Screenshot

In May 1983, Sony released the first camcorder for domestic consumers, the Betamovie. This milestone in amateur filmmaking, 40 years on, prompts Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode to explore how home movies are depicted and used in feature film.

Ellen meets academic Liz Czach to find out about the history of home movies, amateur filmmaking and and how its role has shifted in today's world of the internet and Tik Tok.

John Wilson, creator of the hit docufiction show How To... With John Wilson, also joins Ellen to discuss how his early experiences with found footage, and the documentaries of Bruce Brown, impacted his approach to film.

Mark talks to Canadian auteur, Atom Egoyan, about how the advent of the digital camcorder and our changing relationship to video technology influenced his early films.

This week's viewing note is from the director of Skate Kitchen and The Wolfpack, Crystal Moselle, who recommends a film that utilises home movie footage.

Producer: Mae-Li Evans

Ahead of International Workers' Day, Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode explore how the struggle for workers' rights and other movements for change have been depicted on screen.

Ellen speaks to artist Jeremy Deller, who in 2001 restaged and filmed perhaps the most pivotal and violent event of the 1984/85 miners' strike - the confrontation between police and picketing miners in South Yorkshire, which has come to be known as the Battle of Orgreave. She also talks to cultural historian Christopher Frayling about some of the most interesting films about the labour movement to emerge in the UK, from The Proud Valley to It's All Right, Jack.

And Mark investigates how activism is depicted on screen in the present day, speaking to How To Blow Up A Pipeline director Daniel Goldhaber, and activist Megan Kapler, whose work with advocacy group Prescription Addiction Intervention Now was recently portrayed in documentary All The Beauty And The Bloodshed.

This week's Viewing Note comes from film director Lizzie Borden, who shares her favourite recent activist documentaries.

Producer: Jane Long

Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode discuss how restaurants are portrayed throughout cinema and the small screen, from Big Night to Ratatouille.

Mark is joined by film and TV journalist Roxana Hadadi to discuss an overview of the best depictions of restaurants on the silver screen and to define which ingredients make for a good restaurant movie.

And Ellen talks to Philip Barantini, the director of one-take restaurant film Boiling Point, about how his experience as a head chef has made him the director he is today. Ellen also speaks to restaurant critic Jimi Famurewa about how and why restaurants are the perfect setting for TV and film.

This week’s viewing note is courtesy of food critic and broadcaster Jay Rayner.

Producer: Hester Cant

Mark Kermode and Ellen E Jones take the scenic route through slow cinema - a genre of film that might challenge your attention span, but is almost guaranteed to change the way you watch.

There is one particular film that’s inspired this week’s show, Chantal Akerman’s 3-and-a-half hour, slow moving masterpiece from 1975 - Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080, Brussels

In December 2022, Jeanne Dielman topped Sight and Sound magazine’s Greatest Film of All Time poll. That caused quite a fuss because, for the last few decades, the poll has been dominated by Citizen Kane and Vertigo.

Ellen speaks with critic Wendy Ide and film academic Dr Tiago de Luca to get deeper into the genre of slow cinema and explore this sea change in critics' tastes.

One reason for Jeanne Dielman’s new found popularity is down to access. A film that was once almost impossible to see is now enjoying sell out runs in art house cinemas. In an extended interview, Mark talks with writer and filmmaker Adam Roberts who, along with director Joanna Hogg, has long been at the centre of the quest to take Chantal Akerman’s filmography from the underground into the spotlight. They discuss Akerman’s life, work and her unique creative vision.

And in this week’s Viewing Note, friend of the show and director of the Cornish folk horror Enys Men, Mark Jenkin, shares his slow cinema recommendations.

Producer: Freya Hellier

The Long Good Friday elevated the British gangster film to a level not seen for a decade since Get Carter, and sees London gangster Harold Shand (Bob Hoskins) and his girlfriend Victoria (Helen Mirren) embroiled in a scheme to redevelop parts of London’s Docklands with finance from a New York mafia boss.

The film features some prophetic scenes in which Harold espouses a new future for London, a London at the centre of Europe, with opportunity to create incredible wealth - a wealth he would most likely have made had the IRA not started interfering in his affairs.

In this episode of Screenshot, Mark Kermode speaks to Dame Helen Mirren about the changes she made to the script and to her character's role, and also about how her uncle’s connections to the London underworld helped her in the part. Mark also talks to tour guide Rob Smith, who leads a tour of the film’s locations around London’s Docklands.

