www.list.co.uk/film ADVENTURE/WAR THE RED BARON (12) 101min (Showboat) ●●●●●
scripted the equally dark showbiz exposé Sweet Smell of Success two years later) as adapted by James Poe (who would pen the corrosive WWI drama Attack! for Aldrich the following year). If those impressive credits don’t convince, consider that hard-men Jack Palance (more than filling the shoes of Burt Lancaster, who turned down the lead) and Rod Steiger play, respectively, a movie star who wants out of the system and the studio mogul who happily resorts to blackmail to hold onto him. The film genuinely lives up to its title. No extras. (Miles Fielder) THRILLER THE STRANGER (PG) 91min (Optimum) ●●●●●
That this 1946 noir was the only Orson Welles film to show profit on release and that it was the director’s least favourite picture might suggest an absence of his signature talent. But while Welles had been pressured into making a more conventional (ie commercial) film after what RKO Radio Pictures saw as his disastrous second film, the studio butchered but still brilliant The Magnificent Ambersons, the auteur nevertheless managed to turn in a terrific cat-and-mouse thriller that’s full of recognisably Wellesian touches (notably the climax set in a church clocktower). The great man himself
plays a German war
The daredevil adventures of the famous First World War flying ace ought to make for an entertaining cinematic romp. Manfred von Richthofen, the young, handsome, aristocrat who terrorised the Allies in his scarlet bi-plane, notching up 80 kills before being shot down by Canadian pilot Roy Brown, is a natural subject for a biopic. And this is a handsomely mounted German/UK co-production boasting impressive aerial combat sequences and a decent cast lead by newcomer Matthias Schweighöfer and supported by Joseph Fiennes as the Baron’s nemesis, Lena Headey as his field nurse love interest and Til Schweiger (currently also to be seen in Inglourious Basterds) as Richthofen’s buddy.
Nevertheless, the film fails to take off. The uneven pacing never allows it to gain velocity and so at less than two hours it still feels overlong – and yet oddly abridged. Perhaps that reflects writer-director Nikolai Müllerschön’s TV roots. Extras: making of doc, deleted scenes, outtakes. (Miles Fielder)
DRAMA THE BIG KNIFE (PG) 107min (Optimum) ●●●●● Movies about Hollywood don’t get more caustic than this. Released in 1955, the year after the final death knell of the studio system, it’s a searing indictment of old Tinseltown made in the style of a film noir. Directed by the great maverick Robert Aldrich (responsible for the brutal Mickey Spillane adaptation Kiss Me Deadly the same year), it’s based on the play by then blacklisted writer Clifford Odets (who
criminal hiding out in a small Connecticut town, where he poses as a teacher and is engaged to lovely Loretta Young. Hot on his tail, however, is Nazi hunter Edward G Robinson.
That casting was forced on Welles (who wanted his regular player Agnes Moorhead), but it works splendidly anyway. No extras. (Miles Fielder)
DRAMA/THRILLER RIDER ON THE RAIN (15) 120min (Optimum) ●●●●●
Between appearing in supporting roles in all- star Hollywood romps such as The Magnificent Seven and The Dirty Dozen throughout the 60s and establishing himself as a star in his own right in brutal thrillers such as The Stone Killer and Death Wish in the 70s, tough guy Charles Bronson followed the then Tinseltown trend and went to Europe to make a handful of French and Italian films. One of them, Once Upon a Time in the West, has become a classic; this nasty murder mystery has rightly been forgotten. Bronson plays a
mystery man who arrives in a seaside resort in off- season southern France and pressures a young woman into confessing to killing a sex maniac who recently raped her. As directed by two-time Oscar-winner René Clément from a story by Sebastian Jaspirot, it’s a woeful mix of art house pretension and sleazy exploitation, neither of which mismatched cinematic sensibilities prise anything like a performance from old plastic chops Bronson. No wonder Clément’s ailing career continued to nosedive. It’s a wonder Bronson’s didn’t. No extras. (Miles Fielder)
DVD Reviews Film
PLAYLIST 18: SHORT FILMS Ma Bar
The internet has gifted us with the attention spans of goldfish. But that’s no bad thing when the best short films can stimulate more thoroughly than a dozen features, as well as providing the perfect calling card for up-and-coming directors. Witness Neill Blomkamp’s Alive in Joburg (tinyurl.com/z6bma), which paved the way for his acclaimed sci-fi feature for Peter Jackson District 9, which has already taken some £100 million worldwide. But it’s not necessarily Hollywood or bust. There are plenty of other talented film-makers hoping to follow the kind of meteoric career path that Blomkamp has enjoyed, albeit with very different perspectives to offer. Glasgow-based director Vincent Hunter’s As Far As You’ve Come is a bruising tale of one man’s chance meeting with an old friend, played by the superb David McKay. Tightly shot and performed, Hunter’s film offers a sharply observed tale that presents a grim riposte to conventional sentimentality (tinyurl.com/kvvajw)
Alternatively, lighten up with Lesley Barnes’ Herzog and the Monsters (tinyurl.com/lgs5ub) which makes creative use of type and depth-perspective to create an engaging fairytale atmosphere; all the pop-up style and ingenuity of Tim Burton or Wes Anderson, but on a fraction of the budget. And if you’re looking for a tougher proposition, Ma Bar, Adrian McDowall and Finlay Pretsell’s documentary about Bill McFadyen, Scotland’s 73-year-old bench- press champion, offers a thoughtful picture of one particular strain of Scottish machismo (tinyurl.com/m2w56c). It’s one of a number of imaginatively realised films to come from the Scottish Documentary Institute, and there are more on the SDI website (www.docscene.org/), including Jane McAllister’s trenchant view of Sporran Makers. (tinyurl.com/m7rlyy).
Peter Jackson may not yet to on the phone to any of the above, as yet, but every good short is a little miracle, born despite the constraints of money and time. For aspiring filmmakers to get their shorts online places them firmly on the casting couch of cinema; now all they need is a bit of backing, plus a bit of luck, and a new wave of Scottish film-makers could be copping a feel of the big time. (Eddie Harrison)
24 Sep–8 Oct 2009 THE LIST 57