:00:00. > :00:00.news that Ugo Ehiogu died after a cardiac arrest. That's coming up on
:00:00. > :00:20.Sportsday at half past six but now it is time for The Film Review.
:00:21. > :00:26.Hello, and welcome to The Film Review on BBC News, to take us
:00:27. > :00:31.through the cinema releases this week is Jason Solomons. What do we
:00:32. > :00:34.have this week? The glamour of old school Hollywood comedy backdrop for
:00:35. > :00:38.a love story between a starlet and her chauffeur under the watchful eye
:00:39. > :00:47.of reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes in Warren Beatty use Rules
:00:48. > :00:49.Don't Apply. We have the sands of Time, which reveal voices from a
:00:50. > :00:54.hidden mirror in the form of Gertrude Bell's, letters from
:00:55. > :01:00.Baghdad as read out by Tilda Swinton in the doctorate -- in the letters
:01:01. > :01:04.from Baghdad. And wartime London's rubble provides the setting for
:01:05. > :01:10.Gemma Arterton and Bill Nighy a in Their Finest, as they struggle to
:01:11. > :01:17.produce wartime propaganda and -- wartime propaganda movies. We begin
:01:18. > :01:24.with Rules Don't Apply. Warren Beatty, he hasn't had the best of
:01:25. > :01:29.years! With that Oscars fiasco. It has been his 16 years since he wrote
:01:30. > :01:36.and directed... This was meant to be his big return. As he gets older is
:01:37. > :01:41.he getting better? This is a vanity project that he wrote, directed,
:01:42. > :01:47.starred in... It's interesting, he began the end of old Hollywood with
:01:48. > :01:52.his film Bonnie and Clyde. It brought indie cinema into the fore,
:01:53. > :01:56.destroying the old studios, a success in 1967. This is old
:01:57. > :01:59.Hollywood where he started out in as an actor.
:02:00. > :02:04.You can imagine him coming into town like the star Lily Collins does
:02:05. > :02:10.here. It's good on the details of how a boss like Howard Hughes ran
:02:11. > :02:14.the studios will stop everybody is waiting on him. Starlets, showbiz
:02:15. > :02:18.and businessmen. Even presidents wait on the wealth of Howard Hughes
:02:19. > :02:25.for their green light. It shows how he used to keep Starlets in various
:02:26. > :02:29.places, the big mansions he kept them in, they were secretive, they
:02:30. > :02:36.had rules that apply to them. But not too Warren Beatty's Howard
:02:37. > :02:39.Hughes... Lowe I decided when I won a talent contest that maybe I would
:02:40. > :02:45.give it a go in Hollywood. I am Frank. Two weeks in Los Angeles, you
:02:46. > :02:51.are working for Howard Hughes? I'm having high hopes. $400 a week on
:02:52. > :02:55.top of this? I hope Howard Hughes doesn't expect to meet you in a
:02:56. > :02:58.hotel room... I would like to thank you for my acting classes, ballet
:02:59. > :03:06.classes and the chance to become a star. What the hell is she doing
:03:07. > :03:13.here? You said you wanted that girl? Yes, Marilyn Monroe! She is a
:03:14. > :03:21.Baptist none... Sex is bad because it could lead to dancing. I am a
:03:22. > :03:26.square. Movie actresses are supposed to be sexy, and they the rules in
:03:27. > :03:29.this town? Without Carly Simon here, some people suggest that Warren
:03:30. > :03:35.Beatty could be talking about himself and some of this? You think
:03:36. > :03:40.this film is about you... He has been a figure in Hollywood, and him
:03:41. > :03:45.playing Howard Hughes recently, played by Leonardo DiCaprio in
:03:46. > :03:49.Martin Scorsese's The Aviator, he is a strange and shadowy figure that
:03:50. > :03:53.Warren Beatty plays himself. Like Indiana Jones, with a pilot jacket.
