Cinéclub Podcast

Cinéclub Podcast number 21 is a conversation with Nico Bruinsma, usually known as Nico B., of the Blu-Ray label Cult Epics. Nico’s name has come up on the show before, because he released restored versions of Marleen Gorris’ first three films, which were discussed in episode 17 with Sue Thornham. On that podcast I said that I wanted to do more on Dutch cinema, and later it occurred to me that Nico would be the ideal person to ask, since he has put out so many great Dutch films on Cult Epics. We decided to focus on Scorpio films, the production company formed by directors Wim Verstappen and Pim de la Parra in 1965, and discuss a number of titles from across their output.Verstappen and de la Parra were both students at the Nederlandse Filmacademie which opened in 1958, and were on the editorial board of the film magazine Skoop, published from 1963. Scorpio’s first feature, Verstappen’s De minder gelukkige terugkeer van Joszef Katus narr het land van Rembrant (1966), was made for a tiny budget of 10,000 guilders. The success of 1969’s Obsessions was eclipsed two years later by Blue Movie, which tapped into a newly sexually enlightened audience. Over 2 million people saw it, and it energised the moribund film industry in the Netherlands. Paul Verhoeven, whose Wat zien ik? was released the same year, said that 1971 was “the year that Dutch cinema was reborn.”The frank sexuality of Blue Movie and other Scorpio releases doesn’t tell the whole story, however. Wim Verstappen followed Blue Movie with VD in 1972, a pitch-black satire that provocatively frustrates the anticipated sex sequences with abrupt cuts to graphic slaughterhouse footage. Pim and Wim also made more personal films: Verstappen’s Dakota (1974), a story about an obsessive longer pilot, was filmed on the island of Curacao where the director grew up. Similarly, Pim de la Parra made Wan Pipel (1976), the first film to be made in his home country of Suriname after the country won independence from the Dutch. Both of these films went over budget, and both tanked at the box office. Scorpio never recovered, and declared bankruptcy in 1978.Nico and I discussed Dutch cinema before Scorpio, Blue Movie’s blend of arthouse cinema and sex, the gear change of VD, the financial failure and artistic success of Dakota and Wan Pipel, the legacy of Pim and Wim in the Netherlands, and much more.You can also find this episode on…* Apple Podcasts* Pocket Casts* I will no longer be uploading podcasts to Spotify and have removed all previous episodes of the podcast from that platform. It’s something I’ve been meaning to do for ages, because Spotify is a transparently evil company that delights in ripping off musicians, promoting AI slop, and enabling genocide in Palestine.Show notes* Cult Epics website* Articles on Pim and Wim at the Eye Film Institute website* Pim and Wim: Scorpio Films* Skoop and Skrien: A New Wind* Dutch Film Academy* Article on the troubled production of Dakota at Nostalgia Kinky* Stream Pim de la Parra’s Rubia’s Jungle (1970) for free at Eye Film Player* Buy issue 2 of the Cinéclub fanzine* 44 pages w/ articles on Conrad Rooks’ bizarre, star-studded countercultural artifact Chappaqua, some shorter pieces on punk and film, and an essay linking Bertrand Tavernier’s 1974 film The Watchmaker of St. Paul (also known as The Clockmaker of St. Paul) to Paul Vecchiali’s La Machine from 1977. DIY and sold on a not-for-profit basis at a cost that just covers the cost of printing: £2.50 plus postage. Shipping internationally.* Issue 1 is also still available, and you can buy both as a bundle. 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 number 19 is a special episode because it’s a tie-in with the release of the second edition of the Cinéclub fanzine. This issue features an article on Conrad Rooks’ bizarre, star-studded countercultural artifact Chappaqua, with a focus on the long saga of its production, some shorter pieces on punk and film, and an essay linking Bertrand Tavernier’s 1974 film The Watchmaker of St. Paul (also known as The Clockmaker of St. Paul) to Paul Vecchiali’s La Machine from 1977. It’s £2.50 plus postage, shipping internationally, and you can buy a copy here.It’s the latter film we’ll be focusing on in today’s episode, and to do so I was joined by Nick Newman. Nick is Managing Editor at The Film Stage, a freelance programmer, and most recently he launched a podcast, Emulsion, which I heartily recommend. As Nick mentioned in our conversation, I knew he was a fan of La Machine because he Tweeted about it around the time of Paul Vecchiali’s death in 2023. His Tweet stuck with me because this film is so often overlooked, even amongst the filmography of a still neglected director like Vecchiali. In the past few years, a few of Vecchiali’s films have been restored and re-released: in this episode we mention L’Etrangleur from 1970 and Rosa la rose, fille publique from 1986, recently reissued in the UK on Blu-ray by Radiance Films, but La Machine remains difficult to see. If you would like to see it, see the show notes below.Nick and I start by discussing Vecchiali’s background and his production company, Diagonale. We then get into the film, exploring its approach to genre, its representation of mass media, what it has to say about the death penalty, the reasons why the film still resonates today, and much more. I