Films for Today

How do humans differ from machines? Can love emerge out of banality? Can a standard-issue humanoid assert individuality? Focusing on three cinematic instances in which a protagonist is romantically involved with a robot, this week's episode contemplates the impact of love in the changing technological landscape. Email us at contact@jimmybernasconi.com

How can we overcome a fear of the wilderness? How clearly can we understand the 'other'? How clearly do we understand reality? Focusing on three films that depict forest-dwelling monsters (of various kinds), this week's episode explores the fate of humanity in a mysterious and opaque world. Email us at contact@jimmybernasconi.com

Do we ever lose hope in getting back those we have lost? How easily can our attention be kidnapped from us? Can the false imprisonment of a person have a net benefit for society at large? In exploring the metaphorical nature of kidnapping, this week's episode examines cinema's changing attitude toward the over-use of power. Email us at contact@jimmybernasconi.com

Are human beings capable of biblical-level leadership? Is our thirst for compassionate global influence inevitable? What are some of the contemporary constraints on leadership? Focusing on films depicting desert warfare, this week's episode examines the concept of leadership against a backdrop of scarcity and volatility. Contact us via email at contact@jimmybernasconi.com

Is the fate of the impoverished fixed? Does anyone have it all? How can we find the infinite in the finite? In focusing on three distinct cinematic depictions of scarcity, this week's episode seeks to identify the circumstances in which we might feel content with just enough. Contact us via email at contact@jimmybernasconi.com

In what ways can we be nourished by the foreign? Can encountering high culture ever reveal our brutish side? How delicate is the balance between admiring and owning? In exploring three cinematic depictions of food, this week's episode contemplates the ways in which people give themselves to and take a piece of others. Email us at contact@jimmybernasconi.com

How successful are elevated individuals at imposing their own will on the masses? How can the powerful control others through seemingly benevolent means? Can we ever transform relationships based on dominance into relationships based on fraternity? This week's episode explores the symbolism of suffocation, contemplating whether authority figures can simultaneously suffocate and be suffocated....

How do we view manufactured and real heroes differently? In what sense is the creation of an ideal self destructive? Do we ever overlook past facts in creating modern fictions? Building off past discussions about projected versions of the self, this week's episode attempts to explore the human act of creating fictional characters. Email us: contact@jimmybernasconi.com

How vulnerable are we to becoming entranced by the mundane? How sensitive are we to injustice in our ordinary lives? What does the permitting of evil look like in the everyday? This week's episode contrasts three cinematic depictions of immorality being woven through seemingly boring and banal circumstances. Email us at contact@jimmybernasconi.com

Can we be free without the presence of external control? Is there more than one set of rules under which we can play? Can imprisonment ever be the means through which we liberate ourselves? Focusing on three cinematic mentor-mentee relationships, this week's episode contemplates whether the pursuit of freedom demands some degree of oppressive control. Email us at contact@jimmybernasconi.com

What does motherhood feel like on both the personal and global level? How should we view the power to give life? Is our mother a fixed thing? Focusing on three new releases, this week's episode contemplates the various ways in which the maternal is currently being depicted in contemporary cinema. Email us at contact@jimmybernasconi.com

Is it difficult to choose a life path? Is it harder to live out the life we choose? Why should we endure through relatively insignificant acts of sacrifice? Focusing on three films about WWII, this week's episode contemplates the ways in which the threat of conflict affects our sense of mortality. Email us at contact@jimmybernasconi.com

How are the horrors of reality communicated to the vulnerable? How do we escape from the aspects of ourselves that we want to ignore? Is anyone actually stopping the problems the rest of us cannot bare to confront? This week's episode examines how and why we often soften the darker aspects of existence for both the sake of others and ourselves. Email us at contact@jimmybernasconi.com

In the final episode of Sacred Cinema for 2023 we're taking a look at your favourite films of the year and what they can tell us about human history's most recent chapter.

How can we affect the world from home? Is the home easy to defend? How is the home like a battleground? Christmas has come early, as we release this year's Christmas-themed episode a few sleeps before Tim Allen's arrival! Also, be sure to let us know your favourite films of 2023! Either access the link below (if listening on Spotify) or email us at contact@jimmybernasconi.com

Please let us know what your favourite film of the year was via either: -the poll below (if listening on Spotify) -emailing us at contact@jimmybernasconi.com Many thanks!

How does history unfold? How do certain states of affairs become commonsensical? How should we prescribe new social norms? Drawing on some key philosophical ideas posited by Hegel and Gramsci, this week's episode contemplates the tension between a fixed and a fluid sense of history. Email us at contact@jimmybernasconi.com

Is it ever desirable to delay romantic gratification? Is it ever desirable to completely avoid serious romance? How can discipline both help and hinder romance? Focusing on an interesting interplay between two seemingly unrelated concepts, this week's episode contemplates how delayed gratification and anonymity affect our romantic relationships. Email us at contact@jimmybernasconi.com

What do we traditionally envision when we think about weakness in a man? Do the most powerful men have weaknesses? Who suffers when men can't control their weaknesses? This week's episode examines three distinct cinematic references to Napoleon Bonaparte in order to illuminate potentially forgotten forms of masculine weakness. Email us at contact@jimmybernasconi.com

What is our natural response to greed and gluttony? Why does affluence frustrate us in the real world? Who is responsible for our constant hunger for more? This week's episode looks at films in which motifs of food and consumption are used to explore exploitation, affluence and the consolidation of power. Contact us: contact@jimmybernasconi.com

How quickly can things fall to pieces? How easy is it to dissect a tragedy in its aftermath? Do new eras always improve on the failures of past eras? This week's episode builds on last week's discussions about the the relationship between the past and present by exploring how individuals, relationships and political entities experience their own ends. Email us at contact@jimmybernasconi.co...

Can we ever sympathise with those who abandon others? How does the constant pursuit of novelty bring about suffering? Can we simultaneously cherish and abandon the past? Focusing particularly on films depicting contemporary cosmopolitan culture, this week's episode explores the various effects of abandoning important people and parts of ourselves in search of a better future. Contact us via em...

Are we capable of seeing beauty in everything? Can romanticising ever be dangerous? What is true love, if not pure and perfect? Following our recent conversations on relationships and companionship, this week's episode explores the various cultural attitudes and movements that have blossumed from the ancient concept of romance. Email us at contact@jimmybernasconi.com

Why do we often mistake villains for heroes? Can a person's heroism be determined by time? How do we often find our bearings in morally confused scenarios? In reflecting on current geopolitical events, this week's episode contemplates the relationship between time and heroism. Email us at contact@jimmybernasconi.com

How can we bond with someone who shows no interest in doing so? Can attempting to bond with others ever endanger us? Is bonding always a peaceful process? Building further on recent discussions about human interconnectedness, this week's episode focuses on connections specifically between two people. Contact us via email at contact@jimmybernasconi.com