Episode 1 Film 2012

This programme may contain strong language. Hello and welcome to the

programme. We are live. If you want to get in touch, the details are on

the screen now. Coming up - speerlburg bring Michael Morpurgo's

War Horse to the screen. Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan star

in Shame. Do you want to play? financial crisis gets the Hollywood

treatment in Margin Call. That loss would be greater than the current

market capitalisation of this entire company. First tonight, War

Horse. We went to meet Steven Spielberg and the cast. It's about

courage and hope, set against the backdrop of the First World War.

What is it? A horse they found in No Man's Land. What this horse has

to teach every human being it comes into contact with, is that they

should preserve the best in humanity. There's no reel side of

right and wrong, so telling it through the horse's eye is very

clever, because here's an animal that has no side. It's very

important to tell it from that neutral perspective. Be brave., be

brave. You must have loved the story, but making the horse the

star, were you not nervous about that, because humans, or an extra

ter rest tral, or a shark, you can position, but a horse -- ter rest

tral, or a shark, you can make that to position it, but a horse? Indeed.

The horse rubs his head all over the dad's woollen jacket and that

was something that the horse did every time we brought the camera

around for another angle. Don't take him back. We can't take him

back until he's broken in. Talk about getting the script together

with Richard Curtis and Leigh Hall. You wanted Joey to meet as many

people, is that right? Yes. I wanted Joey to spread his gifts of

compassion and hope to everybody that he comes in contact with.

That's what Richard Curtis did in his script and it was his idea to

keep Alberta way from Joey for an entire act. Would you release him

to me, Albert? I promise you, man to man, I'll look after him. Joey

is taken away and sent to frepbs and Albert is too young to en--

France and Albert is too young to enlist. Gentlemen, it's an honour

to ride beside you. Make the kiezar rue the day he dared to cross

swords with us. Let every man make himself his king, country and his

fallen comrades proud. Be brave. Freer God, honour the king. -- fear

God, honour the king. Can To get on the set to see that figure saying,

"We are going to get on some horses and we'll have some great fun." You

think, I think I'm ready. I can't tell you how thrilling it is. 120

horses in three lines, charging at 40mph, as fast as a horse can carry

you and 120 stuntmen screaming hell fury and all the hooves in the ears.

The thunder of it. It was absolutely breath-taking. Charge!

The first time I did it I nearly fell off the horse. One of the

stunt boys turned around and said, "It's a rush, isn't it?" we had 300

on first night. When I first arrived on Dartmoor there was a

unit stretching as far as the eye could see. The biggest I've ever

seen, but actually when we got on set, the experience of filming was

very intimate. I have to talk about John Williams. The score is

phenomenal. How does that collaboration work? This year is

our 40th anniversary. He started playing he sketches of the film

music he envisions for the film and they are all beautiful and there

are always too many to choose from. On War Horse especially, when he

played me the three main themes, I cried, just standing in the room,

listening to that music. You make us cry. Is that your intent? Every

movie I've ever tried to direct it I try to make it as emotionally

lightened as I can. I'm always kaquuesed of sentimentality. I

don't think it's fair. -- accused of sentimentality. I don't think

it's fair. I don't go out of my way. The play didn't go out of its way

to make me cry, but I was a sobbing mess by the end. I wanted to do the

same with the play for the film to convey that too. You can see more

from the interview and the rest of the War Horse cast on the website.

Hello. Hello. What did you think? War Horse is a film from another

time. I think we'll see lots of comparisons to everything from

Saving Private Ryan, to Babe. But it reminds me of Gone With The Wind.

It is epic family entertainment. It is shot on film. Nothing is shot on

film, but Spielberg has wheeled them out. It just astonishing and

he doesn't often get quite the credit he deserves a a fail many

maker. Sometimes he doesn't deserve that much, but here it is superb. I

urge people to go and see the movie just for the cavalry scene. It is

beautifully simple and cinematic. Ultimately, sometimes with a movie

there is a wrardstick you use, which you think -- yardstick you

use, which is you think is that the film he wanted to make. You saw me

after the screening. Do my face. I was shellshocked. I was crying. I

could not stopping crying. I want to start with a tweet. Alex Evans,

"This is Spielberg's best film in a decade. I wept eight time. Utterly

brilliant." I thought it was magnificent and you mention the

fact that it had to be older kid friendly, because it's not R rated

so he uses clever ways not to show - he shows the horrors of war, but

not the details, so there is an amazing windmill scene. I won't

give it away. Call me. You don't see the horror, but you know what

is happening, but the cast are brilliant and the horse, you emoat

with the horse. I highly recommend this film. I have to mention the S

word, which is sentiment. It's Spielberg making a film about World

War One, and I almost feel to complain is to complaining about

seeing a ghost story and complaining that there are strange

noises going on. Go with this. If I had a small bone to pick it's that

I think the movie has a episodic structure, like the play, where

Joey the horse moves from character to character. Some are stronger

than others and I think, I mean, I'll leave it there. I think it

works. It is a fantastic piece of cinema. I loved it. You have to

look out for Niels Arestrup. He's just a cadlely grand pa in this.

You have to work hard. I'm not that cynical. Good. Next, Shame the

second film by Steve McQueen. It stars Carey Mulligan and Michael

Fassbender. Your harddrive is dirty. He's a native New Yorker and he has

a secret and he's a sex addict. During the course of the film you

see his routine. It's his daily life. It is interrupted by his

sister. That's Sissy. It's about that friction and what she brings

from the past and how he deals with her presence and how he deals with

his affliction. My sister is playing downtown. Can I stay for a

few days? I'm trying to help you. How are you helping me? You come in

here and you are a weight on me, a burdern. I can take you somewhere.

We are family. We meant to look after each other. Events happened

as children which have put them into different directions and brand

on, Michael Fassbender's character is introverted and regimented and

he controls his life and has an addition and he shuts people out.

What is your longest relationship? Exactly. You can pour. Four months.

You have to commit. You have to actually give it a shot. I did. For

four months. The week before we started shooting there was an

article in the New York Times how young boys were having a really

hard time sustaining healthy relationships because they were so

influenced by porn and they had warped ideas about women's bodies

and it's something that makes people uncomfortable and that's why

Steve wanted to talk about it. and every one of us is brand on and

has elements that we can relate to, so we don't want to ice -- isolate

them. For example, sex addition, that is the guy with the raincoat

and sweaty palms. No it's an everyday guy. You might see him in

the workplace or know him in your building. Please pick up the phone.

We didn't want to sort of give an excuse for the characters and their

behaviour and set a definitely -- set it definitely in stone.

# It's up to you New York, New York... #

APPLAUSE Wow. For a film about sex, no-one

is having a good time. It's kind of the point. For some people it may

be a problem. I won't dwell, but talk about the strengths. First

among them is Steve McQueen. Obviously made his first film,

Hunger, a few years ago. It's a good-looking movie. It's beautiful.

There are some great moments, one is to arising out of the blue. It's

like the equivalent of the cavalry. It's Michael Fassbender and the

camera follows him in night-time New York. You have absolutely --

you have absolutely hip tiesed, but there are lower-key scenes. We saw

it on the subway. He's in that way and eyeing the woman up and it's

this way of little half-glances and beautifully orchestrated. Obviously,

a lot of that credit goes to Steve McQueen and the other great thing,

which is the performance.. Michael Fassbender will get a huge acclaim,

and Carey Mulligan. They bring characters who could have been

conseats on paper and ideas. They bring them -- conceets on paper and

ideas. They bring them to life. It is raw and haunting. What do you

think? I think it's raw and haunting. I have to tell you

there's been so much buzz about this film. People in October

talking. I loved Hunger. I saw Shame. I was so - I was livid at

the end, because of the ending and livid because I didn't have more

back story, but I'm quite thick and I like things written down. I was

thinking they must have had an awful time. I wanted more details.

The fact he can cry while his sister sings that song. I wanted

more and to call somebody. I don't have Steve McQueen's number. It's

lost. I wanted much more information. Interestingly, later

on we'll talk about a film called A Useful Life and there is a

brilliant line when a girl says did you like it and he says it will

grow on you. I can't get Shame out of my head. There is a scene at the

end involving three people. Not telling you anything else, which is

- which cue not remove, but it's the unsexiest hour-and-a-half I've

ever spent in the cinema. I could change that for you. There are

problems there. In terms of details which don't quite wring true. There

is a film about sex addition and I don't know if I buy it. There's a

moment when brand on is clearing out his jazz imagines, I believe is

the phrase. Who apart from long distance lorry drivers have them

any more? As a film about addition and about people whose minds are

somewhere else, it works brilliantly. There are problems.

It's not perfect. What is so interesting is I've changed my mind

about this. At least half a dozen times. I am always interested.

Every new person, I want to know what they see in this. I would

recommend it because I think that Now it is time for the top five and

this week Antonia's favourite films about addiction. Some violence and

bad language is inevitable. There's nothing cinema loves more

than a narrative about suffering and redemption and portraits of

addiction not only fit that criteria, but are showcases for

some of our most talented stars. Here are my top five. At number

five, Leaving Las Vegas. Nicolas Cage quite rightly won an Oscar for

his tragic performance as a man drinking himself to death. But what

is so unusual about this addiction movie is that there's no attempt at

redemption. You shouldn't drink so much. No going straight. Maybe I

shouldn't breathe so much. This guy is an alcoholic with a death wish,

And number four, Dance With A Stranger. Obsessive relational

obsession. Rupert Everett and a founder Richardson play obsess

mothers in this tremendous biographical drama about Ruth Ellis.

You know exactly why you came out. Don't walk away from me. Would you

like to hit me again? You've asked for it. And I damn well get it.

this scene, they capture so perfectly the addict's combination

of self-pity and helpless desire. can see your face. I don't want to

The urbane anti-hero of this fantastic Belgian film is addicted

In this particularly shocking scene, he is suddenly overwhelmed by the

At number two, Boogie Nights. Panna diction, addiction to everything,

cocaine, sex, you name it. What makes this particular film so

unforgettable is it looks like the worst long afternoon imaginable.

make these little mix tapes together. I put my favourite songs

together. This is Number 11. Unable to stop talking rubbish, unable to

Cosmo, he's Chinese. And number one, two girls and the guy. -- two girls

and A Guy. Not a movie about addiction, but Robert Downey

Junior's personal struggle with drug addiction has been well-

documented. He suffered terribly in the 1990s. The director wrote this

music -- movie about a troubled This particular scene in front of

the Mirror immortalise is the absurdly touching Inside Out

charisma of Robert Downey Junior in the bleakest period of his life.

# You might have loved me, too. think it is his best performance.

Brilliant list. Next, Margin Call starring Kevin pays -- Kevin Spacey

and Paul Bettany. It takes a look behind the scenes of a New York

investment bank during the first few days of the 2008 furniture

crisis. There is some banker's language. These are extraordinary

times as you must know. I don't understand. He is being let go.

sorry. I was working on something and they would not let me finish.

Take a look. Be careful. It is roughly 24-36 hours at a large

American investment bank on the day they realise the jig is up. A Paris

Eric had been working on this for some time but could not finish it.

-- apparently. This morning he asked Peter to take a look. He put

a few things in that Eric was missing. This is what came out.

need you guys to come back. Penny due back here now. This is not

supposed to be a periphery firm, this was supposed to be an example

of one of the lead investment banks in the United States. It to a

certain extent, the story was a tragedy. A tragedy of misused

potential. Studying the ways friction ratios affect things.

are rocket scientist? I play the head of a trading floor and my

direct superior is Kevin Spacey. Above him, Demi Moore and Simon

Baker. Finally, Jeremy Irons. You're speaking with me. If those

assets decrease by just 25% and remain on our books, that loss

would be greater than the current market capitalisation of this

entire company. I have always enjoyed indie films like this the

most. I like to shoot fast, a light there not to be too much money

about so we are all working sensibly. We, on a wing and a

prayer, but descript out to one or two actors and amazingly, they came

out and said yes, which for a first-time writer-director was

obviously a dream come true. Actors will always be attracted by good

scripts and good characters. Not the huge fees, necessarily. It

doesn't have a bad cast, does it? Up after a crisis such as this,

often times there's this period of reflection, of wondering what was

it exactly that I spent my life doing. 1937, 19 74th, 1987. Jesus,

didn't that fug me up good. It is all the same thing over and over.

We can't help ourselves. That cast, that subject matter, that setting,

already this is interesting. We loved inside job and this is, if

you like, that played out. I think brilliantly well. Thrilling and

exciting. What I liked most is it would have been so easy to make the

Bank as the baddies. That would have been easy. It is not that

obvious. Anything that Jeremy Irons does I'm on board. He is brilliant,

as is Kevin Spacey for top it doubles as a disaster movie.

have a film about a bright underling who stumbles upon

something horrific and he tries to bring it to everybody's attention.

You're right, what is so interesting about that idea is it

could be an asteroid, it could be biological warfare. It is the end

of the financial system as we know it. None of them want to know about

that. It is about psychology. It is about what happens. Been a disaster

movie, you save the world. Here, they saved themselves. It is

fascinating that these are not heroes of Valence, they bring up

the fact that these are salesmen. We gave the world over to salesmen.

In terms of cinema, it rings bells with things like Glengarry Glen

Ross. The script is very good. For first-time director, J C Chandor

has done a fantastic job. I will be interested to see what he does next,

but I'm also intrigued by this movie. The cast are all massive

stars, but they almost cancel each other out. It is not like there are

a lot of our nose and then in works Kevin Spacey. It works as well.

These are supposed to be people on top of the world. It dovetails

nicely with the film. This is highly recommended. Next, A Useful

Life, the story of a lonely man who passed to adjust to a single life

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 71 seconds

after the cinema he has worked out The eye thought this film was

adorable. That clip makes me smile. It is freakishly short. We went in

and it finished. No bad thing. Jorge Jellinek, you want to pick

him up and say I want to be your friend. I want to mention the tone

because City shot in, and transferred to black and white. It

looks nutty, if that doesn't sound bonkers. What I liked about it is

it changes quite sneakily halfway through. The first 30 minutes is

almost like a documentary about this ailing art house cinema in

Uruguay. It has all but rickety projectors. It is great, but half

an hour in, it subtly changes and becomes a story of him and his

battle to find a life outside the cinema. He still has all these

soundtracks from countless movies in his head and now he has to find

his own film. He is fantastic. The film is sweet and smart. I am

alarmed by the idea that men who spend a lot of time in the cinema

are possibly socially backwards! But that is fine. Clearly that is

just preposterous. That is a nonsense, we loved chatting. Very

difficult to choose because all four are great. How would you

choose your film of the week? tough call. All four films have a

lot to recommend them. If you are pushing me into a corner, Margin

Call. Are you? I did not see that coming. War Horse. A Useful Life is

on limited nationwide release from Friday, 13th January. Log onto the

website to find out where it will shows. CGI, Lovett or hated?

Everybody has an opinion. CGI or computer generated imagery gets a

bad rap. But at its very best, it allows directors to realise a

vision in a way that otherwise probably would not have been

possible. James Cameron waited 14 years to make about up until

technology caught up with him. The biggest film of all time. Now

there's no limit to what a director can achieve. Tired of standing in

front of the drab green screen? Not any more. Not with CGI. Look at

that. Much nicer. Nice and warm. Well, we all know the only worth --

beach worth being of is a real one and locations are not a heart of

the movies. It is actors and I really hate what CGI has done to

them. The movie star is a complicated double thing, part

person, but character, so to see them dressed up in Velcro running

up and down green ramps, it ruins what we are looking at, it

diminishes their power. Think of Lawrence of Arabia. Here we have

Peter O'Toole commanding a crowd of Jordanians. He is standing in front

of them as their hero leader. That is actually happening to that actor.

He has changed, they are changed, It is profoundly more meaningful

than Brad Pitt and his army of CGI I am as bigger fan of in the moment

reality as the next person. Indiana Jones would never have been hastily

improvised had they been shooting on a sound stage. But if Harrison

Ford -- or if Harrison Ford hadn't been suffering from dysentery. But

acting in CGI should be no problem for any actor worth their salt.

