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John Carter // Werner Herzog // Ecstacy // Things to see
Contents
April 2011
February Features
Reviews Section
Page 4: John Carter of Mars
Page 18: The Hunger Games
Page 8: Werner Herzog Q&A
Page 19: John Carter
Page 14: Why we love the Femme Page 20: The Pirates: In an Adventure With Scientists Fatale Page 16: Top 5 Femme Fatales
Page 21: 21 Jump Street Page 22: Irvine Welsh’s Ecstacy
Regulars
Page 23: The Monk
Page 3: Editor’s Note and Contributors
Page 24: The Cabin in the Woods
Page 24: Things to See in April and May
Page 25: Blackthorn
Contributors Editor’s Note Editors
Joshua Hammond: Editor-in-Chief joshua@pictureshow-magazine.com
Dale Pearson: Editor
dale@ pictureshow-magazine.com
Words
Joshua Hammond Dale Pearson Chris Binding Benjamin Schwarz Benjamin Ostell
Online
Find us at pictureshow-magazine.com Like us on facebook Follow us @PictureShowMag
Welcome Back to PictureShow Magazine This will be your last issue for 7 weeks! So treasure it and get everything you can from every word that’s in the page. With upcoming final essay deadlines and the prospect of Graduation looming we felt that it would be wise to make this our last issue until the bulk of University work was out of the way so we can focus on PictureShow properly. It’s a great issue for you to peruse too. I look at why John Carter has been such a Box Office disaster. Dale looks at why the character of the Femme Fatale has been such a prominant feature of cinema for the last 80 years. There’s even a recorded Q&A with Werner Herzog which provides a great insight into his new film, Into The Abyss. Enjoy the issue and we’ll see you in June fresh from leaving our dungeons of studying (or the Library as it’s more commonly known). Joshua Hammond, Editor-in-Chief
Barsoom and Bust
JOSHUA HAMMOND
Joshua Hammond establishes why the fiFInancial failure of Disney’s latest is a terrible thing for movies.
In PictureShow’s debut issue I speculated about why it is that there were so many films revolving around aliens, invasions and why they were so badly executed. This month we have seen the release of John Carter which has been the latest in a long line of spectacular financial flops involving aliens since last year - Mars Needs Moms, Green Lantern and Cowboys & Aliens to name a few. One could be forgiven in thinking that I would relish the spectacular downfall of the latest big budget studio affair, however, the catastrophe that was John Carter is actually cause for concern. It may not seem like it, but Disney took a number of considerable risks with John Carter and this failure of epic proportions can only result in warding off ALL studios from taking any sort of financial risk again. This article details the considerable risk Disney took with John Carter and why we’ll never see anything like it ever again. Whilst many directors have moved successfully from the world of animation to live action filmmaking, it is uncommon for a director of relatively small reputation and to be given such a fantastic and overwhelming budget for their first feature. Andrew Stanton was the man at the helm of Disney’s titanic misadventure, the man responsible for the Pixar Classics A Bug’s Life, Finding Nemo and Wall-E. Disney’s choice initially looked like a fantastic one, Stanton had created works with considerable CGI before and set them in space, he had even picked up two academy awards for his efforts. Stanton’s talent should not be doubted, however, his background in computer animation put him at more of a disadvantage than directors with experience in live action, effects heavy features. Disney’s risk
becomes more prominent considering the budget they gave Stanton to work with. It is rare for a first time, live action director to be given a considerable budget, it is rarer still for a novice director to be given one of the largest budgets in history. Aside from big SF fans or voracious readers of Edgar Rice Burrough’s work, how familiar is John Carter of Mars to a wider audience? One of Burrough’s more obscure works, it shrinks into the background in comparison next to the more popular turn of the century SF works by HG Wells and Jules Verne. It is arguable that John Carter of Mars is not even Burrough’s most famous work, that title is held by Tarzan, which has been adapted mulitple times for the big screen, once even by Disney. To adapt such an unknown property is risky by any standards, the only previous attempt to adapt John Carter came from a 2009 diect to DVD affair put together by The Asylum (The studio that brought you Transmorphers and Mega Python vs Gatoroid). How familiar then is a title known solely as John Carter? Evidently, Disney were aware of the recent trend of massive box office flops set in space (Avatar aside), and as John Carter of Mars was an obscure source to begin with, they decided to distance themselves from the Mars-ness of the feature causing a great deal of confusion about what the film was even about. John Carter is chock full of recognisable and respected film actors such as Bryan Cranston, Mark Strong and Willem Dafoe. The lead actor and star, Taylor Kitsch, however, is a young actor who has made his name on American TV. His starring
role on Friday Night Lights garnered a great deal of acclaim from critics and grabbed the attention of film companies, Kitch made a minor appearance in X:Men Origins: Wolverine as Gambit. This kind of trust in a young untried talent such as Kitsch’s is incredibly uncommon. It looks set to become even more uncommon following this box office bomb, it seems far more likely that actors either with more draw than talent will be chosen (a la Timberlake) or roles for younger actors will be made to look older in order to bring in some proven talent. Younger central characters have been chastised for their woodenness or unease on screen but the Box Office has often made up for this, Mark Hamill was 25 when he was cast in Star Wars and whilst his performance was certainly not of a high calibre, the film went stratospheric. Ryan Reynolds is a proven box office draw, but Green Lantern was an absolute disaster, there is no reason to doubt younger and more inexperienced actors because of one film. There has been an awful lot of talk about the budget of John Carter without any real explanation about why John Carter seems to have been such a misstep. The total budget for the production of John Carter was $250 million mainly due to heavy SFX work and a large cast, marketing for the film was likely to have cost Disney $100 million for trailers
and prime ad spots during the Superbowl. Due to inflation and extra costs prior to release of any film it is a given rule that to make any sort of money from a film a studio has to take 150% of the film’s production and advertising costs, meaning that for Disney to make a profit the film would have to make $525 million. Currently the film has made $265 million, largely due to extremely positive worldwide box office, it was a record breaker in Russia for it’s opening weekend. Providing John Carter reaches $300 million in the remaining territories it is being shown, that adds up to a rough loss of $225 million, an estimate verified by Disney themselves. This would make the film one of the largest financial losses in history. After such a bruising, Disney now has extra pressure on its next few releases, Brave from Disney’s Pixar imprint and The Avengers (or Marvel’s Avengers Assemble here in the UK) from Marvel which Disney also owns, neither of which have been cheap. If either of these two films were to underperform, it would put Disney’s long term plans in real jeopardy. John Carter was meant to be part of a series, as is The Avengers which will be succeeded by Iron Man 3 and Captain America 2. Brave is also Pixar’s latest following the underwhelming Cars 2. Disney’s financial investment in these properties is considerable and another White Ape sized failure cannot be tolerated.
