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Audiovisual Cultures episode 106 – Cinemallennials with Dave Lewis automated transcript


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hello and welcome to another episode of audio visual cultures the podcast that hooks and pokes in the different areas of audio visual media and the creative industries I'm Paula Blair and I'm really excited to introduce you to my cast D. Esalen yes makes a similar deals podcast which you should absolutely check right Dibbs website where you can find his home movies and podcasts Angie cheap thanks as in the show notes where ever you're accessing this episode please do you go and check that all right Steve is seeing really great work to promote cine and media literacy so please go and give him all the support you can Steve has also been kind enough to help me cast on cinema landing Elsa please see subscribe wherever you access your podcast C. don't miss what for me was a richly enjoyable conversation bites it happened one night said Frank Capra film from nineteen thirty four a massive Sanchi S. while T. our patrons over at Petri on dot com forward slash AV cultures and all our wonderful listeners for keeping us going there will be more information on ways to support artificial cultures at the end finally settling in for this really joyous maybe conversation with their David S. host of Senna millennials podcast you're very welcome to the official cultures thank you for having me I really appreciate you having me on yeah I've been really looking forward to this I really enjoyed staying on your podcast representing the older millennial content and we'll explain your podcast and the minute I think just generally it's alright if I ask you hi E. J. N. and whereabouts are we talking to you from and that sort of stuff yeah I'm doing well I'm from New Jersey in Union County New Jersey closer to New York %HESITATION around a forty minute train ride away from the Big Apple crafts city if he a lot of film reviews and you have what comes across to me as a particular and trashed and classical era holy way it's it's not fair to say I was wondering if you'd be happy C. chest and judges yourself and tell us about your interests and why you're so drawn to the types of films a year Jontay and that sort of stuff yeah my name is Dave Lewis signed host %HESITATION and %HESITATION producer creator extraordinary whatever you wanna call it it's such a weird thing to like have a title for %HESITATION when you do everything now but yes so I am the creator of Semenya's podcast where myself and another millennial watch a classic found so that ranges from eighteen ninety to nineteen sixty nine because that is you know with the academic quote on quote quote out or you're out of the classic era for filmmaking I've always just been fascinated with history basically what we do is we go into we watch the movies the very first time and then we see how it relates to our society today are millennial experiences whether be culturally popular culturally socially politically economically what have you we really want to try to understand the people of the past within the lines of our present and future and I think it's really important that we look at that stuff because all of the different things that we are going through right now whether it be racial issues other P. economic issues classicist issues there are a lot of things that we can learn from the past in order to create a better future and I've just always been fascinated with history ever since I was a little kid %HESITATION my mom got me a Fisher price castle where you can have a cannon ball shoot out in a trebuchet catapult and have the little clicking kind of as a drawbridge in the nights and everything and that really really made me fascinated with history and I think film really came into a creation point like %HESITATION kind of a amalgamation of those two and which is why I was inspired to cream similar deals we learned a lot from our history and learn a lot of things through film about history yes there's a lot of inaccuracies within historical filmmaking but what we really try to do is to look at the humanity of that really focus on the way of the future and someone else is a perfect fit for that really I think it's a rainy Accern idea for a podcast because it's both a combination of the period that you're looking at switch it anyway it's quite a big area of cinema but in another sense in terms of sort of leisure our history it's so tiny and it's still in a state of becoming it settles so that's really interesting but then also the generation that you focus on because you know you're not liking it tends ads are jammed seeds you know at the same time it's specifically millennials sons that ranges from the older ones like me from the at the stadium %HESITATION people up to the late nineteen nineties and stuff so that combination I'm thinking these older films that as if some educator having taught a lot of you know younger people coming even after me and the sense is that %HESITATION those of some suggest boring and they're nonsense you know so I'm I'm just seven said it just a probe a little bit more what kind of things are you learning from not from this combination of those two things together yeah it's it's fastening like the other idea that that I had with some money has just that I was noticing like watching Marvel movies or whatever is big right now Star Wars and then especially right now June there is a massive massive influence of older sounds coming to the sounds that are coming out today and there are a lot of people that there's this culture this some called you're on YouTube of covering found and breaking down are saying we do explain the ending explained of things and I find this really fascinating because people want to know everything they have this deep deep hunger to know everything because partly people want to you know feel better are more superior than other people and in that way I wanted to get that group but at the same time I wanted to get the group that we will find it boring they find it exhausting all its black and white so that's not gonna be interesting but there's a lot of things that you can play with within black and white within shadows I think the shadow plays like the thing that's the most important thing about that is you're able to unlock something with a a restriction of not having color with the restriction of having to write around saying this in order to make it more relevant to that person or read more relevant to that culture and that time without specifically and explicitly saying those things like we talk about the podcast but he's code I think it's so fascinating to see where people come from where myself and other money has come from what they're like saying I've never watched a classroom before but I understood that because of the different references behind it and I understood the simplicity of it because it wasn't so specific but at the same time like we talked about in our I'm sorry that it happened one night there are references where I myself am not gonna understand at all that other people might reference might understand like the older generations and I think with the millennial generation's wanting to know more that's where I was like okay maybe more and more and now there's a big film culture on Twitter and YouTube people want to know more and more and they want to see more educated within sound and I thought it was a way for not only myself to learn more about classical filmmaking or phone majors the masters of the past if you well I thought it was a really cool idea to talk to people about it to see and almost on the same line because that sounds a little pretentious but bring people decide Hey this stuff is amazing because of how revolutionary it was and how still relevant it is tags and I think it's really it's a great opportunity to bust some misconceptions I think as well because the more you take memory Rafael and I think we've both top seed mutual friend of ours ours Henriques fights now the cabinet of Dr Caligari and what strikes me about that sound is just a reminder is that those are the silent films they're not necessarily black and white because they use a lot of color filters here there's lots of police and park pinks and greens that are used in the US and so they're expressionist in more ways than one it's not just long shadows and things are actually quite vibrant and hi there expressing the internals evenings of characters and so on it's a really lovely opportunity for you to get someone by your side and for each of you to learn not to gather it's quite a joyous thing to lessen safe for me I'm so glad to get that fact and it's funny you say that it's joyous because the majority of the people that I've talked to so far within twenty something episodes everyone's love their movie everyone's love the vibrancy of everyone's loved the different acting techniques that they had back then would there be a silent or a talkie it's something that's like so fasting to see like once they understand like oh wow this is art this is a true form of art and expression and it's been something that's around for a hundred years not just the last twenty or thirty years or forty years now that's more things are coming up within forty years now you know especially the things that we grew up with four years plus almost fifty years so now it's definitely something that has brought me a lot of joy into having a lot of people really dig deep into things that they were never seen before and I enjoy listening to yes I think because I think a lot of the films that he caught fire our fans that I may be watched as a younger person because I was just curious about cinema and then I ended up studying it formally so I watched a lot of the times as well in my film studies courses %HESITATION hands my own research and teaching it remains to somebody like me to watch his sons for the joy of them as well as for what you can learn from them so I enjoy it on those two novels that's exactly what I was gone for so thank you so much and words I was wondering how do you choose your person that you did way because I know that you have some people come back and do them repeatedly I suppose with all of us to start with an indie pop past you start to you know restart with your friends and that kind of stuff and people you bump and say on the internet like maybe but and here are you looking for he shared ideal cast do you think my ideal gas would be someone I don't know I think it's I I like talking with family and friends because I think it's so interesting