5.6 - EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT (2015) & Madness

The Prestige

After something of a hiatus: we’re back! With the award-winning 2015 Colombian film EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT. After some reviews, we dive in with a reference to Rob’s favourite theatrical director, as well as exploring why it’s good that this film was made and how it might be important that some people don’t get on board with it.

Recent Media
THE HARDER THEY FALL (2021): Jeymes Samuel, Idris Elba, Zazie Beetz
ENCANTO (2021): Jared Bush, Byron Howard, Stephanie Beatriz
THE MATRIX RESURRECTIONS (2021): Lana Wachowski, Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss
TITANE (2021): Julia Ducorneau, Vincent Lindon, Agathe Rousselle
TICK, TICK…BOOM! (2021): Lin-Manuel Miranda, Andrew Garfield, Alexandra Shipp
SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME (2021): Jon Watts, Tom Holland, Zendaya
THE MAN WHO DIED TWICE (2021): Richard Osman
The Jack Reacher Book Series (1997—): Lee Child, Andrew Child

Recommendations
THE MOTORCYCLES DIARIES (2004): Walter Salles, Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara, Gael García Bernal
NARCOS: MEXICO (2018–21): Carlo Bernard, Chris Brancato, Michael Peña
A FIELD IN ENGLAND (2013): Ben Wheatley, Julian Barratt, Peter Ferdinando
SORCERER (1977): William Friedkin, Georges Arnaud, Roy Scheider

Footnotes
Firstly, this is what we seem to be talking about a fair bit this episode: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_revisionism. As Rob mentions at the start, this film is two different versions of this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero%27s_journey. Here’s the obligatory Brecht link: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Bertolt-Brecht. It’s interesting that IMDB actually have this as a tag: https://www.imdb.com/search/keyword/?keywords=in-medias-res. This reviewer seems to have similar thoughts to Sam about the film: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/embrace-of-the-serpent-2016. Finally, here’s a link to our FIELD IN ENGLAND episode, for more on a film like this one in several ways: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/the-prestige-417454/episodes/a-field-in-england-and-psyched-29626170.