Jason Solomons
April 17, 2008 11:00 AM
Unhappy together... Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell in In Bruges As a film critic, I spend most of my life in the cinema. I used to go to the theatre quite a bit too, but these days, I can't stand it. I can hardly look at the stage, the shouting, the wobbly sets, the crude lighting, the bad accents. Actually, I don't even know where to look: there are no close-ups, no cuts, no angles. Film is so much better than theatre, isn't it? Good. Glad that's got you going. It's something I ask my guest this week, Martin
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April 10, 2008 12:00 PM
This week I've got an extended interview with Mike Leigh special about his long career and latest movie Happy-Go-Lucky
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April 3, 2008 12:30 PM
Daniele Luchetti and Darius Khondji talk about their craft and I'm taking a look at Funny Games and Son of Rambow with Xan Brooks
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March 20, 2008 1:45 PM
This week Atonement director Joe Wright and jazz musician Guy Barker share their memories of the Oscar-winning film-maker with me
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February 25, 2008 8:45 AM
It's a night for glitz and glamour, tears and tantrums ... expect the odd fanfare amid our searing analysis of the night
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February 21, 2008 1:45 PM
This week I've got the fine Swedish actor and star of WAZ. Plus: The Other Boleyn Girl director Justin Chadwick and a report on the nascent Dublin film festival
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February 14, 2008 1:15 PM
I talk to Mark Herbert, producer of the Bafta-winning This Is England and survey the Vanity Fair exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery
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February 7, 2008 12:45 PM
This week on the podcast I've got Ciaran Hinds on starring with Daniel Day Lewis and a preview of Britain's top film awards this weekend
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February 4, 2008 9:23 AM
The latest podcast for the Jewish community
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January 31, 2008 1:55 PM
This week on the podcast I've got the director of Things We Lost in the Fire and the star of Cannes winner 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days
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January 24, 2008 1:00 PM
This week the star of Man in the Chair talks about his remarkable career and late flowering
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January 10, 2008 1:44 PM
This week I've got Kelly Macdonald on going to Texas with the Coen brothers and Wim Wenders on road movies, Cuba and football
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January 3, 2008 2:21 PM
Film Weekly predicts a bumper 2008 and meets Hilary Swank. What are you looking forward to?
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December 27, 2007 1:00 PM
We chat with Lord Attenborough and look back on the guilty pleasures and turkeys of the year. What were your low points of 2007?
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December 20, 2007 11:46 AM
This week I look back at the highlights of the year in film with help from a panel of experts. What were your personal favourites?
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December 17, 2007 12:01 AM
The first edition of a new podcast for the Jewish community
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December 13, 2007 12:00 PM
This week I meet the star of Bee Movie and the director of fascinating new documentary, My Kid Could Paint That
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December 6, 2007 3:30 PM
This week I've got the director of The Killing of John Lennon and I meet Donal MacIntyre to talk about his acclaimed new film A Very British Gangster
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November 22, 2007 12:57 PM
This week I meet Kasi Lemmons, director of the startling Talk to Me, about African American 'shock jock' Petey Green. Could a white man have told this tale?
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November 15, 2007 12:30 PM
This week I meet Malcolm McDowell, who talks about his life and long career as a rebel. Plus: Mark Linfield, director of fabulous new nature doc Earth
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November 8, 2007 12:00 PM
This week I've got an exclusive, lively interview with the great actor, centring on his life and career from Cry Freedom to new film American Gangster.
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November 1, 2007 1:20 PM
In the last of our London film festival coverage, I meet David Lynch, John Cusack and Funny Games' young stars, Brady Corbet and Michael Pitt.
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October 25, 2007 12:13 PM
This week I bring you more buzz from the LFF, including an interview with Steve Buscemi, who talks about his new film with Sienna Miller.
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October 18, 2007 11:24 AM
This week I'm firmly ensconced at the London film festival, and I've got interviews with David Cronenberg, Vincent Cassel and Matthew Vaughn.
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October 11, 2007 11:01 AM
This week I ask an Austrian what his grandparents did in the war, enquire why Asif Kapadia took so long to make another movie and wonder at the technical wizardry behind Ratatouille.
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October 4, 2007 1:52 PM
This week I've got Control stars Samantha Morton and Sam Riley. Plus: And When Did You Last See Your Father director Anand Tucker.
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September 27, 2007 1:16 PM
This week, I meet Kenny, an Aussie toilet attendant whose philosophy is literally the tao of poo. Plus Iain Glenn and Rocket Science director Jeffrey Blitz.
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September 20, 2007 12:29 PM
On this week's show I've been talking to the star of new Australian comedy Clubland and Rolf de Heer, director of the extraordinary Ten Canoes.
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September 13, 2007 11:33 AM
This week I meet the French superstar and the footballers behind documentary In the Hands of the Gods, about keepy-uppy and Maradona.
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September 6, 2007 11:07 AM
In this festival special, I meet the doomed lovers in Woody Allen's new film, and Ken Loach's scorching new star Kierston Wareing.
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August 30, 2007 1:00 PM
This week's guest is due an Academy Award nod for his performance in Billy Ray's spy thriller. Who else will be clutching the gongs in LA next March?
