Issue 591

The Golden Compass - Heart of Darkness

29 Nov 2007

Everyone wanted Nicole Kidman to play Mrs Coulter. From the makers of the blockbuster film adaptation of The Golden Compass through the millions of fans of Philip Pullman’s bestselling fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials to the author of the novels…

M.I.A. interview

29 Nov 2007

M.I.A. – Maya Arulpragasam to her friends – is a hard woman to pin down. After a week spent scheduling and rescheduling an interview, I finally caught up with her in Minneapolis, a brief pause before she went on to soundcheck for her gig that night.

Burnsong - Songhouse

29 Nov 2007

When it comes to songwriting, only the brave or the stupid would be prepared to take him on. In just a couple of decades Robert Burns wrote over 360 songs that cover the whole gamut of human emotion from love and lust to loss and longing. Weighty issues…

Annuals

29 Nov 2007

Annuals were once the sole preserve of the young. Boys had their Beano and girls got their Mandy. Scots hooted at the charmingly formulaic plotlines of The Broons, while the English, one imagines, marvelled at the asinine ‘adventures’ of Rupert the Bear…

Bryan Lee O’Malley - Scott Pilgrim Gets it Together

29 Nov 2007

MANGA ROM-COM Scott Pilgrim Gets it Together (Oni Press) Scott Pilgrim is a 23-year-old slacker with no money, no job and no hope of getting either. Luckily, in the tradition of classic gen X wastrels he is totally irresistible, which is why the…

One Minute Wonder - Minute Masters

29 Nov 2007

One year ago The List and media production company Metro Ecosse launched our first ever short film competition. One Minute Wonder was an entry-level screenwriting competition open to anyone aged over 16 who lives in Scotland. It was also the first…

Hitman - Blood money

29 Nov 2007

Hitman is the latest in a long line of videogames to make the jump from console to big screen. Despite the flops (think Super Mario Brothers and Street Fighter) studios just don’t seem able to keep their hands off videogame properties, with the Resident…

Quentin Blake

29 Nov 2007

ILLUSTRATION Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow, until Tue 1 Jan When you take an illustration away from the text it was created for, the lone image can quickly become a very dire prospect or can leave the viewer scratching their head…

Children’s Classic Concerts

29 Nov 2007

CLASSICAL CONCERT Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Sat 1 Dec; Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Sun 16 Dec He’s more at home behind the shop counter in Still Game, but this Christmas Sanjeev Kohli is branching out. Instead of hanging out with old boys Jack and…

Steve Martin - Born Standing Up

29 Nov 2007

MEMOIR Born Standing Up (Simon & Schuster) Great comedy and psychological problems normally go together like Bill Hicks and nicotine. Nice guy Steve Martin’s ‘funny but weird’ schtick means he’s pulled off the near impossible by delivering…

The Golden Compass

29 Nov 2007

FANTASY/ADAPTATION (12A) 105min JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis and JK Rowling may have all the initials and most of the sales but fair-minded fantasy fans know deep down that Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy is the genre’s true shining light.

The Speakeasy

29 Nov 2007

When The List visited Cabaret Voltaire there were two-and-a-half weeks to go until the opening night of the Speakeasy – the Cab’s revolutionary new second floor – and refurbishment work was building to a frantic pace. As tools were downed for the day…

Pecha Kucha

29 Nov 2007

PowerPoint presentations are really not sexy. Ask anyone who’s ever sat through a wobbly series of badly-punned headlines, dodgy clip art and incomprehensible animated pie charts meant to ‘jazz up’ a sales report or sector growth analysis... see, I’ve…

The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford

29 Nov 2007

WESTERN (15) 159min Arch confederate and violent outlaw Jesse James was and is a gift for dramatists. With numerous appearances in literature, film, theatre and music, American folklore’s Robin Hood seems as unstill in his grave now as he was when…

Baggage

29 Nov 2007

RADIO Radio 4, Wed 5 Dec, 11.30am With the Grumpy Old Women back doing their grumpy old thing on the nation’s stages, it’s good to hear of another female comic trio who aren’t just wielding rolling pins and frying pans while moaning about the…

Andrew Dominik - Contrary cowboy

29 Nov 2007

It’s taken New Zealand-born, Australia-bred filmmaker Andrew Dominik (pictured) seven years to make the follow-up to his much-praised debut, Chopper. Like that film, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is a wildly unconventional…

St Andrew’s Day

29 Nov 2007

Around this time of year, a flurry of twee tartan tat begins to take over our streets and schools. Gym halls fill up with tinny, taped ceilidh tunes, canteens are plagued with watery tatties and sloppy neeps, and supermarkets surrender to dusty displays…

