The Cinematologists Podcast

The Last Detail (with film critic Christina Newland)

In our penultimate episode of the season Dario is joined by film Scholar, writer and podcaster Alex Fitch to present a classic of the American new wave: The Last Detail (1973) directed by the under appreciated Hal Ashby and starring Jack Nicholson. Two hard-boiled petty officers, Buddusky and Mulhall, are detailed to take a young sailor, Meadows, to a Naval Prison to serve an eight-year sentence for a trivial offense, and they decide to show him a good time on the way. They narrowly escape a bar fight, tangle with some Marines, and visit a brothel for Meadows’ first sexual experience. After reluctantly turning him in, Buddusky and Mulhall realize they are as much prisoners of their own world as Meadows now is of his.ario also interviews freelance film critic and journalist Christina Newland. They discuss studying film at university, writing process, feminist politics, and boxing movies along with this weeks overarching theme: the American new wave.Christina Newland's article on Creed and the Legacy of the boxing film.Molly Haskell (1987) From Reference to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the MoviesCinephilia and Beyond: ‘The Last Detail: Hal Ashby and Robert Town's Slice of the 70s America'

Ex_Machina

Dario returns to the School of Film and Television at Falmouth University to host a screening of Alex Garland's Sci-Fi drama Ex_Machina. He is joined on-stage by Dr Verena Von Eicken who selected the film and they discuss its potential to be read as a metaphorical critique of gendered power relations and the male gaze. Neil and Dario also discuss issues around the narrative structure of film, Alex Garland as a writer director and other recent examples of hard Sci-Fi such as Her (2013) and Under the Skin (2013).
Show Notes: 
Link to Laura Mulvey's seminal 1975 essay Visual Pleasure in Narrative Cinema
Link to Donna Haraway's 1983 essay The Cyborg Manifesto
 

20000 Days on Earth (with director Kieran Evans)

Neil and Dario meet up in Falmouth to discuss the Nick Cave music 'documentary' 20000 Days on Earth directed by Jane Pollard and Iain Forsyth. Neil also interview British film director Kieran Evans about the fundamental relationship between music and film.

Mad Max

Dario is joined on-stage at the Electric Palace by two final year Digital Film students studying at the University of Brighton - Kathryn Bessant and James Calver - to discuss George Miller's 1979 Ozploitation action fest Mad Max. Mel Gibson takes the title role as Max Rockatanski, the fearless cop waging war with kill-crazy bikers who target his family. It is a road-scorching, neo-punk, take-no-prisoners combat set in the lawless Australian outback.Neil and Dario expand on themes from the film and engage in a wider discussion covering topics including the future of the arts in higher education, neoliberal ideology, dystopian cinema, Sean Parker's Screening Room proposal and Louis CK's Horace and Pete.Show Notes:Times Higher article on graduate earningsRequiem for the American Dream - Documentary on Noam ChomskySean Parker's The Screening Room - Daily Beast articleHorace and Pete - Louis CKWTF with Marc Maron - Interview with Louis CKThe Teacher's Soul and the Terrors of Performativity by Stephen J. BallLondon Review of Books article about H.G. Adler's The Wall

Blue Steel (with director Kim Longinotto)

Cinematologists contributor Kingsley Marshall picks Blue Steel to discuss his research on the work of director Kathryn Bigelow and Neil interviews British film director Kim Longinotto about her work. Dario and Neil also discuss whether films can have real social or political impact.Kim Longinotto's Dreamcatcher, official site.Kim Longinotto talks to fellow Cinematologists interviewee Jeanie Finlay for The Talkhouse. 

Le Quai des Brumes

Le Quai Des Brumes is a seminal of French director Marcel Carné. Starring the enigmatic Jean Gabin it epitomises Carné’s poetic realism, often seen as influential to Hollywood film noir, evocating the intense beauty and tragedy of wartime Europe. Capturing the romantic fatalism of the protagonists the film is often defined as critique of the moral and social state of the French nation during World War II.

The Hunger (with directors the Blaine brothers)

Neil is joined by colleague Dr Victoria Byard to introduce and discuss Tony Scott's erotic vampire horror The Hunger. Staring Catherine Deneuve, Susan Sarandon and, of course, the late David Bowie the film draws a range of different reactions from the audience at Falmouth's School of Film and Television. On the Episode Neil also interviews film making duo the Blaine Brothers about their recent British Horror release Nina Forever and Dario and Neil cover a range of subjects including cinema's ability to preserve star iconography.

Bronco’s House (with director Mark Jenkin)

For this episode we are back at the Electric Palace in Hastings where Dario talks to Cornish filmmaker Mark Jenkin about his fascinating new film. In Bronco's House  a young man strives to provide a home for him, his pregnant girlfriend and their unborn child. The film is an aesthetic meditation on property, power and the future which is shot on a clockwork camera, using 16mm black and white negative stock, and process by hand through and instant coffee based developer. Bronco's House is available to download and stream. CLICK HERE.