necessarily democratic process not necessarily what happens in government but making sure everybody has a say. that is probably what she is frustrated about the cover—up over dodgy pay—outs to peers. frustrated about the cover—up over dodgy pay-outs to peers. apparently an informal probe, an unofficial probe into tears whether they are turning up and doing theirjobs properly and claiming their money, all keeping a taxi parked outside the front door as suggested in meet the front door as suggested in meet the lords programme on the bbc. again, this is not quite what it says. it is largely based on the programme is going out. on the house of lords. it was an informal enquiries but what the baroness was saying is it is not an expensive scandal she is driving at, she is driving at the regular £300 tax—free

claim just for turning up. we are getting so little value for money for many of them. she is questioning the productivity. you have created far too many. a chamber nearly a thousand which is... everybody is coming to the conclusion, is it to many? could we do with less? lam being i am being urged to mention the fact that in the daily mail, the and eight—year—old author is on tinder, and appware you can meet people and get to them. can we see the picture? of the young man she is with?m

get to them. can we see the picture? of the young man she is with? if you are 80 and can get him on tinder i think we would all be on here.|j have to speak up for my friend of many years ago, ms cooper, i think this is merely essential research for a novel which she is undoubtedly preparing. how deep is the research going?! that's it for the papers. don't forget, it is on iplayer. coming up next, it is the film review. hello and welcome to the film review on bbc news. to take us through this week's cinema releases, as ever, mark kermode. what do we have this week?

a very mixed batch. we have kong: skull island, which does what it says on the tin. the love witch, a stylish dream, and we have elle. isabelle huppert on song in a controversialfilm. does the world need another king kong film? need is a strong word. but want... it's the land that time forgot meets apocalypse now. john goodman manages to persuade the us army to escort him to skull island, where he thinks something is going on. he says, if we don't get there first, somebody else will. they arrive and they start carpet bombing the island in order to shake up everything on the island. a massive ape starts swatting helicopters out of the sky. i'm probably not meant to laugh, am i? no, it does have a great sense of fun about it. we have sam jackson, the soldier who is not

going to lose this battle. john c reilly, who has been there since world war ii. tom hiddlestone as a tracker. brie larson as a photographer. they are trying to get from one side of the island to the other and there are major beasties are afoot. here is a clip. can you smell that? that's death. what the hell is this place? this is what's left of kong's pants. i've taken enough photos of mass graves to recognise one. the crash site is just on the other side of this valley. we'll cross through and make it to the highest point west. this place is a real no—no, sir. we need to be going to the north side right now. and you are welcome to do that, my man... by yourself. i'm not leaving jack out there. now who's with me? we can make it. mighty right, we can make it.

stay sharp, keep an eye out. i love the comment that said it's jolly good fun as long as you check your brain at the cloakroom. i think actually it's smarter than that. the director made this lovely, small film called kings of summer and very much like gareth edwards who went from monsters to godzilla. it is like a $200 million epic. he has managed to leave his fingerprints on it. yes, it is a huge monsterfranchise movie, but it's also got loads and loads of very slight jokes in it. i think there are a couple of references to cannibal holocaust. i like that kind of nod. i like the fact that what he does is, he takes just enough liberties with how far you can push the characters, but also remembers that what people are there to see is the monsters. one of the things that is most rewarding is when you see king kong, who is like 100 feet tall, a really big kong, we're not getting

the edit every quarter second that the transformers movie did. almost like there's genuine beauty in some of these shots. the iconic image of king kong rising up in front of the sun. you can see how camera is swirling and we're not getting the stupid fast edits that have made so much of this kind of cinema a headache. what you always get with this kind of movie is a battle between the director and what they want, their quirky personal vision, and what the producers want. it's a matter of who wins what battles. i think he won more battles than he lost. i enjoyed it. there are things that are creaky, i liked the jukebox soundtrack and the other movies it references. i didn't get bored. there were moments when i thought, wow, that is an impressive, enormous creature. so i enjoyed it much more than i expected to and i don't think

you have to check your brain in. ok, "i didn't get bored", says mark. that's going on the poster! the love witch, were you bored in that? no, the best way of describing this, imagine all that heaven allows, as directed byjess franco. it's in an age where mobile phones exist yet it has this late ‘60s, early ‘705 milieu of beyond the valley of the dolls. it's a white witch's spell all men fall under. it's like a technicolour dream. a magical incantation and extraordinary detail. i mean, the strange thing about it, there's also a lot of wicker man going on in the background. it's very sly and funny. it is oddly sincere, in a way which you don't expect. it is subversive.

