No.69 MAR/APR ’17 £6 Vk.Com/Stopthepress FRESH MAGAZINES EVERYDAY

No.69 MAR/APR ’17 £6 vk.com/stopthepress FRESH MAGAZINES EVERYDAY

04 LEAD REVIEW

DIRECTED BY

STARRING

RELEASED

f you type the words ‘golden hour-and-a-half’ into your favourite movies themselves and their curative, restorative powers. They can drag internet search engine, the results yielded will direct you to us through the mill emotionally, right to the cusp of cardiac meltdown, nostalgic ’90s digital radio stations, betting websites, and a but there’s always safety and security glimmering in the middle distance. swimming pool in Southport called Splash World. It’s a term It’s no coincidence that Free Fire runs for exactly 90 minutes. And you’d dropped in Ben Wheatley’s Free Fire, a film about how human be hard pressed not to chalk up the time spent watching this delectably beings will sacrifice their own lives before either being proven wrong, violent criminal caper movie as anything but golden. or apologising. Sharlto Copley’s jabbering South African yuppie capo, Vern, is worried that he’s losing too much blood, having been clipped by Ben Wheatley is a rare bird in UK film. He’s a director making the films bullets at various points on his body. Armie Hammer’s Ord, a turtleneck he wants to make, the way he wants to make them. He keeps a toe in sporting, perma-baked gangland facilitator, assures his charge that the arthouse but with an eye on the mainstream. He has no discernible everything will be fine. The rule of the Golden Hour-and-a-half means style, adapting as the material demands. Collecting all his films together, that an ample window remains for him to seek medical attention. from 2009’s dazzling single-set debut, Down Terrace, to date, he’s proven himself as a filmmaker who can put his hand to anything that comes But there is no Golden Hour-and-a-half. Ord is inventing it to put a muzzle down the chute. A theme that runs through his films is the dissolution of on Vern, or perhaps he is adapting the Golden Hour which, according confidence. He chips away at the certainties of life, making simple things to the very same search mentioned above, is an actual thing that exists. complex. His cinema is an obstructive act. He strips away the possibilities Used here, it isn’t a hollow reference to medicine, but a brief nod to for happiness like so much mildewed woodchip wallpaper.

08 LEAD REVIEW

This new one is like a cracked circus mirror reflection of Wheatley’s previous, High-Rise. Where that film is sprawling and surreal, anarchic and misanthropic, this one is strict and structured, immaculately “THE BALLETIC CLICHÉ planned down to the frame and sporting a dopey grin throughout. High-Rise jolts off in random tangents and rejects conventional OF THE GUNFIGHT IS MUTED closure (or, to be frank, conventional anything), whereas Free Fire is a celebration of how images connect together. They make for a nice IN FAVOUR OF EMPHASISING double feature – both about mixed groups of people who are stuck in a building and, despite their desires to do so, just can’t seem to get up ITS ABSURD SQUALOR. and leave. You could see them both as descendents of Luis Buñuel’s 1962 film, The Exterminating Angel, itself about bourgeois party guests THE ACTION MAN STAPLE psychologically imprisoned in a dining room. Something is drawing them back. It could be pride. It could be fear. Who knows? OF TAKING NUMEROUS BODY SHOTS AND STILL It’s an invigorating work, mainly because Wheatley never once draws attention to his own exemplary craftsmanship. It’s perhaps his least BEING ABLE TO SPRINT, stylised film, but also his most fun. Co-written with regular partner in crime and ellusive cine-spectre, Amy Jump, the film trades in ROLL AND ENGAGE IN a salty Boston vernacular and a mean line in mic-drop putdowns. It centres on a bungled arms deal in a dilapidated, dockside factory. PHYSICAL COMBAT, IS AN On Team A is what appears to be two, double-hard IRA gun runners: - Chris (Cillian Murphy) and Frank (Michael Smiley). Cutting the fam ABSOLUTE NO NO.” in for some action, Frank foolishly invites along his gangly junkie nephew, Stevo (Sam Riley), for some grunt work. Team B, meanwhile, is comprised of Vern (“Vern and learn, baby!”), his nervy disco hulk wingman, Martin (Babou Ceesay), and ready-to-please underling

010 LEAD REVIEW Harry (Jack Reynor). Armie Hammer’s Ord is present on diplomatic in favour of emphasising its absurd squalor. The action man staple duties, and so is Brie Larson’s Justine, who may or may not hold all of taking numerous body shots and still being able to sprint, roll and the cards despite appearing as the innocent bystander at this macho engage in physical combat, is an absolute no-no. These characters gun/dick measuring contest. sustain injuries which duly decimate their abilities. Not that the film would resort to anything as cheap, but this is a nail-biting chess game It would be very easy to dismiss the film as a feature-length shoot out, where there are only pawns in play. but the devil is very much in the detail. Vern is fixated with the loot, Chris and Frank need those guns. Just as everything is set for sign-off, Free Fire also takes on meaning through its refusal to preach, or shots are fired and the possibility of an amicable settlement flies out make attempts to manufacture some wider significance for itself. of the window and into the sea. Though the story of double, triple and It’s mischievous and nihilistic, but elemental enough that it invites quadruple crossings is simplicity itself (and as old as the hills), Free Fire deeper reading. It presents the architecture of a breakdown while couldn’t be more complex, as it marshals the action from various vantages embracing individuality. It’s about diplomacy, the nature of discourse and monitors every bullet as it pings and ricochets from the giant steel and the impossibility of total agreement. Even when there are parties pillars holding up the roof. One thing that’s extremely satisfying about involved looking solely at the long game, there will always be small, the film is that Wheatley never cops out and shows a bird’s-eye view of the unidentified reasons why things can fall apart spectacularly. There will factory floor, to give a basic sense of where characters are in relation to always be winners and losers, whichever way you slice it. DAVID JENKINS one another. It would ruin the fun, and the sense that the viewer is placed right there, in the shit, with the rest of these reprobate unfortunates. ANTICIPATION. Hot, cold, mad or bad – a new Ben Instead he conveys the spacial specifications of the room the hard way, Wheatley movie is an occasion to savour. through pans, dollies, tilts and tracks. A symphony of bullet sounds fills the soundtrack. Hearing a slightly different tone of ‘pfff!’, ‘tak!’, ENJOYMENT. More fun than ‘dwang-ang-ang!’ evokes a shiver of delight, like an opportunity to a hopped-up helicopter joy ride. collect all the different noises. Wheatley makes you feel how far one person is away from another, and gives a strong sense of how far away IN RETROSPECT. Finally, a film that is as enjoyable they are from any exits. The balletic cliché of the gunfight is muted to watch as it presumably was to make.

LEAD REVIEW 011

14 – 21 GENTLE BEN LWLies heads down to the English seaside town of Brighton to shoot the breeze with Free Fire director Ben Wheatley. 22 THE WORLD’S TOUGHEST BEN WHEATLEY QUIZ Adam Nayman, author of ‘Ben Wheatley: Chaos and Confusion’, devises some bastard-hard BW multiple choices. 24 – 27 GRAND LARSONY 9GVGNNVJGUVQT[QHJQY$TKG.CTUQPYCUƂPCNN[CDNGVQYCXGIQQFD[GVQ second-tier archetype roles to become one of Hollywood’s biggest stars. 28 – 29 POLYGRAPH TEST 1 SHARLTO COPLEY 6JG5QWVJ#HTKECPCEVQTRTQXKFGUCEJCTCEVGTRTQƂNGQH#TOKG*COOGT

30 – 31 POLYGRAPH TEST 2 ARMIE HAMMER 6JG#OGTKECPNGCFKPIOCPRTQXKFGUCEJCTCEVGTRTQƂNGQH,CEM4G[PQT

32 – 33 POLYGRAPH TEST 3 JACK REYNOR 6JG+TKUJWRUVCTVRTQXKFGUCEJCTCEVGTRTQƂNGQH5JCTNVQ%QRNG[

36 – 38 CALL TO ACTION Who remembers ‘Action’, the most gratuitously violent MKFUoEQOKEUVTKRGXGTOCFG!9GFQe

40 – 43 GUN-FU HUSTLE +PRTCKUGQH*QPI-QPIOCGUVTQ,QJP9QQCTEJKVGEV of the time-honoured bullet ballet. 44 – 45 THREADS #1 #PGYHCUJKQPEQNWOPNQQMKPICVOQXKGUVJTQWIJVJGRTKUOQHENQVJKPI This issue’s focus: the wide-collared shirt. INTERVIEW BY

t’s set in Boston, Massachusetts and boasts a former HQ of the region’s only daily newspaper. Or maybe multinational cast, but Free Fire marks a homecoming it’s because, after a long day shooting in (and shooting up) of sorts for British writer/director Ben Wheatley. said warehouse, the cast and crew would hang out in one -«iVwV>Þ]Ì½ÃÌ iwÀÃÌVV>ÃÃViÓääÌ >Ì i >Ã of Brighton’s many traditional taverns, sinking a few suds shot a feature in his adopted hometown of Brighton, and soaking up the local culture. >Û}«ÀiÛÕÃÞwi` iv>ÃÌvÀHigh-Rise]- ivwi` When LWLies spent an afternoon with Wheatley in for Kill List, across Derbyshire, North Yorkshire and the Brighton – visiting the Free Fire set, sifting through crates Lake District for Sightseers]>`>wi` }>`vÀ of second-hand vinyl and grabbing a quick drink at the A Field in England. He moved down from London a little pub where Brie Larson, Armie Hammer, Jack Reynor ÛiÀÓäÞi>ÀÃ>}Ì>ÌÌi`ÕÛiÀÃÌÞ]>`Ì½ÃLii Ã and co bonded – it struck us that this place is as much base, along with his screenwriting partner and wife, Amy an extension of Wheatley as he is of it. Both city and Jump, ever since. director share a creative, free-thinking, live-and-let-live Free FireÃ½Ì> À} Ìw]LÕÌ>ÃÜÌ 7 i>ÌiÞ½Ã outlook, each has its own colourful history, and both offer micro-budget debut, Down Terrace, something of the something a little different – something edgier and more unique character of this vibrant city by the sea seems unpredictable – from the norm. But if we’re viewing Ben to infuse every frame. Perhaps it’s something to do with 7 i>ÌiÞwÃ>Ã«À`ÕVÌÃvÌ iÀiÛÀiÌ]Ì½ÃÜÀÌ the fact that the single location setting, an enormous old noting that his story begins not on the south coast or in warehouse on the outskirts of the city, adjoins with the Ì i1V>«Ì>LÕÌ>Ã>VÕÌiÀÌÜ ÃÃiÝ°°°

WITH PHOTOGRAPHY BY AND ILLUSTRATION BY

014 The Free Fire Issue

[LWLIES] YOU WERE BORN IN BILLERICAY IN ESSEX, ARE YOU INTO YOUR HISTORY? WHICH MOST PEOPLE WILL KNOW FROM THE IAN Not really my family history DURY SONG. WHAT WAS IT LIKE GROWING UP THERE? so much, but I’m interested in Q7 č/ 9RÌ½ÃµÕÌi>ÌiÀiÃÌ}«>Vi>Ü>Þ°/ i where I grew up. People tend to only cultural reference points for it are ‘Billericay Dickie’ LiµÕÌiÃ`iÌÜ>À`Ã ÃÃiÝ]LÕÌ and also Gavin and Stacey, because Gavin comes from I’m proud of where I’m from. When Billericay. It’s also where the Pilgrim founding fathers ÞÕiiÌÌ iÀ«i«ivÀ ÃÃiÝ }>Ì iÀi`Ì iÀÜ>ÞÌÌ i >ÞyÜiÀqÃi iÀV>Þ there’s a shared sense of humour blokes actually went off to America. For such a little place and a shared outlook which you can to have such as important bit of history snake through recognise. I was lucky to grow up in it, it’s kind of a weird thing when you think about it. a suburban environment, but moving Billericay’s got a twin town in America that’s famous for to London made me quite dislocated >Û}Ì iwÀÃÌ«iÀÃi`Ì ičiÀV> Û7>À° from that. We moved to Belsize Park and I went to Haverstock School which Ã ÕÃÌ ««ÃÌi > >À ÃÌ>Ì° — Quite an interesting school it turns out. It’s since been rebuilt as an academy but at the time “THE FUNNY THING IS ÌÜ>Ãi>`6VÌÀ>V«Ài iÃÛi°/ iÀiÜiÀi ÃiÜiÀ`«i«iÌ iÀi°/ i L>`ÃÜiÌÌ iÀiÆ ` I DIDN’T GET ANYWHERE Ü>ÃÌ iÞi>À>LÛii>ÌÃV °/ i«>«iÀÃÕÃi` ÌV>Ì¼,i` Ì½LÕÌÌÜ>Ã>LÕÌ>Ãv>ÀvÀvÕV} WITH FILM UNTIL I Ì>ÃÞÕVÕ`}iÌ°

STOPPED CARING DID YOU HAVE A SENSE BACK THEN OF WHAT YOU WANTED TO DO WHEN YOU LEFT SCHOOL? I didn’t really ABOUT IT AND JUST know what I was gonna do the whole way through my čiÛiÃ°/ >Ì½ÃÜ iÀ>ÌčÞÕ«>`Ã iÌ` RELAXED A BIT...” me to go to art school, which I hadn’t really considered as an option. She did a foundation course so I applied — for the same one. I could draw reasonably well but I was probably being lined up to be a painter-decorator or something. I was writing at the time but I was a bit bohemian, long hair and all that. I’d always drawn comic ÃÌÀ«ÃLÕÌ``½ÌÀi>ÞÕ`iÀÃÌ>`>ÞÌ }>LÕÌw° I wanted to make something and I got hold of a Video8 V>VÀ`iÀ>`wi`ÃiLÌÃ>`«iViÃ]LÕÌÌ i technology still seemed too advanced and complicated. ÕÌÜ iÜiÌÌ À} ÌQ1ÛiÀÃÌÞR``>`Õi on video production and the AV department had an edit suite where you could hire cameras and book out the space. I spent my time doing that and basically taught ÞÃiv ÜÌ>iwÃ°

WHAT SORT OF STUFF WERE YOU EDITING AT THAT TIME? ÃÌ>ÀÌi`w}ÕÃÌ°°°ÃÌÕvv°``>wV>i`Things in My HouseÜ iÀiÕÃÌwi`>ÞLÃ>`Ã ÌiÌ >Ì >`Ì ii`Ìi`Ì°,i>Þ]Ài>ÞÀÕìÌ>ÀÞÃÌÕvv°/ i ÃÌ>ÀÌi`w}LÌÃv`À>>>ìÛiÌÕ>ÞLi}>i`Ì} ÃÌÕvvvÀÌ iÀ«i«i]Ì>}wÃ>«>ÀÌ>`ÀiVÕÌÌ} them. I eventually started doing more complicated short wÃ>`ÜÀi`ÜÌ ,LqÜ ½ÃDown Terrace – and his brother, Dan, and their friends, Mike and Andy ÕÀÃÌ°/ iÞÜiÀi>ÌÃÝÌ vÀ>` >`>ÀiÌÀ>`Ì>] Spielberg-style, making-movies-since-they-were-ten L>V}ÀÕ`°/ iÞ``>Ì iÃiÀi>ÞV«iÝÀi>iÃ of Stallone and Van Damme movies – they would do stuff iÃiÌÌ iÃiÛiÃwÀi>`LÜÃÌÕvvÕ«°/ ivÕÀv them were pretty industrious. I worked on a feature they >ì£ÇV>i`Project: Assassin, which was like a

016 The Free Fire Issue ÀiLiÀ}>]LÀ>ÜÀ] someone-getting-murdered- in-a-squat type movie. It was amazing because none of these guys V>ivÀ>wL>V}ÀÕ`°/ iÞÕÃÌ made this thing and eventually took it to >iÃ>`À>ÌÃi}ÕÞ>L>À>`}Ì distribution for it. Whenever I speak to young directors now I tell them you’ve got to do it off your own back because otherwise you’re not }>}iÌ>ÞÜ iÀi° ÛiÀÞiÃ>ÌÞÕ like you’re insane because they’re trained to apply for money and they’re conditioned into thinking that it’s all fair and everyone’s fair and iÛiÀÞi}iÌÃ>}°/ >ÌÜ>Ã½ÌÕÀiÝ«iÀiVi°

WHAT HAPPENED AFTER THAT? Robin and Andy ÜiÌvvÌč>`>ì>Ì iÀwV>i` You’re Dead with John Hurt and Rhys Ifans. It didn’t go very well. I worked on the script with Robin and we were supposed to get paid for it but it didn’t happen. It was horrible. I went, ¼/ >Ì½ÃÌ]½ì½°Ü>ÃÞÕ}>`viÌÕìÀ a lot of pressure. So I stopped. I stopped writing and I ended up getting a job in a marketing company. Amy and I were just pottering around really. It got to a point where

one of us had to go to work and I thought, ‘Fuck it, I’ll do it’. But we were happy doing our own thing really. / ivÕÞÌ }Ã``½Ì}iÌ>ÞÜ iÀiÜÌ wÕÌ stopped caring about it and just relaxed a bit.

HOW DID THAT LEAD TO YOU STARTING YOUR BLOG? / i>ÀiÌ}V«>ÞÜÀi`vÀÜiÌLÕÃÌ°ÌÀi` to get another job and I couldn’t because the dot com crash had just happened and there was no work, so I >`ÌÀiÌÀ>°>`>LÕÌÓä}À>`Ã>Û}Ã°čÞÜ>Ã pregnant and I decided I would try and get into the video game industry. At the same time we started posting stuff i] Ü>ÃÌ} Ìi >} y>Ã >>ÌÃ°

017 >VÌ iÌ iÀiÜiÀi9Õ/ÕLi>}ÀÌ ÃìV`} what people watched. You could directly plug into an online audience. First it would be a few hundred people, then we posted a couple of things that got seen by a few thousand people and I thought, ‘Wow, this is really >>â}t½/ >ÌÌÕÀi`Ì Õ`Ài`ÃvÌ ÕÃ>`Ã>` then millions. By pure fucking luck and good fortune, I managed to get a job doing something while I was vÕV} >ÀÕ` ÌÀÞ} Ì ` ÃiÌ } iÃi° / iÞ ÜiÀiÀi>ÞìÃ«iÀ>ÌiÌiÃÌ Õ} °/ iÀiÜ>Ãi month where we were literally a day away from having to default on our mortgage, and I got a phone call VwÀ}>LÌ`ÃiÛÀ>ÃÌÕvvvÀ>iÝÌÀii Ã«ÀÌÃV >i°/ >ÌÜ>ÃÌ iÌÕÀ}«Ì°čvÌiÀÌ >ÌÌ TO WHAT EXTENT DID THAT EARLY WORK INFORM got much easier. YOUR FILMMAKING STYLE? iÀÌ>ÞÌ iV«ÀiÃÃ of information and storytelling side of it. It’s also having DO YOU EVER REFLECT ON THAT PERIOD IN YOUR LIVES? VwìViÞÕÀÜÛVi>`ÕÃÌ}}]¼ÕVÌ] It certainly informs a lot of the work I’ve done. I always I’m gonna do this and I don’t care.’ When I was doing get asked things like, ‘Why do you do so much stuff?’ the online viral stuff, you’d pitch the ideas and do the I love what I do but it’s also because it all feels so lucky creative side of it but you’d also have to deliver the Ì >ÌÌiÛi >««ii`>Ì>°/ Ãi`>ÞÃÜiÀivÕ>ÃÜi] «ÃÌ«À`ÕVÌ°/ iÌ }>LÕÌÌ iiÌL>VÌ iÜ>Ã the internet back then was like the Wild West in a way. the audience was so open-minded. It’s different now, At the height of it I was making two or three things a they’re more bitter – or maybe the bitterness was always day, and you could almost feel the pulse of the internet. there, it’s just come to the surface. One of my perverse But as soon as you stepped away it became like a foreign pleasures is to scroll through the comments on American VÕÌÀÞ>}>° ÛiÀÞÌ }Ûi`Ãv>ÃÌ° political sites just to see what’s going on.

YOU’RE FAIRLY ACTIVE ON TWITTER... Mostly I just Ã >ÀiÃÌÕvvi°ÜiÌÌ ÀÕ} Þ/ÜÌÌiÀvii`ÀiViÌÞ] muting anybody talking about politics. I’ve just had enough. My attitude is to always be encouraging, be as positive and as constructive as possible. People are too quick to form an opinion and to judge. It’s a scramble up the hill to the moral high ground isn’t it? I don’t do Facebook though, haven’t done for years. I remember >ViL ÌÜ iÜ>Ã>ÌÌ i `}The Wrong Door and I only really joined to see who knew who. I lost interest pretty quickly after that. And I don’t really post to my blog anymore.

WHY DID YOU STOP THAT? It was one day when it was really hard to upload a picture for some reason, the code had stopped working or something, and I’d just had enough of it. But that’s what happened, it was websites >`Ì iÌÛi`ÌL}Ã>`ÜÌ½Ã>/ÜÌÌiÀ° *i«iÃi`ÌÜiiÌÃiÌ iÞ½Àii>ÃÀÌiÝÌÃ]w` that really bizarre.

WHAT SORT OF OFFERS WERE YOU GETTING OFF THE BACK OF THE VIRAL STUFF? ÃÌÞÃÌÕvvvÀ/6V«>- nies. I edited the Modern Toss pilot and I did all the extras for the Big Night Out DVD. I started doing ads as well, so Ì >ÌÜ>Ã>}}>ÌÌ iÃ>iÌi°/ iiQ ÀÃ R decided he didn’t want to do Modern Toss any more so they asked me to direct it, which was a major break really.

018 The Free Fire Issue / ičÀ>`>ÕVVÀi«i`Ì>i>½`ÃiÌ>LÕÌ> Þi>Ài>ÀiÀ°/ iÞÜiÀi`}Time Trumpet and invited me to come in and have chat. I thought, ‘Fuck!’ So I scribbled down some ideas on a sheet of A4 – one-liners, that sort of thing. When the series aired lots of those jokes had made it in so I wrote them to ask about getting paid and they were i]¼" Þi> ] iÀi½Ã>V iµÕi½°č}>]¼ÕVt½/ iThe Wrong Door came along which was a crazy experience, and then I did Ideal with Johnny Vegas. But I wanted to do Ài`À>>° Þ>}iÌÃÕ}}iÃÌi``>Ã ÀÌwÃÜi did that, then Robin and I got together and expanded it into a feature, which became Down Terrace. — “I TEND TO DRAW THE WHOLE FILM OUT JUST TO GET A FEEL FOR IT ” —

DO YOU STILL DRAW? I did all the initial storyboards for Free Fire°Ìi`Ì`À>ÜÌ iÜ iwÕÌÕÃÌÌ}iÌ> feel for it. I’ll sketch it out really roughly and then I’ll usually }iÌÃiiiÃiÌÀi`À>ÜiÛiÀÞÌ }°/ >Ì½ÃÜ >ÌÜi did on Free Fire and High-Rise. On Freakshift, which is a ÃVwÌ }Üi½ÛiLiiÜÀ}] V V > >Ã been drawing stuff. Storyboarding is the cheapest way of >}Ì iw>`ÌvÀViÃÞÕÌÀi>ÞÌ >LÕÌÌ° / iÌ }>LÕÌÛiÃÃ]V>ÀÃLÜ}Õ«>`}ÕÃ}} off is big ticket imagery, you can sit there and imagine it in your head. What’s really hard is all the boring stuff like people coming through doors or someone going up some stairs. I’ll spend a lot of time working all that stuff out. Of course, there’s always a certain degree of dysmorphia, where you imagine something is better than it is or you don’t see the problems with it.

019 HAS THAT PROCESS GOTTEN ANY EASIER? / iÀi½ÃÀi For me it was always supposed to be the kind of thing of a balance there working with Amy, because she’s so ÞÕ½``ÃVÛiÀ>Ìi} Ì >i{>`}]¼ÕV] brutally honest. I like the fact that we’re a couple making can’t believe this has been made’. But I know it’s not for wÃ]Ì>iÃÌÌiÀiÃÌ}°č`iÌ iv>VÌÌ >Ì}iÌ everyone. I think the Little White Lies review said it was to spend time with her that I probably wouldn’t otherwise. like being punched in the face by your best friend… She’s completely outside of the industry, she doesn’t do interviews and doesn’t particularly like going up to London HOW DID THAT MAKE YOU FEEL? I thought it was great. to events. She just wants to do the work, get in and get 7i>Ü>ÞÃiÜÌÜÕ`Li`vwVÕÌqÌ½Ã>L>V>` out. She’s not a cinephile, but she really cares about image Ü Ìiw>LÕÌÌ i }Ã Û7>À°°°ÞÕ½Ài>Ài>`Þ and storytelling from her own unique perspective. But fucked. What I’ve learned is that each experience is we’ve always had an agreement that I’ll be kind of like the different and there’s an audience for everything, but face of it, I do all the press and that. It’s quite weird going people will only walk a certain distance to go to the from never having been interviewed before to being cinema. You either need to have lots of screens or you ÌiÀÛiÜi`xääÌiÃ°-Õ``iÞ«i«i>ÀiÜÀÌ}`Ü need lots of advertising to tell people it’s on, and if what you’re saying, they’re recording it and putting online. there’s a football match on or the weather’s nice then We lucked out with Down Terrace because people were ÞÕ½ÀivÕVi`°/ >Ì½ÃÌ iV`Ài>ÌÞvÌ° ÕÌÌ iÌ } Ài>Þ`>LÕÌÌqÌÜ>Ã>wÀÃÌw>`ÜLÕ`}iÌ]Üi with putting movies in cinemas is, you’re not part of viÌÜi½`Lii}ÛiÌ iLiiwÌvÌ i`ÕLÌ°7Ì Kill some business scheme for some channel that’s trying List, I thought critically we were gonna get really fucked. to change its audience by sticking you up there as an ÕÌÌ``½Ì >««i°Ì½Ã>ÛiÀÞÜiÀ`w]ÞÕÜ°č` iÝ«iÀiÌ]>`ÌÀii>Ã}Ì iÃ>iÃw}ÕÀiÃiÌ iÀ° Ì½Ã>i>w]Ì½ÃÕV i>iÀÌ >ÃÌÛiÃ>Ài° watch a lot of modern horror movies and they’re scary, but they’re not mean like that.

