The Film Programme

With Antonia Quirke.John Boorman looks back at a career that includes Deliverance, Hope And Glory and Point Blank. He reveals why he's still surprised that films get made, or at least finished, given that so much can go so wrong.

With Francine Stock.Justin Kurzel, the director of True History Of The Kelly Gang, talks about the movie that has been a major influence on his film-making. Wake In Fright was made in 1971 and was in contention at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival that year. It was quickly forgotten, however, and considered lost until the film's editor discovered it in a bin in Pittsburgh in 2002. Fully restored seven years later, it went on to become a cult classic and a huge influence on Australian cinema.

Her performance in Little Joe won Emily Beecham best actress award at the Cannes Film Festival last year. Also starring Ben Whishaw it is a scifi take on the dangers of genetic engineering in flowers. It's the first film in English for Austrian director Jessica Hausner and she reveals what inspired it and the themes that recur in her films.Continuing our series on how to get a movie made, Pitch to Production, Matthew Sweet explores the tricky business of assigning rights with Clare Israel of film and literary agents David Higham Associates and development consultant Rowan Woods.Another winner at Cannes in 2019 was the French film Portrait of a Lady on Fire which took Queer Palm and Best Screenplay prizes for its writer and director Céline Sciamma. Set in eighteenth century France it is the story of the developing attraction between a female portrait painter and the young woman sitting for her. Its stars Noémie Merlant and Adèle Haenel who talk about the difference between being the observed and the observer

With Antonia QuirkeKen Russell's wife Lisi Tribble Russell explains why Dance Of The Seven Veils, his film about Richard Strauss, is finally going to be seen 50 years after it was banned.In a new series of Pitch Battle, Gaylene Gould pitches a remake of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes called Brothers Prefer Weaves. A panel of industry insiders, Lizzie Francke, Rowan Woods and Clare Binns decide whether or not to give this update the green light.Composer Neil Brand reveals what happened when legendary composer John Barry was sacked from Robert Redford's The Horse Whisperer.

With Antonia Quirke.Director Bong Joon-ho talks about his Oscar winning Korean thriller Parasite, which has been a surprise hit in the United States. And he reveals the debt of gratitude his film owes to Alfred Hitchcock.Matthew Sweet finds out how he could get a dystopian science fiction novel from 1954 optioned as a movie. He is aided in his quest by film development consultant Rowan Woods.As A Streetcar Named Desire returns to the big screen, Brando biographer William J Mann takes us behind the scenes of this ground-breaking movie which made its star a heart-throb over night.To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Federico Fellini, The Film Programme unearths a gem from its archive - the late director Anthony Minghella recounts how watching I Vitelloni felt like Fellini was burrowing into his head and capturing the time he spent as a young man in the Isle Of Wight.

With Francine Stock.Award winning cinematographer Seamus McGarvey talks about the film that is a continuing influence on his work, A Matter Of Life And Death, and about his friendship with the movie's legendary director of photography, Jack Cardiff, who became his mentor.

With Antonia QuirkeDirector Robert Eggers and Willem Dafoe discuss one of the most unusual Hollywood movies of this year or any other. The tale of two drunken lighthouse-keepers, the film is already infamous for its love scene between man and mermaid.Director Marielle Heller reveals why many British viewers have walked out of A Beautiful Day In The Neighbourhood, her real life story of chlldren's TV presenter Mr Rogers, mistakenly assuming that it will be the American equivalent of the Jimmy Savile scandal. When, in fact, nothing could be further from the truth.

With Antonia Quirke.Todd Phillips explains how an impromptu pitch in the back of a limo led to the billion dollar blockbuster Joker. And he reveals how he dealt with the huge controversy about the film in the United States before the movie had even been released.Cinematographer Roger Deakins takes us behind the scenes of 1917 and reveals how he made the war movie look like one continuous shot.Neil Brand explains the reasons why Michael Nyman's score for Practical Magic was binned at the last minute and why the composer believes it's one of his best pieces of music for film.

With Antonia Quirke.Chemical engineer Robert Paul was an unlikely film pioneer. But after a chance encounter in his chemist's shop, he went on to invent revolutionary movie cameras and projectors, as well as direct Britain's first fiction film, and a war movie filmed on Muswell Hill golf course. And now he has an exhibition in his honour. Antonia visits the National Museum Of Science And Media in Bradford and has a whirlwind tour in the company of curators Toni Booth and Ian Christie.Uncut Gems is a thriller set in the secretive world of New York's Diamond District. Directors Josh and Benny Safdie reveal how they used family connections to get unparalleled access to this closed community.In part one of her interview with legendary cinematographer Roger Deakins, Antonia finds out how he managed to make World War I drama 1917 seem as if it had been filmed in one continuous two hour shot.

