:00:00. > :00:00.Club. That is all coming up at 6:30pm. Euro 2016 Sportsday with me,
:00:07. > :00:18.Olly Foster. But first, it is time for the Film Review.
:00:19. > :00:21.Hello and welcome to The Film Review on BBC News.
:00:22. > :00:24.To take us through this week's cinema releases is Mark Kermode.
:00:25. > :00:38.As I am sure you know, we have Absolutely Fabulous the movie. That
:00:39. > :00:46.has been so much publicity about it. We have from afar, an award-winning
:00:47. > :00:59.Venezuelan drama. And we have Notes On Blindness. Like a lot of AbFab
:01:00. > :01:03.fans, I want AbFab to be fab. There is always a sense of trepidation
:01:04. > :01:11.with TV shows when they go to the big screen. There were worries about
:01:12. > :01:16.Dad's Army. Rightly so. It had its moments. This is the feature length
:01:17. > :01:22.adaptation of a show with a cult following. This essentially rings
:01:23. > :01:26.back Bedene are played by Jennifer Saunders, reunited with her
:01:27. > :01:33.long-standing best friend forever Patsy Stone. Let's the clip to put
:01:34. > :01:39.us in the mood. I want to go in there, but I have to
:01:40. > :01:44.go past that big mirror. I think I am now officially fatter sideways
:01:45. > :01:52.than front on. Darling, you don't need those, I am your mirror. How do
:01:53. > :01:59.I look? Fabulous! Thank you! You need to move that, Eddie. Yes, I
:02:00. > :02:04.will call Kelly Hopton. Fabulous! I laughed. That is the
:02:05. > :02:08.kind of thing which made the TV show good. But when you bring something
:02:09. > :02:13.into a movie you have to expand it out. At some point they are all
:02:14. > :02:15.going to go on holiday abroad because that is what you do. The
:02:16. > :02:22.second thing is, the celebrity cameos. Absolutely Fabulous is
:02:23. > :02:25.packed with celebrity cameos. In my mind, most of the celebrity cameos
:02:26. > :02:30.existed in a comic vacuum with people from the world of fashion and
:02:31. > :02:35.TV. And also, being the person I am, I don't recognise half of them
:02:36. > :02:42.anyway! Or they are not capable of delivering a good joke. That stuff
:02:43. > :02:46.feels very badly, very much like padding to me. Mike longer episode
:02:47. > :02:50.stretched out for a movie. On the plus side, Joanna Lumley is
:02:51. > :02:55.magnificent, she really since her teeth into the movie. If only the
:02:56. > :02:58.movie itself had as much bite as she does. There is also residual
:02:59. > :03:04.affection for these characters. We'll run about how much we loved
:03:05. > :03:14.the TV show. It is not a disaster. It is not Zoolander two which was
:03:15. > :03:19.not a movie, just a guest list. There are laughs, Cathy Burke is
:03:20. > :03:26.terrific. It needs a nip and tuck, it needs editing. It needs to be the
:03:27. > :03:33.length of a slightly extended TV show. Like a Christmas special? Yes,
:03:34. > :03:40.and Kate Moss is like a clothes hanger on which to hang the best
:03:41. > :03:45.comedy routines. A major philosophical question, is it a
:03:46. > :03:50.celebrity cameo if you have no idea who the celebrity is? I hadn't even
:03:51. > :03:55.thought about that. If I don't recognise them does it make them not
:03:56. > :04:00.celebrity? I think they are still celebrities, the fault is mine and
:04:01. > :04:14.not there's! From Afar? This is from the Lorenzo -- Venezuelan director
:04:15. > :04:21.Lorenzo Vigas. It is a very strange movie about a voyeuristic dental
:04:22. > :04:25.technician who lives his life from a distance. His sexual relations are
:04:26. > :04:30.nonphysical, he is alienated from his sister. He meets a young man
:04:31. > :04:35.called Elder. When he first meets him he is mugged and beaten up. But
:04:36. > :04:42.somehow, they start to develop a relationship. What is really
:04:43. > :04:45.interesting is it is a film where I genuinely did not know where it was
:04:46. > :04:49.going. At times it looked like a murder mystery, at times it looked
:04:50. > :04:55.like a detective thriller, at other times it was a relationship drama.
:04:56. > :05:00.There are no these are cool clues. Only a specific part of the screen
:05:01. > :05:04.is in focus to accentuate the characters. I found myself really
:05:05. > :05:09.intrigued, really wanting to know more and see where it was going. It
:05:10. > :05:14.is so great, at a time when movies lead you by the nose so often and
:05:15. > :05:18.ran home every point, to see a movie which made you want to investigate,
:05:19. > :05:23.I found it really, really intriguing. I would like to see it
:05:24. > :05:28.again. Looks of it like a Venezuelan Death in Venice. You might see an
:05:29. > :05:36.element of that but I would say see it and we will talk about it next
:05:37. > :05:39.week. I think you would really, really enjoyed it.
:05:40. > :05:44.OK. Notes On Blindness? I thought this was fantastic. It could be a
:05:45. > :05:49.documentary or a tone poem. It is based on the writings of John Hull,
:05:50. > :05:52.a theologian, who lost his sight and recorded audio diaries of his
:05:53. > :05:58.experience which were later turned into a book in the 1990s. It takes
:05:59. > :06:05.the audio tapes along with interviews and other stuff, and sort
:06:06. > :06:13.of creates a docudrama around them. Hard to explain. Let's see a clip.
