OPENED MARCH 28, CERT 15, 118 MINS
“I confess that I am very sensual, father.” Sniggering already? For some reason this Mexican melodrama was Oscar-nominated, but it straddles more lead-me-not-into-temptation clich
OPENED MARCH 28, CERT 12A, 135 MINS The Earth's molten core has stopped spinning, and this is a Bad Thing, with knock-on effects that will kill off humanity within a year. Enter a team of kamikaze scientists with an unlimited military budget who plan to drill through the Earth and kick-start the core again with a few nukes. "This isn't going to be subtle," observes a character early on, and they're not far wrong. What we've got here is kind of the ultimate disaster movie, like Armageddon with the gloves off and a ton of mad science on board. Aaron Eckhart is the sensitive-but-hunky geophysicist hero, Stanley Tucci the deeply vain government-sponsored 'expert', Delroy Lindo the inventor of their sub-surface vehicle and Hilary Swank the plucky astronaut who's piloting the thing. That it's all utterly predictable is part of the appeal, a comforting familiarity amid all the destruction?some of which is impressive, some of which is sub-standard?and by and large it doesn't disappoint. Turn off your brain and enjoy.
OPENED MARCH 28, CERT 12A, 135 MINS
The Earth’s molten core has stopped spinning, and this is a Bad Thing, with knock-on effects that will kill off humanity within a year. Enter a team of kamikaze scientists with an unlimited military budget who plan to drill through the Earth and kick-start the core again with a few nukes.
“This isn’t going to be subtle,” observes a character early on, and they’re not far wrong. What we’ve got here is kind of the ultimate disaster movie, like Armageddon with the gloves off and a ton of mad science on board. Aaron Eckhart is the sensitive-but-hunky geophysicist hero, Stanley Tucci the deeply vain government-sponsored ‘expert’, Delroy Lindo the inventor of their sub-surface vehicle and Hilary Swank the plucky astronaut who’s piloting the thing.
That it’s all utterly predictable is part of the appeal, a comforting familiarity amid all the destruction?some of which is impressive, some of which is sub-standard?and by and large it doesn’t disappoint. Turn off your brain and enjoy.
OPENS APRIL 4, CERT U, 96 MINS Director Alexander Sokurov's film is a feat of visual orchestration set in St Petersburg's Hermitage Museum. Our guide is a film-maker who floats unseen around the former royal palace. As he drifts from room to room, he's tossed backwards and forwards across history?now in the era of Peter The Great, now in 1919, now in the present day, now in the reign of Catherine The Great. Along the way, he picks up a fellow traveller, a prickly 19th-century French diplomat. The events to which they bear invisible witness are generally inconsequential rather than pivotal, though one scene of aristocratic revellers pouring slowly down the staircases following the last, sumptuous ball of the Tsarist era is loaded with significance. The diplomat and film-maker's bickering amounts to a querulous meditation on Russia's pre-and post-Communist history. Get this, however: Russian Ark was achieved in one unbroken steadicam shot. An unprecedented technical and artistic achievement.
OPENS APRIL 4, CERT U, 96 MINS
Director Alexander Sokurov’s film is a feat of visual orchestration set in St Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum. Our guide is a film-maker who floats unseen around the former royal palace. As he drifts from room to room, he’s tossed backwards and forwards across history?now in the era of Peter The Great, now in 1919, now in the present day, now in the reign of Catherine The Great. Along the way, he picks up a fellow traveller, a prickly 19th-century French diplomat.
The events to which they bear invisible witness are generally inconsequential rather than pivotal, though one scene of aristocratic revellers pouring slowly down the staircases following the last, sumptuous ball of the Tsarist era is loaded with significance. The diplomat and film-maker’s bickering amounts to a querulous meditation on Russia’s pre-and post-Communist history.
Get this, however: Russian Ark was achieved in one unbroken steadicam shot. An unprecedented technical and artistic achievement.
