The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, with live score by Minima

Expressionist horror flick with live soundtrack performance

‘It’s a truly, truly amazing film,’ is the simple reason given by guitarist Alex Hogg as to why his band Minima chose to create a live score for Robert Wiene’s classic 1919 German expressionist silent horror film The Cabinet of Dr Caligari. ‘Even more…

Efterklang set for Glasgow show and screening of film An Island

Danish band screen Vincent Moon documentary on UK tour

Efterklang are back, as you’ve never seen them before. Although the delicate and atmospheric soundscapes of the Danish quartet will be familiar to Glasgow’s live concert-goers, this latest show will be enhanced by a pre-gig screening of An Island, their…

The Hot 100 2010 - Mark Millar, Kevin Bridges and Alasdair Gray take top 3 spots

Our annual chart of the people from Scotland being interesting, successful and creative

The Hot 100 is a list of Scots who’ve made a sizeable creative splash in 2010. It includes musicians, artists, writers, actors, fashion designers, technological innovators, shop owners, festival directors, record label heads and one mad cyclist.

Zombie Zombie perform the music of John Carpenter

Forming part of the Glasgow Film Festival’s Music and Film strand, the influence of one of American cinema’s most widely-respected cult auteurs hung over this event, so we shouldn’t be too picky that the band scrapped the idea of performing in front of…

Cult Fiction Movies shop opens in Edinburgh

To a certain type of movie fan, Newington’s newly-opened Cult Fiction Movies is a magical store where a litany of grindhouse double features, BFI Classics and films from America’s Criterion Collection which remain currently unavailable on this side of…

EIFF 2009 - All Tomorrow’s Parties

For those who count themselves among its regular crowd, the feeling is that once you’ve been to All Tomorrow’s Parties you can’t go back to just any old festival. Currently held in a Butlin’s holiday camp at Minehead, Somerset, the tri-annual weekend…

The Hot 100 2008

It’s been a helluva year. 2008 has been a time of significant global change, socially, politically and culturally, with Scotland no exception. So here, for your delectation, is The List’s pick of the 100 people, places and things that rocked our world…

Interstate 60

ROAD MOVIE (15) 111min (Scanbox DVD retail) Subtitled ‘Episodes of the Road’, this plays more like an edited version of a primetime US television comedy aimed at teenagers. Written and directed by Bob Gale, comic book writer and regular Robert…

The Nines

PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER (15) 99mins (Optimum DVD retail/rental) For his varied pedigree alone, screenwriter John August’s debut feature is a worthy curiosity. Having written Doug Liman’s Go, both Charlie’s Angels instalments and three films by Tim…

Howard the Duck

DVD (PG) 111min (Metrodome) Howard the Duck originally appeared in an issue of a 1973 Marvel comic entitled Adventure Into Fear, and perhaps his greatest moment came when thousands of American citizens actually voted for him in the 1976 US…

Les Visiteurs - DVD review

Comedy

As the film which famously out-grossed Jurassic Park in France on its homeland release in 1993, the original Les Visiteurs holds a special place in the hearts of Francophile cinemagoers. It’s really just a reasonably fun slapstick comedy of the sort…

The Duel Project (Aragami and 2LDK)

DOUBLE FEATURE (18) 145min (Tartan Asia Extreme DVD rental/retail) The result of a challenge given to two promising young Japanese directors by Shinya Kawai, the producer of Ring, this taut double feature is an exercise in disciplined filmmaking.

Chase A Crooked Shadow

THRILLER (U) 84min (Optimum DVD retail) Directed by Michael Anderson, a man whose eclectic CV incorporates The Dam Busters and Logan’s Run, this low-key, high-concept thriller works through its original central premise with some solid character…

Fear Is The Key

THRILLER 15 100min (Optimum DVD retail) A rarely-seen cult classic from 1972, this Alistair MacLean adaptation comes loaded with points of interest. Directed by Michael Tuchner (Villain, the big-screen version of The Likely Lads), soundtracked with…

Elizabeth - Special Edition DVD review

(15) 118min

Given the recent, and rather belated, cinematic release of a sequel to Elizabeth: The Golden Age, a renewed interest in 1998’s original historical drama based on the life of Queen Elizabeth I was inevitable. It may not have started the public’s liking…

Breaking News - DVD review

(15) 90min

Despite its rather extensive, one-note commentary on the media, this 2004 Hong Kong-set thriller from director Johnnie Fulltime Killer To doesn’t forget its main purpose – to thrill. When resourceful, ruthless heist planner Yuen (Richie Jen) and his…

The Bow

(15) 89mins (Tartan/DVD retail)

Best known in Western audiences for Bad Guy, 3-Iron and Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring, enfant terrible Korean director Kim Ki-duk has some serious twisted form in Asian cinema. This one, like most of the others, comes recommended. The…

The Red Shoes

HORROR (15) 103mins (Tartan Asia Extreme) Based loosely on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, and the Powell and Pressburger film of the same name, this Korean psychological horror flick’s biggest inspiration is perhaps the likes of The…

The City of Violence

(18) 90min (Premier Asia DVD retail/rental)

Deeply indebted to a host of Western classics, this dazzling flick by Korean director Ryoo Seung-wan smoothly blends all of its influences into a fast-paced, gorgeous-looking whole. With shades of Get Carter, the hard-bitten (and just plain hard…

Dragon Tiger Gate

DVD

MARTIAL ARTS DRAGON TIGER GATE (15) 86mins (Showbox DVD retail/rental) Based on the popular Manga Oriental Hero and directed by veteran Hong Kong action director Wilson Yip alongside Hong Kong actor and stunt choreographer Donnie Yen…

DVD - Aaltra

BLACK COMEDY Gustave de Kervern and Benoit Delépine - the writers, directors and stars of this odd but strangely heart-warming Belgian road movie - are comedians in their home country, and quite obviously blessed with the blackest and most…

Golgo 13: The Professional

DVD A kind of nascent animé James Bond, the re-release of this 1983 action film was based on the long-running Manga comic of the same name. When taciturn, Asian super-assassin Golgo 13 is hired to bump off a Mafia boss, the job leads him up an alley…