Episode 194 - Yes, Giorgio: LIVE!

[Ofcoursemyhorse 1043]

I feel like there's no way that Pavarotti's wife could have watched this movie and not been a little concerned.

Also the way Pavarotti moves his lips while speaking is extremely upsetting to me.

[Nackalus 0]

What did June say around 10:40?  Nenet special?  If any of you could clue me in on what shes talking about it would be much appreciated.

[CondimentGrrl 5]

We got to the San Francisco scene and I said “I bet he’s going to fucking sing ‘I Left My Heart in San Francisco.’”  AND THEN HE DID AND PART OF ME DIED.

[CondimentGrrl 5]

And the music is through best part of this.  Otherwise it’s UNBEARABLE

[JammerLea 2070]

Just finished listening to the episode, but I'm at work, so I'm only going to add a short thing right now...

I looked up a few articles and apparently in Italy seeing nuns themselves is bad luck for being associated with hospitals and cemeteries, and after seeing/passing one you're supposed to touch steel or tell the next person you see "Suora tua" ("Your nun") to pass off the bad luck. I'm not sure how that relates to Giorgio stopping to help the mother superior, but Giorgio is definitely superstitious.

[The_Triple_Lindy 2482]

13 hours ago, Ofcoursemyhorse said:

I feel like there's no way that Pavarotti's wife could have watched this movie and not been a little concerned.

Also the way Pavarotti moves his lips while speaking is extremely upsetting to me.

Paul talked about what a notorious horndog Pavarotti was in real life. Per Wikipedia, he divorced his wife of 35 years to married his personal assistant, who was already pregnant at the time. 

12 hours ago, Nackalus said:

What did June say around 10:40?  Nenet special?  If any of you could clue me in on what shes talking about it would be much appreciated.

She's talking about Hannah Gadsby's comedy special, "Nanette." It's brilliant. Go watch it now. I'll wait.

23 hours ago, Elektra Boogaloo said:

— The Kwan and Mei Ling scenes were the most uncomfortable for me to watch. I hate when people treat service workers (or were they friends? Wait, that makes it weirder.) like slaves. I was really upset by it. And I was concerned that place they had the food fight might be the same set, which would mean they might have to clean up that mess? I was ready to start a GoFundMe for them.

 

If Downton Abbey has taught us anything, it's that servants have work hours and off hours, and by god you better respect that shit.

[The_Triple_Lindy 2482]

Can we talk more about those kids that Dr. Pahmela is going to start hacking tonsils out of?

There's the main kid, James, who despite not being a small kid himself and being obsessed with ice cream, jabs at Giorgio repeatedly about his weight. Then there's the kid in a neck brace from an unknown injury, but he taunts and teases James about the anesthesia, so I'm willing to bet he was there originally for tonsillitis and probably just got his neck wrung by the other kids in the tonsil ward. And there's the one kid in glasses and a red robe who, while Giorgio is singing with them, keeps hitting Green Acres in the shoulder. It's not in time with the music or anything ... just random slaps on the back.

For me, even weirder than the pies-on-ladders was the stiff interaction between Giorgio and these kids. When James tries to run in fear of the upcoming operation, Pavarotti enters by blocking the doorway, putting his hat on him, and then they kind of waltz back into the room, and he's got this pissed-off scowl on his face like he's thinking "Ugh, fucking kids." But it's pretty clear later on that he loves kids and is really sweet with them.

(Incidentally, OMISSION: Giorgio does mention here that he has two children ... that's the first moment we hear about his family. Sort of. In a real "gonna be just honest enough to still get laid" way.)

(Also incidentally, OMISSION: the doctor who asks Pahmela about her wild opera fling is the same doctor who tries to sing for Giorgio when he's there with the kids earlier, so he's obviously some opera superfan groupie. It might also be why he's on tv at the hospital. Otherwise, one could only posit that they live in some kind of Metalocalypse universe where everyone's lives revolved around Giorgio.)

[WatchOutForSnakes 807]

2 hours ago, The_Triple_Lindy said:

Also incidentally, OMISSION: the doctor who asks Pahmela about her wild opera fling is the same doctor who tries to sing for Giorgio when he's there with the kids earlier, so he's obviously some opera superfan groupie. It might also be why he's on tv at the hospital. Otherwise, one could only posit that they live in some kind of Metalocalypse universe where everyone's lives revolved around Giorgio.)

