Film Index PROFILE
LUCA GUADAGNINO Born 1971, Palermo, Sicily. Background Guadagnino actually spent the early years of his life in Ethiopia, before moving back with his family to Sicily aged seven. Having studied cinema at university in Rome, where he wrote a thesis on Jonathan Demme, he made his directorial debut with this experimental documentary-cum-thriller The Protagonists (1999), the first of several collaborations with British actress Tilda Swinton. In 2005 he directed Melissa P, an adaptation of a controversial erotic novel about an Italian teenage girl’s sexual experiences.
What’s he up to now? Guadagnino’s operatic family melodrama I am Love has been attracting impressive reviews since its premiere at the Venice film festival last autumn. An opulently-designed affair, it stars Swinton as a Russian woman, who has married into a super- wealthy Italian dynasty.
On the structure of I am Love ‘I think the unusual structure of the film is one of the elements of fascination for the viewer. I tried to break the rules of the three-act structure, where straightaway you understand all the trajectories of the story. I wanted to show at the beginning the family environment in which Tilda’s character Emma is buried.’
On filming in Milan ‘If you want to talk about the haute- bourgeoisie and a class that rules through money, then you have to talk about Milan. The city is one of the most expensive places to shoot a movie because of the cost of hotel rooms and filming permits, and the municipal authorities didn’t really help us.’ On the tyranny of the close- up ‘Close-up shots of people talking give you no visual sense of where you are or why you are there. The last mainstream movie that used close-ups intelligently was The Silence of the Lambs.’
Interesting fact The first film Guadagnino ever saw at the cinema was a re-release in Ethiopia of Lawrence of Arabia, when he was aged just three. (Tom Dawson) ■ I am Love, GFT, Glasgow and selected release from Fri 9 Apr. See review, page 46.
50 THE LIST 1–15 Apr 2010
Journey to the Edge of the Universe (12A) (Yavar Abbas, US, 2008) 96min. Non-stop trip mapping the journey from Earth to infinity, encountering powerful and beautiful phenomena in the Cosmos, from pulsars to super massive black holes. Introduction and Q&A with Professor Donald Wayne Kurtz, Centre for Astrophysics, University of Central Lancashire. Part of Edinburgh Science Festival. Filmhouse, Edinburgh.
✽✽ Kick-Ass (15) ●●●●● (Matthew Vaughn, US/UK, 2010) Nicolas Cage,
Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Chloe Moretz. 117min. Big screen adaptation of Mark Millar’s massively popular comic in which a bunch of misfit teens don superhero costumes and get stuck into some stylised vigilante action. Successfully celebrating a teen boys’ idea of ‘cool’, Vaughn has a feeling for characters and story arcs that his Lock, Stock . . . collaborator Guy Ritchie has long since forgotten. Quite frankly, Vaughn kicks ass. General release. The Kreutzer Sonata (18) ●●●●● (Bernard Rose, US, 2008) Danny Huston, Elisabeth Röhm, Matthew Yang King. 100min. A contemporary LA-set adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s novella that uses the titular piano/violin duet by Beethoven as the catalyst for the story of a jealous husband’s descent into madness. Independently wealthy Edgar Hudson (Huston) snares himself a trophy bride, beautiful classical pianist Abby (Röhm), only to fall prey to increasingly tortuous suspicion of her infidelity. Filmhouse, Edinburgh.
