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As Gia Coppola's The Last Showgirl premieres at TIFF, Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode explore the dark world of Las Vegas on screen, from Showgirls to the Rat Pack.
A Hidden Flack production for BBC Radio 4
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As November marks the TV premiere on BBC 2 of Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger, as well as a season of films on the BBC and iPlayer, Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode explore the films of these two titans of British Cinema.
Film and culture writer, Lilian Crawford shares with Mark why the works of Powell and Pressburger are a matter of life and death, and how the duo's technicolour films took their cue from the worlds of ballet and opera.
Mark also speaks to British filmmaker Jeanie Finlay, for whom Powell and Pressburger’s films hold a strong personal allure. She discusses the technical wizardry and in-camera magic found across their productions, and how that has inspired her own image-making.
Meanwhile, Kevin Macdonald, the Academy Award-winning filmmaker and grandson of Emeric Pressburger, shares with Ellen how some Powell and Pressburger films are nuanced examples of wartime propaganda, and why some still resonate and remain relevant to Britain today.
Producer: Mae-Li Evans A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4
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With Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu - a remake of the 1922 adaptation of Dracula - hitting UK cinemas in the new year, Mark Kermode and Ellen E Jones take a look at one of cinema's most enduring monsters, the vampire.
Mark talks to friend of the show and vampire expert, Kim Newman, about the evolution of vampires over the last century. They discuss everything from Bela Lugosi’s career defining performance as Count Dracula to the Twilight series.
Meanwhile, Ellen meets host and producer of The Evolution of Horror podcast, Mike Muncer. They go deep on teen vampire films and the everlasting appeal of cult classic The Lost Boys.
Ellen also speaks to Jane Schoenbrun, director of the new film, I Saw the TV Glow. They discuss their shared love of TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its influence on Jane’s film about outsider teens who are obsessed with a fantasy TV show.
Producer: Queenie Qureshi-WalesA Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4
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To mark the tenth anniversary of BBC sitcom Detectorists, Mark Kermode and Ellen E Jones dig into archaeologists and treasure hunters on screen.
Mark speaks first to stand-up comedian and actor Alexei Sayle about his small, but pivotal, role in the third Indiana Jones film The Last Crusade.
Mark then talks to Italian director Alice Rohrwacher, whose recent film La Chimera is the story of a down-at-heel tomb raider, played by Josh O’Connor, looting Etruscan artefacts in 1980s Italy.
Meanwhile, Ellen speaks to French-Senegalese filmmaker Mati Diop about her new film Dahomey - a docudrama that follows 26 looted treasures from the 19th century Kingdom of Dahomey, as they make their return trip from Paris to present-day Benin.
And she talks to Mackenzie Crook, creator and star of Detectorists, about how an episode of Time Team inspired the series - about a pair of Essex metal detectorists hunting for long-buried treasures from the past.
Producer: Jane LongA Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4
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Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode look at the impact of Saturday Night Live, or SNL, as the long-running US sketch show prepares to celebrate its 50th anniversary. Just how important is SNL in the history of American comedy? And why have we never quite understood it over here?
Ellen speaks to actor and former SNL writer Paula Pell about how it felt to get a job on the show after growing up as an obsessed fan - and whether the hectic schedule of Saturday Night Live is always conducive to the best comedy. And she talks to US comedian and podcaster Ashley Ray about SNL's enduring influence on American humour, and its relevance for audiences as it enters its 50th season.
Meanwhile, Mark discusses the cinema that has emerged from the series - from big hitters like The Blues Brothers and Wayne's World to box office flops MacGruber and A Night at the Roxbury - with author and Empire magazine editor Nick de Semlyen. And he gets the inside track on working with SNL's legendary super-producer Lorne Michaels - and on bringing the music of Queen to a whole new generation - from Wayne's World's director Penelope Spheeris.
Producer: Jane LongA Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4
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As The Shawshank Redemption turns 30, Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode explore life behind bars as seen on screen, investigating how film and TV have shaped our ideas about the prison system. Why do prisons make such good settings for cinema?
Ellen investigates the relationship between prison exploitation and prison reform, talking to director S Craig Zahler about his ultra-violent 2017 film Brawl In Cell Block 99 and the movies that inspired it, from Birdman of Alcatraz to Riot in Cell Block 11. And she speaks to Dr Kalima Young about the impact of Netflix's hit series about a women's prison, Orange Is The New Black.