First time long time and all that.

Isn't that same doctor (who says he is Giorgio's biggest fan) a cameo by the screenwriter, Norman Steinberg?  Maybe he really is/was a Pavarotti groupie and signed on to the project as a fan piece. 

[brainylainie 3]

I made an account purely for this question, so someone please help!

When Pamela goes to San Francisco and Fini asks what took her so long, she replies, "I drove," and the gang all agreed that a drive from Boston was logistically impossible. But when I watched it, I assumed she was joking. Am I wrong? I know I could rewatch that part, but honestly, I can't bring myself to watch one more minute of this dumpster fire. But I gotta know: anyone else think she was just being sarcastic?

[Ofcoursemyhorse 1043]

It's pretty fucking sad that Vanilla Ice had a better transition from music to film than Pavarotti. At least Cool as Ice pretended to want to be a movie. This script feels like it was dictated by Pavarotti in an afternoon or two. 

"So a beautiful, talented, intelligent woman finds herself unable to resist my marshmallow on two toothpicks physique, and I sing a bunch of songs."

[Cam Bert 8145]

For those of you that are curious the drive from Boston to San Francisco is actually pretty straight forward. Leaving Boston on I-90 until outside of Chicago at which point you get on I-80 which will take you all the way to San Francisco the drive from city to city is 3,096 miles or 4,983 kilometers and would take an average driving time of 45 hours. Now Dr. Taylor is a doctor who does do surgeries so she is probably use to long periods without sleep. However, driving straight for 45 hours is pushing it. Let's assume she took two breaks from driving in that time. We are looking at almost exactly two and half days which is what Paul, Jason, and June said off hand. However, this raises the interesting point of if she did drive what happened to her car? From San Francisco she's constantly flying, driving and hot air ballooning with Pavarotti all over the place. Eventually when she does leave him they are no longer in San Francisco so she'd have no means of transportation to get back to Boston and if she flew back her car would still be in San Fran. Then again Pavarotti is so ridiculously rich that he could hire someone to drive the car back to Boston for it. Still it seems more likely she was being sarcastic.

[sycasey 2.0 2301]

Much like Jason and June, I stopped paying attention for long stretches of this movie, so perhaps I missed something . . . but why were Pavarotti and Lady Doctor tasked with cooking dinner for some large and seemingly important gathering? This is a rich guy who has people he can easily order around to do stuff for him, right? If he had some special affinity for cooking, it sure didn't show in that scene.

[joshg 207]

6 hours ago, Cam Bert said:

For those of you that are curious the drive from Boston to San Francisco is actually pretty straight forward. Leaving Boston on I-90 until outside of Chicago at which point you get on I-80 which will take you all the way to San Francisco the drive from city to city is 3,096 miles or 4,983 kilometers and would take an average driving time of 45 hours. Now Dr. Taylor is a doctor who does do surgeries so she is probably use to long periods without sleep. However, driving straight for 45 hours is pushing it. Let's assume she took two breaks from driving in that time. We are looking at almost exactly two and half days which is what Paul, Jason, and June said off hand. However, this raises the interesting point of if she did drive what happened to her car? From San Francisco she's constantly flying, driving and hot air ballooning with Pavarotti all over the place. Eventually when she does leave him they are no longer in San Francisco so she'd have no means of transportation to get back to Boston and if she flew back her car would still be in San Fran. Then again Pavarotti is so ridiculously rich that he could hire someone to drive the car back to Boston for it. Still it seems more likely she was being sarcastic.

[JammerLea 2070]

On 8/3/2018 at 12:33 PM, Elektra Boogaloo said:

— The Kwan and Mei Ling scenes were the most uncomfortable for me to watch. I hate when people treat service workers (or were they friends? Wait, that makes it weirder.) like slaves. I was really upset by it. And I was concerned that place they had the food fight might be the same set, which would mean they might have to clean up that mess? I was ready to start a GoFundMe for them.

I felt really bad for these two characters, but on the other hand, I paid more attention to them than anyone else in this film. They were the only ones I that really felt like characters to me and were relatable from a customer service standpoint. There's always that one person who makes ridiculous requests. I also was concerned that the food fight took place in their kitchen, in which case I was ready to throw down for them.

