Film index

(Rousseau). as well as various lovers. mistresses and devoted friends from the left. Remy. however. wonders whether he has left any meaningful mark on the world. and whether in an era of American hegemony the future now belongs to smug arch-capitalists , such as Sebastien. Writer/ director Arcand‘s follow up to his I986 satire The Decline of the American Empire is a bitter-sweet affair that seeks to acknowledge death and celebrate life. lntermittently dark and painfully funny. UGC Renfrew Street. Glasgow; Ster Century, Edinburgh.

Barton Fink (15) .0”. (Joel Coen. US. l99l ) John Turturro. John Goodman. Judy Davis. Michael Lerner. l l7min. When socially-committed playwright Barton Fink (Turturro) is consigned by the Hollywood machine to write wrestling films. he slumps into a writer‘s block as large as his mysterious next-door neighbour (John Goodman). Unprecedented winner of best film. actor and direction awards at 1991's Cannes Film Festival shows the Coens at their most menacing and absurd best. Cameo. Edinburgh. Belleville Rendez-Vous (12A) mo (Sylvain Chomet. France. 2003) 80min. Diminutive. club-footed Madame Souza prepares her orphaned grandson Champion to be a world-beating cyclist by personally supervising his arduous training regime. But during the mountain stage of the Tour de France. Champion is kidnapped by black- suited men from the French Mafia and whisked across the Atlantic to the city of Belleville. It‘s up to granny and Champion's beloved dog Bruno to perfonn a daring rescue. although they can rely on assistance from the elderly Belleville Sisters. a song-and-dance trio who once perfonned with Fred Astaire. Rather special kooky cartoon from France. that shows Disney the door to real inspiration. Cameo. Edinburgh.

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.0” (Peter Greenaway. UK/ltaly. I987) Brian Dennehy. Chloe Webb. Lambert Wilson. I l8min. Distinguished American architect

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as his health deteriorates. he becomes convinced that his faithless. pregnant wife is trying to poison him. A majestic performance by burly Dennehy adds a brutal. emotional streak to this typically elegant (ireenaway maze. which makes excellent use of sumptuous Roman locations. Edinburgh I’ilm Guild. Edinburgh.

Big Fish (PG) .0. (Tim Bunon. US. 2003) liwan McGregor. Albert Finney. Billy Crudup. Jessica Lange. Alison Lohman.

I l0min. lidward Bloom (Finney) is much loved. but his compulsive yam-spinning has alienated him from his journalist son Will ((‘rudupL whose wedding day lidward upstaged with a typically scene-stealing speech. listranged since then. lidward and

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Will are reunited when the father falls ill and the son retums from Paris. together with his French wife. Josephine (Marion Cotillard) who soon falls for Edward's entertaining mendacity. Will. on the other hand. is determined to find the truth behind his father's slippery fictions. Cue gentle giants. utopian villages full of happy-shiny people. exotic circus performers. cabaret-perfonning conjoined twins and poetry-spouting bank robbers. Unfortunately. the film‘s big moral message is rnawkish and disappointingly conventional. but Burton country is always worth venturing into for a bit. UGC Renfrew Street. Glasgow

The Boy from Mercury (PG) mo (Martin Duffy. UK/France. I996) James Hickey. Rita 'I‘ushingham. Tom Courtney. 87min. Fight-year-old Harry (Hickey) believes he has special powers granted him through his birthplace being Mercury rather than Dublin » a belief boosted by visits to the Saturday moming film club and his lack of a father figure. An irresistible tale of memory. loss and the search for a better future. If you manage to sit through this without wilting into jelly at Hickey‘s painfully innocent performance. then you have the heart of a tyrant. GEE Glasgow The Boy who Play: on the Buddhas oi Bamiyan (PG) (Phil Grabsky. Britain. 2003) 95min. Following the Taliban's destruction of the Buddhas in 200]. 250 refugees fled to Bamiyan's cave and set about rebuilding the treasures. As documented in (irabsky's film. ('f 7/1. Glasgmv.‘ Him/rouse. Edinburgh.

Breaking the Silence (tbc) (John Pilger. UK. 2003) 50min. Subtitled Truth and Lies in the War on 'Iermr, Pilger's most recent film was made for television and investigates the claims made by the Bush govemment. The film features previously unseen material from Iraq. Part of an anti-war activism double bill. GEE Glasgow.

Bugs! 3|) (U) (Mike Slee. UK. 2003) 40min. Dame Judi Dench narrates this giant screen 31) film which focuses on the life cycles of a praying mantis and a butterfly from their birth to their inevitable demise in the tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia. IMAX. Glasgow.

