Podcast: The weird(sville) films of Allan Moyle

Tonight's show is now ready to download...
(mp3 format, 27.7mb)

N.B./ Tonight's show's contains very strong language !

So, if you are offended by such phrases as c**k-s**k*r and mother-f****r (which crop up frequently in Allan's reenactment of dealings with one of the producers of his films!), you have been warned!

For more info and a selection of different file formats you can download or stream, please visit the home of this episode at www.archive.com

Tonight's show: The Weird(sville) films of Allan Moyle

Concluding I'm ready for my close-up's exclusive run of online podcasts*...

Alex Fitch interviews Allan Moyle, the cult film director of such classic movies as Pump up the Volume and Empire Records about his career and his new film Weirdsville which opens next week's Raindance Film Festival.

Check back here around 10.30pm BST to download the show or click on one of the following links to download / stream the show from the Internet Archive, Feedburner or iTunes...

*While Resonance FM moves studios across London... Normal service will be resumed on Monday.
The podcast only shows will then be broadcast on FM in the Autumn

Links: Official Weirdsville site
IMDb pages on Weirdsville and Allan's films
Wikipedia page on Allan Moyle
Allan's website
Raindance Film Festival website

Podcast: New Female Directors

Tonight's show is now available to download... (mp3 format, 26.4mb)

Continuing I'm ready for my close-up's exclusive run of online podcasts*...

In a show recorded live at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, Alex Fitch talks to two new female directors who have made two very different debut feature films. In I for India Sandhya Suri has collated 40 years of home movie footage of her family in Britain and India that tells the poignant tale of loved ones separated by land and culture, while in Gypsy Caravan Jasmine Dellal has created an epic concert movie with the cinematographer of Monteray Pop that showcases Romany music that will hopefully prove to be this decade’s Buena vista social club...

*While Resonance FM moves studios across London... The podcast only shows will then be broadcast on FM later in the Autumn

For more info and a selection of different file formats you can download or stream, please visit the home of this episode at www.archive.com

Links: IMDb pages on Gypsy Caravan and I for India
I for India official website
Gypsy Caravan official website
Wikipedia's list of female directors
What's on at the ICA cinema?

Podcast: Alejandro Jodorowski and the art of the sublime

Last night's show is now available to download... (mp3 format, 27.1mb)

For more info and a selection of different file formats you can download or stream, please visit the home of this episode at www.archive.com

Tonight's show: Alejandro Jodorowski and the art of the sublime

Continuing directors month on IR4MCU guest presenter Virginie Sélavy (Electric Sheep magazine) interviews legendary Mexican director Alejandro Jodorowski about his career focusing on his admiration of eerie sound effects, Sam Peckinpah and the ‘Conquest of Mexico’...
The show is introduced by Alex Fitch and was edited by Richard Thomas...

10.30pm BST Resonance 104.4FM (London) / streamed at www.resonancefm.com

Links: Pages on Jodorowski from from Wikipedia and the IMDb...
Article on Jodorowski from The Independant
Buy Jodorowski comics from Forbidden Planet International
Electric Sheep magazine

Podcast: Black Musicians on Film

Tonight's show is now available to download... (mp3 format, 28.3mb)

For more info, please visit the home of this episode at www.archive.com

Tonight's show: Black Musicians on Film

As a belated follow up to his article on the subject, Alex Fitch talks to Times journalist John Clarke about the history of Black musicians on film from 1929's Hallelujah to this year's Dreamgirls. The show also features clips from Stormy Weather (1943), Shaft (1971) and The Blues Brothers (1980)...

10.30pm GMT Resonance 104.4FM (London) / streamed at www.resonancefm.com

Links: BBC article on the Dreamgirls controversy
TimesOnline articles by John on The Gospel according to Al Green and the rebirth of soul label Stax
Indiana University's Black Film Archive
UCLA article on Soundies
Optronica at the BFI

Podcast: Scoring Silent Movies

The show broadcast a couple of weeks ago is now available to download... (mp3 format, 27mb)

Links: Info about tonight's performance at the Arnolfini Gallery in Bristol
Watch excerpts of The Seashell... with music performed by Minima
Watch the 30 min silent version of The Seashell... on youtube

Tonight's show: Scoring Silent Movies

It's the one year anniversary of "I'm ready for my close-up" (I'll track down a copy of Richard's first show on William Greaves soon for podcasting) - so to celebrate the occasion we have a couple of shows about the birth of cinema and how it is still relevant and appreciated today.
Tonight, Alex Fitch is talking to Alex Hogg from the band Minima who are touring the country with a print of the 1928 film 'The Seashell and the Clergyman' written by Antonin Artaud. The film was infamously banned on first release in this country with the BBFC quoted as saying: "This film is so obscure as to have no apparent meaning. If there is a meaning, it is doubtless objectionable".
Minima provide a terrific new soundtrack to the film and there will be extracts in tonight's show which concludes with the start of an interview with Matthew Sweet, author of Silent Britain and Shepperton Babylon, and this will be continued next week.

Links: Minima's myspace page which has info on forthcoming performances
IMDb page on 'The Seashell & the Clergyman'
Wikipedia page on Artaud
Download clips from the film from 'Expanded Cinema'
Director Germaine Dulac's battle for authorship

10.30pm GMT Resonance 104.4FM / www.resonancefm.com

Podcast: Restoring The Battle of the Somme

Tonight's show is now ready to download...
(mp3 format, 26mb)

Tonight's show: Restoring The Battle of the Somme

To (belatedly) co-incide with the 90th anniversary of 'The Battle of the Somme' (both the event and the film), Alex Fitch is discussing the silent movie and its recent restoration with Dr. Toby Haggith (Imperial War Museum) and Andrew Robertshaw (National Army Museum). To make the film more accessible to modern viewers Toby has been involved with the rediscovery of the film's original score and the commissioning of a new one, while Andrew has made a documentary re-editing the scenes of the movie into the order in which they were filmed to give the audience a unique insight into the making of the world's first feature length documentary.

10.30pm Resonance 104.4 FM / streamed at resonancefm.com

Links: Wikipedia page on the film
Andrew's page about the battle and the film at the National Army Museum website
Imperial War Museum microsite about the battle