Tag Archives: Thinking Aloud About Film

Thinking Aloud About Film: Last Days (Gus Van Sant, 2005)

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Richard and I went to see the Royal Opera’s production of Oliver Leith’s and Matt Copson’s LAST DAYS, directed by Copson and Anna Morrissey, with superb set designs by Grace Smart. It’s inspired by Gus Van Sant’s 2005 film and so were inspired to podcast on it. The film is part of what’s been called Van Sant’s ‘Death Trilogy’ (alongside GERRY (2002) and ELEPHANT (2003)).

 

In the podcast we discuss how, in spite of it being a ‘slow’ film, time flew by; how we were hypnotized by images and entranced by the originality of its story-telling. It made those last days intelligible.  The film seems to run entirely on mood — loneliness, frailty, vulnerability, alienation in a cold climate.  A  fluid dexterity of original story-telling and tone. Blake is the source of money, power, creativity … but no one is looking after him.

 

We talk about how we don’t see Blake’s full face until close to the end, though re-visiting the film proves this to be inaccurate. It’s nonetheless interesting that this is a dominant impression. It’s a film where interiority is expressed through externals. We also discuss the film in relation to Bella Tarr’s Sátántango and to Grey Gardens (1975).

 

LAST DAYS  is about a young man, outwardly rich and successful but  feeling he’s got nothing to live for and with no one – even those physically in the room with him — to help him break through his isolation and alienation. A great film, propulsed by mood.

 

The podcast may be listened to below:

 

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

Blake Leaving his Body

 

We discuss wether Cobain also performed in a negligée and find he has:

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/kurt-cobain-nirvana-perform-in-lingerie/

The Kiing’s Singers can be seen here:

The interview with van Sant from the Last Days programme is on the Royal Opera’s site:

https://www.rbo.org.uk/gus-van-sant-interview-last-days

The programme for the opera may be seen below (though the pages may not be in order):

Thinking Aloud About Film: Maskerade (Willi Forst, 1934)

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The MASKS AND MUSIC: THE FILMS OF WILLI FORST strand of last year’s Il Cinema Ritrovato, curated by Lukas Foerster, was so popular that I was unable to see any of them. Richard is more organised and came out raving about two: MASQUERADE/ MASKERADE (1934) and TOMFOOLERY/ ALLOTRIA, (1936). Luckily for us The Internet Archive has a very good copy of Maskerade which enabled us to see it (or in Richard’s case, to see it again). In the podcast below we talk about the film in relation to the Wiener Genre, Authorship, Anton Walbrook’s career (he is here billed as Adolf Walbrook), the difficulties of dealing with works from authoritarian regimes, how it was the most popular film of its year in the German-speaking world. More specifically we discuss the rhythms of the opening scene, Anton Walbrook’s introduction, the narrative invention of the narration of the publication of the muff drawing, the mise-en-scéne, the influence of vaudeville and the film’s intent on pleasing. We relate the film to Lubitsch’s work and comment on how a particular shot of a camera seeming to float through a window  might have influenced Minnelli (in Meet Me in St. Louis) and, according to Mark Fuller, Powell & Pressburger (The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp). All this and much more may be listened to in the podcast below:

The podcast may be listened to below:

he 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

 

The Film may be seen through the Internet Archive here:

https://archive.org/details/maskerade-1934

Richard recommends the following SENSES OF CINEMA article on Willi Forst https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2006/great-directors/forst/

 

The book we mention on Anton Walbrook is:

Maskerade won the award for best screenplay at the Venice Film Festival and was remade as a vehicle for William Powell and Louise Rainer in Hollywood as ESCAPADE (Robert Z. Leonard, 1935)

José Arroyo

Thinking Aloud About Cinema: Absolute Beginners (Julien Temple, 1986)

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A discovery at Cinema Rediscovered. Julien Temple’s marvellous ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS. When the film was first released we both thought it extraordinary but a mess; we still feel the same except the focus is now on the extraordinary. In the accompanying podcast we discuss the film’s relationship to the classic Hollywood musical and to the cinema of Powell and Pressburger. Richard compares it to Colin MacInnes’ novel. We discuss the film’s critical reception and speculate on where all the bile came from. We talk about the opening number in some detail as well as  Ray Davies’ marvellous ‘Quiet Life’, Bowie’s ‘That’s Motivation’, Sade’s ‘Killer Blow’ and much else. The film now seems to us audacious, endlessly inventive, dazzling to look at. It’s no surprise both Janet and Michael Jackson were fans. We also speak of the experience of watching it at Cinema Rediscovered and how Temple himself and producer Stephen Woolley enhanced our experience and understanding of the film. It was an emotion-filled screening; it’s a film that continues to be appreciated and enjoyed forty after its first release; it’s a film that will last long after much of the cinema of that period. It’s a film that deserves to be rediscovered.

