FREE THURSDAY 21 FEBRUARY THE OFFICAL GFF DAILY GUIDE
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WHAT’S INSIDE? 2 — FEATURE Who is George Kuchar? No really, I’ve never heard of him
2 — ALASDAIR GRAY
A man so talented the entire CineSkinny team now feel inadequate
3 — REVIEWS The Thieves Shell Big Star
4 — WHAT’S NEW ONLINE Still no positive reviews of Songs for Amy
DARK STAR
SHOO T ING S TA R Sheffield electronica duo ANIMAT furnish cult sci-fi Dark Star with a fresh soundtrack. We revisit the film’s creaky corridors and find its lustre undimmed
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4 — TODAY’S PICKS Now on the back page just to
mess with your head
4 — PIC OF THE DAY No pictures of Alex Salmond were printable
4 — WHAT DID YOU THINK? Summary: Ghosts of Mars is baws
WORDS: CHRIS BUCKLE A LONG time ago on a university campus far, far away, John Carpenter and Dan O’Bannon started work on a small-scale student flick by the name of Dark Star. Their budget was shoestring and their progress slow, piecing together the initial cut over the course of three years. But with wit, invention and a vital wellspring of filmmaking chutzpah, the duo worked alchemy. Beach balls became aliens, baking trays were repurposed as space suits, and an hour-long student film became a full-length feature with lasting cult appeal. A sharp satire with a goofy sensibility, Dark Star combines slapstick humour with Cartesian philosophy; the destruction of planets with the monotony of long-term isolation; existentialism with gags about toilet paper. It roughed up the pristine visions of a then freshly popular genre (thanks to Kubrick’s 2001), and launched its creators’ careers in the process. Carpenter and O’Bannon met while enrolled in the University of Southern California’s School of Cinema-Television – by then already boasting at least one poster-boy alumnus in the form of George Lucas (whose feature debut THX 1138 was based on an earlier USC short). Both
Carpenter and O’Bannon donned multiple creative hats to make Dark Star a reality: as well as directing and producing, Carpenter provided its iconic score and co-wrote with O’Bannon; in addition to scripting, O’Bannon’s credits include production design and editing, plus a role in front of the camera playing Sgt. Pinback. And, as comprehensive making-of doc Let There Be Light makes clear, the list of unofficial roles extended further still. With zero ventilation in the astronauts’ helmets (made, as they were, of toys and tape), breathing was tricky. Therefore, the scene in which Doolittle (Brian Narelle) teaches phenomenology to a bomb was filmed one line of dialogue at a time, with O’Bannon on hand to help recuperate wilting actor Brian Narelle the moment Carpenter called ‘cut’. This can-do DIY approach is a big part of the end result’s abundant charm: while you can see the frayed edges and corner-cutting, it’s all the richer for it. The aforementioned inflatable extraterrestrial is a case in point: flagrantly cheap, but endearingly memorable. Viewed forty years on, Dark Star seems very much a product of its origins (both in terms of its 70s counter-culture tropes and its
microbudget aesthetic) but it has dated gracefully. Even if it hadn’t, it would retain a prominent place in the chronicles of cinematic sci-fi by virtue of its progeny alone. Carpenter’s subsequent successes need little elaboration, with the likes of Escape from New York and The Thing establishing him as a genre titan (even if the crown has since slipped). The late O’Bannon enjoyed a comparatively less feted career, but one nonetheless studded with gold: Dark Star’s beach-ball chase became the basis for Alien’s stalking xenomorph; further script work included the original Total Recall and Tobe Hooper’s Invaders from Mars remake; and in 1985 he received his first director’s credit, for seminal shocker Return of the Living Dead. Meanwhile, Dark Star’s DNA cropped up again and again – from the Millennium Falcon’s hyperspace blur to the galactic misadventures aboard Red Dwarf’s eponymous mining ship – establishing an enduring legacy for this most unorthodox of space odysseys.
