Ep. 143 Amatuer & Pulp Fiction

All episodes are made available to Patreon subscribers, the most
determined and unsparing of all audiences, one week before their
general release. {www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke} The Cannes Film
Festival, May 1994. Two independent American crime films featuring
guns, gangsters, torture, redemption, stylized artificial dialogue,
quirky comedy, a cool soundtrack, a main character who dies and is
resurrected and a criminal's kept woman with an Anna Karina haircut
made their debut at the southern tip of France. One of them went on
to conquer the world and become one of the most beloved and
imitated films of the ensuing 30 years. The other faded into
obscurity and is barely brought up three decades later. The films
are Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction and Hal Hartley's Amateur, and
their divergent paths clearly shifted the cultural space of
American independent cinema moving forward. We welcome back
Pinnland Empire guru Marcus Pinn (like us, a teenage budding
cinephile in the mid-90's) to talk about these two films, how they
were shaped by the climate of late 80's/early 90's indie cinema,
their impact and their legacy. Despite Hartley's deep
meaningful contemplations proving no match for Tarantino's
sheer exuberance, these are two films that were meaningful to all
three of us, so we also get pretty heavily into some formative
personal history and lament the slow death of a truly specific kind
of American movie. Who's the real amateur here? Support our
Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site:
www.thepinksmoke.com Marcus Pinn on Twitter:
twitter.com/PINNLAND_EMPIRE The Pink Smoke on Twitter:
twitter.com/thepinksmoke John Cribbs on Twitter:
twitter.com/TheLastMachine Christopher Funderburg on Twitter:
twitter.com/cfunderburg Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea
for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"