to lose those expense accounts! to lose weight. —— we are going to lose weight. —— we are going to lose weight. but we know that the person with a lot of power at the moment is dominik cummings and i am sure this is come from him. this is being seen to doing something. it is a briefing from number 10 that this story has gotten from number 10 that this story has gotte n into from number 10 that this story has gotten into the observer. we have a lwa ys gotten into the observer. we have always known there was going to be a reshuffle in february which does beg the question why nikki morgan went to the house of lords quite so quickly but still... there is manipulation there. that is the point behind it. but it is also about keeping your profile down. and he has a problem with an 80 seat majority that there is an awful number of people sitting there and twiddling their thumbs who want to go twiddling their thumbs who want to 9° up twiddling their thumbs who want to go up the greasy pole. that is right and they will go along with this. but obviously it needs to be scrutinised and ministers need to be scrutinised and ministers need to be scrutinised so how will we do that? and that is it for the papers

tonight. 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 a week at bbc.co.uk/papers — and if you miss the programme any evening you can watch it later on bbc iplayer. thank you nigel and jo. next on bbc news it's the film review. hello and a very warm welcome to the film review on bbc news. taking us through this week's cinema releases is mark kermode. hi, mark. hello.

very interesting mix this week. we have bombshell, which, as you probably know, is up for three oscars. a hidden life, the new film by terrence malick. and weathering with you, an anime from the director of your name. yeah, really interesting week. a very good week. so, let's start with bombshell. so three oscar nominations — two performances for charlize theron, margot robbie, and hairand make—up — which is interesting because make—up is a lot — it's to do with prosthetic work in order to make them look like the real—life characters. this is a drama based on the real—life scandal of roger ailes at the fox news network. his downfall kind of prefigured that of harvey weinstein, which is currently in the news at the moment. although actually, the movie went into sort of preproduction before that scandal broke. sojohn lithgow is eerily convincing as roger ailes who sort of is running this organisation, this absolutely toxic culture,

in which he believes he has the absolute right to essentially abuse the women who are working under him, and the culture is such that nobody appears to be ready to speak out. everyone just thinks "this is the way it is. if you speak out, it willjust end very, very badly." until finally, gretchen carlson, played by nicole kidman, decides to take her complaint to the public through the law. here's a clip. if you're able to stick it out at fox, gather more evidence, you might be able to sue ailes himself, instead of fox. and that is why i am here. because marty hyman told me that over here in newjersey, i can avoid arbitration by suing roger personally. he says that you've managed to change the law and that we could call other women and show a pattern. will other women come forward? yes. they will. you live and work in new york. roger has a house in bergen county, where he stays when he can't make it upstate. you do your homework, ms carlson. no fingerprints. that's how much i practised the violin as a child. if roger finds out you came to us, he won't just just fire you,

he will hang us with a $1 million lawsuit, he will attack you personally. men like him worry more about reputations than they do money. roger won't stop. you know that. oh, i know. colleagues you admire will say publicly you're a superior, ambitious woman who is suing because her career has stalled. let ‘em. wow! i mean, even that tells us how important this story is. it is, and it's very, very timely and what i think the film does manage to do is create a very good portrait of a toxic environment in which this sort of thing is going on. and what's interesting is that the abuse goes from, like, you know, the lowliest newcomer to people who are very sort of high up in the organisation. i think the film itself — which is directed by jay roach — isn't perfect. i think it's solidly done. occasionally, it has a little bit of the tv drama about it. it owes a debt to the big short. stylistically, the big short is kinda of more adventurous. but what carries this shoulder—high are the performances. i mean, it is a terrific trio of charlize theron nicole kidman and margot robbie.

for me, funnily enough, watching it reminded me a little bit of the fact that nicole kidman had made that film to die for, back in the ‘90s, which is a very good and very, very overlooked film. but this takes the story and it leads you through it in a way that kind of pastiches the infotainment style. and it is entertaining but you feel like you are being given a lot of information as the story progresses. and at the centre of it is this idea of silence — that everyone kind of knows what's going on but nobody is able to speak out because there is this poisonous culture, there is this, you know, this character who seems to be unassailable. the film's also kind of interesting about the beginning of the relationship between trump and fox news. and obviously, in the light of everything that's happened with that relationship, it's very interesting the way in which the film sets it up and initially, it is a kind of adversarial thing, but you can see people thinking "oh, actually, this guy thinks the things we think" and "this guy is maybe somebody that we should be getting behind." so i think it's a really interesting film but if the performances were not as good as they were, i think you might start to see the flaws in the drama a little bit more —

but the performances are really good and... 0k. ..and i really bought into it as a result of that. plus, as you say, it is a really timely story and, you know, quite shocking, but yeah, very, very engrossing. all right. terrence malick for your second choice. yeah, so where do you stand on terrence malick? uh, i like what i've seen, but i've not seen huge amounts, so i that that's — i'm probably not the bestjudge. he has been off the boil for a few years — in fact, for a few films. you look at things like prince of cups, song to song. people think of badlands and they think of the great malicks. yes. everything, i think, up to the thin red line. this is a return to form — partial return to form. the true story of a austrian conscientious objector, franz jagerstatter, who refused to swear allegiance to hitler during world war ii. we begin with an idyllic scene of him and his partner starting a family. clouds are gathering — quite literally clouds gather overhead — and then it becomes a battle of conscience and will as the community turn on him for refusing to fall in line. the film was originally entitled