WHAT SORT OF STUFF SCARES YOU? I got the Alan >Ài LÝÃiÌ ÀiViÌÞ >` Ü>Ã Ü>ÌV } Beloved Enemy]Ü V Ã>w>LÕÌ>LÕÃiÃÃ`i>]>`Ì½Ã ÕÃÌ ÀÀLi]ÌiÀÀvÞ}ÌÜ>ÌV °"Àč`> ÕÀÌÃ° Ü Ì >Ì½ÃÃV>ÀÞÃÌÕvv°/ iÞ«ÀLiÃÜ i iÛiiÀÃÌ a subject I actually know something about and I think, ‘Hang on, woah woah woah, that’s not right…’

HE’S SOMEONE WHO’S FOUND A NEW LEASE OF LIFE THROUGH ONLINE PLATFORMS LIKE BBC IPLAYER. DO YOU SEE THINGS MOVING MORE IN THAT DIRECTION, DISTRIBUTION WISE? / i «ÀLi Ã Ì½Ã >À` Ì make your money back that way. You look at A Field in England, ÌVÃÌËÎää]äääLÕÌÞ>`ifÎä]äää the US so it’s seen as a massive failure. But in the UK Ì«ii`ÃÕÌ>iÕÃÞVi>Ã>`/6>`> «i«iÃ>ÜÌÌ iwÀÃÌÜiii`°-Ì`i«i`Ã what your perspective is. You always worry about the money side of things but if you can guarantee an audience that’s the most important thing. Now A Field in England screens every couple of weeks up and down the country, and in a way that’s more exciting because it means there’s a grassroots following there.

020 The Free Fire Issue Ü V Üi½ÛiÕÃÌwÃ i`Ì iÃVÀ«ÌÃÌ >Ì½ÃÀi>`Þ “WHAT I’VE to go. At any given time we’ll usually have six or seven ÃVÀ«ÌÃÌ i}]LÕÌÌ iÞ½LiwÀÃÌ`À>vÌÃ>`Ì iÞ½ LEARNED IS THAT EACH go in the drawer and then you’ll come back to them. Or EXPERIENCE IS maybe you won’t. You can’t be precious about this stuff. SO WHAT’S ON THE BACKBURNER RIGHT NOW? Oh, DIFFERENT AND THERE’S ÌiÃvÃÌÕvv°-iVi`Þ>`>LÕÌÌ ÀiiÃVwÉ v>Ì>ÃÞwÃqÜi½Ûi}Ì>ÃVÀ«ÌÜ V Ã>>`>«Ì>Ì AN AUDIENCE v¼>ÕÌiÌ½]Ì i½näÃÛì}>i°č`Üi½ÛiLii trying to do a rom-com for a long time now. FOR EVERYTHING” WHAT WOULD A BEN WHEATLEY ROM-COM LOOK LIKE? I dunno yet, we haven’t written it. I think it will end up — Li}ÀičÞ½Ãw°7iLÌ Ài>ÞÛiWhat’s Up, DO YOU SEE YOURSELF MAKE ‘BIGGER’ FILMS MOVING Doc?qvÜiVÕ``>wÌ >ÌÜ>ÃÛ>}ÕiÞVÃiÌ FORWARD? I think so. But if I can do smaller scale stuff that world then we’d be happy. It’s charming and happy and if it makes sense to then I will, because the actual but you’ve also got gangsters in it. I’ve been trying a lot experience of making A Field of England was as fun as of different writing exercises recently, like what if you making High-Rise or Free Fire. If I’m doing bigger stuff I ÜÀÌi>ÃÌÀÞÜ iÀiiìÃÀÌ iVyVÌìÃ½Ì always try to mitigate against any confusion on the part end in violence? It keeps you fresh and it stops you from vÌ i«i«i½ÜÀ}ÜÌ °/ >Ì½ÃÜ ÞÃÌÀÞL>À` repeating yourself. as much as possible, so everyone knows what to expect >`Ì iÀi½ÃVvÕÃ°/ >Ì½ÃÜ iÌ>v>ÃÌ«iViÃ° ARE YOU WARY OF BURNING OUT? Well, you wanna If you’re all in agreement from the start then you can ii«>}>Ã>ÞwÃ>ÃÞÕV>LÕÌ>ÃÌÞi>ÀÜ>Ã probably stop that shit from happening. ÌÕ} °/`ÌÜÛiÃL>VÌL>VÜ>ÃÀi>Þ >À`] especially when High-RiseÜ>Ã«ÃÌ>`Ì iw>LÌÃ WOULD YOU EVER WANT TO MAKE, SAY, A MARVEL vw>VivÀFree Fire were being worked out. I kept MOVIE? I dunno. I don’t really know how those things diaries a bit during that time and reading some of them work. ‘Marvel Zombies’ hasn’t been done which is what back now... it was just the stress of it, you know. I worked I’m interested in. Maybe that’s a bit too niche. Marvel’s Ì ÃiÛiÃvÀ>ÃÌÌ ÀiiÞi>ÀÃÃ`Þ°/ >Ì½Ã interesting in that it’s kind of a hybrid of cinema and about as extreme as I’d like to get with it, but we’ve had ÌiiÛÃ°čÛiÀÞ]ÛiÀÞiÝ«iÃÛi/6Ã ÜÌ >ÌÞÕLÕÞ> a bit of a gap now in between shooting Free Fire and the pass for every three months. next one, so I’m ready to go again. It’s hard though, you want to keep working but you do need to give yourself WHAT HAVE YOU GOT LINED UP NEXT? We’re doing LÀi>Ì }Ã«>ViÃiÌiÃ°/ i«ÀLiÃÌ iÀi½ÃiÛiÀ Freakshift next, which is something we’ve been enough time. I don’t think I’ll ever get to make all the developing since Kill List°7iVÕ`½Ì}iÌÌw>Vi` things I want to make then because it’s got a female lead and at that point there weren’t many women-based action movies about. 9ÕÜ]iÌ iÀÞÕ½Ûi}Ì >Àâi/ iÀÀÞÕ`½Ì get the money. And then I’m working on Hard Boiled Ü V Ã>À> iÀ>`>«Ì>Ì°/ i Wages of Fear,

021 — SET BY ADAM NAYMAN — 11. WHICH NOTABLE BRITISH FILMMAKER WORKED AS A PRODUCER ON SIGHTSEERS? ;QW MPQY [QWoXG ITCFWCVGF CU C ƂNOOCMGT YJGP A) Danny Boyle C) Edgar Wright B) Ridley Scott D) Jonathan Glazer UQOGQPGYTKVGUCDQQMCDQWV[QWTYQTM6QTQPVQ ...... based critic and teacher Adam Nayman is author of 12. WHICH ACTOR PLAYS THE FIRST CHARACTER TO the new monograph, ‘Ben Wheatley: Confusion and DIE IN BOTH DOWN TERRACE AND SIGHTSEERS? %CTPCIGoTGNGCUGFD[6JG%TKVKECN2TGUUKPYJKEJJG A) Gareth Tunley C) Michael Smiley VCMGUCFGGRFKXGKPVQVJGFKTGEVQToUFKXGTUGFKXKUKXG $ 6QP[9C[ & /CTM-GORPGT ...... and destructive oeuvre. For this Free Fire-themed 13. WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING IS NOT A LOCATION KUUWGJGoUUGVCƂGPFKUJNKVVNG9JGCVNG[SWK\ IN SIGHTSEERS? ...... A) Crichway Tram Museum C) Dog Collar Museum 1. WHAT DID BEN WHEATLEY STUDY IN ART SCHOOL? $ 4KDDNGJGCF8KCFWEV & -GUYKEM2GPEKN/WUGWO ...... A) Collage C) Photography $ 5EWNRVWTG & *GFTQRRGFQWVVQDGEQOGCƂNOOCMGT 14. WHAT IS THE NAME OF THE ENGLISH CIVIL WAR ...... RE-ENACTMENT SOCIETY THAT PARTIALLY INSPIRED 2. WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING UK TELEVISION SERIES A FIELD IN ENGLAND? DID BEN WHEATLEY NOT WORK ON? A) The Trampled Path C) The Roundhead Players $ 6JG5GCNGF-PQV & 6JG5NCWIJVGTGF.COD A) Spaced! C) Time Trumpet ...... B) Ideal D) The Wrong Door ...... 15. WHAT WAS THE NICKNAME FOR THE SPECIAL 3. WHAT WAS THE TITLE OF THE BREAKTHROUGH VIRAL HOMEMADE LENS USED BY LAURIE ROSE ON A FIELD SHORT CREATED BY BEN WHEATLEY AND ROBIN HILL? IN ENGLAND? # 6JG0GETQOCPEGT % 6JG-CNGKFQUEQRG A) Modern Toss C) Stunning Cunt B) Cunning Stunt D) A Field in England B) The Mesmerizer D) The Fairy Ring ...... 4. AT WHICH FILM FESTIVAL DID DOWN TERRACE MAKE 16. WHAT ARE THE TITLES OF THE TWO DOCTOR WHO ITS WORLD PREMIERE IN 2009? EPISODES DIRECTED BY BEN WHEATLEY? # 6KOG*GKUVCPF-KNNVJG/QQP A) The Toronto Intl. Film Festival C) Fantastic Fest $ &CTM9CVGTCPF&GCVJKP*GCXGP B) The Locarno Film Festival D) The London Film Festival ...... C) Robot of Sherwood and Mummy on the Orient Express 5. HOW DID BEN WHEATLEY HIRE CINEMATOGRAPHER & &GGR$TGCVJCPFp+PVQVJG&CNGMq ...... LAURIE ROSE TO SHOOT DOWN TERRACE? 17. WHICH UK ROCK STAR CITED ‘HIGH-RISE’ AS ONE A) They were schoolmates $ *GRWVQWVCOGUUCIGQP(CEGDQQM OF HIS FAVOURITE NOVELS? % 6JGƂNOYCUUJQVKP4QUGoUEJKNFJQQFJQOG A) Robert Smith C) Pete Doherty & 4QUGYCUVJG&2QPQPGQH9JGCVNG[oUVGNGXKUKQPUJQYU B) Morrissey D) Ian Curtis ...... 6. WHICH BRITISH GROUP PERFORMS MULTIPLE FOLK- 18. WHAT BOOK BY SIGMUND FREUD MAKES A CAMEO ROCK SONGS ON THE DOWN TERRACE SOUNDTRACK? IN THE OPENING SEQUENCE OF HIGH-RISE? # n6JG2U[EJQRCVJQNQI[QH'XGT[FC[.KHGo A) The Copper family C) Noah and the Whale $ n6JG(WVWTGQHCP+NNWUKQPo B) Fairport Convention D) Jethro Tull ...... % n6JG+PVGTRTGVCVKQPQH&TGCOUo 7. WHAT LANGUAGE DOES SHEL SPEAK ON HER MOTHER & n6JG5GXGP2GT%GPV5QNWVKQPo ...... WITH THE TELEPHONE AT THE BEGINNING OF KILL LIST? 19. WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING SONGS DOES NOT APPEAR A) Finnish C) Norwegian ON THE HIGH-RISE SOUNDTRACK? B) Swedish D) Danish ...... # n+PFWUVTKCN'UVCVGoRGTHQTOGFD[VJG(CNN 8. IN KILL LIST, WHAT SONG DOES THE GROUP IN THE HOTEL $ n515oD[2QTVKUJGCF RESTAURANT SING BEFORE JAY THREATENS TO SMASH THE % o1WVUKFG/[&QQToRGTHQTOGFD[%CP LEADER’S GUITAR? & n)QF5CXGVJG3WGGPoRGTHQTOGFD[VJG5GZ2KUVQNU ...... # n,GUWU.QXGU/Go % n)QF1PN[-PQYUo $ n$TKPIKPIKPVJG5JGCXGUo & n1PYCTF%JTKUVKCP5QNFKGTUo 20. WHICH FAMOUS AMERICAN FILMMAKER IS AN ...... EXECUTIVE PRODUCER ON FREE FIRE? 9. WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING CHARACTERS IS NOT ON A) Quentin Tarantino C) Martin Scorsese JAY AND GAL’S KILL LIST? B) Steven Soderbergh D) George A Romero ...... A) The Priest C) The MP $ 6JG.KDTCTKCP & 6JG*WPEJDCEM ...... 10. WHAT IS THE NAME OF BEN WHEATLEY’S SEGMENT SO... HOW DO YOU THINK YOU SCORED? IN THE ABCS OF DEATH? A) M is for Miscarriage C) R is for Removed Turn to our end pages 98-99 for all the answers! B) P is For Pressure D) U is for Unearthed

022 The Free Fire Issue “A BRAZENLY UNCONVENTIONAL GHOST STORY” +++++ TIME OUT

KRISTEN STEWART

A FILM WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY OLIVIER ASSAYAS

“EERIE AND PRICKLISHLY SEXY... STEWART IS NEVER LESS THAN RIVETING” THE TELEGRAPH

+++++ THE GUARDIAN

IN CINEMAS MARCH 17 WORDS BY

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024 The Free Fire Issue 025 or most young actresses, it starts with a heartstrings,” she said in a 2015 interview with critic David denim mini skirt. Matched with a tank top, Poland. Larson became the youngest student to attend push up bra and heels, the mini skirt is Ì i ƂiÀV> ÃiÀÛ>ÌÀÞ / i>ÌÀi -> À>VÃV the uniform for aspiring types heading to >` Ì>Ã v Û} V>ÃÃV Vi>] w`} Ã>Vi Ì i Hollywood. They are worn to auditions for ÀÌiÀ iVÌV>>`ÃÕLii>`}>ìÃÃÕV ÜLÕ`}iÌwÃ°/ iÞ½Ài>wÝÌÕÀiv>Þ as Gena Rowlands and Barbara Stanwyck. She hungered Ü>Ài ÕÃiÀ>ÞÕÃvwVi° ÕÌiÃÃ vÀ «iÀÃ>ÌÞ >` iÌ> >ÀVÃ° ƂÕ`ÌÃ ``½Ì >Ã similarly attired women are at the mercy of for children to act, casting directors just wanted to see an those who have the power to pluck them outgoing personality. But she wanted to cry, she wanted from the crowds of mini skirt-dom and, hopefully, into roles to laugh, she wanted to create something that was about ÜÌ ÃiÃiL>VivìÌÌÞ°Ì½ÃÌ i`>Ãi`ÃÌÀiÃÃ more than homework, friends and sneakers. look, the wearer left at the disposal of a knight in low-slung If childhood in Hollywood is sentimentalism and iÛÃ° / i ÃÀÌ Ã > «iVi v VÌ } Ì >Ì½ÃÃ i disappearing behind adult co-stars, then teendom is worse. ÃâiwÌÃ>Ü iÌViÃÌ«iÀViÛi`ÃiÝ>««i>]Ì½Ã It heralds the introduction of the dreaded blue garment ÜìÀÌ >ÌÌ½ÃLiVi>>ÃÌ>ÞvÀÌ iÌÞ«ivV>ÌÌiV> >` > Ì >Ì ViÃ ÜÌ Ì° ` ` >Ì i>ÃÌ >ÜÃ vÀ >Õ`ÌÃÌ >ÌÀiµÕÀiÃÕV LiVÌwV>Ì° jeans as well as denim mini skirts. But adolescence is the Brie Larson once owned the mini skirt. During a Screen beginning of the cruel demarcation of young women. Actors Guild Q&A to promote Room in 2015, she joked / iV>Ìi}ÀÃ>Ìv¼«ÀiÌÌÞ½}ÀÀÌ i¼Ã>ÀÌ½}À]Ü iÀi >LÕÌ Ì i ÀÌi v «>ÃÃ>}i v V>ÃÌ} vv Ì i ÃÀÌ° Ì½Ã > >iÃ>``Û`Õ>Ã`½ÌiÝÃÌ°ÃÌ«iÀviVÌÞVvvi` iÌ>« ÀV>]ÛÃLi}À>`Õ>ÌvÀìÃVÀ«ÌvwViÃ hair or glasses, cheerleading or books, self-possession >`V iiÀi>ìÀÃÜ Ü½Ì>iÌÕÌvÌ iw>ÛiÌ or awkwardness? Will they be quirky or popular, weird or Ì ÃiÃÕ««Ãi`ÞÕÝÕÀ>ÌÕ««iÀiV iÃÜ iÀiÞÕw` À>¶ / iÀi½Ã> L>ÀÞ iÀi] >` i Ì >Ì viÜ VÀi>ÌÛi character development, backstory... and maybe survival? powerbrokers have the imagination to break out of. “When did you burn your jean mini skirt?” she says. In other >Vi ÛiÀ >ÀÃ½Ã w}À>« Þ >` ÞÕ½ ÌVi words, when did you graduate from archetypes to roles the reluctant slide when, as a 14 year old, she appeared based on real human beings? iÝÌiì`V>iÃ>VÕ«ivÌiiÀiÌi`ÛiÃ ÕÌ>ÀÃÃ>ÞÌ }LÕÌiÃâiwÌÃ>°- iÀiÃÃÌÃ from 2014 – Sleepover and 13 Going on 30. She was cast stereotypical categorisation at every turn. A Sacramento as the sidekick to stereotypical cliquey middle school native, she was born on the doorstep of Hollywood, but girls, all headbands and heels and icy glares. Teenagers ÀiÛi` ÕÃÌ v>À iÕ} Ì >Ì Ì iÀi½Ã > ÕÌÃìÀ µÕ>ÌÞ >Àiìwi`LÞÌ iÀÀ>ÌViÌ>}iiÌÃ>`Ã >«Ã] Ì iÀ°/ iÀi½Ã> ÀivÀiÃ } >LÃiVi v /ÃiÌÜ }ÌÌiÀ° saddled with being perfect and learning a valuable lesson -«i>} ½ÃVÕÌÕÀi«À}À>iQ in 2015, she said LÞ Ì i Ìi Ì i VÀi`ÌÃ À° ÕÌ >ÀÃ ìÃ½Ì «ÃÃiÃÃ that, at age seven, she told her mother that she wanted the tall, blonde and glacial look of the stereotypical teen to be in actor, adding drama classes to an already packed Ûii>`°- iV>½ÌÃÕ«ÀiÃÃÌ i«iiÃÃv iÀv>Vi]À roster of activities that included dance and ice skating. wÌ iÀÃivÌÌ iÀiµÕÀi`Õ`°ivÌ iviÜÃ ÌÃ She soon moved to LA with her mother and sister, joining where you can see her in 13 Going on 30]Ã i½Ã«ÃÌi` Ì i ÃV>`Ã v «ivÕÃ Ü yV Ì Ì i VÌÞ iÛiÀÞ «Ì in the signature verbal battle-ready semicircle, wearing season in the search of that elusive big break. Ì iÕvÀÌ«Ì>`LÀ} ÌÞVÕÀi`L>ÃVÃ°- i½Ã> What came for Larson were bit parts, credits such as Girl «À«°9iÌÌ iÀi½Ã>ÀiLiÕÃ}Ì iÀiÞiÌ >ÌÃ}iÃ Scout and Roadkill Easy Bake Oven and jobs in sketches iÀÕÌvÀÌ iVÀÜ`°9ÕV>ÌiÃ i½ÃÌ iViÀi] on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno as well as roles on the smarter one. You will the camera to turn away so the popular ‘90s soaps and network dramas like Touched By an wÜÕ`Li>LÕÌ iÀ° Angel, To Have and To Hold and Raising Dad. She played Ü} Ì Ã] >ÀÃ ÜiÌ vÀ ÛiÃÌÀÕV >` Ã>ÀÌÕÌ i` wÀiVÀ>ViÀÃ Ü Ãi ìÌÌÞ Ã Ài«>Vi` LÞ Ü>ÞÜ>À` Ìii>}iÀÃ Ü ivÌ «>ÀiÌÃ iÝ>Ã«iÀ>Ìi` >` > LÕV v i iÀÃ° º/ iÞ½Ài ÃiÌ } Ì ÌÕ} >Ì Ì i ÌiÀÀwi`Ì iÀ`ÃÜÕ``Ì iÃ>i°- iV>iVÃiÌ Li} >Ì iÀi>À`ÜVi½ÃThirteen as well as Twilight and a variety of other emo teen fare that went to actors iÀÃÌi-ÌiÜ>ÀÌ>`6>iÃÃ>Õ`}iÃ° ÕÌwÌÌ}Ì ÜiÌi`ÃÌLi>`ÃÃiÀÛVi°/ iiÃÌ >ÌwÌ>Ài>VÌÀÃ Ü iÝ«ì > yÕÀÀÞ v Ìii>}i LÃiÃÃ] LÕÌ >Ûi to go to great pains to get away from those formative, stereotypical roles that follow them to every audition. -ÌiÜ>ÀÌÃw>Þw`}i}>}}ÀiÃÜÌ ÀiV >ÕÌiÕÀ "ÛiÀƂÃÃ>Þ>ÃwÃÃÕV >ÃClouds of Sils Maria and Personal Shopper while American directors still struggle to put her to good use. Hudgens, meanwhile, has faded into the realm of forgotten teen stars. >ÀÃ ``½Ì wÌ] >` ``½Ì Ü>Ì Ì iÌ iÀ° > Óä£x Hollywood Reporter roundtable, she talks about this realisation. It came after auditions where her interpretation

026 The Free Fire Issue of a role was sometimes surplus to conventional ÀiµÕÀiiÌ° >ÃÌ} >}iÌÃ ÜÕ` iVÕÀ>}i her to, “try these sides”, referring to different V >À>VÌiÀVV jÃ]LÕÌÌ }ÜÕ`ÜÀ°º½`}] ¼/ >Ì½ÃÜ >ÌÌ iÞÜ>Ì¶t½»Ã iÃ>ÞÃ]ÀiviÀÀ}ÌÌ Ã blankness and vapidiy. A venture into music, which produced an album of bubblegum, scholastically- Ì ii`««ÀV>Ì iÃ]ÌÌi`¼>Þ"ÕÌv* ½ provided little difference. >Þ]Ã iÃÌÀÕV}`Ì ivÀv- ÜÌi television series The United States of Tara. Toni iÌÌi«>ÞÃÌ iÌÌiV >À>VÌiÀ]Ü ÃÕvviÀÃvÀ dissociative identity disorder, and Larson steps Õ« >Ã iÀ Ã>ÀV>ÃÌV `>Õ} ÌiÀ] >Ìi] Ü ½Ã > ìÌÌÞ Ãi>ÀV v iÀ Ü° >Ìi iÝÃÌÃ >Ü>Þ vÀ the homogenous huddle of her peers. She speaks her mind. She is unapologetically herself. One of >ÀÃ½ÃÃÌ>À>}iÌÃÌ iÃ ÜViÃÌ i second episode, where she has a bathroom confrontation ÜÌ ƂVi] />À>½Ã £xäÃ ÕÃiÜvi «iÀÃ>ÌÞ] Ì >Ì ÃiiÃ able to ride her bike home from work and clear her head? iÀ } ÌiÌÌi ÜÌ iÌÌi° º½ Ì > >À`Ã «° ½ iÀ V«iÝ «>ÃÌ >` Ü Ì ÌÛ>ÌiÃ iÀ ÀiÛi>Ã ÌÃiv >ÜiÃi]» Ã i Ã>ÞÃ > ìw>Ì] VwìÌ ÛVi° 7>Ã Ì Ì ÀÕ} ÕÌÌ iw]Ü iÀiÃ i½Ã>Üi`ÌLi«ÕÃÛi destiny that Larson got the part? She auditioned during >ìÃÃÞ°Ì½Ã>ÀiÜ iÀi>ÀÃÃ>Üi`ÌÃÜi>Ì]Ì the initial casting process, convinced the role was the one Lii`] Ì VÀÞ] Ì vÕÞ >LÌ iÀÃiv° i ÃVii] Ã i½Ã Ã i½` Ü>Ìi` > ìV>ì vÀ°- i À}>Þ ÃÌ Ì Ì *ÀÌ> even able to climb atop a car to smash the windscreen. Doubleday. She was dejected. She felt like the passion she Ì½Ã>iÌvÀ>}iÌ >ÌÃÃ Àvvi>ÀÀLiVÌwV>Ì° mainlined into her work was all for nought. It was time to She is untethered from everything apart from herself. iÝ«Ài>iÜìÌÌÞvÀ iÀÃiv°- i>ÃÌ«>Vi`Õ« À>Vi >ÃÌw} Ì iÀÜL>ÌÌiÃ°/ i} ÌÃÜÃÕ} and headed to college. Then Doubleday dropped out. Levis only do her bad. The success of Tara >Üi` >ÀÃ Ì iÝ«Ài Ài À>Þ]>"ÃV>ÀÜÃ>`vVwÀ>Ì°7 i projects that were on her ideosyncratic wavelength. There >ÀÃViVÌi`Ì i iÃÌƂVÌÀiÃÃ}}>ÌÓÈ]Ã i½Ãiv ÜiÀi ÀiÃ i ÀViÀ ÛÞ Ƃ`>Ã VV L Ûi the youngest winners of the award) in 2016 for Room, where Scott Pilgrim Vs the World, a girl who sports a shock of Ã i«>ÞÃ>Ì iÀV >À>VÌiÀÜ Ã>Üi`ÌLiV«iÝ brightly coloured hair, but is still unfortunately at the mercy >`vÀiiviÝ«iVÌ>ÌÃ]ÌviÌi>VÕ>ÌvÜ >Ì v>iv>Ì>ÃÞ°- i Õ}>ÀÕ`vÀÀiL>`ÞÕ½ Ã i½` Lii Ì ÀÕ} ÛiÀ Ì i «>ÃÌ Óä Þi>ÀÃ° Ì Ü>Ã >ÀÃ ÃÃÌ «>ÀÌÃ\ > ÀiLiÕÃ ÃV }À Ì i ÌÌiÃii w who created one of the most shattering moments of the Tanner Hall opposite Rooney Mara; mute (or deliberately w]Ü iÀiÃ iÃVÀi>Ã]º½ÃÀÀÞ½ÌVi>ÞÀit» silenced) girlfriends and sisters in 21 Jump Street, The during an argument with her mother. In that moment, the Spectacular Now and Don Jon, glowering from the end of ÌÀÕi }À>ÛÌÞ v iÀ V >À>VÌiÀ½Ã ÌÀ>Õ>] }ÕÌ] >` > Õ}Þ] dinner tables with a mobile phone, or wearing that cursed ÕÃ«iÌÀÕÌ ]ViÃVÀ>Ã }Ì`ÜÌ >ÀÌ ° short piece of blue fabric, waiting for someone to decide Whether Larson will continue to design her own that it was time for her to move on. ìÃÌÞÃ>Þi½Ã}ÕiÃÃ°/ iÀi>Ài ÌÃvÌ iV>vÌ i >ÀÃ½Ã }] }] } >Ü>Ìi` ÃÀÌLÕÀ} anonymous and engineered mainstream that more and ViÀiÞ V>i ÜÌ iÃÌ >i ÀiÌÌ½ÃiÌ>Þ Ài >VÌÀÃ Ãii V>«ÌÛ>Ìi` LÞ°- i½ÃÃiÌ Ì ÃÌ>À L} combustible independent drama Short Term 12, where budget monster movie, Kong: Skull Island, and also slated Ã i«>ÞÃìÛÌi`ÃV>ÜÀiÀÀ>Vi°/ iwÜ>ÃL>Ãi` Ì«>Þ >ÀÛi iÀi] >«Ì> >ÀÛi° Ì «ÀiVÌÃÀiÛi> ÀiÌÌ½Ã`>ÞÃÜÀ}>Ì>}ÀÕ« ivÀÌii>}iÀÃ] a desire to move down a path she resisted for a long time. and was shot in 20 days for under $1 million. In a 2015 But look at more of her upcoming work, and the possibility ÌiÀÛiÜ /6½Ã¼>««Þ->` vÕÃi`½«`V>ÃÌ]>ÀÃ of maintaining the carefully sculpted identity reveals itself. said that it was a shoot that had her “down to the limit”, / iÀi½Ã > L«V >LÕÌ Ì i ÕVÛiÌ> Õ«LÀ}} allowing for an urgency and intensity that is right there on of journalist Jeannette Walls (which marks a reunion with the screen. Grace spends her days at a group home that Short Term 12 `ÀiVÌÀ ÀiÌÌ®] i 7 i>ÌiÞ½Ã ÌÀ}}iÀ iÃÕìÀÌ i >ÀÃ >vÀ>ÃÕ]>Ì iÜ iÌÀÞ}Ì happy comedy Free Fire, the long-gestating musical, ì>ÜÌ iÀÜÌÕÕÌÕÕÃ«>ÃÌ°- i½ÃL>ÀiÞìÀÌ > Basmati Blues (which is, well, about what it says on the Ì i«i«iÃ iV>ÀiÃvÀ°À>ViÃÌLi ìÌ>Þi½Ã LÝ®°Ƃ`Ì iÀi½Ã>Ã iÀ`ÀiVÌÀ>ìLÕÌ]>Vi`ÞÜÌ preconceived ideas of herself, she would never, ever wear the intriguing title The Unicorn Store about a young woman the anonymous, perfect construction of the mini skirt, for Ü ºÀiViÛiÃ>ÞÃÌiÀÕÃÛÌ>ÌÌ >ÌÜÕ`vÕw iÀ Ã i ÜÕ`½Ì Li >Li Ì Ûi iÀ iÛiÀÞ`>Þ vi Ì° Ü V ` ` `Ài>Ã»° ÕÌ vÀ Ü] Ì i Ì Ài>`Ã v >ÀÃ½Ã would she be able chase her teenage charges to the gate, ÃÀÌ>ÀiÜi>`ÌÀÕÞ}i]LÕÀÌÕ«Ì iwÀi° Ü] trying to convince them not to leave? How would she be Ã i½ÃVvÀÌ>Li>`Ài>`ÞÌÌ>iÌ iÜÀ`

