The Beatles Films Podcast

Many viewers of last year's Beatles '64 seemed to ask the question: "Why does this exist when we already have The First US Visit?" So we thought we'd have a go at an answer. This is a 1991 re-edit of the Maysles brothers' original 1964 Granada TV film What's Happening! The Beatles in the USA, and a much straighter, more chronological telling of the short tour's story using much of the same footage. We ask how this compares to Beatles '64, and in particular we discuss the effect of having no narration or talking heads, and whether this creates a void of context that needs filling. Apple later bought the rights and released it on DVD in 2004, and we look at how Apple's approach to documentary releases differs 20 years on, now the Beatles legacy project is in full swing.You can pick up the Apple DVD easily enough. The film is also on archive.org at the moment, but who knows for how long ... https://g.co/kgs/Y26cAufThe "making of" documentary included on the DVD, which we both generally preferred to the film itself: https://youtu.be/38jmSpSPujYThe best we can do for a copy of What's Happening! The Beatles in the USA is here, but it's only 38 minutes of what should be an hour and 21, so: https://archive.org/details/vts-01-3_2020117 Seconds by Youssou N'Dour and Neneh Cherry, the soundtrack to Ed's 1994 French exchange: https://youtu.be/wqCpjFMvz-kWe Love You Beatles by The Carefrees: as Matt warns, listen at your own risk: https://youtu.be/Hj3A3WcjBDEMeet the Beatles Films PodcastThe 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:Instagram https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspodBluesky https://bsky.app/profile/beatlesfilmspod.bsky.socialYouTube https://www.youtube.com/@BeatlesFilmsPodcastX https://x.com/beatlesfilmpodFacebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to this year's Christmas special in which we, the fearless investigative journalists that we are, refuse to be silenced and meet head-on the issue the mainstream media doesn't want us to: can Paul McCartney make mashed potatoes?On 17 December 1998 Paul took part in a live webcast to promote Wide Prairie, a compilation album of Linda's songs, released six months after her death in April 1998. In it he fronted a cookery segment in which he made mashed potatoes as part of a promotion for her book: Linda McCartney on Tour: Over 200 Meat-free Dishes from Around the World. We ask: does his addition of raw onions into the dish represent a bold embrace of the avant garde, betraying the influence of Stockhausen? How significant is it that Paul chose the DIY ethic of a webcast whose content he could control when he was grieving for his wife? And how else did Paul and George Harrison interact with the early internet from the late nineties? Merry Christmas and thanks as always for your support this year. We'll be back with season six in January.Watch the whole webcast (this link will also take you straight to the mashed potatoes segment): https://youtu.be/plrN81ISkh4?si=XM2FPqDxsQzdmxdv&t=3768Some info about The Fireman webcast from 2 October 1998, although no footage is available (unless you've got some?): https://lostmediawiki.com/The_Fireman_(lost_live_Youth_and_Paul_McCartney%27s_band_internet_webcast;_1998)Watch Grateful Dead: A Photofilm by Paul and Linda McCartney: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2m7NkYfJCYcAn example of The Big Breakfast, the 1990s UK TV show with a similar crew-participation ethic: https://youtu.be/LFqPHv7nh1AThe clip from Sleepless in Seattle we mention: https://youtu.be/BHs6iLRvAQMMeet the Beatles Films PodcastThe 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:Twitter https://twitter.com/beatlesfilmpodFacebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622/Instagram https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspodYouTube https://www.youtube.com/@BeatlesFilmsPodcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

ANOTHER new Beatles film. It's almost as if the runaway (for which read: very underwhelming) success of a podcast on the subject has led to a surfeit of new releases.And underwhelming is the key word here: yes, Peter Bradshaw can somehow write a five-star review in the Guardian without once mentioning whether the actual film is good or bad, but for those of us at the coalface of Beatles films appraisal it's a bit more nuanced. What is the film actually trying to say? How much work have Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr put into this official Apple release? Fair enough, they're in their eighties, but still. And does the mention of Martin Scorsese suggest more prestige than the film actually delivers?You can watch Beatles '64 on Disney+: https://www.disneyplus.com/movies/beatles-64/mxZO6yBpYWOqWatch the trailer: https://youtu.be/XLzMtQJnH8kSee Paul's Instagram story which was definitely shot on the same day he did his interview for this film: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6gxsThsAOV/Leonard Bernstein talking about the Beatles in the 1967 documentary Inside Pop: The Rock Revolution: https://youtu.be/v32U0mjGz6gElaine Kim's cover of All My Loving, as used in the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrFx2LZB7D4Meet the Beatles Films PodcastThe 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:Twitter https://twitter.com/beatlesfilmpodFacebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622/Instagram https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspodYouTube https://www.youtube.com/@BeatlesFilmsPodcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's taken a while to get here, but Brian Epstein biopic Midas Man, starring Jacob Fortune-Lloyd, is released on Prime Video today, 30 October 2024. We got a chance to see it at an advance screening and we think there's lots in there for Beatles fans to enjoy. Among the items up for discussion here: the performances as the Beatles by Jonah Lees, Blake Richardson, Leo Harvey-Elledge, Campbell Wallace and Adam Lawrence are all excellent. Did being less central characters free the actors up to focus more on mannerisms and delivery? Could you transplant them straight into the Sam Mendes biopics on this basis? How well does the film get around not being able to use Lennon/McCartney songs?Watch Midas Man on Prime Video. We understand this is a release in the UK only for now, with international release to be confirmed: https://www.primevideo.com/detail/Midas-Man/0L8KQBPKMK7JQHBNO8K7KBOK2KWatch the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzDYxAwoUWkIMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12627606/Jacob Fortune-Lloyd's article about finding the character of Brian: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/understanding-brian-epsteinThe story of Dizz Gillespie, represented in the film as Tex Ellington, is told both in The Love You Make: An Insider's Story of the Beatles by Peter Brown and Steven Gaines, and by Devin McKinney at https://www.heydullblog.com/brian-epstein/the-dizz-gillespie-story/IMDb and trailer for 2021's Creation Stories, with a clip of Leo-Harvey Elledge (George in Midas Man) as Liam Gallagher: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5693182/Vanity Fair doing the Lord's work and writing up the Hanks/Fonz beef from Turner & Hooch so we didn't have to: https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2020/01/tom-hanks-henry-winkler-feudMeet the Beatles Films PodcastThe 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:Twitter https://twitter.com/beatlesfilmpodFacebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622/Instagram https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspodYouTube https://www.youtube.com/@BeatlesFilmsPodcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.