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COVER ILLUSTRATION BY Paul Willoughby WORDS BY Matt Bochenski
002 THE AWESOME; I FUCKIN’ SHOT THAT! ISSUE
“I don’t know what to say, man. We’re in the fuckin’ Garden!”
003
004 THE AWESOME; I FUCKIN’ SHOT THAT! ISSUE
DIRECTED BY Nathaniel Hornblower STARRING Adam Yauch, Mike Diamond, Adam Horovitz, Mix Master Mike, Doug E Fresh RELEASED 7 July
005
Say hello to a new era of concert movies. Awesome; I Fuckin’ Shot That! just got the party started.
006 THE AWESOME; I FUCKIN’ SHOT THAT! ISSUE
No bling, no bullshit,
no bulletproof vests; just three MCs, one DJ and 20,000 people losing their minds in the hometown of hip hop. In the words of the Beastie Boys, “This is New York City – we gotta turn it up a notch.” What time is it? Time to get ill. Welcome to the old school. Forget Sinatra and his vagabond shoes, Awesome; I Fuckin’ Shot That! is a nuclear powered house party of fattongued dunks and three stripe tracksuits. The spirit of the Bronx – a little older, sure, a little greyer – scrubbed up and let loose to rock the funk out of uptown Manhattan.
007
But it’s so much more than that.
Awesome is a concussive jackhammer of movie happy slapping: short; sharp; and out to make your ears bleed. This is a concert movie like no other – not just that, a concert movie to make all others obsolete – soaked in the sweaty sincerity of a beerdrenched, front row, fan’s eye POV.
008 THE AWESOME; I FUCKIN’ SHOT THAT! ISSUE
The brief was simple. Three days before a concert in New York’s Madison Square Garden, Adrock, Mike D and MCA (aka Beastie Boys, aka hip hop’s first white superstars) put the call out on their website. They were looking for 50 fans to take a Hi8 digital camera into the crowd and capture the experience of a Beasties gig. The only rule: rock out and keep shooting. In a stroke they eliminated the invisible wall between crowd and stage. Where other concert movies are a peek at privileged back-stage access, subtly reinforcing the distance between fans and celebrity, in Awesome the fans are the celebrities: each one a director of their own movie, recording their own unique experience. Whether screaming at the crowd, running to the bathroom, breaking for beer or just pointing at the stage and rolling, each camera became a vivid point of energy; reflecting, capturing and expressing the power of hip hop hysteria, Beasties-style. The electricity crackles off the screen like speaker static. With support from Mix Master Mike on decks and human beatbox Doug E Fresh, the party vibe of hip hop’s roots reborn is irresistible. And holy shit, do the Beasties know how to milk it. In an industry of preening ‘pimps’ and glorified sneaker salesmen, to the Beasties, ‘takin’ care of business’ is still only about one thing: a bravura block party spirit blown up to stadium size. The sheer magnitude of the performance is stupefying – from Mix Master Mike climbing decks the size of an Aztec temple, to the encore’s delirious metal meltdown of ‘Sabotage’. But there’s more at stake here than one killer performance. What’s refreshing and inspired about Awesome is how it breaks down the boundaries between concert and movie experiences, and re-imagines it as one, all encompassing whole.
009
At first glance, Awesome is resolutely cinematic. Beginning with a pastiche of gangsta favourite Scarface (Guns! Drugs! Cool!), it plunges over the New York skyline in shaky fisheye, curving the borders of Hip Hop City into the whole world. Yauch (under the pseudonym Nathaniel Hornblower) spent over a year in post-production, filtering the images from 50 cameras, and at its best the result is a film that moves like a sound wave – building and rolling with the rhythm of the music, dancing across the noise in a fury of movement.
At times it goes too far
– some of the digital trickery distracts from Hi8’s jagged purity. But by the time you’ve noticed, the film has already cracked that fourth wall, lifted you out of your cosy seat and plonked your head four square in the mosh pit. As Fresh spits his way through ‘Time To Get Ill’ and the crowd scream it back in his face, you’ll put the popcorn aside. As ‘Brass Monkey’ rips its way through a Rick Rubin riff, you’re going to want a beer. By the time ‘Intergalactic’ breaks open the encore and the entire Garden goes collectively insane, you’ll be pissing in a cup and throwing it at the front row. So the bottom line, as cinema and music join ecstatically together? Sit at the back or take a raincoat. Check your head at the door, gather a crowd, throw a party. Because Awesome; I Fuckin’ Shot That! is what’cha, what’cha, what’cha want n
0010THE 010 THEAWESOME; AWESOME;I IFUCKIN’ FUCKIN’SHOT SHOTTHAT! THAT!ISSUE ISSUE
Anticipation. Beastie
Boys rock the Garden? Sounds like a sure shot. Four
Enjoyment.
Turned on, tuned in, rocked out. Pass the mic. Five
In Retrospect. Instantly destroys the experience of watching other concert movies. Triple trouble for the future. Four
011
on october 9th, 2004, adrock, mike d and mca, aka beastie boys, rocked new york’s madison square garden. days before the gig, a call went out on their website for 50 fans to record the event on hi8 digital cameras. there was only one rule – rock out and keep shooting. regardless, on saturday, may 13th, 2006, lwlies hosted an exclusive screening of the result at london’s curzon soho cinema. but this was no ordinary screening. this was our call for 50 freeloaders to write 50word reviews of the movie for publication. try and make sense of the results over the next few pages. Check out the full lowdown at www.littlewhitelies.co.uk thanks to: Tom Atkinson Matt Bochenski James Bramble Barbara Bruni Sara Cathie Fred Chesher James Clasper miranda collinge Christine Cowin Dan Cullinan
Adrian D’Enrico Paul Fairclough Matthew Glasby Vickie Hayward Alex Heywood Matt Hill David Jenkins Lee Jones Neon Kelly Andrea Kurland
012 THE AWESOME; I FUCKIN’ SHOT THAT! ISSUE
Nathalie Lees Abigail Lelliott Nick Letchford Matt Lister Rob Longworth Ben Machell Kevin Maher Kayt Manson Claire Marshall james martin
Vince Medeiros Danny Miller Agnes Orgez David Perilli Steph Pomphrey monisha rajesh Max Rees adrian sandiford Mary Seaton Mat Smith
Alex Stewart Dan Stewart Anthony Strange Eleanor Thomas Emma Tildsley Charlotte Walsh Steve Watson Jonathan Williams Michael Williams Paul Willoughby
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How does it feel to make an authorised bootleg of your favourite band? LWLies tracks down Jeremy Lange, one of the Beasties’ 50 cameramen, to find out.
LWLies: Tell us a bit about yourself – how long have you been into hip hop, and what got you started? JL: Well I’ve been living in New York for seven years, and you could say that the Beastie Boys were part of my inspiration for moving here. I grew up down south and, you know, started listening to them back in the late ’80s – so they’ve been there for the whole ride. LWLies: What was it about New York that first struck you? JL: The first time I came it was the hottest summer in a long time and the city had an energy, you know? It was hot, it was sweaty, the boomboxes were blaring, everybody was out on the street corner, everyone was playing dominoes. I got off the plane in Queens and I went to get a slice of pizza, and it was like I was thrown into the world. LWLies: For a New Yorker, what does it mean for the Beasties to play Madison Square Garden? JL: That was almost like the culmination of their career, you know what I mean? It was like they had been waiting to play that show for 18 or 20 years. All the stars were 016 THE AWESOME; I FUCKIN’ SHOT THAT! ISSUE
aligned - destiny kind of took hold. LWLies: How did you get involved in the project? What preparation went into getting ready for the gig. JL: Well in 2004 the Beastie Boys were in the middle of their To The 5 Boroughs tour - they actually called it the ‘Pageant Tour’. Around June, July, maybe August, they started a tour blog on their message board. We’re a pretty tight community there - the message board was almost like an instant connection to the band. Every show they would do a blog and they would give you set lists, so it was like every night you could go online and see, ‘Okay they’re in Sacramento now, here’s the set list, they did these shows’. Once they started heading East they put out a post on the internet and it said, you know, ‘Who wants to be a Beastie Boys cameraman?’ And that was three nights before the Madison Square Garden show. The stipulation was you had to have a ticket already, ‘cos this homecoming gig was a big sell out extravaganza. And I just happened to be in the right place at the right time in the arena - because
that was pretty much how they selected it. You had to have a ticket, you had to post your ticket on the entry form and they decided who would be the best candidates to film the show based on where we were seated in Madison Square Garden. I was right behind the mosh pit, so I had a pretty good seat, you know, right in the centre floor. And I was one of the first ones who entered the contest. When they showed the winners’ list I was maybe, I think I was number five. Then they gave us a time and a place to meet over by the Garden and we had a little pep talk, you know, a little pre-concert intro to what was going on. LWLies: What was the atmosphere like in the room at that point? What was going through your head? JL: We all knew we were going to be part of something but at the same time we didn’t know that we were ever going to see ourselves on the big screen. So the vibe was everyone was happy to be there. This was the first live project that the Beastie Boys were doing in their career. They had never put out a live CD, they had never done a
concert movie of any sort. So just the fact that they were getting involved and getting their fans involved in this massive, you know, film project, not to mention that it was New York City, Madison Square Garden, To The 5 Boroughs - everything just kind of fit right. The vibe was that everyone was really excited to be a part of it. LWLies: When you were stood in that room getting ready, did you have a plan of what you wanted to do with the camera, or were you just going to go in and freestyle it? JL: Personally I had just got out of film school, so it was another chance to kind of show some skills. The producer, Jon Doran, actually said don’t pan a lot - don’t pan and don’t zoom - but really after we left there I think everybody kind of put their own stamp, you know, their own fingerprint on their take. LWLies: Once the gig is done, the end credits come down over the movie with the Beasties back in their changing room. But what happened next for you after the cameras had been switched off? JL: What I did - what a lot of the camera people did - they just started interviewing
crowd members. I got as much footage as I could of the aftermath - there’s beer all over the floor and everybody’s hugging. We all shared this event, you know, this communal experience and that’s what we were trying to capture as well. LWLies: Did you get to meet the Beastie Boys in the aftermath? JL: Yeah. There were two things that happened that were really cool. They had a private camera operator screening in January before Sundance. MCA was there, or Nathaniel Hornblower. So Yauch introduced the film, Jon Doran was there and they had this Q&A session. And then they had this after party where everyone got to hang out and we talked to the editors and producers. Adam Yauch was available, you know, just for anybody to shoot the shit with. That was when I talked to him. And then the second event was the New York premiere at 34th Street. That was more like the big media event where all three Beastie Boys came and it was presented by the Museum of Moving Images. It was the whole red carpet thing. They invited everyone
to an after party and it was the same thing where you could hang out with people who were involved in the film - kind of talk shop pretty much. Those things were some of the coolest nights I’ve ever had in New York City. LWLies: What kind of role do you think music, and particularly hip hop, plays today in the life of New York City? JL: I think they go hand in hand. Depending on which neighbourhood you’re from it’s almost like everybody has their hero, you know? Out in Brooklyn it’s Biggie Smalls, up in Washington Heights, you know, people are blaring the new sounds that are coming out of Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. Like reggaeton is getting really popular out here. As far as hip hop it’s almost like every neighbourhood has a hip hop star, every neighbourhood has branded its own local celebrity. And so depending on which neighbourhood you go to you hear the different sounds of hip hop coming out onto the streets. It’s an integral part of New York n www.beastieboys.com/bbs 017
-.6
General: Now each battalion has a specific code-name and mission. Battalion 5, raise your hands! You will be the all important first defence wave, which we will call ‘Operation Human Shield’. Chef: Hey, wait a minute... General: Now keep in mind, Operation Human Shield will suffer heavy losses. But don’t lose your spirit men! Stay until the bitter end. Battalion 14? Right, you are ‘Operation Get Behind The Darkies’. You will follow Battalion 5 here, and try not to get killed for God’s sake. Are there any questions, men? Yes, soldier? Chef: Have you ever heard of the Emancipation Proclamation? General: I don’t listen to hip hop!
South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut
022 THE AWESOME; I FUCKIN’ SHOT THAT! ISSUE
Who Wants To Be A Beastie Boys Cameraman? AWWWWWW YEAHHHHHHHH....check this out. We are looking for 50 qualified fans to help us shoot the Madison Square Garden Show for our LIVE DVD on Saturday, October 9, 2004 QUALIFICATIONS FOR CONSIDERATION: - Selection will be based on ticket/seat assignment ONLY!!!!! - Must be 18 years or older and have a Social Security number plus valid driver’s license, passport, or other government issued form of identification (identification will be held as a deposit for gear) - Must have a ticket for Saturday night’s show at Madison Square Garden - Must have some experience with shooting a video camera (we will be shooting on Hi8) - You will need to sign a release acknowledging Beastie Boys ownership of the footage that you shoot plus other required conditions - You will have to provide a current email address and phone number for us to contact you if you are selected in order to receive all necessary details IF SELECTED, YOU WILL RECEIVE: - Opportunity to participate in a rare live Beastie Boys production - Loaned Hi8 video camera, 2 tapes, 2 batteries, and instruction packet (to be returned at the end of the show) - Call time and location prior to the show - Upon successful return of camera and recorded tape, you will be entitled to a payment of $125.00 (payment will be processed through a payroll company... Payroll/tax withholding paperwork will be generated for each participant... checks will be received within 2 weeks of processing) - If your footage is used, you will receive filming credit on the Beastie Boys Live at Madison Square Garden DVD upon release HOW TO SIGN UP: - Reply to this thread with THE SEAT NUMBER OF YOUR TICKET FOR THE SHOW. - DO NOT EMAIL or PM ANY ADMIN or MOD about this. If we get PM’s or Emails regarding this, it will be considered grounds for removing you from consideration. PLEASE JUST REPLY WITH YOUR SEAT INFO WINNERS WILL BE NOTIFIED: - By NOON Eastern Time, Day Of Show: Saturday, October 9th! - Individuals selected will be notified by Private Message through the board - A List of Winners’ Usernames will be posted on the board
023
Honest, passionate and unmerciful. editorial@littlewhitelies.co.uk
Reviews Editor Jonathan Williams
Managing Editor Danny Miller
Matt Bochenski
danny@littlewhitelies.co.uk
matt@littlewhitelies.co.uk
Editor
Design & Art Direction
Paul Willoughby paul@littlewhitelies.co.uk Rob Longworth rob@littlewhitelies.co.uk
jon@littlewhitelies.co.uk
ShortJamesFilm Editor Bramble
Incoming Editor Adrian D’Enrico
james@littlewhitelies.co.uk
adrian@littlewhitelies.co.uk
Website Editor Daniel Cullinan
david@littlewhitelies.co.uk
Staff Writers
Monisha Rajesh monisha@littlewhitelies.co.uk Adrian Sandiford sandiford@littlewhitelies.co.uk
Contributing Editors Jon Crocker
Fashion Editor Heather Whyley heather@littlewhitelies.co.uk
Sales Director Steph Pomphrey
Kevin Maher Vince Medeiros
cullinan@littlewhitelies.co.uk
Back David Section Editor Jenkins
steph@littlewhitelies.co.uk
Editorial Assistant Andrea Kurland Words, pictures, thanks...
Jason Arber, Tom Atkinson, Adam Benzine, Jiro Bevis, Jeff Boardman, Daddy Bones, Dan Brightmore, Barbara Bruni, Sara Cathie, Carole Chater, Fred Chesher, Sam Christmas, James Clasper, Miranda Collinge, Joe Conzo, Christine Cowin, Melanie Crawley, Fiona Downie, Catherine Ewen, Paul Fairclough, Sam Gibley, Matthew Glasby, Phillip Grisewood, Vickie Hayward, Phil Hebblethwaite, Alex Heywood, Matt Hill, Simon Izzard, Sam Jackson, Ellen E Jones, Lee Jones, Neon Kelly, Phil Knott, Nathalie Lees, Abigail Lelliott, Nick Letchford, Matt Lister, Ben Machell, Kayt Manson, Claire Marshall, James Martin, David Mattin, Jonas Milk, Carol Morrison, Agnes Orgez, David Perilli, Lieu Pham, Max Rees, Jay Savage, Mary Seaton, Mat Smith, Alex Stewart, Dan Stewart, Anthony Strange, Simon Tang, Zoe Taylor, Eleanor Thomas, Emma Tildsley, Charlotte Walsh, Holly Wales, Steve Watson, Andy Wignall, Michael Williams, Tom Young & the good folk at the the www.beastieboys.com forum for our smashing wallpaper illustrations
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COMAG Specialist To stock LWLies contact andy.hounslow@comag.co.uk
Published By
The Church Of London Publishing Ltd. Minstrel House, 2 Chapel Place, Rivington Street, London EC2A 3DQ tel: 0207 7293675 The articles appearing within this publication reflect the opinions and attitudes of their respective authors and not necessarily those of the publishers or editorial team.
© TCOLondon Publishing Ltd. 2006 024 THE AWESOME; I FUCKIN’ SHOT THAT! ISSUE
ROLL UP, ROLL UP. THE LITTLE WHITE LIES SPACE AGE WEB SHOP IS NOW OPEN FOR BUSINESS. HEAD ON OVER TO WWW.LITTLEWHITELIES.CO.UK TO CHECK OUT A FINE SELECTION OF MAG RELATED GOODNESS, INCLUDING LIMITED EDITION SIGNED SCREENPRINTS OF LWLIES ARTWORK, BACK ISSUES AND SUBSCRIPTIONS.
025
What do you have to say for yourselves ? editorial@littlewhitelies.co.uk DVdesire
Awesome DVD with the last issue. Could have done with some more short films though. Colin Shelbourn
We’re on it.
law-talkin’ guys
You guys tread a hell of a fine line. The Capitalist Creeper feature in Lies 05 made some pretty serious allegations. Obviously tobacco firms want you to keep buying their product despite the harm they do, but to say that Mafia-style assassinations take place of people who get in their way is a bold claim, and if what you say is right, potentially dangerous. You probably won’t get ‘taken out’, but I reckon your lawyers might have some work to do soon. Rachel McKenna
me no understand
Supersize Me, a story on massive structures. Fascinating reading but what’s it got to do with Romance & Cigarettes? Karen Gibson
Erm, go see the film and you’ll figure it out.
see it again, sam
Your Syriana review was mostly spot on, but the film isn’t as confusing as it might seem at first glance. I definitely recommend a second viewing. Alongside Goodnight, And Good Luck George Clooney must be one of the most important filmmakers around at the moment. Who’d have thought it?
can i bum a fag?
You missed a trick in the last issue. It was the perfect opportunity for a feature on smoking fetish porn films. There’s your romance and cigarettes right there. Smoking as a source of sexual gratification is one of the less taboo but most bizarre of all sexual fetishes. Maybe in a later issue? Andrew Dalton
guilty as charged
At last someone has the balls to knock Steve McQueen off his undeserved throne. A great actor of his generation?! What scenes is he most remembered for? Riding a motorbike, driving a car and throwing a ball against a wall. Genius. Mark my vote to send him down. Paul Mcgoughy
apologies to all
Your mag is crap. I’m not talking about the pictures, the features, reviews, etc. But the fucking thing falls to bits after a while. What gives? Lawrence Richardson
Dude, a number of copies of LWLies 05 had a binding issue that made the first section fall out if you got a bit frisky with the mag, and we were GUTTED about it. To anyone out there whose copy shed its lead review, we are really really sorry. Rest assured the guilty parties have been birched.
break ‘n’ enter
That was a well-good interview with Eli Roth in the last issue, and he’s pretty cute too. Whose head is he shoving down the loo in the pics?
Hey LWLies, how’d you like to buy three laptops that I skanked from some shitty mag office near Old Street? Three careful owners. Great music collections (Pet Shop Boys? Nice one!). One has a dink around the power socket. Fifty quid?
That would be his fearless interviewer.
We are going to find your mum and give her a Chinese burn.
John Philips
feeling flushed
Lauren
026 THE AWESOME; I FUCKIN’ SHOT THAT! ISSUE
future cinema!
SUBSCRIBE & WIN!
Last year Future Shorts, Britain’s bestest Film Festival pioneers, organised a burlesque subterranean fantasy featuring VJs, short films and all manner of lewdness. It was called Future Cinema, and we loved it. It was therefore with semi-tumescence that we greeted the news of this year’s tour, to be based on a Gothic theme. We’re even offering two tickets for one of the following events, to a random person who subscribes in June.
Send us the following details and in return we’ll bung you our next five issues for £15.
Thurs 1st June SE1 Club, London Fri 9th June Ashton Court Mansion, Bristol Sat 22nd – Sun 23rd July Stella Live Film, Greenwich Park Weds 23rd August Club Ego, Edinburgh (during the festival) Thurs 19/26th October SE1 Club, London (during the London Film Festival)
Get your Bolex out! Oi, you! Yes you with the little goaty beard and rollneck. Got a film? Then send it to us now – and we might put it on our DVD! Not got a film? Then stop sitting around talking bullshit about a film you’ll never make, and go and make it! Send it to the address just over there to the right.