to see where their %HESITATION perspective start from it and with I don't know would be interesting to see if I can get somebody whether it be like academics like yourself or maybe somebody that's been involved with filmmaking or like an actor or an actress of the really cool to have if they're like doing a period piece and they want to go back or maybe something like along the lines of I think it would have been great to have somebody that was a part of manc talk about change I think that would have been awesome to say because I feel like especially with Citizen Kane Citizen Kane is something that everyone knows about rose bud whether people know it or not and especially with names and how it was it was about the creation of the story there so many like different versions of the creation of the story with their long tails asset which now has been proved false which is the whole movie that's that's the whole movie is based off but now it's interesting to see like how people really interactive film and how they go from saying %HESITATION yeah it's just a movie too wow it's saying a lot about society and especially how it so real relevant to our world today but yeah I think somebody will that would be a part of something whether it be like movies like bank or %HESITATION the other side of the window I don't know why I am referencing or someone else here twice %HESITATION he's been on my brain a lot %HESITATION for some reason but %HESITATION no I think somebody like that would be really really cool to have well never say never hopefully %HESITATION yeah that would be really great to say that I'm thinking it's all about you saying references this is something I used to tell my students as somebody who is say teaching usually first year from Saudi students a lot I noticed that you know every year maybe just get a bit more reticent to just be there at university %HESITATION and there's a lot of factors involved in that and in the U. K. I don't rating I can't speak for the aspect you know there's reasons behind that I need at the moment %HESITATION arrange the structures and that sort of stuff and %HESITATION I used to tell my students you know it's not even just staying well academically you actually start to understand references and shows like family guy a lot more pay attention to what I'm telling you and you'll enjoy it more because you'll get it you go oh that's from that made me understand this million attack from rival and that was something that came up in our episodes that's coming up as well is is and chances as you say of some sort %HESITATION coming out each day you will understand them more because those directors there from disco love going to the cemetery R. cinephiles I know what you're doing and they love what they're doing so you'll understand some more if you just watch widely right I feel like that's where a lot of especially the big directors today now like some my favorite directors are you need on news and %HESITATION Christopher Nolan and basically they often I say this a lot of a Christopher Nolan he basically takes a lot from Hitchcock yeah with the attention that he builds within the film whether P. Dunkirk where you have the constant ticking of the mechanical movement of a watch no I love that effect because I'm in the big lots guys well %HESITATION ology guys well but it really builds that tension and then with you need to live he uses a lot of the stuff from science fiction of the past but is able to fully realize the world I've been obsessed with dune for the last couple years building up because I've read the first two Bucks to run really really struggling to get there but I think what he was able to do was he was able to build a world of all %HESITATION you know George Lucas and Mike he's able to build the world even though George Lucas is you know it people don't differ on if that's a classic or not because that's the whole like kind of ideas people say oh a classic is just the thing that like you know everybody revers rather than the academic sense which is the layman you know I go by but on the way that he's able to build and build and build this kind of tension and he kind of reminds me of older film directors not even but before long you can also say his cock as well because of his stuff from that the signer a lot of people don't know that you talked it silences swelling even today %HESITATION he did an adaptation of plough and the stars which is really ran into me as someone that worked in higher studies and I was really interested in %HESITATION saying that but anyway I think basically what we see a lot with those two directors and other direct like when Tarantino is probably a great example even though I'm not a fan is %HESITATION that they're using the techniques and they're using the ideas of the past and are influenced by the past and they want to elevate their stuff by using the old masters and by using the old masters they elevate their own projects as well in definitely it's quite great sales to show people that are at least introduce it to them and for them to to get up and run was set by themselves you know that's a great thing to pass on to people would you like to receive updates thanks and special offers straight to your inbox then visit audio visual cultures dot wordpress dot com to sign up to your mailing list yeah I wanted to ask you how you teach to use the phones you've mentioned a few limitations already you've got last time period so we're looking at quite as she mentions classicism in the sense of periodization select right at the time he gets up and you're looking for the moment as far as I know %HESITATION specifically Hollywood scare which is a bit gray in the very early years but a lot of the films that we go right back to the eighteen nineties are probably going to be really difficult to access any rise I mean you need that limitation I think you need a limitation but I just wondered about your experience working with and not and it just got me thinking Kian uprights there is a distinction I think an important distinction between Hollywood and yes our American sentiment they're very different things actually and I was wondering what your thoughts were on that and what impact that has maybe on shaping your podcasts or is it something you might address at some point you know just what do you think about that yeah I am I thought about it to certain degree because I know you know in the early eighteen nineties obviously it was dominated by Edison which is my area of where I live and it is dominated by %HESITATION Addison and a couple other early ones until Addison actually forced people out to go to Hollywood by literal gun point actually I'm not himself of course why would he do that he has a bunch of cronies that day I was in was not a great person and everybody thinks he is generally there is an absolute distinction between American Hollywood sounds and it is very difficult because what is said ninety percent or up to ninety percent above of silent films are completely lost so often it is very hard so when I take the phones originally I just picked I think was a hundred or something films of what are deemed to be the best of the best classics are the most well known classics as well as some things that I knew personally from things that I wanted to find out from whether it be European filmmaking whether B. E. S. judgment yeah E. or a and a half a dozen half again I can remember my gosh the Italian director Fellini at every company name yes only thank you %HESITATION Fellini and then some of the French directors this file that I really really interesting never really got into %HESITATION because I understood that some of their stuff is kind of a little difficult to get into if you don't understand the whole culture and you know being American I don't think I'm a regular if you're an American and a lot of ways but some ways I am I think that what I was trying to do is let's look at like all the things that are deemed to be as the classics where I looked at the AFI lists the BFI lists not wanting to have a good diversification as well as introduce other not so long well known classics like on the list I have %HESITATION I have the response by Oscar Michaud who is a African American director who is one of the first African American directors I can't remember the title the sound I think it's the unconquerable or something like that %HESITATION where she responds to D. W. Griffith's birth nation where a lot of people think that this is like you know D. W. Griffith stays the great you know introduction of epic cinema when in actuality there are people in Italy in France doing a lot more than he was way before December Griffiths even came to the stage and that we're doing way less problematic stuff and I wanted to introduce Oscar me shall I wanted to introduce other people that might not be able to be on the pedestal of what Hollywood and other people think as like the great filmmakers and I want people to look into European filmmaking because there's a lot of great stuff as well as I'm trying to now look at other phones outside of Europe outside of Hollywood outside America in order to have a big diversification when I do have people that are from other places that want to talk about their personal and cultural experiences going to the cinema so mainly we have phones that are known as the benchmark for a lot of stuff so what every citizen came in with like we talked about for me you know Frank Capra's kind of lexicon of the are %HESITATION filmography of americana or like we talked about Capricorn with it's a wonderful life which is one of my favorite films of all time and then you had the great British directors like this guy behind me David lean %HESITATION Lawrence of Arabia which is another great favorite some of mine it's all across the board I wanted to understand what is the best things are what a lot of people like scholars like yourself for you know academic saying this is the best as well as the same thing as what a lot of people say is the best like people that are outside of the cell making world news I wanted to understand and I wanted to like educate myself as well as help other people educate themselves through listening to and participating and going back to the idea of American town versus Hollywood there's a lot of you know D. I. Y. and corn corn punk type of influences are there's a lot of DIY and punk type of directors that are doing stuff that not many people know about some trying to delve deeper into those in order to see like if I can add anything on and then I have course you added it happened one night so I'm always