This week Chris Deacy is joined in the studio by Numi Gildert to discuss the films; The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, Pride & Prejudice, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, and Barbie.
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00:00Hello and welcome to Kent Film Club, I'm Chris DC and each week I'll be joined by a guest
00:18from Kent to dive deep into the impact certain films have had on their life.
00:23Each guest will reflect on the films which have meant the most to them over the years.
00:27And every week there will be a Kent Film Trivia where we quiz you at home about a film that
00:31has a connection to the county.
00:34And now let me introduce you to my guest for this week.
00:37You may recognise her voice from co-presenting Getting You Home on KMFM.
00:42What you might not know is that she is a radio presenter by choice but a robotics engineer
00:48by trade.
00:49She is Noomi Gildert.
00:50Hi.
00:51Hi Noomi, lovely to have you on the programme.
00:53Thank you for having me.
00:54Now I don't know your choices in advance so I'm going to look at the screen and I can
00:59see you've gone for The Lord of the Rings.
01:02Why The Return of the King?
01:03So I picked this one because I love all of the Lord of the Rings movies.
01:08I'm one of those people that likes to have a re-watch, recently just re-watched all of
01:12them.
01:13But I particularly picked the final one because I think it's quite satisfying to have the
01:18resolution of the trilogy.
01:21I also remember this was probably the first experience I had in the cinema of going to
01:28see a film multiple times.
01:30I was quite young, I think I was about 10 or 9 when this film came out.
01:35But we went to see it in the cinema three times.
01:39And that was the first time, you know as a kid I was like, you can, we can do that?
01:43We can go to the cinema a second time?
01:47And one of those times we were right at the front, it felt like we were in the battle
01:50for Minas Tirith.
01:52And I just think it's a fantastic fantasy film.
01:55I think the production is incredible, the detail and something that when you revisit
02:01like 20 years on now, still holds up those visual effects and everything.
02:07I just think it's one of the greats.
02:10Did you see them out of sequence then?
02:12So if you saw this one at the cinema, had you seen the two other ones?
02:15So I saw all of them at the cinema but I just picked this one because it's my favourite.
02:20I remember the first film, Watching Fellowship, I think this was probably my first experience
02:25of watching a series because I remember the first one ending and I kind of turned to my
02:29mum and I went, but it's not finished, the story's not finished.
02:34And she was like, there's two more.
02:36What?
02:37It's like growing up with soap operas, there's always the infamous cliffhanger, you had to
02:42wait till the next week, but now that's moved into cinema.
02:44Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
02:47So you obviously picked this one, but why do you think this one has a particular quality?
02:50Is it because it was the culmination of the trilogy?
02:53Is it the sense that all the strands came together?
02:55Yeah, I think so and I think there's some really powerful moments that I really like
03:00in it.
03:01I love Aragorn kind of taking responsibility and stepping into his role as king and that
03:10whole sequence, the sword being reforged, going into the mountain city and speaking
03:17to the greeny ghost men and claiming his right.
03:23I love Samwise Gamgee, I think he is a wonderful man and just so strong.
03:29So I love that storyline with him and Frodo and the betrayal of Gollum and then going
03:36back to protect Frodo and I think they have some beautiful moments of him when they're
03:45on top of Mordor.
03:46I love that moment with them together where it's like he says, you know, I'm glad at the
03:51end that we're here together.
03:53I just think it's a fantastic movie that is so big on scale and drama and monsters and
04:02everything but then has so much heart as well and so much humanity in that dialogue
04:06and I think it's just a great way to have both of those at the same time.
04:11And I'm just picturing you in the front row watching this.
04:13Now when you saw it on more than one occasion, did you get a very different sort of experience?
04:17So being in the front row, being caught up in the battle scene, did it feel very different
04:21than when you were sitting elsewhere?
04:22Yeah, absolutely.
04:23I think that was my first experience being so close to the screen and obviously you kind
04:31of appreciate the scale of it whilst you're in it and the details of everyone's faces
04:36and everything.
04:38I think quite similar to when you experience something in IMAX or something, that scale
04:43of it versus when you're a little bit more separated, I think you can kind of notice
04:48the details a bit more.
04:49But also your neck hurts for three hours.
04:51Well yes, as I get older my eyesight's not so good, I tend to gravitate more towards
04:55the back so it's a bit more in focus but you don't have to worry about that.
