S4E20: Topkapi

God's own 140p and watching from the Lego Dimension are just delightful phrases and I loved hearing them

I do wanna point out that the actor playing Josef is in brown face, he is an American French actor and has no ancestry in or near Turkey

Happened to go on holiday to Bielefeld this year, where August Oetker founded the Dr Oetker factory. His grandson Rudolf-August Oetker was a buddy of Heinrich Himmler and joined the Waffen-SS voluntarily. After the war, he was put on trial but acquitted, and he used the profits from the Dr Oetker factory to found a concert hall named after himself and the now called Kunsthalle, which at the time he named after his stepfather - who was also an ex-nazi.

I'm having a moment at the 43' mark where they're talking about polyamory and I am doggedly convinced they had this identical conversation in a prior episode.

BTW have you ever considered doing Yentl?

I'm going to rent this from Scarecrow Video and rip it for you so people here can watch it with several more pixels

I rewatched Hudson Hawk recently and now desperately need to hear y’all’s opinion on that. Truly a baffling heist film

Guns and gas confiscated, they resorted to writing 'Armenia best country' on a brick and throwing it into a room full of soldiers like a flash bang

I was looking for a way to watch this and apparently I've had an .iso file of it sitting on my NAS device for 14 years; no Adverse Conditions Film Club for me.

On the subject of viewer recommendations, I would like to strongly recommend for religious season the German 2014 film 'Stations of the Cross' It's a brutal look at familial abuse in a fundamentalist religious cult environment (at least that's how this family engages with the 'society of saint-paul', they are a part of; a stand in for the real life 'society of saint pius x' that rejects Vatican II). The film contains only fourteen shots, one for each 'station of the cross'. It's brilliant.

I might be joining adverse conditions movie club soon. Partly inspired by KJB I'm starting a anti-fascist media spotlight series where I talk about the politics of movies and TV starting with Andor and the original V miniseries. It's also the perfect opportunity to watch the 1970s Spanish version of Alice in Wonderland which is actually a psychedelic meditation on the legacy of Franco but I can only find it on a Russian website and I don't even think it has subtitles. 🤷

I'd love to see yall go over Hudson Hawk (1991) at some point. Bruce Willis heist movie, stealing from a castle, bunch of ring-a-ding Ding ass music in the background, it's fun as hell

We really need to up your content acquisition game - there are much higher quality sources available than shady russian websites. Can I introduce you to our lord and saviour alt.binaries.movies on Usenet?

once again wondering what take you would have on Bandits (2001) where Bruce Willis, Cate Blanchett, and Billy Bob Thornton do some bank heists and stumble their way into what i can only describe as a messy attempt at writing a polycule for the oh shit 9/11 just happened audience of the time

I'm in the US and the movie is free on youtube for me. A bit easier for me to get to than it was for the KJB crew. https://youtu.be/6OQ0h-ewzNY?si=xvXP0JpsWq_-M4d1

The p320 joke was great

Hearing the description of the heist perfectly summed up how I felt watching Rififi. That was my vote for bridge from Euro to heist. Now I've got to watch this to compare.

Speaking of large format photography, I've always wanted to try large Polaroid. It's exceedingly rare, but the idea of a Polaroid picture the size of a poster is fascinating.

someday the hosts of potentially award-winning podcast sensation Kill James Bond will learn how to torrent. hopefully not Nova though, Adverse Conditions Movie Club must continue even through…well.

It's probably already on the list but The Town is definitely worth a look for a heavily Heat inspired movie.

Also hands up if you are a Civ player who just learned how to pronounce Topkapi

Hands up if you sing along to the jazz outro in the car

Extremely excited for end of days

Love the call out for Black Bag, that's a film that really rubbed me the wrong way for similar reasons to what's mentioned in the episode. I did find it funny that the film specifically demonstrates that you can cheat a polygraph with the info from a single self-help book, but still treated it like being able to run a polygraph test is some super cool, valuable skill set...?

I've had people literally treat me like I have the plague when I have mentioned to somebody new that I am poly even if there is no romantic connection going on it's really weird

My obviously normal brain (still getting night terrors at 48 is pretty normal considering the world) highly recommends the interesting from a historical point of view heist movie Rififi. The Ur Heat, of sorts.

Updating my Grindr app with the new ground proximity warning system and receiving multiple "TERRAIN! TERRAIN! PULL UP!" notifications.

Also recall Gromit's communication through facial expressions is inspired by Buster Keaton. Worth remembering when you eventually do "The General" (1927)

I have nothing against polyamory or polygamous people, and I don't mean to be judgemental or dismissive of your experience, but I've never understood its appeal. Doesn't having many partners who themselves have many partners kind of diminish the one on one connection? Having people move in and out of your life regularly and not really establishing a life long bond with them? If you're not getting what you want from one partner and go to another to get it, then are you really into that person for who they are fully, or just for just that one you can get from them? At least to me, love is about mutual possession, each partner fully belongs to their other. "If I can't have you all to myself then I don't want anything from you". It's about being so fully open and intimate with another person that you become two halves of one soul. And I don't really see how you can experience that level of connection when you have many different options. Idk, maybe it's just me not being an outgoing or social person, and only wanting a few strong relationships rather than many casual ones. Polyamory just isn't intuitive for me. Polyamorous people, please explain if you care to, I want to understand.

Analogue photographer moment mentioned 😩

Going into work as a Polycule acquisition and merger consultant

Since this was a hog-recommended banger, I am going to once again suggest you watch Shallow Grave (1994). Absolute banger movie, and Christopher Eccleston is just so good in it.

The director, Jules Dassin, is quoting his earlier masterpiece Rififi with the silent/realtime heist scene. It’s definitely one to watch if you’re building a general theory of heists. It’s also famous for being the movie a lot of up and coming criminals would watch to learn how to do a successful heist. It will not do very well on the SCUM scale. The two films fit the “first as tragedy then as farce” structure.

I'm sorry but the idea of Female Captain Birdseye has completely taken me out....

I have to recommend a movie: via this thread, a ripped vhs version of a Japanese production of Euripides's Medea, which A: fucking slaps and B: has a cameo by Melina Mercouri as Greek Minister of Culture. https://bsky.app/profile/papapishu.bsky.social/post/3ldjsojfyjs2k

diamonds are forever, emeralds are for fuckin’

I have had the pleasure of spending some time in a much more basic Turkish interrogation room at Istanbul airport. They just wanted to steal my beer.

my impression is that renting a rural european villa is honestly cheaper than getting like 6 hotel rooms, since you're not paying for service or daily cleaning, and it wont be as central as a hotel. My family did that several times with friends or extended family growing up. That kind of polycule vacation doesnt seem that expensive tbh

Sick as a dog today, so thank you as always for timely delivery of the slop (intellectual).