Episode 11 Film 2011 with Claudia Winkleman

Hello and welcome to a brand-new series of Film 2011. We are live

and if you want to get in touch, the details are on the screen.

Coming up on tonight's show: An all-star cast are going viral in

Steven Soderberg's Contagion. day one there were two people, then

four, then 16. Steven Spielberg's much anticipated

The Adventures of Tin Tin in 3D. Thompson, where are you? Already

downstairs, keep up. Mississippi is turning as best-selling novel The

Help comes to the big screen. Plus Gary Oldman tells us about some of

the films that have inspired him. First tonight, Contagion, directed

by Steven Soderberg, following the outbreak of a lethal virus that

soon becomes a global pandemic. she mention seeing anyone who was

sick, on the plane, at the airport? Are you OK? My arm. Sit down. Watch

your feet. Come on. Come on now. OK. What happened? Did you take too

much of that... No, no, no, stay there, just go up to your room,

honey... This movie is a thriller where the villain is a virus. It's

not like an action thriller, but kind of a psychological and

physical thriller because the virus is very real and very dangerous.

Does she have a history of seizures? Unfortunately, she did

die. Right. Can I go talk to her? Your wife is dead. My character is

a husband and father who loses his wife and steps on in very short

order and is left only with his daughter and basically spends the

rest of the movie trying to keep his daughter alive. Don't touch

anything. Help me. I've seen enough generic mayhem in movies to last me

a lifetime. I would like to see something human that I think could

occur. What's your temperature? 101.8. Are you alone? I've

definitely infected other people. You don't know that. They wanted

the authentic pandemic movie so they did a boat load of research

and tried to game out what really might happen. We have a Novo virus

with a mortality rate in low 20s, no vaccine at this time? That's

right. It's a global international picture and they don't make them

like they used to any more. There was a time when you would go to the

movies and it wasn't that unusual to see an international cast kind

of like this one. On day one, there were two people, then four, then

1416. In three months, it's a bill. That's where we are headed -- then

16. Fear is a very powerful thing. Rub this in. It needs to be

represented in the film because it's going to be and is such a huge

part of this issue when it plays out.

Don't talk to anyone, don't touch anyone, stay away from other people.

Get back in your car. We are not sick. It's figuring out out faster

than we are figuring it out. It's mutated. Danny Leigh. Claudia

winkleman. You clever human. I don't want to start the new series

being at all negative so kick us off. Thank you for the opportunity.

I think the first thing that will strike anyone about conteenage

season the ridiculous all-star cast it's got going on and it will put

people in mind of the great '70s disaster movies and you will think,

what's going on here, is it like the towering inferno gets bird flu

and it's like that and there's something very original and unusual

and chilly going on here. I think you follow these big name actors

and characters into the film, but they don't get what you are

expecting. You get a result in a film which is about all of us and a

breakdown about what happens when people are in this situation, what

happens when people stop collecting the rubbish and looting chemists

and making money out of these situations. It's unusual and it

does what it does very well and I'm pleased and proud to have it as the

first film on the new series. Claudia? Oh, dear. By the way, I

think I'm by myself, it's got very high percentage. You liked it. I

had a very high expectation, love Soderberg, Out of Sight, one of my

best films, I love Traffic, looking at the world of drugs, if you will.

This is multi-playered, Traffic had heart, I would say this doesn't. I

would also say it starts very well. When I say scalp, you will know

what it mean, it starts well, Gwyneth and Kate are brilliant and

Jennifer Ealie, but you think it's going to gear up, Kate Winslet has

a brilliant scene with wound of those people and you think, here we

go and it never gets there. Jude Law, don't even get me started. I

almost feel, and this is maybe me, it's just not good enough. I will

leave Jude Law to one side because that's different. But this isn't 28

days later, the flu virus, people don't come back to life and start

pegging it down the road and chewing off people's faces. The

illness is quick and unpredictable and I think that comes across in

the film. The film is quick and unpredictable. The film is very

boring. I had a little nap. At no stage do you ever know what is

coming next. How often can you say that about a movie? It's a good

point but listen, I think I'm by myself in this but I found it quite

dull. I would be surprised. See it on Friday in a bird flu suit.

Outbreak. Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson join forces for The

Adventures of Tin Tin, Secret of the Unicorn in 3D.

Snowy, look at this. A unicorn. very unique specimen that is.

Finest ship that ever sailed the seven seas.. Tin Tin leads with his

brain but follows with his heart. What secrets do you hold? What's

this? It's always the brain that pulls him forward, that kind of

Sherlock helms reasoning that he does. The evidence is safe with us.

