Film

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I ,1. fail)“, ill/IE ()il PM THE WILD BUNCH

(18) 138min

iWaiiier HUllI‘; Vl’léfl, [)Vl) retaili 0....

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diiituinentarians Ni<tk lieiliiian, Paul Seydoi. (‘zariiei SlllllllDllt. and l)avrd Weddle. ()n dist; tWo there are some never heloieseen outtakes, a feature length liiogiaphy of the legendary diiei tor. featuring mm film clips. intervrews With family and colleagues. narration hy Kris Kristolfeisoii and lllll(‘ltlll()l(?.(pilllll)£1|()l

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LE GRAND VOYAGE

(PG) 102min ll’aiasol Pe(‘(:adillo Releasing DVD retail) 0...

It would take a hell of a lot of DVDs hut if only a (‘opy of lsiiiael l’erioiikhi's tender and genuiner movrng film (T()tl|(l he sent to every single person in the world who still equates the word ‘teiiorist' With the word 'Muslim' . . . Reda (the fantastic Nicholas Caxalel is a yeting French Moroccan lad who spends his days studying for his haecalaurrutte and doing

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iii: cars ‘Nlllt his mates When hif; l)‘./f,‘ll)(}£illlt(_) father lMohainineil Maid) insists that he iliive‘, hurt to Me<,(;a for the pilgrimage. Her la is full of resentment and (ll‘.llll(,‘lf,‘fil. llliillll‘, lieitaiise he has inst started a relationship Wllll a loial girl. But what unfolds; on their travels down through southern [Europe and beyond it; an understanding between a devious hut loVing father and a sulky son. lhis refreshingly uiifoiiiiulated study works heeause it is neither religious propaganda nor [)(llDllllt‘, indeed it was perhaps tieeause of this film's siinpliizities and truths that l erroukhi and his crew were the first to he allowed to film inside Mecca itself. lixtras |ll(3|ll(l() a ()&A With

l erroukhi. (Paul Dale)

l‘ll M NOIH LAURA (PG) 88min ll'ox Home Video DVD retail) 0...

19.1.1 was a Vintage year for film mm. It was the year of Wilder 's Double //l(l(?llillll\‘. Lang's The Woriiari at the ll/iriiloii’. Diiiytiyk's Ftllt,’l'l’t,‘// Mi Love/i' and Otto Premingei 's (lelieioush subversive Laura. Detective Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews) is called to investigate the murder of

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Péi'l- f-M‘IHU“ I". Maul. laiira H .“f if i~'l‘-' Ti(;f'li;'i lli'r iiiil‘ 'll‘ iiiio-f-ti'iniiiii it ‘w [/lit‘,[)f,, fld'l’,“ Eiliwil , (Jaipo'mter ‘V!'l wit l‘w s- and t,()|llllllll‘.sl ‘.'.3ilrt L,'fl"(.k(:l (Jill/1‘ wept Mark twiiii' piw "lit together We .’«'l.'l’)‘l‘~ stiaridt. 'i’ tier i'llr' llw " diami int“i a .w ill ,l l)i:l‘.f:"_.l()l‘ and l’t'Hll" arid slur/h. llll’ i'lllll llf'l diaries and stunniiiii l)f)lll£lll begun: to fall iii love Wllll l aura “it: shook (“ff/zit of a inia'i .'.hii appears to llf‘ the fllf(,f:(l‘)(:fl llf:l()lll“ shatters hit; lll\.'(?.‘)l|kl(illf)ll llll‘, exuellent two lll‘lf edition includes driizuineiitaries. featuiettes and tw<l commentaries tone featuring the film's original (:oinposei [layiil liaskinl.

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ll lllll l l ll THIEVES’ HIGHWAY (12) 91min COO.

Made in 19/19 Tliieve:-;' Highway was one of Jules Rififi Dassin's most interesting American films. A high- octane melodrama about exploitation. extortion and revenge in the San Francrseo fruit markets, the film stars Richard Conte as Ni(:k Gar'eos. an ldBélllSlK‘. WWIl veteran who returns home alter a stint travelling in the Far East to find his father confined to a wheelchair after a run in Willi produce dealer Mike Figlia (Lee J Coho).

Fuelled by a desire for revenge. NICk (:t)iiiiiiaii(le(—2r's his father 's truck and heads for San Fi'aneisco. Through montage and multi-exposure effects. Dassin expertly evokes the perilous nature of

INTERVIEW

INTERVIEW

THE PUPPET MASTERS

Eddie Harrison hangs out with some animators from the mighty Aardman empire.

Meeting big-screen idols in the flesh can be disappointing, but a furtive glimpse up the dress of Lady Campanula Tottington, the oddly attractive love interest from Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-rabbit reveals something rather more disturbing than just liposuction scars or tan-lines. She’s got three legs.

‘Lady Tottington is so tall and thin, and her feet were so small, she ended up top heavy, so we had to give her a third leg, poor love,’ says Robert Horvath, one of the 45 model-makers who worked for over three years on the film. ‘She went through a lot of design changes, including an enormous chest which I think she’s better off without. And there was a lot of debate at the start about whether a female character could be animated better by a woman than by a man.’

Horvath and Dave Alex Riddett, one of Wererabbit’s two directors of photography, are in the thick of a promotional visit to Glasgow, with plasticine models of Wallace, Gromit and Lady Tottington in their suitcase. They handle the characters gently and with reverence, as well they might; the Nick Park/DreamWorks collaboration has already netted over $100m worldwide.

‘Gromit is the only character who is all plasticine, although he does have a metal armature or skeleton inside him. Others, like Wallace, have foam latex legs, which give the same look as plasticine,’ says Horvath.

‘The characters have to be broken down to component parts, and then we create moulds to make kit form versions. Each one has a whole different set of mouths for all the expressions they need. We need so many different versions because we have to use multiple sets and locations; we can only get three seconds of film a day on each set.’

The two-disc DVD reveals just how laborious the shooting process was, and shows how new scenes were created at the last minute to help explain Wallace and Gromit’s history to an American audience.

‘The opening scene was originally to be a track through the forest into the town, but we were worried that Americans wouldn’t understand that Wallace and Gromit were actually friends, because Wallace doesn’t always treat Gromit very well,’ says Riddett. So we create a new opening where the camera pans along pictures on the wall of their history together, and that also introduces the key element of Wallace’s fixation with cheese.’

I Wallace <9 Gromit: The Curse of the Were-rabbit l3 out now on DVD (Universal).

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50 THE LIST it; 30 Mai 3006