Seminal Souls - Antonioni and Bergman in the 21st century

A look at the significance of Michelangelo Antonioni and Ingmar Bergman

Dying within twenty four hours of each other, the demise of two great filmmakers in 2007 was clearly a loss, but though Ingmar Bergman came out of retirement to make Saraband in 2002, and Antonioni made one feature, Beyond the Clouds (and a later short…

Bombay Beach

Half real, half dream-like American documentary from director Alma Har'el

(Cert tbc) 80min There was a time when documentary at least generally gave the impression of being a medium distinct from fiction, where various movements (Direct Cinema, cinema verité) put their faith in the relative objectivity of the image, as…

The music and film collaborations of Tindersticks and Claire Denis

The creative partnership between the French director and the UK band

Just as there are actors directors consistently work with, and where the French have a term called the acteur/actrice fétiche to define this affiliation, equally there are plenty filmmakers whose relationship with their composers seem equally…

Cutter's Way - Re-release of 1981 film starring Jeff Bridges

Study in decorum and ethos is a lost classic and 70s swan song

In an early scene in 1981’s Cutter’s Way, the bronzed Richard Bone (Jeff Bridges) gets out of bed and we see the ripple of a six-pack as his stomach hits the light. Shortly afterwards we see his old friend, Alex Cutter (John Heard), a Vietnam veteran…

Film Socialisme

Jean-Luc Godard tells story of Europe in decline

(PG) 101min Jean-Luc Godard’s Film Socialisme is about as difficult a film as you’ll see this or any other year, but if some will conclude the film is unwatchable, it might be useful to say why that is so, why it may even be partly intentional on…

The Tree

Psychological drama starring Charlotte Gainsbourg is a fine study of loss

(12A) 100min It seems trees are the new black: Terrence Malick wins the Palme d’Or with The Tree of Life, Win Win shows the central character’s life on track as he finally takes down the tree outside his garden, and La Quattro Volte gives a tree a…

Flesh Of The Orchid (La Chair De L’Orchidee)

(18) 120min (Bluebell) Charlotte Rampling rarely takes an easy role and this 1975 adaptation of a James Hadley Chase novel is no exception. She is Claire, a runaway heiress and it’s the asylum she is running away from. Taking up with big and bulky…

Tropic of Cancer

(18) 87min (Olive Films) Available on DVD for the first time, this is the 1970 adaptation of Henry Miller’s novel set at the end of the 1960s rather than the 1930s when the book was originally published. It nevertheless captures the irreverence of…

The Viva Cuba Collection

(12) 680min (Network) Back in the 1960s there was mighty Cuban filmmaking wave. Filmmakers Tomás Guttiérez Alea and Humberto Solás became internationally significant filmmakers whilst reflecting the social values espoused by Castro’s government.

Room In Rome (Habitacion En Roma)

Julio Medem continues exploration of sexuality, but delivers emptiest film yet

(18) 103min (Optimum) Two women, one gay, Alba (Elena Anaya), the other the heterosexual Natasha (Natasha Yarovenko) have an overnight fling in a Rome hotel room, talk about their pasts and prepare for their future. Director Julio Medem continues…

Lovely Rita

Jessica Hausner’s 2001 account of small town family life

(15) 80min (Artificial Eye) Obviously less polished than her later work (Hotel, Lourdes), Jessica Hausner’s 2001 account of a teenager’s stultifying small town family life in Austria is easily reflected in the flat images, in the overly even and…

The Hunter

(15) 92min After making a documentary about wild and crazy man of US cinema Abel Ferrara in 2003, Iranian filmmaker Rafi Pitts went on to make the spare and contained drama It’s Winter, a fable-like account of someone who goes off to find work and…

Hotel

Austrian drama brings out cold emptiness of a spiritless world

(15) 74 min (Artificial Eye) Jessica Hausner shows the same eerie sense of place as she would show in her recent Lourdes, a gaze that makes simple details stand out in all their bland terror. As Irene (Franziska Weisz) takes a job as a desk clerk in…

An exploration of Hong Sang-soo's films ahead of Edinburgh Filmhouse season

Tony McKibbin examines the relationship dynamic in Korean filmmaker's celebrated films

Hong Sangsoo films often focus on characters so in crisis that they cannot help but generate crises in the very situations they find themselves in. They are not only crisis-ridden; they create a mise-en-scene of misery out of their own inability to…

Take One Action film festival showcases best in political cinema

Budrus, Nero’s Guests and Sweet Crude among highlights of 2010

Take One Action! should have enough films in their 2010 programme to get the most politically slothful citizen socially activated. The film Budrus focuses on small actions leading to big results, with villagers in the little titular town taking things…

Take One Action Film Festival 2010

Sweet Crude, Climate Refugees and Budrus among highlights

Now in its third year, the Take One Action! Film Festival offers a rare opportunity to watch activist documentaries and politically-orientated films at the cinema. This excellent festival concentrates on the agenda-setting and eco-documentary sub-genres…

Julia Bacha's Budrus screens at Take One Action Film Festival

Middle East documentary

Name Julia Bacha Born Rio de Janeiro, 1980. Background Bacha studied Middle Eastern history and politics at Columbia University. She worked as co-writer and editor on the 2004 multi award-winning documentary about Al Jazeera, Control Room…

Enter The Void

(18) 142min Argentine/French filmmaker Gaspar Noé (I Stand Alone, Irreversible) has proven both his amazing vision and his impoverished sensibility with his past forays into feature filmmaking. His latest is a metaphysical movie offered from the…

The Faber Book of New South American Cinema - Demetrios Matheou

“This book is very much concerned with personal filmmaking”, Demetrios Matheou insists in the introduction to New South American Cinema, a book of interviews with various filmmakers from the region. But South American film seems as close to the Korean…

The 7th Dimension

(15) 90min (Kaleidoscope) ‘The whole universe in one room,’ a character pronounces in Brad Watson’s low budget sci-fi. Clearly envisaged as the kind of cerebral sci-fi thriller that makes up for its lack of economic clout with ingenuity of thought…

The Mother of Invention

(12) 98min (Kaleidoscope) Despite an amusing cameo by Mark Boone Jr as protagonist Vincent’s dishevelled dad and a couple of wryly amusing moments from Kevin Corrigan playing Vincent’s relatively wise, melancholic buddy, this is a mockumentary…

Pornography: A Thriller

One porn actor investigates the disappearance of another

What happened to famous gay porn star Mark Anton? Did he end up in a snuff film? Another porn actor intent on turning movie director investigates. David Kittredge’s film may sell itself as Cronenberg meets Lynch, but the comparisons do him no…

The Dinner Party

Australian psychological drama by Scott Murden

(15) 88min (Kaleidoscope) Opening with the claim that it was inspired by real events, this Australian psychological drama by Scott Murden manages to drain the plausibility out of its subject by flatly delivered, moralising dialogue, clumsy character…

In The Pit

Documentary explores lives of Mexico City labourers

(E) 84min (Network) Exploring the thoughts, feelings and labour activity of workers in Mexico City who are employed in building a new second-deck motorway around the capital, Juan Carlos Rulfo’s film manages to give individuality to a handful of…

The Island

Well-told Russian fable of spirituality and guilt

(PG) 150min (Artificial Eye) The spirit of Andrei Tarkovsky hovers over Russian cinema maybe more than any other director, perhaps quite aptly for one so given to the spiritual himself. The Island opens with a horrible moment of human weakness.