If you’re after a back issue, e-mail us on editorial@littlewhitelies.co.uk. The first 20 people to subscribe get a copy of Steady Diggin’ Workshop’s latest CD: Welcome to the Workshop, a hip hop blend of funk, cuts and rhyming. Steady Diggin’ Workshop (SDW) have also mixed a bootleg of the Beastie Boys, an early influence on their work. You can download this exclusively from www.littlewhitelies.co.uk
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028 THE AWESOME; I FUCKIN’ SHOT THAT! ISSUE
Daddy Bones, editor of hip hop Bible Grandslam magazine, on the roots of the twentieth centuryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s true musical miracle. illustrations by paul willoughby
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It’s often been noted that the most powerful music is born of suffering. Little wonder then that hip hop, the most influential cultural marvel of the twentieth century, was forged in one of the most desperate urban vicinities of the civilised world: New York’s infamous South Bronx. Since the business and manufacturing exodus of the ’50s and ’60s, this jobless, torn-up, burneddown wasteland of rubble and empty tenements was both plagued and policed by youth gangs. In the early ’70s battling antagonists such as the Black Spades, Savage Skulls and the Seven Immortals spawned many legends and some of the very founders of hip hop. It took an unaffiliated Jamaican ex-pat, one Clive ‘Hercules’ Campbell, to take the first steps on hip hop’s path from the ghetto. Rechristened as DJ Kool Herc, he threw his first legendary party in the recreation room above his apartment on Sedgewick Avenue, in 1973. It was a blast. His use of the turntables to focus on the instrumental breakdowns of his closely guarded funk, rock and pop records was a revelation. The jams soon swelled into outdoor block parties. Herc would hook his floor-shaking sound system up to a lamp-post for power, his MC Coke La Rock hyping the crowds by rhyming and regulating over the endless whirlpools of drums. Across the BX, other crews of DJs and their rapping masters of ceremony, such as the Furious 5, stepped up to compete. Through the ’70s these jams gradually replaced turf war as a prime pastime for the uptown kids. Further diffusion of gang rivalry was due in no small part to former Black Spade warlord Afrika Bambaataa. His fearless efforts in uniting the neighbourhood factions (he’d simply march alone into ‘enemy territory’ with his boombox and tell kids to come to a show) turned their energies away from each other toward an oppressive city government. His didactic organisation, the Zulu Nation, has since steered generations from a path of self-destruction. In December ’79, hip hop hit the marketplace. Though not strictly the very first ‘rap’ disc, Sugarhill Gang’s ‘Rapper’s Delight’ was the one that blew up. It was, however, a fraud; a lame studio concoction cut in New Jersey. Eschewing the role of the DJ (hip hop’s very foundation), three hastily thrown-together dudes popped party rhymes over a recycled Chic riff trod out
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by a pick-up band. Big Bank Hank even had the nerve to steal his lines from Cold Crush’s Grandmaster Caz, an established Bronx MC. Nobody outside the city could have known or cared though. It could have killed off hip hop for the originators, but it was a striking success, becoming the best-selling 12” single thus far and smashing down the doors for countless other crews to shoot their shot. Within days, Kurtis Blow inked a deal with Mercury, the first rap star to sign to a major label. Hip hop was going Downtown. It was the Puerto Rican crews that had started breakdancing. Hip hop’s wild new reinterpretation of music demanded a new expression. Disco dance crazes like the Hustle wouldn’t cut it. The new breeds – no longer clad in greasy biker gang threads, but fly sneakers and sportswear – were developing style: twisting, spinning and throwing themselves onto the bare concrete to show their prowess. Dance teams staged inescapably huge battles. The Lincoln Center showdown of early ’81 between the Rock Steady Crew and Dynamic Rockers was televised. Even National Geographic was there. A world looked on, stunned, at a truly staggering, alien phenomenon: ghetto kids throwing down in broad daylight – on Broadway no less – defying gravity and logic, locking, freezing and spinning on their heads to shards of chopped up breakbeats. By ’82 the cat was out of the bag. Street cultures collided in Manhattan’s Roxy club as uptown cats, downtown punks and Village bohos got down together. They spiked major media interest in the scene – now boasting an arsenal of freakish new electronic music (such as Bambaataa’s pioneering B-Boy anthem ‘Planet Rock’). It even had a solid, fully-fledged movie in Wild Style. Everybody wanted in. To global urban youth primed by punk’s DIY ethic, the inclusive nature of hip hop told them they could do it too. Two turntables and a microphone was all you needed. Within a couple of years hip hop culture was being created all over the world. It was often feared, but nothing could stop it. Not mockery, not the crack epidemic, not even corporate co-option. As has happened so many times before with a perceived cultural threat, the force that could not be halted was bought, but they couldn’t kill it. Twenty-five years ago it was fully formed, yet you couldn’t hear hip hop on the radio or see it on a TV show. It is now, in its myriad forms, inescapable n
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LWLies salutes the flava of a genuine landmark of ’80s cultural documentation, and a cornerstone of the hip hop movie genre. We talk to Charlie Ahearn, writer and director of the seminal Wild Style.
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Why does everyone get off on ripping the piss out of the ’80s? It’s regarded as little more than a conversational get-out-of-jail-free card, a decade where common ground is often reached through mockery of its artistic and cultural trends. On TV they’ve conveniently coined it ‘nostalgia’, but how many of you would think twice before burying a switchblade in the back of some skinny-jeaned fucker talking about how much he loves Rubik’s Cube, the Beverly Hills Cop soundtrack and Classix Nouveau? It’s okay. We all would. Well, it’s time to take the ’80s seriously. Lose the irony spectacles. Then stamp them into the ground. It was 1978 and Charlie Ahearn had just finished shooting a Super8 Kung Fu movie in the Bronx entitled The Deadly Art Of Survival. The surroundings struck a chord with the director as he immersed himself in the burgeoning rap culture that was patterning the scene. Ahearn became captivated by the public murals of notorious New York graffiti artist Lee Quinones and, while showing the film in the area, he hooked up with Fred Braithwaite (aka Fab Five Freddy), a graff artist and impresario intent on spreading the hip hop message to a wider audience.
Words by David Jenkins
The three decided to collude on a project that would incorporate graffiti, rap music and life in the South Bronx. “I was fascinated by the graffiti sub-culture,” says Ahearn. “Specifically Lee Quinones who was this kind of underground artist. I would call him more of an outlaw artist in the sense that what he was doing was illegal and he was anonymous to the outside world. When I arrived, Lee and Fred were hoping to position themselves in the art world by painting canvases that would be shown in galleries, so that became the subtext of the film.” Wild Style went into production in 1980 and from the off it was a film designed to document hip hop culture with integrity. “We were thinking about a film that would give the whole spectrum,” says Ahearn. “I considered myself a film artist, and I wanted to make what I thought of as ‘ghetto’ movies.” The film follows Quinones (renamed Zorro) as he weaves in and out of clubs, parks and burnt-out brownstones, watching people rhyming, breaking and DJing. Like Perry Henzell’s Kingston-set The Harder They Come in 1972, Wild Style achieves the seamless combination of a dramatic, fictionalised story with realistic musical performances that crystallise the spirit of the age and the type of people living in the South Bronx at that time. Though stylised, it contains an almost documentary realism. “I consider all movies to be documentaries, whether they’re fictional or not,” says Ahearn. “A Fred Astaire movie is a document of Fred Astaire dancing. A Marlon Brando movie is a document of Marlon Brando’s acting.” One thing Ahearn was sure of was that he wanted to focus chiefly on rap culture, and this meant taking on the epic task of revising the brutal reputation the South Bronx had acquired during the ’70s. “I was working from a vantage point you probably can’t imagine. At the time when I made Wild Style, a movie came out called Fort Apache: The Bronx, which was about white police officers having their headquarters in the South Bronx. It was portrayed as such a savage place; devoid of civilisation and populated by murderous drug fiends who were causing violence to one another. There were huge protests at the time about the filming and the depiction of people. It was a misconceived reflection of the South Bronx which dated back to the ’70s when the gangs ruled the streets.”
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As with many hip hop movies, this violence is put aside in favour of documenting the rich culture developing on the streets. “That was the image that people had around the world. People knew that the South Bronx was rife with poverty, and rather than shock people with the violence, I wanted to shock them by presenting a sensitive side to the area.” This association with violence was in part due to the graffiti art which daubed the walls and public spaces. As vandalism and sabotage went headto-head with public expression and creativity, it deepened the rift between the culture of hip hop and the so-called establishment. “It’s a vestige of teen rock movies from the ’50s. Films like Rebel Without A Cause and The Wild One which are about teenagers being restrained by older people and authority figures. It’s an idea that leads back to that, and as with those films, you feel more inclined to side with the perpetrators as there is always the suggestion of ignorance on the side of authority.” One of Wild Style’s most iconic images is the graffiti painted on the side of the subway trains. Some may see it as a New York cliché, but it’s become ingrained in the New Yorker’s cultural psyche, and has grown into a piece of much-used cinematic shorthand for the area. “What people kept saying to me when they saw Wild Style is that they were shocked at seeing someone actually entering a subway yard. It gave them the feeling, ‘Oh, that’s how they do that. I can do that too!’ There was a big mystery about how these trains got painted, as people outside the culture thought that they were painted when the train pulled into a station. I don’t know how important that may seem now, but to a certain extent it was a key element in essaying the way of life more authentically.” So what’s the link between rap music and graffiti? “It’s a debated issue right to this day. A lot of people may have listened to Led Zeppelin and gone and painted trains. However, those who really started the hip hop movement like Kool DJ Herc or Phase II were graffiti writers first and foremost. Almost every person I’ve ever talked to that became something in hip hop would say that they had been to a Kool Herc party. In the early ’70s, what you find is that the people who were dancing were all graffiti writers. MCing developed years later. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five didn’t even start until about ’76 and they were really the first rap group. The connection between graffiti and hip hop is that it was a common culture.” Not content with its pioneering view of graffiti art, Wild Style also presented rap as a form of street theatre which involved dexterous rhyming and a whole bunch of attitude. The idea of kids having rap wars on basketball courts or sitting on the stoops of brownstones making up rhymes sounds silly now, but did it really happen? “It’s a metaphor,” says Charlie. “It’s also a creative theatrical event that films in the genre had to rely on. In Wild Style, the performances that the groups did were conceptualised and directed by me, but they came up with all the lyrical parts. The scene where the kids meet on the basketball court is actually a nod towards West Side Story. It’s a joke about gangs, but they’re not really gangs, they’re rival rap groups. They’re throwing rhymes at each other as if they’re fighting. It took a lot of rehearsal to get it to that level, but those groups – the Cold Crush Brothers and The Fantastic – were actually major rivals on the streets of the Bronx. “There are so many different directions you could take a hip hop movie because the culture has developed so radically. There are other elements I would look for, but for me it has to include some true to life expression or performance.” And so we return to the twenty-first century, where irony reigns supreme and the ’80s were just an excuse for people to wear neon clothing. To the brave soul who chooses to sit down and write a true reappraisal of the era, perhaps you might consider Wild Style the subject of the opening chapter n 034 THE AWESOME; I FUCKIN’ SHOT THAT! ISSUE
The Best of the Rest
Style Wars (Henry Chalfant/Tony Silver, 1983) Produced at a similar time to Wild Style, this film concentrates more on the graffiti aspect of the culture, and, with its recent deluxe DVD release, stands as another benchmark of the era. Seriously recommended.
Beat Street (Stan Lathan, 1984) A virtual re-make of Wild Style with the emphasis on performance over narrative, the centrepiece of which is a 10-minute breakdance battle in a New York club. While this scene is powerful, the idea of later transposing it with scenes of modern classical dance (read: Cats) is highly embarrassing.
Breakin’ (Joel SiLberg, 1984) Any film with obvious parallels to Flashdance as one of its key selling points should be approached with caution. Arch revisionists will only be able to defend this film so far before they will be forced to accept its basic naffness. Does exactly what it sets out to do, which, as suggested from the title, is not a lot.
Krush Groove (Michael Schultz, 1985) A guilty pleasure and then some, Krush Groove is the hackneyed, but undeniably great, account of the genesis of Def Jam records and the various troubles that befell its creator, Russell Simmons. Starring Sheila E, Run-DMC, Kurtis Blow and The Fat Boys, narrative and feasibility are negligible but this is still as enjoyable as the genre got.
Fear of A Black Hat (Rusty Cundieff, 1994) Into the ’90s with this mockumentary chronicling the rise and fall of a not particularly talented hip hop group, NWH (Niggaz With Hats). It’s a successful Spinal Tap-style parody which injected the genre with some much-needed humour. Far better than the lamentable Chris Rock vehicle, CB4.
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At the Cannes Film Festival in 1989, hip hop exploded into the movie mainstream with the premiere of Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing. LWLies gets the inside story of its conception from principal player, John Turturro.
Spike Lee’s seminal document of racial dynamics is an explosive cocktail of anger and empowerment. As the sun beats down on the multi-cultural tinderbox of a Brooklyn suburb, tensions among the black, Korean and ItalianAmerican communities are set aflame by an act of police brutality. The finale, in which the disaffected Mookie (Lee) puts a trash can through the window of Sal’s Pizzeria provoked walk-outs, arguments and near-riot in the aisles. One critic declared it, “A call to racial violence”.
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In the year in which Driving Miss Daisy scooped the awards, this was a wake-up call to the mainstream. And while it may not have been a movie ‘about’ hip hop in the sense that Wild Style had been a decade before, Do The Right Thing represented a creative peak of the hip hop ethos breaking out of the borough and into popular consciousness. With a soundtrack by Public Enemy, b-boys, black nationalists and the recurring images of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, the film was rife with the totems of hip hop. But it was delivered with style and humour, and most of all with empathy. “Do the right thing,” Mookie is told, and for us the instructions are just as difficult: don’t judge, understand; don’t react, think.
Words by Matt Bochenski
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John Turturro was a 32 year-old actor coming off the back of roles in Hannah And Her Sisters and The Colour Of Money when he scored the lynchpin role of Pino, Sal’s racist son who detests the suburb, “like a sickness” and “hates niggers”. LWLies caught up with him in New York to talk hip hop, racism and Spike Lee. LWLies: Can you tell us about the spirit on the set? What was the attitude like? What kind of music was playing? JT: There wasn’t a lot of music played on the set, but the energy that’s in the movie – that’s how we made the film. The energy of the movie was in the rehearsal room and it was on the set. ’Cos we all knew that we were making something that was relevant – that was going on in the world around us. If you grew up a certain way, or around mixed neighbourhoods, you knew what this was about. And people had very strong opinions, even in the rehearsal room. On the set as well, a lot of people in the departments were African Americans, you know? And for many black technicians, this was their first opportunity in feature films, like designers, cinematographers... It was a unique feeling to be involved in a film that had so much opportunity. LWLies: What kind of things were going on around you in that period that you remember? JT: Well, there were things that had happened – racial incidents: Howard Beach [a segregated Queens suburb in which a black youth was beaten and killed in 1986], Tawana Brawley [a 15 year-old black girl allegedly raped by six white police officers who left racist insults in shit on her body in 1987], and hip hop too – you know, Public Enemy. I think Spike was taking the pulse of the city. I think he caught something. LWLies: Given the atmosphere on set and out in the wider world, and here’s you playing a racist Italian guy, did you experience any friction? 038 THE AWESOME; I FUCKIN’ SHOT THAT! ISSUE
JT: No, not at all. They were very supportive and I was, you know, I wanted to play that character. I was asked which one I wanted to do and I thought that one was the most interesting. But no – me and Spike were friends, you know, so I was sort of encouraged to go the whole hog. LWLies: What did you make of the reaction to the film? JT: Well, a lot of the reviewers saw the film through white middle-class eyes. There weren’t many black critics who reviewed it. So with something that is, you know, kind of controversial, and the ending... Some people loved it, some criticised it, and Spike responded. There are things in the film that I like and that I don’t like, you know? But that’s the film: it was a new thing and it became a springboard to success for a lot of people. LWLies: How would you describe Spike Lee at that point in his career? What kind of impression did he make on you? JT: That’s the Spike that I know. He had his ideas, he stuck to his ideas, but he was also very open and proactive and, you know, I became good friends with him. I liked that he spoke back and responded, you know, because he was the one in the hot seat. If a white person were to have made a movie like that, people would have talked about it differently. They would have. No matter what they said. LWLies: Do you see that provocative, socially-minded hip hop ethos in any movies being made today? Or do you think it’s very much of a certain time and place? JT: I think people need to realise that Spike opened the doors to explore a lot of things. So if people aren’t doing stuff that is, you know, that is overall that interesting... Maybe they want to do it, maybe they will do it but it’s really a different time now. But that doesn’t mean those issues have gone away. At all. Unfortunately n
THE LIVES OF THE
SAINTS
RUNNER
EMILIO
DIRECTED BY RANKIN AND CHRIS COTTAM www.thelivesofthesaintsthemovie.com
TINA
EXECUTIVE PRODUCED BY MELTIN POT
PRODUCED BY DAZED FILM
A DAZED FILM PRODUCTION IN ASSOCIATION WITH MELTINPOT
OTHELLO WRITTEN BY TONY GRISONI www.meltinpot.com
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Born in the Bronx LWLies Takes a trip to the old school with a visual document of the early days of hip hopâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most potent pop culture pioneers.
photos by joe conzo www.borninthebronx.co.uk
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When Johan Kugelberg first got into hip hop in the late ’90s, he was blown away by its vibrancy, originality and flavour. Finding the roots of the culture largely overlooked, he decided to hook up his own collection of photos, poster art and the flotsam and jetsam of hip hop history. The result is ‘Born In The Bronx’, the first comprehensive visual record of rap’s early days. Featuring the previously unseen photography of Joe Conzo, the exhibition is a celebration of performance, fashion and street life in the Bronx community of the late ’70s n
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The Lost To The 5 Boroughs, the last Beastie’s album, was a real winner. They went pure hip hop with it, and old school at that. It didn’t make any nods to fashion, nor did it try and be too varied or experimental – it just slammed, and hard. It was also the first they’d cut since 9/11. That gave it an interesting tone. It’s a real New York record – defiant, but not in an over-patriotic or tedious way. In fact, it’s more anti-Bush than pro-America, and there’s only one song that truly gives it up for the city, ‘An Open Letter To NYC’: “Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens and Staten / From the Battery to the top of Manhattan / Asian, Middle-Eastern and Latin / Black, white, New York you make it happen!”
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All of New York’s boroughs have done their bit in producing excellent music over the decades, and especially when it comes to hip hop. The Bronx is where it all started, Wu-Tang are from Staten Island, Biggie Smalls from Brooklyn, and so on – the list is endless. And even if Manhattan hasn’t had such a role in hip hop, it has in just about every other form of pop music. Punk and new wave were Manhattan creations all over, and four fifths of the band that kicked off the recent post punk and new wave revival, The Strokes, were raised there. The Strokes, though, are something of an anomaly. An irrelevant number of the New York bands that sprung up in their wake – Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Liars, The Fever, The Roger Sisters, The Rapture, Animal Collective – had members that were Manhattan-bred (most aren’t even native New Yorkers), and none of them lived there. Brooklyn took over, and particularly the Williamsburg district. A thousand and one bands came out of Williamsburg between 2001 and 2003, many of them very good. Manhattan, it seemed, had lost its musical muscle to the hipsters over the bridge. Down there in the West Village in Manhattan, though, there’s a record label that seems to be the exception to the rule: DFA Records, unquestionably the defining New York label of the decade so far. It’s run by James Murphy – whose own band, LCD Soundsystem, is now as well known as DFA – and Tim Goldsworthy, a Brit abroad and co-founder of the influential Mo Wax label in the ’90s. James and Tim started out as a production duo and only considered starting a label after they came across a band called The Rapture. “James had seen them when they were still signed to Sub Pop,” says Tim. “We thought that if we produced them, we could really do something special.” The first song they did with the band – 2002’s ‘House Of Jealous Lovers’ – was also the first DFA release, and it was indeed something special; patient zero of the coming ‘punk funk’ explosion.
Island
The last Beastie Boys album may have celebrated all of New York’s five boroughs, but the one in the middle of them all – Manhattan – has lost its musical muscle. Words by Jasper Hammond photos by phil knott
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Those were the glory days. “We were throwing amazing parties in this building,” says Tim. “It was an exciting time in New York then, and for Manhattan. I think it was partly to do with the whole Internet boom. That was massive here. All our loser friends had these jobs that were paying them 200 grand a year, and everybody was totally optimistic. It was like, ‘Let’s start a label,’ or, ‘Let’s put on parties,’ and that was so refreshing after being in London at the end of the ’90s. It was almost like New York had become the new Manchester or Seattle or whatever.” It didn’t last. “The whole environment has changed in Manhattan a lot, even in the last five years,” continues Tim. “There’s the whole ‘Cabaret Law’, which is ridiculous – no dancing in bars unless you have a licence. It’s a city-wide law, but they really enforce it in Manhattan. It’s left over from the speak-easy, prohibition days. Rudy Giuliani switched it back on again. It has cleaned the city up, but it’s been a disaster for artists – rents are far too expensive in Manhattan now. Everyone has been forced out. It’s entirely possible that in 10 years, New York will have no new art or music scenes at all.” DFA have only stayed in Manhattan because, Tim says, they have a good deal on rent. But all of the people who work there, and all of their artists, live in Brooklyn: “Three years ago, everyone lived in Manhattan, but we’ve all been forced out because of rents. Even the Lower East Side is far too expensive now. It’s crazy. When I first moved here, the Lower East Side was fun because it was how you imagined New York – there were crazy parties going on; you could buy drugs anywhere. That’s how it should be because New York is a true party town. People do still throw parties in Manhattan every now and then, but not like they used to. It’s such a shame. This is where disco came from, for God’s sake.”
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Across the bridge, in Williamsburg, the eight members of !!! are finishing eating burgers at a well-known diner before stepping out into the rain. Their rehearsal room isn’t far and they’re already soaked to the bone, so they wing it and walk. Once there, most take off their shoes and socks. All are quick to set up. They’ve got till the morning to work on new songs in this small, damp room but come sunrise two of the octet – guitarist Mario and horn player Alan – are flying back to California where they live. The pressure is on. There’s hardly ever a point when they are all together, hence their need to get things done tonight. The world has been waiting for their sophomore album for quite some time already, and the band themselves are super keen to finish it before their summer schedule, which includes supporting the Red Hot Chili Peppers in the UK, begins in late June. !!! – say it as “chk, chk, chk,” or however else you choose – are one of the few for whom the tag ‘punk funk’ is actually appropriate. They formed out of the ashes of a couple of California hardcore bands in the mid-’90s, moved (in the most part) to Brooklyn at the turn of the century, put an excellent debut album out on Warp in 2003, and toured the world together. They also have members who moonlight in other New York-based bands. Tyler, !!!’s guitarist, plays bass in LCD Soundsystem; Justin, their bassist and sound engineer, and frontman Nic play in Out Hud. Nic says they play and go to shows in Manhattan, but Brooklyn is their base and it’s still an inspiring place to be, even in the aftermath of the band boom. “I don’t think it’s as crazy as it was when I first got here, but I do think that the city has shot out a lot of really great bands in the last few years and I don’t think they’re done. People are feeling this weird pressure to keep putting out the best music they can, and that’s a good thing. No one is slipping yet and everyone is still challenging themselves. We’ve been especially inspired by just being here, and getting where we are, and playing all these new places. And I still feel like we’re on a journey.” Manhattan may have lost it but, for the moment at least, Brooklyn’s still got it going on n 051
They say it’s the little things that count, and when it comes to getting under the skin of the Beastie Boys, well, they were right.
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For many, the Beastie Boys are a kind of pop culture constant, casting a long but discreet shadow over the life of anyone who ever had to, say, do a rap in a primary school assembly. No one ever needs them explained because the premise seems so blindingly obvious and the characters so easy to digest. Between magazine articles, cameos in Futurama, ‘100 Best Music Video’ polls and even feature-length concert movies, it’s easy to think you’ve got their number. You might even own some of their records. But in reality, they are a group about which our collective knowledge is high on generalities, low on specifics. How come? Mike Diamond, Adam Horovitz and Adam Yauch are curiosities whose careers and characters could be endlessly deconstructed and put back together again without ever really making sense; three white rapping New Yorkers, rearguard babyboomers who have spent almost their entire lives in suspended-adolescence. Who, aside from producing music that tends to either define or defy trends, manage to enjoy the fruits of their labour on precisely their own terms. But then, it’s the little things that add up, so have a poke around the mementos of Beastie Boy days gone by to see if LWLies can help you join up a few dots, get a few answers or just make you shell out for a few CDs. It’s not the final word on the Beasties, but what ever will be?
