First Impressions: Thinking Aloud About Film

https://notesonfilm1.com/2026/10/17/in-conversation-with-lee-nabbs/ The Mockingbird Cinema has been nominated for CINEMA OF THE YEAR by the British Independent Film Awards (BIFA). I love the Mockingbird; am an admirer of its programme, the quality of its projection, the kindness of its staff; of the way that it brings different types of film fandom together, builds community around one welcoming s...

https://notesonfilm1.com/2026/07/31/cinema-rediscovered-2026-wrap-up/ Pastor Hall (Roy Boulting, 1940)/ Obsession (Edward Dmytryk, 1949) Richard I talk about two films screened recently at Cinema Rediscovered in Bristol, that will be touring around art cinemas this Autumn and will also be released through Indicator. PASTOR HALL is an early anti-Nazi film that somehow feels very timely now. A small...

https://notesonfilm1.com/2026/07/31/cinema-rediscovered-2026-wrap-up/ As ever Richard and I loved attending this year’s edition of Cinema Rediscovered at the Watershed in Bristol. They do so many things for the city and for cinema; bringing in so many venues into the festival; offering young people the opportunities to programme, to get experience with criticism, to learn about Bristol as a cinema...

https://notesonfilm1.com/2026/07/19/thinking-aloud-about-film-death-of-a-cyclist-muerte-de-un-ciclista-juan-antonio-bardem-1955/ Part of the Juan Antonio Bardem cycle of films screened at Bologna and available to see through a marvellous Criterion Edition. An adulterous couple run over a cyclist in a deserted road and run off in fear of their affair being found out. The cyclist dies. An epicene ar...

https://notesonfilm1.com/2026/07/16/pamela-hutchinson-on-the-curse-of-queen-kelly-new-york-sticking-place-books-2025/ “A naughty little number” This is a story of how not to make a film. A story about three people who should have known better – people we could dismiss as a spendthrift, a swindler and a sadist, but who are far more interesting than that. They almost made a movie, but succeeded in c...

https://notesonfilm1.com/2026/07/06/cinema-ritrovato-2026-wrap-up/ Cinema Ritrovato 2026 Wrap-up Richard and I get together to chat about our experience of this year’s Cinema Ritrovato. The programming is so vast and diverse that everyone who attends will have a completely different Ritrovato. In this podcast we spend quite a lot of time discussing the strand on Juan Antonio Bardem, Javier’s uncle...

https://notesonfilm1.com/2026/06/13/thinking-aloud-about-film-tarik-saleh-and-the-cairo-trilogy/ Richard and I were so excited after seeing Eagles of the Republic (2025), that when we learned that it was the third film in a trilogy, we made a point of seeing the other two: The Nile Hilton Incident (2017) and Cairo Conspiracy/ Boy From Heaven (2022). José went even further and also saw his first li...

https://notesonfilm1.com/2025/12/31/thinking-aloud-about-film-last-days-gus-van-sant-2005/ Richard and I went to see the Royal Opera’s production of Oliver Leith’s and Matt Copson’s LAST DAYS, directed by Copson and Anna Morrissey, with superb set designs by Grace Smart. It’s inspired by Gus Van Sant’s 2005 film and so were inspired to podcast on it. The film is part of what’s been called Van Sant...

https://notesonfilm1.com/2025/12/06/jose-arroyo-in-conversation-with-glyn-davis-on-rebel-without-a-cause-nicholas-ray-1955/ A treat to talk to the marvellous Glyn Davis on his handsome new book, the ‘BFI Classic’ on Rebel Without a Cause (Nicholas Ray, 1955). In the podcast we discuss how we were both surprised that the film hadn’t yet been covered in the series and why the book is the fulfilment...

I wanted to talk to James Cullen on Even Cowgirls Get the Blues because of his untrammelled love for the film, his enthusiasm, and the wide array of references he brings to this very intelligent appreciation of the film. James sees the film as, 'Against all the heteronormative expectations we have from cinema as a medium None of these A24 Neon filmmakers could make anything like this. There’s an a...

What does a Film Programmer do? I talk to James McEvoy to find out what programming the Warwick Arts Centre cinema, a three screens-cinema, based on a university campus but also serving a local and regional audience, involves. Who is the audience and how to build new ones is part of the conversation. We touch on Flatpack, the MAC, the Mockingbird, Square-Eye TV, Lock Studios, Steven Knight, the Fo...

