Dad's Army, Trumbo, A Bigger Splash Film 2016

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No studio will ever employ a member of the communist party.

Bryan Cranston stars as a blacklisted screenwriter in

I will write your name for 12 hundred. And you don't want your

name on it. Dad's Army marches on to the big

screen with Bill Nighy, Godfrey, you look like you're on a

cruise. Thank you. And Ralph Fiennes and Tilda Swinton

let it all hang out in A Bigger Plus we'll take a look

at the scary childrens classic, As well as Daily Telegraph film

critic Robbie Collin. Why did you mention my birthday. You

said you wouldn't. First Trumbo, Bryan Cranston stars as a

blacklisted screen writer. This will make you the highest paid writer in

Hollywood and that will make you the highest paid writer in the word. He

was the highest paid Hollywood screen writer. He is a genius. Very

prolific, very talented. He was a larger than life cashing term. --

character. He loved to hold larger than life cashing term. --

and drink and smoke and he wanted larger than life cashing term. --

be the loudest voice in larger than life cashing term. --

the room. He wanted to be all those things

the room. He wanted to be all those is a good story in there.

the room. He wanted to be all those Communist Party. Traitor.

Communism's most dangerous agents are here. There was the House on

American activities that thought anyone who was a member of the

American Communist Party was a threat to overthrowing the country.

See you in Washington. He and nine other people known as the Hollywood

10 were sentenced to prison. other people known as the Hollywood

your picnic. We find the other people known as the Hollywood

guilty. Not because they committed a other people known as the Hollywood

crime, but because this committee was displeased with the method in

crime, but because this committee which they answered the

crime, but because this committee Are you a member of the Communist

Party. Stewed yes will ever employ a member of the Communist Party. They

have no right to do this. stories need to be told. All right.

It is frightening stories need to be told. All right.

people are stories need to be told. All right.

including myself, I stories need to be told. All right.

what it was referring to. Why movie, why us?

what it was referring to. Why movie, over as a cautionary tale.

what it was referring to. Why movie, interested me. Since prison, you

what it was referring to. Why movie, bark. I keep waiting for you start

pounding the dinner table. I believe bark. I keep waiting for you start

this story will always be relevant, because the

this story will always be relevant, can be hijacked by any group that is

in charge. can be hijacked by any group that is

Preferably. My 35 million Reeders want read traitors.

Preferably. My 35 million Reeders each other's work and we have little

crushes on each other in terms each other's work and we have little

work and Bryan has always BP always each other's work and we have little

been one of those actors. That Oscar belongs to you. Get it. My God.

