Writers on Film

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Buy Travels in the Cities of Cinema: Conversations with Ehsan Khoshbakht here. Jonathan Rosenbaum stands as one of the most eminent film critics in the English-speaking world. After working for Sight and Sound and Monthly Film Bulletin in London in the 1970s, he served for two decades as chief film critic for the Chicago Reader. Hailed as “one of the best” by Jean-Luc Godard, who compared him to James Agee and André Bazin, Rosenbaum is known for his incisive, thought-provoking polemics, which have inspired generations of writers while reshaping how we think about cinema. Distinguished by his equal investment in both contemporary cinema and film history, his work offers a rich dialogue between the past and present of moving images. In this wide-ranging conversation with film scholar Ehsan Khoshbakht, Rosenbaum reminisces about his childhood in Florence, Alabama, where his family ran a chain of cinemas, and follows that journey to New York, Paris, London and Chicago. Each city marks a chapter in his evolution as a critic, filled with encounters and experiences that together reveal the life of an indefatigable cinephile and cultural commentator. “An engaging history of the esteemed critic's career and a survey of the cinephilic landscape. Rosenbaum proves a frank, expansive interviewee, telling curator Ehsan Khoshbakht about his childhood in Alabama and his work as a critic in Paris, New York, London, Chicago and elsewhere.” — Pamela Hutchinson, Sight and Sound Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eelco F.M. Wijdicks, MD, PhD is Professor of Neurology at the College of Medicine, Mayo Clinic. His book Frames of Minds uncovers a cinematic language of psychiatry. By taking chances to portray mental illness, filmmakers aim to achieve a sense of reality, and provide catharsis for viewers through the act of dramatization. Ultimately, the history of psychiatry in film is a history of the public perception of medicine, and the ways psychiatry is understood by directors, writers, actors, and audiences. The book is available here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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The author of Woody Allen: A Travesty of a Mockery of a Sham talks the director and his legacy. Buy the book here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ian Cooper has written widely on a host of subjects, but today we're focusing on two of his books which are nevertheless interrelated: Charles Manson and the Family, and Sam Peckinpah's Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Marya E. Gates is a writer and critic and in her new book Cinema Her Way she collects a series of interviews with a host of visionary directors. It is available here. Visit also Marya's website here. The Substack mentioned in our conversation can be read here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Barry Forshaw joins me to talk all things gothic cinema, books, crime, noir, Hammer, folk horror, as well as coming from Liverpool and not being interested in football (the true horror). Barry is a writer on many years and many books. In British Gothic Cinema, he celebrates with enthusiasm the British horror film and its fascination for macabre cinema. A definitive study of the genre, British Gothic Cinema discusses the flowering of the field, with every key film discussed from its beginnings in the 1940s through to the 21st century. His latest book is Simenon: The Man, The Books, The Films, available here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sir Christopher Frayling is a legend of film writing and criticism. His work on Hammer and his books on Sergio Leone and Spaghetti Westerns have been a huge inspiration to many of us. His latest - Sergio Leone by Himself - is available HERE. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Writer, bookseller, and Malick fanatic, Matt Zoller Seitz joins me to talk A Hidden Life. Visit Matt's online shop here. The Magic Hours: The Films and Hidden Life of Terrence Malick is now 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 1886; recorded c. 1980. Source The Al Goldstein collection in the Pandora Music repository at ibiblio.org. Used under the license. Get NordVPN 2Y plan + 4 months extra here ➼ https://nordvpn.com/fspn It's risk-free with Nord's 30-day money-back guarantee! - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Superbad was released on August 17th in 2007, it proved itself to be a massive success right out of the gate, especially for those in the film's target millennial demographic. The film wound up dominating at the box office, bringing in $170 million dollars worldwide, against a $20 million dollar budget. It also launched the careers of Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Emma Stone, Bill Hader, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and Seth Rogen whose careers are all thriving to this day. It further proved that Judd Apatow is now one of the most successful film producers