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=.9.KGU?&Q[QWTGOGODGTVJGƂTUVYQTFU &WTKPIVJGUJQQVFKF#TOKGIKXG[QWCP[ [QW UCKF VQ #TOKG YJGP [QW ƂTUV OGV JKO QP VKRUQTUWIIGUVKQPU!čVÌÀÃÜÕ`ÌÌÞ«V>Þ the set of Free Fire? [Copley] Erm, I knew him }Ûii>V Ì iÀÌ«ÃÀ>`ÛVi>LÕÌ>VÌ}°°°Ì >Ì from before, so I think… so it would have been ÜÕ`«ÀL>LÞLivÀÜi`Õ«°čÀi >ÃÌ Ã something like, ‘Hey bro, how you doing?!’ >`Ãi«ÀiÌÌÞLÞ]ÌÞ«V>i>`}>]iÉ 9JGP FKF [QW OGGV JKO VJG ƂTUV VKOG! čVÌ >>}i° ÕÌw}ÕÀi`] i½Ã«ÀL>LÞÌ Ì Ì Ü>Ã >Ì > «ÀiiÀi vÀ >Ì iÀ w° ÛiÀÞ}`ÜÌ >}Õ]ÀLi}>w} ÌiÀ°ÌÌÕÀÃ Ü>>Ã>ÞÌÜ>ÃoÌ i >Þ ÞiwÜÌ Ì i ÕÌčÀiÃÀ`VÕÕÃÞ«ÀwViÌÜÌ Üi>«Ã° >À°Ü>Þ ÕÀÃ¶ č`½«ÀiÌÌÞ«ÀwViÌÜÌ Üi>«Ã]ÃÜ>Ã 3. 127... / >ÞÕ]Þi> ° i] ÜÜtiÜÃÃÕV >LÕÌÌ iÌ>ÀÞ° 9JGP [QW ƂTUV OGV #TOKG FKF JG &GUETKDG #TOKGoU XQKEG [Sighs] Well, EQORNKOGPV [QW QP CP[ QH VJG ƂNOU [QWoXG >}>]«>ÀÌvÌ >ÌÌ }°°° i½Ã >`Ãi]Ì>]V> DGGPKP!He did, he did! He had seen District 9 Ã Ì Üi >` i >Ã Ì Ã iÀÕÃ] VÀi`LÞ >` iÀi>ÞiÞi`Ì°č`V«iÌi` >ÃVÕi]ÃÌ ]ÃiÝÞÛVi° ½ÌÌ>iÌ >ÌÌ i on The Social Network°/ iÛiÀÞwÀÃÌÌiiÌ ÜÀ}Ü>Þ]čÀi° him I said to him, ‘Dude, I just have to tell you, 9JCVKU#TOKGoUDGUVSWCNKV[CUCPCEVQT! I saw you in Social Network and I swore it was čÃ > >VÌÀ] ] }` µÕiÃÌo }ÕiÃÃ Ì >Ì ÌÜ`vviÀiÌ`ÕìÃoV>ÌLiiÛiÞÕ«>Þi` i >Ã>`vÃÕ>ÛiiÃÃ°iÕÃÌ>ÌÕÀ>Þ >ÃÌ° LÌ }ÕÞÃ°°°ÞÕ½ÀiLÜ}Þ`À} ÌÜt½ i½ÃÌ iÀi>ì>ÜÌ Ì >Ì°i½ÃÌ«ÕÌÌ}Ì >Ì č` i Ü>Ã i] ¼/ >Ã >] Ì >Ãt½ Ì °vÞÕ>Ì The Social Network and The ÃÌ>ÀÌi`V«iÌ} wÀÃÌ]LÕÌ`½ÌµÕÌi Lone Ranger]ÃÀÌv>}vÕv Ãiv°č` iÌ >Ì° this movie he’s making fun of himself a little bit in a 9JGP[QWYGTGOCMKPIVJKUƂNOFKF[QW ViÀÌ>Ü>Þ]Þ½Ü¶i½Ã«>Þ}Ì iÃÌ ` PQVKEGKH#TOKGJCFCP[MKPFQHCEVQTN[TKVWCNU! vÌ }]LÕÌÌ iÌ iV}>ÀiÌÌi}iÌÃÜiÌ°i½Ã À iÜÕ`VV>Ã>Þ`Ì ÃÌÌi`>ViÌ }° LÕÌ i½ÃÌÌ>}ÌÌÃiÀÕÃÞ]Ü V i 9ÕÜ]ÕÃÌ>ÌÌiÌ }Ìii« ÃiiÀ}ÞÕ«° >Ã>>VÌÀ°i½Ã}ÌÌ ÃÜ iÛiÃÌ>À«>V>}i LÕÌÞÕ`½Ìviii iÃÌÀÞ}ÌLi>ÛiÃÌ>À° &WTKPI[QWTVKOGOCMKPIFree FireFKF[QW PQVKEG KH #TOKG JCF CP[ RCTVKEWNCT VCUVG HQT CP[ HQQF QT FTKPMU! ÀÀ°°° i iÃ `Àt ÕÃÌ VLi` LiV>ÕÃi Üi ÜiÀi wÀ} Ì iÃi L>Ã° }iiÀ>Þ] i V> `À q i >Þ v Ì i ÀÃ I remember the gun powder element and it was boys found out! [Laughs] That’s another thing, he «ÃÃLi Ì Ü iÝ>VÌÞ Ü >Ì Ì i Li>À` V> >ì ÃµÕiÕÀÜi]Ì°/ i«iÀviVÌ> ÜÕ`½ÛiÃiÌiÜÌ ÕÌÌ]LiV>ÕÃi}ÌÌ >Ì >ÞÜ>ÞÃ°°° VÃiÜ iÜiÜiÀi`}Ì iÃViiÃLi `Ì i +H KV JCF DGGP #TOKGoU DKTVJFC[ YJKNG Üi>«ÃLÝiÃ° QPVJGUJQQVYJCVKHCP[VJKPIYQWNF[QWJCXG %QORNGVG VJKU UGPVGPEG + YCPVGF VQ DQWIJV JKO CU C IKHV! °°° Ì } L>V Ì YQTMYKVJ$GP9JGCVNG[DGECWUGe I wanted to Ü >Ì i} Ì >ÛiÕÃiò½V>ÕÃi i½ÃÀV Ã i ÜÀÜÌ i7 i>ÌiÞLiV>ÕÃi >` i>À`vÀ `v >ÃiÛiÀÞÌ }°7 >Ì`ÞÕ}iÌÌ i}ÕÞ Þ>}iÌÌ >Ì>VÌÀÃÜ >`ÜÀi`ÜÌ i who has everything? Probably something for his raved about him more than anyone else they had `° i½` ÕÃÌ >` > L>LÞ° - Ì ÜÕ` Li LÌ iÛiÀ i>À` v° čvÌiÀ > i ÕÀ -Þ«i V> ÜÌ «À>VÌV> >` i>ÃVÕ>Ì}° >ÞLi i v Ì Ãi Ü>Ã>Ài>`Þ>}Àii}ÜÌ Ì >Ì°°°/ iÀiÜ>Ã baby harnesses? >ViVÌÌ >ÌV>½ÌÀi>ÞvÕÞiÝ«>>vÌiÀ 9GoTG CUMKPI ,CEM 4C[PQT CDQWV [QW Ì >ÌVÛiÀÃ>Ì &Q[QWVJKPMJGoNNJCXGPKEGVJKPIUVQUC[!He LiÌÌiÀ Ã>Þ Vi Ì }Ã >LÕÌ io 7i½Ài >VÌÀÃ ÞÕ >ÛiÌÃ>ÞViÌ }Ã>LÕÌi>V Ì iÀ°/ i LÕÃiÃÃÜÕ`½ÌiÌÞÕLÌV >LÕÌi>V Ì iÀ — v ÞÕ Ü>Ìi` Ì° ÕÌ Ì Ã Ã > À>Ài V>Ãi] Ü iÀi i Üi iÃÌÞ ÃÌ >Ûi > i> V > Ì >Ì “I FIGURED, HE’S Üi½Ài > °°°ÃÌ ÛiÀ > Þi>À >ÌiÀ° / >Ì½Ã iÛiÀ >««ii` Ì i LivÀi° 9Õ>i vÀi`Ã ÜÌ PROBABLY NOT VERY ViÀÌ>«i«i]ÃiÌiÃÞÕV>Ã ÜÌ «i«i° ÕÌÌ ÃÃÌ iwÀÃÌÌi«i«iÃÌii«VÌ>VÌ GOOD WITH A GUN, >i>V >°->Þ}}`LÞiÃ>ÌÕ} «>ÀÌ vÌ iL°9ÕÕÃÌÃÌ>ÀÌL`}>`ÞÕ½Ài}} OR BEING A FIGHTER. Ì ÀÕ} `vwVÕÌ ÃÌÕvv] iÃ«iV>Þ vÀ >VÌÀÃ° 9Õ Ìi`Ìw`Ì >Ì>VÌÀÃ>Ài}iiÀ>ÞÀi«i IT TURNS OUT ARMIE Ì >>Ìv«i«i]ÃÌ}iÌ iÀÞÕL`µÕÌi µÕVÞ°č`Ì iÞÕ½ÀiÃÌ>ÌÞÀ««i`>Ü>Þ° IS RIDICULOUSLY &KF[QWGXGTIGVENQUGGPQWIJVQƂPF QWVYJCV#TOKGUOGNNUNKMGCPFKHUQEQWNF[QW FGUETKDG KV! }Ì VÃi iÕ} Ì Ãi Ì i PROFICIENT WITH Li>À`°Q>Õ} ÃR/ >Ì ÃV >À>VÌiÀÕÃiò>` `½Ì Ì VÕ` ìÃVÀLi Ì] LiV>ÕÃi Ì Ü>Ã WEAPONS.” a smell that was like beard oil and gun powder —

029 21.;)4#2*':#/+0#6+104'2146

EXAMINATION BY MUGSHOTS BY DAVID JENKINS LAURÈNE BOGLIO

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SUBJECT: ,#%-n*#44;o4';014 &1$,CPWCT[ .QECVKQP.QPIOQPV%QNQTCFQ75#

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#&/+0+564#6+8'#

6*'#/'4+%#056#41(THE SOCIAL NETWORK#0&THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E.':61.5 6*''#5;.#+&$#%-8+467'51(*+5FREE FIRE%156#4+4+5*#%614,#%-4';014

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030 The Free Fire Issue — “IT ALMOST LOOKS LIKE HE IS JUST NOT DOING ANYTHING. IT’S SO EFFORTLESS AND EASY LOOKING.” —

v ÞÕ½Ài LÌ >««Þ Ì i ÃVii Ì ÕÃÌ >iÃ &KF[QWGXGTIGVENQUGGPQWIJVQ,CEM vÀ>LiÌÌiÀÃVii°čÞÜ>Þ]ÌÜ>Ã½Ìi iÜ>Ã VQ ƂPF QWV YJCV JG UOGNNU NKMG CPF KH UQ ECP Ü>}>ÀÕ`}Û}iÛiÀÞL`Þ«ÌiÀÃ° [QWFGUETKDGKV!iÃ«iÌÃÕV ÌiÌ i %CP [QW FGUETKDG ,CEMoU XQKEG! 9i> ° movie like rolling around in the rubble, he just ÀÀ°°° ÜÕ` Ã>Þ Ì½Ã > ÌÌi Ì À>ÌÞ] > ÌÌi >Ü>ÞÃ ÃiÌ io `ÀÌ° >ÃV>Þ° "ÕÌÃì v ÕÃÞ] ÛiÀÞ Ài>Ýi`] >` LiV>ÕÃi i½Ã ÀÃ ] Ì ÃiÌ] `½Ì ÀiiLiÀ >Û} >Þ Ãi° Ü>Ã ÛiÀÞ Ã}Ã}° Ì½Ã ÛiÀÞ Ì> Þ½Ü] Ì½Ã Ü½Ài>ÞÜÀÀi`>LÕÌÜ >ÌÞÃiÃ° ÌÌi° +H[QWJCFVQIQQPCVYQYGGMJQNKFC[ 9JCVKU,CEMoUDGUVSWCNKV[CUCPCEVQT! YKVJ CP[ QPG OGODGT QH VJG ECUV QT ETGY QH / i>ÌÕÀ>i>ÃiÌ >Ì iLÀ}ÃÌiÛiÀÞÌ }°i Free FireYJQYQWNFKVDGCPFYJ[!This isn’t iÃÕÃÌÃi>ÃÞÌLi>ÃViiÜÌ ] i½Ãi>ÃÞÌ ÕÃÌ LiV>ÕÃi ½ >ÃÜiÀ} Ì i µÕiÃÌÃ >LÕÌ Ü>ÌV ]Ì½Ãi>ÃÞÌÕìÀÃÌ>`Ü >Ì ÃV >À>VÌiÀÃ >V]ÌÜÕ`«ÀL>LÞLi>V°½Ûi}iÌÛÃÌ >Ài }} Ì ÀÕ} ° i ÃiiÃ Ì ivvÀÌiÃÃÞ him in Ireland, he visited me in the States, so I iL`Þ ÃV >À>VÌiÀÃÌ >ÌÌiÛiÀÃi i vii i Ì ÜÕ` ÕÃÌ Li > >ÌÕÀ> Ì }° č Vi Ã>VÌ}qÌ>Ü>ÞÃÕÃÌÃi iÃ`}Ì i À>ÌV}iÌ>Ü>ÞvÀÌÜ° À} ÌÌ }° %QORNGVG VJKU UGPVGPEG + YCPVGF VQ &WTKPI[QWTVKOGOCMKPIFree FireFKF YQTM YKVJ $GP 9JGCVNG[ DGECWUGe I wanted [QWPQVKEGYJGVJGT,CEMJCFCP[VCUVGHQTCP[ ÌÜÀÜÌ i7 i>ÌiÞLiV>ÕÃiÌ iÛiÃ RCTVKEWNCTHQQFQTFTKPMU! Yeah, the thing that of his I saw prior to working with him made him Üi «ÀL>LÞ VÃÕi` Ì i ÃÌ v Ü i Üi i>ÃV â« ÀiVÕ>ÌV°/ iwÀÃÌÛi ÜiÀi À} ÌÜ>Ã«ÀL>LÞLiiÀ°"À>i° I saw was Sightseers, and I remember thinking 9JCVCTGVJGTWNGUTGICTFKPIFTKPMKPI Ì Ã}ÕÞÃÃ`>À>`«iÀÛiÀÃiÞvÕÞqÜ QPCUGV!/ iÌ }>LÕÌ>ÃiÌÃÌ >ÌÌV>Li Ã Ì Ã Ã>À`V `Û`Õ>¶ / i Ã>Ü Kill List > «ÀiÌÌÞ ÀÕiiÃÃ «>Vi° / iÀi½Ã > ÀìÀ >` > Ü V Ü>ÃÕÃÌÃ V}>`LÕÌ>`ÌiÀÀvÞ}] ÃÌÀÕVÌÕÀiÌiÛiÀÞÌ }]>ìÛiÀÞÃ}i«iÀÃ and I was like, there is no way this is the same Ü ÃÃiÌ >ÃiÃ«iVwVLÌ >ÌÌ iÞ >Ûi `ÀiVÌÀ q Ì Ü>Ã >LÃÕÌiÞ VÀ>âÞ° / i Ã>Ü Ì`°č`vÌ >Ì«iÀÃìÃ½Ì`Ì iL]Ì i A Field in England and I was like, what is going iÌÀiÃÌÀÕVÌÕÀiÜv>>«>ÀÌ°vÞÕ½Ài`}ÞÕÀ Ì ÃÛi¶č } À} ÌÜ¶ ì>Ì job and you’re doing it right, for the most part it’s mushrooms? What the shit! Then I met him and >«ÀiÌÌÞiiÌ«>Vi°/ >ÌLi}Ã>`]ÜiiÛiÀ i Ü>Ã ÕÃÌ i Ì Ã ÃÕ«iÀ Vi] ÃvÌ Ã«i] Ài>Þ`À>ÃiÌ°"Þ>vÌiÀÜ>À`Ã° Ã>ÀÌ}ÕÞ>`Ì iÀiÜ>Ã½ÌÕV ÜÕ`½Ì` +H KV JCF DGGP ,CEMoU DKTVJFC[ QP VJG ÌÜÀÜÌ ° UJQQV YJCV KH CP[VJKPI YQWNF [QW JCXG *QYHCTYQWNF[QWIQHQT$GP9JGCVNG[! DQWIJV JKO! " ] Ì >Ì½Ã > Ài>Þ }` i>] ÜiÌ vÀ Ã č}iiÃ Ì À} Ì°°° µÕiÃÌ° i iÃ ÌiV Þ] }>`}iÌÞ ÃÌÕvv° >ÞLi that’s pretty far i>VÃ«i>iÀÀÃiÌ }°`Õ]Ì >Ì½Ã «ÀiÌÌÞLÀ}Ã½ÌÌ¶"À>ÞLi½`}iÌ i> >ÜV >À]>Vi>ÜV >À½V>ÕÃi i½ÃÀÃ ]>` ¼-?Ìi½Ã ÜÌ iÞÃ>Þ i]}`LÞi]V iiÀÃ°°°

031 21.;)4#2*':#/+0#6+104'2146

EXAMINATION BY MUGSHOTS BY DAVID JENKINS LAURÈNE BOGLIO

FILE NO: .9. ' (GDTWCT[

SUBJECT: 5*#4.61n8'40o%12.'; &1$0QXGODGT .QECVKQP,QJCPPGUDWTI5QWVJ#HTKEC

REFERENCE: 2GTUQPCNN[TGSWGUVGFD[5GPKQT&GVGEVKXG&CXKF,GPMKPU WPFGTEQXGT GFKVQTKCNFGXGNQROGPVEGPVTG.QPFQP7-

#&/+0+564#6+8'#

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%CP[QWFGUETKDG5JCTNVQoUXQKEG! Yeah, it ÌÀi>`>°-½` >ÛiÌLÕÞ >iÞ ÃÕ`Ãi>čÕÃÌÀ>>>`> ÕÌV «iÀÃ}Ì *>iÌ}ÕìÌÀi>`° Ì}iÌ iÀ >` ÌÕÀi` LÌ Ì iÀ >VViÌÃ Ãì &KF[QWIGVENQUGGPQWIJVQGXGTƂPF ÕÌ >` «ÕÌ Ì i > LÕiÌ° / i ÞÕ >Ûi QWV YJCV 5JCTNVQ UOGNNU NKMG! He smells like a - >ÀÌ½Ã>VViÌ° -ÕÌ čvÀV>°7 >ÌiÛiÀÌ iÞÃii° 9JCV KU 5JCTNVQoU DGUV SWCNKV[ CU CP +H[QWJCFVQIQQPCVYQYGGMJQNKFC[ actor? ÀÀo i½Ã }Ì > >LÕ`>Vi v iiÀ}Þ YKVJ CP[ QPG OGODGT QH VJG ECUV QT ETGY QH >`V >ÀÃ>°i½Ã>Ü>ÞÃ°čÜ>ÞÃ]>Ü>ÞÃ° Free FireYJQYQWNFKVDGCPFYJ[!č ]vÕV} i½Ã i Ì i vÕV} ÕÀ>Vi ÕÞ] ÀÕ} i>]Ì >Ì½Ã>ÌÕ} µÕiÃÌtvi>` > >ÀÕ`°iÕÃÌ >Ã>ÃÜÌV Ì >ÌÃ>ÞÜ>ÞÞÕ Q ÕÀ« ÞRÀi>`čÀiÜiÌ>ÞÜ iÀivÀÌÜ y«Ì° ÕÌÌ½ÃLÀ>ÌÌ Õ} °ÛiÌ° ÜiiÃ]ivÕÃÜÕ`½Ì>iÌL>V°/ >Ì½ÃvÀ +P[QWTVKOGOCMKPIFree FireFKF[QW ÃÕÀi° Ì ] Þi> ] iÃÕÃo / >Ì½Ã >À`° v ÜiÌ PQVKEG YJGVJGT 5JCTNVQ JCF CP[ VCUVG HQT CP[ away with Sam [Riley] for two weeks, we’d be dead RCTVKEWNCTHQQFQTFTKPMU! ÀÀ°°°ÜÜ >ÌčÀi >vÌiÀÌÜ`>ÞÃ°9i> ]Ì Ì½` >ÛiÌLičÀi° [Hammer] said about me in that one! Sharlto… it’s %QORNGVG VJKU UGPVGPEG + YCPVGF VQ >À`ÌÃ>Þ>VÌÕ>Þ]`½ÌÀiiLiÀ>ÞÃ«iVwV YQTMYKVJ$GP9JGCVNG[DGECWUGHe’s a total Ì }Ì >Ì- >ÀÌÜÕì>ÌÀ`À° }iÕÃ° i½Ã ÕÃÌ > ÌÌ> }iÕÃ Þ «° #TOKGUC[UVJCV[QWJCFCEGTVCKPRWDe Ì Ã ÕìÀÃÌ>`} v Ü >Ì >iÃ Vi> / iÀi>Ì >ÃÌiÀ]Þi> ° relevant is totally profound and I think that when &KF5JCTNVQLQKP[QWQPVJQUGUGUUKQPU! «i«iL>V>ÌÌ iiÃv-VÀÃiÃi]/>À>Ì ] LiV>ÕÃi - >ÀÌ½Ã Ì > ÃiÃÃ >° i >`Ì Ãi`vw>iÀÃ]ÌÜLiÛiÀÞ >À` ìÃ½Ì`À°i½Ã>«iiÀ°-vÀÌ >ÌÀi>Ã ÌÌVÕì iÌ >ÌVÛiÀÃ>Ì°i½ÃÕÃÌ `½ÌÌ ½ÛiiÛiÀÃii i>Ì°iVÕ`Li LÀ>Ì]ÕÃÌLÀ>Ì°Ã`Ìi«iÀ>iÌ>` >Û>«Ài° his personality and his totally, like… he just has +H KV JCF DGGP 5JCTNVQoU DKTVJFC[ YJKNG >ÃiÃi>ÌÌÌÕìÌÜ>À`Ãw°9½Ü]ÕÃÌ QP VJG UJQQV YJCV KH CP[VJKPI YQWNF [QW doesn’t really have any interest in selling himself JCXGDQWIJVJKOCUCIKHV! What would I have ÕÌ Ì `} ÃiÌ } L} >` ViÀV> vÀ LÕ} Ì ¶ `½Ì Ü° č}>] ½` >Ûi Ì Ì iÃ>ivÌ°č iV>ÀiÃ>LÕÌÃ>}wÃ i Ì >LÕÌÌ Ãi°Ì ÜÕ` >ÛiLÕ} Ì wants to make, and I think it’ll mean he’ll just be > L >LÕÌ ÀÃ VÕÌÕÀi Q>Õ} ÃR LiV>ÕÃi one of those people forever his understanding of Ireland and Irish people is ÕÃÌÀi>ÞÌÜÃÌi`°Ì½ÃÌVÀÀiVÌ°iÜiÌÛiÀ Ì Ài>` >` i ÃiÌ ÕÃ L>V > Ûì v ÃÌi}ÌÃiÕÃVÌ >Ì½ÃÕÀi iLÕ} Ì > >ÌÌ i>À«ÀÌ°č` iÜ>ÃÜi>À}>y>Ì V>«>` i >`>Ã i>} °ÌÜ>ÃÕÃÌi]Ì >Ì½Ã

033 LWLies presents… A celebration of The London Film School When you watch a movie, do you ever stop to think about all the amazing talent behind it? The London Film School has helped to birth some of the world’s most remarkable and unique filmmakers. Here we celebrate five LFS graduates from the past, and five for the future. The Old School

