How Do You Solve A Problem Like My Fair Lady
Platonic love story or patriarchal nightmare? Melody Bridges and Caitlin Benedict debate.
Aug 07, 2018•7 min
The Film Programme
The latest releases, the hottest stars and the leading directors, plus news and insights from the film world
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Episodes
Maurice
James Wilby remembers starring in Maurice, a story of the forbidden love between two men amid the stifling conformity of Edwardian England. As James Ivory's film adaption of EM Forster's novel returns to cinemas this summer Wilby looks back on filming alongside Hugh Grant and how the film was overlooked in Britain in in 1987. Rosamund Pike and director Patrick Kennedy talk about the art of phoning it in. From their short film, The Human Voice, which consists entirely of Rosamund on the phone for...
Aug 02, 2018•35 min
Apostasy
Daniel Kokotajlo explains how his upbringing as a Jehovah's Witness informed his debut film Apostasy. The drama stars Siobhan Finneran as a dedicated Jehovah's Witness, whose two teenage daughters begin to struggle to reconcile their beliefs with the secular world around them. Editors Emma E Hickox and Rebecca Lloyd discuss how they first got into the cutting room and how diplomacy is a key skill when editing a film. Jason Stalman, the lead animator on Wes Anderson's stop-motion film, Isle of Do...
Jul 26, 2018•38 min
Generation Wealth
Lauren Greenfield exposes Generation Wealth, the consumer culture of excess, pornography, and cosmetic surgery for pets, and tells Francine Stock why she trained the lens on herself as part of her documentary. Director Leslie Harris explains why she never made another film after her award-winning, ground-breaking debut Just Another Girl On The I.R.T. 26 years ago. And why producers are reluctant to finance movies with an African-American woman as the lead. Composer Neil Brand reveals why the sco...
Jul 19, 2018•36 min
Ethan Hawke
Ethan Hawke tells Francine Stock about his role as a tormented priest in Paul Schrader's First Reformed, and why it's still rare to see a priest take the lead role in a Hollywood movie Directors Beeban Kidron and Hope Dickson Leach discuss the problems of combining child care and film-making, and Beeban reveals why George Lucas thought she was a man. Perfume expert and film critic Dariush Alavi looks at Apocalypse Now and tells us what napalm really smells like (clue: it doesn't smell like victo...
Jul 12, 2018•35 min
Whitney
Oscar winning director Kevin Macdonald turns his lens on Whitney Houston for his latest documentary, Whitney, only twelve months after fellow Brit Nick Broomfield did the same with Whitney: Can I Be Me. Macdonald tells Francine Stock why his documentary needed to be made. Cinematographer Tom Townend takes us behind the scenes of Lynne Ramsay's You Were Never Really Here and explains why we should keep an eye out for the dead crows. Gavia Baker-Whitelaw ruminates on the history of straight actors...
Jul 05, 2018•35 min
How Do You Solve A Problem Like West Side Story?
Melody Bridges & Caitlin Benedict talk about the problematic fave that is West Side Story
Jun 29, 2018•7 min
Bill Nighy
Francine Stock enters The Bookshop with Bill Nighy and follows the trail of a father and daughter who live rough in a national park in Oregon. They're the subject of Leave No Trace, directed by Debra Granik, who reveals the true story behind her award-winning feature film. Neil Brand reveals how composer John Williams made us believe that Superman could fly, just by changing key.
Jun 28, 2018•39 min
Sandra Bullock and Cate Blanchett
Francine Stock meets Sandra Bullock and Cate Blanchett to discuss Ocean's 8 and their plans to tackle gender inequality in the film industry. Comedian Rosemary Fletcher argues that all-female reboots smack of women-only train carriages, and that women should have their own stories, not cast-offs from male stars. Film producer Trudie Styler discusses her directorial debut Freak Show reveals why she went behind the camera for the first time in 25 years in the movie business.
Jun 21, 2018•30 min
Mind the Gap: Argentinian New Wave
Critics Larushka Ivan-Zadeh and Tim Robey on the Argentinian New Wave.
