ike a kid before Christmas, Jamie Benning can’t wait to unwrap his latest present, his filmumentary Raiding The Lost Ark. Unfortunately it looks as though we may have to wait until  after Christmas to see it in its entirety, but if that is the price we have to pay for the final exclusive audio interview  material that Jamie expects to add to it, then I for one am prepared to wait. In the meantime though, part two is now up  Jamie’s new site, filmumentaries.com and we have it for you here, bar a few final tweaks. It follows on from part one, with Indy and Marcus Brody in the States at Marshall College, enlightening the Government agents on the Ark of the Covenant. The bulk of part two consists of footage of director Steven Spielberg interacting with his cast on rehearsing the Raven bar shoot out, and also a deleted scene. Enjoy!

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eorge Orwell was wrong. 1984 wasn’t the year of Big Brother, it was the year of the little brother from Minneapolis, Prince. After the talented one had been toiling in the trenches (surprised anyone could see him down there) he hit the big time with Purple Rain, and the ridiculous, pompous semi-biopic of the same name, which, despite lurching closely to perilously bad, is a stunning showcase for the guy’s talent, and this month’s Guilty Pleasure.

Prince plays “The kid”, front man of super tight band The Revolution (his real band). They are one of the acts at real life Minneapolis First Avenue Club, fighting for the top spot against an indifferent clientele and funky rivals The Time, lead by Morris Day and sidekick Jerome Benton. The Time were Prince proteges of a kind, who sometimes performed material penned by him. Into this heady mix struts new girl in town, Appolonia (Appolonia Kotero) desperate to make it, and bound to stir up jealousies. On top of this The Kid has to contend with the troubled marriage of his mother and frustrated musician father back home. It’s a crazy mix of bad acting and cliches galore. But like seeing ex-News Of The World Deputy Features Editor Paul MacMullan lighting the touch paper to his career at the Leveson Enquiry (“Privacy is the space bad people need to do bad things in ”), you can’t help but watch.

 When The Kid isn’t tricking Appolonia into stripping off and jumping into the lake as a fake initiation rite, he flips between what passes for sweetness and juvenile rage and jealousy. He throws a hissy fit during rehearsals when he believes Appolonia is falling under Morris Day’s Svengali influence. Quite why he tries to make her cry by singing about Little Nikki “masturbating with a magazine” is beyond me though. I was too dumbstruck by the image of the pompadoured  munchkin dry-humping an enormous speaker stack.

See, no-one gets The kid. He knows he’s going to make it, why can’t they? He’s dismissive of bandmates Wendy and Lisa’s demo tape, a running gag through the film being him constantly flipping the tape off after the first vaguely familiar chords. He doesn’t have time to nurture anyone else’s talent, he’s a STAR, dammit! When The Kid gets frustrated, he paces. A lot. It is especially comical because Prince has two speeds, static and furious! See him clip clop up and down the narrow confines of his dressing room, emoting for all he’s worth, teeth clenched like an angry toddler. Or else cruising around the countryside or up to the stage door on his purple Batgirl motorcycle, eyes hidden by massive mirrored shades. If Prince can’t act, at least Morris Day has a comic presence, his jive walking, preening fool is a welcome distraction from the overwrought PERFORMANCE of Prince.

The main distraction, and saving grace, is the music, and electric stage performances. Purple Rain’s secret to success is timing, serendipity. 1984 was the peak of the MTV style, music videos were really taking off and performers were sought by the channel for their style as much as their sound. Prince delivered both in spades, he just needed the platform. Think of the movie as one long extended pop promo, a rock musical as valid as The Who’s overblown Tommy. Ignore storytelling shortcomings. If it is in danger of sinking into some ridiculous “emoting” from the struggling cast, there’s always a blistering musical number seemingly every ten minutes, culminating in The kid’s acceptance of and retooling of Wendy and Lisa’s track.

What follows is an absolutely electric rendition of the title track,  Purple Rain, performed to a rapt audience (shown here in ’80′s style rotoscope for added effect). The club owner nods his acceptance, The Kid has it.  

