Edinburgh Film Podcast

By The University of EdinburghEducation Arts Visual Arts

Edinburgh Film Podcast episodes

September 30 EFP 89: John Boorman's Excalibur with Dr Ralph Moffat and Douglas Wilson Garry
Host Dr Pasquale Iannone marks 45 years since the release of Excalibur, John Boorman’s epic re-telling of the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Released in 1981, the film was shot in Ireland and features Nigel Terry as King Arthur, Nicol Williamson as Merlin as well as several future Hollywood stars such as Helen Mirren, Gabriel Byrne, Patrick Stewart and Liam Neeson.
Joining Pasquale to discuss Excalibur and its approach to Arthurian lore are two specialists in both history and film. Dr Ralph Moffat is Curator of European Arms and Armour at Glasgow Museums. He is responsible for the care, research and dissemination of information about the collection. He is the author of a three-volume sourcebook for the study of medieval arms and armour and recently curated the redisplay of arms and armour at Glasgow’s Burrell Collection.
Douglas Wilson Garry recently completed his MSc in Film Studies at the University of Edinburgh. He is also a poet and performer. Throughout his work, both academic and creative, he explores folklore, representations of nature and history.
In the discussion, Ralph, Douglas and Pasquale discuss the background to the film and its approach to the legend of King Arthur. They place the film in the context of director Boorman’s career, explore its starry cast, its cinematography, use of locations and its distinctive use of music.
41 min
September 16 EFP 88: IberoDocs 2026 with Luna Carmona
Host Dr Pasquale Iannone discusses the upcoming Iberodocs Film Festival which opens this week across various venues in Scotland.
IberoDocs is an annual showcase of the most exciting and innovative documentaries from Spain, Portugal and Latin America. This year, the festival runs between 16th and 26th September and it will open with the Scottish premiere of Argentinian filmmaker Lucrecia Martel’s Nuestra Tierra (Landmarks)(2025).
Joining Pasquale to explore some highlights from IberoDocs 2026 is Marketing Manager Luna Carmona. Films discussed include feature documentaries Flamingos: Life After the Meteorite (Lorenzo Hagerman, 2025), Flowers for Antonio (Elena Molina and Isaki Lacuesta, 2025), Ritas (Oswaldo Santana, 2025), Remember My Name (Elena Molina, 2023) as well as shorts Aqueronte (Manuel Muñoz Rivas, 2023) and Waiting to Sea (Jorge Peña Martín, 2026).
IberoDocs 2026 runs between 16th and 26th September at various venues around Scotland. For more information, go to iberodocs.org.
16 min
September 01 EFP 87: Writer-director Louis Paxton on The Incomer
Host Dr Pasquale Iannone is joined on this episode by Edinburgh filmmaker Louis Paxton to discuss his feature debut, folk comedy The Incomer (2026).
The film tells of thirty-something brother and sister Sandy and Isla who live on a remote Scottish island. The pair live cut off from society in a state of arrested development. One day, the local authorities decide to send one of their workers to the island to serve notice of eviction. But the siblings won’t give up their home without a fight.
Starring Domhall Gleeson as council worker Daniel, Grant O’Rourke as Sandy and Gayle Rankin as Isla, The Incomer was the Opening Night Film at this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival after having its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January.
While this is Louis’ feature debut, he has been making eye-catching films for many years. He grew up in Edinburgh and his older sister Ruth is also an acclaimed writer-director.
In their wide-ranging discussion, Louis tells Pasquale how he and Ruth first got into films - it turns out the three of them all used to rent movies from the same Marchmont video shops.
They discuss his short films and work in TV before moving on to The Incomer. Louis tells Pasquale about his use of locations, the idea behind the distinctive look of the film and his approach to music.
The film will be released in the UK on Friday 4th September and in the US later in the month.
51 min
August 19 EFP 86: Deniz Sarisakal on Kaurismäki's Drifting Clouds
This episode of the podcast takes us to Finland and the irresistibly dry and droll comedies of Aki Kaurismäki.

A major figure in World cinema since the early 1980s, few filmmakers have created such a distinctive universe through their films. As critic and historian Michael Brooke has noted, in Kaurismäki’s films ‘we’re in ‘a never-never land somewhere between the 1930s and the 1980s, where people drive Cadillacs, listen to old-time rock’n’roll, dance the tango, and issue such wise aphorisms as 'Life is short and miserable – be as merry as you can.’