1. PEDRO GONZALEZ-RUBIO V >À>VÌiÀÃÌÕ`Þ]A Simple Life° ÕÌÌ iwÜÌ Ü V Ã i>ì Pedro graduated in 2003 with a PgDip in Filmmaking iÀ>ÀÜ>Ã£nÓ½Ã Boat People]Ü V LWLiesÀiViÌÞVÕÌi` A mercurial talent born in Belgium to Mexican parents, this >}Ì i£ää}Ài>ÌiÃÌÛiÃ>ìLÞ>vi>i`ÀiVÌÀ° w>iÀÃ ÌÌv>iÓäänÜÌ ÃÃÌÕ}vi>ÌÕÀiìLÕÌ] Alamar°/ iwVLiÃ`VÕiÌ>ÀÞ>`wVÌÌÌiv> 4. DUNCAN JONES Ü>ÞÜ>À`v>Ì iÀÃ«i`}Ìi>ÀiÌiwÃ } ÕÌÜÌ Ã Duncan graduated in 2000 iÃÌÀ>}i`Ã°â>iâ,ÕL >Ã}iÌ«À`ÕVi>>ÀÀ>Þ č`ÀiVÌÀÜ ii`ÃÌÀ`ÕVÌ] >Û}ÃÌÀi`Ì i}>ÌiÃ vÜÀÌ >Ì >ÃÛÃÌi`viÃÌÛ>Ã>VÀÃÃÌ i}Li]>` i >ÃÌ>i vÞÜ`Ü i>>}}ÌÀiÌ>Ì >ÌVÛiÌi`«iÀÃ> Ì iÃÃi>Ài`>Ì->` >ÃvÀ}i`>ÕµÕi«iÀÃ>ÃÌÞi° w>}ÌÕV °iÃ½ÃÓääÓÃ ÀÌ]Whistli]>ÕVi` Ã ÌiÀiÃÌ}iÀi]>` i >ÃÃVi}iÌ>i>ÌiÀÃÌi>À 2. OLIVER HERMANUS chamber piece, Moon]>ÀÛiÌ}ÌiV Ì ÀiÀ]Source Code]>` Oliver graduated in 2009 with an MA in Filmmaking >}}>ÌVivviVÌÃv>Ì>Ã>]Warcraft: The Beginning°iÃÌ>`Ã>Ã / ÃÃÕ«ÀiiÞÌ>iÌi`-ÕÌ čvÀV>`ÀiVÌÀÃ«ÀÕ}vÀiÃ vÀ ÌiÃÌ>iÌÌÌ ÃiÜ Ì wÃV ÃÌ iÃi«ÀiÃiÀÛiv Ì i}>ÌiÃvÌ i-ÜÌ >vi>ÌÕÀiShirley Adams®ÕìÀ Ã >ÀÌÃÌÃ}ÞÌ>i`ÃÞVÀ>ÌVìÛiÃ° iÝÌÕ«] >ÀÃ]Ü V ÜiÌ> i>Ì ÞÌÕÀvÌ i}L>viÃÌÛ>VÀVÕÌ° Üi½ÃiiMuteÜ V Ã ÃÞÃÌiÀÕÃÃiµÕivÃÀÌÃÌMoon. -ViÌ i] i >Ã}ivÀÃÌÀi}Ì ÌÃÌÀi}Ì ]ÜÜ}ÜÌ ÃìÛ>ÃÌ>Ì}}>ÞÌ ii``À>>]Beauty]Ü V ìLÕÌi`>Ì 5. HORACE OVÉ Ì i >iÃiÃÌÛ>]>`Ì iÓä£x]ÕÛi}The Endless Horace graduated in 1968 River6iVi]>w>LÕÌÌÜÃÌÀ>}iÀÃÕÌ}}Àiv° "vÌÃ>Þ>V iÛiiÌÃ]Ì i-V>>ÞV>Ì >Û}ÕÀÌÕÀi` Ì iÌ>iÌLi `Ì iwÀÃÌvi>ÌÕÀii}Ì wVÌw`ÀiVÌi`LÞ> 3. ANN HUI >Vw>iÀ ÀÌ>°À>Vi"Ûj½Ã>ÃÌÕ`}£ÇÈÜÀ] Ann graduated 1975 Pressure] >ÃÃÌivÌÃLÌiÌ iÌiÀÛi}Þi>ÀÃ]>` čÕ}À>`Õ>Ìi`vÀ-£Çx]>`Ã iÀi>Ãi Ì`>ÞÃÌ>`Ã>Ã>LiV >ÀvÀVi>ÌVÀi«ÀiÃiÌ>ÌÃv v Ì i ÃÌ «ÀÌ>Ì >` Û>Õi` ÛViÃ čÃ> Vi>] À>Vi>`}À>Ì°"Ûj >ÃÃVi}À>ÛÌ>Ìi`>Ü>ÞvÀwÌ >Û}`ÀiVÌi`>w«ÀiÌÌÞÕV iÛiÀÞÌ iÀÞi>ÀÌ`>Ìi° ÛiÌÌ i>ÌÀi>`« Ì}À>« Þ]ÞiÌ ÃÜÀVÌÕiÃÌ Ìi«À>ÀÞ>ÕìViÃÜLiÃÌÜÕvÀ iÀÛ}Óä££ ÃÌivÀÌ iÛÌ>vÀ>ÌÛiÌÀ>} iÀiViÛi`>ÌÌ i-°

034 The Free Fire Issue The New Class

1. KOBY ADOM vÀ`ÀÜ}°iÌ iLiViÃiÌÀ>Vi`LÞ iÀ]ÕÃÌ>Ã iÃ Koby graduated in 2016 LÞÌ iLÀ`Ã i« Ì}À>« Ã°/ ÃÌ}ÕiV iiwì«VÌÃ> LÞč`½ÃHouse GirlÌiÃÌ iÃÌÀÞv> ÀÌÃ >>>}À }À}iÕÃ>«>iÃiÜ`>`]>`V >À>`Ã«>ÞÃ>>VvÀ >iìviÀ > >®]Ü ÛÃÌÃ iÀ>ÕÌ >> VVÌ}°i>ì>Ü ««}£äwÃ`ÕÀ} ÃÌi>Ì >`ÃVvÀÌi`LÞÌ iiÜÃiÌvVÕÌÕÀ> >LÌÃ° >ÃÌ}ÀV -]>`Üi «i iVÌÕiÃÌLi>Ã«ÀwVvÕÌÕÀi° V >À>VÌiÀÃ>`ÃÕLÌiÃÌÀÞÌi}]Ì Ãi« ÞÌi`ÀiVÌÀ`Ã«>ÞÃ Ì i>LÌÞÌ«Õ>ÌÌ i i>ÀÌÃÌÀ}Ã°/ iwÃÌ iÌ À`č` 4. CHAO LIU >ì`ÕÀ} ÃÌi>ÌÌ i-]vÜ}Deborah’s Letter Chao graduated in 2016 >`Closure°Õ`}}vÀÌ iÕµÕiÃ} Ì ÃwÃV A Minor Matterì«VÌÃÌ iÃÌÀÕ}}iv> ÕÃi>` i} }À>`Õ>Ì«ÀiVÌ]Ì ÃÜÀÌiÀÉ`ÀiVÌÀ >Ã«iÌÞÀiÌVi° Ü Þi>ÀÃÌLi>«>ÀÌvÌ ivivÌ iv>ÞÃ iVi>ÃvÀ° 7ÀÌiÀÉ`ÀiVÌÀ >ÕÃ iÃ>} ÌÌ i>À}>Ãi`«i«i 2. DORNAZ HAJIHA ÕÃ}V«iÝvÀ>}>`>}iÀÞ°/ iÌ`«iÀvÀ>VivÀ Dornaz graduated in 2016 i>`>VÌÀiÃÃ- ÞÕ- i>ÃÃÜ ÞiÌ À>}]>`ÕLÀ}Ã À>>ÜÀÌiÀÉ`ÀiVÌÀ À>â> >}À>`Õ>Ìi`vÀÌ i-ÜÌ ÕÌ>ÌiÌ>ÌÛi>ÌÕÀ>iÃÃÌ ÃÀV V >À>VÌiÀÃÌÕ`Þ° Ì i>ÃÌÕ`}Ã ÀÌ]Marziyeh°"Ì iÃÕÀv>Vi]ÌÃ>LÕÌ>VÕ«i >V>ÀÜ i>`Ì>Ü>i]ÞiÌÌ iw`ÕLiÃ>Ã>>ÃÌ 5. HAMID AHMADI i`Ì>Ì>ÀÀ>}i°- iìÃÌÀ>ÌiÃ>>ÃÌiÀvÕÌiV V> Hamid graduated in 2016 >LÌÞ>`>ÀiÃÌÀ>ÌÀiÃViÌvÌ iÀ>>`ÀiVÌÀčÃ} >À >`č >`Ã ÜV>Ãi>À>Ì iÀÕÀÌ `ÝÃÌÕ`ÞvVÕÌÕÀ> >À >`Ü À>>>ÃÌiÀV>ÃÃ>Ì-®°> >½ÃÃÌÀiViÌÃ ÀÌ] integration in short, In the Hills°ÌÌiÃv>}À>Ì>ÌÌi«Ì} Marlon]ÃVÀiii`>ÌÌ iÓä£Ç`- ÀÌiÃÌÛ>° Ìw`ÃiÌ }`vviÀiÌÌw Ã`>ÞÃ°iViÃÕ«Ã ÀÌv >ÞÌÀÕiÃ>ÌÃv>VÌ°čìÌ>V i`Ì>VÞ«iÀi>ÌiÃÌ iw] 3. TOSHIYUKI ICHIHARA >ÞÌ ÀÕ} Ì i«ÀÌ>}ÃÌ½ÃiÝ«ÀiÃÃiÃÃv>Vi>`Ì i Toshiyuki graduated in 2016 ÃÌÀ««i`L>V`>}Õi°/ i`ÀiVÌÀÀivÀ>ÃvÀÕ`}}Ì i iÀ>`}vÀÌ iÜÀ`v`VÕiÌ>ÀÞ]/Ã ÞÕV >À> V >À>VÌiÀ]ÃÌi>`ÛÌiÌ i>ÕìViÌVÌi«>Ìi Ãvi° ÜÀÌiÃ]`ÀiVÌÃ>ì`ÌÃÌ i>ÕÃ}>«>iÃiÃ ÀÌw]My Bird]>LÕÌ>>>ÌiÕÀLÀ`Ü>ÌV iÀÜ Ã>ÛiÃ>iVViÌÀV}À Visit lfs.org.uk for details of enrolment

ADVERTORIAL 035 WORDS BY WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY

QT C OQOGPV KP $GP 9JGCVNG[oU ƂNO High- footballer keeping faith with his mates while running the Rise, the camera lingers on a child reading a VGCOoUƂTOUOCUJKPIKPIQCNUQPVJGRKVEJCPFHCEGUQP comic. Nothing too crazed about that. Except that VJGVGTTCEGU6JGWPƃKPEJKPIN[XKQNGPVUVTKRUYGTGFTCYP the comic is ‘Action’ and the child is Toby – the block’s with lurid precision. They were leavened with broad, anti- cold-eyed witness to just the kind of brutal violence and authoritarian humour and sly digs at political leaders. The social breakdown that powered its strips, and which heroes were exploited, powerless, victimised, even when eventually got it shut down after less than a year in they were sports stars or secret agents. They kicked back print. It’s a throwaway shot but it transported me all the KPVJGQPN[YC[VJG[EQWNFsYKVJRNGPV[QHDNQQFƃ[KPI way back to 1976 – not just because the kid has a teeth and dying victims screaming, ‘Aieeeeeeeoooooo!’ terrible haircut, but because he seems as profoundly It would be tempting say that in all of this angst and unmoved by what’s on the page as he is by what’s going WNVTCXKQNGPEG+UCYCTGƃGEVKQPQHCYQTNF+EQWNFTGNCVG on around him. to, one previously denied by the square, dishonest adult It was also the year when comic book behemoth IPC world. But that wouldn’t be true. For one thing, I was only offered Pat Mills, later co-creator of 2000 AD, the chance CDQWVUGXGP(QTCPQVJGTYJGP+RKEMGFWRVJCVƂTUVKUUWG VQNCWPEJCPGYVKVNG+VYCUCPQRRQTVWPKV[JGWUGF|VQ of ‘Action’, I was far from the bombs in London; I’d never move away from the endless re-treads of World War even seen a football hooligan, or a skinhead. While Mills Two that were the mainstay of boys’ comics and take YCUVCRRKPIKPVQVJGƂNVJCPFITQYKPIHWT[KP'PINCPF inspiration from what was going on around him. Because, I was growing up on the tiny, baking hot Mediterranean GXGP CU VJG HWVWTG DGEMQPGF CPF VJG RCTMU ƂNNGF YKVJ island of Malta where news from ‘home’ – a place I barely bikini-clad sun-worshippers, the ticking of the clock was remembered – was secondary to ex-pat cricket matches, IGVVKPINQWFGT+PƃCVKQPYCURGTEGPVWPGORNQ[OGPV amateur dramatics and dances at the beach club. had topped a million and more than a dozen IRA bombs The tear-ups and bovver boys of ‘Lefty’ and ‘Kids Rule had struck London before the summer had even begun. OK’ were completely exotic to me and my friends as the What Mills came up with was revolutionary. When Spinball players of ‘Death Game 1999’ (tagline: ‘They ‘Action’ arrived in February of ’76, it was informed by the call it a sport… it’s more like plain murder!’). Which may anxiety of the age and drew on the movies for inspiration, be why our little gang of junior cognoscenti lapped mainlining Rollerball into ‘Death Game 1999’ and Sam it up; thanks to the island’s laissez-faire approach to Peckinpah’s Cross of Iron to ‘Hellman of Hammer Force’. regulation, we’d already seen Rollerball CPF QWT ƂTUV Elsewhere, ‘Look Out For Lefty’ told the touching tale of a onscreen boobies courtesy of That Lucky Touch.

036 The Free Fire Issue 037

And we got Grizzly that summer. long before it opened back in England. The violence in ‘Action’ had us fascinated, Ì ÀÀwi`]ÕÃÌiÌÌi/LÞ°Ƃ`Ü ÞÌ¶ ÛiÀÞÜii the Phantom F4s from the base faced off against Soviet bombers a few miles out to sea in a high-stakes game of chicken. The grown-ups laughed about how our pilots got VÃi iÕ} Ì Ì i /Õ«iÛÃÌ yV 6Ã >Ì Ì iÀ VÀiÜÃ° Destruction was in the air we breathed – like a constant L>V}ÀÕ` Õ]ÞÕ`½ÌÌViÌÕÌÌÃÌ«Ã° / iÌ iÀiÜ>ÃÌ iÃ >À°¼>Ü½y««i`-«iLiÀ}½Ã monster movie on its head and added a spurious iÛÀiÌ>ÃÌ ÌÜÃÌ Ì >Ì }>Ûi Ì i i«ÞÕÃ Ài>Ì 7 ÌiViÃiÌV «ÌÃÜ>ÞÌ ÀÕ} Ì iVÕÀt®ViÌÀi pages each week with good conscience. If our parents >`Ã«ÌÌi`>v>ÞvÀi>Ì7 ÌiÃvv i>À>*Ì° }>Vi`>Ì¼ƂVÌ½]Ì iÞÌÕÌÌi`Ì >ÌÜiÜiÀiÌÞÕ} i° Þ`>`Ã>`°ƂìvÀ>iÃÌÕVÞ`]v vÀ Ì] LÕÌ Þ ¼>Ü½ >ì ÕÃ ÜìÀ v Ì iÞ ÜiÀi a diver inside the shark’s mouth, impaled on its teeth. He’s right. The shark lurked in our imaginations, if not in the ÃÌ >Ûi] }>â} `Ü ÀÀÀ >Ì Ã Ü L`Þ Li} Ü>ÌiÀÜ iÀiÜiÃ«iÌÃÕV Ìi]ÕÀÃÞi}Ã>` i>Ìi°iÃVÃVÕÃvLi}ìÛÕÀi`°ÌÜ>ÃÃwiÞ little feet kicking and wriggling above silent depths that captured, in colour, as if from the inside of the creature’s v>ì`Ì`>ÀiÃÃ°"ÕÀÕÃÕ>Ã«ÌÃÌ>Õi>ÃÞ maw that for a long time I would think about that image at i`}i°>Ü>` ÃÜiiÞÀ>«>}iÃ}ÌÕìÀÕÀ } Ì]ÌiÀÀwi`]iÝVÌi`]Ài«ÕÃi`°ÀÌÞÞi>ÀÃ>ÌiÀ]Ì½ÃÃÌ Ã°-ii >`Ãii>>À}iwÕÃÌLiÞ`Ì i>ÀiÀ the picture that comes to mind when I think of ‘Action’. LÕÞÃ]ÌÜ>ÃÃ>`°ƂLi>V VÕLÌ iÀÌ vÌ iÃ>` Ƃ`Ì i]ÞÃÌiÀÕÃÞ]ÌÜ>Ã}i°Ƃ«ÀiÃÃLÀiÜi` Ü>ÃÃÌ>}Ã >ÀiÌÃ°Ƃ>ÀVÀiÜyÞ}L>VvÀ-VÞ À>«>VÛiÀÜ >Ì/ i-ÕV>i`¼Ì iÃiÛi«iÞ nightmare’ had seen ‘Action’s name echo through the House of Commons as an iÝ>«i v > Ì >Ì Ü>Ã ÜÀ} ÜÌ Ì iVÕÌÀÞ°/ iVV½Ãi`Ü>ÃÃ swift, its last issue – number 37 – had been printed and was pulped when IPC pulled the plug on its Õ«ÃÌ>ÀÌ ÃÕVViÃÃ° i ÞÕÀ iÜ favourite band who implode after three singles, ‘Action’ took over our lives for one long summer and Ì iLi`ÕÌviÝÃÌiVi° When our plane door opened Ì > "ÝvÀ`Ã Ài >Àwi` 1979 it was snowing. At Kings Cross station, the platform café’s À>` «>Þi` ¼7Ü½ LÞ >Ìi ÕÃ Ü iyVi`Ì ÀÕ} >Star Wars comic and kicked cigarette butts >ÀÕ` Ì i iÕ yÀ° ÜiÌ outside, through the diesel fumes >`ÕÌ«>ÃÌÌ iÌ>ÝÀ>Ì >Ì Ì i i>ÀL>V i`wVi v -Ì *>VÀ>Ã°/ i ÕÀÀÞ}VÕÌiÀÃ] the punks and the drunks and the derelicts were all huddled ÕìÀ > }ÀiÞ ÃÞ° ÛiÀÞÌ } Ü>Ã Ã `ÀÌÞ° / i «i«i ÜiÀi Ã «>i° / iÞ i` ° ÕÌ Ì iÀ >ÝiÌÞ] >}}ÀiÃÃ >` iiÀ}Þ were familiar. I'd seen it all in the «>}iÃv¼ivÌÞ½]¼`Ã,Õi"½>` ‘Dredger’. ‘Action’ hadn’t been a v>Ì>ÃÞ>vÌiÀ>ÆÌÜ>Ã>LiÜiÌ iÀ for the coming age

038 The Free Fire Issue

WORDS BY WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY

he phrase ‘never use a toothpick when an axe position before springing back up to rejoin the fray. YQWNFUWHƂEGoOKIJVTGCFKN[DGCRRNKGFVQVJG At his peak Woo didn’t build set pieces – he emptied CEVKQPEKPGOCQH,QJP9QQ*GKUCƂNOOCMGT CTOQWTKGUWPNGCUJGFƂTGUVQTOU YJQYQWNFTCTGN[ƂPKUJUQOGQPGQHHYKVJQPGENGCP + YCU C [QWPI OQXKGIQGT FWTKPI VJG ƃQYGTKPI QH shot if he could use a hundred juicy squibs instead. Hong Kong cinema that preceded the 1997 Handover And given his druthers, he might just prefer to bring VQ /CKPNCPF %JKPC CEEQORCPKGF D[ C OCUU ƃKIJV a bazooka to the dance. When a henchman gets to Hollywood by many of the best and brightest capped in one of Woo’s peak-period action movies, artists including, in 1993, Woo. Not a week goes it is considered good form for the shooter to keep by that I don’t feel grateful for the fact that, for at on pumping lead into his victim as they go into a least once, I experienced what it was for cinema convulsive Saint Vitus Dance, shedding fat drops of itself to feel young. By the time that I was midway blood like a Golden Retriever who’s just been for a through high school, Woo had already achieved swim. He’ll then follow the moving target corpse as it something like household name status, thanks in no tumbles off the side of a promontory, or rolls down a small part to the phenomenon that was 1997’s Face/ stairwell. For a character with a more prominent role, Off 6JG HQNNQYKPI UGPVGPEG KU KPENWFGF QP VJG ƂNOoU VJGƂTUVHGYUJQVUECWIJVCTGLWUVYCTPKPIUCEWGVQ 9KMKRGFKC RCIG p6[RKECNN[ VJKU ƂNO KU TCPMGF COQPI ƃQRFQYPCPFFGNKXGTTGVWTPƂTGHTQOCTGEWODGPV the best movies on planet Earth by its inhabitants.”)

040 The Free Fire Issue 041 oo has remained shoulder to the some lovable urchins Tsui Hark as a chin-whiskered grandpa. plow through the subsequent Ì Ü>Ã /ÃÕ] Ü 7 >` iÌ £ÇÇ Ã ÀÌÞ >vÌiÀ Ì i decades, though after his career ÞÕ}iÀ>½ÃÀiÌÕÀvÀ iÜ9À ÌÞ]Ü ÕìÀÜÀÌi Ì i -Ì>ÌiÃ ÃÌ>i` q Ì iÌÀiÞ Woo’s breakthrough through his Film Workshop Co. Ltd. ìÃiÀÛi`ÞÆÌ iivÀWindtalkers *À`ÕVÌV«>Þ]>ÛiLÕÌvÀÌ iL>ÃV>ÌiÀ>Ã apologia starts here – he began to v > w Ì >Ì LÌ i >`Ài`] Õ} }½Ã-ÌÀÞ v > work in and for the spirit-crushing Discharged PrisonerqÌ Õ} Ì iÀiÃÕÌ}wÜ>ÃÕi >>` `ÕÃÌÀÞ° Ûi v Ì vÀ >ÞÌ }Ì >Ì >`ViLivÀi° Ì i «>Þ v iÝÌiÀ> vÀViÃ 7½Ã / i wÀÃÌ VÕ«i v ÌiÃ Ì >Ì i>` y>Ã iÃ £nÈ½Ã A stock might have fallen, for his brand of over-the-top-of-the- Better TomorrowÌ iÃ ÌÕÌÃ>ÀiÀi>ÌÛiÞÀiÃÌÀ>i`q> Ì«w>}Ãv>ÀÀiÛi`vÀÌ i`VÌ>ÌiÃv`Ã >LÕÃ LÞ > />Ü>iÃiÃÞ`V>Ìi] > `>««} >ÌÌi«Ì >Ã >` Ã >Þ V> `VÕÀi>Ã Ì >Ì i` ÃÜ>Þ }i >ÜÀÞ q LÕÌ Ì i >À] Ì i y««>Ì] >ÌV ÃÌV Ì ÀÕ} ÕV vÌ iÓ£ÃÌViÌÕÀÞqÌ Õ} Ì iÌìÃ>ÞLi V iÜ} ` Ì i `ÕÃÌiÀ >ViÌ ÃÌÀ>} Ì vv Ì i L>V ÌÕÀ}]>`ÃiÌ }i i7 i>ÌiÞ½ÃFree Fire carries a sulfurous whiff of Woo’s old thousand-gun salute fusillades. -Ì]vi>ÀÜi>Ài>ÌÀÃvÃ}Ã} ÌvÕÃÌ Ü}`7 Ü>Ã>Ì ÃLiÃÌqÜ V ÃÌÃ>Þ]Ì iÛiÀÞLiÃÌ° 7 Ü>Ã LÀ Õ>}â Õ >Ì Ì i i} Ì v Ì i ÕÃÌÀiÛÕÌ]>vÌiÀÜ V Ã ÀÃÌ>v>Þyi`Ì }}]Ü iÀiÌ iÞÃÕÀÛÛi`Ì i>ÃÃÛiVy>}À>Ì Ì >ÌÃÜi«ÌÌ ÀÕ} Ì iÃ >ÌÞÌÜÃv- i« i£xÎ° ÃVÛiÀÃÌVi>V>ii>ÀÞ]>` iÜ>Ã>}Ì i ÞÕ}/ÕÀÃ}}Ü }À>ÛÌ>Ìi`ÌÜ>À`ÃÌ iwÃ v*>ÌÀVÕ}}]>w>iÀÜ ½`>>}i`Ì>LÃÀL Ãi v Ì i ÃÌÞi >` >LÌÃ v Û>ÀÕÃ >Ì> iÜ 7>ÛiÃ>`ÀiyiVÌÌ i Ã >ÌiÃi>}Õ>}i«VÌÕÀiÃ° / iÃiÜiÀi>ìÜ iÃÌL}iÞV>«À`ÕVÌÃ] i Ì i ÜÕÝ>«> >` Õ>}i «iÀ> ÛiÃ V} ÕÌ v Ì i - >Ü ÀÌ iÀÃ½ ÛiÌÜ ÃÌÕ`Ã] ÜiÀi >ì in Mandarin, and according to hidebound formula. After bearing witness to the 1967 Hong Kong riots – later depicted in 1990’s Bullet in the Headq7}Ì ÃwÀÃÌ`ÕÃÌÀÞ}}>Ì >Ì >Þ-ÌÕ`Ã]Ì iÛi`Ì- >Ü]Ü iÀi iLiV>i> >ÃÃÃÌ>ÌÌ`ÀiVÌÀ >} i One-Armed Swordsman, of Alain Delon in Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Samouraï, gets Five Deadly Venoms®] Ü >ì >VÌ «VÌÕÀiÃ Ì >Ì his big number, and there’s no doubt that Woo is entering i«Þi`>À}iÞ>iV>ÃÌÃ° ÕV >ÀÌi` ÌiÀÀÌÀÞ° >À LÀ>âiÞ ÃÌÀìÃ À} Ì Ì Ã Woo made his directorial debut with 1974’s martial iiÞ½Ã>À]«>Ì}L>VÕ«Üi>«Ã«ÌÌi`«>ÌÃ>Ã arts programmer The Young Dragon] >` ÛiÀ Ì i iÝÌ he seems to be petting his “date” through her blue silk ÌiÞi>ÀÃ iÜ>Ã>ÌÜÀw}ÃÜÀ`w} ÌÃ]V>LÕÌ V vv] > V>«ÌÕÀi` ÛÕ«ÌÕ>ÀÞ Ã° Ì½Ã Ì ÕÃÌ > Vi`Þ] >` iÛiÀÞÌ } LÕÌ Ì i ÃÀÌ v VÌi«À>ÀÞ >ÌÌiÀv}iÌÌ}Ì iLì]LÕÌv`}ÌÜÌ ÃÌÞi° gangster dramas that he would become famous for. Still, / i] Ì i } yÀ\ /Ü `Õ> Üiì` iÀiÌÌ> ÓÃ Ã>ÌiÀ«ÀiVVÕ«>ÌÃÜiÀi>Ài>`ÞÜi«>ViÌ i L>À}>Ü>ÞVÃiÕ«]Ì i«ÃÌÃìV>«V>««}>Ã likes of 1979’s Last Hurrah for Chivalry] > ÜÕÝ> ÃiÌ > the deepest magazines in all of cinema are emptied into ÜÀ`vÃÕìÀi`VìÃÜ ÃiÌÌiÜÕ``v>ÀÞÜi yiÃ ÞÌ>À}iÌÃ°-ÕLÃiµÕiÌÃVÕvyiÃvviÀÜ >ÌÜLiVi vÀ>7ÀiÌÀÃ«iVÌÛi°7 >ÃÃ«ivÌ i«ÀÝÌÞ v>>À >Ã«iVÌÃ v Ì i 7 Ài«iÀÌÀi\ ÃiÀÃ>ÕÌÃ >` LiÌÜii Ã}ÕÃ>`}>}ÃÌiÀÃwÃ>`V>ÃÃV> iÃi slides and headlong dives between safe covers and bodies vÀi]>«Ì>ìiÝ«VÌ>ÌÌ i«i}v£n½ÃJust yÕ} ÜÞÞ LÞ iÝ«ÃÃ >` ÌÌi ÛiÌÛi }À>Vi Heroes, in which a Peking opera performance under the notes, like Chow letting off rounds while gliding through a VÀi`ÌÃvÀiÃ >`ÜÃÌ iw½ÃÃÌÀÞv>VÀiÃÞ`V>ÌiÜ>À «>À}}>À>}i>Û}`Þ° of succession. A Better Tomorrow was a massive hit, and John Woo ƂvÌiÀ ÃìLÕÌ7Ã ÕÌÌi`LiÌÜiiì>ÀÛiÃÌ had a new métierqÌÀÞ}Ì`Ì iÃ>iÌ }>}>]LÕÌ >` i> ÌÞ E Ã ° Ã wÀÃÌ ÀV¼iÃV¼i ÀiÃ°ÀÃi>ÀÌÃÌÃÜÀ}Ì i>Ý>ÃÌì i>ÛÞ À`>Vi >VÌ Ûi] Heroes Shed No Tears, Ì iV«ÕÃÌÌ«Ì iÃiÛiÃ]Ì}>Ü>ÞÃL}}iÀ ÃÌ>ÀÀ} ``Þ >Ã > ÃìÀ v vÀÌÕi ÃÃ Ì and better, becomes a kind of imprisonment – take for Ì««i>/ >`ÀÕ}À`]Ü>ÃÃ Ì£n{]Ì iÃ iÛi`>Ã iÝ>«iÌ iV>Ãiv 7ÀvwÌ qLÕÌvÀ7Ì>VÌi`>Ã ÕÀii>Ã>LiLÞì>ÀÛiÃÌ]Þ>««i>À}>VÕ«i a liberation. His most trusted collaborator would become v Þi>ÀÃ >ÌiÀ Ü i 7 >` «ÀÛi Ãiv ÛiÀÞ] ÛiÀÞ Ü]Ì iÃÌ>ÀvÌ i£näÌiiÛÃ}>}ÃÌiÀi`À>> >ÀiÌ>Li° i> ÌÞ] i>Ü i] ÜiÀi vii`} Ì i / i Õ` Ü ½` ÃÕLÃiµÕiÌÞ >}ÕÃ i` ViìÃ «ÕÃ }vÀÌÞ 7 > ìÌ v } Ì ViìÃ] i £nx½Ã >` Ì i VV>Ã> >VÌ «VÌÕÀi i £nÓ½Ã The Head Taiwan-shot Run, Tiger, Run, a bit of nonsense featuring Hunter]ivÌ i«ÀÌÌÞ«iÃvÜ >ÌÜiÃÌiÀLÃiÀÛiÀÃ

