Director James Marsh (below right), and Bemal and Pell James in The King
of explaining that mystery. I enjoy the explanations and I enjoy the provocations that these explanations cause. the satisfying or unsatisfying feelings that we get after these explanations. Faith is about believing and it is also a way of attaining redemption but the problem we face sometimes with faith is that acceptance is so benevolent and a complete way of looking at things. Faith can create a
blindfold. You can fall into the trap with faith of
putting a blindfold on your past and to obtain redemption you have to also accept that you are what you lost. You are also the crimes that you committed. the sins that you committed. if such a thing exists.‘
Bemal questions religion. He argues that his
I 3 Needles This year's premier chick flick stars Chloe Sevlgny, Lucy Lui and Stockard Channing as three women dealing With the fallout of the AIDS epidemic. GFT, Fri 24 Feb.
I Fatolooo This harrowing film festival favourite tells the little known story of the Hungarian Jews during WWII thrOugh the eyes of a 14-year-old boy. GFII Wed 22 Feb.
I The Cave of the Yellow Dog The director of The StOry of the Weeping Camel paints another naturalistic canvas about a nomadic family - but this time the object of their concerns is an abandoned puppy. You will Cry buckets. GFT, Sun 79 Feb.
upbringing in the high altitudes of Guadalajara. Mexico was not particularly religious and describes it as ‘quite atheistic‘. lle quips that he was far more interested in discovering and uncovering the mysteries that surrounded him. He started acting at a young age. appearing in the theatre and occasionally on television.
Then began the modern revival of Me\ican cinema in the late 1990s. Bemal had signed up to do two small Mexican films that looked set. as was the norm. to get a limited Mexican release and never escape from South America. To everyone's surprise Aiiiores [)(‘I'HM and l' Ill mama lambie’a received ()scar nominations in consecutive years and Bernal became an international star. ‘l\'one of us were making money in Mexico.’ he says. ‘We were all doing small films and then all of a sudden we were getting calls from around the world. It is a wry nice feeling.‘
Offers were flooding in and Bernal had a choice pick. He took the eponymous role in theistic romantic drama [5/ ('ri'meii (/(‘l par/re Amara. Then he got to play his hero ('he Guevara in Walter Salles‘ 'l'lie .’l'l()I()I'('_\'('/(’ Diaries. for which he received a nomination in the Best Actor category from BAl’l‘A. This was soon followed by Almodovar's [.a .lIa/ii educacirin (Bad Education). Bernal’s sterling performance involved him taking on three complex personalities.
Of the characters he‘s played on screen. the 27-year-old argues: ‘There are only two that I feel close to. Julio in Y Ill mama ramble/i is the closest because his emotional journey is the one we have all had. He comes from a background like where I came from and maybe (‘he Guevara is also another character. because I share the same problems as he does. Obviously it is in a different context. With lilyis. for example. the only thing that I could really do is empathise with the character's tragedy. You cannot begin to understand him. because I‘ve never been remotely close to the position that this character faces. I mean. a person who has had a panic attack understands panic attacks better than a person who has never had them.‘
Last year. Bernal made his debut on the London stage in Lorca‘s B/(mr/ HIV/(ling. Tickets for the show went like gold dust. His many admirers are set for another treat with him appearing opposite Charlotte (iainsbourg in Michel Eternal Sunshine (ifa Spotless Mind Gondry"s new film. The Science ol'S/eep. .-\s has been the case throughout the interview. Bemal is sitting pretty.
GFT, Glasgow, Thu 16 Feb.
GLASGi'W
FILM FESTIVAL [Egg mm
FILM NOIR
*
om) MAN our '
Paul Dale welcomes the Glasgow Film Festival’s Carol Reed mini retrospective.
Carol Reed has been surprisingly ill served by film festivals in the last decade. In 2000 San Sebastian honoured him With a modest reVIew of his work and now. five years later. the OFF offers up a six- film showcase from a body of work that included over 30 mowes. If the truth be told it's a fairly slim selection. Of the SIX films on offer — Climbing High. Bank Holiday. The Way Ahead. Odd Man Out. The Third Man and Oliver.’ — only Odd Man Out and The Third Man (pictured) really show Reed punching anywhere near his weight. Where. for instance. is his 1948 masterpiece of childhood subjectivrty The Fallen Idol or his superbly muscular homoerotic circus drama Trapeze. (starring a very pert Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtisi? Cited as a major influence by everyone from Spielberg to the Irish filmmaker Jim Sheridan. Reed liked to refer to himself as a jOurneyman filmmaker and indeed his profe85ional promiSCuity was only really matched by real sexual prowess (Reed boasted a roster of lovers that included Daphne Du Maurier and dancer JeSSIe Matthews). His slate runs from naval adventure flicks to the comedy heist thrillers.
If nothing else. these SIX films serve as a good starting pOint for anyone interested in digging into the work of this most inspiring of British filmmakers. Reed never hid the fact that he was the illegitimate son of famous actor Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree (and. as it happens. the uncle of Oliver Reed). He was also the founder of RADA — one must presume that he found legitimaCy in creating a body of work only really paralleled by Hitchcock (who he hated) in British Cinema.
It)? ii'. . , 21., ..
THREE OTHER CLASSICS NOT TO MISS
"- I The Asphalt Jungle New print of John Huston's 19:30 crime drama. OFT. Wed 22 Feb.
I Eraserhead Rare chance to see Lynch's bizarre 1977 mutant horrOr film on the big screen. Cineworld Renfrew Street. Fri 24 Feb and Grosvenor, Fri 77 and Sat 78 Feb. I The Hindenburg Robert Wises 1975 disaster mowe starring George C Scott and Anne Bancroft gets a very rare theatrical Outing as a companion piece to new German film Zeppelin! GFK Thu 23 Feb.
./ '.‘-:' .’ f v THE LIST 17