l
A Ma Soeur (Fat Girl) 0000 Lumiere. 2] Aug. 9pm. L'ncompromising exploration of teenage female sexuality frorn French filmmaker Catherine Breillat. who stirred up a hornet's nest of controversy last year with Romance.
The Anniversary Party on
Dotninion. 20 Aug. 7pm; OFF. 23 Aug. 6.30pm. Gather together a bunch of thesps including Scotland's Alan Cumming. partnered both behind and in front of the camera by Jennifer Jason Leigh sharing debut directorial and writing honours. Add in the likes of Parker Posey. Jennifer Beals. Kevin Kline and Gwyneth Paltrow as a tnovie star who‘s about to start a filtn based on novelist Cumming's stormy marriage to Leigh. Gather them together for a night of revelatory confessions and the result could have been a self-indulgent disaster. but in the event it's a winning confessional blow-out. The character turns are sharp. the repanee tart and sparkling and the ensemble performances neatly integrated and photographed on digital video. Emotions do begin to run away with it before the end — but the guests don't overstay their welcome. (Richard Clark)
As The Beast Sleeps Filrnhouse. 18 Aug. 4.30pm; GET. l9 Aug. 9pm. Tough. powerfully-acted realist drama that takes a hard look at Ireland‘s peace process frotn the perspective of L'DA paramilitaries. Atanarjuart The Fast Runner ooo Filtnhouse. 19 Aug. 8.30pm; L'GC. 2] Aug. 7pm. Set in the snowy landscapes of the Canadian arctic. this is a slow burning tale based on lnuit tribal legends concerning a community split by an ancient evil. This is the first ever film to be written and performed in lnuit and the stark colour palette and slow pace may put off those weaned on big budget American fodder. But after adjusting to the style. traditions and customs you wartn to the characters more and more. and by the end you are engrossed in how their differences will be resolved in this unforgiving landscape. You need to invest a bit of time (three hours) and patience. but it's very rewarding. even winning the Camera D‘or for best first feature at this year's Cannes Film Festival. (Henry Northmore)
QAngelo Badalamenti Reel Life UGC. 17 Aug. 6.30pm. This late entry in the Film Festival's programme looks to be one of its most exciting: a masterclass on the art of film soundtrack composition from Angelo Badalamenti. David Lynch‘s soundtrack composer of choice (he‘s scored everything from Blue Velvet to Lynch‘s latest. Mulhollond Drive). Badalamenti says. ‘1'“ tell some stories. there's always some through the years that have humour to them.‘ He ain't lying;
frotn playing piano back in the 50s to writing songs for Shirley Bassey to the film scores (also including The City ()fLost Children. Arlington Road and The Beach). this fella‘s been around the block a few times. if you read the recent interview with Badalamenti in The List. you'll appreciate how well he talks about his working relationship with Lynch.
(Miles Fielder)
BAFTA Lecture Filmhouse. 22 Aug. 4.l5pm. Legendary rockumentary maker D.A. Pennebaker (Don 't Look Back) and Chris Hedegtts talk about co-directing Down From The Mountain. the concert movie featuring the musicians on the soundtrack to the Coen brothers' () Brother: “here A rt Thou." BAFTA (Scotland) hosts.
Bangkok Dangerous t,'(}(‘. 20 Aug. 8.30pm. Explosive Thai gangland thriller attempting to wrestle the action director crown from John Woo.
Boyhood Loves (Amour D’enfance) Lumiere. 22 Aug. 6pm; [CC 23 Aug. (3.30pm. Insightful French drama about a Paris university graduate who returns to the family farm with hopes of reconciling with his irasciblc father.
La Ciénega (The Swamp) ooo Filmhouse. to Aug. 7pm; Cameo. 21 Aug. 6pm. Sweat drips from every inch of celluloid in director Lttcrecia Martel‘s film in which two families struggle to survive the Argentinean heat. ()ne mother. broken and ineffectual. wallows in a drunken fog: the other precariously juggles work and kids. Martel has withheld a soundtrack. allowing oppressive silences to grow. while shots of moody inaction are beautifully lingered upon. Such stagnation is broken only by a kind of primitivism. reminiscent of The Lord ()f’l‘he Flies. What atmosphere and character observation is achieved through fiawless direction is wholly admirable. However. Lu (.‘ienegu's theme of social stagnation and family breakdown has been tackled before in similarly slow. tension-laden ways. The perspective is different. but ultimately the viewer is left as frustratingly disernpowered as the characters in the film. (Ruth Hedges) Chain Camera oooo Filmhouse. 20 Aug. 5pm. 21 Aug. l().3()pm. Equipped with digital cameras. a group of high school students were asked to record their lives for a week then pass the cameras on to their classmates. The complete freedom the students were given. and the remarkable honesty they have shown. is what separates this from the norm. The students are a revelation. showing maturity beyond their years. These video diaries are surprisingly humorous. touching and almost universally full of hope. The filtn offers the viewer a glimpse of an America rarely seen. that of an intelligent populous varying in background. race and gender. Award winning filmmaker
Battle Royale .0. Cameo. [8 Aug.
