Film
MR SHYAMALAN IS KNOWN TO HAVE DEVELOPED A STRONG AVERSION TO CRITICS Hitlist THE BEST FILM & DVD RELEASES*
✽✽ The Secret in Their Eyes Brilliant Argentine film noir starring Ricardo Darín as a world-weary lawyer revisiting an unsolved murder. Winner of this year’s Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award. See review, page 113. GFT, Glasgow & Filmhouse, Edinburgh from Fri 13 Aug. ✽✽ Le Refuge French filmmaker François Ozon returns to form with this elegant and unfussy tale of drugs, death and unexpected pregnancy. See review, page 113. GFT, Glasgow & Filmhouse, Edinburgh from Fri 13 Aug. ✽✽ Five Easy Pieces New print of Bob Rafelson’s much- admired post-Easy Rider road movie, still a powerful dissection of the death of the hippie dream. See Also Released, page 113. Filmhouse, Edinburgh, Fri 13- Thu 19 Aug. GFT, Glasgow, Sun 29–Tue 31 Aug. ✽✽ Gainsbourg Inventive biopic that confirms that ugliness and talent will always endure. Selected release, out now (last few days). ✽✽ Good Hair Chris Rock investigates the bizarre relationship between African Americans and their crowning glories. GFT, Glasgow, Mon 16–Wed 18 Aug. ✽✽ Toy Story 3 Here come the toys for one last adventure. General release, out now. ✽✽ Inception In the words of John Lennon: ‘Keep on playing those mind games for ever.’ Christopher Nolan’s thriller is still performing well at the box office. General release, out now. ✽✽ Valdez Horses Rediscovered spaghetti western starring the mighty Charles Bronson, on DVD. See review, page 121. Out now (Optimum).
Diminishing return Alistair Harkness listens to M Night Shyamalan talk nonsense and wonders where it all went wrong for the once fêted filmmaker
It was sometime ago, a time when lowly journalists were still shuffled into London hotel rooms to politely listen to filmmakers modestly tell of their own creative genius. On this particular occasion, the assembled throng – a particularly scurrilous lot of which I was one – had generously been given lots of time by the film company to prepare our game faces. We needed it too. For the man we were about to encounter was no lowly hack out to deceive the public with outright lies about the story being more important than special effects. No, we had come to hear M Night Shyamalan, the internationally renowned director of The Village, Lady in the Water and that one about the plants that scare Marky Mark. Mr Shyamalan had come to London to share with us his new opus, The Last Airbender, a live action adaptation of a children’s cartoon that he had kindly retrofitted with 3D to make it look more like Clash of the Titans. Taking his seat, he began by talking about his inspirations. ‘Most of my movies are connected to some childhood point of view,’ he said, to the surprise of no one who had seen Unbreakable or that one about the plants that scare Marky Mark. He then diligently outlined in intricate detail some of the philosophies, mythologies and controversies involved in making a film based on a children’s television cartoon that even Mr Shyamalan had to admit was ‘blown away’ in the TV ratings by Dora the Explorer.
It was only when the subject turned to ‘negative reviews’ that our collective torpor was relieved. Mr Shyamalan is known to have developed a strong
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aversion to critics. After they mistakenly showered The Sixth Sense in praise, he slyly coerced them into revealing their true feelings by systematically making films that were each more obviously and undeniably terrible than the last. Films like Signs and The Village and that one about the plants that scare Marky Mark. Only then could he justifiably take his revenge by making himself the messianic hero, and a pompous film critic the villain, of his $42 million- grossing blockbuster Lady in the Water – a film that cost $75 million to make.
But I digress. Asked if he felt pressure to live up to the success of The Sixth Sense, he smiled at us pityingly and patiently explained why such a question was redundant for someone like him. ‘As an artist, it’s so foreign to think like that,’ he said. The artist who made that film about the plants that scare Marky Mark then looked a little glum. Despite informing us that two studios wanted to make his new idea for a thriller, he’d come to the realisation that he might not be allowed to tell his ‘very specific stories’ for ever. ‘I’ve definitely talked to the family about that and said there is a line where I won’t go.’
With still-fresh memories of that film about the plants that scare Marky Mark, neither I nor anyone else in the room dared enquire as to what unspeakable horrors that ‘line’ might involve . . .
The Last Airbender is on general release from Fri 13 Aug. See Also Released, page 113.