Stereoactive Movie Club
by Stereoactive Media
Alicia, Mia, Stephen, and Jeremiah – along with special guests – are discussing some of the greatest movies ever made. Who says? Sight And Sound magazine says. Every ten years, since 1952, the publication has surveyed critics and directors to determine which films, according to those surveyed, might be considered the best. The five film-loving friends take turns picking movies that have appeared on the list and then dig into them with an eye on their cultural impact, how they stand up today, and just whether they’re actually as good as all those critics and directors say they are.
Episodes
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Stereoactive Movie Club Trailer
The Stereoactive Movie Club is discussing some of the greatest movies ever made. Who says? Sight and Sound magazine says. Every ten years, since 1952, Sight and Sound has surveyed critics and directors to determine which films, according to those surveyed, might be considered the best. The five...
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Ep 6.5 // Beau Travail
It’s Jeremiah’s Round 6 Pick: Beau Travail, the 1999 film directed by Clair Denis. Beau Travail, which is something of a loose adaptation of Herman Melville’s Billy Budd, was commissioned by a European culture channel Arte as a film about foreignness. It updates the classic novella to feature...
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Ep 6.4 // Wild Strawberries
It’s Alicia’s Round 6 Pick: Wild Strawberries, the 1957 film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. Wild Strawberries was Ingmar Bergman’s 18th feature film in eleven years. It was written while he was in a hospital for stress and gastric issues, then quickly produced as his personal life was in...
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Ep 6.3 // Modern Times
It’s Stephen’s Round 6 Pick: Modern Times, the 1936 film starring, written, and directed by Charlie Chaplin. Modern Times marked at least the 60th appearance of Charlie Chaplin in a film as the Little Tramp – and depending on whether you think the barber character in The Great Dictator is also…
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Ep 6.2 // Battleship Potemkin
It’s Mia’s Round 6 Pick: Battleship Potemkin, the 1925 film directed by Sergei Eisenstein. Divided into 5 acts, Battleship Potemkin, in commemoration of the 20th Anniversary of what is known as the First Russian Revolution of 1905, tells the story of a mutiny aboard the titular Russian naval…
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Ep 6.1 // Round 6 Picks!
In our next batch of movies, we'll be traveling from the Soviet Union to Florida with stops in Sweden, Hollywood, and Djibouti along the way... So, listen up as we reveal our picks for what we’ll be watching in Round 6 of the podcast! Also, we introduce a special guest who’ll be joining us for…
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Ep 5.7 // Boyhood w/ Max Goransson
It’s Jeremiah’s Round 5 Bonus Pick: Boyhood, the 2014 film directed by Richard Linklater. Boyhood tells the story of a young boy, his slightly older sister, their divorced parents, and the people who come in and out of their lives over the course of 12 years, from the time the boy is 6 until he’s...
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Ep 5.6 // Apocalypse Now
It’s Alicia’s 5th pick: Apocalypse Now, the 1979 film directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Coppola’s fellow New Hollywood/Movie Brat filmmaker, John Milius first conceived of adapting ‘Heart of Darkness’ as a Vietnam War movie sometime in the late ‘60s. The original plan was for Milius to write,...
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Ep 5.5 // Raging Bull
It’s Lora’s 5th pick: Raging Bull, the 1980 film directed by Martin Scorsese. The film is a character study of boxer Jake LaMotta, who himself is presented as questionable in character but pure in talent. It is considered one of the best films of its decade and quickly became legendary for…
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Ep 5.4 // Pierrot le Fou
It’s Stephen’s 5th pick: Pierrot le Fou, the 1965 film directed by Jean-Luc Godard. Godard himself said the film was "connected with the violence and loneliness that lie so close to happiness today. It's very much a film about France." And with its fourth wall breaks, often jarring editing style,...
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Special Episode // The Sight And Sound 2022 Polls Revealed!
The 2022 edition of Sight And Sounds magazine’s polls of the “greatest films ever made” were released last week, and since our entire podcast is about movies that have been on these decennially updated lists, we got together to share our reactions to the new ones. Here is the top 10, as decided…
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Ep 5.3 // The Grapes of Wrath
It’s Mia’s 5th pick: The Grapes of Wrath, the 1940 film directed by John Ford. The film is based on John Steinbeck’s Pulitzer-prize winning novel, which was also the best-selling novel of that year and was cited as a major part of the basis on which Steinbeck was awarded a Nobel Prize for...
