The only podcast to focus on film books and to talk to the best authors working in the area of cinema. From Making ofs to biographies, studies to novelisations, I'm fascinated by where the written word intersects with the world of the big screen. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/writers-on-film. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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An exploration of the worlds of Italian cinema from Neo Realism to Spaghetti Westerns, Gialli to Sword and Sandal epics, Poliziotteschi to white telehphone films: and anything I left out. Talking to illustrious guests, Italian and otherwise, all united with a love of il cinema Italiano and Hollywood on the Tiber. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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An insight into the character of an influential figure making news headlines
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Venice Film Festival Report 3. Queer, The Room Next Door and The Brutalist
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Day 6 or 7 of the Venice Film Festival and David Mouriquand and Amber Brice from EuroNews join me to talk about The Brutalist, The Room Next Door and Queer. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/writers-on-film. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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James Graham’s writing obsession started at the age of six in the shadow of Nottinghamshire's former coalmines. Equipped with a typewriter from his mother he created hundreds of stories from the family home in Kirkby-in-Ashfield. Accelerating through university in Hull and a writing residency in west London, Graham’s work started to attract wider a…
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Venice Film Festival: Report 2. Babygirl and Maria
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Angelina Jolie and Nicole Kidman are on the Lido with two new films which are going to put them back in the headlines. David Mouriquand from EuroNews joins me to discuss the films Maria and Babygirl in the second of our Venice reports. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/writers-on-film. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more info…
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Venice Film Festival: Report 1. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
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David Mouriquand from EuroNews and Nicholas Bell from Eye on Cinema join John Bleasdale to talk about Tim Burton's Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the opening film of the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/writers-on-film. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…
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Comedian and actor Chris Calogero on comedy, horror and movie clichés
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Chris Calogero became a viral sensation with his videos skewering movie clichés, so I had to get him on the podcast to talk police lieutenants and filthy coroners. His new comedy album HUSKY BOY can be ordered here and all the information you want is available from his site, here. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/writers-on-film. Hosted…
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From the Archives: Michael Benson on Stanley Kubrick's 2001 A Space Odyssey
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John Bleasdale talks to Michael Benson on his book Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C Clarke and the Making of a Masterpiece. Buy the Book Here. The definitive story of the making of 2001: A Space Odyssey , acclaimed today as one of the greatest films ever made, and of director Stanley Kubrick and writer Arthur C. Clarke- "a tremendous explic…
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100 Years of Columbia Pictures: from Locarno
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Ehsan Khoshbakht, curator of the Retrospective: “How to tell the story of a leading Hollywood studio while both teasing out the nuances and stressing the significance of canonical titles worthy of continued celebration? This has been the main challenge for our 40-title retrospective mapping Columbia Pictures’ glorious rise from Poverty Row to major…
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Lawrence Kasdan has created some of the most influential films in Hollywood history. He is the screenwriter of such beloved blockbusters as The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), The Bodyguard (1992), and The Force Awakens (2015). Simultaneously, he has gained critical acclaim as the director of pictures that dissect contem…
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Julie Salamon and the Devil's Candy
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1:15:21
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John Bleasdale talks to Julie Salamon the author of The Devil's Candy, The Bonfire of the Vanities Goes to Hollywood. The book is available here. The book was also the basis for the podcast series The Plot Thickens which you can listen to here. “So much better, so much more fun, than the movie it is about that one must be thankful to the filmmakers…
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From ‘hillbilly’ roots to becoming Donald Trump’s nominee for vice-president. At 39, if JD Vance is elected, he would be one of America’s youngest ever Vice-Presidents. A lot has been laid bare in his own words, in ‘Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis’. He talks about being raised by his grandparents who moved from the Appal…
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John Bleasdale talks to author Mark Harris about his books Pictures from the Revolution and his recent biography of Mike NIchols. Mark's recommended book is Jason Bailey's Fun City Cinema, available here. Here's the blurb to Mark's most recent book: An instant New York Times Bestseller! A magnificent biography of one of the most protean creative fo…
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Shabana Mahmood is the new Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice. Born in Birmingham in a Kashmiri Pakistani family, she has three siblings, one of whom is her twin. From an early age her father ensured that the children were aware of the world around them, and made them each read five minutes from the Times newspaper every evening. In…
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Movies Go Fourth is a celebration of the fourth movies in the most popular film franchises of all time. It offers behind-the-scenes stories of fourth films from such beloved series as Star Wars, Star Trek, and James Bond. It also explores infamous fourth films, including Jaws: The Revenge, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, and Batman & Robin. This …
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Evan Gershkovich is the Wall Street Journal's Moscow reporter. He's been imprisoned in Russia since March last year, and has just gone on trial there - the first American journalist to be jailed in Russia since the Cold War. He's accused of espionage, something he, his employer and his government all strenuously deny. To his friends, like Jeremy Be…
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Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2024
