Great Movie Podcasts #2 - Left Field Cinema

By: Coheed 2.0

Great Movie Podcasts #2 – Left Field Cinema

Available on iTunes, though if there are difficulties outside the UK finding it, try the official website.

Continuing on in my favourite film podcasts, I get to one started in around 2007. Originally an offshoot of a podcast production group Simply Syndicated before splitting off as its own being, it has grown stronger and stronger through the last three or so years. The show is presented by Mike Dawson who is both helped by his listeners and contributors and his own one-man band; not only does he juggle the podcast, but he is also a filmmaker, having made short films and is currently working on his feature debut in the last year which fans of the podcast have given donations to for the production.

More of a world cinema podcast than one that covers genre films, Left Field Cinema not only covers films that fit the title, but also covers mainstream films from a fresh perspective. The show is always informative and well written, and has significance importance to me because it was the first time I heard of Bela Tarr and Satantango. The film was the litmus test for alternative cinema for me, and I will always be grateful to Dawson for introducing me to a film that has had a profound influence on my film viewing habits. Also I have to promote the forum, a small community who are always friendly and care about film; in fact I am not the only person on MUBI who originally came from this forum, and they have brought over their passion for film and sincerity.

Films covered by the podcast.. .

American Masterpiece

- The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
- Blue Velvet
- The Conversation
- Five Easy Pieces
- The Hours
- The Killing of A Chinese Bookie
- No Country For Old Men
- Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid

Analysis

- Aliens – The Vietnam War Metaphor
- The Blues Brothers – is it a Musical?
- The ‘burbs – An Indictment or a Celebration of Suburban Paranoia and Moral Panic?
- The Films of Hirokazu Koreeda
- The First Five Minutes of Die Hard
- The First Ten Minutes of Serenity
- Is Citizen Kane the Greatest Film Ever Made?
- Is Cloverfield a 911 Analogy?
- Is Panic Room a Black Comedy?
- Is Scream a Parody, Pastiche, or Post Modern Thriller?
- Memento in Relation to Reception Theory
- Planet Terror in Relation to the Films it Parodies
- The Political Position of Glengarry Glen Ross
- Politics of the Jack Ryan Movies
- The Sexual Context and Subtext of Internal Affairs
- Starship Troopers – A Socio-Political Satire
- Which is the Superior of Quentin Tarantino’s Films?

- Horror Movies as Modern Day Morality Tales – Introduction
- Horror Movies as Modern Day Morality Tales – The Exorcist
- Horror Movies as Modern Day Morality Tales – The Silence of the Lambs and Se7en
- Horror Movies as Modern Day Morality Tales – Friday the 13th and Halloween
- Horror Movies as Modern Day Morality Tales – Conclusions

Andrei Tarkovsky

- Andrei Rublev
- Ivan’s Childhood
- Mirror
- Solaris
- Stalker

Asian Avant-Garde

- City of Life and Death
- Dolls
- Eureka
- Last Life in the Universe
- Memories of Murder
- Nobody Knows
- Silence
- Spirited Away
- Zatoichi

At The Cinema

- Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead
- Things We Lost In The Fire

British Masterpiece

- Get Carter
- Hamlet
- King Lear (Peter Brook)
- The Lady Vanishes

Comparative Examination

- 24 Hour Party People and Control
- Alien and Sunshine
- Cannibal Holocaust and The Blair Witch Project
- Funny Games and Funny Games U.S
- Infernal Affairs and The Departed
- Star Trek and Star Trek – The Motion Picture
- Tokyo Story and Ikiru
- United 93 and World Trade Center

Contemporary Obscurity

- The Addiction
- Autumn Ball
- The Consequences of Love
- The Enigma of Kasper Hauser
- Father of My Children
- Frozen Land (Aku Louhimies)
- The Glaciation Trilogy
- Gravesend
- Interrogation (1982)
- Katalin Varga
- Last Night
- Lovers of the Arctic Circle
- Satantango
- To Get to Heaven First You Have to Die
- Valhalla Rising

Documentary Milestone

- The Fog of War – Eleven Lessons From the Life of Robert S. McNamara
- Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Inferno
- Looking For Richard

Guilty Pleasure

- Black Rain
- The Long Kiss Goodnight
- Mulholland Falls [NOT ON MUBI]
- Strange Days

Hidden Classics

- Haxan – Witchcraft Through The Ages
- Odd Man Out
- The Passionate Friends
- The Phantom Carriage
- Room At The Top
- The Round-up
- This Happy Breed
- Where the Sidewalk Ends

Ingmar Bergman

- The Best Intentions
- Scenes from a Marriage
- Shame
- The Silence
- Three Strange Loves
- Through a Glass Darkly
- Winter Light

Krzysztof Kieslowski

- Blind Chance
- The Dekalog
- The Double Life of Veronique
- No End

Misunderstood Modern Cinema

- Alien 3
- Dune
- Eyes Wide Shut
- The Godfather Part III
- Heaven’s Gate
- Licence to Kill
- The Matrix Reloaded
- Miami Vice
- Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
- The Way of the Gun

Overlooked Gems

- Capricorn One
- Devil in a Blue Dress
- Julia
- Kiss of the Spider Woman
- The Last Supper
- Morvern Callar
- My Left Foot

Televsion Special

- Homicide: Life On The Street
- Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy and Smiley’s People
- The Wire

Terrence Malick

- Badlands
- Days of Heaven
- The Thin Red Line [In Three Parts]

Theodoros Angelopoulos

- The Beekeeper
- The Travelling Players

World Cinema Masterpieces

- Ali: Fear Eats the Soul
- L’Atalante
- The Child
- Chungking Express and Fallen Angels
- Dersu Uzala
- Let the Right One In
- Sound of the Mountain
- Tropical Malady
- Werckmeister Harmonies

Plus there are Listener Review specials, Top Tens of the years from when it first released, and a top twenty of the last decade.