21/10/2011 The Review Show


21/10/2011

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This programme contains strong language.

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Tonight on The Review Show, sexual compulsion, political betrayal, and

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a disturbed and highly disturbing childhood. We bring you our

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selection of films from the 55th BFI film festival. The last major

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movie extravaganza of the year. The opening galah film 360 was written

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by screen mitre Peter Morgan, and directed by City of God turf,

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Fernando Morales. The festival closes next Thursday with an

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adaptation of Terence Ratikan's drama, The Deep Blue Sea. The

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festival includes Madonna's take on the Wallace Simpson's story. And

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disaster drama, Doyenne, examining the theory that Shakespeare didn't

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write his own plays. There is a brace of new British films, which,

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according to outgoing artistic director, Sandra Hebron, proved the

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British film industry is in rude health. It is interesting we have

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such a strong line up from the UK, is because we are saying it for a

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second consecutive year. There is no shortage of films with

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challenging subject matter. I have said flipantly that there are lots

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of films that deal with murder, suicide and psychosis. The films

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are not issue films, they are very fine stories well told with great

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casts, strong performances. Tonight on Review, we look at Lynne

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Ramsay's adaptation of Lionel Shriver's best seller, We Need To

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Talk About Kevin. George Clooney's political thriller, The Ides Of

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March. Shane, about sexual compulsion. AndDown casts one of

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the smaller dramas we fest value. We look at a pitch black Austrian

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film, inspired by hidious life events. Lighter relief hopefully in

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the panelists' own selections from the festival.

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From the red carpet to the studio, I'm joined by four film aficionados.

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The writer of the film festival, Hannah McGill, one-time agony aunt,

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Indrit Krasniqi, Matthew Sweet and Mark Millar. You can kick our ass

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on Twitter. First up, George Clooney for President, anyone,

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Clooney play as governor and presidential hopeful in The Ides Of

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March. The film attempts to look at the contemporary murky world of

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politics. Clooney adapts the play FarogateNorth, a story of betrayal,

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power and sex. Are you OK. It is OK, it is the right thing, nothing bad

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happens when you do the right thing. With the all-star cast, Evan Rachel

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Wood, George Clooney and Ryan Gosling, it is set around the

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Democratic primary in the race for the cadidacy. It is not a film

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about politics, it is a film that takes place in the political world,

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All of the things we experience in our daily lives. We are telling the

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human story in a political landscape where the stakes are very

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high because it is about determining the next leader of the

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free world. Ryan Gosling plays Stephen Meyers, the press secretary

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to the governor Mike Morris, played by Clooney, whose seduction at this

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hands of intern Molly, leads to a destructive chain of events.

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Tonight is good. You have my number, it is programmed in your phone.

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Under Mary. I know your name is Mary. My name is Molly. I thought

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she was ballsy and sure of herself. She's a young woman in tune with

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her sexuality, but not in a cheap, weird, Monica Lewinsky sway, she

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knows what she wants, and is going after it. She's honest about it. I

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loved playing that role of a girl throwing all these very powerful

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leading men totally off their game. There is something in American

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politics where it is a seduction, I guess, you are really trying to woo

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these people, millions at a time, and that is very much like, it is a

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very seductive process, often in desuctions in our every day lives

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we are ut - seductions in our every day lives we are putting on a

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different face. Does The Ides Of March bring anything new to the

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political corruption genre. Republicans have no-one out there

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who can touch this guy, for this moment, this election, this primary,

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is the presidential. That is the State of the Union.

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Hannah McGill, does this bring anything new to political

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thrillers? I think it is not necessarily trying to bring

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anything new, if anything it is trying very hard to exist within a

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tradition of corruption thrillers. To do something very mainstream

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with an idea of political corruption that, it tests your

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boundaries slightly, but it is quite safe. It is extremely

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efficient film. Like its beautiful director, it doesn't have a hair

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out of place. It is efficient and slick. What it lacks is something

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of edge and depth and a little bit of roughness, something a bit more

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experimental they might have done with this. It works extremely well.

