Film, Foreign, Paul Dale

Takeshi Miike's 13 Assassins strikes a balance between measured character development and violent brutality

(15) 126min Prolific to the point of insanity, unpredictable and blatantly controversial, Takeshi Miike is not your average Japanese filmmaker. His notorious body of work which includes loads of straight to video fare, the Dead or Alive trilogy, Ichi…

Farewell (L'Affaire Farewell) - a romantic thriller set in the midst of the Cold War

Starring Emir Kusterica and Guilliame Canet

(12A) 113min Based loosely on the actions of high ranking KGB official and spy Vladimir Vetrov, Farewell is a complex but tender portrait of the Cold War in free fall, a place where a passionate eccentric like Vetrov (here renamed Grigoriev) can…

Toni Servillo and John Turturro events among Italian Film Festival 2011 highlights

Film by Roberto Rossellini and Paulo Virzi also screened

The Romans reconquer the central belt this year with a selection of the ancient and the modern. For the 2011 outing there’s a spotlight on celebrated actor Toni Servillo with screenings of his films The Girl By the Lake and One Man Up. Italian-American…

Benda Bilili!

A documentary on the Congolese rhythm'n'blues band Staff Benda Bilili

Kinshasa is the largest city in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It’s rated as one of the most dangerous cities in the world in terms of crime with a spiraling homeless problem that includes over 20,000 children under the age of 18 living rough…

Javier Fuente - León's Undertow

Talk about having your cake and eating it. Impossibly good looking Peruvian fisherman Miguel (Cristian Mercado) has an adoring pregnant wife (Tatiana Astengo) and a hot male lover in the shape of visiting artist Santiago (Manolo Cardona). It’s all…

Hipsters, Bad Lieutenant and a Frightfest at GFF

Glasgow Film Festival blog

Friday afternoon. I decide to brave the vertiginous screens at Glasgow’s Cineworld Renfrew Street where some festival films are also showing. I make the perverse choice of Hipsters, a Russian film with no current UK distributor about a group of post…

Still Walking

Hirokazu Koreeda’s bittersweet dissection of the modern Japanese family with all its dynamics and dysfunctions enjoys a slight return on the big screen. Catch it while you can. Filmhouse, Edinburgh from Fri 19-Wed 24 Feb.

Tales of the Golden Age (Amintiri Din Epoca De Aur)

Affectionate Romanian cinema

Cristian Mungiu, the Palme D’Or winning Romanian filmmaker of 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, would almost certainly find himself in contention with American communications magnate Harold S Geneen’s much quoted belief that ‘We must not be hampered by…

Sweden's No Mind Festival - Three Miles North of Molkom

It’s 5pm on a Monday afternoon and I’m crying. I’m sat on the grass mat floor of a big tent and I’m weeping on the shoulder of Carine, a beautiful Swedish lady I have known for only a few days. She’s crying too and our waterborne grief and guilt is…

Mesrine: Killer Instinct (l’Instinct de Mort)

Tracing a line from Mesrine’s disillusioning military service during the Algerian war to the beginning of his notoriety in 1972 (when he graduated to murder), the first instalment of this epic crime tale is derivative, energetic and hugely…

Katyn

The secret 1940 execution of 22,000 Polish POW and other patriotic citizens and its legacy is examined in this multi-thread historical drama from veteran Polish filmmaker Andrej Wajda (Danton, Man of Iron, Ashes and Diamonds). Shortly after Germany’s…

Blue Eyelids (Parpados Azules)

Love, naivety and loneliness in a modern Mexican megalopolis are essayed in this charming and quirky bittersweet comedy. When factory worker Marina (Cecilia Suárez) wins an all-expenses-paid trip for two from her employer, she realises that, because of…

O’Horten

DRAMA/COMEDY Maturity, loneliness and the inherent freedoms of breaking with routine are investigated in delightful sixth feature from the gifted Norwegian filmmaker of Kitchen Stories and Factotum. Odd Horten (Baard Owe) is about to retire. After 40…

Quiet Chaos

DRAMA/ROMANCE Nanni Moretti’s 2001 film The Son’s Room explored a middle-class Italian family’s attempt to cope with the unexpected death of a teenage son. Quiet Chaos, which stars and is co-written by Moretti, but is directed by Antonello Grimaldi…

The Baader-Meinhof Complex

(18) 149min Based on the non-fiction book by Der Spiegel editor and journalist Stefan Aust, The Baader-Meinhof Complex is a compelling and engrossing attempt to explain the trajectory and political position of arguably the most incoherent post-war…

Elite Squad

THRILLER (18) 114min Between the wars the French anti-democrat, arch monarchist and writer Georges Bernanos wrote that: ‘The first sign of corruption in a society that is still alive is that the end justifies the means.’ Foreseeing France’s defeat…

A Comedy of Power

THRILLER (PG) 110min (ICA DVD retail) Veteran French filmmaker Claude Chabrol takes on the story of magistrate Eva Joly’s ceaseless investigation into France’s leading oil company Elf Aquitaine. The inquiry led to a national scandal in 1994 which The…

Jules et Jim

French New Wave filmmaker Francois Truffaut’s third film, made in 1962, was undoubtedly his masterpiece. Set in the 1910s and 20s it is the story of a freewheeling love triangle between alpha female Catherine (Jeanne Moreau), Austrian Jules (Oskar…

Elite Squad (Tropa D'Elite)

Edinburgh International Film Festival

(José Padilha, Brazil) 118min Based on Luiz Eduardo Soares’ bestseller, Elite Squad is a favela thriller from the director of 2002 documentary Bus 174. It’s 1997 in Rio de Janeiro, months before a visit from Pope John Paul II. The rundown housing…

Female Agents (Les Femmes Des Ombres)

WAR/THRILLER (15) 116min Spring 1944, the lead up to the Normandy landings, and the technical planning and manufacture of a floating dock has been going on since January. When a British geologist ends up in a French hospital, the plan is thrown into…

The Aerial (La Antena)

SILENT/SATIRE (12A) 90min Argentinean writer and director Esteban Sapir utilises the syntax of classic silent cinema to winning effect in this amusing and inventive futuristic adventure. Set in some Orwellian style future city where words and language…

My Brother is an Only Child

DRAMA (15) 103min It is sometimes worth remembering that there was a time of passion and politics in Europe before mass consumerism and cultural deception helped nullify and stupefy the general populace. This nostalgic idea runs through Antonio…

The Boss Of It All

Taking a break from vituperative deconstructions of US history, the ever playful Danish director, writer and producer Lars Von Trier brings us a comedy shot in Automavision, a process whereby the director chooses a fixed camera position and then allows…