather goes chess sets flying in a row.
You see that he's like 3 chess sets on different tables and
he's and he's fucking sweeping them off and it's like each one
of them has a game on it and like a different like kind of
like level of completion. And it's like what story says
Frank tell us is he is he playing chess by post with
several dying millionaires worldwide?
Because if so, he says fuck those games up.
Come on dude, Gather. What they should have done this
is having like run out of his of his house, like into the park
into sort of like like swapping all those games that everyone's
playing in the park as well. Or just or just like beating
everyone at it runs up with some old guys who's playing as you
get out of the way. I'm going to take this just like
fucking fucking like Blitz Chestnut, you know, like.
Bad. It's so good.
Yeah. We love, we love Opportune.
Having a freak out. Very, very good.
I guess that's often defining a character movement for him is
that he has a short fuse. He at the same time now is a
meeting with allies and rival gang leaders.
And I think they're trying to get like all the other gangs in
Naples to kind of band together to get rid of Gun Troll.
Because nobody, as much as they all don't like each other, the
one thing they all really really hate is a Russian guy instead of
of Italians, right? The idea that they can like kind
of build alliances with this one enemies in order to in order to
go after this this intruder lost Raniero, you know, the foreigner
outside that kind of thing and it's like.
Yeah, we go back to Gene Hackman as Valeri Mikhilov.
The fucking improbable Russian police officer, right?
Who's working for the Italian police?
So there was a body. A body has been found at the
docks. I don't know why this boy is
important because we've seen those people get killed already
and sent to a pig farm. Nevertheless, someone has
carelessly left this body in situ and Inspector Mikhilov is
now doing an investigation on it and he wants to try and pin the
murder on Guntarov, who it's not, it's not explained.
And again, I think this is like a four hour cut thing.
But but Mikhilov knows Guntarov and hates Guntarov.
And I then, I don't know, there's like a few lines like a
bit throw away where it implies that maybe like it's like an old
family feud or it's like stuff that happened in the old country
or something. If.
You were to be super generous. You could like perhaps kind of
head Canada is maybe one of them is from like an aristocratic
background, like pre pre like the revolution and stuff.
And maybe there's like old kind of like maybe like Mikhailov's
kind of like he's got like kind of like heritage that's of like
the White Russian kind of side, you know, like from Bourgeois.
But he's. Finally lost everything in the
revolution. Lost everything you know and
like, but then again that's was head cannon and a lot of this
film doesn't make fucking sense man.
He's investigating the harbour murder.
We literally literally get the whole thing where like they turn
their body over on the harbour. Like the crime scene
photographer was right in his face with his little camera.
Like, Gee, what a story. It's metal.
He's like right in the guy's fucking face.
It's like. And there's the press.
The photographer capture the scene there's.
A little fucking Jimmy Austin, like my press guy hanging around
as well. Yeah.
He's like, he's obviously, he's like speaking and like he's
dubbed over. It's ADR, but because it's
obviously like an Italian local, but he's like, he's like what?
A school, what's going on kind of thing He's like.
The Fox thing, the fact he literally says what a scoop as
well. The fact it's literally what a
scoop is mental to me. Yeah, yeah.
And then and then we get another brilliant bit of of Mikhilov
punching a guy in the face. No due process where Mikhilov
comes from. He is the law smacks that guy
plumbing the face. Like what the fuck?
Italy, Russia, we are not so alike.
You and I imagine a monologue. It's like we both are very
aggressive police forces. Yeah, that happens.
And then we cut back to like the police station, like storms into
his own office. And he's got like one of those
naughty rooms. He's got like a big map on the
wall. And it's like loads of like yarn
and like people's pictures up against it and stuff.
And it's, and he's trying and it's clear that he's like,
trying to like wipe out corruption in Naples.
And he's he's never going to get anywhere near it.
But but he's obviously like a hopeless guy on a hopeless
mission. Times against him take tick.
The clock's ticking, man. Clock's to give a control of and
Mikhailov. And there's a clock randomly in
the corner of the room on a table, like just quite
relatively low on the ground, not in a good kind of dominant
position. There's just a fucking clock
just in shot. And it's like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
You can barely see it. Like, it's like an alarm clock.
It's one of those like, like radio alarms.
And it's like, what? We get it.
The clock is ticking. Fucking shot off.
It's ticking. It's ticking, man, you know?
Yeah, it's fucking ridiculous. Yeah.
So he, he's basically saying like the Russian syndicate
arrived and is going to lead to a violent confrontation with
Mario's organisation and he wants to try and prevent the
city from coming to battlefield. That's his whole big thing.
But Mikhilova also understands that something the other
characters don't, like crime in Naples, it's not simply about
power. It's all about relationships,
loyalties, fragile balances that can collapse very quickly, all
that kind of stuff. And hence he's like fucking yarn
thing if everyone's connected and if you take this one piece
out all the. Piece of yeah.
Yeah, Pepe. Yeah, Pepe Sylvia, I think.
Pepe, Sylvia. When I when I when I watch it
with them on the first time, surely Pepe Sylvia.
Pepe Sylvia, which is a reference.
Is it the same fucking angle as well?
Yeah, it's like the same angle, yes.
It is. I mean, I wonder if that scene
from All Was Sunny in Philadelphia was maybe kind of.
Oblique reference to control. There's only so many ways you
can like shoot that particular scene.
Like there's so many angles you can shoot at us.
But still the blocking and the whole thing of I need to go back
and review that episode like because.
Yeah, that's wild. We're.
Making a lot of connections. Yeah, much like a fucking Pepe
Sylvia board. Too deep maybe?
Perhaps. I mean, yeah, so.
So the next thing we've got is, is to dub the cigarettes in the
rain scene. So it's it's pissing down in
Naples. Gunter of IS stood under a
street light watching a shipment come in.
Yeah. Andrea's with him and Andrea
asks Guntrell if he has a light for a cigarette.
So they both put their cigarettes together and Guntrell
tries to light with a single flame, both of them at the same
time. Both of them light up.
They have a single puff and then the rain puts out both
cigarettes and they look at each other, longing in the in their
eyes, but they don't see anything and it's like the spark
has been thwarted by the world they inhabit.
No writers who use subtext. And they're all cowards.
They're all cowards. Yeah, They might as well swap
cigarettes for a second, Do you know what I mean?
Jesus Christ. But while we're here, we're on
to the actual tango. Well, there's another casino
scene, right? Where we get a lay of the land.
Everyone's in the casino again. The.
There's like the fucking mare, I think.
And like a trade Union Leader or something.
Kind of. Oh.
Yeah, that guy. The really fucking greasy dude.
Yes, yeah. The guy looks like like, like
the like the sweaty Papa John video, but he's like I, I've,
I've had like, was it fucking like 35 pizzas in the last 31
days and trying to push out my company.
He's he's that level of like moist, intense.
Yeah, yeah. So.
Weird you guys caught that right?
How fucking just sweaty this dude is?
All I can think of you was like directly under one of like the
lights maybe? Yeah, yeah, I gotta find his.
I'm gonna find him on the IMDb, his Hector Limonez.
Hector Limonez. Fucking gal.
And the rest of his credits were Italian.
I guess he was like an Italian, like film or TV guy.
Like a version of like, like he's one of their that guys,
right? There's probably loads of people
in Italy. I don't know if you have any
Italian listeners among like the 22 or that countries that listen
to this show. Thank you very much, guys.
By the way, we'll keep adding more and more, more and more
overseas listeners to our show every every week or so, which is
really cool. So if you recognise this guy,
shout up. If you know us contact details,
keep me yourself. We don't want to show we stop
that. Indeed.
So we get about that and it's like this reminds me a bit of of
Tafin. It's like lower level
functionaries in the area talking about like a particular
fucking bit of land deal or something like that.
It's just like, OK, whatever, this is boring, but I get it.
Like there's property development in Naples and and
the Russians own the territory and blah blah blah blah blah.
You will not do the rezoning of our territory.
And then right, this is what gets confusing because then we
then we cut to the dance floor again that we saw earlier on,
obviously the same location and everything.
I swear to God, it looks like it's exactly the same scene, but
like Sophia is like is dancing with that same old dude, but
instead of like it cutting when she like looks away from
catcher, it's like the dance finishes and she walks up to
catcher. And then they have like like
what is called like the famous tango scene.
So the jazz band has given away to a small tango ensembler.
Banda neon violin, upright bass. This is this is on the
screenplay. Smoke curls towards the ceiling.
Glasses clink. Laughter erupts at scattered
tables. The banana headdress dancer,
which is in the fucking screenplay has moved off stage.
That's what we call it as well. Banana headdress dancer like
other had dancers. Other dancers are available.
Not the Chiquita banana that sits on a nearby table like an
absurd crown. Politicians and gangsters crowd
the room at the bar. So yeah, they move over to the
bar. I guess Cat just stands alone
with the glass of wine she hasn't touched.
