Film

Films screening this fortnight are listed below with certificate, star rating, credits, brief review and venue details. Film index compiled by Paul Dale

The Adventures of Arsene Lupin (15) see (Jean-Paul Salome. France/ltaly/Spain/Britain. 2004) Romain Duris. Kristin Scott Thomas. Pascal Greggory. Eva Green. l25min. This dark. sexy. violent and loopy high budget romp is a welcome altemative to the generic comic book Hollywood action films. A womanising French gentleman jewel thief (Duris) and master of disguise teams up with femme-fatale Josephine (Thomas) in an irnprobably omate fantastical drama which mixes stolen crucifixes and magical powers. Cameo, Edinburgh.

Ah, my Voiceless Friends (Aa koenaki tomo) (15) ( lmai Tadashi. Japan. 1972) Kiyoshi Atsumi. Koji Moritsugu. Kazuo Kitamura. 106mm. Presented by the Glasgow University Japanese Society. this film is about a Japanese comrade who goes on a mission to deliver a set of wills belonging to his fellow soldiers. Part of EU—Japan 2005 People-to-People Exchange Year. Glasgow Film Theatre. Glasgow.

American Beauty (18) see (Sam Mendes. US. I999) Kevin Spacey. Annette Bening. Thora Birch. l2lmin. Suburban husband and father Lester Bumham (Spacey. giving a career best performance) hates his life. but a close encounter with his daughter's gorgeous school friend is the catalyst for big time self improvement: he quits his job. digs out his old rock albums and scores marijuana from the kid next door. And these teenage kicks return to Lester what's been missing from his life for years: pleasure and happiness. ()(leon A! The Quay. Glasgow. Glasgow.

Anna Karenina (PG) eeee (Clarence Brown. US. I935) Greta Garbo. Basil Rathbone. Frederic March. 95min. ()pulent variation on Tolstoy in the best- upholstered 30s‘ MGM style. with Garbo typically radiant in the title role and Rathbone pitching in one of his finest studies in suave villainy as Count Vronsky. Glasgow Film Theatre. Glasgow

Bad Santa (15) .0“ (Terry Zwigoff. US/Germany. 2003) Billy Bob Thornton. Tony Cox. Brett Kelly. Lauren Graham. Bernie Mac. 91min. Wickedly funny movie about a pair of con men posing as Santa and his elf in order to rob department stores. Thomton's Father Christmas. a foul-mouthed. womanising drunk named Willie T Stokes. is a work of comic genius whose consistently shocking catalogue of crimes and misdemeanours includes arriving inebriated; pissing his pants with a child sitting on his lap; and indulging his penchant for anal sex with big black women. It‘s a comic refrain that generates belly laughs thick and fast throughout the shortish film‘s running time. Don‘t bring your kids to this one. Cameo. Edinburgh.

Mon 72 Dec 7:30pm

ON A CLEAR DAY (12A)

C uppa /scream

Tickets and further information from The Steeple Box office

(Tel: 01324 506850)

or on the day from the hall

54 THE LIST 1—15 Dec 2005

Sepa'atelies

Also released this fortnight is actor/writer and producer Julian Gosford Park Fellowes’ directorial debut. A tale of marital infidelity in the heart of Daily Mail country, this boasts

very fine performances from Rupert Everett, Tom Wilkinson and Emily Watson. I Clnewor/d Renfrew Street, Glasgow (from Fri 2 Dec).

Big Fish (PG) 0.. (Tim Burton. US. 2003) Ewan McGregor. Albert Finney. Billy Crudup. Jessica Lange. Alison Lohman. l l0min. Edward Bloom (Finney) is much loved. but his compulsive yam- spinning has alienated him from his journalist son Will (Crudup). whose wedding day Edward upstaged with a typically scene-stealing speech. Estranged since then. Edward and Will are reunited when the father falls ill and the son returns 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 perfonners. cabaret-performing conjoined twins and poetry—spouting bank robbers. Unfortunately. the film's big moral message is mawkish and disappointingly conventional. but Burton country is always worth venturing into for a bit.

Gilmorehil l G I 2 . Glasgow.

