We discuss Benedict Cumberbatch at his best, worst, & poshest, from The Power of the Dog to The Courier to The Electrical Life of Louis Wain. This episode features Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney, Executive Editor Orla Smith, and regular guest Caitlin Merriman. 

Show notes:

• The Power of the Dog is streaming on Netflix
• The Courier is available on VOD and streaming on Prime
• The Electrical Life of Louis Wain is streaming on Prime
• Stuart: A Life Backward (David Attwood, 2007) is streaming on Crave in Canada and HBO Max in the US

Related Episodes

• Bonus 22: Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth (Member's Only)
• Bonus 20: Belfast and the self-mythologising of Kenneth Branagh (Member's Only)
• Bonus 19: Who is the poshest actor in Britain? (Member's Only)
• Ep. 111: TIFF 2021, part 2 (Member's Only)
• Ep. 28: 1917 and Jarhead — Sam Mendes’ war films (Member's Only)
• 21st Folio, Episode 1: Hamlet at the Barbican with Benedict Cumberbatch

Follow Seventh Row on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and read our articles at seventh-row.com.

Alex and Orla report from the 2022 Berlinale Film Festival, and introduce you to the films they loved, from Laia Costa-starrer Lullaby, to Swedish YA film about grief, Comedy Queen.

On this episode:

• Related episodes (1:10)
• Joachim Trier challenge (2:14)
• What we had screeners for (5:22)
• Berlin's films for young audiences (11:21)
• Alis (Clare Weiskopf & Nicolás van Hemelryck) (14:31)
• Comedy Queen (Sanna Lenken) (16:44)
• Lullaby (Alauda Ruiz de Azúa) (20:56)
• My Small Land (Emma Kawawada) (28:21)
• Until Tomorrow (Ali Asgari) and Millie Lies Low (Michelle Savill) 34:16
• Stay Awake (Jamie Sisly) 46:00
• Coma (Bertrand Bonello) (47:50)
• We Might as Well Be Dead (Natalia Sinelnikova) 50:26
• Creative nonfiction: Nelly & Nadine (Magnus Gertten) and Mutzenbacher (Ruth Beckermann) (52:50)
• Conclusion (1:01:55)

Show notes and related episodes:

• Read Alex's interview with Little Wing director Selma Vilhunen
• Take our Joachim Trier challenge, in preparation for our forthcoming ebook on Trier’s work, Existential detours: Joachim Trier’s cinema of indecisions and revisions
• Ep. 121: Ninjababy & Obvious Child: Unwanted pregnancies in romantic comedies
• Ep. 84: Berlinale 2021, Part 2: The Competition (Member's Only)
• Ep. 83: Berlinale 2021, Part 1: The Sidebars (Member's Only)

We discuss This is Going to Hurt, an early contender for best show of the year, the excellence of Ben Whishaw, why Ambika Mod is such an exciting newcomer, and how it brilliantly discusses the mental health of National Health Service workers.

This episode features  Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney, Executive Editor Orla Smith, and Contributing Editor Lindsay Pugh

Content warning: This episode discusses suicide

Show notes and related episodes:

• Ep. 69: Paddington and Paddington 2
• (Member's Only)
• Ep. 32: Sorry We Missed You and Peterloo (Member's Only)

Follow Seventh Row on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and read our articles at seventh-row.com.

Over the course of one month, we challenge you to watch one Joachim Trier feature film per week, in chronological order, to catch up to The Worst Person in the World.

Click here for more details.

On today’s episode, we’ll be doing something a little different. Instead of our usual discussions of films with a panel of critics,  Alex interviews British actress Olivia Vinall about performing Shakespeare. In this conversation, we talk about each of Olivia’s four Shakespearean roles: Desdemona, Cordelia, Juliet, and Rosalind. We talk about how she finds a way into the text, what it’s like working with different directors, and why she loves Shakespeare so much. On this episode:

• Other recent Shakespeare episodes (1:48)
• Background on Vinall's career (3:55)
• What Vinall loves about Shakespeare (8:28)
• Contemporary acting style in Shakespeare (15:50)
• Performing Shakespeare in different venues (28:28)
• Rosalind in As You Like It (33:07)
• Working with directors (37:47)
• Seeing other performances of Shakespeare as an actor (46:52)
• Acting in a live recording (51:14)
• Vinall's next projects (55:32)
• Conclusion (57:38)

Show notes:

• Follow Olivia Vinall on Instagram (@olivia_vinall)
• Read Alex's career profile interview with of Olivia
• Read Alex's review of Sam Mendes' production of King Lear, starring Vinall
• Vinall's performance in Othello is available through National Theatre at Home
• Olivia Vinall has narrated 13 audiobooks, including Thomas Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd. They are available through itunes and Audible.

Related episodes:

• Bonus 24: Kenneth Branagh’s Much Ado About Nothing (Member's Only)
• Bonus 22: Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth (Member's Only)
• Bonus 17: Saoirse Ronan and James McArdle in The Tragedy of Macbeth at the Almeida Theatre (Member's Only)
• 21st Folio, ep. 6: Maxine Peake talks Hamlet

Follow Seventh Row on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and read our articles at seventh-row.com.

We've been harsh on Kenneth Branagh and his self-mythologising, including his recent Belfast. On this episode, we want to be kind and look back to Branagh's amazing Much Ado About Nothing. This episode features Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney, Executive Editor Orla Smith, Associate Editor Brett Pardy, and regular guest Caitlin Merriman. Show notes and related episodes:

• See our 21st Folio podcast page
• Bonus 22: Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth (Member's Only)
• Bonus 20: Belfast and the self-mythologising of Kenneth Branagh (Member's Only)

Follow Seventh Row on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and read our articles at seventh-row.com.

