Goya's Ghosts
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A R O U N D T O W N 發光的城市 17 TAIPEI TIMES • FRIDAY, JULY 11, 2008 OTHER RELEASES COMPILED BY MARTIN WILLIAMS The Bank Job Jason Statham gets around as a leading man. In this heist flick he’s back on home territory in 1970s London, leading a raid on a bank at the behest of the British secret service, which wants a file from the vault that incriminates an allegedly randy royal. Not all of those involved know, however, as the theft of cash and other items attracts the attention of another criminal who has a very good reason to hunt down the gang. Based on a real incident, and directed by Kiwi/Aussie veteran Roger Donaldson (Dante’s Peak). Gabriel’s Voice Barely released outside Spain, Gabriel’s Voice is about a psychologically stunted, virtually mute young man with consider- able musical ability whose mother died and whose father was imprisoned when he was very young. His preoccupation as an adult is playing with wooden toys, but this changes after he meets a feisty (and attractive, of course) female violinist who uses music to reach him. Then Gabriel’s father complicates the picture after getting out of prison. Fine, emotional fare for young musicians who may be wondering what all the practice is for. Detective Conan: Full Score of Fear This is entry No. 12 in the Case Closed series of animated features from Japan sourced from the popular manga about a young super sleuth transformed into a child by criminals. The shrinkage Now, Cardinal — luckily doesn’t take away Conan Edogawa’s ability to crack cases that no one else can. As with the rack! Gabriel’s Voice, music is key in this episode, but for more sinister reasons: Conan must investigate a series of mysterious deaths at a music academy, a case made even stranger by the presence of torture of dissidents and heretics. interrogators grilling her about flutes at the crime scene. Set in Inquisition- “These images show us the a recent supper (she’s said to era Spain, ‘Goya’s true face of our country,” frets have refused pork) balances Brother Lorenzo (Javier Bardem), satire and terror with precision. Sands’ Chronicle Ghosts’ is a send-up a quasiliberal monk who has (The hard cut from Ines politely More manga-sourced Japanese melodrama of the 21st-century asked Goya (Stellan Skarsgard) asking questioners what she can as Ann, an energetic schoolgirl, moves to paint his portrait, but also do to prove her honesty to a to the country and attracts the attention US war on terror exhorts the Roman Catholic naked, screaming Ines hanging of the local boys, only for her divorced Church to fortify the Inquisition upside-down from a rack was an mother to kill herself, eventually forcing and purify the country. early candidate for transition of the unhappy girl back to Tokyo with her BY MATT ZOLLER SEITZ Forman and his co-writer, that year, 2006.) NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE, NEW YORK father. The threads of romance and guilt culminate in what the Japan Jean-Claude Carriere (once a Equally bracing is a sequence Times calls a radical break from the standard structure of such dramas: frequent collaborator with Luis in which Lorenzo, after forcing It frequently jumps to the suffering of the adult Ann who can’t deal with oya’s Ghosts, the feature Bunuel), depict Goya as an artist himself on Ines in prison, has her trauma. Japanese title: Suna Dokei. from director Milos trying to balance the need to make dinner with her family and lamely G Forman (Amadeus, Man a living against the obligation to tries to reassure them that if Ines on the Moon), is an unwieldy document atrocities committed in truly loved God, no amount of Five Across the Eyes mix of political satire and lavish the name of God and war. (When pain would make her sign a false Taiwanese cinema patrons are period soap opera. Set in 18th- Napoleon invades Spain in the confession. Ines’ family disproves The Inquisition is no laughing matter, except in Goya’s Ghost that is. PHOTOS COURTESY OF CINEPLEX frequently fed straight-to-DVD junk from century Spain, and covering film’s second half, Goya again Lorenzo’s claim with a panache the US, but occasionally experimental the last phase of the Inquisition becomes a witness to history.) that Charles Bronson would have Bardem’s portrayal of the newly turn as the dimwit thug King and low budget films of merit slip and Napoleon’s occupation, it But Goya’s presence in appreciated. enlightened Lorenzo — who tries to Carlos IV is an inferior rehash of through as well. Five Across the Eyes resembles the Oscar-baiting epics the film recedes after he asks By recreating Inquisition help Ines find the daughter they had Jeffrey Jones’s peerless work as is a no-budget