Argh... Where are you? I'm already downstairs, do try to keep up.

Just when it looks like he's on the downhill run to June cover the

secret, his best friend and partner... Thanks, I'm Tin Tin, by

the way. Does something idiotic to get in his way and upset the apple

cart. Happens constantly. Land. are not there yet. Land. Find them

both. His foes are against him. This may sound crazy but I've got a

plan. His friends are against him and Tin Tin somehow always rises

above the chaos and achieves. you hit anything? Oh, dear. That

was an extraordinary and intimate experience for me to be in a very

quiet stage, almost like a the At rickal rehearsal stage, with a

device in my hand -- theatrical. It was like a game controller with a

six inch colour screen and if I just looked up with my eyes, I see

Andy Circus and Nick Croft and the Thomson twins but I wouldn't see

any circus Jamie Bell any longer, I would see Tin Tin and Captain

Haddock. To see him going, how do I figure this out, was very much

exciting. He's like a kid with a toy. On this movie, Spielberg was

playing the role of, you know... was the two dimensional drawing

brought to life in a three dimensional way. The period had to

be non-specific a period, we didn't want people with cellphones and

laptops. We also didn't want to change Tin Tin's trousers.

Get down. For those people who don't know Tin Tin so well, we just

wanted to really make them feel how I felt as an eight-year-old boy

where you were taken somewhere and lived through the character and

were in dangerous situations travelling the world... It's

absolutely a true adventure movie. I am very happy to start with this

one. It is a thrilling ride, Danny, it is rip roaring, it's raiders, I

don't like motion capture, the first six minutes and the opening

titles are very exciting, but once you see their faces slightly dead

behind the eyes, I was like I don't like this, why don't they make it

real. Six minutes in, they have amazing scenery, that sounds weird

because it was drawn but it's a thrilling ride, you're off these

extraordinary set pieces, I thought it was properly exciting, I left

clapping? I think the thing is, if you are going to review this film

fairly, you have to get in touch with your inner nine-year-old

because your inner nine-year-old will have a fine old time with

thrills and laughs. Spectacular set pieces. I'm 39 and I don't think

you need to be as miserable and to- faced and pompous as me to find

that that doesn't work the same way as an adult. The set pieces are

track tack lar but spectacular but there's nothing like that in there.

Steven Spielberg's ET, you find a story with that, there's downtime

and breathing space and you have incredible uplifting moments but

also downtime within them. Here there's none of them. Spielberg and

Jackson don't trust kids not to be excited unless they're having stuff

flung at them the entire time. I think you end up with, as a result

of that, it mains me to say that, it's a film you don't feel, or I

didn't anyway, elated or overjoyed or thrilled when you come out. I

just felt exhausted, like I needed to lie in a dark room with a cold

flannel on my face. You do, for different reasons! There are things

wrong with it. I will be honest. No women in it, not one female? That's

tun tin. Yes. There is one woman but looks a bit lake a man wearing

a dress. The other problem is, the baddy isn't that bad, Daniel Craig,

I could turn him into a goody with a nice conversation about cravats

and a hot chocolate. That would turn me! There are things wrong

with it, but if you have a child, even if you don't, just go, it's

boom, you are off! The weird thing about it is, there's been a lot of

talk about the way it looks and it's slightly odd. What I found

distracting was less the way it looked and the fact that you could

never get away from the fact that the film industry is a strange

thing at the moment because there's no Harry Potter any more, Pirates

is creeking to a conclusion, so you have a trilogy from two of the

world's biggest directors with a boy hero and the choice of Tin Tin

stories that has been used has a pirate theme to it. So you can see

the animate tors frantically standing there animating away while

Spielberg and Jackson are cracking the whip and the executives in

Hollywood are going, make it work! And I found that unsettling.

are hilarious. The result is a film that's quite sweaty. I like

sweating perhaps. Can't wait for the see Question Time. You will

like it, call me if you don't. Top five time and to kick it off, it's

from our new brilliant addition to the Film 2011 a family, Catherine

Bray and her favourite opening scenes.

For me, the cardinal cinema going sin is turning up late after the

pictures started. Not only do you annoy the entire audience, you

might miss an opening scene as good as one of those top five.

At five, it's 2001, A space Odyssey. Some opening scenes are brilliant

because they get you right there in the action, maybe they make you

laugh or introduce the main characters. Trust Stanley Kubrick

to ignore that. But instead we get apes freaking out in front of a

huge space black monolith thing which offers no explanation.

