Movie history: Seven Samurai and Casablanca

About this episode

This episode explores the history and impact of influential films including Seven Samurai and Casablanca.

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is media, culture and creative industries lecturer Sarah Jilani. We start in 1954 with the Japanese film Seven Samurai which is widely considered to be one of world cinema's most influential films. Then, we hear about the 2006 Hindi film Rang de Basanti which broke box-office records and inspired thousands of young Indians to march for justice. We delve into the BBC Archives to hear from director Leni Riefenstahl about one of the most controversial propaganda movies ever made, Triumph of the Will, which was filmed at the Nazis’ Nuremberg rally in 1934. Next, we hear about the challenges of making the Hollywood 1942 classic, Casablanca, from the late son and nephew of the screenwriters. Finally, the story of the Spanish language fantasy, Pan's Labyrinth, which took the world by storm in 2006. Contributors: Hisao Kurosawa - movie producer, head of the Kurosawa Production Company and son of Seven Samurai director Akira Kurosawa. Sarah Jilani - a Lecturer in the Department of Media, Culture and Creative Industries, City St George's, University of London. Kamlesh Pandey…

People in this episode

Host: Max Pearson

Guest: Sarah Jilani

Topics covered

• film history
• cinema influence
• propaganda films
• Hollywood classics
• cultural impact

Keywords

• Seven Samurai
• Casablanca
• film history
• propaganda
• cultural influence

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Seven Samurai, Rang de Basanti, Triumph of the Will, Casablanca, Pan's Labyrinth

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