Browse content similar to 30/03/2012. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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On tonight's Review Show, Brenda and Olympia as a lesbian couple in | :00:35. | :00:41. | |
a mad cap road drip. A new exhibition of the mind. More | :00:41. | :00:45. | |
psychological exploration and TV writer Noah Hawley's new novel. | :00:45. | :00:50. | |
Beating oppression in Iran with a camera, in a hit new documentary, | :00:50. | :00:56. | |
This Is Not A Film. And Werner Herzog on his latest, and | :00:56. | :00:59. | |
characteristically cheery look at life on death row. | :00:59. | :01:05. | |
A rip roaring insight from the new guests on the sofa. Matthew Sweet, | :01:05. | :01:07. | |
whose book, Shepperton Babylon, charts the history of British | :01:07. | :01:14. | |
cinema. The playwright Mark Ravenhill, famous for shopping at | :01:14. | :01:18. | |
(coug h) and in residence in the RSC. | :01:18. | :01:22. | |
And the former editor of the International Film Festival. | :01:22. | :01:25. | |
Remember however eminent the views of Matthew Mark and Hannah, we love | :01:25. | :01:35. | |
:01:35. | :01:36. | ||
to hear your views. Share them on Twitter. Now in its 26th year, the | :01:36. | :01:38. | |
London Gay and Lesbian Film Festival is established. We have | :01:38. | :01:43. | |
chosen two films to review, one dark and the other a kooky comedy. | :01:44. | :01:47. | |
The festival kicked off with Cloudburst, a film part road trip, | :01:47. | :01:52. | |
part rom com. As so often with gay cinema, it pushes the boundaries, | :01:52. | :01:57. | |
both by being the story of a mature lesbian couple, and by providing | :01:57. | :02:02. | |
strong lead roles for two older actresses, Oscar winners, Olympia | :02:02. | :02:08. | |
Dukakis and Brenda Fricker. I play Dottie, I love the name, she's | :02:08. | :02:12. | |
blind, she's old and fat, so unlike me, she falls out of the bed | :02:12. | :02:16. | |
laughing one night, and damages herself. Her granddaughter wants to | :02:16. | :02:20. | |
put her into a home, which means they would be separated. They are | :02:20. | :02:26. | |
not going to have that. They decide to drive to Canada and get married | :02:26. | :02:34. | |
and be together forever. Are you proposing to me? Maybe. | :02:34. | :02:42. | |
Are you down on one knee? Yeah. I don't believe in marriage. I was | :02:42. | :02:47. | |
married, remember, that was like having a brain clot. Most love | :02:47. | :02:51. | |
stories about the beginning of love, the difference was about trying to | :02:51. | :02:56. | |
parlez the idea of what it is like to have been together for so long, | :02:56. | :03:03. | |
and this sort of how love comes with frustration and anger and | :03:03. | :03:08. | |
disappointment. Maybe we could work out some sort of trial commitment? | :03:08. | :03:11. | |
How about 100 years. I was thinking of six months. | :03:11. | :03:16. | |
At a time when the issue of gay marriage is a political hot potato, | :03:16. | :03:20. | |
does the film take a particular stance? I discovered early on in | :03:20. | :03:23. | |
the writing process, if I was going to be honest about the point of | :03:23. | :03:26. | |
view of these two character, there was nothing political to say. | :03:26. | :03:30. | |
Because when people are getting married, nobody is thinking about | :03:30. | :03:32. | |
politics. You are thinking very much with all of your focus about | :03:32. | :03:37. | |
the person you are about to marry. It is the world's first geriatric | :03:37. | :03:40. | |
lesbian road movie. I think you are right. That is a very good | :03:40. | :03:46. | |
description, yeah. From the tale of who older lesbians, | :03:46. | :03:52. | |
to the sexually awakening of a young man, comes Absent. Toying | :03:52. | :03:57. | |
with convent actual attitudes to under-age relationships, it hinges | :03:57. | :04:02. | |
on the attraction of a young teenage boy to his swimming | :04:02. | :04:12. | |
:04:12. | :04:30. | ||
instructor, with moral ambiguity Presented as a dark thriller in the | :04:30. | :04:35. | |
south American role, dark glances play more of a part than dialogue. | :04:36. | :04:43. | |
It plays with audience expectations and is an oblique look at a taboo. | :04:43. | :04:48. | |
Both films explore passion and love from different portions of liefpl. | :04:48. | :04:52. | |
Is there anything new from well worn themes. Two very different | :04:52. | :04:55. | |
films, but let's deal with Cloudburst first, you were there at | :04:55. | :05:00. | |
the opening. How was it received? It was received with great rapttuer | :05:00. | :05:05. | |
and joy and laughter. It is a very -- rappure and joy and laughter. It | :05:05. | :05:12. | |
is a very theatrical film. It started as a play, with central | :05:12. | :05:17. | |
performances, they have fantastic comical timing. There was applause | :05:17. | :05:21. | |
and laughter, the film is edited to allow it to play to a big popular | :05:21. | :05:27. | |
audience like that and be a big experience. It is a road movie in | :05:27. | :05:34. | |
the tile of Paris-Texas and Thelma and Louise? There are no surprises, | :05:34. | :05:38. | |
apart from one scene where Brenda Fricker and Olympia Dukakis are | :05:38. | :05:45. | |
trying to shed the load of a nude man who has got into the bed of | :05:45. | :05:48. | |
their truck. It is an extraordinary scene. It is one of the most | :05:48. | :05:52. | |
conventional films I have seen. There is no adventure in it any way. | :05:52. | :05:59. | |
And yet, it seems absolutely churlish to bring that in at all, | :05:59. | :06:03. | |
it is uproariously funny. There is nothing particularly to say, it is | :06:03. | :06:09. | |
