EFP 71: Professor Sir Christopher Frayling on The Hollywood History of Art

On this 20th and final episode of 2025, host Dr Pasquale Iannone is joined by Professor Sir Christopher Frayling. Christopher is an internationally renowned educationalist, historian and broadcaster who spent more than 35 years at London’s Royal College of Art as Professor of Cultural History and then as Rector. Across more than five decades, Christopher has published widely on film, literature and the arts with volumes exploring everything from the Middle Ages to the Gothic. He is as a pioneer in the academic study of the Spaghetti Western, with publications such as his 1981 book on the subject and his definitive biography of director Sergio Leone (2000).Christopher tells Pasquale about his latest book The Hollywood History of Art (2025), a mammoth, lavishly illustrated volume from Reel Art Press which explores the ways in which Hollywood cinema has approached the lives (and works) of artists. Christopher explains how the idea for the book came about and how he developed the structure. Discussion then turns to specific films such as Rembrandt (1936), Lust for Life (1956), The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965), Love is the Devil (1998) and Frida (2002).