05:00When you saw this, and obviously you've watched it repeatedly, you mentioned that it's held
05:07up over the course of 20 odd years and I'm thinking of the films as I saw this when it
05:11came out and I was thinking of all the big epics like Lawrence of Arabia from before
05:16my time.
05:17But this has held up and what do you think is particularly distinctive about the Lord
05:20of the Rings films?
05:21I think obviously based on excellent source material, so I think it was just a very strong
05:28adaptation from the beginning.
05:30I think the actors' performances are amazing.
05:33But I do think one of the contributing factors is probably the production side I think because
05:38they used so many visual effects rather than, because they're rather a bit, you can tell
05:44when there's CGI in it, like Legolas climbing up the Oliphant and everything, you're like
05:49that's not a real human being.
05:52But because they used so many visual effects I think that's why it held up so well because
05:58that hasn't aged, the amount of costuming, the amount of extras that they had, their
06:05use of models and everything, I just think it was just so well done that that has stood
06:11the test of time.
06:12And I think also maybe because the story exists outside of our timeline it is ageless because
06:17it's, you know, you're not like oh this is so dated because of the cars or the phones
06:22or whatever, you're like well it's in a fantasy world so it doesn't matter.
06:26Fantastic.
06:27Well it's time now to move on to your second chosen film and you've gone for Pride and
06:32Prejudice.
06:33Yeah, another non-modern one.
06:37I was slightly worried that you might have gone for The Fellowship of the Ring.
06:40Yeah, can you imagine just all of them.
06:42The Hobbit!
06:43Yeah, so this is one of those films for me that I can just watch again and again, it's
06:49like a comfort movie for me.
06:52I think it, again, just wonderfully made.
06:56I think the score in it is beautiful and I love like a period drama, a slow burn romance
07:07and obviously this is the original, this is the blueprint and I just think it's a fantastic
07:12adaptation.
07:13I love the BBC TV adaptation but obviously that's like five hours long so this one, you
07:19know.
07:20The one with Colin Firth?
07:22Yeah, this one's more manageable for a Sunday evening when you don't know what to watch.
07:26Yeah, because I studied Jane Austen's Emma at A-Level and then of course there's a whole
07:29spate in the 90s.
07:30So after I did my A-Levels and I was at university, a whole spate of Jane Austen themed films
07:35and it was wonderful to go back over them but without having to worry about getting
07:39ready for an exam.
07:40Yeah, yeah.
07:41Yes, I never studied Pride and Prejudice either.
07:45We did Northanger Abbey at GCSE and then going into robotics.
07:50I then didn't take English to A-Levels so my studies stopped there.
07:54So I think, yeah, maybe because I didn't have to, because I think when you study books at
08:01GCSE as well, you don't have the, it's kind of drilled a little bit more.
08:09You might not have the appreciation of the nuance than when you're older, like reading
08:14or watching something.
08:16So yeah, I'm glad that it wasn't ruined for me in that sense of drilled into me, studied,
08:25I could just enjoy it passively.
08:27Yeah, because that happens also with musicals like Joseph and the Amazing Technical Dreamcoat.
08:30If you've studied as I did, religious studies at school and then university, you're looking
08:34at it, you should just be enjoying it but you can't do that.
08:37But Pride and Prejudice, obviously it won an Oscar, didn't it, an Oscar nomination for
08:42Keira Knightley.
08:44You mentioned the TV series, which I'm guessing you've seen as well, apart from the length,
08:49what makes this particular adaptation so good?
08:52I really, again, I really like the performances.
08:55I think when you watch it again, like later, you also start noticing what a packed cast
09:04it is.
09:05There are so many stars in and you might note, oh my gosh, I've forgotten her name, the younger
09:12sister, she's in The Hunger Games and you kind of spot people that have had fantastic
09:19careers and it all started with this film.
09:24But I love, yeah, I love Mr. Darcy's performance, I think, the reservedness.
09:32I also love their dialogue together.
09:36I think it definitely has taken me a lot of time from the first time I watched it to fully
09:42appreciate the snark in it because obviously it's period dialogue so when you watch it
09:49when you're like 17, you're kind of like, I don't actually know what you're saying here.
09:54But then the more you watch it, you kind of realise, wow, this is such a witty rapport
10:02and fantastic flirtation that's very witty and intellectual.