Words by Ben Machell Illustrations by Paul Willoughby
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The Young and the Useless? The Young Aborigines? The Beastie Boys? If the names
suggested juvenility, the music, delivered at throat-searing volume, didn’t disappoint. As the ’70s became the ’80s, the NYC hardcore punk scene was as good a place as any for middle-class kids to form loose groups and let off a little steam. Yauch, Diamond and Horovitz had all done time in these hard-and-fast punk bands before the Beastie Boys began to actually rap in 1983, but it would be another nine years before they revisited the sub-two-minute mayhem they’d grown up with. Check Your Head (1992) included ‘Time for Livin’’, which lifted its riff from unknown New York hardcore outfit Front Line, while ‘Pass The Mic’ samples the Bad Brains, the all-Rastafarian punk-rock Ying to the Beastie’s all-white hip hop Yang. And don’t forget ‘Sabotage’. Welcome to the recurring world of the Beastie Boys doing whatever the hell they want.
Back in 1984, fourth Beastie Boy, Kate Schellenbach, bumped into band mates MCA, Adrock and Mike D in a Manhattan club. Finding
them wearing fresh matching adidas sweatsuits and trainers, she quit in tears, sensing there was no room for a female punk-rock drummer in an all-male hip hop trio. Cunning work by Def Jam supremo Rick Rubin who had bought the boys the tracksuits himself, and who quickly helped forge the skirt-chasing, freebasing image. But if the Bud-soaked titties of their caged dancing girls and the lyrics of License to Ill (1986) came across like Sid the Sexist fronting Run DMC, then at least 1994’s ‘Sure Shot’ included a few reconciliatory lines about how great women are; the inference being that, yeah, it was probably wrong to stick them in cages and spray beer over them in the ’80s. A sore point perhaps, but anyone romantically linked with Riot Grrl Kathleen Hannah (like Adrock) can’t be a total bastard.
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How many of the impressionable Beastie Boys fans that flocked to their maligned 1987 UK tour now drive Golfs, Polos or Passats? It
would be interesting to know for sure, but it’s probably a greater number than those who actually wrenched the emblems from local VWs to recreate Mike D’s knowingly naff medallion. Cue local news teams interviewing a confused bald man with a cardigan, mistakenly asking the Boys for his logo back. Even when you see a missing VW emblem on a modern model 20 years on, you still pray that someone is wearing it in their bedroom, having a Bud and rapping along to ‘Slow And Low’.
Maybe it’s fitting that the Larry Birds of the hip hop community should spend so much time rapping about shooting hoops. Though Knicks fans to a man
(check Mike D’s T-shirt in the ‘So What’cha Want’ promo, and regular props to Knickerbockers like Anthony Mason and John Starks), it was in north east Los Angeles that the Beastie’s hoop dreams were realised, as they installed their own basketball court in the Neverland that was their custom G-Son recording studio, a former dancehall next to a plumbing shop called Gilson’s (the ‘il’ and final ‘s’ from the sign had long fallen off). Both Check Your Head and Ill Communication were laid down with two-on-ones between takes, and both albums have the pick of the b-ball references accordingly – MCA’s ‘preying mantis’ technique on the court is something he’ll remind fans of occasionally on wax.
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Occasionally namedropping artists like Van Gogh, Cezanne and Picasso might seem a little smartarsed for a rapper, but then if you’re Mike D and your old man
was Harold Diamond, one of the hottest art dealers in New York, maybe you’re just doing what comes naturally. 2004 saw Mike’s ma auction off $60 million worth of work by Picasso, Kandinsky, Mondrian and Leger, which is a lot of money. Adrock’s pops Israel Horovitz also manages to crop up in The New Yorker now and again, earning his keep as a playwright and screenwriter – if you’re in Gloucester, Massachusetts, in August this year, why not check out The Secret of Madam Bonnard’s Bath, a play written and directed by Adrock Snr.
For the Blighty-based Beasties fan, ignorance of American cable TV shows and commercials is the single biggest factor preventing an all-prevailing understanding of their work.
You can read up on basketball, you can sit through Wild Style (or even Krush Groove) and then download every song sampled on Paul’s Boutique, but until you’ve seen The Patty Duke Show, tuned into Televangelism or become familiar with the advertising campaigns of products like Mop-n-Glow floor cleaner or Ultrabright toothpaste, there are always going to be tantalising lyrical blind spots to appreciate, but never really understand. Of course, in America, what could be more egalitarian than rapping about Joanie Loves Chachi?
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Dominoes was the game of choice during the recording of Ill Communication, while Boggle was introduced during the genesis of Hello Nasty, prompting Adrock to declare, “I’m the King of Boggle/There is none higher/I gets 11 points off the word ‘quagmire’” on ‘Putting Shame In Your Game’, while Mike D specialises in words beginning with the letter Q that aren’t followed by a U for tactical use in games of Scrabble. It’s pretty genteel, but at least it explains why you’ll be seeing the Beastie Boys perform live in T-shirts with the words Scrabble or Mah Jong written on them. Hey, no one said that everything about them was interesting.
When the Beasties set up the Grand Royal label in 1992 to release not only their own records but also those of their talented-but-overlooked friends
and allies, who’d have predicted that, within a year, it would have spawned the dopest magazine of the ’90s? The rise, fall and catalogue of cool features and missed deadlines that was Grand Royal magazine deserves a book of its own, for what could be more awesome yet innocent than for three young millionaires to publish something with cover features that ran from Bruce Lee to the Moog synthesizer, demolition derbies to legendary dub producer Lee Perry? Though primarily the baby of Mike D, nothing can give you a better insight into the world of the Beastie Boys circa ’93-’97. Take features like ‘Three stripes and you’re in: a history of adidas’, ‘Number one with a mullet!: our impassioned plea for peoples to stop doing the do that’s hair, there and everywhere’ and ‘Kojak: zen warrior or the white Shaft? A tribute’. Ruminate on topics like ‘The importance of chill time’, vintage cameras, the women’s NBA (covered by none other than Kate Schellenbach), Evil Knievel and pinball, and then get you and your friends (from Spike Jonze to members of Pavement and The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion) to write it all. Irreverent and nostalgic, it was hardly ever produced on time, had a revolving door of editors, and was ultimately doomed to failure as commercial pressures mounted, prompting Mike D to say, “It really sucks!” when it ceased to hit newsstands in 1997. It may have been the Spruce Goose of independent publishing, but – as with all Beastie Boy enterprises – at least they did it n
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THE BEASTIE BOYSBACKED FREE TIBET MOVEMENT BASKS IN THE STAR WATTAGE OF CELEBRITY SUPPORT. BUT WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT? AND WHY SHOULD WE CARE?
WORDS BY MONISHA RAJESH ILLUSTRATIONS BY PHILLIP GRISEWOOD
Like a cracked whip, a red and yellow flag snaps in the wind while an unflinching consulate guard stares out over the traffic on Great Portland Place by Regent’s Park. On the kerb across the road is a member of the Falun Gong spiritual movement – described by the Chinese government as an evil cult organisation. He’s sitting cross-legged on a wooden box, arms out to the sides, palms down, his eyes tightly shut, and his black hair spiked out at all angles. Bentleys with three-letter number plates inch past him. Cyclists stare down from the traffic lights. It’s the weekly Wednesday night Free Tibet vigil outside the Chinese Embassy, and the protestors are slowly gathering on the pavement. That is, the pavement over the road from the Embassy – the Embassy pavement is officially Chinese soil and no one can occupy it. Carmen, an eloquent lady with neatly-coiffed hair, immaculate eye makeup and a burgundy faux-fur coat hands out pink flyers detailing the Chinese government’s actions in Tibet. A few metres along, a scowling, gloved man resembling Rasputin in a beanie waves an enormous Tibetan flag and occasionally shouts “Free Tibet”. Chaz has been coming to protest every week since 1956. Serena, a dark-haired girl representing Students For A Free Tibet explains that despite the tiny group of protestors their efforts aren’t futile. “Tibetans and Buddhists in general have a great concept of permanence – they think that nothing is forever. Everything ends eventually, as will Chinese occupation.” One example is that of Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche, a Tibetan monk sentenced to death. Through letters to MPs and the Chinese Embassy, and through weekly vigils and demonstrations, his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. Since China took control of Tibet in 1959 the authorities have stained the country with Mao Tse-tung’s vision of Marxism-Leninism, denying the Dalai Lama his leadership. Soon after the Chinese occupation, mortar shells were fired at the Lama’s residence and the Tibetan Cabinet urged him to flee the country. At dusk on 31 March, the Dalai Lama left his palace for good, disguised as a soldier, and recruited a small trusted group on the banks of the Kyichu River. He escaped to India and was granted political sanctuary by Jawaharlal Nehru, the Indian prime minister. The Dalai Lama and his exiled government appealed to the UN where they eventually found meagre support in the early ’60s. In 1989 the Tibetan movement registered more firmly on the global radar when the Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the non-violent defence of his people. It’s clear that this same tranquillity flows through the veins of his supporters: a plea for a demonstration on a Tibetan movement website states specifically, ‘Please bring a cushion’.
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Soname Yangchen, a middle-class Tibetan born during the Chinese occupation, escaped across the Himalayas aged 16 with the help of Buddhist monks, dodging Chinese bullets, wading through rivers and mudslides, her socks spattered with blood from the leeches covering her body. Emaciated and withered from the constant fear of being caught, she crossed Nepal, Dharamsala – the home of the Dalai Lama – and France, to Brighton where she now lives. She says: “All prisoners in Tibet have a terrible time. Usually their only ‘crime’ is that they have followed the Dalai Lama or campaigned for Tibet’s freedom. They may be fed human excrement and many are tortured and beaten until they are paralysed and near death; then their families are told to come and take them away so they don’t die in prison. Sometimes they are shot and the family not only has to come and take the body away but pay for the bullet too.” Soname is one of 1.7 million Tibetans who went into exile, leaving their hopes of returning home in the hands of others. Nathaniel Hornblower, aka Beastie Boy, Adam Yauch, met Tibetan refugees escaping into exile while snowboarding in Nepal and has since been involved in the Free Tibet movement. He started the Milarepa Fund – named after a Tibetan saint who enlightened people through his music – and stages annual concerts that feature the likes of REM, Foo Fighters and U2, bringing awareness of the Tibetan plight to younger audiences. With the growing interest in Tibet among Hollywood stars, rock musicians and other celebrities, the Free Tibet movement is enjoying unprecedented publicity. Richard Gere’s impassioned speech at the 1993 Academy Awards, during which he called for China’s paramount leader, Jiang Zemin, to stop oppressing the Tibetans, caused him to be banned by the Academy for bringing politics into the award ceremony. Sony Tristar’s Seven Years In Tibet – the story of Austrian Heinrich Harrer, who tutored the Dalai Lama, and Kundun – which tells the tale of the Dalai Lama’s early life and ends with powerful images of the Chinese invasion of Tibet, have helped triple membership of the International Campaign for Tibet. Following the release of Seven Years In Tibet, Chinese authorities denounced the film’s portrayal of the invasion as “a pack of lies” that unfairly and inaccurately demonised China’s “peaceful liberation” of the country. Sony Tristar executives responded by publicly distancing themselves from the film, hoping to preserve their future plans of expansion into the huge Chinese market. Ex-Disney CEO Michael Eisner followed suit, distancing his company from Kundun as much as possible. Serena’s take: “I’m angry at governments who keep ignoring the situation because they don’t want to strain their economic relationships with China. It’s up to us to keep on pursuing the cause.” The bottom line? Despite the cold, the frustration and the cloud of hopelessness, if sitting in 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, spares one monk his life, one mother a spell of gang rape and one child an orphaning, then the movement is worth it n www.freetibet.org / www.tibet-vigil.org.uk / www.tibetsociety.com / www.sftuk.org
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WORDS BY DAVID MATTIN ILLUSTRATIONS BY ROB LONGWORTH
FROM BEETHOVEN TO THE BEASTIE BOYS, THE TRUE MARK OF MUSICAL INNOVATION IS WHEN SOMEBODY GETS THEIR HEAD KICKED IN.
When the Beastie Boys touched down in London in the summer of 1987, on the eve of their first UK tour, it was into a frenzy of opposition. The tabloids screamed about a 20-foot high hydraulic penis and vast bags of condoms for backstage sex. Worst of all, they whined, at live shows the trio goaded crowds to riotous violence. In the House of Commons, MPs demanded the group be banned from the country. Soon, their fears were realised: a concert at the Royal Court in Liverpool lurched to a halt when fans began to uproot chairs, trash the stage with flying beer bottles, and chant, “We tamed the Beasties!” Beastie-mania was a new and, for a while, shocking force in ’87. But it tapped into a phenomenon that is centuries old. That is, the intimate link between new forms of musical expression and forces of social outrage and unrest. From fist-fights at the opera to punk swastikas at the 100 Club, from orgasms at Elvis concerts to illegal acid-house raves, musical innovation has met, so often, with public disquiet because it speaks, so often, of controversial social upheaval. New music is, uniquely among the arts, a body shock. Let us pay tribute, then, to the maestros of riot. Beethoven – yeah, that’s right – incensed eighteenth century Viennese society with symphonies considered deafeningly loud (think two hours of Teutonic death-metal at full volume). But behind that radicalism lay an instinctive desire to rip down social convention. One famous example occurred when the composer was hired to play at a party hosted by Count Moritz Fries, the richest man in Vienna. It was the start of the party, and Beethoven was a few bars into a march when a certain Count Ferdinand Palffy made a remark to the woman standing next to him. Now, it was de-rigueur in eighteenth century Vienna to treat live piano music as a background soundscape over which one should lay
polite conversation. But Ludwig saw things differently. “I will not play for such swine!” he thundered, before leaping up and knocking a glass of wine out of the nearest hand. It was the gravest of social violations – well, not quite as grave as when he labelled Napoleon “a bastard” – but the underlying message was revolutionary. Music was not subordinate to aristocratic tittle-tattle. Musicians were more important than aristocrats. Merit was more important than birth. Over 200 years later, Igor Stravinsky used his music to explode stifling sexual mores. At the legendary opening night of his opera The Rite of Spring, at the Theatres des Champs Elysees on 29 May, 1913, the primitivistic score – combined with groin-thrusting choreography by Nijinsky – whipped up the sexual tension until outrage and violence broke out in the Paris crowd. Fist fights erupted in the aisles, dancers strained to hear the music over hisses, and police stormed the theatre at the interval. It’s little wonder Stravinsky wanted to rip up the rule book: in 1913 he was balls-deep in a ménage-a-trois with Coco Chanel and a strapping Russian Duke called Dmitri. “Music has the power to shock because it speaks to deep-rooted instincts that other arts can’t reach,” says Charles Hazelwood, BBC classical music guru. “And remember, before the iPod age the primary way to experience music was in a crowd. It’s a form that’s intimately tied to the communal. “People like Beethoven and Stravinsky had an agenda; they were radicals. There’s an argument that the real heirs to those men are the punks, the gangsta rappers, the grime MCs. They’re the ones writing music that pushes at social convention, that engenders violent approval and outrage.” But before Johnny Rotten, Tupac Shakur and Kano, there was Elvis. Forget the burger-bloated, rhine stone lounge monster he became in the ’70s; in 1956 Elvis Presley was the most dangerous musician on the planet. At early performances, female teenagers spiralled towards sexual hysteria, and broke down police barricades to thrust underwear at their idol. 063
No pop artist since has mounted a challenge to the established order on so many different fronts. The guttural rock ‘n’ roll sound, the hips and the long greased back hair were a statement that spoke of black instead of white, young instead of old, sexual instead of prudish, masculine display instead of masculine stoicism. “Hearing ‘Heartbreak Hotel’,” said John Peel, “was like seeing someone strip naked in your living room.” The 1956 breakthrough culminated when Elvis sang ‘Hound Dog’ on the Milton Berle Show on 5 June. At the end of the song he threw in one last chorus, slowed down to a primitive, rutting beat; he pushed his microphone stand low to the ground and straddled it, and raised himself up on his toes. “Nauseating Stuff! Downright Obscene!” screamed the Catholic Herald. “Striptease Behaviour!” said the New York Times, “Primitive physical movement that is impossible to describe in a family newspaper.” In future television performances during that year, Elvis was filmed only from the waist up. But the revolution had already started. The realisation of that televised moment is, you might say, the story of popular culture in the second half of the twentieth century. In the late ’70s the Sex Pistols courted outrage by singing ‘God Save The Queen’, calling Bill Grundy a “dirty fucking rotter” on daytime television, and spitting on audiences who flirted with the symbolism of the far-right. A decade later Public Enemy haunted the dreams of Republican congressmen with their Uzi-toting, Nation of Islam supporting personification of militant black power, and with It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back, prompted an FBI report on, “Rap Music And Its Effects On National Security”. Their clarion call, in the anthemic ‘Fight the Power’? “Elvis was a hero to some / But he never meant shit to me, you see / Straight up racist that sucker 064 THE AWESOME; I FUCKIN’ SHOT THAT! ISSUE
was simple and plain / Motherfuck him and John Wayne.” Three decades ago Elvis had shocked conservative America; now he was emblematic of it. What had been forbidden was now allowed, what had been furtive was mainstream. That one-way cultural journey – towards ever greater liberalisation – is one we are well used to, but, of course, it’s a process that must eventually run up against its own end. And now the most recent maestro of outrage, Eminem, purveys a kind of sanitised debasement of the genuine shock-factor deployed by Elvis or Johnny Rotten or Chuck D; they might sound alike on first hearing, but listen carefully and you’ll find that Eminem’s version is an empty gesture, aiming deft but pointless arrows at self-referential targets: other rappers, his own wife, his own mother, his own talent. Note, too, that the most fearsome riot in recent musical history – the long night of arson, violence and rape at Woodstock III in 1999 – was not a response to radical music, but an eruption of anger at the profit-hunger of festival organisers who forbade attendees from bringing water, only to charge $10 for bottles of Evian. So instead of shocking music, we now have McShocking Music. And where once musicians prompted riot, now it’s the corporate appropriation of musical culture that sends crowds to the barricades. Has music lost its power to shock? Is the ancient link between musical innovation and public unrest broken? Don’t bet on it. It’s simply that rock ‘n’ roll, and the mutant forms it spawned – including rap – have spent their social currency for now. But the next convulsion, a musical innovation as incendiary as that enacted by Beethoven or Elvis, is out there and waiting. And this time, you are the one who is going to be shocked
A Night at the Opera
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A LWLies review will not be inhibited by any perceived rules. Just as movies are about more than the two hours you spend sitting in the cinema, our reviews are a chance to talk about much more than the immediate experience of the film in question. There are many different aspects of the movie-going experience and we will embrace them all.
Anticipation
Ever waited six months for a boxoffice behemoth? Read a book that you loved and nervously watched the adaptation? Been pleasantly surprised by an off-the-radar independent? Anticipation plays a crucial role in your reaction to a movie. Rather than ignore it, we think it should be measured and acknowledged as part of the moviegoing experience. Marked out of 5.
Enjoyment
All other things aside, how did you feel for those two hours? Were you glued to your seat? Did the film speak to your soul? Was it upsetting, disappointing, or just plain boring? Were you even awake? Marked out of 5.
In Retrospect
Great movies live with you; you carry them around wherever you go and the things they say shape the way you see the world. Did this movie fade away or was every moment burned into your retinas? Was it a quick fix action flick, good for a rainy Sunday afternoon? Or the first day of the rest of your life? Did you hate it with a fury only to fall in love with a passion? Or did that first love drain away like a doomed romance? Marked out of 5.
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united 93 Ah yes, United 93. Believe the hype: half movie, half Nobel Prize. It sits there on the celluloid podium, sporting its own breast-beaten nobility, impervious to criticism, with shaky-cam on shoulder and 9/11 survivors guide in hand, delivering the details of the day of all days with a suspiciously self-declared impartiality. So fasten your seatbelts, fade up from black and there they are: the terrorists, dutifully saying their prayers in the early hours of September 11th, washing, shaving, sprucing up and generally getting ready to cruelly partake in the desperate, unthinking and anti-human initiation of the modern post-millennial era as we know it. And there they are too: the passengers, tragically oblivious, busy and boarding in Boston airport. Surprisingly, bafflingly even, this lot is sprinkled with some
RELEASED 2 June
DIRECTED BY Paul Greengrass STARRING Christian Clemenson, Gary Commock, Polly Adams
seriously stock movie-types – the sports jock, the old woman and her pills, the gay couple, the helpful hostess and so on. They will later, even more oddly, in true Howard Hawksian action-movie fashion, unite together (see movie title) as a single-minded team against a common scum-sucking enemy. Meanwhile, there are stock types on the ground too – in various blinking, bleeping air traffic control centres around the States, men in white shirts, ties, and rolled-up sleeves are weaving in and out of computer terminals shouting encouraging words, in the midst of chaos, like, “Let’s go, let’s go! Let’s keep working!” And in these moments, when the loony fundamentalist shit is utterly hitting the unprepared and inexperienced Western fan, movies like Airport, Pushing Tin, Apollo 13, Die Hard 2 and Executive Decision crash their way rudely into this apparently
noble visual testament to that day of all days. And that’s the problem right there. For despite all its rhetoric o f truth and understanding and heart-felt ambitions, United 93, against its better instincts, is just a movie. 111 minutes long. Arrives in film cans. Gets lights shone through it. End of story. In fact, this movie is more glaringly synthetic and movie-like than most summer blockbusters – the camera rarely stops moving, visual effects abound, the soundtrack is often intrusive, and some of the acting is ropey enough to draw undue attention to itself. Most of all, however, United 93 announces its own artifice by its very nature. By attempting to shoehorn a series of ineffably and incomprehensibly intimate human moments into a relatively palatable piece of movie entertainment, director Paul Greengrass has
only highlighted the narrative film form’s limitations. Furthermore, by morbidly celebrating and valorising the actions of the passengers on this plane he has somehow attempted (perhaps unconsciously, even) to alter the emotional tenor of that day from one of profound confusion and fear to one of hope. And this, despite the honourable intent of all concerned, is surely bogus. Kevin Maher
Anticipation. Media hype. Relatives in tears. Angry NYC punters. Definitely a must-see. Four Enjoyment. Holy shit!