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But wait! The Kid thinks he’s blown it! He runs off stage and stomps up and down in his dressing room, tearing the place apart ( I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall during actor / director rehearsals for this nonsense). Then he hears the crowd chant his name. He rushes back to finish the set with appropriately, Baby I’m A Star. 

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And how does he finish, after exchanging air kisses with Appaloosa, I mean Appolonia? With the corniest, over the shoulder freeze frame until  Zoolander came along.  Purple Steel, anyone?

Prince, I salute you! (But I wouldn’t die 4 u!)

CDX. Hello Gary, the past few years have seen a critical renaissance for you. Whereas before you were I believe unjustly vilified somewhat in the music press, now it seems as if you have once again been universally embraced not only by critics from publications as diverse as Uncut, Clash, Mojo and Artrocker, but many artists from Primal Scream to Prince (who has described you as a “Genius”) to name but two, along with a whole new fan base, many of whom were not even born when you were first troubling the pop charts. Why do you think this is happening now?

GN. I think it’s becoming far more noticeable now but my ‘renaissance’ started back in the mid 90′s. A double album called Random, which consisted of cover versions by some pretty cool people, was released and that seemed to start a slow burning re-evaluation by the media. Then, more and more people started to do cover versions of my songs, samples were being used everywhere, bands like Basement Jaxx and the Sugababes had massive hits using my songs, or bits of them, people started to name check me as being influential, bands started to ask me to collaborate with them or remix their stuff and it all helped to generate a new interest in me and what I was doing, as well as what I had done before obviously. Throughout all that period of increasing interest from the media and the public my own music got heavier and heavier and it was noticed frequently that I was one of the very few that kept well away from the nostalgia route. This seemed to help my credibility enormously. My own albums have had mainly very positive reviews over the last 12 – 15 years so the career has just been slowly building up to a good level again. It’s something I’m enjoying very much as I thought my career was dead and buried in the early 90′s. It’s almost impossible to believe that things have changed so much.

CDX. Whereas most artists arguably seem to have a finite shelf-life you have been able to sustain your career for several decades. You have also previously spoken about the low points of your career, whereby you have said that you lost a lot of your confidence. So what was it that helped you get it back again?

GN. I’ve never been the sort of person that brims with confidence to be honest but it’s true to say that I’ve been through periods where it was absolutely destroyed. But I love making music more than anything, certainly more than being ‘famous’, so when things are going badly you just put your head down and get on with it. Confidence is such a fragile, brittle thing. It comes and goes on a daily basis for me, especially when I’m working on new songs in the studio. I’m almost bipolar in those situations. I am driven to do this I guess, more than it comes naturally to me. I do it despite it going against my personality traits in many ways. But I’ve got used to it over the years, worked out all kinds of ways to deal with it, but I still have a small amount of envy when I watch those people who were simply born to do it. The ease at which they become the centre of attraction. I’m not good at that.

CDX. Last year you revisited The Pleasure Principle album and I had the pleasure of seeing you in action in LA, which was one of the best shows I have ever seen to be honest. Not only in terms of the over all sound quality, but I actually believed that you surpassed the recorded version of the album and I was blown away by how good your band were. You finished the show by suggesting that you were considering a move stateside. Has this happened yet? And if so what would be your motivation for such a move?

GN. It hasn’t happened yet but we are going ahead with our plans to try and leave the UK and move to Los Angeles. Obviously the biggest hurdle is getting a yes decision from the U.S. Immigration Department. To that end we are using an immigration lawyer who is guiding us through the process. The motivation comes from a genuine feeling that my children would have a better life there and more opportunity as they grow. For me it’s a similar story in fact as I believe that my own future has a greater variety of opportunities there than here in the UK. The weather is obviously better as well which after yet another shit British summer is quite appealing. For me though, it’s about planning for the future, being in the best place for the career to evolve into new areas.

CDX. You now seem to be able to play your older material and blend it effortlessly with your newer, heavier, arguably more aggressive sound, pleasing both new and old fans alike.

