Lost in Translation Film Club

In between take one and take two, M now have both changed. pllus th I haven't changed. I'm still wearing the same just say Oh It's not stinky old shit. I put it on for the recording of take one. Th when we finished take one, I took it off and I packaged it away. Now I've gone to the new location, I put it on for continuity' sake All right. I know I'm in a different place, but obviously I don't want people watching it thinking whyy Mark? We're in a class t shirt in the first half of the show and a concert Angels t shirt in the second half of the show. B No one would have asked that question because you're clearly in a different place and a different day or in the same place, but with a different shirt. I'm in a different mean now I'm in a different place in a different shirt. Oh no, you are in a different place because we were sitting in the same place. We're sitting opposite you like literally three feet away from you Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. such an impact on you that you forgot in the same room. Very confusing. How are you doing anyway? Yes, I'm doing fine. Why are you in a cell I'm in well, I'm in a I'm not in a cell. I'm in a glamorous room in a Hilton Express Hotel at Get this Lton Airport Because of my way to the worst airport in the world. That is Is it? I think so. I just always remember Well, we all think of Lorraine Chase. And then that song, which of course turned out wasn't Lorraine Chase. Remember that Lotin airport Lewton Airport and it was it was three people pretending to be Lorraine Chase, but none of them Yeah, Campari. I know the thank you the the reactors just put Campari. I know. So the advert was You know, she was she was a posh guy and he was speaking to Lorraine Chase and the joke was that Lorraine Chase spoke like Lorraine Chase And And he says, you know, camparian soda. and she says, No, lemonade And then he goes Camparian lemonade And then he has it and he realizes it's good. And then he says Were you truly wafted here from Paradise? And she says, Nah Lotin airport So many dated references. Does anyone have campari and soda? any or campari and lemonade for that. Do you have a bottle of campari in your house No. I don't even know what Kampari is Is it a fortified wine? It's in a paritif, isn't it Son show joke. A paritif? No thanks. I have my own So there's another dated d. That's so we've done Loton Airport. Campari and soda slash lemonade and of the goons nineteen fifties radio comedy An Italian apparity, there you go. I mean, I can't think anybody has camppari anymore, but what does it taste like? D'to, never had it You never had it at all. It tastes bitter according to the redactor Is that okay When I was when I was a kid, I as well just you know everything into your face Everyone has got one terrible drink in their past that when they were a child they drank something that they shouldn't have drunk and they were violently ill and therefore, even the very whiff of it I' ever come close to them again And when I was a teenager, You know, one evening after my parents had gone to bed and I somehow managed to access the alcohol cabinet And I had a glass of Well, I think it must have been what used to then be called Martini Rosso? It wasn't something you were meant to drink on its own. I think you were meant to drink it with something else. And of course it's not related to a martini And I drank some of that and I was so violently ill. Ever since then, even the smell of that particular substance makes me convulse Well Campari is intensely bitter and citrusy with a mix of herbs and fruit, but no thanks. The drinks that The box you just mentioned U Uzo which I consumed on a school cruise in nineteen seventy four we' visiting Athens, just awful. Just the smell of aniseseed in a drink is not good. And every single cider. because that's the party drink when, you know, when you're forty, whatever, because you think, okay, it's apple juice, isn't it? really? But then always associated with, oh, I'll have another glass of cider. justust the smell of cider is enough to make me think No, just stick to water. Me and my friend Paul McCullen He used to live in Braffing in where. And there was there was a place in Braffing that had a you remember pubs used to have off sales? I think it was like before you know sort preda of off licenses. So there'd be the bit of the pub that people went into, but there was also an off sales window. which was like you could be outside and they would sell you. And as long as you could reach the counter, you could get so this is long before the days of anybody asking for ID And as long as you said it's for me dad be fine, you know, I'd like some lighter fluid, a box of matches and a hot and a carton of s, they fill up a carton And we would, you know we would go to the office, All right, Mrter give us some cider and again twenty cider, twenty number six. twenty number six. Fy dad, or capaps in full strength, which're always like Whenever they did the kind of Tara nicotine chart, that was always number one. It was always the worst cigarette to have. Bar none. I don't know if you can get So's another dated reference. I'm sure you can't get Capst and full strength anymore on the basis of the fact that they kill you inste. If you remember, that's probably not by the way On the Jams Saturdays kids There is the immmortal line Um My their dad c an oil filter, wallpaper lives and they all die of cancer. Yeah there you go Jam, know of what they speak An email here from Judith This is We're back on the peacock Okayam tries to help Judith says, Dar Tom and Jerry, my cats are discombobulated when you play the peacock call, please help o Okay. So What our team have done is they've helpfully reversed the peacock sound in an attempt to undo the discombobulation. So what it sounds Yeahes, so the reverse sound is like this Sounds exactly the same. It sounds when you reverse it like it's going oi So the first way around is how? And then when you get there, it goes, ooy. So Judith, let us know if that anti discombobulation worked otherwise You were saying that it's this one that is the problem hugely different? is it really Anyway, with apologies to Oh, sorry to Judith Cat. Anyway, Judith, please do report back as to whether one worked and the other one didn't Gary says, Hello Blackbird and Robin, longtime listener, thirird time emailer, listening to your stories of peacocks sounding like children I thought I'd turn that upside down a bit. Several years ago we were on holiday in Yorkshire at a friend's house We just put our three year old son Oliver to bed When a pheasant shouted outside our son's window. The pheasant is not a particularly pleasant sounding bird But on hearing the pheasant, our son called, Yes, mum It has gone down in family folklore that my wife sounds like a peasant I don't think we've got a pheasant sound, but anyway Pheasants apparently sound Like Gary's mom Ogan hiss wife. do you know what a pheasant sounds like? I got no idea. Honestly, I wish that was part of my repertoire of amazing impersonations, but no I don't. Could the Tawan Aant team get us the stand of a pheasant Well, they managed to find the peacock. shouting for help So it's clearly just a matter of time. We'll come back to that. Okay, But Gary, thank you very much indeed. Pheasants sound like your wife That's the accusation. David says on the subject of location specific viewings. Yes. I once watch close encounters on a