In this episode, I talk about William Wyler’s 1949 film, "The Heiress." Olivia de Havilland plays Catherine Sloper, a shy and sheltered woman living with her cold father in Washington Square, New York in the mid-1800s. When she meets an attractive and alluring man played by Montgomery Clift, she falls passionately in love for the first time, but their relationship will force her to confront painful truths about love and desire.

I talk about how the film explores heartbreak and transformation, and how it charts a woman’s devastating but powerful journey from innocence to experience, from illusion to reality, and toward a deeper understanding of herself.

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 herheadinfilms@gmail.com.

My Sources:

• Article about the film, written by Frank Miller for Turner Classic Movies
• "The Heiress:" A Cruel Inheritance by Pamela Hutchinson for Criterion Collection
• Toni Morrison quote is from a 2015 documentary, "The Life of Toni Morrison"

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.

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 herheadinfilms@gmail.com.

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 herheadinfilms@gmail.com.

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 herheadinfilms@gmail.com.

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 herheadinfilms@gmail.com.

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 herheadinfilms@gmail.com.

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

In this special episode, I talk about why I’ve launched a new Patreon for Her Head in Films. This isn’t just about supporting a podcast—it’s about helping me stay afloat in a very difficult and uncertain time in my life. After losing my mom and becoming the sole provider for my household, I’m trying to rebuild from nothing. I work multiple jobs, and I’m doing everything I can to survive while continuing to create something meaningful.

This podcast is my soul work. It’s how I stay alive. It’s the archive of my emotional life, my grief, and my love for cinema. If you’ve ever felt connected to what I do here—if my voice has meant something to you—I invite you to join me on Patreon. Your support helps me keep going.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/herheadinfilmspodcast

You can follow me on Instagram, Letterboxd, and Tumblr. My email is herheadinfilms@gmail.com.

In this episode, I talk about Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s 1972 film, "The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant." The film tells the story of Petra, a successful fashion designer in a complicated and obsessive relationship with a younger woman named Karin. Set almost entirely in Petra’s apartment, the film unravels the entanglements of power, desire, and emotional dependency.

This episode is one of my most personal. I reflect on the ways the film mirrors an experience I had with unrequited love—an experience that consumed me for over two years. I talk about the madness and chaos of desire, the pain of not being chosen, and the way obsession can distort how we see ourselves and others.

Note: This episode was recorded before my mother's death. That is why I talk about her in the present tense.

You can follow me on Instagram, Letterboxd, and Tumblr. My email is herheadinfilms@gmail.com.

My Sources:

• Mise en Scène as Power Struggle by Jonathan Rosenbaum
• Melodrama and the Remake: The Cinematic Influence of Douglas Sirk on Fassbinder
• Hanna Schygulla on working with Fassbinder
• What is New German Cinema?
• New German Cinema