Free Thinking Folgen

Mildred Pierce, James M Cain's 1941 novel was turned into a noir film starring Joan Crawford which earnt her an Academy Award. Matthew Sweet and his guests crime writers Denise Mina & Laura Lippman + academics Sarah Churchwell & Lizzie Mackarel have been re-watching the film and comparing it with the novel as they consider how the social realism and depiction of suburban female life differs from his other books which became hit films The Postman Always Rings Twice and Double Indemnity.Laura Lippman's novels include the PI Tess Monaghan series and stand alone titles such as Lady in the Lake, Sunburn and After I'm Gone. Denise Mina's crime novels have won many prizes and her latest The Less Dead has been shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award. Sarah Churchwell is Professor of American Literature and Public Understanding of the Humanities at the University of London and the author of books including The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe and Careless People: Murder, Mayhem and the Invention of The Great GatsbyYou can find other Free Thinking discussions of film and the relationship between novels and film on the programme website including Jonathan Coe's recent novel looking at Billy Wilder and his late films https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000p1dx Michael Caine in the film Get Carter made by from Ted Lewis's 1970 novel Jack's Return Home https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000mt05 Tarkovsky's Stalker https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0775023 Rashomon and the writing of Akutagawa, which led to the film by Kurosawa https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b01vwk Marnie and Winston Graham's novel https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b098n4j4 Many are in this playlist called Landmarks https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01jwn44Producer: Torquil MacLeod

Marlene Dietrich: sensual screen siren, political radical, 20th-century sex symbol, and - eventually - septuagenarian cabaret star. Cabraret legend Le Gateau Chocolat, film historian Pamela Hutchinson, writer Phuong Le, and academic Lucy Bolton join Matthew Sweet to delve into a life fully lived.From her formative collaborations with Josef von Sternberg, to entertaining the troops throughout World War II, to a late blossoming live performance career and touring as a cabaret artist into her seventies, Dietrich's life traces the line of western history throughout almost the whole twentieth century. What did she mean, and what did she become? Matthew and his guests follow the story through films including The Blue Angel, Shanghai Express, and Touch of Evil.Pamela Hutchinson is the curator of The BFI's Marlene Dietrich: Falling in Love Again, which runs at BFI Southbank throughout December.Le Gateau Chocolat’s work spans drag, cabaret, opera, musical theatre, children’s theatre and live art.Lucy Bolton is the editor of Lasting Stars: Images that Fade and Personas that Endure and Reader in Film Studies at Queen Mary University London.Phuong Le is a Paris-based film writer. She writes for publications including Music Mezzanine, Vague Visages and Film Comment magazine.You can find Le Gateau Chocolat discussing Weimar the subversion of cabaret culture in an episode recorded at the Barbican centre https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000b7r7And you might be interested in other discussions of film stars and directors including Billy Wilder, Cary Grant, Betty Balfour and Early Cinema and director Alice Guy-Blaché which are all available to download as Arts & Ideas podcasts from the Free Thinking programme website.Producer: Caitlin Benedict

Brian Cox on the stars and planets. Archaelogist Susan Greaney on Stonehenge and Maes Howe at solstice, the shadowy paintings of Wright of Derby and Artemisia Gentileschi and the candlelight of Hanukkah in art and literature picked out by Alexandra Harris and the philosophy of Plato and light giving ideas from Sophie-Grace Chappell: Shahidha Bari and guests look at light as BBC Radio 3 broadcasts a series of music programmes, concerts, walks and features looking at Light in Darkness.Physicist Professor Brian Cox joins the BBC SO and Principal Guest Conductor Dalia Stasevska to explore the questions raised by music and the Cosmos concerning eternity, death, rebirth and meaning in a concert being broadcast by BBC Radio 3 on the afternoon of December 23rd. In Autumn 2021 he will be embarking on another Horizons Arena Tour around the UK making the latest thinking about the Cosmos accessible to the wider public.Professor Alexandra Harris is the author of books including Weatherland and Romantic Moderns and was one of the first BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinkers.Professor Sophie-Grace Chappell is the author of many philosophy books and is currently considering the idea of epiphanies.Susan Greaney works with English Heritage at Stonehenge, is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and a BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker.Producer: Ruth WattsYou might also be interested in Free Thinking conversations about Ice https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0001jzq Ancient wisdom and remote living https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000q3by Antartica https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04p5267 Diving Deep https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09k8kqr Archaeology https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03xpn5p