0:00:21 > 0:00:24Hello and welcome to Film 2014, we're live.
0:00:24 > 0:00:26If you would like to get in touch, the details are on the screen now.
0:00:26 > 0:00:28Coming up on tonight's show...
0:00:32 > 0:00:33George Clooney and Matt Damon
0:00:33 > 0:00:37give the Nazis the brush-off in The Monuments Men.
0:00:37 > 0:00:41- Aren't you a little old for that?- Yes.
0:00:41 > 0:00:43Sequins and salsa with Nick Frost, Chris O'Dowd
0:00:43 > 0:00:47and Rashida Jones in dance comedy Cuban Fury.
0:00:47 > 0:00:50It's like a butterfly going out with a parsnip.
0:00:50 > 0:00:52And there's romance as Joaquin Phoenix
0:00:52 > 0:00:55falls for his computer in Spike Jones' Her.
0:00:55 > 0:00:58- AUTOMATED VOICE:- Hi. I'm Samantha.
0:01:00 > 0:01:05Plus we review Bastards by veteran French director Claire Denis.
0:01:05 > 0:01:08- Danny is here and we are joined by guest critic Xan Brooks.- Hello.
0:01:08 > 0:01:09Hello.
0:01:09 > 0:01:12First up, George Clooney directs and stars in The Monuments Men.
0:01:12 > 0:01:15The true story of a platoon who rescued art masterpieces
0:01:15 > 0:01:16stolen by the Nazis.
0:01:19 > 0:01:22Mr President, we are at a point in this war that is the most
0:01:22 > 0:01:26dangerous to the greatest historical achievements known to man.
0:01:27 > 0:01:31The Nazis have been stealing art out of Warsaw, Amsterdam, Paris.
0:01:31 > 0:01:33I'm to put a team together and try to protect what's left,
0:01:33 > 0:01:37- and find what's missing. - The Monuments Men?- Signed by Roosevelt.- How many men?
0:01:37 > 0:01:41- For now, six.- Jeez.- With you that's seven.- That's much better.
0:01:41 > 0:01:44Well, this is a story that really very few people know and it's
0:01:44 > 0:01:48so rare to do any kind of a World War II story that you don't...
0:01:48 > 0:01:50that people don't know.
0:01:50 > 0:01:53The Monuments Men are this kind of very eclectic
0:01:53 > 0:01:59group of guys from America, from England and from France.
0:02:00 > 0:02:02We've been tasked with the finding
0:02:02 > 0:02:06and protecting of over five million pieces of stolen artwork.
0:02:06 > 0:02:09This is a model of his planned Fuhrer museum.
0:02:09 > 0:02:12- It will be one of the biggest in the world.- He'll need a lot of art to fill it.
0:02:12 > 0:02:14- This is why Hitler didn't bomb Paris.- Well, he bombed London.
0:02:14 > 0:02:17Yes, I know. THEY LAUGH
0:02:18 > 0:02:21They're men who were spurred on by a higher ideal
0:02:21 > 0:02:25and all of those things that we take for granted
0:02:25 > 0:02:28that are in the great museums of the world, that a lot of them
0:02:28 > 0:02:31were returned by men who were sort of asked to do an impossible job.
0:02:33 > 0:02:35Lieutenant, you're not going to have the equipment,
0:02:35 > 0:02:37- you're not going to have the manpower.- I think that went well.
0:02:37 > 0:02:40The Nazis are on the run, they're taking everything with them,
0:02:40 > 0:02:44so we have to get as close to the front as we can.
0:02:44 > 0:02:47It's the greatest bad guy in the history of the world for a movie.
0:02:47 > 0:02:49And it's the biggest treasure hunt,
0:02:49 > 0:02:51it's certainly the biggest art heist ever.
0:02:52 > 0:02:55- I'm interested in what you saw there.- Thousands of pieces.
0:02:55 > 0:02:58They would photograph the art then take it to Hitler.
0:02:59 > 0:03:03We never really fully thought of it as a World War II film.
0:03:03 > 0:03:06But the first day you get there and everybody puts on their uniforms
0:03:06 > 0:03:09and their helmets you go, "Oh, we're doing a war film."
0:03:09 > 0:03:13He's one of the best directors working today, without a doubt
0:03:13 > 0:03:16and I've worked with a lot of really, really great directors.
0:03:16 > 0:03:20And he belongs right on that list with all those great ones.
0:03:22 > 0:03:25George's take on the tone of it, it's Wild Geese.
0:03:25 > 0:03:26It's The Guns Of Navarone,
0:03:26 > 0:03:29it's this Band Of Brothers who've been brought together.
0:03:29 > 0:03:31I think you warm to these characters very quickly.
0:03:31 > 0:03:35- What have you got?- I seem to have... stepped on...a land mine.
0:03:35 > 0:03:37- Why did you do something like that? - What have you got?
0:03:37 > 0:03:40The Lieutenant here seems to have found himself on top of an unexploded mine.
0:03:40 > 0:03:44- Why would you do that? - You lot are spending too much time together.
0:03:44 > 0:03:49Artists, art dealers, architects. All the big Rs.
0:03:50 > 0:03:52You know, the truth of the matter is
0:03:52 > 0:03:56these guys pulled it off, and that's what's the fun of it.
0:03:58 > 0:04:01'You can wipe out an entire generation, you can burn their
0:04:01 > 0:04:05'homes to the ground and somehow they'll still find their way back.
