This week in culture: a devastating blow in The Last of Us, and a compelling new look at women’s lives in ancient Pompeii. Here's what deserves your attention.
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00:00hello and welcome to another look at what's on our cultural radar joining me is my colleague
00:07david morricon uh david good to see you as always oh lovely to see you too togs you're looking
00:13delightful darling some may say certainly feeling very good uh despite what's been going on this
00:18week it's been a week dominated with headlines regarding the death of the pope uh francis so
00:25much interest in his life and what he did and that interest has also been reflected on streaming
00:30sites tell us more yes so this is the film conclave by edward burger which was released last year and
00:35it recently hit streaming services amazon prime and essentially on the day of pope francis's death
00:42it went from 1.8 million minutes viewed and at the end of the same day it went to nearly 7 million
00:51so it has re-entered the cultural conversation because it's felt incredibly some might say
00:57prescient considering the upcoming conclave that we have to look forward to uh next month okay and so
01:05how close is it then for people who've not seen it no spoilers how can we separate fact from fiction
01:12does it do a good job it 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 i'm thinking books like fatherland
01:23or or archangel or even munich and he's uh written two uh screenplays uh both for roman polanski
01:31uh the very underrated the ghost writer and the very overrated uh an officer and a spy
01:37and essentially uh the film won uh the best screenplay uh oscar um earlier this year
01:45and what this film does rather wonderfully is base it all on fact now obviously it takes some
01:52liberties with regards to the plot you have to keep your viewers entertained so like with all
01:56hollywood productions there's a little bit of uh stretching of the truth but there were trips to
02:01the vatican there's the wealth of research done by harris there was also an on-set consultant so
02:06that they get the rites and rituals down to a tee so 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 because for anyone wanting
02:17to look at what happens behind closed doors this is as close as it gets indeed it's meant to be an
02:24incredible drama and talking about incredible dramas i know you've also been looking at the
02:29small screen again and we're talking about series here no spoilers the last of us please give us a
02:36breakdown uh i can't give you a breakdown without any spoilers so for anyone listening for anyone
02:43watching this uh they turn off because this is not one that come back on that well quite so this is the
02:50last of us and because it's based on the 2020 uh video game the last of us part two what happened
02:57in episode two uh is all anyone can talk about but we all knew it was coming however i personally
03:04didn't expect it to be coming so soon this preordained death uh from uh the character played
03:10by uh pedro pascal uh joel and and we knew that this was a story about revenge about old sins coming
03:16back to horn characters but what they've done remarkably well with this episode is you have
03:22essentially uh mushroom geddon happening at the same time as this very intimate character driven moment
03:29which is almost frame for frame like the video game they've taken a few liberties with regards to
03:35who's with who and who's in the room at which time and you know all that but it's an incredibly faithful
03:41adaptation and deeply impactful and what the show does rather remarkably is it makes you sympathize
03:49with the antagonist in the same way that joel um is our hero but in the first episode of season two
03:56you understood that the hero is not always who he's cracked up to be he can screw up basically
04:01and here we have sympathy for a character called abby um who is rather remarkably played by caitlin
04:09diva and she she is i mean it's an emmy worthy um performance because what she does in that limited
04:17amount of screen time is is rather remarkable so honestly it's surprising it's violent it's visceral but
04:24it's incredibly well judged and and really i think toes the line really well between being faithful
04:31to the original source material and taking a few liberties in order to make it fresh and fresh it did
04:38because essentially it's it's this year's um you know red wedding essentially from game of thrones
04:43david i do wonder how you fit anything else in your life uh really honestly i don't yeah there must be more
04:50but tell me about this fabulous film that i know you've been talking to me about the last six months
04:54about the ugly subsystem yeah i've been chewing your ear off uh on on this one this was a film which
05:00i saw at the berlin film festival earlier this year it's a debut film by a norwegian director called
05:06emily blickfield and it's fantastic it was a genuine standout at this year's festival and it's coming to
05:13streaming now and it will be released in certain european territories uh in the coming weeks this
05:19is uh essentially a reimagining of the cinderella story what blickfield does remarkably is deconstruct
05:28um the myth of beauty and and the the tyranny of beauty standards and in this case it really would
05:36work as a kind of a a double bill or parallel viewing with coralie farge as the substance in
05:42the sense that it it really reminds you to what extent um women will go to in order to please a
05:49man in a patriarchal society what it reminded me of with these american shows like bachelorette
05:54or the swan that god-awful show where where you know these these women lined up in order to go under
06:01the scalpel and and it was icky to say the least and and here what you get from from this film is
06:07some squirm inducing moments of body horror with regards to plastic surgery um you you get and also
06:13a tapeworm i mean this this ugly stepsister will go to any lengths in order to achieve her goals this
06:20to me is is an absolutely essential watch because it recontextualizes a story that we think we know
06:26and it forces the viewer to kind of ask themselves questions not only about beauty standards about
06:34the world we live in now but also who we choose to dehumanize who we choose to um demonize in these
06:43stories and why and really uh to me is one of the best films of the year it's very very high up there
06:49and i can't wait to see what uh emily blickfield does next high praise indeed david that's an enormous
06:55recommendation for emily blickfield's uh film there do go and see it if you have a chance
07:00but let's also talk about the role of women now but this time in an archaeological perspective
07:05and a new exhibition that's just opened in naples let's hear from the uh curator
07:09a pompey c'era tutto infatti questo è il risultato di questa mostra uno esce da questa mostra avendo visto
07:25tutte le tipologie di donne sia nell'ambito familiare cioè mogli madre figli concubine sia nell'ambito
07:33professionale perché accanto alle imprenditrici come macchia come giulia felice come azelina che anche
07:46azelina è un imprenditrice di se stessa abbiamo panificatrici tessitrici filatrici e abbiamo le
07:53meritrici che sono moltissime a pompey come in tutte le città romane david the area of naples napoli
08:02is the gift that which keeps on giving from an archaeological point of view as well as many
08:06more tell us a bit more briefly about this exhibition on now well i mean what's fascinating
08:11is that it really does explore um pompey and this ancient civilization uh and specifically through
08:19the roles of women uh whether it's the priestess the mother the the wife the concubine the slave
08:24the the sex worker and i think to to you know approach that ancient civilization through their
08:31roles and through the roles of these two statues that they've very recently discovered is is
08:36fascinating and and it takes place at pompey's archaeological park and really an exhibition
08:42worth going to well thank you very much for that david do check out more on what's going on in
08:47the cultural agenda stay with us on your news culture