Her eyes drift back towards the dust floor.
I think that's changed that that's different in the movie
and then Sophia still dancing with the LDL estre here.
It's where it picks up in the in the movie.
Man moves safely. Sophia moves like water, guiding
magnificently. Catcher watches.
Something about Sophia's movement seems to quiet the
noise of the room. Blah blah blah blah blah.
Dance ends. Guy shuffles off music shifts,
opening bars of another tango. Sophia walks towards Katya,
stops just in front of her. Neither woman speaks.
Sophia tilts her head slightly. You dance Katya?
Not often. Fuck me.
It's like a fucking Gunter off family trait.
It's these fucking two word sentences.
While it's wild, you say This is why, This is why Gulsharov and
Kathy Koncharova don't have much relationship.
Do you speak in two word fucking sentences?
How can you? How?
How can you, how can you build a marriage?
But all you do was like say fridge empty, no shop today.
Boing Boing head hurts. So Sophia puts a hand out
tonight seems like a good exception.
And then they she puts a hand in hers.
They step into like the light on the dance floor.
We get like it's it's the same bit of tango music that I think
was used in the scent of a woman when he's like Al Pacino again.
So I thought it was like, and again, another like cinema
reference to Gunter of where like that same music from the
sense of women where he's like blind and dancing in the tango.
It's a piece of music. You don't have a film that's in
that. I also want us to do at some
point, maybe for an episode of Enrol in the Kitchen Drink and
be a talking about with True Lies.
Oh yeah. That's in True Lies, baby.
It's in the tango scene at the start.
Oh, we. Should do that because you
talked about doing that last year.
We should do that. I did, yeah.
At first, at first their movements are cautious.
This is this is again from this is the stage direction.
At first their movements are cautious, testing each other's
rhythm. Does that mean they begin to
move more fluidly? The tango becomes intimate.
Catcher follows Sophia's lead, quickly matches her step to
step. The camera circles them slowly,
not like in carried where it's like spinning and spinning and
spinning in terrible. Around them, the club continues
it's chaotic life. Mario's men whisper over the
cars, a politician drinkingly arguing with a bartender.
Your husband watches everything. Katya glances towards the
balcony. Guntherov stands there, speaking
quietly with a group of men. His eyes scan the room
constantly. Katya, he trusts nothing.
Sofia, that must be exhausting. Katya almost smiles.
They turn again. The dancer was more intense.
Sofia, what about you? Katya, what about me?
Sofia, do you trust anything? Katya considers.
I trust gravity. It's the only thing that hasn't
let me down yet. Fucking hell, fucking hell.
I can't decide if it's a bar, if it's funny, if it's accidentally
funny. What the hell?
I'm putting the fork. Do you guys think that was put
in there as a joke? It must have been like, how did
she keep a straight face during that?
Like that's ridiculous. And obviously like, you know,
they have the whole thing in Taxi where it goes to like watch
a movie and it's a fucking porn movie.
Like she must know, like there's jokes in this movie.
I just remember the fucking porn movie date from OH.
Fucking Sophia that's a lonely way to live.
CATCHER You seem less lonely. Sophia Appearances are
persuasive liars. And then Sophia well, that's
absolute. Appearances are persuasive
liars. Sophia what brought you to
Naples? Catcher A train.
It's like everyone in this film is gay and autistic.
It is the most 2026 film we've done.
It really is. And then Sofia, what?
What will keep you here? Catcher does not answer.
I really hope she would say something like that'll.
Keep me here. ScotRail The dance ends up
replays. Music stops.
The pause scatters throughout the club.
Obviously some people are whispering because it's like
it's two women, two women. Lesbianas in my doubt club.
Indeed. And then across the room,
Guntarov watches from the balcony, his expression
unreadable because he's unreadable for the whole movie.
And behind him, Andre leans casually against the railing.
She dances well. Guntarov says nothing.
Andre. So does the city.
Guntarov yet again, with his
fucking favourite saying. Cities fall, empires crumble,
clocks stop ticking, Andre eventually.
It's like Andreas Andreas inner monologue is like don't shout
off I am hard gay for you. Everyone's.
So everyone's an edge Lord. Everyone in this whole movie is
an edge Lord. Like no one can talk normal,
just talk normal. It's a city's fall.
Empires crumble, go back to the club.
Come give me a hug, I can really get rubs.
My job sucks. Oh God, cities fall.
My back is killing me. I'm very busy.
Cities fall man. Sorry, witness.
Oh man, fucking Christ. Sofia, there are quieter places.
She writes an address on a napkin hanser to catch her.
If you ever want to see the city without all the noise, find me
in Libri Effimethi on via Alessio Mccuttsey between PM and
three PMI SEL who made copies of Italian Spider Man comics.
I fucking love it and give. Some like a fucking time slot as
well. Yeah, yeah.
This, this was actually being a bit of a fucking card watching
the film and Nelly got a fucking slap on the back of the head,
but I was like ever. I bet she was just written like
my pussy on the napkin. Yeah, that's literally, that's
literally it. So she's like, yeah, she says
that and then like she walks out catch she watches ago.
And I feel like this was meant to happen like the first time
they met because they've already met up and she's obviously she's
obviously gone to this place and they've met each other already
and they've had the political meeting and stuff.
So they've kind of sorted it later in the film to probably
make more sense, more intimate later.
But it's also like still frames like a first thing.
It's really fucked up. Anyway, stupid, stupid film.
Anyway, I love it. Stupid film.
Let me get a really weird scene. And it's only short and it's a
bit like experimental cinema, I guess.
We get a scene, it cuts to them like there's no establishing
shot or anything. It's literally Katya and Sofia
sitting at a table outside, like our fresh cook kind of thing,
outside a Cafe, sipping like a drink.
And then Andre is there, but Andre is playing the violin.
It's so weird. And it goes on for like a minute
and I and I don't like, what did you think when you saw that?
Like what the fuck? I actually said out loud, this
is the world's worst Polly duel. Could you imagine?
It's like we have, we have successfully collectivised the
relationship. It's so weird.
Like is, is it fucking symbolic that he's doing the it's like
symbolic, is he really there? Is is is him?
Is is him playing the violin just a symbol of Howard doing
this on that like everyone's nose kind of thing.
It was so weird. Yeah, it reminds me makes.
Sense, right? It remind me of that bit in in
The Simpsons where like Homer's watching Twin Peaks, but it's
but it's like a White Horse dancing with somebody under a
tree next to a street lamp and he's like brilliant.
I have no idea what's going on. I honestly think maybe the
correct outcome is they probably had an extra setup to play the
violin who couldn't make it that day.
And he's just like, put me in coach.
To me, Harvey Katel, what are the lead actors in the film?
I'll do it. Yeah, I'll do it and just tell,
tell people or not question it. And then fucking 40 odd years
down the line, fucking hell, 50 years top cheer.
I'm old. 50 years down the line, a bunch of film dirt.
So good. Do you think he's really there
in the scene or, or is he just a symbol?
And we will, Harvey Kate, tell us for sake.
I'm just trying to not do the usual Harvey Keitel thing of
getting my Dick out for my role. That's what I was going to say.
I was going to watch the piano. So there's two scenes in quick
succession. So there's one where we see Ice
Pick Drew being an enforcer. So like we introduced to his Ice
pick basically. And then the next scene I think
is really weird. So it's Ice Pick Drew's famous
monologue. It's not really a monologue.
It's a it's a 2 hander, but it's they call it monologue because
he does the most of the talking, because he's the only person in
this film that can string a sentence together.
He's he's the only one of the actors who didn't that fucking
carbon monoxide exposure during the during the film and
basically. Is alone in her, like I guess
they live in like a large apartment or a townhouse or
something. See bunch of works all the time.
He's never home. That's part of the reason why
they have such a terrible marriage.
She's there on her own. Sophia is implied as to have
just left because there's like like an ashtray on a table and
it's like a cigarette still burning.
That's obviously not catches. Catches Smokey as well.
Everyone in the film smokes all the time.
It's great. You can almost smell this film.
Yes, yeah, honking. Did you know what kind of person
off for like the whole like nature of control of the control
of as marriage, right? When you're a crime boss, you
can make your own hours, right? You've got shit on the go, but
you haven't like a manager. You've got like constantly
checking in with peas, with deer.
It's not like a fucking Rd I stick to you're literally there
is no one above you. You know you can, you can you
can bitch things off to your minions and stuff.
Go do this. Go kill Jimmy the heart.
I'm just gonna chill here with my wife, otherwise I am going to
get cooked big time by Sophia Loren.
Makes you wonder like why, why you get into, I mean, I'm not a
crime boss. Why would you get why did you
get into it if you're not going to like have some fun, you know,
have a nice he's working anti social hours here.