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Ep 5.2 // Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
It’s Jeremiah’s 5th pick: Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, the 1927 film directed by F.W. Murnau. Based on a 1917 short story called “The Excursion to Tilsit,’ written by Hermann Sudermann, the film was Murnau’s first in the United States, after he was brought over from Germany by William Fox to…
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Ep 5.1 // Round 5 Picks!
Listen up as we reveal our picks for what we’ll be watching in Round 5 of the podcast! Spoiler alert: we have two bonus picks this time around, so we’ll be watching 7 films total. And, as referenced in the episode, here is the list of all movies released after 1980 that appeared in the top 100 of...
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Ep 4.6 // Pather Panchali
It’s Lora’s 4th pick: Pather Panchali, the 1955 film directed by Satyajit Ray. Pather Panchali, which translates as “Song of the Little Road,” is based on the 1929 novel of the same name, which is the semi-autobiographical work of author Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay. Satyajit Ray was a graphic...
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Ep 4.5 // Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
It’s Stephen’s 4th pick: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, the 1964 film directed by Stanley Kubrick. Often cited as one of the best comedy films of all time – as well as simply one of the best films generally – this was Kubrick’s follow-up to Lolita, released...
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Ep 4.4 // Persona
It’s Mia’s 4th pick: Persona, the 1966 film directed by Ingmar Bergman. Persona is a film that is open to much interpretation about its themes, meaning, and maybe even its plot. In the most basic way, it’s the story of a well known Swedish actress who suffers an emotional shutdown and is put in a...
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Ep 4.3 // The Rules of the Game
It’s Jeremiah’s 4th pick: The Rules of the Game, the 1939 film directed by Jean Renoir. ‘The Rules of the Game’ was the most expensive film ever made in France at the time of its production and came on the heels of a series of successful films that had made Renoir one of the top French directors....
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Ep 4.2 // Hiroshima Mon Amour
It’s Alicia’s 4th pick: Hiroshima Mon Amour, the 1959 film directed by Alain Resnais. With ‘Hiroshima Mon Amour,’ Resnais and screenwriter Marguerite Duras, explore the intersection where tragedy and trauma meet history and memory. The film was released on May 8, 1959 at the Cannes Film Festival,...
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Ep 4.1 // Round 4 Picks!
Listen up as we reveal our picks for what we’ll be watching in Round 4 of the podcast! Spoiler alert: it’s our most international round yet! Produced by Stereoactive Media
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Ep 3.6 // Singin’ in the Rain
Singin’ in the Rain was a product of MGM’s so-called “Freed Unit,” named for the person who headed it -- Arthur Freed. Before this film, Freed worked on many of the best known musicals, both historically and of their respective days: The Wizard of Oz, Babes in Arms, Meet Me in St. Louis, Ziegfeld...
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Ep 3.5 // The Godfather Part II
It’s Mia’s 3rd pick: The Godfather Part II, the 1974 film directed by Francis Ford Coppola The Godfather Part II both continues the story begun in the first film and also deepens it by depicting what came before. We watch as Al Pacino’s Michael Corleone continues in the family business, building...
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Ep 3.4 // 8 ½
It’s Jeremiah’s 3rd pick: 8 ½, the 1963 film directed by Federico Fellini. 8 ½ was Fellini’s feature film follow-up to 1960s La Dolce Vita – with a segment for an anthology film produced in the interim. La Dolce Vita had been something of an international sensation when it came out, so perhaps…
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Ep 3.3 // Lawrence of Arabia w/ Matt
It’s Alicia's 3rd pick: ‘Lawrence of Arabia,’ the 1962 film directed by David Lean. The film is adapted from the autobiographical account of T. E. Lawrence, ‘Seven Pillars of Wisdom,’ which was first published in 1926 and told the story of his involvement with the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman...
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Ep 3.2 // Vertigo
It’s Lora’s 3rd pick: ‘Vertigo,’ the 1958 film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Considered by an increasing number of people to be the director’s masterpiece, the film relies on an against-type performance by Jimmy Stewart and a complex, multi-faceted performance by Kim Novak. It first appeared on…
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Ep 3.1 // Round 2 Wrap Up / Round 3 Picks
It’s the end of Round 2 of the Stereoactive Media Movie Club podcast! We’re revisiting the films we’ve discussed in the last 6 episodes and we’re picking our next round of movies to watch and discuss! Produced by Stereoactive Media
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Ep 2.7 // The Godfather
It’s Mia’s 2nd pick: 'The Godfather,’ the 1972 film directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Foundational to modern cinema that’s followed in its footsteps and culturally influential beyond the scope of most movies, it’s often cited as one of the greatest films ever made. In the 2002 Sight & Sound...