Either lionised as a visual stylist or derided as a European Tony Scott, Luc Besson nonetheless transformed French film in the '80s. His rejection of pseudo-intellectualism and poetic realism is evident in these four offerings, Le Dernier Combat (1983), Subway (1985), La Femme Nikita (1990) and Atlantis (1991). Le Dernier Combat, his debut, is a tragi-comic trawl through a post-apocalyptic dystopia with hero Pierre Jolivet. Viewing it next to Subway and Nikita reveals just how vigorously Besson self-cannibalises, set design, plot points and outfits passing freely from film to film. Otherwise, Subway's genre subversions almost tip the baby out with the noir bathwater, while Nikita is the grandmother of all PVC fembot dramas. Sadly, Atlantis, a maudlin underwater travelogue, is simply a dud.
Either lionised as a visual stylist or derided as a European Tony Scott, Luc Besson nonetheless transformed French film in the ’80s. His rejection of pseudo-intellectualism and poetic realism is evident in these four offerings, Le Dernier Combat (1983), Subway (1985), La Femme Nikita (1990) and Atlantis (1991). Le Dernier Combat, his debut, is a tragi-comic trawl through a post-apocalyptic dystopia with hero Pierre Jolivet. Viewing it next to Subway and Nikita reveals just how vigorously Besson self-cannibalises, set design, plot points and outfits passing freely from film to film. Otherwise, Subway’s genre subversions almost tip the baby out with the noir bathwater, while Nikita is the grandmother of all PVC fembot dramas. Sadly, Atlantis, a maudlin underwater travelogue, is simply a dud.
Echoes of Jean De Florette only add to the charm of Christian Carion's bucolic visit to the Alpine French countryside. A young woman bored with life in the capital decides to become a farmer; cranky old neighbour Michel Serrault doubts whether she can hack it. Pretty scenery, yes, but also a perceptive study of mismatched spirits learning to rub along.
Echoes of Jean De Florette only add to the charm of Christian Carion’s bucolic visit to the Alpine French countryside. A young woman bored with life in the capital decides to become a farmer; cranky old neighbour Michel Serrault doubts whether she can hack it. Pretty scenery, yes, but also a perceptive study of mismatched spirits learning to rub along.
This 1938 Frank Capra outing may have won an Oscar but its tale of the son of a wealthy family (Jimmy Stewart) looking to buy up the property of Lionel Barrymore's cheerful brood of eccentrics (who include an improbably youthful Jean Arthur), is over-treacled with Capra-esque sentimentalism. Stewart's role is underplayed, the plot is slow-moving and the comedic pickings lean.
This 1938 Frank Capra outing may have won an Oscar but its tale of the son of a wealthy family (Jimmy Stewart) looking to buy up the property of Lionel Barrymore’s cheerful brood of eccentrics (who include an improbably youthful Jean Arthur), is over-treacled with Capra-esque sentimentalism. Stewart’s role is underplayed, the plot is slow-moving and the comedic pickings lean.
Paul Verhoeven’s last pre-Hollywood film (from 1983) is a minor classic. Depressed alcoholic writer Gerard Reve (a tremendous, dishevelled Jeroen Krabb
We tend to damn Woody Allen's lighter comedies as 'just' comedies: if anyone else had come up with this 1993 nugget, we'd acclaim it as a pearl. Allen and Diane Keaton-telepathic together again?are paranoid that the woman next door's been bumped off; Alan Alda and Anjelica Houston stir the confusion. A wholesome whodunnit, but, chiefly, a hoot.
We tend to damn Woody Allen’s lighter comedies as ‘just’ comedies: if anyone else had come up with this 1993 nugget, we’d acclaim it as a pearl. Allen and Diane Keaton-telepathic together again?are paranoid that the woman next door’s been bumped off; Alan Alda and Anjelica Houston stir the confusion. A wholesome whodunnit, but, chiefly, a hoot.
Terry Gilliam's solo directorial debut. Inspired by Lewis Carroll's poem, like Python's Holy Grail it deals with medieval muck and monsters?in this case a fearsome dragon to be slain by hapless hero Dennis (Michael Palin). Lots of good ideas and a very odd cast of British comedy talent, but mired in darkness, only the occasional laugh.
Terry Gilliam’s solo directorial debut. Inspired by Lewis Carroll’s poem, like Python’s Holy Grail it deals with medieval muck and monsters?in this case a fearsome dragon to be slain by hapless hero Dennis (Michael Palin). Lots of good ideas and a very odd cast of British comedy talent, but mired in darkness, only the occasional laugh.
