which i am very much looking forward to discussing with you. yes. plenty to be said there. but let's start with the glorious lesley manville. 50, mrs harris goes to paris, which is based on a book by paul gallico, who wrote the snow goose and the poseidon adventure and a bunch of things that were adapted. lesley manville is ada harris. she earns a living cleaning for rich clients, who are often horrible, who own dior dresses. she's waiting for her husband to return from the war — he's not coming back. she discovers, finally, he's not coming back and she gets a war widow's pension. and she decides, "ok, i'm going to make my dream come true. "i'm going to take whatever money i have, whatever other "money i can get together, i'm going to go to paris and i'm "going to buy myself a dior dress like i have seen in the houses "of these glamourous women that i clean for." so she goes to paris and she turns up at the house of dior, where isabelle huppert is, let's be honest, not pleased to see here. here's a clip. she speaks french this lady wishes to buy a dress. direct her to a suitable shop. go. please, let me escort you out. no, no, no, no, hang ona minute! i've come miles, saved every penny, scrubbing floors and i don't know- what, so i can buy this frock. a christian dior gown is not for pennies. if you think i ain't - got the money, there. are you mr dior? oh, no, i'm mr fauvel, accounts. let me help you... she speaks french excuse me, cher madame, but it would be my honour to have you view the collection as my guest. there you are. merci. shall we? 0h! now, the first thing to say is, lesley manville, isabelle huppert — two of the greatest screen talents currently working in the cinema together in what is a complete piece of fluff. now, that's not a criticism, 0k? particularly at times like these, a bit of fluff goes quite a long way. the thing with the film is, it kind of constructs this fairy tale concoction. there are a few nods to the real world. there's a bin strike going on when she gets to paris, so there's a little bit of rubbish. there's lots of french people walking around with paper bags with baguettes sticking out of them, so we're still in that kind of very artificial version of france. what works about this is that the performances are really charming. jason isaacs plays a kind of key side role, and he comes on with all the twinkle that jason isaacs always brings to a role. you know when you see him that that's going to be a very, very important role. and it's got its heart in the right place. it is absolutely unashamed aboutjust ladling the schmaltz on. there's no point at which you think, "oh, this is going to be a tough "drama about tough issues." and i would watch lesley manville in anything. i would watch isabelle huppert in anything. but it's just the strange thing about seeing them together on screen in this, these two enormous titans of acting just having a good time, just... 0k, fine, it's a nice, fanciful... so if we want a bit of escapist fun, and people need that... yes. and it is absolutely nothing but escapist fun. but, hey, if that's what you want from the cinema, this will give it to you. it's a big sugar popcorn, sweetness episode. that's it. i feel as if i've seen it already. i know what you're getting at. we all love lesley manville. however, let's move on. 0k. the woman king. so this opens on tuesday, on the 4th. it's been generating a lot of awards buzz since it played at...| think it was toronto. a lot of that buzz is for viola davis, who plays nanisca. she is the general of the agojie, an elite force of female soldiers guarding the dahomey kingdom in west africa in the 1820s. the plot involves conflict with neighbouring warlords, portuguese slave traders. there is plenty of spectacle, plenty of action. there is an extraordinary cast, including john boyega — in his best role yet, i think — lashana lynch, sheila atim. very solidly directed by gina prince—bythewood, beautifully shot by polly morgan. but it is viola davis who dominates the screen. she is such a commanding screen presence. i mean, this is a role — it's muscular, it's sinewy, it demands a lot of emotional work, a lot of really physical stuff. and the direction of the film, its solid. it's not going to break any cinematic rules, it's not changing the form of cinema. it's very, very mainstream. but it's also a movie which is, despite that great ensemble cast, really carried by that central performance. and, i mean, i loved viola davis recently in ma rainey�*s black bottom. we talked about the physicality of that performance. yes. in this, you just think, "wow! "i mean, that is a proper movie star performance." you believe in her, you believe that she's carrying the action with her. and it's so physical, but it's also very, very subtle. so, yeah, opens on the tuesday, so it'll be interesting to see if that gets the big audience that i think it deserves. is it a good watch? yes. oh, yes. it is absolutely enjoyable? i mean, i really like her too. i think she's very talented. yes, a sweeping cinematic spectacle, the landscapes, the action, the adventure, the twisty, sinewy plot, but it's impossible to take your eyes off viola davis, who is just absolutely mesmerising. now... flux gourmet is the new film by peter strickland, and i want to start by saying i love peter strickland, 0k? but his films are not for everybody. so, berbarian sound studio, the duke of burgundy, in fabric. the story here, a culinary collective have a residency at a sonic catering institute where they're going to workshop their latest food art performance. fatma mohamed is the head of the collective, gwendoline christie is the head of the institute, where everything is about food and theatre. have a taste of this. you're in the shops. you're looking around. items all around you. maybe you need some tomatoes for that soup. squeeze them to make sure they're ripe. you're pushing your trolley along, looking around, and there's mrs cheeverly. you don't really like her, but a quick nod of the head will suffice, and that will allow you to proceed to the dairy counter. maybe you could ask the cheese laddie to slice you a few hundred grams of taleggio and he can wrap it up for you _ he licks his fingers before taking the wrapping and you don't really