It’s just like being on the real plane! Er, hang on a minute... One
In Retrospect. What was the point of that? Feel a bit creeped out. One 081
secuestro express It’s not really surprising that the Venezuelan government were pissed off by Secuestro Express. Literally translated as ‘Kidnapping Express’, the film portrays a society of rampant crime, polarised wealth, ubiquitous drug abuse and corrupt police. The result is that it has effectively been suppressed by the Chavez government. Despite this, and thanks to the support of Miramax, Elizabeth Avellan (Mrs Robert Rodriguez) and a few million Venezuelans, the film has finally received its European release. While the film’s themes are not unusual, what makes it exceptional is its stark, sometimes crude depiction of seething inter-class
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DIRECTED BY Jonathan Jakubowicz STARRING Mia Maestro, Ruben Blades, Carlos Julio Molina
conflict. As Jakubowicz states in his interview with LWLies, he was drawn to the subject of hijacking by its use as a vehicle for social justice. In Secuestro, this justice is dealt out to a young, rich, Caracas couple: Martin (Jean Paul Leroux) and Carla (Mia Maestro). While Carla has a social conscience and volunteers at a public clinic, Martin is contemptuous of those less fortunate than himself, declaring that “bad luck is every loser’s excuse”. It is this callous disregard for humanity, and the extravagant flaunting of wealth, that attract the film’s anger. The couple are kidnapped specifically because they drive a flash car and rub their money in people’s faces while they starve. Lest the point isn’t clear, the film’s
RELEASED 9 June
closing line states: “There are two options, you either kill the beast, or invite him to dinner.” Jakubowicz is at pains to humanise, for all their brutality, the hostage-takers. This is particularly evident with the character of Trece (Carlos Julio Molina), an anti-hero who possesses a more powerful moral compass than social superiors and law-enforcers alike. That morality, not money, is the issue is further reinforced by the fact that he is middle-class. It’s illuminating just how unusual and refreshing a film with such a clear and angry political statement is. While Jakubowicz cites Fahrenheit 9/11 as an example of American political cinema, that film attacked an
obvious and powerful target. Secuestro’s strength is that it attacks a portion of its own audience. In that sense it follows in a fine tradition that has sadly faded from First World cinema. James Bramble
Anticipation. The film’s difficulties with the government might make it a cause celebre. Two Enjoyment. It’s not a
pleasant ride, but it is a master-class of guerrilla filmmaking. Three
In Retrospect. Tense, dark and depressing but with an effective moral foundation. Three
An interview with Jonathan Jakubowicz, director of Secuestro Express. LWLies: The film paints quite a negative picture of Venezuela, did you encounter any opposition from the authorities? Jakubowicz: Well, you know, when we were making it, it was very tough because we did it right after the oil strike in Venezuela. We did shoot in incredibly violent streets and we had more security crew than production crew. And we used gang members, police corps, bodyguards; everything together. It was really tense, but it also helped with the performances. LWLies: What were the politics behind it? Jakubowicz: We were completely neutral and were sending
a message to the entire society. It was created by Chavistas and people against Chavez working together. But there’s all this political tension going on in Caracas which makes people really afraid. And then the government started suing us, the vice-president said it was “a miserable film with no artistic value” which is almost a quotation from Hitler, and it’s become this enemy that the government has chosen because the movie communicates with the masses.
LWLies: To what extent is it based on personal experience? Jakubowicz: I’ve been kidnapped but it was a much
smaller and less violent kidnapping. I also have many friends who’ve been kidnapped. It’s a very common occurrence in Latin America, and the story was based on stories that I heard from victims and kidnappers as well, because I met with both sides. I thought it was really important to be fair, because it’s not just a crime but a sort of vehicle for social revenge.
LWLies: It’s an overtly political film in a way that European films rarely are right now. Do you think you could make a film like that in Hollywood or Europe? Jakubowicz: I think there’s a huge privilege, an unfortunate privilege, of being a filmmaker in the Third World, which is you can affect the course of society with a film. I don’t know if you can change the course of society in Europe or the United States with a film. However, I wouldn’t see why it’s not possible to make it in Europe or the US when films like Fahrenheit 9/11 have been created.
LWLies: You’ve said that Latin America is approaching the Renaissance, what did you mean? Jakubowicz: I think as a culture, we are approaching the moment when we either go into the barbaric and we become like a civil war-filled place and start fighting against each other, or we actually make a general decision by the entire society which says we’re going to have to fix it. It’s either that or destruction. The only way to continue existing as a nation is to incorporate everyone. James Bramble Check out the full transcript of this giddy and provocative interview at www.littlewhitelies.co.uk
dumplings RELEASED 16 June
Qing Li (Miriam Yeung) is the wife of a wealthy businessman, high-society girl and former starlet desperate to halt the ageing process. With her husband shunning her to devote more time and attention to local masseuses, she seeks out former back room abortionist Auntie Mei (Ling Bai). Mei is renowned for her prowess in the kitchen, specialising in producing age-reversing dumplings which rely on one mystery ingredient. As the film progresses the viewer is left in no doubt as to the nature of the necessary catalyst, as Qing has to choose between Mei’s dubious culinary services or face losing her
DIRECTED BY Fruit Chan STARRING Ling Bai, Tony Leung Ka Fai, Miriam Yeung
husband to a younger woman. Dumplings offers a close look at how vanity manifests itself in modern women, but it’s also a shocking insight into the lengths people will go to to satisfy what Fruit Chan describes as a “psychopathic craving” to turn back the hands of time. Matt Lister
Anticipation. Pretty women eating muck. One Enjoyment. Horrific but scrumptious. Three
In Retrospect. Worth being put off Wagamama for life? No. Two 083
thank you for smoking DIRECTED BY Jason Reitman STARRING Aaron Eckhart, Maria Bello, William H Macy, Katie Holmes RELEASED 16 June
Aaron Eckhart turns in his best performance since In The Company Of Men as Thank You For Smoking’s ethicallybankrupt, silver-tongued tobacco lobbyist Nick Naylor. Nick is on a mission to rehabilitate the public persona of the humble cigarette, and make fags cool for a whole new generation of potential customers. He’s a committed career man, but when he’s not extolling the delights of a nicotine hit to a classroom of infants, he takes the time to shag cute journalists. A gift for an actor, watching Eckhart flesh out Nick’s quest to quell the nay sayers and get people lighting up, you realise how few film characters can truly be said to be amoral. The guy who takes as glib an approach to aiding the painful, cancerous deaths of millions as the rest of us do to cheekily doing 31 in the 30 zone is a rare creature indeed. It’s ironic really, given these kind of villains are far more common in the real world than your spotlight-hogging, bona fide maniacs. Nick is the suit running Nestle, the guy who didn’t sign the Kyoto agreement, the shadowy figure who buggers off with the retirement money of a nation’s pensioners. Nick meets on a regular basis with the other two members of the self-appointed ‘Ministry Of Death’, Polly Bailey (Maria Bello) and good ol’ boy Bobby Jay Bliss (David Koechner), who lobby for the alcohol and gun industries respectively and compete to see who can successfully tally up the greatest number of fatalities.
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The MOD squad are masterful tacticians. At one point Nick offers the cancer-riddled former Marlboro man and potential PR land mine a suitcase full of money, which he can either shut up and keep to help his family, or use to publicise his case; as Nick correctly realises, there are no halfway houses on the moral highroad. But while you feel you should wag your finger at such naughtiness, the MOD squad’s Mephistophelian glee is fantastic fun to watch. Rather than tutting from a safe distance and preaching to the choir, writer-director Jason Reitman gets up close and personal with the devil, and the man in red is great company. Nick and co. don’t enjoy killing for the sake of killing; it’s not about the viscera, the blood or the tears – the deaths are almost incidental, merely a convenient index of power. As such, it’s dangerously easy to overlook their actions, simply because it’s always at one stylish remove from the consequences. Getting inside Nick’s head is
an exhilarating trip, but Reitman provides further conflict in a couple of forms, the weakest of which is Katie Holmes as a scheming journalist. Holmes isn’t particularly convincing as a Machiavellian hack for whom the end justifies the means and the means involve getting one’s end away. Whether the inclusion of those legendary explicit sex scenes cut from the print shown at Sundance would’ve made a difference, we can but dream. Nick’s other major obstacle is the opposition of the alwayswelcome William H Macy as a liberal politician campaigning against tobacco. Macy gets one of the film’s best lines: “The great state of Vermont will not apologise for its cheese!” as Nick executes a slippery turning of tables on other less-than-health-orientated industrial interests. Hanging over the film like a storm cloud is the threat of Nick’s young son Joey and his determination to learn about what daddy does for a living. You can sense the icky redemptive moment
coming, where the corrupted adult finds salvation in the simple wisdom of a child. The cherry on top therefore comes towards the end, where the film follows through with the courage of its (lack of) convictions. If you’re hoping for a big victory for the moral majority, you might be disappointed. But just how good can a movie be where none of the characters really learn anything? On this evidence, pretty damn good. Carole Chater
Anticipation. Jason ‘son of Ivan Ghostbusters’ Reitman makes a star-filled movie? Bet that’s got nothing to do with who his daddy is. Three Enjoyment. Reports of the death of American satire have been widely exaggerated. Four
In Retrospect. Slightly shallow, but if every film tried to be deep, we’d be drowning in Ingmar Bergman knockoffs. Four
ju-on: the grudge 2 A creepy, white-faced woman with long black hair emerges out of the shadows and starts to crawl along the floor uttering a spine-tingling guttural croak. Could it be another innocent punter finally cracking before the grim parade of J-horror wannabes? For every fan who’s enjoyed the rich feast of recent years, 10 more are starting to feel a wee bit overstuffed. Well, clear the palate because this one is really rather good. Ju-on: The Grudge 2 is the sequel to a movie which was itself a remake of a pair of low-budget, straight-to-video films called Ju-on: The Curse. The latter films were remade again, this time with Hollywood backing and starring Sarah Michelle Gellar. Confused?
DIRECTED BY Takashi Shimizu STARRING Noriko Sakai, Chiharu Niyama, Kei Horie
RELEASED 7 July
Don’t worry, you’re not alone. All the entries in the series have been directed by Takashi Shimizu, who appears to be spending his life riffing on the same horror theme. The plots vary little from movie to movie: the violent murder of a crazy mother and her child curse an ordinary house nestling in an average suburb of Tokyo. Anyone who comes into contact with the place can expect to be killed by ghosts. Got it? The films’ low budgets put more emphasis on mood than gore, and the results in all fairness are pretty damn creepy and unnerving. This latest sees Shimizu refining his craft, wringing every ounce of supernatural fear out of a lean plot that follows a documentary crew making a TV
show about the haunted house. The film is divided into episodes that flip forwards and backwards, making it easy to lose track if you’re rummaging for popcorn. The effect is disorientating but suits the movie’s mood of darkly menacing surrealism. Shimizu is influenced as much by David Lynch as he is obsessed with Hideo Nakata, and he’s learned a trick or two about droning music cues to ratchet those nerves. Despite a whiff of the faintly ridiculous (a wig that comes to life? O-kay), Shimizu is a master at attaching fearful significance to simple things such as a stain on the floor or a thud on a wall. You’d be ill advised to watch this movie without having seen the previous installment, as
much of it will make little sense otherwise. And while it’s certainly not the greatest Asian ghost story of recent times – that honour goes to Ji-woon Kim’s Tale of Two Sisters – Kyoko’s low, throaty growl is without doubt one of the most terrifying things you’ll ever hear. Jason Arber
Anticipation. Takashi Shimizu has yet to produce a dull film. Three Enjoyment. Starts as
it means to go on with disconcerting scares and a growing sense of dread. Four
In Retrospect. Strictly a movie for fans of Asian horror, but a good one. Three
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An interview with Laurent Cantet, director of Heading South. LWLies: You’ve said that the first time you were in Haiti there were certain things you experienced that proved to you it was a country of particular tensions. Can you expand on that? Cantet: What’s impressive in Haiti - in Port au Prince - is that there are so many people everywhere: walking, running, working, trying to get food. It was really shocking to be there without any purpose. I was here just like a tourist in a country where no tourists come any more. And you face such big poverty but you meet a lot of very interesting people and you feel also that the culture of the country is very strong. LWLies: As in the cultural identity? Cantet: Yes. LWLies: Why do you think that is? Cantet: It’s built around voodoo and also there is this kind
of paradox - they are very close to French culture and then at the same time they are a little bit distant. They don’t want to be too close to France because of the history. But then you feel that this paradox is very rich for them too.
LWLies: Did you get the impression that things had changed between Papa Doc in the ’70s and Aristide in 2004? Cantet: I think things have changed really. Before, you know, the makouts could kill anyone with impunity and now it is a little bit more civilised. But economically things are worse now than they were during Papa Doc.
little manhattAn
DIRECTED BY Mark Levin STARRING Josh Hutcherson, Charlie Ray, Cynthia Nixon RELEASED 30 June
Let’s get it out in the open; Little Manhattan is about 11 year-old kids falling in love. And even though you’re not taken on quite the journey you expect, like the man says – it is what it is. So what is it exactly? In the end, it’s just a few thoughts about love, particularly first love; that it can be mystical, euphoric, devastating and at times quite absurd. It ticks all the romance boxes but has a few different angles, and it’s just light-hearted enough to be tolerable. Levin, one-time producer of The Wonder Years, has good kid pedigree, and he’s clearly
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kept one eye on the zeitgeist. Hutcherson and Ray offer polished performances as the young couple, but that’s kind of the problem: at times their childishness fails to come through and these kids can’t help but be grown up. Child actors; sometimes they can play anything but children. Michael Williams
Anticipation. A kid romance? Come on. One Enjoyment. It might not
be love at first sight, but it’s quite amusing. Two
In Retrospect. No
second date. Two
LWLies: How does that relate to the spirit of the people? Cantet: You can feel violence everywhere in Haiti. And
people together are very aggressive. But you have two levels: officially it was the time when Aristide asked for the money back from France. You could read everywhere, ‘We want our one billion francs back’, and that was the official language. But when you speak with people in the streets it’s not that anymore. Really I never felt in danger there.
LWLies: Do you feel a responsibility to engage with this violence as a filmmaker? Cantet: I think I feel this responsibility as a human being, not as a director. All my films deal with social problems, with political problems, with relationships between people. So, I want all my films to be really connected to what I’m living right now. I think that this one says a lot of things about what’s happening in France too. The question is, ‘what is our place in the world?’. Those three women are looking for a place which I think doesn’t exist. You just create this place by buying things, by proving that you are stronger than the others. I think when they arrive here they really just want to forget their status. And the reality is, you can’t escape what you are. Matthew Bochenski For more Gallic goodness, check out the full whack at www.littlewhitelies.co.uk
heading south Films like Heading South create heroes based in reality, and often have endings without euphoria or satisfaction. What you’re faced with is the futility of existence, and a weird, almost embarrassing, nostalgia for unique places where beauty and suffering share the same plate. The hero in this case is Legba, a Haitian teenager caught in the trap of sexual tourism, selling his body to find a way out. His maternal clients are liberal, middleaged women – mostly American
DIRECTED BY Laurent Cantet STARRING Charlotte Rampling, Karen Young, Ménothy Cesar
RELEASED 7 July
– who find their way to Haiti to escape their liberal, middle-class frustrations. Set in the ’70s and shot unglamorously despite the beautiful setting, the familial dynamic of young boys servicing older women is both touching and unsettling; a world of fake gloss against a backdrop of brooding politics. Legba finds the devil in both of these places: the women seem oblivious to the cultural gulf between them, thinking they can whisk their boys away from all this
trouble. The establishment see no place for those unwilling to toe the line. Still, the ironies are crystalclear and any westernised soul landing on a tropical beach with dreams of Utopia would do well to see this searching film. The present rejoinder is the recent rape and murder of Katherine Horton in Thailand, and a certain Gary having his five dollar fun in Vietnam. The tension between those with and those without makes Heading South both
prescient and uncomfortable. Steph Pomphrey
Anticipation. Charlotte Rampling adds another sexaddled film to her list. One Enjoyment. Uncomfortable adult history lesson, with documentary-esque poignancy. Three
In Retrospect. Be willing to immerse yourself and reap the benefit. Four 087
cave of the yellow dog DIRECTED BY Byambasuren Davaa STARRING Babbayar Batchuluun, Nansal Batchuluun, Batchuluun Urjindorj RELEASED 30 June
While the prospect of spending two hours of your hard-earned downtime in the company of nomadic Mongolian goat herders might sound as appealing as mutilating your right leg with a Stanley knife, Cave Of The Yellow Dog will tempt many into considering a long break in Ulaanbaatar shortly after leaving the cinema. Director Byambasuren Davaa treads the same dusty trail as she did with her 2003 breakthrough, The Story Of The Weeping Camel, delivering what is essentially a sequel to that film, with lingering shots of young children at one with nature, and the constant threat of danger from an unpredictable climate. The film itself is a Mongolian mixture of Lassie Come Home and The Waltons, about a nomad family whose young daughter, Nansal, discovers a dog with which she instantly falls in love but which her parents won’t allow her to keep. It’s rare these days for a film to revel in scenes of such untainted innocence, but the fascinating travails captured in the tiny microcosm of The Cave Of The Yellow Dog will soften even the hardest of hearts. On one level, this is a film which right-on parents will want their young children to see, but like all good family films it offers something more. For all the smiling babies, this is still a serious
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examination of the effects of a disparate population, and the ways in which social isolation can often impinge on the development of the family unit. But if The Cave Of The Yellow Dog is about anything, it’s the death of tradition. The film radiates an air of melancholy as the family slowly succumbs to the pull of western consumer culture. Their eventual migration to the nearby town offers
an uncertain future for both the family and the culture of which they are a dying few. The only criticism is that it’s far too similar to its predecessor, and while more fun to watch, it doesn’t have the spiritual undertones that made Weeping Camel such a revelation. Nevertheless, it will still prompt bursts of uncontrollable smiling, so for God’s sake, put the knife down. David Jenkins
Anticipation. For those not put off by the title, Story Of The Weeping Camel was a great film. Four Enjoyment. Your cheeks will hurt from all the smiling. Four
In Retrospect. Pack your bags. Mongolian goat herders 4-EVER. Four
the science of sleep There’s this rule. Screenwriters use it, novelists too, and even some short story writers. The rule warns the would-be storyteller that it’s foolhardy, difficult and challenging to the point of futility to write a dramatic narrative where the central character is either insane, dreaming or on hallucinogenic drugs. In these states anything can happen. In these states there are no rules – emotional, motivational or metaphysical. And without rules there is no drama. Witness the sense of weary repetition that sets in halfway through Gilliam’s Fear And Loathing adaptation. Or the dramatic inertia of Daniel Craig in Some Voices. Or the
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RELEASED July 28
DIRECTED BY Michel Gondry STARRING Gael Garcia Bernal, Charlotte Gainsbourg
entertaining, yet ultimately disposable, dreamscape of Linklater’s Waking Life. Enter Gael Garcia Bernal’s semi-narcoleptic dreamer Stephane in The Science Of Sleep. Stephane is a Mexico City transplant with high artistic ambitions working as a lowly copy-setter in a grim Paris office. He fancies his new next-door neighbour, Stephanie (Charlotte Gainsbourg), who works in a paint shop and has a collection of ancient fluffy dollies. And he dreams. A lot. He can barely have a lucid conversation with his mother and her zany new magician boyfriend without drifting off into his own cluttered psyche, whereupon writer-
director and former pop promo wünderkind Michel Gondry can indulge his seemingly limitless fancy for lo-fi stop-motion effects, ker-razy costumes and left-field visual references. Here fans, or even passing acquaintances, of Gondry’s video work will spot nods to the likes of his Seven Nation Army and Human Behaviour promos through Stephane’s many, many dream sequences (while the movie itself, occasionally, eerily shadows Gondry’s similarly themed Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind). Of course, all this really shouldn’t work (see The Rule, above). There’s little ‘real’ drama driving the movie – Stephane
and Stephanie flirt, they fight, they flirt again, she gets moody, he gets jealous, they fight, they flirt, then he falls asleep in her flat. Furthermore, their central relationship, which is the hook to the entire movie, has ‘slightly pretentious first year arts students’ stamped all over it. “I love her,” says Bernal, thoughtfully, “because she makes things with her hands.” What?!!!! And yet, against wiser heads, better instincts and healthy cynicism, The Science Of Sleep somehow works. It’s just brazen enough, just ramshackle enough to overlay its own indulgences with a sheen of undefended charm. And it’s just inventive and heart-felt
hard candy
DIRECTED BY David Slade STARRING Patrick Wilson, Ellen Page, Sandra Oh RELEASED 16 June
Films about paedophiles. They’re up there with being knifed in the head and having your skin flayed off with a blow torch. Yet two characters, one house and 104 minutes of charged human dynamics make Hard Candy so enthralling your eyeballs will run dry. Slade’s bold attempt to rugbytackle the taboo of paedophilia subverts the stereotypical image of offenders as NHS spectaclewearing loner-weirdoes. Jeff (Wilson) is a fashion photographer in his early-30s who looks like he’s just walked out of the new Armani Code advert; tall, blonde and tanned with cheekbones that could cut glass. Then there’s Hayley (Page). Flat-chested cherub-cheeked and elfin-like – the archetypal victim.
In an arresting opening – a shot of a chatroom conversation – the predator finds the victim online, they meet, the victim is lured back to the house, drugged, tied up and tortured – only this doesn’t play out as neatly as you’d expect. Slade’s directorial hammer trounces the foundations of your preconceptions and tinges a black and white subject with agonising grey patches. Page and Wilson engage in a tussle of emotions. Their vulnerabilities and furious psychological warfare prompt the audience’s ringside cheering to falter as loyalties gradually begin to change. A strange role reversal takes place as Slade asks some difficult questions – should a person be punished for a crime they only might have committed?
The heat and energy generated by the often adlibbed interactions of Page and Wilson expose nerves in both characters that are so raw they practically bleed onto the screen. Hard Candy is truly a film of ferocity and electricity, yet simultaneously possessed of beautiful and energetic direction. Monisha Rajesh
Anticipation. Paedo film? No thanks. One Enjoyment. The mental equivalent of a car crash. Two
In Retrospect.
