Episodes
Friday Oct 27, 2017
Night, Dawn, Day & Land of the Dead
Friday Oct 27, 2017
Friday Oct 27, 2017
[School of Movies 2017]
This show was recorded in the autumn of 2016 less than a year before George A. Romero passed away. A listener named Innes Clatworthy made a generous donation and I asked him if he'd like us to do a show as a thank you. He asked for one of the Romero zombie films. Never one to do things by halves we covered the first and best four.
I've already fielded questions as to why Survival and Diary aren't on this list but it boils down to three reasons; 1, the show is already 2h 45m long, 2, they don't really fit with the first four and 3, we don't like either of them one little bit, so we have nothing to say about them.
In fact quite a lot of this episode is about unseating the original Dawn of the Dead, from its throne of "Best Zombie Movie" and highlighting the qualities of Land and Day in particular.
That being said, what we know as a zombie in pop culture would be very different today were it not for at least the first two, astonishingly influential films (as well as some legal rights mumbo jumbo).
So get your machete's ready (chainsaws are heavy, noisy, fuel-dependent, and more likely to kill the wielder than a zombie) and let's start exploring the bleak, shuffling landscapes inhabited largely by the Living Dead.
Guests:
Kaoru Negisa & Debbie Morse of Sequentially Yours
Brendan Agnew of Cinapse
Friday Oct 13, 2017
The Golden Compass/Northern Lights
Friday Oct 13, 2017
Friday Oct 13, 2017
[School of Movies 2017]
This is part post-mortem on the 2007 movie, The Golden Compass and why it failed in such dismal fashion. It’s not terrible, just underachieving, bland, patronising and not really *about* anything.
Our show is also an exploration of the rich and weighty book by Philip Pullman, which is called Northern Lights in England. It is one of the most special pieces of literature to Sharon and I, we named our daughter after the lead protagonist and had been awaiting the movie with Harry Potter levels of excitement. So, you will have it outlined with pin-sharp clarity, how the makers of the movie abjectly refused to capture the spirit of the book, as we bring that unrealised world to life through examination.
You will encounter some amazing music, some stirring readings from the audiobook by Pullman himself and you will leave with a far clearer understanding of the pitfalls of bringing literature to the big screen.
This episode is released just before the new book set in Lyra’s world hits store shelves. It is called The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage, and is naturally exciting fans. For those of you wishing to dig deeper, however, your first port of call should be to work your way through the original book, Northern Lights, and then move on to its follow-up; The Subtle Knife. It will never be a movie, but good lord is it a gripping read.
Guests
Iain Hopwood
Megan Hopwood