Pantos - Pantomonium

29 Nov 2007

Pantomime is the theatrical version of the Woolworth’s pick and mix counter: sickly sweet, and full of unnatural additives. But once you’ve had your first bite you can’t stop until you feel sick. So, as the panto season begins for another year, The…

Ivy First Birthday Weekender

29 Nov 2007

ELECTRONICA The Ivy, Glasgow, Fri 30 Nov–Sun 2 Dec Over the last 12 months the Ivy has been busy building itself a reputation as one of the best pubs in Glasgow to catch great music. To celebrate its first birthday, the venue is hosting a special…

Q-Burns

29 Nov 2007

HOUSE Vacuum, Studio Warehouse, Glasgow, Fri 30 Nov The man they call Q-Burns Abstract Message (aka Q-BAM aka Michael Donaldson) is no stranger to Glasgow’s Studio Warehouse. This is the fourth time he’s bringing his unique brand of infectiously…

Girls Aloud - Tangled Up

29 Nov 2007

POP Tangled Up (Universal) First things first – there is no such thing as a guilty pleasure. There is just good music and bad music, whether it be camp pop, pompous rock, electro-crunk, punk funk or the bizarre style now simply known as Rhydian.

St Nicholas

29 Nov 2007

ONE MAN SHOW Eastgate Theatre and Arts Centre, Peebles, Thu 13 Dec, then touring. Reviewed at Citizens’ Theatre, Glasgow) Critics may well shift awkwardly in their seats during this piece, and it’s nothing to do with the hard benches in the Citz…

Winterfest Glasgow

29 Nov 2007

2007 is the first year that Glasgow has consolidated all of its wintry activities under one festive umbrella, the secularly-named Winterfest Glasgow. The main action happens at either end of Queen Street, with Glasgow on Ice (pictured) taking over the…

You Kill Me

29 Nov 2007

COMEDY/THRILLER (15) 92min John The Last Seduction Dahl’s latest film is a work of modest ambition that manages to hit just the right notes. The gleefully morbid script, by screenwriting team Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely (The Life and…

Scottish Ballet’s Sleeping Beauty

29 Nov 2007

CHRISTMAS BALLET Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Tue 11–Sat 29 Dec Since his arrival at Scottish Ballet, Ashley Page has been like a Christmas cracker – when his festive shows open, you never know what you’ll find inside. Both The Nutcracker and Cinderella…

White Christmas

29 Nov 2007

MUSICAL Edinburgh Playhouse, until Sat 8 Dec Starring in a soap opera can leave you typecast forever. So it’s testament to Craig McLachlan’s ability that in White Christmas he’s most definitely Bob Wallace, ex-soldier turned performer – and not…

Trans-Siberian railway

29 Nov 2007

The Trans-Siberian railway is the sort of travel experience that divides people. The idea of multiple nights on a train, sharing a cabin with strangers, no access to showers, dependent on the vagaries of the buffet car for sustenance is many people’s…

Profile - Laurent Garnier

29 Nov 2007

Name Laurent Garnier Who? Techno DJ and producer Laurent Garnier is one of France’s most successful musical exports. Beginning as a Madchester house DJ he has gone on to rise to the giddy heights of a hugely in-demand globe-trotter, lugging his…

A Sheep Called Skye

29 Nov 2007

CHILDREN’S THEATRE Duns Volunteer Hall, Langtongate, Sat 1 Dec, then touring If the question of identity plagues people throughout their adult life, it might seem a good idea to get a start on resolving the problem early on. This seems the central…

Profile - The Wee Man

29 Nov 2007

Who’s he then? Creation of Neil Bratchpiece, smallest comedy member of the not very tall Bratchpiece Family, The Wee Man is a pure wee basturt Burberry fiend whose stage demeanour ranges wildly from quite threatening to really very threatening…

Glasgow grins and bares it

29 Nov 2007

Celebrate your cellulite this Christmas! Professional ego-booster Gok Wan is in town for the live How To Look Good Naked roadshow. Two audience members will get the full-on nudie glow, and a host of hairstylists and make-up artists will be doling out…

Two Fat Ladies at the Buttery - review

29 Nov 2007

When you see the word ‘at’ (or the symbol ‘@’) in a restaurant name there’s always a bit of a suspicion that it’s something of a forced marriage. Like a double A-side or joint top billing it’s a rather clunky effort to tempt the public into believing…

Lou Hickey

Pop

29 Nov 2007

‘I was brought up watching Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin movies, and when I was a little girl I wanted to be just like Marilyn Monroe singing ‘Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend’. Lou Hickey is a bit of an anachronism – a classically-trained…

