The Cinematologists Podcast

BONUS: Prof. Neil Fox on Film Practice and Pedagogy

Our own Prof. Neil Fox in his day job is director of Falmouth University's Sound/Cinema Lab, which is behind films such as Mark Jenkin's Enys Men (2022) and Chris Morris' A Year in a Field (2022) as well as Wilderness (2017), which Neil wrote and produced. Wilderness was also made with a student crew and was proof of concept for making a feature drama within the structure of a university course. With Dario delivering a module to second-year students called Professional Life Practice, designed to help students research and understand the creative industries and learn from working experiences, Neil very generously agreed to answer a range of questions on subjects including his ethos of film pedagogy, how students should use extra-curricula events to shape their careers, the process of developing Wilderness, how students were recruited and what roles they took, understanding a professional mindset, and how the students' experiences on the film shaped their career pathways. Neil is on top form in this talk which is why we have decided to put it out as a bonus episode. It's a hugely valuable insight for film lecturers in practice and screenwriting, and definitely for students in all areas of the creative industries.
Prof. Neil Fox - Neil.Fox@falmouth.ac.uk
Dr. Dario Llinares - d.llinares@rave.ac.uk
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You can listen to The Cinematologists for free, wherever you listen to podcasts: click here to follow. We also produce an extensive monthly newsletter and bonus/extended content that is available on our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/cinematologists. You can become a member for only £2. We really appreciate any reviews you might write (please send us what you have written and we'll mention it) and sharing on Social Media is the lifeblood of the podcast so please do that if you enjoy the show.
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Music Credits:
‘Theme from The Cinematologists’
Written and produced by Gwenno Saunders. Mixed by Rhys Edwards. Drums, bass & guitar by Rhys Edwards. All synths by Gwenno Saunders. Published by Downtown Music Publishing.

Film Podcasting w/ Rico Gagliano from The Mubi Podcast

A special for cinephiles and podphiles this week as we welcome the superb critic and broadcaster Rico Gagliano. Rico's official title is the Head of Audio at Mubi but it's his creative direction and voice that is the driving force of The Mubi Podcast. Indeed, the notion of creative auteurism is just one of the many topics covered in the in-depth conversation with Dario.
We discuss a little of his background – his cinephile origin story – becoming a critic and moving into radio - his role at MUBI – the process and inspirations behind The Mubi Podcast – How the company views the podcast in relation to its overall brand and analyses of various seasons and episodes.
Neil and Dario then continue the discussion around film podcasting particularly how the audio format at its best offers the opportunity for "narrative film criticism" and how the working through of ideas and opinions can find a useful space to negotiate between subjectivity and objectivity as well as ideology and aesthetics.
It was great to discover that one of our listeners has set up a Cinematologists IMDB page - https://www.imdb.com/list/ls538725164/ It lists many of the films we have focused on for the main episodes, but also lots of films we have just mentioned briefly or in passing. Thanks so much to Sven Rufus for creating this example of paratextual content which is a great accompaniment to the show.
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You can listen to The Cinematologists for free, wherever you listen to podcasts: click here to follow.
We also produce an extensive monthly newsletter and bonus/extended content that is available on our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/cinematologists. You can become a member for only £2.
We really appreciate any reviews you might write (please send us what you have written and we'll mention it) and sharing on Social Media is the lifeblood of the podcast so please do that if you enjoy the show.
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Music Credits:
‘Theme from The Cinematologists’
Written and produced by Gwenno Saunders. Mixed by Rhys Edwards. Drums, bass & guitar by Rhys Edwards. All synths by Gwenno Saunders. Published by Downtown Music Publishing.

Rock Hudson: All that Heaven Allowed (w/ Dir. Stephen Kijak)

No matter the status of cinema, films focused on Hollywood icons seem to always retain a healthy level of interest. A key question is: do they bring anything new to the understanding of a storied figure. Stephen Kijak the director of Rock Hudson: All that Heaven Allowed, released on UK streaming this week, embarks on a sweeping ambitious, and intimate portrayal of a star whose symbolism transcended, albeit unintentionally, the silver screen. From B-Movie matinees through to the ultimate romantic leading man in the melodramas of Douglas Sirk. From Old School conservative rancher in Giant, opposite the raw James Dean, through to campy comedies with Doris Day. Not forgetting the myriad clunky formulaic studio pictures and the one outlying cult classic, John Frankenhiemer's Seconds, a role that was simultaneously against type but in retrospect a deconstruction of his closeted sexuality. All the while Hudson enjoyed an prominent role in the "hidden in plain sight", gay subculture of Hollywood. TV stardom revitalised an ailing Hollywood career in the 70s but as Hudson remained closeted to the public into the 80s, the facade of leading man heterosexual imperviousness crumbled when he was outed as the most prominent victim of AIDS. Right to the end his homosexuality was kept hidden although, watching the details of Hudson's private life, recounted by many of his friends and lovers, one wonders how.
Kijak's film is a classically structured documentary but one which astutely maps his constructed film persona his personal life using an array of clips which sync the implicit and often explicit queerness that one can read into his many roles. Neil and Dario discuss Hudson's status as an Hollywood Icon along with the formal approach of the documentary.
ROCK HUDSON: ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWED - Available to download and rent on digital platforms from 23rd October
Digital platforms include (if you wanted to mention) 
Amazon Prime Video
Apple TV
Google Play
Microsoft
Sky 
Virgin Media
Talk Talk
BT
Thanks to Stephen for his time and to Chris Lawrence for setting up the interview.
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You can listen to The Cinematologists for free, wherever you listen to podcasts: click here to follow.
We also produce an extensive monthly newsletter and bonus/extended content that is available on our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/cinematologists. You can become a member for only £2.
We really appreciate any reviews you might write (please send us what you have written and we'll mention it) and sharing on Social Media is the lifeblood of the podcast so please do that if you enjoy the show.
_____
Music Credits:
‘Theme from The Cinematologists’
Written and produced by Gwenno Saunders. Mixed by Rhys Edwards. Drums, bass & guitar by Rhys Edwards. All synths by Gwenno Saunders. Published by Downtown Music Publishing.

