First Impressions: Thinking Aloud About Film: Recent Episodes
Jose Arroyo & Richard Layne
https://notesonfilm1.com/2026/07/31/cinema-rediscovered-2026-wrap-up/As ever Richard and I loved attending this year’s edition of Cinema Rediscovered at the Watershed in Bristol. They do so many things for the city and for cinema; bringing in so many venues into the festival; offering young people the opportunities to programme, to get experience with criticism, to learn about Bristol as a cinema city (Mark Fuller’s wonderful walks), familiarise themselves with different histories (Rosie Taylor’s wonderful talk on 9.5mm film; the Queen Kelly programme with Pamela Hutchinson’s superb introduction, and in two different venues, so one can explore different cinemas in Bristol) and so much else. In this podcast Richard and I go through the programme day by day, speaking on all the events we attended (everyone will have a slightly different experience of Cinema Rediscovered), praising much (Different Ways of Seeing panel, the Cruising pop-up, many of the individual films) and offering some criticisms which we aim to be constructive (is it time to let go of the 70s, rogue or not? Might the comic book adaptation strand have been better shaped and signalled; might connections between films in the programme have been better highlighted). That said, another brilliant year, it’s tenth! Here’s to many more. Congratulations to Mark Cosgrove, Maddie Probst and the dozens of other people who made it all possible.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2026/07/19/thinking-aloud-about-film-death-of-a-cyclist-muerte-de-un-ciclista-juan-antonio-bardem-1955/Part of the Juan Antonio Bardem cycle of films screened at Bologna and available to see through a marvellous Criterion Edition.An adulterous couple run over a cyclist in a deserted road and run off in fear of their affair being found out. The cyclist dies. An epicene art critic claims to have seen them and starts a blackmail scheme. What are they willing to do to protect their wealth, family name and social standing? What are the effects of murder on an already tainted love? A noir influenced by neo-realism that uses striking compositions and innovative editing to create an atmospheric and scathing social critique, where the circus is rendered equivalent to the Church, tenement subsistence living is contrasted to upper class life where charity fundraisers focus on the festivities rather than the cause. Made at the height of the Franco era. Lucia Bosé post Antonioni and at the height of her fame is the Garboesque enigmatic femme fatale. We discuss all of this and more in the podcast below. It won the International Critics Award in Cannes in 1955.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2026/07/16/pamela-hutchinson-on-the-curse-of-queen-kelly-new-york-sticking-place-books-2025/“A naughty little number”This is a story of how not to make a film. A story about three people who should have known better – people we could dismiss as a spendthrift, a swindler and a sadist, but who are far more interesting than that. They almost made a movie, but succeeded in creating a legend. This is the story of how a 1920s movie star, a businessman, and an artist set out to make an impossible film, the infamous Queen Kelly, of how they hit breaking point and threw it all away. It is also the tale of how that star spend the rest of her life trying to save the trio’s beleaguered infant.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2026/07/06/cinema-ritrovato-2026-wrap-up/Cinema Ritrovato 2026 Wrap-upRichard and I get together to chat about our experience of this year’s Cinema Ritrovato. The programming is so vast and diverse that everyone who attends will have a completely different Ritrovato. In this podcast we spend quite a lot of time discussing the strand on Juan Antonio Bardem, Javier’s uncle, one of the key Spanish directors of the Franco era, and a real discovery for Richard. We also touch on the Mitchell Leisen program, concluding that it will invariably raise his standing as a Hollywood director, particularly for those interested in the queer dimension of his work, without quite succeeding in putting him at the level of the very greatest (Lubitsch, Hitchcock, etc). The Stanwyck program demonstrated that the great star could do anything – comedy, drama, westerns; aristocrats and subalterns – much more convincingly than her rivals to the title of classic Hollywood’s greatest star/ actress, Bette Davis and Katharine Hepburn. We touch briefly on the Daisuke Ito, Ritwick Ghatak, and Josephine Baker strands but mainly dwell on some of the films shown under the Cinemalibero banner, always one of the highlights of the festival: A SPRING FOR THE THIRSTY (Yuri Ilyenko, 1965/1987), LA DÉRIVE (Paula Delson, 1964), WEIGHTED BUT FOUND WANTING (Lino Brocka, 1974), MUDAR DE VIDA (Paulo Rocha 1966), among others. From other strands we also discuss SUGATA SHANSHIRO (Kurosawa, 1943), THE LONG MEMORY (Robert Hamer, 1953), LA BIUGIARDA (Luigi Comencini, 1965). We end with comments on the chairing (applauding the Guy Maddin event), the Piazza Maggiore screenings (NEW YORK, NEW YORK), the amazing tinting on some of the silent masterpieces (WHAT PRICE GLORY). Our one critique is that the festival really has to remind itself that the introductions are for the audience rather than for the presenters. A great year.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2026/06/13/thinking-aloud-about-film-tarik-saleh-and-the-cairo-trilogy/Richard and I were so excited after seeing Eagles of the Republic (2025), that when we learned that it was the third film in a trilogy, we made a point of seeing the other two: The Nile Hilton Incident (2017) and Cairo Conspiracy/ Boy From Heaven (2022). José went even further and also saw his first live action film, made in Sweden, Tommy (2005), and, at least up to now, the only feature film he's made in the US: The Contractor (2022). Thus the podcast encompasses all of his live-action feature films (he also made Metropia (2009), an animated film) and spans a twenty-period. Saleh is the offspring of an Egyptian father and a Swedish mother. The Nile Hilton Incident was set to be filmed in Cairo but Saleh was given a week to flee the country before shooting started. Thus the trilogy is a critique of Egypt that could not be made in Egypt. The films are genre piece -- and are satisfying on that level; you don't need to know anything about Egypt or Egyptian culture to enjoy them -- but are also serious films about morality, ethics, the extent of corruption, and the limits otherwise good people are willing to go to in order to prosper or even survive. In the podcast we discuss this and contrast with his earlier Swedish film, fascinating in that it makes the gangster's girlfriend the central figure in a genre piece, and his later American film, in that it points to the limits on free speech currently imposed on American cinema. Aside from all of this, we also linger to appreciate the beauty and expressiveness of the mise-en-scène and encourage everyone to see these marvellous works. Eagles of the Republic is currently on distribution (I saw it at the MOCKINGBIRD)The Nile Hilton Incident is available on MUBIBoy From Heaven/ The Cairo Incident is available to see on BBC i-player.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2025/12/31/thinking-aloud-about-film-last-days-gus-van-sant-2005/Richard and I went to see the Royal Opera’s production of Oliver Leith’s and Matt Copson’s LAST DAYS, directed by Copson and Anna Morrissey, with superb set designs by Grace Smart. It’s inspired by Gus Van Sant’s 2005 film and so were inspired to podcast on it. The film is part of what’s been called Van Sant’s 'Death Trilogy' (alongside GERRY (2002) and ELEPHANT (2003)).In the podcast we discuss how, in spite of it being a ‘slow’ film, time flew by; how we were hypnotized by images and entranced by the originality of its story-telling. It made those last days intelligible. The film seems to run entirely on mood -- loneliness, frailty, vulnerability, alienation in a cold climate. A fluid dexterity of original story-telling and tone. Blaine is the source of money, power, creativity ... but no one is looking after him.In the podcast we discuss how we don’t see Blake’s full face until close to the end, though re-visiting the film proves this to be inaccurate. It’s nonetheless interesting that this is a dominant impression. It’s a film where interiority is expressed through externals. We also discuss the film in relation to Bella Tarr’s Sátántango and to Grey Gardens (1975).We discuss how LAST DAYS is about a young man, outwardly rich and successful but feeling he’s got nothing to live for and with no one – even those physically in the room with him -- to help him break through his isolation and alienation. A great film, propulsed by mood.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2025/12/06/jose-arroyo-in-conversation-with-glyn-davis-on-rebel-without-a-cause-nicholas-ray-1955/A treat to talk to the marvellous Glyn Davis on his handsome new book, the ‘BFI Classic’ on Rebel Without a Cause (Nicholas Ray, 1955). In the podcast we discuss how we were both surprised that the film hadn’t yet been covered in the series and why the book is the fulfilment of a long-standing wish of his. We discuss how the film established an iconic template for adolescent dissent and how James Dean became the embodiment of youthful American dissatisfaction and rebellion; Glyn compares Rebel to other films of the period such as The Wild One (Lázló Benedek, 1953) and Blackboard Jungle (Richard Brooks, 1955). We discuss the pros and cons of auteurist approaches; Glyn’s findings in the LA Archives, Ray’s concerns of filling the CinemaScope frame; his uses of colour (the film was originally designed for black and white); the film’s unusual structure, how the film became a template for the teen film that extends to television (Dawson’s Creek was named after the High School in Rebel); how Dean’s extraordinary performance helped popularise and disseminate ‘The Method’, how the figure of Plato has become central to subsequent queer cultures; and how Natalie Wood is often marginalised in discussions of the film. Glyn generously praises previous work on Ray and the film, particularly Bernard Eisenschitz’ monumental Nicholas Ray: An American Journey and the extraordinarily detailed Live Fast, Die Young: The Wild Ride of Making Rebel Without A Cause by Lawrence Frascella and Al Weisel. A generous and articulate conversation on a book worth reading and discussingJosé Arroyo
I wanted to talk to James Cullen on Even Cowgirls Get the Blues because of his untrammelled love for the film, his enthusiasm, and the wide array of references he brings to this very intelligent appreciation of the film. James sees the film as, 'Against all the heteronormative expectations we have from cinema as a mediumNone of these A24 Neon filmmakers could make anything like this. There’s an audience for this film, it’s going to come from somewhere, sometime; and I want to be art of that audience' And I want to be in the audience listening to James speak about it.
A’s when possible. It all looks very exciting. Check out the programme here: https://www.warwickartscentre.co.uk/whats-on/cinema/José Arroyo
The MASKS AND MUSIC: THE FILMS OF WILLI FORST strand of last year’s Il Cinema Ritrovato, curated by Lukas Foerster, was so popular that I was unable to see any of them. Richard is more organised and came out raving about two: MASQUERADE/ MASKERADE (1934) and TOMFOOLERY/ ALLOTRIA, (1936). Luckily for us The Internet Archive has a very good copy of Maskerade which enabled us to see it (or in Richard’s case, to see it again). In the podcast below we talk about the film in relation to the Wiener Genre, Authorship, Anton Walbrook’s career (he is here billed as Adolf Walbrook), the difficulties of dealing with works from authoritarian regimes, how it was the most popular film of its year in the German-speaking world. More specifically we discuss the rhythms of the opening scene, Anton Walbrook’s introduction, the narrative invention of the narration of the publication of the muff drawiing, the mise-en-scéne, the influence of vaudeville and the film’s intent on pleasing. We relate the film to Lubitsch’s work and comment on how a particular shot of a camera seeming to float through a window might have influenced Minnelli (in Meet Me in St. Louis) and, according to Mark Fuller, Powell & Pressburger (The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp). All this and much more may be listened to in the podcast below:
https://notesonfilm1.com/2025/08/24/jose-arroyo-in-conversation-with-cinema-mentire/I was lucky enough to see Maria Luisa Bemberg's SEÑORA DE NADIE (NOBODY'S WIFE, 1982)and YO, LA PEOR DE TODAS (I, THE WORST OF ALL, 1990) at this year's CINEMA REDISCOVERED in Bristol, in gorgeous prints, with an appreciative and enthusiastic audience. I'm a long-time fan of Bemberg's but I'd never had the opportunity to see SEÑORA DE NADIE and I'd never seen YO LA PEOR DE TODAS in such a beautiful version. The films surprised and delighted. But what I was most taken with was the effervescence, energy and brilliance of Amina Farley Yael and Natalia Christofoletti Barrenha who introduced the two films. They along with Marta Calderon Quiñones are Cinema Mentiré. This podcast is the result of my wanting to know more about Cinema Mentiré, who they are, what they do; and also, of my wanting to publicise the re-circulation of such marvellous films by a legendary female filmmaker in new restorations (which films? What are they about? What are they like? Why are they worth seeing now?), and with new subtitles undertaken by Cinema Mentiré themselves.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2025/08/21/jose-arroyo-in-conversation-with-ryan-gilbey-on-it-used-to-be-witches-under-the-spell-of-queer-cinema/Sometimes you read a new book and love it so much you want to speak to its author and find out more. This is what happened to me in relation to Ryan Gilbey’s IT USED TO BE WITCHES: UNDER THE SPELL OF QUEER CINEMA. What I liked most is that I learned a lot from it – all these new films and filmmakers I’d never heard of – and that it was great fun to read: Ryan’s got an enviable turn of phrase. If the narrative is posited as a process of discovery, the book also has an interesting mode of narration: it’s partly personal, sometimes he writes of himself in the third person in a way that reminds me of Èdouard Louis’ novels . This has the effect of delineating events whilst also questioning them and his own perspective on them. It’s a book that interrogates its own delineations with a loose structure that seems to flow from one filmmaker to another, very inclusive, sensitive to the nuances of race and gender and with a spotlight on trans cinema -- with a British perspective but on world –rather than Anglo-American – cinema; and with the big names (Almodóvar, Haynes, Van Sant), not quite absent but playing a supporting role to filmmakers like: Jenni Olson, Jessica Dunn Rovinelli, Elizabeth Purchell, Campbell X, Isabel Sandoval and others. I think it a landmark book, one of interest not only to those wanting to know more about, cinema and/or queer but also by anyone interested in the current cultural landscape. It seems to succeed in doing what I previously thought undoable, which is to get enough of a grip on the increasing and seemingly ceaseless stream of new queer works in order to lay out a landscape whilst offering multiple, tentative, questioning perspectives on it. A landmark book by a wonderful writer. We discuss all of this and more in the podcast below:
https://notesonfilm1.com/2025/08/06/thinking-aloud-about-cinema-absolute-beginners-julien-temple-1986/A rediscovery at Cinema Rediscovered: Julien Temple's marvellous Abolute Beginners.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2025/07/30/thinking-aloud-about-cinema-cinema-rediscovered-2025-wrap-up/If a week ago we podcast on what we were looking forward to at the CINEMA REDISCOVERED festival, this is the bookend reflecting on what we actually saw. We are once again full of praise for the organisers, the friendliness of the staff at the Watershed, the originality and diversity of the programme, the community aspect, the educational component and the way that it trains young people up to programme and curate and then gives them an opportunity to exercise those skills. Emotional highlights included a reunion of Stephen Frears, Hanif Kureishi and Gordon Warnecke at the MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE screening and Stephen Wooley and Julian Temple getting back together to reminisce about Palace Pictures and ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS, which we liked so much we plan a separate podcast on it. We appreciated the mini programs scheduled on single days (Carlos Saura, Maria Luisa Bemberg, Anna Mae Wong) and the longer ones (the AGAINST THE GRAIN: 1980s BRITISH CINEMA, MASUMURA x WAKAO). It was fantastic to be able to see some films at the BRISTOL MEGASCREEN (THE FALL OF OTRAR, DIVA, THE BEAST TO DIE, MANJI). We talk at some length on individual films as well (ROSA LA ROSE, FILLE PUBLIQUE; THEMROC, DESERT HEARTS, ONE POTATO TWO POTATO and others. We praise the way Sheldon Hall designed his talk on films on Channel 4 for this particular audience, including broadcast dates on every film at the festival and under which strand; for Stephen Horne’s fantastic, multi-instrument accompaniment to the Anna Mae Wong programme; and the care in curating the introductions to the films, with most speakers understanding that the intro is not about them or their interests but about enhancing the audience’s experience and appreciation. The festival left us wishing for a fuller programme the last evening but being left wishing for more is not a bad thing. José Arroyo
https://notesonfilm1.com/2025/07/23/jose-arroyo-in-conversation-with-sam-shahid-director-of-hidden-masters-the-legacy-of-george-platt-lynes/George Platt Lynes is arguably the most significant artist in a long and distinguished line of great 20th Century queer photographers of the male nude which includes George Hoyningen-Huene, Horst P. Horst, Clifford Coffin, Robert Mapplethorpe and Bruce Weber. All in some sense worked in the interstices of fashion, portraiture, art photography and the nude. Yet though Platt Lynes is at least their equal, he is arguably the least well known, a situation Sam Shahid aims to rectify in his gorgeous new film, HIDDEN MASTERS: THE LEGACY OF GEORGE PLATT LYNES. Sam Shahid is Creator Director, Principal and president of Shaid/Kraus & Company, a full branding, advertising and design agency founded inn 1993. Before that he was Creative Director of in-house advertising for Calvin Klein in the 1980s, did work for Abercrombie and Fitch in the 90s that still inspires today (some of the catalogues have become much sought-after collectors’ items). In the aughts he worked as Creative Director of INTERVIEW magazine and he’s since edited dozens of books of photographs by Bruce Weber and Herb Ritts. He knows about images, and he puts that knowledge to use in his first film, HIDDEN MASTERS: THE LEGACY OF GEORGE PLATT LYNES.In the accompanying podcast, we talk about how Platt Lynes was at the centre of practically every current of modernism in America and how Sam found the only existent film footage of the photographer. We ask why Platt Lynes is relatively so little-known today. Is it because his greatest work is of the male nude? Is there homophobia involved? Sam talks about how difficult it was to get a hold of the photographs, tensions between controllers of major holdings and the family; the reticence of institutions and individuals to make public such an incredible body of work that feels so contemporary. Isn’t it time that a major museum undertake a retrospective of George Platt Lynes’ work?What Sam doesn’t say is what a ravishing film he’s made, full of some of the most beautiful black and white images of men ever made. A film to see. It’s currently on release from Picadillo Pics and available on demand from Amazon and other major digital outlets. José Arroyo
https://notesonfilm1.com/2025/07/21/jose-arroyo-in-conversation-with-daniel-bird-on-the-fall-of-otrar-ardak-amirkulov-1991/My choice for must-see film of this year’s Cinema Rediscovered is Ardak Amirkulov’s THE FALL OF OTRAR (USSR, 1991), which will have its UK Premiere in Bristol’s old IMAX cinema, now called the Bristol Megascreen, on Sat 26th of July. As Daniel Bird says in the podcast, ‘it’s a once in a lifetime occasion’. I wanted to talk to Daniel about the film because he knows more about it than anyone I know, because he speaks so articulately and with such an expansive frame of reference and because he’s the one who proposed the restoration to Cecilia Cenciarelli, one of the four artistic directors of Bologna’s Il Cinema Ritrovato and part of The World Cinema Project, whose goal is to restore great film from around the world. Such as this one.THE FALL OF OTRAR is an epic set in the 13th Century where an obedient servant of the state Undzhu (Dokhdurbek Kydyraliyev) is persecuted for telling Kaiyrkahn (Tungyshpai Zhamankulov), his ruler, what he doesn’t want to hear, which is that Otrar is soon to be invaded by Genghis Kahn. The film is an extraordinary aesthetic experience, a film of great style, structured in two halves, with the last part depicting the siege of Otrar and battles sequences that clearly use Kurosawa’s KAGEMUSHA (1980) as a reference point whilst transforming before our eyes into something else altogether. The film has crane shots that rival Leone’s, poetic compositions that recall John Ford’s, and a selective use of sepia and colour that recall some of the masters of the late Soviet era. A beautiful film that feels epic and yet very intimate as well. In the accompanying podcast Daniel tells me of THE FALL OF OTRAR’s fascinating production history (it was part of a national search for ‘new blood’ from the ‘regions’; it began filming just as the Soviet Union was unravelling, it started off as Amirkulov’s graduation project, it is now one of the key works of Kazahkstan cinema); his own involvement with the project; how the film can be seen as the result of a Russian influence in the dramaturgy and an East Asian, particularly Japanese, influence in the visual aesthetic. We talk too of the film’s initial distribution at home and in New York, Martin Scorsese’s involvement, and how this new release is demonstrating how the film is also one that speaks to our times, and the various ways it does so. There are digressions (Russian Formalism, Deleuze and Guattari’s A THOUSAND PLATEAUS: CAPITALISM AND SCHIZOPHRENIA, showing vs telling in cinema….and much more. It can be listened to below:
https://notesonfilm1.com/2025/07/18/thinking-aloud-about-film-cinema-rediscovered-2025-preview/Richard and I are once more excited about the prospect of Cinema Rediscovered, which begins next week on the 23rd and runs right to the 27th at the Watershed in Bristol. This year's is a beautifully balanced programme with directors (Carlos Saura, Maria Luisa Bemberg, Stephanie Rothman, Yasuzō Masumura) and stars (Anna Me Wong) ripe for rediscovery; but also featuring key exemplars of queer cinema (MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDERETTE, DESERT HEARTS, THE ANGELIC CONVERSATION; ostensibly the first film to feature queer representation in India, BADNAM BASTI (NEIGHBOURHOOD OF ILL REPUTE); black cinema (HANDSWORTH SONGS, THE KILLER OF SHEEP), feminist exploitation cinema (THE WORKING GIRLS, THE VELVET VAMPIRE); key work's from classic directors (Sam Fuller's THE HOUSE OF BAMBOO, John Ford's YOUNG MR. LINCOLN; a whole strand of 1980s British Cinema (from ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS to A ZED AND TWO NOUGHTS), newly restored masterpieces (THE FALL OF OTRAR, YEELEN); and a smattering of films from practically every hemisphere. A great program, which includes not only films but workshops, talks, introductions; for Cinema Rediscovered is not only about seeing films in the best possible conditions but also about learning on cinema from filmmakers, curators, programmers, critics, academics and other practitioners.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2025/07/16/thinking-aloud-about-film-delitto-damore-luigi-comencini-1974/DELITTO D’AMORE (Luigi Comencini, 1974), also known as CRIME OF LOVE or SOMEWHERE BEYOND LOVE in English, is along with VOLTATI EUGENIO (1980), my favourite of the Comencini films shown at this year’s Ritrovato in Bologna. Two factory workers fall in love. He’s from a family of Anarchists from the North. She’s an immigrant from South. They both live with their families but she’s a woman so all her movements are monitored. They split up because she needs to be married in a Church whilst he can only consider City Hall. Factories spewing smoke is a constant background to the development of their romance. In the accompanying podcast Richard and I discuss: how it is a MARXIST romance in which two factory workers fall in love even as the factory spews poison all over them (one of the titles considered for the film was LOVE AND POISON); how rare it is for a political film to deploy such a delicate tone, a mixture of humour/romance/enchantment; the relative rarity of having working class workers depicted so lovingly and glamorously (by Guliano Gemma and Stefania Sandrelli). The film’s been compared to LOVE STORY (Arthur Hiller, 1970) and also ALI, FEAR EATS THE SOUL (Fassbinder, 1974). We bring up Visconti’s ROCCO E I SUOI FRATELLI (1960). None of the comparisons convey the humour, the romance, the enchantment that this very political film evokes. We hope we do in the podcast that follows:
https://notesonfilm1.com/2025/07/02/thinking-aloud-about-film-ritrovato-round-up-2025-with-pamela-hutchinson/For this year’s Ritrovato Round-Up we are joined by the witty, incisive and all-around fabulous Pamela Hutchinson, editor of the Silent London website, author of two marvellous BFI Classic monographs (The Red Shoes, Pandora's Box), producer of the Weekly Film Bulletin for Sight and Sound and one of the jurors for Ritrovato's DVD Awards since 2018.In the discussion that follows we touch on all the strands of the festival, praise Cecilia Cenciarelli for her programming, Mariann Lewinsky for her illuminating introductions and Ehsan Khoshbakht for his superb programme notes on Lewis Milestone. We touch on the Willi Forst and Nordic Noir programmes, so popular José couldn't get into any of them. We have a lively debate on Molly Haskell's Hepburn programme, agree on our love of Naruse, discuss how Comencini's Delitto de amore highlights issues of class and made us want to see more Comencini films and delight in the early cinema and silent cinema strands. Sumitra Peries' Gehenu Lamai (The Girls) is a film we all adored. We touch on memorable experiences, such as watching Coline Serrault introduce Trois hommes et un couffin at the Piazza Maggiore, or the incredible response to Chaplin's The Gold Rush, the impact of Silvana Mangano in Bitter Rice, the intensity of the colour in Duel in the Sun, or the spontaneous applause for Shirley MacLaine in Artists and Models.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2025/06/12/thinking-aloud-about-film-arrebato-ivan-zulueta-1979/A cult film; a queer film; a vampire film; a film maudit; a film about film; a film about drugs; a film about film as a drug; a film that deserves to be better known. Audiences will recognise many of Almodóvar’s collaborators from his earliest works (Cecilia Roth, Eusebio Poncela, Luis Ciges, Will More; Ángel Luis Fernádez is the dop) and the voice of Almódovar himself. A genre film that transforms into an auteur film. A film of the Movida and a film of the transition. A film that embodies and evokes one era but that gained traction in another. A cinephile’s film about addiction where one delights in being bitten by drugs and cinema even as that bite becomes transformative and potentially deadly. An avant-garde experiment encased in a genre film. A trawl through the underground that aimed at the mainstream. A film to see and discuss.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2025/06/06/jose-arroyo-in-conversation-with-james-taylor-on-the-superhero-blockbuster-adaptation-style-and-meaning/Just as the Superhero film loses centrality in the culture there comes a book that is not only a brilliant accounting of the various strategies of adaptations the mode engages with but also offers a methodology that will be of interest and use to anyone engaged with the analysis of visual media: not only a brilliant book, but an important one. In this podcast we talk about what it is that is being adapted when discussing comic book characters that have so many iterations across different media. We talk about modes of seriality; the translation of the illusion of movement across media; the significance of bodies in spaces and movement in the mode; intertextuality, kaleidoscopic irruptions; how the move to digital affected issues of realism and reflexivity; restorative and reflective nostalgia; how the works compress, hierarchize and create continuities; the dramatization of alternate timelines….and we return over and over again to the hierarchization of gendered, racialised and sexualised bodies in dialogue with past iterations, current politics, contemporary formal strategies and more. I can't imagine future explorations of audiovisual work engaged with adapting any form of Intellectual Property, characters or worlds uninformed by THE SUPERHERO BLOCKBUSTER: ADAPTATION, STYLE AND MEANING.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2025/05/30/thinking-aloud-about-film-le-jour-se-leve-marcel-carne-1939/We discuss Marcel Carné's superb Daybreak/ Le Jour se lève, which we saw at the Garden Cinema as part of their wonderful Film Noir International programme. In the podcast we discuss the film as an example of ‘Poetic Realism’; as one of the first films to be described as a ‘film noir’; as an expression of the Popular Front sentiment and how the film’s reception aligned with reviewers’ political views. In relation to the film, we discuss the significance of its structure, the precision of the decor and mise-se-en-scène where it seems every object in François room subsequently comes into play to describe loss, longing, love, innocence since tarnished. I have made a compilation of all the times Gabin looks out the bullet-riddled window and outside. As the day rises and the night ends so does François’ life. We discuss Gabin, Arletty, Jules Berry…all at their best. Gabin is the representative everyman with nothing to live for but more sand in his lungs. It’s not only that as Georges Altman writes, ‘the whole of the working class is etched in Gabin’s face’ it’s that Gabin’s IS the face of the whole of the French working classes. He is François,. She is Françoise. Together they represent the oppression of the French working class. They are everyman and everywoman, orphaned by capitalism. This is a film not only about doomed love but a protest against class-as-destiny, one of the film’s most worked-through themes.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2025/05/25/one-second-zhang-yimou-2020/Zhang Yimou’s very beautiful film has things to say about the cultural revolution and Chinese History and other things we’re not best placed to discuss. However, it is also about cinema: it’s lure, it’s power, its enchantments and its fragility; and Zhang Yimou’s magisterial mise-en-scène embodies its themes through its medium as if in the process of unfurling from an editing sweet, to a projector and onto a screen.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2025/04/18/jose-arroyo-in-conversation-with-diego-cepeda-on-outskirts/I recently discovered the existence of a new and exciting film magazine: OUTSKIRTS. It’s in English, though mostly written by people for whom English is a second language or who don’t speak English at all: translation, in multiple senses, is an integral part of the magazine. It’s a handsome physical object, originating in the Locarno Critics Academy but speaking a different film culture, off-centre, from the margins or the periphery. In this podcast I talk to one of the editors, Diego Cepeda (the others are Nathan Latoré, Sofie Cato Maas, Raymond Shik and Christopher small), with filmmaker/critic Felix Cordero Bello contributing illuminating contexts and asides. Near the beginning of the podcast Diego cites a poem by Farid Ud-din Attar,‘The birds had departed towards a distant luminosity that attracted them.Those who did not perish on the way would understand upon arrival that they had been transformed into that light that now attracted others’. OUTSKIRTS is a magazine that is itself, embodies, a romance of movies, film culture, film history, woven through with friendship. It aims to put at the centre marginalised filmmakers and film cultures; and asks its readers to slow down, look back, look deeply, and think. The launch of each issue is accompanied by live events, often including readings and screenings. Diego cites Abraham Polonsky at the end, ‘The only fights worth fighting are for lost causes’.Speaking to Diego and Felix, in English, a second language for them, a whole cinema culture comes alive. They cite LA VIDA UTIL and Lucía Salas as an inspiration: a spirit of sharing knowledge, friendship and dialogue, enthusiasm for cinema, a similar way of thinking about film history. Diego and Felix both also write for Simulacro magazine edited by Julia Scrive-Loyer (https://www.simulacromag.com/) participate in its weekly cine-club and are connected to the Chavón School of Film and Design, itself associated with Parsons, with Diego as one of its key lecturers. ‘How can we approach the history of images and sounds from a place that maybe didn’t have (a film industry) but we have to create tools for understanding those elements that did exist (newsreels, home movies, a rich culture of filmgoing)’, says Diego.The conversation ranges from the origins of the magazine, it’s aims (to defend cinema from this place, that is on the margins), it’s focus (to shine a light on the overlooked), how each issues tries to create a thread of thought. We detour through a brief account of a history of cinema in the Dominican Republic, where the conversation took place. All this and much more can be listened to in the podcast below:The new issue comes out in June and can be purchased at: https://outskirtsmag.com/
Such a pleasure to talk to Paul Cuff on Robert Egger’s version of NOSFERATU. He knos so much that the discussion of the film unfurls into a discussion of the various other versions, Murnau’s original (1922), Herzog’s version (1979), David Lee Fisher’s version (2023), and onto the films of Guy Maddin, Pablo Berger’s BLANCA NIEVES (2012), various versions of THE STUDENT OF PRAGUE and even THE ARTIST (Michel Hazanavicius, 2011), which Paul loathes. We were entertained by, enjoyed -- with reservations -- the rich visual world of Egger’s version, the thick and dense sound, and we praise Nicholas Hoult as the emotional anchor of the film. But Paul articulates his uncertainty about whether the film was a parody of itself or the genre or Nosferatu in its various incarnations. The film seems to be drawing on Murnau, Herzog, Caspar Friedrich’s paintings. But it seems to create a world in which God ostensibly exists but no one seems to believe in the ideology that would sustain this. Paul notes with interest on how Eggers credits the screenplay of the original Nosferatu but not Murnau, the director. Paul highlights how Nosferatu was itself a rip-off of Bram Stoker’s work and the significance of the titles of the most prominent version (Nosferatu, A Symphony of Horror (Murnau) and the German title of Herzog’s version, Nosferatu, Phantom of the Night.) What all versions have in common is that they’re all about sex and death, all about sex and the maiden; all versions have Nosferatu as a sexual figure as well as a figure of death and pestilence, How does Egger’s version sit on the shoulder of previous versions and what does it add to them? We discuss our love of the performances of Max Schrek and Klaus Kinski and much more in the podcast below:
We discuss Visconti’s final film, currently available to see through the BFI streaming service, in conjunction with the Visconti season recently held at the Southbank, and in a lush and lovely print. Richard had to convince me to podcast on this and I’m glad we did. We both think it a great film, without being anywhere near Visconti’s greatest, a measure of the director’s extraordinary achievements. Here we discuss it in relation to D’Annunzzio’s original novel (The Intruder is the literal translation of the novel’s Italian title); the lushness of décor and costuming, which sometimes seem a John Singer Sargent painting come to life; how the mise-en-scène vividly and complexly conveys character feeling, often without dialogue, and with such skill it can make a viewer swoony with admiration; we talk of how Alain Delon and Romy Schneider were originally cast and admire the performances of Giancarlo Giannini, Jennifer O’Neill, Laura Antonelli and Rina Morelli. It was also lovely to (barely) recognise Massimo Girotti, so beautiful in OSSESSIONE, as one of Giannini’s rivals for Jennifer O’Neill’s favours. We discuss the auction scene,and the fencing scene between husband lover in some detail; how the film reminds us of the 19th century novel in its narrative sweep, melodramatic accents and its dramatization of complex ideas (faith vs science, moral actions in a world without God, marriage vs free love, equality between the sexes, etc.). A world of feeling and desire, fuelled by melodrama; a beautiful film slightly marred by its ending. We discuss all of this and more here:
The BFI’s screenings of JEANNE DIELMAN, 23 COMMERCE QUAY, 1080 BRUXELLES were all sold out. Luckily, we were both able to see it on a big screen elsewhere. In this podcast we discuss why this is a film to see on a big screen, how it remains a radical film, how the first scene sets a context, how Jeanne Dielman lives in a pimped world where the very same money she gets from men she gives to men. We discuss how the bare bones of the story could have been done as melodrama or noir and the significance of rendering it as ‘slow cinema’, including all that’s been left out of cinema previously (the various kinds of women’s work). We admire the three-day structure as well as the formal rigour and precision which creates Dielman’s world and Ackerman’s point-of-view on it; how the film puts into play elements that are never rendered explicit (is the son gay?). We also discuss Delphine Seyrig, the muse insoumise, in the light of her art-house and activist careers (the program for the Queen Sofia exhibition on her work and career is in the blogpost); the film itself in the context of Second Wave Feminism; how the film remains radical in that it is simultaneously a depiction of what Tate brothers bros think women should be, a refutation of those ideas, and women’s frustration/ explosion/ revenge in response. A film that is almost half a century old and feels continuously relevant
Tsui Hark’s SHANGHAI BLUES (1984), starring Kenny Bee, Sylvia Chang and Sally Yeh, is currently playing on MUBI. A commercial romantic comedy with musical numbers galore and lots of screwball and slapstick, the film is easy to like. We discuss the pleasures in the performers, the interwar Shanghai setting, the beauty of its look and design, the inventiveness of its shot design and composition. We note how rare it is to see a look designed purely to please instead of to evoke, convey and signify in contemporary cinema. Might this also be a limitation? The film feels like a quickly executed trifle. It’s very broad and the execution feels a bit clunky. We were nonetheless both charmed by it though Richard rated it a bit higher than I did. Where we intersect and where we diverge is the subject of the podcast.
We didn’t manage to get to much of the recent Luchino Visconti retrospective at BFI South Bank but we somehow wanted to mark the moment, and how better than a discussion of BELLISSIMA (1951), particularly through the great Eureka/ Masters of Cinema blu-ray. We discuss its themes of obsession, mother love, fantasy, cinema, the effects of media on private and collective aspirations; how it’s a film that announces its fluency from the opening shots; its relation to neo-realism through on-location shooting and the use of non-professional actors; Anna Magnani’s tour de force performance, drawing particular attention to the scene where she gets the neighbours involved in the beating by her husband; we note how it’s an unusual film for Visconti in that it’s central role is a woman’s role, a vehicle for Magnani; we discuss the elements of camp, something not usually associated with Visconti; a very entertaining film of great depth; a critique of cinema by one of its greatest exponents; a film one can’t imagine bettered; a film worth seeing
Wonderful to have an opportunity to discuss THE WIRE (David Simon, showrunner: 2002-2008) -- a show which got mixed reviews and diminishing audiences but nonetheless survived to become a cultural touchstone -- with Dr. Ben Lamb. Ben is the author of You’re Nicked: Investigating British Television Police Series, for Manchester University Press as well as the producer of award winning films such as Rewinding the Welfare State: A Social History of the North East on Film and In the Veins: Coalming Communities In his new book on the series – THE WIRE -- Ben Lamb discusses the history of the production, how and why it was made, and he also provides vital context to each season to better understand what happened as well as to enhance the appreciation of the show. We talk on all of this as well as how it was groundbreaking, why its influence persists, how it laid the groundwork for the rise of a whole generation of black stars, how it can be seen to have predicted the rise of populism….and much more.
Fiona Cox, PhD in Film Studies by day, and, under the name of Kitty Mazinksy, chanteuse extraordinaire by night, is the ideal person to talk to about WICKED (Jon M. Chu, 2024). She’s read the book, seen the musical four times and has even performed in it. She now talks to me about musicals, the politics of the film, the dancing, the singing, the numbers, the length. Are critics right about tonal problems in the film? About finding fault with the way it looks? What about the casting and the songs? What does the film convey about race, queerness, female solidarity? How does it speak to the current moment? We compare it to the stage version, find it an improvement, and look forward to part II. Like Fiona herself, this is an ebullient, enthusiastic conversation, full of smarts and laughter.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/11/29/pofcrit-podcast-2024-dylan-day-on-trainspotting-danny-boyle-1996/Adapted from the 1993 novel by Irvine Welsh, Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting is as whimsical as it is putrid. One of the most iconic and provocative films of the 1990s, it serves to examine the life of heroin addict Mark Renton and his addict friends as they endlessly search for the next hit. With an unrivalled energy and an unforgettable soundtrack, we seek to dig deeper into this film’s messages and influences of the film, its context within the “Britpop” movement, its allusions to Thatcher’s Britian, its representations of addiction beyond heroin and so on. We take a look at how effective the audio-visual style of Trainspotting is at conveying the visceral experience of drug addiction and how it is unique in its representation of addiction. Join us as we talk about all this and more.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/11/29/thinking-aloud-about-film-volver-pedro-almodovar-2006/Richard and I return to discuss VOLVER (Pedro Almodóvar, 2006), interesting to see always but particularly for Richard now having seen WHAT HAVE I DONE TO DESERVE THIS (1984) and his earlier films, which he hadn’t seen before, and thus more fully appreciating one of the ‘returns’ in VOVER, that of Carmen Maura. We discuss the recurring motifs: Strong women, dreadful men, female solidarity, rape, relationships between mother and child, cemeteries, a star entrance through a tombstone. We note the evidence of Almodóvar’s rural background, how his films always reference and often feature the rural as setting. Almodóvar is of the few directors to represent rural customs (the white shirts and dark trousers of the men at the funeral); the rural is also evident in his use of dialogue, which feels so true, and adds a particular texture to his films, phrases that are structures of feeling, modes of understanding. We note how this is in tension with the representation of Madrid, often a character of its own in his films, and in this instance, the particular, working-class Madrid neighbourhoods of this film. We discuss the narrative, and how the film creates a world in which death and violence hover, the work of a filmmaker who doesn’t believe in ghosts but is aware of the relevance of the spectral in people’s lives and people’s understandings. The film looks luminous with a depth and texture to the visuals. Flowers turn up significantly in the film, represented in the poster’s design. We can’t think of another director who features rape so recurringly, in this case there’s a parallell rhyming rape of a father/ daughter with significantly different responses from the mothers; we note too how fathers are often shown as abusive, absent, neglectful. We discuss how Almodóvar often structures his story telling around a history of cinema, a telling through allusions, quotations, references to film, here we note how the film evokes Magnani, Loren, MILDRED PIERCE (Michael Curtiz, 1945), STELLA DALLAS (King Vidor 1937, the Magnani clip in the film is from Visconti’s BELLISSIMA (1951). Lastly, we tie all of this to the film’s themes: the past, making amends, building bridges, making connections, various kinds of returns.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/11/25/pofcrit-podcast-2024-madeleine-lear-on-one-hour-photo-mark-romanek-2002/Starring Robin Williams in one of his most unsettling roles as Sy, the photo guy. One Hour Photo follows Sy, a photo technician, as he forms an obsession with the Yorkin family before taking it upon himself to avenge his shattered fantasy and lost childhood innocence. In the accompanying podcast, Madeleine West shows how Romanek skillfully extends this film's sense of unease into its cinematography and mise-en-scène, delving into the intricate depths of the human mind, exploring themes of obsession, isolation and voyeurism.This podcast discusses portrayals of mental health within cinema while looking towards this film's visuals as a way of depicting isolation and loneliness.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/11/18/pofcrit-podcast-2024-james-thompson-on-under-the-silver-lake-david-robert-mitchell-2018/James Thompson on UNDER THE SILVER LAKE:Unpacking the mysteries of this dream-like neo-noir, the podcast takes a look at the film's many potential meanings and messages, as well as its wide array of influences and homages from classical Hollywood. From subliminal messages in the media, to mythical murderers, to secret underground bunkers or to cults of the ultra-rich, this episode explores all of the surreal enigmas of Under The Silver Lake. Shrouded by all of the mystery and excitement of Under The Silver Lake, however, lies something deeper. Beneath the surface, the film poses a profound statement as to the human condition, the search for meaning and the turmoil of consciousness, all of which will be revealed in this podcast, which be listened to below:
https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/11/17/the-gus-van-sant-podcast-no-6-michael-j-glass-on-good-will-hunting-1997/Michael J. Glass joins me for a discussion of Gus Van Sant’s GOOD WILL HUNTING (1997), a blockbuster success in its day; a film that won Robin Williams an Oscar, made stars of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, and left a big cultural imprint. It’s since been much parodied (in COMMUNITY, THE SIMPSONS, all over youtube) and a dominant critical perspective is slightly sniffy on the film: filmmaking by numbers and committees on a ‘we need a job’ script. We found it an extremely easy watch that holds up and is even more interesting on second viewing. GOOD WILL HUNTING is an effective piece that is surprising in all kinds of ways and still works. We discuss its critique of the US, its focus on class, on abuse, on the fragility of young men. Its rare to see a film that dramatizes how American foreign policy is one of extraction and exploitation and how social mobility in the US is available only to geniuses with sponsorship. We also discuss whether how Van Sant film and what he focusses on might be connected to sexual identity.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/11/15/pofcrit-podcast-2024-jake-diamond-on-i-am-legend-francis-lawrence-2007/In this podcast we will discuss the often-overlooked 2007 adaptation of Richard Matheson's I Am Legend. Following Will Smith's rendition of Dr Robert Neville, a virologist and last man on earth, it focuses on the psychological deterioration and complex need for coping mechanisms one would face when confronted with complete existentialism. We will discuss the difficulties of adaptation and where focus can often be shifted with minute changes, forcing different interpretations; as well as how the 2007 version - with its complicated production - is the most poignant when it comes to the horror of isolation. Additionally, we will discuss a key element, which is the paradoxical situation Robert Neville finds himself in, because as the tagline states: The Last man on Earth isn't alone.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/11/12/pofcrit-podcast-2024-lily-stripe-on-blue-lagoon-randal-klaiser-1980/In this podcast we discuss the 1980 Randal Kleiser film, The Blue lagoon. It tells a coming-of-age story of two children shipwrecked on a tropical island, as they grow and develop into teenagers, and discover both themselves and the island. With beautiful sweeping landscapes and gorgeous young stars, it has all the attractions of a Hollywood film. However, its narrative is even more intriguing, both fascinating and bizarre in what it tries to tell, and the way the directors vision comes across. We talk about the frustrations of a story like this being told in a visual medium, and why it had the potential to break out of its western societal box, but failed to do so.
In this episode, we dive into Fallen Angels, one of Wong Kar Wai’s most visually stunning and emotionally layered films. Known for his distinct cinematic style, Wong blends fragmented storytelling with poetic visuals to explore themes of loneliness, alienation, and disconnection in Hong Kong’s urban landscape. The film’s fragmented narrative is complemented by Wong’s trademark use of disorienting camera movements, which heighten the emotional intensity and immerse viewers in the characters' internal worlds. Through his unique approach, Wong Kar Wai invites us to reflect on the complexities of human connection and the feeling of being lost in a modern, disconnected city.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/11/08/the-gus-van-sant-podcast-5-richard-drew-on-to-die-for-1995/I very much wanted to speak to the wonderful Richard Drew about TO DIE FOR (Gus Van Sant, 1995). Richard has a degree in Film and Literature so knows something about film, yet unusually for the guests on this podcast, he is not a Gus Van Sant fan. More importantly, Richard is a television producer, now based in Los Angeles, but who got his start on the ground floor of Reality TV in England and has worked on BIG BROTHER, SECOND SURVIVOR, FAME ACADEMY, and many more. He is now SVP of Development at Law and Crime Productions, specialising in True Crime Documentaries. His latest work, JAILBREAK: LOVE ON THE RUN is currently on Netlfix. All of this to say he is ideally suited to speak to the film's main themes.In the podcast we discuss how TO DIE FOR draws on the talk show culture of the era (Oprah, Geraldo, Sally Jesse Raphael, Phil Donahue) as well as the rise of celebrity culture in print (PEOPLE, US) and Television (ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT). It’s a film that’s very much about not only a grasping for fame, but for television and televisual fame. We talk of the performances, the film’s form and structure, how it’s a story complexly told but in a manner that’s experienced as simple and direct. All this and much more can be heard in the podcast above:
https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/11/08/pofcrit-podcast-2024-ying-qi-on-tangled-nathan-greno-byron-howard-2011/'In this episode, I’m diving into the world of Disney’s Tangled and exploring how it redefined what it means to be a princess, and the stereotypes that revolve around it. I’ll be talking about Rapunzel’s incredible agency, her journey from the tower to the floating lights, and how she takes charge of her own story—a big leap fromtraditional princess roles. I also delve into the music that makes Tangled so unforgettable, and how it creates meaning and emotion. Join me as we unravel how Tangled brought a fresh, inspiring twist to the Disney princess legacy'.Ying Qi
https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/10/30/eva-de-matos-on-bend-it-like-beckhamThe podcast explores how Bend it Like Beckham humorously and poignantly explores themes of identity, tradition, gender, sexuality, multiculturalism and Britishness.Bend It Like Beckham follows Jess, a British Indian teenager who dreams of playing football despite her family’s traditional expectations. Set in a diasporic area of Asian immigrants and 2nd generation children the podcast discusses the associated inter-generational themes that permeate the film. The podcast also discusses the film’s specificity to 2003 and how the political climate may have influenced the film’s representation of multiculturalism.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/10/28/the-gus-van-sant-podcast-no-4-lisa-purse-on-even-cowgirls-get-the-blues-1993/Lisa Purse on EVEN COWGIRLS GET THE BLUES (Gus Van Sant, 1993)I was truly delighted when Lisa Purse agreed to talk to me about EVEN COWGIRLS GET THE BLUES. Lisa is a Professor of Film Studies at Reading University, one of the most brilliant scholars on action movies, and a nuanced thinker on questions of mediations, conflicts, identities. I wanted to have her on the podcast because I thought she might expand my thinking on EVEN COWGIRLS GET THE BLUES, and she did. In the podcast we discuss seeing the film when it was first released, seeing it now, and explore the hows and whys of changing responses. We note the context of ‘New Queer Cinema’ and the different kinds of experiments that were then taking place. EVEN COWGIRLS GET THE BLUES is a film that refuses seriousness and we speculate that maybe neither of us was then in a place where we could recognise the value of that. We discuss how the film continues Van Sant’s interest in ‘The Road’, and discuss movement and flow, as rhythm, narrative device, formal strategy, and condensed ideation. Is it a film that’s trying to do much? B. Ruby Rich wrote on how the film contains references to forms of collective action. Is it more of its time than we first realised? We discuss the film as a form of active allyship that is not to be sneezed at, and note the hostility of its initial reception, refencing B. Ruby Rich’s contention that with this film Van Sant fell into the category of a female director (at least for some) and therefore got treated as one.