✽✽ Lourdes (U) ●●●●● (Jessica Hausner, Austria/France/Germany,
2009) Sylvie Testud, Lea Seydoux, Gilette Berbier. 99min. Austrian writer/director Hausner’s debut feature takes an anti- mystical approach to miracles on a pilgrimage to Lourdes. The film’s complexity plays with the mystery of religious faith, with Christine’s (Testud) ‘miracle’ taking place in an ellipsis. Ultimately it is Hausner’s carefully crafted atmosphere that makes her a talent to watch. Glasgow Film Theatre; Filmhouse, Edinburgh. The Lovely Bones (12A) ●●●●● (Peter Jackson, UK/US/New Zealand, 2009) Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Susan Sarandon. 135min. The problems with Jackson’s adaptation of Alice Sebold’s popular novel run much deeper than the usual stumbling block of having a macabre subject matter. The casting is seriously misjudged, and, shirking away from the darkest elements of the novel, the tone and the aesthetic are completely wrong – where in the book, Susie (Ronan) resides in a 14- year-old’s idea of heaven, Jackson seems to have designed the movie equivalent in a Salvador Dali museum. Selected release. Me and Orson Welles (12A) ●●●●● (Richard Linklater, UK, 2008) Ben Chaplin, Claire Danes, Zac Efron. 113min. Likeably frothy behind-the-scenes drama. Set over the space of one week, the film’s time frame is guided by the rehearsals and first night of the Mercury Theatre’s legendary production of Ceasar, directed by Welles in 1937. In to this theatrical bear pit enters young artisan Richard (Efron) who lands himself the role of Lucius. Between Welles’ explosions and sexy assistant Sonja (Danes) it’s going to be a week he won’t forget in a hurry. Empire, Clydebank. Micmacs (12A) ●●●●● (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, France, 2009) Dany Boon, André Dussollier, Nicolas Marié. 104min. This slight but enjoyably manic satire from Amelie and Delicatessen director Jeunet sees eccentric Parisian loner Bazil (Boon) draw on a bunch of insane refuseniks for help when he is left with a bullet in his cerebellum following a freak accident. In evoking the ghosts of Buster Keaton and Jacques Tati and displacing them in an anarchic underground world peopled by the forgotten and abused, Jeunet is clearly on familiar ground. Fun and innovative stuff. Cameo, Edinburgh. Mugabe and the White African (12A) ●●●●● (Lucy Bailey/Andrew Thompson, UK, 2009) 90min. Documentary about Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe’s aggressive land reform programme and the effect it has had on
white-owned farms and their inhabitants. The film follows the brave fight of farmer Michael Campbell to hold on to his farm and live peacefully. Glasgow Film Theatre. Muppet Treasure Island (U) ●●●●● (Brian Henson, US, 1996) Tim Curry, Billy Connolly, Kevin Bishop. 99min. The furry gang take on Robert Louis Stevenson’s pirate tale with comic effect. Grosvenor, Glasgow. Nanny McPhee & The Big Bang (U) ●●●●● (Susanna White, US, 2010) Emma Thompson, Ralph Fiennes, Maggie Gyllenhaal. 109min. Sequel to the popular 2005 family film. This time Gyllenhaal is single mum Isabel Green (hubbie is off to fight the Hun in WW2) with three out of control nippers to contend with and two insufferably posh evacuee cousins about to arrive on their farm. General release. La Nina Santa (The Holy Girl) (15) ●●●●● (Lucrecia Martel, Argentina/Italy/Netherlands/Spain, 2004) Mercedes Moran, Carlos Belloso, Alejandro Urdapilleta, Maria Lache. 104min. This film is set during a specialist medical convention at a provincial hotel, which happens to be the home of glamorous divorcee Helena (Moran) and her schoolgirl daughter Amalia (Lache). When one of the visiting doctors (Belloso) rubs himself up against the teenager in a crowded street, the Catholic Amalia decides that this is her divine calling to save the man from his sins, even though he’s also caught the eye of her mother. This is a f film which lets the viewer make their own connections between pieces in its narrative puzzle, right down to its satisfyingly oblique ending. Part of Martel season. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. No One Knows About Persian Cats (12A) ●●●●● (Bahman Ghobadi, Iran, 2009) Negar Shaghaghi, Ashkan Koshanejad, Hamed Behdad. 106min. Freewheeling mockumentary about the underground Iranian music scene in Tehran featuring real musicians from the director A Time For Drunken Horses and Turtles Can Fly. Moving, funny and worrying – this unique little film deserves to find an audience, plus the soundtrack is a killer. Cameo, Edinburgh. Nowhere Boy (15) ●●●●● (Sam Taylor-Wood, UK/Canada, 2009) Kristin Scott Thomas, Thomas Sangster, Aaron Johnson. 97min. Artist Taylor-Wood turns feature director with Nowhere Boy, a portrait of John Lennon’s (Johnson) adolescence. Scott Thomas and Anne-Marie Duff come off best in this 1950s period tableaux but, shorn of Lennon’s rapier wit, Johnson comes over as just another moody pretty-boy, railing at the world to conceal his lack of self-understanding. Vue Ocean, Edinburgh. Oscar Nominated Shorts – Animation (E) (Various, 2009) 90min. Oscar nominees including French Roast, Granny Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty, The Lady & the Reaper, A Matter of Loaf & Death and Logorama. Cameo, Edinburgh. Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief (PG) ●●●●● (Chris Columbus, Canada/US, 2010) Brandon T Jackson, Steve Coogan, Uma Thurman. 118min. Big screen adaptation of Rick Riordan’s first fantasy adventure novel featuring Greek mythology-baiting child Percy Jackson. Possible franchise? We think so. Cineworld Renfrew Street, Glasgow. Perrier’s Bounty (15) ●●●●● (Ian Fitzgibbon, Ireland/UK, 2009) Cillian Murphy, Brendan Gleeson, Jim Broadbent. 84min. After an accidental shooting, charismatic Dublin gangster Michael McCrea (Murphy) goes on the run from local gangster Perrier (Gleeson) with his fey neighbour Brenda (Jodie Whittaker) and his coke-snorting, hypochondriac father Jim (Broadbent). Screenwriter Mark O’Rowe indulges in long stretches of shameless cod- Tarantino riffing and Murphy’s considerable charm is not enough to save a wearisomely obvious chase comedy. See profile, page 53. Selected release. The Piano (15) ●●●●● (Jane Campion, Australia/New Zealand, 1993) Holly Hunter, Sam Neill, Harvey Keitel. 120min. Jane Campion’s masterpiece follows mute Scotswoman Ada (Hunter) as she travels to
19th century New Zealand with her piano and daughter to enter into an arranged marriage. Soon she begins a passionate and erotic affair with her illiterate neighbour as a means to regaining her treasured instrument. Impeccable performances lift this highly charged piece to the realms of classic cinema. Undoubtedly one of the best films of the 90s. Scotsman Screening Room, Edinburgh. Planet 51 (U) ●●●●● (Jorge Blanco/Javier Abad, US, 2009) Voices of Dwayne Johnson, Jessica Beil, Gary Oldman. 90min. Dull, mildly offensive Spanish animated feature about one astronaut’s adventures as an illegal alien on a far-flung planet. Cineworld Fountainpark, Edinburgh. Ponyo (U) ●●●●● (Hayao Myazki, Japan, 2008) Voices of Noah Cyrus, Liam Neeson, Frankie Jonas. 101min. Delightful animated feature from the Studio Ghibli brand about a five-year-old boy who falls for a goldfish princess. It’s funny, charming and original enough to keep adults entertained, but where it really scores is Miyazaki’s (Spirited Away) ability to understand what a child sees. Like its goldfish heroine, Ponyo may seem like a slight and slivery proposition, but it dives to uncharted depths. Selected release. Prince (PG) (Kookie V Gulati, India, 2010) Vivek Oberoi, Aruna Shields, Nandana Sen. 125min. A thief wakes up with a gunshot wound and memory loss to a terrible day: cops on his tail, a mysterious girlfriend and a heist that threatens the future of the human race. Cineworld Renfrew Street, Glasgow; Cineworld Fountainpark, Edinburgh. The Princess and the Frog (U) ●●●●● (Ron Clements/John Musker, US, 2010) Voices of Anika Noni Rose, Bruno Campos, Keith David. 97min. Set in 1920s Louisiana and featuring Disney’s first African-American Princess, this culturally important, beautiful and evocative (of a New Orleans that no longer exists) film may not have the standout musical numbers of some of its stablemates but is an old fashioned treat all the same. Selected release. The Private Life of Chickens (12A) (Ishbel Hall, UK, 2010) 59min. Farmer Jimmy Doherty spends a week on a Devon farm trying to discover the ins and outs of daily chicken life. Introduction and Q&A with director Ishbel Hall. Part of Edinburgh Science Festival. Filmhouse, Edinburgh.
✽✽ Psycho (18) ●●●●● (Alfred Hitchcock, US, 1960) Anthony
Perkins, Vera Miles, John Gavin. 108min. See Also Released, page 47. Selected release from Fri 2 Apr. Race to Witch Mountain (PG) ●●●●● (Andy Fickman, US, 2009) Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino, Ciaran Hinds. 98min. Sympathetic revival of 1975’s Escape to Witch Mountain as a vehicle for The Rock. Jack Bruno, a Las Vegas taxi-driver picks up two alien children (Anna Sophia Robb) and (Alexander Ludwig) and attracts the attentions of FBI-man Henry Burke (Hinds) in this solid time-passer that makes up in speed and slick production values what it lacks in character. Cineworld Parkhead, Glasgow; Cineworld Fountainpark, Edinburgh. The Railway Children (PG) ●●●●● (Lionel Jeffries, UK, 1970) Dinah Sheridan, William Mervyn, Jenny Agutter. 108min. A trio of youngsters find that their involvement with the railway that runs past their garden is to lead them into adventure. Pleasing family film, lit up by a bright performance from a very young Ms Agutter. Part of Weans’ World. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. Remember Me (12A) ●●●●● (Allen Coulter, US, 2010) Robert Pattinson, Emilie De Ravin, Pierce Brosnan. 112min. See review, page 46. General release.
✽✽ Safety Last! (U) ●●●●● (Sam Taylor/Fred C. Newmeyer, 1923, US)
Harold Lloyd, Mildred Davis, Bill Strothers. 70min. Compilation of Lloyd’s vertigo- inducing slapstick stunt work, including early shorts such as High and Dizzy. New 35mm print. Filmhouse, Edinburgh.