You should be like, if I was a crime boss, I'd be finished by
like half three every day. Yeah, yeah, I'd be finished with
half three. My wet works guys were doing the
night shift. I would just fucking chill.
Watch the money coming in, show the flag in meetings, you know,
speak, speak my underlings and stuff.
Have a good time. Have sex with Civil Shepherd a
lot, you know. You know, you know I do.
I always be like Vito Corleone at the end of The Godfather.
I'd be just sitting in Sicily with my house and my orange
grooves in front of me, whatever.
And I'd be in orange and I'd do the thing where I put the peel
in my mouth to use my, my, my child nephew.
And then I would dive a heart attack.
That's what I'd do. Yeah, I mean, anyway, the best
end of crime Boston willpower is to dive a heart attack while
entertain your nephew, right? And me.
And let's say you're not getting like whacked in Somali way, you
know, because it's like at that point you don't cry, boss.
You can chill. You don't need to be hands on.
Pay attention to your woman, dude.
City's fallen sort of marriages. Sort of marriages, man.
Yeah, go bars Gunture off Gunture.
Fucking lunar. I speak Joe infiltrates the
apartment. Catcher is not afraid of it.
And I think that implies but, and it's probably a four hour
cut thing like Catcher and I speak Joe already knew each
other and maybe he's like a guy for hire and maybe she's worked
for maybe for both. But I think they have a bit of
a, a bond because she's a bit of a, you know, a bird with a
broken wing, bit of a loss. So.
And he is very much the same because he's like John Cazale.
Yeah, Joe has been sent by Mario to deliver a warning to Gontrov.
Guntrov's not in. He's never fucking in.
All right? So instead he finds Katya alone
in the drawing room with her apartment.
He places his ice pick down on the table.
He's there's. Have you seen like the the the
commentary online about how the ice pick is a reference to like
the mood? Like how Trotsky was
assassinated? I didn't say discourse about it,
but half with him. I sat in the watch.
I thought, well, actually the ice pick, Trotsky.
There you go. There you go.
Yeah. Yeah.
This this whole film gives itself eagerly to over analysis,
But I mean, come on. Yeah, there's got there's got to
be a reason why it's an ice pick.
I mean, he could have been hatchet jewel.
He could have been could have been stocking full of sand
jewel. He could have been he could have
been 2 golf balls and a sock jewel.
But he's ice pick jewel for a reason.
And it's like, because that was indeed the fall of a, of a
authoritative, powerful Russian who fled Russia, right?
So back to the movie. So catch completely unfazed by
Isaac Jew's appearance, says you're early.
Joe sits down, puts the puts aspect down and she finally
looks up, studies him and goes I wounded when Mario would send
you. Joe doesn't say anything and Joe
goes out of nowhere. And this is pretty.
Judy says you remember the hospital and it's like what it's
like I I don't as a viewer of the movie, don't remember the
hospital. The fuck are you talking about?
I remember the man who would not stop screaming, and Joe nods a
little bit. They said I was sick, said my
head was wrong. Joe picks up the ice pick again
and taps, taps it against the desk.
Tick, tick. They had tools for that.
Catcher glances at the ice pick. And did it work?
Joe smiles faintly. I left before they could try.
I love how he should just assume as he's being lobotomized like
many of the characters and actors in this film clearly
were. And you told me something once.
You said a man isn't what was done to him.
Do you remember saying that? It's just like I, I said a lot
of things. Most people lie when they say
it. Joe picks up the ice pick, turns
it slowly in his fingers. You believed it?
Catcher leans forward. If I believe it while you're
here working for Mario. Joe shrugs.
Because believing something and living it.
He types the He types the ice pick against the decks again are
two different things. The catcher.
Did Mario send you to kill Gunter of?
Joe shakes his head. Not tonight.
He puts the pick down, but the clock is moving.
Catcher for whom? Joe moves towards the door.
He stops without turning around. Everyone.
Joe exits. A ticking clock fills the room.
Cut to black chills. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Everyone. So.
So we've just met ice picture for the first time.
Turns out he was in an asylum. Catcher was in the asylum?
Yeah. That's.
It doesn't make any sense. The four hour cut.
You know what? I bet the four hour cut also
fails to shed light on any of this.
Like like the the four hour cuts, there's a second extra 2
two hours of Kathy and Sofia just dancing and it doesn't
answer any fucking questions at all.
Because drunk as all does an American accent, I've got no
idea if I speak Jew is Russian or if he's a Neapolitan and at
what point they met anybody. It's a very cosmopolitan city is
Napoli right? I mean, it's got like a Russian
chief of police cutting around in his fucking fucking Bosco
militia uniform has got an American mental patient as as
like the chief works for hire guy.
There's there's a big fat Russian but a pig farm just
outside tower. The next vaccine is this is
where I start to feel Martin Kasuzi's hand as as because big
Catholic energy. The next thing we get is the the
chime of a cathedral bell. And then Gontarov himself begins
to experience doubts about the world he's created.
And then he goes into the cathedral late at night and sits
alone into a in a church confessional booth.
He begins speaking quietly to an unseen priest on the other side
of the screen. And I don't know why.
I don't know why there's a confession scene in the movie,
but there is. So the first he's like, you
know, routine crime, confession of a criminal.
He's like, you know, forgive me, Father I've for I've sinned.
It has been three weeks since my last confession.
Oh, go on, my son. And he's like, Father I've I've
committed violent deeds against my fellow man.
As it continues, it gets a bit darker.
And don't Rob isn't like seeking forgiveness.
He's kind of like having his long dark tea Time of the soul.
And he asks the priest like whether the life he has built
has any meaning at all. And the priest?
He offers no easy answers. And also I don't want to fucking
assume things don't shut off. Would be Russian Orthodox right?
He wouldn't be a Catholic. I think so, yeah.
So, yeah, so he's gone to Catholic Church.
He's like, actually. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And then he just leaves and that was the confession scene for
like some reason. And if you like didn't make any
sense, guess what happens next. Mario and Guntrov play chess
again because like fucking why not, right?
God, it's only been like fucking 15 minutes since I last saw
someone play chess. Oh my God.
So yeah, back in the backroom like scenic club.
I'm sure it was on the fucking same day shooting.
I think we may be like swapped out fucking Guntrovs cravat for
a different cravat or something. Probably little car I walked in
the background that has to walk off.
Can you imagine if you did the other groups but actually walks
on? I forget to wonder what would
cost you by accident. So good this time, the kind of
like through gritted teeth diplomacy of the first one is
kind of shifted. The next move will not be on the
chess board. It will be on the streets and
then we get an emotional scene now between this is really
unearned, right? So we get like, this is the big
scene between Catcher and Guntrove on the bridge, right?
This is so fucking stupid. So we learn a bit about their
background, but we it's so an end, right?
It's going to be a Catcher conference.
Guntrove, on a bridge overlooking the harbour and the
clock tower, is visible in the distance.
As always, she pulls a gun. Catcher pulls a gun.
With a proper flourish as well, it's like.
Yeah, pulls a gun. It's like I'm going to shoot
that. Damn.
Car full of holes. Neil Green is fucking a gun on
us, man. Yeah, she pulls a gun and she
points it directly and he's like, no, no, no, Jesus Christ.
She lowers the weapon slightly because we're they're like kind
of stir each other's eyes for a bit.
Deniro does that amazing thing he does where he has that kind
of smoke, so satisfied kind of weird smile that he does when
he's kind of angry, like, yes, does that face.
So she he's doing that face. She's kind of like there with a
gun. And then eventually she kind of
loses her nerve a little bit and lowers the gun a little bit and
then and then like gotten drum is like, what is this?
What is this? Don't you love me?
And and she's like, of course we're in love.
That's why I tried to shoot you. It's.
Like. A fucking scene, yeah.
Just like I'm. Like what was that?
Incredible. Cut scene.
Incredible stuff plan. Yeah, if I was to be charitable
about this scene, I would say this is the emotional core of
the film. Unfortunately, this is so
clumsy, this film that is like at some points really, really
brilliant and some points really, really fucking all over
the place. A bit like my opinion of the
film Mean Streets, which I know people really, really love, but
I think that film is a fucking mess sometimes.
And and I know like I haven't. Whereas your fucking several
fucking Oscar winning films, obviously I haven't got any.
So, you know, like Stolmadits. Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, Jesus Christ, you know, but yeah, gone to Rob is
definitely like where he's learning his craft.
So I think yeah, and I think he hasn't he hasn't quite compiled
all his LFE from from mean streets yet.
I'm going to just list out a number of the scenes.
So first of all, the, the tit for tat kind of like occasional,
you know, put one in the hospital, the youth one in the
morgue kind of stuff is given away to like a full attack.
Mario does a big ambush on one of Guntrove's warehouses,
smashes up a load of like crates and stuff, sets fire to some
crates, kills a bunch of guys. Smoke rises over the city.