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There might be a claim of a hint of originality, where Clooney is

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central, it is more about the back room staff and the influence they

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have? That is true, Clooney's presence is communicated more by

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the poster that we see of him everywhere in the film rather than

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by the performance. I thought is this George's very expensive way

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he's not going to run for the presidency itself. This is one of

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those films that comes along every few years that has to reassure and

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explain to liberal Americans why they don't have the President they

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want in the White House. They can go away and think there is

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something wrong with the system, it is not our fault and they can go

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home and absolve themselves of responsibility. The cult of youth

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is very large here, did you find it disturbing, or are you well versed

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that it is probably very young and inexperienced people controlling

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politics? Young and inexperienced people voting, I imagine. I

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expected there to be a flood of youth and so there should be. What

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I thought about this as a film, and I think that is right, it fits into

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a background. I felt it need rad better core. Everything around it

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worked - needed a better core. Everything around it worked. When

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it came to the point where the story needed to happen it flattened

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out. It is like a kinder surprise with no surprise.

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It is smart and sassy, then a couple of things happen and the

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narrative changes and the whole film gets a little bleaker?

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reminded me of early 1970s cinema, which Clooney has done in the past.

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It felt like a modern version of The Candidate, and Robert Redford

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was the Clooney of his day. It hadn't moved on though, it felt

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like a film of that era. It doesn't have the dark heart of that 70s

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film making, it is too assured, it is too much of a product, really,

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there is no kind of wobble or edge to it. This is much more cynical?

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It is cynical and not. One thing I found interesting about it, there

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is an element where the point is you have to accept that even your

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hero candidate, even your wonderful man, the poster is the Obama poster

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with "believe" writtenen to, even he might have a flaw. Your corrupt

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depraved little people behind the scenes with their machinations,

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they want the good President. They have to accept that you have

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terrible things in your personal life but they will get together and

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make America a better place. It is cynical and sentimental at the time.

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They say you have to accept Uruguay will be damaged and broken and

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still try to - your guy will be damaged and broken but you have to

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still try to get him there. What felt new was having a Democratic

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villain, in a sense it is always the Hollywood thing to make a

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character like that a Republican. It felt slightly fresh, it was like

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trying a few fresh things, making the back room guys the important

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thing. He's a good buy politically and bad guy behind the scenes.

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is an old story. Interestingly, they were going to release this and

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do it in 2007, but then the optimisim around Obama they

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realised they couldn't do that. Now the world is more jaded, does it

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reflect that? I was thinking about this, even if he was successful and

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wonderful and pristine in his personal life and a bad politician,

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we wouldn't care. He was very careful making this film and

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putting it out when he did. I don't think it really says anything

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necessarily new, but it does shore up things we already learned. We

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learned from the 1970s and 1980. learned from television series like

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the West Wing that women were strong figures and had a certain

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amount of control. Here they are interns or harassing journalists?

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This was interesting, it would have been interesting to play with the

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sexual politics and have a powerful women. American politics has

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powerful women in positions of authority. Weirdly in this film

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anybody with any power is men, the important conversations are between

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men. The women are the First Lady, which are I adore you and do what

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you have to do. The intern, she is key, what happens to her happens to

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everybody else, she's a victim in the end. There was no women with

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authority. That was a weird decision, particularly from George

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Clooney, you want more parity, but it would have made it more

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interesting rather than the intern a disposable bimbo. Marissa Tomei

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is in it as the journalist? Women are the grit in the oyster to be

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annoying. It is a boys club, you have your Hillary Clintons, but in

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personal experience it is a boys' club. That intern being abused, I

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think I have never really seen before, I thought that was quite

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brave, especially the ending, I thought that was a bleak ending

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where you thought there is a prosession of these people.

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Political exploitation. A new twist on that. Moving on, I want to move

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on to the fastest-selling film at this film festival Shame, the

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second feature from artist film maker Steve McQueen, it reunites

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him with Michael Fassbender, who portrayed Bobby Sands in Hunger.

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Shame, Michael Fassbender is a high flying but has an addiction to sex.

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Another story with a man in his 30s with a dark secret, a film from

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Austria which reflects recent real- life events. Michael is the

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directoral debut, casting films such as the Piano Teacher and the

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White Ribbon. Both contentious. The topic of Michael could hardly be

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more controversial. Michael is a 35-year-old office worker who holds

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captive Wolfgang, a ten-year-old boy. The film follows five months

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of their life together. Charting in painstaking detail their daily

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routines, inside and out of their With such a provocative storyline,

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he was under no illusion about the difficulty that lay ahead in

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securing the right actors for the roles. By France was on a film

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academy - by chance I was on a film academy and I had to see a lot of

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films by a lot of people. There were two good short films, at that

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point I knew it was the guy that should play Michael. He said he was

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afraid, he didn't want to do this. He needed time to think about this,

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and discuss it with his family and friends. After two weeks he called

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me and said he really wanted to do it. He was adamant from the outset

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that Michael would not be an emotionally manipulative film, but

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a sparse and clinical observation of the story. But with real life

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cases, such as that of Joseph Fritzel, was it necessary to make a

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film about the subject at all. Another film at the festival, to

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chronicle the troubled life of a 30-something man, is Shame.

