Issue 563

Gaydar - bar news

Gaydar

27 Nov 2006

The garish but loveable Cuban-themed decor of Habana has been replaced, with a bright style bar interior of cream walls and chunky dark wood furniture. Gone is the elaborate metalwork staircase and balcony, to be replaced by new steps with a toughened…

Full kids listings

16 Nov 2006

Click here for full kids listings

Mitchell and Webb

Face off

14 Nov 2006

They may well be the gentle men of comedy but interviewing David Mitchell and Robert Webb is still an unsettling experience. The whole exchange is not unlike an episode of their glorious Channel 4 success, Peep Show. After all, they do look almost…

Jarvis Cocker - album review

Jarvis Cocker

14 Nov 2006

INDIE From the punchy pop of The Long Blondes to Arctic Monkeys’ seedy subject matter and dapper showmanship of Franz Ferdinand, the influence of Jarvis Cocker is everywhere in modern music. Yet after the demise of his old band the Sheffield indie…

Green Man, The - DVD review

The Green Man

14 Nov 2006

COMEDY Aside from being quite possibly the great comic actor Alistair Sim’s finest hour, The Green Man is also one of the very best post-war British comedies. Directed by camera operator Robert Day, with the uncredited assistance of old pro Basil…

Doctor Who: The Invasion - DVD review

Doctor Who: The Invasion

14 Nov 2006

TV SCI-FIC Thanks to the unerring wisdom of BBC archivists, countless pieces of classic TV were junked in the early 70s to make room for a new coffee machine. Early instalments of Dr Who suffered badly in the cull, particularly those featuring the…

The Directors

13 Nov 2006

It may not be very apparent yet, but Scotland’s summer festivals are feeling seismic tremors. On the one hand there are new chiefs heading up two of Edinburgh’s prestigious festivals. On the other, there’s a new, upmarket music festival outside Glasgow…

Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny

The devil plays guitar

13 Nov 2006

Tearing modesty a new asshole, Tenacious D describe themselves as ‘the world’s greatest rock band’. The D’s two members, Jack Black (vocals and rhythm guitar) and Kyle Gass (lead guitar and backing vocals), name check among their inspirations Kiss, Dio…

Mitchell and Webb

Face off

13 Nov 2006

They may well be the gentle men of comedy but interviewing David Mitchell and Robert Webb is still an unsettling experience. The whole exchange is not unlike an episode of their glorious Channel 4 success, Peep Show. After all, they do look almost…

Get serious about going green

Choose life

13 Nov 2006

We need to come out of the slumber of inertia that delays action to reduce carbon emission and climate change gases. We are all now seemingly conversant in the language of ‘carbon footprints,’ ‘tipping points’ and ‘sustainable development’.

Tom Fool

Marcuse their words

13 Nov 2006

The idea that a compelling night of theatre can come from Herbert Marcuse’s ideas about the way in which capitalism impinges upon, and ultimately destroys the organic self, replacing it with an emotionally, socially and sexually dysfunctional reified…

Bollywood round-up

The romance of remakes

13 Nov 2006

If, like me, you love Hindi or Bollywood cinema, you need to start embracing the idea of remakes. Two current releases, Don and Umrao Jaan, are cases in point. The trouble for me is that, having been reared during what I consider the heyday of the…

Leech - sucking the blood of popular entertainment

Leech

13 Nov 2006

Christmas madness started early this year, as retailers across the globe braced themselves for a long, lean winter without a Harry Potter book to flog. The impact of this has already hit the Leech household, with the annual begging letter to Santa to…

Requiem

(12A) 92min

13 Nov 2006

DRAMA/HORROR One year on from the release of The Exorcism of Emily Rose - the risible US exploitation horror which expropriated the real life story of German girl Anneliese Michel, comes German film Requiem, an infinitely more interesting look at the…

Pervert’s Guide To Cinema, The - interview

Popcorn and Brecht

13 Nov 2006

‘You enjoy a film immediately, naively, but theorising about films spoils enjoyment. I violently disagree with that,’ says outspoken and influential Slovenian philosopher and film lover Slavoj Zizek (pictured). ‘If anything I think it’s the opposite.’

