Her Head in Films

In this episode, I talk about Gabriel Axel's 1987 film, "Babette's Feast." The film follows Martine and Filippa—two sisters devoted to a small religious community in Denmark—and Babette, a French refugee and former chef who comes to live with them. When Babette prepares a feast to honor the centenary of their father’s birth, the meal becomes an act of artistic and emotional offering.

I talk about what it means to offer something from the heart, how the film portrays art as a form of generosity, and how the experience of the meal brings the community back to life and to each other.

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My Sources:

Babette's Feast: "Mercy and Truth Have Met Together" by Mark Le Fanu

Babette's Feast: A Fable for Culinary France by Priscilla Parkhurst Ferguson

In this episode, I talk about Douglas Sirk’s 1955 film, "All That Heaven Allows," starring Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson. The film follows Cary Scott, a widow in a conservative suburban community who falls in love with a younger, working-class man, and must decide whether she will conform to social expectations or defend a love that transforms her life.

"All That Heaven Allows" is a luminous and deeply emotional film about fear, conformity, and the courage it takes to live in a way that is true to yourself. It asks what a woman is allowed to want, what she is allowed to desire, and whether love is worth fighting for in a world that would rather see her diminish herself. In this episode, I reflect on love as an act of bravery and what it means to watch this film as a woman near Cary’s age. I also consider how Sirk’s melodrama speaks to the female spectator by taking female desire seriously.

If you’d like to support my work and get access to bonus episodes and exclusive posts, you can join me on Patreon: patreon.com/herheadinfilmspodcast.

You can follow me on Letterboxd. My email is [email protected].

My Sources:

AFI entry about All That Heaven Allows

All That Heaven Allows: An Articulate Screen

Jane Wyman and All That Heaven Allows

Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed

Behind the Mirror: A Profile of Douglas Sirk

Encyclopedia Britannica article about Douglas Sirk

In this episode, I talk about Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s 1948 film, "The Red Shoes." It centers on Vicky Page, a young ballet dancer whose extraordinary talent brings her into a world where art demands total devotion and where love and ambition collide.
I discuss "The Red Shoes" as a meditation on artistic calling, female ambition, and the desire for greatness. I’m interested in how the film portrays a woman who refuses to live a small life, and what happens when her boundless creative drive cannot be contained by the world around her.
If you’d like to support my work and get access to bonus episodes and exclusive posts, you can join me on Patreon: patreon.com/herheadinfilmspodcast.
You can follow me on Letterboxd. My email is [email protected].
My Sources:
The Red Shoes (BFI Classics) by Pamela Hutchinson
Original fairy tale by Hans Christian Anderson
Ian Christie on The Red Shoes
The Red Shoes: Dancing for Your Life by David Ehrenstein
Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke

In this episode, I talk about Dianne Jackson's beloved 1982 animated film, "The Snowman." Adapted from Raymond Briggs’s wordless book, the film follows a young boy who builds a snowman that comes to life, and together they share a brief night of wonder and connection.  
I reflect on how the film holds both joy and tenderness, and how its playful scenes have brought me comfort during my first Christmas without my mother. She was my last remaining parent, and watching this film has helped me think about memory, grief, and the impermanence of life. I hope this episode offers solace to anyone who is grieving during the holidays.
If you’d like to support my work and get access to bonus episodes and exclusive posts, you can join me on Patreon: patreon.com/herheadinfilmspodcast.
You can follow me on Letterboxd. My email is [email protected].
My Sources:
https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/raymond-briggs-the-snowman-christmas
https://animationobsessive.substack.com/p/the-specialness-of-the-snowman
https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/snowman-who-has-spent-40-years-warming-our-hearts
https://www.thesnowman.com/about/
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/dec/22/how-the-snowman-melted-david-bowies-heart-raymond-briggs
The making of The Snowman: https://youtu.be/hIrbQ_9LSLU
Original story boards: https://youtu.be/FWOM-hIimjI
The Snowman in HD: https://youtu.be/5A3THighARU?si=L4faPi0UIkOdawZb
Raymond Briggs: Snowmen, Bogeymen, and Milkmen: https://youtu.be/fR3GO6uI2TQ?si=W_qaDXoyXXu9-UTa

In this episode, I talk about Francis Ford Coppola’s 1974 film, "The Conversation." The film follows Harry Caul, a wiretapper in San Francisco who becomes obsessed with a recording he’s made of a young couple in a crowded park. As Harry pieces together fragments of their conversation, he’s drawn into a spiral of paranoia, guilt, and loneliness.
I explore what makes "The Conversation" a masterpiece—not just as a film about surveillance and paranoia, but as an intimate character study. I talk about Harry’s profound loneliness, his complicity in his own alienation, and the psychic toll of a life spent surveilling others from a distance. 
If you’d like to support my work and get access to bonus episodes and exclusive posts, you can join me on Patreon: patreon.com/herheadinfilmspodcast.
You can follow me on Letterboxd. My email is [email protected].
My Sources:
Interview between Brian De Palma and Francis Ford Coppola
'The Conversation:' Francis Ford Coppola's Paranoia-Ridden Tale of Surveillance, Guilt, and Isolation