FILM SCOTTISH
SCOTTISH FILM
I llew Scottish Talent Awards: BAFTA Scotland has announced a new set of awards designed to spotlight the achievements of the latest generation of Scottish filmmakers. The awards break down into the following categories — Director, Producer. Writer. Composer, Technician. Achievement and Performance — with an award for Best Production chosen from all entries. Prizes come in the shape of training scholarships.
Work, by Scottish filmmakers or individuals based in Scotland for at least two years, must have been completed after 1 August 1995 and be available to view on VHS by 30 October 1996. Entrants must have had no more than one piece of work broadcast or distributed commercially in the category which they have entered, and can enter only one category. There is no age limit. Forms are available front BAF’I’A Scotland, 74 Victoria Crescent Road. Glasgow. G12 9JN (0141 357 4317). and the entry fee for each category is £5. Closing date for entries is 31 October.
I Macbeth: The latest film by the
makers of Chasing The Deer and The Bruce will receive its world premiere at the Beach Ballroom. Aberdeen on Thursday 17 October. This new cinema adaptation of Macbeth. the first time the Shakespeare tragedy has reached the big screen since Roman Polanski’s 1971 version, stars Jason Connery and Helen Baxendale.
The film then sets off for a touring series of gala screenings. which will take in the Assembly Rooms. Edinburgh on Wednesday 30 October and Glasgow’s Art Gallery & Museum at Kelvingrove on Saturday 2 November. The screenings will be followed by a ‘medieval l-lallowe’en extravaganza’ with entertainment. music and dancing. Tickets, pn'ced £20, are available on 01789 292779.
I The Whirlpool: Writer-director Kenny Glenaan‘s short drama The Whirlpool (featured in Issue 283) receives its first television broadcast as part of Channel 4’s The Shooting Gallery on Tuesday 15 October. The film, produced by Glasgow theatre company Wiseguise. tells of the shifting balance in the relationship between a young man and his alcoholic mother.
SHORT FILM
Wee monsters
There are creatures out there more terrifying than anything the shadowy world of horror can dream up. They’ll take the world’s most famous vampire and reduce him to an exhausted old man. They are a bus-load ol schoolkids from Tyneside.
Writer-director Peter Wells certainly had his hands lull when he went on location to make his short film Dracula Day, which was llapier University’s entry for the 1996 Fujililm Scholarship, held last weekend. As well as bringing the Prince of Darkness to the screen once more, he had to cope with a twelve-year-old battalion of the Teen Army.
‘1 hate the idea of that Jenny Agutter- hallway-Children well-spoken voice,’ says Wells, who’s just beginning his final year on llapier’s Photography, Film and TV degree course. ‘I wanted absolute brats, and in Tyneside you can get away with that because the
Dracula Day: Christopher Lee never had it so tough
accent is so strong and the dialect so brash that you just have to give them a few lines and they’re terrifying.
‘The kids were bored out of their minds the first day,’ he admits. ‘The romance and the idea of being film stars were off after about an hour. But towards the end of the shoot, when they knew what was involved, they were great.’
The story concerns an end-ol-terrn trip down to Whitby and its atmospheric Abbey, where the pupils aren’t exactly over-impressed with the elderly vampire impersonator who tries to interest them in the Bram Stoker novel. It’s soon clear that poor old Dracula has more chance of surviving a quick dip in a bath of holy water than a battle of wits with the Sega generation.
