Edinburgh Film Podcast: Recent Episodes
The University of Edinburgh
Film Studies students and staff at the University of Edinburgh discuss all aspects of cinema and television.
Kat Zabecka speaks to Mira Nemcikova and Rici Wenger, former MSc Film Studies students at the University of Edinburgh, about romantic comedies. They discuss You've Got Mail (Nora Ephron 1998), Ever After: A Cinderella Story (Andy Tennant 1998) and The Proposal (Anne Fletcher 2009). Please note this episode includes spoilers.
Sources mentioned:
Ruti, M., 2016. Feminist film theory and Pretty Woman. London: Bloomsbury Publishing
Shreiber, M., 2014. American Postfeminist Cinema: Women, Romance and Contemporary Culture. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press
Verevis, C., 2006. Film Remakes. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press
Three Wishes for Cinderella (Vorlicek 1973)
Kat Zabecka speaks to 3 current MSc Film Studies students Nick, Devika and Karen. They discuss their different film viewing experiences during the pandemic and debate the impact of film streaming platforms. (References: Variety; Vox)
Kat Zabecka talks to Dr Neil Fox, the writer of Wilderness (2017), now available to stream. They discuss the writing process, inspiration for the characters and the timeliness of the digital release of the film. Neil Fox is the co-host of The Cinematologists podcast, senior lecturer at Falmouth University and a screenwriter.
Kat Zabecka talks to Dr Pasquale Iannone, Senior Teaching Fellow in Film Studies, about film noir. If you want to know how to recognise one or you are simply looking for watchlist inspiration, this episode, packed with examples, is for you.
Some of the films we discuss are:
Army of Shadows (L'armée des ombres, Jean-Pierre Melville, 1969)
* Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982)
* Body Heat (Lawrence Kasdan, 1981)
* Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974)
* Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944)
* Le jour se lève (Marcel Carné, 1939)
* Le Samouraï (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967)
* Ossessione (Luchino Visconti, 1943)
* Pépé le Moko (Julien Duvivier, 1937)
* Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976)
* The Conformist (Il conformista, Bernardo Bertolucci, 1970) [There is an interesting video essay on this film by James Mooney here].
* The Friends of Eddie Coyle (Peter Yates, 1973)
* The Hitch-Hiker (Ida Lupino, 1953)
* The Port of Shadows (Le quai des brumes, Marcel Carné, 1938)
* The Wild Goose Lake (Nanfang chezhan de juhui*, Yi'nan Diao)
Nicolas Miller's neo-noir photographs of New York are on Instagram.
Kat Zabecka is joined by Dr Dario Llinares who is Principal Lecturer n the School of Media at the University of Brighton and co-host of the Cinematologists Podcast with Dr Neil Fox. We discuss Dario's latest article Cinema for the Ears: Imagining the Audio-Cinematic Through Podcasting published in the October 2020 issue of Film-Philosophy.
We have an earlier episode about approaches to podcasting and the Cinematologists podcast with Dr Neil Fox, available on Media Hopper and iTunes.
Kat Zabecka talks to MSc Film Studies student, Elisa Teneggi. Join us for a discussion about Bruno Dumont, Unorthodox, Normal People, Dark, Bad People, The Lunchbox, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, The True History of the Kelly Gang, Pain and Glory, The Hitch-hiker and much more.
Kat Zabecka talks to Dr Caire Boyle, lecturer in French and Francophone Studies at the University of Edinburgh. They discuss the life and work of Agnès Varda and consider Varda's approaches to cinema in terms of realism, feminism and documentary-making. Please note this episode was recorded in May of 2019. Agnès Varda Filmography
If you are a member of the University of Edinburgh, you can stream a selection of Varda's films (requires login):
Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962)
Vagabond / Sans toi ni loi (1985)
Jane B. by Agnès V. (1988)
The Gleaners and I / Les Glaneurs et la glaneuse (2000)
Kat Zabecka is joined by Richard Mowe, the director of the French Film Festival and Cinefile, a distribution company based in Edinburgh. They discuss the process of distribution from start to finish, the history of Cinefile and witnessing the transition from analogue to digital. [Please note that Covid-19 has affected many of the events discussed here]
Kat Zabecka speaks to current 2019/20 MSc Film Studies students Betty, Elisa and Thaddeus. They discuss the controversy and cinematography of Antichrist (2009) while taking a trip down Lars Von Trier's filmography.
[This podcast is not funded, endorsed or supported by MUBI in any way.]
Join us for a discussion of the best films from 2019 with Dr David Sorfa and Dr Pasquale Iannone, hosted by Kat Zabecka.