0:04:05 > 0:04:07'But if you destroy their history,
0:04:07 > 0:04:10'you destroy their achievements, then it's as if they never existed.
0:04:11 > 0:04:15'That's what Hitler wants, that is exactly what we're fighting for.'
0:04:19 > 0:04:21See, that makes it look quite good. Danny.
0:04:21 > 0:04:23Well, if logic had any place in movies
0:04:23 > 0:04:26Monuments Men would be terrific, because you've got this great,
0:04:26 > 0:04:29more-or-less true story and these wall-to-wall stars,
0:04:29 > 0:04:30but somehow it just doesn't happen.
0:04:30 > 0:04:32And I'm not convinced this is really the movie
0:04:32 > 0:04:34that George Clooney wanted to make. It can't be.
0:04:34 > 0:04:36On the first day of filming, he'll have arrived,
0:04:36 > 0:04:39his man servant will have handed him his dressing gown over breakfast,
0:04:39 > 0:04:42he'll have had his apricot croissant and he'd have thought,
0:04:42 > 0:04:44"What I'm doing is making something big and broad
0:04:44 > 0:04:46"and old-fashioned in the best sense.
0:04:46 > 0:04:48"I'm kind of making Ocean's Dirty Dozen."
0:04:48 > 0:04:50But he never really gets hold of the tone of it,
0:04:50 > 0:04:54so you sort of veer away from Dirty Dozen and straight into 'Allo 'Allo,
0:04:54 > 0:04:56with these sort of sweaty, jowly Nazis
0:04:56 > 0:04:58and these cynical Frenchmen in berets.
0:04:58 > 0:04:59That I don't think is the problem.
0:04:59 > 0:05:01I think the problem is there's just no drama here,
0:05:01 > 0:05:04it's like the film's had the drama kind of surgically
0:05:04 > 0:05:07removed in case people get problems with their blood pressure.
0:05:07 > 0:05:08So you don't care.
0:05:08 > 0:05:13It feels cosy and, as the heroes are fleeing German gunfire, you're off
0:05:13 > 0:05:17thinking about whether the recycling comes on a Wednesday or a Thursday.
0:05:17 > 0:05:19I don't think this film is nearly as terrible
0:05:19 > 0:05:21as the first wave of gleefully bad reviews
0:05:21 > 0:05:25out of the Berlin Film Festival suggest, but, yeah, as I say,
0:05:25 > 0:05:27I don't think it's the film Clooney intended to make.
0:05:27 > 0:05:29I have to say, there'll be people watching who go,
0:05:29 > 0:05:31"Don't they like anything?
0:05:31 > 0:05:34"Hold on a minute, that's George Clooney, Matt Damon, Bill Murray.
0:05:34 > 0:05:37"How can it be bad?" But it is, isn't it?
0:05:37 > 0:05:40It is, and you go in with high hopes.
0:05:40 > 0:05:41I want to like every film that I see.
0:05:41 > 0:05:44And Danny's right, it's actually a weird achievement to make
0:05:44 > 0:05:47an un-dramatic film about this kind of dramatic material.
0:05:47 > 0:05:49There's a great film to be made about this subject,
0:05:49 > 0:05:55about the wreckage of war, the vast human cost and whether art is
0:05:55 > 0:05:58a pointless luxury when the whole of Europe's going up in flames.
0:05:58 > 0:06:00This isn't quite that film.
0:06:00 > 0:06:03It's not even necessarily a bad film but it's weirdly listless.
0:06:03 > 0:06:05You've got this great band of brothers,
0:06:05 > 0:06:08these first-rate performers, but they're all slightly on half speed.
0:06:08 > 0:06:09I was watching them thinking,
0:06:09 > 0:06:12"It's almost like they're rehearsing at the read through,
0:06:12 > 0:06:14that they're feeling their way into their characters.
0:06:14 > 0:06:18And eventually the cameras will start running and they'll go off
0:06:18 > 0:06:21and do the movie that they've come to do, and instead that's the movie.
0:06:21 > 0:06:24And it's just not quite there, it's 60% of a good film.
0:06:24 > 0:06:27I totally agree. It's sort of, dare I say it, a boring watch,
0:06:27 > 0:06:29which it shouldn't be with that cast.
0:06:29 > 0:06:32It's a big disappointment but we have to be honest about it,
0:06:32 > 0:06:33cos if you say that everything is great
0:06:33 > 0:06:36then it ceases to have any meaning when something actually is great.
0:06:36 > 0:06:39But Xan's right, it's weirdly put together, this film.
0:06:39 > 0:06:42Scenes feel like they're building to either a moment of high drama or
0:06:42 > 0:06:45a moment of hilarity and then they just stop and you just kind of cut.
0:06:45 > 0:06:46Bill Murray will look out of a window
0:06:46 > 0:06:48and then we'll cut to a horse and the film carries on.
0:06:48 > 0:06:50It is strangely put together.
0:06:50 > 0:06:53George Clooney as a director, if you look at all his films,
0:06:53 > 0:06:56he's attracted to these films about decency and he shoots them
0:06:56 > 0:06:59in this quite stolid, sturdy kind of way, but stolid, sturdy decency,
0:06:59 > 0:07:03I mean, that's the kind of quality you want from a lighthouse keeper
0:07:03 > 0:07:05or the treasurer at the parents-teachers association,
0:07:05 > 0:07:08not necessarily from a movie director.
0:07:08 > 0:07:11And I think the problem about the film is that it treats us
0:07:11 > 0:07:14like kids, like we have to be reminded that Adolf Hitler
0:07:14 > 0:07:17was a very bad man and that obviously the Americans won the war.
