https://notesonfilm1.com/2021/06/05/hou-hsiao-hsien-11-contexts-b-kind-hu-dragon-inn-1967-a-touch-of-zen-1971/
In this podcast we discuss the recent MUBI showings of Dragon Inn and A Touch of Zen, its relationship to the Wuxia genre and its influence on films such Crouching Tiger/ Hidden Dragon (Ang Lee, 2000), Hero (Zhang Yimou, 2002) and House of Flying Daggers (Zhang Yimou, 2004, its later influence on more recent Taiwanese cinema, so obvious in Tsai Ming Liang's Goodbye, Dragon Inn and Hou's own The Assassin (2015).

Hou Hsiao-hsien 11: Contexts 2: King Hu, Dragon Inn (1967) & A Touch of Zen

https://notesonfilm1.com/2021/06/25/hou-hsiao-hsien-19-context-10-edward-young-1985/
Richard and I discuss our admiration of Edward Yang's Taipei Story. It's connection to Hou Hsiao-hsien, who stars and co-wrote the screenplay. It's a mosaic of a film in which a relationship between two people who care for each other falls apart and as it does so we get to see stories of a people and of a city in transition in a country situated within two imperial cultures, Japanese and American, with mainland China always hovering on the background. It's a beautiful film, with really striking, original and beautiful imagery: Yang's flat face-on camera, uses of screens, reflections, the city always ever present in what is ultimately a chamber piece focussing on a couple and their immediate relations, the couple caught between a longed for past (on his part) and an uncertain future in hers. A truly great film.

Hou Hsian-hsien 19: Context 10 - Taipei Story (Edward Yang, 1985)

https://notesonfilm1.com/2022/06/03/thinking-aloud-about-film-soleil-o-oh-sun-med-hondo-france-1970/
The Criterion Collection calls SOLEIL Ó/ OH, SUN , ‘A furious cry of resistance against racist oppression and a revolutionary landmark of political cinema’. The Celluloid Liberation Front, writing for MUBI, calls it ‘one of the most dazzling debuts in the history of cinema’; ‘A work of erudite formalism and incendiary refinement’; ‘never didactic’. We dispute all of this. The film is definitely, flamboyant, anti-clerical, modernist, anti-colonial, deploying folklore and experimenting with style. An important film then, very much of its time, but which can now seem to lack complexity and subtlety, though perhaps subtlety was never its aim; and perhaps we should also acknowledge that our perspective is that of two white men.  Richard appreciated it more than I. We both urge everyone to see it. We discuss all of this in the accompanying podcast. Part of the series of important restorations being screened on MUBI

Thinking Aloud About Film; O Soleil, (Med Hondon, France, 1970)

https://notesonfilm1.com/2022/08/21/thinking-aloud-about-film-pedro-almodovar-2-labyrinth-of-passion/
We discuss Almodóvar's second feature, Labyrinth of Passion, where Almodóvar himself appears both as director and rock star in minor roles. We talk about its convoluted plot, its verbal and visual campyness, its anti-authoritarian stance and its status as a youth film. We note how even in his second film, there are evident connections with his first film (not least in the recurring cast) and plot strands that will re-appear subsequently (the airport scene in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown). We talk about it (briefly) as a document of its time, particularly in relation to the Nueva Movida Madrileña. The plot is straight out of Hello magazine; the idea that sex, drugs and art are a fun path without pitfalls to liberation is straight out of underground comics. Richard Lester's cinema is a clear influence. Fanny McNamara steals the show. We could have talked for a lot longer.

Pedro Almodovar 2 - Labyrinth Of Passion (1982)

https://notesonfilm1.com/2025/04/18/jose-arroyo-in-conversation-with-diego-cepeda-on-outskirts/
I recently discovered the existence of a new and exciting film magazine: OUTSKIRTS. It’s in English, though mostly written by people for whom English is a second language or who don’t speak English at all: translation, in multiple senses, is an integral part of the magazine.  It’s a handsome physical object, originating in the Locarno Critics Academy but speaking a different film culture, off-centre, from the margins or the periphery. In this podcast I talk to one of the editors, Diego Cepeda (the others are Nathan Latoré, Sofie Cato Maas, Raymond Shik and Christopher small), with filmmaker/critic Felix Cordero Bello contributing illuminating contexts and asides.   
Near the beginning of the podcast Diego cites a poem by Farid Ud-din Attar,
‘The birds had departed towards a distant luminosity that attracted them.
Those who did not perish on the way would understand upon arrival that they had been transformed into that light that now attracted others’. 
OUTSKIRTS is a magazine that is itself, embodies, a romance of movies, film culture, film history, woven through with friendship. It aims to put at the centre marginalised filmmakers and film cultures; and asks its readers to slow down, look back, look deeply, and think. The launch of each issue is accompanied by live events, often including readings and screenings. Diego cites Abraham Polonsky at the end, ‘The only fights worth fighting are for lost causes’.
Speaking to Diego and Felix, in English, a second language for them,  a whole cinema culture comes alive. They cite LA VIDA UTIL and Lucía Salas as an inspiration: a spirit of sharing knowledge, friendship and dialogue, enthusiasm for cinema, a similar way of thinking about film history. Diego and Felix both also write for Simulacro magazine edited by Julia Scrive-Loyer (https://www.simulacromag.com/) participate in its weekly cine-club and are connected to the Chavón School of Film and Design, itself associated with Parsons, with Diego as one of its key lecturers. ‘How can we approach the history of images and sounds from a place that maybe didn’t have (a film industry) but we have to create tools for understanding those elements that did exist (newsreels, home movies, a rich culture of filmgoing)’, says Diego.

The conversation ranges from the origins of the magazine, it’s aims (to defend cinema from this place, that is on the margins), it’s focus (to shine a light on the overlooked), how each issues tries to create a thread of thought. We detour through a brief account of a history of cinema in the Dominican Republic, where the conversation took place. All this and much more can be listened to in the podcast below:

The new issue comes out in June and can be purchased at: https://outskirtsmag.com/

José Arroyo in Conversation with Diego Cepeda on OUTSKIRTS

A conversation with Pamela Hutchinson on her great new book, as witty as it is informative, Pandora's Box, a BFI film classic. What you hear in the background is the bubbles in a glass of champagne and one can only hope that our chat is as fizzy. The conversation ranges from the film's aesthetic achievements to its continued influence, the appeal of Louise Brooks, what Marlene Dietrich might have done with the part and what the film has to tell us on sexual desire, the options open to women and the prevalence of rape culture then and now. Pandora's Box seems more pertinent than ever and just as powerful and beautiful as it always was. Pamela Hutchinson's book is not just a beautifully written introduction to the film but one which provides new information and  enhances our understanding in various ways but does so with great charm and wit.

In Conversation with Pam Hutchinson on Pandora's Box

In Conversation With...Professor John Mercer on: Rock Hudson, the work of Rappaport and Reichenbach currently available to see on the Henri platform of the Cinémathèque Françaisse; and on fragments of queer visual histories.

Hou Hsiao-hsien 11: Contexts 2: King Hu, Dragon Inn (1967) & A Touch of Zen

Jose Arroyo

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