hello from new york. and welcome to talking movies. i'm tom brooke. in today's programme, highlights from one of the most prestigious movie events in the united states, the new york film festival. # i'm off the deep end... the last time bradley cooper was getting buzz for a music film was with star is born, which he co—wrote, directed and starred in. well, he's done it again with maestro, the new bio pic of the late leonard bernstein. a very gifted composer and conductor who was for many years a fixture here in the lincoln centre as the music director of the new york philharmonic. well, our correspondent has been to see maestro and meet some of those making the film on the red carpet.

bradley cooper wasn't there, of course, because of the actors strike. so, how long do i have to do this for? we need to build up a very strong connection. maestro follows one of the 20th century's greatest musical figures but it puts his work in the background and focuses instead on the conductor�*s tempestuous relationship with his wife, felicia, played by carey mulligan. the film is a love story but it doesn't shy away from bernstein's extramarital daliances with men. are you itching to move? no, i'm not. actually, at all. it's a profoundly personal story full of sensitive material but the bernstein family felt certain that cooper was the right artist to tell it. the commitment, the focus that he has, thejoy in his work, the research that he did was just incredible. and he wanted to know from us, you know, as much as he could learn and so he's

a teacher, a learner, all those many things. and a people person. the warmth of him, he really loves to listen to what you have to say. leonard bernstein was a great talker but he was also a tremendous listener and he had that gift where you had that conversation with him you felt you were the only focus and everyone else just disappeared and you could say the same thing about bradley. bernstein was america's first classical composer to cross over into the mainstream and is perhaps is best known for writing the songs of west side story.

bernstein was america's first classical composer to cross over into the mainstream and is perhaps is best known for writing the songs of west side story. to play him, keep that immersed himself in the classical music world for five years. he attended rehearsals and concerts at the new york philharmonic orchestra where bernstein served as musical director, spent time in the orchestra's archives where the conductors scores and batons are, and even befriended several modern day conductors. i guess it was inevitable that maestro would have its north american premiere at the new york film festival. the festival takes place anually here, place in at lincoln centre, where bernstein conducted nearly 1000 concerts with the new york philharmonic. he is new york royalty and manhattan audiences are bound to respond to the film. but how will audiences around the world respond? but how will audiences around the world respond? musical biopics are a popular genre these days. bohemian rhapsody and elvis. were both well received by audiences and awards bodies, but those films are about pop musicians. maestro is about a conductor of classical music, which could be a tougher sell for viewers. but bernstein's musical output was so varied that his career offers something for everyone, and so does the film. bernstein represents a kind

of artist that really was very special and unique. he embodied not only the kind of music you hear here at the philharmonic, but he was a person who had musicals on broadway. he had movies that he worked on. he was a person who was very prolific. he was a conductor. he was a musician. i think people just connect to that artist, the person who's an artist. i think that's just very appealing and the storytelling is very appealing as well. but as maestro basks in the warm reception of the new york film festival, its legacy with the broader world is yet to be composed. i have to say that i found maestro not totally satisfying, but carey mulligan certainly is the best thing in this movie. she proves without any doubt that she is a great actor. but when it comes to bradley cooper, although i don't doubt for a moment his ferocious commitment to this project and his prodigious skills as an actor, i felt i was witnessing a performance when i was watching him and not really seeing leonard bernstein. also, the screenplay

has deficiencies. bernstein was intimate with other men, and there's one significant man in his life who is depicted in this film. but the screenplay is so underwritten that you don't understand the dynamics of this gay relationship. anyway, let's move on, because one man who is very skilled portraying gay male relationships on screen is acclaimed british filmmaker andrew haig. and he was here in new york with his latest film, all of us strangers, which was very well received. hello. hi.