GN. I’m not a big fan of mixing too much older stuff in with the new but I’m getting better at finding a balance that seems to please most fans, and keeps me interested of course. The earlier songs are much easier to rework so that they sound as though they belong with the new stuff. The middle years period of my career is much more difficult as the instrumentation that I used in those years is quite different to what I’ve been using for the last 15 years or so. Plus, I’m a lot less keen on the music I made in those middle years so I have no real desire to bring that stuff into the set.

CDX. Do you see this as tying in with your earlier Tubeway Army material? I say this, as you have taken to playing tracks like Bombers in the set again, which has the same visceral punch that a lot of the newer songs to my ears also seem to project.

GN. Yes, we have started to bring in a few things from that very early Tubeway Army album. Some of it works quite well, some of it not so good. Fans seem to really enjoy it though. I will always keep the older material to about one third of the set though. Like any new act I’m most passionate and excited about what I’m writing now, and that’s what I want to focus on when I play live. Adding some of the better older songs is great but it will always be the newer songs that excite me the most.

CDX. You are fearless in pushing not only your own limits artistically, but also you seem very unafraid of experimentation and seeing your vision through to the end both, in terms of music but also artistic direction. I am thinking specifically about the way in which you still take great care in putting on a stunning stage show. How easy is it to oversee such a holistic approach?

GN. It seems easy to me. I have a real love for the visual side of what we do and my big regret is that I’m not in a stronger position career wise to really indulge my wilder dreams and ambitions with that. I often think of how a song could be presented live when I’m writing it. Even down to changing certain lyrics if I think the song could be lit in a more effective way and so presented better. We have some cool ideas for the future but we need to build up to a bigger level to see some of the more ambitious ideas realised.

CDX. Dead Son Rising has been quite rightly acclaimed as being one of your finest recorded moments, not only in terms of your song-writing prowess, but also in terms of your production.

GN. It’s important to remember that Dead Son Rising is very much a collaboration album between me and Ade Fenton and much of the credit for the way it sounds belongs to Ade. I think he did a fantastic job on the album in more ways than one. The reviews have been, in the main, extremely positive and we will do our best to build on that with the next album ‘Splinter’ which we will have ready by May and released late summer 2012. DSR has given us a lot to live up to but I’m very hopeful that ‘Splinter’ will be the best album I’ve ever made.

CDX. You have also devised very different ways of marketing and formatting the new album. Why have you done this and do you think that it ostracises some fans that are unable to afford such a deluxe package?

GN. Not at all. We made it clear from the very beginning that if people just wanted the audio, without all the fancy packaging and DVD extras, then they could buy that standard version. We have made three different versions available to try and cater for fans with a wide variety of enthusiasm and interest. Some people prefer vinyl, some don’t like it at all, some like extra remixes, some just want the basic album and nothing else. The best I can do for fans is to offer choice and let people decide themselves what they want, based either on interest, desire or affordability. I cannot help people with their finances but I can make sure a version of my album is available cheaply. The Standard version of DSR is the cheapest album I’ve ever released. The Super Deluxe version of DSR is the most expensive.

CDX. You have been refreshing honest in terms of your career retrospectively frequently talking about what you perceive to be your artistic failures and so I was wondering if you could talk a little about some of the high points?

GN. For me the high points come at the start of the career and then the current period. I liked the early albums, Replicas in particular, as I thought I was doing some interesting things with synths and merging them with conventional instruments. Are ‘Friends’ Electric? came from that album and that song started everything for me. Cars came from the next album, The Pleasure Principle, and has become pretty well known globally. More recently the albums have become much heavier, more anthemic and I’m very proud of them, especially Pure, Jagged and Dead Son Rising. But they are clearly not pop music and so I’m trying to push forward from a creative point of view, not a commercial one.

CDX. I also heard that you may be embarking on a spoken-word project. If so, what is it about the medium of spoken-word that attracted you and why not use the words in lyrical form instead?

GN. I narrated a short film called Odokuro recently for Voltaire which was good fun but I have no plans to get into spoken word any deeper than that.

