FREE TUESDAY 19TH FEBRUARY THE OFFICAL GFF DAILY GUIDE
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WHAT’S INSIDE? 2 — TODAY’S PICKS There’s a Marvel Marathon on, if you’re into spandex
2 — FEATURE Interview with Village at the End of the World director
Sarah Gavron
3 — REVIEWS Tower Good Vibrations Village at the End of the World
4 — WHAT’S NEW ONLINE Links to people who write more better than CineSkinny
IN THE HOUSE
THE OZON LAIR
We anticipate good things from FRANÇOIS OZON’s latest confection
4 — MUCH ADO ABOUT WHEDON We profile the beloved screenwriter of Alien: Resurrection 4 — PIC OF THE DAY The Daleks took a super injunction out against our first choice of photo 4 — WHAT DO YOU THINK? Just be grateful that we let you
WORDS: HELEN WRIGHT
THE TITLE of François Ozon’s In the House is likely to tantalise those familiar with the man’s back catalogue. From his first feature, 1998’s Sitcom , in which a suburban household is terrorised by a pet rat, to his 2010 effort Potiche , a satirical Catherine Deneuve vehicle about a housewife freed from maternal obligation, the French director consistently insinuates how menacing and threatening a domicile can be. Various influences are channeled through the filmmaker’s obsession with familial spaces. Sitcom is indebted to Pasolini’s Teorema , a classic account of bourgeois values breaking down as a lusty stranger sleeps with the occupants of a single Italian home. By replacing the stranger with a rodent, the effect Ozon creates is more magical realist and tongue-in-cheek than his source material, but his commentary on middle class hypocrisy is unmistakable. The auteur also
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notably adapted the socialist critique of R.W. Fassbinder’s play Water Drops on Burning Rocks, about a businessman’s inexplicable domination of all who enter his apartment. While a student at Paris’ prestigious La Fémis film school, Ozon was looked down upon for watching Hollywood movies alongside more respectful Euro-arthouse fare. Exposure to divergent styles goes some way to explaining the eclectic nature of his output. The type of creepy house found in horror staples such as Psycho, The Haunting, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was surely on the director’s mind when making his Criminal Lovers , in which an ogre locks a young couple up in his basement, and Swimming Pool, a meta-murder mystery featuring Charlotte Rampling as an author intoxicated by the eeriness of a French villa. Perhaps because of his close acquaintance with American
pulp, Ozon’s fixation with familial life is finally identifiable as a study of sexism, the sort concentrated in mainstream cinema. ‘Women’s director’ Douglas Sirk is another major reference point. Musical 8 Femmes , which first made Ozon famous outside France, and Potiche , are steeped in Sirkian melodramatic irony. Set in the 50s and 70s respectively, they are bold in both colour and their appraisal of patriarchy. With its salutatory heading, In the House is bound not to disappoint in terms of seedy sexuality, Hollywood-esque pastiche, and social exposition, all of which will presumably be focused on an outwardly civilised but deeply disturbed human home. 20 FEB – GFT 1 @ 18.10 21 FEB – GFT 1 @ 16.00 GLASGOWFILM.ORG/FESTIVAL/ WHATS_ON/4761_IN_THE_HOUSE
even have your own thoughts
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
GFF BOX OFFICE Order tickets from the box office at www.glasgowfilm.org/festival or call 0141 332 6535 or visit Glasgow Film Theatre 12 Rose Street, Glasgow, G3 6RB boxoffice@glasgowfilm.org
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TODAY’S PICKS NEVADA: LAU 19.30 @ ST ANDREWS SQUARE
Folk trio Lau provide live accompaniment to this psychological relationship drama before sticking around for a mini concert. There’s a pun to be made here, but the editors wouldn’t alLau it.
LAU
PETER DARELL: SCOTLAND’S DANCE PIONEER 14.30 @ GFT 2
This documentary about the Scottish Ballet founder is brimming with presentations of his finest work and, as such, is a must see for all serious dance fans. Come wearing a tutu for added enjoyment.
GEEK NIGHT WITH ALEX SALMOND 18.15 @ GFT 1
The First Minister and renowned Star Trek fan reveals his favourite ‘geek film’ and discusses it with Mark Millar after its screening. Surely Braveheart would be too conservative a choice?