started by asking Nick about the broader post-New Wave cinema landscape in France and how this generation of filmmakers differed from the nouvelle vague that preceded them.Chapters00:02:39 - post-New Wave / post-1968 French cinema00:11:18 - Paul Vecchiali00:23:04 - Diagonale00:27:43 - La Machine and the crime genre00:37:55 - La Machine as commentary on the death penalty00:46:48 - the courtroom sequence00:51:14 - why La Machine still resonates todayYou can also find this podcast on…* Apple Podcasts* Pocket Casts* I will no longer be uploading podcasts to Spotify and have removed all previous episodes of the podcast from that platform. It’s something I’ve been meaning to do for ages, because Spotify is a transparently evil company that delights in ripping off musicians, promoting AI slop, and enabling genocide in Palestine.Shownotes* Buy issue 2 of the Cinéclub fanzine* 44 pages w/ articles on Conrad Rooks’ bizarre, star-studded countercultural artifact Chappaqua, some shorter pieces on punk and film, and an essay linking Bertrand Tavernier’s 1974 film The Watchmaker of St. Paul (also known as The Clockmaker of St. Paul) to Paul Vecchiali’s La Machine from 1977. DIY and sold on a not-for-profit basis at a cost that just covers the cost of printing: £2.50 plus postage. Shipping internationally.* Watch La Machine (I am sharing these links as, to the best of my knowledge, the film is not currently commercially available)* On YouTube (no English subtitles)* Via Google Drive * Nick’s writing, and episodes of his Emulsion podcast, at The Film Stage* Some useful articles on Paul Vecchiali* Essay on Rosa la rose, fille publique by Steve Macfarlane for Metrograph* Notebook Primer: Diagonale and Co. by Patrick Preziosi for Mubi Notebook* Diagonale and Us by Axelle Ropert for Screen Slate* Paul Vecchiali, a Cinematic Franc-Tireur by Daniel Fairfax for Senses of Cinema 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 #17 is a conversation with Sue Thornham on the Dutch feminist filmmaker Marleen Gorris. Gorris made her debut with A Question of Silence in 1982. A provocative feminist film which uses and subverts popular genre conventions, as you’ll hear, it stirred up controversy amongst critics, particularly here in the UK. It was the first in what she envisaged as a series of four films, and was followed by Broken Mirrors, The Last Island and Antonia’s Line. The latter brought Gorris more commercial attention, attracting positive press, widespread distribution and even winning the Best Foreign Language Oscar in 1996. She went on to adapt Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, the first of a string of English-langiage films, but her later work was poorly distributed and fell into obscurity. Until recently, her early work, too, has been largely unavailable. Thankfully, her first three were lovingly restored and reissued by Cult Epics in 2023, and are now available again on DVD and Blu-Ray. Gorris herself has now retired from filmmaking.Sue Thornham is Professor Emeritus at the University of Sussex in Brighton, where she taught for many years and was, in fact, one of my tutors when I studied for my Master there. I mention that because it was in Sue’s Feminism and Film class that I first saw Broken Mirrors, when I was doing my Masters there, so I have her to thank for introducing me to Gorris’ work. In July this year Sue released an excellent book on Gorris. It’s called Marleen Gorris: Practices of Resistance and is published by Edinburgh University Press. Sue and I talked through Gorris’ career, including her tendency to play with genre, why her films rattled critics, themes of communities amongst women and the possibility of resisting patriarchy, the success of Antonia’s Line and the impact it might have had on her increasingly obscure later films, and more.I should warn you that there may be plot spoilers, but I would also say that these are not really the sort of films that rely on conventional plot twists and I don’t think there’s anything in this podcast that could really spoil the films but, now you know.Chapters* A Question of Silence (1982) - 00:09:39* Broken Mirrors (1984) - 00:16:49* The Last Island (1990) - 00:25:06* Antonia’s Line (1995) - 00:30:59* Mrs. Dalloway (1997) and The Luzhin Defence (2000) - 00:37:39* Carolina (2003) - 00:41:30* Within the Whirlwind (2009) - 00:44:01You can also find this episode on…* Apple Podcasts * Pocket Casts* I will no longer be uploading podcasts to Spotify and have removed all previous episodes of the podcast from that platform. It’s something I’ve been meaning to do for ages, because Spotify is a transparently evil company that delights in ripping off musicians, promoting AI slop, and enabling genocide in Palestine.Shownotes* Sue Thornham’s book Marleen Gorris: Practices of Resistance* The link has both print editions and the free Open Access PDF and ePub* The restored Marleen Gorris Triology at Cult Epics, including A Question of Silence, Broken Mirrors and The Last Island* Buy the Cinéclub fanzine* 52 pages w/ articles on cinematic representations of the German urban guerilla group The Red Army Faction, Claude Chabrol’s 1962 film The Third Lover’ and some pieces on punks in cinema. DIY and sold on a not-for-profit basis at a cost that just covers the cost of printing: £3.50 plus postage. 