a lesbian film, except what you have is two older actresss? There | :06:09. | :06:13. | |
is some extremely foul language, the way Olympia Dukakis's character | :06:13. | :06:17. | |
talks I was genuinely shocked, and I have seen a lot of movies. What I | :06:17. | :06:22. | |
found odd and jarring was the combination of this sentimental | :06:22. | :06:30. | |
premise, beautiful cinematography, and beautiful score, and | :06:30. | :06:34. | |
conventionally things, and then this disgusting language, I didn't | :06:34. | :06:40. | |
know if it split the people being OK about that. A foul mouthed old | :06:40. | :06:45. | |
person, at 83 you can say what you want. What is important about that, | :06:45. | :06:53. | |
some of that foul mouthedness she is expressing her sexuality, her | :06:53. | :07:00. | |
crush on KD Lang and what she wants to do with her is great. | :07:00. | :07:04. | |
They have both been battered by life, it was a road movie with a | :07:04. | :07:09. | |
difference, it was not a optimistic start-out, it was the optimistic- | :07:09. | :07:14. | |
end of life. I love the characters saying I loved you when you were | :07:14. | :07:18. | |
fat and when you went blind. You don't see that in movies, when you | :07:18. | :07:22. | |
see people get old and in love in movies they are old and beautiful. | :07:22. | :07:26. | |
The fact they are old seems more important than they are two women. | :07:26. | :07:30. | |
This idea, we said at the beginning of the programme, that the lesbian | :07:30. | :07:34. | |
and gay festival has been determinedly anti-establishment, | :07:34. | :07:39. | |
this and The Kids Are All right, puts sexuality in a different | :07:39. | :07:43. | |
position now? I would question the film maker's claim of the lack of | :07:43. | :07:47. | |
politics. Firstly, those women come to realise they don't have a legal | :07:47. | :07:51. | |
right to be together and get married. Also that marriage brings | :07:51. | :07:54. | |
them out of the closet, they have been able to live in this small | :07:54. | :07:58. | |
community, and even their close family are able to pretend they are | :07:58. | :08:03. | |
two girls who love each other and share a bed and it is nothing | :08:03. | :08:07. | |
lesbian. The marriage makes the family confront it is a loving and | :08:07. | :08:10. | |
sexual relationship they have. There is the pre-wedding, lovely | :08:10. | :08:14. | |
night in the bar in Canada, all Canadians are fabulous. A lot of | :08:14. | :08:18. | |
this funding came from Canada. That actually is where the hitch hiker | :08:18. | :08:22. | |
they pick up does this bestman's speech, I thought that was pretty | :08:22. | :08:27. | |
moving? That's a moment that everybody will applaud. Isn't it? | :08:27. | :08:31. | |
There is no sense that this is a difficult or dangerous subject, in | :08:31. | :08:36. | |
any way at all. This is a film, this is a family film, apart from | :08:36. | :08:40. | |
the language. It makes you say this is completely logical, these two | :08:40. | :08:46. | |
people should be together. The humour is broad and slapsticky, to | :08:47. | :08:50. | |
a an irritating extent. You think these people should be together | :08:50. | :08:56. | |
whether you like them or not. stick might be the wrong word for | :08:56. | :09:03. | |
it, it is Brenda Fricker's face sliding with one of the actor's | :09:03. | :09:09. | |
peniss! There is purely theatrical timing, when she's released from an | :09:09. | :09:13. | |
old people's homes and doors and looks and timing. You have what is | :09:13. | :09:18. | |
essentially an exuberant film, to one that is absolutely downplayed | :09:18. | :09:22. | |
to the point of actually, very, very quiet acting, if indeed it | :09:22. | :09:27. | |
seems like acting at all in Absence? The acting is quiet. The | :09:27. | :09:32. | |
score is the problem, it is as though the director has constructed | :09:32. | :09:35. | |
the most wonderfully ambiguous film, full of these teasing, tense images, | :09:35. | :09:40. | |
that are very, very difficult to read, and has thought, I know, what | :09:40. | :09:47. | |
this really needs is the soundtrack of Scream 3 played over the top, | :09:47. | :09:53. | |
this horror film music that bullies you into responding to it in a | :09:53. | :09:57. | |
certain way. It is the reverse Lolita, this under-age boy is | :09:57. | :10:04. | |
entrapping the older man? What I thought is in Lolita, the key line | :10:04. | :10:08. | |
"reader, it was she who seduced me". Whether you believe that or not? | :10:08. | :10:12. | |
is seeing the seduction of the young boy coming on to him and he's | :10:12. | :10:18. | |
innocent. What you can't get away from in this film, as beautiful as | :10:18. | :10:21. | |
the cinematography, there is a score going, feel this, feel this, | :10:21. | :10:27. | |
all the time. In terms of themes, these are well worn themes in both | :10:27. | :10:31. | |
films, is this film telling a different story? It is essentially | :10:31. | :10:36. | |
a film about stuff that is deferred, suppressed desire that can't be | :10:36. | :10:40. | |
realised until the very final image of the film, and then is it real or | :10:40. | :10:44. | |
not. There is this ghost boy that leads the central character through | :10:44. | :10:49. | |
this experience. I thought the cinematography, the composition of | :10:49. | :10:53. | |
the shots, colour, was equisite, I just didn't quite believe it. It | :10:53. | :10:59. | |
seemed like somebody who knew a lot about cinema, it felt like a fan's | :10:59. | :11:05. | |
film, there was a lot of Hitchcock imagery in it, right down to shower | :11:05. | :11:09. | |
curtains and entering into the teacher's bedroom with the boy, | :11:09. | :11:13. | |
