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/2024/08/16/jose-arroyo-in-converssation-with-alastair-phillips-on-tokyo-story-yasujiro-ozu-1953/
I’ve been wanting to talk to Alastair Phillips about his ‘BFI Classic’ monograph on TOKYO STORY (Yasujiro Ozu, 1953) since it was first published late last year. I found reading the book after watching the film truly illuminating, deepening and enriching the experience: a real achievement with a film already so familiar. It draws on Japanese sources not yet available in English, offering new information on the film’s production and reception and combines this with Alastair’s characteristically precise and informative textual analysis. It’s no surprise that the book is already on its second printing.
 
In the podcast we discuss the significance of TOKYO STORY being Ozu’s first film after the American occupation; Shochiku Studios, genre, and the star system of the period; the film’s reception in Japan and the lag between that and broader international release; Ozu’s characteristic aesthetic, including what Nöel Burch characterised as the ‘pillow shot’ ; the relation of space to place in the film; how the film is about the flow of time in its varied temporalities; the female-centric aspect of the film and what it has to say about ‘blood’ families; why and how it’s so moving; it’s relationship to MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW (Leo McCarey, 1937); how Ozu is not just one of the great directors of the Twentieth Centuries but, considering his work as a potter, designer, painter, photographer, calligrapher etc, might just be one of its greatest artists; why it keeps getting ranked at the top of the critics’ polls decade after decade;  why isn’t it called THE ONOMICHI STORY …. And much more. A conversation that will hopefully incite listeners to read the book.

In Converssation with Alastair Phillips on Tokyo Story (Yasujiro Ozu, 1953)

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.

In Converssation with Alastair Phillips on Tokyo Story (Yasujiro Ozu, 1953)

Jose Arroyo

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