World Cinema History

"The Leopard" (1963) (Il Gattopardo) | with Special Guest Mike Corradi. THE NOVEL: "The Leopard" (1958) (Il Gattopardo) by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. THE FILM: "The Leopard" (1963) (Il Gattopardo) Directed by: Luchino Visconti Screenplay by: Suso Cecchi d'Amico Pasquale Festa Campanile Enrico Medioli Massimo Franciosa Luchino Visconti Produced by: Goffredo Lombardo Starring: Burt Lancaster Clau...

THE MOVIE:  Shoot the Piano Player (French: Tirez sur le pianiste; UK title: Shoot the Pianist) (1960)  THE NOVEL: Down There by David Goodis (1957) CAST:  Charles Aznavour  Marie Dubois  Nicole Berger  Michèle Mercier  Albert Rémy  DIRECTED BY:  François Truffaut  SCREENPLAY:  François Truffaut  Marcel Moussy  THE HOST: Eric Trommater  THE PANEL: Sila Blume  Erin Brown  CLIPS USED:  https://youtu...

THE NOVEL : The Godfather (1969  nice 😉 ) By Mario Puzo THE FILM :  The Godfather (1972) Directed by  Francis Ford Coppola Screenplay by  Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola Produced by Albert S. Ruddy Starring Marlon Brando Al Pacino James Caan Richard Castellano Robert Duvall Sterling Hayden John Marley Richard Conte Diane Keaton Cinematography Gordon Willis THE HOST : Erin Brown  YouTube: http...

Part 1: The Memory of Time In the first of our two-part look at Marcel Proust on film, we explore Raúl Ruiz’s 1999 adaptation of the final volume of In Search of Lost Time. Our panel discusses the act of remembering, the difference between theatrical and home viewing, and why our experience of time—and cinema—feels so fragmented in the modern age. Part 2: The Pinter Machine We conclude our Proust...

A Note on this Series: I owe my panel a disclaimer. While I spent nine months prepping—rereading Proust, the screenplay, and researching historical context—the panel had only 10 days and the film, Time Regained, as a guide. I set them a steep climb without the necessary time, operating under the mistaken assumption that Proust was a universal cultural touchstone. Any lack of sharpness in these dis...

The Novel: The Trial ( Der Prozess ) (1925) by Franz Kafka ​ The Films: The Trial ( Le Procès ) (1962) ​Directed by: Orson Welles ​Screenplay by: Orson Welles ​Produced by: Alexander Salkind ​Starring: Anthony Perkins, Orson Welles, Jeanne Moreau, Romy Schneider, Akim Tamiroff, Elsa Martinelli ​ The Trial (1993) ​British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) ​Directed by: David Jones ​Screenplay by: Haro...

​*WARNING! The FDA highly recommends making peace with the absurdity of the universe before consuming this product. ​THE HOST ​ Eric Trommater * Support Eric on Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/I2I81KK10U ​Follow on X: @etrommater ​THE PANEL ​ Erin Brown * Pizza Horse Productions: https://youtube.com/@pizzahorseproductions?si=V91512KJ9HpYNH0b ​Bluesky: @toadpuppy.bsky.soci ​ Jen Trujillo ​Gilbert Baker Fi...

The Host: Eric Trommater https://ko-fi.com/worldcinemahistory The Panel: Susan Gorrell Executive Director of the Julien Dubuque International Film Festival (JDIFF). https://julienfilmfest.com/ Jim Farmer Festival Director of Out On Film https://outonfilm.org Jennifer Trujillo Senior Managing Director and Executive Director at the Gilbert Baker Film Festival and Panelist on The World Cinema History...

​ "I'm not suggesting Bound ...is a remake of Pandora’s Box ... but as a cinephile, you can’t ignore the visual tether." ​This week on World Cinema History , host Eric Trommater finds himself in a tight spot—literally. After a "method-acting" introduction that leaves him duct-taped in a storage closet, Jennifer Trujillo takes the lead to dive into the high-contrast, tactile neo-noir world of the W...

"As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a cinephile." This week, the World Cinema History panel breathes in the salt air of 1953 Rimini to tackle Federico Fellini’s early masterwork, I Vitelloni. Following our "Road to Godard" series, we’re pivoting from Maoist groupthink to the "Economic Miracle" of Italy, where the problem isn't a lack of resources—it's a vacuum of purpose. Join Er...

Ingmar Bergman’s "The Passion of Anna" In this episode, we dive into the stark, psychological landscape of Ingmar Bergman’s 1969 masterpiece, The Passion of Anna. As we transition from our Road to Godard series into the new Adaptation era, we explore a film that marks a pivotal moment in Bergman's career—an island of isolation, truth, and structural experimentation. In this roundtable discussion:...

​"A Podcast Found in a Garbage Dump." ​The journey is complete. In the final installment of our Road to Godard series, we tackle Jean-Luc Godard’s 1967 scorched-earth satire, Weekend. We have traveled from the poetic realism of Grand Illusion to the revolutionary "End of Cinema," navigating a landscape of endless traffic jams and the collapse of the social contract. ​In this episode, we discuss: ​...

