Episode 6 Film 2012

Hello, and welcome to Film 2012. We're live. If you want to get in

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

show: Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock team

up for the Oscar-nominated Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

If things were easy to find... wouldn't be worth finding. Kristin

Scott Thomas is the mysterious woman in The Fifth. What have you

done with my daughter? And Ryan Reynolds takes on Denzel Washington

in CIA thriller Safe House. You're responsible for your houseguests. I

am your houseguest. First tonight, Extremely Loud and

Incredibly Close, a post 9/11 drama based on the novel, starring Tom

Hanks and Sandra Bullock. Hi. You have reached the Schell residence.

Today is Tuesday, September 11th. My dad said the way I saw the world

was a gift, that I was different than everyone else. A great game we

played was reconnaissance expedition. He told me to bring

back something from every decade in the 20th century. I found something

from every decade. Already? LAUGHTER

You rock. Listen. I am going to be home in 20

minutes. No, you listen to me. I am going to be OK.

They're trying to save themselves... I am on the 105th floor - TV:

An American Airlines plane was hijacked. You listen to me and you

come home. I am going to be fine. I'll come

home in 20 minutes. Please just stay talking to me. The only anchor

that this young boy had in his life was his family and most

specifically his father. He finds this key that is at the mysterious

bottom of a vase, and he's convinced it means something

because this was the way of living his father had with him. The search

for the sixth borough was the greatest expedition ever. There was

always treasures to be found. There was always a trail to pursue. He

just thinks this is an ongoing version of that. He must have

wanted me to find something. clues. I think it's a way for the

child to feel close to his father to go on this sort of huge

undertaking that he does as a way of keeping him close, and in the

course of keeping him close finds a way of actually living without him.

He was in the building in 9/11. I'm trying to find a lock for this key

that was in the envelope that once belonged to my father. I'm - I'm

sorry. I don't know about the key or your father.

It's never going to make sense because it doesn't! I think there

is a tremendous amount of responsibility to New Yorkers to

the people who lost family members and loved ones. It's a huge, huge

responsibility that we needed every day to look at and pay respect to

and be thoughtful enough, but not be afraid of talking about. What do

you miss about him? I miss his voice telling me he loves me.

told me, "I really love your mother. You're such a good girl." It is a

gim about 9/11. I think that people will have to make their own choice

about whether the time is right to listen to these stories for them.

It was for me. Do you think we'll find the lock? I'm not so sure

either. Dad said sometimes we have to face

our fears. Danny, what did you think of the

film? Well, hate is a strong word, an ugly emotion, but sometimes I

think it's the only word that does the job. I will say I think there

is any number of fine performances in this movie, probably the finest

among them is Maximilian Von Heune. He doesn't say a word and walks

away with the film. It's such a blessing in contrast to Oscar, the

gratingly precocious young boy at the heart of the movie. I had a

strange experience - when he comes on and he's this hyperbole bag of

nerves - I think this is awful - he's a prepubescent type of me.

It's awful in a way because he spends half the film not being able

to speak to strangers, then the other half doing the opposite. You

can't throttle him with your own hands. On the very rare occasion

when he shuts up on screen, he's narrating the film on voice-over.

It confirms my suspicion that Stephen Daldry wants to direct

audio books. I think it has no soul, the film has no soul and I think I

should stand up and boo frankly. Don't do that. Lots of critics have

given this a kicking. Surprising. Even though it's nominated at the

Oscars. People feel differently about it. Watching clips there, I

know you're going to hate me for this - I felt totally caught up in

it. I haven't read the book, and for me - and I know this sounds odd

- it wasn't really a film about 9/11. It was a film about a child

who loses, if you like, his favourite parent - not - favourite

is the wrong word, but the parent he's closest to, and there is not a

lot of Sandra Bullock, but when there is - and there is one scene -

I can cry about it now - I mean, I apologise, it's incredibly moving,

so I was caught up. I love Davis. I loved the way that New York is shot.

I thought it was a different film from you. The way New York looks is

incredibly. It looks cute and beautiful, and you know, winsome.

