Tonight we had a packed line-up for our 43rd show.

We started with Here’s The Thing in which Mark announced his two shows at Latitude Festival, and celebrated the launch of Film Stories Junior. We also paid tribute to two great actors who passed away: Rip Torn and Freddie Jones and showed some of their greatest work from Maidstone (1970) and The Elephant Man (1980).

This month we had a full British line-up! Our first guest was Nick Broomfield , director of the documentary Marianne and Leonard: Words of Love (2019). The documentary tells the love story of Leonard Cohen and his muse, Marianne Ihlen, from their first meeting in an artists’ community on the Greek island of Hydra until their deaths in 2016. Once part of the same artists’ community this was one of Nick’s most personal projects, Mark was moved by the film and he looks forward to Nick’s next project: a documentary on his late father’s work as a photographer. Nick is the creator behind well-know documentaries, such as the documentary on Eugene Terre’Blanche, to which we paid tribute – The Leader, The Driver and The Driver’s Wife (1991).

Our next Coming Attractions saw Shola Amoo, director of The Last Tree (2019). We were honoured that the MK3D crowd were the first to see the trailer for the film! The semi-autobiographical story tells the story of how a young boy attempts to re-discover his identity after his biological mother takes him away from his foster family in Lincolnshire to South London. Mark specifically pointed out a few of his favourite shots filmed in Lincolnshire during golden hour. Mark was convinced a filter had to be used to create the effect. Shola countered that no filter was used and it was down to sheer, pure luck that they got those shots, as they filmed on the warmest day of the year.

Our third British director was the Cornish Mark Jenkin who came to talk about his upcoming feature, Bait (2019). It tells the story of a Cornish fishing village and the tension that arises from incoming tourists. Captured on black and white 16mm film and developed by hand, it offers a grainy black and white polemic. Right from the bat Mark and Mark started discussing footwear, or rather Jenkin’s lack thereof. Mark Jenkin also let us in on the secret of how he develops his film; coffee. As his studio is in Cornwall and overlooks one of the largest English fishing fleets, he felt it would be wrong to use all the chemicals involved with developing the film as it would harm nature and the fishing industry.

To pay tribute to the lengths that Mark Jenkin went through for his creative vision, Mark Kermode gave us his Top 11 of Films That Went Through Extreme Creative Processes in List-O-Mania. 11) Lek and the Dogs (2017) – invented a new language. 10) Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (1988) – made entirely with barbies – and without music licenses. 9) The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) – made entirely of paper silhouette cutouts. Took 3 years to make. 8) The Street (1976) – all painted on glass. 7) Loving Vincent (2017) – a first! Made entirely of oil paintings. 6) Kubo and the Two String (2016) – on the list to represent all stop motion films. 5) A Scanner Darkly (2006) – all live-action. 4) Victoria (2015) – all in one take. 3) Way Down East (1947) – the lead actress, Lilian Gish, got frostbite on her hand and face do to a scene on a frozen lake. 2) Lady in the Lake (1947) – from the point of view of the lead character, who never see unless his in front of a mirror 1) Fitzcarraldo (1982) – ‘let’s make a movie about people carrying a boat across a mountain…by actually carrying a boat across a mountain’.

Our final Coming Attractions was all about upcoming feature; Blinded by the Light (2019). We were joined by director Gurinder Chadha and Sarfraz Manzoor, whose memoir Greetings from Bury Park (2007) inspired the film. The films tells the story of a second generation Pakistani boy who finds a place for his own opinions and feelings through Bruce Springsteen’s music during Margaret Thatcher’s reigning days in Britain. Sarfraz’ and Gurinder’s friendship goes way back, to a time when they felt they were the only British-Asians who were Bruce Springsteen fans. When they got The Boss’ approval, the two of them jumped at the opportunity to make a story they feel needs to be told in current Brexit Britain.

In Sound and Vision we highlighted one of Gurinder’s previous films; Bend it Like Beckham (2002). We paid tribute to the penalty scene, which is accompanied by Nessun Dorma, which has been associated with football ever since the World Cup in 1990.

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We opened the show with Here’s The Thing. Mark paid tribute to the late director Franco Zeffirelli, who was Oscar-nominated for Romeo and Juliet (1968). Mark humbly pointed out he plays the harmonica on Good Omens. We played a clip on which we can hear Mark’s skills, sadly the actors kept talking through it. We trailed Ibiza: The Silent Movie (2019) which will play at Glastonbury and whose director Julien Temple and DJ Fatboy Slim talk to Mark about the movie on Kermode On Film.