laptop. in my camper O location at Devil's Tower in Wyoming. No. I was even able to procure tower shaped mashed potatoes as depicted in the film And he sent sent photographs. There's his mashed potato Oh look at that. It's the mashed potato. And there p the devil's tower Okay wow A we loveving to go that I'd love to see that in the flash. Sorry Anyway, mas Mas Towerer shaped mashed potatoes, as depicted in the film, thanks to styrofoam takeaway containers Syrofoam mention for a while. Could you get them at Brentford Nylons? I suspect you probably could. David says this leads me to a segment I've wanted to propose for some time, what my friends and I call metethod watchatching. whereere you eat and drink things depicted in the film. To me, it's a way to make the film more visceral think smell a vision. unless that isn't desirable. I don't think I'd want to eat spaghetti while watching seven. Does anyone else do this So obviously this is for, you know, if you're watching something at home Eating food and drink as suggested in the film. Well, you know that there is a famous with Nel and I game. and incidentally I would say right from the beginning, do not play this. I'm not saying it is a joke, do not play this The with Nin I game is that you match every drink that they have on screen Okay. And as you know, the kind of the great irony of Withneo and Iy is that there's a huge amount drunk during the film, including at one point lighter fluid Also, The fact that Richard E. Grant famously does not drink or smoke at all And I think actually he's described himself as being allergic to alcohol And so one of the most brilliant things about that film is he's playing a character who is pickled throughout the entire movie and Richard E Grant does not and I I think I might be right in saying that he has never drunk or maybe he did once to sort of to see what it was like But that but anyway, yes, so that is the W Nill and eye game, but do not, do not do it because obviously it is very, very dangerous to do what they do on screen I can't think there'd be many films where your enjoyment or otherwise would be enhanced by eating and drinking what they are eating and drinking in the film Have you ever seen like grand Bff No, but I know what's involved. That would be particularly challenging. Also, because most films are obviously like a story told over a number of weeks, the amount of or years, the amount of alcohol can be consumed out of food that can be consumed is extraordinary. So I'm not sure if that works. But anyway, David, thank you. And if anyone else does method Watching We'd be very interested to find out about it. So to the overflow car park because the main car park is full, please follow the signs. the field, Der Jameson and a Domo This is Kerri Hagen, who you will not be surprised to learn as I read this email is a high school English teacher. Okay Long term listener from the Radio One days, while watching the backrooms, I was struck by a creeping sense of familiarity. On the drive home it clicked. Mark Fisher's lecture on the cancellation of the future I believe I've seen that, but thank you for mentioning it I fired up the great Apathy enngine, YouTube, and there he was, punched at a small desk in a yellow ochre lit backroom, chairs stacked by the door Fine duly tingled Fischher describes the sterility of life under quotes capitalist realism a world governed entirely by transaction where cultural memory erodes and originality collapses. Art and ideas are endlessly recycled in increasingly anemic forms. The future, as he puts it has been cancelled He links this stagnation to the barren infertility of Quiron's Chren of men. No children, no renewal, no possibility of newness. culture decays into disposable relics, branded coffee cups and little else Can I just say at this point before the final paragraph? I just finished the copy edit of my book. The copy editor would love this email because I think no corrections are required at all. The backrooms feels like a nightmarish cousin to that vision. It's endless liminal corridors half remembered furniture warehouses or the ghost shells of malls malls, echo the same exhaustion. The nineteen nineties setting feels pointed. ficious moment when capital achieved totalizing dominance and genuine novelty slipped out of reach. What lingers? this feels like poetry. What lingers is the anxiety embedded in this ahistorical space. We subconsciously recognize its emptiness, yet keep moving, turning identical corner after identical corner, driven by the illusion that something different might lie ahead. That false promise of variation is what makes it so unsettling Carry Hagen, Esquire YTS survivor, high schoolool English teacher P. Do we imagine that Mr O Hagen is a published auth Well, he certainly should be or he certainly at least should be a published editor. The p the punctuation and there was something to just sit back and admire so many hyphens, colons and semicolons, all used correctly. All well, as far as I was concerned in used correctly. and I think Hello to all copy editors, by the way, because they do Yeah strange work. Can I just ask having gone through the copy edit of your book How is it Well, it's better now Yes Are you yet at the point that you can look at it and think that it's actually any good? or are you still at the point of just absolute? No terror, really. So when we finished, I'm gonna to go through it again. haaving gone through the three final, final, very, very final, you can't look at this again changes justust to see if I want to rewrite the entire thing Basically start again Tear it up and rip it up and start it.ide the game Jude says longt time list of first time writing in I recently watched backrooms at my local cinema and I loved it. I first became aware of the whole backrooms idea aesthetic from an online creepy pasta, which we've mentioned in previous weeks is from copy and pasted User generated horror Having read the work of Mark Fisher, the late cultural theorist, it really interested me. The idea of unpeopled spaces, such as empty office blocks, shopping malls and so on, has been employed to similar effect in films such as twenty eight Days Later with its scenes of desolate Central London The late Fisher gave these spaces as examples of the Eerie, a phenomenon defined by the absence of something that we expect to be there I particularly recommend his essay collection Ghosts of My Life. This is very, very highighbrow. It's greatreat. Anyway, aside from the ideas behind backrooms, the film has a soundtrack that creates a perfect sense of discomfort in viewers. Bravo Cane Parsons for always capturing that sense of eeriness I'm keen to see what he does next beyond backackrooms. U with young YouTubers making great and successful films on relatively small budgets. But that's his, dude. That use of eeriness. I think when I was talking about the film, I referred to it as the uncanny. I know that I misuse the word uncanny Um But I think it's the thing that you've always said is that language is correct through usage and we know what we mean when we say uncanny There is something about that and it is a sort of liminal space when people preferred to uncanny Valley That thing when you've got animation that's kind of photore realalist but not quite right and you get this uncanny valley thing which is that you're looking at it and it's not quite right and it's wrong and that's really much more distressing than just looking at something