This podcast delves into Sam Raimi’s return to Superhero Cinema: Marvel’s ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’. Combining the classic horror elements of Raimi’s 1981 cult favourite ‘The Evil Dead’ with his more modern Spiderman trilogy offering, this Marvel film follows Doctor Strange in his second solo movie as Strange tries to prevent the multiverse-shattering dark magic created by the vengeful Wanda Maximoff. We discuss the disjunctions present within the film produced by the Marvel/Raimi divide - how much of the film can be viewed as an auteur product separate from the Marvel franchise?
https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/10/21/pofcrit-podcast-2024-fiola-odusote-on-everything-everywhere-all-at-once-daniel-scheinert-daniel-kwan-2022/The POFCRIT Podcast 2024 returns with Fiola Odusote on EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE (Daniel Scheinert, Daniel Kwan, 2022) . The action-filled dramedy follows a high-strung Chinese woman called Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh) who owns a struggling laundromat. When Evelyn is tasked with saving the multiverse she is quick to answer the call, not knowing the journey she’s about to embark on will cause her to reckon with her familial relationships and ultimately repair them. The film tackles the themes of family, immigration, choice and generational trauma, with the multiverse being used as a vehicle to explore these themes through a sci-fi lens. EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE, despite its absurdist elements, is grounded by the mother-daughter story at the heart of the film. The grounded story when mixed with the impeccable performances by the talented cast makes it easy to see why the film racked up so many awards. All this, and much more, is discussed in the podcast below:
https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/10/16/pofcrit-podcast-2024-rowan-abbott-on-eo-jerzy-skolimowski-2022/In this podcast, we talk about the 2022 Jerzy Skolimowski film, EO. The film is a sweeping picaresque narrative following the tumultuous life of a former circus donkey named EO, who is set free into rural Poland, a place that can’t seem to decide what purpose a donkey still has for humans. This wholly unique film is a landmark in animal representation on screen, being one of the most successful fiction films to feature an animal protagonist that isn’t anthropomorphized. We talk about the implications of this form of animal representation, and how the film achieves its goal of putting us in the shoes - or hooves - of a donkey. '
https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/10/16/on-the-giornate-del-cinema-muto-43-pordenone-silent-film-festival/Richard and I were unable to attend the Pordenone Silent Film Festival this year. Luckily for us, they provided an online daily program for the duration of the festival. In the podcast Richard and I discuss each of the daily programs, the various thematic strands, what was available to us and what we missed.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/10/14/pofcrit-podcast-2024-jack-hulbert-on-the-batman-matt-reeves-2022/The most recent entry in the 58 year long canon of Batman films, Matt Reeves’ 2022 film, The Batman, represents a stark departure from every iteration before it. It takes the core aspects of Batman, its characters and its world, and presents them as grimmer; more beaten down. It warps the franchise's trend towards realism into a gothic, brooding, detective noir. This episode delves into the varied history of the Batman film franchise, discovering how and why the series has evolved and morphed in the way it has. We look at film and societal changes that could have affected the franchise, and explore the breadths of such changes. Asking the question: how could a franchise surrounding one character go from being bright, colourful and campy in 1966, to something akin to David Fincher’s Seven in 2022.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/10/13/the-gus-van-sant-podcast-5a-to-die-for-1995/The first of two podcasts on Gus Van Sant’s TO DIE FOR (1995), this one with Matt Hays, journalist, co-editor with Tom Waugh of McGill-Queen’s Press’ QUEER FILM CLASSICS series, and a professor of film at Concordia University and Marianopolis College. Matt’s reviewed Criterion’s recent edition of the film for the current CINEASTE and I wanted to pick up on some of the excellent points he raises there: how is the film a turning point in Van Sant’s career? What is this shifting of gears between Van Sant’s more commercial and more esoteric works? Is the film prescient? What does it tell us about celebrity culture, the media and politics? What is the film’s view of heterosexual relations? What does it tell us about race in America? What are the formal tensions running through the film? It’s structure has been compared to that of CITIZEN KANE and RASHOMON. How so? We agree that Kidman gives one of her greatest performances but have Matt Dillon and Joaquin Phoenix been overlooked? All this and much more can be heard here:
https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/10/07/practice-of-film-criticism-2024-harry-molloy-on-superman-richard-donner-1978/‘You’ll believe a man can fly?’ was the tagline of Superman the Movie (1978) the use of the word ‘can’ rather than ascribing a quality to the film creates a world of possibilities for the feature. Superman as a film represents a dream-like possibility of a perfect man who can defy gravity, lift anything, and run at incredible speeds, and the film revels in the utopian idea of this man who has everything. This edition of the Film Criticism podcast will discuss how the film expresses these themes and how they differ from the modern discourse of the superhero genre. Further, we discuss the issues with the concept of the utopian man and the pure optimism presented within the film.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/10/05/pofcrit-podcast-2024-liberty-boyd-white-on-funny-games-michael-haneke-2007/A highly unforgiving work, Michael Haneke's horror cult-classic Funny Games (2007) stands as a profound critique of modern media consumption and the spectator's complicit relationship with the spectacle of violence often provided by American cinema. This podcast delves into the personal reflections on ideology, morality, genre and cinema as a whole, prompted by the unique viewing experience of Haneke's film. From an analysis of the abstract form (Emphasised best by its many meta-textual elements.), it's commitment to sound design, as well as an investigation into the film's dismissal of spectator 'enjoyment' - this episode hopes to emphasise the pervasive genius of Haneke's U.S remake through a conversational analysis of Funny Games as an outlier within contemporary film, thanks to its unflinching hostility towards the spectator typically depended on by cinema. Liberty Boyd-White
https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/10/02/the-gus-van-sant-podcast-3-my-own-private-idaho-1991/We discuss one of the films that very much marked me, the image above was the image on my letterhead in the time we still used snail mail. In the accompanying podcast we discuss the film's historical significance. Was it a 'film that (made) history? We discuss it relationship to New Queer Cinema. We speculate on whether the film queers Shakespeare and discuss the film in relation to Welles' Chimes at Midnight. We comment on the significance of the casting, the contributions of River Phoenix, Keanu Reeves, Udo Kier and others and what their contributions to the film might be. We also discuss in detail particular scenes, the one where the magazine covers come to life; the rhyming musical/ hustler interludes, the great campfire scene. ...and much more.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/09/26/the-gus-van-sant-podcast-no-2-drugstore-cowboy-1989/We found DRUGSTORE COWBOY, Gus Van Sant's second feature, beautiful, imaginative and moving; a film that gets better with each viewing. We discuss Matt Dillon, so extraordinarily good looking and yet also so very believable as a ‘regular guy’; Tom Waits was the original casting and we talk about what Dillon brings to the role, his choices, and another possible connection to Van Sant, how he is also drawn to the marginal, the outsider; we talk about the experimental montages, clearly influenced by Anthony Balch’s Fires Open Fire (1963) which evoke a subjective state of mind, usually drug fuelled, but which also act as a structuring device and help make the film aesthetically cohesive. We discuss continuities: time-lapse photography, Super8 filming, the Pacific Northwest, subject matter of marginals, outsiders, small time crims, junkies. We both agree that we don’t like William Burroughs in the film, even though he was much praised upon its release. We discuss how Van Sant’s second feature is an announcement of a major American director with a distinctive voice, a very particular style, a visual vernacular, a contiguous world from film to film, peopled by recurring figures, a darkly comic tone
José Arroyo in Conversation with Edmund Stenson, co-director with Daniel Rohar, of BLINK, a documentary which will be premiering at the London Film Festival with three screenings on October 13th, 14th and 19th. It will get a nationwide theatrical release across the United States with Disney/ National Geographic beginning next week on October 4th. An extraordinary achievement for a documentary. The film tells the story of the Lemay-Pelletier family who discover that their eldest child Mia suffers from a rare genetic disease, retinitis pigmentosa, that will eventually end in blindness. To make matters worse, it turns out that three of their four children suffer from the same disease. What to do? A doctor suggests that they may want to build a memory bank of images their children can subsequently access once they go blind. They canvass their children for a bucket list of activities and they set out to make them come true by taking a year off and travelling in Africa, South Asia and Latin America. It’s a moving film, beautiful to look at, about family, parenthood, childhood; and resilience in the face of the unavoidable. In the podcast I talk to Edmund Stenson about the making of the film, what a documentary filmmaker does, how narrative is shaped in this form, the contributions of the film editors, the differences between the starting idea and what eventually comes out via filming and editing. Ed is also a Warwick Film/TV graduate so from about the 33rd minute of the podcast I also ask him about process: how does a film/TV graduate end up as a director of documentaries, particularly as high profile a feature as this one.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/09/22/the-gus-van-sant-podcast-1-mala-noche-1985/A new podcast to accompany a new mini-research project. Richard’s kindly humoured me and consented to help kickstart this project, but he’ll only co-host with me for the first three films so I shall be reaching out to some of you to talk to me about the rest – and certainly if you have a particular interest in any of Van Sant’s films and would like to podcast on them with me, do please get in touch. I’m hoping to build a resource here, not only with the podcasts but eventually with clips, images, a bibliography and more. It will be a process. In this inaugural podcast we talk about Van Sant’s first feature, based on Walt Streeter’s autobiographical novel, self-financed for $20,000 and filmed on 16mm. We discuss what made us uncomfortable on first viewing, in my case when the film first came out: the power differentials between the characters; the racialised dimension to the casting; but we also discuss why it arguably remains a great film – and the troublesome aspects are part of its greatness. We discuss how the film is an announcement of a new voice in American cinema, with roots in a history of queer culture (John Rechy, Genet, Warhol, The Beats). We speculate on the film’s romanticism within a quite fluid representation of sexuality that distinguishes between acts, desire, feelings and identities; queer avant-la-lèttre. We talk about the film’s look, one partly dictated by the film’s budget, few lights available thus the choice of hard one-directional lighting; making for a noir look but with a beat, bohemian sensibility.MALA NOCHE arrives in the context of new forms of finance, distribution and exhibition permitted by the developing video rental market. One could now produce low-budget films which heretofore challenging subect matterand/or challenging forms and make money from niche markets. Van Sant appears alongside Jarmusch, Spike Lee and other indie filmmakers in the mid 80s. MALA NOCHE can be thought of as a the first of what may be considered a trilogy (alongside DRUGSTORE COWBOY and MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO), at least thematically: it’s North West setting, the marginal cultures, the bohemian romance of outsiderness, it’s avant-garde components, its daring. An exciting film to re-watch and talk about.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/08/16/jose-arroyo-in-converssation-with-alastair-phillips-on-tokyo-story-yasujiro-ozu-1953/I’ve been wanting to talk to Alastair Phillips about his ‘BFI Classic’ monograph on TOKYO STORY (Yasujiro Ozu, 1953) since it was first published late last year. I found reading the book after watching the film truly illuminating, deepening and enriching the experience: a real achievement with a film already so familiar. It draws on Japanese sources not yet available in English, offering new information on the film’s production and reception and combines this with Alastair’s characteristically precise and informative textual analysis. It’s no surprise that the book is already on its second printing. In the podcast we discuss the significance of TOKYO STORY being Ozu’s first film after the American occupation; Shochiku Studios, genre, and the star system of the period; the film’s reception in Japan and the lag between that and broader international release; Ozu’s characteristic aesthetic, including what Nöel Burch characterised as the ‘pillow shot’ ; the relation of space to place in the film; how the film is about the flow of time in its varied temporalities; the female-centric aspect of the film and what it has to say about ‘blood’ families; why and how it’s so moving; it’s relationship to MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW (Leo McCarey, 1937); how Ozu is not just one of the great directors of the Twentieth Centuries but, considering his work as a potter, designer, painter, photographer, calligrapher etc, might just be one of its greatest artists; why it keeps getting ranked at the top of the critics’ polls decade after decade; why isn’t it called THE ONOMICHI STORY …. And much more. A conversation that will hopefully incite listeners to read the book.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/08/01/jose-arroyo-in-conversation-with-siavash-minoukadeh/At Cinema Rediscovered I attended a panel on film programming and film curating chaired by Maddy Probst and found the collaborations between the festival and the young programmers impressive and inspiring. The strand I attended most assiduously was Siavash Minoukadeh’s Queer Cinema From the Eastern Bloc, co-curated with Fedor Tot. In the accompanying podcast I talk to Siavash about how he came to be a curator, how this particular programme came to be, what his collaborations with Fedor Tot and the Festival were like, what risks were involved, and what the feedback on the program has been like thus far. Is film programming putting bums on seats? Developing new audiences? Bringing hard to see material into view? Creating contexts for different ways of viewing and understanding? Making cultural interventions? All of the above?
https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/07/20/cinema-rediscovered-2024-preview/Richard and I preview the 2024 Cinema Rediscovered Programme taking place in Bristol, July 24-28. We’ve already podcast on the Parajanov films and the Ninon Sevilla ‘cabaretera’ films so we here highlight some of the other strands such as the 70s cycle of ‘New” American films of the 70s titled OUT OF THEIR DEPTH: CORRUPTION, SCANDAL AND LIES IN THE NEW HOLLYWOOD and QUEER CINEMA FROM THE EASTER BLOC. We also highlight restorations of films from Charles Burnett, Bela Tarr, Edward Yang and many others, as well as the rare opportunity to see films by the likes of Lynda Miles, Stephanie Rothman, not to mention beautiful restorations of classics such as GILDA and THE LONG KISS GOODBYE. Cinema Rediscovered offers not only a superb programme but a model of engagement, community based, inclusive, social, cinephile, generative. It includes films but also history walks, workshops on criticism and projection and much else. Aat the centre of it all are films, usually in beautiful prints with great attention to projection, all instigating a conversation on cinema.
Sheldon Hall’s ARMCHAIR CINEMA: A HISTORY OF FEATURE FILMS ON BRITISH TELEVISION is a beautifully produced object, lavishly illustrated and lovely to hold. More importantly, it is a pleasure to read , full of new and fascinating information and is sure to become a landmark and reference point in the study of films on television for decades to come. In the podcast we discuss how the book came to be and how it developed, how the policy around films in television developed over the years, how research lead to a heretofore unaccounted for Hitchcock film, Leslie Halliwell’s influence as film buyer, the role of television programming in creating particular types of cinephilia, how the editing of films for television changed over the years, what Sheldon learned as a result of writing the book, what I learned as a result of reading it, and much mor
José Arroyo talks to Lorena Pino about the programme of Ninon Seville films playing at the Watershed in Bristol as part of the Cinema Rediscovered Programme, and which includes two UK Premieres -- Carita de Cielo (José Diáz Morales, Mexico, 1947) and Aventurera (Alberto Gout, Mexico, 1950) -- as well as the 4K restoration of an acknowledged if still too little-seen masterpiece, Victimas del Pecado (Emilio Fernández, Mexico, 1951). Gabriel Figueroa, the great cinematographer who worked with Buñuel and John Ford, is responsible for the great film's astonishing look.
Richard and I return to the podcast with our Ritrovato Round-up. Last year I couldn’t go due to health reasons and I interviewed him; this year, the tables were turned and he interviews me. Ritrovato is so vast and generous in its programming that everyone who attended would have had a different experience of the festival. This is an account of mine. We criticise the booking system and people’s piggish habit of taking out their phones during screenings. Cinephiles do know better, which makes it all the worse. The rest is mainly hossanas. We praise Daniel Bird’s programming of the Parajanov Strand. We note how even seeing familiar films can be the basis of a rediscovery and discuss how the programme of Dietrich films at the festival should re-write the narrative of the Von Sternberg/ Dietrich collaborations from one of a Svengali act of moulding to a feminist act of self-creation. We touch on Delphine Seyrig, the Dark Heimat Strand, Gustaf Molander, Anatole Litvak and highlight Carlos Sauras’ Los golfos and Montxo Armendáriz Tasio from the Cinema Libero strand. We also discuss seeing films at the stunning Cinema Modernissimo, watching Les parapluies de Cherbourg at the Piazza Maggiore and many other bits and bobs.
An inspiring talk with Ross Higgins on the foundation of the Archives gaies du Québec. How did the archive came to be? Why did it come to be? What social and historical contexts shaped it? How did it develop from materials stored and used in his flat to an archive of national and international importance? Ross, who along with Jacques Prince, founded the archive, offers various histories and contexts, from changes in the law, to changing concepts of sexual and social identities, that informed how the archive developed and how it came to be what it now is, taking into account particularities of place but always conscious of larger forces and the interplay between them. A talk anyone interested in histories of sexualities, communities and the place of the archive in all of that, will find fascinating.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/04/04/in-conversation-with-richard-layne-on-yoko-ono-music-of-the-mind-tate-modern/I talk to Richard Layne on ‘Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind’, currently on at Tate Modern. You might recognise Richard from our podcast, THINKING ALOUD ABOUT FILM. What you might not know is that he is a long-time fan of Yoko Ono and one of the most knowledgeable people on her work as an artist and performer. In this podcast, Richard, compares this exhibition, billed as the largest ever undertaken on the work of Yoko One, and compares it to the many others he’s attended. We talk of how he became a fan, her various types of work, the performance art, the conceptual art, her books of instructions, the connection to Fluxus. We also touch on her collaborations with some of the key figures of mid-twentieth century art (John Cage, Robert Rauschenberg, John Lennon) and how her work prefigures that of contemporary artists such as Marina Ibrahimovic. Our conversation broadly follows the flow of the exhibition itself, so I’ve included photographs from the exhibition in the blog so the listener might more clearly follow the points of conversation. Richard is very illuminating on why Yoko Ono is one of those figures that keep getting re-discovered periodically, on her extensive influence in various domains of art, from the gallery to punk, and on how she is a wonderful conduit to chance meetings with The Pet Shop Boys.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/02/13/jose-arroyo-in-conversation-with-sean-burns-on-dorothy-towers-and-death/Sean Burns is a Birmingham-born, London-based artist; the author of DEATH, part of the LOOK AGAIN series of volumes interpreting the TATE’s collection through particular themes and published to coincide with TATE BRITAIN’S recent re-hang; and the director of DOROTHY TOWERS, a film in which I appear. In the accompanying podcast, we discuss these iconic Birmingham Tower blocks that are the subject of the film; how their design and location meant that generations of queers ended up living there and continue to do so; how these buildings have a patterned history but not just one story. There are different stories, different layers of stories, spectral and layered, plural. We discuss how ‘Queer’ in England is constantly re-written as something that only happens in London and how the film is often interpreted by audiences as a reclaiming and a validation of similar histories that have probably taken place in cities all over the country. It’s a film that also brings into play modernism, brutalism, drag, fashion, and urban design that prioritises cars over people. We discuss how the film was driven by a mandate to search but not necessarily to find; and how what is evoked is a layered history but one with the feeling that comes from a place in which death, mourning and sadness are spectral but not defining elements. A film aware of the perils of representation and thus conscientiously ethical in its approach. We talk also of Burn’s recent book on death, his obsession with Francis Bacon and George Dyer, how Ireland and Irishness are developing concerns, and whether death, mourning, and longing are themes common to all this work.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/02/12/thinking-aloud-about-film-out-of-the-blue-chen-kun-hou-taiwan-1983/We continue our discussion of the GOLDEN DECADES: CINEMATIC MASTERS OF THE GOLDEN HORSE AWARDS with a chat on OUT OF THE BLUE (Chen Kun-Hou, Taiwan, 1983).A fascinating film to discuss in relation to all our previous podcasts on Taiwanese Cinema and Hou Hsiao-hsien; a film directed by Chen Kun-hou, the cinematographer on Hou Hsiao-hsien’s early films such as THE GREEN, GREEN GRASS OF HOME (1982) and THE BOYS FROM FENGKUEI (1983). Chen Kun-hou is also the cinematographer on HE NEVER GIVES UP (LEE HSING, 1978), and of course Hou Hsia-hsien was the co-writer on GROWING PAINS (1983) and this one. These films also share writer, Chu T’ien-wen (the screenwriter) who went on to co-write most of Hou Hsia-hsien’s films, this one based on a novel by Chu T’ien-wen’s sister, Chu T’ien-hsin. Collectively ork that evokes an outpouring of creativity but as part of a circle of collaborators. And this particular film seems a turning point from the healthy realist cinema that was and the comedies and musicals that followed to what would become known as New Taiwanese Cinema. A key film, released just after BOYS FROM FENGKUEI; A film that takes its time, the camera lingers, yet never feels long, a story gently told about young love in trouble, filial duty, ties to family, small transgressions. Aspects bring to mind BEFORE SUNRISE (Richard Linklater, 1995) Arguably, one can’t understand New Taiwanese Cinema well without having a context; and this series is a shortcut to that context, the virtue is that it’s preselected, the films that that national industry thought the best; and within THAT, OUT OF THE BLUE is arguably the key film of that transition.
