frontlines
Microcosmos
Small is beautiful in this new nature film from France, which swept the boards at the Cesars — the French Oscars. The setting is a meadow, whose low-level occupants were filmed by special knee-high-to-a- grasshopper cameras, which captured all the mysterious activities of our bug-eyed chums at close quarters. Gasp as stag beetles go to war over twig- ownership; thrill as an argiope spider lays a trap for its prey; gawp as you observe the mating rites of the escargot. You don’t even have to put up with a breathlesst earnest commentary from David Attenborough: the only sound not contributed by the wee chaps is an award-winning score by Bruno Coulais. Microcosmos is at Glasgow Film Theatre and Edinburgh Filmhouse from Fri 76 May.
A Night Of Two Halfs
The Rebel Inc posse are back in Edinburgh this fortnight with a one-off, cross-cultural knockabout. Signed up for the team are writer/DI Paul Reekie, author Joel Rose (whose Kill Kill, Faster Faster has just been published by Rebel Inc), poet Jock Scot (who has just released My Personal Cul/oden, a CD collaboration with Davey Henderson and Nectarine No. 9) and DJ Kev Wright of Sublime, who'll be accompanied at the decks by Visuals and film from Delta Video. Actor Tam Dean Burn (pictured) will also be appearing — he'll perform a Burroughs-style compilation of samples from all nineteen stories in the Disco Biscuits anthology of club and drug- related fiction, billed as the ‘half-time entertainment’ in what’s sure to be a tremendous match.
A Night Of Two Halfs is
at Cafe Graffiti,
Edinburgh, Sun 78 May.
Fiona Apple
Picture the scene: fatcat record exec leans back in seat, grins and grinds out his cigar on the upturned face of a smiling flunky. ’What we need is a kooky female singer. Get me a Tori Amos or a Joan Osborne. Hell, even a Morissette would be nice.' Enter New Yorker Fiona Apple, young, beautiful and equipped with the requisite history of psychological trauma. Exec’s eyes light up, Apple’s eyes look down and cash tills start ringing like it's Christmas. Or so cynics would have us believe. In fact, Ms Apple sings with ten times the gravitas and maturity of a gaggle of Morissettes. Her debut album Tidal sounds like a modern-day Billie Holiday, sultry as treacle but bitter as wormwood. There’s a couple of rocky numbers in there but the majority of Tidal is deep and sophisticated. Huzzah! (Jonathan Trew)
Fiona Apple plays King Tut's on Sun l8 May, with support from Hardbody.
2 THE LIST I6 .29 May 199/