Francesca Rudkin: We Were Dangerous and Midas Man

We Were Dangerous 

In 1954 New Zealand, Nellie and Daisy attempt to escape an institution for delinquent girls, but they are caught and it triggers a relocation to a facility on a remote island. The duo become a trio as well-to-do Lou joins them, and life on the island takes shape under the command of the devout Matron. The trio rail against the system, dubious of the benevolence of the bible and taking refuge in their blossoming friendship. It’s hard to reform girls who don’t believe they need reforming. However, a sense of doom settles in when experimental forms of punishment take place in the dead of night. Nellie and Daisy plot rebellion, but unexpectedly find themselves at odds with Lou, who is afraid to break the rules. 

 

Midas Man  

In 1960s Liverpool, Brian Epstein encountered a rock band who would take the world by storm. 

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast
from News Talks at b It's an all time classic,

(00:36):
is it not. That's Lady Hawk in My Delirium. So
Lady Hawk's going to be making a return with the
performance of songs from her debut album was announced yesterday.
She's going to make up part of the lineup of
the Other's Way, others Way Yet the Other's Way Festival.
It's Auckland's favorite street party, that's how they describe it.
And so Lady Hawk's going to be performing alongside Lady

(00:58):
six Princess Chelsea Savage. It's happening in November, the end
of November. So yeah, that should be that should be
good fun. Nay I love it. Song twenty five to
ten on News Talks. It'd be time to catch up
with our film reviewer Francesca Rudkin, who is with us
this morning. More than good morning, good morning. Really looking
forward to getting your thoughts on our first film this morning.

(01:18):
This is the new key we release have listened to.
We were dangerous, as Island has a long history of
accommodating dubious characters.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
We've got all sorts waste, straight sex, delinquent. That's a
new one. Hi, I'm Nillie.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
That's Daisy.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
We're three girls in the Leaky Hub.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
Okay, we of course had the stars of We Were
Dangerous on our show this time last week. Francisc you've
had an opportunity to see the film, so tell us
about it. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
So this is the debut feature film from Josephine Stewart
to Few, and I really enjoyed this film. I think
she has told this story so beautifully. Everything is considered
in this film, Jack, from the actors who played the parts,
to the to the location, the cinematography, to the costume.

(02:10):
Everything kind of works together so beautifully. And I just
love that about this film and about Josephine as a storyteller.
You can just tell so much kind of care and
thought has gone into how to present this story. Set
in nineteen fifty four, it's about a group of teenage girls,
young girls who were sent to an island where they

(02:31):
attend to multi school for encouragible and delinquent girls. And
as you heard, they're wets and strays and now they've
got few sex delinquents there as well. It is very
much a coming of age drama. It's a social commentary
on colonization and patriarchy and godliness and abuse and care,
which I think is just very timely obviously. But what

(02:53):
I really enjoy is these are pretty heavy, serious topics
to discuss, but they also dealt with a lightness. There
is humor here, There is hope here. There are characters
who maybe a sort of set up to be the
villains in this film, but the door is just a

(03:13):
jar a little bit that we see that they have
some heart and maybe realize that the way they're doing
things isn't the right way to do things. Wonderful young cast,
They're really fantastic. This film has been getting sort of
critical acclaim and winning awards overseas. It won the Special
Dury Prize when it was screened in Stuff by Southwest

(03:34):
earlier in the year, and I think that that is
going to continue on. I think this will become a
festival favorite around the world. But I also think that
New Zealand is there. You're going to love them. Yes, Yeah,
it's really wonderful.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
Ah so good. A couple of things. First of all,
didn't include anything it didn't need to in our tweety
something right, so nice and nice and like snappy, good storytelling.
But also I think that point about the way in
which it manages to deal with very heavy themes, but
not in a way that's kind of preachy or feels heavy.

(04:05):
I don't know how to articulate that anymore succinctly, but
there are these heavy, timely important themes about abuse and
state care, all of this kind of stuff, but it's
kind of done with. There's a real lightness to it.

Speaker 2 (04:18):
And look, you'll know, Jack, I never talk about endings
of films. I very very many will talk about an
ending of a film. But this film you walk out
just with the smile on your face and a little
skipping your step and thinking it's not so bad being rebellious,
you know what I mean? Like it you leave uplifted
and kind of you know, as opposed to just go,
oh my gosh, you know, it's just horrible and terrible,

(04:42):
you know. So I think that it's something that Josephine's
just balanced really really nicely. Is the heaviness with the lightness,
just getting that balance right, and that's really hard to do.