0:07:17 > 0:07:21And after a while you start to bridle against that a little bit.
0:07:21 > 0:07:24I was a little confused about the relationship that they
0:07:24 > 0:07:26have to the art as well.
0:07:26 > 0:07:29They seem to be after the Catholic religious art
0:07:29 > 0:07:33that Hitler himself likes, they have the same taste as Hitler.
0:07:33 > 0:07:35The stuff that he didn't like, the decadent modern art,
0:07:35 > 0:07:38they're not particularly that interested in.
0:07:38 > 0:07:41But actually, even that is beside the point.
0:07:41 > 0:07:45I didn't ever quite believe in them as art scholars who are
0:07:45 > 0:07:48passionately, intensely interested in art and want to save it.
0:07:48 > 0:07:49Cos we never do that stuff,
0:07:49 > 0:07:52cos Clooney gives himself on camera all these speeches to answer
0:07:52 > 0:07:55that central question in the film, which is, is a man's life worth art?
0:07:55 > 0:07:57But I don't think he ever buys it, either,
0:07:57 > 0:08:00cos the monuments mend themselves. They don't appear interested
0:08:00 > 0:08:02or really that fussed about art whatsoever.
0:08:02 > 0:08:05You have this introductory scene in this kind of montage,
0:08:05 > 0:08:07the classic montage scene where the gang are all assembled,
0:08:07 > 0:08:09and John Goodman's there with a sculptor's mallet.
0:08:09 > 0:08:11That's kind of about it. And Bob Balaban...
0:08:11 > 0:08:14He looks really angry to be holding that mallet.
0:08:14 > 0:08:15He wants to get the hard hat on, doesn't he?
0:08:15 > 0:08:19Bob Balaban can recognise the name Picasso on a burnt frame, but that's sort of it.
0:08:19 > 0:08:21You'd think they would talk among themselves a little bit.
0:08:21 > 0:08:24And Hugh Bonneville, this is the great tragic element in this film.
0:08:24 > 0:08:27Hugh Bonneville apparently saw the statue of Madonna when he was
0:08:27 > 0:08:31a little boy, and that's the kind of driving force of this film.
0:08:31 > 0:08:32Is that the problem, then?
0:08:32 > 0:08:34That they're not passionate about it enough
0:08:34 > 0:08:36so that we can't get on board with them?
0:08:36 > 0:08:38Yeah, it's one of the problems, it's like they have to be
0:08:38 > 0:08:41passionate about art but just never talk about it.
0:08:41 > 0:08:43The thing is, I think what Clooney's very good at,
0:08:43 > 0:08:46Clooney is obviously someone who creates great atmosphere on set
0:08:46 > 0:08:48and I think he creates a great atmosphere with other actors
0:08:48 > 0:08:51and so you do have this sense that this cast is great
0:08:51 > 0:08:53and it's fun to just spend a little bit of time with them.
0:08:53 > 0:08:55Jean Dujardin has nothing to do, really,
0:08:55 > 0:08:57apart from to sort of smoke and grin and be French,
0:08:57 > 0:08:59and he gets less memorable lines than
0:08:59 > 0:09:02he did in The Artist, which is quite an achievement.
0:09:02 > 0:09:04But it's fun to be with him, and Matt Damon and George Clooney
0:09:04 > 0:09:07have this natural snap when they're going back and forth.
0:09:07 > 0:09:09But there's not enough of that stuff.
0:09:09 > 0:09:12Final question, is the problem with this film
0:09:12 > 0:09:14our expectations are just too high?
0:09:14 > 0:09:17Cos everyone I know is talking about Monuments Men,
0:09:17 > 0:09:18it's got a great title.
0:09:18 > 0:09:20Is it just that we went in and went,
0:09:20 > 0:09:22"Oh, it's not as good as Ides Of March,
0:09:22 > 0:09:26- "or not as good as all kinds of war films?"- Yeah, absolutely.
0:09:26 > 0:09:29I think expectations were very high, and then the first wave of reviews
0:09:29 > 0:09:32came out where expectations sank like a stone.
0:09:32 > 0:09:35As I say, I didn't dislike this film nearly as much as other people
0:09:35 > 0:09:37but that's cos I'd read those first wave of reviews.
0:09:37 > 0:09:40By the end you just want to go and see a film like The Train,
0:09:40 > 0:09:42which does this story a lot better.
0:09:42 > 0:09:45Or even Three Kings, which is a film that George Clooney did about
0:09:45 > 0:09:4813 years ago, which was set in the first Gulf War,
0:09:48 > 0:09:50but this was about a lot of the same things,
0:09:50 > 0:09:53it was about the absolute waste of war
0:09:53 > 0:09:55and the kind of horrible black comedy of going after
0:09:55 > 0:09:57this loot that's been squirreled away.
0:09:57 > 0:10:00And it was biting and funny and it felt like it meant it,
0:10:00 > 0:10:02it had some sort of passion to it.
0:10:02 > 0:10:04And Three Kings rendered all those other films kind of redundant.
0:10:04 > 0:10:07Three Kings also starred Mark Wahlberg, who was fantastic in it,
0:10:07 > 0:10:09and then Mark Wahlberg crops up in Lone Survivor
0:10:09 > 0:10:12a couple of weeks ago, which was exactly the kind of film
0:10:12 > 0:10:14Three Kings was supposed to have blown away.