Produced by The Skinny magazine in association with the Glasgow Film Festival Editors Designer Digital Deputy Editor
Lewis Porteous Jamie Dunn Marianne Wilson Nathanael Smith Josh Slater-Williams
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GRAY’S ANATOMY A Life in Progress, a portrait of Scottish institution ALASDAIR GRAY, is set to offer fresh insight into the iconic artist’s work WORDS: DAVID MCGINTY
GEORGE KUCHAR
THE KING OF KITSCH Following Glasgow Short Film Festival’s mini retrospective, Glasgow Film Festival welcomes the sweaty palmed chaos of GEORGE KUCHAR’s feature length work to its heaving bosom WORDS: HELEN WRIGHT “THE HEAD, heart, and hairy area below the stomach is what should be stimulated at the cinema.” George Kuchar’s simple aphorism aptly sums up his filmmaking style. Lo-fi, perverse, bitterly humorous, his 200 plus movies have a unique everydaycamp sensibility. Kuchar started making films as a teenager with his twin brother Mike in the late 1950s, mini-melodramas in which they cast their friends and Bronx neighbours. These early efforts were an attempt to replicate the heroes, explosions, and marauding monsters of Hollywood genre and exploitation flicks. Later, the Kuchars became part of America’s thriving underground scene and were welcomed into the fold by Andy Warhol, Jack Smith, and Stan Brakhage. The brothers went their separate ways in 1965 and George made his most famous title, Hold Me While I’m Naked, starring himself as a film director seeking sexual satisfaction. Its mock serious tone is encapsulated by a scene in which George shoots a couple behind a window. At the end, he tells one of them to remove her bra, saying “the mysticism of the stain glass window, and the profanity of that brassiere do not go well together.” Inspired by the weighty camp of Douglas Sirk and Howard Hawks among others, Kuchar’s legacy is his skill in undermining ‘serious’ art through self-parody whilst managing to retain
a sort of compassionate intellectual dignity. In the 80s, the prolific artist switched to video, claiming to be attracted to the medium because it was despised as inferior by everyone else. The technical alteration evolved his aesthetic. Kuchar began making video diaries. Still investing in corny special effects and ostentatious commentaries, this next phase in his career led to an even more personal, quotidian approach. GFF is screening Kuchar’s Weather Diaries, a series created over two decades during the loner’s trips to the El Reno motel in Oklahoma with a view to recording thunderstorms. Along the way, he meets other oddballs and films them going about their daily business, eating, using the toilet, and other intimate essentials. Kuchar died a couple of years ago, sparking a fresh burst of interest in his work. Hopefully, his name won’t become ossified through overeager cinephilic reverence. Aspiring filmmakers could do worse than copy his casual path to low-budget greatness. Shortly before he passed, an interviewer asked Kuchar why he makes movies. “I make them for me so I can remember the friends, the places the times I had. Good times.”
GLASGOW’S ‘LITTLE grey deity’, as Will Self once called him, Alasdair Gray is a figure whose work looms over Scottish art and literature and is perhaps the city’s most significant cultural export. In recent years, director Kevin Cameron has documented the life of the artist and author, afforded the opportunity to film Gray as he worked on some of his most famous murals, including that which covers the ceiling of Glasgow’s Òran Mór. This footage has now been collated to form the feature length documentary Alasdair Gray - A Life in Progress which, though it covers the man’s early years and the road to his most acclaimed novel Lanark, also focuses on his continuing activity and may be viewed as a portrait of the artist as a septuagenarian. Gray’s artwork and novels are famed for blending invention and reality, for creating fantasy from the mundane. Cameron’s portrait calls upon Gray’s friends, among them Liz Lochhead and the late Edwin Morgan, and sister Mora Rolley for insight into where these inspirations arose from and to what end they have influenced Gray’s life. “I began making pictures and inventing stories as a way of escaping from the dull life of being a schoolboy and living in Riddrie, Glasgow, a way of escaping into a more adventurous and colourful world, the kind of worlds that I saw
