This episode highlights a session from last summer’s Lockdown Film School with Penny Lane and Carol Nguyen. Lane and Nguyen discuss their approaches to creative nonfiction.
Ep. 99: Creative Nonfiction with Penny Lane and Carol Nguyen
female directors
Ep. 93: The films of Agnieszka Holland
On this podcast episode, we celebrate the work of great Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland, focusing on Europa Europa, Washington Square, and Charlatan.
This episode is a Seventh Row members exclusive, as are all episodes older than six months. Click here to become a member.
This episode features Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney, Executive Editor Orla Smith, and Fiona Underhill, Editor-in-Chief of JumpCut Online.
On this Agnieszka Holland podcast episode
- Why Agnieszka Holland is a great director (3:06)
- Charlatan (19:22)
- Europa, Europa (38:50)
- Washington Square (53:46)
- Themes in Holland’s work (1:10:04)
- Sex in Holland’s films (1:16:20)
Charlatan (2020)
A biopic of Jan Mikolásek, who becomes a rich man by diagnosing people’s urine and selling herbal remedies. His practice helps him survive the Nazi occupation and later the totalitarian Czech state. Late in his life, he’s arrested for being a ‘charlatan’ and must stand trial for murder, only to learn he’s being framed. The court case serves as a device to have him look back on his life story: how he became who he is today, learned his trade, and the relationships he had along the way.
Europa, Europa (1990)
Based on the true story of Solomon Perel, it’s the story of a German wish boy, Solek (Marco Hofschneider) who survived the Holocaust by pretending to be a Nazi German. After Cristallnacht, Solek and his family move to Poland, but when they discover the Germans are invading, Solek and his brother leave to escape to Russia. They’re separated, and Solek ends up in a Russian orphanage for several years. When it’s bombed by the Germans, he escapes and when is faced with the Germans who are asking who is Jewish, he makes a snap decision to pretend to be a gentile and finds himself working as a Russian-German translator for the Nazis, and finally, in a school for the Hitler Youth.
Europa, Europa is streaming on the Criterion Channel in Canada and the US
Washington Square (1997)
Based on the novella by Henry James, Washington Square is the story of Catherine (Jennifer Jason Leigh), an heiress who falls in love with a charming but poor man, Morris (Ben Chaplin). Her father (Albert Finney) disapproves and believes Morris is only after her fortune so he threatens to disinherit her should she marry against his will. He also separates them for a year, and through this and his suspicions, manages to kill off any love there was between them. Maggie Smith also stars as her aunt Lavinia.
Washington Square is available on VOD and streaming on Hoopla in Canada and the US
Agnieszka Holland podcast episode notes
- Sign up for our Lockdown Film School session with Agnieszka Holland
- Read Alex’s interview with Holland, about her 2017 film Spoor
- Read Alex’s review of Charlatan after hearing us discuss the film on the podcast
- View our other Lockdown Film School sessions, including Patricia Rozema, Mike Leigh, Amma Asante, and Alice Winocour
Related episodes
- Episode 55: Comparing Adaptations of The Secret Garden
- Episode 88: The 2021 Oscar Best International Feature category
Ep. 87: Ordinary Love and Hope: Couples dealing with cancer
We discuss Ordinary Love and Hope, two recent films about couples dealing with a cancer diagnosis. We compare the film’s depictions of relationships, hospitals, and cancer film tropes.
This episode is a Seventh Row members exclusive, as are all episodes older than six months. Click here to become a member.
This episode features Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney, Executive Editor Orla Smith, and Editor-at-Large Mary Angela Rowe
On this episode
- Why we paired these films (8:02)
- Ordinary Love (10:47)
- Hope (39:46)
- Comparing performances (1:12:43)
Ordinary Love (Lisa Barros D’Sa and Glenn Leyburn, 2019)
The film is a detailed look at how a very ordinary married couple (Joan, played by Lesley Manville, and Tom, played by Liam Neeson) cope with a life-threatening disruption to their amiable married life: Joan finds a lump on her breast, and a series of tests reveal it to be cancerous.
We’re given time at the start of the film to settle into the minutiae of Joan’s and Tom’s life together. The opening shot sees them holding hands as they walk down the pavement and up to a small tree by the roadside, which they circle around before returning back the way they came. It’s evident that this is some kind of tradition so ingrained in their everyday that they don’t even think about it; not a word passes between the two. They’re easy in each other’s company: we then observe them as they watch TV, talking but never looking at each other, because they don’t need to.
Ordinary Love is available on VOD and streaming on Crave in Canada, on HULU in the US, and Binge in Australia.
