Film index
The Officers’ Ward (La Chambre des Ofliciers) ( 15l C. (Francois Dupeyron. France. 2002i Eric ('aravaca. Isabelle Renauld. 135 mins. Watching Dupeyron‘s film you have the feeling that World War 1 had nothing to do with national pride or international peace. but simply with the nature of physical deformity. Here the war isn‘t being fought on the battlefields of Europe. but chiefly in the mind of Adrien ((‘aravacal as he comes to terms with facial disfigurement after being severely wounded in the war‘s early days. ()ddly. it turns out to be well-crafted btit shallow cinema. Eilmhouse. Edinburgh.
One Hell Of A Christmas ( lxi (Shaky (ionzalez. Denmark. 2002) 99 mins. An ex- con. fresh out of prison. is presented with a horrifying scam to earn some quick cash and swiftly finds himself entangled in a web of sex. demons and . . . (‘hristmas (‘arols. (‘hilean born (ionzalez w ill introduce his film. Part of Dead By Dawn. Eilmhouse. Edinburgh. The Princess Diaries (PG) 0
((iarry Marshall. IS. 2001 1 Anne Hathaway. Julie Andrews. Heather Matarazzo. l 15 mins. (ioofy teenager Mia 'I‘hermopolis (Hathaway 1 lives with her boho artist other in San l-‘rancisco. Although Mia gets the grades rather than the boys. she breezes happily through life. [ind her paternal grandmother Queen (‘larisse (Andrews) arrives at her doorstep and tells Mia she's the heir to the throne of the European principality of (ienov ia. Thereafter. Mia suffers under the tutelage of her stern royal granny as she is transformed from ugly duckling into a charming princess. Horrible. from sappy w ish-fultilment premise to sugar- coated execution. Selected release. Rashomon ( 121 00000 (Akira Kurosawa. Japan. 1951 iToshio Mifune. Machiko Kyo. Masayuki Mori. 88 mins. Responsible for introducing Japanese cinema to the world market. this extraordinary film recounts four people's versions of a violent incident involving a nobleman and a bandit. (ll-'1". (ilasgow.
TERMS & CONDITIONS
Entrants must be 18 years Or Over The otter is Subject to availability There 3 no cash alternat've Maximum two tickets per reader. “war ,,-- » ~-J . m.“ ._
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Return To Never Land (l'i 00 (Robin Btidd & Donovan (‘ook. IS. 20021
Voices of Harriet ()wen. Blayne Weaver. (‘orey
Burton. tbc mins. Wendy has grown up and now has two children of her own. The oldest. Jane. having witnessed the devastation caused by the blitzkrieg conditions of World War 11. no longer believes in Peter Pan and stories of ‘faith. trust and pixie dust'. That is until the night before she is to be evactiated to the countryside. when ('aptain Hook kidnaps her mistakenly believing that she is Wendy. Jane rediscovers the magic - unfortunately the viewer doesn’t. Everything about the film is dated. from plotting to animation. (ieneral release.
0 The Royal Tenenbaums (151 so... (Wes Anderson. l.'S. 2002i (iene Hackman. Angelica Huston. (iwyneth Paltrow. I 10 mins. The 'I‘enenbaums are no ordinary family. Descended from a long line of over- achievers. these New York geniuses are now in stultifying decline. The memory of the bril- liance of the young 'I‘enenbaums has since been erased by two decades of betrayal. fail- ure and domestic disaster. most of which is perceived by the family to be the fault of absent father. Royal (Hackrnanl. Then. at the very moment his three grown-up children have. for whom reasons. all moved back into the rambling home of their mother. Royal decides he wants his family. With lt’m’nlzutmts‘. Anderson (Rirvliniurei has sur- passed himself with an enchanting. odd tale of an awkward family and its member's impossi- ble magnetic attraction to each other. (ieneral release.
Rushmore ( 15l CO... (Wes Anderson. 1S. 1999) Jason Schwartzman. Bill Murray. ()livia Williams. 93 mins. Bright. bespectacled and geeky. Max Fischer. scholarship boy at the exclusive Riishmore Academy in Houston. is irritating and endearing in equal measures. while his self-belief is awesome. 111 Bill Murray‘s self-loathing millionaire steel tycoon. Max finds a soul mate. but when they both fall in love with the new teacher Miss
o GFT 12 Rose St Glasgow 0141 332 8128
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The List has teamed up with the Italian Film Festival to offer you the chance to see the exclusive screening of Giolio Manfredonia's sexy movie If I Were You (15), a comedy about the lives of three young men who after a chance meeting on a beach, swap lives and begin to live out their ambitions and fantasies through each other. . . We have 40 tickets to give away to the Edinburgh screening at 8.30pm on Wednesday 3 April at the Filmhouse and 40 tickets for the Glasgow screening at 6.15pm on Thursday 4 April at the GFT. We also have a case of Peroni Beer for the first two names pulled out of the hat. If you want to win any of the above, just send us an email marked ‘If I Were You’ at promotions@list.co.uk by noon on Tuesday 2 April.
