Four Favorites: Lars Nilsen on Weird Wednesdays, Switchblade Sisters and Buster Keaton

Noirvember continues with Austin Film Society lead programmer and exploitation genre fan Lars Nilsen, who dives into the muck and the grime, the farts and the fights, the stunts and the songs of his four Letterboxd favorites: Touch of Evil; The Switchblade Sisters, The General; and Phantom of the Paradise. Lars chats with hosts Gemma and Slim about his new memoir of the Alamo Drafthouse’s Weird Wednesday series—Warped & Faded: Weird Wednesday & The Birth Of The American Genre Film Archive—on sale now from Mondo. Also in the conversation: tiny men doing huge stunts, the cult of Jessica Harper, old folks and young folks partying together, the best genre film of 2021, shout-outs to Shudder and Kier-La Janisse, and aiming for that ‘car-crash experience’ with cinema audiences. Links: The Letterboxd list of films mentioned in this episode; reviews from Wood on Touch of Evil, Timcop on The Switchblade Sisters, Wes on The General, COBRARocky on Phantom of the Paradise; Letterboxd lists Femme Dirtbag/Burnout/Hessian Personal Canon, Anxiety-inducing comedy of errors, Train Cinema, Movies That Get Batshit Insane/A Shocking Genre Shift, Rian Johnson’s 70s Musical Extravaganza!; Warped & Faded on Mondo. Credits: This episode was recorded in Austin, Pennsylvania and Auckland, and edited by Slim. Facts by Jack. Booker: Linda Moulton. Transcript by Sophie Shin. Theme: ‘Vampiros Dancoteque’ by Moniker.