Browse content similar to 03/02/2012. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Harry Potter's afterlife, Daniel Radcliffe discards his Wizard's | :00:30. | :00:34. | |
cloak to step into the had you Hammer incarnation, The Woman In | :00:34. | :00:41. | |
Black, the journey of a lifetime, the British Museum reveals the | :00:41. | :00:43. | |
extraordinary living tradition of The Hajj. | :00:43. | :00:49. | |
Any Human Heart author, on his latest book. Roman Polanski is back | :00:49. | :00:54. | |
with Carnage. Plus as political biopicks flood | :00:54. | :01:00. | |
into the cinema, we ask if they ever reflect reality. | :01:00. | :01:03. | |
We have music from rising star Aaron Delahunty. | :01:03. | :01:13. | |
:01:13. | :01:14. | ||
Joining me are three culture connoisseurs, Sarah Churchwell Pref | :01:14. | :01:18. | |
fosor of English at University College London, John Mullan, whose | :01:18. | :01:21. | |
books include How Novels Work. And writer, columnist and former | :01:21. | :01:25. | |
director of the Poetry Society, Christina Patterson, whose | :01:25. | :01:35. | |
:01:35. | :01:36. | ||
Independent column discussed dumbing down on TV this week. | :01:36. | :01:40. | |
Welcome to tonight's qul turl smorgasbord, we will hear what our | :01:40. | :01:44. | |
-- cultural smorgasbord, we will hear what our guests think but you | :01:44. | :01:49. | |
can e-mail or send a tweet. A film adaptation of one of the | :01:49. | :01:53. | |
most successful novels and plays in recent history, The Woman In Black. | :01:53. | :01:58. | |
The book has sold more than a million copies, the play is the | :01:58. | :02:05. | |
second-longest running on the stage. Now there is a movie written by | :02:05. | :02:11. | |
Kick Ass Describe Jane Goldman. The lead is a rather familiar face. | :02:11. | :02:16. | |
Daniel Radcliffe's first on-screen leading role since leaving behind | :02:16. | :02:19. | |
Harry Potter is an all together more chilling affair. He takes on | :02:19. | :02:25. | |
the role of Arthur Kips, a recently bereaved solicitor, who is sent to | :02:25. | :02:30. | |
investigate the affairs of the deceased owner of the house. The | :02:30. | :02:34. | |
horror director James Watkins keeps it simple, it is not long before | :02:34. | :02:40. | |
secrets of times past, and the eerie presence of The Woman In | :02:40. | :02:43. | |
Black come to the fore. Extraordinary film, very restrained, | :02:43. | :02:47. | |
very quiet in your performance. James said he did lots of things | :02:47. | :02:51. | |
with you, for example, even, you are 22, but you are a grief-striken | :02:51. | :02:59. | |
father. He sent you to a grief counsellor? He did. I read a Grief | :02:59. | :03:03. | |
Observed, and a couple of other books on bereavement, it is about | :03:03. | :03:06. | |
furnishing yourself with as much information as possible so when you | :03:06. | :03:10. | |
get on set you are not thinking about it, and you hope the | :03:10. | :03:14. | |
information you have taken on will naturally inform choices. You now | :03:14. | :03:20. | |
get sent so many scripts, and Jane had done an extraordinary job with | :03:20. | :03:23. | |
the script, putting a huge emotional heart in it, did you know | :03:23. | :03:27. | |
whether to do it automatically? Jane's righting was so good. It is | :03:27. | :03:31. | |
so rare you get a script can so much stage direction, that is such | :03:31. | :03:36. | |
a quick read. Because it read like a novel. It was beautifully written. | :03:36. | :03:39. | |
You brought a different sensability to it, there is talk of Japanese | :03:39. | :03:43. | |
horror and all sorts of things you were interested in? That was | :03:43. | :03:49. | |
something that inspired me, it had always struck me how much Japanese, | :03:49. | :03:53. | |
contemporary Japanese horror movies have in common with traditional | :03:53. | :03:57. | |
Victorian English ghost stories. The idea you can have something | :03:57. | :04:00. | |
that pacing-wise is very contemporary. But, with all the | :04:00. | :04:04. | |
elements of a classic ghost story, was something that really excited | :04:04. | :04:13. | |
me. You are playing with two great actors, Kieran Hynes, you are | :04:13. | :04:17. | |
starting on your acting jouorn year, eventhough you started when you | :04:17. | :04:22. | |
were ten, someone like Kieran Hynes, who asen extraordinary presence? | :04:22. | :04:26. | |
have been -- who has been extraordinary presence? I have been | :04:26. | :04:30. | |
privilege today watch a lot of great actors, but the | :04:30. | :04:34. | |
distinguishing feature of Kieran is how easy it is, and how easy he | :04:34. | :04:40. | |
makes it looks. It is amaze to go watch and be around him. He talked | :04:40. | :04:50. | |
:04:50. | :04:50. | ||
a lot in the edit, let people lean in, you can hear footsteps, strip | :04:50. | :04:54. | |
it back, if something happens in, you jolt them back. It is to make | :04:54. | :04:59. | |
it immerseive, and pulling people in. After the whole Harry Potter | :04:59. | :05:04. | |
experience of being huge cast, a lot going on, this is obvious low a | :05:04. | :05:08. | |
much smaller film, in a way -- obviously a much smaller film, have | :05:08. | :05:13. | |
you liked the intimacy of working in this way? Once you are on set it | :05:13. | :05:16. | |
is the same. It is always just chaos and fun. Here I was involved | :05:17. | :05:20. | |
in the preproduction side of things, right from the off, that was very | :05:20. | :05:23. | |
cool to watch all of that. Thank you. | :05:23. | :05:29. | |
It was a very big moment for Daniel Radcliffe, because this was his big | :05:29. | :05:34. | |
first main lead post-Harry Potter. Does he convince as a widower? | :05:34. | :05:37. | |
afraid he didn't convince me. I feel guilty saying that now, he | :05:37. | :05:43. | |