That's all fine. I don't mind the fact it's mannically sentimental

this movie. It really is, though. There are elderly dairy cows in

Somerset who haven't been milked so aggressively as Stephen Baldwin. I

am going to disagree with you about 9/11. Actually, I take your point,

but it is a gim about 9/11 because if it wasn't, there wouldn't be

constant references in the script. You wouldn't have Sandra Bullock

staring out at the Twin Towers. In the midst of all of this kookry,

that's raw lump, and I think if you're going to play that card, you

have to have something genuine and heartfelt at the end of it. I don't

think this movie does. Without that it's just buttons being pushed very

cheaply. The movie Human Centipede Two was ban at the end of last year.

One of the reasons for that is this director got a budge of characters

together that were horrible to get a rise out of the audience. What

Stephen Daldry has done is made that movie of high-end tasteful

human drama. OK. What a comparison. No. I - you would not recommend it?

Listen. What I would say - no, I wouldn't recommend it. I would

recommend The Human Centipede Two to be honest. I think Stephen

Daldry is lots of ways an incredible film-maker. He has a

very good touch with actors. I just don't think what he's doing - I

don't know. I think there are sometimes worse things than being

badly made. I think this film is an example of one of those worse

things, I am afraid to say. Good. Next... Move on. Safe House

starring Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds.

He was one of the most brilliant CIA operatives we ever had - until

he went rogue. Safe House is a classic CIA story to begin with.

But further down, you slowly realise that every door you open up,

there's a different outlook. heard a slot open up. One slot, 37

applicants, every one with more experience than you. How am I

supposed get more experience staring at four walls every day.

There is a guy who starts out seeking truth in everything, and

everything has its moral order. have a last-minute reservation.

Denzel Washington's character is the polar opposite. He's the

sociopathic ex-CIA agent that is sort after Hannibal Lechter. Oh, my

God. That's Albert Frost. It's an interesting story of this more

cynical man - killer - and this young, innocent, like, student.

It's OK. I remember my first posting - Rio De Janeiro. I was

like this - not one single visitor, but I remember rule number one -

you're responsible for your houseguests. I am your houseguest.

The clock is ticking. They gave you the keys. What do you do this time?

Shut up. You want to be the guy that lost Tobin Frost? Three, two,

one, go. SOUND OF GUNFIRE

I don't like to do violence just because of violence. I want to do

violence because it pushes the character in a certain direction.

Action! In the trunk! I don't think we get in the card immediately -

"Just drive fast! This is action!" Get in the car! There isn't a lot

of that pretty Hollywood fighting, He fights to be really dirty...

It's kind of gross and ugly - two men trying to kill each other, and

both happen to be terrified. using whatever was at hand...

Biting each other, kicking each other, trying to breaknecks - you

know, comedy. LAUGHTER

The Safe House has been compromised. It's under protocol. Protocol?

There is no protocol for this! Ryan's character understands there

is nobody he can trust. Who is after us and why? You have to

consider why your safe house was under attack in the first place.

That was safe location. And people who we thought were completely

legit might have another face. Somebody already knew. You're not

going to get in my head. I already am. It's a weird thing to mention

but I have to - Ryan Reynolds - I can't get those Marks & Spencers

ads out of my head. Fatal. Occasionally he goes like this - I

think, shirt, �22... Where's Blue Harbour. There he is wearing a nice

tie - especially the end shot - just put that out there! I have a

soft spot for Denzel Washington. You might remember I was the only

person who loved Unstoppable. I loved him in this. I loved the

character of Tobin Frost. I could watch that a lot. This film is

quite weird in the fact that it's interesting to know the

cinematographer is the same guy who did Bourne. It's fast and exciting

but a bit Bourne-light. It has - I counted them - nine endings, so

when you go on a Friday night - I fully recommend it for a Friday

night thriller or an action film, you'll go and see an end and get up

and go - not bad. Don't do that. Stay in your seat because that's

going to happen to you eight times. What did you think? As an action

film it does exactly what it set out to do. You judge it by its

action sequences. They're full of energy. You're right to talk about

the Bourne comparison. It's the same cinematographer that did that.

Everything here is kind of bleached out and ugly and grainy and has

that incredible particular kind of hand held camera work you only get

with incredibly experienced cameramen using very high-end

cameras shaking them about, juggling and prezing the zoom

button. The editing is the most insane thing I have seen in my life.

