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The Beatles Films Podcast

Music Podcasts

Two film writers and Fab Four fans discuss movies and TV about, starring, and inspired by The Beatles: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Location:

United Kingdom

Description:

Two film writers and Fab Four fans discuss movies and TV about, starring, and inspired by The Beatles: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Language:

English


Episodes
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The Beatles Anthology (episodes 1 and 2)

5/20/2024
In the first of our four episodes covering the 1995 documentary series, we start with some of our own memories of when it aired, when we were teenagers and Britpop had made The Beatles cool again in the UK. We note the vast structural difference between episode 1, which of course covers the bit of their career of which there's the least amount of video footage, and episode 2, which focuses much less on talking head recollections and more on live and TV appearances, often shown nearly in full. We also discuss the practical impact of the three Beatles still alive at the time, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, being interviewed mainly separately, and how much each of them is enjoying the experience. Paul is in full anecdote mode, but is George enjoying himself more than he expected to? Plus: how are Stuart Sutcliffe and Pete Best treated in this, and why? What are the implications of only including a limited core of contributors? And a bit of digging into the idea that they got their name from the Marlon Brando film The Wild One. https://youtu.be/hlHX8FPqsDMhttps://x.com/BooksBeatles/status/1631351804335120391https://www.beatlesbible.com/1963/10/30/television-drop-in-stockholm-sweden Meet the Beatles Films Podcast The Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media. But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on: https://twitter.com/beatlesfilmpodhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622/https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspodhttps://www.youtube.com/@BeatlesFilmsPodcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Duration:01:36:30

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Let it Be (2024 restoration)

5/10/2024
A quick bonus episode to discuss Michael Lindsay-Hogg's film, restored by Peter Jackson's team and released on Disney+ on 8 May 2024. We discussed the original film at length in our two-part episode at the end of season four, and you can find that in this podcast feed. But we were lucky enough to get an advance viewing of the restored Let it Be, so we wanted to have a quick chat about the significance of this re-release. In particular we try and answer the question: Why do we need this when we have Get Back? We also talk about Jackson and Lindsay-Hogg's introduction, and how it suggests this has been ready to go for over a year, and about the visual and audio distinctions between this restoration and Get Back. So give it a listen and then scroll back through this feed and check out the original Let it Be two-part episode. https://theymaybeparted.com/2024/05/07/tmbp-extra-then-and-now/ Meet the Beatles Films Podcast The Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media. But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on: https://twitter.com/beatlesfilmpodhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622/https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspodhttps://www.youtube.com/@BeatlesFilmsPodcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Duration:00:31:03

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The Concert for Bangladesh

5/6/2024
George Harrison of the Beatles and Ravi Shankar organised two concerts on 1 August 1971 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, as relief for refugees from East Pakistan after the Bangladesh Liberation War-related genocide. The gigs featured Ringo Starr, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Billy Preston, Leon Russell and Badfinger. We talk here about both the concert film released to cinemas in 1972, and the 2005 documentary on the DVD, The Concert for Bangladesh Revisited with George Harrison and Friends. We discuss how this set a template for the benefit concert as we know it today, and talk about the white saviour complex and how acknowledging the culture of Bangladesh through Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan's performance arguably sets the concert apart. We also talk about the performances; and the challenges of, and comically rookie errors made while, filming it. And! Is Clapton's lacklustre performance down to choosing a hollow-bodied guitar, or the fact he was boxed on methadone? https://www.unicefusa.org/about-unicef-usa/partnerships/foundations/george-harrison-fundhttps://www.georgeharrison.com/films/the-concert-for-bangladeshhttps://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6cgunrhttps://www.netflix.com/title/81720500https://g.co/kgs/hAKZ9Tkhttps://www.setlist.fm/stats/the-beatles-23d6a88b.html Meet the Beatles Films Podcast The Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media. But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on: https://twitter.com/beatlesfilmpodhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622/https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspodhttps://www.youtube.com/@BeatlesFilmsPodcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Duration:01:21:33