Apocalypse Clown (w/Producer James Dean)

In the first of a special (our first ever) double header, Neil and Dario discuss new Irish comedy road movie Apocalypse Clown. As it debuts on Netflix following a short cinema run, Neil talks to 'friend of the pod', producer James Dean about his collaboration with the team behind the project, comedy music troupe Dead Cat Bounce, the project's gestation and journey to the screen and the place of comedy in film culture and cinephilia. 
This is picked up by Dario and Neil who wrestle with the general (if only perceived) seriousness (earnestness?) of cinephile culture and how comedy is often ostracised or embraced tentatively at best, within it. To kick off the episode, Neil discusses the crowdfunding campaign from filmmakers Rob Curry and Tim Plester to preserve the moving image archive of folklorist Doc Rowe who has been documenting the calendar customs of the British Isles (amongst other folk practices) for over 60 years. Details on how to support the campaign and the film, with some excellent rewards, can be found here.
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You can listen to The Cinematologists for free, wherever you listen to podcasts: click here to follow.
We also produce an extensive monthly newsletter and bonus/extended content that is available on our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/cinematologists. You can become a member for only £2.
We really appreciate any reviews you might write (please send us what you have written and we'll mention it) and sharing on Social Media is the lifeblood of the podcast so please do that if you enjoy the show.
_____
Music Credits:
‘Theme from The Cinematologists’
Written and produced by Gwenno Saunders. Mixed by Rhys Edwards. Drums, bass & guitar by Rhys Edwards. All synths by Gwenno Saunders. Published by Downtown Music Publishing.

London Film Festival 2023

In this episode, Neil and Dario go deep on a couple of favourite titles each from this year's excellent London Film Festival. Neil eulogises Pat Collins' That They May Face The Rising Sun and Shujun Wei's Only The River Flows, while Dario waxes lyrical on Hirokazu Koreeda's Monster and Tran Anh Hung's The Taste of Things. 
Elsewhere they briefly discuss some of their honourable mentions including Catherine Breillat's Last Summer and Moin Hussain's Sky Peals. Neil also mentions a not so honourable title. They compare the experiences of seeing films in the cinema, at press and public screenings, versus the online platform and Dario shares an experience of encountering a bad faith audience member following a screening of Andrew Haigh's lauded All of us Strangers, which Dario loved.
To listen to Neil's bonus episodes on LFF2023, find them collected here on The Cinematologists' Patreon page, available free for anyone to listen to.
You can listen to The Cinematologists for free, wherever you listen to podcasts: click here to follow.
We also produce an extensive monthly newsletter and bonus/extended content that is available on our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/cinematologists. You can become a member for only £2.
We really appreciate any reviews you might write (please send us what you have written and we'll mention it) and sharing on Social Media is the lifeblood of the podcast so please do that if you enjoy the show.
_____
Music Credits:
‘Theme from The Cinematologists’
Written and produced by Gwenno Saunders. Mixed by Rhys Edwards. Drums, bass & guitar by Rhys Edwards. All synths by Gwenno Saunders. Published by Downtown Music Publishing.

A Year in a Field (w/director Christopher Morris and producer Denzil Monk)