In the podcast we try to mix very personal responses to ALL OF US STRANGERS with various historical contexts and speak of the film’s setting in relation to queer childhoods in that period, section 28, trauma, erasure; the film’s formal and stylistic achievements; Andrew Haigh’s career; how the film speaks to psychoanalytic pain, a generational pain, grief, AIDS. The personal grounded in historical contexts as a platform for politics. It’s all in there
https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/02/01/thinking-aloud-about-film-he-never-gives-up-li-hsing-taiwan-1978/We continue our discussion of the GOLDEN DECADES: CINEMATIC MASTERS OF THE GOLDEN HORSE AWARDS with a chat on He Never Gives Up (LI Hsing, Taiwan, 1979). Li won the Golden Horse Award for Best Director for his films Beautiful Duckling (1965), Execution in Autumn (1972), and He Never Gives Up (1978) setting a record in Taiwan's film history that remains unbroken, marking the pinnacle of Li Hsing's directing career. It’s also part of a run -- Good Morning Taipei (1979) and The Story of A Small Town (1980) – of very successful films. This is our opportunity, a mixed blessing, to see a ‘Healthy Realist’ film, ‘uplifting’, and we now clearly see why the New Wave, so clearly a response to ‘Healthy Realism’ made such an impact. The film is based on a real story, published as A Raft in the Storm, that dealt with a child overcoming disability. We discuss, healthy realism, ideology, hope, disability, and the film’s trade in platitudes. Richard is the voice of reason; I despised many aspects of it.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/01/28/thinking-aloud-about-film-four-moods-taiwan-1970/We continue our discussion of the GOLDEN DECADES: CINEMATIC MASTERS OF THE GOLDEN HORSE AWARDS, with a chat on Four Moods, a portmanteau film, originally conceived as a project to raise funds for Li Han-hsiang’s ailing film company, Grand Motion Picture Company in Taiwan,The four short films that together compose FOUR MOODS are:First, Joy, is directed by Pai Ching-Jui, a bold beginning, shot as a silent film, with diegetic music but no dialogueThe second is King Hu’s Anger, which no doubt King Hu’s fans will rejoice at. Sadness, the third, is directed by “godfather of Taiwanese cinema” Li Hsing, is perhaps misnamed as it’s perhaps more about self-destructive anger and vengefulness than anything else. Happiness, the last, and our favourite, is directed by Li Han-Hsiang himself All involve ghosts, hauntings, and desires.A historically and culturally significant film, featuring four of the most popular and significant directors of the time. Fabulistic and allegorical, yet, the length of the podcast testifies to the limits of our understanding. The frustration of watching these films is the bounds of one’s knowledge, and we would encourage listeners who want to know more to read these excellent articles by Andrew Heskins and Hayley Scallion.The copy kindly made available for viewing is brown and a bit murky colour-wise and does not deserve to be publicised as a restoration. The sub-titling, particularly of text within the narrative, could be improved. That said, w’re very glad to see it.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/01/23/storm-over-the-yangtze-river-li-han-hsiang-taiwan-1969/We continue our discussion of the GOLDEN DECADES: CINEMATIC MASTERS OF THE GOLDEN HORSE AWARDS, with a response to Storm Over the Yantze River (Li Han-hsiang, Taiwan, 1969).
https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/01/17/thinking-aloud-about-film-good-morning-taipei-li-hsing-taiwan-1979/We return to Hou Hsiao Hsien and to Taiwanese Cinema. Hou is the screenwriter for this transitional melodramatic musical: a hit and winner of the Golden Horse Award. Part of a series of films, some in new restorations, that are being screened under the title of GOLDEN DECADES: CINEMATIC MASTERS OF THE GOLDEN HORSE AWARDS. In the podcast we discuss it in relation to the healthy realist films of a previous generation, Hou's first films as a director, Spanish musical melodramas featuring children and British 60s musicals such as LIVE IT UP. A very enjoyable film that makes us look forward to the others in the series.
We chat to Prof. Dolores Tierney on MUBI's Sectacle Every Day: The Many Seasons of Mexican Cinema, debating the various films in the series, and topics that arise from them individually and collectively: Mexican National Cinema, Transnational Cinema, The Star System, genre and cult cinema.
Based on the 1970 novella by Muriel Spark, with Elizabeth Taylor playing a woman in the middle of a nervous breakdown, constantly deflecting the attention of brutish men who mistake her for a prostitute whilst cruising for a man to kill her; a fragmentary film, a big-budget experiment in narration, with a now middle-aged but still astonishingly beautiful Elizabeth Taylor giving one of her greatest and most under-rated performances. In this podcast we discuss Muriel Spark’s The Driver’s Seat, Vittorio Storaro’s cinematography, the appearance of Andy Warhol as a badly-dubbed British aristocrat; Elizabeth Taylor’s career in the late sixties/ early 70s and to what extent its reception has been coloured by sexism (in contrast to say Dirk Bogarde’s) and American cultural imperialism (popular european cinema doesn’t matter). We also mention Bruce La Bruce’s appreciation of the film in an essay that accompanies the BFI blu-ray release and speculate on whether the film has a ‘gay gaze’. An exploratory discussion of a film that deserves much more attention.
The kind of film where the lead character attempts an autopsy wearing a bikini: glamorous, camp, a bit low rent. In the podcast we discuss how the film is influenced by the James Bond craze, the Batman TV series, the wrestling phenomenon then at its height in Mexico, and a history of horror cinema. There’s a mad scientist who laughs an evil laugh, his assistant is called Igor, there’s a Promethean attempt at creating people à la Frankenstein except this time it’s a fish, Pisces, presumably to make the most out of the Alcapulco setting, a bit like The Creature from the Black Lagoon but in a prettier setting (and this seems to have in turn influenced Del Toro’s creature in The Shape of Water). It’s an aspirational film: there are fancy cars and apartments, great clothes, speedboats, the latest in consumer items (the record player is to die for). It’s also a curious mixture of feminist aspiration (the wealthiest woman in the world, sisterly, super-smart and able to fight) with misogynistic realities (The Batwoman’s function is predominantly to wear a bikini and be looked at whilst solving crime). We end by noting that the film is credited to Rene Cardona as director but it’s ‘a film by’ producer Guillermo Calderon Stell and we discuss how it fits in to the extended Batman universe. The last of our podcasts on the wonderful MUBI programme: Spectacle Every Day: The Many Seasons of Mexican Cinema.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2023/11/01/thinking-aloud-about-film-the-witchs-mirror-chano-urueta-mexico1962/The Witch’s Mirror/ El Espejo de la bruja (Chano Urueta, Mexico, 1962) is an immensely entertaining film that is being screened on MUBI as part of their ‘Spectacle Every Day: The Many Seasons of Mexican Cinema’ series. There are claims that it is a ‘uniquely Mexican Gothic’ but we don’t quite agree. Indeed, in the podcast we relate it to Rebecca, Frankenstein, Eyes Without a Face, The Skin I Live In, The Beast With Five Fingers and other well-known films it was clearly influenced by or itself influenced. It is a derivative if visually inventive film, with a director who has an eye for composition, who keeps the camera moving, tells the story at a clip, and who knows how to make the most out of roughly a cast of four performers doing their outmost in about three sets. It’s a considerable achievement in its own terms and great fun to see though those looking for depth will be disappointed.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2023/10/31/in-conversation-with-pamela-hutchinson-on-the-red-shoes/There is a major retrospective of the films of Powell & Pressburger currently underway in London at the BFI Southbank – the most extensive celebration of their work ever undertaken -- selections of which will tour the country. As part of the celebrations, the BFI has published a short monograph by Pamela Hutchinson on THE RED SHOES -- one of their greatest films -- under its ‘BFI Film Classics’ imprint. I found it fun to read and very informative, with an impressive range of sources, intelligently organised. The book is beautifully written in a way that seems personal but is so impressively argued it becomes very difficult to argue against; and with a delightful mode of narrating: ‘but perhaps you disagree with my take.’ It’s both impressive and entertaining and it made me want to talk to Pam some more about the film and the book. In the accompanying podcast, we discuss the following: Who are Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger and what is their significance to a history of cinema in general, and British cinema in particular? What is the enduring appeal of THE RED SHOES. Why does the film feel so distinctly British but also so different from the British Cinema then being produced. What is the context for the film’s theme of ‘dying for art’. How did the filmmakers and cinematographer Jack Cardiff achieve a style of colour so different than that normally produced by Technicolour productions under the direction of Natalie Kalmus? What is a composed film? What is the relationship of a ‘composed film’ to the concept of Gesuntkunstwerk? What was the status of ballet then and how does the film deploy the form? Was the film an influence on MGM Freed Unit Productions such as AN AMERICAN IN PARIS? What did Anton Walbrook and Moira Shearer bring to the film and what happened to the after? And much more. I have spoken to Pam previously on her other brilliant BFI classic on PANDORA’S BOX; listeners might want to have a look at the Silent London website on all aspects of Silent Cinema that she directs and writes in. Pam will be talking on THE RED SHOES at the Midlands Arts Centre on the 16th of December to accompany a screening of the film. The MAC cinema has arguably the best projection system in the Midlands, a perfect place to see such a great and sumptuous film. Do I need to say that the book is a perfect stocking filler for Christmas?
https://notesonfilm1.com/2023/10/26/jose-arroyo-in-conversation-with-jan-jilek/I participated in the Film Festival/ Summer Film School at Uherské Hradiště and was bowled over by the experience. Thousands of people streaming the streets of an extraordinarily pretty town in the Czech Republic – many of them very young – arriving from all parts of the country and abroad to see films, listen to lectures, participate in discussions. The town itself contributing all of its institutional resources to make it possible. Uherské Hradiště had turned over schools, gyms, and every available tent to the Festival/ Summer School so that young people can just roll out their sleeping bags and have a place to sleep. There are no searchlights, limousines or red carpets. But there is excellent programming, a pedagogic ethos, a party atmosphere, famous guests (Lav Diaz this year), and superb organisation that makes for a rich, varied and democratic experience. Everyone seemed eager to see and learn. These are some of the reasons why I wanted to talk to Jan Jílek, Programme Director of Film Festival/ Summer Film School, Uherské Hradiště. In the podcast we talk about the roots of the festival in the Film Club Movement and its continuing connection with the Association of Czech Film Clubs (AČFK); how the festival tries to build on its heritage while helping construct new audiences; the changing role but continued importance of introductions and programme notes; how distinguished guests are important but how the main focus is really on the audience; we discuss the infrastructure of programming (first blocks, then sections, then films); its connection to education (Lectures, Master-classes, Introductions, notes); there is also an industry stand; and we question what is the Festival/School’s connection to a history/development of Czech cinema. Finally, the festival will be celebrating it’s 50th anniversary so we discuss some of the highlights of previous years and what to look for next July/August when this extraordinary event celebrates its 50th anniversary.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2023/10/08/el-esqueleto-de-la-senora-morales-the-skeleton-of-mrs-morales-rogelio-a-gonzalez-mexico-1960/A taxidermist is married to a wife who constantly nags, feigns illness and tells neighbours he’s is abusing her whenever he doesn’t do what she wants. What do you think will happen? EL ESQUELETO DE LA SEÑORA MORALES/ THE SKELETON OF MRS MORALES (Rogelio A. Gonzalez. Mexico, 1960) was voted 19th in a list of the top 100 films in the history of Mexican cinema and currently on MUBI as part of the ‘Spectacle Every Day: The Many Seasons of Mexican Cinema’. Based on a short story by Arthur Machen, ‘The Islington Mystery, the film stars Arturo de Córdova, Amparo Rivelles and Elda Peralta and is written by Luis Alcoriza, who that year also wrote Buñuel’s THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL’. In the podcast we discuss all of this plus the film’s visuals, pacing, tone, whether it’s macabre rather than Surrealist…and more. Our favourite in the series thus far. Rogelio A. González is a director we’d never heard of. This film makes us want to see more of his work.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2023/09/18/thinking-aloud-about-film-stronger-than-love-mas-fuerte-que-el-amor-cuba-mexico-tulio-demicheli-1955/Stronger Than Love/ Más fuerte que el amor (Cuba/ Mexico, Tulio Demicheli, 1955)Another fascinating film showing on MUBI; part of the ‘Spectacle Every Day: The Many Seasons of Mexican Cinema’ program; a lurid and very entertaining melodrama; interesting to compare with its contemporary Hollywood variant but perhaps best seen as an example of Spanish speaking transnational cinema. The director Tulio Demicheli is from Argentina, Jorge Mistral is Spanish, Miroslava originates in Czechoslovakia, from a Jewish family displaced by WWII. The film itself is a Mexican/Cuban co-production, in which, as we can see from the poster, the location shooting is a major attraction: ‘The exteriors for this movie were filmed in Santiago de Cuba, the beautiful Capital of Oriente.’ It’s a movie that condenses, symbolises and allegorises class oppression under patriarchy, interspersing the drama with some melo in the guise of very suggestive musical/ dance sequences.’
https://notesonfilm1.com/2023/09/14/thinking-aloud-about-film-her-man-tay-garnett-1930/A ‘pre-Code’ film set in Havana, probably so lots of drinking could take place during Prohibition, and based on the Frankie and Johnny song about a prostitute who falls in love with a sailor and kills her pimp(see below). The roving camera in HER MAN challenges many of the pre-conceptions of cinema at the beginning of the sound period. Costs of on-location shooting split with W. S. Van Dyke’s CUBAN LOVE SONG, with Havana street-scenes of the period being a major attraction in. the film. In the podcast we discuss the mobile camera, the subject-matter in relation to the Code, how music is mainly restricted to the diegetic, the opening titles, the connection of the comic gags to Garnett’s training with Hal Roach, and the performances of Phillips Holmes, Helen Twelvetrees and Marjorie Rambeau. Many thanks to the Film Foundation for once more offering an opportunity to see such a great restoration.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2023/09/11/streetwalker-trotacalles-matilde-landeta-mexico-1951/ A female perspective on sex and marriage evoking a great mistrust of the social construction of romantic love. Truly radical for its time, in the way that it so clearly positions marriage as equivalent to prostitution, and makes husbands equivalents to pimps. The third film directed my Matilde Landeta, who had to fight the director's guild in order to be allowed to direct at all, and who would not direct another film after this one for another forty years. A film to see.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2023/08/25/thinking-aloud-about-film-the-eloquent-peasant-shadi-abdel-salam-egypt-1970/ We podcast on our second Shadi Abdel Salam film, the beautiful Film Foundation restoration of The Eloquent Peasant. The film is a parable, a moral lesson. A peasant is robbed of his cargo by a rich man. Is justice for the powerless possible or are the rich protected by too many vested interests. As relevant a question now as it was in Ancient Times.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2023/08/15/thinking-aloud-about-film-deep-crimson-profundo-carmesi-arturo-ripstein-mexico-1996/ This is our eighth podcast on Arturo Ripstein films. Increased exposure has only increased our appreciation; and Deep Crimson seems the best of the films we've seen. Based on a true story that was then made into a film by Leonard Kastle in 1970 -- The Honeymoon Killers -- Deep Crimson has a very particular tone, black and funny, encased in the structures of feelings of 1940s popular romances, and edging them towards the savage and brutal as the film unfurls. It's an extraordinary work.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2023/07/26/thinking-aloud-about-film-bushman-david-schickele-1971/ BUSHMAN (David Schickele, 1971) is a real discovery, already the subject of much excitement when shown at Ritrovato in Bologna, and now made available to us through Cinema Re-Discovered this coming weekend, where it is being screened Sunday 30th of July at 18.30. Set in 1968, in the context of the murders of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, with the Nigerian civil war in its second year, the film centres around the experiences of Gabriel (Paul Eyam Nzie Opokam), a Nigerian graduate student also teaching at San Francisco State College, the cross-cultural experiences he’s afforded, and the different types of racism he encounters. In the accompanying podcast, we discuss the film’s beauty, its politics, how it fluidly seems to condense so many of the burning issues in black American cinema in the following four decades, and the important shifts in register near the film’s end. A really great film, so far little know, that’s bound to encourage much discussion, as indeed it did with us.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2023/07/22/thinking-aloud-about-film-cinema-rediscovered-2023/ Cinema Rediscovered, which takes place annually in Bristol, is one of the most exciting events in the cinema calendar year. In the accompanying podcast, Richard discusses the various strands of the program (Reframing Film; Restored and Re-discovered; Look Who's Back -- The Hollywood Renaissance and the Blacklist; Dowb abd Dirty: American D.IY, Restored) and José offers tips on many of the various films that make up the program. There are many reasons to visit Bristol, and attending this festival is tops of the list.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2023/07/14/thinking-aloud-about-film-the-killers-1946-1964/ In the podcast we compare the two films, a noir and a neo-noir, the 46 version made stars of Burt Lancaster and Ava Gardner. We then compare both to the Tarkovski 1956 student version of the film, what they use of Hemingway, and what needed to be invented as background. We discuss why the 1946 continues to fascinate through its Citizen Kane style investigatory structure, its use of music, Woody Bredell's textured, expressive cinematography, and its depiction of a man driven to death by his love of a woman who constantly lies and who the film shows as unknowable.
I was unable to attend this year's Ritrovato; a pity as the programming is often a preview of films that subsequently screen elsewhere and inevitably become highlights of the year. Luckily, Richard was there to report on what he saw he saw.
In the podcast, we discuss the following sections of the festival:The Time Machine: 1923, where films from a century ago get highlighted; The Space Machine section, particularly the Cinema Libero selections, of which Richard was able to see every feature film. We discuss the New Film Foundation Restorations, of which Richard highlights BUSHMAN ( David Schickele, 1981) and TIME OF THE HEATHEN(Peter Kass, 1961) . BUSHMAN will be shown at Bristol’s Cinema Rediscovered this year. Richard also highlights two Iranian films by Bharam Beyzaie, director of DOWNPOUR Like with CHESS IN THE WIND, programmer Ehsan Khoshbakht describes THE STRANGER AND THE FOG and THE BALLAD OF TARA as a holy grail of Iranian Cinema, pre-revolutionary films thought lost and now restored.
Richard touches on some of the restorations he saw: MAN'S CASTLE (Frank Borzage), CROSS OF IRON, CRY THE BELOVED COUNTRY (Zoltan Korda); MARRIAGE CIRCLE and LADY WINDERMERE'S FAN, the latter with a score by Timothy Brock and shown with a full orchestra; Stella Dallas, with Stephen Horne’s orchestral score and an equally wonderful orchestra.
We discuss the Anna Magnani section; the Rouben Mamoulian section, which Richard views as an opportunity to see the films at their best rather than any revelations; The Michael Powell section, mostly Powell without Pressburger. Powell himself said he didn’t think his reputation would survive many more discoveries of his quota quickies. Has it?
We also discuss being at the festival this year: The pros and cons of seeing films on the Square; the system of advance bookings; the faults and virtues of the introductions; and whether Ritrovato should continue the digital programming it began during COVID.
The overall assessment is that it was a wonderful festival and I look forward to once more be present at it next year,
José Arroyo
Comrades (Bill Douglas, UK, 1986)In the accompanying podcase, we discuss Bill Douglas’ fourth and final film, very different from his earlier trilogy: A three-hour-long epic of the ‘Tolpuddle Martyrs’, a group of early 19th-century agricultural workers who band together to unite against the lowering of their wages, form The Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers, an early form of trade union, campaign against rich landowners, end up on trial on a spurious charge ‘ swearing an illegal oath’ and get shipped to serve their sentence in Australia. References to early forms of cinema structure the film’s narrative; the story is told through an account of the pre-history of motion pictures: shadow play, magic lanterns, camera obscura, heliotypes, dioramas, The story is fascinating because it is a pre-history of the union movement and also pre-Marx. We discuss how the film becomes less interesting in the second half where the narrative moves to Australia partly because we lose sight of what happens in Britain: the rallying, the support, the organising. In Australia, the Tolpuddle martyrs and indigenous people are seen to share an experience of oppression. But we also see the limits of this, how some of the white oppressed themselves become oppressors as soon as they get a little power. We discuss how the might might be both an unwieldly mess and a very great film. What is beautiful about this movie is the way Douglas films working class people and landscape. There’s a real tension between the narrative and the poetic. The storytelling is tortured. Interesting to compare with My Way Home, in which the Scottish bits seemed stronger than the section where he goes into the army and abroad. At it’s best, the film brings to mind Chahine’s The Land. At its worst it feels uncompromising and a little bit self-indulgent. The film has a very great cast with famous actors playing the upper classes (Robert Stephens, James Fox, Vanessa Redgrave) and then unknown actors playing the workers (Imelda Staunton, Keith Allen, Phil Davies).Barbara Windsor, falls somewhere in between and offers a wonderful turn. England is shown as inhospitable, unfair, unjust. It’s a real condemnation. The film is available on BFI blu ray and is also showing on Amazon Prime in a very good print.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2023/05/11/thinking-aloud-about-film-stella-dallas-henry-king-usa-1925/We discuss the latest in the series of magnificent Film Foundation Screenings, the 1925 version of STELLA DALLAS directed by Henry King and restored by MOMA. It’s a glorious experience to see a film now almost 100 years old, looking brand new, probably seeing it in a better condition than most audiences would have seen it upon first release, particularly if they didn’t live in major metropolitan centres. The quality of the image, the toning, the tinting: it’s a sensuous joy. We also praise the film itself. It’s a work that continues to move. We compare it to two later versions: King Vidor’s 1937 film with Barbara Stanwyck and John Erman’s 1990 version with Bette Midler. We discuss the treatment of class in all three films. José argues for the superiority of the 1937 version and praises Stanwyck and the extraordinary last shot of that film. That aside, we also discuss why we love this marvellous silent film, praised as a masterpiece when it first came out and then sidelined as a mere ‘woman’s film’ for many generations.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2023/05/06/thinking-aloud-about-film-water-drops-on-burning-rocks-francois-ozon-france-2000/Today’s Fassbinder is a podcast on François Ozon’s adaptation of Fassbinder’s play, WATER DROPS LIKE BURNING ROCKS (France, 2000). This is the second of Ozon’s adaptations of a Fassbinder work, the other being the dreadful PETER VON KANT. We discuss the play, which remained unproduced in Fassbinder’s lifetime; how the theatrical is rendered cinematic in Ozon’s fine adaptation; how amazing it is that a 19 year-old can imagine and do such a fine job of dramatizing this roundelay of relationships (homosexual, bisexual, heterosexual, transexual) in 1964 Munich: lucid, clear-eyed, aware of interpersonal dynamics, of sexual power plays. We discuss the extent to which the play brings in elements we know of Fassbinder’s own biography; we relate it to Fassbinder’s other films (FOX AND HIS FRIENDS)…. and much more:
https://notesonfilm1.com/2023/04/29/thinking-aloud-about-film-the-bill-douglas-trilogy/We discuss The Bill Douglas Trilogy. The first with it's echoes of Maxim Gorky must be one of the greatest films in the history of cinema, and a discovery. My Ain Folk, also medium length, we also claim is a great film. We hae greater doubts about the third film, My Own Way Home, the only one that really qualifies as feature length. We compare the films to Turkish films we've been seeing recently that describe a way of life that seems centuries old. We also compare the works to the novels of Douglas Stuart (Shuggie Bain; Young Mungo). Lastly, we wonder to what extent class bias affected Bill Douglas' career, a talent as is evident here with such a short filmography....
