tv The Film Review BBC News September 11, 2021 11:45pm-12:01am BST
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insurance hike is going to be massive~ _ insurance hike is going to be massive. if your earning around £30.000 — massive. if your earning around £30,000 you're paying £250 extra year. — £30,000 you're paying £250 extra year. whether that will cause a breakdown for families remains to be seen _ breakdown for families remains to be seen it_ breakdown for families remains to be seen. it might not hear those individual_ seen. it might not hear those individual stories but it could be true, _ individual stories but it could be true, that's quite a lot of money for a _ true, that's quite a lot of money for a working family. joe, true, that's quite a lot of money for a working family.— true, that's quite a lot of money for a working family. joe, could you take us to the _ for a working family. joe, could you take us to the front _ for a working family. joe, could you take us to the front page _ for a working family. joe, could you take us to the front page of - for a working family. joe, could you take us to the front page of the - take us to the front page of the observer. the other really big story today was the 20th anniversary commemorations of course of what happened on this day 20 years ago in america. 50 front page of the observer and the picture there, bell tolls, a city fall silent.— tolls, a city fall silent. yes, very sombre images _ tolls, a city fall silent. yes, very sombre images and _ tolls, a city fall silent. yes, very sombre images and replicated i tolls, a city fall silent. yes, very - sombre images and replicated across other front pages as well is the world remembers those tragic events of 20 years ago. he had biden, president obama, former president george bush, mike bloomberg, former mayor of new york leading those remembrance advance events. we saw
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before the us open final that ceremony. clearly those images live on in all our minds will stop in 20 years a very poignant moment to look back on. somewhat overshadowed by the events in afghanistan recently showing how the world is in such turmoil even despite the military efforts in that region. very sad and poignant day for everyone. about 30 seconds natalie, _ poignant day for everyone. about 30 seconds natalie, your _ poignant day for everyone. about 30 seconds natalie, your thoughts - poignant day for everyone. about 30 seconds natalie, your thoughts on . seconds natalie, your thoughts on what we saw today. itruiith seconds natalie, your thoughts on what we saw today.— seconds natalie, your thoughts on what we saw today. with the 9/11. i think the poignant _ what we saw today. with the 9/11. i think the poignant thing _ what we saw today. with the 9/11. i think the poignant thing for - what we saw today. with the 9/11. i think the poignant thing for me - what we saw today. with the 9/11. i | think the poignant thing for me was really— think the poignant thing for me was really the _ think the poignant thing for me was really the fact that everyone was talking _ really the fact that everyone was talking about blue skies over the blue skies— talking about blue skies over the blue skies with the same as they were _ blue skies with the same as they were on— blue skies with the same as they were on the same day as the terrible terrorist _ were on the same day as the terrible terrorist attack happened. the same weather _ terrorist attack happened. the same weather. and lots of survivors and families _ weather. and lots of survivors and families are — weather. and lots of survivors and families are talking about that as well _ families are talking about that as well. these services today were so moving _ well. these services today were so moving and — well. these services today were so moving and the accounts almost brought— moving and the accounts almost brought me to tears. i don't think you could — brought me to tears. i don't think you could say much more than that, really _ you could say much more than that, reall . ,., ., you could say much more than that, reall . , ., you could say much more than that, reall. ., , ., ., really. good place to stop. natalie said it nicely _ really. good place to stop. natalie said it nicely for _ really. good place to stop. natalie said it nicely for us. _ really. good place to stop. natalie said it nicely for us. as _ really. good place to stop. natalie said it nicely for us. as have - really. good place to stop. natalie said it nicely for us. as have you i thank you very much indeed. before i
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leave you a pop group the spice girls have reacted saying "girl power, right there. as emma raducanu has booked your place in history. hello, and welcome to the film review on bbc news. look who's here! he's real, it's mark kermode really here in the studio, not an avatar! it is fabulous to be back in the studio with you, jane, how lovely to see you again. so, we have a packed show coming up. so, we've got reviews of the collini case, which is a german crime thriller. we have respect, which is the biopic of aretha franklin, withjennifer hudson.
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and we have herself, which is a new film by phyllida lloyd, which i think you and i have different opinions about. to be discussed. we start with the collini case. yes, so, german crime thriller, based on a book by ferdinand von schirach, which i confess i have not read although it's apparently a very famous book. the story is a young lawyer is assigned to a case in which he has to defend a man, fabricio collini, played by the great franco niro, who is accused of murder. the case seems fairly hopeless, not least because shortly after the murder fabricio collini presented himself, covered in blood, and now refuses to speak in his own defence. here's a clip.