5 hours ago, sycasey 2.0 said:

Much like Jason and June, I stopped paying attention for long stretches of this movie, so perhaps I missed something . . . but why were Pavarotti and Lady Doctor tasked with cooking dinner for some large and seemingly important gathering? This is a rich guy who has people he can easily order around to do stuff for him, right? If he had some special affinity for cooking, it sure didn't show in that scene.

I only sort of paid attention, but it seemed after that show, when Giorgio is just hanging out with people, he suddenly decides that HE wants to cook for EVERYONE. And that's the other thing that drove me nuts. This is a large crowd, and two people cooking for them seems like way too little to get that much food ready in a reasonable amount of time. But then they proceed to ruin as much of the food as possible with their stupid food fight and I'm just like... you STILL have people WAITING FOR FOOD out there!  Again, maybe this is my customer service background, but WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING??? The manager already told them the guests were getting restless with hunger. Now they're going to be at the least incredibly disappointed, and at the most very very angry.  Just... I don't know... get catering... order some pizzas... something more reliable than two people whose special skills do not seem to include cooking at any other point in the movie.

[Quasar Sniffer 4174]

20 hours ago, brainylainie said:

I made an account purely for this question, so someone please help!

When Pamela goes to San Francisco and Fini asks what took her so long, she replies, "I drove," and the gang all agreed that a drive from Boston was logistically impossible. But when I watched it, I assumed she was joking. Am I wrong? I know I could rewatch that part, but honestly, I can't bring myself to watch one more minute of this dumpster fire. But I gotta know: anyone else think she was just being sarcastic?

Honestly, I just thought it was the moment the movie truly stopped giving a shit. Like it turned to us and said, "haha, fuck you, Pamela's in this scene because the movie will be over quicker and I don't have the energy to explain why. Deal with it."

[sycasey 2.0 2301]

17 hours ago, JammerLea said:

I only sort of paid attention, but it seemed after that show, when Giorgio is just hanging out with people, he suddenly decides that HE wants to cook for EVERYONE. And that's the other thing that drove me nuts. This is a large crowd, and two people cooking for them seems like way too little to get that much food ready in a reasonable amount of time. But then they proceed to ruin as much of the food as possible with their stupid food fight and I'm just like... you STILL have people WAITING FOR FOOD out there!  Again, maybe this is my customer service background, but WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING??? The manager already told them the guests were getting restless with hunger. Now they're going to be at the least incredibly disappointed, and at the most very very angry.  Just... I don't know... get catering... order some pizzas... something more reliable than two people whose special skills do not seem to include cooking at any other point in the movie.

So like the rest of the movie, the existence of the kitchen scene entirely hinges on Giorgio's ego and lack of consideration for other people's needs.

Makes perfect sense, in retrospect.

[hotironskillet 137]

On 8/4/2018 at 12:18 AM, Nackalus said:

What did June say around 10:40?  Nenet special?  If any of you could clue me in on what shes talking about it would be much appreciated.

I believe she was talking about this https://www.netflix.com/title/80233611

[hotironskillet 137]

On 8/5/2018 at 7:32 AM, JammerLea said:

I felt really bad for these two characters, but on the other hand, I paid more attention to them than anyone else in this film. They were the only ones I that really felt like characters to me and were relatable from a customer service standpoint. There's always that one person who makes ridiculous requests. I also was concerned that the food fight took place in their kitchen, in which case I was ready to throw down for them.

I only sort of paid attention, but it seemed after that show, when Giorgio is just hanging out with people, he suddenly decides that HE wants to cook for EVERYONE. And that's the other thing that drove me nuts. This is a large crowd, and two people cooking for them seems like way too little to get that much food ready in a reasonable amount of time. But then they proceed to ruin as much of the food as possible with their stupid food fight and I'm just like... you STILL have people WAITING FOR FOOD out there!  Again, maybe this is my customer service background, but WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING??? The manager already told them the guests were getting restless with hunger. Now they're going to be at the least incredibly disappointed, and at the most very very angry.  Just... I don't know... get catering... order some pizzas... something more reliable than two people whose special skills do not seem to include cooking at any other point in the movie.

