0 Since Otar Left ( 15) 0000 (Julie Benucelli. France/Belgium. 2003) Esther (iorintin. Nino Khomasuridze. Dinara Drukarova. Temur Kalandadze. Rusudan Bolqvadze. Sasha Sarishvili. Duta Skhirtladze. l03min. See review. page 2‘). Glasgow Film Theatre. Glasgow.
0 The Sorrow and the Pity Part 1 (PG) 0.... (Marcel ()phuls. France. l969) l20min. See think piece. page 28 and review. page 2‘). Glasgow Film Theatre. Glasgow.
0 The Sorrow and the Pity Part 2 (I2A) (Marcel ()phuls. France. 1969) 5. 128mm. See think piece. page 28 and review. page 29. Glasgow Film Theatre. Glasgow.
Spellbound (L') 0000. (Jeff Blitz. L'S. 2002) 97min. Brilliant documentary about eight children in their bid to win the 1999 Spelling Bee championship. This magical film stayed in LS cinemas for over 20 months — almost unheard of for a documentary. ()deon. Iz'dinlnogli.
The Station Agent (15) .00 (Tom Mccanhy. USA. 2003) Peter Dinklage.
Bobby Cannavale. Patricia Clarkson. 88min.
Dinklage'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 up the property. walk the tracks and count the trains that still pass through the area. Ilis solitude is disturbed. though. by two other Ioner misfits. artist ()Iivia (Clarkson) and garrulous hot-dog salesman Joe (Cannavale). 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. Cameo. Edinburgh.
Strictly Ballroom (PG) 0000 (Baz Luhrmann. Australia. I991) Paul Mercurio. Tara Morice. Bill Hunter. 94min. Dancelloor hopeful Scott Ilastings incurs the wrath of the Australian Dance Federation by using his own steps in competition. loses his partner and his friends. but finds love and artistic integrity with the local wallllower. The ultimate feelgood movie. it is crammed with colour. glitter. music and spectacle. Gros‘t'enor. Glasgow.
Sweet Smell of Success ( 15) .0... (Alexander Mackendrick. L'S. I957) Burt Lancaster. Tony Curtis. Susan Harrison. 96min. Clifford ()dets and lirnest Lehman scripted this brilliant study of the destructive effect of power. Sweet Smell of .S'ia'eess tells the story of Sidney Falco (Curtis). a slimy publicist worming his way to the top via venomous newspaper columnist JJ Hunsecker (Lancaster). The two leads are brilliantly cast against type; James Wong Howe‘s photography of Broadway at night is as evocative as film noir ever got. while lilmer Bernstein‘s crime jazz score (with contributions from the Chico Hamilton Quintet) completes the impression of a filthy. corrupt city. Astonishingly. the whole film was pulled together by Scotsman Alexander Mackendrick. who until this time was best known for whimsical Iialing comedies. Glasgow I’ilm Theatre. Glasgow.
Tanguy (PG) (litienne Chatiliez. France. 2001) Sabine Azema. Andre Dussolier. Iiric Berger. 108mm. In this black comedy. parents Paul and lidith are beginning to despair of their 28-year-old son. who appears to have no intentions of fleeing the family nest. pushing them to some unusual methods of encouraging his move. beginning with a thwarted attempt to pack him off to Asia for a year. Glasgow Film Theatre. Glasgow:
The Tenant ( 18) 0.. (Roman Polanski. France. 1976) Roman Polanski. Melvyn Douglas. Isabelle Adjani. Shelley Winters. 126mm. A bureaucratic clerk (Polanski) takes over the lease of a gloomy Parisian apartment. but 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 Rt’ptllslmt. Part of Polanski season. ('CA. Glasgow.
Thirteen ( l8) (Catherine Hardwicke. LS. 2003) livan Rachel Wood. Nikki Reed. Holly Hunter. Jeremy Sisto. Winin. Tracy (Wood) is a nubile Lolita; an apparently innocent child who wants nothing more than to lose the tag of innocent child. She craves the riches and glamour of a ghetto fabulous lifestyle that she is force-fed by the media. Tracy‘s eventual seducer. however. is no Humbert Humbert but livie (Reid). the most popular girl in seventh grade who seems to have it all: nice clothes. tattoos. a rebellious nature and the adoration of all her classmates. Tracy buys herself into livie‘s affection by stealing a purse and sharing the windfall and pretty soon they are inseparable. livie's payback is to help her new friend Tracy turn from innocent child to rebellious teenager. Impressive l'S indie about the angst of being 13. CC] Edinburgh. lidlnlno‘gh.
30 Mania (l’) (tbc. L'S. 2003)Stuar1 Pankin. lilvira. IMAX 3D animation hell. For masochists and computer render geeks only. Mle Theatre. Glasgow:
Troy ( l5) .0. (Wolfgang Petersen. l'S. 2004) Brad Pitt. Brian Cox. Orlando Bloom. Julian (ilover. 162mm. Within Troy's towering walls lovers Paris (Bloom) and Helen (Kruger) flee to avoid the attentions of her htisband Menelaus (Gleeson) and his all conquering brother Agamemnon (Cox). To make things worse Paris' brother Hector (Bana) and father Priam (O'Toole) 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 homo erotic dash as he slices and dices his way through the Trojan armies. He's a super-soldier whose bravery is harnessed to the corrupt yolk of a greedy king. Like its hero. Troy is not without llaws — the range of accents on 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-sized set pieces are superb. a worthy successor to Gladiator in the epic action stakes. General release.