042 The Free Fire Issue iÃv£Çn½ÃThe Deer Hunter 1979’s Apocalypse Now on Ì iÀ Ü ÌÕÀv ÜÌ Ì i ÃÌÀÞ of three tried-and-true Hong } vÀi`Ã /Þ iÕ}] >VÞ iÕ}]>`7>Ãiii® Ü }>Ü>À«ÀwÌiiÀ} ÃÃ`V >>`w` themselves pinned down Li ` ÀÌ 6iÌ>iÃi iÃ° / i 6iÌ } >Ài absolute savages, but cut- throat capitalism doesn’t offer >ÞÌ } ÃÕ«iÀÀ «>Vi v their maniac’s revolution – in this fallen world, the values Ì >Ì 7 iÝÌÃ >Ài Ì Ãi v Þ>ÌÞ>`V >ÀÌÞ]LiÌÀ>Þi` Bullet in the Head when Lee’s character succumbs to gold fever and entrepreneurial spirit. The showman and the À>ÃÌ ViÝÃÌ 7 ÜÌ apparent discord, the marks of ÌÜ vÀ>ÌÛi yÕiViÃ\ >} Cheh’s razzle-dazzle and Lung Kong’s ÃV> ÕÌÀ>}i° >Þ >` iÃÃiÌ>Þ] 7 Ài>Ã Ì`>Þ > ìÛÕÌ ÕÌ iÀ>] >` Ãw}À>« ÞÃÛiÀÀÕLÞV ÕÀV iÃÜÌ LÀi>>Ü>ÞÃÌ>i`}>ÃÃ>`}ÀiÃ>i`«iÌ>Ã° Woo’s bullet ballets would be more imitated than would begin to dub “gun-fu,” or the “heroic bloodshed” his convictions. In Just Heroes he pokes fun at his new ÃÌÞi° ÜÃÌ>ÀÀi`vÕÀÛiÃvÀ7}}] ÌÀi`ÃiÌÌiÀÃÌ>ÌÕÃ>}Ì iiÃv,}>]ÜÀ} and was the soloist in some of his most valiant set-pieces. a bit of business in which a wannabe gangster goes through £n½Ã The Killer, Chow’s debonair hitman upends a a house before a shootout stowing pistols in vases with the poker table with his foot to catapult a pearl grip revolver ÃÌ>Ìi`ÌiÌvÌ>Ì} Ü9Õ>Ì½Ã >ÀA Better À} Ì Ì Ã >`Æ £nÇ½Ã A Better Tomorrow II he Tomorrow° ÕvÕ Ü>Ã ÌiÀ>Ì>Þ VÌ>}ÕÃÆ LivÀi ÛiÌ>ÌiÃ > iÌÀi Ã> ÃÌÀ> v>Þ ÜÌ > -*Ƃ-£Ó >Vi >] 7 LÀ`}i` } } >` ÞÜ` Ã Ì}ÕÆ £Ó½Ã Hard Boiled, his supercop Tequila Ài ÃÕVViÃÃvÕÞ Ì > >Þ w}ÕÀi ÃVi ÀÕVi ii° glides down the bannister in a Chinese restaurant, guns />À>Ì½Ã £Ç w Jackie Brown, Samuel L Jackson’s L>â}Ì iiÌÀiÜ>Þ° "Àì,LLiVÕ`VÀi`ÌThe KillervÀÃ >«}wÀi>À 7½Ã ÃÌÞi >` >Þ vÀLi>ÀÃ° Ã L`L>Ì Ã Üi purchasing trends in Los Angeles – “The Killer >`>°{x] > ìLÌ Ì Ì Ãi v ->Þ *iV«> ] Ü LÞ ÃÌ Þ Ì iÞÜ>Ì>°{xoÌ iÞ`½ÌÜ>Ìi]Ì iÞÜ>ÌÌÜ°» integrating material shot at variable speeds to create what ÞÜ` Ã wVi ÃÌÀiÃÃ° 7 i ƂiÀV> «ÀiVÌÃ L}À>« iÀ >Û` 7i`ì V>Ã > º`Þ>V VÌÕÕ» `Ài`Õ«]7 >`LiiÕÌv}}vÀÞi>ÀÃ Ü>Ã vÜ} > «>Ì vÀ}i` LÞ ƂÀ> ÕÀÃ>Ü> Ã either side of the Handover, and he was unable to keep £x{wSeven Samurai. One might also look for Woo’s ÜÀ}ÜÌ Ì iVÌÕÌÞiÞi`LÞV>ì«iìÌ >ÌiViìÌÃÌ i ÕÕÃiƂVÌwÃ«À`ÕVi`LÞ producers like Johnnie To and Stephen Chow. And so he >«>½Ã >ÌÃÕ À«À>ÌLi}}Ì i>Ìi£xäÃ ÌÕÀi` Ì Ì i >>` >ÀiÌ] Ì >Ì À>ÃÃ v iÞ qÌ iiÜÃÌ >Ì7ÃÃ>Ìi`Ì`ÀiVÌ>Ài>iv-iÕ and compromise that coarsens even the great – see Chan -ÕâÕ½Ã£ÈÎ w Youth of the Beast >Þ >À Ì i >ÃÌ] >} ÌÕÀÃÌ L>À` «vyi À Ü > ÃÕVViÃÃ v LiÃÌ «i vÀ 7½Ã >ÀÌÃÌV ÀiLÀÌ ° iÀÌ>Þ Ì iÀi Ã 7}}i`VÀÌiÃ°ƂÃ`vwVÕÌ>ÃÌ>ÞLiÌÃµÕ>Ài ÃiÌ } v Ì i iiìÃÃ iiÀ}Þ v > >ÌÃÕ ÕÛii the director of the anti-Communist Bullet to the Head with }>}«VÌÕÀiÌ ivÕÀÕÃÕÌvÌ iLÝÃ«ii`ÜÌ Ü V Ì i 7Ü >««i>ÀÃ iÃi ÕÃÌ*>ÀÌÞ 7Li}Ã Ã6iÌ> À>i«VBullet in the Head, and LÀÌ `>Þ V>À` The Founding of a Party from 2011, Woo >Ã v >VµÕiÃ iÞ >` West Side Story – for like his has made his peace and kept working. The house almost admirer Quentin Tarantino, there is a touch of the musical >Ü>ÞÃÜÃÌ i«VÌÕÀi}>i]>v>VÌÌ >ÌÌ Ã`ÀiVÌÀÜ in much Woo does. returned time and again to the topic of the pernicious vwVÕÌÌÃiiiÛi>ÌÌ i i} Ìv7½Ãv>i]Bullet «ÜiÀviÞÕÃÌÀiV}ÃiqÌ Õ} «ivÕÞ iÃÌ in the Head is his single greatest work, squaring off with the has a couple more left in the chamber

043 042 The Free Fire Issue A column about clothes and movies. Threads

By Christina Newland

#1: The wide-collared shirt

ony Manero is one of the great cinema paragons of male }>Þ 9 } Ìvi°-iiÛi>À}ÕiÌ >Ì`ÃVÜ>ÃvÀ>ÌÛi Û>ÌÞ°/ i«i}VÀi`ÌÃÌÌ i£ÇnwSaturday Night Ì«ÃÌ-ÌiÜ>}>ÞìÌÌÞčiÀV>° ÞÌ iÌiÜÀ} T Fever reveal an impeccably-dressed, strutting peacock, V>ÃÃÜ ÌičiÀV>ÃÜiÀiÌ>}«>ÀÌ]`ÃV >`wÌiÀi`Ì pausing only to look at shoes and shirts in store windows. the mainstream. But the hedonism remained, and the male disco His coiffed hair and carefully placed gold chains add to his ‘look’, ÕvÀqÜÌ ÌÃìi«6iVÃ ÀÌÃ]w}ÕÀi Õ}}}>ÌÌÀi>` but it’s his wide red collar which stands as an unmistakable Cuban-heeled shoes – was all about sex. symbol of ’70s male fashion. The wide-collar shirt, unbuttoned to In Paul Thomas Anderson’s sprawling porn industry satire iÝ«Ãi>ÌÕvÌvV iÃÌ >À]ÃÌ iÀivÕ}iv>ÛiÀÞÃ«iVwV`v from 1997, Boogie Nights, there’s a boisterous display of preening male. He’s fashion-forward, but also virile and macho. patterned polyester and brightly-hued shirts. To the modern >iÀÃÌ i«iÀÃwV>Ìv>>ÀV iÌÞ«i° eye, this is a trend which is suggestive of the ’70s porn star, The wide collar is a fashion detail that’s simultaneously À>ÞLiÌ i>iw}ÕÀiÃ>ÌiÀ° >À7> LiÀ}½Ã iÀV>Þ y>LÞ>Ì>`>ÃVÕi>ÕÀiVÃÌÀÕVÌi`ÌÞ«ivÜ>Þ° endowed Dirk Diggler is another sexually vigorous straight man / iÃiÃ}>ÀiÌÃwÀÃÌ>««i>Ài`>`ÃLÞÌ i««Õ>ÀLÀ>` who sports the louche wide collar as a symbol of his relaxed Vanderbilt, who pioneered the use of a new shiny nylon fabric attitude toward promiscuity. How revealing that so many of called Qiana. Advertisements demanded that you’d be a cinema’s ‘disco collar’-donning men seem overtly sexualised and ºÜ>}ÌÕÀ»>`Ì >ÌÌ iVÌ }ÜÕ`ºwÌÃÌ} Ì»Ì >Ì coded as womanisers. It’s almost as if the fear of being eclipsed ÞÕ >`ÌLiº>iÕ} ÌwÌ»°-]Ì iÜìV>ÀÃ ÀÌ by the connotations of disco – joyous, fabulously attired gay was everywhere. Women did wear them, but never with the men and sexually liberated women – made men feel they had to Ã>iÃÞLV«ÀÌ>Vi>Ãi°vÞÕÃ«Ì-ÃÃÞ-«>ViÀ reinforce their own traditional forms of sexuality. Lily Tomlin in a wide-collared shirt, it seems incidental, or maybe *>Õ-V À>ìÀ½Ã£ÇwHardcore, this logic is taken one as a sly statement on gender politics. But when known he-men step further. Put on a wide-collar polyester shirt, and you can like Burt Reynolds (White Lightning, Smokey and the Bandit) or vÌ iÀÃ>LÕÌÌ i¼ÌÞ«i½v>ÞÕ>Ài°iÀ}i -VÌÌÃ> James Caan (The Gambler) sport one of those jutting collars – puritanical midwestern dad who’s gone to Los Angeles in search typically paired with revealingly tight slacks – it’s a statement of of his porn star daughter. Once there, he sheds his conventional pure masculine swagger. suit and tie for the modish ’70s look: wraparound sunglasses The ’70s was a time of increasingly strident social upheaval, and the wide collar shirt. These allow him to disguise himself as particularly when it came to gay rights and women’s liberation. an underground porn producer. It’s as if his new wardrobe can Beset by a rapidly-changing world where traditional power transform his entire identity from religious zealot to sleazy adult dynamics were transforming, many more traditionally-minded w>}>Ìi° men of the era felt displaced. Facing an economic downturn, The collar asserts that the ‘macho man’ has moved with men felt anxieties around their role as breadwinner and burly Ì iÌiÃ°iÃÕ>vÀ>`vy>LÞ>Ì°iy>ÕÌÃ ÃÛ>ÌÞ° saviour, both in the workplace and at home. It’s telling, then, iwÌÃÌÌ i`ÃVÃÕLVÕÌÕÀi° ÕÌVi>ÃVÀiiÃ]Ì i that in those famous opening credits to Saturday Night Fever, men who wear the wide collar tend to double down on their director John Badham is sure to underline Tony’s heterosexuality. masculinity and stress their heterosexuality, seemingly anxious He gawks at not one but two shapely women as they walk past about being seen as effeminate or even gay. Maybe The Village him on the street. People’s ‘Macho Man’, dripping as it is with campy irony, offers / iÜìV>ÀÃ>Ã>>V ÀÃÌV>`ìV>ìÃ«iVwV>Ã> an appropriate commentary. The fashion statement of the wvÌiÃ«ìÃÀÌ]>`ÌÜÃÌ>`Ã>Ã>Ã}wiÀvÀÌ i`ÃV wide ’70s collar seems to have been all about expressing – and movement. Although it may seem to border on parody, the ÀivÀV}q>iVwìVi°>ÌÕÕÌÕÕÃ]V >}}ÜÀ`] sub-culture it derived from was once fuelled by revolutionary ii/Þ >iÀiiì`Ì >ÌVwìVi«ÀiÌÌÞL>`Þ° impulses. Disco began as a joyful expression of mostly black and Who’s to judge if they found it in a polyester shirt?

043

48-50 FEATURE: MULHOLLAND DRIVE: THE MUSICAL 52 OLLI MAKI / CATFIGHT 54 RAW 55 INTERVIEW: JULIA DURCOURNAU 56 NERUDA 58 THE HANDMAIDEN 59 INTERVIEW: PARK CHAN-WOOK 60 THE TRANSFIGURATION / THE EYES OF MY MOTHER 62 THE LOST CITY OF Z 64 CITY OF TINY LIGHTS 65 GRADUATION 66 HARMONIUM 67 THEIR FINEST 68-69 INTERVIEW: GEMMA ARTERTON 70 THE SENSE OF AN ENDING / LADY MACBETH 72 MINDHORN 73 HEAL THE LIVING 74 THE LOVE WITCH 75 CLASH 76 A QUIET PASSION 77 INTERVIEW: CYNTHIA NIXON 78 THE SALESMAN 79 I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO 80 MY LIFE AS A COURGETTE 81 JAWBONE 82-83 AQUARIUS 84 INTERVIEW: KLEBER MENDONÇA FILHO 85-91 HOME ENTS 92 EX-RENT HELL PRESENTS… MONEY TRAIN 048 FEATURE IN PRAISE OF… Words by ADAM NAYMAN Illustration by NICK TAYLOR

Mulholland Drive: The Musical Is David Lynch’s warped Tinseltown satire from 2001 a contemporary riff on one of Hollywood’s classic-era staples?

s David Lynch the greatest contemporary director of musical the film that Watts’ Betty is auditioning for, the prosaically titled (and sequences? For all the honorifics hurled at the favourite son of again, judging from its candy-colored soundstage backdrops, wildly I Missoula, Montana over the years, this designation has never stuck anachronistic) The Sylvia North Story, which appears to be a musical. despite plenty of evidence. The case dates all the way back to the Lady in As Betty arrives for a meeting with the director, Adam Kesher (Justin the Radiator’s chipmunk-voiced rendition of Peter Ivers’ ‘In Heaven’ in Theroux), Lynch shows us another starlet (Melissa George) in Doris Day Eraserhead, a scene that served as a template for many moody interludes to drag mouthing Linda Scott’s 1961 hit ‘I’ve Told Ev’ry Little Star’. The slow come. Think of Isabella Rossellini crooning the title song from Blue Velvet cutting between the perky performance in front of the camera and the on a darkened stage. Or, in the same film, Dean Stockwell lip-synching fraught, meaningful looks being exchanged between Adam and Betty from to Roy Orbison’s ‘In Dreams’ while clutching a Klieg light like a rosary. their vantage behind the lens encapsulates the divide between fantasy and Throw in Nicolas Cage’s flamboyant Elvis Presley vamps in Wild at Heart reality that provides Mulholland Drive with its underlying (and tragic) and the Roadhouse house band in Twin Peaks and a pattern emerges: more dialectic. In this explicitly counterfeit context, the chipper “dum da often than not, Lynch’s films pivot on pop standards performed either in dums” of the song’s chorus are rendered ominous and haunting, an ideal isolation from – or counterpoint to – the narrative action. interlude for a film that descends into a pillow-sweating nightmare. Mulholland Drive is not only adorned by a series of indelible musical This deft play with sound and image and sly deployment of pop culture numbers but also built solidly around them, to whatever extent a movie signifiers is surely the stuff of critical exegesis, and the temptation to try to famously salvaged from the wreckage of a crashed-and-burned television “explain” Mulholland Drive and how it reconciles all of its many split and pilot can be said to have a structure in the first place. It opens with a loose ends is seductive indeed. Even back in 2001, in the relative infancy hallucinatory, high-contrast, quick-cut prologue describing a small-town of the internet, online chat rooms and comment sections were afire with jitterbug contest (a blatant anachronism given the millennial setting) theories about how to best interpret Betty and Rita’s adventures around and then proceeds in plot terms like a showbiz melodrama about a bright- Los Angeles and their apparent transformations, two-thirds of the way eyed ingénue (Naomi Watts) decamping to Los Angeles to hit it big in through the film, into two completely different women – the struggling the pictures (she’s from “Deep River, Ontario,” which has to be the most actress Diane and the Hollywood doyenne Camilla. Or was it the other Freudian small-town moniker since Twin Peaks). way around: were Betty and Rita the “real” characters and Diane and That Betty’s story intersects with a thriller-like scenario about a Camilla their dream-factory fantasy projections? And what about the beautiful, amnesiac woman, Rita (Laura Elena Harring), is par for the Lynch mob of weirdos and wackos surrounding them, including, but course for Lynch, whose films are often schizophrenically split between not limited to, Dan Hedaya and Angelo Badalamenti as fraternal Italian genres: the contrast between a naïve blonde and a dark-haired woman hitmen the Castigliani brothers; Twin Peaks alum Michael J Anderson as with a secret is fully carried over from Blue Velvet (and also Lost Highway, the diminutive criminal mastermind Mr Roque; Michael Montgomery as where Patricia Arquette combines both archetypes in a phenomenal dual a menacing cowboy; Billy Ray Cyrus as a pool boy; and one-time screen performance). And a fleeting glimpse of the poster for Gilda – a long-ago siren Ann Miller as a kindly landlady? Or Robert Forster in a sole scene star vehicle for another lovely Rita – reminds us that even the darkest noir as a puzzled police officer? Or the impassive, soot-faced figure (a man? A can brighten for the duration of a white-hot torch song. woman? A human being?) crouching behind Winky’s diner, challenging The first showstopper in Mulholland Drive comes on the set of Killer BOB’s position as the scariest creation in the director’s repertoire?

FEATURE 049 take in an early-morning cabaret show just hours after unexpectedly falling into bed with one another (a scene whose fleshy eroticism splits the difference between passionate romance and audience pandering). Mulholland Drive As the club’s MC Richard Green explains the difference between truth “ becomes and illusion, the women start to look worried, and when the headliner one of the few films to do (Rebekah Del Rio as herself) comes out to sing a Spanish-language version of Roy Orbison’s ‘Crying’, they break down together into the something substantial with very tears described in the song’s lyrics. The sequence is a masterpiece of carefully crafted affect, as De Rio’s desperate melancholy is that hoary old ‘it was all a transferred first to Betty and Rita and then to us in the audience. From somewhere inside the archly art-directed vacuum of Club Silencio, dream!’ conceit.” Lynch conjures up emotions no less powerful for being so inscrutably generated. The kicker is that when Del Rio faints dead away, the song continues, revealing that she’s been lip-synching the whole time – an ersatz aria. To which we say: don’t worry, it all makes perfect sense upon It is at this point that Mulholland Drive turns itself inside-out and reflection (and let’s say probably a half-dozen attentive repeat forces us to ask if everything we’ve seen, including and especially Betty viewings). But Mulholland Drive also doesn’t have to be decoded in and Rita’s romance, is similarly phony, and to confront the fact that a order to be enjoyed, which is probably why it has, perhaps improbably, movie that has gotten us swept up in the intrigue and excitement of endured both as one of Lynch’s most beloved works and as a routine Hollywood is examining those fantasies. It’s not simply that Betty/ champion of best-of-the-decade polls. It may be because it offers more Diane is another of Lynch’s multiple-personality protagonists, like surface pleasure than perhaps any other Lynch film, starting with Peter tramp-next-door Laura Palmer or Pullman’s existentially figure- Deming’s glossy, sunblind cinematography and the screenplay’s many eighted Fred Madison. By retrospectively unveiling its (anti)-heroine’s movie industry in-jokes, which build on Lost Highway’s embedded denial of who she really is (and the terrible things she’s done) as an Tinseltown critique. There, the story was about a jazz musician drawn extended fugue state indistinguishable from the lusciously old-school into a sordid coastal underworld of petty criminals and pornographers, thriller we’ve been watching all along, Mulholland Drive becomes one with Bill Pullman’s performance serving as a portrait of the artist self- of the few films to do something substantial with that hoary old ‘it was combusting under pressure. It may be that Mulholland Drive was more all a dream!’ conceit. Betty’s awakening to her true nature is not a way popular than its predecessor because, instead of an anguished, five out of the story, for her or the audience. Instead, it’s a way into the o’clock-shadowed sadsack as an entry point, it offers up the sweetly idea that in keeping reality at arm’s length, cinema sustains us because indomitable Betty, whose pluckiness and careerist ambitions are of, rather than in spite of, its essentially deceptive nature. As long as rendered tenderly… until, suddenly, they’re not and Watts’ acting shifts the lights stay down and the song keeps playing, we at once rehearse into a different register entirely, revealing the rejection and bitterness and delay our reckoning with the things that exist beyond the frame. underneath the polished façade. Mulholland Drive is great film art because it fully inhabits its chosen Which brings us to Mulholland Drive’s second major musical medium while reminding us how ephemeral it is in the end. Cinema – number, set on the main stage at Club Silencio, where Betty and Rita and life – is but a dream. The rest is Silencio

050 FEATURE LWLIES X FILMATIQUE PRESENT…

Expanding the Landscape

Ursula Grisham, Head of Acquisitions and Content at the specialist VOD platform, Filmatique, reveals what makes her – and this exciting new service – tick.

