Talking Images

Eric Rohmer was in his 70s when he delivered his final official cycle, Tales of Four Seasons. How do these 4 films stack up against his legendary Moral Tales or Comedies and Proverbs cycles? How do they capture the seasons, let alone youth? Was he still on point? Join us as we talk through A Tale of Springtime (1990), A Winter's Tale (1992), A Tale of Summer (1996), and An Autumn Tale (1998) i...

What makes a list exciting or worth working on? In this episode, Sol takes the host's chair as we dive into exactly what types of film lists we enjoy working on, what makes them great, and, to throw in some negativity, what lists we wouldn't touch with a barge pole.

No Barbie?! No Oppenheimer?! So, what the hell did we pick? Listen in as Chris, Sol, and Tom reveal their top 10 favourite films of 2023. Let us know how much you agree/disagree, or if we put you on the path of some hidden gems, on ICMForum.com.

Has Pixar lost the magic they once had? And if so, how did it all go so, so wrong? Can we blame it on Disney? Join us as superfans and nay-sayers clash over the past, present, and future of Pixar Animation.

Can we name a single original film from the last 10 years? Can you?! Listen in and find out as we somehow end up bickering over whether originality even exists. We will also try to pinpoint the most original films of all time, and discuss whether or not originality truly matters. That is, if originality exists at all, as Sol doesn't really seem to think so.

Do we want to oppress you and decide what you can and cannot watch? Listen in to find out!

Is Hiroshi Teshigahara on the shortlist of the greatest Japanese directors of all-time? Sol certainly thinks so, yet Chris will admit he has none of the master's films in his own top 1,000 - much to Sol's despair. There's no denying that Teshigahara made one of the biggest Japanese classics in his trippy Woman in the Dunes, but what of his other films? Why are so many of them strugglin...

Who's the biggest cinephile? Find out as we play Cinephile: A Card Game in our Season 4 finale. We also have the audacity to invent a new rule we think improves the game. Happy new year!

Was Sean Connery the best Bond? Apparently not! At least according to our panel. Join us as we rank the actors who played the iconic superspy, talk about our favourite and least favourite films from the franchise, and give our opinions on who should step into the tuxedo next. The last question took a bit of a turn as we all seemed to want it to be Pierce Brosnan ... as he is now, in his 70s, and d...

Watching the Moral Tales Cycle is witnessing a great director be born, experiment and find his voice, but how good is Eric Rohmer's most famous cycle? Do the early no-budget films hurt it, and how do we deal with the generally loathsome, holier-than-thou mortalising male leads looking to have little adventures? We will also address why on earth Rohmer chose to pill a George Lucas before George...

The iCMForum's 7th annual film festival is here! For the last year, 8 programmers have worked tirelessly, combing over underseen films to find the true top-of-the-crop most film fans missed. In this episode, 4 of these 8 programmers present the 10 films on the main slate, ranging from comedies to anime, drama and even what can only be described as a "remix" film. They will also shout...

Join us as we dive into the nightmarish and surreal worlds of Polish master director Wojciech Has. Our main focus will be on his three arguably most acclaimed films: The Noose (1958) The Saragossa Manuscript (1965) The Hourglass Sanatorium (1973) We will take them on in chronological order, and with this track his journey from what could still be recognized as the real world, with nightmarish touc...

Were Peeping Tom and Psycho the first two slashers? (Or, at least, the ultimate proto-slashers?). Which came closest to the genre we know and perhaps love today? Do both deserve to be called masterpieces? And why was one of them trashed to the point of utter destruction? Peeping Tom and Psycho were released just two months apart, but their reception could not have been more different. Peeping Tom...

When is a film just too long? Does the ideal runtime exist? Oh, and are films with run-on mainly victims of indulgent directors without good producers and editors to clean up their mess? Listen in as we talk about the runtimes that make our skin crawl and how open we are to watching films over the 3, 4, and 5-hour mark. We will also reveal the big films we are avoiding due to the runtimes and, in...

How spoiled have we become by Blu-rays and 4k? Are our old VHSs and DVDs trash now? How low can the image quality get before the viewing experience is damaged, and when do we say: Hell no, I'm not watching that! In this episode, which somehow descends into death threats, Tom will admit that he refuses to watch a long list of Satyajit Ray films in their current condition, while Sol reveals he d...

We have gotten an experienced Quiz Master to test just how knowledgeable we actually are. Who will come out on top, who will be left embarrassed, and would you have done better?!

Is Beau is Afraid a daring surreal masterpiece or a complete mess? Will it usher in a series of auteur-driven art films, or be this generation's Heaven's Gate? Yes, could A24 actually end up reigning in the freedom of Ari Aster and up-and-coming directors because of just how badly Beau is Afraid bombed?! You are divided on this film. We are divided on this film. Let's talk it out.

We have never disagreed more about what the best films of the year were! Listen in to see which (if any) of us you agree with, as we unleash off-the-hip choices mixing literal toilet humour, big Hollywood prestige project and "challenging" arthouse picks.

How can it be that we "all" seem to hate beloved Turkish, Russian and Indian comedy classics and mega hits, despite their incredibly IMDb averages and striking vanguard?! Is it because comedies just don't translate that well? Is it because we just don't have a sense of humour? Or: Is it because we have been brainwashed by the cultural dominance of the US, the UK and to a lesser e...

Is it easy to rank your favourite directors? It can be a daunting task! How can we for instance even begin to compare directors who made 50+ films with directors who made 5? How do we compare studio directors to arthouse auteurs? Oh, and is it just a matter of how great the films are, or do we look for something else, such as personal style and artistic impact? In this episode, we will look at the...

Are any films more visually impressive and pioneering than Kalatozov's golden trio of late-life films, The Cranes Are Flying (1957), Letter Never Sent (1960) and Soy Cuba (1964). Thanks to the innovations of his brilliant cinematographer, Sergey Urusevskiy, the camera is simply ALIVE!  The unbelievable long takes, trailing through all-consuming fires, moving through buildings and generally jus...

Can watching too many films cause you to lose your love of cinema? Our surprise guest, who watches well over 100 films every month, says no.

The 80s was the decade Jean-Luc Godard was suddenly back on everybody's lips. He did talk shows in the US, huge stars were lining up to work with him, he pissed off the Catholic church, and perhaps more importantly for the fans, he made what he deemed his "2nd first film". Yes, critics called it a comeback with good reason. It is insane to think that as the 80s rolled in, JLG had ali...

Are you prejudiced against shorts? You are not alone! From actively avoiding them to finding them unratable, to championing "separate but equal" rhetoric, the panelists of this episode are fired up with outrageous short film bigotry. BUT: Can that change over the course of this episode? Join us as we explore where we think shorts may fall ... short, whether they are even truly films, and...

In this episode, we get personal as we discuss if any of us would be able to stand up to 11 angry jurors and hold our ground. Would we have the courage to stand alone, and would we be able to argue our case?  Who would we have been in the juror room? Would we have changed our minds? Do we believe the accused is innocent? The answers may surprise you.  We will also dive head first into how a film s...