It's the beginning. It's the start of the whole season. All that and more in this festival review edition of talking movies. Venice, one of the world's oldest and most prestigious film festivals, was certainly star—studded this year, and among the figures making an impact was 49—year—old angelina jolie for her portrayal of the celebrated late opera singer, maria callas, in the picture maria. Emma jones was at the venice film festival for talking movies. Emma: angelina jolie is portraying a woman said to have had the voice of an angel. American—born greek soprano maria callas, who died in 1977 aged only 53, isjudged to be the world's greatest ever female opera star and certainly the most famous. She's been the subject of a documentary — maria by callas. A fictitious re—imagining of the last week of her life is the subject of maria by chilean director pablo larrain. That is not what the doctor told us we should do. Was he even a doctor? asjolie is seen here as callas, talking to her butler ferruccio, played by italian actor pierfrancesco favino. And that is why he took a sample of your blood. But he said even before the result of the test, we should get your medication under control. It's under my control and doctors hate that. Jolie's appearance at venice created the kind of frenzy that callas, who was also on that level of global recognition, would understand. The actor hasn't been in a leading role since the maleficent series, and in this film, pablo larrain required angelina jolie to learn how to sing opera. You know when the director asks if you can sing and you say, yes, but. . . He chuckles. . But you know, you think. . . Like, you say, like, i think i didn't understand, i really didn't understand. I thought i could sing like people sing in film and you sing, you pretend to sing or you sing a little. And it was very clear early on that i was going to really have to learn to sing because you can't really fake opera. Photographers: angelina. Most cinema audiences aren't going to see the film maria for quite some time, but angelina jolie really does sing in this film. Director pablo larrain mixed in her voice with that of maria callas for every performance, and he asked quite a lot of her, often asking her to perform in front of hundreds of audience extras, often on some of italy's most prestigious stages, including la scala in milan. I remember at la scala when we were there, and ijust remember almost being, i was like on another planet because it was so beyond what i was comfortable with as a person and as an artist. There were so many moments in this where i felt a little out of body and having to justjump and trust that he would catch me and that it would be ok. I think with this film, angelina jolie has put herself up for the front runner for the oscar race. There has not been a performance so far this year that is as grand in scale, that is as big, that is showing a range of acting, from both being a stage star — a diva — to being very forlorn. Jolie nails this role. Like opera itself, this film version about the art form's greatest female voice demands to be seen on a grand scale. Now, its makers hope that maria might manage to soar commercially with audiences, too. Telluride, high up in colorado's rocky mountains, is a film festival that most definitely punches above its weight. Over the years, it has built up a reputation for showcasing films that go on to win a best picture oscar. Now in its 51st year, this festival, which takes place over a four—day holiday weekend with a relatively modest slate of films, is a magnet for people who expect to see powerful cinema. I mean, for such a small film festival, it seems like they get a lot of amazing films with like, really a—list actors. So it's pretty wild for such a small film festival. Telluride has also become an important cog in the awards machine. Its arrival heralds a new phase in the north american movie calendar as the summer months of mostly formulaic blockbusters fade away. It's the beginning. It's the start of the whole season. You could call it the awards season in my world, but it's the season of all the good movies. It's the season of the quality films that come out in the fall that some of them get distributors here, some of them get actual oscar campaigns. They get, the people who come here are looking for good movies, and the people who are from the industry are looking to see how they react. It seems the responsibility for the conclave falls upon you. L so what were the films at telluride that animated festival goers this year? certainly conclave. What's been described as a vatican thriller in which ralph fiennes gives a standout performance as a cardinal supervising the election of a new pope. What happened 7 they say a heart attack. You know how rumour spreads and one and a quarter billion souls watching. Anotherfilm making an impact was nickel boys, based on a prize—winning novel set mainly in a reform school in 19605 florida. This visually ambitious picture, directed by ramell ross, is centred on the moving story of two young men at the racially abusive institution. There are so many beautiful moments in the movie, despite everything that happens to them and around them, there's so many beautiful moments between them. Telluride brings in film—makers from around the world. 