set in contemporary london, his film is inspired by a japanese novel. it's the story of two men played by andrew scott and paul mescal. their relationship plays out against a ghost story of sorts in which one of the men, adam, gets to meet his long deceased parents, played by claire foy and jamie bell. 0ur boy's back home. my son. it would be wrong to think of this as a gay film as much going on in this picture. i wanted it to be about love, i suppose, and about parental love and about romantic love. how those things are connected, intertwined with each other. i wanted it to be about the things that we keep inside the pain, the trauma, the agony of our youth sometimes that we don't know what to do with and how to deal with it. and the film in many

ways is about adam, the main character, digging back into his past as a way to be able to move forward. what you hope people more than anything else take away from your film? there's a lot of complexity involved in love, and i want them to take that away with them and ask questions. i want them to think about their own relationships. i don't want there's no neat ending to my film. i don't want there to be a neat ending. i just want it to be an ongoing conversation. that's what i love about films, when they can be a conversation with the audience that then continues once the credits roll. milk. sugar. yeah, one of those. okay. andrew haig first really made an impact as a filmmaker with his 2011 movie weekend. you know what it's like when you first sleep with someone you don't know? you like the blank canvas and it gives you an opportunity to project onto that canvas who you want to be. the film brought him considerable acclaim, especially for his authentic portrayal of gay life and gay sex. i asked him a thought

provoking question. did he think a straight director could depict gay relationships and sex as effectively? i'm sure a straight director can do it, but i think any gay person knows what it is to be with another man if they are gay. so i think it's certainly, you know, there's a certain viewpoint that is important to me to get across. and, you know, i think in a lot of my work, especially when it's had like queer content, it's about trying to be as authentic and as real and as honest and as tender and as delicate as i can about depicting those relationships. the film has become part of the emerging 0scars race. there's talk that you could conceivably get a nomination and the actors perhaps. does that mean a lot to you? does it excite you? does it animate you? if we get nominations, it would be incredible. if we don't, i'm not going to see that as a disappointment, if you know what i mean. it's about getting the film out to as many people as i can, and so they can see it and experience it. the rest is, you know, a lovely

cherry on top of the cake. you and me. one of the strongest picture at this year's new york film festival came from one of my favorite directors, poland's agnieszka holland. her picture, green border, is a drama which tells of the struggles of migrants caught up in the refugee crisis on the poland belarus border. the film has brought forth praise in agnieszka holland's native poland, but also a furious backlash. green border tells a fictionalized version of a real life crisis when tens of thousands of refugees were falsely led to believe that they could make a safe passage from belarus into poland in the eu. instead, the refugees wind up in a no man's land rejected by both countries. the film's migrants are repeatedly

shuffled back and forth between belarus and poland, enduring theft, beatings and starvation amid freezing temperatures. director agnieszka holland, who's built her career on award winning political films, several of which dealt with the holocaust, sees parallels between the holocaust and the current refugee crisis, parallels that gave her a sense of urgency in making the film. the certain human mechanisms are the same, the fears are the same. the fact that it happened not so long time ago means that it can happen again, and we are really not immune against that kind of danger. agnieszka holland brought her film green border to the new york film festival after it won a specialjury award prize at the venice film festival.

here in new york, audiences were riveted, gasping at certain harrowing portions of the film. but back in the director's native poland, the film was polarizing and the reactions surprising. ironically, the polish government compared the film to nazi propaganda because of its negative depiction of polish border guards. i expected the big waves of hate coming from the government, but i didn't expect the tsunami. but polish audiences embraced the film. i never had such a powerful, deep emotional reactions coming from the people when they watched the movie, after they watched the movie and also after when they are writing to me or expressing their feelings on social media. so no film in my career made such a strong impact. so, you know, on both sides. the charge has also been made that green border exposes apparent racism in poland by comparing the harsh treatment migrants from the middle east and africa experienced versus the warm welcome ukrainian refugees received when they arrived in poland seeking safety.

they are white. they are of similar culture. many of them are already living in poland, so we know them well. but in the same time, on the polish—belarusan border, if you take the everything down, you'll see the human beings with different colour of skin, different religion mostly, but not always. but they are the human beings as we are. so i think i think a lot of people now when watching movie has to make that you know that that confrontation with their conscience about are we racist? what is the deep reason of of our lack of sensitivity to the suffering people with the darker skin. i don't believe that we can change the world with one film, but we can change a bit somebody's heart and conscience.

the king of rock and roll. elvis presley has been the subject of several biographicalfeatures, but few movies have given voice to the story of his wife, priscilla presley. well, here at the new york film festival, audiences could see a new film portrait of her put together by acclaimed filmmaker sofia coppola. emma jones went to meet her. hi. what's your name? priscilla bolger. you like elvis presley? elvis presley has always had a voice in the films made about him. of course. who doesn't? priscilla presley. less so. but sofia coppola's film tells a story of this famous relationship entirely through the gaze of priscilla, played by cailee spaeny. as the films and adaptation of her 1980s memoir, elvis and me. it was really important to me that priscilla feel good about the story.