The original idea came from stories about such educational excursions from Wells’s mother, herself a teacher in llorth Yorkshire. The film has a great sense of charm and has fun along the way with various aspects of the Dracula myth - all of which should be in its favour when television channels and cinemas start programming seasons to tie in with next year’s centenary oi the Stoker novel. (Alan Morrison)
RETAIL
I BEM Road Movie (15) The latest REM flick is an audio-visual record of 1995's Monster world tour. Shot on home turf in Atlanta. it’s a more straightforward account than 1988's arty Timrfilm — so ifyou like Murnbling Michael and co. you’ll like the video. Eight Monster selections jostle with a few New Adventures previews, plus a handful of old classics. but don't expect interviews or a poke around backstage. The high-spot is still ‘Man On The Moon’. (Warner £12.99)
I Rabid/Shivers (18) Right from his first full- length features, David Cronenberg introduced the themes and obsessions that would run through his work until the present day. Both movies. shot on a very low budget. concern the breakdown of society when sexual encounters result in the spawning of violent zombies. 1n Rabid. it’s caused by a parasite that passes from body to body beneath the skin; in Shivers. there's a twist on the vampire tnyth as a phallic spike shoots out from Marilyn Chambers armpit during tight embraces. Sure it sounds silly. but Cronenberg gives the scenarios an unsettling edge. (Arrow £7.99 each)
I When llight Is Falling (18) A mythology professor at a Christian college abandons her fiance when she encounters a sexy circus perfomier. A glossy advert for the lesbian lifestyle. Patricia Rozema’s drama flashes ‘message’ at us all the time and. because of its allegorical format. doesn’t individualise its characters well enough to allow us to become enveloped in the ensuing romance. (Tartan £15.99)
I Safety last (PG) Harold Lloyd’s silent comedy — the one that has him hanging off the clock- face on a skyscraper - is a
VIDEOS
Also out: Jeff Bridges is on a doomed sea voyage in White
Squall (First Independent, rental)
masterpiece of combined laughs and thrills. Here. and in The Kill Brother (U). Lloyd manages to maintain a consistant persona ofa likeable little guy who doesn't succumb to the irritating sentimentality of Chaplin. The latter film has him as the put-upon youngest child of the town sheriff. whose wit and intelligence win the day — and the heart of the girl — when a medicine show comes to town. The Marx Brothers’ A light In Casablanca (U) isn't nearly as good. trying to mesh together a post- World War 11 intrigue plot and vaudeville comedy. Every now and again, the story has to stop for an unwelcome musical interlude. and even the one-liners aren‘t up to the inimitable Groucho’s usual standard. (Connoisseur £12.99 each)
I The Brother From Another Planet (15) A mute black visitor from outer space — literally an illegal alien — finds himself lost in Harlem and tracked by white bounty hunters. Ignorant of his origins. the locals treat him just like any other homeless guy. There‘s a lot of charm in John Sayles's soulful comedy. which also takes time to tease out racial attitudes and an anti-drugs sub- plot. (Arrow £9.99)
I Glastonbury The Movie (15) Filmed over a number of years at the Glastonbury Festival. this easy-going documentary
Also out: Mel Gibson lines up for battle in Bravehearl. available to buy in tullscreen (£14.99) and widescreen (£15.99)
doesn‘t exist purely as an excuse for live clips of your favourite bands. instead. it gets over the full flavour of the festival experience. as the camera wanders around the site. Unfortunately. also like the real festival experience. it becomes a bit boring if you're not spending time with your own mates and watching your type of music. Mind you. some of the revellers are a bit ofa giggle: they came. they saw. they conked out. (lMC £12.99) I Just lleroes (18) An undiscovered John Woo gangster movie? Well. partly. as the master co- directed it with Ng Ma. A great opening sequence is followed by a power struggle between the three heirs to a respected ganglord. with the genre’s staple themes of honour. betrayal and revenge building to a suitably bloody climax. In terms of the internal politics of the crime family. it‘s closer to the Godfather-style American movies of recent years. (MIA Hong Kong Classics £13.99)
I Between The lines (15) Joan Micklin Silver’s well regarded but little seen movie follows the oddballs working for a Boston counter-culture newspaper as they try to adhere to its heritage of 60s radicalism in the face of a takeover by a big publishing corporation. Basically a collection of slyly funny scenes between members of the young cast. the film is an elegy to idealism. while still being realistic about the reporters’ lust for fame. Silver’s debut movie. liester Street (PG). also focuses on strong characters to give a wider sense of its specific setting — this time the Jewish ghetto of New York at the end of last century. Like Between The Lines. the story concerns leaving behind one set of values - old world Jewish culture and individuality - for something more ‘modern' — Americanisation and conformity. (Arrow £9.99 each)
24 The List 4-17 Oct 1996