seems so charming. I feel like a horrible person saying this. You | :05:43. | :05:50. | |
mention Kieran Hynes and Janet McTieran, I felt they wiped the | :05:50. | :05:55. | |
floor with him, when they are on screen you realise how wooden he is. | :05:55. | :05:59. | |
A great deal of the film is watching Daniel Radcliffe react to | :05:59. | :06:04. | |
ghosts. You have to be interested in that, and basically, I don't | :06:04. | :06:07. | |
think he has enough range in what he's doing, there isn't enough | :06:08. | :06:12. | |
emotion. It is the story about grief, but you actually don't feel | :06:12. | :06:16. | |
the grief evolving or changing or transforming him. You don't feel | :06:16. | :06:20. | |
that he is, I did get a sense, I think perhaps because the idea that | :06:20. | :06:26. | |
they have changed it from the book, he was engaged in the book, Susan | :06:26. | :06:30. | |
Hills' book and now he's bereaved and has this child. I did feel he | :06:30. | :06:34. | |
had that range? Yeah, I think it was a very ill-considered change, | :06:34. | :06:39. | |
the one you have just referred to. In the book, I think the point is, | :06:39. | :06:43. | |
he looks back in late middleage on something that happened in his | :06:43. | :06:48. | |
youth. The point is he's confronting some horrible things in | :06:48. | :06:53. | |
this story. It doesn't make sense, actually, that he's already an | :06:53. | :06:56. | |
emotionally shattered character. The point is, he gets shattered in | :06:56. | :07:01. | |
the book, by what happens to him, in the main part of the story. They | :07:01. | :07:06. | |
have chosen to drain him, his sap is sunk before it starts. But there | :07:06. | :07:10. | |
is a vulnerability which I think actually works rather well? I think | :07:10. | :07:13. | |
the vulnerability is what he has to discover in the course of the | :07:13. | :07:16. | |
narrative rather than what he gets as a check at the beginning of the | :07:16. | :07:19. | |
narrative. That is what they have chosen. I think it is like lots and | :07:20. | :07:24. | |
lots of changes, I won't give anything away, to the novel, and I | :07:24. | :07:27. | |
don't know quite what I would have thought if I hadn't read the novel. | :07:27. | :07:31. | |
Having read it, I thought every single change was a bad idea. | :07:31. | :07:37. | |
say that the film was a completely different entity, and look at some | :07:37. | :07:44. | |
of the horror parts, I thought it was drop dead scary at times, I | :07:44. | :07:48. | |
absolutely did. I loved, for example, the smashing dolls, the | :07:48. | :07:56. | |
toys. Listen, it is beautiful, it is visually absolutely gorgeous, it | :07:56. | :08:03. | |
is Cath Kitson meets Childplay, I found myself lusting after a chest | :08:04. | :08:08. | |
of drawers and the China cups. It is visually brilliant, the | :08:08. | :08:12. | |
landscape and the house is fantastic, but horror, no, for | :08:12. | :08:16. | |
horror you need a variation in tone. This is the same register all the | :08:16. | :08:19. | |
way through. Where as you are meant to have, exactly as John says, a | :08:19. | :08:26. | |
guy who is perfectly happy, he's engaged and looking forward to get | :08:26. | :08:33. | |
matter yeerbgsd then he goes through the trajebgt -- married. | :08:33. | :08:38. | |
Then he go through the trajectory of things going wrong. With this we | :08:38. | :08:42. | |
have a guy who is miserable, scared and baffled. I thought they worked | :08:42. | :08:47. | |
hard to make sure the villagers didn't seem to be two-dimensional, | :08:47. | :08:50. | |
you were convicted whether the villagers were part of the evil | :08:50. | :08:54. | |
story or not? I have to say I haven't read the book, the only | :08:54. | :08:58. | |
person left in the country who hasn't read the book or seen the | :08:58. | :09:01. | |
play. When I heard we were seeing the film I decided not to, to judge | :09:01. | :09:04. | |
the film on its own terms. It doesn't make sense, it doesn't work. | :09:04. | :09:08. | |
With the village thing, I kept looking at them thinking why don't | :09:08. | :09:14. | |
you leave. All of your children keep dying, why don't you leave. | :09:14. | :09:18. | |
It is a film. The point is, how were they going to leave any way? | :09:19. | :09:26. | |
He can leave. My point is, that when horror really works and it | :09:26. | :09:30. | |
grips you, you are not left asking those plausability questions, you | :09:30. | :09:35. | |
don't worry about them, because you are taken up by the moment. I liked | :09:35. | :09:39. | |
the fact fact it was a fundamental story of the two sisters. It wasn't | :09:39. | :09:44. | |
explained, I thought it worked? didn't think it worked at all, that | :09:44. | :09:47. | |
was my problem with it, the heart of the whole story is why did the | :09:48. | :09:51. | |
two sisters do this to each other, I'm left going I don't know why. | :09:51. | :09:55. | |
Why would they do the terrible things to each other. Then I think | :09:55. | :09:59. | |
why don't the villagers leave, and then all the plausability unravels | :09:59. | :10:04. | |
because I don't believe the core. What MJ Watkins, what he said when | :10:04. | :10:08. | |
I interviewed him, about stripping the whole thing back and the sound | :10:08. | :10:11. | |
scape was extraordinary. What was clever, it was Hammer, afterall, | :10:11. | :10:16. | |
without giving too much away, there was a scene where you expect | :10:16. | :10:22. | |
something horrific to happen, and there was the map in the | :10:22. | :10:28. | |
Southwester? The visceral material of horror does work. It was put on | :10:28. | :10:32. | |
with a trowel, you have the man looming up out of the mist, the | :10:32. | :10:36. | |
