Film
DRAMA COMED r PARADISE NOW (15) 90min 0000.
It's easy to forget that Said (Kais Nashef) and Khaled (Ali Suliman) are Palestinian car mechanics about to venture to Israel on a suicide-bombing mission in l-lany Abu-Assad’s absorbing tale. That's because first and foremost Paradise Now is a buddy-buddy movie which deserves to be ranked alongside Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Said is the wistful, romantic type. He has the looks and the brain. His tall gruff pal Khaled is the brawn, our Robert Redford if you will. In the opening scene Khaled smashes the car of a complaining client while Said tries the art of persuasion. Played for laughs, the tone is set for a chronicle of friendship between likeable lads defined by violence.
With the principal characters succinctly established the story jumps to the rub. Jamal (Amer Hlehel), who looks like he'd never pass airport security unchallenged, sets in motion the first suicide mission for two years. Before embarking on the mission, the ever-thoughtful Said returns car keys to a beautiful
SEX FARCE
COCKLES AND MUSCLES
CRUSTACES ET OQUILLAGES)
(15) 93min .0.
Take one Rohmer-esque family-at-the- seaside scenario. add two progressive progenitors of new French Queer cinema (writer/directors Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau) add a script that could have been written by Marcello Danon and Edouard Molinaro (La Cage aux Fo/les). To finish add some camp musical interludes. an illLiSiOh to Truffaut's film within a film
one mildly dysfunctional family through a summer break. we follow half
client Suha (Lubna Azabal). The exchange is filled with so much sexual tension it‘s a small wonder that the screen doesn‘t fray. But Suha's not just eye candy or a romantic interlude, her probing leads to an engrossing and even-handed discussion on violence as a political tool. From this moment on Said‘s emotional journey becomes more important than his external characters. and his frailty makes him affable. It's a storytelling style similar to Abbas Kiarostami, especially his suicide drama A Taste of Cherry.
Lof‘ty praise continues since Paradise Now's most obvious peer amongst ‘terrorist' movies is The Battle of Algiers. When the partners-in-crime embark on the assignment, writer/director Assad ups the tempo by delivering a chase thriller. The amoral protagonists and heart pumping action are reminiscent of Sam Peckinpah's The Getaway. Post 7/7 the UK release date was postponed and in between times it's become the first Palestinian film to win a Golden Globe award and receive an Oscar nomination. Further proof that it's only preconceptions that explode in this instant classic. (Kaleem Aftab)
I ClllOWO/‘(f Fioiifrei'. Street. (Rig/lint, i.)
from Fri 74 Apr. Cameo. E(,"/‘i.’):i’:';i" " i '
IlgfitllGSS of triticl‘. Ci" litfl‘af it'iunw two iilattii'iiig; filiii'iig‘ikms. t'liflt: :1": worse says to siier‘rl £1". '10:.7 girid ii half. iPaul Dale
I GFF Gii’lsgtiz'h fro” F“ '-.'»~. " A: I only. Fl/lllfTOt/SC. Euwnvur'gJP "i .‘f‘ M61}; See it'd‘iie. fasting/1:;
Docummmw NEW YORK DOLL (12A) 78min on
Part eulog‘, and [mm “(:de'riifi i" ' «- Greo \‘Jliitele. Elhf'itf.;f:. hearted portrait of firm: Ne; Yaw (Duly
Pamela (from Day for Night) and a little bit of smut. and hey presto. all the Cote d'AZLir is yOLir furry cup.
Performing what amounts to a huge volte face. Ducastel and Martineau move away from the intimate. OCC8$IOnaIIy visceral naturalism of their previous films (Ma Vie. Dro/e de Fe/i’x) into something much more bawdy. freewheeling' and joyous.
Following the sexual adventures of
44 THE LIST 13—27 Apr 2006
French, half Swedish Beatrix ithe wonderful Valeria Bruni Tedecshii as she tries to divide herself between her closet case husband Marc iGilbert Melki) and her lover Matthieu iJacques Bonnaffel. Meanwhile. their son Charly (Romain Torres) and buddy Martin (Edouard Collin) are spending way too long down by the beach's cruising grounds. This funny. Silly farce does not really add up to a hill of beans but with good performances and a certain
baSSisl Arthur 'Kili€;r” Kgi'wg .9 a
reminder 0‘ no British punk expicsc"
(lift/:11. ill "0:?
emergence 1:? {"62 D» s " T"~’;
depressed No.2 York cl °."~'; :, 107‘s. Kiomi‘g of‘ 8'. We I";
Kane. FOE. an If‘TKLC‘fm’
TECO‘xEETIHQ alcoholc 8"?) his '
i‘flO'T’SSQ, TC (.42.
been in. ited :31.
a reformed Dots at the liter)”,
2004 festival. \.‘.'hlteie,'
illustrates this gentle mans has» .
an
9.939
TR'Is'TAN 'i'isoLoE (12A) 126mm on
LU