Episode 3 Film 2012

Hello, and welcome to Best Film. We're live, and if you want to get

in touch, the details are on the screen. Coming up on tonight's

show: There's trouble in paradise as

George Clooney struggles with family tragedy in The Descendants.

Who is he? I would like to know who the guy is my wife was seeing.

Worthington goes all out as Man On A Ledge as an escaped convict who

will do anything to prove his innocence. Today is the day, and

everything changes. And going the distance - Felicity

Jones and Anton Yelchin play tragic lovers in Like Crazy. I am going to

stay. You can't do that. Why? visa.

We asked Danny to chat to David Cronenberg. Descendants stars

George Clooney trying to raise two daughters after a father involved

in a serious accident. 23 days ago my wife was launched from a power

boat and hit her head. If this weren't enough... You might not be

ready to hear this now, but she was lonely. Who is he? I would like to

know who the guy is my wife was - seeing. What I liked about it is

this man who has been cuckolded decides to go find his wife's lover

and tell him she's going to die even though he wants to murder the

guy. I liked that. Does he love him? Drop it, dad. You

have way bigger fish to fry than confronting some guy. It's this

awesome story of a family who is very dysfunctional and disconnected

through very tragic circumstances are forced to become a family again

and functional and open up communication in their household.

Get out of my underwear, you freak. Back inside. Put on a swimsuit.

Why? Now. A real good job you're doing. That's part of why I brought

you here. You have to help me with her. I don't know what to do with

her. He has been asked this question - what's it like for you,

this bachelor, to play a father and all that? He says he's played a

father before - in One Fine Day. I have never seen it. I can't say

what he's done in this film is different than what he's done in

his other films. I haven't seen all his other films. I know looking at

him as an actor because I sense inside of him a full human being.

My friends think just because I love in Hawaii I live in paradice.

Are they insane? Our families are just as screwed up. Our heartaches

are just as painful. You can make a good film -- you can't make a good

film out of a bad script. The director I had wanted to work with

a long time. I thought I was going to do it no matter what the script

is because quite honestly I haven't seen him miss yet as a film-maker.

One thing you feel in Hawaii is you feel your own punyness against the

vividness and grandeur and force of nature. That's what I wanted to get

across. I have really sort of tried to focus on the best screenplay as

possible, and the second thing I tried to do is make sure the

directors I am working with, we're on the same page and want to do the

same kind of films. You can protect yourself as an actor if you work

with really good people. It can hide a lot of flaws along the way.

The film starts out with quite bannal shots of street life in

Honolulu. By the end you have mountains and skies and more grand

shots. Those are visual references to something going on inside of the

man, inside of George Clooney's character. We're going to make it

out OK - you and Scottie and me. Hello. Hello to you. What did you

think? Alexander Payne has made a series of good films - that kind of

crotchety middle-aged man. You would think it might be more of the

same, but it springs a few surprises on you - it's more comfy

and cuddly than that it's a snugly blanket of a film. I would say it's

a chick flick in Y fronts. I don't mean that as a criticism. There is

a lot I like about the film. It's often very funny. I think George

Clooney is superb, you know? I think he's great as pinning down

his character. He's flailing around, doesn't know what direction he's

going in. He's even transformed himself physically, put on a few

years. He doesn't look movie star handsome anymore. He's bland. That

brings me to the problem I have with the film - the blandness. It's

a little bit too neat, a little bit too pleased with itself. I think if

you're after true emotional drama, you would be better off watching

people go and shoe shop, to be honest. The film is being sold as

it will make you laugh. It will make you cry. It will make you

laugh,definitely, but if it makes you cry, a pregnancy test might be

advisable - don't look at any puppies. Can't be pregnant again,

can I? Fair enough. I'll tell you just this - you and I can say what

you want, but my mum and her best friends - hello, girls, have

already booked Man On A Ledge... Can I go? She'll eat you alive.

George Clooney as a family man, they love it. There is a massive

buzz about this film. We don't have a long time to talk about the Oscar

nomination, but it was all about The Descendants against The Artists.

It was about right. It was. George Clooney sat on the sofa talking

about running - a brilliant shot of him running, then, of course, Tom

Cruise, Mission Impossible, tiny, like a toddler - then there is a

brilliant scene in this which George Clooney does brilliantly - I

promise you Dr Shoals up a hill, a flapping, panting run - I don't

know why I want to mention it, but it's a good scene. I think it's an

adorable film. Sunday, 5.00pm, you're going to be delighted.

a perfectly good feel-good movie. By the time he's thrown his

daughters in the car and gone on a trip, you are thinking, it's Little

Miss Sunshine. I just think that Alexander Payne thinks it's more

high flat outing than that. The film is essentially Warhorse. I

don't have a problem with that. loved that movie. What he's done

with Sideways, with Election - he's made great films about really

unpleasing characters who you get to know. Here, Matt King, George

Clooney's character, he's such a nice guy to start with. I can't

help but think that's cheating. It has a lot to recommend it. Next A

Man On A Ledge, a thriller starring Sam Worthington and Jamie Bell.

Breaking news - the eyes of the city are riveted - 20 storeys up on

the man on the ledge. Any person who stands on a ledge 200 feet in

the air, you think they're obviously going to commit suicide.

It attracts so much attention. By doing that, he can bring attention

to the real reason he's there. guy who stole the diamond? A $40

million diamond I knew I recognised this mutt. What the hell is going

on? What did his note say? I'll exit as I entered. He wants people

to think he doesn't do it. Has he lost his mind? That twice of the

set-up makes you second-guess his motivations in what he's actually

doing. Is there a bomb? You asked for my trust - and then this.

This is the moment you make your choice, remember? He steps out on a

ledge and makes it feel real and shoot it in a way that's never been

seen before - I think is a crazy ordeal, and the scope of that, the

scope of how it's shot I think is sort of mind-blowing. You go out on

a ledge, and for 200 feet up, for the first couple of days up there,

your experiences are real. The fear doesn't go away, and I don't really

like heights myself. You just kind of tap into it, and it helps the

scenes roll. I don't know how Sam did as many hours as he did out

there. I know after a certain point, you probably get a little bit more

comfortable, but I don't think you can ever be totally comfortable,

given that you're 262626 storeys up in the air - granted, you're

strapped in, but leaning over - it - you know, it is still terrifying.

He's probably someone who is not serious about going over. Now it's

a question of, does he want attention? What's going on? We come

to find out, he's on the ledge to cover up a massive heist he's

running across the street. Nick, you see me? OK, Joey, you know what

to do. Don't worry. Everyone is looking at me. I think this film

falls into the realm of entertainment. I don't think it's

about anything earth shattering. It's not trying to teach some big,

huge moral lesson. Everybody is pulling for you, kid! It's about an

exciting story that hopefully keeps people on the edge of their seat.

The guy's on the edge of a building. Hopefully people stay on the edge

of their seats. Today is the day everything changes - one way or

another. MUSIC

It's absolutely amazing - I wanted to use the word "masterpiece"...

don't think you should use that word. No, no, no. It's obviously

absolutely terrible, but in a brilliant way. I cannot recommend

it enough. I just need to show you a still shot. This is Jennifer

Lawrence -- genesis Rodriguez - there we go. She's gone to steal a

diamond - who - she's wearing a pink push-up bra and a pink earring.

The whole thing is breathtaking... I don't have any problem...

course you don't have any problem - but what's going for it is it's a

pleasurable watch. You and I watched it together. We hooted. We

whooped. At one time somebody turned to us and said "He has very

honest eyes". You sort of don't know which way it's going. If you

know a 15-year-old boy and take them to see this, you'll be

brilliant. I only whooped to make you feel better. Here, the opening

scene, you've got a man. You have a ledge. The man looks at the ledge,

climbs out the window, the man stands on the ledge - an overweight

New York cop - what situation do we have here? We have a man on a ledge.

He's not making this up. It's helpful, informative and useful

because the script does take its time explaining why he's up there -

I think it's supposed to be suspenseful. I found it confusing -

Dog Day Afternoon - which is a piece of cheek - is it like that? I

think it reminds me more of the Joel Schumacher film Phone Booth.

Is it like that? No. OJ Simpson's scriptwriter - a touch of class. I

think my favourite line is when a character is told, "You have to be

careful, one of these days you're going to get your - BLEEP - stuck

in a door." I think, that's not likely. Tell that to fas bender -

no, it's an extraordinary film. haven't even talked about Sam

Worthington. It's another great thing about the script because we

have a male lead who can't deal with one syllable at a time. He

cocks his ear the whole time like a little dog. Augie from The Artist

is this year's big star. I think he may have some competition. You must

see it, then call me. Man On a Ledge is on nationwide release from

Friday, 3rd February. Now it's time for the top five. This week

Catherine counts down her favourite Families - you can't live with them.

You can't legally maroon them on an island somewhere, but they do make

for some fantastic cinema as we're about to see in these top five.

number five, they're creepy and they're kooky, it's The Adams

family. More Tischia and Gomez fancy the pants off each other. The

whole family attend charity events together, and the kids play

contendedly on an electric chair. Children, what are you doing?

going to electrocute him. But we're late for the charity auction.

They are pretty sweet bunch. But we can only imagine how offended they

would be that -- by that! The Texas chainsaw Massacre. Murderers

cannibals they may be. But at least the horrific leather faced clan

make the time to sit down together for a nice family meal. But even

for a family of cannibals, their table manners leave a lot to be

desired. He ties their dinner party guest to the chair anyway? At least

the younger family members put fresh meat on the table for their

At number three is The Royal Tenenbaums. The Royal Tenenbaums

are one big messed-up brood. Coming from Wes Anderson, you probably

wouldn't expect anything different. Now cough up. It is kind of hard to

pick who is the most eccentric of this bunch. But it's probably

patriarch Royal, and his shameless bid for the sympathy vote back-up.

I'm dying. I'm sick as a dog. I'll What are you talking about? Where

is the doctor? Wait a second. Listen, I'm not dying. But I need

some time. A month or so, OK? I want us to... What wrong with you?!

At number two, Chinatown. It is only after a long and tangled

investigation that Private Eye, played by a rarely bettered Jack

Nicholson, discovers the dark secret at the heart of Roman

Polanski's contribution. I'll tell you the truth. Good, what's her

name? Catherine. Catherine who? She's my daughter. I said I want

the truth. For she's my sister. She's my daughter. My sister, my

daughter. I said I want the truth! She's my sister and my daughter.

doesn't get more dysfunctional than inter-generational incest. At

number one, it is Psycho. She's just a stranger, or she's hungry

and it's raining out. As if men don't desire strangers. And Alfred

Hitchcock's all-time classic, neither Norman Bates nor his dear

old mum are exactly pictures of sanity. But his mother's spiky

speculation about Norman's sex like that really pushes his buttons. But

in the end nothing gets in the way of a son's love for his mother.