Meanwhile, Mark talks to writer and broadcast Richard Weight about the enduring relevance of the classic British sitcom Porridge. And he speaks to 'the daddy' of prison dramas - Ray Winstone - about the impact of his breakout role as a borstal boy in the controversial, banned TV play Scum.
Producer: Jane LongA Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4
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Mark Kermode and Ellen E Jones ask if we still go to the movies to be shocked.
As Caligula: The Ultimate Cut hits cinemas, Mark talks to stars of the notorious cult classic, Dame Helen Mirren and Malcolm McDowell. They discuss the film's long journey to the new version, and what it was really like on set of one of independent cinemas most controversial productions.
Ellen examines what shock value means in the digital age and how shocking cinema has evolved over cinema's history. She speaks to film critic Virginie Selavy about how critical and audience perception of 'shocking' content has evolved from Tod Browning's Freaks to the cinema of Lar Von Trier, and if audiences really are harder to shock. Ellen then talks to comedian and director Bobcat Goldthwait about his transgressive films, which are favourites of John Waters, and how an increasingly bizarre political landscape has affected his filmmaking.
Producer: Jane LongA Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4
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Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode take a deep ‘dive' into the world of water to mark the 40th anniversary this summer of the joyous romantic comedy Splash hitting our screens. Splash features Tom Hanks' leading man debut as he meets and falls for mermaid Daryl Hannah in New York, before they finally swim off into the sunset together.
From The Little Mermaid through Miranda to The Lure, mermaids have a long rich history in the movies.
Mark talks to director Agnieszka Smoczyńska about her 1980s set Polish mermaid musical The Lure. They discuss cinema's fascination with the mermaid myth.
Ellen looks back into cinema history to explore the films of Esther Williams - nicknamed the Million Dollar Mermaid - a swimmer turned actress whose ‘aquamusicals' in the 40s and 50s featured elaborate synchronised swimming sequences and made waves at the box office. She speaks to synchronised swimming choreographer Mēsha Kussman and friend of the show Lillian Crawford about the enduring appeal and surprising legacy of the aquamusical.
Producer: Queenie Qureshi-WalesA Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4
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Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode look at how popstars - and their fans - have been depicted in film and TV over the years.
Mark speaks to record producer and documentary director Jeremy Dylan about some of the most memorable pop idols on screen, from A Hard Day’s Night to Spice World.
And he talks to legendary songwriter Paul Williams about his dual role as both star actor and music composer on Brian DePalma’s prescient 1974 pop fable Phantom of the Paradise.
Meanwhile, Ellen looks at portrayals of pop fans on screen with critic Kayleigh Donaldson, and screenwriter Janine Nabers, who co-created the recent Beyonce-inspired satirical comedy-horror TV miniseries Swarm.
Producer: Jane LongA Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4
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Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode take a deep dive into Spike Lee’s incendiary 1989 drama about simmering racial tension in and around a Brooklyn pizzeria.
We celebrate 35 years of a film that announced itself like a beat box on full blast. Set within a single inner city block in Brooklyn, New York City on the hottest day of the summer, the movie depicts racial tensions that simmer, as things look set to explode.
Ellen speaks to the film's director Spike Lee to find out how this extraordinary, legacy-defining film originated, and his reaction to its initial mixed reception. And we hear from film critic and Spike Lee biographer, Kaleem Aftab - to discuss the impact of the film, and the United States that it depicts.
Meanwhile, Mark meets upcoming film director, Dionne Edwards to find out how the title sequence of Do the Right Thing inspired her own opening scene in the movie, Pretty Red Dress.
Long time Spike Lee collaborator and cinematographer on Do The Right Thing, Ernest Dickerson, joins Mark to share his classical and dramatic visual influences, and how his use of colour palette and lighting rigs created such a scorching viewing experience.
Producer: Mae-Li EvansA Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4
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The Great American Western is having a resurgence - from Yellowstone and Bass Reeves on TV, to Beyoncé's acclaimed country album Cowboy Carter. Kevin Costner is back in the director’s saddle too, with his Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1 - the first in a planned series of epic Westerns - recently riding into cinemas.
But has the cinematic Western adapted to the modern age or is it trapped in a one-sided history of the past? Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode examine the enduring popularity of a genre that refuses to die.
Mark speaks to cultural historian and Spaghetti Western obsessive Christopher Frayling about the genre’s 19th century roots, and about the impact of films like The Searchers and The Wild Bunch. And he talks to prolific independent director John Sayles, whose 1996 film Lone Star was nominated by the American Film Institute as one of the Fifty Best Westerns of all time.
