Film news and giveaways for beautiful cineaste types
I The mighty John Sayles (pictured) is coming to Scotland to introduce his new film Silver City which stars Chris Cooper. Rumour has it that on Thursday 14 July Sayles will be at the Cameo cinema to present the film and take part in a O&A session.
I Don't miss the charity preview screening of anticipated DreamWorks animation Madagascar at 3pm on Sunday 3 July at UGC. Renfrew Street. Glasgow. Tickets cost $310 for adults and £5 for children, with all proceeds going to ChildLine Scotland. Contact Abigail Stein at ChildLine Scotland on astein@childline.org.uk or 0870 336 2912 for tickets or more information.
WIN
NEW YORK, NEW YORK SPECIAL EDITION DVD
5 New York New . o ' ork, starring Robert DeNiro -: and Liza ,oii Minnelli, is now
available to buy NEW YORK on a two-disc ~ » DVD with over three hours of bonus material. To be in with the chance of winning a copy, just send us an email marked ‘NEW YORK, NEW YORK’ to promotions@ list.co.uk by no
“We 5’.
rules apply.
later than 6 July 2005. Usual List
WIN
ADVENTURES OF PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT
IThe List has five DVD copies of this classic Aussie drag queen comedy to give away. Just send us an email marked ‘PRISCILLA’ to promotions@list.co.uk by no
rules apply.
later than 6 July 2005. Usual List
46 THE LIST 2“, l."
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4 captures variously and vividly the police arrest of l ittle and a fellow armed SLA member, Hearst and the SLA carrying Out a bank robbery and most shockineg - the St A firefight wrth a besieging and heavily armed lAPD. By reiectirig the view of the St A as folk heroes. Stone presents a compelling document of a misguided political movement that epitomises the butt end of the protest movement come the mid-1970s. The film's US title. Never/and: The Rise and Fall of the Syinbionese liberation Army
MARTlAl ARTS COMt DY KUNG FU HUSTLE (15) 95min 0000
(changed to include Hearst's name in the interests of commerce. no doubt). is the more accurate. and it really does say it all.
No one not the kidnappers. not the authorities. not the press and definitely not Hearst herself ~ comes off looking anything other than dumb. And that post»€)’1 1 mania and the so called war on terrorrsrn has renewed interest in and afforded iail sentences for Survwing SI A veterans (while lieir Hearst continues to enioy celebrity statiiS) proves no one's wrsing up. (Miles Fielder)
I GFT. Glasgow fioin Fri i ./ll/. See profile, listings.
DRAMA IMAGINARY HEROES (18) 111min 00
When 22—year-old Dan Harris sent Bryan Singer his script to Imaginary Heroes. he was immediately snapped up to work on the screenplay to X Men 2 and Superman Returns. At 24, Harris picked up a camera and started
Mixing kung fu acrobatics with slapstick comedy, song and dance set-pieces and cartoon-styled violence, Kung Fu Hustle comes on like a crazy concoction of Jackie Chan, Buster Keaton, Fred’n’Ginger and Tom and Jerry. Writer- director-star Stephen Chow also pays homage to his own Eastern cultural heroes, Bruce Lee and the kung fu stars of the 19705, a number of whom he coaxed out of retirement to appear in the film. There’s nothing subtle about Kung Fu Hustle, and plenty that’s downright stoopid, but it’s without doubt a labour of love for Chow, and the feelgood fun is utterly infectious.
Set in 19405 mainland China and taking place largely within the confines of a crowded apartment complex called Pig Sty Alley (based on a block Chow himself grew up in, the beautifully designed set looks like something out of West Side Story), Kung Fu Hustle revolves around an extended turf war between the working-class locals and a ruthless, smartly-dressed mob known as the Axe Gang. Both sides boast a number of kung fu masters, and the increasingly colourful and powerful opponents - Pig Sty’s Landlord and his chain-smoking, roller-haired Landlady (pictured); a pair of deadly harp playing musicians — continue to up the ante until the end game is reached and the Axe Gang's immovable killer the Beast is pitted against the Pig Sty’s unstoppable Sing (Chow, in a priceless parody of The Matrix’s Christ-like hero).
It's hard to imagine where Chow, who’s been knocking out ‘Mo Lei Tau’ (nonsense comedies) for years, can go from here. This post-modern parody’s got everything, including, in one scene, the kitchen sink. (Miles Fielder)
I Cameo. Edinburgh and selected release from Fri 24 Jun. See pi‘eiiezi, page it.
shooting linaginary Heroes himself. It might have been Wiser if he'd spent a little more time eradicating the kryptonrte that weighs down his own script.
It gets off to a whrrl=.vrnd start as Matt (Kip Pardue). a pretty. young Olympic swrmmir'ig prospect. commits suicide. The story is then told from the perspective of Tim Travrs (Emile Hirsh) and we are introduced to his typical Suburban movie family wrth its overbearing father (Jeff Daniels). cool college student sister (Michelle Williams) and kooky mother (Sigourney Weaver). It's easy to see why Weaver took this role as the film only really works when she is on screen. As the coolest mother on the planet. she offers great advrce to Tim. putting up With her husband as he loses the plot. conducting guerrilla warfare With her neighbour (Deidre O'Connell) and smoking pot to beat the blues.
But the movre eventually reveals itself to be about the secrets only Tim knows about his dead brother. The fractured non linear narrative fires plenty of red herrings and there are plenty of perntless characters wrth melodramatic side plots that go nowhere before all the loose ends are tied up in a manner reminiscent of Atom Eg0yan — the worst of Egoyan. (Kaleem Aftab)
I Selected release from Fri 7 Jul.
lXPl HIMt NlAl AGII PROP NOTRE MUSIQUE (12A) 79min 0000
If the vrewer is Willing to accept that storytelling is but one aspect of cinema's capacity. then .Jean~Luc Godard is clearly one the greatest of all filmmakers. He digresses. obfuscates. plays wrth sounds and images. and feels his Job is to make the Viewer confront the image and not iust receive it.
In Godard's latest meditation he offers a three stage look at war and peace: in the first section he shows us images of ‘Hell', offering archival war footage and also fiction film fighting from various past films. In the second section we're in ‘Purgatory'. as Godard himself travels to Bosnia to give a lecture at a conference in Sarajevo. In the third and final section he shows us 'Paradise'. on the idyllic shores of l ake Geneva. where the violence of the first section. and the bombed out buildings of the second. are absent.
But obvrously Godard doesn't want us to take the film at face value. and narrative thrust is secondary to a meditativeness where characters are neither fully developed nor exactly ciphers. Godard plays himself