wedding is a two-day binge. which w0uld put anything that happens on the six o'clock news to shame. Grotesgues straight out of some kind of deeply perverted David LaChapelle IT‘IUSIC promo are drunk out of their minds on bison grass vodka. They play 18—30s booze crUise games with balloons and dance zombie-like to the band who keep playing. deSpite everything going horribly wrong around them. Never schmaltzy or bile inducing, The Wedding is pure domestic comedy horror painted on a vodka setip floor. Gratulacie. (Morag Bruce)
I Cameo. 623 8030. 27 Aug. 4.45pm. £7. 95 (£5.20).
HORROR
ANTIBODIES
(Christian Alvart, Germany, 2004) CO.
Steeped in religion and owmg a sizeable debt to Manhunter and The Silence of the Lambs. Alvert's Antibodies is an ambitious psychological thriller about a captive serial killers verbal manipulation of a determined c0untry cop. Incarcerated after abusing and killing a string of y0ung boys. then using their blood to daub apocalyptic paintings. Gabriel Engel (Andre Hennickel refuses to speak about his crimes. That is. until by-the—book ‘farm boy' cop Michael
Martens (Wotan Wilke Mbhring). who is haunted by the murder of a yOung girl near his village a few years before. is drawn into Engel's intricate tangled web of deceit.
To say more WOLlld risk revealing too much. so Suffice it to say that this piercineg intelligent film succeeds on three levels. As an evocation of a rural community rent aSunder by a child's brutal murder and its aftermath: as an examination of a serial killer's twisted moral logic; and as a portrait of an honest cop whose moral certainties and personal sanity unravel in the face of such blank. devious amorality. Sadly. for all Alvart's narrative assurance and directorial control. the film is a tad too long and one-paced. That said. the brilliant. unexpected ending is definitely worth waiting for. (Nigel Floydl I Cameo. 623 8030. 26 Aug. Midnight and 27 Aug. 2. 70pm, both 537.95 (535.20).
HORROR
DOMINION: PREGUEL TO EXORCIST
(Paul Schrader, US, 2004) 117min CO.
More measured and metaphySical than Renny Harlin‘s head-banging verSion released last year. Paul Schrader's ExorCist prequel charts the early spiritual life of the yeting Father Merrin (Stellan Skarsgardi, from a faith- shattering inCident in WWII Holland to the testing of his now shaky beliefs in British East Africa three years later. As a precursor to William Friedkin's 1973 horror movie. this is more in tune With the originals religious preoc‘CLipations. It is also much artier. and nothing like as terrifying: but then nobody expected a full-blooded horror movie from the director of Light Sleeper and Affliction. Except perhaps production company Morgan Creek. which initially shelved this meditation on faith. doubt and evil.
PlICkef The Art of Kate Davis and
Dave Heilbroner’s
rather lovely documentary follows the rollercoaster of emotions which take place at the 31 st International Whistling Competition in Loisburg,
North Carolina, where an American investment banker, a turkey hauler and
a Dutch social worker go head to head to win the feted prize. Pucker Up also attempts to investigate the history of endangered of musical forms. I Film/louse. 623 8030. 27 Aug. 12.30pm, F795 (f‘:3.2()i.
Skarsgard's compelling. low key performance anchors Schrader's vision. which centres on the discovery of an ancient Byzantine church, hidden beneath a later Christian place of worship. As this archaeological site is excavated. a local crippled boy Che Che (Billy Crawford) experiences a miraculous recovery. A diabolical evil is unleashed and the simmering tension between the spooked Turkana tribesmen and the colonial British army threatens to spiral out of control. Merrin. meanwhile. must re—embrace his lost faith. then face the ancient demon Pa/u/u. (Nigel Floyd)
I Cineworld, 623 8030. 26 Aug. 9.30pm. £7.95 ($5.20).
DRAMA
4 (CHETYRE)
(llya Khrzhanovsky, Russia, 2004) 126min 0000
In an interview. director Khrzhanovsky talks about the difficulty of cloning in life: the near impOSSible feat of being original in any area of eXistence. We COuId say. unfortunately. that 4 proves the validity of his argument. for although it's a great film, does it not follow clearly in the tradition of Kira Muratova (The Asthenic Syndrome). Sharunas Bartas (The Corridor) and Bela Tarr (Damnation)? There are plenty scenes here. from characters rolling around in muddy fields and barking dogs on the soundtrack. to drunken reveries that suggest mental instability as readily as drunkenness. that will bring to mind other Eastern Bloc filmmakers.
Maybe it is better to see the director as not so much a clone. but as a filmmaker following in a rich post- perestrOika vein of aesthetically dissident work. It's a tradition that wouldn't only incorporate the filmmakers mentioned. but wetild also include the writer and playwright (and the film's co-writer here). Vladimir Sorokin (whose work has been picketed by Putin supporters). In this loosely structured look at contemporary Russmn life both rural and urban. the director finds his veice by echoing the veices of others. (Tony McKibbin)
I Film/rouse. 623 8030. 26 Aug, 10pm. £7.95 (£23.20).
253 Aug -8 Set) 2001') THE LIST FESTIVAL MAGAZINE 95
Name Paul Schrader
Born 22 July, 1946. Grand Rapids. Michigan, USA
Background Born into a strictly Calvinist family, Schrader was forbidden by his parents to see any film until he was 18. He soon became fascinated by films, however, enrolling in UCLA’s graduate film programme after graduating from Calvin College at Columbia University. The young Schrader became a film critic. writing first for the LA Weekly Press alongside Pauline Kael and then for Cinema magazine. He greatly admired Bresson, Ozu and Dreyer, about whom he wrote a book of essays. Transcendental Style in Film, published in 1972. His big break came in 1976 when he wrote the screenplay for Martin Scorsese's iconic film Taxi Driver starring Robert De Niro. This film. along with Brian De Palma's Obsession, which was released in the same year. brought him widespread acclaim and allowed him to direct his first screenplay. 1978's Blue Collar. Schrader would later co-write the script for Raging Bull (another Scorsese/De Niro project) with Mardik Martin, forever after being linked with the so-called ‘movie brat' generation, which includes such directors as Steven Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola.
What’s he up to now? Schrader's latest effort is the screenplay for Torch, due to be released in 2006. Directed by Harold Becker and starring Al Pacino. the film examines the relationship between the young singer Ruth Etting and the infamous bootlegger Moe Snyder in 19208 Chicago.
What he says about his Calvinist upbringing
‘We believed in a very real hell and a very real evil. My mother took my hand once and stabbed me with a needle. She said. "You know how that felt. when the needle hit your thumb? Well. hell is like that — all the time.“
Interesting fact In the 19803 Schrader was invited to a chemicals and compounds conference in Germany. Someone had confused him with Dr Gerhard Schrader, the chemist who accidentally discovered dangerous nerve agents sarin and tabin. Fortunately. the invitation is said to have been lost in the post.
I Reel Life: Paul Schrader, Cineworld, 623 8030, 25 Aug, 5pm. £15 (£9. 70).