Film Index The Gleaners and I (Les Glaneurs et la Glaneuse) (U) ●●●●● (Agnes Varda, France, 2001) 90min. Les Glaneurs is a peculiar film. On the one hand it’s a jolly insight into the lives of an unknown social group in Europe, on the other it’s a profoundly depressing document of a medieval method of survival that ought not to exist in 21st century Europe. The titular gleaners are those people who subsist on the leftovers of society. Varda joins her subjects on the glean around France, and paints an affectionate picture of the ingenious methods used to overcome hardship. A cheerful, often witty portrait of an unfortunately common practice. Part of Varda season. Glasgow Film Theatre; Filmhouse, Edinburgh. Grease (PG) ●●●●● (Randal Kleiser, US, 1978) John Travolta, Olivia Newton John, Stockard Channing. 110min. Thirty years on, Grease is still the word, and still the way we are feeling. Screened as part of Sloan’s Eatfilm programme, a meal is included in the ticket price. Sloans, Glasgow. Hachi: A Dog’s Tale (PG) ●●●●● (Lasse Hallström, USA/UK, 2009) Richard Gere, Sarah Roemer, Joan Allen. 93min. This maudlin pet-sploitation flick transports the 1920s Japanese story of a faithful dog who waited nearly ten years for his master’s return, to an idyllic Rhode Island setting. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. Hot Tub Time Machine (15) ●●●●● (Steve Pink, US, 2010) John Cusack, Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson. 99min. Pink (Grosse Point Blank) returns to Cusack and the 80s when a bunch of friends end up in 1986 after a hot tub malfunctions. With little character development and too many comedic opportunities missed, sometimes it’s better to leave the past alone. General release. How to Train Your Dragon 2D (PG) ●●●●● (Dean DeBlois/Chris Sanders, US, 2010) Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, America Ferrera. 97min. Commendable new DreamWorks animation set in the mythical world of Vikings and dragons, and based on the book by Cressida Cowell. Hiccup, a Viking teenager, befriends a dragon. Selected release. How to Train Your Dragon 3D (PG) ●●●●● (Dean DeBlois/Chris Sanders, US, 2010) Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, America Ferrera. 97min. See above. Odeon at the Quay, Glasgow; Vue Ocean, Edinburgh. Hubble 3D (U) (Toni Meyers, Canada, 2010) 44min. Leonardo Di Caprio narrates the latest 3D IMAX space adventure. IMAX Theatre, Glasgow. I Am Love (15) ●●●●● (Luca Guadagnino, Italy, 2009) Tilda Swinton, Flavio Parenti, Edoardo Gabbriellini. 120min. An announcement made at the birthday celebration of an ageing Italian industrialist triggers a series of events that will impact the family’s lives forever in this film of rare formal grace. It is at this party that central protagonist Emma (Swinton) meets Antonio (Gabbriellini), a gifted chef, with whom she begins an illicit love affair which gives rise to new passions, emotions and a desire for liberation. Inspired and accomplished filmmaking with a confident aesthetic. Glasgow Film Theatre.
In Search of Beethoven (12A) ●●●●● (Phil Grabsky, UK, 2009) 138min. In Search of Mozart director Grabsky takes on the deaf German composer in illuminating documentary. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. In Search of Mozart (U) (Phil Grabsky, UK, 2005) 128min. Produced in association with the world’s leading orchestras, opera houses and musicians, this is a journey through Europe, exploring the myths that surround Mozart. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. Interiors (15) (Woody Allen, US, 1978) Diane Keaton, Geraldine Page, EG Marshall. 93min. Allen attempts to recreate the Bergmanesque psychological chamber dramas he obviously admires so much in this rather impressive study of a family full of unhappy women. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. Iron Man 2 (12A) ●●●●● (Jon Favreau, US, 2010) Robert Downey Jr, Mickey Rourke, Gwyneth Paltrow. 124min. Favreau returns to direct Downey Jr as the man in the metal suit. As expected, the action is big, bold and brash, the first appearance of Rourke in his Whiplash guise at the Monaco Grand Prix is a masterpiece of flying debris and crackling electricity. But it is Downey Jr who steals the show, playing Tony Stark as Bruce Wayne minus the guilt, revelling in his wealth and the public’s adoration of his Iron Man persona. Lovingly made multiplex action fodder with street smarts, it won’t change the world but it’ll keep you giddily entertained for two hours. General release. It’s a Wonderful Afterlife (12A) ●●●●● (Gurnder Chadha, UK, 2010) Goldy Notay, Shebhana Azmi, Sendhil Ramamurthy. 100min. Widow Mrs Sethi (Azmi) wants to see her only daughter Roopi married, but Roopi (Notay) is a little overweight and very opinionated and keeps getting rejected by rude suitors. Mrs Sethi begins to take a more murderous route to find her daughter a husband but the spirits of the dead soon come after her. Silly, fun and forgettable. Grosvenor, Glasgow. Jim Poole Short Film Award (E) (Various, UK, 2010) 180min. And the winners are . . . Fabulous award ceremony to announce and screen the winning films from the tenth Scottish short film award named after the great Jim Poole. Cameo, Edinburgh. Kick-Ass (15) ●●●●● (Matthew Vaughn, US/UK, 2010) Nicolas Cage, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Chloe Moretz. 117min. Big screen adaptation of Mark Millar’s massively popular comic in which a bunch of misfit teens don superhero costumes and get stuck into some stylised vigilante action. Successfully celebrating a teen boys’ idea of ‘cool’, Vaughn has a feeling for characters and story arcs that his Lock, Stock . . . collaborator Guy Ritchie has long since forgotten. Quite frankly, Vaughn kicks ass.
