Cinéclub Podcast number 19 is a special episode because it’s a tie-in with the release of the second edition of the Cinéclub fanzine. This issue features an article on Conrad Rooks’ bizarre, star-studded countercultural artifact Chappaqua, with a focus on the long saga of its production, some shorter pieces on punk and film, and an essay linking Bertrand Tavernier’s 1974 film The Watchmaker of St. Paul (also known as The Clockmaker of St. Paul) to Paul Vecchiali’s La Machine from 1977. It’s £2.50 plus postage, shipping internationally, and you can buy a copy here.

It’s the latter film we’ll be focusing on in today’s episode, and to do so I was joined by Nick Newman. Nick is Managing Editor at The Film Stage, a freelance programmer, and most recently he launched a podcast, Emulsion, which I heartily recommend. As Nick mentioned in our conversation, I knew he was a fan of La Machine because he Tweeted about it around the time of Paul Vecchiali’s death in 2023. His Tweet stuck with me because this film is so often overlooked, even amongst the filmography of a still neglected director like Vecchiali. In the past few years, a few of Vecchiali’s films have been restored and re-released: in this episode we mention L’Etrangleur from 1970 and Rosa la rose, fille publique from 1986, recently reissued in the UK on Blu-ray by Radiance Films, but La Machine remains difficult to see. If you would like to see it, see the show notes below.

Nick and I start by discussing Vecchiali’s background and his production company, Diagonale. We then get into the film, exploring its approach to genre, its representation of mass media, what it has to say about the death penalty, the reasons why the film still resonates today, and much more. I started by asking Nick about the broader post-New Wave cinema landscape in France and how this generation of filmmakers differed from the nouvelle vague that preceded them.

Chapters

00:02:39 - post-New Wave / post-1968 French cinema

00:11:18 - Paul Vecchiali

00:23:04 - Diagonale

00:27:43 - La Machine and the crime genre

00:37:55 - La Machine as commentary on the death penalty

00:46:48 - the courtroom sequence

00:51:14 - why La Machine still resonates today

You can also find this podcast on…

* Apple Podcasts

* Pocket Casts

* I will no longer be uploading podcasts to Spotify and have removed all previous episodes of the podcast from that platform. It’s something I’ve been meaning to do for ages, because Spotify is a transparently evil company that delights in ripping off musicians, promoting AI slop, and enabling genocide in Palestine.

Shownotes

* Buy issue 2 of the Cinéclub fanzine

* 44 pages w/ articles on Conrad Rooks’ bizarre, star-studded countercultural artifact Chappaqua, some shorter pieces on punk and film, and an essay linking Bertrand Tavernier’s 1974 film The Watchmaker of St. Paul (also known as The Clockmaker of St. Paul) to Paul Vecchiali’s La Machine from 1977. DIY and sold on a not-for-profit basis at a cost that just covers the cost of printing: £2.50 plus postage. Shipping internationally.

* Watch La Machine (I am sharing these links as, to the best of my knowledge, the film is not currently commercially available)

* On YouTube (no English subtitles)

* Via Google Drive

* Nick’s writing, and episodes of his Emulsion podcast, at The Film Stage

* Some useful articles on Paul Vecchiali

* Essay on Rosa la rose, fille publique by Steve Macfarlane for Metrograph

* Notebook Primer: Diagonale and Co. by Patrick Preziosi for Mubi Notebook

* Diagonale and Us by Axelle Ropert for Screen Slate

* Paul Vecchiali, a Cinematic Franc-Tireur by Daniel Fairfax for Senses of Cinema

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cineclub.substack.com