Cassavetes with his mother Gena Rowlands on the set of The Notebook
INTERVIEW
THE CHEERLEADER DIRECTOR
Son of a cinematic god, filmmaker and actor NICK CASSAVETES talks about his new film The Notebook. Interview by Kaleem Aftab.
‘I was all set to do another film and when that fell through, the script for The Notebook landed on my lap. I remember reading it and thinking, there is no way in a million years that I ever planned to do a big old-fashioned love story, but I connected with the material and the singularity of love, so I thought I’m going to do this film.
After I read the script, I then went and read Nicholas Sparks’ novel and I tried to stay pretty close to it. Let’s not bullshit - this is like a Harlequin romance that maybe has a little teeth at the end and says something nice. This film is like the nice version of my earlier film, She’s So Lovely. It is like deciding to do one film for yourself and one film for them. It is not the worst thing in the world having people say, “what a nice film he’s made”. The She’s So Lovely crowd just wanted to shout at me.
John Q I made for my daughter who has heart problems and although I did not make this for her she’s now 17 and tells me ‘Ryan Gosling is hot’. That’s what I get out of it. Also working with younger actors, particularly Rachel Adams, is different because they don’t know how good they can be. It makes the director more of a cheerleader. I think it helped that I am a mediocre actor too, because I can understand the problems they go through.’
I The Notebook is on selected release from Fri 2:3 Jun. See revrew. page 28.
PERIOD THRILLER THE CAT’S MEOW (12A) 114min on
After three years on the shelf and several TV appearances. Peter The Last Picture Show Bogdanovich's film of Steven Peros' play is somewhat tardy in reaching our cinema screens. But with star Eddie lzzard travelling around Britain to promote it and Kirstin Dunst gracing every magazine possible in a Spiderman 2 media frenzy. it would be nice to think they'll get some kind of audience for this intelligent. occasionally incisive take on Hollywood mores.
In a story based on true events.
Lia , [IT/lib;
She’s got Marion Davies eyes
implicates them all. Although no one knows exactly what
COMEDY CLUB DREAD (15) 103min 00
In an age when most American teen comedies are ale-guaffing beer monster movies. Broken Lizard's bong-toking return to the days of Cheech and Chong makes a refreshing change. Not content with besmirching the good name of law enforcement in Super Troopers. Club Dread sees the comedy troupe take on Scream and / Know What You Did Last Summer with their typically deadpan brand of irreverent stoner humour. On Paradise Island. a machete-wielding maniac is attacking holidaymakers at Coconut Pete's resort for kids who just wanna have fun in the sun. As the bodies piles up and a bevy of botox beauties scream their bikinis off. it's left to the camps hapless counsellors (Broken Lizards quintet of Jay Chandrasekhar. Kevin Heffernan. Steve Lemme. Paul Soter
enoss COMEDY EUROTRIP (15) 90min on
From the producers of Road Trip
comes a not so different concept. The trouble for Scott (Scott Mechlowicz) is that his internet lover lives in Berlin. so
he has to take a circuitous route around Europe just so the filmmakers can feature every national stereotype under the sun. Some are funny. including a Vinny Jones cameo as a
Manchester United hooligan. Basically
this is pretty lame but if you like soft
Film
Broken Lizard go up in smoke
and Erik Stolhanske) to work out who the killer is while trying to stay straight. When the comedy hits the mark. it's funny enough: the live action game of Pac Man with a DJ playing the game's original seiind effects and the man who confesses to having sex with a goat while claiming 'We were just a couple of stupid kids' are inspired. But for the most part the gags — like the drugs — just don‘t work.
(Jamie Russell)
I General release from Fri 02 Jul.
P
A.» . ' Corn beefeater comedy
core jokes about breasts. booze and stoopid behaviour. Eurotrip will not
disappoint. (Kaleem Aftab) I General release from Fri 25 Jun.
GOTHIC THRILLEB THE FLOWER OF EVIL (15) 104min COO
Degenerate savages' is how a poison-pen letter describes the Charpin-Vasseur clan — an upper middle-class Bordeaux family with more than its fair share of dark secrets. The politically ambitiOLis mother (Nathalie Baye) and philandering businessman father (Bernard Le Coq) married one another after their respective sp0uses died in the same car crash. Aunt Line (Suzanne Flon) was implicated in the killing of her Nazi-supporting father who ordered the death of his own son. while grown-up step-siblings and COUSlnS Francois (Benoit Magimel) and Michele (Melanie Deutey). reunited after a (Our year separation. are now lovers.
Director Claude Chabrol. a veteran of some 50 films. is on familiar territory. dispassionately revealing the hypocrisies and corruptions of the bourgeoisie and sardonically observing how patterns of behaviour are compulsively repeated through the generations. Yet although it begins with a camera prowling through a c0untry house and with the discovery of a corpse. the digressive The Flower of Evil shows little concern with thriller conventions or with the interior psychology. as Chabrol is content to simply push his characters around like pieces on a chess
board. (Tom Dawson) I Selected release from Fri 2 Jul.
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I/xard plays Charlie Chaplin. an ageing lothario keen to take Marion Davies (Dunst) as his next conquest. Standing in his way is her Sugar-daddy. newsiiaper mogul WR Hearst (Edward Herriiiann). who would later provide the model for Citizen Kane. A weekend break on Hearst's yacht brings tension to boiling ponit. and one of their party is killed. prompting a cover up that
went on aboard the tycoon's boat. this is an entertaining conjecture which accuses pretty much everyone of complicity. An Agatha Christie mystery in which. as in Murder on the Orient Express. everyone shares the guilt. The Cat's Meow is a spiky. if unexciting return to form for Bogdanovich.
(Eddie Harrison)
I OH. Glasgow from Fri 2:3 Jun.
” immaterial At home with the Charpin-Vasseurs
24 Jun-8 Jul 2004 THE LIST 27