Film show: Tom Hiddleston brings a gentle touch to ‘The Life of Chuck’ • FRANCE 24 English

every year that you live that world will get bigger and brighter and more detailed and complex [Applause] [Music] i can’t kill dragons [Applause] hello and welcome to this week’s cinema show here on Arts 24 where I’m joined by our critic Emma Jones to look at some of the week’s new releases hi Emma hello well we’re starting with the film The Life of Chuck adapted by Mike Flanigan from a Stephen King nolla and starring Tom Hiddston Chewel Edor and Mark Hamill so that’s a heavyweight cast we’ve got there emma tell us about the film m well firstly to say that when you’re thinking about Stephen King’s writing think more the Shaw Shank redemption rather than it or Carrie okay good this is not a horror story it is in fact drenched in hope love and life affirming quotes from the American poet Walt Witzman it does though start off looking like the apocalypse is finally here chewil Edifur plays Marty and he’s a school teacher keeping calm even as the internet has gone off forever and slightly worse the universe seems to be dying really the only signs of life are flickering adverts playing tributes to 39year-old Chuck CR and that’s Tom Hiddston’s character later on we’re going to learn is the universe actually dying or is it just one man’s universe that’s ending okay sounds like on some deep stuff let’s take a look at the film the world chuck everything you’ve ever loved everything you see every year that you live that world will get bigger and brighter and more detailed and complex you fill the whole thing it’ll be a universe now if life can only be understood backwards and the makers of this film certainly you’ll hope that you’ll understand the story that way too because the film is three distinct acts in the life of Chuck and it’s told backwards into Chuck’s childhood i really like that narrative structure by the way tom Hiddston’s big role comes in the second act when he does a dazzling dance scene which is very reminiscent of old Hollywood oh and he has got some moves he’s well known for his skills well recently the cast of the life of Chuck were at a premiere in Los Angeles let’s hear more from them on the themes of the film you know I played Chuck in the life of Chuck and ostensibly it’s about the life of one man um a consideration of that life is it in all its detail and ordinariness as it comes to an end but really it’s about all of our lives and it’s about the I think the breadth and beauty inside the soul of every human being and the multitudes we contain this one I I felt like I had to do it i I read it in April 2020 a month into the co lockdown and it meant so much to me by the time I got to the end of the story i I felt this optimism and this hope and this joy uh that I I thought frankly was kind of out of my life for a long time then i had no idea what would happen with the world um I felt like I had to make the movie so that film received the prestigious people’s choice award at the Toronto Film Festival uh last year that sort of prize usually points towards the Oscars right it usually does but this is not a typical awards season movie it has almost an overdose of sweetness in it mike Flanigan he’s now adapted four Stephen King works and the rest of them are horror stories so perhaps he’s overcompensating here however it’s such an uncynical film it’s all about cherishing the moments in life that matter and I really liked it for that and Hiddston’s dancing of course okay well maybe he needed something positive and sweet or moving on to something that’s uncynical apart from possibly the financial motive for making it it’s the liveaction version of How to Train Your Dragon or Dragons as it’s known here in France this is a remake of the first film in the successful DreamWorks animated trilogy it started in 2010 with the very first How to Train Your Dragon based on the series of books uh by Ca Cowell originally emma that film was an instant hit uh nominated for an Oscar how does this one fair m well it can only hope to do as well as Disney’s Lilo and Stitch of course which is you know might be the first time in 2025 that a film’s hit a billion at the box office but really does go to show that there is an audience out there for live action remakes of classic animations so the good news if you’re a fan of the original animated classics is that the Viking world of Burke where the film is set you know it’s very faithful to that original and in fact one of the original films directors Dean Dewis is back on board um the story goes and you may know it of course of that teenage misfit Hiccup he’s played here by Mason Tames he’s got no wish to join in with his tribe’s dragon killing traditions and in fact when he corners a rare night fury dragon who he calls Toothless all he sees is another scared creature and so begins the boy and the dragon love story i do remember it now that you mentioned it well let’s take a look at the film and also hear from Gerard Butler who voiced Hiccup’s father in the original story and is now starring in the film that I can’t kill dragons but you will i’m a Viking i’m a Viking i I wasn’t just a voice anymore i happen to be the full body which wasn’t just a body you know my costume was very heavy and it was a there were long hours every day um and long days so so that that that was tough because also you’re doing action i I mean I it was like 92 lbs my costume that’s like carrying somebody around