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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.

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Copyright: © Michael Hull

Latest Episodes:

1969 with Willow Catelyn Maclay Jul 07, 2024

Show notes

“Corpses, Fools and Monsters: The History and Future of Transness in Cinema” (out Tuesday) is one of our favorite film books of the year, and we’re welcoming both of its authors as consecutive guests. This week, film critic Willow Catelyn Maclay joins us to talk about the movies of 1969, from the ahead-of-its-time freedom of “Funeral Parade of Roses” to the Gotham grime of “Midnight Cowboy” to the delightful silliness of “Gamera vs Guiron.”

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1959 with Phillip Lopate Jun 30, 2024

Show notes

The essayist, poet, and film critic Phillip Lopate joins us to discuss his new collection “My Affair with Art House Cinema” and the cinema of 1959, in which one series began with “The 400 Blows,” one series ended with “The World of Apu,” and Otto Preminger hit the courtroom in “Anatomy of a Murder.”

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1924 with Marya E. Gates Jun 23, 2024

Show notes

Nobody we know knows more about silent cinema than film critic, historian, and social media mastermind Marya E. Gates. She joins us to talk about movies from literally a century ago, from the brilliance of “Sherlock Jr.” to the sexiness of “Forbidden Paradise” to the surrealism of “Ballet Mécanique.”

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1961 with Larry Karaszewski Jun 16, 2024

Show notes

Larry Karaszewski isn’t just an award-winning screenwriter and producer — he’s also a serious cinephile, as evidenced by the fact that we asked him for a top five for the year of his birth, 1961, and he came back with six double-features. We talk about them all on this super-sized episode, with inspired pairings of American independents, Natalie Wood vehicles, Marcello Mastroianni classics, and more.

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1967 with Mark Harris Jun 09, 2024

Show notes

Mark Harris has written three of the essential film books of our time, and one of them — “Pictures at a Revolution” — tells the story of Hollywood in flux by detailing the making of the five nominees for best picture of 1967. So he joins us to talk about that year, from the groundbreaking “The Graduate” to the nose-thumbing of “Bonnie & Clyde” to the sheer craft of “In the Heat of the Night.”

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1987 with Carrie Courogen Jun 02, 2024

Show notes

Writer, editor, and director Carrie Courogen is the author of the breathtakingly good new book “Miss May Does Not Exist,” and since it’s a biography of Elaine May, she joins us to talk about 1987 — not only May’s unjustly maligned “Ishtar,” but the sheer perfection of “Broadcast News” and “Moonstruck.”

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1964 with Ben Mankiewicz May 26, 2024

Show notes

Film critic, historian, and TCM stalwart Ben Mankiewicz joins us, on the eve of a new season of his essential podcast “The Plot Thickens” to discuss the nuclear meltdowns of “Fail-Safe,” the political paranoia of “Seven Days in May,” the complex delights of “Marriage, Italian Style,” and more of the movies of 1964.

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1976 with Alexandra West May 19, 2024

Show notes

Film critic, podcaster, and historian Alexandra West joins us to talk about her new book “Gore-Geous: Personal Essays on Beauty and Horror” and the movies of 1976, from the bloodbaths of “Carrie” and “Taxi Driver” to the erotic power plays of “In the Realm of the Senses.”

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1983 with Richard Shepard May 16, 2024

Show notes

Screenwriter and director Richard Shepard’s new film is catnip to us (and probably you too, if you’re listening to his show): “Film Geek,” an essay film about growing up as a movie-crazy kid in NYC in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. He joins us to talk about 1983, including Scorsese’s “King of Comedy,” Fosse’s “STAR 80,” and Forsyth’s “Local Hero.”

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1991 with Alonso Duralde May 12, 2024

Show notes

Critic, podcaster, and author Alonso Duralde was just beginning his professional life in 1991, and witnessed the early pangs of what became known as the New Queer Cinema, a key point in his new book “Hollywood Pride: A Celebration of LGBTQ+ Representation and Perseverance in Film.” He joins us to talk about that moment, including the delights of “Madonna: Truth or Dare,” the coding of “Thelma & Louise,” and the genuine transgressiveness of “Poison.”

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

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