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Whatever your ailment, the nation’s best-loved film experts have the perfect cinematic prescription for you, whether it’s a course of the Coens or a dose of Die Hard. And they’re ready to cure the movies too, taking their scalpels to bloated blockbusters and warning of the ill effects of overpraise.
Where medical ignorance and movie expertise meet – the surgery of Doctors Kermode and Mayo is now open.
Leading cultural historian and broadcaster Christopher Frayling reflects on gothic themes in literature, art and popular culture, through the lens of his friendship and correspondence with Angela Carter during her formative Bath years, during which she wrote most of her key works; The Bloody Chamber, The Sadeian Woman, The Passion of New Eve. Inside the Bloody Chamber collects Frayling’s articles, essays and lectures written since then on various aspects of the Gothic several in hard-to-find places, many never published before, but all revised for this new book. The subjects match Angela’s interests, are mirrored in the stories within The Bloody Chamber and mesh with his memories of their time together in Bath in the 1970s.
A hundred years ago, a character made his first appearance in the world of literature who was to enter the bloodstream of 20th-century popular culture: the evil genius called Dr Fu Manchu, described at the beginning of the first story in which he appeared as ‘the yellow peril incarnate in one man’. Why did the idea that the Chinese were a threat to Western civilization develop at precisely the time when that country was in chaos, divided against itself, victim of successive famines and utterly incapable of being a ‘peril’ to anyone even if it had wanted to be?
Here, Sir Christopher Frayling assembles an astonishing diversity of evidence to show how deeply ingrained Chinaphobia became in the West – so acutely relevant again in the new era of Chinese superpower. Along the way he talks to Edward Said, to the last Governor of Hong Kong, to Sax Rohmer’s widow, to movie stars and a host of others; he journeys through the opium dens of the 19th century with Charles Dickens; takes us to the heart of popular culture in the music hall, pulp literature and the mass-market press; and shows how film amplifies our assumptions, demonstrating throughout how we neglect the history of popular culture at our own peril if we want to understand our deepest desires and fears.
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Beginning with his favourite hatchet job ever, Mark tells us about the best bad reviews in history, why you have to be willing to tell a director face-to-face their movie sucks, and about the time he apologized to Steven Spielberg for badmouthing his work.
But why do we love really bad reviews? Is it so much harder to be positive? And is the Internet ruining how we talk about cinema? The UK’s most trusted film critic answers all these questions and more in this hilarious, fascinating and argumentative new book.
If blockbusters make money no matter how bad they are, then why not make a good one for a change?
How can 3-D be the future of cinema when it’s been giving audiences a headache for over a hundred years?
Why pay to watch films in cinemas that don’t have a projectionist but do have a fast-food stand?
And, in a world where Sex and the City 2 was a hit, what are film critics even for?
Outspoken, opinionated and hilariously funny, The Good, The Bad and The Multiplex is a must for anyone who has ever sat in an undermanned, overpriced cinema and wondered: ‘How the hell did things get to be this terrible?’
In It’s Only a Movie, the incomparable Mark Kermode takes us into the weird world of a life lived in widescreen. Join him as he gets lost in Russia on the trail of a low-budget horror flick, gasp as he’s shot at in Hollywood while interviewing Bavarian director Werner Herzog, cheer as he gets thrown out of the Cannes film festival for heckling in very bad French, and cringe as he’s handbagged by Helen Mirren at London’s glitzy BAFTA Awards. Written with sardonic wit and wry good humour, this compelling cinematic memoir is genuinely ‘inspired by real events’.
We opened on a sad note this episode during Here’s The Thing. We lost many great people in the couple of weeks before the show. During the segment we paid tribute to Marvel comic book writer Stan Lee, Douglas Rain, most famous for voicing HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), and screenwriter William Goldman who gave us great works such as Marathon Man (1976), The Princess Bride (1987) and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969).
Then we had Ben Wheatley on to talk about his upcoming projects Happy New Year, Colin Burstead (2018) and Rebecca. Mark and Ben also talked about Taxi Driver (1976) in the The Film That Changed My Life segment.
To celebrate the release of Bros: After the Screaming Stops (2018), Mark gave us his top 10 Rock Documentaries in List-O-Mania. 10. What Happened, Miss Simone? (2015) 9. The Punk Singer (2013) 8. Heavy Load (2008) 7. Am I Black Enough For You? (2009) 6. Decline of Western Civilization Part II (1988) 5. Searching for Sugar Man (2012) 4. Amy (2015) 3. The Devil and Daniel Johnston (2006) 2. Dig! (2005) 1. Anvil! The story of Anvil (2008)
Next, we had Lenny Abrahamson on to talk about The Irish Film Festival as well as his some projects; Adam and Paul (2004), Frank (2014), Room (2015), and The Little Stranger (2018). To close this segment we asked Lenny about his Guilty Pleasure: Dumb and Dumber (1994).
To end the show we payed homage to the late William Goldman. Mark invited Freya Parks and Robert Ziegler onto the stage to play Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969).