that's absolutely wrong I had that peculiar sense I because of Be if I stay over in London, I stay over in a glamorous travel lodge in Covent Garden and when that's fully booked I go out to the one in Finchy Central which is near where I used to live. And a few weeks ago, I walked back to the old house to where I grew up. And it was really uncanny. because I haven't been there in the years is probably And it's that weird thing about it's the same, but it's not the same. It looks similar, but it's different and you're standing in the middle of something that is an absence because all you can see is all the things that aren't there. And I think that is a similar experience to what being described there That thing about the uncanny eerie absence of something Mark Fisher getting two mentions in the first two emails. Yeah. I think that's his last mention on the show. Roy says, while I'm sure Tuna is no longer gracing your top ten. I would like to thank you for pointing me in its direction. It's the kind of adult orientated drama that you rarely see in cinema these days and a cracking one at that. Perhaps it was the title and subsequent marketing that has put punters off. The name tuna is perhaps a little too ambiguous. Regardless, I thought all the performances were excellent, particularly that of Favana Rose Lo who, as Leo Woodall's love interest like a fully developed character with her own story arc And Leo Woodall did a very fine job too. Even if he does always look like the kind of guy who'd show you an unbelievably good time, but then steal your purse. I'm surprised to say it's probably my favorite film of the year. Can you just read that phrase again? Read that phrase again. Leo Leo Woodle did a very fine job. E if he does always look like the kind of guy who'd show you an unbelievably good time and then steal your purse Well, if he ever comes back on the show, you have to tell him that. I have to remember that you have to tell him that Anyway Correspondents to Kode.ot comot thank you plenty more emails to come, but also movie reviews as well, for example. Yeah, so there is a new foratain cinemas called Nino Nino is a French drummer by Pauline Loques featuure debut, co written by Loess and Maud Ameline. So The star is this Canadian actor, Theodore Palorant. Now you may remember his name even if I'm mispronoucing it'selt Theodore Pellarin, but apparently Theodore Pellarin who was reallyally good in that psychological thrill lurker Remember I reviewed this a few months ago It's about this guy who invigles his way into the life of this pop star that he really admires, who walks into his shop and he pretends he doesn't know him. and then he becomes his friend. and then he becomes part of his entourage. And then he basically it's a stalk narrative. It's a kind of amazing Mr. Ripley narrative. Anyw it was really, really good. And in that film He is really creepy in that kind of passive, aggressive, stalkery way In this film the opposite. He's this diffident young man, he's approaching his twenty ninth birthday who to his shock and surprise finds himself diagnosed with throat cancer. and the film plays out over a very short period effectively a long weekend from diagnosis to losing his keys, getting locked out of his flat visiting friends, going to see his mum. Having a chance meeting with an old schoolmate,ving arriving at a surprise in Inverted Comas's birthday party And then having to deal with providing a sperm sample because when the treatment begins because it's chemotherapy may affect his fertility films in French, I'm going to play you a clip which is in French, but I'm going to do the thing that I've now which is I'm going to translate the clip in advance so that you can understand it. Basically, the first voice you hear is a woman in the hospital saying you're young, you get priority. You can start as early as Monday Then there's a scene of him on a balcony with a friend, he says, lookook, I wanted to ask you something for Monday Actually, I have to go and then the friend coms to in, wait, wait wait, that That's my girlfriend coming in, she doesn't see me Then he's talking to his mother And his mother, he says, I need to talk about something. I have to start something. And his mother says, you're transitioning question. He no that Th then they're at a party And the friend says, Shall I stop the party? No. What we're going to pretend everything's fine We're doing that already. anyway, here's the clip W a genom prioriter quonand. bo Palantic visual ceticos B Tone cons this you No it's a better. to tell I so. So you kind of get the sense from that of the the sort of overlapping of gentle comedy and traged So I mean, particularly the thing which as I said, I had to explain in advance unless you speak French, which obviously some of our listeners will do, of when he says to his mom, lookook, I've got to begin some treatment and she goes, Ohh, you're transitioning. No, what? you know, she says, Oh, well, know a friend of mine, that's what's happening to her. But also the thing about the prospect of being stuck at a party when you know, the party is in your honor and you're the only person at the party pretty much who knows this you're facing this potentially life changing thing and nobody else does and you're happening to behave as if things are going on perfectly normally It's a very low key film. It played in Cnne last year in the Critics Week And Pellarant won the Louis Roderea Foundation Rising Star Award. The film was nominated for four Cesars. Cesars are effectively the French version of the Oscars, one best first feature film, and best male revelation for his performance. And I think that's understandable. He is very good His character doesn't speak very much and does a lot of reacting to the stuff that's going on around him and It's haaving got the diagnosis right at the beginning of the film A lot of what you're trying to figure out whether his reaction is that he's slightly traumatized or whether he's alienated from this world or whether he's silenced by the fact that he's walking through this world for the first time in the knowledge that he may have a finite amount of time left in this world. I mean, we know from the backstory that he lost a key family member a long time ago. and the whole I think the whole underlying narrative is that he has been looking away from the possibility of mortality for quite a long time. And now suddenly, due to this very compressed time period, but suddenly this thing which he's faced with means that he has to face something head on which he has been deliberately looking away from for a long time. There's a lovely cameo by Macha Almarek, who is this man who who he meets in a bathhouse who somehow seem It' a very short scene and very incidental scene in which the guy says, Oh, do you want tona see a picture of my wife? you know, she's dead and she shows a picture of his wife. And it seems to be completely nothing But it's got that it's almost as if he's met this character who sees him. Maybe the character is like an older version of himself. Anyway, a very strange melancholy film, very, very low key It kind of feels almost incidental, but I quite like the fact about it that, you know it is It is about a matter of life and death. But in this very, very understated manner particularly I like the structure of You know, he learned something at the beginning. we know that treatment is coming at the end and's it's about that kind of liminal space in between