Star Wars or Green Lantern. Dune had a relatively inexperienced director in David Lynch, who was unused to managing such a large budget. At the time a great deal mad of the size of Dune’s budget. Dune was based on a novel of the same name whic was just as confusing and obtuse a source. Kyle Machlachlan, a young and inexperieced actor was picked as the lead. Dune is widely regarded as a failure, it fails to fully encompass its source material, the acting is wooden and it only made 75% of its budget back at the Box Office. At the time of release, Universal Pictures thought Dune was so complicated they released a series of notes to be given at the ticket office to accompany the film. Whilst these comparisons may seem unnecessary, it will be interesting to note how Andrew Stanton and Taylor Kitsch’s careers develop and if they progress in a similar fashion to David Lynch and Kyle Maclachlan’s. Studios rarely take risks on projects such as John Carter and Dune and rarely put as much faith into untested talents, it seems a shame that our Box Offices will now be a lighter shade of beige. This is not to say that John Carter or Dune are great films or even misunderstood films, they’re both pretty bad, these films may not be the highInteresting comparisons can be drawn between lights of anyone’s careers, but they represent a faith John Carter and Dune, the 1984 David Lynch mov- in untested talents that studios are losing year on ie. These comparisons are more fair than those of year. Disney’s advertising strategy for John Carter seemed to be muddled. Advertising campaigns for larger financial ventures such as John Carter have a tendency to try and involve the audience in the story before they even enter a cinema. Studios have recently been using viral marketing, alternative reality games and treasure hunts to try and make sure that people who are interested in the film pay to see it in a cinema. More traditionally they offer trailers with some plot points that suggest the path the film’s narrative will take. Disney did none of this for John Carter. The trailer for John Carter had no suggestion of Carter’s Civil War background, how he ended up on Mars (or Barsoom), what he does on Mars, who the multitude of alien species were and his romantic involvement. Instead we were treated to a collage of CG images of set pieces at pivotal moments, with no idea about how they tied together. The studio also made a great deal about the use of 3D, which had been retrofitted onto the final product. Whilst we at PictureShow have sung the praises of 3D in the past we have always had reservations about this process of making a film 3D once it has already been created.
Werner Herzog Q&A CHRIS BINDING
As one of the most authoritative and idiosyncratic filmmakers in international cinema today German filmmaker Werner Herzog is an enigmatic and fascinating individual. Emerging from the post -war ‘New German Cinema’ movement along with contemporizes Fassbinder and Wim Wenders , Herzog’s has resisted types his whole career, traversing the lines between narrative and documentary film , with life affirming and bewildering stories often focusing upon individuals within overbearing situations and worlds. From the ominous Bavarian laced English voiceovers that accompany his documentaries to the fabled volatile encounters with actor Klaus Kinski on movie sets, Herzog’s unhinged ferocity both on and off screen have led him taking his camera to some of the most desolate reaches of the globe and making him many enemies , with British film critic Mark Kermode’s claim to fame being that he was shot at in a failed assassination attempt on Herzog’s life during an on stage interview. At the age of 69, Herzog’s new film Into The Abyss: A Tale of Death, A Tale of Life proves that he can still stoke the fires of contemporary debate, taking on the issue of capital punishment in the U.S in the real narrative of an individual on death row. As a life – affirming and powerful film about mortality , redemption and corruption of a small Texan town plagued by violent crime , Herzog examines the process of state execution from a personal and human angle interviewing the victims and imprisoned in an intimate harrowing experience , rightfully picking up the Grierson Award for Best Docu-
mentary at the London Film Festival. In conjunction with the release of his new documentary Herzog took part in a Q and A at the gate cinema in London which was screened via satellite to over 30 independent cinemas in the UK. As an interesting companion to the film including questions from the audience via twitter and email, covering everything from the film, existentialism to accusations o hypocrisy, Herzog at his mystic best reaffirming his legendary status as an intelligent, thoughtful and charismatic auteur. Plus no-body got shot, which was a bonus… After i saw this film for the first time a quote sprung to mind from the film Volcheck (1979) ‘every man is an abyss , you get dizzy looking in’ , it actually struck me that so many films could have the word abyss in the title. Why did you choose it for this film? In this case it’s not in the title itself its part of the dialogue and it comes from one of the finest writers in German language George Buchner, who wrote Volcheck and it dawned on me when I finished the film there should be something like a vertical look into the recesses and dark sides of the human soul. In fact there was a controversy about the title as one of the producers wanted to call it The Red Camaro and it’s not evocative and may be misunderstood as an advertisement or a car commercial. What was significant was the secondary title, ‘ a tale of
death, a tale of life’ , during editing life and the urgency of life become overwhelming for the editor and me , very life affirming and it has a beautiful end with the former captain of the execution team who puts his life in order after 125 executions and a after deep crisis and states he can sit back and look at the ducks and the birds and the hummingbirds are doing. (pause) why are so many of them? Cut, end of the film. I was so astonished by what he said and the way he said it that I said to him you will have the last word of the film. This is about life , this is about humming birds. And the real deep question, why are there so many of them? You can’t get any better than that, sometimes you get lucky as a filmmaker. So you’ve seen this as a hopeful film? Yes it has to do with life and death and not only look into a dark abyss of murder and nihilistic senseless crime it has to do with us, we are not going to be executed. And how do we take a look at our lives when we do not know when they will end. They know every step of the protocol and when they are going to die and we don’t. All of a sudden the questions are coming back at me, how do I conduct my life , how do i look at things and open this door back there and walk out. It’s a phenomenal privilege. And another death row inmate who was on TV here on channel 4 , was 23 minutes away from execution and got a reprieve in the last moment and prisoners in Death Row are being taken from Livingston Texas 40 miles to Huntsfield because only there they have the death chamber. He sees for the first time in 17 years a abandoned gas station, a cow in the fields and he said to me ‘it all looked like Israel to me, The Holy Land’ I immediately set out with the camera to find this and it is true an abandoned gas station is like the Holy Land. I do see things slightly differently. During the second viewing of the film, could you add another clause to the subheading of the film, a claim of God. God is almost a character right from the opening scene. Almost everyone evokes God. There is a presence and also an absence of God. It reminds me of Pope Benedict’s speech at Auschwitz, seven times
in his speech he asks publicly and boldly , where was god then? It’s totally bold for a Catholic pope asking these question and we can ask the same question during the murder, where God was then? I found it interesting in the prelude, the prologue of the film you have the pastor saying we have a loving, caring, forgiving merciful god... but he doesn’t really have an answer...? He was very much like a TV preacher and i had enough of that. I didn’t want to continue shooting with him and new I had to break him off. I ambushed him in a way by asking him cheerfully, tell me about an encounter with a squirrel and he unravels. It came to me because i had a feeling he would continue speaking about a merciful, forgiving god and paradise ... no its not like that. He spoke about the beauty of the golf course and sometimes squirrel or deer would look at him with big eyes and he would switch off his cell phone. It doesn’t interest me whether he switches off his cellphone or not , I’m not interested in that because he had to assist a prisoner who was to be executed fifteen minutes later and he came to the cemetery where I shot , tapping his wristwatch before he even said hello saying ‘quick quick’ i have to be at the death house. I find it very interesting that the film is bookended by two people who are emotionally peripheral, in terms of the process, there are not family or perpetrators, why did you decide to bookend the film with these two figures. Because of the depth of these two men and Frank the captain of the death house team, there is a credibility about him and no better argument against capital punishment if it comes from a former executioner and he is absolutely dignified and credible in his speech and I dearly love this man and would love to engage him as an actor in a feature film: he would make a great sheriff making a last stand, he would be the man I would I would entrust my life in at any given moment. He gave up his right for a pension.
