It's our season finale and we were delighted to get back into a cinema for a live screening and podcast recording, our first one since Covid. The venue was the spectacular Garden cinema in Covent Garden, a beautiful art-deco retro venue where we hope to be holding regular screenings in the autumn. As part of their celebrating Film Noir season, we screened and discussed the 1962 psychological noir Cape Fear directed J. Lee Thompson. The film features what is considered one of the most powerfully ...
Jul 08, 2022•1 hr 38 min•Season 15Ep. 145
In episode 144, Neil and Dario discuss a few recent films viewed with a critical eye with regards to how they fit into film culture and more broadly how they reflect (or don't) current political attitudes. Dario wrote in detail about the star persona of Tom Cruise in the most recent Patreon newsletter, and both Neil and Dario reflect on the experiential pleasures and reductive nostalgia of Tom Gun: Maverick along with the obvious ideological criticism around its propagandistic militarism. Sports...
Jun 16, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 144
In this episode, Neil records an audio diary from the 2022 International Festival de Cannes. He reflects on being part of the team presenting Mark Jenkin’s Enys Men to the world, the weirdness of Cannes, and some of the films he saw while there. Titles discussed are Patricio Guzmán’s My Imaginary Country, Mia Hansen' Løve’s One Fine Morning, the 1972 anthology film about the Munich Olympics Visions of Eight and De Humani Corporis Fabrica by Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel (who directed...
May 27, 2022•1 hr 35 min•Season 15Ep. 143
The latest episode is another first for the podcast as this episode marks the first time we have gone back to talk about a filmmaker we’ve already dedicated an episode to. The reason for this landmark is Hannah Strong’s new book on Sofia Coppola for Abrams Books, Sofia Coppola: Forever Young . The book is the first in the Abrams series to see a female filmmaker given such lavish treatment. Neil talks to Hannah about her approach to writing the book, Hannah’s personal and cinephilic connection to...
May 12, 2022•1 hr 29 min•Ep. 142
With Neil visiting London for the first time in a while, we took the opportunity to record an impromptu conversation with both of us in the same room. Thankfully the vibe and repartee still seem to have remained intact. We didn't have a specific theme in mind for the show so we ended up talking about recent viewings and let the conversation take us where it will. The two major films we discussed were Robert Eggers' The Northman and Guillermo del Toro's Nightmare Alley - we had mixed feeling abou...
Apr 20, 2022•1 hr 13 min•Season 15Ep. 141
In this episode, Dario talks to director Philip Barantini about his tense, absorbing and thoroughly authentic slice of restaurant life: Boiling Point. Stephen Graham is superb as Andy, a chef on the edge breakdown with pressures coming from all angles and trying to keep his diverse team of staff working for him on a busy Christmas service. Adding to the anxiety, the restaurant is unexpectedly visited by a celebrity chef and Andy's former mentor Alastair (Jason Fleming), who brings with him notor...
Apr 13, 2022•1 hr 18 min•Season 15Ep. 140
In this episode, Neil sits with emergent American filmmaker Tyler Taormina about his new, deeply strange and affecting feature Happer’s Comet, which premiered at Berlinale earlier this year. The conversation covers Tyler’s family, his approach to filmmaking, the nagging themes he can’t shake and the filmmakers his work is in dialogue with. Additionally, Dario and Neil spend time really thinking about the theme of alienation in Tyler’s film and work, and what it says so beautifully about this mom...
Mar 31, 2022•1 hr 32 min•Ep. 140
Documentary film and TV maker Cherish Oteka is an insightful observer and visual translator of individual experiences related to race, sex, class, religion, and the often contentious relationship of these identities to Britishness. The Black Cop, is their latest documentary short. Nominated for a BAFTA the film is a portrait of the charismatic Gamal "G" Turawa and his experiences in the Met police as a black, gay officer. The story of "G" covers his fostering by a white family in the suburbs to ...
Mar 11, 2022•1 hr 15 min•Season 15Ep. 138
In this latest episode, Neil takes listeners inside the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum at the University of Exeter with the help of lead curator Phil Wickham. Phil guides Neil around the museum's different exhibits that stretch from pre-cinema to the present day, they take an amble round the archive stacks and Neil reflects on the spaces of museums, archives and libraries as place of tactile proximity to history, art and knowledge. Elsewhere Neil and Dario discuss the role of libraries and museums i...
Mar 02, 2022•1 hr 34 min•Season 15Ep. 137
This is part two of our interview with the seminal film scholar, critic, and composer Michel Chion. From the late 70s onwards Chion has been one of the leading voices at the intersection of film scholarship and cinephilic criticism. His work spans a huge roster of filmmakers and subjects, but it's his work on film sound with which he is arguably most identified. Books such as The Voice in Cinema (1982), Audio/Vision (1993), Music in Cinema (1995) & Film, A Sound Art in many ways defined the ...