like that, but you're too polite to say anything. put the cheese back in your trolley and head to the spice cabinet. some herbes de provence to sprinkle on the soup. but, wait, there's nothing like that here. look surprised. look bereft. a little more bereft. that's it. i'm laughing, but i'm afraid not necessarily in a good way. that scene rather broke me. at that point, i thought, "i'm so glad i'm going to see mark, "who will explain to me what's going on." well, the first thing to say is it's meant to be funny. i mean, there is an awful lot of comedy in what peter strickland does. i think the genius in his work is that, i mean, on one level it's incredibly surreal, it's all about rituals and fetishes and, in this case, food and sound. and you heard the soundtrack there, the kind of bubbling, noisy thing going on, though it is also very wryly funny. and yet, for me, and i think for anyone else who is a devotee of strickland's work, behind the humour and the absurdity and the madness, there is something oddly profound. like, in this case, he said that the thing that inspired him originally was the idea of artists taking sponsorship from companies, that they then don't want to have have any artistic input. and, of course, there's a central fight here between the leader of the collective and the leader of the institute, who says, you know, "you can keep the culinary dystopia, but indulge me with the falanga." now, i know it's not for everyone, but if you love the cinematic construction of peter strickland's work, which is all about tactile cinema, cinema that kind of has a physical response, even if it doesn't seem to make logical sense, that's what it is for me. i know that it didn't work for you... i just... i didn't get it, really, and it was... and i know it's meant to be like that, cos it's about performance, but the acting was so hammy. and i know that's kind of the point, but i really... i think "arch" is the word you're looking for. arch! hammy is a bad pun, actually, given... particularly given the food, although well done... but i think one of the things that this does demonstrate is, in the end, all opinions are subjective. and whenever we've been doing this, we've often had differences of opinions about things. i think it is... this is the most peter strickland movie i have seen, and the reason i love it is because i love films that are playing with the cinematic form like that. and i do think he's playful and profound, but it's true that if you don't, it's like, "0k." yeah. i'm not going to sell this as a mainstream movie. no, fair enough. but thank you for watching it. i did enjoy birdy. catherine called birdy — this is my favourite out at the moment. and what a treat and what a surprise, because i was so delighted. lena dunham's adaptation of karen cushman's novel, which i haven't read, about a young woman in mediaeval england attempting to resist her father's attempts to marry her off in order to sort his bank balance out. bella ramsey is fantastic! isn't she fantastic? i mean, it's funny, it's smart... the script is terrific, because it's so whip—smart that you think, "i wish i had retorts like that at my fingertips!" it's terrific. and also, how great to see a film which is... you know, it's a coming—of—age movie and it's about adolescence. it has no squeamishness about the subject of menstruation... childbirth. childbirth, yeah, and both the glory of childbirth and the terror of childbirth as well. and it has at the centre of it a teenage girl who is smarter, sharper, funnier than everyone else around her and kind of runs rings around them. but i thought it was a real delight and i knew nothing about it other than the title. so you liked it? yeah, i think it's lovely. and i think anyone can watch it. i said this before... anyone can watch it. and i'm a 60—year—old bloke and i thought it was really, really charming. charming is a very good word, but in a good way. a very quick word about dvds and streaming? the black phone is out on dvd. this is a horrorfilm — i know, not a fan — but this is a creepy chiller, adapted from a novel byjoe hill, stephen king's son, directed by scott derrickson. i thought it was very well done. it's not a gory movie, it's a movie which is more to do with tension and atmosphere, and a very scary performance by ethan hawke. so if you're a horror fan, black phone is worth getting. excellent. thanks very much, mark. good to see you, as ever. enjoy your cinema—going this week, whatever you choose to go and see. see you next time. bye— bye. hello. sunday, for many, will be a mainly dry day, but not for all. we have a frontal system moving its way eastwards across southern england and wales, and that will continue to bring some rain through sunday morning. the heaviest of that rain will be across south—west england where we could see some rumbles of thunder through the morning, that rain also extending into south—east england then possibly into the south midlands but somewhat lighter and patchier here. and we are likely to see some outbreaks of rain for the london marathon, particularly through the morning, it shouldn't amount to very much and through the afternoon that rain will tend to ease with perhaps some late spells of sunshine. so, you can see that band of rain moving its way southwards. for much of the uk on sunday, fine and dry, good spells of sunshine, still some showers for western scotland, the northern isles, may be later in the afternoon for northern ireland. and where we've got the sunshine, temperatures getting into the mid to high teens, but still quite windy for the western isles, and also along the channel coasts. some of rain in the forecast in the week ahead, particularly for scotland, northern ireland, wales, and northern england, drier elsewhere. this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. cheering. the ukrainian flag flies again in a key town just a day after moscow claimed the territory would be rushing for ever. more dead and injured as the true extent of destruction caused by hurricane ian in florida becomes apparent. the final push for votes as brazil prepares for what could be its most important election since the 19805. people in tunisia take to the streets to protest against the high cost of living and food shortages.