Brigadoon (PG) 0. (Vincente Minnelli. US. 1954) Gene Kelly. Cyd Charisse. Van Johnson. 108mm. Two yanks on vacation in Scotland discover a sleepy village that comes alive once every hundred years. Rather flat and uninvolving Minnelli musical. especially in comparison with his other 50s work. with the unconvincing (and unintentionally hilarious) Scots background the main problem. GilnrorelzillG/Z. Glasgow. Broken Flowers (15) 00” (Jim Jarmusch. US. 2005) Bill Murray. Sharon Stone. Jessica Lange. Jeffrey Wright. Tilda Swinton. Julie Delpy. 88min. Don (Murray) receives an anonymous letter from one of his former girlfriends claiming that the son he never knew he had has left home and may be heading his way. At the insistence of his friend Winston (Wright) he sets off on fly and drive adventure across the country to visit each of his five exes to discover the truth behind the scarlet missive. With Broken Flowers Jarmusch returns with ease to the spare. minimalist charm of his very earliest work. The result is a tender. perplexing joy. Cameo, Edinburgh.

The Brothers Grimm (12A) eeee (Terry Gilliam. Czech Republic/US. 2005) Matt Damon. Heath Ledger. Mackenzie Crook. Peter Stormare. Jonathan Price.

1 18min. In French occupied Germany supernatural hoaxers Will and Jack Grimm (Damon and Ledger) are making a good living until the French authorities catch up with them. To save their skins. the brothers are forced to go to Marbaden to break a real curse on the town which seems to be emanating from the local enchanted forest. Terry Gilliam invests this wildly unpredictable. free wheeling and riotously imaginative long cherished project with all the primitive ingenuity he can muster. A fitting return for most abused and uncompromising of filmmakers. (‘ineti'orld Renfrew Street. Glasgow Glasgow.

The Burmese Harp (Biruma no tategoto) (l5) (Kon lchikawa. Japan. 1956) Rentaro Mikuni. Shoi Yasui. Jun Hamanura. l33min. A group of Japanese soldiers find it difficult to surrender from the Burma from. In trying to persuade them that their death serves no purpose. Shoji Yasui. the principal character. makes his way back to the platoon dressed as a Buddhist monk. A story where spirituality meets the brutality of war. Part of EU—Japan 2005 People-to-People Exchange Year. Glasgow Film Theatre. Glasgow.

Cabaret ( 15) 0.... (Bob Fosse. US. [972) Liza Minelli. Joel Grey. Michael York. l24min. ln divinely decadent early l930s Berlin. singer Sally Bowles wows them at the notorious Kit Kat Klub. encounters the beginnings of Nazism and shares her pretty English boyfriend with a gay baron. Stylish and invigorating Broadway musical turned Oscar-winning

Check out the

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I cinematic landmark. A World AIDS Day

charity screening. Film/rouse. Edinburgh. Carmen (L') C. (Francesco Rosi. Italy/France. 1984) Julia Migenes-Johnson. Placido Domingo. Ruggiero Raimondi. 152min. Beautifully visual and excellently performed film record of Bizet‘s classic operatic tale. in which two men are bewitched and destroyed by a dangerously sensual gypsy woman. Part of Rosi Season. Film/rouse. Edinburgh.

Chicken Run (U) 00 (Nick Park/Peter Lord. UK. 2000) Voices of Mel Gibson. Julia Sawalha. Miranda Richardson. 85min. For its first feature Aardrnan studios has re-written the WWII POW experience as an ()rwellian satire. albeit with laughs. So. Stalag 17 becomes a battery farm and the camp commandant farmer Tweedy‘s domineering wife. while in the hutches. Ginger rallies her fellow hens to fly their coop. Though the characters aren't as established as Wallace and Gromit and the feature length running time slows the action. For Aardrnan this is very half baked. Cameo. lidinlmrgh. Chronicle of a Death Foretold ( 15) see (Francesco Rosi. ltaly/France/ Columbia. 1987) Rupert Everett. ()rnella Muti. Gian Maria Volonte. Irene Papas.

1 10min. A powerful tragedy set in rural Columbia which unfolds with hypnotic splendour. ()n the night of his wedding to local girl ()rnella Muti. the handsome northemer Rupert Everett discovers that she is not a virgin. Her family will not let the matter rest and beat out of her the name of her lover who is promptly dispatched by her brothers in the name of the family honour. A beautiful. absorbing and faithful adaptation Gabriel Garcia Marquez's powerful novel of Latin machismo and revenge. Part of Rosi season. Film/muse. Edinburgh.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (PG) 0 (Andrew Adamson. l'S. 2005) Georgie Henley. William Moseley. Skandar Keynes. James McAvoy. Ray Winstone. Dawn French. Tilda Swinton. 125mm. See Big Picture. page 15 and review. page 51. General release.