“HIGH FIVE
Top five modern 1%,!" films chosen 4"" by Glasgow 5 playwright -/ IAIN HEGGIE.
Fargo The Coen Brothers. A great celebration of stupidity. The “tragic' consequences are handled With gobsmacking lightness of touch.
2 Happiness Todd Solondz. The most outrageous film of recent years. Simultaneously drives a truck thrOugh and makes us complicit with one of the biggest taboos of the day.
3 Love And Death Woody Allen. The funniest film I've ever seen. And takes costume drama to the cleaners.
4 Blue Velvet David Lynch. Uses the conventions of B-movie melodrama to ease us into the darkest night our SOuls have ever faced.
5 My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend Eric
Rohmer. the great observer of
the volatility of the heart and the
self-delusions of the mind. at the top of his powers.
Top five horror movies chosen by ADELE HARTLEY, director of the Dead By Dawn horror film festival at Edinburgh’s Filmhouse.
1 American Werewolf In London Can‘t help it. Love this film. Tell me. why is that pentangle on the wall?
2 Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn First proper horror film I remember seeing. and the film I named the festival after. A divine piece of high-horror camp with some genuine frights.
3 Nosferatu The original is Breathtaking. Spectacular in every way.
4 Texas Chainsaw Massacre The structure and execution of this film are intoxicating. A relentless nightmare that leaves y0u feeling more like a survivor than an innocent viewer.
5 The Thing A flawless piece of genre cinema. No screaming girlies. no happy ending, visceral yet appropriate fx. stunning cinematography and a blissful soundtrack. John Carpenter's finest hour. Apart from Hal/owe'en, which is also smashing.
THE OPINION
A lunatic I asylum DOIIC
The facts of British asylum policy are little better than the actions of the self-styled ‘Scottish National Front’. Words: Mark Brown here is a schizophrenia at the heart of New Labour. On the one hand. whenever it is attempting to justify sanctions against Iraq or the bombing of Serbia. the world is full of dictators and ‘rogue states'
which are responsible for all manner of
atrocities against their own people. On the other. when people flee such regimes and seek
refuge in Britain. they change from victims of
human rights abuses into incorrigible liars who make up ‘bogus‘ claims about their experiences.
From the speeches of leading Labour and Tory politicians to the inflammatory and downright racist headlines of many newspapers. the message has gone out that Britain does not welcome people seeking asylum. For those not put off coming here by the bellicose rhetoric. the Home Secretary.
Jack ‘Boots‘ Straw. has devised a clever way of
making certain that they don‘t see Britain as a safe haven from persecution. He persecutes them himself. with an ingenious combination of old Tory and New Labour policies.
Asylum applicants are expected to live on £36 per week (£10 in cash. £26 in stigmatising vouchers). They are often incarcerated in detention centres. such as the notorious Campsfield. or compulsorin removed to a
People still insist on trying to get here in the comfort of the underside of a EuroStar train.
location of the Home Offices choosing under Straw's charmingly entitled ‘dispersal‘ system. Yet people still insist on trying to get here in the comfort of the under-side of a EuroStar train. Could it be that they are actually fleeing from assaults on their human rights‘.’
The social fallout of all of this scapegoating was seen recently when the fascists of the so- called ‘Scottish National Front‘ attempted to tap into anti-refugee bigotry with a leafleting of Barrhead. on the outskirts of Glasgow. Thankfully. supporters of the Anti-Nazi League and the Glasgow Campaign to
Deftones SECC. Glasgow
8 THE LIST 29 Mar—12 Apr 2001
Amanda Student ‘ It was excellent. I've a; '_ seen them " befOre but it ‘53 was really good.
Phil
Smack C0unse/lor
| Wish Chino had gone all the way on the butt front.
Noma Dumezweni gives a brilliant performance in The Bogus Woman
Welcome Refugees were warmly received when they arrived in the area to campaign against the racists. The local paper also waded in against the Nazis and extended the hand of friendship to asylum seekers. Nevertheless. the dangers of politicians and editors playing with the asylum issue are all too obvious.
All of which should be ample encouragement to get to the Tron Theatre to see Kay Adshead's excoriating one-actor play The Bogus Woman. Brilliantly performed by Noma Dumezweni. it tells the fictionalised story of an African woman who flees certain death at the hands of her country‘s security forces only to hit a brick wall of British state suspicion and racism. The story is. says Adshcad. 'morc shocking than some [real cases]. and less shocking than others.’
For my part. I can only agree with the theatre critic of The [mic/mule)”. ‘See this play; preferably with Jack Straw strapped in beside you.‘
The Bogus Woman is at the Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Tue 3-Sat 7 Apr. Mark Brown will join Keith Bruce, arts editor of The Herald, and Noma Dumezweni at a post- show discussion on Thu 5 Apr.
Slame
‘//aster Yeeaahh! It .vas totally good but too fucking hot. They should have been throwmg water Over the bo,s
Richie Fucker/ck
lt rocked but Taprcot were disappOinting and Linkin Park are the Westlife of metal.