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All articles by Allan Hunter – Page 61
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News
Night People, GAMERz win Scottish funding
Ensemble drama Night People and comic fantasy GAMERzare the latest features to be funded under the New Found Films scheme runby Scottish Screen, Scottish Television and Grampian Television.Each feature will have a budget of £300,000 and both areexpected to go into production in the first months of 2005.Written by Adrian ...
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News
BAFTA Scotland announces film award nominees
Young Adam, American Cousins and Afterlifelead the nominations for the BAFTA Scotland Awards to be held in Glasgow onNovember 14.A significantexpansion of the previous biennial awards honouring new talent, these nowannual awards will honour Scottish achievement at all levels as well asrecognising developments in new technology and new media.Scots actor ...
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Reviews
A Good Woman
Dir: Mike Barker. UK-It.2004. 93minsA light souffle of a film, AGood Woman takes a decent stab at transferring Oscar Wilde's enduring play LadyWindermere's Fan from Victorian England to 1930s Italy. The crisp wit andsly social satire are a little lost in translation and the stellar cast are notalways at ease ...
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Reviews
Brothers (Brodre)
Dir: Susanne Bier. Den. 2004. 110minsThe consequences of love and the personal trauma ofglobal conflict prove a potent combination in Brothers. The latestcollaboration between Open Hearts director Susanne Bier and screenwriterAnders Thomas Jensen takes the stuff of cheap melodrama and transforms it intoa heartfelt human drama.Once again their collaboration is ...
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Reviews
Kung Fu Hustle (Gungfu)
Dir: Stephen Chow. HK-Chi. 2004. 95minsThe martial arts film to end all martial arts films, Kung FuHustle makes Kill Bill look like a playground scuffle. StephenChow's affectionate salute to the era of Bruce Lee and the Shaw Brothers is ajaw-dropping mixture of blistering fight sequences, slapstick sadism anddelirious black comedy.Action ...
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Reviews
Imaginary Heroes
Dir/scr: DanHarris. US. 2004. 112minsThe great soap opera of life is revisited once again in Imaginary Heroes,an entertaining but superficial tug at the heartstrings. The directorial debutof X-Men 2 screenwriter Dan Harris picks at the scabs of a family'semotional wounds to reveal a considerable collection of guilty secrets anddamaging deceptions.Superioracting ...
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News
Toronto serves up succession of Oscar contenders
So, it was sometimes difficult to get into screenings, itwas impossible to see everything you wanted and Vera Drake was nowhere to be seen. Journalists always like tohave some complaints but in truth the 2004 edition of the Toronto InternationalFilm Festival left little to grumble about.Quantity was matched by quality ...
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Reviews
Downfall (Der Untergang)
Dir: Oliver Hirschbiegel.Ger. 2004. 150minsDoes the world really needanother film on Adolf Hitler' Downfall answers the question in theaffirmative. Recent years have seen the release of Max, Moloch,the documentary Blind Spot and the Robert Carlyle mini-series, but Downfallis distinctive and potentially much more commercial.It covers seeminglyfamiliar material from the fresh ...
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Reviews
Beyond The Sea
Dir: Kevin Spacey. UK-Ger.2004. 121minsAn old-fashioned,razzle-dazzle biopic, Beyond The Sea breezes through the life of 1960sshowbusiness all-rounder Bobby Darin with a song and a dance and a ton ofchutzpah. Kevin Spacey's second directorial effort (after Albino Alligator)is a true labour of love; beautifully designed, richly photographed andglistening with ambition.Spacey the ...
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Reviews
Ray
Dir: Taylor Hackford. US.2004. 152minsA scene-stealing co-starin Collateral, Jamie Foxx becomes a star attraction in Ray. Hisaccomplished performance as music icon Ray Charles has Oscar contender writtenall over it and offers conclusive proof of his leading man potential.The film itself is a solid,diligent biopic in which director Taylor Hackford displays ...
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Reviews
Millions
Dir: Danny Boyle UK-US.2004. 97minsTen years after Shallow Grave, director DannyBoyle once again discovers that sudden wealth is not without its complications.In Millions it is innocent schoolboys rather than larcenous flatmateswho are faced with a cash windfall.Boyle's approach to the material is equally dynamicbut the screenplay by Frank Cottrell Boyce ...
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Reviews
Kinsey
Dir/scr: Bill Condon US.2004. 124minsA deftly handled mixture ofpersonal drama and social history, Kinseysculpts a compelling film from the life of the pioneering scientist who devotedhimself to the study of human sexuality. Beautifully judged and paced, it isboth intellectually stimulating and emotionally satisfying.Illuminating the presentthrough dramatising the past, it offers ...
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Reviews
I Heart Huckabees
Dir: David O. Russell.US. 2004. 106minsFive years after ThreeKings, writer-director David O Russell returns with an absurdistexistential comedy that is more idiosyncratic and daring than anything he hasmade before. I Heart Huckabees combines the lickety split verbalgymnastics of a Preston Sturges with the philosophical musings of a StephenHawking and then ...
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News
Love rules in Edinburgh
Pawel Pawlikowski's My Summer Of Love was named as the winner of the Michael Powell Awardfor Best British Film on the closing day (August 29) of this year'sEdinburgh International Film Festival.His intense evocation of the fleeting relationship between twolonely teenage girls saw off competition from the likes of Ae Fond ...
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Reviews
The Hamburg Cell
Dir: Antonia Bird. UK.2004.100minsIs the world ready for a dispassionate account of theterrorist cell behind the 9/11 atrocities' Is it possible to understand thehuman impulses behind such unconscionable actions'Those are just two of thequestions prompted by The Hamburg Cell, a fastidious, open-mindeddrama-documentary recreating the events that led to the attack ...
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News
Euro DocuZone to go live in November
The dream of a pan-European distribution network fordocumentary films is set to become a reality this November as the NetherlandsFilm Fund DocuZone initiative expands to cover two hundred cinemas in nineEuropean countries.Backed by the European Union's Media Plus programme, localfunders and private partnerships, the European Docuzone (EDZ) will use thelatest ...
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Reviews
The Taste Of Tea (Cha No Aji)
Dir/scr/ed: IshiiKatsuhito. Japan. 2004. 143minsA little eccentricitygoes a long way in The Taste Of Tea, the third feature from IshiiKatsuhito that bills itself as a fusion of the classical humanist dramas of Ozuand the manga-shaped sensibility of a director who worked on the animationsequence in Tarantino's Kill Bill Vol 1.In ...
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Reviews
Inside I'm Dancing
DirDamien O'Donnell. Ireland-UK. 2004.104minsThebrief, liberating alliance between two disabled men is the basis ofheart-warming drama in Inside I'm Dancing. Cynics might argue thatdisability is a convenient short cut to emotional engagement and awardsattention but Damien O'Donnell's third feature largely skirts easysentimentality to create a film that could melt the hardest ...
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Reviews
The Purifiers
Dir/scr: Richard Jobson.UK. 2004. 85minsThere are some areas of the international market in whichBritish cinema cannot reasonably expect to compete. A meaty, martial artsthriller might be one of them. That hasn't stopped ambitious writer-directordirector Richard Jobson making a plucky attempt to create his own pulpyScottish version of a Hong Kong ...