:00:30. > :00:34.Harry Potter's afterlife, Daniel Radcliffe discards his Wizard's
:00:34. > :00:41.cloak to step into the had you Hammer incarnation, The Woman In
:00:41. > :00:43.Black, the journey of a lifetime, the British Museum reveals the
:00:43. > :00:49.extraordinary living tradition of The Hajj.
:00:49. > :00:54.Any Human Heart author, on his latest book. Roman Polanski is back
:00:54. > :01:00.with Carnage. Plus as political biopicks flood
:01:00. > :01:03.into the cinema, we ask if they ever reflect reality.
:01:03. > :01:13.We have music from rising star Aaron Delahunty.
:01:13. > :01:14.
:01:14. > :01:18.Joining me are three culture connoisseurs, Sarah Churchwell Pref
:01:18. > :01:21.fosor of English at University College London, John Mullan, whose
:01:21. > :01:25.books include How Novels Work. And writer, columnist and former
:01:25. > :01:35.director of the Poetry Society, Christina Patterson, whose
:01:35. > :01:36.
:01:36. > :01:40.Independent column discussed dumbing down on TV this week.
:01:40. > :01:44.Welcome to tonight's qul turl smorgasbord, we will hear what our
:01:44. > :01:49.-- cultural smorgasbord, we will hear what our guests think but you
:01:49. > :01:53.can e-mail or send a tweet. A film adaptation of one of the
:01:53. > :01:58.most successful novels and plays in recent history, The Woman In Black.
:01:58. > :02:05.The book has sold more than a million copies, the play is the
:02:05. > :02:11.second-longest running on the stage. Now there is a movie written by
:02:11. > :02:16.Kick Ass Describe Jane Goldman. The lead is a rather familiar face.
:02:16. > :02:19.Daniel Radcliffe's first on-screen leading role since leaving behind
:02:19. > :02:25.Harry Potter is an all together more chilling affair. He takes on
:02:25. > :02:30.the role of Arthur Kips, a recently bereaved solicitor, who is sent to
:02:30. > :02:34.investigate the affairs of the deceased owner of the house. The
:02:34. > :02:40.horror director James Watkins keeps it simple, it is not long before
:02:40. > :02:43.secrets of times past, and the eerie presence of The Woman In
:02:43. > :02:47.Black come to the fore. Extraordinary film, very restrained,
:02:47. > :02:51.very quiet in your performance. James said he did lots of things
:02:51. > :02:59.with you, for example, even, you are 22, but you are a grief-striken
:02:59. > :03:03.father. He sent you to a grief counsellor? He did. I read a Grief
:03:03. > :03:06.Observed, and a couple of other books on bereavement, it is about
:03:06. > :03:10.furnishing yourself with as much information as possible so when you
:03:10. > :03:14.get on set you are not thinking about it, and you hope the
:03:14. > :03:20.information you have taken on will naturally inform choices. You now
:03:20. > :03:23.get sent so many scripts, and Jane had done an extraordinary job with
:03:23. > :03:27.the script, putting a huge emotional heart in it, did you know
:03:27. > :03:31.whether to do it automatically? Jane's righting was so good. It is
:03:31. > :03:36.so rare you get a script can so much stage direction, that is such
:03:36. > :03:39.a quick read. Because it read like a novel. It was beautifully written.
:03:39. > :03:43.You brought a different sensability to it, there is talk of Japanese
:03:43. > :03:49.horror and all sorts of things you were interested in? That was
:03:49. > :03:53.something that inspired me, it had always struck me how much Japanese,
:03:53. > :03:57.contemporary Japanese horror movies have in common with traditional
:03:57. > :04:00.Victorian English ghost stories. The idea you can have something
:04:00. > :04:04.that pacing-wise is very contemporary. But, with all the
:04:04. > :04:13.elements of a classic ghost story, was something that really excited
:04:13. > :04:17.me. You are playing with two great actors, Kieran Hynes, you are
:04:17. > :04:22.starting on your acting jouorn year, eventhough you started when you
:04:22. > :04:26.were ten, someone like Kieran Hynes, who asen extraordinary presence?
:04:26. > :04:30.have been -- who has been extraordinary presence? I have been
:04:30. > :04:34.privilege today watch a lot of great actors, but the
:04:34. > :04:40.distinguishing feature of Kieran is how easy it is, and how easy he
:04:40. > :04:50.makes it looks. It is amaze to go watch and be around him. He talked
:04:50. > :04:50.
:04:50. > :04:54.a lot in the edit, let people lean in, you can hear footsteps, strip
:04:54. > :04:59.it back, if something happens in, you jolt them back. It is to make
:04:59. > :05:04.it immerseive, and pulling people in. After the whole Harry Potter
:05:04. > :05:08.experience of being huge cast, a lot going on, this is obvious low a
:05:08. > :05:13.much smaller film, in a way -- obviously a much smaller film, have
:05:13. > :05:16.you liked the intimacy of working in this way? Once you are on set it
:05:17. > :05:20.is the same. It is always just chaos and fun. Here I was involved
:05:20. > :05:23.in the preproduction side of things, right from the off, that was very
:05:23. > :05:29.cool to watch all of that. Thank you.
:05:29. > :05:34.It was a very big moment for Daniel Radcliffe, because this was his big
:05:34. > :05:37.first main lead post-Harry Potter. Does he convince as a widower?