refractured through the mirrors, that led us into the score. I | :11:13. | :11:18. | |
thought at the end of the day it seems an exercise about ambiguity, | :11:18. | :11:21. | |
an exercise about deferred passion, rather than coming from a real | :11:21. | :11:26. | |
place. Maybe there is something about Argentinian culture I don't | :11:26. | :11:30. | |
understand, it seemed artificial. There is an academic quality, it | :11:30. | :11:34. | |
seems one of these films that has been constructed to prove that | :11:34. | :11:38. | |
everything is in the eye of the beholder, the view is actively | :11:38. | :11:42. | |
reading the image. It is more important than the what is in the | :11:42. | :11:45. | |
frame itself. Do you think underpinning it is the idea of | :11:45. | :11:48. | |
ethics and behaviour and the boundaries that exist within | :11:49. | :11:52. | |
institutions? Certainly. Whether it has anything much to say about | :11:52. | :11:56. | |
those things I don't know. That is certainly the arena of it. The one | :11:56. | :12:00. | |
thing about the score is it constructs the sex act as a crime | :12:00. | :12:04. | |
in a very dramatic way, in a Hitchcockian way, but it does it | :12:04. | :12:09. | |
too much. It took us into a camp area, melodrama, which the rest of | :12:09. | :12:14. | |
the film didn't, it was odd. terms of the kind of films, we only | :12:14. | :12:19. | |
reviewed two, but do you think actually, lesbian gay film festival, | :12:19. | :12:24. | |
should that still exist? I think certainly in terms of the audience | :12:24. | :12:28. | |
demand, every ticket is sold. That festival could run or two or three | :12:28. | :12:32. | |
times as long and be packed. There are so many of these festivals | :12:32. | :12:36. | |
around the world, every city has one, I think sometimes there is a | :12:36. | :12:40. | |
shortage, sometimes there is a greater demand than there is supply | :12:40. | :12:45. | |
of gay films. I think as the gay and lesbian community become more | :12:45. | :12:49. | |
assimilated into the mainstream culture, what is a gay aesthetic, | :12:49. | :12:53. | |
is much more problematic. It is a rich festival, these aren't really | :12:53. | :12:57. | |
the best two films in it, I don't think. There is the South African | :12:57. | :13:03. | |
film, Beauty, an exploration of a similar theme to the one we have | :13:03. | :13:07. | |
been discussing. There is far more to it than just this. We chose two | :13:07. | :13:15. | |
and they were pretty good to choose. The LGLFF, try to say that, the BFI | :13:15. | :13:19. | |
runs until Sunday. Intergenerational of a different | :13:19. | :13:26. | |
kind by a new novel by Noah Hawley, who uses a dark canvas to explain | :13:26. | :13:32. | |
the strains and limits of the paternal bond. | :13:32. | :13:38. | |
Noah Hawley is an established name in the United Statesing films and | :13:38. | :13:42. | |
TV shows, including Bones, in its seventh series. His latest venture | :13:42. | :13:47. | |
is fourth book but UK debut, The Good Father, it tells the story of | :13:47. | :13:54. | |
Dr Rosemary Leonard, a respected -- Dr Paul Allen, a respected | :13:54. | :14:00. | |
rheumatologist, he find out his son is abroad and connected to the | :14:00. | :14:04. | |
assassination of a presidential candidate. As we watched, the | :14:04. | :14:09. | |
gunman turned into the crowd, the Secret Service tried to reach him, | :14:09. | :14:13. | |
the camera swung wildly, the agents tried to reach them, they were lost | :14:13. | :14:17. | |
to the camera. I got closer to the TV, but rather than make things | :14:17. | :14:22. | |
clear it played them harder to identify. The words of the anchor | :14:22. | :14:27. | |
that the police have identify the gunman. The doorbell rang. | :14:27. | :14:31. | |
I came up with the idea when my wife was pregnant with our first | :14:31. | :14:35. | |
child, I came to wonder who my daughter would grow up to be. I | :14:35. | :14:41. | |
started to think about a story of a man whose son was accused of a | :14:41. | :14:44. | |
crime, and he was going to fight to prove that his son was innocent, | :14:44. | :14:48. | |
but at the same time he would have to come to terms with the fact that | :14:48. | :14:51. | |
he might not have been the best father. | :14:51. | :14:56. | |
The terrors of parenthood are well trodden territory in literature, | :14:56. | :15:01. | |
most recently in Lionel Shriver's We Need To Talk About Kevin. But | :15:01. | :15:08. | |
Hawley's take is a psychopath tholg of the father, who unearthed truths | :15:08. | :15:12. | |
about his own shortcomings. have a 20-year-old like this who | :15:12. | :15:16. | |
shoots a politician, and walks into a High School, any of these things, | :15:16. | :15:21. | |
it is hard not to blame the parents. It is tough, and at what age do we | :15:21. | :15:26. | |
stop being responsible for the actions of our children. If I'm a | :15:26. | :15:29. | |
25-year-old man, can I still blame my parents, for where I am in my | :15:29. | :15:34. | |
life, 30, 40. I would like to think at a certain age your childhood is | :15:34. | :15:37. | |
no longer relevant. During the course of his investigations, pall | :15:37. | :15:44. | |
draws on past cases of mass murder and -- pall draws on past cases of | :15:44. | :15:48. | |
mass murder, and the case of Gabrielle Giffords. Has Hawley | :15:48. | :15:52. | |
managed to weave fiction and real life together in a way that offers | :15:52. | :15:58. | |
new insights into the troubles of fatherhood. | :15:58. | :16:02. | |
It seems in this book it is the opposite of We Need To Talk About | :16:02. | :16:05. | |
Kevin, this is a man exploring the nature of his own guilt, or his | :16:05. | :16:10. | |