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I talk to esteemed film critic and friend Rafa Sales Ross (find her work here), Noaz Deshe about his new film Xoftex and Christos Nikou about Apples, Apple and Fingernails. The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival is the largest film festival in the Czech Republic and the most prestigious such festival in Central and Eastern Europe. It is one o…
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Before she became one of the best-selling musicians of all time, Shania Twain worked for the family tree-planting business, singing for tips in lumberjack bars to help make ends meet. Stephen Smith charts the rise of a hard-up Canadian country girl, from a violent family home, to a country-pop crossover superstar. This year's Glastonbury 'Legends' …
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I speak with the the co-director of the Bologna Cinema Ritrovato festival Ehsan KhoshBakht and film restoration expert MIchael Dawson whose restorations of Stanley Kubrick's shorts showed at the festival. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/writers-on-film. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…
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Sometimes known as the “sultan of swing,” Professor Sir John Curtice has become an institution of election coverage in the UK. But is there more to the man than stats and figures? There might be some broad beans and jam, as Mark Coles finds out. Rev Dr Lisa Curtice, John’s wifePhil Tremewan, childhood friend John Leston, friend from universityDavid…
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Roger Lewis talks Carry Ons and Charles Hawtrey
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Roger Lewis comes back to the pod to talk about his small masterpiece of biographical investigation, and fitting testament to a comic genius whose place in British cultural history is now assured. Charles Hawtrey, the skinny one with the granny glasses, was everybody's favourite in the Carry Ons - but who exactly was he? Up to now the man has remai…
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Who is National Rally's 28-year-old leader, Jordan Bardella? Stephen Smith looks at the life of the boy from the Paris suburbs who joined the far-right as a teenager and rapidly became the face of National Rally, helping to bring success for the party in the European elections. ContributorsCécile Alduy, Professor of French Studies, Stanford Univers…
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Ramsey Campbell talks the 3 Stooges, Horror films and Cinephilia
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Ramsey Campbell is an English horror fiction writer, editor and critic who has been writing for well over fifty years. He is the author of over 30 novels and hundreds of short stories, many of them winners of literary awards. Three of his novels have been adapted into films. He is also the author of Ramsey's Rambles, a book of film criticism and Si…
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Rylan Clark is on the cusp of becoming a national treasure. Having defied the odds of most reality TV stars, he has managed to stay the course, cementing his already steady career rise to the top with his most recent television outing with Rob Rinder 'Rob and Rylan's Grand Tour', which showed the viewing public a whole new side to his talents. Brou…
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Ian Christie talks Powell, Pressburger, Scorsese and Cinema
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Ian Christie FBA is a British film scholar whose work on Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, Martin Scorsese and the development of cinema has made him one of the most respected film writers today. He is a regular contributor to Sight & Sound magazine and a frequent broadcaster as well as being the Professor of Film and Media History at Birkbeck…
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Alan Bleasdale, the Liverpudlian screenwriter and playwright, is in the spotlight this week as a stage version of his iconic 1980's TV series 'Boys from the Blackstuff' opened at the National Theatre. Born in Liverpool, an only child who first went into teaching, his first public work was 'Scully' for Radio Merseyside, a kind of Liverpudlian Adrian…
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Cannes Report 9: Anora, The Seed of the Sacred Fig
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Bilge Ebiri is one of the finest critics currently working. He was the critic for the Village Voice and is now writing for New York Magazine and Vulture. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/writers-on-film. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Cannes Report 8: Indian cinema on the Croisette
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Siddhant Adlakha Talks All We Imagine as Light and more Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/writers-on-film. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Ann-Marie Powell, is the exuberant and colourful, garden designer, whose' Octavia Hill 'Garden was one of the eight main gardens in competition at the Chelsea Flower Show this year. After dropping out of college she spent six months travelling in India, Nepal and New Zealand, which inspired her to take up gardening. Attending Capel Manor horticultu…
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As Cannes nears a close we have predictions and trends to discuss and ask is it time for the titans of cinema to give way? Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/writers-on-film. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Cannes Report 6: Horizon: an American Saga
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Hugo Emmerzael from FilmKrant joins me to talk about Kevin Costner’s Horizon: an American Saga, chapter one. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/writers-on-film. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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The Substance directed by Coralie Fargeat, and starring Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley and Dennis Quaid, is the most talked about film of the Cannes Film Festival, so here we go. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/writers-on-film. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Thomas Schultze from German trade website Spot (click here) talks the latest film by dissident Russian filmmaker Kirill Serebrennikov. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/writers-on-film. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Cannes Report 3: Furiosa, Megalopolis and Emilia Perez
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Tokumbo Salako, EuroNews culture editor, joins me to review the latest films on the Croisette in the third of my special Cannes Reports. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/writers-on-film. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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You may know her from Play School, Bafta or the House of Lords, Baroness Floella Benjamin doesn’t sit still, she’s even appeared in panto. Stephen Smith hears about the remarkable life of the Trinidad-born actress, TV presenter and author, who campaigns passionately for children and the Windrush generation. ContributorsColin Webb, Publisher, 'Comin…
