The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast from patreon

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S8E29: Tripping Down Memory Lane

🕑 Added 2024-08-06 11:04:51 +0000 UTC

Comments

Louis

I didn't even mind how cartoony it felt with the CGI overload. I just wanted more Fury Road, and it delivered.

J Hay

The first place I lived in the city of LA (having grown up elsewhere in the same county) was Westwood, a few years after the time Bret mentioned. I went to a lot of movies then, since there were so many fine cinemas in walking distance. In other words: I agree with him on that nostalgic place and era.

J Hay

I’ve been anxiously awaiting your comments for YEARS!

J Hay

Theater of Blood is good, clever, and the priceless Vincent Price is great in it :)

J Hay

I live in West Hollywood, and I used to live in Los Feliz (which is where The Vista actual exists), and I lived in Silver Lake. Yeah, it’s not a big deal to drive there.

M Robbins

@Brett we must have been in the same theater ... "This is for you Damien, It's all for you"

Alexander Quattlander

Furiosa was actually great. I dont get all the hate. Way better than Dune 2 IMO.

GC

Thought La Chimera was wonderful, a heady, bruised, melancholy journey with a dreamlike ending. Maybe Bret will have a Tar-like change of heart…

Phoenix

I never get tired of listening to Bret talk. Even if it’s about some obscure filmmaker I have no interest in. Although I would have loved to hear more about his thoughts on Josh O’Connor in Challengers. Patrick Zweig is the fantasy, the antidote to my very boring, over 40s dating life.

Sodaheiress

agree, and he’s not a robot he’s a human going through a season in life. I find him intellectually irresistible. I’m here for the long haul.

Sodaheiress

or from watching Seal Team.

Sodaheiress

Bret’s laugh when Adam doesn’t know what it’s about is hilarious.

Sodaheiress

I’m still waiting for Carnation Breakfast Bars and pudding pops to come back. I think I’m outta luck.

T Frick

I second Life of Oharu, have seen it a dozen times, it's a titanic achievement. BEE should probably take a gummie first. Tragedy at its finest.

Johnny Blade

Bret taking the time and effort to perfectly and elegantly describe "INSIDE OUT" to Adam, only to have it quickly dismissed as "HERMAN's HEAD", thereby leading to a convo about ORBITZ and MANNEQUIN 2 is killing me. 😂

David Morgan-Brown

That's excellent news to hear about Zahler. I love his three movies, but i almost thought he'd never be able to make a fourth

Harold B

You are suffering from the disease known as nostalgia I suffer from it too but you must resist !!! It’s not good !!

Harold B

Tough but fair

Sértő-Radics Sarolta

If he did an hour monologue about the Pioneer Woman from the Food Network, I'd even enjoy that. Actually, that would be awesome.

Darren Ankenman

Yeah. It’s incredible.

Kristeen

Bring back prologues (a la Footlight Parade)

FlyingWaffle

lol

Billy Schafer

I read "Where Are You Going..." again almost every year. Classic piece of suburban noir/suburban gothic fiction. I recall Bret saying that Blonde was the first and only thing he had read of Oates. We all have gaps in our reading experience, but I'm really surprised he hadn't read Oates much earlier.

Jim Weaver

What? That’s crazy! What’s youtube?

Poetical Gore

your audio program most likely has this thing where you can skip ahead... like you could skip 5 seconds or 30 minutes. There are probably even youtube videos on how to do it.

Poetical Gore

or maybe you just don't listen and every one else can who wants to.

Kerry

I think about that Oates story so often. The unnerving feeling I got when I read it for the first time 30 years ago has never left me

Justin

Let’s get Bret on letterboxd.

Darren Ankenman

To the person who asked about the story The Swimmer by Cheever, another killer story that packs a life long punch would be Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been by Joyce Carol Oates

Matteo Persivale

Moravia’s Time of Indifference is arguably his greatest book — his first novel, he was an enfant prodige hence the later Italian comparisons with BEE — and also the early short stories are absolutely classics. His later work — the novels mentioned by BEE here — go from excellent to very solid. The final works, not so much, and I’m not sure they’ve even been translated. Re: the translations, it’s weird that AM and his then wife Elsa Morante were very close friends of William Weaver, genius translator, but he translated very few of their works (he did English language versions of all of Calvino, Eco, then some Gadda, and also some Bassani, Pirandello).

Stuart Chivers

For anyone interested in Moravia, I definitely recommend The Conformist. It’s probably been ten years, but I don’t recall any issues with the translation (by Tami Calliope). Boredom and Contempt are also well worth reading. I seem to remember preferring the latter but, again, it’s been a while. Boredom was also made into a film btw, as L’ ennui (1998).

Jim Weaver

Slow start, stronger finish, and hopefully the end of the malaisey days of summer.

Jim Weaver

Brett took his first question at 45 minutes, think positive kids.

Jim Weaver

I am 30 minutes in and still waiting for Bret to stop talking about two movie theaters. Hope springs eternal.

Jack Wheatley

Now I’m wondering if it even WAS chicken tenders. You never know with writers. Adam had to remind him.

FlyingWaffle

If Lynch was directing the tv adaptation of the Shards, Bret would be playing himself.

Lionel

You can get that same serotonin boost from watching road house.