:05:37. > :05:43.afraid he didn't convince me. I feel guilty saying that now, he
:05:43. > :05:50.seems so charming. I feel like a horrible person saying this. You
:05:50. > :05:55.mention Kieran Hynes and Janet McTieran, I felt they wiped the
:05:55. > :05:59.floor with him, when they are on screen you realise how wooden he is.
:05:59. > :06:04.A great deal of the film is watching Daniel Radcliffe react to
:06:04. > :06:07.ghosts. You have to be interested in that, and basically, I don't
:06:08. > :06:12.think he has enough range in what he's doing, there isn't enough
:06:12. > :06:16.emotion. It is the story about grief, but you actually don't feel
:06:16. > :06:20.the grief evolving or changing or transforming him. You don't feel
:06:20. > :06:26.that he is, I did get a sense, I think perhaps because the idea that
:06:26. > :06:30.they have changed it from the book, he was engaged in the book, Susan
:06:30. > :06:34.Hills' book and now he's bereaved and has this child. I did feel he
:06:34. > :06:39.had that range? Yeah, I think it was a very ill-considered change,
:06:39. > :06:43.the one you have just referred to. In the book, I think the point is,
:06:43. > :06:48.he looks back in late middleage on something that happened in his
:06:48. > :06:53.youth. The point is he's confronting some horrible things in
:06:53. > :06:56.this story. It doesn't make sense, actually, that he's already an
:06:56. > :07:01.emotionally shattered character. The point is, he gets shattered in
:07:01. > :07:06.the book, by what happens to him, in the main part of the story. They
:07:06. > :07:10.have chosen to drain him, his sap is sunk before it starts. But there
:07:10. > :07:13.is a vulnerability which I think actually works rather well? I think
:07:13. > :07:16.the vulnerability is what he has to discover in the course of the
:07:16. > :07:19.narrative rather than what he gets as a check at the beginning of the
:07:20. > :07:24.narrative. That is what they have chosen. I think it is like lots and
:07:24. > :07:27.lots of changes, I won't give anything away, to the novel, and I
:07:27. > :07:31.don't know quite what I would have thought if I hadn't read the novel.
:07:31. > :07:37.Having read it, I thought every single change was a bad idea.
:07:37. > :07:44.say that the film was a completely different entity, and look at some
:07:44. > :07:48.of the horror parts, I thought it was drop dead scary at times, I
:07:48. > :07:56.absolutely did. I loved, for example, the smashing dolls, the
:07:56. > :08:03.toys. Listen, it is beautiful, it is visually absolutely gorgeous, it
:08:04. > :08:08.is Cath Kitson meets Childplay, I found myself lusting after a chest
:08:08. > :08:12.of drawers and the China cups. It is visually brilliant, the
:08:12. > :08:16.landscape and the house is fantastic, but horror, no, for
:08:16. > :08:19.horror you need a variation in tone. This is the same register all the
:08:19. > :08:26.way through. Where as you are meant to have, exactly as John says, a
:08:26. > :08:33.guy who is perfectly happy, he's engaged and looking forward to get
:08:33. > :08:38.matter yeerbgsd then he goes through the trajebgt -- married.
:08:38. > :08:42.Then he go through the trajectory of things going wrong. With this we
:08:42. > :08:47.have a guy who is miserable, scared and baffled. I thought they worked
:08:47. > :08:50.hard to make sure the villagers didn't seem to be two-dimensional,
:08:50. > :08:54.you were convicted whether the villagers were part of the evil
:08:54. > :08:58.story or not? I have to say I haven't read the book, the only
:08:58. > :09:01.person left in the country who hasn't read the book or seen the
:09:01. > :09:04.play. When I heard we were seeing the film I decided not to, to judge
:09:04. > :09:08.the film on its own terms. It doesn't make sense, it doesn't work.
:09:08. > :09:14.With the village thing, I kept looking at them thinking why don't
:09:14. > :09:18.you leave. All of your children keep dying, why don't you leave.
:09:19. > :09:26.It is a film. The point is, how were they going to leave any way?
:09:26. > :09:30.He can leave. My point is, that when horror really works and it
:09:30. > :09:35.grips you, you are not left asking those plausability questions, you
:09:35. > :09:39.don't worry about them, because you are taken up by the moment. I liked
:09:39. > :09:44.the fact fact it was a fundamental story of the two sisters. It wasn't
:09:44. > :09:47.explained, I thought it worked? didn't think it worked at all, that
:09:48. > :09:51.was my problem with it, the heart of the whole story is why did the
:09:51. > :09:55.two sisters do this to each other, I'm left going I don't know why.
