Film
Maggie NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
(15) 122mm 00.0
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sets I)? a chain o‘ ever‘ti. fl‘a’ tea/in Chigurh '[fl/fll’xlll‘i’lfll Silllr'l’. Janet Barrlerni a ps/rghr, Klllffl .‘rrtv Sat/W: Ellis Bextor's lléllrtglll. to row 'l‘: .'.'ir‘ (to anythirtg to get the mute. tiarm, Trying to keep apau: .‘rith the ,-’,'l'l’} guns Is the film's moral compass Sheriff Etl lorri Bull l lUl'lll’y l M: Jones).
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Ml 5!: git, . .r ,;.;;,~. ;; SWEENEY TODD:
THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET (18) 116min 0000
she bakes meat pies using from the remnants of the barber‘s slaughter. When she imagines married life with Todd. the colours are as abstract and primary as those used by Burton in his 1985 Pee-wee’s Big
Stephen Sondheim’s landmark 1979 Broadway musical has now been given the Tim Burton treatment. The director's favourite actor, Johnny Depp, ditches the cutesy mannerisms he brought to Edward Scissorhands and Pirates of The Caribbean to portray the demon barber as a lean, mean killing machine with a growling Leonard Cohen-esque singing drawl who has a single-minded determination to avenge the kidnapping of his wife and daughter by a heinous judge (Alan Rickman, the perfect pantomime villain).
Depp is a mesmerising lead, but Burton bases all his visual choices on the varying emotional states of Mrs Lovett (played by the director’s wife Helena Bonham
Adventure. It is a daring shift of tone in a film whose palate is a predominantly black and white punctuated with the blood red residue of the unlucky souls who sit in Todd‘s barber chair.
Burton is obsessed with production design, whether it is the dark metropolis of Gotham City or the suburbs of Scissorhands. he chooses production designers he believes will best bring his vision to life. In this case it‘s the legendary Dante Ferretti (88/0: 120 Days of Sodom, Casino) who perfectly captures the cobbled gas-lit streets of Victorian London. Sondheim has hitherto been ill~served by film adaptations of his stage work, but Burton has done a formidable job of trimming and re-working the original play. A visual and
Carter) whose fine performance in this macabre and aural treat. (Kaleem Aftab) bloody feast of a film runs the gamut of emotions as I ’ ~ ~ ' ' ~ r " " i '
tit/‘i't'll DY lx‘L):'~,'m\.i\'Lit SYDNEY WHITE (12A) 107min 0.
Though based on McCarthy's least interesting novel, the Coens rmhue
this simple tale With their trademark [:ver Silltit‘ Am, llt_‘\:t\‘," h ,. --. _: 1:: '.-- : otiirkiness and Wry humour: The Jane Austen's r" "Urn: to a r' H z.“ :i '* .- ' : mise—on-seene is often masterful been the .i l.'l‘_.' Tlllllg} ,lr, :; in.
especially when Chigurh chases Moss across America. \VlllCTlT brings 11”," 3e. .'.lll(ill .'.as released "
to mind the suspense of Hitchcock's \r'i’arn's f<?rr:lii»:‘- Fr»: We" {,ttirt: : , ' "'
Psycho and later Dial M For Murder Corn/rant:rr‘e'6:: s’na .i .z' : ‘ T' 2 while maintaining a stunning level of prattfiee
ttonterr‘pnia". Tt.‘("“(:tlt7 f3(".'. '1: »- r». :
unforgivrng Violence. On writ-r. Nessttatnfl ~ v 3" ..
Yet. staying close to the souroe highly r'. aarrxzt ‘:):‘i:i s'x 'f _. .,: ' t r material ultimater works against the like the int, nan ‘ x. r: _, " w . ' :' z —' Coens. The Sheriff's posturing or‘. the itlea as \il‘tlgif‘l":; m. 5r a. -- E“, ,' ' ewls of modern lite. WHICH starts and 1am of fltiim‘ “a...- ” 't'h'tgf :_ '.' _:' ' 2:’ ends the film must have seemea‘ I"lt3 1:1, as: Arm-Kn, 353,4, \ ,. a positively Shakespearean on the B‘H‘mfi rtlats ..;.r :r. '4' page but transcribed almost wont to' Statesae "4;; . v ~" "' word on soreen it's completes tlat. .or‘rrr“:;s -:' ~- :i . ‘ -. ' r Whenever Tommy Lee Jones sta'ts a'e faker on a moralislng exposmom: “1 s:‘ .: .1 ._ .: . . . r . ~. ' monotone it feels like the Coens are ste:"“ot'ie' is s". r t, -:-a yr: " 9'- 90mg thrOugh the motions. The V. t "‘l ‘ Sa' 92.»: r _. i . . v . . denouement is espec‘ially as» asking) at ":2' " ' ' .'.;: . ~ :~" unsatisfying in what has hitherto ‘.‘.'et‘s'te no? q“: ' been an almost brilliant trim. not .as’. as t":‘- z: 1.. —. .
(Kaleem Aftab) scnrw'.‘ mg“ a" r I General release from Fr; 78 Jan. I Gene“: r. : s r 5' _
40 THE LIST 17—31 Jan 3005