As new film Tar hits UK cinemas, starring Cate Blanchett as a brilliant, highly-celebrated and highly-problematic conductor, Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode explore how genius is portrayed on-screen - and celebrated off-screen.  Mark speaks to director Nick Moran about his 2008 film Telstar: The Joe Meek Story, which focused on another problematic musical genius, and to journalist Jon Ronson about 2014's Frank, co-written by Jon and inspired by his time working with comic musician Chris Sievey, aka Frank Sidebottom.  And Ellen looks at EGOTs - the extraordinary performers who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony - speaking to film star, TV host and EGOT Whoopi Goldberg.  Actor Sanjeev Bhaskar shares his favourite genius on screen in Viewing Notes.  Producer: Jane Long
A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

Genius on screen

Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode guide us through the expanding universe of the moving image revealing fascinating links and hidden gems from cinema and TV to streaming and beyond.

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Literature

Performing Arts

Design

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Fashion & Beauty

Visual Arts

From early, Oscar-winning roles in The Deer Hunter and Sophie's Choice, through to Mamma Mia! and The Iron Lady, Meryl Streep has earned a reputation as the greatest actress of our times. As the star receives an honorary Palme D'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode discuss the remarkable depth, breadth and legacy of her career. Ellen speaks to writer Michael Schulman, author of Her Again: Becoming Meryl Streep, about the actor's beginnings in the 1970s, and the power of a Meryl acceptance speech. And she discusses the actress' breakout comedic role alongside Roseanne Barr in 1989's She-Devil, with the film's director Susan Seidelman.  And Mark speaks to actor Kate Winslet about her decades-long love for Meryl's work, from Angels In America to Death Becomes Her, and about how it felt to beat her heroine to a Best Actress Oscar.  Producer: Jane Long
A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

Meryl Streep

Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode explore whether films and TV can change the world. First up, Ellen talks to the award-winning independent filmmaker Eliza Hittman, whose critically acclaimed 2020 drama, Never Rarely Sometimes Always, charts the odyssey of 17 year-old Autumn, played by newcomer Sidney Flanigan from her home town in rural Pennsylvania, to her nearest accessible abortion clinic in New York City.  Ellen also meets Caren Spruch, National Director for Arts and Entertainment Engagement at US-based organisation Planned Parenthood. They discuss her activism towards shaping TV and film storylines around abortion.  Mark ponders how two film makers have addressed homelessness in their work - rising star Lorna Tucker who's deeply personal documentary Someone’s Daughter, Someone’s Son  has recently brought homelessness back into the spotlight, and film legend Ken Loach who shares how his 1966 BBC TV play Cathy Come Home came to be and alerted the public and politicians alike to the country’s growing housing crisis.  Producer: Mae-Li Evans
A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

Films That Changed the World

In 1974, Chinatown - now widely considered to be among the greatest films ever made - was nominated for 11 Oscars. Despite the creative confidence and freedom of the era, the 1970s were a time of tolerance for the morally questionable, or even downright illegal, behaviour of some of the powerful men creating these movies. Chinatown’s director, Roman Polanski, is the most totemic of those figures. His 1977 indictment for drugging and raping a 13 year-old led the director to flee the United States and seek legal and creative sanctuary in France, where he has remained and continued to make celebrated movies such at The Pianist, for which he won the Best Director Academy Award in 2003.   Fifty years on from Chinatown's release, Mark Kermode and Ellen E Jones ask how we can appreciate cinematic masterpieces like Chinatown which have been made by very problematic people?  Ellen gets about as close as it’s possible to get to the creators of Chinatown - Hawk Koch worked with Roman Polanski on the set of Rosemary’s Baby and, as the First Assistant Director on Chinatown, he was deeply connected with the movie and its director. In a wide ranging interview, he shares his memories from the set, discusses his friendship with Polanski and reflects on remaining in love with a movie despite its troubled past. Claire Dederer’s Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma is a highly personal account of her own relationship with the works of film-makers like Roman Polanski and Woody Allen, and the questions of how knowledge of an artist’s personal life does or doesn’t change the way we feel about their art. Mark talks to Claire about the ethical and emotional issues of separating the art from the artist. Produced by Freya Hellier.
A Hidden Flack production for BBC Radio 4

Chinatown

Mark Kermode and Ellen E Jones examine the rich history of style and the moving image, from Pret A Porter to The Devil Wears Prada.  Ellen talks to fashion historian and curator Amber Butchart about the close relationship between couture and cinema. They discuss the timeless influence on high fashion of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis and Powell & Pressburger's The Red Shoes, and the movies that inspire what we all wear in real life.  Mark enlists the help of a Screenshot regular, critic Christina Newland, to explore how the fashion industry has been depicted on screen, from the fashion editors of Funny Face and The Devil Wears Prada to the male models of Zoolander.  And Mark talks to director Kevin Macdonald about his new documentary, High & Low: John Galliano, which follows the disgraced British fashion designer.  Producer: Jane Long
A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

Fashion

As rising British director Rose Glass (St Maud) brings us Love Lies Bleeding - a film about female bodybuilders - Mark Kermode and Ellen E Jones examine the precedents, including the action stars of the 80s like Schwarzenegger who broke out of the gym and into the mainstream, as well as how gyms make a rich setting for drama and action. Mark explores what bodybuilders have brought to the screen over the years. He talks to editor of Empire magazine and author of The Last Action Heroes, Nick de Semlyen, about the history of muscles and bodybuilders on screen. Mark then speaks to rising star Katy O’Brian about her breakout role in Love Lies Bleeding and her own background in bodybuilding.
 
Ellen looks at how the gym and fitness culture are rich settings for drama. She speaks to film writer Brandon Streussnig about how the gym is portrayed on screen and his favourite gym movies. She then talks to Annie Weisman, the creator of Apple TV’s Physical, about fitness culture in the 80s and its relationship to women's empowerment. Producer: Queenie Qureshi-Wales
A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

Genius on screen

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