Don't you touch me, don't! The even if she's been dead for years! Put

me down. Absolutely brilliant. We've had hundreds of tweets, I've

got to read some out. The kids are all right. Somebody else says the

Skywalkers in Star Wars. Home alone, we've had a lot for that. Joel says,

if the family in we need to talk about Kevin isn't dysfunctional, I

don't know who is. Next, Like Crazy. A story of first love story and

Felicity Jones and Anton Yelchin. What are we going to do after we

graduate? Don't think about it. Like Crazy is about two young

people who meet when they are at college and on 19 years old. I play

Anna. She is from England. She falls madly in love with a young

American student called Jacob. Jacob, I've made a decision. I'm

going to stay. I'm going to stay for the summer and then I'll just

go back for the wedding and then I'll come back after that. As much

as I'd like that, you can't do that? Why? They fall deeply, madly,

passionately in love it. Then and I get deported and isn't allowed back

in the country because she overstates her visa. The place you

on the plane immediately and you return back to the UK. I think what

makes it irresistible is everyone has been through it. Everyone has

loved somebody. Everyone has made decisions about whether -- without

knowing whether it was the right thing to do or not but they did it

because they loved somebody. Hello? Do you want to come over? Come over

now. I will just be here. Yeah. style and the way the film was shot,

it's very documentary in its field. Drake said it was shot as though

every scene was a sex scene because when you are shooting a more

conventional film, when you do the sex scene everyone has taken off

the set. It is with that intensity we made every film -- seen in this

film. Don't be embarrassed... You are being grown-up, you are being

adults? Yes. I think it is a story of fighting to get over somebody

you can't get over. What it is like to go through the experience of

debilitating your ability to move on. I thought I understood it but I

didn't. Only the smudge of it. The If The Descendants is a chick lit

for middle-aged men, Like Crazy is a week before hipsters. There's a

lot I like here, the performances of the leaves are fantastic. When

they are falling in love, it's a film about young love and falling

in love, it's great, Swede and touching. It feels very real. It

almost bears comparison to things like before sunrise and weekend.

They captured perfectly those moments of falling for someone. But

they very much are contained, those two movies, in that moment. The

thing about Like Crazy is in the relationship they are forced to

live apart. The film follows them over months and years. That is not

great for the relationship. I also think it isn't that great for the

film. One of the problems is the device which keeps them apart, the

immigration and the visa, the mistake they make, and I know they

are both supposed to be young but neither of them have sustained a

recent head injury. You lose a lot of sympathy for them. When they are

kept apart I understand that he is in a state and she is in London.

But it's not like she is up a tree in Papua New Guinea. They could

I thought it was a beautiful film. I think Felicity Jones is brilliant.

You could watch her for hours. He is also fabulous. Their love is

palpable. That scene when they are just touching each other, although

not, through glass, I found it incredibly moving. I loved Jennifer

Lawrence in it. She is not in it enough. What was interesting about

her character, almost at the end you feel you don't know whether

they should be together boast a maybe he is better suited to her. I

think you think about whether love becomes a habit. I thought it was

lovely. I'd quite like him to have made something other than just a

chair. There are things I like about it but I disagree about

Jennifer Lawrence. I think she should have been in it more. It is

the director cheating. It is the same with Felicity Jones, this

unsuitable British guy she cooks up with, you don't want them to be

together. You want Felicite Jones and Anton to get together. You may

be right, I may be better. The weird thing about this film is it

is six months after they leave university. He's running this

incredibly successful furniture design company, despite the fact

that he can only design one chair. She is editing Vogue or something.

Six months after university I was working in a video shop in Soho.

David Cronenberg has been making feature films for over 40 years.

This is his 19 feature, A Dangerous Method. Danny went to meet him.

Male. Family. Child. Divorce. Professor Freud. I simply opened

the door. It's for the young man like yourself to walk through it.

Perhaps she's the one for experimental treatment. Tell me the

first time you were beaten by your father. It excited me. Having made

A Dangerous Method, I'm wondering what sort of relationship you think

there might be between making films and being a psychoanalyst. There's

a lot in common. There's an accepted version of an official

reality that we are presented with. Then we have the desire to not

accept that as the full reality, to dive underneath that and find out

what is going on under it. I think there's quite a parallel in terms

of what we feel our functions. should we put so much effort into

suppressing our most basic natural instincts? Never repress anything.

