Edinburgh Film Podcast

The University of Edinburgh
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Visual Arts
  • Updated Monthly

Dr Pasquale Iannone (Lecturer in Film Studies) is joined by staff and students from across the University of Edinburgh as well as guests from the world of film and TV to discuss all aspects of screen media.

  1. 6d ago ·  Video

    EFP 83: Caroline Young on Fashioning Hitchcock

    Host Dr Pasquale Iannone is joined by author Caroline Young to discuss her new book Fashioning Hitchcock (Bloomsbury, 2026). Caroline is a prolific author and critic based in Edinburgh. Specialising in fashion, pop culture and classic cinema, her previous books include The It Girls: Glamor, Celebrity and Scandal (2025), Single & Psycho: How Pop Culture Shaped the Unhinged Woman (2025), Crazy Old Ladies: The Story of Hag Horror (2022) and Hitchcock’s Heroines (2018). Spanning more than fifty years of film history, Caroline’s new book provides fascinating insight into the use of costume in films by the legendary Master of Suspense.  Caroline tells Pasquale about the beginnings of the book and the reasoning behind its structure. They discuss the way Alfred Hitchcock used costume in his silent and early sound films before turning to his years in Hollywood with classics such as Rebecca (1940), Notorious (1946), Rear Window (1954), Vertigo (1958), Psycho (1960) and many more. Caroline tells Pasquale about the crucial role of acclaimed costume designer Edith Head in crafting unforgettable pieces for actors such as Ingrid Bergman, Grace Kelly, Cary Grant, Kim Novak and Tippi Hedren. Edinburgh Film Podcast was nominated and Highly Commended in the Arts and Culture category at the inaugural Scottish Podcast Awards, which took place in Glasgow in June 2026. EFP was presented with a certificate 'in formal recognition of exceptional merit and distinction, placing this production among the highest tier of its category.'

    38 min

  2. Jun 16 ·  Video

    EFP 82: Professor Mark Goble on the Art of Slow Motion

    On this episode, host Dr Pasquale Iannone is joined by Professor Mark Goble to discuss a visual effect that is used in everything from action films to football matches. Whether it’s to extend or amplify, to lyricise or clarify, slow motion is everywhere on our screens. Published by Columbia University Press, Mark’s book Downtime: The 20th Century in Slow Motion (2025) takes a close look at an effect which has been strangely under-explored in film scholarship, despite this near-ubiquity. Mark is Professor of English at University of California, Berkeley specialising in literature’s intersection with technology and media. In their wide-ranging conversation, Mark tells Pasquale about the reasoning behind Downtime’s three-part structure. They then touch upon the work of writers such as Walter Benjamin and Vivian Sobchack on slow motion, before turning to the cinema of New Hollywood in the late 1960s and key works such as Bonnie and Clyde and The Wild Bunch. Many other examples of slow motion are discussed - from Dario Argento to Wong Kar-Wai, John Woo to Joe Talbot - and Mark and Pasquale also consider the use of slow motion in other areas such as sports broadcasting.

    51 min

  3. May 25 ·  Video

    EFP 81: Professor Martine Beugnet on cinema and the blurred image

    On this episode, we dial down the sharpness and celebrate cinematic blurriness. Going against the common assumption that blur is only for backgrounds, a new book by Professor Martine Beugnet explores the power and poetics of the blurred image. Originally published in French in 2017, Blur (2026) is part of the Cutaways series from Fordham University Press, where authors take a close look at one particular cinematic theme or motif. Martine has published widely on film theory and aesthetics since the early 2000s, with highly influential books such as  a monograph on director Claire Denis, Proust at the Movies, Cinema and Sensation: French Cinema and the Art of Transgression and dozens of articles, book chapters and edited collections. She is currently Professor in Visual Studies at Université Paris Cité but she spent more than a decade of the early part of her career teaching here at the University of Edinburgh. Martine tells Pasquale about the process of having her work translated and the appeal of the short format volume. She talks about her choice of film examples which range from mainstream Hollywood cinema to experimental film, silent cinema to contemporary works. Discussion then turns to the many ways in which filmmakers employ blur, whether it’s to create ambiguity, to delineate a sense of character subjectivity or to shift back and forth in time. Films mentioned in the discussion include Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958), The Ipcress File (Sidney J. Furie, 1965), La captive (Chantal Akerman, 2000), Son of Saul (László Nemes, 2015) and In Water (Hong Sang Soo, 2023).

