The Cinematologists Podcast

Neil and Dario are joined by Cornish filmmaker Mark Jenkin at the Newlyn FilmHouse to discuss Joe Dante's riotous comedy-horror Gremlins. The experience of watching in the auditorium is a central topic of conversation as Gremlins seemed to provoke nostalgic feelings of cinema in the 80s. Chrismas films, good, bad and indifferent, are also discussed and Neil speaks to Art of the Title's Lola Landek...

In this week's episode Neil and Kingsley introduce Pennebaker and Hegedus' observational documentary The War Room. The film covers Bill Clinton's campaign against George H.W. Bush focusing on the role of campaign chiefs James Carville and George Stephanopoulos and, in the wake of the recent election, it remains an extreme prescient work. Neil also interview filmmaker George Amponsah about his rece...

In this bumper episode Dario is joined by writer, filmmaker and festival director Melody Bridges to discuss Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation starring Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray. The screening took place at the fabulous Kino Theatr in St. Leonard's and features some lively views as to the reading of the film. Also, Neil interview's Violet Lucca the digital editor of Film Comment and pres...

Knowing Sounds is an experimental podcast exploring the possibilities and outcomes of using the podcast medium as a creative practice underpinned by conceptual thought to produce and disseminate academic research. The podcast, which more specifically can be defined as an audio essay, is split into three sections. The first is an experimental collage of music, dialogue and sound effects from a sele...

The first screening of season 4 at the University of Brighton, Hastings campus is Richard Linklater's romantic drama Before Sunrise starring Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke. Dario is joined on-stage by screenwriter and lecturer Rob Greens (@robgreens) and by Digital Film alumnus James Calver (@jammycalver) who are both big fans of the film and Linklater's style of filmmaking. Dario also interview's fr...

We return with season 4 featuring a freshers week choice at Falmouth University with Christopher  Nolan's complex, existential neo-noir Memento getting the nod. Neil is joined on stage to introduce the film once again by Kingsley Marshall. Neil and Dario also discuss how to engage to the fullest extent with all the possibilities of film culture that are out there.  This is a public episode. If you...

Our second summer episode is our London debut where we took the podcast to the Curzon Bloomsbury to screen Pedro Almodovar's Broken Embraces. Perhaps not his most highly lauded film Broken Embraces does however, offer an opportunity to discuss Almodovar's relationship to cinema itself through the film's meta-cinematic structure and constant allusions to how we see the world cinematically. This epi...

In this summer interlude Dario and Neil cover a large range of subjects including the state of cinema, Bret Easton Ellis' film podcast, fandom and online culture, the Cary Grant Festival in Bristol, the joys and ills of academic conferences, and various films they have seen.  Show notes: Bret Easton Ellis podcast Death Foretold is not Death  - Neil's article in Director's Notes Creators, fans and...

Dario is joined by Neil at the Electric Palace in Hastings once again to screen Kelly Reichardt's poetic road movie Old Joy. A rainy afternoon in a fern-carpeted forest. Two old friends, Mark and Kurt (Will Oldham), drive up into the mountains near Portland, and get lost trying to find the hot springs. Resounding with sustained images and sounds given the time to reverberate, unarticulated tension...

In our penultimate episode of the season Dario is joined by film Scholar, writer and podcaster Alex Fitch to present a classic of the American new wave: The Last Detail (1973) directed by the under appreciated Hal Ashby and starring Jack Nicholson. Two hard-boiled petty officers, Buddusky and Mulhall, are detailed to take a young sailor, Meadows, to a Naval Prison to serve an eight-year sentence f...

Dario returns to the School of Film and Television at Falmouth University to host a screening of Alex Garland's Sci-Fi drama Ex_Machina. He is joined on-stage by Dr Verena Von Eicken who selected the film and they discuss its potential to be read as a metaphorical critique of gendered power relations and the male gaze. Neil and Dario also discuss issues around the narrative structure of film, Alex...

Neil and Dario meet up in Falmouth to discuss the Nick Cave music 'documentary' 20000 Days on Earth directed by Jane Pollard and Iain Forsyth. Neil also interview British film director Kieran Evans about the fundamental relationship between music and film. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dariollinares.substack.co...

