00:00Hello and welcome to another look at what's on our cultural radar.
00:06Joining me is my colleague David Morricone.
00:09David, good to see you as always.
00:10Oh, lovely to see you too, Togues.
00:12You're looking delightful.
00:14Darling, some may say.
00:15I'm certainly feeling very good.
00:17Despite what's been going on this week,
00:19it's been a week dominated with headlines regarding the death of the Pope.
00:24France's so much interest in his life and what he did.
00:27And that interest has also been reflected on streaming sites.
00:30Tell us more.
00:31Yes, so this is the film Conclave by Edward Berger,
00:34which was released last year.
00:35And it recently hit streaming services, Amazon Prime.
00:39And essentially, on the day of Pope Francis's death,
00:43it went from 1.8 million minutes viewed.
00:47And at the end of the same day, it went to nearly 7 million.
00:52So it has re-entered the cultural conversation
00:54because it's felt incredibly, some might say, prescient,
00:58considering the upcoming conclave that we have to look forward to next month.
01:04Okay.
01:05And so how close is it then, for people who've not seen it?
01:08No spoilers.
01:10How can we separate fact from fiction?
01:12Does it do a good job?
01:13It does, yes, because it's based on the novel of the same name by Robert Harris,
01:18who is very well known for his historical fiction.
01:21I'm thinking books like Fatherland or Archangel or even Munich.
01:26And he's written two screenplays, both for Roman Polanski,
01:32the very underrated The Ghostwriter,
01:34and the very overrated An Officer and a Spy.
01:37And essentially, the film won the Best Screenplay Oscar earlier this year.
01:45And what this film does rather wonderfully is base it all on fact.
01:50Now, obviously, it takes some liberties with regards to the plot.
01:53You have to keep your viewers entertained.
01:55So like with all Hollywood productions,
01:57there's a little bit of stretching of the truth.
02:00But there were trips to the Vatican.
02:02There's the wealth of research done by Harris.
02:04There was also an on-set consultant so that they get the rites and rituals down to a tee.
02:09So all in all, it is a very, very impressive tale.
02:12And this is one of the reasons why it resonates so much at the moment,
02:16because for anyone wanting to look at what happens behind closed doors,
02:21this is as close as it gets.
02:23Indeed, it's meant to be an incredible drama.
02:25And talking about incredible dramas,
02:27I know you've also been looking at the small screen again.
02:31And we're talking about series here.
02:32No spoilers.
02:34The Last of Us, please give us a breakdown.
02:38I can't give you a breakdown without any spoilers.
02:40So for anyone listening, for anyone watching this,
02:44they turn off because this is not one that's possible.
02:47They can't back on.
02:48Well, quite.
02:49So this is The Last of Us.
02:50And because it's based on the 2020 video game,
02:55The Last of Us Part 2,
02:56what happened in Episode 2 is all anyone can talk about.
03:00But we all knew it was coming.
03:03However, I personally didn't expect it to be coming so soon.
03:06This preordained death from the character played by Pedro Pascal, Joel.
03:12And we knew that this was a story about revenge,
03:15about old sins coming back to haunt characters.
03:18But what they've done remarkably well with this episode
03:21is you have essentially Mushroom Geddon happening
03:24at the same time as this very intimate character-driven moment,
03:29which is almost frame for frame like the video game.
03:32They've taken a few liberties with regards to who's with who
03:36and who's in the room at which time and, you know, all that.
03:40But it's an incredibly faithful adaptation and deeply impactful.
03:44And what the show does rather remarkably
03:47is it makes you sympathize with the antagonist
03:50in the same way that Joel is our hero.
03:54But in the first episode of Season 2,
03:56you understood that the hero is not always who he's cracked up to be.
03:59He can screw up, basically.
04:02And here we have sympathy for a character called Abby,
04:06who is rather remarkably played by Caitlin Dever.
04:10And she is, I mean, it's an Emmy-worthy performance
04:15because what she does in that limited amount of screen time
04:18is rather remarkable.
04:20So honestly, it's surprising, it's violent, it's visceral,
04:24but it's incredibly well-judged
04:27and really, I think, toes the line really well
04:30between being faithful to the original source material
04:32and taking a few liberties in order to make it fresh.
