Reviews
HUHAL DRAMA BLINDED
(15) 88min (Guerilla Films DVD retail) .0.
There are few young English actresses these days who can do teary grief better than Jodhi May and there can't be many Scottish actors of any age who do internalised rage to the standards Peter Mullan can attain. And, though this is pure speculation. can there be a Dane to touch Anders W Berthelsen for his ability to reach high levels of rugged Scandic mystery?
Despite the obvious talents on show, B/inded's turns and revelations can be seen a mile off. While the film (whose DVD extras are limited to a commentary headed up by writer/director Andrea Gibb) is well-paced. there's a horrible predictability to the events' course as mysterious backpacker Mike falls in love with the tearful Rachel whose country life with the raging Francis is miserable in the extreme. Those folk able to guess the Sixth Sense twist before the opening credits have rolled will have no problem sussing this ending. round about the time of discovering how Francis lost his sight. (Brian Donaldson)
TV COMEDY
THE COMEDIANS: THE VERY BEST OF SERIES ONE (PG) 90min
(Network DVD retail) 0
Armed with the whitest collection of toothy smiles Since the
Osmonds split up. and (;£3TF‘,/lll(J more gags than a Middle East kidnapper (,‘(fllVOrlllOll ican't yOu Just feel the irony?) The Corned/ans went from barnstorming the grim northern working men's clubs of the early 708 to upsetting those who prefer their humour. well. humorous. It may claun to be 'the very best” of the ITV stand-up show. but I wouldn't subject my fat mother-in-law to an hour and a half of
this torment.
Aside from a rash of homophobia, most of the crass material has been excised from this collection, though the most offenswe thing is that anyone could ever have found this drivel funny (still, some of the ‘comics' have absolute conviction in their own genius). The DVD extra features one hilarious wag. the stuttering Ken Goodwin, in a fly-on- the-wall year-in-the- hilarious—life of documentary which makes The Office look like Shoah.
(Brian Donaldson)
EROTIC ADVENTURE GWENDOLINE (18) 100mins (Nucleus DVD retail) 0
This mid-eighties adaptation of John Willie's erotic comic strip is about as clunky a big- budget erotica is likely to get. Directed by Just (Emmanuel/e, The Story
of Oi Jaeckin. and starring \‘VleICSflakél video gal Tawny Kitaer‘v. the film is basically in two halves The first follows Kitaen and her friend. Zabou. stowaways hiding out on a ship travelling to the Far East. who find themselves being reluctantly helped on arrival by a hunky adventurer (Brent Huff). The second takes the three of them to Yek Yeik. a strange land where a cruel matriarch rules over a culture of leather-thonged beauties. Kitaen wants to find out what happened to her father. who mysteriously disappeared while searching for a mythical butterfly in the region. With truly terrible dialogue. acting that totally lacks conViction. and a directorial tone that is course and leering. Jaeckin. like Tinto Brass with Caligula, fails to create an erotic universe despite the budgetary freedom. Ham-fisted indeed. Extras include Just Jaeckin featurette. (Tony McKibbin)
ADVENTURE
MAN FRIDAY (PG) 109mins (Network DVD retail) .0.
This likeable. 708 PC reworking of Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe opens with a barking mad. God- fearing Peter O'Toole coming into contact with some natives who land on his island. Shooting all but one of them dead. and thus saving their sows. O'Toole then tries to do his best. less Violently. with Man Friday. Of course. what we witness is Man Friday's wisdom against
INTERVIEW
PIMPS, HOOKERS AND PE
TTY THUGS
As the brilliant Pusher Trilogy is released on DVD, writer/director Nicolas Winding Refn talks about the making of a modern crime epic.
‘After completing Pusher in 1995, I had no interest in continuing with the films or the characters. I guess I really wanted to make more experimental films. I made two of these [Bleeder and Fear X], but ended up with a huge debt, which forced me to re-think my life, and I decided to do Pusher2 and Pusher 3 back to back to pay my debt off. I never believed that I would be very pleased with them, but it turned out very differently, and I think they are the best films I've done so far.
‘I cast all my films mostly from walking around the streets, as I am far more interested in characters than actors. However when it comes to playing the lead I cast actors. Kim Bodnia had obtained some fame in Denmark before making Pusher, whereas Mads Mikkelsen and Zlatko
Buric were what I would classify as discoveries.
‘I don’t see the Pusher films being about violent men, but about people in a violent environment. I saw Mean Streets when I was nine, and Goodfellas when I was 23, and both films made a huge impression on me for different reasons. I am very honoured by the comparisons, but the three films I either stole from or inspired me to make the trilogy were: Pontecorvo's The Battle of Algiers, Cassavettes’ The Killing of a Chinese Bookie and Friedkin’s The French Connection.
‘In all my films there’s always one scene that is the centre of the whole movie, but if I tell you which ones they were I would have to kill you.’ I The Pusher Tn'logy is available now from Momentum Pictures.
Crusoe's prejudice. and the film inverts all the stereotypes of white man‘s superiority over the black. In the process. however, it doesn't really ask the sort of searching. complex, raCial questions that anthropologist Margaret Mead and writer James BaIdWin offer in their fascinating 70s book on race relations. A Rap on Race that could almost be this film's companion piece.
Nevertheless. Adrian Mitchell's script and Jack Gold's direction are very competent. and this is effective. usefully simplified material that could help school-kids get to grips With the SUDJBCI of race relations. Minimal extras.
(Tony McKibbin)
SCI-Fl DRAMA
THE MAN WHO COULD WORK MIRACLES
(U) 82min
(Network DVD retail) .0
Drai')er's aSSistant George Fotheringay (Roland Young) discovers that he has been bestowed With secret powers which allow him to play around With light and make tigers appear in a yicar's
fireplace. though why he
doesn't use his talent to prevent people calling him 'yOung man' when he's pushing 50 is the greatest mystery. Soon enough, those who Wish to stop him in his tracks and Wield his newaund ability for their own causes make his life a misery.
This 1936 film based
ALI. DVDS WERE REVIEWED ON A SYSTEM SUPPLIED AND INSTALLED BY LOUD 8: CLEAR
5""
on one of HG Wells' lesser tales boasts dialogue that is Jaw- droppingly bad and there's more ()\.’(,‘f*€j(,‘llll(l than in the World Cups group stages. Only a pleasantly potty shoWing from Ralph Richardson as a whisky-sodden, trigger- happy Colonel drags this out of the mawkish mire. Not a DVD extra in Sight.
(Brian Donaldson)
22 Jun-6 Jul 2006 THE LIST 47