son's guilt, and his son's guilt? It feels like a repost to it. We | :16:10. | :16:16. | |
Need To Talk About Kevin puts the child as this evil incub bus, who | :16:16. | :16:18. | |
springs from nowhere, and terrorises the parent. Here it is | :16:18. | :16:23. | |
the opposite. He's very, very interested in the geneology of that | :16:23. | :16:27. | |
process, and how a child can become a killer. This is a book with a | :16:27. | :16:31. | |
kind of identity crisis. There is some beautiful writing in it, but | :16:31. | :16:35. | |
there is also things that are best suited to the fax machine than the | :16:35. | :16:41. | |
novel, I think. The airport writer, inside him, is reasserting itself, | :16:41. | :16:49. | |
maybe that is in his geneology. he's using it at the start to hook | :16:49. | :16:54. | |
you in, like television writing, it changes gears, it starts, you | :16:54. | :16:58. | |
really start to think about this book as seriously about guilt, full | :16:58. | :17:00. | |
stop? It is interesting about built, it is particularly interesting | :17:00. | :17:03. | |
about loyalty. For me the key point of the book is when the son, in | :17:03. | :17:07. | |
prison, says to the father, what if I was guilty, would you still be | :17:07. | :17:11. | |
doing all of this, by is clear his flame, the answer has to be yes, | :17:11. | :17:16. | |
because the point of being loyal and loving your family, is | :17:16. | :17:21. | |
protected whatever, that means protecting if they try to kill the | :17:21. | :17:25. | |
potential President. We don't give away the end of the book? We don't | :17:25. | :17:30. | |
know if he was guilty and who died. There is an odd sort of perspective | :17:30. | :17:35. | |
of the book. The perspective of the protaganist and the reader, with | :17:35. | :17:39. | |
the reader he keeps telling you things you know. He can't imagine | :17:39. | :17:44. | |
people not knowing, the Mansen family, they were crazy people, and | :17:44. | :17:47. | |
Robert Kennedy. It has a quality of telling you things that are obvious. | :17:47. | :17:51. | |
In terms it of the position of the protaganist, you don't know if the | :17:51. | :17:55. | |
stuff you are hearing about the child's experience is coming from | :17:55. | :17:58. | |
the father's perspective or what actually happened. It felt confused | :17:58. | :18:04. | |
in that regard. The Doctor feels the need to tell you things, they | :18:04. | :18:08. | |
are in control. What he is, as he loses control during the book, only | :18:08. | :18:12. | |
thing he feels factually in control of are stories that really happened | :18:12. | :18:16. | |
to real people? As the protaganist loses control, it is like the | :18:16. | :18:21. | |
author really finds his voice. There is this weird mixture of | :18:21. | :18:25. | |
airport novel writing, sometimes almost end of chapters ending as | :18:25. | :18:30. | |
next episode there will be. They are like ad breaks. A lot of the | :18:30. | :18:34. | |
establishing stuff about him being a doctor, felt like brilliant | :18:34. | :18:36. | |
research, and somebody writing from a doctor's point of view. Then all | :18:36. | :18:40. | |
of that falls away, the second half of the book you get this fantastic | :18:40. | :18:45. | |
mediation on what it means to be a parent, and giplt, and how much | :18:45. | :18:51. | |
people inher rite from -- guilt and how much people inherit from their | :18:51. | :18:56. | |
parents. And the trimmings of the political campaign that felt a | :18:56. | :19:00. | |
little bit received as well. I wonder if it needed that. Just | :19:00. | :19:03. | |
this central thing of your son might have killed somebody, and how | :19:03. | :19:08. | |
much are you implicated in that, just grows and grows as a book. By | :19:08. | :19:12. | |
the end you feel you are reading a classic writer, at the beginning | :19:12. | :19:16. | |
you feel you have picked up something you could throw away in | :19:16. | :19:20. | |
an airport. That central theme of whether children of divorced | :19:20. | :19:24. | |
parents or not, the fragility of the relationship between the parent | :19:24. | :19:28. | |
and child, no matter what circumstances, Hawley talks about | :19:28. | :19:32. | |
it himself, is extraordinary, and where responsibility ends and self- | :19:32. | :19:37. | |
reliance begins? I think this boy was clearly damaged. We can tell | :19:37. | :19:44. | |
there was this early incident, he is on a journey from one end of | :19:44. | :19:48. | |
America to another seeing his parents. Then the plane goes into a | :19:48. | :19:52. | |
nose dive. That was a fantastic metaphor for the whole book? It is | :19:52. | :19:55. | |
very convincing the process of how this guy is trying to examine | :19:55. | :20:01. | |
everything that has happened, sifting through the whole biography, | :20:01. | :20:04. | |
worrying whether the child, that's what it is, but it is something | :20:04. | :20:09. | |
else, he's looking for a kind of story, he wants his son's story to | :20:09. | :20:17. | |
be the story of the Manchurian candidate, but it won't fit. It is | :20:17. | :20:24. | |
not the story of Taxi Driver right, you can't lean on it and get it | :20:24. | :20:28. | |
wrong, it is not about a taxi driver falling in love with a | :20:28. | :20:32. | |
teenage prostitute. He retraces the son's steps, it is a road movie. | :20:32. | :20:37. | |
You get a fantastic sense of America and its huge distances. | :20:37. | :20:43. | |
the boy wanting to lose himself in it? You also get the sense that the | :20:43. | :20:45. | |
parent can never completely know the child. You can go on the | :20:45. | :20:50. | |