Guntrove gets informed by a phone call.
He slams down the receiver. He's really pissed off.
Says more than 4 words. Says well yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
I want him dead. I want him dead.
I want his family dead. I want I want to burn down his
house and piss on his ashes. I want to protect my gay wife
off my hands. Jesus Christ, same thing.
So yeah, get that. So Marizanne Bush on the, on the
harbour, all those functionaries that they're getting bribed,
stop getting bribed. And like police start like
arresting like bad members of gun trobs gang without any
fucking evidence or anything because they can, because
they're the fucking police. And, and everyone's like, what
are you doing here? What are you doing here?
And they're just like fucking bundling people in the backs of
vans and gun robbers. Like, oh shit, I've failed to do
that thing that you're meant to do when you sort of a crime
network, which is to like secure the establishment so that you,
you become like a thing that they have to live with rather
than like something they're trying to actively destroy.
I think that like the this, the bullshit, I've seen that like 3
or 4 of the extras in that scene, but like play outs from
the Italian National Football team, I think that's bullshit.
Yeah, that's it, right. Whoa.
I mean, I don't know what I don't know about like 1970s
fucking. Yeah, yeah, you put media about
that, but I've had a deep dive and there's some people who will
fucking fight in the streets to say that like three or four of
those guys were actually as the fucking Italian national team
who did like fucking unclear cabbios.
So we get like another montage now, but it's like the net is
closing on on Guntroff. So like not Andre obviously, but
like his over lieutenants start getting like assassinated like 1
by 1. So we got that guy who gets like
he's in his bathtub. He just gets like, killed to
kill in his bathtub. It's so wild.
It's so wild because like, obviously they can't have like
kind of squibs going off on his bare skin.
So it kind of like cuts away for a moment to that shot of just
the mirror with like no one behind it or in it.
And that it's like, and he's lying like just like, just like,
just like all, all full of holes and follow, follow holes.
Jesus. Oh, it's a real shame.
There's a guy who's riding the pony.
Yeah, the pony is fucking mental, dude.
Like what the hell man? And that guy just gets someone
like a hunt and rifle from like like at least a mile away,
right? What the hell?
It's like absolutely in the cinema and he falls off his
fucking pony and the pony just stands there.
My favourite 1 is the the guy in the boat.
So there's the yeah, yeah, sorry, the horse just stands
there. It reminds me of the car bombing
bit in Michael Clayton where he's just there looking at the
three horses and the car bomb goes from the background and
the, and the course has all run away totally.
But the boat, right. So there's the guy who's the guy
who's on the lake. Is it the lake or is it like The
Hobbit Inlet? It might be like at sea
actually, but he's like he's in a little rowboat anyway and he's
fishing, but he's fishing with like dynamite.
So the but he's like there with like one of his, I guess he's
like mates or he's got like a bodyguard or something.
But but then the bodyguard just like punches in the face, lights
a bunch of the dynamite and then like jumps off the boat and
starts swimming away. And it's like, dude, you're
going to get fucked by that as well.
You're in the boat, you push him off, you throw him in the
fucking water, and then you drive away in the boat while
while the dynamite does its work, it's like going back, like
fight choreography and stuff. The scene and like the montage
from that Russian guy just runs up with those two dudes who got
off the Vespa, braised them, and then just like runs away super
fast. Like he could have done a big
nut straight away from the camera look cool.
It's like whoever's right in these fight scenes doesn't know
how to finish them sometimes. Yeah, this is like classic thing
of when the when the explosion happens with the the dynamite as
well. Like they've clearly like filmed
that separately and cut it in. So it's like the boats like for
like a split second. It's obviously there's no boat
there. So like it's, it's like the
boat, this guy on the boat and the next thing you see it's just
the the water cleaning up. But there's no boat there and
there's no wreckage. It's just like a water explosion
and then it cuts back and there's like wreckage and a guy
like floating head, like face down in the water kind of thing,
which is probably from the pool somewhere else.
Yeah. But yeah, that was wild.
God, it's a good 10. There's a fuck, sorry.
There's the guy. There's a guy playing darts.
There's a guy like like in what? Like what?
Must be like the Nepalese version, like Neapolitan version
of like a fucking English pub. Yeah.
Like pipe. And that in itself is fucking
weird. Like we had like the musics like
Dead Jazzy and Dad like, like cool and upbeat.
And then this guy just goes in. You get like the cut to like
he's got like brass knuckles on each hand and it's something we
had like close up and like he flexes his knuckles and then
just it cuts to the guy like dad.
But it's like it'll be like really bloody and stuff, but
it's like we don't even got to see him get punched, man.
And but but but there's like all the dots lying around his feet.
You only get 3 right to throw and it's like 17.
I counted them absolutely. I wonder, you know, how like,
when people see the room in the cinema and, and because there's
all those photo frames with pictures of spoons and then
people, like, throw plastic spoons at the screen, darts at
the screen. Yeah, That's so nuts, man.
Yeah, So those assassinations take place.
It's a bit like weird Jackie version of the end of, like, the
Godfather, right? Gun Trover's received news of
all his lieutenants being killed.
And then he gets a phone call from Mario Ambrosini himself.
And he says you might want to go down to the docks to your
boathouse because I've got I've got your friend Andre.
And he's like, what the fuck? And it's like really foggy and
it's really like closely shot. And there's the whole thing was
like driving there and he's like skidding around the road and
he's like, he's like speeding past the police and stuff.
It's actually a good fucking driving scene as well.
It's actually really well put together seeing this and it's
and it's good because it gives because it gives the scene the
depth that it needs because that's be honest.
He is totally in love with him and he's, he's like, don't like
find the man that he wants to take down, you know?
Yeah. So he gets there.
And as he arrives, like a whole bunch of Ambushini's men are,
like, raising one of his, like, warehouses.
And there's like a big gunfight going on.
And his guys are, like, like, putting in a fight.
It's like overrun with, like, Ambushini's guys.
And noticeably and very sadly, in the fight, Ice Pick Jew gets
shot on the face. And we have a whole thing where
he drops his Ice pick, which has been inexplicably carrying
around the whole movie. So all people get really upset
about that, the depth of Ice Pick Jew.
Yeah, I know, right. Really sad.
So, you know, if I can pull one out for I speak Joe, He's he's
he's he's he's gone. And in the in the chaos of it
all, we see like Andre, like yell out to, to, to to Guntrov.
He's like, he's like Guntrov and he's like.
And then they they, they kind of run off out the back of one of
the White Houses across like through the valley way and into
into like where the boathouse is on a jetty.
They bust into the boathouse. And then Andre says, like, I'm
sorry, I'm sorry, Guntarov. And then shuts the door of the
boathouse, locking him inside. And then and you think, oh, fuck
me, I can't believe it. He's actually finally betrayed
him. But then like a bunch of
Ambrosini's guys all lined up outside the boathouse with that
guns and stuff. And then and then Ambrosini's
there and he says, no, Andre, it's me who is sorry.
And then he and then he points his own gun at Andre and he says
like, join your friend. And then he makes him go into
the boat house as well. So Andre's just betrayed gun
trip. This has been a fucking awkward
moment. About that, you know, I get
sick. About what happened just a
second ago, you. Know some things fucking needs
most things happen stuff stuff goes down, you know, it's not
anything can happen day it's anything can.
Happen. Absolutely wild.
So yes, we get into the harbour boathouse.
What was that go up? That wasn't me.
Five years ago. It's just just that didn't
happen. That was some other guy that.
Was. You're just confused.
Good, shut off. You're just confused.
This is so horny for me. It's fine.
I'm Andrea, old man. Love me.
So funny. So yeah, they get inside and
there's like now a lot of a lot of sexual tension inside the Boa
house already is Katya who's been like tied up and Sophia,
who has also been tied up and I don't know what the fuck she's
doing there. Really unclear.
Like what's what else is going on as well as I should have
mentioned earlier in the in the in the warehouse fight, the
police are there also shooting as well.
And like also a bunch of gangs. So like it's just absolute
pandemonium. It's like a fucking like it's
like fucking the end of bugs in the loan with the fucking pie
shooting guns. It's just like, absolutely
fucking. Chaos.
It's just like. Really, really hard to pass.
They just threw a lot of extras at the situation really didn't
they? Like like I said this, this
scene needs at least 20 more extras with various like rattle
submachine guns just to just to make things even noisier.
Books and building came out after this as well.
Yes. I'm just thinking, yeah, because
it was the same year as Taxi Driver in 1970. 6 Is there
another maybe bit of influence? Probably not.
Probably, yeah. I love what you said.
Probably, probably not there, but I mean, hey, you know.
I'm think like all I'm saying is Judy Foster is Tallulah.
Maybe you've taken a few things from from catcher.
Holy shit, man. In the boathouse, continuous.