he principle idea behind Filmatique is responsible “These are the films we try to acquire. Films that stimulate discourse. cinema. Movies seek to portray the world we live in, and in Because we’re very aware of the fact that, yes, it’s pleasant to watch a “T turn shape the world and the way we live. We stole this idea, entertaining film – but there has to be something serious-minded about of course, from Andre Bazin: “cinema substitutes for our gaze it for us to want to devote so much time and resources to it. And in line a world more in harmony with our desires.” So the question becomes: what with that thought we also want to educate audiences on voices we feel are are our desires? What does that world look like? Does that world strive really important. toward gender equality, economic equality, racial equality, toward peace “During February, we hosted a series of foreign language Oscar and diversity and inclusion, toward social justice? submissions from countries that haven’t traditionally been represented: “We first came up with the idea of Filmatique at festivals. I went to Turkey, Georgia, the Dominican Republic and Ethiopia. In March we’ll Cannes and Berlin and Venice for years and saw all these astonishing films screen a Banned Nations Series as a sort of tribute to the Muslim Ban: four from all over the world, places like Guatemala and Jordan and Afghanistan. feature films alongside a collection of shorts from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Then months later, when I tried to watch them again, they didn’t exist. All Somalia, Libya and Sudan. The shorts will be available to watch for free. these excellent films that premiered at top festivals around the world had “We’re also planning our first retrospective on the Turkish director, summarily slipped into oblivion. Nuri Bilge Ceylan. The thing I love about Ceylan’s films is that they’re “Take, for example, a film we released, Silvered Water: Syria Self understated and subtle yet dense with meaning and not really overtly Portrait. It’s a documentary on the siege of Homs, co-directed by an exiled political. They’re also sometimes dark and extremely humorous. They’re Syrian filmmaker in Paris and an elementary school teacher who shot tales of ordinary people living in Istanbul, in Anatolia – and that’s what footage on the ground. It premiered at Cannes, and went on to London audiences crave. Audiences are intelligent: they don’t want to be beaten and Turin. Today, it is without distribution. Filmatique is the first digital over the head with some heavy political parable. They want to identify platform to release it. with characters and their circumstances. And Ceylan does such an “Silvered Water is harrowing to watch, because life right now inside amazing job drawing out naturalistic performances from his actors, at of Syria is harrowing. But just because the film isn’t commercial, doesn’t the same time evoking a powerful, integral sense of place. He’s a master mean there’s not an audience for it. There’s a market for art-house films of social allegory. everywhere, not just metropolitan areas. There are plenty of people who are “So that’s the idea of our programming – to expand the landscape.” curious, and not just industry types. There are people who want to see films that portray ways of life underrepresented in mainstream media. Visit Filmatique.com to expand your film landscape

ADVERTORIAL 051 The Happiest Day in the Catfight Life of Olli Mäki Directed by ONUR TUKEL Directed by JUHO KUOSMANEN Starring SANDRA OH, ANNE HECHE, ALICIA SILVERSTONE Starring JARKKO LAHTI, OONA AIROLA, EERO MILONOFF Released 10 MARCH Released 21 APRIL

his handsome second feature from Juho Kuosmanen is based in part f this didn’t feel like it was shot in real-time during the cast and crew’s T on the true story of a Finnish boxer who briefly achieved national I collective, curtailed lunch hour, you can’t help but feel that writer/ celebrity in the 1960s following a World Featherweight title bout. That Olli director Onur Tukel might have had something here. And yet, the quick, Mäki lost the biggest fight of his career to a superior American opponent cheap and dirty vibe is fitting for a film that so heartily champions the – and in pretty humiliating fashion at that – is of little interest to the vulgar expression of power, i.e. smashing someone’s face in as a form director, and with good reason. Because while The Happiest Day in the of personal therapy. Like an all-female Fight Club retooled as a cracked Life of Olli Mäki could quite easily have been spun (albeit speciously) as slapstick comedy, Catfight offers three variations on the same silly story. a rousing underdog tale, it is more accurately an account of professional Wine-quaffing trophy wife Veronica (Sandra Oh) bumps into profoundly sacrifice made for the sake of personal fulfilment. aloof artist Ashley (Anne Heche) at a part. Small talk is swiftly dispensed Jarkko Lahti excels in the title role, subtly emphasising Mäki’s innate with, an old squabble from their college days is dredged up, and the next pacificity and skepticism while others, namely his imprudent, pushy thing you know it’s fisticuffs in the stairwell with Ashley the victor and manager (Eero Milonoff), do their best to talk him up as a born-ready Veronica left in a coma. Then we get the long game revenge. And then we brawler. He’s serious about making the step down in weight and putting in get the long game revenge to the revenge. the hard yards required for such a contest, but never seems fully convinced The only reason this works is that Oh and Heche play it completely of his chances. Mäki is portrayed here as a simple man, unassuming and straight, squaring up to this loco parable with steely eyes and brass obliging, and it’s these qualities that initially catch the eye of Raija (Oona knuckle. Although the film plays the dust-ups for easy belly laughs, Airola). The pair meet at a friend’s wedding and their tender, at times with OTT punching effects sounding like they were lifted directly from turbulent, courtship quickly becomes the film’s emotional rudder. ‘Street Fighter II’, the film rejects violence as a form of diplomacy. Shot in gorgeous monochrome 16mm by DoP Jani-Petteri Passi, While Ashley makes a pretty penny from her graphic hellscapes, it’s this classically-styled romance serves as an intoxicating reminder that her mousy understudy Tiffany (Emmy Harrington) who has the last historic sporting events – even ones prone to descending into a farcical laugh with her blue bunny-themed graphic novel and its pending film media circus fuelled by blood, sweat and backhanded cash bungs adaptation from an extremely apt director lined up. The use of ironic, such as this – invariably have a human side to them. Per the title, this thigh-slapping classical standards during the fight sequences is perhaps is the story of the happiest day in the life of Olli Mäki, but it’s telling a bridge too far, and it’s an extremely ugly film – perhaps purposefully. that our hero’s salvation arrives long before he steps foot into the That said, there are plenty of well-above-average cracks and some nicely- ring. Even more so that the real-life Olli and Raija Mäki make a brief aimed political jabs. Dylan Baker, turning up as a deadpan doctor who appearance late on as an elderly married couple – a sweet gesture that tells waking coma victims that they’ve just been in a coma nearly nabs sums up this affecting, sentimental film. ADAM WOODWARD the film from underneath the two feisty leads. Nearly. DAVID JENKINS

ANTICIPATION. Won a prize at the Cannes Film Festival, ANTICIPATION. Two women battering the hell out which is a big deal for a non-Aki Kaurismäki Finnish film. of one another? Why not.

ENJOYMENT. A lovely film with two great ENJOYMENT. It’s got a blunt-force charm to it, central performances. and Oh and Heche are superb.

IN RETROSPECT. Director Juho Kuosmanen is one IN RETROSPECT. You forget it as you’re watching it, to keep an eye on. but not necessarily in a bad way.

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Directed by t’s not me.” With nothing in her struggles as much to resist as to indulge. JULIA DUCOURNAU own wardrobe that conforms to the Cannibalism is both metaphor and reality here. Starring “I ‘night club’ dress code imposed by The triggering of Justine’s bloodlust coincides GARANCE MARILLIER her university seniors, virginal student Justine with her sexual awakening, and with her first ELLA RUMPF (Garance Marillier) is trying on the party dress tentative steps into womanhood, making her RABAH NAIT OUFELLA belonging to her older, more experienced sister peculiar condition a clear figure for the emergence Alexia (Ella Rumpf) – but it does not feel like her. of unrestrained, animalistic appetites. And while Released It is Justine’s first week at veterinary college, she is the film’s focus, we see other characters 7 APRIL the alma mater of her overprotective parents exploring the boundaries of their own self-image (Laurent Lucas, Joana Preiss), and the current and identity, be it Adrian’s uneasy flirtation digs of wayward, rebellious Alexia. So Justine with heterosexual encounters, another student’s has several big shoes to fill, even if she’s not sure obsession with monkey rape, and a third’s whether any of them quite fit. Meanwhile, it is impulse to lick her partner’s eyeballs. All these ‘Rush Week’, a hazing rite of passage in which transgressions represent poetic exaggerations of ANTICIPATION. ‘rookies’ like Justine and her gay roommate Adrian everyday adolescent experimentation — except Hmm, transparent shock-buzz (Rabah Nait Oufella) are bullied and blooded by that it is also made clear that such dangerous from several festivals… seniors into finding their path, their fancies and acts of extreme self-realisation, unless played out themselves in the bigger, wider world of adulthood within safe confines, can leave real world scars. and independence. While horror is often filtered through the As Justine flies the nest only to then have to male gaze, Ducournau’s film shows a refreshing negotiate just how far she is willing to fall from preference for the erotics of the female eye, ENJOYMENT. the tree, and as all these young initiates stretch reducing male objects of desire to mere meat …which makes the subtle their wings and test the limits of their desire, Julia and bone. Justine may be unsure of herself and coming-of-age allegory Ducournau’s francophone feature debut deals with uncomfortable in her own skin (the words quoted a pleasant surprise. classic coming-of-age themes. Except, as anyone at the beginning of the review are emblematic of who has heard the hyped stories of fainting in the her character’s provisional status), but that does aisles at the Toronto International Film Festival not make her in any way a pushover or a victim. may suspect, Raw is also a genre film. With her Asked by her (female) doctor how she sees herself, parents, Justine shares a strict vegetarianism from Justine replies “average”. Indeed, Raw merely IN RETROSPECT. which Alexia, since leaving home, has secretly exposes the everyday monstrousness each of us Director-to-watch Ducournau lapsed – and once, as part of Rush Week, Justine harbours within our soft, fragile exteriors, and delivers horror with plenty of has been driven to eat a rabbit’s kidney, she will the accommodations we have to make with our meat on the bone. discover a taste for raw flesh that she clumsily darker nature. ANTON BITEL

054 REVIEW IN CONVERSATION... Words by DAVID JENKINS Illustration by NICK TAYLOR

Julia Durcournau

to disturb them? Yes. But to scare them? No. It makes it less claustrophobic when you I watch horror movies almost every day. It’s know you’re going to make a movie that takes Cannibalism goes not a gorefest. If I had wanted to show only the place in a school. The idea of being stuck in gory moments of the girls eating bodies, I could classrooms was, for me, unbearable. And so I to school in Raw, an have done that. My movie is more of a crossover really needed this difference kind of space to be between comedy-drama and body horror. able to do wide shots of nature and the sky. It extreme French fable I use different types of film grammar, so I don’t was important to me because I know that with think it fits into one particular box. I don’t such a dense and disturbing topic, visually, we that’s definitely not a want people to expect scares because they’ll be would need to breathe a bit. horror film. disappointed. When you wrote the film, was the central There’s an interesting idea at the centre of character always a girl? Yes. It’s an instant the film that says we’re all the product of reflex because I’m a woman. The movie is quite mid the polite, foreign-language fare our parents. The good thing is that none of personal, so it was more easy for me to relate to a you usually catch at the Cannes Film the parents in the movie are anything like my female character. Which doesn’t mean I’ll never A Festival, there’s usually a rogue treat parents, so they didn’t take it personally at all. write about a male character. A screenwriter thrown in for genre fans. In 2016, it was Julia For me, it’s not so shocking. When you want and director should be able to relate to any Durcournau’s teen body horror, Raw. Here this to build yourself up as an adult, you have to let character – our job is to have imagination. If outspoken first-time director delves under her go of certain things. Sometimes it hurts people I want to write about a dragon, I need to feel film’s thick skin. when I say that family is a form of determinism, for the dragon. We can make anything exist. but I think it is. You see patterns reproduced, It’s not writing about a man or woman, it’s LWLies: If you enter the film’s title into even if it’s against your will. It would be writing about everything. There is a piece of me Google, the first result that comes up is a interesting to see if there’s an evil pattern in my in every character. story about someone having a heart attack at family that I might be doomed to reproduce. a screening. Durcournau: A heart attack? No, it Is there anything I can do? Am I the product How did you approach the erotic aspects of was two people not feeling very well out of a room of my parents, or am I my own self? It’s about the film? I think there was something to be done of 1200 people. It’s really funny that the emphasis questioning to what extent you have a chance to about how you approach sexuality when you are was on two people who didn’t feel well when 1198 act on things. still a virgin, and a child. It was important to people were feeling good! But I understand that. approach this from a girl’s point of view. In most It’s a disturbing movie, definitely. Could Raw be remade in the US? I have movies, losing your virginity is unfortunately no idea. It would be a big surprise to me if always associated with something very sacred, One interviewer referred to Raw as a horror film there was a remake, but why not? It’s true, in very important. I think this is very outdated and you responded by saying you weren’t keen France we don’t have big campuses like the and no longer relevant. For me, girls have needs on such generic ways of describing movies. one I used in the movie. I said to the location just as boys do, and they can fulfil their needs Just because I love horror movies, it doesn’t people I wanted something a bit American, a without complications and shame. I wanted to mean I think that my movie is one. Raw wasn’t big school like you’d find in a city. But I have present sexuality in this way, as a big ‘fuck you’ written to scare people. To make them uneasy, a lot of American references in my head. to everyone

INTERVIEW 055 Neruda

Directed by ith his films Tony Manero, Post Mortem very land, rather than raised above them in bronze. PABLO LARRAÍN and No, director Pablo Larraín mastered Neruda was apparently an avid reader of detective Starring W the art of talking about his country, Chile, fiction, and this affection frames a hugely enjoyable GAEL GARCÍA BERNAL while it was under the rule of Augusto Pinochet, fugitive narrative. Hot on his trail, and providing LUIS GNECCO while seldom speaking the despot’s name directly. an absurd deadpan voiceover, is Prefect Oscar PABLO DERQUI In the same way that a black hole is an absence Peluchonneau (Gael García Bernal) fresh from the Released of light, only visible from the flickers that surround pages of a dime-store novel. “Half-moron, half-idiot,” 7 APRIL it, so too is Larraín’s Pinochet intangible but ever- he’s a Clouseau-esque nincompoop with a pitch present. The director has taken quite the opposite perfect gait and self-serious moustache. He bristles approach with his two most recent films, placing his ridiculously at Neruda’s politics – “Communists subjects front and centre in two remarkable pieces of hate to work; they’d rather burn churches” – and work. To refer to either of them as biopics would be bourgeois hedonism, but not enough to resist misrepresentative. Though his arch English-language infatuation. As the paperback caper transcends into debut, Jackie, is the more celebrated of the two, it’s a hall of mirrors, their identities become inextricably difficult to resist the twinkling eye and sweeping entwined: cop and criminal, cat and mouse, character ANTICIPATION. lyricism of Neruda, which is both complementary to and creator. I am not jealous / of what its American cousin and bracing in its own way. The title may appear simple but it is entirely came before. Larraín has claimed that Chileans, “don’t deliberate. Rear-projection and locations that switch build monuments” – even to the famous leftist without a break in the dialogue, or any explanation, writer. Instead, tribute is paid to Pablo Neruda’s could be formal tics, but they are more likely echoes of memory by mixing an exquisite and irreverent a carefully constructed reality and signals of a writer cocktail of his passions: poetry, politics and pulp. reconsidering his scene setting and amending his ENJOYMENT. Admittedly, the basic premise is grounded in reality. screenplay in front of the audience. It becomes ever Joyful, joyful, joyful / as only Don Pablo (Luis Gnecco) is a Communist senator, more probable that the writer in question is Neruda dogs know how to be happy. but goes on the lam when the party is banned by himself, a maestro leading a cast of characters on a the president they helped elect, Gabriel González merry chase: “The poet has the fever of artistic spirits, Videla (a brief cameo from the director’s regular who tend to think the world is something imagined.” muse, Alfredo Castro). Larraín is not interested in In a society that bandies around the term ‘post-truth’ a historical chronicle of events, though. His concern and obsesses over the cult of personality, Neruda IN RETROSPECT. is more vivacious and impressionistic. makes a fascinating one-two punch with Jackie I learned about life / from life In Neruda he sketches both man and icon; a – these are films expressly engaging with fallible itself, / love I learned in a slave to base desires, as well as the figurehead who national icons who are deeply engaged with crafting single kiss his fellow Chileans consider to be one with their their own epic legends. BEN NICHOLSON

056 REVIEWS Spaceship

Directed by f Spaceship was a social networking platform, T-shirts chat army deployment. The closest Lucidia ALEX TAYLOR it would be LiveJournal. Anguished teens with comes to performing a dramatic action is when she Starring I chipped nail polish whisper profound nonsense boils her dad’s Sony Walkman on the stove. ALEXA DAVIES about rainbows and black holes, from the centrally A constant divergence of character arcs means no TALLULAH ROSE HADDON heated, suburban comfort of their (parent’s) Surrey single character’s personality is developed beyond STEVEN ELDER homes. This debut feature from Alex Taylor is hard a brittle idea of what it’s like to be ‘different’ – Released to enjoy, least of all due to its prevalence of fluoro whatever that means. According to Taylor, it’s when a 31 MARCH body-paint and blacklight. Forced, awkward and blue-haired girl puts a dog collar on her boyfriend to fuelled by faux-losophical hot air, Spaceship is make a point about… property? Power? Patriarchy? superficial delusion as cinema. This film isn’t nearly as poetic as its director may When ‘goth’ girl Lucidia (Alexa Davies) is have hoped. For all their otherworldly wisdom and seemingly abducted by aliens in a rave-mobile, her insight, one kid still looks at a CD player and earnestly archaeologist father Gabriel (Antti Reini) becomes says, “Retro.” drawn to her beguiling outsider friends. Among their Spaceship is laden thick with production design. edgy number is spectral Alice (Tallulah Haddon), her Locations speak to the film’s banal residential nameless slave (Jack Winthrop), unicorn-curious setting, while the costumes, hair and make-up Tegan (Lara Peak) and Lucidia’s sad boyfriend veritably bellow, “Yes, we are all individuals!” Liam Luke (Lucian Charles Collier). None among them Iandoli’s cinematography is fluid and gentle, though ANTICIPATION. are fussed by their friend’s disappearance. Lucidia puckered with shots that serve only to showcase such Are we still saying ‘cybergoth’? reveals in a monotone voiceover (that only gets more radical props as a pink piano keyboard and a Buck drab as time passes) that alien abduction has become Rogers flask. Recurrent slow-mo shots of teenagers routine in Frimley Green. running are beautiful, but also protract the already Such dazzling profundities dominate Taylor’s laborious pace. script, or else were improvised by the urchin cast. Melding the aesthetics of a Canon 5D with the ENJOYMENT. Dialogue is not the film’s forte. School play lines like, mood of Glastonbury LSD, Spaceship was received Tonight I’m gonna party “People are spinning round each other in circles, affably by (some) festival audiences at South by like it’s 2009. On Tumblr. and occasionally they just collide,” and, “What I saw Southwest and the BFI London Film Festival. made me believe in something… more… than this,” But its muddled drama and timber cast aren’t likely spill from the mouths of the babes. to land with a wider audience upon release. It may Narrative is not exactly a priority either, as the find its tribe via VOD by laser-targeting queer plot flaps from Alice and Tegan’s drug-addled antics cinema geeks, goths, the fetish-friendly and all IN RETROSPECT. to an adolescent vampire playing basketball and then those teens who’ve been dreadfully misunderstood. Why? on to a playground where two men in camouflage AIMEE KNIGHT

REVIEWS 057 The Handmaiden

Directed by he Handmaiden is the kind of film where The sex scenes, with their full frontal nudity PARK CHAN-WOOK stylised, sumptuous details are paramount and the line “It’s so cute!” in reference to the female Starring T to its success. Park Chan-wook’s thriller, is anatomy, are intentionally overripe and become KIM MIN-HEE loosely adapted from the 2002 novel ‘Fingersmith’ integral to the structure in ways too devious to spoil. HA JUNG-WOO by Sarah Waters and set in 1930s Japanese- While it’s impossible to remove a lesbian sex scene JO JIN-WOONG occupied Korea. It concerns the increasingly directed by a man from the much-discussed spectre Released provocative and twisting relationship between of the male gaze, Park earns favour with his audience 14 APRIL Lady Hideko (Kim Min-hee), an heiress kept by revealing the two women to be the craftiest sequestered in a stately home by her pervy uncle, characters in the film. Some of the discussion and Sook-hee (Kim Tae-ri), a crafty pickpocket around The Handmaiden has placed it within the assuming the role of the Lady’s handmaiden. grand 1980s-’90s tradition of the erotic thriller, The film delivers all the pleasures associated and while many of those elements can be found with the con movie genre: the layers of double (with the lesbian con artist theme, there are shades ANTICIPATION. crosses (which develop into triple and maybe even of the Wachowskis’ auspicious 1996 debut, Bound) An erotic thriller from a noted quadruple crosses) keep us hooked and slightly they are complicated by the historical setting. The cinematic provocateur. distrusting of all the characters, especially the film doesn’t quite have the noir influence of so many wily men. erotic thrillers before it, but it does make effective Lady Hideko’s Uncle Kouzuki (Jo Jin-woong) use of a confused national identity, blending Korean and Count Fujiwara (Ha Jung-woo), Sook- and Japanese language and visual elements with a hee’s initial partner in crime, are revealed to be moody blue-gray palette. ENJOYMENT. essentially impotent. Much has been made of the Many of the scenes in The Handmaiden go on The layers of the satisfying con long, graphic sex scenes between the handmaiden just a bit longer than you might expect. While this artist plot keep us on our toes, and and her mistress, but Park creates a compelling tendency can occasionally become cumbersome the acts are well structured and, erotic atmosphere even outside of such outré it also becomes Park’s test of his audience. In an yes, punctuated by eroticism. moments. The film fetishises accessories: Lady early scene, Sook-he bathes Lady Hideko and files Hideko has drawers filled with delicate silken her tooth when she begins to complain of an ache. gloves and her corset, lined with tiny buttons, is The tooth-filing seems to take a long time, but it made to look as invitingly intricate as the narrative builds a perverse tension. We may not need this much itself. With its near two-and-a-half hour runtime time spent on amateur dentistry, but we do need to IN RETROSPECT. and those lesbian sex sequences, the film could see how sexual power can manifest itself in so many A genuinely fun blend of fairly be described as self-indulgent, but every new weird ways. In The Handmaiden, sex itself is a con, sumptuous visuals and a perverse outrageous act, every shot that pans over silks or luring us into the narrative and then complicating it sense of humor. furniture or naked bodies, feels like a wry wink. more than we might expect. ABBEY BENDER

058 REVIEW FIRST PERSON... Interview by DAVID JENKINS Illustration by NICK TAYLOR

Park Chan-wook

you see in the film is minutely described in the football. We would hire a female boom operator script. It wasn’t a case of it’s just written, ‘…and for the days we were shooting these scenes. The Korean then they have sex’. Before it was sent to actress The camera team, too, were all off the set. Kim Min-yee, it was communicated through her We rigged the camera with a remote trigger so maestro behind The management that it has these strong sex scenes it could be controlled from outside. There was in it, and does she still wish to read it? She said a separate space we created on the sound stage Handmaiden offers yes so we sent her the script. Kim Tae-de was a where the actors could take a break. It had newcomer. During the audition process, all the dim lighting, candles, wine, relaxing music, so an intimate account notices went out with the full disclosure that the they were really able to take time out. In terms of how to shoot the role will involve a very frank expression of sex. of number of takes, there was such thorough “When the actors were cast, the next preparation to begin with, but film directors perfect sex scene. process was to go through the storyboarding. tend to get greedy: they want to push for more. Above all the other scenes, these were the When it came to these scenes, I would restrain ones that were storyboarded first, and in the myself and do one or two takes at the most. most detail. I would show these storyboards That was the best I could do. But even with he biggest studio in Korea green-lit to the actors and tell them that this is what this amount of consideration and preparation, The Handmaiden without any issues. you can expect the film to look like once it is actors still find it uncomfortable to do these “T For a Korean film, it’s quite a high- completed. If there was anything that made scenes. So, when it comes to the days when budget work. And it was able to attract three of them uncomfortable, I told them to tell me so these scenes were being shot, I would treat the biggest stars in Korean cinema. I would say we could talk about it. And that’s what we did, them like goddesses. I let them swear at me, it didn’t come up against any trouble. Because and made changes where necessary. whatever they wanted. of the film’s sex content, we tried to make it so it “We undertook rehearsals with the actors “I don’t know how others do it, but I’ve wouldn’t be released in a limited capacity. That’s wearing the spandex you wear when you do always worked this way. This time around, it the top censorship band in Korea – it means you Yoga. The actors were asked not to emote at was not one, but two female actors. So I tried don’t have any success. It’s like NC17 in the US. all. This was merely case of going through the to be even more careful. Other than that, the As long as I could make it R-rated or below, I had choreography. This was to make sure certain methodology is the same as I’ve subscribed to no restrictions. I didn’t work with censors codes. positions were feasible, and to figure out the in all my other films. More consideration has I made the film as I wanted, edited it as I wanted, positioning of the camera and the lights. That’s gone in to it. If it was a man and a woman, they then submitted it to the ratings board. Hitchcock an opportunity for further adjustment, where the usually take a break separately. Since this was used to like to engage in these sorts of games with actors can say, this is too uncomfortable or I can’t two women, they could break together and find the ratings board, but I didn’t. physically do this. That would in turn require strength in each other. If it’s at the end of the “With the two actresses in the film, they knew changes to be made to the storyboard. We tried schedule, you’re spending the entire duration full well that the film would involve strong sex to schedule these scenes as close to the beginning of the shoot, right from the beginning, with scenes. Even before we started casting, there were of the production as possible. this sense of dread hanging over you. But if rumours about what the film was going to entail. “When we were shooting, we made sure you get it over and done with at the beginning, In the script, it had a detailed description of what all the male members of the crew were kicked you can engage in the rest of the shoot without the sex scenes would look like. Pretty much what out of the set. They would go outside and play that burden.”

