Culture chat: Wonka, starring Timothée Chalamet

Life and Art from FT Weekend

Forhecz Topher

Tv & Film, Arts, Society & Culture

4.6 • 601 Ratings

🗓️ 22 December 2023

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

For our last episode of 2023, we’re bringing you a special discussion on ‘Wonka’, this year’s family Christmas film and a musical extravaganza. Starring Timothée Chalamet, it follows the life of a young Willy Wonka as he struggles to set up his first chocolate shop. Does it work? Can Chalamet sing? Do we need another Roald Dahl adaptation? Lilah’s joined by FT House and Home editor Nathan Brooker and US investments correspondent Madison Darbyshire to talk through it.

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We love hearing from you! Write us. You can email us at [email protected] or message Lilah on Instagram @lilahrap.

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Links (all FT links get you past the paywall):

– ‘Wonka’, starring Timothée Chalamet directed by Paul King, is out in UK and US cinemas.

– The FT’s review of Wonka, by Danny Leigh, is here: https://on.ft.com/3v8Jru0

– Madison’s column on why Cosmopolitans are conquering New York City: https://on.ft.com/4awUOvW

– Keep an eye out for Lilah’s column about boredom, out in the FT soon.

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Special FT subscription offers for Life and Art podcast listeners, from 50% off a digital subscription to a $1/£1/€1 trial, are here: http://ft.com/lifeandart

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Original music by Metaphor Music. Mixing and sound design by Breen Turner. Clips courtesy of Warner Bros Pictures.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Life and Art from FT Weekend. I'm Lila Raptopoulos, and this is our Friday chat show.
0:07.2	Today, for our final episode of the year, we are talking about Wonka, the new family film about the early life of the infamous Willie.
0:15.1	The film is, of course, inspired originally by Roll Doll's books, most notably Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
0:20.6	It is the third film in the Wonka universe.
0:22.8	It stars Timothy Chalamey as a young Lily Wonka,
0:25.3	looking to open his first chocolate factory in the big city
0:27.8	and facing a cartel of local evil chocolatiers in his way.
0:31.8	Ladies and gentlemen of the Gallery Gourmet,
0:35.6	my name is Willie Wonka.
0:43.3	He's good. Too good. Pretty sure I've gained about 150 pounds in the last two weeks. You could change her life, Mr. Walker. Change all their lives.
0:51.7	It is a musical with a number of original songs, and it's directed by Paul King, who also did Paddington.
0:57.8	So today we'll be talking about what we thought about the film, and let's just get into it.
1:02.1	Joining me in New York is our golden ticket herself.
1:06.0	The FT's U.S. investment correspondent, also a regular culture writer for FT Weekend, great Madison Darbyshire. Hi, Madison. Hi, Lila. Thanks for having me. Thanks for being here. And from London, the music maker, the dreamer of dreams. It's our house and home editor, Nathan Brooker. I'm Nathan. Welcome. Thank you very much. Great to be here. I'm done with puns. I would love to get into it.
1:27.7	Top line, I'm curious from both of you how we feel about the film.
1:32.3	Nathan, let's start with you. How did you feel? Did you come in wanting to like it? Did you like it? What did you think? I didn't come in wanting to like it. I came in not wanting to like it and being slightly annoyed that it'd been made.
1:28.9	Shacked.
1:29.5	But, you know, you mentioned it's directed by Paul Kidd. wanting to like it and being slightly annoyed that it'd been made.
1:45.1	Shacked.
1:48.4	But you know, you mentioned it's directed by Paul King.
1:52.7	It's co-written by Paul King and Simon Farnaby, which is the team behind Paddington.
1:56.3	And really, it's a lot more like Paddington than anything else.
	...

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