During our Here’s The Thing segment, Mark welcomed Hayley Squires on to the stage to talk about Happy New Year, Colin Burstead (2018).
Seeing as this episode is so close to Halloween, Mark jumped on the opportunity to share his top 13 Halloween films in List-O-Mania. 13. Get Out ( 2017) 12. Near Dark (1987) 11. Ganja & Hess (1973) 10. Raw (2016) 9. Dracula, the Spanish version of course! (1931) 8. Nosferatu (1922) 7. Suspiria (1977) 6. Dark Water (2002) 5. Kwaidan (1965). 4. Onibaba (1964). 3. Possession (1981) 2. Halloween (1978) and naturally 1. The Exorcist (1973).
In Coming Attractions, Mike Leigh came on to talk about his project Peterloo (2018). Peterloo tellls the story of the 1813 massacre where British forces attacked a peaceful pro-democracy rally in Manchester.
Next, we welcomed Hugh Grant to the stage to talk about his career-best work in A Very English Scandal (2018). Starring Grant and Ben Whishaw, the film tells the story of when British Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe is forced to stand on trial in 1979 after being accused of killing his gay ex-lover. Mark and Hugh also looked at some clips from Grant’s first major roles in Maurice (1987), Lair of the White Worm (1988), Love Actually (2003) and Florence Foster Jenkins (2016). As if that was not enough, we also asked Grant what his Guilty Pleasure was; Inspector Clouseau (1968).
To celebrate the re-release of Some Like It Hot (1959) we ended the show with a clip from Running Wild in Sound & Vision.
I loved producing last night’s show at the BFI Southbank! Mark Kermode Live in 3D’s first guest was Artistic Director of the London Film Festival Tricia Tuttle, who told us about the LFF’s highlights (10 – 22 October). She raved about the opening film: the poignant, riveting thriller Widows (2018), directed by Steve McQueen. The closing film is Stan and Ollie (2018), the biopic about the stellar comic duo starring Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly, directed by Jon S. Baird. Tricia’s own personal recommendations for the festival included Tom Harper’s Wild Rose (2018) starring Jessie Buckley with Julie Walters and Sophie Okonedo, about a young troubled Glaswegian mum who dreams of becoming a Country singer in Nashville; Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria (2018) which she insists is not a remake but a response to Dario Argento’s original, this one featuring Dakota Johnson and Tilda Swinton; and finally Burning (2018), directed by Chang-dong Lee following some time out as a film-maker to be South Korea’s Culture Minister.
Our next guest was the venerable Terence Davies, whose Distant Voices,
Our next guest Suzanna Hamilton talked about her role opposite the late Sir John Hurt in Michael Radford’s dystopian 1984 (1984), which was released on Blu-Ray last August. Suzanna talked about the atmosphere of fear around the subject of the film – and the making of it, too. She found more joy on the set of the enchanting 2016 feature My Feral Heart by writer Duncan Paveling and director Jane Gull.
Next Desiree Akhavan took centre stage: writer and director of recently released feature The Miseducation of Cameron Post (2018), and of upcoming six-part television series The Bisexual, in which she also stars alongside Maxine Peake and Brian Gleeson. Desiree and Mark talked about the films that influenced her work, and what, for her, constitutes success as a filmmaker.
Finally, we welcomed Paul Greengrass who came to share his thoughts on his best-loved childhood film, Bryan Forbes’ Whistle Down the Wind (1961) starring Alan Bates and Hayley Mills, which he watched countless times with his own children, too. He talked about the enduring impact the film had had on the formation of his political views, as well as the way he constructs his movies. As well as his Bourne films, Mark and Paul touched on Bloody Sunday (2002), United 93 (2006) and Captain Phillips (2013) – before discussing Paul’s new feature 22 July (2018), released on Netflix next month, about the extremist shooting on Utøya island, and how its aftermath affects the lives of the young Norwegians.
After the MK3D, Paul Greengrass stayed on for an MK4D, to introduce a screening of Whistle Down the Wind.
First guest Kim Newman and Mark talk about the BBC4 series Secrets of Cinema which they co-wrote, and starts on television the next day.
Next Mark interviews Taiwanese writer-director Jenny Lu and actor-producer Chen Shiang-
Writer-director Deborah Haywood together with its star Lily Newmark come to talk about the dark fairytale Pin Cushion (2017). This colour-saturated film explores the travails of a teenage daughter and her out-of-step mother trying to fit in and make friends. This film about bullying and, less explicitly, about human frailty and mental health is another female-led film based on the experiences of the writer, is as unsettling as it is compelling.
This month’s List-O-Mania is inspired by the Blu-Ray release of Von Ryan’s Express (1965), and the imminent release of the Dodge Brothers’ new album Drive Train: Mark takes a twelve-stop journey past his favourite films Set on Trains, from Snowpiercer (2013) to Silver Streak (1976), from The Beggars of Life (1928) to Wallace & Gromit: The Wrong Trousers (1993).
We close on a Sound & Vision celebrating the joy that is Meryl Streep in Mamma Mia! (2008), as tonight is the eagerly-awaited premiere of Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018).
