Philomena Cunk trades history and science for film, with Michael Bay and Benedict Cumberbatch lined up to field her questions. Six short episodes land on Nov. 15.
Philomena Cunk cites three great moments in cinema: the shower scene in Psycho, Death playing chess in “that Swedish thing”, and Tom Selleck’s glistening moustache in Three Men and a Little Lady. By her own account, those are “all three of the only examples I can think of at the moment.” That is the standard of scholarship we’re dealing with in Cunk on Cinema, whose first trailer has just arrived.
Diane Morgan’s deadpan interviewer is back for six episodes of 15 minutes each. They arrive on Nov. 15 on BBC iPlayer and BBC Two, and on Netflix everywhere outside the U.K. and Ireland. Al Campbell directs.
A very short history of everything on screen
The official description bills this as Cunk’s “most glamorous outing yet.” Her brief is the whole history of film. She starts with the invention of the camera and moves through the New Wave filmmakers of the 1960s. She ends at the arrival of CGI and the question of what AI holds for the future.
She will do it, we’re told, “while sitting in lumpy seats with stale popcorn.” Her questions are the kind a film student would be too embarrassed to ask: where did cinema come from? And why? What does it want? And why can’t it tell us?
Cunk has also given a warning about the format. “There will, unfortunately, be some bits in black and white,” she said when Variety first revealed the series, “but we’ll keep that to the barest minimum.” Film historians, take note.
The guest list
The show has found 23 experts willing to sit across from her. Michael Bay and Benedict Cumberbatch are the biggest names. Composer Daniel Pemberton, screenwriter Steven E. de Souza and cinematographer Seamus McGarvey are also on the list. So are critics and historians including Mark Kermode, Mark Cousins, Isabel Stevens, Helen O’Hara, Catherine Bray, Bryony Dixon, David Rubin, Jim Dowdall and Kaleem Aftab.
Jim Al-Khalili and Ashley Jackson return from Cunk on Life and Cunk on Earth. Both have already had practice at answering Cunk with a straight face.
Putting Michael Bay in front of Cunk is a good bit of casting. Few directors have a bigger reputation for scale, and scale is the thing Cunk’s questions tend to deflate. She doesn’t mock her guests so much as ask a question that is slightly off, then wait. The expert has to decide whether to correct her, humour her or rescue her.
Why the format keeps working
The mockumentary survives because the real documentary has a house style, and that style is easy to recognise. There is the sweeping narration, the thoughtful walk through a gallery, and the expert in a good chair. Cunk keeps all of it and removes the competence. Because the grammar is intact, the joke lands every time. Her silly questions also tend to touch real ones. Asking what cinema wants is absurd, but plenty of film theory has tried to answer it.
The people behind her know the territory. Morgan created Cunk with Charlie Brooker, the creator of Black Mirror. The character is known for hosting satirical documentaries, for her deadpan style and for her ill-informed questions. Brooker and Morgan executive produce with Jessica Rhoades and Sam Ward. The series is a Pacesetter Production for BBC iPlayer and BBC Two.
Film also suits Cunk better than most subjects. It is an art form with a long habit of taking itself seriously, and it has plenty of lore, from the black-and-white pioneers to the CGI era. She can wander through all of it in an hour and a half of total runtime. Nov. 15 is the date to mark.
Via Variety