Meanwhile, Ellen explores the history of Black cowboys on screen with Mia Mask, author of Black Rodeo: A History of the African American Western. And she speaks to Jeymes Samuel - the galvanising force behind films like recent biblical epic The Book Of Clarence and 2021’s all-Black, all-star Western, The Harder They Fall. Jeymes tells Ellen why he was drawn to the genre - and why Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained might be due a reassessment.
Producer: Jane LongA Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4
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In the past year, triangular love stories have loomed large in cinema - Past Lives, Challengers and Passages all had different angles on the spiky geometry of three-cornered relationships.
Since Casablanca, these complicated love affairs have fascinated filmmakers and audiences alike. They can be the subject of romantic comedies, at the centre of a melodrama or the motive for murder in a thriller - the relationships can be gay or straight and the budgets big or small.
Jean Luc Godard’s iconic new wave robbery tale Bande à part is 60 this year. It seems that each generation has its iconic love triangle movie - The Philadelphia Story, Sabrina, The Graduate, Blood Simple, Y Tu Mama Tambien, The Notebook and My Best Friend’s Wedding - the films could not be more different but the dynamics are always rich and provocative.
Mark Kermode and Ellen E Jones ask where love triangles have taken us over the years and how they reflect the sexual politics of the times.
Guest interviews include Ira Sachs, director of the acclaimed Passages, and writer and critic Anne Billson.
Producer: Tom WhalleyA Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4
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From early, Oscar-winning roles in The Deer Hunter and Sophie's Choice, through to Mamma Mia! and The Iron Lady, Meryl Streep has earned a reputation as the greatest actress of our times. As the star receives an honorary Palme D'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode discuss the remarkable depth, breadth and legacy of her career.
Ellen speaks to writer Michael Schulman, author of Her Again: Becoming Meryl Streep, about the actor's beginnings in the 1970s, and the power of a Meryl acceptance speech. And she discusses the actress' breakout comedic role alongside Roseanne Barr in 1989's She-Devil, with the film's director Susan Seidelman.
And Mark speaks to actor Kate Winslet about her decades-long love for Meryl's work, from Angels In America to Death Becomes Her, and about how it felt to beat her heroine to a Best Actress Oscar.
Producer: Jane LongA Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4
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Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode explore whether films and TV can change the world.
First up, Ellen talks to the award-winning independent filmmaker Eliza Hittman, whose critically acclaimed 2020 drama, Never Rarely Sometimes Always, charts the odyssey of 17 year-old Autumn, played by newcomer Sidney Flanigan from her home town in rural Pennsylvania, to her nearest accessible abortion clinic in New York City. Ellen also meets Caren Spruch, National Director for Arts and Entertainment Engagement at US-based organisation Planned Parenthood. They discuss her activism towards shaping TV and film storylines around abortion.
Mark ponders how two film makers have addressed homelessness in their work - rising star Lorna Tucker who's deeply personal documentary Someone’s Daughter, Someone’s Son has recently brought homelessness back into the spotlight, and film legend Ken Loach who shares how his 1966 BBC TV play Cathy Come Home came to be and alerted the public and politicians alike to the country’s growing housing crisis.
Producer: Mae-Li EvansA Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4
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In 1974, Chinatown - now widely considered to be among the greatest films ever made - was nominated for 11 Oscars. Despite the creative confidence and freedom of the era, the 1970s were a time of tolerance for the morally questionable, or even downright illegal, behaviour of some of the powerful men creating these movies.
Chinatown’s director, Roman Polanski, is the most totemic of those figures. His 1977 indictment for drugging and raping a 13 year-old led the director to flee the United States and seek legal and creative sanctuary in France, where he has remained and continued to make celebrated movies such at The Pianist, for which he won the Best Director Academy Award in 2003.
Fifty years on from Chinatown's release, Mark Kermode and Ellen E Jones ask how we can appreciate cinematic masterpieces like Chinatown which have been made by very problematic people?
Ellen gets about as close as it’s possible to get to the creators of Chinatown - Hawk Koch worked with Roman Polanski on the set of Rosemary’s Baby and, as the First Assistant Director on Chinatown, he was deeply connected with the movie and its director. In a wide ranging interview, he shares his memories from the set, discusses his friendship with Polanski and reflects on remaining in love with a movie despite its troubled past.
Claire Dederer’s Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma is a highly personal account of her own relationship with the works of film-makers like Roman Polanski and Woody Allen, and the questions of how knowledge of an artist’s personal life does or doesn’t change the way we feel about their art. Mark talks to Claire about the ethical and emotional issues of separating the art from the artist.
