Film LISTINGS
Moonrise Kingdom (12A) ● (Wes Anderson, US, 2012) Edward Norton, Bruce Willis, Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand, Harvey Keitel, Jason Schwartzman, Kara Hayward, Jared Gilman. 94min. When 12-year-old orphan Sam (Gilman) convinces Suzy (Hayward) to run away with him, her parents (Murray, McDormand), the local scoutmaster (Norton), sheriff (Willis) and Social Services (Swinton) are soon in pursuit. Anderson’s new movie will delight his fans; others may consider it overlong, whimsical and emotionally lightweight. Cameo, Edinburgh. My Week with Marilyn (PG) ● (Simon Curtis, UK, 2011) Michelle Williams, Eddie Redmayne, Kenneth Branagh. 101min. This adaptation of Colin Clark’s memoirs from the set of The Prince and the Showgirl focuses on the one week he spent with Marilyn Monroe (Williams, who picked up an Oscar nomination for her role). Part of the Our Week With Marilyn season. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. No Time to Die (15) (King Ampaw, Ghana/Germany, 2006) Fritz Baffour, Kofi Bucknor, Agnes Dapaa. 95min. Examining the acceptance of social rituals, death and funeral traditions in African culture, Ghanan filmmaker Ampaw’s charming romance chronicles the trials of a love struck hearse driver. Part of the Festival of Spirituality and Peace. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. Nostalgia for the Light (12A) (Patricio Guzman, France/
Germany/Chile, 2010) 90min. Patricio Guzman’s Chilean docu-drama depicts the lives of astronomers and relatives of political prisoners killed in concentration camps in Chile’s Atacama Desert. Sensitive and with a focus on discovery, this film is a marvellously intelligent work of historical feeling and cosmic enquiry. Cameo, Edinburgh; Filmhouse, Edinburgh; Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee.
✽The Order of Myths (tbc) (Margaret Brown, US, 2008) 97min. Documentary about the town of Mobile, Alabama, a town where racial segregation persists to the extent that entirely separate Mardi Gras parades are held for the black and white communities. Part of a mardi gras-themed double bill with Easy Rider. Summerhall, Edinburgh. Ping Pong (PG) (Hugh Hartford, UK, 2012) 76min. A documentary following a group of eight pensioners with a collective age of 703 as they compete in the World Over-80s Table Tennis Championships in Inner Mongolia. Glasgow Film Theatre, Glasgow; Cameo, Edinburgh. Political Dress (tbc) (Judyta Fibiger, Poland, 2011) 61min. Documentary looking at how fashion was used as a means of expressing subversion in Communist Poland. Part of the Guide to the Poles trilogy (see Art of Freedom, above, for more information). Summerhall, Edinburgh. The Prince and the Showgirl (PG) (Laurence Olivier, UK/US, 1957) Marilyn Monroe, Laurence Olivier, Richard Wattis. 115min. Recently explored in My Week With Marilyn, this flighty tale of a showgirl who catches the eye of the prince regent of Carpathia also stars director Olivier. Part of the Our Week With Marilyn season. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. Searching for Sugar Man (12A)
(Malik Bendjelloul, Sweden/UK, 2012) 86min. Two men investigate the fate of 1970s South African star Rodriguez, long-since disappeared and rumoured to have committed suicide. A film that hooks you right from the start and pulls you into a heart-warming but not sugar-coated exploration of the musician’s life. Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee; Cameo, Edinburgh. Searching For The Unimagined Conscience of My Race (tbc) . A one-off screening of Irish artist Denis Buckley’s art film exploring the working class Irish identity, projected onto the wall in Summerhall’s courtyard. Summerhall, Edinburgh. Second Light Storytelling Lab Shorts (E) (UK, 2012) 60min. After meeting editors, writers and directors during
120 THE LIST 9–16 Aug 2012
