:00:17. > :00:23.Tonight on Review, Clint Eastwood steps back from directing to play a
:00:23. > :00:25.growly, grizzly, even doddery old talent scout, in the latest film in
:00:25. > :00:29.the baseball genre. Have you thought about what you might do
:00:29. > :00:35.when your contract is up. Sure, sign another one for more money.
:00:35. > :00:42.The art of couture, fabulous frocks by the man loved by everyone from
:00:42. > :00:50.Jackie O to Julia Roberts. Bomb shelters and tedious beaus, the war
:00:50. > :00:53.time diaries of a school teacher. Spike Lee, Martin Scorsese and
:00:53. > :00:58.Sheryl Crow, and a huge cast of characters give it up for Michael
:00:58. > :01:03.Jackson's musical genius. And, you have got the look, the
:01:03. > :01:09.grandfather that is an internet sensation.
:01:09. > :01:13.Joining me tonight are the journalist and fags writer, Hadley
:01:13. > :01:16.Freeman, the journalist Mark Mailar, and Christina Patterson, columnist
:01:16. > :01:21.for the Independent. Trouble With The Curve swings into cinemas this
:01:21. > :01:27.week, and it is Clint Eastwood's first outing since his unexpected
:01:27. > :01:31.appearance at one of Mitt Romney's conventions. Eastwood has vacated
:01:31. > :01:38.the director's chair, to make way for his long time assistant, Robert
:01:38. > :01:46.Lorenz. Are you home? No. I guess I can
:01:46. > :01:50.come in. Son of a bitch. Time I'm not up on? Fengsmei don't you know
:01:50. > :01:53.anything. At the heart of Trouble With The Curve, is the relationship
:01:53. > :01:59.between Gus Lobel, the legendary scout for the Atlanta Brave's
:01:59. > :02:04.baseball team, played by Eastwood, and his daughter, Nicky, a high-
:02:04. > :02:07.flying lawyer, played by Amy Adams. Gus is hiding his health problems
:02:07. > :02:10.from his daughter and colleagues who have begun to question his
:02:10. > :02:18.abilities. Gus, have you thought about what you might do when your
:02:18. > :02:24.contract is up? Sure, sign another one for more money! Ever think
:02:24. > :02:29.about retirement? What's this all about? There is just a lot of
:02:29. > :02:35.pressure might now. Mickey joins her father on a scouting trip to
:02:35. > :02:37.North Carolina that to keep an eye on him. At first it seems too late
:02:37. > :02:42.to repair their dysfuntional relationship. You should be back
:02:42. > :02:46.home doing your job, same as I'm doing my job here. If it make as
:02:46. > :02:54.difference I'm doing it for Pete, he thought you could use some
:02:54. > :02:58.company. He's wrong, wait until I see that horse's ass. Inevitably,
:02:58. > :03:01.father and daughter find they have more in common than they think.
:03:01. > :03:05.don't like baseball. I love baseball, I didn't want to be
:03:05. > :03:09.lawyer, I did it so you would be happy with me and approve of him
:03:09. > :03:13.and maybe keep me around. I did what I felt was right. I didn't
:03:13. > :03:17.want you to have life in the cheap seats that is all. They weren't the
:03:17. > :03:21.cheap seats. On paper, Clint Eastwood playing a
:03:22. > :03:26.grouchy old man doesn't seem like much of a stretch, but can the
:03:26. > :03:32.screen legend breathe life into this tale of infirmity and almost
:03:32. > :03:35.oblessance. We are now used to knowing that
:03:35. > :03:41.Clint Eastwood is a damn fine director, was it reassuring to have
:03:41. > :03:45.him back on screen? Well, in lots of ways it was. I mean, his
:03:45. > :03:50.performance is fine, I wouldn't say it is a great performance. It is
:03:50. > :03:54.nice to see an old person on a cinema screen, frankly, it is a bit
:03:54. > :04:01.unprecedented, perhaps you have to be Clint Eastwood. Or Henry Fonda
:04:01. > :04:07.in On Golden Pond? Yes, that is two out of all the films out every year.
:04:07. > :04:14."nice" seems the word to use about the whole thing. Cliche-ridden,
:04:14. > :04:19.stock-characters, fomulaic, a bit tired, clunking dialogue. But, on
:04:19. > :04:23.positive side, there came for me, I'm a sucker for a romcom, I
:04:23. > :04:26.thought they were laying it on with a trowel in the beginning,
:04:26. > :04:29.establishing the idea that he was grappling with old age, and so many
:04:29. > :04:33.in different ways. One scene would have done it, they had about four.
:04:33. > :04:37.To have both the not being able to pee scene and falling over the
:04:37. > :04:41.furniture? Before I say anything horrible, I have to say I love
:04:41. > :04:46.Clint Eastwood, he's the most important figure in cinema history,
:04:46. > :04:50.an icon twice over, for 30 years running in the top ten directors,
:04:50. > :04:54.more consistent in the last three decades than Spielberg, it was a
:04:54. > :04:58.howler, I didn't enjoy it. Every cliche in the book. You didn't
:04:58. > :05:02.think there was some, the idea of the father-daughter, it is not new,
:05:03. > :05:05.but Amy Adams is such a brilliant actress as well? There was so many
:05:05. > :05:11.great people. Justin Timberlake, people may laugh, is a great actor.
