list.co.uk/fi lm
Films screening in the next four weeks are listed below with certificate, star rating, credits, brief review and venue details. See list.co.uk. for the most up-to-date screening times. Submit details of special screenings at least 10 days before publication to events@list. co.uk. Film index is compiled by Murray Robertson and Gail Tolley. ✽ Indicates Hitlist entry NEW RELEASES 300: Rise of an Empire (15) (Noam Murro, US, 2013) Eva Green, Rodrigo Santoro, Sullivan Stapleton. 102min. Israeli director Murro (Smart People) picks up the reins for this sequel to Zack Snyder’s 2006 testosterone-fuelled fantasy war epic. See review at list.co.uk General release from Fri 7 Mar. A World Not Ours (Alam Laysa Lana) (tbc) (Mahdi Fleifel, UK/ Lebanon/Denmark, 2012) Mahdi Fleifel. 93min. An intimate, often humorous portrait of three generations of exile in the refugee camp of Ein el-Helweh, in southern Lebanon. Based on personal recordings, family archives and historical footage. Limited release from Fri 21 Feb. As the Palaces Burn (15) (Don Argott, US, 2014) 90min. Tour documentary looking at metal band Lamb of God’s fans around the world. Limited release from Fri 28 Feb. Back to the Garden (15) (Jon Sanders, UK, 2013) Emma Garden, Bob Goody, Anna Mottram. 70min. Improvised drama following the life of a widow who’s struggling to come to terms with the loss of her husband. See review at list.co.uk Limited release from Fri 14 Mar. The Book Thief (12A) ●●●●● (Brian Percival, US, 2014) Sophie Nélisse, Geoffrey Rush, Emily Watson. 131min. See review, page 54. Limited release from Wed 26 Feb. Bullet (15) (Nick Lyon, US, 2014) Danny Trejo, Torsten Voges, Jonathan Banks. 87min. Danny Trejo plays a tough cop who takes the law into his own hands when his grandson is kidnapped. Limited release from Fri 7 Mar. Grace of Monaco (tbc) (Olivier Dahan, Belgium, Italy, France, Monaco, US, 2013) Nicole Kidman, Tim Roth, Frank Langella. A biopic of Prince Rainier III’s bride and legendary screen actress Grace Kelly. See review at list. co.uk General release from Fri 14 Mar.
✽The Grand Budapest Hotel (tbc) (Wes Anderson, US, 2014) Ralph
Fiennes, Saoirse Ronan, Edward Norton. 100min. The adventures of Gustave H, a legendary concierge at a famous European hotel between the wars, and Zero Moustafa, the lobby boy who becomes his most trusted friend. See review at list.co.uk General release from Fri 7 Mar. Highway (tbc) (Imtiaz Ali, India, 2014)
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Alia Bhatt, Randeep Hooda. Hindi abduction drama. Limited release from Fri 21 Feb. Need for Speed (tbc) (Scott Waugh, US, 2014) Aaron Paul, Dominic Cooper, Scott Mescudi. Fresh from prison, a street racer who was framed by a wealthy business associate joins a cross country race with revenge in mind. His ex-partner, learning of the plan, places a massive bounty on his head as the race begins. Action flick based on the 20-strong video game series. See review at list.co.uk General release from Wed 12 Mar. Non-Stop (tbc) (Jaume Collet-Serra, US/France, 2014) Liam Neeson, Julianne Moore, Lupita Nyong’o. 106min. Neeson continues his action film run as an air marshal who springs into life during a transatlantic flight after receiving a series of text messages that put his fellow passengers at risk. See review at list.co.uk General release from Fri 28 Feb.
✽Nymphomaniac: Volume I (18) ●●●●● (Lars von Trier,
Denmark/Germany/France/Belgium, 2013) Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stellan Skarsgård, Shia LaBeouf, Jamie Bell, Christian Slater, Connie Nielsen. 124min. See review, page 56. Release from Sat 22 Feb.
✽Nymphomaniac: Volume II (18) ●●●●● (Lars von Trier,
Denmark/Germany/France/Belgium, 2013) Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stellan Skarsgård, Shia LaBeouf, Jamie Bell, Christian Slater, Connie Nielsen. 123min. See review, page 56. Release from Sat 22 Feb.
