FILM SCOTTISH
I SEC Director: The new Director of the Scottish Film Council is Maxine Baker, currently Head of the Documentary Department at the
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Using the money saved from his holiday job, Aldo Palumbo has finished shooting his first film. An experimental work on Super-8, The Paper Man is the first project for Temper Temper, a new group which aims to produce both films and theatre productions. ‘The idea of the company is to make theatre which is extremely filmic and film which is extremely theatrical and exaggerated in some sense.’ Palumbo explains. The debut film has been co-directed and co- written by Lucy McLellan, a recent
National Film and Television School. Born in South Shields, Tyne and Wear, Baker studied at Leeds University before beginning her career as a Programme Researcher at the BBC in London. Her other television credits include periods with CBC Toronto. Thames, Tyne Tees. Granada, Channel 4 and, establishing her Scottish connection, a period as Head of Documentaries at Scottish Television from 1992—94. in addition, she has worked as Documentaries Officer with the National Film Archive, as an independent producer on The Prize. World In Action and What The Papers Say, and as a committee member of the Edinburgh lntemational Television Festival.
theatre studies graduate. Examining themes of ‘women’s imprisonment and longing'. it is inspired by Derek Jarman’s style. The soundtrack features words by ‘lots of dead authors such as Virginia Woolf, Dante and Shakespeare.‘
‘The plot is based on a Charlotte Perkins Gilman short story called The Yellow Wallpaper, which is about a woman who is locked in the attic of her house by her husband because he believes she has an erotic disorder.’ says McLellan. ‘The woman becomes obsessed with the yellow wallpaper in the room and she starts to see women shaking it and scratching and trying to crawl through it. I started thinking of all the incidents of mad women in the attic in English Literature and how. throughout history, there are loads of cases of women being imprisoned.‘
The Paper Man includes the figures of Rapunzel, Virginia Woolf, an agoraphobic and Anne Frank. Anne Frank? ‘Well, it isn’t just about patriarchal imprisonment. it’s about women imprisoning themselves for political reasons and for personal reasons. We didn't want it to be that clear cut and just blame men.‘ So far. the production has cost around £1000. but donations are still needed to complete the editing phase. Further information is available from Aldo Palumbo at 99 Queensborough Gardens, Glasgow G12. (Beatrice Colin)
If tens of thousands of punters can belt out the words of ‘Flower Of Scotland’ at various sporting occasions, maybe a few of them can also shell out a grand for a share in a new film production that will bring the joys and woes of Bannockburn and 1314 to the big screen. Having cut their teeth on Chasing The Deer and its rousing retelling of the last days of the Jacobite rebellion, Cromwell Productions are now at the financing stage for The Bruce and a version of Macbeth, the latter to be directed by Shakespearean actor Brian Blessed. As was the case with chasing The Beer, the company is offering for subscription up to 1,000 shares at £1 .000 each, with the subscription list open until 5pm on 23 December 1994. Investment is open to both individuals and companies, and applications must be needs on the form in the official
30 The List 2—l5 December 1994
Bannookburn revisited
brochure, which also outlines other details and risk factors. In addition to a share in potential profits of the films, investors are offered two places at the black tie galas, credits in the final titles and the opportunity to appear on screen as an extra in crowd or battle scenes.
The Bruce is described as ‘a tale of intrigue, love, war and diplomacy’, which chronicles the struggles of Scotland’s King Robert with his adversary Edward 1. Brian Blessed’s Macbeth will be set in both the present and the distant past, creating ‘a universally accessible story with some disturbing and thought- provoklng lmagery’. Further information and copies of The Bruce document are available from The Bruce Pictures pic, 16 Forth Street, Edinburgh EH1 3lll (031 556 3062). (AM)
WHEN THE BOUGH
BREAKS
When a plastic bag filled with the severed hands of young children is discovered during a Texan rainstorm, police captain Martin Sheen realises he’s up against a serial killer who preys on the city’s most innocent inhabitants. (Cue the Silence Of The lambs set-up). In order to construct a psychological profile of the suspect, Special investigator Ally Walker is called in. (Shades of a Hollywood-ster Cracker). ller break comes when a mute child in a local psychiatric hospital seems to show telepathic connections with the killer. (Buick shift into X-Files territory).