I I .3()ptn.' L'GC. 23 Aug. 10pm; GF7‘25 Aug. [0.45pm. Lord Of The Flies is re-imagined as a violent pre-millennial nightmare. A class of 30 teenage Japanese schoolchildren is abandoned on an island. given a variety of survival tools and weapons. and told that only the last survivor will be allowed to leave. Although shocking in its subject matter and execution. the ideas underpinning writer/director Kinji Fukasaku's iilrn are confused and soft. So while the spectacle of uniformed. 15-year-old school kids brutally dispatching one another is wickedly entertaining. it is far from edifying. Eschewing any satirical commentary on the Japanese penchant for endurance-based TV game shows. the bloody spectacle is presented straight. with odd self-reflexive digressions. such as the perky video which is used to explain the rules of the game. Little is made. either. of the idea that the game is a forrn of social control. This too goes begging as the interchangeable kids form tenuous alliances in order to shoot. stab and poison their rivals — except for the few who opt out by committing suicide. Takeshi Kitano is superb as the school teacher in charge. but because the kids‘ pre- game personalities and relationships are barely sketched in. it is hard to care about which of them will survive. (Nigel Floyd)
38 THE LIST FESTIVAL GUIDE 16-22 Aug 2001
Kirby Dick. last seen in Edinburgh with the remarkable film. Sick: The Life And Death ()fBoh I’lunogen. .S‘upermusot'hist. has given us an enlightening film. (Niall Macpherson) The Chateau oo Cameo. 21 Aug. l().3()pm. 23 Aug. 5.30pm. Culture clash comedy. filmed in the Dogme style. sees two American brothers inherit a chateau in a small town in southern France.
The Chimp (Maimii) (EFT. 2() Aug. 6.30pm. Profound study of adolescence completes Kyrgyzstani director Mirian Abdykalykov‘s autobiographical trilogy. Chop Suey 0.. Filrnhottse. 20 Aug. 9.30pm. 22 Aug. 10.30pm. Photographer Bruce Weber's highly personal kaleidoscopic look at alternative culture is full of beautiful moments. There's Robert Mitchurn and Dr John singing the blues together; lesbian icon. pianist and singer Frances Faye belting out R&B numbers on the lit! Sullivan Show; fashion magazine editor Diane Vreeland proclaiming her right to die in a Hong Kong opium den: disgraced president Richard Nixon‘s neighbours revealing all about their
surf dttde lifestyles; and youthful Liz Taylor .
. . being gorgeous. And then there's Weber‘s young model pal. Peter. frolicking about all over the place. most handsomely naked on the beach. rolling around in the surf with an elephant. Weber weaves the lot together in seamless fashion for his visual trip down memory lane. (Miles Fielder)
Cineworks Shorts Filmhouse. 2() Aug. 3pm; Gl’l‘. 22 Aug. (i.3()pm. Short film showcase of Scottish-based talent including BAFI‘A winner Adrian McDowall's ‘Toon Fair‘. Anwin Bcier 'Nightwindows'. Becky Brazil's ‘Best Man'. Rene Mohandas ‘Wish' and Sarah Tripp‘s ’Testatika'.
Cool And Crazy 00. (70C. 18 Aug. 7pm. Intimate. slow-moving portrait of the Norwegian fishing village of Berlevag. The Crossing Guard t'(1(‘. 22 Aug. 8pm. 0... Sean Penn‘s second outing i director. a sombre revenge thriller starring Jack Nicholson.