0:10:14 > 0:10:18OK, next, Nick Frost stars as a salsa dancing supremo who
0:10:18 > 0:10:23returns to the dance floor many years after his dreams had been dashed.
0:10:23 > 0:10:24ALARM BEEPS
0:10:24 > 0:10:26BICYCLE BELL RINGS CAR HORN TOOTS
0:10:26 > 0:10:29- Oh, I would not like to be those tyres.- Yeah, very amusing(!)
0:10:29 > 0:10:32Got the new boss starting this morning. I hear he's a ball buster.
0:10:32 > 0:10:34Apparently, he is a she.
0:10:35 > 0:10:36You mean like a tranny?
0:10:38 > 0:10:39'Sad-sack Bruce Garrett,'
0:10:39 > 0:10:44overweight, rudderless, no love in his life.
0:10:44 > 0:10:47And this beautiful American girl comes to work at his office.
0:10:47 > 0:10:49- Whoa!- Whoa!
0:10:49 > 0:10:53- Are you all right?- Where am I? Am I in England? No, I'm fine.
0:10:53 > 0:10:55- She's beautiful.- Ooh. - Way out of my league.
0:10:55 > 0:10:56She's like a 10, I'm a 2.
0:10:56 > 0:10:59It's like a butterfly going out with a parsnip.
0:10:59 > 0:11:00'He begins this journey to try
0:11:00 > 0:11:04'and woo her using the power of fiery salsa.'
0:11:04 > 0:11:06- Urgh! - GLASS SHATTERS
0:11:06 > 0:11:09- What do you want from me? - I'm here to learn salsa.
0:11:17 > 0:11:19I wasn't bitten by the bug, no, no.
0:11:19 > 0:11:21HE LAUGHS
0:11:21 > 0:11:24- My name is Bejan, nice to meet you. - I'm Bruce.- Bejan means hero.
0:11:24 > 0:11:27- What does Bruce mean? - Er, "bush or hedge."
0:11:28 > 0:11:31'You don't realise what an underground craze it is,'
0:11:31 > 0:11:34salsa dancing. And they've all got their versions of it.
0:11:35 > 0:11:37'But Nick trained for six months.'
0:11:37 > 0:11:39Come on, we've got work to do.
0:11:39 > 0:11:41Legs of a stallion, arms of an eagle.
0:11:41 > 0:11:45And one, two, three. Five, six, seven.
0:11:45 > 0:11:48'Well, I like dancing, I've always liked dancing.'
0:11:48 > 0:11:50How can you make this drama?
0:11:50 > 0:11:52My problem with dancing is I like it
0:11:52 > 0:11:54but I had an issue with people watching me do it,
0:11:54 > 0:11:58because when you're a big man cutting loose on a dance floor
0:11:58 > 0:12:01and you're a good dancer, you get a very weird look from people,
0:12:01 > 0:12:06and it's a look that you see people giving a child who has beaten
0:12:06 > 0:12:08some terrible disease.
0:12:08 > 0:12:10And it's this look. Aww!
0:12:10 > 0:12:12They kind of feel slightly sorry for you.
0:12:12 > 0:12:17(Women like that use guys like you to get advice about men like me!)
0:12:17 > 0:12:19- You don't know about me. - What don't I know?- I dance.
0:12:19 > 0:12:21I would love to see that!
0:12:23 > 0:12:25Let's salsa!
0:12:26 > 0:12:30There's no doubt in my mind that there is a direct correlation
0:12:30 > 0:12:32between happiness and dancing.
0:12:32 > 0:12:37You know, to a man, every person I met on the salsa circuit were
0:12:37 > 0:12:40the happiest people I've ever met.
0:12:40 > 0:12:42Oh, my God, they make me feel sick!
0:12:42 > 0:12:43Salsa aerobics?
0:12:44 > 0:12:45This is not a salsa.
0:12:45 > 0:12:47Go back to the leisure centre, you bitches!
0:12:47 > 0:12:49Do you have a fear of people watching you dance?
0:12:49 > 0:12:51That's how you get over it.
0:12:51 > 0:12:53A really expensive form of rehab.
0:12:53 > 0:12:56I think I might make a film about...
0:12:56 > 0:12:57spiders next.
0:13:05 > 0:13:06CUBAN MUSIC PLAYS
0:13:06 > 0:13:07HE GRUNTS
0:13:09 > 0:13:10HE GROANS
0:13:10 > 0:13:12I've got something that you don't have. Do you know what that is?
0:13:12 > 0:13:14Type two diabetes.
0:13:16 > 0:13:20- Sam.- Well, it's a film that clicks its heels and rattles its castanets,
0:13:20 > 0:13:22and then falls flat on its face.
0:13:22 > 0:13:25It's one of those films that you really want to love because
0:13:25 > 0:13:29it's a plucky British underdog movie about a plucky British underdog.
0:13:29 > 0:13:32It's clearly a labour of love for Nick Frost,
0:13:32 > 0:13:34who is a purely likeable presence.
0:13:34 > 0:13:36I'm always happy to see him in a film,
0:13:36 > 0:13:40but it feels very thin and overstretched.
0:13:40 > 0:13:43And there's also that slightly worrying thing that the
0:13:43 > 0:13:46actors do where they're overacting and rolling their eyes,
0:13:46 > 0:13:48and mugging...that actors do
0:13:48 > 0:13:50when the feel that the material needs a bit of help.
0:13:50 > 0:13:52Do you think they're doing that?
0:13:53 > 0:13:54I didn't think...