been one of those actors. That Oscar we are about to do is the one thing

everyone says we can't. We work. we are about to do is the one thing

Fire Trumbo and the rest and you have got pickets

Fire Trumbo and the rest and you will put you out

Fire Trumbo and the rest and you I don't think you and me

Fire Trumbo and the rest and you war. Danny, Trumbo is big and brash

and knock about war. Danny, Trumbo is big and brash

you have this big, brash and glorious performance from Bryan

Cranston. I think he does live it to it. The film is trickier, because it

is trying to be fun and glossy and tell the truth about the blacklist,

that was ugly and shameful. I think the film ends up striking a bargain

in order to do that. It says some things which particularly if you're

in order to do that. It says some in America will be uncomfortable to

hear, but to get away with that, some aspects are safe and smoothed

over. So if you ask me to come down on one side or the other, I'm in

favour of Trumbo, but I think it is a complicated film trying hard to be

simple. That is tough. I see no discomfort in this film at all. It

struck me as wall to wall... It goes to great length to say Trumbo was an

eccentric character, writing in the bath, smoking, the Mus attach. It is

70% moustache and there is no meat to the character. Helen Mirren is a

deranged right-winger and it is pure good and evil and we have one

character with an accent like the Count from Sesame Street. What it

does is whitewash the politics and says, well, he was a communist, but

actually he is mainly interested in free speech and sharing sandwiches,

he explains to his daughter. But he was a hard line left-wing guy, which

is fascinating, but the film is wary of scaring American audiences. I

think he is brilliant. I thought what was, let me say this, it is a

movie about a screen writer and the words, the script, you want it to

move faster. It has been rewritten to within an inch of its life. In

his scripts like Roman holiday, the genius is in the words. This film is

what we are saying is clever all the time, every line is engineered for

total... They refer to that. One character says does everything you

say have to sound like it is inscribed on stone. You're right the

way it smooths things over, but Hollywood doesn't tend to go near

the blacklist and when it does, it fudges the issue and doesn't talk

about the fact that John Wayne spent the Second World War in make up and

Ronald Reagan was a snitch. And the communist is not usually the hero

and usually a guy loses a girl and a dog and follows them and it is a

communist. But Trumbo was as red as a pillar box. The blacklist was

about communism and it is good to have a film that says even if he was

a communist we should haven't chased him out of work.

Dad's Army ranks as one of the greatest TV sitcoms ever made.

Now the Walmington-on-Sea Home Guard have had a glitzy revamp.

Bill Nighy, Catherine Zeta Jones and Toby Jones lead

He was on the run, he will be tired and hungry. He won't come quietly.

You know what to do. There he is Sir. Oh! Wilson - do something!

Bravo! Eyes front, shoulders back, you're not a sack of potatoes. It is

all hands on deck. An enemy spy is here. What does he look like? We

don't ethat is the point with spies. I'm doing an article on the home

guard. You come recommended. You remind me of someone, Winston

Churchill. I like to think if we met we would be both richer for it. I

speak a little German. One of my nannies was from Leipzig. Have you

brushed your teeth, my angel? Welcome to wauming on the. I saw

that you slipped her a sausage. You look like you're on a cruise to the

south sea. Thank you so much. Don't panic. We have discovered something

exciting. It is a code. What sort of language that is. German perhaps? On

my command... Come on, look lively. I will be damned. Fire! The jack

boot will not tread upon his hall load land while there is breath in

this voice... . Gone down the wrong way! You're not taking this

seriously are you Walker? How did you know it was me? Robbie? So

before I saw the remake of Dad's Army I was fascinated to find out

who this film was being made for. Having now seen it still have no

idea. If you think about when the original was broadcast, late 60s, a

generation on from the end of the war, and the series was about

people's military ranks and people's social ranks in England, not being

compatible. You have the central character who, ranks above sergeant

Wilson in the military, but Wilson is socially his superior and went to

Oxford and good breeding. And that in itself is something that will

work in that particular context. When you remove that context, it

gets reduced to its most superficial level which in the film is old

duffers in uniforms repeating catch phrases and being chased by animals.

That is all the film is. That is not true. It was enjoyable. I don't know

which bit of that you say we shouldn't see it. Wonderful actors.

I will exempt the actors, this film will get a lot of terrible things

landing on it. The actors must be exempt. They have nothing to work

with. They're working hard. Toby Jones does wonders with nothing.

Michael Gambon does wonders with nothing. Catherine Zeta Jones never

condescends to this. It never feels like she is going back to the hotel.

But the script gives them nothing to work with. Did you not laugh? Its a

squandering of talent. Blake Harrison is a brilliant actor and he

does some funny business, but the camera misses it. The real hero I

Toby Jones, there an element of the impersonation of Arthur Lowe, but he

builds him from the the ground up and the scene in the clip where he

is cuffing on a crumb of Victoria sponge is the funniest thing in the

film and he does that perfectly. That is not necessarily funny on

paper. The others have work with this awful... There fs a clip of the

line up and Michael Gambon. That is interesting. The film feels like it

is built for the directors with the line up scene is funny and you have

these great actors and the camera moves from one to the other and it

is simple. The reason they stopped making films from sitcoms, you don't

need much situation in a situation comedy, if you have good enough

actors. Dad's Army was all in the village hall. Now you have the great

actors bouncing off each other, but the director elbows in and they are

confusi simplicity with a lot of narrow trousers-based humour. Funny

vegetables. The marrow. There is a whole punchline involving Bill

Paterson's buttocks, which in themselves are not funny and he has

to be facing the right way to make accepts. -- sense. And then they

realise they have only half of the catch phrase and start piling them

in. Tom Courtney pokes his head through a bush and said, they don't

like it up them. Because they have not said that. I feel warm towards

it. You're high on it. Peter Bradshaw said wouldn't be great to

take this cast and put them in an original film. It would be.

