Film
A Little Piece of Heaven (Kousek nebe) (PG) (Petr Nikolaev. (‘zech Republic. 2005) Jakub Doubrava. Tatiana Pauhofova. Petr Format]. 88min. When a couple come together in a l950s Stalinist prison camp. their unconditional love for each other manages to overcome the political and social instabilities of their time. Part of the New (‘zech (’inema season. Glasgow Eilm Theatre. Glasgow; I’ilrnhouse. Edinburgh.
Lola Montes ( I5) .0 (Max ()phiils. France/West (iermany. I955) Martine Carol. Peter L’stinov. Anton Walbrook. Henri (iuisol. I l0min. ()rphtils' elegant but very overlong melodrama tells the tragic story of the life of the mighty Montes -- adventurer. lover and scandalmonger. Some of the performances here are terrible. however. and one gets the impression that ()rphuls was working at a level well below par. Edinburgh I'i/rn Guild. Edinburgh.
* Mad Hot Ballroom (t5) 0.” (Marilyn Agrelo/Amy Sewell. US. 2005) l06min. Three different schools compete for a citywide ballroom dancing competition in New York (‘ityz Agrelo and Sewell's wildly emotive. beautifully structured documentary is indeed succour
for the soul. This energised low fi hybrid of
Hoop Dreams and Spellbound so fully embraces the quirky half formed world of these miniature urbanites that as a viewer it is virtually impossible not to be dragged in or to take sides. A very special documentary. Seleeted release.
March of the Penguins (l?) 00. (Luc Jacquet. France. 2005) 85min. See review, page ~19. General release. Miracle on 34th Street (PG)
.0. (Les Mayfield. L'S. I994) Richard Attenborough. Iilizabeth Perkins. Dylan McDermott. l l0min. Kriss Kringle (Attenborough) is a department store Santa who goes one better and claims he's the genuine article. Only by winning a court
case and convincing one cynical little girl
(Mara Wilson) can he put the joy and magic back into the festive period. A fairly unnecessary remake. but this secular fable still sparkles with charm. Dominion. Edinburgh.
Monty Python’s Meaning of Life (l8) 0.. (Terry Jones. l7K. I983) John ('leese. (iraham Chapman. Michael Palin. liric Idle. I03min. Ragbag of occasionally gross Python sketches loosely following this mortal coil from womb to grave. Watch out for the exploding Mr (‘rcosote Glasgow Film Theatre. Glasgow. Moolaade ( 15) O.“ (()usmane Sembene. Senegal/I‘rance/Burkina l"aso/('ameroon/Moroccoflunisia. 2004) Patournata (’oulibaly. Maimouna Helene Diarra. Salimata 'I‘raore. Dominique Zeida. l2-lmin. I‘our young girls turn tip in a small Mtislim village in Burkina Fast) after fieeing from their circumcision ceremony. They seek refuge at the house of (‘olle ((‘oulibaly). who. several years earlier. refused to allow her own teenage daughter to undergo the practice. (‘olle grants them protection but her decision incenses the conununity‘s male elders. who believe that a woman mast be ‘purified‘ before marriage. Iixcellent. insightful and. believe it or not. funny social drama from that old Marxist master filmmaker Sembene. I'ilrnhouse. Edinburgh.
Mr & Mrs Smith (l5) .0. (Doug Liman. LS. 2005) Brad Pitt. Angelina Jolie. Iifren Ramirez. Angela Bassett. 1 17min. Pitt and Jolie play married suburban couple. John and Jane Smith. who happen to be spies working for rival agencies. When they are both assigned the same target. they quickly discover the truth about each other and set about dissolving the marriage in the most violent of ways. l-‘luffy. likeable. slapdash but overlong marital comedy. I’ue Edinburgh ()eeun. Edinburgh.
