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Tom DiCillo Director of The Real Blonde
The words 'Tom DiCillo film' and ‘quirky' are linked by an inextricable cord. Just don't bring that up with him. ‘They don't seem quirky to me, they're completely literal to what I see going on around me,’ he insists. ‘We've reached a point with our entertainment that it's become almost like anaesthesia, yet even Hollywood films in the 305, 405, 505 pushed and suggested that audiences had brains and were willing to see things in a different light.’
Although DiCillo’s films appear to be getting progressively bigger in terms of the scale of production, he is haunted by the day when he has possession of a budget the size of a very large iceberg.
’I'm sorry, but if you take a look at a film like Titanic, for SZOOm you'd think they could have at least got good actors or taken a scriptwriting programme in their computer — it's the dumbest shit I’ve ever seen,’ states DiCillo, perched aloft the most fragile of ceremonies. 'I've found that the more money is involved, the more compromises you make. If someone gives you millions of dollars, they're either very very rich and don't care about it. or they simply want to make their money back.’
Tom DiCillo: the real thing
DiCillo’s fourth feature, The Real Blonde, continues his theme of searching for everlasting joy and happiness, even if the searcher is drawing their gaze into all the wrong places. ‘What I tried to do with the title is to use it as an incapsulator for some of those ideas that I had,’ he points out. ‘It seems that a lot of people in the world today are searching frantically for something to believe in or something that will make them happy — for some men, a blonde woman is perfection in some unattainable way and it's an absolutely idiotic thing. I certainly don't condone it.’
It seems genuinely mysterious that DiCillo‘s films haven't made a greater impact on box offices, as he attracts quality casts to play out the cleverest of tales. Yet, he remains happy to be skirting on the sidelines. If ’quirky' is banned in the DiCillo household, it’s almost certain that 'mainstream’ is equally frowned upon.
’Mainstream is a very frightening word to me. The kind of films and art that inspired me has always been stuff where you feel a certain passion in the person making it. If my passion comes off as slightly quirky . . . well at least it’s still passion.’
(Brian Donaldson) {a Selected release from Fri 22 May See revrew
SOUNDTRACKS He Got Game
Public Enemy (Def Jam) it at 1" 3k Great film opening sequences of our times: woman boxes to Public Enemy’s 'Fight The Power’, setting an aggressive tone that runs right through Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing. Fast- forward nine years, and the main players are back together for Lee’s basketball drama He Got Game.
First impressions are of an album that's not up to PE’s typical!y tough and politically incendiary standards. The title track has an almost Singalong quality and, by song four, Flava Flav seems to be joining the lower end of the rap credibility league with ’Shake Your Booty’. Then, suddenly, the band remember who they are. With Terminator X on the decks and The Bomb Squad in the production room, PE flex their collective muscles and the sound straightens out. There’s melody in the samples and a fighting mood in the words. Public Enemy win the game wrth the final shot.
Scream 2
Various (Premier Soundtracks) 4? ‘k “k at
The film's that bit cleverer than your average horror sequel and, likewise, the accompanying album is a smarter mix of diverse styles than your average tie-in compilation. Rollin’ rap from Kottonmouth Kings, Weezer-like sounds from Sugar Ray and US punk from Less Than Jake mix wrth the Jon Spencer Blues Expl05ion, Foo Fighters and Nick Cave, keeping killers at bay.
The Big Lebowski
Various (Mercury) a: w
The critics reckon the film is the Coen
granted an OBE for his servrces to drama, Greenock-born Wilson is also scarily successful, and possesses a dry wrt which cuts straight to the bone. Bernard Manning certainly felt threatened by him on a recent edition of The Mrs Merton Show 'I lUSl said, “Bernard.7 Bernard who?” -- a standard actor's ioke,’ Wilson explains 'And then he Just came on and went for me, but he did offer me an apology the next day in The Mirror He saicl if I didn’t want to accept it, I could go and _, get fucked So I accepted it ’ The making of The Man Who Knew Too Little was clearly a much more
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Richard Wilson
Star of The Man Who Knew Too Little
A well known face in Britain after his success as Victor Meldrew in One Foot In The Grave, Richard Wilson found himself acting alongside Bill Murray in his latest film project, The Man Who Knew Too Little. Wilson is candid about what it was like to work with one of America's most popular stars, saying that ’Bill is a very gifted comedian, totally out of control'.
24 THE usr 14—28 May 1998
Richard Wilson: one foot in Hollywood
When asked what he thinks Murray might have thought aboot working with him, however, he's interrupted by the film's director, Jon Arniel, who claims that, ’Bill was terrified' WilsOn denies this With a wry chuckle 'He wasn't scared of me' But personally, I don’t believe it. Richard Wilson is a bit scary.
A prolific actor, best known for his TV work (which includes John Byrne’s Tutti Frutti), his latest turn as theatre director, Tom And Clem, went down well With the London critics Recently
friendly affair, With an 'entente cordiale’ easily reached between British and American senses of humour However, Wilson reckons now he would like to try his hand at making an action mowe
’l w0uldn’t mind domg something With cars,’ he says 'I came to drivmg late and, because I was late starting, I tend to speed qurte a lot now to make up for lost time.’ There is still good reason for everyone to be afraid of Richard Wilson (Sophy Bristow) I The Man Who Knew Too Little opens on Fri IS May See revrew
brothers’ best, but the album falls behind Sub-standard selections from Bob Dylan and EIVis Costello are lifted by the eccentricities of Captain Beefheart and Moondog With Orchestra. But it becomes a schizophrenic mix when the tone iiimps from a Korngold opera to the syrupy strings of Henry Mancini to Carter Burwell’s terrible technopop. And when the Gipsy Kings take on ’Hotel California’ ('soocha love-a place’), it’s time to laugh out loud.
Romeo And Juliet
Nino Rota (Silva Screen)
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Franco Zeflirelli’s I968 treatment of Shakespeare boasts a romantically inclined score by veteran film composer Nino Rota (The Godfather) The ’Love Theme’ was made famous by its use as a musical backdrop to Simon Bates’ 'Oiir Tune’ on Radio 1, but, restored to its proper context, it frees itself from sentimentality and captures the play's twrn forces of passion and tragedy. (Alan Morrison) uffiffi; j.-‘ '-
Game boys: Public Enemy