Writers on Film

Terrence Malick's third film The Thin Red Line (1998) was a stunning return after a hiatus of 20 years. Writer Jeremy Arnold joins me to talk through the film. My biography of Terrence Malick The Magic Hours: The Films and Hidden Life of Terrence Malick is available from all good book shops and online sources, including here . Camille Saint-Saëns: Le Carnaval des Animaux Performers Pianos: Neil an...

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Jack Fisk was Terrence Malick's production designer for almost his entire career. The two first met on Badlands and here Jack talks with me about his first two films with Malick. The second part of the interview will be released soon. The interview has been edited and condensed. My biography of Terrence Malick The Magic Hours: The Films and Hidden Life of Terrence Malick is available from all good...

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Terrence Malick's second film Days of Heaven (1978) was an immersive and visionary piece of work. Writer and documentary filmmaker Ian Nathan joins me to talk through the film. My biography of Terrence Malick The Magic Hours: The Films and Hidden Life of Terrence Malick is available from all good book shops and online sources, including here . Camille Saint-Saëns: Le Carnaval des Animaux Performer...

Zombies want brains. Vampires want blood. Cannibals want human flesh. All monsters need feeding. Horror has been embraced by mainstream pop culture more than ever before, with horror characters and aesthetics infecting TV, music videos and even TikTok trends. Yet even with the commercial and critical success of  The Babadook, Hereditary, Get Out, The Haunting of Hill House, Yellowjackets  and coun...

Terrence Malick's first film Badlands (1973) introduced the world to a new visionary talent. Tom Shone joins me to talk through the film. The biography The Magic Hours is available from all good book shops and online sources, including here . Camille Saint-Saëns: Le Carnaval des Animaux Performers Pianos: Neil and Nancy O'Doan Orchestra: Seattle Youth Symphony, conducted by Vilem Sokol. Composed 1...

Dr. Sheri Chinen Biesen is Professor of Film History at Rowan University and author of  Through a Noir Lens: Adapting Film Noir Visual Style  (Columbia University Press, 2024),  Blackout: World War II and the Origins of Film Noir  (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005),  Music in the Shadows: Noir Musical Films  (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014), and  Film Censorship: Regulating America’s Scr...

The best horror film ever made? The Texas Chainsaw Massacre for me is certainly the most unnerving and scariest to this day. Leatherface and his family wreak terror on a group of unsuspecting teenagers as they stray onto the family farm. James Rose's monograph for Devil's Advocate is a superb introduction, explication, and an in depth history of the making and reception of the film. Get bonus cont...

Steven Cohan talks about his new book: On Audrey Hepburn: an Opinionated Guide Provides an original take on fashion in her films and shows how it was key to her popularity Focuses on Hepburn's abilities and craft as an actress; Offers a substantive and critical analysis of her “Cinderella” films as a discernible cycle; Argues that her striking success and popularity as a movie star was not only du...

I talk to Professor Jie Li, the winner of the Kraszna-Krausz Prize Moving Image Book Award. Please note she will be delivering a lecture in London later in November, details below. Friday 29th November, 6pm Venue: BLOC, ArtsOne, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road London E1 4NS Free to attend, booking essential Click here  to book The Foundation is delighted to be collaborating with Que...

In all his films, Wes Anderson turns the mundane into magic by building distinctive and eccentric worlds. But how well do you know the man behind the camera? Discover the inspirations of one of our most revered auteurs with  The Worlds of Wes Anderson . Anderson’s playful and vibrant aesthetic is universally admired – but how has he managed to create such a recognisable identity? From Hitchcock an...

Dr. Benjamin Halligan joins John Bleasdale to talk about Hotbeds of Licentiousness, the first substantial critical engagement with British pornography on film across the 1970s, including the “Summer of Love,” the rise and fall of the Permissive Society, the arrival of Margaret Thatcher, and beyond. By focusing on a series of colorful filmmakers whose work, while omnipresent during the 1970s, now r...

The first major biography of the French filmmaker hailed by Martin Scorsese as “one of the Gods of cinema.” Over the course of her sixty-five-year career, the longest of any female filmmaker, Agnès Varda (1928–2019) wrote and directed some of the most acclaimed films of her era, from her tour de force  Cléo from 5 to 7  (1962), a classic of modernist cinema, to the beloved documentary  The Gleaner...

Jason Solomons has been a film critic, one of the first film podcasters, an author and is now moving into a new role as a film producer with his company Movie Love Productions. He's currently working on adapting and bringing the brilliant best-selling memoir A Waiter in Paris to cinemas; and on the folk horror comedy The King of the Witches, based on a true story that’s never been told. His book W...

Jez Conolly is the author of the Devil's Advocate edition of his book The Thing ( available here ) as well as an essay in Volume 3 of Scarred for Life (see here) . Consigned to the deep freeze of critical and commercial reception upon its release in 1982, The Thing has bounced back spectacularly to become one of the most highly regarded productions from the 1980s 'Body Horror' cycle of films, expe...

John Bleasdale talks about Paul Verhoeven, the Coen Brothers, Paul Thomas Anderson, Quentin Tarantino, David Fincher and film bros with Adam Nayman, author of Paul Thomas Anderson Masterworks and The Coen Brothers. Adam talks about his beginnings as film critic in Toronto. He also tells John his thoughts on the current state of film criticism, including the impact on social media on the film disco...

Euronews journalists David Mouriquand and Amber Bryce are joined by Sarah Bradbury of the UpComing to talk the 81st Venice Film Festival with myself, John Bleasdale. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Joker: Folie à Deux hits Cannes and I am joined by David Mouriquand and Amber Bryce of EuroNews to talk about Todd Phillips' sequel starring Lady Gaga and joaquin Phoenix, and if it can live up to expectations. Live from the 81st Venice Film Festival. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz....

Day 6 or 7 of the Venice Film Festival and David Mouriquand and Amber Brice from EuroNews join me to talk about The Brutalist, The Room Next Door and Queer. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Angelina Jolie and Nicole Kidman are on the Lido with two new films which are going to put them back in the headlines. David Mouriquand from EuroNews joins me to discuss the films Maria and Babygirl in the second of our Venice reports. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for informat...

David Mouriquand from EuroNews and Nicholas Bell from Eye on Cinema join John Bleasdale to talk about Tim Burton's Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the opening film of the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and u...

Chris Calogero became a viral sensation with his videos skewering movie clichés, so I had to get him on the podcast to talk police lieutenants and filthy coroners. His new comedy album HUSKY BOY can be ordered here and all the information you want is available from his site, here . Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Hosted by Simplecast, an Ad...

John Bleasdale talks to Michael Benson on his book Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C Clarke and the Making of a Masterpiece. Buy the Book Here. The definitive story of the making of  2001: A Space Odyssey  , acclaimed today as one of the greatest films ever made, and of director Stanley Kubrick and writer Arthur C. Clarke-   "a tremendous explication of a tremendous film....Breathtaking" (...

Ehsan Khoshbakht, curator of the Retrospective: “ How to tell the story of a leading Hollywood studio while both teasing out the nuances and stressing the significance of canonical titles worthy of continued celebration? This has been the main challenge for our 40-title retrospective mapping Columbia Pictures’ glorious rise from Poverty Row to major force in Hollywood. ‘Lady with the Torch’ is an...