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Starring Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan. Fassbender plays

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Brandon a New York executive who works and plays hard, but his

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carefully constructed lifestyle masks his addiction to sex and the

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drive for constant fiscal gratification. There are plenty of

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precedents for boundary-breaking nudity and sexually explicit

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material, but 40 Years Of Queen cites a film from the 70s as a

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major inspiration. - McQueen cites a film from the 70s as a major

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inspiration. In last Tango in Paris, it is the physicality of brand

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dough. There is a fragility in Michael, he's a man's man, he's

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bold, physical. There is a certain fragility in him that is so

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beautiful. That take as very brave actor. Will audiences find Shame as

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daring a provocative as Hunger, and will Michael give anen sight into

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what leads men into extreme patterns of behaviour.

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Does Shame explain to you enough why the character Michael is as he

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is? I don't think you need to see anything about his background. The

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purpose of Shame, and the purpose of talking about sexual addiction

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is talking about the detatchment from intimacy, and yet craving

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intimacy at the same time. As we know he has a complicated

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relationship with his sister, it sounds weird but not as weird as

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you might think. I don't think we need a lot of explanation. I think

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McQueen has done a beautiful job showing us this story, showing us

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enough of his fragility without taking us too deep. Is it daring,

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transgressive, or are those things irrelevant? I found it rather

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disappointing compared with Hunger, such a beautiful film you were

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given time to observe and explore. This is rather choppy. I'm not sure

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whether a drama that is essentially about a man deciding whether or not

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to throw away his collection of jazz mags, it is not Sophie's

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Choice. I found the whole thing overblown. There is a seen where

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he's writhing around in on the floor in the rain, in a scene of

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romantic agony. I wonder whatever, it is a 90-minute film of male

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anger and self-pity. Is that a British male summation that it is

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about your jazz mags, when they were researching the film in

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England it wasn't an open condition here. They had to go to America. Is

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it a particularly American condition? I think the fact it was

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set in America it was an attempt to say something about the city of New

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York and the degree of isolation and commercialism and separation

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that is particularly New York. In some ways the fact it is set in

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America, even though the actors are British, Irish, the director is

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British, contributed to that slight feeling of remove that I had from

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it. Agree with Karen, the theme of sexual addiction is about emotional

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remove. The film, in some ways it puts you through the ringer of

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watching this guy doing the same thing over and over again. It

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doesn't give you any sense of transformation, or of why this is

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happening, or of what you are learning about him. In way it was

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just like, fine, you like having sex, go ahead. Isn't addiction

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about that idea that it isn't necessarily transformative? I'm not

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the guy to ask! For me it does explain it so beautifully, and in

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such a minimalistic fashion. It starts off like a post MoD all fee,

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you hate him and find - postmodern Alfie, then you see there is

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something there, it is his sister, they are naked in front of each

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other, he can't stand to be in the same room when she has sex, he has

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to go for a run. You know they have come from the bad place. This isn't

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about hand washing, it is not washing his hands all the time.

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There is some lovely character work in it. It is a beautiful plot.

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There is a seen with a very awkward date where he takes a co-worker out

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to a restaurant. It is excruciating and beautifully played. It is a

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movie about abuse, both characters were abused, then the whole film

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unfolds back on itself again when you think about it. It is such an

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understated movie, a brilliant writing on the part of Abi Morgan.

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The American movies are clunky with the flashbacks, and yet they say it

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quietly. For me it is the film of the year. It is the best film I

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have seen. You say you loved Hunger, you're not sure about this. He is

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still a great film maker, there are still traits, with the repetition,

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it is a beautiful-looking film, he has the long, long shots. Does that

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redeem it for you? I don't think it has the paint qualities of Hunger.