Pan's Labyrinth

(15) 119min

13 Nov 2006

This wildly imaginative fabulist fable from Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro works as a companion piece to his earlier excellent Spanish language ghost story, The Devil’s Backbone. Like that film, Pan’s Labyrinth locates supernatural events within…

Distracted

Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, until Sat 25 Nov

13 Nov 2006

NEW WRITING Morna Pearson’s piece forms part of the trilogy of new work presented in this new departure for the Traverse, each show performed in repertory by the same small company of actors, all directed by Lorne Campbell and designed by Lisa…

Shadow of a Gunman, The

The Shadow of a Gunman

13 Nov 2006

CLASSIC The temptation with Sean O’Casey’s celebrated Dublin trilogy, which began with The Shadow of a Gunman (1923) and continued with Juno and the Paycock (1924) and The Plough and the Stars (1926), is to present them as knock-about Oirish comedies…

Italian Film Festival

The Italian Film Festival

13 Nov 2006

5 REASONS TO VISIT 1. The return of Nanni Moretti Five years after the Palme d’Or-winning The Son’s Room, Italian actor-writer-director Nanni Moretti returns with the multilayered The Caiman (pictured). Set in contemporary Rome, it’s the study…

Stage Whispers

Theatre news

13 Nov 2006

The recent production of Mary Stewart left Whispers quietly pondering the subject of religious intolerance, particularly after a subsequent conversation about old queen Bess with a young English person. True enough, the Virgin queen extended a certain…

Casino Royale - comment

Spybound

13 Nov 2006

‘How many actors have played James Bond on screen?’ goes the old chestnut of a pub quiz question. Barry Nelson was first to play him, on US TV in 1954, and Bob Holness played him in a radio adaptation two years later. Then Connery, Moore, Lazenby…

Scottish Ballet a step closer to new HQ

Tramway project further boosted by additional fund

13 Nov 2006

The proposals for Scottish Ballet’s state-of-the-art new home at Tramway have been given the green light by Glasgow City Council’s Planning Committee. Meanwhile, the Scottish Arts Council’s announcement of a £3.75m National Lottery Grant, together with…

The Asphalt Jungle

13 Nov 2006

What can one say about John Huston’s marvellous 1950 film noir/heist classic that has not already been said? A very direct influence on much that was to follow it, most obviously Kubrick’s The Killing and Dassin’s Riffifi but also a vibrant model of…

Antibodies

(18) 122min

13 Nov 2006

THRILLER Devoutly religious family man and village policeman Michael Martens (Wotan Wilke Möhring) is having a bad year. A young girl, his son’s best friend, has been murdered on his patch, plus most of the village hates him because he insists that…

White Point

Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, until Sat 25 Nov

13 Nov 2006

NEW WRITING There’s definitely a neglected audience in the theatre, which belongs to a particular generation. Perhaps the oft-declared regret that we see few punters in the latter half of their 20s in the theatre is a self fulfilling prophecy, for as…

Rampage

(15) 108min

13 Nov 2006

DOCUMENTARY Rampage is the middle film in a trilogy by Australian filmmaker George Gittoes. The first Soundtrack of War looked at how music plays a part in US army life in Iraq. Rampage follows Elliot Lovett, a very gifted young rapper who Gittoes…

Grapevine

Plucking fruits from the cultural bush

13 Nov 2006

Odd couples certainly make for entertaining viewing (whether in the arts or in life) but does a pairing get any stranger than Robert De Niro and 50 Cent ? Very unlikely. Talks are ongoing for them to appear as cops in New Orleans, in which Bobby thinks…

Johanna

(15) 86min

13 Nov 2006

DRAMA/MUSICAL ‘She cures me and I don’t need my pacemaker any longer,’ sings an elderly patient in this expressionistic film opera, directed by the Hungarian filmmaker Kornel Mundruczo (Pleasant Days) and composed by frequent collaborator Zsófia…

Casino Royale

(12A) 144min

13 Nov 2006

This second adaptation (following the 1967 spoof) of Ian Fleming’s first 007 novel is pitched as a prequel to the 20 films that came before it. It begins with James Bond becoming a ‘double 0’ licensed to kill agent and thereafter fills in how the…

Broke

Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, until Sat 25 Nov

13 Nov 2006

NEW WRITING Poverty and debt is perhaps the overwhelming fear that stalks contemporary consumer society. That’s the starting point for Iain Finlay Macleod’s adaptation of this tale by contemporary French dramatist David Lescot. As poverty walks in…

Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny - review

Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny

13 Nov 2006

COMEDY/MUSICAL Jack Black and Kyle Gass formed rock band Tenacious D a dozen years ago. Noteworthy, mostly, for their wild and profane lyrics, their existence has witnessed a best selling album, a short-lived HBO series, and the movie stardom of lead…

* Hitlist

Hitlist

13 Nov 2006

Tom Fool This new translation of Franz Xaver Kroetz’s 70s examination of family, psycho-sexual tensions and the political world amounts to a compelling night of theatre. Alternately funny and deeply moving, it features outstanding performances from Meg…

Hollywoodland

13 Nov 2006

Pitched somewhere between the great Los Angeles noir Chinatown and the Tinseltown legend and lore of Gods and Monsters, Hollywoodland is at once a cracking thriller, lavish period drama and engrossing true life mystery. It centres around the death in…

