In this week's programme presented by
Kirsty Wark:
THE PANEL:
Tony Parsons |
Natalie Haynes |
Denise Mina |
Grayson Perry
Comment on this programme
Zodiac
David Fincher, director of Se7en, Fight Club, Panic Room and The Game - as well as Madonna's Vogue and Express Yourself videos - returns to the screen this month with the story of San Francisco's greatest murder mystery, Zodiac.
It depicts the investigation into a series of brutal attacks in the late 60s and early 70s - for which no one was ever even arrested. As he gained notoriety, the culprit wrote to the press, sending them coded messages and telling them his plans; the letters were published and sent the city into a frenzy. He would sign himself The Zodiac Killer, and a legend was born.
Mark Ruffalo and Anthony Edwards play the detectives in charge of the hunt, while Robert Downey Jnr plays Paul Avery, the journalist targeted by the Zodiac, and Jake Gyllenhaal is Robert Graysmith, the cartoonist who became obsessed with revealing the killer¿s identity, and who in the 90s published two books on his investigations. They and the killer criss-cross each other as time passes, and as the case grows cold it takes its toll on all involved.
It's an incredibly complicated story; spanning decades, with no real conclusions, dozens of characters and so embedded in American consciousness it demands faithful telling, it's little wonder the film runs over two and a half hours. Has Fincher pulled it off, or does Zodiac get bogged down in its own gory detail? The Review panel discuss.
CERTIFICATE 15
ZODIAC IS ON GENERAL RELEASE
What is the What
A Novel By Dave Eggers
Dave Eggers made his mark as a writer with A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius - the story of his life as a twenty something, looking after his young brother following the death of both their parents.
Although an autobiography he experimented with fictionalisation of some passages and having one of the characters comment on the writing of the book. The book was a critical and commercial success and Eggers followed it by publishing a novel and a book of short stories while running his own publishing house, McSweeneys.
He now returns to the fact/fiction hinterland with his 'novel' about the life of Valentino Achak Deng - one of the Lost Boys of Sudan.
Deng fled his village in Southern Sudan at the age of 6 after civil war broke out. After a horrific journey across the country to Ethiopia and then onto Kenya he lived in the Kakuma refugee camp before resettlement took him to America in his early 20s.
There he met Dave Eggers and told him the tale of his epic journey where he had fled soldiers, lions and crocodiles and seen his childhood friends die by the roadside on the endless desert march. Eggers originally aimed to write the story up as a biography but the facts were too difficult to ascertain and instead he has produced a work of fiction that is nevertheless, in Deng's words, ' the soulful account' of a life. Does the hybrid form work?
WHAT IS THE WHAT - A NOVEL BY DAVE EGGERS IS PUBLISHED BY HAMISH HAMILTON
Antony Gormley - Blind Light
Hayward Gallery, London
Sculptor Antony Gormley has won the love of the British public with pieces cast from his own body and displayed open air.
The Angel of the North has become the pride of Gateshead and the 100 figures that form Another Place were recently granted permanent status on Crosby Beach.
For his new exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, London, he has created an equally striking public art piece by placing 31 casts of his body on rooftops across London.
All the figures in Event Horizon look back towards the gallery where more new works and a selective Gormley retrospective is on view.
Gormley feels the design of the Hayward building, which he sees as a cast of concrete, has brought new life and nuances to pieces such as Allotment and Critical Mass while new work such as Space Station, a huge, blocked cast iron edifice covered in tiny windows, was inspired by both the building itself and the London skyline.
The highlight of the new show is Blind Light, a perspex structure filled with water vapour and lit from the ceiling to create a cloud in a box, which gallery goers can walk into and lose themselves within.
The work moves beyond Gormley's trademark use of his own body in his work by transforming the viewer's body into art - the sculptor is adamant that the visitor to Blind Light is themselves the work. Will the panel be engaged by the new approach?
ANTONY GORMLEY: BLIND LIGHT IS AT THE HAYWARD GALLERY, LONDON UNTIL 19TH AUGUST
Rufus Wainwright - Release the Stars
The 33 year-old singer/songwriter Rufus Wainwright has never been shy of flaunting his talent but hasn't enjoyed the commercial success that might be expected for such a critically acclaimed performer.
His fifth album - Release the Stars - is an attempt to garner some success outside his cult following. Written and produced by Rufus himself, the executive producer is pop legend Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys.
The 12 tracks, his first material since his 2005 album "Want Two", sound as lavish as ever with Rufus singing of his desire to leave America for his new life in Berlin on the first single to be released, "Going to a Town". Special guests range from Rufus' sister Martha on "Do I Disappoint You?" to guitarist Richard Thompson and a highly dramatic spoken backing vocal from the actress Sîan Phillips on "Between My Legs".
Despite his desire to produce a more mainstream album, Rufus seems to be as fearless as ever. Not many male singers would dare or indeed be able to put on a tribute night of Judy Garland songs at Carnegie Hall and the London Palladium as he did earlier this year.
Rufus has said he's "going for the sound of cash registers" with Release the Stars. Do the panel think he'll succeed?
RELEASE THE STARS IS RELEASED ON POLYDOR. GOING TO A TOWN IS THE FIRST TRACK TO BE RELEASED
Don't forget that you can watch Newsnight Review online via this website. The programme is available in broadband from 1200 BST on the Saturday after originally broadcast for one week.
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