Why did you want to make this film now rather than at the beginning of your career, is it because the American justice system has changed over the time period?
insulted by me saying that labelling cinema verite is the ‘accountants truth’. I am trying to find something that is deeply embedded in poetry for example, when you read a great poem you immediately know there is some deep truth in it and you don’t have to analyse and dissect the poem, you instantly I have done quite a few documentaries in between know. Sometimes in cinema these moments of great doing feature films and i started as a feature film insight where you know you have been illuminated, maker before moving into documentaries. It’s not and If I have reach such a moment in cinema i have really planned; they come at me like burglars in the not lived in vain. night. There is no real plan, the films always found me. It’s not like other directors sometimes you see How where you affected as a filmmaker them finish a film then look at a New York times by the story and your interactions with bestseller list, I’ve never functioned like this. I have the people? to see to make a point; my documentaries are feature films in disguise. They are partially scripted, It hasn’t changed my like although it has changed partially invented , i want to reach a deeper truth perspectives but when I talked Jared Calbert who beyond mere facts. That’s why i try to address you came by coincidence onto the set he was brought on a deeper level , facts do not illuminate you , truth along by former bar keep in the town cavern and illuminates you. she brought this young man and said he may be interesting to you as knew both murderers. I spoke An example of that flipside of the blur- to him and he said I have to return to work in ten or ring of the lines between documentary fifteen minutes , I noticed the callas of his hands and and fictional film making is obviously Lit- found it he was working man. Turned out he was tle Dieter Needs To Fly, which obviously stabbed with a fifteen inch screwdriver through his became Rescue Dawn. chest and he was illiterate and it was really intriguing to talk to him and connect which produced a lot The strange thing about this , a pilot who was shot of humour. When i dropped him off at his place, down in the early phase of the Vietnam war , was a little trailer, he wanted to say something to me picked up half dead almost , an incredible saga and i wanted to say something to him. I said peoand odyssey. It was always clear this was a fea- ple always ask me did talking with these death row ture film but we didn’t have the finances to shot inmates change my life but talking to you makes it it , so we started to do a documentary and all of better and we hugged very briefly in a short embarthis may sound like a paradox but the documentary rassed hug and split (laughs). That’s my answer, was influenced by the feature film that didn’t exist the films have not changed my life but they have yet. Sometimes both films the feature Rescue Dawn made it so much better. and Little Dieter Needs To Fly really compliment each other. So I am glad that the same story was Literal Theatre in Bath. presented to audiences in two different formats. Death is a subject that interests you. Do Tyneside Cinema in Newcastle you fear death? You spoke in a recent interview that you I do not fear death. period. I am firmly convinced wanted to find ecstatic truth in you films, that our presence on this planet is quite limited, we could you elaborate about that? are not really sustainable, we dwindle away and disappear like dinosaurs and hundreds of millions It’s a complex insight that i have after making many of years beforehand. You could make a whole films – I had the feeling that there something more chain of cataclysmic events. I am very much conto documentaries that i see every night on televi- vinced for various reasons that we are not sustainsion. This kind of righteous tone in it, fact based able on this planet and it doesn’t make nervous. If and I hate the feeling that there is something not it were to happen tomorrow it wouldn’t make me right , this is the ‘accountants truth’ and i feel really nervous either.
There is the parallel in Grizzly Man of the audio recording of the death of Timothy Are you going to make any more films Treadwell with you being the only perin 3D? son who listened to it. Cinema City Norwich
Probably not, I’m not a great fan of 3D films. There are very few films out there that are legitimate in the case of my film Cave of Forgotten Dreams. The films like Avatar are alright , there’s real fireworks, my main point about 3D when we get in a theatre we develop a parallel story inside of us , for example in a love story , we invest hopes in the characters overcoming obstacles and when we have the fireworks there is nothing beyond the effect itself. In a film in Avatar it is very hard to develop a deep parallel inner story and that’s what I love about cinema that it gives you this possibility of dreaming parallel to it , to carry on with your hopes and 3D limits it very much.
I had to deal with it because it was known in the general public, there was an audio of the death of Timothy Treadwell of his girlfriend eaten by a bear slowly alive. The audio recording was out there and everyone was wanting to listen to it and forced me to address it , i agreed to film myself from behind listening it and you say the face of the women who was Treadwell’s long term friend and she starts crying and i haven’t even heard the entire six minutes and it was clear that this women should never listen to it and non-one should ever publish. And i gave her very stupid advice in the shock of the moment i said it would be better to destroy it. She slept over it and didn’t destroy it and dis –engaged herself from the presence of the tape and put it in the safe Did you attend the execution? If not, why deposit box in the bank. It still exists but you do not not? show this because there is a dignity of an individuals death and a privacy and unfortunately execuI did not I would never attend an execution ,it is tions do not allow privacy because the state have to something i would never want to witness and let me supervise and verify and pronounce the man dead. expand the question and if I was allowed to film the execution and even if you gave me a million Do feel you’ve ever been guilty of hypocdollars I would refuse and throw the money back at risy? you. There are state witnesses, family members of Not hypocrisy but i am a storyteller but even in victims and the execute. documentaries
I use scripts i will invent but it is not hypocrisy. I have no sensory organ for irony , I understand jokes but i take things literally , it would be hard for me to be a hypocrite. It doesn’t really occur to me, it’s not in my nature. I could lie that’s something else, I could lie easily if really necessary yes , fine. Do it and I’ve done it ; but hypocrisy is something that i really do not like and hypocrisy in public is even worse.
straight into the camera , standing frozen and looking into the camera until the song is over. Three minutes. And then the film continues... And three minutes is a long time in movies.
Yes its organised and there a moments of stillness, I would linger on it and not give any chance to break the stillness until it organically somehow had to break and I like these moments of silence of stillness because quite often there is more significance. I really like sustained stillness and I’ve done it in feature films My Son My Son What Have You Done there is the largest tree stump on gods wide earth with a circumference of thirty five yards and a small midget in a tuxedo on top of it and there’s this story that someone wants to have the tiniest horse in the worst, a horse that is smaller than a sheep and I’ve seen this horse. The midget riding the horse is being chased by a gigantic rooster which will stand tall by the horse and ride together around the tree stump. I never managed it but there’s talk about it and all of a sudden the music starts , a wonderful song and everybody in the film , the midget and protagonist , they freeze and slowly turn and look
You do not have to expect me to adopt the idea of an American philosopher that the universe becomes of itself; i do not fully buy it. It’s a nice thought but I think the universe couldn’t care less about us. There’s a very beautiful thought provoking moment in the film Encounters at the End of the World matched with musical moment of images of great glory and this was by the way the reason I decided to do the film as we landed in Antarctica, the cameraman asked me how for god’s sake i was going to explain a continent. And I responded we are not going to explain it but ‘name its glory of it’. And in a way what this caterpillar driver from Bulgaria who reads Latin and Greek and has a degree in philosophy tells me triggers a great moment of music and triggers the end sequence of the glory of this continent. I don’t have to adopt this thought; Although I am rather suspicious of it.