(Benicio Del the EIFF, 19 local youngsters collaborated to make their own films, now available for all to see. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. 7 Days in Havana (7 días en La Habana) (15) ● Toro, Pablo Trapero, Julio Medem, Elia Suleiman, Gaspar Noé, Juan Carlos Tabío, Laurent Cantet, France, Spain, 2012) Josh Hutcherson, Daniel Brühl, Emir Kusturica, Elia Suleiman, Vladimir Cruz, Mirta Ibarra, Jorge Perugorria. 128min. Seven tragicomic short films by seven international directors sketching contemporary life in Havana, all of them written by Cuban novelist Leonardo Padura Fuentes. Inevitably, some are better than others but together they’re a rich, vivid and non-stereotypical portrait of the Cuban capital. Glasgow Film Theatre, Glasgow. Shpion (Spy) (15) (Aleksei Andrianov, Russia, 2012) Danila Kozlovskiy, Fedor Bondarchuk, Vladimir Epifantsev. 99min. Based on a novel by Boris Akunin who also scripted, this Moscow-set thriller chronicles the intrigues of Soviet and Nazi spies. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. A Simple Life (Tao jie) (PG) (Ann Hui, Hong Kong, 2011) Andy Lau, Deannie Yip, Lawrence Ah Mon. 118min. After a maid suffers a stroke, she quits her job to
(Frank Miller,
move to a retirement home. Jackie Chan’s former collaborator Sammo Hung appears in this Hong Kong family drama. Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee. Sin City (18) ● Robert Rodriguez, Special Guest: Quentin Tarantino, US, 2005) Bruce Willis, Clive Owen, Mickey Rourke, Jessica Alba. 124min. Bleak, hardboiled comic book adaptation from fan Rodriguez (co-directing with creator Miller) truer to its source than anything to date. Despite being rendered mostly in black and white, this isn’t a film for the squeamish. Alongside the super stylisation, ‘Sin City’ boasts deft storytelling, ballsy performances (from a to-die-for ensemble cast) and a line in bruising humour that’ll leave you black and blue. Brutal and brilliant. Cameo, Edinburgh. Step Up 4: Miami Heat (PG) (Scott Speer, US, 2012) Kathryn McCormick, Ryan Guzman, Stephen Boss. 99min. See review page 116. General release from Fri 10 Aug. Ted (15) ● US, 2012) Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis, Seth MacFarlane. 106min. John (Wahlberg) is a grown man living with a potty-mouthed teddy bear who came (Seth MacFarlane,
(Paul to life as the result of a childhood wish. Soon John finds himself torn between his girlfriend and his friendship with Ted. A resolutely filthy but loveable bromance from Family Guy creator MacFarlane. General release. 360 (15) ● (Fernando Meirelles, UK/Austria/France/Brazil, 2011) Rachel Weisz, Jude Law, Anthony Hopkins. 110min. See review page 116. Glasgow Film Theatre, Glasgow; Filmhouse, Edinburgh. Total Recall (18) ● Verhoeven, US, 1990) Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sharon Stone, Michael Ironside. 113min. In Verhoeven’s hugely expensive rollercoaster of violence, Arnie plays a construction worker whose vacational fantasy (implanted by Rekall Incorporated) is to pitch him into a netherworld of assassins and femmes fatales before unleashing the full truth about his nightmares of life on Mars. The crazy Dutchman’s Martian chronicle, teeming with sicko incident, is powered along by bursts of gee-ain’t-this-fun- brutality, but scores points for the playful ingenuity of the plotting, and Arnie looks like he’s enjoying himself. Glasgow Film Theatre, Glasgow.
Films on Our Friend Death – An African Perspective Africa in Motion Film Festival presents three films on the theme of death for this year’s Festival of Spirituality and Peace. It might initially sound a little depressing but these rare screenings offer a chance to understand the key cultural role death plays in African culture. There’s Ghanaian film No Time to Die, a comedy about a hearse driver falling in love, Guelewaar by acclaimed Senegalese director Ousame Sembene, based on the true story of a Christian activist whose body is accidentally buried in a Muslim cemetery and a documentary about funeral celebrations in Cameroon from Canadian filmmaker Matthew Lancit called The Funeral Season, screening with local short film Twenty Takes on Death and Dying. ■ Films on Our Friend Death – An African Perspective, Filmhouse, Edinburgh, Fri 10–Sun 12 Aug.