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Scot Williams interview: playing Pete Best in Backbeat, and directing Two Of Us, a play

4/29/2024
Scot Williams is best known to Beatles fans for playing Pete Best in Backbeat, and In His Life: The John Lennon Story. Scot's been a successful actor, director and writer for 30 years, and having grown up in Liverpool the Beatles have always been a big part of his life, and have featured in lots of his projects. Scot is about to direct a play, Two Of Us, adapting Michael Lindsay-Hogg's 2000 film about John Lennon and Paul McCartney's final meeting. We covered it in our first episode, which we were delighted to hear Scot listened to, and which informed his interpretation of the script. As well as Two Of Us, we talk about how he came to be in Backbeat, Stephen Dorff and the dynamic of British actors alongside Hollywood stars, and his friendship with Pete Best. We also get his take on the upcoming Sam Mendes Beatles films. Note: through our own fault we had some problems recording Scot's voice, so we've cleaned it up with an AI tool (yes, just like John's voice on Now and Then). If the odd word sounds a bit funny, that's why! https://watfordpalacetheatre.co.uk/events/two-of-us/https://youtu.be/nOGgmsDbx-Uhttps://www.imdb.com/name/nm0931656/https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1289351/https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2095375/https://abarddaysnight.com/Conversations with McCartney https://open.spotify.com/show/61RgyFASIKjzbP6OrgZOlI Meet the Beatles Films Podcast The Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media. But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on: https://twitter.com/beatlesfilmpodhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622/https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspodhttps://www.youtube.com/@BeatlesFilmsPodcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Duration:01:01:20

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Ringo (1978 TV movie)

4/22/2024
Let's look at Ringo Starr's 1978 TV comedy film, written by Neal Israel and Pat Proft, both of whom would go on to make significant contributions to film comedy through the Police Academy and Naked Gun films, and loosely designed to promote his recent album Bad Boy. We discuss where Ringo is in his career and how his performance (he plays two versions of himself in a take on Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper) made Hollywood reappraise him and led to his leading role in Caveman (also covered in a previous episode). We talk about why so many stars like Art Carney, John Ritter and an immediately-post-Star-Wars Carrie Fisher are keen to get involved. And we discuss George Harrison’s performance, and why it’s a good job Ringo doesn’t seem to play You’re Sixteen live anymore. https://youtu.be/LditHJXu4LUhttps://www.imdb.com/title/tt11563598/https://youtu.be/CNx2-e-OcIUhttps://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/trading-placeshttps://www.setlist.fm/stats/ringo-starr-and-his-all-starr-band-63c6b20b.html Meet the Beatles Films Podcast The Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media. But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on: https://twitter.com/beatlesfilmpodhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622/https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspodhttps://www.youtube.com/@BeatlesFilmsPodcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Duration:01:04:35

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How the Beatles Rocked the Kremlin

4/15/2024
Leslie Woodhead's 2009 film for BBC Four wasn't his first entry into Beatledom: he also shot the Cavern Club footage in 1962 that we're all so familiar with. He's also spent time making films in Russia, so he's ideally placed for this look at Russian youth's relationship with The Beatles, during the Soviet era and into the early, less scary, Putin era. We look at Russian then-Deputy PM Sergei Ivanov's contribution to this film. He seems fun! Maybe less so these days. We also discuss the practice of smuggling contraband Beatle recordings about by etching them into X-ray acetates, and Paul McCartney's meeting with Vladimir Putin in 2003. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUO1atyECD8https://g.co/kgs/uoaNUFThttps://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2hfrtnBroken Greekhttps://g.co/kgs/3XqWL4KMehttps://g.co/kgs/3XqWL4K Meet the Beatles Films Podcast The Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media. But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on: https://twitter.com/beatlesfilmpodhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622/https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspodhttps://www.youtube.com/@BeatlesFilmsPodcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Duration:00:59:54