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I don't think the images are quite as original as Hunger. The tempo of

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it seems less original too. The wonderful thing about Hunger was

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the time that we spent within all of those images. There is no

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equivalent of that here. I found that so self-indulgent in Hunger, I

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liked it, but I feel this is a guy who has honed his skills, when he

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keeps the scene going longer than you would expect it is an effect.

:19:08.:19:12.

When the running sequence goes on you feel you are eavesdropping on

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someone's life. There is a really long threesome as well. That was

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long. Let's move on to Michael. No real link except that it is another

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:19:35.:19:35.

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 86 seconds

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man in his 30s with a dark secret. The power comes from the repetition,

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essentially this is not a Gothic melodrama of any sort at all. This

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is a film about domestic routine. So we see these two figures, the

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captive, and the man who has taken him prisoner doing the washing up.

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Eating Spam and peas. We also see him washing himself after clearly

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sexually abusing the boy. There is a horrible kind of equivalence

:21:25.:21:35.
:21:35.:21:40.

It never loses sight of the pervesity of the villain. You

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appreciate how this sort of situation might be normalised for

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everybody involved in it because it is the same thing over and over

:21:48.:21:52.

again. I never felt manipulated, I watched it, it was moving, it was

:21:52.:21:59.

observational, it let you make up your mind. I never felt

:21:59.:22:02.

manipulative, it is brilliantly cast, and the director is casting

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director. You would also say that he's one of the few directors who

:22:08.:22:13.

might take on this subject matter. He's brave not fool hard yi to make

:22:13.:22:17.

the film? It is a very good film, I can't say I enjoyed watching it,

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I'm glad I saw it. It is more generous and humane than anything

:22:24.:22:29.

Michael Hanniker, he would want to punish us for watching film. Can we

:22:29.:22:37.

permit the trafality of having Sonny by Boney M playing in the

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credits? That is fine, you could regard it as a lapse of taste, it

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shows how to read the emegmatic ending of the film, I don't want to

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describe it, it is one of the brilliantly chosen moments to end

:22:53.:23:01.

the film. It kept us off suicide watch. This week was the bleakist

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:23:11.:23:12.

week of films I had to admit. We had to go and see The Lion King to

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cheer ourselves up. There is more dark drama to come in Junkhearts a

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debut feature that is part social realism and part fairytale set on

:23:23.:23:28.

the streets of East London. Junkhearts tells the story of a

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former soldier, and his unlikely friendship with a teenage girl, a

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bond that could be broken when her homeless boyfriend muscles in on

:23:40.:23:43.

the affair. The director wanted the film to have an optimistic feel.

:23:44.:23:48.

The way we see the world, especially younger people, is

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through magical eyes, that is what Lynette brings into Frank's life,

:23:53.:23:58.

where suddenly you notice the patch of sunlight coming into the room.

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There is joy and colour. We played Frankie's quite desaturated and

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colourless life, until Lynette comes along. There is a vibecy.

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was sniffing glue at eight, supping Bud at nine, I don't do crack or

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coke, thanks any way. Are you a runaway. Eddie Marsan's Frank, is

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suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, a condition of

:24:25.:24:33.

which the film's director has firsthand experience. When the

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tsunami happened I was in Phuket, I was a doctor, and my training

:24:38.:24:42.

kicked in, I helped in the immediate process. I was helping

:24:42.:24:46.

out in liaison between the mass mortuaries. I came back from that

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with a degree of post-traumatic stress disorder. When I read the

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script I really connected to that element of it, suddenly the film

:24:54.:24:59.

maker part of me came alive. gradual takeover of Frank's life

:24:59.:25:05.

and home by the drug dealer, Danny, reflects a modern day issue, that

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of cuckooing. People will target a vulnerable person, it could be an

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older person, someone like Frank. Someone with learning difficulty,

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and they will target them, befriend them and then take over their

:25:18.:25:22.

property, it is quite common. given the theme as covered in the

:25:22.:25:27.

film, can there ever be a happy ending.

:25:27.:25:32.

The idea for us wasn't to make an issue-driven film, for us the film

:25:32.:25:37.

is one about probably love, redemption, and family

:25:37.:25:40.

relationships, relationships between fathers and daughters. I

:25:40.:25:45.

think what we took is a structure where there is a social phenomenon,

:25:45.:25:51.

what we were doing is creating a human story from it.

:25:51.:25:55.

