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  • Reviews

    Singing Behind The Screens (Cantando Dietro I Paraventi)

    20 October 2003

    Dir: Ermanno Olmi. Italy. 2003. 100 mins.Years ago, David Thomson wrote "A question mark hangs over Ermanno Olmi, as if he needed some gust of passion or surrealism to free him from the aspirations of realism". This gust began to blow in Olmi's last film, The Profession Of Arms, and ...

  • Reviews

    The Missing

    20 October 2003

    Dir. Lee Kang-Sheng. Taiwan. 2003. 84 min.Sharing the top award in Pusan's New Currents competition, the debut of actor Lee Kang-Sheng as writer and director indicates beyond doubt that he shares the visual and spiritual world of his mentor and friend, Tsai Ming-Liang, in whose films he has regularly appeared ...

  • Reviews

    Runaway Jury

    15 October 2003

    Dir: Gary Fleder. US. 2003. 127 mins.John Grisham adaptations were big box office performers in the mid-nineties but it's been almost six years since Hollywood last put one of the author's brisk legal thrillers onto the big screen. This Regency Enterprises version of Grisham's 1996 bestseller about a hijacked corporate ...

  • Reviews

    Rosenstrasse

    15 October 2003

    Dir. Margarethe von Trotta. Germany, 2003. 136mins.A classical, straightforward, honest and deeply felt reconstruction of a little known Second World War incident, which provided a little ray of light in a sea of darkness, Margarethe von Trotta's first feature in nine years is a worthy addition to a mass of ...

  • Reviews

    Carmen

    10 October 2003

    Dir: Vicente Aranda. Sp-UK-It. 125 minsAs in any of the dozens of previous film versions of Carmen, the revelation in Vicente Aranda's latest take on the classic Merimee novel (rather than the Bizet opera) is Carmen herself, played here by actress Paz Vega. After provocative turns in Julio Medem's Sex ...

  • Reviews

    Untold Scandal

    8 October 2003

    Dir. E J-Yong. Korea 2003. 120 mins.E j-Yong's new film is the best proof that a good story will strike roots wherever it is planted and, once lit from the right angle, will bear fruit. Last weekend Untold Scandal enjoyed the biggest opening ever in Korean history (over $5m in ...

  • Reviews

    Les Sentiments

    8 October 2003

    Dir: Noemi Lvovsky. France. 2003. 95mins.French director Noemie Lvovsky came to notice with two small autobiographical features set at different stages in the life of four girls. The second, Life Doesn't Scare Me (La Vie Ne Me Fait Pas Peur, 1999) earned Lvovsky a slew of festival prizes, including a ...

  • Reviews

    School Of Rock

    6 October 2003

    Dir: Richard Linklater. USA 2003. 100 minsOne of the best things about Richard Linklater's superb new comedy, School Of Rock, is that it doesn't take itself too seriously, as director Linklater has on occasion been wont to do. Employing the highest of high concepts - failed rock guitarist impersonates ...

  • Reviews

    Rhinoceros Eyes

    6 October 2003

    Dir/scr. Aaron Woodley. US. 2003. 92 min.Rich in atmosphere, Rhinoceros Eyes is an impressive directorial debut on many levels. The film, which premiered at Toronto, won the festival's Discovery prize for developing filmmakers as selected by the press corps. But Woodley, who is also debuting as a screenwriter, doesn't have ...

  • Reviews

    Doppelganger

    3 October 2003

    Dir. Kyoshi Kurosawa. Japan 2003. 107 mins.After the disappointing Cannes performance of his last film Bright Future, Japan's current cult master of bizarre mystery is back on more comfortable grounds with this exploration of a classical gothic theme, transferred into the world of modern research of prosthetic machines. Kurosawa uses ...

  • Reviews

    Travellers & Magicians

    3 October 2003

    Dir: Khyentse Norbu. Bhutan. 2003. 105 mins.Travellers & Magicians is the first feature film to be shot entirely within the secret and reclusive Kingdom of Bhutan. Like Khyentse Norbu's debut, The Cup, this magic realist fable is being handled by UK-based sales company HanWay. But buyers may find it less ...

  • Reviews

    Travellers & Magicians

    3 October 2003

    Dir: Khyentse Norbu. Bhutan. 2003. 105 mins.Travellers & Magicians is the first feature film to be shot entirely within the secret and reclusive Kingdom of Bhutan. Like Khyentse Norbu's debut, The Cup, this magic realist fable is being handled by UK-based sales company HanWay. But buyers may find it less ...

  • Reviews

    Evil (Ondskan)

    2 October 2003

    Dir: Mikael Hafstrom. 2003. Swe. 113 minsEvil (Ondskan), the third feature of Swedish director Mikael Hafstrom, plays well enough on the big screen but, aside from likely appearances at a few of the bigger festivals like Toronto, where it showed in the Contemporary World Cinema section, it's not sufficiently accomplished ...

  • Reviews

    Take My Eyes (Te Doy Mis Ojos)

    1 October 2003

    Dir: Iciar Bollain. 2003.Spain. 106mins.This realist take on domestic abuse was the local favourite at last week's Donostia-San Sebastian International Film Festival, where rumour had it the film would have picked up more than the deserved best actor and actress prizes if festival rules didn't preclude giving a single competition ...

  • Reviews

    Gettin' Square

    1 October 2003

    Dir: Jonathan Teplitzky. Australia. 2003. 100minsThe well-planned heist that 'goes wrong' to a thumping rock soundtrack, the bunch of lovable desperadoes in hock to the real nasties, the reliably unexpected twist in the narrative tail-all are in place in this attractively virile Aussie gangster comedy. Arguably, Guy Ritchie's British Lock, ...

  • Reviews

    The Miracle (Il Miracolo)

    1 October 2003

    Dir: Edoardo Winspeare. Italy. 2003. 89mins.Released on a limited Milan and Rome run the day after its Venice festival competition screening, Edoardo Winspeare's The Miracle racked up an impressive screen average then second only to The Hulk. This is the third film from the talented young southern Italian director, whose ...

  • Reviews

    The Story Of The Weeping Camel

    30 September 2003

    Dir: Luigi Falorni & Byambasuren Davaa. Mongolia/Germany. 2003. 90mins.One of the few buyer talking points at this year's Toronto International Film Festival, The Story Of The Weeping Camel is an illuminating portrait of nomadic shepherds in the Gobi desert which recalls everything from Nanook Of The North to Nikita Mikhalkov's ...

  • Reviews

    The Rundown

    30 September 2003

    Dir: Peter Berg. US. 2003. 104 mins. Having successfully flexed his muscles in last year's Mummy spin-off The Scorpion King, wrestler-turned-actor The Rock proves in The Rundown that he can also carry a contemporary movie - with a little help from some more experienced co-workers at any rate. This entertaining ...

  • Reviews

    November (Noviembre)

    30 September 2003

    Dir: Achero Manas. Spain. 2003. 104minsActor-turned-director Achero Manas marks his position as one of the most interesting young filmmakers in Spain with November, but it is unlikely that the film will get him recognition beyond what he gained from his impressive debut Pellet (El Bola). But this well-acted and great ...

  • Reviews

    Kill Bill Vol 1

    29 September 2003

    Dir: Quentin Tarantino. US. 2003. 110 mins.Kill Bill, the fourth film by Quentin Tarantino (as it is announced in the opening credits), continues the director's tradition of raiding other films, film-makers' styles and his own soundtrack collection. And like his three previous films, the result of his looting is a ...