Episode 123: The Folly of Ambition [Interstellar; Leviathan; Human Capital]
It’s Episode 123 of In the Mood for Podcast, a British-based film podcast hosted by Calum Reed of Ultimate Addict and Pete Sheppard of In the Mood for Blog.
This week we’re joined once again by Irini M., who brings us news from her home country’s Thessaloniki Film Festival in a notably more concise fashion than September’s Venice round-up. She also joins in our discussion of some interesting recent events, which includes some rare exciting news involving David O. Russell, and the bizarre spectrum of films vying for this year’s Animated Feature Oscar. We discuss two Foreign Language Oscar contenders, as Paolo Virzi’s “Human Capital” enlivens the middle-class misery of bourgeois Italy and Andrey Zvyagintsev’s “Leviathan” documents the coastal conflicts of rural Russia, before giving ambition a dressing down, as Christopher Nolan’s epic “Interstellar” comes to town. We reveal whether the cinematic influences used in the film are a blessing or curse, and whether Nolan’s scope and logic holds up under scrutiny. Elsewhere, we recount a horror show from Venice which saw Pete become a gay advocate, a mistaken text briefly convinced Cal that his niece was a child genius, while Keira Knightley’s recent quest to boost female self-image has us rather baffled.
- Darren Aronofsky to head the jury at next year’s Berlin Film Festival
- David O. Russell’s long-delayed “Nailed” re-titled as “Love in Politics” and scheduled for release in the UK
- Animated Feature Oscar qualifying list is announced
- European Film Award nominations are announced
[3:05 – 20:55]
[21:00 – 34:45]
Reviews of:
- Leviathan
- Human Capital
[43:25 – 1:01:30]
Closing Segment: Our take on Christopher Nolan’s space-set epic “Interstellar,” and discussing cine-literate films, with comment on “Allegro,” “Kill Bill,” and “Once Upon a Time in the West”!
[1:01:35 – 1:28:40]
The Isaac Range
Outro Music: Adam and the Ants, “Prince Charming”
Episode 86: Rue De Simple [Her; Bastards; An Oversimplification Of Her Beauty]
Episode 86: Rue De Simple
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It’s Episode 86 of In the Mood for Podcast, a British-based film podcast hosted by Calum Reed of Ultimate Addict and Pete Sheppard of In the Mood for Blog.
Pete finally got his wish, as our latest episode sneaks in under the hour mark, with just three films featured this week. Nevertheless, we get into fairly meaty discussions about Claire Denis’s sexually-charged “Bastards” and Terence Nance’s incredibly personal documentary “An Oversimplification Of Her Beauty,” which had both of us rather perplexed. Pete was counting on Spike Jonze’s “Her” to be the saviour of 2013’s cinematic worth, but did either or both of us get past that dead cat phone-sex convo? An odd opening news segment leads to the pimping of an underseen world cinema classic, some rare positive words about Clint Eastwood, and a chat about the spectrum of quality in Hitchcock remakes, while we lament the fall from grace of a famous child actor, discuss the President of France’s bit on the side, and ponder the beastly attributes of a certain French actor.
The Week’s News:
- The death of Gabriel Axel
- Tina Fey and Amy Poehler to host next year’s Golden Globes
- Clint Eastwood is a real-life hero
- Channing Tatum is writing “Magic Mike 2”
- Shia LaBoeuf wears paper bag to premiere of “Nymphomaniac” at Berlin; echoes Eric Cantona
[2:40 – 10:40]
Preconception Corner
- Bastards
- An Oversimplification Of Her Beauty
- Her
[15:25 – 51:15]
The Poupaud Range
Outro Music: Terrorvision, “Perseverance”
In the Mood for Podcast 