Hope (Maria Sødahl, 2019)
The week between Christmas and New Year’s proves a crucible for a married couple’s relationship in Maria Sødahl’s smart and sensitive drama, Hope. Unlike most dramas about cancer (including Ordinary Love also at TIFF19), the film is not about the initial diagnosis and treatment; instead Anja (Andrea Bræin Hovig) has already survived lung cancer, but just before Christmas, she discovers the cancer has spread, and surviving this is unlikely. The first bout of cancer is what kept the marriage together after a rough patch; the second diagnosis threatens to split them apart, as Anja starts to unleash all of her pent up anger — not helped by the medication the steroids she’s on, which alter her behaviour.
Throughout this tense but never sentimental film, Anja must reckon with the life she’s chosen and feels is about to lose, worrying most about how her passing will affect her children. At the same time, her husband, Tomas (Stellan Skarsgård) is going through an entirely separate journey: coping with what becoming a single father of six will mean, dealing with his wife’s lashing out without escalating things, and, of course, his own grief. They start on divergent emotional paths, but slowly find their way back to each other.
Hope will be available on VOD on Friday, April 16.
Episode Notes
- Read Orla’s interview with Ordinary Love star Lesley Manville
- Read Alex’s interview with Hope writer-director Maria Sødahl and stars Andrea Bræin Hovig and Stellan Skarsgård
- Read our list of 2020’s best supporting performances
- Read Emilia Rolewicz’s “What Hollywood gets wrong with cancer movies” on Little White Lies
- Listen to our podcast episode on our newest ebook, In Their Own Words: Fiction Directors
- Purchase your copy of In Their Own Words: Fiction Directors now at https://theirownwords.ca
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Ep. 86: Una & Slalom: Depictions of childhood sexual assault
On this episode we discuss how two films, Una and the recent Slalom, depict the trauma of childhood sexual assault. We discuss the films’ messy navigation of depiction and questions of empathy and catharsis.
This episode is a Seventh Row members exclusive, as are all episodes older than six months. Click here to become a member.
This episode features Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney, Executive Editor Orla Smith, Associate Editor Brett Pardy, and staff writer Lena Wilson.
On This Episode
- Why we paired these films (5:08)
- Explaining our snarky tone as coping mechanism and the challenges of discussing the difficult subject of childhood sexual assault (8:27)
- Jennifer Fox’s The Tale (10:50)
- Why do we watch so many films about terrible things that happen to women? (23:15)
- Una (30:02)
- Slalom (61:30)
Una (Benedict Andrews, 2017)
Based on David Harrower’s Olivier Award Winning play Blackbird, which he has also adapted for the screen, Una is about reckoning with the past by trying to break the silence. Una confronts Ray about their relationship, both angry and accusing and tender and needy. As an adult, she can understand and say the things she didn’t when they were in each other’s lives, but she’s also susceptible to trying to rewrite history, now that she’s old enough to consent. Because things ended between them so abruptly — Ray went to prison and Una was told he was disgusted with himself — there are lots of blanks to fill in their memories. They may be toxic to one another, but they’re also the only two people who went through this ordeal together.
Read the rest of Alex’s review
Una is available on VOD and to stream on Prime and Hoopla in Canada and the US and MUBI in the UK.
Slalom (Charlene Favier, 2020)
Charlène Favier’s Cannes-labelled directorial debut, Slalom, is a tense pas-de-deux between a 15-year-old professional skiing star, Lyz (Noée Abita), and her coach, Fred (Jérémie Renier). Like Una, the film is a complex exploration of the dynamics of an abusive relationship between a man in power and a child in his charge. Though it deals with sexual abuse, the film is most interested in Lyz’s perspective, avoiding judgement or sensationalism, while making Fred human if reprehensible.
Effectively abandoned by her mother, who has accepted a job in another city, Lyz begins training at a school designed for professional skiers under Fred’s guidance. Living alone in her apartment, and without any real support network at her new school, Lyz initially struggles with Fred’s gruff manner. But when she starts succeeding on the slopes, he warms up to her, giving her special attention, training, and encouragement.
Read the rest of Alex’s review
Slalom opens April 9 in virtual cinemas in Canada and the US.
Show notes for Una and Slalom
- Read Lena’s New York Times article on rape-revenge films
- Read Lena’s New York Times review of Violation
- Read Alex’s interview with Una director Benedict Andrews
- Read Alex’s interview with The Tale director Jennifer Fox
- Read Justin Smith’s interview with Genèse director Philippe Lesage
- Listen to Lena guest on our episode about Paddington and Paddington 2
Ep. 83: Berlinale 2021, Part 1: The Sidebars
We begin our deep dive on Berlinale 2021, discussing the festival overall and the sidebar competitions.
This episode is a Seventh Row members exclusive, as are all episodes older than six months. Click here to become a member.
Ep. 80: The Babadook and Prevenge: Motherhood in horror
February is Women in Horror month and on this podcast episode, to celebrate, we re-visit two of our favourite horror films about motherhood, Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook and Alice Lowe’s Prevenge.
This episode is a Seventh Row members exclusive, as are all episodes older than six months. Click here to become a member.
