Former stand-up comedian Robert Sellers hops across the pond to detail wild and fast times of Hollywood’s original bad boys with Bad Boy Drive
(Preface) eee
. Following on from his previous opus He/lraisers: The Life
and lnebriated Times of Richard Burton, Richard Harris, Peter O'Toole and Oliver Reed. Sellers turns his attention to Marlon Brando, Dennis Hopper (pictured), Warren Beatty and Jack Nicholson. It's hard not to get swept up by Sellers lust for these tales of nihilism and bad behaviour. His easy and gutsy writing style helps create an entertaining if sometimes scurrilous portrait of an industry out of control and off its head. Liverpool based filmmaker and writer Alex Cox‘s typically idiosyncratic 1,000 Ways to Die (Kamera) eeee offers up a director's dissection of the spaghetti western. Chaptered by year (from the late 1960s to late 708) and sub sectioned by evaluations of indiVidual films. this is a work of passion underpinned by minute attention to detail and allusion to other films in and outwith the spaghetti canon.
Colin Odell and Michelle Le Blanc's Studio Ghibli (Kamera) eee
isthe
first proper English language book evaluation of the magical animated films of Hayao Miyazaki and lsao Takahata (Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Howl's Moving Castle, etc). Though slender and slightly too narrow in scope (it would have been nice to learn more about the traditions under which these filmmakers trained), this is a valuable beginner's guide to their complex and
beautiful world.
Ian Halpin’s Hollywood Undercover (Mainstream) eee
is an
irreverent sneak behind the scenes in Tinseltown with the author blagging his
way in and out of all kinds of situations. In this age of Borat and Bruno this is
never quite as palm sweat inducing as it should be but is diverting enough. Fans of crusading black film actor Sidney Poitier may also enjoy his book
Life Beyond Measure (Pocket Books) eee
. Subtitled 'Letters to My
Great Granddaughter', in it Poitier remembers a life well lived in reflective and elegant prose. Poitier is actually a fine raconteur whose company is worth
savouring. (Paul Dale)
ADVENTURE NORTH FACE (12A) 116min (Metrodome Blu- ray/DVD rentali retail) ”0
In the summer of 1936 a group of climbers attempt the most taXIng climb in the Alps. the north face of the Eiger. FOr some it is a personal effort; for other staunch nationalists it is a nod towards Nazi Supremacy. Based on a true story. Philipp
Stdlzl's film is never better than when showing how much luck is involved in a climb that is so reliant on the weather. As Bavarian soldiers Toni Kurz (Benno FUrinann) and Andi Hinterst0isser (Florian Lukas) ascend, the films screenwriters Christoph Silber and Stolzl have them ruminating on ideas of personal Will, Nazi ideology and the nature that pays little heed to either. Much of the cutaway action is less interesting however. and the budding Journalist in love with Toni and the newspaper editor are stock. Good extras include documentaries about
the Eiger and cast and
: crew interVIews.
; (Tony McKibbin)
58 THE LIST 2:) Jun—9 Jul 2009
TV BOXSET
THE CORNER (18) 346mm
(Warner Home Video) 0000
Long before The Wire became every two—bit critic's all-time favourite show (be afraid people. even George Osborne is a fan) DaVId Simon gave us The Corner, a relentlessly bleak mini- series which fleshed out the painful lives of West
Baltimore's most dedicated heroin addicts. Directed by Charles S Dutton. this six—parter is given a semi-dOCumentary tWist, with the reSidents‘ futile hopes banging
their head against a dirty
grey wall of misery. This sensation is further heightened by the primary colour flashbacks which slowly reveal the dark paths the key characters eventually go down with little chance of hiking back up.
Although the story c0uld happily accommodate a couple of hours snipped from it. the revelations in the final episode make the jOumey worthwhile. Still, I'd love to see the crestfallen look on the Shadow Abacus Counter’s face if he unwrapped this for Christmas.
(Brian Donaldson)
ROMANCE
THE ROMANCE OF ASTREA AND CELADON
(12) 105 min
(ArtifiCial Eye DVD retail) 0”
After being accused of infidelity by his love. Astrea, shepherd Celadon (Andy Gilet) proves his faithfulness by throwing himself into a fast moving river, only to be revived later by a wealthy nymph and her companions. Will Astrea and Celadon ever reunite: after all, before his suicidal gesture he promised he would avoid her forever? Though comparable to his 19705 period films
Perceval le Gallo/s and
The Marquise of O. The Romance of Astrea and Celadon is like much of Eric Rohmer's contemporary set work (most notably La Collectionneuse. Claire ’s Knee and The Green Ray) in that it focuses on the intricacies of love in relation to ethics. It is, however, a film that is
thoroughly admirable without being especially engaging. As Rohmer tries to involve us in the intricacies of fifth century morality, it reminds us just how many period films play more to the expectations of today's audience rather than the period codes. For Rohmeriahs it's an intriguing work. others should probably steer clear. Minimal extras. (Tony MCKibbin)
EROTIC
THE EXTERMINATING ANGELS
(18) 100min (Axiom DVD retail)
Not to be confused with the Bunuel film with a similar name; French auteur Jean-Claude Brisseau's erotic drama is a far more dubious proposition than the surrealist master would dare to offer. The Exterminating Ange/s concerns a film director Francois (Frederic van den Driessche) who involves himself in much sow-searching while convmcing various nubile actress to strip on-camera and perform sexual acts on themselves. Knowing that Brisseau himself was actually taken to court by two actresses who accused him of sexually harassing them as part of their auditions adds a genuinely unpleasant edge to the vapid soft-core shenanigans. But despite the kind of scrupulous attention to the female form that made Tinto Brass' work so aesthetically pleasing, this tossed-off film offers little intellectual or dramatic content to Justify his considerable pretensions; Brisseau may aSpire to be a artistic cause celebre. but he may just be a dirty old man. Extras include an interview With Brisseau.
(Eddie Harrison)
www.list.co.uk/fi|m
ADAPTATION
THE CANTERBURY TALES
(15) 107min
(BFl Blu-ray/DVD retail) eee '
.- l’aritopumlii..
THE CANTERBURY
TA 1.. E S
,0
Made in 1971, the second of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s noted trilogy, The Canterbury Tales has much to admire about it, but doesn’t quite reach the heights of his earlier adaptation of The Decameron. The answer as to why this might be is contained within the DVD extras. which include a documentary about how the director's vision of the innocence and intensity of sexual experience in The Decameron would soon after its release spawn an exploitation genre which Pasolini despised. As a reSult. his rather freewheeling adaptation of Chaucer's Middle English social commentaries, in which Pasolini plays no less than the author himself, brings a cynicism to its subject that was missing in the first film. A constant emphasis on voyeurism, with characters being
‘ peaked at in various states of undress
through keyholes and windows might well be the director's swipe back at the sleazier elements of his imitators but it does little for the emotional depth of the film. Still, Chaucer's bawdy humour is nicely captured in his saucy “Wife of Bath' and ‘Miller's Tale' episodes of the film, and there's a bleak interlude. more of Pasolini's making than Chaucer's, about the cynical exploitation of homosexuals by the long-separated cultures of both artists that can't fail to horrify. The presence of Tom Baker,
Jenny Runacre and
Robin Askwith add a face-spotting element to watching the film.
(Steve Cramer)