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In the second of our special reports from the Cannes Film Festival, Christina Jeurling Birro talks Yorgos Lanthimos’s new film and her highlights from her first ever Cannes. She also coins the term Plemmon-heads. our conversation on Megalopolis is available to hear here. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/writers-on-film. Hosted on Acast.…
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Fred Ponsard and David Mouriquand from EuroNews join John Bleasdale to talk Wild Diamond and the Cannes Film Festival. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/writers-on-film. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Glenn Kenny talks Al Pacino, Brian DePalma and the greatest gangster movie of the 80s
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The behind-the-scenes story of the iconic film, featuring new interviews with the cast and crew. An unflinching confrontation of humanity’s dark side, Brian De Palma’s crime drama film Scarface gave rise to a cultural revolution upon its release in 1983. Its impact was unprecedented, making globe-spanning waves as a defining portrait of the gritty …
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After over four decades in the SNP and nearly two in government, John Swinney is finally stepping up to the top job for the first time, becoming Scotland’s new First Minister. He’s no stranger to big jobs - it’s actually his second stint as SNP leader - but leading his country and his party is looking tougher than ever, as the SNP finds itself faci…
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Maureen Foster talks Jonathan Glazer and Under the Skin
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Jonathan Glazer is now - having only made four films - one of the most important filmmakers of this century. It helps that those four films were all masterpieces and the third Under the Skin is the subject of novelist Maureen Foster's wonderful study The Alien in the Mirror: Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Glazer and Under the Skin. For more informati…
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Alice Rohrwacher's Heavenly Body (Corpo Celeste)
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Maathew Page joins John Bleasdale to discuss the career of Alice Rohrwacher and specifically her debut film from 2011, Heavenly Body, (Corpo Celeste). 13 year old Marta is preparing for her confirmation at the local Catholic church but soon finds that her own faith doesn't help her to fit in with the new home she has recently moved to. Alice Rohrwa…
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Isaac Levido has established a formidable reputation as a election strategist, helping to craft wins both in the UK and Australia. Thought of as a protege of the quasi-legendary election guru Sir Lynton Crosby in his early years, he’s rapidly racked up achievements of his own, propelling both Scott Morrison and Boris Johnson back into office with h…
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Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor were a Sixties supercharged couple in an era of supercharged couples. As a pairing they were fantasy figures, impossibly desirable. Liz supple and soft, in perfumes and furs - yet with something demonic and lethal about her. Dick, in turn, with his ravaged, handsome face, looked as though lit by silver moonlight …
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In the rubble of a Rome which still smelled of gunpowder, Roberto Rossellini filmed Roma Città Aperta (Rome Open City), a film that stands as an inaugural moment in Italian Neorealism and as a hugely influential masterpiece in world cinema. Giulia Saccogna is the programmer of a new season of films at the BFI - Chasing the Real: Italian Neorealism …
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Paul Duncan talks Dr. No, and the making of James Bond's first cinematic asdventure. Book now available from Taschen. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/writers-on-film. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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A 1979 Italian nunsploitation horror film, Killer Nun was directed by Giulio Berruti and starred Anita Ekberg, Joe Dallesandro, Lou Castel, and Alida Valli. Its plot follows a nun who, after recovering from brain surgery, grows increasingly paranoid that her health is again declining; she begins indulging in opioids from the hospital in which she w…
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Paul Sinton-Hewitt, the founder of parkrun, was born in Zimbabwe and moved to South Africa at the age of five, where he was brought up in care with his two siblings. Always a keen middle distance runner, he was a second for a friend in one of South Africa's most gruelling road races. Eventually he moved to the UK to work in IT and raise a family. A…
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Ed Zwick on Hits, Flops, and Other Illusions
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A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER * USA TODAY BESTSELLER This heartfelt and wry career memoir from the director of Blood Diamond, The Last Samurai, Legends of the Fall, About Last Night, and Glory, creator of the show thirtysomething, and executive producer of My So-Called Life, gives a dishy, behind-the-scenes look at work…
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Death in Venice with Lillian Crawford
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Lillian Crawford talks about Luchino Visconti's 1977 adaptation of Thomas Mann's Death in Venice. Lillian is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in Little White Lies, Sight and Sound and the Times Literary Supplement as well as many other places. Her personal website can be visited here. The Music for the podcast is provided by Two Minute No…
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Robert P Kolker and Marsha Gordon talk Film, Form and Culture
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This fifth edition of Film, Form, and Culture by Robert P Kolker and Marsha Gordon offers a lively introduction to both the formal and cultural aspects of film. Additional resources for students and teachers can be found on the eResource, which includes case studies, discussion questions, and links to useful websites. Get the book HERE. Support thi…
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The Birds, the Bees and the Italians (Italian: Signore & Signori, literally "Ladies and Gentlemen") is a 1966 italian film directed by Pietro Germi. It won the Grand Prix with A Man and a Woman at the 1966 Cannes Film Festival and was later selected for screening as part of the Cannes Classics section at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. Jo-Ann Titmar…
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Although Simon Harris reportedly describes himself as an 'accidental politician', he has managed to make a career out of it. His interest in politics was sparked at the age of 15 when he set up a support group in his local town to campaign for better secondary education for autistic people after he saw his parents struggle to get help for his young…
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