CDX. Do you have any future projects in the pipeline?

GN. Nothing concrete outside of music although I continue to put ideas together for what I hope to be my first novel. Writing books is something I have dreamed of doing in my later years but I really don’t know if I would be any good at it. Writing has always been a hobby and something that I’ve used many times in the past to feed ideas into my lyrics. I would love to take it further but I always seem to have so many other things going on.

n the book Conversations With Wilder, Hollywood’s legendary writer / director spoke candidly with young turk Cameron Crowe about his lengthy career. As a contract writer at Paramount Studios, Wilder had grown disenchanted with the way his scripts were directed. He became a director as a means to an end. The decision coincided with a moment in the studio system when talented screenwriters were  being given the keys to the kingdom, or the toybox, at least. Wilder credits another emigre, director turned Paramount Studio head Ernst Lubitsch (Ninotchka, The Shop Around The Corner) as his mentor. Wilder’s scripts show remarkable range, from film noir, to thriller, drama to screwball comedy, always with deft characterisation at their centre.

 Amongst the pearls of wisdom  Wilder imparted to Crowe were his ten screenwriting tips to keep an audience engaged. Remember the old adage: “If it ain’t on the page, it ain’t on the stage!” Here are Wilder’s words to the wise, together with the man and some of his stars in action.

Hollywood screenwriting school? Or Wilder's classic, The Apartment?

 1. The audience is fickle.

 2. Grab ‘em by the throat and never let ‘em go.

3. Develop a clean line of action for your leading character.

On location with Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe on Some Like It Hot

4. Know where you’re going.

5. The more subtle and elegant you are in hiding your plot points, the better you are as a writer.

6. If you have a problem with the third act, the real problem is the first act.

William Holden, diggin' tunnels in Stalag 17

7. A tip from (Ernst) Lubitsch: Let the audience add up two plus two. They’ll love you forever.

8. In doing voice-overs, be careful not to describe what the audience sees. Add to what they’re seeing. (Although in the case of Sunset Boulevard, the narration both describes and  adds to the scene.) 

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9. The event that occurs at the second act curtain triggers the end of the movie.

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Wilder and Monroe goof for the publicists on The Seven year itch

10. The third act must build, build, build in tempo and action until the last event, and then – that’s it. Don’t hang around.

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Wilder and frequent leading man, Jack Lemmon

And if you doubt what the man says, I challenge you to come up with a dud movie from the maestro. Mind you, he was his own worst critic, even to the end!

This Vicious Cabaret

s part of our Handmade month, we caught up with suave, Brighton DIY music enthusiast Francis Field AKA The Duke of Burgundy.

For those not in the know, what is the Duke of Burgundy?

It”s meeself, The Duke of Burgundy and also my band the Duke of Burgundy & Casual Friends. Until a couple of years ago I wrote songs and played guitar in Speedway 5, which was a bit more synthy and funky. Our drummer when we started was Ian Parton, who went on to create the excellent Go Team.

What makes the Duke tick?

I’ve always tried to keep a positive outlook on life, which I know isn’t always possible. Through my songs I try and deal with some situations that aren’t always what you want but with an element of humour. Perhaps not going as far as The Pythons or Flight of the Conchords, I find the po faced “feel my pain” style a bit much and sometimes I just have top politely say “no thanks”.

How would you describe your sound?

It’s a bit of a mix of all the music I love, from Psychedelia, reggae, funk and acoustic folk and rock, though this album has less electronics and synths than our first one and I reckon there’s more of a live band feel. We were lucky to have David Marks from Athens, Georgia join us on lead guitar, he used to play in Azures Ray’s previous band Little Red Rocket and he plays some fine bluesey style guitar.

You record your own albums independently, do you think that this is possibly the way of the future?

I think it’s very hard to get a deal at the moment and the big labels are mainly wanting copies of the acts that are big and also you’ve got to have an amazingly shining album ready to put out. That’s beyond most musicians bank accounts and also who wants to be second choice, even to great bands like Florence and the Machine if their albums sold out.