those two things And I thought it did it rather well. I thought his central performance was terrific. It's called Nino and it's in cinemas said the French have a category best male Revelation? Apparently so. I'm sure that in the original French it is Lison Revolat de triumph or something, you know,. That sound it almost sounds like, well, we thought you weren't very good, but look at you now It's like a passive aggressive. Yeah. It'll actually it'll be it'll be the equivalent of breakthrough. but yeah, it is passive aggressive. Yeah. We we thought you were rubbish, but it turns out you werere actually quite good. That Maail's surprise Who doesnt No somebody said somebody said that to me once And they didn't say it being I don't think they meant it to be nasty or I don't think they were thinking about what they were saying. And they did say something on the lines of you're not what I expected at all. You're all right Yeah, and he was like, Oh! to Pheass. So Garot. ye. So this is I'll repeat it in case you've forgotten or you're listening to this show over a number of hours or days or weeks Several years ago, we werere on holiday in Yorkshire at a friend's house. We had just put our three year old son, Oliver to bed and we were settling down when a pheasant shouted outside our son's window. The pheasant is not a particularly pleasant sounding bird, and on hearing this, our son shouted Yes, M And it's gone down in family folklore that my wife sounds like a pheasant So from the library Here's a pheasant If your wife sounds like that, then I think Gary She needs to see a GP But it may well be that Oliver, as three year old An in Bed, was like half asleep and just heard this kind of disturbance and thought maybe he was being called Yes It's not the most delightful is it really me it's not terrible. Can I just say I've just looked on I've just looked on on the IMDB, okay for that That that category that you were talking about, bestest maail Revelation. Yeah. Yeah. In fact, the French translate the original French of that is Mayer M E I L L E R, Mayor Espois masculine the IMDB translates that categorory B male hope That's even worse, even worse T me French C cinema, you're our only hope. I mean, hope is a great thing, but It's a bit desperate. Yeah, but that's also like calling you, it's not youre the best revelation. you're the best hopeful Well done Well that's on the back Matthew, from up North, but living in London. Simon and Mark a few weeks ago, Mark posited that you should you could choose any film a year any year of film and make an argument that it was the best year. Simon selected a random year, I believe, nineteen eighty three. And Mark said he would bring a list of films to argue it was the best. This never happened. I'd love to hear Mark make this argument. I share his hypothesis that you could do it for any year. So we mentioned this last week and you said you'd come back with something. did it You want to hear Go ahead. Okay, do you want it in reverse order? Don't care. The order that you prefer Okay, well, reverse order in that case. Okay ahead. reverse order. firstse order. Top ten, nineteen eighty three Number ten, Zeelig 'seic, R Gs great,fulil Are you're not going to react to each of these? No It would take you long. Okay, N nine I make a noise. I make a pheasant like noise. Okay, number nine, yentil. I love yentil. I will not hear a word against yentil and as They say in in and out, she was not too old to play Yentle U Number eight, educating Rita which is a film I absolutely love. incidentally Most of the Liverpool scenes filmed at Queens University, which is hosting you for a forty years of fun broadcast and Lifetime achievement Award in the near fure in October At number seven, trading places. still funny St funnyy. att number six, this is a great number six, the dead zone Number five Silkwood Number four, the right stuff And get this for a top three Number three, videood drrome Number two, King of comedy And number one, local hero Now that is a good top ten Okay, so that's I mean, I picked I literally just said nineteen eighty three because it occurred to me. but maybe that's a good example of how you can make a decent top ten for pretty much any year. Not bad going, eh? Very good. veryy good. We sit down and watch all of those Excellent. Matthew, thank you very much, indeed, for the reminder. Tom says I'm sure I'm not the only one who's written about this, but I'd love to hear the guy's thoughts on Widows Bay. or TV whichich I'm loving. I've got. I've not seen it tell me about it Okay, well, it's not my It's not my favorite genre because it's comedy horror and I have always thought that It's an I know people have tried it, but the comedy undermines the horror and the horror undermines the comedy and it's very difficult to get right except that Okay They absolutely do get it right. It's genuinely creepy. and Matthew Reese, who leads the cast is fantastic as the Mor. Okay, so I found this description on it which is There's a lot wrong with this description, but best described as the Mor of East Town meets Schittzs Creek So the reason I have a problem with that is that I did not enjoy Schitzkek. This was very much a COVID lockdown ience when people were saying, no, give it to the beginning of the third series and it really takes off. I thinking no, you don't have to give any series that Leewway yeah. yeah. So So Matt so it's u Widows Bay is an island, an imaginary island. of kind of Massachusetts kind of area. And it's and it's basically spooky and bad things happen and it's cursed from many years ago. And Matthew Reese plays the Mare who is initially doubtful about the whole thing, but then through that it's a ten part series on Apple realizes that it absolutely is haunted. but it's great fun, genuinely spooky and probably one of the best TV shows of the year I would. Okay So yourour feeling at the moment is that most of the best stuff is on Apple, isn't it I think it's because they produce less. so therefore you're just aware that there are so many hits on there or so many shows that I have enjoyed because there are fewer shows to scroll through. It's not like Netflix or prime where there's like thousands of the things and you don't know where to start Yeah But Kato Flynn is fantastic as well. But Matthew Resece probablyb Welles's greatest actor of the moment, I would have thought, but anyway fantastic actor and Widows Bay and Apple TV for me is very good. and when Mark sees it he has an awful lot to see. That's okay, I will get on the case with it. We must talk about the pit at some point as well. In fact, we will talk about the pit very briefly when we get to lesbian space princess. Get an email from Claire LTL but not FT email.ot notot financial timimes. that's just first. abbreviation that took longer to express. That's great. I'm just catch up on last week's podcast. listening to Mark about losing and then being reunited with his grandfathers is there it is. It reminded me of a similar experience my bestie had, but possibly even more astounding and cosmic. She inherited a ring from her uncle who died when she was young. She was in the cinema fiddling with the ring during the film and it came off. After the film, they searched for it but couldn't find it anywhere, even with assistance from the staff. She had to resign herself that it was gone forever. Many years later, in the same cinema, her partner said I think These are the same seats we were in when you lost your