open to suggestions whether it be you know anything in the world it doesn't matter weather be like you know a small thing or something that's obviously why didn't I think of that what am I doing why didn't I just think of that movie so it's a whole thing across the board it gets me thinking a lot of by curating your own films being in a way that's been on my mind about it anyway because again our our mutual friends larceny son and Garen and I over at mysterium picks for him you know where they've they find a desk you know they find a hard drive for C. three hundred pounds on them and so that's what their podcast is about it is it's curated for them as their family hearing and what you've done and the limitations that you've sacked and that's something that for me and they show it I know that my show is it doesn't have that many she know I'm quite broad and sprawling because those are my research in Trastevere where where's that where things stepping over each other I just feel like there's really good crimes here for a really fascinating research projects where it's right I want to make a podcast debate the staying and so in Q. reading a script the film so I'm gonna watch to talk them three you know I I just %HESITATION something ready fascinating about that that's just bring a light yeah macos participating in that and other people's head that way as well which is quite nice yeah it's I mean it's funny you say it's like kind of like a research project which I mean that I think that's a perfect example of what it is because %HESITATION I went to school for history I'm trained ademas historian because you know that's not my field and I want to sound too pretentious in there I'm not gonna call myself %HESITATION missile historian but %HESITATION you know I did study anyway anyway you are to no sales the story no one but no I am I studied history went to school for history because as I said before was a lifelong passion and I really do think that film is a good way of introducing not exactly educating because obviously you know there's too much Hollywood stuff like the last tool which is in the army %HESITATION but now which is actually funny like to go on a little little tangent armor medieval representations of armor are better in the first half of the cinema rather than what is going on today unfortunately but I think it's a great way to really see what people are into and see what they're not into and then see how they can relate it back to our world tangy and how to understand what we're doing wrong or what we did do wrong in the past whether it be through art or social movements and how we can fix that today and I think through filmmaking that introduces a lot of topics that are can be often difficult and can really make people not make people but can really make them feel comfortable enough to talk about those issues I think I'm not I was wondering if you have some examples of factors jokes that come picky to mines create from Sentinel any elsewhere that sort of thing has really happens and Ian your cast a pretty dull guy something even arsed something like that is really shiny oh gosh that's so relatable to see the recession we've just seen one ten years ago or something like that like do you have some examples that you kids aren't semesters to words yeah the main one the main examples that I thought of was all about eat and how when it's apparently clear coat it there's a lot of references to queer coding within that I myself did not know any of that from that world I heard a little here and there but my cousin Kelly who inside you know she's very interested in that kind of period and then %HESITATION but not that kind within that there's issues and within those issues but in the period and how %HESITATION there's a lot of different references to clear %HESITATION ideas and representation within that film and I had no idea about that because I I you know I always heard about all about eve being this like on Twitter there's a big old Hollywood community and with it being so kind of like I'm looking to DVD box right now with how impactful it is within that community and I was like okay well all I can see it this way and somebody sees it as another way really fascinates me because you know I myself I'm straight says hat person you know I don't understand everything that's going on within that community I try to educate myself more more which is why one of the reasons why I picked all of that is because I wanted to know about that and why Kelly picked all about eve %HESITATION because of its representation in a time where that representation could not make sense in a lot of places and now when you can look back even further not to a film that we've covered %HESITATION on similar deals but there's films from the twenties and thirties and even our earlier that you have representations of queer people I know G. T. Q. plus people that are coded in a way as to run around the Hays code and other restrictions set up time so that's another one on another one and talk with that is %HESITATION some like it hot is another great one that we really talked about gender politics and the representation of gender on the screen and you know you can trans gender issues as well so that was really fascinating there's a couple films that we really talk about I mean we talk about happened one night with %HESITATION classicism and economic strife between the classes and how we really see what America was at post depression or during that depression up post freshen during the depression and how people were trying to travel across country for work they were having this depressed but jolly positivity at the same time when the scene that they're on the bus and then you also have gender politics and that within our %HESITATION Peter tries to hail a cab and you have very sexist but what some people could say as empowering to the female characters in the story is the whole almond hedge my dress up just to reveal man I get the car right away he's my sexuality as a power kind of grab %HESITATION in a way so yeah those are a couple examples that I could really think of right now especially how can I forget this one citizen Kane as well I know I keep talking about it but you know the ideas of especially right now billionaire's having all this power people like Charles foster Kane having all this power and how you can clearly relate to a lot of major political and economic figures today how do you treat the world around them when in actuality a lot of it was down to childhood trauma and issues that they weren't you know loved enough or they weren't you know that kind of thing where we really have to look at everybody from a human perspective whereas you know a lot of people can deny this as well but we need to look at like what happened and why they are the way that they are today maybe we can empathize maybe we shouldn't empathize at all so there's a lot of different issues there that we can really delve into yeah tellingly the medium %HESITATION kill a silent just based at one time I think no no definitely not we need a lot we need we need to there's a lot of issues going around with that media moguls and how they control the media or who who controls the media really and how different points of view and perspectives are pushed out rather than held against an iron door so they don't get pushed out we'd love for you to be part of the conversation with AP cultures called on Instagram Facebook and Twitter and we also have discord I mean you say you go back in history and you talk quite a bit about that and then %HESITATION and I think it you've already answered this question gives you you've said to your your interest and some quite dove tails without minutes remaining so I mean what was that attracted G. T. ng film reviews and writing some reviews as well as costing from northeast not sort of work it was just something that I was I've just been always passionate about %HESITATION writing really kind of came as an accident when I was working at %HESITATION actually I went to an event at the American Irish Historical Society in New York I'm very involved with %HESITATION the actual unity in New York especially the new York Catholic association and %HESITATION I actually pointed out it was twenty sixteen so is the year of %HESITATION you know the hundredth anniversary of the nineteen sixteen star rising in Dublin and %HESITATION I was just there you know as a friend to support my friend who is %HESITATION that kind of she ran the offense at the American Irish Historical Society I was just pointing out to somebody a couple that didn't really know about Irish history because I study that a lot my grandfather really got me into it when I was a young kid %HESITATION talking about the different you know people of the past with the B. Patrick Pierce or Tomasz McDonough or you know the signatories are even people little later Tomasz mix we need people like those %HESITATION figures of the past during the Irish revolutionary period and then I just point out this is a copy of the nineteen sixteen Easter Rising proclamation like a legit copy of it and then somebody noticed that Hey this kid knows what he's talking about so I started working for a mini truck McConnell she %HESITATION is from Donegal which is where my family's from in Ireland and %HESITATION which is not too far from where you're from I just found it interesting and I found the history so like I was so passionate about it and I started working within that field and she had connections with an Irish America magazine so I started working there %HESITATION as an editor and writer assistant editor writer covering all across the board of history the Gaelic athletic association's events that covered events meet a podcast for them %HESITATION where I wanted to make this deep dive into history and how it is still relevant within the Irish American kind of culture today %HESITATION which unfortunately is a lot of older people %HESITATION rather than younger people being passionate about it there's a lot of younger people only to see Patrick Stanley it's you get drunk your crazy for a guy and that's about it not really knowing where their families from or the history of it you know people inappropriately saying things about the irate and things like that which yeah it's too much of an issue %HESITATION ignorance lies on those kind of histories and I think it's something that I just kind of fell into because it was a passion for me there was a film critic there called ka hor of Dougherty who really really pushed me into going into film reviewing %HESITATION she actually had a lot of