Films screening this fortnight are listed below with certificate, star rating, credits, brief review and venue details. Film index compiled by Paul Dale
All About my Mother ( 15) 0000. (Pedro Almodovar. Spain. I999) Cecilia Roth. Penelope Cruz. Antonia San Juan. l()lmin. Arguably Almodovar's best filtn to date. When Madrid hospital worker Manuela's son is killed in a car accident the grief-stricken woman sets out to fulfil her son‘s last wish to know his father. and goes to Barcelona to find the transvestite she ran away from 18 years earlier. Renowned for his portrayal of strong women. Almodovar pays tribute here to their capacity to act. to mother and to create strong bonds of solidarity in the face of extremities. Pan of Almodovar retrospective. Film/rouse. Edinburgh.
Around the World in 80 Days (PG) .0 (Frank Coraci. USA. 2004) Jackie Chan. Steve Coogan. Jim Broadbent. Cécille De France. I20min. See preview. page 28. and review. page 31. General release.
Asa Nu Mann Watna Da (tbc) (Manmohan Singh. India/Canada. 2004) I-larbajan Mann. Arshvir Bajwa. Kirandeep Kimmi. Punjabi language romantic musical drama that depicts what happens to those who return to their homeland after a prolonged absence abroad. Beautifully shot in India and Canada. this features almost ()0 new tunes that will have you laughing. crying and getting all emotional. (ICl
( ’lvdebank. ( 'ly'debank.
Bad Education (La Mala Educacion) ( 15) 0.... (Pedro Almodovar. Spain. 2004) Gael Garcia Bemal. Fele .Martinez. Daniel Gimenez Cacho. Lluis Homar. I05min. A successful young movie director Iinrique (Martinez) receives an unexpected visitor r someone claiming to be his childhood friend and lover Ignacio (Bemal). who now prefers to be called Angel. He shows linrique a short story. The Visit. about a transsexual singer Zahara (also Bernal) who sleeps with a married admirer called Iinrique and who attempts to blackmail the priest Father Manolo (Cacho) who abused her schoolboy self. But who exactly is Angel and why is he carrying around Iganacio's work'.’ And what is the connection between Manolo and the mysterious Berenguer (llomar)? Possibly the fittest ‘Almodrama‘ to date. this sizzles with Hitchcockian verve and Ripleyesque menace. An absolute delight. Almodovar is undoubtedly one of the fittest filmmakers working in Europe today. Part of Almodovar retrospective. film/muse. Edinburgh.
Beauty and the Beast (La Belle et la Béte) (PG) .0”. (Jean Cocteau. France. 19-16) Jean Marais. Josette Day. Marcel Andre. Mila Parely. Nane Germon. Michel Auclair. Raoul Marco. 93min. Cocteau's second feature film (after The Blood of the Poet) is pure magic. Christian Bérard‘s fantastic set design set new standards in the look of fantasy films and Cocteau's dreamy. creepy. ultimately tragic interpretation of the classic tale is one of the rare cases where a filmmaker hits the right tone early in a film and manages to sustain it. Ravishing and disturbing. these roles
haunted Marais and Day to their dying days.
Forget Disney — take your kid to see this instead. Eilrnhouse. Edinburgh.
Blind Flight ( IS) 0... (John Furse. CK. 2003) Ian Hart. Linus Roache. 97min. This dramatisation of the kidnapping of Brian Keenan and John McCarthy confines
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itself to the four and a half years the Irish teacher and the English journalist spent in captivity in the Lebanon in the I980s. Roache and Hart give the performances of their respective careers and praise. too. must go to writer-director John Furse. who spent time with Keenan and McCarthy. getting to know them after their separate releases. This low budget film effectively employs a single dramatic location (a series of cells. with chilly Belfast and Glasgow warehouses doubling for the roasting Lebanon locations) and is a riveting piece of drama. Brutal. tender and powerful stuff. Eilrnhouse. Edinburgh.
Blue Gate Crossing (Lanse Da Men) (12A) .0. (Yee Chih-yen. Taiwan/France. 2002) Bo-Lin Chen. Lun Mei Guey. Shun Hue Liang. 85min. See review. page 3!. l-‘ilrrrhouse. Edinburgh. Bon Voyage ( 12A) 00 (Jean-Paul Rappeneau. France. 2003) Gerard Depardieu. Isabelle Adjani. Virginie Ledoyen. Yvan Attal. Gregori Derangere. Peter Coyote. I 14min. Paris. at the start of World War II and movie starlet Viviane Denvers (Adjani) has just accidentally killed the seedy producer of her last picture. She calls her childhood friend Frederic (Gregori I)erangere) for help. It is a mistake that is to result in them both being stranded in the Hotel Splendide in Bordeaux along with other refugees. [in route Frederic meets scientist Camille (Virginie Ledoyen) and things become even more complicated. Dreary. mildly hysterical farce from the director of Cyrano de Bergerae. Great clothes. though. Glasgow Film Theatre. Glasgow.
Bowling for Columbine ( IS) 000. (Michael Moore. LS. 2002) I 19min. The all-conquering Moore asks this question about America: ‘Are we a nation of gun nuts'.’ ()r are we just itttts‘." Provoked by the events of 20 April 1999. the day I3 people were shot dead by two pupils at Columbine High School in Littleton. Colorado and the day the LS conducted its largest bombing action in the Kosovan War. the inquisitive filmmaker and renowned satirist looks far and wide to find the answers to some pretty tough questions. ()n the way he meets Goth rock figurehead Marilyn Manson. members of the Michigan Militia who argue that ‘being armed is an American responsibility". and finally president of the NRA. Charlton Ileston. Some may find his shock tactics and use of dark humour reprehensible. bill as 20 April 1999 showed. desperate times call for desperate measures. See feature. page 18. ('arneo. Edinburgh. Bus 174 (Onibus 174) (15) 0000 (Felipe Lacerda/Jose Padilha. Brazil. 2002) I20min. In June. 2000 when an armed young man called Sando do Nascimento took passengers on a Rio do Janeiro bits
hostage. the violent incident was broadcast live. Bus [74 is a thoughtful and heanbreaking documentary that pushes the compelling hostage-taking story further. suggesting the ordeal was the inevitable result of the city‘s vulnerable police system and social structure. The news footage. voluminous documentation and across the spectrum interviews show what actually happened on that day and it's enough to make you cry. C(‘A. Glasgow.
