Filmmaker Pascal Plante (director of Red Rooms, one of our favorite movies of the year) joins to discuss Spanish filmmaker Alejandro Amenábar's 1996 debut, Thesis. While riveting simply at the topical level of its tense genre thrills, the movie also metatextually concerns itself with the moving image as a mediated reflection of our corporeal realities, the push-pull of commercialism and artistry, and the ethics of satisfying a violent culture's sublimated desires for shocking, exploitative imagery.

We discuss Amenábar's preternatural capacity behind the camera; how his ability to mystify with the language of cinema allows viewers to recognize their complicity in the film's graphic scenarios as spectators while never sacrificing the raw thrills of moviegoing. Then, citing Michael Haneke's writing, we discuss the nature of violence in media, the responsibilites of the artist, and the morbid concept of mindless entertainment. Finally, we connect the film's subject matter to that of Pascal's latest, discussing parallels, distinctions, and the reward of watching films that assume their audience's intelligence.

Red Rooms is available now on VOD and on Region A Blu Ray from Vinegar Syndrome.

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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish.