In The Mood For Films
Stagione 2
Mean Girls
The Last Seduction
The Fly
In The Mood For Love
Stagione 1
di Donald Lowndes Sanderson
In which Donald, Wes and Rob wgo back to high school (again) They discuss the how we came to the film individually, what it means to us and context behind the creation of this early noughties masterpiece. We also consider this film alongside high-school set films such as Lehmann's nihilistically comic Heathers, the satirical Election by Alexander Payne, and the joy that Kleiser's Grease brings (or not!). So find your tribe and listen in to our occasionally controversial (in cinematic terms) discussion. Alongside these, we have our usual dip into what we've been watching and our filmic recommendations.
In which Donald, Wes and Rob walk down the mean streets of film noir and neo noir. They discuss the how we came to the film individually, what it means to us and context behind the creation of this 90s masterpiece. We also consider this film alongside other noirs from the period including Kasden's graphic retelling of man meets woman and death ensues, Fincher's take on the noir from 2014, Gone Girl and the granddadddy of them all, Billy Wilder's masterpiece, Double Indemnity. Are you Team Dietrichson or Team Neff? Alongside these, we have our usual dip into what we've been watching and our filmic recommendations.
In which Donald, Wes and Rob discuss the horrible beauty of Cronenberg's 1986 masterpiece The Fly. We discuss the how we came to the film individually, what it means to us and context behind the creation of this cinematic gem. We also consider other body horror films such as Schrader's controversial 1982 Cat People, Blomkamp's political homage to this strand of horror, 2009's District 9, and the classic lycanthropic movie Landis's American Werewolf in London. Alongside these, we have our usual dip into what we're watching and our filmic recommendations.
In which Donald, Wes and Rob the melancholy beauty of Wong Kar Wai's masterpiece In The Mood For Love. We discuss the how we came to the film individually, what it means to us and context behind the creation of this cinematic gem. We also consider Wong's other standout film Chungking Express and how this is, stylistically, very different film but covers similar themes of transglobalism and the eroticism of loss. Two films also considered alongside ITMfL are Ye's 2000 Sixth Generation film Souzhou River and Joe Wright's 2007 Atonement, both pictures that examine romantic loss and its consequences. Alongside these, we have our usual dip into what we're watching and our filmic recommendations.
In which Wes, Rob and Donald discuss the many facets of this seasonal classic. Other films discussed include Joe Dante's Gremlins, Wilder's The Apartment and one of Capra's less well known films, 1938s You Can't Take it with You. Oh, and we discuss whether James Stewart is a hot lead!
In which Donald, Rob and Wes discuss this enigmatic and eerie example of the Australian New Wave. Set in 1900, the film begins in Appleyard College, a girls private school, with students welcoming St Valentine's Day. The girls and some of the teachers go on the titular picnic to the ominous Hanging Rock. The day ends with three girls and a teacher going missing, and the repercussions of this on the college and the community. We then go on to compare the film to other examples of the New Wave, specifically, Wake in Fright and Walkabout, as well as a British film, The Falling, that takes its cues from Picnic. As an added extra we have an interview with Luke Shenton Sharp, writer and co-director of the short film, Hope, that accompanies our screening, about the process of film making. All this, as well as our regular features and recommendations.
The Blair Witch Project is a 1999 American psychological horror film written, directed, and edited by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez. One of the most successful independent films of all time, it is a "found footage" pseudo-documentary in which three students (Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams, and Joshua Leonard) hike into the Appalachian Mountains near Burkittsville, Maryland, to shoot a documentary about a local myth known as the Blair Witch. Myrick and Sánchez conceived of a fictional legend of the Blair Witch in 1993. They developed a 35-page screenplay with the dialogue to be improvised. About 20 hours of footage was shot, which was edited down to 82 minutes. Shot on an original budget of $35,000–$60,000, the film had a final cost of $200,000–$750,000 after post-production and marketing. When The Blair Witch Project premiered at the Sundance Film Festival at midnight on January 23, 1999, its promotional marketing campaign listed the actors as either "missing" or "deceased". The Blair Witch Project was a sleeper hit that grossed nearly $250 million worldwide. It is consistently listed as one of the scariest movies of all time. The Blair Witch Project launched a media franchise, which includes two sequels (Book of Shadows and Blair Witch), novels, comic books, and video games. It revived the found-footage technique and influenced similarly successful horror films such as Paranormal Activity (2007), REC (2007) and Cloverfield (2008).
In which Donald, Wes and Rob discuss the phenomenon of the high school movie as exemplified by John Hughes's '80s classic Ferris Bueller's Day Off. In the US this location for films is so ubiquitous that it can be part of the horror, musical, comedy and even film noir genres. Other films we discuss are Wes Anderson's sophomore movie Rushmore, Dazed and Confused, Richard Linklater's next film after Slacker and Lindsay Anderson's incendiary English public school based If... . Our school days are a time we never forget, but what do we remember about them?