DVD Afternoon Podcast #84: Zzzzzzzz

This week on DVD Afternoon, Heather Noel and I take a look at two recent films about women who see themselves as fairytale heroines, but who refuse to assume the role of passive princesses and instead take it upon themselves to rescue their handsome princes. First up is Errol Morris' documentary Tabloid, about a pleasantly deranged California beauty queen who takes drastic steps to "deprogram" her Mormon boyfriend and becomes a scandal-sheet celebrity in the process; then comes Catherine Breillat's The Sleeping Beauty (a.k.a. La Belle Endormie), a subversive, highly intellectualized take on the story by Charles Perrault.

Our "extracurricular viewing" segment at the top of the show is unusually long this week, and definitely not sleepy: there's Heather's review of the classic Audrey Hepburn chiller Wait Until Dark (and a discussion of whether Audrey Hepburn is all she's cracked up to be), my reports on my recent viewings of Monte Hellman's moody, enigmatic Hollywood drama Road to Nowhere and the first season and a half of the BBC period drama Downton Abbey, as well as a completely off-topic rant about the incompetently run Starbucks outlet located inside my neighbourhood Safeway.

Here's how it all breaks down:

0:00 — Intro/Wait Until Dark/Road to Nowhere/Downton Abbey
21:46 — Nina Simone, "I Can't See Nobody"
22:50 — Tabloid
39:15 — Sugar Bear, "Don't Scandalize Mine"
40:15 — The Sleeping Beauty
53:46 — Lene Lovich, "Sleeping Beauty"
55:10 — Other noteworthy new DVDs and Blu-Rays/Outro

Here's the big scare sequence from Wait Until Dark:



Here's the trailer for Road to Nowhere, which contains a great Tom Russell songs but perhaps also conveys the slightly lifeless quality of the film itself:



And here's a hilarious bit from Downton Abbey in which Maggie Smith sits in a swivel chair:

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And if you'd like to comment on the show, respond to our reviews, or suggest other movies for Heather and me to talk about on the air, you can reach us at dvdafternoon [at] gmail [dot] com. Next week, we'll be taking a look at the new Criterion edition of Krzysztof Kieslowski's Three Colors Trilogy. If you've seen those films and want to send us your thoughts about them, or if you'd like to add to our discussion of Tabloid or The Sleeping Beauty (or ask us any questions about movies and DVDs in general), we'd love to hear your thoughts (and possibly read them on-air).