In a pair of Q and As / intros recorded at the Electric Sheep Film Club, in the Prince Charles Cinema in London, Alex Fitch talks to BFI programmer Emma Smart about gay themes in Westerns before and after a screening of Midnight Cowboy and to Ian Rakoff about the crossover between Western themed comics and movies before a screening of For a few Dollars more…

Unusual images of the western - from left to right, Gene Autry comic no. 4, Western Fighters vol.3 no.4, Midnight Cowboy poster, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, no.1

More for more information and a variety of formats you can stream / download, please visit the home of this podcast at www.archive.org

Links: Info about the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival on tour
Midnight Cowboy pages on wikipedia and the IMDb
Listen to Alex’s other interviews with Emma Smart

Info about Ian Rakoff’s talk about ‘Magical realism and social realism’ in comics at the Victoria and Albert Museum on July 21st 2010
Listen to Alex’s first interview with Ian, about writing The Prisoner and his experiences in the world of film and second interview about comics at the Victoria and Albert Museum

Definition of the ‘alt.’ prefix

Recommended events:

Comica Argentina

A mini Comica festival for Summer: an exhibition of the cream of Argentine comic art accompanies a trio of events at King’s Place in Somers Town…

July 2nd: Paul Gravett gives an illustrated talk about the history of comic art in Argentina. 6.30 pm
July 3rd: The Mystery Of The First Animated Movies – Gabriele Zucchelli’s documentary film, made in 2006, explores the making of El Apóstol. 6.30 pm
July 4th: Paul Gravett talks to cartoonist Oscar Grillo and director / animator Gabriele Zucchelli. 6.00 pm

The exhibition is being held at Canning House, 2 Belgrave Square, London SW1X 8PJ to June 25 and then at King’s Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9AG from July 1st-4th.

More info at www.comicafestival.com

Comics at The London Literature Festival

The London Literature Festival runs from July 1st – 18th at The South Bank Centre in London and features a multitude of talks, panels and presentations on the world of books. Comics are represented at the festival in a couple of events including:

Martin Rowson talks about adapting the ‘anti-novel: The Life and opinions of Tristram Shandy, gentleman into graphic novel format – Saturday 3 July 2010 – 4 pm

Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá talk about their careers so far as Brazilian comic creators who have found critical acclaim producing work for the US market – hosted by Jamie McKelvie – Monday 5 July 2010 – 7pm

More info at www.londonlitfest.com

On the Silver Globe, an esoteric Polish sci-fi epic directed by Andrzej Zulawski in 1977 – then lost and believed destroyed by the authorities for a decade before its cinema release – was screened at Tate Modern last year as part of a mini-season of films titled ‘Polish New Wave – The History of a Phenomenon that Never Existed’. Looking ahead to the release of this film on DVD in the UK, Alex Fitch talks to Andrzej Zulawski about his struggles in getting the film released and the travails involved in making his horror films The Third Part of the Night (1971) and Possession (1981) under the eyes of a communist regime.
Alex Fitch also talks to Polish poster designer Andrzej Klimowski and his wife Danusia Schejbal (famously depicted as the victim of an assassin’s bullet on Klimowski’s poster for Robert Altman’s Nashville) about working on the fringes of Polish filmmaking in the late 1970s and whether the films of the time could be seen as belonging to an artistic movement. (N.B./ Shorter edits of the two interviews were broadcast in an episode of I’m ready for my close-up on Resonance FM, 11/06/10)

Still from On the Silver Globe by Andrzej Zulawski and posters for The Godfather part II, Nashville and Stranger than Paradise by Andrzej Klimowski and Danusia Schejbal

Links: Andrzej Klimowski and / Danusia Schejbal’s websites
Andrzej’s pages at www.polishposter.com and The Royal College of Art
Theatre design by Danusia: A Chaste Maid in Cheapside and A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Listen to Alex’s previous interviews with Andrzej
Info on Polish posters at Cinéphilia West

Info on ‘The Polish New Wave’ at Tate Modern including On the Silver Globe
Buy The Third Part of the Night from Second Run DVD