30 DAYS OF NIGHT
STEVE NILES 20.30 @ CCA THEATRE
A screening of 30 Days of Night will follow a conversation with this comic book doyen. It’s alleged that a Saturday night out on Sauchiehall Street inspired the film’s grim, bloody horror.
BROKEN 20.45 @ GFT 1
GFF loves an impressive debut feature and this BIFA-winning coming-of-age drama doesn’t disappoint. Actor Robert Emms will be in attendance, hopefully with news of the sequel, Fixed.
OUT IN THE COLD SARAH GAVRON and cinematographer David Katznelson take their camera to a dying community on the icy fringes of the arctic circle for this extraordinary doc. INTERVIEW: CHRIS BUCKLE BEST KNOWN for her works of fiction – from BAFTA-winning TV drama This Little Life to 2007’s Brick Lane – Village at the End of the World sees director Sarah Gavron take on the role of documentarian, filming the inhabitants of a tiny Inuit community in northern Greenland as they try to restore their economic fortunes and halt the outflux of villagers seeking work elsewhere. We spoke to Gavron about the project’s origins, and the complexities involved in bringing the community’s story to screen. Where did the initial idea to film in remote Greenland come from? Well, my husband [cinematographer David Katznelson] is Danish, and he’d been to Greenland and made a documentary there some years ago [Arctic Crime and Punishment (2002)]. He was really keen for me to go there with him, so we went there on an adventure with half an eye on making a film together. We ended up visiting a few tiny hamlets, and I was immediately drawn to them – it was just a world apart from anything I’d ever encountered before. When we went to Niaqornat, which is the village that we focus on, we were greeted by Illannguaq [the sewage collector in the film] who was the only one who spoke English. He was really our way in – he explained the whole mechanics of the village, and we spent time there and were made welcome. So after that first trip we thought ‘perhaps there is a story here – one that tells of a traditional way of life fighting for survival, which will connect, perhaps, with a global narrative of small communities all over the world fighting for their existence’. What was the shoot like? Well, it was all about going back and forth and spending quite a lot of time there. It was a very tiny crew – there was me doing sound and directing, and David looking through the camera. Sometimes I had to stand back and it was just him with the camera and mic, alone – it sort of depended on the situation. So it was a very reduced crew, and quite difficult circumstances – you know,
VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE WORLD
filming in the dark because they have perpetual darkness in winter, filming in very freezing conditions… How long did the editing take? It took an enormous amount of time. Something that I hadn’t really anticipated is that if you film in a foreign language, which I’d never done, then you’ve got the added job of translating – and [it’s] a language that no one in England speaks, so it wasn’t like we could find a translator here! There were people in Copenhagen who came across and sat in the edit suite and went through [the footage with us], and that was enormously time-consuming, finding the little nuggets within the interviews. Do you think that your work as a fiction filmmaker has influenced the documentary’s style? I think as a fiction director I find it very important to constantly observe the real world and life around you,
because in a way you’re trying to create truth – you know, what would someone do if they’re told that piece of news, how will they respond, will they cry, will they laugh. So I’m really obsessed with observing how people respond to things… And I suppose in documentaries you’ve got the truth laid before you, so you’re just capturing what’s there. In documentaries, if someone shows emotion, you obviously believe them, [whereas] in fiction you have to work hard to create those moments. So it’s kind of a different muscle in lots of ways, but obviously one does feed into the other. 19 FEB - CINEWORLD 17 @ 18.45 20 FEB - CINEWORLD 17 @ 16.30 GLASGOWFILM.ORG/FESTIVAL/WHATS_ON/4718_ VILLAGE_AT_THE_END_OF_THE_WORLD
Be the star in your own movie