With Antonia Quirke.Actor/director Taika Waititi talks about his World War II drama Jojo Rabbit and what it was like to direct a film dressed as Adolf Hitler.In the finale of Pitch Battle, Lizzie Francke of the BFI and development consultant Rowan Woods decide which of the final three pitches is their absolute favourite. The battle is between a memoir of the Beat generation, a time slip love story, and a science fiction thriller in which Britain is waterlogged and populated by mutant dogs.

With Francine Stock.In another edition of Moving Image, writer Frank Cottrell-Boyce reveals the huge impact that the film Local Hero had on his family and his life. And receives a surprise phone call from someone who was intimately involved in the production.

With Antonia Quirke.Florence Pugh reveals why her characterisation of Amy in Little Women is so different from the numerous adaptations that have gone before, and why it's particularly ironic that a film about women not being recognised in American society was not recognised by the Golden Globe awards.Christmas has come early for Tim Robey, Larushka Ivan-Zadeh and Clare Binns as they swap presents around a virtual tree, including some of the best DVDs of the year. They also hear from Pablo Helman, the technical wizard who de-aged Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro in The Irishman.

With Antonia QuirkeTwo directors look back at their crazy year. Mark Jenkin’s Bait has been described as a modern masterpiece. Shot in 16mm black and white on a hand-cranked camera, this tale of a Cornish fishing village has been an unlikely box office hit, and still played in cinemas in this country two months after its release. Dexter Fletcher’s Rocketman, on the other hand, began life with a starry premiere at the Cannes Film Festival and was made not long after Fletcher was brought into complete filming on Bohemian Rhapsody, which won the best drama at the Golden Globes in January.

With Antonia QuirkeAlma Har'el reveals how she came to direct Honey Boy, which was written by Shia LaBeouf while he was in rehab. And why she persuaded the actor to play his own father.The Two Popes director Fernando Meirelles reveals why he put more jokes into the screenplay about the famous meeting between Pope Francis and Pope Benedict, how he came to build the largest Sistine Chapel in the world on a film set and why he's one of the few film-makers in the world who's also a farmer.Christmas has come early as Matthew Sweet reviews 1952 festive curio The Holly And The Ivy

Larushka Ivan-Zadeh, Tim Robey and Caitlin Benedict present a start-up guide to Ken Loach

With Francine Stock"In screenwriting terms, it's a disaster. And yet, as a film, it's a piece of magic." Oscar winning screenwriter Simon Beaufoy on why Terrence Malick's Days Of Heaven breaks all the rules of cinema and is still a masterpiece.

With Antonia QuirkeThe creators of Frozen tell Antonia about how they dealt with the pressure of following up one of the biggest hits of recent years. Writer Chris Buck and writer/director/chief creative officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios Jennifer Lee explain why they put their characters through a psychological test and what the unexpected results showed.Mati Diop, the award winning director of Atlantics, talks about the lost generation of Senegalese men who tried to cross the ocean in small boats to find work in Europe and why their deaths haunt the living and the loved ones they left behindAnna Smith takes another look at Stanley Kubrick's final movie Eyes Wide Shut and its infamous orgy scene in the light of the Time's Up movement.

With Antonia QuirkeEmma Thompson has written 6 films in which she also stars. Last Christmas is the latest. She explains why she sometimes has to bite her tongue when actors deliver her lines in ways that she hadn't quite imagined.Neil Brand reveals how the ground-breaking score to cult classic Forbidden Planet was a last minute replacement and why the original composer decided to destroy his rejected score."Apocalypse Now meets Pygmalion". Matthew Sweet pitches a long forgotten science fiction novel to film industry experts Lizzie Francke, Rowan Woods and Clare Binns.

With Antonia Quirke.Werner Herzog talks about meeting Mikhail Gorbachev and reflects on the cinema of awe, his grudge with Gunter Grass, and drunken slugs.Writer Paul Laverty discusses the research he did into the gig economy for Sorry We Missed You and what horrified him the most.Script supervisor Angela Allen divulges some secrets from the set of John Huston's Moby Dick.

With Francine Stock.Producer Rebecca O'Brien, who has collaborated with Ken Loach on 19 films, discusses the movie that inspired her to join the industry - The Conversation. While watching Francis Ford Coppola's conspiracy thriller in 1974, the thought never entered Rebecca's mind that "a young woman could have anything to do with making a film." She reveals how she went on to become the producer of two Palme D'Or winners at the Cannes Film Festival.