Francine Stock talks to writer and director Spike Jonze, whose work includes Where the Wild Things Are and Being John Malkovich, about his new film Her, a futuristic love story. Joaquin Phoenix plays a gentle, lonely man who falls in love with a computer operating system brought to life by the voice of Scarlett Johansson. Plus Grant Heslov a producer and long-time collaborator with George Clooney on the WW2 epic, The Monuments Men. It tells the story of the men who crossed Europe under fire to r...
Feb 13, 2014•28 min
Matthew Sweet talks to screenwriter Abi Morgan about The Invisible Woman, the tale of Charles Dickens' love affair with Nelly Ternan, starring Ralph Fiennes and Felicity Jones. Abi's previous work includes The Iron Lady and Shame, as well as telelvision series The Hour. She describes the joy of working with the material of Claire Tomalin's biography and her mixed feelings about the great Victorian man of letters. Jared Leto returns to cinema screens for the first time in six years with Dallas Bu...
Feb 06, 2014•28 min
Francine Stock talks to the director Scott Cooper about his film Out of the Furnace, starring Christian Bale, Casey Affleck, Forest Whitaker and Woody Harrelson. Cooper explains why his own family history is so pertinent to this story of brothers struggling to find their role as men amidst the dying steel mills of Pennsylvania, and his fascination with modern masculinity. Plus Alex Gibney on his Lance Armstrong documentary, The Armstrong Lie and how he fell under the spell of the disgraced but c...
Jan 30, 2014•28 min
Francine Stock talks to Meryl Streep about her role as vicious matriarch in August: Osage County, based on a widely-praised play by Tracy Letts. Streep has picked up a record 18th Oscar nomination for the part, starring alongside Julia Roberts, Ewan McGregor and Juliette Lewis. The plot follows a family gathering to bury the head of the family after his suicide. Meryl describes how she revels in the freedom of playing a character without limits and discusses her next project Into the Woods, whic...
Jan 23, 2014•28 min
As Martin Scorsese's latest film, The Wolf of Wall Street, picks up five Oscar nominations including Best Picture and Best Director, Francine Stock talks to actor Jonah Hill, nominated for Best Supporting Actor. He describes how improvisation played an important part in the film which is based on the memoir of trader and convicted fraudster Jordan Belfort. We also hear from editor and long-time Scorsese collaborator Thelma Schoonmaker about the alchemy of the cutting room. The composer Neil Bran...
Jan 16, 2014•28 min
With 12 Years a Slave already tipped as one of the leading films in the awards season, Francine Stock talks to British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor about his role as a kidnapped free man who finds himself working on a plantation. Directed by Steve McQueen, whose previous work includes Hunger and Shame, the film has received 10 BAFTA nominations including Best Actor for Ejiofor. We explore the controversy surrounding what makes a film British, as the BAFTA nominations are announced. Eyebrows were raise...
Jan 09, 2014•28 min
Francine Stock talks to Idris Elba about playing Mandela in a new film Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom directed by Justin Chadwick. Elba has recently appeared in Thor: The Dark World, Pacific Rim and BBC TV detective series Luther. Analyst Charles Gant and independent cinema owner Kevin Markwick look back at the box office highs and lows of 2013 before turning their attention to the most anticipated films of 2014 and the awards season. Daniel Bruhl tell all about his big filmic break. And the awar...
Jan 02, 2014•28 min
Francine Stock explores the spirit of the teenager on film through the decades with Kim Newman, Pamela Hutchinson, Hadley Freeman and Charlie Lyne. From Andy Hardy to The Hunger Games' Katniss Everdeen, the programme charts the rise of the teenager from pre-war in-betweeners to fully fledged rebels. The director Matt Wolf discusses his documentary Teenage which takes a look at adolescence in the first half of the 20th century. There's debate about the conservatism of teen film guru, the director...
Dec 26, 2013•28 min
Francine Stock talks to Ben Stiller about The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Based on a short story by James Thurber, he both stars as Walter and directs. Walter daydreams his way through life, while yearning for his co-worker, played by Kirsten Wiig. Stiller describes what attracted him to this tale and why his 2001 comedy Zoolander remains close to his heart. American Hustle, a grifters story set in the 1970s, has already been nominated for awards including the Golden Globes. It's directed by Da...
Dec 19, 2013•28 min
Francine Stock talks to legendary film producer and co founder of Miramax films Harvey Weinstein, about his life in films, including his most recent release Mandela. Plus a pick of the best Christmas gifts from the film world with Catherine Bray and Jason Solomons. As we enter the "award season" critic Tim Robey discusses the Golden Globe nominations. And Alfonso Cuaron discusses his 3D wonder Gravity, still pulling them into the box office. Producer: Hilary Dunn.
