This week Chris Deacy is joined by Bartholomew Hall to discuss the films; Inception, About Time, Star Wars, and Nativity.
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00:00 [Music]
00:13 Hello and welcome to Kent Film Club.
00:15 I'm Chris DC, and each week I'll be joined by a guest from Kent to dive deep into the
00:20 impact certain films have had on their life.
00:23 Each guest will reflect on the films which have meant the most to them over the years.
00:27 And every week there will be a Kent Film Trivia, where we quiz you at home about a film that
00:32 has a connection to the county.
00:35 And now let me introduce you to my guest for this week.
00:38 Outside of work being a know-it-all about local sports, he is positively coffee obsessed.
00:44 He is of course KMTV's own Bartholomew Hall.
00:47 Welcome Bartholomew.
00:48 Hello.
00:49 And you're going to tell me about your first film.
00:50 I don't know what your selections are, and you've gone for Inception.
00:55 Inception.
00:56 Yes.
00:57 Christopher Nolan.
00:58 I did film studies.
00:59 I did media studies with a few film modules, and I think Christopher Nolan is one of those
01:04 film students kind of favourite.
01:06 But no, Inception for me, if you ask me what my favourite film was, so many would pop up,
01:11 but the first one is always Inception.
01:13 I remember being introduced to it by my dad, and just this big concept of dreams and reality
01:19 and the visual effects in the film, it just blew me away as a youngster.
01:23 And I would watch it just on repeat.
01:25 So, yeah.
01:26 Because during lockdown, the cinemas, they showed lots of older films because there weren't
01:30 any new ones sort of coming out.
01:31 And I watched this for, I think the second time at the cinema.
01:34 And of course at the end I'm thinking, there are so many different layers and levels.
01:38 Some people are like, I get the film completely.
01:40 I know exactly how it ends.
01:41 And I'm there thinking, okay, I think there are two, it's like the Pandora's box.
01:44 And I'm like, I'm not quite sure that the film has actually ended or at least I've grasped
01:49 the ending.
01:50 So for you, was this a puzzle while you were watching it?
01:52 Oh, 100%.
01:53 I think the fact that it's left so open at the end, I think Christopher Nolan has obviously
01:57 done that on purpose.
01:58 And I love films like that.
01:59 I love being able to go away and just make my own decision about it.
02:02 You know, do I think that he's still dreaming?
02:04 Has he really gone back with his family?
02:06 But yeah, I mean, the puzzle, it sticks with you the whole film.
02:09 And that's what Christopher Nolan does so well, isn't it?
02:11 It's cinema all over.
02:13 He's tantalising us, he's interacting with us, but he's also playing a really deft game
02:17 because there was that film about the magician as well from about 2006.
02:21 And so there's something very clever going on here, but sometimes almost like too clever
02:25 because the audience is sort of really having to keep up and maybe it warrants multiple
02:30 viewings.
02:31 That's true.
02:32 I think every time I watch this, I kind of, oh yeah, that's why they're doing this bit.
02:36 And he puts a lot of it in the subtext as well, I think, with this film.
02:41 And you kind of realise that that's why they're going into different levels of dream states
02:45 and that's the technology behind it.
02:47 But I think at a surface level viewing, you know, it's a story about a man exploring his
02:51 own mind and dealing with his own demons and being able to get back to that ultimate goal
02:55 of being with his family.
02:56 But if you want to kind of really kind of get to the kind of nerdy level of it, yeah,
02:59 multiple viewings, you'll enjoy it even more.
03:01 And the first time that you watched this, was it on the big screen?
03:04 Was it with an audience or was it with your family?
03:07 It was with my dad.
03:08 So my dad had an iPod Touch and we went on holiday one day and it was a big, big driving
03:12 holiday and he put it on his iPod Touch and I was just sitting in the back of the car
03:15 watching it on repeat, which is not how you're supposed to enjoy Christopher Nolan films.
03:18 It's supposed to be on the big screen and I mean, recent films like Tenet, I of course
03:22 saw an IMAX.
03:23 But yeah, for me at that young age when it came out, it was just about this big concept
03:30 of dreams and like I said, all the visual effects.
