Category Archives: Uncategorized

Storm Over The Yangtze River (Li Han-hsiang, Taiwan, 1969)

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We continue our discussion of the GOLDEN DECADES: CINEMATIC MASTERS OF THE GOLDEN HORSE AWARDS, with a response to Storm Over the Yantze River (Li Han-hsiang, Taiwan, 1969). It’s a historical spectacle, based on a true story, well-deploying hundreds of extras. The newly restored version looks smashing but we do wonder if you have to be Taiwanese to fully appreciate it. This story of spies, counter-spies, traitors who are heros, betrayals across sectorial lines, is difficult to follow, particularly as there are actually four groups fighting for supremacy and we, perhaps because we know so little Taiwanese history, found it difficult to tell them apart. Nonetheless, we loved the hint of camp, Li Hua Li’s performance as the powerful Mrs. Chou Chien Lu, the Bond-inspired espionage gadgetry, the look of the film and the way it was composed. Richard compares it to Operation Crossbow (Michael Anderson, 1965). The podcast may be listened to here:

The podcast may  also be listened to on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/show/2zWZ7Egdy6xPCwHPHlOOaT

and on itunes here: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/first-impressions-thinking-aloud-about-film/id1548559546

 

José Arroyo

Eavesdropping at the Movies: 413 – Priscilla

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Hot on the heels of Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis, which cast the titular rock & roll icon as the victim of a life controlled by his manager, comes Priscilla, written and directed by Sofia Coppola, which tells a similar story of a life controlled – but here, Elvis is the culprit. in 1959, 14-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu meets 24-year-old Elvis during his military service in West Germany; by 1963, she’s moved in with him at Graceland, his famous Memphis estate. But the romantic life she desires is kept from her.

Priscilla is as rich an experience and as rewarding in conversation as we could have hoped for. Coppola intelligently and insightfully weaves together themes of unequal power dynamics, in which pleasure is withheld; the societally-defined roles of men and women and how they harm those who enforce them upon themselves; the significant age difference between Elvis and Priscilla, especially exacerbated by her youth; why and how beauty is constructed; and so much more. Its gaze is a female one, and a particular one at that. It understands the appeal of Elvis to Priscilla, the world in which she becomes involved and the men for whom it’s maintained, and the ways in which it deceives her, restricts her, and leaves her disillusioned. A marvellous, complex film.

Listen on the players below, Apple Podcasts, Audible, Google Podcasts, or Spotify.

With José Arroyo of First Impressions and Michael Glass of Writing About Film.

 

Thinking Aloud About Film: Good Morning Taipei (Li Hsing, Taiwan, 1979)

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We return to Hou Hsiao Hsien and to Taiwanese Cinema. Hou is the screenwriter for this transitional melodramatic musical: a hit and winner of the Golden Horse Award. Part of a series of films, some in new restorations, that are being screened under the title of GOLDEN DECADES: CINEMATIC MASTERS OF THE GOLDEN HORSE AWARDS. In the podcast we discuss it in relation to the healthy realist films of a previous generation, Hou’s first films as a director, Spanish musical melodramas featuring children and British 60s musicals such as LIVE IT UP (Lance Comfort, UK, 1963). A very enjoyable film that makes us look forward to the others in the series.

The podcast may be listened to here:

The podcast may  also be listened to on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/show/2zWZ7Egdy6xPCwHPHlOOaT

and on itunes here: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/first-impressions-thinking-aloud-about-film/id1548559546

We have previously podcast on Growing Up, which is also part of the series, and which may be listened to here:

Hou Hsiao-hsien 25: Contexts 15 – Growing Up (Chen Kunhou, 1983)

We have also discussed Hou Hsia Hsien’s other collaborations with Kenny Bee:

Cheerful Wind:

Cute Girl:

Green, Green Grass of Home: 

 

 

José Arroyo

Eavesdropping at the Movies: 412 – The Goldfinger

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In 2002, Tony Leung and Andy Lau starred in the Hong Kong classic Infernal Affairs, which Martin Scorsese remade in the US as The Departed; twenty years on, the inspiration flows in the opposite direction, Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street a clear reference point for this fictionalised tale of real-life stock market manipulation, deeply embedded corruption, and the growth of a multi-billion-dollar company from meagre beginnings on the back of scams, confidence, and lies, with Leung starring as the charming, oleaginous company founder, and Lau as the anti-corruption official on his tail. We had terrific fun in The Goldfinger.