:09:55. > :09:59.Why would they do the terrible things to each other. Then I think
:09:59. > :10:04.why don't the villagers leave, and then all the plausability unravels
:10:04. > :10:08.because I don't believe the core. What MJ Watkins, what he said when
:10:08. > :10:11.I interviewed him, about stripping the whole thing back and the sound
:10:11. > :10:16.scape was extraordinary. What was clever, it was Hammer, afterall,
:10:16. > :10:22.without giving too much away, there was a scene where you expect
:10:22. > :10:28.something horrific to happen, and there was the map in the
:10:28. > :10:32.Southwester? The visceral material of horror does work. It was put on
:10:32. > :10:36.with a trowel, you have the man looming up out of the mist, the
:10:36. > :10:41.crow flying out of nowhere, the water coming out of the pipe. For
:10:41. > :10:45.horror you need some variation. Here it was, to me it was like a
:10:45. > :10:49.pile-up, and with just, which meant that you just were bombarded, and
:10:49. > :10:52.to me it turned into farce. Plenty of people started laughing in the
:10:53. > :10:56.audience. You're meant to be scared, you don't have time, you think I
:10:56. > :11:01.don't believe he's done that, all the cliches. This is going to be
:11:01. > :11:06.the start of the revival of Hammer there is talk of, and Jane Goldman
:11:07. > :11:12.brings a sensability to it? thought she brought anachronism to
:11:12. > :11:17.it, it was like you have the nicest car in the village, and that
:11:17. > :11:22.bothered me. The Hamburg Celler, bringing that back, they made you
:11:22. > :11:27.jump by making a loud noise that had nothing to do with the story,
:11:27. > :11:30.putting a bang in the soundtrack making anybody jump. It turns into
:11:31. > :11:35.Indiana Jones with some great mission, you think it is not about
:11:35. > :11:39.a mission it is about being scared. The Woman In Black is in cinemas
:11:39. > :11:42.from next Friday. A new exhibition devoted to a
:11:42. > :11:48.spectacular spiritual journey, undertaken by millions each other,
:11:48. > :11:55.the most important tradition in the Islamic calendar, The Hajj. The
:11:55. > :11:59.annual pim grimmage to Mecca is the focus of the -- pilgrimage to Mecca
:12:00. > :12:04.is the focus of the British Museum. The exhibition aims to offer an
:12:04. > :12:07.insight into this extraordinary display of faith, spanning decades
:12:07. > :12:13.and centuries. The point of the British Museum is let people make
:12:13. > :12:19.sense of the world now. One of the great facts of the modern world, is
:12:19. > :12:24.the notion of one worldwide Islamic community. At the centre of that
:12:24. > :12:31.idea is Hajj. That once every year, nearly three million Muslims come
:12:31. > :12:35.from all over the world to Mecca, to perform the same rituals.
:12:35. > :12:45.Working in partnership with the king Abdalla Public Library in
:12:45. > :12:45.
:12:45. > :12:50.Riyadh, the curators -- King Abdulaziz public likebury in Riyadh,
:12:50. > :12:57.-- King Abdulaziz Public Library in Riyadh, they have brought together
:12:57. > :13:03.paintings, text siels. It is a wonderful textile to sit on a
:13:03. > :13:09.canopy. Every year the ruler of Istanbul would send one of these
:13:09. > :13:13.pan piece with -- canopies with only the Koran in it.
:13:13. > :13:20.It is an undertaking for all Muslims physically able, The Hajj
:13:20. > :13:23.has been going on since the 7th century The difficult thing is to
:13:23. > :13:27.remember how extraordinarily difficult it is to get to mekka,
:13:27. > :13:31.people have had to make this arduous journey, we have focused on
:13:31. > :13:35.the routes they have taken. The oldest route is from Iraq to Mecca.
:13:35. > :13:40.There has always been a route from west Africa. People there have
:13:40. > :13:46.always wanted to make Hajj. We show the route from Tim buck too, and
:13:46. > :13:50.Mali, right over North Africa to Mecca. Despite the challenges
:13:50. > :13:55.facing the pilgrims, numbers have swelled dramatically within the
:13:55. > :14:00.last century. In 2011 we had just under three million people travel
:14:00. > :14:04.on Hajj, you can see the jumps in numbers occur in a major way in the
:14:05. > :14:12.1940s, where we have the use of oil resources by the Saudi Arabian
:14:12. > :14:15.Government. Hajj, Journey to the heart of Islam, highlights the
:14:15. > :14:20.spiritual undertaking. Can the exhibition truly communicate the
:14:20. > :14:27.power of the experience to believers and non-believers alike?
:14:27. > :14:31.None of us here is Muslim, but do you think the exhibition was for us
:14:31. > :14:34.all? Absolutely. I mean there are two-and-a-half million Muslims in
:14:34. > :14:41.this country, a quarter of the world's population, if we don't
:14:41. > :14:43.know anything about Islam, we ought to. But it was wonderful. It was so
:14:43. > :14:49.respectfully done. Actually too respectfully done, I will move on
:14:49. > :14:55.to that in a minute. But it did give you a taste. It is in the old
:14:55. > :14:59.reading room of the British Museum, you go round in a circle, like The
:14:59. > :15:02.Hajj, you have the dome above you. You feel like you are taken on a
:15:02. > :15:06.journey, I went around it in two- and-a-half hours, I could have
:15:06. > :15:10.spent more times, it is fascinating. There is a palpable sense of
:15:10. > :15:15.excitement, there was a lot of kids and teachers. There was the two
:15:15. > :15:18.things, there was the beautiful art facts, but there was the interior
:15:19. > :15:23.spiritual journey and the idea of what a humbling experience that was.