In the latest Electric Sheep podcast, we’re looking at apocalyptic movies: Virginie Sélavy talks to John Hillcoat, director of the film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road in an interview recorded at last year’s London Film Festival, plus Alex Fitch talks to Helen McCarthy, a British expert on manga, anime and Japanese visual culture, in a Q and A recorded before a screening of the film Battle Royale…

Takeshi Kitano lays down the law in Battle Royale / John Hillcoat directs Viggo Mortensen in The Road

For more information and a variety of formats you can stream / download, please visit the home of this podcast at www.archive.org

Links: Wikipedia pages on The Road, Battle Royale and Helen McCarthy
Helen’s website
More info on Electric Sheep screenings

The latest online issue of Electric Sheep Magazine is available now and features Alex Fitch’s review of Cube, Mark Stafford’s review of Lebanon, Matthew Sheret’s review of The Temptation of St Tony, this month’s competition winning review of Battle Royale and Chris Doherty’s comic strip review of The Card Player:

Excerpt from a comic strip review of The Card Player by Chris Doherty

electricsheepmagazine.co.uk avoids industry chit-chat and cheap abuse. The writing is confident and well-informed and the scope encompasses everywhere from Spain to South Korea. It writes about film for people who like film: a classic approach.
New Statesman 01/03/10

Recommended events:

City of Abacus at The Book Club

At The Book Club cafe and bar in Hoxton, London there is a month long exhibtion of the art from The City of Abacus by VV Brown and David Allain, illustrated by Emma Price and Lee O’Connor.

Opening hours: 8am-late Mon-Fri, 10am-late Sat/Sun
100 Leonard Street, London EC2 4RH
More info at www.wearetbc.com

Solipsistic Pop 2 at Orbital Comics

Pencil artwork from Solipsistic Pop 2 cover

Alex Fitch interviews Oscar nominated actress Susannah York about her career, focusing on her performances in war related productions and her interest in peace activism. Alex and Susannah talk about the latter’s narration for the 1987 Channel Four TV series The Struggles for Poland, writing the war time drama Falling in love again, her iconic role in They shoot horses, don’t they? and using her reputation and theatre tours to promote the work of the Movement for the Abolition of War.
(Partially broadcast as part of a ‘Clear Spot’ on Resonance FM)

Susannah York on the set of The Battle of Britain in 1969

‘The Struggles for Poland’ screens at the Imperial War Museum, Lambeth Road, London SE1 6HZ on January 16th (Episodes 1-4), 17th (Episodes 5-8) and 23rd (Episodes 3-5 and 9) as part of Polska! Year.

For more info about the variety of formats you can download this podcast in / stream, please visit www.archive.org

Links: Film at Imperial War Museum London – download a pdf of the cinema schedule
Information about Polska! Year
IMDb pages on The Struggles for Poland and Susannah York
More info about Miracles at the Leicester Square Theatre
Info about the Movement for the Aobolition of War

Patrick McGoohan filming Living in Harmony / Ian Rakoff at Comica 2003

To coincide with the 42nd anniversary of the broadcast of the episode he wrote the original script for, Alex Fitch talks to writer, editor and raconteur Ian Rakoff about his experiences working on The Prisoner and being an observer of British Film culture in the 1970s and beyond. Alex and Ian talk about the bowdlerisation of his script for ‘Living in Harmony’, the latter’s experiences with Lindsay Anderson on such films as If…. and O lucky man!, working with Nicolas Roeg, Stephen Frears and John Boorman and his lifetime interest in comic books.

