Watch Next

This film has everything! Beautiful costuming, gorgeous locations, amazing camera work, but also some very adult scenes … and a live octopus. So viewer and listener discretion is advised. This week, Associate Professor of Musicology and Ethnomusicology, Dr. Jacqueline Avila joins us to explore the music and soundscape of the erotic thriller The Handmaiden (Park Chan-wook, 2016). As the film progresses, new layers of secrecy, deeper levels of the house, and new textures in the score, are revealed.  Works Discussed: The Handmaiden (Park Chan-wook, 2016) “My Tamako, My Sookee” by Jo Yeong-wook The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife  by Hokusai

This week I’ll trade you film talk for some book talk. Whisper of the Heart (Yoshifumi Kondo, 1996) puts us in a cozy mood to reminisce and share origin stories. Antiquarian bookseller, and owner of Livra Books, Moctezuma Seth Gonzalez, talks about his quest to learn more about the people and objects around him, and the stories they carry. It is a story of mysterious jars of black peaches, competing with Turkish booksellers, and reading Descartes at 14. Works Discussed: Whisper of the Heart (Yoshifumi Kondo, 1996)

When authenticity is marketed like a brand and “reality” is performed for the camera, LSD 2 asks: what happens when we can’t trust what we see? Replicating the visual language of news broadcasts, reality TV, and social media feeds, Dibakar Banerjee’s LSD 2 drops us into a reality shaped by deepfakes, AI-generated images, and constant surveillance.  In this episode of Watch Next, we’re joined by Dr. Eleni Palis, Associate Professor of Cinema Studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, to unpack these questions and discuss why they feel more urgent than ever. Together, we trace how today’s media landscape echoes ideas filmmakers have been grappling with for decades, from Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane to Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon. And like them, we look at the past to understand our future.  Works Discussed: LSD 2  (Dibakar Banerjee, 2024) Citizen Kane (Orson Wells, 1941) Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa, 1951)

Can we escape our fate? Why do we go back to a story we know well? In this episode of Watch Next, we revisit the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice as depicted in Céline Sciama’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire. Professor of Classics Deborah Beck talks to us about our human failings: doubt, temptation, and how the ancient Greeks told stories to understand ourselves and the world around us. It's an old song, an old tale, that we sing again and again. Works Discussed: Portrait of a lady on fire  (Céline Sciamma, 2019)Ovid’s Metamorphoses.

From the streets of Mumbai to the royal courts of Hindustan, poetry has always found its voice. What do the rap battles of Gully Boy have in common with the royal qawwali mehfil in Mughal-e-Azam? In this episode of Watch Next, we explore the rhythm and rebellion of Gully Boy with the cohosts of the limited-edition podcast PoeTry, Yuki and Koya. Works Discussed: Gully Boy (Zoya Akhtar, 2019) “Azadi” by Divine and Dub Sharma Mughal-e-Azam (K. Asif, 1960)

From the rousing sounds that fuel resistance to the elegiac music that reminds us of our shared humanity, in this episode of Watch Next we take a closer look at the music in Battle of Algiers composed by Gillo Pontecorvo and Ennio Morricone. Even when all else is taken away, you still have your voice. As Dr. David Salkowski, Assistant Professor of Musicology at the University of North Florida, explains, the ululating chorus in The Battle of Algiers carries the sound of victory. Works Discussed: Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966) “Street of Tebes” by Ennio Morricone *Correction: The opera referenced in the episode was incorrectly named Madame Bovary. The correct Puccini opera is Madame Butterfly.

In this episode of Watch Next, we talk with Dr. Brittany Murray, Assistant Professor of French at the University of Tennessee, about the 2014 Bollywood film Queen. The film follows Rani, a 24-year-old homely girl who decides to go on her Paris honeymoon alone after her fiancé calls off the wedding at the last minute. We explore what travel can reveal about ourselves, its potential for self-discovery, and the liberating possibilities of solo journeys. Together, we discuss joy, emancipation, and the meaningful connections we make along the way. Works Discussed: Queen (Vikal Bahl, 2014) “What Do We Do with the Art of Monstrous Men?” (Claire Dederer, 2017)