Nisted ( l8) (Stuart Who‘.’/Wayne (l. L'K. 2004) Stuart Who'.’. Wayne (i. 57min. ()n the road documentary with DJs Stuart and Wayne as they traverse three continents
index Film
A ... W! Nu, ., Q,‘
Echoes and screams of days gone by in Ju-On: The Grudge
with a video camera. A drug-fuelled and frank account of the club DJs' life circa 1997. Part of the London Lesbian and (lay Film Festival on tour. Film/rouse. Edinburgh.
Uzak (Distant) ( 15) O... (Nuri Bilge Ceylan. Turkey. 2002) Muzaffer ()zdemir. limin Toprak. Xtihal (iencer lirkaya. Nazan Kirilmis. I 10min. Moving and quite effortlesst touching account of two men‘s slow. frustrating friendship — one that is always tempered by distance and distrust. Mahmut is a 40-year-old independent photographer who lives in Istanbul. After his wife leaves him. he falls into an existential crisis. Then his cousin Yusuf turns up looking for work because the local factory in their home town has closed down. This intimate drama was filmed in the director‘s apartment in Istanbul. using all his belongings as the props. and stars non-professional actors. A remarkable achievement from the gifted up and coming Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan. Glasgow I’ilm Theatre. Glasgow.
Van Helsing ( IZA) 000 (Stephen Sommers. LS. 2004) Hugh Jackman. Kate Beckinsale. Richard Roxburgh. David Wenham. Shuler Hensley. Will Kemp. I45min. Summer's first bona tide blockbuster reimagines Van Helsing as Hugh Jackman in full quick witted Wolverine mode. A Victorian James Bond. the Vatican's very own Batman kicking ass for God. Jackman gets to take on a selection of famous monsters from lilmland: Frankenstein‘s Monster. the Wolfman and. of course. Dracula. In terms of plot that really is it. with pretty much the entire running time taken up with one big light 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 run and run). this is a great start and then there's the rest of lfniversal's cellars to plunder for foes. Selet‘ted release.
West Side Story (PG) 0... (Robert Wise é’e Jerome Robbins. US. [961) Natalie Wood. Richard Beymer. Russ Tamblyn. Rita Moreno. 155mm. Romeo And Juliet revisited against a background of New York gangs. Great songs of course. but the playing of the stylised dancing against a realistic background contrives to make it all look rather camp these days. .S'eots'man Screening Room. Edinburgh.
The Whole Ten Yards ( 12A) 0 (Howard Deutch. L'S. 2004) Bruce Willis. Matthew Perry. Amanda Peet. Kevin Pollak.
Natasha Henstridge. 98min. Jimmy ‘the Tulip' Tudeski (Willis) gives tip his quiet domestic life to return to his killing shenanigans at the urging of his old pal ()z (Perry). after his wife Cynthia (Henstridge) is kidnapped by the Hungarian mob led by make up-heavy ham Lazlo (Pollak). Dire sequel to a very unfunny movie. Selected release.
Wild Chimpanzees (the) Get up close and personal with the wild (iombe chimpanzees in this big screen IMAX presentation. IMAX Theatre. Glasgow. You Got Served (PG) 00 (Chris- Stokes. L'SA. 2004) ()marion. Marques Houston. Jennifer Freeman. J-Boog. 94min. See review. page 28. Seleeted release. Young Adam ( 18) 0000 (David Mackenzie. L'K. 2003) Ewan McGregor. limin Mortimer. Tilda Swinton. Peter Mullan. 93min. Mackenzie remains loyal to the dark. existentialist spirit of Alexander Trocchi‘s I954 novel about Joe. a nihilistic drifter who seems only to find connection with the world through sleazy sexual encounters. Shot in seedy green and grey hues. the film opens on the Clyde where Joe (McCiregor) is working on a barge owned by Ella (Swinton) and her husband Les (Mullan). The men are in the process of dragging a corpse of a young woman from the water. an act done with particular care by Joe. thUs hinting at his complicity in her demise. A flawless and coherent adaptation of a dark and disturbing tale and a work of haunting beauty. GilmorehillGIZ. Glasgow. Zatoichi (l8) 0... (Takeshi Kitano. Japan. 2003) Beat Takeshi. Michiyo ()okusu. Taka (iatarukanaru. l Ihmin. Having reinvented the cops and yakuzas genre. Kitano makes a stab at doing likewise with the samurai film. and once again slices through conventions like a knife through butter. Ilere he brings his master strokes to the 19th century Japanese hero Zatoichi. a blind swordsman made famous in the Shintano Katsu film series which ran l962~89. The new Yatoiehi is full of Kitano-style tonal changes between comic and violent. tender and graphic. Meanwhile. the fights become ever more dynamic as Yatoichi. helpinga remote mountain town that's being terrorised by the (iinzo gang. and his nemesis. the ronin Hattori (Tadanobu Asano) who‘s been hired by (iinzo to enforce his rule. draw closer for the final battle. It's cutting edge stuff. I’ilmhoase. lidinlnugh.
24 Jun-8 Jul 2004 THE LIST 35