Film
Reviews
ADVENTURE
THE THIEI= OF BAGHDAD
(U) 106min (NOT/JOY? f‘:I£I|li OOOO
Two decades fiefore Ray Harryhausen's The /'t/i Voyage of Srrrfmd
lovers. the sir/0rd and sorcery adventures were being realised on the silver screen under the all seeing eye of London-based movie mogul Alexander KOrda. f/larshallrng some of the finest craftspeOple working in wartime British cinema — most
an arwe-rnsprrmg adventure “with ther‘ grOundhreakrng spectai effects .‘Jthti. amazingly. hold up todayi that hasn't been Surpassed for its sense of .‘rdrider and undiluted romanticrsn‘i. Not bad for a production that was forced to close
notahly one of the film's three directors. Michael Powell — Korda created
during the Blitz and re- start in Hollywood with a new crew.
rndelrhly imprinted the Arahran Nights fantasies upon the minds of film
If
r r.
\Yt?’ ff-i'f
IN I ERVIEW THE MAFIA’S MARINA
To mark the 25th anniversary release of the greatest British gangster film ever made Martin Howden goes for a boat ride with director John Mackenzie.
In The Long Good Friday, Harold Shand (Bob Hoskins) takes a group of businessman on a luxury yacht over the Thames to entice them to invest in his scheme to develop the run down Docklands area. With Tower Bridge looming behind him, Shand holds his audience’s reluctant gaze and starts to speak. ‘Ladies and gentlemen. I’m not a politician; I’m a businessman with a sense of history. I’m also a Londoner. Our country is not an island anymore. We’re a leading European state. I believe this is a decade where London will become Europe’s capital. Having cleared away the outdated, we’ve got mile after mile, acre after acre of land for our prosperity.
‘No other city has got right in its centre such an opportunity for profitable progress, so it’s important the right people mastermind the new London.’
Twenty-five years later and The List is granted an audience with The Long Good Friday director John Mackenzie (pictured) on the same boat ride that Shand took. His words ended up being extremely prophetic, where once the London docks were desolation, now stands skyscrapers, luxury houses and renovated warehouses.
‘We actually made the film before Thatcher came to power but there was a feeling in the air. A really strong feeling. It was like “We want to make money man”,’ laughs Mackenzie.
‘In a strange way, I sort of liked Harold’s idea about the Docklands because this was a devastated area. This used to be a thriving port and it finally seemed that people were going to do something about it. Even if there was crockery and a lot of people were going to be cheated. It was just the fact that there was going to be an energy about the place.’
Does he hold the same belief for his native city Glasgow? “I have heard that there are going to be big changes on the harbour side area. It’s inevitable really. It’s a great city in its own right but it needs to keep up with today. It’s inevitable that the quayside was going to change. I think we live in a different time where change is not seen as a bad thing. The miner’s strike and things like that are gone. We live in an entrepreneurial society where as long as people get work they are happy.’
The Long Good Friday may be a compelling time capsule of Britain in the late 705/early 805, a time when the IRA plagued the capital and Thatcher’s reign was in it’s terrible infancy but its dialogue still crackles with a prescient wry observation and lashings of irony. Mackenzie agrees: ‘There is religion, corruption, politics and terrorism all in there. It was mainly the terrorist one though that I like. It’s an intriguing one. How can you fight a war against terrorists. We’re still asking that. We talked to the IRA in the end and we’ll have to talk to today’s terrorists as well.’
I The Long Good Friday 25th Anniversary Edition is released Mon 78 Sep.
.,.\ Loud
'32» OCIeor
3'1...‘:T;ll51' : 1" RAGE-A13 I‘x ‘. \ ' I
Q33: ‘
. e I. “J?
Conrad Verdt makes for a rnasterfui .rllarn. and Sal‘iu a marvellous. titular hero. The set pieces. including the giant genre set free from his hottle, are tr’(:rrr(‘:rid0us And if the frlrn comes across as very pink on hindsight. then that's less to do With gueer crnema‘s re readings and more to do With the sheer lore de vrvre that permeates this once in a lrfetrrne production. Sadly. the only extra rs the original trailer. (Miles Fielderl
HORROR THREE . . . EXTREMES (18) 121 min lTartan DVD retarl‘i .0.
