Reviews
DOCUMEN TARY BIOGRAPHY
ARAKIMENTARI (18) 72min
(Tartan Video DVD retail) 0..
Artist or pornographer’? It's a question often asked about Japanese eroticist Nobuyoshi Araki. Filmmaker Travis Klose tirelessly follows Araki from one shoot to the next. His subiect clearly lives by the motto of working hard but playing harder, but then maybe doesn't take himself too seriously because there are always plenty of others who will. Bierk describes him as possessing more energy than anybody she's ever met. and says a series of photos he took of his wife blew
Aralumentari o .3,
her away. She's close to tears as she describes their impact. Klose does his damndest to cram in as many photos as possible in a series of quick-fire montages interspersed With the talking heads of fans. A useful. if rather hagiographic. introduction to Araki's work. Minimal extras. (Tony McKibbin)
CLASSIC THE FALLEN IDOL
(PG) 95min 0...
The year before they made The Third Man. director Carol Reed and screenwriter Graham Greene collaborated on (and were Oscar— nominated tori this more modest but almost equally brilliant thriller. The action. largely confined to an elegant emb; ssy building in London. revolves around an
ALL DVDS WERE REVIEWED ON A SYSTEM SUPPLIED AND INSTALLED BY LOUD 8: CLEAR
infidelity and an accidental death that Ralph Richardson's befuddled butler Baines is embroiled in. The IWIsty turn of events is witnessed by the young son of his French diplomat employer. who mistakes it for murder. The superb plotting ratchets up the tension. while the unfolding events provide a telling commentary on the class system and repressive society of post-war Britain. The performances are spot- on. particularly Richardson's admirably restrained one. but also Bobby Henrey as the bewildered little Phillipe. And Georges Perinal's Cinematography. which cleverly approxnnates the point of view of each of the characters. is masterful. Unfairly but understandably overshadowed by the high styling of The Third Man. The Fallen ldo/ is a perfectly realised minor masterpiece. No extras. (MIIOS Fielder)
WESTERN THE BRAVADOS (PG) 98min
(20th Century Fox DVD retaili CO.
A mysterious rider. John Douglas (Gregory Pecki, appears in a one-horse town on the eve of a group hanging to finally see the death of the man who raped and murdered his wife.
But when the criminals escape. he must track them down and administer some frontier justice.
Lee Van Cleef and Joan Collins give spirited support. but the screen belongs to Peck. his wronged rancher so intense the film suffers for it. and the frame feels empty in his absence.
Perhaps this is too beautifully shot for the sombre theme: director Henry King skilfully avoids glorifying Violence. despite its necessity to the tale. crafting a downbeat vision of the Wild West. Minimal extras. (Dave Martin)
DRAMA COMEDY MA VIE SEXUALLE (15) 173min (Pathe DVD Retail) 0...
Arnaud Desplechin's marveIIOus 1996 film meanders thrOugh the lives of various Parisian characters who are in their late 20s and hitting that anxious moment when they have to grow up and make deCisions. What's interesting is that aesthetically it's always on the side of the indecisive. lt constantly refuses narrative development when there is instead a striking little vignette to focus upon. so some will see this as French narcissism at its worst. Others may regard it as a compelling study of a generation. The cast includes Mathieu Amalric. meanuellt—z Devos. Marianne Denicourt and Jeanne Balibar. who have all become key French actors over the last decade. Minimal extras. (Tony McKibbinl
INTERVIEW
PRESSURE COOKER
Paul Dale welcomes a new DVD featuring two classics of Black British cinema and talks to the films' maker HORACE OVE.
At a time when young black lads are stabbing Asian youths to death on the streets of Birmingham - the early film and photography works of Horace Ové (pictured) are a reminder of a less bloody if no less contrary time. Born in Trinidad in 1939, Ové is arguably the most important black independent filmmaker to emerge in Britain since the post-war period. His 1976 feature film, Pressure was the first British funded film to be made by an Afro-Caribbean. Recently repackaged on DVD alongside his excellent 1969 documentary Baldwin ’5 Nigger, Pressure still bears witness to the fact that Ové was the father to a cinematic revolution which was to sweep up in its march the diverse talents of among others John Akomfrah (Handsworth Songs), Franco Rosso (Babylon), Don Letts (Dancehall Queen), Ngozi Onwurah (Welcome II the Terrordome), Isaac Julien (Young Soul Rebels), Spike Lee and the entire black American cinema movement which came to prominence in the late 19805.
On the day of the DVD’s release I had the privilege of chatting to Ové about what it felt like to be a true pioneer.
‘You know for years I really didn’t want to get into re-releasing and talking about my old films because I was a filmmaker and I wanted to get on and make other films but after screening Pressure a few times I saw the film’s importance - I found a new generation of younger people who did not know much about the past so this was very important for me historically. Also it was very nice for me to see that my film had survived and that people are still enjoying it.’
Counting Elia Kazan, Ken Loach, Tony and Ridley Scott, Ousmane Sembene, Akira Kurosawa and Nicholas Ray among his favourite filmmakers this feisty 66 year old seems well aware of his place in Black Cinema history when he exclaims in a titillated Caribbean inflected growl: ‘I realise I was before my time as a filmmaker. No no no, I'm telling you, along with some other filmmakers I helped to bring a style of filmmaking in Britain, because luckily enough I was living in Italy in 1961 for three or four years and then I was in Paris for a while and l was immersing myself in realist cinema, surrealist and cinema verité. It all influenced me a lot so when I came here and went to film school I already had all this stuff in my head and l was ready to scare people with my knowledge.’
I Pressure/Baldwin’s Nigger is out now (BF/ DVD retail).
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