I wonder encounters American philosopher Alan Watts. He says ‘through our eyes the universe perceives itself , through which the universe becomes Your films have a stillness about them, its conscious of its glory. If that were true even more apparent in this film, it gives a what does Into the Abyss show the unigreat sense of power. Is this intentional? verse about itself?
she’s not bad DALE JOBE PEARSON
She’s Just Drawn that Way. Dale J Pearson looks at our obsession with the Femme Fatale
One of the more colourful christian legends to have engrained itself as a staple of Western Culture is that of the death of John the Baptist. Out of the many christian martyrs (and there’s been quite a few) John’s story stands above the rest, ultimately for one, simple, sex-drenched reason. Implicated in his execution was a dark mysterious girl who danced a rather naughty dance involving seven viels for her then-stepfather, the evil King Herod (of Jesus-killing fame). As a reward for this rather unorthodox display of daughterly affection, the girl was rewarded with John’s head on a plate. The specific details of this story change from age to age, but the interest and allure always remains the same. The girl’s name was Salome, and she was one of the original incarnations of the ‘Femme Fatale’. The cinema has been home to the ‘femme fatale’ from almost its inception. The phrase, French in origin, quite literally means deadly woman. As a result, the term has become broad in its meaning, sometimes reffering to any woman associated with death. Some would even argue that female action heroes such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Malory Kane from Haywire are femme fatales. This broad definition however, takes away from a much more interesting and enduring intepretation of the femme fatale - the morally ambiguous seductress, who plays men like chess pieces. Initially a staple from the noir age, the 1940s and 50s how has this iconic charcter style stayed so fresh right up to the 21st century?
Film noir, a genre drenched in sex, mystery and dark motives, provided the perfect backdrop for the femme fatale. And during noir’s golden age of the 40s and 50s, characters like Ellen Brent Harland (Leave Her To Heaven) and Brigid O’Shaughnessy (The Maltese Falcon) found their home. Perhaps the greatest femme fatale of this generation was Double Indemity’s infamous Phyllis Dietrichson, who seduces an insurance salesman into killing her husband for financial gain. Played brilliantly by Barbara Stanwyck, the emotional complexity and darkness of such a chracter was almost synonimous with the actually genre itself. As the 50s came to an end, to a certain degree, noir fell out of fashion. It became superseded by what we now term neo-noir; a genre which takes many aspects of noir’s golden age and plays with them. It’s far more self aware, yet far more varied in terms of style and setting. As a result, we have seen a trend of taking the femme fatale character-staple and updating and reinventing her. Examples of this include Evelyn Cross Mulwray in Chinatown; Mulwray adopts all the hallmarks of a classic femme fatale in an undisputedly noir setting, but Polanski (the film’s director) is able to use all this noir expectation to turn the cards on the audience in the gripping climax of the film. Rian Johnson’s Brick updates noir to an American high school setting. And with it, its femme fatale, Laura Dannon, shows that the power and the allure of the character-staple is just as effective, even when it is employed within a teenage setting.
Perhaps the biggest play on noir occurs in Robert Zemeckis’ Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Its deadly woman, is seen by some as the sexiest femme fatale of all (and what’s more - she is a cartoon character!). Jessica Rabbit’s animated charm has wowed audiences since 1988 and has shown just dynamic and adaptable the character-staple can is. The femme fatale, as such an iconic figure has easily transfered into non-noir genres. Quentin Tarantino has famously used the idea of the deadly woman several times in his writing and directing. To the tune of You’ll Be A Woman Soon, Uma Thurman’s scenes in Pulp Fiction started in a very classical sense, before Tarantino subverted the staple by having her OD by mistaking China White Heroin (‘a madman’) for cocaine. Similarly, Salma Hayek’s dancing in From Dusk Till Dawn would have even given Salome a run for her money, that is, before Tarantino subverts the staple in an altogether different fashion (if you haven’t seen the film, PictureShow wouldn’t dare spoil it for you). The femme fatale has not come without her criticisms. Swathes of feminist critics have denouced her as mysogonistic - the view is that the construction of femme fatales is rooted in witchcraft tradition. Some even argue that they provide a female scapegoat, in the same way Eve does in Genesis and Paradise Lost. With the same stroke of the brush however, there are many femenist critics that applaud the femme fatale, citing her as a female icon, and a threat to the patriarchy. Such polarised views only support that idea that the femme fatale is something that seemingly alludes all and can not be so easily pinned down. The femme fatale, as a character-staple has provided many hours of entertainment in cinema over the years. And with such adaptability and verstility, it seems set to be a trait of cinema for many years to come. We can only look forward to what Christopher Nolan (one of the best neo-noir directors of his generation) plans to do with Catwoman this summer. Will it be classic noir? Will he subvert the form? Or will he do something completely different? In any case, PictureShow Magazine would very much like to pay tribute this month to the femme fatale.
Top 5 Femme Fatales JOSHUA HAMMOND Gilda Gilda Rita Hayworth Gilda was the lady that inspred both Jessica Rabbit and Rita, who appears further down this list. Rita Hayworth’s most famous role is a typical femme fatale, manipulating Glenn Ford and George Macready for her own ends. There never was, and there never will be, a woman like Gilda. Phyllis Dietrichson Double Indemnity Barbera Stanwyck Another classic noir with another classic femme fatale. Phyllis is a bored housewife who wishes her husband was dead, so sets about planning his ‘accidental’ death. Rita Mulholland Drive Laura Elena Harring Harring’s amnesiac character forgets her name and adopts the moniker Rita after seeing a poster for Gilda. The twists and turns in Mulholland Drive work well under a noir haze. Laure Ash / Lily Watts Femme Fatale Rebecca Romijn One of Brian De Palms’s more overlooked films, more famous for its trailer than the plot. Femme Fatale does, however, have a ssuperb thief as the titular femme fatale. Matty Walker Body Heat Kathleen Turner The voice of Jessica Rabbit. Turner may be more well known these days as Chandler’s transvestite father, but her performance echoes the sultry nature of Hayworth and Stanwyck.
