BBC - Mark Kermode's film blog

Tuesday 24 January 2012

Media World: Oscar Noms


The Odds for Best picture (Paddy Power)

The Artist
2/9
The Descendants
4/1
Hugo
11/1
War Horse
14/1
The Help
25/1
Midnight In Paris
33/1
Moneyball
40/1
Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close
40/1
The Tree Of Life
50/1

Sunday 15 January 2012

At The Studios- "Take Me Out: backstage with Paddy McGuinness and the girls"


Backstage at Take Me Out. Photograph: Steven Peskett

Media World: Post-Show Chat on Hungry Boys

Out of curiosity, after watching a very interesting show called Hungry Boys on channel 4 I decided to watch the post-show chat on channel4.com/hungryboys ... It proved quite incisive:


The show was good fun, but it was obviously pre-arranged and heavily set up. But according to Tim from the show, they appear to have been random members of the public who emailed in to channel 4 (perhaps with a few contacts that may have helped)

River Cottage was obviously the strand they used to give it a strengthened identity. And due to it's prime time slot I presume Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall provides a VO with occasional dubious interaction via text to add to the River Cottage theme.
Recommended by Sky News Digital News Editor, Neil Mann (Twitter: @fieldproducer)

Sunday 8 January 2012

the Wrestler (2009)


Director: Darren Aronofsky

Bearing in mind his capacity to divide opinion - much like indie filmmaking as a whole - it's perhaps fitting that Darren Aronofsky kicks off this identity parade of the great and good of US indieland. He took a huge leap of faith casting Mickey Rourke as Randy 'The Ram' Robinson – originally, Nic Cage was set for the role, with big studio backing coming with it, but Aronofsky knew he needed Rourke. Notoriously unreliable, hadn’t-had-a-proper-job-in-years Rourke. But friends rallied round, with Axl Rose donating the use of Guns N' Roses' ‘Sweet Child O' Mine’ free of charge, Bruce Springsteen writing the title song, and the whole film getting done in just 40 days. The result? Rourke and Tomei getting BAFTA, Golden Globe and Oscar nods, and The Wrestler appearing on dozens of critics’ Top Ten Best Lists 2008.

[Empire Magazine]


The Swell Season shakes up the pop music doc in a way that suggests new possibilities for the form. Its beautiful black-and-white cinematography (the shots of Ireland are often breathtaking) and terrific editing go a long way toward explaining why The Swell Season works, but one can't help but suspect that it's the off-camera relationships that were the special ingredient. And "relationships" in this case doesn't refer to those between Hansard, Irglová, and their bandmates, but rather between the entire group of musicians and the filmmakers themselves. Over time a deep sense of trust apparently developed so that subjects became less guarded, and the ensuing spirit of direct and disarming honesty is compounded by the innately down-to-earth personalities of the performers.
TRIBECA 2011: THE SWELL SEASON REVIEW

Saturday 7 January 2012

Media World: On the Hour

Conmedycentric: Blindly wading through the vast pool of comedy by Will Tippett

This is On The Hour, arise Sir News.

Tonights Main story:

On the hour produced a new breed in British satire taking the original sideways look at, not only the news, but how it is reported.
Originally Broadcast on Radio 4 in 1991, On the Hour preceded and in turn influenced TV shows, The Day Today and Brasseye. Produced by Armando Iannucci combined with a talented writing team of Patrick Marber, Doon Mackichan, Stewart Lee, Richard Herring together On the Hour became a highly influential landmark in British Comedy.
We can thank on the Hour for launching the career of Chris Morris, who sonourously plays a newsreader extraordinaire newscasting wonderfully nonsensical lines such as

Bong. Plastic surgeon arrested with stash of stolen mouths.
Bong. Police chief crushes lizard with whistle.
Bong. Child made of paint wins by-election.
Bong. Crazed wolves in store a bad mistake admits Mothercare
Bong. Fist-headed man destroys church.
Bong. Car drives past window in town.
Bong. Leicester man wins right to eat sister.
Bong. Bank of England recovers from swollen chairman unusualness.
Bong. Simon Rattle lost in cress.
Bong. Lassoed bat wins Booker.
Bong. Fleetwood Mac buried in dog avalanche.
Bong. Old woman killed by little glass planet

All carried out in a freightningly convincing fashion.

Manning the sports desk is the original, young and impressionable Alan Partidge who's legendary interview, questioning Graham Gooch's Gooch is something to behold:



And who can forget one moment etched into the golden tablet of telecasting: Alan's Year of Sport



I'm Will Tippett and this has been my shoddy round up of On The Hour. It's been like all good news programmes: starts off well, but ends up a bit boring.

That's all from me. Good eve-news.

In other news...
People who've listened to this, also watched these:
The Day Today
Brasseye
Time Trumpet
the Thick of It