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Ep 2.6 // Mirror
It’s Jeremiah’s 2nd pick: ‘Mirror,’ the 1975 film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. Nonlinear in structure it features moments from the central character’s life, both as a young boy and as a father, interspersed with bits of newsreel footage, other memories, and poetic passages. It broke into the top...
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Ep 2.5 // L’avventura
It’s Alicia’s 2nd pick: ‘L’avventura,’ the 1960 film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni. It’s departure from until-then standard plotting was something of a breakthrough and, along with other films by like-minded filmmakers of the time, helped to influence films – and style – to come. It was…
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Ep 2.4 // Bicycle Thieves
It’s Lora’s 2nd pick: ‘Bicycle Thieves,’ the 1948 film directed by Vittorio De Sica. It’s an emblematic example of the neorealist movement that developed in Italy after World War II, depicting the lives of everyday people struggling to get by, and mostly cast with non-professional actors. It was...
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Ep 2.3 // The General
It’s Stephen’s 2nd pick: ‘The General,’ the 1926 film directed by Buster Keaton and Clyde Bruckman – and of course also starring Buster Keaton. It’s an action comedy set during the Civil War and largely centered around a stolen train and plenty of stunt work and it’s been on Sight & Sound...
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Ep 2.2 // The Searchers w/ JPK
Very special guest JPK joins us with his pick: ‘The Searchers,’ the 1956 film directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne and Jeffrey Hunter. It’s a western that put new spins on some of the genre tropes that Ford himself helped to establish and it’s been on Sight & Sound magazine’s decennial...
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Ep 2.1 // Round 1 Wrap Up / Round 2 Picks
It’s the end of Round 1 of the Stereaoctive Media Movie Club podcast! We’re revisiting the films we’ve discussed in the last 5 episodes and addressing comments from listeners and members of the Facebook group. Also, we’re picking our next round of movies to watch and discuss – but this time...
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Ep 1.6 // Rashomon
It’s Jeremiah’s pick… ‘Rashomon,’ the 1950 film by Akira Kurosawa, the premise of which has been emulated often over the decades. The film has appeared twice on Sight & Sound magazine’s decennial poll of the “greatest films” as voted on by directors – #10 in 1992 and #9 in 2002. 00:00 - Intro +…
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Ep 1.5 // Tokyo Story
It’s Alicia’s pick… Released in 1953 and very loosely based on a 1937 American film called ‘Make Way for Tomorrow,’ ‘Tokyo Story,’ follows a retired couple living in a town in the southern part of Japan as they visit their grown children, who mostly live in Tokyo. Over the course of the film, the...
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Ep 1.4 // Citizen Kane
It’s Lora’s pick… ‘Citizen Kane,’ the 1941 debut film by Orson Welles. Often referred to as the greatest film ever made, it’s possibly Welles’ greatest achievement, but the controversy surrounding it (mainly stirred up by William Randolph Hearst, the main target of the film’s narrative) also led…
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Ep 1.3 // The Magnificent Ambersons
It’s Stephen’s pick… Released in 1942 and directed by Orson Welles, ‘The Magnificent Ambersons’ depicts a wealthy midwestern family at the end of the 1800s and start of the 1900s. Based on the 1918 novel by Booth Tarkington, its prologue sets the Ambersons up as either the toast of the town or...
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Ep 1.2 // The Passion of Joan of Arc
For our first full-fledged movie chat is about Mia’s pick… ‘The Passion of Joan of Arc.’ Directed by Carl Dreyer, the movie depicts the final days of Joan of Arc, as she was held captive by the English and stands trial at the hands of clerics who doubt her claims of being an agent of God. In it,...
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Ep 1.1 // Introductions & Round 1 Movie Draft
Welcome to a new movie podcast featuring 5 friends leading discussions on movies. In our inaugural episode, we discuss the decennial Sight & Sound poll, then each pick a movie that’s appeared on the list to watch in future episodes. So, listen along to find out which movies we’ll be watching…
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COMING SOON!
5 person discussions on films, starting with those on the decennial movie polls put out by Sight & Sound magazine.
About this show
Alicia, Mia, Stephen, and Jeremiah – along with special guests – are discussing some of the greatest movies ever made. Who says? Sight And Sound magazine says. Every ten years, since 1952, the publication has surveyed critics and directors to determine which films, according to those surveyed, might be considered the best. The five film-loving friends take turns picking movies that have appeared on the list and then dig into them with an eye on their cultural impact, how they stand up today, and just whether they’re actually as good as all those critics and directors say they are.
Hosted by
Stereoactive Media