uncle's ring putut his hand down the side of the seat Tome It was there. No been there for years U anyyway Cla That's great. So down with Nazis up with finding things which were once lost, I don't know, like a Rembrandt drawing Wow, I loveve the show, Steve. Thank you, Claire. One frame back. So as we heard in takeake one, Toy Story five is out this week, jostling for box office domination. So we ask you for your favorite animated movies that appeal to the grown upps as well as the kios, which is most of them most Anyway Mike Rud says Coraline are terrifying and once the third act kicks in, there are no jokes to leven the moment. The tension just ratchets up to an overwhelming conclusion. Mohammed Shakir says Shrek, in particular, Shrek two, popularized animated films that worked on several levels. It's still fantastic Over twenty years later Stu know this year is the twenty fifth anniversary of Shrek Isn't that terrifying? It is very much so, but thank you for making us all feel very more ancient than we are So Dr. Stu Hodson says my neighbor to Torow a story without threat that manages to convey peace, fear, joy, sadness and hope in a setting that's as bucolic as it is magical or K pop demon hunters, Banging tunes, excellent animation and sparky characters that loves what it's doing Darren Leesley, my youngest and I were very charmed and maybe a bit misty eyed by robot dreams. Yeah which five. That was great. Do you want to pick one of those? I mean, I would say actually, along with Tosu, I would go with all the Ghibilis because I think that of all those of all of the films, the Gibiles are absolutely the ones that I think satisfy all ages. And I remember really, really clearly seeing for the first time U spirited away and watching it with Child onene who at that point was very young And me being completely baffled by it but she responded to it on an absolutely intuitive level and watching her respond to it was my way into Ghibli. So I would say Todjo and the entire Ghibli back catog, particularly the Mizakis Correspondence at Kanamo. com there is also Something else out in the animated spere. On the subject of animation, lesbian Space Princess fifteen for Straong language sex, sex references and bloody images. This is an Australian adult animation, which according to one poster strap line G this is setting a gay, looks see far far, far away Shall I run that by you again No, I've got, I got it for first time. I'm not sure that's going. So written and directed by featuure firstirst timers Emma Ho Hobbs and La Vogg. I think Varges Vaggies voices of Shabanna A' one of the stars of The pit, which incidentally we must do a thing on because I'm in the middle of season two of the pit at the moment. and season one, the good lady Fess of her endors and I binged in a session. We're now on to season two and it's amazing Anyway a whole bunch of people, including the comedy trope Auntie Jononna. So the film comes on, I mean, it's called Lesbian Space Princess, comes on like a cross between Rocky horror, hitchhiker's guide and Fesh Gordon, frankly.. So Princess Syra lives on the planet Clitopolis where she was voted the most boring royal in gay space after breaking up Sorry for being too boring and too intense. The altogether more piratical keiki is kidnaaped by get this straight white malans I'll do that again straight white mleeions. I'm getting the drift of where where this film is taken. tryrying to find a power source for their newly acquired giant chick magnet which is a huge magnet which they need to use Kiki for Bait to get to the Princess Hs cllip y finally. Wait, o my Godd, where are you?ry. Things called straightwight mallans. H Now listen, prrincess, we need a royal Labrie. What why? The super tough cool dudes are so if you don't want us to drown your beloved Kiki in our toxic home brew, you will bring it here to the worst most dangerous place in the Universe. But Sarah, please tell me you actually have the Labriice which of course she doesn't. But nonetheless, she steals a manplaining, problematic ship that doesn't think that women can be astronauts, heads off on a quest that connects her with a non binary pop idol, a drag queen, other assorted sort of comedy caricatures, and having to leave the safety of gay space. So The film played in Berlin last year and it won the Teddy Award for LGBT related films, played the Sydney Film Festival where it won the Audience Award. I think audience awwards are always important becausecause audience awwards means you know, it's going down well in the room. Also won the audience Award for Best Australian Fature. It is very much a festival favorite film. It's released here to coincide with Pride Month And it's kind of fun in a frothy, fizzy sort of way. There's lots of pantastic humor. That's why I said the thing about, it reminded me slightly of Flh Gordon because Flesh Gordon was all pantastic stuff And it's definitely playing to a home crowd. The animation is gaudy, two D, sort of garishly colored, very easy on the eye Lots of mancap antics, lots of in jokes, all played for broad comedy, very big hearted. It is fun. I remember that The whole thing about there is only ever one film review in the end and the review is, it's fine if you like that sort of thing. And I think this is absolutely in that realm. It's fine, if you like that sort of thing. I kind of enjoyed it And why When you say it's For the festival crowd. I mean it's a home crowd movie. It's not a film that's going it's going to convert anyone to change anyone's mind or do anything. It's a film that he's playing to a home crowd I mean, it's done very it's done very well at festivals. But there is a particular kind of movie that you can really, really enjoy at festivals. but I mean, it's particularly true in the horror circuit. There are some movies that every year absolutely take the roof off at Frightfest. but you know that They they're playing to a very particular crowd. And incidentally, that's not a criticism perfectly fine to understand who your audience is. Okay, it's time for five questions F question, to Majesty Last week, Mark introduced the piano while Mark and Simon introdued with hilarious consequences, Stewart says Your recent conversation about the piano in New Zealand brought me back in a pristian rush to my one and only trip there two thousand one. Was it raining flew into Auckland and as the plane was coming into land, I excitedly nudged my then girlfriend, now wife and said, look out the window. that's the beach they filmed the piano on er Jet lag had definitely kicked in at this point, what with New Zealand be the other end of the world. And she half outedly smiled confused and murmured What piano The trip certainly lived to the quote by a good sales welc to New Zealand where it's raining after ten days of almost solid foul weather. and this was in December during their summer. We checked into a bed and breakfast on the south island and politely asked the lady owner if she thought the weather might improve in the next few days and her first reply was What do you expect? We live in a rainforest. This has become a stock phrase in our family now that we live in the rain soaked west of Ireland.. Whenever any visitors ask us about the weather. it's always when you go on holiday, you ignore all the information on your weather app and you just ask local people what the weather is going to do. It's going say saysew, we were thankful to arrive in Sydney for the New Year's celebrations