Reviews
CDMEDK
LES BRONZES (12) 94min (Optirriurii [f/D retaili C...
This surprisingly engaging little 1978 comedy by Patrice
l econte (My Best friend. The
Hairdresser ’s Husbandl was a huge hit in France when it was released. Managing to be both cynical and warm as it takes a iaundiced look at the holidaying French middle-classes on the Now Coast. this is ba8ically a club-med scenario With everybody looking for ‘sea. sex and sun', as the Serge nainsborough song bluntly announces over the film's credits.
When one character asks the resort stud (Thierry Lhermitte) what the ratio of women to men is. Lhermitte replies that 'it depends on the man'. For a character like Michel‘s Blanc's wonderfully weedy wannabe womanizer, the ratio is not good. while Lhermitte has bedded 80 women this season already. In some ways the film resembles the more recent work of novelist Michel Houellebecg (Whatever. Atornised), but this is a lighter. more charming and less misogynistic take on the problems of sexual activity and capitalist consumption, not least because the women here are more than the bit players they are lit Houellebecg. There's great support from Christian ClaVier. JOSiane Bolasko and Gerard Jugnot. Minimal extras. (Tony McKibbini
DRAMA MADADAYO (PG) 134 min (Yume Pictures DVD retail) .0
There is a very good reason why Akira Kurosawa's final film
NWW‘O
from 1391) rentairts little known; it is about as barf a film as one is likely to get front a great filmmaker. Stuck with a dull central character. Hyakken Uchida i'Tetsuo Matsumurai. who spends most of the film pontificating and Joking while all the other characters get to do no more than laugh at his one dimensional observations, we could cruelly suggest that this is an example of a director being too close to his central character to create anything fresh. For Uchida is a retired professor who's beloved by generations of students. and the film follows him and his Wife into retirement. doted on by the ex-students who regularly Visit him. With no sense of pace or purpose, the film's narrative high ponit comes when a cat goes missing. Kurosawa has made some great old man's films (lkiru. Dersu Uzala. Ran) but this. despite the effusive Scorsese comment on the DVD cover, is not one of them. Minimal eans. (Tony McKibbin)
COMEDY DRAMA MAGICIANS
(15) 87min
(Universal DVD Rental) .0.
David Miltholl Robot? Webb
“WAN .
A film written by Jesse Armstrong and Sam Barn. starring DaVid Mitchell and Robert Webb: it's Peep Show The Mowe, right? Well. not quite. though the script never asks the pair to shy too far away from their small screen
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see'riingl, )epa'ace 'lll.5)|’/ill)i 1.5 .'.l. , silt or, .vtie" a “tulip? r a ;f goes lit/NU, Decid.rig '.e.er to ta u. t 'ilit: {flu/dd,” {tfittli 1"," paths cross at the Interiiati'iiial Magic Shield tournament. culminating in a terse finale as gen, tiistcr, threatens tc repeat itself. Likeal)le and fariiiliar as the, are here. even Mitchell and ‘v'v'ebb can't pull any real laughs out of their hats with such a stale script and flat (IlftjCllUll. lixtras include a Making Of type featurette and some deservedl, deleted scenes.
(Brian Donaldsoni
COMEDY ROMUALD ET JULIETTE
(12) 97min
(Optimum DVD Retail) 0..
Romuald& Juliette
With broad hindsight it can often seem that too many French films made iii the 808 centred around life swapping scenarios Or sudden shifts in perspective and expectation — whether that happened to be Bertrand Blier With mischievous satires like Tent/e de sorree and Trop belle Door Tbi.’. Etienne Chetiliez's Life is a Long Ouret River or Coline Serreau's Three Men and a Baby and this Daniel Auteuil Outing.
Romuald tAuteLiili is the hot. white chairritan of the board. determined to increase his company profits. Juliette (Fermine Richard; the black cleaner With five kids and five ex-husbands who helps him out when members of the company try and stab him in the back. Always
DVD ROUNDUP
November is upon us and it may be time to mention at least one film on one of the new DVD formats. Monty Python's Life of Brian Bin-Ray (Sony eeee ) is a good place to start your high definition collection. The difference in quality is noticeable but not really worthy of the price (about three times more than the normal version). but this so-called 'lmmaculate Edition“ does contain an excellent documentary on the Pythons.
The great German filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder has not one, but three box sets out this fortnight: The W Fassbinder Collection (1969- 1972) and (1973-1982) (Arrow eoeeo) covers the very best work of this fast living genius filmmaker who dabbled in everything from melodramas to westerns. These two collections trace his trajectOry from his pretentious but urgently promising debut. Love is Colder than Death, all the way to his most successful film The Marriage of Maria Braun (pictured). These sets are. however, prohibitively expensive so it may be worth putting them on your Christmas list. In response to these collections Artificial Eye have re-released Rainer Werner Fassbinder Vol 1 (eeee ), which contains rare oddities from the director's canon including 1981 's Lola and his Vicious portrait of middle class mores, Why Does Herr K Run Amok? from 1970.
There's a couple of good cheapies out for those who don't have them in their collections already - Polanski ’s Chinatown (Paramount eeee ) — a private dick thriller that can still hold its own dirty water and Brian De Palma's joyfully cliched gangster flick Carllto’s Way (Universal eee ).
There‘s also a ton of direct-to-DVD horror left over from Hallowe'en. Despite being Norwegian. Cold Prey (Metrodome eee
of every teen slasher flick ever made; Kaw (Starz e
) follows the conventions
) is a godawful
Birds rip-off; crap but extravagantly bloody vampire movie Thirst (Starz
e ); spoof documentary Behind the Mask (Starz see
) - think
Scream meets Man Bites Dog. Finally, Michael Madsen’s career continues its slide into obscurity with Ultimate Killing Machine (Momentum e ). (Paul Dale and Henry Northmore)
good at social comment contained Within broad comedy Serreau (La Crise. Chaosl freguently stretches plausibility. but the exaggerated comic scenario iust about Justifies it. This is as close to farce as it is to satire. and even gets away with an abswdly optimistic. nay. utopian ending. Minimal extras. (Tony McKibbin)
BlOPlC
STEAL THIS MOVIE
(15) 103mm (BOUIevard Entertainment DVD retail rental) 0...
Woefully under- distributed on its initial release in 2000 Robert
STEAL iris fiat/"iii
Greenwald's fascinating biopic of Yippie founder and US political aCtIVist Abbie Hoffman WI” hopefully find an audience on DVD. Constructed as a series of flashbacks. Hoffman (played Wlth Wide-eyed relish by Vincent D'Onofrioi recalls a lifetime of ClVll
disomdience in the name of the love peace and happiness hippie coda from an undergrOurid hideout later in his life.
As a portrait of otherness and freak beat dreams this deserves to stand by Milos Forman The PeOp/e vs Larry Flynt and Paul Schrader's Auto Focus. As a wake up call from a more playful, less apathetic age it is indispensable. Jeanne Garofalo. Jeanne Tripplehorn and Keyin Pollak give finely honed turns as assorted messengers of the c0unterculture cause. Minimal extras.
(Paul Date;
1—15 Nor 2007 THE LIST 43