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Cinéclub Podcast #7 is a conversation with John Higgs, author of books such as William Blake vs The World, I Have America Surrounded: The Life of Timothy Leary and Stranger Than We Can Imagine: Making Sense of the Twentieth Century. For today’s episode, we focused mostly on his most recent book, Love and Let Die: Bond, The Beatles and the British Psyche, with a short diversion into the film work of the ectronic music duo The KLF, whose story John grappled with in his excellent book The KLF: Chaos, Magic and the Band Who Burned a Million Pounds.
We discuss Sean Connery’s influence on shaping the cinematic Bond, The Beatles’ diversions in Bond’s universe in Help!, George Lazenby’s more vulnerable character in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, the contemporary reception and lasting influnce of Magical Mystery Tour, and the future of the Bond franchise. Plus, some chat about the KLF’s film ventures: Waiting, The White Room and Rites of Mu, as well as the video Watch the K Foundation Burn a Million Quid.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cineclub.substack.com -
In 2024, things might look bleak for communal film culture. Cinema attendance has been stubborn to return to pre-pandemic levels, and the abundance of choice on streaming services or, for the concerted cinephile, boutique Blu-ray labels, can’t be helping. But despite all this, over the last few years a healthy number of film clubs, societies and small programming strands have sprung up, mostly run by enthusiasts rather than professionals.
To find out more, I spoke to London’s Ciné-Real, a film club that screens almost exclusively from 16mm prints, and Brighton’s Electric Blue Cinema, an experimental screening space run outside of traditional cinema settings.
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At 11:20pm on Thursday 2nd January 2003, 3.4 million people in the UK tuned in to watch Beverly Hills Cop II on BBC One. Another 900,000, though, were over only Channel 4, 15 minutes in to the documentary Beijing Swings. I was one of them.
Controversy began even before the programme aired. On 30th December, The Guardian reported that Channel 4 planned to broadcast images of a man, quote, “biting into the body of a stillborn infant”, and, “a man drinking wine that has had an amputated penis marinaded in it.” They quoted the then-Conservative MP Ann Widdecombe, who said, “Jesus Christ said suffer for the little ones to come unto me, not that they should be eaten for public entertainment. This programme sounds hideous.”
The film’s presenter, art critic Waldemar Januszczak, says that such moralising missed the point of the documentary. In our conversation we discuss the changing face of Beijing as it prepared for the 2008 Olympic Games; Waldemar’s ‘participatory’ approach to documentary; his interview with Zhu Yu, the man behind the controversial performance piece Eating People; authenticity in Chinese art; and the sorry state of arts programming on British television today.
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Cinéclub Podcast #4 is a conversation with Juliet Jacques. I wanted to talk to Juliet for a couple of reasons. Firstly she has written extensively and broadly about film, including work published by Sight and Sound, Criterion Current, Frieze, The Guardian, Novara Media and many more. Secondly I’m a big fan of her book Trans: A Memoir, published in 2015. The book started life as a series of blogs for the Guardian called Transgender Journey, which charted the process of Juliet’s transition, and incorporates trans history and critiques of trans representation, including in film.
In our conversation we discuss her formative experiences at the Cornerhouse cinema in Manchester and the Brighton Cinematheque; transgender representation in films such as Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s In a Year of 13 Moons and Neil Jordan’s The Crying Game; Rosa von Prauheim’s City of Lost Souls; the joys of Ubuweb; and the three films Juliet has made: Approach/Withdraw, which she co-directed with Ker Wallwork in 2016; You Will be Free from 2017, and the documentary Revivification from 2018.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cineclub.substack.com -
Cinéclub Podcast #3 is a conversation with Ray Newman. Ray is a writer of fiction, including the novel The Gravedigger’s Boy (2019) and short story collection Municipal Gothic (2022). He also writes about film on his website, with an interest in British film of the 60s and 70s. In this episode we discuss Ray’s work, including ghost stories in council houses, haunted films, sex and sickness in British cinema and new towns on film.
Ray and I also talk about Joanna Hogg’s 2023 film The Eternal Daughter, a sort-of ghost story set in an eerily deserted Welsh hotel. We discuss the film’s exploration of pre-emptive grief, agins, representing loved ones in art, and the use of genre tropes nodding to films like The Shining or the BBC’s Ghost Stories for Christmas series.
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Cine Blatz, Meatdaze, Kino Stacatto, Pulverised Cinema. These are just a few of the mysterious titles from the sprawling filmography of Jeff Keen, the Brighton-based experimental filmmaker and artist, whose career spanned from the late 1950s to his death in 2012.
In Jeff’s films friends and family adopt star personas yanked from Hollywood B-movies, creation and destruction intermingle and, typically, everything moves at a breakneck pace. This podcast explores Jeff’s life and work in film and beyond, including his experiences in the Second World War; his involvement in the swinging scene surrounding Better Books in the 1960s; his love of Hollywood; and his collaboration with his wife, Jackie.
Includes contributions from Stella Keen, Jeff’s daughter, and gallerist John Marchant, who recently hosted a show of Jeff’s work at his Brighton gallery.
Visit cineclub.substack.com for show notes and more. Email at [email protected]
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The 4th of January 2024 marks the 160th birthday of the Hove filmmaker George Albert Smith. To celebrate, this podcast takes a deep dive into Smith’s life and career including his involvement in spooky ‘thought transferrances’ experiments; the nature of his collaboration with his wife, the actress Laura Bailey; the films in which he expanded film grammar to include close-ups and sophisticated editing; and his experiments with colour.
This episode includes contributions from Dr. Frank Gray, author of The Brighton School and the Birth of British Film, and Alexia Lazou, assistant curator at Hove Museum.
Visit cineclub.substack.com for show notes and more. Email at [email protected]
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cineclub.substack.com