The interior is cramped. Fishing Nets, crates, fuel
drums, a motor boot bobbing in the water beneath a hatch in the
the deck. Gontrov, Andrei and Catcher are
in there. There's rain started.
Rain starts hitting the roof and catches listening catches like
I'm sorry Koncharov, they found me and and I look how.
Katya calls him by his surname by.
The way you know. Right, Mrs Katya Koncharova
calls Koncharov his fucking surname.
All the way through the movie as well.
Like, nobody calls him by his first name.
And just like, yes, no, they have thumbed us.
And then as that happens, a bunch of like, gunfire rips
through the wooden walls. The lamps swing around everyone
like jumps on the floor. People are trying to untie like
Catcher and Sofia. There's like a there's like
another guy in there, like another random dude who I think
his entire point for being in the scene is just so we can get
shot here. Really funny.
There's like some cans and like and like barrels and stuff in
there as well. Right as that happens, the last
remnants of Goncharov's loyal gang arrive.
They're on another boat and the boats coming into the boathouse
to pick him up. The bullets in there for some
reason isn't getting used. Don't quite understand why it's
there, really. It's fucking mental stuff.
Like why couldn't just move that?
Anyway, that happens. Yeah, Andrea's going look the
back exit and Guntrov is like, I go nowhere with you and punches
him in the face and and flies him out and he's like Catcher,
come with me. And and and Sophia Catcher's
like, no, I can't take the boat. And Guntrov's like, no, he's
like catcher, you came here to rule a city.
And she like gestures and goes. Cities require survivors.
And then Andrea, who's like on
the floor sparked. I was like, she's right.
And then then Sophia is like, what are you saying, Catcher?
And she's like getting into the boat.
She's like straight away I'm getting the fuck out of here.
And then Catcher is like she starts kicking over like these
leaking fuel cans that have been shot up.
Like he's hate these cans. He hates these cats.
Stay away from the cans, the liquids like so like obviously
like fuels, like pouring out over the floor inside this
little wooden boat. And what she's going to do is
she's going to like create a diversion, I guess.
So like everyone else piles into the boat and she's like Gunter
of I never told you about my father.
And it's like, what the fuck is she talking about?
Doesn't fucking matter because we're going to find out.
And she goes and she kisses on the face and goes go.
But there's no tenderness in the kiss only only a bleak finality.
Gunter of decides to pull Andre free from the boathouse and puts
his unconscious body or Vale his body into the boat and the boat
sort of backs away. The door opens to the boathouse.
Catcher kicks it open, holding a lighter in her hand, and she
goes, What'd she say? She goes.
I want to speak with Mario Ambrosini.
And then for the gunman, A henchman who probably should
have been. I speak Joe, but I speak Joe's
dead. It goes.
Mario isn't here. And it's like, well, there's no
report between these people, so it's just a random guy.
It's a bit like the end of the room where that random guy is
like, wait, like, what's this going to do to the friend group?
And it's like, dude, you, you just arrived.
I feel like, I feel like I'm sitting on an atomic bomb.
Behind her, she's already set fire to it.
There's it was. It was all a fake outholding of
the lights, because flames just lick up behind her.
Kind of cool, I think. It's very cool.
And she goes, tell Mario something for me.
Tell him, Gunture. I've never wanted Naples.
He just wanted to win. And then this guy's like, this
guy's like, you should step away from that building.
Please, Madam. Please Madam, this is a Wendy's
and she's like, I've spent my spent my entire life stepping
away. Not tonight.
And then she throws the Lysa into the and that's already
burning and for some reason that causes it to explode in like a
massive conflagration and we get like a split second of like what
must have been like a Sybil shepherd shaped mannequin
explodes a bit like when you put in like 1 of the cheats
incorrectly in two really 2 like just let us go everywhere and we
sit for a split second really bad and that is catcher dead
real bad. But it continues.
Andrea's boat we see speeding away.
Andre control everybody in the boat.
Jontrov looks back, the harbour burning behind them, reflections
rippling across the water. He says nothing, only looking at
the unconscious body of of Andre Fund to know.
At this point, Sofia's driving the boat, which is fun.
This polycule's out of control, man.
Yeah. And then we come back to the
henchman who, again, should have been Iceberg Joe, but it's not
Iceberg Joe. And he just looks at the
wreckage and the chaos around him and goes, well, that's
inconvenient. It's what a fucking lane.
Like. What the fuck is this for?
Like where? Where did they get this guy
from? He's not from the Italian
National Football team, that's for sure.
Yeah, absolutely nuts. So all that's left now is this
is right near the end of film. So as you say, Poliquel is in
disarray. The.
Poliquel is in disarray. Mr. President, the second
bombers hit the Poliquel, you know, like we got a final, we do
get a little denouement sorry of of Gene Hackerman.
So Gene Hackerman, Gene Hackman's police car pulls up to
the harbour, which is completely on fire, along with like the
fire service and stuff. He gets out of his car seems
like the, the, the strews bodies, the bricks, everything
going, the smoke just pulls off his ushanka, throws up on the
ground and stamps on it. And that's the last time we see
him. It's crazy, it's crazy.
What even, what even part of the force organisation chart of the
local police does he take up because he's got?
Because he's got. Like such like chief of police
energy and sub scenes. He's got such like detective
energy and some of us. And it's something just like he
he seems like an average patrolman, you know, except he's
in his fucking Moscow militia uniform or whatever it's meant
to be. So the final scene after that,
so we are left unclear as to the face of Andre.
Is he is he we don't see him again.
For the final thing we get is under the clock tower.
There is a little chest table set up and Mario.
And I don't know if this is like fucking like the 7th seal kind
of vibes or something, or like like it's meant to be happening
in the in the theatre of the mind or something, or it's like
metaphorical or something. But but both Pacino's and Nero
long before he'd sit down at this this chess table to have
like their their big scene together.
And yeah, they're playing chess. They're basically both saying
like, and now we are finally here.
Our rebels have ended. We are, we are both kings
without kingdoms and and like, you know, gun trolls like
kingdoms fall. But I am a king without my
queen, but I still have my Prince and this kind of
bullshit. And it's like, well I'm happy
for you, but now I have nothing. And then we pull out and we see
both of them are whilst they are playing chess with their like
right hands, they are both pulling pistols with their left
hands and they both point them at each other.
And then we hear a bang. But as the bang happens, the
camera pulls up to like the clock tower as it strikes like
fucking like 6:00 in the morning or something as the bang
happens. And then it just says contour of
and then, and then as the credits come up and it's like
1970s and like fucking 30 seconds of credits.
The final thing we see is Sofia her like her feet walking up to
like through the through the the wreckage of the of the harbour.
And then she kneels down and we see her like approach what must
be the disembodies arm of catcher.
But but frankly, we don't see it.
We just see her wrist and it's wearing like a little feminine
watch and then she and she turns over the wrist to see the watch
and the watch the wrist is like is still ticking.
It's like and then that's it. Fucking Finn Finito at the end.
Incredible film. I'll tell you.
Insane, by the way.
I don't. It didn't make a lot of sense to
me, but like, what do you think? I mean like Jesus.
I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it.
It set out what it wanted to do. It also made loads of really
fucking weird decisions along the way.
In 2026. Hindsight, it is definitely an
incredibly gay film in which, like like I said, everyone's gay
for each other in the film. And maybe that wasn't so
noticeable in 1970 whatever when it came out.
I mean, obviously Katya and and and Sophia very much, but it's
like, I think pretty much every male character that gone shut
off and count off and shut off like I gotta fuck this guy, you
know, he's like good fucking God.
So. Oh shit, sorry, I forgot.
Like I've got one thing. Sorry.
So it it pans up to the clock, gone shut off comes up as like
the title card pans back down again.
And it's like a bit ambiguity about like who shot who and
who's alive and stuff. And like, if they survive a lot
because the last thing we see is gone, shut off, still alive.
He's lying on the on the on like a cobbled streets.
Then he then he fucking he spikes his camera and looks
directly into the lens, breaks the 4th floor and says would
anyone save me? And then it cuts, Yeah, what the
fuck is that man? It's so fucked up.
Fever dream fever dream is is it cutting back to his in a
monologue? Is that as a glass?
Thoughts. As he's dying, he's really
saying that it's abstract as hell.
Like the last the last like few minutes of the film at at MR's
art house territory in the last few few minutes of the film,
which is fucking cool. It's bold.
I. OK.
We're back with the categories. Mike will lead us in on this one
or or would like me to. All right, we'll do the
standard. So casting obviously this is a
stacked cast nowadays. This would be like an incredibly
psyched cast in the 70s. It was like I guess up and
counters people who were like making the scene, people who
didn't just their first big moves.
So obviously De Niro is lost Toniero.
He has Gunter of we've got Al Pacino as, as Marian Bruschini.
