Hard Truths - an Animus film podcast

French filmmaker Maurice Pialat initially wanted to be a painter. He did not fulfil that dream, and it’s hard not to trace at least part of his legendary anger and bitterness back to this early frustration. Centred on protagonists who can be brutal with one another as they cope with violent waves of emotion, his films are nevertheless marked by undeniable beauty and heartbreaking gentleness. They have the same gripping immediacy and moving grace as works by some of his most cherished artists, chief among them Vincent Van Gogh – and Pialat’s biopic of the Dutch painter may well be his masterpiece. In this long gestating episode, Elena and Manuela get emotional talking about the work of one of their favourite film directors. Hard Truths is an ⁠⁠Animus⁠⁠ film podcast. Every other week, Animus founder and editor Elena Lazic catches up from London, UK, with her twin Manuela, who can usually be found across the pond in Paris. Expect animated conversations about cinema, digressions into unrelated topics, and trivial facts from our personal lives. Do NOT expect to immediately be able to tell us apart. Hard Truths is made possible by ⁠⁠True Cinephile⁠⁠ paying members who, for £3.50/month or £35/year, access all instalments of the advice column for cinephiles Psycho. two days early, and more.

Is love real, or a socially accepted form of delusion? Is there such a thing as chemistry, or are random encounters only perceived as meaningful connections through the lens of expectation and memory? Is romance a choice, or written in the unalterable script of our destiny? As Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise (1995) turns 30, Elena and Manuela revisit the Before Trilogy, completed by Before Sunset (2004) and Before Midnight (2013). This ill-fated episode, re-recorded and delayed, ends with a brief reflection on Nouvelle Vague (2025), Linklater’s film of the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s À bout de souffle (1960). Hard Truths is an ⁠⁠Animus⁠⁠ film podcast. Every other week, Animus founder and editor Elena Lazic catches up from London, UK, with her twin Manuela, who can usually be found across the pond in Paris. Expect animated conversations about cinema, digressions into unrelated topics, and trivial facts from our personal lives. Do NOT expect to immediately be able to tell us apart. Hard Truths is made possible by ⁠⁠True Cinephile⁠⁠ paying members who, for £3.50/month or £35/year, access all instalments of the advice column for cinephiles Psycho. two days early, and more.

Gleefully playing with established tropes, the three films Elena and Manuela discuss in this new episode of Hard Truths toe the line between comedy and terror, irony and sincerity, fiction and reality: early true crime spoof Man Bites Dog (Rémy Belvaux and André Bonzel, 1992), meta franchise sequel Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994), and French “slasher” High Tension (Alexandre Aja, 2003).  Hard Truths is an ⁠⁠Animus⁠⁠ film podcast. Every other week, Animus founder and editor Elena Lazic catches up from London, UK, with her twin Manuela, who can usually be found across the pond in Paris. Expect animated conversations about cinema, digressions into unrelated topics, and trivial facts from our personal lives. Do NOT expect to immediately be able to tell us apart. Hard Truths is made possible by ⁠⁠True Cinephile⁠⁠ paying members who, for £3.50/month or £35/year, access all instalments of the advice column for cinephiles Psycho. two days early, and more.

It’s only a matter of time before Joachim Trier wins a Best Picture Oscar. In this new episode of Hard Truths, Elena and Manuela damn the Norwegian director with faint praise but also give him his flowers as they discuss three of his best known films: Oslo, August 31st (2011), The Worst Person in the World (2021), and his latest, Sentimental Value (2025). Hard Truths is an ⁠⁠Animus⁠⁠ film podcast. Every other week, Animus founder and editor Elena Lazic catches up from London, UK, with her twin Manuela, who can usually be found across the pond in Paris. Expect animated conversations about cinema, digressions into unrelated topics, and trivial facts from our personal lives. Do NOT expect to immediately be able to tell us apart. Hard Truths is made possible by ⁠⁠True Cinephile⁠⁠ paying members who, for £3.50/month or £35/year, access all instalments of the advice column for cinephiles Psycho. two days early, and more.