It’s a shame that there’s not more Alan McGee’s of Creation records or Chris Blackwell of Island Records out there, they had a wide taste in music and could see the potential in bands to develop and stuck with them.

Where can folk get hold of your albums?

It’s on iTunes and will be on Amazon and other on-line shops either now or very soon.

If you could remake any classic TV show and cast yourself in it, which would you go for?

I love Magnum P.I, well maybe not Tom Selleck’s tash, but the music, the silliness and the humorous mystery adventures are great, even the odd back in “Nam” flashback which looks rather like it was filmed in Hawaii. In one episode Higgins disreputable cousin turns up, I think I could be him for a few shows and mildly wind up”Higgy baby”, as TC calls him!

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Check out the Duke’s My Space page here

ichael Fassbender commands the screen in a challenging role as a 30-something New Yorker with a destructive sexual appetite. The drama, directed by Turner prize winning artist Steve McQueen (his follow up to acclaimed debut Hunger)  and co-written by him with Abi Morgan, is described as “a compelling and timely examination of the nature of need, how we live our lives and the experiences that shape us.”

Hunger is on general release in the UK from January 13, 2012.

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ast October Culturedeluxe reported that writer James Ellroy, speaking at Belfast’s Waterfront Hall reading from his memoir The Hilliker Curse, confirmed that his original screenplay Rampart was due to start filming that month. We can now show you the first explosive trailer for the film.

Rampart concerns real life widespread corruption in the Community Resources Against Street hoodlums (CRASH) anti-gang unit of 1990′s LAPD. Woody Harrelson, directed by Oren Moverman, who co-wrote with Ellroy, plays “the most corrupt cop you’ve ever seen on screen.” Quite a claim. No word yet on a UK release. Rampart also stars Ice Cube, Steve Buscemi, Robin Wright, Anne Heche and Cynthia Nixon. Check out the trailer below.

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reviously we interviewed Jamie Benning about his amazing filmumentary Star Wars Begins, and its companions Building Empire and  Returning To Jedi. We are delighted to report that Jamie is on the cusp of releasing another amazing filmumentary entitled Raiding The Lost Ark – dedicated of course to Raiders Of The Lost Ark. Thanks to the folk at www.wired.com/geekdad we can share the first 17 minutes with you here. Barring a few remaining interviews to complete with Raiders crew members such as Mark Mangini (Sound Editor), Brian Muir (Sculptor), and Robert Watts (Production Manager and Exec. Producer), Jamie is almost finished. And if this is any indicator of the finished project, we here at CDX Towers can’t wait to see the whole thing.

They should look pleased – it's great!

Once again Jamie combines behind the scenes video, rare audio commentary, graphical reconstructions of deleted scenes and subtitled facts re-edited into the flow of the film itself, for a unique examination of the film-making process. He has upscaled the DVD source to 720p, and also enhanced the behind the scenes footage. Even his subtitles are in the “Indy” font. Look out for a brilliant title wipe as Indy and his guides cross the screen in the Jungle segment at the beginning of the film.

 Possibly the best aspect, and something of a coup, is the unofficial Steven Spielberg commentary track, compiled from many interviews over the years. We also get to see Tom Selleck and Sean Young in their screen test within the context of the commentary.

The full Raiding The Lost Ark is expected on Vimeo in December. Here is the taster!

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No one likes a gloater but on certain occasions it becomes difficult not to puff out ones chest with pride and feel that, for at least once in you life, you’ve picked a winner.

Which is how we are currently feeling at CDX Towers after hearing the new Crystal EP by Younghusband, a band who began their formative years releasing lo-fi, psychedelic ditties through our own little micro label Culturedeluxe Records(http://www.culturedeluxe.com/label).

Not that the early recordings that YH main man Euan Hinshelwood made with bassist Joe Chilton resemble the new sonic direction that the band (augmented by guitarist Adam Beach and drummer Pete Baker) have taken since the release of  ‘Carousel \ Nothing Nothing’ (which came out earlier in the year on legendary indie ‘Too Pure’) and the new Sonic Cathedral backed E.P, however I would like to think that the seeds were well and truly sown then for what should become a very fruitful, and hopefully successful, musical career.