:05:11. > :05:15.He's really good f you put him in the right thing, he was a bit of a
:05:15. > :05:19.dick. Don't make him the likeable lead or romantic interest, nobody's
:05:19. > :05:24.buying him chasing a girl. How many baseball films have we had,
:05:25. > :05:29.Moneyball, A League of their Own, Field of Dreams, we are back at
:05:29. > :05:33.baseball. What is the desire to go back to baseball? It is a cinematic
:05:33. > :05:37.sport, because it is so beautiful and emblematic of the American
:05:37. > :05:40.dream, and the golden era of America. One of the problems with
:05:41. > :05:45.the film, with cliches and stock character, it comes out a month
:05:46. > :05:50.after the election. And just to let you know, the last time we saw
:05:50. > :05:54.Clint Eastwood was him yelling at a chair at the Republican election,
:05:54. > :05:59.and here we have the opening scene with him yelling at a hair and
:05:59. > :06:02.dining room table. Without dwifg it away, people who rely on data are
:06:02. > :06:06.stupid, and people who trust in numbers are idiots, where as people
:06:06. > :06:11.who trust their gut, the old men, they are the ones to count. That is
:06:11. > :06:16.the opposite of what happened in the election, people like Nate Sill
:06:16. > :06:22.version they were right, and those on Fox News, saying I feel it my
:06:22. > :06:28.gut that Romney is going to win. has better reviews than I would
:06:28. > :06:32.imagine in the states. Is that because of the wonderful affection
:06:32. > :06:37.for Clint Eastwood, and he's an icon. Or it is because they like
:06:37. > :06:41.the films where the little guys always are the, or the old guys,
:06:41. > :06:44.are the ones that always actually triumph over the smart ass
:06:44. > :06:48.youngsters? There is a whole new trend in movies, with older people
:06:48. > :06:53.being the stars. This is older than most. But I think also there is the
:06:53. > :06:59.comfort it in the familiarity, the stories of the father and daughter
:06:59. > :07:04.reunited, life as a metaphor for strike, the 30-year-old woman,
:07:04. > :07:07.working a disaster in sport. These guys that play golf in the off.
:07:07. > :07:10.This is the clip where Amy Adams seems to, for the first time in her
:07:10. > :07:14.life, realise her father has been talking about her when she wasn't
:07:14. > :07:20.there! Actually, I remember him saying he
:07:20. > :07:25.had a daughter in college. Yep, he would say that she was smarter than
:07:25. > :07:30.me and him put together. That's why when I met you, I obviously thought
:07:30. > :07:35.that Gus had another daughter. Doesn't sound like my father, it
:07:35. > :07:38.sounds like a compliment. He said it. Well, he never tells me
:07:38. > :07:44.anything. Maybe he wants to. You know. Doesn't know how.
:07:44. > :07:48.You might have to take the lead. Trust me, I have tried, I'm done.
:07:48. > :07:52.That kind of sets up their relationship. You know, that aside,
:07:52. > :07:59.and that was one of the few scenes that Clint Eastwood was not in. The
:07:59. > :08:04.power of Clint Eastwood is, that this was his first AD he had been
:08:04. > :08:08.working with for years, it was his first directing, he made a good
:08:08. > :08:12.first of it, it was not great script. Did this film have to be
:08:12. > :08:16.made. He wanted to do it for his guy? It felt a bit of a favour, I
:08:16. > :08:22.hate saying that. You have produced my films and my first AD for years,
:08:22. > :08:27.I will give you one. How often do you want to see clint as a grouchy
:08:27. > :08:33.old guy, I liked him in Unforgiven, he was an old guy 20 years ago,
:08:33. > :08:37.that was 20 years ago. I love him, after 40, 550 years of great movies,
:08:37. > :08:43.he's allowed this one. This one, it is an interesting idea. We have
:08:43. > :08:47.grown up with all sorts of people brilliant actors who are older and
:08:47. > :08:50.get parts. Jack Nicholson is one of them. The idea that Kathleen, I was
:08:50. > :08:54.going to say Kathleen Turner is another one. There should be parts
:08:54. > :08:58.for these people, shouldn't there, in movies. People are living longer,
:08:58. > :09:02.they want to see some of the people they have grown up continue to have
:09:03. > :09:07.a career? Absolutely. When we get the female equivalents of Clint
:09:07. > :09:11.Eastwood, that will be great. I would like to put a tiny word in
:09:11. > :09:16.for this film. It absolutely is fomulaic and clunky and cliched,
:09:16. > :09:19.but my heart was some what melted. It is a very heart-warming film, it
:09:19. > :09:25.is touching, it is ultra conservative, as you say. It is
:09:25. > :09:30.pretty much, you could call it No Country For Old Men, it is
:09:30. > :09:35.essentially saying, bring the old guys back, and chuck the computers
:09:35. > :09:38.out of the window. I think some of the romantic stuff between Justin
:09:38. > :09:43.Timberlake and Amy Adams is rather nicely done. And there were nice
:09:43. > :09:46.scenes when they are knocking back tequila and testing each other on
:09:46. > :09:49.their baseball knowledge, all of which was entirely news to me, I
:09:49. > :09:52.know absolutely nothing about baseball. But it is not a complete
:09:52. > :09:56.disaster. You are right the film didn't need to be made, but you
:09:56. > :10:00.won't have an awful time if you go to see it. I was baffled, I don't
:10:00. > :10:04.know anything about American sport, Any Given Sunday, it is like a film
:10:04. > :10:07.in Chinese with subtitles, I have no idea, what they are talking
:10:07. > :10:15.about! Trouble With The Curve is in cinemas now. A celebration of one
:10:15. > :10:20.of the last great couturiers opened at Somerset House in London
:10:20. > :10:26.yesterday, Valentino: Master of Couture is a major retrospective of
:10:26. > :10:36.his career in the fashion industry. Celebrating couture garments from
:10:36. > :10:37.