:15:23. > :15:27.Do you think the exhibition managed to do both things? I think it did
:15:27. > :15:31.the former more successfully than the latter. I felt like one of the
:15:31. > :15:37.children there, I don't mean that in a bad way, I was shameful low
:15:37. > :15:42.ignorant of what most of the -- shamefully ignorant of what most of
:15:42. > :15:46.it was about, I was like a school kid. After drinking it in, I did
:15:46. > :15:49.find what Neil MacGregor was talking about there, the historical
:15:49. > :15:54.account of what it was like before everyone went by plane in their
:15:54. > :15:57.hundreds of thousands. I found the historical aspect of it much more
:15:58. > :16:04.interesting. It was fascinating. The objects, the extraordinary
:16:04. > :16:08.fragments of people's amazing journies across vast spaces. That
:16:08. > :16:13.was more interesting, gripping to me, than the account of what it has
:16:13. > :16:19.become, which was, indeed, very respectful. And slightly
:16:19. > :16:24.uncomfortably so. It is in Saudi Arabia, it is, it was an account
:16:24. > :16:29.that was so determined to be respectful, that you were feeling
:16:29. > :16:32.that perhaps there were things that were being left out. They had some
:16:32. > :16:38.plaques that said, this was where Mohammed received his revelations,
:16:38. > :16:41.and you think, sorry, no, I think this is where Muslims believe
:16:41. > :16:46.Mohammed received his revelation. That is like putting on a Nativity
:16:46. > :16:50.play and saying some of us don't believe in the Nativity? I felt
:16:50. > :16:54.occasionally, tonally it went too far in that way. I don't think it
:16:54. > :16:58.needed to say this is what they believe. I agree, it was almost
:16:59. > :17:03.tentative at times. There were ways in which you could feel it really
:17:03. > :17:07.pulling back, and particularly, I agree with John, the earlier stuff
:17:07. > :17:11.is a lot more compelling. What you see is this kind of ancient worship,
:17:11. > :17:21.and I think that's, for all of us, that is something that brings
:17:21. > :17:24.
:17:24. > :17:28.history to life. The extraordinary journies, someone from Anadaluthia,
:17:28. > :17:33.he talks about the journey, and having to avoid the route of the
:17:33. > :17:37.crusades. I had no idea that Sir Richard Burton, the first westerner
:17:37. > :17:41.to do it secretly, in disguise, he went to Mecca. Thomas Cook was
:17:41. > :17:46.commissioned to do it, but it turned out not to be profitable.
:17:46. > :17:50.The ways that the stories of east meeting west, that I think many of
:17:50. > :17:54.us were also ignorant about. I also thought there were really
:17:54. > :17:57.interesting contrasts. One of the things that comes out in the
:17:57. > :18:00.exhibit, and I agree with the more modern stuff not as compelling in
:18:00. > :18:05.one sense. What was fascinating is how much the market becomes part of
:18:05. > :18:13.the journaly to Mecca, they are supposed to go and buy -- journey
:18:13. > :18:16.to Mecca, they are supposed to buy things. In a juddaiyo Christian
:18:16. > :18:21.aspect, we go to the Vatican and it is wrong to buy things there. Yet
:18:21. > :18:24.the way they present it, it seems to be this completely uncomplicated
:18:24. > :18:30.relationship between the two. was extraordinary to look at the
:18:30. > :18:33.logistics of it now, funny isn't it that the London Olympics are
:18:33. > :18:43.consulting about how to actually move that amount of people. In a
:18:43. > :18:46.
:18:46. > :18:51.sense, what was Joan by the modern -- shown by the modern bits about
:18:51. > :18:55.the iron filings. When you hear about people making journies from
:18:55. > :18:59.the 8th century, months on foot and on camel. You are right about that
:18:59. > :19:02.then, the thing you talked about being left out was your feelings
:19:02. > :19:07.about your conflict, about how you felt about Saudi Arabia. What I
:19:07. > :19:12.thought was sad they left out, was the fact that natural disasters,
:19:13. > :19:17.people have died, since 1989, 3,000 people have died. You want to say
:19:17. > :19:20.that is extraordinary. I very much felt that too. Those are new
:19:20. > :19:24.stories which you can feel in your head, lots of people probably
:19:24. > :19:30.thought that going around. They are buried in the catalogue. It is
:19:30. > :19:34.almost as though it has to become univocal by the end. One of my
:19:34. > :19:40.favourite objects in the exhibition is this 10th century illustration
:19:40. > :19:45.of an account of going on The Hajj, it is called Pilgrims Arguing. It
:19:45. > :19:50.is beautiful, and it is also you know, you think you have read
:19:50. > :19:53.Chaucer, it is people on camels, it is gold leaf, it is beautiful, a
:19:53. > :19:56.watercolour, they are having a great big row about who has the
:19:56. > :19:59.better reason for going on pilgrimage, and who is the better
:20:00. > :20:03.one. You feel that with some of the relics from the past you were going
:20:03. > :20:07.to get that. The nearer you get towards the present, the more
:20:07. > :20:11.everyone has to agree. The more sanatised it starts to feel and
:20:11. > :20:14.more controlled. We haven't said, so many of the things were donated
:20:14. > :20:17.by the Saudi Arabian Royal Family, and I did also feel towards the end
:20:17. > :20:21.as if there is a whole world of Muslim experience that is being
:20:21. > :20:25.excluded. There is nothing about the Indonesian pilgrimage, there is
:20:25. > :20:30.nothing about what was the other one I was thinking, the other
:20:30. > :20:34.obvious one which will come back to me, Turkey I was thinking about,
:20:35. > :20:41.these huge populations of Muslims that don't come into the story at
:20:41. > :20:46.all. There is nobody about the Waugh hobby takeover of Islam in
:20:46. > :20:49.Saudi Arabia. There is a bit which says "Muslims try to create a fair
:20:49. > :20:56.society and distribute wealth equally" and you think, not in
:20:56. > :21:00.Saudi araib ja. I'm a big fan of Islam -- Saudi Arabia. I'm a big
:21:00. > :21:05.fan of Islamic art, I will be drooling over tiles for hours,
:21:05. > :21:10.there are beautiful things. You have the great divide between the
:21:10. > :21:14.early stuff, equisitely beautiful, and then the end, I thought all the
:21:14. > :21:20.embroidered hangings were hidious, with the sparkle thread. In the
:21:20. > :21:25.last third there was almost nothing beautiful to look at. Except for
:21:26. > :21:28.Magnetism. I strongly recommend you make your own way to see The Hajj
:21:29. > :21:32.eggs Biggs at the British Museum until the 15th of February. William
:21:32. > :21:36.Boyd is one of the few writers enjoying litry and commercial
:21:36. > :21:45.success. Recently triumphing with a Channel 4 adaptation of Any Human
:21:45. > :21:51.Heart, it chronicled the long and adventurous life of Graham Stuart.
