It's very difficult to keep the line between the past and the present.

You believe that someone out of the past can enter and take possession of a living being?

We may be true with the past, but the past is not through with us.

Welcome to the next picture show, a movie the week podcast devoted to a classic film in the way it's shaped our thoughts on a new release.

I'm Scott Tobias here this week with Tasha Robinson, Rachel Handler, Keith Phipps, and behind the scenes, producer Genevieve Koski.

We're all firm believers in the idea that no film exists in a vacuum, that all culture is more interesting in

context. So every other week, we get together to talk over a classic film and how it relates

to a current release. Tasha, tell us about this week's movie pairing. Just a year after winning

the best picture Oscar for Birdman, director Alhandro Gonzalez in Uritu is back with The Revenant,

a half-revenge thriller, half survival adventure set in the frosty American wilderness.

The Revenant was photographed in remote mountain areas in Canada and Argentina using entirely natural light, and it was, by all accounts, a difficult production.

But In Uriot's commitment to shooting in extreme conditions is key to the film's visceral punch.

It also recalls

the work of cinema's most intrepid adventurer Werner Herzog, particularly Agira, the Rath of God,

his 1972 cult classic about Spanish conquistadors in South America, searching for El Dorado,

the lost city of gold. Among other things, both the revenant and Aguirra are about the arrogance

of non-natives trying to exploit a foreign land, and both center on men who are pushed to the brink of madness and beyond.

Scott, break down this week's discussion for us. Ritu's film, from its harsh natural setting, to its native and non-native characters, to the crazed,

ambitious men who serve as its driving force.

In the second half, dropping later this week, we'll bring the Revenant into the conversation

in our forum discussion, talking about how Agira and the Revenant each deal with issues like

madness and masculinity, and what sets them apart.

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