journey, he starts to do exact low the things the boy has done, taking | :20:50. | :20:53. | |
on his vocabulary and actions, ultimately accepting that you can | :20:53. | :20:58. | |
never know your own child. child can change its name and deny | :20:58. | :21:01. | |
you. There was one episode in the book, where he goes to stay with | :21:01. | :21:06. | |
the parents of a girl he knew at Vassar for one year, who sound like | :21:06. | :21:12. | |
great parent, he goes there, and spends a few months with them, in a | :21:12. | :21:19. | |
new nuclear family, and happy -- happier than he has ever been, | :21:19. | :21:25. | |
guting for his father. That is where he picks up his potential | :21:25. | :21:28. | |
killer skills. The Good Father, published by Hodder & Stroughton, | :21:28. | :21:33. | |
is in all good books and libraries. From the exploration of troubled | :21:33. | :21:40. | |
minds to the exploration of the fiscal brain. The Wellcome | :21:40. | :21:45. | |
Collection lifts the lid on the most ex siting grey matter of human | :21:45. | :21:48. | |
existence, the human brain. The human brain contains more than a | :21:48. | :21:53. | |
billion nerve cells, it is the most intricate and least understood | :21:53. | :21:57. | |
organ. We are taken from the benign to sinister, from horror movie | :21:58. | :22:04. | |
posters to ubegin INGs, in order to grb eugenics, in order to shed | :22:04. | :22:10. | |
light on the grey matter. Some people would hold the brain to be | :22:10. | :22:15. | |
the most complex object in the universe. It contains billions of | :22:15. | :22:19. | |
brain cells and not well understood by the public. It is even less | :22:19. | :22:23. | |
often seen. So that is why we wanted to put on an exhibition that | :22:23. | :22:29. | |
created an encounter with this extraordinary, but unique organ. | :22:29. | :22:33. | |
More than 150 objects are on display, ranging from segments of | :22:33. | :22:38. | |
real brains, preserved from figures such as Einstein, and serial killer, | :22:39. | :22:44. | |
Jason Burkett, through to art, videos and manuscripts. The | :22:45. | :22:48. | |
exhibition is split into our sections, measuring and classifying | :22:48. | :22:52. | |
looks at how scientists have tried to understand how the brain | :22:52. | :22:56. | |
functions. While mapping and modelling focuses on how the | :22:56. | :22:59. | |
Britain has been visually represented. Cutting shows the | :22:59. | :23:03. | |
surgical desection of the brain, and the giving and taking section, | :23:03. | :23:08. | |
looks at the difficult politics of brain donation and medical research. | :23:08. | :23:12. | |
The approach here has been to investigate, not only the artistic | :23:12. | :23:15. | |
ramifications of health and medicine, but also the | :23:15. | :23:19. | |
philosophical ones too. We hope that people will come away from the | :23:19. | :23:24. | |
exhibition with an appreciation of the nature the brain, but not | :23:24. | :23:29. | |
really from a detailed neuropsychological perspective, | :23:29. | :23:34. | |
rather than a social perspective, formed by the nature of the brain | :23:34. | :23:43. | |
as this rather delicate substance. I mean, an appreciation of the | :23:43. | :23:46. | |
brain is absolutely right, one can't imagine why there wasn't been | :23:46. | :23:50. | |
an exhibition like this before. Because it is so endlessly | :23:50. | :23:53. | |
fascinating, you realise you are no further forward with understanding | :23:53. | :23:57. | |
how the brain works, than you were and could ever be? I think that | :23:57. | :24:02. | |
probably reflects where we are. The brain is still a huge mystery to us. | :24:02. | :24:10. | |
I quite regularly have my brain scanned. I have a scar on the right | :24:10. | :24:14. | |
asipital lobe, I'm used to looking at pictures of my brain. Going to | :24:14. | :24:18. | |
the exhibition, you realise the image of the brain in the jar, is a | :24:18. | :24:23. | |
Gothic image of Frankenstein and horror movies and Doctor Who, there | :24:23. | :24:27. | |
is a certain, pure, house of horrors aspect to the exhibition. | :24:27. | :24:31. | |
As I journeyed around it, there were a few times I thought I might | :24:31. | :24:36. | |
keel over, and one moment where I felt I was just about to go. I | :24:36. | :24:40. | |
learned a lot, one of the things I learned was that image of a brain | :24:40. | :24:44. | |
in the jar still has the horror movie power. I still couldn't get | :24:44. | :24:48. | |
over the fact that, again, they are lined up in jars, they are sliced | :24:48. | :24:52. | |
up, they are diced, everything, they are made into beautiful works | :24:52. | :24:58. | |
of art. You can't get away from the fact that it is inside here? This | :24:58. | :25:04. | |
presents the brain as a cut of meat, as brisket, or rump, or something | :25:04. | :25:08. | |
like that. We are so used, because we are so enthralled to | :25:08. | :25:12. | |
neuroscience right now, every week a book comes out saying we are hard | :25:12. | :25:16. | |
wired to do this, and setting up the brain is almost like this God- | :25:16. | :25:21. | |
like entity. It seemed really refreshing to be reminded it is | :25:21. | :25:26. | |
just this rather preposterous globy object, to some extent. | :25:26. | :25:29. | |
illustrations, what I found most enthralling about the investigation, | :25:29. | :25:34. | |
it was very interesting in many ways and covers a huge amount of | :25:34. | :25:38. | |
ground. Was the brilliant illustrations and diagrams that are | :25:38. | :25:41. | |
very prety. I found my self- wondering whether we are drawn to | :25:41. | :25:47. | |
certain kinds of patterns, some of them look like beautiful Victorian | :25:47. | :25:51. | |