crow flying out of nowhere, the water coming out of the pipe. For | :10:36. | :10:41. | |
horror you need some variation. Here it was, to me it was like a | :10:41. | :10:45. | |
pile-up, and with just, which meant that you just were bombarded, and | :10:45. | :10:49. | |
to me it turned into farce. Plenty of people started laughing in the | :10:49. | :10:52. | |
audience. You're meant to be scared, you don't have time, you think I | :10:53. | :10:56. | |
don't believe he's done that, all the cliches. This is going to be | :10:56. | :11:01. | |
the start of the revival of Hammer there is talk of, and Jane Goldman | :11:01. | :11:06. | |
brings a sensability to it? thought she brought anachronism to | :11:07. | :11:12. | |
it, it was like you have the nicest car in the village, and that | :11:12. | :11:17. | |
bothered me. The Hamburg Celler, bringing that back, they made you | :11:17. | :11:22. | |
jump by making a loud noise that had nothing to do with the story, | :11:22. | :11:27. | |
putting a bang in the soundtrack making anybody jump. It turns into | :11:27. | :11:30. | |
Indiana Jones with some great mission, you think it is not about | :11:31. | :11:35. | |
a mission it is about being scared. The Woman In Black is in cinemas | :11:35. | :11:39. | |
from next Friday. A new exhibition devoted to a | :11:39. | :11:42. | |
spectacular spiritual journey, undertaken by millions each other, | :11:42. | :11:48. | |
the most important tradition in the Islamic calendar, The Hajj. The | :11:48. | :11:55. | |
annual pim grimmage to Mecca is the focus of the -- pilgrimage to Mecca | :11:55. | :11:59. | |
is the focus of the British Museum. The exhibition aims to offer an | :12:00. | :12:04. | |
insight into this extraordinary display of faith, spanning decades | :12:04. | :12:07. | |
and centuries. The point of the British Museum is let people make | :12:07. | :12:13. | |
sense of the world now. One of the great facts of the modern world, is | :12:13. | :12:19. | |
the notion of one worldwide Islamic community. At the centre of that | :12:19. | :12:24. | |
idea is Hajj. That once every year, nearly three million Muslims come | :12:24. | :12:31. | |
from all over the world to Mecca, to perform the same rituals. | :12:31. | :12:35. | |
Working in partnership with the king Abdalla Public Library in | :12:35. | :12:45. | |
:12:45. | :12:45. | ||
Riyadh, the curators -- King Abdulaziz public likebury in Riyadh, | :12:45. | :12:50. | |
-- King Abdulaziz Public Library in Riyadh, they have brought together | :12:50. | :12:57. | |
paintings, text siels. It is a wonderful textile to sit on a | :12:57. | :13:03. | |
canopy. Every year the ruler of Istanbul would send one of these | :13:03. | :13:09. | |
pan piece with -- canopies with only the Koran in it. | :13:09. | :13:13. | |
It is an undertaking for all Muslims physically able, The Hajj | :13:13. | :13:20. | |
has been going on since the 7th century The difficult thing is to | :13:20. | :13:23. | |
remember how extraordinarily difficult it is to get to mekka, | :13:23. | :13:27. | |
people have had to make this arduous journey, we have focused on | :13:27. | :13:31. | |
the routes they have taken. The oldest route is from Iraq to Mecca. | :13:31. | :13:35. | |
There has always been a route from west Africa. People there have | :13:35. | :13:40. | |
always wanted to make Hajj. We show the route from Tim buck too, and | :13:40. | :13:46. | |
Mali, right over North Africa to Mecca. Despite the challenges | :13:46. | :13:50. | |
facing the pilgrims, numbers have swelled dramatically within the | :13:50. | :13:55. | |
last century. In 2011 we had just under three million people travel | :13:55. | :14:00. | |
on Hajj, you can see the jumps in numbers occur in a major way in the | :14:00. | :14:04. | |
1940s, where we have the use of oil resources by the Saudi Arabian | :14:05. | :14:12. | |
Government. Hajj, Journey to the heart of Islam, highlights the | :14:12. | :14:15. | |
spiritual undertaking. Can the exhibition truly communicate the | :14:15. | :14:20. | |
power of the experience to believers and non-believers alike? | :14:20. | :14:27. | |
None of us here is Muslim, but do you think the exhibition was for us | :14:27. | :14:31. | |
all? Absolutely. I mean there are two-and-a-half million Muslims in | :14:31. | :14:34. | |
this country, a quarter of the world's population, if we don't | :14:34. | :14:41. | |
know anything about Islam, we ought to. But it was wonderful. It was so | :14:41. | :14:43. | |
respectfully done. Actually too respectfully done, I will move on | :14:43. | :14:49. | |
to that in a minute. But it did give you a taste. It is in the old | :14:49. | :14:55. | |
reading room of the British Museum, you go round in a circle, like The | :14:55. | :14:59. | |
Hajj, you have the dome above you. You feel like you are taken on a | :14:59. | :15:02. | |
journey, I went around it in two- and-a-half hours, I could have | :15:02. | :15:06. | |
spent more times, it is fascinating. There is a palpable sense of | :15:06. | :15:10. | |
excitement, there was a lot of kids and teachers. There was the two | :15:10. | :15:15. | |
things, there was the beautiful art facts, but there was the interior | :15:15. | :15:18. | |
spiritual journey and the idea of what a humbling experience that was. | :15:19. | :15:23. | |
Do you think the exhibition managed to do both things? I think it did | :15:23. | :15:27. | |
the former more successfully than the latter. I felt like one of the | :15:27. | :15:31. | |
children there, I don't mean that in a bad way, I was shameful low | :15:31. | :15:37. | |
ignorant of what most of the -- shamefully ignorant of what most of | :15:37. | :15:42. | |
it was about, I was like a school kid. After drinking it in, I did | :15:42. | :15:46. | |
find what Neil MacGregor was talking about there, the historical | :15:46. | :15:49. | |
