Category Archives: I’m Ready for my Closeup

Reality Check: Supermarionation special

Reality Check: Supermarionation special

Gerry Anderson interview originally broadcast 16/07/09 /
Francis Matthews
interview originally broadcast 13/08/09 as episodes of I’m ready for my close-up on Resonance 104.4 FM

Francis Matthews, Captain Scarlet and Gerry Anderson
Francis Matthews, Captain Scarlet and Gerry Anderson

In a special episode looking at two of the people most closely associated with classic Supermarionation TV shows, Alex Fitch and Robin Warren talk to Francis Matthews about providing the voice of Captain Scarlet and playing cult detective Paul Temple on TV. Alex also talks to Thunderbirds creator Gerry Anderson about some of his more obscure titles from Fireball XL5 to Lavender Castle

For more info, please visit the home of this podcast at Sci-Fi London

In association with: Sci-Fi London logo

Links: Gerry Anderson‘s fan club
Wikipedia pages on Gerry Anderson, Francis Matthews, Paul Temple and Captain Scarlet
Buy the Paul Temple box set from Acorn Media
Buy Fireball XL5 and Space:1999 from Network DVD

Electric Sheep podcast: The current state of Gay cinema part 2 (Monika Treut / Paul Morrison)

Electric Sheep podcast: The current state of Gay cinema part 2 (Monika Treut / Paul Morrison)

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

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

Links: Read Alex Fitch’s article about gay cinema at www.electricsheepmagazine.com
IMDb pages on Little Ashes and Ghosted
Info about the UK premiere of Ghosted and the LLGFF on tour at www.bfi.org.uk
Listen to the previous Electric Sheep Podcast which features Virginie’s interview with Kenneth Anger
For info on the latest issue of Electric Sheep magazine, please click here

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…

Reality Check: Genre (crossing) directors – Kaufman and Vigalondo

Reality Check: Genre (crossing) directors – Kaufman and Vigalondo

Charlie Kaufman interview originally broadcast 21/05/09 on Resonance FM as part of I’m ready for my close-up

Charlie Kaufman directs Robin Weigert in Synecdoche, New York

Charlie Kaufman directs Robin Weigert in Synecdoche, New York

Continuing our series of twice annual looks at pairs of directors who combine genres on screen to beguiling effect, Alex Fitch talks to Academy Award winning screenwriter turned director Charlie Kaufman about his new film Synecdoche, New York and the processes of getting his previous scripts Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Being John Malkovich to the screen.

Nacho Vigalondo in character on the set of TimeCrimes

Nacho Vigalondo in character on the set of TimeCrimes

Alex also talks to Nacho Vigalondo, the director of the new Spanish film TimeCrimes / Los cronocrimenes which mixes the style of a 1970s psycho thriller with the tropes of a modern, cerebral time travel film.

For more info, please visit the home of this podcast at Sci-Fi London
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Electric Sheep podcast: Figures in a landscape

Electric Sheep podcast: Figures in a landscape

Interviews originally broadcast 01/05/09 in an edited version as an episode of I’m ready for my close-up on www.resonancefm.com

Still from Helen by Desperate Optimists

Still from Helen by Desperate Optimists

Alex Fitch talks to the directors of two new films which take the starting point of a character walking through a landscape and twist it into unexpected directions. Alex talks to Bent Hamer, the director of the gentle new Norwegian comedy O’Horten which depicts the tale of a recently retired train driver who gets embroiled in a series of misadventures of the kind Victor Meldrew would be proud of from losing his shoes in a locker room and ending up with red stilettos to ending up in a car driven by a blind man. Alex also talks to Christine Molloy, one half of the film making duo Desperate Optimists, about their new film Helen, which concerns a young woman who takes part in a police reconstruction of a girl going missing and starts to take over her life from dating her boyfriend to getting maths advice from her parents.
Helen is released in selected UK cinemas on May 1st /
O’Horten is released in selected UK cinemas on May 8th

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

Links: Desperate Optimists‘ official website for info on Helen
Artificial Eye‘s official website for info about O’Horten
Listen to Alex’s interview with Joe Lawlor, the other half of Desperate Optimists about their series of short filmsCivic Life

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

Alex Fitch and Electric sheep magazine editor Virginie Selavy will be interviewing Marc Caro co-director of The City of Lost Children about his work on stage after a screening of the film at the Apollo Piccadilly on Lower Regent Street at 9pm tonight, 01/05/09

and tomorrow, 02/05/09, at the same location at 4.15 Alex is chairing a panel with Marc Caro, Richard Jobson, director of A woman in winter, Cory McAbee (The American Astronaut) and Gerald McMorrow (Franklyn) called The problem of Sci-Fi and Fantasy Film-making and you can find more details about both at www.sci-fi-london.com

In association with: Electric Sheep Magazine logo

Electric Sheep podcast: World Cinema, Spring 2009

Electric Sheep podcast: World Cinema, Spring 2009

Interviews originally broadcast 26/03/09 on www.resonancefm.com

Paolo Sorrentino directs Il Divo

Paolo Sorrentino directs Il Divo

In the latest edition of the Electric Sheep Magazine podcast, we’re looking at recent world and art-house cinema releases on DVD and in cinemas. Alex Fitch interviews the director (Christophe Van Rompaey) and star (Jurgen Delnaet) of the new Belgian rom-com Moscow, Belgium / Aanrijding in Moscou, while Jessica Fostekew talks to director Paolo Sorrentino about his new film Il Divo, which chronicles the life of former Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti who has been tried for murder and ties to the Mafia, but acquitted due to the 24 year gap of getting the case before the courts.