You have 15 different things going on in a nanosecond so your eyes

feel like they're going into a spasm. There is a man running for a

bus, but for two hours. It's arduous and I would go as far as to

say knackering. It's almost a new level of immersiveness in an action

movie that you feel exhausted through. You feel like Denzel

Washington has been stamping on your head the whole time. That's a

sort of recommendation of sorts. You get a veer from - Vera

Farmiga... Sam Sheppard and others drop in and out. I keep wondering

what's happening to them while everything is going on - some sort

of naked theatre? LAUGHTER

You're right about Denzel Washington - it's hard role for him

to play Tobin Frost. We have seen him play this before. It's a

training type - he does it well. It's worth noting he's the producer.

There is not one but two occasion in the script that there are random

references to how well preserved he is, like Dorien Grey. The Ryan

Reynolds part is harder to play. If you're playing a rookie, that's

fine, but this character doesn't know which end of a gun to hold.

Why are you in control of the safe house if you're such a scaredy cat?

You see Denzel Washington going, I am going to get inside your head,

and you're going, yeah, it's going to be pretty roomy! Make a weekend

of it. So I would recommend it with reservation on a Friday night - in

a roomy cinema. Now time for Top Five. Now it's time for Catherine

Linklater's top chat-up lines. In real life everybody it has chat-

up lines, but in this Top Five, they work like a charm - well,

sometimes. At number five, Anchorman - for a real way with

words, look no further than Steve Carel's Brick Tamland. Excuse me.

Yes, what is it? I would like to extend to you an invitation to the

Pants Party. Excuse me? The party - the - with the pants? The party

with pants? Rick, are you saying there is a party in your pants and

that I am invited? That's it. you're trying to laugh your lover

into bed, you could certainly do a lot worse. OK. No, I don't want to

go to a party in your pants. Very well.

At number four, American Psycho - if you haven't got wit and wisdom

on your side, why not dazzle your date with dialogue displaying your

knowledge of fine dining, wines and culture. A truffle?

I don't want you to get drunk, but that's a very fine chardonnay

you're not drinking. # You know I love you but

# I just no can't take this - # Do you like Phil Collins? I have

been a big Genesis fan ever since the release of their 1980 album.

if music be the food of love, get some Phil Collins on your stereo.

At number three, American In Paris. In this golden era MGM musical,

Gene Kelly delivers a killer line with slightly more literary

associations as he tries to pick up the extraordinarily beautiful

Leslie Carone. I don't like to talk about myself. Oh, you're going to

have to get over that. Why? Well, with a body like you've got, people

are going to want to know what's in the book. What does that mean?

primarily it means that you're a very pretty girl. I am? Yes, you

are. Kelly might not have been the handsomest star ever to grace the

silver screen, but frankly, with lines like that and his legendary

dancing skills, who needs handsome? At number two, American Pie.

where's your date tonight? Chat-up lines in teen movies usually

consist of horny boys trying to get it on with girls theirs own age

with often limited success, but in this scene, the mother takes a leaf

out of Mrs Robinson's book. I got some scotch. Single malt? Aged 18

years, the way I like it. And at number one, The Big Sleep,

in Ethan Hawke's 1946 classic in a sizzling hot conversation that sees

Humphrey Bogart become perhaps the first man in history to get away

with comparing no less a woman like Lauren Bacall to a horse.

suggestions? I can't tell until I have seen you over a distance of

ground. You've got a touch of class, but I don't know how far you can go.

A lot depends on who is in the saddle. Go ahead. I like the way

you work. In case you don't know it, you're doing all right. There is

one thing I can't figure out... What makes me run? Uh-huh. I'll

give you a hint. Sugar won't work. The lesson here is try walking up

to a hotty in a bar and try to recognise them from the Grand

National. Let us know how you get We have had a gazillion Tweets, my

favourite, Stephen "I am your density - I mean your destiny -"

Back to the Future. Of course. "You never close your eyes anymore when

I kiss your lips" even though it was sung.

Romantic. Next, Red Dog based on a novel, the story of one dog and the

lives he touches. Why would anyone live in a town built out here?

know - money. What's that? What's The film is about this dog, really,

that brought together a community. He was like that - a dog - for

everyone. Come here, boy. It's about the birth of a community and

about belonging somewhere, belonging to someone, even if that

someone happens to be a dog. Yes, for everyone, but no-one in

particular. I play Nancy Grey, who is a young woman who moves there

kind of as an adventure, and she falls deeply, deeply in love not

just with Josh's character John, Red stock is a bit rough around the

edges, he is a knotty dog, he pushes me off the seat and he barks

at me, but in the story we all fall in love with him. Stop that and be

The same about Red Dog is he had the ability to find the party

wherever it was, whether it was 300 John is the same guy. He will go

wherever things are happening and wherever things are going on.

a big fan of Louis de Bernieres' work and when I heard he travelled

to Australia and wrote a story based on this region, I decided

they could not be a butter -- better opportunity to do a film.