 Taking elements from post punk, krautrock and early sixties psychedelia the band manage to craft a melodic, hypnotic sound without actually emulating their influences to a point where it’s essentially just a poor realisation of something that has been done better a long time before (which seems to be something that’s rife within not only the music but also the film and gaming industry at present).

Younghusband’s approach is to take similar ideas to that of their musical forefathers (like building songs from a single chord) then mould them in a way that makes the sound uniquely theirs, using layers of sound to create an interesting backdrop to Hinshelwoods, slightly falsetto, vocal melodies.

Of all the four tracks, second song ‘Constantly In Love’ is the standout for me as it captures the perfect mix of lo-fi drone underpinning a perfect pop melody. It also comes with a very odd video courtesy of French video artist Elsa Philippe (below)

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n the summer of 1995, the cry went out for unpaid volunteers to swell the ranks of crowds for Neil Jordan’s  epic drama Michael Collins. Thousands heeded the call, and I, dear reader, was one of them.

On leave from work for a few days in early August, I idly flicked through the local morning newspaper. “Liam Neeson needs you for Michael Collins” screamed the headline on page 3 (Siri shome mishtake? Ed). Ireland’s largest ever film set, comprising authentic early 20th Century Dublin streets, and the shelled and burned out ruin of the General Post Office (GPO), site of the 1916 Easter Rising, had been built on the site of an old Dublin workhouse. Extras were needed for crowd scenes there, especially the emotive and passionate speeches from Eamon De Valera (Alan Rickman) and Michael Collins (Liam Neeson); each arguing for and against the treaty with Britain that would be, in Collins’ words, “a stepping stone to a united Ireland.”  Whether you were het up with who was “wrong ” or “right”, or simply interested in the period, this was a golden  opportunity to take part in a recreation of Irish history on an epic scale, and do some star spotting at the same time. Unfortunately, the Warner Brothers film was on a tight budget of $25 million, and the thousands of extras required could not be paid, but this was a lark, a bit of craic. So, my friend Lindsay and I took the train the next day to Dublin.

If we weren’t going to be paid it was unlikely we would be fed, so we fuelled up in McDonalds before sharing a taxi with some other history makers to the set. We were easy to spot, wearing dark clothing as requested, and dunchers, on one of the warmest days of the summer.

On the site, a massive queue lay ahead. Costume staff were on hand to bulk out extras costumes with a large selection of coats and hats, but many people had made an incredibly realistic effort to blend in with the professional extras in the foreground. People were very keen to aid the authenticity of the piece. This was before CGI could replicate and multiply people to fill out the screen, a technique used in the Coliseum scenes in  Gladiator.  The filmmakers asked for 2000 people, between 4-5000 turned up, although many had to be turned away because they were not properly dressed.  As we slowly wound our way past security (“No trainers!”) we could see a camera crew filming the line. This turned out to be arts programme The South Bank Show, which covered the making of the film, and the attendant story around it, the historical background and contemporary repercussions. Frustratingly, we were out of shot.

Once on the set, there was time to admire the incredibly realistic buildings, vehicles, trams and props, right down to the fake horse dung on the cobbles. It seems on film sets, as in the army, the motto is “hurry up and wait.” Shepherded down one of the streets, we waited and waited while director Neil Jordan and his A.D  discussed the set up. We were told via loudhailer that this was when Collins returns to Dublin after treaty negotiations with Lloyd George in London, and is swamped by admiring hordes. Cannily we scoped the camera positions and manouevered onto a window ledge. The interior of the building was plaster board and plywood, but the glass looked real enough. We were conscious of losing our balance and falling through. Others were even more daring, scaling the fake period lamposts, until advised by the crew to get down for safety’s sake.