connections within New York kind of film screening circles so he actually got me a %HESITATION an invitation to %HESITATION the Stan and Ollie and all the screening and ever since I was a kid I watched on March the when soldiers are based in Thailand and that that has such a head likes to massive impact on my life %HESITATION every single year I get a nutcracker because of that movie my parents gave me a cracker because I thought the soldiers in the movie were real the whole story is that for those that don't now stand Ali laurel hardy %HESITATION play %HESITATION toy makers and sans workshop they were asked to create six hundred soldiers and a foot high instead they made a hundred soldiers at six foot high they defend the land of toy land from %HESITATION the boogeyman and %HESITATION I thought they were real such a call can you please can you please give me M. long story short my parents you know Santa Claus got me a nutcracker that's probably about this tall I'm about three or four feet and ever since then you know I've been obsessed and watch it every year so there you go early Hollywood's influence a young young age yeah so from there I started doing my own things on YouTube they are not very good there's one that is okay decently I would probably need to re edit it it's about how Lawrence of Arabia really sets up people's intrigue with showing his death at the beginning of the movie and then later on you're gonna see the whole arc of his life within the military and his experiences in the desert and you see all the different perspectives of all the people that worked with him throughout the film and that really builds intrigue to start later twenty forty nine and you know things from there and it's just been growing I'd like three hundred seventeen subscribers as of right now and never did I think that I was gonna get that far yeah it's I mean I just I've always enjoyed I think the first film that probably son Peters was Toy Story and that from there was probably after that the first live action film last Sunday there's a Star Wars and %HESITATION I got so excited that apparently I was screaming crying and going nuts in a theater singing with me was the coolest thing in the world that I almost got my and and like four five nine because it's my brother kicked out of the theater so it's always been there and it's just like with this kind of steady build into something that I've always been passionate about history as I sat I always wanted to know what the why and how about a lot of people in who they were and and that and you know I just going to deep dives on wikipedia is and then go into the kind of academic resources and things like that so it's something that just has been a slow build over my whole life I mean I remember watching you know the Oscars when the lord of the rings trilogy %HESITATION came out that was something that really really changed my whole world about filmmaking and thinking about film and watching behind behind the scenes of those movies it was something that just you know developed a long lifelong passion for film and wanted to know why the why the how and who behind the scenes I really can appreciate that curiosity I have a very similar curiosity as well let's just say end up starting from quite formally those are all things that I've really always encouraged some students said today as well %HESITATION so it is ready cartons me that someone right there does that because it can be quite difficult to capture the students of the subjects should be that carried us and check to make those things up I've always said that even just credit sequences are gold mines of information my gosh yeah like a it notes interviews like I look at those a line like we eat that person did this one of my favorite like phone taxes that some of the greatest films of all time written by like the scene two or three people he had like I think it's Robert bolted Lawrence of Arabia he was a part of it's a wonderful life he was a part of the on so many other great films that he did I know I only need to but when you look up Robert ball and see what the credits you Dan it's amazing but no one knows his name because of you know the house un American activities kind of idea %HESITATION event that happened and how a lot of communists and leftists were completely shunned from Hollywood including him I mean you had another great example is Dalton Trumbo and how he did Spartacus and all these other great sounds but you have to find the little details within those stories and that's how you find it through the credits through wouldn't eat different Matt paintings in the background of Star Wars or the special effects artist with more the rings any circus you know how these things all connect one of the great examples of old Hollywood is Conrad vite people don't talk about him and now he's one of the greatest actors film actors of all time look at his demography the cabinet of Dr Caligari the man who laughs still me his face is still making an influence on our popular culture today nearly almost I think he's almost you know it would have been close to his hundredth birthday or something like that by now he also did a casa Blanka she is so super influential within our society in popular culture today in what is known as the you know upper echelon of filmmaking and storytelling I think that's really fascinating how there's still so many names that have not been talked about enough within some meeting in you know in a way I I hope to bring those people little bit more to light even though we are talking about those bigger kind of people for the majority of the time it's great I think anything that can redress the %HESITATION reassures that have happened because there were a lot more women involved in filmmaking and people realize similarity years most film editors are women a lot of screen writers for women but there their names were changed her masculine I used a word they just aren't included in the crowd at seems to always look at what's missing as well as with fire I thank ray and you talk about women I mean some of the earliest like we wouldn't have the %HESITATION the color version of %HESITATION the way I still do not add a trip to the moon we wouldn't have that because it was all women hand cleaning every single frame that film that's why it still colorized today and then you also have you know a form more updated reference you know talk about Lawrence Arabia Andy Coates who worked until what was a couple years ago before she unfortunately passed she was working on so much influential sounds I mean she is the one that basically created the famous cut most famous cut one of most famous transitions of all time with Lawrence of Arabia where he has the match he blows it out and you just see the beautiful sunrise across this vast desert wasteland there were so many especially I mean when you look at even earlier in the nineteen tens nineteen twenties nineteen thirties a lot of famous directors especially comedy directors were female and it's really really fascinating to see how people want to have that focus today there's another %HESITATION northern Irish %HESITATION my god I can't member's name film kind of historian director that did a whole series about women and stuff and I think it's on criterion %HESITATION mark cousins yeah markup that's done talking about yeah that's on talking on mark cousins great great series on that I started watching that %HESITATION a couple months ago and I was like oh my god they're just so much good history here and there's so much good kind of representation here more people should know about it Kitty here do I feel like we should we should chat again because I thought I'd love to hear more about your experience as an Irish American personally this is something that's come up in the podcast a few times you know where I've found and I've had a cast on and it turns out they have a wealth of Irish history Souchez Donovan but also carry roots he is a film historian and he's %HESITATION from the asset and that he's he left and Belfast for a long time and he taught me a film studies actually here's one of my lectures at queen's high school and he's just written masses and masses and masses backseat just he spent for my tastes and the machine he's written loads by RD horror and RT at American horror he said he's a huge fan of Bela Lugosi and he's right back has traces of the state but he's also written quite a lot of fights Irish American cinema show he might be somebody in assets and and the king and say he's one of those people he's a he's a take make sure you know I think he's got Cherokee and them but he's also got Irish in him and you know he's already been there and one person so Gary's pretty fascinating yeah I'd love to it really keep in touch and they can stop it mark have covers you the diaspora is is so interesting I mean I'm technically yes I asked for it in a way nice while living in England %HESITATION and it's also really kills me to hear that you're from all star specifically yeah my family's from down low and so one of the %HESITATION way way you know isolated places and it's actually great grandparents that come from Ireland and %HESITATION my grandfather was just always super passionate about and telling me about it and then you know I started I went to study gone twenty thirteen and %HESITATION %HESITATION yeah twenty thirteen I absolutely you know love the place want to learn Irish %HESITATION I know a little bit of Irish myself just always this fascinating history and you know to see the sports and how intertwined it was within the culture and you know being someone that's been you know part of the G. A. community for the last almost nine ten years which is insane to think about it's a really interesting to see especially within you know the context of America and to see how there's almost this kind of like secret world within America within Ireland and people that have absolutely no connection to Ireland or any Celtic or %HESITATION Gaelic type of representation really fascinates me and how they just cling on to win we had %HESITATION I live in a pretty urban area and we had a lot of you know African Americans we had Hispanic Americans we had a lot of kids because I I started a %HESITATION hurling club at my university and we had a lot of like we'd probably the most diverse team and it was so fascinating to see like how these people just so attracted diverse cultures without even you know noting that they're all part of the whole lineage of you know what is it four thousand years history within politics societal issues and things like that that are baked in