This week Chris Deacy is joined in the studio by Tom Branwell to discuss the films; The Long Good Friday, Performance, Blink Twice, and Trading Places.
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00:00Hello and welcome to Kent Film Club. I'm Chris DC and each week I'll be joined by
00:18a guest from Kent to dive deep into the impact certain films have had on their life. Each
00:23guest will reflect on the films which have meant the most to them over the years. And
00:27every week there will be a Kent Film Trivia where we quiz you at home about a film that
00:32has a connection to the county. And now let me introduce you to my guest for this week.
00:37He is a filmmaking triple threat as a director, writer and producer. He is Tom Brunwell. Great
00:45to have you on the programme Tom. Yeah, great to be here. Thank you for the invite. Not
00:47a problem at all. And I can see, oh, Bob Hoskins' gangster classic The Long Good Friday. Yes,
00:53Bob Hoskins' The Long Good Friday, which was released in 1980. And it's an interesting
01:02film in that on the face of it, it's a simple story. So he's a London mob boss and he's
01:09setting up this big business deal. And then his business empire starts getting attacked
01:14and he doesn't know where it's from. So it's a simple story on the outside, but there's
01:18a lot of interesting things going on underneath. I mean, one of the things about it is that
01:26you've got this mystery. So he is a very, very tough character. He's absolutely in control
01:30of his world and he seems to be untouchable. But then this mysterious force starts coming
01:35against him and he doesn't know what it is. And one of the intriguing things about the
01:40film initially is watching this very, very tough, in control character suddenly start
01:45to lose control. So he thinks that, you know, one of his casinos gets blown up and a couple
01:51of his men get killed. And he assumes it's some kind of rival mob boss trying to muscle
01:55in on his territory. And he thinks that it's all about business. But it's actually something
01:59very, very different. But it's some outside force that he doesn't understand. And he's
02:03constantly thinking, OK, it's a rival mob boss. And he's looking purely in those terms.
02:08And he doesn't have any idea what his enemy is or actually when he finds out who and what
02:13the enemy is, he's got no idea how to confront it. Because he thinks the way is just to kind
02:16of, you know, fight muscle with muscle and go at it like he's eliminated all of his business
02:21rivals and his gangland rivals. Watching this very, very strong individual actually collapse
02:26down against this enemy that he doesn't understand is part of the whole thrill of the film, really.
02:32Yeah, because as you're watching this, I suppose it's the point of view element that you're
02:35watching this and as you describe it, very much what's going on in his head that he thinks
02:41he knows what's going on. As you were describing that, it reminds me of Roman Polanski's Chinatown
02:46as well in that sort of sense of there being this bigger mystery. And he thinks he knows
02:50what the outcome is, but he's not necessarily following the right path to try and sort it
02:55out.
02:56Yeah. Well, a similarity with Chinatown is that, like that film, every scene has Bob
03:01Hoskins in it. He's literally on screen for the whole time. So you are following his point
03:05of view and you discover everything as he's discovering it. So you don't get any information
03:11beyond what he's got at the time. And yeah, as you said, Chinatown is a film that's just
03:16like that. Jack Nicholson's in every single scene and the mystery unravels as he goes
03:19through the film. And that's often quite unusual because normally the audience will be given
03:25some information and they'll see other background stuff and often we're given information ahead
03:30of the main character or we're in on the mystery and we have to watch the main character actually
03:35catch up with what we know. But I do actually love the approach where we're discovering
03:40it exactly as he discovers it. So all the surprises that come our way is exactly what
03:46he's feeling on the screen at the time.
03:48Because some of the best films can be like detective films where we are the ones playing
03:53detective. I mean, obviously you've got the Columbo's when we know who did it, we don't
03:57know why they did it. But in a film like this, you're sort of watching it and thinking, okay,
04:02what would I do in that situation? Would I follow that path? And we sort of follow
04:06the character, often to a very doomed sort of ending. But actually we're taken on that
04:12plunge with the protagonist.
04:14Yeah, absolutely. And it's always really interesting watching a character get plunged into something
04:18they don't know and finding out how they're going to get out of it.
04:21Because we've had The Long Good Friday on the show before and I remember the guest telling
04:25us that it was Bob Hawkins' first film and how he got the job in quite an orthodox way.
04:31He was in a taxi. Bob Hawkins, you could play this role. You were born to play this
04:37role and the rest is history.