04:36And fresh it did, because essentially,
04:39it's this year's, you know, red wedding,
04:42essentially, from Game of Thrones.
04:43David, I do wonder how you fit anything else in your life,
04:46really, honestly.
04:47I don't!
04:49Yeah, there must be more.
04:50But tell me about this fabulous film
04:52that I know you've been talking to me about
04:54the last six months about, The Ugly Subsystem.
04:56Yeah, I've been chewing your ear off on this one.
04:59This was a film which I saw at the Berlin Film Festival
05:02earlier this year.
05:03It's a debut film by a Norwegian director
05:06called Emily Blickfield.
05:08And it's fantastic.
05:09It was a genuine standout at this year's festival
05:12and it's coming to streaming now.
05:14And it will be released in certain European territories
05:17in the coming weeks.
05:19This is essentially a reimagining of the Cinderella story.
05:24What Blickfield does remarkably
05:27is deconstruct the myth of beauty
05:30and the tyranny of beauty standards.
05:34And in this case, it really would work
05:36as a kind of a double bill
05:38or parallel viewing with Coralie Fargey as the substance
05:41in the sense that it really reminds you
05:44to what extent women will go to
05:47in order to please a man in a patriarchal society.
05:51What it reminded me of with these American shows
05:53like Bachelorette or The Swan,
05:56that god-awful show where, you know,
05:58these women lined up in order to go under the scalpel
06:02and it was icky to say the least.
06:04And here what you get from this film
06:07is some squirm-inducing moments of body horror
06:10with regards to plastic surgery.
06:12You get, and also a tapeworm.
06:14I mean, this ugly stepsister will go to any lengths
06:18in order to achieve her goals.
06:19This, to me, is an absolutely essential watch
06:22because it recontextualizes a story
06:25that we think we know
06:26and it forces the viewer
06:28to kind of ask themselves questions,
06:31not only about beauty standards,
06:33about the world we live in now,
06:35but also who we choose to dehumanize,
06:39who we choose to demonize in these stories and why.
06:44And really, to me, is one of the best films of the year.
06:48It's very, very high up there
06:49and I can't wait to see what Emily Blickfield does next.
06:53High praise indeed, David.
06:54That's an enormous recommendation
06:56for Emily Blickfield's film there.
06:58Do go and see it if you have a chance.
07:00But let's also talk about the role of women now,
07:02but this time from an archaeological perspective
07:05and a new exhibition that's just opened in Naples.
07:07Let's hear from the curator.
07:09A Pompeii c'era tutto.
07:20Infatti, questo è il risultato di questa mostra.
07:23Uno esce da questa mostra
07:24avendo visto tutte le tipologie di donne,
07:27sia nell'ambito familiare,
07:29cioè mogli, madre, figli, concubine,
07:32sia nell'ambito sociale,
07:34ingenue, libere, schiave,
07:37ingenue, liberte, schiave,
07:38sia nell'ambito professionale,
07:40perché accanto alle imprenditrici
07:42come Romacchia, come Giulia Felice,
07:45come Asellina,
07:46che anche Asellina è un'imprenditrice di se stessa,
07:49abbiamo panificatrici,
07:51tessitrici, filatrici,
07:53e abbiamo le meratrici,
07:54che sono moltissime a Pompeii,
07:57come in tutte le cittĂ romane.
07:59David, the area of Naples, Napoli
08:02is the gift that which keeps on giving
08:04from an archaeological point of view,
08:06as well as many more.
08:07Tell us a bit more briefly
08:08about this exhibition on there.
08:10Well, I mean, what's fascinating
08:11is that it really does explore Pompeii
08:14and this ancient civilisation,
08:17and specifically through the roles of women,
08:20whether it's the priestess,
08:21the mother,
08:22the wife,
08:23the concubine,
08:23the slave,
08:24the sex worker.
08:26And I think to, you know,
08:28approach that ancient civilisation
08:30through their roles
08:31and through the roles
08:33of these two statues
08:34that they've very recently discovered
08:35is fascinating.
08:37And it takes place
08:38at Pompeii's Archaeological Park
08:40and really an exhibition worth going to.
08:43Thank you very much for that, David.
08:45Do check out more
08:46on what's going on
08:46in the cultural agenda.
08:48Stay with us
08:49on Ewanese Culture.
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