10:10Like the scene when they're in the house together and Catherine offers, oh, shall we
10:16go walk around the room and William Darcy's like, well, you're either only doing that
10:20because you want me to enjoy your figure, which I'll do much better from here, or you
10:25have some private thing to discuss, which I shouldn't be involved in.
10:29I just love that kind of back and forth, I just think it, yeah.
10:35Because there are some films that have made me go back to the source novel, often Graham
10:39Green adaptations.
10:40In the case of Jane Austen, I studied them at school first and I haven't necessarily
10:45gone back to the source, but in your case, in this particular instance, or maybe other
10:51Jane Austen adaptations, have you been encouraged to then say, let me actually go back to basics?
10:55Yeah, yeah, yeah and go back to them and also because I love this story so much, like explore
11:01other adaptations as well.
11:03So there's a really great Pride and Prejudice adaptation that was on YouTube called The
11:09Lizzie Bennet Diaries and it was like a modern retelling where she like vlogged her experience
11:15and that was over the course of hundreds of episodes, so that's the real range, you've
11:18got this film, you've got the BBC and then you've got The Lizzie Bennet Diaries.
11:23But yeah, I've really enjoyed seeing how people tell the same story in different ways.
11:27Yeah, brilliant.
11:28Well, that's about all the time we have for this first half of the show.
11:32However, before we go to the break, we have a Kent Film Trivia question for you at home.
11:38Which of these Royal Romance films was filmed in Sevenoaks?
11:43Was it A. William and Kate, B. W.E. or C. Red, White and Royal Blue?
11:51We'll reveal the answer right after this break.
11:54Don't go away.
11:55Hello and welcome back to Kent Film Club.
12:09Just before the ad break, we asked you at home a Kent Film Trivia question.
12:13Which of these Royal Romance films filmed in Sevenoaks?
12:17I asked was it A. William and Kate, B. W.E. or C. Red, White and Royal Blue?
12:24And now I can reveal to you that the answer was in fact C. Red, White and Royal Blue.
12:29The Texan vacation house featured in the film was actually located in Sevenoaks.
12:35Did you get the answer right?
12:37Well, it is time now to move on to your next chosen film.
12:41And you've gone for The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.
12:46Yeah, a slightly rogue one.
12:48Whenever I say that this is one of my favourite films, a lot of people are like, really, why?
12:55Because I think it didn't make a big splash.
12:57So a lot of people haven't seen it or watched it once.
13:02But I absolutely love this film, directed by Ben Stiller.
13:05Again, fantastic soundtrack as a radio presenter, music, you know, means a lot in a movie.
13:10So there's great tracks in there from people like Roixop.
13:13I just think it's a fantastic story that blends kind of surrealism with a narrative that has real heart.
13:20So he works at Life magazine.
13:23He develops negatives for print in the magazine.
13:27And he is, you know, you can see in the poster, he's a very beige man.
13:31You know, he's always wearing neutral colours.
13:33He's got a little briefcase.
13:34He doesn't have an exciting life.
13:35He fancies someone at work, but he doesn't have the courage to talk to her.
13:38And he kind of lives in his imagination.
13:39So you have these great sequences where he is daydreaming that he is courageous and he's come from climbing a mountain and talking to her and or jumping out of a building and having a chase down the streets of New York or something.
13:53All these fantastical daydreams.
13:56And then he is he can't find a photo for the final issue of Life magazine because they shut it down to go digital.
14:05So he has to go on an adventure to find this photograph and his daydreams and his real world kind of converge together and his life starts to become more like the life that he dreams about.
14:18So he has to go to Iceland and he skateboards down the side of a mountain and he has to drive away from a volcanic eruption.
14:25He jumps out of a helicopter to get to a boat.
14:28He tracks through the Himalayas to try and find this photographer.
14:32I really love that kind of heart of the story.
14:35Taking that leap and making your dreams your reality.
14:39That's kind of what I get from it.
14:40And there are two films that came to mind as you were describing that.
14:43One was Stranger Than Fiction with Will Ferrell and Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson which came out around 2006-7.
14:49But also Billy Liar which I remember studying when I was at school.
14:53I'm going back to the John Schlesinger version from the early 1960s.
14:58Again that whole sense of the daydream and the waking reality being two sides of the same coin and they're becoming blurred.
15:05And then you have the dream but it doesn't always play out in the real world but you still plough on regardless.