What unites the three apparently very different films of this 10th, Jukebox episode of Hard Truths? In Sidney Lumet’s The Offence (1972), Sean Connery plays a detective-sergeant who has seen too much. Milton Moses Ginsberg’s underseen, Rip Torn-starring arthouse gem Coming Apart (1969) charts the psychological unravelling of a New York psychiatrist who takes to recording his clients’ appointments without their knowledge. Finally in Darren Aronofsky's Caught Stealing (2025), Austin Butler’s aimless bartender confronts past trauma via a whole new bunch of trauma. That’s right: all three films are about men’s pain – and, to varying degrees, about the sense of entitlement of these struggling lead protagonists. Elena and Manuela leave no stones unturned as they discuss these three films by way of Severance, the manosphere, and the corporate girlies.Hard Truths is an ⁠⁠Animus⁠⁠ film podcast. Every other week, Animus founder and editor Elena Lazic catches up from London, UK, with her twin Manuela, who can usually be found across the pond in Paris. Expect animated conversations about cinema, digressions into unrelated topics, and trivial facts from our personal lives. Do NOT expect to immediately be able to tell us apart. Hard Truths is made possible by ⁠⁠True Cinephile⁠⁠ paying members who, for £3.50/month or £35/year, access all instalments of the advice column for cinephiles Psycho. two days early, and more.

From the ultraviolence of Raw (2016) to the over-the-top silliness of Palme d’Or-winner Titane (2021) and the emo intensity of Alpha (2025): the cinema of French director Julia Ducournau is hard to ignore. With Alpha now playing in French cinemas, Elena and Manuela gather in London to talk about the ideas lurking behind these films’ infamous shock value.Hard Truths is an ⁠⁠Animus⁠⁠ film podcast. Every other week, Animus founder and editor Elena Lazic catches up from London, UK, with her twin Manuela, who can usually be found across the pond in Paris. Expect animated conversations about cinema, digressions into unrelated topics, and trivial facts from our personal lives. Do NOT expect to immediately be able to tell us apart. Hard Truths is made possible by ⁠⁠True Cinephile⁠⁠ paying members who, for £3.50/month or £35/year, access all instalments of the advice column for cinephiles Psycho. two days early, and more.

With just four feature films, American filmmaker Ari Aster has established himself as one of the foremost voices of our phone-addicted, psychically damaged, paranoid generation. As his 2020-set neo-western Eddington comes out in cinemas this summer, Elena and Manuela—recording together in the rich soundscape of Elena’s garden—discuss the film (without any spoilers) in light of Aster’s previous work, and vice versa: from the perspective of Aster’s absurdist masterwork Beau Is Afraid (2023), the humour in his breakout horror hit Hereditary (2018) becomes much more apparent, while the director’s cut of Midsommar (2019) reveals a biting, darkly funny takedown of gaslighting and cowardice in relationships, and in all of human behaviour. Hard Truths is an ⁠⁠Animus⁠⁠ film podcast. Every other week, Animus founder and editor Elena Lazic catches up from London, UK, with her twin Manuela, who can usually be found across the pond in Paris. Expect animated conversations about cinema, digressions into unrelated topics, and trivial facts from our personal lives. Do NOT expect to immediately be able to tell us apart. Hard Truths is made possible by ⁠⁠True Cinephile⁠⁠ paying members who, for £3.50/month or £35/year, access all instalments of the advice column for cinephiles Psycho. two days early, and more.