​ In the penultimate installment of our Road to Godard series, we dive into the 1945 epic that the Cahiers du Cinéma crowd famously dubbed a "beautiful corpse." ​Filmed under the extreme constraints and constant surveillance of the Nazi occupation of France, Marcel Carné and Jacques Prévert managed to construct a work of staggering scale—complete with massive sets and a cast of thousands. Host Eri...

Cocteau’s Orpheus Trilogy | WTF is This? Host: Eric Trommater Panel: Erin Brown, Sila Blume, and Jennifer Trujillo In this episode, we step through the mirror into the cinematic life of Jean Cocteau. We examine the foundational trilogy—The Blood of a Poet (1930), Orphée (1950), and The Testament of Orpheus (1960)—not as technical exercises, but as a shared space where the image carries a specific,...

A Conversation with Jethro Waters. In this episode, our panel—Eric Trommater, Erin Brown, Jennifer Trujillo, and Sila Blume—sits down with a true polymath of modern film: Jethro Waters. Jethro serves as the writer, director, editor, and cinematographer for his debut feature, Gunfighter Paradise . He even steps in front of the lens as the film’s lead actor under the nom-de-plume Braz Cubas. Togethe...

We are joined by Academy Award-winning screenwriter Kevin Willmott (Best Adapted Screenplay for Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman) to discuss his 2004 mockumentary, C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America. Alongside our panel—Eric Trommater, Erin Brown, Sila Blume, and Jennifer Trujillo—we explore Willmott’s searing speculative history that imagines a world where the North lost the Civil War. We dive i...

Is Ralph Bakshi's Coonskin (1975) Racist? Spoiler: Yes. In 1975, Ralph Bakshi’s Coonskin—a jagged, mixed-media parody of Song of the South—sparked massive protests for its depictions of Harlem, the Mob, and the LGBTQ community. Decades before Roger Rabbit, Bakshi was already blending live-action and animation to create a disturbing, distorted lens of Black America. Host Eric Trommater, joined by E...

For Black History Month, we are exploring the roots of independent African filmmaking. Black Girl serves as a powerful starting point for this journey, tracing the movement of a young Senegalese woman from Dakar to the French Riviera. We discuss Sembène's transition from literature to film as a means of communicating with a non-literate audience, effectively creating a new visual language for a po...

The Road to Godard hits the streets of Dakar. ​In this episode of the World Cinema History Podcast, we immerse ourselves in the vibrant, avant-garde energy of Djibril Diop Mambéty’s 1973 landmark, Touki Bouki. Eric Trommater, Erin Brown, Jennifer Trujillo and Sila Blume break it all down. Erin and Eric were rather cold on Godard's Breathless. Will the warmer climate of Senegal warm up them to the...

​In this installment of World Cinema History, we move from the historical Road to Godard into the contemporary trenches of independent cinema. We are joined by writer-director Miguel Ángel Ferrer, whose film The Shadow of the Sun —Venezuela’s 2023 Oscar entry—is a study of survival and using your dreams as a roadmap to becoming your best self. The Roundtable Discussion: ​Bypassing the Permission S...

In the first installment of our Road to Godard series, co-hosts Eric Trommater, Erin Brown, and Jennifer Trujillo dive into the 1959 production that changed everything. We’re putting Jean-Luc Godard’s revolutionary Breathless (À bout de souffle) side-by-side with Richard Linklater’s 2025 film, Nouvelle Vague. While its place in the history of cinema is undeniable, Eric and Erin find themselves lar...

​"Isn't life disappointing?" "Yes, nothing but disappointment." Thunderstorms descended as Erin Brown, Eric Trommater, Sila Blume, and Jennifer Trujillo gathered to discuss Yasujirō Ozu’s seminal 1953 film, Tokyo Story . As the conclusion to our series on Aging and Mortality in 1950s Cinema, the weather seemed determined to participate; our noise-proofing wasn't quite up to the task of keeping the...

In this special bonus installment, we reflect on a filmmaker who defined the American cinematic landscape for decades. We also circle back to the studio for a final word on our recent guest. ​ The Panel Jennifer Trujillo, Sila Blume, Eric Trommater, and Erin Brown. Remembering Rob Reiner (March 6, 1947 – December 14, 2025) The panel gathers to remember the life and legacy of Rob Reiner. Following...

Producer Christine La Monte joins the show to discuss her Oscar-shortlisted film Viva Verdi! and Ai Weiwei’s Turandot. We talk about the residents of Casa Verdi and the bridge between opera and cinema history. Host: Eric Trommater Panel: Erin Brown, Sila Blume, Jennifer Trujillo Special Guest: My cousin, Jordan Best (Vocals, "O mio babbino caro" by Puccini) https://www.bestsoprano.com/  Links & In...

This week on World Cinema History, we continue our series on Aging and Mortality in 1950s Cinema. Having explored the bureaucratic cages of Kurosawa’s Ikiru and the cold Swedish apathy of Bergman’s Wild Strawberries, we now arrive in the blistering, post-war economic hangover of Vittorio De Sica’s 1952 film, Umberto D. Host Eric Trommater is joined by Erin Brown, Sila Blume, and Italianophile Audr...