horror flick that played a that Miramax used to release: Brother Lorenzo to investigate brutality, Goya’s Ghosts aims to together when she was a captive — Emperor Joseph II in Amadeus. few specialist festivals before going to white elephants like Chocolat the disappearance of one of his denounce the West’s bludgeoning is filled with fine brush strokes that And the film’s stumblebum rental stateside. Even so, it picked up a few encouraging reviews, and The Cider House Rules models, Ines, (Natalie Portman, response to terrorism. But its make the character compelling, attempts to transform the and may impress fans of the shakycam school of filmmaking. Five that mixed art-house swagger, likable but bland), the daughter rhetorical tactics are jejune; if not quite comprehensible. But opportunistic hypocrite-rapist young women on the way home one night from a football game in Hollywood glitz and shout-outs to of a rich merchant. its comparison of 21st-century the sight of Portman playing both Lorenzo into yet another of the Tennessee get lost in countryside known as “The Eyes” before being liberal common wisdom. Ines is being held incom- America and Inquisition-era Spain Ines and her daughter, Alicia — a director’s martyred rebel heroes set upon by one thoroughly nasty individual. It’s the kind of film The tale begins with Spanish municado for the crime of doesn’t track; and its second half grimy prostitute — is alternately — each noble gesture backed by that a young, passionate Sam Raimi might have made before getting church elders condemning having a Jewish ancestor. The abandons satire for half-baked distracting and laughable. an “Applaud now!” score — is bogged down in the overblown Spider-Man trilogy. Starts tomorrow. etchings by Goya that depict the sequence depicting church historical melodrama. Randy Quaid’s supporting auteurism run amok. City cinema weekend box office takings GOYA’S GHOSTS (July 5 and July 6) Source: Group Power Entertainment Corp DIRECTED BY: MILOS FORMAN STARRING: JAVIER BARDEM (BROTHER LORENZO), NATALIE PORTMAN (INES/ALICIA), STELLAN SKARSGARD (GOYA), RANDY QUAID (KING CARLOS), MICHAEL LONSDALE (GRAND INQUISITOR), JOSE LUIS GOMEZ (BILBATUA), MABEL RIVERA (MARIA ISABEL BILBATUA) RUNNING TIME: 113 MINUTES TAIWAN RELEASE: TODAY Hancock Kung Fu Panda Get Smart Sex and the City Missing (全民超人) (功夫熊貓) (特務行不行) (慾望城市) (謎屍) NT$19,477,737 NT$8,127,635 NT$2,350,194 NT$2,291,354 NT$1,255,740 he central Asian republic of works which reflect a lack of authorization before making In-I at the National Theatre, artist Anish Kapoor and music Kazakhstan plans to fight responsibility,” the foreign the film,” said Sadat’s daughter, a retrospective of her films by composer Philip Sheppard, T back against the damage minister said. Roqeya. “Such slander will — from The English Patient to who is writing and producing the done to its reputation by the box- The Iranian film, entitled receive a strong response.” Chocolat to Hidden — at the BFI music for the Olympic handover office smash Borat by holding an Assassination of a Pharaoh, says Diplomatic ties between Egypt (British Film Institute), and an ceremony in Beijing. international film festival. Sadat was killed for signing the and Iran were severed in 1980, a accompanying exhibition of her What the work is and what The capital Astana will host 1978 Camp David Accords that led year after the Islamic revolution, paintings and poems. audiences will see is still some- the Eurasia film festival from to a 1979 peace treaty with Israel, in protest at Egypt’s recognition of In-I is a collaboration with thing of a mystery and one that Sept. 7 to Sept. 13. the first by an Arab country. Israel, its hosting of the deposed choreographer Akram Khan the four artists were yesterday Hollywood star Jack Nicholson On Sunday, a Cairo daily shah and its support for Iraq during which also features sets by keen to continue. It is not just a has agreed to attend, festival reported that Sadat’s family was its 1980 to 1988 war with Iran. piece of dance, or just a piece of director Gulnara Sarsenowa said, considering legal action against Relations have recently theatre, it is both of those and while Sean Penn, John Malkovich the Iranian producers of the warmed, with both countries sig- more, they said. and Tommy Lee Jones have also documentary which has already naling a willingness to restore ties. Binoche said they began with been invited. been shown on Iranian television. Everybody knows Juliette the question what is love, but Films from Kazakhstan and Kazakhstan is hoping to cash in on its most Al-Masry al-Youm said then Binoche the actor. Some may even said they may not be giving any the other central Asian republics famous would-be journalist, Borat.