04:39Yeah. And obviously Bob Hawkins is not a classic leading man. He's not a classic leading man
04:44at all. He's not conventionally good looking in any way. And he'd been considered a TV
04:49actor before that. He wasn't really taken seriously as a film actor. But when you watch
04:54The Long Good Friday, I mean, his performance is absolutely extraordinary because he's this
04:59very, very tough gangster. But he also obviously cares about his men and he's in love with
05:06his wife and he's funny as well and he's very clubbable. And you can imagine actually going
05:14out to the pub with him, having a pint with him and he'd be very good company.
05:17But then there's that danger underneath. And of course when he does snap, it's incredibly
05:21intense and very, very scary because he's got that point where he snaps and he can just
05:27unleash any kind of violence on people.
05:29And Helen Mirren is in this as well, isn't she?
05:31Helen Mirren is wonderful. And with her apparently, the original script which was written by Barry
05:36Keefe which is an excellent script, Helen Mirren's character was originally written
05:40more as a side character. She was just his wife. She was kind of a gangster's mole. And
05:44of course Helen Mirren came along and said, you know, no way, this isn't good enough.
05:49I want to be central to this story and I need to be tough in this film. And so the script
05:55was actually rewritten to make her role much, much bigger.
05:58And of course Helen Mirren gives an extraordinary performance in this film because she's kind
06:04of like a Lady Macbeth character. She's the real power alongside him and she shares power
06:08with him and she's part of the business.
06:11And one of the few times you see Bob Hoskins vulnerable is when he's with her because she
06:17is the only one that he can actually break down in front of and actually show his fear.
06:21And of course as he's losing control of his empire, you know, he's incredibly scared.
06:25But of course he can't show it because he is a tough character. But when he's with her,
06:29he will actually show his vulnerability.
06:30Brilliant. Well, it's time now to move on to your second chosen film and you've gone
06:35for Performance.
06:36Performance.
06:37With Mick Jagger.
06:38Yeah, Performance with Mick Jagger and James Fox. And this film was actually shot in 1968
06:45but it didn't come out until 1970 because there were huge problems with the production
06:50which actually was similar to The Long Good Friday because that came out in the 70s and
06:53it wasn't released until the 80s because the American studio took one look at it and they
06:57went completely berserk and they didn't like it and they wanted to overdub Bob Hoskins
07:01with an American actor.
07:03So similar with Performance, it was shot in 1968 and apparently it was Warner Brothers,
07:10I think, that financed it and they thought it was going to be like the Rolling Stones
07:15equivalent to A Hard Day's Night by The Beatles. It would be some kind of happy, jolly little
07:20film with some nice Rolling Stones song.
07:24What they actually got was this utterly weird, dark, violent, psychedelic meltdown which
07:30was, you know, it's a very, very 60s film but it shows the absolute dark side of psychedelic
07:36culture and hippie culture and it's towards the end of the 60s when already the kind of,
07:41the flower power dream is dying out and turning into something very, very dark.
07:46So of course the film was, you know, the first cut was done, Warner Brothers despised it
07:52and apparently the wife of the studio head threw up at the screening of it because she
07:57was so repulsed by the film and so they ordered re-edits and they tried to get rid of it completely
08:03and there were some re-edits done and eventually it did come out but it came out two years
08:06later.
08:07Was the version that came out in keeping with the director's original vision?
08:10It was, yes. They did have to make some changes but no, it's still a very, very bold film
08:16and of course Warner Brothers hated it and they still overdubbed some parts and again
08:22it was a film that was kind of buried for a long time and then it was reassessed and
08:26then became a real kind of cult classic.
08:28Yeah, I think the way that you put that as well in relation to The Beatles or of course
08:32the Elvis movies from the 60s where, you know, he can sing therefore we'll put him in a
08:37kind of film that's going to be easy on the eye for all generations and then in the case
08:42of Mick Jagger you have this but performance has quite literally stood the test of time.
08:47Oh, it has completely and it's unusual in that it's co-directed. It's Donald Camel
08:52and Nicholas Roeg who also shot the film and Nicholas Roeg was known primarily as a cinematographer
08:56before that but this was his co-debut feature and then he went on to make some wonderful
09:02films throughout the 70s and 80s.
09:03He did Don't Look Now, didn't he?
09:04He did Don't Look Now, yeah. And then he went on to do Bad Timing and Eureka and The Man
09:12Who Fell to Earth and of course he was another director that made very, very uncompromising
09:17strange films and then his career really took a knock because his films simply weren't commercial
09:22enough for the studios and so Bad Timing certainly, that was buried for years and Eureka was buried
09:27for years and again he's been a cult favourite and then he's been really reassessed but for
09:32a long time a lot of his films weren't really that readily available.
09:36And there's something in that, isn't there, about how when this was made, so the Warner
09:41Brothers wife didn't like it and therefore it was on the back burner and then all these
09:44years later it's rediscovered. It's almost as though the story behind the film is as
09:48exciting as the story of the film.
