In Front of Ira

Sabrina Mittermeier & Torsten Kathke
  • 5.0 (2)
  • FILM HISTORY
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In Front of Ira

Welcome to “In Front of Ira,” the podcast in which historians, friends, and lovers… of rom-coms Sabrina Mittermeier and Torsten Kathke discuss how the romantic comedy genre has evolved, what it can tell us about society, and whether this movie is worth watching. Find us @infrontofira on social media and drop us a line at infrontofirapod@gmail.com

  1. 14 FEB

    30. Dear “Bridget Jones’s Diary”

    Sabrina and Torsten sit on a couch and discuss the first movie in the “Bridget Jones” series, 2001’s “Bridget Jones’s Diary,” certainly one of the best thirty films of the year. Starring an American with a convincing British accent (Renée Zellweger), a smarmy Hugh Grant, and a very Darcy Colin Firth. They talk about a few things you may want to check out: – Reviews of the movie when it came out: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2001/apr/13/helenfielding / https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/bridget-joness-diary-2001 – Reassessments of the fat shaming from more recent commentators: https://archive.thetab.com/uk/2020/07/14/bridget-jones-diary-is-fat-phobic-and-has-actually-aged-terribly-166036 / https://www.vogue.com/article/bridget-jones-weight-obsession Welcome to “In Front of Ira,” the podcast in which historians, friends, and lovers… of romcoms Sabrina Mittermeier and Torsten Kathke discuss how the romantic comedy genre has evolved, what it can tell us about society, and whether this movie is worth watching. Find us @infrontofira on various social media apps and drop us a line at infrontofirapod@gmail.com Our music is “Night in Venice” by Kevin MacLeod.

    48 min

  2. 10 JAN

    29. Bro! We’re Talking About “Bros,” Bro!

    Torsten and Sabrina visit the National LGBTQ+ museum in New York to look at the audio-animatronic bisexuals in the first gay major studio romcom starring Billy Eichner and Luke MacFarlane. They talk about a few things you may want to check out: – The discourse surrounding the movie when it was released: https://www.them.us/story/bros-movie-box-office-performance-billy-eichner – The fictional LGBTQ+ museum in the film: https://variety.com/2022/artisans/news/bros-lgbtq-museum-billy-eichner-1235392680 Welcome to “In Front of Ira,” the podcast in which historians, friends, and lovers… of romcoms Sabrina Mittermeier and Torsten Kathke discuss how the romantic comedy genre has evolved, what it can tell us about society, and whether this movie is worth watching. Find us @infrontofira on various social media apps and drop us a line at infrontofirapod@gmail.com Our music is “Night in Venice” by Kevin MacLeod.

    1h 3m

  3. 3 JAN

    28. We Have an Invite to “My Best Friend’s Wedding”

    Sabrina and Torsten join in for a sing-along to “I Say a Little Prayer” at a seafood restaurant with Rupert Everett, Julia Roberts, Dermot Mulroney, and Cameron Diaz in this unorthodox late 90s classic romcom that stars all your favorite actors who got famous later on. (Including Carrie Preston and Paul Giamatti.) They talk about a few things you may want to check out: – The likeability of the Jules character: https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/my-best-friends-wedding-julia-roberts-25-year-anniversary – The “gay best friend” trope: https://www.advocate.com/media/2020/11/20/history-gay-best-friend-film-and-tv#rebelltitem15 Welcome to “In Front of Ira,” the podcast in which historians, friends, and lovers… of romcoms Sabrina Mittermeier and Torsten Kathke discuss how the romantic comedy genre has evolved, what it can tell us about society, and whether this movie is worth watching. Find us @infrontofira on various social media apps and drop us a line at infrontofirapod@gmail.com Our music is “Night in Venice” by Kevin MacLeod.

    56 min

  4. 27/12/2024

    27. Want to Meet at “Rye Lane”?

    In the second low-budget independent romcom set in South London on this podcast (what are the odds?), Sabrina and Torsten follow David Jonsson and Vivian Oparah as they wander around Rye Lane Market and drink deeply from the well of London romcom lore. They talk about a few things you may want to check out: – Director of Photography Olan Collardy’s stunning cinemmatography in this movie: https://filmmakermagazine.com/118964-interview-dp-olan-collardy-rye-lane/ – Director Raine-Allen Miller’s thoughts on her film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4OmtSc9iig – The Rye Lane film locations walk: https://walkingpost.co.uk/rye-lane-film-locations-walk/ Welcome to “In Front of Ira,” the podcast in which historians, friends, and lovers… of romcoms Sabrina Mittermeier and Torsten Kathke discuss how the romantic comedy genre has evolved, what it can tell us about society, and whether this movie is worth watching. Find us @infrontofira on various social media apps and drop us a line at infrontofirapod@gmail.com Our music is “Night in Venice” by Kevin MacLeod.

