Flixwise Podcast

It's official! We've now produced and published 10 episodes, plus 1 bonus episode. They said it couldn't be done. They said we'd lose interest, they said we give up, They said, "What are you thinking? Nobody watches classic movies anymore."  (Actually, they might still say that. Haters gonna hate) However, let the record show, we have crossed the threshold between passing phase to legitimate hobby. 

To celebrate our achievement, we had our friend Julianne Martin make a special appearance on the show. Listeners will remember Julianne from her takedown of Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans. Find out how well Fellini fares when the Flixwisers take on Sight and Sound's 10th Greatest Movie of All Time: 8 1/2.

Early adopters of the Flixwise Podcast will recall that on the very first episode, Lady P mentions that  8 1/2 is one of her favorite movies. However, she also mentions that 8 1/2 doesn't have the same emotional resonance that it had when she was younger. This got her to thinking about how and why our tastes change as we get older. So for the second topic, the panelists offer up a few examples of pieces of pop culture they once loved, but are no longer as infatuated with. Conversely, they talk about pieces of culture that they once rejected out of youthful ignorance, but have since come around to liking. 

Then they close the show with a final note of positivity

Here's Gabe's (kinda)

Here's Julianne's

Here's Lady P's

On today's show Lady P and Gabe are reunited with Flixwise's very first guest, the one and only Gary Lampert. The three panelist discuss the number 9 movie on the Sight and Sound Critics Poll: Carl Theodor Dreyer's THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC. Then things get serious on the Flixwise Podcast. The Joan of Arc topic segues into a discussion about theology in the movies. They talk about how their personal relationship with religion colors how they view films with biblical themes.

But not to worry, before it gets too heavy, they end the podcast with their final notes of positivity.

On today’s episode Lady P and Gabe are joined once again by mademoiselle Emma Guerard. This time the panelists discuss comedies of manners. First up, it’s the mother of all movie comedy of manners: Jean Renoir’s 1939 classic La Règle du jeu aka The Rules of the Game. According to the Sight and Sound Critics Poll, The Rules of the Game is the 4th Greatest Movie of All Time. In case the headline didn’t tip you off, the panelists don’t necessarily agree.

We follow up our Rules of the Game discussion with a countdown of each person’s top 5 comedy of manners. Be forewarned that a good portion of the countdown time is spent trying to figure out if the movies the panelists selected actually qualify as comedies of manners. Also, some of the selection may stretch the definition of “comedy of manners” just a smidge. Let us know if you think the Flixwisers are at least somewhere in the ballpark.

We finish off with our final notes of positivity:

On this episode of Flixwise Gabe and Lady P are joined by the one and only Julianne Martin. The three of them tackle the number 5 movie on the Sight and Sound Critics Poll FW Murnau’s Sunrise: A Song of Two Human’s. While the Flixwisers acknowledge Sunrise’s influence on future cinema, there were some elements of the film with which Lady P and Julianne took issue. Let us know how you feel about the criticism in the comments section.

The panelists follow up the Sunrise discussion with a throwdown: Television vs. Film. Is television a giant, Kardashian laden, artistic wasteland? Or is it film that’s suffering the long banal death that no amount of bloated superhero sequels can prevent?… “But perhaps there are good and bad elements in both mediums…” NO, ONLY ONE CAN SURVIVE!!

They follow up the bloodshed with a final note of positivity.

On today’s episode Lady P and Gabe are joined by writer, producer, and good friend of the show, Steve Teamkin. This time the panelists embark on an epic journey through space and time, as they discuss Stanley Kubrick’s seminal 1968 sci-fi classic, 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. 2001 is considered to be among the greatest and most influential science fiction films of all time, which is probably why it’s ranked number 6 on the Sight and Sound critics poll. That being said, one or two of our panelists were a little less than awed by Mr. Kubrick’s grand tour of the cosmos. Listen and find out how well they defend their dissent from popular critical opinion.

Next up, we jump forward in time to the 21st century for a discussion about another touchy feely machine. This time it’s the female operating system in Spike Jonze’s oscar winner, HER.  Most humanoids are typically rendered helpless when they encounter the husky, melodious vocal tones of Scarlett Johansson. Find if out the panelists are as enraptured with Johansson’s “Sam” as the rest of their species.

They finish off the episode by briefly revisiting Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans .

Hey guys! Ever wonder what that creepy eyeball at the top of our showpage is all about? Well wonder no more, just as soon as you listen to our latest episode. For this edition, we are once again joined by Jeffrey Ashkin to discuss the number 8 movie on the Sight and Sound Critics' Poll, Dziga Vertov's MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA. Dziga Vertov's 1929 silent classic is the first documentary on the list. So to celebrate both our first documentary, and our very first seamless transition between topics, we spend some time talking about our favorite documentaries and how the form has changed over the years.

Then we finish off with a final note of positivity.

In this is episode Lady P conducts a one on one interview with her mentor, Professor Joseph McBride. McBride is an accomplished author, a journalist, and a film historian whom Lady P met as a student at San Francisco State University. It was an honor to have him on the show.

For the first segment, Lady P and McBride discuss the number 7 picture on the Sight and Sound Greatest Films of All Time List: John Ford's, THE SEARCHERS. McBride has written two books on John Ford including this one. In our interview, McBride offers a lot of interesting tidbits about the production, as well as insight about the major themes of the film.

And since McBride was a actual contributor to the Sight and Sound poll (we told you he was accomplished), Lady P took the opportunity to try to dig up some insider secrets about why the list shaped up the way it did. Is there a vast conspiracy among all British film journals to denigrate the legacy of Orson Welles? Has William Randolph Hearst come back from the dead and threatened all the world's film critics? How else to you explain the deposing of Citizen Kane? They address this dastardly plot, and they talk about how McBride went about choosing his personal submissions.

They finish off the episode with a little professorial advice. You wanna be a famous filmmaker or film critic? You better listen up!

On this week’s episode, Gabe and I are joined by the lovely and talented, Miss Emma Guerard. In addition to being our resident art conservationist intern, Emma is also the one who made all of our website’s sketches and drawings. Make sure to take some time to admire Emma’s handiwork while you prowl around our site for hours on end.  

In this edition, we kick things off by talking about our goals for the Flixwise Podcast. We discuss what our intentions are for this project, and what listeners can expect from future Flixwise Podcasts. I suppose this would’ve been a good topic for our first edition, but better late than never.

We follow that up with a discussion about the movie on the tip of everyone's tongue, the 1953 Classic Yasujiro Ozu feature: TOKYO STORY. TOKYO STORY is ranked third on the Sight and Sound Critics Poll.  Listen up to find out if our panel feels it lives up to the hype. (SPOILER: Of course we like it, we’re not made of stone!)

 Lastly, we end the show with our notes of positivity.