Speaker 1 (04:50):
I well, see, okay, so that's we were dangerous it
is in cinemas. Now, let's haven't listened to another film
showing at the theater at the moment. This is minus Man.
He know, my name is Spranistein, my name is John Lennon,
my name is Paula.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
George Hanson the Pete first when I saw it at Steade,
I shall never forget it. I want to represent you
be a manager, but you've got to experience mister Brian.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
Okay, that's minus Man. A story that feels relatively familiar.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
Yes, so this is the story of the first Beatle,
Brian Epstein, who was their manager. And he is Brian
is this lovely, sort of closeted, gay Jewish young man.
He runs the family record stores. And in nineteen sixty one,
get this, he goes to a lunchtime gig. I want
to bring back lunchtime gigs. I think that would be
so much fun to see this unknown band called the Beatles.

(05:53):
They're playing in Liverpool, and he just looks around and goes,
these guys have something and off we go. And he
approaches them and asks if you know he could be
their manager, and they tease him quite a lot about
his posh ways, but yeah, off they go on this journey.
So it is a relationship that kind of saw this

(06:14):
band become one of the biggest bands in the world,
and you sort of see Brian he just had these
incredible instincts. He just understood the potential of the Beatles,
he got great deals, he knew what was needed to
kind of break them internationally, and so that's what we
kind of get. That look behind the scenes of it
doesn't show away from his struggle with addiction and gambling

(06:35):
and his sexuality. Obviously, the huge success that the Beatles
have that comes with a huge amount of stress and
a huge amount of struggles, so you kind of see
all that taking place. It's very much about him as
opposed to the Beatles and how they sort of dealt
with fame. It's very actually jack very little Beatles music
in this film, which may have been an issue about

(06:57):
getting the rights for it. Look in this in general,
I think the story is told well. It is a
great story, a fascinating story to tell. They've tried to
kind of like it up and tell it in an
interesting way, and occasionally the fourth wall was broken down
and Brian talks directly to us, and it tries to
have sort of once again a lightness to it, but
I'm not sure they quite nailed the balance. I felt
like this film we actually did need to go into

(07:19):
a little bit more depth as to what was happening. Yeah,
a fun, fun, fun look at a period in time
that a lot of people will.

Speaker 1 (07:29):
Remember and enjoy. I mean far back from me to
judge something from twelve seconds of trailer that were but no,
but give it a go. Well, it just it sounded
like it sounded like the actual the band members, but
Paul McCartney and John then were maybe a little hammed up.

Speaker 2 (07:47):
Yeah, possibly, And I'm not sure we really sort of
got I think we learned more about Brian than we
did necessarily about his relationship with them. It's sort of
like almost behind the scenes of how they became world famous.

Speaker 1 (08:01):
Right, Okay, that makes lot sense. Yeah, well, lunchtime gigs
previously a thing? Was it all?

Speaker 2 (08:06):
I don't know. I never I'd never heard of lunchtime gigs,
But it's quite fun. How good that half of us
kind even step away from our desk to have our
lunch these days? But it's how good we go. I'm
just popping out for half and how to see some
young band and how invigorated would you go? Back to work.
I think it would be great.

Speaker 1 (08:20):
That's a good idea.

Speaker 2 (08:21):
Yeah, I wonder why we don't do that if your
world durre in. Yeah, I think it's probably pretty obvious
reasons why we. I think there's a lot of bands
that are like young going to play behalf in our lunchtime. Yeah,
and we wouldn't have the time really to do it,
but it is quite fun. Yeah. They went down into
the sort of dark, dark venue. Yeah, band at lunchtime.

Speaker 1 (08:38):
And we used to do it at schools, you know,
like our school school bands would do it. My ill
fated school band. You had a couple of big lunchtime
gigs over the years. We're still talking about those today. No,
but yeah, I think it's a good idea. I'm into it,
very good. Okay, that's minus man, Thank you friends, you skip.
That's showing in cinemas now. So as We Were Dangerous,

(08:59):
jax is Laura. I saw that film We Were Dangerous
last week and the team that I really enjoyed it.
It is a great New Zealand film. So Laura adds
to Francesca's recommendation, there go along and see We Were
Dangerous For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame. Listen
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