Matthew Sweet, was this an impressive debut film? It is an

:25:55.:26:00.

apprentice work. It begins in quite a clumsy and clunky way. When these

:26:00.:26:06.

two protaganists meet each other on a street in London t has the

:26:06.:26:12.

feeling of an improv, about seeing where the seen goes and it might

:26:12.:26:15.

expose something about Britain today. As it progressed I began to

:26:15.:26:20.

feel something for these characters and rather moved by them. I

:26:20.:26:24.

desperately wanted a happy ending to be generated somewhere. Yes, I

:26:24.:26:34.
:26:34.:26:36.

can see the scepticism building Were you as moved? I agree, I think

:26:36.:26:41.

there are elements of this that veer towards cliche, there is this

:26:41.:26:46.

sort of talk about the heart of gold, there is the redemption of

:26:46.:26:51.

broken people. The way in which it takes what could have been a slice

:26:51.:26:56.

of gruingy, nasty social realisim and does something shiny with it,

:26:56.:26:59.

and tries to create a mainstream movie narrative about the story of

:26:59.:27:04.

life on the streets, there are problems with it, I did find it

:27:04.:27:08.

affecting, I did find myself pulled in by it, absolutely. Karen, you

:27:08.:27:13.

were enlightened by the state of contemporary Britain, I can see by

:27:13.:27:17.

the raised eyebrows? I'm the only one who understands sex addiction!

:27:17.:27:22.

I was looking forward to this film, I thought it would be promising, I

:27:22.:27:26.

thought this would be the new Mona Lisa, fantastic, wonderful

:27:26.:27:29.

performances, I thought it came apart. I found it difficult to

:27:29.:27:32.

watch towards the end. I think it is a brave attempt. I would like to

:27:32.:27:36.

see the director's next work. No, I didn't. It really didn't do enough

:27:36.:27:40.

for me I felt it was cliched and predictable. There are a number of

:27:40.:27:46.

strands we see. One that we haven't mentioned which involves Romola

:27:46.:27:50.

Garai's character, sparsely drawn, but eventually becomes slightly

:27:50.:27:54.

more central. Did that reflect something powerful, the fact that

:27:54.:27:59.

people do have disjointed lives, or was it an accident of inexperience?

:27:59.:28:04.

Can you tell it is a first movie. It would be disingenious to judge

:28:04.:28:08.

it like that. This was the one I was least looking forward to of all

:28:08.:28:14.

of the movies this week, I found it oddly warm hearted, I was surprised

:28:14.:28:18.

at myself. I didn't cry, but I was moved, which is unusual for me.

:28:18.:28:22.

was warm hearted because of the central performance, Eddie Marsan,

:28:22.:28:27.

in particular? It was a great cast. I'm not sure who it was aimed at.

:28:27.:28:30.

When I saw the title, it wasn't something I would naturally see,

:28:31.:28:37.

but I was glad I saw it. Any film with Eddie Marsan's head in it, he

:28:37.:28:43.

was built by the crowman, a root vegtable revived by dark forces.

:28:43.:28:48.

That is an issue with the film is who is it aimed at. It seemed to be

:28:48.:28:57.

going for the Kiddulthood, and Adulthood, is it for the young

:28:57.:29:01.

people or the art house audience or the film festivals. I like that

:29:01.:29:05.

they are taking on a film that could appeal to the mainstream

:29:05.:29:09.

audience while makes points about life in Britain. This confusion for

:29:09.:29:13.

who it is aimed at, one thing seems to emerge is it is an appropriate

:29:13.:29:18.

film for a film festival, this mixture of inexperience and

:29:18.:29:23.

showcases what film festivals should do? This is why film

:29:23.:29:26.

festivals exist, you have a platform for a film like that, it

:29:26.:29:30.

requires an audience and reviews. This film already had distribution.

:29:30.:29:36.

It has some exposure. Film festival audiences are very open minded in a

:29:36.:29:40.

way, that cinema audiences aren't necessarily. To make a serious

:29:40.:29:43.

point about the bleakness, it hit me when I watched so many bleak

:29:43.:29:48.

movies in a row this week, it was shocking. Trfs interesting when a

:29:48.:29:52.

film is regarded as a - it was interesting that when a film is

:29:52.:29:55.

regarded as worthy 0 and interesting for a film gest value

:29:55.:30:00.

it has to make you feel bad. I'm glad we have summer to get us

:30:00.:30:04.

through autumn. It was unrelentingly bleak.