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

Richard recommends the following links:

Interview with Temple about that from the time, talking about his love for old Hollywood musicals

 

Nightclub scene from “Sapphire” (1959) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNxVPm6hFl4

Nightclub scene from Beat Girl (1959) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rhr-zPTP250

Front Row with Temple and Woolley interviewed on Absolute Beginners (28 minutes in) https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002g37j

These are some images (from a very bad copy) that captured Jose’s attention enough to grab them. Worth thinking about what they reveal about the film’s visual inventiveness:

 

 

Thinking Aloud About Film: Le Jour se lève (Marcel Carné, 1939)

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We begin this podcast by congratulation the beautiful Garden Cinema on their superb programming. Le Jour se lève is the first in a series of great films exploring International Film Noir.

In the podcast we discuss the film as an example of ‘Poetic Realism’; as one of the first films to be described as a ‘film noir’; as an expression of the Popular Front sentiment and how the film’s reception aligned with reviewers’ political views. In relation to the film, we discuss the significance of its structure, the precision of the decor and mise-se-en-scène where it seems every object in François room subsequently comes into play to describe loss, longing, love, innocence since tarnished.  I have made a compilation of all the times Gabin looks out the bullet-riddled window and outside. As the day rises and the night ends so does François’ life. We discuss Gabin, Arletty, Jules Berry…all at their best. Gabin is the representative everyman with nothing to live for but more sand in his lungs. It’s not only that as Georges Altman writes, ‘the whole of the working class is etched in Gabin’s face’ it’s that Gabin’s IS the face of the whole of the French working classes. He is François,. She is Françoise. Together they represent the oppression of the French working class. They are everyman and everywoman, orphaned by capitalism. This is a film not only about doomed love but a protest against class-as-destiny, one of the film’s most worked-through themes. The podcast may be listened to below:

 

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

 

Readers wanting to continue with their interest in the film might start here with  Ben McCann’s excellent guide.

An example of right-wing reception of the film from Ben McCann’s book:

 

A short compilation of all the times Gabin looks out the window culminating in François speech to his neighbours:

Arletty

 

Glorious iconic imagery:

The train seen only through its smoke, part of Traubner’s design, so beautifully rendered meaningful by Carné.

 

Those of you who want to pursue the Gabin connection might be interested in this two-part podcast with the great Ginette Vincendeau:

 

 

https://notesonfilm1.com/2019/12/10/in-conversation-with-ginette-vincendeau-part-1/

 

https://notesonfilm1.com/2019/12/13/in-conversation-with-ginette-vincendeay-part-ii/

José Arroyo

Thinking Aloud About Film: Shanghai Blues (Tsui Hark, 1984)

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Tsui Hark’s SHANGHAI BLUES (1984), starring Kenny Bee, Sylvia Chang and Sally Yeh, is currently playing on MUBI. A commercial romantic comedy with musical numbers galore and lots of screwball and slapstick, the film is easy to like. We discuss the pleasures in the performers, the interwar Shanghai setting, the beauty of its look and design, the inventiveness of its shot design and composition. We note how rare it is to see a look designed purely to please instead of to evoke, convey and signify in contemporary cinema. Might this also be a limitation? The film feels like a quickly executed trifle. It’s very broad and the execution feels a bit clunky. We were nonetheless both charmed by it though Richard rated it a bit higher than I did. Where we intersect and where we diverge is the subject of the podcast.

The podcast may be listened to here:

The podcast may also 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

THINKING ALOUD ABOUT FILM: Bellissima (Luchino Visconti, 1951)

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We didn’t manage to get to much of the recent Luchino Visconti retrospective at BFI South Bank but we somehow wanted to mark the moment, and how better than a discussion of BELLISSIMA (1951), particularly through the great Eureka/ Masters of Cinema blu-ray. We discuss its themes of obsession, mother love, fantasy, cinema, the effects of media on private and collective aspirations; how it’s a film that announces its fluency from the opening shots; its relation to neo-realism through on-location shooting and the use of non-professional actors; Anna Magnani’s tour de force performance, drawing particular attention to the scene where she gets the neighbours involved in the beating by her husband; we note how it’s an unusual film for Visconti in that it’s central role is a woman’s role, a vehicle for Magnani; we discuss the elements of camp, something not usually associated with Visconti; a very entertaining film of great depth; a critique of cinema by one of its greatest exponents; a film one can’t imagine bettered; a film worth seeing.

