Talking Images

Do we want to oppress you and decide what you can and cannot watch? Listen in to find out!

Is Hiroshi Teshigahara on the shortlist of the greatest Japanese directors of all-time? Sol certainly thinks so, yet Chris will admit he has none of the master's films in his own top 1,000 - much to Sol's despair.

There's no denying that Teshigahara made one of the biggest Japanese classics in his trippy Woman in the Dunes, but what of his other films?

Why are so many of them struggling with distribution, and are they worth seeking out?

In this episode, we will go through each of his 7 features, as well as his lauded documentary, Antonio Gaudi, and answer that very question.

Timestamps:

Who's the biggest cinephile? Find out as we play Cinephile: A Card Game in our Season 4 finale.

We also have the audacity to invent a new rule we think improves the game.

Happy new year!

Was Sean Connery the best Bond? Apparently not! At least according to our panel.

Join us as we rank the actors who played the iconic superspy, talk about our favourite and least favourite films from the franchise, and give our opinions on who should step into the tuxedo next.

The last question took a bit of a turn as we all seemed to want it to be Pierce Brosnan ... as he is now, in his 70s, and doing an old-Bond film ala Logan. Are we high, or is that a genuinely good idea?

Oh, and would Bond being gay make things interesting? Sol really seems to think so.

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Watching the Moral Tales Cycle is witnessing a great director be born, experiment and find his voice, but how good is Eric Rohmer's most famous cycle? Do the early no-budget films hurt it, and how do we deal with the generally loathsome, holier-than-thou mortalising male leads looking to have little adventures?

We will also address why on earth Rohmer chose to pill a George Lucas before George Lucas by making the 4th film of the cycle before the 3rd, discuss where to start and how well the series actually works as a single entity with a clear progression from story to story.

The iCMForum's 7th annual film festival is here! For the last year, 8 programmers have worked tirelessly, combing over underseen films to find the true top-of-the-crop most film fans missed.

In this episode, 4 of these 8 programmers present the 10 films on the main slate, ranging from comedies to anime, drama and even what can only be described as a "remix" film.

They will also shout out their favourite films and slates from the rest of the program, which should have something for everyone, including horror and arthouse lovers.

Join us as we dive into the nightmarish and surreal worlds of Polish master director Wojciech Has.

Our main focus will be on his three arguably most acclaimed films:

We will take them on in chronological order, and with this track his journey from what could still be recognized as the real world, with nightmarish touches, to increasingly surreal fairytales and odysseys.

We'll also try to unpack his symbolism, but most importantly, try to figure out whether he deserves to be in the Guinness World Records for most skulls on screen.

Timestamps:

Were Peeping Tom and Psycho the first two slashers? (Or, at least, the ultimate proto-slashers?). Which came closest to the genre we know and perhaps love today? Do both deserve to be called masterpieces? And why was one of them trashed to the point of utter destruction?

Peeping Tom and Psycho were released just two months apart, but their reception could not have been more different. Peeping Tom was trashed across British media and flopped so badly it destroyed the career of its director, the legendary Michael Powell. All goodwill was taken away. How could he have made something so despicable? It took decades before the film was rehabilitated.

Meanwhile, just some weeks later, Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho was instantly praised as a masterpiece and became one of the biggest box office hits the year.

More than 60 years later, we measure the films up against each other, look at how similar and different they actually are, and try to decide which was the most groundbreaking, the scariest, the best shot and acted, and, of course, which is actually better.

Could it be true that Peeping Tom was just robbed by prudish British critics and is actually the better film?

When is a film just too long? Does the ideal runtime exist? Oh, and are films with run-on mainly victims of indulgent directors without good producers and editors to clean up their mess?

Listen in as we talk about the runtimes that make our skin crawl and how open we are to watching films over the 3, 4, and 5-hour mark. We will also reveal the big films we are avoiding due to the runtimes and, in an attempt to redeem ourselves, list our favourite long films.

Are we long film bigots? You tell us!

How spoiled have we become by Blu-rays and 4k? Are our old VHSs and DVDs trash now? How low can the image quality get before the viewing experience is damaged, and when do we say: Hell no, I'm not watching that!

In this episode, which somehow descends into death threats, Tom will admit that he refuses to watch a long list of Satyajit Ray films in their current condition, while Sol reveals he doesn't mind bad visuals as he watches a ton of films on his iPad.

We will also all admit to watching bad VHS transfers and corroded silent films on YouTube (YES, INCLUDING TOM).

Join us as we dissect just how important crisp visuals actually are, whether we can still stand DVD and VHS quality and reveal the worst-looking films we have ever sat through. We will also discuss whether less than crisp and even damaged visuals can be positive, with a brief look at Dogme 95 and Guy Maddin.

We also invite you to assess just how genuine Lauren's death threats are and if her potential victim has it coming.