in twenty children dying plays out in a confusing mix of jump cuts , gauzy slow motion and saturated sound. However, although some moments do mirror the horror of the book including a memorable scene involving genetically modified wasps with hallucinogenic stings, they are sidelined by ‘teen romance’ and at times, poor pacing. Violence aside, the story does portray some interesting game dynamics, including the televised and performative aspect in which tributes have to appeal to the rich sponsors for aids to survival as well as fighting other contenders; but this is but one highlight in a film filled with infantile clichés. As a ‘dystopia by the numbers’ the plot ticks off the predictable elements including individuals breaking and fighting the system, futuristic stylised military police and troubled despot ruling (Donald Sutherland) over the people; and although it’s fun to see Stanley Tucci and Woody Harrelson in colourful The Hunger Games comedic wigs, the realism of the dystopian world In the run up to the initial release of The Hunger is quite sparse, especially in the casting of the child Games it was almost impossible to go online or actors, remarkably freshfaced and suspiciously drive past billboards without ultra –sensory bom- good looking for inhabitants of districts plagued by bardment , with a marketing strategy so intense poverty and ritual execution. that it was almost impossible not to hear about the upcoming ‘adult’ dystopian film for the ‘Twilight So is The Hunger Games really ‘Battle Royale with generation’. Based upon a the bestselling novels by Cheese’ as memes so pertinently remind us? UnSuzanne Collins the narrative followed the plight doubtedly. But in the tradition of many similar narof protagonist Katniss entering a televised annual ratives published before from Stephen King’s ‘The game in which children are forced to fight to the Running Man’ and ‘The Longest Walk’, The Hunger death. Sound familiar? Well if internet memes are Games simply is a repetitive ‘re-envisioning’ for a anything to go by a lot of controversy has come new generation, emerging as an interesting, apfrom comparisons to Japanese cult classic Battle proachable film for wide audiences, despite being Royale, portraying a similar story of kids fighting quite tame for a film based around children killing senselessly in a dystopian world that no longer each other. And with an opening weekend gross cares for them. As tired as these obvious compari- already ranked as the third biggest of all time besons are The Hunger Games still manages to get hind Harry Potter and The Dark Knight we can only away with a lot of dark subject matter under its teen await more imminent sequels, colourful wigs and friendly 12A rating with strong performances and condescending Battle Royale comparisons. Unfora star studded cast , yet its saturated violence and tunately, the games have only just begun. CB frustrating pacing will leave you, pardon the pun, a little malnourished. Having read the books before the film, from the incentive of a Battle Royale comparison, the gore flew fast and loose upon the page with unnerving scenes of violence and of sustained death scenes providing a visceral punch despite the generic, ‘individual against the system’ storyline. However, with studios gearing the film towards a western teen demographic a lot of these scenes are cut or filtered down, including the opening of the games
John Carter John Carter has turned out to be one of the biggest flops in cinematic history (see page 4), but it’s rather hard to see why, exactly. It’s a significant financial blow and thus an incentive against making similar movies. Perhaps our post-Avatar taste for science fiction is at an end, which is not really a bad thing. Sci-fi, like metal music, never really goes out of fashion, choosing instead to recede back a little. It’s at this stage that we get excellent films like District 9 and Moon, prompting Hollywood to try and jump on the band-wagon and set their diabolical movie machine to ‘aliens and lasers and stuff.’ Suddenly, sci-fi is in fashion, and we get films like Battle: Los Angeles and the industry drives the genre back into the ground, and thus the cycle continues. John Carter is very definitely of the second phase, clearly heavily influenced by Avatar. Of course, the movie itself has been around much longer than Avatar (John Carter has been in production hell since 1931), but it’s very obvious that it’s greenlighting is as a result of James Cameron’s huge success. Friendly-ish, primitive aliens fighting against somewhat nasty humans has become something of a popular trope, and John Carter features this rather heavily.
be applauded, but more skill required in the execution. The other major problem in the film is that the film’s lead Taylor Kitsch is a charisma black-hole, and quite possibly heir to Keanu Reeves’ crown. his inability to lead the film allows other problems with the script to become apparent, such as the unnecessary framing prologue and epilogue sequences, and the seemingly unrelated back-drop of the American Civil War. While this back-drop is present in the book, it leads the audience simply to This is not to say that this is a bad film in the realm wonder which side is meant to represent which on of Battle: Los Angeles: in fact, quite the opposite. Mars, and there seems to be no clear answer. The film is at times thought-provoking and sensitive, as well as being an enjoyable action-adventure All in all, John Carter appears to be a film that has feature. The majority of the acting is great, with the come about at the wrong time. perhaps if the Holcast of HBO’s Rome doing a very good job at being lywood execs had taken the leap before they had space-Romans . The aliens are convincing (if a little some kind of precedence, and made the film simply naively humanoid, but what film doesn’t fall into because they wanted to make it, it might have been this trap?) as are the stakes. There is always a dif- better received. As it is, however, it is cursed to be ficulty in sci-fi that the goals will be so literally alien, forgotten. BS that the audience will not understand. It sidesteps this problem by plonking in human aliens Star Trek style, which is an irritating but wide-spread solution. Given the age of the source-material for the script, this little indecency can be forgiven. It does have problems, however, that cannot be brushed aside. Some of the lines do jar, and some of them are so terribly melodramatic it’s hard not to laugh at them. Disney have also plonked in a princess who, despite their best intentions to make her an independent and powerful woman, ultimately fail in that she needs a good old saving by our eponymous hero. The attempt to modernise must
lies with the plot itself, which is tenuous. In order to beat his rivals for Pirate of the Year, the Pirate Captain concocts a plan to win Scientist of the Year when it is revealed to him by Darwin that his suspiciously dodo-looking parrot is in fact a dodo. The pirates sail to London, disguise themselves as Scientists (and girl guides along the way) in order to win the competition so they can use the winnings as enough booty to win the contest. It works well on paper, but unfortunately is dragged out so that quite a few of the gags that should work don’t. We can tell that the characters care for this dodo. The fact is that the audience doesn’t, and this lack of care severely affects the perception of the rest of the film. Aardman traditionally rely upon simple yet ultimately charming humour, articulated through their refined and sophisticated technique. However, it The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scien- feels like The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists is riding on the success of Aardman’s previous tists. triumphs. What they can be relied on for is brilliant Seven years (count ‘em) since Wallace and Gro- background gags, but they should know they have mit: In the Curse of the Were-Rabbit and Aardman a problem when their humour actually relies on Animations have released a new stop-motion ani- these jokes. Where other films concerning pirates mation to treat our eyes with. Aardman is a staple seem to get too convoluted, this film just feels lazy. of British comedy and whenever they release some- Although it is worth a look, Aardman certainly thing new, it’s something to look forward to. Their should try harder with their next outing. BO films, as quintessentially British as they are, have something about them that provides happiness for anyone who watches. It’s a shame then, that The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists, is a bit of a disappointment. First things first: the characters are all fantastic. Hugh Grant voices the Pirate Captain known as The Pirate Captain; a pirate who is desperate to win the Pirate of the Year. Grant voices the Pirate Captain with aplomb-his spluttering bumbling English Gentleman nowhere near this movie. David Tennant also appears as Charles Darwin, the evolutionist (although he hasn’t discovered this yet) who is battling with his loneliness, and his desire for the pirate-hating Queen Victoria, voiced by Imelda Staunton. The rest of the pirates, the Pirate with Gout, Albino Pirate, Suspiciously Curvaceous Pirate, Pirate Who Loves Rainbows and Kittens, and Pirate with a scarf, are all endlessly likeable to the point where it’s a shame the audience doesn’t spend as much time with them. So with all these brilliantly formed characters, where does it go wrong? It appears that the answer
