FATALE ATTRACTION: Join me and film enthusiast The Vern of Cinema Recall as we discuss two movies about film fatales, To Die For and Ossessione.

“You’re not really anybody in America unless you’re on TV.” You meet someone. You fall in love. She’s married. She manipulates you into killing her husband so you can be with her forever. She betrays you. Hey, it’s happened to the best of us…Sounds like it’s time for Episode 97 of Pop Art, where we find the pop culture in art and the art in pop culture. It’s the podcast where my guest chooses a movie from popular culture, and I’ll select a film from the more art/classic/indie side of cinema with a connection to it. For this episode, I am happy to welcome back as my guest, film enthusiast and podcaster The Vern, who has chosen as his film the dark comedy, Gus Van Sant’s To Die For, while I have chosen Luchino Visconti’s feature film debut, Ossessione, both films about woman manipulating men to commit murder for them. Fun times. Fun times.

And in this episode we answer the following questions: What did the writers get wrong about driving in New Hampshire? Why was Ossessione banned in Italy and then prohibited in the US after the war? What happened in real life that was different in To Die For? Who ran screaming from the film festival premier of Ossessione screaming—This is not Italy? What is the appeal of femme fatales? What is a homme fatale? Who is G. Clifford Prout? Why didn’t Anna Magani play the lead in Ossessione? Where does the author of the book To Die For appear in the movie? Is there a coded gay character in Ossessione? Why does Illeana Douglas have a cast on in the second half of the movie?

Meanwhile look up The Vern’s podcast CinemaRecall at Cinemarecall.net.

The Vern has been a previous guest on my podcast. For episode 6, we discussed two films revolving around roboticized police forces, Robocop and THX1138.