:21:51. > :21:59.His new book spans Vienna for three decades. William Boyd's story
:21:59. > :22:05.canvasses go from rural Africa to sun soaked Los Angeles and London
:22:05. > :22:08.cock Docklands. His late -- Docklands. His latest novel is
:22:08. > :22:14.early 20th century Vienna. It is an amazing place, when you think about
:22:14. > :22:21.who was there, in 1910-1914, it is mind-boggling in every single
:22:21. > :22:31.Department of Human culture and politics. And psychoanalysis,
:22:31. > :22:32.
:22:32. > :22:39.Freud's city. You have calf ka, not far away in Prague -- Kafka not far
:22:39. > :22:49.away in Prague, and then Adolf Hitler. Boyd's hero named Lysander
:22:49. > :22:54.Rief is an actor from London, who becomes entangled in an adventure
:22:54. > :23:00.after travelling to Austria for treatment on an unusual sexual
:23:00. > :23:05.problem. I wanted it to be a mind- bending passion, and in a way, it
:23:05. > :23:11.is Lysander Rief falling for her, and she's sort of his nemisis, in a
:23:11. > :23:19.way. "A love affair wasn't an arc as he heard it described, it was a
:23:19. > :23:23.far more variable line on a graph, undulating, it wasn't smooth,
:23:23. > :23:29.however much pleasure one derived from it day by day. He headed down
:23:29. > :23:33.the drive, snow was falling, big soft flakes, the Wightening before
:23:33. > :23:38.him, the world going quiet and muffled, as a few final distant
:23:38. > :23:47.bells continued to ring in 1914 ". Our Secret Service, which is
:23:47. > :23:50.perhaps the oldest, was founded in 1909, so the Secret Service has
:23:50. > :23:54.existed in World War I but was embryonic, there were very few
:23:54. > :24:00.members of staff, it was amateur night. It was entirely plausible
:24:00. > :24:06.that a young actor might be asked to lend a hand. It has become much
:24:06. > :24:08.more professional, but in those days, it was invisible ink and
:24:09. > :24:12.carrier pigeons. Part historical thriller, part love
:24:12. > :24:20.story. Boyd's book aims to transport the reader to another
:24:20. > :24:26.world. But does he make the most of his setting? William Boyd is one of
:24:26. > :24:33.our most popular writers, and Any Human Heart has been such a huge
:24:33. > :24:38.success, is this as an enthralling as that? I think so, it is less of
:24:38. > :24:41.a sweep, it is Any Human Heart without the heart, actually. What
:24:41. > :24:46.people who haven't read Any Human Heart would still have got if they
:24:46. > :24:50.saw the TV thing, is not the comedy of it, which there is lots, but the
:24:50. > :24:55.emotional throb of it. This doesn't have that, this is a much more
:24:55. > :25:01.skittish performance, but, I think, you know, for those who think
:25:01. > :25:07.literary fiction, clever literary fiction is often rather short of
:25:07. > :25:15.plot, this is, I find, quite intoxicating pleasure in that. It
:25:15. > :25:20.has a lot of the same set up as Any Human Heart, there is this
:25:20. > :25:27.befuddled yet endlessly resourceful protagonist drifting through.
:25:27. > :25:35.Graham Stuart is a much more determined character -- Mr Stuart
:25:35. > :25:39.seems to be much more exciting than Lysander Rief. Sexual analysis,
:25:39. > :25:45.bombing London, and all sorts. kitchen sink. I was very
:25:45. > :25:49.disappointed by this novel, and I'm obsessed, not obsessed by, but very
:25:49. > :25:51.interested in psychoanalysis, I don't see how you can set things in
:25:52. > :25:56.Vienna at the start of psychoanalysis and not make it
:25:56. > :26:06.interesting, to me, that is what he had done. Was it more like a pro-
:26:06. > :26:06.
:26:06. > :26:13.log to the main story? I think so, I thought you would have the theme
:26:13. > :26:17.of the running of sex, sex is not a new theme in human experience or
:26:17. > :26:23.literature, it felt the novel was constructed about these themes
:26:23. > :26:28.about the river of sex, secrets and shadows, and of war. It just didn't
:26:28. > :26:32.handle it well. To construct it around anything is to do it more
:26:32. > :26:35.justice than it deserves. I kept waiting for all of the threads he
:26:35. > :26:41.was weaving through it to come together, in some way that made
:26:41. > :26:45.sense. He would bring in a storyline and drop it, and one
:26:45. > :26:49.character might be mad and turns out not to be. It all just sort of
:26:49. > :26:53.disappears and dissipates and none of it comes together. I felt as if
:26:53. > :26:58.he took a bowl full of ideas like confetey and threw them in the air
:26:58. > :27:02.and said let's see how they fall. As you said, it is the kitchen sink.
