Film Reviews
DRAMA/HISTORY/WAR CITY OF LIFE AND DEATH (NANJING! NANJING!) (15) 135min ●●●●●
Writer-director Lu Chuan (Kekexili: Mountain Patrol) received death threats in his native China for this epic account of one of his country’s most traumatic historical episodes. In the winter of 1937 the Japanese Imperial Army invaded and occupied the then Chinese capital Nanking and, over the next few months, massacred some 300,000 civilians and prisoners-of-war, whilst raping women with impunity. The spectacular City of Life and Death is far from being a work of
nationalist propaganda that glorifies the sacrifices of the people against the foreign hordes. Impressively shot in widescreen black and white, it instead recalls the montage-driven 1920s Soviet cinema as well as films made by European directors Andrzej Wajda and Roberto Rossellini about World War Two. Rather than the Hollywood model central character trajectory, Chuan shifts between different individuals and set pieces to illustrate the wider story of the city’s destruction. There’s the virginal Japanese sergeant Kadokawa (Hideo Nakaizumi), who serves under a fanatical commander, and the young Chinese general Lu (Liu Ye), who’s leading a doomed resistance against the invaders. There’s also a translator, Mr Tang (Fan Wei), taking refuge in the International Safety Zone and hoping his contact with German businessman John Rabe will allow him and his family to escape. Understandably, given the subject matter, this makes for gruelling viewing. Although Chuan’s directorial prowess shines through, especially in the chilling conquest-dance sequence, where the processing Japanese celebrate their subjugation of a shattered Nanking. (Tom Dawson) ■ GFT, Glasgow from Fri 16–Thu 22 Apr.
48 THE LIST 15–29 Apr 2010
DOCUMENTARY NO GREATER LOVE (PG) 100min ●●●●●
Michael Whyte’s debut feature film is the result of a ten-year-long correspondence between him and a community of Carmelite nuns based in the heart of Notting Hill, London. Whyte is among the few men who have been granted access to the convent; yet despite his status as an outsider within this religious community, this beautiful film captures unobtrusively the essence of the religiously devout life: the rituals, the intense labour and, above all, the silence.
Visually, No Greater Love takes its lead from Philip Gröning’s superior 2005 documentary Into Great Silence but the director’s decision to break the silence the order imposes on itself and include footage of the nuns discussing their chosen way of life sets this film apart from its predecessor. Doubt and the finely balanced nature of religious faith are two recurring themes here, for these nuns are no strangers to ‘dark nights of the soul’. The viewer may be surprised at the candour with which the nuns open up to the director and acknowledge their own fears and uncertainties. Perhaps it is this sense of fragility within this highly ritualised and controlled community that makes the film so utterly human and, that most overused of terms, life- affirming. Whyte turns what could have been esoteric and alienating into something that exceeds the limitations of religious denomination, for this is a film that addresses the big issues to which we can all relate: life, death and everything in between. (Anna Rogers) ■ GFT, Glasgow from Mon 26–Thu 29 Apr & Filmhouse, Edinburgh from Fri 23–Thu 29 Apr. See profile, index.
DRAMA LION’S DEN (LEONERA) (15) 113min ●●●●●
ALSO RELEASED It’s a Wonderful Afterlife (12A) 100min ●●●●● Bend it Like Beckham and Bride and Prejudice director Gurinder Chadha’s latest is a broad comedy which has been marketed as ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding meets Shaun of the Dead’. Widow Mrs Sethi (Shebhana Azmi) wants to see her only daughter Roopi married. But Roopi (Goldy Notay) is a little overweight and very opinionated and keeps getting rejected by rude suitors. Mrs Sethi begins to take a more murderous route to find her daughter a husband. Silly, fun and forgettable. General release from Wed 21 Apr. Agora (12A) 126min ●●●●● Controversial Spanish historical epic telling the story of Hypatia, a female philosopher in Roman Egypt and her relationship with her slave. Open Your Eyes and The Others director Alejandro Amenábar’s latest film is uninvolving for a lot of it’s long running time. Rachel Weisz and Max Minghella head a capable cast, however. General release from Fri 23 Apr. The Joneses (15) 95min ●●●●● Clever satire of consumer culture by first time writer/director Derrick Borte in which a model suburban family is used as a marketing tool. David Duchovny and Demi Moore star. General release from Fri 23 Apr. Until the Light Takes Us (18) 93min ●●●●● Unsettling but laudable and in depth documentary feature about the Norwegian black metal scene. GFT, Glasgow from Fri 23–Sun 23 Apr. The Heavy (18) 102min ●●●●● Low budget London set thriller which attempts to fuse the political and underworld crime genres by playing a politician sibling off against his gangster brother with convoluted results. Vinnie Jones and Gary Stretch star. Showcase, Paisley; Showcase, Glasgow.
Argentine filmmaker Pablo Trapero’s latest film is an issue movie with an ambiguous yet always emotional centre. His heroine Julia (Martina Gusman) wakes up bruised and covered in blood but goes to work nevertheless. Later on she returns home to discover a dead man. Has she committed a crime, or was it her partner, arguing with his now dead lover, as she later claims to her lawyer? Trapero (Crane World, Born and Bred) is not interested in the narrative mystery of who did what to whom; instead he concentrates chiefly on Julie’s feelings as she is arrested. Since she is pregnant, the officials imprison her in a special unit for mothers and children, and the film focuses on class and culpability in a jailed environment. Sometimes playing like an inversion of Lucrecia Martel’s The Headless Woman (Julia isn’t quite a citizen above suspicion), Trapero is a fine filmmaker, but he’s a less nuanced director than others in the Argentine New Wave, such as Martel and Lisandro Alonso. The storytelling here is much more contrived (especially the mother’s intervention), and the emotional pay-off far more categorical. This is still impressive filmmaking, with the prison not a catch-all hellhole (as in the fine but very generic A Prophet); it is instead a desperate one, especially when you’re trying to bring up a child, or are likely to lose the one you have. (Tony McKibbin) ■ Filmhouse, Edinburgh from Fri 16–Sun 18 Apr, GFT, Glasgow from Mon 26 Thu 29 Apr.