it's her story. so i wanted her to feel like it was true to her, and it was really important for me to balance making it feel right to her and also be able to express what i wanted to make. and it meant so much to me that she was moved and really told me that she felt like cailee really expressed how she was feeling and what her experience was like. priscilla was one of the few american productions able to bring its cast to new york for the festival during the actors strike, as the film has secured an interim agreement with the unions. both spaeny and australian actor jacob elordi, who plays elvis, were there. but coppola and priscilla presley, an executive producer on the film, weren't able to attend. however, the forecast attended the world premiere at the venice film festival in september, where spaeny secured the best actress prize.

an encouraging sign ahead of awards season. darren fabian and the 26 year old actress and songwriter had to play priscilla presley from a 1k year old who met the already famous elvis in 1950s germany until the end of their relationship when she had yet to turn 30. i don't know if i like it. you mean you don't know if you like it? elvis himself doesn't always appear in the best light seen from priscilla's viewpoint. i want a life of my own. what sophia did so beautifully is that she she told the human side of the story. and i think, you know, what was so fascinating about priscilla's story is that this is mythic couple on this sort of world stage, but there are relatable moments when it comes to falling in love for the first time, or maybe having a child and finding our autonomy through those life experiences. you know, there's a lot of rumours about you. this is no biopic, but more of a fever dream. is there something

you're hiding? told with coppola's trademark impressionism and another signature of hers, loving attention to colour and textures. i need a woman who understands that things like this might happen again to be here and that this is ridiculous. yes, it's evokes an earlier work of hers. 2006 marie antoinette, starring kirsten dunst, another story of a teenager who embarks upon a daunting new life. i'm afraid the queen has a somewhat artistic temperament. it's not too much, is it? no. i'm always interested in how people - find their way and form - their identity, and especially when they're in a . situation that is not of their of their world and how people emerge from that. - so i was struck by her story, i and there are definitely themes that i revisit and i'm always. interested in transformation. it's certainly the story of a female coming of age...

not like you imagine! ..under the most public of lenses. after huge commercial and critical success for baz luhrmann�*s 2022 biopic elvis are audiences now ready to watch priscilla's story? one of the best movies shown at the new york film festival this year was almost 50 years old. first of all, audiences were treated to the world premiere of the newly restored 1975 picture pressure. it comes from the late director, sir horace 0bey, who died in september. it's an historic picture because the claim is made that it was the first ever black british full length feature film. black man got to eat black food or else you end up looking like them. until now, you could only watch pressure in its faded state. but now the story of how three generations of a london family relate to their black identity in britain in the 1970s has been restored to its former glory. how long have you been in this country? oh, i was born here, sir. it really is historic. it's hailed as the first british black full length film. the originalfilm

was made by sir horace 0ve who died in september. his son works as an editor and director. it literally is the first british film directed by a black person about black people in history. so that in and of itself makes it an extremely important cultural artifact. the film's strength lies in its ability to reveal the anguish felt by different generations of a black family. the chief character, tony, unlike his parents who immigrated from the caribbean, was born in the uk but doesn't really feel that he belongs that moment where he's that he belongs. that moment where he's walking along the canal. it's really a depiction of a sense of isolation that he feels that i think a lot of people felt. you're being rejected by what you think of as your home, but you're also not fully connected to the place that people are telling you that you're from.

and i think it really comes through in that sequence, the visuals, the music, the sound score, everything kind of culminates in that true feeling of isolation. and i think that's what was really important about having a black filmmaker make that film, because he could really give you that perspective. we must demand peace, dignity and socialjustice for all men. be he white or be he black. with that sound score, that soundtrack. that's the sound score and soundtrack to the people's lives and the way they were living. the things that are being talked about in the music is what's happening on screen. so there's a real synergy between the sound score and the visuals of the narrative that i think comes through really well and again speaks to having somebody from his background making a film about his people and how important reggae music, soca music was a huge influence. he was involved in the development of the reggae theme song of the film itself and writing the lyrics for it. no matter how great you are in this country, as long