:30:04.:30:14.
:30:14.:30:15.

It was about post-traumatic stress disorder. You could say it was the

:30:15.:30:23.

tradition of British miserableness. The scene adaptation of Lionel

:30:23.:30:25.

Shriver's novel, We Need To Talk About Kevin. The horrifying crimes

:30:25.:30:30.

committed by a teenage boy in America has plenty of movie

:30:30.:30:35.

precedence, but the perspective of a traumatised and guilt ridden

:30:35.:30:40.

mother is new. It is 12 years since Lynne Ramsay

:30:40.:30:47.

dazzled the Cannes Film Festival with Rat Catcher.

:30:47.:30:52.

Now Ramsay's back, tackling her darkest subject yet. Oscar winner,

:30:52.:30:56.

Tilda Swinton, plays successful travel writer, Eva, who discovers

:30:56.:31:01.

she's pregnant with her first child. When maternal instincts fail to

:31:01.:31:05.

kick in, Eva struggles with her new life. The already uncomfortable

:31:05.:31:15.
:31:15.:31:15.

bond between mother and son becoming ever-more intense. When

:31:15.:31:19.

Kevin's younger sister suffers a suspicious eye injury whilst in his

:31:19.:31:25.

cautious the rift between Eva and her husband, Franklin, played by

:31:25.:31:29.

John C Reilly seems to widen. did you leave the drain stuff out.

:31:29.:31:39.
:31:39.:31:44.

I didn't. I put it away. Then how did it get out? It was Kevin. Kevin

:31:44.:31:53.

did it. You needing to talk to someone.

:31:53.:31:59.

With Franklin seemingly oblivious to his son's nature, Eva grows more

:31:59.:32:04.

and more isolated. I thought you didn't like those. They are, what

:32:04.:32:14.
:32:14.:32:19.

do you call it. An acquired taste. While Shriver's book tells the

:32:19.:32:24.

story through letters written from Eva to her husband. The movie

:32:24.:32:34.
:32:34.:32:34.

flilts between past and present, as Eva recounts the past. Eva is left

:32:34.:32:41.

to atone for the since of her zone as he languishs in prison. Ramsay

:32:41.:32:44.

sets out to look at the human condition. Does it bring any

:32:44.:32:49.

clarity to the nature versus nuture argument. It is easy to

:32:49.:32:58.

misunderstand something when you hear it out of context.

:32:58.:33:03.

How can I not know the context, I am the context.

:33:03.:33:07.

Hannah McGill, some of the publicity material calls it an

:33:07.:33:10.

emotional thriller, Lynne Ramsay calls it a psychological horror

:33:10.:33:15.

story? I saw it as a black comedy, definitely a horror. Definitely not

:33:15.:33:20.

an issue movie. You are going off beam with this if you see it as a

:33:20.:33:25.

film about women's roles or parenting or America, or about

:33:25.:33:30.

murder. I think it is a fantasy of the worst possible experience of

:33:30.:33:35.

parenting. Which actually, and I found quite fun in a very dark way.

:33:35.:33:39.

I didn't find it traumatic to watch. We have watched some dark material

:33:39.:33:45.

this week, but I think this one actually I saw it as a very, almost

:33:45.:33:50.

operatic heightened piece of melodrama that is actual lie quite

:33:50.:33:56.

funny. Were we supposed to be on her - Actually quite funny. Were we

:33:56.:34:01.

supposed to be on her side, my judgmental side kicked in. I don't

:34:01.:34:04.

think we're supposed to be on anyone's side, she's not the nicest

:34:05.:34:08.

woman in the world and he isn't the nicest person in the world and it

:34:08.:34:12.

is ambiguous. The first 30 minutes I hated it, I saw them as the most

:34:12.:34:17.

up themselves media couple who were just crap parents. I wasn't that

:34:17.:34:21.

mad on the rest of it. With the book you have a narrative voice

:34:21.:34:26.

where you have a freedom as a reader to read it very, very

:34:26.:34:29.

critically. That you are free to suspect that this woman is the

:34:29.:34:35.

author of her child's awfulness, in some way. You don't have that

:34:35.:34:40.

freedom here. I know Lynne Ramsay says she wanted to give an intense

:34:40.:34:49.

subjecttivity to this film, I don't think it has it. It wouldn't have

:34:49.:34:53.

