www.|ist.co.uk/fi|m
Rocknflolla ( 15) see (Guy Ritchie. UK. 2008) Gerard Butler. Thandie Newton. Gernrna Arterton. 1 14min. Ritchie's story is told with a signature narration and follows the pursuits of a bunch of get-rich-quick. bumbling. loveable rogues who could have walked straight off the set of an Flaling comedy. With trademark flashes of visual panache and humour. it‘s all perfectly serviceable. but still leaves us guessing over whether Ritchie is just a one-trick pony. General release.
SMHAFF Awards Ceremony ( l 2A) (Various. UK. 2008) 90min. A showcase of
the winning submissions from the SMHAFF
()8 Film Competition. Submissions address the stigma and discrimination of mental ill- health directly and also explore issues of mental health and wellbeing in their broadest sense. Part of Scottish Mental Health & Arts Film Festival. Eilmhause. Edinburgh.
The Savages ( l5) sees (Tamara Jenkins. US/Canada. 2007) Laura Linney. Philip Seymour Hoffman. Philip Bosco.
l l-lmin. A richly observed and terrifically- acted character study of two intellectual middle-aged siblings and their dementia- suffering father. Judiciously balancing humour and sorrow. Jenkins proves a quietly assured storyteller while Linney and Hoffman deliver unshowy. rnultilayered performances. Part of Scottish Mental Health & Arts Film Festival. Film/muse. Edinburgh.
Scottish Digital Shorts Launch (ii) (Various. UK. 2008) 90min. The Magic Lantern present a programme of digital shorts from across the UK. followed by the official launch of Scottish Digital Shorts. an initiative for emerging lilrnmakers which annually commissions six new shorts. ('C/L (ilasgmv.
Secret Policeman’s Ball (18) (UK. 2008) 2 l()min. To raise awareness (and cash) for Amnesty lntemational the brightest stars in comedy line up for an evening of uncensored mirth. broadcast live from the Albert Hall in London. See Frank Skinner. Alan Carr. Graham Norton. Sean lock. Katy Brand. Tim Minchin. Kristen Schaal. Sarah Millican. Feame Cotton. Meera Syal. Mitchell and Webb. Russell Howard and more put their comedy to ethical use. Cineworld Renfrew Street. Glasgow; Cameo. Edinburgh. Shakespeare in Love (15)..” (John Madden. UK. 1998) Joseph Fiennes. Gwyneth Paltrow. Rupert Everett. l20min. Joseph Fiennes. a pair of breeches and a few moody verses: a league of women will leave the cinema wondering why they never figured out at school that Shakespeare is sex on legs. Tom Stoppard's script is
Kill Your Timid Notion
Arguably the best ‘experimental music- image/film-sound festival’ in Scotland,
exuberantly confident. irreverent and witty. All the characters are sent up and Will Shakespeare is the butt of so many jokes. it‘s a wonder he retains his romantic gloss. Gmsi'enm: Glasgow:
Some Voices (18) e (Simon Cellan Jones. UK. 2000) Daniel Craig. Kelly Macdonald. l()lmin. Ray (Craig) is trying to readjust to life after a stint in a psychiatric institution. As he wanders through West London he stumbles into Laura (Macdonald). with whom he becomes infatuated and the unlikely romance blossoms. Adapted by playwright Joe Penhall frotn his own successful stage play. the characters fail to transfer to the silver screen. This screening will be preceded by a short film from the SMHAFF filrn competition. Part of Scottish Mental Health 8r. Arts Film Festival. Eilmhouse. Edinburgh.
Somers Town (12A) see (Shane Meadows. UK. 2008) Piotr Jagiello. Thomas Turgoose. lreneusz Czop. 77min. Originally financed by Eurostar as a short film to promote the service‘s new tenninus at St Pancras. Meadows' has expanded his brief to tell a vividly drawn story of childhood friendship and to paint a vibrant portrait of a part of the big smoke that's in all likelihood soon to gentrilied out of existence. Cameo. Edinburgh.
South Asian Stories (ii) (Various) l00min. Mad 'Ialesfrmn IioIIyu-nnd. a presentation with film clips by Dinesh Bhugra. President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. will be followed by a screening of Sandhya Suri's tale of immigration in b()s-Britain I For India. Gilmore/till G12. Glasgow
Space Chimps (U) es (Kirk De Micco. US. 2008) Voices of Andy Sarnber. Cheryl Hines. Jeff Daniels. 80min. ()n the whim of a sinister senator (Tucci). Ham lll (Samberg) - the circus performer grandson of one of the first chimpanzees in space is sent into orbit to retrieve a missing satellite. With endless monkey and banana puns and bog-standard animation. Space Chimps is strictly for easily pleased little monkeys. Seleeted release.
Star Wars: Clone Wars (PG) es (Dave Filoni. US. 2008) Voices of Matt Lanter. Samuel 1.. Jackson. Christopher Lee. 98min. Emperor Palpatirte. Count Dooku and General Grievous are poised to rule the galaxy. The universe rests in the hands of the daring Jedi Knights. led by Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi. along with brand-new heroes such as Anakin‘s padawan learner. Ahsoka. Like the more recent Star Wars films. this is fairly tedious stuff. but it is nicely animated and fans will probably love it. Seleeted release.
KYTN returns this fortnight with another impressive collection of avant- garde semantic-rich film works for the connoisseur. This year’s programme attempts to balance works old and new. Of particularly note are screenings of Hollis Frampton’s puzzlingly brilliant 1970 featurette Zoms Lemma (pictured) and Alfred Leslie and Frank O’Hara’s beat road trip parody The Last Clean Shirt. Book now. www.arika.org.uk
I DCA, Dundee from Fri lO-Sun 72 Oct.