Crush 0.. ()deon. 1‘) Aug. 7.30pm: ['(iC. 2l Attg. ()piii. ‘Well Jed. nice organ.‘ says 40-year-old headmistress Kate to her 25-year-old ex-pupil. after their irreverent funeral romp on a gravestone. Flattnting a bawdy disrespect for the respectable. John McKay‘s romantic comedy offers plenty of incongruous surprises. They call themselves The Sad Fuckers Club. They are female. 40. successful and alone. They spend hours dissecting their dismal love lives. They love their gin. chocolate and cigarettes. So. when Kate (Andie MacDowell) falls inappropriately in love. Janine (ltnelda Staunton) and Molly (Anna Chancellor) feel it is their duty to prove the desperate error of her ways with horrible results. Crux/t boasts a great cast. some sparkling scenes and a couple of harrowing moments. (io for a good laugh. bttt be prepared to cry. (Heather Walrnsley)
Cunnamula D... Filmhouse. i‘) Aug. 6pm. \t'ivid documentary about small town life in retnote Queensland. far removed from the popular image of quaint rural Australia. Death For Five Voices + Bells From The Deep - Faith And Superstition Filrnhouse. 2() Aug. noon. A pair of typically bizarre Werner Herzog documentaries. one exploring a lost city. frozen beneath a lake in Rttssia. the other profiling a loth century prince. musical genius and mass murderer. The Deep End .00. (CC. l6 Aug. 8.30pm: (il’l‘. l8 Aug. 8.30pm. It's been eight years since Scott McGehee and David Sicgel's cerebral neo-noir thriller. Suture. but this belated follow-up was worth waiting for. An inspired re-working of the novel already filmed by Max ()phuls as The Reckless Moment ( l‘)-l‘)). it features a mesmerising performance by Tilda Swinton as a mother who. having found the body of her son's gay lover by the fatnily boathouse. sinks it in the lake. But then a handsome blacktnailer (Goran \"isnjic from 15R) turns tip with an explicit home video of her son having sex with the victim. The edgy suspense and over- heated emotions arc heightened by a tension between the melodramatic events portrayed and the deceptively tranquil lakeside images captured by (iiles Nuttgcns‘ crisp. chilly cinematography. (Nigel Floyd)
OThe Devil’s Backbone (El Espinazo Del Diablo) ooooo Filtnhouse. 17 Aug. 9.30pm; Cameo. 25 Aug. |().3()pm. This beautifully shot. richly evocative ghost story is as intelligently intertextual as any you‘re likely to see. The story of an orphaned boy abandoned at a remote school during the Spanish civil war. its ghost serves. as so many do in the genre. for history. both collective and individual. Your own memory might be stirred too. by glimpses of ()(is Hammer films. Bava. and even The Night ()_/”l'he Hunter. The beauty of this is not allusion within itself. as is so often the case. but the way in which Guillermo Del Torro (he of the haunting Chronos and Mimic) weaves the images perfectly into the complex social matrix of the film. authenticating the dilemmas of the emotionally debilitated characters. both adult and child. See preview. (Steve Crarner) Disco Pigs D... Catneo. l8 Aug. 7.30pm: L'GC. 2() Aug. 9.30pm. Enda Walsh‘s funny. sexual and violent play (a Fringe hit four years ago) finds magnetic expression on film by director Kirsten Sheridan. Cillian Murphy. reprising his stage role. and Elaine Cassidy (Felicia 's Journey) play youngsters born on the same day. in the same hospital. and only moments apart. They are twins in all but bloodline. and become inseparable and almost telepathic. They inhabit a dangerous and insular world where they make their own rules and language — and exploit their appetites for exploration and destruction. Just before their 17th birthday the balance of their fragile universe begins to shift as the teenage boy‘s sexual awakening provokes jealousy. Sheridan builds the poetry and the insanity of the relationship and then turns it into a heartfelt roller-coaster of emotion. (Richard Clark)
Distance 0.. Filrnhouse. 2] Aug. 7pm; Lumiere. 22 Aug. 9pm. Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Koreeda's film is as hypnotic and moving as his previous film. After Life. it examines the deaths of a group of cttlt members and the effect that this has had on their families. The tnain point raised in the filtn — cults aren't a good thing — is not exactly revelatory. but the film still retains a great deal of poignancy when dealing with the loss that the family members are faced with. ()ne of the tnost talked about films at Cannes. this is by no means a masterpiece. Indeed. at over two hours rtrnning time this slow-burner tests the patience. But it‘s worth it — it's an exquisitely shot filtn filled with universally fiawless performances. (Niall Macpherson)
Dog’s Day (Pattiyude Divasam) Filrnhotrse. l8 Aug. 3.30pm. l9 Aug. 8pm. Opening with a spectacular Bollywtmd-style rnttsical number. Mtrrali Nair's Kerela-set film subsequently develops along allegory lines.
Echoes From A Sombre Empire (Echoes Aus Einem Dustern Reich) Filmhouse. l8 Aug. noon. Werner Herzog‘s bizarre and disturbing documentary investigation of the life of Emperor Jean Bedel Bokassa of the Central African Republic. cannibal and arguably the continent's bloodiest ruler.
Explosive Fragments 245 Filmhouse. lb Aug. 3pm (2); 17 Aug. 3.30pm. 18 Aug. 3pm (3); l9 Aug lprn. 2() Aug. 3pm (4): 2] Aug. 3.30pm. 22 Aug 3pm (5). Five 90 tninttte programmes presenting an eclectic mix of short films frotn around the world. Everybody Is Afraid Of The Dwarf (Mindenki Fel A Torpetol) oo Filrnhouse. l‘) Aug. 9pm. 2() Aug. 3.30pm. With such a great title you'll be anticipating the appearance of the dwarf. Why is everyone so scared of him'.’ He must be really menacing. But no. he'sjust a vertically challenged debt collector. going round the houses of Eastern European families. where unemployment and corruption is the form capitalism has taken. The clanging industrial rntrsic which accompanies his every appearance only succeeds in irritating rather than frightening. Jozsef Czencz's film embraces big themes -— a red Coca Cola trtrck signifies the American dream. out of the reach of his characters. L'nderstated and convincing performances by the leads are overshadowed by the bluntly obvious