Film 2010 : Episode 3 - October 27th

Episode 3

Broadcast: BBC1 at 10:45pm, Wednesday - 27th October 2010

The Kids are Alright

With Annette Bening, Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Directed by Lisa Cholodenko.

Interviews with all of the above, bar Annette Bening. Julianne Moore says "Films reflect popular culture, instead of vice versa", and this film is no exception. Mark Ruffalo says: "Hollywood sees money, and doesn't give a crap about what you're making".

Claudia loves and recommends this. Says it's an Indie hit, and received a standing ovation at the Sundance Festival. With talk of Oscar nods, she's rooting for Moore as being more deserved than Bening - the former being the more likeable and endearing character in the movie. She acknowledges that the movie is sold as a Comedy Drama.

Danny says the movie has a truthful realism. Whilst he is a Moore fan in general, he's rooting for Mark Ruffalo to get an Oscar nod, being the dark horse stand-out performance in the movie. Would say that this would be his Family Values movie of the week.

Top 5 Scenes featuring a Bath (with Chris Hewitt):

1. Fatal Attraction (the last closing scene, featuring the demise of Glenn Close!...)
2. Spartacus - amusingly alludes to the apparent subtext of someone gauging the other's sexual preference. That scene was removed from the original, but was later restored with Tony Curtis re-dubbing lines, and Anthony Hopkins doing Oliver Reed's lines.
3. The Shining - the scene involving Jack Nicholson encountering a naked lady who transforms to something more grotesque as he embraces her...
4. Les Diaboliques (1955) Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, when a corpse rises from a bath.
5. Nightmare on Elm Street - When Freddie Cruger's knife-blade hand emerges from the bath whilst an unsuspecting female is half-sleeping in it!

Hewitt's attempt at humour fell rather flat in my view, but there was no denying his expertise, and esoteric knowledge. You could assume that he probably came up with them off the top of his head without any research!

Danny Leigh apparently hates Twitter, as Claudia was about to read out a few messages. He says that he is happy to see The Shining there, but that the scene referenced was the 'second' most disturbing. The first was, in fact, a falatio scene... Claudia is eager to move on!...

The Frank Capra Retrospective at the BFI

It Happened One Night (1934)

Peter Bradshaw (of The Guardian) is present, a Capra fan. Talks of the movie as a "forthright muscular punch in the cinema, with it's slushy, idealistic sense of romance". Felt he was a little pretentious.

Danny calls himself a Capra sceptic (which Bradshaw responds with "Oh Dear").

Claudia says she's just happy that Clark Gable's in it!

Apparently the actors didn't want to do the film. They hated the script, and a friendship between the two protagonists was bourne out of this mutual contempt for the film. And it shows in every scene!

Mr Smith Goes to Washington (1939)

A controversial movie.

Danny talks of "the head-achey legacy with Capra, that a simpleton is needed to save the government". He briefly alludes to Sarah Palin with the Tea Party movement, topical in the news that week.

Bradshaw interjects, disagrees, and says that he sees James Stewart more as Obama. For a number of years, Obama was referred to as the junior Senator from Illinois. Thought that was a good point, which kept Danny Leigh on the quiet.

On James Stewart, Bradshaw says that he has a "touch of dandyism, like a ballet dancer, a fastidious version of Gene Kelly". A comparison is made with Clark Gable in It Happened One Night, they looked practically the same, before Gable went on to do Gone with the Wind.

On The London Film Festival finishing tomorrow...

Highlights?

Bradshaw says that he enjoyed Black Swan, by Darren Aronofsky. As the subject material has much to do with ballet, he says comparisons to Michael Powell's 'Red Shoes' are bound to be made. And most would stand inferior, except for this. It's vulgar, mad, and in fantastically bad taste.

Claudia, the whole while is excitedly giddish (annoying) in agreement. Danny differs in opinion, and is less enthused, which Bradshaw frames as "a difference of emphasis, as we say in the business". Tw*t. He continues: "There are some seriously brilliant moments, which reminded me of Rosemary's Baby in it's toxicity".

Danny rebuffs by saying that it's one thing to compare the movie to Rosemary's Baby, and another to compare it to a Marilyn Manson video! Thought that was well funny! There's no love lost between the two, as Claudia is trying to act as the intermediary. However she is in agreement with Bradshaw, with the latter calling for a Referee (presumably to Red Card Danny)...

Danny says that The London Film Festival takes place in the backdrop of British cinema in crisis. For him, the standout, memorable highlights have to be:

- Archipelago (2010) Direected by Joanna Hogg

- Neds (2010) by Peter Mullan

It was nice to see Danny standing up for British interests, and bringing attention to the situation, not caught up in the glitz and glamour of Hollywood as Bradshaw and Claudia seem to be...

'How I Ended this Summer' was the film that won the festival.

A bold choice, a seeming consensus among the three.

The Hunter (2010) - Directed by Raffi Pitts

Made in Tehran in 2009. Film 2010 had an interview with the Director, who's apparently banned from the country for making the movie.

Claudia said she liked the film, that it was a movie of two halves. The first was very powerful, the second, not quite so. In the context of 'Iranian cinema', it's an important movie to the genre, according to Danny.

Interview with Guillermo Del Toro

With Hobbit news this week, with Martin Freeman playing the title role, it leads on to the next feature - an interview with Guillermo Del Toro who famously walked away from the project.

Showing clips of 'Pan's Labyrinth', the Director spoke of himself as experiencing "lucid dreaming" as a very young child. He saw monsters, was terrified of them, and made a deal with them (to not scare him going to the toilet, for example) - a deal which allowed him to become friends with them.

Del Toro says that in movies and art, there are two ways to show things: the happy side, and the darker side. The first he found to be very boring. The latter he finds much more attractive.

Dave Karger is the interviewer.

Brings attention to 'Venetian Notebooks' that Del Toro keeps in planning movies. The Director says that he thinks and writes in Spanish. Sort of like a diary, but not daily.

Notes for "Cronos" are lost to 'Jim' Cameron who misplaced it!...

When he received awards for that movie, Del Toro says he was crying with a giant cheque in his hand. He was happy for two reasons:

A - It was recognition of his work.

B - He wasn't going to jail! The movie was in debt for $1/2 million!

Thought that was quite funny, but the interviewer wasn't feeling it.

On walking away from The Hobbit after so long on pre-production, how hard/difficult was it?

Del Toro: The hardest decision, felt heartache, like recently being widowed.

What to expect next?

Del Toro: 'At the Mountains of Madness' - produced by Jim Cameron. He has been trying to do this film for 13 years!

Spiderhole (2009)

Claudia says she scares easily, but not by this. Reminded her of Jaws 2, and drew attention to its bulky dialogue. Danny says that it has much the sentiment of The Shining, and makes a comment about a 'giffer' in the movie. Basically low-budget British Horror.

Horror DVDs to recommend for tomorrow:

Danny's choice is Dead of Night (1945) by Ealing Studios.

Claudia's choice is Rosemary's Baby, which she found terrifying!

A look at 'Burlesque' (with Cher and Christina Aguilera) closes the programme.

Looks terrible!