account of what it was like before everyone went by plane in their | :15:49. | :15:54. | |
hundreds of thousands. I found the historical aspect of it much more | :15:54. | :15:57. | |
interesting. It was fascinating. The objects, the extraordinary | :15:58. | :16:04. | |
fragments of people's amazing journies across vast spaces. That | :16:04. | :16:08. | |
was more interesting, gripping to me, than the account of what it has | :16:08. | :16:13. | |
become, which was, indeed, very respectful. And slightly | :16:13. | :16:19. | |
uncomfortably so. It is in Saudi Arabia, it is, it was an account | :16:19. | :16:24. | |
that was so determined to be respectful, that you were feeling | :16:24. | :16:29. | |
that perhaps there were things that were being left out. They had some | :16:29. | :16:32. | |
plaques that said, this was where Mohammed received his revelations, | :16:32. | :16:38. | |
and you think, sorry, no, I think this is where Muslims believe | :16:38. | :16:41. | |
Mohammed received his revelation. That is like putting on a Nativity | :16:41. | :16:46. | |
play and saying some of us don't believe in the Nativity? I felt | :16:46. | :16:50. | |
occasionally, tonally it went too far in that way. I don't think it | :16:50. | :16:54. | |
needed to say this is what they believe. I agree, it was almost | :16:54. | :16:58. | |
tentative at times. There were ways in which you could feel it really | :16:59. | :17:03. | |
pulling back, and particularly, I agree with John, the earlier stuff | :17:03. | :17:07. | |
is a lot more compelling. What you see is this kind of ancient worship, | :17:07. | :17:11. | |
and I think that's, for all of us, that is something that brings | :17:11. | :17:21. | |
:17:21. | :17:24. | ||
history to life. The extraordinary journies, someone from Anadaluthia, | :17:24. | :17:28. | |
he talks about the journey, and having to avoid the route of the | :17:28. | :17:33. | |
crusades. I had no idea that Sir Richard Burton, the first westerner | :17:33. | :17:37. | |
to do it secretly, in disguise, he went to Mecca. Thomas Cook was | :17:37. | :17:41. | |
commissioned to do it, but it turned out not to be profitable. | :17:41. | :17:46. | |
The ways that the stories of east meeting west, that I think many of | :17:46. | :17:50. | |
us were also ignorant about. I also thought there were really | :17:50. | :17:54. | |
interesting contrasts. One of the things that comes out in the | :17:54. | :17:57. | |
exhibit, and I agree with the more modern stuff not as compelling in | :17:57. | :18:00. | |
one sense. What was fascinating is how much the market becomes part of | :18:00. | :18:05. | |
the journaly to Mecca, they are supposed to go and buy -- journey | :18:05. | :18:13. | |
to Mecca, they are supposed to buy things. In a juddaiyo Christian | :18:13. | :18:16. | |
aspect, we go to the Vatican and it is wrong to buy things there. Yet | :18:16. | :18:21. | |
the way they present it, it seems to be this completely uncomplicated | :18:21. | :18:24. | |
relationship between the two. was extraordinary to look at the | :18:24. | :18:30. | |
logistics of it now, funny isn't it that the London Olympics are | :18:30. | :18:33. | |
consulting about how to actually move that amount of people. In a | :18:33. | :18:43. | |
:18:43. | :18:46. | ||
sense, what was Joan by the modern -- shown by the modern bits about | :18:46. | :18:51. | |
the iron filings. When you hear about people making journies from | :18:51. | :18:55. | |
the 8th century, months on foot and on camel. You are right about that | :18:55. | :18:59. | |
then, the thing you talked about being left out was your feelings | :18:59. | :19:02. | |
about your conflict, about how you felt about Saudi Arabia. What I | :19:02. | :19:07. | |
thought was sad they left out, was the fact that natural disasters, | :19:07. | :19:12. | |
people have died, since 1989, 3,000 people have died. You want to say | :19:13. | :19:17. | |
that is extraordinary. I very much felt that too. Those are new | :19:17. | :19:20. | |
stories which you can feel in your head, lots of people probably | :19:20. | :19:24. | |
thought that going around. They are buried in the catalogue. It is | :19:24. | :19:30. | |
almost as though it has to become univocal by the end. One of my | :19:30. | :19:34. | |
favourite objects in the exhibition is this 10th century illustration | :19:34. | :19:40. | |
of an account of going on The Hajj, it is called Pilgrims Arguing. It | :19:40. | :19:45. | |
is beautiful, and it is also you know, you think you have read | :19:45. | :19:50. | |
Chaucer, it is people on camels, it is gold leaf, it is beautiful, a | :19:50. | :19:53. | |
watercolour, they are having a great big row about who has the | :19:53. | :19:56. | |
better reason for going on pilgrimage, and who is the better | :19:56. | :19:59. | |
one. You feel that with some of the relics from the past you were going | :20:00. | :20:03. | |
to get that. The nearer you get towards the present, the more | :20:03. | :20:07. | |
everyone has to agree. The more sanatised it starts to feel and | :20:07. | :20:11. | |
more controlled. We haven't said, so many of the things were donated | :20:11. | :20:14. | |
by the Saudi Arabian Royal Family, and I did also feel towards the end | :20:14. | :20:17. | |
as if there is a whole world of Muslim experience that is being | :20:17. | :20:21. | |
excluded. There is nothing about the Indonesian pilgrimage, there is | :20:21. | :20:25. | |
nothing about what was the other one I was thinking, the other | :20:25. | :20:30. | |
obvious one which will come back to me, Turkey I was thinking about, | :20:30. | :20:34. | |
these huge populations of Muslims that don't come into the story at | :20:35. | :20:41. | |
all. There is nobody about the Waugh hobby takeover of Islam in | :20:41. | :20:46. | |
