In this episode we talk to top Bucharest film critic and academic Andrei Gorzo about the aesthetics, history and political context of Romanian cinema. Andrei outlines how the fall of Nicolae Ceaușescu in 1989 effected a liberalisation of society, culture and the arts. But it not would be for another 10 years until the Romanian New Wave and directors like Cristi Puiu, Cornelie Porumboiu and Cristian Mungiu would spark a distinctive cinema emerge that would attained international acclaim. Andrei's...
Mar 12, 2021•1 hr 23 min•Season 13Ep. 117
In this episode, we take on the thorny issue of sex and cinema but thankfully we had the extremely insightful film critic Beatrice Loayza to help is navigate the many strands of this subject. Beatrice has bylines in Sight & Sound, LA review of Book, Reverse Shot and Mubi notebook, but it was her recent piece in the Guardian - Some sex scenes are gratuitous, but a good one can electrify a film - that was the trigger for this conversation. Dario and Beatrice discuss the polarised debate around...
Feb 26, 2021•1 hr 18 min•Season 13Ep. 116
In the latest episode, Neil and Dario are drawn back to one of their favourite topics to talk about, Sci-Fi, albeit in a slightly different context. Neil talks to author and screenwriter Simon Stephenson about his acclaimed debut novel Set My Heart To Five, which tells the story of Jared - a bot who develops feelings. Simon is also adapting his book into a screenplay, with Edgar Wright attached to direct. Around this conversation, Neil and Dario talk about a host of topics including the legacy o...
Feb 12, 2021•1 hr 21 min•Season 13Ep. 115
To kick off season 13 of the podcast, Neil and Dario get into the wonder of Talking Heads' and Jonathan Demme's Stop Making Sense (1984) and concert films in general. They touch on the performativity of music documentaries and what makes Sense such a seminal work. They also talk about its spiritual successor, David Byrne and Spike Lee's American Utopia from 2020. Elsewhere there is a chat about Richard Fleischer's lean and nasty Mob pulp movie The Don Is Dead (1973), recently released by Masters...
Jan 30, 2021•1 hr 11 min•Season 13Ep. 114
In this final episode of Season 12 Neil and Dario chat, casually, about some of their favourite films of the past year. They chose five each to give a special focus to and elsewhere in the episode there are some honourable mentions and also shout out to the pair's favourite film podcasts of the last 12 months. It's been a helluva year. No need to go over it again. But, The Cinematologists hope you are doing ok and thank you for your continued support of this podcast. Without the listeners and th...
Jan 04, 2021•1 hr 33 min•Season 12Ep. 113
Walter Murch is one of the seminal figures in American cinema in terms of defining film craft. His editing and sound design work, in many ways, provides the audio-visual architecture to the most influential films of New Hollywood and his collaboration with Francis Ford Coppola on The Conversation, The Godfather and Apocalypse Now would influence a generation of filmmakers to follow. Jon Lefkovitz's feature length audio-visual essay, draws upon a wealth public interviews, discussions and lectures...
Dec 19, 2020•1 hr 23 min•Season 12Ep. 112
To coincide with the cinema release of the new drama County Lines , directed by one of today's guests Henry Blake, Neil and Dario discuss the form and legacies of that oft contested term 'social realism', asking if it has a place in today's British Cinema landscape and if recent releases such as Fyzal Boulifa's Lynn + Lucy and Mark Jenkin's Bait are evidence of a 'new wave'. As well as Henry's interview with Neil, Dario talks with Sarah Gavron, director of one of the most acclaimed of the recent...
Dec 02, 2020•2 hr 9 min•Season 12Ep. 111
To coincide with the Blu Ray (Arrow Films) release of Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-liang's wonderful elegy to the cinema Goodbye Dragon Inn, we are reposting one of our earliest episodes. Associated with what has come to be known a slow cinema, Tsai's subtly observed visual storytelling utilising long shots, intricate framing and editing but with minimalist dialogue, demands an a deep level of attention in the viewer. The empty, dilapidated movie palace at the centre of the story a metaphor for ...
Nov 23, 2020•1 hr 22 min
On this episode, Dario and Neil delve into the career of Ang Lee. For this discussion, they are joined by writer Ellen Cheshire, a former guest on the show (Ep69, Jane Campion's The Piano), whose new book on Ang Lee prompted this episode. Find out more about Ellen's books (and more importantly buy them!) here. In addition, Neil talks to one of his students, third year undergraduate Francesco Signorello , about the 2003 film Hulk, and its impact both negatively and positively on the now ubiquitou...
Nov 16, 2020•1 hr 44 min•Season 12Ep. 110
Sports films hold formative relevance for both Dario and Neil, and the sports documentary as a sub-genre is the focus and inspiration for a wide-ranging discussion on our latest episode. How does cinema make sport cinematic and what is the difference, for filmmakers and audiences alike, between sports documentary films and watching sports on Television. The episode is structured around an interview with Finlay Pretsell, a former cyclist and director of Time Trial : A Race to the End. On the surf...