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The Family Way

4/8/2024
Paul McCartney's first solo project, other than judging beauty contests, was the score for The Family Way, a 1966 comedy-drama in which a northern English community have an invasive interest in the non-consummation of Hywel Bennett and Hayley Mills' marriage. Is Paul really the chief composer of the score for which he won the Ivor Novello award, or did George Martin do more than "supervise and arrange" it? There's a lot going on in The Family Way in terms of changing attitudes in the sixties, and of course the Beatles were at the forefront of this. Intellectualism, sexual freedom and men being allowed to be sensitive and artistic. We look at how the film handles these things. Plus! A bonus (if you like that sort of thing) Kula Shaker connection! https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8csmfphttps://open.spotify.com/album/4opUUCL6CG5SLSEysBytaphttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carry_On_(franchise)https://youtu.be/BMduOLx6vToBeatles '66: The Revolutionary Yearhttps://g.co/kgs/n29WPBa Meet the Beatles Films Podcast The Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media. But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on: https://twitter.com/beatlesfilmpodhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622/https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspodhttps://www.youtube.com/@BeatlesFilmsPodcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Duration:01:08:59

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I Wanna Hold Your Hand

4/1/2024
We both loved Robert Zemeckis's 1978 debut feature, the story of a group of New Jersey teens trying to get into the Beatles' first Ed Sullivan Show performance in February 1964. We talk about the techniques Zemeckis and his writing partner Bob Gale use here and how a lot of it prefigures their later work, in particular the Back to the Future trilogy. We also discuss how using the Beatles as characters who are always just off camera or somehow out of reach plays into how America saw them at the time: almost as mythical figures or religious icons. And we get into how the female characters find self-expression through the freedom their fandom gives them, and how that mirrors the Beatles' sociological impact where teenage girls were concerned. https://youtu.be/QEPDFYuhkDIhttps://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/detroit-rock-cityhttps://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/american-graffitihttps://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/dazed-and-confused Meet the Beatles Films Podcast The Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media. But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on: https://twitter.com/beatlesfilmpodhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622/https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspodhttps://www.youtube.com/@BeatlesFilmsPodcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Duration:01:02:56

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Imagine: John Lennon

3/25/2024
The 1988 documentary commissioned by Yoko Ono might have been the jumping-off point for the Lennon legacy project we know today. It shows John at his best, for the most part, and there's not much dissent from the talking heads, including May Pang, Julian Lennon and Cynthia Lennon. We ask why John chose George Harrison to play on How Do You Sleep?, his Paul McCartney diss track, when he could've got a session player. We discuss how John and Yoko's bed-in confrontation with the cartoonist Al Capp prefigures a lot of contemporary online discourse. And why wasn't Paul familiar with Real Love when Yoko gave him the demo cassettes, given he'd seen it used in this? https://g.co/kgs/RvcGK68https://youtu.be/kqg3plZzxZYhttps://youtu.be/-Ej3h02KPLU?si=nRgu_iUn3-DSYg6n&t=71https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaR2o3qwr2RBu7s95IxSMXwhttps://youtu.be/99fXJ8nSR1Mhttps://medium.com/@JahHills/on-claudio-the-man-who-sought-out-john-lennon-to-ask-if-his-songs-were-about-him-c0b34c5d57acDaily Telegraphhttps://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/4713954/Dad-was-a-hypocrite.-He-could-talk-about-peace-and-love-to-the-world-but-he-could-never-show-it-to-his-wife-and-son.htmlhttps://youtu.be/aQs1Ynq0rlk Meet the Beatles Films Podcast The Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media. But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on: https://twitter.com/beatlesfilmpodhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622/https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Duration:01:22:45

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Sam Mendes' four Beatles biopics: movie release and casting discussion