 Meanwhile, Liam Neeson, and what looked like Julia Roberts, who played Kitty Kiernan, the object of affection for Collins and best friend Harry Boland, could just be seen observing the proceedings. Then we were ready to roll, and, as Neeson and co. came out of one of the buildings and were swallowed up by the professionally dressed extras, we hoi-polloi duly shouted, stamped, waved and yelled. This was repeated before another shot was done with a vintage car driving from the other end of the street towards us, again cheering like mad. 

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 A long set up was then required for the main scenes of the day, the speeches from a large wooden podium outside the GPO, which actually happened in real life. The GPO recreation was incredible, it was frankly bizarre standing in front of the ruined husk of a building we had recently passed on our way to there.

Plans of the GPO facade

Visitors allowed on the set after filming, in front of the GPO

We never actually got to do a crowd scene listening to Neeson’s speech, as the day went on so long, and we had to get our train. Quite a few others left early in the evening too. I am not sure if Neeson did actually do a speech on the main set, there certainly wasn’t one in the finished film. Instead, Neeson as Collins made speeches in rural towns, and in the Republic Parliament session. 

Alan Rickman’s speech as De Valera was his very first scene of the film, and as Neil Jordan told us to his wry chuckle, he was nervous of performing with a largely non-professional crowd. Placards and flags were distributed and I made sure to get a flag, all the better to roughly identify later where I was standing when watching the completed work. As Alan Rickman got his blood up in character, waving a copy of the treaty and damning it, the crowd went mad, booing and cheering. After the first run through, Jordan explained that this was an anti-treaty rally, therefore could the majority of the crowd cheer in favour of De Valera? This got a big laugh. Even so many years on from the event, people around us still had strong feelings.  Next time, as Rickman repeated De Valera’s chilling warning that if the treaty was accepted “The Volunteers will have to wade through Irish blood,” Lindsay, (who is Canadian!) yelled “Aye, your blood, you b*****d!” Others cheered and booed, some called “Let the man speak!” I waved my flag like mad, it was quite an atmosphere. Meanwhile smoke machines tried to give the impression this was a cold day, and not the middle of a heat wave. With each new set-up and take, we shuffled closer to the various overhead crane cameras, determined to maximise our brief exposure. We need not have bothered, it is impossible to distinguish us in the vast throng.

Nope, this isn't me!

  After filming was completed, the set was allowed to stand for a few months and curious visitors were allowed on to it for one week to vicariously experience the tumultuous events that shaped the creation of Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic. Many locals brought ageing parents and grandparents who would have lived through the events portrayed there. There was talk of preserving it for posterity but there were no politicians around that summer break with the wit to do so, and it was dismantled. Perhaps that is a good thing. Who needs a permanent “Troubles theme park”?

How the set appeared in the finished film

The Irish Film Censor Seamus Smith took the unprecedented view that this often violent film deserved a PG Certificate upon release in 1996, stating that such was the historical significance he wished “to make the film available to the widest possible Irish cinema audience.”

Michael Collins’s production, release and critical reception marked the 75th anniversary of the Irish Free State, later to become The Irish Republic. It also acted as a prism for the tricky ongoing political negotiations around the IRA ceasefire of 1994 -96. 1996 was also a more happy anniversary, the centenary of the Lumiere Brothers first ever motion picture (actually first shown in December 1895). To mark this event, forty film directors had been asked to make a one minute silent film using the restored original camera used by the Lumiere Brothers. John Boorman was one of the directors asked. He chose to do his on the very same set of Michael Collins that I stood on, as I discovered researching this piece for footage. I like to think that we both took part in a little piece of history within a few days of each other on the same film set. 

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I caught up with Eric Szyszka from the show and asked some highly probing questions:

For the uninitiated, what is We Hate Movies?

We Hate Movies is a podcast that examines a new movie each week. We will generally target colossal mistakes and films that have not aged well. Our members are all part of a comedy arts collective called Private Cabin. Each of us has worked in the trenches of comedy, for instance, I used to intern for Conan O’Brien. Andrew and Steve have been performers at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater here in New York and other similar venues. Interestingly, Chris Cabin is an actual film critic. I think our wide range of experience and knowledge really makes the show as successful as it is. Our plan of attack for each week is that we try and use movies as a starting point to crack jokes. We like to get into the movie’s plot, poke holes in it, explain the absurdity, and go on tangents that can get really out there.

