Cinema Rising Jake

I know we haven't done a new episode in ages but as we greet the new year, we thought we'd look back at 2022, and look ahead to what 2023 holds.

Featuring:

Our holiday viewing, including Avatar: The Way of Water.

A film directed by our very own Felix Dembinski - Letters to the Postman

Our general relationship to cinema over the last year.

A run-through of new releases seen and not seen in 2022.

In memoriam - Jean-Marie Straub & Jean-Luc Godard.

The Sight & Sound list.

What we're looking forward to (and dreading) in 2023.

Enjoy x

cinemarising.com

email us: cinemarisingshow@gmail.com
Instagram: @cinema_rising

Intro music: Joel Oldham @old.joel
Artwork:  Fred Sanders @fredsanders.creative

“Nothing is more anarchic than power” 


This quote by  one Pier Paolo Pasolini is the guiding theme behind the latest pairing from Felix

We talk two films about the unchecked cruelty of the ruling classes enacted on the less privileged.


Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975) The pro-torture porn classic by Pasolini follows four rich, insane libertines who force eighteen teenagers to participate in a series of torturous, humiliating rituals. 


Who’s Minding the Store? (1963) Directed by Frank Tashlin and starring Jerry Lewis as an ambitious working man, WMTS finds our hero unwittingly coerced into a job at a department store owned by the parents of his secretly mega-rich girlfriend. The parents - who despise his humble origins, hatch a scheme to drive a wedge between the couple.
cinemarising.com

email us: cinemarisingshow@gmail.com
Instagram: @cinema_rising

Intro music: Joel Oldham @old.joel
Artwork:  Fred Sanders @fredsanders.creative

With our screening of Gamer coming up on August 2nd, we pair Neveldine and Taylor's anrachic, ahead-of-its-time cult favourite with  Eugene Kotlyarenko's Spree. Both films explore the role of technology in an increasingly divided society, incorporating new media into the directors' vision.  We also talk about Baz Luhrman's Elvis for a bit.

Gamer (2009)  We barely scratch the surface of Neveldine &  Taylor's unfairly maligned masterpiece, but you can find out more about the film and buy tickets to our screening (which includes a pre-recordeed intro from Steven Shaviro + music after the film) at our website. Come by on August 2nd to Avalon Cafe in Bermondsey to see the film and discuss it irl.

Spree (2020)  Kotlyarenko's  film follows  Kurt Kunkle (Joe Keery) as a socially maladjusted rideshare driver who stages a killing spree in a desperate bid to achieve viral success.

cinemarising.com

email us: cinemarisingshow@gmail.com
Instagram: @cinema_rising

Intro music: Joel Oldham @old.joel
Artwork:  Fred Sanders @fredsanders.creative

Season Four is here. We start our deep dive into how the theme of "chaos" has been explored on film with a classic pairing from Felix. We take  a look at Andrzej Żuławski's controversial folk horror/erotic thriller Szamanka (1996) and the 1994 disasterpiece Clifford (1994).

Szamanka (1996) Starring Boguslaw "The Polish Bruce Willis" Linda and the then first-time actress Iwona Petry, Szamanka explores the violently intense sexual relationship between an archaeology professor (Linda) and a possibly mentally ill woman referred to only as "The Italian" (Petry).

Clifford (1996) Hoping to match the success of superficially similar nineties comedies like Home Alone and Problem Child, but failing to find a child star with adequate box office draw, Orion Studios decided to cast middle-aged comedian Martin Short as the eponymous Clifford. Short plays a ten-year-old sadist whose prolonged stay with his uncle (Charles Grodin) and his put-upon girlfriend (Mary Steenburgen) results in a whirlwind of psychic and physical violence.

email us: cinemarisingshow@gmail.com
Instagram: @cinema_rising

Intro music: Joel Oldham @old.joel
Artwork:  Fred Sanders @fredsanders.creative

Just a quick one - come and see Gamer on August 2nd with an introduction from critic and author Steven Shaviro and music after the film.

Tickets here:

https://www.cinemarising.com/screenings

For this season finale, we break format to pair a film, not with another film, but with a concept. Pushing the structure of a double-feature podcast to breaking point,  we look at Billy Wilder's 1950 noir classic, then look at how contemporary film culture has transformed us all into a strange version of Gloria Swanson's iconic femme fatale - Norma Desmond.

Desmond lives in a memory palace built from her years of stardom, fruitlessly longing for another moment in the spotlight, desperate to recapture the victories of years passed.  For many, the decline of cinema's cultural relevance and the increasing share given over to corporate, IP-driven interests has led to a similar retreat into film history. We explore cinema's prevalent obsession with the past, from American auteurs' drift towards nostalgia to deep-faking and dieting dead or aging stars. Finally, we look ahead, and try and conceive of a  future for the movies.

Thank you for listening, and stay tuned for a special announcement very soon.

email us: cinemarisingshow@gmail.com
Instagram: @cinema_rising

Intro music: Joel Oldham @old.joel
Artwork:  Fred Sanders @fredsanders.creative