Dec 12, 2013•28 min
Francine Stock talks to Daniel Radcliffe and Dane Dehaan about Kill Your Darlings in which Radcliffe plays beat poet Allen Ginsberg. Plus Sideways director Alexander Payne on his new film Nebraska starring Bruce Dern. Shot in black and white, it charts a father and son's road journey across the mid West to claim a non-existent sweep stake prize. And James Fox on A Long Way From Home, a portrayal of a marriage under strain after a couple retires to the south of France. Plus a look at the best of ...
Dec 05, 2013•28 min
Francine Stock talks to Emma Thompson about Saving Mr Banks, in which she plays the author PL Travers. After prolonged artistic wrangles and a painful grappling with childhood memories, she eventually gives Walt Disney, played by Tom Hanks, the rights to her creation, Mary Poppins. Crowd-sourced films are explored with producer Jack Arbuthnott, who worked on Life in A Day and has now produced Christmas in a Day, a montage of video sent in by the public and directed by Kevin Macdonald. Excerpts h...
Nov 28, 2013•28 min
Francine Stock talks to Stanley Tucci, camp compere of the deadly Hunger Games, on the constant reinvention of the character actor. Based on the young adult novels of Suzanne Collins, part two of the Hunger Games series, Catching Fire, is released this month and stars Jennifer Lawrence and Woody Harrelson. Abdellatif Kechiche, the director of Blue is the Warmest Colour, explains why he wants to break free from the conventions of cinema, whether it's content, form or duration. Winner of this year...
Nov 21, 2013•28 min
The latest news from the world of film.
Nov 14, 2013•28 min
Forty five years after the release of genre-defining Night of the Living Dead, Francine Stock talks to the director George A Romero about inventing the undead zombie and where he might unearth horror in contemporary society. Plus why he doesn't rate Stanley Kubrick as a horror director. As Gravity is released on the big screen, with an even bigger budget, we look at the trend for Scottish sci fi in short films with young directors Jamie Stone and Mark Buchanan. They discuss the magic of space an...
Nov 07, 2013•28 min
Francine Stock talks to director Stephen Frears about Philomena. Starring Steve Coogan and Judi Dench, it's based on the true story of an unmarried Irish woman who was forced to give up her child for adoption by the Catholic church. The screenwriter Joe Eszterhas shares his Hollywood big break, beginning a career that led to scripts such as Basic Instinct, Flashdance and Jagged Edge. Cutie and The Boxer is a documentary about two Japanese artists living in New York and the rivalries and collabor...
Oct 31, 2013•28 min
As British director Clio Barnard enjoys warm reviews of her film The Selfish Giant, about two young boys who collect scrap metal, she describes casting her two lead teenage performances. And Francine Stock talks to Ken Loach, an acknowledged influence on Barnard, about how to get the best performances from young people. Composer Neil Brand is back at the piano, exploring the world of vampires from Nosferatu to Dracula and Buffy and explains why he thinks the blood sucker is actually just looking...
Oct 24, 2013•28 min
Director Paul Greengrass talks to Francine Stock about his latest ship-hijacking movie 'Captain Phillips' and how his family's own history on the high seas informed his film making. Actress Robin Wright talks about being immortalized by motion capture and how she felt seeing herself in cartoon form in 'The Congress'. David Gordon Green discusses his surreal comedy 'Prince Avalanche' - the story of two quirky men painting road markings in the middle of nowhere. And master of Japanese cinema Hirok...
Oct 17, 2013•28 min
Le Week-End, the latest offering from director Roger Michell, stars Lindsay Duncan and Jim Broadbent embarking on a tempestuous marital mini-break. Francine Stock talks to screenwriter Hanif Kureishi about writing for his generation and why cinema needs to grow up. And as hacktivist Julian Assange remains in the Ecuadorian embassy, fearing extradition, the story of the Wikileaks publication of US military documents is explored in The Fifth Estate, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Daniel Bruhl. ...
Oct 10, 2013•28 min
The Film Programme takes on a Scottish theme and looks at how one country can produce such different styles of film. James McAvoy talks about his latest role in the Edinburgh police corruption tale, Filth, based on Irvine Welsh's novel and reflects on how such a relatively small country should think about and run its film industry. Dexter Fletcher discusses his musical movie based on songs of The Proclaimers - Sunshine on Leith, which is an adaptation of the stage show pioneered by Dundee Rep. M...