0:13:54 > 0:13:56I felt that they were a little bit, yes.
0:13:56 > 0:13:57And it felt like a...
0:13:57 > 0:14:00It felt like a pilot for a sitcom that wasn't picked up.
0:14:00 > 0:14:01SHE GASPS
0:14:01 > 0:14:05But a lovely cast. Olivia Coleman, Nick Frost, Chris O'Dowd...
0:14:05 > 0:14:09Always good, but all of them have done slightly better work than this,
0:14:09 > 0:14:12so even though they're pros and they give it their all,
0:14:12 > 0:14:15there was a sense that the material was kind of letting them
0:14:15 > 0:14:16down a little bit.
0:14:16 > 0:14:19It's a little bit like Monuments Men.
0:14:19 > 0:14:22The cast is packed with people you just enjoy spending the time with.
0:14:22 > 0:14:25They don't necessarily get that much to do.
0:14:25 > 0:14:28Olivia Coleman and Alexander Roach, neither of them
0:14:28 > 0:14:32have very much to do, but what they do they do with proper panache.
0:14:32 > 0:14:34Kayvan Novak, who crops up here,
0:14:34 > 0:14:37kind of channelling Bronson Pinchot in Beverley Hills Cop, I think.
0:14:37 > 0:14:39He's like the undiscovered jewel of British comedy.
0:14:39 > 0:14:41He's fine but he's been a lot funnier in Four Lions
0:14:41 > 0:14:43and Peep Show, which is cruelly underrated.
0:14:43 > 0:14:45Someone should make a movie of that.
0:14:45 > 0:14:49I think someone needs to get hold of Kayvan Novak and put him in a very funny movie.
0:14:49 > 0:14:54Chris O'Dowd is also very good here and weirdly impressive as a monumental dickhead,
0:14:54 > 0:14:57that seems almost something that he's kind of slotted into.
0:14:57 > 0:14:59Although, by all accounts, a lovely man.
0:14:59 > 0:15:04Chris O'Dowd, I saw him in a film earlier called Calvary which he stars in
0:15:04 > 0:15:08and I kind of want to talk about that, really, cos that doesn't come out till April.
0:15:08 > 0:15:11That film is... It will just take your head off with how superb that film is.
0:15:11 > 0:15:15And Chris O'Dowd completely breaks free of every kind of box he's been put in.
0:15:15 > 0:15:17I mean, who will be a film maker?
0:15:17 > 0:15:20Cos again, like Monuments Men, this film looks great on paper.
0:15:20 > 0:15:23I mean, essentially, you can see why the idea took root,
0:15:23 > 0:15:26cos it's Rocky played for laughs if Rocky was, you know,
0:15:26 > 0:15:30a big-boned man in a sequin shirt who works as a lathe manufacturer.
0:15:30 > 0:15:32And Nick Frost is Rocky and then,
0:15:32 > 0:15:35Rashida Jones comes in, she's playing Talia Shire
0:15:35 > 0:15:40- as Adrian. Ian McShane dipped in furniture polish is kind of Burgess Meredith.- I love furniture polish.
0:15:40 > 0:15:42You know, so that kind of makes sense,
0:15:42 > 0:15:45but again yes, it doesn't click into place sometimes.
0:15:45 > 0:15:47It's easy for us, cos we would sit here and talk about movies
0:15:47 > 0:15:50and we'll try to think of smart things to say
0:15:50 > 0:15:52and get an actor's name right and that's easy.
0:15:52 > 0:15:55So no-one here will pretend that what's happening
0:15:55 > 0:15:58on the set of Cuban Fury is easy at all, but...
0:15:58 > 0:16:00And it's made with heart, I think.
0:16:00 > 0:16:03- I think it doesn't have a bad bone in its body.- Yeah, I found it moving.
0:16:03 > 0:16:06- Yeah?- Yeah, I like it when the lanyards cross.
0:16:06 > 0:16:08The lanyards is a nice moment.
0:16:08 > 0:16:10- The parsnip and the butterfly. - Do you like that?
0:16:10 > 0:16:14- I'm not giving anything away, cos that's in the trailer, I promise you. But that's funny.- It's funny.
0:16:14 > 0:16:18And they play it like they mean it and they're doing their best
0:16:18 > 0:16:22with it and it's like watching a mediocre busker on the street.
0:16:22 > 0:16:26You know, you might not give him your money, but at least he's having a go.
0:16:26 > 0:16:29- Calvary, Calvary, though. Calvary is a fantastic movie.- OK, good.
0:16:29 > 0:16:32Now, Joaquin Phoenix plays a man in the not-too-distant future who
0:16:32 > 0:16:36falls in love with his computer's operating in Spike Jonze's Her.
0:16:42 > 0:16:43Mr Theodore Twombly.
0:16:43 > 0:16:46Welcome to the world's first artificially-intelligent
0:16:46 > 0:16:47operating system.
0:16:47 > 0:16:53- We'd like to ask you a few questions. - OK.- Are you social or anti-social?
0:16:53 > 0:16:56I guess I haven't been social in a while...
0:16:56 > 0:16:58How would you describe your relationship with your mother?
0:16:58 > 0:17:00- Uf, um...- Thank you.
0:17:00 > 0:17:04Please wait as your operating system is initiated.
0:17:04 > 0:17:05- FEMALE VOICE:- Hello, I'm here.
0:17:06 > 0:17:09- Hi.- Hi! I'm Samantha!
