This special episode of The Cinematologists is a contribution to the Students on Screen project convened by Dr Kay Calver and Dr Bethan Michael-Fox, to coincide with a special issue of Open Screens they have edited, which explores screen representations of students across a plethora of Global screen media forms.

On behalf of The Cinematologists, Neil contributed a paper - drawing from his decade-old doctoral work - on representations of film students in anglophone cinema, and put together this episode, which is both a dissemination of and critical artefact of, the special issue.

For this episode Neil talks to Kay and Beth about the Students on Screen project, as conveners and issue editors, as well as three contributors to the special collection. The contributors are Dr Sharon Coleclough, Dr Devaleena Kundu and Dr Oli Belas. The critical focus of all the conversations includes critical regard for the spaces where representations of students in fiction and non-fiction screen spaces can improve, address, or further address gaps in lived experience.

Elsewhere in the episode, Neil and Dario discuss representations of students on screen, Neil’s paper, and in an extended analysis, a film that Neil doesn’t cover in his piece, but is worthy of discussion, 2014’s The Rewrite, directed by Marc Lawrence and starring Hugh Grant and Marisa Tomei.

For more information on the Students on Screen project, click the link above, and for more information, on the journal Open Screens, click here.

———

Visit our Patreon at www.patreon.com/cinematologists

———

You can listen to The Cinematologists for free, wherever you listen to podcasts: click here to follow.

We really appreciate any reviews you might write (please send us what you have written and we’ll mention it) and sharing on Social Media is the lifeblood of the podcast, so please do that if you enjoy the show.

———

Music Credits:

‘Theme from The Cinematologists’

Written and produced by Gwenno Saunders. Mixed by Rhys Edwards. Drums, bass & guitar by Rhys Edwards. All synths by Gwenno Saunders. Published by Downtown Music Publishing.

For the final [main] episode of this season, the 21st, we are delighted to welcome writer and podcaster John Bleasdale (Writers on Film) to the show, to discuss his excellent book on Terrence Malick, The Magic Hours: The Films and Hidden Life of Terrence Malick.

Neil talks to John about his approach to research and interview/archive given the glaring lack of a central subject's voice, Malick and John's own relationship to the big themes around philosophy and faith, the power of understanding Malick's later period work anew through the lens of [auto]biography, and the ways that Malick's early work truly shifted American film language.

Elsewhere Neil and Dario discuss Malick's work in thematic/aesthetic periods, how Malick used formal experimentation to explore biographical trauma and regret in his most divisive work, approaching famous people, and how books and podcasts provide valuable routes into engagement with film and cinema, to understanding wider contexts, particularly for challenging and envelope-pushing work.

———

Visit our Patreon at www.patreon.com/cinematologists

———

You can listen to The Cinematologists for free, wherever you listen to podcasts: click here to follow.

We really appreciate any reviews you might write (please send us what you have written and we’ll mention it) and sharing on Social Media is the lifeblood of the podcast, so please do that if you enjoy the show.

———

Music Credits:

‘Theme from The Cinematologists’

Written and produced by Gwenno Saunders. Mixed by Rhys Edwards. Drums, bass & guitar by Rhys Edwards. All synths by Gwenno Saunders. Published by Downtown Music Publishing.

It is an honour to welcome filmmaker Alex Ross Perry to discuss his magisterial music film Pavements, about the band Pavement, as it arrives on MUBI on July 11th 2025. We also took the opportunity to discuss his 3hr video essay love letter to video stores, Videoheaven, which is available to screen direct from Cinema Conservancy.

For a deeper insight into our thoughts on the film, check out Neil and Dario's reflections from the second 2024 London Film Festival episode, the festival where Pavements had its UK premiere. To book Videoheaven, email Andrew@conservecinema.org.

In the main conversation, Neil talks to director Alex Ross Perry about the making of Pavements, getting into the weeds on the thought processes and collaborations (editor, actors, band) required to make such a complex film, but one that captures Alex's intention to make a cinematic work that captures the musical and cultural spirit of the band and music at the heart of the story.

In Dario and Neil's bit, they take the meta-ness even further by discussing the process of talking on the podcast with Alex about the film as well as the challenges of communicating what makes something 'good' particularly when the form seems to undercut straight storytelling, and sincerity, throughout. Something that works due to the band's own history with those contexts.

———

Visit our Patreon at www.patreon.com/cinematologists

———

You can listen to The Cinematologists for free, wherever you listen to podcasts: click here to follow.

We really appreciate any reviews you might write (please send us what you have written and we’ll mention it) and sharing on Social Media is the lifeblood of the podcast, so please do that if you enjoy the show.

———

Music Credits:

‘Theme from The Cinematologists’

Written and produced by Gwenno Saunders. Mixed by Rhys Edwards. Drums, bass & guitar by Rhys Edwards. All synths by Gwenno Saunders. Published by Downtown Music Publishing.