Which isn’t to say it’s a perfect film. We have our issues. The imagery could be more expressive – though director Felix Chong (another Infernal Affairs alumnus: he wrote the trilogy) clearly has an eye for visual impact, and there’s lots to be impressed by. We’d like to know why Lau’s corruption investigator believes that chasing Leung’s CEO is worth the disruption and danger to his family, beyond simply justice. We’d like any similar insight into what drives Leung, beyond simply greed. And if it is simply justice and greed, we’d like it to be better sold, bigger and brasher. We’d like the clash between the two to be more explosive. And the rather pat ending induces eye-rolling. But never mind all that. The Goldfinger is an entertaining and exciting tale of the rise and fall of a business empire that lived and died based on the fundamental corruption of the system and interests that built and supported it.

Listen on the players BELOW , Apple Podcasts, Audible, Google Podcasts, or Spotify.

With José Arroyo of First Impressions and Michael Glass of Writing About Film.

 

Eavesdropping at the Movies: 411 – The Boy and the Heron

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Hayao Miyazaki, the legendary Japanese animator and co-founder of Studio Ghibli, who has previously announced his retirement three times, tells us all that The Boy and the Heron (as it’s titled in most of the world; How Do You Live? in Japan) is really, honestly, for real this time, I’m super serious, his last film. His longtime producer, Toshio Suzuki, has already cast doubt on this new claim, but for now, here we have Miyazaki’s final film, which tells the story of Mahito, a young boy in wartime Japan, who loses his mother in a fire and is evacuated to his aunt’s countryside estate, whereupon he meets a talking grey heron that promises that his mother is alive.

José sees The Boy and the Heron as a masterpiece of cinema, a film that does things that other films have forgotten to do, a doorway to thinking about life, loss, and worlds within worlds. Mike… didn’t really get on with it, but he puts it down to taste and maybe mood – any objection he has can be equally levelled at things he loves. We easily agree that Miyazaki’s and Ghibli’s reputation for visual design and craft holds, with image upon image here that dazzles. As for what it all adds up to? Take José’s side. It’s better to like things than be bored by them.

Listen on the players below, Apple Podcasts, Audible, Google Podcasts, or Spotify.

 

With José Arroyo of First Impressions and Michael Glass of Writing About Film.

In Conversation with Prof. Dolores Tierney on MUBI’S Spectacle Every Day: The Many Seasons of Mexican Cinema

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Richard and I have been much impressed and greatly entertained by MUBI’s programme of Mexican genre films: Spectacle Every Day — The Many Seasons of Mexican Cinema.

We’ve already podcast on each film individually:

Trotacalles/ Streetwalker (Matilda Landate, 1951)

Mas fuerte que el amor/ Stronger Than Love (Tulio Demicheli, 1955)

El esqueleto de la Señora Morales/ The Skeleton of Mrs. Morales  (Rogelio A. Fernández, 1960)

El Espejo de la bruja/ The Witch’s Mirror (Chano Urueta, 1962)

La Mujer murcielago (René Cardona, 1968)

Spectacle Every Day: The Many Seasons of Mexican Cinema is, however,  a programme that continues to fascinate so we’ve asked Dolores Tierney, Professor in Film and Media at the University of Sussex  to come talk to us, contextualise the programme, and highlight issues that arise from from it and that might enhance our understanding of Mexican Cinema in general and these films in particular.

It might be worth bearing in mind that MUBI”s selection is culled from the Locarno Film Festival’s second retrospective of Mexican cinema — the first was in 1957 — this past August.  The Locarno programme was curated by Olaf Möller with the participation of Roberto Turigliatto and brought together 36 films spanning the 1940s to the 1960s, many of them little known outside Mexico. The focus of our discussion is MUBI’s selections, currently 5 of the 36 films shown in Locarno.