    37 min

  4. May 6 ·  Video

    EFP 80: Neil Brand on 100 Years of Laurel and Hardy

    On this episode, we discuss the work of legendary comedy duo Laurel and Hardy, whose careers straddled both the silent and sound eras. They were active between the 1920s and the 1950s, making more than a hundred films together and their unmistakeable big man-little man dynamic would go on to influence many a comedy double-act, from Abbott and Costello to Morecambe and Wise. This year marks the centenary of Laurel and Hardy’s first appearance in a film together and to mark the occasion Neil Brand has been touring a show celebrating Stan and Ollie’s extraordinary artistry. Neil is a writer, broadcaster, composer and peerless silent cinema pianist. His show arrives in Scotland this month and he joined host Dr Pasquale Iannone to discuss the Boys. In their conversation, Neil and Pasquale place them in the context of other giants of American screen comedy such as Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin. They also explore Neil’s previous work on Stan and Ollie, such as his brilliant radio play starring British acting royalty Tom Courtenay. Neil tells Pasquale about the structure of his centenary show, what audiences can expect as well as the joys and challenges of improvising silent film scores. Neil will be appearing at The Gaiety Theatre in Ayr, The Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh, Airdrie’s Town Hall, Eden Court in Inverness and the Adam Smith Theatre in Kirkcaldy. For more information, go to the website: laurelandhardypresentedbyneilbrand.co.uk.

    30 min

  5. Apr 20 ·  Video

    EFP 79: Writer-director Valerio Ciriaci on Elvira Notari

    Host Dr Pasquale Iannone goes back to Naples in the early 1900s to discuss a pioneer of silent cinema and Italy’s first woman filmmaker, Elvira Notari (1875 - 1946). Notari directed dozens of features and documentaries, but like so much from the silent era, only a small percentage of her work has survived. Most notably there are three films she made between 1920 and 1927 - A' santanotte (1922), È piccerella (1922) and Fantasia e surdate (1927) - a trio of passionate, visually daring, often subversive melodramas set in the streets of Naples - and all based on popular neapolitan songs. After her retirement in 1930, Notari’s work languished in obscurity for decades until film scholars such as Vittorio Martinelli, Mario Franco, Giuliana Muscio and Giuliana Bruno led the way for the rediscovery of a crucially important figure in world cinema. Notari is the subject of a new documentary titled Elvira Notari: Beyond Silence which premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2025 and which is currently touring the US before arriving in the UK and Ireland. First stop - right here at the University of Edinburgh on Thursday 30th April. Joining Pasquale to discuss this wonderful new film is its writer/director Valerio Ciriaci. Valerio tells Pasquale how he became interested in Notari’s work, the background to his film, as well as his work with key collaborators such as composer Silvia Cignoli. They discuss Notari’s working methods, her reception both in Italy and in the US as well as the timelessness of her thematic preoccupations.

