Film Index PROFILE
KATIE JARVIS Born 22 June 1991, Dagenham, Essex
Background You won’t recognise the star of Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank, but you won’t soon forget her. Cast with no acting experience after being spotted arguing with her boyfriend at Tilbury station, Jarvis gives a performance of subtlety and strength as Mia, a teenager who uses hip hop dancing to escape her lonely council estate existence. On preparing for the film ‘I didn’t realise it was going to be this big, so I don’t think I really prepared myself. I did dancing for five weeks, but that was really the only preparing we did. I was given the script either the week before, the day before or on the day, so I didn’t actually know what was coming. I couldn’t prepare myself even if I wanted to. I just took as it came, and got on with whatever Andrea wanted me to do.’
On her character in Fish Tank ‘I’m definitely not like Mia, but in some ways I felt like I could relate to her. It’s sad that there are quite a lot of girls like her, because at the same time as being quite a horrible person, she’s got quite a bad background, which is blatantly obvious when you watch the film. The film proves to you that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, because obviously Mia can be horrible, but she can also be nice. And when you’ve watched the whole film you can understand why she does what she does.’ On British films ‘I like a lot of British films, because I think they seem more real. Sometimes films from different countries are more like dreams or something. In terms of acting, I would obviously like to go round the world and do loads of different characters, but with Andrea’s film, it looks so real life – there are a lot of teenagers out there that are like Mia, and like the girls that Mia knows. So I think that sort of thing is what I’d like to carry on with.’
Interesting fact Jarvis was cast on her 17th birthday, and the film premiered in Edinburgh on her 18th. (Paul Gallagher) ■ Fish Tank is on selected release from Fri 11 Sep. See review, page 49.
56 THE LIST 10–24 Sep 2009
Orange Revolution (12A) (Steve York, US, 2007) 92min. Documentary about the 17-day around-the-clock protest carried out on the streets of Kiev following the 2004 presidential election, in which the leading oppositions candidate was poisoned, voters were intimidated and election officials were accused of miscounting votes. This screening will be followed by a discussion led by the Scottish Youth Parliament. Take One Action Film Festival. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. Orphan (15) ●●●●● (Jaume Collet- Serra, US, 2009) Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard, Isabelle Fuhrman. 122min. Diverting evil child horror from House of Wax director Collet-Serra. Grieving parents Kate (Farmiga) and John (Sarsgaard) decide to adopt a child from a local orphanage and soon wish they hadn’t bothered. Selected release. Pedro (15) (Nick Oceano, US, 2008) Alex Loynaz, Justina Machado, Hale Appleman. 93min. Biopic celebrating Pedro Zamora, the HIV positive star of MTV’s 1994 Real World show. Diagnosed at just 17, Zamora was an influential peer educator and a remarkable individual. Part of Glasgay! Glasgow Film Theatre. Pierrot Le Fou (15) ●●●●● (Jean-Luc Godard, France/Italy, 1965) Jean-Paul Belmondo, Anna Karina, Dirk Sanders, Raymond Devos, Samuel Fuller. 110min. Jean Luc Godard’s delightful 1965 lovers on the run pastiche reissued on a new digital print. This politically astute homage to American genre cinema marked Godard’s departure from the new wave to more political forms of filmmaking. Cameo, Edinburgh. Pleasures of the Flesh (15) ●●●●● (Nagisa Oshima, Japan, 1965) Katsuo Nakamura, Mariko Kaga, Yumiko Nogawa. 94min. Satire centring on a crazed and alienated young college graduate pining for a woman for whom he has committed murder. The naive persona is entrusted with a sack of money by a corrupt government official and winds up squandering it in a hyper-modern ‘love hotel’. Part of Oshima season. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. The Proposal (12A) ●●●●● (Anne Fletcher, US, 2009) Sandra Bullock, Ryan Reynolds, Mary Steenburgen. 107min. Odd- couple comedy follow-up to 27 Dresses with a plot that blatantly reworks Peter Weir’s considerably superior Green Card. Bullock plays a bullish publisher who faces deportation to Canada. Her only route to remaining in her swanky job involves bullying her put-upon assistant Andrew (Reynolds) into a fake marriage. Soulless, manipulative fare. Selected release. Public Enemies (15) ●●●●● (Michael Mann, US, 2009) Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard. 143min. Depp is typically mesmerising as depression-era bank robber John Dillinger, a folk hero to a disenchanted public, and number one target of J Edgar Hoover’s fledgling FBI. Mann’s gripping hand-held style and real locations heighten the authenticity and immediacy and overcome minor niggles, such as the occasional distortion of history, for a powerful result as Mann does what he does best. Cameo, Edinburgh. Rage (15) ●●●●● (Sally Potter, US, 2009) Jude Law, Judi Dench, Dianne Wiest. 98min. A young blogger at a New York fashion house films behind-the-scenes interviews on his mobile phone. A new cinematic creation from writer/director Potter, Rage uses a radical narrative structure focused entirely on individual performances. Glasgow Film Theatre. Rang De Basanti (12A) (Rakesh Omprakash Mehra, India, 2006) Aamir Khan, Soha Ali Khan, Waheeda Rehman, Om Puri.Bollywood presentation telling the story of a young woman from England who comes to India to make a documentary about the diary her grandfather wrote in the 1920s. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. Reporter (15) (Eric Daniel Metzgar, US, 2009) 90min. Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist of The New York Times Nicholas Kristof heads into the Congo to uncover stores from ravaged villages and displacement camps. This screening will be followed by discussion ‘At The Risk of Being Ignored: Media, Society and Atrocity’, with speakers including David Pratt and Malcolm Flemming. Take One Action Film Festival. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. The River (U) ●●●●● (Jean Renoir, France/India/US, 1951) Nora Swinburne, Esmond Knight, Arthur Shields. 99min. A coming of age story about three very different girls living by an Indian river. One day a man arrives who is to be their first love and a disruption in their tranquil lives. Brilliant late period Renoir. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (15) ●●●●● (Jim Sharman, UK, 1975) Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick, Meat Loaf. 100min. The cult film to end all others, this rock spoof on old horror movies has created a breed of Rocky Horror crazies, and packs them in at late shows everywhere. The film has its
Agantuk (The Stranger) Indian cinema legend Satyajit Ray’s final film (before his death in 1992) receives an all too rare screening. A comic dissection of familial trust, honesty and fragile belief systems, Agantuk is a major work from a Bengali great (based on one of Ray’s own short stories). This matinee screening will be preceded by a filmed introduction by cinema specific writer and broadcaster Mark Cousins. Part of the British Council’s Satyajit Ray Films Tour. ■ GFT, Glasgow on Sun 13 Sep.