Obviously he's got a very story background as well.
We know a lot about him. Harvey Ketel.
People will know, again, like we mentioned earlier, like for like
lots of films, Piano, The Bad Lieutenant, all that kind of
stuff. On top of that, we've got a Gene
Hackman, who we've talked about a lot on this podcast, obviously
would be like Crimson Tide and No Way Out already, but also
like the conversation. This is our third Hackman film
and this might be the most a character and and and act as a
PR in episodes of clear and present dudes so far.
So Tom Cruise is on 4 at the minute.
Fuck. OK.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I did the math on that the other
day. Yeah, he's up there, though.
John Casale, who died tragically young, of course, was in The
Godfather and the Godfather of Hot 2.
He's also in dogged the afternoon with with Al Pacino,
so he's watching him a few Times Now.
Sybil Shepherd as Catcha Goncharova.
She, like I mentioned earlier, The Last Picture Show based on
the Larry Mcmurtry novel, of course, moonlighting with with
Bruce Willis. And well, so she do.
She obviously had her own eponymous sitcom.
Sybil, which is a character called Sybil Sheridan, who was
basically just her, right? It was.
Her, yeah, nice work if you can get it.
If you get it, won't you tell me how?
How? Yeah, with Christine Baranski.
What a great show. Yeah, that that's literally
Sophia's in a monologue when she says that's like, if you get it,
won't you tell me how she's like Mother?
May I? Sophia Loren probably doesn't
need any introduction, of course.
Yeah, yeah, big, big title of American and Italian cinema.
Yeah, against against whom? Cybill Shop out holds up really
well in terms of acting chops. Like I said, I mean, it's like
it's fucking excellent. The film deserves more aplomb
from people. You know that the both dominate
the scene. The both dominate the screen and
a lot of the especially the tango scene.
I've got some trivia. Have you got some trivia?
Yes, so it's this film has very little use of the Russian
language, despite the fact that Scott Russian Russian coward has
in it and some of the only Russian dialogue used in it is
actually used wrong. The pig farmer briefly speaks to
his wife off camera and says what is subtitled as the men out
here about the pigs. But what he actually says is the
sheep out here about the pigs. And I mean, like, like I said,
this is this is possible. I'm picking up things feel upon
Reddit, You know, Miles Riveri, I don't you know, comprehend,
but shouldn't be of Russian. But that's that's a pretty
fucking weird one. What kind of trivia have you
guys dug up? I've got a few, that's class.
Nero De Niro allegedly stayed in character as Gunter Off for the
entire shoot, refusing to respond to his real name.
Crew members reports that he would only answer if he was
addressed as Comrade Gunter Off. Incredible.
That's fucking amazing. That's so good man, I love it.
The chess game between Mario and Gunter of the second one I think
uses a real historical opening. This is the Sicilian defence.
Film scores have pointed out that the sequence of moves shows
in the scene actually foreshadows the order of
betrayals later in the film. Yeah, very fun.
Speaking of chess games, when when when Al Pacino has his flip
out and he like knocks over those three chess tables in his
house, he's actually he's actually winning all of those
games. If like you look at it's been
intersected pretty hard and looks like he's in like a
winning position in all of those games.
Yet he's like flip out of anger. And it's like, guess it's
symbolic to show these people are destroying themselves mate.
Very good, of course, right? The boathouse explosion used a
real wooden structure that the production had permission to
demolish. However, the explosion ended up
being much larger than planned, destroying 2 nearby camera rigs
and forcing the crew to stop filming for three whole days.
Yeah, the clock tower scene in the final scene is the real
Alberto di Poverty clock in Naples with the production
altered its face to exaggerate the ticking sound I.
Love that, it's incredible. That feels a weird way of saying
they've put some food on it. Yeah, there's some.
There's some, there's some continuously stuff regarding
cigarette lens blah blah blah blah blah.
Yeah, obviously the final line Would Anyone Save Me was
controversial at the time because it breaks the 4th wall
blah blah blah blah. A lot of the music was recorded
live on set which caused issues on the centre thing, which is
why there's a lot of ADR dialogue.
Fucking shows as well, like the the fact that the recorder live,
especially the nightclub scenes with the Charles band and that
which is a really cool thing, but it could have been recorded
better. You know, they could have gone
the whole like Michael Mann, fucking real veracity kind of
thing and just. Yeah, the film's production
schedule ran almost two weeks behind due to frequent arguments
between director and cinematographer.
Cinematographer This film, by the way, is Michael Chapman,
director of photography, who also went on to do Taxi Driver.
So depends why it's a funny looking film.
Yeah. Yeah, so sorry.
And then, and then I mentioned it early on.
So Albertino was obviously shooting specifically at the
same time as this. So he was flying backwards
forwards to New York and Naples, which is obviously a very big
undertaking into the 1970s. So one of the bits that they had
to do was they had to reshoot one of the chess scenes by
filming his takes and coverage in New York, while De Niro's
coverage was all filmed in Naples.
Really random. Yeah, excellent stuff.
And then finally, we didn't even talk about this.
So Inspector Michelov's habit of drinking terrible vending
machine coffee was invented by Gene Hackman.
Hackman during rehearsals and became a running gag for the
film. I don't know if it's a running
gag. We seem to do it like maybe
twice. It happens three times.
There's once at the train station.
There's once, bizarrely, just down the street from a cafe when
he goes to a vending machine. It's just there and it's like
there's a cafe in Italy right there.
And, and, and the third one, the third one, it's when it's, it's
when he's in the police station, right?
And, and, and again, that's a stupid fucking scene because he
goes to the vending machine and he gets the coffee out and he's
just like, and there's always like cops hanging around who,
who just look like they don't even like the man.
And it's like, oh man, I think that again, he sticks up the
soul film. He's wearing fucking Shankar
indoors. It's like, what even is this
film? Very, very silly.
Well, it seems like we've filmed without permits.
So you know what I mentioned the train station shootout.
Yeah, that was that was done gonzo style.
But then one of the extras is, I think it's like an old lady
carrying a dog. Like she spikes the camera doing
it and they have to leave it in because that's the only the only
opportunity I had to film it. Definitely get another rewatch
tonight and to see if that's the case.
Bloody. Yeah, about wild.
Would you like to hear camera? Would would you like to hear
some of the the conspiracy theories about this film?
Yes, please, more than anything. So so some of the conspiracy
theories about what it means I should say so one the clock
theory, the film is actually about the Soviet collapse.
Some theories argue that Ghuntrov is secretly about the
inevitable collapse of the Soviet Union repeats his clock
imagery. The fact that Ghuntrov is a
Russian criminal trying to build power at a foreign land, and
that every alliance in the film eventually collapses all
indicate this. The argument is that the film
predicts that systems built on fear and loyalty eventually
collapse into the and weight, which means control of a
metaphor for the Soviet system. Obviously, the big problem with
this the film that came out in 1973.
When the Soviets were still looking like they were arguing
from a place of fucking relative authority and relative power.
And yeah, yeah, I'm not sure actually abide with that theory.
Yeah, I've mentioned the ice pick as a Trotsky reference
theory. Yeah, the chess games reveal the
ending. I mentioned that already kind of
in the trivia, but there's an idea of the setups of the chess
games indicate like where the story is going, both kings are
doomed, need excite, can escape defeat, blah blah blah blah
blah. Chat is the real protagonist.
This one I think holds a little bit away.
So 1 theory claims that the film is secretly told from catcher's
perspective, even though Gunter of appears to be the lead.
So she appears in a lot of scenes where key decisions are
made. She obviously has that scene
with I, I speak Joe, which is obviously like a big movement
for her. She has the whole story with
Sofia. She has a bit of agency.
Basically her sacrifice resolves the emotional arc of the film
because like otherwise, there's just two blokes doing stuff and
Gunter of his story collapses immediately after her death.
She dies and then he pretty much gets shot straight away.
So. So the movies what catch you
realising she cannot escape the world that she helped to create
is what some people say online. Yeah.
What do you think? I would agree with that.
Definitely open interpretation. But she can't escape.
But just trying to escape the world should create, consume,
consume. Really interesting stuff.
Yeah, really interesting. So they're the so they're the
normal ones. Do you want to hear the fucking
bonkers ones? God, yes.
Right, Mario and Gontrov are the same person.
Whoa. The the The Fight Club
conspiracy. Theory.
No way, man. A particularly strange theory
suggests that Mario and Gunture will represent two sides of the
same character. The evidence, they say, is that
they rarely appear together early in the film, apart from
like in the the casino nightclub and when they're playing chess.
So they say that the the chess playing doesn't count because
it's him talking to himself and it's happening on a different,
like, mental plane. That's what they positive.
Mind palace it all. It all comes down the Neil Breen
fucking black bin bag Goon cave again.
Yeah. Oh, that's, yeah, that's what
this is. So like they they both dialogue
style. They both kind of talk.
