Cinema Book Club
Your hosts Charlene and Chelsea are delighted to bring you a #virtualcinemabookclub in podcast form!
You can listen on Spotify HERE or on Apple Podcasts HERE
Next up... She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement by Jodi Cantor and Megan Twohey
January 30th.
PODCAST EPISODES
Episode 25: To Kill A Mockingbird
Chelsea and Charlene revisit a classic book to film adaptation - Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird. A book and film whose relevance has only grown over the decades but is it too saccharine for modern sensibilities? Let’s discuss.
Episode 24: Ghost World
A rare foray into comic book adaptation, Charlene and Chelsea discuss Terry Zwigoff’s cult favourite GHOST WORLD, adapted from Daniel Clowes’ comic of the same name - a peek into the weird and wonderful world of Enid Coleslaw as she and her best friend Rebecca navigate the tricky transition from high school to the world that awaits them.
Episode 23: Dracula
For the month of March, Charlene and Chelsea like to read something Irish so this year they've chosen Bram Stoker's Dracula and watching Francis Ford Coppola's divisive, gloriously gothic, 90's big screen adaption. There is much to swoon over. Joined by special guest horror expert, Producer Bren!
Episode 22: High Fidelity
This episode Charlene and Chelsea revisit one of their all-time top 5 favourite films; Stephen Frears' adaption of Nick Hornby's High Fidelity. Cinema Book Club explores the difference between the British, 90's set novel and the early 00's US-set film and a brief discussion of the more recent gender swapped TV series.
Episode 21: Valley of the Dolls
Charlene and Chelsea revisit one of their favourite adaptions - Valley of the Dolls, the 2967 film based on Jacqueline Susann's cult novel about fame, fortune, sex and drugs.
Episode 20: Dune
Charlene and Chelsea delve into their thoughts on the book and the new film and a little bit about David Lynch's 1984 adaption.
Episode 19: The Devil Wears Prada
Charlene and Chelsea take a deep dive into the world of haute couture as portrayed in Lauren Weisberger's book and David Frankel's film adaption The Devil Wears Prada
"Y’all wanna hear a story about why me & this bitch here fell out? It’s kind of long but full of suspense.”
This episode Chelsea and Charlene discuss Zola, Janicza Bravo's big-screen adaptation of A'Ziah King's epic Twitter thread. This is our first ever discussion of a Twitter adaptation so we're pretty giddy!
This episode Chelsea and Charlene discuss NOMADLAND, Chloe Zhao's adaptation of Jessica Bruder's non-fiction book about the recent American phenomenon of older "houseless" van-dwellers and the economy that has sprung up around them.
In our final "films based on articles" season we're back in the cinema for ALMOST FAMOUS. We’ll be reading Cameron Crowe's Rolling Stone article “The Allman Brothers Story: How Gregg Allman Keeps Band Going After Duane’s Death”, the article that inspired his screenplay about life on the road as a naiive teenager navigating the world of rock gods.
Read the article HERE.
Continuing our mini-season of films based on articles, this month Charlene and Chelsea are reading Nancy Jo Sales' Vanity Fair article The Suspects Wore Louboutins and watched Sofia Coppola's The Bling Ring.
You can read the article HERE.
Episode 14: Saturday Night Fever
This month (and for the next three episodes) we're doing things a little differently. We read Nik Cohn's New York Magazine article Tribal Rites of The New Saturday Night and watched John Badham's seminal 70's disco classic Saturday Night Fever.
You can read the article HERE, it's a good read!
This episode Charlene and Chelsea read HG Wells' The Invisible Man and watched not only Leigh Whannell's 2020 adaptation but also James Whale's 1933 version and Paul Verhoeven's 1999 film Hollow Man.
While the main focus is the 2020 version Charlene and Chelsea trace the evolution of the story over the course of more than a century.
Charlene and Chelsea discuss Howard Hawks' adaptation of Raymond Chandler's sultry noir The Big Sleep.
