04/04/2014 The Film Review

Aintree. All in sports day at 6. 30. Now on BBC news it is time for the

film review. Hello and welcome to the Film Review

and BBC News, what have we got? As I am sure you know, this is the week

that Noah opens, the great big controversial or is

or is it biblical epic. We have Mark Cousins' A Story Of Children And

Film, and The Double by Richard Ayoade. We have all been waiting for

Noah in different ways! You basically know the plot, the period

after the creation, the rains are going to come down, Noah has a

vision that he needs to build a massive ark, he will put all the

animals in it. There has been a lot of controversy over whether this

takes to the big book version. I love people being annoyed about a

film`maker taking liberties with the story of a six hole digger `` a

600`year`old man hearing voices in his head. But Darren Aronofsky has

taken inspiration from a number of sources, and the Bible is only one

of them. Consequently, we have a great big, romping epic, closer to

George Lucas than it is to Genesis, in which you have Noah as this

increasingly mad figure, literally driven bonkers by these demands to

do something, which seem really outrageous, and on the other hand

Ray Winstone as sort of the reason that the creator, not..., the

creator is sending the rain. Here is a clip.

When I heard talk of miracles, I dismissed them. But then I saw the

birds with my own eyes and I had to come. There isn't anything for you

here. This all belongs to me. This land, this forest. That stronghold

of yours. Did you really think you could protect yourself from me in

that? It's not protection from you. Then what is it? An ark ` to hold

the innocent when the creator sends his deluge to wipe out the wicked

from this world. Return to your cities of Cain! Know we have all

been judged! I have men at my back and you stand alone and defy me? I'm

not alone. It is not a 1950s biblical epic, is

it? Definitely 21st century. It is a science`fiction and fantasy movie,

and good for it. Many people familiar with the story from the

Bible will not run but that there are six gigantic rock monsters,

Angels, who looked like the bold of monster from Galaxy Quest, they do a

lot of the building of the ark. Darren Aronofsky has said, this is a

myth, a story that resonates through west and east, through a number of

religions, let's just go with it. He's great with human obsession,

Black Swan, how it destroys people and how their minds change, and that

sounds a bit like Noah here. You definitely get that with Russell

Crowe's Noah, who becomes an extremist eco`warrior, save the

animals and let everybody else try one. He becomes incredibly

unsympathetic, he is somebody who is borderline mad. Actually, if we get

into his character and believe in the character, and for a lot of it

we do not, it is because of Jennifer Connelly, who places long`suffering

wife, who enables the human contact. The film is terribly

flawed, utterly preposterous, occasionally exasperating, but it is

to be congratulated for being as out there as it is. I like the fact that

are not he has said, I am going to do a version of the Noah story, it

is pretty madcap already, let's just go for it. There are moments with

the walking rock angels, you could hear people in the screening going,

what?! It is a great big romping science`fiction movie that has a

biblical connection in the background. It is what it is. It is

what it is! I am a very big fan of Mark Cousins. Who isn't, frankly? He

has made a beautiful documentary about the portrayal of children in

film, and it is basically a visual essay. He starts with a film that he

made in a zone of his nephew and niece playing, and he starts looking

at it and saying that he sees in their faces all these different

expressions, you know, at times moody, showing off, sad. Then he

says, let's look at how these expressions have occurred throughout

the history of cinema. He takes us on a trip that goes over decades,

continents, formats, from old silent film to modern video, and he does so

in a way that only he could do. It is lyrical, poetic, you be like you

are learning about cinema, but most importantly you are watching the

creation of a work of art. He is a critic on the one hand, but he is an

artist, a genuine poet of the moving image. And it is the breadth of

knowledge, extraordinary. He writes beautifully. In terms of research,

there is stuff... The research is extraordinary, but it is done with

such a light touch, at one point he is in Van Gogh's bedroom, looking at

a beauty obsessed over, then the Isle of Skye, and all the way

through is this almost fairy tale sense that you are being led through

like a fable. I was enchanted by it, but also really impressed, just with

the scope of film knowledge. I mean, he is one of film knowledge. I mean,

he is one`of`a`kind about doubles, because I think it is a really

hacked device for saying, let's give him an evil twin, here here we go.