 

As you can see below, Professor Tierney has published widely on Mexican Cinema:

 

In the podcast we praise Trotacalles and discuss why Matilda Landate isn’t better known, Prof. Tierney explains how Mexican cinema was a transnational cinema almost from its beginnings and how its film industry benefited from the US’s geo-political policies in relation to propaganda over its rival Argentina, who was seen as being too sympathetic or at least nonchalant towards Germany.  We talk about Mexican Golden Age Cinema and how this program benefits from highlighting genre, exploitation and cult films. A sparkling talk, generating thought, highlighting links between elements that might seem disparate (Batman and Lucha Libre), and inspiring further viewing of Mexican cinema. The podcast may be listened to here:

The podcast may  also be listened to on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/show/2zWZ7Egdy6xPCwHPHlOOaT

and on itunes here: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/first-impressions-thinking-aloud-about-film/id1548559546

Prof Tierney has also provided this note with references:

 

Podalsky, Laura (1994) “Negotiating Differences: National Cinemas and Co-productions in Pre-Revolutionary Cuba” Velvet Light Trap 34, 59-70.

Talks about the early 1930s Cuban films made by PECUSA and about the 1940s onwards co-productions with Mexico like Mas fuerte que el amor (Tulio Demicheli, 1955), how involvement with the Mexican industry was the only the only way Cuban productions could really continue. From the mid to late 1940s Mexican Cinema (mostly its cabaret based melodramas – the cabareteras) had been featuring Cuban dancers/actresses (Maria Antonieta Pons, Ninon Sevilla) and famous musicians (Rita Montaner, others) who had migrated there for work. Cuban filmmakers without resources in Cuba (PECUSA had sold off all the Cuban studio equipment/buildings) had to reach out to Mexico, Argentina and Spain to fund co-productions.

 

Rashkin Elissa (2001) Women Filmmakers in Mexico: The Country of Which We Dream

I was referring to her book where she writes about Landeta.

 

I didn’t refer to Ana Lopez’ work on travelling filmmakers – but when I talked about Tulio Demicheli I was going to talk about other travelling directors from Argentina like Carlos Hugo Christensen (who Ana wrote about) who were invited around different countries in Latin America to make films, so Demicheli’s invitation to Cuba was not so unusual.

Lastly Prof. Tierney also highlighted Mexican Cinema BFI: London, 1995 ed. Paulo Antonio Paranagua (trans. by Ana M. Lopez).

 

José Arroyo

 

 

Eavesdropping at the Movies: 410 – Ferrari

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Adam Driver and Penélope Cruz star as lovers, business partners, and rivals, in a motorsport biopic that’s much more about the drama off the track than on it. In 1939, Italian racing driver, team owner, and entrepreneur Enzo Ferrari founded the car manufacturer that would become one of the best-known and most prestigious marques in history; Ferrari the film tells the story of events in 1957, with the company in financial difficulties and his wife, Laura, distanced from him as they grieve the recent loss of their son, Dino. She tolerates Enzo’s dalliances with mistresses, as long as he’s home before the maid arrives – but his second family is secret from her.

Mike sees an opportunity to right his wrongs from our podcast on Ford vs Ferrari, aka Le Mans ’66, in which, he declares, he overfocused on insignificant details, while José rightly and happily enjoyed the big personalities, charming and interesting central friendship, and entertaining, dramatic races… by suggesting they’ve switched seats. José finds the cultural specificity of the time and place in which Ferrari‘s set lacking, criticising missed or misunderstood nuances, and is let down by Driver’s blankness in key scenes opposite Cruz, whose brilliant performance subtly conveys Laura’s richly complex competing feelings. Details schmetails, counters Mike: here we have a big brooding drama about deep interpersonal clashes, grief, loss, power struggles and ambition, centred around an actor with fake grey hair and a faker Italian accent – what’s not to love?

As with Ford v Ferrari, we both enjoyed Ferrari. It’s just that one of us did so with a big, beaming, untroubled smile, and the other with a raised eyebrow that said “hmm”.

With José Arroyo of First Impressions and Michael Glass of Writing About Film.

 

Listen on the players below, Apple Podcasts, Audible, Google Podcasts, or Spotify.

 

Eavesdropping at the Movies: 409 – Next Goal Wins

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In something of a return to the sort of film that made his name, Taika Waititi co-writes and directs a quirky, charming comedy-drama set in Polynesia. Next Goal Wins adapts the true story of the American Samoan football team (and the 2014 documentary about it that gives this film its title), famously one of the worst teams on the planet, who begin the film in despair following their 31-0 world-record international defeat to Australia. Seeking new inspiration, they recruit Thomas Rongen, a Dutch-American coach with a reputation for losing his temper and getting sacked, to lead them in their quest for World Cup qualification.