Produced by Freya Hellier.A Hidden Flack production for BBC Radio 4
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Mark Kermode and Ellen E Jones examine the rich history of style and the moving image, from Pret A Porter to The Devil Wears Prada.
Ellen talks to fashion historian and curator Amber Butchart about the close relationship between couture and cinema. They discuss the timeless influence on high fashion of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis and Powell & Pressburger's The Red Shoes, and the movies that inspire what we all wear in real life.
Mark enlists the help of a Screenshot regular, critic Christina Newland, to explore how the fashion industry has been depicted on screen, from the fashion editors of Funny Face and The Devil Wears Prada to the male models of Zoolander.
And Mark talks to director Kevin Macdonald about his new documentary, High & Low: John Galliano, which follows the disgraced British fashion designer.
Producer: Jane LongA Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4
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As rising British director Rose Glass (St Maud) brings us Love Lies Bleeding - a film about female bodybuilders - Mark Kermode and Ellen E Jones examine the precedents, including the action stars of the 80s like Schwarzenegger who broke out of the gym and into the mainstream, as well as how gyms make a rich setting for drama and action.
Mark explores what bodybuilders have brought to the screen over the years. He talks to editor of Empire magazine and author of The Last Action Heroes, Nick de Semlyen, about the history of muscles and bodybuilders on screen. Mark then speaks to rising star Katy O’Brian about her breakout role in Love Lies Bleeding and her own background in bodybuilding. Ellen looks at how the gym and fitness culture are rich settings for drama. She speaks to film writer Brandon Streussnig about how the gym is portrayed on screen and his favourite gym movies. She then talks to Annie Weisman, the creator of Apple TV’s Physical, about fitness culture in the 80s and its relationship to women's empowerment.
Producer: Queenie Qureshi-WalesA Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4
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Andrew Scott is the latest in a long line of actors to play Thomas Ripley - the seductive, sociopathic conman created by American crime writer Patricia Highsmith, and immortalised in films from Plein Soleil to The Talented Mr Ripley.
Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode look at Ripley and other social strivers on screen, asking how these interlopers have insinuated themselves into our hearts and minds.
Ellen explores what makes Patricia Highsmith’s work so cinematic, with a lifelong Highsmith fan – critic and novelist Kim Newman. And she speaks to Swiss documentary filmmaker Eva Vitija about her 2022 film Loving Highsmith – a fascinating look at the author’s life and artistry, told through her unpublished diaries, and interviews with her friends and former lovers.
Mark Kermode looks beyond Highsmith’s work, to explore how the 'Ripleyesque' figure has endured. He discusses cinema’s most notorious interlopers, from The Great Gatsby to Saltburn, with Manuela Lazic, a French critic, writer and filmmaker.
Mark also talks to two of his favourite filmmakers, Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor. Christine and Joe’s newest film Baltimore – about the debutante turned IRA member Rose Dugdale – is just one of many stories about interloping and identity that they’ve brought to the screen over the years. They tell Mark why the theme fascinates them.
Producer: Jane LongA Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4
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As the British Board of Film Classification publishes its new guidelines, Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode delve into the long, chequered history of film censorship and classification in the UK.
Mark speaks to BBFC President (and original Strictly Come Dancing winner) Natasha Kaplinsky about her role, and about her reaction to the new guidelines. And he discusses the Board's controversial history, and some of its most notorious decisions, with ex-BBFC Head of Compliance Craig Lapper.
Ellen talks to director Prano Bailey-Bond about her debut film Censor, which was inspired by the 'video nasty' moral panic of the 1980s. And pop culture critic Kayleigh Donaldson talks her through some of the differences between the BBFC and its US equivalent, the MPA Ratings Board.
Producer: Jane LongA Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4
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Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode look at divorce in film and TV, from His Girl Friday to The Split.
Ellen looks at comedic takes on divorce, first discussing marriage, divorce and remarriage in the 1930s screwball comedy genre with critic Pamela Hutchinson.
She then speaks to comedian Rob Brydon, who made what she considers to be the greatest TV programme about divorce - the BBC2 sitcom Marion and Geoff.
Meanwhile, Mark talks to screenwriter Abi Morgan about her BBC1 series The Split, which follows a family of high-end divorce lawyers working in London.
He also talks to Los Angeles family law attorney and chief of divorce evolution at Divorce.com, Laura Wasser about how accurate or misleading Hollywood depictions of breakups really are.
Producer: Jane LongA Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4
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