This 2004 anthology of Asran horror allows three directors from across the continent to showcase their capacity for creating extreme content. The wonderfully named Fruit Chan weighs in wrth the queasy Dump/rngs. which has since been expanded into a feature film. The Hong Kong director gurte literally pushes at the b0undarres of taste. yOu may never eat Dim Sum again after this nasty little rnorsel. Next is Park Chan-wook's beautiful Cut. every frame is intricately constructed. the horror shot in gorgeous. crisp Technicolor.
L) T" ‘13.“ "t b t.‘.' K\\ ' t" Il'f ‘ . I ‘I "‘t t1' .2 l. ' ' t‘t ' tTK‘fi' . it I": .
ll'hitt‘fi ’ " ’ '. ‘ 'd. IW‘K' .1" ‘ft ' T’R‘i ‘ ‘ 9i- '1"?‘».i":%'a0°it‘t‘. F ".3: f'ie'e‘s Jar ans“ .'.'t
M‘W' 4ster TININI'V; 8!” 3.15:-
l.\ t'rt
"T Still" :lii‘ti“.
‘t'tITV‘. t‘.Itl.“r yth}
TIME» t'il‘fn‘t‘ RIVER] .i‘.
a sir3.'.e'. in re considered pace, its fitl'ltall 3'
wage". .Ii'hI flashhacks ,ux’. lead tt‘ tirintusri lI‘ for the "rust part honaexe' this s The hartlttcre eririrmler‘t .it It“? n'w'tix'r"? .'.rtt‘ .i ‘.r<trt;us. t‘fItFI‘tgii t.'.rs‘.
rf‘lerrr‘, Northr'rhrt-i
sor r coat
COL Lit; l ti“ YN DAVID HAMILTON BOXSET
(18) 242mm
iJeff DVD retarli 0..
j/EM'
//(/ml'///m/
In the late 70s and early 80s. London socrehy photographer DEI‘.’I(I Hamilton turned his hand to filmmakrng and directed a couple of soft focus impressionistic sex dramas. Hrs three best known films, which are featured in this hoxset -- Br/rt/s. Laura and Summer /ri St Tr‘ope/ — are beautifully rriounted if occasionally tedious. very French tales of sexual enlightenment at the hands of sexual sophisticates. Hamilton's entire oeuvre the made Six films in all and has not made anything since 1984i seems to exrst purer to spark the question ‘is if art Or is rt pornograpfiy?‘ But get beyond that and Br/rtrs and Laura in particular ithe first of which was written by future French auteur terrible Catherine Brerllati are like time capsLiles from a pre- Boog/e Nights age
r it‘ ' ..r".r" I ’t"t hi I‘
st \- ties. I AM CURIOUS YELLOW/I AM CURIOUS BLUE (18) 220mm
ant [WIT fair 0...
inn-unions
release of direr tt ir \Jilxrr it Siornan's sicrnrrta' sexplrirtatrtin rnii'.ri- l'r .'.r.'i"l Iii his I)frr(Ill(Zt:l and asked for ll)f)_l)(rtr .rretres tit
lilack and ‘.'.‘I‘li‘- trim and
lilfif‘iESyirriari
total treedrirri tri 'rrakw a frlrrr wrthout a script
The result .‘Jas two S\.'.‘(:(IITSII set frlrn‘; / ar'r (Lu/roof; Yel/or'. and / arr: (Jo/roof. B/oe ithe colours srgnrf‘, the Swedish fladi (ficdardrarr. ‘,
Ilium: 'er frank explorations of one worrian's sexual adventures iB/ue is actually lust a more politically prescient re edit of ‘r’e//o‘.‘.’i are sorriethrng cf a mirror Joy in retrospect. Dominated by 1 mm Nyrrian's warrrr. ferocious and lira/e performance as the young drama student at the centre of things. her role seerrrs to he to guestron everything from the state of socralrsrii in Sweden rat the timer to the conditions necessary for sexual equality. It is an iconic performance. in an iconic and still very sexy frlm. Interesting extras tell this fascinating film's hackstory. Recommended for minor pen/s. (Paul Dale)
ALL DVDS WERE REVIEWED ON A SYSTEM SUPPLIED AND INSTALLED BY LOUD & CLEAR
46 THE LIST 7—21 Sep 2006