Slick odd-couple blockbuster which sees secret service grandee Anthony Hopkins forced to team up with street-punk Chris Rock in Prague as a nuclear bomb in a suitcase goes up for sale. Jerry Bruckheimer ensures the noisy pace never lets up; an anarchic Rock plays it strictly for laughs and a horizontal Hopkins looks mighty bored. Great stuff, all the same.
Slick odd-couple blockbuster which sees secret service grandee Anthony Hopkins forced to team up with street-punk Chris Rock in Prague as a nuclear bomb in a suitcase goes up for sale. Jerry Bruckheimer ensures the noisy pace never lets up; an anarchic Rock plays it strictly for laughs and a horizontal Hopkins looks mighty bored. Great stuff, all the same.
Much-emulated screwball comedy, directed by Frank Capra and starring Gary Cooper as the disingenuous rustic type who inherits a $20 million fortune and a new life in New York. There he's pitted against a variety of shysters, cynics and dodgy lawyers who lend the film its edge as well as material for the underlying homily against urban sophistication. Jean Arthur adds charm as the hard-bitten tabloid hack who falls for Cooper.
Much-emulated screwball comedy, directed by Frank Capra and starring Gary Cooper as the disingenuous rustic type who inherits a $20 million fortune and a new life in New York. There he’s pitted against a variety of shysters, cynics and dodgy lawyers who lend the film its edge as well as material for the underlying homily against urban sophistication. Jean Arthur adds charm as the hard-bitten tabloid hack who falls for Cooper.
Described by its proto-feminist French director Virginie Despentes as an attempt "to seize woman's true sexuality back from the male gaze", Baise-Moi is therefore a visceral, explicit re-imagining of the road movie (Thelma And Louise with cum shots), buffered by chunks of jaded '70s film theory. Too inept to be engaging, too light to be controversial. A mess.
Described by its proto-feminist French director Virginie Despentes as an attempt “to seize woman’s true sexuality back from the male gaze”, Baise-Moi is therefore a visceral, explicit re-imagining of the road movie (Thelma And Louise with cum shots), buffered by chunks of jaded ’70s film theory. Too inept to be engaging, too light to be controversial. A mess.
You could argue a case for Funny Face or Breakfast At Tiffany's, but this William Wyler rom-com?now 50 years young?is perhaps Audrey Hepburn's shining moment. An incognito princess who leaps into love with journalist Gregory Peck (well, we can all dream), you'd have to be brutish not to catch its spark. And Rome's not bad-looking either.
You could argue a case for Funny Face or Breakfast At Tiffany’s, but this William Wyler rom-com?now 50 years young?is perhaps Audrey Hepburn’s shining moment. An incognito princess who leaps into love with journalist Gregory Peck (well, we can all dream), you’d have to be brutish not to catch its spark. And Rome’s not bad-looking either.
A massive worldwide hit, Nia Vardalos' no-budget romp must be something special, right? Well, nope. Inoffensive as it undoubtedly is, it appears to the un-Greek eye to latch 99 per cent of its gags onto national stereotypes. The better scenes, lampooning office hierarchies, are like a good episode of Friends. The rest is Victoria Wood at her most tired. Granny'll love it on telly at Christmas.
A massive worldwide hit, Nia Vardalos’ no-budget romp must be something special, right? Well, nope. Inoffensive as it undoubtedly is, it appears to the un-Greek eye to latch 99 per cent of its gags onto national stereotypes. The better scenes, lampooning office hierarchies, are like a good episode of Friends. The rest is Victoria Wood at her most tired. Granny’ll love it on telly at Christmas.
It's close to implausible that this graphic vignette about a computer geek falling foolishly for a hooker is co-written by Paul Auster and wife, and directed by Wayne Wang. It's not as insightful as it thinks it is, but it's certainly 'erotic'if you consider Molly Parker one of the planet's most alluring women. And she plays the drums.
It’s close to implausible that this graphic vignette about a computer geek falling foolishly for a hooker is co-written by Paul Auster and wife, and directed by Wayne Wang. It’s not as insightful as it thinks it is, but it’s certainly ‘erotic’if you consider Molly Parker one of the planet’s most alluring women. And she plays the drums.
