On this episode, host Dr Pasquale Iannone is joined by award-winning writer, critic and broadcaster Ellen E. Jones. Ellen presents BBC Radio 4’s Screenshot with Mark Kermode and has written for The Guardian, The Observer, Little White Lies, Empire and many other outlets. In March this year, Ellen won the Broadcasting Press Guild Award for Best Radio Presenter for her work on Screenshot.
Ellen joins Pasquale to talk about her book Screen Deep: How Film and TV Can Solve Racism and Save The World which came out in paperback via Faber in February. It’s a brilliantly sharp, impassioned and entertaining look at film and TV’s role in both constructing racial identities and combating racism.

Works discussed include No Way Out (1950), Imitation of Life (1959), Get Out (2017), Black Panther (2018), Bridgerton (2020-), Atlanta (2016 - 2022), I May Destroy You (2020), Small Axe (2020) and Hard Truths (2024).

On this episode of the podcast, host Dr Pasquale Iannone is joined by MSc Film Studies student Lauren Thompson to discuss one of the most critically acclaimed and influential films of all time. Andrei Tarkovsky’s fourth feature Mirror (1975) weaves together moments in the life of dying poet in a bold, non-linear style. It’s a deeply personal cinematic poem about memory, history and family, and 2025 marks its 50th anniversary.
Lauren and Pasquale begin by offering their thoughts on Tarkovsky's work more broadly and then they turn to an extended discussion of Mirror, covering elements such as the use of editing and voiceover. The discussion rounds off with a consideration of the film's influence on successive generations of filmmakers, from Christopher Nolan to Claire Denis.

On this episode of the podcast, host Dr Pasquale Iannone explores the little-known early films of one of the most influential filmmakers of all time, German director Douglas Sirk.

Sirk is synonymous with one particular genre. His most famous films, such as Magnificent Obsession (1954), All That Heaven Allows (1955), Written on the Wind (1956) and Imitation of Life (1959) are glossy, luxurious Technicolor melodramas which would go on to inspire the likes of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Todd Haynes and many others.

But there is more to Sirk than melodrama - he made war films, crime movies, historical dramas and comedies in a career spanning over 25 years and several countries.

Earlier this year, Eureka Entertainment released a box set titled Sirk in Germany (1934 - 1935), a collection which takes us all the way back to the beginning of Sirk’s film career.

The set includes beautiful restorations of his first three features as well as several short films, all of which were made in the early years of the Nazi regime.

Alongside bonus material from noted film historians Sheldon Hall and Tim Bergfelder, there are three audio commentaries from the University of Edinburgh’s very own David Melville Wingrove.

David is a Teaching Fellow at the University’s Centre for Open Learning where he teaches hugely popular courses on both film and literature, specialising in dark and fantastical themes and styles. He is also a prolific writer, regularly contributing to publications such as Senses of Cinema.

David and Pasquale discuss Sirk’s first short film Two Greyhounds (1934) and his first feature April! April! (1935), both light comedies centring on mistaken identity which skewer - mostly with affection - the mores of the German middle class.

David helps to place the films in historical context and he also tells Pasquale why Sirk, who was very much one of the leading lights of the German theatre in the late 20s and early 30s, decided to make the move into filmmaking.

On this episode of the podcast, host Dr Pasquale Iannone is joined by two students on the MSc Film Studies programme, Eve Kurt-Elli and Aaron Bowler, to discuss Adolescence (2025), one of the most talked-about and critically acclaimed TV shows of the year so far.
A four-part Netflix Limited Series directed by Philip Barantini, Adolescence is co-written by Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham and stars Graham, Owen Cooper, Erin Doherty, Christine Tremarco and Ashley Walters. The series tells a ripped-from-the-headlines story of a 13 year old boy accused of killing a female classmate. Each episode is shot in one continuous single take, a technique which, far from being a gimmick, has the powerful effect of tying the viewer to events as they unfold in real time.
In our wide-ranging conversation, Pasquale, Eve and Aaron discuss the background to the series and unpack some of its themes. They discuss the power of the single take aesthetic and provide overviews of each of the four episodes.

On this episode of the podcast, host Dr Pasquale Iannone discusses the art of film posters in the company of Tony Nourmand. 
Tony is a world-renowned expert in film posters and the author of several books on the subject. In the 1990s, he was a consultant for London auction house Christie’s and was heavily involved in the explosion of the film poster market both in the UK and internationally. He went on to open the Reel Poster Gallery in London before setting up the publishing company Reel Art Press in 2010.
In September 2024, Tony edited the stunning volume titled 1001 Movie Posters: Designs of the Times. At over 600 pages (and over 4kg in weight), it’s the most comprehensive, beautifully presented overview of movie posters ever published. The book features essays and commentary by Tony’s long-time collaborators Alison Elangasinghe, Graham Marsh and Sir Christopher Frayling.
In this fascinating discussion, Tony takes Pasquale from the Iran of his childhood to London’s Soho and then across the pond to Connecticut where he tells of a fateful meeting with the legendary art director behind the designs of film classics such as Casablanca, The Searchers, Bonnie and Clyde and The Exorcist.
Tony and Pasquale move on to discuss 1001 Movie Posters. Tony shares his thoughts on the book’s structure, some of his favourite poster designs and much more.