Cineworld Renfrew Street, Glasgow; Vue Omni, Edinburgh.
✽✽ The Killer Inside Me (18) ●●●●● 109min. See review, page 54 and profile.
General release from Fri 4 Jun. Kites (12A) ●●●●● (Anurag Basu, India, 2010) Hrithik Roshan, Barbara Mori, Steven Michael Quezada. 120min. A man left for dead in the Mexican desert keeps himself alive by pursuing the love of a woman. Much talked about Bollywood fusion film. Selected release. Kites: The Remix (12A) ●●●●● (Anurag Basu, India, 2010) Hrithik Roshan, Bárbara Mori, Kabir Bedi. 122min. See Also Released, page 57. Selected release. The Last Song (PG) ●●●●● (Julie Anne Robinson, US, 2010) Miley Cyrus, Greg Kinnear, Bobby Coleman. 107min. Soppy adaptation of Nicholas Sparks’ predictable story about malcontent Ronnie (Cyrus), who travels south to stay with absentee father Steve (Kinnear). For Montana die-hards only. Selected release. The Last Station (15) ●●●●● (Michael Hoffman, Germany/Russia/UK, 2009) Helen Mirren, Christopher Plummer, James McAvoy. 113min. It’s 1910 and Tolstoy’s (Plummer) writings have become so fundamentally progressive that his long time publisher Vladimir Chertov (Giamatti) has established a small community of Tolstoyans to carry on the work of the ageing leader. Tolstoy’s wife Sofya (Mirren) has other ideas. Universal tale of misplaced loyalties adapted from Jay Parini’s 1990 novel. Glasgow Film Theatre. Lebanon (15) ●●●●● (Samuel Maoz, Israel/France/Germany, 2009) Yoav Donat, Itay Tiran, Oshri Cohen. 93min. This muscular, technically bravura work revisits the 1982 invasion of southern Lebanon by the Israel Defence Forces in which many civilians died and many young Israeli military conscripts, including Maoz himself, were marked by the carnage they witnessed. It’s lean, powerful stuff aided by a terrific cast and an economy of scale on Maoz’s part. Glasgow Film Theatre; Cameo, Edinburgh. Leith Short Film Festival (E) (Various) 90min. A selection of local and international shorts ranging from documentaries to thrillers. Duncan Place Resource Centre, Edinburgh. Letters to Juliet (PG) ●●●●● (Gary Winick, US, 2010) Amanda Seyfried, Marcia DeBonis, Gael García Bernal. 105min. See review, page 54. General release from Wed 9 Jun. Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (12) ●●●●● (Tony Richardson, UK, 1962) Michael Redgrave, Tom Courtenay, Alec McCowen. 114min. Adapted by Alan Sillitoe from his own story, this is a fine example of 60s British cinema in the
Karel Zeman Short season celebrating the work of influential Czech animator Karel Zeman, whose pioneering
work had a profound affect on Terry Gilliam and Tim Burton, among others. Zeman’s enchanting 1958 adaptation of The Fabulous Baron Munchausen kicks things off, followed by his more classically animated, Gustav Dore-inflected final film The Tale of John and Marie (pictured), which was inspired by Czech fairy tales. The 1958 feature An Invention for Destruction (aka The Fabulous World of Jules Verne) rounds things off with some deep sea tales of submarines and giant octopus. Ticket deals available. ■ Filmhouse, Edinburgh from Sat 29 May-Sat 5 Jun.