:03:54. > :03:58.I think Warren Beatty becomes obsessed with the mania that Howard
:03:59. > :04:01.Hughes himself was overtaken by and the film becomes oppressive and
:04:02. > :04:05.oppressive, you think it will be light and fluffy and full of 50s
:04:06. > :04:14.jazz numbers, but it isn't. The romance between Lily Collins and
:04:15. > :04:20.Alden Ehrenreich, it is overshadowed by his ego in his own film, a Howard
:04:21. > :04:24.Hughes thing to do. I see where he was going but it is like Oscars
:04:25. > :04:27.night, chaos awaits those fingertips! He will never live it
:04:28. > :04:31.down! Letters from Baghdad. We've all
:04:32. > :04:34.heard about Lawrence of Arabia but not many people have heard of
:04:35. > :04:41.Gertrude Bell, the Queen of the Desert? Yes, maybe we have heard of
:04:42. > :04:45.Lawrence of Arabia because of that epic tribute, Gertrude Bell never
:04:46. > :04:51.really had hers, this documentary is as epic as it gets. There is another
:04:52. > :04:55.film with Nicole Kidman in where she stars, this is a more fitting
:04:56. > :04:59.tribute through this letters that she left through her correspondence
:05:00. > :05:02.in the desert. She was the most powerful women in the British
:05:03. > :05:08.Empire, the end of World War I the borders of Arabia were being drawn.
:05:09. > :05:15.She was very much involved in that with Winston Churchill, riding into
:05:16. > :05:19.the desert, a redoubtable British colonial figure, intrepid explorer,
:05:20. > :05:25.part spy, part stateswoman, part and quit Aryan.
:05:26. > :05:34.In the Arab world, she learned Farsi, she understood everything.
:05:35. > :05:37.Magnus Atlevi played -- magnificently played by Tilda
:05:38. > :05:43.Swinton, who you would expect. What is well done in the documentary
:05:44. > :05:46.directed by two women, they resurrected these letters, finding
:05:47. > :05:50.brilliant archive footage from Baghdad and Damascus, all of that
:05:51. > :05:57.stuff we see we see on the screen now. The Sphinx is an apt figure as
:05:58. > :06:01.Gertrude Bell stares out. There's footage now from the region which is
:06:02. > :06:06.war-torn and ravaged, war was always something in that sand, but there is
:06:07. > :06:09.an elegance to it, a kind of colonial innocence in that footage
:06:10. > :06:16.which is beautiful. It really summons up a lost time, Gertrude
:06:17. > :06:21.Bell's voice rings out as a lost voice of the British Empire. Let's
:06:22. > :06:23.move onto Their Finest. British film crew attempting to
:06:24. > :06:29.morale during the Second World War. What's not to like? In this film,
:06:30. > :06:35.they have Bill Nighy and Gemma Arterton. They wanted to make
:06:36. > :06:40.authenticity and optimism shine out to boost morale through the war.
:06:41. > :06:45.Happy news wasn't enough. Stiff upper lip, chocs away for Their
:06:46. > :06:53.Finest, directed by Denmark's Lone Scherfig. This goes back to the
:06:54. > :06:57.1940s, Gemma Arterton making her way as a script girl, directing slop
:06:58. > :07:01.dialogue. A romantic dialogue in movies. Here she is, elbowing her
:07:02. > :07:06.way and find her voice on the set. Even taking
:07:07. > :07:13.Bill Nighy who plays a washed-up actor, Ambrose Hillyard. An example,
:07:14. > :07:16.a mention of the clever code, I may say that would be the first clever
:07:17. > :07:23.thing that she's done in her life! LAUGHTER
:07:24. > :07:33.Just a dash of humour and further along... Excuse me... Certainly. No,
:07:34. > :07:38.no... It's the caption at the end is going to be "He's not listening but
:07:39. > :07:42.the enemy might be". Is a joke for women who never think that their
:07:43. > :07:50.husbands pay attention. If you start answering, the caption would make
:07:51. > :07:56.sense. I wrote it. The scenario? I will be in my dressing room, if
:07:57. > :08:00.anyone needs me... Gemma Arterton revealed on the one show recently
:08:01. > :08:05.that she used Alex Jones's accent as a model for that? There is a
:08:06. > :08:09.presenting gig for her if the Oscars are not forthcoming! I did not know
:08:10. > :08:13.that was Alex Jones, very good! She is very good in it, Gemma Arterton,
:08:14. > :08:18.the rosy cheeked script girl who becomes the force of the movie. It
:08:19. > :08:24.is about female voices coming in while the war was on. And gaining
:08:25. > :08:26.some power. People saying that when the war was finished that the women
:08:27. > :08:32.would not go back into their little boxes after this taste of freedom.