Alex Heeney & Orla Smith discuss the highlight of Sundance 2022: creative nonfiction. We discuss active listening, reframing history, and a risk taking volcanologist couple.

On this episode:

• Related episodes (1:26)
• Sundance overview (4:22)
• 32 Sounds (Sam Green) (8:59)
• Reframing history: Framing Agnes (Chase Joynt), The Janes (Tia Lessin), & Tantura (Alon Schwarz) (29:27)
• I Didn't See You There (Reid Davenport) (44:10)
• Fire of Love (Sara Dosa) (47:34)
• All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen) & Mija (Isabel Castro) (52:51)
• Conclusion (57:31)

Show notes:

• Read our selections of the 10 best films of Sundance 2022
• Read Orla's interview with Director Chase Joynt and co-writer Morgan M Page about Framing Agnes
• Read Orla's review of Reid Davenport's I Didn't See You There
• Read Orla's review of Isabel Castro's Mija
• Read Orla's review of Shaunak Sen's All That Breathes
• For more on creative nonfiction, purchase our ebook Subjective realities: The art of creative nonfiction film. Subjective realities is a six part ebook composed of interviews and essays. Discover the myriad forms of nonfiction filmmaking, from animation to archival and beyond, and find out what funding structures exist to make them possible.

Related episodes

• Ep. 105: Subjective realities: The art of creative nonfiction film
• Ep. 95: No Ordinary Man and John Ware Reclaimed: Reclaiming history in documentary (Member's Only)
• Ep. 78: Sundance 2021, part 1 (Member's Only)
• Ep. 79: Sundance 2021, part 2 (Member's Only)

Follow Seventh Row on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and read our articles at seventh-row.com.

We discuss the ups and downs of Sundance 2022, and chat about some of the festival's fiction films, including Sharp Stick and Living.

This episode features Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney and Executive Editor Orla Smith.

Become a Seventh Row member and get access to the full episode, as well as all other podcast episodes older than six months.

Show notes:

• Read our selections of the 10 best films of Sundance 2022
• Read the source of the "blocking is everything" quote: Alex's 2018 interview with Andrew Haigh
• See Alex's Sundance Bingo Card
• Read Orla's review of Fresh
• Read an excerpt of Lindsay Pugh's interview with The Worst Person in the World star Renate Reinsve
• Sign up to be the first to pre-order Existential detours: Joachim Trier's cinema of indecisions and revisions, the first book to ever be published on Joachim Trier, and receive the full interview with Reinsve

Related episodes:

• Ep. 122: Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person in the World
• Bonus Episode 22: Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth
• Bonus Episode 16: Watching Lena Dunham’s Girls in 2021
• Ep. 106: Christine and Kate Plays Christine: Reviving Christine Chubbuck
• Ep. 78: Sundance 2021, part 1 (Member's Only)
• Ep. 79: Sundance 2021, part 2 (Member's Only)

Follow Seventh Row on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and read our articles at seventh-row.com.

The entire Seventh Row editorial team is here to talk about site favourite Joachim Trier's new film, The Worst Person in the World.This episode features Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney, Executive Editor Orla Smith, Associate Editor Brett Pardy, Contributing Editor Lindsay Pugh, and Editor-at-Large Mary Angela Rowe. 

On this episode:

• Existential detours: Joachim Trier's cinema of indecisions and revisions (2:21)
• Related episodes (4:15)
• The World Person in the World and our first reactions (5:39)
• Is Julie the worst person in the world?(19:31)
• The film's structure (27:23)
• The film's style (33:57)
• Julie's relationships (45:06)
• The time freeze scene (56:57)
• The mushroom scene (1:10:42)
• Intellectualizing and romanticizing (1:18:07)
• The retroactive Oslo Trilogy (1:33:38)
• Conclusion (1:49:20)

Show notes

• Read an excerpt of Lindsay's interview with Renate Reinsve from our upcoming email book Existential detours: Joachim Trier's cinema of indecisions and revisions
• Sign up to be the first to pre-order Existential detours: Joachim Trier's cinema of indecisions and revisions, the first book to ever be published on Joachim Trier. You will also receive exclusive excerpts from the book.
• Read Alex's review of The Worst Person in the World
• View our Directors We Love page on Joachim Trier, for extensive information on Trier and his key collaborators, and links to all of our coverage of his films

Related episodes

• Ep. 114: Mia Hansen-Løve’s Things to Come and Bergman Island
• Ep. 112: Raw and Thelma: Modern female monsters
• Ep. 107: Another Round and Oslo, August 31st: Are men OK? Masculinity, mental health, & addiction Redux
• Ep. 54: Used to Go Here and Unexpected: Kris Rey’s thirtysomethings (Member's Only)
• Ep. 40: Stories We Tell, Louder Than Bombs, & Mouthpiece: Dead mothers (Member's Only)

Follow Seventh Row on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and read our articles at seventh-row.com.

Joel Coen's first solo film is an adaptation of Macbeth starring Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand. We wonder why and discuss what makes for a good Macbeth adaptation. This episode features Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney, Executive Editor Orla Smith, Associated Editor Brett Pardy and Editor-at-Large Mary Angela Rowe.

Show notes:

• Read Alex’s 2015 review of Justin Kurzel’s Macbeth
• Listen to the 21st Folio episode discussing Kurzel’s Macbeth
• Sign up for updates on the first book to ever be published on the films of Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Trier

Related episodes:

• Bonus 17: Saoirse Ronan and James McArdle in The Tragedy of Macbeth at the Almeida Theatre
• Ep. 108: The Deep Blue Sea(s)

Follow Seventh Row on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and read our articles at seventh-row.com.