Join us as we dive into the nightmarish and surreal worlds of Polish master director Wojciech Has. Our main focus will be on his three arguably most acclaimed films: The Noose (1958) The Saragossa Manuscript (1965) The Hourglass Sanatorium (1973) We will take them on in chronological order, and with this track his journey from what could still be recognized as the real world, with nightmarish touches, to increasingly surreal fairytales and odysseys. We'll also try to unpack his symbolism, but mo...
Nov 01, 2023•1 hr 20 min
Were Peeping Tom and Psycho the first two slashers? (Or, at least, the ultimate proto-slashers?). Which came closest to the genre we know and perhaps love today? Do both deserve to be called masterpieces? And why was one of them trashed to the point of utter destruction? Peeping Tom and Psycho were released just two months apart, but their reception could not have been more different. Peeping Tom was trashed across British media and flopped so badly it destroyed the career of its director, the l...
Oct 15, 2023•1 hr 35 min
When is a film just too long? Does the ideal runtime exist? Oh, and are films with run-on mainly victims of indulgent directors without good producers and editors to clean up their mess? Listen in as we talk about the runtimes that make our skin crawl and how open we are to watching films over the 3, 4, and 5-hour mark. We will also reveal the big films we are avoiding due to the runtimes and, in an attempt to redeem ourselves, list our favourite long films. Are we long film bigots? You tell us!...
Oct 01, 2023•1 hr 4 min
How spoiled have we become by Blu-rays and 4k? Are our old VHSs and DVDs trash now? How low can the image quality get before the viewing experience is damaged, and when do we say: Hell no, I'm not watching that! In this episode, which somehow descends into death threats, Tom will admit that he refuses to watch a long list of Satyajit Ray films in their current condition, while Sol reveals he doesn't mind bad visuals as he watches a ton of films on his iPad. We will also all admit to watching bad...
Sep 15, 2023•1 hr 11 min
We have gotten an experienced Quiz Master to test just how knowledgeable we actually are. Who will come out on top, who will be left embarrassed, and would you have done better?!
Aug 31, 2023•1 hr 29 min
Is Beau is Afraid a daring surreal masterpiece or a complete mess? Will it usher in a series of auteur-driven art films, or be this generation's Heaven's Gate? Yes, could A24 actually end up reigning in the freedom of Ari Aster and up-and-coming directors because of just how badly Beau is Afraid bombed?! You are divided on this film. We are divided on this film. Let's talk it out.
Aug 15, 2023•1 hr 36 min
We have never disagreed more about what the best films of the year were! Listen in to see which (if any) of us you agree with, as we unleash off-the-hip choices mixing literal toilet humour, big Hollywood prestige project and "challenging" arthouse picks.
Aug 01, 2023•1 hr 56 min
How can it be that we "all" seem to hate beloved Turkish, Russian and Indian comedy classics and mega hits, despite their incredibly IMDb averages and striking vanguard?! Is it because comedies just don't translate that well? Is it because we just don't have a sense of humour? Or: Is it because we have been brainwashed by the cultural dominance of the US, the UK and to a lesser extent France and Italy? Yes, how do we actually feel about US and UK comedies? Do they translate everywhere? And how c...
Jul 15, 2023•1 hr 16 min
Is it easy to rank your favourite directors? It can be a daunting task! How can we for instance even begin to compare directors who made 50+ films with directors who made 5? How do we compare studio directors to arthouse auteurs? Oh, and is it just a matter of how great the films are, or do we look for something else, such as personal style and artistic impact? In this episode, we will look at the 4 most common ways of ranking directors: Average rating Number of favourites A personal/intuitive c...
Jul 01, 2023•1 hr 19 min
Are any films more visually impressive and pioneering than Kalatozov's golden trio of late-life films, The Cranes Are Flying (1957), Letter Never Sent (1960) and Soy Cuba (1964). Thanks to the innovations of his brilliant cinematographer, Sergey Urusevskiy, the camera is simply ALIVE! The unbelievable long takes, trailing through all-consuming fires, moving through buildings and generally just feeling truly free, would likely need to be done with CGI today, but here, they are done as is, on the ...
Jun 15, 2023•1 hr 15 min
Can watching too many films cause you to lose your love of cinema? Our surprise guest, who watches well over 100 films every month, says no.
Jun 01, 2023•49 min
The 80s was the decade Jean-Luc Godard was suddenly back on everybody's lips. He did talk shows in the US, huge stars were lining up to work with him, he pissed off the Catholic church, and perhaps more importantly for the fans, he made what he deemed his "2nd first film". Yes, critics called it a comeback with good reason. It is insane to think that as the 80s rolled in, JLG had alienated both old friends and ardent fans. For more than a decade he had dedicated himself to political activism and...
May 15, 2023•1 hr 24 min
Are you prejudiced against shorts? You are not alone! From actively avoiding them to finding them unratable, to championing "separate but equal" rhetoric, the panelists of this episode are fired up with outrageous short film bigotry. BUT: Can that change over the course of this episode? Join us as we explore where we think shorts may fall ... short, whether they are even truly films, and if there are any shorts we love at all. What, if anything makes them different from features, can they hold t...
May 01, 2023•55 min
In this episode, we get personal as we discuss if any of us would be able to stand up to 11 angry jurors and hold our ground. Would we have the courage to stand alone, and would we be able to argue our case? Who would we have been in the juror room? Would we have changed our minds? Do we believe the accused is innocent? The answers may surprise you. We will also dive head first into how a film set almost exclusively in one room, with our protagonists sitting around a table, manages to be as powe...