A film that frightened me when I first saw it as a teenager. Richard’s only now seen it. Does it hold up? Made at a time when there was a real dearth of representation, this is as queer as a film can be, on many levels. The problem is not homosexuality but bourgeois exploitation, including by gay men. Why hasn’t Fassbinder been canonised by all the young queer boys? We speculate on that and much more in the accompanying podcast.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2023/04/15/prisioneros-de-la-tierra-prisoners-of-the-earth-mario-soffici-argentina-1939/Seen as part of The Film Foundation’s ‘Restoration Screening Room’: Prisioneros de la tierra/Prisoners of the Earth (Mario Soffici, Argentina, 1939) is a melodrama that vividly evokes emotions but channels them so the film also acts as a social critique of colonialism, exploitative employment practices, the treatment of indigenous peoples by foreign capital, class and ethnicity. A revelation that encourages revolution or at least warns of uprisings. A film that generally tops the charts of best films ever made in Argentina. We discuss all this and more in the accompanying podcast:
https://notesonfilm1.com/2023/04/09/thinking-aloud-about-film-beware-of-the-holy-whore-rainer-werner-fassbinder-west-germany-1971/I’ve been watching all the Fassbinder films I can get my hands on in chronological order and find this the culmination of his early works, a great film about filmmaking to rank alongside Minnelli’s TWO WEEKS IN ANOTHER TOWN (1962) Godard’s CONTEMPT (1963) or Truffaut’s DAY FOR NIGHT (1973). Richard hasn’t seen a Fassbinder film for two decades and finds it harder to get into. We discuss the structure, the marvellous visual and dramatic handling of a very large cast, the gorgeous glossy look –surprising in Fassbinder films to this point -- and snake-like long takes (Michael Ballhaus is the cinematographer), the psycho-sexual power dynamics in the narrative and we admire Hannah Schygulla. A main take-away from this conversation with Richard is how Fassbinder’s early work points to a type of cinema and a type of queer representation that the AIDS pandemic brought an end to and of which QUERELLE might be a nodal point. BEWARE OF THE WHOLY WHORE is ostensibly based on Fassbinder’s experience of filming WHITY (1971) but it is a difficult film to see at this point and that aspect has largely been left out of the discussion.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2023/04/03/thinking-aloud-about-film-de-cierta-manera-one-way-or-another-sara-gomez-cuba-1974/Thinking Aloud About Film talks Sara Gomez’ debut feature, DE CIERTA MANERA/ ONE WAY OR ANOTHER, a model of Marxist dialectical filmmaking, mixing fiction and documentary; a dramatic auto-critique of class and race that puts gender at the centre: an extraordinary film, currently on MUBI.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2023/03/29/thinking-aloud-about-film-hippodrome-silent-film-festival-2023-boness/Intrepid investigative journalist Richard Layne returns to the Hippodrome Silent Film Festival to report on the films and the glamour of Silent Cinema in Bo’Ness, a model of what place and event can do together: a site of scholarship, restoration, fandom and even the commission of aspects of production, bringing together a cultural intersection of the local and the international. An unmissable event that I unfortunately had to miss but luckily for us, Richard was there and leaves no stone unturned.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2023/03/22/thinking-aloud-about-film-el-imperio-de-la-fortuna-the-realm-of-fortune-arturo-ripstein-mexico-1986/Dionisio (Ernesto Gómez Cruz) lives with his mother in a one-room hut, scraping a living as a town-cryer. He’s at cock-fight in a village fair and is given a bloodied rooster as a tip. Dionisio heals him and begins a career. The innocent naïve peasant is transformed into a leading gambler, marries a beautiful singer (Blanca Guerra), who brings him even more luck. But in his single-minded pursuit of money, he loses sight of everything else and ensures his own downfall. A synthesis of many elements we’ve seen in previous Ripstein films, a film which shows the influence of Italian neo-realism but also leaps into a more magical kind of story-telling. Dark and funny, with a great evocation of the sensual and criminal dimension of rural fairs. We discuss this and more in the podcast.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2023/03/15/thinking-aloud-about-film-cadena-perpetua-life-sentence-arturo-ripstein-mexico-1979/A great noir, currently on MUBI, that brings to mind Crime & Punishment, Jean Valjean, Bresson's Pickpocket and I Was a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, among others. A petty thief and former pimp, now a banker, s forced back into a life of crime by the very police who are meant to uphold the law. The story is told in flashback, through voice-over; the setting is contemporary; the indictment of the culture in the final shot, brutal. Whilst a society of spectacle is obsessed with a football match our hero's odds against tomorrow are nil. There's no exit, he's got no way out. He's no good, but the structures of the culture are even worse. A great film.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2023/03/07/el-santo-oficio-the-holy-office-the-holy-inquisitionarturo-ripstein-mexico-1974/EL SANTO OFICIO/ THE HOLY OFFICE / THE HOLY INQUISITION (Arturo Ripstein, Mexico, 1974) is a more serious and austere film than we’re used to seeing from Arturo Ripstein, but at least as great as anything we’ve seen by him so far. A Jewish family fleeing persecution in Spain make a life in Mexico and prosper. That is, until the father dies. The family had sacrificed one of their male children to the Church as a cover-up for their own religious practices. Now a grown monk, that son returns to his father’s burial only to detect that they’re observing Hebraic practices. He denounces his own family to the Church, and the persecution begins. A great film about religious intolerance, patriarchal control, and colonial enslavement through the brutal enforcement of a particular ideology. Based on actual court transcripts, an austerely spectacular period film, with much greater production values than we’re used to seeing from Ripstein. We discuss all of this and more in the podcast below.
A film that shocked and delighted with the unexpected. A film that makes one re-think a history of queer representation and 70s cinema. A transnational project in the sense that it's based on a Chilean novel by José Donoso, with a script in which Manuel Puig (Argentina) collaborated and of course made in Mexico. It brings to mind Tennessee Williams and Puig's own Kiss of the Spider-woman. It's a funny tragedy, a critique of machismo featuring one of the most fearless queens in the history of cinema. Every Arturo Ripstein film we've seen so far seems the best one yet. We discuss this and much more in the accompanying podcast.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2023/02/21/thinking-aloud-about-cinema-la-viuda-negra-the-black-widow-arturo-ripstein-mexico-1977/We continue our exploration of the Arturo Ripstein films currently available on MUBI with a discussion of The Black Widow/ La viuda negra. The film is based on Debiera haber obispas/ There Should Be Female Bishops, a novel by Rafael Solanas. It’s a film we urge all of our friends interested in exploitation cinema to see. From a producer/audience point of view, the film is all about showing as much of the female star’s body in as many sexual poses as possible. Arturo Ripstein has bypassed and exceeded the expectations of both producers and audiences by providing a film that is a corrosive critique of the pieties of bourgeois life, of the malignant influence of class and of the hypocrisies of the Church. There’s a very powerful moment where the protagonist, punitively shunned by the whole village, dons a priestly cassock to reveal all their secrets and condemn them all to hell. It was made in 1977 and perceived as so blasphemous that it was originally prohibited release. It was released five years later to much acclaim and many Ariel nominations, the Mexican equivalent of the Academy Awards, with Isela Vega winning for best actress. We loved Castle of Purity and think La viuda negra even better. Why this is so is the subject of the podcast.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2023/02/11/thinking-aloud-about-film-el-castillo-de-la-pureza-castle-of-purity-arturo-ripstein-mexico-1972/I’ve been wanting to see Arturo Ripstein films for decades and never had the opportunity. Now MUBI is showing five of his films and, on the basis of El Castillo de la pureza/ The Castle of Purity, I plan to see them all. The film is based on a real story – not unlike that of the Wests or Joseph Fritzl – of a man who keeps his family locked in the house to protect them from the perversions of the world even as he – the only one allowed outside – indulges in every perversion the outside world allows him. When he comes home – the family, who’ve been working all day manufacturing the poison that is their living – gets all his self-hatred projected onto them, keeping them off-balance and under his thumb. The shadow of Buñuel overhangs this film – Ripstein had been his assistant on The Exterminating Angel, which bears some resemblance to this film, and Claudio Brook (Simon of the Desert) and Rita Macedo (The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz) – the stars – also performed for Buñuel. A beautifully designed film, with a textured creepiness that envelops the family, one that is not just due to rain and shadows that seep right into the home (the outside world is always sunny and bright) but a moral murkiness, a perversion that is the result of that imperious patriarchal insistence on ‘purity’. A marvellous film. We discussed all the above and more in the podcast.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2023/02/05/three-shorts-by-charlotte-wells/A discussion of the three shorts Charlotte Wells made before Aftersun: Laps (2016), Tuesday (2016) and Blue Christmas (2017). All were made while she was studying for an MA in film in New York, two of them sharing some themes with Aftersun. We discuss the way she sets up tension and meaning without dialogue and how this in turn helps create an air of mystery or uncertainty. She has an intuitive feel for the medium; the compositions, the lighting, the rhythms of a scene, and the editing all help create a textured world, full of understanding and feeling. In Laps she conveys a claustrophobic sense of sexual harassment that’s gendered, perceptive, critical. Through editing we see bare skin touching bare skin, without permission and without anyone else noticing We feel the horror of being in such a situation. Tuesday could almost be set after the holiday in Aftersun. In Blue Christmas, after the Elvis Presley song, we see her skill with actors, especially children. We discuss whether the film is more conventional or merely with a greater focus on narrative? All the interrelationships crackle. I love films by young people in love with cinema and the potentialities of the medium, and Charlotte Wells is clearly one of them, already mining a personal vein in a distinctive style and with a particular point of view. They’re marvellous and highly recommended.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2023/01/30/thinking-aloud-about-film-aftersun-charlotte-wells-2022/Are the most interesting British film directors currently working women? Charlotte Wells’ textured, precise and poetic Aftersun begs the question. Clearly influenced by Lynne Ramsey (and Chantal Ackerman), and working in the same indie vein as Andrea Arnold, Wells has an eye for the original expressive image that can externalise interior states. She’s got a feel for rhythm too and alternations between movement and stillness, through editing and simple diegetic movement, is what help the film evoke mood and feeling as powerfully as it does. Aftersun is a beautiful and touching film about memory and relationships between fathers and daughters, overhung with depression but laced through with a love that keeps trying to break through the sadness. We discuss all of this and more in the podcast.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2023/01/24/jose-arroyo-in-conversation-with-matthew-hays-on-queer-film-classics/José Arroyo talks to Matthew Hays about Queer Film Classics. Matt is, along with Thomas Waugh, the co-editor of the series, first for Arsenal Press and currently for McGill-Queen's University Press. The conversation touches on the concept behind the series, the rationale for selection of individual titles, and what he's learned from the close to two decades he's been co-editing the series, eventually to comprise approximately 40 titles, and including books on films as diverse as Scorpio Rising and I've Heard the Mermaids Singing, Boys in the Sand and Death in Venice, Orlando and Zeo Patience .... and many, many others.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2023/01/21/thinking-aloud-about-film-black-girl-ousmane-sembene-france-senegal-1966/A discussion of Ousmane Sembène’s BLACK GIRL (France/ Senegal, 1966), a rich and poetic evocation of post-colonial subjectivity. A young girl (M’Bissine Thérèse Diop) goes to work as a nanny for a French family in Dakar and then joins them in France later to continue working for them. But the job has changed: instead of being a nanny, she ends up cooking, cleaning, washing. She feels herself imprisoned in the room, turned into a thing, fetishised as a display: a slave. Outside of her country and away from her family, community and lover, she’s constantly reminded of her outsiderness, subjectivised into subalternity. In French the film’s title has connotations lost in English: the black girl of, the black girl from; connotations of outsiderness, exclusion and possession, whose black girl is she that is not from here? The white family is confounded by her unhappiness and has no idea what is wrong with her. For Sembène, she’s a symbol for the country and for post-colnialism in general. But is this enough? Sight & Sound pollsters thought so and ranked it one of the best 100 films of all time. The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project thought it important enough to fund a restoration with the Cineteca di Bologna. The film is available through Criterion, the BFI, and there is a very good version on You Tube. We found it fascinating but preferred Sembène’s later Mandabi.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2022/11/21/thinking-aloud-about-film-a-time-to-love-sevmek-zamani-metin-erksan-turkey-1965/ We were so impressed by Metin Ersksan’s Dry Summer (Susuz Yaz, 1964), that we decided to continue exploring his work. We’ve just seen A Time to Love/ Sevmek Zamani (1965), and remain impressed. This is the first in-house restoration by MUBI and fully understand why they chose this particular filmmaker and this particular film as a calling card for this new venture. Indeed we are grateful that they did so. A Time to Love is an easy film to parody: an artsy, philosophical film about love and art, distinctions between being and appearances, class and alienation, traditional and modernity; greatly influenced by the art cinema of its day, particularly the work of Antonioni. But, if one gives oneself over to the style and sensibility of the work, one finds it’s a work of depth, texture and beauty as great as any produced in Western Europe in the same period. We talk about all of this and more in the accompanying podcast.
I was very excited to discover Josh Bullen's new programme of queer films scheduled to be presented at the Rio Cinema in London from November 24th to the 5th of December . In this podcast we talk about the individual films --WET SAND, LEITIS IN WAITING, GRACEFULLY & MEMORIES OF MY BODY but also about the rationale for the programme as a whole. What goes into curating such a programme? Why are some films chosen and not others. What does a curator do? And what are the hopes for the resulting event? An illuminating discussion of what promises to be a fascinating event.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2022/11/13/the-practice-of-film-criticism-podcast-2022-fran-hughes-and-tom-farrell-on-twentieth-century-women-mike-mills-2016/ Fran Hughes talks to Tom Farrell about Mike Mill's 20th Century Women, a coming of age film that deals with masculinity from various feminist perspectives. These get explored in the podcast along with considerations of Jimmy Carter's Crisis of Confidence Speech both historically but also in relation to the various characters who share the same house in the film. The conversation recasts the main themes of the film through the lens of other key films by Mike Mills. Fran and Tom also discuss parent-child relationship, community vs individuality and how all of this relates to history and changes through time. A conversation that brings unexpected depth to a film that might seem 'low stakes' to some.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2022/11/10/thinking-aloud-about-film-dry-summer-susuz-yaz-metin-erksan-turkey-1963/ A melodrama about two brothers. Osman and Hasan. Osman is the eldest and has power and rights over how their land is run. A complex film about patriarchy in agrarian culture and the damage it does to all the individuals involved whilst tearing a community apart. A melodrama that seethes with sexual desire, and where that desire overrules familial relations that would normally be considered taboo. A complex film depicting a way of life that is not so distant, probably still current ian some parts of the world and which is not afraid to be poetic and allegorica. It is instantly and thoroughly engaging in spite of two incidents involving animals that inadvertently act as a distanciating device and might make some think twice about watching it. Much of the podcast is devoted to exploring why we recommend people do so.
Lizzie Uzzell discusses Joe Wright's adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice with José Arroyo. The podcast touches on the various adaptations of Austen's work, the particular virtues of this one, the uses of light and landscape, the interplay between the uses of Chatsworth and the uses of mud and livestock , achievements of wit and tone, and what individual cast members add to it all.
Exit Through the Giftshop is a documentary on the commodification of street art directed by Banksy but placing Thierry Guetta, a Bansky acolyte who was inspired to enter the art world by Banksy, as the central figure through which to explore its themes. The podcast discusses Guetta's journey, and questions Banksy's perspective and attitude towards Guetta, whilst questioning whether the figure of Guetta is real or not. Is he just a Banksy invention, a construct through which to raise questions? Does it matter? Aren't all films constructs? The film is discussed as a documentary and compared to a range of works from Welles F for Fake to reality television. A film enriched by being open to the many interpretations the discussion in the podcast brings up.
The first fiction feature made in the Ivory Coast. A land-mark film. But is it good? And by what criteria? And if not good, how is it nonetheless very interesting? Art cinema, post-colonialism, and psychoanalysis as imbibed through Hitchcock films, all get an airing in this podcast.
and Luke Brown return to the podcast, this time to discuss Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan (2010). There are three foci of discussion: body horror, the coming-of-age film and mother/daughter relationships. Lily and Luke explore how the film makes us question what truly happens in the narrative. We see the action through the perspective of Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) but the whole film is about her descent into madness, making the viewer question the reliability of that narration. Black Swan brings up images just at the end of shots and then drops them to convey this idea of things being on the edge of vision or the unconscious. The film is structured as a change from the white swan to the black swan, a mournful and uncomfortable one in which the push and pull between Nina, her mother (Barbara Hershey) and her director (Vincent Cassell) play the central role though her adoration of Beth (Winona Ryder) and her competition with Lily (Mila Kunis) also figure prominently in developing themes of coming of age, independence and the price of artistic integrity and success. Lily and Luke discuss the use of mirrors and the way Aronofsky uses devices familiar to viewers of other films such as Requiem for a Dream (2000). In the end, Lily and Luke deem the film akin to a two-hour panic attack, and a success for conveying it so complexly and powerfully. A podcast that makes one want to see the film again.
Luke Brown and Lily Edwardes-Hill get together for a stimulating exploration of Shin Godzilla (Hideaki Anno & Shinji Higuchi, 2016), the first Japanese Godzilla film since 2004, and a considerable financial and critical success: it was made for 15 million and grossed 78 million whilst also winning the equivalent of Japan’s Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director. The podcast discusses how it differs from the American Godzilla films; how it may be seen as a response to the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami and the subsequent Fukushima nuclear disaster. The conversation explores how the film fits into the Godzilla canon and how it departs from it, arguing that narratively it mainly shrugs off the canon but nonetheless cites it with visual references and particularly through its use of music. Luke and Lily discuss the meaning of the film’s title in Japanese and why the English translation was ultimately rejected as a title for international release. Luke argues that it is a film about Tokyo and about Japan and that in this iteration there is a return to Japan as a place and as a people with, ultimately, a belief in the establishment and the ability of the people to deal with disasters; a film that is very aware of Godzilla’s past and present and also that of Japan, one with unique attributes, but also exhibiting a return to themes of climate change and nuclear technologies missing in a lot of recent reiterations of the character. There is, of course, also a discussion of CGI, models, etc. A podcast worth listening to.
An insightful conversation on a film that's difficult to grasp in terms of plot but which nonetheless offers us enough to have returned twice more to see it. In the podcast, we discuss the famous 59 minute tracking shot, how the film shifts gears narratively and stylistically; how the first half may deal with memory and the second with dreams; we talk of the film's texture, how sound often works against image and how the images themselves are precise and controlled; we relate the film to noir (time, rain, vamps, fedoras, its evocation of BLADE RUNNER). We relate the film to the work of Jia Zhang Ke and Tsiai Ming Lang; and we talk of how it's a film that may leave audiences initially puzzled but that seems to grow in their estimation as discussion unfolds. All this, and much, much more.
A thoughtful, exploratory discussion of a landmark gangster film, a story about America made by one of Italy's greatest directors. We discuss how the film might have re-defined the gangster genre; the film's aesthetic and how particular choices serve expression, we talk of the violence in the film and the charges that it might be misogynist; the distinctions between script and mise-en-scène; what the film shows and the film's pov on those actions; the relative lack of dialogue and the focus on faces; we discuss the significance of the closing shot...and much much more, though we're still scratching the surface of this great movie.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2022/10/13/thinking-aloud-about-film-pedro-almodovar-5-matador-with-special-guest-harry-russell/ We continue to think aloud about Pedró Almodovar, this time focussing on Matador. Richard is ill so I am joined by Harry Russell to discuss the film. Some of the topics touched upon are the themes of sex and death, Spanish-ness and bullfighting, camp, masculinity, the classical structuring of the plot, the glossy production values, and why whilst it is hugely entertaining, it might still not be up to the heights of Almodóvar's other work.
Almost a quarter century after its first release, LOCK, TOCK & TWO SMOKING BARRELS remains immensely stylish and entertaining, a landmark film that drew on the tradition of the British Gangster film and succeeded in changing the genre's direction. In this podcast we discuss, the film's style, the cadence, pace and editing with which movement and action are constructed and conveyed. We talk about its playful experimental tone; how it succeeds as comedy, and how Ritchie's eye for casting launched one of the most important careers in the action genre for decades to come: that of Jason Statham, whose first film this is.... and much more
The greatest work of the first phase of Almodóvar’s career; the first to be released in the US; the second for the Tesauro S.A. Production Company. In this podcast we discuss the film in relation to his three previous features, to Eloy de la Iglesias’ ‘quinqui’ films dealing with working class kids encountering the wave of drugs then flooding into Spain, to Italian neo-realism, and to camp. We praise Carmen Maura, note the first of appearance of Almodóvar’s mother in his work; and remark on the many reasons why it would be extremely difficult to make this film today. We discuss the continuing send-up of advertisements, the sophistication of the camera placement, the ways the film might be considered post-modern, the citations of a history of cinema, though style but also through explicit referencing (Kazan’s SPLENDOUR IN THE GRASS) ….and much more.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2022/09/01/thinking-aloud-about-film-pedro-almodovar-podcast-no-3-entre-tinieblas-dark-habits/ In our third podcast on Almodóvar’s work we discuss his third film, ENTRE TINIEBLAS/ DARK HABITS (1983), the first film he did for a commercial production company, Tesauro SA. A very funny and subversive film, the plot revolves around a bolero singer (Cristina S. Pascual) whose boyfriend has overdosed on heroin and who finds shelter in the convent of The Humble Redeemers. The Mother Superior (Julieta Serrano) is a heroin addict who’s in love with her; Sister Manure (Marisa Paredes) takes acid to aid her visions; Sister Lost (Carmen Maura) has a fetish for cleanliness and a tiger for a pet; Sister Rat (Chus Lampreave) is a best selling writer of trash novels based on the lives of the young girls who pass by the convent, though her sister (Eva Siva) is stealing her credit and her money; Sister Snake (Lina Canalejas) is in love with her confessor, who really wants to be a fashion designer. The film is a combination of noir, nun film, melodrama and musical all tied together by camp. Even Tarzan makes a coded appearance. It’s a film that would be very difficult if not impossible to make today. We discuss it’s context, boleros, camp, Almodóvar’s skill with actors, the chicas Almodóvar, a largely feminine space where men in drag nonetheless feature… and much more. A modest box office hit but his greatest success to that point and proof of his developing skills in mise-en-scène.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2022/08/21/thinking-aloud-about-film-pedro-almodovar-2-labyrinth-of-passion/ We discuss Almodóvar's second feature, Labyrinth of Passion, where Almodóvar himself appears both as director and rock star in minor roles. We talk about its convoluted plot, its verbal and visual campyness, its anti-authoritarian stance and its status as a youth film. We note how even in his second film, there are evident connections with his first film (not least in the recurring cast) and plot strands that will re-appear subsequently (the airport scene in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown). We talk about it (briefly) as a document of its time, particularly in relation to the Nueva Movida Madrileña. The plot is straight out of Hello magazine; the idea that sex, drugs and art are a fun path without pitfalls to liberation is straight out of underground comics. Richard Lester's cinema is a clear influence. Fanny McNamara steals the show. We could have talked for a lot longer.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2022/08/15/thinking-aloud-about-film-pedro-almodovar-1-pepi-luci-bom-1980/ The first of a series of podcasts on the work of Pedro Almodóvar. We begin the series with his first film, PEPI, LUCI, BOM Y LAS CHICAS DEL MONTON/ PEPI, LUCI, BOM AND OTHER GIRLS LIKE MOM (1980). The podcast discusses the historical context for the film; the 'nueva movida madrileña'; his style and how it improved over time; recurring concerns with pop culture (comics, films, magazines, pop music); recurring themes such as rape; camp as tone; and the combination of the outrageous with the common sense. We also talk of how this film has become a document of a series of individuals and indeed a whole sub-culture that was soon to disappear.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2022/07/26/cinema-rediscovered-2022-bristol-watershed-2022-final-round-up/ We discuss the last two days of the program and then take a step back to discuss the event as a whole. We praise the variety of programming, the extraordinarily efficient organisation and the very welcoming community feel to the whole event. I'm very jealous we don't have anything like this in Birmingham, and it really is made possible by the contributions of so many committed individuals. So many thanks to all of them for making this such a special event. We highlight the workshops and talks (the one on film criticism led by MUBI; the 40th anniversary discussion of Twentieth Century Flicks, Mark Fuller's Sunday Cinema Walk)and then evaluate the many different strands that constituted a superb programme. We discuss Fury, Paris Blues, Chess of the Wind , Baby Face; Spencer Tracy and Barbara Stanwyck, Josephine Baker and Sidney Poitier; ...and much else
https://notesonfilm1.com/2022/07/23/cinema-rediscovered-2022-day-three-round-up-2/ We discuss the second of our full day of viewing at Cinema Rediscovered, and name-check a wonderful introduction to The Joker by Matthew Sweet. We discuss The Laws of Love, Jewel Robbery, The Afterlight, Queen Christina, Harold and Maud.... and much else.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2022/07/21/thinking-aloud-about-film-cinema-rediscovered-round-up-day-1-2022/ We continue our discussion of Cinema Rediscovered 2022 with a round-up of the first full day of programming and two of the events that kicked off the program yesterday: The Philip French Memorial Lecture with Samira Ahmed and the UK premiere of the restored version of Lost Highway. We touch on two key strands of the program. The first is Pre-Code Hollywood: Rules are Made to be Broken, curated by Pamela Hutchinson and Christina Newland, with two of the five films that kickstart that strand: Blonde Crazy with James Cagney and Joan Blondell, one of the great couples of classic cinema, shown at their characteristic AND best as hotel workers turned wisecracking swindlers: urban, beautiful, loose of limb and tongue, a joy to watch at every turn. We also take in A Free Soul, an emblem of a 1931 version of female sexual emancipation and modernity, a full-blown courtroom melodrama with Norma Shearer at her chicest and sexiest, if not always at her acting best. We also discuss two films by Sarah Maldoror, Sambizanga, and also A Dessert for Constance, part of the other strand of the program under discussion today: Karen Alexander's Black Paris: Josephine and Beyond Programme. A day full of films and discussion on films in which the Rewriting Film History (With the Women in It) and Pre-Code Hollywood: Rules Are Made to Be Broken are particular standouts. A fantastic start to the festival.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2022/07/20/thinking-aloud-about-film-cinema-rediscovered-2022-in-conversation-with-mark-fuller-on-cinema-history-in-bristol/ We talk to Bristol Film Historian Mark Fuller about the history of cinemas, film and filmgoing in Bristol, touching on the different processes, periods and personalities that stand out in this fascinating local history. Mark will flesh this out in two gentle walks through Bristol as part of the Cinema Rediscovered Program. The first one is on Saturday July 23rd. It will start opposite Everyman Bristol (aka the former Whiteladies Picture House) at 9:00, near Clifton Down Shopping Centre (Buses 1, 2 and 4 from the Centre) and finish near The Galleries at approximately 10:30. Walk Two on Sunday will start at 9:00 by the College Green bus stop, and end around 10:30 at Castle Park.