wallpaper. Maybe we are drawn to them because it is already in there. | :25:51. | :25:56. | |
Some of the things commissioned for this, there was an partist who had | :25:56. | :26:01. | |
dyslexia, had the MRI, a cross section of the MRI of her brain, | :26:01. | :26:06. | |
set in perspex. You can walk through her sed. It is | :26:06. | :26:11. | |
extraordinary. Before we get to the cultural beauty of it. We should | :26:11. | :26:19. | |
talk about ECT trepanning, and eugenics, people writing to | :26:19. | :26:23. | |
families saying your children are almost dead. We see the heart- | :26:23. | :26:29. | |
breaking, shocking documentaries, the products of Nazi hospitals, you | :26:29. | :26:33. | |
see the children whose brain will be claimed soon by some scientist. | :26:33. | :26:37. | |
A photograph from above by a rostrum camera. You can see some of | :26:37. | :26:42. | |
them are still fighting, and some of them have given up. It is | :26:42. | :26:45. | |
profoundly shocking. There is a letter in it, from a woman whose | :26:45. | :26:50. | |
baby is dying of meningitis, who writes to an eminent brain | :26:50. | :26:54. | |
scientist in America in the 50s, saying, would you like this brain. | :26:54. | :26:58. | |
Maybe this can be of some benefit. We should say it is not just Nazis, | :26:58. | :27:01. | |
that is not just doctors. There are these heart-breaking letters saying | :27:01. | :27:07. | |
your child won't make it. It is not just Nazi investigations, there is | :27:07. | :27:11. | |
some dubious ends to this research, there is also just a very poignant | :27:12. | :27:15. | |
thing about the mystery of what goes wrong and how you sort it out. | :27:15. | :27:19. | |
One of the things that struck me, and they make the point early on, | :27:19. | :27:25. | |
is the brain isn't always central of the idea of who we are, for | :27:25. | :27:28. | |
Aristotle the brain was number seven after the liver. It is only | :27:28. | :27:32. | |
in the last 200 years we have come to think of ourselves, not located | :27:32. | :27:35. | |
in the Full Heart Company or the guts, but more and more in the | :27:35. | :27:38. | |
brain. If anything is done to the brain or violated and used in a | :27:38. | :27:42. | |
certain way, for us it is the centre being attacked. The idea of | :27:42. | :27:46. | |
doing your head in is new. It used to be something in your stomach. | :27:46. | :27:51. | |
They say the gut is the second nervous system. Then there is the | :27:51. | :27:54. | |
absolute beauty, again you are talking about, we are drawn to | :27:54. | :28:00. | |
things that look beautiful, also, the idea that almost like some of | :28:00. | :28:05. | |
the drawings were botanical, there is an extraordinary detail? There | :28:05. | :28:10. | |
is a sculpture, with the Kapil rees of the brain have been filled in | :28:10. | :28:16. | |
with plastic, it looks like a piece of coral, it is gorgeous, it shows | :28:16. | :28:19. | |
you the patterns are mirrored throughout nature. Then, what you | :28:19. | :28:24. | |
have, as well, is the idea you have the brain of Einstein, and the | :28:24. | :28:27. | |
brain of Burke, we should be able to see something looking at the | :28:27. | :28:32. | |
brains, telling us this man was a genius, this man was a killer? The | :28:32. | :28:37. | |
idea that we could do that, we haven't cracked that one? Quite a | :28:37. | :28:44. | |
lot of the exhibition looked at the same similarity, the lumps on your | :28:44. | :28:48. | |
brain indicating your character. The amazing fact that you see, the | :28:48. | :28:55. | |
British society of fronolog y wasn't disbanded until 1968. Until | :28:55. | :28:58. | |
then people were meeting, producing a journal, still with the theory | :28:58. | :29:02. | |
that the shape of your brain would dictate whether you were a criminal. | :29:02. | :29:08. | |
One of the loading brain surgeries in this country, in the 1940s, was | :29:08. | :29:14. | |
a Dr Cushing. At the end of the exhibition you see some of the | :29:14. | :29:17. | |
horror pictures, the man with two brains, and the brain and all that, | :29:17. | :29:21. | |
did it make you think differently about yourselves when you left? | :29:21. | :29:26. | |
think it takes the brain down a peg or two. In a way. It slightly | :29:26. | :29:30. | |
rejects this idea that the brain is the centre of everything, by making | :29:30. | :29:35. | |
us more aware of it as a gloopy physical object. If you fancy | :29:36. | :29:43. | |
looking at your brain in a serious way, Brains is open at the Wellcome | :29:43. | :29:48. | |
Institute until June. How does a virtual mind cope with incars | :29:48. | :29:52. | |
nation. That is the question at the heart of a film made by Jafar | :29:52. | :29:56. | |
Panahi, whose film had an extraordinary journey to the west, | :29:56. | :30:00. | |
via a USB stick hidden in a birthday cake. | :30:00. | :30:07. | |
In 20 010, one of the leading lights of Iranian city, Jafar | :30:07. | :30:16. | |
Panahi, -- film Iranian cinema, Jafar Panahi, was taken by the | :30:16. | :30:20. | |
authorities and sentenced to prison. He created a new work, This Is Not | :30:20. | :30:26. | |
A Film, a not film that was shot in ten days. He documents his desire | :30:26. | :30:33. | |
to make films, with his virtual confinement at home. He puts out | :30:33. | :30:37. | |
his vision for a film the authorities won't let him make, | :30:37. | :30:41. | |
mapping it out on the floor at home. The process increasingly leaves him | :30:41. | :30:51. | |
:30:51. | :30:55. | ||
Presented as a day in the life of a director, serious moments when | :30:55. | :31:00. | |
Panahi plans his appeal against his sentence with lawyers, are inter%ed | :31:00. | :31:06. | |
