Jukebox; or, You’re Not the Only One With Problems
What unites the three apparently very different films of this 10th, Jukebox episode of Hard Truths? In Sidney Lumet’s The Offence (1972), Sean Connery plays a detective-sergeant who has seen too much. Milton Moses Ginsberg’s underseen, Rip Torn-starring arthouse gem Coming Apart (1969) charts the psychological unravelling of a New York psychiatrist who takes to recording his clients’ appointments without their knowledge. Finally in Darren Aronofsky's Caught Stealing (2025), Austin Butler’s aimless bartender confronts past trauma via a whole new bunch of trauma. That’s right: all three films are about men’s pain – and, to varying degrees, about the sense of entitlement of these struggling lead protagonists. Elena and Manuela leave no stones unturned as they discuss these three films by way of Severance, the manosphere, and the corporate girlies.Hard Truths is an Animus film podcast. Every other week, Animus founder and editor Elena Lazic catches up from London, UK, with her twin Manuela, who can usually be found across the pond in Paris. Expect animated conversations about cinema, digressions into unrelated topics, and trivial facts from our personal lives. Do NOT expect to immediately be able to tell us apart. Hard Truths is made possible by True Cinephile paying members who, for £3.50/month or £35/year, access all instalments of the advice column for cinephiles Psycho. two days early, and more.
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1:25:12
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1:25:12
Julia Ducournau
From the ultraviolence of Raw (2016) to the over-the-top silliness of Palme d’Or-winner Titane (2021) and the emo intensity of Alpha (2025): the cinema of French director Julia Ducournau is hard to ignore. With Alpha now playing in French cinemas, Elena and Manuela gather in London to talk about the ideas lurking behind these films’ infamous shock value.Hard Truths is an Animus film podcast. Every other week, Animus founder and editor Elena Lazic catches up from London, UK, with her twin Manuela, who can usually be found across the pond in Paris. Expect animated conversations about cinema, digressions into unrelated topics, and trivial facts from our personal lives. Do NOT expect to immediately be able to tell us apart. Hard Truths is made possible by True Cinephile paying members who, for £3.50/month or £35/year, access all instalments of the advice column for cinephiles Psycho. two days early, and more.
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1:20:13
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1:20:13
Ari Aster
With just four feature films, American filmmaker Ari Aster has established himself as one of the foremost voices of our phone-addicted, psychically damaged, paranoid generation. As his 2020-set neo-western Eddington comes out in cinemas this summer, Elena and Manuela—recording together in the rich soundscape of Elena’s garden—discuss the film (without any spoilers) in light of Aster’s previous work, and vice versa: from the perspective of Aster’s absurdist masterwork Beau Is Afraid (2023), the humour in his breakout horror hit Hereditary (2018) becomes much more apparent, while the director’s cut of Midsommar (2019) reveals a biting, darkly funny takedown of gaslighting and cowardice in relationships, and in all of human behaviour. Hard Truths is an Animus film podcast. Every other week, Animus founder and editor Elena Lazic catches up from London, UK, with her twin Manuela, who can usually be found across the pond in Paris. Expect animated conversations about cinema, digressions into unrelated topics, and trivial facts from our personal lives. Do NOT expect to immediately be able to tell us apart. Hard Truths is made possible by True Cinephile paying members who, for £3.50/month or £35/year, access all instalments of the advice column for cinephiles Psycho. two days early, and more.
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1:18:43
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1:18:43
‘F1’ and ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’
Two massive stars fight for relevance in two of this summer’s blockbusters: Brad Pitt in Joseph Kosinski’s F1, and Tom Cruise in Christopher McQuarrie’s Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. Both have things to hide, and things to prove. In this episode of Hard Truths, Elena and Manuela discuss the cinematic merits, perverse pleasures, and unavoidable offense of these two morally compromised, big-budget tentpoles.Angelica Jade Bastién’s article, “Brad Pitt Is Fooling You”, in Vulture.Hard Truths is an Animus film podcast. Every other week, Animus founder and editor Elena Lazic catches up from London, UK, with her twin Manuela, who can usually be found across the pond in Paris. Expect animated conversations about cinema, digressions into unrelated topics, and trivial facts from our personal lives. Do NOT expect to immediately be able to tell us apart. Hard Truths is made possible by True Cinephile paying members who, for £3.50/month or £35/year, access all instalments of the advice column for cinephiles Psycho. two days early, and more.
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56:53
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56:53
Il Cinema Ritrovato
Recording together in the same room for the first time in Hard Truths history, Elena and Manuela discuss the wonders of Il Cinema Ritrovato directly from Bologna, Italy, where the annual repertory cinema festival organised by Cineteca di Bologna takes place. Talking about some of the prints and restorations playing there this year, they identify a timeless theme running through many of the films they’ve seen: namely, the plight of women. The films discussed are (in chronological order of release): THE SALVATION HUNTERS (Josef von Sternberg, 1925)EROTIKON (Gustav Machatý, 1929)RAIN (Lewis Milestone, 1932)ALICE ADAMS (George Stevens, 1935)DEATH IS A CARESS (Edith Carlmar, 1949)BITTER RICE (Giuseppe De Santis, 1949) SUMMERTIME (David Lean, 1955) ESTERINA (Carlo Lizzani, 1959)CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (Steven Spielberg, 1977)Hard Truths is an Animus film podcast. Every other week, Animus founder and editor Elena Lazic catches up from London, UK, with her twin Manuela, who can usually be found across the pond in Paris. Expect animated conversations about cinema, digressions into unrelated topics, and trivial facts from our personal lives. Do NOT expect to immediately be able to tell us apart. Hard Truths is made possible by True Cinephile paying members who, for £3.50/month or £35/year, access all instalments of the advice column for cinephiles Psycho. two days early, and more.
Every other week, Animus founder and editor Elena Lazic catches up from London, UK, with her twin Manuela, who can usually be found across the pond in Paris. Expect animated conversations about cinema, digressions into unrelated topics, and trivial facts from our personal lives. Do NOT expect to immediately be able to tell us apart.
Hard Truths is made possible by True Cinephile paying members who, for £3.50/month or £35/year, access all instalments of the advice column for cinephiles Psycho., all eps of The French Dispatch podcast, and more: https://animus-magazine.ghost.io/#/portal/signup
France