Exploring the world of the British gangster film further, Ellen E Jones meets author Kim Newman who talks us through the changing nature of these films from the 1930s to the present day, and Louis Mellis who, alongside David Scinto, wrote a triptych of British gangster films including 2000’s Sexy Beast.

Lynda La Plante, creator of the seminal British gangster crime drama Widows, drops in with a Viewing Note in which she makes an offer you can’t refuse.

Producer: Tom Whalley

Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode explore the dark arts of the film trailer, 110 years on from the first ever trailer, for Broadway musical The Pleasure Seekers.

Ellen talks to writer and trailer aficionado Matt Schimkowitz about the origins of the trailer, its development since the early days of cinema, and the Christopher Nolan film that totally changed the landscape.

And Mark speaks to director Edgar Wright about the film trailers that left the biggest impression on him growing up, as well as about his experience making a parody trailer - Don’t - for Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s Grindhouse project.

Mark also speaks to actor-turned-director Elizabeth Banks about the trailer for her forthcoming film Cocaine Bear, which has proved a huge viral hit.

This week's Viewing Note is from Oscar-winning director Guillermo Del Toro.

Producer: Jane Long

Brendan Fraser has been garnering standing ovations and awards nominations for his moving performance as a reclusive, morbidly obese teacher in Darren Aronofsky’s film The Whale.

His physical transformation into the 600lb Charlie, who is fighting for his life and his relationship with his daughter, required Fraser to gain weight and wear gruelling, high tech prosthetics. But in the 21st century, is it still ok to wear a fat suit?

In this week’s Screenshot, Mark Kermode and Ellen E Jones explore the history, ethics and changing landscape of fat representation on screen.

Mark talks with writers Kayleigh Donaldson and Guy Lodge about the use of fat suits from Orson Welles to Friends, and The Whale. And they discuss why Hollywood rewards actors who undergo extreme physical transformations for their roles.

And Ellen discusses fat icons, the roles available to fat actors and the politics of the F word with podcaster Annie Rose Malamet, and comedian, actor and star of Strictly, Jayde Adams.

Also, writer, artist and broadcaster, Scottee picks his favourite viewing moments, in Viewing Notes

Producer: Freya Hellier

As director Damien Chazelle's sprawling period epic Babylon hits UK cinemas, Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode travel back to the Wild West of Hollywood's early years. 

Mark tries to sort fact from fiction with author Shawn Levy and critic Christina Newland, as they discuss Kenneth Anger's notorious gossip bible Hollywood Babylon, and explore some of the most progressive and scandalous movies being made in the 1920s and 30s.

And Ellen talks to critic Pamela Hutchinson and historian Shirley Jennifer Lim about the trailblazing career of Chinese-American actress Anna May Wong.

Also, director Todd Field tells us about the Hollywood history TV series he's been rewatching, in Viewing Notes.

Producer: Jane Long

As new film Tar hits UK cinemas, starring Cate Blanchett as a brilliant, highly-celebrated and highly-problematic conductor, Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode explore how genius is portrayed on-screen - and celebrated off-screen.

Mark speaks to director Nick Moran about his 2008 film Telstar: The Joe Meek Story, which focused on another problematic musical genius, and to journalist Jon Ronson about 2014's Frank, co-written by Jon and inspired by his time working with comic musician Chris Sievey, aka Frank Sidebottom.

And Ellen looks at EGOTs - the extraordinary performers who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony - speaking to film star, TV host and EGOT Whoopi Goldberg.

Actor Sanjeev Bhaskar shares his favourite genius on screen in Viewing Notes.

Producer: Jane Long

Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode explore folk horror on screen. The genre is commonly associated with British film from the 70s, but Ellen and Mark investigate how it resonates across the globe and its resurgence over the last decade.

Ellen speaks to the author and director of the folk horror documentary, Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched, Kier-La Janisse about the first folk horror films, the hallmarks of the genre and folk horror's depiction of pastoral and urban settings.

Ellen then talks to director Nikyatu Jusu about her recent film Nanny which won the Grand Jury prize at Sundance last year. They discuss how she uses West African folklore in the film and why she thinks folk horror is culturally specific.

Mark talks to director Mark Jenkin about his upcoming film, Enys Men. They consider the film's relationship to Cornish identity and the landscape as well as why he prefers to call Enys Men a folk film rather than a folk horror film.

And the director of some modern takes on folk horror such as The Witch and The Northman, Robert Eggers, recommends a couple of underseen folk horror gems.

Producer: Freya Hellier