radegund, which is the place where the home is set. the new title comes from george eliott — "with people who lived faithfully — a hidden life and rest in unvisited tombs" so the film sort of declares itself to be a celebration of a sort of quieter defiance and one of the questions he's asked all the way through is "what's the point? what's the point? you think it's going to make any difference?" and the point that the film is making is actually not unlike the central point of it's a wonderful life — just a decent — a decent man, you know, actually is important. it's beautifully shot, beautifully scored. i have to say, i thought rather over — overuse of music. it has a religious element and if you didn't notice the religious element, don't worry, the score will tell you, the music choices will tell you there's something religious going on here. 0k! but so i like it up to a point. it does have a lot of that malicky stuff about hand—held, wispy, you know voice—overs,

but i think its heart is absolutely in the right place. i think it is an important story about defiance and it is a story about standing up for the thing you believe in, even when everyone around you turns against you. and i think it's really found malick back on track after the last couple of films which were just self—indulgent waffle. and weathering with you. yeah! which i read is the highest—grossing film in japan last year. terrifically successful. so directed by makoto shinkai, who made your name — which you remember i reviewed on this show a couple of years ago? so set during in a period of rain that looks like it's threatening to drown tokyo and japan. we have a young hero who runs away from home and he gets to tokyo to start a new life, where he falls in love, from a distance, with a young girl who he starts to believes is a weather maiden. as in, she can actually affect the weather. here's a clip. whoa. watch.

it's gonna clear up. huh? hey, what do you mean by...? what?! now, i should say, that's the english language dub. of course, i saw it in the original version which is the version that i would advise people to watch. i thought this was really fascinating, firstly because, like your name, it does the thing about it's a young love story, but it's connected to a kind of global event. secondly, because it looks absolutely beautiful. i mean, just watching it... even that was gorgeous! yes, but even seeing

it on a small screen, it is really beautiful. it has a great musical score by radwimps — i'm sure you have all of radwimps' albums. sorry! laughs. the music is really, really good and really sort of suits the tone of the film itself. i found it enchanting. i love the way it's the details of a love story but the wider fantasy of it all. it is aimed at a young adult audience — a 12a certificate film — so a lot more grown—up than some animations, but i thought it was fully terrific and it's not a surprise that it's been a huge hit and i hope it finds its audience here as well. oh, fantastic! and sticking with the theme of things that are visually stunning. yes! your best out, not surprising, ithink, 1917. 1917 — have you seen 1917? 0h. i mean, visually, absolutely extraordinary. did you find... extraordinary! ..overwhelming — because the whole thing about 1917, first world war drama starring, brilliantly, george mackay, directed by sam mendes, is that it's — it plays out as if one shot. it's not one shot. it's not, but it's... but it plays out as if... gosh, it's clever! did you find it immersive? i did, but i didn't find it as emotionally traumatic as i thought it was going to be.

0h, 0k! i was stunned by the visuals but then, you know, my other half trained in camera work and spent the whole two hours going "oh, my god! oh, my god! this is extraordinary!" the camera work is absolutely extraordinary. yes, yes, so that's what we came out discussing. i thought the score was great as well, but i really did think — i mean, i was kind of suspicious at the beginning because the whole one—shot — even though it's not one shot — thing sounds like it could be a gimmick. you kind of think of the beginning of spectre — you remember the one shot going up, following bond, in and out the window and then across the rooftops — but i actually, i forgot very early on that it was a stylistic format and i just felt that you were seeing the world unfold as these two central characters saw it, constantly discovering things as they discovered them, and... yeah, it — see it on a big screen. that's what it is all about. see it on the biggest possible screen, don't wait for it to come out on dvd. a big screen, a big screen. and i love your choice of dvd this week as well. so, pain and glory, which is — got this fantastic, you know, award—nominated performance by antonio banderas in the central

role, it's the new almodovar. what i love about it is this — it's a semi—autobiographical for almodovar. i think it's the most vulnerable i have ever seen antonio banderas. yes, yes. you really feel... you know, you feel his vulnerability, his pain, his growth, his, you know, nostalgia for the past. you get the sense his body is failing him and i could listen to his voice for — that sequence, anatomy and geography very, very early on, which i... gasps. yes, very clever. just spellbinding. absolutely loved it. yes. absolutely loved it. and — and again, actually looks beautiful. i mean, it's the whole — it's the whole works, but it looks gorgeous. the thing is when have you ever seen a almodovar film that didn't look beautiful? yes, good point. even the ones that aren't great look brilliant. good point well made. chuckles. mark, see you next week. thank you. and enjoy your cinema—going, whatever you choose to see. it's a cracking week. enjoy it. bye— bye. wrap up warm if you are heading out and about. it is bitterly cold, temperature is already below freezing in some areas. for the next

few days we're going have plenty more sunshine. 20 more fine weather. however, it is going to be very cold. cold enough notjust forfrost but for fog. so that is going to become an increasing issue if you are heading out onto the roads, it is never nice to drive in fog. as we have gone through the night, or the evening into the night so far, temperatures have been falling away. even though there is not much moisture around, those temperatures will get so low we will find the fog forming, and we have had so much moisture of late of course, because it has been low pressure in charge. the big change this coming week is that it the big change this coming week is thatitis the big change this coming week is that it is high—pressure, today, tomorrow, monday through friday, we might have seven or eight days of weather for most parts. tomorrow looks fine and dry. watch out for the fog in the morning. a bit of cloud later, just turning the sunshine milky in the north and west.

this is bbc news. i'm lewis vaughan jones. our top stories: palace talks conclude over the future of harry and meghan — they'll lose their royal titles and public funding when they step back from official duties president trump's lawyers give their first formal response to his impeachment — they say it's a brazen attempt by his rivals to interfere in the upcoming election. in other news: lebanon's president calls in the army — as anti—government protesters clash with police in beirut. from fires to floods, parts of australia's east coast are battered by heavy rain and thunderstorms.