Somehow, this rule book trashing madness all comes together to form

one of the most memorable opening scenes in cinema history.

At four, it's Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the great example of a

animation. Roger Rabbit fluffs his lines while filming the latest

cartoon. Not birds, stars. Sets up the movie's whacky cartoon capers.

At three, it's K Hard Day's Night. Opening with one of the most famous

chords in rock'n'roll, it has you in the palm of its hand in seconds,

with a dose of what originally made the Fab Four's name, the music.

It's a clever way to get into a film that was about the sheer

madness of being that famous. They already had the rights to the song

At number two, Ghost Ship - not a classic movie, but it has one of

the most visceral openings of any horror. In it, we see exactly how

the crew and passengers of a luxury liner came to be ghosts in the

first place as a metal caught whips through a crowded dancefloor like

cheese wire through warm butter. Practically everybody dies. It is

basically the same plot as Titanic, only about three hours faster.

At number one, Touch of evil. Orson Welles opened with an unbroken

tracking shot over three minutes long, which begins with a literal

ticking time bomb being placed in the boot of a car. We are left in

suspense. If it is tense for us, spare a thought for the poor actors.

If even one of them messed up, the entire scene had to be reset. The

nervous customs officer stumbled a three or four times with one single

line. Incurring the wrath of awesome. -- awesome.

Brilliant choices. I love the twin cinematic achievements of Touch Of

Evil and Ghost Ship. We have had a lot of tweets. Thank you very much

for being awake. Heather says I missed the top five. I am on a

beach in Greece. There is something special about the opening scene of

lost in translation. The greatest opening scene was from Goldfinger,

Spy Who loved Me, you get the idea. A Next, The Help, based on Kathryn

Stockett's best-selling novel. would like to write something from

the point of view of The Help. I want to interview you. And a maid

will ever tell you the truth. It is a hell of a risk to take in Jackson,

Mississippi. The helpers about three women in Jackson, Mississippi,

who come together to make a change in their very narrow-minded

community. I have drafted the sanitation initiative, a bill that

requires everyone at home to have a separate bedroom for The Help.

Maybe we should just build you a bathroom outside. Courage is about

overcoming fear and daring to do what is right by your fellow man.

What changed your mind? God. Someone once said, you either

change or you die. And I think it is great that everybody goes

through a transformation, and for the better, for the betterment of

them. All right. I will do it. But I need

to make sure she understands this eight no game we are playing. Face

me. I need to see you square on at all times. I got to come up with

the questions, too? Oh. It is funny that the book is about people

having the right to tell a story, and yet here we are in modern times,

and supposedly we are talking lightly about the past. And the

mindsets have not changed that much. We are faced with a "you are white,

you can't talk about black people". I am white? In you know you are

black? Oh, my God. I don't have any issues with white people writing

black characters. I have issues with black characters being written

poorly. There are some bad writers out there. I get the Scripts, so I

am in the front lines. I can tell you right now that most people want

to send a message, so the character is a social mouthpiece. She did not

start with that premise. She said, I want to know how she thinks, how

she feels. That was a beautiful thing. I have plans for her.

are regardless woman. -- A Douglas woman. You have gone and done it

now. Go-ahead, Danny. I am glad we were

just talking about opening scenes, because the opening scene of The

Help is brilliant. The maid is asked by someone off-screen what it

is like to bring up 18 white children and to have your own

looked after by someone else. And she gives a look to the camera

which is phenomenal, one of those great screen moments. That scene

takes about 45 seconds. If you go to see The Help at the weekend,

after that moment, get your coat and go home because beyond that

point, what you have here is at best syrupy and unconvincing and at

worst jaw-dropping Healey faces. There are two problems. Forest that,

you can't make an entire film around the idea that black people

and white people both have the same problems under the skin in the

civil rights era in the Deep South. They didn't. And Claudia, you can't

play it as panto. There is something grotesque about this film.

You end up with something like Mississippi Burning, remade as Allo

Allo. I don't know how to follow that. Take the stage. It is a good

watch. I understand what you are saying, but in the screening I went

to, people laughed and cried. Octavia Spencer was brilliant. I

sobbed. Willie? Yes, sorry. I found it incredibly moving. I did not

like that there are about four different endings. You go, guys,

you have made your point. Didn't you like the performances?

tragedy about the performances is that there are so many good people

in this film, and they are misused horribly. Emma Stone is a fantastic

good comic actress. Here, she is suffocated. She is not playing a

person, she is playing a simple. The only one who rises above it is

Viola Davies. I hope The Help gets her the attention she deserves. I

hope Hollywood put her in a good film. She deserves it. Let's move

on. I enjoyed it! The Help opens in cinemas next Wednesday 26th October.