:10:37. > :10:43.his archive. Valentino's creations have caressed the curves of some of
:10:43. > :10:48.the most powerful and influential women in the world. Amongst them
:10:48. > :10:52.Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, whose wedding dress in 1968 features in
:10:52. > :11:00.the exhibition. Jackie, she was somebody that she loves to see the
:11:00. > :11:06.collection. Maybe I did three or four times some special things for
:11:06. > :11:13.her. I remember going twice, or three times here in the United
:11:13. > :11:17.States, with parts of the collection. She loved to choose
:11:17. > :11:23.from the collection. Automatically if she choose something important
:11:23. > :11:26.as a garment, I was very careful not to give it to anybody else.
:11:26. > :11:33.Valentino claims never to compromise his vision, regardless
:11:33. > :11:43.of his client's profile or notoriety. I have always been
:11:43. > :11:48.extremely, extremely normal with my customers. To try to explain what
:11:48. > :11:54.they like, what they saw in the collection. I did accept somebody
:11:54. > :11:58.then saying I want this and that, I don't like that. No, I said, if you
:11:58. > :12:08.don't like, forget. But you have to listen to me.
:12:08. > :12:15.The wedding dress of New York socialite Marie Chantelle-Clare is
:12:15. > :12:21.the centre of the exhibition. It is lavished with lace and pearls. She
:12:21. > :12:26.married the Crown Prince of Greece in 1995. If you do couture and high
:12:26. > :12:30.-- Haute Couture and high fashion, they sculpture your body. The
:12:30. > :12:38.client expects this. When I'm creating a collection,
:12:38. > :12:43.automatically on top of my girl, or model, I try to figure out in my
:12:43. > :12:48.mind the translation to a normal lady, what we have to do to make
:12:48. > :12:51.the body like the girl that I have in front of me.
:12:51. > :12:57.Judging from his prolific output over 50 years, Valentino seems
:12:57. > :13:01.never to have suffered from the designer's equivalent of writers
:13:01. > :13:06.block. Ideas come, you know, you sit down at the table in front of
:13:06. > :13:12.you, with a pencil and piece of paper, and you start to draw.
:13:12. > :13:22.Making, very easily, 60, 70, maybe 100 drawings in one day. I did so
:13:22. > :13:29.many drawings in my life that I, I can make the saloon of Versailles,
:13:29. > :13:33.or with the tapestry with my drawings! Did you feel transported
:13:33. > :13:38.into a make-believe rich world of Valentino? I have to be honest,
:13:38. > :13:42.when I used to cover the shows for the Guardian, I never envoid the
:13:42. > :13:47.Valentino shows. It is like being force fed sponge sugar, it is so
:13:47. > :13:52.sweet and beautiful. He's a good designer to have an exhibition, you
:13:52. > :13:56.don't need fashion goggle, it is about prettyness and beauty.
:13:56. > :13:59.Fashion exhibitions can feel like walking into Harvey Nichols with
:13:59. > :14:03.dressed mannequins, Somerset House have tried to do a clever thing,
:14:03. > :14:08.setting it up like a fashion show. People walk in between the dresses,
:14:08. > :14:11.like they are the models. That set- up was problematic. They have some
:14:11. > :14:16.of the mannequins, and next to them are empty seats, with names on them,
:14:16. > :14:20.as you are going on to a fashion show. The first names are Jennifer
:14:20. > :14:24.Lopez and Lady Gaga, that felt incredibly tacky. The traims on the
:14:24. > :14:28.seats have nothing to do -- the names on the seats have nothing to
:14:28. > :14:33.do with the mannequins, you have no idea why they are there. I thought
:14:33. > :14:38.the setting was wonderful, I loved the idea that you were on the
:14:38. > :14:41.catwalk, you could reach out and see the dress. Some were beyond the
:14:41. > :14:45.prety, because of the craftswomanship, he has been
:14:45. > :14:50.working with the same women for years, you can appreciate the
:14:50. > :14:55.artistry of the dresses. The one called Budellini, the wool with the
:14:55. > :15:03.silk around it, it is extraordinary stuff. The best bit was the end,
:15:03. > :15:06.where they showed how each bit of the lace was made. I wanted that
:15:06. > :15:11.before so you know what you are looking at. It was for people in
:15:11. > :15:13.the know, almost, the exhibition, I thought some of the dresses were
:15:13. > :15:17.absolutely beautiful, I thought the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis wedding
:15:17. > :15:22.dress was wonderful. We managed to get some footage, I wanted
:15:22. > :15:25.photographs of people, the people that the dressing were made for
:15:25. > :15:33.wearing them. It would have given me context and era? What you had
:15:33. > :15:39.instead, when you walked in, was this is my world from Valentino. So
:15:39. > :15:45.signed photos from Princess Diana, and Diana Freeland, and letters
:15:45. > :15:50.from Anna Wintour, saying "thank you for a magical weekend". It was
:15:50. > :15:55.a huge name-drop. What has this to do with the art. I'm not a fashion
:15:55. > :15:59.fan, I have never been to a fashion show or fashion event. I'm not
:15:59. > :16:03.interested, it might be shocking, I'm not. I thought the dresses,
:16:03. > :16:11.some of them, were equisitely beautiful. I could see that this
:16:11. > :16:15.was the work of an artist, actually, and a master craftsman. When you
:16:15. > :16:20.saw the incredible intricate, fiddley techniques they did,
:16:20. > :16:24.amazing. But for me it was like a glimpse of a court, a court I found
:16:24. > :16:29.repellent, it was all about celebrity and money. It didn't have
:16:30. > :16:36.to be about celebrity. That was the interesting, the way it was Made In
:16:36. > :16:40.Chelsea it like celebrity? That's true. But it is clearly all about
:16:40. > :16:43.celebty. The people he designs for are unbelievably rich, he wants
:16:43. > :16:47.people to know, clearly about Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. It is
:16:48. > :16:52.all about celebrity and an incredibly rarified world. Can you
:16:52. > :16:56.say you can appreciate it without being able to afford it. You can
:16:56. > :17:00.appreciate a Picasso but you can't afford it? You can. But obviously
:17:00. > :17:04.the Picasso is in a private house, people won't see it. If you are
:17:04. > :17:10.talking Michael Jackson, as we will later, or much art is on public
:17:10. > :17:14.display. This stuff is in people's wardrobes. It is for very, very,
:17:14. > :17:19.very rich people. The way it was set out, and you had the red
:17:19. > :17:25.collection, the bading and the lace. What they had done, rather than
:17:25. > :17:30.doing it chronologically, they did the It Take Two people working with
:17:30. > :17:39.Valentino, and some of their pieces, you sat the thread of the Italian
:17:39. > :17:44.couture house. There were elements of Valentino still there. They were
:17:44. > :17:48.an artistic era, particularly the 1960s? What was odd was how they
:17:48. > :17:52.arranged it by colour, so Valentino, with the emphasis on aesthetics,
:17:52. > :17:57.rather than useful to people. know your design aesthetic is
:17:57. > :18:02.different, but as a film producer and somebody who is actually
:18:02. > :18:05.putting a look and style, as well as a content on film, it is
:18:05. > :18:11.important, isn't it, to get that right? It is everything, what
:18:11. > :18:17.people are wearing on screen, very rarely is anybody nude on the film,
:18:17. > :18:24.the clothes have to look good. Especially costumes, superhero
:18:24. > :18:31.costumes. I'm sure he will make you a cape if you wanted it? I felt out
:18:31. > :18:35.of my depth, remember than taxi driver who ended up on Newsnight,
:18:35. > :18:39.that is what I felt like. If you have a fabulous wedding you dress
:18:39. > :18:44.in a fabulous outfit? It is a very superficial world. But it is find
:18:44. > :18:48.of fun, it is just dressing-up. Even the people wearing the red
:18:49. > :18:57.carpet are not owning them, they are borrowing, it is part of the
:18:57. > :19:02.game. I'm not interested in it, I'm more George at Asda rather than
:19:02. > :19:04.Gerogio Armani. Does it belong in a museum? I do think so, the tech
:19:04. > :19:09.kneeings are amazing, that should have been more than the celebrities.
:19:09. > :19:13.Part of this rare filed world, what you were saying, they could have
:19:13. > :19:23.manufacture -- rarified world, what you were saying, they could have
:19:23. > :19:26.brought more of that. He's part of the dolce vita world, he's part of
:19:26. > :19:33.that, that world is gone, there won't be the couture world again.
:19:33. > :19:39.That is why he's so famous, Carl Largerfeld is another designer like
:19:39. > :19:44.that, he's been good at making himself a cartoon and keeping up
:19:44. > :19:49.with the times. But Valentino isn't into that. Valentino: Master of
:19:49. > :19:53.Couture continues at Somerset House until March 3rd. It is 25 years
:19:53. > :19:58.since Michael Jackson released Bad, the last of three pop albums, that
:19:58. > :20:04.represent the pinnacle of Michael Jackson's music career. Friend and
:20:04. > :20:12.superfan, Spike Lee, has a feature- length documentary he has produced,
:20:12. > :20:18.which aims to reinstate Jackson's reputation as the king of pop.
:20:18. > :20:23.Spike Lee is best known for his brand of bold polemic films, often
:20:23. > :20:32.exploring racial tension. In this two-hour deepltry, Lee has opted
:20:32. > :20:36.for an out-and-out celebration of his childhood hero.
:20:36. > :20:43.Lee was determined to focus on the music. He goes through the album
:20:43. > :20:48.song by song, with testimony from a comprehensive line-up of Jackson's
:20:48. > :20:53.collaborators. # You knock me off my feet now baby
:20:53. > :21:03.Everything stopped, we had to stop shooting, because people just froze.
:21:03. > :21:03.
:21:03. > :21:09.They actually froze. The film provides ample evidence of
:21:09. > :21:13.Jackson's vocal talents, but also through extensive rehearsal footage,
:21:13. > :21:16.his unique skills as a dancer and choreographer. He took what was
:21:16. > :21:20.formated as a choreographer, and he learned it to the point where he
:21:20. > :21:27.could break out of it when he wanted to and get right back into
:21:27. > :21:32.it. Without skipping a beat. Michael would spin and snap out of
:21:32. > :21:37.it, grab himself, Hoooo. Made in collaboration with the
:21:37. > :21:44.Jackson estate, the film is packed with enough detail and previously
:21:44. > :21:48.unseen footage to satisfy devoted fans. Although Bad 25 revitalises
:21:48. > :21:57.his musical legacy. Does it tell us anything about the inner thoughts
:21:57. > :22:02.of the artist himself. So, a celebration, but did it
:22:02. > :22:06.actually, in some way help you learn more about him, his
:22:06. > :22:10.choreography, and the way he worked with other artists? You absolutely
:22:10. > :22:17.do, I thought it was a wonderful film. Two hours ten minutes is a
:22:17. > :22:25.real luxury, but it makes you realise how rare you have this
:22:25. > :22:30.leisurely space to build up layers and a picture of him.Ly lowly has
:22:30. > :22:34.assembled a vast cast of witnesses, people in the music industry who
:22:34. > :22:39.have worked with him. What he has done, it is not about the inner man,
:22:39. > :22:43.it doesn't reveal a huge amount, it is a portrait of the artist, it is
:22:43. > :22:49.a portrait of an artist in a much more general sense. It is about the
:22:49. > :22:52.whole process of what goes into making art. This is about the
:22:52. > :22:58.extraordinary perfectionism, drive, attention to detail, obsessive work
:22:58. > :23:02.that made up an amazing performer, dancer, musician, et cetera. At the
:23:02. > :23:06.earlier and pinnacle of his career. It was extraordinary, watching, now
:23:06. > :23:10.even watching back at those music videos you realise nobody can dance
:23:10. > :23:15.like him, even now? I was outraged watching it. I started off kind of
:23:15. > :23:24.thinking get to the meat. Because Spike Lee, we all love him, he's a
:23:24. > :23:30.director I really respect. It was like someone doing one about Hitler,
:23:30. > :23:35.and glossing over what we all want to see. It is not glossing over it,
:23:35. > :23:39.he starts off with the bit with James Baldwin quoting what he says
:23:39. > :23:49.about freaks, saying they are the people who echo our deep Estherors,
:23:49. > :23:54.we know that about Michael Jackson. We -- deepest fears. We know that
:23:54. > :23:58.about Michael Jackson, he's showing the other side of it. The one
:23:58. > :24:02.problem is there is a gaping hole that he didn't get an interview
:24:02. > :24:06.with Quincy Jones, that is strange. Quincy Jones is the man to talk
:24:06. > :24:11.best about Jackson's development as a solo artist. Produced the first
:24:11. > :24:15.two albums and then this. It is odd that's not there. He fills it up
:24:15. > :24:20.with, some things are great, the stuff from the or could go fares
:24:20. > :24:29.are fantastic, how -- choreographers are fantastic, the
:24:29. > :24:33.third man in bandwagon taking inspiration from that, and it shows
:24:33. > :24:39.how inspired he was with music before he disappeared into
:24:39. > :24:43.Neverland. It is such a hagiography. Nobody refuses Spike Lee an
:24:43. > :24:50.interview, if he wants to talk to you and do a film you go, that's
:24:50. > :24:55.fine? There was no context. This album sold half as much as Thriller,
:24:55. > :25:01.how did Michael Jackson feel about it. To pad it out with celebrities
:25:01. > :25:04.like Chris Brown. Justin Bieber, I'm sorry? Chris Brown, I have no
:25:04. > :25:08.interest in his opinion, he's best known for beating up his popstar
:25:08. > :25:14.girlfriend, I don't care what he says about Jackson. One of the best
:25:14. > :25:19.stories, and if you are going to put Michael Jackson And Prince
:25:19. > :25:22.together, I'm a great fan. The interview where they allowed him to
:25:22. > :25:27.be weird, somebody arranged a meeting. He comes in and thinks
:25:27. > :25:33.Prince has put a hex on him. Even early on he had a bit of a problem.
:25:33. > :25:37.You can't say the weirdness didn't come through. The very making of
:25:37. > :25:42.the he insists on calling them short films rather than videos, but
:25:42. > :25:49.the Bad one, and I mean, the waerdness of it. He's in a dirt --
:25:49. > :25:55.weirdness of it, he's in a dirty car park, he hasn't seen one before.
:25:55. > :25:59.Here is this incredibly effeminate, too shy to kiss a girl, and
:25:59. > :26:05.desspraitly trying to sell himself to the African -- desperately
:26:05. > :26:09.trying to sell himself to the African-American community as bad.
:26:09. > :26:13.I think the entertainment industry has this thing of forgiving the
:26:13. > :26:18.worst of crimes, we have seen it with Saville, and in the states.
:26:18. > :26:21.All the celebrities sit round and say it isn't true and support each
:26:21. > :26:25.other. Spike Lee has done a bit of revision here. The worst bit was
:26:25. > :26:29.the end, when you have all the talking head, to say where they
:26:29. > :26:32.were when they heard he died. Who cares. More interesting would be
:26:32. > :26:37.when was the last time they spoke to him, and what was he look. You
:26:37. > :26:42.don't need to talk about that. Maybe because he did shut himself
:26:42. > :26:49.away in Neverland, and there were all the lawsuits, it is true we
:26:49. > :26:53.won't know? What we will know about him, we will never know what he
:26:53. > :26:57.thought himself about anything? get tiny glimpses, like someone
:26:57. > :27:02.quoting him saying "I would give anything to be able to stand in a
:27:02. > :27:06.corner of the room and see the world from the point of view of
:27:06. > :27:09.real people". You get poignant glimpses, there is a political
:27:09. > :27:13.agenda. This was Lee low as a very significant African-American,
:27:13. > :27:17.making a film about the most significant African-American
:27:17. > :27:23.popstar, ever. What for me was very touching, we all know the bad stuff.
:27:23. > :27:26.I do agree you could argue that it looks as if it is hagiography and
:27:26. > :27:30.it is pushing the rest of the picture out. I feel we all know it,
:27:30. > :27:33.and it is a redressing of the balance. What this is also about,
:27:33. > :27:38.is what this man meant to black people throughout the world. To
:27:38. > :27:42.millions and millions of black people. Are they reclaiming that
:27:42. > :27:47.for them. The whole idea, pushing and telling us about those gospel
:27:47. > :27:52.roots, deconstructing some of those songs, and taking it back to the
:27:52. > :27:55.basics, that, for me, was the most interesting part? I felt this album
:27:55. > :27:59.is strong enough to withstand straight talking. That doesn't mean
:27:59. > :28:03.the bad rumours. Saying how it wasn't as big as Thriller, there
:28:03. > :28:09.are some things really weird, the thing about being scared of the
:28:09. > :28:15.outside world because he was so sheltered. The Garrett stuff was
:28:15. > :28:20.great, she decided to go to do an album and Sheryl Crow comes on?
:28:20. > :28:24.brings platitudes in, we have plenty of that. All about nobody
:28:24. > :28:30.danced like him. She said he changed the molecules in the room.
:28:30. > :28:33.That is the nice way of putting the alchemy when there is really good
:28:33. > :28:36.work. And Jackson talked about the mystery of the creative process, I
:28:36. > :28:41.felt I learned more about the mystery of the creative process
:28:41. > :28:50.through this. There was one point when his voice coach said he had a
:28:50. > :28:57.deep voice, and it was con tra-alto and then you heard the prakti.
:28:57. > :29:01.is definitive documentary because it isly lowly, it is like the Bob
:29:01. > :29:07.Lee documentary that went for the close-up. He couldn't because it
:29:07. > :29:12.was commissioned by Sony. I see it as an advert. Advert or not, Bad 25
:29:12. > :29:15.is on BBC Two at 9.45 tomorrow night. We all like to pick up and
:29:15. > :29:22.thumb through a diary, especially the inner thoughts of someone else,
:29:23. > :29:26.even Michael Jackson. The TV drama Housewife 49, and Call The Midwife,
:29:26. > :29:30.started out as the personal journals of ordinary women during
:29:30. > :29:33.and after the Second World War. There is a new addition to the
:29:33. > :29:37.genre. These Wonderful Rumours is the war
:29:37. > :29:42.time diary of May Smith, a young school teacher in Swadlincote in
:29:42. > :29:49.Derbyshire. Her journals give a snapshot of life on the home front
:29:49. > :29:55.over seven years. "Thursday, November 28th, 1949, war time, yet
:29:55. > :29:59.so far not so very different from peacetime, except for the backout,
:29:59. > :30:05.early closing of school, and the appearance of uniform in nearly
:30:05. > :30:12.every public place. We will feel the pinch more on January 8th,
:30:12. > :30:16.thank goodness the Christmas dinner won't be stinted." May recalls war
:30:16. > :30:20.alongside personal struggles, trials in the classroom, disastrous
:30:20. > :30:25.perms, and preserving silk stockings from laddering. All
:30:25. > :30:29.aspects of every day life are affected. Travelling in this here
:30:29. > :30:36.war is the last bit of refined torture. To get to Burton, once
:30:36. > :30:42.simple, is a herculean task, which combines the patience of Job and
:30:42. > :30:47.the tenacity of a bulldog. To be timid, polite and unselfish, is
:30:47. > :30:53.fatal. May's biggest problem is juggling rival suitors, old friend
:30:53. > :30:58.Freddie, and the steadfast Dougie. "Dear Freddie's birthday, ring him
:30:58. > :31:02.up as a great concession. Get my old hat remodelled, and greeted
:31:02. > :31:06.with hoots of derision, I will never wear it. Unexpected phone
:31:06. > :31:11.call from Dougie, he rings up to say he won't be able to come next
:31:11. > :31:19.weekend, as he has had his papers and going into the army. Feel very
:31:19. > :31:22.sorry, I'm not sorry he isn't coming, I think it is as well he
:31:22. > :31:26.shouldn't". These Wonderful Rumours offers a funny look into war time.
:31:26. > :31:29.Does it reveal anything new about a period so well studied in books and
:31:29. > :31:34.on film. Was there anything unexpected?
:31:34. > :31:40.really. But I think the whole point of it was just a Downton Abbey
:31:40. > :31:44.experience, it was something charm, or Call The Midwife, when things
:31:45. > :31:49.are scary outside and the economy is a mess, retreat back to 1948, it
:31:49. > :31:53.is cosy. When I read it, I thought she had written it to be read, or
:31:53. > :31:58.turned into what was to become television, or radio? It is crazily
:31:58. > :32:01.good, so much so, I'm suspicious that it might be a fake. It is so
:32:01. > :32:07.well written. Alan Clarke's direry, there is nothing worse than boring
:32:07. > :32:13.diaries, this woman can write. It was interesting that this man
:32:13. > :32:17.tackled his mum's diaries, I wouldn't like to see into my mum's
:32:17. > :32:21.head. Especially when talking about her future husband? I was like
:32:21. > :32:25.going, did she write that? She does write beautifully. I absolutely
:32:25. > :32:30.think she was writing for publication. Then she's a big fan
:32:30. > :32:34.of the Provincial Lady, she had that in her head. At one point
:32:34. > :32:37.somebody asks her is this going to be published, she said it will be
:32:37. > :32:41.bequeathed to the nation! It is in her head all the time. That
:32:42. > :32:46.explains a lot of the archness of it. It is fatastically arch.
:32:46. > :32:52.Although it is witty and as certificatic about, and at times,
:32:52. > :32:57.very funny, -- acerbic and at times, very funny, it was too much irony.
:32:57. > :33:01.I was longing for real feeling. She's not very sympathetic? The way
:33:01. > :33:07.she talked, it is fine at first, but she talks about Dougie dear,
:33:07. > :33:14.she's stringing along to get the vegtables and the odd cockerel at
:33:14. > :33:21.Christmas. Dear predy and faithless Freddie, it takes five years before
:33:21. > :33:26.she says lovely days. Before that it is endless outings to cinema,
:33:26. > :33:29.moaning about bad perms, weight gain. In the end I thought I'm only
:33:29. > :33:33.ploughing on to find out which of the poor saps will be landed with
:33:33. > :33:36.you. I wanted more genuine stuff about the war. Maybe it reminded me
:33:36. > :33:41.that for a lot of people what they knew about the war was scant, it
:33:41. > :33:44.was the wireless, the odd bulletin going into the cinema. But it was a
:33:44. > :33:54.far off thing of which she knew little? For me, as an American,
:33:54. > :33:58.reading how English she started, "Herr Hitler has invaded Poland,
:33:58. > :34:02.ghastly!" that was sweet, I would have liked more from her son at the
:34:02. > :34:06.end. You get the one page about she and this man, had a very happy and
:34:06. > :34:13.long matter aing. You don't hear what she was like as a -- marriage.
:34:13. > :34:18.You don't hear what she was like as a mother or you don't get which men
:34:18. > :34:22.she liked. I strongly disliked her in the end. I thought she was a war
:34:22. > :34:28.time Bridget Jones, self-obsessed as all young people are. Going on,
:34:28. > :34:34.and the whole world is shattered, when the rations come in, she says
:34:34. > :34:38.shattering news, you think she hasn't mentioned the invasion of
:34:38. > :34:42.this country. She never, ever talks about any affection, there is the
:34:42. > :34:45.odd occasion talking about kids in the snow, about the kids she's
:34:45. > :34:48.teaching? When her grandfather and grandmother dies she's completely
:34:48. > :34:52.unmoved. I thought she was a heartless bitch. I really did.
:34:52. > :34:55.you think the cast of characters was such it would have helped to
:34:55. > :34:59.have a glossary, to give us an idea of the cast of character, there
:34:59. > :35:03.were people keeping popping up, that is the problem. You want
:35:03. > :35:07.stronger editing, I thought there was a lot of reputation, and as you
:35:07. > :35:12.say, too much of going to the hairdresser, popping along. We
:35:12. > :35:16.could have done with less of that? It was only in the last two years
:35:16. > :35:21.compressed into the short period, she was galloping through. That was
:35:21. > :35:27.the only time I got anything approximating any feeling. For most
:35:27. > :35:35.of the 400-pages, I thought I don't know who you are, I don't have a
:35:36. > :35:40.clue of you except this writing for stuff for a reader. You realise how
:35:41. > :35:45.lovely it would be to keep a diary, you think you do with Twitter. The
:35:45. > :35:50.thing that horrifies me is my kids in the future will dig up my tweets
:35:50. > :35:53.about X Factor and everyone will think I'm an idiot. To burst your
:35:53. > :35:58.bubble, I don't think they will! Earlier this week we heard about a
:35:58. > :36:05.rather unusual new model on the fashion scene. We have already seen
:36:06. > :36:11.young men modelling women's clothes and visa versa. This is the first
:36:11. > :36:15.time we have seen a 72-year-old man modelling clothes intended for
:36:15. > :36:19.teenage girls. Liu Qianpang is the new Chinese fashion internet
:36:19. > :36:23.sensation, and grandfather of 24- year-old Lu Ting, who runs an on-
:36:23. > :36:28.line fashion business. The former farmer was visiting his
:36:29. > :36:32.granddaughter at the work, when the model she booked for her shoot
:36:32. > :36:42.cancelled at the last minute. Intrigued by the clothes being
:36:42. > :37:08.
:37:08. > :37:12.packed into boxes, he started to Lu Ting's grandfather didn't just
:37:12. > :37:22.model the clothing for the shoot. He had a hand in putting the
:37:22. > :37:46.
:37:46. > :37:49.The pictures are a viral sensation. Liu Qianpang appeared on television
:37:49. > :37:54.in Shanghai, and has been approached by modelling companies,
:37:54. > :38:00.but he has turned them down. His nickname, MaDiGaGa, or "funny
:38:00. > :38:04.elderly", couldn't be more apt. Transcending age barriers, has this
:38:04. > :38:09.new recruit arrived at the perfect time for the fashion industry. And
:38:09. > :38:14.would Valentino ever dress this Grandpa in his finest couture. It
:38:14. > :38:18.makes me think of Bennetton ads. Do you think this is too out there for
:38:18. > :38:22.Valentino? No, the fashion industry loves a new thing. Whether it is
:38:22. > :38:27.butting someone plumper than usual on the runway, or an older woman.
:38:27. > :38:32.They tend to be one-offs, it is brief fascinations the fashion
:38:32. > :38:37.industry gets. There is a new interest in older models. We have
:38:37. > :38:43.seen it with marks and senser. Guardian has blazed a trail with
:38:43. > :38:50.that. With all ages. The Gentlewomen, a fashion magazine has
:38:50. > :38:57.put older women on the covers. You have people like Charlotte Rampling
:38:57. > :39:02.who get on the front of Vogue. I think this is a one off. Is this a
:39:02. > :39:05.fashion story rather than a catwalk story? It has the human interest,
:39:05. > :39:10.unlike Valentino, which you felt had no human feeling in any way at
:39:10. > :39:16.all. In a way, no wonder this guy looks fantastic, he's a very skinny
:39:16. > :39:26.man. And essentially, clothing, Haute Couture is designed for very
:39:26. > :39:28.
:39:28. > :39:32.skinny prepubesant boys, no wornd. A Glasgow -- Wonder. A Glasgow
:39:32. > :39:35.granddad wouldn't look like this. You were talking about your kids on
:39:35. > :39:39.Twitter, this is gone viral on the Internet. It will probably turn her
:39:39. > :39:48.business into something quite different? I can't believe I missed
:39:48. > :39:52.this, I was watching rubbish all day and missed that.
:39:52. > :39:55.That's nearly all for this week. My thanks to Hadley Freeman Christina
:39:55. > :39:59.Patterson and Mark Mailar. Next week matter that will be here with
:39:59. > :40:04.a book special, including the 50th anniversary of Clockwork Orange,
:40:04. > :40:12.and Hallucination, the new book from Oliver Sachs. Lana Del Rey is