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REVIEWS TOWER
DIRECTOR: KAZIK RADWANSKI STARRING: DEREK BOGART, NICOLE FAIRBAIRN, DEBORAH SAWYER
Derek is an outsider. Not the mysterious gunslinger type who rolls into town, but a strange oddball full of ticks and frowns. Sitting somewhere between Travis Bickle and Napoleon Dynamite, he spends his days in the basement of his family home, funnelling weird fantasies into substandard animation projects. It’s possible that his well meaning parents are the root cause of his strange behaviour, pampering, condescending and ultimately infantilising their son. Tower plays in this way as an anaemic take on the We Need to Talk About Kevin nature/nurture debate. Throughout the film, handheld cameras float excruciatingly close to the minutiae of Derek’s life. The problem with Kazik Radwanski’s feature debut
is that it piles too much focus on its subject while offering the audience little respite. Indeed, the movie’s feature length presumes more legs than this character study owns and we see little in the way of progress or hope. So, while approaching interesting themes, this remains a snapshot rather than a journey, a sketch of an odd piece unable to fit into the puzzle of modern life. By the end, we are happy to reject Derek as he remains coldly impenetrable. [Alan Bett] 19 FEB - CINEWORLD 16 @ 21.00 21 FEB - CINEWORLD 16 @ 16.00 GLASGOWFILM.ORG/FESTIVAL/ WHATS_ON/4725_TOWER
TOWER
VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE WORLD DIRECTOR: SARAH GAVRON
Many small-town teens dream of moving to the big city, but few experience as profound an isolation as sixteen-year-old Lars. Living in the remote Inuit settlement of Niaqornat in northern Greenland, peers are few and options limited. “We don’t have internet cafes, hotels or restaurants,” he explains. “We only have the shop” – a small convenience store serving the settlement’s 59 residents, and one of the few employers left in a village facing an uncertain future due to its ever-dwindling population. Filming over an 18-month period, director Sarah Gavron focuses in on a handful of those that remain, piecing together an absorbing documentary portrait of everyday life in an extreme environment. The community’s attempts to kick-start their prospects by purchasing an abandoned fish factory provide a kind of overarching narrative, but it’s the vignettes proffered along the way – from whale butchery to springtime celebrations – that make Gavron’s film so fascinating. Beautifully shot and purposely unsentimental, Village … is an insightful study of lives in transition. [Chris Buckle] 19 FEB - CINEWORLD 17 @ 18.45 20 FEB - CINEWORLD 17 @ 16.30 GLASGOWFILM.ORG/FESTIVAL/WHATS_ON/4718_ VILLAGE_AT_THE_END_OF_THE_WORLD
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GOOD VIBRATIONS
GOOD VIBRATIONS DIRECTORS: LISA BARROS D’SA, GLENN LEYBURN STARRING: RICHARD DORMER, JODIE WHITTAKER, DYLAN MORAN
Directors Lisa Barros D’Sa and Glenn Leyburn explore the life of Belfast record shop owner Terri Hooley (Dormer), whose career was inextricably linked to the explosion of punk and set in parallel to the Troubles. Hooley’s greatest achievement in terms of music lore was stumbling upon a young band from Londonderry and recording their first single, Teenage Kicks. What makes The Undertones so
fascinating is how far removed their innocence and lighthearted subject matter was from outside perception of life in Derry’s Bogside. Good Vibrations attempts to emulate this effect, focusing on Terri’s love of music amidst surrounding violence. The issue with Good Vibrations is that its directors constantly foreground the atmosphere surrounding the shop on Great Victoria Street with archive images of balaclavas,
machine guns and British Army soldiers, drawing attention to its conceit. As a result of this heavyhandedness, the characters remain distant and fail to secure any real empathy from the viewer. [David McGinty] 18 FEB - CINEWORLD 18 @ 21.15 19 FEB - CINEWORLD 18 @ 13.30 GLASGOWFILM.ORG/FESTIVAL/ WHATS_ON/4815_GOOD_VIBRATIONS
TUESDAY 19 FEBRUARY THE CINESKINNY 3
MUCH ADO WHAT’S NEW ONLINE? ABOUT WHEDON WE ARE NORTHERN EYE FOR FILM WORDS:BECKY BARTLETT
LIGHTS
One of the 121 directors involved in the Scottish documentary speaks in response to We Are Northern Lights’ première. A lovely insight from someone who was part of the project. JOSS WHEDON