03:33 And when you first watched it, did you kind of feel there was this sense of, because with
03:36 Christopher Nolan you almost feel this empowerment sometimes that you're like, I'm completely
03:39 with him because he's a very intricate filmmaker, very knowledgeable, but he's also good at
03:44 the slate of hand.
03:45 He would work very well as a magician, I think.
03:47 100%.
03:48 Yeah.
03:49 I mean, it takes you in one direction with this film and I think there's even a point
03:52 of it where it turns into like this heist film as well.
03:54 The heist, you know, they're not necessarily stealing anything tangible within going into
03:59 the dream and trying to convince somebody to make a big decision about their business
04:04 ventures.
04:05 That's a really good point because it's like they're stealing something, but they're stealing
04:08 knowledge, they're stealing dreams, they're stealing ideas.
04:11 It's a really metaphysical heist film.
04:14 Absolutely.
04:15 And I think that's why I love it as well.
04:16 I think I love these kind of big concepts that you can't really tangle with in real
04:20 life.
04:21 I mean, you can do it in the metaphorical sense, but no, you can't kind of...
04:25 People talk about dreams a lot and about kind of lucid dreaming and being able to control
04:28 it.
04:29 Not something I've ever been able to do, but I do really enjoy waking up and thinking back
04:33 to my dreams and why I had certain things.
04:35 And yeah, you can explore yourself and your own mind through your dreams.
04:39 When I'm with my students, we often talk about dreams in the afterlife, the sort of idea
04:42 that things that go in our dream may give us a portal into something else.
04:44 And I think for filmmakers to tap into that, there's something really clever about that.
04:48 They've tapped into something at that sort of subliminal subconscious level that kind
04:53 of makes us intrigued because we don't sort of quite know what the ending is going to
04:57 be, but we can maybe create our own.
04:59 Absolutely.
05:00 And I think it is that it's the creation scenes that I think I like a lot.
05:03 I talked about the visual effects here and I mean, you can see it in the picture there.
05:07 It's that they've got this big city landscape and they kind of bend the physics of it and
05:11 they play around with it and that kind of toy box way of interacting with the world
05:16 around you, you can't do in real life.
05:19 You can only kind of do it in your dreams and having that freedom, you see it in the
05:22 characters when they're able to explore that and start to tangle with that.
05:26 But then it actually ends up attacking them and then the dreams start to come back on
05:30 them and it's kind of that godlike ability that ends up actually being their fault in
05:34 the end.
05:35 And if there's a favourite scene, what would that be?
05:38 Favourite scene from Inception.
05:40 It's got to be the climax of the film.
05:42 They're kind of four layers deep in a dream and the time works differently as Christopher
05:46 Nolan loves to deal with time and you're at the bottom level.
05:50 One thing affects and you kind of see it reaching the other way around.
05:53 I think something happens at the top and you start to see how it affects each layer but
05:56 at a different rate of speed.
05:58 Fantastic.
05:59 Well, thank you, Bartholomew.
06:00 Well, it's time now to move on to your second chosen film and you talk about time just now
06:04 and you've gone for About Time.
06:07 Absolutely.
06:08 Yes, About Time.
06:09 It's a brilliant film.
06:10 I watched this for the first time in the first year of university and it made me just rethink
06:16 my whole life.
06:17 And you've just got to love films like that where you walk away from it and you just have
06:21 this new appreciation for just being alive.
06:23 And of course, a film about time travel, another big concept, the main character, Dom Hawk
06:30 Gleeson's character, he learns from his dad that he's able to go back in time to any point
06:34 in his life.
06:35 He's living in a sort of dark room and he uses that with a bit of mischief.
06:39 He uses it to get the girl of his dreams, he uses it to benefit him at work and things
06:44 like that.
06:45 Towards the end of the film, and it's a bit of a spoiler, but he realises that he doesn't
06:48 really need it and that really he should.
06:50 He kind of says to himself, "Right, I'm going to go through every day living all of the
06:53 boring nuisance parts of being alive and at the end of the day I'll go back and I'll live
06:57 it and I'll enjoy every single one of those moments."
07:00 And then he says, "I realised after many cycles that I don't need to do that.