Next Tilda Swinton, Matthias Schoenaerts and a loose-

limbed Ralph Fiennes star in A Bigger Splash.

A sinister take on sexual angst in the sun.

And as with any good holiday there is also some swearing.

I hate that sound. I can see you. Four people on a southern Italian

island. Marry Ann with a pop rock singer. Recovering from a throat

operation on the island with her young lover, Paul. You should stay.

Harry, myself, ex-lover of Mariann with young girl in toe, who they

think is his young lady. I knew you would bring a protege. But it is his

daughter, the result of an affair many years ago. There is an

emotional psycho sexual dynamic of desire and regret and frustration

and the tensions rise and explode I suppose.

, those headaches, is that a problem? We have all heard... I

don't care what he said. Nothing is a problem here. There was nothing I

can take care of. Of course, Ralph mastered these amazing hectic

characters, tragic characters. What is your favourite colour? I have

always been drawn to playing brooding, intense, melancholy... And

then I thought, hang on, this guy has also the interest in playing

comedy, like something, a Dick. -- like something comedic. The dancing

was a challenge because I am not known for my fancy footwork. But I

worked with this fantastic woman, who I met in a theatre production. I

had seen the way she had helped the actors with a modern, sexy dance

number. And I thought, I want to be that person. She was great because

she did not want him to repeat the movement but she wanted to unleash

that dance from him. She was almost like a psychoanalyst. You are

obscene. Everyone is obscene, that is the whole point. She is the woman

of the century. And now look what I have done. We were friends. Better

than brothers. I like the fact that all of us were just staring at it

because we want to watch it again. I really like this film a lot. What

surprised me is how long it stayed rattling around my head. The reason

it is doing that is because I was taken by surprise by the film. As

soon as you see the setup of the couple and the ex partner, and the

younger women, you think you are going to know how it plays out. And

it does play out like that, but not as you expect. At times, it veers

into a different direction. It wrong foods you. And I love that. Even the

location, in southern Italy, and we are sitting here in Britain and we

can almost feel the heat. You're expected to be leisurely, people

lying around the pool, but actually the camera is moving quickly,

zipping, and the film is cut really quickly. I recommend this film, go

and purchase a ticket to the cinema. I will take Robbie for his birthday.

I think the fact that it does not abide by the rules of modern film

making is totally key. It reminded me of the great beauty, and it seems

to be saying, remember these desolate Italian films of 50 years

ago? Well, we can still do that. And while the great beauty was very much

like a Fellini movie, this was like a mandatorily film, which means

rich, beautiful people, sitting in the sun. -- thyme. This idea that

this kind of drama, could still play in cinemas, with this kind of cast,

it is exciting. And that is four brilliant performances. Tilda

Swinton, playing this androgynous rock star. And she has some kind of

vocal problem, and that is why she is on the island. So for large

stretches of the film, her character cannot really speak. And of course

she does not needs to be able to speak in order to act. You can take

the emotions from her, freestyle. So we have this alpha prat swaggering

around, but Ralph Fiennes finds this sadness and tragedy around this

banter, jumping into the swimming pool, changing the music when he

comes into the room, these are annoying habits, and you would not

wish to spend time with them, but he is very watchable. He is

eye-popping, dancing to the Rolling Stones, and it is nothing like I

have seen before. It is interesting, because you need all four actors to

really excel for it to work. If there was a weak link, it would not

work. And Matthias Schoenaerts, sometimes I think he is not an actor

cut out for speaking parts but actually, it works here because he

is slightly dim and lumbering, and that is how he fits into the

quartet. And it is dated in that way, because it has that David

Bowie, Rolling Stones quality to it. The camera is a little bit like Nick

Roca. I was reminded of Performance, and David Essex. -- Nic Roeg.

For years, American children's writer RL

Stine has terrified youngsters with stories of zombies,

werewolves and evil ventriloquist dummies.