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so it then transpires that the lawyer actually knew the victim. in fact the victim was something of a mentor to him, took him under his wing, almost fathered him. the question is why on earth would anybody want to kill this man, who was a respected industrialist and as far as the lawyer knows was very good person. the author of the book, his grandfather was a very high—ranking nazi who was tried at nuremberg. and one of the things the book is about is coming to terms with the past and the ghosts
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of your own past, and accepting the fact that people who seem like one thing may actually be something completely different. so a lot of the story is to do with confronting guilt. it's also a pretty good drama in terms of — it's a courtroom drama, now, i love a courtroom drama, i do understand courtroom dramas are full of things that never happen in real courtrooms, like people producing witnesses out of nowhere that nobody�*s heard of, people presenting papers that ijust happen to have in my bag... i quite like a courtroom drama too, you see... yeah, i'm a suckerfor it. i keep expecting somebody to slam the table and say, "you can't handle the truth!" if you accept that the drama itself is contrived and it does have all those conventions, then i think it's very entertaining. but more importantly it is about something very serious. it is about that thing of looking back into the past, looking back into a country's guilty past and your own family's guilty past, and asking questions about whether people are the people that they seem to be. so it's doing quite a clever thing,
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which is, it's a very entertaining potboiler on one hand, but also it's about something far more substantial. as i said, i haven't read the book, but i very much enjoyed the film. it's called the collini case and it's in cinemas now. ok, now, respect. i really want this to be good because, aretha franklin — what a figure, what a life story. an extraordinary life story. so the good news is, she's played byjennifer hudson, who is fantastic in the lead role. i mean, ithink everybody expected this. aretha franklin herself effectively appointed jennifer hudson. she had, you know, she was very controlling on the project right up until her death in 2018, and she said tojennifer hudson, "you're the right person to do this." so that's great, i mean, she can sing, she can act, she has charisma, she has presence, and it's a great performance. i think the problem is the film itself isn't quite as exceptional as either its central performance or, indeed, as aretha franklin. it's a very sort of tumultuous life story and the film wants to play things fairly safe. so there's domestic abuse, there is alcoholism,
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there's a lot of stuff that is quite dark and the film acknowledges it. what it doesn't really know then is what to do with it. the musical setpieces are fantastic — i mean really fantastic — and it goes from the 1950s in detroit up to 1972, and the recording of her record—breaking gospel album, and actually because that's a very glorious place to finish. people will recently have seen amazing grace, the documentary about her doing that, which was delayed for so long. so i think it's worth seeing it forjennifer hudson's performance because she's terrific. i just wanted the film to be more exceptional, and an awful lot of the rock biopics have got the same beats, the same story points. a lot of this seems familiar. but she carries it shoulder high, and when she's on stage and doing it, she's really great. and it's notjust the voice, it's the gestures, it's the way she holds her head back, it's the way she half—closes her eyes. she's got the physical performance absolutely downpat, so that's great. the film itself however, not as good as her performance. yes, a mixed bag, jennifer hudson
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is very talented, isn't she? and herself — well, i'm fascinated to know what you made of it. ok, so i mentioned that i don't think respect knows what to do with its themes of domestic abuse. so in the case of herself, this is an irish drama played at sundance in 2020, before everything happened. and it's co—written by clare dunne who stars as sandra, who is a mother who has an abusive partner. she needs to get away from the abusive partner with her children to find a house. she can't find a house and then she sees online and someone saying, look, it's possible to build a house for a fairly small amount of money. this sounds ridiculous but then a family friend says, well, i'll give you my back garden, effectively, to do it in, if you can make the house. here's a clip. a house? hm. our own house? hm. at the bottom of the garden? like a fairy house. the only thing is, girls — and this is really important, right? we can't tell anyone. not anyone at school, not nanny, granddad and especially, especially not daddy. why?
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i'm just going by what ado the builder said. he said that's the rules and you've seen him, right? you don't want to mess with him, do you? no. so we have to keep this to ourselves, yeah? our own special secret. like black widow? sort of. what's that? oh, it's just a code word. it's better you don't know. yeah. so... no telling, ok? hm. pinkie promise? both: one... ..two...three... ..pinkie promise! oh, girls. oh, and that's a fantastic clip, i think, because that summarises so much and reminds us how brilliant the three of them are when they're on screen together. and you completely believe in them as a family. yes, yes. and, so, it's directed by phyllida lloyd, mama mia, which was a huge smash hit, iron lady, which of course you know was oscar—feted. this feels like a smaller project.