Recent box-office successes have reignited the debate of whether

there are enough films out there but appear to a female audience.

Antonia, a female and lovely, When we talk about women's films or

a film for a woman, it really is a marketing term. It doesn't describe

the film itself. I think this debate about women's cinema, there

is a patronising element to it. It is the assumption that women are

not interested in the great issues, politics, corruption or the human

condition. Women want to talk about relationships, feelings and Kitty

cats. If you said that to a modern woman, she will slap you are stuck

in the 1930s and forties, when Senna was at its most popular,

Hollywood would doubt that many more women than men went to the

movies. It wanted to see the witty, independent, glamourous female

stars of the day, the innocent girl Ingrid Bergman, the caustic

aristocrat Katharine Hepburn, the superwoman Joan Crawford. Mr Pearce

was a huge hit. In this scene, she discovers that her daughter is

having an affair with her boyfriend. Even as the victim, she is

intensely dominant. We were not expecting you, Mildred, obviously.

It is just as well you know. I am glad you know. How long has this

been going on? There was a period of focus on women's stories. There

were heads of studios who recognised that there was a bigger

audience. He wanted to cater for it with stories and by cultivating the

female star system. The women's films of that era were made for

women who were assumed to be grown- ups. Today's women's flick has

degenerated into the chick flick. First, it was women gazing at women

and they felt beautiful and special and powerful, and they were, for a

moment. They said, make more movies about us. And there were a few. But

men were the producers, directors, writers and studio bosses, so men

controlled the way of looking. So women took all their clothes off.

Even in the 1970s and feminism, they were still sexpots. That was

called liberation in those days! It was considered a progressive thing,

that we were breaking the taboos of a repressive society and women were

at the forefront of a new dawn of openness about sexuality, which

suited men perfectly. It looked like men were being exploited, but

really, there was a discovery of the wow factor of a woman being

beautiful. A sex is a wonderful thing to see in the movies, and it

is inspiring. It does not necessarily have to be McCleary. It

can be magnificent. The more women become open and free in movies and

more sexually explicit, the less roles they have played.

Dramatically, they have suffered. 20 years old this year and still an

unusual sight, Thelma and Louise, two women being tough for two hours,

two female cowboys in a fast car. What happened? It was a rip-roaring

ride that also asked a few pertinent questions about what it

is like to be a woman. It was the first mainstream existential female

story. What surprises me is how few films have had that same female

prominence in the mainstream. think Thelma and Louise was a bad

thing. Of course, it is an enjoyable film. But his -- it is

the beginning of the body chick film where women showed that they

can be just as nasty, just as hungry for revenge and killing as

men. Thelma and Louise it even passed a test devised by a comic-

book artist in America in 1985 to gauge the active presence of

females in Hollywood movies. Three Want to know how many films don't

pass that test? It is a very long list. And the ones that do pass?

The Piano, although that is about men, really. Bridesmaids - now,

that does pass, although there is something incredibly male about

that film. Oh. My dress was probably just tight. You got food

poisoning from that restaurant. had the same thing she had, and I

feel fine. Is it empowering that women can do penis jokes and poo

jokes and all sorts of gross-out, disgusting things? It was fantastic

to see a very funny comedy about female friendship do so well.

year seems like a good year. You wait forever for films by or about

women, and they all come at once. I hope the success of these films

will generate more interest and acknowledgement that we need more

stories about women. A brilliant piece by Antonia.

dear. Did you just say yes, dear? May, We Need To Talk About Kevin.

Tilda Swinton stars in this adaptation of Lionel Shriver's

novel, playing a mother dealing with the aftermath of her teenage

son's horrific actions. It is about a mother and son, that

relationships. It is about an estranged relationship. I think it

appealed to my own fears about, what if I don't like this thing

growing inside me? Kevin did it. It was Kevin. You need to go talk to

someone. It is interesting, because there is a bit of a duality to

Kevin. There is a lot of internal motivation that exists within his

emotional being that is a lot more complex and hard to define. I would

not want to give an answer, because Kevin's motivation is one of the

key ambiguities left open for discussion. She will need a glass

eye, Kevin. So we would appreciate your looking out for her and any

You don't really remember being a kid much do you, dad? She's just

going to have to suck it up. It's very much from Eva's perspective.

