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MovieMail Podcasts |
If you have any comments or queries post a comment below, or contact Graeme directly at g.hobbs@moviem.co.uk
Latest ProgramFamily Portraits - two films from the 1951 Festival of Britain This week, Graeme looks at two films made for the Festival of Britain in 1951, Humphrey Jennings' Family Portrait (his last completed film) and Paul Dickson's David, a film made for the Welsh Committee. Also considered is John Eldridge's Waverley Steps, a delightful film made for the inaugural Edinburgh Film Festival in 1948. No comments | Post a new comment Podcast ArchivesThe Discreet Pleasures of Bunuel's Belle de Jour Although Luis Bunuel is notorious for the more outrageous scenes in his films, equally as interesting are their craftsmanlike elements - the self-effacing camerawork, their dialogue, their subtle reinforcements of character's situations, their editing and their nicely offhand moments. Here, Graeme looks at Belle de Jour, Bunuel's film of a bored bourgeois housewife finding an outlet for her fantasies through afternoon work in a brothel, with these things in mind. No comments | Post a new comment Bad Men's Tricks: Three films from Miklos Jancso Happily, three of Miklos Jancso's groundbreaking films from the 1960s - My Way Home, The Round-Up and The Red and the White, are now available on DVD in the UK. Set for the most part on the wide open Hungarian plains, and featuring astounding compositions and action choreographed in trademark long takes, these are films of stylistic virtousity, ritualistic power and great beauty. No comments | Post a new comment Michelangelo Antonioni's La Notte Michelangelo Antonioni's films La Notte and L'Eclisse show characters as part of environments that block and deflect channels of communication. In powerful compositions, using for example dominating concrete architecture to shots that appear to have fissures or dark holes in the film itself, Antonioni shows unmoored characters in unsettling environments. They are also films of great visual beauty, in which sections fulfil Antonioni's own dream that 'perhaps cinema will one day even construct poetry'. No comments | Post a new comment Hitchcock's The Lodger (or, Orlok in London) As is well known, Alfred Hitchcock spent a formative period of time in Germany where he made his first film, The Pleasure Garden. Come his third film, The Lodger, which already features a number of the distinctive characteristics associated with his work, he put some of the lessons he had learned in Germany, from FW Murnau among others, to work, not least with regard to the sinister central figure of the lodger himself. With this in mind, Graeme takes a look at the film. No comments | Post a new comment Walerian Borowczyks Objects of Desire Although Borowczyk gained notoriety for the sexual content of his films, he was a master at delineating the intimate psychology of interiors, especially through his use of objects and curios, for which he had a fetishist's delight. This week, Graeme looks at his films The Story of Sin and The Beast with this in mind. No comments | Post a new comment The Night Mail - Still Delivering the Goods Night Mail, the famous film about the nightly run of the postal special from London to Scotland, was one of the most successful productions from the GPO Film Unit. It has recently been restored and released on dvd in a comprehensive collection that also includes four associated titles, including Night Mail 2, a 50th anniversary production from 1986. Graeme takes a look at all the films on this highly enjoyable collection. No comments | Post a new comment In 1978, painter Hugues de Montalembert was blinded when paint stripper was thrown into his eyes during a burglary. Despite this physical change in his circumstances, he came to terms with his condition and continued to travel the world. This film is his story, of coming to terms with blindness, and of learning 'to dance with life'. Gary Tarn has created a film of intensified visual and aural beauty appropriate to the story. An affirmative tale that is neither sanctimonious nor saccharine, it leaves you considering your own attitude to life, and how little you really make use of all the senses you have. 1 comments | Post a new comment No shouting and no laughing: The films of Aki Kaurismaki At the beginning of 2007 there was just one film and one short from lugubrious Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki available on dvd in the UK. Now, thanks to the release of his most recent film. Lights in the Dusk, along with three collections of his films that take in a large chunk of his back catalogue, these have now been joined by eleven more. This is a cause for (suitably deadpan) celebration. Graeme explores Kaurismaki's secret ambition 'to make films that the viewer walks out from feeling a little happier than when entering the cinema'. No comments | Post a new comment Portraits of the Artists - Edvard Munch and Van Gogh This week, Graeme looks at two subtle, engaging and unconventional films about artists - Peter Watkin's Edvard Munch, and Maurice Pialat's Van Gogh. Edvard Munch has recently been released by Masters of Cinema in its complete 211 minute version. It is thrilling, involving filmmaking, steeped in Munch's art and words, that gives a portrait not just of an individual, but also of the society in which he lived. Van Gogh, set in the last two months of the painter's life, presents a man - not just a myth. 1 comments | Post a new comment Death and Revolution - Two Romanian Satires A number of Romanian films are currently finding international acclaim. Just two films from that country are currently, or soon to be, available on DVD in the UK, Cristi Puiu's The Death of Mr Lazarescu, a dark, absurdist satire in which, throughout the course of one Saturday night, a man gets ever weaker as he is ferried around in an ambulance, looking for a hospital that will take responsibility for him, and Corneliou Porumboiu's 12:08 East of Bucharest, in which the host of a provincial talk show tries to get to the bottom of what happened in his town while revolution was happening elsewhere in the country 1989. A deserving Camera d'Or winner at Cannes, it's a mordantly, bleakly funny film, and as with Lazarescu, leaves you keen to see more from the crop of new directors at work in the country. No comments | Post a new comment Palms - An indelibly powerful, poetic and provocative film Palms is a film like no other. Made as Artur Aristakisyan's graduation film, it is an indelibly powerful, poetic and provocative work, filmed among the beggars and homeless community in Kishinev, Moldova. Across two hours of of searing, poignant and authentically discomforting images, Aristakisyan addresses his unborn son, telling him to reject completely any system that is detrimental to the freedom of our spirit. Remorselessly following logic into the abyss, he comes to the conclusion that the only hope for his son to remain untainted in his spirit is to become a beggar. Aristakisyan calls the film 'a string of prayer beads for the eyes ... to polish up our vision'. Once seen, it simply cannot be forgotten. No comments | Post a new comment Two African Films - Abouna and Waiting for Happiness This week, Graeme looks at two films from Africa, Abderrahmane Sissako's Waiting for Happiness and Mahamet-Saleh Haroun's Abouna, considering them in the light of recurrent themes, such as seeking, waiting and abiding, found in journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski's writings on his life in the continent. No comments | Post a new comment Partition - A provocative reflection on the division of a nation This week, Graeme looks at Ken McMullen's powerful and provocative film about the 1947 Partition of India, Partition, available for the first time on DVD, exclusively from MovieMail. Featuring a remarkably strong cast that reads like a who's who of Indian acting - Saeed Jaffrey, Roshan Seth, Zohra Sehgal and Zia Mohyeddin - and adapted by Tariq Ali from Saadat Hasan Manto's famous short story, Toba Tek Singh, Partition is a timely reflection on the causes and tumultuous effects of dividing a nation along religious lines. 2 comments | Post a new comment A Flash in the Sunset - The American Folk Blues Festivals, 1962-69 The four volumes of The American Folk Blues Festival, 1962-69, host an amazing collection of rare footage of blues artists filmed on tour in Europe in the 1960s. Featuring then newly 'rediscovered' musicians such as Son House, Skip James, Bukka White and Sippie Wallace alongside emerging talent such as Buddy Guy and Junior Wells, and established favourites such as Muddy Waters and Sonny Boy Williamson, these were tours and concerts that inspired a whole new generation of enthusiasts to take to the blues. Graeme picks out some of the highlights. No comments | Post a new comment Jan Svankmajer - An introduction and conversation with DVD producer Michael Brooke This week, in a special interview programme, Graeme introduces and discusses the work of Czech animator filmmaker Jan Svankmajer with Michael Brooke, the producer of the BFI's recent 3 disc set of his complete short films. They consider, among other things, Svankmajer's themes, his collaborators, his work in other media, and his enforced breaks from filmmaking. 3 comments | Post a new comment Not all about trains! The wider world of British Transport Films This week, Graeme looks at Off the Beaten Track, the latest volume in the BFI's series of British Transport Films, and which is a good example of the wide range of films produced by the Unit. With three Oscar-nominated natural history films (one of them a winner) included, along with films about channel crossings, sea ports, Britain's industrial heritage and moving extraordinary loads across the country, the collection gives the lie to the common supposition that British Transport Films must all be about trains. Notable too is the beautifully articulated narration of thoughtful commentaries on a number of the films. No comments | Post a new comment Mother and Son / Blue: Two sublime, life-affirming reflections on mortality This week, Graeme considers two films which create sublime, life-affirming artworks out of the subject of mortality and impending death. Both are utterly unique in their form and style. They are Aleksandr Sokurov's Mother and Son, in which a son cares for his dying mother in a world that has been distorted into one of dreamlike intensity, and Derek Jarman's Blue in which Jarman reflects poignantly and poetically on his life and impending death. 1 comments | Post a new comment Into Great Silence - A unique documentary about monastery life This week, Graeme looks at two films whose style is influenced by the form of religious experience that they communicate. Firstly, there's Into Great Silence, Philip Groning's unique documentary about life in La Grande Chartreuse, the mother house of the Carthusian order, in which he tries to go beyond mere depiction to make the film replicate the actual experience of the monastery. By contrast, Roberto Rossellini's film of a few episodes from the life of St Francis, Francesco Giullare di Dio, has a joyful simplicity that highlights the more light-hearted nature of Franciscanism. No comments | Post a new comment Decomposition and preservation form the themes of this week's filmcast, with thoughts on Bill Morrison's Decasia, in which damaged and degraded film stock is used to create a fascinating work in which the medium itself interacts with the subjects shown. By contrast, also considered are the five unclassifiable collections in the Retour de Flamme series, in which archivist-restorers Serge Bromberg and Eric Lange present the films that they have rescued from the depradations of time and decay. No comments | Post a new comment Claude Lanzmann's 9 1/2 hour film about the Holocaust, Shoah is, he says, "a fight against generalities". It is a film of active listening in which he interviews survivors and eye-witnesses and visits the places connected with the Nazi extermination of the Jews, grounding the events in people, details and everyday events in order to establish an archaeology and an oral history of genocide. It is an immensely important film that will caution you against taking anything - from landscapes to peaceful times to the survival of a people - for granted, ever again. No comments | Post a new comment 'Try a little tenderness': some films from Albert & David Maysles With two films from the Maysles Brothers, Salesman and Grey Gardens, about to see their first UK DVD release, Graeme looks at the distinctive empathy of their documentary films, taking in those already mentioned along with the five films they made in partnership with the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude. No comments | Post a new comment This week's filmcast looks at young relationships ruined by wartime. It takes its theme from a brief scene in Mikhail Kalatozov's The Cranes are Flying, in which Veronika dashes across a street through moving tanks. This juxtaposition suddenly makes her, and by extension all humans in the film, seem tender and terribly vulnerable. The same discomforting feeling also exists in the second film considered, Jiri Weiss's Romeo, Juliet and Darkness, set in wartime Prague and in which in which a young man shelters a Jewish girl in the attic. No comments | Post a new comment Norman McLaren - A Unique Talent Norman McLaren was a unique talent in the history of animation. Through drawing, painting and scratching directly onto film strip, he created an extraordinary world of movement and metamorphosis, light and colour. He was continually experimenting with techniques, especially in regard to animated sound, and in his interpretations of music, from Quebecois folk songs to boogie woogie and jazz from Oscar Peterson, he created magical worlds of synaesthetic audiovisual equivalence. His work can be found on a highly covetable new box set collecting together 58 of his complete films along with numerous experiments and outtakes. No comments | Post a new comment British Science Fiction 1: The Andromeda Anthology Famous for being the series that introduced the viewing public to Julie Christie, A for Andromeda, and its sequel The Andromeda Breakthrough (in which Susan Hampshire took Christie's role), which were broadcast on BBC TV in 1961-62, were intelligent science-fiction series that, with their subject matter of cloning and genetics and their emphasis on changes to the world's weather patterns, make for very interesting viewing today. The first in an occasional series looking at British science-fiction on film. 2 comments | Post a new comment These are landmark American documentary films from the time of the Great Depression. The Plow that Broke the Plains (1936) is the story of the devastation wreaked on the Great Plains by wheat farming, The River (1937) a record of the price paid for the great wealth made possible through the vast reach of the Mississippi. With their striking imagery complemented by award-winning scores and narrative poetry, these films are still stirring today, and their ecological message will undoubtedly strike a prophetic note. No comments | Post a new comment Since 1979, The Quay Brothers have produced some of the most distinctive and wonderfully uncategorisable animated films, resonant with dreamlike imagery. Often basing their work around central European sources, they typically create hermetic worlds, endlessly suggestive and invested with desire, in which worn puppets play out their obscure motives. Here, Graeme takes a look at some of the films to be found on the bfi's new collection of their work. 1 comments | Post a new comment Love in Pest and Buda - three films from Karoly Makk Graeme takes a look at three films from the Hungarian director Karoly Makk - Love, Another Way and A long Weekend in Pest and Buda. Subtle, rewarding and beautiful, they are all centred around one of the director's main themes, that of 'irresolvable or contradictory relationships'. There's also a free dvd of Love to give away. No comments | Post a new comment Some of the most vital and powerful cinema being made today comes from Iran, Afghanistan and Kurdistan. Often, it is children's experiences that are foregrounded in the films. In recognition of the recent Universal Children's Day, Graeme takes a look at two such films from the region, Marzieh Meshkini's Stray Dogs and Bahman Ghobadi's Turtles can Fly. Dan Hunter also considers one of MovieMail's films of the year for 2006, Hayao Miyazaki's My Neighbour Totoro. No comments | Post a new comment The Murky World of Espionage + Competition This week, Graeme delves into the murky world of cold war espionage, casting his eye over two adaptations from John le Carre - The Spy who came in from the cold and The Deadly Affair, while Dan Hunter considers how the TV adaptation of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy differs from modern TV dramas. 1 comments | Post a new comment Three Scary Films + Competition This week, in time for Halloween, the MovieMail Filmcast takes a look at three films that may put a little shiver down your spine - Herzog's Nosferatu the Vampyre, the Ealing portmanteau collection Dead of Night and Jonathan Miller's adaptation of the famous MR James story, Whistle and I'll come to you. There's a free dvd of this last film to be given away in an easy competition too, so have a listen - you may be lucky! 2 comments | Post a new comment Humphrey Jennnings was one of Britain's greatest filmmakers. He is primarily known for three films, widely acclaimed as masterpieces, yet which - probably because they are ostensibly documentaries and were made in wartime - still deserve a wider audience. Here, Graeme takes a look at the work of the man that Lindsay Anderson described as 'the only real poet the British cinema has yet produced'. No comments | Post a new comment Why did a film portrait of social attitudes made in Sweden in 1967 end up in the American supreme court after being seized by US customs and declared 'obscene'? Three decades after this initial controversy, what does the film still hold for us today? This week Graeme looks at Vilgot Sjoman's I am Curious - Yellow and also considers its near-contemporary, Jean-Luc Godard's Sympathy for the Devil. 1 comments | Post a new comment Sexual Allure, Ossessione and Pandora's Box Inspired by a recent newsletter feature on some of the sexiest performances in film, Graeme takes a detailed look at two performances, one by a man - Massimo Girotti in Visconti's Ossessione, and one by a woman - Louise Brook's in GW Pabst's Pandora's Box. In both cases, directorial wiles emphasised the stars erotic apeal. No comments | Post a new comment Sensual, metaphysical studies of the human condition often laced with elements of the absurd, Hiroshi Teshigahara's films are like few others in their alliance of image and sound. Here Graeme tales a look at his first three films, all made in collaboration with experimental composer Toru Takemitsu and writer Kobo Abe, and all now available in the UK. 1 comments | Post a new comment In the early 1950s, Ingmar Bergman made two films on the islands of Stockholm's archipelago, Summer Interlude and Summer with Monika. Both are celebrations of summertime, youth and the freshness of young love, yet they are two very different films in tone and style and make an interesting comparison. No comments | Post a new comment Classic British Transport Films are the unheralded and often overlooked gems of Britain's film heritage. With their superlative photography, imaginative approach to different subjects, quirky humour, inspired editing and the involvement of established and upcoming talents in the BTF in-house production team, there are numerous moments when the films transcend their perceived status. With three volumes now available, they are ripe for revisiting. 1 comments | Post a new comment Michael Haneke's Hidden is one of the most talked-about films of recent years. An enigmatic film that raises questions of surveillance, immigration and integration, it is an important film about Europe in the 21st century and about coming to terms with guilt on both a personal and a national level. Graeme Hobbs and Dan Hunter discuss the film's themes and the issues it raises. 2 comments | Post a new comment The Cremator and Mother Joan of the Angels This week Graeme reviews two films from 1960s Eastern Europe - Juraj Herz's The Cremator and Jerzy Kawalerowicz's Mother Joan of the Angels.'Both are visually striking and at times unsettling and both are shot through with black humour. Both have also been recently reclaimed from the cinematic wilderness with new presentations on DVD. No comments | Post a new comment Adequate Images and Ecstatic Landscapes: a short introduction to the films of Werner Herzog For over four decades, Werner Herzog has been making films like no-one else. Here, Graeme takes a look at just what characteristics make his films so distinctive, drawing examples of his approach from some of his early films and setting his new release, Grizzly Man, in context. 2 comments | Post a new comment People on Sunday and Boudu Saved From Drowning This week Graeme looks at two films from the 1930s in which daily life on the streets of, respectively, Berlin and Paris, has a decisive influence on the atmosphere of the films, both of which have retained a highly enjoyable freshness across the years. They are Siodmak and Ulmer's People on Sunday and Jean Renoir's Boudu Saved from Drowning. No comments | Post a new comment Carl Theodor Dreyer is one of the great artists of world cinema. With a style increasingly honed to a kind of purity, his films reward repeated viewings. Four of his films are newly available on DVD, and this week Graeme reviews two of them, Day of Wrath and Master of the House. No comments | Post a new comment Portrait of Jason and David Holzmans Diary This week Graeme reviews two landmark works of cinema verite, both made in New York in 1967: Shirley Clarke's Portrait of Jason and Jim McBride's David Holzman's Diary. No comments | Post a new comment This week Graeme reviews two films set in the latter stages of the Second World War. No comments | Post a new comment This week Graeme investigates two films in which a couple's intimate relationship is imposed upon and changed by a larger political situation. No comments | Post a new comment How can I listen\subscribe to MovieMail's Podcast?You can download individual programs using the links above. Alternatively you can subscribe to the Podcast using iTunes.
iTunes will download the latest edition and any new ones when they become available. Once you have the podcast, you can either transfer it to your mp3 player or listen to it on your computer. |
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These unique audio programmes by Graeme Hobbs are considered and insightful introductions to selected films and directors. They aim to help you appreciate more fully the themes and context of the films in question. Graeme brings an artist's eye to bear on the films and the programmes are relaxed and beautifully delivered - try one with a cup of tea! Listening and downloading is simple - you don't need an iPod or mp3 player, just a computer. Those with iTunes can easily subscribe to the podcast and automatically receive new programmes.