in the early Walt Disney movies – Snow White, Dumbo, Pinocchio,” the author says in Cameron’s previous film Alasdair Gray 0-70. “But as I entered my teens I began to realise that the people I knew, the Glasgow where I lived, was not a dull ordinary place really. It was as full of the materials of Heaven and Hell, of the possibilities of delight and horror, as anywhere else in the world or even places you could invent.” Seldom have figures of Gray’s stature granted such ease of access into their lives and work. The films of Kevin Cameron are a rare opportunity to view the artist not as the monumental figure of university tutorials or a name on the walls of famous buildings, but as a living and working artist. Cameron’s film places Gray within the context of a world in which he is renowned, but also explores the reality of his life in the city that provides his greatest inspiration. “You might say that while my pictures and stories and novels have often had a wildly fantastic element in them,” says Gray, “I’ve always had the realistic bit as well.” 21 FEB - GFT 1 @ 13.30 GLASGOWFILM.ORG/FESTIVAL/WHATS_ON/4635_ ALASDAIR_GRAY_-_A_LIFE_IN_PROGRESS
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ALASDAIR GRAY
Be the star in your own movie
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REVIEWS SHELL DIRECTOR: SCOTT GRAHAM STARRING: CHLOE PIRRIE, JOSEPH MAWLE, IAIN DE CAESTECKER, MICHAEL SMILEY, KATE DICKIE
In an emotionally frozen recess of the Highlands lives a father and daughter alongside the gaping void left by her mother. The child is named Shell and, like flowers growing towards the sun, lonely visitors are drawn to the rare vitality she exudes. Her sparkling smile and siren’s song tempt even her father toward the rocks. Scott Graham’s excellent debut feature is a triumph, a film that troubles the mind for days after viewing. This is a work defined more by its gaps than by what exists on screen, as characters expand unhealthily into the vacuums that surround them, replicating the roles absent from their lives. Although stunningly filmed, it shows nature as a
redundant beauty, providing walls in which these pawns are enclosed. It is an intelligent and sympathetic study of loneliness and loss, the disparity between rural and urban environments, the harsh simplicity of a struggle against the elements where emotional warmth is secondary to pure survival. Chloe Pirrie’s complex central performance surely guarantees that we’ll hear of her for years to come. [Alan Bett] 21 FEB - GFT 1 @ 20.45 24 FEB - GFT 1 @ 11.00 GLASGOWFILM.ORG/FESTIVAL/ WHATS_ON/4839_SHELL SHELL
BIG STAR: NOTHING CAN HURT ME
DIRECTOR: DREW DENICOLA, OLIVIA MORI STARRING: ANDY HUMMELL, JODY STEPHENS, MIKE MILLS, ALEXIS TAYLOR
Nothing Can Hurt Me tells the story of Memphis power pop icons Big Star in a very conventional music-doc manner, complete with all the expected genre hallmarks: musician fans pop up to sing the band’s praises (with talking heads including REM’s Mike Mills and Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor); archive footage strives to give a sense of why so many still care so deeply; and those party to events (including members Jody Stephens and the late Andy Hummel) offer first-hand testimonials that together build a portrait of the band’s successes and failures. But while the format is routine, the execution is first-rate, skirting hagiography and comprehensively essaying not only Big Star’s all-too-brief existence, but also the band’s extended family tree – from frontman Alex Chilton’s time in the Box Tops through to his perplexing solo ventures; from co-writer Chris Bell’s early steerage to posthumous masterpiece I am the Cosmos. The results should satisfy both long-term acolytes and those newly curious of Big Star’s timeless artistry. [Chris Buckle] 21 FEB - CCA @ 17.00 24 FEB - GFT 2 @ 20.00 GLASGOWFILM.ORG/FESTIVAL/INFORMATION/ FESTIVALS_WITHIN_THE_FESTIVALS/ GMFF/4649_BIG_STAR_NOTHING_CAN_HURT_ME
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THE THIEVES
THE THIEVES DIRECTOR: CHOI DONG-HOON STARRING: LEE JUNG-JAE, KIM HYE-SOO, KIM YOON-SEOK, SIMON YAM, JEON JI-HYUN, KIM HAE-SOOK, ANGELICA LEE, OH DAL-SOO, KIM SOO-HYUN, DEREK TSANG
This South Korean blockbuster incorporates stars and locations from across Asia, though is most strongly influenced by the American Ocean’s and Mission: Impossible franchises. A team of bickering Korean thieves team up with a Hong Kong group to rob a heavily-secured Macau casino of a precious diamond, a theft masterminded by a former partner. Everyone involved has a separate agenda and things – of course – don’t quite go according to plan.
As one might expect from its simple title, The Thieves isn’t high on originality, but execution is what matters and the film boasts an effective blend of breezy caper qualities, witty exchanges and dark turns that don’t feel ill-fitting. Sadly, plot padding sees the film, lengthy for a heist thriller at 136 minutes, eventually wear out its welcome. The film’s greatest asset is its ensemble rapport, but there’s far less of this in the final act, which devolves into rote gun-play and elaborate
stunt-heavy action sequences mostly centred on one character. Though impressively realised on a technical level, this stretch is a lot less charming and thrilling than the heist material. [Josh Slater-Williams] 21 FEB - CINEWORLD 16 @ 19.00 GLASGOWFILM.ORG/FESTIVAL/ WHATS_ON/4729_THE_THIEVES
THURSDAY 21 FEBRUARY THE CINESKINNY 3
TODAY’S PICKS
WHAT’S NEW ONLINE?
HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE
ALEX SALMOND
BEST FOR FILM
tinyurl.com/STVSalmond
tinyurl.com/BestFilmGFF
TV BOMB
JAMES COSMO
13.15 @ CINEWORLD 16
Up for Best Documentary Feature at Sunday’s Oscars, this tells the inspiring story of AIDS awareness activists in 80s New York. Dental documentary How to Survive a Plaque has not made the GFF line-up.
His geek film was the, er, unusual choice of Ghosts of Mars, a film which is not especially beloved. What did impress was the First Minister’s geek knowledge. STV covered the event.
Reviews and recommendations from TV Bomb’s Callum Madge, who gave four stars for Turkish drama Kuma and Flemish end of the world movie The Fifth Season. tinyurl.com/TVBombGFF
HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE
Patrick Harley is trying to cram as many films into his festival as possible because he feels bad about missing Populaire. Initial coverage of what he has seen can be found at Best For Film.
The Journal reports from the conversation with the great actor and uses his insights to take a wider look at the Scottish film industry and consider whether Braveheart has any place in it. tinyurl.com/JournalCosmo
FESTIVAL CLUB Join us at our new Festival Club! Open every day, 12noon till late. Come along for free talks & live DJ acts.
SARAMAGO TERRACE BAR, CCA, 350 SAUCHIEHALL STREET
PIC OF THE DAY
WOMEN’S DAY 18:00 @ GFT 2
Upon being promoted, single mother Halina is shocked by the corruption and cruelty she observes in her workplace and takes the supermarket to court. See this if you like legal dramas, women or films.
VINYL This romp, concerning an ageing rocker who fakes an entire band, may seem wholly unbelievable, but it’s actually based on a true story with its real life inspiration present at today’s screening. Like Henry Rollins’ neck, this has to be seen to be believed.
AN ACTUAL COLONIAL MARINE AT THE ALIENS LIVE REVIEW
WHAT DID YOU THINK? THE BEST TWEETS VINYL
A HIJACKING 16.00 @ CINEWORLD 18
A Danish freighter is hijacked by Somalian pirates in what could be the most tense and thrilling film of the year. None of the pirates are played by Johnny Depp.
XINGU 21.15 @ CINEWORLD 17
This 1940s-set exploration of ‘unoccupied’ Brazil is directed by a man named Cao Hamburger who, like his edible namesake, is a sandwich made of cooked ground or chopped beef and usually served in a roll or bun.
@ELAB49 1/2 way @DEVASMITH Alex through @glasgowfilmfest Salmond. A funny, and I may never need to knowledgable geek @SOMEONEONTWITTER @SOMEONEONTWITTER step into a cinema again who weirdly sounds I thought this film was quite good. I thought this film was quite good. this year! Well, apart from like Sean Connery. His I’ve seen worse, but also seen better I’ve seen worse, but also seen better Rashomon next month. bad film choice went too as well! #GFF #CINESKINNY too as well! #GFF #CINESKINNY #GFF #CINESKINNY down a treat #GFF #CINESKINNY
@GRAEMEVIRTUE I admit I was skeptical about Ghosts of @SOMEONEONTWITTER Mars at #gff13, but I thought this film was quite good. Alex Salmond won the I’ve seen worse, but also seen better (partisan?) crowd over too as well! #GFF #CINESKINNY by admitting it was basically baws. #GFF #CINESKINNY
@MISSCORINNEOH @SOMEONEONTWITTER Nevada - a beautiI thought this film quitefilm good. fulwas emotive I’ve seen worse,soundtracked but also seenby better the too as well! #GFF #CINESKINNY fantastic band Lau, yet another great night out @glasgowfilmfest#GFF #CINESKINNY
@FILMSTALKER The @SOMEONEONTWITTER Gatekeepers is a I thought this film was quite good. superb documenI’ve seen worse, but also seen bettary. Very powerful and ter too as well! #GFF #CINESKINNY plenty to make you think about other world issues. Go see. #GFF #CINESKINNY
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@CWMADGE @SOMEONEONTWITTER Just came out of the I thought this film wascharming quite good. utterly #BreakI’ve seen worse, but also seenHighbetfastWithCurtis. ter too as well!light #GFF of #CINESKINNY the fest for me. #GFF #CINESKINNY
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PHOTO: MICHAEL GALLACHER
20.30 @ GFT 2