Carolina and Robin take you through one of the worst calamities in history and the people behind it in domestic-drama-turned-holocaust-film The Zone of Interest (2023).

Politics include: literal Nazis, how there was no God in the house of the Commandant, and how Robin will (maybe) quietly compare your LinkedIn posts to a Rudolf Hoss memo to the SS.

As the 80th Anniversary of VE Day approaches, we encourage you to consider donating to organisations supporting those suffering from the atrocities of war. 

Our further recommendations:

• 'If this is a man' by Primo Levi (1947)
• 'Maus' by Art Spiegelman (1980-1991)
• 'Night' by Elie Wiesel (1960)
• 'Shoah' by Claude Lanzman (1985)
• 'Night and Fog' by Alain Resnais (1956)

And many many more...

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Robin and Carolina discuss the best samurai film of all time, Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (1954). The bandits are mean, our heroes are heroic, and the farmers are just trying to survive.

Politics include: how Jaws and Star Wars blatantly copied this film, the making of a seven-person army, and a village trying to stay safe in an uncertain world that is basically, literally all of us at the moment.

Hungry for more? Good stuff on Seven Samurai

• The Cine-Files talk about the film for 4+ hours
• Why Kurosawa's films are the best edited in film history
• Foreign Policy magazine dig into the film in connection to war

If you like what you hear, please rate and subscribe to the show wherever you're listening, it will help others find the pod.

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Carolina and Robin discuss two of Wallace & Gromit's fabulous films: The Wrong Trousers (1993) and Vengeance Most Fowl (2024), two films that confirm that dogs really are better than human beings.

Politics include: a murderous penguin that uses technology for evil, a robot that is terrifyingly pliant until it's not, the turbulent Yorkshire-Lancashire border, and the literal fundamentals of AI ethics.

See here the complete Sight & Sound critics' list of the 100 best films of all time. Yes, Jeanne Dielman is at the top. Somehow.

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Carolina and Robin discuss The Shining, the terrifying (but always beautiful) tale of a family falling apart in a remote Colorado hotel in the 1970s.

Politics include: the hotel owner who looks like a young Trump, the grim reality of the film being about domestic abuse more than it is about ghosts, and how Jack Torrance represents the broken dreams of the white American working class. 

If you like what you hear, please rate and subscribe to the show wherever you're listening, it will help others find the pod.

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Carolina and Robin discuss Cleo from 5 to 7, an outrageously French film about a young woman who may or may not be terminally ill in 1950s Paris. While she waits for her diagnosis, she discovers who she is and her place in the world, politics and all.

Politics include: the beret-wearing, tarot-reading difficulties of being a beautiful woman in Paris, how the war lingers in even the most gentle of French New Wave films, and how everything connects to the modern French far right.

If you like what you hear, please rate and subscribe to the show wherever you're listening, it will help others find the pod.

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Carolina and Robin discuss The Substance, a very modern classic about a Hollywood actress who will do anything to be young and beautiful again.

Politics include: the late-stage capitalism of beauty standards, how not having an inner life will ruin your outer life, and why most men in this film are morons.

If you like what you hear, please rate and subscribe to the show wherever you're listening, it will help others find the pod.

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Carolina and Robin go from discussing the pre-modern world (see our previous episode on Barry Lyndon) to deciphering the futuristic messaging of 1927's Metropolis.

Politics include: why authoritarianism may not actually be that great, the catholicism of the Weimar republic, and why a 1920s film has a lot to say about... AI?

This is the final of our episodes shot earlier in 2024, so please bear with us, the sound was less than ideal.

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In 2025's first episode, Carolina and Robin discuss the film that best depicts the pre-modern world, Barry Lyndon.

Politics include: how a conman acquires wealth and status, the utter boredom of aristocratic women, and how to understand Trump ahead of his upcoming presidency.

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Happy holidays! Carolina and Robin discuss the historical drama The Lion in Winter, a film that takes place during Christmas, but with more backstabbing than giftgiving. 

Politics include: the nature of power, legacy and the politics of elites, why Katherine Hepburn is the ultimate gilf queen, and Peter O'Toole having the time of his life as king. 

If you like what you hear, please rate and subscribe to the show wherever you're listening, it will help others find the pod.

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Carolina and Robin talk about the heart-warming, surreal post-war romcom A Matter of Life and Death.

Politics include: the bureaucracy of the afterlife, capital E Empire, women riding bikes during the war, and David Niven's Conservative face and Labour attitude.

You can find out more information about the films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger via the documentary 'Made in England: the films of Powell and Pressburger' here, and if you're in the UK you can watch it for free on BBC iPlayer here. This is not an ad!

If you like what you hear, please rate and subscribe to the show wherever you're listening, it will help others find the pod.

You will hopefully be able to see us as well as hear us, and we would love to know what you think, so please leave a comment wherever you're listening to this!

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