Bye Bye America (Ant Wiedenehen Amerika) (tbc) (Jan Schutte. Gemiany. I993) The story of three emigrants » a Catholic Polish woman. her Jewish husband and his friend - who leave New York after 30 years and travel to Poland via Berlin. Goethe Institut. Glasgow.

Carnage: (IS) on (Delphine Gleize. France/Belgium/Spain/Switzerland. 2004) Chiara Mastroianni. Angela Molina. Lio. l30min. See review. UGC Renfrew Street.

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The Carpenter's Pencil (l5) (Anton Reixa. Spain. 2002) l06min. Based on the best-selling novel by Gallego author Manuel Rivas. the Civil War provides the backdrop for this romantic drama. When Daniel. a politically active young doctor. is arrested for his beliefs. his fiancee. Marisa. dedicates herself to securing her beloved's freedom. GEE Glasgow

Cheaper By the Dozen (PG) 00 (Shawn Levy. US. 2003) Steve Martin. Bonnie Hunt. Piper Perabo. Tom Welling. Hilary Duf. 97min. Tom Baker (Martin) is a football coach who finds himself moving to a big-name job in Chicago while trying to keep his huge family under control when his author wife Kate (Bonnie Hunt) has to go on an unexpected book tour. Another dull. harassed dad comedy from Martin. remade from a I950 Clifton Webb vehicle. General release.

Cold Mountain (l5) .0” (Anthony Minghella. US/Romania. 2003) Jude law. Nicole Kidman. Renee Yellweger. Natalie Portman. Philip Seymour Hoffman. Giovanni Ribisi. Brendan Gleeson. 152mm. lnman (law). is a Confederate soldier who deserts after being gravely wounded in battle and sets off on a perilous trek across the ravaged South to reach his home in the North Carolina mountains. An American Odysseus. he goes through one trail after another. sustained by a yeaming for Kidman's genteel Charleston belle. Ada. with whom he enjoyed a hesitant and chaste courtship before the war. But did Jude and Nicole get it on while filming Anthony Minghella's ()scar gazing adaptation of Charles Frazier‘s popular novel'.’ Like who cares. Selected release.

Comandante (PG) 0.” (Oliver Stone. US/Spain. 2003) 99min. Castro in his own words as Stone watches on. urging him to tell some version of the truth. This fascinating documentary feels a little overloaded at times with Stone‘s usual flourish of tricksy visual effects. This is. however. a rare and compelling portrait of the last true revolutionary. UGC. Edinburgh.

Come and See (18)...” (lilim Klimov. USSR. I987) Alexei Kravchenko. ()lga Mironova. l42min. Klimov‘s epic account of an atrocious Nazi massacre in Byelorussia in 1943 is one of the genuinely great films of the decade. The honific events are seen through the eyes of a young boy (Kravchenko). who ages visibly throughout a remarkable perfonnance. Not simply a meditation on Russian history. but an epic about mankind. at once harrowing and visionary. which demonstrates that film can still take on the most monumental of issues in a serious fashion. Edinburgh Film Guild. Edinburgh.

Comedian (15) em (Christian Charles. US. 2002) 82min. This behind-the- scenes look at Jerry Seinfeld‘s return to stand up comedy turns out to be something much more: a painfully funny look at the glory and suffering of what it means to be a stand-up comic. which follows Seinfeld getting back to his roots. It also follows tortured newcomer ()mey Adams. whose line after coming off stage after a badly received show says it all: ‘That was like monkeys throwing shit.‘. (ii-72 Glasgow

0 Comizi D’Amore (l5) (Pier Paolo Pasolini. Italy. 1964) 92min. The title for Italian director Paolo Pasolini‘s racy documentary translates to ‘A soapbox for sex'. which makes it unsurprising that the film is based entirely around Pasolini‘s interviews with Italians around the country about their opinions on sex. While people are often reluctant to disclose truthful opinions. many seem to be firm in their views. Pasolini‘s own commentary is occasionally interrupted by psychological analyses that qualify his ultimate stance that Italians are hugely confonnist in their attitudes to sex. l-‘ilmhouse. Edinburgh.

Comme une Etolle Filante (tbc) (Francois Koltes. France. l997) 45min. Francois. brother of playwritght Bemard— Marie Koltes. directs this documentary that explores the elementary universals of life as laid out in his sibling‘s work. Institut Francois d 'Eeosse. Edinburgh.

Dawn of the Dead (l8) (Zack Synder. US. 2004) Sarah Polley. Ving Rhames. Jake Weber.Remake of George Romeo‘s l978 zombie classic. scripted by James Gunn (who graduated from trash film factory Trorna to also write Seooby Don and its sequel). The plot remains the same: when North America is overrun by a plague of zombies. a group of survivors hole up in a shopping maul where they‘re besieged by the flesh eaters. The original was a wry commentary on the perils of modem day consumerism. General release.