For more info about the variety of formats you can download this podcast in / stream, please visit www.archive.org

Links: (Limited) info about Ian Rakoff at www.imdb.com
Interview with Ian at www.paulgravett.com
Info about the Victoria and Albert Museum’s comic book collections
Buy The Prisoner on blu-ray from Network DVD
Buy Ian’s book Inside the “Prisoner”: Radical Television and Film in the 1960s from amazon.co.uk
Last month’s appreciation of The Prisoner at wired.com

Listen to / watch Alex’s interview with Malcolm McDowell and Mike Kaplan about working with Lindsay Anderson
Photo credits – Ian Rakoff courtesy of “Jinty” and Patrick McGoohan courtesy of www.amctv.com

For info on the latest issue of Electric Sheep magazine, please click here / read Prisoner inspired rock group Do not forsake me oh my darling’s list of favourite films in Electric Sheep Magazine online

In association with

Recommended events:

Comixmas exhibition

ComiXmas: When Worlds Collide is an exhibition of fantastic images from contemporary comic books and graphic novels, featuring work by the best contemporary comic book artists, along with images from past great masters of the genre. On display in the exhibition are prints reproduced at a strikingly larger scale by artists such as Osamu Tezuka, one of the fathers of Japanese manga and anime; Hergé, the Belgian creator of Tintin; Woodrow Phoenix, creator of the award winning Rumble Strip; Andrzej Klimowski, illustrator of The Master & Margarita; Reinhard Kleist, illustrator of Johnny Cash: I See A Darkness; From Hell creators Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell, and many other artists. This free exhibition runs from 11 December 2009 to 6 February 2010 at the LondonPrintStudio Gallery, 425 Harrow Road, London.

Additionally, Paul Gravett will be hosting a free panel discussion How A Comic Is Made at the LondonPrintStudio on Thursday 21 January 2010, where you can discover the secrets behind writing and drawing comics, graphic novels and manga, revealed by creators featured in the ComiXmas Exhibition: Andrzej Klimowski and Danusia Schejbal (Master and Margarita), Nana Li (Twelfth Night), Pat Mills (Nemesis, Slaine, Requiem) and Woodrow Phoenix (Rumble Strip). Followed by book signings and reception.

More info at www.londonprintstudio.org.uk

Also broadcast 20/11/09 as an episode of I’m ready for my close-up on Resonance 104.4 FM

Rip Torn, Joseph Strick and Henry Miller on the set of Tropic of Cancer (1969), photograph by Carlo Bavagnoli, (c) Life Magazine

To coincide with the ‘Directorspective’ of the work of Joseph Strick, currently at The Barbican centre in London, Alex Fitch talks to the Oscar winning director about his career from working as a U.S. Air Force photographer during the Second World War to directing adaptations of challenging texts such as James Joyce’s Ulysses and Portrait of the artist as a young man, Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer and Jean Genet’s The Balcony. A selection of 6 of Strick’s films will be screened on consecutive days at The Barbican from 19/11/09 and there is also an additional daily screening of a new print of Ulysses (1967) until 26/11/09.

For more info about the variety of formats you can download this podcast in / stream, please visit www.archive.org

Links: Info about the Barbican ‘Directorspective’ and additional daily Ulysses screenings
Info about Joseph Strick on the IMDb and wikipedia

For info on the latest issue of Electric Sheep magazine, please click here

In association with

Originally broadcast 16/10/09 as an episode of I’m ready for my close-up on Resonance 104.4 FM

Alastair Kirton as Colin and Stephen McHattie in Pontypool

In a special early Halloween edition, Alex Fitch talks to Jeffrey Coghlan, the producer of the innovative Canadian Horror film Pontypool and Marc Price, director of the excellent British living dead film Colin about their new approaches to the zombie genre on a limited budget.
Pontypool goes on limited release in the UK today, while Colin in released on 23rd October.

For more info about the variety of formats you can download this podcast in / stream, please visit www.archive.org

Links: Pontypool – IMDb page and Official website
Review at Cinematropolis blog
Alex’s mini-review as part of a Frightfest 2009 article at Electric Sheep Magazine
Listen to the radio version at www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice

Colin – IMDb page and Official site
Review in Revenant Magazine
Info about the Colin panels at this month’s MCM Expo
Read a transcript of Alex’s interview with Marc at Electric Sheep Magazine

For info on the latest issue of Electric Sheep magazine, please click here

In association with

Related news:

We Are Words + Pictures stall: Saturday 17th October, Girl Germs club night @ The Camden Head (from 8pm)
Join WAW+P creators Julia Scheele and Matthew Sheret as they sell and personalise the cream of the UK’s small press output from a stall with the ‘Girl Germs’ female pop and punk night at 100 Camden High Street, London NW1 0LU

also: Hunterian Museum Film Screening – Medical Miniaturisation – Thursday 22 October, 7pm