of his generation, bringing the world hit after hit. Superbad remains, to this day, a beloved comedy film for millennials who grew up with it. This is because, unlike other comedies of that era, it embraced the awkwardness of the characters, particularly with someone like Michael Cera. Unlike the cartoonish representations of an 80s comedy like Revenge of the Nerds, Superbad presented itself with a depth to the characters that enabled millennials (and other generations) to bond with the movie in a more meaningful way. Full of interviews with people like Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Emma Stone, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Martha MacIssac, Judd Apatow, Bill Hader, Greg Motolla, Evan Goldberg, and Shauna Robertson, I Am McLovin is a comprehensive guide to the movie that changed a generation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Geoff Dyer is an essayist and novelist. His book on Andrey Tarkovsky's Stalker: Zona: a book about a film about a journey to a room is one of my favourites, equalled only by his other book on the Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood starring Where Eagles Dare: Broadsword Calling Danny Boy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

‘There are so many insights – even hardcore Bond fans will be surprised. Indispensable.' – David Lowbridge-Ellis MBE Only six men can lay claim to wearing the famous Savile Row tuxedo of James Bond; more people have stepped on the Moon. Yet, hundreds more came within an inch of winning the coveted 007 role – the pinnacle for so many actors. For the first time, The Search for Bond tells the extraordinary story of how cinema's most famous secret agent was cast, featuring exclusive interviews with many of the actors who were at one time considered to play Bond, interviewed for the role, or went as far as to be screen tested. From Sir Ranulph Fiennes to Sam Neill, their memories and stories give a fascinating insiders' glimpse into the process of how the Bond producers, Broccoli and Saltzman, came up with the right man to play their famous spy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Robert Sinnerbrink is an Australian academic, a philosopher and writer of numerous books, including Cinematic Ethics: Exploring Ethical Experience through Film and New Philosophies of Film: Thinking Images. The Magic Hours: The Films and Hidden Life of Terrence Malick is now 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 1886; recorded c. 1980. Source The Al Goldstein collection in the Pandora Music repository at ibiblio.org. Used under the license. Get NordVPN 2Y plan + 4 months extra here ➼ https://nordvpn.com/fspn It's risk-free with Nord's 30-day money-back guarantee! - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

David Thomson is the author of many books on film and television, including a biography of Orson Welles, a book of appreciation on Nicole Kidman, his legendary Biographical Dictionary of Film, The Big Screen, How to Watch a Movie, and his trilogy of books of movie universe short stories Suspects, Silver Light and Connecticut. He is also a documentarian Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tom Shone - author of The Nolan Variations and Martin Scorsese a Retrospective - joins John Bleasdale to talk about the work of David Lynch, following his passing. An article by Tom for Prospect Magazine can be read here: "Who could possibly follow in his footsteps? His impact went over the head of Hollywood and under the feet of his fellow filmmakers—cutting a zig-zagging path wide enough for one. The only person who could do Lynchian was Lynch. But the impact of his films went far and deep. The tremendous warmth of recollection that has surged on social media in the days after his death testifies to the many blessings he brought his collaborators—“I'm yelling from the bullhorn, Godspeed buddy Dave,” wrote Naomi Watts, his Mulholland Drive star, on Instagram—and also to the note of transcendence struck by even the darkest of his films. “I'm pretty sure I'm connected to the moon,” he tweeted in 2010. The Lady in the Radiator brings glad tidings. David Lynch was always out of this world." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lived the northern most film festival in the world Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hollywood on the Tiber is a dazzling blend of the epic and intimate featuring a glittering cast of screen gods and goddesses. This vibrant chronicle recounts how Hank Kaufman and Gene Lerner became unsung movers and shakers of a unique and unrepeatable era: the rise of Rome as the center of Europe's film industry in the 1950s and '60s. Written in the late 1970s and now published in English for the first time, this edition features a new foreword by Sandy Lieberson, who worked alongside Kaufman and Lerner in Rome. It can be purchased here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A crossover episode as I talk with Martin Woessner the author of Terrence Malick and the Examined Life, one of