We discuss Waititi’s comedic style, to what extent the film requires knowledge of the culture and sport it shows, the complexities of Rongen’s history and relationship with his ex-wife, and how Fassbender, not known for his work in comedy, fits uncomfortably into such a role, but what he brings to it dramatically that you wouldn’t typically expect. Most of all – we have fun! Next Goal Wins is an immensely likeable and charming film and it’s Christmas, after all. Or at least it was when we saw it.

Listen on the players below, Apple Podcasts, Audible, Google Podcasts, or Spotify.

 

With José Arroyo of First Impressions and Michael Glass of Writing About Film.

 

Eavesdropping at the Movies: 407 – Wonka

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Listen on the players above, Apple Podcasts, Audible, Google Podcasts, or Spotify.

Paul King, the director of Paddington and Paddington 2, brings us Wonka, another reimagining of a British children’s classic. Roald Dahl’s beloved 1964 novel, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, has been adapted twice: once in 2005 by Tim Burton, but most memorably in 1971 by Mel Stuart, with Gene Wilder as eccentric chocolatier Willy Wonka. It’s from the 1971 version that Wonka takes some of its cues (including musical ones), but in the service of that most 21st-century of cinematic artefacts: an origin story.

Within, discussions of: What we make of the world in which Wonka is set, one in which institutions purportedly in place for the public good are instead supportive only of corporate power; the reinterpretation of the Oompa-Loompas as a wronged people whose representative is out to retrieve what was stolen from them; Mike’s dissatisfaction with CGI and visual effects in British films and the production of the vocals in Wonka‘s songs; José’s opinion on Timothée Chalamet’s career and (apparently) uneven face; whether this film really benefits from its sentimental backstory and overtones; and how chocolate is best enjoyed.

With José Arroyo of First Impressions and Michael Glass of Writing About Film.

 

Thinking Aloud About Film: The Driver’s Seat/ Identikit (Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, 1974)

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Based on the 1970 novella by Muriel Spark, with Elizabeth Taylor playing a woman in the middle of a nervous breakdown, constantly deflecting the attention of brutish men who mistake her for a prostitute whilst  cruising for a man more ‘her type’ to do something …. darker; a fragmentary film, a big-budget experiment in narration, with a now middle-aged but still  astonishingly beautiful Elizabeth Taylor giving one of her greatest and most under-rated performances. In this podcast we discuss Muriel Spark’s The Driver’s Seat,  Vittorio Storaro’s cinematography, the appearance of Andy Warhol as a badly-dubbed British aristocrat; Elizabeth Taylor’s career in the late sixties/ early 70s and to what extent its reception has been coloured by sexism (in contrast to say Dirk Bogarde’s) and American cultural imperialism (popular european cinema doesn’t matter). We also mention Bruce La Bruce’s appreciation of the film in an essay that accompanies the BFI blu-ray release and speculate on whether the film has a ‘gay gaze’. An exploratory discussion of a film that deserves much more attention.

The podcast may be listened to here:

The podcast may  also be listened to on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/show/2zWZ7Egdy6xPCwHPHlOOaT

and on itunes here: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/first-impressions-thinking-aloud-about-film/id1548559546

A sign of Taylor’s involvement with editing (and of her power at that period):

A note to Spark:

José Arroyo

Eavesdropping at the Movies: 405 – Napoleon (2023)

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For our discussion of Ridley Scott’s new historical epic, Napoleon, we have the privilege of being joined by Paul Cuff, a film historian and expert on the Napoleonic era in cinema, including and especially Abel Gance’s Napoléon from 1927, about which he wrote A Revolution for the Screen: Abel Gance’s Napoleon. Together, we ask whether Scott’s film has anything to say about the man whose life it depicts – and if so what? – whether its ahistoricity matters, and how substantially it fleshes out its characters and the events and relationships dramatised.

With José Arroyo of First Impressions and Michael Glass of Writing About Film.

Listen on the players above, Apple Podcasts, Audible, Google Podcasts, or Spotify.

Listeners may be interested in Paul Cuff’s book:

Paul Cuff adds: ‘the New Yorker piece I mentioned: https://www.newyorker.com/…/ridley-scott-director-profile “Ten days before filming, Phoenix went to Scott and said, ‘I’m agonizing over this. I don’t know how to do it.'” The article also briefly mentions the Gance film, about which Scott said, “I couldn’t get through it, honestly”. (In a piece I saw in Empire, Phoenix also said much the same thing about the one biography of Napoleon he had tried to read.)

