All Episodes
Classic Films - Reviews and Reflections with Stuart Fernie — 139 episodes
Episode 139: Characters and themes in “Sicario” (2015)
Episode 138: Reflections on « Dracula entre l’amour et la mort », the 2006 musical staged in Quebec
Episode 137: Reflections on “The Invention of Lying”
Episode 136: Characters and themes in “The Professionals”
Episode 135: Characters and themes in “Emperor of the North”
Episode 134: Characters and themes in “Forrest Gump”
Episode 133: Characters and themes in “Casablanca”
Episode 132: Characters and themes in “The Big Red One”
Episode 131: The arts, their purpose and their effect
Episode 130: The appeal of the James Bond films and thoughts on the portrayal of Bond
Episode 129: Reflections on “Being There” (1979)
Episode 128: Reflections on “The Sand Pebbles” (1966)
Episode 127: Reflections on “Nuremberg” (2025) and lessons that can be learned from it.
Episode 126: Reflections on characters and themes in “Prime Cut”
Episode 125: Characters and themes in David Lean’s “Hobson’s Choice”
Episode 124: Reflections on characters and themes in The Wages of Fear (1953) - amended and updated.
Episode 123: Reflections on characters and themes in “The Offence” (1973)
Episode 122 Reflections on Danny Boyle’s “Trainspotting”.
Episode 121: Brief reflections on Sidney Pollack’s “Three Days of the Condor”
Episode 120: Brief reflections on themes and characters in “Spotlight”
Episode 119: Brief reflections on “Good Night and Good Luck”
Episode 118: Reflections on the 2024 French film version of “The Count of Monte Cristo”
Episode 117: Advice and questions to help in the analysis or discussion of films, and in producing an essay.
Episode 116: Reflections on characters and themes in “Midnight Express”
Episode 115: Reflections on the Jason Bourne films and the nature of the conflict between Jason Bourne and the C.I.A.
Episode 114: Advocating arts and humanities
Episode 113: Reflections on Michael Cimino’s “Heaven’s Gate”.
Episode 112: Reflections on characters and themes in “Civil War”
Episode 111 : Reflections on “The Ghost and Mrs Muir” (1947)
Episode 110: Reflections on characters and themes in “Ad Astra”.
Episode 109: Reflections on duality in 19th century literature, its philosophical forebears and its successors.
Episode 108: Discussion of the use of humour in drama.
Reflections on characters and themes in “Living” (2022), starring Bill Nighy
Reflections on characters and themes in “Oui, mais…” (Yes, but…) (2001) directed by Yves Lavandier.
Brief reflections on characters and themes in John Boorman’s “Hell in the Pacific” (1968).
Reflections on characters and themes in John Boorman’s “Point Blank”, focusing on the nature of the main character, Walker.
Brief reflections on characters and themes in “Vera Cruz”, directed by Robert Aldrich, starring Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster.
Brief reflections on “Dr Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” and thoughts on other modern action/adventure films.
My interpretation of the phrase “Il faut cultiver notre jardin”.
Episode 100: Reflections on characters and themes in Gabriel Axel’s “Babette’s Feast” based on the short story by Karen Blixen.
Episode 99: Brief reflections on the principal characters and broad themes in Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Drive My Car”.
Episode 98: Reflections on characters and existential themes in Matt Reeves’ “The Batman”
Episode 97: Some personal thoughts on Christianity, religion and fate.
Episode 96: Some thoughts on the place of acting in society and personal identity
Episode 95: Reflections on characters and themes in “The Banshees of Inisherin”
Episode 94: Reflections on characters and themes in “Full Metal Jacket”
Episode 93: Reflections on “Jojo Rabbit” (2019)
Episode 92: Reflections on characters and themes in “We’re no Angels” (1955)
Episode 91: Reflections on characters and themes in “Le Mans ‘66” (“Ford versus Ferrari”).
Episode 90: Reflections on characters and themes in “The Magnificent Seven” (1960).
Episode 89: Reflections on characters and themes in “The Last Samurai”.
Episode 88: Reflections on characters and themes in “The Bishop’s Wife” (1947).
Episode 87: Reflections on characters and themes in “The Bridge at Remagen”.
Episode 86: Reflections on characters and themes in “The Long Good Friday”.
Episode 85: Reflections on characters and themes in “It’s a Wonderful Life”.
Episode 84: Reflections on characters and themes in “Mr Holmes”.
Episode 83: Reflections on the Planet of the Apes reboot trilogy.
Episode 82: Reflections on John Huston’s “The African Queen”.
Episode 81: Reflections on Luc Besson’s “Angel-A”.
Episode 16: Brief reflections on “Mr Holland’s Opus”, focusing on the principal character Glenn Holland.
Episode 80: Reflections on John Frankenheimer’s “The Train”.
Episode 79: Reflections on films about teaching.
Episode 78: Reflections on characters and themes in Clouzot’s “Le Corbeau”.
Episode 77: Reflections on characters and themes in Clouzot’s “Quai des Orfèvres”.
Episode 76: Reflections on characters and themes in “Le Salaire de la Peur” (The Wages of Fear).
Episode 75: Multimedia – a narrowing of horizons?
Episode 74: Reflections on characters and themes in “Inherit the Wind” (1960).