the best books written on the visionary filmmaker. We talk about the book before settling in to a discussion of Knight of Cups, Malick's seventh film. Martin's book is available here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Buy the book here, or here. Revolution in 35mm: Political Violence and Resistance in Cinema from the Arthouse to the Grindhouse, 1960–1990 examines how political violence and resistance was represented in arthouse and cult films from 1960 to 1990. This historical period spans the Algerian war of independence and the early wave of postcolonial struggles that reshaped the Global South, through the collapse of Soviet Communism in the late 1980s. It focuses on films related to the rise of protest movements by students, workers, and leftist groups, as well as broader countercultural movements, Black Power, the rise of feminism, and so on. The book also includes films that explore the splinter groups that engaged in violent, urban guerrilla struggles throughout the 1970s and 1980s, as the promise of widespread radical social transformation failed to materialize: the Weathermen and the Black Liberation Army in the United States, the Red Army Faction in West Germany and Japan, and Italy's Red Brigades. Many of these movements were deeply connected to culture, including cinema, and they expressed their values through it.  Twelve authors, including film critics and academics, deliver a diverse examination of how filmmakers around the world reacted to the political violence and resistance movements of the period and how this was expressed on screen. This includes looking at the production, distribution, and screening of these films, audience and critical reaction, the attempted censorship or suppression of much of this work, and how directors and producers eluded these restrictions. Including over two hundred illustrations, the book examines filmmaking movements like the French, Japanese, German, and Yugoslavian New Waves; subgenres like spaghetti westerns, Italian poliziotteschi, Blaxploitation, and mondo movies; and films that reflect the values of specific movements, including feminists, Vietnam War protesters, and Black militants. The work of influential and well-known political filmmakers such as Costa-Gavras, Gillo Pontecorvo, and Glauber Rocha is examined alongside grindhouse cinema and lesser-known titles by a host of all-but-forgotten filmmakers, including many from the Global South that deserve to be rediscovered. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This interview with Jack Fisk was recorded as part of my research for the book The Magic Hours: The Films and Hidden Life of Terrence Malick. As such it was never meant for broadcast but with Jack's permission I'm presenting this edited version. Jack picks up from part one to talk about his later collaborations with Malick on The Thin Red Line and The New World, as well as his work on the Weightless Trilogy. My book is now 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 1886; recorded c. 1980. Source The Al Goldstein collection in the Pandora Music repository at ibiblio.org. Used under the license. Get NordVPN 2Y plan + 4 months extra here ➼ https://nordvpn.com/fspn It's risk-free with Nord's 30-day money-back guarantee! - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm joined by Walter Chaw to talk Walter Hill and his book A Walter Hill Film as well as look back on the year of 2024. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Terrence Malick's 6th film premiered at the Venice Film Festival and starred Ben Affleck and Olga Kurylenko as a pair of lovers watching their relationship fall apart. 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 and Nancy O'Doan Orchestra: Seattle Youth Symphony, conducted by Vilem Sokol. Composed 1886; recorded c. 1980. Source The Al Goldstein collection in the Pandora Music repository at ibiblio.org. Used under the license. Get NordVPN 2Y plan + 4 months extra here ➼ https://nordvpn.com/fspn It's risk-free with Nord's 30-day money-back guarantee! - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Terrence Malick's fifth film was a culmination of decades of work: The Tree of Life. It won the Palme d'Or and boasted his most intimate and cosmic vision. Shane Hazen worked on the film, first as an intern before finishing the film as one of the last editors on board. 