with scenes from every day life -- interspersed with scenes from every | :31:06. | :31:16. | |
:31:16. | :31:37. | ||
day life. He puts previous work in The fear of further persecution by | :31:37. | :31:40. | |
the authorities is ever present, with coded phone calls and constant | :31:40. | :31:43. | |
concerns for the safety of his family, highlighting the volatile | :31:44. | :31:53. | |
:31:54. | :32:06. | ||
Panahi's courageous act of rebellion received rave reviews | :32:06. | :32:11. | |
across the festival circuit. Is it anything more than a howl against | :32:11. | :32:18. | |
censorship? What's extraordinary is we don't | :32:18. | :32:23. | |
know, we think Panahi is still in his flat awaiting the appeal on the | :32:23. | :32:28. | |
six-year sentence. He's still under house arrest. When this film gets a | :32:28. | :32:32. | |
limited distribution, we don't know what will happen to him. Was it | :32:32. | :32:38. | |
more than just an act of defiance, in terms of cinematic | :32:38. | :32:45. | |
graphicically? In the context of Iranian cinema, it is conventional | :32:45. | :32:55. | |
:32:55. | :32:55. | ||
to make films about being film maker, he's drawing on Kier st. | :32:55. | :33:00. | |
Armer. He can work within the regime? Panahi is fitting in more | :33:00. | :33:05. | |
with the conventions of Iranian cinema doing this film, rather than | :33:05. | :33:10. | |
doing Kristy and The Circle, which were more anti-establishment. Not | :33:10. | :33:15. | |
this film is anti-establishment, but he is reflecting here. He's | :33:15. | :33:17. | |
fantastic company. It is not really so much about the film he's not | :33:17. | :33:21. | |
making. There is a little bit in there about that. It is about an | :33:21. | :33:24. | |
conversation with an amazing man. You are absolutely right about that. | :33:24. | :33:28. | |
This is a summary of Iranian cinema, from inside somebody's living room. | :33:28. | :33:35. | |
The film that he has made has all the customary structures, the refer | :33:35. | :33:41. | |
relation quality, it is always reminding you this is a film, and | :33:41. | :33:50. | |
ending with an epi phanic moment. You have this sense of if I never | :33:50. | :33:56. | |
get out of the room you will know what I mean? I'm an Iranian film | :33:56. | :34:01. | |
virgin, I didn't know all the references. I thought it was one of | :34:01. | :34:04. | |
the most brilliant things I have seen in a long time. The honesty | :34:04. | :34:14. | |
:34:14. | :34:18. | ||
and stowism of this man, who finds out -- -- stoicim of this man who | :34:18. | :34:22. | |
finds he can't make films any more. The doorbell, when it rings you | :34:22. | :34:26. | |
don't know, when the man takes the trash you think who are you, I have | :34:26. | :34:29. | |
never seen you before, you think this is a spy, you build up a sense | :34:30. | :34:34. | |
of real fear in the film? It raises certain questions about who you are | :34:34. | :34:37. | |
looking at, you are conscious that his flat is beautiful and he has | :34:37. | :34:42. | |
lots of culture, he's worried about not making art films any more. | :34:42. | :34:45. | |
There is part of you asking what is going on in the real world. There | :34:45. | :34:50. | |
is that as well, which I'm sure he's conscious of. It service to | :34:50. | :34:54. | |
remind us that when people in the west are most concerned about | :34:54. | :35:00. | |
Iran's nuke clear ambitions, Iran is a quite different place to the | :35:00. | :35:05. | |
place that, the reductive attitude towards Iran. It does suggest, in a | :35:05. | :35:15. | |
way we would like to see it as a last hur ra to some extent. Hurrah | :35:15. | :35:20. | |
to some extent. The regime can't stop you being a writer or a | :35:20. | :35:24. | |
musician, you can always still write. People can stop you being a | :35:24. | :35:29. | |
film maker. That is what the film is about. This individual man has | :35:29. | :35:33. | |
an urge, and he will reach for anything. Now with the technology | :35:33. | :35:38. | |
that he can get out on to the balcony with the iPhone and make a | :35:38. | :35:42. | |
film. Although it is slightly constructed, he meets the beautiful | :35:43. | :35:46. | |
fascinating man who collects the trash and makes the film about him. | :35:46. | :35:50. | |
There is the extraordinary shot of the big picture window, and against | :35:50. | :35:54. | |
the light are all the flowers, then there is cranes doing a dance | :35:54. | :35:59. | |
outside, which either speak to a huge document in Iran, or this idea | :35:59. | :36:02. | |
that so many different things wraching him. That was one of the | :36:02. | :36:07. | |
most sinister things in the whole film -- watching him. That was one | :36:07. | :36:11. | |
of the most sinister things in the whole film. When you look at a film | :36:11. | :36:18. | |
like Carnage, shot in one room with Kate Winslet, it is much more | :36:18. | :36:22. | |
arresting? It is real life. It was incredibly well constructed, it was | :36:22. | :36:26. | |
shot in ten days and played as real time, there is an element of | :36:26. | :36:31. | |
construct, and the moments where he uses different cameras. It is | :36:31. | :36:35. | |
carefully plotted. I think it is smarter than it pretend to be, | :36:35. | :36:41. | |
people showing up at different moments and the dog, is construct | :36:41. | :36:46. | |
jif. Is it disingenious? No, all the way through he questions the | :36:46. | :36:50. | |
voracity, sits down and does that several times, as any good Iranian | :36:50. | :36:54. | |
film director should. It is part of the work. Do you think, though, I | :36:54. | :36:57. | |
suppose the answer for him will be yes, my heart was in my mouth, I | :36:58. | :37:04. | |
