0 Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter and . . . Spring ( )5)
C... (Kim Ki-Duk. Sotith Korea/Germany. 2004) ()h Yeong-Su. Kim Ki-Duk. Kim Yeong-Min. l02min. .»\ tnonk living with his elderly Buddhist master on a floating temple on a beautiful lake experiences the various stages of life. from childhood to adulthood. learning important lessons along the way and eventually acquiring a young disciple of his own. Set theatrically against the tnetaphorical. painterly changing seasons. and featuring splendid performances. this film is so stunningly beautiful that it‘s likely to continue resonating in the memory for a long time. in fact. throughout spring. summer. autumn. winter . . . and spring. (ii-"II Glasgow; Film/muse. Edinburgh.
The Station Agent ( IS) 0..
(Tom McCarthy. ISA. 2003) Peter Dinklage. Bobby (‘annavale. Patricia (‘larkson. 88min. Dinklagc's Finn is a train-obsessed dwarf. who has inherited a disused railway depot in rural New Jersey from an old business partner. He wants to be left in peace to do tip the property. walk the tracks and count the trains that still pass through the area. His solitude is disturbed. though. by two other lonely misfits. artist ()livia ((‘larksom and garrulous hot-dog salesman Joe ((‘annavale). It's a sensitively acted. gently amusing and carefully crafted film. which never leaves us in much doubt as to its final destination. Still. it’s unafraid to meander along at its own relaxed tempo. and Dinklage provides an impressively understated lead performance. ((24. Glasgow.
Sunrise (PG) 00... (t-‘ W .‘vlurnau. LS. 1927) (ieorge O” Brien. Janet (iaynor. Margaret Livingston. Bodil Rosing. 97min. After a fling with a beautiful broad from the big city. a country boy tries to murder his wife. but then repents and spends the rest of the movie making tip with her. Lyrical silent love story. with superb monochrome imagery and some genuinely surprising twists. Film/muse. Iz'rlinlmrjgli.
Tales from Gimli Hospital (the) 0... (Guy Maddin. ('anada. 1988) Kyle Mc('ulloch. Michael (iotti. Angela Heck. 77min. ln (iuy Maddin‘s quirky and nonsensical debut. liinar (.\lc('ulloch) and (iunnar ((iottli) lie quarantined together in (iimli Hospital. undergoing tmconventional medical treatments involving seagulls. When they discover a common tie that each had sexual
Don’t miss Pol
relations with (itmnar's late wife their jealous relationship takes a turn for the stranger. Part of the Matltlin retrospective. [film/muse. [cilia/mega.
Telford Graduation Show 2004 (tbc) (Various. l‘ls'. 200-1) 90min. H.\'D 'l'\' operations students at lidinburgh's 'lelford (’ollcge celebrate the accumulated works of an intense and rewarding year. Film/muse. lirlinlnajg/i.
The Tenant ( lb’) (Roman Polanski. lirance. I976) Roman Polanski. Melvyn Douglas. Isabelle Adjani. Shelley Winters. l2omin. A bureaucratic clerk (Polanski) takes over the lease of a gloomy Parisian apartment. btit finds himself at the centre of a real (or is it imagined?) conspiracy. Well crafted but creakily plotted return to the paranoiac territory of the more successful Re/tulxian. Part of the Polanski retrospective. See preview. page 2‘). l-ilmliause. I'frlinlmrgli.
Tokyo Story (1') 0.0.. (Yasujiro ()zu. Japan. l953) (’hishu Ryu. ('hieko lligashiyama. Setsuko llara. llaruko Sugimura. So Yamamura. Kuniko .\liyake.lilderly couple Shukishi (Ryu) and 'l'omi (lligashiyama) leave their provincial home to visit their two married children in post-war Tokyo. 'l‘heir offspring. however. are too busy with their lives to look after them properly and send them to a noisy spa resort. Realising they are a burden. mother and father return home. with only their widowed daughter-in-law .\'oriko (Hara) having shown them any real compassion. Then an unexpected bereavement reunites the disparate family members. ()zu's brilliant. seminal meditation on age and the generation gap was always one of cinema's post war masterpieces: here in its new reissued. cleaned tip form. it is breathtaking. If you haven't seen this before then miss at your peril. ('(‘xL Glasgow".