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

 

Camp:

Magnani’s tour de force:

https://notesonfilm1.com/2020/05/02/a-quick-note-on-revisiting-viscontis-the-leopard/

 

Jose has written on the following Visconti films:

 

Conversation Piece

The Leopard

Le notte bianchi/ White Nights

Senso

La Terra Trema

The Gus Van Sant Podcast No. 2: Drugstore Cowboy (1989)

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We found DRUGSTORE COWBOY, Gus Van Sant’s second feature, beautiful, imaginative and moving; a film that gets better with each viewing. We discuss Matt Dillon, so extraordinarily good looking and yet also so very believable as a ‘regular guy’. Tom Waits was the original casting and we talk about what Dillon brings to the role, his choices, and another possible connection to Van Sant, how he is also drawn to the marginal, the outsider; we talk about the experimental montages, clearly influenced by Anthony Balch’s Fires Open Fire (1963) which evoke a subjective state of mind, usually drug fuelled, but which also act as a structuring device and help make the film aesthetically cohesive. We discuss continuities: time-lapse photography, Super8 filming, the Pacific Northwest, subject matter of marginals, outsiders, small time crims, junkies. We both agree that we don’t like William Burroughs in the film, even though he was much praised upon its release. We discuss how Van Sant’s second feature is an announcement of a major American director with a distinctive voice, a very particular style, a visual vernacular, a contiguous world from film to film, peopled by recurring figures, a darkly comic tone

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

More info, clips, examples, a bibliography below:

Montages ostensibly influenced by Towers Open Fire (Anthony Balch, 1963) see below:

Images such as these do seem an inspiration for Drugstore Cowboy:

The film has two types of scenes that structure it: robberies of drugstores, it can be read as one long heist film; and the subjective montages, which evoke a subjective state of mind, usually drug fuelled, but which also act as a structuring device and make it aesthetically cohesive.

The first is from the beginning where he’s so eager to shoot up after the robbery that he does so in the car before even getting home.

The prank-on-cops montage

The ominous hat, ‘Hat on Bed!’; ‘I’ve now paid my debt to the hat)

Autumn leaves, childhood, hat montage at the burial; and time for change.

A scene that rhymes with the scene with the mother earlier on; bonds of affection, there, but over-ruled by drugs. ‘I wish I could win you back’. Very moving.

 

Fear of prison:

 

Beginning and end (accompanied by the use of Super 8 footage, which is beginning to seem a signature

 

Time montage and time-lapse

 

A junkie deals with the cops:

 

 

Initial Bigliography:

Cindy Fuchs, ‘Drugstore Cowboy’, Cineaste, Vol 18, Iss 1, (1990): 43-45

Nick James, ‘Intoxication’, Sight And Sound: A to Z of Cinema, Sight and Sound, February 1997, pp.26-28.

Dale Kutzera, ‘Drugstore Cowboy: Set Against Bleak Landscape’. American Cinematographer

Lucy Neville, Drugstore Cowboy, Sight and Sound, November 2002, p. 63.

Michael O’Pray, Drugstore Cowboy, Monthly Film Bulletin, Dec. 1, 1999, 56, 671.

Phillippe Rouyer, ‘Ironie du sort (Drugstore Cowboy)

Steve Vineberg, ‘Drugstore Cowboy’.Film Quarterly, Vol 32. Iss 3, (Spring 1990):27

 

José Arroyo

Cinema Rediscovered 2024 Wrap-Up

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We have nothing but praise for this year’s edition of Cinema Rediscovered. In the podcast, we discuss the pleasures of seeing Gilda (Charles Vidor, 1946) and Le Samourai (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967) in beautiful prints on the opening night; the pleasure in seeing restorations with an audience where every time someone responds differently it raises a question one might not have thought of before; thus, a pleasure that begins in the realm of the aesthetic and moves on and combines with the the real of dreams and thoughts.

We talk about the two Edward Yang films screened,  A Confucian Confusion (1994) and Mahjong (1996) and praise Ian Wang for doing such a terrific job of introducing the films: interesting, entertaining, succinct and opening up ways of entering the film, a challenge in the age of Wikipedia.

