tv The Film Review BBC News November 17, 2019 11:45pm-12:01am GMT
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the figures have capital... the figures have gone down. hong kong is going into recession because of this. there is not some small—scale set of incidents like riots on oxford, this is the entire city, the authorities are warning, coming close to collapse. weekly, anything you want to add to that? so much of this is about the psychology. if you are at about the psychology. if you are at a financial centre, everything is about trust and perception and this is not a good look, unfortunately. i'm pleased the protesters are still persevering, but in terms of the economy, if very damaging. lucy be resfo rd , economy, if very damaging. lucy beresford, henry manns, thank you. and if you stay with us on bbc news, we are the latest from hong kong with that siege at the university continuing —— to henry mance. but for now, that is the end of the papers. don't forget you can see the front pages of the papers online on the bbc news website. it's all there for you seven days
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a week at bbc.co.uk/papers. and if you miss the programme any evening, you can watch it later on bbc iplayer. you can also watch that interview with prince andrew also on the iplayer. a big thank you to my guests this evening, henry and lucy. that's all from us for now, goodnight. next on bbc news, it's the film review. hello and a very warm welcome to the film review on bbc news. to take us through this week's cinema releases, as ever, is mark kermode. hi, mark. what have you been watching? i think we have something for everyone. we have le mans 66, which stars christian bale and matt damon. we have the amazing johnathan doc, which is a documentary
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that becomes an enigma. and the report, in which the cia are called to account. yeah, it's a really interesting week, actually! it is! yes! so let's start with le mans ‘66 — not to be confused with le mans — known in other territories as ford v ferrari. you know, le mans was the 1971 picture, which my dad took me to see when i was a kid. so this is the story of the ford motor company attempting to regain its mojo by winning le mans at a time when, as the quote says in the film, "james bond doesn't drive a ford." although, henry ford i! says that's because he is a degenerate. they essentially call in carroll shelby, who's this designer, played by matt damon, who wears a cowboy hat and a kind of an all—american good old boy. he wants to call in ken miles, who's a british war veteran and race car driver, played by christian bale, who is very much his own man, and who we first meet in his garage. here's a clip. another satisfied customer?
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can i help you, miss? wasn't that an mga 1500? ah, you know your cars! ilike them. i love the sound they make, the way it goes right through you. right. that vibration. mine is the wood—panelled country squire across the street. a real hot rod. oh, yeah? is it fast? very. wait a second. what type of girl are ya? the type of girl who likes the smell of wet gasoline... ooh. ..burnt rubber... ooh. are you some kind of a deviant, are ya? well, that makes sense. i married you. i think that does gives you the sense, to some extent, of the playfulness of the story which, you know, in many ways is very serious. so christian bale as that character
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and matt damon as somebody who is very, very different. now, like senna, this has sort of a chalk—and—cheese pairing at the heart of it — notjust between their two characters, but also between them as the designers and racers who have, you know, a forward—looking vision, and ford, who is this kind of very corporate motor company. they basically want him out because they think that he's a loose cannon, he won't do what he's told when he's put in front of the cameras, he says whatever comes into his mind. shelby wants him in because he says it's the only way to win. you have to have somebody who actually knows what they're doing. so, many things to like about this. firstly, the performances are really terrific. you get to know these characters, you get to like the characters and to care about them. secondly, the race sequences are just nail—biting — very much like that ron howard picture rush. a lot of it is to do with the sound effects, the crunching gears. they filmed it in a way that does put you right in the cockpit of the car, so you do feel those race sequences. i like all the behind—the—scenes stuff, the way in which it's, you know, it's that sort of fight between the corporate and the individual — which you could see to some extent as being, you know,
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maybe a fight about making films in a very sort of corporate—run environment. but the most important thing is i don't really have any outside interest in motor racing at all, but this documentary made me interested in these characters — i didn't know how the story panned out. i didn't know any of the twists and turns of it. yeah, and i loved senna in the same way. i didn't expect to. and it's a fantastic watch, so... and, i mean, i think it's really down to the fact that the film does have a joyous sense to it. i mean, it is a serious subject and it's a life—and—death subject but there is, as i say, i think you saw from that clip, there is a playfulness, a sense of entertainment, of liking the people first and the cars second. even if the people like the cars first and the people second, so... um, now, second film today, i don't even know how to describe it, i don't know what to make of it, but... we have to tread... thank god you are here. we have to be careful what we say. so it's called the amazing johnathan documentary. it's a documentary about the amazing johnathan, a comedy magician who achieved huge vegas success around the turn of