Stardust (PG) .0 (Matthew Vaughn. UK. 2007) Charlie Cox. Claire Danes. Robert De Niro. Sir Ian McKellen. l30min. In a countryside town bordering a magical land. a young man makes a promise to his beloved that he‘ll retrieve a fallen star by venturing into the magical realm in this star-studded fantasy epic adapted from the novel by Neil Gaiman. Cox lacks pizzazz as the adventurer Tristan. which Vaughn only emphasises by pitching him against one big- name star after another and while Stardust has some entertaining moments. it looks fated to join Eragon and The Dark is Rising on the box office scrapyard of fantasy pilot efforts. Empire Clvdebank. ('Iydebank. The Station Agent ( I5) see (Tom Mccarthy. USA. 2003) Peter Dinklage. Bobby Cannavale. Patricia Clarkson. 88min. Dinklage's Firm is a train-obsessed dwarf. who has inherited a disused railway depot in rural New Jersey from an old business partner. He wants to be left in peace to do up the property. walk the tracks and count the trains that still pass through the area. His solitude is disturbed. though. by two other lonely misfits. artist ()livia (Clarkson) and garrulous hot-dog salesman Joe (Cannavale). It‘s a sensitively acted. gently amusing and carefully crafted film. which never leaves us in much doubt as to its final destination. Still. it's unafraid to meander along at its own relaxed tempo. and Dinklage provides an impressively understated lead performance. Cameo. Edinburgh.
Step Brothers ( l5) see (Adam McKay. US. 2008) Will Ferrel. John C Reilly. Mary Steenbergen. 97min. This sporadically funny but generally gross comedy features Brennan (Ferrel) and Dale (Reilly). two grown men who despite pushing 40 are still living at home. An unlikely twilight romance between their parents brings them together. leading the step-brothers to repel each other before learning up to fonn an alliance. Seleeted release.
The Stone of Destiny (PG) ee (Charles Martin Smith. Canada/UK. 2008) Charlie Cox. Kate Mara. Billy Boyd. 96min. See preview. page 43 and Also Released. page 47. Selected release front Fri I() ON.
The Strangers ( IS) 0” (Bryan Bertino. US. 2008) Liv Tyler. Gernrna Ward. Scott Speedman. 85min. Kristen (Tyler) and aspiring beau James (Speedman) retire to a country house to lick their wounds after she rejects his wedding proposal. ()n arrival. they find themselves teased. tormented and eventually tortured by three unknown assailants. Straight. serious chills combined with an impressive directorial tum by Bertino make this taut thriller a deserving sleeper hit. Seleeted release.
A Streetcar Named Desire (15) sees (Elia Kazan. US. 195]) Vivien Leigh. Marlon Brando. Kim Hunter. l25min. Brando takes the acting honours and. with this film. sets the style for method acting for years to come. Tennessee Williams‘ steamy sex romp seems a little tame by today's standards. but the realism of the drama remains intact and the perfomtances are to be savoured. Glasgow Film Theatre. Glasgow; Film/louse. Edinburgh.
Suddenly, Last Summer (15)
O” (Jospeh L Mankiewicz. US. 1959) Elizabeth Taylor. Katharine Hepburn. Montgomery Clift. 1 14min. Catherine (Taylor) is dramatically traumatised after witnessing the death of her cousin in Spain. The cousin's Mother (Hepburn) can't stand to hear the facts of the boy's death and instead insists that the wittering Catherine be labotornised. Luckily. the obliging brain surgeon Dr Cukrowicz (Cliff) is only interested in uncovering guilty family secrets. Part of Tennessee Williams season and Glasgay! Film/muse. Edinburgh.
Check out the
onpaqeé
Name Joanna Hogg
Born London, but brought up in a village near Tonbridge. Kent. Background Writer/director Joanna Hogg was born and educated in the UK. In 1980. aged 18. she started working as a photographer's assistant in Greek Street. Soho. where she built up her portfolio. Around that time. Derek Jarman came into her life. His Super 8 films made a huge impression on her. One day she spoke to him in a Soho cafe and asked if she could work with him. He told her to come by his studio with her portfolio. Sensing a new talent. he gave her his Nizo Super 8 camera and introduced her to a couple of people. after which she shot her first Super 8 film. Paper. at 22 for her entry into the National Film and Television School. After spending three rather unfulfilling years there (her unconventional approach to filmmaking did not fit in with their narrative-based schooling). she was taken on by Limelight. atop commercials production company. and shot a range of pop videos for artists such as Johnny Thunders and Alison Moyet. After ten years of directing episodes for TV soap Casualty. she finally took the plunge into feature filmmaking.
What’s she up to now? She has written and directed her debut feature. Unrelated. which won the Fipresci prize at London Film Festival 2007. Critics compared her to Eric Rohmer and Yasujiro Ozu.
What she says about the film’s beginnings ‘During the ten years of TV. I probably made five invisible films in the sense that I'd work on a series for five months and then I'd always have a reaction after finishing doing Casualty, where l felt really frustrated. where I would need to do something expressing my own ideas and my voice. so I would spend. say. maybe a month of not doing the telly and develop ideas' Interesting fact Tilda Swinton is a childhood friend. It was a coincidence that Swinton was cast in Caravaggio at the same time Hogg met Jarman.
(Selina Robertson)
I Unrelated, GFT, Glasgow, Fri 70—Sun 72 Oct; Fi/mhouse, Edinburgh, Fri 77—Thu 23 Oct.
2—16 Oct 2008 THE LIST 51