You see Kevin filtered through his evil eyes. I thought you didn't

like those? Yes, well, they're, what do you call it, an acquired

taste. Tilda Swinton wasn't what I had in mind at first because she's

so beautiful, exotic and she normally plays quite exotic

characters, you know, also the fact she's so tall, her height was great

because she's so noticeable and she has to go through this trauma every

day. Do you know where you're spending

the afterlife? Going straight to hell. Choose black. Choose white.

Doesn't Kevin go to Gladstone High... I should probably admit to

loving the book so much that I hunted down Lionel sh rival in a

weird way, haven't done that since I stood outside Simon Le Bon's

house for a week. Apljeez about that. Glad you at mided that -- -

apologies - glad you admitted that. It's about post natal depression.

Ezra Miller is great, but Tilda is great. The book is very full of

words, don't laugh at me, but... couldn't help it. It's very late,

they're all asleep, but it's very wordy, but it's a great watch, it's

haunting, watched it five days ago, can't get it out of my head.

great thing is that Lynn Ramsay has been missing in action for the best

part of ten years. She had, by coincidence, was supposed to be

maybeing the Lovely Bones, had a bad experience with that and ended

up being directed by Peter Jackson. She's one of Britain's finest

filmmakers and she's taken Lionel Shriver's book and gutted it and

she's produced a very fine horror movie. That's the way to look at

this film, a very unusual, but very excellent horror movie. I would

file this happily alongside Rosemary's baby or Carri yeah.

Looks and sounds incredible -- Carrie. Tilda Swinton takes this

character who is Brittle and bitter and difficult to dislike and she

gets come plaitly under her skin, then that gets under our skin in

turn. I don't think the film is flawless, soon it described as that,

I don't think it's that, but it's an astonishingly well directed

movie with an astonishing performance in the middle. I agree.

The book leaves so many questions, which is why I had to find her

because I had to ask them. This film, I was so worried they were

all going to be answered, they don't, so you're still screaming

out questions. What was always interesting about the novel was

that it was like a raw shack test. People saw what they wanted to see

in it a bit so some would think it was all down to the mother and some

down to the son. Some would see this as a feminist parable. Some

would see it as anti-feminist. You know, people saw what they brought

to the screen. The film does the same thing actually. People will

see the film and not quite know what to think at the end of it

which is a great thing and very, very unusual. What is your film of

the week? Is it The Help? I'm not good enough for The Help, it's We

Need To Talk About Kevin rbgs but I was pleasantly surprised by

Contagion as well. If you are going to see one, it's probably Kevin but

I can't tell you how much I loved Tin Tin. Time for the questionnaire,

this week it's Gary Oldman. I think it would have to be Malcolm

McDowell. He was in one of those British movies. But it was this

film I caught one night on TV. I remember that evening. It was like

a light going on. And I thought, that's what I want to do, I want to

do that. Malcolm as a charisma on camera. He has that mix of menace

and vulnerability. I'm Bruce Pritchard. I expect you're glad to

meet me at last. Are you glad to meet me? Yes. You don't sound very

sure? Should I be? I was only trying to make conversation, you

know. I've pulled better than you! Shawshank Redemption. Beautifully

acted. Beautifully directed. It's just a great, great story. It's

just solid. Frane! Andy, let me out. You promise yourself, I'll just

watch fuef minutes and you're there, you know, oh, I should have picked

the kids up from school -- five minutes. I had no idea what those

two Italian ladies were singing about. Truth is, I don't wanna know,

some things are best left unsaid. I like to think they were singing

about something to beautiful it can't be expressed in words and

makes your heartache because of it. Arguably one of the greatest living

American filmmakers. He tells a story. It's just the way he can

tell a story. If you lack at a movie like Godfather Parts II. If

you want a master class in filmmaking in cinematography in

composition of a frame, in art direction and acting, you could

just watch that movie. It has it all. It's a master work. There's a

plane waiting for us to take us to mimeny in an hour. Don't make a big

thing about it. I know it was you. You broke my heart. You broke my

heart. We've had huge amounts of tweets,

can't read them out but let owe George says, I fear Danny is right

about the Help and it will win an Oscar. Next week we'll review Ides

of March, Anonymous, Tower Heist and Sket. Next week we are on on

Tuesday, not Wednesday. Playing us out, the highlights of the films

coming up over the next few months, and if that doesn't excite you,

come and see me. Good night. Thanks A very confrontational piece which

I love. It's like a hard-edged What's great is, when you see the

response and it really proves that yes, audiences don't mind being

challenged, actually they welcome Today marks the beginning of a

fight between two sets of ideas. The race is over...

How in the name of reason can you go on loving a man who can give you