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August 23, 2007 1:33 PM
This week I meet Ryan Phillippe, a teen idol now growing up in great new thriller Breach, and the criminally under-rated British actor Steven Mackintosh.
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August 16, 2007 1:44 PM
This week I've been talking to Stockard Channing, John Waters and Jamie Bell, who's excellent in this year's festival opener, Hallam Foe.
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August 9, 2007 1:18 PM
A stunning moment in the forthcoming adaptation of Ian McEwan's novel could be the best single shot in British cinema. Can you think of any challengers?
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July 26, 2007 12:11 PM
I've been getting choked up watching Maggie Gyllenhaal in Sherrybaby and a moving doc about Simon Wiesenthal. What makes you cry in the movies?
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July 19, 2007 3:16 PM
This week we meet Marc Shaiman, the man behind the new version of Hairspray, and the producer of a star-filled new Marlon Brando documentary.
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July 12, 2007 1:37 PM
This week I dive into the terrifying war zone of Haiti's Cite Soleil with filmmaker Asger Leth and preview a summer of British film classics.
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July 5, 2007 2:59 PM
This week I talk hobbits, bikes and wigs with Billy Boyd, the Scots actor cheering on The Flying Scotsman, and preview the Cambridge Film Festival.
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June 28, 2007 4:37 PM
We're back! And, boy, we've been busy, with 1000 films to see before you die, French glamour in Paris je t'aime, and the verdict on the Dixie Chicks' new flick.
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May 25, 2007 5:12 PM
This week I shared a laugh with Malcolm McDowell and Javier Bardem, and got to hear Sam Riley's insights into Pete Doherty. Oh, and I saw the odd film or two...
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May 18, 2007 3:00 PM
This week I meet up with Chloë Sevigny and Jake Gyllenhaal in sunny Cannes to talk about the serial-killer thriller Zodiac.
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May 11, 2007 1:17 PM
This week I've been chatting to Isabella Rossellini, comics Mitchell and Webb and the director of Oxbridge boxing documentary Blue Blood.
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May 3, 2007 10:48 AM
This week's show reviews Spider-Man 3, interviews director Mike Figgis and talks to Lorraine Stanley, star of low-budget British thriller London to Brighton.
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April 27, 2007 9:43 AM
This week's show is devoted to the film of the year: Shane Meadow's brilliant This Is England.
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April 19, 2007 12:21 PM
This week we talk to Rosamund Pike, currently starring in Fracture, and the team behind indie breakout hit Half Nelson.
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April 12, 2007 12:46 PM
I hit the road to deliver our first outside broadcast from the new BFI Southbank.
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April 5, 2007 6:17 PM
I journey into the sublime with Danny Boyle and his beautiful British sci-fi thriller, Sunshine.
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March 29, 2007 4:56 PM
This week, we have Mira Nair on her fine new film The Namesake, I review Rachid Bouchareb's Days of Glory, and author Tim Adler talks about Hollywood and the mob.
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March 23, 2007 1:23 PM
Turns out Carmen Electra's not very up on her film history, but the stellar Phillip Noyce is simply charming.
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March 15, 2007 2:28 PM
In this week's podcast, David Arnold, David Stoner and Caspar Llewellyn-Smith discuss Observer Music Monthly's list of the 50 Greatest Soundtracks.
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October 6, 2006 3:25 PM
For me, it's Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait, but do you think there's a better movie about the beautiful game out there?
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Ulf Wolf: A view of San Gabriel Valley at night, from La Crescenta, CA
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Fire seems to be something of a motif in Ed Zealous tracks. Little wonder, considering their original rehearsal space burned to the ground. Who isn't a sucker for a Pretty Face?
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Usually I'd be at home wondering if Loose Women is part of a government plot to get everyone into work but currently, I'm in Death Valley. En route between San Francisco and Las Vegas, the stop-off is part of a tour that I'm doing in one of those Chevrolet Mountain Crushers. And so far I've been amazed by both the dramatic scenery and how the radio can flash up which artist is currently playing. Just a shame that it's so often "Phil Collins". Fortunately I brought some CDs including a beat-propelled mix that the clubbing site I edit put together. Our virtual friend and brilliant pop blog, Hip Young Gunslinger is currently hosting that one should you care to check it out. It is quite biased towards the work of Paris' Alan Braxe and Fred Falke who – with recent remixes for the Whitest Boy Alive and Ladyhawke – are particularly on form right now.
San Francisco was an amazing city and I particularly enjoyed the Gabriele Basilico exhibition at the SF MoMA (whose photos of the surrounding area helped me get my bearings) plus the Gilbert and George retrospective at the de Young (which reminded me of home). I've heard that Vegas has an underground arts scene but I'm just as enticed by the Liberace Museum and the Neon Boneyard, a space where old strip signs rust in peace. I've also been coerced into O – the current Cirque Du Soleil extravaganza at the Bellagio.
I'll then be returning to Manchester ahead of the Futuresonic Festival where, impressively, this year's line-up includes the RZA, Venetian Snares, MIT, Wire, Flying Lotus and many more contemporary artists that should help chase away those inevitable post-holiday blues.
My tip of the week: When ordering breakfast in the US, choose what you want from the menu and then halve it. It will inevitably come complete with a whole range of other foodstuffs that you never ordered or, for that matter, even knew existed.
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