I want you to punish me. There seemed to be echoes of your earlier

films scattered around. Are you conjures of those when you are

making a film? I just address what the film was. It tells me what it

once and I give it what it wants. That means not imposing some

preconceived idea of what is Cronenberg or not. You have fans, I

have fans of my early horror films who wish I would make those movies

again. I can't give them that again. If they are really interested in my

work there have to follow me where I go. If not, it's fine. People

sometimes confuse all seemed to confuse the films with your

personality. Is that something you still experience? Yet, even Martin

Scorsese famously said to me that he was afraid to meet me after my

first couple of films. I said, but you made taxi driver. I'm afraid to

The flies seemed to be the movie which broke out and made you a very

commercial prospect. -- the five. How was that? I thought it was

possible that by accident what I do and what the mainstream once will

converge. It will be by accident, though. It happened relatively

early with The Fly in 1986. How are you doing? You tell me. Am I

different somehow? It is still my most successful film. I've never

And then moving into Dead Ringers, at that point there was such a

degree of attention around you. Dead Ringers seemed like a

deliciously perverse film to make. I've been around a bit and I

thought I'd seen some creepy things go on in the movie business but I

really have to say that this is the most disgusting thing that's ever

happened to me. I doubt that. is it with you? You can't get it up

unless your brother is watching? This was a bad idea. It was a movie

which took me 10 years to make. All the classic Hollywood things

happened. You'd be sitting in a room with an executive and he'd say,

OK, you've got the story about twin gynaecologists. Couldn't they be

lawyers? They both die at the end, could and one of them survive? The

answer to that was no. Then there answer to you was, then no to you,

too. We are not going to make this movie. I'm afraid I'm not familiar

with these instruments, Dr. I've just had them made. They are brand

new. No. Them one at a time. Give me the one that I asked for. Around

that time when Hollywood was knocking on the door, there is a

whole series of films that were almost David Cronenberg movies but

didn't quite happen. Flashmanned is famously one of them. Top gun. Do

you see any of those films as missed opportunities? Not at all. I

just felt that I was not the Best Director for those movies. And

probably abide done/dance it would not have been a success. We are

sitting in Soho in London, I think that has a particular resonance

because it was Westminster council who famously banned your film,

Crash. That is correct. What was that like to experience at the

time? The response to the film in England was amazing, amazingly

horrible. But car crash is a fertilising rather than destructive

event. A liberation of sexual energy. Mediating the sexuality of

those who have died with an intensity that is impossible in any

other form. To experience that, to live that. That is my project.

have it banned, you feel that very ignorant people have too much power

and really are doing it for absolutely the wrong reasons and

don't understand your movie, in fact they probably haven't seen the

movie. Therefore it brings home the hideousness of censorship. On the

other hand, it kind of pleases you because it means that you have not

yet achieved a status as a boring director. 36 years ago there were

questions being asked in the Canadian Parliament about your

moral fibre. Now you are travelling the world and almost being classed

as an elder statesman. Does bat fruit you out? No, I'm amused. It's

good to have a lot of medals and awards, so that when they come to

arrest you you can show them to them and say you can't arrest me! I

actually still think of it that way. Thank you very much.

You can see more from that interview with David Cronenberg on

the website. We will be reviewing A Dangerous Method in three weeks'

time. Next is Bombay Beach, a documentary said in one of the

poorest communities in southern You're fighting on the bus, and you

threw a rock at another child. Remember that? You hit her in the

head and made her bleed. Was it her? I thought it was William

because his head was bleeding. There was more than one. There was

three, actually. I know this one. This thing is

for... Yeah. This one is Ritalin. What this one does is - you know

when you run around a lot and you can't stop moving and you're very

hyper? This is supposed to make you where you don't do that. It calms

you down. Is that new, mom? that's not new. He has been taking

that for almost two years. And this one is for... Am I crazy?

you're not crazy. Don't ever think # I was thinking of a series of

dreams # When nothing comes up to the town

# Everything stays down where it's This is the most extraordinary

documentary, and if you'd told me before - because all the films on

different levels - are very strong this week. This absolutely blew me

away. The creator of this extraordinary documentary, which

has got a fantastic sound track from Bob Dylan and Beirut - it

centres on these three characters in this very impoverished community

- it's not condescending. There is no self-pity. They're all strong,

brilliant characters. There is Bennie, the little boy, but Red,

this older guy, is fantastic. And while you get a snapshot of their

lives, you also get these choreographed imagination sequences

like we saw with the boy and the fire engine. It is most powerful -

you'll sit there and go ah, and it will just whack you in the face. It

was extraordinary. I agree. The Salton Sea where Bombay Beach is

set in is amazing. It's an inland sea in California during the '50s -

it was a huge tourist resort. It died. Now it's a wasteland really.

It's full of abandoned buildings and cars. You could make an hour-

and-a-half full of just that footage. The director is much more

interested in the community. There are 300 people in the community.