As the story gets underway, it’s clear to which critical and box office hits this video feature aspires. There is, however, more imagination on show here than the derivative structure would suggest. The thriller aspect, focussing slowly on the killer and his motivations in a Thomas liarris
manner, works as a gripping exercise in storytelling; unfortunately writer/director Michael Cohn loses it at the end as he ties together too many threads in a hastin assembled knot. It may be on a level somewhat below a star-driven cinema feature, but viewed on its own temts, it’s damn good television. (AM)
V RENTAL
I Scarlett (15) ‘Tomorrow is another day.’ reckoned Scarlett O‘Hara at the end of Gone With The Wind. Well, tomorrow is today in this multi-million dollar US TV mini-series which sees Joanne Whalley-Kilmer take over the Vivien Leigh title role and Timothy Dalton try out Clark Gable’s shoes. Further trials come between Scarlett and her two great loves. Rhett Butler and the Tara estate. but even at
i a length of six hours. this ; unnecessary sequel can‘t 3 capture the scope of the original. (Odyssey) l Beyond Bedlam (18) initially denied a video certificate. Vadim Jean’s sturdy British horror flick 5 can finally infiltrate your living room. Keith Allen 1 stars as a dangerous killer whose exposure to a revolutionary new drug has given him unsurpassed psychic powers. Craig Fairbrass proves a worthy adversary. current tabloid 5 photo queen Elizabeth Hurley is an unlikely f doctor, and, while the plot ; might strain belief. the l technical qualities of the I filmmaking can‘t be questioned. (PolyGram) l Dangerous Game (18) A complex character ; piece from frequently misrepresented director Abel Ferrara. Dangerous Game shows that, given the right environment. Madonna can actually pull out a strong acting perfonnance. Eddy lsrael
(Harvey Keitel) is the director of a new movie starring an actor (James Russo) and an actress (Madonna) whose on- screen personas seem to be blending with their private lives. lsrael further confuses fact and fiction when he begins an affair with his female star. Ferrara’s movies usually trawl the gutters of society: here it‘s the emotional mire that is put under an unflinching microscope. with devastating results. (PolyGram)
I Slackers or spoilt middle-class brats? Decide for yourself as Winona Ryder and Ethan Hawke cope with modern living in Reality Bites (12.ClC); keep the kids amused with the fairytale charm of Don Bluth’s Thumbelina (U. Warner);
2 and don't mistake Hugh
Grant for the nasty little killer leprechaun in a shameless rip-off titled
0ne Wedding And lots 01
2 Funerals (l8. Medusa).
I Go Fish (18) Fresher. hipper, more energetic than the vast majority of celluloid that hits our shores from across the Atlantic, Rose Troche's slacker dyke comedy crackles with catty dialogue and natural performances. Would-be author Max is elbowed by her flatmate Kia into a romance with vet‘s assistant Ely, despite obstacles such as shyness and long-distance girlfriends. There's no agenda shoved in your face here. just the realisation that the burning questions of life and love are similar in every subculture. (Mainline £15.99)
I All Police (18) A new
trilogy for the Manga Video Cyberpunk Collection begins on
; familiar ground with out- ) of-control renegade
i cyborgs (Voomers) being i tracked down by special
l police units. The splatter animation reaches new levels of megaviolence. Also this month comes the first of the Cenocyber ( I8) three-parter, which suffers from a staggerineg unintelligible plot. Mind you. the surreal Cronenbergian transformations of the finale and the climactic destruction of the entire Hong Kong island will take some topping in the subsequent releases. (Manga £6.99/£9.99)
I James Bond fans should take note that all
4 seventeen ofthe
l MGM/UA Home Video
titles are on offer at £3 off the recommended price. for a limited period only; intergalactic landscape gardeners of human hoaxers — all mysteries are revealed in Crop Circles: At Last, The Answer (E. Duet £10.99); the classic Dutch gay drama Dear Boys ( i8. Detonator ill-1.99) follows the sexual and emotional turmoils of a writer and his younger lover; and. the perfect Christmas present for degenerates. the limited edition 1995 Redemption Calendar captures the gothic and the perverse in striking b & w photos (£30 from The Redemption Centre. PO Box 50, Stroud. Gloucs. GL6 8YG; cheques payable to Redemption Films Ltd).
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