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 episode #15 is a conversation with Dan Erdman. As Dan mentions in the episode, his background is in archiving and preservation, and he works for the Chicago-based not-for-profit film and media archive Media Burn. You can find out more about them at their newly relaunched website, mediaburn.org. He also does a zine called Head Clog and, most importantly for this episode, he is the author of Let’s Go Stag: A History of Pornographic Film from the Invention of Cinema to 1970, published by Bloomsbury in 2021, and its this topic we’ll be focusing in the episode.We discuss the challenges facing archivists and historians researching old stag films, the ‘variety’ context in which they were originally shown, the vital social component of a stag film screening, the factors that led to the decline of the stag film in the 1960s, and much more.It was great talking to Dan: as I’m sure you’ll agree, he’s very engaging and funny and really makes this topic come alive. Please enjoy.You can also find this episode on…* Apple Podcasts * Pocket Casts* I will no longer be uploading podcasts to Spotify and have removed all previous episodes of the podcast from that platform. It’s something I’ve been meaning to do for ages, because Spotify is a transparently evil company that delights in ripping off musicians, promoting AI slop, and enabling genocide in Palestine.Shownotes* Info on Dan’s book, Let’s Go Stag: A History of Pornographic Film from the Invention of Cinema to 1970* Media Burn, the Chicago-based video archive Dan works for* Info on Dan’s zine, Head Clog* Linda Williams obituary in the New York Times* Buy the Cinéclub fanzine* 52 pages w/ articles on cinematic representations of the German urban guerilla group The Red Army Faction, Claude Chabrol’s 1962 film The Third Lover’ and some pieces on punks in cinema. DIY and sold on a not-for-profit basis at a cost that just covers the cost of printing: £3.50 plus postage. 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

When the French film historian George Sadoul coined the term ‘The Brighton School’ in 1945, he was primarily referring to two important filmmakers who began working in the late 1800s: James Williamson, and his friend George Albert Smith, though both lived and worked (to cite a well-worn local phrase) in “Hove, actually.” This podcast has covered G.A. Smith before, in the very first episode from January 2024. Back then, I spoke to Dr. Frank Gray, author of The Brighton School and the Birth of British Film, and I’m very happy to have Frank back for this episode to talk about James Williamson.Frank and I discuss Williamson’s encounters with Thomas Edison’s Kinetoscope; his background as a chemist; his relationship with George Albert Smith; the innovation of his films Attack on a China Mission and Fire!, and more.You can also find this episode on…* Apple Podcasts * Pocket Casts* I will no longer be uploading podcasts to Spotify and have removed all previous episodes of the podcast from that platform. It’s something I’ve been meaning to do for ages, because Spotify is a transparently evil company that delights in ripping off musicians, promoting AI slop, and enabling genocide in Palestine.Show notes* Buy the Cinéclub fanzine* 52 pages w/ articles on cinematic representations of the German urban guerilla group The Red Army Faction, Claude Chabrol’s 1962 film The Third Lover’ and some pieces on punks in cinema. DIY and sold on a not-for-profit basis at a cost that just covers the cost of printing: £3.50 plus postage.* James Williamson films* Devil’s Dyke Fun Fair (estimated 1896)* Attack on a China Mission (1900)* Stop Thief! (1901)* Fire! (1901)* More on BFI Player* The Cinéclub podcast on George Albert Smith, also featuring Frank Gray* Casting Shadows, a Radio 4 drama about early filmmaking in Brighton and Hove, including Williamson and Smith. Narrated by Frank Gray* Edwin S. Porter’s The Life of an American Fireman (1903)* Original version* Porter’s later re-cut version* Info on Hove Museum’s film collection, which includes James Williamson-related artefactsBibliography* David Fisher, Cinema By Sea: Film and Cinema in Brighton & Hove Since 1896 (Brighton: Terra, 2012)* Frank Gray, The Brighton School and the Birth of British Film (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019)* Martin Sopocy, James Williamson: Studied and Documents of a Pioneer of the Film Narrative (London: Associated University Presses, 1998)* Martin Sopocy, Postscripts to James Williamson in Film History, Vol. 22 No. 3 (2010) p.313-328 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 #11 is the second edition of the podcast designed to tie in with the release of the Cinéclub fanzine, which came out last month. The zine features a big piece on cinematic treatments of the German urban guerilla group The Red Army Faction and one key film there is The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum from 1976, directed by Volker Schlöndorff and Margharethe von Trotta and based on the book by Heinrich Boll.The eponymous protagonist of Katharina Blum is an ordinary woman who finds herself the subject of a police raid and subsequent interrogation after spending the night with a suspected member of an RAF-style terrorist group. She is hounded by the media, who collude unethically with the police, and push to her limits. The film ends with a shooting.To find out more I spoke to