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SPORT/BOX SET FIGHTERS
(12) 101 min 0000 REAL MONEY (12) 75min
(Second Run DVD retail) .0.
Fth/ Real
Two films by Ron Peck
Ron Peck's 1991 documentary on boxing is a romantic. idealised. even sentimental portrayal of a sport often denounced as brutal and barbaric. Die-hard lovers of boisterous fight night atmosphere may be baffled: any action in the ring does not come until right at the end of the film and is strikingly restrained.
Of primary importance here is the series of interviews with young fighters at the West Ham and Royal Oak clubs where Peck spent months gathering material. Middleweight near contender Mark Kaylor eloquently describes balancing the role of homemaker with that Of aspiring champion. while tragic featherweight Bradley Stone talks passionately of the importance of earning his opponents' respect. One contributor reflects dispassionately that he'd probably be a ‘very violent person' if he had nowhere to channel his aggression.
Peck's ambitious impressionistic collage of a film blends these grainy straight-to- camera interviews with improvised drama. archive footage. photography. even scenes from Robert Wise's 1949 boxing film The Set-Up. As might be expected from the “gay left‘ director of Nighthawks and Strip Jack Naked. there's much dumbstruck focus on lean. young male beauty. and the balletic nature of the sport is constantly to the fore. When the fighters are having Vaseline and oil applied to their skin prior to stepping in the ring, it resembles
48 THE LIST 8—22 Jan 7.009
dancers applying their make-up in advance of curtain—up. while the sequence in which a young man bends every sinew in a shadow boxing match with his own reflection wonderfully distills the agonising discipline required for the attainment of glory in the ring.
Real Money reunites much of the cast from Fighters in a drama that expands beyond the world of the boxing gym to take in drug dealing. petty crime. night clubbing and other geezerish pursuits later to become overly familiar from the likes of Lock. Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. The feature retains the scratchy quality and long. lingering close-ups of the previous film. but is woefully lacking in narrative drive. while suffering from the uneven performances of its non-actors.
(Allan Radcliffe)
DRAMA
TALL HEADLINES (12) 91 min (Odeon DVD retail)
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Good show Odeon Entertainment for premiering on DVD a series of forgotten British films from the post-war period. They're not exactly lost classics. but as the 1952 melodrama Tall Headlines illustrates. these films are certainly decent enough to warrant a look and. variable quality aside. they provide fascinating snapshots of a bygone time.
Directed by Terence Young (who called action on three of the first feur James Bond films) and scripted by the husband-and—Wife team Audrey Erskine Lindop and Dudley Leslie. Tall Headlines is the story of a middle-
class family torn apart by the execution of its eldest son for murder. Hammer stalwart Andre Morell plays the dictatorial dad. the usually debonair Michael Denison the tormented Surviving son, Ealing alumnus Jane Hylton the mean-spirited daughter and Flora Robson the long- suffering mum. The psychological realism and non-theatrical performances are unusual for their time. as is the downbeat — though compelling — view of gloomy post-war Britain. Extras: enjoyable trailers for other films in the series. (Miles Fielder)
MANGA ADAPTATION SAKURAN
(18) 11 1 min
(lCA DVD retail) 0.
A bit like Edinburgh's number 30 bus. Mika Ninagawa's adaptation of this noted Manga comic series by Moyoco Anno travels an epic. seemingly endless journey. but goes nowhere interesting on the way. The scenery is better though. with photographer Ninagawa's visual compositions producing one striking. sensual image after another. with red the key colour.
But after a while it's truly a case of better dead than red. with the story of Kiyoha (model. actress and pop star Anna Tsuchiya) a rebellious child sold off to a brothel. brought up with a cruel hand by the chief courtesan. who acts as an. ahem. concubine harvester. So it is that Kiyoha. crushed by broken love and eventually offered a powerful marriage. becomes a kind of uberhooker in the community. Overplayed symbolism about non— blossoming cherry trees and a lot of er. carping on about goldfish accompany the arduous journey. as do a series
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DVD ROUND-UP
It's January and the party is over. Months of belt-tightening and couch surfing lay ahead for those of us bankrupted by seasonal (or more international financial) excess. But let's keep in mind Jean-Paul Sartre's eulogy that ‘to read a poem in January is as lovely as a walk in June.‘ You could spend this time watching the final series of The Wire or the late summer releases which are just being released on DVD (Tropic Thunder. Somers Town. Pineapple Express) but why not pepper your mail order lists (retail is out of the question) with something
more spicy?
The Jim Jarmusch Collection Volume 2 (Optimum) 0000
traces the
America auteur's work from the late 1980s into the early 90s. It features two of his most magically strange and beautiful films — Mystery Train and Dead Man and his flawed attempt at a portmanteau flick - Night on Earth. All are well
worth seeing or revisiting and this three disc set features illuminating interviews
with Jarmusch acolytes Gena Rowlands and John Hurt. The Dardenne Brothers Collection (Artificial Eye) 0000
is a testament
to why this Belgian filmmaking duo. who specialise in naturalistic and downbeat melodramas. are held in such high regard by critics (if not always the public). The four films in this set: The Promise. Rosetta. The Son and The Child are relentless reconfigurations of British social and Italian neo realist film traditions. Of the standalones there‘s a few things of interest. Louis Malle's lovely 1981
two hander My Dinner with Andre (Optimum) 0000 again. Oliver Hodges’ Garbage Warrior (lCA) 000
raises its cheeky head
. a documentary portrait
of maverick eco-architect Michael Reynolds. is reassurance enough that there is maybe just one living architect who is not a self regarding egotist.
Finally if you want to put your new Blu-ray player through its paces you can't do better than Wong Kai-wai's lavish 1994 martial arts actioner Ashes of Time: Redux (Artificial Eye) 0000 . (Paul Dale)
of contemporary pop songs. supposedly creating an interesting juxtaposition to the 18th century setting. but this is essentially an empty series of trite women's magazine truisrns disguised as a film of depth. (Steve Cramer)
DRAMA
PARIS BLUES (12) 95min (Optimum DVD retail) .0.
The late Paul Newman is jazz performer Ram Bowen in this laidback drama of left bank insouciance from 1964. directed by Martin Hud Ritt. Ram hangs out in Paris with fellow American musician Eddie Cook (Sidney Poitier). They meet a couple of American girls
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On a two—week break. They all hang out together. with Ram teaming up with Lillian (Joanne Woodward) and Eddie with Connie (Diahann Carroll). With its hints of documentary realism and pleasing use of a wintry French capital. Paris Blues is a film of incidental pleasures. acculentally detailing. as it does. the
burgeoning of an all too real relationship between Newman and Woodward and an affair between the married Poitier and Carroll. Gossip. perhaps. but there is a nice intimacy. here. as though the film were working out the problem of commitment in work and in life. as Ram wonders whether committing to Lillian Will scupper his creatiVIty. while Eddie wonders if his reluctance to return stateside proves he is running away from his i‘es(,)onsibilities to both Connie and his race: she wants him to go back to America and fight for the rights of African Americans. Par/s Blues is a real historical Curio. Minimal extras. (Tony McKibbinl