Episodes
Episodes



Thursday Apr 19, 2018
Claire Denis (with Dr. Felicity Gee)
Thursday Apr 19, 2018
Thursday Apr 19, 2018
We are joined for this extended conversation about the work of filmmaker Claire Denis by Dr. Felicity Gee. Felicity, a previous guest of the show, provides some wonderful insight into and thoughts on the work of the French filmmaker whose new film Let The Sunshine In is released by Curzon/Artificial Eye this Friday, April 20th.The episode covers a range of topics including aesthetics and feminism, the canonisation of Beau Travail, as well as the new film and how it fits into her body of work. Music in the episode comes from some of the collaborations Denis has undertaken with the band Tindersticks.Music:Opening (from 35 Rhums) / The Black Mountain (from L’intrus) / Children’s Theme (from White Material) / Train Montage (from 35 Rhums) / Trouble Every Day (from Trouble Every Day).Click here to stream the album Claire Denis Film Scores 1996-2009 by Tindersticks on SpotifyReferences:Dario mention's Judith Mayne's research on Claire DenisRyan Gilbey's interview with Claire Denis for the New Statesman (mentioned on a previous Patreon bonus epsiode by Ryan)Postscript 1:I watched 35 Shots of Rum again and it is as exquisite as Dario and Felicity discuss on the episode. NF.Postscript 2: I apologise for all the rummaging you hear on the episode. Due to Dario and Felicity being in the same room we couldn't record using headphones over Skype so their mic picked up my fidgeting. NF.



Wednesday Mar 28, 2018
Right Now Film Festival / Brexitannia (+filmmaker Daisy Asquith)
Wednesday Mar 28, 2018
Wednesday Mar 28, 2018
*We apologise for the poor sound quality of the live segments of this episode. We are still working out the optimum way to record the live events for the show. Please stick with it as there are some great interviewees and some really great discussion on this ep.*For our 60th episode we have teamed up with the Right Now Film Festival and one of our Cornwall partner venues The Poly in Falmouth for a screening of Timothy George Kelly's documentary Brexitannia.The discussion tries to stay rooted in the cinematic but the overwhelming anxiety, confusion and uncertainty of Brexit in the UK means this is maybe our most political chat to date. The event ended up being a chance for audience members to share in the collective anxiety and confusion with us, aided by the excellent documentary that brought everyone together. Neil talked to Right Now FF coordinator Amy Hepton about their touring documentary festival venture.Also on the episode Neil talks to filmmaker and convenor of documentary at Goldsmiths Daisy Asquith about her latest film Queerama, a stunning archive documentary about British queer screen representation, released through the BFI.Clips from Brexitannia and Queerama, as well as the latter's core musical figure John Grant are featured in the episode alongside the discussions. Thanks to Right Now FF and The Poly for inviting us to get involved. And thanks to Luke Smith for coming down to take some photos, including the image below.



Tuesday Mar 13, 2018
In a Lonely Place (w/ Prof. Julie Grossman)
Tuesday Mar 13, 2018
Tuesday Mar 13, 2018
The career of Nicolas Ray boasts many films that are part of the cinematic canon, but it was his 1950 Film Noir In a Lonely Place that cemented his directorial sensibility and his appreciation of the fragile human condition. Starring an ageing Humphrey Bogart, in one of his most complex roles, and Gloria Grahame, who perhaps even surpasses Bogey in a performance that has the wit of Bacall, the emotion of Bergman and the sexiness of Hayworth. Screened in front of a full house in Hastings' Electric Palace In a Lonely Place provokes many interesting questions around sexual politics, representation, the dark side of Hollywood and how we understand cinema through the problematic structure of genre.For this episode, Dario interviews Professor Julie Grossman, director of Film Studies at Le Moyne College, upstate New York. Prof Grossman's book Rethinking the Femme Fatale contests the critical discourses that simplistically posit the female icon of Noir as an object of male fantasy and anxiety.There's also an accompanying blog by audience member and film teacher Peter Blundell for you to check out, should an hour and forty minutes not be enough for you.Show NotesProf. Julie Grossman, Le Moyne College, Syracuse, NY. Library of America entry on In a Lonely PlaceEd Gonzalez Review in Slant Serena Bramble in Senses of CinemaGaby Wood on In A Lonely Place for LRB



Friday Feb 23, 2018
Dark River (with Clio Barnard and Andrew Kötting)
Friday Feb 23, 2018
Friday Feb 23, 2018
The arrival of a new film by Clio Barnard promises an in-depth and uncompromising study of character and place; Dark River, her new film set in the harsh and beautiful Yorkshire farming landscape, is no exception. The northern locale links to her previous films The Arbor and The Self Giant, as does the bleak and brutal tragedy of the human stories. However, this rural tale, based on the Rose Tremain novel Trespass, is somewhat of a departure from the urban working-class focus of those previous films. In this Q&A, presented in association with Cinecity, Clio talks about the film with long-time friend Andrew Kötting, touching on the development of the script from the book, the casting, her minimalist aesthetic, the P.J. Harvey soundtrack and the challenges of the rural locations.Show notesClio Barnard interview in The Independent with Jacob StolworthyArrow Film Dark River Press ReleaseInterview with Clio Barnard on The Selfish GiantDark River: Why British Films Have Gone Back To The Land - Nick Hasted in The Guardian
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Monday Feb 05, 2018
Paul Thomas Anderson
Monday Feb 05, 2018
Monday Feb 05, 2018
The recent release of Paul Thomas Anderson's eighth narrative feature film Phantom Thread has the film world abuzz. No one is more excited than us here at The Cinematologists as it gives us a long-awaited chance to go deep on one of our favourite filmmakers and someone we believe to be one of, if not the greatest American filmmakers currently working.This first episode of the new season sees Neil and Dario discuss Anderson's place in the pantheon, his unique talents and style, and the immediate impact of his latest work - so different and yet so in line with his previous films. It also precedes a forthcoming bonus episode on Inherent Vice that has been gathering dust in the Cinematologists vault awaiting the right time to see the light of day. For now though, here's the episode:The release of Phantom Thread has seen some great writing and discussion emerge on the film and Anderson's career and films. Here are some of our favourites on the film and his work:The Film Comment Podcast - Violet Lucca and Sheila O'Malley discuss Phantom ThreadMelissa Anderson on Phantom Thread for 4ColumnsThe Curzon Film Podcast - Jake Cunningham, Josh Slater-Williams and Dr. Irene Musemeci on Phantom Thread