Julian Preece. Julian is a Professor of German at Swansea University and the author of a BFI Classics monograph on The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum which was released in 2022, as well as Baader-Meinhof and the Novel, published in 2012, and various articles in academic journals on the RAF or, as he refers to them in this discussion, the ‘RAF’.In our conversation we discuss the New German Cinema; the theme of surveillance; the film’s references to famous media images of the Red Army Faction; the importance of the musical score; and the subsequent films the directors made on similar subjects.You can also find this episode on…* Apple Podcasts* Pocket Casts* I will no longer be uploading podcasts to Spotify and have removed all previous episodes of the podcast from that platform. It’s something I’ve been meaning to do for ages, because Spotify is a transparently evil company that delights in ripping off musicians, promoting AI slop, and enabling genocide in Palestine.Show notes* Buy the Cinéclub fanzine* The ‘Red Army Faction on Film’ article includes writing on The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum as well as The German Sisters and The Legend of Rita, also discussed in the episode* Julian’s BFI Classics book on The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum* Julian’s book Baader-Meinhof and the Novel* The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum is, frustratingly, not available to stream at present. It is available on Blu-ray in the following editions:* Studio Canal* Criterion Collection 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 episode #9 is a conversation with Toby Amies. Toby is a documentary filmmaker, director of the features The Man Whose Mind Exploded from 2012, and In The Court of the Crimson King: King Crimson at 50 from 2022. We spoke online earlier in the year and discussed Toby’s previous life as a presenter on MTV, how he met Drako, the star of The Man Whose Mind Exploded, documentary ethics, working with Robert Fripp, and much more. You can also find this episode on…* Apple Podcasts* Pocket Casts* I will no longer be uploading podcasts to Spotify and have removed all previous episodes of the podcast from that platform. It’s something I’ve been meaning to do for ages, because Spotify is a transparently evil company that delights in ripping off musicians, promoting AI slop, and enabling genocide in Palestine.Show notes* Toby’s website* Watch The Man Whose Mind Exploded for free - Vimeo / Youtube* The website for In the Court of the Crimson King, with links to watch the film on various platforms* Slate article on Todd Phillips’ Hated: GG Allin & the Murder Junkies (1993)* New Yorker article on Ross McElwee (Sherman’s March, 1986) 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 #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.You can also find this podcast on…* Apple Podcasts* Pocket Casts* I will no longer be uploading podcasts to Spotify and have removed all previous episodes of the podcast from that platform. It’s something I’ve been meaning to do for ages, because Spotify is a transparently evil company that delights in ripping off musicians, promoting AI slop, and enabling genocide in Palestine.Show notesLinks below to some of the things we mention in the episode* John’s website* Info on Love and Let Die: Bond, The Beatles and the British Psyche* Info on The KLF: Chaos, Magic and the Band Who Burned a Million Pounds* East Sussex Psychedelic Film Club* Instagram* Twitter* Facebook* BFI compilation of KLF films/videos: 23 Seconds to Eternity* Blu-ray/DVD* On BFI Player* Waiting (Bill Butt, 1990) 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

Content warning: Beijing Swings contains some difficult, disturbing imagery that’s not for everyone. Some of the links on this page should be approached with caution, and this episode of the podcast contains discussion of some of the film’s challenging content.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.You can also find this podcast on…* Apple Podcasts* Pocket Casts* I will no longer be uploading podcasts to Spotify and have removed all previous episodes of the podcast from that platform. It’s something I’ve been meaning to do for ages, because Spotify is a transparently evil company that delights in ripping off musicians, promoting AI slop, and enabling genocide in Palestine.Show notes* Beijing Swings on Youtube* Kazakhstan Swings, the less controversial (but also very good) follow-up, on Youtube* ZCZ Films, Waldemar’s production company* The Real Thing, a column by Waldemar from 2004, in which he reflects on making Beijing Swings and the then-booming market in Chinese art* Info on the work by Beijing East Village artists at the Tate Modern* Contemporary coverage of Beijing Swings* The Guardian - C4 to show artist eating dead baby (30/12/2002)* Ros Coward - Perverts and narcissists (The Guardian, 1/1/2003)* BBC News - Baby-eating art show sparks upset (3/1/2003)* The Guardian - Reprimand over C4 cannibal ‘art’ (11/3/2003)* Anne Widdecombe’s motion condemning Beijing Swings, tabled in Parliament 3/4/2003 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. 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

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 atthecineclub@gmail.com 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