07:03 I can just go through the day and enjoy it, enjoy every moment of being alive."
07:09 Because this is a Richard Curtis film, isn't it?
07:12 Of course, yes.
07:13 I saw it for the first time just before Christmas.
07:15 I think I saw it maybe in a pairing with Love Actually.
07:19 And the conceit of this film, the cleverness of it, because as you were saying with Inception,
07:24 it sort of taps into something that matters to us, that whole what if, can we go back
07:29 in time, can we do things again, but actually would it fundamentally make a difference if
07:32 we could?
07:33 Oh, absolutely.
07:34 I mean, you mentioned Richard Curtis there in Love Actually.
07:39 It's another amazing film and he has this kind of personality within his films that
07:45 comes out when you watch it straight away.
07:47 And I think it's kind of this, I don't know, this Britishness, I don't know what it is,
07:50 you know, in our humour and our kind of dry sense of it.
07:53 And that's throughout the film as well, another kind of style of reason why I love it.
07:57 And the clever thing about Richard Curtis films is the ensemble element to them.
08:01 Yes.
08:02 I mean, I did this film as well, I think it was a pre-famous Vanessa Kirby.
08:05 But there's something about this, and I think there's a thread so far obviously with Inception
08:11 as well, but something about this sort of notion here about what matters, getting our
08:16 chance again, can we almost recreate something that maybe we didn't do right the first time
08:22 round?
08:23 And is there that possibility of perfection?
08:26 Or are we trying to do something that, Groundhog Day has a similar conceit, that actually sometimes
08:31 you can force it, you can contrive it, you can try multiple times to get the perfect
08:36 day or the perfect ending, but the harder you try sometimes, the less natural it is.
08:40 100%.
08:41 And he learns all of this from his dad, who has the same time travelling abilities, and
08:46 it's that theme that runs throughout the film.
08:48 He constantly goes back to his dad, even after his dad passes away, and asks him for that
08:52 advice.
08:53 And it gets to a point in the film where he realises, because of the constraints of the
08:57 rules around time travelling, he can't go back and see his dad anymore, and his dad
09:01 says, look, that's okay.
09:03 There are parts of life that you can't control, and even if you have this supernatural ability,
09:10 there are imperfections in life, and you have to accept those and embrace them.
09:15 Because the father, Bill Nighy, has this trait himself, doesn't he?
09:20 And what I remember thinking watching this, because you've got the Marvel films that
09:23 are very good at playing with all these different constructs of reality, but this does the same
09:28 thing but through the genre of a romantic film, and a very British film as well.
09:35 And I really tapped into that in a way that perhaps I wouldn't in the same way with those
09:38 big budget films.
09:39 Yeah, absolutely.
09:41 And you mentioned the ensemble cast as well, and he's not just dealing with the romance,
09:47 of course that's the central theme of the film and that's the part that you fall in
09:50 love with when you watch it, but he's dealing with friendships, with work relationships,
09:54 with his father-son relationships, with his family, and his sister as well plays such
09:59 a big part in that.
10:00 And you can see how each of these individual relationships and how he's able to kind of
10:05 tangle with them and explore them more through this kind of self-reflective ability that
10:12 he's been given.
10:13 And is this a film that you can watch or have watched many times over?
10:17 It's not, I haven't seen it as much as Inception, it's definitely one of my favourite films,
10:22 but I only watched it about two or three times.
10:24 I think with one that really made me rethink life and just kind of appreciate things more,
10:29 I'm weary to watch it so much.
10:32 I think I'll probably watch it again soon, having spoken about it now, but even when
10:37 a clip of it comes up I'll kind of go, no, I need to sit and watch it and just enjoy
10:41 it and then put it away and come back to it in a while.
10:45 Because a really good film can travel through time with you and at different points, but
10:51 actually you intersect with it at different times.
10:53 But sometimes also, like a good wine I suppose as well, sometimes you think, okay, let's
10:57 just leave it for the moment, you'll return to it at some point.
11:01 Absolutely as well, and because he starts, I first watched this first year of university,
11:05 kind of first couple of years of being an adult and being left to my own devices, that's
11:09 where this picks up.