26 countries were represented in this year's festival films. Getting attention was santosh, set in india. This hindi language crime thriller could become the uk's official submission in the oscars best international feature film category. The picture has british funding and its director is from the uk. Santosh is a story of a young, lower middle—class woman in northern india, a housewife and her husband, who is a policeman, dies and as is per a real government scheme which exists there, she is able to inherit hisjob as a police constable. She gets thrown into an investigation of the murder of a young lower caste girl. I mean, the thing about this film is that it could play at any time, because these issues of caste, islamophobia, misogyny, unfortunately, have existed for so long and continue to exist. Among the many documentaries at telluride was riefenstahl, an investigation into german director leni riefenstahl, who came into her own during the nazi era, making propaganda films such as triumph of the will and olympia, a documentary on the 1936 berlin summer olympics. There's been an ongoing debate over whether or not she was complicit in the crimes of the nazis. The director of the documentary got access to materials from riefenstahl�*s estate and uses it to prove, to him at least, that she was clearly not the apolitical person she claimed to be. She was always pretending. I was just apolitical. I wanted to make films, and of course, i did them, in a way, for hitler. But i never became a party member. I never became a nazi. And we could show by all these documents that even after the war, she was not the apolitical artist who just wanted to continue her career. Another, more buoyant telluride documentary was one to one: john and yoko. It focused on the first 18 months afterjohn lennon moved with yoko ono to new york in 1971. The film is a time capsule from that period, and a portrayal of the couple's love for one another, their zest for life, new people and experiences in a city they both loved. The documentary is built around a concert whichjohn lennon and yoko ono put on in 1972. We use a collage of material which, some of which is their home movie footage. We went through all the news archives and whatever, had found clips of things that were appropriate or told you something about the time and related to the songs that john is singing, but also which i think echo with what's going on today in the world. As i moved around telluride, i wasn't just struck by the dramatic landscape, but also by the potency of some of the cinema. Festival audiences were impressed by the line—up, particularly by american director sean baker's sex worker comedy anora, which won the top prize at the cannes film festival. . . . . And film—makerjacques audiard's musical emilia perez. Telluride, with many of its movies, proved that while the film industry may be facing economic and structural challenges, contemporary cinema, at least with its storytelling, is still vibrant, thought—provoking and very much alive. Both the telluride film festival and venice had strong documentaries on offer this year. Many of them dealt with contentious, but relevant social and political issues. This was certainly true of the documentaries that emma jones covered in venice. If you have children, you need only imagine your own child in a foreign country, not speaking the language, with no parent. For a brief period in 2018, it was official us policy to separate migrant children from their parents at the us—mexican border. After shocking pictures emerged, the trump administration reversed the decision, but around 1,000 families remain separated. Veteran film—maker errol morris's documentary tells that story partly through drama, showing a migrantjourney, partly through interviews. It's based on a book byjournalist jacob soboroff, who witnessed the scenes for himself. To this day, i can close my eyes and tell you what it looked like to see hundreds of kids who were laying on linoleum or concrete floors, who were there for no other reason than the us government decided to deliberately take them away from their moms and their dads, to hurt them, to scare other people from coming. The venice film festival might seem a world away from north america, but something as important as the us election year is bound to have an impact on the kinds of documentaries we're seeing at the moment. We're trying to hold the upper. . . The storming of the capitol building onjanuary the 6th, 2021, by donald trump's supporters is the culmination of the documentary homegrown by michael premo. He follows three conservative activists during the 2020 election period as they become increasingly radicalised in their views. You're not breaking through those. Premo hopes it's a conversation starter in a country currently with deep divisions. I feel like we haven't, as a country, really, truly reconciled with this growing schism that is in america. And this film comes, i think, at a perfect time to be able to better understand who these people are who are committed to using violence to fight for what they believe in. Exactly two years after the storming of the capitol, a mob of former presidentjair bolsonaro supporters attacked brazil's government buildings. In the last election, bolsonaro was the outsider, the underdog, a vessel of the lord. But in this new race, he's taken on a different persona. One who wields power, the power of god. Brazilian film—maker petra costa, oscar nominated for her previous film