#222: Home Sickness, Pt. 2 — Swallow

The Next Picture Show

Filmspotting

Tv & Film, Film History, Film Reviews

4.6 • 858 Ratings

🗓️ 14 April 2020

⏱️ 80 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Where the unsettling illness metaphor at the center of Todd Haynes’ 1995 film SAFE tendrils out in a manner that defies easy resolution, Carlo Mirabella-Davis’ newly released debut SWALLOW tracks a similarly metaphorical affliction toward a more finite ending point. But within those two very different arcs, the two films explore complementary ideas about isolation, gender roles and archetypes, and societal expectations about sickness and recovery, all of which we get into following an in-depth discussion of SWALLOW’s successes and failures as both film and metaphor. Plus, Your Next Picture Show, where we share recent filmgoing experiences in hopes of putting something new on your cinematic radar. Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about SAFE, SWALLOW, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email to comments@nextpictureshow.net, or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730. Show Notes Works Cited: • “Op-ed: Ban the backstory!” by Noel Murray (thedissolve.com) • “Safe: Nowhere to Hide,” by Dennis Lim (criterion.com) Your Next Picture Show: • Genevieve: Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi’s FREE SOLO • Scott: Crystal Moselle’s SKATE KITCHEN • Keith: John Sayles’ EIGHT MEN OUT • Tasha: Bernard Rose’s CANDYMAN Outro music: The Wailin’ Jennys, “Swallow” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's very difficult to keep the line between the past and the present.
0:05.1	Do you believe that someone out of the past can enter and take possession of a living being?
0:11.9	We may be through with the past, but the past is not through with us.
0:19.4	Welcome back to The Next Picture Show, a movie of the week podcast devoted to a classic film and the way it shaped our thoughts on a recent release.
0:26.1	I'm Tasha Robinson here again with...
0:27.9	Genevieve Kovsky.
0:28.9	Scott Tobias.
0:29.7	Kee Phipps.
0:30.4	In our last episode, we looked at the unsettling illness metaphor of Todd Haynes' safe in the many different ways it can be read today.
0:36.8	The film's chilly Kubrickian visuals and thoughts on the connection between mental and physical
0:41.1	illness make it an excellent match for Carlo Mirabella Davis's newly released debut film
0:46.1	Swallow, starring Haley Bennett as Hunter, the wife of a rich man whose expectations for a
0:51.4	photoperfect spouse managing a photoperfect household are stymied when
0:55.4	hunter starts obsessively eating small household objects. Her condition is called pika, and it's a real-world
1:00.9	syndrome where sufferers feel compelled to eat non-food items ranging from their own hair to dirt,
1:06.5	stones, sharp objects, or even less healthful things. The causes and treatments vary, but for Hunter,
1:12.0	the disorder seems to stem specifically from a need to control her own body. And when she finds out
1:16.6	she's pregnant, and her husband and in-laws try to seize control of her body, the problem escalates
1:21.0	sharply. Swallow has been billed as a thriller or a horror movie, and it has elements of both,
1:26.5	with a wide-eyed protagonist
1:27.7	initially fighting a nearly silent battle against her surroundings, which initially looks like
1:31.8	a fight against her own body.
	...

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