Topic: The Day Shall Come

[explodey]

Now available to rent on the BFI player:
https://player.bfi.org.uk/rentals/film/watch-the-day-shall-come-2019-online

[Danger Man]

A supporter of Islamic State has pleaded guilty to plotting to bomb St Paul’s Cathedral and a hotel.
Safiyya Amira Shaikh, 36, from Hayes, west London, admitted preparation of terrorist acts and dissemination of terrorist publications at a hearing at the Old Bailey.
It was alleged Shaikh made contact with someone who could prepare explosives, and went on a reconnaissance trip to scope out the cathedral and a hotel as locations to plant bombs.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/feb/21/isis-supporter-admits-plot-bomb-st-pauls-cathedral-hotel-safiyya-amira-shaikh

She couldn't blow up a paper bag but undercover officers egged her on and the papers are happy to say she was going to blow up St Pauls.

[EBGB]

Another London Q&A screening coming up in a couple of weeks: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/welcome-present-the-day-shall-come-qa-with-director-chris-morris-tickets-97699761617

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Looking forward to question

'Is your next work in 2035 just going to be a man with his bum out next to a car bomb'

[Hand Solo]

"Chris, after the 10 years' research for your next film could experiment with the comedy format by putting some jokes in the script?"

[the]

Hang on, did people not find TDSC to be a funny film? You'd have to be pretty rigidly sour not to locate the funnies in it.

[Hand Solo]

Hang on, did people not find TDSC to be a funny film? You'd have to be pretty rigidly sour not to locate the funnies in it.

No. Or Four Lions.. a few funny moments.. but I'd be hard pressed to compare them to the funny density of anything like a single episode of his television work, which seeing as he seems to spend a decade writing them, is worryingly odd.

[the]

But films aren't like his TV programmes. They place completely different demands on pacing, plotting, characterisation, production and dialogue. Going to to a cinema and expecting a 90 minute episode of Brass Eye is a fool's errand.

Despite that, Four Lions is a funny film as well. It's not an unfunny film is it.

[Hand Solo]

But films aren't like his TV programmes. They place completely different demands on pacing, plotting, characterisation, production and dialogue. Going to to a cinema and expecting a 90 minute episode of Brass Eye is a fool's errand.

Despite that, Four Lions is a funny film as well. It's not an unfunny film is it.

I'm aware of that, I wasn't expecting Zucker brothers level stuff, but as comedies they both seem a bit 'bereft' to me.

[Mister Six]

Four Lions was hilarious. TDSC suffered because it was too funny/wacky, I think. Needed fewer yuks and more drama in the first hour or so to give enough weight to the ending.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

It was a fine line to tread having the central character be genuinely ill and also make fun of him, but it seemed to manipulate that too forcedly which is why I guess the end felt quite slight, or at least underwhelming when it ought to have felt powerful.

For what it's worth I thought it was reasonably funny, nowhere near as funny as Four Lions or as powerful.

[Hand Solo]

I'd agree that Four Lions is better, but perhaps I should say neither was as shocking, surprising or inventive as his TV work.. though as general 'comedies' I just found them very middling, certainly not something I'd return to very often. (Think I've only seen Four Lions twice, when it first came out and when I later bought it on DVD for a friend.) Will give The Day Shall Come another go down the road but that felt even less so a film I'd look forward returning to for just the comedic value. For someone who is held as one of the world's top satirists I don't think that's very good innings, especially when he takes a decade to write them.

[the]

neither was as shocking, surprising or inventive as his TV work.

Again, he was never making longform narrative in his TV work. They're apples and oranges. It just sounds like you're dismayed that some unrealistic fantasy film in your head never came true.

If someone's making a comedy film and it doesn't work, the failing is normally either because the comedy doesn't sustain throughout the film, or the comedy is so heavy-handed that it damages the overall plot/point of the film and makes it seem noisy and trivial. To me, Four Lions and TDSC succeeded in not falling into either of these traps - the comedy energy was kept up throughout the films (and the character comedy was extremely well-written), yet the films had captivating meaningful plots which moved along at the right pace.

If I was going to level a criticism at TDSC, it would be that the FBI dialogue was a bit over-constructed, everyone was a little too 'smart-mouthed' which was jarring in places. But that's more of a dramatic complaint, because the dialogue was nevertheless very funny.

[Mister Six]

It was a fine line to tread having the central character be genuinely ill and also make fun of him, but it seemed to manipulate that too forcedly which is why I guess the end felt quite slight, or at least underwhelming

I thought the ending was powerful, but unearned by the preceding hour and 15 minutes. Which actually made it feel rather exploitative and cynical, even though I know from Morris' impassioned and thoughtful interviews that it was exactly the opposite.