FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL ROUND-UP
It’s that time of year again when the great and the good who coordinate the national French Film festival unleash their wares on those Francophiles among us. Taking in four Scottish cities (Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen) this three week programme works on the principal of exposure to the new. Like its predecessors this year’s selection is largely made up of films that do not yet have distribution in this country. The one noticeable exception to this is the opening gala Paris, je t’aime, a kind of cinematic love letter to Paris made up of 18 short films by filmmakers as brilliant and disparate as Joel and Ethan Coen, Olivier Assayas, Gus Van Sant and Sylvain Chomet. The latter will be on hand to introduce the film.
Above and beyond that the festival is rich in named and unnamed talent. If it’s thrillers you seek then you really can’t go wrong with the great Greek filmmaker Costa Gavras’ The Axe, an adaptation of Donald E Westlake’s dizzying mystery novel about corporate revenge served cold. France’s leading Hitchcock acolyte Claude Chabrol’s tale of legal shenanigans Comedy of Power starring the mighty Isabelle Huppert is also worth checking out. If it’s a heist flick you seek then Jacques Bral’s Springtime in Paris is breezier, jazzier yet more seamlessly plotted than most. Also worthy of your attention is Jerome Cornuau’s thoroughly watchable mob fighting epic Tiger Brigades based on the cult French TV series of the same name.
Laughs aplenty can be found in 088 117: Cairo — Nest of Spies (pictured), a gleeful parody of the popular French secret agent who appeared in seven films from 1956-1970. In intention this is equal parts early Bond and Austin Powers but the brilliant retro production design, editing, camerawork and superb performances from Jean Dujardin and the beautiful Bérénice Bejo put this in a league of its own. For those with a penchant for the surreal Emmanuel Carrére’s existential facial topiary farce The Moustache is also worth a close shave with.
A retro strand presenting a mini retrospective of the work of intense societal dissector Christian Vincent (The Separation) is also well worth dropping in on. Vincent’s work brings to mind Gore Wdal’s comment that ‘France is a nation devoted to the false hypothesis on which it then builds marvellously logical structures.’ Apprécier mes enfants!
(Paul Dale) I French Film Festival UK is at GFT, Glasgow. Film/rouse, Edinburgh and Vue Ocean. Edinburgh from Sun 75 Apr. www.lrenchfi/n)lestival.org.ul<
ACIlON 'll lRll l l R SHOOTER (15) 125min .00
l HHIUl. R UNKNOWN (15) 85min coo
Five guys (Barry Pepper. Jim Caviezel. Greg Kinnear. Joe Pantolrano and Jeremy Srskoi wake up in an abandoned warehouse. It's obvrous that some of them hate each other as one of them is handcuffed and another hound. Unfortunatelythey're suffering from collective amnesia. From this startling beginning. reminiscent of the Saw trilogy. the plot moves into Reservoir Dogs territoiy when we see Eli/a Coles (Bridget Moynahan) going to pay a ransom fee for her kidnapped husband under the watchful eye of the cops. Amnesia thrillers have been en vogue since Christopher Nolan's masterful Memento but Unknown falls far short of any of the movies it tries to emulate because director Simon Brand has forgotten that it pays to develop characters. Unknown. With its fast cuts. bad monologues and psychedelic flashback sequences. relies too heavily on plot twists that are at best convoluted and more often ,rust plain ludicrous. That said. the final pay off is great. It's Just a shame that we have to sit through a lot of dross and several mediocre performances before we get to the finale. (Kaleeri) Aftabi I Cineworid Rent/ear Street. Glasgow." Ou’eon Fort Kinnaird Fdinlxirgh from Fri 13 Apr.
More adventures for Mark Wahlberg at the li'ontlrne of flawed Aiiierrcan forergn policy l lere he swaps the lragi desert of Three Kings for the African coast. When a irirssror) ends with the death of his best mate and spotter (the human edurvalent of a ri)arksri)an's guide dog). Bob lee Swagger iWahlbergi returns home disgruntled and disillusioned. When ()olonel Issac Johnson (Danny Glover) turns up and plays the patriot card. Swagger finds himself in the position of John Rambo in l-iist Blood, but should he trust the men who let him down and left his best friend to die?
It's an exhilarating if fairly iinoriginal opening salvo (especially to anyone who watches 2"! on a regular basis) and it's only when Swagger goes on the run that the frlnr begins to unravel. That Shooter is far better than can be expected is down to the excellent direction of Antoine Fugua (Training Day. King Arthur). He riiarrres action movre cliches with a subversive sense of paranoia and humour. It's also nice to see the great Ned Heath (Derive/ence. Super/hm) ll‘, still in gainful employment here as an evil serialoi'. while the always excellent t has l<oteas completes an impressive cast of establishment Villéllllf}. iKaleem Allab)
I General release from In 75‘ Apr.
ALSO RELEASED Perfect Stranger (15)
108min 000 Investigative reporter Rowena Price (Halle Berry) thinks that her friend's murder might be connected to powerful ad executive Harrison Hill (Bruce Willis) and so goes undercover with the help of Miles Hailey (Giovanni Ribisi). Posing as a temp at Hill's agency. Rowena begins to close in on her suspect but then things begin to take a murderous turn. Flawed. cliche- ridden but very watchable twisty turny thriller from the always interesting New York filmmaker James Foley (At Close Range. Glengarry Glen Ross. Confidence). Berry sleepwalks through this all too familiar role but Willis and Ribisi try their best to bring some kudos to the growing hysteria. General release from Fri I 3 Apr. Fracture (15) 90min 0.. The second film starring rising star Ryan Gosling out this fortnight is this hamstrung legal chiller which pits Gosling's eager yeung attorney against Anthony Hopkins‘ murder rap beating structural engineer. Solid. predictable direction from Gregory Hoblit (Primal Fear. Hart 's War). a sparse script. a studied performance from Gosling and a scene eating one from Hopkins do however make this a pleasing cross between Joseph L Mankewicz' Sleuth and Mark Pellington's underrated Arlington Road. See interview. General release from Fri 20 Apr. See interview, page 42. Wild Hogs (12A) 99min 0 Meet Doug (Tim Allen). Woody (John Travolta). Bobby (Martin Lawrence) and accident- prone Dudley (William H Macy). four Cir)cinnati-based men in various stages of a midlife crisis. As a distraction they go out motorbiking together. One day they decide to go on a proper road trip but can these suburban fools handle the open road? Welcome to the first huge family film hit of the year (if the US box office is anything to go by). and boy is it broad. Lame dialogue. gay policeman. cartoon Hells Angels gangs (fronted by a wasted Ray Liotta) and the dumbest of roadhouse slapstick make this a nausea-inducing ride. This is Smokey and the Bandit meets City Slickers. Even the romantic. heroic small town comic (’lenouement (which on paper must have seemed like the cleverest demonstructron of the Western since Gerald Thomas' Carry on Cowboy) is fumbled to allow Peter Fonda to do the most embarrassing cameo of his career. Appaling in every way. (Paul Dale) I General release from Fri 73 Apr.
l1) 2".) Apr 200/ THE LIST 45