MULTI-TALENTED JOSS Whedon (screenwriter, director, producer, actor, comic-book author and composer) can do no wrong these days. He’s enjoyed cult status – and a doggedly dedicated fan following – since Buffy the Vampire Slayer in the mid-90s, but last year Avengers Assemble, now the third highest-grossing film of all time, pushed him into the movie-stratosphere. So what does Whedon decide to do next? A low-budget, black and white Shakespearean adaptation, of course. Fans of his TV shows and movies aren’t the only Whedon-nuts. His cast and crew also provide unwavering admiration. Regular collaborator Nathan Fillion (star of Firefly and Serenity) reported that he answers phone calls from Whedon by saying “I’m in,” so irrelevant is the actual offer. Much Ado About Nothing, a modern day version of the Bard’s romantic comedy, came about after years of gathering friends to his LA home for Shakespearean readings. This is not the first time such gatherings have resulted in a creative endeavor: Once More with Feeling, a musical episode of Buffy, came about after an alcoholfuelled sing-along session around the piano at Whedon’s pad. Whedon’s films and television shows have become known for the writer’s distinctive style: his quick wit, pop culture references, and nerdy in-jokes have cemented his status as a geek icon. He is also a feminist favourite, having created Buffy because he believed the helpless blonde in horror movies needed a better image. His preference for ensemble casts proved he was the perfect choice for Avengers Assemble, where he put his talents to good use and, among other things, created the first truly successful onscreen appearance of the Hulk. His next (known) project is Marvel-based, with Avengers 2 due in 2015. Could it knock Avatar off top spot as most successful film ever? With Joss Whedon, anything’s possible. 24 FEB – GFT 1 @ 20.15
A round up of GFF’s first few days from Eye for Film, who seem to have had a busy time taking in James Cosmo, Northern Lights and Electric Boogaloo. tinyurl.com/EyeForFilmGFF
tinyurl.com/NLightsVlog
PARK CHAN-WOOK
The director of Stoker talks to The List about his divisive film and sheds some light on the piano scene. “It’s a metaphor...” tinyurl.com/ParkChanWook
GOOD VIBRATIONS
Empire describe this Belfast biopic as “a very buoyant and really quite infectious film about the power of hope as a force for change.” tinyurl.com/GoodVibrationsGFF
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
THE FESTIVAL’S MVP, JAMES COSMO
WHAT DID YOU THINK? THE BEST TWEETS @GLASGOW FILM @DEBORAHMURRAY FEST So far all the Brilliant evening looking twitter guesses on what @SOMEONEONTWITTER at #TheCity with @ @SOMEONEONTWITTER the Surprise Film will be I thought this film auricleensemble at I thought this film was quite good. was quite good. #onlyiknow#gff13 Superb I’ve seen worse,are butwrong! also seen better I’ve seen worse, but also seenCopland better andimnottelling soundtracks and too as well! #GFF #CINESKINNY#GFF too as well! #GFF #CINESKINNY #CINESKINNY Sprawl, a great new piece by Steve Forman. #GFF #CINESKINNY
@MCGOFFIC The Paperboy - gloriously ridiculous. It’s so unruly @SOMEONEONTWITTER hilariously so. I was I thought thisbut film was quite good. creasing throughI’ve seen worse, but also seen better out. #GFF13#GFF too as well! #GFF #CINESKINNY #CINESKINNY
@FATTOUSH @SAMBROOKE @SOMEONEONTWITTER So far, three films seen @SOMEONEONTWITTER Secret Subway-ers I thought this film good. I thought this film was quite good. at was GFF:quite Caesar Must come out to play! Cult I’ve seen worse,Die, but After also seen but also betMay better and The I’ve seen worse, classic Theseen Warriors too as well! #GFF #CINESKINNY ter too as well!screened #GFF #CINESKINNY Gatekeepers. All excellent to bold (but and well worth seeing. cold) cine-adventurers #GFF #CINESKINNY #GFF #CINESKINNY
@ADEY70 @SOMEONEONTWITTER Calamity Jane at the I thought this film was Grand Ole quite Opry.good. I’ve seen worse, but also seen betScreening / singalong ter too as well! #GFF #CINESKINNY terrific. Now for the barndance... #WhipCrackAway #GFF #CINESKINNY
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