The Kim Jong Il heard on audiotapes recorded under strange circumstances for “The Lovers and the Despot” is a genial, chatty movie lover. Welcome to “Tuesdays with Jongie.”

“Thanks for coming” was the greeting in 1978 of Kim, then the crown prince of North Korea, to the South Korean actress Choi Eun-hee. Kim had just had Choi kidnapped (perhaps inadvertently) and brought to Pyongyang because the movie-mad future dictator wanted to put North Korean cinema on the map. To show he was serious, Kim also had Choi’s ex-husband, leading South Korean film director Shin Sang-ok, kidnapped and brought to him as well.

Stuck in a mad totalitarian world, the two filmmakers tried to make the best of things and continued on, filming several North Korean epics before successfully defecting to the US. Freaky as this story is, it’s told in a woefully pedestrian way, with talking-head footage forming the bulk of this slow-to-develop film. Still, it’s a creepily fascinating tale.