3/18/2024
With the announcement that Sam Mendes is to direct four Beatles biopic films for release in 2027, one from each of the perspectives of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, it'd be remiss of us not to speculate wildly about what this might involve. Will it tell the same story four times? Will bits of it only be told from one Beatle's perspective? Will it actually just be a bit more metaphysical than that, bypassing the need for narrative realism? Will it be like Beatles Peep Show? God, we hope so. Join us as we discuss all this, plus thoughts on who should play who, and the mechanics of shooting and releasing four films simultaneously then releasing them all within 12 months of each other. And a reminder to Sam Mendes that we are very much available as creative consultants for a modest fee. Meet the Beatles Films Podcast The Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media. But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on: https://twitter.com/beatlesfilmpodhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622/https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspodhttps://www.youtube.com/@BeatlesFilmsPodcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Duration:00:44:25

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Pipes of Peace video (40th anniversary Christmas special)

12/25/2023
Merry Christmas! Here's a festive gift marking 40 years since Paul McCartney's Pipes of Peace video, which recreates the 1914 Christmas Day truce on the Western Front of World War 1. How was this video turned around fast enough to be aired on the BBC six days after shooting? Has Paul got the acting bug after spending half of 1983 shooting Give My Regards to Broad Street? Does his decision to play both the English and the German soldier lend a sense of shared humanity and emphasise the futility of war? (Seriously, stay with us here.) And why hasn't the song endured as a peace anthem in the last 40 years, in the way that Give Peace a Chance has? We used a clip of the charity record He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother by The Justice Collective in this episode, and so we've made a donation to The Hillsborough Survivors Support Alliance. You can donate here if you'd like to: https://www.gofundme.com/f/1qf2s20740 Thanks so much for listening in 2023. We've loved making these podcasts and we're very grateful for all the positive feedback we get. If you've enjoyed any of them, we'd really appreciate it if you gave us a five-star rating in your podcast app. It helps people find us. See you again in 2024. https://youtu.be/B3q4Up5ugTchttps://youtu.be/xabqb5Y6Mg0https://youtu.be/iRgtzZ-mOQohttps://youtu.be/Ye4cELYLzJMhttps://youtu.be/zFFLlpC9f9Q Meet the Beatles Films Podcast The Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media. But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on: https://twitter.com/beatlesfilmpodhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622/https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspodhttps://www.youtube.com/@BeatlesFilmsPodcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Duration:00:47:55

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Let it Be (part 2)

12/18/2023
To finish off our fourth season, thrill as our takes on why George Harrison is laughing when Ringo Starr starts playing Octopus's Garden differ slightly. Later we discuss how Let it Be's pacing is affected by showing the finalised songs in full. Would it defeat the purpose to have done this differently? Plus, is John Lennon's claim that the film was set up to make the other Beatles look like sidemen for Paul McCartney justified, given how Let it Be, The Long and Winding Road and Two Of Us are shot almost like music videos with Paul the focus? We talk about how forward-thinking Michael Lindsay-Hogg's approach was to filming the rooftop gig, and about how this was maybe underappreciated until Get Back revealed the extent of it, and about whether there's now any point releasing a remastered version: could audiences be blamed for receiving it like a shorter Get Back? (NOTE this episode was recorded and released about five months before the restored version came out.) Meet the Beatles Films Podcast The Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media. But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on: https://twitter.com/beatlesfilmpodhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622/https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Duration:00:57:08

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Let it Be (part 1)

12/11/2023
Now is the winter of our discontent: or is it? Michael Lindsay-Hogg's Let it Be is widely thought a miserable affair, documenting arguments and the breakup of the Beatles. But watching it afresh after Peter Jackson's Get Back in 2021, it doesn't feel so much like that. We ask whether the widespread consensus that it's a negative depiction is actually more a failure of collective memory. What was it really set George Harrison off when he told Paul McCartney "Well, I'll play whatever you want me to play"? And what do we make of Lindsay-Hogg's decision not to let you hear any of the songs in full until the end? https://youtu.be/nb8Ue3mk0Qo Meet the Beatles Films Podcast The Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media. But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on: https://twitter.com/beatlesfilmpodhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622/https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Duration:00:49:45