Join us for our first ever Hunterian Museum film screening of two works on the theme of medical miniaturisation. Anime expert Helen McCarthy will introduce the classic 1963 anime Astroboy: Mighty Microbe Army about the robot boy miniaturised to fight bacteria inside the body, followed by the 1966 movie Fantastic Voyage inspired by one of Osamu Tezuka’s early Manga works ‘The Monster on the 38th Parallel’. The museum and the exhibition ‘Sci-Fi Surgery: Medical Robots’ will be open from 6pm so that you can see the mini-bots that turn fantasy into reality. Screenings supported by the Japan Foundation, the Japan Society and Right Stuf, Inc. FREE, booking essential on 0207 869 6560

plus: BLACK POWERS exhibtion at Swiss Cottage Library Gallery

As part of Black History Month, Swiss Cottage Library Gallery presents an exhibition of comics by black creators and of African-American characters in comics. The collection coheres around black representations through the imagery and language of the comic book medium: representation as markers of both historical and contemporary struggles. The theme is developed through archival works from the 1930’s to the present-day and culminates with a display of the singular comic art of Patrice and John Aggs, Paul Peart-Smith, Woodrow Phoenix and Lance Tooks.

09 October – 06 November 2009
Swiss Cottage Library Gallery, 88 Avenue Rd, London, United Kingdom

The Observer / Jonathan Cape / Comica Graphic Short Story Prize 2009
Are you an aspiring graphic novelist? Do you have an original story to tell? Win £1,000 and have your story printed in The Observer.
More info…

Deadline: 19th October 2009

and: London signings…

Fred Van Lente The third Autumnal signing at Gosh! Comics is Fred Van Lente, the award-winning writer of Action Philosophers!, Amazing Spider-Man, Marvel Zombies and Incredible Hercules, among numerous other excellent titles,and is one of the most exciting writing talents to emerge in the last five years. This will be his only London signing, so take advantage of this rare opportunity to chat with him… Saturday 24th October, from 3pm-5pm

Avatar comics signing: An all-star line up will be signing at Orbital Comics courtesy of Avatar Press on Tuesday the 27th of October from 4:30 to 7:00. Paul Duffield (Freakangels), Jacen Burrows (Crossed, 303), William Christensen (Editor-In-Chief of Avatar), Kieron Gillen (Phonogram), Si Spurrier (Judge Dredd, Gutsville) and Rich Johnston (Bleeding Cool Blogsite)

David Petersen /Mouse Guard: David Petersen be signing the gorgeous Mouse Guard Winter 1152 at the Forbidden Planet Megastore, 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, WC2H 8JR, on Saturday 7th November 1 – 2pm

plus: Autumn comics conventions and events…

October 24th and 25th: The MCM Expo at the Excel centre in London’s Docklands includes appearances by Andy Diggle, Jock, Leigh Gallagher, Alan Grant, Ben Templesmith ,Kieron Gillen and Emma Vieceli – more info at www.londonexpo.com

Also on Sunday October 25th, there’s the Women in Comics one-day conference at Murray Edwards College New Hall in Cambridge: which includes Belgian-based artist Dominique Goblet in conversation with Paul Gravett, Corrine Pearlman and Woodrow Phoenix discussing autobiographical comics work, Helen McCarthy on women and gender roles in the work of Osamu Tezuka, and other talks by Sarah McIntyre and Asia Alfasi. More info at http://tinyurl.com/womenincomics

5th to the 26th of November: Comica, the three week festival of comics in and around the Institute of Comtemporary Arts in London includes appearances by Eddie Campbell, David Lloyd, Brian Talbot, James Jean and Tara McPherson. – more info at www.comicafestival.com

19th to the 22nd of November: The Thought Bubble sequential art festival in Leeds which includes appearances by Paul Cornell, Garey Erskin, Garen Ewing, Andy Diggle, Frank Queitly and many more – more info at www.thoughtbubblefestival.com