Weather permitting, there will be visual aids with archive photographs and clips to help illustrate the talks at each stop.
You can book here: https://www.watershed.co.uk/whatson/11294/cinema-walk-1 https://www.watershed.co.uk/whatson/11317/cinema-walk-2
https://notesonfilm1.com/2022/07/13/thinking-aloud-about-film-on-hugo-fregonese-from-ritrovato-2022/ Thinking Aloud About Film explores the work of Hugo Fregonese, a director who worked mainly in Hollywood B-movies or international genre films, and a major re-discovery at this Cinema Ritrovato 2022. Films discussed include APENAS UN DELINCUENTE, BLOWING WILD, THE RAID, APACHE DRUMS, THE MAN IN THE ATTIC, BLACK TUESDAY...and others. The video includes images, trailers and clips from some of the films to illustrate the discussion.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2022/07/07/thinking-aloud-about-film-talks-to-pamela-hutchinson-about-ritrovato-2022/. Thinking Aloud About Film talks to Pamela Hutchinson about Ritrovato 2022
https://notesonfilm1.com/2022/06/22/thinking-aloud-about-film-moneyboys-c-b-yi-taiwan-2021/ Why are we talking about Moneyboys? Well Jose’s recently read The Hustler/ Die Pupenjunge, City of Night, and Dancer from the Dance and is fascinated by gutter and underbelly, night and shadows, criminality and liminality, the ways social and psychic alienation can combine with carnal immersion though sexual connection, the tension in sex work between certain types of freedom and certain types of bondage. Moneyboys is too high class to touch on many of those things. But Richard is interested in Taiwanese Cinema, in Hou Hsiao-hsien and Haneke, interests which do intersect with Money Boys so humours him. In the podcast we talk of the significance of a Taiwanese film on this subject being set in Mainland China; the tensions between the rural and the city; the biological family which accepts money earned from sex work but casts out the worker; the value of constructed families; the various kinds of love valued (and de-valued) by the film; the possible conflation of sex work and homosexuality; the fluid long takes and the emotional distance evoked. It’s an accomplished first film, interestingly made under a pseudonym, and in the podcast we talk through our responses to the various strands it raises.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2022/06/21/in-conversation-with-richard-dyer-on-judy-garland/ I wanted to talk to someone about Judy Garland as soon as I saw the BFI program celebrating the 100th anniversary of her birth, 'Judy Garland Reborn'. And who better to talk about Judy to than Richard Dyer? The conversation is an informal one, a recorded zoom call between friends, that then cuts off at the end as soon as the 45 minute zoom time-limit ends. But it does cover a lot of ground: her artistry, her persona, her significance to gay men, her performances in various films, her duet with Barbra Streisand...and much more.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2022/06/19/thinking-aloud-about-film-the-child-of-another-muna-moto-jean-pierre-dilcongue-pipa-cameroon-1975/ A discussion of the first Cameroonian feature film, a story of a doomed love, marriage made impossible by patriarchal structures shored up by tradition. Ngando and Ndomé are young and crazy about each other. Ngando’s uncle has promised him the dowry for the marriage, which he has a moral obligation to provide, as he inherited everything Ngando’s father owned upon his death, including Ngando’s mother. But the uncle takes one look at Ndomé and wants her for himself. Ndomé thinks the way forward is for her to have a child with Ndomé, which would shame her and her family but might get the uncle out of the way – he already has four other wives -- and allow her to marry Ngando. Instead, the uncle forces Ndomé into marriage and claims the child as his own. The film begins as Ngando kidnaps the child, setting up an inventive flashback structure that allows the film to unfurl as if that moment is the film’s continued present, a present where tradition enables injustice after injustice and in varied dimensions: social, sexual, economic, affective. The film is currently on MUBI and the podcast an array of reasons to view this wonderful film.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2022/06/11/thinking-aloud-about-film-pressure-horace-ove-1976/ In last week’s discussion of Med Hondo’s SOLEIL Ô (1970), we asked what was being done in Britain in this period? The answer is Horace Ové’s PRESSURE (1976), the first British film made by a black filmmaker. It’s a more inward looking film then Hondo’s film or ALI IN WONDERLAND (Djouhra Abouda, Alain Bonnamy, France/Algeria, 1975) or MANDABI (Ousmane Sembène, 1968), in that it focuses on racism and familial, social, and inter-generational relations in Ladbrook Grove, rather than making explicit links to colonial relations or international revolutionary movements. It’s also less formally experimental than the other films and, perhaps because of that, more accessible. We discuss this film in relation to the above and also Sidney Poitier’s work in the US (BUCK AND THE PREACHER, 1972) plus trace links through this work to the Sankofa film collective, the films of Isaac Julian and those of Steve McQueen, particularly the latter’s SMALL AXE (2020), which seems to be having an ongoing cultural conversation with PRESSURE, our favourite of this grouping of films. It can be seen on BFI Player and is also available on DVD.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2022/06/03/thinking-aloud-about-film-soleil-o-oh-sun-med-hondo-france-1970/ The Criterion Collection calls SOLEIL Ó/ OH, SUN , ‘A furious cry of resistance against racist oppression and a revolutionary landmark of political cinema’. The Celluloid Liberation Front, writing for MUBI, calls it ‘one of the most dazzling debuts in the history of cinema’; ‘A work of erudite formalism and incendiary refinement’; ‘never didactic’. We dispute all of this. The film is definitely, flamboyant, anti-clerical, modernist, anti-colonial, deploying folklore and experimenting with style. An important film then, very much of its time, but which can now seem to lack complexity and subtlety, though perhaps subtlety was never its aim; and perhaps we should also acknowledge that our perspective is that of two white men. Richard appreciated it more than I. We both urge everyone to see it. We discuss all of this in the accompanying podcast. Part of the series of important restorations being screened on MUBI
https://notesonfilm1.com/2022/05/28/thinking-aloud-about-film-the-law-of-the-border-hudutlarin-kanunu-lutfi-omer-akad-turkey-1966/ A gorgeous film, shot in a quasi neo-realist style that nonetheless aims squarely at poetry and critique; clearly influenced by John Ford Westerns in its use of landscape; with shoot-outs staged amidst minarets and water fountains, horses vying with jeeps. A structure reminiscent of Angels With Dirty Faces in that two childhood friends end up on different sides of the law. With the great Yilmaz Güney as a father caught between a rock and a hard place -- does he continue smuggling sheep across the border; the only option to feed his people; or does he allow the school to come in that might offer a better life for his son? It's a film where one feels the heat, the thirst, the despair; an existential noir amidst the barren landscape with a great feel for places and the people who inhabit them. Güney as the father has something of Clint Eastwood's granite iconicity about him but with life and feeling behind the eyes. Restored in 2013 by Cineteca di Bologna/L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory, in association with The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project, Dadaş Films, and the Turkish Ministry of Culture. Restoration funded by Doha Film Institute
https://notesonfilm1.com/2022/05/27/ose-arroyo-in-conversation-with-tom-waugh-on-hard-to-imagine/ The groundbreaking and influential 'Hard to Imagine: Gay Male Eroticism and Photography and Film from their Beginnings to Stonewall' is coming to its 25th anniversary. In this podcast we ask Tom Waugh about the intellectual and social context in which the research took place, the methods developed to produce it, the way materials were gathered, who was interviewed, the many barriers to its publication, how the book was received then and why it continues to be so influential now.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2022/05/21/thinking-aloud-about-film-the-housemaid-kim-ki-young-south-korea-1960/ We continue with our discussion of the MARTIN SCORSESE’S WORLD CINEMA strand on MUBI, this time focusing on Kim Ki-young’s THE HOUSEMAID (South Korea, 1960). MUBI’s take is that it influenced Bong Joon-ho’s PARASITE – clearly evident – and that it ‘changed the course of South Korean cinema forever. An immense success when released in 1960, this striking masterpiece is a blend of sexual obsession and class struggle, horror and social critique’. In the podcast, we agree with most of what MUBI says about it but question the claim that it’s a masterpiece,’ finding the film deeply misogynistic in ways that go even beyond the patriarchal norms of its time and culture. The very handsome version being screened by MUBI is the 2008 restoration by the Korean Film Archive and is a real pleasure to see, making visible the film’s very real inventiveness with light, composition and movement.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2022/05/16/thinking-aloud-about-film-pixote-hector-babenco-brazil-1981/ We're both glad to find that PIXOTE retains all of the power we remember it for from decades ago when we first saw it. A realist political film whose aim it is to reveal conditions of existence as a pre-condition for creating change. It's a film highly judgmental of systemic corruption, particularly as it effects children, but very open and accepting about different ways of being, with one of the earliest, most rounded and complex characterisations of a teen trans character either of us remember seeing. In this podcast we discuss the achievements of the film; it's realist 'documentary' style, the extraordinary performances from the children and from Marilia Pera as the ageing prostitute, the power of its imagery; how we suspect it would be even harder to make and show today then it was then; we discuss the context in which the film was shown on British Television, we compare it to Buñuel's LOS OLVIDADOS/ THE YOUNG AND THE DAMNED, Fernano Meirelles and Kátia Lund's CITY OF GOD, and Alar Clarke's SCUM; and we discuss the racial mix of the group of children and its significance.
In this podcast Alex Santos-Edgar and I discuss La Haine (Matthieu Kassovitz, 1995): it's style, its influence, how Paris figures, where masculinity and race figure in it...and more:
A conversation with Dr. Andrew Moor on Derek Jarman, arising from the Derek Jarman Protest exhibition at Manchester Art Gallery, on Jarman's significance in British Culture, his legacy as a multimedia artist and his contributions to art, protest cultures and queer cultures.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2022/03/29/thing-aloud-about-film-with-pamela-hutchinson-on-hippfest/ Hippfest is how fans and admirers endearingly refer to the Hippodrome Silent Film Festival that takes place annually at Scotland’s oldest cinema – The Hippodrome, built in 1912, in Bo’ness. Under Alison Strauss’ guidance, the festival has become a force internationally, bringing to the UK newly discovered or newly restored silent classics, and presented in a varied and imaginative programme under the best conditions: with programme notes by leading scholars (Dina Iordanova, Charles Musser, David Cairns) with accompaniment by leading musicians (Neil Brand), sometimes with scores especially composed for the film (by the likes of John Sweeney and Dr. Chris Letcher), with introductions by specialists (Victor Fan), with an inclusive programme (this year including a strand on amateur filmmaking with a discussion lead by Melanie Selfe and Keith M. Johnston); guest speakers (Bryony Dixon, Lawrence Napper, Donald Smith); performers (Chris Letcher, Paul McGann, Meg Morley) and special events (Mark Kermode in Conversation with Neil Brand and Mike Hammond). José has always wanted to go. This year was Richard’s second year at the event. We wanted to find out more; and who better to tell us than Ms. Silent London herself, Pamela Hutchinson, critic, curator, programmer, and also author of, amongst other gems, the BFI classic on Pandora’s Box. You can follow up on The Hippodrome Silent Film Festival by checking out their website here: https://www.hippodromecinema.co.uk/silent-film-festival/
https://notesonfilm1.com/2022/02/26/thinking-aloud-about-film-four-pere-portabella-shorts-on-mubi/ We discuss four Pere Portabella Shorts on MUBI: Don’t Count Your Fingers (1968); Play Back (1970); Acció Santos (1973); Premios Nacionales (1969) focussing on their play with form, the conceptual cleverness, the surrealist aspects; the sensuousness of the imagery; the potency of their critiques. Portabella seems to be in touch with all the leading painters, poets and musicians of the day; and their collaborations evoke a spirit of community that seems particularly powerful considering they were made under a fascist dictatorship.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2022/02/20/thinking-aloud-about-film-umbracle-pere-portabella-spain-1972/ We continue our exploration of Pere Portabella films, this one his third feature, an experimental off-shoot of Cuadecuc Vampir. Umbracle means shade created by twigs or pieces of wood, and we discuss the significance of the title in relation to what the film shows, is it focussing on what’s being hidden or revealed by the light? The film has a mystery that raises questions, a sensuality; there’s a seduction, both somatic and intellectual, to what the images are like and what they show. The film trots out three different film critics to discuss the impossibility of representing, and to advocate for an underground, more political, more experimental cinema; juxtaposing this with excerpts of a Frente infinito (Pedro Lazaga, 1959), a film about a priest in wartime, an ideal of Francoist cinema, the cross hand-in-hand with the rifle. A film of fragments, about modernity, on politics, a critique, yet one conscious of the seductiveness of sounds and images. We discuss all this and more in this all too brief podcast.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2022/02/14/thinking-aloud-about-film-men-behind-the-sun-mou-tun-fei-china-1988/ A film that insists on history to dramatise the evils perpetuated on the Chinese population by Unit 732 of the Imperial Japanese Army, which dehumanised the Chinese as Murats during WWII in order to conduct biological experiments on them to weaponise biological warfare. History here is an alibi for exploitation of the worst kind. The film positively revels in the various kinds of torture to men, women and children. We compare it to Holocaust films and find it wanting by almost every ethical criterion. We denounce the clear cruelty to animals evident in the film; and we mourn the descent of such a talented filmmaker to this level of exploitation,
https://notesonfilm1.com/2022/02/07/thinking-aloud-about-film-a-deadly-secret-mou-tun-fei-hong-kong-1980/ We discuss our fourth Mou Tun-fei film, A Deadly Secret (1980). It was made the same year as the more sensational and political Lost Souls, and suffers in the comparison, being an entertaining but generic and unsurprising Martial Arts Romance. It also suffers in the comparison to his earlier humanist, nuanced and visually remarkable Taiwanese films, I Didn't Dare Tell You (1969) and The End of the Track (1970). We discuss all this and more in the podcast.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2022/02/05/thinking-aloud-about-film-lost-souls-mou-tun-fei-hong-kong-1980/ Mou Tun-Fei goes from the New Wave-y neo-realistic aesthetic of I Didn't Dare Tell You and the End of the Track and into exploitation territory. Lost Souls is pulpy, dynamic, exciting and exploitative. Women have their clothes taken off, the camera lingers on their bodies, on their degradation, on the sale of these women to whorehouses. The audience, which we assume to be men, is meant to get off on all of this. Mou Tun-fei is an equal opportunity exploiter and there is also torture and rape of men. The film is clearly highly influenced by Pier Paolo Pasolini's 1975 film, 120 Days of Sodom and we discuss their differences and similarities. We also discuss how Lost Souls is unquestionably an exploitation film but not all exploitation films are as effective and as political as Lost Souls; and our discussion lingers on the opening sequence of the boat people and the arrival of one of the escapees onto Hong Kong's Diamond Hill, and the crushing disappointment that accompanies the realisation that streets are not paved with gold there and that it is in fact one big, fragile ghetto. A fascinating film.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2022/01/28/the-end-of-the-track-mou-tun-fei-taiwan-1970/ A film that feels like an undiscovered classic of World Cinema, beautiful to look at, heartfelt and very moving. Two young boys enjoy a friendship so close they're accused of being queer. They themselves don't know what that means, and just like being with each other better than with someone else, even though they fight quite a bit and are from different social classes. When one of them dies in a sporting accident, the other feels guilt over what's happened, and tries to take responsibility for it, to no avail. A haunting, mysterious film, beautiful to look at and deeply moving. We discuss the hows and whys of all of this in the accompanying podcast.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2022/01/24/i-didnt-dare-tell-you-tun-fei-mou-taiwan-1969/ The Harvard Film Archive and the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute are currently making available two films by Tun-Fei Mou. This is a discussion of I Didn't Dare Tell You, a modernist melodrama about a young boy seeking a way of paying for an education that his father can't quite provide. We detect influences of Italian Neo-Realism and the French New Wave, admire its compositions, its look, it's narrative drive and an extraordinary central performance by the child. I Didn't Dare Tell You is a film to discover and talk about.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2022/01/23/thinking-aloud-about-film-taipei-suicide-story-keff-taiwan-2020/ A medium length fiction film with a great central concept: A suicide hotel where people can only stay one night. They are permitted to leave in the morning if they change their mind but leave they must. What happens when a young woman chooses to stay and the desk clerk begins falling for her? We talk about the beauty of the compositions, the black humour of the film, the uses of colour, we praise the cinematography by Tzu-Hao Kao and the performances (especially Tender Huang's). But is the film still a bit thin? Richard and I debate.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2022/01/20/thinking-aloud-about-film-nocturne-29-pere-portabella-spain-1968/ The podcast touches on the Portabella’s bringing together some of the great artists of the 20th century to work on various levels of the film (music, script, art, cinema); whether it being the Marxist work of a bourgeois is inherently a problem, the significance of particular scenes (the poker games, the ending with the flags), the casting of Lucía Bosé and Mario Cabré, its form and its possible meanings. It’s a fascinating film and an extraordinary first work by a key director more people should be familiar with. It is currently on MUBI.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2022/01/03/ali-in-wonderland-ali-aux-pays-des-merveilles-rachid-boudjedra-achmed-rachedi-france-algeria-1975/ We talk Ali in Wonderland, currently on MUBI. It's an avant-garde political documentary whose play with form is intended to punch the spectator into awareness, and thus very much part of the deconstructionist zeitgeist of its time. We discuss the use of split screen, distortions, slow motion on beat, juxtapositions, its rendering of historical memory, the way the film connects colonialism with migration. It's a work you'd perhaps now expect to find more readily in a gallery rather than in a cinema like an installation, and worth seeing for many reasons, which we discuss in the podcast.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2021/12/21/the-youssef-chahine-podcast-no-44-le-chaos-2007/ We discuss Chahine's last film, Le Chaos, and are delighted by what we see; a political melodrama that offers all the pleasures of the genre -- one feels for these people who long for love and freedom but who aren't allowed to achieve their wants through repressive social and state mechanisms. The villain is a torturer and rapist. Chahine's achievement is that he makes him understandable, whilst offering a masterful mise-en-scene of a Marxist critique of a corrupt culture through a film that always sides with the powerless. We found it brilliant. Thanks very much to the kind friend who made it possible for us to see it. We have 15 more Chahine films we have not been able to source; so if any of you know where we can buy/source/see them, we would appreciate it.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2021/12/06/thinking-aloud-about-cinema-the-youssef-chahine-podcast4-shorts-by-chahine/ In 1997, 47 years after he first went to Cannes expecting to win something, Chahine was finally awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award. It was handed to him by a luminous Isabelle Adjani, who praised him for his humanity, tolerance, courage and clemency. That plus his intelligence, tact an his politics shine through in the shorts we discuss in this podcast: Lumiére & Co (1995); Lumiére sur le massacre (TV series, 1997); Chacun son cinema/ ‘47 ans après’, 2007; September 11th/ ‘Egypt’, 2002).
