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An eventful week in the waning days of a medieval English village provides the narrative backbone for Harvest, Athina Rachel Tsangari’s moody-verging-on-mopish adaptation of Jim Crace’s novel of the same name. The book is written in a bewitching prose style somewhere between a monologue and a first-person essay. Dialogue is sparse, much of it denoted as overheard half-phrases, and the overall ambience alien, which is more than apt for a setting—a lord-of-the-manor-ruled agricultural collective—effectively lost to time.

Tsangari, who co-wrote the screenplay with Joslyn Barnes, finds her own way into this foreign land by accentuating the grit and the grime. This is evident in everything from Sean Price Williams’s grainy 16mm cinematography (some sort of crud is always visible at the edges of the frame) to the lead casting of Caleb Landry Jones, a performer who often seems like he’s just emerged dazed and confused from primordial sludge.

Update: BBC issued the following statement in response to the letter featured in the Observer:

“We’re launching a new Radio 4 film programme later this year which will do even more to explore the expanding universe of cinema and screen. The changing nature of film distribution and availability, including on streaming platforms, has opened up new ways for us to take listeners on a journey through the best of cinematic storytelling.”

The statement continues, “The new show will explore the contemporary and the historical — digging deep into the relationship between past and present — with close reading and analysis. It will continue to feature serious and in-depth discussion with actors, writers, directors and critics. In addition to the new programme, Radio 4 dedicated arts shows will keep providing news of the latest film releases as well as expanded film criticism, discussion and major interviews with film makers.”

Earlier: More than 100 filmmakers and...

Simon Brew Nov 2, 2016

Film 2016 returns tonight with a new guest presenter approach. Full details lie within...

Tonight marks the return to our screens of the BBC’s one-time flagship film programme, Film 2016. And following the announcement at the end of the summer that Claudia Winkleman was standing down as co-host of the show, the BBC has finally announced her replacement.

Or replacements.

For the BBC has opted to go with a rotation of guest presenters for the new series, who in turn will accompany the returning resident critic Danny Leigh. There’s precedence for this in film programmes, I should note. Following the death of Gene Siskel, the late Roger Ebert continued to present a television film review programme with guest presenters for a while after. And that was deemed quite successful, if not quite - inevitably - up to majesty of seeing the original duo together.

The...