All articles by Allan Hunter – Page 61
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News
Edinburgh celebrates British cinema with major premieres
British cinema is alive andwell and flourishing in Edinburgh. That's the message from theprogramme of the 59th Edinburgh International Film Festival, launched thismorning. The fourth Festival under artisticdirector Shane Danielsen has one of the event's strongest line-ups of worldpremieres and star guests in recent years with British cinema stronglyfeatured. The ...
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Reviews
The King
Dir: James Marsh. US.2005. 105mins.Last year Gael GarciaBernal was the face of Cannes, with his contrasting performances in BadEducation and The Motorcycle Diaries. This year, he extends hisrange even further, smouldering with bad boy sex appeal as a prodigal son in TheKing, an English-language Gothic drama set in the American ...
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Reviews
Northeast (Nordeste)
Dir/scr: Juan Solanas.Fr-Sp-Bel-Arg. 2005. 104mins.A woman's selfish questto adopt a baby becomes an eye-opening journey into the heart of Argentina in Northeast,a first feature from director Juan Solanas that contrasts the beauty of thecountry with the ugliness of what happens there.The personal story is thekey to a political statement as ...
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Reviews
Down In The Valley
Dir/scr: David Jacobson.US. 2005. 125mins.Hailed as the De Niro ofhis generation, Edward Norton finally has a chance to remind us why in DownIn The Valley. After a string of supporting roles and odd career choices (TheItalian Job, The Score, Kingdom Of Heaven etc), he once againtakes centre stage with a ...
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Reviews
Merry Christmas (Joyeux Noel)
Dir/scr: Christian Carion.France. 2005. 115minsThe miracle of aChristmas truce in the trenches of World War One is transformed into apolished, pan-European heartwarmer in Merry Christmas. Refreshinglytraditional in comparison with many competition titles, it places its faith inthe virtues of straightforward storytelling, handsome production values and atouching real life incident. It ...
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Reviews
The Great Ecstasy Of Robert Carmichael
Dir: Thomas Clay. UK.2005. 96minsThomas Clay announceshimself as a provocative new British talent with the disturbing state of thenation wake up call The Great Ecstasy Of Robert Carmichael. The 24year-old's ambitious debut feature carries echoes of such uncompromisingEuropean auteurs as Michael Haneke and Gaspar Noe before taking a turn intovideo ...
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Reviews
The Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada
Dir: Tommy Lee Jones. US.2005. 120mins.A lone quest for justice becomes an ode to friendship andthe common ground between different cultures in The Three Burials OfMelquiades Estrada, a thoroughly respectable feature-length directorialdebut from Oscar-winning actor Tommy Lee Jones.An actor who believes thatless is more, Jones brings the same approach to ...
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Reviews
Don't Come Knocking
Dir: Wim Wenders. US.2005. 122mins.Reunited for the first timein 20 years, Wim Wenders and Sam Shepard fail to rekindle the magic of theircollaboration on Palme D'Or winner Paris, Texas. Don't Come Knockingis a film of striking compositions and telling moments that never achieves thetender depths of emotion that distinguished its ...
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Reviews
Three Times
Dir: Hou Hsiao-Hsien Taiwan.2005. 120minsTaiwanese director HouHsiao-Hsien is in the mood for love with Three Times, a tryptich ofromantic stories in which the same actors (Shu Qi and Chang Chen) playdifferent characters in 1966, 1911 and the present day. An ambitious notionresults in a slight, wisp of a film that ...
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News
Mackenzie recruits Jamie Bell for Foe
Director David Mackenzie's next film will be Hallam Foe, a £4madaptation of the Peter Jinks novel, to star Jamie Bell. Mackenzie's breakthrough film Young Adam screened in Un CertainRegard two years ago and he was back in Cannes this week seeking finance for HallamFoe,which is scheduled to shoot in Scotland ...
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News
Haneke's Hidden leads the race for Palme d'Or
Nobody has stumbled across a Brown Bunny. Nobody has discovered amasterpiece. That seemed to sum up the feeling about this year's competitionfilms as Cannes heads towards its last days. A sluggish edition thus far hasn't stirred the passions of some yearsand the decision to support veteran filmmakers has brought mixed ...
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Reviews
Broken Flowers
Dir/scr: Jim Jarmusch.US. 2005. 106minsAfter diversions into genre-subversion like mysticalwestern Dead Man and modern day samurai saga Ghost Dog, Jim Jarmusch makes afull scale return to the kind of lugubrious, meticulously observed comedy thatfirst made his reputation in the 1980s.Commercial prospects arevery robust for Broken Flowers, a film that fans ...
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Reviews
Manderlay
Dir/scr: Lars Von Trier. Den-Swe-Fr-UK-Ger-Neth.2005. 139mins.The road to hell is pavedwith the noblest of intentions in Manderlay, the stunning second film inLars Von Trier's American trilogy. A philosophical debate on slavery, equality,oppression, free will and racism, it will inevitably be read as anti-Americanin general and a specific response to the ...
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Reviews
Kilometre Zero
Dir/scr: Hiner Saleem. Fr-Kurd. 2005. 96minsOne person's illegal war is another's act of sweetliberation in Kilometre Zero. Inspired by the toppling of SaddamHussein, Iraqi Kurdistan director Hiner Saleem has made a film that vividlyilluminates the brutal realities of life under the tyrant's rule. Pettydictators lurk at every checkpoint, people are ...
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Reviews
Lemming
Dir: Dominik Moll. Fr. 2005.129minsFive years ago, Cannes helped to put Dominik Moll on theinternational map with the rapturous response for Harry, Un Ami Qui VousVeut Du Bien. The response to his eagerly awaited follow up is likely to bemore equivocal. A psychological thriller with a peppering of Bunuellian blackcomedy, ...
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Reviews
Match Point
Dir/scr: Woody Allen. US.2005. 124mins.Match Point would seem to prove the theory that youcan't teach new tricks to old dogs. Quintessential New York filmmaker WoodyAllen may have relocated to London but his eternal preoccupations with love,death, broken hearts and guilty minds remain central to the story. However, MatchPoint does show ...
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News
Allen's Melinda to open first Glasgow festival
Woody Allen's MelindaAnd Melinda will open the first Glasgow World Film Festival on February 9. The event, sponsored byGlasgow City Council and Visit Scotland, will screen seventy films over thefollowing eight days closing with Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic onFebruary 17. Highlights include recentAmerican box-office success Coach Carter with Samuel ...
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News
Hay appointed Scottish Screen chief executive
ScottishScreen has confirmed the appointment of Edinburgh-born Ken Hay as their newChief Executive.Hay replaces Steve McIntyre who chose not to renew hiscontract when it ended in August.Thelengthy search for a successor had thrown a number of respected Scottish namesinto the ring, notably Edinburgh International Film Festival managing directorGinnie Atkinson.The 40year-old ...
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Reviews
The Alzheimer Case (De Zaak Alzheimer)
Dir:Erik Van Looy. Belgium. 2003. 120minsEveryoneis looking for the fresh twist that can raise a thriller out of the ranks ofthe ordinary. Erik Van Looy appears to have found it in The Alzheimer Case.The twist here is a hired killer turned avenging angel struggling with theonset of Alzheimers. His faltering ...