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Stuart Sutcliffe: The Lost Beatle

12/4/2023
This 2005 BBC Four documentary, narrated by Paul Morley and featuring contributions from Astrid Kirchherr, Pauline Sutcliffe, Tony Sheridan, Rod Murray and Horst Facher, looks at the life of fifth Beatle Stuart Sutcliffe before his tragic death at 21. It makes the case that he would’ve been a significant artist in his own right, but spends a lot of its time looking at his work with the Beatles, so we discuss how well it manages to fulfil its brief. It’s also not the only BBC documentary of this period to be a bit coy about the idea of John Lennon having had a sexual relationship with a man (see also our episode on The Brian Epstein Story), and we ask how helpful this approach is and examine the techniques the film uses to further the suggestion. https://youtu.be/k1Yrwyfk2NQhttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/sep/06/showing-off-the-beatleshttps://www.imdb.com/title/tt0499080/ Meet the Beatles Films Podcast The Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media. But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on: https://twitter.com/beatlesfilmpodhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622/https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Duration:01:09:40

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Mad Men: Lady Lazarus (featuring Tomorrow Never Knows)

11/27/2023
Mad Men's Matthew Weiner paid $250,000 to use the Beatles' Tomorrow Never Knows in season 5, episode 8, "Lady Lazarus". We talk about the licensing of Beatles music in film and TV, which is also referenced in the episode, where the agency is trying to find a song for a Hard Day's Night parody advert. This episode is in August 1966 and we discuss how the characters are feeling the paranoia of the sixties closing in on them. America is tense and chaotic: the Richard Speck murders in Chicago and the Texas University sniper shootings have just happened, just as the Beatles are flying in to protests because of John Lennon's "bigger than Jesus" comments. As for Don Draper, his young wife has left copywriting to become an actor, and she's bought him a copy of Revolver to play while she goes out to a class. Start with the last track, she says. Don sits in his chair, kicks off his shoes, and hears the sound of a generation about to leave him behind. https://www.justwatch.com/uk/tv-series/mad-menhttps://youtu.be/6OquASU1y5Ahttps://youtu.be/IFCqKSrrMJQhttps://youtu.be/EElKJao9cmAhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Texas_tower_shootinghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Speckhttps://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Crying_of_Lot_49/Py5bngEACAAJhttps://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_New_York_Trilogy/VRfe-QG_ls4Chttps://www.theshiznit.co.uk/review/mad-men-season-five.php Meet the Beatles Films Podcast The Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media. But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on: https://twitter.com/beatlesfilmpodhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622/https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Duration:00:58:01

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Paul McCartney: In the World Tonight

11/20/2023
First shown in May 1997 on VH1 and ITV, Geoff Wonfor's promotional documentary for Paul McCartney's Flaming Pie album is a bit of a puff piece, but an interesting one. For context, this is all shot when Linda McCartney is receiving cancer treatment, which the public doesn't know about. We talk about how the film and the album might give insights into Paul's state of mind, and what sort of future he's contemplating. https://youtu.be/-BhnIClthqQhttps://youtu.be/IK0sMC5ntpchttps://www.theguardian.com/media/2003/sep/19/marketingandprhttps://www.imdb.com/title/tt0168065/ Meet the Beatles Films Podcast The Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media. But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on: https://twitter.com/beatlesfilmpodhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622/https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Duration:01:15:56