Just incredible. Will rocket Page to the forefront. Four
enough to overcome the stringent limitations of The Rule. Kevin Maher
Anticipation. Great buzz at Sundance. It’s the new Eternal Sunshine! Can’t wait. Four Enjoyment. Boy, is
this wacky! He’s dreaming and yet we can actually see his dreams! And then? Three
In Retrospect. One for the DVD collection. Will never watch it again. But still, one for the collection all the same. Two 091
x-men: the last stand The Golden Gate Bridge isn’t the only American icon stranded in the rubble of X-Men: The Last Stand. The only thing ‘Extraordinary’ about these mutants would be if the smoking ruin of their reputation can be salvaged in time for a fourth film. Let’s hope not. Not so much picking up from as repeating the plot of the first two films, The Last Stand sees tensions rising as a ‘cure’ for mutants provokes civil war. Added to the mix is the return of Jean Grey – now called the Phoenix – a personification of Freudian passions and world-shaking power. Or so we’re told. Mostly her job
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RELEASED 25 May
DIRECTED BY Brett Ratner STARRING Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Ian McKellen, Kelsey Grammer, Vinnie Jones
is to stand around looking blank while Wolverine and the gang hit the headless chicken button. She gets to cut loose a couple of times in the movie’s best scenes, but Ratner doesn’t have the brains, interest or budget to do her any kind of justice. So it’s more of the same. Halle Berry and Hugh Jackman get in the way of the camera, Ian McKellen does his Brit bit as best he can and the new faces (blue fur-ball Beast and armour-plated football hooligan Juggernaut) try in vain to register personality through the prosthetics. All to no avail, because the sheer ineptitude on display is breathtaking. No, it’s an insult to
everybody who pays to be slapped in the face like this. Ratner’s XMen is a cavalcade of slapdash filmmaking. From basic continuity errors and careless camerawork to a staggeringly wrong-headed epilogue that crystallises a key question: what the fuck is the point of all this bullshit? James Marsden’s Cyclops is dispatched with an almost audible ‘sod off to Superman’. Mutant powers come and go, day becomes night, characters wander off aimlessly for chunks of the film, the emotional pay-offs are signposted in neon lights. It’s never-ending. Is it faithful to the comics? Who cares? Sellotape a page to your TV
if you want to see a comic book come to life. As an exercise in the basic mechanics of filmmaking, X-Men: The Last Stand is a shambles. Forget Poseidon, this is the summer’s big disaster movie. Matt Bochenski
Anticipation. Iconic comic superstars, but they’ve never really hit the heights on screen. Two Enjoyment. Frustrating,
insulting, pointless. Truly dire. One
In Retrospect. See
above. One
An interview with Jafar Panahi, director of Offside. Along with Abbas Kiarostami, Panahi is one of the leading lights of the new Iranian cinema movement. Although highly regarded in Europe, his first two films The Circle and Crimson Gold were banned by the Islamic Government of Iran. Panahi began his career as a documentarian – a discipline which informs the style of his more recent fictional work – and his films often question the idiosyncrasies of modern Islam.
offside
DIRECTED BY Jafar Panahi STARRING Sima MobarakShahi, Ayda Sadeqi, Shayesteh Irani RELEASED 9 June
Form a mental picture of the sort of person who likes to dabble in the football film subgenre. Got it? You know: bald, hoop ear-ringed Nazis in starched Sonettis, standing against a shelf of pirate Adam Sandler DVDs and antique Barnsley programmes. Scum, basically. And the morons who make these films are no better, trotting out any old tat that’ll give them an excuse to give David Beckham a cameo. Football films are shit and they know they are. With one exception. Offside is Iranian director Jafar Panahi’s follow-up to Kiarostamipenned masterwork Crimson Gold, and it revisits themes originally explored in his 2000 film, The Circle, namely the rough ride had by women in his homeland. This old subject is given a quirky twist by being pegged to the outcome of a World Cup qualifying match between Iran and Bahrain, and succeeds in capturing the impassioned clamour surrounding any important sporting event. The crux of the film takes place on the outer rim of the stadium in a small, gated pen where an assortment of female miscreants are held captive as a result of their attempts to sneak into the male-only match. On the surface it’s a roughly hewn, spirited piece about the desperate plight of women in Iran, but deeper down it passes comment on the youth of a nation
stifled by a quasi-totalitarian government and forced into a crippling existence of moral displacement and unfulfillable dreams. Shot very swiftly using mainly non-professional actors, there is no shortage of scabrous social statement or iconic imagery here. However, it has the feel of a minor work and doesn’t quite fit into the upward trajectory Panahi formed with his previous two efforts. But the Iranian authorities make it difficult to produce films in the territory (especially ones which question the country’s dubious human rights record), and although one of Offside’s greatest virtues is its spontaneity, you’d have hoped that Panahi would perhaps have achieved more for the risks he has taken, and made a film that didn’t focus on a subject he has already tackled. Although it would not be saying much to name Offside the greatest football film of all time, this isn’t quite a hat-trick for the big man. David Jenkins
Anticipation. When director Panahi’s hot, he’s real hot. Four Enjoyment. Slight, but
pleasurable. Scores. Three
In Retrospect. Too many
mixed messages about a well-worn subject. Two
LWLies: What was your influence in making a film centered on a football match? Panahi: I read a piece by a very famous sporting journalist in Iran about the history of women in sport. It was talking about how women weren’t allowed to watch sporting events at stadiums in ancient Greece. There was a woman whose son was a champion sportsman and she wasn’t allowed to see him compete, so she decided to dress up as a man in order to gain access. LWLies: How was the film orchestrated? Was it filmed during an actual match? Panahi: It’s a kind of docudrama shot in real time. Most of the scenes were shot as the game was happening. When you see the film, you can believe that what you’re watching is actually happening. LWLies: Did this lead to a lot of improvisation from the actors? Panahi: All of the actors I used were non-professional
anyway, so it’s not really possible to control everything captured on camera, even if a tight script was being followed. Most of the time I just left the actors to see the kind of reactions they would produce and then, based on that, I would plan the next sequence. When I was shooting the film, I didn’t really know what was going to happen as we desperately wanted Iran to win to finish off the film, but we didn’t know whether they would or not.
LWLies: Had you planned for the eventuality of Iran loosing? Panahi: I was just going with it as it was happening.
However, the film was always based on Iran winning. Iran needed to score in the second-half in order to up the pace of the film, and fortunately for us that’s exactly what happened.
LWLies: The ending of Offside is different to your previous films as it seems to offer hope for the future. Was that intended? Panahi: Yes, exactly. I wanted to show the hope I got from that game. Eleven players come together with different techniques and ideologies and characters, but they all have one goal. It’s a metaphor for an entire nation. The soldiers and the women in the film are all different people, but they all have the same thing in their mind and that’s Iran winning the match. David Jenkins
We know you wont, but if you want to, read the rest of this exclusive interview at www.littlewhitelies.co.uk
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DOWN IN THE VALLEY Bored teen Tobe (Rachel Wood) lives in suburban solitude, fights with her stepdad and needs a little spice in her life. One day, while watching a quirky cowboy pouring petrol into her friend’s car, she invites him to the beach with them – with the clear intent of letting him fill her tank later. She seduces him and is all set for a summer of sweet loving. But Harlan (Norton), the crazy cowboy, isn’t all that he seems. Trapped between the life he wants and the life he leads, Harlan’s frustration bears down upon him until he starts to come
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DIRECTED BY David Jacobson STARRING Edward Norton, Evan Rachel Wood, Rory Culkin
apart at the seams of his chaps. Down In The Valley soon starts to parade around in all its comic finery, with wonderful shots of Harlan enjoying Travis Bickle mirror moments and sleeping rough under his coat, while starryeyed Tobe can sense no wrong. But their dew-filled romance of flowers, long plaits and freezeframed loveliness is blown to pieces by Harlan’s own delusions of perfection – a moment that brings the film’s ‘misunderstood young lovers’ pretext to a screeching halt, followed by a handbrake turn that sends it tearing away down a sinister route.
RELEASED 26 May
Wood, Norton and Culkin are a dynamic trio with a touching sense of sibling love. But everyone pales into the background as Norton rises to the occasion and surpasses his own benchmark of versatility. Although the age difference between him and Wood is tangible, it’s not starkly distracting and allows for Harlan’s infantile nature to rise out from his core to be nurtured by Tobe. Nothing is what it seems in Down In The Valley, with Harlan himself a walking apparition of anything anyone wants him to be: to Tobe he’s a lover, to Lonnie an elder brother and a threat to Tobe’s
mean old Dad. But though Harlan ricochets off each family member like a bullet from one of his many guns, it’s clear that his surface destruction gently gels together the spreading cracks in the family. Monisha Rajesh
Anticipation. Cowboy film with a difference? So last year. Two Enjoyment. Absorbing
like a pair of pampers. Four
In Retrospect. Norton on top form. Fucking brilliant. Four
renaissance RELEASED 4 August
When Ridley Scott unleashed Blade Runner in 1982, he set a new benchmark for the science-fiction genre. His dystopian LA, awash with neon and devoid of hope, was a visually stunning backdrop to an impressive marriage of film noir and sci-fi principles. The result is a dark vision of the future by which – even now – all others are judged. Twenty-four years later, Christian Volckman’s sci-fi epic, Renaissance, also reaches for a new visual benchmark in cinema. But crucially, his magnum opus lacks the originality or the script to propel it anywhere near Scott’s masterpiece. It’s Paris, 2054, and an improbably beautiful 22 yearold research scientist named Ilona Tasuiev (Garai) has been mysteriously abducted. The
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DIRECTED BY Christian Volckman STARRING Daniel Craig, Jonathan Pryce, Catherine McCormack Ian Holm, Romola Garai
giant multinational corporation Tasuiev works for calls on Karas (Craig), Paris’ finest but most disobedient detective, to rescue her. With the help of Tasuiev’s equally-gorgeous sister Bislane (McCormack), Karas journeys deep into the seedy heart of the Parisian underworld to unravel what is fundamentally a not-toocomplex conspiracy, while fending off random attacks from various shadowy forces and pursuing an unlikely romance. The basic theme – a scientist has discovered something which an evil corporation wants – offers nothing the sci-fi genre hasn’t seen a thousand times over, but Volckman’s method, by which he shoots live actors and processes the resulting images through motion capture, will leave you breathless. This hyper-real Manga
bastardisation is closer to the graphic novels of Sin City than anything else; too realistic to be classed as a cartoon, yet clearly animated. But for all its style, Renaissance is little more than a pastiche of every sci-fi film you’ve ever seen. Any reasonably wellversed genre buff will have most fun playing spot the reference: the sardonic, propagandistic billboards of Syndicate Wars, the futuristic take on ’50s automobiles á la Gattaca, blatant rips from Metropolis, The Matrix, Ghost In The Shell and even Tron. At least Barthélémy Karas is a hero who’s every bit as cynical and compelling as Deckard – albeit sporting a hoody and clipped eyebrow. Visually, it’s a delight, but where the tonal detail has been
gloriously stripped from each frame, substance is still needed in the script. Volckman apparently spent seven years working on the filming and editing of Renaissance and another year on the story. This may well be as good as he gets, and if that is the case, well, it ain’t that bad. Adam Benzine
Anticipation. We’re promised ‘Never-beforeattempted cinematic techniques’. Four Enjoyment. Cinematic
eye-candy makes the sci-fiby-numbers script easier to swallow. Three
In Retrospect. Looks like nothing you’ve ever seen, but you’ve seen it all before. Weird! Two
pretty persuasion
RELEASED 23 June
DIRECTED BY Marcos Siega STARRING Evan Rachel Wood, James Woods, Ron Livingston
Kimberley Joyce is not a happy bunny. Her dreams of TV stardom have been crushed, her Beverly Hills school is a breeding ground for idiots and her maniacal father is a self-centred bigot. To make matters worse, her drama teacher appears to be a pervert. However, Joyce is something of a wünderkind, and sets in motion a plan that will burn her enemies to the ground. With its 15 year-old coquettes, references to bestiality and racial slurs, Pretty Persuasion is not afraid to parade its tender-aged balls. The first half an hour is a rottweiler satire on the cruelty of life in The Hills, yet underpinning
the laughs is a creeping sense that something distinctly wrong is afoot. Eventually the jokes dry up completely; until director Siega reveals his hand and the film attempts to evolve into straight drama. By this point most of the characters have already been set up as caricatures – fine when you’re aiming for jaw-hits-floor shock value, not so useful when it’s searching for pathos in shallow waters. The exception is Joyce herself, who flits between vulnerable child and nymphet super-brain, manipulating those around her like a high school Kaiser Soze. Evan
Rachel Wood does a remarkable job in juggling the emotional tugs required of her, papering over cracks in the script to give the film the spine it so badly needs. Serious competition for audience attention comes from almostnamesake James Woods and his scene-chomping impression of the daddy from Hell cheerfully spraying barbed one-liners (“I’ve got my thumb so far up your ass, I’m bowling with your ass.”). Despite their noble efforts, watching Pretty Persuasion is a frustrating experience. For every joke that hits home there’s a mistimed cultural swipe that tries too hard, while the few successful
moments of genuine tragedy seem out of place after hours of shock humour. It is almost as if two flawed but interesting films got drunk one night and fell into bed together, creating a damaged but likeable child. Much like poor Kimberley Joyce. Neon Kelly
Anticipation. Evan Rachel Wood showed class in Thirteen. Four Enjoyment. Lukewarm, like a second-hand bath. Two
In Retrospect. You’ll wish that you loved it more. Three 097
cars
DIRECTED BY John Lasseter STARRING Owen Wilson, Paul Newman, Michael Keaton, Bonnie Hunt
Choirs of angels take to the skies, a golden chariot awaits: the hallowed vaults of Pixar have been thrown open and the world weeps in awe. That’s how it feels, anyway, as the Emeryville giants lead their latest offering out of the garage. Its predecessors – Toy Story, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles – are a flawless canon of modern classics. More to the point, they’re a giant shadow from which Cars never truly emerges. The conceit must have seemed so brilliantly simple. Imagine a world populated entirely by cars – they own hotels, run garages, read the news. And they race. It’s the climax of the Piston Cup, and Lightning McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson), a hotshot young rookie, is in the running for the championship. There’s one more race to go before his dreams of girls, glory and primo-gasoline are realised, but on the way to the track, he’s marooned in the Hicksville town of Radiator Springs, slap bang in the desolate dust bowl of Route 66. What follows is, well, not
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RELEASED 28 July
really all that surprising – an array of oddball townsfolk teach our young hero important life lessons and yadda yadda yadda he ends up a wiser, better person. But you’ll forgive Cars its moments of predictability because it’s such a sumptuous spectacle. From the subtly shifting sunlight dancing across the hoods, to the eyepopping virtual camera work at the racetracks Pixar have taken the bar and effortlessly tossed it away. Game over. What’s less easy to forgive is the jarring parochialism on which the whole enterprise is built. The sad grandeur of Radiator Springs stands for a whole generation of highway towns that were lost when the interstates cut off their life-blood: the flow of traffic passing across America’s never-ending interior. But, as with NASCAR and its hillbilly fan base, this is a peculiarly American milieu, rooted in nostalgia and (a strangely hypocritical) contempt for ‘progress’. It doesn’t travel well. It’s hard to care about these people, and especially about an endlessly dull sport in which cars drive in a
circle for 300 laps. And that’s the thing: they’re just cars, man. Finding Nemo wasn’t a film about fish, anymore than The Incredibles was a film about superheroes. They went much further and touched on issues much deeper than a simple storyboard concept would have suggested. But here, the cars are very much the stars – lovingly rendered, beautifully designed – but the result is a film that’s too mechanical to possess real heart. Plus the concept is flawed. The idea that certain types of cars fill certain types of roles has two main consequences. Firstly, the most basic of racial and social stereotyping – from an inbred, rust-riddled tow truck, to the Ferrari-mad Italian Fiat. Worse, in the absence of any explanation on the film’s part, it seems fair to assume that the cars are born into the roles they perform. Sally, a Porsche, is an LA lawyer. Presumably she didn’t choose to become a Porsche after college, so she must have been destined to live that life. Equal but opposite, Mack, Lightning’s 18-ton truck,
has been born into a life of backbreaking servitude. Yeah, take that progress, we’ll see who’s boss. Despite the humour, the attention to visual detail and an arsenal of in-jokes, these oddities stand out because slowly but surely they break the spell of Pixar magic. Cars just doesn’t work. It’s a great idea, but not one that’s as fully realised as it needs to be. Lasseter has described the film as a present to the world. Unfortunately, this time you’re going to want the receipt. Matt Bochenski
Anticipation. It’s Pixar, but then again word hasn’t been great. Three Enjoyment. It’s funny
and stunning, but slow and predictable. And it just doesn’t work. Three
In Retrospect. The stereotyping, the inconsistency and the lack of heart will stay with you like the smell of burning rubber itching your nostrils. Two
36
DIRECTED BY Olivier Marchal STARRING Gerard Depardieu, Daniel Auteuil, Andre Dussollier RELEASED 2 June
Taking its title from the address of Police HQ on the Quai Des Orfevres in Paris, Olivier Marchal’s 36 is an intriguing story of duplicity, venality and professional rivalry based on real events he experienced while serving on the force. Gallic bruisers Depardieu and Auteuil slug it out as the heads of rival departments working out of the Quai – the desk jockeys of the BRB (Brigade de Repression du Banditisme) lead by the ethically ambiguous and sinister Klein (Depardieu), and the all action BRI (Brigade de Recherche et d’Intervention) helmed by the Dirty Harry-like Vrinks (Auteuil). Both men are chasing a notorious gang, as well as promotion to commissioner. Intriguing plot layers hint at a former friendship now soured, and this hidden resentment simmers throughout a narrative tinged with betrayal and corruption. Marchal gives full reign to his fascination with violence that can be unleashed at any moment. A barrage of intense action scenes
– including a hard-hitting heist intro and bullet-strewn stakeout – feel compellingly authentic, and a scene of threatened execution makes John Turturro’s plea to live in Miller’s Crossing look like a picnic in the park. But look beyond the moody stares and Gitane smoke to a muted Depardieu seething with menace, allowing Auteuil to up the ante. Vrinks struggles like a Hitchcockian dangling man putting his liberty at risk and family in danger, while his ruthless pursuit of an empty revenge offers shades of Hidden. See the real thing before Hollywood pounces with a glossy remake. Dan Brightmore
Anticipation. Another
sultry French thriller with big noses. Two
Enjoyment. Le good cop
and le bad cop light up the screen. Four
In Retrospect. Like its director - tough and uncompromising. Four
An interview with Olivier Marchal, director of 36. LWLies: Was your passion for acting and cinema a driving force behind your decision to quit being a cop, or were you worried you might end up a victim of corruption like the main character in your film? Marchal: When I was a kid I’d get into fights but I loved the theatre – acting kept me out of trouble. Later, as a teenager, I was obsessed by death and wanted a job that would serve some purpose in society. Sadly my naïve dream of being a police hero was brutally crushed. The crimes I witnessed were so appalling I turned to drink to deal with the job. It was a living hell. I realised I couldn’t work in this system and turned back to my first love - acting. There is a lot of my darkness in Vrinks’ character. LWLies: Can you explain the rivalry between the police departments the BRI and BRB? Marchal: The front-line cops of the BRI were seen as the glory boys by the paper-pushers at the BRB. But the BRB weren’t putting their lives on the line. Thankfully, since the ‘80s, the departments work together. LWLies: Did the film re-awaken any of the scandal it portrays? Marchal: No, the police establishment decided not to put oil
on the fire and made no comment on the release in France. It became a loud silence that echoed the past.
LWLies: Has the French police force changed in the past 20 years? Marchal: Police work will always be tough. There are a
large number of suicides - around 100 per year - among serving and ex-officers. The administration don’t want people to know this and offer psychological monitoring of those working in the front-line exposed to violence and risking their lives. Dan Brightmore Blah blah blah. Check the rest at www.littlewhitelies.co.uk
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district B13 DIRECTED BY Pierre Morel STARRING David Belle, Cyril Raffaelli, Dany Verissimo
Remember that kid who wouldn’t sit still at school? The one bouncing off the walls in naptime? That’s David Belle. And, essentially, that’s le parkour. District B13 takes this concept of ‘free running’, marries it to a healthy dose of nose-breaking brutality interspersed with plenty of laughs. It’s honest, unashamedly enjoyable action, which succeeds through not over
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RELEASED 21 July
stretching its abilities. Nothing here is one jump too far. From the opening sequence, the fluidity and pace is set; liquid and unrelenting, the plot gently easing you from one thrilling set piece to the next. Set in the infamous thirteenth arrondisement of Paris in 2013, Morel’s tale concerns Damien (Raffaelli) – an elite cop – and his attempt to capture an errant ballistic missile, assisted by
former resident Leito (Belle), whose concerns centre around the retrieval of his sister. There’s the drug dealing, wisecracking boss Taha (Naceri), the uber-henchman K2 (D’Amario) and the drug-riddled sister (Verissimo). There’s a twist. There’s a final battle. There’s a film by numbers, retreading the ground of John Carpenter’s Escape From New York. But what the hell. Expect
Enter The Dragon meets La Haine and for 77 minutes you won’t be disappointed. Adrian D’Enrico
Anticipation. It’s just gymnastics, isn’t it? Two Enjoyment. Not quite inch perfect. Three
In Retrospect. Where’re
my trainers? Three
block party
RELEASED TBC DIRECTED BY Michel Gondry STARRING Dave Chappelle, Mos Def, Kanye West
J. So the four of us have just been to see Block Party. What did you make of it? M. To me it felt massively passé after seeing Awesome; I Fuckin’ Shot That! And there’s something a little condescending about it – rap stars return to give something back, masses prostrate themselves in awe... I might be being a bit cynical. A. They are millionaires. But the one that stood out for me was Wyclef talking to the kids at the end – when he said, ‘You’ve got no excuses, go out and do it yourselves’. M. That was a nice antidote to Dave Chappelle’s constant ‘You’re a white man, therefore you fucking hate me’ jokes. He’s a funny guy, but fundamentally, just fuck off, you know, fuck you. Also at the beginning I didn’t think that any of the rappers were going to be able
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to overshadow the fact that this is a Michel Gondry film, because he’s so distinctive. But what was surprising was that he faded in to the background really quickly. J. I don’t think that Gondry will have approached this with any great vision, other than to document what happened. Gondry let everyone have their piece without the film itself being a political statement. A. The bits for me that were successful were when they brought the kids in and spoke to them. The people in the corner shop. C. You can’t fake that. A. Yeah, it’s all very well having a block party, but what did it achieve, what led on from it? M. It was all from the perspective of the big stars. They were so desperate to portray these people as just like everyone else. But they’re not like everyone else. Even
Wyclef, who is really good, but at the end he rocks out flanked by two massive flunkies. I don’t have two massive flunkies following me around. J. If you are a fan of hip hop, a lot of the big guns are there. Some amazing artists. A. But are you going to watch a documentary or would you just rather have a straight video of the concert? M. Do you know what we lack here? Perspective. J you’re a hip hop fan but even so, none of us are from the motherfuckin’ hood. Maybe we’re being a little hard on it. I watched the whole thing with a big smile on my face. I enjoyed the whole thing. It’s just that I don’t see what it’s supposedly a ‘document’ of. I’m not sure how honest it is about these people. J. To make the film more mainstream they could have used
hip hop stars who were more commercial. But they didn’t. Every artist on there, while maybe not so well known outside of the hip hop community, had real integrity. For me, they all represented what I think hip hop is all about. There were no sell-outs there. M. I would have liked to have seen Rik Waller. Scores J. This really is the best way to score films, I just wish I could remember who came up with the idea so we could thank them properly. A. (cough).