We discuss the Ninon Sevilla cabaretera films, possibly the hit of the festival. There was a fantastic programme of ‘New’ Hollywood films — Out of Their Depth: Corruption Scandal and Lies in the New Hollywood — and we discuss the only two films in the programme that we did manage to see:  Night Moves (Arthur Penn, 1975) and The Long Goodbye (Robert Altman, 1973). We hope to catch up with the rest when it tours. The festival offers a great balance tween the more esoteric strands and those appealing to a larger audience. It was wonderful to see The Wizard of Oz (1939) with an audience full of children, some of them dressed up as Dorothy. We also touch on the Jeff Barnaby and  Bill Douglas cycles as well as  the Sergei Parajanov restorations and other strands of the festival such as the J. Lee Thompson restorations. We will be doing a separate podcast on the Queer Cinema from the Eastern Bloc programme.

There were several revelations in this festival that we discuss in the podcast: The Student Nurses (Stephanie Rothman, 1970) the only woman to direct a film in Hollywood between Ida Lupino and Elaine May; Charles Burnett’s The Annihilation of Fish (1999); Ehsahn Khoshbakht’s beautiful and very personal Cellulloid Underground; and Giuseppe Patroni Griffi’s Il Mare (1962), which David Melville Wingrove in his introduction argued had been a formative influence on Jarman as well as Bill Douglas and, we later learned on Tony Richardson as well as Pedro Almodóvar. Quite a queer package.

Lastly, we praise how the festival makes use of the city, the different venues, It’s part of a concerted effort to bring the city into the festival and the festival into the city. The festival seems an incubator for curators, some programming a single film, some a strand. The community feel, the social engagement, the educational component of talks and workshops, a teaching people how to do things, all meshed together to form a very impressive and entertaining festival. Many congratulations to all. Some of the strands will be touring. Oh, and no one used their phones during the screenings. Big Gold Star.

The podcast may  also be listened to below:

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

Our Preview of the  Festival may be heard here:

Strands of the programme we have previously podcast on written on include:

Le Samourai

The Long Goodbye

Bill Douglas Films: The Bill Douglas Trilogy, Comrades

Edward Yang Films: The Terrorizers, Taipei Story, That Day on the Beach,   Desire/ Expectations in IN OUR TIME,

Listeners may also be interested in Hal Young’s video essay on Yi Yi: ‘Yi Yi and the Power of long Fixed Shots’. 

A short note on THE PARALLAX VIEW

A conversation with Ehsan Khoshbakht

 

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

Thinking Aloud About Film: The Eloquent Peasant (Shadi Abdel Salam, Egypt, 1970)

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We podcast on our second Shadi Abdel Salam film, the beautiful Film Foundation restoration of The Eloquent Peasant. The film is a parable, a moral lesson. A peasant is robbed of his cargo by a rich man. Is justice for the powerless possible or are the rich protected by too many vested interests? As relevant a question now as it was in Ancient Times. 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

 

We have done two previous podcasts on Shadi Abdel Salam’s Al Momia: The Night of Counting the Stars, which the film foundation screened in conjunction with The Eloquent Peasant. 

 

These podcasts may be listened to here:

The Youssef Chahine Podcast No. 35: An Egyptian Perspective on Al-Momia/ The Night of Counting The Years

The Youssef Chahine Podcast No. 33: Al-mummia/ The Night of Counting The Years (Shadi Abdel Salam, Egypt, 1969)

 

You can see how striking the restoration is from some of these screengrabs:

The film foundation page has wonderful supporting materials on the film, and they may be accessed here.

José Arroyo

Thinking Aloud About Film: Hippodrome Silent Film Festival 2023 Bo’Ness

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Intrepid investigative journalist Richard Layne returns to the Hippodrome Silent Film Festival to report on the films and the glamour of Silent Cinema in Bo’Ness, a model of what place and event can do together: a site of scholarship, restoration, fandom and even the commission of aspects of production, bringing together a cultural intersection of the local and the international. An unmissable event that I unfortunately had to miss but,  luckily for us, Richard was there and leaves no stone unturned.