Saudi Arabia. There is a bit which says "Muslims try to create a fair | :20:46. | :20:49. | |
society and distribute wealth equally" and you think, not in | :20:49. | :20:56. | |
Saudi araib ja. I'm a big fan of Islam -- Saudi Arabia. I'm a big | :20:56. | :21:00. | |
fan of Islamic art, I will be drooling over tiles for hours, | :21:00. | :21:05. | |
there are beautiful things. You have the great divide between the | :21:05. | :21:10. | |
early stuff, equisitely beautiful, and then the end, I thought all the | :21:10. | :21:14. | |
embroidered hangings were hidious, with the sparkle thread. In the | :21:14. | :21:20. | |
last third there was almost nothing beautiful to look at. Except for | :21:20. | :21:25. | |
Magnetism. I strongly recommend you make your own way to see The Hajj | :21:26. | :21:28. | |
eggs Biggs at the British Museum until the 15th of February. William | :21:29. | :21:32. | |
Boyd is one of the few writers enjoying litry and commercial | :21:32. | :21:36. | |
success. Recently triumphing with a Channel 4 adaptation of Any Human | :21:36. | :21:45. | |
Heart, it chronicled the long and adventurous life of Graham Stuart. | :21:45. | :21:51. | |
His new book spans Vienna for three decades. William Boyd's story | :21:51. | :21:59. | |
canvasses go from rural Africa to sun soaked Los Angeles and London | :21:59. | :22:05. | |
cock Docklands. His late -- Docklands. His latest novel is | :22:05. | :22:08. | |
early 20th century Vienna. It is an amazing place, when you think about | :22:08. | :22:14. | |
who was there, in 1910-1914, it is mind-boggling in every single | :22:14. | :22:21. | |
Department of Human culture and politics. And psychoanalysis, | :22:21. | :22:31. | |
:22:31. | :22:32. | ||
Freud's city. You have calf ka, not far away in Prague -- Kafka not far | :22:32. | :22:39. | |
away in Prague, and then Adolf Hitler. Boyd's hero named Lysander | :22:39. | :22:49. | |
Rief is an actor from London, who becomes entangled in an adventure | :22:49. | :22:54. | |
after travelling to Austria for treatment on an unusual sexual | :22:54. | :23:00. | |
problem. I wanted it to be a mind- bending passion, and in a way, it | :23:00. | :23:05. | |
is Lysander Rief falling for her, and she's sort of his nemisis, in a | :23:05. | :23:11. | |
way. "A love affair wasn't an arc as he heard it described, it was a | :23:11. | :23:19. | |
far more variable line on a graph, undulating, it wasn't smooth, | :23:19. | :23:23. | |
however much pleasure one derived from it day by day. He headed down | :23:23. | :23:29. | |
the drive, snow was falling, big soft flakes, the Wightening before | :23:29. | :23:33. | |
him, the world going quiet and muffled, as a few final distant | :23:33. | :23:38. | |
bells continued to ring in 1914 ". Our Secret Service, which is | :23:38. | :23:47. | |
perhaps the oldest, was founded in 1909, so the Secret Service has | :23:47. | :23:50. | |
existed in World War I but was embryonic, there were very few | :23:50. | :23:54. | |
members of staff, it was amateur night. It was entirely plausible | :23:54. | :24:00. | |
that a young actor might be asked to lend a hand. It has become much | :24:00. | :24:06. | |
more professional, but in those days, it was invisible ink and | :24:06. | :24:08. | |
carrier pigeons. Part historical thriller, part love | :24:09. | :24:12. | |
story. Boyd's book aims to transport the reader to another | :24:12. | :24:20. | |
world. But does he make the most of his setting? William Boyd is one of | :24:20. | :24:26. | |
our most popular writers, and Any Human Heart has been such a huge | :24:26. | :24:33. | |
success, is this as an enthralling as that? I think so, it is less of | :24:33. | :24:38. | |
a sweep, it is Any Human Heart without the heart, actually. What | :24:38. | :24:41. | |
people who haven't read Any Human Heart would still have got if they | :24:41. | :24:46. | |
saw the TV thing, is not the comedy of it, which there is lots, but the | :24:46. | :24:50. | |
emotional throb of it. This doesn't have that, this is a much more | :24:50. | :24:55. | |
skittish performance, but, I think, you know, for those who think | :24:55. | :25:01. | |
literary fiction, clever literary fiction is often rather short of | :25:01. | :25:07. | |
plot, this is, I find, quite intoxicating pleasure in that. It | :25:07. | :25:15. | |
has a lot of the same set up as Any Human Heart, there is this | :25:15. | :25:20. | |
befuddled yet endlessly resourceful protagonist drifting through. | :25:20. | :25:27. | |
Graham Stuart is a much more determined character -- Mr Stuart | :25:27. | :25:35. | |
seems to be much more exciting than Lysander Rief. Sexual analysis, | :25:35. | :25:39. | |
bombing London, and all sorts. kitchen sink. I was very | :25:39. | :25:45. | |
disappointed by this novel, and I'm obsessed, not obsessed by, but very | :25:45. | :25:49. | |
interested in psychoanalysis, I don't see how you can set things in | :25:49. | :25:51. | |
Vienna at the start of psychoanalysis and not make it | :25:52. | :25:56. | |
interesting, to me, that is what he had done. Was it more like a pro- | :25:56. | :26:06. | |
:26:06. | :26:06. | ||
log to the main story? I think so, I thought you would have the theme | :26:06. | :26:13. | |
of the running of sex, sex is not a new theme in human experience or | :26:13. | :26:17. | |
literature, it felt the novel was constructed about these themes | :26:17. | :26:23. | |
about the river of sex, secrets and shadows, and of war. It just didn't | :26:23. | :26:28. | |
handle it well. To construct it around anything is to do it more | :26:28. | :26:32. | |
justice than it deserves. I kept waiting for all of the threads he | :26:32. | :26:35. | |
was weaving through it to come together, in some way that made | :26:35. | :26:41. | |
sense. He would bring in a storyline and drop it, and one | :26:41. | :26:45. | |
character might be mad and turns out not to be. It all just sort of | :26:45. | :26:49. | |
disappears and dissipates and none of it comes together. I felt as if | :26:49. | :26:53. | |
he took a bowl full of ideas like confetey and threw them in the air | :26:53. | :26:58. | |
and said let's see how they fall. As you said, it is the kitchen sink. | :26:58. | :27:02. | |
It is literary fiction not short on plot. My problem is it is long on | :27:02. | :27:07. | |
plot, it has so much it doesn't know what to do with it. I'm not | :27:07. | :27:10. | |
sure about the literary fiction, it is riddled with cliches, I was | :27:10. | :27:13. | |
really shocked by the writing. I mean characters are always saying | :27:13. | :27:19. | |
things in a no-nonsense manner or with a chuckle, or their faces | :27:19. | :27:24. | |
darkening, and they are saying things like "what is the world | :27:24. | :27:30. | |
coming to". A lot of is supposed to be mimicry, and pass Taoiseach. | :27:30. | :27:40. | |
:27:40. | :27:43. | ||
what sense -- Pastiche. In what sense is it pastiche. At one point | :27:43. | :27:48. | |
Lysander Rief's mother says I like that you do this, is this Manhatten, | :27:48. | :27:51. | |
2011. I can't say too much without giving it away, a lot of the plot | :27:51. | :27:55. | |
doesn't hang together, a lot of the explanations that purport to be | :27:55. | :27:58. | |
explanations don't explain anything. At the end it turns out lots of | :27:58. | :28:02. | |
characters have done things that are quite inhe can publicable, I | :28:02. | :28:09. | |
don't believe that Lysander Rief, in a central -- he can inexplicable. | :28:09. | :28:14. | |
I don't believe Lysander Rief in a central moment, someone does | :28:14. | :28:18. | |
something very serious to him and he moves on quickly. Do you think | :28:18. | :28:22. | |
the fact the motivations seem skewed is a problem? In lots of | :28:22. | :28:27. | |
places. If you are looking for psychological depth it is. One is | :28:27. | :28:32. | |
looking for psychological depth. think the pleasure of it is in the | :28:32. | :28:36. | |
mimicry, which is what Boyd likes to do, and I think most of the time | :28:36. | :28:42. | |
he stays just this side of spoof. There is a bit of sub-TS Eliot, | :28:42. | :28:50. | |
because the guy writes poetry. He likes doing the mimic, he has a | :28:50. | :28:54. | |
protagonist who has a gift or penchant. That is the point of | :28:54. | :29:00. | |
reading the pwhook. Featuring Freud, where the character bumps into him | :29:00. | :29:09. | |
in a cafe, ought to pay a bit to psychology depth. There is this | :29:09. | :29:12. | |
interesting patrollism, if you create an alternative narrative. | :29:12. | :29:18. | |
Just before we finish, we all loved the Edwardians at the moment. There | :29:18. | :29:23. | |
is War Horse, everything. Speak for yourself. And back to First World | :29:23. | :29:27. | |
War again? I love historical fiction, I like plot-driven stories, | :29:27. | :29:30. | |
I wanted this plot to hold together more and the history to do more. | :29:30. | :29:35. | |
Read it for yourself, Waiting For Sunrise by William Boyd is | :29:35. | :29:41. | |
published by bloomsry on the 16th of this month. Given his checkered | :29:41. | :29:44. | |
history, Roman Polanski might be an odd person to direct a story about | :29:44. | :29:50. | |
modern morality. But that is what he has turned to in his latist film, | :29:50. | :29:54. | |
a theatre hit, Carnage. In Carnage two sets of parents are thrown | :29:54. | :29:59. | |
together after their children are involved in a fight. Attempts to | :29:59. | :30:02. | |
reconcile the dispute in a civilised fashion begin cordially | :30:02. | :30:07. | |
enough. As their discussion unfolds, buried tensions begin to surface. | :30:07. | :30:13. | |
So what kind of cobbler. Apple and pear. Apple and pear? It is, you | :30:13. | :30:18. | |
know, it is a little recipe of mine, it it is a shame, it is cold. | :30:18. | :30:24. | |
and pear. That is new to me. Apple and pear is a classic. Jodie Foster | :30:24. | :30:28. | |
and John C Reilly play the supposedly liberal Penelope and | :30:28. | :30:32. | |
John Longstreet, whose son has been injured by his friend. He's the son | :30:32. | :30:39. | |
of movers and shakers Nancy and Alan Cowan, played by Kate Winslet. | :30:39. | :30:43. | |
As the film progresses, conversations about the hardy | :30:43. | :30:46. | |
perennial subjects, children, politics, money, art and even | :30:46. | :30:51. | |
animal welfare become increasingly fractious. So you have no remorse? | :30:51. | :30:56. | |
No I have no remorse, that animal was disgusting, I'm glad it has | :30:56. | :30:59. | |
gone. Michael that's ridiculous. What's ridiculous, have you lost | :30:59. | :31:04. | |
your mind now too. Their son beats the shit out of Eathan and you are | :31:04. | :31:11. | |
in my face about the hamster. you did was wrong to that hamster. | :31:11. | :31:19. | |
I don't give a shit about the hamster. Yasmina Reza, who co-wrote | :31:19. | :31:24. | |
the play, co-wrote with Polanski. The film remains faithful to the | :31:25. | :31:28. | |
original work, with the camera discreetly looking at the action as | :31:28. | :31:34. | |
it unfolds in the one location. can't believe she bar ofed over my | :31:34. | :31:40. | |
books, when you know you are going -- barfed over my books, when you | :31:40. | :31:45. | |
know you are going to puke you prepare yourself. | :31:45. | :31:49. | |
Unusually Polanski has taken a minimalist approach to the film, | :31:49. | :31:54. | |
staying closely to the conventions of the theatre, has this rigorous | :31:54. | :31:59. | |
dedication to the play produced a screen adaptation that meets the | :31:59. | :32:05. | |
expectations of the original. Reza had never allowed an adaptation for | :32:05. | :32:09. | |
a film of any other of her plays, Art being the big one. Do you think | :32:09. | :32:14. | |
she must have stipulated, within the confines of the parliamentary | :32:14. | :32:17. | |
party. Polanski has done that before with Rosemary's Baby before. | :32:17. | :32:23. | |
I don't know if he does, Polanski does do those claustrophobic | :32:23. | :32:26. | |
interiors very well. I don't think this play should be made into a | :32:26. | :32:29. | |
film. It doesn't feel like a film. It felt like a bit of fringe | :32:29. | :32:33. | |
theatre, in a nice setting. And actually rather too fancy a sitting | :32:33. | :32:38. | |
for a guy who sells pots and pans for a living. That is one of the | :32:38. | :32:41. | |
things I didn't believe, so many I didn't know where to start. It is | :32:41. | :32:45. | |
so artificial. You can get away with some artificialality, on a | :32:46. | :32:50. | |
stage, with four chairs and nobody is pretending that anything real is | :32:50. | :33:00. | |
:33:00. | :33:05. | ||
going on. Here the whole premise was one convincing. If the parents | :33:05. | :33:09. | |
had agreed to meet the parents of the child who had hit and read a | :33:09. | :33:12. | |
statement and sign it. Why would the guy spend all the time yelling | :33:12. | :33:17. | |
down the phone. He's like a parody of a lawyer going, hit the jugular, | :33:17. | :33:24. | |
with all his stupid lawyer stuff. That is unconvincing, it is | :33:24. | :33:27. | |
unconvincing that they sit there for hours drinking coffee. It is to | :33:27. | :33:32. | |
the tkwrally unconvincing. -- It is totally unconvincing. | :33:32. | :33:37. | |
is unconvincing, when I saw it as a play it wasn't. All I can report is | :33:37. | :33:41. | |
there is part of an intensity which is a matter of the medium, it did | :33:41. | :33:45. | |
hold you, I was trying to think why it was that the film didn't in the | :33:45. | :33:49. | |
same way. You started noticing things which I didn't notice. I | :33:49. | :33:54. | |
think it was to do with the fact that when you see it on the stage, | :33:54. | :33:57. | |
the actors, they are all, in a sense, in a kind of competition, | :33:57. | :34:00. | |
they have these parts and they have to try to win your sympathy for | :34:00. | :34:03. | |
some pretty horrible people. You are watching all of them all the | :34:03. | :34:07. | |
time. In the film you are being directed, all the time, as to where | :34:07. | :34:14. | |
is the focus now, who is losing it now. The defensiveness and offence | :34:14. | :34:22. | |
was well handled, particularly by the richer couple. I think Waltz is | :34:22. | :34:26. | |
brilliant, so is Kate Winslet in it? He has the best part. In the | :34:26. | :34:32. | |
stage play, Ralph Fiennes is the best in the play, he's the one who | :34:32. | :34:38. | |
says more sard doneic things about what -- sardonic things about what | :34:38. | :34:43. | |
people are saying. Polanski got themselves together for four weeks | :34:43. | :34:47. | |
and made them get together and learn it. I was stunned that four | :34:47. | :34:51. | |
such fabulous actors and a director who can clearly make films could | :34:51. | :35:00. | |
make a movie that I thought was so bad from start to finish. It wasn't | :35:00. | :35:05. | |
that bad. It really was. It made the, the language of it was so | :35:05. | :35:09. | |
flimsy. If you hadn't seen the stage play, none of it held up, I | :35:09. | :35:12. | |
didn't believe any of it for a second. I didn't believe any of the | :35:13. | :35:15. | |
characters would say any of the things they were saying. It was | :35:15. | :35:20. | |
making really good actsors turn on a dime, and go -- actors turn on a | :35:20. | :35:25. | |
dime and go from anger to is hysterical laughter. It is very | :35:25. | :35:30. | |
speeded up and then it ends incredibly abruptly. I won't say | :35:30. | :35:34. | |
much about it, I was sitting there going, it can't be finished. | :35:34. | :35:38. | |
calibration of the characters, I mean I actually thought Kate | :35:38. | :35:42. | |
Winslet's change, at least she has some journey, I thought for Jodie | :35:42. | :35:46. | |
Foster, she was wound up from the very start. And she didn't have any | :35:46. | :35:51. | |
journey at all? No arc at all, I didn't know that she could be so | :35:51. | :35:55. | |
unfunny as well. She doesn't get the timing, the MoD dull laigs at | :35:55. | :36:00. | |
all right. Waltz is funny and John C Reilly is very funny. I haven't | :36:00. | :36:06. | |
find it funny. I meant they are funny actors, they found the only | :36:06. | :36:09. | |
funny moments for me in the movie much I didn't think Winslet was | :36:09. | :36:13. | |
particularly good, she's always good, I wouldn't say it was her | :36:13. | :36:23. | |
:36:23. | :36:25. | ||
best performance. The script I thought was so appalling. I think | :36:25. | :36:29. | |
it is the lauter thing, the only thing coming from the laughter is | :36:30. | :36:32. | |
the characters. The experience of laughter, when you see it on the | :36:32. | :36:36. | |
stage, the characters do win some laughs, and the laughs are, and | :36:36. | :36:40. | |
they have to stop and the laughter and the responses of the audience | :36:40. | :36:43. | |
become part of that. These characters are impervious. In a | :36:43. | :36:49. | |
strange way it reminded me of Plenty and Betrayal? Both of those | :36:49. | :36:54. | |
felt simply kind of contrived, when they were put on film. I think | :36:54. | :36:57. | |
Christina used the word "artificial", it is exactly the | :36:57. | :37:03. | |
right word, Jodie Foster said she can't believe she barfed on her | :37:03. | :37:07. | |
book, and I couldn't, because nobody does that. Carnage is | :37:07. | :37:12. | |