thought is he taking a terrible risk. He has family, he's already | :37:04. | :37:09. | |
incarcerated, he's watched all the time. It is a two-fringeered salute, | :37:09. | :37:14. | |
he gets it smuggled out in a birthday cake. He would have had a | :37:14. | :37:17. | |
tremendous amount of support from the European film industry, not | :37:17. | :37:24. | |
where he is, to be honest. Iranian sin pla has a status within the | :37:24. | :37:28. | |
rest -- cinema has a status within Europe and the world is it is where | :37:28. | :37:33. | |
it is. He will always be able to get the director of the Cannes Film | :37:33. | :37:37. | |
Festival to write letters for him. It won't sort his life out but it | :37:37. | :37:42. | |
does help. What made it electric for me to watch as a viewer, was | :37:42. | :37:46. | |
supporting him or encouraging him, or was I complicit in something | :37:46. | :37:52. | |
that will impress son him, ultimately. Was I encouraging him | :37:52. | :37:57. | |
to commit a crime -- impress son him ultimately. Was I encouraging | :37:57. | :38:03. | |
him to commit a crime or not. He has consigned himself to | :38:03. | :38:05. | |
incarceration. This is something that is still happening now, when | :38:05. | :38:09. | |
you watch the film, this is this man's life. From one respected film | :38:09. | :38:19. | |
maker to another now, there are a few more few more refound than the | :38:19. | :38:22. | |
German auteur, Werner Herzog. We talkeded about his book focusing on | :38:22. | :38:25. | |
a triple homicide. What was fascinating for me was the nature | :38:26. | :38:32. | |
of the crime. Very disquieting for me. Bank robbery, you understand, | :38:32. | :38:35. | |
and other crimes you would understand. But this triple | :38:35. | :38:39. | |
homicide had all the ingredients of something completely and utter low | :38:39. | :38:43. | |
senseless. It is not just about the two murders, and it is not about | :38:43. | :38:53. | |
the death penalty. It is about a true genuine American Gothic. | :38:53. | :38:58. | |
dad died ten days ago. REPORTER: You are scheduled for execution in | :38:58. | :39:02. | |
only eight days. Yes, Sir. How are you doing? I'm a Christian, I | :39:02. | :39:06. | |
believe that paradise awaits, one way or the other, I tell people all | :39:06. | :39:11. | |
the time, I'm either going home or home. He says I'm going home or | :39:11. | :39:16. | |
home. Which means I'm going either to God, home into paradise, or I'm | :39:16. | :39:23. | |
going home to my family. It is understandable in a way. At | :39:23. | :39:28. | |
the same time he didn't have any remorse, it was not in this young | :39:28. | :39:33. | |
man. REPORTER: I have the feeling that desanyone knee, in a way, has | :39:33. | :39:38. | |
dealt -- destiny has, in a way, dealt you a very bad deck of cards, | :39:38. | :39:43. | |
it does not exonerate you, I talk to you, it does not necessarily | :39:43. | :39:47. | |
mean I have to like you. executions were the law, I was | :39:47. | :39:51. | |
going to make sure it was done professionally, with integrity. I | :39:51. | :39:56. | |
was a professional in capital punishment. We have to take the | :39:56. | :40:04. | |
fact that after 125 executions, and he performs his 125th or so, it is | :40:04. | :40:09. | |
a woman, he goes back to work, and two days later, in his workshop, in | :40:09. | :40:16. | |
his garage, he has a breakdown. after all this, and until this day, | :40:16. | :40:26. | |
:40:26. | :40:27. | ||
11 years later, no, sir, nobody has the right to tell you to take | :40:27. | :40:30. | |
another life, I don't care if it is the law. It is so easy to change | :40:30. | :40:37. | |
the law. Werner Herzog with Into the Abyss. | :40:37. | :40:40. | |
Death row twice in one show. Hopefully it won't give you too | :40:40. | :40:44. | |
many nightmares, many thanks to my guests tonight, Hannah McGill, | :40:44. | :40:47. | |
Matthew Sweet and Mark Ravenhill, they will be carefully studying | :40:47. | :40:50. | |
your tweets and comments in the Green Room shortly. Remember you | :40:50. | :40:55. | |
can see more about tonight's items on the website, and explore the | :40:55. | :40:58. | |
treasure trove of material we put up there for your viewing. Next | :40:58. | :41:03. | |
week we have a break for Easter, fear not matter that is back on | :41:03. | :41:06. | |
April 13th. Another of the brilliant young artists performing | :41:06. | :41:16. | |
as part of our partnership with spw. BC introducing, here is RAMS' | :41:16. | :41:26. | |
:41:26. | :41:33. | ||
# You got preens # You got clothes | :41:33. | :41:36. | |
# Clear arms # Has gots the pocket radio | :41:36. | :41:39. | |
# You got style # You got soul | :41:39. | :41:42. | |
# Something new # And maybe something you stole | :41:42. | :41:46. | |
# You good preens # You got clothes | :41:46. | :41:51. | |
# Did you make it on your own # Tell me when | :41:51. | :41:56. | |
# You think # You've gone too far | :41:56. | :42:00. | |
# You got results # Got the faults | :42:00. | :42:05. | |
# Got them all # The ephemeral | :42:05. | :42:13. | |
# You got the say nothing at all # I seen a change | :42:13. | :42:18. | |
# You got far # I seen it written in a bolt | :42:18. | :42:23. | |
# Of a car # The new clothes | :42:23. | :42:33. | |
:42:33. | :42:52. | ||
# You got results # Got the faults | :42:52. | :42:59. | |
# Got them all # The ephemeral | :42:59. | :43:09. | |
:43:09. | :43:18. | ||
# You got the to say nothing at all # You got results | :43:18. | :43:20. | |
# Got faults # Got them all | :43:21. | :43:27. | |
# The ephemeral # You got the cold | :43:27. | :43:31. | |
# But say nothing at all # You got results | :43:31. | :43:34. |