Looking Behind, Looking Ahead
A look back at the first year of Reading Movies and the what is to come.
Welcome to Reading Movies,
I'm your host, PT Klein.
Like Janus, the dual-headed god of beginnings and endings familiar to many cinephiles, I am using the first few weeks of 2025 to take one quick look back at the year behind and another forwards toward the year ahead.
I started Reading Movies in early 2024 to write about movies in a relaxed place and at a relaxed pace. This irregular arrangement allows me to publishes pieces about the pathos of monster movies or how Charlie Chaplin presents laughter as a critical tool in our arsenal against rising fascism at home and abroad while also affording me the space and opportunity to work with a variety of other writers, thinkers, and film fanatics in scholarly and public-facing capacities. In many regards, then, 2024 was both busy and momentous for me. So, let's take a look back.
In July and August, I spoke with Brian Rowe and friends on A Piece of Pie: The Queer Film Podcast. We considered, for example, the queer affordances of films like Roy Ward Baker's 1954 A Night to Remember and James Cameron's 1997 blockbuster Titanic—both decidedly heterosexual and straight-laced but with large homosexual fanbases. In another episode, we also talked about the later works of two auteurs, Quentin Tarantino and Paul Thomas Anderson.
UK-based strategy consult Aaron Ellis invited me to speak with him about the intersections of film, history, and strategy a few times throughout the second half of the year as well. In "You Can't Abuse Me If I'm Laughing At You," we turned to Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator to consider strategies for fighting contemporary fascist political movements. Then, in early November, I returned to Aaron's podcast to talk about ten films that best explore American electoral politics. Most recently, I spoke with Aaron about the ways that the James Bond films critique the private accumulation of wealth and a cultural desire for a reset of neoliberal politics.
I also had the chance to speak with Jason Christian and Anthony Ballas with Cold War Cinema, a podcast that explores midcentury political paranoia and cultural anxieties through film. We discussed Charlie Chaplin's 1947 shot across the bow, Monsieur Verdoux, a film that boldly critiques state-sponsored violence and the role of capitalism and the development of fascist politics. It's one of my favorite films, and one of my favorite conversations of the year.
I also spent part of the year completing research on major projects related to my scholarship. Back in March, I presented "Titanic Emotions: The Affective Appeal of the Cinema of Disasters," original research on three midcentury films that deal with the 1912 sinking of RMS Titanic, at a conference in Washington, DC.
More recently, I attended the American Historical Association's 2025 annual conference in New York City to present "The Way We Watch: American Filmgoing Finds Form, 1946-1962," and argued that midcentury technological, commercial, and political instabilities crystalized filmgoing practices into today’s recognizable forms.
Looking forward at the upcoming year, I have plenty to keep me busy! In addition to publishing more work on topics like past and present exhibition technologies, Charlie Chaplin, and Frankenstein features, in April I will present new research about the history of movie theater popcorn and concessions at the Society of Cinema and Media Studies 2025 annual conference in Chicago.
I also have features planned for Reading Movies that tackle important topics in media literacy and political aesthetics.
You may have also noticed that I've migrated Reading Movies from Mailchimp to Ghost. I made this change to give me more flexibility and to provide a more stable online home for this writing. In moving to Ghost, I've created new subscription tiers. Reading Movies will continue to be free to read and irregular for the time being, but for those inclined, an annual or monthly subscription helps subsidize hosting and domain costs, and goes a long way in supporting my work as a film historian and cultural critic.
Thank you for joining me, and until next time, I'll see you at the movies!
PT