playing cinemas now, you can see Kate Winslet vomiting half way | :37:12. | :37:18. | |
through. You wait an age for a biopic and three come along at | :37:18. | :37:22. | |
worse, The Iron Lady, Coriolanus and others are pulling in audiences | :37:22. | :37:27. | |
across the UK. We asked Anne McElvoy why directors are drawn | :37:28. | :37:33. | |
into the political orbit and what makes a good buyyo pick. | :37:33. | :37:43. | |
:37:43. | :37:56. | ||
From The Iron Lady to J Edgar and Coriolanus, the Roman story of | :37:56. | :38:00. | |
natural born vote winner, we have acquired an appetite for the grimy | :38:00. | :38:04. | |
business of politics, and screen portrayals of great political | :38:04. | :38:08. | |
leaders. Frankly, very few political biopics | :38:09. | :38:18. | |
are very good at all. The Iron Lady is a great fete of acting by Meryl | :38:18. | :38:23. | |
Streep. Leonardo DiCaprio's J Edgar has the same strength, and the same | :38:23. | :38:28. | |
flaw. A premier cru lead, Oscar performances and no sense of the | :38:28. | :38:32. | |
politics of the period. For the dizzy feel of an election | :38:32. | :38:37. | |
campaign, and the absurdties of the spin cycle, I would still take us | :38:37. | :38:42. | |
back to the flares and orange shirts of 1972 and Robert red Ford | :38:42. | :38:47. | |
in the candidate. Red Ford makes us squirm as we watch him hollowed out | :38:47. | :38:51. | |
by selling himself, the TV era of Coriolanus, reluctantly showing his | :38:51. | :38:56. | |
wounds to the public. Except here he does get the job, leaving us | :38:56. | :38:59. | |
with the question real life politicians would recognise, when | :38:59. | :39:04. | |
the hurly burly is done, and the big office is their's to decorate. | :39:04. | :39:13. | |
Marvyn, what do we do now? Hapless, handsome Bill is a Democrat, in | :39:13. | :39:17. | |
Hollywood little good comes of Republicans, full stop, and few | :39:17. | :39:26. | |
have had such a bad time on screen as George Bush. George W was a pour | :39:26. | :39:32. | |
frail of a Texas -- portrayal of a sex SAS muppet. Years of reviewing | :39:32. | :39:39. | |
this stuff has made me think the best takes of political seems are | :39:39. | :39:44. | |
alleg orical, if you want to revise the Cold War, Dr Strangelove is | :39:44. | :39:49. | |
better than James Bond. Peter Sellers prevailed as the nutter | :39:49. | :39:53. | |
with his finger on the button, not bust he was the best screen mimic, | :39:53. | :39:57. | |
but because he was so many Cold Warors rolled into one. What about | :39:57. | :40:04. | |
today? The war on terror films did badly at the box-office, there was | :40:04. | :40:14. | |
:40:14. | :40:15. | ||
one that delves terrifyingly into the battle it is The Dark Knight. | :40:15. | :40:19. | |
It shows how many public eyes can be told in the service of the truth. | :40:19. | :40:24. | |
Show it to any newcomer to Number Ten or the White House, or anyone | :40:24. | :40:32. | |
with designs on ruling goth tham Glk Thanks to all my guests tonight. | :40:32. | :40:37. | |
Next Friday on the Book Review Show, I will be celebrating the | :40:37. | :40:40. | |
bicentenary of Charles Dickens in the company of Geoff Dyer and | :40:40. | :40:45. | |
others. We will be resurrecting some long lost Victorian classics. | :40:45. | :40:48. | |
More details on all the items we have been discussing on the website. | :40:48. | :40:52. | |
To play us out tonight, another musician who is part of BBC | :40:52. | :40:56. | |
Introducing, which supports young and up and coming talent. Aaron | :40:56. | :41:00. | |
Delahunty is a born and bred Londoner, who trained at the | :41:00. | :41:03. | |
British Academy of New Music, and whose influences include everything | :41:03. | :41:10. | |
from classic swing, hip hop, here he is with his new single, | :41:10. | :41:20. | |
:41:20. | :41:26. | ||
Straighten Up. # This is a song for anyone with a | :41:26. | :41:29. | |
mate # Who needs to fix up | :41:29. | :41:32. | |
# They ain't flying straight # Tell that fool | :41:32. | :41:37. | |
# It will do them good # You know it's about time they | :41:37. | :41:40. | |
understood # So what if they start blowing up | :41:40. | :41:42. | |
in your face # Somebody has to go and put them | :41:42. | :41:45. | |
in their place # They are acting like they don't | :41:45. | :41:49. | |
give a dam # You have to turn around and tell | :41:49. | :41:52. | |
them # Listen fam$$NEWLINE # Straighten | :41:52. | :41:55. | |
up and fly right # Straighten up and stay right | :41:55. | :42:00. | |
# Straighten up and fly right # Cool down | :42:00. | :42:04. | |
# Don't you blow your top # Straighten up and fly right | :42:04. | :42:09. | |
# Straighten up and stay right # Straighten up and fly right | :42:09. | :42:19. | |
:42:19. | :42:24. | ||
# Cool down brother # You don't wanna be the one | :42:24. | :42:28. | |
# To put their nose out of joint # But if they are behaving like | :42:28. | :42:30. | |
mugs # You need to be making a point | :42:30. | :42:37. | |
# Just like when your boy's belling # You wanting to go for a drink | :42:38. | :42:43. | |
# And then waits for you round in and then reveals he's kint | :42:43. | :42:49. | |
# Or the guy that's in the clik # Who hits the drink a bit quick | :42:49. | :42:52. | |
# Starts acting thick # Thinking he's slick | :42:52. | :42:58. | |
# Still he's slipping over # Straighten up and fly right | :42:58. | :43:00. | |
# Cool down brother # Don't you blow your top | :43:01. | :43:04. | |
# Straighten up and fly right # Straighten up and stay right | :43:05. | :43:08. | |
# Straighten up and fly right Income cool down brother | :43:09. | :43:13. | |
# Don't you blow your top # Straighten up and fry right | :43:13. | :43:18. | |
# Straighten up and stay right # Straighten up and fly right | :43:19. | :43:23. |