New Year, New Listen to Lillian
Let's take a cup of kinershit and reflect on the last year of British cinema - while looking ahead to 2023.
Yuletide felicitations!
As the New Year begins, I want to take a moment to thank everyone who has subscribed to Listen to Lillian so far. It’s taken a little while to get going, but the podcast format seems to be working well. I’m not so taken by the review format I’ve gone with so there are going to be some changes in 2023 - not least in how much content I will be publishing on the site. I’ll begin this slightly rambling newsletter by outlining the plan moving forward.
The podcast will be released on a rolling basis. Provided I have guests, there will be episodes to record and go out to you via email, Spotify, Apple, Amazon, Google, and wherever else you can stream these things. Ideally there will be a couple of episodes coming to you every month - this may take a little bit more time to become a reliably scheduled affair, but sure enough there will be new recordings on the way very soon. On which note, I would like to invite you to get in touch, either with film suggestions or if you fancy speaking on the programme. No qualifications required of course, just make sure you have plenty to talk about!
Rather than releasing random reviews and titbits as I have done previously, there will now be a regular newsletter of reflections on a relevant theme. This might be a new British release, an anniversary, an event, or something I have come across in my work and research that I hope you will be interested in reading. This part of the project will be available in full only to those with the paid/full/founding subscriber option which can be purchased through Substack. I do this because I work completely freelance and I want to be able to afford to give these newsletters my undivided time and attention. That being said, anyone who cannot afford the subscription fee should contact me through the blog or any other means with their email address and I will give them access for free.
When I created this project, it was designed to allow me to continue the research I had started at university and hoped to continue as a PhD. This may well become a reality in the near future, and I will use this space to explore the ideas that come to play in my academic pursuits. However, I have found through the podcast conversations and my work as a film and culture writer that the scope of this blog branches out far beyond the specificities of my undergraduate and postgraduate research. Therefore will my main period of interest will continue to be 1945-55, it will be framed within the broader century-or-so of British cinema and television surrounding it.
On that note, I am going to take this opportunity to highlight some of the work I did in 2022 which related directly to these themes and ideas. There are far too many to get through them all, so here are my top eight moments in no particular order:
1. Peter Greenaway at the BFI
Perhaps the highlight of my year was getting the chance to meet Peter Greenaway, one of the greatest artists and filmmakers to ever come from the British Isles. After attending a press screening of the new 4K restoration of The Draughtsman’s Contract (1982) for the 40th anniversary, I was asked by Sight & Sound to interview Peter over the phone in Amsterdam. We had a fascinating, beautiful, and frustrating conversation which covered the gamut of culture (including his excitement to see the film The Lost King (2022)) and the Greenaway season taking place at the BFI in November and December. Following a screening of The Greenaway Alphabet (2017) directed by Peter’s wife, Saskia Boddeke, I was invited to meet the great man in person. I am quite convinced he did not remember me, but he was incredibly charming, and it was wonderful to meet Saskia and their daughter, Pip, as well. I’ve loved Peter’s films since my grandmother first introduced me to them, and it was a great honour to spend so much time locked in heated dialogue.
My interview with Peter can read here: https://www.bfi.org.uk/interviews/beginning-was-image-interview-with-peter-greenaway
2. Landladies on Free Thinking with Matthew Sweet
This year I had the great pleasure of meeting Matthew Sweet and being given a tour of all things Free Thinking. The programme has long been a favourite of mine, and I had the honour of shadowing Matthew as he hosted a programme on Karel Reisz’s Morgan - A Suitable Case for Treatment (1966) with guests including the wonderful Lucy Bolton and director Stephen Frears (who was convinced I was only there to book him a taxi!). A few weeks later I found myself in the Radio 3 hotseat waxing lyrical on cultural depictions of landladies, from Roald Dahl and Hitchcock to Ealing and the British New Wave. It was an extraordinary and surreal experience which I could certainly get rather used to.
