The Cinematologists Podcast

Sight and Sound’s Greatest Films of All Time 2022 (Part 1)

So, after much hype, critique and discussion, the Sight and Sound Greatest films of all-time poll has been published and we have an extensive 2-part episode of The Cinematologists to cover it. Neil and Dario were both invited to contribute a top ten list to the poll, which was an unexpected honour in itself. Not only that, Sight and Sound kindly gave us access to the results early so we could record and release the episode to coincide with the publication of the list. Furthermore, Dario got to speak to Isabel Stevens, Managing Editor of Sight and Sound before the list came out (which comes in part 2).
AND, for part 1 of this double feature, Neil is back. Yes, he interrupts his hiatus to lend his astute critical savvy to the results of the poll and to speak about both his own and Dario’s choices. In the past, we have critiqued the problems of list culture and its potential negative effects on film appreciation and criticism. But in a move, particularly on Dario’s part, to ameliorate any hypocrisy of rejecting lists while gleefully contributing to “the big one”, we also discuss the positive value of list making as an access point in a chaotic cultural milieu. Of course, we also talk about the expansion of the critics invited to participate in a move towards a greater diversity and the implications this has for the film canon.
And, of course, we talk about some of the major headlines from this year's poll. First and foremost the new number 1 slot taken by Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles. We discuss the dynamics around this change, how it relates to other shifts (such as the higher recognition of other female filmmakers such as Claire Denis and Agnès Varda) and how they might be received: is it both a long overdue boost for female filmmaking and feminist criticism of under-representation in processes of institutionalisation & canonisation. Or does this reflect a narrow kind of diversity, the promotion of a high-modernist cinema which is open to cries of elitism and inaccessibility? We get into these issues in typical Cinematologists depth along with analysing the other big moves and trends. Finally, we reveal our own lists and deconstruct the contrasting "methodologies" for choosing them. Please enjoy.
Shownotes
Link to the Sight and Sound List Online
Quentin Tarantino’s video archives podcast
Silver Screen Video Podcast - with David Thompson
Film Comment podcast on movie list culture and documentary.
Against Lists by Elena Gorfinkel
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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

Irma Vep (w/ Dr Catherine Wheatley)

Olivier Assayas has always been a filmmaker and critic who is interested in the essential question: what is cinema? His reflections are often espoused though the characters in his films, with the repeated deployment of the "film within a film" device, and now, in the recreation of his 1996 low budget cult classic Irma Vep, into a 8-episode HBO miniseries. This week Dario was joined by Reader in Film Studies Dr Catherine Wheatley to discuss the original film. But with Catherine writing a positive, joyful, review of the TV "sequel" in Sight and Sound, aspects of comparison were always going to suffuse the conversation. We talk about Assayas as a postmodern, chameleonic filmmaker, and his place in the history of French cinema as both an insider and outsider.
Then of course there is the ethereal vision that is Maggie Cheung. Paradoxically, in the film she plays the mystical, femme fatale role, made famous by Musidora in Louis Feuillade's fabled 1915 Les Vampires. Assayas clearly anchors the film on her mesmerising beauty, perhaps bordering on exoticisation. But she is also normalised in the role. Playing a meta-fictional version of herself, a star on the verge of international breakthrough but somewhat lost in the chaos of a Parisian film shoot that is falling apart. Comparisons with Alicia Vikander, cast in the recent TV sequel are also a centre-point to the conversation.
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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
 

Censor (w/ Sarah Cleaver)

In the week leading up to Halloween, The Cinematologists Podcast returns live to The Garden Cinema for a screening and recording of Prano Baily-Bond’s debut feature Censor. A pointed and knowing homage to the 80s era of the video nasties, the story draws on the theme of moral panic, with the excellent Niamh Elgar as an officious BBFC censor whose work starts to encroach a little too much into her own trauma. With perturbing visceral panache, the ritualistic nature of cinematic spectatorship and psychological effects of film living in the liminal space between reality and myth, underpin Censor’s disquieting effects. It’s a film that divided critics and audiences and provided plenty to chew on for host Dario Llinares who will be joined by Sarah Cleaver (Projections Podcast & The Zodiac Film Club) for post screening discussion.
*Apologies for the poor quality of the live recorded sound on this episode. There was a technical fault and there was no much we could do in post-production to rectify the problem. Recommend that you use headphones for this one.
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 - Part 2

The centre piece of our second episode is guest host Savina Petkova's interview with Ruben Östlund about his latest film Triangle of Sadness. This follow-up to the The Square, which also won the top prize at Cannes, is another acerbic satirical intervention into the hypocrisies of liberal capitalism. "Triangle" is perhaps more laugh out loud funny than his previous work, but draws on similar socio-political observations that are all too familiar but presenting them through a thought experiment which reverses hierarchies of power around wealth, value, class and social roles. 
Also, Dario talks to the LFF director Tricia Tuttle who is ending her 5 year tenure-ship this year. They discuss her legacy particular around accessibility, weathering Covid, and the expansion of programming to encompass many different forms of cinematic experience. Also the political role of festivals comes up and Tricia gives her thoughts on the collapse of the Edinburgh film festival and the many challenges that UK cinema-going faces.
Dario also talks to a student from Ravensbourne University, Tom Wright, who came to the festival as part of the BFI academy programme. He waxes lyrical about Mark Jenkins' Enys Men, which of course we will be hoping to cover in-depth in an upcoming episode. 
And Dario and Savina round up by talking about a few of the other festival highlights including Mia Hansen Love's One Fine Morning and Charlotte Wells' directorial debut Aftersun.
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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 - Part 1

Above: Christine Molloy in The Future Tense (2022)
This is the first of two episodes we will bring you from the London Film Festival. Dario is joined for both by Savina Petkova as co-host. Savina is published in Film Comment and MUBINotebook and many other places. She is on the editorial board of @photogenie_be, Is a programmer for the upcoming Cambridge Film Festival and and is soon to complete her PhD at Kings College London.
As is our style on The Cinematologists, our festival coverage in not a comprehensive overview of the festival or a breakdown of competition films or sections. We bring you more of a snapshot of our experiences, viewings and conversations.
So, Savina and Dario begin by discussing the place of London on the European festival calendar and four recommendations of films we've seen in person and on the digital platform. These are Blue Jean (Georgia Oakley), Unrest (Cyril Schäublin), All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (Laura Poitras) and The Eternal Daughter (Joanna Hogg).
The centrepiece of this first episode is Dario's interview with Christine Molloy and Joe Lawler, who bring a new Essay Film The Future Tense. Very difference from their last psychological revenge horror Rose Plays Julie, in The Future Tense, they turn the lens back on themselves and specifically the sense of being Irish while living in England during the political and social tumult of the last decade.
Finally, Dario talks to blogger Andrew Pope of Whitlock and Pope website about Alejandro González Iñárritu's latest film Bardo, False Chronicles of a Handful of Truths.
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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
 
 
 

Licence to Queer (w/ David Lowbridge-Ellis)