:27:02. > :27:07.It is literary fiction not short on plot. My problem is it is long on
:27:07. > :27:10.plot, it has so much it doesn't know what to do with it. I'm not
:27:10. > :27:13.sure about the literary fiction, it is riddled with cliches, I was
:27:13. > :27:19.really shocked by the writing. I mean characters are always saying
:27:19. > :27:24.things in a no-nonsense manner or with a chuckle, or their faces
:27:24. > :27:30.darkening, and they are saying things like "what is the world
:27:30. > :27:40.coming to". A lot of is supposed to be mimicry, and pass Taoiseach.
:27:40. > :27:43.
:27:43. > :27:48.what sense -- Pastiche. In what sense is it pastiche. At one point
:27:48. > :27:51.Lysander Rief's mother says I like that you do this, is this Manhatten,
:27:51. > :27:55.2011. I can't say too much without giving it away, a lot of the plot
:27:55. > :27:58.doesn't hang together, a lot of the explanations that purport to be
:27:58. > :28:02.explanations don't explain anything. At the end it turns out lots of
:28:02. > :28:09.characters have done things that are quite inhe can publicable, I
:28:09. > :28:14.don't believe that Lysander Rief, in a central -- he can inexplicable.
:28:14. > :28:18.I don't believe Lysander Rief in a central moment, someone does
:28:18. > :28:22.something very serious to him and he moves on quickly. Do you think
:28:22. > :28:27.the fact the motivations seem skewed is a problem? In lots of
:28:27. > :28:32.places. If you are looking for psychological depth it is. One is
:28:32. > :28:36.looking for psychological depth. think the pleasure of it is in the
:28:36. > :28:42.mimicry, which is what Boyd likes to do, and I think most of the time
:28:42. > :28:50.he stays just this side of spoof. There is a bit of sub-TS Eliot,
:28:50. > :28:54.because the guy writes poetry. He likes doing the mimic, he has a
:28:54. > :29:00.protagonist who has a gift or penchant. That is the point of
:29:00. > :29:09.reading the pwhook. Featuring Freud, where the character bumps into him
:29:09. > :29:12.in a cafe, ought to pay a bit to psychology depth. There is this
:29:12. > :29:18.interesting patrollism, if you create an alternative narrative.
:29:18. > :29:23.Just before we finish, we all loved the Edwardians at the moment. There
:29:23. > :29:27.is War Horse, everything. Speak for yourself. And back to First World
:29:27. > :29:30.War again? I love historical fiction, I like plot-driven stories,
:29:30. > :29:35.I wanted this plot to hold together more and the history to do more.
:29:35. > :29:41.Read it for yourself, Waiting For Sunrise by William Boyd is
:29:41. > :29:44.published by bloomsry on the 16th of this month. Given his checkered
:29:44. > :29:50.history, Roman Polanski might be an odd person to direct a story about
:29:50. > :29:54.modern morality. But that is what he has turned to in his latist film,
:29:54. > :29:59.a theatre hit, Carnage. In Carnage two sets of parents are thrown
:29:59. > :30:02.together after their children are involved in a fight. Attempts to
:30:02. > :30:07.reconcile the dispute in a civilised fashion begin cordially
:30:07. > :30:13.enough. As their discussion unfolds, buried tensions begin to surface.
:30:13. > :30:18.So what kind of cobbler. Apple and pear. Apple and pear? It is, you
:30:18. > :30:24.know, it is a little recipe of mine, it it is a shame, it is cold.
:30:24. > :30:28.and pear. That is new to me. Apple and pear is a classic. Jodie Foster
:30:28. > :30:32.and John C Reilly play the supposedly liberal Penelope and
:30:32. > :30:39.John Longstreet, whose son has been injured by his friend. He's the son
:30:39. > :30:43.of movers and shakers Nancy and Alan Cowan, played by Kate Winslet.
:30:43. > :30:46.As the film progresses, conversations about the hardy
:30:46. > :30:51.perennial subjects, children, politics, money, art and even
:30:51. > :30:56.animal welfare become increasingly fractious. So you have no remorse?
:30:56. > :30:59.No I have no remorse, that animal was disgusting, I'm glad it has
:30:59. > :31:04.gone. Michael that's ridiculous. What's ridiculous, have you lost
:31:04. > :31:11.your mind now too. Their son beats the shit out of Eathan and you are
:31:11. > :31:19.in my face about the hamster. you did was wrong to that hamster.
:31:19. > :31:24.I don't give a shit about the hamster. Yasmina Reza, who co-wrote
:31:25. > :31:28.the play, co-wrote with Polanski. The film remains faithful to the
:31:28. > :31:34.original work, with the camera discreetly looking at the action as
:31:34. > :31:40.it unfolds in the one location. can't believe she bar ofed over my
:31:40. > :31:45.books, when you know you are going -- barfed over my books, when you
:31:45. > :31:49.know you are going to puke you prepare yourself.
:31:49. > :31:54.Unusually Polanski has taken a minimalist approach to the film,
:31:54. > :31:59.staying closely to the conventions of the theatre, has this rigorous
:31:59. > :32:05.dedication to the play produced a screen adaptation that meets the
:32:05. > :32:09.expectations of the original. Reza had never allowed an adaptation for
:32:09. > :32:14.a film of any other of her plays, Art being the big one. Do you think
:32:14. > :32:17.she must have stipulated, within the confines of the parliamentary
:32:17. > :32:23.party. Polanski has done that before with Rosemary's Baby before.