Apr 15, 2023•1 hr 2 min
Burkina Faso is one of the most respected cinema nations in Africa, mainly heralded for their films in the 80s, 90s and early 00s. In this episode, we go through the key films of the nation, explore the works of Idrissa Ouedraogo and Gaston Kaboré, and list our favourites. We will also ask why everything suddenly went so quiet, look at the current state of Burkinabe cinema, and explore how European/Western funding and distribution may colour how we see the cinematic contributions from the countr...
Apr 02, 2023•1 hr 43 min
Is stress actually a good thing, an experience worth seeking out, even paying for? Our answer seems to be: YES! Join us as we explore the joys of stress and whether what we have lovingly dubbed the "Stresser" has been missing from our lives as a staple genre all these years. After all, the horror genre is huge. Fear sells! Why should stress be any different?
Mar 15, 2023•1 hr 1 min
Doubling the Canon is one of the most established internet projects designed to expand the cinematic canon. In this episode, we are joined by Lee Price, the founder of the DtC project to discuss everything from its origins, how it differs from They Shoot Pictures Don't They, voting strategies and the elephant of the room: if DtC is in trouble now that TSPDT lists 2,000 films. Oh, and is the system flawed for favouring less-seen films?
Mar 01, 2023•1 hr 44 min
Can smiles and nods make us cry? For decades Yasujiro Ozu pointed his camera towards Japanese society, exploring its facade and values with a subtly critical eye. Politeness is the rule, appearance is key and traditions must be followed - but is it right, and does it make our protagonists happy? Behind the smiles, nods and politenesses we do time and time again see the heartbreak and sharp critique, and occasionally, from the mouth of children, harsh truths will be brought home. In this episode,...
Feb 15, 2023•1 hr 24 min
Special episode: RIP Michael Snow. In this episode, we'll look back at his key experiments, discuss whether they actually work, explore why he is an important artist, and dive into his 7 biggest films. We'll also make a case for why even those who disliked Wavelength and La region centrale should not bail on his later films, with Sol making one rather extraordinary claim, that 1 of Mr Snow's films is the best of its century. Oh, and we'll also drive home the rarely-mentioned point that Michael S...
Jan 08, 2023•1 hr 8 min
"Every few months someone will mention a film and I don't know what's going on and I feel like an old person!" - One of our hosts utter this about his awareness of hype, but are we all that immune?
Dec 30, 2022•59 min
Have you seen any film on the IMDb bottom 100? We have! In this episode, we explore why we go dumpster diving, and of course, the less extreme side of the same coin - why we watch films we know we probably won't like. You have done it too! Everyone has. There comes times, no matter how rare, that you sit down and tune into a film you just KNOW you won't like. Are you a masochist? Are we? Are we hoping to be proven wrong? Do we need to see bad cinema to know what good cinema is like? Follow along...
Dec 16, 2022•48 min
In this episode, we explore how Everything Everywhere All at Once was suddenly everything everywhere ... all at once.
Dec 02, 2022•1 hr 2 min
Have you seen any of these? (ICMFFF2022 is here!) Timestamps: Caught in the Net: 6.09 (Centerpiece) A White White Day: 16:12 Adoration: 22:07 Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes: 26:42 Just Don't Think Scream: 30:31 Mad God: 34:27 New Order: 39:11 The Crossing: 43:45 The Long Walk: 46:57 Straight Up: 53:59 Highlights from the rest of the Festival: 1:03:35
Nov 13, 2022•1 hr 28 min
In this episode Matthieu, Sol, Tom and Chris reveal their number 1 film favourite film of 2021 (and of course, it is 4 very different films).
Nov 01, 2022•29 min
Lean back as we take you through each of our personal top 10 lists from 2021, and this time with a rather shocking twist: There are absolutely no overlaps within our top 5s! Once again we also went way overboard on length just because of how much we love these films (and again, the total lack of overlaps), so stay tuned for part 2.
Oct 15, 2022•2 hr 12 min
Why does Sol hate the owners of IMDb? Does it hurt Letterboxd that many of the best features are behind a paywall? Oh, and to get back to the topic at hand: which of these two services is better? Letterboxd and IMDb are like night and day. One is young, elegant and social, the other probably the most complete database of cinema that exists: so which of them wins? Which could we not live without, and where do they fall short? And what about the other film websites out there like iCheckMovies, Cri...
Oct 01, 2022•1 hr 13 min
In this episode, we sit down with Stephanie Pham, star, producer and co-owner of Art School Dropouts to talk about their style of low to zero budget filmmaking, as well as their secret upcoming VR feature.
Sep 18, 2022•45 min
The Straight Story is a film so straightforward that the fact that David Lynch is the man behind it feels almost surreal. In this episode, we dive into how and why the film engages and touches us as much as it does, ponder what made Lynch choose to pick this collaboration with Walt Disney Pictures to begin with, and marvel at just how wonderfully weird it is that this film, based on a real story, exists at all.
Sep 01, 2022•47 min
Hollywood loves to flex accents, some decent, some terrible. In this episode, we see if we are able to buy the illusion or if film after film has been destroyed by bad accents. We will also take a look at the far more extreme examples of films set in "foregnia", but with all the characters speaking in English with a twink of local accent to sell it all home. Does this work ... at all?! Oh, and Ridley's Scott recent House of Gucci will keep popping out throughout as Matthieu is quite convinced Ja...
Aug 15, 2022•1 hr 24 min
Do you agree with Sol that found footage is the worst thing to have ever happened to cinema? Join us to see if we can find hidden ground (did Sol like any found footage film?!) and explore the insane wave of Found Footage films starting with The Blair Witch Project. We'll explore everything from its very inception in the 1960s (yes, that's right!), why it took nearly 40 years to become a force to be reckoned with, and explore the rise, fall, best films and whether its moment is truly done....
Aug 01, 2022•1 hr 14 min