✽Only Lovers Left Alive (15) ●●●●● (Jim Jarmusch, UK/
Germany/France/Cyprus/USA, 2013) Tom Hiddleston, Tilda Swinton, Mia Wasikowska. 123min. See review, page 54. Limited release from Fri 21 Feb. Peter Gabriel: Back to Front (tbc) (2014) Concert footage from the musician’s 2013 tour. Limited release from Thu 20 Mar. Plot for Peace (tbc) (Carlos Agulló/ Mandy Jacobson, South Africa/ Congo/US/Mozambique/France/Cuba/ Angola, 2013) 84min. The untold story of apartheid’s fall, and the mysterious French businessman who was instrumental in Nelson Mandela’s release from jail. See review at list.co.uk Limited release from Fri 14 Mar. Ride Along (12A) (Tim Story, US, 2014) Ice Cube, Kevin Hart, Tika Sumpter. 99min. A fast-talking security guard joins his cop brother-in-law on a 24 hour patrol of Atlanta in order to prove himself worthy of marrying Angela, James’ sister. See review at list. co.uk Limited release from Fri 28 Feb. The Rocket (tbc) (Kim Mordaunt, Australia, 2013) Sitthiphon Disamoe, Loungnam Kaosainam, Thep Phongam. 96min. A boy who everyone thinks is cursed sets off on a journey with his family and two friends to find a new home in war-torn Laos. Then, he starts to work on a giant rocket to enter into the Rocket Festival – to prove he’s not bad luck. See review at list.co.uk Limited release from Fri 14 Mar. The Stag (15) (John Butler, Ireland, 2013) Andrew Scott, Hugh O’Conor, Peter McDonald. 94min. A bachelor party weekend in the great outdoors takes some unexpected detours. Limited release from Fri 7 Mar. Stalingrad (15) ●●●●● (Fedor Bondarchuk, Russia, 2013) Thomas Kretschmann, Yanina Studilina, Philippe Reinhardt. 131min. See review, page 54. Limited release from Fri 21 Feb.
✽Stranger By The Lake (18) ●●●●● (Alain Guiraudie, France,
2013) Pierre Deladonchamps, Christophe Paou, Patrick d’Assumçao. 100min. See interview, right and review, page 55. Limited release from Fri 21 Feb. Suzanne (12) (Katell Quillévéré, France, 2013) Sara Forestier, François Damiens, Adèle Haenel. 90min. The
ALAIN GUIRAUDIE
His name may not be as familiar as his two openly gay French director colleagues François Ozon and André Téchiné, but Alain Guiraudie is emerging from the shadows thanks to Stranger by the Lake. His provocative tale of love, passion, and treachery set against a lakeside gay cruising area was screened as part of Un Certain Regard at Cannes last year, winning him the Best Director award as well as the Queer Palm Award. The film has garnered nominations for no less than eight Césars (the French Oscars). Guiraudie, one of French cinema’s most original if under-appreciated voices, lives and tends to work close to his home in the country near Toulouse.
Your previous films such as The King of Escape and No Rest for the Brave have created fictitious worlds, but here you wanted to make something much more personal. Why? What I decided to do was to talk about something familiar to me. So the story was about homosexuality. In my previous films the worlds that I created were pure invention. This time I wanted to base it on something I really knew and make a film that was about love, desire and passion. I really wanted to explore this idea of a passion where the other person really gets under your skin.
Were the characters based on people you had known?
The main character, Franck (played by Pierre Deladonchamps) is inspired by someone I know very well. I also think I put a lot of myself into it. Henri, the lonely guy who sits and watches (Patrick d’Assumçao), was also based on someone in real life, but I fleshed him out by giving him a broader background of despair. Michel (Christophe Paou) is a product of my imagination. He is a cross between a god of the lake and an ultra-liberal modern lover and serial cruiser and looks just a bit like Tom Selleck.
You are a fan of Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Did you have the feel of his films in mind when preparing Stranger by the Lake? Before I started work I re-read Jean Genet’s Querelle and also re-watched the film that Fassbinder made of the novel. It was more to make sure that I wasn’t treading on their toes. But if you want a very distant influence it would be Charles Laughton’s The Night of the Hunter, and an atmosphere of brooding I wanted to create.
What’s on the horizon?
It’s a film about a dairy taken over by a co-operative of farm workers and smallholders in the French countryside: I’d quite like it to be in the Lozère. And against this revolutionary background, there’s a love story between two men. (Richard Mowe) ■ Stranger by the Lake is on limited release from Fri 21 Feb. See review, page 55.
story of a family and a love affair told through the journey of a young woman called Suzanne. See review at list.co.uk Limited release from Fri 14 Mar. Total Chaos (Total Siyapaa) (tbc) (Eeshwar Nivas, India, 2014) Anupam Kher, Ali Zafar, Yami Gautam. Hindi romance. Limited release from Fri 7 Mar.
✽Under the Skin (15) ●●●●● (Jonathan Glazer, UK, 2013) Scarlett
Johansson, Paul Brannigan, Robert J. Goodwin. 108min. See feature, page 12 and review, page 55. Limited release
from Fri 14 Mar. Unforgiven (Yurusarezaru mono) (15) (Sang-il Lee, Japan, 2013) Ken Watanabe, Jun Kunimura, Shiori Kutsuna. 135min. Japanese remake of Clint’s Oscar-winning elegy for the western. Limited release from Fri 28 Feb. Veronica Mars (tbc) (Rob Thomas, US, 2014) Kristen Bell, James Franco, Gaby Hoffmann. Years after walking away from her past as a teenage private eye, Veronica Mars gets pulled back to her hometown – just in time for her high 20 Feb–20 Mar 2014 THE LIST 57