within that culture that are peaking within their sports as well so it's really really fascinating Z. the Irish American experience over here and how to see it and within the lines of the GAA but also within the minds of as a growing up I like really was interested in my history kind of prescribed and on my or Scottish miles so you know I was very interested in those people's on in the relation to British history medieval history as well so it was something that just like was something that's you know I'd be so passionate about and I just want to delve deeper I've I I talked at the Irish consulate things like that so like I did that kind of stuff and I wanted to do like branch out to more things I can sound because it was again it was something that I was always super passionate about and some that I just loved and wanted to like learn more about and educate myself and you know I was already doing the reviews so I was %HESITATION doing stuff all all along and I just wanted to know more and help other people no more because you know as a kid you're you're somebody that and I'm sure you do the same thing you watch older son how many times did you get made fun of for watching older phone L. and like it I mean we you talk about the next generation have you talk about that and like I I know I think I saw somewhere on your one of your social media to get far skate around and things so you know how it felt when people lie like put you down on stuff and you know whether it be for me it was like a lot of my our stuff as well as because you know I live in a town that was mostly Italian Americans or convert to keep their kids and things like that and they were very fiercely in right very rightly proud of their heritage well you know that could be also a whole conversation about %HESITATION about different ideas about nationalism and things like that our cultural nationalism or whatever but growing up liking twenty years ago lord of the rings and fast way to eighteen you know fifteen to eighteen years later everyone's obsessed the game of thrones it's like come on guys you gotta you gotta catch up on the cool stuff here but %HESITATION you know it it's something that I wanted to help other people to realize this is something that has clearly you know made it Denton impact within our current generation of filmmakers and actors why was that a thing why are these references coming up now and how are these were and where did these references come from so I want to educate people I want to have people know more about film and I want to have conversations with people that would have never looked at this thing before and really say to them like this is something good you're missing out on it let's get into it and see how it relates to us so we can be more relevant to you and so it's just a friendly and so that I don't forget to say C. H. and if you ever get to go back to Ireland and do you ever get to see travel more around all star and she check out the %HESITATION Sir American folk park yep you will laugh at I've heard of life heard a lot about it working with the Irish America I think they actually have like a kind of a deal with them I have never been said Northern Ireland never been there I'm sorry I'm saying the north because all my friends and I'm like I gotta stop doing that I got I got I have to get out of the the whole kind and because a lot of them are obviously you know directly tied to a lot of different movements yeah I definitely need to go live hi friends and Jerry as well so I definitely need to like take a trip out there anyway I mean I'm going right through there anyway from Dublin to go to Donegal so I definitely need to check out a lot more stuff and it's something that %HESITATION you know I need to delve into more of definitely because I do love the medieval parts I love the nineteen twenties no I I have I'm hesitant to dealing with like more of the sixties through you know the ninety stuff because it is often it is very hard and very very difficult there are a couple films you know that I'm like like I put off watching hunger for a long time as like stuff I don't that's very intense especially with somebody that has that kind of connections and has close personal some people that I now within family had this personal like kind of story so it's something that's very fascinating to me as someone that is removed from that history with and because our family came over here in the nineteen twenties so yeah I just definitely want to learn more and like educate myself and again watching films like I I saw %HESITATION the navy is film already who is it yeah that means I think it was called with them I'm a guy came into the main actors name but %HESITATION I saw that premiere at the American premiere there and it was just really interesting to see how it block was run and how all that stuff was like really fascinating so and that's why I like I I found your work so fascinating because I want to see how those experiences are expressed through filmmaking because you know some I have books and nice things that are you know some of them are biased some of them are not because they are historical books and you know they try to be unbiased as much as they can you know I want to look at multiple perspectives rather than one perspective that I'm clearly being around to constantly with the GAA and other places as well so it's really fascinating to see all the perspectives and to see where people came from and why people are doing things especially now with and and this is getting a talking point within the next couple weeks or months with Kenneth Branagh as Belfast found unlike very hesitant on that film I think it's amazing that Kenneth Branagh is going back to his roots of being from Belfast in Northern Ireland I think it's really fasting because I had no idea that he was I was like why are you kidding like this guy's supposed to be like the English and the English because of his connections Shakespeare when he's really not liking I think there's a B. B. C. kind of thing that he didn't very early on I was like that then the price on yeah exactly yep yep that's lazy exactly like wow this is so strange and he's been a patron of the lyric theatre in Belfast for many many years he's never really gone away he has kept a hand on the knee does keep going back you know he's never really been behind the door I think it was when he was a teenager or something or when he went to England for university you know you get a crop K. thank you for having the socks and especially when the conflict with some so and he changed pretty quickly but that's what happens a lot back then I'd almost forgotten about that some yes some great looking for it's like minutes I know exactly what you mean because it's painful and yet it's still a mystery you know it's very ambivalent feeling I have and especially spending so many years studying what type of phone my PhD studies were you know they were the love of my life and yet they nearly killed me you know it was very strange and your apps that they have it's really refreshing to hear you talking about this multi stage because it's very much a quite literal history see no they're going very very slippery but you know what if you if you ever wanna watch any of those kinds of films and you want it to something else like this were re recorded chat about the need be so welcome not that lovely wonderful I'd love to see that you have for chassis very welcome back so before I forget this is well hello dear listeners where they can find more about you where the contestants and the millennials plug all your stuff yeah my %HESITATION my website is D. Liu movie review dot com I know it's a lot D. A. L. E. W. movie review dot com you can find all the podcasts I've done whether the Irish America similar deals my you tube channel please subscribe to my YouTube channel I would be more than glad if anyone subscribe even if it's just one person I'm just trying to get my voice out there trying to get you know the ideas that I think are very important to the world and more people should listen to put across in those %HESITATION videos and I think it's just something that I want to have a bigger community of people that I can really delve into about filmmaking about films relationship with history and history strong relationship found and you can find similar deals on pretty much every podcast provider every podcast kind of platform adobe Spotify Google apple podcasts you can find it on anchor you can find it pretty much anywhere I would be so glad to see people in a really talking about more more classic films and I really appreciate you having me on thank you so much I love this conversation now I'm so glad you asked I really enjoyed chatting to you always enjoyed chatting to dance and I hope that this is the second of many many many times I hope they enjoy your company okay too thank you so much it's so nice to say that
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Audiovisual Cultures episode 35 – Festive Wrinkly Film Club automated transcript