 

José Arroyo

Pillars of Society/ Stützen der Gesellschaft (Detlef Sierck, Germany, 1935)

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Saw Sirk’s adaptation of Ibsen’s The Pillars of Society last night and thought it excellent. His previous film, The Girl From the Marsh Croft, was also an adaptation from a prestigious source, a novella by Selma Lagerlöf, 1909’s Nobel Laureate . I don’t think Sirk would get to work with material as prestigious until his adaptations of Faulkner and Remarque in the late 50s, though I’m not sure it’s necessarily a loss; I’m just observing that in the mid-thirties Sirk seemed to be working with the best that German Cinema had to offer, not the case for most of his years in Hollywood.

The Pillars of Society looks wonderful, moves well and is moving. It has familiar themes, characteristic of Sirk’s later work in Hollywood: the wish for escape, the feeling of entrapment, the power of rumour, how lies can structure lives, bourgeois hypocrisy and deceit. I was struck by how potent the ‘Cowboys and Indians’ myth in the film is, made more so by being tied to the circus, so there’s a double symbolisation of freedom and escape that is powerful but manages to convey youth and energy whilst not negating murder. The coastal imagery, boats, ship-building, the sea; all looks spectacular and is used to great effect. Ibsen’s ending was thought controversial; this one is perhaps a bit pat but no more so than the average Hollywood film. I liked it very much.

La Mujer murcielago/ The Batwoman (Rene Cardona, Mexico, 1968)

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The kind of film where the lead character attends an autopsy wearing a bikini: glamorous, camp, a bit low rent. In the podcast we discuss how the film is influenced by the James Bond craze, the Batman TV series, the wrestling phenomenon then at its height in Mexico, and a history of horror cinema. There’s a mad scientist who laughs an evil laugh, his assistant is called Igor, there’s a Promethean attempt at creating people à la Frankenstein except this time it’s a fish, Pisces, presumably to make the most out of the Alcapulco setting, a bit like The Creature from the Black Lagoon but in a prettier setting (and this seems to have in turn influenced  Del Toro’s creature in The Shape of Water). It’s an aspirational film: there are fancy cars and apartments, great clothes, speedboats, the latest in consumer items (the record player is to die for). It’s also a curious mixture of feminist aspiration (the wealthiest woman in the world, sisterly, super-smart and able to fight) with misogynistic realities (The Batwoman’s function is predominantly to wear a bikini and be looked at whilst solving crime). We end by noting that the film is credited to Rene Cardona as director but it’s ‘a film by’ producer Guillermo Calderon Stell and we discuss how it fits in to the extended Batman universe. The last of our podcasts on the wonderful MUBI programme: Spectacle Every Day: The Many Seasons of Mexican Cinema.

The podcast may be listened to here:

The podcast can also be listened to on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/show/2zWZ7Egdy6xPCwHPHlOOaT

and on itunes here: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/first-impressions-thinking-aloud-about-film/id1548559546

The Trailer for “The Wild World of Batwoman” (1966) that Richard mentions may be seen here:

According to Richard: ‘there’s a great (and profusely illustrated!) piece on gay coded Batman and Robin / Frederick Wertham / original Batwoman in the answer from Ben Skirvin here: https://www.quora.com/Why-did-DC-create-a-Batwoman-when-there-was-already-a-Batgirl

The New York Times article on the film

You may also be interested in the following screen grabs:

José Arroyo

Das Mädchen vom Moorhof/ La Fille des marais/ (Douglas Sirk, Germany, 1935)

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A young maid-servant (Hansi Knoteck), impregnant by her former employer and humiliated in front of the whole village when he refuses to recognise the child as his, falls in love with with the son of her new employer, a young man (Friedrich Kayßler already promised to another (Ellen Frank). It’s a beautiful film. I don’t know how Sirk does it but every composition seems just right: beautiful to look at, poetically expressive. It’s a film of gentle rhythms and heightened feelings, unexpressed by the characters but communicated, sometimes urgently, by the mise-en-sçene. Some shots will find echo in Sirk’s later work in Hollywood (the shadows heading towards the farm; as Stanwyck’s to her old house in All I Desire). I’m so glad to have been able to see this.