Here is the list of films in the order of mention, all released in 2019 (with a few from 2018):
Once Upon a
Time in… Hollywood (Quentin Tarantino)
Under the Silver Lake (David Robert Mitchell)
Climax (Gaspar Noé)
The Laundromat (Steven Soderbergh)
Marriage Story (Noach Baumbach)
The Dead Don’t Die (Jim Jarmusch)
Booksmart (Olivia Wilde)
The House That Jack Built (Lars Von Trier)
Styx (Wolfgang Fischer)
The Irishman (Martin Scorsese)
Mid90s (Jonah Hill)
Dolemite is My Name (Craig Brewer)
Mary Queen of Scots (Josie Rourke)
Jiang hu er nü / Ash is Purest White (Zhangke Jia)
Happy New Year, Colin Burstead (Ben Wheatley)
Photograph (Ritesh Batra)
Knives Out (Rian Johnson)
Notti Magiche/Magical Nights (Paolo Virzi)
Loro (Paolo Sorrentino)
The Souvenir (Joanna Hogg)
Joker (Todd Phillips)
Varda par Agnès/Varda by Agnes (Agnès Varda)
If Beale Street Could Talk (Barry Jenkins)
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (Vince Gilligan)
Films we have seen this year but were released prior to 2019:
Killer of Sheep (Charles Burnett 1978)
Three Colours Blue (Krzysztof Kieslowski 1993)
Ukigumo/Floating Clouds (Mikio Naruse 1955)
The Rebel/Call Me Genius (Robert Day 1961)
Chinatown (Roman Polanski 1974)
Moon (Duncan Jones 2009)
Summer Stock (Charles Walters 1950)
L'une chante l'autre pas/One Sings, The Other Doesn’t (Agnès Varda 1977)
Kat Zabecka speaks to Dr Alastair Bruce and Mat Vidmar from the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Moon landing. They discuss the role of the Moon in cinema, space exploration and women's history.
Kat Zabecka talks to Dr Neil Fox, co-founder and host of the Cinematologists Podcast. They talk Fringe Festival, Dr Fox's film background and approaches to podcasting. They also reflect on the Film-Philosophy Conference that took place in Brighton in July and discuss the accessibility of academia.
Kat Zabecka speaks to Dr Calum Neill, Associate Professor of Psychoanalysis & Cultural Theory at Edinburgh Napier University. They discuss Lacan in Scotland, a research group founded by Dr Neill, their work and seminar series they have been running regularly since December 2018. In the second half of the podcast, the discussion steers towards film, Lacan, Freud and psychoanalysis.
Kat Zabecka is joined by Jessie Taylor and Patrick Callaghan, current MSc Film Studies students. They chat about dissertations, choosing topics, research process and academic writing.
Kat Zabecka is joined by our current MSc Film Students Callum Simpson, Laura Tribaudino and Tina Kandiashvili. They discuss Wim Wenders' iconic Paris, Texas (1984) and explore the film's characters and themes of existentialism. They also touch on the students' film and academic background and discuss why we talk about films in the first place.
In this episode, Kat and Dr David Sorfa are joined by Dr Pasquale Iannone, Teaching Fellow in Film Studies. They look back at 2018 and discuss some of the best films of the year, including The Favourite, Roma, Bumblebee, Apostasy, Cold Warand many more.
Kat Zabecka spoke to Professor Stephen Lawrie, Chair of Psychiatry and Neuro-Imaging and Head of the Division of Psychiatry at the University of Edinburgh, about the portrayal of mental illnesses on film. Kat and Dr David Sorfa discuss some of the most common stereotypes and myths about mental illnesses as well as some films that have done it well.
We were privileged to have Professor D. N. Rodowick come to Edinburgh on 27 November 2018 and he sat down with David Sorfa to discuss his career as an academic in Film Studies and beyond. Along the way, David Rodowick mentioned a new book on Austin film culture (Cinema Texas Notes: The Early Days of Austin Film Culture), George Ellis, Franklin Miller, moving to Paris, Gayatri Spivak, the importance of Jacques Derrida and Rodowick’s role in setting up various film programmes at King's College, Yale and Harvard. We ended by discussing the naming crisis in the contemporary visual arts.
PhD students Eszter Simor and Chantal Bertalanffy talk to Kat Zabecka and Dr David Sorfa about their new film festival News From Home 2018.
More about the News from Home Festival is available here: http://www.film.llc.ed.ac.uk/news-from-home-film-festival/
Kat Zabecka and Dr David Sorfa discuss their reasons for starting a new season of the Edinburgh Film Podcast and highlight events, screenings and seminars that are happening in November.
Elizabeth and Emily discuss Antonia Bird's 1999 film, "Ravenous." A fantastic film that blends together the genres of horror, comedy, and the western.
A discussion of George Seaton's 1964 paranoid thriller 36 Hours which is being screened at Filmhouse as part of Edinburgh Spy Week.
Emily and Amanda discuss the Maysles' documentary "Grey Gardens," a film on the iconic Bouvier-Beale mother and daughter in their dilapidated home.
Emily and Marc talk about Peter Strickland's soundscape horror flick, "Berberian Sound Studio."
Angus and Emily talk about Jodorowsky's semi-autobiographical film, "La Danza de la Realidad."
This week Patrick joins us to talk about his list-making and documenting the films he's watched.