The Garden Cinema Film Talk

Writer-director Carolina Cavalli’s darkly comic feature debut, which received its world premiere at the 2022 Venice Film Festival, is a deliciously satirical character study of a twentysomething looking for purpose… and maybe also a friend. We had the opportunity to chat with  Carolina over zoom about the film, her previous work, her time studying in Paris, audience expectations and the particular...

We chat to a panel of producers, actors and directors about the current film scene in the Arab world, what is means to be an "Arab film", what the sources of funding tend to be, the topics and genres that appeal most internationally, the intricacies of subtitling and other issues our audience asked about. The event was held as a launch night for the Arab women filmmakers season at the cinema and i...

To mark Italy's Liberation Day, we screened documentary Bella Ciao - Song Of Rebellion. The documentary traces the origins of the revolutionary song, the myths around it, its international appeal and use, its potential commercialisation. Directors Paul Russell and Andrea Vogt joined us to chat about making indie films, Bella Ciao and the deeply moving meanings behind it with Mydylarama journalist...

Teenage rebel Mick Travis (Malcolm McDowell) returns to his upper-crust English public school, caught between the sadistic older boys known as the Whips and the first-year students, known as Scum, who are forced to do their bidding. The petty thefts and anti-social behavior of Travis and his two henchmen, Johnny (David Wood) and Wallace (Richard Warwick), soon attract the attention of both the Whi...

We chatted to Italian director Mario Martone about his latest feature film, Nostalgia, which stars one of Italy's most famous working actors, ‎ Pierfrancesco Favino , sporting am eerily accurate Arabic accent. We delve together into the film's esoteric and spiritual dimensions, its gorgeous and loving portrait of Naples and its depictions of the city's element of criminality. 

Curator, artist and Brighton-resident John Marchant joined us here at the Garden Cinema for a discussion following our screening of Laura Poitras's All The Beauty And The Bloodshed. The film tells the story of photographer Nan Goldin's tireless campaign to expose the crimes of the Sackler family and the part they played in the opioid crisis in the US and to kick the Sacklers out of the art spaces...

We gathered here at the cinema after our screening of The Shining, as part of our Jack Nicholson season, with Professor Roger Luckhurst who wrote The Shining: BFI Film Classics . Roger shares with us gossip and tales from behind the scenes, tells us about the film's negative reception at the time and the differences with the novel and gives us some context to understand its place as part of the ho...

We gathered in the Garden Cinema den with our regular group of City Lit film students to discuss and share anecdotes about Antonioni's The Passenger, screened as part of our Celebrating Jack Nicholson season. The Passenger was one of our most popular members' suggestions. Grab a drink and listen in!

Join us in the Garden Cinema Den for our post-film chat.  Following our screening of Whatever Happened To Baby Jane, as part of our Hollywood on Hollywood season, we all huddled around a drink in the den to chat about the film and listen to Dr Lucy Bolton share with us the gossip, highlights from and insights into the shoot. We chatted about the film's "useless" men, Joan Crawford and Bette Davis'...

We held a Q&A with Dr Kiki Tianqi Yu following one of our screenings of Return To Dust. The film film follows Ma and timid Cao who have been cast off by their families and forced into an arranged marriage. Uniting with Earth’s cycles, they create a haven for themselves in which they can thrive. Dr Kiki Tianqi Yu talks about the film's depiction of the connection between humans and land and its the...

We are joined by writer/director/actress Nana Mensah. Mensah's first feature film, the award-winning Queen Of Glory, will be screening at the Garden Cinema on 26 November.  The film follows the trials and tribulations of Sarah Obeng, the brilliant child of Ghanaian immigrants, who is quitting her Ivy League PhD program to follow her married lover to Ohio. When her mother dies suddenly, she bequeat...

This week, we welcomed a group of screenwriting and film students from City Lit to watch The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum, directed by Margarethe von Trotta and Volker Schlondorff and based on the book by Heinrich Boll. Blum a young woman living in West Germany in the 70s finds her life falling into ruins after she falls prey to a vicious smear campaign by the police and a ruthless journalist, te...