    50 min

  5. 20/12/2024

    26. Bite into the Snowman Cookie, “Hot Frosty”!

    Crime doesn’t pay in Hope Springs, New York, where Lacey Chabert magics a hot snowman (Dustin Milligan) to life in this joyously bonkers Christmas romcom written by Russell Hainline and directed by Jerry Ciccoritti. Craig Robinson and Joe Lo Truglio co-star as scenery-chewing small-town cops. (Hallmark mainstay Chabert’s first venture into the Netflix Holiday Cinematic Universe rocketed straight to number 1 on the streamer’s charts.) They talk about a few things you may want to check out: – “Hot Frosty” writer Russell Hainline’s thoughts on the movie and its title: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/hot-frosty-writer-interview-netflix-holiday-movie-1236063597/ – The Rotten Tomatoes judgment on the movie: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/hot_frosty Welcome to “In Front of Ira,” the podcast in which historians, friends, and lovers… of romcoms Sabrina Mittermeier and Torsten Kathke discuss how the romantic comedy genre has evolved, what it can tell us about society, and whether this movie is worth watching. Find us @infrontofira on various social media apps and drop us a line at infrontofirapod@gmail.com Our music is “Night in Venice” by Kevin MacLeod.

    42 min

  6. 13/12/2024

    25. We’re Going on “The Holiday”

    Sabrina and Torsten are ready for the holidays (plural), so they’re going on “The Holiday” (singular). Join them in both L.A. and Surrey where they spend time with Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jack Black, and Jude Law in this least kitchen-y of all Nancy Meyers movies. They talk about a few things you may want to check out: – “The Holiday’s” stature as a Christmas classic: https://slate.com/culture/2023/12/the-holiday-movie-christmas-love-actually-cast.html – The rising popularity of the term “meet cute” following this movie: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=“meet+cute”&year_start=1800&year_end=2022&corpus=en&smoothing=3 Welcome to “In Front of Ira,” the podcast in which historians, friends, and lovers… of romcoms Sabrina Mittermeier and Torsten Kathke discuss how the romantic comedy genre has evolved, what it can tell us about society, and whether this movie is worth watching. Find us @infrontofira on various social media apps and drop us a line at infrontofirapod@gmail.com Our music is “Night in Venice” by Kevin MacLeod.

    1h 5m

  7. 06/12/2024

    24. “You’ve Got Mail,” Meg and Tom!

    Don’t you love New York in the fall? Torsten and Sabrina give each other bouquets of pencils as they discuss how neoliberalism is ruining book shop owner Kathleen Kelly’s life in this Nora Ephron romcom from the late 90s (neoliberalism also goes by the name of Joe Fox, F-o-x). Of course this stars Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks, and there’s a lot of Starbucks references. They talk about a few things you may want to check out: – The Ernst Lubitsch movie “Shop Around the Corner” on which this is based: https://archive.org/details/the-shop-around-the-corner-1940-ernst-lubitsch – The age of AOL: https://time.com/3857628/aol-1985-history Welcome to “In Front of Ira,” the podcast in which historians, friends, and lovers… of romcoms Sabrina Mittermeier and Torsten Kathke discuss how the romantic comedy genre has evolved, what it can tell us about society, and whether this movie is worth watching. Find us @infrontofira on various social media apps and drop us a line at infrontofirapod@gmail.com Our music is “Night in Venice” by Kevin MacLeod.

    1h 5m

  8. 04/12/2024

    23. We Go on a “Chicken Shop Date” with Marisa Kabas

    “This is called flirting, Amelia!” Sabrina and Torsten welcome Marisa Kabas to a special episode about a viral real-life romcom: the “Chicken Shop Date” of Amelia Dimoldenberg and Andrew Garfield. They talk about a few things you may want to check out: – Amelia and Andrew at the Golden Globes: https://youtu.be/E6O0wq6GNn8?si=OJ0hcR0IXDlTDtvr – The titular Chicken Shop Date: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFS5vxYlfY8&pp=ygUkYW1lbGlhIGFuZHJldyBnYXJmaWVsZCBmaXJzdCBtZWV0aW5n – Nicholas Quah at Vulture on the Andrew Garfield Chicken Shop Date: https://www.vulture.com/article/amelia-dimoldenberg-will-chicken-shop-date-forever.html – Andrew Garfield kissing Stephen Colbert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbyhbLR0u0A Welcome to “In Front of Ira,” the podcast in which historians, friends, and lovers… of romcoms Sabrina Mittermeier and Torsten Kathke discuss how the romantic comedy genre has evolved, what it can tell us about society, and whether this movie is worth watching. Find us @infrontofira on various social media apps and drop us a line at infrontofirapod@gmail.com Find Marisa at @marisakabas on Bluesky and Threads, and at https://www.thehandbasket.co Our music is “Night in Venice” by Kevin MacLeod.

    1h 3m
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out of 5
2 Ratings

About

Welcome to “In Front of Ira,” the podcast in which historians, friends, and lovers… of rom-coms Sabrina Mittermeier and Torsten Kathke discuss how the romantic comedy genre has evolved, what it can tell us about society, and whether this movie is worth watching. Find us @infrontofira on social media and drop us a line at infrontofirapod@gmail.com

Information

  • Creator
    Sabrina Mittermeier & Torsten Kathke
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2025
  • Episodes
    31
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Sabrina Mittermeier & Torsten Kathke
  • Show Website
    In Front of Ira

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