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 Hippfest programme notes giving background on the films from this and previous years may be accessed here:

https://www.hippodromecinema.co.uk/silent-film-festival/programme-notes/

The performance of the “In Spring” score may be seen here:

 

Our own previous podcast on the festival may be accessed here:

 

Thinking Aloud About Film with Pamela Hutchinson on Hippfest

 

 

José Arroyo

EL SANTO OFICIO/ THE HOLY OFFICE / THE HOLY INQUISITION(Arturo Ripstein, Mexico, 1974)

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EL SANTO OFICIO/ THE HOLY OFFICE / THE HOLY INQUISITION (Arturo Ripstein, Mexico, 1974) is a more serious and austere film than we’re used to seeing from Arturo Ripstein, but at least as great as anything we’ve seen by him so far. A Jewish family fleeing persecution in Spain make a life in Mexico and prosper. That is, until the father dies. The family had sacrificed one of their male children to the Church as a cover-up for their own religious practices. Now a grown monk, that son returns to his father’s burial only to detect that they’re observing Hebraic practices. He denounces his own family to the Church, and the persecution begins. A great film about religious intolerance, patriarchal control, and colonial enslavement through the brutal enforcement of a particular ideology. Based on actual court transcripts, an austerely spectacular period film, with much greater production values than we’re used to seeing from Ripstein. We discuss all of this and more in the podcast below.

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

José Arroyo

Thinking aloud About Film: El Castillo de la pureza/ Castle Of Purity (Arturo Ripstein, Mexico, 1972)

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I’ve been wanting to see Arturo Ripstein films for decades and never had the opportunity. Now MUBI is showing five of his films and, on the basis of El Castillo de la pureza/ The Castle of Purity, I plan to see them all. The film is based on a real story – not unlike that of the Wests or Joseph Fritzl – of a man who keeps his family locked in the house to protect them from being morally corrupted by society even as he – the only one allowed outside – indulges in every perversion the outside world allows him. When he comes home – the family, who’ve been working all day manufacturing the rat poison that is their living – gets all his self-hatred projected onto them, keeping them off-balance and under his thumb. The shadow of Buñuel overhangs this film – Ripstein had been his assistant on The Exterminating Angel, which bears some resemblance to this film, and Claudio Brook (Simon of the Desert) and Rita Macedo (The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz)  – the stars – also performed for Buñuel. A beautifully designed film, with a textured creepiness that envelops the family, one that is not just due to the rain and shadows that seep right into every corner of the home (the outside world is always sunny and bright) but a moral murkiness, a corrosive poison that is the result of that imperious patriarchal insistence on ‘purity’. A marvellous film. We discussed all the above and more in the podcast.

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

José Arroyo

 

Thinking Aloud About Film: Dry Summer/ Susuz Yaz (Metin Erksan, Turkey, 1963)

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A melodrama about two brothers, Osman and Hasan. Osman is the eldest and has power and rights over how their land is run. Hasan obeys until he realises Osman has broken every rule that binds. A complex film about patriarchy in agrarian culture and the damage it does to all the individuals involved whilst also tearing a community apart. A melodrama that seethes with sexual desire, and where that desire overrules familial relations that would normally be considered taboo. A complex film depicting a way of life that is not so distant, probably still current in some parts of the world and which is not afraid to be poetic and allegorica. It is instantly and thoroughly engaging in spite of two incidents involving animals that inadvertently act as a distanciating device and might make some think twice about watching it. Much of the podcast is devoted to exploring why we recommend people do so.

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

 

If this is of interest, listeners might also wish to follow up with another extraordinary film, The Law of the Border:

José Arroyo

Thinking Aloud About Film: La femme au couteau/ The Woman with a Knife (Timite Bassori, Ivory Coast, 1969)

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The first fiction feature made in the Ivory Coast. A land-mark film. But is it good? And by what criteria? And if not good, how is it nonetheless very interesting? Art cinema, post-colonialism, and psychoanalysis as imbibed through Hitchcock films, all get an airing in this podcast.

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 Interview Richard references may be accessed here:

José Arroyo

Thinking Aloud About Film: Pedro Almodóvar 5 – Matador, with special guest Harry Russell

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We continue to think aloud about Pedró Almodovar, this time focussing on Matador. Richard is ill so I am joined by Harry Russell to discuss the film. Some of the topics touched upon are the themes of sex and death, Spanish-ness and bullfighting, camp, masculinity, the classical structuring of the plot, the glossy production values, and why — whilst it is hugely entertaining — it might yet not be up to the heights of Almodóvar’s other work.