Mrs Henderson Presents ( IZA) .0. (Stephen firears. l'K. 2005) Judi Dench. Bob Iloskins. Thelma Barlow. Will
thequeenshaH
Thursday 1 December Scottish Chamber Orchestra play Handel's Athalia
Saturday 3 December Scots Trad Music Awards 2005
Sunday 4 December Tommy Emmanuel Australian guitar legend
Monday 5 December Edinburgh Youth Choir
An Evening of Christmas Music
qh: the hq of live music in edinburgh
thequeenshall. clerk street. edinburgh eh8 9jg booking hotline: Ol3l 668 20l9 onllne booklng: www.thequeenshall.net
Friday 9 December Eliza Carthy and The Rat Catchers Twice nominated for Mercury Music Prize
Saturday 10 December Scottish Chamber Orchestra with violist Lawrence Power
Sunday 11 December Christmas with the Clarsachs featuring carol singing with the Caritas choir
Sunday 11 December Edinburgh Concert Band and the Kevock Choir A Christmas celebration
58 THE LIST 1—1 5 Dec 2005
Young. Kelly Reilly. ('hristopher (iuest. l03min. This drama charts the early history of London's celebrated Windmill Theatre. a naughty show theatre which provided a tonic for the troops during WWII. Through this detailed. lightweight confection. director lirears and writer Sherman play on comparisons between Blitz-ruined London and the jittery modern media obsession with the fresh spate of bombings that London now faces. But ultimately this is Dench‘s film: she is tremendous as the eccentric. defiant Henderson. General release.
Nanny McPhee (ti) .0 (Kirk Jones. lfK. 2005) fimma 'I'hompson. (‘olin Firth. Kelly Macdonald. (‘elia lmrie. Angela Lansbury. 97min. The recently bereaved (‘edric Brown ((‘olin Firth) has way too many kids and no wife. After his hired help resigns. he finds Nanny McPhec (Thompson). a wan-ridden. single-toothed harridan who has a remarkably calming affect on his wild children. but his troubles are just beginning becatise now he has to find a new wife before snobby Aunt Adelaide (Lansbury) cuts off his financial lifeline. Ifodge-podge tale of privileged revelry. cliche and antiquated morality that plays like a wretched pro-childbirth psychedelic farce fable. General release. Night Watch (Nochnoy Dozor) ( IS) 0.. (Timur Bekmambetov. Russia. 2005) Konstantin Khabensky. Vladimir Menshov. Valeri Zolotukhin. 1 14min. Present day Moscow light and dark ‘others' walk with human mortals. A truce has been reached whereby each will patrol the other's areas; a peace is maintained until the ‘('hosen ()nc' arrives to tip the balance towards either good or evil. lissentially Russia's first ever fantasy horror film disappoints in that the makers seem primarily concerned with being simple enough to appeal to those markets which will exert the right financial leverage to ensure L'S remakes. Some stunning set pieces and some really funky subtitles do. however. make it worth a visit. ('ameo. Edinburgh.
The Nightmare Before Christmas (PG) 0... (Henry Sclick. IS. 1993) With the voices of ('hris Sarandon. Danny lilfman. ('athcrine ()‘llara. 76min. Jack Skellington. the skinny trickster king of Halloweentown. is restless with success and needs a new challenge. so he hatches a plot to kidnap Santa and creates a mixed-up Yuletide which isn't quite what the kids of the world expected. Produced and based on a story and characters by Tim Burton. this is a real imaginative treat deliciously dark stop-motion animation on the big screen. I'ilmhouse. Edinlnagh.
On a Clear Day ( 12A) “0 ((iaby Dellal. l'K. 2005) Peter Mullan. Brenda Blethyn. Billy Boyd. Jamie Sives. 98min. I-‘rank (Mullan) a (ilasgow shipyard worker finds himself without a job when the yards sold off to foreign investors. Denied his livelihood. l-‘rank decides to sw itn to France to prove something to himself. .\’ot quite the broad comedy of The Full Monty and not as feelgood as Billy Elliot. ()n a (‘lear Day is a more sombre film. But like those efforts it benefits from its concrete setting and vivid characters. and from its criticism of the sorry state of the nation that's inherent to the story rather than being shoved down our throats. (.’( '1 Edinburgh. Edinburgh.
1‘ Paths of Glory(P(i) 0... (Stanley Kubrick. IS. 1957) Kirk Douglas. Ralph Meeker. Adolphe Menjou. Xbmin. See review. page 50. l'i/rnhouse. Edinburgh. Peeping Tom ( 18) once (Michael Powell. l'K. I960) Karl Boehm. Moira Shearer. Anna Massey.A movie studio focus puller equips his camera with a spike and sets out to murder young women while filming the fear on their faces. l'tterly reviled upon its initial release. Powell's daring examination of voyeurism as a metaphor for the cinema itself is now regarded as one of the most intelligent British filtns ever made. Part of Powell retrospective. film/muse. Edinburgh.