09:50Yeah, absolutely because they shot most of it in this rambling mansion, of course it's
09:56set in Notting Hill and it's this beautiful old house and of course this is in the 60s
10:00and Notting Hill was completely run down, not like it is now, and Mick Jagger is this
10:05kind of washed up rock star who's living in this house. James Fox's character, he's a London
10:09gangster and he has to go on the run and so he's about to escape down to the country but
10:13then he ends up taking refuge in Mick Jagger's house and disguising himself and he thinks
10:19he can just lay low there for a few days but of course that's not what happens because
10:23he ends up in this house and you've got Mick Jagger and you've got Anita Pallenberg who's
10:27his kind of mistress who lives there and then James Fox's character, they clock who he is
10:33and they end up feeding him hallucinogenics and then the whole film goes into this weird
10:38trippy world where James Fox's character completely loses all sense of reality and Mick Jagger,
10:44he's desperate to get out of the rut he's in as a rock star and he's fascinated by this
10:51gangster character because he kind of wants to almost become him and completely get away
10:57from the rut he's stuck in and become something new.
11:01And quite different from the James Fox that we knew from later years because I think of
11:05the remains of the day so it's interesting and he always plays aristocratic characters.
11:09He does, yes. And in this he actually plays a very convincing London gangster whereas
11:14it's the only role I've ever seen him do something like that because as you say normally he's
11:17playing aristocrats, he's playing very, very upper class people. But by the sound of it,
11:22the actual film process, apparently the script went out the window and as reality breaks
11:26down in the film it broke down in real life as well.
11:29Well that's about all the time we have for this first half of the show, however before
11:33we go to the break we have a Kent film trivia question for you at home. Which 2004 romantic
11:39comedy did Kent-born singer-songwriter Mick Jagger compose the music for? Was it A. Alfie,
11:46B. Fifty First Dates or C. Along Came Polly? We'll reveal the answer right after this break.
11:53Don't go away.
11:56Hello and welcome back to Kent Film Club. Just before that ad break we asked you at
12:10home a Kent film trivia question. Which 2004 romantic comedy did Kent-born singer-songwriter
12:16Mick Jagger compose the score for? Was it A. Alfie, B. Fifty First Dates or C. Along
12:23Came Polly? And now I can reveal to you that the answer was in fact A. Alfie, Mick Jagger
12:28wrote and performed six of the songs on the film's soundtrack. Did you get the answer
12:32right? Well it is time now Tom to move on to your next chosen film and you've gone for
12:38Blink Twice.
12:39Blink Twice, yes. So this is actually a very new film.
12:43I saw it at the cinema. I had to blink twice when I saw that.
12:45Oh you've seen it?
12:46Yeah, very recently.
12:47Yeah, so this came out just a few months ago. Again, it kind of follows from the theme of
12:51a main protagonist getting sucked into a world that they don't understand and then
12:57trying to claw their way out of it. I don't really want to say what the ending is because
13:01that would be a spoiler. But yeah, so the main character is played by Naomi Aki who
13:06plays, she's got a perfect American accent in the film but she's actually from down the
13:10road in Peckham. She's a local girl. And yeah, she's just working a kind of dead end job
13:17and then she meets this tech billionaire at this party. She's supposed to be a cocktail
13:22waitress there but then her and her friend, you know, they slip into some glamorous clothes
13:27and they sneak into the party and they meet this tech billionaire played by Channing Tatum.
13:31So at the start of the film you see that Channing Tatum, he does this video that he puts out
13:36on social media and he's gone into trouble for some kind of undisclosed discretion but
13:43you assume it's probably a kind of sexual harassment accusation or something. And he
13:47does this big spiel of apologising for it and saying that he's gone into therapy and
13:51he's this new man and he's a much, much better man now and that he's bought this island and
13:57that he's meditating and doing all of these kind of new age guru things. So anyway, Naomi
14:03Aki and her best friend, they meet him at this party and straight away she's smitten
14:08with him. Again, played by Channing Tatum, obviously very good looking, very charismatic
14:13on screen and he invites them to a party for a few days at his private island, this
14:20paradise island down in the Caribbean. So this all seems all fantastic, you know, a
14:26big fairy tale but straight away you're thinking, okay, rich man with a private island doing
14:31some party full of inviting lots of young women over there. This clearly is not going
14:37in any good direction whatsoever. But on the face of it, it's paradise. They get there,
14:42there's, you know, it's his island, there's all these kind of young entrepreneurs and
14:49tech bro type people who are kind of boorish but they're all really good fun and energetic
14:54and constantly, you know, there's drinks being handed out, there's lavish dinners and it's
14:59just this incredible free-for-all. It's a paradise where pretty much anything can happen.