Burlescapades

29 Nov 2007

It’s almost Christmas so why not treat yourself to a night of feathers, tassels, striptease and slapstick at this burlesque festive special. Expect vintage sounds and a dose of saucy cabaret from Amber Topaz, Red Sarah, Leyla Rose (pictured) and…

I Don't Want to Sleep Alone - interview with Tsai Ming-liang

29 Nov 2007

Tsai Ming-liang is one of the great contemporary filmmakers. Tony McKibbin meets him. Like Béla Tarr, Abbas Kiarostami, Wong Kar-wai, Lars Von Trier and Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Asian filmmaker Tsai Ming-liang has contributed in proving that if the great…

Remote Control

29 Nov 2007

They say that getting hitched is one of the most stressful events in anyone’s life. But what if you are sharing your big day with a woman you barely love while another 2000 weddings are going on in the same city? Probably happens in most major…

News Extra

29 Nov 2007

Edinburgh’s Hogmanay has launched in suitable style with the final big name acts being added to the bill. King Creosote appear on the Waverley Stage, while Scotland’s Red Hot Chilli Pipers will join forces with British Asian fusion band, Kismet and Go…

Roman Signer - Action man

29 Nov 2007

Since the 1970s Swiss artist Roman Signer has been making eccentric kinetic art, enlivening both himself and found objects with elemental forces such as wind, fire, water or explosives. At first glance, Signer’s clowning around seems to lack substance…

Benbecula Records - Our friends electric

29 Nov 2007

The Scottish electronica scene is probably healthier now than it’s ever been, and that’s down in no small part to Benbecula Records. Formed eight years ago by artists Beluga and Phase 6, and currently run on a day-to-day basis by general manager Steven…

Singles & Downloads

29 Nov 2007

As it’s all a bit gloomy outside at the moment, here’s a mellow selection of singles to wrap your freezing fingers round. Starting off the collection is the latest offering from Kate Walsh ‘Tonight’ (Mercury - 3 stars), with vocals so warm and lovely…

Interview - Carol Rhodes

29 Nov 2007

Carol Rhodes, known for her landscapes painted from a vertiginous aerial perspective, talks to Alexander Kennedy about her new exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art Alexander Kennedy Can you share some of the main themes and…

Profile - Rigoberto Castaneda

29 Nov 2007

Name Rigoberto Castaneda Born 27 February 1973, Mexico City Background Castaneda was working as a runner in a production house in Mexico City when he was given a book about Alfred Hitchcock and was inspired to take a course in filmmaking. Having…

Monika Sosnowska: Display

29 Nov 2007

INSTALLATION / SCULPTURE Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sat 8 Dec Stripping architecture of its purpose and concentrating purely on the aesthetic possibilities of public space, the work of Monika Sosnowska plays games with the formalities of…

Writer’s Guild awards - Talent show

29 Nov 2007

On Sunday 18 November the 2007 Writer’s Guild Awards ceremony took place at BAFTA in London. The List sponsored the first ever Best Screenplay Award for a British film shown at the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2007. After a few words of support…

Also Released - Film

29 Nov 2007

Earth (U) 90min ••• Feature-length version of the BBC Planet Earth documentary series from the team who brought you 2003’s Deep Blue. Cineworld Renfrew Street, Glasgow from Fri 30 Nov. All About Eve (U) 138min •••• Digital re-release of Joseph L…

Silent Light (Stellet Licht)

29 Nov 2007

DRAMA (15) 182min To mention Carlos Reygadas’ winsome Silent Light in the same breath as key directors Carl Theodor Dreyer, Andrei Tarkovsky, Robert Bresson, and the more recent Bruno Dumont is not hyperbole. The six-minute opening shot of a…

The Killing Of John Lennon

29 Nov 2007

By his own admission Mark David Chapman was nobody until he killed the biggest somebody on earth. That somebody was ex-Beatle John Lennon who he shot on 8 December 1980 outside the Dakota Buildings in New York. Despite being completed over 18 months…

Coming Up

29 Nov 2007

DRAMA SEASON Channel 4, various dates and times Obviously sick and tired of BBC3 taking most of the credit for giving new writers a real shot at small screen glory, Channel 4 have taken up the cudgel big style with documentary strand First Cut and…

World AIDS Day

29 Nov 2007

AWARENESS-RAISING Various events, Sat 1 Dec Now in its 20th year, World AIDS Day is dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic and related issues. The event, which takes place annually on 1 December, is the culmination of a year-round…

Nuts & Seeds Presents…

29 Nov 2007

‘I like things to be inclusive and fun, I don’t enjoy elitism, and I think when the main concern is money it ruins everything,’ says Giles Bailey of independent promoters Nuts & Seeds. Their DIY ethos dictates that door prices are kept low, there are no…