www.list.co.uk/film
COMEDY/ROMANCE PRICELESS (12A) 104min 000
The best things in life are free. but all seasoned RiViera gold digger Irene (Audrey Tautou) wants is her own credit card from an ageing sugar daddy. Meanwhile. Iuckless, impoverished bar tender and dog walker Jean (Gad Elmaleh) is developing a bit of a crush on this Cynical young lady. but without expendable cash in his pocket she is not interested. That is. until he becomes a toy boy himself. Pierre Wild Target Salvadori's frothy and silly screwball comedy. set in the glamorous yet mildly tragic world of upmarket hotels. restaurants and boutiques in Nice and Monte Carlo. is undeniably enjoyable. Returning to acting after announcing her retirement two years before the release of Ron Howard's abysmal adaptation of The Da Vinci Code. Tautou shows that she is still an actress of range, nuance and great comic flair. Up and coming Moroccan/French actor Elmaleh is Buster Keaton to her Fatty Arbuckle. By turns gormless. distracted. embarrassed and just plain odd he makes a little go a long way with pleasing results. Salvadori marshals this bittersweet comedy with the ease of an old pro and Gilles Henry's lovely glossy photography is the very essence of guilty indulgence. (Paul Dale) I Filmhouse, Edinburgh and selected release from Fri 73 Jun. See profile, page 54.
DOCUMENTARY LET’S GET LOST (15) 109min .000
One of the girlfriends of the late legend of the cool school of jazz once observed, ‘Chet Baker sure knew how to get lost.’ Aside from knowing how to get lost in his music (being a brilliantly intuitive trumpet player), Baker was also very adept at getting lost when he took off on the road or stuck a needle in his arm, as he did often and for most of his life in both instances. Perhaps taking his cue from the subject of his excellent film (which is being re-released on its 20th anniversary), director/photographer Bruce Weber fashioned a highly unconventional documentary that follows Baker from the West to the East coast of America and on to Europe during what sadly turned out to be the last year of his life.
There’s little in the way of straightforward interviews with Baker in the film. Instead, Weber films Baker, prematurely aged by narcotics but still cool as, hanging out in various venues, blowing his horn in a recording studio, cruising down an ocean boulevard in the back of a convertible, etc. These loosely improvised episodes are intercut with archive footage of Baker when he was a beautiful kid in the 19505, recollections by the people that knew him, and esoteric shots of dogs playing on the beach and kids goofing around. It all adds up to a dreamy portrait of a superb but doomed musician, the structure of which emerges as a series of improvisations on a theme. Much like the man's music, appropriately enough. (Miles Fielder)
I Cameo, Edinburgh and selected release from Fri (5 Jun. See preview, page 52.
HORROR REMAKE PROM NIGHT (15) 87min 0
With its extended disco dancing sequence and an uncomfortably serious role for Naked Gun star Leslie Nielsen, the 1980 slasher flick Prom Night hardly merits rediscovery. And yet somehow telly hack director Nelson McCormick and screenwriter JS Cardone have managed to desecrate that film 's worthless memory.
In the place of Jamie Lee Curtis. Brittany Snow steps up for the scream-queen crown as Donna. a teen recovering from the death of her family at the hands of an obsessive stalker Richard (Johnathon Schaech). On Donna's prom night. tricky Dick escapes from a mental institution and her friends stan disappearing one by one.
A slasher movie without slashing. Prom Night is a bloodless. bland affair which stretches the credulity of the gullible: a beardy/weirdy killer who dematerialises at will. a police presence from the Keystone Kops line of citizen-protection. and endless recycling of ancient cliches such as the predicable shocks when Donna closes the mirrored cabinet above her bathroom sink.
Not much more than an endless series of shots of girls looking in closets. Prom Night is aimed squarely at making the fastest possible buck from the teenage thrill-seekers. (Eddie Harrison)
I General release from Fri 6 Jun.
ALSO RELEASED
Harold 8. Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay (15) 102min
.0. The hapless dope smoking duo get into a spot of bother when they try and smuggle a bong onto an aircraft. Mistaken for bomb wielding terrorists they soon find themselves in the infamous military prison. Silly, loud. dumb but fun and actually a fairly shrewd satire on the Bush administration's hysterical War on Terror. Out now on selected release.
Hope (15) 100min 00. Francis (Rafal Fudalei). an introverted young man accidentally witnesses an art theft he begins a iourney through the unscrupulous side of the art world which may just bring him redemption. An enigmatic. strange and thought-provoking Polish drama written by Krzysztof Piesiewic7. the screenwriter of some of the legendary Krzysztof Kieslowski's very best films. GET. Glasgow, Mon 9 8. Tue IO Jun.
The Go Master (12A) 104min 00. Visually stunning biopic of Wu Oingyuan, the greatest 20th century master of the chess-like Asian game entitled go from the director of The Blue Kite and Springtime in a Small Town. Film/iouse. Edinburgh from Fri 6- Sun 8 Jun
The Devil Game on Horseback (15) 87min .0. Disturbing but admirany even-handed documentary looking at the tragedy in Darfur through the eyes of an unarmed military observer in western Sudan. Showmg as part of Refugee Week. GET. Glasgow on Tue 77 8 Wed 18 Jun.
The Happening (15) 90min (unable to review at press time) M Knight Shyainalan's new twisty thriller. Reviewed next issue. General release from Fri 73 Jun. The Incredible Hulk (12A) 112min (unable to review at press time) Stan Lee and Jack Kirby‘s green brute superhero gets another bite at the franchise cherry. ReVIewed next iSSue. General release from Fri 73 Jun.
When
5—19 Jun 2008 THE LIST 55