15:04But then Naomi Aki's character starts to see certain things she doesn't remember. She wakes
15:10up and there's dirt under her fingernails and she's got no idea how it got there, for
15:14example. And things just start to not add up. There's kind of gaps in her memory and
15:19it almost goes into a time warp where the days are passing. So a detail I didn't mention
15:25before is when they get there, their mobile phones are taken away because Channing Tatum's
15:28character says, you know, this is much, much better without mobile phones, you're just
15:31away from the world. And at the start it seems that his character and Naomi Aki's character
15:38are getting on so well. There's some kind of romantic spark and she's drawn to him
15:42and he's charismatic and, you know, there's this kind of romantic spark. But it all starts
15:47to get very, very weird. Which of course we, the audience, we know it's going to end badly.
15:52But for quite a bit of the film it does seem on the face of it like this really is some
15:56kind of paradise. And then it just gets creepier and creepier.
15:59Because when I watch this, and it obviously resonates with issues around Me Too, for example,
16:06what I felt in this is that it was playing that game that we have a memory of something
16:11but actually that memory might have been filtered or distorted. I mean, somebody like me who
16:16keeps a diary, there's always going to be a sense in which it was the past as you remembered
16:19it. But here there's another layer where somebody is actually using some form of drug to stop
16:25somebody from remembering some abuse that's been handed, that they've received at the
16:31hands of the millionaire.
16:33Yeah, absolutely. And that kind of thing starts to be teased out through the film. And of
16:39course it's often like, you know, we've often gone into situations where we don't know what's
16:45going to happen. Because there is a thrill in that but there's always that danger as
16:48well. And it does go on the knife edge at the start, you know. Because you're kind of
16:53thinking, and even they mention it in the film, God we're going off, we don't know this
16:56guy, we're going off to this island. What's really going to happen? Is this a good idea?
17:00And then they're thinking, well no, this is going to be an adventure, it's going to
17:02be amazing. So let's just take the plunge and go for the adventure. And of course in
17:08life that can just be an incredible adventure or it can end very badly.
17:13And it sounds similar in some ways to The Long Good Friday, although here there is the
17:17capacity, without giving away too much of course, but the capacity to fight back once
17:23they know. Maybe they realise too late or do they have a chance to turn the tables?
17:28Yeah, absolutely. And I suppose a contrast to something like The Long Good Friday is
17:32that that film is a man who's completely in control at the top of an empire. At the start
17:37of this film, the main character, she's doing a rubbish job where she's getting treated
17:43badly by her boss. She's not a powerful character at all. But not to give too much away, but
17:49she goes on a story arc in herself. And throughout the film actually manages to take control
17:57of the situation to a certain extent. Whereas I think the two other films that we've discussed,
18:02it's actually men who are in control who then gradually lose control throughout the films.
18:06And again, that's a whole interesting story arc and that's a very positive story arc when
18:09you can see someone who actually starts the film not particularly powerful and then gets
18:13plunged into a situation that they can't control and then actually has to dig into their own
18:17resourcefulness and actually really get the guts to actually try and take control of the
18:24situation.
18:25Time now to move on to your final chosen film and you've gone for Trading Places.
18:29Trading Places, yep. So I thought, we've done three heavy films, I thought I'd end on something
18:33light which, not to give any spoilers away, but this does have a happy ending. And Trading
18:37Places is an absolutely wonderful comedy which came out in 1983. And again, it's, you know,
18:45you could argue it's almost a simple comedy full of funny jokes, but it's actually a very
18:48complex film. So initially you've got Dan Aykroyd's character and he's this, he's a
18:54stockbroker and, you know, he's from a very, very ultra-privileged background and he's
18:59got everything in life. You know, he's had a silver spoon upbringing, he's got everything,
19:03no issues whatsoever. Anyway, you've got Eddie Murphy's character who's down and out, got
19:08nothing going for him whatsoever and they end up swapping places. So Dan Aykroyd's character
19:13ends up on the street with nothing, everything's taken away from him and Eddie Murphy's character
19:17gets put into Dan Aykroyd's position and it's because Dan Aykroyd's bosses, played by Ralph
19:23Bellamy and Don Amici, who are absolutely wonderful in the film, they decide to have a bet with each
19:29other that they can try and swap these characters over because, you know, Don Amici thinks that Dan
19:36Aykroyd's wealth and privilege all comes from breeding. It's not because he's privileged,
19:41he's just got breeding and you'll put him on top anywhere. Whereas Ralph Bellamy's character thinks
19:45that no, he's just been lucky and you can get anyone from off the street and he can be just
19:48as good and he thinks that Dan Aykroyd's character will just completely collapse if he gets all his
19:53privilege taken away from him. So it goes from there and then of course, you know, you get this
19:56wonderful kind of comedy of errors and then it all comes to an absolutely beautiful conclusion.