You can listen to the full episode of Free Thinking on BBC Sounds, or here:
3. The Wonder on Front Row with Samira Ahmed
Leaving University Challenge this year did at least give me the opportunity to meet Samira Ahmed, and it was a great privilege to be invited to appear with her on an episode of Front Row in November. Along with the art historian Katy Hessel, we discussed Sebastián Lelio’s The Wonder, which is certainly an arbitrary link to British film, although we did also discuss the future of the ENO and an exhibition at the Royal Academy. If nothing else, it was my first time in a BBC radio studio, which is certainly a place I would like to become more familiar with in 2023.
You can listen to the full episode of Front Row here:
4. Sight & Sound Greatest Films of All Time
One of the highlights and obsessions of the year for many film critics was the once-a-decade Sight & Sound poll of the Greatest Films of All Time. It was a pleasure and honour to put together my ballot, which ended up skewing more French than British, as indeed did the final poll results. Attending the launch event was a real treat, and I got to meet the créme of the London film critic circle along with such icons as Edgar Wright. Here’s the ballot I submitted:
The Red Shoes, dirs. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (1948)
Cléo de 5 à 7, dir. Agnès Varda (1962)
Les demoiselles de Rochefort, dir. Jacques Demy (1967)
Wanda, dir. Barbara Loden (1970)
Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, dir. Chantal Akerman (1975)
Caravaggio, dir. Derek Jarman (1986)
The Long Day Closes, dir. Terence Davies (1992)
In the Mood for Love, dir. Wong Kar-wai (2000)
Eden, dir. Mia Hansen-Løve (2014)
Portrait de la jeune fille en feu, dir. Céline Sciamma (2019)
5. Derek Jarman’s Art and Peter Tatchell
While I was living in Manchester working on University Challenge, one of the best exhibitions I have attended was staged at Manchester Art Gallery - a retrospective of the fine art works of Derek Jarman. I was commissioned to write on the exhibition by Plinth, my first foray into art criticism, and while I was reflecting on the paintings and sculptures I spotted the above photograph. I immediately recognised Peter Tatchell as well as Jarman in the image, and decided to contact Peter to ask him about it. He told me the story of the day when the photograph was taken, and very kindly allowed me to include it in my write-up.
You can read the full article here: https://plinth.uk.com/blogs/in-the-studio-with/derek-jarman-protest-manchester-art-gallery-essay?_pos=1&_sid=6c33d4a74&_ss=r
6. London Film Festival
The London Film Festival is a real treat every year, allowing me to catch up on all the upcoming releases I haven’t managed to catch beforehand, along with a smattering of premieres. This year’s British highlights included Creature directed by Asif Kapadia (a filmed version of a ballet choreographed by Akram Khan for the English National Ballet), Aftersun directed by Charlotte Wells, Living directed by Oliver Hermanus, The Eternal Daughter directed by Joanna Hogg, and Enys Men directed by Mark Jenkin. As ever it was a wonderful opportunity to meet other critics and friends I had been unable to see due to COVID and being out of London until recently.
You can read my LFF blog here: https://www.flicks.co.uk/features/our-daily-journal-from-the-66th-bfi-london-film-festival/
7. Benediction
Even though I first saw it at the end of 2021, my British film highlight of the year has to be Terence Davies’s Benediction, a staggering and exquisite biopic of Siegfied Sassoon. I had the pleasure of being asked to write an essay on the film for Curzon, which can be read here: https://www.curzon.com/journal/cinematic-memoir-how-terence-davies-incorporates-his-own-queer-history-into-benediction/
8. Autism Through Cinema
The project I am proudest of being a part of is Autism Through Cinema at Queen Mary University. Our podcast is a real treat for me, to be able to talk about films I love through an artistic lens, which this year included Peter Greenaway’s The Falls (1980). We have a conference coming up on 13th and 14th January, at which I am presenting a paper on Sandy Mackendrick’s 1952 masterpiece Mandy within an autistic framework which I will no doubt reflect on in a future newsletter.
You can listen to our episode on The Falls here: