Browse content similar to 30/11/2012. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Tonight on Review, Clint Eastwood steps back from directing to play a | :00:17. | :00:23. | |
growly, grizzly, even doddery old talent scout, in the latest film in | :00:23. | :00:25. | |
the baseball genre. Have you thought about what you might do | :00:25. | :00:29. | |
when your contract is up. Sure, sign another one for more money. | :00:29. | :00:35. | |
The art of couture, fabulous frocks by the man loved by everyone from | :00:35. | :00:42. | |
Jackie O to Julia Roberts. Bomb shelters and tedious beaus, the war | :00:42. | :00:50. | |
time diaries of a school teacher. Spike Lee, Martin Scorsese and | :00:50. | :00:53. | |
Sheryl Crow, and a huge cast of characters give it up for Michael | :00:53. | :00:58. | |
Jackson's musical genius. And, you have got the look, the | :00:58. | :01:03. | |
grandfather that is an internet sensation. | :01:03. | :01:09. | |
Joining me tonight are the journalist and fags writer, Hadley | :01:09. | :01:13. | |
Freeman, the journalist Mark Mailar, and Christina Patterson, columnist | :01:13. | :01:16. | |
for the Independent. Trouble With The Curve swings into cinemas this | :01:16. | :01:21. | |
week, and it is Clint Eastwood's first outing since his unexpected | :01:21. | :01:27. | |
appearance at one of Mitt Romney's conventions. Eastwood has vacated | :01:27. | :01:31. | |
the director's chair, to make way for his long time assistant, Robert | :01:31. | :01:38. | |
Lorenz. Are you home? No. I guess I can | :01:38. | :01:46. | |
come in. Son of a bitch. Time I'm not up on? Fengsmei don't you know | :01:46. | :01:50. | |
anything. At the heart of Trouble With The Curve, is the relationship | :01:50. | :01:53. | |
between Gus Lobel, the legendary scout for the Atlanta Brave's | :01:53. | :01:59. | |
baseball team, played by Eastwood, and his daughter, Nicky, a high- | :01:59. | :02:04. | |
flying lawyer, played by Amy Adams. Gus is hiding his health problems | :02:04. | :02:07. | |
from his daughter and colleagues who have begun to question his | :02:07. | :02:10. | |
abilities. Gus, have you thought about what you might do when your | :02:10. | :02:18. | |
contract is up? Sure, sign another one for more money! Ever think | :02:18. | :02:24. | |
about retirement? What's this all about? There is just a lot of | :02:24. | :02:29. | |
pressure might now. Mickey joins her father on a scouting trip to | :02:29. | :02:35. | |
North Carolina that to keep an eye on him. At first it seems too late | :02:35. | :02:37. | |
to repair their dysfuntional relationship. You should be back | :02:37. | :02:42. | |
home doing your job, same as I'm doing my job here. If it make as | :02:42. | :02:46. | |
difference I'm doing it for Pete, he thought you could use some | :02:46. | :02:54. | |
company. He's wrong, wait until I see that horse's ass. Inevitably, | :02:54. | :02:58. | |
father and daughter find they have more in common than they think. | :02:58. | :03:01. | |
don't like baseball. I love baseball, I didn't want to be | :03:01. | :03:05. | |
lawyer, I did it so you would be happy with me and approve of him | :03:05. | :03:09. | |
and maybe keep me around. I did what I felt was right. I didn't | :03:09. | :03:13. | |
want you to have life in the cheap seats that is all. They weren't the | :03:13. | :03:17. | |
cheap seats. On paper, Clint Eastwood playing a | :03:17. | :03:21. | |
grouchy old man doesn't seem like much of a stretch, but can the | :03:22. | :03:26. | |
screen legend breathe life into this tale of infirmity and almost | :03:26. | :03:32. | |
oblessance. We are now used to knowing that | :03:32. | :03:35. | |
Clint Eastwood is a damn fine director, was it reassuring to have | :03:35. | :03:41. | |
him back on screen? Well, in lots of ways it was. I mean, his | :03:41. | :03:45. | |
performance is fine, I wouldn't say it is a great performance. It is | :03:45. | :03:50. | |
nice to see an old person on a cinema screen, frankly, it is a bit | :03:50. | :03:54. | |
unprecedented, perhaps you have to be Clint Eastwood. Or Henry Fonda | :03:54. | :04:01. | |
in On Golden Pond? Yes, that is two out of all the films out every year. | :04:01. | :04:07. | |
"nice" seems the word to use about the whole thing. Cliche-ridden, | :04:07. | :04:14. | |
stock-characters, fomulaic, a bit tired, clunking dialogue. But, on | :04:14. | :04:19. | |
positive side, there came for me, I'm a sucker for a romcom, I | :04:19. | :04:23. | |
thought they were laying it on with a trowel in the beginning, | :04:23. | :04:26. | |
establishing the idea that he was grappling with old age, and so many | :04:26. | :04:29. | |
in different ways. One scene would have done it, they had about four. | :04:29. | :04:33. | |
To have both the not being able to pee scene and falling over the | :04:33. | :04:37. | |
furniture? Before I say anything horrible, I have to say I love | :04:37. | :04:41. | |
Clint Eastwood, he's the most important figure in cinema history, | :04:41. | :04:46. | |
an icon twice over, for 30 years running in the top ten directors, | :04:46. | :04:50. | |
more consistent in the last three decades than Spielberg, it was a | :04:50. | :04:54. | |
howler, I didn't enjoy it. Every cliche in the book. You didn't | :04:54. | :04:58. | |
think there was some, the idea of the father-daughter, it is not new, | :04:58. | :05:02. | |
but Amy Adams is such a brilliant actress as well? There was so many | :05:03. | :05:05. | |
great people. Justin Timberlake, people may laugh, is a great actor. | :05:05. | :05:11. | |
He's really good f you put him in the right thing, he was a bit of a | :05:11. | :05:15. | |
dick. Don't make him the likeable lead or romantic interest, nobody's | :05:15. | :05:19. | |
buying him chasing a girl. How many baseball films have we had, | :05:19. | :05:24. | |
Moneyball, A League of their Own, Field of Dreams, we are back at | :05:25. | :05:29. | |
baseball. What is the desire to go back to baseball? It is a cinematic | :05:29. | :05:33. | |
sport, because it is so beautiful and emblematic of the American | :05:33. | :05:37. | |
dream, and the golden era of America. One of the problems with | :05:37. | :05:40. | |
the film, with cliches and stock character, it comes out a month | :05:41. | :05:45. | |
after the election. And just to let you know, the last time we saw | :05:46. | :05:50. | |
Clint Eastwood was him yelling at a chair at the Republican election, | :05:50. | :05:54. | |
and here we have the opening scene with him yelling at a hair and | :05:54. | :05:59. | |
dining room table. Without dwifg it away, people who rely on data are | :05:59. | :06:02. | |
stupid, and people who trust in numbers are idiots, where as people | :06:02. | :06:06. | |
who trust their gut, the old men, they are the ones to count. That is | :06:06. | :06:11. | |
the opposite of what happened in the election, people like Nate Sill | :06:11. | :06:16. | |
version they were right, and those on Fox News, saying I feel it my | :06:16. | :06:22. | |
gut that Romney is going to win. has better reviews than I would | :06:22. | :06:28. | |
imagine in the states. Is that because of the wonderful affection | :06:28. | :06:32. | |
for Clint Eastwood, and he's an icon. Or it is because they like | :06:32. | :06:37. | |
the films where the little guys always are the, or the old guys, | :06:37. | :06:41. | |
are the ones that always actually triumph over the smart ass | :06:41. | :06:44. | |
youngsters? There is a whole new trend in movies, with older people | :06:44. | :06:48. | |
being the stars. This is older than most. But I think also there is the | :06:48. | :06:53. | |
comfort it in the familiarity, the stories of the father and daughter | :06:53. | :06:59. | |
reunited, life as a metaphor for strike, the 30-year-old woman, | :06:59. | :07:04. | |
working a disaster in sport. These guys that play golf in the off. | :07:04. | :07:07. | |
This is the clip where Amy Adams seems to, for the first time in her | :07:07. | :07:10. | |
life, realise her father has been talking about her when she wasn't | :07:10. | :07:14. | |
there! Actually, I remember him saying he | :07:14. | :07:20. | |
had a daughter in college. Yep, he would say that she was smarter than | :07:20. | :07:25. | |
me and him put together. That's why when I met you, I obviously thought | :07:25. | :07:30. | |
that Gus had another daughter. Doesn't sound like my father, it | :07:30. | :07:35. | |
sounds like a compliment. He said it. Well, he never tells me | :07:35. | :07:38. | |
anything. Maybe he wants to. You know. Doesn't know how. | :07:38. | :07:44. | |
You might have to take the lead. Trust me, I have tried, I'm done. | :07:44. | :07:48. | |
That kind of sets up their relationship. You know, that aside, | :07:48. | :07:52. | |
and that was one of the few scenes that Clint Eastwood was not in. The | :07:52. | :07:59. | |
power of Clint Eastwood is, that this was his first AD he had been | :07:59. | :08:04. | |
working with for years, it was his first directing, he made a good | :08:04. | :08:08. | |
first of it, it was not great script. Did this film have to be | :08:08. | :08:12. | |
made. He wanted to do it for his guy? It felt a bit of a favour, I | :08:12. | :08:16. | |
hate saying that. You have produced my films and my first AD for years, | :08:16. | :08:22. | |
I will give you one. How often do you want to see clint as a grouchy | :08:22. | :08:27. | |
old guy, I liked him in Unforgiven, he was an old guy 20 years ago, | :08:27. | :08:33. | |
that was 20 years ago. I love him, after 40, 550 years of great movies, | :08:33. | :08:37. | |
he's allowed this one. This one, it is an interesting idea. We have | :08:37. | :08:43. | |
grown up with all sorts of people brilliant actors who are older and | :08:43. | :08:47. | |
get parts. Jack Nicholson is one of them. The idea that Kathleen, I was | :08:47. | :08:50. | |
going to say Kathleen Turner is another one. There should be parts | :08:50. | :08:54. | |
for these people, shouldn't there, in movies. People are living longer, | :08:54. | :08:58. | |
they want to see some of the people they have grown up continue to have | :08:58. | :09:02. | |
a career? Absolutely. When we get the female equivalents of Clint | :09:03. | :09:07. | |
Eastwood, that will be great. I would like to put a tiny word in | :09:07. | :09:11. | |
for this film. It absolutely is fomulaic and clunky and cliched, | :09:11. | :09:16. | |
but my heart was some what melted. It is a very heart-warming film, it | :09:16. | :09:19. | |
is touching, it is ultra conservative, as you say. It is | :09:19. | :09:25. | |
pretty much, you could call it No Country For Old Men, it is | :09:25. | :09:30. | |
essentially saying, bring the old guys back, and chuck the computers | :09:30. | :09:35. | |
out of the window. I think some of the romantic stuff between Justin | :09:35. | :09:38. | |
Timberlake and Amy Adams is rather nicely done. And there were nice | :09:38. | :09:43. | |
scenes when they are knocking back tequila and testing each other on | :09:43. | :09:46. | |
their baseball knowledge, all of which was entirely news to me, I | :09:46. | :09:49. | |
know absolutely nothing about baseball. But it is not a complete | :09:49. | :09:52. | |
disaster. You are right the film didn't need to be made, but you | :09:52. | :09:56. | |
won't have an awful time if you go to see it. I was baffled, I don't | :09:56. | :10:00. | |
know anything about American sport, Any Given Sunday, it is like a film | :10:00. | :10:04. | |
in Chinese with subtitles, I have no idea, what they are talking | :10:04. | :10:07. | |
about! Trouble With The Curve is in cinemas now. A celebration of one | :10:07. | :10:15. | |
of the last great couturiers opened at Somerset House in London | :10:15. | :10:20. | |
yesterday, Valentino: Master of Couture is a major retrospective of | :10:20. | :10:26. | |
his career in the fashion industry. Celebrating couture garments from | :10:26. | :10:36. | |
:10:36. | :10:37. | ||
his archive. Valentino's creations have caressed the curves of some of | :10:37. | :10:43. | |
the most powerful and influential women in the world. Amongst them | :10:43. | :10:48. | |
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, whose wedding dress in 1968 features in | :10:48. | :10:52. | |
the exhibition. Jackie, she was somebody that she loves to see the | :10:52. | :11:00. | |
collection. Maybe I did three or four times some special things for | :11:00. | :11:06. | |
her. I remember going twice, or three times here in the United | :11:06. | :11:13. | |
States, with parts of the collection. She loved to choose | :11:13. | :11:17. | |
from the collection. Automatically if she choose something important | :11:17. | :11:23. | |
as a garment, I was very careful not to give it to anybody else. | :11:23. | :11:26. | |
Valentino claims never to compromise his vision, regardless | :11:26. | :11:33. | |
of his client's profile or notoriety. I have always been | :11:33. | :11:43. | |
extremely, extremely normal with my customers. To try to explain what | :11:43. | :11:48. | |
they like, what they saw in the collection. I did accept somebody | :11:48. | :11:54. | |
then saying I want this and that, I don't like that. No, I said, if you | :11:54. | :11:58. | |
don't like, forget. But you have to listen to me. | :11:58. | :12:08. | |
The wedding dress of New York socialite Marie Chantelle-Clare is | :12:08. | :12:15. | |
the centre of the exhibition. It is lavished with lace and pearls. She | :12:15. | :12:21. | |
married the Crown Prince of Greece in 1995. If you do couture and high | :12:21. | :12:26. | |
-- Haute Couture and high fashion, they sculpture your body. The | :12:26. | :12:30. | |
client expects this. When I'm creating a collection, | :12:30. | :12:38. | |
automatically on top of my girl, or model, I try to figure out in my | :12:38. | :12:43. | |
mind the translation to a normal lady, what we have to do to make | :12:43. | :12:48. | |
the body like the girl that I have in front of me. | :12:48. | :12:51. | |
Judging from his prolific output over 50 years, Valentino seems | :12:51. | :12:57. | |
never to have suffered from the designer's equivalent of writers | :12:57. | :13:01. | |
block. Ideas come, you know, you sit down at the table in front of | :13:01. | :13:06. | |
you, with a pencil and piece of paper, and you start to draw. | :13:06. | :13:12. | |
Making, very easily, 60, 70, maybe 100 drawings in one day. I did so | :13:12. | :13:22. | |
many drawings in my life that I, I can make the saloon of Versailles, | :13:22. | :13:29. | |
or with the tapestry with my drawings! Did you feel transported | :13:29. | :13:33. | |
into a make-believe rich world of Valentino? I have to be honest, | :13:33. | :13:38. | |
when I used to cover the shows for the Guardian, I never envoid the | :13:38. | :13:42. | |
Valentino shows. It is like being force fed sponge sugar, it is so | :13:42. | :13:47. | |
sweet and beautiful. He's a good designer to have an exhibition, you | :13:47. | :13:52. | |
don't need fashion goggle, it is about prettyness and beauty. | :13:52. | :13:56. | |
Fashion exhibitions can feel like walking into Harvey Nichols with | :13:56. | :13:59. | |
dressed mannequins, Somerset House have tried to do a clever thing, | :13:59. | :14:03. | |
setting it up like a fashion show. People walk in between the dresses, | :14:03. | :14:08. | |
like they are the models. That set- up was problematic. They have some | :14:08. | :14:11. | |
of the mannequins, and next to them are empty seats, with names on them, | :14:11. | :14:16. | |
as you are going on to a fashion show. The first names are Jennifer | :14:16. | :14:20. | |
Lopez and Lady Gaga, that felt incredibly tacky. The traims on the | :14:20. | :14:24. | |
seats have nothing to do -- the names on the seats have nothing to | :14:24. | :14:28. | |
do with the mannequins, you have no idea why they are there. I thought | :14:28. | :14:33. | |
the setting was wonderful, I loved the idea that you were on the | :14:33. | :14:38. | |
catwalk, you could reach out and see the dress. Some were beyond the | :14:38. | :14:41. | |
prety, because of the craftswomanship, he has been | :14:41. | :14:45. | |
working with the same women for years, you can appreciate the | :14:45. | :14:50. | |
artistry of the dresses. The one called Budellini, the wool with the | :14:50. | :14:55. | |
silk around it, it is extraordinary stuff. The best bit was the end, | :14:55. | :15:03. | |
where they showed how each bit of the lace was made. I wanted that | :15:03. | :15:06. | |
before so you know what you are looking at. It was for people in | :15:06. | :15:11. | |
the know, almost, the exhibition, I thought some of the dresses were | :15:11. | :15:13. | |
absolutely beautiful, I thought the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis wedding | :15:13. | :15:17. | |
dress was wonderful. We managed to get some footage, I wanted | :15:17. | :15:22. | |
photographs of people, the people that the dressing were made for | :15:22. | :15:25. | |
wearing them. It would have given me context and era? What you had | :15:25. | :15:33. | |
instead, when you walked in, was this is my world from Valentino. So | :15:33. | :15:39. | |
signed photos from Princess Diana, and Diana Freeland, and letters | :15:39. | :15:45. | |
from Anna Wintour, saying "thank you for a magical weekend". It was | :15:45. | :15:50. | |
a huge name-drop. What has this to do with the art. I'm not a fashion | :15:50. | :15:55. | |
fan, I have never been to a fashion show or fashion event. I'm not | :15:55. | :15:59. | |
interested, it might be shocking, I'm not. I thought the dresses, | :15:59. | :16:03. | |
some of them, were equisitely beautiful. I could see that this | :16:03. | :16:11. | |
was the work of an artist, actually, and a master craftsman. When you | :16:11. | :16:15. | |
saw the incredible intricate, fiddley techniques they did, | :16:15. | :16:20. | |
amazing. But for me it was like a glimpse of a court, a court I found | :16:20. | :16:24. | |
repellent, it was all about celebrity and money. It didn't have | :16:24. | :16:29. | |
to be about celebrity. That was the interesting, the way it was Made In | :16:30. | :16:36. | |
Chelsea it like celebrity? That's true. But it is clearly all about | :16:36. | :16:40. | |
celebty. The people he designs for are unbelievably rich, he wants | :16:40. | :16:43. | |
people to know, clearly about Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. It is | :16:43. | :16:47. | |
all about celebrity and an incredibly rarified world. Can you | :16:48. | :16:52. | |
say you can appreciate it without being able to afford it. You can | :16:52. | :16:56. | |
appreciate a Picasso but you can't afford it? You can. But obviously | :16:56. | :17:00. | |
the Picasso is in a private house, people won't see it. If you are | :17:00. | :17:04. | |
talking Michael Jackson, as we will later, or much art is on public | :17:04. | :17:10. | |
display. This stuff is in people's wardrobes. It is for very, very, | :17:10. | :17:14. | |
very rich people. The way it was set out, and you had the red | :17:14. | :17:19. | |
collection, the bading and the lace. What they had done, rather than | :17:19. | :17:25. | |
doing it chronologically, they did the It Take Two people working with | :17:25. | :17:30. | |
Valentino, and some of their pieces, you sat the thread of the Italian | :17:30. | :17:39. | |
couture house. There were elements of Valentino still there. They were | :17:39. | :17:44. | |
an artistic era, particularly the 1960s? What was odd was how they | :17:44. | :17:48. | |
arranged it by colour, so Valentino, with the emphasis on aesthetics, | :17:48. | :17:52. | |
rather than useful to people. know your design aesthetic is | :17:52. | :17:57. | |
different, but as a film producer and somebody who is actually | :17:57. | :18:02. | |
putting a look and style, as well as a content on film, it is | :18:02. | :18:05. | |
important, isn't it, to get that right? It is everything, what | :18:05. | :18:11. | |
people are wearing on screen, very rarely is anybody nude on the film, | :18:11. | :18:17. | |
the clothes have to look good. Especially costumes, superhero | :18:17. | :18:24. | |
costumes. I'm sure he will make you a cape if you wanted it? I felt out | :18:24. | :18:31. | |
of my depth, remember than taxi driver who ended up on Newsnight, | :18:31. | :18:35. | |
that is what I felt like. If you have a fabulous wedding you dress | :18:35. | :18:39. | |
in a fabulous outfit? It is a very superficial world. But it is find | :18:39. | :18:44. | |
of fun, it is just dressing-up. Even the people wearing the red | :18:44. | :18:48. | |
carpet are not owning them, they are borrowing, it is part of the | :18:49. | :18:57. | |
game. I'm not interested in it, I'm more George at Asda rather than | :18:57. | :19:02. | |
Gerogio Armani. Does it belong in a museum? I do think so, the tech | :19:02. | :19:04. | |
kneeings are amazing, that should have been more than the celebrities. | :19:04. | :19:09. | |
Part of this rare filed world, what you were saying, they could have | :19:09. | :19:13. | |
manufacture -- rarified world, what you were saying, they could have | :19:13. | :19:23. | |
brought more of that. He's part of the dolce vita world, he's part of | :19:23. | :19:26. | |
that, that world is gone, there won't be the couture world again. | :19:26. | :19:33. | |
That is why he's so famous, Carl Largerfeld is another designer like | :19:33. | :19:39. | |
that, he's been good at making himself a cartoon and keeping up | :19:39. | :19:44. | |
with the times. But Valentino isn't into that. Valentino: Master of | :19:44. | :19:49. | |
Couture continues at Somerset House until March 3rd. It is 25 years | :19:49. | :19:53. | |
since Michael Jackson released Bad, the last of three pop albums, that | :19:53. | :19:58. | |
represent the pinnacle of Michael Jackson's music career. Friend and | :19:58. | :20:04. | |
superfan, Spike Lee, has a feature- length documentary he has produced, | :20:04. | :20:12. | |
which aims to reinstate Jackson's reputation as the king of pop. | :20:12. | :20:18. | |
Spike Lee is best known for his brand of bold polemic films, often | :20:18. | :20:23. | |
exploring racial tension. In this two-hour deepltry, Lee has opted | :20:23. | :20:32. | |
for an out-and-out celebration of his childhood hero. | :20:32. | :20:36. | |
Lee was determined to focus on the music. He goes through the album | :20:36. | :20:43. | |
song by song, with testimony from a comprehensive line-up of Jackson's | :20:43. | :20:48. | |
collaborators. # You knock me off my feet now baby | :20:48. | :20:53. | |
Everything stopped, we had to stop shooting, because people just froze. | :20:53. | :21:03. | |
:21:03. | :21:03. | ||
They actually froze. The film provides ample evidence of | :21:03. | :21:09. | |
Jackson's vocal talents, but also through extensive rehearsal footage, | :21:09. | :21:13. | |
his unique skills as a dancer and choreographer. He took what was | :21:13. | :21:16. | |
formated as a choreographer, and he learned it to the point where he | :21:16. | :21:20. | |
could break out of it when he wanted to and get right back into | :21:20. | :21:27. | |
it. Without skipping a beat. Michael would spin and snap out of | :21:27. | :21:32. | |
it, grab himself, Hoooo. Made in collaboration with the | :21:32. | :21:37. | |
Jackson estate, the film is packed with enough detail and previously | :21:37. | :21:44. | |
unseen footage to satisfy devoted fans. Although Bad 25 revitalises | :21:44. | :21:48. | |
his musical legacy. Does it tell us anything about the inner thoughts | :21:48. | :21:57. | |
of the artist himself. So, a celebration, but did it | :21:57. | :22:02. | |
actually, in some way help you learn more about him, his | :22:02. | :22:06. | |
choreography, and the way he worked with other artists? You absolutely | :22:06. | :22:10. | |
do, I thought it was a wonderful film. Two hours ten minutes is a | :22:10. | :22:17. | |
real luxury, but it makes you realise how rare you have this | :22:17. | :22:25. | |
leisurely space to build up layers and a picture of him.Ly lowly has | :22:25. | :22:30. | |
assembled a vast cast of witnesses, people in the music industry who | :22:30. | :22:34. | |
have worked with him. What he has done, it is not about the inner man, | :22:34. | :22:39. | |
it doesn't reveal a huge amount, it is a portrait of the artist, it is | :22:39. | :22:43. | |
a portrait of an artist in a much more general sense. It is about the | :22:43. | :22:49. | |
whole process of what goes into making art. This is about the | :22:49. | :22:52. | |
extraordinary perfectionism, drive, attention to detail, obsessive work | :22:52. | :22:58. | |
that made up an amazing performer, dancer, musician, et cetera. At the | :22:58. | :23:02. | |
earlier and pinnacle of his career. It was extraordinary, watching, now | :23:02. | :23:06. | |
even watching back at those music videos you realise nobody can dance | :23:06. | :23:10. | |
like him, even now? I was outraged watching it. I started off kind of | :23:10. | :23:15. | |
thinking get to the meat. Because Spike Lee, we all love him, he's a | :23:15. | :23:24. | |
director I really respect. It was like someone doing one about Hitler, | :23:24. | :23:30. | |
and glossing over what we all want to see. It is not glossing over it, | :23:30. | :23:35. | |
he starts off with the bit with James Baldwin quoting what he says | :23:35. | :23:39. | |
about freaks, saying they are the people who echo our deep Estherors, | :23:39. | :23:49. | |
we know that about Michael Jackson. We -- deepest fears. We know that | :23:49. | :23:54. | |
about Michael Jackson, he's showing the other side of it. The one | :23:54. | :23:58. | |
problem is there is a gaping hole that he didn't get an interview | :23:58. | :24:02. | |
with Quincy Jones, that is strange. Quincy Jones is the man to talk | :24:02. | :24:06. | |
best about Jackson's development as a solo artist. Produced the first | :24:06. | :24:11. | |
two albums and then this. It is odd that's not there. He fills it up | :24:11. | :24:15. | |
with, some things are great, the stuff from the or could go fares | :24:15. | :24:20. | |
are fantastic, how -- choreographers are fantastic, the | :24:20. | :24:29. | |
third man in bandwagon taking inspiration from that, and it shows | :24:29. | :24:33. | |
how inspired he was with music before he disappeared into | :24:33. | :24:39. | |
Neverland. It is such a hagiography. Nobody refuses Spike Lee an | :24:39. | :24:43. | |
interview, if he wants to talk to you and do a film you go, that's | :24:43. | :24:50. | |
fine? There was no context. This album sold half as much as Thriller, | :24:50. | :24:55. | |
how did Michael Jackson feel about it. To pad it out with celebrities | :24:55. | :25:01. | |
like Chris Brown. Justin Bieber, I'm sorry? Chris Brown, I have no | :25:01. | :25:04. | |
interest in his opinion, he's best known for beating up his popstar | :25:04. | :25:08. | |
girlfriend, I don't care what he says about Jackson. One of the best | :25:08. | :25:14. | |
stories, and if you are going to put Michael Jackson And Prince | :25:14. | :25:19. | |
together, I'm a great fan. The interview where they allowed him to | :25:19. | :25:22. | |
be weird, somebody arranged a meeting. He comes in and thinks | :25:22. | :25:27. | |
Prince has put a hex on him. Even early on he had a bit of a problem. | :25:27. | :25:33. | |
You can't say the weirdness didn't come through. The very making of | :25:33. | :25:37. | |
the he insists on calling them short films rather than videos, but | :25:37. | :25:42. | |
the Bad one, and I mean, the waerdness of it. He's in a dirt -- | :25:42. | :25:49. | |
weirdness of it, he's in a dirty car park, he hasn't seen one before. | :25:49. | :25:55. | |
Here is this incredibly effeminate, too shy to kiss a girl, and | :25:55. | :25:59. | |
desspraitly trying to sell himself to the African -- desperately | :25:59. | :26:05. | |
trying to sell himself to the African-American community as bad. | :26:05. | :26:09. | |
I think the entertainment industry has this thing of forgiving the | :26:09. | :26:13. | |
worst of crimes, we have seen it with Saville, and in the states. | :26:13. | :26:18. | |
All the celebrities sit round and say it isn't true and support each | :26:18. | :26:21. | |
other. Spike Lee has done a bit of revision here. The worst bit was | :26:21. | :26:25. | |
the end, when you have all the talking head, to say where they | :26:25. | :26:29. | |
were when they heard he died. Who cares. More interesting would be | :26:29. | :26:32. | |
when was the last time they spoke to him, and what was he look. You | :26:32. | :26:37. | |
don't need to talk about that. Maybe because he did shut himself | :26:37. | :26:42. | |
away in Neverland, and there were all the lawsuits, it is true we | :26:42. | :26:49. | |
won't know? What we will know about him, we will never know what he | :26:49. | :26:53. | |
thought himself about anything? get tiny glimpses, like someone | :26:53. | :26:57. | |
quoting him saying "I would give anything to be able to stand in a | :26:57. | :27:02. | |
corner of the room and see the world from the point of view of | :27:02. | :27:06. | |
real people". You get poignant glimpses, there is a political | :27:06. | :27:09. | |
agenda. This was Lee low as a very significant African-American, | :27:09. | :27:13. | |
making a film about the most significant African-American | :27:13. | :27:17. | |
popstar, ever. What for me was very touching, we all know the bad stuff. | :27:17. | :27:23. | |
I do agree you could argue that it looks as if it is hagiography and | :27:23. | :27:26. | |
it is pushing the rest of the picture out. I feel we all know it, | :27:26. | :27:30. | |
and it is a redressing of the balance. What this is also about, | :27:30. | :27:33. | |
is what this man meant to black people throughout the world. To | :27:33. | :27:38. | |
millions and millions of black people. Are they reclaiming that | :27:38. | :27:42. | |
for them. The whole idea, pushing and telling us about those gospel | :27:42. | :27:47. | |
roots, deconstructing some of those songs, and taking it back to the | :27:47. | :27:52. | |
basics, that, for me, was the most interesting part? I felt this album | :27:52. | :27:55. | |
is strong enough to withstand straight talking. That doesn't mean | :27:55. | :27:59. | |
the bad rumours. Saying how it wasn't as big as Thriller, there | :27:59. | :28:03. | |
are some things really weird, the thing about being scared of the | :28:03. | :28:09. | |
outside world because he was so sheltered. The Garrett stuff was | :28:09. | :28:15. | |
great, she decided to go to do an album and Sheryl Crow comes on? | :28:15. | :28:20. | |
brings platitudes in, we have plenty of that. All about nobody | :28:20. | :28:24. | |
danced like him. She said he changed the molecules in the room. | :28:24. | :28:30. | |
That is the nice way of putting the alchemy when there is really good | :28:30. | :28:33. | |
work. And Jackson talked about the mystery of the creative process, I | :28:33. | :28:36. | |
felt I learned more about the mystery of the creative process | :28:36. | :28:41. | |
through this. There was one point when his voice coach said he had a | :28:41. | :28:50. | |
deep voice, and it was con tra-alto and then you heard the prakti. | :28:50. | :28:57. | |
is definitive documentary because it isly lowly, it is like the Bob | :28:57. | :29:01. | |
Lee documentary that went for the close-up. He couldn't because it | :29:01. | :29:07. | |
was commissioned by Sony. I see it as an advert. Advert or not, Bad 25 | :29:07. | :29:12. | |
is on BBC Two at 9.45 tomorrow night. We all like to pick up and | :29:12. | :29:15. | |
thumb through a diary, especially the inner thoughts of someone else, | :29:15. | :29:22. | |
even Michael Jackson. The TV drama Housewife 49, and Call The Midwife, | :29:23. | :29:26. | |
started out as the personal journals of ordinary women during | :29:26. | :29:30. | |
and after the Second World War. There is a new addition to the | :29:30. | :29:33. | |
genre. These Wonderful Rumours is the war | :29:33. | :29:37. | |
time diary of May Smith, a young school teacher in Swadlincote in | :29:37. | :29:42. | |
Derbyshire. Her journals give a snapshot of life on the home front | :29:42. | :29:49. | |
over seven years. "Thursday, November 28th, 1949, war time, yet | :29:49. | :29:55. | |
so far not so very different from peacetime, except for the backout, | :29:55. | :29:59. | |
early closing of school, and the appearance of uniform in nearly | :29:59. | :30:05. | |
every public place. We will feel the pinch more on January 8th, | :30:05. | :30:12. | |
thank goodness the Christmas dinner won't be stinted." May recalls war | :30:12. | :30:16. | |
alongside personal struggles, trials in the classroom, disastrous | :30:16. | :30:20. | |
perms, and preserving silk stockings from laddering. All | :30:20. | :30:25. | |
aspects of every day life are affected. Travelling in this here | :30:25. | :30:29. | |
war is the last bit of refined torture. To get to Burton, once | :30:29. | :30:36. | |
simple, is a herculean task, which combines the patience of Job and | :30:36. | :30:42. | |
the tenacity of a bulldog. To be timid, polite and unselfish, is | :30:42. | :30:47. | |
fatal. May's biggest problem is juggling rival suitors, old friend | :30:47. | :30:53. | |
Freddie, and the steadfast Dougie. "Dear Freddie's birthday, ring him | :30:53. | :30:58. | |
up as a great concession. Get my old hat remodelled, and greeted | :30:58. | :31:02. | |
with hoots of derision, I will never wear it. Unexpected phone | :31:02. | :31:06. | |
call from Dougie, he rings up to say he won't be able to come next | :31:06. | :31:11. | |
weekend, as he has had his papers and going into the army. Feel very | :31:11. | :31:19. | |
sorry, I'm not sorry he isn't coming, I think it is as well he | :31:19. | :31:22. | |
shouldn't". These Wonderful Rumours offers a funny look into war time. | :31:22. | :31:26. | |
Does it reveal anything new about a period so well studied in books and | :31:26. | :31:29. | |
on film. Was there anything unexpected? | :31:29. | :31:34. | |
really. But I think the whole point of it was just a Downton Abbey | :31:34. | :31:40. | |
experience, it was something charm, or Call The Midwife, when things | :31:40. | :31:44. | |
are scary outside and the economy is a mess, retreat back to 1948, it | :31:45. | :31:49. | |
is cosy. When I read it, I thought she had written it to be read, or | :31:49. | :31:53. | |
turned into what was to become television, or radio? It is crazily | :31:53. | :31:58. | |
good, so much so, I'm suspicious that it might be a fake. It is so | :31:58. | :32:01. | |
well written. Alan Clarke's direry, there is nothing worse than boring | :32:01. | :32:07. | |
diaries, this woman can write. It was interesting that this man | :32:07. | :32:13. | |
tackled his mum's diaries, I wouldn't like to see into my mum's | :32:13. | :32:17. | |
head. Especially when talking about her future husband? I was like | :32:17. | :32:21. | |
going, did she write that? She does write beautifully. I absolutely | :32:21. | :32:25. | |
think she was writing for publication. Then she's a big fan | :32:25. | :32:30. | |
of the Provincial Lady, she had that in her head. At one point | :32:30. | :32:34. | |
somebody asks her is this going to be published, she said it will be | :32:34. | :32:37. | |
bequeathed to the nation! It is in her head all the time. That | :32:37. | :32:41. | |
explains a lot of the archness of it. It is fatastically arch. | :32:42. | :32:46. | |
Although it is witty and as certificatic about, and at times, | :32:46. | :32:52. | |
very funny, -- acerbic and at times, very funny, it was too much irony. | :32:52. | :32:57. | |
I was longing for real feeling. She's not very sympathetic? The way | :32:57. | :33:01. | |
she talked, it is fine at first, but she talks about Dougie dear, | :33:01. | :33:07. | |
she's stringing along to get the vegtables and the odd cockerel at | :33:07. | :33:14. | |
Christmas. Dear predy and faithless Freddie, it takes five years before | :33:14. | :33:21. | |
she says lovely days. Before that it is endless outings to cinema, | :33:21. | :33:26. | |
moaning about bad perms, weight gain. In the end I thought I'm only | :33:26. | :33:29. | |
ploughing on to find out which of the poor saps will be landed with | :33:29. | :33:33. | |
you. I wanted more genuine stuff about the war. Maybe it reminded me | :33:33. | :33:36. | |
that for a lot of people what they knew about the war was scant, it | :33:36. | :33:41. | |
was the wireless, the odd bulletin going into the cinema. But it was a | :33:41. | :33:44. | |
far off thing of which she knew little? For me, as an American, | :33:44. | :33:54. | |
reading how English she started, "Herr Hitler has invaded Poland, | :33:54. | :33:58. | |
ghastly!" that was sweet, I would have liked more from her son at the | :33:58. | :34:02. | |
end. You get the one page about she and this man, had a very happy and | :34:02. | :34:06. | |
long matter aing. You don't hear what she was like as a -- marriage. | :34:06. | :34:13. | |
You don't hear what she was like as a mother or you don't get which men | :34:13. | :34:18. | |
she liked. I strongly disliked her in the end. I thought she was a war | :34:18. | :34:22. | |
time Bridget Jones, self-obsessed as all young people are. Going on, | :34:22. | :34:28. | |
and the whole world is shattered, when the rations come in, she says | :34:28. | :34:34. | |
shattering news, you think she hasn't mentioned the invasion of | :34:34. | :34:38. | |
this country. She never, ever talks about any affection, there is the | :34:38. | :34:42. | |
odd occasion talking about kids in the snow, about the kids she's | :34:42. | :34:45. | |
teaching? When her grandfather and grandmother dies she's completely | :34:45. | :34:48. | |
unmoved. I thought she was a heartless bitch. I really did. | :34:48. | :34:52. | |
you think the cast of characters was such it would have helped to | :34:52. | :34:55. | |
have a glossary, to give us an idea of the cast of character, there | :34:55. | :34:59. | |
were people keeping popping up, that is the problem. You want | :34:59. | :35:03. | |
stronger editing, I thought there was a lot of reputation, and as you | :35:03. | :35:07. | |
say, too much of going to the hairdresser, popping along. We | :35:07. | :35:12. | |
could have done with less of that? It was only in the last two years | :35:12. | :35:16. | |
compressed into the short period, she was galloping through. That was | :35:16. | :35:21. | |
the only time I got anything approximating any feeling. For most | :35:21. | :35:27. | |
of the 400-pages, I thought I don't know who you are, I don't have a | :35:27. | :35:35. | |
clue of you except this writing for stuff for a reader. You realise how | :35:36. | :35:40. | |
lovely it would be to keep a diary, you think you do with Twitter. The | :35:41. | :35:45. | |
thing that horrifies me is my kids in the future will dig up my tweets | :35:45. | :35:50. | |
about X Factor and everyone will think I'm an idiot. To burst your | :35:50. | :35:53. | |
bubble, I don't think they will! Earlier this week we heard about a | :35:53. | :35:58. | |
rather unusual new model on the fashion scene. We have already seen | :35:58. | :36:05. | |
young men modelling women's clothes and visa versa. This is the first | :36:06. | :36:11. | |
time we have seen a 72-year-old man modelling clothes intended for | :36:11. | :36:15. | |
teenage girls. Liu Qianpang is the new Chinese fashion internet | :36:15. | :36:19. | |
sensation, and grandfather of 24- year-old Lu Ting, who runs an on- | :36:19. | :36:23. | |
line fashion business. The former farmer was visiting his | :36:23. | :36:28. | |
granddaughter at the work, when the model she booked for her shoot | :36:29. | :36:32. | |
cancelled at the last minute. Intrigued by the clothes being | :36:32. | :36:42. | |
:36:42. | :37:08. | ||
packed into boxes, he started to Lu Ting's grandfather didn't just | :37:08. | :37:12. | |
model the clothing for the shoot. He had a hand in putting the | :37:12. | :37:22. | |
:37:22. | :37:46. | ||
The pictures are a viral sensation. Liu Qianpang appeared on television | :37:46. | :37:49. | |
in Shanghai, and has been approached by modelling companies, | :37:49. | :37:54. | |
but he has turned them down. His nickname, MaDiGaGa, or "funny | :37:54. | :38:00. | |
elderly", couldn't be more apt. Transcending age barriers, has this | :38:00. | :38:04. | |
new recruit arrived at the perfect time for the fashion industry. And | :38:04. | :38:09. | |
would Valentino ever dress this Grandpa in his finest couture. It | :38:09. | :38:14. | |
makes me think of Bennetton ads. Do you think this is too out there for | :38:14. | :38:18. | |
Valentino? No, the fashion industry loves a new thing. Whether it is | :38:18. | :38:22. | |
butting someone plumper than usual on the runway, or an older woman. | :38:22. | :38:27. | |
They tend to be one-offs, it is brief fascinations the fashion | :38:27. | :38:32. | |
industry gets. There is a new interest in older models. We have | :38:32. | :38:37. | |
seen it with marks and senser. Guardian has blazed a trail with | :38:37. | :38:43. | |
that. With all ages. The Gentlewomen, a fashion magazine has | :38:43. | :38:50. | |
put older women on the covers. You have people like Charlotte Rampling | :38:50. | :38:57. | |
who get on the front of Vogue. I think this is a one off. Is this a | :38:57. | :39:02. | |
fashion story rather than a catwalk story? It has the human interest, | :39:02. | :39:05. | |
unlike Valentino, which you felt had no human feeling in any way at | :39:05. | :39:10. | |
all. In a way, no wonder this guy looks fantastic, he's a very skinny | :39:10. | :39:16. | |
man. And essentially, clothing, Haute Couture is designed for very | :39:16. | :39:26. | |
:39:26. | :39:28. | ||
skinny prepubesant boys, no wornd. A Glasgow -- Wonder. A Glasgow | :39:28. | :39:32. | |
granddad wouldn't look like this. You were talking about your kids on | :39:32. | :39:35. | |
Twitter, this is gone viral on the Internet. It will probably turn her | :39:35. | :39:39. | |
business into something quite different? I can't believe I missed | :39:39. | :39:48. | |
this, I was watching rubbish all day and missed that. | :39:48. | :39:52. | |
That's nearly all for this week. My thanks to Hadley Freeman Christina | :39:52. | :39:55. | |
Patterson and Mark Mailar. Next week matter that will be here with | :39:55. | :39:59. | |
a book special, including the 50th anniversary of Clockwork Orange, | :39:59. | :40:04. | |
and Hallucination, the new book from Oliver Sachs. Lana Del Rey is | :40:04. | :40:12. |