and a balmy twenty eight degrees and no rain. Regless New Zealand is outstandingly beautiful and the experience was fantastic especially seeing Mount Doom For real I loveve the show, Steve Tigy tonkking down with anntiped and precipitation, of which there is a lot Stuart, thank you. So anyway That was that was piano business. So a reminder, you can watch all our intros to every five question film club on our Patreon page. This week's choices Breakfast at Tiffany's which you can say on ITVX from nineteen sixty one Shrek, the aforementioned, which you can see on BBCI Player two thousand one And Lost in translation, which you can find on Netflix and Sky and now. and that's from two thousand three So Jamie Drinkwater said that Winner of the first animated feature Oscar Shrek. It holds up as evident from a recent trip to Wales my friends and their two year old daughter who shouts, ogre when it's time for another watch, usually at least the third of that day. Andrew Jacobs buck the popular voteemark and choose Schrek Anyone who has had children, grandchildren, or was the generation of children when it came out will recognize it's a stone cold classic. And as oldlder Jennings, lost in translation perfectly captured the feeling of listlessness that one feels after university where suddenly in your early twenties, you have no idea where you will be next year. It represents a moment in time when I needed to take charge of my life for the first time ever really.'s stunningly beautiful. So Shrekt got twenty two percent, brereakfast at Tiffany's got thirty three percent and Lost in transranslation was well ahead by forty five percent of the vote. However, that means nothing if Mark is feeling like an authoritarian. Are you going to stick or? No, I'm going to stick. I think particularly this week of all weeks, we absolutely need to We need to not overturn elections Lost in Translation follows two lonely Americans who form an unexpected connection while navigating the disorientating new environment of Tokyo Director Sophia Copolood crafts a subtle atmospheric portrait of isolation, cultural displacement, and emotional intimacy, with acclaimed performances from Bill Murray and Scarlet Johansson Thank you, Tom Wilkinson for always setting us on the right path there. Widely regarded as a modern classic, the film's understated storytelling, evocative visual style and exploration of contemporary loneliness have given it a lasting influence on independent cinema and popular culture. Yes. So that's an intro. Okay so lost in translation. Here come the five questions Th questions, Majesty Question number one, what's the film actually about? I think that that email about the sense of listlessness got it spot on. I mean, in a way, the film is about exactly what the title says, the lost in translation thing. is it's about being outside of your own culture and time and being lost as a result of it. twowo characters stuck in the sort of liminal space of a hotel somehow each is strange from there respective personal lives, finding common purpose in that sense of being out of being quite literally lost in translation. What made it groundbreaking question too. What made it groundbreaking is how successful it was. I mean Copa's previous film, Virgin Suicide critically acclaimed cost nine million, took ten million. So you know, very much a cult, critical hit, but not a money maker. Her next film, Marie Antoinette, and inc instidentally, I was in Cannes when Marie Antoinette got moooved, which is what they do in Canne when they don't like a film, they don't boo, they move It cost forty millionang hang on, sorry. Why? It's just a weird thing. It' the strangest thing in the Cann Film festival, they don't blue. they go m ridiculous French pretention. Fche laa Vache, as they would say, in holy Grail. Anyway, that took forty cost forty took sixty, so technically a flop because you have to make two and a half times what the film costs. Then in the middle of it Lost in translation. fourour million It took one hundred and eighteen and was beloved by fans and critics alike. So the thing that makes it groundbreaking is it's a whopping success in the middle of a career which at that point was not distinguished by whopping successes, either critically or popularly. As I said, Virgin Suicide critically acclaimed Marie Antoinette, not so neither of them big hit Question number three, what should we pay particular attention? I think Bill Murray's performance, I mean it is the role that his hang doog face was absolutely born to perform It's it's he's It is almost a movie built around Bill Murray's expression. He got an Oscar nomination. Colola earned a ton of Oscar nominations for it because she did so many roles on it, but it is one of his defining roles. And I think for some people, it was the point at which they realized that Bill Murray was far more than a great comedian that he was also really a really accomplished actor Question number three, what scene explains the film's power Well, I think there are two things I don't knowether you remember this, but when the film came out, there was quite a lot of accusations of cultural stereotypes, that the film was a very much a kind of an American view of foreign culture and leaning into those. And actually one of the scenes that plays into that, although I think you can have a debate about whether or not the film is laughing at them or whether it's actually laughing at the Americans being out of their depth whether it's laughing at the Western is the scene in which he's doing the advert, in which he's doing because he's there advertising whiskey, know for good times, makeake it Centauri times. Now the interesting thing is that of course, back then, what people knew about Japanese whiskey here in the West was very, very little. And if you look at that scene now, The meaning of it has changed quite a lot because we all now know that the Japanese are better at making whiskey than almost anyone else in the world. I don't know whether you remember there was the old Monty Python Australian wino Society routine. You remember that? And the whole routine was the idea of Australians making wine is hilarious because obviously it' all be turps. Now Australian wine is You know, it's the top of the tree. So I think that scene really some really does encatuure the filmms where for good and bad is It is everything that the film is about. all the contradictions in it are encapsulated in that scene. On behalf of the Scottish and Welsh whiskey go. I would just like to say that they would say that their whiskies are quite easily. They would. But the point is we have all accepted for ages that Scottish and Irish whiskies are the top of the tree. The joke at this point was that Japanese whiskies were just silly But they weren't Nobody thinks that now. Everyone thinks whether they think you know, to be provocative to say, well, they're the best in the world. Everyone at least thinks they're They are amongst the best in the world which they didn't think when Lost in transranslation came out. At least they didn't know, you know, this film isn't about whiskey, but The best risky I've had recently is Welsh. So Oh wow then. Okay, cool. Okay, And finally, question number three, why does this film still matter. Well, Honestly, I'm not sure that it does But if it does, it's because it is Coppola's most enduringly popular film and probably Bill Murray's most enduringly popular role. I mean Cubb has made some other great