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PLAYLIST
‘What we've got here is failure to communicate was the tagline of Cool Hand Luke. 1967‘s chain-gang drama starring Paul Newman, who sadly died from cancer in October. The many obituaries; covering his best- known performances in hits like Butch Cassr'dy and the Sundance Kid or The Sting hardly communicate what really made Newman an icon; this month's PlayL/st seeks to do just that.
You've almost certainly not seen (97 t 's Sometimes A Great Notion. a tale of Oregon loggers adapted from a novel by Ken Kesey. author of One Flew Over The Cuckoo Nest. In one shattering scene. Newman and his brother (played by Richard Jaeckell fight for survival in the most surreal of situations. Even without any knowledge of the context. this sequence (tinyurl.com/Bemfpr) pretty much works as a short film on its own. dramatising the key theme of Newman's career: the struggle of the underdog against impossible odds.
Unlike fellow heart-throb James Dean. seen here (tinyurlcoin/(5aan0 in a joint screen test. Newman's persona was that of a rebel with a cause. a spirit which refused to be broken by life. whether as burnt out lawyer Frank Galvin in Sidney Lumet's The Verdict (tiriyurl.com/Skaub‘). or pool player Fast Eddie Felson in The Hustler (tinyiirl.com./6yxj9a).
Although Newman wrny Suggested he'd be remembered for his salad dressing rather than his films. he left behind a body of work. which consistently addressed the endurance of the human spirit. Another memorable scene from Cool Hand Luke is when Newman performs the song ‘Plastic Jesus'. a parody of advertising campaigns of the 1960s. In shock after the death of his mother. but still bullisth refusing to be broken by the system. the song becomes the film‘s heart-rending lament (tinyurl.com/60hwux) and is one of (:iriei'na's most transcendent moments. A fitting way to communicate the greatness of Paul Newman.
(Eddie Harrison)
T)( )(L'. JTV'iItN TAI W HISTOIRE(S) DU CINEMA
(18) 275min
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At one iiir)r“-::'it I."- this four and a liar? not." documentary on the ttlf3t()f‘,’ of (Lllttilt‘ét. JfI'Ztll I-uc Oooairl Il‘trf‘JES; over ".‘rriy what we rerne'iibei of Hitchcock's ‘Vir'ts. ")r exarhple. isit't the llt()tl‘.'£ttl()l‘i of the characters. but the specific i'iiages. ‘ke the giass ( f 'Ytltk :r: \(Sll.‘},'/’(;/()l‘ or the spiialleo' hair 'ri 'i/erfigo, Godard}; histor, reflects this :dea of the riiiage over the story. as hr;-
58 THE LIST (Jami ‘ -,
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accctii‘t. ‘.'.'ith hundreds of cips .‘3f}l".'llt(} as (‘zodard's i'e'i‘eiiibiaitce o" thnigs past. this is a pei‘soiiai history o‘ r:iiir,~r'ia. out so personal that ever: the frlrir clips we see are not iiained.
as if what Godard wants to do is offer not a run through of film history, but a reflection of the ‘.'.'ay iltt£t(_]()f} that didn't ex:st little more than hundred years ago. sit deer)ly now in all our minds. (here is much more to the work than that. of course. as you would expect from a filmmaker whose films are. to quote critic Jean Michel I'rodon. 'iike brains operating at E)()" of their intellectual possibilities as opposed to the majority of production which Itl't(III()'t at 10": like the normal human bi'airi.' r'Ioity McKibbin)
HORROR PUFFBALL 120mm
(Yume DVD retail) .0.
An adaptation of a Fay Weldon novel by Nicolas Roeg seems to boast all kinds of potential. Yet somehow. even given a strong cast. the piece dissipates both its ideas and narrative tension with ham listed symbolism and uneven performances.
In it. a young architect (Kelly Reilly) engages in the renovation of a remote Irish rural cottage. but runs foul of two generations of local zixitches (Miranda Richardson and Rita lushinghami. Various fertility rights follow. wrth dangerous results. Part of the problem of Puffball is the original material. obsessed as it is with a lot of the hokey earth mother feminism of the novel's 1980 composition. So too. Reilly's performance gets increasingly mannered as her pregnancy progresses. until she is, if you ‘NIH. grate with child. Here and there. there are some flashes of the kind of chilling compositional beauty that one might associate with Roeg's Don't Look Now, but generally. it's too self- conscious for it's own good. Minimal extras. (Steve Crameri
IIIRII l I R
THE LITTLE GIRL WHO LIVES DOWN THE LANE
(15) 78min
iOptimum DVD retail) .0.
An odd. mid seventies Canadian film with Jodie foster as the precocious kid who seems to be keeping a few things to herself. and revealing others that don't guite ring true not least hat her poet father is working in the study upstairs in the
rural house the two of them are renting. Is he really upstairs working on the translation of a Russian poet? The film's low-key strengths reside not just in Foster's character being a bit weird. but also the people who come and check up on her or befriend her. None more so than Martin Sheen. a father of two kids whose own behaviour seems a whole lot more suspect than Foster's.
This l )w-budget character study directed by Nicholas Oessner. adapted from a novel by Laird Koenig (who wrote the script). never quite achieves the creepiness it seems to aspire to. but it is a skilful enough diversion. Minimal extras. (Tony McKibbin)
DOCUMENTARY 200
(18) 76min (Revolver DVD retail)
Incest. cannibalism. bestiality — cultures always have taboos. but are they all of equal magnitude? Respected documentary and fiction filmmaker Robinson Devor (Police Beat. The Woman Chaser) explores the latter in a film that adopts an Errol Morris style intimacy to bring out the details of a case where a Seattle family man dies having sex with a horse. The film avoids so blunt an exploration as the bald statement above suggests. though, and builds towards its revelation less with the
tension building devices Of the thriller, than the sensitivity of a doctor slowly letting a partner know their loved one has passed away. Devor's strength here is that he gets inside the Subject. interviewing others involved in the same activities as the Seattle family man. and some who find such activities horrific. It is clearly the apparent inexplicability of the bestial that interests him over the sensational aspects. Bizarrer this is a widescreen format release.
(Tony McKibbin)
POLITICAL DRAMA THE BEST MAN (U) 85min
(Optimum DVD retail)
A welcome — and well- timed — DVD premiere fOr this witty and robust (96/1 drama about the Machiavellian world of American politics. Adapted from his own hit Broadway play by Gore Vidal (The Left Handed Gun. Sudden/y. Last Summer) and directed by Franklin J Schaffner (who would go on to make Planet of the Apes. Patton and Pap/lion). it's a classy. serious and slyly humourous account of a fictional US presidential election in which five candidates for an unnamed party split the vote and stop at nothing to beat their rivals to the White House. Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson lead the politicos slugging it out for the Oval Office. and Lee Tracy was nominated for an Oscar for reprising his stage role as the Outgoing ‘hick‘ president. Interesting fact: Ronald Reagan was rejected for a role in this film because a studio exeCLitive didn't think he had ‘that presidential look.‘ No extras.
(Miles Fielder)