The MASKS AND MUSIC: THE FILMS OF WILLI FORST strand of last year’s Il Cinema Ritrovato, curated by Lukas Foerster, was so popular that I was unable to see any of them. Richard is more organised and came out raving about two: MASQUERADE/ MASKERADE (1934) and TOMFOOLERY/ ALLOTRIA, (1936). Luckily for us The Internet Archive has a very good copy of Maskerade which enabled us to see it (or in Richard...

https://notesonfilm1.com/2025/08/24/jose-arroyo-in-conversation-with-cinema-mentire/ I was lucky enough to see Maria Luisa Bemberg's SEÑORA DE NADIE (NOBODY'S WIFE, 1982)and YO, LA PEOR DE TODAS (I, THE WORST OF ALL, 1990) at this year's CINEMA REDISCOVERED in Bristol, in gorgeous prints, with an  appreciative and enthusiastic audience. I'm a long-time fan of Bemberg's but I'd never had the opport...

https://notesonfilm1.com/2025/08/21/jose-arroyo-in-conversation-with-ryan-gilbey-on-it-used-to-be-witches-under-the-spell-of-queer-cinema/ Sometimes you read a new book and love it so much you want to speak to its author and find out more. This is what happened to me in relation to Ryan Gilbey’s IT USED TO BE WITCHES: UNDER THE SPELL OF QUEER CINEMA. What I liked most is that I learned a lot from...

https://notesonfilm1.com/2025/08/06/thinking-aloud-about-cinema-absolute-beginners-julien-temple-1986/ A rediscovery at Cinema Rediscovered: Julien Temple's marvellous Abolute Beginners.

https://notesonfilm1.com/2025/07/30/thinking-aloud-about-cinema-cinema-rediscovered-2025-wrap-up/ If a week ago we podcast on what we were looking forward to at the CINEMA REDISCOVERED festival, this is the bookend reflecting on what we actually saw. We are once again full of praise for the organisers, the friendliness of the staff at the Watershed, the originality and diversity of the programme,...

https://notesonfilm1.com/2025/07/23/jose-arroyo-in-conversation-with-sam-shahid-director-of-hidden-masters-the-legacy-of-george-platt-lynes/ George Platt Lynes is arguably the most significant artist in a long and distinguished line of great 20th Century queer photographers of the male nude which includes George Hoyningen-Huene, Horst P. Horst, Clifford Coffin, Robert Mapplethorpe and Bruce Weber....

https://notesonfilm1.com/2025/07/21/jose-arroyo-in-conversation-with-daniel-bird-on-the-fall-of-otrar-ardak-amirkulov-1991/ My choice for must-see film of this year’s Cinema Rediscovered is Ardak Amirkulov’s THE FALL OF OTRAR (USSR, 1991), which will have its UK Premiere in Bristol’s old IMAX cinema, now called the Bristol Megascreen, on Sat 26th of July. As Daniel Bird says in the podcast, ‘it’s...

https://notesonfilm1.com/2025/07/18/thinking-aloud-about-film-cinema-rediscovered-2025-preview/ Richard and I are once more excited about the prospect of Cinema Rediscovered, which begins next week on the 23rd and runs right to the 27th at the Watershed in Bristol. This year's is a beautifully balanced programme with directors (Carlos Saura, Maria Luisa Bemberg, Stephanie Rothman, Yasuzō Masumura)...

https://notesonfilm1.com/2025/07/16/thinking-aloud-about-film-delitto-damore-luigi-comencini-1974/ DELITTO D’AMORE (Luigi Comencini, 1974), also known as CRIME OF LOVE or SOMEWHERE BEYOND LOVE in English, is along with VOLTATI EUGENIO (1980), my favourite of the Comencini films shown at this year’s Ritrovato in Bologna. Two factory workers fall in love. He’s from a family of Anarchists from the No...

https://notesonfilm1.com/2025/07/02/thinking-aloud-about-film-ritrovato-round-up-2025-with-pamela-hutchinson/ For this year’s Ritrovato Round-Up we are joined by the witty, incisive and all-around fabulous Pamela Hutchinson, editor of the Silent London website, author of two marvellous BFI Classic monographs (The Red Shoes, Pandora's Box), producer of the Weekly Film Bulletin for Sight and Sound a...

https://notesonfilm1.com/2025/06/12/thinking-aloud-about-film-arrebato-ivan-zulueta-1979/ A cult film; a queer film; a vampire film; a film maudit; a film about film; a film about drugs; a film about film as a drug; a film that deserves to be better known. Audiences will recognise many of Almodóvar’s collaborators from his earliest works (Cecilia Roth, Eusebio Poncela, Luis Ciges, Will More; Ángel...

https://notesonfilm1.com/2025/06/06/jose-arroyo-in-conversation-with-james-taylor-on-the-superhero-blockbuster-adaptation-style-and-meaning/ Just as the Superhero film loses centrality in the culture there comes a book that is not only a brilliant accounting of the various strategies of adaptations the mode engages with but also offers a methodology that will be of interest and use to anyone engag...

https://notesonfilm1.com/2025/05/30/thinking-aloud-about-film-le-jour-se-leve-marcel-carne-1939/ We discuss Marcel Carné's superb Daybreak/ Le Jour se lève, which we saw at the Garden Cinema as part of their wonderful Film Noir International programme. In the podcast we discuss the film as an example of ‘Poetic Realism’; as one of the first films to be described as a ‘film noir’; as an expression...

https://notesonfilm1.com/2025/05/25/one-second-zhang-yimou-2020/ Zhang Yimou’s very beautiful film has things to say about the cultural revolution and Chinese History and other things we’re not best placed to discuss. However, it is also about cinema: it’s lure, it’s power, its enchantments and its fragility; and Zhang Yimou’s magisterial mise-en-scène embodies its themes through its medium as if...