movies. I mean, I like Priscilla. I liked O the Rocks. I like the beguiled remake. She's made some absolute stinkers, I think somewhere was. just awful And I think she's often guilty of making two thirds of a great film I think in this particular case It it is the quintessential film that she was born to make and it's the quintessential film that Bill Murray was born to play and those two things come together perfectly. I don't know whether that still matters But I think it's the thing that endures. Also, I don't really know what a film what kind of film matters, you know? Toy Well, you could sayry Poppins, does it matter? No, it's just hugely entertaining. So Listen, these questions come from the redactor. I'm just doing what I'm told. This is just my job. I just work here. I'm just the Sook So just to repeat lost in translation is on Netflix, It's also on Sky, it's also on now. So we'll regroup next week to see what we thought of lost in translation. C cheheck our Patreon page for next week's poll. on our next film choices, all of which brings us The feature at the end of the show, which is always introduced with this piece of music. Bring it in again. Bring in, Bring it in Rachel in Edburgh, Market Simon, thank you for giving me an excuse to email about my favorite film of all time, Boogy Nights. I can't wait to see its new four K release that you reviewed on the show, but I can also confirm that it is Boogy Nights where you see Philip Symour Hoffman use his once in a generation acting to blush in no one but two scenes. Fantastically when he's filming Duck Digler's first ever movie, and to be honest, fair enough Fair enough Yeah. And the second where he tries to impress Dirk with his new car at the New Year's party. The latter may not count because he's also been drinking so it could be makeup to make him look inebriated. But this scene has always broken my heart as a scene because I can't help but feel like that blush speaks to a loneliness and embarrassment at trying to fit in that Philip Seymour Hoffman truly experienced in his life. I'm not sure if that is true, but his performance in Boogy Nights feels vulnerable and authentic in a way you don't see in other films Thanks for your audible company, up with sex education and down with dwindling reproductive rights and purity culture across the pond Whatever that refers to R I'm so impressed by that because it's funny when this first came up, as I said, I have a vision in my head of Phip Syour Hoffman blushing. and then somebody else wre in and said, it's Vicky Creeps blushing in, I said I thought it was Paul Thomasson and it is Vicky Creeps B blushing Phantom Shrered. but thank you, thank you because that is brilliantly confirming that I'm not imagining the Philip Sor Hoffman blushing a PTA film Now Mark Levitt sends in a question, which I think is very, very specialist, which we may well be getting some inside information from those who know better than us. S. Mark says I recently discovered a handful of Yiddish cinema classics produced in New York in the nineteen thirties, including Tevia, which was fidder on the roof without the songs., The Dibbook and American Matchmaker directed by Edgar Ulma, no less My question is, was there an equivalent golden age of Yiddish cinema On your side of the pond, with much thanks to you both and of course, all the stellar production team, each a true mentch and special hello to my lanceman, Jason Isaacs, Shalom and Zeig uund from Levit Well, that's interesting. I did a bit of work on this and all the films that I came up with were American films or Polish films, which then played in London's East End. They were touring films And they played to huge crowds of Um Jewish men and women who' largely come from Eastern Europe. But I haven't I don't know, Mark what the answer is to your question. Maybe other people do I mean, off the top of my head, I don't, but well done for it mentioning the dibbook, but but what did you come up with Well the only other apart from the Dibbook, which is nineteen thirty seven, the year before there was a film which which appears to be called Yiddle mitten fiddle, which in English is Yiddle with his fiddle And's a musical comedy which was much loved in the thirties in the East End of London. But these this is a Polish film, so again it I think it implies that may well not have been a goldenge of Yiddish cinema in the UK. However, if that is wrong, we would love to know about it. Y this community is very small in the UK, but we would love to know has there ever been a golden age of Yiddish cinema in the UK? Yeah Yeah. Correspondence at Codoma. comot Meantime, I might watch It'll m and fiddle. It'll bit and fiddle. U We might do better with this. Josh says longtime list a few time emergency mailer. Most recently I emailed to tell you about Oat baths and my brother with chthiosis which is a genetic skin disorder, which we have remember. Which can I say was lovely to you both learn about and talk about. So thank you very much. My job is as an independent cinema manager.. I started as regular staff, promoted to supervisor and then to assistant manager and I've worked there a few solid years now. Cleaning auditoriums is a large part of our jobs as cinema stuff to keep things running day to day. And typically, unless it's a superhero film shuff in credit scenes, thenen we are in and cleaning while the credits roll as most guests typically leave. Can I just say that point round of applause to Japanese football fans who always make a point you might not have seen this mark of clearing up after them. So they go to a stadium, they then clear up the stadium before they leave Good. I wonder if Japanese cinema is the same. Again, we'll take information. Anway Josh says There have been some films that have been truly terrible, but have had great credit songs to listen to whilst clearing. And recently, Michael is a favorite among staff to clean to because of the box you get in the credits. So my question, what is a film that you have thought was terrible or maybe just a bit NaF, but you left with a smile on your face is the credit song was an absolute banger. Wow Okay, I mean, I have really struggled with this because the songs that I remember at the end of movies, like in the Born films when you get that Moby track They've all been Good films. you But yeah a tero. I mean, well I mean, I I would say that that the I mean, exxoris two the hereeretic is the worst film ever made, but the end of Moraconi music is absolutely astonishing and it ends with that absolutely beautiful which is one of the great Moraconi themes I mean, I you know, I love the the Richard Gear remake of breathless and breathless finishes with a cover version of Jerry Lee Lewis' Breathless by are they called X sort of like an LA sort of punky bat and it's a fantastic version of that song with I love that. I love the film. So it's harder. So I would say the heretic is the one which is awful film but great great track at the end, although it is part of the score rather than a than a banging addedition Godzilla And had a Jamirakite track at the end. Yeah which is which was okay. And do you remember your opinion of Mystery Men? The Ben stilliller sort of sort of seebe you're not being wowed by it, I think. Yeah It had Smash Mouse All Star at the end, which did become a very big song. But again, this is going to be open to everyone else. Correspondents to Kevin May d. comot. Good question Now we're back onto familiar