0:17:11 > 0:17:13- Good morning, Theodore! - Good morning.
0:17:13 > 0:17:14You have a meeting in five minutes.
0:17:14 > 0:17:19- You want to try getting out of bed? - You're too funny.- Good, I'm funny.
0:17:20 > 0:17:22I want to learn everything about everything.
0:17:22 > 0:17:24I love the way you look at the world.
0:17:26 > 0:17:29- How long before you're ready to date?- What do you mean?
0:17:29 > 0:17:31I saw in your e-mails that you're going through a break-up.
0:17:31 > 0:17:33You're kind of noisy!
0:17:33 > 0:17:36- So what is it like being married? - There's something that feels
0:17:36 > 0:17:38so good about sharing your life with somebody.
0:17:38 > 0:17:41How do you share your life with somebody?
0:17:43 > 0:17:47- How are you?- I guess I've just been having fun.- You really deserve that.
0:17:47 > 0:17:49It's been a long time
0:17:49 > 0:17:53since I've been with somebody that I felt totally at ease with.
0:17:53 > 0:17:56What's it like to be alive in that room right now?
0:17:56 > 0:17:59I wish I could put my arms around you.
0:17:59 > 0:18:01I wish I could touch you.
0:18:01 > 0:18:03How would you touch me?
0:18:04 > 0:18:07Can you feel me with you right now?
0:18:07 > 0:18:13- I've never loved anyone the way I love you.- Me too. Now I know how.
0:18:13 > 0:18:16# ..a million miles away... #
0:18:20 > 0:18:24Such a beautiful film and also feels totally believable.
0:18:24 > 0:18:27Well, it's possibly not the greatest week of films this week.
0:18:27 > 0:18:30I mean, it's a relief really that we've got Her, which is not just a wonderful movie,
0:18:30 > 0:18:35but it's three wonderful movies. It's a love story inside a comedy inside a sci-fi movie.
0:18:35 > 0:18:38And all three of those could be film of the week by some distance.
0:18:38 > 0:18:43Only the sci-fi film, I think what it understand about sci-fi completely it's that you only need
0:18:43 > 0:18:46to nudge things five minutes into the future for them to work,
0:18:46 > 0:18:48and we're already in this world where everyone dates online
0:18:48 > 0:18:51and nobody can look away from their phone for longer than 30 seconds,
0:18:51 > 0:18:55so it makes perfect sense that we'd start to fall in love with our computers.
0:18:55 > 0:18:58But then, as a love story, although that sounds like a strange concept,
0:18:58 > 0:19:02it's actually sweet and soulful and I think what I like so much about the film as well
0:19:02 > 0:19:06is it's so packed full of ideas, which will kind of tap you on the shoulder
0:19:06 > 0:19:10and whisper in your ear in the kind of the days and the weeks after you watch the film,
0:19:10 > 0:19:12so it's a little bit like a kind of romance in itself.
0:19:12 > 0:19:15You'll find that the movie will take you out and seduce you a little bit,
0:19:15 > 0:19:17and you'll find you still like it in the morning.
0:19:17 > 0:19:19It's incredibly original.
0:19:19 > 0:19:22And bathed in this beautiful light.
0:19:22 > 0:19:25I think it's two hours long. I would have watched another three hours.
0:19:25 > 0:19:27Spike Jonze is a great director in that he
0:19:27 > 0:19:31has that depthless atmosphere that's not shallow.
0:19:31 > 0:19:35It's this weightless vibe that's going across this film
0:19:35 > 0:19:38that in another director's hands
0:19:38 > 0:19:40could be this terrible, dystopian, sci-fi tale.
0:19:40 > 0:19:43The obvious point to make about the best sci-fi -
0:19:43 > 0:19:46it isn't about the future at all, it's holding up a mirror
0:19:46 > 0:19:47to how we live now.
0:19:47 > 0:19:49This is a film about how technology has changed our relationships,
0:19:49 > 0:19:52how it has brought us closer in some ways and alienated us in others.
0:19:52 > 0:19:55There are great scenes where he's walking through
0:19:55 > 0:19:58these communal spaces in LA
0:19:58 > 0:20:00and he's talking on his headset
0:20:00 > 0:20:01and everyone else is as well.
0:20:01 > 0:20:03That's just how people are now.
0:20:03 > 0:20:05Ten years ago, if you saw people, supposedly
0:20:05 > 0:20:08hearing voices and talking to themselves,
0:20:08 > 0:20:10that would be seen as a sign of serious mental illness.
0:20:10 > 0:20:12Now the people who aren't doing that,
0:20:12 > 0:20:14they are the ones who are at odds.
0:20:14 > 0:20:15Absolutely.
0:20:15 > 0:20:18Computers and computer culture, it's the kind of thing
0:20:18 > 0:20:21that Hollywood and films in general have got wrong a lot
0:20:21 > 0:20:23but Her gets right to the heart of the matter,
0:20:23 > 0:20:26which is that at the moment, where everything is online
0:20:26 > 0:20:28and where we can tweak and tailor everything
0:20:28 > 0:20:30to what we know we already like,
0:20:30 > 0:20:32how does real life compete with that?
0:20:32 > 0:20:35How can real people, if you're looking to get into a relationship,
0:20:35 > 0:20:37be anything other than boring, irritating?
0:20:37 > 0:20:39They'll say things that you don't like.
0:20:39 > 0:20:43Rooney Mara plays the real life ex,
0:20:43 > 0:20:45this terrible figure, who's a real person,
0:20:45 > 0:20:47she is great in the movie.