He seems to have no idea how to cook for a large amount of people either. His timing is all off. He's got tons and tons of pasta cooked and ready to go but there are piles of raw meat sitting out on the counters. The meat is going to take way longer to cook than the pasta, Giorgio. Get it together.

[tomspanks 9039]

34 minutes ago, hotironskillet said:

He seems to have no idea how to cook for a large amount of people either. His timing is all off. He's got tons and tons of pasta cooked and ready to go but there are piles of raw meat sitting out on the counters. The meat is going to take way longer to cook than the pasta, Giorgio. Get it together.

Steak tartare?

[gigi-tastic 2322]

On 8/3/2018 at 1:13 PM, joshg said:

I don't understand why this movie needed to be a more painful viewing experience than most others, or why Paul provided a music-free cut of the film to help us get through it. You're watching a Pavarotti movie; the singing is the whole point!  Especially the week after Paul talked on his other podcast about how opera in films like Shawshank Redemption and Pretty Woman is a shortcut to understand that a character has depth.  The plot/acting is the painful part that you should fast-forward.  You don't skip the breakdancing in "Body Rock", or the BMX racing in "Rad", or the splits and kicks in a Jean-Claude Van Damme movie. Maybe opera isn't for everyone, but then neither is bicycling, martial arts, or Neil Diamond. If you skip the arias and songs then you're missing out on the one thing that Pavarotti was known for.

(Actually, scratch that...you would still get the womanizing and the eating.  Let me rephrase: if you skip the singing then you're missing out on one of the three things that Pavarotti was known for.)

I would have to agree with you. I don't know much about opera but I do know having seen La Boheme on PBS  that Pavarotti's voice is wonderful and is really the whole draw for this film. You aren't coming to see this movie for the acting you go for Pavarotti's voice.  Really outside of his singing I don't know why anyone WOULD want to see this movie outside of for a podcast like this, or because like June they too like a bigger boy. 

[gigi-tastic 2322]

On 8/3/2018 at 1:33 PM, Elektra Boogaloo said:

Here is the post I wrote after being in the audience. I haven't listened to the episode yet.

 

This is going to be a long post. I was in the audience for this show and I have been stewing on this movie for like a month now. I wish I could forget about it like June because the more I think about it, the more frustrated I get.

 

I will give the film two props.

 

1. I was thinking about some of the other starring vehicles we have seen, like the Hulk Hogan movies, and I appreciate that Pavarotti (may he Rest In Peace) was willing to play a flawed character it might be very close to his actual life—I am not sure.  But he’s like “yep I cheat on my wife and I am kind of dumb and chauvinistic.” And thought I found him very stiff in most of the movie I did have A feeling (just one) when he performed the final song and was sad.

 

2. I was happy that Pamela left. It wasn’t treated like she was going to be unhappy forever without him or anything. She’s a hot lady doctor that other men took time out of their day to sexually harass. She had other options. She had an important job to go back to. She’s gonna be fine, guys.

 

What I did object to was, as the gang mentioned, her just dropping her IMPORTANT job to cater to him. She is a lady doctor who performs surgery on children. Maybe tonsillitis isn’t the most dangerous of ailments but if she froze during surgery like he did on stage, someone could die.

 

So when they initially mention something awful happening at the Met, I thought the stakes would be high. You know that this important lady doctor needs to take time out of her life to fix him. When it was revealed during the food fight that it was just a wardrobe malfunction and he was mainly concerned that people laughed at him? I. Was. Furious.

 

What I really WANTED him to say was, “The Met killed my wife.” Like Richard Kimble in “The Fugitive” or something.

 

How great would it have been if we don’t talk about Carla because she was  murdered by that dragon or something? Or maybe a rival pushed her off a balcony?

 

Some more of my nerd notes:

 

— Pavarotti did not speak English very well. I read a trivia big on IMDb that said he was surprised that changing the words around meant changing the entire meaning and he had trouble with it. That made me laugh. Yeah English is a real language with meanings. I found the way he pronounced “Pamela” most confounding. It was like “Pah-meh-la.” And initially because the dubbing was bad I thought he said “Karnilla,” who is a villain in the Thor universe. I call her Karnilla in all my notes.