Touching the Void ( 15) .0000 (Kevin .\lacdonald. Canada. 2003) Nicholas Aaron. Brendan .‘vlackey. Simon Yates. Joe Simpson. l0()min. Brilliant cliff-hanging reconstruction feature documentary of the terrible events that overtook mountaineers Joe Simpson and
Check out the
Great
on page it
i 4
anski’s brilliant Knife in the Water at “the Filmhouse, Edinburgh
Simon Yates when they tried to climb a Peruvian mountain in 1985. Macdonald pulls every trick out of the bag to make this as heart-churningly scary as a real climb in bli/lard conditions. It is. as they say. quite a ride. (inure/rm; (ilaygmt; ('amea. [zilinlialjelr
Troy ( l5) .0. (Wolfgang Petersen. l'S. 2004) Brad Pitt. Brian ('ox. Orlando Bloom. Julian (ilover. lo2min. Within 'l‘roy's tow ering walls lovers Paris (Bloom) and Helen (Kruger) flee to avoid the attentions of her husband .‘vlenelaus ((ilecson) and his all conquering brother Agamemnon ((‘os ). To make things worse Paris' brother Hector (Bana) and father Priam (()"l‘oole) turn out to be less than enthused by the young prince‘s choice. lipic complications can only ensue. The real star of Troy is. of course. Brad Pitt as the warrior's warrior Achilles. Agamemnon's weapon of mass destruction. Pitt cuts a homoerotic dash as he slices and dices his way through the 'l‘rojan armies. He‘s a super-soldier whose
bravery is harnessed to the corrupt yolk of
a greedy king. like its hero. Troy is ot without flaws the range of accents "1 show is simply bewildering. the action is schematic at best and any story which revolves around the construction of a large wooden horse isn't about to spring many surprises on anyone. But Pitt and the super-si/ed set pieces are superb, a worthy successor to (ilarlialar in the epic action stakes. (:‘eneral release.
index Film
TWilight of the Ice Nymphs (the) O... ((iuy Maddin. ('anada. I997) Pascale Bussieres. Shelley Duvall. l‘rank (iot'shin. Alice Krige. RH Thomson. Ross McMillan. l0(imin. Taking its lead from the decadent magical endowments of 30s movies like Reinhardt/l)ietriele's .rl .llirlvmnmer .\'iglrl'.v Dream this ornate. baroque fairy tale is definitely an acquired taste bill so full of strange accents. romantic ntttsic and floritl colottrs it is difficult not to be swept up by its surreal camp tide. Part of the Maddin retrospective. Film/muse. lirlinlmrgli. The “twilight Samurai ( IZA) O... (Yoii Yamada. Japan. 200-1) Hiroyuki Sanada. Ric Miya/awa. Netiii Kobayashi. Ren ()sugi. 129mm. Superb adaptation of Shuuhei liujisawa’s novel about a l9th century Samurai who tries to protect a battered wife. .\'ot a lot of sword play. though. if that is what you are looking for. This is. however. a deeply touching and sensitive tale of one man‘s attempt to do the right thing. (z'l’ll (ilasgrm’.
Under the Titscan Sun ( 12A)
0. (Audrey Wells. l'S/ltaly. 200-1) Diane Lane. Sandra Oh. Lindsay Duncan. 1 13min. An unfaithful adaptation of l-‘rances Mayes' atitobiographical book about her summers spent with her new lover renovating a house in the 'l'uscan hills. \Vells does little to disguise the fact that the inspiration for Lane is (iiulietta .\lassina in the liellini classic Nights of (‘aln’ria 'l'he l‘ellini references do not stop there: Duncan even takes a dip in a fountain in la Anita likbcrg in la Ualr‘e l'iIa. l'nfortunately. Wells gives us l’cllini as seen through the eyes of a Mills and Boon novel. Whereas l‘ellini essayed the troubled internal conflict of a woman in a heartless world. Wells delivers only artifice and cliche. (il'i'l. (ilasgmt:
Uzak ( 15) C... (Nuri Bilge (‘eylatL 'l'urkey. 2002) Mil/after ()/demir. limin 'l‘oprak. Zuhal (iencer lirkaya. Na/an Kirilmis. l l0min.See preview. page 28 and review. page 30. Film/muse. lirlinlna'g/i.
Van Helsing ( 12A) 0. (Stephen Sommers. l'S. 200-1) Hugh Jackman. Kate Beckinsale. Richard Roxburgh.
Dav id Wenham. Shuler Hensley. Will Kemp. l45min. Summer's first bona fide blockbuster reimagines Van Helsing as Hugh Jackman in full quick wilted Wolverine mode. .-\ Victorian James Bond. the \'aticari's very own Batman kicking ass for (iod. Jackman gets to take on a selection of famous monsters from lilmland: Frankenstein‘s Monster. the Wolftnan and. of course. Dracula. In terms of plot that really is it. with pretty much the entire running time taken tip with one big fight spun out for over two hours. Dumb but pretty thrilling flick. as franchises go (and you can tell from the word go they want this to rtm and run). this is a great start and then there's the rest of l'niversal's cellars to plunder for foes. (it‘llt’l'rll l'('/('(1.\('.
l/‘f May 1;) Jon 130(7-2 THE LIST 41