Couple Indemnity

The Lives of Others (2006)

Izzy's choice this week is a highly-respected German BAFTA and Academy Award winning movie called The Lives of Others (2006), set in East Berlin in 1984, an agent (Ulrich Muhe) of the secret police conducting surveillance on a writer and his lover finds himself becoming increasingly absorbed by their lives.
Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck

Dial M for Murder (1954)

Hal has returned this week with one of his all-time favourite Hitchcock movies, Dial M for Murder, the incredible one-room mystery thriller starring Ray Milland as Tony Wendice, who plans to murder his wife (Grace Kelly) when he finds out that she had an affair with someone a year ago. He blackmails an old college associate (Anthony Dawson) to execute the crime but things don't work out as planned.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Aftersun (2022)

Izzy has selected yet another emotionally heavy movie for this week's episode with the 2022 coming-of-age drama Aftersun. Sophie (played by Frankie Corio) reflects on the shared joy and private melancholy of a holiday she took with her father (Paul Mescal) twenty years earlier. Memories real and imagined fill the gaps between miniDV footage as she tries to reconcile the father she knew with the man she didn’t.
Director: Charlotte Wells

Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky (2005)

This week Hal has selected the BBC three-part period drama Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky, a story of unrequited love set in the 1930's, against the backdrop of grimy streets and public houses. 
Revolving around The Midnight Bell, a public house off the Euston Road, it follows the painful pursuit of love from three different perspectives. Barman Bob (Bryan Dick), who yearns for penniless street-walker Jenny (Zoe Tapper). Bob's colleague Ella (Sally Hawkins), who is torn between the attentions of an older, wealthier man and her secret desire for her barman workmate.
Director: Simon Curtis

The Bridges of Madison County (1995)

Izzy has gone big on the romance scale with her selection this week and has chosen The Bridges of Madison County, a moving love story about a photographer (Clint Eastwood) on assignment to shoot the historic bridges of Madison County. He meets a housewife (Meryl Streep), whose husband and children are away on a trip, and the film traces a brief affair that is never sordid but instead one of two soul mates who have met later in life.
Director: Clint Eastwood
 

Witness for the Prosecution (1957)

Hal has selected the classic legal mystery drama Witness for the Prosecution this week, directed by one of our favourites in Billy Wilder.
The plot centres around an ailing famous barrister (Charles Laughton) who agrees to defend a man (Tyrone Power) in a sensational murder trial where his self-possessed wife’s unconvincing testimony confuses him.
Director: Billy Wilder

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Izzy has really stepped up her podcast selection game this week by choosing Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). Indy (Harrison Ford) and his feisty ex-flame Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen) dodge booby-traps, fight enemies and stare down snakes in their incredible worldwide quest for the mystical Ark of the Covenant. Experience one exciting cliff-hanger after another when you discover adventure with the one and only Indiana Jones.
Director: Steven Spielberg

Strangers on a Train (1951)

We are back with another cracker in the Alfred Hitchcock marathon and this week Hal has selected Strangers on a Train (1951), the film adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's novel. 
Tennis player Guy Haines (Farley Granger) is enraged by his wife's refusal to finalise their divorce so he can wed senator's daughter Anne (Ruth Roman). He strikes up a conversation with a stranger, Bruno Anthony (Robert Walker), and unwittingly sets in motion a deadly chain of events. Psychopathic Bruno kills Guy's wife, then urges Guy to reciprocate by killing Bruno's father. Meanwhile, Guy is murder suspect number one.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)

Izzy has gone all Arthouse this week and selected the highly acclaimed French historical romance ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’.
On an isolated island in Brittany at the end of the eighteenth century, a female painter is obliged to paint a wedding portrait of a young woman.
Director: Celine Sciamma

Days of Wine and Roses (1962)

Hal has come back with another of his heavy-hitters this week by selecting the powerful romantic drama starring Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick, depicting the downward spiral of two average Americans who succumb to alcoholism and their repeated attempts to deal with their problems. 
Director: Blake Edwards