Both are equally it official. You have to use your imagination. What

did Lawrence of Olivier -- long as Olivier say to Dustin Hoffman? Have

you tried acting, dear boy? really insidious thing about CGI it

is it is so controlled. No wonder studios love it so much, it can

never get sick or blown away by a freak tornado. It is the enemy of

spontaneity and serendipity and magic. Take jaws. Free plastic

sharks which hardly ever work. Actors sitting around for days and

weeks and months perfecting dialogue. And then John Williams

coming up with a score that had to brilliantly imply a shock that was

hardly ever there. That would never happen now because in LA, someone

would knock up a shock on a laptop. That is a real shooting star, it is

beautiful and eerie and special. If you saw that now on screen, we

would assume it had been added in later digitally. I hate fat that

has happened. In many ways, CGI is the opposite of control. On the

Adventures of Tintin, Steven Spielberg put his camera anywhere

How's that for spontaneity? We'll never know for sure, but I'm sure

that Hitchcock and Orson Wells would have loved playing with the

toolbox. Wells once called movie making the best train set a boy

ever had. With CG the boundaries would have been endless. Why is it

all the same, dull, flat shade of grey? Creatures don't move with any

gravity. They are so frictionless. Just think of the terrible spiders

in King Kong. They are weightless. Something that big cannot move that

fast. It is simple biology. How can any adult look at that and not just

switch off? It's so boring. I'll grant you up until now, not every

character has been completely convincing. However, as a tool it's

still very much in its infancy and the quality control is working.

Look at the eyes of Caesar here. The eyes have a soulful quality. CG

had not been able to touch it until now. Are you seriously telling me

that the actor deserves an Oscar? This is what I hate about this in

relation to the computer modelling of the human face. It's the

propaganda. We have to stand around in awe of new tech nomgy and I want

to say, -- technology and I want to say, "That is not very good." I

don't see revolutionary performance by a human. I see something

something absent of the feeling and clumsy and silent movie sized

emotions. I would love to have seen the real Andy Sirkus. No propaganda

here, at least not yet. If you ask Andy he'll tell you that CG has

opened up the floodgates and any actor can be anything he wants to

be. Already it's given us some of the most memorable images and it's

only just getting started. The influence on the industry has been

undeniable, often invisible and profound, like colour and sound

before it, it is progress at work and that is just beautiful. Well,

we are still working on it! Brilliant! I love them both. Me too.

We have had brilliant tweets. I have to read out some. Zoe says,

"Who needs CGI with films like the Artist?" then Jane says, "Hogwarts,

a bunch of kids leaping in the air on sticks." It's a good point. Now

time for the questionnaire and this week it's Tom Hooper. I think about

the true man Show as one of my favourites, because it is the

perfect fusion of cinema as commerce and art, in that it's the

most brilliantly commercial idea, but it also has such moments of

surrealism. Like when he comes to the edge of his world and discovers

it's a wall. The fact that Peter understood how absolutely central

reality television was going to be to our culture, way before it had

happened and made an incredibly sophisticated analysis and satire

of the limits and problems of reality TV and actually imagine a

more extreme scenario that has yet The immediate one is Kubrick, just

because he's such an extraordinary towering genius and I definitely

owe a debt to him in my own film making. Can you light this scene by

candles and create a lens that is fast enough to do that? He had NASA

to help make the special lenses that were as close to an F1 fast

stop than you could get then. are only six Miss Bradys now.

of the films I watched most and I'm slightly embarrassed to say is

Black Hawk Down. I think I've walked it endlessly, because Ridley

Scott is such a visual master, that I kept going back and trying to

work out how he created some of the images. I think the story hooks you,

because it has a fascination with the detail and the immersion into

the experience. There is something about the way he shoots the

helicopter sequences and it's the audacity of how he does it. When he

puts cameras in the helicopter, so you are directly above another and

looking right down on the blades. Also, he's very brilliant at

staging action sequences with multiple cameras, so you do have an

extraordinary sense of being inside it. I suppose the other guilty

pleasure is maybe The Sound of Music. If you imagine reading the

script, helicopter in over mountains, and find a woman singing

on top of a green meadow and you probably would think how will I

pull that off? # The hills are alive with The

Sound of Music... # There's something about her performance

that wins you over and disarms you in those first seconds. I certainly

have the guilty admission that it made me cry, which is crazy,

because surely I should be well armed against that. That's all for

tonight. Next week, we'll be back at 11.15 and we'll be reviewing

Coriolanus, J Edgar, WE and Haywire. Blaiing us out is Wrath of the

Titans -- playing us out is Wrath of the Titans, starring Sam