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A Very Good Year — Film History
A Very Good Year

“Fun City Cinema” hosts Jason Bailey and Mike Hull proudly present “A Very Good Year,” a podcast with a simple premise: each week we invite a guest (filmmakers and actors, critics and historians, comedians and musicians) who loves movies, and ask them to select their favorite year of movies. Some pick a year from their movie-going past; some go deep into film history. Whichever the case, we spend (about) an hour talking about that year: we ask them to share their top five films of the year, and tell us why they love them; we look at the year’s news headlines, award winners, and box office champions; and we finish with a lightning round, where we talk about as many films as possible in as few minutes as possible.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Copyright: © Michael Hull

Latest Episodes:

1946 with Stephanie Zacharek Apr 30, 2023

Show notes

Stephanie Zacharek - film critic for TIME magazine and Pulitzer Prize finalist - has always loved the movies of the 1940s. But 1946 is particularly special to her, because of the potent complexity of theme and emotion in these post-war pictures - and because of one film in particular, which pulls off the very rare A VERY GOOD YEAR hat-trick.

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1989 with John Pierson Apr 23, 2023

Show notes

John Pierson wrote the definitive book about '90s independent cinema, "Spike, Mike, Slackers, & Dykes," and he wrote it from the inside - he was the producer's rep who made the deals that put such legendary pictures as "She's Gotta Have It," "Roger & Me," "Slacker," and "Clerks" on your screens. He brings that insider's perspective to our conversation about the year 1989, a crucial tipping point in the indie scene's move to the mainstream.

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1993 with Karina Longworth Apr 16, 2023

Show notes

Karina Longworth basically invented the film history podcast with her meticulously researched and ridiculously entertaining “You Must Remember This” (if you heard our “Fun City Cinema” show, you can tell we’re fans). She just kicked off her new season, “Erotic ‘90s,” so she was kind enough to pay us a visit and talk about her favorite year of that decade, 1993, and her favorite films of it, erotic and non. All that, plus Jason discovering he and Karina had very similar tween years!

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1978 with Soraya Nadia McDonald Apr 09, 2023

Show notes

Our first (but not last!) Pulitzer Prize finalist guest, Soraya Nadia McDonald brings her experience in multiple fields - sportswriting, theatre criticism, television, AND film - to her rundown of her favorite movies of 1978, a mixture of films she grew up adoring and discovered as a budding cinephile. Plus: A headlines segment full of tragedies, from Jonestown to ‘The Star Wars Holiday Special.’

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1991 with Brian Tallerico Apr 02, 2023

Show notes

We're back with another episode (recorded) live from SXSW in Austin, Texas, where Brian Tallerico - managing editor of RogerEbert.com, president of the Chicago Film Critics Association, and film-and-TV-critic-at-large - talks to us about the magical year of 1991. He was a wide-eyed 16-year-old moviegoer that year, and his favorites of the year (some of which you'll guess, some of which may surprise you) greatly informed his thinking on genre, authorial voice, and film theory. Plus, find out why he wore an armband to school for part of the year!

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1949 with Raquel Stecher Mar 26, 2023

Show notes

Raquel Stecher has spent most of her career writing about classic movies, so it doesn't come as a shock that she's dipped back into the 1940s for her very good year - 1949, to be precise, the year that marked the beginning of the end for the studio system. It was also the golden age of film noir, so her top five is bursting with examples and variations on the genre (as well as a VERY non-noir turn by one of its icons).

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1980 with April Wright Mar 19, 2023

Show notes

April Wright is our favorite kind of documentary filmmaker, because she makes movies about movies. Her latest, “Back to the Drive-In” (out now!) looks at drive-in exhibition in the COVID era - and she picked 1980, a year of great drive-in movies (and movies in general).

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1971 with Charles Bramesco Mar 12, 2023

Show notes

Film critic and author Charles Bramesco had to look at movies in a new and different way while researching and writing his new book, "Colors of Film: The Story of Cinema in 50 Palettes" (out this week) which examines filmmaking through the prism of color. And one of his favorite eras, for that book and as a film lover in general, is the 1970s - so he selected 1971, a year in which the movies were smart, daring, experimental, and (at least in his top five) extremely horny. Plus, hear about the best single release week of the year (maybe the decade), when two all-timers hit theaters one day apart!

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1985 with W Axel Foley Mar 05, 2023

Show notes

There are allllllll sorts of ‘80s classics that hit theaters in the year 1985, but our guest (and friend) W. Axel Foley of the DVR Podcast Network went in some WILD directions for his top five of the year, plucking out some less-discussed documentaries, sci-fi, and more. Plus, Axel is roughly the same age as Jason and Mike, so hear all about how this year’s headlines deeply traumatized us all!

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1974 with Isabel Sandoval Feb 26, 2023

Show notes

Filmmaker and actress Isabel Sandoval (“Señorita,” “Aparisyon,” "Lingua Franca”) went to a rather non-traditional film school: the pirated DVD stores of Philippines flea markets. It was there that she discovered the auteurs of the 1970s, the giants of American and world cinema who made that era what it was, and she chose the year 1974 - perhaps the MOST 1970s year of the 1970s. Listen in for our thoughts on Akerman, Passolini, Coppola, Polanski, and Richard Nixon, who was shown the door during this very eventful year.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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