Two massive stars fight for relevance in two of this summer’s blockbusters: Brad Pitt in Joseph Kosinski’s F1, and Tom Cruise in Christopher McQuarrie’s Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. Both have things to hide, and things to prove. In this episode of Hard Truths, Elena and Manuela discuss the cinematic merits, perverse pleasures, and unavoidable offense of these two morally compromised, big-budget tentpoles.Angelica Jade Bastién’s article, “Brad Pitt Is Fooling You”, in Vulture.Hard Truths is an ⁠⁠Animus⁠⁠ film podcast. Every other week, Animus founder and editor Elena Lazic catches up from London, UK, with her twin Manuela, who can usually be found across the pond in Paris. Expect animated conversations about cinema, digressions into unrelated topics, and trivial facts from our personal lives. Do NOT expect to immediately be able to tell us apart. Hard Truths is made possible by ⁠⁠True Cinephile⁠⁠ paying members who, for £3.50/month or £35/year, access all instalments of the advice column for cinephiles Psycho. two days early, and more.

Recording together in the same room for the first time in Hard Truths history, Elena and Manuela discuss the wonders of Il Cinema Ritrovato directly from Bologna, Italy, where the annual repertory cinema festival organised by Cineteca di Bologna takes place. Talking about some of the prints and restorations playing there this year, they identify a timeless theme running through many of the films they’ve seen: namely, the plight of women.  The films discussed are (in chronological order of release): THE SALVATION HUNTERS (Josef von Sternberg, 1925)EROTIKON (Gustav Machatý, 1929)RAIN (Lewis Milestone, 1932)ALICE ADAMS (George Stevens, 1935)DEATH IS A CARESS (Edith Carlmar, 1949)BITTER RICE (Giuseppe De Santis, 1949) SUMMERTIME (David Lean, 1955) ESTERINA (Carlo Lizzani, 1959)CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (Steven Spielberg, 1977)Hard Truths is an ⁠⁠Animus⁠⁠ film podcast. Every other week, Animus founder and editor Elena Lazic catches up from London, UK, with her twin Manuela, who can usually be found across the pond in Paris. Expect animated conversations about cinema, digressions into unrelated topics, and trivial facts from our personal lives. Do NOT expect to immediately be able to tell us apart. Hard Truths is made possible by ⁠⁠True Cinephile⁠⁠ paying members who, for £3.50/month or £35/year, access all instalments of the advice column for cinephiles Psycho. two days early, and more.

In LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN (1949), a young woman spends the better part of her life fantasising about a man who barely knows of her existence. It is difficult to imagine the pleasure-seeking characters from LA RONDE (1950) or LE PLAISIR (1952) ever adopting such an impractical view of romance. As for the hedonists of THE EARRINGS OF MADAME DE… (1953), their real problems begin when they accidentally fall in love. More terrifying than it is swoon-worthy, Letter is a Hollywood melodrama best understood in light of the three following films mentioned above: director Max Ophüls seemed freer to express his (“European”) vision of love and desire when working in France than in the United States. In this episode of Hard Truths, Elena and Manuela explore the German-French filmmaker’s sophisticated and disarmingly generous perspective on passion and the suffering that comes with it. In most of these four films, what’s most heartbreaking isn’t to lose a lover, but to feel that life goes on without them. This fact is also a joyous one, and the gorgeous films are full of stunning long takes and dazzling tracking shots underlining the beauty of simply being alive, in times of happiness or pain. Hard Truths is an ⁠Animus⁠⁠ film podcast. Every other week, Animus founder and editor Elena Lazic catches up from London, UK, with her twin Manuela, who can usually be found across the pond in Paris. Expect animated conversations about cinema, digressions into unrelated topics, and trivial facts from our personal lives. Do NOT expect to immediately be able to tell us apart. Hard Truths is made possible by ⁠⁠True Cinephile⁠⁠ paying members who, for £3.50/month or £35/year, access all instalments of the advice column for cinephiles Psycho. two days early, and more.