Friday Dec 22, 2017
Contemporary Film Criticism
Friday Dec 22, 2017
Friday Dec 22, 2017
We’ve been compiling this episode for about 6 months now and we’ve conducted interviews in New York, Bristol, The Shetland Islands and via Skype. We hope our delve into film criticism is worth the wait. Thank you firstly to our participants, so generous with their time and thoughts. A huge thank you also to our roving reporter Charlotte Crofts for the amazing interview with Tara Judah featured in the episode, and others we couldn’t manage to get in. Thank you finally to our listeners who suggested this episode.The wealth of material we got was overwhelming so look out for all the interviews being uploaded in January while we are on our winter break. That should keep you going in the cold winter months.ParticipantsTara Judah https://tarajudah.com/ @midnightmoviesSam Fragoso http://talkeasypod.com/ @SamFragosoSimran Hans https://www.theguardian.com/profile/simran-hans @heavier_thingsAshley Clark http://www.bfi.org.uk/people/ashley-clark @_Ash_ClarkViolet Lucca https://www.filmcomment.com/author/vlucca/ @unbuttonmyeyesMark Kermode https://www.theguardian.com/profile/markkermode @KermodeMovieProf. Linda Ruth Williams https://humanities.exeter.ac.uk/film/staff/lwilliams/ @lindaruth1Tom Shone http://tomshone.blogspot.co.uk/ @Tom_ShoneRoll of HonourAll the critics given shout outs across our interviews...Sophie Mayer, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Cerise Howard, Emma Westwood, Thomas Caldwell, Josh Nelson, Jack Sargeant, Dana Linssen, Kees Driessen, Rüdiger Suchsland, Adrian Martin, Catherine Grant, Cristina Alvarez Lopez, Kevin B. Lee, Michael Wood, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Robin Wood, Victor Perkins, David Bordwell, Kristin Thompson, Hadley Freeman, Marina Hyde, Ren Zelen, Christina Newland, Molly Haskell, Ashley Clark, James Baldwin, Graham Greene, Cahiers Critics, Bogdanovich & Schrader, Toby Hazlet, Violet Lucca, Doreen St. Felix, Jia Tolentino, Vinson Cunningham, Hilton Als, Wendy Ide, Simran Hans, Guy Lodge, Pauline Kael, Kim Newman, Roger Ebert, Andrew Sarris, Alan Jones, J Hoberman, Anne Billson, Kate Muir, Kay Austin Collins, Ira Madison, Alyssa Wilkinson, Scott Tobias, Keith Phipps, Tasha Robertson, Tim Grierson, Anjelica Jade, Nathan Heller, Jeremy O’Harris, Hunter Harris, Wesley Morris, Nick Pinkerton, Eric Hynes, Badlands Film Collective, AO Scott, Anthony Lane, David Edelstein, Elvis Mitchell, Amy Taubin, Christian Lorentzen, Senses of Cinema, Four Columns and Reverse Shot.The incidental music for this episode is from Giorgio Gaslini's score for Antonioni's La Notte.



Thursday Dec 14, 2017
Post-Weinstein (plus an interview with Dr. Tamsyn Dent.)
Thursday Dec 14, 2017
Thursday Dec 14, 2017
The fallout from the Harvey Weinstein revelations has been seismic, dramatically exposing the well-known but largely silent culture of sexism in the film industry. Various high profile names have followed in being accused of historic and recent abuses in what could prove to be a watershed moment, not only for Hollywood but Western culture more broadly. In this episode, Dario and Neil discuss the possible dynamics of the post-Weinstein era with a contribution from Dr Tamsyn Dent (@tamsyn_dent), a lecturer in Media Production at the University of Bournemouth. Tamsyn has worked with the Raising Films organisation in producing the #Rasingourgame industry report, a framework of accountability to ensure that diversity and inclusion are widely adopted in the Film and TV industry.Show notesRaising FilmsSalma Hayek on WeinsteinWhat do we do with the art of monstrous men? by Claire DedererInterview in Variety with Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor on how they broke the Weinstein story



Saturday Dec 02, 2017
La Notte (featuring film critic Robert Koehler)
Saturday Dec 02, 2017
Saturday Dec 02, 2017
Michelangelo Antonioni is generally recognised as one of the seminal directors of the European Art House tradition. In this week’s episode, The Cinematologists return to the Electric Palace Cinema to screen his 1961 film La Notte. The central film in his classic trilogy of modern alienation – L’avventura and L’eclisse being the other two - La Notte features three of the most iconic European stars - Jeanne Moreau Marcello Mastroianni and Monica Vitti - in a tale of strained relationships set in the abstract architectural spaces of Milan and the rarefied yet superficial circles of Italian high society.This episode also features an interview with the renowned film critic Robert Koehler who discuss his love and admiration of Antonioni's film particular focusing on the film that he sees as the filmmaker's masterpiece L'avventura.Show notesSenses of Cinema review of La NotteLA Times article on La Notte restorationRobert Koehler's Sight and Sound article on L'avventuraDear Antonioni documentary