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hello and welcome to your audio visual cultures the podcast that explores signed an image based modes of cultural production I am the creator and host Paula planner has this episode is geo each on what for many people is Boxing Day I saw it I take the opportunity to reflect on the volunteering I've done specifically my involvement last running to film club at a residential care home and some special festive events we've done I ran to film club from June to December twenty seventeen then pass it on to another volunteer he seemed ready Kane and I've continued on as a friend or two to residents since then the other volunteer left sometime ago and homes activities coordinator has been selecting the films the residents voiced criticisms of the film club at recent presidents meetings and I suggested doing a bank special one as a child this December so I'm going to indulge in a little bit of I told you so for a moment as I pass on all the knowledge I acquired in the six months of running it week late last year and all of my advice was pretty much ignored another reason why I stopped was because we've been moved from a bank lines to a really tiny one with only a few seats and this was excluding quite a lot of people who'd been regulars before then I learned the hard way that animations No matter hi mature or realistic go to sign it's very per day with this audience the man aged in their eighties and nineties are over when men were men generation and they won't bother with musicals or romance themed stories historical fiction particularly involving British heritage and the monarchy always works really well as did some obscure independent film side find which center on elderly people and issues that they face yes given that there are quite a few residents living waste various stages and types of dementia I find that degeneration of the films needed to pay no more than a hundred minutes as they begin to agitate after Ryan to eighty five to ninety minutes the narrative and plot also need to be as straightforward as possible I thought Hitchcock's to catch a thief was a bat as it's probably one of the more accessible and straightforward of the Hitchcock thriller spent many of her Aston's really struggle to even my fat black and white films should only be shown after there is sharp image quality color is best for people with visual impairments that helps and follow who's Hayley and what's what subtitles for the hard of hearing are also a must along with the key and the highest sound quality possible as the slightest distortions caused quite a few problems for accessibility neither the activities coordinator has experienced first hand all the sorts of limitations and face complaints on the scene how challenging it is to please everybody I felt ready to get involved again and last year in December we watched the shop around the corner which wasn't well attended because our session had been double booked with Carol singing we also watched last year a colorized version of the original America on thirty fourth street which was well attended and ready well enjoy it because of that because I think that was quite a successful one I suggested we use it again this festive season as is the reality of life at a care home we've sadly lost residents in the past year some have passed away and some had to be moved on to the facilities where they can receive the more intensive care they need eight new residents have come in and frankly other residents simply don't remember events from a year ago for these reasons some reputation is fine and actually it might help revive dormant memories in some cases so it's okay to be a little bit repetitive awhile back I published posts on my blog find it P. E. A. prior dot blogspot dot com labels affectionately as a wrinkly film club and went silent asked individual films and their reception the shop around the corner was directed by Ernst Lubitsch and released in nineteen forty Lubitsch was one of many European emigre filmmakers whose training and his homeland of germinate helped shape classical studio era Hollywood minute before the U. S. H. O. in the allied forces in World War two the shop around the corner was adopted from me close last Los play in not Sir tar or perforate and apologies for the nonexistent Hungary and accent there this play was first performed in nineteen thirty seven the year before the Hungarian playwright became one of many Jewish emigres I came to the U. S. side around this time the Hollywood film retains the Hungarian setting but not the European political climate of its time it focuses on to the Pickering co workers who don't realize that the author is our long term anonymous romantic correspondence while quick witted and scathing humor of pines this romantic comedy driven by misunderstandings and dramatic irony also engages with emotional fragility sexual harassment mental illness loneliness the trial and suicide at a time when psychoanalysis brews in popularity it appeared that so to date the commercial potential of being in love especially in December in the lead up to Christmas purchases of the cases boxes and wallets that is vessels for by gate H. sold in the store become increasingly for others instead of for the south earlier in the year Clara Novak played by Margaret Sullivan manages to land a job at the matches sack and company letter good skate shop by selling and musical cigarette box as the repurposed Condi box to a woman she is James wan's today's way it's convincing her that it's incessant playing of the Russian love change Oct chi chair name well Peter off eating sweets quite a few times and the firm some characters display fought phobia after the establishing act gifts are sought as an obligation to loved ones including Clara wanting to buy one of the long unsold novelty boxes for her unnamed intended unbeknownst to Clara her colleague added first Serie Alfa to chronic played by James Stewart discovers that she is has anonymous lover and persuade her to buy him a stylish wallet and stats this is of course after cruel words have been exchanged and that psychological confusion quoted from the film caused by their falling in love the musical cigarette box plays the role of MacGuffin and elephant in the room its presence and regular mentions recalling the very fact of Clarice employment at the shop her physical entry into health for its life and health it's better judgment as it was he who advise their employer Q. Q. much sack played by Frank Morgan against stalking it despite the products stagnation and driven by people's need to purchase gifts Christmas Eve becomes their quote biggest day since twenty it's on quotes that is since before the global impact of the nineteen twenty nine Wall Street crash the shop success comes despite or perhaps because of matches Shaq's absence following a suicide attempt after a private investigator provides evidence that much as Jack's wife has been having an affair with another employee a a it's apparent that his over work an obsession with the shop factored in the breakdown of his marriage was supposedly still in hospital his attempts at psychological sales tactics at the shop window back fired when the customers recognize him so well known are he and his maneuvers this results in him staving off loneliness at the end of the film by essentially buying friendship and company with the new shop boy for Christmas day as everyone else is paired offer has family commitments in a way it mildly reminiscent of screech and a Christmas Carol he only becomes generous and that school of bitterness to offset his own guilt and pain as for the lovers they began the work of being true to one another and developing mutual respect without them realizing this first emerges while they hit each other during a store room arguments Clara observes that no one but specifically L. for it has tried to grab her in this situation during her employment not much checks she confirms that being harassed as why she left her previous job the onus of course being on the victim not much has changed it fails so many years later the shop appears to be a respectful workplace but each meal employee it's nineteen forty so yes it's a heteronormative environment specially in Hollywood at this time as preoccupied with a wife or lover of some description Alford agonizes over someone he believes to be a world apart from Clara Fitch played by Felix press art is happy family man Vatos played by Joe says Schildkraut is not convicts with the bosses wife Macek is obsessed with the shop and even Pappy the delivery boy played by William Tracy has a girl at the rate of his ambitions Alfred's harsh words the Clarets that they're not interested as are frankly trade she is not considered as worse harassing by the male employees of much check and compelling the more problematic elements in the film the site it's a good watch I thank picky if you enjoy humor and delivery that really staying there's nothing quite like that classical Hollywood comedy and the picture is very famous for those it's hard to gauge its reception as the one person as they said he attended thought they had to leave before the end of the film and some other people joined us after an hour when the Carol singing was over but they had really very little concept of what was going on or what they were watching so the film is night part of the homes collection and maybe put IT again next year he knows the following week last year we watched the nineteen forty seven version of miracle on thirty fourth street written and directed by George Seaton and starring Maureen o'hara and John P. and to my surprise last year the DVD and created a colorized version which we collectively decided to have a go west as vision is an issue for many residents as I mentioned earlier color is much easier for them to see them block might also it's just a bit more cheery here especially in the dark winter days and being quite far north it gets dark for a hard line being a joyful story about the spirit of Christmas the color first added in the nineteen eighties was flew a vibrant hues of red green and gold and rare late was its addition even discernible I find it really impressive I was very familiar with the black and white version I'd watched it before and I just find it really impressive how wild the color was done on that occasion six residents attended and we were joined by to the relatives of one of the residents and I was surprised that not only had no one else in the room saying this version before they also hadn't heard of the story I told but has experienced quite a few incarnations and see other radio television no for lies ation and Salem sensei original story was written by fallen Tyner Valentin database I'm not sure hi that person per nine states the nineteen ninety four remake was fairly popular and I remember it being released when I was ten but I also must remember as a lifelong cinephile to re calibrate to the experiences of the general non cinema going public and a lot of the residents in the home are of a generation that didn't really go to the cinema very much and it's actually more at the man and they're very few men and residents at this home women have a longer life expectancy so there are just naturally fear man but it is my the man who would have gone to the cinema more regularly but the point of this is been to introduce the residents to films and different stories that they would like but may never come across before and it feels good when that worksite and it's even better when I have a few things that I can say about them from experience I'm not occasion everybody enjoyed the film very much and just sing the the lady whose relatives were there says very little and for here hardy said anything positive about my fate she's passed away since last year but believe me when I say I was ready to light it up when I asked her what she thought she replied it wasn't too bad and with a lot of the rats and stuff for the past you can really hope for that's really positive purposes or laughed and confirm dot so I take that as a huge positive and others expressed that they thoroughly enjoyed it and find it very funny and