The crew and cast is like a All the sad faces in the world will

not work, so you can stop. That is the truth. A last thing you want to

do doing an Australian film is to grab that cultural stereotypes. Red

stop pretty much does that for you. It is set in the 70s in the outback

and is entirely populated by men with moustaches who spend their

time drinking beer and they follow in love with a dog and it is

essentially the story. It is incredibly simple. It is sweet-

natured, it is filled with nostalgia. It is someone else's

nostalgia. Australia's nostalgia, so I do not know what it will mean

for a British audience. In Australia it has been a vast hit.

Box office records smashed, it comes recommended by the whole of

Australia. Does that at any ice for you? It is not our story, so I feel

like I do not own it, I am just watching it. The so many people

said, wait until you see that one. I do not know what to say. It is

strange in it starts with a boy driving a truck who goes into a bar

and strings a beer. And somebody says let me tell you the story

about a red stock. Two hours later he is going, OK. Did you ever see

the smelly cat? It rings a bell. is not dissimilar. There is a lot

of, red stop, he wanders off and he looks a bit lost antique touches

everybody's lives. I do not know what to say. I really like the dog.

It is a very unique spell in cinema history for dogged performances. I

would not say he is top dog, but he is up there. He is soulful without

being too hard. There is a section when the dog goes off and spend

some time in the outback on his own. There is something quite pure and

sweet about it. You go back to the macho but -- guys, talking about,

he was looking for a jaunt. But is quite weird. Next, Cabaret, which

was originally released 40 years ago. We look back at its enduring

legacy. Bienvenue, welcome. Bob Fosse's Cabaret 40 years old and I

think the great movie musical. It is set in a down at heel nightclub

in Berlin just before the Second World War for of job pouts and

transvestites with nicotine-stained teeth and they sing about Nazis and

gossip about syphilis. # She was not what you would call a flashing

flour, as a matter of fact she was rented by the hour...

It won eight Oscars and made pots of money and people have sex ever

since it was the last, great film musical. # Come to the Cabaret. #.

I think he learnt a great deal by the failure of Sweet Charity. It

almost bankrupted Universal Studios. Three years later he is making

cabarets. He knows what does not work on screen. The last big Nazi

musical was the sound of music and it felt right in the 1970s to be

dealing with a musical that was tackling such big issues like

bisexuality, abortion, cross- dressing. By the time Cabaret came

along we were in the world of Easy Rider, grown-up cinema had finally

arrived. # Money makes the world go round, the world go round... In the

opening number there is the ambition and the way he restrains

himself. This is one of the great choreographers of all time in this

claustrophobic club. You can feel this energy bursting. Three-

quarters of the way down there is a massive wide shot. The lights come

up and there are high kicks. It says, I'm really know what I am

doing. Then it is back to the Cabaret it turned the conventions

of movie musicals inside out. There are no performers % into song on

the side of a mountain or on the back of a cart. Most of the songs

take place on stage in a nightclub. No pretence, no false reality.

big trick is in fact the movie is not a musical, in fact the songs

are done because she is a sinner in a club. They burst into song for a

reason. When is a musical not a musical? When it is Cabaret.

some time afterwards Cabaret made musicals for spectacle. --

respectable. What is different about it as is the songs are about

sex, not about love. That is what movies used to trade in all the

time. I think this really is the last great hurry of the musical.

Nothing much happens for almost 30 years. You get Greece, a big box-

office success, and it is not until Chicago wins best picture in 2002

that anyone thinks about musicals. It opened the floodgates for

forcing movie-makers to think about the many ways music could be

brought into films. Looking at as low a man as Milan Rouge, it is

obvious there is a man who loves Cabaret. I wish they had taken the

lessons about how to structure for an adult audience and a new world.

If you do not learn a few lessons from Cabaret, you would be insane.

