:00:00. > :00:26.negotiations. Now it is time for Talking Movies.
:00:27. > :00:36.As Americans prepare to go to the polls, hello and welcome to this
:00:37. > :00:41.special edition of Talking Movies. In today's programmes, two different
:00:42. > :00:47.film portrait of the outgoing president Obama. The digitised to
:00:48. > :00:51.tell us what Jackie Kennedy was really like. A landmark political
:00:52. > :00:55.documentary for more than 50 years ago which embraced the techniques of
:00:56. > :01:02.direct cinema. Hollywood's politics is the industry of liberalism, or do
:01:03. > :01:05.conservative forces rule the day? And the favourite films of the
:01:06. > :01:12.presidential candidates. Is Citizen Kane the top toys of Hillary Clinton
:01:13. > :01:25.or Donald Trump? We will be telling you the answer in this edition of
:01:26. > :01:29.Talking Movies. In just over a week from now America's television
:01:30. > :01:33.networks, headquartered in New York, will bring the American people the
:01:34. > :01:37.results of the election. Nothing is certain but we do know that
:01:38. > :01:41.President Obama will be leaving the White House in January and cinema
:01:42. > :01:49.will know doubt be playing a role in defining his legacy. -- no doubt.
:01:50. > :01:53.Already we have had two Obama films and both look at him when he was a
:01:54. > :02:00.young band. -- younger man. As Americans head
:02:01. > :02:05.into the final days of the elections, Barack Obama is enduring
:02:06. > :02:09.a revival of popularity. Meanwhile the nostalgia for this politician
:02:10. > :02:15.who has not yet left office can also be seen in two films about the 44th
:02:16. > :02:21.president. President Obama is now 55, at the film Barry tells the
:02:22. > :02:26.story in the life of a younger man attending Columbia University in New
:02:27. > :02:31.York on in 1981. Barry avoids politics completely in favour of a
:02:32. > :02:35.universal coming-of-age story. In a way we divested from Barack Obama
:02:36. > :02:40.and we made it a story about Barry, a guy who would eventually become
:02:41. > :02:44.this guy we all know. A lot of the film is about being truthful to the
:02:45. > :02:49.experience of a young man of mixed race trying to figure out his way
:02:50. > :02:54.and truthful to Barry as this idea. And it wasn't about you know
:02:55. > :03:03.reconstructing how he got this political opinion or that political
:03:04. > :03:08.opinion, it was who was this person, who was leader of the free world?
:03:09. > :03:16.You know the guy I told you about? What is this boy's name? Barack
:03:17. > :03:21.Obama. Coincidentally Barry is the second film this year to tackle
:03:22. > :03:26.Barack Obama's early days. South Side With You chronicles the first
:03:27. > :03:31.date between Barack Obama and Michelle. It isn't a political film
:03:32. > :03:37.to me, it is truly a love story and you just sit two powerful minds walk
:03:38. > :03:41.and talk all day and I love it because it is before cellphones, so
:03:42. > :03:47.they had to talk to each other and there is no checking cellphones,
:03:48. > :03:52.looking at memes. I wonder if I can write books and hold a position of
:03:53. > :03:59.influence in civil rights. Politics? I just want to do more. So do I.
:04:00. > :04:04.These are not the first films to be made about a sitting president.
:04:05. > :04:10.Primary Colours was released in the middle of a second term and W came
:04:11. > :04:17.out in the final days of the Bush administration. But those films
:04:18. > :04:21.criticised their subjects, while the Obama films take a more holistic
:04:22. > :04:25.approach, perhaps because is about a president who was more open about
:04:26. > :04:29.his flaws. There is something about Obama. The reason we have seen two
:04:30. > :04:32.films about him in one year, his story sparks the sense of
:04:33. > :04:36.possibility in so many people's lives. People of colour, people of
:04:37. > :04:42.certain economic backgrounds. There is nothing partisan about Barry or
:04:43. > :04:45.South Side With You. In fact they barely feature any discussion of
:04:46. > :04:50.politics at all. But that doesn't mean the president embraces them. In
:04:51. > :04:54.our divisive political era it is unlikely the film will have appeal
:04:55. > :04:57.beyond those who already hold Obama in high esteem, but these films
:04:58. > :05:02.deserve credit for their personal approach to political filmmaking.
