Cinéclub Podcast – Détails, épisodes et analyse

Cinéclub Podcast #8 is a conversation with Daniel van der Velden, who works alongside Vinca Kruk under the name Metahaven. They are based in the Netherlands and produce all kinds of interesting work including graphic design work, films, and writing, including their essay Digital Tarkovsky which was published in book form in 2018. A recent bio is below:

The work of Metahaven encompasses filmmaking, writing, and design. Their films include The Feeling Sonnets (Transitional Object) (2024), Chaos Theory (2021), Hometown (2018), and Information Skies (2016), nominated for the European Film Awards 2017. Their films have been screened at festivals including CPH:DOX, Docs Against Gravity, IFFR, and others. Metahaven’s recent publications include Digital Tarkovsky (2018), a book-length essay about cinema. Metahaven has presented solo exhibitions at MoMA PS1, New York, ICA, London, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, Izolyatsia, Kyiv,  e-flux, New York, State of Concept Athens, and Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, among others, as well as participated in group exhibitions at Artists Space, New York, the Museum of Modern Art Warsaw, Ghost: 2561, Bangkok, M HKA, Antwerp, the Gwangju Biennale, the Sharjah Biennial, and many others. 

In Digital Tarkovsky, Metahaven use the films of Andrei Tarkovsky to imagine new possibilities for filmmaking and digital technology. This conversation with Daniel was recorded back in June, and we discussed the links between smartphones and film, the concept of “sloppy time”, the potential for artificial intelligence to create a new form of cinema, how our changing sense of duration in the digital realm might be considered Tarkovskyan, and much more.

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

Links below to some of the things we mention in the episode

* Digital Tarkovsky as a free PDF file

* Buy Digital Tarkovsky in book form

* This is the only UK seller I can find who still has copies of the book, which is out of print. I haven’t used the site so can’t personally vouch for it, but it does appear to be in stock.

* Metahaven’s website

* Metahaven’s Linktree

* Links here to commentary on Metahaven’s work, talks they have given, etc.

* Metahaven on Instagram

* The apple sequence from Once Upon a Time in Antaloia (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2011)

* Information on Metahaven’s film Chaos Theory

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 notes

Links 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

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.

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

* Ciné-Real website

* Electric Blue Cinema on Instagram

* Other Sussex film clubs and programmers mentioned in the episode

* Kino Collective

* Depot Cinelogue

* Lazy Girls Film Club

* Worthing Film Club

* East Sussex Psychedelic Film Club

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 #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.

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

Links below to some of the things we mention in the episode

* Juliet Jacques’ website

* Jean-Luc Godard Saved My Life

* Finding a Home in the Avant-Garde - on the London Filmmaker’s Co-Op

* (nostalgia)

* 10 Great Transgender Films - including The Crying Game

* City of Lost Souls

* Juliet’s book, Trans: A Memoir

* Juliet’s films

* Approach/Withdraw

* You Will Be Free

* Revivification

* Other films discussed in the episode

* The Crying Game BFI DVD/Blu-ray (liner notes contain an essay by Juliet)

* City of Lost Souls on BFI Player

* Clocktime Trailer (Stuart Pound, 1972)

* Speak (John Latham, 1962)

* (nostalgia) (Hollis Frampton, 1971)

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

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.

Chapters

* 00:01:13 - Intro to Stella Keen and John Marchant

* 00:05:25 - Jeff’s life before filmmaking

* 00:07:49 - Brighton and first experiments with film

* 00:10:00 - Better Books

* 00:13:17 - London Filmmakers Co-op

* 00:16:46 - War in Jeff’s films

* 00:20:37 - Jeff’s love of film, and film references in his work

* 00:23:53 - Jeff’s wife, Jackie, and their creative collaboration

* 00:30:40 - Jeff’s work outside of film

* 00:34:22 - maintaining the archive

* 00:39:16 - Jeff’s legacy

You can also find this podcast on…

* Apple Podcasts

* Soundcloud

* 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.

This podcast 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.

You can email me at atthecineclub@gmail.com.

Show notes

Links to some of Jeff’s films:

Marvo Movie (1967)

Cineblatz (1967)

White Lite (1968)

Rayday Film (1968-76)

Jeff Keen Films (Channel 4 documentary on Jeff, 1983)

Other links

* Jeff’s website

* Stella’s website

* John Marchant gallery

* Gazwrx, BFI box set of Jeff’s films

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

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

This is a very special edition of the podcast because it’s a celebration of the first Cineclub Fanzine which is now available. It’s 52 pages and covers cinematic representations of the German urban guerilla group The Red Army Faction from the 1960s to the late 2000s, Claude Chabrol’s 1962 film ‘The Third Lover’, and some pieces inspired by the excellent book Destroy All Movies on punks in cinema. It’s very DIY and sold on a not-for-profit basis at a cost that just covers the cost of printing, and it’s yours for £3.50 plus postage. Buy it here.

So this episode is a celebration of film fanzines, and of fanzines in general. It features a conversation with Teal Triggs, a Professor at the Royal College of Art and the author of the book Fanzines, a beautiful collection of zines with insightful essays. I also talk to Jay Hinman. Jay has released a cinema zine called Film Hemmorhage. but also runs various zine-related projects including the music zine Radio Dies Screaming and a website dedicated to fanzines called Fanzine Hemorrhage.

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