STEVE All] MICHAEL BUSCEMI play fictional brothers in Trees Lounge, the more famous sibling's first film as writer-director. Steve has worked with Jarmusch. Tarantino and the Coens. but his directing debut is closer in style to Altman or Cassavetes - the plot is allowed to build naturally from the characters and their interactions. Trees Lounge is the semi-autobiographical tale of an annoying but basically amiable loser who clutches onto the bar of his local tavern like a drowning man grabbing a lifebelt. Semi-autobiographical, that is, in that it's how Steve Buscemi might have ended up if he hadn’t left home for New York. ‘1 wrote this screenplay five years ago.’ he explains, ‘so l’ve had a lot of time to live with the script and this character. I mean. it’s really me: it’s who I was and who I probably would still be if l had stayed in Long Island. So, in that way. i didn’t really have to do any work acting-wise. I’ve spent a lot of time in bars . . . l've consumed my share of alcohol . . . ’ (Alan Morrison)
Trees Lounge (Film Festival) Cameo, 467 8855, 21 Aug, 7.30pm, £6 (£4).
liEilYO - FAR FROM THE torus is a journey irom birth to death, told in the inimitable Japanese dance language called butch. Created In the wake oi Hiroshima and llagasaire, hotel: is characterised by agonislngiy slow movement, stark simplicity oi design and a deep-seated awareness oi mortality. Ilenyo - periormed by Tokyo’s lialrutobo company - was choreographed, designed and composed by Iomoe Shizune, now recognised as one oi the dance iorm’s leading exponents. Ii intense spirituality and aching beauty are your bag, don’t miss it. lienyo - Far From The lotus (International Festival) Tomoe Shitune and Hatutobo, King’s Theatre, 18-20 Aug, 7.30pm, £5-£22.
ONE "0085 look like being one of this year's Festival discoveries. The music 'n' chat trio from Melbourne have proved so popular at the Spiegeltent that they've been booked for an extra week; and Scots chanteuse Horse has offered them the support slot for her gig on 31 August. Another chance to catch Blue House is at the Heart Of The City, an attempt to create ‘Edinburgh's first European café quarter‘. To the joy of the city's cabbies, the Royal Mile will be closed off, and the Mercat Cross will become home to two bars from Amsterdam. one of them a tapas bar in the form of a ferris wheel. Apart from Blue House, entertainment will be provided by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, My Friend The Chocolate Cake, the Circus Of Horrors and other Fringe groups. There's also the Cinema Under The Stars, at which Cecil B. DeMilie's Carmen (1915) and Powell and Pressburger’s Black Narcissus (1947) will be screened as a double-bill.
Blue House play at Beck's Famous Spiegeltent at around 2pm until Sun 18; then evening slots until Sun 25. Heart Of The City is open Fri l6—Sun l8, [Dam-lam, with entertainment noon-9pm. Film screenings start at 10pm. We 're also promised a ‘spectacular' new act from Jim Rose on Fri 16 at 6.30pm.
6 The List l6-22 Aug I996