Reviews
l lVl COME [)Y SANE MAN (18) 80min (Hyko/lNl) retail)
About halfway through this 1980 show recorded in Austin, lexas, Bill Hicks notes how lucky it was that l IVis died when he did. the memory of him getting older and latter would have been too much even for his most aVid acolytes. lhe irony cannot he lost that such words were spoken by a man who would he dead himself Within five years and whose legend has spread quicker and more potently than the cancer which took him. this show (shot with occasional. unnrx:essary and intrusive psychedelic slo-mo inserts of Hicks fooling around) marks the earliest lull set he ever recorded and it's lull of hilarious bile aimed at Reagan, anti-smokers. the war on drugs. George Michael and had pornography, all delivered in the uncoinpiomising style that would set Hicks apart from the leaden standup circuit of the early 90s.
It would be accurate to call Hicks a revolutionary firebrand. were it not for that word featuring his least favourite entity. But, like it or not, the Hicks brand is alive and kicking. We can only wonder just what Hicks could have done with the decades of comedy that lay ahead. Decent extras include the story of how Sane Man came about and even earlier footage of Hicks as part of the Houston Outlaws.
(Brian Donaldson)
AUAPIAHUN
THE DEAD
(U) 83min
(Network DVD retail) D...
It", fitting that the great John Huston's 198/ swaiisong was an adaptation of the final story in James Joyce's collection lhe [)ub/iners. From his dirrx2tiiig debut ( llie Maltese lit/con) onwards, Huston proved to he the master of the literary adaptation. Adapting Joyce took Huston back to his adopted home country, where he recreated Willi great care the Dublin of 1904, and a gathering of friends and family for an alternately raucous and reflective celebration of the least of the Fpiphany. In keeping with Joyce's tale. l-luston's film is a family affair; a (OWUI in the sparkling ensemble cast is daughter Anjelica, while soii ‘loiiy wrote the Oscar- nominated
It's a meandering and modest little film, Willi none of the swagger and grandeur that informs the iiialority of Huston's canon, from Mohy Dick to l he Misfits. But this portrait of frozen passions in turn~of—the—century Ireland is full of heart. and it achieves a state of grace befitting the passing of one of Hollywood's finest filmmakers. Sadly. there are no extras.
(Miles Fielder)
DRAMA
TI-IE DOUBLE LIFE OF VERONIQUE
(15) 94min
(Artificial Eye DVD retail) OOOO
Probably Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski's
a I
most enigmatic film, this tale of two titular characters. the Polish Weronika and the french Veronigue (both played by Irene Jacob) share a weak heart and a profound, intangible uiiderstanding. The film works up a nicely iiietapiiysical atmosphere that demands more than the Viewer's patience: you also have to buy into various vaguely spiritual possibilities as the director uses filters. unusual camera angles and portentous music to suggest the other worldly. Perhaps for those unwilling to buy into its abstract profundities, there are a few resolutely realist short Kieslowski documentaries on the DVD as well, including the compulsively (un)watchable Hospital in which the surgeons rather indiscrimiiiater take chunks out of people's broken and buggered limbs (as you wonder whether they're doing more damage than good). Other extras include interviews With Kieslowski and Jacob. (Tony McKibbin)
SlASHER PARODY FREAK OUT
(15) 98min
(Anchor Bay DVD retail) DO.
Despite the shoddy
amateur acting
penormances and
production values, it‘s
' a Rh V . (1MP)A (In?)
lNll H‘JIE V.
MAD IN MARGATE
Tracey Emin talks about the experience of making her first feature film.
Film
.4 m2 Bum
( u‘l'.|‘ I '
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0 q . .
‘Michael Winterbottom had seen my short film Sometimes a Dress is Worth More Money than the Money and he asked if I would be interested in making a feature with BBC finance with him as producer. Top Spot took the summer of 2003 to shoot and then the editing process took a really long time. I was originally going to make a straightfomard, hard hitting, kitchen sink drama, and then on the first day of the shoot the budget got cut and I had to totally rethink how to make the film. The music soundtrack itself cost nearly the whole budget, so I made it on a shoestring on DV and
Super 8.
‘To get the actresses in the film we put an advert in Stage magazine and 45 girls turned up. I wanted people who were quite feisty but I didn't want them to just be 14-year-old versions of myself, I wanted it to be broader than that, I wanted all the girls to represent every girl. There‘s no girl in the film that is particularly like me. The memories however are all mine, and if it has a theme it's about getting away from a part of my past. So when we were auditioning I got the shy girls to swear and really argued with them to find out what they were made of.
‘There was no finished script. Every morning I would lay in bed and think ‘what are they going to say today?" I knew the way I wanted the story to go but I would then get the girls to follow my inclinations of what to say and how to say it. Later the girls told me they really appreciated working in that way and they had learned a lot from it.
‘Lots of the songs on the soundtrack are evocative of my childhood and were chosen to work in place of a formalised script.
‘At the time the film came out I was exhausted and I couldn't even stand my own reflection. I wasn’t looking at the film very objectively and then when it got an 18 certificate I was really pissed off because I'd made the film for a younger audience. I was pissed off with the whole thing; this film had eaten up a lot of my time. I had really enjoyed shooting it and working with the girls and some of the editing but I didn‘t enjoy the industry of filmmaking. I’m used to being a one-man show. But now its come out on
DVD I‘m really pleased. It’s like it’s now got a home.
‘Next I really want to just go off on my own with a small crew and make a really violent, sexy hardcore, take-no-prisoners film which really deserves an 18 certificate.’ (Interview by Paul Dale)
I lop Spot is available now on DVD from lartan V/(l(.‘().
impossible to hate a film. which features; the exchange: ‘What are you doing here?'; 'Oh you know. the usual . . . looking for some dick'; ‘Hey. wait a minute - l'm some dick!'
An extremely lowv budget (5:30.000), debut feature from British writer, director and ciriematographer Christian James. this five—years—iri—the~making
pet project sends up every cult cinema icon you dare to mention. lhere are references to Scream. larantino, Blair Witch and Weird Sue/ice. yet the tale of tWo film nerd waster friends Who befriend a camp. vegetarian mental patient and train him up to be a hockey mask wearing serial killer owes most to Peter Jackson's Bad
ALL DVDS WERE REVIEWED ON A SYSTEM SUPPLIED AND INSTALLED BY LOUD 8: CLEAR ‘
laste. lt may not be as funny or as iiieti(.u|ous|y over :iiiibitioii',. but there are enough laugh out loud sequences and inventive gore effects to keep those on a similar pop culture saturated vmvelength to the creators more than entertained. l xtras include a making of documentary and deleted scenes.
(Ba/id Pollock)
.,’*\ Loud
oCleor
~75 May 200‘) THE LIST 43