She's picked three who live there. The story it tells is amazing. With

a documentary, the best work is often done off camera because it's

about building thees relationships with the people so they can go and

be themselves if front of the camera. She does that brilliantly.

You're right. The dance routines and dance sequences is such a brave

thing to do. It sounds odd. sounds kind of crass and silly, but

actually it works brilliantly because you hear the people

speaking. You get inside their live, then you also get inside their

imaginations. The dream sequences is how they want to present

themselves. I would recommend this movie to anyone - it's so

interesting. I know it's a small niche film, but your mum and Joyce,

Bombay Beach, why not? Yeah, the Descendants and then Bombay Beach.

What's your film of the week? Bombay Beach. That's my film of the

week for the rest of the series taken care of. You? Bombay Beach I

think, but you'll love Like Crazy, A Man On A Ledge - if you're 15,

you'll love it. Now it's the Director of Four Weddings and a

Funeral - the brilliant Richard Curtis.

At the moment, I find I would watch 500 Days of Summer quite regularly.

It's just so delightfully constructed. I find it very hard to

watch a film again and again if it's just one narrative cut, but

that film just has an extraordinary thing of flicking backwards and

forwards through these events, and every single scene is fun and

delightful. There is a fabulous completely unexpected dance number

to a Hall and Oats track. # Twist and shout

# Went out # And wrap yourself around me #

And then there's a fantastic scene at the end of the movie where you

see how he's hoping a night will go and how the night actually goes,

and it's so like real life that we set up all of these expectations of

the little flickers of a relationship, and many of the times

the two are the same, and then suddenly they jog out of sync when

he realises that she doesn't care about him at all. Nice.

Your tie... Hi. How are you doing? Good. How are you? Good.

# It's all right # It's all right #

The sequence of Woody Allen films - sort of the fall from Annie Hall,

Manhattan, Hannah and her Sisters, Crimes and Misdemeanors - that's

the most perfect curve for me as a director, and I never stop finding

Woody Allen funny. One crawled behind the refrigerator. The thing

about Annie Hall is every sketch is either funny or funny and

profoundly meaningful about human relationships. He found this way of

telling big truths through jokes, so the famous scene in which what

he's saying is interpreted by something completely different in

subtitles is just all our lives. Did you do those photographs in

there or what? Yeah. Yeah. I sort of dabble around, you know? They're

wonderful, you know? They have a quality. Well, I would like to take

a serious photography course. Photography is interesting because

it's a new art form and a set of aesthetic criteria haven't emerged

yet. Breaking Away is a really great cluster of incredibly well-

characterised friends. There are four different friends, completely

different, completely clear, and very funny together. It was

somewhere right along here that I lost all interest in life. It's a

real three-layered film and shot in a very kind of odd, relaxed, almost

documentary way. Even if a bicycling film seems an odd thing

to watch, this is the great bicycling film.

MUSIC This talk of Guilty Pleasures,

they're never really guilty, never things people are guilty about,

whereas my guilty pleasure is genuinely guilty in that between

the age of 18 and 22, my favourite films were definitely Emanuel 1, 2

and 3. I have something to tell you. It's not easy to say. The second

person I'd really fallen in love with in a hard-core way in the

movies was Sylvia Crystal, in the first, then Julie Andrews some

they're different levels of style and dress. I have never heard her

voice. That's something that really worries me. All I have heard is

this incredibly naff voice-over important thing - to have orgasms -

frequently. The best guilty pleasure ever. Isn't it? That's

brilliant. I couldn't believe it. That's all for tonight. In next

week's show we'll be reviewing Carnage; Martha, Marcy, May,

Marlene; Chronicle and Young Adult. Playing us out tonight, we

celebrate the 21st Anniversary of Thelma and Lousie. Thank you for

watching. Open the trunk. Want to step into the trunk, please?

Please! I have a wife and kids. Please don't. You do? Well, you're

lucky. You be sweet to them, especially your wife. My husband

wasn't sweet to me. Look how I turned out. Go on. Get in there.

Wait a sec. Excuse me. Wait a minute. Officer, could I have your

belt, please? Extra ammo. Good idea. Could I trade that with you maybe?