15:10Yeah, exactly.
15:11And I kind of love that I think everyone can kind of relate to wanting to make your life better than it is and taking a risk and going for what you believe in.
15:25I think I relate to it kind of personally from my background.
15:28I did electronic engineering and a PhD but always really loved radio.
15:33And that, you know, kind of making that decision to take that leap and go for what you want I think is wonderful.
15:41I also really like how they're quite creative with the typography in the film.
15:46So text messages kind of like appear on a mountainside.
15:49My favourite sequence is when he decides to go and find this photograph.
15:54And he's running towards the plane.
15:56And there's a fantastic quote.
15:58I'm not going to be able to say it verbatim but about that's from Life magazine.
16:02And it's like to see behind doors things dangerous to come to to, you know, like bridge gaps and to feel that is the meaning of life.
16:12And that quote plays out in posters behind him on the runway as he's running to go achieve his potential.
16:19And that is one of my probably favourite moments in cinema.
16:23With a fantastic song in the background, it just really hits you.
16:26But it's the essence as well.
16:27Because what you've just captured there is why cinema can be so magical.
16:32Because it's autobiographical.
16:34That it's really your life, a version of your life that is playing out.
16:37Or you sort of watch this and think, OK, I can do that.
16:40Yeah, I think so.
16:41Yeah.
16:41Or maybe I shouldn't do that.
16:43Yeah, yeah, yeah.
16:44Maybe I shouldn't jump off a helicopter but maybe I should do some more radio.
16:48Yeah, I absolutely love it.
16:49I actually have my sister one year for Christmas decided to, because she did art at school.
16:59She was like, I'm going to make everyone a present.
17:01So what's your favourite quote from a movie?
17:03And she basically made us a painting from each of these quotations.
17:07So she made me one for that quote from Ultimitty.
17:09And I still have it in my room.
17:10Because there's something about the dreams, isn't there?
17:12You're watching this and you're thinking, OK, well, you know, in his case, he may make a lot of bad decisions.
17:19But it's that sort of indefatigability.
17:21It's that sense that you're going to carry on because you have to, because you must.
17:26Yes, yes.
17:26And that really resonates with the audience, doesn't it?
17:28Yeah, exactly.
17:29That kind of persistence.
17:30Yeah.
17:31And did you see this on the big screen?
17:33I actually didn't.
17:34I think I first watched it on streaming.
17:37So I would love to see it in cinema.
17:40Because I think some of those sequences would look great on a bigger screen.
17:44But it was, yeah, I remember seeing it advertised in the cinema.
17:48And I remember thinking, oh, that looks quite interesting.
17:50And then when it came out, I was like, oh, I'll give it a go.
17:52And then I was just completely captured by it.
17:54And I was like, why aren't more people talking about this movie?
17:57So it's kind of my mission to get people to watch Secret Life of Ultimitty.
18:01Absolutely.
18:02Well, it's time now to move on to your final chosen film.
18:05And you've gone for, I think you're the third person on our program to choose this.
18:10But I want to hear your idiosyncratic take on Barbie.
18:13Yeah, so I wanted to pick this one because I was looking through my choices.
18:16And I realized it didn't have anything with a female director.
18:21And I was like, bit poor form, what can we do?
18:25And I was like, I swear that there was a film recently that I absolutely loved.
18:29It was phenomenal.
18:30And I was like, of course, Barbie.
18:32Yeah, I obviously, like many people, absolutely loved this film.
18:36I think it had a huge moment last year.
18:38I think that one of the things, as soon as I heard that it was going to be directed by
18:42Greta Gerwig, obviously loved Little Women from her another adaptation.
18:46So I knew as soon as she was going to do a Barbie movie that it was
18:50not going to be like the Barbie animated movies.
18:53There was going to be a different spin on it.
18:55I knew that she was going to subvert it in some way.
18:58And I was really interested to see how that would play out.
19:01And I think, happily, it was everything that I hoped for.
19:04Because I think sometimes you can kind of go through,
19:06you can go into a film, can't you, with an expectation that's not met.
19:10But I was like, she's going to do something here.
19:14And I bet it's going to be good.
19:15And then watching the film, I just, it was amazing.
19:20I think a real great exploration into the challenges of being a woman and all of the
19:29conflicting expectations and pressures, that kind of overwhelmingness.