62 THE LIST 27 May–10 June 2010
social realist vein. Courtenay excels as the rebellious youth who is send a boy’s reform school after robbing a bakery and pushes himself to turn his life around. Cameo, Edinburgh. The Losers (12A) ●●●●● ( Sylvan White, US, 2010) Chris Evans, Zoe Saldana, Jeffrey Dean Morgan. 97min. See review, page 55. General release. Love and Death (PG) ●●●●● (Woody Allen, US, 1975) Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Olga Georges-Picot. 85min. Pitched somewhere between The Funny Years (Bananas, Sleeper) and The Serio-Comic Years (Annie Hall, Manhattan) this is one part of Woody’s continuing neurotic romancing of Diane Keaton, only set in Russia at the time of the Napoleonic wars. Part of Allen retrospective. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. Manhattan (12A) ●●●●● (Woody Allen, US, 1979) Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Mariel Hemingway. 95min. A slight, urban, amoral romantic comedy about one divorcee’s attempt to find love with his best friend’s mistress (Keaton). Its timelessness is owed to Gordon Willis’ gorgeous black and white photography, Gershwin’s ‘Rhapsody in Blue’, knowing borrowings from other film masters and much, much more. The film has certainly dated, but remains the romantic comedy of this or any year and Allen’s one true masterpiece. Part of Allen retrospective. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. March of the Penguins (U) ●●●●● (Luc Jacquet, France, 2005) 85min. Delightful if fairly routine (in a Discovery Channel kind of way) documentary which follows the Emperor Penguins’ annual attempt to bring new life into the freezing climbs of Antarctica. Morgan Freeman’s rich, cheesy voice-over makes the film. Gilmorehill G12, Glasgow. A Matter of Life and Death (PG) ●●●●● (Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger, UK, 1946) David Niven, Kim Hunter, Roger Livesey. 104min. A witty and stylish film that rises above its beginnings as a piece of wartime propaganda about goodwill between Britain and the US. Niven is an RAF pilot who finds himself before a heavenly tribunal when he bales out of his burning plane. Part of Jack Cardiff season. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. Nanny McPhee & The Big Bang (U) ●●●●● (Susanna White, US, 2010) Emma Thompson, Ralph Fiennes, Maggie Gyllenhaal. 109min. Sequel to the popular 2005 family film. This time Gyllenhaal is single mum Isabel Green (hubbie is off to fight the Hun in WW2) with three out of control nippers to contend with and two insufferably posh evacuee cousins about to arrive on their farm. Selected release. Nightcleaners (18) ●●●●● (Berwick Street Film Collective, UK, 1975) 90min. Influenced by Brechtian methods such as montage, this documentary questions the nature of the women’s campaign and its representations. The film challenges the idea that political cinema can ever give a true account of events, and undermines notions of the photographic real. CCA, Glasgow. A Nightmare on Elm Street (18) ●●●●● (Samuel Bayer, US, 2010) Jackie Earle Haley, Katie Cassidy, Kyle Gallner. 95min. The premise is the same in this horror remake, as the razor fingered Freddy Krueger (Haley) comes back to haunt the dreams of Springwood’s teens, with the rather nasty side effect that if he kills you in your sleep you die in real life. Haley is inspired casting and there’s a nice update on Krueger’s charred make-up. Unfortunately his teen victims are disposable, there are a few glaring lapses in logic and, much like the later entries in the original series, over exposure lessens Freddy’s fright factor. General release. Pandora & The Flying Dutchman (PG) ●●●●● (Albert Lewin, UK, 1951) James Mason, Ava Gardner, Nigel Patrick. 123min. Very welcome restored 35mm print of bizarre but lushly effective 1951 seafaring melodrama from brilliant Glasgow-based distributors Park Circus. Gardner and Mason star. What more do you want? New digital print. Part of Jack Cardiff season. Glasgow Film Theatre. Pimp (18) ●●●●● (Robert Cavanah, UK, 2010) Robert Cavanah, Danny Dyer, Billy Boyd. 137min. Hidden camera pseudo-doc