Feb 04, 2022•1 hr 7 min•Season 15Ep. 136
We are back with Season 15 of The Cinematologists podcast. To begin our new run we are starting with a real high point: a double episode featuring the seminal film scholar, critic, and composer Michel Chion. From the late 70s onwards Chion has been one of the leading voices at the intersection of film scholarship and cinephilic criticism. His work spans a huge roster of filmmakers and subjects, but it's his work on film sound with which he is arguably most identified. Books such as The Voice in ...
Feb 03, 2022•1 hr 7 min•Season 15Ep. 136
It was one of the highlights of The Cinematologists to have Peter Bogdanovich come on the podcast. One of the key links between Old and New Hollywood his passing is just another sign that 20th-century cinema culture is receding further into history. Our chat is focused very much on his film The Great Buster and it was fantastic this he gave us so much time. We hope you enjoy this repost of the interview where we focus on his Buster Keaton documentary The Great Buster.
Jan 07, 2022•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 139
A United Nations translator, negotiating through the Serbian occupation of Srebrenica; the avant-garde queerness of one the world's most influential bands; a working-class writer's climb towards artistic and social recognition; the gallows humour of asylum seekers in the UK immigration system; a young orphan search for a story of the self; a neurosurgeon fighting to understand her own consciousness; radical technology as the bait of a heist gone wrong; the deep trauma of stoic gambler, and a rec...
Dec 28, 2021•1 hr 22 min•Season 14Ep. 135
In our penultimate episode of 2021, Dario speaks to Frank Pavich the director of Jodorowsky's Dune and NYHC. With all the publicity and discussion around Denis Villeneuve's blockbuster interpretation of Frank Herbert's influential Sci-Fi novel, it was fantastic to go back to the first, incredibly imaginative but ultimately failed attempt to bring the book to the screen from one of cinema's singular visionaries: Alejandro Jodorowsky. Frank talks about his first contact with Jodorowsky, his uncomp...
Dec 16, 2021•1 hr 25 min•Season 14Ep. 134
In the latest episode, Dario talks to poet and activist So Mayer about their work on the recent Raising Films survey ‘ How We Work Now’ about the impact of Covid-19 on those working in the screen industries whose lives also involve caring responsibilities of various shades. So and Dario discuss how vital this work is on its own terms but also as part of a broader landscape of rethinking how the film industry operates and who gets to participate. Elsewhere there’s a deep dive into Celine Sciamma’...
Dec 01, 2021•1 hr 23 min•Season 13Ep. 133
A Tale of Two Sisters, 2003, Editor Lee Hyeon-mi In this episode, Neil talks to one of Horror Cinema’s leading scholars and all-round creative force of nature, Dr. Alison Peirse. Alison teaches film at Leeds (and is an old colleague of Dario’s!) where she is an associate professor. She writes a brilliant newsletter called The Losers Club and is finding success on the film festival circuit with her debut video essay Three Ways to Dine Well. Alongside monographs on 1930s and Korean horror, Alison ...
Nov 06, 2021•1 hr 21 min•Season 14Ep. 132
The second episode in our coverage of the London Film Festival is a bumper one with Dario and Neil discussing a ton of new movies from all over the world. They are joined by regular visitor to the pod Savina Petkova, who Dario talked to at the festival itself as it wound down, who added discussions about new films by Joanna Hogg, Terence Davies and Julia Ducournau to the mix. Neil waxes lyrical about the Japanese masterpiece Drive My Car by Ryûsuke Hamaguchi and Hit The Road , the debut feature ...
Oct 20, 2021•1 hr 29 min•Ep. 138
The first episode in our coverage of the London Film Festival. Dario and Neil discuss the blended format of the festival and the context by which one comes to watch specific films at certain moments because of festival serendipity. Under the spotlight for this mid-festival check-in are: The Storms of Jeremy Thomas (Mark Cousins, 2021) Memory Box (Joana Hadjithomas, Khalil Joreige, 2021) Luzzu (Alex Camilleri, 2021) Azor (Andreas Fontana, 2021) Leave No Traces (Jan P. Matuszyński, 2021) Citizen A...
Oct 14, 2021•29 min•Season 14Ep. 130
In this slightly longer than normal episode, Neil indulges his love of magazines by having conversations with editors of print magazines with a varying focus on film about setting up print enterprises in the digital age. He talks to Maria J Pérez Cuervo about her folk horror magazine Hellebore , Gabriel Solomon s about illustrated film magazine Beneficial Shock and Cathy Lomax & Lucy Bolton about a special British film edition of art and culture periodical Garageland . All the conversations ...
Oct 02, 2021•1 hr 43 min•Season 14Ep. 129
For the season 14 premiere Neil and Dario discuss one of 2021’s best releases, Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor’s dark and magnetic psychodrama Rose Plays Julie starring Ann Skelly, Orla Brady and Aidan Gillen. Neil talks to the filmmakers about their unique, exploratory process, growing as filmmakers, working with actors and timing. Elsewhere Neil and Dario catch up about some recent watches and what they’ve been up to over the summer, before heading off to the bonus episode for Patreon subscrib...