19:34Also has a throwback link to Pride and Prejudice in it with Depression Barbie.
19:40So it's all links together.
19:41But also Walt's amazing because you've got the different realms.
19:44Because you're going from Barbie world into the real world.
19:47But the two co-mingled.
19:48The two intersect with one another.
19:50And impact each other, yeah.
19:52And I think, again, production wise, what a movie to build Barbie land.
19:58The attention to detail.
19:59I think one of the things that probably a lot of people really enjoyed about watching this movie
20:05was having been a child that had a lot of Barbies.
20:10The attention to detail and the throw, the callbacks and the little nods to it were fantastic.
20:17When she wakes up and everything, the mirror's a sticker.
20:21And you remember as a child painfully having to carefully put a sticker on your Barbie house.
20:27Or she's trying to eat.
20:28And obviously, it doesn't come out.
20:29So she's just pretending.
20:30Like the production detail was phenomenal.
20:35I think everyone who has played with toys watched that movie and could enjoy that aspect.
20:41Because it was like, oh, yeah, I remember that.
20:43Or just the simple things of, oh, well, they had to walk in this way
20:47because their arms don't bend and stuff like that.
20:49Or how they sit is just great.
20:51Yeah, but the link with Walter Mitty as well, that sort of sense of
20:55there being these different realms and also the different selves.
20:58Because you mentioned how there are bits of Walter Mitty
21:00that you resonated with perhaps more than others.
21:02But of course, here you've got the weird Barbie.
21:04You've got the more typical Barbie.
21:06Generic Barbie, yeah.
21:07The more generic one, the more sort of feminine Barbie.
21:11But you've got the different sort of gradations going on there.
21:14So I think a lot of people, both male and female,
21:16including those who've been on this very sofa and talked about this film
21:18and why it resonated with them, did so for quite different reasons.
21:21Because there were different Barbies that actually impacted on them.
21:26Yeah, yeah, yeah, that they could see themselves in, absolutely.
21:29And I think, again, another thing about this movie that I loved
21:34was the soundtrack.
21:36I think learning about, I love Billie Eilish as an artist,
21:40learning how that song came to be because it wasn't,
21:43the film wasn't completed.
21:45They just kind of showed what they had so far
21:48and gave Billie and her brother so much creative freedom
21:52to then create a song that was so powerful
21:55and basically became the movie
21:56because they used it throughout the score, throughout.
22:00And I think that sequence with her,
22:04and they used stock footage, they used real footage of the crew
22:06from when they were young and everything.
22:08That whole sequence was absolutely stunning.
22:13And I loved that as the kind of climax of the movie as well,
22:16that moment where she kind of realises what it is to be a human.
22:21Yeah, and Greta Gerwig really did pull it off
22:24because it easily could have been a misfire
22:25because it came out at the same time as Oppenheimer.
22:27Yeah.
22:28So in a way that added to the zeitgeist of summer 2023.
22:32Yeah, and I think it was such a fantastic moment for them.
22:36And I think everyone played it so well with them together.
22:40You had Barb and Heimer.
22:42I went to see it in the cinema.
22:44I dressed in, you know,
22:45I think this was another fantastic thing as well of making it a moment.
22:49And I think I'm really enjoying that in pop culture now.
22:52We're kind of seeing people make things an event.
22:55So Barbie, you go in pink, you go with your friends,
22:58you take a picture in the Barbie box
23:02and everyone around you is doing the same thing.
23:04You have things now like the Taylor Swift Eras Tour
23:06where people are doing the same thing.
23:07You know, you dress up for it, you make it an event.
23:09I do think it's quite funny when we went to see Barbie
23:11because we're there in pink going,
23:12yeah, we're going to see the Barbie movie.
23:13And then we left and we were in floods of tears,
23:16like completely emotionally eviscerated.
23:18Like I'm not feeling very Barbie fun anymore.
23:20I'm feeling quite emotionally devastated.
23:22But I think that was a fantastic moment in pop culture
23:25and like such an exciting time to just have fun and go be entertained.
23:30Absolutely.
23:30Well, that is, I'm afraid, all the time we have for today.
23:34Many thanks to Noomi Gildert for joining us
23:37and being such a brilliant guest.
23:39And many thanks to you all for tuning in.
23:41Be sure to come back and join us again at the same time next week.
23:45Until then, that's all from us.
23:46Goodbye.