Film
Dribbling Fate
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In the former Portuguese colony of Cape Verde, Marie trades on his past glories as a top local goalkeeper, but inside he mourns the fact that he never signed with Benfica in Lisbon. When the opportunity arises to go to the mainland to watch the Cup Final, he hopes he can use the trip to patch up differences with his estranged son and perhaps help one young footballer on the island win the fame he missed out on. The pace here is as leisurely as island life, but the focus is not on plot, but character. Mane emerges as an easy-going, ordinary hero who is ultimately able to retain his personal dignity despite the disappointments life has thrown at him. (Alan Morrison)
a Dribb/ing Fate, Filmhouse 2, Tue 78, 8pm, Cameo 3, Mon 24, 7.30pm; Cameo 3, Fri 28, 4pm, £6.50 (£4).
Get Real
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There is a resemblance between Simon Shore's growing-up-and-being-gay movie and Beautiful Thing, but the differences are enough to give Get Real substance. This time the setting is affluent, middle-class Basingstoke, where high school introvert Steve (Ben Silverstone) makes incessant visits to the men’s bogs in the local park. Out of this cottage industry comes a relationship with John (Brad Gorton), the school's top athlete and hetero heartthrob, whose closet gayness causes them both problems. A thumping soundtrack and some astute observation of suburban life make this film an intelligent, moving and quietly comical piece. Not so much a rollercoaster ride as a scenic railway through middleclass angst - sexual and social. (Steve Cramer)
Q Get Real, Cameo 7, Thu 20, 8pm; Cameo 1, Tue 25, 5.30pm, £6.50 (£4).
Ballad Of Fire
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Kids playing with matches, bushfires in the hills, an arsonist on the loose in a suburban neighbourhood: James Knight's documentary is an essay on the fascination of flame in Los Angeles
Rock‘n' Roll Amariimothy G
reenfield
- a city literally and metaphorically ready to ignite. When a mysterious foreigner moves into Knight's street, and a coincidental spate of fires follows, multi-ethnic tensions in the locality turn an on-the-surface happy (if rather eccentric) neighbourhood in on itself. A gripping whodunnit mystery, it's a great story, entertainineg told. But me higher level, Ballad Of Fire breaks down the myth of the Land of the Free in a wonderfully visual format that cheerfully breaks rules of style and rhythm. (Alan Morrison)
a Ballad Of Fire, Filmhouse 2, Thu 20, 3.30pm, £6.50 (£4).
Pi 1t
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Mathematical genius Max is obsessed with the possibility of discovering numerical patterns in life and nature. Isolated from his neighbours and his urban environment, he comes across a 216 digit sequence that preceeds a stock market crash. And if the Jewish guy who hounds him in a coffee shop is to be believed, the same number, applied to the Torah, reveals the hidden name of God. Cinema and science fiction usually means effects-laden blockbusters, but Darren Aronofsky's Sundance hit - more Stephen Hawking than Isaac Asimov — takes the low budget route to paranoic number theory conspiracy breakdown. More thrilling than any Hollywood thriller, Pi will leave your brain reeling and your heart pounding. (Alan Morrison)
m Pi, Cameo 1, Mon 17, 8pm; Cameo 1, Sun 23, 8pm, £6.50 (£4).
Spring In My Hometown
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This take on the Korean War —- from the South Korean point of view and a young boy's perspective - is quite stunning in its simplicity and unconvoluted storytelling. Sung Min and Chang Hee are best friends, but while Sung's father has a job at the American base, Hee’s has been branded a Communist traitor. Without using music or a single moving camera shot to emotionalise the film, director Kwangmo Lee allows the framing and the boys’
-San tires a wall: on the wide side
in his documentary Lou Reed - Rock And Roll Heart.
78 "IE usr 13-20 Aug 1998
Filmhouse 1. Tue 18. 9.30pm. £6.50 (£4)
Family affair: Alex Norton and Douglas Renshall in Orphans
You've seen him as the drug dealer in Trainspotting and (in the near future) you‘ll see him give a Cannes Film Festival prizeowinning performance in Ken
Loach's My Name Is Joe. However, you won't see Peter Mulian in Orphans,
because he stays firmly behind the camera for his feature film debut as
director.
Not that his presence is diminished: it’s in evidence in the uniformly fine performances from his cast - this is an actor's movie. It’s a surprising movie too. The sombre opening scene, in which the four adults gather around a coffin to pay their last respects to their deceased mother, belies the film’s underlying warmth and optimism. Grief explodes the parent-less family, as its members wander through a Glasgow besieged by an apocalyptic storm, searching for redemption. absolution, understanding.
Multan makes clever use of humour. frequently verging on the surreal, to illustrate the often ludicrous nature of family relations. Unable to let go of his mother, the oldest child and sole family member to attend the funeral attempts to pallbear the casket alone. 'She ain't heavy, she‘s my mother,’ he says. in a great throwaway line. The attempt flattens him, breaking his nose. Orphans‘ take on family disjunction is fresh and unexpectedly
touching. (Miles Fielder)
e Orphans, Fllmhouse 1, Mon 17, 7pm, Glasgow Film Theatre, Tue 18, Born; Cameo 1, Tue 25, 10.30pm, £6.50 (£4).
innocent naughtiness — portrayed in two outstanding performances — to reveal far more about the bitter choices forced on an occupied community than any action movre ever could. (Thom Dibdin)
n Spring In My Hometown, Cameo 3, Thu 20, 7.30pm; Fi/mhouse 2, Sun 23, 8pm, £6.50 (£4).
Tano Da Morire
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A Hollywood-style ’pitch' for Tano Da Morire might go like this: ’Almodovar meets Svankmajer to remake The Godfather in the style of an Indian musical’. The result is dynamic, more intense and frantic (certainly less controlled) than the postmodern mix of, say, Romeo And Juliet. The story concerns Italian mafia boss Tano, whose gruesome death is told in manic flashback episodes encompassing song and dance routines, animation and Scorsese- esque bloodbaths. If crazy, kitsch fun is what you want, Tano Da Morire is your film. (Miles Fielder)
a Tano Da Morire, Cameo 7, Tue 18, 10.30pm; Glasgow Film Theatre, Sat 22, 8pm; Filinhouse 1, Tue 25, 9.30pm, £6.50 (£4).
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Jeanne Et Le Garcon Formidable
OliVier Diicastel's and Jacques Martineau's tribute to the films of Jacques Demy contains all of the form and none of the content — for all the striking primary colour schemes and old- style song and dance, this ain't The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg. The promiscuous Jeanne (Virginie Ledoyen) meets the love of her life, OliVier (Mathieu Demy — son of Jacques), who proves to be afflicted with AIDS. The narrative, while maintaining an apparently light tone, begins to attack indifference to the illness in French society, as well as the mistreatment of emigrants and junkies. Visually splendid, the film's sooal content remains a little unfocused. (Steve Cramer)
% Jeanne E t Le Garcon Formidab/e, Fi/mhouse 7, Mon 77, 2.30pm; Glasgow Film Theatre, Wed 19, 8pm; Fi/mhouse 7, Sat 22, 4.30pm, £6.50 (£4).
STAR RATINGS
tests: Uiiiiiissalfle «knit Very good tit Worth seeing * * Below average * Yli'.l'\.’t* l‘t"‘li
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