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 and Nancy O'Doan Orchestra: Seattle Youth Symphony, conducted by Vilem Sokol. Composed 1886; recorded c. 1980. Source The Al Goldstein collection in the Pandora Music repository at ibiblio.org. Used under the license. Get NordVPN 2Y plan + 4 months extra here ➼ https://nordvpn.com/fspn It's risk-free with Nord's 30-day money-back guarantee! - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Die Hard - is it a Christmas movie? or not? Do we care? Did we ever? But it's a good excuse to talk to Brian Abrams about his brilliant book Die Hard: an Oral History, available here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Joseph McBride - film historian and one time actor for Orson Welles - talks about his new book George Cukor's People: Acting for a Master Director. It is available as an e-book now and will be published the first week of January, 2025, in hardback. For more information click HERE. From the publisher: "The director of classic films such as Sylvia Scarlett, The Philadelphia Story, Gaslight, Adam's Rib, A Star Is Born, and My Fair Lady, George Cukor is widely admired but often misunderstood. Reductively stereotyped in his time as a “woman's director”—a thinly veiled, disparaging code for “gay”—he brilliantly directed a wide range of iconic actors and actresses, including Cary Grant, Greta Garbo, Spencer Tracy, Joan Crawford, Marilyn Monroe, and Maggie Smith. As Katharine Hepburn, the star of ten Cukor films, told the director, “All the people in your pictures are as goddamned good as they can possibly be, and that's your stamp.” "In this groundbreaking, lavishly illustrated critical study, Joseph McBride provides insightful and revealing essayistic portraits of Cukor's actors in their most memorable roles. The queer filmmaker gravitated to socially adventurous, subversively rule-breaking, audacious dreamers who are often sexually transgressive and gender fluid in ways that seem strikingly modern today. McBride shows that Cukor's seemingly self-effacing body of work is characterized by a discreet way of channeling his feelings through his actors. He expertly cajoled actors, usually gently but sometimes with bracing harshness, to delve deeply into emotional areas they tended to keep safely hidden. Cukor's wry wit, his keen sense of psychological and social observation, his charm and irony, and his toughness and resilience kept him active for more than five decades in Hollywood. George Cukor's People gives him the in-depth, multifaceted examination his rich achievement deserves." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 and Nancy O'Doan Orchestra: Seattle Youth Symphony, conducted by Vilem Sokol. Composed 1886; recorded c. 1980. Source The Al Goldstein collection in the Pandora Music repository at ibiblio.org. Used under the license. Get NordVPN 2Y plan + 4 months extra here ➼ https://nordvpn.com/fspn It's risk-free with Nord's 30-day money-back guarantee! - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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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 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 1886; recorded c. 1980. Source The Al Goldstein collection in the Pandora Music repository at ibiblio.org. Used under the license. Get NordVPN 2Y plan + 4 months extra here ➼ https://nordvpn.com/fspn It's risk-free with Nord's 30-day money-back guarantee! - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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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 Performers Pianos: Neil and Nancy O'Doan Orchestra: Seattle Youth Symphony, conducted by Vilem Sokol. Composed 1886; recorded c. 1980. Source The Al Goldstein collection in the Pandora Music repository at ibiblio.org. Used under the license. Get NordVPN 2Y plan + 4 months extra here ➼ https://nordvpn.com/fspn It's risk-free with Nord's 30-day money-back guarantee! - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 countless other horror films and TV series over the last few years, loving the genre still prompts the question: what's wrong with you? Implying, of course, that there is something not quite right about the people who make and consume it. In Feeding the Monster, Anna Bogutskaya dispels this notion once and for all by examining how horror responds to and fuels our feelings of fear, anxiety, pain, hunger and power. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 1886; recorded c. 1980. Source The Al Goldstein collection in the Pandora Music repository at ibiblio.org. Used under the license.

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 Screen (Columbia University Press, 2018). She received her Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin, M.A. and B.A. at the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television and has taught at USC, University of California, University of Texas, and in England. She has contributed to the BBC documentary The Rules of Film Noir, Turner Classic Movies' Public Enemies, NPR, Warner Bros. Gangster Collection, Film Criticism, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Film and History, Film Noir: The Directors, The Netflix Effect: Technology and Entertainment in the 21st Century, Hollywood on Location, Literature/Film Quarterly, Netflix Nostalgia, Quarterly Review of Film and Video, Film Noir: The Encyclopedia, Gangster Film Reader, Film Noir Reader 4, The Historian, Television and Television History, Popular Culture Review, served as Secretary of the Literature/Film Association, Founding Chair of the ‘Stars & Screen' Film & Media History Conference, serves on the editorial board of Film Criticism, and edited The Velvet Light Trap.

