Ribbon of Memes

It's been over a century and a quarter since the first moving picture was committed to celluloid - the "ribbon of dreams", as Orson Welles mellifluously intoned.

And so, welcome, one and all, to Ribbon of Memes, a new podcast in which Roger Bell_West and Nick Marsh supply grateful listeners hot takes about films considered masterpieces by critics or filmgoers in general.

The rules: we choose one "masterpiece" from every year from the earliest days of cinema to our dreadful modern dystopia. Do we agree these films are classics? Are we entertained? Did we even understand what the film was trying to say? The questions are endless!*

We start in 1973 (for reasons explained in the first podcast) and progress vaguely chronologically (unless we think of another film that makes an interesting comparison to the one we have just seen, or are otherwise distracted by shiny new things).

Yes, that's right, we decided that what the world really needed was two more uninformed middle-aged white guys telling the world about media largely produced by similar people. Find out whether we were right or not herein!

*Actually, no, that's most of them.

We're also on iTunes, Spotify and Google Podcasts.

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Uncut Gems (2019) 13 May 2023

Nick and Roger discuss Uncut Gems.

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Tags: crime

  1. Posted by J Michael Cule at 03:02pm on 13 May 2023

    I wonder if the protagonist's surname was a tribute to Gerald Ratner, another purveyor of jewelry who created his own downfall.

    And I've said before (but see no reason not to say again) my favourite actor for doing comedy and tragedy at once was Michael Horden, especially his television KING LEAR especailly the line "I shall do such things... What they are I know not yet... BUt they shall be the terrors of the Earth!"

  2. Posted by RogerBW at 03:49pm on 13 May 2023

    That did occur to me, though I don't think there's anything in the film to support the theory.

    I don't think I've ever seen a performance by Hordern I didn't enjoy.

  3. Posted by Nick at 09:54pm on 13 May 2023

    The Cohens are my go-to purveyors of cinematic tragedy and comedy. It can certainly be done, and done well, didn’t work for me here though.

    I remember Ratner’s downfall was a rare moment of honesty in describing his jewellery as ‘crap’, I don’t think our Howard in this film could ever have such a moment of truth.

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