on your you know on your body most of the day so that was intense when you carry this axe you carry all of us with you i actually think Jared Butler’s living his best life there under the mountain of fake hair and fake beard you know very much a Scots Viking there as well nick Frost who you may know from Hot Fuzz and Sha of the Dead uh he amuses as a dragon trainer as well though I do feel that his uh hair might have been pinched from the live action set of asterisks and Oelix um I find the young human characters apart from Hiccup in the film they’re slightly more frustrating they have 21st century American values but let’s face it it’s the really it’s the dragon Toothless that you’re really there to see and some of the animation there is quite brilliant it was created for IMAX cinema and some of the swooping moves you really do feel like you are flying not created with the AI either according to the makers you know however you know was there really much point in doing a remake i really do prefer the animation if push comes to sh okay interesting the original was the best for you okay well now for a film that was at Can Directors Fortnite in 2024 it’s now released in France it’s called Sister Midnight a debut feature by Britishbased director Karan Kantari but made in India so this is an offbeat comedy about Uma a reluctant bride in an arranged marriage let’s take a look figure [Music] it [Music] [Applause] [Music] so Uma seems like a very different kind of Bollywood heroine uh not as demure as those leading ladies are often expected to be yeah she’s feral that is the word for her and you know you’re right very different to these mainstream Bollywood um heroins and the depiction in Bollywood of these ideal female characters this is an absurdist film really it feels like something Finnish director Aki Karismaki might make if he was based in India got to say the film was actually funded in the UK though um Uma is played by a successful Bollywood actress that’s Radica Apt and she is an absolute genius of getting the physical comedy rights of this misfit anti-heroine sister Midnights you may know is the title of an Iggy Pop song and this is a punk film with a soundtrack to match about a couple who don’t want their um arranged marriage he becomes a drunk she revels in being an undomemestic goddess yet there is a little bit of sadness to both their failures in this movie however she is so unconventional it’s only a matter of time before she’s going to be chased out of town by pitchfork wielding neighbors and then she’ll find affinity you know in other outsiders as well there are so many ideas in this film it’s also shot on 35 mm some of those ideas do go under underdeveloped but for you know this film I feel like Sister Midnight takes us on a ride highly recommend sounds like a bit of a charming one-off yeah well finally this week uh sees the world’s most important animation festival taking place in Anacey here in France so for you Emma what are the highlights and what’s yet to come yes any is the world capital for animation during this week in June and it’s the one to watch you know if you want to know what the standout animations of the future are Flow Memoir of a Snail The Wild Robot they’ve all shown at an Anacey this year the festival chose to start with five short films instead of a feature film it also has a week-long spotlight on Hungarian animation with masterclasses and also showing contemporary classics such as 27 by Flora and Buddha and that won the K the can palm door for best short film hollywood that also real you know realizes that Anacey is the place to be it’s going to have presentations of upcoming studio movies such as The Bad Guys 2 Zootopia 2 and the Spongebob movie Search for Squarepants i cannot wait um there are also honorary Crystal Lifetime Achie achievement awards being given out to Simpsons creator Matt Grooning English director Joanna Quinn and French director Michelle Gondry and Gondre is also showing his full his first fully animated feature and that’s Maya give me a title okay so I think we can say that NC is the can then of the animated world thanks for the tips Emma and thanks for the roundup this week we’ll leave you with a peek at that last film Maya give me a title which is released next week in France and a reminder that its director Michelle Gondri has been running a public film making workshop in Marseilles for anyone who fancies following in his footsteps it’s called Lebuzzene and it’s on until the end of July do check in with us next time here on Arts 24 there’s more news coming up just after this [Music] don’t Fore foreign foreign [Music] [Music] no [Music] oh yeah

After adapting three of Stephen King’s horror stories, director Mike Flanagan opted for the author’s sweet and life-affirming novella “The Life of Chuck” for his latest film. Film critic Emma Jones tells us why Tom Hiddleston brings a sweet levity to this uncynical life story, told in reverse. We also discuss the latest big budget live action remake as the “How to Train Your Dragon” series gets a 2025 version, and we find out more about the quirky arranged marriage at the centre of “Sister Midnight”, an Anglo-Indian production that amused critics at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. Plus we get a preview of some of the highlights at this year’s animation festival in the French town of Annecy.
#TomHiddleston #TheLifeOfChuck #MikeFlanagan

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