We discuss what made Bogey and Bacall so smouldering and how film noir often transcends genre and how it has evolved throughout the decades. Enjoy!
This month we read Patricia Highsmith's The Price of Salt and watch Todd Hayne's wintry adaptation, Carol starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara as a wealthy socialite and a young department store worker whose immediate attraction takes them on a journey that changes them both forever.
We swoon over Cate. We swoon over Sarah Paulson. We swoon over costumes. We swoon over Patricia Highsmith. Basically just an hour of swooning.
For Halloween we chose William Friedkin's adaptation of William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist. One of the most notoriously terrifying films ever, and banned in Ireland for 25 years.
Charlene, Chelsea and special guest Bren Murphy (host of Under Your Bed podcast) discuss their thoughts on the book and film.
This episode Chelsea and Charlene are reading and watch Little Women. While the focus is on Greta Gerwig's 2019 adaptation we also discuss Gillian Armstrong's 1994 version and it's hard to resist comparing Lauries.
Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Now, facing pressure from all sides of the community, Starr must find her voice and stand up for what's right.
We read Angie Thomas' timely book THE HATE U GIVE this month's book club. If you can't stay for the discussion check out the Cinema Book Club podcast here.
We're back!!
Shallow, rich and socially successful Cher is at the top of her Beverly Hills high school's pecking scale. Seeing herself as a matchmaker, Cher first coaxes two teachers into dating each other.
“This sweetest and best of all creatures, faultless in spite of all her faults.” - Emma, Jane Austen. Amy Heckerling's classic film Clueless, brings a modern spin to Austen's book.
Episode 6: The Perks of Being a Wallflower
To feel infinite - stand on the back of your pick-up truck and play our NEW PODCAST as loud as you can!!
This episode Charlene and Chelsea are reading Alice Walker's Pulitzer-winning novel The Colour Purple and watching Steven Spielberg's Oscar nominated adaptation.
Thank you to Bren Murphy for setting up as always and for editing the podcast. And thank you as always to Meagan Hyland for our artwork. And thank you, our listeners for your attention.
Episode 4: Call Me By Your Name
Bonus episode!
Charlene and Chelsea take a look back at previous Cinema Book Club discussion, Luca Guadagnino's Call Me By Your Name, based on the beloved cult novel by Andre Aciman.
Join us as we chat through our thoughts on this swoony summer romance novel and its sunny adaptation starring Armie Hammer and Timothée Chalamet.
This month, still socially isolated (sorry if there's tech issues!), Charlene and Chelsea were reading Ben Mezrich's novel The Accidental Billionaires and watching Aaron Sorkin's adaptation, The Social Network, directed by David Fincher.
We're joined by a very special guest, our friend and colleague Mark Byrne, our resident legal expert, who talks us through some of the interesting legalities explored in the film.
Join us as we chat through our thoughts on this fascinating adaptation and how much we'd enjoy a sequel or sequels to keep us up to date with the progress of Facebook over the past decade.
Charlene and Chelsea revisit one of their favourite previous Cinema Book Club adaptations, William Goldman's The Princess Bride. A classic for all the family, Goldman adapts his own novel into one of the greatest cinema adventures of all time. Directed by Rob Reiner and featuring one of most perfect ensembles ever ensembled, both the film and the book are examples of storytelling at it's most joyous!
Charlene and Chelsea discuss the notorious 1981 film adaptation of Christina Crawford's autobiography Mommie Dearest which focuses on her tumultuous relationship with her movie star mother Joan Crawford (played here by another Hollywood Legend, Faye Dunaway).
Special thanks to Bren Murphy for beautiful editing and basically being tech guru and to Meagan Hyland for our beautiful artwork! And thanks to our wonderful book clubbers who come to our monthly events in Light House Dublin and Pálás Galway and have kindly followed us online during the lockdown.
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