Harold B

You guys are too much today lol Brett literally said a ton of guests are coming. It’s not for a lack of interest he’s just really picky. Why so much fan rage ?

FlyingWaffle

I also have only watched Ugetsu (1953), and Sansho the Bailiff (1954). The latter is really a masterpiece. The old Roadhouse is also a zillion times more entertaining than the remake, very violent and gripping.

JEREMY ROBERTS

Plenty of hot dripping honey at the BEE hive today ...

N.M. Janice.

Totally

Dominic Dilullo

Jenny Lewis is a major Eagles fan. Maybe she would be another good musician to have on following your fantastic Susanna Hoffs episode. Probably lots of good stuff about being a child star in the 80s too!

N.M. Janice.

I laugh at that too. It really isn’t. Bret seems like it’s a chore to step foot outside West Hollywood.

Sodaheiress

So funny 😂

Sodaheiress

Twisters is totally worth seeing in the theater, as Bret said, it’s a movie made for the theater. It’s good. Fabulous, no, but definitely a good theater movie. And, gotta support the theaters staying open. It might never be what it once was, but still enjoyable

Sodaheiress

Silverlake is not that far from Doheny and Sunset lol.

M. Nero Nava

As you know, I’ve also been listening since Podcast One. I have terrible insomnia, sometimes I’ll zone out and it relaxes me…. I’ll eventually sleep (when the ep is over)

N.M. Janice.

I have been listening to the show since the very first episode on Podcast One, and I gotta say that I just enjoy hearing Bret talk. I love hearing about old LA and Pauline Kael etc. Also, in a world that is so intense, loud and divisive, Bret’s low key apathy and malaise is somehow soothing.

Alex

The nerve!

Mister Farkel

The dread that Bret feels is Todd is coming back and that’s not good

RFR

Far too many Q&A’s. I remember 5/6 years ago we would only get a couple a year (if that) and because it was such a rarity it was always a great listen. There was a mystique about Bret that was always appealing, now we have all become intimately aware of his personal and everyday life and it’s borderline parasocial. These constant Q&A’s clearly do not excite Bret, and he is just phoning it in at this point. A guest keeps him on his toes and the amount of research he does is always commendable. You’re telling me you can’t find anyone to interview? I’m not paying to listen to Adam bro out.

Darren

Josh O’Connor is a good actor. Would be great to see him cast in a BEE project. Going to check out Theatre of Blood. Thanks for the recommendation.

Louis

I drank an Orbitz ONCE (it was "Pineapple Banana Cherry Coconut" flavor) thanks to my estranged aunt who would occasionally mail me and my siblings cool stuff. It was weird, but I really enjoyed it. I Google it every once in a while hoping for a return 💔

Neil Anderson

Bret, have you read Harlan Ellison's essay about attending a screening of "The Omen"? It was in one of his essay collections, maybe "An Edge in My Voice"? It'd be hilarious if you two attended the same screening.

Lukas

I'm way younger than Bret and I'm not from the US, but I found Bret's trip down memory lane deeply comforting. I don't know why, but stories set in the LA of the past, e.g. "The Shards", "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" or "Babylon", really do it for me :D

Ryan Peck

Still get a kick out of the chicken tenders story!

Dave Mason

Bret disgusted by people eating popcorn in the theater 😂

Ryan Peck

Would a movie like Porky’s have premiered at the Village? I know it was one of the most successful comedies of 1982 & a premiere there makes sense, given the theatre capacity. Genuinely curious if anyone knows the answer

Senseless

I loved the episode. Only boring people get bored. Look within, you entitled parasocial vampire.

maddie

I love hearing about the movie theater nostalgia but the vibe lately is giving “shhh…an oldhead is speaking 🤫🤫”

FlyingWaffle

I second Bret that trying to get back in shape is good to get over mood swings. Nothing like a serotonin/dopamine boost from an intense workout.

FlyingWaffle

Yea, and it's not under Bret's control that things are always slower in summer when it comes to good movies, guests, etc. I'm personally always interested to hear about past and present LA.

richard owain roberts

am going to listen on my run. will say more later, after my run.

Dan

Totally agree. The pod is never boring to me and Brett always has interesting things to say about pop culture.

M. Nero Nava

A couple people are saying this episode was boring or “same old” stuff. I disagree, I don’t mind BEE touching on topics, or updating us on how feels about stuff we recommended. He also sounds in better spirits, so that made me feel good. Furthermore, the whole show is about him talking about art and its place in culture. He also made some cool suggestions. I think the show is pretty consistent even with everything happening.

Neil boorman

Saying this with the best possible intentions but I really think a pause on the pod would do no harm.

souleraser

Street of Shame is fantastic

Steve

Boring episode. Just treading water. Same old topics: the decline of LA movie theaters, the Cassanova film he hasn't seen yet, Pauline Kael, etc.

Dan

Mizoguchi recommendations for you Brett - you really can’t go wrong with any of them, though his catalogue is vast and many of his are lost to time, but I would highly recommend the following outside of the two you already mentioned - Osaka Elegy, Sisters of the Gion, Crucified Lovers and last but not least, Street of Shame (The Life of Oharu is incredible too but it’s hard going). I think my favourite now is Street of Shame which was his last film. Remarkable