Film
Reviews
CA L NORTHSIDE 777
x" ' l I i. ll. 2 1‘1]: ' "‘1‘ IV”: ri' 1‘ : tnr . ‘1 ‘z ‘7 I 1!. r ‘l.. ’r a .fr H ’r/i/r , I It I {‘1 I}' ‘r, (I ' I' I'Y‘t).:l' (ll
:rndrrual :, “late-rt fathxulii rIrtr't'f\,’,'//r‘/ jurrl' .rr‘fJ .‘.’."r<> .r r.'.’l,
(tea-turn. a trusartrrrrr
.".‘ t. rr‘rlx‘,
under.“ tarwtatrlr, .'.~:.rned i)‘, 'irrw‘tor llenr‘. Kiss of [huff li.rtlr.r‘.‘..l.'f; tr-lrrit'lil , to let scenes drag; on at tortuous (>rr§,r_)lzt()t‘. sequence causes partrrtrrlar ennrrrr. it, a brute iratrtrnt tl‘rrrtitrll‘. .remr not used to much of thrs (rtflll nit. r rrr locatrort norr work thrt; one was shot rrr titartlrnt; rnonotthrorne rn t)trr<:.rgo tr, the great .Jor; Mar‘ltorraldr. thrs rna. sewn .t trrt ’.‘.’t)tiii\, itrrt .ttrli. (irxe rt trnre,
hoaxexer. .iltti xorr ‘.‘.'rll tlrsr‘o‘mr an ai‘sorbrntr and rntellrgent tale of r‘ornrr‘tror‘ and greed. Extras Include .‘onrrnentar‘. h, hrstorrans .larnes Utsrnr and Alarrr Slum.
rDaxe Martrnr
POL ELM? DRAMA TALK RADIO (15) 104mm (Network DVD retarl' 0...
Laser rt rsn't. Adapted from Errt‘ Bogosran's
,1' ' Yfibrt; r r}. t I . .."‘ '_ ~"r:' t‘ til 1' r;{,'l(r
t"e nerge of
:t ' r: .rrr’trr,‘at.'.'r. tin", C'ranrplazrr vErrt; it, yxa'r can't herp his
'or firm
,. (r )l‘ 't‘:‘.tr.r',t;r,tr,i;£1rtrltghrt; irg'rtert callers o er.er— greater heights oi (linrtattx, before rorrnterrng .‘rith the truth as ht.- sees rt.
rum
0 immaturth
Bogosran. wrth both a face and norce for radro. corrrscates rn the dark. claustrophobic studro. tttrl(itl(léiii‘, the frln 's sole locatron. completer srdelrntng a supportrng cast that includes sleazy boss Alec BaldWrn and .‘Stjrrrbs' John C iVitiGlllit)“, as hrs long— stltter‘rhg producer.
Invested with an rntensrt; no MTV editing or ozerbearrng musrc could exer achreve. and parntul to watch at trmes - especralk durrng Champlarn's trnal mea ctr/pa monologue — thrs rs an ott overlooked gem that desemes wrder recognrtron. Mrnrrnal Extras. rDaw Martrnr
COlttitiDY DRAMA BEAR CUB (CACHORRO) (15) 95mins
(TLA Releasrng DVD retarlr CO.
For a trlm that starts out \'.|Iit a threesome between gentlemen of the cuddlrer varretv thrs Spanrsh trlm doesn't rearir. haxe a VCR t‘orttto.ersral message to delrxer. It's ab0ut parenthood and tolerance. and the morals adults rmpart to then children.
W uwtofiou‘ow
O
\‘Jhen ,oung Bernard 'Dand Castrirc‘ rs left .‘.'rth hrs gaj. un;:le Pedro dose Luis Garcia Peres» .‘rhrle 'rrs mother [Hinds to Indra. he meets the r.'\.t-;l<:ornrng (:ornnrunrt‘,’ of trrerrds that Pedrc moms among. However. hrs mother ends up berng rmprrsoned on a drugs charge and hrs prerrrdrced grandmother uses blackrnarl to haw: hrrrr taken rnto custod, Certarnly a lrlm that deals rn sensrtrve subrects. but one that handles them wrth nothrng but warmth and character. Mrnrrnal extras. lDavrd Pollockr
FAMILY DRAMA HARRY 8. MAX (15) 73mins
(TLA releasrng DVD retail) .0
c...
Annoyrngly, thrs frlm by Chrrstopher Munch ldrrector of the excellent The Hours and Trmes. the controversral 1991 accOunt of the supposed love atfarr between John Lennon and Brran Epsternr SrmultaneOLrsly manages to break plenty of thernatrc taboos and still emerge as a tarrlr, tedrous famrlral drama.
That's some teat when the core of the story involves two teen rdol brothers. older pop star Harry rBrvce Johnsonr and teen mag model Max lCole erlramsr. who are engaged rn an on-oft rncestUOus
INTERVIEW
A NEW VISIBILITY Eddie Harrison reveals how an unreleased five-year-old-Scottish film is to get a new lease of life on DVD.
One of the hottest films at the 2000 Edinburgh Film Festival was May Miles Thomas’ digital feature One Life Stand. Shot in deep focus black and white, the film starred Maureen Carr as Triste, a single mother whose relationship with her teenage son John Paul (John Kielty) is increasingly fractured by the lengths they go to survive in modern Britain. Despite critical praise and four New Talent BAFTAS, One Life Stand failed to receive theatrical distribution and has remained unseen until now. Thomas' executive producer and husband Owen Thomas explains how they plan to beat the distribution trap.
‘The great dirty secret of cinema releasing is that it’s simply advertising for a product, creating awareness and credibility for a film which can then make its real money through rental, sell-through and broadcast sales,’ he says.
“But there’s a growing movement in North America of people trying to bypass conventional methods by finding common interests in web communities. Six years ago the tools of broadband and public confidence in online shopping was not available to us. Now they are.’
Digital cinema has long promised to take filmmaking from the hands of big studios into those of individuals, and with an initial run of 1000 copies, Owen Thomas hopes that One Life Stand can help create a workable new model.
‘We’re in a scary position, but it’s the same kind of position as we were in when we spent £35,000 on making the film. If we can make back that money on DVD, we can go to an investor and offer the investment opportunity of doing it again on double the budget,’ he explains. ‘The beauty of having an online stock of 1000 copies in my house is that it costs nothing to maintain. We want to create a working financial model that other Scottish companies can use. The margins are fantastic if you cut out the middleman, and while the industry might despise us because there are no fat lunches, it’s good business.’
With Scottish-based producer Ros Borland planning to distribute her own horror film Wild Country theatrically, it looks as if Scottish filmmakers are prepared to take on the existing system to get their work seen.
‘The very kind of thing that stops films like this getting made in the first place is that it doesn’t conform to a previous model,’ says Thomas. ‘It’s about making the stories that we want to make, rather than the ones we’re told to.’
I One Life Stand sereerrs at the GFT. Glasgow on Thu 9 Feb and can be purchased on DVD from WWW.e/ementa/fr/rnsco.uk.
pertornrarrces. A
:r.es rn. drsrriterested ’trsapporritrnerrt from a fashion The chi, .er, prongsrrrg
flax: rs the two leads frlnrmaker. Mrrrrrnar smug atTG charmless extras rDa/rd Pollock,
relatrOrrshrp. lt's a herd one else rn the-tr concept to tackle. bat the drrector deals with therr tangled feelings
about each other and
lboo‘of
ALLDVDSWEREREVIEWEDONASYSTEMWAWNSTAUEBYLOUO&CLEAR
44 THE LIST Q — ‘ t3 Fer 3006