It is a Richard Ayoade film inspired by Dusty Askey, it is a future retro

setting, Jesse Eisenberg is an obvious Schlupp, turned upside down

by the arrival of a double who is everything he is not, confident,

forthright and somebody who gets his way in the world. Here is a clip.

What'll it be? What, do you want to... Sorry, I'll just have a Coke

and a bagel. We're out of bagels. Oh, right, then...right, then I'll

just... Come on. I'll just... I'll just have the Coke, then, I guess.

Coke, and you? A coffee and scrambled eggs. We don't serve

breakfast in the evening. Why not? Because it says so on the menu.

Well, do you still have eggs here? Yeah. And do have a frying pan?

Yeah. Then do me a favour and make me some scrambled eggs. Fine,

anything else? Bacon and toast and a beer. And a beer, anything else? No,

that's it. Are you sure? Just get me the damn food!

I am converted, Jesse Eisenberg is terrific. He is very good in that

dual role, they are two very distinct characters. One of the

things that is interesting about this, when you watch it, you see

some of Terry Gilliam's Brazil, such a brilliantly designed film, the

high watermark of that dystopian future fantasy. You can you from the

sound effects, it has the rumbling industrial groaning of Eraserhead.

He does well to dramatise this arts editor paranoia, where somebody who

looks exactly like you is in the world and nobody else notices.

Occasionally, its point of reference are too obvious. As soon as you

start evoking Brazil and Eraserhead, those are hard films to live up to,

but it does a pretty good job of it. It has that grey`green `brown sense

of industrial conformity, and there is, as I said, this great sense of

absurdist paranoia. You are in a world that makes no sense, but it

appears to make sense to everyone other than you. So you enter into it

completely. Presumably Jesse Eisenberg's performances, two

different characters are the key. If that doesn't work, the movie

doesn't. Everything we saw about them, their stands, their manner,

and we saw in the clip, what makes it worse is that there is this other

version of himself doing well, and he starts being edged out of his own

life, which is a very Woody Allen idea, but it works well. Your best

of the week is the French film The Past. I love this, Asghar Farhadi

making a film in France, a wonderful performance by Berenice Bejo, who we

saw in the Artist, a wonderful physical performer. It is a really

intelligent and insightful look at the changing nature of relationships

and about people's inability to escape the past. And I think it is

wonderful, you should definitely see it, I know you liked the Separation.

Very much, but how far is this the clash of civilisations idea as well?

An Iranian film`maker, Berenice Bejo, who is not. Working in a

language which is not his own. One of the terrific things is that he

has an eye for culture, Separation is about a couple and the culture

they are in. This is, similarly, about marriages and divorces, but it

is about the French setting, and I think he is about the French

setting, and I think he's a genuinely international film`maker.

I think you could put him anywhere in the world and he would understand

what was specific about that culture, but also what was

universal. You picked Frozen, I have not opened it yet! White?! I thought

it would be a bit schmaltzy and I have not had time. This is

terrific, it is basically them doing what they do best, it is a fairy

tale which you sort of know, but it has been revised to have a young,

modern message. The ending of it breaks a number of boundaries, which

I thought was handled well. The songs are fabulous, the animation is

really lovely to look at, a kind of land of ice, I saw it in the cinema

and on DVD, and for home viewing it worked every bit as well. I think it

is a modern classic, and I think they have done really well. Who is

it for? Disney say everybody. The great joys of the classic Disneys is

that they are kind for everybody, if you go back and look at the classic

animations, they work the ages. You could take a child to see this, and

you would be laughing as much as they would, but I am saying you very

specifically ` you would be enchanted by it! Give it a go, it is

a really, really charming film. You have sold to me. Thank you very

much, you will find more film news and reviews from Mark on his blog.

That is it for this week, thank you for watching and goodbye.

Good evening! I do not think the weather is exactly going to be as

spectacular this weekend, most places will get wet at some point,

there will be some