Writers on Film is the only podcast to focus on film books and to talk to the best authors working in the area of cinema. From Making Of tomes to biographies, studies to novelisations, author and film critic John Bleasdale is fascinated by where the written word intersects with the world of the big screen. Get bonus content on Patreon
A proud part of the Film Stories Podcast Network: www.filmstories.co.uk
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End of Year and Walter Chaw on Walter Hill from the Archives
Season 1 · Episode 201
Tuesday, December 31, 2024 • Duration 01:44:45
I'm joined by Walter Chaw to talk Walter Hill and his book A Walter Hill Film as well as look back on the year of 2024.
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The Malick Hour: Bilge Ebiri on TO THE WONDER
Season 1 · Episode 202
Friday, December 27, 2024 • Duration 01:14:05
Terrence Malick's 6th film premiered at the Venice Film Festival and starred Ben Affleck and Olga Kurylenko as a pair of lovers watching their relationship fall apart.
My biography of Terrence Malick The Magic Hours: The Films and Hidden Life of Terrence Malick is available from all good book shops and online sources, including here.
Camille Saint-Saëns: Le Carnaval des Animaux
Performers
Pianos: Neil and Nancy O'Doan
Orchestra: Seattle Youth Symphony, conducted by Vilem Sokol.
Composed 1886; recorded c. 1980.
Source The Al Goldstein collection in the Pandora Music repository at ibiblio.org.
Used under the license.
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The Malick Hour: Shane Hazen talks THE TREE OF LIFE
Season 1 · Episode 200
Thursday, December 19, 2024 • Duration 01:12:23
Terrence Malick's fifth film was a culmination of decades of work: The Tree of Life. It won the Palme d'Or and boasted his most intimate and cosmic vision.
Shane Hazen worked on the film, first as an intern before finishing the film as one of the last editors on board.
My biography of Terrence Malick The Magic Hours: The Films and Hidden Life of Terrence Malick is available from all good book shops and online sources, including here.
Camille Saint-Saëns: Le Carnaval des Animaux
Performers
Pianos: Neil and Nancy O'Doan
Orchestra: Seattle Youth Symphony, conducted by Vilem Sokol.
Composed 1886; recorded c. 1980.
Source The Al Goldstein collection in the Pandora Music repository at ibiblio.org.
Used under the license.
Get NordVPN 2Y plan + 4 months extra here ➼ https://nordvpn.com/fspn It’s risk-free with Nord’s 30-day money-back guarantee! -
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Brian Abrams on Die Hard: an Oral History
Season 1 · Episode 199
Wednesday, December 18, 2024 • Duration 01:12:07
Die Hard - is it a Christmas movie? or not? Do we care? Did we ever?
But it's a good excuse to talk to Brian Abrams about his brilliant book Die Hard: an Oral History, available here.
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The Malick Hours: THE NEW WORLD
Season 1 · Episode 198
Friday, December 13, 2024 • Duration 01:14:13
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Joseph McBride on George Cukor
Season 1 · Episode 197
Wednesday, December 11, 2024 • Duration 01:13:37
Joseph McBride - film historian and one time actor for Orson Welles - talks about his new book George Cukor's People: Acting for a Master Director. It is available as an e-book now and will be published the first week of January, 2025, in hardback. For more information click HERE.
From the publisher:
"The director of classic films such as Sylvia Scarlett, The Philadelphia Story, Gaslight, Adam’s Rib, A Star Is Born, and My Fair Lady, George Cukor is widely admired but often misunderstood. Reductively stereotyped in his time as a “woman’s director”—a thinly veiled, disparaging code for “gay”—he brilliantly directed a wide range of iconic actors and actresses, including Cary Grant, Greta Garbo, Spencer Tracy, Joan Crawford, Marilyn Monroe, and Maggie Smith. As Katharine Hepburn, the star of ten Cukor films, told the director, “All the people in your pictures are as goddamned good as they can possibly be, and that’s your stamp.”
"In this groundbreaking, lavishly illustrated critical study, Joseph McBride provides insightful and revealing essayistic portraits of Cukor’s actors in their most memorable roles. The queer filmmaker gravitated to socially adventurous, subversively rule-breaking, audacious dreamers who are often sexually transgressive and gender fluid in ways that seem strikingly modern today. McBride shows that Cukor’s seemingly self-effacing body of work is characterized by a discreet way of channeling his feelings through his actors. He expertly cajoled actors, usually gently but sometimes with bracing harshness, to delve deeply into emotional areas they tended to keep safely hidden. Cukor’s wry wit, his keen sense of psychological and social observation, his charm and irony, and his toughness and resilience kept him active for more than five decades in Hollywood. George Cukor’s People gives him the in-depth, multifaceted examination his rich achievement deserves."
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The Malick Hours: THE THIN RED LINE
Season 1 · Episode 196
Friday, December 6, 2024 • Duration 01:21:53
Terrence Malick's third film The Thin Red Line (1998) was a stunning return after a hiatus of 20 years. Writer Jeremy Arnold joins me to talk through the film.
My biography of Terrence Malick The Magic Hours: The Films and Hidden Life of Terrence Malick is available from all good book shops and online sources, including here.
Camille Saint-Saëns: Le Carnaval des Animaux
Performers
Pianos: Neil and Nancy O'Doan
Orchestra: Seattle Youth Symphony, conducted by Vilem Sokol.
Composed 1886; recorded c. 1980.
Source The Al Goldstein collection in the Pandora Music repository at ibiblio.org.
Used under the license.
Get NordVPN 2Y plan + 4 months extra here ➼ https://nordvpn.com/fspn It’s risk-free with Nord’s 30-day money-back guarantee! -
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
John Bleasdale on The Magic Hours
Season 1 · Episode 195
Monday, December 2, 2024 • Duration 01:08:50
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The Malick Hours: Jack Fisk Interview Part 1.
Season 1 · Episode 194
Thursday, November 28, 2024 • Duration 48:45
Jack Fisk was Terrence Malick's production designer for almost his entire career. The two first met on Badlands and here Jack talks with me about his first two films with Malick. The second part of the interview will be released soon. The interview has been edited and condensed.
My biography of Terrence Malick The Magic Hours: The Films and Hidden Life of Terrence Malick is available from all good book shops and online sources, including here.
Camille Saint-Saëns: Le Carnaval des Animaux
Performers
Pianos: Neil and Nancy O'Doan
Orchestra: Seattle Youth Symphony, conducted by Vilem Sokol.
Composed 1886; recorded c. 1980.
Source The Al Goldstein collection in the Pandora Music repository at ibiblio.org.
Used under the license.
Get NordVPN 2Y plan + 4 months extra here ➼ https://nordvpn.com/fspn It’s risk-free with Nord’s 30-day money-back guarantee! -
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Tim Robey talks Box Office Poison
Season 1 · Episode 193
Wednesday, November 27, 2024 • Duration 54:07
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