Anticipation. Enjoyment.
2,2,4,2
4,4,3,4
In Retrospect.
3,2,3,4
election RELEASED 9 June
Guns don’t kill people, triads do. And when it comes to well-known Hong Kong gangster flicks, they usually do it two-fisted, guns blazing – bullets as ballet. So when Johnnie To, one of Hong Kong’s most dynamic directors, and a veteran of over 45 films, steps up with a movie touted to be a landmark of the genre, Pavlovian drooling is only to be expected. Prepare to have your blood lust disappointed, then, as Election is more interested in the internal politics of the triad society than it is in super slo-mo gunfights. In fact, the guns are gone – not a single firearm is seen in the hands of a triad, let alone fired.
DIRECTED BY Johnny To STARRING Simon Yam, Tony Leung Ka Fai, Louis Koo
Instead, To offers a strippeddown study of how the organisation functions and where its future lies. The election of the title refers to the Wo Sing triad society’s search for a new chairman. But the competition between the two front-runners – the brash, bribing, impetuous Big D (a brilliantly hyperactive Tony Leung Ka Fai) and the measured, respectful Lok (Simon Yam – a perfect example of restraint) is ultimately insignificant. What is important is that, despite Election’s sparse narrative and patchy characterisation (no doubt a result of To slashing his original three hour cut in half), it’s the precise lack of all-out activity that is the film’s accomplishment. Here, oft-churned conventions
have been deftly side-stepped in favour of a thoughtful exercise documenting the conflict between tradition and modernity within an ancient rite within Hong Kong society. To take matters further, one could, if familiar enough with the politics of mainland China and post-handover Hong Kong, view it as a bracing political metaphor. The corollary of this refusal to pander to the usual formula is two-fold. To’s approach to the genre requires an audience to be familiar enough with his reference points to fully appreciate Election’s advances. And then there’s the feeling that something is missing; that To set out to achieve something greater than he actually managed.
Characters drop in and out, and one in particular – Jimmy (an entrancing Louis Koo), a loyal supporter of a wronged boss – promises an explosive story-line that fails to materialise. The unexpectedly brutal ending and a forthcoming sequel suggest To’s awareness of the weaknesses in what is otherwise an accomplished step forward for the genre. Adrian Sandiford
Anticipation. Triads fighting each other. Four Enjoyment. Enough to think about without violence. Three
In Retrospect. Just short
of awesome. Three
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An interview with Eduardo Noriega, star of Lobo. LWLies: Eduardo, how did you get involved in the movie? Noriega: For the first time it wasn’t a director who got
in touch with me, it was a producer. The producer is a journalist who did a lot of research into Lobo and decided to do a film. He found a fantastic screenwriter and then called me.
LWLies: What did you think of the script? Noriega: I immediately saw that it was a terrific role
lobo
DIRECTED BY Miguel Courtois STARRING Eduardo Noriega, José Coronado, Mélanie Doutey
Lobo was Spain’s second highest grossing movie in 2004, and won a clutch of national film awards. It’s easy to see why. While it might not quite carry the political punch of Spielberg’s Munich, this is a taut thriller based on the story of a double agent who infiltrated Basque separatists ETA in the early ’70s. French television director Miguel Courtois announces his feature film debut with considerable panache, crafting a sleek vision of a country torn between Franco’s brutal dictatorship and ETA’s uncompromising terrorism. Under Courtois’ watchful eye, Lobo is crisply shot, keenly constructed and stylishly performed. Eduardo Noriega, best known here for Open Your Eyes and The Devil’s Backbone, excels as Txema, a construction worker bullied by the secret police into penetrating the terrorist outfit. Adopting the undercover name Lobo – ‘Wolf’ – he becomes an active member of the group, gaining the trust of its leaders, and reaching the inner sanctum. But he soon discovers an organisation split between militants willing to fight by any means necessary and intellectuals who prefer the ballot box to bullets. ETA’s identity crisis echoes
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RELEASED 16 June
Spain’s own fractious politics. When the police catch one of the organisation’s top brass, a turf war begins between the secret service and Franco’s brutal generals who want to eliminate whichever ETA members are still in Madrid – including, if needs be, Txema. And yet, for all its dash and moxie, Lobo ’s canvas is too narrow and its paint too thin. Like Munich, it tries to plumb murky depths and dissect nationalist ideology. But unlike Spielberg’s superior effort, in which every moment tests what the assassins believe in, Lobo offers no such inquiry. Indeed, we’re never sure whether Lobo’s duplicity is rooted in his obedience to Franco, his revulsion with Basque nationalism, or merely the desire to keep the handsome paycheques coming. James Clasper
Anticipation. Heralded as the award-winning, Spanish Munich. Three Enjoyment. Sleek and
stylish, but ultimately lacking bite. Three
In Retrospect. A well-
constructed evocation of a troubling period. Three
for an actor. Lobo is trapped like an animal between two dangerous worlds that are both much bigger than him. It’s the story of a guy who’s manipulated by the police, abandoned and then targeted by ETA. I didn’t want to play a hero, I wanted to play a simple guy who wanted to be a hero. And, of course, terrorism and ETA are both important subjects in Spain.
LWLies: Was Lobo’s story well known? Noriega: Yes, although I don’t remember it myself because
I was too young at the time. Older people remember it well, though. But I did a lot of research to get involved in the story and the period. I didn’t want to imitate the real guy, I wanted to get the essence of the man and represent his innocence, fear and frustration.
LWLies: In a sense, you’re playing someone who is himself an actor. Noriega: Exactly. He’s playing a role all the time. He’s
got to mask his fear and pay attention to every word he says, depending on whether he’s with the police or ETA. I think it’s amazing that he lived for two years among terrorists, with that kind of fear. I think you’d end up going completely crazy.
LWLies: When people heard about the film, did anyone object and say you shouldn’t be making a movie about ETA? Noriega: Not vocally. But the producer had already been threatened by ETA because he’s a journalist. They sent him a tape showing him how he was going to die. He decided to make the movie anyway. But we decided not to shoot in Spanish Basque country. Instead, we shot in French Basque country, as well as in Barcelona and Madrid, just in case there was any kind of trouble. LWLies: Did you have additional security? Noriega: No. They thought about it, but the first day was
safe, so they decided not to have additional security after that. But the producer had police bodyguards all the time. And although there was no real fear, there was something in the air. When we presented the film in San Sebastian, someone whispered in the ear of someone from the production company: “How could you make a film about a Basque traitor?” and when they looked round whoever it was had disappeared.
LWLies: Do you have any idea what ETA thinks of the movie? Noriega: No idea. The situation has changed, because ETA
recently announced a ceasefire. But when we did the movie three years ago, ETA was in a bad place, perhaps the
lowest point of its history, so this movie wasn’t that important to it. They had other things to worry about.
LWLies: The film was very successful in Spain and won several awards. Were you surprised by its success? Noriega: Almost two million people saw it, which was really surprising because films about ETA usually don’t work. But this is a real story, about a real infiltrator, and was well promoted. So a lot of things worked in its favour. LWLies: Most British film fans will remember you for Open Your Eyes. That was another challenging role. Is that the kind of movie you enjoy making? Noriega: I like doing different things, and don’t want to get stuck playing certain roles. But Open Your Eyes was the first important role for me. I like controversial things and contradictory characters. We aren’t black or white - we can be different things at the same time. LWLies: The hero and the Noriega: Exactly. Lobo is a contradiction. He is against terrorism, but he collaborates with a dictatorship. I love those kinds of characters because they are much more human, they aren’t just one colour. It’s interesting to play characters with a dark side, because the dark side is what we are not, but it’s what we would like to be. And it’s attractive to audiences too. James Clasper For more of the same, hit up the full transcript on www.littlewhitelies.co.uk
Photo by Sam Christmas
traitor.
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Munich DVD
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Take home all the horrors of the 1972 Olympic massacre!
Filmstock 2006
Like Woodstock, just films not music. In Luton. With bike rides. Groovy. http://www.filmstock.co.uk
The US International Film and Video Awards
Pop along to LA and schmooze with the great and the good of the film and video industry. Like you do. http://www.filmfestawards.com
Memoirs Of A Geisha DVD
A Chinese beauty of your own to keep for less than 20 quid.
Sydney Film Festival
Blues Brothers Special Ed. DVD
Even more rhythm and blues, more car chases and lots more Jake and Elwood.
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Sydney proves there is more to the Australian film industry than Mad Max with a host of cinematic spectacales. http://www.sydneyfilmfestival.org
Happy Birthday!
Super cool super Irish dude Liam Neeson is 52 on June 7th.
Thank You For Smoking
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The facts about fags are puffed away by smoking spin-doctors.
London Film School 50th Anniversary
One of the country’s most prestigious film schools celebrates with a host of gala premieres and exclusive screenings.
The Devil Wears Prada US Release
It’s about working for a magazine so it must be good.
Northern Heights Film Expo
Filmmakers and film lovers can come together to enjoy some fine independent short films in North London. http://www.northernheightsfilms.com Happy Birthday!
A fave for both the ladies and the gents, Johnny Depp reaches 43 on June 9th.
Garfield’s A Tale of Two Kitties US Release
Bill Murray breaks his comedy parole, written by Joel Coen.
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Rome Series 1 DVD
Gritty, gory, glorious BC action from the BBC in this DVD box set.
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Happy Birthday!
John Goodman will be even jollier when he reaches 54 on July 20th.
Rushes Soho Shorts Festival Talented filmmakers wanted for their 15 minutes
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Month In Pictures by Lee Jones & Neon Kelly
Angel Film Festival
Chill in and chill out at the capital’s most laid-back screenings of independent cinema.
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Happy Birthday!
All American super governer Arnold Schwarzenegger is 59 on July 30th
of shorts. http://www.rushes.co.uk/sohoshorts2005/mainframe.htm
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With his first short film, Daybreak Express, featuring on the new Cinema16: American Short films DVD, LWLies caught up with DA Pennebaker to talk movies, music and why it’s okay to take a camera to gigs. DA Pennebaker has filmed some of the iconic moments of twentieth century music – Jimi Hendrix’s incendiary guitar work at Monterey, Dylan’s pan-alley flash-card toting, and the moon-age daydream of Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust tour. Pennebaker talks passionately about the natural marriage of music and film, and his love of music from an early age. “Musicians were always my heroes,” he says. “When I grew up in Chicago the whole music scene was just coming to life: Benny Goodman, Gene Krupa, Bud Freeman. People like that all came out of that Chicago scene. I’d been a child up until then, so it was something that really stayed with me.”
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From his first short, Daybreak Express (1953), this love of music has been the driving force behind Pennebaker’s films. Daybreak uses a sharp Duke Ellington track to propel a fast, inventive film shot from the window of New York’s elevated train system. Unsure of whether it was illegal to use his music, Pennebaker took the film to Ellington’s office and showed it to him. He recounts Ellington’s reaction: “That’s great kid, now what do you want?” “I just want to be sure that Cootie Williams isn’t going to come round and arrest me for using his trumpet solo without asking.” “Oh don’t worry, those guys don’t care.” Ellington arranged for RCA to give Pennebaker a tape of the song. Pennebaker later learned from Ellington’s sister that he had been given the entire rights. Having rented Daybreak Express to a cinema for $25 a week, Pennebaker began making films for Drew Associates. A Yale engineering graduate, he collaborated with Ricky Leacock on a light, portable 16mm camera that he would use until 1985. “From that point on I tried to think where to go not just in terms of music but in terms of filmmaking – what you could do – and I guess I wanted to have
the film come alive, I wanted it to talk, you know, I wanted dialogue and I wanted music and to see people play. But I didn’t know how to get at it.” The opportunity arose in 1965 when Pennebaker filmed Bob Dylan on his tour of England for what would become the cinema-verité documentary Don’t Look Back. Pennebaker describes how his work at Drew Associates was limited to making TV documentaries which were dependent on narration. Don’t Look Back was his first opportunity to make a film that allowed its subjects to speak for themselves. He explains how all documentary has the same problem as drama: “From Shaw to Ibsen, they always have to find a way to get their characters on stage so you pay attention to them. “I knew from the very beginning it was going to have mostly talking, some singing and a lot of songs. But the songs weren’t going to be an essential part; they were just going to show what Dylan was like when he
going ren’t ey we ould be h T . erey lm w rmed perfo hat the fi ntil Mont u w to be . It wasn’t at the film .” s about thought th g but song er’s k n I a i t b h a e t h o n t rk d be n p, Pen shoul onterey Po he landma t M t u o lm ab g ayed a 1968 fi l which pl publicisin a n i v i e t l nis s o a r J fe t n n ca ow signifi en little kn endrix, is the th and Jimi Has the first Joplin ntly cited y e ntere frequ rt film. to Mo t o e g c con n we to be “Whe very song nt to e a d w e t t ’ s or n I wa ete. I didn interview l w comp upt it with ause I kne e n interr ing else bec oom for ni use anyth d only be r t film beca be. a ’ there ongs in th as going to f s o or 10 long it w into a pot ’s w of ho e jumping u know? It a It’s lik g water, yo nd I think on a boilin helming , that effect overw oncert has c good
everybody, both the person doing it and the people watching it, and I suppose I wanted to break in on that shell and see it from the inside. I wasn’t interested in describing it or interviewing people about it or anything else.” This sense of being in the eye of the storm is key to all Pennebaker’s films. He admits that he has been fortunate to document some of the most iconic moments of pop history, saying, “I didn’t know Jimi Hendrix was going to be Jimi Hendrix. Generally it has always been kind of chance”. Another such iconic moment was David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars (1983). “Once Bowie started to sing I just never wanted to leave him for a minute, except to go back stage. I mean I didn’t want the music to ever end. I could see the audience was a really big part of his performance. We put up a little sign saying be sure to bring your cameras along with the flash lights and film all you want because I loved that idea of the flash guns going all the time and it made that audience so alive, and he loved that. He kind of loved the feeling that the audience was barking back at him, you know?” Pennebaker mentions that he didn’t know what the musicians he loved looked like for a long time, having only heard their records. While he says that there are still “lots of good groups around” he obviously feels that music has lost something of its mystery and quality as it has become more centred on image – ironic for a man credited with making one of the first music videos in the opening sequence of Don’t Look Back.
“ enou It’s like i f out o gh name you hav y becaun that sta ou can jue a big big n se they’v ge and ju st get s recor ame, and e paid to t fart, what ds at hom they havesee a not g you soun e. They all the they oing to te d like, yo know it’ll b don’t alre ll them anu’re skill e success ady know ything f o editin n the par ul withou , so that g it and fi t of the p t any t it doe hey aren lming it. eople ’ skills sn’t need t skilled, Not b t i h e y Usua put t. Whate ut heardlly the be into it is d ver s you k was play t music I essert. peop now? W ed in kitc ever l h or th e were do en one o hens, If I wree peopl ing it andr two e again as going were list two way , I’d wan to do mus ening. r stage ather tha t to do it t ic .” Jam h n es Br people onat ambl a e
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“Queen of the Indies!” screamed Time magazine. “The Gen-X Audrey Hepburn!” cried Elle. Cheap tags, but Parker Posey is these things and a whole heap more. A more fitting title might be ‘Most Under-Appreciated Actress Of Her Generation’, but we’d prefer to think of her as an enchanting character-actress who always sparkles in group pieces. Or perhaps the indie girlfriend of LWLies’ dreams. Either way, Parker Posey is a diamond in the rough. The Baltimore-born actress, named for ’50s Revlon model Suzy Parker, first shot to fame playing high school bitch Darla in Richard Linklater’s much loved ’93 comedy Dazed And Confused. From there she’s gone on to chalk up more than 50 film credits in her extensive filmography, however most will know her – if they know her at all – for either playing Tom Hank’s girlfriend in slushy romcom You’ve Got Mail, or for taking over from Courtney Cox as irritant extraordinaire in unnecessary horror sequel Scream 3. Posey’s lack of mainstream success belies an acting talent which has thus far been best used on little-known hits and off-the-wall ensembles. She was the best thing in alsoran rom-com The Rules Of Attraction, too-cool-for-school beside the spent forces of Pierce Brosnan and Julianne Moore. She bought a sass and zest to long-forgotten indie classics like Best In Show and Sleep With Me, was enthralling in Rebecca Miller’s Personal Velocity, and shone in the muddled mess that was 2001’s Josie and the Pussycats. But if you really want to see what she can do, check out The House Of Yes, for which she won the Sundance Festival’s Best Actress award in 1997. Posey is resplendent as the demented Jackie-O (who can only get sexually aroused re-enacting JFK’s assassination), in a jet black comedy which was perhaps the perfect showcase for her unique exuberance and sardonic drive. Her turn as Kitty Kowalski, Lex Luther’s assistant in the forthcoming Superman Returns, should put her back on the mainstream radar and help her break free of the Time tag (“Being ‘Queen of the Indies’ never got me a job,” is her acerbic assessment of her most famous backhanded complement). Although we’re rather more excited about her appearance in Fay Grimm, Hal Hartley’s highly-anticipated sequel to ’97 cult classic Henry Jones. Adam Benzine
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If all actors had Catherine Keener’s ability to cherry-pick the best scripts for themselves, Hollywood would be one almighty bun-fight. Lucky for us she has a singular knack for selecting offbeat and interesting roles (the technical term being ‘kooky’). The forthcoming Friends With Money marks the third occasion that Keener has worked with director Nicole Holofcener, who makes no attempt to hide the fact that she’s a huge fan of Keener’s work. It may be another moderately budgeted American indie pic, but the stellar female cast (Jennifer Aniston, Joan Cusack and Frances McDormand) should make it – to put it cynically – a nice little earner. Keener has always been in demand as a muse. After several small roles in the ’80s, she worked with Tom DiCillo on Johnny Suede after which he went on to cast her in three more films, with co-star Brad Pitt remaining a friend who still attends all of her premieres. However, unlike Pitt, Keener seldom strays from her independent roots. When she does, it is usually as reliable support, lending quality and grace to whatever she appears in. Her breakout role was in Spike Jonze’s eccentric almost-masterpiece Being John Malkovich in which she successfully combined the traits of a silver-tongued femme fatale and a broody bisexual. Of course, there was also her marvellous rendition of Harper Lee in Capote, which proved to be the perfect vehicle for her talents – a film driven by its characters rather than the stars who play them. But then being a star has never really been her thing, and although she has inadvertently become one, it seems that she will only become as famous as she chooses to be. Tom Atkinson
It takes a special kind of hard man to retain his masculine mystique after being ball-gagged and bum-raped. Marsellus Wallace in Pulp Fiction was that special man. In his breakthrough role as the bad-ass gang boss, Rhames proved himself sporting enough to actually say Tarantino’s wigga lines out loud (“I’m a get medieval on yo’ ass!” Please; it’s enough to make Tim Westwood blush) and talented enough to appear menacing as he said them. The man is so thoroughly hard that as black supremacist Nathan ‘Diamond Dog’ Jones, he held his own in the testosterone fountain that was Con Air. And that film’s got Nic Cage in it. He also kept the undead hoards at bay as Kenneth in the recent remake of Dawn of the Dead and has so far restrained himself from throttling Tom Cruise in every single Mission: Impossible stinker. To a certain extent, poor Rhames is a prisoner of his physicality. In the maths of movie casting, beefiness plus a booming baritone is always going to equal hard man, but that’s never stopped the Julliard-trained actor from investing his beefcake roles with a certain intelligence and integrity. He’s like Morgan Freeman – if Freeman could bench press twice his own body weight. Disappointingly, Rhames seems to have picked up some luvvie tendencies from his days at Julliard. During the 1998 Golden Globes, he donated his Best Actor award to fellow nominee Jack Lemmon, saying Lemmon was more deserving. While thoroughly revolting, his actions do remind us that all the best hard men have a wussy side. It’s Rhames’ strength that even when he’s grounding a debtor’s head into the pavement, we still feel he’s probably a big ol’ cuddly teddy bear underneath it all. Probably. But you wouldn’t want to be the punk that tried to test him, would you? Ellen E Jones
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“And Lord protect us from the fury of the Northmen.” It was bunkum of course, but this addendum to the ‘Lord’s Prayer’ intoned by Orson Welles over the opening of The Vikings should have been a warning to us all. That film, directed by the recently departed Richard Fleischer, was a classy exception; for the most part, a thousand years after the hairy Scando shitbags hacked their way into popular consciousness, they were still bringing misery to directors, producers and millions of innocent cinema-goers. The subject matter should have been a gift – violence, drinking, rape (including bum), fur, axes, sex, serving wenches and thunder storms – such are the things from which monster hits are made. So why have so many of the great and not-so-good wrecked themselves on the rocks of the Viking movie? Sidney Poitier had a lucky escape from The Long Ships in which he played a Muslim prince in a James Brown wig, villain to Richard Widmark’s constipated Norse hero. His plan to save his father with a huge
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golden bell (‘Good morning, Dr Freud’s office?’) should have been the stuff of rollicking adventure, and director Jack Cardiff’s photography is outstanding. Alas, it’s portentous, full of cod-medieval wind-baggery, and Widmark’s intermittent attempts to play for laughs are frankly terrifying. It’s hard to know how a cinematographer with Cardiff’s reputation (The Red Shoes, A Matter Of Life And Death) got himself involved in this. One of the strangest aspects – disturbing to anyone with fond memories of Grandpa Potts in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang – is a blacked-up Lionel Jeffries as Poitier’s harem eunuch, looking as though a sooty steam engine had just blown up in his face only for the smoke to clear and reveal he’d been massively stitched up by his agent. But it was a decade before the full bionic awfulness of the longboat flick would be fulfilled. Lee Majors managed to plumb the depths of both the genre and his own career – quite an achievement for a man whose CV includes TV movie The Cover Girl Murders – with the jaw-droppingly ill-conceived The Norseman. It was 1978 and while America faced up to its painful recent past with The Deer Hunter and Coming Home, Majors and director/writer Charles B Pierce had the courage to ask the question nobody else would: who would win in a scrap between Vikings and Red Indians? A spurious plot involving a kidnapped Norse chieftain and some suedebikini action in the shape of Susie Coelho provides an excuse for Majors and his men to dash around a well-manicured wilderness, possibly the rough of a golf links, wearing distinctly feminine fur mini skirts. If the director’s intention was to provoke debate, he succeeded - aren’t those leggings really just moon boots? Were some Norsemen really 6’4” black men? Why is that Viking wearing a watch? Why are we watching this? Disney dipped its wholesome wick into the world of Skol Opera and added a neat twist to boot. 1974’s Island At The Top Of The World riffs on the old Lost World idea of a habitat frozen in time. There’s some spectacular charisma-free casting, with the honourable exception of Donald Sinden, touchingly unaware that this was to be his finest screen moment before the sitcom purgatory of Never The Twain tugged the flusher for good. His joyously chipper Edwardian aristocrat embarks on an airship expedition to the Arctic, naturally uncovering a perfectly preserved Viking civilisation. Whale fights, erupting volcanoes and insane Norse rituals ensue, all lovingly decorated by the kind of glued-up facial hair not seen again until Gods And Generals. Things can, of course, only end badly for almost everyone. Maybe director Robert Stevenson wasn’t the obvious choice to handle Götterdämmerung, but he clearly saw this as a chance to get dark after his 1969 hit The Love Bug, thus lacing the later scenes with a psychedelic weirdness not entirely appropriate for the spangles-sucking boys and girls at Saturday morning cinema. Paul Fairclough
The 13th Warrior Spin on the Beowulf myth with Antonio Banderas as a banished Arab coming to the aid of a Viking community tormented by the cleverly named Wendol. The War Lord Charlton Heston gives some good siege action in an occasionally plodding medieval romance. Beowulf & Grendel Good looking 2005 telling of the Anglo-Saxon legend starring Sarah Polley and Stellan SkarsgĂĽrd that gives the troll a break. Inexplicably unreleased in the UK. Erik The Viking Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s quite enough.