Oct 26, 2020•2 hr 8 min•Season 12Ep. 109
The occasion of Second Sight Film's wonderful 4K release of Nicolas Roeg's debut feature as sole director allowed for a chance to spend some time focusing on a favourite filmmaker of the podcast. Thanks to AIM Publicity we were offered the chance to talk to one of the film's actors, leading British film producer and son of the director, Luc Roeg. Neil spoke to him earlier in the year and that conversation forms the basis of this episode, alongside a chat Neil had with Melbourne based film critic...
Oct 12, 2020•1 hr 39 min•Ep. 134
For the second episode of Season 12, the Cinematologists take a customary left turn from the last episode and get into the weeds about what it's like to be embarking on a new academic year in cinema, for teachers and students, undergraduates and those doing PhDs. Neil and Dario are joined by Freya Billington from UWE and Dr Catherine Wheatley from King's College London to talk about practice and theory and their intersections, the realities of life in a blended/online teaching world for users at...
Sep 25, 2020•1 hr 21 min•Season 12Ep. 107
Season 12 of the Cinematologists is here. And we start with a bang. Episode 106 features an interview with legendary filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich discussing with Dario and Neil his beautifully crafted celebration of one of silent cinema's brightest stars: Buster Keaton. The Great Buster (released on DVD and Blu-ray on Monday 21st) reminds of the genius of Keaton's comedic imagination, covering his early years in vaudeville, his entry into cinema with the string of early two-reeler "gag-fests", th...
Sep 18, 2020•1 hr 20 min•Season 12Ep. 106
The first of our collaborations with the BFI Japan season focuses on what is generally regarded as a masterpiece of cinema: Yasujirö Ozu's Tokyo Story (1953). In many ways, a simple story of grandparents visiting their children in the city, but one that gradually builds on the resentments and disappointments of intergenerational alienation. Dario and Neil discuss the film in terms of its status in 'the canon', its reverence as Ozu's finest work in a prolific career, and as arguably the purest di...
Jul 16, 2020•1 hr 12 min•Season 11Ep. 105
Katie Bryer is a freelance film editor whose brilliant work on Bruce Lee and the Outlaw, Maiden, and Virunga demonstrates the diverse possibilities of documentary storytelling. In this episode, Katie discusses the development of her craft, working through student shorts, children's television, and for the BBC on Holby City. The gaining of confidence and building of skills and experience in a role, clearly underpins the idea that doing the work, having a complete commitment to one's passion, is t...
Jul 04, 2020•1 hr 30 min•Season 11Ep. 104
Sometimes Always Never is the debut feature film from Liverpool filmmaker, musician and designer Carl Hunter. It marks the latest stage in a collaboration with screenwriter Frank Cottrell-Boyce and stars Bill Nighy, Sam Riley, Alice Lowe, Jenny Agutter and Tim McInerny. The film was released digitally in March, following a successful festival run over the past couple of years, and tells the story of Nighy searching for his long missing son, with Riley as the brother left behind. It’s a moving st...
Jun 10, 2020•1 hr 48 min•Ep. 133
The Uncertain Kingdom is “an anthology of twenty short films for our uncertain times”. The brainchild of producers Isabel Feeer, Georgia Goggin and John Jencks, the anthology is released digitally on June 1st with the hope that the films will “inspire, support and encourage new conversations about our interesting times’. 10 filmmakers were invited to make work for the project, with the other 10 shorts selected from an open submission call that saw over 1000 entries and work curated under narrati...
Jun 01, 2020•1 hr 55 min•Ep. 132
For the first episode of a new century (of Cinematologists episodes) we are proud to present a conversation with esteemed filmmaker and cineaste Mark Cousins to celebrate the release of his mammoth, 14hr, poetic documentary project, and cinephile treasure trove, Women Make Film . Recorded during lockdown in 2020, the conversation features Neil and Dario talking to Mark about his process and approach as well as the discoveries and rediscoveries contained within this love letter to cinema and fore...
May 17, 2020•1 hr 36 min•Season 1Ep. 101
In this special episode, marking 100 episodes and five years of The Cinematologists podcast, Neil and Dario take a breath. With the help of friends and supporters of the podcast they discuss the history and evolution of the show, their formative experiences of cinemas, meaningful film viewing experiences, critics and academics that helped shaped their understanding of talking about cinema on the page and elsewhere, and what they think and hope the future of cinema(s) and the podcast might look l...
Apr 27, 2020•2 hr 17 min•Season 11Ep. 100
Perhaps the most in-depth analysis possible is focused on an entire film minute by minute. This week's guest Blake Howard has patented that very idea in the format of his highly popular podcast One Heat Minute . Interviewing a guest every week and assigning them a minute from the film, this deep-dive podcast represents a synergy between obsessional fandom, close textual analysis, and explorations of what film means to those who see the form as part of their very identity. The first film that was...