Also, Alex reviews the Spanish Science Fiction thriller Timecrimes / Los cronocrímenes and our new reviewer David Warwick looks at the new DVD of Geoffrey Malins’ The Battle of the Somme (1916).

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

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Reality Check: State of the Art adaptation

Reality Check:
Reality Check logo
State of the Art adaptation

To be broadcast 03/03/09 on Resonance FM as a “Micro Clear Spot”

Iain Banks and Paul Cornell at Newcon 4

Iain Banks and Paul Cornell at Newcon 4

Alex Fitch talks to writer Paul Cornell about dramatising Iain M Banks’ novella “The State of the Art” for the afternoon play on Radio 4 (to be broadcast 2.15pm 05/03/09) with a cast including such luminaries as Anthony Sher and Patterson Joseph… Alex and Paul also discuss the author’s adaptations of his own work – novelising the internet cartoon Doctor Who: Scream of the Shalka and conversely dramatising his novel Doctor Who: Human Nature for TV.

For more info, please visit the home of this podcast at Sci-Fi London

Links: For more info about BBC radio’s SF season, please click here
For Paul’s blog, please click here
Wikipedia pages on Paul Cornell, Iain Banks and The Culture

For more podcasts with Paul Cornell, as guest and interviewer, please click here

In association with: Sci-Fi London logo

I’m ready for my close-up: The films of Rex Bloomstein

I’m ready for my close-up: The films of Rex Bloomstein

Rex Bloomstein filming An Independent Mind

Rex Bloomstein filming An Independent Mind

A special episode of Resonance FM’s film show I’m ready for my close-up. Alex Fitch talks to director Rex Bloomstein about his films Traitors to Hitler (1979), KZ (2006) and An Independent Mind (2008) in advance of a screening of Traitors… at the Imperial War Museum as part of a weekend of films and talks about the 1944 Bomb plot to kill Hitler (including a screening of Valkyrie starring Tom Cruise); Alex and Rex talk about documenting persecution and freedom of speech on film and notions of psychogeography in the documentary process. 

For more info about this podcast and a variety of different formats you can download or stream, please visit the home of this podcast at www.archive.org

Links: Rex’s website
Interview with Rex following a screening of KZ at the Sundance Film Festival
Rex’s page at the “British Documentary Website” dfgdocs.com
Rex’s filmography at the University of Leicester website
Imperial War Museum website

Reality Check: Being Bruce Campbell

Reality Check: Being Bruce Campbell

Originally broadcast 19/02/09 on Resonance FM as an episode of I’m ready for my close-up

Bruce Campbell in My name is Bruce

Bruce Campbell in My name is Bruce

Alex Fitch talks to legendary ‘B’-movie actor Bruce Campbell about his new film My name is Bruce which sees the actor directing, producing and playing a fictionalised version of himself on screen. My name is Bruce sees Campbell kidnapped by a fan and taken to the small town of Gold Lick, Oregon (pop. 333) to save the locals from an ancient Chinese demon prefaced by his own country and western musical numbers… Alex and Bruce also talk about the actor’s career so far, appearing in memorable films by Sam Raimi such as the Evil Dead and Spider-Man trilogies, and his experience of dealing with fandom over the years…

For more info, please visit the home of this podcast at Sci-Fi London
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Electric Sheep podcast: Experimental film as performance art

Electric Sheep podcast: Experimental film as performance art

Interviews originally broadcast as a Clear Spot, 30/10/08 and I’m ready for my close-up, 12/02/09 on www.resonancefm.com

A Home Movie by Jeff Keen

A Home Movie by Jeff Keen

Alex Fitch talks to Tania Glyde and Kim Morgan about the films of Jeff Keen and to Wajid Yaseen about Ear Cinema and Late Noon Sun…
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I’m ready for my close-up: Julien Temple’s Eternity Man

I’m ready for my close-up: Julien Temple’s Eternity Man

The Eternity Man presentation at the Locarno film festival -  Julien Temple, Director; Christa Hughes, actress; Rosemary Blight, producer
“The Eternity Man” presentation at the Locarno film festival – Julien Temple, Director; Christa Hughes, actress; Rosemary Blight, producer

In an interview recorded just before a theatrical screening of The Eternity Man at the Barbican, Alex Fitch talks to director Julien Temple about his film of the modern opera by Dorothy Porter and Jonathan Mills. The Eternity Man tells the true story of Arthur Stace who wandered the streets of Sydney for two generations, writing the word “Eternity” in chalk on a myriad of surfaces and Temple’s film vividly brings to life this modern avatar of the Wandering Jew. Alex and Julien also talk about the director’s other work from Absolute Beginners to Pandaemonium and notions of combining fact and fiction on screen.

For more info about this podcast and a variety of different formats you can download or stream, please visit the home of this podcast at www.archive.org

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