Gangs of New York
(10 January 2003)
Martin Scorsese's latest slice of Big Apple gangster life sure has been a long time coming. It can't be that Marty‘s film contains sensitive shots of the Twin Towers because Gangs is about 19th century hoodlums — specifically. the established Irish hoods versus the incoming Italians. Leonardo DiCaprio gets caught in the middle of a bloody street war. while Cameron Diaz complicates things further with love.
Revengers Tragedy
(February 2003)
Rebel filmmaker Alex Cox (Repo Man. Sid and Nancy) is back in Britain (Liverpool to be exact) making movies after a hiatus in the Latin counties. Here. he adapts and updates Thomas Middleton’s Jacobean drama. setting the tale of, well, revenge in the near future and pitting the north against the south of England. Eddie lzzard. Christopher Eccleston, Sophie Dahl and Derek Jacobi are the thesps involved.
l
8 Mile (21 February 2003)
The Eminem movie. Eminem plays a Detroit rapper who struggles to overcome his anger — or maybe that's merely express it — through music. Can a wigga with filthy lyrics transcend his roots to become a worldwide success? That'll be Marshall Mathers lll stretching his acting abilities, then (although he's supposedly pretty good). Making his big screen debut. Eminem gets a helping hand from LA Confidential Oscar winners Curtis Hanson (directing) and Kim Basinger (performing). Go figure. For coverage of this tortnight’s movies, including My Little Eye, Red Dragon and One Hour Photo, see Film section beginning on page 26.
20 THE LIST " ‘ ' .”
orvem calling
She’s worked with Spielberg and Woody Allen, but SAMANTHA MORTON followed her instincts to play the role of a lifetime in a little Scottish film called Morvern Callar. Words: Neil Cooper
amantha Morton‘s tip on stage. making a speech at the premiere of her new movie. In a
quietly deliant little yoice. with just a hint of
her natiye Nottingham accent seeping through. she's telling it how it is. About the industry she’s in and about how hard it is to make great lilms in small countries. eyen though she's just made one.
Long-necked. short—haired. taller than you think. Sam ~ we can call her that looks eyen less like Moryern (‘alletz the eponymous anti-heroine on the road to nowhere and beyond she plays in the Lynne Ramsay-directed l'eature she's introducing. than you might think. like a baby ga/elle still linding its l‘eet. all moon-eyed and sell-conscious. she‘s awkwardly elegant and elegantly awkward. knowing l‘ull well what‘s expected of her as she blinks into the papara/Ii llash-bulbed light.
Scratching her arm and craning oyet' her heels. she looks like she might totter oyer any second. like she hasn‘t quite learned the eyeryday call-and—response routine ol’ celebrity trade—oil. that‘s expected ol‘ her. And hell. why would she'.’ She's an actor. alter all. not some llihhertigiblwt perl‘orming—seal. lapping up the praise. lstl‘l sllC'.’
liarlier. at the start of‘ a long day‘s sol't sell. Sam seems to float slowly into the lobby of an lidinburgh hotel. all wrapped Lip like Christmas in her long fitted coat. If this were a snow-capped historical romance. awash with oh-so-literaiy weight. she'd be the Russian princess. melancholic. mercurial and doomed. But it's not. We‘re here. we're now and we're eating Alpen for breakfast while she gets the measure ol someone who may or may not be the enemy. Which is where I come in. ‘I’m an actress.’ says Sam. quiet as a church mouse. 'and l haye to work.‘ She speaks without inllection or intention. saye l‘or the merest w'hil‘l‘ ol‘ del'ensiyc sell.- protection. lest you might be patronising her. or else going in with an angle. lo expose her. Which is eyery actor‘s nightmare. and eyerything they want besides. But then. there's the day-to-day stint. as well. Paying the mortgage and doing lunny little yoiceoyers. in- between giying brayura little turns in indie artlrouse llicks. or else doing the btisiness in a Spielberg or a Woody .»\|len. Big time. Hollywood stllll. and as lar lrom her Nottingham background. with its already well- documented lamilial dy slunctions. as you can imagine. l.ike .\lor\'ern. Sam seems to haye l‘ollowed her instincts. lrom an early age chasing alter something
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