    35 min

  6. Apr 6 ·  Video

    EFP 78: Michał Oleszczyk on Andrzej Wajda

    On this episode, host Dr Pasquale Iannone marks the centenary of one of the towering figures of world cinema, the Polish filmmaker Andrzej Wajda. Born in 1926, Wajda was a clear-eyed and sensitive chronicler of Polish history, literature and culture in a film career spanning more than 65 years. He is probably best known for his war trilogy of the mid to late 1950s - A Generation (1955), Kanał (1957) and Ashes and Diamonds (1958) - politically-committed, formally daring films which chronicled Polish experience of WWII and its aftermath. Joining Pasquale to discuss Wajda is film scholar, critic and programmer Michał Oleszczyk. Based in Warsaw, Michał has written extensively on Wajda and earlier this year he programmed a special strand for the Kinoteka Polish Festival focusing on the artistic kinship between Wajda and one of his former assistants Andrzej Żuławski. Michał also contributed to a major Wajda season at BFI Southbank. Michał and Pasquale position Wajda in the context of post-war Polish cinema, they look at the three films in his war trilogy and they also explore some of his later features, including one lesser-known title starring Sir John Gielgud that was in Ingmar Bergman’s Top 10 Films of All Time.

    22 min

  7. Mar 25 ·  Video

    EFP 77: Dr Lin Feng on John Woo's Hard Boiled

    On this episode, host Dr Pasquale Iannone discusses one of the finest action films ever made, John Woo’s masterpiece of Hong Kong 'Heroic Bloodshed' Hard Boiled (1992). The film has recently been restored in 4K and is about to be released in a special edition box set courtesy of Arrow Video. Starring Chow Yun Fat and Tony Leung, Hard Boiled tells of a hard drinking Hong Kong cop Yuen (aka Tequila) and his investigation into a violent arms smuggling ring. Joining Pasquale to discuss the film is Dr Lin Feng. Lin is Associate Professor in Film Studies at the University of Leicester. She specialises in Chinese-language cinemas, East Asian film history and her other interests include transnational popular screen cultures, and cinematic representation and reception of gender and race. Lin’s monograph Chow Yun Fat and the Territories of Hong Kong Stardom was published by Edinburgh University Press in 2017, while her co-edited collection Renegotiating Film Genres in East Asian Cinemas and Beyond came out in 2020 via Palgrave MacMillan. Lin has also contributed a video interview to the upcoming Hard Boiled Blu-ray release. Lin and Pasquale talk about the landscape of Hong Kong cinema in the 80s and 90s, the career of director John Woo as well as the star image of actor Chow Yun Fat. They then discuss some key scenes from Hard Boiled, exploring the film’s distinctive action scenes as well as elements such as performance and costume design.

    40 min

  8. Mar 12 ·  Video

    EFP 76: Writer-director Ben Wheatley on Bulk

    Host Dr Pasquale Iannone's guest on this episode of Edinburgh Film Podcast is the acclaimed British filmmaker Ben Wheatley.Since his 2009 debut, the crime thriller Down Terrace, Ben has specialised in highly inventive, unsettling, darkly funny pictures, often written in collaboration with his partner Amy Jump. From the hitman thriller Kill List (2011) to English Civil War drama A Field in England (2013), J.G. Ballard adaptation High Rise (2015) to 70s-set action film Free Fire (2016).Ben's versatility has brought him to the attention of Hollywood. He directed the $130m shark epic Meg 2: The Trench starring Jason Statham and his latest is action film Normal (2025) with Bob Odenkirk.Between these two American projects, Ben made Bulk (2025), a low budget, lo-fi science fiction film featuring familiar faces from the Wheatleyverse - Sam Riley, Alexandra Maria Lara, Noah Taylor and Mark Monero. The film premiered at the 2025 Edinburgh International Film Festival and Ben toured the film at the beginning of 2026, taking in everything from small community cinemas to the biggest screen in the UK, London's BFI IMAX. Before Ben embarked on the tour, he sat down with Pasquale to talk all things Bulk. They discuss the background to the film, Ben's influences, his love of DIY filmmaking and much more.

    24 min
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About

Dr Pasquale Iannone (Lecturer in Film Studies) is joined by staff and students from across the University of Edinburgh as well as guests from the world of film and TV to discuss all aspects of screen media.

Information

  • Creator
    The University of Edinburgh
  • Years Active
    2018 - 2026
  • Episodes
    83
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © University of Edinburgh - Prod
  • Show Website
    Edinburgh Film Podcast

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