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the century and then — he called himself "the freddy krueger of comedy". his act involved him appearing to scoop his eyeball out on stage, appearing to drive a skewer through his tongue. and then 2014, when he was on stage, he announced that he had been given a year to live because he had a heart condition. the documentary picks up in the more recent future in which he's still here and he's going out to do more gigs. and it begins as a documentary about this extraordinary character, about whom i did not know anything, whether he'd achieved this sort of great deal of success. but it very soon becomes a documentary about itself. because we discover that the film—maker not only has his own particular interest in telling this story, but also that he's not the only person trying to tell the story. so it has an unreliable narrator, somebody who, for their profession is an illusionist, a prankster, somebody who makes things appear real that aren't real. we have a documentary film—maker who starts making a documentary about documentary film—making. and we have enough twists and turns that by the time it got to the final — at which point it could've become very naval—gazing, it actually manages to pull off a bravura final flourish. the only thing i'd say
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is if this has intrigued you, then see the film without reading another word about it. because i know that you've read about it. i — but yes, and i haven't seen it, and i'm intrigued. that's as far as it goes. the less you know, the better. i mean, if you liked — like, same with, like, searching for sugar man, you know, those kinds of films in which the less you know as you go in, the better it is. because i did find myself going, "no! no! really? !" 0k! intrigued. well, that's always a good thing. the report. adam driver is danieljjones, who headed up this investigation into the cia's use of enhanced interrogation techniques. the title of the film says the torture report, with the word ‘torture' blanked out — or, more specifically, redacted. so it's about the report into the cia techniques, about which we now know much more than we did then in the wake of 9/11. and his conclusion is, firstly, that these techniques are torture and, secondly, that they don't work. of course, the cia is not impressed. here's a clip. i vehemently disagree with the narrative that you're trying to string together here.
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it lacks context. it does not paint an accurate picture of the work that was done. let's go. senator, john brennan's name is in that report. he was director tenets's chief of staff and then deputy executive director when the programme started. he grew up at the agency! he claims to have spoken out against the eit programmes. where? ijust spent five years looking at their e—mails. i never found anything to suggest that's true! well, we knew this wasn't going to be easy, they have their own narrative and they aren't going to stick to it. maybe we could come up with some middle ground, find some common language. i thought ourjob was to provide oversight and accountability, not middle ground. i have a question for you. do you work for me or for the report? and i'd encourage you to think about that before answering. hmm! so that's annette bening, as dianne feinstein. so the interesting thing about this, you can see from it, it's a drama that plays out in rooms and a lot of it is people in rooms having conversations or looking stuff up on a computer
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or going through... which can be dry. yes, it can be. and i think there is an argument that there is a certain amount of dramatic inertia. it therefore says a lot for the film that, firstly, i think because the subject itself is really interesting, but, also, it's told in a way that it kept me gripped. and at the heart of that is adam driver. he has two movies out this week — he is also in marriage story — the noah baumbach film which is a netflix release, although in cinemas as well — and he is two completely different characters in these films. i absolutely believed in him as this kind of dogged, you know, very sort of low—key person who is just involved in seeing this report through to the end. there's a lovely moment when it looks like he's been threatened with legal action and someone says to me, "you know, you don't have a legal problem. you have a sunlight problem." what they mean is, firstly, that his report may never see the light of day. but also, he hasn't been in the sunlight for a very long time — he's spent five years in a bunker. i know, obviously, the subject
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that it's dealing with is... so distressing, yes. ..so distressing, and i think isjudicious in its use of actually showing us what the report is about. mostly it's about his efforts to get that report finished and to get it out into the open, against, you know, huge odds. so, i think it's an important story. it's very recent history and yet, already it's something that, you know, we need to remember these stories because they are important, and i think it's well done and hats off to adam driver for this, and also for marriage story, which are out in the same week. best out? ok, this is the last week i'm going to do this. i'm trying to smile but, you know! the thing with monos is no matter what you think... yes, here's is the thing! here's the thing, ok. i know that, it, you know, this looks like a film about child guerillas, but it's so much more. for me, it's you know, a modern—day retelling of the lord of the flies. i think on a performance level, that cast is extraordinary. the cast is extraordinary, i give you this. i think the movie soundtrack... the soundtrack‘s amazing. soundtrack‘s amazing. ..is arguably one of the best soundtracks of the year. i think, visually,
