Under Milk Wood, Fresh Dressed and Black Souls The Film Review


Under Milk Wood, Fresh Dressed and Black Souls

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third fourth place play-off between South Africa and Argentina. That is

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on sports day at half six. Now, it is time for the film review.

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Welcome to the Film Review on BBC News. Anna Smith is with me. What

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have we got? We have Under Milk Wood, an adaptation of a Dylan

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Thomas form. Charlotte Church appears in this. Next up we have

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Fresh Dressed. A documentary about hip-hop and its influence on fashion

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and culture. We have Pharrell Williams and Kanye West contributing

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to this one. Finally, Black Souls, a story of Mafia goings-on in southern

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Italy. Under Milk Wood, one of the great, great classics. What did you

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think on film? The last time we saw was 1972 with Elizabeth Taylor and

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Richard Burton. It is controversial to transit the lyrics and the poetry

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onto the screen and to add visuals. Think it is an interesting

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adaptation. Rhys Evans narrates. He has a lovely Welsh baritone that

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leads us through the Welsh village and shows us the goings on. There is

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not the characters. From a cliff there is a surreal element and Kevin

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Allison brings out the poetry. No good. Up to no good in the wash

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house. Polly Carter, end of the washing line. Nothing grows in our

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garden, all the washing and babies. Where is their father? Over the hill

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and far away. Oh, isn't life a terrible thing? What did you think?

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I liked it generally. It is a mixed bag. It is episodic, given the

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source material. You can dip in. The director to read music festivals

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which seems like a good fit. He had a caravan and people tumbled in and

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out watching bits of it. Some episodes work better than others.

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Charlotte Church is good. Other bits stretch it too far. He tries to get

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it back to the earthy, eroticism of the poetry. Also, it takes a lighter

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tone than some more morbid adaptations. There is a lot to do

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with sex and death in this. You get people longing for lost loves, but

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he inserts a light touch. I remember a university professor being towed

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by a student it would be fantastic to make films about Under Milk Wood

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and so on and he said it is a play for voices. What did you not get

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about this? The pictures will be a distraction. That is an argument. If

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you shut your eyes you get more from the words. You could say the same

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with any literary adaptation. Of course, his words were so evocative.

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This is a translation, but the director said he felt that if Dylan

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Thomas had lived longer, he would have got involved with them. He is

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saying, this is what he might have achieved. The other question is

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Richard Burton and his voice. You cannot match it. How does Rhys Evans

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did? He has done it very differently. He is less Anglicised.

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Richard Burton was former and Anglicised. Like Dylan Thomas was

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when he read Under Milk Wood. Now there is a lovely Welsh baritone and

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it adds a lighter touch. Fresh Dressed, there could be nothing more

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different. This is a documentary about the influence of the hip-hop

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scene, not so much the music but the culture that it had in the 80s and

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90s and the way we dress. Eventually, the catwalk, it is full

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of talking heads from their thoughts. It has animations breaking

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it down, talking about the jumpers, the shoes. Lots of commentary. It is

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interesting. It touches the surface, it is not exhaustive. As someone who

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didn't know much about that culture, I was educated. Prisons and prison

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culture, there is a political element which there always was in

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Public enemy. Going right back to the roots. I wonder whether it is

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aimed at those who are already interested, not something that will

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brighten up to a wider audience. You have to have a passing interest

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otherwise why would you say? The problem is because it is not

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exhaustive people will know it all already. For those in the scene,

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they will be interested because the people they enjoyed watching, and a

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lot of artists are featured, they talk about how the first war is not

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exhaustive people will know it all already. For those in the scene,

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they will be interested because the people they enjoyed watching, and a

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lot of artists are featured, they talk about how they first give their

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clothes away for free. They talk about branding. That is interesting

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because straight out of Compton which is out at the moment which is

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a similar kind of thing, it starts out with a revolutionary movement

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and ends with a row about right to music and money, which is quite

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interesting because that underlies this. It is a similar journey. We

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talk about everyone fighting over contracts for different brands and

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stars and how people are being mugged for their shoes and such

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like. Black Souls. A terrific film. Did very well at the Venice film

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Festival. The main focus is the Mafia in Calabria, organised crime,

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three brothers who move to Milan and come back to see their goat herding

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brother in trouble. We meet one of the main characters in this scene

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and he is doing a drug deal in Amsterdam with the Spanish.

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I guess people who have seen Gomorrah, which was also about the

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Mafia in Naples, this is about another branch, they will get this

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immediately. It is not Godfather. It is much less glamorous. This shows

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the authentic sound of it and the downside and when the action moves

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to Calabria we see how the tight-knit families are torn apart.

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Not in the grandiose way of the Godfather, but really horrible

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consequences. Most of the action takes place slaughtering goats or at

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funerals. It is pretty dark stuff and you have the family dinners were

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everyone makes connections and no one is talking about what they mean.

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It is a Mafia drama where everything bubbles under the surface. It is

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well done. If the Godfather was good Mafia versus bad Mafia, this is all

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terrible. It is a good film to watch. The lobster. This is one of

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the best films I have seen recently. Colin Pharrell plays a man who is in

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a strange feature where you have to live in a couple. If you do not have

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a partner you are turned into an animal of your choosing. It is no

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spoiler to the he escapes and finds a community of solo people where

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everything is on the flip side and you cannot be in a couple. It is

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absurd. The first up is much better than the second, but if you are a

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fan of the director and deadpan satire, it is well worth a watch. If

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you go in thinking it is absurd theatre from the 1950s with people

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saying ludicrous things but in a completely stripped conversational

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way like I will become a lobster because cannot find a mate, that is

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not a conversation most of makes it the film for you. If you have

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different expectations, it is not the film for you. I absolutely loved

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it. This is a horror movie, for Halloween. It is a low-budget film,

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a B-movie, unashamedly. It is werewolves on a train. It is

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British, so support British horror. It is about a train conductor on a

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train stopped outside London with a bunch of commuters all their

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characters developing and they are angry to be stuck but they are

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scared that there are werewolves outside ready to get them. I think

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if you take it for what it is, it is entertaining, it is a genre flick, a

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cult movie. It takes the time to give all the characters and look at

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the drama of the situation where people are trapped and starting to

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panic and the politics that move under that. A mixed bag. Thank you

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very much. We have seen rain earlier today and

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there is rain to come tonight. Looking ahead

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