Now, the Goosebumps anthology comes to life in one bumper movie.

Jack Black stars as the author who's lost control of his creations.

So you are the new neighbour? I am Jack, by the way. Anna, get away

from the window. I have got to go. The movie is about a kid who has

moved from New York to the small town. And he moves in next door to

this weird, strange guy, who has a daughter that he falls for, and one

night he thinks she is in trouble and sneaks into the house. But he

discovers this set of manuscripts. Accidentally, he opens one, and an

abominable snowman appears. And it is on. Nobody make a sound.

SCREAMING. . The challenge for the writers was to

capture the magic of RL Stine. An abominable snowman just crawled out

of the book. That does not happen. There are so many monsters and

characters that we had to choose from because there are like 100

books. And a stroke of genius was just, let's do all of the monsters

in one movie. You just released every monster I have ever created.

All of these classic creatures that I grew up reading, all in one movie,

I thought it was a cool concept. You read them, all right? Action. The

bog monster, or the jack-o'-lanterns, or the snake lady.

What the client. -- or the client. I'm OK. I am still OK. I am just so

thrilled that this Goosebumps movie will be around forever. After 22

years, what a wonderful thing to see your work capped off in a way by

this great film. Goosebumps? For me, this falls into the same bracket as

the Lego movie in that it is an advert and entertainment. It is

nowhere near as good as the Lego movie but it has the same agenda,

taking something but love it from your childhood and deconstructing it

in a post-modern way, but also a way that makes you want to go out and

buy more of this thing. The masterstroke with Goosebumps is

working out the way in which they do it, to turn the writing of the

series into its own story. And then you have the monsters come off the

page. It is a good device. It is so predicated from the Amblin movies.

You have a child arriving in the suburbs, a spooky house, not fitting

into school. And then the overall, fantastical stories, it becomes

analog for his struggle to fit in. For me, it is interesting. There is

a lot of Joe Dante's Gremlins. The best sequence was when Jack Black

was plagued by garden gnomes. We have him holding a garden gnome up

to his face, as if it is trying to strangle them. It was not predict

the expensive or elaborate, but it was very funny. Specifically, it is

made 14-year-old boys. And they are tough crowd. I share crowd with one.

-- I share a house with one. Anything smaller the Li Na aimed at

younger kids, they don't want it, but they are not ready for Henry,

portrait of a serial killer. It is a tough task to make things look just

nasty enough. I think it works for that specific audience, the

10-year-old boy. If you do not like the werewolf, then you can have the

giant praying Mantis. And if you don't like that, that is when the

garden gnomes come in. I thought it was a shame because I could not work

out who it was for. The grown-ups who I was watching with, we were

bored. It wasn't funny enough. The bits that should've been funny, they

weren't funny enough. But bits of it worse to scary. Too scary for a

10-year-old. -- bits of it were too scary. Bits of it were of the jump

scare variety. There was nothing lingering. What I wanted was a scene

like in gremlins where you have Phoebe Cates talking about a

Christmas rank that went wrong. It leaves you with that eeriness. There

is none of that, just excitement. Towards the end, this pile-up of CGI

started to annoy me because it loses sight of the cleverness of the

original idea. As Danny says, this is not a film for me. The fact that

we were exhausted by it is probably a good sign. And the film was going

to be directed by Tim Burton for a long time. Since the mid 90s, any

film which is not directed by the... Tim Burton, that is a big tick for

me. Film of the week? A Bigger Splash. A Bigger Splash. There is

also a film from Iceland out called Rams. I have a thing about it on my

blog. It is about a sheep former, rival brothers who have not spoken

for 40 years, rival farmers, and the tormentor that consumes. It is

brilliant. Fantastic. Playing us out tonight

is The Witch - supernatural shenanigans set in 17th

Century New England. It's a bit scary. Hold on tight.

Well done, Claudia. What went we out into this

wilderness to find? Leaving our country, kindred, our fathers'

houses. For what? For the kingdom of God. Let us pray.

You have cursed this family. Who is there a?

My Lord, help me and I will leave my seven.

As we'll be discussing, cosmologists are studying...