"Over 12 half-hour episodes, we're seeing a man have a nervous breakdown". This week, we talk to journalist Darren Richman about some of his favourite genres and filmmakers. We discuss the pessimism of Film Noir and the optimism of Mike Leigh, the nature of comedy from Faulty Towers to the Coen Brothers and debate whether or not there is such a thing as "dark comedy" and the depiction of love and...

This week, we speak to Angela Allen who has worked on the film sets of many celebrated films, including The Third Man, The African Queen and The Dirty Dozen, for nearly six decades, overseeing continuity, supervising scripts and advising directors.    Angela shares with us anecdotes and personal stories from her time on and off the set. This podcast episode is slightly longer than usual, so we've...

We discuss the pleasure and power of the cinema experience and which films are better on the silver screen with MUBI's podcast host, journalist Rico Cagliano.  We talk to Rico about the MUBI podcast seasons, cinemas he's researched and visited and share anecdotes about films that should be watched on a big screen, such as Lawrence Of Arabia and Wings Of Desire.  Find us on the usual platforms. Sen...

We talk about the films of Almodovar, his depiction of the Spanish civil war, Spanish cinema and Penelope Cruz with Film Professor José Arroyo, who has written extensively about the Spanish director and has interviewed him a number of times. We invited him to mark our upcoming Penelope Cruz season, to talk more generally about the actress, Almodovar and Spanish cinema. We discuss glamour, camp and...

We chat about the journalist's father and fiance's campaign to secure his release from Belmarsh prison and its depiction in feature documentary Ithaka with director Ben Lawrence.  Speaking to us from his home in Australia, the filmmaker tells us more about his latest film, which follows the pair as they campaign to secure Assange's release. The film was made over 2 years and covers his extradition...

We chat about Marlene Dietrich, her close working relationship with Josef Von Sternberg, the changes in her persona that came with her shift to Hollywood, comparisons with Mae West and Greta Garbo, and the enduring power of stars with Dr Lucy Bolton. Lucy is a Reader in Film Studies at Queen Mary University and her fields of research include film stardom and celebrity. She recently co-edited a col...

We discuss what makes a good documentary, the rise of true crime and streamers and indulgent filmmaking with producer and commissioner Dan Chambers.   Dan is a producer and commissioner, and is the co-founder and creative director of Blink Films . He was previously Director of Programmes at Channel 5 and has decades of experience in making, producing and commissioning factual content. He’s joined...

We chat to Tom Palmer and Tom Stourton, the scriptwriting team behind the feature film All My Friends Hate Me. The writers met as school and have been performing sketches and double acts since then. They created the hilarious "web film" High Renaissance Man and had previously collaborated with director Andrew Gaynord on such comedy hits as Stath Lets Flats. We discuss the evolving nature of comedy...

We chat to Colm Bairéad at the Curzon offices about his first fiction feature film, The Quiet Girl, which is based on the short story Foster by Claire Keegan.    We discuss the understated and restrained qualities of the film, his reasons for choosing to adapt Keegan's novel, and the "growing confidence" of Irish language filmmaking. We also debate the ending of the film. Spoiler alert!   Find us...

We chat about the work of directors, such as Jean Vigo and Marcel Carné, their aesthetic considerations and the stories they chose to tell, as well as the lasting legacy of that era with Professor Ginette Vincendeau. Ginette is a Professor of Film Studies at King’s College London, and a regular contributor to Sight & Sound. Ginette has written extensively about French cinema and is currently co-ed...

We chat to Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic whose new film ‘ Murina ’ won the Camera d’Or at Cannes last year. She discusses how the film tackles such emotional subjects as adolescence, cultural heritage, and family relationships in a patriarchal society. She’s interviewed by Michael Chambers, owner/manager of the cinema, and by Abla Kandalaft, a journalist and film programmer. This podcast comes from...