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The Compleat Beatles

11/13/2023
Directed by rock doc specialist Patrick Montgomery, 1982's The Compleat Beatles still represents the only real attempt at a feature length documentary covering their whole career, and was a huge success in the early days of the home VHS market. It was released at a time when there was renewed interest in the band after John Lennon's murder, and in the 20-year anniversary of Love Me Do, alongside a lot of other Beatles products. It's a different beast to The Beatles Anthology, but how does it measure up? We talk about whether it was the original source for some of the best known Beatle stories, how its narration by Malcolm McDowell gives it gravitas, or tries to, and what the impact is of featuring ancillary characters from the Beatles' early story, like Allan Williams, Tony Sheridan and Horst Facher. And the film's content is very much led by its talking heads, in particular George Martin, so we examine what effect that has. https://archive.org/details/the-compleat-beatles-1982https://youtu.be/W3QG37K3h94 Meet the Beatles Films Podcast The Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media. But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on: https://twitter.com/beatlesfilmpodhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622/https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Duration:01:19:07

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Now and Then: The Last Beatles Song music video and documentary

11/4/2023
Peter Jackson's music video for Now and Then, and the 12-minute short documentary film by Oliver Murray, Now and Then: The Last Beatles Song, were both released this week. What do we think of the techniques used, and what does the amount of restored footage point to? Plus! Is the song a Beatles song? If a song features all four Beatles, does it automatically sound Beatley? And AI: will it kill us all? https://youtu.be/Opxhh9Oh3rghttps://youtu.be/APJAQoSCwuAhttps://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001rzkphttps://youtu.be/AVu6nPTVbBQhttps://youtu.be/VAtGOESO7W8 Meet the Beatles Films Podcast The Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media. But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on: https://twitter.com/beatlesfilmpodhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622/https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Duration:00:43:21

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Rubber Soul

10/30/2023
Jon Lefkovitz's 2014 film Rubber Soul recreates – very faithfully – John Lennon and Yoko Ono's 1970 Rolling Stone and 1980 Playboy interviews, juxtaposing them and showing how John's thoughts on issues like drugs, fame and The Beatles changed over the intervening decade. We talk about the artistic value of recreating something exactly, and how that might play into Beatles fans' expectations and desires when seeing the band played on film by actors. It also raises questions about the significance of the rock star interview, and John's interviews in particular. His statements in these conversations were accorded great importance, and Jann Wenner's 1970 interview in particular had a huge influence on public perceptions of Lennon and Paul McCartney for decades to come, but given John's habit of stating differing opinions from one day to the next, maybe interviews with stars shouldn't be treated with such reverence? https://youtu.be/kB8Z1LRBmTARolling Stonehttps://youtu.be/5ZhBQRzBAa8Lennon Remembershttps://g.co/kgs/rkV5V5Playboyhttps://youtu.be/PRDfBGagFkUAll We Are Sayinghttps://g.co/kgs/Qs8fR7The Timeshttps://www.beatlesbible.com/1963/12/27/the-times-what-songs-the-beatles-sang-by-william-mann/https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/beautiful-boy Meet the Beatles Films Podcast The Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media. But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on: https://twitter.com/beatlesfilmpodhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622/https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Duration:01:21:09

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Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

10/23/2023
That's right, we couldn't put it off any longer: it's the Bee Gees' towering hubris of 1978. We spend some time unpicking Robin Gibb's contemporary quote in which he confidently predicted that the Bee Gees' version would effectively make the original Sgt Pepper obsolete, and we talk about rock operas and how this one is structured. We delve into its interesting backstory involving Brian Epstein contemporary and potential NEMS heir (whom the Beatles rejected), Robert Stigwood, plus: what did George Martin get out of it, and why didn't he take the chance to finally do his own string arrangement for She's Leaving Home? https://youtu.be/7v3PchZzNoIYou Never Give Me Your Money: The Beatles After the Breakup https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/_/luOMJFxe-bYC?hl=enThe Battle for the Soul of The Beatleshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sgt._Pepper%27s_Lonely_Hearts_Club_Band_(film)#Overviewhttps://g.co/kgs/SqGJExhttps://www.discogs.com/release/2014089-Various-The-Soul-Of-Lennon-McCartneyhttps://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078239/ Meet the Beatles Films Podcast The Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media. But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on: https://twitter.com/beatlesfilmpodhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622/https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Duration:01:08:10