The sun of June can be oppressive in its own way. For the fourth year in a row, the American Cinematheque in Los Angeles has given local cinephiles a refuge from the mirth of spring-summer months with Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair — a week-long season of soul-crushing and gruelling masterpieces. In this fourth episode of Hard Truths, Elena and Manuela discuss three films playing in the first ever UK edition of Bleak Week, taking place at the Prince Charles Cinema in London from June 15 to 21. F. W. Murnau’s THE LAST LAUGH (DER LETZTE MANN, 1924), John McNaughton’s HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER (1986), and Lars von Trier’s BREAKING THE WAVES (1996) are all unhappy films in their own specific way, and all worthwhile experiences of cinema. THE LAST LAUGH plays on Monday 16 June, 6:15pm, with a live score by Hugo Max.HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER plays on Tuesday 17 June at 12:45pm, from a 35mm print.BREAKING THE WAVES plays on Friday 20 June at 12:15pm. Hard Truths is an ⁠Animus⁠ film podcast. Every other week, Animus founder and editor Elena Lazic catches up from London, UK, with her twin Manuela, who can usually be found across the pond in Paris. Expect animated conversations about cinema, digressions into unrelated topics, and trivial facts from our personal lives. Do NOT expect to immediately be able to tell us apart. Hard Truths is made possible by ⁠True Cinephile⁠ paying members who, for £3.50/month or £35/year, access all instalments of the advice column for cinephiles Psycho. two days early, and more.

This third episode of Hard Truths, about Ryan Coogler's Sinners, is a lot less about twins than we expected — but that's only because the film is so rich. Elena and Manuela talk about Coogler's far-reaching vision for the possibilities of IMAX and cinema in general, his handling of tone and genre, and much more. Hard Truths is an Animus film podcast. Every other week, Animus founder and editor Elena Lazic catches up from London, UK, with her twin Manuela, who can usually be found across the pond in Paris. Expect animated conversations about cinema, digressions into unrelated topics, and trivial facts from our personal lives. Do NOT expect to immediately be able to tell us apart. Hard Truths is made possible by True Cinephile paying members who, for £3.50/month or £35/year, access all instalments of the advice column for cinephiles Psycho. two days early, and more.

In this second episode of Hard Truths, Elena and Manuela discuss three fantastic, very different films, all of them westerns: FORTY GUNS (Sam Fuller, 1957), THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE (John Ford, 1962), and RIDE LONESOME (Budd Boetticher, 1959). They recently screened in Paris as part of the Cinémathèque Française season “Le Western, en 25 films indispensables”, which ran from 9 to 27 April. Whether you love westerns or have never seen any, we hope this episode makes you excited to watch a few and gives you some idea of the genre’s variety.The programme for the Cinémathèque Française season “Le Western, en 25 films indispensables”: https://www.cinematheque.fr/cycle/le-western-en-25-films-indispensables-1364.html Terrence Rafferty’s essay on RIDE LONESOME and the Ranown cycle, for Criterion: https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/7487-the-shock-of-the-old-seven-men-from-now-and-the-ranown-cycleHard Truths is an Animus film podcast. Every other week, Animus founder and editor Elena Lazic catches up from London, UK, with her twin Manuela, who can usually be found across the pond in Paris. Expect animated conversations about cinema, digressions into unrelated topics, and trivial facts from our personal lives. Do NOT expect to immediately be able to tell us apart. Hard Truths is made possible by True Cinephile paying members who, for £3.50/month or £35/year, access all instalments of the advice column for cinephiles Psycho. two days early, and more: https://animus-magazine.ghost.io/#/portal/signup

In the first episode of Hard Truths, we come up with the name of the podcast on the spot, and go on to discuss two differently delightful French films, both of which stand out from the usual French output for being set in the countryside: Alain Guiraudie’s MISERICORDIA, and Louise Courvoisier’s HOLY COW. Both films premiered at the 2024 edition of the Cannes Film Festival: MISERICORDIA in Cannes Premiere, HOLY COW in Un Certain Regard. MISERICORDIA is released in the UK via New Wave Films, in the US via Sideshow and Janus Films.HOLY COW is now in UK and Irish cinemas via Conic Films, and in the US via Zeitgeist Films. Hard Truths is made possible by True Cinephile paying members who, for £3.50/month or £35/year, access all instalments of the advice column for cinephiles Psycho., all episodes of The French Dispatch podcast, and more: https://animus-magazine.ghost.io/#/portal/signup