the edge of democracy, explores the recent parallels between the us and brazil, in particular the rise to power of the evangelical church in brazil whose support was critical for bolsonaro. When i was watching this material of the evangelical movement into politics in america, it felt like i was looking at myself in the mirror. Like, how could this country do exactly what we were doing so many years before? how come we're following so literally their footsteps? i think brazil and the united states could become a theocracy. If you don't have facts, you can't have truth. Without truth, you can't have trust. Finally, british oscar winner asif kapadia puts forward a vision of the future in 2073, blending drama acted by samantha morton alongside the factual to show how bad life could be in half a century. This is one to watch, for me, because he champions good journalism. He argues that asking persistent questions to those with power is the key to keeping democracy itself. Coming up in talking movies, more from our festival review special, including an interview with richard gere, who has a new film coming out called oh, canada. A new drama called oh, canada starring richard gere has had a strong presence on the festival circuit. It was shown at cannes and it's also been put before festival audiences in toronto and new york. It brings richard gere together with a collaborator from a long time ago. The neo—noir crime thriller american gigolo in 1980 was the movie that put richard gere on the map as a leading man. A film classic written and directed by paul schrader. Fast forward more than a0 years, and gere and schrader have teamed up to make the drama oh, canada. Dog barks amanda was a jazz pianist. I with a fractured storyline, it has the feel of an experimental work. It's the story of a celebrated canadian documentary film—maker approaching death and reflecting on his life. You know, i relate to this around my father. My father died a few months before paul and i spoke about doing this, and he was almost, right on the edge of 101, and he was living with me, and we were very close and i felt his. . . He had different types of memories. He had some that were extremely clear and others that were more expressionistic. The story is based on the 2021 novel foregone by the late author russell banks, with whom paul schrader was a friend. When russell banks became ill, it prompted him to make the film. I was good friends with russell, um, when he told me that i couldn't come up in the summer, as i usually do, i knew that he was probably quite sick. And he had written a book about dying, so i thought i'd better read that book. And i read it, and i thought, you know, this is what i should be doing. I should be doing a film about dying. So that's how it started. Paul schrader has had an impressive career. He wrote the screenplay for the memorable 1976 martin scorsese movie taxi driver, starring robert de niro. Schrader continued to write or co—write other scorsese pictures, including raging bull and the last temptation of christ, but the collaboration hasn't always been easy. I would have liked to keep working with marty, but, you know, we reached a point there where on the last one we did together — and we're still friends — um, i realised there were two directors in the room. And with marty, there could only be one director in the room. I said, i don't think we're going to work together again. As for paul schrader�*s latest film, oh, canada, the central character is a man who has fabricated aspects of his life, who wants to clear the record before he dies to reveal all. The film's leading man believes many people will identify with that. I think we all have fabrications in our lives. Everybody, even my tibetan teachers, i'm sure, have things that they haven't told anyone before. Um, i think that's kind of built in to us as human beings, even moment to moment. We don't really know what reality is and what truth is or who we are, what we are. Oh, canada has divided festival audiences. Many see it as insightful, but several critics refer to it as rambling, disjointed and bewildering. Richard gere gives a fine performance, but like the film itself, his character is not easy to warm to, to connect with emotionally. The ongoing war in ukraine has been covered relentlessly through topicaljournalism, but now comes something a little different. A documentary which focuses on the impact of the war on the home front. The film is called the invasion and it will be shown at the london film festival. It comes from one of ukraine's top film—makers. This man, sergei loznitsa, is widely considered to be one of ukraine's foremost film—makers. The invasion is his latest documentary. It's an assembly of moments from civilian life in ukraine. It's the home front that's his focus. At this military funeral, you see weary but stoic individuals. His camera lingers on the faces of his fellow ukrainians, on their pain. That's what prompted him to make the film. Translation: all these years that this war has been going on, it's been incredibly, an incredibly painful experience. It's a never—ending pain and i wanted to share this pain with the world. Translation: the enemy is not present in the film, _ physically. But, at the same time, we feel the presence of the enemy in every shot of the film. Ambulance siren blares sergei loznitsa believes his film—making is offering audiences