moments, and Curry is splendidly camp as the bisexual Frank N Furter. Grosvenor, Glasgow. Rumba (PG) ●●●●● (Dominique Abel/Fiona Gordon/Bruno Romy, France/Belgium, 2008) Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon, Philippe Martz. 77min. Centering on happily married Latin dance- loving teachers Fiona (Gordon) and Dom (Abel), Rumba is a deadpan tragi-comedy in which the clowning of the characters goes hand-in-hand with a series of disastrous setbacks in their lives. Dialogue and music are kept to a minimum and whilst at times individual sequences feel over-stretched, the physically expressive performances are appealing throughout. Glasgow Film Theatre; Cameo, Edinburgh. S1/Salon 2009 (E) (Various, 2009) 90min. Touring programme comprising nine moving image works selected from the three programmes that made up the fifth S1/Salon season, presented at S1 Artspace earlier this year. The programme includes work from France, Singapore, Germany, the UK and the US. CCA, Glasgow. Sari Soldiers (15) (Julie Bridgham, US, 2008) 92min. Filmed over three years, Bridgham’s documentary details six women’s courageous efforts to shape Nepal’s future in the midst of an escalating civil war against Maoist insurgents. Take One Action Film Festival. Filmhouse, Edinburgh.
✽✽ The September Issue (12A) ●●●●● (R J Cutler, US, 2009)
89min. See review, page 49 and profile, page 50. Glasgow Film Theatre; Cameo, Edinburgh. Shorts (PG) ●●●●● (Robert Rodriguez, US, 2009) William H Macy, Jimmy Bennett, Jake Short. 88min. 11-year-old Toe Thompson (Bennett) gets hit on the head by a mysterious rainbow-coloured rock, and soon his neighbourhood is swarming with tiny spaceships, crocodile armies and much more. Slyly anti-corporate kiddie caper with an able cast and fun digital effects. Selected release.
✽✽ Sin Nombre (15) ●●●●● (Cary Joji Fukanaga, US/Mexico, 2008) Paulina Gaitan, Edgar Flores, Kristyan Ferrer. 96min. Fantastic Mexican fusion of gangland thriller and road movie about the loves and tragedies of a group of US bound immigrants from Honduras and Mexico. Compellingly made with great performances, Sin Nombre is really worth checking out. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. Skin (12A) ●●●●● (Anthony Fabian, UK/South Africa, 2008) Sophie Okonedo, Sam Neill, Alice Krige. 107min. Solidly made drama based true story of Sandra Laing (Okonedo and young Ella Ramangwane when young), a black child born in 1950s South Africa to white Afrikaners (Neill and Krige). Filmhouse, Edinburgh. Some Like It Hot (PG) ●●●●● (Billy Wilder, US, 1959) Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, Marilyn Monroe. 120min. Two impecunious male musicians inadvertently witness the St Valentine’s Day Massacre and take refuge in Florida with Sweet Sue and her Society Syncopators, an all-female band. Brilliant, brittle, crackerjack farce with all concerned at a peak in their careers. Scotsman Screening Room, Edinburgh. Sorority Row (15) ●●●●● (Stewart Hendler, US, 2009) Briana Evigan, Leah Pipes, Rumer Willis. 101min. Predictable but decent enough remake of 1983 slasher The House on Sorority Row. When a prank goes wrong five girl students inadvertently cause the murder of another girl. They agree to keep the matter a secret but after graduation a mysterious killer comes after them. General release. Space Station 3D (U) (Toni Myers, Canada/US, 2003) 47min. Narrated by Tom Cruise, this big screen IMAX presentation follows real astronauts into the big blue. Impressive, but not as awesome as it should have been. IMAX Theatre, Glasgow. Star Trek (12A) ●●●●● (JJ Abrams, US/Germany, 2009) Chris Pine, Jennifer Morrison, Simon Pegg. 126min. A quirk in the space-time continuum allows both a sequel and prequel to the already vast Star Trek oeuvre, in which Lost creator Abrams