Winter Room, The

The Winter Room

13 Nov 2006

CONTEMPORARY DANCE Wood, ash, coal dust - the loveliness of an open fire comes at a price, as Claire Pençak well knows. The dancer/choreographer has had more than her fair share of dealings with a dirty grate since relocating from Edinburgh to the…

Fifteen Minutes

Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, run ended

13 Nov 2006

NEW WORK In contemporary times, the idea of what constitutes beauty is no longer left to individual perspective. Our ideas about physical allure are sanctioned by a mass market, which narrows down the number of physicalities permitted as attractive…

Kz

13 Nov 2006

Filmed over five weeks at the Austrian concentration camp, Mauthausen, documentarian Rex Bloomstein follows tour guides and tourists around the site as visitors discover the drip drip accumulation of the dehumanisation process. As the guides move…

Special

(15) 82min

13 Nov 2006

DRAMA There’s a pantheon of cinema that is fixated on the comic store as a metaphorical character - The Lost Boys, True Romance and the movies of Kevin Smith spring to mind. The comic book store is the centre of their protagonist’s world, the…

World in Pictures, The

The World in Pictures

13 Nov 2006

NEW WORK What does pop cultural history take out of the stories of our past, and what’s left in? It’s an intriguing matter to contemplate, given the movies tell most folk more about history than historians these days. And the Braveheart version of…

Aye Write! writers' festival

Glasgow writers’ festival joins in Britain’s bigge

13 Nov 2006

Aye Write!, the Glasgow book festival inaugurated in 2005, is to participate in Britain’s biggest ever reading project. Small Island Read 2007, which is set to attract tens of thousands of readers, from the West Coast of Scotland to Cornwall, is based…

The Pervert's Guide to Cinema

13 Nov 2006

If you want to know why Northern California’s avian population went nuts in The Birds, or how The Wizard of Oz was able to send Dorothy home to Kansas despite being a fraudulent huckster, then this is the film for you. A collaboration between Slovenian…

Rough Cuts - film news

Rough Cuts

13 Nov 2006

Future Shorts, Europe’s leading programmer and exhibitor of short films, comes back to Scotland this fortnight with screenings in Edinburgh at the Bongo Club on Saturday 18 November from 6pm and then in Glasgow at The Arches on Sunday 26 November from…

Nun and the Devil, The - DVD review

The Nun and the Devil

13 Nov 2006

HORROR/SOFT CORE PORN The nun movie pretty much became a genre of its own in the 70s, with The Devils, Flavia, Killer Nun and Behind Convent Walls among the ‘nun-sploitation’ movies that got into the habit. The genre’s reputation as a titillating way…

Little Britain Live - DVD review

Little Britain Live

13 Nov 2006

LIVE COMEDY Live versions of TV comedies are nearly always disastrous, and this is no exception. Lucas and Walliams have based their inexplicably successful careers on a handful of half-decent ideas ruined by lazy writing. In fact they blatantly rip…

East meets west for Hogmanay bash

13 Nov 2006

Chart troubling Scottish band The Fratellis are to play both the Glasgow and Edinburgh street parties at this year’s Hogmanay celebrations. The audacious collaboration between the two rival events will see the Glasgow band entertaining their home crowd…

Remote Control

11 Nov 2006

It’s a sign of how life moves on for all of us that Jennifer Saunders’ new sitcom should be about a women’s guild in a sleepy Devon village. Perhaps because it’s so far from the madding it-crowd of Ab Fab, Jen has surrounded herself with reliable old…

Mark Kurlansky

Fight snub

11 Nov 2006

It’s the afternoon of the US midterm elections with writer and journalist Mark Kurlansky having already performed his democratic duty. As the repercussions have shown, the Republican defeat was seen as a massive vote of no-confidence in the…

Gambling

Riverboat of dreams

11 Nov 2006

We’re not so different, Daniel Craig and I. Perhaps I don’t have his chiselled features and, frankly, I look terrible in tight-fitting trunks. But, just like the new Bond in the movie Casino Royale, I’ve been issued with instructions to infiltrate a…

Tool

The prog's bollock

11 Nov 2006

There was a time, a long time ago in what feels like a galaxy far, far away that capes, revolving stages, endless drum solos and high-falutin’ concept albums were not just the norm but were positively encouraged. Then a bunch of snot nosed, gobby kids…

Death Disco

Death becomes her

11 Nov 2006

Celebrating its fourth anniversary with a four room extravaganza and a 4am licence, Death Disco is one of Glasgow’s most exciting clubs, as much for its gaudy promotional material as its consistently challenging and leftfield line-up. Presented as a…

Chicks on Speed/Douglas Gordon

Chicks on Speed

11 Nov 2006

According to Chicks on Speed, the art star recipe is a simple one: ‘stir in a concept, technology as well, whip in some finance and a pinch of cocaine, add in a harmless scandal and you’ve got a media plan’. In spite of all this fashionable…