https://notesonfilm1.com/2021/12/04/the-youssef-chahine-film-club-no-3-mandabi-ousmane-sembene-1968/ A discussion of Ousmane Sembène's Mandabi. José had never seen it before and found it a revelation. Richard's now seen it twice, once at the cinema in a beautiful restoration that's now been put out by Criterion. The film is currently screening on MUBI and we highly recommend it. We talk issues of representation, gender, colonialism, how structures seem designed to oppress a sector of the population which nonetheless constitutes 'the people'. We also talk film aesthetics and what it was about the film that Youssef Chahine might have found so appealing.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2021/11/22/thinking-aloud-about-film-encounter-at-the-station-hsin-chi-taiwan-1965/ Encounter at the Station (Taiwan, 1965) is the last of the 5 Hsin Chi films programmed by the Anthology Film Archives in New York and available for all to see for free until November 30. It is a melodrama in the truest sense, with songs narrating or underlining the action at almost every moment. And what action! The film takes on every melodramatic trope possible and when you think it can’t get any more extreme it surprises you by going even further still. A young high school student falls in love with a boy at the station. On her deathbed her mother reveals to her that she is really adopted and to beware of the stepfather. And for good reason, as soon as the mother dies, he sells the young girl to a nightclub to pay for the mother’s funeral. Her love surprises her at the club and buys her out. But it’s no good, her secret’s revealed and she will be forever a B-girl. People have to give up their children, some go blind, some go mad. It’s never boring. We discuss all of this and more in the podcast below:
https://notesonfilm1.com/2021/11/15/the-youssef-chahine-film-club-the-will-kamal-selim-1939/ In Egypt, The Will is often voted the greatest Egyptian film of all time, one of the greatest ever anywhere, and a precursor to Italian neo-realism. Youssef Chahine recommended it and provided the impetus for our viewing. In this podcast we discuss how much we liked it (the representation of a whole way of life with its structures of feeling, the melodrama, the resonances it still has to contemporary life); the limits of its comparison to neo-realism; its influence on Chahine, particularly evident in Daddy Amin; and how and why its claims to being one of the greatest films of all time nonetheless seem lost on us.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2021/11/01/taiwan-film-festival-edinburgh-2021-wrap-up/ In our final podcast on the Taiwan Film Festival Edinburgh 2021, we praise its programming, its accessibility, and its decision to also include live events alongside the digital. We also delve into other types of films in the programmer not covered by this podcast so far, Pai Jing-jui's Morning in Taipei (1964) with its similarities to Humphrey Jennings cinema and the 'city symphony' films of the 1920s' and with its superb new score by Lim Giong; Den Nan-guang's 8 mm home movies; and we delve with considerable depth into Chen Kuo-fu's The Personals (1998) , a film anyone interested in issues of gender and sexuality will be interested in seeing (it has a fantastic queer moment very relevant to current discussions)
https://notesonfilm1.com/2021/10/25/splendid-float-zero-chou-2004-taiwan-film-festival-edinburgh-2001/ A beautiful queer film, poetic, expressive, moving. Roy is a Taoist priest by day, a drag queen entertainer by night. One magical night, on the road, he meets a gorgeous fisherman, Sunny, and falls madly in love. But Sunny leaves without saying a word. It's only when he's hired to summon back his spirit for burial, that Roy/Rose discovers his love has drowned. Will he now return to him? We discuss this plus the film's many dualities, the fluidity of its gender representations, the beauty of its imagery and much more in the accompanying podcast.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2021/10/23/interview-with-curator-kuan-ping-liu-on-taiwan-film-festival-edinburgh-2021/ The Taiwan Film Festival Edinburgh 2021 runs from 25-31st October. It has live screenings in theatres but it also has a digital component which is free and accessible to all. We interview curator Kuan-ping Liu to discuss the highlights of this year's programme: Archival Films, 8mm home movies, characteristic examples of New Taiwanese Cinema, classic Hokkien-language cinema from the 1960s and a strand of films directed by women.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2021/11/02/peony-birds-huang-yu-shan-1990/ A discussion of Peony Birds, part of a strand of films by women directors or films focussing on women that is a most welcome additions to the Taiwan Film Festival in Edinburgh. It is also a slight historical corrective to what may be seen as the 'all-boys' account of New Taiwanese Cinema from the 1980s and 1990s. In the podcast we discuss, how Peony Birds an inter-generational film focussing on mother-daughter relationships that deal with themes of love, money, class as well as differing perspectives on similar actions. Richard and José are divided on the film itself, with Richard perhaps more persuasive on the film's virtues.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2021/10/21/the-best-secret-agent-chang-ying-1964/ Definitely not a masterpiece of cinematic art but Best Secret Agent is a sexy melodrama, drawing on the Bond craze then current but putting it in the context of Taiwanese history and culture. Sometimes popular cinema can teach us at least as much as art. Charismatic stars, action, superb costuming and a director and cinematographer who can do wonders with lighting and composition, this is a wonderful-looking film that never ceases being fun to watch. Highly recommended.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2021/10/18/the-youssef-chahine-podcast-no-42-omar-gatlato-aka-omar-it-kills-him-merzak-allouache-algeria-1976/ A greatly beloved work, a landmark film in Algeria. Filmed in 1976, in that period between the end of the Algerian War in 1962 and the start of what would become known as the black decade of the 90s, Omar Gatlato is a study of machismo, a document of Algiers in that period, an experiment in film and one of the films Chahine recommended we see. I was very glad we did. The podcast touches on all of these topics and more.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2021/10/09/the-youssef-chahine-podcast-no-41-a-nightingales-prayer-henry-barakat-1959/ The Nightingale’s Prayer, based on a 1934 novel by renowned Egyptian author Taha Hussein, is an extraordinary melodrama, a critique of patriarchy anyone interested in cinema’s treatment of these issues should see. A philandering husband is killed for his actions. His shame extends to his family and his wife (Amina Rizk) and his daughter – Amna (Fatim Hamama, the great star of Egyptian Cinema) and Hanadi (Zahrat El Ola, who faithful listeners might recognise from Jamila, the Algerian ) -- are forced to leave the village and face all the travails of being three vulnerable women on the road. They eventually settle in a small village and get what they think are respectable jobs as maids. They don’t yet know that ‘putting out’ is an expected part of the job description when working for single men. One of the sisters is seduced and made pregnant. She tells her mother, who tells her brother, who comes find her and kills his niece. He tells them to say it’s the plague; she tells him it was his duty to protect them and runs away on her own, to find that bachelor, kill him and avenge her sister. A film that is beautiful to look at, poetically structured through internal monologues, and successful at conveying and inciting feeling. We talk about all of this and the particulars in the podcast below
https://notesonfilm1.com/2021/09/27/the-youssef-chahine-podcast-no-40-lets-talk-marianne-khoury-2019/ Let's talk about 'Let's Talk', Marianne Khoury's exploration of mother/daughter relationships across generations. The film is of interest to us because we wondered if it would enhance our understanding of Chahine's cinema; and it does! Marianne's mother was Chahine's sister, and her story was dramatised by Chahine in Dawn of a New Day (1964). Khoury also demonstrates how part of the family's narrative is the origin and source of strands of Alexandria .... Why (1979) and An Egyptian Story (1982), so the accounts on this film give us an interesting spin on how Chahine treats the same material. We discuss the relationship between Iris and Marianne and Marianne and her own daughter Sara: is it self-reflexive enough? Is the film aware of the historical context in which those lives were lived and various decisions were made? We discuss cosmopolitism and language (a gift/ a burden?); the pleasure of the old photographs and how they evoke whole ways of life; we rant about BFI Player; José purrs when he sees footage of the EICTV film school in Cuba and at the footage in Havana. We recommend as a film that enhances our understanding of Chahine's work and also a film that is a very personal reflection of mother/daughter relationships.
We return to the work of Youssef Chahine, spurred on by by MUBI's decision to screen a selection of his works, in what turns out to be marvellous copies. We focus on two of his films, Daddy Amin (1950) and The Devil of the Desert (1954), we compare the visual quality of the MUBI versions to those we saw previously, confirm our admiration for Youssef Chahine's skills as a director, José takes a dig at the arrogance of a British film culture that assumes one can just move from writing or directing for the stage to directing a movie, and not even Richard can stop José from sighing over Omar.
A conversation with Ana María Sánchez-Arce on The Cinema of Pedro Almodóvar, her new book, the most recent on the subject and, in my view, one of the very best. What did she learn about Pedro Almodóvar's cinema when writing the book and what can we learn from reading it? I wish we could have talked for longer.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2021/08/30/hou-hsiao-hsien-25-contexts-15-growing-up-chen-kunhou-1983/ We discuss this absorbing and extremely likeable film in the context of New Taiwanese Cinema. Chen Kunhou was then Hou's regular cinematographer. This feels , to an extent, like a transition between the style of the earlier Hou films and the later ones. Hou Hsiao-hsien collaborated on the screenplay and we compare this to Hou's earlier films (and find it lacking). There's a sense that that this is a first try for ideas that were better developed in Boys from Fengkuei & Time to Live and a Time to Die.
There are spoilers in the podcast. The film is a maternal melodrama, where the mother's point of view is sidelined in favour of the son's, the husband's, the society, a childhood schoolmate of the son. We find fault with the screenplay, the structure and the visual story-telling. What in Hou feel like ellipses that afford depth, here come across as unbelievable plot holes or plot twists. We are nonetheless very charmed by it and highly recommend.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2021/08/24/hou-hsiao-hsien-24-contexts-14-that-day-on-the-beach-edward-yang-1982/ Two old friends reunite after 13 years apart. One was in love with the other's brother but the couple were forced to separate after he was forced into an arranged marriage with someone else and this ruined his life. His sister ran away to marry for love but ended up just as unhappy as her brother and her friend. One friend lost herself in her work and became a famous concert pianist; the other started a successful business. But what happened that day, on the beach? A poetic exegis on love, loss and happiness with a focus on women's perspectives and experiences; a melodrama in art cinema mode, with gorgeous images beautifully shot by Christopher Doyle. Hou hsia-hsien appears as part of a gang of boisterous Wall Street types.
A conversation with Ilaria Puliti on Luca, focussing on how it lends itself to readings of queerness and of migration, and also relating the film's world to postwar Italian culture and society.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2021/08/09/hou-hsiao-hsien-23-contexts-13-in-our-time-yi-chang-ko-i-chen-tao-te-chen-edward-yang-1982/ A central film in the history of New Taiwanese Cinema. A portmanteu film, like The Sandwich Man, composed of films by four different directors :Dinosaur/ Little Dragon Head, d: Tao Te Chen; Expectations/ Desires, d: Edward Yang; Leapfrog, d: Ko I-chen; Say Your Name/ Show Your ID, d: Yi Chang. The films are structured in chronological order, each film set in a different decade from the 50s to the 80s.
In the podcast we discuss the figure of the Child in Taiwanese cinema, which seems to be a recurring pattern.
We're thrilled by the extraordinary depiction of the female gaze in Edward Yang's episode and the beautiful and complex way it's visually conveyed. What Yang can do with a pan is quite extraordinary. We talk about how this new wave comes across as a 'boy's club' and discuss the context of the last episode in relation to Sylvia Chang. We also wonder whether Sylvia Chang might be overlooked more by Western critics than Taiwanese ones and the effect that that might have on our perception and accounts of this cinema in the West and whether this is an effect of overvaluing auteurism at the expense of social and industrial contexts.
We note the use of music and discuss how those choices might have affected the international circulation of this film. We talk about the many common elements these short films have with Hou Hsiao-hsien's early commercial work. It's a film we both highly recommend,
https://notesonfilm1.com/2021/08/02/ritrovato-2021-with-richard-layne-jose-arroyo-digital-offerings/ We thank the Cineteca di Bologna for the 2021 digital offerings and return for the third year in a row to discuss their programme. This year we reflect on the digital absence of major strands such as the Romy Schneider or George Stevens films which were only shown in situ. We discuss difficulties with translation and sub-titling, note how the digital offerings were quite US and Eurocentric, atypical for this festival, and discuss some of the highlights of Richard's viewing, silent cinema, Wolfgang Staudte films, the only film on the Algerian War made as it was happening (Les oliviers de la justice, 1961), André Dalvaux' MAN WHO HAD HIS HAIR CUT SHORT (1965), Lionel Rogosin's ARAB ISRAELI DIALOGUE (1974), Govindan Aravindan KUMMATTY (1979) and classics such as I WAKE UP SCREAMING(H Bruce Humberstone, 1941), ESA PAREJA FELIZ (Berlanga/Bardem 1959) and NIGHTMARE ALLEY (Edmund Goulding, 1947).
A discussion of OUR TIME, OUR STORY, a more traditional documentary than FLOWERS OF TAIPEI but all the better for it. A film with various kinds of contexts (production, distribution, exhibition, reception) that historicises well, finds extraordinary archival footage, interviews many of the leading people involved in Taiwan's New Cinema and really enhances our knowledge of the period, the movement, and the films themselves. The clips in the film really make us appreciate how new restorations have enhanced the visual beauty of these films.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2021/07/23/hou-hsiao-hsien-21-a-city-of-sadness-1989/ After all our contextualising, we return to Hou Hsiao-hsien films proper, focussing on the masterpiece that is a City of Sadness. We are able now to discuss not only what the film feels like to watch or what it is about in formal terms but can now add various kinds of contexts: historical, political, social, aesthetic, industrial, and even how our own personal histories find echo in the film and how those echoes add a layer of insight and understanding into the film and perhaps also into ourselves. It makes for a rich but still -- as is proper with all great works -- initial and tentative discussion.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2021/07/15/18745/ We continue with our discussion of Edward Yang films in relation to Hou Hsiao-hsien's work. We discuss the film in relation to Postmodernism, Existentialism, contingency, nausea, chance. We note that Fredric Jameson wrote on Sartre, Postmodernism, and this film. We discuss, Yang's characteristic visuals, his distinctive way of filming, narrating, and style of characterisation. We continue to be entranced.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2021/06/25/hou-hsiao-hsien-19-context-10-edward-young-1985/ Richard and I discuss our admiration of Edward Yang's Taipei Story. It's connection to Hou Hsiao-hsien, who stars and co-wrote the screenplay. It's a mosaic of a film in which a relationship between two people who care for each other falls apart and as it does so we get to see stories of a people and of a city in transition in a country situated within two imperial cultures, Japanese and American, with mainland China always hovering on the background. It's a beautiful film, with really striking, original and beautiful imagery: Yang's flat face-on camera, uses of screens, reflections, the city always ever present in what is ultimately a chamber piece focussing on a couple and their immediate relations, the couple caught between a longed for past (on his part) and an uncertain future in hers. A truly great film.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2021/06/21/hou-hsiao-hsien-18-context-9-flowers-of-taipei-taiwan-new-cinema-chinlin-hsieh-2014/ A discussion of FLOWERS OF TAIPEI, a documentary on Taiwan New Cinema. José saw it twice; the first time finding it interesting but almost instantly forgettable; the second time it incensed him, seeming an attempt to get a production to pay for a director's networking opportunities rather than a work that actually illuminates what Taiwan New Cinema might be; its history, contexts, development. We do get to see it's impact on major names from East Asia. Richard is as always the voice of reason.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2021/06/16/hou-hsiao-hsien-17-contexts-8-the-rice-dumpling-vendors-hsin-chi-1969/ A discussion of Hsin Chi's THE RICE DUMPLING VENDORS, a rare male melodrama. The protagonist kicks his wife out of the house for perceived infidelity; as soon as he does the whole family falls apart and is plunged in a spiral of poverty, the father at one point abandoning his baby even as his two minor children take on jobs in order to buy milk. The film documents a society on the cusp of modernity and suffering the effects of the social and economic effects produced by it. Stylistically, the film is highly skilled and gorgeous to look at. Character's thoughts are offered in voice-over or through song. There is a mix of genres: noir/action/family-melodrama/documentary. It's a cinephile's film, with references to PSYCHO and other films. The music borrows from CINDERELLA as well as then current pop-hits as Sinatra's version of 'I've Got You Under My Skin'. We also discuss the extent to which this film is an influence on Hou Hsiao-hsien's THE SANDWICH MAN. The more Hsin Chi films we see, the more we like and value them.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2021/06/13/hou-hsiao-hsien-16-contexts-7-dangerous-youth-hsin-chi-1969/ Continuing with our discussion of Hsin Chi films. This time the focus is on DANGEROUS YOUTH. We offer a bit of background on Hsin Chi; discuss how the film is similar to Nagisa Oshima's CRUEL STORY OF YOUTH, Godard's BREATHLESS, BEAT GIRL, and all the motorcycle gang Roger Corman films of the mid-sixties. The film has the thematics and energy of pre-code sex melodramas but surrounded by a rock-pop soundtrack stylised and transformed by foregrounding the sax. DANGEROUS YOUTH is visually inventive, with fascinating compositions, interesting intimations of nudity through shadows, compositions that make the most of the architecture to suggest interior states and external perspectives. The story of a young girl groomed into prostitution for money by the pimp she loves and the richer woman who is pulling his strings, is given sexy, noirish form and fascinating gender politics. Does anyone believe the end?
https://notesonfilm1.com/2021/06/11/hou-hsiao-hsien-15-contexts-6-foolish-bride-naive-bridegroom-hsin-chi-1967/ We continue our discussion of the films kindly made available in wonderful versions by the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute. This time we discuss the second Hsin Chi film on view, FOOLISH BRIDE, NAIVE BRIDEGROOM, a wonderfully inventive screwball comedy displaying a wide array of cinematic devices for humours effect (stop-motion, music, fluid camera), anchoring it in solid structure, set on the cusp of modernity, and humorously putting all the major decisions on the hands of the female protagonists. Great fun.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2021/06/09/hou-hsiao-hsien-14-contexts-5-the-bride-who-returned-from-hell-hsin-chi-1965/ We discuss THE BRIDE WHO RETURNED FROM HELL, from a cycle of Hsin Chi films the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute is currently providing free on Youtube and in excellent restorations. We discuss its debt to Rebecca, Strangers on a Train, The Innocents, the Bond films, melodrama and the Gothic. We talk about its formal inventiveness in its use of a rotating camera and split screen. We also explore how its interspersed with musical numbers that often take place amongst a recognisable landscape. It's a Taiwanese film where one can't help but note its transnational dimension. It's a film we both liked and recommend.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2021/06/07/hou-hsiao-hsien-13-contexts-4-may-13-day-of-sorrows-lin-tuan-chiu-1965/ We once more thank the Taiwan Film and Audio-Visual Institute for the opportunity to see these marvellous copies of Lin Tuan-Chiu film. In the podcast we discuss the combination of genres in the film -- melodrama, court-room drama, documentary, murder-mystery, musical. We discuss the acting in relation to theatrical revue. We wonder if a scene from Hou's Cute Girl finds its inspiration here....and much more.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2021/06/07/hou-hsiao-hsien-12-contexts-3-six-suspects/ We extend our thanks once more to the Taiwan Film & Audio-visual Institute for making these three Lin Tuan-Chiu films available. In this podcast we discuss Six Suspects, a 1965 mystery/noir that was never released. We discuss its peculiar flashback structure, the beauty of the imagery and composition in contrast to the other somewhat clunky aspects of narration, what the film tells us about the culture, its possible relation to Ozu in terms of compositions and to mid 60s Japanese Crime Drama in relation to look and style. A somewhat unsatisfying film that we nonetheless encourage people to see.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2021/06/05/hou-hsiao-hsien-11-contexts-b-kind-hu-dragon-inn-1967-a-touch-of-zen-1971/ In this podcast we discuss the recent MUBI showings of Dragon Inn and A Touch of Zen, its relationship to the Wuxia genre and its influence on films such Crouching Tiger/ Hidden Dragon (Ang Lee, 2000), Hero (Zhang Yimou, 2002) and House of Flying Daggers (Zhang Yimou, 2004, its later influence on more recent Taiwanese cinema, so obvious in Tsai Ming Liang's Goodbye, Dragon Inn and Hou's own The Assassin (2015).
https://notesonfilm1.com/2021/06/04/the-husbands-secret-zhang-fu-de-mi-mi-lin-tuan-qiu-taiwan-1960/ A treat. Part of a new series of mid-century Taiwanese films made available in a wonderful restoration through the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute. We are discussing the film as a context for, as a way of better understanding the cinema of Hou Hsiao-hsien. But we can't help but discuss other elements that crop up: the career of Lin Tuan-qiu, the uses of melodrama, the extraordinary cinematography by Chen Cheng-fan and equally amazing lighting by Chen Tian-rong; we discuss how the film is a critique of patriarchy whilst also exploiting the visual aspects of women sinning; the films seems both visually sophisticated but also an example of what many will see as crude stereotypical melodrama, and fascinating for that. It's a plot-laden film, full of twists, and totally engrossing. We discuss the uses of flashbacks and flashbacks within flashbacks; the narrated elements by a narrator that seems omniscient and can't quite be placed; we critique the choppiness of the editing whilst praising some of the on-location shooting. We see clear roots in theatre and theatrical forms of acting. A weird and fascinating combination of cine-literate sophistication with a kind of crudity of acting and mode which we highly recommend not only to those interested in Taiwanese Cinema but also those interested in melodrama.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2021/05/26/hou-hsiao-hsien-9-daughter-of-the-nile-1987/ We discuss Daughter of the Nile as a transitional film for Hou, the relatively few locations (the house, KFC, the nightclub, the beach etc) in which the film is set, the now typical Hou way of filming from repeating fixed camera positions with little or no movement; the way the protagonist remains relatively unknowable, the fractured family on the edges of criminality across generations, the lack of judgment on that, the continued use of fart jokes, the context in which the film was made (end of Martial law, ongoing relationship with American consumer culture etc). A film José didn't quite like as much as Richard but which nonetheless rewarded a second viewing.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2021/05/21/hou-hsiao-hsien-8-dust-in-the-wind-1986/ A beautiful film, a continuation of a cycle of autobiographical films (The Boys From Fengkuei, A Summer at Grandpa's). We continue our discussion of framing, ellipses, cinema, letters, the country and the city, heartbreak and exploitation, and all those other formal and thematic elements that make Hou's cinema so great.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2021/05/16/hou-hsiao-hsien-7-a-time-to-live-and-a-time-to-die/ We continue our discussion of the work of Hou Hsiao-hsien, this time with a focus on The Time to Live and The Time to Die, the second in his cycle of autobiographical films after The Boys from Fenkuei. We discuss what is depth in this film and talk about Hou's consideration of 'traces 'in the surfaces of his films, how the depth is often in the surfaces. We note the structuring of this film, a bildungsroman, around a series of deaths. We talk of how often the key narrative points are obscured, and make sense only in the connections the viewers can make; how Hou often films in fixed positions, so we return to the same scene but across time, and we think about how this might affect all those spaces without faces, the anticipatory space, and the remains after characters have left the scene. We also explore the dual perspective in the film, the filmmaker's and the protagonist's, often intersecting, rarely interchangeable. We mention how Hou narrates the beginning of the film and how the drama is filmed in the real places and spaces he grew up in, and the effect of dramatising fictionally, on our speculation of the effects of spaces across time in this narrative....and much more.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2021/05/14/hou-hsiao-hsien-6-a-summer-at-grandpas-1983/ We delve further into the cinema of Hou Hsiao-hsien. We discuss the narrative structure, how various plots unfold and deepen what seems initially a light story where not much seems to happen. We discuss the continuing interest in differences between the country and the city, the use of trains, how the kids develop an understanding of the adult world by what happens on the margins of the story, and how the story itself is told in long takes, in the middle plane of the frame, with elegant compositions that reframe our view through character placement and movement. We discuss the context of production, the connection with Hong Kong, the limitations of government policy, how little film filmmakers were allowed to use, and how this affected the films' aesthetic. We also discuss the improvisational style of acting and the performances Hou manages to extract from the children, who are wonderful. We talk of how he uses corridors and stairs to create depth, how light and oblique angles create the feeling of a child hearing things they might not be understanding. We also discuss Hou's use of empty space (which is what most likely lead to comparisons with Ozu). we end with a discussion of the music, very different this time, and composed by Edward Yang, who also plays the father in the film, appearing briefly at the beginning and the end....….oh and the continuing use of toilet gags!
https://notesonfilm1.com/2021/05/09/thinking-aloud-about-film-hou-hsiao-hsieng-5-the-boys-from-fengkuei-aka-all-the-youthful-days-1983/ Hou has described this as the favourite amongst his films. Richard and José discuss why this might be so: the compositions; the long takes that allow for action vertically, horizontally, and on different planes of the image. The juxtaposition between the rowdy teenage delinquency we see with the classical musical. The easy ellipsis into memory. The evident influence of Italian neo-realism, particularly Visconti's Rocco and His Brothers, which is explicitly referenced and Fellini's I Vitelloni, which has a similar set-up. We discuss the falling into place of a particular style that would come to be associated with the director and why we think the film ends up being so beautiful and moving.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2021/05/07/thinking-aloud-about-film-hou-hsiao-hsien-4-the-sandwich-man-1983/ A discussion of The Sandwich Man, an omnibus film with episodes from Hou Hsiao-hsien, Wan Jeng, Tseng Shuan-hsiang, that is said to have helped launch New Taiwanese Cinema. We talk about the three different episodes, how so many New Waves incorporated omnibus or portmanteau films as a form of self advertisement, the relationship to The Bicycle Thief, the way it allegorises and comments on conflicts and changes in Taiwanese cinema and society....and much more.