 

— I thought the comedy vignettes (nuns, hat lady, Asian couple, food fight, etc) were all poorly placed. The more I think about it, the more I like the nun in the opening. The Mother Superior is a trickster and gets him to do her bidding by pretending she doesn’t recognize him. But in the second scene? We don’t know why he deserved that. If that had come AFTER the mistreatment of the poor Asian couple, Kwan and Mei Ling, I think she’d be the hero of the movie.

 

Also, the she had the Italian equivalent of a baguette in her hand bag. It was up by her face in the car ride scene. Why she is taking bread on the plane? Did she being a whole meal? I have a lot of questions about her life.

 

— The Kwan and Mei Ling scenes were the most uncomfortable for me to watch. I hate when people treat service workers (or were they friends? Wait, that makes it weirder.) like slaves. I was really upset by it. And I was concerned that place they had the food fight might be the same set, which would mean they might have to clean up that mess? I was ready to start a GoFundMe for them.

 

— I also found that scene way more offensive than the “yellow face” mentioned by the audience in the final scene. I don’t know much about opera but I do have Il Teatro Olivia, a little play set for the picture book character Olivia. It is for her to wear fancy costumes and be the center of attention. All I know about Turandot (the opera being performed in the end) is that Olivia also wears elaborate robes like the African American opera singer. Not that this makes it okay but I think it is standard for a production of Turandot and not an invention of the movie. Also, Olivia is a pig so I don’t know if that is yellow face or not? 

I couldn't bring myself to watch all the movie but i thought they were doing The Mikado or Madame Butterfly for some reason. Both have had people in yellow face unfortunately.  The Mikado is especially well known for it because it's not even about a factual version of Japan and  i guess several characters names are  super demeaning and racist.   in 2015 the New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players were going to put it on and it was a BIG thing. (rightfully so IMO).  Here's a really good article on how to make the Mikado relevant  in our modern world if anyone cares to read it:  https://www.americantheatre.org/2016/04/20/building-a-better-mikado-minus-the-yellowface/

On 8/3/2018 at 1:33 PM, Elektra Boogaloo said:

 

 

[Lando 2019]

Why does Pamela have to say "oh, this is the maid" to his wife and why do they come up with the convoluted niece cover when "This is my throat doctor" explanation would be perfectly acceptable for an Opera singer?

[Lando 2019]

I think there is something to the "this was all a plan to get him to sing at The Met" theory. After Giorgio loses his voice and will not let Pamela look at him, Henry (his manager) tells him a story about another Italian opera singer that refused to let a German doctor look at his throat, but in the time it took to find an Italian doctor it was too late, the singer had lost his voice. Then later in the film it's his idea to get Pamela to convince him to sing at the Met. Henry is clearly not above manipulating Giorgio into doing what he wants. Pamela is clearly uninterested in Giorgio, she even has her suspicion confirmed that he tells everyone that a specific aria is for them and being a top notch surgeon unimpressed by his show of wealth but for some unknown reason decides to chase him across the country. I think that Henry convinces Pamela to charm him just long enough to convince him to sing in the Met. He flies her out to San Francisco and she gives the weak cover that she "drove" all the way out there, spends a "romantic" week (when she is talking to her creepy coworker she says sarcastically "it was the most exciting and romantic week I've ever had") and does fall for him. Then the moment that he proves he can sing at the Met and has overcome his fear and her task is over she doesn't even wait for the performance to end and bounces.

I admit that the theory has a lot of holes and needs some work, but it makes a lot more sense than the plot as it is presented.

[sycasey 2.0 2301]

2 hours ago, Lando said:

Why does Pamela have to say "oh, this is the maid" to his wife and why do they come up with the convoluted niece cover when "This is my throat doctor" explanation would be perfectly acceptable for an Opera singer?

The fact that everyone has to keep lying about Giorgio's affair would also seem to destroy the idea that we are meant to see this as an example of Italians having a more "open" attitude towards sex and relationships. Giorgio's wife wouldn't seem to think so!

[joshg 207]

This just popped up on my Youtube feed: "Who Sang The "Nessun Dorma" Climax The Best?"

HDGTM? fans will take special note of Aretha Franklin at 5:20