José Arroyo

 

Bottoms (Emma Seligman, US, 2023)

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BOTTOMS (d: Emma Seligman) is my fourth film directed by a woman seen at the cineplex this week. Amazing. It’s a teen film about sex-mad teenagers desperate to lose their virginity, except the besties at the centre of this story are lesbians. Their idea of getting the girls they want is to invent a fight club, ostensibly to provide safety, sisterhood and community; but really in order to get laid. It all backfires of course. The film sticks to genre – the principal, the cool teacher with problems, the football players, the cheer-leaders, the big game – but mixes it all up with a dollop of all kinds of feminism: ‘who is bell hooks and why is she important?’ is not normally the kind of question asked in the genre. The protagonists Ayo Edebiri and Rachel Sennott have great chemistry and Edebiri is charismatic and true and funny: a potent combination. I laughed a lot but the film proves Edgar Wright’s point that American films have forgotten how to deploy sights and sounds in the service of comedy. All the jokes are driven by dialogue, improv and performance. I sometimes feel like that olden days guy who thought shocking a glimpse of stocking, in that things that would have been thought ground-breaking in my youth now appear regularly. Still, I don’t remember seeing a feminist film with two lesbians as protagonists before. It is really smart and laugh-out loud funny. I enjoyed it very much but still wish it were better.

José Arroyo

Eavesdropping at the Movies: 404 – The Killer

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Listen on the players above, Apple Podcasts, Audible, Google Podcasts, or Spotify.

David Fincher’s precise, controlled direction is a perfect match for Michael Fassbender’s precise, controlled performance in this lean but complex story of a botched assassination, revenge, and the hitman’s attempts to reassert precise control over his life.

We discuss the world in which The Killer is set and the way in which its title character operates, lives, and sees his place within it; the functions we see in its premise of a murderer-for-hire bored with his job, be it a critique of capitalism or a satire on work; the many names he assumes and what we take from the fact that they’re all drawn from sitcoms; the extraordinary audiovisual craft that we’re used to seeing from Fincher and thankfully not inured to; how the film uses noir and thriller tropes and where it might overplay them; the film’s obsession with process and procedure and why Mike likes playing it more than watching it; and more.

The Killer is a brilliantly conceived and assembled thriller filled with cinematography and editing to admire, and a lot to chew on despite its slight appearance. See it.

 

With José Arroyo of First Impressions and Michael Glass of Writing About Film.

 

 

A note on why filmgoing has become so joyless

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Seeing The Marvels at Cineworld Broad Street in Birmingham reminded me once again of how unpleasant going to the pictures has become, even to an inveterate filmgoer such as myself. Yesterday, none of the ticket machines were working; so after wasting a lot of time trying to get my ticket, I had to go to the concession stand and wait my turn in the popcorn queue, stressful because they never give you the start time for the film, just for a program one never wants to see: mainly ads one’s already seen a dozen times. And I have a seething resentment of this: one pays the equivalent of two monthly streaming subscriptions per film only to be held captive, watching stuff one doesn ‘t want to see; so one pays twice to see a film, the cost of the movie and the cost of that time held captive – both in the opportunity cost of not being able to do something else ….and in psychic pain —  watching those endless sales-pitches, all deadly dull,  before the film starts. The cinemas themselves are now beginning to be run-down, with the escalators often out of order; and if there are not a lot of people in the cinema, one really feels the cold in winter. It was freezing yesterday. Also, proper luminosity for the films themselves seems reserved now only for IMAX so when one is not given the opportunity to see a film on IMAX the image is of a lower quality than you get on tv, thin and dark. It’s no surprise Cineworld almost went bust. They’ve got to provide a better experience if they want people to return to the theatres. A movie has to be really great to overcome the joylessness of the rest of the experience.

 

José Arroyo

Thinking Aloud About Film: The Witch’s Mirror (Chano Urueta, Mexico,1962)

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The Witch’s Mirror/ El Espejo de la bruja (Chano Urueta, Mexico, 1962) is an immensely entertaining film that is being screened on MUBI as part of their ‘Spectacle Every Day: The Many Seasons of Mexican Cinema’ series. There are claims that it is a ‘uniquely Mexican Gothic’ but we don’t quite agree. Indeed, in the podcast we relate it to Rebecca, Frankenstein, Eyes Without a Face, The Skin I Live In, The Beast With Five Fingers and other well-known films it was clearly influenced by or itself influenced. It is a derivative if visually inventive film, with a director who has an eye for composition, who keeps the camera moving, tells the story at a clip, and who knows how to make the most out of roughly a cast of four performers doing their outmost in about three sets. It’s a considerable achievement in its own terms and great fun to see though those looking for depth will be disappointed.

