index Film
Films screening this fortnight are listed below with certificate, star rating, credits, brie! review and venue details. Film Index compiled by Miles Fielder
A.I. (l2) 0.. (Steven Spielberg. US. 2001) Haley Joel Osmont. Jude Law. 141 mins. Stanley Kubrick spent years planning Artificial Intelligence. inspired by a Brian Aldiss short story. 'Super-toys Last All Summer Long'. On his death. the project was bequeathed to Spielberg. Together they have created a future world where the human body is completely commoditied. Forget cyborgs — the robots in this film are pure artificial intelligence. The question is. can they be programmed to fall in love‘.’ However. the immense difference between the two filmmakers‘ approach makes this a torturous two hours. as you are tugged between two extremes: Kubrickian cool and Spielbergian sentimentality. Cameo. Edinburgh.
All Quiet On The Western Front (PG) 0.... (Lewis Milestone. US. 1930) Louis Wohlheim. Lew Ayres. John Wray. 138 mins. An Oscar-winning adaptation of Remarque's pacifist novel daringly takes a German point of view. following a sensitive young man and his friends who are sent to the front lines of WW1. Realistic in its emotional impact. it is surely one of the greatest anti-war movies ever made. Edinburgh Film Guild. Edinburgh.
Amelie (15) CO... (Jean-Pierre Jeunet. France. 2001) Audrey Tautou. Mathieu Kassovitz. Serge Merlin. 120 mins. As with his two previous French fantasies. Delicatessen and The City Of Lost Children. Jeunet creates a fantastical world. here reimagining Paris' oldest quarter. Montmartre. Within it the eccentric
adventures of his eponymous heroine (played by captivating elfin newcomer Tautou) unfold in a manner as complex as a Swiss timepiece when Amelie decides to bring happiness to deserving people by playing elaborate practical jokes on them. Composed of many moments of absolute wonder. this is a film which celebrates all the little. great things in life. Selected release.
American Pie 2 (15) O. (J. B. Rogers. LS 2001) Jason Biggs. Eugene Levy. Mena Suvari. 105 mins. Despite the fact that the opening scene (featuring
another sexual mishap) will be reassuringly
familiar to fans of the first movie. it is not entirely representative of what is to come. Having gone to college. our horny heroes are made to mature. College comedies. in the tradition ofAnt'mal House and Pnrk_\".s‘. are supposed to be all-out bawdy. brainless fun. The problem with American Pie 2 is that despite the gross-out humour and preoccupation with sex. it is a film which ironically also tries to be responsible and mature — and the twojust don't work together. Selected release.
Amoree Perroe (Love's A Bitch) (18) 00... (Alejandro Gonzalez Irritu. Mexico. 2001) Emilio Echevarria. Gael Garcia Bernal. Goya Toledo. 153 mins. Inarritu‘s debut feature is billed as ‘the Mexican Pulp Fictinn‘. a description which sells it short. The Tarantino comparison is a useful starting point: the film tells three overlapping stories - a teenager drawn into the world of illegal dog-fighting. the infidelity of a middle- aged media executive and an elderly homeless man — by using shifting time- frames. tangentially linked characters and jagged verbal rhythms. Fierce humanity underpins Inarritu's beautiful. grainy visuals and Guillermo Arriaga Jordan's multi-layered script. The best film of the year so far. and unlikely to be surpassed. Filmhouse. Edinburgh.
PREVIEW ALI
Having pointed his directorial lens at cannibalistic serial killers (Manhuntet’), manipulative and vicious tobacco execs (The Insider), designer-stubbled, sockless cops (Miami Vice) and the last of the Mohicans (The Last Of The Mohicans) Michael Mann now portrays the scariest of them all. Born Cassius Clay in 1942, and known universally as The Greatest, Muhammad Ali once threatened to knock Michael Parkinson's block off live on telly. Perhaps it was vengeance upon the UK for spawning Henry Cooper, the first fighter to have Ali's posterior rubbing canvas. Over the course of two and a half hours, Mann turns Will Smith from man in black into lord of the ring. (Brian Donaldson)
LEAVE YOUR PRECONCEPTIONS AT THE DOOR
FILMFOUR
FROM DECEMBER 28 “M” l FROM JANUARY ll 'fl‘li'l“5'3""1"?'."'1' Cl-'5§Kiilli'l§3
, ‘ 07/
1XM]
Ltofflet’
o M
****"H FHBUIDUSIY FEEIEUUU RUMHNTIE RflHl]
@94@%? @490 0
LAB PRESENTS THREE FILMS FROM THE BEST OF NEW BRITISH FILMMAKERS
"I W l N N E R hritish independent film awards
—-———-—-- l‘vl'S'l‘ i‘itosusixo \li\\'L‘O_\llil‘\- BEN WHISHAW -——- -—
“CHARGED, VIVID AND IMPRESSIVE”
Time Out.
**** “A POWERFUL PIECE OF CINEMA ”
Total Film
"THE MOST RETRESHING BRITISH BUMEUY IN BEES"
. ****"5UDE§§_"
From the Director of Galllvant
this filthy
eart
h.
“ANDREW KCTTING
INVENTIVELY CONJURES UP A SINGULAR CINEMATIC UNIVERSE.”
Total Film
A new film by Andrew KOtting
www ltimlmu ( mnnnii
4—‘ 7’ Ja" 2C02 THE LIST 35