Film
Reviews
DRAMA
TRIO
(PG) 90min (Network DVD retail) 0..
‘If you like to take the [leading] character as a flattering portrait of the old party before you.
you're perfectly at liberty to do so.’ Thus the great British writer Somerset Maugham himself introduces the third story in this 1950 adaptation of three of his short stories. It'll give you a good idea of the tone of the piece. Everyone is awfully polite and understated if
they're from the better Off, and bluntly direct it they’re not.
First up. The Verger, is a tight little story about a man sacked from his job at a church because they discover he can't read or write — he goes on to prove that's no stumbling block to advancing in life. The
DVD ROUNDUP
“What's So Funny ‘Bout Peace Love and Understanding?’ Well apart from the fact that they are all non-existent man-made conceits, quite a lot, actually. Just ask Turkish filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan. whose two most recent works Uzak and Climates, take a cold knife to the buddy movie and marital discord film genres respectively. These two w0rks may have put Ceylan on the world cinema map but he has been making films for years. Nurl Bilge Ceylon: The Early Works (Artificial Eye ooos ) pairs his 1999 film Kasaba. the story of life in a small Turkish town as seen through the eyes of children, and 1998’s Clouds of May. about a movie director who goes back to his hometown to make a movie using a cast of local people. Of the two. the latter is more fun but both are worth checking. as it is likely that this 48-year-old photographer and filmmaker may be declared one of the greats of his generation. This two-disc set also contains a behind the scenes featurette and a music video made by Ceylan. If you fancy that, you may also be interested in The Anan Tarkovsky Companion (Artificial Eye 00“ ) featuring three rarely seen films about the work of the great, visionary Russian director by brilliant filmmakers in their own right Chris Marker. Alexander Sokurov and Tonino Guerra. Or what about Four Fllms From FoIIInI (Nouveaux Pictures smo) featuring four irrefutable masterpieces. / Vite/loni (1953). La Dolce Vita (1960). 8 1/2 (1963)
and Gui/ietta deg/i Spin‘ti.
There's a whole load of mad solos out this fortnight. If you are in the mood for ‘chonging and bonging’ before the weather lifts then there are some Cheech and Chong reissues of three of their better films Got out of My Room, Next Movlo and Born In East LA (all 4 Front Video all m ). Staying on the retro tip there’s also Gonks Go Boat! (Optimum m pictured) a bizarre time capsule of a British sci-fi musical fantasy from 1965 starring Lulu And The Luwers, The Nashville Teens and The Graham Bond Organisation. Mushrooms may be needed.
Finally, fans of James Joyce should rejoice in the long overdue DVD release of Joseph Strick's 1967 adaptation of Ulysses (Optimum so” ). Strick's film. adapted by US screenwriter Fred Haines. is far from perfect but it does catch the masturbatory vagabond spirit of the book and the fact that this film was banned in lreland until 2000 due to the use of the word ‘fuck' gives it extra cache. Next time I'll be giving you the option of kneeling before the mighty John Pilger or going drag racing. Don't give up. (Paul Dale)
40 THE LIST 24 May—7 Jun 2007
second. Mr Know-All, shows a character on a long voyage harassing everybody he comes into contact with and who knows the price of everything and. this is the twist. the value of everything as well. Which leaves
Sanatorium, where a tubercular writer takes respite in the relaxing environs of a Highland sanatorium. These nicely sketched. achingly quaint and morally archaic short films are a small treat. while the mannered performances from Jean Simmons. Bill Travers. Wilfred Hyde White and the marvellous Michael Hordern among others have the effect of making one feel terribly imperial. Tiffin, anyone? Minimal extras.
(Tony McKibbin)
ACTION/WAR
1 97 1
(12) 135min 000 (Studio 18 DVD retail)
Debut writer/director Amrit Sagar's factional action adventure. follows 54 Indian POWs gathered from Pakistan's national prisons and herded into a secret POW camp close to the border, where Major Suraj Singh (Manoj Bajpai) leads a daring escape attempt. Male bonding, macho camaraderie. and light comic moments stylistically emulate Hollywood's WW2/Vietnam POW genre. only this being Bollywood, with less arduous brutality and a
couple of ‘authentic' musical numbers (accompanied by steel cooking utensils) thrown in.
Not all Pakistani officials are depicted as jingoistic bug-eyed bogeymen (Deewar. LOC Kashmir), nevertheless. only female Pakistanis are compassionate/morally righteous. while the sole Muslim Indian POW enables the escape with a suicide bombing!
Sagar's real success lies in the overtones of hierarchical military structures on both sides and drama of political duplicity, bravado. and strenuous army politics.
This is The Great Escape in the Punjab. (complete with hillside motorcycle chase) - entertaining, earnest and adventurous. questioning the futile 'border' obsession of two close adversaries. Extras include cast and production interviews and a short behind the scenes documentary. (Ghazala Butt)
DRAMA THE L SHAPED ROOM
(1 5) 1 22min (Optimum DVD retail) 0... Writer/director Bryan Forbes' second film (after Whistle Down the Wind. released in 1962. remains a bold study of social mores at the dawn of the sexual revolution, and unlike many of the new wave of kitchen sink dramas it hasn't dated badly. Set in depressed, repressed post-war London, it follows lovely Leslie Caron's young, pregnant Frenchwoman as she takes up residence in a seedy Notting Hill boarding house populated by various misfits: a black jazz musician. an ageing lesbian actress. an old battleaxe of a landlady. a couple of tarts
it'Il.
i Meg“;
working out of the basement. and an angry young man (the excellent Tom Bell in an early role).
Based on Lynne Reid Banks' novel, the film is consummately scripted and directed by Forbes.
bridging the gap
between post-war cinema such as Waterloo Road and the kitchen sink realism epitomised by A Taste of Honey. Forbes' wife Nanette Newman has a small role. and look out for Tony Blair's father-in- law Anthony Booth, who plays a lout. No extras. (Miles Fielder)
DOCUMENTARY SCIENCE IS FICTION
. (E) 215min E (BFI DVD retail) oooo
There's just space to mention this fascinating film about one of the great pioneers of science films, Jean Painleve (1902-1989). Painleve was a poet in every sense of the word and there was nothing he liked to do more than film fish, foul or mineral in their natural habitat. He made more than 200 genuinely enchanting films that almost define the ‘magic realist' tag. Though ridiculed by the scientific community for his assertion that all ‘science is fiction', his films (which were always set to avant garde scores) were much admired by Antonin
Artaud. Luis Bunuel and
Jean Vigo. This selection of his most famous films is a rare treat.
A ton of extras include an introduction by
academic Dr Michael
Abecassis; comparative shorts from the time. a booklet with a biog and essays. Disc Two contains new soundtracks to some of Painleve's by US band Yo La Tengo. commissioned by San Francisco International Film Festival. An eye opener. (Paul Dale)