Dario is joined on-stage at the Electric Palace by two final year Digital Film students studying at the University of Brighton - Kathryn Bessant and James Calver - to discuss George Miller's 1979 Ozploitation action fest Mad Max. Mel Gibson takes the title role as Max Rockatanski, the fearless cop waging war with kill-crazy bikers who target his family. It is a road-scorching, neo-punk, take-no-pr...

Cinematologists contributor Kingsley Marshall picks Blue Steel to discuss his research on the work of director Kathryn Bigelow and Neil interviews British film director Kim Longinotto about her work. Dario and Neil also discuss whether films can have real social or political impact. Kim Longinotto's Dreamcatcher, official site. Kim Longinotto talks to fellow Cinematologists interviewee Jeanie Finl...

Le Quai Des Brumes is a seminal of French director Marcel Carné. Starring the enigmatic Jean Gabin it epitomises Carné’s poetic realism, often seen as influential to Hollywood film noir, evocating the intense beauty and tragedy of wartime Europe. Capturing the romantic fatalism of the protagonists the film is often defined as critique of the moral and social state of the French nation during World...

Neil is joined by colleague Dr Victoria Byard to introduce and discuss Tony Scott's erotic vampire horror The Hunger. Staring Catherine Deneuve, Susan Sarandon and, of course, the late David Bowie the film draws a range of different reactions from the audience at Falmouth's School of Film and Television. On the Episode Neil also interviews film making duo the Blaine Brothers about their recent Bri...

For this episode we are back at the Electric Palace in Hastings where Dario talks to Cornish filmmaker Mark Jenkin about his fascinating new film. In Bronco's House  a young man strives to provide a home for him, his pregnant girlfriend and their unborn child. The film is an aesthetic meditation on property, power and the future which is shot on a clockwork camera, using 16mm black and white negat...

In a wide ranging interview Dario talks to prolific film scholar Murray Pomerance. The discussion touches on everything from Zabriskie Point to The Force Awakes, from The Clouds of Sils Maria to The Bourne Identity, from Marnie to The Dark Knight Professor Pomerance demonstrates an in-depth knowledge, engaging presence and fascinating insights on all things cinema. Murray Pomerance is Professor in...

Our first screening of 2016 is Orson Welles's at times overlooked classic, The Trial. Adapted from Franz Kafka’s dark novel about alienation, bureaucracy, and the fundamental question of freewill. The Trial stars Anthony Perkins in a role every bit as compelling as his star turn in Psycho and features Welles’s trademark kinetic cinematography which perfectly captures the terror of faceless institu...

In a special bonus episode Dario talks to Dr. Catherine Grant, Senior Lecturer in Film Studies at the University of Sussex and founder of the Film Studies For Free online archive. The conversation covers a wide range of areas including Catherine's route in film academia, the current status of film and film studies particularly in the digital context, the Internet & open source publishing, teaching...

In one of the highlights of the year The Cinematologists screen Wong Kar-Wai's stylish masterpiece as part of the BFI 'love' season in association with The Poly, Falmouth. A veritable modern masterpiece In the Mood for Love stars Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung in iconic roles as lovers seeking refuge from disappointment, loneliness and the harsh realities of their surroundings. Dario and Neil also d...

Dario and Neil discuss Ida Lupino's 1953 film noir The Hitch-Hiker. Neil also interviews writer Jack Thorne about, amongst other things, his up-coming theatre adaptation of Harry Potter. Link to the Film Programme episode discussed in the episode Link to the Senses of Cinema Ida Lupino piece mentioned by Kingsley in the episode This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other sub...

Neil is joined on stage at Falmouth by Kingsley Marshall to introduce John Hughes' comedy Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987). The influence and persona of John Candy and Steve Martin is discussed along with the career of John Hughes as one the quintessential American 80s directors. The podcast also features an interview with Jeanie Finlay on her surprising and offbeat musical documentary Orion:...

Our intense desire for, and identification, with film characters and stars comes under the spotlight in this weeks' podcast. Neil is joined by filmmaker James Dean to introduce Pablo Larraín's unique and brutal Tony Manero (2008) about Chilean criminal who is obsessed with John Travolta's character from Saturday Night Fever. It is simultaneously bleak, shocking and unsettling with allusions to the...