cheering so's quite lively that'll discussion afterwards which was really nice the firm opens as Doris Walker played by Ohara oversees the Macy's department store thanksgiving day parade which culminates in Santa Claus is a rifle the store that was back when they used to do this sort of thing in late November as opposed to starting in September as it feels like they deny however there Santa Claus played by Percy Helton is drunk and passes all right an elderly passer by he stopped to berate him as asked by Doris to replace him and Kris kringle played by admins Glenn he claims to be the real Santa Claus gets the job while there are concerns about Chris's Sunday his honesty and warm heartedness security loyalty from the customers meanwhile it becomes apparent that Doris is the divorced mother of the young season played by Natalie woods he has befriended their neighbor the attorney Fred Keeley played by paean he has deep affections for the walkers but wishes they were last Sirius he soon analysts Pringles help and igniting imagination and blind faith and Susan has been taught by her mother to be truthful and skeptical which in this story are synonymous with seriousness and it seems particularly and the women and the process Doris is emotional armor against further heartbreak dissolves and she gave center loving frat and believing in Kress while the film is funny with sharp harm this humor there are of course issue use that a film of this nature and a film made in nineteen forty seven raises but in comparing it with the nineteen ninety four remake I find the nineteen forty seven version to actually be less problematic the nineteen nineties single working mother Dorothy Walker played by Elizabeth Perkins seems to rely on free child care from her neighbor Brian Bedford's played by Dylan McDermott spend the elderly Kris kringle played by Richard Attenborough and %HESITATION she's just Matt and thanks installation L. while her nineteen forties counterpart has hired help and cleo played by Teresa Harris hello minimal it's refreshing to see an African American person fully present in the nineteen forties film and has expository linesmen she's really no more than not she's really no more %HESITATION than providing exposition or someone to talk to plot today but if memory serves St correct me if I'm wrong because I'm not Canary what's it to finite but I think the remake presents quite a whitewashed New York City and in a reassure of anyone working in menial or subservient roles people seem to be very Monday eight in the nineteen nineties %HESITATION moreover the men and both films spent much time alone with six year olds say send putting cleo's first appearance she has a line of sight through the walkers and Fred's apartment windows file which she keeps an eye on season watching the period from frats better VA on that side of them apartment building well the subtle layers of surveillance in the earlier film might suggest post war social paranoia it also demonstrates some characters concerns for the safety and well being of others switched to my recollection again the remake doesn't tear at least doesn't date to the same extent as Chris spends time with Susan he convinces her that mess on legends have their place as two stories and a matching nation and of course they D. but the danger is conflating the Swiss truth and reality season seems to appreciate this distinction and shows no interest in anything other than Fakten trace Fred and Chris joined forces to persuade her otherwise meanwhile company psychologist Granville Sawyer played by Porter hold in this forty seven version claims that Chris Harper's quote latent maniacal tendencies on quote as aspects of his life and character of March it is likely that he is projecting his own mile content on to Chris and Jack Chris is persistent and prepared to go to great lengths to persuade rather than proof to season that he is who he says he is and imposes his help on Doris and say send him he sees condescendingly as quote two lost souls unquote what really is so wrong with preferring facts to play your honesty to make believe disruption of gender normativity as walked in both films the ultimate goals are to you sure face and the young questioned on noble the violent offensive which is apparently sanctions and to restore the hetero patriarchal middle class normative order by reinstating that natural family unit having blind faith and imagination as a farmed as what's best for girls well being at least until she's old enough to herself felt motherly or wifely duties that ninety four version conflate stays with religion what Wednesday and forty seven is the authority of the US postal service where is in ninety four it is the blind faith and the Christian god appearing on U. S. currency that dispels the court case a trial held after kringle commit to sold but in both cases tenuously becomes concerned with proving or disproving the existence of Santa Claus rather than dealing with the actual assault that happened when I first saw the remake was old enough to not be shocked by the mild violence but the ease with which a man supposedly the embodiment of peace kindness generosity and goodwill could be provoked to strike someone never stop right with me the same goes for the forty seven version however it came quite soon after a war in which the U. S. I help the allied forces combat fascism and injustice so perhaps in that sense Glenn's Kress and both movie versions were played by English man can't be ten years C. excused by contextual moral standards importantly the forty seven crash I was standing up for the young kind and impressionable Alfred played by Allison Greenman he was being bullied by Sawyer while the ninety four Chris defends himself and his stroke Santa's existence to his provocateur the drug center he replaced played by Jack McGee night working for rival storm which brings me on to a solid foundation of capitalism on which the systems are late went against company policy Chris advises parents on where to find the guests the children want instead of marketing what needs to style it works in Macy's fever and a friendly rivalry and marriages between the store and its biggest rival Campbell's copy the idea of the stores set aside differences to share publicity and are rewarded for their profit motivated good well with trade and happy customers the ninety four approach as cynical perhaps reflecting the post Edie's greed is good philosophy forty seven crest is committed to a mental institution after heading Sawyer with his key in for insisting that Alford's kindness is an indicator of mental instability this act as a catalyst for a personal vendetta against crested so your regrets to lay it on it works to his own detriment however in ninety four the provocation is an act of personal revenge incited by associates of the Kohl's stores biggest rivals shoppers express to damage the seals and lasting reputation of coals to improve their own even still it is a bit rich to hear forty seven crest complete in about Christmases commercialize aviation when some to personify sets and ensures that the festive efforts of the primary care first of childcare go unappreciated for years World War two is never referred to directly in forty seven but instead only to to use Siri necks and loaded silences after half uttered introductions for example the scene in which Chris communicates in sign language with a deaf girl in ninety four was originate with a non English speaking Dutch adopted orphan reading between the lines she is likely her family's sole survivor of the Nazi occupied Netherlands I could speculate further but the purpose of this in kind Jr is Susan witnessing crest conversing in the first language of the displaced and traumatized child which suggests to her the possibility that he may just be the Charlie one post war renewal is perhaps why politics is mentioned over day in forty seven judge Henry acts Harper played by Jean all cart worries about the trials impact on his reelection as governor and mentions that he is a Democrat while district attorney Thomas Mara played by Jerome Keahlian he presents the prosecution case is a Republican this indicates judge Harper's leftist liberal and perhaps socialist leanings when he is buried in mail addressed to Santa Claus delivered to the court heist by the truck filled he accepts the argument that if the mail service believes Christ based on data then he must pay this pits Harper in a win win situation for children and voters alike by declaring some to to be rail and showing tremendous faith and the robustness of a federal system tension to review territory it but here the intricacy of the original story in the nineteen forty seven miracle on thirty fourth street that's partly why it won many awards and has been preserved by the academy film archive by the nineteen ninety four remake may well see it in time it is also much less cynical and has much more potential to cause hearty laughter and the young and old alike so you'll probably notice S. by the difference and the signs at just slash the home after a screening and recording us while walking back home okay can bear with me just a bit of a tight turnaround for head office at the break and I want to have my main computer so in a separate from the site as is customary at doing basically anything at a care home things don't always go according to plan today is Wednesday the nineteenth of December twenty eighteen and this morning I got a call from the volunteer coordinator to say that they just charge that somebody had shown mereka in thirty four straight to their assets last week they had a quick chat with some people and they decided to stay watch it's a wonderful life because they could easily get their hands on a copy it's not a sign on its not awesome I would have chosen for quite a few reasons I'm probably an odd one here because I've never seen this also but some I never understood why it's such a classic I think as well part of the reason is because so many people claim it sort of affair sums and yet nobody ever seems to learn any lessons from my bike being decent say your words your other fellow humans I find it a bit frustrating also this M. A.'s over two hours on the switch here is ten minutes I'm not sure it's much too long for a lotus paperless tensions spawned and as one resident mentioned to me quietly they find it very difficult to follow this story because said narrative structures were unusual so I'll just describe this coming back because the structure is such that he actually see a bit of a John Terry George Bailey's icing me character it's an awkward narrative