To tie-in with the 2025 Academy Awards, this episode of the podcast discusses one of the frontrunners for Best Picture, Director, Actor as well as Supporting Actor and Actress. James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown chronicles the very early years in the career of the great singer songwriter Bob Dylan and stars Timothée Chalamet in the lead role.
Joining host Dr Pasquale Iannone to talk about the film is Ricky Ross. Ricky is a singer-songwriter and frontman of Deacon Blue, the acclaimed, much-loved Scottish band formed in Glasgow almost exactly forty years ago. Alongside writing and performing, Ricky is also a Sony award-winning broadcaster. Since 2008, he has presented Another Country on BBC Radio Scotland which showcases the best in Americana old and new.
The conversation was recorded at the beginning of February 2025, with Ricky and the band gearing up for the release of their new album The Great Western Road as well a major UK tour. Ricky and Pasquale discuss the musical biopic in general before turning to Mangold’s A Complete Unknown. They explore the film’s focus on four key early years in Dylan’s career and also touch upon the Oscar-nominated performances of Chalamet as Dylan, Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez and Edward Norton as Pete Seeger. Ricky shares his thoughts on the film’s evocation of the New York folk scene and tells Pasquale what he thought of its depiction of the songwriting process.

This episode of the podcast celebrates the work of the great Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman, with a special focus on one of her lesser known films, the 1986 musical Golden Eighties.
Our guide to all things Akerman is Marion Schmid. Marion is Professor of French Literature and Film at the University of Edinburgh and the author of several books and articles on Akerman, including a 2010 monograph for Manchester University Press.
Marion and Pasquale begin by discussing Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, Akerman’s 1975 masterpiece which famously topped Sight & Sound’s Greatest Films of All Time poll in 2022.
Discussion then moves on to Golden Eighties, a vibrant, effervescent musical which tells of the romantic intrigues in a Brussels shopping centre and stars Jeanne Dielman herself, Delphine Seyrig.

On this episode, host Dr Pasquale Iannone is joined by John Bleasdale. John is a writer and film critic whose work has appeared in Sight & Sound, The Guardian, Variety, The Economist and many other outlets. He’s also a prolific podcaster, with series such as Writers on Film, Cinema Italia and The James Bond Book Club.
John talks to Pasquale about his latest book The Magic Hours (2024), a fascinating biography of the acclaimed American filmmaker Terrence Malick which was recently described by New Yorker critic Richard Brody as ‘a rapturously detailed, sensitively observed, critically insightful account.’ John and Pasquale talk about what makes for a great filmmaker biography and then discuss Malick’s background, his brief but eventful stints in academia and journalism and his beginnings as a screenwriter. Also covered are his first two features as director - 1970s American classics Badlands (1973) and Days of Heaven (1978) as well as the much talked about gap of two decades between Days of Heaven and his third feature, The Thin Red Line (1998). Just what was Malick up to during this time? How much truth is there in this image of Malick as the reclusive auteur?
The conversation also takes in key aspects of the Malick methodology and film style, including his work with actors, his editing approach and his use of voiceover.
The Magic Hours: The Films and Hidden Life of Terrence Malick is out now via the University Press of Kentucky.

On the 60th anniversary of its release, host Dr Pasquale Iannone is joined by Film Studies PhD student Sam Warnock to discuss Japanese writer-director Kobayashi Masaki's extraordinary ghost story anthology Kwaidan.
Shot entirely on studio sets in sumptuous widescreen and lavish, saturated colour, Kwaidan adapts ghost stories by author Lafcadio Hearn and is undoubtedly one of the most visually and aurally striking films of the 1960s. Kobayashi's biographer Steven Prince has described it as the director's 'most overtly and extravagantly stylized film'. 
Sam and Pasquale discuss the work of Kobayashi and Hearn more broadly as well as the remarkable contribution of composer Takemitsu Toru. They then move onto a close analysis of the four episodes themselves, discussing elements such as narrative structure, adaptation strategies, use of colour, set design as well as the film's textured soundscape.

This is the second of two episodes focusing on Film Phenomenologies, a new collection of essays from Edinburgh University Press edited by Dr Kelli Fuery (Chapman University).
Host Dr Pasquale Iannone is joined by Professor Lucy Bolton (Queen Mary University of London) and Dr David Sorfa (University of Edinburgh) to discuss their essays, both of which explore recent star biopics from phenomenological perspectives.
Lucy discusses her piece 'The Posthumous Phenomenology of the Star Biopic: Kristen Stewart as Jean Seberg in Seberg (2019)' while David tells Pasquale about his chapter 'The Assassination of Marilyn Monroe by the Coward Andrew Dominik' which takes a Sartrean approach to the controversial 2022 film Blonde.
While this episode is stand-alone, the previous episode features editor Kelli in conversation with Pasquale. She unpacks the concept behind the collection, provides an overview of all 13 chapters and takes a closer look at her own essay, 'The Khôra-Screen: Responsibility as a Precarious Intimacy in Agnès Varda’s One Sings, the Other Doesn’t (1977).