“Normal people want the basic human rights that accompany citizenship in any sovereign nation. I don't… I don't live anywhere; I'm not a citizen at all. I don't need my human rights.”
The Cold War Cinema team is back with special guest Matthew Ellis, a researcher, artist, and cohost of the Pacific Northwest Insurance Corporation Movie Film Podcast, for a special bonus episode covering Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme. Recently released on home video and streaming, the film follows the cunning, reprobate industrialist Zsa-zsa Korda (Bencio Del Toro) as he swindles his way into a massive infrastructure deal in the country of Upper Independent Phoenicia.
Join Matthew Ellis and hosts Jason Christian, Tony Ballas, and Paul T. Klein as they discuss:
The Phoenician Scheme’s connections to the Congress for Cultural Freedom, a CIA-backed cultural operation from 1950 that weaponized writers, artists, and other thinkers for intelligence operations.
How Anderson’s film reveals the Cold War origins of the contemporary world in its critiques of capitalism and the neoliberal project.
The ways that The Phoenician Scheme breaks Anderson’s hermetically sealed aesthetics and alludes to its formal limitations.
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Each episode features book and film recommendations for further exploration. On this episode:
Matthew recommends Danny Boyle’s 28 Years Later.
Paul recommends Matt Zoller Seitz’s The Wes Anderson Collection and Louis Althusser’s “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses: Notes Towards an Investigation.”
Tony recommends Carpenter’s Gothic by William Gaddis.
Jason recommends The Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third World by Vijay Prashad.
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Like and subscribe to Cold War Cinema, and don’t forget to leave us a review! Want to continue the conversation? Drop us a line at any time at coldwarcinemapod@gmail.com.
To stay up to date on Cold War Cinema, follow along at coldwarcinema.com, or find us online on Bluesky @coldwarcinema.com or on X at @Cold_War_Cinema.
For more from your hosts:
Follow Jason on Bluesky at @JasonChristian.bsky.social, on X at @JasonAChristian, or on Letterboxed at @exilemagic.
Follow Anthony on Bluesky at @tonyjballas.bsky.social, on X at @tonyjballas.
Follow Paul on Bluesky at @ptklein.com, or on Letterboxed at @ptklein. Paul also writes about movies at www.howotreadmovies.com
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Logo by Jason Christian
Theme music by DYAD (Charles Ballas and Jeremy Averitt).
Happy listening!