The podcast may be listened to here:

 

The podcast can also be listened to on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/show/2zWZ7Egdy6xPCwHPHlOOaT

and on itunes here: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/first-impressions-thinking-aloud-about-film/id1548559546

 

Here’s the American dubbed version https://cors.archive.org/details/the-witchs-mirror-1962
They removed the Goya etchings and the introductory voiceover.
This is the review Richard found which comments on the dubbed US release: 
José Arroyo

In Conversation with Pamela Hutchinson on The Red Shoes

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There is a major retrospective of the films of Powell & Pressburger currently underway in London at the BFI Southbank – the most extensive celebration of their work ever undertaken —  selections of which will tour the country. As part of the celebrations, the BFI has published a short monograph by Pamela Hutchinson on THE RED SHOES — one of their greatest films — under its ‘BFI Film Classics’ imprint. I found it fun to read and very informative, with an impressive range of sources, intelligently organised. The book is beautifully written in a way that seems personal but is so impressively argued it becomes very difficult to argue against; and with a delightful mode of narrating: ‘but perhaps you disagree with my take.’ It’s both impressive and entertaining and it made me want to talk to Pam some more about the film and the book.

 

In the accompanying podcast, we discuss the following: Who are Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger and what is their significance to a history of cinema in general, and British cinema in particular? What is the enduring appeal of THE RED SHOES. Why does the film feel so distinctly British but also so different from the British Cinema then being produced. What is the context for the film’s theme of ‘dying for art’. How did the filmmakers and cinematographer Jack Cardiff achieve a style of colour so different than that normally produced by Technicolour productions under the direction of Natalie Kalmus? What is a composed film? What is the relationship of a ‘composed film’ to the concept of Gesamtkunstwerk? What was the status of ballet then and how does the film deploy the form? Was the film an influence on MGM Freed Unit Productions such as AN AMERICAN IN PARIS? What did Anton Walbrook and Moira Shearer bring to the film and what happened to the after? And much more.

The podcast may be listened to here:

The podcast can also be listened to on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/show/2zWZ7Egdy6xPCwHPHlOOaT

and on itunes here: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/first-impressions-thinking-aloud-about-film/id1548559546

 

I have spoken to Pam previously on her other brilliant BFI classic on PANDORA’S BOX.  Listeners might want to have a look at the Silent London website on all aspects of Silent Cinema that she directs and writes in. Pam will be talking on THE RED SHOES at the Midlands Arts Centre on the 16th of December to accompany a screening of the film. The MAC cinema has arguably the best projection system in the Midlands, a perfect place to see such a great and sumptuous film. Do I need to say that the book is a perfect stocking filler for Christmas?

José Arroyo

Eavesdropping at the Movies: 403 – Killers of the Flower Moon

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Listen on the players above, Apple Podcasts, Audible, Google Podcasts, or Spotify.

Based on true events, Killers of the Flower Moon tells a story that invokes the foundational genocide upon which the USA was built, but has its own peculiarities. The Osage Nation, a Native American tribe and unusually the owners of their reservation in Oklahoma, became extraordinarily wealthy in the early 20th century upon finding their land gushing oil – but in pursuit of their riches, the white population in the region devised a plan to rob them of their individual land rights, which were only allowed to be inherited. In telling this story, Killers of the Flower Moon justifies its three and a half hours of runtime – though there’s no reason not to include an intermission! – and Leonardo DiCaprio, in particular, has never been better.

We discuss the specific events depicted and the wider history to which they relate and that they evoke in microcosm; the complexities in DiCaprio’s character, who participates knowingly in hideous crimes but truly loves his wife, whose community and family he’s devastating, all the while not quite having the mental acuity to understand the full extent of what he’s involved in; the quality and qualities of the performances and characterisations; the visual design, effects of lighting, and evocation of the feeling of so many mid-20th century Westerns through subtle and specific elements of the cinematography; and the idiosyncratic ending and what it has to say to its audience.

With José Arroyo of First Impressions and Michael Glass of Writing About Film.