Untouchable

Untouchable: The Rise and Fall of Harvey Weinstein (BBC Two), directed by Ursula MacFarlane, is a film of halting testimonies, long pauses, lips pressed tightly together and eyes filling with tears.

Told with clarity, respect and empathy, and not just for the women on whom Weinstein preyed, Macfarlane's film offers a timely and fascinating overview of his story, one that's almost emblematic of the pathology of serial sexual abusers.

It’s a Hollywood story of a spectacular rise to the top that was quite apparently a real-life horror story all along.

If Untouchable does nothing else, it demonstrates how patterns of intimidation and the power to destroy lives flourish in systems that allow for the turning of blind eyes. It was just the cost of doing business with Harvey, until thankfully, it wasn’t.

Untouchable is a competently made film, there’s nothing mind-blowing about the presentation of it, but the timely subject matter makes the aesthetic weaknesses more forgivable.

The film reiterates every detail you already know from the key reports that have been published about him, but the true power of this movie (and for me, the only reason it should exist at all) comes in its interviews with Weinstein’s victims, and the stories from these women are just as heart-rending and disturbing as you probably imagine.

There is precious little here that hasn’t already been more cogently unpacked somewhere else.