This year marks the 30th anniversary of Drifting Clouds (1996), one of Kaurismaki’s key works and host Dr Pasquale Iannone discusses it in the company of one of the 2025/26 MSc Film Studies students, Deniz Sarisakal.

Drifting Clouds is the story of a Helsinki couple in their late 30s who both lose their jobs and find themselves struggling to survive. It sounds like the plot line of an Italian neorealist picture, or maybe a Ken Loach film, but this is Aki-land, and deadpan humour is never far away.
Deniz and Pasquale begin by talking about Kaurismäki’s background and his distinctive formal and thematic approach. They also touch upon his influences, including his love of Japanese auteur Yasujiro Ozu. Discussion then turns to Drifting Clouds and elements such as plot, characterisation and mise en scene as well as sound and music.
34 min
August 05 EFP 85: Rachael Nisbet on Danger: Diabolik
On this episode, host Dr Pasquale Iannone is joined by film critic and historian Rachael Nisbet to discuss one of cinema’s most dazzling comic book adaptations, Mario Bava’s Danger: Diabolik (1968).
Based on the comics written by sisters Angela and Luciana Giussani, Diabolik chronicles the escapades of the masked master criminal and his lover and co-conspirator Eva Kant. The comics have been massively influential since their first publication in 1962 and have spawned various film adaptations, including a recent trilogy of features released between 2021 and 2023 directed by Marco and Antonio Manetti.

The first Diabolik picture was released in 1968 and starred John Philip Law and Marisa Mel in the lead roles. It was recently released in a beautiful 4K restoration by Eureka Entertainment and it will also be screening at Edinburgh’s Filmhouse cinema in early August in all its vivid, kaleidoscopic glory.
Rachael and Pasquale discuss the background to the original Diabolik comics, and how Bava's film came about. They then focus on elements such as the film's casting, set design and its brilliantly psychedelic score by Ennio Morricone.
27 min
July 21 EFP 84: Olivia Laing on Fellini, Pasolini and The Silver Book
On this episode, host Dr Pasquale Iannone is joined by award-winning writer Olivia Laing to discuss their latest novel The Silver Book.
Olivia’s book is part thriller, part queer love story set against the backdrop of the Italian film industry in the mid-1970s.

Skilfully merging fact and fiction, The Silver Book shines a light on the work of real-life costume and production designer Danilo Donati. It tells of Nicholas, a young English man who flees London after a traumatic event and moves to Rome where he gets a job assisting Donati as he works on films by Federico Fellini and Pier Paolo Pasolini at the legendary Cinecittà studios. While working together, Nicholas and Danilo become lovers and the novel weaves together events - both real and imagined - to extraordinary effect.

Pasquale caught up with Olivia last month at the end of the UK paperback tour for The Silver Book. They discussed Olivia's approach to research and their writing process as well as their love of this twilight era of Italian cinema which yielded so many rich, complex, often controversial works.
31 min
July 01 EFP 83: Caroline Young on Fashioning Hitchcock
Host Dr Pasquale Iannone is joined by author Caroline Young to discuss her new book Fashioning Hitchcock (Bloomsbury, 2026).

Caroline is a prolific author and critic based in Edinburgh. Specialising in fashion, pop culture and classic cinema, her previous books include The It Girls: Glamor, Celebrity and Scandal (2025), Single & Psycho: How Pop Culture Shaped the Unhinged Woman (2025), Crazy Old Ladies: The Story of Hag Horror (2022) and Hitchcock’s Heroines (2018).

Spanning more than fifty years of film history, Caroline’s new book provides fascinating insight into the use of costume in films by the legendary Master of Suspense.

Caroline tells Pasquale about the beginnings of the book and the reasoning behind its structure. They discuss the way Alfred Hitchcock used costume in his silent and early sound films before turning to his years in Hollywood with classics such as Rebecca (1940), Notorious (1946), Rear Window (1954), Vertigo (1958), Psycho (1960) and many more. Caroline tells Pasquale about the crucial role of acclaimed costume designer Edith Head in crafting unforgettable pieces for actors such as Ingrid Bergman, Grace Kelly, Cary Grant, Kim Novak and Tippi Hedren.