20:01And I think, in terms of what you were saying about Blink twice, a similar thing about what
20:06happens when you put somebody in the position of, you know, somebody without power in the position
20:10of somebody who has power. And actually, Heretic, which is out at the moment, plays on some of those
20:14tropes of somebody who perhaps doesn't seem to have power at the beginning gets that because
20:18of their story arc. And although, as you say, that this one does have a happy ending, what's
20:23interesting there is that it raises those questions which we all relate to, which is what would we do
20:28if we were born in a different place? Would we, you know, are we the product of our nature or not?
20:33I mean, you know, philosophers, you know, have been battling that question for forever. But it
20:39actually sort of gets to the heart of, you know, why we root for somebody and do we really envy
20:44them for what, you know, for having what we don't?
20:46Yeah. And of course, Dan Aykroyd's character, you know, his arc is the opposite because he's very
20:50privileged and loses everything. And of course, he believes that he's in his position because of his
20:55talent and his brains, whereas actually he's in his position, you know, he's not stupid necessarily,
21:00but he's in his position because of privilege and background. And we're really encouraged not to
21:04like him because he's pompous and arrogant. But actually, as the film goes through, he gets
21:07humbled. But then he actually he turns out he does have depth and you really start to feel sympathy
21:12for him. And when him and Eddie Murphy team up, it's just this wonderful pairing. And yeah, the
21:17performances throughout, I mean, both of them, but also Denholm Elliott as the butler and Jamie Lee
21:21Curtis, of course, is absolutely wonderful. And of course, she'd been known as a scream queen before
21:25that from Halloween. She was pigeonholed into that. And of course, in this, it was discovered she
21:29could do comedy and she was an absolutely wonderful comic actress. And yeah, it's one of those films
21:35where, you know, the whole cast is just wonderful in it. And I've seen this film, I don't know, I
21:39can't remember how many times it must be at least 10 times. And I'll return to it every couple of
21:43years, because it's just a joy to watch. And also because of the setting, because it's New York,
21:47isn't it? And it's New York and Philadelphia. And it's set over Christmas period. Yeah. And on the
21:52face of it, it's such a light, funny comedy. And there's so many great jokes and the jokes all
21:56land. But of course, underneath, it's about the class system. And it's about race relations. And
22:00it's about nature versus nurture. And it's about capitalism. And it actually digs into all these
22:05things, all these big, heavy themes, it digs into them and explores them over two hours. But you
22:10don't even notice it, because it's actually just a funny comedy with great comic performances all
22:14the way through it. Yeah. And that was my sense watching this as well, that you kind of feel that
22:18you whether you buy into the premise or not, there's a sense here that there is an important
22:23underlying dynamic about what makes us human, what makes us who we are, how are we perceived by
22:28others? Do we have the capacity for change? Yes. And that is the fundamental question, because we
22:33look at it with politicians, you know, sort of, you know, do people really change the other day as
22:37they are? And this one kind of rests, and it sort of takes a really strong philosophical treatise,
22:43and then through the film form of a comedy, unpacks that.
22:46Yes, yeah. And often, I mean, I love films like that, which unpack loads of deep, you know, really
22:51important issues, but they don't actually shove that in your face. You know, because often films
22:55that are very on the nose about that, they can become boring very quickly, especially when they
23:00tell you what to think, as opposed to just presenting the ideas. But this is just, yeah, all of that's
23:04underneath. But you don't even notice it when you first watched it. I mean, I first watched this as a
23:08young person, I was probably 12 or 13. I didn't really clock any of that stuff. I was just, I was
23:12just concentrating on the jokes and Eddie Murphy being funny and Dan Aykroyd being funny. But then
23:16watching it again, the way it handles those themes just so beautifully and lightly, and actually says
23:21what it needs to say, but without ever kind of shoving it in your face, I think is a masterstroke.
23:25Well, I'm afraid that's all the time we have for today. But before we go, if you live in Kent, and want
23:30the chance to share four films of your choice, reach out to us at KMTV, and you might be invited in to be
23:36my next guest. But for now, many thanks to Tom Branwell for joining us and being such a brilliant
23:41guest. And many thanks to you all for tuning in. Until next time, that's all from us. Goodbye.
23:55Transcribed by https://otter.ai