Apr 01, 2020•2 hr 3 min•Season 11Ep. 99
The voice in cinema is a phenomenon that is in many ways taken for granted. Since the advent of the talkies, the speaking voice synchronised to the human body on-screen is the ingrained process for narrative exposition and character development. However, this accepted synchronisation is one of sound cinema’s fundamental illusions. This major production for The Cinematologists features the analysis from leading film scholars and critics, each focusing on uses and interpretations of cinematic voic...
Mar 17, 2020•2 hr 7 min•Ep. 98
Part Two of our Berlinale 2020 special is here. You’d think that after 5 years doing this podcast I’d get a little thing like the audio right, but alas, a couple of my solo recordings here are of a very poor quality - lots of peaking and distortion, which I have tried hard to reduce. Apologies. The content is still pretty good though methinks. Lots of chat with Dario about films including the award-winning The Woman Who Ran [Hong Sangsoo] and Never Rarely Sometimes Always [Eliza Hittman], Siberi...
Mar 02, 2020•1 hr 48 min•Season 11Ep. 97
It's Berlinale time. Our annual sojourn to our favorite European Film Festival is one of the highlights of the year and the programme looks intriguing with a host of big names in art-house cinema showing their latest work. This is the first of a two-part episode in which we bring our thoughts to bear on the big competition entries and fiction and documentary films from other sections of Berlin's extensive programme. We also interview various critics also in the city no only on their festival pic...
Mar 01, 2020•1 hr 27 min•Season 11Ep. 97
Adam Mars-Jones is an award-winning novelist and critic. His most recent novel, Box Hill, won the 2019 Fitzcarraldo novel prize . An apt award for someone who is also one of Britain’s most erudite and singular voices in film criticism. In late 2019 a collection of his film criticism, Second Sight , was published. It collects a significant portion of his reviews from his days as The Independent’s film critic (the paper’s first) as well as work for outlets including the Spectator. In this, the fir...
Feb 21, 2020•1 hr 48 min•Season 11Ep. 96
Recorded at Luton’s Filmstock Film Festival (co-directed by Neil) in November 2019, this series features long-form conversations with filmmakers recorded specially for the podcast. Thanks to The School of Film & Television at Falmouth University for sponsoring this strand of Filmstock to enable these conversations to take place. The series features conversations with directors Jeanie Finlay and Kieran Evans and screenwriter M.R. Carey. Finally, it’s Neil’s conversation with director Kieran E...
Feb 07, 2020•1 hr 3 min
Recorded at Luton’s Filmstock Film Festival (co-directed by Neil) in November 2019, this series features long-form conversations with filmmakers recorded specially for the podcast. Thanks to The School of Film & Television at Falmouth University for sponsoring this strand of Filmstock to enable these conversations to take place. The series features conversations with directors Jeanie Finlay and Kieran Evans and screenwriter M.R. Carey. Next up, it’s Neil’s conversation with comics, novel and...
Jan 30, 2020•1 hr
Recorded at Luton’s Filmstock Film Festival (co-directed by Neil) in November 2019, this series features long-form conversations with filmmakers recorded specially for the podcast. Thanks to The School of Film & Television at Falmouth University for sponsoring this strand of Filmstock to enable these conversations to take place. The series features conversations with directors Jeanie Finlay and Kieran Evans and screenwriter M.R. Carey. First up, it’s Neil’s career-spanning conversation with ...
Jan 22, 2020•1 hr•Ep. 96
In the final episode of season 10, we look back over 2019 with film highlights we wanted to discuss again. This is not a ranking or a best of, merely a celebration of the year in film and our personal choices of the work we think should be seen and discussed. Here's a list of all the films on our agenda: Ad Astra; Amazing Grace; Apollo 13; Atlantics; Bait; Burning; Capernaum; Dolemite is My Name; Hale County This Morning, This Evening; Happy as Lazzaro; Her Smell; High Flying Bird; High Life; If...
Jan 01, 2020•2 hr 28 min•Season 10Ep. 95
The second of instalment of our BFI Musicals two-parter sees Neil and Dario take a deep dive into the glorious world of Barbra Streisand. Neil was invited to Plymouth Arts Centre to take part in the Reclaim The Frame screening of Funny Girl (a film neither Neil nor Dario had seen), hosted by Mia Bays and the brilliant Birds Eye View organisation. This episode sees Neil and Dario discuss the stardom and career of Streisand, alongside an interview between Neil and Mia, Mia’s introduction to the sc...
Dec 27, 2019•1 hr 25 min•Season 10Ep. 94
The first of our episodes in partnership with the BFI’s Blockbuster season on Musicals finds us discussing our relationship to the genre and its descendants as well as responding to a series of interviews conducted by Neil over the last couple of months. Guests on this special episode are the critic/historian Pamela Hutchinson who gives a brilliant overview of the musical form and suggests some gems to look out for, writer Tom MacRae who talks about the process of adapting his own West End smash...
Dec 23, 2019•2 hr 5 min•Season 10Ep. 94