Sep 16, 2021•1 hr 28 min•Ep. 137
To close out an epic season this final episode just finds Neil and Dario talking to each other, and responding to listener questions. This special episode, and the Patreon bonus episode, runs the gamut from the future of cinema, the death of horror cinema (or not?), lockdown viewing strategies, platonic male relationships, Strictly Ballroom, the BBC film Together, facial hair, celebrity lookalikes, Pedro Costa, ASMR and papyrus. Thanks to Chloe, Dan, Brian, Andrew, Lee, Jason, Si, Guy, Mark, Mar...
Jul 09, 2021•1 hr 15 min•Season 13Ep. 127
In the latest episode, Neil talks at length to critic, editor and podcaster Nicolas Rapold about his podcast The Last Thing I Saw, as well as podcasting in general, the benefits of direct-to-subscriber content via Substack and, a favourite topic of Neil and Dario's, film culture in 2021 in general. Elsewhere, Neil and Dario ponder ideas around conversation and podcasting, inclusivity and good faith and share war stories of near-middle-age ailments based around tennis and a visit to the barber. T...
Jun 25, 2021•1 hr 27 min•Season 13Ep. 126
In this episode, Dario talks to visual artist Janis Rafa about her sensuous, enigmatic first feature, Kala Azar. Set in a nameless Southern European wasteland, a stoic young couple exist in a semi-feral periphery, they survive by collecting and cremating deceased pets for owners who need the fantasy of ritualized passing. But they also cannot help but clean up the number of dead animals which they regularly encounter lifeless by the roadside. A film that challenges the material and ideological d...
Jun 19, 2021•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 136
For this episode we are honoured to be joined by the wonderful filmmaker Caroline Catz to discuss her brilliant debut feature film Delia Derbyshire: the Myths and Legendary Tapes, which Catz wrote, directed and stars in, as Derbyshire. It’s a unique music doc/drama hybrid that is well worth the time and is currently on the BBC iPlayer in the UK. The conversation covers Caroline’s process for the film, her relationship to Derbyshire’s music and that of the Radiophonic Workshop, as well as venturi...
Jun 08, 2021•1 hr 45 min•Season 13Ep. 124
We are really excited to focus an episode around the BFI Blu-ray release of Chris Petit's existential British road movie Radio On as it's a film that we had talked about for a long time. Alongside this, it gave us the perfect excuse to bring on one of our original supporters and true friend of the show, Mark Jenkin. Mark kindly took the time out from editing his new feature Enys Men, to explore why Radio On is one of his most influential films. Indeed, there is no one better to talk about the ha...
May 15, 2021•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 135
For this exciting episode Neil and Dario are joined by two of their favourite film podcasters, Mary and Sarah from the Projections podcast, a thematic, season-oriented show that looks at a huge swathe of cinema through the lens of psychoanalysis. In this episode, the four of them discuss psychoanalysis as a mode for cinema study, some of the problems with cancel culture, how Sarah and Mary went about starting Projections and their reflections on how the podcast has grown, sex in cinema, Eyes Wid...
May 10, 2021•1 hr 8 min•Season 12Ep. 122
Today's episode focuses on the Jazz inspired bittersweet romance Wilderness, penned by our very own Neil Fox and directed by Justin Doherty. Both Neil and Justin subject themselves to an hour of intense Cinematologists questioning from Dario covering the development of the script, the unique production context, the casting and production design. We also get into the cinematic representation of relationships, particularly at their outset, and how the developmental phase of love can be a rollercoa...
Apr 26, 2021•1 hr 25 min•Season 13Ep. 121
Valeska Grisebach's Western (2017) transposes many of the iconographies and thematics of the western genre to the setting of a contemporary border town between Bulgaria and Greece, where a group of German construction workers build a hydro-electric plant. Their presence stirs up contemporary and historically layered tensions which are exacerbated by the communication barriers between the groups. This leads to a familiar, male driven tribalism, which one of the Germans, the stoic Meinhard (played...
Apr 09, 2021•1 hr 11 min•Season 13Ep. 120
For this episode The Cinematologists are delighted to announce their first ever Podcast Crossover Event/Episode. As big fans of the wonderful Silver Screen Video podcast, hosted by Jacob and Jonathan, Neil and Dario were delighted when they agreed to do a collaborative episode, even more delighted when it was agreed that three films by the brilliant Australian director Andrew Dominik would be the focus ,and, yet more delighted by the result - a far-ranging and hugely fun conversation between Nei...
Mar 26, 2021•1 hr 55 min•Season 13Ep. 119
In this episode Neil talks to Mark Cosgrove , cinema curator at The Watershed in Bristol and Dr Francesco Tava , senior lecturer in philosophy at University of West England (UWE), about their current season of colonial cinema and discussions, Thought in Action, presented in partnership with MUBI. Their conversation covers the positives of online events in the pandemic including accessing filmmakers and panel members from all over the world as well as welcoming diverse audiences, the hybrid futur...
Mar 19, 2021•1 hr 21 min•Season 13Ep. 118
