Red Dragon (1 1 October) Likely you've already seen this stOry filmed as Michael Mann‘s Manhunter. But after the enormous success of Hannibal how could producer Dino De Laurentiis fail to re-adapt Thomas Harris' first Lecter novel? Anthony Hopkins is back in jail as the mastermind serial killer who helps FBI agent Will Graham (now played by Edward Norton) track down a killer known as the Tooth Fairy. Ralph Fiennes. Emily Watson and Harvey Keitel also get in on the act.
All or Nothing (18 October) Less is more. they say. and Britain's granddaddy of cinema. Mike Leigh. seems to have got more with what‘s being touted as a fine return to form. Eschewing the pomp and circumstance of his last film, the period drama/musical Topsy-Turvy. Leigh gets back to what he knows best: working class life. warts and more warts. Leigh regulars Timothy Spall and Lesley Manville play a married couple experiencing not a little difficulty in their marriage. Expect despairing drama and liberating laughs.
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xXx (1 8 October)
Souped-up James Bond with double. nay treble the street cred. Vin Deisel takes the lead as an extreme sports freak who is recruited by the government to become a super-bad secret agent who must kick bad-guy ass. The trailer says it all: Diesel sitting in a car with a ridiculously large engine poking out the hood. there's a pile of hardware Dubya Bush would be proud of in front of the motor and Diesel says to an underling: ‘I want that. in here, now.‘ Cool.
‘The question is never how to do a film, but Why do
Coffee & politics
Fuelled by the caffeine kick of something as small as an espresso, great ideas spring from the mind of Britain’s godfather of politicised cinema, KEN LOACH.
Words: Miles Fielder
en Loach is talking to me on 1 I September. Tomorrow
his latest lilm. one of’ the eleven shorts comprising / l
()9 ()l . the French-financed anthology of reactions from filmmakers around the world to America post the terrorist actions ol‘ that date. will be screened at the Toronto Film Festival. When ll ()9 ()l was premiered at the Venice Film Festival. where it won an award earlier this month. its criticism of~ US foreign policy prompted entertainment industry Bible Variety to brand it ‘anti-American‘.
‘Ah. excellent.‘ says Loach when I tell him this. ‘It just shows how myopic they are; Americans see nothing except the world as reflected by themselves. They cannot stand any suggestion of~ another country putting the [IS in the dock to show what they've done for the past ()0 years.’
The eleven films range from gentle to aggressive in their critique of' America. Loach‘s falling somewhere in between. It takes the form of' a letter written to the families of' the victims of
14 THE LIST ‘r'Ua'. I