:32:23. > :32:26.I don't know if he does, Polanski does do those claustrophobic
:32:26. > :32:29.interiors very well. I don't think this play should be made into a
:32:29. > :32:33.film. It doesn't feel like a film. It felt like a bit of fringe
:32:33. > :32:38.theatre, in a nice setting. And actually rather too fancy a sitting
:32:38. > :32:41.for a guy who sells pots and pans for a living. That is one of the
:32:41. > :32:45.things I didn't believe, so many I didn't know where to start. It is
:32:46. > :32:50.so artificial. You can get away with some artificialality, on a
:32:50. > :33:00.stage, with four chairs and nobody is pretending that anything real is
:33:00. > :33:05.
:33:05. > :33:09.going on. Here the whole premise was one convincing. If the parents
:33:09. > :33:12.had agreed to meet the parents of the child who had hit and read a
:33:12. > :33:17.statement and sign it. Why would the guy spend all the time yelling
:33:17. > :33:24.down the phone. He's like a parody of a lawyer going, hit the jugular,
:33:24. > :33:27.with all his stupid lawyer stuff. That is unconvincing, it is
:33:27. > :33:32.unconvincing that they sit there for hours drinking coffee. It is to
:33:32. > :33:37.the tkwrally unconvincing. -- It is totally unconvincing.
:33:37. > :33:41.is unconvincing, when I saw it as a play it wasn't. All I can report is
:33:41. > :33:45.there is part of an intensity which is a matter of the medium, it did
:33:45. > :33:49.hold you, I was trying to think why it was that the film didn't in the
:33:49. > :33:54.same way. You started noticing things which I didn't notice. I
:33:54. > :33:57.think it was to do with the fact that when you see it on the stage,
:33:57. > :34:00.the actors, they are all, in a sense, in a kind of competition,
:34:00. > :34:03.they have these parts and they have to try to win your sympathy for
:34:03. > :34:07.some pretty horrible people. You are watching all of them all the
:34:07. > :34:14.time. In the film you are being directed, all the time, as to where
:34:14. > :34:22.is the focus now, who is losing it now. The defensiveness and offence
:34:22. > :34:26.was well handled, particularly by the richer couple. I think Waltz is
:34:26. > :34:32.brilliant, so is Kate Winslet in it? He has the best part. In the
:34:32. > :34:38.stage play, Ralph Fiennes is the best in the play, he's the one who
:34:38. > :34:43.says more sard doneic things about what -- sardonic things about what
:34:43. > :34:47.people are saying. Polanski got themselves together for four weeks
:34:47. > :34:51.and made them get together and learn it. I was stunned that four
:34:51. > :35:00.such fabulous actors and a director who can clearly make films could
:35:00. > :35:05.make a movie that I thought was so bad from start to finish. It wasn't
:35:05. > :35:09.that bad. It really was. It made the, the language of it was so
:35:09. > :35:12.flimsy. If you hadn't seen the stage play, none of it held up, I
:35:13. > :35:15.didn't believe any of it for a second. I didn't believe any of the
:35:15. > :35:20.characters would say any of the things they were saying. It was
:35:20. > :35:25.making really good actsors turn on a dime, and go -- actors turn on a
:35:25. > :35:30.dime and go from anger to is hysterical laughter. It is very
:35:30. > :35:34.speeded up and then it ends incredibly abruptly. I won't say
:35:34. > :35:38.much about it, I was sitting there going, it can't be finished.
:35:38. > :35:42.calibration of the characters, I mean I actually thought Kate
:35:42. > :35:46.Winslet's change, at least she has some journey, I thought for Jodie
:35:46. > :35:51.Foster, she was wound up from the very start. And she didn't have any
:35:51. > :35:55.journey at all? No arc at all, I didn't know that she could be so
:35:55. > :36:00.unfunny as well. She doesn't get the timing, the MoD dull laigs at
:36:00. > :36:06.all right. Waltz is funny and John C Reilly is very funny. I haven't
:36:06. > :36:09.find it funny. I meant they are funny actors, they found the only
:36:09. > :36:13.funny moments for me in the movie much I didn't think Winslet was
:36:13. > :36:23.particularly good, she's always good, I wouldn't say it was her
:36:23. > :36:25.
:36:25. > :36:29.best performance. The script I thought was so appalling. I think
:36:30. > :36:32.it is the lauter thing, the only thing coming from the laughter is
:36:32. > :36:36.the characters. The experience of laughter, when you see it on the
:36:36. > :36:40.stage, the characters do win some laughs, and the laughs are, and
:36:40. > :36:43.they have to stop and the laughter and the responses of the audience
:36:43. > :36:49.become part of that. These characters are impervious. In a
:36:49. > :36:54.strange way it reminded me of Plenty and Betrayal? Both of those
:36:54. > :36:57.felt simply kind of contrived, when they were put on film. I think
:36:57. > :37:03.Christina used the word "artificial", it is exactly the
:37:03. > :37:07.right word, Jodie Foster said she can't believe she barfed on her
:37:07. > :37:12.book, and I couldn't, because nobody does that. Carnage is
:37:12. > :37:18.playing cinemas now, you can see Kate Winslet vomiting half way
:37:18. > :37:22.through. You wait an age for a biopic and three come along at
:37:22. > :37:27.worse, The Iron Lady, Coriolanus and others are pulling in audiences
:37:28. > :37:33.across the UK. We asked Anne McElvoy why directors are drawn
:37:33. > :37:43.into the political orbit and what makes a good buyyo pick.