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

 

 

From Church to Police Station:

 

 

Fashion Show Camp:

 

Images discussed in the Podcast:

Thinking Aloud About Film: Pedro Almodóvar Podcast No. 3: Entre Tinieblas/ Dark Habits

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In our third podcast on Almodóvar’s work we discuss his third film, ENTRE TINIEBLAS/ DARK HABITS (1983), the first film he did for a commercial production company, Tesauro SA. A very funny and subversive film, the plot revolves around a bolero singer (Cristina S. Pascual) whose boyfriend has overdosed on heroin and who finds shelter in the convent of The Humble Redeemers. The Mother Superior (Julieta Serrano) is a heroin addict who’s in love with her; Sister Manure (Marisa Paredes) takes acid to aid her visions; Sister Lost (Carmen Maura) has a fetish for cleanliness and a tiger for a pet; Sister Rat (Chus Lampreave) is a best selling writer of trash novels based on the lives of the young girls who pass by the convent, though her sister (Eva Siva) is stealing her credit and her money; Sister Snake (Lina Canalejas) is in love with her confessor, who really wants to be a fashion designer. The film is a combination of noir, nun film, melodrama and musical all tied together by camp. Even Tarzan makes a coded appearance. It’s a film that would be very difficult if not impossible to make today. We discuss it’s context, boleros, camp, Almodóvar’s skill with actors, the chicas Almodóvar, a largely feminine space where men in drag nonetheless feature… and much more. A modest box office hit but his greatest success to that point and proof of his developing skills in mise-en-scène.

The podcast may be listened to below:

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

 

José Arroyo

Thinking Aloud About Film: Pedro Almodóvar 2: Labyrinth of Passion

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We discuss Almodóvar’s second feature, Labyrinth of Passion, where Almodóvar himself appears both as director and rock star in minor roles. We talk about its convoluted plot, its verbal and visual campyness, its anti-authoritarian stance and its status as a youth film. We note how even in his second film, there are evident connections with his first film (not least in the recurring cast) and plot strands that will re-appear subsequently (the airport scene in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown). We talk about it (briefly) as a document of its time, particularly in relation to the Nueva Movida Madrileña. The plot is straight out of Hello magazine; the idea that sex, drugs and art are a fun path without pitfalls to liberation is straight out of underground comics. Richard Lester’s cinema is a clear influence. Fanny McNamara steals the show. We could have talked for a lot longer.

José has written on the film previously here:

 

A  trailer for the film can be seen here:

 

 

The Janet Maslin review Richard speaks of may be accessed here;

José Arroyo and Richard Layne.

 

Thinking Aloud About Film: Pedro Almodóvar 1 – Pepi, Luci, Bom (1980)

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The first of a series of podcasts on the work of Pedro Almodóvar. We begin the series with his first film, PEPI, LUCI, BOM Y LAS CHICAS DEL MONTON/ PEPI, LUCI, BOM AND OTHER GIRLS LIKE MOM (1980). The podcast discusses the historical context for the film; the ‘nueva movida madrileña‘; his style and how it improved over time; recurring concerns with pop culture (comics, films, magazines, pop music); recurring themes such as rape; camp as tone; the film’s combination of the outrageous with the common sense; how many of the actresses who would star in his films for the next decade already appear in his first film (Carmen Maura, Assumpta Serna, Julieta Serrano, Cecilia Roth, Kiti Manver, Eva Siva etc) and much more. We also talk of how this film has become a document of a series of individuals and indeed a whole sub-culture that was soon to disappear.

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

Horror en el hipermercado may be seen here:

 

The General Erections contest (sadly without sub-titles) may be seen here:

and the New York Times review Richard cites in the podcast may be seen here:

José Arroyo and Richard Layne

 

Thinking Aloud About Film on Hugo Fregonese from Ritrovato 2022

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Thinking Aloud About Film explores the work of Hugo Fregonese, a director who worked mainly in Hollywood B-movies or international genre films, a choice of films excellently curated and programmed by Ehsan Khoshbacht, and a major discovery at this year’s Cinema Ritrovato. Films discussed include APENAS UN DELINCUENTE, BLOWING WILD, THE RAID, APACHE DRUMS, THE MAN IN THE ATTIC, BLACK TUESDAY…and others. The video includes images, trailers and clips from some of the films to illustrate the discussion.

Films discussed include:

The video, including images, trailers and clips may be seen here:

José has written on:

Savage Pampas

Apache Drums

and Apenas un Delincuente, and if you are interested in reading more, just click on the link:

The video may also be listened to as a podcast (with the sound of all film clips removed) here below:

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

Martin Stollery has written very interestingly on the British Prisoner of War Film, with (brief) reference to Seven Thunders, in a way that relates it to Adorno and Auschwitz here: The Hideous Difficulty of Recreating Nazism at War escaping from Europe in The Wooden Horse 1950 and the British Prisoner of War Film

José Arroyo