Yeah. Basically, yeah.
So this is interpretation of the film is that the the is a
psychological allegory about how power destroys itself is
basically what they're saying. So like, it's yeah, it's a
fight. It's Fight Club.
Fight Club in those 70s. Yeah.
So that was weird. And then here's some crazy ones,
right. One the Manhattan Project
theory. So there's a claim that
Gancharov is secretly about the birth of the atomic bomb.
So the boat, the boathouse explosion explosion is is meant
to be representative of the Trinity test.
Jesus fucking Christ. Throughout the the film,
characters are repeatedly referenced time running out,
which is meant to be like a new on the fact that they had a
ticking time to to to achieve obviously building atomic bomb
in order to end the Second World War and Gancharov's empire
collapses after a single Castro event, which is meant to be like
this is a treaty test here for the for the boathouse is also
kind of meant to be like the I guess for Russian.
So it's really random, but it took 2.
Catastrophic, catastrophic events to stop the Japanese
Empire. Not one.
Obviously, obviously I guess like as well.
Yeah. So under this reading, gunshot
is meant to be Oppenheimer, Mario is meant to be like
representative of the US military establishment.
And then and then Catcher is meant to be like the moral sort
of stakes of the scientists. So if you like put this into
Oppenheimer, the movie terms like Catcher is a bit like
Oppenheimer after he dropped the bomb and he's he's being wingy
about it. And Mario's meant to be like
Harry Truman, just laughing off and calling.
Him pussy. Pussy a pussy ass bitch, Yeah.
Get get this bitch ass mowed out of my office.
There is another theory, which is that this film is referencing
the moon landing. So, so I didn't mention it
earlier, but in the violin scene, the the cafe that they're
at has a sign inside the cafe but visible through the window,
like a neon sign that partially spells a polo bar.
But you can only see like the Apollo could be like a full
word, could be Apolonia could be anything.
But they even get to a polo bar, right?
The final duel takes place in an empty harbour which is meant to
and after it's destroyed is meant to represent the noodle
landscape. Because there's lots of like
broken concrete everywhere. I don't really agree with that.
Stretch. Reach.
Oh, it's a big reach. I've got a bigger.
I've got a bigger 1. So Guncharov's grey overcoat
that he wears in several pivotal scenes of the film is supposed
to resemble an astronaut's suit Fucking.
But it's just fucking it's. Yeah, those those guys around
for wearing overcoats over fuck off.
Too much, too much. But I will say respect.
The big gum sheds out there too much, too much.
Stop them. The only, the only thing that
the only thing that I kind of half take on this is that they
say the clock motif is meant to represent the space race.
Yeah, I can. I mean, it was quite heated.
So it was quite heated between the US and Soviet Union at that
point. You know, I've got my usual bit
on weapons free, weapons free, my friend.
When I talk about the film's weapons handling, it's it's
armoring, all those other things that I can be brief for this one
because it's not an especially gun heavy film, but didn't do
much to piss me off. It gets significant amount of a
right actually, which I think speaks to having a good kind of
global logistical, like kind of support for armaments and stuff.
The primary weapon of Kinsharov, funny enough, is a is, as I
said, it's the Beretta 948. It's the ethical to do long
rifle calibre semi automatic, which I think is pretty fucking
cool. Katya is more traditional to to,
to Russian standards and has a Nagant revolver, the 1897.
Is that right? I'm just double checking the
notes here. Yeah.
So she's packing the Nagant 1895.
But the submachine guns used by the guys who might or may not be
part of the Italian National Football team are the Beretta
M12, which was sort of a kind of recently designed weapon at the
time. And that was, well, night, like
late, late, late 50s. So that's like the closest to a
future weapon you've got. There are a few scenes in which
Good Sharov holds the iconic Thompson gun that he has in the
poster. In every scene is holding the
Thompson gun, including scenes when he's just immediately being
firing at safety selector is unsafe.
And that's a reference to the fact that I'm a fucking artist
and pause films constantly attract details.
There we go. Does this film pass the VHS in
the mess test? What this film do good on
constant rotation on VHS, DVD, Blu-ray or laser disc player in
the mess, wardroom or whatever of a military vessel or base.
I've got to say, in my humble opinion, no, basically it's a
good movie. Don't be wrong.
It's in the same way that like Taxi Driver wouldn't work on
repeating the mess. Like nobody wants to see that
stuff. Like it's, it's a bit messy.
It's a bit like oh, and difficult to get into.
It's confusing as fuck to watch. Obviously we've just talked
about some of the mental things that come out of it.
People aren't going to enjoy that.
It's not like a simple thing you can put on and like they're joke
too after you've after. You've come out.
For a long day, you've got to like, you've got like meet on
its level and its level is pretty hard to get to.
So yeah, yeah, yeah. Sonia, if someone put this on on
a ship that you were on, what would your reaction be?
If this gets put on in your wardroom or whatever, your mess?
Oh God, please no. Probably.
Stop it. Stop it basically.
The last thing I want to do after a particularly on fun
watch is go to the through the wardroom and and see a film that
has Harvard screen time dedicated to clicking top and
ticking. Clocks as like.
No fucking mental, yeah. Man, but yeah, also also like
that bike set and and you've we, we've compared it to two art
host films before and that's not something you do to to chill out
and relax. Yeah, I I would agree.
I think the only bit of it is going to get regular play is
sorry, but the tango scene might get repeated a bit because it is
like a but let's face it, it's through US.
It is an entrancing scene. Quotes, quotes from the film.
There's so many that Meg's already gone over.
I think let's just recap the amazing ones.
Cities fall as a bar. Yeah, man.
Oh, let me find my quotes. Hang on.
Gotta get on the old I am Dubber.
So we've got the bridge scene. Catch a confronting Gunter off.
Of course we're in love. That's why I tried to shoot you
and then Gunter off Replies. If we were really in love, you
wouldn't have missed. Highly nonsensical.
It's what else we've got. We've got a.
Giving Mr and Missus Smith. That actually.
Is Mr Mrs. Smith. It actually is.
That's fucking brilliant. I love it.
You've got a God from Mario. Sacrifices is queen in the first
chess match. Control says you play recklessly
and Mario says no. I play for the ending OK.
Absolute bar. Doesn't make much sense.
Catch it to Sofia. Yeah, catch it to Sofia.
When they find your body, Sofia, there will be flowers growing
through your bones. Very cool.
Yeah, that's that's like that. That for me is the line of the
film. That's the MVP.
That's the fucking go at that. That was like, legitimately,
that was legitimately a beautiful line in a film that's
often really confusing, very stupid and occasionally
brilliant, which is why I think it's so compelling that people
in such a cult classic, and it's why Criterion, thankfully, is
finally picking up and putting it out there, you know?
Indeed, got I speak Joe and his final scene.
The past cannot be unfrozen. You can only chip away at it.
Frozen chip. Yeah.
Subtext. Yeah, I know, right?
And then finally we've got Gunter of, during this
confession scene, the priest. I've killed men who have trusted
me. And the priest says then you
know what must happen next. Fucking threatening.
Threatening priest. Threatening priest man, Italy,
everyone. Very frightening man with the
cloth. Everyone's got a fucking Beretta
in the back pocket, even the even.
Even the priests, man. Indeed, we talked about some of
the critical reception of this film.
Yeah, I've got some. So I've got some Pinnacle.
We know it's you've got, you've got some pretty good reviews as
well, don't you? Yeah, so I want to I want to
talk about. So obviously this is like peak
Rodger Ebert and Siskel and Pauline Kael era sort of stuff.
The Rodger Ebert's review, I'm going to read Rodriguez, the
basin. It's not all of it, just a
section. I attended the screening with
two peers. One thought Gunter of to be much
like his unwindable pocket watch, temporarily suspended by
the pain of exile in all matters and especially sex.
The other believes, more simply that Gunter Off was asexual.
My own view in the matter is that a man who can conduct a
business meeting with a full faculty of mind and indeed even
faint boredom, while Sophia Loren places a cigarette in his
wife's mouth but contrives a half dozen reasons to meet with
a man who's obviously been assigned to kill him, cooks that
man Pastor, pass that man to sing for him, and then permits
that man to stab him as a committed, if a successful,
homosexual. So they were talking about the
pastor. Yeah, I know, right.
Yeah, that's all. And obviously the stabbing in
the in the boathouse, which would be like skirts past.
In any case, Gunture of sexual ambiguity is the point is one of
the many clockwork gears sitting beneath the movie's face, all
working in a concert to cast doubt upon the viewers.
Evidence. Who is Gunture of?
What does he believe? What does he really desire?
One has a sense that Gunture of was almost glad to die rather
than learn the answer. And that's from his four-star
review in the Chicago Tribune. Fucking amazing.
Incredible great. That's so good.
