Surprise! We’re launching a brand-new special podcast! Jade’s Faves sees Jade, producer of Because You Watched…, sit with Charlie and Francesco to talk about whatever movies she feels like.

This time Jade and the gang talk about Italian supernatural horror, Suspirira (dir. Dario Argento, 1977) as well as another Italian supernatural horror, Suspiria (dir. Luca Guadagnino, 2018). 

Join for good vibes a great comparative discussion of both films and the best way to watch horror.

In this special mini-episode, Charlie and Francesco recap Batch 1 of Because You Watched…, remembering the highs and highers (there were no lows) of the podcast. They talk about the joys of discovering new films and converting fans to their favourite cinematic causes.

One last time with feeling!

As Batch 1 sadly draws to a close Charlie and Francesco attempt to answer a tough question. What are we allowed to laugh about? Joined by Archie Wolfman (he/him), they discuss their feelings about the controversially saccharine Life is Beautiful (dir. Roberto Benigni, 1997).

All three alternate films seek to reckon with the legacy of Fascism, Nazism, and the Holocaust. These alternate films include the sometimes-funny-sometimes-horrifying Seven Beauties (dir. Lina Wertmüller, 1975), the testimonial of adolescence in Fascist Italy, Amarcord (dir. Federico Fellini, 1973), and an odd-couple road movie featuring the son of an SS officer and an old Holocaust survivor, The Interpreter (dir. Martin Šulík, 2018).

We’ve seen films you people wouldn’t believe.

Fasten your seatbelts as Charlie and Francesco are joined by Kaj van Zoelen (he/him) to talk robots, dark cities, and sci-fi. They jump in with rain-soaked cyberpunk classic, Blade Runner (dir. Ridley Scott, 1982) before moving on to increasingly weirder films (which is saying something since Francesco saw the one with Harrison Ford’s narration).

They discuss the near-future thriller, Strange Days (Kathryn Bigelow, 1995), the sequel to an anime classic, Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (dir. Mamoru Oshii, 2004), before reaching the bonkers, brilliant, and blasphemous Tamil-language sci-fi musical, Enthiran (dir. S. Shankar, 2010).

Content Warning for the films we discuss: Blade Runner and Strange Days contain scenes of rape; Innocence deals with human trafficking.

Producer Jade does not like westerns. The question, however, is: what even is a western?

Starting with the Oscar-winning, gunslinging, directing and acting combo, Unforgiven (dir. Clint Eastwood, 1992), Charlie, Francesco and Jade venture off the trail and challenge the very meaning of the genre itself.

From Australian colonial-era historical tragedy, The Nightingale (dir. Jennifer Kent, 2018), to brooding, internationally co-produced Western (dir. Valeska Grisebach, 2017), and Indonesian revenge thriller, Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts (dir. Mouly Surya, 2017), you’re going to want to shine your sheriff’s badge and strap on your saddle.

“Forget it, Charlie. It’s Because You Watched.”

Take a long walk with Charlie, Francesco, and special guest Lilly Zhuang (she/her) into the murky world of death, deceit, dames, and detectives, starting with bleak, sun-drenched neo-noir, Chinatown (dir. Roman Polanski, 1974).

From there, enjoy an off-beat 1970s reimagining of a classic noir story, The Long Goodbye (dir. Robert Altman, 1973), socially charged murder mystery, The Crimson Kimono (dir. Samuel Fuller, 1959), before ending on the beautiful British silent drama, Piccadilly (dir. E. A. Dupont, 1929).

Get ready for a podcast episode full of betrayal, twists, and, finally, some turns as well.

Co-hosts Charlie Harris and Francesco Quario are joined by special guest Alex Wilcox (he/they) as they dive into shared dreaming… dreaming about movies that is. And those movies? Are about dreams. Well, some of them are. Most of them. To kick off their conversation, we can’t think of a better film than dream-heist thriller Inception (dir. Christopher Nolan, 2010). 

In this episode, they discuss the Hungarian romantic drama, On Body and Soul (dir. Ildikó Enyedi, 2017), Thai magical realist film, Cemetery of Splendour (dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2015), and esoteric sci-fi, Annihilation (dir. Alex Garland, 2018). 

If you fall asleep, you’re welcome.

Content Warning: Three of the films that we discuss in this episode explicitly deal with the topic of suicide and self-harm. If you're struggling with suicidal thoughts, we recommend you visit https://www.samaritans.org/, a UK-based charity hotline run by volunteers trained to listen to you.

HAPPY FATHER’S DAY! 

To celebrate today, Because You Watched are bringing you a very special episode, and what better guest for Father’s Day than Charlie’s Dad? 

Daniel Harris grabs the mic to talk fatherhood in the 1996 Mike Nichols comedy, The Birdcage, and berates Charlie for not watching Schitt’s Creek.

Someday, and that day may never come, I will call upon you to listen to a podcast for me.

Charlie Harris and his treacherous consigliere, Francesco Quario, are joined this week by loose cannon special guest Ella Wright (they/them/any) as they take a trip into beloved mafia epic, The Godfather (dir. Francis Ford Coppola, 1972), armed with nothing but hot takes, cannoli, and Charlie’s Brando impression.

They also discuss South Korean crime drama, Green Fish (dir. Lee Chang-dong, 1997), Japanese noir, The Bad Sleep Well (dir. Akira Kurosawa, 1960), and Italian black comedy, Mafioso (dir. Alberto Lattuada, 1962).

Happy Pride Month!

Co-hosts Charlie Harris and Francesco Quario are joined by special guest Pete Restrick (he/him) as they explore the vast and diverse world of queer cinema, starting with the movie that inspired young men everywhere to buy peaches, Call Me by Your Name (dir. Luca Guadagnino, 2017). 

Luckily, their guest had seen the film 30 times before they recorded.

Over the course of the episode, they discuss the French coming of age film, Wild Reeds (dir. André Téchiné, 1994), black lesbian cult classic, The Watermelon Woman (dir. Cheryl Dunye, 1996), and Yorkshire pastoral romance, God’s Own Country (dir. Francis Lee, 2017).