Carandiru ( 15) 0000 (Hector Babenco. Brazil Argentina. 2003) Luiz Carlos Vasconcelos. Milhetn Cortaz. Milton Concalves. Ivan de Altneida. 145mm. Based on the memoirs of Doctor Drauzio Varella. who set up an AIDS prevention programme in the late 80s at Carandiru. this filtn is set in the notorious and now demolished Sao Paolo correctional facility. where I I l inmates were massacred in 1992 by military police. In this. the most successful film ever at the Brazilian boxoflice. Babenco and his writers weave the inmates tales into a memorable tapestry. The detained men are neither glamorised nor judged. but presented as human beings. struggling to maintain their spirits in this most despairing of environments. The fiesta-like atmosphere of visitation day and the joy of a wedding are contrasted with the treatment of sex offenders and the killings of those who transgress the code of respect. Grosrenor; (ilasgmii
Caravaggio ( 18) 0000 (Derek Jarman. I'K. I986) Nigel Terry. Sean Bean. Tilda Swinton. 90min. Jarman's biographical study of the brilliant Italian Renaissance painter centres on the artist's triangular relationship with a low-life gambler and his prostitute lover. a passion that is to result in tnurder. Ambitious and accessible work that finds a delicate. cinematic equivalent for the subtle shadings in (‘aravaggio‘s brushwork. l'illttltotlse. Edinburgh.
The Cat’s Meow ( 12A) 000 (Peter Bogdanovich. LS. 2002) Kirsten Dunst. Fddie Izzard. I I-lmin. Peter Bogdanovich‘s bizarre account of what happened one day when William Randolph Ilearst. Charlie Chaplin and various other early 20th century celebrities got together on a yacht. A kind of minor companion piece to ('itiren Kane. Glasgow I’ilrrr Theatre. Glasgow. Chicken Run (1') .00 (Nick Park/Peter Lord. I'K. 2000) Voices of Mel
Gibson. Julia Sawalha. Miranda Richardson.
85min. For its first feature Aardman studios has re-written the WWII I’()W experience as an ()rwellian satire. albeit with laughs. So. Stalag I7 becomes a battery fartn and the camp commandant farmer 'I‘weedy's domineering wife. while in the htttches. Ginger rallies her fellow hens to fly their coop. Though the characters aren't as
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established as Wallace and Gromit and the feature length running time slows the action. Aardman continues to work real wonders with its familiar Plasticine animation. Glasgow I’ilrrr Theatre. Glasgow. Club Dread (15).. (Jay Chandrasekhar. LS. 2004) Kevin Ileffernan. Steve Lemme. Pattl Soter. Iirik Stolhanske. I03min. Not content with besmirching the good name of the police in Super Troopers. Club Dread sees the comedy troupe Broken Lizard take on the classic modern horror movie with their typically deadpan brand of irreverent stoner humour. ()n Paradise Island. a machete-wielding maniac is attacking holidaymakers at Coconut Pete's resort for kids who just wanna have fun in the sun. When the comedy hits the mark. it's funny enough. but for the most part the gags - like the drugs -just don't work. Selected release.
The Cooler (15) .00 (Wayne Kramer. LS. 2003) William H Macy. Alec Baldwin. Maria Bello. Shawn Ilatosy. Ron Livingston. Paul Sorvino. Illlmin. Bernie Lootz (Macy) is all ottl of luck. \Vhich is good for Las Vegas casino boss Shelly Kaplow (Baldwin). who exploits Lootz's infectious bad fortune to manage the card tables and crap shoots to his advantage. Bttt when cocktail waitress Natalie Belisario (Bello) walks into Lootz's life. he begins to shake off his bad karma. Which spells ill fortttne for tough guy Shelly. Kramer's feature debut plays on a series of clever. humorous ironies wherein one individual's misfortune becomes the good luck of another. The Cooler also plays on the notion of lovers making their own luck. and Kramer pulls off that trick without dealng a cliched deck. That's largely becattse the romance between Loot/ and Natalie. unlikely as it is. is shot through with the passion and desperation of a couple of life's no hopers. I)espite all this Juan Carlos I-‘resnadillo‘s lntaeto managed this silly concept so much better. .S'eleeted release. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
( I2) 0... (Ang Lee. China/LS. 2000) Michelle Yeoh. Chow Yuri-Fat. Zhang Ziyi. Chang Chen. I20min. Jane Austen meets Bruce Lee in Aug Sense And Sensibility Lee‘s astonishing martial arts period drama. In a fictionalised version of early 19th century China. a world of heroic warriors and deep philosophical values. Lee seamlessly interweaves the stories of two sets of lovers. and a revenge tale with a feminist twist. The fight scenes are groundbreaking. as choreographed by expert Yuen Wo Ping. At once breathtaking and beautiful. (’muehirrg Tiger's also a cinematic landmark: its fusion of the best elements from Fast and West cinema has created something wholly new. North Edinburgh Arts Centre. Edinburgh.
Jackie Chan and‘ his little friend in Around the World in 80 Days >
8—22 Jul 2001 THE LIST 33