Tag: Paul Bartel

Cinema Smorgasbord – Bartel Me Something Good – The Comic Strip Presents: Demonella (1993) & Clueless Episodes (1996)

On this episode of BARTEL ME SOMETHING GOOD (the world’s finest Paul Bartel-themed podcast) we’re finishing up the directorial career of Paul Bartel with some television odds & sods! First up are two episodes of the TV show CLUELESS, based on the popular 1995 film starring Alicia Silverstone. This 1996 series is a cut above the sitcoms of the time and brought along a surprising amount of the film’s cast, and not only has Paul Bartel behind the camera.. but in front of it as well, playing a crusty old principal in one of the episodes! Then we talk about an interesting rarity; an episode of the British alternative comedy anthology series THE COMIC STRIP PRESENTS directed and co-written by Paul Bartel called DEMONELLA, starring a whole slew of familiar faces in the realm of UK comedy, including Adrian Edmonson, Jennifer Saunders, Robbie Coltrane and a beardless Paul Bartel playing Oscar Wilde! Listen and enjoy!

Cinema Smorgasbord – Bartel Me Something Good – Shelf Life (1993)

On this episode of BARTEL ME SOMETHING GOOD (the world’s finest Paul Bartel-themed podcast) we’re tackling Paul Bartel’s final directorial feature, the sadly abused (and semi-unavailable) bunker comedy SHELF LIFE from 1993! Born out of a stage-play by stars O-Lan Jones, Andrea Stein, and Jim Turner, Bartel turns it into a wildly visual phantasmagoria of rituals, re-enactments and hormonally confusing games, with a typically wicked sense of humor. Check it out!

Cinema Smorgasbord – Bartel Me Something Good – The Longshot (1986)

On this episode of BARTEL ME SOMETHING GOOD we’re off to the races with the Tim Conway-penned and Mike Nichols-produced gambling comedy THE LONGSHOT, starring Conway, Harvey Korman, Jack Weston and Ted Waas! A passion project for Tim Conway (and a work-for-hire gig for Paul Bartel) it’s.. a bit of an odd duck, but it DOES have a theme song rapped by Conway AND Ice-T! Enjoy!

Cinema Smorgasbord – Bartel Me Something Good – Lust in the Dust (1984)

Yee-haw! We’re going back to the wild west on this episode of Bartel Me Something good with Paul Bartel’s 1984 comedy western LUST IN THE DUST starring Tab Hunter, Lainie Kazan and the legendary Divine! Originally envisioned as a John Waters project, Bartel ruffled against making a Waters-style film and instead brings his own wild and unpredictable sensibility (while still not skimping on the bad taste). It has musical numbers, butt tattoos, Cesar Romero, death via oral sex and so much more. Check it out, jerks!

Cinema Smorgasbord – Bartel Me Something Good – Not For Publication (1984)

On this episode of Bartel Me Something good we’re checking out Paul Bartel’s inauspicious 1984 screwball comedy NOT FOR PUBLICATION, starring Nancy Allen, David Naughton and Laurence Luckinbill! Allen plays Lois Thornedyke, a tabloid reporter aiming to go clean, while simultaneously working for the mayor of New York (Luckinbill) who is – wait for it – trying to get rid of “porno papers”, like the one she’s working at! Naughton plays a hapless bird photographer she hires to help with both jobs. There’s animal-themed musical numbers, (attempted) murder, and.. not much more. We also discuss a clip of Sandra Bernhard interviewing Paul Bartel on Reel Wild Cinema. CHECK IT OUT!

Cinema Smorgasbord – Bartel Me Something Good – Eating Raoul (1982)

On this episode of Bartel Me Something Good we’ve reached Paul Bartel’s Criterion Collected classic EATING RAOUL featuring Mary Woronov, Robert Beltran and Paul Bartel himself as Paul Bland. A darkly comedic social satire (/w cannibalism), it remains a gem in the Bartel filmography, and we’re delighted to be joined by EATING RAOUL’s editor Alan Toomayan to discuss his work on Bartel’s films, including LUST IN THE DUST and SCENES FROM THE CLASS STRUGGLE IN BEVERLY HILLS. Alan also regales us with stories of his early work with New World Pictures, the guerilla filmmaking that went into Eating Raoul’s production, and his transition to becoming an editor of film trailers and featurettes. CHECK IT OUT!

Cinema Smorgasbord – Bartel Me Something Good – Cannonball (1976)

David Carradine POPS THE CLUTCH again in Paul Bartel’s follow-up to Death Race 2000, which features a cross-country race full of oddballs competing for a huge cash prize. Featuring an awesome cast of recognizable faces (Mary Woronov! Gerrit Graham! Robert Carradine! DICK MILLER! Joe Dante!) and even more awesome cameos (Martin Scorsese eating KFC with Bartel and Sylvester Stallone), it’s a sometimes shaky, but always entertaining, collection of comedy, musical numbers (?) and car stunts. Find out how it all came together on this brand new episode of BARTEL ME SOMETHING GOOD.

Cinema Smorgasbord – Bartel Me Something Good – Private Parts (1972)

We continue our chronological look at the career of the great Paul Bartel with his feature length debut PRIVATE PARTS from 1972. Equal parts perverse and hilarious, it’s a film that is filled with twists and turns and set the blueprint for much of what was to come from the always unpredictable director. We’re also looking at Bartel’s 1969 short film NAUGHTY NURSE, which showed that Bartel’s taste for boundary pushing was something that came about very early in his career.