Glasgow Film Festival Cine Skinny - 18 February 2010

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THE OFFICIAL

DAILY GUIDE

THURSDAY 18 FEBRUARY

WHAT’S INSIDE? 2>> INTERVIEW: ZOMBIE

ZOMBIE The electro duo talk about their love for John Carpenter 3>> REVIEWS Bringing up Baby

Vincere

Pachamama

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4>> LISTINGS Comprehensive guide to what’s going on at the Festival 4>>WHAT’S NEW ONLINE? Follow us online on Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.

Opening with a Bang

5>> PRIZES Win 2 tickets to Songs for an Airless Room - a unique blend of opera and cinema.

Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s latest film Micmacs opens this year’s Glasgow Film Festival with a dose of hi-jinks.

THE CINESKINNY

Text: Gail Tolley

Produced by The Skinny magazine in association with the Glasgow Film Festival.

(and a Crash and a Wallop)

HUMAN cannonballs, an extortionist and a man with a bullet lodged in his brain, these are the charming and idiosyncratic characters that inhabit the world of Micmacs – the latest film from French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet. The GFT will tonight take on a Gallic air as the festival welcomes the cult director for this year’s opening gala screening. Known for directing the internationally loved flick Amelie as well as Delicatessen, The City of Lost Children and A Very Long Engagement his latest film sees the filmmaker embrace the playful style he is famed for.

Comedian Dany Boon (not so well known in the UK but one of the highest paid actors in Europe) plays Bazil, a young man who becomes embroiled in a drive-by shooting and gets a stray bullet lodged in his brain. Convinced the arms

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manufacturers behind the weapon have a conspiracy against him, Bazil embarks on a mission for revenge.

He doesn’t go it alone though and at every turn his newly adopted family (a group of misfits who live together on a scrap heap recycling rubbish) are there to help. Mischievous antics and tomfoolery ensure as the eccentric group’s plans begin to take shape. Look forward to 90 minutes of frivolous fun to kick off the start of the festival.

The Skinny film team have moved in to GFT towers especially to bring you The CineSkinny, the official guide to Glasgow Film Festival. We’ll be publishing exclusive interviews, features and reviews for the next ten days – look out for us at festival venues across the city. You can also find all our festival coverage on www.theskinny.co.uk as well as browsing atwww.glasgowfilm festival.org.uk/cineskinny

EDITOR Gail Tolley EDITORIAL Becky Bartlett ASSISTANT DESIGNER Emma Faulkner

GFF BOX OFFICE Order tickets from the box office at www.glasgowfilmfestival.org.uk or call 0141 332 6535 or visit Glasgow Film Theatre 12 Rose Street, Glasgow, G3 6RB info@glasgowfilmfestival.org.uk

Things That Go Bump in the Night Parisian electro duo Zombie Zombie talk about their love for the great horror filmmaker/ John Carpenter.

Text: Michael Gillespie JOHN Carpenter once summarised his reputation internationally thus: “In France, I’m an auteur; in Germany, a filmmaker; in Britain; a genre film director; and, in the USA, a bum”. He’s hardly in a minority there: it would take the writers of Cahiers du Cinema (who would become the auteurs of the Nouvelle Vague) to recognise the artistry and craftsmanship of the golden age directors that Carpenter cites as influences. In fact, Carpenter is one of very few American directors who can truly lay claim to auteurship, being that he writes, directs, produces, appears in and of course, scores his films. In keeping with the French tradition of appreciating American authorship, Parisian electro duo Zombie Zombie will be paying homage to the works of the great auteur/bum at Mono on 18 February, with a spectacular set devoted to the best music from Carpenter’s best movies.

Zombie Zombie debuted in 2006 and consists of Etienne Jaumet and Cosmic Neman. Neman seemed relaxed and sanguine when I spoke to him in anticipation of the event.

He even had a few good things to say about Glasgow: “I love Glasgow very much! I always try and visit Mono Records. I love the places, the people, I love certain parts of the city, the dark side of the city; the weather’s always interesting! And I wish we were there on Sunday so I could go to Optimo at the Sub Club!”

As their name suggests, Zombie Zombie have a passion for horror movies and the music that has made many of them so memorable (and so terrifying). “I just remember growing up watching all these horror movies”, Cosmic says. “We first heard these songs and music late at night, so they really got to us”. Influenced by the music of Carpenter and Dario Argento/George A. Romero regulars Goblin (who sadly disbanded last year), the twosome share a profound enthusiasm for old-school arrangements and instruments. As Neman puts it, “Carpenter and Goblin were using the same instruments we were using – we wanted to know what they were doing there, how they got all these emotions from these

instruments, and how that works when you put it to images and put it on the big screen”.

It’s set to be a unique and original evening of music, but how did the project begin? “The idea came from GFF, from the people who run the Music and Film Festival. We loved the idea, we love all the old horror movies, and we’d thought about doing something like this, but when the festival asked us, we started working on it with real intensity.”

Cosmic was still working on the project when I spoke to him, which may explain his reticence when asked what audiences can expect from the show. “We’re not ready yet!

We’re still deciding exactly what we’ll be doing. But we chose our favourite movies of John Carpenter: Halloween, The Fog, The Thing (a rare electro work by Ennio Morricone), Assault On Precinct 13 - the four major ones, of course, so

you should be hearing something of those. It would be good to do some of the other stuff, like the stuff he did with Anthrax, but we’ll just be using keyboards and drum machines. But I’m sure we’ll pick things up as we go along”.