something quite different from the topical news journalism that emanates from ukraine. Translation: daily news journalism doesn't show l what i show. The news, all the time, we see military action, we see destruction, we see war. But i don't show this. I show the other side. I don'tjust want to inform my spectator of what's going on, but i also want to create an emotional impact. Sergei loznitsa has put together a mournful and thoughtful film. After spending many hours working on the documentary, he told journalists of his own conclusions on human beings at war using interesting terminology. He called war a psychiatric disease, madness and always absurd. Ukrayina! film festivals are levelling events. Telluride brought me personal encounters with ardent film lovers, movie stars, gifted top film editors and directors, journalists and industry executives. We were defined by our separate roles, but what bound us together at the festival was a powerful love for cinema. The films we had seen inspired us, made us think and re—evaluate, leaving us slightly changed as individuals, more able, perhaps to cope with the tumult of the outside world. Film festivals can make a difference. Well, that brings this special talking movies film festival review to a close. We hope you've enjoyed the programme. Please remember you can always reach us online at bbc. Com/talkingmovies. So from me, tom brook and the rest of the talking movies production team here in telluride in colorado, it's goodbye. Hello. In the forecast for sunday, we both have sunshine and some rain. But the rain isn't going to be particularly widespread, and with a bit of luck, most of us will have a fine, dry day. Let's have a look at the satellite picture. Here is the weather front sweeping towards us earlier on. That's brought the damp weather to parts of wales and northern england, and through the course of sunday, the weather front will drift a little bit further south and then eventually will rain itself out. So, through the early hours, the damp weather from northern wales, merseyside, parts of lancashire, yorkshire. To the north and to the south, the skies will be generally clear. And our temperatures early on sunday morning in the range of 8—13 celsius. So here is the weather front, then, through the irish sea, northern wales, most of northern england. Occasionally it will be wet. Some of the bursts of rain could be at least for a time heavy, but i think as we go through the course of the afternoon, that rain should eventually peter out. We'll also have showers across scotland, and then for most of us it should be at the very least a bright day. Really quite sunny in the south and the south—east, where we'll have the highest temperatures. 20 celsius. Here's that weather front as it moves southwards and also gently drifts towards the east. It eventually rains itself out. The forecast for monday shows fine conditions across most of the uk. A large area of high pressure with light winds. Feeling very pleasant in the sunshine, and i think widely temperatures should reach the high teens, and probably exceed 20 celsius in one or two spots. So a beautiful start to the week for most of us. Now, the high pressure is indeed going to stick around for the next few days. It'll anchor itself over the uk. We're right in the middle of it, and it's not in a hurry to budge. Now, the very far north—west of the uk will be potentially clipped by weather fronts, so maybe thicker cloud here at times and some spots of rain. But the vast majority of us are in the centre of that high, so sunny conditions, light winds, and look at these temperatures. Whether you're north or south, it'll be around the high teens or perhaps even in excess of 20 celsius. Now, the high will change in shape and they will be changes in the wind direction, so there might be one or two showers sneaking in, particularly into southern parts of the uk. But overall, the message is looking dry, bright and really quite warm. Bye— bye. Live from washington, this is bbc news. The us national security adviser says intense discussions are continuing on whether to allow ukraine to fire western long—range missiles at russia. At least 1a people are killed in israeli airstrikes in central and southern gaza. And these are live pictures here in washington as kamala harris delivers the headline speech at the congressional black caucus foundation awards ceremony. Hello, i'm lucy hockings. Us national security adviser jake sullivan says intense conversations are ongoing to decide whether to allow ukraine to hit russia with long—range weapons donated by western allies. Mr sullivan said on saturday that president biden will spend the rest of his term putting ukraine in the best possible position to fight russian aggression. Mr sullivan spoke shortly after the head of nato's military committee said ukraine has the right to defend itself against russia, even beyond its own borders, during the committee's annual meeting in prague. Also on saturday, russia and ukraine exchanged 206 prisoners of war in a deal brokered by the united arab emirates. Russia said the soldiers it released were captured during ukraine's incursion into the kursk region. Russia said on saturday that it has recaptured a village in ukraine's eastern pokrovske region, hours after it shelled 15 other border towns. Ukrainian troops told the bbc they're worried russia is trying to surround them.