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Want your movie as an email attachment? Neon Kelly reveals all. GETTING STARTED First, you’ll need a copy of your film in an uncompressed digital format – .avi (Audio Video Interleave) or .mov (Quicktime Movie) are probably the best to go for. If your finished short is on 8mm stock, you’ll need to get it transferred. Be careful here, since some transfer services will just dump your footage onto a DVD at a comparatively poor picture quality. You need a ‘virgin’ high resolution master of your film – check out the links below for more help with this. OPTION 1: DO IT YOURSELF If you’re adamant about hosting films on your own website, you’ll have to get your hands dirty with some technical fiddling. You need to compress your short to a manageable size, otherwise it will take hours for people to access your work. Most video editing packages come bundled with compression software – Final Cut Studio has an excellent compressor – but there are also cheap alternatives available online if needed. Getting the right balance between size and picture quality can be tricky; if you get stuck try a resolution of 320 x 240 using DivX, one of the more popular codecs on the net. To actually get your film online you’ll need to sign an agreement with a streaming service provider – such as Real Networks or Apple Quicktime – who will essentially encode your short for broadcast via a portal on your website. You’ll need to make sure that the film’s bit rate (the amount of data per second as your video is played) is lower than the connection speed of your target audience. For example, if you think that most visitors to your site will be using 256k broadband, set your film to stream at around 200 kbps (kilobits per second). This will ensure a smooth viewing experience for your guests. OPTION 2: GET SOMEONE ELSE TO HOST YOUR FILM As with many things in life, the easiest path is to get someone else to do the hard work. There is a veritable plethora of places online who will host your masterpiece for free, and in most cases the site will merely ask that you post them a copy of your digital master on disc or Mini DV tape. They will then format your film for online viewing, sparing you the hassle of wrestling with compression rates. Your short may have to jostle for attention alongside others, but at least it should be exposed to a regular audience. Just make sure you read the small print regarding who owns the rights to submitted content.
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WHERE TO SUBMIT YOUR FILM (AND CHECK OUT THE COMPETITION) www.triggerstreet.com Set up by Kevin Spacey in 2002, TriggerStreet styles itself “the web-based filmmaker and screenwriter’s community of record”. It’s certainly an impressivelooking beast, with a huge selection of films and a busy, informative forum. You’ll need to contribute a couple of reviews to the site before you can upload your work – quid pro quo is the spirit of the whole venture. www.minimovies.com While the site itself is a little bland, Mini Movies offers you the chance to actually make money from your latest offerings. Shorts are sold at $1.99 a pop, with half of every sale going into the director’s Pay Pal account. Now all you need is something people might actually want to watch. www.youtube.com Wipe away that sneer: YouTube may be a haven for the daft video attachments that clog up your inbox, but it’s also a doorway to one of the biggest audiences on the Internet. Everything from home videos to illegal sitcom clips can be found here; it may not be the classiest place to display your art, but if your film gains a following then widespread notoriety could be yours. www.zoiefilms.com Confusing presentation is the only flaw in an otherwise excellent concept – the world’s first online film festival. $10 buys a one-month pass to view all the entries, made available at a range of speeds to suit your broadband connection. The selection for 2006 should be available soon, along with details for entering next year’s competition. OTHER USEFUL LINKS www.streamingvideocreator.com An invaluable guide to setting up streaming video on your website. http://www.film-to-video.com/ A USA-based film transfer service with technical advice on converting 8mm stock.
For anyone who cares about short film, the Cinema 16 series is essential. It provides confirmation, were it needed, that many of our most celebrated directors showed flashes of brilliance in their earliest work. But while that might daunt a first time director, the collection also demonstrates that only a few minutes of film, often shot on a single day, can be a source of timeless beauty. The latest Cinema 16 DVD focuses on the work of American directors, admirably representing both landmark films by now major directors, and recent newcomers. Like the collections that have appeared before it, it also boasts commentaries, usually by the director. One attention-grabbing film is a surprisingly political short by a young University of Southern California student named George Lucas. “(He) was great,” says Luke Morris, producer of the series. “It just goes to show that there are some directors who care about film culture, who can see the value of young directors.” However, not all the directors included on the DVD have gone on to have really good feature film careers. Morris adds, “I think it’s very important to people making films that they don’t have to get it right first time. They should be allowed to fail, to learn...it was an idea to be inspirational, everybody starts from the same place, with borrowed money and a borrowed camera.” So pick up your camera and go out and shoot. George Lucas Freiheit (FREEDOM) 1966 Previously unavailable in Europe, Freiheit consists largely of a young man (Lucas’ classmate Randal Kleiser, who would later direct Grease) running through the woods. But the scene is not as harmless as it seems. It’s a surprisingly political work for Lucas, though Star Wars fans will no doubt see it as an early rumination on the dark side.
Todd Solondz Feelings (1984) Solondz takes the Sinatra song of the title as the soundtrack to a black comedy about lost love in a cruel world. It’s a bit weird, as you might imagine, but clearly well made, inventive and witty. Gus Van Sant The Discipline of DE (1982) Van Sant’s adaptation of a William S Burroughs short story demonstrates how technically skilled he already was. The film makes clever use of dubbed sound, trick effects and has a cool stillness to the images that is familiar in his later work. DA Pennebaker Daybreak Express (1953) A brilliant, clattering love note to jazz and New York by the 27 year-old Pennebaker. The camera gazes awestruck from the window of a train as the sun breaks over the city’s skyscrapers. Adam Parrish King The Wraith of Cobble Hill (2006) When Felix, a teenage boy from Brooklyn, is entrusted with the keys to the neighbourhood shop he must choose how to respond to the faith placed in him. This is the most realistic piece of claymation you’ve ever seen. The dialogue is closely observed, while the ‘performance’ of the characters is distinctly cinematic, notably in the use of extended close-ups. Stefan Nadelman Terminal Bar (2003) Stefan Nadelman’s father, Sheldon, worked as a barman in one of New York’s toughest joints, the Terminal Bar, for 10 years. Over that time, he took photos of the bar’s patrons, charting its change from refuge for the city’s underclass and labourers, to its days as a haunt for gay black men. Stefan’s Flash animation often gives it the feel of a music video, adding dynamism to a film that might otherwise feel static. Cinema 16 is available from June 16
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A master at making what some have coined ‘antidate movies’, New Jersey director Todd Solondz was a hair’s breadth away from becoming a Rabbi before deciding to try his hand at writing and directing. Using the cinematic medium to create realistic, likeable characters and then put them through a washer-drier of angst, abuse, mockery and pain, Solondz has never shied away from telling stories with grand, politically incorrect statements running through them. We caught up with him to discuss Feelings, his first ever short film, produced while still a student. When you look back on the film, how do you see it in the context of your career? Gosh, it was the first film I made with sound. I think I felt deeply embarrassed by the whole thing, but I do have affection for it as well. It’s a film I made as a student, and it gave me a certain level of encouragement because it was well received by my classmates. The assignment had been to take a piece of music and shoot a film in one day. Can you remember what you were trying to do with that film? Was there a particular inspiration? Oh, I don’t know. What was I trying to do? It’s really just a little bit of entertainment for two minutes. One of the things I remember learning at film school was how arduous it could be to sit through a short film that’s only two minutes long, so I did keep in mind that this is something that has an audience. Do you think it’s identifiable as a Todd Solondz film? There’s a certain tragi-comedy to it. Well, I leave it to others to make that determination. But certainly everything is folly. Did making short films give you skills which you were able to use while making feature films? 122 THE AWESOME; I FUCKIN’ SHOT THAT! ISSUE
I made a couple of films before this one, all of which helped form the process I have. They were the foundation of that. So what would be your main tips for young short filmmakers who are starting out? Well, you know it’s difficult to say in a film sense. With a feature film, ultimately, you just have to have a story that you need to tell. I think particularly if you’re young and don’t have much money, then just simply make personal things that you want to tell. You have a great deal of freedom because you have no boss. You’re your own boss, so you must relish that because it may never happen again. What are you working on now? I’m working on getting money. I’m ready to start making another movie and the money’s not quite solidified You sunk quite a lot of your own money into Palindromes didn’t you? Erm...some. You can’t trust everything you read, but in order to get it funded I certainly did put some in. Is it difficult to get backing for your next film? If the box office of your film is impressive then it makes things a little bit smoother and easier, and if it’s not then things are a little rockier. That’s really what determines things here as we don’t have any film subsidies Palindromes was critically well received, doesn’t that help? Well it wasn’t entirely! It certainly polarised a lot of people, but regardless, critics might think it’s wonderful but the box office numbers are the bottom line and determine so much. James Bramble
Gus Van Sant is one of the most prominent and critically acclaimed alternative directors working in America today. His early hits include Drugstore Cowboy and My Own Private Idaho; films whose cult following led to a number of bigger budget works, including his ill-fated remake of Psycho. Recently, Van Sant has returned to the limelight as a result of a re-acquaintance with his indie/ experimental roots, producing his masterpiece Elephant and the eminently divisive Last Days. Here, we talk to the man himself about his first ever short film Discipline Of DE, which is included on the new Cinema 16 Short Films DVD. What attracted you to the short story, Discipline Of DE? It was something that I’d read in a bookstore in college. When I got out of school I wanted to make a project film and this was the one that came to mind. It was something that I remembered as an interesting story so I asked Burroughs for the rights. He was in the phone book in New York City, so he said okay, and then I just followed through. It was somewhat low budget - it was a $900 film Did you choose it because it leant itself to a cinematic retelling? Well, I wasn’t sure of it you know. I had a hunch that there might be something.
What about the ‘animated’ parts of the film, like the cutlery falling into the drawer, and the chair moving? I think those are just things that I was trying to visualise. They’re live action but filmed backwards. It was all tricks that we did with wires or in the case of the silverware it’s actually falling out of the drawer, but backwards and upside down. Regarding the other films you made, what was their purpose? Well, I was making 8mm films, but then I started on a video diary from maybe 1979 onwards. I guess it was a little later, maybe ’81? I was making a film every year that was about something that had happened in my life. So it was sort of a chronicle of things that had happened to me. What about the Bowie DVD, and your contribution to that? I did a video of one of the mixes. A remix of Fame. It was great. It was the first time I’ve worked on a music video. I haven’t been doing many music videos but it’s probably something I’d like to return to. Are you working on the Time Traveller’s Wife now? I’m not sure if that project is going ahead or not. I need to speak to the producers. So what are you working on at the moment? Well there’s a short film I’m sort of working on called Trip To The Beach. It’s sort of just being formulated so I can’t really talk about it. James Bramble
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For those who think kids and cameras don’t mix, LWLies spoke to the organisers and entrants of Sheffield’s Showcomotion Film Festival to prove you all wrong. Sheffield’s Showcomotion Young People’s Film Festival (SYPFF) is one of the most successful events for young people in the UK. It’s a showcase for a diverse range of films from all over the globe including shorts and animation all made for and by young people. Even though the SYPFF caters especially for people between the ages of two and 19, grownups take it seriously as well. It’s one of the few occasions when independent producers, broadcasters, filmmakers, commissioners and freelancers get together to discuss the important business of children’s cinema. While the festival holds preview screenings of major mainstream pictures (previous premieres have included Shrek, Chicken Run and Madagascar) its main purpose is to promote independent film. Festival director Kathy Loizou says, “The original impetus behind the festival was the same as that behind the Showroom Cinema in Sheffield [the largest independent UK cinema outside of London]. The idea of the Showroom is to promote independent film from all over the world, including the UK”. The festival was established in response to a lack of independent non-American films for young people. As Kathy contends, “For young people in this country, a British film is a non-mainstream product. The film companies put in a lot of money into production but they don’t seem to have a model for consumption. There doesn’t seem to be any plan about how to build an audience from the beginning, in order to put independent film into the consciousness of young people.” There is no doubt that Britain is still trailing its European counterparts. Young people’s film festivals have been around for a long time in Berlin (Kinderfilmfest), Copenhagen (CICFF) and Ireland (Cinemagic). They have a roster for children’s festivals in Denmark and Sweden and it has become part of the culture for a young person to visit the cinema as often as possible. Loizou argues that we don’t really have that kind of tradition here. “Children’s perceptions of their own society come from film. The TV networks invest a lot of money into Sunday children’s viewing but they don’t seem to channel that into cinema.” Loizou has no pretensions about the fact that the festival also has an ulterior motive. She admits that by cultivating an interest 124 THE AWESOME; I FUCKIN’ SHOT THAT! ISSUE
– they want to get behind content to be passive spectators ry. ls an economic imperative. film histo Lucky for them, they’re make and ra came the in film, the festival also fulfi for carving the market place in getting all the help they need. y that you would expect “To put it crudely, we arewco motion was developed Possessing the kind of energ independent cinema. Sho pendent films for young people Consequences Killed The for a film made by a young person,at the side effects of every response to the lack of inde looks that story s orou hum a is Cat UK. in the , there may have been ed with American films day gossip. As young filmmakersment “The market was over-saturat about the realities ous view of young people a serious state make to ure press which presented a homogen ng you film avoids tative of the lives of g people face but, refreshingly, the youn that nst and was not at all represen agai ing issue of stereotypes in a ly noth the lute es abso oach got appr e and hav I trap . ’s land critic the people in Eng er that is both engaging ybody needs a mixed diet deliciously tongue-in-cheek mann the mainstream but I thinkt aever about anything too serious,” says really nice burger, but other e not “It’s wan . just aring you ende es and etim som – anorexia. It’s just about a e edifying – that’s the sam Cunningham, “like abortion, orgirl.” times you need something mor a t abou ing bitch couple of kids thing with film.” o, and heavily from the project are With sequences echoing Donnie Darkheads or cat tails Three young people to benyefit twright (16) and Poppy to make Car hard it’s , Beck , cters (16) chara d ham ature ning caric ege Becky Cun the imagination of the kersley School and Sports Coll about it - leaving it very much toom Connor-Spicer (13) of Wicfilm in the ideas it presents, , Consequences Killed The Cat viewer. It’s quirky, it’s very rand soever, but, most in South Yorkshire. Their stereotyping , particularly in and at times it makes no sense what was made as a response to , “There’s a lot of labelling of uction from these importantly, it works. For a first prod schools. Cunningham says not all like that. We want to see es is a fine work and quenc Conse , akers filmm it’s shire and os’ York g ‘em youn ‘chavs’ and s to come, the future of cinema we don’t want to see filmas thing of And ls. inger raya harb a is port this istic if real e mor plotline; we don’t want is in good hands. Lieu Pham that have the same predictable ng people are no longer glossy finish.” It seems that you
” says Rick coming out of the cinema, excited when they see filmwe going to get even more excited are they e hop “People always get awfully “so , ival The Angel Film Fest Dickerson, organiser ofpub .” when it comes into the nothing on so ? see in the cinema. Theredwas Where did the idea come from ng to decide what to go anddiffi find goo examples. We just to was it cult We were sitting in a pub tryi how and independent cinema we started talking aboutgoo d films in a pub? thought why not show erienced works n not very good talent? nt. We also have some more exp Doesn’t unknown talent mea young, up-and-coming tale . ntry cou the over all Not at all. We have a lotofofstud from ent filmmakers from abroad, and a lot group of people in total. We will then getofa entr What’s the response been like? ies, so it’s very far, and expect maybe 500 so unt ies amo entr this 250 nd get ld arou e wou hav we We them. We never thought together and pick the best of reassuring. s quo. finest have begun to reject the statu at the moment, as Hollywood’s lar popu very is ma cine ent it? Independ like yours more popular won’t Manchester and beyond. the festival out there, tothan This will only make festivals the part of London n thinking about gettingenco e mor h muc sses mpa Yeah, we have already begu e Festival: the nam That’s why it’s the ‘Angel’ Film we are showing in. film with the magic of alcohol? up for a problems mixing the magic ofldn’ t be worried about getting Are there going to be any logisgtical le shou peop l rma info so be to e a musical soundtrack hav just lot a and d, soun Not at all, the event is goin of have don’t have a lot drink. A lot of the movies we too much of a problem either. so I don’t think noise will be be Angel and Islington. Dates to weekends in June/July around four over e plac take will ival The fest al.org. Lee Jones finalised. www.angelfilmfestiv
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Come and See (1985) Dir: Elem Klimov. Out Now In the great, great pantheon of the war film, Come And See is arguably, to quote the back cover of a VHS copy of Evil Dead, “the ultimate experience in gruelling terror”. And that’s what a war film should be: two hours sat trembling with a loaded Kalashnikov to the skull and some sweat-stinking enemy soldier cackling through a haze of putrid cigar smoke. Clocking in at a miserable number 71 in Channel Four’s recent Top 100 War Films poll, it’s a movie that, while it may not be to everyone’s taste, is certainly the most visceral and brutal evocation of urban conflict ever committed to celluloid. While we might shed a tear at Willem Defoe being sprayed with bullets to Barber’s ‘Adagio For Strings’ in Platoon, Come And See offers an emotional battering of an altogether different type, with its bombastic sound design, hyper-real action sequences and a relentless commitment to capturing the boundless horrors that are often the result of war. The film, directed by Russian helmer Elem Klimov, sees a young Bylorussian youth named Florya leave his family to join a resistance movement and fight against the Germans during World War II. The opening half an hour is decidedly tranquil, easing us into what soon becomes a writhing mass of pure atrocity. When bombs go off near Florya, we are not only given the horrendous and claustrophobic task of dodging the shrapnel with him, but we do so with burst eardrums and a soundtrack consisting of agonising bleats of white noise.