Jun 18, 2018•11 min
Alternate Realities at Sheffield Doc/Fest
Francine & Caitlin don headsets, download apps, and get immersed at Sheffield Doc/Fest
Jun 15, 2018•16 min
Hereditary
Francine Stock talks to Ari Aster, the director of the film dubbed the scariest of the year, Hereditary. He explains why Mike Leigh was the greatest influence on his horror movie. Francine and Caitlin Benedict visit the Sheffield Documentary Festival, where they encounter film-maker Mark Cousins, enter two containers marked Hate and Hope as part of an installation by Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, experience what it's like to be a soldier under fire in Iraq in a virtual reality piece called Mind...
Jun 14, 2018•36 min
The Film Programme Goes to Sheffield Doc/Fest
Francine enters The World Unknown To You and speaks to the creators of VR work Belongings
Jun 10, 2018•4 min
The Film Programme Goes to Sheffield Doc/Fest
Francine and her plucky sidekick Caitlin choose Hope or Hate at Sheffield Doc/Fest
Jun 09, 2018•4 min
The Attenborough Archive
Francine Stock visits the archive of Richard Attenborough in the University of Sussex, which contains over 700 boxes of letters, photos, film reviews and a Chelsea shirt signed by John Terry. As it opens to the public for the first time, Richard's son Michael Attenborough reveals the memories that the archive has evoked, like his visit to the set of Gandhi, while archivist Eleanor King takes Francine through some of the vast collection. Louise Brooks launched a thousand haircuts with her idiosyn...
Jun 07, 2018•33 min
Jurassic World
Cult director J.A. Bayona tells Francine Stock why he took on the dinosaurs in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and why it's really a haunted house movie. Composer Neil Brand takes us on a tour with Taxi Driver, Bernard Herrmann's game-changing score for Martin Scorsese's masterpiece. Anna Smith looks back at Big on its thirtieth anniversary and reveals how the Tom Hanks comedy relates to the weird trend for body-swap movies in the late 80s. In another edition of Pitch Battle, listener Gerald Corv...
May 31, 2018•36 min
The Breadwinner
With Francine Stock. Nora Twomey, director of The Breadwinner, explains how an animation about life under the Taliban in Afghanistan was produced by Angelina Jolie and made in Kilkenny Olivia Hetreed is president of the Writers Guild Of Great Britain that published a report this week which revealed that only 16% of screenwriters are female. She crunches the figures with Francine, and discusses the moment she woke up one day and wondered "where have all the women gone ?". She reveals why she has ...
May 24, 2018•34 min
Saoirse Ronan
With Francine Stock. Saoirse Ronan discusses her role in On Chesil Beach, as a young bride whose wedding night goes disastrously wrong with unforeseen consequences, and explains why Ian McEwan didn't mind her ditching some of his dialogue, even though he wrote both the novel and the screenplay. Critic Tim Robey and film buyer Clare Binns report on the classics and calamities they've witnessed at the Cannes Film Festival this week. The ever-controversial A to Z of film-makers ends this week with ...
May 17, 2018•32 min
Godard, Revenge
With Francine Stock The Artist director Michel Hazanavicius discusses his bio-pic about Jean-Luc Godard, Redoubtable, and reveals whether it's meant to be tribute or insult. Matilda Lutz and Coralie Fargeat, the director and star of Revenge, discuss the ethics of their feminist horror film Film buyer Clare Binns and critic Tim Robey take their pick of the movies on offer at this year's Cannes Film Festival.
May 10, 2018•32 min
Andrew Haigh
Award winning British director Andrew Haigh reveals why travelled to the southern states of America for his horse racing drama Lean On Pete.
May 03, 2018•31 min
This Woman's Work, The Wound
Francine Stock presents a new series in The Film Programme. This Woman's Work is a regular discussion strand with some of the most important women in the British film industry. This week she talks to two producers about their adventures in motion pictures: Elizabeth Karlsen and Serena Armitage. The Wound is a controversial South African drama about an initiation ceremony for young boys about to enter manhood. The director John Trengove and star Nakhane Toure explain why they think these rites of...