if she stuck to the form of the book? She needed to find some

:34:53.:34:56.

device to allow us to give a sceptical reading of Eva, I don't

:34:56.:34:59.

think there is room for that. think you could have a sceptical

:34:59.:35:04.

reading of Eva, I thought she was a bit of a cow. We are not giving

:35:04.:35:08.

room to doubt the voracity of the events we see before us, I don't

:35:08.:35:12.

think. There are no children in the world like Kevin, they simply don't

:35:12.:35:16.

exist. Any kind of statement that the film might be making, maybe you

:35:16.:35:20.

are right it is not trying to make a statement of any kind at all. Any

:35:20.:35:26.

statement it might be trying to make is taken out by that, it can't

:35:26.:35:29.

talk about post-natal depression, or dislocation between parent and

:35:29.:35:35.

child, because such children don't exist in the world. Ez ra Miller

:35:35.:35:39.

who plays the final version of Kevin said he could understand and

:35:39.:35:41.

the character took him over, and there was something very familiar

:35:41.:35:46.

about that child? I don't know if there are children, I'm not parent,

:35:46.:35:50.

I don't know, you're a parent? There probably are. We hear stories

:35:50.:35:57.

about children that do these kinds of things. Obviously they exist.

:35:57.:36:02.

delay speaking until the moment they can torment their parents.

:36:02.:36:05.

is called autism isn't it. I feel conflicted about the film, he hated

:36:05.:36:12.

it when I saw t I have worked very hard to overcome my hatred of the

:36:12.:36:17.

film. Because Matthew hates it! is beautifully crafted, it is

:36:17.:36:22.

beautifully crafted, very heavy on the symbolism. In a way I was upset

:36:22.:36:26.

because I felt emotionally manipulated. There is a crudeness

:36:26.:36:32.

about it. That clip we saw there, gobbling up those lychees whilst

:36:32.:36:36.

talking about somebody's eye being removed. Smacking you around the

:36:36.:36:42.

face. Any self-respecting horror director would reject that as

:36:42.:36:46.

vulgarity. I don't think she understands the cliches of horror

:36:46.:36:52.

well enough. You can't blame her of doing that, if she was given Lovely

:36:52.:36:56.

Bones, it would have been fantastic film. It might have been a

:36:56.:37:00.

marginally better film? Much better, much better. This is a career film

:37:00.:37:04.

for her. She's putting a lot of technique, a lot of effort, a small

:37:04.:37:10.

budget. She has done brilliantly, but I found it really offensive.

:37:10.:37:16.

This ambivalence is coming through in all of us. The character played

:37:16.:37:20.

by Tilda Swinton, the ambivalence has to be there, she knows she

:37:20.:37:25.

should love her child and she can't bring it through. Is the whole

:37:25.:37:28.

thing built on ambivalence. Everybody I have spoken to this

:37:28.:37:33.

week has said five-star. It is cat nip for the Review show audience,

:37:33.:37:38.

it is a Lionel Shriver book, Tilda Swinton in the lead, and directed

:37:38.:37:42.

by Lynne Ramsay. Everybody watching the show will love it. By the end

:37:42.:37:47.

of the first act I got into it. First act I hated it, I wasn't on

:37:47.:37:52.

her side but I was enjoying the ride. She did a great job. Cat nip,

:37:52.:37:57.

there will be a lot of Twittering about that. What about the

:37:57.:38:00.

symbolism that began with that extraordinary scene in the tomato

:38:00.:38:07.

festival in Spain, and then to the paint door with the blood. I am

:38:07.:38:11.

already getting a look that it was heavy-handed, it was elegant wasn't

:38:11.:38:17.

it? Yes it was Anne resting image. There is too much else in the - It

:38:17.:38:22.

was an arresting image. There is too much else in the film that is

:38:22.:38:27.

heavyhanded. At one point Kevin forewarns us that he's going to do

:38:27.:38:32.

something bad, he almost wagles his eyebrows at us. I don't think it is

:38:32.:38:36.

made as a horror movie, I don't think it tells you anything more

:38:36.:38:43.

about children than Damien The Omen. If it is a horror film, fine, if it

:38:43.:38:52.

has other ambitions, I don't buy it. Working in the tenets of horror?