0:20:47 > 0:20:49She fulfils a similar role in The Social Network.
0:20:49 > 0:20:53She's got that opening scene with Mark Zuckerberg.
0:20:53 > 0:20:55She will lead the revolt,
0:20:55 > 0:20:58once we overthrow social media and get rid of the whole lot.
0:20:58 > 0:21:00Rooney Mara will be our girl.
0:21:00 > 0:21:03And yet Rooney Mara is the one who is out of step
0:21:03 > 0:21:04with the rest of the world.
0:21:04 > 0:21:07- What is great about this film... - She is still old-fashioned.
0:21:07 > 0:21:10- "Why are you having a relationship?" - And yet the thing about
0:21:10 > 0:21:13this film is the character that Joaquin Phoenix plays isn't weird.
0:21:13 > 0:21:16When he confesses, "I'm seeing my computer"
0:21:16 > 0:21:19people say, "OK, I know someone else who's doing that as well."
0:21:19 > 0:21:22Let's go on a double date. We should talk about the performances.
0:21:22 > 0:21:25Amy Adams, Joaquin Phoenix, Rooney Mara -
0:21:25 > 0:21:26there isn't anybody...
0:21:26 > 0:21:29This isn't a film which is made up of awe-inspiring CGI.
0:21:29 > 0:21:33It's handmade and feels ultra modern
0:21:33 > 0:21:34and yet it's made by humans.
0:21:34 > 0:21:37Joaquin Phoenix, it's not as crazed and ramshackle
0:21:37 > 0:21:39as the performance that he gives in The Master.
0:21:39 > 0:21:43But it's every bit as accomplished. Scarlett Johansson is such a clever piece of casting as well,
0:21:43 > 0:21:46because as soon as we hear her voice as cement for the OS system,
0:21:46 > 0:21:48we see her as well and because we see her,
0:21:48 > 0:21:50we see what Joaquin Phoenix is seeing.
0:21:50 > 0:21:52So, that makes perfect sense.
0:21:52 > 0:21:55Spike Jonze as a director, he's kind of been in the shadow of Charlie Kaufman,
0:21:55 > 0:21:58you know, with the scripts, and I think people haven't quite given him
0:21:58 > 0:22:01the credit that maybe he deserved for Being John Malkovich and Adaptation.
0:22:01 > 0:22:04I think the script here is great. I mean, it's incredibly funny.
0:22:04 > 0:22:07We talked about George Clooney not quite getting the tone of The Monuments Men,
0:22:07 > 0:22:11he gets this tone absolutely right, which is this kind of sunshine melancholy.
0:22:11 > 0:22:15- And it is very funny, and it's also got this sort of ache the heart of it.- Absolutely.
0:22:15 > 0:22:19One slight reservation, talking about Charlie Kaufman, I kind of wish that he'd worked with him on this.
0:22:19 > 0:22:22I think Charlie Kaufmann would have interrogated the subject matter
0:22:22 > 0:22:24just that little bit more,
0:22:24 > 0:22:28whereas Spike Jonze is allowing it to waft free a little bit.
0:22:28 > 0:22:30I don't know. I like the simplicity of it, to be honest.
0:22:30 > 0:22:34I also think, as a romance, where it works so well is that it feels,
0:22:34 > 0:22:37when they first become intimate with each other, it reminds me of Harold and Maude.
0:22:37 > 0:22:40You have this kind of breathtaking, "Are they really doing that?"
0:22:40 > 0:22:43Because it does feel a little bit wrong, it's almost like Vertigo.
0:22:43 > 0:22:47And those are big names of films just to throw around, but I think the film deserves it.
0:22:47 > 0:22:50He's saying it's a weird relationship, but isn't every relationship weird?
0:22:50 > 0:22:53It doesn't feel weird towards the end. It's a beautiful film.
0:22:53 > 0:22:56Last up, French director Claire Denis films Bastards.
0:22:56 > 0:22:57When a woman's life is destroyed,
0:22:57 > 0:23:00her brother returns home to seek justice.
0:23:25 > 0:23:28To show all is obscene, I think.
0:23:28 > 0:23:33We understand no more than the main character.
0:23:33 > 0:23:37He is working on a supertanker and he has a great life.
0:23:37 > 0:23:40His sister calls him.
0:23:40 > 0:23:43She says, "Help! Help me!
0:23:43 > 0:23:45"I need you, I need your help."
0:23:58 > 0:24:01Family, for me, it's not always fun.
0:24:01 > 0:24:05In family, you have no choice. It's your family.
0:24:17 > 0:24:23Paris, I think the aspect I show is really unfriendly.
0:24:25 > 0:24:30The story maybe is hard and shocking, maybe violent,
0:24:30 > 0:24:33maybe cruel, but image or not,
0:24:33 > 0:24:36I'm not a sparkling person, you know?
0:24:36 > 0:24:41My ideas are slow, not sparkles.
0:24:42 > 0:24:46The best I can hope is that they do not dislike the film
0:24:46 > 0:24:49and hope again they will adore the film.
0:24:51 > 0:24:53But it's only wishes.
0:24:58 > 0:24:59Sam?
0:24:59 > 0:25:02Well, we all know the experience of arriving late to a film where
0:25:02 > 0:25:04you walk in the dark and you don't know what on earth's going on,
0:25:04 > 0:25:08you don't know who these people are, what their relationships are.
