Wigs and Candles

To cap off their 4th season,  Gaby and Andreina discuss the 1975 Stanley Kubrick film Barry Lyndon.

With the help of a very special guest, we discuss the technical marvels of this film as well as it enduring beauty and depth.

Sources and links:

Barry Lyndon Making of
Leon Vitali on Kubrick
Review from The Guardian
Roger Ebert Review

In this episode, Gaby, Andreina, and a special guest, discuss the beloved 2005 Joe Wright adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.

One of the most popular adaptions of the novel by Jane Austen, the film remains surprisingly fresh after almost 20 years since it was released. Gaby, Andreina and their guest discuss the movie timelessness, the remarkable cast, and many other fun detours along the way.

***Spoiler alert! While reviewing this film we go through key scenes and may reveal the ending, so be warned of spoilers!***
Links and sources:

Short interview with Keyra Knightley

Behind the Scenes 

Pride & Prejudice BTS - The Politics of 18th Century Dating (2005)

The Cast

Manic Pixie Girl Trope

Wanderer above the Sea of Fog

Karolina Żebrowska: I watched every version of "Pride and Prejudice" so you don't have to

In this episode, Gaby and Andreina finally watch a movie they have been waiting a long time to discuss.

A Royal Affair, tells the story of Princess Caroline Matilda of Great Britain and her husband King Christian VII. The story follows the years during Christian's reign when the ideas of the Enlightenment start to be introduced into the kingdom, mainly through the influence of Johann Friedrich Struensee, a physician and thinker who is deeply influenced by the movement.

Released in 2012 in Denmark, A Royal Affair tells a story in which love, politics, ideas, and history intersect in astonishing and heartbreaking fashion. Join us as we discuss what it means for pivotal national historical moments to be portrayed in film and what makes a period film, well, a period film. 

***Spoiler alert! While reviewing this movie we go through key scenes and may reveal the ending, so be warned of spoilers!***
Sources & further readings:

Interview with cast + crew on the Berlinale 2012

Interview with Mads Mikkelsen - Empire Magazine

Making of documentary

Film Review on The Guardian

Historical Accuracy of A Royal Affair

In this episode, Andreina and Gabriela discuss the 2022 filmThe Woman King.
Written by  Dana Stevens and directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, The Woman King tells the true story of the Agojie, an all-female warrior force in the Kingdom of Dahomey in the 1830s, in what is present-day Benin.

Starring a formidable Viola Davis as the military general who eventually would become the woman king, the film tells a story of bravery, sacrifice, and female empowerment hidden within the history books during one of the darkest periods in modern times: the transatlantic slave trade.

Andreina and Gabriela discuss the main cast performances, the power of representation, and their efforts to expand their knowledge of the history of women across the globe.

***Spoiler alert! While reviewing this film, we go through key scenes and may reveal the ending, so be warned of spoilers!***

Sources and links:

Interview with cast at TIFF 2022

Interview with Viola Davis and Cast

Thuso Mbedu in “The Daily Show” with Trevor Noah

Lashana Lynch and Thuso Mbedu in Good Morning America

Film review on The New York Times

Warrior Women with Lupita Nyongo

There’s nothing little in the story of this film nor in the significance of the topics it touches on. Greta Gerwig’s Little Women (2019) is a wonderful, fierce, and modern adaptation of this classic, bringing all the themes that have made it one of the most beloved books of the last 150 years. 

Centered on the character of Jo March, an aspiring writer, Little Women tells the story of the March sisters, four deeply loving but very different young women, all trying to find their path in life within the restrictions of 1860s American society. 

Join us as we review Little Women with a special guest and talk about feminism, safe female spaces, pervasive gender roles, how they impact men and women, and much more.

***Spoiler alert! While reviewing this film, we go through key scenes and may reveal the ending, so be warned of spoilers!***

Sources and links:

In-depth interview with the director and cast

Greta Gerwig on her idea for the film

In a baroque opera hall in Paris sometime in the late 1700s, there’s a concert taking place. 