:38:52.:38:58.

think a real director could have handled that more deftly. It is

:38:58.:39:02.

held together by a terrific performance by Swinton and the

:39:02.:39:08.

child Ezra Miller? I think great performance and Ramsay is great at

:39:08.:39:16.

directing actors. Casting Eva, she's odd, offputting in some ways.

:39:16.:39:20.

I think she creates a character who you don't automatically warm to,

:39:20.:39:24.

that is good. She's really good at being non-vain on screen. She

:39:24.:39:29.

doesn't need to look gorgeous all the time. She's edgy and peculiar,

:39:29.:39:33.

it is a strange character being played by an actress with a

:39:33.:39:36.

capacity to do oddness. I think that really works. I think the

:39:36.:39:39.

combination of her with John C Reilly, this very warm, benign

:39:39.:39:43.

presence, is very interesting. I think all the kids are really good

:39:43.:39:49.

as well. There we must stop talking about the We Need To Talk About

:39:49.:39:57.

Kevin. What else has caught your eye? Go and see Anonymous, Rhys

:39:57.:40:00.

Ifans, a fantastic cast, Roland Emmerich doing a story about the

:40:00.:40:04.

true story of Shakespeare. thought that was written by

:40:04.:40:08.

Christopher Marlow? It could have been anyone for all we know. It is

:40:08.:40:12.

absolutely wonderful. A wonderful performance, and it is great to see

:40:12.:40:18.

a big budget director doing a small film. A little British film called

:40:18.:40:22.

Weekend by a director called Andrew Haye, very different from the stuff

:40:22.:40:27.

we have talked about. Very simple, a story about two people meeting,

:40:27.:40:32.

having a kind of almost romance, and just a beautiful story. So

:40:32.:40:37.

confidently directed, lovely film. We have a clip. The morning after

:40:37.:40:43.

the first meeting. I saw you in the club and I thought you were, I

:40:44.:40:51.

thought you were out of my league, I liked your T-shirt. What league

:40:51.:40:57.

are you in? I don't know, third division maybe.

:40:57.:41:05.

Karen said memorably that people are calling it gay Brief Encounter?

:41:05.:41:08.

It is wonderful performances, so simple, absolutely about character

:41:08.:41:15.

and script, no bells and whistles. It is culling out in cinemas. -

:41:15.:41:21.

Coming out in cinemas. I like the story of a man who thinks a big

:41:21.:41:25.

catastrophy is coming to his community. It manages all the

:41:25.:41:28.

shifts of perspective that We Need To Talk About Kevin didn't, in that

:41:28.:41:32.

you are both in and out of his delusions, you don't know if it is

:41:32.:41:35.

a real catastrophy or a metaphorical one, it is all of them

:41:35.:41:39.

at the same time and beautifully handled. Beautifully handled to get

:41:39.:41:47.

the final boot in. Nice one. would say an old Italian movie

:41:48.:41:56.

called The Killing, the title alone is - the Man That Kills Bad People.

:41:56.:41:59.

By Roberto Rossellini. The title sucks me in, I have never seen it

:41:59.:42:04.

before, it is nice to go and see an old movie you haven't in the cinema.

:42:04.:42:13.

What's the premise of it? I haven't seen it yet! But The Machine That

:42:13.:42:19.

Kills Bad People. That is enough. All four of you have proved exactly

:42:19.:42:26.

why we need film festival, to show the obscure, and the ease sow

:42:26.:42:31.

terrik. Thank you to all my guests tonight. The London Film Festival

:42:31.:42:34.

continues until next Thursday, find out all the details on the films

:42:34.:42:39.

discussed on the website. You can review the reviewers on Twitter.

:42:39.:42:46.

Stay tuned on BBC Two for Later With Jools. You can see an

:42:46.:42:51.

interview with Steve McQueen on The Culture Show. Kirsty will be here

:42:51.:42:56.

with her guests to discuss what what is tipped as the plays of the

:42:56.:43:04.

year 13 at the National. And the 3- D version of Tin Tin from Peter

:43:05.:43:09.

Jackson. Here is a little. Before he lost consciousness he tried to

:43:09.:43:19.
:43:19.:43:22.

tell me s I think he was spelling out a word. Karaboudjan? Does that

:43:22.:43:29.

mean anything to you? Great Scotland, yeah. It is extraordinary,

:43:29.:43:33.

Worthingtons has a half price sale on bowler hats. Great Scotland Yard

:43:33.:43:38.

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