Clockwise from top middle, Sally Potter and the cast of her film Rage, Jude Law, Judi Dench, Dianne Wiest, Eddie Izzard, Steve Buscemi

In an hour long talk / Q and A recorded at Cinephila West in Westbourne Grove, London, Sophie Mayer interviews director Sally Potter about her career with additional questions from the audience. Sally talks about getting advice from Martin Scorsese and Michael Powell while raising funding for her second feature, Orlando and conducting a Q & A via skype with Jude Law at the premiere of Rage at the NFT. Recorded and edited by Alex Fitch.

For more info about the variety of formats you can download this podcast in / stream, please visit www.archive.org

Links:
wikipedia and IMDb pages about Rage
Official movie website
Sally Potter’s website
More info about Sophie’s book The films of Sally Potter: A politics of love

For info on the latest issue of Electric Sheep magazine, please click here

In association with:

Dario Argento interview originally broadcast 26/06/09 as an episode of I’m ready for my close-up on www.resonancefm.com

Dario Argento directs Adrien Brody on the set of Giallo

In an interview recorded at the Cine-Excess cult film festival in London, Alex Fitch talks to Italian cult film maker Dario Argento about his career from writing ‘Spaghetti Westerns’ in the 1960s such as Once Upon a time in the West to his most recent film Mother of Tears. Alex and Dario talk about the importance of music in his work, why he doesn’t like being pigeon holed as a horror director and his next project Giallo.

Goblin circa 2009 - Fabio Pignatelli / Massimo Morante / Maurizio Guarini / Agostino Marangolo

Also, in a Q & A recorded live on stage at the Supersonic music festival in Birmingham, Alex talks to the Italian prog rock band Goblin – Fabio Pignatelli, Massimo Morante, Agostino Marangolo and Maurizio Guarini – about scoring Argento’s films from Profondo Rosso / Deep Red to Non ho sonno / Sleepless…

For more info about the variety of formats you can download this podcast in / stream, please visit www.archive.org

Links:
IMDb pages on Argento, Once upon a time in the West and Giallo
The ‘Three Mothers’ trilogy: Suspiria, Inferno, Mother of Tears and Luigi Cozzi’s unofficial sequel The Black Cat
Wikipedia pages on Argento and the giallo genre
Watch the trailer for his new film Giallo on youtube
BFI page on the rerelease of Once upon a time in the West
Cine-Excess website
Read a transcript of Alex’s interview with director Dario Argento in Electric Sheep Magazine:

Dario Argento: With Goblin or with Claudio Simonetti, it’s different. For Profundo Rosso (Deep Red), we meet in my house nearly every night and they introduce me to the work of the day and it inspires me to do the next scene. It was very important. For Suspiria we collaborated on the music – it was good to do it before shooting.

Goblin’s official website
Info about Goblin on wikipedia and the IMDb
Visit the festival website at www.capsule.org.uk/supersonic

For info on the latest issue of Electric Sheep magazine, please click here

In association with:

Monika Treut interview originally broadcast 08/05/09 as an episode of I’m ready for my close-up www.resonancefm.com

Federico García Lorca played by Javier Beltrán and Robert Pattinson as Salvador Dali in Little Ashes

In the second of two podcasts looking at the current state of gay cinema, Virginie Sélavy interviews experimental film maker Monika Treut about her work including the new film Ghosted which had its UK premiere at this year’s London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. Also, guest interviewer Chris Patmore, from Film and Festivals magazine talks to director Paul Morrison about his film Little Ashes, featuring Twilight star Robert Pattinson as Salvador Dali, which looks at the relationship between Dali and the poet Federico García Lorca, as played by Javier Beltrán (Part 2 of 2)

For more info about the variety of formats you can download this podcast in / stream, please visit www.archive.org

To experience a recording of the Electric Sheep Podcast live, why not come to the Supersonic Festival in Birmingham this weekend, where ESM assistant editor Alex Fitch is interviewing the Italian Rock band Goblin live on stage at 6.15 pm on Sunday 26th July. More info here…