:05:03. > :05:06.Many would say this long and exhausting election season has
:05:07. > :05:13.questioned parts of humanity. Gregory and Southside With You with
:05:14. > :05:25.their focus on a personal may bring some of that back. Barry. It isn't
:05:26. > :05:30.just presidents who have been to be the film, it is also first ladies.
:05:31. > :05:35.For some 30 odd years one of America's most charismatic first
:05:36. > :05:39.ladies lived here in New York. She moved into the building in the wake
:05:40. > :05:44.of the assassination of her husband, president John F. Kennedy. Now
:05:45. > :05:49.Natalie Portman brings a striking betrayal of Jackie Kennedy in the
:05:50. > :05:57.forthcoming film, Jackie. Each evening from December to December...
:05:58. > :06:00.The focus of this elegantly crafted film is on the days following the
:06:01. > :06:05.assassination of Presidents John F. Kennedy in Dallas, in November,
:06:06. > :06:12.1963. A truly shocking event that traumatised the American people.
:06:13. > :06:16.I've changed my mind. I'm sorry? I said I've changed my mind. We will
:06:17. > :06:20.have a procession and I will walk to the cathedral with the casket. The
:06:21. > :06:23.picture shows a morning Jackie Kennedy in the wake of the
:06:24. > :06:27.assassination, planning among other things the funeral. All the time
:06:28. > :06:30.conscious of shaping his legacy. Natalie Portman was well aware of
:06:31. > :06:35.Jackie Kennedy's legacy in putting this picture together. I think I
:06:36. > :06:39.viewed her the way many people view her in sort of popular perception,
:06:40. > :06:45.this 2-dimensional icon, sort of an Andy Warhol silkscreen, the head,
:06:46. > :06:51.the clothes, the elegance, and I never really considered her
:06:52. > :06:55.humanity. Would you mind getting the message to the funeral guests when
:06:56. > :06:59.they arrive? In the film she does come over as being a strong woman
:07:00. > :07:02.dealing with a lot and pulling it off, but she had this little girl
:07:03. > :07:07.voice. How do you reconcile that apparent contradiction? I think
:07:08. > :07:15.there was a lot of pressure at the time to be a specific kind of woman,
:07:16. > :07:20.to be kind of coy and demure and defined by your husband. She was
:07:21. > :07:24.really tapping down herself in the public eye and of course privately
:07:25. > :07:31.she was much sharper and had this bitter humour that everyone remarks
:07:32. > :07:37.on in their recollections of her. The pig was directed way -- the
:07:38. > :07:41.picture was directed by a Chilean filmmaker. He was drawn in by what
:07:42. > :07:45.we don't know about Jackie Kennedy. There are a lot of things we don't
:07:46. > :07:51.know about her and there are things we will never know. That mystery
:07:52. > :07:56.captivated me and I think there's... In this movie what we do is show
:07:57. > :08:01.basically four days of her life and see how she was able to put a
:08:02. > :08:12.country together, how she was able to protect the legacy. Matt --
:08:13. > :08:17.Natalie Portman is emerging as a strong Oscar candidate. It is about
:08:18. > :08:21.a woman who managed to become the mother of the country when it lost
:08:22. > :08:30.its father. The country that found the first queen it ever had.
:08:31. > :08:39.In 1960, John F. Kennedy was the subject of a film called Primary
:08:40. > :08:45.which is widely regarded as the first such documentary in its Thelma
:08:46. > :08:52.-- of its kind. It followed the campaign trail in Wisconsin. One man
:08:53. > :09:02.intimately involved in that film was a legend in documentary circles. We
:09:03. > :09:05.went to meet him. In 1960, two presidential hopefuls were
:09:06. > :09:11.desperately trying to win a US primary election. The glamorous John
:09:12. > :09:14.F. Kennedy, from an Irish, American political dynastic, and Hubert
:09:15. > :09:18.Humphrey, a pharmacist from South Dakota. Filmmaker Robert Drew
:09:19. > :09:24.decided to take it unique approach to tell the story. At the time, one
:09:25. > :09:28.of his crew makers on the film said the goal was to be a fly on the
:09:29. > :09:35.wall. We wanted to see what Kennedy was like. We were interested in it
:09:36. > :09:39.because we thought he was a different kind of person becoming
:09:40. > :09:43.president, a different kind of president than what we usually have.