structure if you're not really used to watching films because you see accept service like Georgie his guardian angel right guard presumably and then you see this re run again later as this he has never existed it's all those the same events and high people's eyes to be negatively impacted because he wasn't there to help them the structure which is very confusing for some people to follow so this is gonna but some it's a wonderful life was directed and produced by Frank Capra and it was released in nineteen forty six and it's after Christmas Eve nineteen forty five so I made it easy there are going to be association so I guess the second World War which hasn't long and does it stars team shirts and Donna reed and it was adapted from a short story called the greatest gas by Philip van Doren stern he'd written it probably and they think that by nineteen thirty nine but it was first published in nineteen forty size it seems after Arcadio got wind of it because you can get it published and they wanted the rights to the Sam so it became published it seems after getting interest from some studio George Bailey played by Stewart's experiences deep despair a lot of stuff has gone quite badly and as I said he hasn't been able to stay the things he wanted or planned today because of various things like service from a tragedy status being L. circumstances he gets to a point where he's contemplating suicide back to the film begins where people you know Hey I'm sending prayers for him and the prospects it could save you you find out why he is he's been really good to have a lot of people he's been integral to his community and he signed himself in a time of need but he needs to be shown that people have his back as much as he has bears so he's experiencing that state despair he's contemplating throwing himself off a bridge and ending at all G. K. heads guardian angel he needs to earn his wings his way of stopping George saying this is set for ten to be someone trying to commit suicide and the rest are on Sir George CSM and then doesn't believe that Clarence's says guardian angel Clarence is portrayed by Henry Travers on his intervention he shows George what everybody's life would be like had he not excessive and high much more negatively impacted everybody would be without him in their lives so there's quite a lot of difficult topics in the sound I have to say I actually wasn't there to see most of it for the past year I've been more of a profound Jr and they're very particular residence that's eyeing which spends quite a lot of time my sematech your Haiti's dementia there's state of her memory has deteriorated significantly so I spent quite a bit of C. sedan actually rest that resident and I've never it's never been a sum that subpoena to many so I've never actually seen that always very probably say nearly all of it but Justin Bates hello I'm now on a story on the so much talked again more to the practical reasons I stated earlier I just wouldn't chosen this because of the running time there was no opportunity nobody had time or the inclination to use and have a chat with me afterwards by debt we just have to pack up because they were getting their dinner it was the H. assassin there wasn't much of a turn ice forest which I think is what we're hoping but then this was always part of the problem was this getting marks bites and things being changed making plans only to have them torn asunder the day of the event unfortunately I'm going to go back say just for friending and just as a dying and not ready doing this but I do want to stress that anybody here say thanks for the science like a great idea it is a great idea to try and do some kind of at a care home Jones for men that shame that my experiences are typical it's just hi it's work sites definitely give it a try and I think as generations move on you'll get more and more older peoples are adults gradient descent and I actually quite a lot of more recent residents and they spoke already quite into sound and Jeez themselves so go to the cinema and I think sentiment can be such a powerful so that can be restored as it can be compassionate I can help with memory I can help with understanding the complexities of life and knowing other people's stories if you don't have access to them otherwise so it is really worth it and it's rewarding when it works while case of be discouraged by any negative experiences I've had it's a shame because we have quite a good tax set up since I hate I think one of the issues asylum is that because it was a last minute thing and it weighs the person advised that holds it wasn't a TV date ever playing on it before it was right from day to day and they hadn't done it with any subtitles I'm not meant that there were issues with the audio because together at a high enough level that anybody with any hearing impairments Kate's follow it and hear the dialogue that man then other people were struggling and right and says co pay and that doesn't happen so much when you've got subtitles because then the people S. hearing impairment usually they're lucky enough that the rise to start working quite well and they can read the subtitles as well as I said when there's no subtitles you don't have that to fall back on just makes it a bit more awkward it's also a matter as sensitivity that I wouldn't ready eschews nice some because there are quite a lot of the residents and their nineties it's very clear memories of the second World War there are residency not only did they remember at that time that that date back J. house I. degree a survivor's guilt they should person I'm second I'm thinking of he had a separate gateways skills in the war one of the things that bite George's different time line as he didn't exactly as that his younger brother would get killed and the war and so that is a very sensitive as she disappeared okay so that's a very long time with that person missing because it's not huge event in world history so I think it would just actually be quite upsetting for people and it is quite difficult Salem and not send sectors it was very real issues and I think some things are just a bit too close to home when you have a long life it means that you fight left so many of the people involved so trying to be sensitive to that because there is quite a lot of tasks and suffering in the sound but when you actually have pain sorry that when you actually left with grace and has been very difficult times in your life I think anyway it's great disco some say enjoy show we say they're straight at me no he said differently but certainly from my experience I've lost a lot of family members and in a way I want them to be escapist this time is here because every day I love to grace the older I get the more you can read it so we're tied in the sixth inning issues have graced her over seventy years gosh December thinking about you know it's not something I would have chosen to bring up for them I think it's okay so message said cigarette terms of box office because it didn't do huge she well when it was released I think it was up against quite a lot of figured he says and it's race was brought forward it was actually supposed to be released in January nineteen forty seven but it was brought forward so that it could be a contender for the Oscars but it had a lot of competition of course is post war there's a stardate kind of sorts that much didn't ready work force but it also didn't do terribly I either did okay but it has become a classic at this time of the year that people watch it over and over and it's not as in only just watching it domestically and that it's on TV all the time is people going to the cinema to see the sound a lot every year it's the main Christmas Sam it's restrained and sent a mess year after year after year and I've just never really understood why it injures so much and let's captures their popular imagination as it were but also why is it not working why is its message not working wiry also also see each other we're not all awful see each other but a lot of people are and this is one of the most popular films and Angus owned world so I don't understand how so much of the anglophone world is causing so much pain when this sounds should be sending a very clear message to the cross streets other to value each other not at any particular time is here but all the time so I'm afraid I was going to wash I did you know what you have to try the same tactics right man you have to do it anyway and I think it's fair to say that I can't say from cubs game at a specific item package the chances that it rests for a year and then I tried again and it's not ready to go to work I spend my energy so I and other things I think but yes it's Heidi for selling their being a volunteer at a care home anyway that is something I'd really recommend J. and Bessie opportunity arises very older paper %HESITATION bring it MMA Saxon tastic I think it is very much a part of our sonic and visualize it happening intergenerational friendships the experiences because even when it's hard to minus negative nobody may fail like it at the time but you're doing some gains if you find this useful or interesting please become a member five Petri on dot com forward slash a fee cultures pledges from as little as one dollar a month this will get you access to a quite a few E. tron only goodies such as previews to keep in touch and to get regular updates you can follow AP cultures on Facebook and Twitter he can get more information on the podcast and how you can support the making of it at Audi of visual culture style part press dot com where you can also get links to all previous episodes the podcast has been going for just over ten months at this point thank you so much for listening for supporting for retweeting anything at all it's such a huge help and it's old really very much appreciated please check with us and the new year there's going to be more chats with artists and other scholars will try and make it even more diverse growing all the time and improving all the time and with your help we can do something really excellent it's been a blast so far and I really hope we can continue well into twenty nineteen and beyond the music you've been hearing as cold a little Christmas music copyright it's teaching up for Sarah and licensed under the creative Commons attribution three point zero it could be fined at CC mixed or don't work you can also support on Patreon enjoy your midwinter break whatever you're getting up today and he happened to be listening in the southern hemisphere if I've reached out far enjoy your summer have a great one thanks and catch you next time