as it is current, you know what's happening. pressure was held back from release in cinemas in the 1970s, reportedly because of its depictions of harsh police interactions with black people, which it was thought might inflame racial tensions. watching pressure, there is a real sense that it comes from a different era in british life, but because of the issues it's exploring, it's still extremely relevant. there's still the conflict that is faced here in terms of racism, in terms of prejudice, in terms of finding your place here as any immigrant really coming into this country and kind of facing different struggles that you have to face. so i think from a modern context, you still find a lot in the film that is very relatable and very real. cat 0ve seems impressed by the work that's been done

to restore his father's film. it'sjust one part of sir horace, of his body of work. he was a thoughtful filmmaker. he once said, i'm interested in people that are trapped, how we try to get out of it, how we survive, and the effects of that trap. themes that are clear to see in his newly restored pressure. in his newly restored pressure. well, that brings this special new york film festival edition of talking movies to a close. we hope you've enjoyed the show. please remember, you can always reach us online at bbc.com. forward slash talking movies. so from me, tom, brooke and the rest of the talking movies team here in new york city and in london, it's goodbye as we leave you with a music sequence from the newly restored film pressure, made by sir horace 0vei. it really is an excellent movie.

these are fish and chips, right? all right. we're going to give you some chips. hello there. the weather over the week ahead still looking very changeable given all the rain we've had and flooding will continue to be a concern over the coming days but it doesn't look as wet and windy as it has been. not stormy. we will see a mixture of sunshine and showers over the next two days. you can see those coming in following that area of low pressure which we started the weekend with. that's tending to move away taking the rain into the north sea. sunshine for eastern

areas. some sun clipping scotland, but still quite windy in the south—west of england through the english channel and the channel islands. further north, the wins will be lighter and temperatures higher than they were on saturday. colder weather waiting in the wings bringing showers in the next few days. on a west to north—westerly wind. the best of the weather will be across the eastern side of the uk. showers towards the west, few of them will get further east across england. those temperatures not changing very much and that's going to be the sort of temperatures will see over the coming few days. 11-13 c. one over the coming few days. 11—13 c. one area of low pressure over scotland, fading away. it looks like this rain is going to move down and we're

still in that showery air stream but a lot of places may well be dry. showers more likely in the west, a few coming in over the irish sea. 11-12 c coming in over the irish sea. 11—12 c on tuesday. it's not until we get to the middle part of the week that we see that first spell of rain and you can see we've got low pressure pushing well ahead of this weather front here. the heaviest rain will be over the higher ground. but some rain nevertheless pushing east. this is quite an unsettled day on wednesday with the rain. somewhat stronger winds although not desperately strong because the area of low pressure is still far enough away. 0nce pressure is still far enough away. once that weather front moves through wit into that showery airstream again. this

is thursday, sunshine and showers, probably more showers around because those lows are getting closer. hail, thunder, in the west with some stronger winds blowing through the english channel. as we head towards the end of next week and into the weekend, that area of low pressure is going to move away. things may calm down for a time. this is where some models tend to disagree. 0ther models tend to disagree. other models tend to disagree. other models bring this milder, wetter windy weather into the atlantic. that is the more favoured solution. essentially, what i'm trying to say is that longer term a 6—10 day outlook, unsettled, temperatures at their sporting celsius but at least with all this wet weather and cloud around, at the very least, it should not be too cold at night.

live from washington, this is bbc news. another building in southern gaza destroyed in air strikes as is rarely�*s military operation by air and ground continues. america's top diplomat is on a regional post for humanitarian pauses in the

fighting that reflects new calls for an immediate israeli ceasefire. calls for an immediate israeli ceasefire-— ceasefire. ceasefire now was siml ceasefire. ceasefire now was simply leave _ ceasefire. ceasefire now was simply leave hamas - ceasefire. ceasefire now was simply leave hamas in - ceasefire. ceasefire now was| simply leave hamas in place, able to regroup and repeat what it did on october seven. find it did on october seven. and with 36 journalists _ it did on october seven. and with 36journalists now with 36 journalists now confirmed dead since the war began, we look at the toll it has taken on those reporting from the ground. i am helena humphrey, good to have you with us. it has now been four weeks since the attacks by hamas that killed more than 11100 people in israel. israel is continuing to push further into gaza city in its ground offensive with 20 israeli soldiers now reported killed since the invasion began. this operation is focused on the north of the territory where it is the thought that up to 400,000 people remain despite calls from israel to move staff and this was the scene in gaza just

a few hours