Distance puts a dampener on this film buffs’ paradise
Conducting an interview from a safe distance is a skill that television presenters have had to master during the pandemic. Interviews via video link are commonplace on the news, of course. Over the past year, entertainment shows have been forced to include them too, but they can make for awkward television.
Life Cinematic: Sofia Coppola (BBC Four) was a prime example. Life Cinematic is an excellent series for film buffs, in which a director takes us through scenes from films that inspired them. Previous episodes are well worth looking up, featuring chats with Sam Mendes, Sam Taylor-johnson and Edgar Wright (who is interviewed by our own critic Robbie Collin). But for this episode, presenter Edith Bowman was in London, while Coppola was beamed in from New York, and they struggled to make a connection.
Perhaps it would have worked with a more forthcoming guest. The shortcomings were not the fault of Bowman, who was an enthusiastic and well-prepared host, but of Coppola. She was polite but seemed shy, which is the kiss of death for this sort of programme. And she hadn’t seen some of her chosen films in years, whereas Bowman had clearly mugged up on
them in advance of the interview. Despite her vast film knowledge, Coppola’s replies to Bowman’s questions often amounted to a listless “Oh, wow”, and “It’s so good”, and “Cool way to show that moment”.
Bowman did her best to keep things going, but with so much distance between them there was no opportunity to establish a rapport or break through Coppola’s carapace of cool. Even when discussing her own films, such as Lost in Translation, Coppola wasn’t terribly animated.
Clips shows, though, are pretty pandemic-proof – we can all sit back and enjoy the content. And what saved this episode was Coppola’s impeccable choice of films. To Die For, A Place in the Sun, Brief Encounter, Fish Tank, La Notte, The Servant – it was an eclectic, international list spanning decades and genres, and every one a gem. Flat delivery aside, Coppola did highlight the artistry in the selected scenes, from sound design to art direction. I loved the study of a scene in Wong Kar Wai’s In the Mood for Love: the director’s decision to shoot the lead actors in profile rather than cut between them, the precise way of framing each shot, the beauty of the jade green tea cups. I was left with the desire to dig out all of these films and watch them from beginning to end. T here was a point during the first lockdown where I quite enjoyed the escapist dream of travel programmes from far-flung locations. Now? If I had to watch a celebrity presenter gallivanting around a foreign country I would weep with envy.
ITV has read the room and in Paul O’grady’s Great British Escape, the poor man doesn’t get any further than Kent, which is where he lives. This week focused on the coast, so off he trotted to Dover, where he saw the White Cliffs, and went on a boat trip where he encountered some seals at the mouth of the River Stour.
Then it was up to Broadstairs to learn about the seaside town’s Charles Dickens connection courtesy of the author’s great-great-greatgranddaughter, and to Whistable, where he met an oyster fisherman still working hard at 91. Finally he was back in St Margaret’s Bay with a professional forager.
The programme doesn’t really sell itself on the wonders of Kent but on the charm of O’grady. Drily funny, self-deprecating and utterly natural in front of the camera, he treats the viewer like an old friend.
But the programme is so brief that we learned little about anything, save for the fact that brown seaweed tastes like the sole of your shoe and Dickens based Betsey Trotwood on a lady who shooed donkeys away from the door of her seafront cottage. At one point, O’grady sailed past a house that had belonged to Noël Coward before he sold it to Ian Fleming. It was in an incredible position on a beach at the foot of the White Cliffs. I would have loved to find out more, but within seconds we were on to the next thing.
O’grady also revealed his own connection to Charles Dickens: his ancestors were Marie and Frederick Manning, sentenced to death in 1849 for murdering her lover. Dickens attended their public execution and wrote to The Times about the “wickedness” of the spectacle. A terrific story, and yet it lasted all of two minutes. I bet a producer of Who Do You Think You Are? is on the phone right now.
Life Cinematic: Sofia Coppola ★★★ Paul O’grady’s Great British Escape ★★★