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Realism, it seems, was high on Kilmov’s checklist of things to do. The guns you see fired in the film (and there are many) all contained live rounds, giving the film a dangerous, almost pseudo-snuff vibe. And yet, one of the defining qualities of the film is that, while many of its scenes are almost unbearable to watch, the feeling of triumph as the end credits roll is alomst indescribable. Come And See is one of those films you will only ever need to see once. Such is the power of its imagery, scenes of despicable violence will be etched on your memory for years to come. In fact, while many may remember where they were when Kennedy was assassinated or when Neil Armstrong landed on the moon, after watching this film it’s quite possible that you’ll have instant recall of where you were when you first saw the entire village of Russian Jews being rounded up into a barn and burned alive. The final, almost comic, denouement of Come And See suggests that all the horror we have just witnessed should be pinned to the heads of Hitler’s parents. It offers us the suggestion that, essentially, evil is both unpreventable and unstoppable. A visibly battered Florya stands ashen-faced while unloading the chamber of his rifle (his only real friend in the film) into a muddied propaganda portrait of the Führer. After seeing this film, you’ll want to join him. David Jenkins
with hild. Hire c a e ing vie help s mo an; h he’s s in thi g womautiful ) c n d ow l Blan nose you e be d an 9) oUt nMiche ly fromath of a ire), thately re onte 8 9 ire ( ular e de onna ltern e Lec s. e (1 te. hir econ sieur Heaks reg into thdrine B ured a r Patricc shade nte r n l u l o d e ice tion San colo irecto etalli – Lecoith nsi see M bloo tiga ce ( are m Mo : patrme we ick red e inves for Ali scenes turn. Ds with ur Hire gain w e s dire first tileed; thect in ths fallenies. Her d, flirtybornne Monsi ngers, a Th noseb f susp who ha he sp easure d stub itch of ate Stra her he chie oyeur whom ire’s m lity an rfect p r Intim is t lso a v r upon Bonna nerabi the pe tly fo is a ghbou rking c’s vul erline e recen nei en, maes Blan gs und er piec gre phasis viewinchamb assic em eated to the Milk lt cldel, u c e Repurned . Jonas mo ve nes ret nnaire Japa ap a ’s ca t w no of thisher kidnAladdin by neaed Bo t oU urtesy d mot – an helped tle dat er o e r it io g 69) ra. (19 UmU press, cis belov se stud furtheooks a l e stranor the t s S s x l u h i h t e o t a t A I d f h y ut f p e . m ink r an o e e o e r c B e g n a o n e k pto s to som kin elly e w l co nd Uz Bli : yaSde on thnd scula bizarrt initia biguourience; th checNeon K dirtch a ri 9. A blilive in . A greantly am e expe ys. Wor yone? Hi m 196 er to lights pleasa ds to th for da sts, an fro cing h ian de and a is ad mind r brea for Freud ances how th your rubbe of rform some ger in giant pe w but ill lin lone – no ages w sets a im tastic fan
freAk out (2005) dir: chriStian JameS. oUt now Freak Out aims to mix Peter Jackson’s splatstick horror with Kevin Smith’s lo-fi cool; it would be great to say that the film succeeds, but gurning and knob jokes do not good cinema make. It is admittedly encouraging to see shoestring-budget UK work getting mainstream distribution, but without any discernible talent on board it’s hard to see why this is getting so much support. An incompetent serial killer with a badly-dubbed comedy gay voice? If this is the best our up-and-coming directors can do, the future is bleak indeed. Neon Kelly
survive stYle 5+ (2004) dir: Gen SeKiGUchi. oUt now Over-stylised day-glo fluff with a few interesting ideas, but nothing that should trouble a mainstream audience. Similar to the variable output of Takashi Miike, director Gen Sekiguchi throws everything he’s got into the pot and achieves a staggering amount of zaniness for his money. The film falters after about an hour as the elongated sketch show format loses steam and the inclusion of Vinnie Jones as a fish-out-of-water contract killer (again?) certainly does nothing to dull the notion of him having the on-screen charisma of a power sander. David Jenkins
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louis MAlle collection vol 1 releaSed: 5 JUne
In much the same way that you can never find that third book to make up a three-for-two offer, most boxsets contain one or two duds that cause you to hesitate before forking out. No such worries here. This collection of four Louis Malle films dating from the late ’50s to early ’60s is a surefire winner. There’s something here to suit all moods; adapted from very different novels, the films vary stylistically and tonally, showing Malle’s precocious range, though most are set in Paris and the first three are filmed in luminous black and white, using a stock cast centred around Maurice Ronet and Jeanne Moreau. New Wave thriller L’Ascenseur pour l’Echafaud endlessly surprises as a war hero’s attempt to commit the perfect murder delicately unravels; set to Miles Davis’ improvised score, Ronet looks like a man trying to escape Modernist hell. The star is better yet as an alcoholic who sets a date for his suicide in existentialist Le Feu Follet; Moreau glows in Les Amants, which was considered wildly racy in its time and while no longer shocking is still heady. Malle switched to colour and Philippe Noiret – inadvisably entrusted for a weekend with his 10 year-old niece – for Zazie Dans Le Métro, where the director matches Raymond Queneau’s quickfire novel with freewheeling visuals. None of these films is included in either Time Out’s new ‘1000 Films To Change your Life’ or ‘1001 Movies you Must See Before you Die’, which shows just how superficial these vogueish list books are; all four would be in any right-thinking person’s Top 100. Jonas Milk
ZAthurA (2005) dir: John FavreaU releaSed: 5 JUne
Would a sci-fi remake of Jumanji make the world a better place? Marginally so is the answer to that all-too common question. Hinged on the idea that two kids start nosing around their dad’s attic and find a magic board game (the sizable stack of German porn goes unnoticed) which – gee whiz – transports them to a crazy world of ’50s sci-fi clichés. Essentially, this is a barrage of big money set-pieces, but luckily there is evidence of director Favreau’s acerbic wit to save the script. David Jenkins
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AlModÓvAr Box set vol. 2 releaSed: 5 JUne
Necrophilia. Buggery. Torture. Hanging. Incest. Decapitation. Masturbation. If you’re one to blush easily, then it’d probably be best if you steered clear of this Almodóvar box set. All four of these films intend to shock from the outset, and most of them don’t let up until they have achieved that aim. If you watch the films in order you can really see Almodóvar’s stylistic progression as well as his penchant for addressing pet themes of religion, sex and death. To take the films individually, Matador lacks the humour of his later films by concentrating on transposing themes of obsession and sexual repression on to the dying art of bullfighting. With lots of sex and lust, the finale comes as a shocking, almost Shakespearian coup de grace. Law Of Desire injects a little more humour into the mix. Set in the carefree (read: coke-addled) world of newly liberalised ’80s Spain, the film slowly reveals that the various characters may not be as free-thinking as originally suspected. A brooding and violent young Antonio Banderas steals the show with his portrayal of an obsessed lover who will go to any lengths to get what he wants. In Kika, Almodóvar cranks up the absurdity levels, although not at the expense of some heavy-handed symbolism. There’s still serial killing, incest and a swipe at media sensationalism here, but the humour all comes from how our heroine deals with these situations in very practical ways. And you will hate yourself for laughing at a lengthy and farcical rape scene. The Flower Of My Secret is a little more serious, portraying the breakdown of a romance novelist whose failed marriage causes her to reassess her career. It is the best of the bunch, simply because it represents Almodóvar’s evolution from shock-jock to a master of intrigue. All are essential viewing for fans of European cinema. Tom young
Munich (2005) dir: Steven SpielBerG. releaSed: 12 JUne
Spielberg’s slant on the 1972 Olympic hostage crisis prepares once more to run a gauntlet of gasping punditry. Munich is an apparently even-handed take on the Black September operation that left 11 Israeli athletes and one German police officer dead, and the response of the Israeli state that wreaked a vengeful path of murder across Europe and the Middle East. Storms and teacups aside, though, the real scandal is that Munich is a dramatically moribund piece of work – miscast, miscued and misfiring more often than a dodgy Luger. Watch the sequel, paradise Now, instead. Matt bochenski
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Gwendoline (1984) dir: JUSt JaecKin. releaSed: 12 JUne A must for any of those who felt the Indiana Jones films lacked certain Benny Hill quality, Gwendoline stoops lower than most a films dare to stoop. Made by Just Jaeckin, the brains behind the Emanuelle films, Gwendoline somehow does a bad job of being a horrendous softcore porn film as well as a laughable action adventure flick. Think Carry On Dominatrix In The Jungle without Kenneth Williams. Lee Jones
l’huMAnitÉ (1999) dir: BrUno dUmont. releaSed: 26 JUne
With some films, a 100-word DVD review seems utterly pointless Degrading even. L’Humanité – Belgian director Bruno Dumont’ . follow-up to the highly-praised La Vie De Jesus – is the kind of fislm that screams to be written about at great length. Highly divisive at the time of its cinematic release, it’s a film about a small town police inspector investigating the rape and murder of a young girl, and at an intimidating 143 minutes, it’s a long, lethargic ride but it’s a spiritual and philosophically rich one to boot. David Jenkins
PiAno tuner of eArthQuAkes (2005) dir: the BrotherS QUay. releaSed: 26 JUne The Quay brothers’ first film for 10 years is bursting with cultural references and lavish imagery. Set in an eighteenth century world populated by opera singers and automatons who answer to a variety of European aristocratic names, there is no doubt as to the visionary talent of the directors, but the film is over-egged. Tom young
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the wild PArrot s of teleGrAPh hil dir: JUdy irvinG. l releaSed: 26 JUne (2003) On a ’Frisco hill overloo Mark Bittner befrien king Alcatraz, homeless musician a flock of 45 feral parrot improbable as this souded s. As documentary forms anrce material sounds, Judy Irving’s popular affecting character study and bird. Surprisingly mo of both man ornithophobia. Neon Kel ving, provided you don’t suffer from ly
tsotsi (2005) dir: Gavin hood. rel eaSed: 3 JUly The violent man plus baby form ula may invoke nightmares of Kindergarten Cop, but don ’t worry. This tale of a thu who inherits a baby after a botc g sentimentalised, and is beautifuhed carjacking is rarely lly shot around Soweto. The only question is whe or not we can believe transformation from killether r to carer. Tom Atkinson the
ultrAnovA (2005) dir: BoUli lannerS. releaSed: 26 JUne Critically acclaimed on the con tinent, artist-turnedfilmmaker Bouli Lanners tells quiet man in suburban Belgiumthe story of a listless, aplenty amongst the young inha. There’s boredom bitants of the sparsely populated industrial lowland talking inanely about nothings who spend their time much. A Flemish American beauty if you , just without the fun, excitement or intrigue.will Lee Jones 131
GArth MArhenGi’s dArkPlAce (2004) releaSed: 7 JUly
Tragically underrated comedy series from Richard Holness and Richard Ayoade about a cancelled sci-fi series from the ’80s set in Dark Place Hospital, Romford. The series was written, directed by and starred horror writer/dream-weaver Garth Marenghi, but was tragically pulled at the last minute by MI8 (two above MI6). Without meaning to sound crude, this is fucking hilarious. Buy it now in order to give the series a second (third?) chance. Otherwise your ass is grass, and we’ve got a lawnmower. you dig? David Jenkins
cAPote (2005) dir: Bennett miller. releaSed: 7 JUly The brutal murder of a Kansas family becomes the inspiration behind Truman Capote’s In Cold blood as, with natural charm and grace, he befriends the local investigator and gains the trust of Perry Smith police – one of the two men charged with the family’s murder. The film does well in juxtaposing the contrasting societies the glittering scenes of cocktail-chugging of ’50s America: york connect seamlessly with the quiet, barren landscapeNew a God-fearing community in turmoil. Philip Seymour Hoffof man’s winning performance as Truman Capote is mesmerising , but credit too to Clifton Collins Jr as the troubled crimin al, Perry. Abigail Lelliott
sYriAnA (2005) dir: Stephen GaGhan. releaSed: JUly Stephen Gaghan’s sprawling oil opus does not 10 have a gratifying narrative. But then, that is the point. As multip le, disparate tales try hard to thread the film together, there are real huma n faces among what is a horrifically complex issue. Syrian a is destined to be divisive, but how can anyone fault Clooney’s very weigh ty (35 pounds to be exact) commitment to his craft? Jay Savage
the ProPosition (2005) dir: John hillcoat. releaSed: 17 JUly Choose which brother dies. That’s the proposition offered to gang member Charlie Burns (a yet-again-brilliant Guy Pearce) in this gritty yet stunningly beautiful Australian western. John Hillcoat’s masterfu direction of a predictably dark screenplay from Nick Cave depicts the harshl realities of a truly wild frontier. This is a brutal and nihilistic land down under, world away from ballroom dancing and Paul Hogan. Adrian Sandiford a
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Three Extremes (2005) Dirs: Fruit Chan; Takashi Miike; Chan-Wook Park Released: 27 July The current vogue for Asian horror continues with this worthwhile trilogy of short films from Korea’s inimitable Chan-Wook Park (Oldboy), Japan’s Takashi Miike (Gozu) and Hong Kong’s lesser-known Fruit Chan (Made In Hong Kong). Here, the powerhouse trio take on themes of vanity, egoism, destruction and cruelty. Well, what else did you expect? Then again, perhaps the burden of expectation is responsible for a sense of disappointment at Chan-Wook Park’s offering, Cut, which is not to say that his blurred reality of a horror filmmaker held hostage is not theatrically dazzling. Merely that Miike’s Box, a hypnotic meditation on memory and time, carries more focus, while Chan’s Dumplings is the standout stomach-churning enfant terrible of the three. Adrian Sandiford
Favela Rising (2005) Dir: Matt Mochary & Jeff Zimbalist Released: 24 July Anderson Sa is the figurehead for Afro Reggae – a revolutionary music group based in Vigario Geral, one of Rio’s toughest slums. Matt Mochary and Jeff Zimbalist’s pacey documentary follows Sa’s efforts to save kids from the inevitable violence of life in the drug gangs. Frank but never maudlin, Favela Rising’s strength lies in its ability to present the brutal realities of urban life whilst still celebrating the energy and potential for change channeled by Afro Reggae gigs. The cinematography may be a little rough in places, but this is a powerful film that deserves the widest possible audience. Neon Kelly
Best of the British Arts Academy Animation Awards Vol. 6 (2006) Out Now The yoof of today crack out the crayons to showcase some of this country’s brightest animation talent in the BAA Animation Awards. A wonderful mix of hand-drawn and digital media, this collection proves that the nation’s imagination is alive and kicking. The collection shows off a mix of amateur talent as well as some of last year’s most inventive professional television commercials, all of which push the barriers of pen and ink to their limits. From bored and lonely space adventurers to an egg with a Michael Jackson complex, the BAA Animation Awards proves animation can be just as ground-breaking, exciting and thought provoking as any other genre. Lee Jones
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Creative Supervisor Animation
Films: Batman Begins, Harry Potter 2, 4 & 5, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Chronicles Of Riddick, Tomb Raider II, Emmy for Dreamkeeper (TV show). So what are you ‘creatively supervising’ at the moment? I’m taking care of the 3D on the new Harry Potter film. I’m doing one chunk of it – I’m supervising the 16-foot giant, it’s going to be as good as Gollum. It’s not as big a part as Gollum, but it’s a huge thing for England, for us to do the work. My role is varied; I’m an all-rounder. We have a team of 15 working on it and that will grow as the project develops. Do you notice special effects in films? Contributing to any art form changes the experience. It’s hard not to notice. I’m pretty good at switching off, but at times it can be impossible. I went to see King Kong with my girlfriend and she got really annoyed at me because I kept on pointing out the obvious animation flaws.
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When do you think people will stop noticing computer graphics in films? They kind of have already. In Pride and Prejudice, you wouldn’t know it, but we did a hundred spot removal shots to remove Keira Knightly’s pimples, and the same with the Harry Potter kids. Generally, I think it’ll be 20 years before you’ll get virtual reality that is convincing enough to be real. There are a lot of production companies doing incredible things with 3D animation. What’s the trend? There are still shit loads of things that are really hard to do, like water and fire simulations. Muscle and skin dynamics are pretty hard as well. Something like Gollum is incredibly caricatured, and you are always aware that you are looking at something that’s fake. Hopefully there will be a trend towards visual effects moving from something that’s post-production, to something that’s considered pre-production. What’s happening within the visual effects industry at the moment? There’s been a lot of outsourcing, and the biggest change is that the knowledge is less protected. You can buy a computer and get the software and do your own animation. It’s still difficult though. I think there’s a drift away from priority software and more people are doing things off-the-shelf. I definitely think 2D illustration computer software is of a very good standard, but 3D is nowhere near industry standard. You need a deep technical understanding for something to make something look real. You can’t just hire an artist and train them a little bit – you’ve still got to have the knowledge. Lieu Pham
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20 Casino Royale.
Dir. Martin Campbell
If they stick close to the novel, the franchise can be redeemed. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like they’re going to do that. The first trailer shows a good-looking film (blonde Bond goes black and white), but if it’s going to outgun other recent efforts we need to see dangerous darkness from Craig, which is only briefly hinted. Optimistic beginnings? It could go either way. ETA November 2006
19 Snakes On A Plane. Dir. David R Ellis
Sam Sam the money man took a wrong turn. After the critical decimation of XXX: State Of The Union, The Man and the recently released Freedomland, Jackson needs to rekindle the über-cool cred last seen in the twentieth century. As a premise, Ellis’ Snakes walks the thin line between genius and insanity (there are snakes, on a plane), but massive internet buzz is ready to scrawl cult classic all over this one. Flip round that flat-cap Jackson, first class beckons. ETA August 2006
18 Magneto.
Dir. TBA
With X-Men: The Last Stand firmly on the adamantium radar, talk of the next Marvel spin-off has come to fruition. Sheldon Turner (The Longest Yard) has been handed scripting duties, and he promises The Pianist meets X-Men as young Erik Lensherr seeks retribution against the Nazis who killed his parents. The million-dollar question is, Singer or Ratner? The two million-dollar question is, who the hell cares any more? ETA 2007
17 Slide Away.
Dir. Nick Egan
Following CBS’ INXS-find-a-front-man-come-Pop-Idol-esquecash-in, Rock Star, Egan - director of many of the band’s songs - is penned to direct this fitting homage to Hutchence’s life. Johnny Depp (also rumoured to be set to play a part in the adap of Motley Crüe’s The Dirt) is likely to star as the misaligned musician, potentially alongside Eric Bana, Naomi Watts and Hayden Christensen. Heaven Sent or Original Sin? ETA 2007
16 Spider-Man 3.
Dir. Sam Raimi
Raimi risks it all in his termination of the trilogy. A love triangle is rumoured and you can bet your best reel of web-yarn that another big-name Marvel madcap will turn up as villain-seeking-world-dominance. The smart money is on a three-way tussle between Sandman, Venom and the Green Goblin. The film was made last summer in animatics; perhaps all films will one day become acting by numbers? Musings aside, let’s hope Raimi’s web doesn’t become a sticky career-trap. ETA May 2007 LO BATT
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15 Miami Vice.
Dir. Michael Mann
Mann alive, the trailer looks cool. A return to ’80s Hollywood cop-heist flicks: big guns, explosions aplenty and enough testosterone to grow your mother a beard. Farrell and Foxx’s Crockett and Tubbs seem sufficiently dark and brutal. Mann’s doing what he never could on TV putting the real vice in Miami. No longer is this the result of an infamous brainstorming note by NBC’s chief, which simply read ‘MTV Cops.’ This is so much more. Fast cars, fast boats and fast women. Florida beware. ETA August 4
14 Paradise Lost. Dir. Scott Derrickson
Paradise Lost was written in 1667, and there’s a reason that A-level students are still made to read it: sadism. Just kidding, it’s because Milton’s Satan is one of the most fascinating characters ever created. Lucifer, cast out of Heaven, struggles as he becomes Satan in Hell. Confused and desperate, he’s consumed by hate, despair, vengeance and jealousy. That’s what it says in the York Notes anyway. Director Derrickson can point to a CV that includes The Exorcism Of Emily Rose, but he also wrote and directed Hellraiser: Inferno. Now that’s damnation. ETA 2007
13 Beerfest.
Dir. Jay Chandrasekhar
Lederhosen, two-pint Steiners and stacks of sauerkraut; Oktoberfest, Germany. Two brothers stumble across quite possibly the most exciting relic of all time in this Broken Lizard comeback. The Holy Grail? Noah’s Ark? No. A secret, centuries-old competition that’s Fight Club meets beer games. Pint of the hard stuff, barman. ETA 2006
12 Where The Wild Things Are. Dir. Spike Jonze
Kermit: A Frog’s Life wasn’t a winner. The Magic Roundabout sank like a lead brick. Puppet movies don’t work. Until you poke one with a large Spike. Maurice Sendak’s 1963 mini-picture book makes the transition from small form to combination screen, puppet and animation film courtesy of a Dave Eggers and Michael Goldenberg (Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix) adaptation. Benicio, Catherine Keener and Michelle Williams all provide voices for this vivid tale of boyhood imagination. Let’s hope it’s Jonze’s vision and not Warner Bros’ accountants who pull the strings. ETA 2007
11 Clerks 2.
Dir. Kevin Smith
Kevin Smith’s debut feature, Clerks, is still his best. Mallrats, Chasing Amy and Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back! were all fun, but Clerks had something these didn’t - empathy. And the dick and fart jokes were good too. Clerks 2 could be awesome, but only if Smith can put his finger on what made his first film so great and Jersey Girl so awful. Schmaltz does not equal emotion: write that down, Smith. Still, congrats at getting an Out of Competition screening at Cannes, fat lad. ETA 2007 140 THE AWESOME; I FUCKIN’ SHOT THAT! ISSUE
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10 Nacho Libre.
Dir. Jared Hess
Luchos Libre - the ’30s Mexican art of fighting - has a new professional wrestler in the unlikely, naturally-padded mass of Jack ‘School Of Rock’ Black. Directed by Jared ‘Napoleon Dynamite’ Hess, Paramount’s quirky comedy pits Ignacio, a friar and cook by trade, in a fight plight to earn money for his holy cause. Black’s podcasts during filming were innovative. His style is outlandish. Tenacious? Damn right. Jack is definitely Black. ETA August 2006
09 Day Zero.
Dir. Bryan Gunnar Cole
Gunnar Cole’s third film (after the lowkey but exceptionally well-received Another Road Home and Arctic Son) plays host to an ex-Hobbit in a tale of a new American war draft. Shaven-headed, tattooed and angstridden, Wood’s militant character looks set to combine Green Park anger and Ring-weary vengeance, alongside ruby-lipped girl-boy Chris Klein. Put a ring around Elijah on the credibility map. ETA 2006
08 Star Trek XI.
Dir. J.J. Abrams
Beam me up, Affleck. Doesn’t have the Vulcan ring to it, does it? However, in Abrams we trust. Creator of Lost and laser-guide of the Cruise missile in M:i:3, his pedigree is tiptop. After the banal claptrap that was Star Trek: Nemesis - the first Trek-flick not to hit box-office heights - this new generation could be better than the Next Generation. If that’s not a peculiar paradox, then I’m Captain Kirk. Make it so. ETA 2008
07 The Prestige.
Dir. Christopher Nolan
Blaine vs Copperfield. Daniels vs Brown. Take two magicians, add some nineteenth century London, a rabbit, a hat and a battle over inner circle trade secrets. Okay, forget the rabbit and the hat. Bale and Jackman star in this tale of a bitter rivalry that turns to murder. Expect dark, brooding Victoriana aplenty and $40 million worth of special effects; oh, and Johansson, Serkis, Caine and Bowie no less. Nolan, wave your wand. ETA 2006
06 Bobby.
Dir. Emilio Estevez
Estevez writes, directs and stars in this film of Robert ‘Bobby’ Kennedy’s hotel assassination in 1968. He’s probably also done the casting since someone invited dad (Martin Sheen) along. Kennedy’s death evokes numerous conspiratorial theories and is rich material for a tense, dark thriller. Fortunately Estevez has constructed a cast resembling a Hollywood Who’s Who. Hopkins, Demi Moore, Sharon Stone, Elijah Wood, Helen Hunt, Lindsay Lohan, Bill Macy and Christian Slater all feature. Safe hands are needed from this directorial Young Gun. ETA 2006 LO BATT
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05 Volver.
Dir. Pedro Almodóvar
Pedro ‘Bad Education’ Almodóvar’s back, directing another visually opulent tale of three generations of La Manchan señoritas who move to Madrid in search of la vida hermosa. Expect death, ghosts, tango and limitless vitality, apparently. Could 2006 be the year of Almodóvar? The Chinese say it’s the Year of the Dog. Let’s hope Pedro is barking up the right tree. ETA August 25
04 Beowulf.
Dir. Robert Zemeckis
Zemeckis goes back to the past. An eighth century poem inspires this film depicting the life of Beowulf (Winstone), a Scandinavian hero who saves all-comers from Grendel, the father of all monsters - played by Crispin ‘Dad-dad-daddy-o’ Glover, in his first Zemeckis reunion post BTTF2’s pay-day fiasco. Jolie’s about to pop, so provides the voice of Grendel’s mum, and Hopkins puts in a turn to enliven the cast. With a gargantuan budget and state-of-the-art performance capture animation, we’ve got our claws crossed for an eye-popper. ETA 2007
03 Inglorious Bastards.
Dir. Quentin Tarantino
You’ll excuse us for getting excited about guns and war, but when it’s a Tarantinopenned tale of condemned US soldiers heading on a suicide mission into the Nazi heartland, we just can’t help ourselves. Michael Madsen’s put himself into the draft, and rumours persist that his platoon buddies will include Adam Sandler and Eddie Murphy. Tarantino describes this as his ‘Mount Everest’, and with a reputed six-hour script to shoot it may well take two trips to reach the peak. ETA 2006
02 Guerrilla.
Dir. Steven Soderbergh
Che Guevara. We’ve all bought the T-shirt. Now buy into the film; an epic portrayal of the life of the Argentine revolutionary and guerrilla leader. Benicio Del Toro will provide a master class in gritty realism, reunited with Soderbergh for the first time post-Traffic. But will the script, co-written by Del Toro and Terrence Malick (who was originally slated to direct), tread the delicate balance between biography, drama and political record? ETA 2007
01 Be Kind, Rewind.
Dir. Michel Gondry
Gondry’s eccentric comedy, written in just three weeks, has been snapped up by Focus Features. Jack Black leads this intriguing film centring on a junkyard worker with a magnetised brain that wipes all the VHS films in his best mate’s video shop. Which he then has to remake to keep a demented customer happy. Black-buster video, anyone? ETA 2007 144 THE AWESOME; I FUCKIN’ SHOT THAT! ISSUE
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Edición No 7
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