21 Jump Street As far as “let’s-remake-a-television-series-intoa-movie” ideas go, the record has always been sketchy. If Charlie’s Angels and The A-Team told Hollywood anything, it’s that the cinema-going public don’t particularly care for nostalgia-trips. It’s both a surprise and a delight, then to have a movie release, based on a TV show that is both painstakingly funny and charming enough that it stands alone from its 80s predecessor. Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum play Schmidt and Jenko; two best buddy cops who are relocated to 21 Jump Street, an undercover police hideout disguised as a Korean Church, after their first case goes wrong. Their assignment is to infiltrate the local high school in order to stop the circulation of the new drug HFS (Holy Fucking Shit), which killed a high schooler. When they arrive, they find High School to be quite different to how they remember it, where the eco-sensitive folk are popular and the tough jockeys are not. Due to a mix-up, Schmidt and Jenko take each other’s classes, so Schmidt is now in with the popular clique, and Tatum is relegated to the Chemistry dweebs As far as plot goes, it falls relatively flat. Luckily the set pieces used throughout provide many laughs, and Hill and Tatum make a fantastically odd double act. Hill plays a character not too far from Superbad’s Seth (which is no bad thing), but it is Tatum who is the comic revelation. Having previously been resigned only to romantic dramedies, it’s refreshing to see him act the fool with a heart for once. A scene where Hill prays to “Korean Jesus” whilst Tatum is watching is a great example of how delightfully mismatched this couple are. Yet this works for the film, which seems to thrive on being odd. Highlights include a car-motorbike chase on a bridge, Hill’s Peter Pan outfit, and an amazing montage where the two characters experience the effects of HFS for themselves. Secondary characters work just as well. Ice Cube plays the police captain with malice, yet is given endlessly quotable lines that are almost up there with Anchorman in terms of how much you’ll want to repeat them, and it’s a shame he doesn’t get any more screen time. It looks like Dave Franco could almost come out of his brother’s shadow as drug dealer Eric, and Rob Riggle, who plays the P.E teacher, is clearly a new Will Ferrell in waiting. Brie
Larson plays the charming Molly, but the romantic subplot between her and Hill never really gets too far off the ground. For fans of the show, yes you get your cameo, and for those who don’t know the show, the reveal supplies the biggest WTF moment in the movie. This seems to suit the WTF nature of the movie though, which is possibly the best high school comedy to grace our screens since the 80s. BO
both fade into the background and make no impact on the film. Billy Boyd is the only actor who manages to emerge from ecstacy unharmed, though his role is rather small he makes an impact as Woodsy. Director Rob Heydon, clearly takes cues from Trainspotting, introducing the principle characters to us in a single montage with insert titles of their names. Lloyd’s inner monologue narrates the film in a similar fashion to Renton’s and the entire film hits the same beats plotwise, even a sequence involving smuggling drugs feels too close to the intense suppository scenes of Trainspotting. Heydon, who has spent almost a decade working on this film after a stint directing music videos, shorts and documentaries, seems underprepared for the task of directing a full feature. In spite of all this, the film has a minor saving grace, its soundtrack is superb. Heydon’s work in the muIrvine Welsh’s Ecstacy sic industry has clearly given him a sense of spectaThere is a problem with adapting any of Irvine cle when it comes to filming music, the club scenes Welsh’s work. Trainspotting will forever be the de- do feel alive and solely because of the choice of finitive adaptation of an Irvine Welsh novel, it is music. It is rare for a soundtrack to be the only reundoubtedly flawless and threw Danny Boyle and deemable section of a movie, but this is good exEwan Mcgregor into Hollywood superstardom. ample, especially as the music is such a key part of Trainspotting as a text looms large over Welsh’s the narrative. work in general, he has written a sequel “Porno” and is in the process of writing a prequel “Skag- Every review will say the same thing about Ecstacy. boys”. As such when it comes to reviewing a film that It’s an adaptation of one third of an Irvine Welsh is adapted from Welsh’s back catalogue, a prob- novel, spread over 100 minutes it feels rather thin. lem arises, Welsh’s writing often inhabits the same The acting and directing are all lacklustre and fall grimy world of drug addiction and great tunes, all short because of a lack of experience and panache written in a suitably grim prose, what made Trains- from both parties. It takes guts to adapt Welsh’s potting so good and Ecstacy so shamefully medio- work these days because the audience has seen it all before and it takes more to shock us again. “It’s cre when the two are so similar? not Trainspotting”. JH The first thing that should really be noted is the calibre of the acting in Ecstacy is woefully below-par. Lead actor, Adam Sinclair (of Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj) lacks the tools needed pull off Welsh’s dialogue, neither funny enough nor clever enough to fully grasp the meaning behind the words in the script, making his character Lloyd seem entirely superficial. Even during the club scenes Sinclair misses the beats and seems to be out of place, but not in the way Lloyd should be. Sinclair doesn’t look the part either, he doesn’t look like an aging pill head who needs to cut down on club time, he’s in peak condition. Characterisation in ecsatcy is something of an afterthought, various plot strands are sort of thrown at characters rather than giving any explanation. Kristin Kreuk, and Keram Málicki-Sanchez
The Monk Matthew Lewis’ classic gothic novel ‘The Monk’, was seen as dangerously dark in the late 18th century, even Samuel Taylor Coleridge (he of the substantial laudnum addiction) claimed that it was of “low and vulgar taste”. All good stuff. Set in Spain it documents the downfall of a talented speaker and monk Capucin Ambrosio (Vincent Cassel) who is beset by vivid dreams and the arrival of a new pupil leads him down a dark and dangerous path. Dominic Moll directs the adaptation of a gothic novel that had been courted by Luis Buñuel (Belle de Jour, Viridiana) and Jean-Claude Carriere in the past. The novel is a piece of fantastic gothic fiction and Dominic Moll’s adaptation aims to refelct this, Moll takes the gothic aethetic and cranks it up to 11. The film is beautifully shot, Moll’s choice of location is fantastic and the stark wastelands of Catalonia make for a great setting. This heightened gothicism has its drawbacks, ravens, abbeys and women in red are motifs of gothic fiction and whilst it may be representative of the tone of the novel, it can be rather hilarious to the untrained eye when the film begins to look like a Scottish Widows advert.
The Monk is a fractured feature, it has some incredibly beautiful shots and the central character is incredibley intriguing. At the same time, it takes the novel’s gothic legacy too far and the scenes of monks in brown habits running up and down spiral stone stairs grow tired quickly. Ambrosio’s rhetoric is grand and eloquent but also becomes tired quickly and is easy to ridicule. The Monk is a exceptionally made film, the problem is that audiVincent Cassel carries the film, his Ambrosio is at- ences have moved on from this particular brand of tractive and magnetic enough to make him a pleas- highfalutin horror that is too aware of itself and its ure to watch. Cassel’s religious rhetoric is grand place in history. It still has a “low and vulgar taste” enough to make Ambrosio appear like the perfect but it is a taste we have become very used to over subject to watch descend into a spiral of mad- the last century of motion pictures. JH ness and desire. The supporting cast fall in nicely around Cassel, but it is the titular Ambrosio that is the centre of attention and as usual Cassel is a joy to watch. The tone and subject of The Monk, is certainly dark, the devil circles the narrative in more ways than one. Themes of magic, sex and religion permeate through the film, however, these are now themes that modern audiences are more than aware of. The film is obviously not dated, but the source material is and no longer has the power to provoke and shock that it once did. The plot points of the novel have become ingrained in popular culture, whilst The Monk is not a greatly well known novel, elements of it have been borrowed and alluded to multiple times over the last two centuries. Because of this, reveals and twists can be predicted, leaving the overall experience of the film feeling hollow.