Apr 26, 2018•36 min
Mind The Gap: Merchant Ivory
Critics Tim Robey and Larushka Ivan-Zadeh plug the gap in their knowledge of Merchant Ivory, the team that brought us Room With a View and The Remains of The Day. Their choice is the film that brought together famous Hollywood husband and wife Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman as Mr and Mrs Bridge. But is it a gap worth filling?
Apr 20, 2018•11 min
Shirley Henderson, Maxine Peake
With Antonia Quirke. Shirley Henderson reveals the meticulous research she conducted for her role as a woman in the advanced stages of Parkinson's Disease for her new film Never Steady, Never Still. Maxine Peake and Tony Pitts on why they found working men's clubs impossibly glamorous in the 70s and 80s. Midwives Kate Jackson and Christine Kelly reveal what the movies get wrong about their jobs. Director Justin Edgar writes three rules that other film-makers should follow when making dramas with...
Apr 19, 2018•43 min
Talking Pictures TV
With Antonia Quirke Antonia talks to Noel Cronin, the man behind cult channel Talking Pictures TV, which specialises in those old movies you used to catch on afternoon telly, often when you were ill from school. He explains how he runs a TV station from his home in the Hertfordshire countryside. As Clint Eastwood growls his way back into cinemas as The Man With No Name in A Fistful Of Dollars, poet Bridget Minamore and critic Tim Robey discuss the appeal of the Strong, Silent Type. Ex-submariner...
Apr 12, 2018•40 min
From The Archive: Mark Gatiss' Guide To Lost British Cinema
The League Of Gentleman star picks a hidden gem, The Amazing Mr Blunden, which he saw in school in 1974, preceded by a government information film. Originally broadcast 21/08/09
Apr 09, 2018•5 min
Todd Haynes, 120 Beats Per Minute
With Francine Stock. Carol director Todd Haynes discusses his adaptation of children's novel Wonderstruck and how he cast his lead actor from the deaf community. Director Robin Campillo reveals the autobiographical elements of his award-winning film about AIDS activists in the 90s, 120 Beats Per Minute, and how he had to come to terms with death at a very young age. Niellah Arboine offers three rules for putting black characters on screen that film-makers should follow. Director Sky Neal and pro...
Apr 05, 2018•34 min
From The Archive - 2001: A Space Odyssey
Produced by Mark Burman
Apr 03, 2018•27 min
Steven Spielberg, Julie Delpy, Virtual Reality
With Francine Stock Steven Spielberg on Virtual Reality and his latest film Ready Player One Dan Tucker Curator Alternate Realities, Sheffield International Documentaries Festival considers the realities for VR, cinema and film directors. Actor/writer/director Julie Delpy explains why she's never lost an argument with her husband, and how that informed the famous fight in Before Midnight. And playing the French teacher Carine in the comedy-drama The Bachelors. The Scents of Cinema: critic, blogg...
Mar 29, 2018•34 min
Ava DuVernay
Ava DuVernay talks to Francine Stock about her new pre-teen, sci-fi fantasy film A Wrinkle In Time based on the award winning novel by Madeleine L'Engle. There's another episode of Pitch Battle and the search for a hidden figure of history who might be a suitable candidate for a bio-pic. Greg Jenner Horrible Histories writer and public historian makes the case for the celebrated Shakespearean actor Edmund Kean. In this week's A to Z of film-makers Y is for Edward Yang and Yuen Woo-Ping. Tim Robe...
Mar 22, 2018•32 min
Mary Magdalene, The Square, Raiders of the Lost Archaeologist
With Francine Stock. Here are five words you probably never thought you'd read in the same sentence - Joaquin Phoenix is Jesus Christ. Director Garth Davis explains why he cast the idiosyncratic actor in his biblical epic, Mary Magdalene. Archaeologist Paul Duncan McGarrity excavates the history of cinematic diggers, bonekickers, and tomb raiders, and sees how they measure up to real life Palme D'Or winner Ruben Ostlund takes us around The Square, his satire on contemporary society involving an ...
Mar 15, 2018•32 min
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