Sara Goes to Hollywood

Don’t worry listeners: it’s not a war film! Sara and Brendan don their hats and booties to brave the long, long winter of Groundhog Day. We discuss this seasonal classic’s manifold meanings, including the inevitability of death, the futility of forecasting, and (once again) the importance of hobbies. Plus the eternal poetry corner recurs with a flamboyantly French foray into haiku wisdom. Whatever happens tomorrow, or for the rest of my life, I'm happy now… because I love podcasting. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You can’t just tap people on the shoulder anymore - you have to hit them with a podcast. In this episode, Sara and Brendan team up to investigate the fiendish crimes of David Fincher’s slick 1995 thriller Se7en. There’s thoughtful reflection on the pleasures of counting, biblical exegesis, and le Corbusier furniture; plus of course your usual dose of haiku medicine in poetry corner. Don’t miss this episode’s conclusion, where we unveil Mansplaining Moments, a new segment devised to punish the eighth deadly sin: male pedantry. This isn’t going to have a happy ending… Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Listen up, maggot! We believe in two things: discipline and podcasting. Join us as we do some hard time in New England’s finest penitentiary with the Shawshank Redemption. We chat prison design, Michel Foucault, and smoking while incarcerated. Plus there’s haiku fun as always in a radically reform-minded edition of poetry corner. Get busy listening, or get busy podcasting. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sara was heard: to begin with. Put on your stovepipe hat and trim those mutton chops, because it's time to talk about everyone's favourite foam-and-felt festive classic, The Muppet Christmas Carol! Taking the lead from Gonzo and Rizzo, in this episode Sara and Brendan spar over the Muppetry's masterpiece, with tinsel-tangling digressions on topics including notorious deleted aria, 'When Love is Gone', the three major categories in Muppet taxonomy, and the nature of Muppet-master Jim Henson's genius. Plus there's thunderous Tennysonian tones in a monstrously Malthusian edition of poetry corner. This is culture! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Stop press! Sara and Brendan mount the rostrum to eulogise Orson Welles’ obituary-themed opus, Citizen Kane. How did Welles get to Hollywood? Why did mid-century newsreaders talk like that? And who exactly is this “Rosebud” character? Plus a very special edition of poetry corner gets down and dirty in that deep romantic chasm which slanted down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover. We finish with some intriguing listener correspondence to clear up any nagging doubts about the use of wigs in cinema.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Don’t panic: there’s locust trivia galore as Sara and Brendan hop on the train to Amarillo to enjoy Days of Heaven (1978). Siblings or dating? Texas or Canada? How old should Richard Gere be? We shine the bright natural light of Nestor Almendros’s Oscar-winning cinematography on all these questions and more. Plus obligatory haiku high jinks in another sun-soaked edition of poetry corner. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When you realise you want to spend the rest of your podcast with somebody, you want the rest of your podcast to start as soon as possible. Sara and Brendan meet cute for an intertextual romp through timeless 1989 rom-com When Harry Met Sally. We discuss the movie’s flagrant parallels with Casablanca and latent echoes of podcast favourite Psycho. Plus sensitive reflections on friendship, wigs, and conversing with men. And of course there’s more haiku fun in Poetry Corner. I’ll have what she’s podcasting. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sara Goes to Horrorwood: it's a fang-tastic Halloween special as we cross oceans of time to savour Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992). Baseless speculations abound on the foundation of Romania, the logistical advantages of sail, and the medicinal properties of garlic. Plus there's more haiku fun in a particularly putrescent poetry corner. Abandon all hope, ye who listen here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Class is in session as Brendan and Sara compare notes on coming-of-age masterpiece Fame (1980). We study the woes and thrills of teenagerdom, what makes a musical a musical, and rogue subtitles. Plus a bumper edition of poetry corner as Brendan invites Sara to sing the body electric with Walt Whitman Jr. Turn on, tune in, drop out. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Film novice Sara sits down with kino connoisseur Brendan to discuss the first stage of her cinematic Odyssey: Alfred Hitchcock's shower-time classic Psycho. We chat morality, Macguffins, and Marxist taxidermy. Who is ''the Psycho'' anyway? Plus, segment fun in the inaugural edition of Poetry Corner. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.