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it is utterly breathtaking. there are moments — you're with me so far, ok? i'm with you so far. but you found itjust... it's too stressful. too stressful. it's still stressful after three weeks, mark. it doesn't get any less stressful. you know, but — but — is that not an indication of how powerful it is? uh, yes, yes. that you found it very — because it is meant to be — it'sa gripping... yeah, yeah. um, so dvd of the week is, um diego maradona — gripping in a different way. not so stressful! no! interesting. although there is — i mean, funnily enough, it opens up with a kind of car chase through the streets of naples. it resembling that car chase in the french connection. it focuses on diego maradona's time in naples and looks at a kind of divided soul. diego, home life, maradona, the professional life. and it is, with all of asif kapadia's work — he made senna, which we spoke of before, and he also made amy — i think he's very good at getting under the skin of a subject and finding a way of kind of placing dualities, you know, so that there is a tension in the characters. i mean, i thought this was really fascinating — and bear in mind again — i said this about motor racing —
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i've never seen a football match in my entire life and i still watched this and i knew where i was, i understood it because it's constructed like a dramatic narrative. he's very dramatic documentary film—maker. he's clever. he's a clever film—maker. he really, really is. and so, if it can work for me, then i think i can work for anyone. yeah. really, really interesting week. thank you very much. see monos again! see monos again. again?! again, yes. that's it! enjoy your cinema—going. bye— bye. chuckles after a ll after all the wet weather we have seen so after all the wet weather we have seen so far this autumn still have a number of flood warnings. it looks like we are going to see something slightly drier over the next few days i am pleased to say. the time being still have quite a bit of low cloud around, drizzly and murky across parts of south—east england. further north, skies are clearing. -5 further north, skies are clearing. —5 at the moment in the highlands
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and some showers and icy stretches across northern scotland. showers are falling as snow as well. looking at the weather pick through monday, i pressure will be keeping these two low pressures either side of these at bay, so a low pressure sandwich with high pressure filling and will bea with high pressure filling and will be a decent day spells of sunshine for most of us. there will be a few showers running into northeast scotla nd showers running into northeast scotland and a few coming down the north sea as well. most of us after the cold start, here is the dry day with sunshine. at those temperatures. after a freezing cold start in the capital, temperatures only two degrees. if anything tomorrow night the frost gets even more extensive and if anything it will be even sharper as well in the scottish countryside. temperatures plumbing the depths that —10 celsius. it will be the coldest night of the autumn. that takes you to the middle part of the week and high pressure initially with us, but we are going to see this low
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pressure in the atlantic start to get closer to the british isles and that will push areas of rain into the south—west of the country. the rain unlikely to be as heavy or persistent as we have seen often so many times this month indeed, this autumn, but nevertheless some damp weather does return. rain gets into northern ireland. if you mist and fog actors could linger but a lot of dry and bright weather with sunny spells. damages for in edinburgh and seven in london. heading into wednesday, without a low pressure wobbling closer to the british isles it gets a bit more rain moving in. wales and south—west england could turn damp in the rain heavy for a time as well in northern ireland. the windsor start to freshen up coming in from a south—easterly direction so the temperatures are just rising a little bit, as of eight in london and ten in belfast but will quite cold across northern areas of scotland. there is not going to be an entirely dry week. there will be some rain but it is unlikely to cause some significant problems as we have seen this
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autumn. cold nights to what doubtful, but for many of us it is looking dry and bright with some sunshine. that is the latest weather. you are watching you on the bbc. i'm sharanjit leyl in singapore, the headlines: hong kong police have entered hong kong polytechnic after protestors set the entrance alight further controversy for prince andrew after the bbc‘s exclusive interview. he says he doesn't regret his association with sex offender jeffrey epstein, now lawyers say he should assist investigations in america. whether a person is a prince or a pauper, if anyone has evidence or information that might be relevant, to an investigation of a criminal case, that person should provide it. i'm kasia madera in london.
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