In this podcast, Richard and I discuss how much we both like this film, an early one of Hou's that we argue continues to be largely dismissed in account of his work. Here we admire what we see as his growth as a filmmaker: the increasing use of expressive long-takes, the filming from the inside of trains, the imaginative compositions, the handling of many people in the frame whilst still keeping dramatic focus, the deft control over various narrative threads. We notice that this is the third time in three fllms that we get scatalogical jokes but how now they're not used as superficial toppers but instead evoke character and feeling as well as laughs. There are songs and there is romance but we discuss how there is also much more than that: a highly skilled and enjoyable work. The blogpost for the podcast with more links and information is at: https://notesonfilm1.com/2021/05/01/thinking-aloud-about-film-hou-hsia-hsien-3-the-green-green-grass-of-home-1982/
One of the great surprises and pleasures of the Wales One World Film Festival was the opportunity to see Filmfarsi, a great documentary film on the significance of popular Iranian cinema from 1953-1979. In this podcast I talk to the film's director, Ehsan Khoshbakht , to find out more about the process that led to the film, the Iranian film industry in this period, the relationship of the cinema to the Iranian New Wave, how much of this cinema was lost in the aftermath of the revolution and why this was so, and the process of recovering the films which are also a history of Iran and Iranians in this period.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2021/04/28/thinking-aloud-about-film-hou-hsiao-hsien-2-cheerful-wind-aka-play-while-you-play/ Thinking Aloud About Film continues it's exploration of the cinema of Hou Hsia-hsien with a discussion of Cheerful Wind aka Play While you Play, a charming musical romantic comedy, an exploration of filmmaking itself, and a re-teeming of the cast that made the previous Cute Girl such a success.
Trailer for a new series of podcasts by Richard Layne and José Arroyo that will be an umbrella for all themed podcasts we've been doing so far, Youssef Chahine, selections from Ritrovato in Bologna, and currently, a series of talks on the early cinema of Hou Hsiao-hsien.
https://notesonfilm1.com/2021/04/25/thinking-aloud-about-film-the-cinema-of-hou-hsiao-hsien-1-cute-girl-1980/ Richard and I turn our attention to the early cinema of Hou Hsiao-hsien. Four of his films are now on MUBI and at least the first one is delightful: a romantic comedy not to different from those characteristic of American Cinema in the 1930s, but with broader humour and more pop songs. A delightful first work, very commercial .... and very different from what was to follow.
We continue our little exploration of Middle-Eastern Films that connect to the work of Chahine. This discussion is on Maroun Bagdadi's Beirut, oh Beirut, currently playing on Netflix. We discuss the beauty of the film. Richard connects it to late sixties Godard in style. I found it more moving and sad than what I remember of that period of Godard's work. We discuss the film in relation to Chahine's The Sparrow and to Al-Karnak. The film has a particular nostalgic feel, the depiction of buildings, landscapes, places and spaces for feeling that are soon to be destroyed, perhaps forever, and the way of live and set of dilemmas that this film documents just before they explode and are obliterated, so this poetic drama can also be read as a historical document, now imbued with sadness for what humans do to places once much loved.
Adam Carver is a Midlands-based producer, performer and cultural activist. He was recently Festival Director for SHOUT and is producer for Ginny Lemon's Palaver. I saw the great Fantabulosa show they did at the Birmingham Museum and Gallery just before lockdown, a thrilling queer positive performance piece for children and family audiences. I wanted to talk to him to find out how lockdown had affected him personally as a performer and also on: queer arts in the Midlands, the infrastructure for live performance in Birmingham and his own transgressive transformation into Fatt Butcher, a sublime and edgy transformation into drag that brings in Disco, Comedy, and Bingo whilst also being a political intervention against shame.
Richard returns! We discuss the famous Al-Karnak (Karnak Café) directed byAli Badr Kahn in 1975. A political film, a critique of the previous regime, based on a novella by Naguib Mahfouz, and a 'model of de-Nasserfication'. The film is pulpy, melodramatic, sensationalist, a box-office smash. A very interesting work to discuss in relation to Chahine's The Sparrow (1972), which deals with similar subject matter but in a a very different way. Ali Badr Kahn and Mahfouz had previously collaborated with Chahine as well so the film is an interesting to focus to a whole series of issues that intersect with Chahine's work.
I join up with Dr. Fiona Cox aka Kitty Mazinsky, for wide-ranging discussion of Francis Lee's fascinating film
We return to Chadi Abdel Salam's Al-Momia/ The Night of Counting the Years to get an Egyptian perspective on the great and beautiful film. The timing is perfect too as the next day the mummies of the kings were moved to a new home for the first time since the events depicted in the film.
Hussein returns to offer us a fascinating Egyptian perspective on the career of Youssef Chahine beginning with Cairo as Seen By Chahine (1991) and talking us through The Emigrant (94), Destiny, The Other (99). We also touch on The Choice (1970), Silence, on tourne! (2001).
At the request of our listeners, we are expanding the podcast onto other instances of Egyptian cinema. We saw Shadi Abdel Salam's Al-mummia/ The Night of Counting The Years in the wonderful version restored with the help of Martin Scorsese and the Cineteca di Bologna. It's a truly great film: poetic, allegorical, about the past and the nation, people robbed, robbing others, robbing themselves, stealing their own past and rescuing it. But not without a cost. A very beautiful film that I'm sure will reward further viewing. Much of this podcast is a combination of appreciation and queries about what we don't yet understand.
We return for the third part of our conversation with Hussein, offering an Egyptian perspective on his career and its contexts and significance. In this episode we touch on 'The Sparrow', 'The Return of the Prodigal Son', 'Adieu Bonaparte' and 'Alexandria...Again and Forever'. We will return for a final episode discussing the last stage of Chahine's brilliant career beginning with 'Cario as Seen by Chahine'.
A conversation with scholar Misha Iakovlev on the fascinating Norwegian television show, originally aimed at young girls, that has elicited fervent fan following from different countries and for different reasons. Released across various platforms and edited together to broadcast, it's a fascinating example of queer transnational transmedial television that offers us a lot to discuss and much else to think about some more.
We continue our discussion of the Iranian programming at the Wales One World Film Festival with Bahram Beyzaie's great, Downpour: influenced by Italian Neo-realism and European Art Cinema, one of the films that spearheaded the Iranian New Wave counter cinema, poetic and critical, and managing to synthesise realism and allegory. A great film. The full post can be found here: https://notesonfilm1.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=17426&action=edit&calypsoify=1
We continue our discussion with Hussein, to garner an Egyptian perspective on the career of Youssef Chahine to 1985. We touch on Nile Boy, Blazing Sun, 'The Turn of the Decade' films (Forever Love, In Your Hands, Lover's Code, A Man in My Life. We discuss how some phrases from his films have become common parlance in Egyptian culture. We touch on the complicated relationship with Mohsen Mohieddin and we end with Dalida and The Sixth Day. It's a conversation still to be continued.
We continue with our exploration of the Iranian Cinema on offer at the Wales One World festival with a discussion of the extraordinary The Deer, a metaphor for pre-revolutionary Iran's social relations, focussing on down and outs living in a courtyard with a heroin addict and a bank robber as heroes. The influence of Italian neo-realism is everywhere present in a film that is simultaneously symbolic but also pulpy and visceral. It's an iconic film extra-textually as well: a cinema showing the film was burned down killing hundreds of people. It's a film that is still banned in Iran.
A discussion of Filmfarsi, a film by Ehsan Khoshbakht, of a mode of filmmaking extremely popular in Iran -- urban gangster films, melodramas, musicals -- set in urban working class milieus, that evoked and challenged the country's vaunted leap in modernity. It's a cinema quickly banned after the '79 revolution, and a cult on VHS. The filmmaker shows the wide range of filmmaking, its transnational perspective, its ritual and fetishistic post -79 consumption, and well evokes why it was so powerful, why it's been banned and why it is so cherished.
This podcast has been very lucky with its listeners. Hussein, not only provided us with a possibility of viewing the wonderful Dawn of a New Day, but produced the sub-titles necessary to understand it. I took the opportunity of talking to Hussein to ask him about things we as English-speaking viewers simply did not understand. i.e an Egyptian perspective on the politics, the history, the significance of streets and buildings, the customs, the reputation of the actors in the film. All proved illuminating and enlightening and has certainly helped me understand Dawn of a New Day better. The conversation then continues onto Chahine as a figure in Egyptian cinema and culture and we will continue with that strand of conversation onto the next podcast.
A discussion of Atef Salem's 1959 Encounter with the Unknown, part of a cycle of films we will be covering as a way of setting a context for better understanding the work of Youssef Chahine. We discuss the very glamorous pairing of Omar Shariff and Samia Gamal, the superb mise-en-scène and visuals, what such skill brings to a rickety script and what it cannot, the relative lack of conceptual and thematic richness in comparison to Chahine and much else. You can follow the blogpost at: https://notesonfilm1.com/2021/03/03/the-youssef-chahine-podcast-no-30-encounter-with-the-unknown-%d9%85%d9%88%d8%b9%d8%af-%d9%85%d8%b9-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d8%ac%d9%87%d9%88%d9%84-1959/
Richard Layne and I return with a discussion of Dawn of a New Day, one of Chahine's best. It echoes Sirk once more and has traces of An Affair to Remember and European Art Cinema like Antonioni's La notte or Fellini's La dolce vita whilst remaining very much a popular melodrama about love which is also a commentary on the state of the nation and its future. A very beautiful film and so accessible it's a real pity it's not part of the current Netflix package.
A discussion between friends, informed but eager for exchange and hoping to contribute to a discussion. We probably missed many reference points but as soon as we stopped talking I realised the most obvious one is 120 BPM.
An extended discussion of Youssef Chahine's Alexandria New York. 'I love American cinema but America doesn't love me'. Anyone who loves Chahine's cinema will find this irresistible. A film made by someone who thinks and knows how to visualise and dramatise. We will see it again
A discussion of Silence...on tourne focussing on the many characteristic flourishes we like so much in Chahine's oeuvre but exploring also why they are less satisfying in this particular work.
A discussion of one of Youssef Chahine's most enjoyable films, The Ring Seller/ Biya el-Khawatim. We discuss the film in relation to Chahine's oeuvre, to national and transnational cultures, to the musical genre in relation to theatrical operetta and zarzuela but also in relation to films like Powell/Pressburger's Oh.... Rosalinda! and Arthur Freed musicals.
The Youssef Chahine Podcast returns for a discussion of Destiny, with its images of book burnings, its themes of love and religious tolerance, its genre-bending mix of historical epic and musical extravaganza, and Chahine's characteristic artfulness with the techne of filmmaking.
After a brief gap, José Arroyo and Richard Layne return for the 24th episode of the Youssef Chahine Pocast, an extended discussion of L'autre/ The Other. a film about Orientalism, Imperialism, Terrorism; an examination of class structures with a gender analysis; a film about a land and its people...yet one that also recalls popular melodramatic and glitzy works like Dynasty. Not quite top Chahine but a film that's nonetheless made us think and that we've grown to love.
Richard returns to discuss Youssef Chahine's fascinating musical in the light of Tara Shehata's great podcast on the film last week.
The Youssef Chahine Podcast talks to filmmaker Tara Shehata about two Youssef Chahine musicals, C'es toi mon amour/ ENTA HABIBI (1957) and Silence, on tourne!/Skoot hansawwar (2001).
A discussion of the Youssef Chahine's Devil of the Sahara aka The Desert's Devil. We discuss the influence of Zorro and Robin Hood on the film, how Sharif is deployed as a combination of Errol Flynn AND Tyrone Power. We praise the film's production values; how it's a piece of entertainment filmed with a verve and flair that comes across even in the very bad copy we had access to. The film has exciting action sequences that make one re-think action in his later films and very successful large-scale musical numbers -- the influence of Minnelli evident throughout -- that likewise raises questions about the deliberateness of later choices. A glossy piece of entertainment we both loved even though we saw it in the worst circumstances possible.
A discussion of Nissae Bila Regal, Women Without Men, sometimes also known as Only Women, a Youssef Chahine film from 1953 with superb production values, musical numbers a la MGM and a plot that recalls Federico Garcîa Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba. We discuss many of the themes that are to recur throughout Chahine's oeuvre: the influence of Hollywood cinema, melodrama, an exploration of modernisation, gender roles, a discussion of an idea of nation.....and much more.
Yaser Hammad is a young Saudi filmmaker as well as the screenwriter of Saudi Arabia's first ever feature film, Roll'em. Meeting Yaser here has been one of the great pleasures of doing the Chahine podcast. Not only is he, like us, a great admirer of Chahine but, unlike us, he's got access to all the Arab writing on Chahine and is much more knowledgeable about actors, songs, the whole pop and social culture around Chahine. His additions, corrections, interventions have been so invaluable that I asked him to join us for this podcast so that our listeners may also benefit. This is a wide-ranging conversation on Chahine's oeuvre that tries to bring an Arab perspective on the work and, more personally, an account of what Chahine's work has meant to at least one young Arab filmmaker.
A discussion of Youssef Chahine's very first feature, Baba Amin/ Papa Amin/ Daddy Amin. We discuss how the first half seems like the work of a different, less talented filmmaker, how the second half comes alive with charm, inventiveness, song; how Faten Hamama once more comes across as one of the great presences of world cinema; the connection to the Astaire/ Rogers Swing Time; its interesting mix of musical and melodrama, and how auteurism here results in an enhanced appreciation of the work.
An appreciation of Chahine's short but great Cairo as Seen By Chahine. We discuss the film's self-reflexiveness. How its aware of framing, composition, Foreign expectations, relations and obligations concerning style and subject matter. How to film and evoke a city? How to do it with respect and love for its inhabitants? How to politely warn about dangers around and dangers ahead and how to understand what drives desperate people there. We could have had a much longer discussion. But then, it would have been longer than the film.
A discussion of Le sixième jour, which Chahine dedicates to Gene Kelly as a thank you for having filled his youth with joy. A rare Chahine film that is centred on a female star, female desire and female self-actualisation in a patriarchal culture. A hybrid of a woman's film and musical. It's set during a cholera pandemic, which resonates with the present, and also features a story of the unrequited love of a 26 year old street performer for an unhappy and much older housewife that still feels transgressive. Richard loved it very much. I less so. But we agree that it remains essential viewing for fans of Dalida and Youssef Chahine.
José Arroyo and Richard Layne discuss Youssef Chahine's The Emigrant in the light of the previous conversation with Martin Stollery and in the light of Dr. Stollery's monograph on the film.
Richard Layne and José Arroyo discuss Adieu Bonaparte, the notorious Franco-Egyptian co-production, and the only Chahine film we've been able to find on Blu-ray (under France's 'Heritage' collection). Of interest to anyone concerned with questions of North African Cinema, Colonialism, Arab Cultures or the various ways sexuality has been queered in non-Western countries.
Martin Stollery is the author of a monograph on Youssef Chahine's The Emigrant, the most sustained analysis of any one Youssef Chahine film I've been able to find in English. Here we talk about the film itself, how it allegorises, the meaning and uses of water in Chahine's films, the famous court case that is part of the context of the film's release, and the film's relationship to Biblical epics as well as Youssef Chahine's more personal style of filmmaking. An illuminating discussion of texts, contexts and modes of analysis that ends with a renewed appreciation of Chahine's achievements as a director.
A discussion of Alexandria Again and Forever, focussing on the uses of Shakespeare, the influence of the American musical on Chahine, John Gielgud's visit to perform Hamlet in Cairo, queer desire, the peplum film, Alexander, Anthony and Cleopatra, Art and Activism, the 1978 cinema artists' strike in Egypt.
A discussion of Youssef Chahine's An Egyptian Story, the second part of his Alexandria Trilogy, and one which is self-reflexive on his career thus far, highlighting Cairo Station, Saladin, Jamila The Algerian, Un jour le nil, The Sparrow and other of his films. We trace recurring patterns: the type of mise-en-scène, the use of Shakespeare, the references to American musicals, the deployment of a repertory company of actors, a homosexual element, a social critique matched by an auto-critique -- it's a film in which Chahine puts himself on trial -- and a more inventive, imaginative and personal dramatisation that interestingly deploys expressionist and surrealist elements.
A discussion of Youssef Chahine's ALEXANDRIA, WHY? with José Arroyo, Richard Layne and special guest star Andrew Moor. Richard Dyer named this as one of his favourite queer films of all time.
A great discussion of a fascinating film, part Teen musical, part Tennessee Williams, and an exploration of the social and political issue that arose after the death of Nasser and Egypt's defeat in the Six Day War with Israel, filmed with great verve and style.
After our podcast of Un jour, Le Nile, Richard discovered the 1972 recut and partly remade version of the film on You Tube and we decided to see it, explore its differences from the 1968 version and the director's cut and see how that might have affected its narrative, its politics and the way that ire represents sexuality. What is a filmmaker against the combined diplomatic and internal exigencies of the USSR and Egypt?
A dense and rich political film with extraordinary mise-en-scène that begins with an open letter to the Egyptian people and ends with Nasser informing Egypt of the loss of the Six Day War with Israel and announcing his resignation as the people take to the streets. The Sparrow is perhaps the least pleasurable of his films we've seen so far but very rewarding indeed. The more we talked about it and the more we read, the richer the film becomes.
A real find, the director´s cut of a celebrated film maudit, currently made available on the Henri platform through the great generosity of the Cinémathèque Française. A celebration of the Soviet-Egyptian collaboration that resulted in the building of the Aswan Dam, this film is also a critique of the dispossession and displacement it led to, a feminist critique of the loss of identity that accompanies following a husband to a new country, it can also very much be read as an inter-racial gay romance in the midst of the wrenching transformations brought on by Modernity. An extraordinary film that works on many levels, has an epic narrative sweep to accompany its 70mm Cinemascope specs, but that always brings the personal to the political and does so poetically through word, image and sound. A masterpiece of the cinema.
The Youssef Chahine Podcast No. 6: The Land aka The Earth by Jose Arroyo & Richard Layne
An extraordinary political melodrama about liberation struggles in colonial settings, produced by its female star and released at the same time as Mehboob Kahn's Mother India, with which it would ideally be programmed. When we began this podcast I was a bit anxious that we weren't knowledgeable enough on Chahine's oeuvre to say anything worth listening to. But as I've began reading the literature on Chahine, I realise that what we know and can bring to the table is a knowledge of film history and film aesthetics. None of the books on Chahine I've read mention the influence of Gone With the Wind on this film -- extraordinarily interesting in the light of current discussions of the film -- and we are beginning to dig out patterning: the melodramatic mode, the politics that underpin, the extraordinary long takes often shot in and for depth, the filming from the inside out, the mobile camera, the ease with which affect is generated, the cinephilia through which one sees and where one detects the influence of Dreyer's Joan of Arc, Sirk's mise-en-scène, American post-war musicals; the homoeroticism more evident in some film than others but always a running thread; the filming of individuals with crowds, which are often depicted as community but also shown to turn against the individual. This is a film based on a true story and filmed in the heat of the moment where the fate of the heroine was not yet settled. It's an extraordinary film that once more raises questions regarding the relations between political cinema and film form. We highly recommend it.
A discussion of Youssef Chahine's Saladin which offers some context on the cinematic representation of Saladin in relation to Richard the Lion Heart, some historical information in its relation to Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser's efforts to maintain a United Arab Republic, and Chahine's attempts to narrate those aspirations through the story of Saladin. We admire the film's use of the CinemaScope frame, its staging in depth, its use of colour, and editing; and bemoan the way some of the action is directed. A huge popular success in its day. An Arab answer to the epics then so popular in Hollywood, not least in offering an Arab point-of-view on the Crusades; and a cultural mainstay through its regular rotation on television: this was also reputedly Nasser's favourite film.
Our third podcast on Youssef Chahine films, this one on Cairo Station, a combination of Dickensian melodrama, Marxist analysis, neorealist aspirations, film noir techniques, and with a contemporary relevance in its Incel-on-a-rampage theme. A brilliant work, probably the best we've seen so far (though those with a penchant for romance might prefer The Blazing Sun).
A discussion of Youssef Chahine's Dark Water, currently on Netflix. José and Richard discuss how the film introduces the viewer to another culture which might seem sexist and authoritarian to modern sensibilities and that in spite of that is moving, compelling and beautiful. The podcast ranges over the sensuality depicted, the detection of elements of Shakespeare's Othello and Hamlet in some scenes, how the frame is alive with community and yet how one detects a patterning in the depiction of that community that connotes a queer culture in that that community which provides comfort and support can also turn on the individual, turn into a mob, and rampage onto murder. There's a dramatisation of class in the film with lots of parallelisms between aunt and niece and also what turns out, in typical melodramatic form, two brothers raised on opposite sides of a considerable class divide. One begins to detect patternings in Chahine's films, the extraordinary compositions, the visual poetry, the excitement of the narrative, the visual beautyf of the production, a Hollywood-style story telling with a grand romantic finale. There are long takes that often involve difficult orchestrations of movements of large numbers of people. This and The Blazing Sun are also melodramas where, like in noir, it is the man who's wounded and suffers for love, often due to his own misapprehensions. In spite of certain macho attitudes now alien to us, the film remains engaging, exciting and revealing.
José Arroyo and Richard Layne discovered the work of Youssef Chahine at a retrospective of his work at Bologna last year, are thrilled that so many previously difficult-to-see films of his are now available on Netflix, and hope that these podcasts encourage people to watch and discuss the films. This is the first in a series. We hope to cover as many of them as possible, and in chronological order. We hope you join us on this journey