36 THE LIST 28 Mar ‘1 1 Al)! 2002
(‘ross (Williamsi. their friendship turns sour. Wes Anderson's quirky. original comedy puts most of Hollywood‘s recent output to shame. Murray gives his best performance in years. while film debutante Schwartzman is simply astonishing. Cameo. Edinburgh.
Saniuro ( 15) O... (Akira Kurosawa. Japan. 1962) Toshiro Mifune. Tatsuya Nakadai. Yuzo Kayatna. 96 mins. A sequel to Yaji'nilm Kurosawa has the eponymous hero dancing a jig round the big would-be samuri boys and cleverly taking the mickey out of the action adventure movies of the time. A stunning climax however. (il’l‘. (ilasgow. Series 7: The Contenders ( 181
0... (Daniel Minahan. 2001. 1S) Brooke Smith. Marylouise Burke. (ilenn Fitzgerald. 87 mins. You will die. unless you can kill five other contenders first. You are given a gun. pursued by a cameraman. monitored by global television systems and left to play the game. These are the rules of The (hammers. the hottest L'S reality TV show and fictional subject of writer-director Minahan's quite brilliant debut. Drawing from his background in tabloid documentary. Minahan has created a gruesome satire on audience voyeurism that is as disturbingly familiar as it is comically absurd. The idea is repulsive and yet the action is engrossing. It's like Gladiators for the 21st century. Eilmhouse. Edinburgh.
Seven Samurai (P(il 000.0 (Akira Kurosawa. Japan. 195-1) Toshiro Mifune. 'l‘akahashi Simura. 200 mins. A group of timid villagers seek protection against the excesses of a brutal warlord by hiring seven heroic samurai. Seminal Japanese action picture. with a slow-building dignity matching the best of John Ford. and in its stylishly aesthetic handling of screen violence a profound influence on the likes of Sam Peckinpali. Highly recommended. Part of the Akira Kurosawa season. (il’l'. (ilasgow.
Shallow Hal ( l2) .0. (Bobby and Peter l-‘arrelly. 1S. 2001 l (iwyneth Paltrow. Jack Black. Jason Alexander. I 13 mins. Black (so good in High I-itlelrrvl takes his first starring role as Hal. an immensely shallow- man who only ever dates beautiful women. All that changes when Hal gets trapped in a lift with a self-help guru who hypnotises him into only being able to see a person’s ‘inner beauty". Shortly afterwards. Hal falls in love with a sweet-natured nurse who is immensely obese. but who appears only to Hal as slimline Paltrow. (iiven the Earrelly brothers' penchant for gross out comedy. .S‘liallmr Hal turns out to be. at heart. a very sweet film. though it lacks belly laughs. Selected release.
The Shipping News ( m 0000 (Lasse Hallstrom. (S. 20021 Kevin Spacey. Julianne Moore. Judi Derich. l 17 mins. Annie Proulx's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about a depressed middle-aged father who takes his daughter off to his family's ancestral home in barren Newfoumlland after the unfaithful wife (though love of his life) is killed in a car wreck. is an eccentric black comedy. btit also a raw. melancholy yarn. What hope. then. for arch sentimentalist Hallstrom not leaving Proulx's masterpiece fiotmdering'.’ None it would seem. yet against the odds Hallstrom delivers a watertight piece of drama. directed and acted with beautiful restraint. particularly by Spacey who plays the depressed protagonist Quoyle. Selected release.
Shrek (lfl ooooo (Andrew Adamson. Yicky Jenson. ['S. 2001 1 Voices of Mike Myers. (‘ameron Diaz. Eddie Murphy. 90 mins. Slit-ck will have Walt Disney turning in his cryogenic freeze tank. This truly subversive animated film takes pot shots at fairytale mythology, while singling out l'ncle Walt's beloved .S'mm' ll'liilc. (TIN/('I't’lltl. l’rnm‘clirri. et al. l'nder the guise of a quest to rescue a princess from a dragon undertaken by the eponymous green ogre (which kids will love). Sir/wk also ruthlessly pillages corporate Disney. satirising its theme parks and executives. And who's behind all this‘.’ Producer Jeffrey Katzenberg of Disney rival studio DreamWorks. also formerly head of. yep, Disney. Selected release.