11:10 He's just entering adulthood and he's deciding how he wants to live his life.
11:14 And it ends with him with a family and two children.
11:16 I'm nowhere near that part of my life yet, so absolutely.
11:19 I'll watch it again and I'll kind of appreciate that moment more than maybe the earlier parts
11:23 of the film.
11:24 Fantastic, well thank you for following me.
11:25 That's about all the time we have for the first half of the show.
11:28 However, before we go to the break, we have a Kent film trivia question for you at home.
11:36 Which Star Wars film did Kent-born actor Simon Paisley Day act as General Quinn in?
11:42 Was it A) The Force Awakens, B) The Last Jedi or C) The Rise of Skywalker?
11:51 We'll reveal the answer right after this break.
11:53 Don't go away.
12:05 Hello and welcome back to Kent Film Club.
12:08 Just before the ad break we asked you at home a Kent film trivia question.
12:13 I asked which Star Wars film did Kent-born actor Simon Paisley Day act as General Quinn
12:19 in?
12:20 I asked was it A) The Force Awakens, B) The Last Jedi or C) The Rise of Skywalker?
12:27 And now I can reveal to you that the answer was in fact C) The Rise of Skywalker.
12:32 Simon Paisley Day is a successful actor on and off screen, having appeared as the titular
12:37 character in Timon of Athens at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre as just one of his many off
12:43 screen acting roles.
12:45 Did you get the answer right?
12:47 Well it's time now Bartholomew to move on to your next chosen film and you've gone for
12:53 Star Wars 3 Revenge of the Sith.
12:58 Yes, this is another film my dad introduced me to.
13:02 It's actually the earliest film I can remember going to see at the cinema.
13:05 I think it was 2005 it came out so I would have been about four when it came out so you
13:11 know those early memories might not be accurate but I say that that's the earliest film I
13:15 saw in the cinema and I remember walking out and my dad asking me what was your favourite
13:20 part of the film and it was just that last shot of, I can't remember the name of the
13:24 ship but it's coming in, it's in space and it's got those circles on the back of it and
13:27 I say because that was the opening shot of A New Hope as well and he said that that was
13:32 the big, when he went to see A New Hope and that came out, that was the shot that stuck
13:35 with him so to have that kind of thing with my dad and Revenge of the Sith.
13:39 Another reason why I love it as well and I've kind of had this growing appreciation from
13:43 it over the years is that everybody hated the original prequel trilogy when it came
13:48 out but for me it was the one I grew up with.
13:50 I can watch this film and certain sound effects and certain dialogue that instantly jumps
13:54 back to me and it's a great film as well.
13:57 And I remember when all the new Star Wars films, I say the new Star Wars films but you
14:00 know we're starting in 1999, the prequels, but I just about miss the original Star Wars
14:06 from '77 onwards.
14:07 I was a bit too young, I was probably about the same age in '77 as you were when this
14:11 came out in 2005.
14:14 And I grew up though with friends who were completely enamoured with this, obsessed with
14:18 this and I've never quite got into it but what is it about Star Wars in watching this
14:23 one, did it make you watch all the original ones again or does this one stand out in isolation?
14:30 I think it did.
14:32 Well this was my first foray into Star Wars which is kind of the absolute wrong way to
14:36 do it.
14:37 You should, for me and people ask all the time what is the order to watch Star Wars
14:39 and you should watch it in release order I think because then you're appreciating the
14:44 kind of narrative that George Lucas intended because you watch the originals and then you
14:49 see the kind of journey of Darth Vader.
14:52 This you see the journey of how Darth Vader became to be and it's that, it's core, Star
14:57 Wars is evil, good versus evil, it's the first ever, it's the earliest narrative.
15:02 I think what I love about Revenge of the Sith is that it's almost got a Shakespearean element
15:06 to it.
15:07 I really do love a good Shakespearean, this is a modern day telling of it because I mean
15:11 Shakespeare at its core is like fairy tales really, we're talking about kings and queens
15:15 and princes and battles and that's also what Star Wars has and there's some dialogue at
15:21 the end of this film that is regularly kind of memed if you like, joked upon because it's
15:26 kind of this over the top use of back and forth between the two main characters.