Your movie would be doomed to disaster. In some ways, the songs

are the most traditional songs in the world. There is Liza Minnelli

dreaming of large, well everybody from Jeanette MacDonald through to

Judy Garland has been doing that. If you watch a star is born and you

see her singing of the man has got away, it is absolutely part of a

genre. It is a complete staple. # But fools will be fulls, and where

has he gone to? What those songs enable performers and directors to

do is to reach deep into the soul of that character. So the camera

just sits on their face and allows you to experience everything they

are expressing. It is cinema at its most direct. But the thing I love

the most, Liza Minnelli as Sally Bowles in a cheap buyers hoping

this time she will be lucky when deep inside she knows she is a

loser, singing to a room at full of smoke and a drunk guy in a dress. #

Maybe this time I will win... #. Next, as a Woman In The Fifth, a

psychological thriller directed by Pawel Pawlikowski. Its stars Ethan

Hawke and Kristin Scott Thomas. am half Romanian and half-French,

but I have lived everywhere. I was sent to a boarding school in

England and a Murray -- I married an Englishman. I am a confused

mongrel. How many languages do you speak? Six or seven. I pick them up

along the way. Have you been to Minnesota? No. I have not been

anywhere for ages. Why is that? Because I like to travel in style

and the trouble with being a translator is I cannot afford it.

Is your husband here? No. He is not It is terribly atmospheric. When we

were watching that we were like.... The director made summer of love. I

always love Kristin Scott Thomas, without doubt, especially when she

is quite haughty and bilingual. Ethan Hawke's was good as well. I

found it interesting, but a little too slight for me. I wanted a bit

more. There are many different path to go down, but I do not want to be

against it. I am going to echo welcome back for Pawel Pawlikowski.

The films he made earlier in his career were fantastic. It is a

proper, old school, art movie. It is understated and ambiguous. I can

hear some people at home for picking their ears up and other

people breaking out in a rash. You have this washed-up writer who

wants to get back together with his estranged family. He ends up in a

seedy boarding-house. There is a menacing neighbour next door. He

has got a strange job as a nightwatchman. It should be a

thriller, but it does not do what you expect it to do. Some people

will find it frustrating. It is all about how much you enjoy the ride

of mystery and suspense. I found it fun. Paris does not look like Paris.

It is like the evil twin of Midnight in Paris. An American

writer trying to produce a masterpiece just like his, but

things take a much more sinister turn. If you think about last

resort, it was Pawel Pawlikowski's last film. He makes the centre of

Paris look like an out-of-season market. It is quite a feat. More or

less recommended. What is your film of the week? Woman In The Fifth.

What Hebert you? Can I pick The Big Sleep? The Woman In The Fifth is on

nationwide release on Friday the 17th. The question of the week

comes from but after red carpet. There is flash photography. -- that

after a red carpet. On any given day I'd changed. It goes that right

now somebody told me about a silent movie called City, A girl. It is a

beautiful story. It is a love story. It is it done in the simplest way

Everybody knows Sunrise and it is supposed to be his masterpiece, but

City Girl is better. Raging Bull is the one for me. Every part of that

film, every element, the cinematographer, the sound, the

performances, the script, is at top level. It is not an easy film to

watch, but for me it is one of the best ones ever made. A you never

got me down. Network is my favourite film of all time.

God's name, you people are the real thing, we are the illusion. Turn

off your television sets. Turn them off right now and leave them off.

Everything he wrote about came true, which I love. It was in 1976, taxi

driver, all the President's men, that was a good year. The last one

in a theatre? The last one I tried was a film with's people who are

here tonight. The end of that film when he starts reciting the perm

kills me. We ended You Last See Your Father? Was it when they

opened the coffin? Put the lid on it? When he had his last breath?

When he sat up and said something? When he last recognised you? When

he last smiled? What about you? Warhorse. I cried at warhorse. I

cry at a lot of movies. I am Amy That is my favourite. It is silly

enough that it makes me laugh, but there is enough weird grounding in

the characters. Sir Lancelot, Sir Galahad, and Sir Robin, the not

quite so brave as Sir Lancelot. He nearly stood up to the British

chicken of Bristol. Romantic comedies. A lot of Woody Allen

movies. Everyone says I Love You. Musicals, Gene Kelly. # A Broadway

Melody. #. I am going on a bit. That is all for tonight. Next week

we will be reviewing Black Gold, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and