Episode 73: Reflections on themes and issues in “Molière” (2007)
Episode 72: Steve McQueen and reflections on several of his films.
Episode 71: Characters and themes in “Prometheus”
Episode 70: Characters and themes in “Chinatown” (1973)
Episode 69: Reflections on ideas, thoughts and themes in Charles Baudelaire’s “Les Fleurs du Mal”.
Episode 68: Reflections on “The League of Gentlemen” (1960)
Episode 67: Reflections on “In the heat of the night”
Episode 66: Reflections on characters and themes in “Soylent Green”
Episode 65: Reflections on “Bad Day at Black Rock” (1954)
Episode 64: Reflections on Michael Crichton’s “The First Great Train Robbery”.
Episode 63: Reflections on the Dreyfus Affair
Episode 62: Reflections on characters and themes in Ingmar Bergman’s “Persona”.
Episode 61: Reflections on characters and themes in Ingmar Bergman’s “The Seventh Seal”
Episode 60: Discussion and analysis of characters and themes in “A Clockwork Orange”.
Episode 59: Discussion of Charles Foster Kane and themes in “Citizen Kane”.
Episode 58: Discussion and analysis of characters and themes in Todd Phillips’ “Joker”.
Episode 57: Discussion and analysis of characters and themes in Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”.
Episode 56: Discussion and analysis of a selection of early Luc Besson films.
Episode 55: Characters and themes in “Road to Perdition” directed by Sam Mendes.
Episode 54: Characters and themes in Sidney Lumet’s “The Verdict”.
Episode 53: Characters and themes in Stanley Kramer’s “Judgment at Nuremberg”.
Episode 52: Characters and themes in Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now”.
Episode 51: Characters and themes in Kieslowski’s Three Colours Trilogy.
Episode 50: Characters and themes in “Spartacus” (1960).
Episode 49: Characters and themes in “Nightcrawler”.
Episode 48: Characters and themes in “Seven Samurai”.
Episode 47: Characters and themes in “La Belle et la Bête” (1946)
Episode 46: Characters and themes in “The Outlaw Josey Wales”.
Episode 45: Characters and themes in “Highlander”.
Episode 44: Characters and themes in “Gattaca”.
Episode 43: Characters and themes in “Blade Runner”.
Episode 42: comparison of Valjean and Javert from “Les Misérables”
Episode 41: Discussion and analysis of “The Adventures of Robin Hood” (1938)
Episode 40: Discussion of characters and themes in Jean-Jacques Annaud’s film of “The Name of the Rose”.
Episode 39: Discussion of characters and themes in Norman Jewison’s “Rollerball”.
Episode 38: Discussion of characters and themes in Roland Joffé’s “The Mission”.
Episode 37: Discussion of characters and themes in Sam Peckinpah’s “The Wild Bunch”.
Episode 36: Discussion of characters and themes in “Unforgiven”.
Episode 35: Discussion of characters and themes in “The Bridge on the River Kwai”.
Episode 34: Discussion of characters and themes in “Gran Torino”.
Episode 33: Reflections on characters and themes in the 1975 film version of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”.
Episode 32: Reflections on characters and themes in the 1975 film version of “The Man Who Would Be King”.
Episode 31: Reflections on characters and themes in the 1954 film version of “An Inspector Calls”.
Episode 30: Public Eye discussion and analysis
Episode 29: Callan discussion and analysis
Episode 28: Sweet Smell of Success discussion and analysis
Episode 27: Discussion of A Tale of Two Cities (1958)
Episode 26: Science-Fiction films and their history, scope and purpose.
Episode 25: Reflections on characters and themes in “Untouchable”
Episode 24: Reflections on characters and themes in “Five Easy Pieces”
Episode 23: Reflections on characters and themes in “No Country For Old Men”
Episode 22: Reflections on characters and themes in Kevin Costner’s “Dances With Wolves”.
Episode 21 Reflections on “Night Moves” as a film noir and Harry Moseby as an existential hero.
Episode 20: Reflections on characters and themes in “Lonely are the Brave” (1960)
Episode 19: Reflections on characters and themes in “The Third Man”
Episode 18: Reflections on the nature of Film Noir with reference to Double Indemnity, The Maltese Falcon and Dirty Harry
Episode 17: Reflections on characters and themes in “Finding Forrester” (2000)
Episode 15: Reflections on characters and themes in “Dead Poets Society”
Episode 14: Reflections on characters and themes in “Cool Hand Luke”
Episode 13: Reflections on characters and themes in “Seven Days in May”
Episode 12: Reflections on characters and themes in “Les Misérables”
Episode 11: Reflections on characters and themes in “Don Quixote” and their relevance today
Episode 10: Reflections on characters and themes in “The Hustler”
Episode 9: Reflections on characters and themes in “The Hill”
Episode 8: Reflections on characters and themes in “Collateral”
Episode 7: Reflections on characters and themes in “The Manchurian Candidate” (1962)
Episode 6: Reflections on characters and themes in “The Wild Bunch”
Episode 5: Reflections on characters and themes in “Jeremiah Johnson”
Episode 4: Reflections on characters and themes in Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources
Episode 1: Reflections on characters and themes in “The Deer Hunter”.
Episode 3: Reflections on characters and themes in The Prisoner (1967 TV series)
Episode 2: Reflections on characters and themes in “The Searchers”.