Pot Luck ( IS) .0 (t'ettric Klapisch. France. 2002) Romain Duris. (‘ecile de France. Judith (iodreche. Audrey
Tautou. 122mm. The latest from Klapisch. the man responsible for that appalling piece ofcutesy whimsy ll’hen the ('at's Away. tells the soporific tale of Xavier (Duris). a straight-laced French student who goes on the liRASMlTS foreign exchange program to Barcelona. where he finds himself and loses some of his ‘frogginess'. There are a few good performances (Tautou pops up briefiy as Xavier's particularly annoying French girlfriend) and some nice insights into pan-Iiuropean fiat sharing. but Kalapisch’s fiashy juvenile direction suffocates every nuance. A bummer in Barcelona. A Screendaze presentation. Glasgow I'ilm 'l'heatre. Glasgow. Pride and Prejudice (t? ) .00 (Joe Wright. (K. 2005) Keira Knightley. Matthew Macl‘adyen. Brenda Blcthyn. Donald Sutherland. l27min. In this solid and likeable new version of Atisten's timeless novel. director Wright and screenwriter Deborah Moggach cut the source material down to size allowing time for the secondary tales to develop while never losing sight of the all pervading romance between Darcy and Iilizabeth. Like the novel. it makes for a tale full of plot twists and emotional turbulence without ever acquiring the mannered subtlety of Ang Lee's Sense and .S'ensibilitv. Showcase ('inerna. ('mttbridge. Glasgow. * Private Parts ( 18) .00. (Paul Bartel. l'S. I972) Ayn Ruymen. Lucille Benson. John Ventantonio. Laurie Main. 87min. When (‘heryl (Ruyman) moves into her aunt's hotel in downtown LA she gets a lot more than she bargained for with odd lodgers. morbid moralizers and a murderer on the loose. Bizarre but occasionally brilliant psychosexual black comedy from the director of Eating Raoul. Idiot/rouse. Edinburgh. Queen Christina (ti) 0.000 (Rouben Mamoulian. l7S. I933) (ireta (iarbo. John Gilbert. Lewis Stone. I00min. (iarbo reached her zenith with this fantastic swashbuckling historical romance based very loosely on the I7th century Swedish queen who fell for a Spanish .»'\mbassador ((iilbert ). This was the last time former lovers (iilbert and (iarbo performed together. (iilbert. depressed by the sound of his voice in talkies. drifted into alcoholism and (iarbo very obviously withdrew from the world. Glasgow I-‘i/rn Theatre. Glasgow. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (18) 0... (Jim Sharman. l'K. 1975) Tim ('urry. Stisan Sarandon. Barry Bostwick. Meat Loaf. I00min. 'Ihe cult film to end all others. this rock spoof on old horror movies has created a breed of Rocky Horror crazies. and packs them in at late shows everywhere. The film has its moments. and ('urry is splendidly catnp as the bisexual Frank-N—I"urtcr. I’ue Edinburgh. Edinburgh. Rollin’ Through the Decades (t') (Winston Whitter. UK. 2005) l23min. After the emergence of skateboarding and the [K scene in the 70s. its I9S0s retreat underground is explored through the use of documentary footage and interview s. Filmmakers and legends are all present to bring life to the whole turbulent journey. Part of Wipeout. Eilrnhouse. Edinburgh. Santa vs the Snowman 30 (PG) (Various. IS. 2002) 32min. IMAX big screen presentation. l.llA.\' Theatre. Glasgow. Saraband ( l5) 0... (Ingmar Bergman. Sweden/Italy/(iermany/ I-‘inland/I)enmark/.»\Ustria. 2003) Liv l’llmann. lirland Josephson. Borje Ahlstedt. Julia Dufvenius. l07min. (‘oming out of lengthy retirement in 2003 Bergman made this sequel to his mid-70s film .s‘t‘t’IH’A’Vf-I'UHI A .‘ltarriage for Swedish TV'. After many years apart. Marianne (l’llmann) visits her es-husband. Johan (Josephson) on a remote island. Reprising their damaged roles ,. *' ."r