budget debut. \r"."rth the actors haying agreed to work ‘or i gurt'y n‘rnrmurn (offset against a cut os‘ the profits: and Blum haying re-mortgaged hrs flat to raise part of the budget. the filmmakers took their prorect to financiers rust two ‘.‘.*(}(‘:l<f§ before ’ filming comnwumd. talk about cutting rt fine.
Needless to say. Drtta and Blunt got the money to make the- trim. and the result. an ensemble rom cont set on sunny Hampstead Heath lll l ondon. looks pretty good, Unfortunately. the script. which exan‘rnes relationships rmostly failing onesr fron‘ the standpornts of the various characters. rs nerther original nor profound rnor rs rt particularly romantic or funny». And while the cast rs undeniany talented.
there's not much any of the actors can do with their rndrvrdual vrgnettes. which have the undeveloped feel of scenes shot wrth little in the way of preparation. In one McGregor tells hrs boyfriend he wants to have kids. then skulks off for a shag in the local pond:
DRAMA THE PAGE TURNER (15) 84min 0000
lmagine a vintage Chabrol thriller set in the rarefied world of classical music and you’ll have a sense of this cleverly understated revenge drama from French writer-director Denis Dercourt, who is himself a professional musician.
It begins with a ten-year—old girl Melanie, a butcher’s daughter, diligently practising for a crucial audition at a musical conservatory. But on the day of the entrance exam, the thoughtless behaviour of one of the judges, a famous concert pianist named Ariane (Catherine Frot), causes her to fail the audition and give up playing. Cut to ten years later and Melanie (superbly played by teenage Belgian actress Deborah Francois from The Child) has become an eerily self-possessed young woman, who insinuates herself into the household of the married Ariane. And the latter, needy and self- absorbed, is quite oblivious to the real reasons for her new employee’s scrupulous attentiveness.
The principal location in The Page Turner is the imposing country mansion inhabited by Ariane and her lawyer husband Jean (Pascal Greggory) and their young son, and it proves a choice setting for this sinister story of class envy and simmering sexual desires. With her scraped-back blonde hair, impassive demeanour and flat shoes, Francois passes through the deserted corridors like a modern-day version of Hitchcock’s Mrs Danvers from Rebecca, materialising in rooms without warning. Quickly the servant becomes indispensable to the highly-strung mistress, who gives Melanie the crucial role of being the page-turner at her recitals, and who finds herself falling for the youngster.
Making skilful use of the different spaces, rooms and levels within the house and garden, including an underground swimming pool, Dercourt also understands the impact of one strategically placed piece of violence. And when the filmmaker delivers the psychologically satisfying coup de grace, it’s all the more memorable because it doesn’t involve bloodshed.
(Tom Dawson) I ()rner'xorv’ri [tent/en; Street. (i/(l.‘$_(]()‘.‘./ é; (Xi/mm. f-(irnbu/gn from in (9 Nov. See Piotr/t / ri/n MENU/4.
in another Bonneville packs up his picnic and walks off in a huff after he spots hrs date McKee staring at a younger man. It’s left to old puffrns Frleen Atkins and BCHJEIlillll Whrtrow. whose unliker lrerunron rs fermented on a park bench and then a long walk up a hill. to provrde the frlm with any substance. Which rsn't much.
llvlrles l-relderr
I C/newor/d Rentrew Street. Glasgow Crnewor/d. Edinburgh and Vi re Edinburgh O/nnr fro/n Fri 3 Nov.
PORTRAIT DRAMA MAN PUSH CART (15) 86min «u
If. as legendary CBS sportscaster Heywood Hale Broun (who. incidentally. died six days before 0 1 it once pl‘OCthlltttAXl. ‘sweat is the cologne of accomr>|rshment'. then Ahmad positively pongs. Between the New York refreshment cart. bootleg porn busrness and freelance decoratrng robs. Ahmad rs slowly working himself rnto an early grave on what seems to be a dret of cold beer and cigarettes.
Ahmad rs. however. not Just another rnvrsrble Pakistani serVrcing the needs of the Big Apple's white collar hordes with coffees and bagels. Ahmad has a reason to work like a dog: he's got secrets and half buried truths that only begin to simmer to the surface when he befriends a garnrne Catalan girl Noernr rl._etrcra Doleral —- who works rn a newsagent's booth across the way from hrs speck.
l-tamrn Bahranr's second feature builds on the slow unwrndrng Krarostarnr-esgue charm of hrs 2000 feature Strangers. ivlan Push Cart rs the krnd of tough. lean. trncomi)romrsrng US rndre frlrnmakrng which rs all too rare outside the clorsters of Sundance. Oermrnated from the earliest works of Loach and Cassavettes and hothoused through the frlrns of urban masters lodge Kerrrgan and the Scorsese. Bahrani and gifted crnematograplrer Michael Simmonds have created a beguiling work of stillness. mrnrmalrsm. brevrty and disorientation. Part kooky love story. part dissection of Pakistani subcultures in post 0 t 1 New York and part loner sketch. Man Push Cart begs the guestron that if every Job rs a portrait of the person that does rt. then what happens to the portrait when the work begins to overwhelm the man? lhrs wonderful US rndre rs one of the best this year. up there wrth Junebug and l rtt/e Miss Sunshine. il’aul Dale) I (3/57. Glasgow. from in l0 Nov- lt/lo/r 13 Nov only.
Rough Cuts
Film
Film news and giveaways for beautiful cineaste types
I New film course British Social Realism starts on Thursday 2 November, 6.30pm at GFT, Glasgow. Lecturer and journalist Andy Dougan will be looking at the origins, history and legacy of the British New Wave of the early 605. The course comprises four lectures and three introduced screenings, including classics Passport to Pimlico (pictured) and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. The course costs 248/2245 (concs), which includes entry to screenings. Visit www.gft.org.uk or call 0141 332 8128 for information. I The fourth lnverness Film Festival kicks off on Thursday 9 November with the Scottish premiere of The Last King of Scotland. while Graeme Obree biopic The Flying Scotsman is the closing night gala. Plus there are Scottish premieres of Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's Babel and Ben Hopkins' superb documentary. 37 Uses For a Dead Sheep. Visit www.invernessfilmfestival.com
I Back in Edinburgh this fortnight, a bizarre but fascinating three day biomedical film season starts. 21 Grams and Michael Crichton’s 1978 thriller Coma will be among the films showing. The Ethics of Transplantation starts on Fri 10 Nov and ends Sun 12 Nov.
WIN THE WARRIOR KING ON DVD!
Premier Asia have rust released The l/M'rrrror Kr/ 7g 1. whrch features the highly antrCrpated return of Ong— Bak's lony .Jaa. on DVD. lhrs double disc set contains no wires. camera trickery. computers or stunt doubles and Rough Cuts has five copies to grye away. lo be in wrth a chance of winning one. send an ernarl n‘arked WAltHlOl—t to promotronsic‘lrst.co.uk wrth your name. address and day trrne phone number. no later than lhu 10 Nov. Usual 1 rs! rules apply.
‘ 1...: Non .xw‘me LIST 41 g