www.list.co.uk/film
Films screening this fortnight are listed below with certificate, star rating, credits, brief review and venue details. Film index compiled by Paul Dale
Ill Indicates Listpicks entry
Alvin and the Chipmunks ([7) 0.. (Tim Hill. CS. 2007) Jason Lee.
David Cross. Cameron Richardson. ()lmin.
[.ikeable pre-school comedy featuring a bunch of pint sized chipmunk pop stars and their long-suffering human guardian (Lee). Cinewm'ld Edinburgh. Edinburgh. The American Friend (PG) .000 (With Wenders. West (iermany/l-‘rance. l977) Germany/France. 123mm. Based on the Patricia Highsmith novel Ripley 's (iame. this excellent. esistentialistylilrn rurir' centres on an alienated Hopper at large in (iermany. where his task is to locate and motivate a killer without a track record. He finds his hired man in the innocent (law. but loses his sense of identity in the process. Stirring stuff. with all that eloquent desolation that typifies Wenders‘ work. Part of Wenders season. Glasgow I'll/rt Theatre. (r'laxgmi'.
"H A Beautiful Mind ( 12)
0.. (Ron Howard. ['S. 2002) Rtissell Crowe. Jennifer Connelly. Paul Bettany. 135mm. A Beautiful Mind presents Crowc with another the opporttmity to alternate his tough guy roles ((iladiatnr) with ‘serious acting’ (see The Insider). Here he plays John Nash. the mathematics genius. during his college days in America in the I‘MUs. Nash is also a paranoid- schi/ophrenic. who was nevertheless awarded the Nobel l’ri/c late in his life. ()1) the negative side of the equation.
Howard's direction stinks. His efforts to make math interesting fail dismally. A for ()scars effort. but C for contribution to the field of biopic cinema. Part of West lind l'cslival. The Salim. (ilaxguu‘.
Bike Week Film Festival Opening Night Event (PU) (Various) l()2min. A screening of Peter Carr's Battle of the Bikes. John (iraham's Just a Minute. documenting Scottish cyclist Chris Hoy as he travels to Bolivia and attempts to break the world kilometre record. and Standing Start. a portrayal of cyclist Craig Maclcan’s rigorous preparations for the Olympics. Eilrnhause. Edinburgh.
Blade Runner: The Final Cut (15) O... (Ridley Scott. CS. 1982)
Harrison Ford. Scan Young. Rutger Hauer.
1 12min. Fifteen years on from the 1992 Direelnr's Cut. Scott has had another bash at his sci-ii opus which pitted l)eckard (Ford) against a slew of replicants. Now a more linear. voiceover- frce film noir. for once a great film has been made better thanks to advances in special effects technology and thoughtful rethinking. (ilasgim' I-ilrn 'I‘heatre. (ilas‘gtmz
Blindsight (l’(i) (Lucy Walker. UK. 2006) I0-lmin. Blind educator Sabriye Tenberken and world renowned mountaineer Frik Weigenmayer take a group of blind Tibetan teenagers on an epic journey to climb l.hakpa Ri. a 7.000 metre peak close to the north face of liverest. Part of Tibetan film season. l-‘ilrnhnuse. Edinburgh.
Blueprint (PG) 00. (Hugh Cornwell. CK. 2008) Hugh Cornwell. Caroline Campbell. Chris Bell. ()Xmin. lnterspersed with an in-depth interview with BBC broadcaster Robert films.
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Blueprint features a live studio performance of Hoover Dam. the new album from ex-Strangler Hugh Cornwell.
( 'i men. Edinburgh. * California Dreamin’ ( 15) C... (Cristian Nemescu. Romania. 2007) Armand Assante. Jamie lilman. Ra/van Vasilescu. 154mm. Set in the summer of 199‘). while lighting is underway in Kosovo. a corrupt stationmaster stops a NATO train in its tracks and the community eagerly flock to meet the newcomers. This darkly ironic. consistently amusing and ultimately tragic tale is easily and eloquently elevated above being simply another Balkan farce. Eilrnhouse. Edinburgh. Canadian Grand Prix Live motorsport from Monaco. ()denn: Brae/read. Rerdt‘eu: Caramel (l’(i) 0... (Nadine Labaki. France/Lebanon. 2007) Nadine Labaki. Jasmine Al Masri. 95min. Charming. bitter-sweet debut feature from writer- director Labaki that centres upon the ‘Si Belle' beauty parlour in the Lebanese capital and the dramas of the female clientele. The film is impressively acted by a mostly non-professional cast. While there are no references to the on-going strife in Lebanon. this is still a political film. and a tender tribute to female solidarity. Canter). Edinburgh. Casablanca (PG) .0000 (Michael Curtil. L'S. 19-12) Humphrey Bogart. Ingrid Bergman. l)ooley Wilson. 102mm. You mtist remember this . . . Bogart being impossibly noble. Bergman torn between two lovers. Claude Rains playing both ends against the middle. devious Nazis. a fogbound airport. at piano-player [inkling that tune. A wonderful hill of beans and a
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Cassandra’s Dream (12A) 00 (Woody Allen. [PS/[IK/France. 2008) liwan MeUregor. Colin Farrell. Tom Wilkinson. 108mm. Cockney brothers lan (liwan) and Terry (Farrell) find themselves in serious financial diflieulty. Their solution is kill a man for money but the repercussions of the act soon overcome their close relationship. Allen‘s third London-set film is a confused embarrassment of quaint olde linglish observation. bad accents. sub Dostoevsky tragedy and out-of—place Mike Leigh-style naturalism. Some decent scenes aside this is something of a nadir in Allen's later work. ('llteii'trl'ltl Rertfr‘eu' Street. (ilaxgnw; ( 'ineii'ar'ld Edinburgh. Edinburgh. Change of Address ( 12A) 0. (limmanuel Mouret. France. 2006) limmanuel .Vlouret. Frederique Bel. l-‘anny Valette. 85min. A comedy of romantic endeavours in which a shy French horn player and his roommate try to (is each other's love lives. Quirky sex comedy. Glasgow I-‘ilnt Theatre. (ilasgmi'; Eilrnluruse. Edinburgh.
Chemical Wedding ( I8) .0
(Jillian l)oy|e. CK. 2008) Sitnon Callow. Kal Weber. Lucy Cudden. 106mm. Absolutely ridiculous but mildly enjoyable supernatural thriller about what might happen if infamous mystic and occult scholar Aleister Crowley came back to life. Set in his old Trinity College in Cambridge. Crowley. played with great abandon by Callow. re-cmerges after some 31) imaging experiments with a new super computer go wrong. S/mwease Cinema. ('(ratbr'idge. Glasgow: Showcase ('t'nerna. Paisley. l’aislev.
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An I ens As China’s steps up its international PR for the Olympics this excellent five-day season of recent films from and about Tibet could hardly be more culturally or politically relevant. Things kick off with 2003 Danish documentary The Forbidden Team (pictured) about the travails of Tibet’s first ever national football team. Other documentaries Blindsight, about a bunch of blind Tibetan teenagers and their expedition to climb Everest, and Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion, examining the exact events of Tibet’s colonisation by China provide plenty of food for thought. Lu Chuan’s Kekexili: Mountain Patrol brings a touch of action adventure to proceedings while moving Tibetan exile drama Dreaming Lhasa reminds of the suffering of those who got away. With free poetry readings, photography exhibitions and a selection of short films around the theme of youth, exile and identity, this is one season that should not be missed. www.throughanexilelens.org I Fi/mhouse, Edinburgh from Fri 6 Jun-Wed 7 7 Jun.
58 THE LIST 5—19 Jun 2008