INTERVIEW 059 The Transfiguration The Eyes of My Mother

Directed by MICHAEL O'SHEA Directed by NICOLAS PESCE Starring ERIC RUFFIN, CHLOE LEVINE, DANGELO BONNELI Starring KIKA MAGALHAES, OLIVIA BOND, WILL BRILL Released 21 APRIL Released 24 MARCH

his is what you might call a revisionist vampire movie, in that it is hen genre maestro John Carpenter was asked what makes an T very much like a normal vampire movie but without the eroticism W effective horror film, he pithily answered, “It should be scary.” or excitement. Purposefully so. Writer/director Michael O’Shea has This may seem reductive, but watching Nicolas Pesce’s insipid The Eyes chosen to transpose the classic bloodsucker yarn to an inner-city of My Mother, it’s clear that some directors should make sure they’ve housing project, but there’s little more to it than that. Eric Ruffin’s mastered the basics before they try to do something new within the genre. latchkey teen loner Milo makes for a low-key central protagonist, one This debut feature is about a girl, Francisca (played by Olivia Bond and with whom you are urged to extend sympathy even while he’s engaging Kika Magalhaes), who descends into a life of madness and gruesome in all manner of extremely wicked business. He skulks around looking violence after witnessing her mother butchered by a crazed travelling like he’s constantly on the verge of tears, and speaks with a soft, neutral salesman (Will Brill). The film is shot in black-and-white and there are pitch redolent of a tranqued-up guidance counsellor. You simply don’t plenty of great macabre compositions, including a particularly striking expect him to spend his evenings sneaking up on lone pedestrians one of a cow’s head on a table. But the decision to film in monochrome with a concealed craft knife up his sleeve and then bleeding them dry, signals that perhaps Pesce wasn’t entirely certain whether he wanted direct from the jugular. to make a traditional hair-raising thriller, or a more stylised art-house A whirring, oscillator sound is used on the soundtrack as a way to chiller. In the end he doesn’t really achieve either. signpost any upcoming nasties, but the film works to try and make the One of the most problematic aspects of this film is its inconsistent succession of killings as banal and anonymous as possible. The one pacing. The opening sequence feels rushed, as the mother is hacked to victim who does get a moment to shine is looking to score drugs, so in pieces before any tension is built up. The way the story initially unfolds the film’s strangely moralistic universe, deserves to perish. Young or cultivates the expectation that this will be a psychological mediation on old, black or white, everyone is a potential source of restorative blood how trauma can transform a victim into a callous murderer. Instead, Pesce for Milo, but the fact that he extends no sympathy for his victims is gives his characters unconvincing motivations such as when one says of never explored in any real detail. Milo spends much of his downtime killing that it, “feels amazing”. And while there’s a twisted Freudian logic watching vampire themed movies, recorded from the television onto behind the maternal instincts Francisca displays towards her mother’s battered VHS tapes. He regularly namechecks the films he likes – killer, this point is so heavy-handed that it completely diminishes any George Romero’s Martin, Tony Scott’s Near Dark, Tomas Alfredson’s broader impact. And for all the nightmarish potential of this story, the Let the Right One In, which comes across as O’Shea wanting to actors appear to be serenely sleep-walking in their parts. The detached, broadcast the fact that he’s done his homework. There are plenty of almost inhuman performances succeed at times in lending an eeriness sick burns at the expense of the Twilight movies, which is absolutely to the film, but there’s something risible rather than haunting in the fine by us. DAVID JENKINS monotone delivery of a line such as, “I killed [my father]”. DAN EINAV

ANTICIPATION. The vampire movie gets ANTICIPATION. Some recent black its gritty, realist curtain call. Intrigued. and white films have been excellent.

ENJOYMENT. A little oo self-conscious to connect, ENJOYMENT. but the anti-hero lead is compelling enough. This one, sadly, is not.

IN RETROSPECT. O’Shea knows the terrain, but IN RETROSPECT. More likely to send you to sleep it would’ve been nice to see him forge his own path. than keep you up at night.

060 REVIEWS BOOK NOW 020 7928 3232 bfi.org.uk/southbank Tickets from £6

Rainer Werner Fassbinder image courtesy of Deutsches Filminstitut, Frankfurt / Sammlung Peter Gauhe Film images: The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, Martha, Beware of a Holy Whore, Fox and His Friends, Efﬁ Briest, Love Is Colder Than Death, The Marriage of Maria Braun, The Merchant of Four Seasons, World on a Wire The Lost City of Z

Directed by s recounted by David Grann in his A subtle, incisive cultural ethnographer, Gray has long JAMES GRAY devourable 2009 non-fiction bestseller, established micro-communities and set them against Starring A the story of Colonel Percy Harrison a broader social canvas, allowing his black sheep to CHARLIE HUNNAM Fawcett is one of the great unsolved mysteries in roam free. The notion of ‘home’ is central to Gray’s back TOM HOLLAND the annals of exploration. Single-minded in his catalogue, and affordsZ its primary thematic conflict, SIENNA MILLER pursuit of an elusive “lost” civilisation, and at odds albeit one painted in overtly literal terms. Released with contemporary scientific reasoning, Fawcett Fawcett’s wife, Nina (Sienna Miller), proves to 24 MARCH led a three-man team deep into uncharted Amazon be another of Gray’s female characters whose fate is territory before disappearing without a trace in 1925. defined by their male counterpart. The film’s ending Grann frames the story as a mystery, positioning his may belong to her – a magnificent final shot evokes subject as the latest in a long line of what today’s that of the director’s previous film, The Immigrant, Royal Geographic Society dubs the “Fawcett freaks” as she turns her back on her own reflection to step – amateur adventurers who succumbed to the lure into her missing husband’s quest – but Gray’s script of an obsession that led them along a path to tragedy. (“I’m an independent woman!”) does her few favours Breaking with Grann’s structural device, James throughout. Miller delivers a fine performance Gray’s screen adaptation sets out Fawcett’s tale in nonetheless, not least in her closing monologue, even straightforward biographical terms. He forgoes if she can’t quite escape her essential modernity. the metaphorical allusions found in the erstwhile It’s a problem cripplingly shared by Charlie ANTICIPATION. jungle jollies of Werner Herzog’s jourey into the Hunnam’s Fawcett, a role crying out for a degree of James Gray goes epic. abyss, Aguirre, the Wrath of God, or 2015’s similar, psychological complexity that is not provided either superlative Embrace of the Serpent, by Ciro Guerra. by Gray or his lead. If Grann’s Fawcett is intended to Gray has proven himself a master matchmaker be taken as definitive, Gray’s approach is revisionist, of form and content. He amped up stylistic licks to simplistically diminishing returns. for the genre-inflected We Own the Night, then The Lost City of Z’s technical credentials are ENJOYMENT. tempered them in the face of Two Lovers’ quieter unimpeachable and serve as the primary means of A work of eyeball- emotional melodrama. The Lost City of Z sees engagement. Darius Khondji’s cinematography melting craftsmanship. him operating in a broader classical mode, both is nothing short of god-level, and Gray continues narratively and formally. to prove himself a stellar soundscape designer. The setting alone can’t help but invoke the spirit of Yet for all the set-pieces he directs the hell out of Joseph Conrad (the author famed for his 1899 novel, – an opening hunt; a piranha attack – it’s only in ‘Heart of Darkness’), but beyond such superficial its elliptical final throes that the film eclipses its IN RETROSPECT. touchstones, Gray’s films have all been interested in surface pleasures, as the eponymous city shifts from Beautiful, but skin-deep. that ubiquitous, Conradian question of self-definition. narrative goal to vaporous MacGuffin.MATT THRIFT

062 REVIEWS DIRECTOR MOHAMED DIAB SCRIPT KHALED DIAB AND MOHAMED DIAB ARTISTIC DIRECTOR HEND HAIDAR ARTISTIC PRODUCTION SARAH GOHER IMAGE AHMED GABR EDITING AHMED HAFEZ SOUND AHMED ADNAN MUSIC KHALED DAGHER PRODUCED BY MOEZ MASOUD MOHAMED HEFZY ERIC LAGESSE COPRODUCED BY OLIVIER PÈRE RÉMI BURAH NICOLE GERHARDS EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS JAMAL AL DABBOUS DANIEL ZISKIND A COPRODUCTION FILM CLINIC (EGYPTE) SAMPEK PRODUCTIONS (FRANCE) EMC PICTURES (THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES) ARTE FRANCE CINEMA (FRANCE) NIKO FILM (GERMANY) WITH THE PARTICIPATION OF ARTE FRANCE AIDE AUX CINEMAS DU MONDE CENTRE NATIONAL DU CINEMA ET DE L’IMAGE ANIMÉE MINISTERE DES AFFAIRES ETRANGERES ET DU DEVELOPPEMENT INTERNATIONAL INSTITUT FRANÇAIS WITH THE SUPPORT OF NORDMEDIA INTERNATIONAL SALES PYRAMIDE INTERNATIONAL www.clashﬁlm.co.uk © Film Clinic - Sampek Productions - Arte France Cinéma - 2016 City of Tiny Lights

Directed by his film offers a depiction of London tall tales and cricket metaphors to those who PETE TRAVIS that looks to the past in order to teach visit him in his cosy living room where the TV Starring T valuable lessons about the future, with is constantly blaring the bat and ball sport. RIZ AHMED Ugandan-Indian gumshoe Tommy Akhtar (Riz The story zips between the different time periods. BILLIE PIPER Ahmed) as our fearless guide. With a hand-held The appearance of the room doesn’t change JAMES FLOYD camera, director Pete Travis pounds the streets much but Farzad’s demeanour does. In 1997, he Released of the bustling metropolis, gravitating towards chats to Akhtar’s friend and love interest, Shelley 7 APRIL neon lights and drinking in the pouring rain. (Billie Piper, who also plays the adult version of These visual motifs match the sensibility of classic this character), about the “episodic allegory” of noir, itself channelled from a script written by Charles Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’. There’s a author Patrick Neate. The impactful location smartness to his appearance. In the present day, shooting lends the film a sense of urgency, and now widowed and dying of prostate cancer, he it never opts for scene-setting aerial shots or wanders around his house in a dressing gown, ANTICIPATION. postcard vistas. Yet in desperately clinging to hunched over and enfeebled. His infectious spirit, Riz Ahmed as a gumshoe on the the conventions of the genre, it falls short of its however, remains in tact. streets of London, how could this potential. Considering the film stars one of the Neate’s screenplay loops back to the rich possibly go wrong? UK’s brightest acting talents, that is a shame. depths of ‘A Christmas Carol’ on numerous Shifting between 1997 and the present day, occasions. As a narrative strategy, it’s not so our hero is tasked with investigating tragic events subtle, but it does hint at a stronger film that is from a bygone age in order to shed light on a case possibly lurking just beneath the shiny surface. brought to him by a prostitute. Her friend (also So too does Travis’ cheerful climactic shot of a ENJOYMENT. an escort) has gone missing after a night in a hotel Yuletide dinner attended by a diverse group of Travis’ London looks and with a high-powered businessman, but when Londoners. If City of Tiny Lights can be read in feels right but the story is Akhtar investigates, he finds a bloody corpse. the same way as the Dickens novella, it is most disappointingly familiar. It’s glaringly obvious from early on who the culprit definitely a hopeful film. It looks to the late ’90s is, so it is left to the minutiae of Akhtar’s personal as a time when a teenage Akhtar had a glimpse of life and his family ties to bring out the true happiness that was abruptly ripped from him as suspense and emotional heft of the story. the result of some regretful decisions. As for the Actor Roshan Seth delivers the film’s most present day, his career is all he has left. By the time IN RETROSPECT. credible performance as Tommy’s indefatigable the climax comes around, he has managed to carve The jagged parts of this noir father, Farzad, He lends proceedings a genuine out a future ripe with opportunity, where family puzzle don’t piece together to pathos thanks to his richly drawn character. and community have become his central concern. make a pleasing whole. He’s an immigrant and ex-army man who recounts KATHERINE MCLAUGHLIN

064 REVIEWS Graduation

Directed by hen a stone hurled by persons unknown Yes, it’s a portrait of Romanian specificity, but the CRISTIAN MUNGIU crashes through the front window of a film is also a universally relevant moral poser – in Starring W respected local doctor’s home, you just the same position, would you or I do any different? ADRIAN TITIENI know that all is not going to end well in this latest After all, Titieni’s careworn protagonist considers MARIA-VICTORIA DRAGUS from much-lauded Romanian writer/director himself a good guy who never takes bribes, so LIA BUGNAR Cristian Mungiu. Then again, things always go badly does bending the rules just this once make him a Released in Romania, it’s one of the defining tenets of the hypocrite? His missus obviously thinks so... 17 MARCH country’s celluloid New Wave, which has made such Hence, the level of ominous unease rises an impact internationally over the past decade or so. inexorably, in a way that will perhaps remind you They also tend to go badly for the characters of other arthouse nerve-tinglers, like Michael in long, unfolding takes evoking the suffocating Haneke’s Hidden or Lucrecia Martel’s The Headless bleakness these people are facing – Ceausescu may Woman. Mungiu’s apparently drab social-realism ANTICIPATION. be long gone, but change has been painfully slow in doesn’t, at first glance, offer the same kind of A festival favourite with high a society where corruption is so deeply ingrained. cinematic rush, as his camera prowls around these quality-control, Cristian Mungiu Certainly, from what we see of the unprepossessing spectacularly uninteresting small-town environs, is always one to watch. provincial town where Graduation is set, you can and the excellent cast determinedly avoid anything hardly blame the story’s concerned dad for pushing too showy. his teenage daughter to land the scholarship she’s Look closer, however, and the sheer nuanced been offered by a university in England. Moreover, precision of his filmmaking offers its own chin- we feel his anguish when fate steps in and the poor stroking rewards – say, in the way Mungiu shoots ENJOYMENT. girl is almost raped on her way to school, leaving her from inside cars, illustrating how these individuals The low-key subject bright future hanging precariously in the balance. see themselves as somehow insulated from their matter and over-familiar In contrast to the terrifying prospect of illegal surroundings, or how he brings up the sound surroundings soften its impact. abortion in 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days or the of barking dogs in the background to suggest unsettling religious orthodoxy at the heart of Beyond the insistent thereness of Romania’s reality. the Hills, Mungiu’s previous outstanding offerings, It’s subtle, incremental stuff, but that’s Mungiu’s the decidedly everyday subject of exam pressure patient craft, like the musical snippets of Handel makes this film somewhat more relatable. Still, and Vivaldi the characters listen to as a calming IN RETROSPECT. as various dodgy options present themselves to yet telling reminder of an ordered, enlightened The very ordinariness of the Adrian Titieni’s hassled dad, we are certainly not realm in which they themselves just don’t live in material leaves us productively in Kansas anymore, since here, if you’re a doctor any more. And neither, this probing, nervy and pondering what we might have with the power to tweak hospital waiting lists, then ultimately satisfying film suggests, do any of us. done in the same situation. somehow exam results can always be... adjusted. TREVOR JOHNSTON

REVIEWS 065 Harmonium

Directed by oji Fukuda’s Harmonium opens with manner, Yasaka is instantly marked as a misfit, KOJI FUKADA sounds of the eponymous instrument but he is also kind, attentive and helpful – in other Starring K being played out of tune. Recognising her words, everything that Toshio is not. In their TADANOBU ASANO own shortcomings as a budding musician, young different ways, Akie and Hotaru both love him. MARIKO TSUTSUI Hotaru (Momone Shinakawa), who is practising Toshio, on the other hand, feels that he represents KANJI FURUTACHI for a concert, turns on a metronome to impose a the return of a guilty conscience and a long buried Released semblance of order on all those bum notes. This is secret. Something has to give. 5 MAY also stands as a metaphor for Hotaru’s family life. Recalling the family films of Hirokazu Koreeda Her mother Akie (Mariko Tsutsui), a Protestant, or even Yasujiro Ozu, with its camera an aloof says grace before breakfast and then chats away observer of subtle and understated interactions, with Hotaru. Her atheist husband Toshio (Kenji Harmonium is certainly a domestic drama – but it is Furutachi), meanwhile, buries himself in his also something much darker, capturing the violence newspaper at the table and ignores both of them. and vindictiveness latent in family structures He and his wife are just letting their loveless with an austere tension. The film is divided into marriage tick over, hoping that routine alone two discrete halves (separated by eight years), in is enough to cover the underlying and agonising which repetitions and correspondences form a sort ANTICIPATION. dissonances in this household. of structural rhythm. There is the recurring focus You had us at ‘Tadanobu Asano’. It will turn out in a later scene that Toshio, on mothers and on a particularly bright shade of despite his apparent disengagement, was in fact scarlet (clothing, flowers, blood). The metronomic listening to his daughter’s chatter about a species pulses of earlier scenes are re-echoed by the of spider whose young devour their willing anxious, obsessive-compulsive counting of Akie mother. This trivial seeming conversation opens in later ones. Two men of different generations ENJOYMENT. up unexpectedly theological questions on the hired to help in Toshio’s workshop both unsettle A quietly tense examination nature of good and evil (Does the self-sacrificing the family's rhythm with their presence. And the of a family in slow freefall. mother go to Heaven? Will her children go to Hell? photographic image of four figures lying by a river And was the mother not once a child?), while also will return, and be radically reworked, in the film’s providing a counterpoint to a narrative in which second half. the sins of parents are visited upon children. “If you look closely,” Akie tells Yasake of the The family’s domestic disharmony becomes ‘beautiful’ red dress she has just made for her IN RETROSPECT. exposed with the arrival of Yasaka (Tadanobu young daughter, “there are lots of imperfections Koji Fukada’s formal rhythms Asano), an old friend of Toshio’s just released in it.” Harmonium, too, invites the audience to look are interupted by narrative from an 11-year prison stint for murder. With his at the discordances that are deep in the fabric of a disharmonies. buttoned up dress shirt, his neatness and his stiff family’s surface symmetries. ANTON BITEL

066 REVIEWS Their Finest

Directed by uring those unfortunate times when we are into a thoughtful, trenchant and penetrating LONE SCHERFIG obliged to drop bombs on other countries, wartime romance. It’s strange how, for so long, Starring D we tend to fire up the propaganda machine all that Scherfig has to offer appears so familiar GEMMA ARTERTON as a way to justify our aggressions to the home team. and uninteresting. Then, on a dime, she loads this SAM CLAFLIN Lone Scherfig’s delightful Their Finest, adapted unabashedly frivolous material with considerable BILL NIGHY by Gaby Chiappe from Lissa Evans’ 2009 novel, heft and insight. She constantly loops back on Released initially appears to trade on the puckish, deceitful herself, reinvigorates minor story threads and 21 APRIL language employed by artists attempting to convey develops the drama in surprising ways. a message of hope, false or otherwise. Arterton plays it wide-eyed and Welsh It’s the early 1940s; tin helmets, whistles, as unflappable Catrin, her relaxed, supremely powdered egg and all that. We swoop directly into confident and intuitive comic performance surely the quaint inner sanctum of the British Ministry of ranks as a career highlight. She brings no airs and Information, where serious men with side partings, graces to the role, showing that simple, unironic ANTICIPATION. round eyewear and toothbrush moustaches emotions when properly handled can work like Lone Scherfig is a director who transform patriotic slogans into fanciful newsreels gangbusters. A relationship percolates between runs hot and cold. This one could for mass consumption. Behind the scenes, the Catrin and Sam Claflin’s cynical screenwriter, Tom. go either way. piston engines are firing on pure testosterone, from Their opposing views on the function of cinema, top brass right down to on-screen talent. A chipper the horrors of war and the necessity of keeping that woman named Catrin (Gemma Arteton) enters upper lip stiff eventually, inevitably allows them the fray through a series of happy coincidences. to form a deeper connection, even though she is She secures a fairly key position when asked if she essentially working solely to keep her wounded artist ENJOYMENT. can enhance the dialogue of key female characters hubby in oils and canvas. The first half is worryingly in morale boosting quota quickies, but her unique Yet the film ends up being less about cinema as a light, but matters really sensitivities as a writer swiftly prove more vital to cheap form of escapist illusion, and more about how pick up in the final hour. the war effort at large. the daily dramas of life sometimes feel ripped directly Their Finest sets out its stall as a lightest-of-light from a juicy screenplay. The context of wartime comic drama, the cinematic equivalent of a hearty intrigue takes a back seat to the idea that cinema enamel mug of Mellow Birds. Its aggressive cockle has a strange way of affecting people in unintended warming properties are occasionally so brazen ways. The film climaxes with the stirring declaration IN RETROSPECT. that it almost asks to be written off as nostalgic that a movie can exist not merely as a document of a Grows into something special, fluff with a few passages from ‘My First Workplace moment in time, but as a glimmering monument to powered forward by Arterton’s Gender Politics’ thrown in for good measure. And those who appeared in front of the camera – whether charming central turn. just at the point of total desiccation, it transforms they wanted to or not. DAVID JENKINS

REVIEWS 067

IN CONVERSATION... Interview by DAVID JENKINS Illustration by NICK TAYLOR

Gemma Arterton The British leading lady discusses her role in the delightful Blitz-era comedy-drama, Their Finest.

ividing her time between American blockbusters, homegrown So do you think that the process of making a film is a leveller in a indies and even a few stints on the stage, Gemma Arterton has certain way? Yeah, because from my personal experience of working in D arguably reached peak form as a scriptwriter for propaganda ﬁlms Britain, people don’t put up with nonsense. People don’t want to work with in director Lone Scherﬁg’s Ealing-esque caper comedy, Their Finest. actors who are like that. If you want to keep working you’ve got to be nice.

LWLies: You play a World War Two-era screenwriter named Catrine But surely you must get to a point where you’re so in demand – was she based on a real person? Arterton: She was very loosely based that people have to work with you and you can turn into a luvvie? on the only female writer at Ealing Studios during the War. She was employed My family would tell me to sort myself out if I started acting like that. to write the female dialogue, which was called ‘nausea’ by those who worked But there aren’t that many luvvies out there. There are theatery types, but there. She was uncredited a lot of the time. There were a lot of women who even then they’re doing it for effect. It’s not who they really are. It’s an old- were writing for film at that time, because we were churning them out one fashioned notion. after the other. It really was the golden age of cinema in terms of demand; something like 30 million people a week went to the cinema – that’ll never What’s the day before filming like? What would be an average day happen again. And so there was this real need for a machine for making films. before you’re about to head off? It depends. With this film I was really, really nervous beforehand. I had very low confidence before we started The idea of bringing in women to write women’s dialogue actually shooting, and it continued for the first two weeks where I thought, ‘Oh seems quite progressive. You’re right! The people who were going to see god, why am I here, why did they choose me? Have they made a mistake?’ the films were women because all the men were fighting. In order to reach out to women these characters had to sound authentic. Why did you think that? I don’t know. But I got over it and then I really enjoyed it. I don’t know why. It just happened. Have you ever had an experience where you’ve received a script which was obviously written by a man? No, nothing that really And that feeling came just before you were about to do it? stood out. I can definitely tell when a woman’s written it though. No. It was there for a long time. The women seem to be more honest and flawed and not necessarily perfect. I remember when I read Moira Buffini’s adaptation of Tamara Did you tell anyone? No. I didn’t want anyone to say, ‘Stop being silly’ Drew and I thought, ‘She nailed that,’ because the women are really and I didn’t want to complain. But I think it informed the way I played the complicated. I remember Stephen Frears saying, ‘We don’t understand character a little bit because she’s someone who doesn’t have that much why she’s doing these things,’ and I said, ‘Exactly! That’s the point.’ confidence in the beginning and isn’t a very outgoing character. She’s an Obviously there’s something more authentic... women can bring their introvert. And I felt very introverted during the first week of the shoot. own experiences and feelings to these things, but I’ve never thought, ‘Oh I don’t know why! But with this film we had time to do screen tests, camera god, no.’ Maybe more in action movie stuff. tests, practices with hair and makeup, meet the actors and rehearse with them, which is really rare. Sam [Claflin] and I had met months before and Bill Nighy plays a ham actor in the film. How real is his representation rehearsed it, same with Bill. All of us had this time to get to know each of actors? I’ve never really come across a ham like that. People who don’t other a little bit. You get a feel for how it’s going to be, because the film is so work in the film business or theatre business think that all actors are like rhythmic, a lot of moving and talking very fast and picking up cues. It felt that, and that’s fine because it makes it funny or exotic. But they’re not. more like a play process for me, being able to sit in a room and talk about Bill was saying it’s quite an old fashioned way of being. I think it’s fabulous. the text. I was off-book – which never happens – before I started filming it, I’ve met legendary actors and actresses who are so glamorous and I think which I would never usually do because you shoot out of sequence. But I that’s amazing because they’re reflections of a bygone era. But generally knew the text so well and had been working on the accent obviously for a actors don’t tend to be like that in person. British actors are down to earth, while so it felt solid because we’d had that time. With other films you just and quite humble. turn up and get on with it

INTERVIEW 069 The Sense of an Ending Lady Macbeth

Directed by RITESH BATRA Directed by WILLIAM OLDROYD Starring JIM BROADBENT, BILLY HOWLE, Starring FLORENCE PUGH, CHRISTOPHER FAIRBANK, CHARLOTTE RAMPLING COSMO JARVIS Released 14 APRIL Released 28 APRIL

ime will not allow us to forget our first true love, even if it wasn’t he title of William Oldroyd’s striking debut feature does not refer T entirely reciprocal. In Ritesh Batra’s The Sense of an Ending, adapted T directly to Shakespeare’s iconic anti-heroine but rather a (like- from Julian Barnes’ 2011 novel, a figurative message in a bottle comes minded) character from Nikolai Leskov’s 1865 novella, ‘Lady Macbeth bobbing to the shore after decades lost at sea. It reminds irritating of the Mtsensk District’. Screenwriter Alice Birch relocates the story bourgeois malcontent Tony Webster (Jim Broadbent) of a girl he once from Russia to 19th-century Somerset, but this idyllic setting is more knew, and he becomes obsessed with finding out what she’s up to now. stifling than it is relaxing. The film opens on the wedding night of young Webster is the sort of guy who signs for a package and ignores the hopeful Katherine (beautifully played by Florence Pugh, the breakout star of smiles of the postman. He likes to quaff Merlot with his ex-wife and bicker Carol Morley’s The Falling), who quickly realises that she has married a with his pregnant daughter. Someone has died and he has been left a man who harbours neither affection nor desire for her. Bored and insulted mysterious document in the will, but it has been seized before he gets by his persistent refusal to sleep with her, she fills her long, empty days to see it. He has a hunch where it came from, but considering his diary is by acting wilfully sadistically towards the staff on her husband’s farm. tragically empty (his frou-frou camera repair shop is hardly packing in The central target of her abuse is black maid Anna (Naomi Ackie). the customers), he takes a plunge down the rabbit hole. She quickly and violently rejects a possible friendship, and even a cross- And the twist is, you really don’t care if he succeeds. Soft focus class camaraderie in the shared struggle against dogmatic men. flashbacks to the genial larks of Cambridge see lovestruck Tony (Billy It’s a subtle hint of things to come, indicating that far from being a Howle) attempting to nurture a relationship with wide-eyed coquette tortured damsel in distress, Katherine is in fact deeply unsympathetic, Veronica Ford (Freya Mavor), but she’s having none of it. In fact, the selfish and aggressive. As this subtly complex film progresses, Katherine’s story becomes overloaded with intricate sub-plots and hastily-sketched actions prove more and more alienating as she seeks to satiate her details, to the point where it become extremely difficult to keep tabs on desires with constant recourse to violence. Her erratic behaviour bursts exactly who did what to who and why. Thematically, the film throws far out of her in near-silent, masterfully composed static shots. She takes too much into the pot, to the point where it climaxes on something of peculiar delight in parading the man who was once Anna’s lover in front an obscure whimper. It talks broadly about the power of memory, the of the humiliated maid; her own, constantly absent husband’s feelings spectre of mortality, the possibility of rebirth and the tragedy of romance, on the matter remaining something of an after-thought.Indeed proving also touching on the idea that what one person might see as a minor to be more disorganised and naive than Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth, indiscretion, another experiences as a life-altering body blow. Charlotte Katherine comes closer to a really sinister Madame Bovary and the film Rampling turns up very late in the game – her astounding, intense five- appropriately ends on a brutally sour note. The final act marks a decisive minute appearance underscoring how ordinary the rest of the film is. shift as the desperate woman puts innocent lives at risk to secure a life of DAVID JENKINS sexual fulfilment for herself – and herself alone. ELENA LAZIC

ANTICIPATION. Director Ritesh Batra’s ANTICIPATION. A costume drama about a bored wife previous, The Lunchbox, was a total delight.. in the 19th century. Don’t we get one of these every year?