Edinburgh Film Podcast was nominated and Highly Commended in the Arts and Culture category at the inaugural Scottish Podcast Awards, which took place in Glasgow in June 2026. EFP was presented with a certificate 'in formal recognition of exceptional merit and distinction, placing this production among the highest tier of its category.'
38 min
June 16 EFP 82: Professor Mark Goble on the Art of Slow Motion
On this episode, host Dr Pasquale Iannone is joined by Professor Mark Goble to discuss a visual effect that is used in everything from action films to football matches.

Whether it’s to extend or amplify, to lyricise or clarify, slow motion is everywhere on our screens.
Published by Columbia University Press, Mark’s book Downtime: The 20th Century in Slow Motion (2025) takes a close look at an effect which has been strangely under-explored in film scholarship, despite this near-ubiquity.

Mark is Professor of English at University of California, Berkeley specialising in literature’s intersection with technology and media.
In their wide-ranging conversation, Mark tells Pasquale about the reasoning behind Downtime’s three-part structure. They then touch upon the work of writers such as Walter Benjamin and Vivian Sobchack on slow motion, before turning to the cinema of New Hollywood in the late 1960s and key works such as Bonnie and Clyde and The Wild Bunch.
Many other examples of slow motion are discussed - from Dario Argento to Wong Kar-Wai, John Woo to Joe Talbot - and Mark and Pasquale also consider the use of slow motion in other areas such as sports broadcasting.
52 min
May 25 EFP 81: Professor Martine Beugnet on cinema and the blurred image
On this episode, we dial down the sharpness and celebrate cinematic blurriness.
Going against the common assumption that blur is only for backgrounds, a new book by Professor Martine Beugnet explores the power and poetics of the blurred image. Originally published in French in 2017, Blur (2026) is part of the Cutaways series from Fordham University Press, where authors take a close look at one particular cinematic theme or motif.
Martine has published widely on film theory and aesthetics since the early 2000s, with highly influential books such as a monograph on director Claire Denis, Proust at the Movies, Cinema and Sensation: French Cinema and the Art of Transgression and dozens of articles, book chapters and edited collections. She is currently Professor in Visual Studies at Université Paris Cité but she spent more than a decade of the early part of her career teaching here at the University of Edinburgh.
Martine tells Pasquale about the process of having her work translated and the appeal of the short format volume. She talks about her choice of film examples which range from mainstream Hollywood cinema to experimental film, silent cinema to contemporary works. Discussion then turns to the many ways in which filmmakers employ blur, whether it’s to create ambiguity, to delineate a sense of character subjectivity or to shift back and forth in time.
Films mentioned in the discussion include Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958), The Ipcress File (Sidney J. Furie, 1965), La captive (Chantal Akerman, 2000), Son of Saul (László Nemes, 2015) and In Water (Hong Sang Soo, 2023).
37 min
May 06 EFP 80: Neil Brand on 100 Years of Laurel and Hardy
On this episode, we discuss the work of legendary comedy duo Laurel and Hardy, whose careers straddled both the silent and sound eras.
They were active between the 1920s and the 1950s, making more than a hundred films together and their unmistakeable big man-little man dynamic would go on to influence many a comedy double-act, from Abbott and Costello to Morecambe and Wise.
This year marks the centenary of Laurel and Hardy’s first appearance in a film together and to mark the occasion Neil Brand has been touring a show celebrating Stan and Ollie’s extraordinary artistry.
Neil is a writer, broadcaster, composer and peerless silent cinema pianist. His show arrives in Scotland this month and he joined host Dr Pasquale Iannone to discuss the Boys.
In their conversation, Neil and Pasquale place them in the context of other giants of American screen comedy such as Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin. They also explore Neil’s previous work on Stan and Ollie, such as his brilliant radio play starring British acting royalty Tom Courtenay. Neil tells Pasquale about the structure of his centenary show, what audiences can expect as well as the joys and challenges of improvising silent film scores.
Neil will be appearing at The Gaiety Theatre in Ayr, The Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh, Airdrie’s Town Hall, Eden Court in Inverness and the Adam Smith Theatre in Kirkcaldy. For more information, go to the website: laurelandhardypresentedbyneilbrand.co.uk.
31 min

About Edinburgh Film Podcast

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Dr Pasquale Iannone (Lecturer in Film Studies) is joined by staff and students from across the University of Edinburgh as well as guests from the world of film and TV to discuss all aspects of screen…