15:32 For me it's amazing, it's this passionate argument between them before they've started
15:37 having this glorious lightsaber battle.
15:40 Yeah and it's the space opera of course but interestingly in this, is this a big screen
15:46 experience?
15:47 Was it for you?
15:48 You mentioned that you saw it when you were very young but was it then or has it subsequently
15:52 been something that you would only watch on the big screen?
15:56 Is that its obvious place to go?
15:59 Oh I don't think I've ever seen it on the big screen since then but one of the other
16:05 things I remember is one of the last shots in this film is when Darth Vader rises and
16:11 it's the only time in the prequel you see him fully in his suit with his mask on and
16:16 he does that famous breathe for the first time.
16:18 That experiencing it, really impressive.
16:20 And there's something about Star Wars as well that I suppose you have to watch it don't
16:23 you with an audience or at least there has to be.
16:26 Actually there was a film that I saw recently, Cat Person, which actually plays on the whole
16:29 that they go on a date, this couple and he's completely into everything to do with Harrison
16:33 Ford in Star Wars and she isn't.
16:35 So she sort of pretends just in order to impress him.
16:38 But of course it's pretty obvious that he's effectively lecturing her on Star Wars.
16:42 I wonder if there's that element sometimes that you have to watch it with somebody else,
16:46 there needs to be some kind of dialogue even during the film.
16:50 I mean I'm probably the person that's lecturing about it to be honest.
16:55 Yeah I mean it's one as well, I'm quite into these kind of, you know in the modern age
17:00 you've got all these YouTube kind of breakdowns of films and Star Wars is one of them because
17:05 there's loads of little Easter eggs that maybe might not have intended to be an Easter egg
17:09 to begin with that someone will kind of pick out, it could be a drink on a side or something
17:13 and like a sign and they'll say "Oh this is from this comic book back then" or "This turned
17:17 into this comic book which became a series" and it's that interconnectedness of Star Wars
17:22 that you don't have to know to appreciate and watch this film for what it is and the
17:27 themes in it and its own narrative but if you really want to get enveloped in the world
17:32 of Star Wars it gives you that option too.
17:34 And what stands out as well is that you may not have seen the most obvious one of the
17:38 Star Wars films but this was your way into the entire, I was about to say trilogy but
17:42 of course there's more than one trilogy.
17:44 But it was a way in for you.
17:46 I think so and George Lucas with the prequels he decided that no we're not going to go with
17:52 all of the practical visual effects, it's the new age, it's the turn of the millennium,
17:58 he's going to go in straight with the computer generated imagery and people laughed at it
18:04 at the time but I was four, five, six watching these films and I loved it.
18:09 This film opens with this amazing space battle, so many ships, as far as you can see five
18:15 fighting against each other over this planet and it's just glorious to remember to watch
18:22 that and to really love it.
18:24 And there's loads of video games as well that followed from it so that was another thing.
18:28 I just felt like I was part of this event when it happened.
18:31 Well fantastic, well thank you so much Bartholomew.
18:33 Well we've now got to move on to your final chosen film and well, okay so I don't feel
18:40 so silly now in my Christmas jumper.
18:42 You've gone for a Christmas film, Nativity.
18:44 Yes, the Nativity.
18:47 For me every year this film, I love Christmas, okay.
18:52 I'm not one of those people that says you have to wait until December 1st.
18:55 For me the final firework on fireworks night, then put Nativity on and then I'm in the mood.
19:01 Because when you are that young when you're putting on a Nativity, I remember being in
19:06 primary school we weren't allowed to say the C word, Christmas, until December 1st.
19:10 But even up until that point you're already thinking about the Nativity, you're already
19:13 enjoying it and loving it and that's a huge theme throughout this film.
19:16 I know it's a comedy and I know it is what it is but for me this film is all about that
19:21 child that lives within you and that's something that the main character, he realises over
19:26 the course of the film that he needs to just embrace and let out at times.
19:29 Because that's a familiar trope in Christmas films, the idea that often through a child
19:32 or here a whole group of children that an adult who may be a bit of a misanthrope or
19:37 maybe somebody who's not all that connected suddenly undergoes a Christmas transformation.