Sidewalks Of New York ( lr’ii coo
(Ed Burns. [S 2002) Ed Burns. Heather (iraham. Rosario Dawson. 107 mins. Burns has been making his own low key brand of New York stories for some years now. but for his latest slice of life in NYC the writer‘-
director takes his cue from Woody Allen. .S'alewalks intertwines the lives of six New Yorkers. variously falling in and out of relationships and worrying about ever meeting the right person in a most neurotic manner. 1.ikeAllen. Burns goes fora mix of lightweight comedy and romance. playing it along in a semi-improvised fashion. 1t's watchable enough. but falls down by trying too hard to be both off-the-cuff and deep and meaningful. See review. (ieneral release.
A Skin Too Few (PGl (Jeroen Berkvens. Netherlands/Denmark/l,'K. 2001 l 48 mins. Biopic about the life and premature death (at 26» of the singer-songwriter. Mixes footage of Drake's childhood home with interviews including the singer's sister. (iabrielle. Part of the Sheffield International Documentary Festival. (i171: (ilasgow.
Sleepless (Non Ho Somo) ( lb'l (Dario Argento. Italy. 2001 i Max von Sydow. Stefano Dionisi. 117 mins. Argento returns to the giallo thriller style (see also his Deep Rerll for this tale about a bloodbath orchestrated by a serial killer inspired by macabre nursery rhymes. Part of Dead By Dawn. l-‘ilmhouse. Edinburgh.
Society ( 18) 0... (Brian Yuzna. l'S. 19891 Billy Warlock. Patrice Jennings. Devin De Vasquez. 102 mins. A spunky little B- movie from the folks who brought you the horror comic classics like Rea/imiarn and l‘rmn Bey-oral. The narrative follow s alienated Californian youngster Warlock as he comes to terms with both his lack of social acceptability and his deeply rooted fear of incest. btit his teen angst is manifested in a surprisingly physical way courtesy of Screaming Mad (ieorge's ‘Special Surrealistic Effects‘. Yuzna calls it ‘Psycho-fiction'. btit we'll settle for one of the more intelligent genre movies of recent years. The Lumiere. Edinburgh.
The Son’s Room (La stanza di tiglio) (15) O... (NanniMoretti.lta1y.20(l2i Nanni Moretti. Laura Morante. (iiiiseppe Sanfelice. 99 mins. A significant creative departure for Italian actor-writer-director Nanni Moretti. the Palme D'()r-w inning The San 'x Roam makes for a fascinating portrayal of how an unexpected death fragments a previously united middle-class family. Moretti depicts the chilling practical details of the funeral arrangements. and then shows how grief is both externalised and internalised by the bereaved. Aided by understated performances and an unobtrusive visual style. this is a film of deceptive simplicity. which engages directly with the spectators emotions whilst avoiding tearftil reconciliations. Filllllitltlsc. Edinburgh.
South Pacific ( lSi coo (Joshua 1.ogan.l'S. 19581 Rossano Brazzi. Mil/i (iaynor. John Kerr. Ray Waltson. Juanita Hall. Erance Nuyen. 171 mins. The great Rodgers and Hammerstein musical brought to the silver screen in an adequate though far from outstanding adaptation. The songs are the kind that you'll find yourself humming for weeks afterwards. St Bride's (‘entre. Edinburgh.
0 St John’s Wort ( 15) (Shimoyama Ten. Japan. 2001) 85 mins. When a video game designer visits the mansion that inspired her work. she becomes mysterioust linked to both it and her creation. Part of Dead By Dawn. The Lumiere. Edinburgh.
Stalker ( l’(il O... (Andrei Tarkovsky. USSR. 1979i Alexander Kaidanovsky. Anaton Solonitsyn. Nikolai (irinko. 161 mins. 'l‘arkovsky's allusive adaptation of the Strugatsl'.y novel about the aftermath of an alien visitation. The stalker is a man who is prepared to act as a guide through the contaminated area. btit the director uses the Zone as a locale of very human desires and projections. Visually splendid and intellectually provocative. Stalker is one of Tarkovsky 's most accessible films. Edinburgh Eilm (itiild. Edinburgh.
Stray Dog ( 151 tAkira Kurosaw a. Japan. 19-19) Toshiro Mifune. Takasha Shimura. Keiko Awaji. 122 mins. ('lassic police thriller in which Kurosawa describes a storm brewing in the Tokyo underworld. Part of the Akira Kurisawa season. (il’l‘. (ilasgow.
0 Surprise Movie (Dead By Dawn Festival) ( lSi (2002). Special surprise screening. the title of which won't be revealed until the night. Part of Dead By Dawn. The Eilmhousc & The Lumiere. Edinburgh.