I Am Not Your Negro, Raw, A Quiet Passion The Film Review

opening single. We'll also have the super league results, all at

10:30pm. Now it's time for the film review.

Hello and welcome to The Film Review on BBC News.

To take us through this week's cinema releases,

We have I Am Not Your Negro, which is an Oscar-nominated

We have Raw, which is a real breathtaking debut feature.

And A Quiet Passion, Terence Davies' film

And I Am Not Your Negro, billed as a documentary.

Is it solidly a documentary, a funny genre?

Well, basically what it is if it's based on an unfinished project that

James Baldwin had started working on, to tell the story of America

through the story of three men, Medgar Evers, Malcom X

And so what you get is the film is narrated by Samuel L Jackson,

and it mixes news footage, reportage, clips from movies,

clips from television programmes and it puts together basically

a narrative which tells the story in a way which is both polemical

One of the outstanding features is some of the footage

of Baldwin himself, who comes across as a brilliant orator

I have more in common with a black scholar than I have with a white man

And you have more in common with a white author

than you have with someone who is against all literature.

So why must you always concentrate on colour,

There are other ways of connecting men.

When I left this country in 1948, I left this country with one

I might have gone to Hong Kong, I might have gone to Timbuktu.

There was a theory that nothing worse could happen to me there that

You talk about making it as a writer about yourself.

You have to be able then to turn all the intent with which you live,

because once you turn on your back on this society, you may die.

You can see it seems really, really urgent, really engaging,

The way in which they mix news footage and television and films.

There is a very coherent argument, which is about the sort

of nature of America, which seems every bit as pertinent

now as it did when this was sort of first envisaged.

The thing that was most striking about it is,

on the one hand, you asked, is it a documentary.

It's basically it's a visual essay that's put together with I think

No, it doesn't and that's what's so brilliant about it.

You end up feeling that what you are seeing is a visual

representation of an argument that may have been laid down a literature

and really engaging, really as I said timely.

Put together in a way that absolutely grabs the audience's

attention and leads them through this story.

It was up against very strong competition in the Oscars,

but it's a really good piece of work that is accessible

And has done really well at the box office.

Perhaps more than they expected, which is quite heartening as well.

Now, look, Mr Kermode, because when we decided

that we would like to continue working together, I said

your challenge of course was to try to get me

Well, thanks for doing that on week one.

It's a French Belgian cause c l bre, from

The story of a young woman who was a vegetarian,

who goes to vet school and there are these hazing rituals.

One such ritual, she is forced to eat a raw rabbit.

She says, I'm not going to do that, I'm a vegetarian, but then

she starts to develop previously suppressed appetites.

The film turns into on the one hand a horror movie,

that refers to movies like I suppose Trouble Every Day, and to some

that refers to movies like I suppose Claire Denis'

But on the other hand is a story about a young woman attempting

to fit in when she is a misfit, about somebody who really wants

to be part of a group but discovers that she's something

It's very metaphorical and allegorical and on some level

the director described it as a modern tragedy,

It's also got a fairy tale element to it.

Yes, there are visceral things in it.

Yes, there are moments in which you will gasp and recoil,

There's really heartfelt emotion in it.

It has meaty substance, pun fully intended.

I hear you, but I also read that people have been actually

Yeah, stories about people fainting I'm sure are exaggerated.

Honestly, give it a go, you'll really like it

Let's see how long we work together before I have the

guts, in every sense, to go and see that.

I am however really looking forward to A Quiet Passion, the

This is his film about Emily Dickinson.

A terrific central performance I think by Cynthia Nixon.

She is the young poet was told early on that the classics of

every language of the works of men, not women, says an editor who agrees

to publish one of her least wayward problems.

She's a rebellious spirit, she is wrestling with the eternal

Also with her lack of recognition in her lifetime.

She is finding solace in her family, and her friends.

Do you suppose that men are frightened of a woman who teaches,

Men are supposed to be fearless, aren't

And Catherine Bailey is a scene stealing-ly good.

And Catherine Bailey is scene stealing-ly good.

What I like about this film is, on the one hand, it is

There is real life and laughter in it.

It is a film which is about poetry which has visual poetry, the

You end up thinking of Vermeer or Carl Dryer.

If you know Terence Davies work, and the way in which she will

If you know Terence Davies' work, and the way in which he will

move a camera very slowly around a room or a theatre, he is somebody

who at an early age fell in love with cinema,

sitting in the balcony as a child, looking at the moving image.

You can tell this from every frame of the movie.

Emily Dickinson, she became reclusive.

She got frailer, and as she got older, she

lived in the same house for years and years.

Is there a sense of claustrophobic about this, as a result?

As in all of Terence Davies' films, one of the things he

does brilliantly is writing about people whose inner lives of very

Of course, what happens is, she expresses herself through poetry.

At one point, she says there is posterity, I suppose,

but I would like to be recognised during my lifetime.

This is classic Terence Davies material.

People trapped in slightly claustrophobic, slightly

suffocating circumstances but with these vibrant inner lives.

As I said, the thing to remember is, and

I think the poster has tried to play this up: it is very funny.

It is also tragic and spiritual and transcendent.

But think about it in a week in which

you have this, and you have I'm Not Your Negro, and Raw.

You have the full smorgasbord of cinema right

there, and I want you to see all three of those films because I think

you will find something in all three of them, including Raw.

That's my task for the weekend ahead.

Best out, she said, moving on swiftly?

Something I think is really good fun although it's

proving very divisive is Ben Wheatley's Free Fire.

It is a kind of absurdist action movie, all entirely set in a

warehouse with a group of entirely incompetent and unsympathetic

characters, taking potshots at each other.

It's like they have taken the central idea which is the shoot

out at the end of a film, what if you

Fantastic cast, Brie Larson, Cillian Murphy, Armie Hammer.

Again, much funnier than you would expect

I will have to take your word on that one.

DVD, for anyone who wants to stay in?

Moana, which is proper classic modern Disney.

It's the story about a young Polynesian adventurer, who

sets out into the ocean in order to save her homeland.

Wonderful songs, absolutely just jaw-dropping animation.

A film made with real love and affection, that you can

Is it aimed at children, but actually it is one of

I think like all the best kids movies, it's

If you think of Inside Out, or Mary Poppins.

Films that anyone of any age can sit down

I will probably discover now that my nieces

A quick reminder that you can find all the

film news and reviews from across the BBC online.

The usual address: You can also find all our previous

You can also find all our previous

I have my tasks for the weekend, enjoy your cinema-going.

Thanks for watching and see you soon.

We will have a look at the Easter weather forecast and just a moment,

one thing I can tell you straightaway is that it wouldn't be

as warm as