The Cabin in The Woods With the exception of the works of Eli Roth, Zombieland and Tucker and Dale Vs Evil, its been a while since we’ve had the pleasure of one of those ‘good old self referential postmodern’ horror flicks; and after a hearing a lot of good things about The Cabin In The Woods (with comparisons to Craven’s Scream series), to say I was interested was a mere understatement. As a massive horror fan, I was begging for another horror flavoured slice of ‘meta pie’. From the writer of Cloverfield and Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy and the Vampire Slayer, the film was thankfully in the hands of both knowledgeable purveyors and self –confessed fans of the genre. In lampooning the horror genre, The Cabin in the Woods does more than its predecessors; reinventing it with a perfect mix of genre savvy features and black comedy, rendering it as best film I have seen this year by a mile. Apologies for possible spoilers. The narrative of teens going to a cabin in the woods is bound to sound familiar and is the stale pastry that binds the tired slasher / monster movie together. A group neatly segmented horror types (stoner, virgin, jock, slut, and nerd) going away for a weekend of booze and sex. However the fact the innocent girl has engaged in an illicit affair with her teacher and the jock is a psych major suggests this is not your average horror flick. Intertwined with the main narrative, a parallel storyline two bumbling security guard / bureaucrats are watching the teens and that the actual cabin in the
woods seems to be within a controlled ‘Truman show – esque’ artificial environment masquerading as reality. As the teens fiddle with amulets in the basement, they accidently summon a monstrous presence and with the scientists pulling the strings to make sure the characters die in a certain order. As the body count rises and predictable surface plot progresses the teen’s realisation of the artificiality of their environment and the wider purpose of their imprisonment leads to indescribable consequences to the observers and teen characters. The absolutely bonkers final 20 minutes are reason to buy the ticket alone, involving a pastiche of superfluous gore and horror movie references, bringing a whole new context to the song ‘Monster mash’. As ‘characters’ from almost every horror movie ever make cameos in it is obvious this memorable sequence is Whedon’s gleeful love letter to the actual diversity of the genres most underrated real ‘stars’. Overall Cabin in the Woods is a deceivingly good flick, stringing you along like puppets and unleashing the big guns in all the right places. As the poster for the movie presents the traditional cabin warped like a rubix cube it is a pretty good metaphor for the film as a whole and its complex scale of pastiche and references, with the finale as perfect as it is utterly ridiculous. Suspending disbelief has never been so appealing. From the references to Evil Dead in the opening credit sequence alone, to its hilarious genre reversals with the pot smoking teen actually being immunised and having a prolonged life because of drug use (for once), it’s a progressive and hilarious step forward for a genre driving itself into the ground (in mainstream cinema anyway). A Monsters Inc with cojones and a horror film fanatic’s absolute wet dream, The Cabin in the Woods reveals the ‘science’ and mechanics that made horror films stale and uninspiring and tears them down in a barrage of postmodern fun. Absolutely sublime. CB
Blackthorn The stoic romantic gunslinger is a trope that has engrained in American myth and history, filtering its way through to the western genre and giving actors such as Clint Eastwood their screen fame. As myth often lies on the borderline between fiction and fact, director Mateo Gil tempts the idea that America’s most famous outlaws ‘Butch Cassidy’ and the ‘Sundance Kid’ didn’t in fact die in a hail of gunfire as history tells it, with Cassidy surviving and living out his days in exile. Exploring the aged figure from a personal angle with flashbacks to the past, Blackthorn is both slow paced and explosive, intimate and panoramic, offering a thought provoking meditation on the man , the myth and the American landscape itself. Living in a Bolivian village and breeding horses, Cassidy’s grand return to a peaceful life is cut short when he is ambushed in the wilderness by a Spanish miner Eduardo Noriega losing his horse, money and livelihood. Fortunately on a whim the miner, pursued by the authorities, claims to have stolen a huge sum of money from a villainous landlord and agrees to split the money with Cassidy in exchange for his life. Bound by circumstance the two outcasts travel across Mexico, meeting old friends, new enemies and learning the darker sides of each other’s personalities along the way.
violence laced existence. After Butch realises he cannot escape his reputation, being discovered alive, not even one final morally redemptive act can save him from impending death and constant evasion from authorities. As opposed to the patriotic ideology laced John Wayne’s of the past, the characters and landscape all seem pertinently human, striking a empathic chord and creating an elegiac tone for a symbol of lost America and a fading mythos. Blackthorn should inject some life into a much-loved American mythological figure In a similar style to the Coen’s No Country For Old but beyond the performances and visuals it doesn’t Men and other modern ‘Westerns’, Blackthorn is bring anything strikingly new to the genre. Nevincredibly slow paced silent in contrast to the aes- ertheless, an enjoyable western with a meaty sub thetics promised by the trailer; but when violence textual enjoyment. CB occurs it is rendered incredibly powerful and brutal framed in the desolate silence of the wilderness and Cassidy’s nostalgic memories. This pace leaves a lot of room for the actors and Oscar winner Sam Shepard embodies the role of Butch Cassidy with fervour, as a grizzled and tortured individual, longing for solidarity after a nomadic lifestyle of banditry. In support Eduardo Noriega is very convincing as vulnerable victim and manipulative deviant with a narrative twist creating a incredibly powerful standoff between the two actors. Ruiz Anchina’s cinematography also astounds, embodying the physical and psychological landscape of Butch Cassidy and travelling lifestyle of a high plains drifter. However, the flashbacks of Cassidy, remembering the death and loss of friends throughout the years, suggest for a bandit it probably is better to burn out in a hail of gunfire rather than live on in a solitary,
Things to see in April and May
As we won’t have an issue out in May we have created a bumper “Things to See” section so that you will still be able to find a wealth of classic or interesting films around the country. Bear in mind that many independent films are still showing many of the films nominated for Oscars in January. Wales Aberystwyth
Aberystwyth Arts Centre Singin’ in the Rain 18th March
JOSHUA HAMMOND
A fabulous opportunity to see one of the greatest musicals of all time on a big screen. Gene Kelly’s most famous dance work comes alive in the cinema.
Cardiff
Chapter The Story of Film: An Odyssey (with Mark Cousins) 21st April If you missed The Story of Film on TV a few months ago, Mark Cousins has edited down his 15 hour documentary to show some of his favourite elements at Chapter in Cardiff. It’s an interesting and thought provoking documentary about the way we perceive film and how it affects us all. Cousins will be available for a Q&A afterwards
Hay on Wye
The Screen At Hay Suddenly Last Summer 4th May Adapted from the Tennesse Williams play of the same name, Suddenly Last Summer involves the psychiatric evaluation of a young woman following her friends death. Whilst the film was rejected by its creator in 1959, it still has fantastic performances from Katherine Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift.