:09:44. > :09:48.We never interviewed him, we just watched what he said and did. The
:09:49. > :09:52.filmmakers hoped to craft the story that mirrored reality, one that
:09:53. > :10:00.didn't tell the audience what to think or feel. A technique known as
:10:01. > :10:05.direct cinema, are cinema verite. The idea was news was filmed as it
:10:06. > :10:11.happened, you didn't change it or edit it to make it different. This
:10:12. > :10:18.had that sense, that this material hasn't been changed or we --
:10:19. > :10:22.reworked in order to have a different effect. Primary was not
:10:23. > :10:28.only revolutionary because it was known as the first American cinema
:10:29. > :10:33.verite documentary but also because of the cutting edge tools used to
:10:34. > :10:38.achieve the images. The team modified a camera to be able to
:10:39. > :10:41.simultaneously record sound and picture, enabling the crew to easily
:10:42. > :10:47.follow the candidates and record real-time conversations. The
:10:48. > :10:50.technique was known as sync sound and was unprecedented in film.
:10:51. > :10:55.Usually what you did was play music for what you shot or you recorded
:10:56. > :11:00.the voice and used it as voice over. Either way, it was not the way you
:11:01. > :11:08.usually engaged with reality. But when it was used and shot in
:11:09. > :11:15.synchronised time you felt that what you watched really happened
:11:16. > :11:23.somewhere. Primary was a rough attempt at cinema verite, but by
:11:24. > :11:31.1992, with a much more advanced camera, this time there was another
:11:32. > :11:34.attempt, this time with his wife. He would tell the story of a young
:11:35. > :11:39.governor from Arkansas, Bill Clinton, hoping to become president.
:11:40. > :11:44.But this time he did in differently from Primary. The Democrat comes
:11:45. > :11:52.along, the Republicans are going to ambush them. He was more interested
:11:53. > :11:57.in the campaign strategy of others, that he was in Bill Clinton, the
:11:58. > :12:00.candidate himself. I guarantee you that if you do this you will never
:12:01. > :12:07.work in government or politics again. That was somebody you could
:12:08. > :12:11.watch. George was his buddies and he had a kind of bloody thing. Stay
:12:12. > :12:16.focused. Talk about things that matter. We love the new patriotism
:12:17. > :12:27.thing. Speak from your heart. That's all that matters. According to
:12:28. > :12:34.Pennebaker, people across the country were inspired. Afterwards
:12:35. > :12:38.they created the scenery of it and that somehow really helped them. I
:12:39. > :12:45.don't know what they thought it would do. I like the way this thing
:12:46. > :12:49.feels. The prints from the film were sent all over the world is the
:12:50. > :12:54.politicians who wanted to look at it and figure out what was there that
:12:55. > :12:59.they could use. And I'm not sure many of them did. How can we believe
:13:00. > :13:04.anything he is saying about the future? Well, he has a good career
:13:05. > :13:10.in fiction writing when this is over. Although it is about politics,
:13:11. > :13:12.in true cinema verite style Pennebaker said he had no agenda and
:13:13. > :13:30.reality was compelling enough. A few days ago big names from
:13:31. > :13:33.Hollywood participated in what was called a Stronger Together
:13:34. > :13:37.fundraiser for Hillary Clinton. That was here in the heart of Broadway at
:13:38. > :13:41.St James theatre. Among those to appear were Hugh Jackman, Julia
:13:42. > :13:46.Roberts and Emily Blunt. Glitzy event such as this reinforced notion
:13:47. > :13:52.that Hollywood is a democratic town, at how liberal is Tinseltown? We've
:13:53. > :13:55.been finding out. Democrats are well supported by
:13:56. > :13:59.Hollywood stars and they turned up in force at the St James theatre to
:14:00. > :14:03.display their talents and help raise money for Hillary Clinton. Why are
:14:04. > :14:10.so many stars joined Thelma jaunt to the Democrats? -- so many stars
:14:11. > :14:15.drawn to the Democrats? I think to be an artist you have to be
:14:16. > :14:20.open-minded, open to all things. So if I am asked to play someone who
:14:21. > :14:24.was a terrorist I have to try to believe in this cause, otherwise I
:14:25. > :14:29.am just some guy making a comment on the person I am playing. So we're
:14:30. > :14:33.people who I think, as a lot of artists are, I do have empathy for
:14:34. > :14:37.people not like Gus and that's considered liberal. Compared to the
:14:38. > :14:42.Democrats, Republicans have the backing of only a few stars. Adam
:14:43. > :14:45.Sandler, John Voigt and Clint Eastwood are among those links the
:14:46. > :14:51.republican causes. Some religious conservatives who dislike Hollywood
:14:52. > :14:56.star laden liberalism think they know why there are so few Republican
:14:57. > :15:05.stars. One argument is that people have a more conservative Republican
:15:06. > :15:10.-- who have a more Republican mine are less likely to go and make
:15:11. > :15:13.movies and go into acting, or to go into the social sciences and the
:15:14. > :15:25.anatomies. Another argument is that they are wanted. -- are not wanted.