We’re back for season 18 and we’re kicking off with an in-depth look at new feature documentary A Year in a Field, a quiet film by Christopher Morris that is currently on tour around UK cinemas, distributed by Anti-Worlds. Produced by Bosena (Enys Men) in partnership with Stone Club and Falmouth University’s Sound/Image Cinema Lab, the film tells the story of Chris’s relationship with a 4,000 year old menhir (standing stone) in West Penwith, Kernow, and the slow burn political awakening around the climate crisis that spending time with the stone brought out of the filmmaker.
Ahead of the theatrical release Chris and Denzil joined Neil for an on-stage conversation at Falmouth venue, The Poly (a place that should be familiar to Cinematologists listeners) following a preview screening of the film for incoming school of film & television students at Falmouth University. Around the live conversation, Neil and Dario discuss the upcoming season of podcast highlights and regards A Year in a Field, discuss the potential for a political cinema and individualist versus collective responses to structural inequalities and the climate crisis. Yep, it’s a political one, right out the gate.
Welcome back to the show, it’s nice to be back with you for another season.
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You can listen to The Cinematologists for free, wherever you listen to podcasts: click here to follow.
We also produce an extensive monthly newsletter and bonus/extended content that is available on our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/cinematologists. You can become a member for only £2.
We really appreciate any reviews you might write (please send us what you have written and we'll mention it) and sharing on Social Media is the lifeblood of the podcast so please do that if you enjoy the show.
_____
Music Credits:
‘Theme from The Cinematologists’
Written and produced by Gwenno Saunders. Mixed by Rhys Edwards. Drums, bass & guitar by Rhys Edwards. All synths by Gwenno Saunders. Published by Downtown Music Publishing 

On Cinematic Pleasure

For our final episode of season 17, before we go on our summer hiatus, we lean into cinematic pleasure. Provoked by both of us admitting some recent struggles with the relentlessness of film culture, the seeming tyranny of "so much stuff" and the some of the less edifying aspects of film discourse, we think through the hierarchies that are often attached to certain types of pleasure. Dario quotes from an academic article by Rutsky and Wyatt - Serious Pleasures: Cinematic Pleasure and the notion of Fun - which makes pleasure distinct from notions such as joy, fun, distraction and escapism. A key question question arises through the discussion: is a 'pure' form of pleasure beyond a context of either aesthetic intention or ideological meaning, even possible, when "enjoying" a film? As this is the last episode of the season, we also share some summer recommendations for you to dive into with different registers of filmic pleasure in mind.
Neil's Fun Times
The Big Lebowski 
Pacific Rim
Day of the Outlaw
Odds Against Tomorrow
Stop Making Sense
Jarmusch Double Bill of Down By Law/ Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai
Le Samourai
Branded to Kill
Anything by Joe Dante (The Burbs, Matinee, Gremlins)
Quiz Show
Inherent Vice
Dario's delights
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
The Hard Way
A Few Good Men
Training Day
Nightcrawler
Thelma and Louise
True Lies
Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation
Paterson
All is Forgiven
Cold War
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You can listen to The Cinematologists for free, wherever you listen to podcasts: click here to follow.
We also produce an extensive monthly newsletter and bonus/extended content that is available on our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/cinematologists. You can become a member for only £2.
We really appreciate any reviews you might write (please send us what you have written and we'll mention it) and sharing on Social Media is the lifeblood of the podcast so please do that if you enjoy the show.
_____
Music Credits:
‘Theme from The Cinematologists’
Written and produced by Gwenno Saunders. Mixed by Rhys Edwards. Drums, bass & guitar by Rhys Edwards. All synths by Gwenno Saunders. Published by Downtown Music Publishing 
 

Laura Mulvey (Falmouth Film Weekend: 1978 Revisited)

In May 2023, Laura Mulvey and Rod Stoneman returned to Falmouth 45 years following a weekend of Independent Film and Sexual Politics to reconvene a dialogue about politics, experimental film, cinematic form and radicalism. The event, Falmouth Film Weekend [1978 Revisited], was hosted by Falmouth University’s Sound/Image Cinema Lab, and was delivered by Neil, in consort with staff and student colleagues. The weekend was a mix of screenings, seminars and talks, the latter by Laura and Rod.
Filmmakers whose work was screened included Kenneth Anger, Yvonne Rainer, Stephen Dwoskin, Barbara Hammer and Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen. The programme reached back to the original line-up as well as updating it with filmmakers from that period whose work has become so important to understanding of the era, such as Carolee Schneeman, and those who followed that radical moment, such as Isaac Julien.
This episode collects Laura’s incredible talk, both reflective and critical, looking back and forward simultaneously, and shares it for Cinematologists listeners. Dario gets excited by the intellectual questions posed by the talk and he and Neil discuss form and content, ideology, the digital and its radical potentialities. It was an honour to listen to Laura Mulvey and Rod Stoneman, key figures in film theory and history, and it’s an honour to share their talks via the podcast. Rod’s can be found on our website via this link. The only reason it isn’t shared on the main feed is due to the desire to contain the episode to a single release.
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NB: The ‘Graeme’ Laura refers to is Graeme Ewens, a Falmouth based former member of the London Filmmaker’s Co-operative, who was in attendance for the weekend.
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You can listen to The Cinematologists for free, wherever you listen to podcasts: click here to follow.
We also produce an extensive monthly newsletter and bonus/extended content that is available on our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/cinematologists. You can become a member for only £2.
We really appreciate any reviews you might write (please send us what you have written and we'll mention it) and sharing on Social Media is the lifeblood of the podcast so please do that if you enjoy the show.
_____
Music Credits:
‘Theme from The Cinematologists’
Written and produced by Gwenno Saunders. Mixed by Rhys Edwards. Drums, bass & guitar by Rhys Edwards. All synths by Gwenno Saunders. Published by Downtown Music Publishing