:08:33. > :08:35.It is about that, but the film is good at wartime tailoring and
:08:36. > :08:39.capturing that rubble of London. It is funny, witty and elegant, as you
:08:40. > :08:43.would expect from people like Bill Nighy, but the spectre of death is
:08:44. > :08:48.never far away. A bomb drop away. The rubble of London. There is a mix
:08:49. > :08:53.of romance and the making of a movie, like Rules Don't Apply
:08:54. > :08:57.earlier, there is that madness of making movies which hangs this
:08:58. > :09:01.together. It's interesting, movies provide shape and structure, and an
:09:02. > :09:05.ending where life at that time was full of mess and never did. That is
:09:06. > :09:10.why people loved movies back then. 30 million people per week went to
:09:11. > :09:14.the movies. It was the revival for the British people, after a demise
:09:15. > :09:18.beforehand? It would be great if this can get an audience of 30
:09:19. > :09:21.million in the opening weekend, I don't think it will but this film is
:09:22. > :09:26.bree witty, charming and elegantly done. A very good performance from
:09:27. > :09:31.Gemma Arterton and neatly tied up by the director, Lone Scherfig, with a
:09:32. > :09:37.good amount of skill. People would think it is a women's picture but it
:09:38. > :09:40.has depth and elegance, and I love the wartime tailoring in the
:09:41. > :09:51.costumes from Charlotte water. I may get one, a decent coat! The best out
:09:52. > :09:57.is Get Out. It is a horror film? Yes, it is out at most on Mars, it
:09:58. > :10:06.isn't a horror film in a scary way, race and is very edgy -- at most
:10:07. > :10:09.cinemas. There is this depth going on, like the Stepford wives, a black
:10:10. > :10:14.guy goes to a white bread neighbourhood to meet the parents,
:10:15. > :10:18.the parents of his girlfriend... They do not know that her daughter's
:10:19. > :10:23.boyfriend is black? And then they find out, then we realise that maybe
:10:24. > :10:28.they do? It isn't a scary horror film with scary bits going on, it
:10:29. > :10:33.could be a great date movie, it is a really edgy bit of US comedy, it
:10:34. > :10:38.made me laugh a lot, Get Out. There is the British actor there who is
:10:39. > :10:41.brilliant in it and Alison Williams, who was in Girls, that just finished
:10:42. > :10:48.on television this week. If you are missing it, there is one of them in
:10:49. > :10:55.Get Out. And the best DVD, the Lady from Shanghai. Orson Welles... And
:10:56. > :11:00.Rita Heyworth, his wife at the time. She was a famous redhead. In this
:11:01. > :11:05.famous nor are film, he cut her hair, and turned her blonde! The
:11:06. > :11:12.studio were up in arms. They want her as a redhead. It's a bit of a
:11:13. > :11:19.mess this movie, and the final sequence is a Hall of mirrors, you
:11:20. > :11:23.don't know who is shooting at who, there's this scene which was later
:11:24. > :11:27.spoofed. I love this film, it is a puzzle but has all of the classic
:11:28. > :11:32.things you need from this kind of film. Orson Welles does one of the
:11:33. > :11:36.worst Irish accents, he plays Michael O'Hara. Nevertheless, it has
:11:37. > :11:40.a great atmosphere and shows that Orson Welles was a fantastic
:11:41. > :11:43.film-maker but ultimately flawed. That is what you want from your
:11:44. > :11:48.Orson Welles films. And that is what you want from Jason Solomons.
:11:49. > :11:51.That's all for this week. Thank you for watching, goodbye.