:06:14. > :06:19.Occasionally, I go home in the evening and I feel as if my mind is
:06:20. > :06:28.almost blown with new ideas and new horizons. I find myself connecting
:06:29. > :06:34.more, remembering more, making more links in my mind, between the
:06:35. > :06:44.various things I have read and learned all my life. I now feel
:06:45. > :06:46.clearer, more excited, more adventurous, more confident
:06:47. > :06:55.intellectually than I have ever felt in my life.
:06:56. > :07:00.There are other sections in the documentary, do you remember another
:07:01. > :07:05.film where they were lip-synched against tape recordings. They have
:07:06. > :07:10.done that technique here. It works brilliantly because in a way what it
:07:11. > :07:14.does, it describes his State of mind. This film does something quite
:07:15. > :07:20.extraordinary which is to take cinema and use it as a medium to
:07:21. > :07:26.explain and experience of somebody undergoing blindness, and explained
:07:27. > :07:29.their own experience of it. There is obviously, in his mind, a divinity
:07:30. > :07:34.at work in all of us, but actually, I think you could take the release
:07:35. > :07:37.humanist message away from it. I thought it was really exceptional
:07:38. > :07:44.piece of work which felt as if it was educating and explain something
:07:45. > :07:49.which I have not seen explained so before. What is interesting about
:07:50. > :07:55.the idea of having a DLO June and experiencing this, it goes back to
:07:56. > :08:02.John Mille's famous poem about why God has done this to me? -- a
:08:03. > :08:08.theologian, it goes back to John Mills' poem. At some point he comes
:08:09. > :08:15.to realise soon, he says it is a gift. Not a gift that I wanted but a
:08:16. > :08:19.gift nonetheless. Not why did it happen, but how do I use it? I
:08:20. > :08:24.thought it was really exceptional and I would be surprised if come the
:08:25. > :08:31.end of the year this was not in my list of top ten films. We do the
:08:32. > :08:34.best of the week but that is it? But you have another one? There is
:08:35. > :08:39.filled out at the moment which you have to look for. It is called adult
:08:40. > :08:47.Life Skills. It is quirky story. It is about a 29-year-old who has
:08:48. > :08:51.retreated to her mother's shed and she is refusing to move on and grow
:08:52. > :08:56.up. If you saw it from the outside you might think it was overly quirky
:08:57. > :09:00.and you know I am not great with quirky. But I thought it was
:09:01. > :09:04.touching, funny and poignant and I laughed out loud on several
:09:05. > :09:07.occasions. I thought it was a charming little film that I would
:09:08. > :09:11.recommend wholeheartedly. It is strange because from the outside it
:09:12. > :09:15.looks like exactly the kind of thing would not appeal to me. The kind of
:09:16. > :09:23.film but normally Mark Kermode does not like. But this time I did.
:09:24. > :09:32.Coming-of-age films when you're turning 30 is a new genre, is it?
:09:33. > :09:37.Bridesmaids as well? In that genre will not do it any harm whatsoever.
:09:38. > :09:46.It is funny and poignant. I really liked it. I really liked it, that
:09:47. > :09:54.will do. Your DVD is son of salt. This is a very, very difficult film.
:09:55. > :10:01.-- son of Saul. The central character Saul is a prisoner. He is
:10:02. > :10:04.forced to work in the gas chambers. The subject matter is obviously
:10:05. > :10:09.appalling and overwhelming. It is one of those things that the cinema
:10:10. > :10:15.has to be careful about how to approach a subject like this. One of
:10:16. > :10:18.the issues that the film-maker does is the camera concentrates almost
:10:19. > :10:23.entirely on the face and shoulders of that central character. Although
:10:24. > :10:26.you are aware of the atrocities, many of them are to do with the
:10:27. > :10:32.soundtrack, you are seeing them reflected in his face. It become
:10:33. > :10:37.something which is deeply profound and deeply moral. The perfect
:10:38. > :10:42.synthesis of someone using a stylistic device for a moral reason.
:10:43. > :10:45.This is not a subject that cinema should or would approach lightly. It
:10:46. > :10:49.is overwhelming and I think some people might find it too much to
:10:50. > :10:55.watch because the subject matter is too overwhelming, but I thought it
:10:56. > :10:58.was a really important film. Can I make an obvious point here we is it
:10:59. > :11:02.is the kind of movie you would not want to go to on a Friday or
:11:03. > :11:09.Saturday night out, it is the kind of movie you would want to see on a
:11:10. > :11:13.DVD? If you have not seen it yet, you should do. It deserves and needs
:11:14. > :11:19.to be seen but you are quite right, it is very hard to go out to the
:11:20. > :11:25.cinema for it. If you have not seen it, do watch it. Profound, important
:11:26. > :11:28.and in my opinion, deeply moral. Thank you, Mark.
:11:29. > :11:32.A quick reminder before we go that you'll find more film news
:11:33. > :11:34.and reviews online at bbc.co.uk/markkermode and you can
:11:35. > :11:59.Good afternoon. The globe behind me says it all, Sunny one minute, sharp
:12:00. > :12:00.showers the next. If you do not believe me, take