19:43 Absolutely I mean he's a failed actor, decided to become a primary school teacher, he thought
19:51 I can put on some good Nativities, I've got the training, I've got the experience.
19:55 Turns out it's not as easy as he thought and his girlfriend leaves him at Christmas and
19:59 it just leaves this bad taste in his mouth and he got some really bad reviews on a previous
20:03 Nativity and he's just going through life and then one year he's told you're going to
20:08 be putting on the Nativity this year and all the memories come back to him, he doesn't
20:11 want to do it.
20:12 And then there's this other character, Mr. Poppy, who is I think he's the same age or
20:16 a bit younger, he's a new classroom assistant, an adult but kind of a child in an adult's
20:20 body and he lets that child out 24/7 and because of his appearance it gets out that Hollywood
20:30 is going to be coming to the school and this is the lie that he's standing in front of
20:33 the school and he goes yes that's happening and he sees all the children, he sees the
20:40 excitement that could come up on their faces and he decides to go with the lie and of course
20:43 the lie grows and gets bigger and he's having to battle with I'm doing this for the children
20:49 but it's a lie so now I need to fly to Hollywood and convince my ex-girlfriend who went to
20:54 Hollywood to come and he goes to all these lengths that he wouldn't have done at the
20:59 beginning of the film because he's slowly starting to allow that child to come out.
21:03 And that's what Christmas films are so good at doing.
21:06 One of the most recent films I saw at the cinema was actually Bad Santa which is not
21:09 for children, in fact decidedly not so, but it has the same formula and it's the Scrooge
21:14 story, it's the idea that the person who perhaps has fallen on hard times has an opportunity,
21:21 maybe a final gasp at redemption over Christmas but here of course it brings the Hollywood
21:26 element into this but it's about ultimately making his girlfriend respect him.
21:33 Absolutely and trying to get her to come back into his life and there's a really funny scene
21:38 that he's standing with Mr. Poppy and Mr. Poppy's saying you need to phone her up, just
21:43 give her a phone call and he's kind of hesitating and you can see that nervousness coming out
21:48 that when he's a teacher and he's kind of performing as the teacher in front of all
21:51 of the children you don't see the nervous Mr. Madden as his name is, you always see
21:58 the authoritative figure but when he's being vulnerable you start to see the child inside.
22:03 And I always think what happens after Christmas as well because you have the whole build up
22:06 to Christmas and I guess they just need to go and have a long holiday, maybe they need
22:10 to go to Hollywood and stay there but I always find it interesting what happens afterwards
22:14 because you've got this huge build up, the nativity performance is on but what happens
22:17 next and so when you're watching does that sort of intersect with your own experiences
22:21 of nativity from when you were young?
22:23 Oh, 100%. There's a moment at the end of the film that makes me cry every time and I watch
22:28 this every year, okay so this is not like one of my previous ones where I don't want
22:31 it to dry out because I know it never will. The head teacher, the secrets got to her,
22:36 she's tried to cancel the nativity, she goes up on stage and it's kind of a repeat, it's
22:41 a mirror of the opening of the film when Mr. Madden's is there, he's talking in front of
22:46 the school and he decides to lie for the first time. She's been pushed up on stage, she's
22:50 about to say no this is cancelled and she sees on the parents' faces and she's just
22:55 seen on the children's faces, they don't care about Hollywood, they don't care about all
22:58 of these adult things that are going on in the background, they just want to put on their
23:02 nativity and she's just about to kind of do that adult thing of oh don't expect anything
23:07 and then she says no I've been here for 17 years and today I'm just going to let it happen
23:13 and she lets that child like energy come out and she says I've got faith that today it's
23:20 going to change and they're going to put on a good show and then at the end they all get
23:24 up on stage don't they and have a laugh and dance and that's the lesson learnt of the
23:27 story. Well you've sold it to me. Well thank you Bartholomew, I'm afraid that's all the
23:31 time we have for today. Many thanks to Bartholomew Hall for joining us and being such a brilliant
23:37 guest and many thanks to you all for tuning in. Be sure to come back and join us again
23:42 at the same time next week. Until then, that's all from us. Goodbye.
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