Film
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Reviews
SEX DRAMA Night Perter can be THE NIGHT bundled in With PORTER Visconti's The Damned.
(18) 1 15min (Anchor Bay UK DVD retail) 0000
Bertolucci's The Conform/st. Wertmuller's Seven Beauties. Tinto Brass's Salon Kitty and Pasolini's Sa/o as perverse exorcrsms of a post-war generation. In Liliana Cavani‘s film. Dirk Bogarde's titular porter is determined to stay in
This notorious 1974 film about a Holocaust surVivor who. years later. becomes infatuated With one of the Nazrs who terrorised her in the camps was iust one of a
number that attempted to deal With the after-
CLASSIO TELEVISION
THE MONKEES: SEASONS 1 & 2 (PG)/(12) 847/721 min
(Warner Music Vision) no
Nothing cripples the nostalgia-glands more than revisiting a beloved TV favourite from a distance of twenty years. Discovering that The Monkees isn’t as good as you remember is a depressing rites-of-passage through which every adult must pass in order to fully understand the treacheries of life.
Released to coincide with the band’s 40th anniversary, The Monkees TV show, unlike their enduring music, only really works today as a late 60's artefact. Devised by hipster Hollywood brats Bert Schneider and Bob Rafelson (the team that would go on to make the psychedelic Monkees movie Head and Five Easy Pieces), the show capitalised on the success of the Beatles movies, with the pre-fab four (Micky, Mike, Peter and Davy) embroiled each week in a self-consciously wacky melange of cinema trickery and spoof. Season one episodes are virtually interchangeable, with the boys menaced each week by a bunch of hammy character actors, while Davy falls in love and everyone runs around a lot. Season two is better, as psychedelia takes over, plots get looser, and the show begins to heavily de-construct itself, culminating in the bizarre Mickey Dolenz- directed episode The Frodis Caper in which our heroes are menaced by a six foot reefer from outer space.
Although hippies sneered at the time, the Monkees were the first to bring Ionghair and counter-culture values into prime time. Take that and party, America. As season two progressed, the drug and anti-war references grew more obvious, the Monkees disdain for the whole project more apparent, and the show became a lot more enjoyable as a result. Sadly, they came to pieces with the abysmal post-series TV special 33 and a third Revolutions per Monkee, included here as an extra (with an appalled commentary from Dolenz), and worth watching only as an example of bloated psychedelic hubris.
The music is still phenomenal, though, some of the 60’s best, and the proto-video ‘romps’ are the highlight of any episode. Ironically for a band vilified in their time as being takes, it is for their music The Monkees will be remembered rather than this only occasionally inspired period piece.
(Paul Whitelaw) IOut now on Region 2 only DVD.
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46 THE LIST 21 Sep—5 Oct 2006
the ShadOWS working ir‘ 8 Venice hotel Destiny of c0urse intervenes when ll‘. walks Charlotte Ramblings still young and beautiful Lucia In his autobiography Bogarde referred to the soript as 'a terrible mess', but in places also ‘pretty marvellous This didactic and the dynamic between Bogarde and Rampling makes the film still worth seeking out. Extras include interViews With Cavani and Rampling. (Tony McKrbbinI
SPORT HISTORY ONCE IN A LIFETIME (15) 95min (Pathe DVD retail) 0..
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When you think of the US and football, you might conjure up images of Diana Ross inadvertently destroying goalposts during the 1994 World Cup opening ceremony or the US being horsed by Iran four years later. but whatever you think of. it's likely to include inglorious failure. The legacy of the mid-70$ project to have US football (the non- helmeted kind) challenge the hegemony of baseball and American football (the helmeted kind) may be a credible national team but assembling the New York Cosmos was not without its blood-letting. This entertaining but scrappy documentary shows us endless footage of Pele. Beckenbauer and the others enticed to finish their careers playing in front of often half-full arenas alongside team mates who knew next to nothing about the game. Diverting extras include the failure of the producers to get
87“.‘.‘.l‘£>rz? nea' Pele ‘0' an ll‘.Ie'\:e‘.'. and the brief tale of the Haitian side .'.ho were due to with the Cosmos but disappeared. hating used the \lSli to escape their homeland
iBrian Donaldson
CRIME DRAMA
IN A MAN’S WORLD
(15) 76min
(Slam Dunk Media DVD retaill O.
.5
. MI (MN? WUHLU
OK. first things first: In a Man's World is not a very good film, but it is interesting one for a number of reasons. Aberdonian writer/director Lee Hutcheson's debut feature is a stilted. ultra low budget cross of Goodfe/las. Sleepers and Shane Meadows Dead Man's Shoes set in the underbelly of Aberdeen's streets where cocaine. gangsterism and casual violence is common. Intriguingly. the main thread of the film follows the at first fun. and then tragic. shenanigans of a bunch of young kids Malki (Nico Hutcheson). Mincy (Robert McCaIpine). Franky (Callum Leiperl and Jinxsy (Connor Skully). It's all pretty hokey. cliched stuff. Willi the director pulling everything out of the bag from maudlin VOIceOvers, repetitive Slow motion and ridiculous indie tunes on the soundtrack. Yet the film is commendable in that it utilises a underused location. boasts a great young cast and is clearly made With a brutal honesty and grit that has been missmg from Scottish Cinema of late. DeSpite being a complete mess. In a Man '3 World still augers well for
Hotc'test‘“ who. t" a It". o’ se’t tt‘::\"t‘|rl‘ie. could ss’. t‘et‘oine a" exciting \ou‘e ll‘ Celtic cinema Loads at .Iot‘ul‘i‘er‘ta", extras iRauI liaiei
ROMANCE
(15) 97min Tartan DVD refa ‘\ 0...
films set III or anion.) art schools are still something of a I.Illi\ although Ierr\ .'i.~.igolf':; fill School Contilenfrai should be touching down soiiietiriie in .‘tt‘i‘i'i so it's soriii-tliiiig of a shame that D‘.l.lll HUMOR! [)tltltlt‘l KHIILS second feature never got a proper theatrical release in this t‘ountn A kind of anti supernatural ‘supernatural roriianci-r‘ in which ageing art school administrator Louise Harrington (laur‘a I inneyI re riieets someone who seems to be a younger reincarnation of a preVIous long dead lover (Toplier (‘iracel when he enrols at Columbia University. Kidd's spiky. knoWirig screenplay adapted from Helen Shulman's novel contains many subtle delights. insights and delicious or ie-Iriiers concerning the nature of truth, perspective. ageing. huriiiliation, betrayal and addiction. It is. however. in Liniiey that Kidd seems to have really caught a break: she works so hard to make the audience see the other characters through the protagonists eyes it really is quite remarkable a a performance of rare skill and lack of vanity. Ilie thinking woman's Ghost; highly recommended. Miniirial extras. (Paul Dale)
ALL DVDS WERE REVIEWED ON A SYSTEM SUPPLIED AND INSTALLED BY LOUD 8. CLEAR