Our first of two guests in Coming Attractions was Sanjeev Bhaskar from Yesterday (2019). In Yesterday, Jack Malik is a struggling singer-songwriter who after a freak bus accident wakes up in a world where the Beatles don’t exist. Performing songs by the greatest band in history to a world that has never heard them, Jack becomes an overnight sensation. Mark gave Sanjeev credit for one of the funniest lines in the film: ‘Leave it Be’.

Mark is a fan of Peter Strickland and was hugely excited to welcome Leo Bill who appears in Strickland’s upcoming film In Fabric (2019). In true Peter Strickland style, it is close to impossible to describe the film without raising a lot of confusion. In short, we follow the journey of a cursed dress and how it ruins the lives of the people who own it. Leo talked about the wild ride it was to work with Strickland as well as the inner workings of washing machines.

Next, we welcomed Be Manzini, a Poet and Spoken Word Artist, Director of the Caramel Film Club and Poet-in-Residence at Sundance London. Be told us about touring with Bird’s Eye View’s Reclaim the Frame and shared a poem she wrote while on tour, based on the movies Wild Rose (2018) and The Kindergarten Teacher (2018). She shared a haiku she wrote in response to Apollo 11 (2019), which she saw at Sundance, and she left us with a poem of a film she enjoyed particularly for because of its representation of women of colour on screen: Late Night (2019).

Mark was chuffed to welcome to the stage Hollywood legend: Richard Dreyfuss, who had just come from the Edinburgh International Film Festival to promote his upcoming film Astronaut. Mark relished the opportunity to talk about some of his favourite films featuring Dreyfuss: Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Jaws (1975) and The Goodbye Girl (1977). Richard was extremely witty and poetic throughout his conversation with Mark. There were moments when the entire audience was so engrossed in what was being said that you could hear a pin drop. While we could have listened to Richard speak for hours on end it was time for the show to end. We saw our first standing ovation and boy was it well deserved.

In honour of the release of Yesterday, we paid tribute in Sound and Vision to the Beatles’ I Should Have Known Better from A Hard Day’s Night (1964).

You can listen to Sanjeev Bhaskar and Leo Bill here!

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In Here’s the Thing we paid tribute to two great losses: Peter Mayhew who was best known for Star Wars’ Chewbacca, and to the legendary Doris Day, best known for Calamity Jane (1953).

Mark did a ‘spoilery’ List-O-Mania: spoilers that you could only guess if you knew the film already: 10. They all did it. 9. His mom’s been dead the whole time. 8. He’s been dead the whole time. 7. He’s his father. 6. Her dad’s in the bookcase. 5. Sound like “Lucifer”. 4. Gwyneth’s head. 3. She’s a guy. 2. He’s a ghost. 1. It’s a sledge.

In One from the Vaults Professor Sir Christopher Frayling came to talk about Once Upon A Time in the West: Shooting a Masterpiece, his book about the Leone film. Mark also took the opportunity to talk about the time Sir Frayling interviewed Doris Day.

In Coming Attractions Jeanie Finlay talked about two films she made concurrently: Seahorse: the Dad Who Gave Birth (2019) and her top secret project; Game of Thrones – The Last Watch (2019). The latter of which we had the privilege of seeing the first ever footage, a week ahead of release. Dutch director Sacha Polak talked about her feature Dirty God (2019) starring Vicky Knight.

Jessica Hynes came to talk about her acting work on Jack & Dean of All Trades (2016 -), There She Goes (2018 -) and Years and Years (2019), and about her directorial debut The Fight (2018). She finished by revealing her Guilty Pleasure: Zoolander 2 (2016).

We ended the show with a Sound & Vision hommage to Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket (1987), whose exhibition is at the Design Museum and whose work is the subject of a current BFI season.

You can listen to Jessica Hynes and Sir Christopher here!

You can listen to Sacha Polak and Jeanie Finlay here!

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We opened the show with an Ask the Audience in which Mark listed his Top Five Kenneth Branagh films: 5. Thor (2011) 4. The Magic Flute (2006) 3. In the Bleak Midwinter (1995) 2. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994) 1. Hamlet (1996).

In Here’s the Thing we commemorated the life of the late Agnes Varda (90) and her latest film Faces Places (Visages, Villages; 2017).

In Coming Attractions director Brian Welsh came to talk about their rave culture film Beats (2019). Mid-way through the interview he invited the lead; Cristian Ortega to join him on stage. Iceland’s Benedikt Erlingsson talked about his environmental warrior movie Woman at War (2019), and Steve Mitchell and Joe Kraemer talked about their Larry Cohen biopic King Cohen: The Wild World of Filmmaker Larry Cohen (2017). Anna Meredith came to talk about scoring the music for Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade (2019), and finally Amma Asante talked about her new release Where Hands Touch (2019)– and talked to Mark about her Guilty Pleasure: the highly contentious Sex and the City (2008).

