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Hannah Fries reports on Jimmy McGovern’s latest script, Go Now. .
Robert Carlyle in Go Now (in Now is billed by the publicity people at BBC Drama as ‘Jimmy McGovem's latest film‘. It‘s rare in the movies — less so in television — for a screenwriter to out-fame the director and stars ofthe film; but McGovem‘s name is big as the result ofthe critical g and popular success of the Granada TV ' series Cracker. Channel 4's Hearts And ‘ Minds and his first script to be released I
j internationally as a feature film. Priest. - which won vanous awards, including
I loving girlfriend. Karen. a caring , family and loyal friends. but the disease
McGovem and Powell. of course. lts
g Kiss (reviewed this issue). top award- ; winner at this year‘s Berlin Film
one for Best British Film at last year’s Drambuie Edinburgh Film Festival. McGovern is acclaimed as a writer for having guts: his characters break the rules that they. and we. are supposed to live by — like not sleeping with a man if t you're a Catholic priest — and he is not
, out to punish them for it. That his
scn'pts have proved so controversial has got to say something about the morally ' f uptight nation we live in.
On these terms. Go Now might seem rather soft. It is the story of Nick. a man who discovers he has multiple
' sclerosis. and was co-written by Paul
Powell. who does actually suffer from MS. As you‘d expect. the film is a detailed and sympathetic examination
i ofthe affliction and the afflicted patty. Nick has to learn a new way of living, ' after the onset of the disease forces him
to abandon his passions for football and meat markets. He is lucky to have a tests them all. Even Karen. as patient and devoted as a lover could be. strays from the bed of her man.
The film has makers other than star is Scottish actor Robert Carlyle (aka Hamish Macbeth). and its director . is Michael Winterbottom. who has been on McGovem territory before — the opening two-hour film in the first series of Cracker. Winterbottom also directed ‘ Roddy Doyle's family for the BBC
i before making his a big screen
production late last year with Butterfly
Festival. 3 Go Now. 2/ Aug. Film/muse l. 1 [0.30pm; 24 Aug. Film/rouse I . i 6.15pm. £6 (£4).
Silent fright 5
A witty, stylish thriller in which mute sfx artist Billy (Mary Sudina) stumbles upon the after-hours filming of what may or may not be a ‘snuff movie’, Mute Witness blends suspense and nervy black humour in a way that recalls John Landis’s best work.
That Anthony Waller’s debut feature was selected for the prestigious Critics’ Week at Cannes was a major achievement; that it get made at all is a miracle. Originally set in Chicago, the film was later relocated to Moscow; but the dream of getting more film for fewer roubles quickly turned into a nightmare. Veteran Russian actor Oleg Jankovskii had a last-minute crisis about acting in English; film equipment imported from Munich was impounded by bribe- seeking customs officers, and on the first planned day of filming, troops stormed the occupied Parliament
FOR FULL DETAILS OF NON-FESTIVAL FILM PROGRAMMES IN GLASGOW AND EDINBURGH,
SEE PAGES 88 TO 93
s V
Mute Witness: ‘nervy black humour'
building.
And who, without being told, would know that the scenes featuring a famous, uncredited British character actor were shot in Germany back in 1985? (lllgel Floyd)
Mute morass, 18 Aug, Canes 1, 26 Aug, Canon 2, 6.30pm. £6
Expanded from a short student work, Morag McKinnon’s super-low budget, Edinburgh-set feature examines the broken connections between modern life and spiritual purity. Its mist-draped opening sequence - with spirit figures emerging from the sea as a drum soundtrack grows like a tribal heartbeat - conjures up a mythic sense of the birth of time and the birth of man. Graphic designer Carl is dislocated from his surroundings, no longer driven by work and material gain, as he is visited by his ambiguous spirit guide The Elder. These hallucinogenic sequences have an existential horror about them, tapping into more elemental fears than, say, similar scenes in Jacob’s Ladder. McKinnon’s visual confidence is remarkable, even if her use of characters as symbols is less sure. By the time the film completes its cycle of rebirth on Calton ilill’s Beltane Fire Festival, the celebratory rhythm that has built throughout the film comes to a strong climax. llot only a great achievement against the odds, 3 is a feature debut whose visual poetry lingers in the mind long after the images themselves have faded from the screen. (Alan Morrison)
3, 20 Aug, Filmhouse 1, 8.15pm; 21 Aug, Fllmlrause 2, 8.45pm. £6 (£4).
KOREA
One of the most beautiful and emotionally charged films at this year’s Film Festival is Cathal Black’s Korea. The year is 1952 in Ireland, a period of flux - rural electrification, rising unemployment and the Korean War indicate the coming of a new and different world. Eamon Doyle is spending one last summer fishing on the lake with his rather dour and foreboding father. Eamon falls in love with line Moran, of whom his father strongly disapproves, but all is well for a while as they manage to keep their relationship a secret. However, Mr Boyle decides there is no future for his son in Ireland and announces that he is shipping him off to America — and, inevitably, to the Korean War. Suddenly Eamon finds himself torn between his duty to his father and his loyalty to the girl he loves. This is an incredibly passionate tale, mainly because the passion is suppressed; no one articulates their true feelings, people try to hide their fears for the future, and Eamon and line's young love is forbidden. It isn’t until the very end that these emotions finally come to the fore in one huge explosion of anguish, love and fear. (Bill Harris)
Korea, allay, Barnes 1, 9.30pm; ZBAug, Cannes 1, 1pm. £6 (£4).
The List 18-24 Aug 1995 DO