While Giorgio Moroder and Tangerine Dream would become the most famous of electronic film composers throughout the seventies and eighties, Neman, and many others, are keen to address Carpenter’s pioneering spirit and under-appreciation in the same field. “It’s worth noting that Precinct 13 was one of the first electronic soundtracks, I think he just used one synthesiser and a drum machine. These are the kinds of things we use, so we have a lot in common - though he’s so good, I don’t want to compete or compare us! The influence his film music has had is that it’s really simple but really efficient and powerful, it

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shows that you don’t have to do so much to have that effect”.

He’s hardly been on top form in the last few years, but Carpenter is all set for a major comeback this year with The Ward, and his early works remain as popular as ever.

What is it about the man that just keeps people tuning in and freaking out? “I really like it when you’re a director – it’s like you see in his [interview with] Rodriguez – it’s best to just ignore the stupid Hollywood stuff, all the politics and money and things, because in the end it’s your own project and you have to be true to that. I guess the best compliment you could give him is that he’s an amateur - it’s the best thing you can be in making art – just do it yourself and do what feels right for you”.

Mono, Thursday 18 Feb at 8:00

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Reviews PACHAMAMA

Director: Toshifumi Matsushita Starring: Christian Huaygua, Luis Mamani

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A FATHER and son tread the old trade route through the Bolivian Andes, bartering salt from the Uyuni flats near their home for regional produce - the corn, quinua, pumpkin and melon that constitute their staples - in a story about nature and coming-of-age, whose leading character is the land.

Despite the remarkable physicality of its youngest actors, the people of Pachamama are generally figures and faces, not emotive performers.

The plot is spare yet elegant, operating on an expressive level - it is told through tightly bound but loosely structured vignettes (like the song

of the boy whose father dies in a Potosi mine), intoxicating dreamscapes and tangible, phenomenal landscapes. The spiritual beauty of Bolivia makes the photography easy: glacial mountains, rich red fields, fairy-lit lakes present themselves as wonders. But the sheer sense of otherness come from masterful editing and composition by a cultural outsider, Japanese director Toshifumi Matsushita. A naturalist ethnography somehow made exhilarating, surreal and sublime. [James P Campbell] GFT, Fri 19 Feb at 15.30 GFT, Mon 22 Feb 11.30

BRINGING UP BABY

VINCERE

Director: Howard Hawks Starring: Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn, Walter Catlett

Director: Marco Bellocchio Starring: Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Filippo Timi

FILMMAKERS, critics and cineastes alike can’t give anything but love to this baby, but that wasn’t always the case. Released in 1938, it bombed at the box office and Cary Grant thought he’d never make a name for himself… yet Bringing Up Baby remains one of the best comedies ever made. Its story of a repressed palaeontologist (Grant shining through Harold Lloyd specs) ensnared by a capricious young woman (Hepburn, who is excellent) and the ensuing farce that drives them crazy in love has aged exceptionally well, partly due to its thoroughly modern speed

MARCO BELLOCCHIO previously explored the impact of national politics on a personal level with Buongiorno, notte, a quietly observed depiction of the kidnapping of Italian political leader Aldo Moro by the Red Brigade. Vincere also considers the impact of high politics on the lives of individuals through the tragic story of Ida Dalser, the secret wife of Italian fascist leader Mussolini. Dalser helped fund the leader’s early political career but was quickly sidelined and subsequently silenced when he began to gain increasing notoriety.

Mussolini then went on to marry his

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and relentless energy (watch last year’s In the Loop and try to spot the difference), but also because of its overarching influence on the rom-com (see “quirky chick grabs a geek” movies like Annie Hall, What’s Up Doc?, Garden State and 500 Days of Summer), few examples of which have successfully captured its winning spirit. Oh, and thanks to a sparkling script and Hawks’ finely tuned direction, it’s hilarious.

[Michael Gillespie] GFT, Thurs 18 Feb, 13.00 GFT, Fri 19 Feb, 11.00 Grosvenor, Sun 21 Feb, 18.00

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long term mistress Rachele Guidi.

Dalser’s constant assertions about her true relationship with the leader meant she was forcibly retained in a psychiatric hospital for much of her life and separated from her son. Vincere (which translates as ‘to win’) highlights the destructive effects of Mussolini’s actions on a very personal level. It’s a handsomely shot feature and an absorbing account of a side of Mussolini’s life that was kept secret for many years.

[Gail Tolley] GFT, Fri 19 Feb at 13.00 Cineworld, Sat 20 Feb at 18.45

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Comprehensive film and event listings for each day of the festival THURS 18 FEB BRINGING UP BABY @ GLASGOW FILM THEATRE 01:00PM Until 03:00PM OPENING GALA: MICMACS @ GLASGOW FILM THEATRE 07:30PM Until 09:45PM ZOMBIE ZOMBIE PERFORM THE MUSIC OF JOHN CARPENTER @ MONO 08:00PM Until 11:00PM OPENING GALA: MICMACS @ GLASGOW FILM THEATRE 08:15PM Until 10:00PM Full listings available at www.theskinny.co.uk

WHAT’S NEW ONLINE? Don’t worry if you don’t manage to pick up your print copy - simply get online for your CineSkinny fix. We’ll be uploading all our reviews, interviews and features onto The Skinny’s website for your reading pleasure, www.theskinny.co.uk or you can peruse each issue at www.glasgowfilmfestival. org.uk/cineskinny

COMPETITION For no reason other than to be generous, we have two tickets to give away for Martin Parker’s live music event, Songs for an Airless Room (Fri 19 Feb, 18.45, GFT). An amalgamation of documentary, theatre and opera, featuring vocals by Phil Minton and percussion

by Joby Burgess, it’s sure to be a unique event. To win, all you need to tell us is:

What opera did Anthony Minghella direct in 2005?

Email your details with the answer as subject line to: gail@theskinny.co.uk by 10am Friday.

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AnCnoc will be serving up tasty drinks at tonight’s Opening Gala.

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