First Impressions: Thinking Aloud About Film

We didn’t manage to get to much of the recent Luchino Visconti retrospective at BFI South Bank but we somehow wanted to mark the moment, and how better than a discussion of BELLISSIMA (1951), particularly through the great Eureka/ Masters of Cinema blu-ray. We discuss its themes of obsession, mother love, fantasy, cinema, the effects of media on private and collective aspirations; how it’s a film...

Wonderful to have an opportunity to discuss THE WIRE (David Simon, showrunner: 2002-2008) -- a show which got mixed reviews and diminishing audiences but nonetheless survived to become a cultural touchstone -- with Dr. Ben Lamb. Ben is the author of You’re Nicked: Investigating British Television Police Series, for Manchester University Press as well as the producer of award winning films such as...

Fiona Cox, PhD in Film Studies by day, and, under the name of Kitty Mazinksy, chanteuse extraordinaire by night, is the ideal person to talk to about WICKED (Jon M. Chu, 2024). She’s read the book, seen the musical four times and has even performed in it. She now talks to me about musicals, the politics of the film, the dancing, the singing, the numbers, the length. Are critics right about tonal p...

https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/11/29/pofcrit-podcast-2024-dylan-day-on-trainspotting-danny-boyle-1996/ Adapted from the 1993 novel by Irvine Welsh, Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting is as whimsical as it is putrid. One of the most iconic and provocative films of the 1990s, it serves to examine the life of heroin addict Mark Renton and his addict friends as they endlessly search for the next hit. With an...

https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/11/29/thinking-aloud-about-film-volver-pedro-almodovar-2006/ Richard and I return to discuss VOLVER (Pedro Almodóvar, 2006), interesting to see always but particularly for Richard now having seen WHAT HAVE I DONE TO DESERVE THIS (1984) and his earlier films, which he hadn’t seen before, and thus more fully appreciating one of the ‘returns’ in VOVER, that of Carmen Mau...

https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/11/25/pofcrit-podcast-2024-madeleine-lear-on-one-hour-photo-mark-romanek-2002/ Starring Robin Williams in one of his most unsettling roles as Sy, the photo guy. One Hour Photo follows Sy, a photo technician, as he forms an obsession with the Yorkin family before taking it upon himself to avenge his shattered fantasy and lost childhood innocence. In the accompanying po...

https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/11/18/pofcrit-podcast-2024-james-thompson-on-under-the-silver-lake-david-robert-mitchell-2018/ James Thompson on UNDER THE SILVER LAKE: Unpacking the mysteries of this dream-like neo-noir, the podcast takes a look at the film's many potential meanings and messages, as well as its wide array of influences and homages from classical Hollywood. From subliminal messages i...

https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/11/17/the-gus-van-sant-podcast-no-6-michael-j-glass-on-good-will-hunting-1997/ Michael J. Glass joins me for a discussion of Gus Van Sant’s GOOD WILL HUNTING (1997), a blockbuster success in its day; a film that won Robin Williams an Oscar, made stars of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, and left a big cultural imprint. It’s since been much parodied (in COMMUNITY, THE SIMPS...

https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/11/15/pofcrit-podcast-2024-jake-diamond-on-i-am-legend-francis-lawrence-2007/ In this podcast we will discuss the often-overlooked 2007 adaptation of Richard Matheson's I Am Legend. Following Will Smith's rendition of Dr Robert Neville, a virologist and last man on earth, it focuses on the psychological deterioration and complex need for coping mechanisms one would fa...

https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/11/12/pofcrit-podcast-2024-lily-stripe-on-blue-lagoon-randal-klaiser-1980/ In this podcast we discuss the 1980 Randal Kleiser film, The Blue lagoon. It tells a coming-of-age story of two children shipwrecked on a tropical island, as they grow and develop into teenagers, and discover both themselves and the island. With beautiful sweeping landscapes and gorgeous young...

In this episode, we dive into Fallen Angels, one of Wong Kar Wai’s most visually stunning and emotionally layered films. Known for his distinct cinematic style, Wong blends fragmented storytelling with poetic visuals to explore themes of loneliness, alienation, and disconnection in Hong Kong’s urban landscape. The film’s fragmented narrative is complemented by Wong’s trademark use of disorienting...

https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/11/08/the-gus-van-sant-podcast-5-richard-drew-on-to-die-for-1995/ I very much wanted to speak to the wonderful Richard Drew about TO DIE FOR (Gus Van Sant, 1995). Richard has a degree in Film and Literature so knows something about film, yet unusually for the guests on this podcast, he is not a Gus Van Sant fan. More importantly, Richard is a television producer, now...