North West
Sheffield
Showroom Memento Bradford 26th April National Media Museum With the release of The Dark Knight Rises this SumJason And The Argonauts (1963) mer and last summers mega hit Inception you could 18th May be forgiven for thinking that Christopher Nolan has The 1963 version of Jason and the Argonauts may always had the budget to make whatever films he have been directed by Don Chaffey, but will always wants. Memento takes you back to when Nolan be remembered for Ray Harryhausen’s fantastic was just reaching the end of his twenties and restop motion animation. Battle scenes with skeletons leased this superb psycho thriller. are brilliantly done.
Kendal
Brewery Arts Centre Wild At Heart 17th April One of David Lynch’s lesser known films but certainly one of his best. Featuring a suitably crazed performance from Nicolas Cage, Wild at Heart follows a young couple in love on a roaad trip after Cage’s character, Sailor, is released from jail. Brilliant allusions to The Wizard of Oz and homages to Elvis litter the film which is a brutal and brilliant blast.
Lancaster The Dukes Repo Man 3rd May
Not to be confused with Repo Men, the 2010 Jude Law and Forest Whitaker clunker about the organ black market. This 1984 anarchic classic features Emilio Esteves as Otto, a young man who falls out of school and becomes a repo man who goes off in search of a car with aliens in the trunk. It has to be seen to be believed
North East Hexham
The Forum Monty Python’s Life of Brian 5th May Monty Python and the Holy Grail 6th May A Monty Python extravaganza awaits you in Hexham where they are showing Python’s greatest feature length outings. Not strictly a double bill because of the different dates but it would be worth making room in your diary for them both.
Newcastle
Star and Shadow Forbidden Zone (& Disco) 17th May Based on the stage performances of The Mysic Knights of Oingo Boingo, it features some of the more eclectic music from the 1980’s. It is also remarkable because it was Danny Elfman’s first ever film score.
Leeds
Tyneside Cinema Drive 26th April
Possibly the gratest road movie ever made, often imitated by the likes of Quentin Tarantino and Ridley Scott, but never surpassed. “Tighten your seat belt. You never had a trip like this before.”
PictureShow’s first and currently only 10/10 review. Drive is an incredible thriller involving a hollywood stunt driver and his pasttime as a getaway driver for the undesirables in Hollywood. You’ll be desperate to find a toothpick to chew as you leave the cinema and the next car you buy will probably be a Mustang.
Hyde Park Picture House Vanishing Point 21st April
Scotland Dundee
Dundee Cntemporary Arts La Grande Illusion 28th April
Glasgow
Glasgow Film Theatre The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert 22nd April
Possibly the campest film ever to be set on celluloid. A road movie following three drag queens as they Largely considered to be one of the greatest pieces travel across Ausstralia for a lucrative dancing conof French cinema in the 20th century, La Grande tract. Early performances by Hugo Weaving and Illusion is a gripping story follwing the trials of Guy Pearce are a world away from their more well French Prisoners of War during the first world war. known cinematic outings. Beware: Pearce’s laughThe political and economic messages are still as rel- ter could break a glass. evant today as they were 75 years ago.
Nairn
Edinburgh Filmhouse Blow Up 24th April
Cinema Nairn Another Time, Another Place 20th April
Another film focussing on Prisoners of War. AnothMichaelangelo Antonioni’s first english language er Time, Another Place is set during World War film makes for incredibly gripping viewing. As a One, three Italian POWs are sent to live with a photographer unwittingly witnesses a murder, he Scottish Family to help work on their farm. The film becomes obsessed with discovering the killer. Fea- has a wonderful performance from Phyllis Logan. turing beautiful set pieces and some incredibly surreal moments, this is not one to miss.
Central Brimingham mac Man on Wire 25th April
One of the more celebrated documentaries in recent years, Man on Wire tells the true story of Phillipe Petit’s breathtaking wire walk in between the World Trade Centres in 1974. The Highest of high wires and the incredible stakes make this an engrossing documentary.
Bucknell
Chapel Lawn Village Hall Belleville Rendez-vous 21st April A wonderful french animation, combines an older style of animation and an wonderful soundtrack to tell the story of Champion a young boy who dreams of becoming a proffesional cyclist. A wonderful animated movie.
Evesham The Regal Grease 19th April
It is expected that you dress up for The Regal’s showing of Grease so jeans and a T-Shirt are more than recommended as long as they’re tight. Unfortunately smoking is not allowed in the cinema, and any wannabe T Birds will get thrown out, but singing dancing and wooping certainly is.
Leicester
Phoenix Square The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou 27th April With Moonrise Kingdom only around the corner it is worth reacquanting yourself with the work of Wes Anderson. Zissou is a man obsessed with finding the Jaguar Shark that ate his partner. Bill Murray still has the comedy chops to pull off such an outlandish and obsessed character. Expect appearances from other Anderson regulars too.
Warwick
Warwick Arts Centre My Neighbour Totoro 19th May The fantastic My Neighbour Totoro comes from Studio Ghibli and is directed by the great Hayoa Miyazaki. Not just for fans of traditional the story is as wonderful as the animation and can sweep away anyone in the audience.
Wolverhampton
Light House Cinema Withnail & I 19th April Last year, Bruce Robinson released The Rum Diary with Johnny Depp and Amber Heard and was marketed as a liquor saturated comedy of the highest order. The Rum Diary was an immense disappointment, instead attention should be given to Robinsons’ 1987 flick set in the lst 60’s. It is possibly one of the greatest British comedies of all time, but DO NOT try and drink along, you’ll die.
South London
The Phoenix Cinema Wild Strawberries 19th April One of Ingmar Bergman’s masterpieces, Wild Strawberries centres around an elderly man remembering his past fondly on a trip to receive an honorary degree. A slow meditation on life and love. Harrow Arts Centre The Quiet Man 16th May
John Ford was an incredibly prolific film director frequently regarded as one of the best of all time. His work with John Wayne is now almost ingrained into American culture. The Quiet Man strays form Ford’s usual western teritory and is set in Ireland, the plot involves a boxeer who returns home to reclaim his family’s farm. Roxy Bar and Screen H P Lovecraft Double Bill The Call of Cthulhu The Dunwich Horror 26th April A double bill of HP Lovecrafts more well known creations. Cthulhu might be better known these days as a monster sired to devour Justin Bieber on South Park, but to Lovecraft aficionados Cthulhu is a key figure in a great deal of the writers work. Both great adaptations of the stories they come from, this is a great chance to see Lovecraft work imagined by different societies. The Prince Charles Cinema Flash Gordon 4th May One of the highlights of Glasgow Film Festival was seeing Flash Gordon in a full cinema with everyone being able to quote the insane dialogue amongst friends. A terrible, ridiculous, camp, hilarious film.
PictureShow Magazine will return on the 4th of June