:15:26. > :15:28.Hollywood may have had more of the teat influence public policy then
:15:29. > :15:32.Democrats, as the movie industry has been successful in spawning
:15:33. > :15:35.significant Republican leaders. A number of Republicans, especially
:15:36. > :15:40.Ronald Reagan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, have all sort of
:15:41. > :15:46.political office, and have succeeded, and have also moved the
:15:47. > :15:51.political matter by getting a large number of Americans with them to the
:15:52. > :15:56.right. Check political barometer. While Republicans have focused on
:15:57. > :15:58.electoral politics, Democrats in general, historically, have focused
:15:59. > :16:02.on what I call issue oriented politics. That is, rather than
:16:03. > :16:07.getting deeply involved with a political party, they get involved
:16:08. > :16:11.with political causes. Not only may Republicans in Tinseltown have had a
:16:12. > :16:14.larger political impact on American life then Democrats, what there is
:16:15. > :16:18.also the view they may control movie content as well. It is argued that
:16:19. > :16:22.the largely conservative white men of corporate Hollywood may narrow
:16:23. > :16:27.the spectrum of films that get made to fit their worldview. The action
:16:28. > :16:32.drama American Sniper, and going back in time, the war drama Rules of
:16:33. > :16:36.Engagement, are perceived as examples of conservative films. But
:16:37. > :16:39.many commentators argue that ideology only plays a minimal role
:16:40. > :16:44.in determining what movies individual Hollywood corporate
:16:45. > :16:47.executives will back. If you sync at the box office, your career will
:16:48. > :16:52.sink. If you do well, your career will rise. So you can have
:16:53. > :16:57.conservative studio people who are going to greenlight what they see as
:16:58. > :17:03.kind of left or liberal movies if they believe it is going to have an
:17:04. > :17:07.appeal with the larger audience. But away from the movies themselves and
:17:08. > :17:11.the realm of making a noise and raising money, this election season,
:17:12. > :17:15.it is Democrats in Hollywood who are out on top. Hillary Clinton has
:17:16. > :17:19.netted an estimated $20 million from the show business community,
:17:20. > :17:34.compared to the $275,000 raised by Donald Trump. Hilary!
:17:35. > :17:40.E. 60th St in Manhattan was once home to the legend Eric Copacabana
:17:41. > :17:45.nightclub, the site of an unforgettable tracking shop in
:17:46. > :17:48.Martin Scorsese's mobster drama Goodfellas. It so happens that
:17:49. > :17:52.Goodfellas is one of Donald Trump's favourite films. What are the movie
:17:53. > :17:59.preferences of the presidential candidates? Tristan Daley has been
:18:00. > :18:02.finding out. In the US, each presidential
:18:03. > :18:08.candidate has one or more movies that they favour. We are off to see
:18:09. > :18:12.the Wizard! Hillary Clinton isn't off to see the wizard, just more
:18:13. > :18:16.voters in the last days of her campaign. But it is widely reported
:18:17. > :18:23.that the Wizard of Oz is one of her favourite movies. So I Out of
:18:24. > :18:29.Africa, and Casablanca. You must remember this... Donald Trump ranked
:18:30. > :18:35.his top five movies five years ago. His first choice was Citizen Kane.
:18:36. > :18:39.Rosebud... The movie preferences of presidential candidates are not
:18:40. > :18:44.always casual, spur of the moment comments. I think everything is
:18:45. > :18:47.calculated to make the candidates look as relate a ball as possible,
:18:48. > :18:52.especially movies, they are such a popular medium that it is very easy,
:18:53. > :18:56.especially if it is a movie that people have heard of, classic film,
:18:57. > :18:59.even if people haven't seen the film they might say, that is a good
:19:00. > :19:04.movie, so they must have taste, they must know what quality is, and I
:19:05. > :19:07.trust them and find them a bit more electable. It is also believed that
:19:08. > :19:11.a candidate's movie preferences can reveal significant information.