How did you guys meet up?

We all went to the same college – SUNY Purchase in Westchester County, New York. It’s a great small arts school. Andrew and I both majored in Cinema Studies and he was actually already friends with Chris and Steve when we met. They began riffing on movies together in college around 2002 and I joined their circle maybe a year later.

What made you decide to make a podcast?

Andrew was the one who initially came up with the idea. After college, we all ended up moving to New York City and after one of our many “shitty movie nights,” Andrew realized that other people might find it funny too. To be honest, I never thought it’d take off like it has – although it is very heartening to know that there are many of us out there that enjoy riffing on movies.

Eric Szyszka before the probing

How do you decide what movie to pick?

It’s a committee type of decision between the four of us and we really like them to stand-out as crazy. Luckily, none of us got much sun as children so we’ve all seen a lot of movies. Our process is that one of us will remember some bizarre movie we saw way back when and if it has a star in it or a deep cast that we can joke about, even better. We like the movies to be around 10 years old at least, because there’s so many other podcasts out there doing “brand new” stuff and personally, I prefer to dust something off and revisit it with fresh eyes. After a movie is suggested, someone else in our group will take a look at it in order to figure out if it is “an episode” or not.

Superman Returns better than this? Are they nuts?

Superman 4: The Quest for Peace better than Superman Returns, discuss.

That’s been a point of debate amongst our fans. I was on the Superman 3 episode of that podcast, not 4, but had I been, I’d say: Superman Returns is way better than Superman 4: The Quest for Peace and anyone who thinks otherwise is out of their mind. I don’t even really like Superman Returns all that much, but at least it knows what it’s doing.

Is there any movie you guys wouldn’t touch with a road-kill stick?

Every once and a while we’ll get a suggestion for something like Troll 2 or The Room. A lot of bad movies with a huge cult following are pretty much a no-go for us. What joke could I say that hasn’t been made fifty times before? Those movies are fun to watch, for sure, but I personally think they are over-exposed.

Just what do you have against Joe Don Baker?

Nothing per se, but let’s get down to brass tacks here: he’s a schlub. Not to say he isn’t lovable, but the man’s a schlub. He’s an interesting figure to us because he could never, ever be a leading man today. I don’t even think a 1970’s-era Burt Reynolds could be a box office draw today – and I hate the movies of today way more than those of the 70’s. I do like Joe Don Baker in movies like Walking Tall and GoldenEye but there’s a lot of work he’s done that I find hard to take seriously. I think he can be best explained by watching Mystery Science Theater 3000’s episode “Mitchell.”

(L-R) Stephen Sajdak, Sean Weiner (guest on episode 16 "Fuzz"), Chris Cabin, Andrew Jupin (Photo credit: Russell Peborde)

What are your favourite films/movies?

Blade Runner, They Died With Their Boots On with Errol Flynn, and Citizen Kane are the ones I keep coming back to. I also love stuff like John Carpenter’s They Live and honestly thought MacGruber was one of the better movies of 2010.

Is there any way (preferably one that involves a phone) that your listeners can request movies that can appear in future episodes?

Interesting that you’d ask! We are taking voicemail only requests at 718-925-3893. For our fans outside the United States, please don’t forget to add the US country code. You will have until November 28th to get your request in and then we will select 5 listener submissions to riff on and air them during each week of January.

Will there be any more James Belushi episodes? I think I speak for all the listeners when I say we need to hear more James Belushi impressions.

Most definitely. We don’t want to do them all right now; we’d like the show to last a little while! I can say that we’re definitely eyeing at least three. So keep listening and it’ll happen.

Viewing via a feed? There\’s a video at this point you know.

You are driving late one night and you run down a werewolf. What do you do?

Keep going, hope its dead, and never look back! I’ll add that in this scenario, the werewolf would be Taylor Lautner.

We Hate Movies is located here. Listen and laugh along, now!