https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/11/08/pofcrit-podcast-2024-ying-qi-on-tangled-nathan-greno-byron-howard-2011/ 'In this episode, I’m diving into the world of Disney’s Tangled and exploring how it redefined what it means to be a princess, and the stereotypes that revolve around it. I’ll be talking about Rapunzel’s incredible agency, her journey from the tower to the floating lights, and how she takes...

https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/10/30/eva-de-matos-on-bend-it-like-beckham The podcast explores how Bend it Like Beckham humorously and poignantly explores themes of identity, tradition, gender, sexuality, multiculturalism and Britishness. Bend It Like Beckham follows Jess, a British Indian teenager who dreams of playing football despite her family’s traditional expectations. Set in a diasporic area...

https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/10/28/the-gus-van-sant-podcast-no-4-lisa-purse-on-even-cowgirls-get-the-blues-1993/ Lisa Purse on EVEN COWGIRLS GET THE BLUES (Gus Van Sant, 1993) I was truly delighted when Lisa Purse agreed to talk to me about EVEN COWGIRLS GET THE BLUES. Lisa is a Professor of Film Studies at Reading University, one of the most brilliant scholars on action movies, and a nuanced thi...

This podcast delves into Sam Raimi’s return to Superhero Cinema: Marvel’s ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’.  Combining the classic horror elements of Raimi’s 1981 cult favourite ‘The Evil Dead’ with his more modern Spiderman trilogy offering, this Marvel film follows Doctor Strange in his second solo movie as Strange tries to prevent the multiverse-shattering dark magic created by the...

https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/10/21/pofcrit-podcast-2024-fiola-odusote-on-everything-everywhere-all-at-once-daniel-scheinert-daniel-kwan-2022/ The POFCRIT Podcast 2024 returns with Fiola Odusote on EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE (Daniel Scheinert, Daniel Kwan, 2022) . The action-filled dramedy follows a high-strung Chinese woman called Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh) who owns a struggling laundromat. Wh...

https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/10/16/pofcrit-podcast-2024-rowan-abbott-on-eo-jerzy-skolimowski-2022/ In this podcast, we talk about the 2022 Jerzy Skolimowski film, EO. The film is a sweeping picaresque narrative following the tumultuous life of a former circus donkey named EO, who is set free into rural Poland, a place that can’t seem to decide what purpose a donkey still has for humans. This whol...

https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/10/16/on-the-giornate-del-cinema-muto-43-pordenone-silent-film-festival/ Richard and I were unable to attend the Pordenone Silent Film Festival this year. Luckily for us, they provided an online daily program for the duration of the festival. In the podcast Richard and I discuss each of the daily programs, the various thematic strands, what was available to us and wha...

https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/10/14/pofcrit-podcast-2024-jack-hulbert-on-the-batman-matt-reeves-2022/ The most recent entry in the 58 year long canon of Batman films, Matt Reeves’ 2022 film, The Batman, represents a stark departure from every iteration before it. It takes the core aspects of Batman, its characters and its world, and presents them as grimmer; more beaten down. It warps the franchis...

https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/10/13/the-gus-van-sant-podcast-5a-to-die-for-1995/ The first of two podcasts on Gus Van Sant’s TO DIE FOR (1995), this one with Matt Hays, journalist, co-editor with Tom Waugh of McGill-Queen’s Press’ QUEER FILM CLASSICS series, and a professor of film at Concordia University and Marianopolis College. Matt’s reviewed Criterion’s recent edition of the film for the curr...

https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/10/07/practice-of-film-criticism-2024-harry-molloy-on-superman-richard-donner-1978/ ‘You’ll believe a man can fly?’  was the tagline of Superman the Movie (1978) the use of the word ‘can’ rather than ascribing a quality to the film creates a world of possibilities for the feature.  Superman as a film represents a dream-like possibility of a perfect man who can defy gr...

https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/10/05/pofcrit-podcast-2024-liberty-boyd-white-on-funny-games-michael-haneke-2007/ A highly unforgiving work, Michael Haneke's horror cult-classic Funny Games (2007) stands as a profound critique of modern media consumption and the spectator's complicit relationship with the spectacle of violence often provided by American cinema. This podcast delves into the personal...

https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/10/02/the-gus-van-sant-podcast-3-my-own-private-idaho-1991/ We discuss one of the films that very much marked me, the image above was the image on my letterhead in the time we still used snail mail. In the accompanying podcast we discuss the film's historical significance. Was it a 'film that (made) history? We discuss it relationship to New Queer Cinema. We speculate...

https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/09/26/the-gus-van-sant-podcast-no-2-drugstore-cowboy-1989/ We found DRUGSTORE COWBOY, Gus Van Sant's second feature, beautiful, imaginative and moving; a film that gets better with each viewing. We discuss Matt Dillon, so extraordinarily good looking and yet also so very believable as a ‘regular guy’; Tom Waits was the original casting and we talk about what Dillon br...