Episode 121: Dream Theater: On 'Mandy' and 'The Band Wagon'

In this episode, each of your hosts bullies the other into watching a movie he would normally not touch with a bargepole. Phil has been (unsuccessfully) trying to get JF to watch Vincente Minnelli's 1953 musical comedy The Band Wagon and JF has been (also unsuccessfully) trying to get Phil to watch Panos Cosmatos's 2018 psychedelic horror film Mandy. For this episode, they decided they would compromise and watch both. What started as a goof ended up a fascinating Glass Bead Game from which emerge occulted correspondences between films that, on the surface, could not be more dissimilar. One film is a dream of song and dance, the other a dream of blood and violence. Either way, though, watch out: as Deleuze says, "beware of the dreams of others, because if you are caught in their dream, you are done for." Support us on Patreon Find us on Discord Get the new T-shirt design from Cotton Bureau! Get your Weird Studies merchandise (t-shirts, coffee mugs, etc.) Visit the Weird Studies Bookshop Buy the Weird Studies soundtrack SHOW NOTES Iluminated Brew Works, Chicago JF's new course, [Groundwork for a Philosophy of Magic](www.nuralearning.com) Vincente Minnelli (dir.), The Bandwagon Panos Cosmatos (dir.), Mandy Weird Studies, Episode 73 on Carl Jung Norman Jewison (dir.), Moonstruck David Thompson, The New Biographical Dictionary of Film Gilles Deleuze, Cinema 1: The Movement Image) and Cinema 2: The Time Image Henri Bergson, “The Cinematographical Mechanism of Thought and the Mechanistic Illusion”, from Creative Evolution Terry Gilliam (dir.), The Fisher King Claudia Gorbman, Unheard Melodies: Narrative Film Music Raymond Knapp, The American Musical and the Performance of Personal Identity Richard Dyer, “Entertainment and Utopia” in Only Entertainment Gilles Deleuze, “What is the Creative Act”