Name Bernard Jeffrey McCoIIough AKA Bernie Mac Birthdate and birthplace 5 October 1958, Chicago. Illinois. US
Background Mac grew up in a r0ugh area of Chicago with a large larnily livmg under one roof. He became a professional comedian at the age of 19. but he refused to change his image for television and films. so was not very well known for most of the 805. In 1992 he made his film debut with a small part in Mo' Money and went on to appear in Who's the Man? and House Party 3 (1994). In 1995 he did an HBO special called Midnight Mac and took a part as Pastor Clever in the Ice Cube comedy Friday. He has since developed a cult following, with roles in Spike Lee's Get on the Bus (1996). Life (1999), with Eddie Murphy, The Original Kings of Comedy (2000). Oceans Eleven (2001). Bad Santa (2003) and Oceans Twelve (2004).
What he up to now? He's in a really rubbish remake of the 1967 Stanley Kramer/Sidney Poitier issue-led comedy Guess Who '3 Coming to Dinner. wittily called Guess Who?
What he says about tame and stardom
“I'm not a star. and I don't want to be a star. Stars fall. I'm an ordinary guy with an extraordinary job.‘
Interesting fact He revealed to the press in February this year that he has suffered from sarcoidosis. a tissue inflammation disease. since 1983. but he says it has had no effect on his daily life.
I Guess Who? is on general release from Fri 22 Apr. See review, page 46.
POLITICAL THRILLER THE INTERPRETER (12A) 129min ooo
Between 1969 and 1975 filmmaker Sydney Pollack went through a txi't‘le patch mth fixe films. The. Scoot Hoses Don't Thei 1‘. Jere'nian Johnson. The War We llere. The Valium am: his excellent conspiracy thriller Three Dans of the Comer. His centinuing reputation as the master of the political thriller
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LIFE is AUMIRACLE (15) 155mm oooo
God bless you, Emir Kusturica. you bulldog from Bosnia- Herzegovina. you Serb nationalist. dodgy rock musician and actor — you bring light and passion where others just bring liberal formalism. A new Kusturica film is always an event (he hasn‘t made one since 1998‘s Black Cat White Cat) and Life is a Miracle is no different. for it is rakija (Bosnian brandy), lust and primitivism that propels this film beyond categorisation.
Bosnia 1992-95 and as civil war rages between the various religious factions. the people of a little hill-top village are concentrating on building a scenic railway to bring in the tourists. Luka (Slavko Stimac). a good man living through turbulent times. uses the construction of the railway as a way of turning a blind eye to the war. But when his mildly insane wife Jadranka (Vesna Trivalic) runs off with a musician and his son is called up to the army. life in the war zone does not seem so miraculous - that is. until the lovely Sabaha (Natasa Solak) walks into his life.
Like Fellini. Kusturica is very much a filmmaker who is
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working to his own template. Few are like him and few would care to be. Kusturica is an instinctive red-blooded filmmaker. He takes his lead as much from Bosnian peasantry. rock and traditional music and an inbuilt sense of chaos and warmth as he does from the films of Tarkovsky and Slim Klimov (Come and See). Very much of the Bosanski Ionac (a mixture of meat and vegetables slow roasted and served in a ceramic pot with a long, wide neck) school of filmmaking. he throws everything in and hopes for the best. Working for the first time with Bosnian screenwriter Ranko Bozic. Kusturica's hyperactivity is met head on with a compelling, complex tale of small town politics and love. It's a thrilling ride and, as ever with this great filmmaker. it sails past despite the film‘s excessive length. Ably assisted by some great farcical performances from a huge cast and French cinematographer Michel Amathieu's (City of Lost Children) seamless dreamy camerawork, this is more fun than mainlining cevapicici (Bosnian snack consisting of small, oblong sausages surrounded by somun. a type of pita bread. and lots of chopped onions). Boom boom Bulldog. you did it again. (Paul Dale)
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