But he's he's a big fan of mean streets as well.
So then that kind of. Tracks, yeah.
Does track, yeah. Anyway, hit me up with these
dudes from the peanut gallery. OK, right half of three star
review from someone called horoscopes Gumtrov 1973 directed
Martin Scorsese might be a mafia movie The Sigma male film Bros.
But to me she is like if a traumatised Russian mercenary
who dreams of a quiet house on a hill but cannot escape the blood
on his hands. Was my girl mutual number one
baby. This makes up for all of the
night in 74 Oscar snobs says says Crash Course 201.
I think the reason so many film Bros hate Ganshirov is because
Katya actually got fleshed out was a character as opposed to
like both of the Scorsese women. I mean it wasn't perfect and
there was select the infamous beer bottle scene but like Cybil
Shepherd lived, gave cunt and then faked her death but nobody
ever talks about it. It has five days at the end of
it. I did not pick up the idea that
she faked the death. It looks like it looks pretty
final. It does look, look, look final,
but I mean, that's open for reinterpretation, I guess.
We've got some heads, kind of. Yeah, we have that.
Seaman Gonstrov went to Milan to set up bank accounts and
Scorsese daringly put in a 20 minute long take of the Nero's
character setting up savings accounts in his three daughters
name, specifying the interest rate and the authorised people
who could withdraw money to be the camera work just made that
whole scene the most memorable. 5 stars from Comcast
Cablevision. I don't think it's 20 minutes.
I think it's like 7 1/2 or so, but still, it is wild.
It's long enough, yeah. 2 1/2 stars from Tatzler worming.
After I saw Gansher off I walked out of the theatre normally and
without incident. Someone then responds in a
comment liar and they respond fine.
I did the Gansher off walk. I hate this fucking website
anyway. Cannibality.
People like control of existence left completely intact.
It's propaganda and you're all too stupid to notice because of
the gay subtext. I've.
Got I've got a couple here as well.
Pepper these in. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
You're throwing in through and it's having a great.
I've got This movie has three separate love triangles and none
of them are heterosexual. Yeah.
Guntarov and and Andrea look at each other like divorced parents
at a school play. My God fucking do as well.
It's like what a cool parent. And Spain.
Then we'll literally start a mafia war instead of going to
therapy. Katya and Sofia should have run
away together and opened a bookstore.
And Guntarov? I trust you, Andrea.
You shouldn't. Guntarov.
Understandable. Have a nice day.
Yeah, four-star view. Yeah, I'm sorry.
Sorry. Fake news. 4 1/2 star from She
already killed. When he thinks we're going to
fuck. When?
Really. I'm about to explain the clock
symbolism. And Martin Scorsese, he's going
to shower. Off to him for three hours.
Ivan Ghansharov this, Nikolai Ghansharov that.
Why? Will you guys realise there's a
reason we don't know his first name?
The point all caps is that we don't know Ghansharov is a
family name and whether Ghansharov used to be told he
went up and being the head of the family.
He doesn't have a personal name to denote who he is outside of
his mafia persona. I did not understand that review
at all. And one star from someone called
Satan worship. I had Ghansharov once, but a
shot cleared that right up and a great 1 he had to finish on from
Fantastic fables broke. The fact that Consharov lights
Andrew's cigarette for him with his own cigarette with a hint of
great affection in a scene under the rainfall symbolises his
longing for the entirely fictional life he believes Andre
may offer him, and the fact that both of their cigarettes go out
in a few seconds foreshadows how his destructive desire will ruin
them both. Woke.
The cigarettes go out because they're standing in the rain
with no umbrellas. Symbolises the fact that they're
both really fucking stupid. Scene perfect.
No notes. Wow, great, Ryan.
What what Catterick is healthy remaining?
I think we're going to. Spend the wheel of directors.
Have we got all this? So as we've done our previous
episodes, we're going to spin little wheel of names I've got
here that lists directors and films that have been done
previously on clear and present Dudes.
We'll just do it with the once this one time and it has come up
on John TNN Hunt for. Metal.
It should be, but yeah, from of of Die of Die Hard and Hunt
wrote to the female and latterly, as I discovered a bit
of a week, the remake of Thomas Cronifer.
But yeah, go on. I think this film would have
lost a lot of its second of Scorsese Lane Caleb kind of
panache, to be honest thing. I don't think the film would
have gone quite as hard under a #10 and I mean, I will.
Say that. The action sequences would
probably have been like better. Do you think that could have?
Do you? Do you think you would have
handled the incredibly gay subtext?
You think we've handled them well?
I do it. Definitely would have there.
Would have been there still, yeah, I think.
He wouldn't have told them or anything.
Neil Breen would have. Everyone in the film would have
wanted to fuck Neil Breen. Just wait until it explained me.
Jesus, right? If you'd asked me a couple of
weeks ago what I think John Mcteon and Gunter would have
been like, I would have said like, Oh yeah, Like, the action
seems to be better the store, the story would be more
comprehensible, and it would have been like a tightly
scripted thriller rather than like, whatever the fuck this is
then. Since then, though, I watched
The Thomas Crown Affair, and now I'm convinced that this film
would have been just fucking sex scenes the entire way through.
It's been fucking and fucking and fucking and fucking and
fucking with a really light story which is designed purely
to put you into reasons where you can can see Pierce Brosnan
fucking and fucking and fucking and fucking I.
Like that actually. Yeah, wild movie, absolutely
insane film. Hard recommend.
Should should we give up one more spin guys?
Yeah, dude. Well, say you didn't get a
chance to. Answer but shit sorry man but
the next one is going to. Be there you go.
Sonia, how would how would this film be done under the adept
hand of Neil Breen? Well, you you've taken the the
the big bit that everyone would have wanted to to or or.
It it it. Probably would have gotten
renamed to to to getting off. It'd be gun gun contour of in a
colon. They'd be Gunture of the the
Tortured Poet or something. Kings fall, cities fall.
I came from Russia to move in on the Neapolitan mafia.
She is. Taking away my wife, I can't
believe she's doing it. She can't be getting away.
With that, I am going to just shoot this stupid.
Shit. Yeah, so, so your point, Preen,
right, is like is obviously like a bit of a megalomaniac.
And whenever he puts himself in a film, his character is like,
is like pure as the driven suit, right.
Yeah. So there's no way that gunshot
is still a crime boss. Guntrov is just is.
Guntrov is just a guy who happens to be in Naples as the
rest of the story is happening. Either that or it's like half
alien half Angel fucking psychic. 3000 Rule of God,
Emperor of Mankind. You know, yeah, that.
All right. So Gontrov.
Yeah. Gontrov is like the the Godda
brew of mankind. He's 3000 years old.
He has a second hand underneath his actual head that will get
revealed once in an awkward green screen scene.
And he never had a beard. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And Beard and it'll be like, and then you'll see like Mario and
Brasini, like like, like backhanded slap his girlfriend
or something. And he'd be like, that's not
nice. And then you'll like touch.
Like he'll touch like Mario's with his hand And then like
he'll immediately develop like palsy.
Yeah, yes, he touches hands. Like I've given you cancer now.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then, like, the entire,
like, last five minutes of the film is like, everybody killing
themselves. Yes.
My God. Of ticking clocks would just be
stock images that aren't moving. Get amazing.
Yeah, about the same three clocks, yes.
Yeah, or it would be the same shitty clock green screened on
different buildings. And he wouldn't have managed to
get any of the Italian National Football team in OR, that's for
fucking sure, guys. And that explosion of the
boathouse would just be like a composited that would.
Be so fucking bad. Explosion.
Yeah, like a PowerPoint style sound effect.
Yeah, cool. It would suck.
What are we at now for categories?
I think think all we've got left is the CIA thing, which doesn't
really. Yeah, this this film is film is
CIA neutral, I suppose it doesn't operate in any kind of
space in which they say you are involved.
A massive massive massive stretch would be maybe that
revolutionary group is like ACIA front like for a for a colour
revolution thing, but no. No.
This is just another CIA neutral film.
Be so, yeah. So I think we are at the end of
our podcasts. So all that is remains to say is
that we have been. Clear and clear as in April.
Fools get dunked on. There was 2.
Wasted your valuable time. This one doesn't exist.
We have we have wasted your time.
As Mike said, this film does not exist, and neither does its
purported sequel, Gunshot 2. A Guncha.
A Gunsha Oh, thank you so much for giving us your time.
We've gone too far. Gone, gone.
Gone too soon, yeah. We've gone stickers to the sun.
We did. That was, that was utter chaos.
If you're listening to this on April Fools Day, then then, then
you, you are the fool. If you're not, we are the fools.
We are the fool. We are the fool.
In the words of Tommy wasso everyone betrayed me and I am
the fool. The.
Fool, should we do a real one? We really have been actual clear
and present. Dudes, dudes.
OK, there we go.