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Mark invited Simon Amstell to talk about his Guilty Pleasure: Titanic (1997). He also asked him to talk about this new film Benjamin (2018) – which Mark is in!

Mark sequewayed into a List-O-Mania of Top Ten Cameos by People Playing Themselves: 10. Mark in Absolutely Fabulous Xmas Special (2011) 9. Anna Wintour in Ocean’s 8 (2018) 8. Hedda Hopper in Sunset Boulevard (1950) 7. David Bowie in Zoolander (2001) 6. Macy Gray in Spider-Man (2002) 5. Rex Reed in Superman (1978) 4. Malcolm McDowell on The Player (1992) 3. Bill Murray in Zombieland (2009) 2. Bob Harris in Wild Rose (2019) 1.Mark in Extras– as an extra! (2006)

In Sound and Vision David Holmes came to talk about his work as a composer, notably on ‘71 (2014) and Killing Eve (2018).

In One from the Vaults we talked about the re-release of A Clockwork Orange (1971).

In Coming Attractions Carol Morley talked about her extraordinary film Out of Blue (2018), and Chiwetel Ejiofor about The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (2019). He also talked about de Sica’s beautiful Bicycle Thieves (Ladri di biciclette; 1948) in The Film That Changed My Life.

We ended on a celebration of Sound and Vision with Good Vibrations (2012).

You can listen to Simon Astell and Chiwetel Ejiofor here!

You can listen to Carol Morley and David Holmes here!

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We opened the show with Mark talking about awards season – and about Mark Kermode’s Secrets of Cinema on BBC4 in Here’s The Thing.

In Coming Attractions, Stephen Merchant talked about Fighting With My Family (2019). Composer Max Richter talked about his work on Waltz with Bashir (2008), The Leftovers (2014-2017) and Hostiles (2017), and talked about Tarkovsky’s Andrei Rublev (1969) as The Film That Changed My Life.

In One From the Vaults we highlighted the 40th anniversary of Alien (1979).

Finally, actor Jessie Buckley and screenwriter Nicole Taylor talked about Wild Rose (2018) and for Sound & Vision Jessie Buckley gave a live rendition of a country song.

You can listen to Max Richter and Jessie Buckley here!

You can listen to Stephen Merchant here!

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The first MK3D of the new year kicked off with an interview with Joe Cornish who came to talk about his new release The Kid Who Would Be King (2019) and about The Film That Changed His Life: Die Hard (1988).

Mark looked ahead to the Oscars by doing a List-O-Mania: a Top Ten Film This Century to Receive ZERO Oscar Nominations: 10. I, Daniel Blake (2016) 9. The Babadook (2014) 8. We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) 7. Let the Right One In (2008) 6. Berberian Sound Studio (2012) 5. Good Vibrations (2012) 4. RAW (2016) 3. Girlhood (2014) 2. Of Time and the City (2008) 1. Leave No Trace (2018).

In Coming Attractions Mark talked to director Nadine Labaki whose film Capernaum (2018) did get nominated for an Oscar. Mark also talked to key talent from Jellyfish (2018): Actors Liv Hill and Cyril Nri and director James Gardner. Steve Coogan came to talk about Stan & Ollie (2018), for which he was nominated for Best Actor in the BAFTAs. Steve also talked about Harold and Maude (1971) in The Film That Changed My Life.

We paid homage to Laurel & Hardy in Sound and Vision with Way Out West’s

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We opened the show with an interview with Steve McQueen who came to talk about his film; Widows (2018).

In Here’s The Thing Mark introduced his new podcast: Kermode On Film. We also payed tribute to two great directors; Bernardo Bertolluci director Last Tango in Paris (1972), The Last Emperor (1987) and 1900 (1976) and Nicolas Roeg director of Performance (1970), The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) and Don’t Look Now (1973). Lastly, Mark invited Simon Brew onto the stage to talk about his new magazine: Film Stories.

Next, we had Josie Lawrence on to talk about both her guilty pleasure and the film that changed her life. Josie’s chose Miracolo a Milano (Miracle in Milan, 1951) as The Film That Changed My Life. As her Guilty Pleasure she chose Spinal Tap (1984).

Then we had Tim Wardle to talk about his upcoming project: Three Identical Strangers (2018).

After we welcomed Rami Malek to the stage to talk about the Queen biopic; Bohemian Rhapsody (2018).  His favourite Queen song; Bohemian Rhapsody. Mark did not agree.

To close the show, Mark invites Josie back on stage to sing Silent Night, Merry Christmas all!

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