Hitlist: Films
Army of Crime
Army of Crime
Master Marseilles filmmaker Robert Guédiguian’s epic Gallic wartime fresco about the doomed efforts of the French resistance.
Filmhouse, Edinburgh and GFT, Glasgow from Fri 2 Oct.
The Beaches of Agnes
Joyful autobiographical documentary by revered French New Wave filmmaker Agnes Varda.
GFT, Glasgow from Fri 2 Oct.
White Lightnin’
Insane West Virginia tale inspired by the life of Jesco White, ‘the dancing outlaw’.
Cameo, Edinburgh from Fri 25 Sep.
The Godfather
The Don goes digital. See Also Released.
Selected release from Fri 25 Sep.
Nagisa Oshima season
Still going on, still tons of great films to see.
Visit http://tinyurl.com/mnpwh4 Filmhouse, Edinburgh until Thu 22 Oct.
Fish Tank
Consummately executed British social realism from the director of Red Road.
Out now, selected release.
Adventureland
Comic (John) Hughesian tale of youth and romance.
Out now, general release.
Three Miles North of Molkom
Tales from the hippie forest.
Out now, selected release.
Inglourious Basterds
Tarantino’s Jewish revenge epic.
Out now on general release.
The Big Knife
Robert Aldrich’s vicious Clifford Odets scripted 1955 attack on the Hollywood star system out on DVD for first time.
Out now (Optimum).
The Stranger
Orson Welles deceptively linear 1946 noir on DVD.
Out now (Network).
Three Miles North of Molkom
- 2007
- UK
- 107 min
- 15
- Directed by: Robert Cannan/Corinna Villari-McFarlane
Seriocomic documentary about the Angsbacka No Mind festival in Sweden, an adult playground of shared consciousness. Recommended.
The Godfather
- 1971
- US
- 175 min
- 15
- Directed by: Francis Ford Coppola
- Cast: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Richard S Castellano, Robert Duvall, John Cazale, Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard Conte, Diane Keaton
Coppola's gangster classic in which an ageing Mafioso patriarch (Brando) transfers charge of his empire to his son (Pacino).
Army of Crime
- 2009
- France
- 139 min
- 15
- Directed by: Robert Guédiguian
- Written by: Robert Guédiguian, Serge Le Péron, Gilles Taurand
- Cast: Virginie Ledoyen, Simon Abkarian
This convincingly acted film is an honourable addition to the body of works made about the French Resistance in World War II. Guédiguian here focuses on the story of the Paris-based Manouchian group, who during 1943 launched a series of guerilla…
A Town of Love and Hope
- 1959
- Japan
- 62 min
- 15
- Directed by: Nagisa Oshima
- Cast: Yuki Tominaga, Yoku Mochizuki, Hiroshi Fujikawa
A young boy enters into wayward dealings in a bid to raise funds for his mother's medical bills. Declared unwholesome and leftist, Oshima's first film made him an instant pariah.
The Sun's Burial
- 1960
- Japan
- 90 min
- 15
- Directed by: Nagisa Oshima
- Cast: Masahiko Tsugawa, Kayoko Honoo, Isao Sasaki
A follow-up to 'Cruel Story of Youth', Oshima's film delves deep into the slums where gangs, fanatics and gangsters vie for control of an illegal blood-peddling operation.
Pleasures of the Flesh
- 1965
- Japan
- 94 min
- 15
- Directed by: Nagisa Oshima
- Cast: Katsuo Nakamura, Mariko Kaga, Yumiko Nogawa
Satire centring on a crazed and alienated young college graduate pining for a woman for whom he has committed murder. The naive persona is entrusted with a sack of money by a corrupt government official and winds up squandering it in a hyper-modern…
Inglourious Basterds
- 2009
- US/Germany/France
- 152 min
- 18
- Directed by: Quentin Tarantino
- Written by: Quentin Tarantino
- Cast: Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Michael Fassbender, Eli Roth, Diane Kruger, Daniel Brühl, Til Schweiger, Mélanie Laurent
Pitt's Lieutenant Aldo Raine and his band of Nazi-bushwhacking Jewish-American GIs provide the film's 'Dirty Dozen' element, but their bloody antics are only one of the plot strands of this multiple narrative romp through occupied France. Plenty of…
Fish Tank
- 2009
- UK
- 122 min
- 15
- Directed by: Andrea Arnold
- Written by: Andrea Arnold
- Cast: Katie Jarvis, Kierston Wareing, Michael Fassbender
Living in a small flat on a sprawling Essex council estate with her single mum (Wareing) and younger sister, angry and aggressive 15-year-old Mia (Jarvis) finds herself inexplicably drawn, with disastrous results, to her mother's new boyfriend, the…
Empire of Passion
- 1978
- Japan/France
- 106 min
- 18
- Directed by: Nagisa Oshima
- Written by: Nagisa Oshima, Itoko Nakamura
- Cast: Kazuko Yoshiyuki, Tatsuya Fuji, Takahiro Tamura, Takuzo Kawatani, Akiko Koyama
A companion piece to Oshima's 'In the Realm of the Senses', this tale of murderous guilt-hounded lovers is broadly similar in subject matter, yet different in treatment. An emphasis on indulgence is replaced by an emphasis on repression in this…
Death by Hanging
- 1968
- Japan
- 117 min
- 18
- Directed by: Nagisa Ōshima
- Written by: Nagisa Ōshima, Fukao Michinori, Sasaki Mamoru, Tamura Takeshi
- Cast: Yun Yun-Dō (R Āru), Satō Kei (所長 Shochō), Watanabe Fumio (教育部長 Kyōikubuchō), Toura Rokkō (医務官 Imukan), Adachi Masao (保安課長 Hoankachō), Komatsu Hōsei (検察官 Kensatsukan), Matsuda Masao (検察事務官 Kensatsujimukan), Koyama Akiko
Oshima's bold critique of Japan's persecution of Koreans takes the form of an absurd theatrical comedy. At the summit of its surreal happenings a young Korean student survives the noose and his executioners re-enact his crimes.
Cruel Story of Youth
- 1960
- Japan
- 101 min
- 15
- Directed by: Nagisa Oshima
- Written by: Nagisa Oshima
- Cast: Yusuke Kawazu, Miyuki Kuwano
Familiar territory for Oshima, his second feature centres upon a naive middle-class girl who is used by her boyfriend as bait, in a bid to extort money from middle-aged lechers.
Band of Ninja
- Directed by: Nagisa Oshima
Legendary Japanese filmmaker Oshima's only anime. Instead of choosing to animate Sanpei Shirato's 'Ninja Bugeicho', a Japanese comic strip about 1960s students and radicals, Oshima employs his camera to move over the actual comic book pages.
Adventureland
- 2009
- US
- 106 min
- 15
- Directed by: Greg Mottola
- Written by: Greg Mottola
- Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Ryan Reynolds, Martin Starr, Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig
Part fish-out-of-water comedy, part coming-of-age tale, Mottola's sweet and funny character driven, clearly biographical 'Adventureland', is a film out of its time, both literally and culturally. Unexpectedly forced to find a summer job, graduate James…
The Best of the Rest: Film 
Film Hitlist 
Toy Story 3 and The Illusionist among Edinburgh International Film Festival 2010 highlights 
The Beaches of Agnes
Agnès Varda 
John Hughes - Some kind of wonderful 
Nagisa Oshima retrospective 
Film - Also Released 
Summer scoops top prize at Bafta Scotland awards 
GFF 2012 - Day planner 
Hitlist: Films 
The Godfather preview 
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