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 content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Steven Cohan talks about his new book: On Audrey Hepburn: an Opinionated GuideProvides an original take on fashion in her films and shows how it was key to her popularityFocuses 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 due to her unique physical features but to specific factors of postwar culture in the 1950s. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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, 6pmVenue: BLOC, ArtsOne, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road London E1 4NSFree to attend, booking essentialClick here to bookThe Foundation is delighted to be collaborating with Queen Mary University, London to present an evening celebrating the winner of this year's Moving Image Book Award Professor Jie Li, for her book ‘Cinematic Guerrillas Propaganda, Projectionists, and Audiences in Socialist China‘ (Columbia University Press).Featuring: Jie Li, Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University and Dr. Kiki Tianqi Yu, Senior Lecturer in Film Studies at Queen Mary University of London.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/writers-on-film. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 and Spielberg to Truffaut and Varda, there are countless homages and references scattered throughout Anderson's filmography, while his cultural anchor points go far beyond film and into the worlds of art and literature.Evocations of place and time underpin his work, from mid-century Paris in The French Dispatch to grand pre-war Europe in The Grand Budapest Hotel, while cultural institutions – such as Jacques Cousteau and The New Yorker magazine – are other touchstones.For Wes Anderson fans and cinephiles alike, this is an essential insight into the creative process of one of the world's most unique filmmakers.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/writers-on-film. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 remains critically ignored, author Benjamin Halligan discusses pornography in terms of lifestyle aspirations and opportunities which point to radical changes in British society. In this way, pornography is approached as a crucial optic with which to consider recent cultural and social history.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/writers-on-film. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 Gleaners and I (2000) four decades later. She helped to define the French New Wave, inspired an entire generation of filmmakers, and was recognized with major awards at the Cannes, Berlin, and Venice Film Festivals, as well as an honorary Oscar at the Academy Awards.In this lively biography, former Philadelphia Inquirer film critic Carrie Rickey explores the “complicated passions” that informed Varda's charmed life and indelible work. Rickey traces Varda's three remarkable careers―as still photographer, as filmmaker, and as installation artist. She explains how Varda was a pioneer in blurring the lines between documentary and fiction, using the latest digital technology and carving a path for women in the movie industry. She demonstrates how Varda was years ahead of her time in addressing sexism, abortion, labor exploitation, immigrant rights, and race relations with candor and incisiveness. She makes clear Varda's impact on contemporary figures like Ava DuVernay, Greta Gerwig, Barry Jenkins, the Safdie brothers, and Martin Scorsese, who called her one of the Gods of cinema. And she delves into Varda's incredibly rich social life with figures such as Harrison Ford, Jean-Luc Godard, Jim Morrison, Susan Sontag, and Andy Warhol, and her nearly forty-year marriage to the celebrated director Jacques Demy.A Complicated Passion is the vibrant biography that Varda, regarded by many as the greatest female filmmaker of all time, has long deserved.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/writers-on-film. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 Woody Allen: Film by Film is available where all good books are sold. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/writers-on-film. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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, experiencing a wholesale and detailed reappraisal that has secured its place in the pantheon of modern cinematic horror. Thirty years on, and with a recent prequel reigniting interest, Jez Conolly looks back to the film's antecedents and to the changing nature of its reception and the work that it has influenced. The themes discussed include the significance of The Thing's subversive antipodal environment, the role that the film has played in the corruption of the onscreen monstrous form, the qualities that make it an exemplar of the director's work and the relevance of its legendary visual effects despite the advent of CGI. Topped and tailed by a full plot breakdown and an appreciation of its notoriously downbeat ending, this exploration of the events at US Outpost 31 in the winter of 1982 captures The Thing's sub-zero terror in all its gory glory.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/writers-on-film. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/writers-on-film. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/writers-on-film. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/writers-on-film. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/writers-on-film. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/writers-on-film. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/writers-on-film. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 unofficial history of Columbia Pictures that celebrates big names, Oscar winners, and era-defining films but pays equal attention to the B-unit and yet to be discovered masters. Think the fast-talking career women of screwball comedies or think existentialist cowboys, prophetic anti-fascist quickies or unsettling ‘problem pictures'. Sony's generosity means we will bring to Locarno new restorations of films by John Ford and Phil Karlson, among many other gems. Once upon a time there was a brilliant exchange between art and commerce, between the system and the artist, and this Retrospective will celebrate that.”Visit the site here.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/writers-on-film. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.