i really enjoyed it. i went in thinking i would be watching a parody, a pastiche, a homage, and it was so much more than that. and i've met so many people who felt the same thing. they thought, i'll go in and it will be camp and fun. it is more than that, although it is all of those things as well. just looking at the pictures, i am a bit worried it is not camp enough! extraordinary. kitsch is the word. although, interestingly, there is a strange sincerity that underlines it. it is a very strange movie and i liked it very much. 0k. now, the talking point of the week is elle. as a woman, i feel almost anxious about going to see it actually. yes, and i understand that and ifeel anxious having seen it. basically, it can be read in many different ways and all of them contradictory.

on the one hand it's a boundary crossing tale of sexual violence, by the director who made showgirls, and has a track record of overstepping certain lines. on the other it's a showcase for isabelle huppert, cinema's most fearlessly independent screen presence. she plays a businesswoman who is grotesquely attacked at the beginning of the film and then almost doesn't seem to respond. she won't go to the police, not least because as a child she was caught up in the arrest of her monstrous father and was, in her mind, betrayed by the police. here is a clip. she is so watchable, but i don't know if i have the stomach. is it very violent? i'm lost for words. it's based on a novel. it is almost as if the character becomes the author of the film. it has been described as a black comedy, a social satire and rape revenge movie. it is all and yet

none of these things. what is extraordinary is that nobody else other than huppert could have done this. the director wanted to do it in america but they couldn't get the cast or the financing there. she went on to be nominated for an oscar. i think she's brilliant in this and almost everything she's in. if it wasn't for the strength of her performance, if it wasn't for the extraordinary sang froid and the way in which she just dominates the screen, this would be a very different film. that said, it is absolutely a film which is designed to wrong—foot you, which is designed to make you feel uncomfortable and awkward. it has been interesting see the different ways critics described it. the best way to describe it is it's an isabelle huppert film. moonlight, it is back in the cinemas? it is back. it's wonderful.

it is such a marvellous work, an absolute work of art and i love it to pieces. dvd for anyone staying in? dr strange, so we have logan which shows what you can do with a superhero movie when you try to turn it into a movie about ageing. doctor strange is basically what would you do with a superhero movie if you make the kind of film ken russell would make? watching doctor strange, benedict cumberbatch as a neurosurgeon that gets pulled into this strange world. sometimes you think, that's an outtake from altered states, isn't it? i love the hallucinogenic weirdness, but in cinemas, taking logan completely the other way, it's almost not a superhero movie. looking at doctor strange, it is a superhero movie and we can be as psychedelic as we like. so it's an interesting double bill. thanks very much, as ever.

a quick reminder of course, you can find more film news and reviews from across the bbc online at bbc.co.uk/markkermode and you can catch up on our previous programmes on the bbc iplayer. so, happy cinema going. goodbye. good evening. we have a clear skies outside across most parts of the country so temperatures are really dipping down, in fact sub zero across parts of northern ireland at the moment. we will have a bit more cloud turning things milder across northern ireland and scotland through the early hours of monday but elsewhere across england and wales the clear conditions persist so some

wales the clear conditions persist so some of the towns and cities around about five or six degrees, are closer to freezing in the countryside. a slight touch of frost first thing monday morning for some of us. through the day lots of dry and bright weather, the sunniest skies for the longest in the south—east, temperatures 16 or 17 degrees. further north across the country varying amounts of cloud but there will be some sunshine and temperatures across northern ireland scotla nd temperatures across northern ireland scotland into the mid—teens. later on monday we will see the winds picking up, some rain here and northern ireland early on. through the day, cloud and light, patchy rain pushing south across the uk, but many places having another dry windy day and temperatures still in the mid—teens. that largely dry theme continues through the middle of the week. i'm sharanjit leyl, in singapore. the headlines: the ousted former president of south korea, finally leaves her official residence and says the truth will emerge. china's chiefjustice boasts to parliament about his record of jailing rights activists. i'm babita sharma, in london.

turkey's president erdogan demands sanctions against the netherlands — calling it a banana republic as their row intensifies. and we read's and we reads the same as underground dj. live from our studios in singapore and london, this is bbc world news — it's newsday.