The audience is hypnotized by the virtuosity of the main violin player and the beauty of the music. And still, the most puzzling fact about the scene is the player’s skin colour: it’s Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint Georges, and he’s Black. 

Born in Guadeloupe to an enslaved African woman and a French aristocrat, Joseph grows up in Paris and enjoys a high-class education. His talent for music can only benefit from this, making him a renowned musician and composer and gaining the favor of Queen Marie Antoinette and her entourage. 

It sounds as if the boundaries of race and class are diluted in this story. Only to discover that, by crossing a line that seemed unimportant, the colour of the skin is the only thing that suddenly matters. 

The story of Chevalier is fascinating, and is still hard to believe that it has remained untold for over two centuries. 
While reviewing this movie, we learn about hidden jewels in history, what it takes to bring them back to light, and what effect they have on a wider audience. 

***Spoiler alert! While reviewing this film, we go through key scenes and may reveal the ending, so be warned of spoilers!***

Sources and other links:

Interview with cast and crew

Kelvin Harrison Jr. on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon

Interview with the Cast and crew on the TIFF 2022 by “The Hollywood Reporter”

Cast, crew and other facts

The Liberator tells the story, in wide strokes, of Simón Bolívar, the military leader, and most important Venezuelan historical figure. In this episode, Gaby and Andreina discuss the 2013 film with the help of a very special guest. Placing the film in the historical and political context in which it was made, we look at the role of historical films in creating a national identity and memory. 

Join us as we discuss the relevance of cultural representation on the big screen, the humanisation of a mystified historical figure and the risks of too ambitious screenwriting. 

Sources:

The Liberator Interview with actor Edgar Ramirez
The Liberator Interview with director Alberto Arvelo (Spanish)
TIFF Interview with director Alberto Arvelo
Google Hangout The Liberator (Spanish)

In this episode, Andreina and Gabriela discuss the 2020 film Ammonite with a very special guest.

Ammonite tells the story of 19th-century British paleontologist Mary Anning.  An imaginary retelling of a brief period of her life, the film is directed by Francis Lee and stars Kate Winslet in the role of  Mary Anning and Saoirse Ronan as Charlotte Murchinson, her lover.

Join us as we discuss this period film mixing science, history, and romance in the South West of England. In the process, we explore the dichotomy between artistic vision vs reality, period film clichés, and what dignifies or not a character.

***Spoiler alert! While reviewing this show we go through key scenes and may reveal the ending, so be warned of spoilers!***

Sources & further readings:

Article with film’s synopsis prior to release

Interview with Kate Winslet on LGBTQ+ Representation and Honouring The History of Mary Anning

Behind the scenes

In this episode, Gaby and Andreina discuss the 2022 film Emily, written and directed by Frances O'Connor in her directorial debut. Emily is a part-fictional portrait of English writer Emily Brontë mostly converting the period of her life before she wrote her novel Wuthering Heights. Gaby and Andreina talk about the cinematic representation of Emily as a historical character, Brontë’s relationship with her equally celebrated siblings, and how the film fits within the period film movie genre.

***Spoiler alert! While reviewing this show we go through key scenes and may reveal the ending, so be warned of spoilers!***

Sources & further readings:

Interview with director Frances O’Connor and main cast at the People + Entertainment at TIFF 2022

And because they’re so good, here’s also the Q&A at the TIFF 2022

Film Review from The New York Times

In this episode, Gaby and Andreina discuss the 2022 Netflix movie The Wonder, based on the novel of the same name by Irish-Canadian writer Emma Donoghue. 
The movie, starring the brilliant Florence Pugh as a 19th-century nurse charged with observing a so-called “ fasting girl” in a rural town in Ireland in 1862, pushes against the limits of the period film genre and opens up conversations about science, religion, faith, and belief.  Joins us as we walk through this mysterious and fascinating film. 

The Wonder IMDB Page
Interview with Florence Pugh and Sebastian Lelio
Film review on The New YorkTimes
Interview with Emma Donoghue