0:25:08 > 0:25:11The drama has already kind of started and you're frantically trying to catch up,
0:25:11 > 0:25:14and that's the experience you have,
0:25:14 > 0:25:16very deliberately, with watching Bastards.
0:25:16 > 0:25:19Claire Denis, I think, is a brilliant director.
0:25:19 > 0:25:21She's absolutely great at the elliptical edit,
0:25:21 > 0:25:25the fractured narrative, at the puzzle, at the threat in the wings -
0:25:25 > 0:25:28you know something terrible is going to happen, but you don't know what it is.
0:25:28 > 0:25:30She's absolutely brilliant, but here, I think
0:25:30 > 0:25:33she almost trips herself up,
0:25:33 > 0:25:37that she's so intent on spinning us round and keeping us in the dark
0:25:37 > 0:25:40that eventually, when she eventually pulls back the curtain
0:25:40 > 0:25:43and we what this film is, your expectations by that point
0:25:43 > 0:25:46are so high, it has to be something great to justify it.
0:25:46 > 0:25:50- Well, because you've bought into it...- When it's not, you're kind of let down.
0:25:50 > 0:25:52But as a creator of mood, I mean, it's extraordinary.
0:25:52 > 0:25:54Oh, yeah. I mean, you're right.
0:25:54 > 0:25:57She gets a film noir and basically breaks it up into puzzle pieces
0:25:57 > 0:25:59and then throws it all up in the air and then,
0:25:59 > 0:26:02as they land, it's kind of left up to you as the viewer
0:26:02 > 0:26:05to try to keep up or try and piece that breadcrumb trail for yourself,
0:26:05 > 0:26:07or wait for her to kind of unveil the secret.
0:26:07 > 0:26:09While that's happening, you're left with just the ambience
0:26:09 > 0:26:13and the atmosphere and I think, yeah, you're right, as a maker of ambience, she's fantastic.
0:26:13 > 0:26:16You've got this nocturnal Paris filled with dread and gloom,
0:26:16 > 0:26:19and you've got Stuart Staples' electronic score kind of
0:26:19 > 0:26:22burbling away in the background, which is incredibly good.
0:26:22 > 0:26:25But Xan's right, I think the problems start once the story starts assembling,
0:26:25 > 0:26:28because then the story feels quite hokey and again,
0:26:28 > 0:26:30you start to think, "What, I was waiting for THIS?"
0:26:30 > 0:26:32Because this story seems weirdly predictable
0:26:32 > 0:26:34and the only reason you're surprised is you think,
0:26:34 > 0:26:37"Claire Denis can't do a story which is quite this..."
0:26:37 > 0:26:38It's kind of Get Carter in Chinatown
0:26:38 > 0:26:42and a million other revenge thrillers that we're very, very familiar with.
0:26:42 > 0:26:46That is what takes you by surprise, and that it does feel like a little bit of a let down.
0:26:46 > 0:26:49Great, meaty performances from Vincent Landon as the uncle,
0:26:49 > 0:26:51who looks a bit like Mel Gibson's nice European cousin,
0:26:51 > 0:26:52and Lola Creton as well.
0:26:52 > 0:26:55I'm pleased you brought that up. Very quickly, Film of the Week?
0:26:55 > 0:26:57- Oh, Her, easily.- Yeah, Her.
0:26:57 > 0:26:59OK, good. That's all from us.
0:26:59 > 0:27:02We'll be back next Wednesday at 11:05pm,
0:27:02 > 0:27:04when we review Lars von Trier's Nymphomaniac
0:27:04 > 0:27:06and Tilda Swinton in Only Lovers Left Alive.
0:27:06 > 0:27:09We're going to play out tonight with a clip from Bright Eyes,
0:27:09 > 0:27:12starring Shirley Temple, who died yesterday.
0:27:12 > 0:27:15- Thank you very much for watching. Good night.- Good night.
0:27:16 > 0:27:20# On the good ship Lollipop
0:27:20 > 0:27:24# It's a sweet trip to a candy shop
0:27:24 > 0:27:26# Where bonbons play
0:27:26 > 0:27:29# On the sunny beach of Peppermint Bay
0:27:29 > 0:27:31# La la la la la la la
0:27:31 > 0:27:34# Lemonade stands everywhere
0:27:34 > 0:27:38# Crackerjack bands fill the air
0:27:38 > 0:27:40# And there you are
0:27:40 > 0:27:44# Happy landing on a chocolate bar
0:27:44 > 0:27:45# Doo doo doo doo
0:27:45 > 0:27:49# See the sugar bowl do the tootsie roll
0:27:49 > 0:27:52# With the big bad devil's food cake
0:27:52 > 0:27:55# If you eat too much
0:27:55 > 0:27:57# Oh, oh!
0:27:57 > 0:28:00# You will wake with a tummy ache
0:28:00 > 0:28:03# On the good ship Lollipop
0:28:03 > 0:28:07# It's a night trip into bed you hop
0:28:07 > 0:28:09# And dream away
0:28:09 > 0:28:10# Dream away
0:28:10 > 0:28:12# On the good ship Lollipop
0:28:12 > 0:28:14# Mm mmm
0:28:15 > 0:28:22# You'll awake with a tummy ache
0:28:22 > 0:28:27# On the good ship Lollipop
0:28:27 > 0:28:31# It's a nice trip into bed you hop
0:28:31 > 0:28:34# And dream away
0:28:34 > 0:28:39# On the good ship Lollipop. #
0:28:39 > 0:28:41POP!
0:28:41 > 0:28:45LAUGHTER