territory. although Marcus from Hanover, who says Hi Mark. Oh, and I'm looking at the email Did he spelled my name wrong And And forgot the person who's reading this thing out, but anyway, o What are your favorite jump scares? Mine wrer would be one, Ben Gardner's head in jaws Which traumatized me when I was far too young to watch the movie and a lot of people. The ceiling trap door in Robert Wise is the haunting And that one scene in the hospital in the Exis. Yeah. Best which is from Germany. Well, thanks, Marcus. I'm Simon, by the way. this is Mark speelt with a K. Marcus incidentally I noticed from looking at this spells his name with a K. So why he' spelling my mother with a C? I don't know Of those three that you've picked, the hospital scene in Exoris three is it is amazing how that has now passed into modern mythology as one of the greatest jumps scares of all time, particularly when you consider that that film got kicked all around town when it first came out and you know, was messed around by the studio and I was involved in the reconstruction of going, you know, going back to Blatty's original vision, which you can now get on the is it called shriek factactory, S shock factactory, scream fact, whatever it is on the on I think it's Arow We did it over here but that scene is brilliant because it's to do with It the the When the thing runs in, it comes from a side of the screen that you don't. You don't imagine it's coming from. And Blatty said to me that that was absolutely inspired by Arbagast at the top of the stairs in psycho when the thing comes out of the wrong the wrong corarter of the frame. That's what he was going for. and that's why that jump scare is so brilliant. I would also add The scene in audition on the telephone when the bag moves in the background. scared the living daylights out of me. Okay, thank you very much for that Hambble Nlander. Another fantastically named correspondent. I'd like to ask about embargoos. You've mentioned embargers and sometimes can't review movies until a certain date. Why are such embargos in place and what would be the consequences if you did review a film that was embargoed at the time you reviewed it People get very narky about embargos, but there's nothing wrong with it. hereere's the thing. A film company does not have to show a critic of film in advance. They don't have to at all But if they do There is an agreement between the critic and the film company as to at what point the critic is allowed to speak about it. So if the film company agreree to show you the film They can say to you, we don't want you to say a single word about it until the film is released. or three days before the thing of release, That's. And the reason that that makes sense for everybody is because it enables us as critics to see the film in good time and it enables them as film distributors to keep discussion of the film limited to when they want it. Now, next week, for example, there is a question about whether or not we can review Supergirl because at the moment, they're not doing a national press week of release screening of Supergirl during the day on Monday and Tuesday, which is when national press critics watch the movies They're doing it too late our recording. Now we might be able to sort that out between now and then We might not be able to sort it out between now and then But if we did and they said, but you're embargoed until reviewing it until a certain time, that's fine. People get breaking embargoos. if if you break an embargo The result of it is that you might get struck off the screenings list, but on a larger scale, you might make it more difficult for everybody else to get their job done in a timely fashion. An embargo is a perfectly reasonable arrangement between critics and film distributors We agree to show you the film in advance, but you agree to not speak of it until this date. And if you don't want to do that, then fine, we won't show it to you. And that's what that's how it works. Ebargos get a very bad name. I mean, the general rule is You know, or if something is embargoed until day of release, it's because they think that the review will damage the film because they think that the film is a stinker for example. But in general, embargoos are just a way of people doing their jobs and the people that break embargoos are people who are not doing their jobs Final question then in this final section of the show, which is partly called Ask Mark Gareth says Mark, you know how to rock a Harrington jacket. I do One, how did they become your jacket of choice? How many do you own Colors, I mean, yeah Well, I'll give you very simple answer. It became my jacket of choice because of Simon Booth, who I was in the basics with when I was at school. And Simon Booth used to wear docks and you know skin tight jeans and a black Harrington. And I thought he was the coolest thing I'd ever met And then I wanted to Harrton. so we went up Carnabie Street and I bought a Beige Harrington. Of course there is no such thing as a Harrington. A Harrington is a style of jacket. It's actually a barracuta that is named it was named a Harrington because of the character from Peayton Place who wore a barracuta. and thename then they became called Harringon So then I started collecting Genic Harringon so So I had a beige one, I had a green one, I had a black one. I had a mauve one. And then someome while later, the good lady professor her indoors bought me a barracuta, which is what an actual Harrington is And then and then the problem is that once once you've gone there, you're never going back So I've got a blue Dark blue A lighter blue a red U One I really want, the one I really, really want, I've got still got all the old ones, but what you want, what you really really want here's what I want, what I really, really want is that there is a limited edition petrol bllue Barracuta I saw being modeled by this guy who I met at a film festival Um Wh who's a filmmaker, really interesting guy who made the documentary at Martin Parr. And um I took one look at it and I was in love with the jacket and I said What's that he said it's a limited edition I went No, no, yeah, but I you know, what color is it? He said it's petrol blue And I have been trying to get a petrol and I can't find one anywhere else. And how much would you pay for it I don't think that's a discussion I should have on here. Okay, how much would you normally play for one? an average one, standard one They one they they're more than a ton. Okay, well, accord a jacket, you don're want to get a jacket for that It's a couple of hundred you're in that region is three hundred. No you were right the Yeah Yeahah, than you, Simon Paul for exactly saying it outA Yeah. a couple. There are a couple of hundredqui. Yeahah. What would you imagine the petrol blue one would be? They have no idea because they're not available, which made a brand Please don't put me in this position. Iagine. I imagine the good lady professor isn't in the room. She is in the room. She's literallying I imagine. Just imagine that she isn't.ould wouldould you pay a grand for a petrol bue two grand Anyway, it's just nice to be involved in the question. Send yours please for next week three grand You are you are just gonna get me into trouble, all right? Okay, correspondents Kevin May d. comot Thankk you for listening. There'll be another take along f. F. stop You're a bad man You're a very bad man Sold to the man in the hotel in the cell. Thank you very much