5.1 - EMA (2019) & Seeds

The Prestige

We launch into Season 5 (FIVE!!! madness, I tell you) and our ‘world tour’ with a film from the country at the southernmost tip of the Americas, Chile, and Pablo Larraín’s 2019 film EMA. After expressing awe at the visuals of the film and the impact that it had on us as viewers, we discuss the idea of new growth (‘seeds’ to be sown after fire, in a central metaphor of the film), the plan that Ema has, and how underestimating this is something that is not only done by Gael Garcia Bernal’s character, but by many (male) members of the audience.

Next Up
The next film in our journey up through the continent is the Argentinian film from a year earlier, THE ACCUSED.

Recent Media
THIS IS MY HOUSE (2021): Stacey Dooley
TIME (2021): Lewis Arnold, Jimmy McGovern, Sean Bean
FEAR STREET (2021): R.L. Stine, Leigh Janiak, Kiana Madeira
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN 1/2 (2003/2006): Gore Verbinski, Ted Elliott, Johnny Depp

Recommendations
AS IF (2001–04): John Duthie, Paul Chequer, Emily Corrie
HARD CANDY (2005): David Slade, Elliott Page, Patrick Wilson
THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES (2004): Walter Telles, Ernesto Guevara, Gael Garcia Bernal
Y TU MAMÁ TAMBIÉN (2001): Alfonso Cuarón, Maribel Verdú, Gael Garcia Bernal

Footnotes
Before we get into the serious footnotes, I just wanted to link to this review of Sam’s first choice of Recent Media this week, which is actually, bizarrely, quite good: www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/mar/20/bbc-one-this-is-my-house-stacey-dooley. Onto the good stuff. Here’s our NEON DEMON episode, to link to a film mentioned early on this week: www.kaiju.fm/prestige/3-27-the-neon-demon-and-beauty-consumption, and here’s another one by the director Sam mentions at the start: www.kaiju.fm/prestige/3-17-21-grams-change-and-grief. There were some great reviews of this week’s film: www.smh.com.au/culture/movies/mesmerising-film-gives-us-a-vengeful-goddess-for-the-metoo-generation-20210511-p57qu9.html, www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/nightlife/alex/13350302, and indeed anything on www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ema. Here’s more about the dance form that structures both Eta’s character and this film as a whole: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reggaeton. And finally, one of the film’s emotional climaxes (ha, ha) deserves to be on this list: www.vulture.com/2014/12/30-most-important-sex-scenes-in-movie-history.html.

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