In our second episode of the new season we tackle a behemoth of film culture: James Bond. Bond is not a subject we've covered before, or even talked about that much on the podcast. Except perhaps in the context of thinking about franchise cinema.
This is something of an omission, as the James Bond world is a historically seminal part of film culture, which can be explored in many different ways. The industrial significance of the films was amplified when No Time To Die, Daniel Craig's final outing as Bond, was pushed back several times because of the COVID pandemic. Furthermore, Bond, more than any other genre, series or iconic character, influenced my childhood relationship to cinema. My Grandfather was a big Connery fan, and back in the days of three TV channels, a Christmas screening of a Bond film was must see TV.  As I’ve gotten older, I become more ambivalent about the character and the world, both from filmic and thematic standpoints. Watching the Craig era, this seems like a character out of time; a notion which the producers and writers leaned into. Where does Bond go next? Conjecture and speculation about the next casting are rife and this decision will, obviously, dictate the scope and direction of the next "reinvention". However, Bond still holds nostalgic pleasures for me – and offers up interesting prompts for conversation and debate.
I’ve been thinking ways of engaging with Bond on the podcast and today's guest undoubtedly provided a fascinating entry point, one that provoked questions about the essence of the character and world created around him. I spoke to David Lowbridge-Ellis, the creator and editor of LicencetoQueer.com – the fan project that engages with Bond, essentially from a queer perspective. We talk about David's formative fandom, the character and world as the object of queer fascination, the expansion of an welcoming online community, reading texts oppositionally, possibilities of Bond's queer coding, gay assassins, Jim Fanning, and the potential next phase of Bond lore. (DL)
Shownotes
Licence to Queer - Instagram
Licence to Queer - Twitter
James Bond at 60 - BFI website.
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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
Supercut audio edited from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9f_LyhxNWTk
 
 

Jonah who will be 25 in the Year 2000 (w/ Caroline Catz and James Dean)

Eight prophets of the everyday struggle for love, justice, political autonomy, dignity, and in the end survival, in Alain Tanner's incredibly powerful, moving, emotionally and intellectually complex film: Jonah who will be 25 in the Year 2000. In our return episode for season sixteen of the podcast, we are delighted to be joined by the director, producer and actor Caroline Catz who selected this film as one of her all time favourites and joined us in Manchester's Home cinema for this very rare screening. Alain Tanner had passed away only three days before the screening which gave a bittersweet context to proceedings, but perhaps even amplified the prescience that the film possesses. Caroline also notes that the film is co-written by John Berger, an influence to so many artists and critics. "Jonah's" themes are incredibly wide-ranging: the oppression of the working-class, education and it's methods and aims, state oppression, the concept of family, hierarchy of the sexes, and, fundamentally, why a socialist utopia is so hard to create in practice. 
As you will hear the Q&A resonated with emotion. Several of the audience members had a personal connection to the film which they discuss in beautifully elegiac ways. And indeed the conversation returned back to the radical nature of hope. Dario was also joined by the producer James Dean who came to the screening and recorded his thoughts on the film and the Q&A. 
Shownotes:
Caroline Catz on Twitter
James Dean on Twitter
Manchester Home Cinema
A version of the film is available on YouTube (no English Subs however)
Alain Tanner Obituary
Future Perfect: The Class Struggle Of "Jonah who will be 25 in the Year 2000" by Ray Pride
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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

Cape Fear (live @TheGardenCinema)

It's our season finale and we were delighted to get back into a cinema for a live screening and podcast recording, our first one since Covid. The venue was the spectacular Garden cinema in Covent Garden, a beautiful art-deco retro venue where we hope to be holding regular screenings in the autumn.
As part of their celebrating Film Noir season, we screened and discussed the 1962 psychological noir Cape Fear directed J. Lee Thompson. The film features what is considered one of the most powerfully chilling performances in cinema history: Robert Mitchum as Max Cady. Also starring Gregory Peck, Polly Bergen Lori Martin, Martin Balsam and Telly Savalas, and featuring a Bernard Herrmann score, it's a film that tested social attitudes and the censors with its subject matter.
Dario presented the screening with guest Mary Wild (@psycstar on Twitter), the co-host of the Projections Podcast (@ProjectionsPod). As an expert in psychoanalytic film theory it was fantastic to have Mary's critical insight on a film and genre that really does lend itself to psychological reading. 
Dario and Neil continue the conversation and also reflect on the 15th season of the podcast. Something we can hardly believe. We thank you for your continued support of the show and look forward to season 16 beginning in September 2022.
Show Notes
The Garden Cinema, Covent Garden.
The new season of Mary's Projections Podcast which she co-hosts with Sarah Cleaver.
The Making of Cape Fear.
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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