:37:43. > :37:56.
:37:56. > :38:00.From The Iron Lady to J Edgar and Coriolanus, the Roman story of
:38:00. > :38:04.natural born vote winner, we have acquired an appetite for the grimy
:38:04. > :38:08.business of politics, and screen portrayals of great political
:38:09. > :38:18.leaders. Frankly, very few political biopics
:38:18. > :38:23.are very good at all. The Iron Lady is a great fete of acting by Meryl
:38:23. > :38:28.Streep. Leonardo DiCaprio's J Edgar has the same strength, and the same
:38:28. > :38:32.flaw. A premier cru lead, Oscar performances and no sense of the
:38:32. > :38:37.politics of the period. For the dizzy feel of an election
:38:37. > :38:42.campaign, and the absurdties of the spin cycle, I would still take us
:38:42. > :38:47.back to the flares and orange shirts of 1972 and Robert red Ford
:38:47. > :38:51.in the candidate. Red Ford makes us squirm as we watch him hollowed out
:38:51. > :38:56.by selling himself, the TV era of Coriolanus, reluctantly showing his
:38:56. > :38:59.wounds to the public. Except here he does get the job, leaving us
:38:59. > :39:04.with the question real life politicians would recognise, when
:39:04. > :39:13.the hurly burly is done, and the big office is their's to decorate.
:39:13. > :39:17.Marvyn, what do we do now? Hapless, handsome Bill is a Democrat, in
:39:17. > :39:26.Hollywood little good comes of Republicans, full stop, and few
:39:26. > :39:32.have had such a bad time on screen as George Bush. George W was a pour
:39:32. > :39:39.frail of a Texas -- portrayal of a sex SAS muppet. Years of reviewing
:39:39. > :39:44.this stuff has made me think the best takes of political seems are
:39:44. > :39:49.alleg orical, if you want to revise the Cold War, Dr Strangelove is
:39:49. > :39:53.better than James Bond. Peter Sellers prevailed as the nutter
:39:53. > :39:57.with his finger on the button, not bust he was the best screen mimic,
:39:57. > :40:04.but because he was so many Cold Warors rolled into one. What about
:40:04. > :40:14.today? The war on terror films did badly at the box-office, there was
:40:14. > :40:15.
:40:15. > :40:19.one that delves terrifyingly into the battle it is The Dark Knight.
:40:19. > :40:24.It shows how many public eyes can be told in the service of the truth.
:40:24. > :40:32.Show it to any newcomer to Number Ten or the White House, or anyone
:40:32. > :40:37.with designs on ruling goth tham Glk Thanks to all my guests tonight.
:40:37. > :40:40.Next Friday on the Book Review Show, I will be celebrating the
:40:40. > :40:45.bicentenary of Charles Dickens in the company of Geoff Dyer and
:40:45. > :40:48.others. We will be resurrecting some long lost Victorian classics.
:40:48. > :40:52.More details on all the items we have been discussing on the website.
:40:52. > :40:56.To play us out tonight, another musician who is part of BBC
:40:56. > :41:00.Introducing, which supports young and up and coming talent. Aaron
:41:00. > :41:03.Delahunty is a born and bred Londoner, who trained at the
:41:03. > :41:10.British Academy of New Music, and whose influences include everything
:41:10. > :41:20.from classic swing, hip hop, here he is with his new single,
:41:20. > :41:26.
:41:26. > :41:29.Straighten Up. # This is a song for anyone with a
:41:29. > :41:32.mate # Who needs to fix up
:41:32. > :41:37.# They ain't flying straight # Tell that fool
:41:37. > :41:40.# It will do them good # You know it's about time they
:41:40. > :41:42.understood # So what if they start blowing up
:41:42. > :41:45.in your face # Somebody has to go and put them
:41:45. > :41:49.in their place # They are acting like they don't
:41:49. > :41:52.give a dam # You have to turn around and tell
:41:52. > :41:55.them # Listen fam$$NEWLINE # Straighten
:41:55. > :42:00.up and fly right # Straighten up and stay right
:42:00. > :42:04.# Straighten up and fly right # Cool down
:42:04. > :42:09.# Don't you blow your top # Straighten up and fly right
:42:09. > :42:19.# Straighten up and stay right # Straighten up and fly right
:42:19. > :42:24.
:42:24. > :42:28.# Cool down brother # You don't wanna be the one
:42:28. > :42:30.# To put their nose out of joint # But if they are behaving like
:42:30. > :42:37.mugs # You need to be making a point
:42:38. > :42:43.# Just like when your boy's belling # You wanting to go for a drink
:42:43. > :42:49.# And then waits for you round in and then reveals he's kint
:42:49. > :42:52.# Or the guy that's in the clik # Who hits the drink a bit quick
:42:52. > :42:58.# Starts acting thick # Thinking he's slick
:42:58. > :43:00.# Still he's slipping over # Straighten up and fly right
:43:01. > :43:04.# Cool down brother # Don't you blow your top
:43:05. > :43:08.# Straighten up and fly right # Straighten up and stay right
:43:09. > :43:13.# Straighten up and fly right Income cool down brother
:43:13. > :43:18.# Don't you blow your top # Straighten up and fry right
:43:19. > :43:23.# Straighten up and stay right # Straighten up and fly right