Satyajit Ray's superb 1955 debut Pather Panchali is released here as a three-disc package, including its sequels, Aparajito and The World Of Apu. Influenced by "new realist" European cinema, it tells the ongoing story of a poor, luckless Brahmin family in Bengal, following the fortunes of their youngest son, Apu. No Bollywood-style histrionics or musical interventions?this is beautifully shot, understated, quietly authentic, emotionally devastating cinema.
Satyajit Ray’s superb 1955 debut Pather Panchali is released here as a three-disc package, including its sequels, Aparajito and The World Of Apu. Influenced by “new realist” European cinema, it tells the ongoing story of a poor, luckless Brahmin family in Bengal, following the fortunes of their youngest son, Apu. No Bollywood-style histrionics or musical interventions?this is beautifully shot, understated, quietly authentic, emotionally devastating cinema.
When compared to Baz Luhrmann's hysterical synapse-splitting kitsch, there's something strangely reassuring about Franco Zeffirelli's stodgy '68 classicist version of Romeo And Juliet. Here, the many pleasures include Michael York's fantastic cheekbones as Tybalt, a cherubic Bruce Robinson as Benvolio, and a plethora of badly choreographed sword-fights. Even the infamous shots of Olivia Hussey's 17-year-old breasts seem quaint rather than smutty.
When compared to Baz Luhrmann’s hysterical synapse-splitting kitsch, there’s something strangely reassuring about Franco Zeffirelli’s stodgy ’68 classicist version of Romeo And Juliet. Here, the many pleasures include Michael York’s fantastic cheekbones as Tybalt, a cherubic Bruce Robinson as Benvolio, and a plethora of badly choreographed sword-fights. Even the infamous shots of Olivia Hussey’s 17-year-old breasts seem quaint rather than smutty.
"The Beatles tours were like Fellini's Satyricon," John Lennon once remarked, and seeing the director's 1969 masterpiece of decadence again, you can only wonder how they made it through alive. A bleak but visually stunning crawl through the paranoia, bisexuality and corruption of ancient Rome, it's hardly easy viewing, but stunning all the same as a lurid portrait of a world tipped over into the realms of madness.
“The Beatles tours were like Fellini’s Satyricon,” John Lennon once remarked, and seeing the director’s 1969 masterpiece of decadence again, you can only wonder how they made it through alive. A bleak but visually stunning crawl through the paranoia, bisexuality and corruption of ancient Rome, it’s hardly easy viewing, but stunning all the same as a lurid portrait of a world tipped over into the realms of madness.
A former Uncut film of the month, shamefully under-promoted by the British film industry. Imaginatively based on the cult BS Johnson novel, it stars Nick Moran as a misanthropic bank clerk who elects to wreak vengeance on society for perceived injustices. A sort of Billy Liar with fire in its belly, it's intense, inventive and, finally, explosive.
A former Uncut film of the month, shamefully under-promoted by the British film industry. Imaginatively based on the cult BS Johnson novel, it stars Nick Moran as a misanthropic bank clerk who elects to wreak vengeance on society for perceived injustices. A sort of Billy Liar with fire in its belly, it’s intense, inventive and, finally, explosive.
The crowning glory of the Anthology project, this DVD box set features the 10 hours of footage originally seen on TV and video, plus an extra 80 minutes on a fifth disc. A relaxed Paul, George and Ringo, talking to interviewer Jools Holland, relate The Beatles story from top to bottom with humour, a wealth of anecdote and personal revelation, and a surprising willingness to relive the arguments, the bitter financial battles and the split. Inter-cut with historic clips of the Fabs in action, this definitive documentary arrives with improved picture quality and stereo, and 5.1 surround sound.
The crowning glory of the Anthology project, this DVD box set features the 10 hours of footage originally seen on TV and video, plus an extra 80 minutes on a fifth disc.
A relaxed Paul, George and Ringo, talking to interviewer Jools Holland, relate The Beatles story from top to bottom with humour, a wealth of anecdote and personal revelation, and a surprising willingness to relive the arguments, the bitter financial battles and the split.
Inter-cut with historic clips of the Fabs in action, this definitive documentary arrives with improved picture quality and stereo, and 5.1 surround sound.