:19:12. > :19:15.Donald Trump seems drawn to films that have strong male protagonists,
:19:16. > :19:19.and that are violent, like the west and a good, the bad and the ugly, or
:19:20. > :19:26.the Godfather. When it comes to Trump's number one film, it is
:19:27. > :19:31.Citizen Kane. But some critics don't think Trump as much in common with
:19:32. > :19:36.that movie's media tycoon. Trump and Kane are two different men. Citizen
:19:37. > :19:39.Kane, at a certain level, is brilliant and has built an empire.
:19:40. > :19:43.Trump, in my opinion, stumbled his way to great wealth, because he
:19:44. > :19:47.inherited a great amount of wealth and happen to be in real estate in
:19:48. > :19:51.New York as real estate was entering a boom period in the late 1970s. For
:19:52. > :19:55.the candidate who is perhaps the most avid movie lover in a
:19:56. > :19:59.presidential race, we have to go a long way back to earlier this year,
:20:00. > :20:01.when Ted Cruz had his sights on the Republican nomination. Look who
:20:02. > :20:06.knows so much! It's just so happens... PC and to adore the 1987
:20:07. > :20:12.fantasy adventure the Princess Bride. Ted Cruz even memorise lines
:20:13. > :20:16.from the film, and he was eager to show off his talents, as he did in
:20:17. > :20:20.this broadcast from New Hampshire. There is nothing better than true
:20:21. > :20:25.love. There is nothing better, except for a nice mutton, letters
:20:26. > :20:28.and to make a salad. In fact, it has been alleged that Ted Cruz has taken
:20:29. > :20:32.loans from Hollywood movies to emphasise his rhetoric. After Donald
:20:33. > :20:36.Trump threatened to spill the beans on Ted Cruz's life Heidi, the
:20:37. > :20:42.candidate responded with lines from the 1995 movie the American
:20:43. > :20:46.President. He is better off sticking with me, because Heidi is way out of
:20:47. > :20:49.his league. You'd better stick with me, because Sydney Allen Wade is way
:20:50. > :20:53.out of your league. It was actually quite moving and the language he
:20:54. > :20:57.used was quite poetic. Then people just realised he was quoting the
:20:58. > :21:01.movie Of the American President, when Michael Douglas is defending
:21:02. > :21:06.his partner's character. Is that a valiant way to act? I don't know. I
:21:07. > :21:10.would read it that it makes it look like him, look like a thief, because
:21:11. > :21:13.he is stealing somebody else's language. It makes him seem even
:21:14. > :21:19.more programmed and robotic Ben Edwards, an actual full-blooded man
:21:20. > :21:22.defending his wife. Political candidates clearly have an affinity
:21:23. > :21:28.for movies. Perhaps because both politics and cinema have so much in
:21:29. > :21:31.common. Movies peddle fantasy. They often deflect from reality, create
:21:32. > :21:42.illusion, and evokes strong emotions. And that is just what
:21:43. > :21:47.politicians often want to do too. Well, that brings this edition of
:21:48. > :21:52.Talking Movies to a close. We hope you have enjoyed the show. You can
:21:53. > :21:57.always reach us online. And you can find us on Facebook as well. So from
:21:58. > :22:02.me, Tom Brook, and the rest of the Talking Movies production team here
:22:03. > :22:05.in New York, it is goodbye, as we leave you with a moment from the
:22:06. > :22:08.past when Hollywood and politics really came together. It was Marilyn
:22:09. > :22:20.Monroe singing happy birthday to President John F. Kennedy in 1962.
:22:21. > :22:35.# Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, Mr
:22:36. > :22:53.President, happy birthday to you. #
:22:54. > :23:07.Thank you, Mr President, for all the things you've done, the battles that
:23:08. > :23:16.you've won. We thank you so much. Everybody, happy birthday!
:23:17. > :23:20.It's going to be a quiet weekend of weather.
:23:21. > :23:22.We saw some sunshine yesterday, this was Deal.
:23:23. > :23:24.Don't expect to see many blue skies this weekend.
:23:25. > :23:29.Many of us it could be rather grey and cloudy,
:23:30. > :23:32.just as it was earlier on in the Wirral yesterday.