Oct 03, 2013•28 min
Cate Blanchett talks to Francine Stock about her well-received performance as banker's wife and socialite in Blue Jasmine. Directed by Woody Allen, it tells the story of a corrupt financier, played by Alec Baldwin, and his wife who fall from high society when he is arrested for fraud. The Quebecois director Denis Villeneuve, who made Incendies and Polytechnique, is back with a new film, Prisoners, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Hugh Jackman. The plot follows two families whose daughters mysterious...
Sep 26, 2013•28 min
Francine Stock talks to Downfall director Oliver Birschbiegel about his controversial new film Diana, which dramatises the last two years of Princess Diana's life including her relationship with a heart surgeon. Naomi Watts takes the title role. Tony Gilroy who penned the Bourne films and Hossein Amini, whose credits include The Wings of the Dove and Jude, discuss the art of screenwriting and adaptations, as BAFTA and the BFI open their Screenwriters lecture series. The director Sean Ellis discu...
Sep 19, 2013•28 min
Francine Stock explores the hits and misses from this year's Toronto International Film Festival with Tim Robey of the Daily Telegraph and Claire Binns, director of Programming and Acquisitions at the Picturehouse Group. They discuss their tips for the critical hits in the months ahead including 12 Years a Slave, August: Osage County and Under The Skin. Frost/Nixon director Ron Howard and writer Peter Morgan are back together, this time for Rush, the story of Formula One rivals Niki Lauda and Ja...
Sep 12, 2013•28 min
Richard Curtis, the writer-director of Love Actually, is back with About Time, a time travel rom-com about life, love and avoiding regrets. Francine Stock talks to Richard, along with Bill Nighy who plays a time-travelling father passing on his gift to his son. As the autumn film festival season gets underway, Cameron Bailey, artistic director of the Toronto International Film Festival, brings us the highlights among the world premieres and gives his tips for the awards season. Director Paolo So...
Sep 05, 2013•28 min
Francine Stock talks to Shane Carruth about his new, complex film Upstream Colour which explores the theme of interconnectedness involving an organism that mutates via various hosts from a nematode worm to a vivid orchid. The director Shane Carruth was already known for an earlier experimental film, Primer, which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance back in 2004. Whilst Shane Carruth did NOT go to film school, but learnt his craft by doing, the Director of the National Film and Television School...
Aug 29, 2013•28 min
Hollywood heavyweight talks to Francine Stock about his new sci-fi film Elysium and laments that 'grown up' movies are no longer properly funded or made for the over 35's. Physics professor James Kakalios is an unlikely star but consults big budget superhero adventures on the science of being superhuman. He explains how his love of comic books led him down this unlikely path. With the biopic of 70's porn star Linda Lovelace released this week, Julian Petley and Anna Smith discuss the pitfalls of...
Aug 22, 2013•28 min
With the autumn film festival circuit about to get underway, Robbie Collin talks to Notting Hill director Roger Michell about who really benefits from the peripatetic circus. And why this director said 'non' to Cannes. And the critic Jason Solomons gives the reviewer's perspective of the scene, from the thrill of the first glimpse of a masterpiece to fisticuffs at dawn. Marina Warner and Nick Bradshaw explore the work of the influential German animator Lotte Reiniger as The Adventures of Prince ...
Aug 15, 2013•28 min
Robbie Collin talks to Johnny Depp about The Lone Ranger and why he wanted his Tonto to be more than just a sidekick to the cowboy. And as the less than flattering reviews come in, Depp hits back saying the critics had doomed the film before it ever hit the big screen. Radio host Alan Partridge returns with Alpha Papa in which the Norwich DJ becomes a hostage negotiator. Co writer Armando Iannucci explains why they waited so long to take Alan to the cinema. As the British Film Institute looks ba...
Aug 08, 2013•28 min
Robbie Collin talks to the director Nicolas Winding Refn about his new film Only God Forgives, a violent revenge thriller set in Bangkok, starring Ryan Gosling and Kristen Scott Thomas. As a follow up to the very successful Drive, this film has split the critics with many appalled by the on screen violence. He explains what made him choose such a controversial project just as his career is crossing out of the arthouse and into the mainstream. Bridesmaids director Paul Feig discusses his new cop ...
Aug 01, 2013•28 min
Matthew Sweet talks to the writer and star of Frances Ha, Greta Gerwig. Directed by Noah Baumbach it tells the story of a friendship between two women as their lives begin to take different paths. Greta ponders why female friendship isn't often seen as worthy of the big screen treatment. As the hot weather continues, how are cinema takings holding up? Number cruncher Charles Gant and independent cinema owner Kevin Markwick chew over the trends, hits, misses and surprises at the box office so far...
Jul 25, 2013•28 min