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but here's the interesting thing. half the film is about the nightmare of domestic abuse, and half is about the dream of building your own home, which is, you know, almost a fairytale. in fact, at one point they actually do refer to it as a fairytale home. and i think the thing that the drama does really well for me is that on the one hand it's got that stuff you get from something like witness, remember the barn building scene in witness? which everyone loves, of course everyone loves watching a home being built. and it uses that to tell a much darker story about the plight of a woman who is being failed by the system, who is looking everywhere for help and is not receiving it. and i think that what the drama manages to do is to tell that darker story, that more difficult story, but in a way that looks like it's a heartwarming, uplifting movie. i know you were quite surprised by how tough some of it was. i felt — for me, i felt it was more a film about the domestic violence than the house building, even though there are some quite joyous scenes with the house
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building and the way her neighbours come to help and all that sort of thing. i thought it was a clever undercurrent, but a real, a real knot in your stomach, constantly, because you are constantly worried about the abusive man who you know is still out there. so here's the fascinating thing. if you actually look at the amount of screen time that you see, you know, it's flashbacks — it's fairly little and they're fairly discreet. yes. but this, it's like a tension in your gut all the way through, because they're interspersed as flashbacks and you feel they are the background to everything. i think that's what's clever about the film. i think that what the film is doing, it's sugar—coating the pill by making it apparently about putting the house together, all this stuff, will it happen, will it work, all that stuff, but actually it's about something more serious. and i think if you're going to make something about this kind of story the challenge is to make it acceptable. will i enjoy watching it? well, yes, there is plenty to enjoy in herself. there is also plenty to be alarmed
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by, but i think that's a pretty good balancing act. yes, i would agree with that. also good performances. and great to see in cinemas, because it was going to go — it had a streaming release because its cinema release was messed up, and it should have won awards, but it was eligible last year and nobody saw it. so now it's great that it's in cinemas. yes, go see it, absolutely go see it. what's your verdict on best out? see, i love annette, which is the musical by leos carax, with music by sparks. i love sparks, partly an age thing, but i love sparks, absolutely love sparks. this is a story about a cynical comedian who marries a much—loved soprano and they have a baby which is portrayed by a puppet, and the baby inherits the voice of its mother. and it's, like, it's a fable, a very dark fable in many ways. it sounds like a completely bonkers idea but it works for me because there is a kernel of truth in there. i've seen it three times now, i've played the soundtrack over and over again. it has some real earworms. i mean, sparks are great at kind of earworms songs. but i thought it was
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really wonderful. it looks wacky — beyond wacky! it is, but it's like that thing about quirky. there's a very thin line between "quirky" and "irksome." wacky makes it sound more zany, which, i never like "zany." it's strange and weird and experimental — but it's also, it made me cry. i love films that make me cry. so dol! the servant, i really, really want to see, though. it won't make you cry. the servant was described — this is a 1960sjoe losey film with a screenplay by harold pinter, and dirk bogarde, sarah miles, james fox, wendy craig. and it's about people stuck in a single place, essentially, in which servant and master relationships are turned on their head. you can see it as a film that influenced everything from — er, i mean, parasite takes an awful lot from it. there's a steve woolley film called stone which takes a lot from it in performance. it's in ak, back in cinemas now for a couple of weeks and then you can get it on dvd and download it from the 20th. really worth seeing, you loved the trailer, right? yes, and i liked parasite,
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and echoes and, yes, yeah. yes, but very cold, very chilly — not a lot of laughs! that's ok, that's ok, get to the cinema nonetheless. that's what we have to say. so lovely to have you back. great to be back, thank you. thanks very much, mark. all the previous shows are on iplayer, of course. and i hope you can start enjoying some cinemagoing, wouldn't that be fantastic? thanks for being with us, bye—bye.
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this is bbc news — i'm samantha simmonds — with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. twenty years on from nine—eleven — america remembers all those it loved and lost in the deadly terror attacks. 20 years feels like an eternity they did it still feels like yesterday. untilwe they did it still feels like yesterday. until we meet again, my love. rest in peace. six moments of silence are held — marking the moments when the planes crashed and the buildings collapsed. president biden travels to all three sites where the attacks took place — new york, pennsylvania and the pentagon. we'll speak to one man whose brother died in the attacks twenty years ago. also in the programme.
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