This month, the new era of Hell Is For Hyphenates begins proper! (If you don’t know what this means, you probably missed last month’s show. There’s still time to catch up.)

We’re delighted to be joined this month by guest Blake Howard, who first mentioned his love of Michael Mann to us over two years ago! We made a note of this, and thought this month would be an ideal time to invite Blake onto the show to talk through his love of one of modern cinema’s most divisive auteurs.

And that led us to another idea. From the beginning of the show, whenever we’d described our middle segment to people – the part of the show where we would often deal with topical issues facing cinema – we would always cite “film vs digital” as the sort of thing we’d debate. Only recently did we realise we’d never actually covered that topic, so this felt like the perfect time.

With film preservation in the news lately thanks to quotes from Christopher Nolan and Quentin Tarantino, and with Michael Mann being one of the pioneering figures of digital cinema, we thought this was the time to finally address cinema’s biggest 21^st century debate.

But that’s not all! We also look at some key new releases of this month, including Robert Zemeckis’s The Walk, Justin Kurzel’s Macbeth, and Brian Helgeland’s Legend.

So download or stream us from our website, listen in via Stitcher Smart Radio, or subscribe to us via iTunes. No matter how, where or why you consume the show, we hope you enjoy it.

Further reading:

Blake states in this episode that he thinks Stanley Kubrick might have embraced digital technology. He’s not alone: Steven Soderbergh has made a similar claim. And although Blake was talking about digital photography and Soderbergh was talking about digital projection/home cinema, it’s an interesting point to consider.

Outro music: “Force Marker” written by Brian Eno, from Heat (1995)

The new era of Hell Is For Hyphenates is here! What will it sound like? Nobody knows! You’ll have to tune in on October 31 to find out. But this is a show all about the guests, so allow us to introduce our October 2015 Hyphenate, Blake Howard.

Blake is a film critic, writer and podcaster based in Sydney. He’s the editor-in-chief and co-founder of Graffiti With Punctuation, the popular Australian film and TV website. He began as the co-host of That Movie Show on 2UE, and currently co-hosts the podcasts Pod Save Our Screen with Maria Lewis, and The Debrief with Cam Williams. Thankfully, he’s not too podded out, and will be joining us at the end of the month to talk some more film.

But which filmmaker has Blake chosen to talk about?

None other than the master of the modern crime noir, Michael Mann!

Michael Mann is probably best known for the 1995 crime thriller Heat, which pitted Al Pacino and Robert De Niro against one another for the first time, finally seeing the pair share the screen after their missed connections in Godfather Part II. Prior to then, Mann had put himself on the map with the likes of The Jericho Mile, Thief, The Last of the Mohicans, and the first on-screen appearance of Hannibal Lecter in Manhunter.

Recently, Mann has been noted for his foray into digital photography, creating his own aesthetic long before the rest of cinema had gone digital. From 2004’s Collateral onwards, his films took on a distinct look that has divided critics and audiences. From Miami Vice to Public Enemies to this year’s Blackhat, Mann has established a visual texture that is unlike that of any other filmmaker.

But what is it about Mann that appeals to Blake? Join us on October 31 to find out!