ENJOYMENT. Very well put together, and ENJOYMENT. The unpredictable character makes for the cast clearly believe in the material. more than a few violent twists.

IN RETROSPECT. Amounts to: Isn’t Charlotte Rampling IN RETROSPECT. A dark tale of sex and madness with great? Which we already knew. a beautiful lead turn from Florence Pugh.

070 REVIEWS

Mindhorn

Directed by inema is littered with tortured true concept failing to make the transition to fully- SEAN FOLEY detectives and hard-boiled bad lieutenants, formed comedy feature. The kind of film that has its Starring C but there’s never been anyone quite like moments but doesn’t quite hang together, no matter JULIAN BARRATT Bruce Mindhorn. The deranged brainchild of how much you will it to. No such cause for concern SIMON FARNABY writer-stars Julian Barratt and Simon Farnaby, here, as everyone brings their A-game in what is a ANDREA RISEBOROUGH this sublimely silly mock biography of sorts follows consistently farcical, frequently hilarious hat-tip Released washed-up British TV actor Richard Thorncroft to a particular sense of British humour. Cult anti- 5 MAY (played by Barratt), who we’re introduced to via a sitcoms like Bottom and Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace crudely-packaged sizzle reel culled from the ’80s are the most obvious touchstones, not to mention heyday of the titular light entertainment police Barratt’s hitherto most-beloved creation The Mighty procedural. To describe Mindhorn as Thorncroft’s Boosh, which incidentally provided a semi-regular alter ego is especially accurate because it’s not outlet for Farnaby’s like-minded brand of character entirely obvious where one character ends and comedy. The film also gently ribs – maybe a little the other begins. Which is exactly the point and too successfully – cosy teatime detective series like precisely why the film is so damn funny. Bergerac (listen out for a John Nettles namecheck) Jumping forward to the present day, we meet and The Professionals, with their quaint ideas of a balding and badly out of shape Thorncroft in a alpha masculinity and rural life. ANTICIPATION. poky flat in Walthamstow. It quickly transpires that Apropos of nothing, Farnaby plays a chiefly- Low-key British comedies have a he’s been dining out on his short-lived popularity shirtless Dutch man named Clive, who is the perfect tendency to come and go. ever since Mindhorn was pulled following its star’s foil for our unlikely hero. Where once Clive took a indelicate public comments about his fellow cast backseat as Thorncroft’s stunt double, now he’s members. An awkward reunion is on the cards when shacked up with ex-Mindhorn totty Patricia (Essie a delusional Mindhorn superfan goes on a killing Davis) and cruises around in a vintage sports car, spree on the Isle of Man, the setting for his favourite both of which Thorncroft used to enjoy making pur. ENJOYMENT. show (which he doesn’t realise is a show), informing Worse still, Mindhorn bit-parter Peter Eastman Just brilliant. Barratt delivers a the local constabulary that he’ll only negotiate (Steve Coogan) has found fame and relative fortune comedy performance for the ages. with the “real” Mindhorn. Sensing an opportunity in a long-running spin-off show. The sweet irony to massage his bruised ego and snag some much- here is that Coogan recently cashed in on his own needed media exposure, Thorncroft dusts off his tan comedic legacy with the Alan Partridge movie. jacket and matching roll neck sweater, snaps on his A trivial observation, perhaps, though we suspect “bionic” eye patch and hotfoots it to the ordinarily that Coogan must have been at least a little bit IN RETROSPECT. sleepy coastal town of Douglas. peeved to learn that Mindhorn is far superior to When can we see it again? This could have been another case of an amusing Alpha Papa. ADAM WOODWARD

072 REVIEWS Heal the Living

Directed by he bitter realities, the crushing against the lives of all those involved in facilitating KATELL QUILLÉVÉRÉ contradictions and the euphoric pleasures its safe transport. Everything is stripped back to Starring T of the human comedy is a subject that has its primary function, but no colour or detail is lost TAHAR RAHIM dogged filmmakers since the youngest days of the in the process. A harrowing early sequence sees EMMANUELLE SEIGNER medium. Many feel that the late, great French Tahar Rahim’s doctor struggling to explain to the ANNE DORVAL filmmaker Jean Renoir most successfully tapped dead boy’s grieving parents that there are ways for Released into this notion of humanism, his poetic, discursive his spirt to live on, if they would just wipe away 28 APRIL films often translating as earthy observational their tears and glance over a few release forms. Sign studies of people honestly reacting to their here now, because time is of the essence. The lucky surroundings and situations. Katell Quillévéré’s recipient is Anne Dorval’s ailing Claire who treats superb Heal the Living harks back to this noble the news of a transplant with surprising caution. and transcendent form of screen storytelling. In the short notice run-up to the procedure, she It suppresses the cinematic staples of romance decides to mournfully make peace with her children and melodrama and does away with dramatic rather than celebrate ahead of time. Quillévéré coincidence and contrivance to mine emotion delicately captures all the tiny ripples that come ANTICIPATION. from cold, ritualised reality. Maylis De Kerangal’s from this sudden and strange bodily transaction. Uh-oh, not another one of those source novel has been a huge seller in Europe, but It prompts those concerned to consider the awful ‘we are all connected’ movies Quillévéré has ingested and processed the material fragility of their own existence. in such a visually-driven way that its literary origins Meanwhile, two medical logistics officers are barely noticeable. trade small talk while the fresh organ sits in A teenager rises early to go surfing, but on his an ice box at their feet, idly disconnected from way back home he is involved in a traffic accident the fact that the continuation of a human life ENJOYMENT. which leaves him brain dead. He lies on a hospital depends on the careful completion of their task. Starts slowly and cautiously, bed like a slab of meat, a tribal tattoo on his shoulder The various strands naturally segue into a celestial builds into something sublime. the sign of a once-boisterous, outgoing character blue light of the operating theatre for the film’s rendered null and void by simple biology. We barely extraordinary finale. Tension is built through spend five minutes with this guy and yet, through duration rather than any ticking clock or snaking body language alone, the film conveys a vivid sense beads of sweat. It’s a hymn to social care and those of this soul about to be snatched from us. Then, the who dedicate their working days to do just as the IN RETROSPECT. focus coolly shifts to the treasure buried within his title of the film says. This is a story of life hanging Quillévéré’s best film, and an chest – a fresh, healthy ticker. by a single gossamer thread, but retooled as a early high-bar set for French The ﬁlm methodically charts the journey of that relatively smooth production line which resets and cinema in 2017. heart from one human being to another, brushing up repeats daily. DAVID JENKINS

REVIEWS 073 The Love Witch

Directed by o women make themselves pretty for their films but an update of their most lovably garish ANNA BILLER own pleasure? Or do they just want to tendencies. It reprises all of their conventions while Starring D please men, all the better to control them? never once mocking them. The choice to focus on a SAMANTHA ROBINSON It’s the former, of course. And yet the concept witch is in keeping with the tenets of the genre and JEFFREY VINCENT PARISE of female empowerment via self-objectification justifies beautiful sets and garments designed and LAURA WADDELL somehow continues to be confusing to commentators hand-crafted by the director herself. Living in her Released of all backgrounds and genders. Cinema too often Gothic Victorian mansion, Elaine wears glorious 10 MARCH has a hard time understanding that women’s desires witchy outfits and colourful makeup to enhance aren’t always directly related to the concerns of men. her power. Feminist film theory has gone to great lengths The sequences of seduction are nothing short to demonstrate that the mechanism of looking in of hilarious, with Elaine able to hypnotise men cinema often favours a male gaze. That is, one that with her stare alone. She drives them crazy with ANTICIPATION. frames women not as real people with agency or amateurish strip-teases shot through delightfully It’s usually a good sign when no desires of their own, but as objects to be looked at. tacky kaleidoscope lenses. The deliberately wooden one is too sure how to classify With that in mind, it becomes clear why movies are acting of the cast stands in wonderful contrast to our a film. so often suspicious of beautiful, powerful female heroine’s assumed mystique and the wickedness of characters. While a pretty woman without make-up her actions. is considered ‘pure’ and inoffensive because she does But Elaine’s self-objectification, while a not appear aware of her charm (and thus her power), powerful tool, never brings her the happiness she a fashionista with a little class inevitably falls into the craves. Although she satisfies their primal urge ENJOYMENT. category of the ‘femme fatale’: a woman who will use for sex, the men she seduces prove more modern The delights of this fully the ‘weakness’ of men to her own advantage. and more wily than she initially expects. When realised world are endless. Anna Biller’s The Love Witch doesn’t so much they demand an emotional bond with her (as she overturn this injustice as it revels in it to better once did from her husband) she is disappointed. expose how pernicious men’s fear of women can be. Elaine just wants to be their sex object, a princess Having been scorned by her misogynistic husband, of whom they can take care. And she will go to Elaine (Samantha Robinson) became a witch: a gruesome lengths to make her dream come true. IN RETROSPECT. woman who uses her charms (and magic tricks) The limits of the misogynistic vision of womanhood As enjoyable on a purely aesthetic to seduce and control men. Witchcraft in the film she has internalised soon becomes clear, and level and as a feminist text, this promotes the idea that women are not equal to men, the film offers a brilliant spin on the genre’s film will be cherished for years but goddesses encouraged to use their ‘sex magic’ despicable gender politics, all the while relishing to come. (simply, sex) to unlock men’s love. in the pleasures of its outmoded visual style. This is not a pastiche of Technicolor horror ELENA LAZIC

074 REVIEWS Clash

Directed by his film takes place two years after the mutable vision of human alliance. MOHAMED DIAB Tahrir Square protests. The ousted Muslim The film’s vision doesn’t settle for soft idealism. Starring T Brotherhood and the military forces It’s simply that, as desperation for fresh air, water, NELLY KARIM who removed them have taken to the streets, with and amenities increases, basic need overcomes the HANI ADEL ordinary citizens who support either side joining the energy for political strife. As the ragged group circle EL SEBAII MOHAMED melee. Authorities are finding it increasingly tough around the windows for a hint of breeze in the stifling Released to retain a grasp on public order. Clash is the second Cairo heat, they watch helplessly at the street clashes 21 APRIL feature by Egyptian director Mohamed Diab. It is set outside. Different factions plead with the police in the chaotic aftermath of President Morsi’s removal for help, chant slogans, or call out for their missing from the Egyptian government, and it takes place relatives. The police aren’t cruel to them – merely over the course of a day and night in 2013. indifferent and careless. This is complex and combustible subject matter Following the police van also cleverly positions to tackle, and the director handles it by cleverly the viewer at the heart of the action. The vehicle narrowing the scope of his material – the film’s is caught in the forward charge of rioters, strafed POV is confined to the interior of a riot van. Various by bullets and dented in a sky-blackening rain of ANTICIPATION. people caught up in street violence are bundled lobbed rocks. The occupants of the van often must Going in blind, but the set- inside, including two AP journalists, a handful of throw themselves to the floor or quickly block the entirely-in-a-riot-van premise anti-Muslim Brotherhood protesters and a clutch of windows from clouds of noxious tear gas. The film is interesting. virulent MB supporters. The camera whirls around might casually be called a thriller, were the human its subjects with surprising dexterity, using the stakes not so high. Eventually, clouds of smoke, red barred windows to form a 360 degree view of the police lights and rioter’s green laser pointers obscure carnage outside. From opening to closing shot, it the van completely. It has an uncanny resemblance to remains in this claustrophobic space – but the result some kind of hellish nightclub. ENJOYMENT. is never gimmicky. Diab keeps the set-up relatively As each character stakes out his or her own Deeply involving and simple, using handheld shots to generate a sense viewpoint, Clash does stumble through the just as harrowing. of urgency. occasional stretch of informative exposition. But it’s The strong ensemble cast work well to humanise forgivable given the compact nature of the action; a story that risks coming across as pure allegory. we rely on these people to inform us of the wider Of particular note is Nelly Karim as Nagwa, a fiercely conflict. Yet the film is less explicitly political than protective mother thrown into the conflict with her it is broadly humane. In a nation increasingly split IN RETROSPECT. pre-teen son. What begins as a microcosm of the into angry factions, Diab looks to the commonality of A compact thriller with real division outside – fierce loyalties, deep mistrust, human experience and suffering to heal a country’s human consequences. outbreaks of violence – soon dissolves into a more weeping wounds. CHRISTINA NEWLAND

REVIEWS 075 A Quiet Passion

Directed by quiet passion trickles through Terence We begin by watching her precocious teen TERENCE DAVIES Davies’ eighth feature, starting with graduating from an academy (young Dickinson Starring A the title, forming a tributary around is played by Emma Bell). So begins a tussle to be CYNTHIA NIXON a character, then pooling in the film’s centre, taken seriously as a female poet as the years roll JENNIFER EHLE which is poetry itself. When John Goodman by until her untimely death aged 55 from kidney KEITH CARRADINE screamed, “I’ll show you the life of the mind!” in disease. How to cinematically render a life lived in Released the Coen brothers’ 1991 film, Barton Fink, they the invisible space of mental wrangling? Anyone 7 APRIL could have been gesticulating towards a volume looking for action rather than conversation may by Emily Dickinson. In this flighty biopic, the want to apply elsewhere. A perky, parasol-twirling life of the overlooked-in-her-time 19th century newcomer to the village constitutes an event, and American poet is drawn from six biographies the rest is milestones of time: sickness, death, the and an examination of her own words. It shows marriage of a sibling. what a life looks like when a sensitive genius Dickinson is a lifelong spectator, but Nixon places reflections on existence ahead of existence imbues her with pathos via an exquisitely pained ANTICIPATION. itself. Strengths lie in this film’s commitment to sensitivity. Her brother Austin’s infidelity hits her Our most eagerly-awaited film understanding an extraordinary, reclusive woman, hard, not because of busybody outrage, but because of the year. its weaknesses in a dogged fidelity to relaying the of passionate principles. She boldly challenges the small events of each passing year. religious norms of her household, but her soul Had the film offered an atmospheric and remains her work station, and she holds loved ones impressionistic slice of life, in the vein of Davies’ to its punishing standards. best film, 1992’s The Long Day Closes, it would As Dickinson’s world is small, Davies makes ENJOYMENT. have been even more potent. To an extent, this sure that we occupy it fully alongside her. The soul is there but the is autobiography. Davies often laments his lack The detailed intimacy with which the interiors body is sometimes weak. of physical beauty. Despite being played by of her lifelong home are rendered makes the set Cynthia Nixon, who radiates a pale fire, this Emily feel almost theatrical. The best moments of the Dickinson is too self-deprecating to conceive of film are when Nixon reads Dickinson’s poetry – romance. She will not appear before a young male Davies having contrived a context. ‘I’m Nobody! admirer, convinced that her looks would both repel Who are you?’ is read joyfully to a baby, but usually IN RETROSPECT. him and shatter his attachment to her poetry. This the poems are narrations over quiet scenes. Either By focusing on such an ambitious character logic is not established in order to be way, her inflections match the beats and meaning time-span, Davies sacrifices the overcome by a dashing hero in the third act. It is of the words, and we see how Dickinson fleetingly opportunity to deliver an apt the stubborn conviction of a woman reconciled to ascends from the confines of life into the divinity spiritual body blow. focusing only on the page and family. of poetry. SOPHIE MONKS KAUFMAN

076 REVIEW IN CONVERSATION... Interview by ADAM WOODWARD Illustration by NICK TAYLOR

Cynthia Nixon

of love and unrequited love or unfulfilled love There’s one seizure scene in particular which is at least. extremely tough to watch. That one goes on for The American star a while. I actually didn’t really prepare for that of A Quiet Passion on The film shot in sequence. How much does that scene. Luckily, we only did maybe two takes. help? It’s very helpful in terms of the hair and My wife has seen the film now, and when we graduating from TV makeup department and them being able to age got to the seizure scene and I was like, ‘Yep, get you properly. But also particularly when you’re ready now…’ I think it was quite distressing for comedy mainstay to dealing with someone who becomes so infirm, her to watch. because so many sad things happen to her near art-house titan. the end of her life. You do feel as an actor going Is death something that crops up much in your through it... you feel like things are just being professional life? I’m in my fifties now, and the taken away from you, all of these things that you truth is the older you get, the more death you depend on and rely on. see. But, you know, it’s a juicy thing for an actor rolific American poet Emily Dickinson to get to do, a death scene. lived out her highly introverted life The violent convulsions Emily suffers from are P at her family estate in leafy Amherst, incredibly distressing to watch. How distressing What kinds of roles do you look for today? Massachusetts, where she died aged 55 following were they to perform? Well, I’ve played a few I’m very lucky to be living exactly right now a lengthy battle with Bright’s disease. In a new characters in recent years who have a terminal because I think now we have more focus on biography by British director Terence Davies, illness. I did a film called James White in 2015 women’s stories and it’s partly because women a career-best Cynthia Nixon eloquently and and I also did a stage play called ‘Whip’, where are shown to have a better track record at powerfully conveys her character’s chronic mental my character is dying of cancer. I guess I’ve also the box office than people initially thought. and physical anguish – most notably in scenes seen some people die; I had some friends who Also, there’s just more female... everything. More that required her to act out increasingly violent, died of AIDS in the ’90s. My father and mother female producers and writers and directors and uncontrollable convulsions. We found out from died a few years ago... actresses of a certain age who create vehicles for Nixon how she drew from personal experience for themselves. I was led to believe that you were a the role, and why there’s never been a better time Does that help? Oh, it absolutely helps. But kid, and then you were an adolescent and then to be telling women’s stories. the main thing for me when you’re playing you got married and settled down and then it someone in a lot a pain is that you’re always was sort of the same until death. Nothing more LWLies: Emily Dickinson endured a great deal of trying to minimise the agony. In Emily’s case, happened. The older I get, the more interested emotional and physical pain throughout her life. I was trying to minimise the shaking, or trying I am in people my age. And not just my age, As an actor, how difficult is that to externalise? to get air because you can’t breathe, or trying to people 25, 30 years older than me. In the movie Nixon: She’s such a bundle of contradictions make it across the floor because her feet were business, they’re always looking for stories that and she’s in so much pain a lot of the time. in a lot of pain every time she stepped down. haven’t been told – well, I think those are some The last part of the film is where I really So you’re trying to get where you need to go but really interesting stories and there’s an audience connected with her as a person, the torment at the minimum cost to yourself. out there that’s really hungry for it

INTERVIEW 077 The Salesman

Directed by he opening moments of Asghar Farhadi’s never shown or spoken of in explicit terms, other ASGHAR FARHADI The Salesman are a salvo against film than in the aftermath – bewildering shots of a Starring T critics who accuse the director of cleaving profusely bleeding cut on Rana’s head coupled with TARANEH ALIDOOSTI too closely to conventional dramatic composition. the mish-mash of contradictory testimony from SHAHAB HOSSEINI Still shots of props, lighting, and multi-level stage neighbours who heard her cry out. Rana throws BABAK KARIMI arrangement of an in-film production of Death of herself into the play wanting to forget about the Released a Salesman is suddenly disrupted by a two-minute incident. Yet the far-reaching repercussions 17 MARCH tracking shot, breathlessly following middle-class of rape (again, ever stated as such in Farhadi’s couple Emad and Rana Etesami (Shahab Hosseini script, but alluded to in the subtext – piercing and Taraneh Alidoosti, both riveting) as they and gazes and unanswered questions between the their neighbours are forced to evacuate their couple), are felt in the trace evidence. From Rana’s crumbling apartment complex. This juxtaposition bandaged head to a quiet dinner at home suddenly ANTICIPATION. of visual cinematic language stacked against the becoming tainted by the use of money left by the Solidifying his reputation with more static scenes from the Arthur Miller play previous tenant, The Salesman is haunted by these the nearly-perfect A Separation, turns out to be a running thread throughout structuring absences. Asghar Farhadi’s work is always the film. Like ‘Death of a Salesman’, Farhadi’s The worth a look. As is typical of Farhadi’s thematically-dense Salesman turns into a tragic examination of screenplays, the cracked foundation of the couple’s masculinity, as Emad is unable to let go of the home is a harbinger of marital tension. While incident in question, despite Rana’s protestations. waiting for their old apartment to be repaired, From this point, the film loses momentum. Emad and Rana, part-time players in the local The complex and often contradictory behaviour ENJOYMENT. theatre group putting on the Miller production, that rape survivors can exhibit in the aftermath Can’t quite stick the landing, but take up temporary residence in a flat owned by a of an attack is a compelling subject, one that a compelling build-up is buoyed fellow actor in the company. However, their new Farhadi only hints at. Emad’s search for revenge, a by stand-out lead performances. landlord failed to disclose the circumstances reworking of an old Iranian film trope, crescendos surrounding the hasty exit of the flat’s prior tenant: early and then awkwardly peters out beyond that a sex worker ousted against her will, evidenced by a point. The final shot, recalling the last lines of locked room filled with her possessions. Miller’s play (“We’re free…”) loses some emotional Farhadi slowly builds The Salesman around punch due to its poorly timed execution. Still, The IN RETROSPECT. things left unsaid and unseen. The previous Salesman provides further evidence of Farhadi’s A thought-provoking relationship tenant, never shown onscreen, goes from a mild mastery when it comes to articulating the middle- drama that lingers long after the curiosity to lingering pall. When a former client of class woes of contemporary Iranian society. credits roll. the tenant breaks in an attacks Rana, the event is MALLORY ANDREWS

078 REVIEWS I Am Not Your Negro

Directed by n the credits to Raoul Peck’s documentary I Am of the fascistic Trump administration in the US RAOUL PECK Not Your Negro, the words “written by James thanks to absurd claims. It sees Baldwin explain how Released I Baldwin” bring the author, who died in 1987, it is often difficult to see, “the difference between 7 APRIL back to life. It’s as if he had communed with Peck entertainment and narcotics,” while superimposed and the pair had worked together on this vital film. to a montage of black Americans winning prizes In many ways, he truly has. Baldwin is the celebrated on game shows. As in the 1960s, the media today black writer and thinker whose work ranged from sell the illusion of equality and opportunity for confrontational, poetic literary fiction to criticism black people as if racism didn’t exist. The reality, and cultural commentary. (Film lovers may want to as told by Baldwin and shown by Peck’s exemplary peruse his essential and painfully honest notes on marshalling of assiduously selected images of moviegoing, ‘The Devil Finds Work’). The voice-over unrest, is that black Americans have always fought ANTICIPATION. narration consists solely of Baldwin’s notes from for their freedom: “In America, I was free only in James Baldwin is worthy of many unfinished novel ‘Remember This House’. Taking battle, and he who finds no way to rest cannot long documentaries. Let’s hope this one cues directly from his subject, Peck works to plant survive the battle.” Through Baldwin, Peck stresses captures the complexities of his Baldwin on the pedestal he deserves. Using Samuel the emergency of finding solutions. life and work. L Jackson’s powerful, touchingly modulated voice to Baldwin and Peck make this hopelessness ever intone Baldwin’s prose, as well as clips of the author more vivid by veering into a personal space. With his publicly defending his arguments, Peck draws out famous talent for poetry, Baldwin describes in detail the man behind the words. He imbues the text with the circumstances of his learning about the deaths a fresh lifeforce. of friends Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King Jr and ENJOYMENT. Tactfully, Peck goes one step further. He uses the Malcolm X. Peck understands that these stories Baldwin’s ideas are evidently tools of filmmaking to not only animate Baldwin’s don’t need frivolous cinematic accompaniments understood by the director, words, but to also revive them for modern times. to be moving: photographs of the victims and who makes them moving Through editing he conflates the tumultuous period Jackson’s narration suffice. Yet he again connects and more urgent than ever. of Baldwin’s writing with instances of racial violence those intimate stories back to a wider racial from the current decade. Peck demonstrates with dimension, as well as to the present day. Pictures great intelligence that documentaries don’t have of people queuing to see Malcolm X’s open casket to be purely observational to amply respect their act as a reminder that the man was inseparable subject. Peck builds on Baldwin’s arguments from his cause. With his death, the fight against IN RETROSPECT. about racism in America by striking a balance racism lost one of its defenders, and by reminding “History is not the past, it is the between reverential representation and personal us of this loss, Peck quotes Baldwin’s once more: present.” Essential viewing for interpretation. One of the film’s many incredible “We carry our history with us, we are our history.” our troubled times. sequences feels even more sobering in the context MANUELA LAZIC

REVIEWS 079 My Life as a Courgette

Directed by h to have been a computer animated fly- diverse rabble of raucous pre-teens whose reasons CLAUDE BARRAS on-the-wall when the Hawaiian-shirted for destitution cover a broad range of ills. The Starring O yo-yos down at the Pixar ranch caught film cleverly develops interpersonal relationships GASPARD SCHLATTER sight of Claude Barras’ miniature stop-motion and fleshes out character arcs. If one of the kids SIXTINE MURAT wonder, My Life as a Courgette. A family film. is a bully or extremely shy, the film takes time PAULIN JACCOUD Animated. Contains an accidental murder within to tease out the (often shocking) reasons why. Released its opening three minutes. You can virtually hear Our hero takes a shine to supercool Camille, 5 MAY the cocktail weenies falling out of their gaping who receives visits from an evil aunt attempting mouths. This is a story that makes no bones about to secure custody of her. There is no issue, no lunging directly for the jugular when it comes to taboo, no concession to grim reality that the film broaching issues of tremendous social importance. shies away from, and yet its forthright nature There’s no elaborate metaphors or protective never comes across as gratuitous line-crossing or world building. This is animation that dares to empty provocation. In fact, this is a film whose engage with uncomfortable reality, plain and every immaculately rendered frame and minutely simple. It is, among other things, a gorgeous hymn considered line of dialogue positively tingles with to the social care system and the work undertaken the promise of hope. by people who have dedicated their lives to caring The film is an unassuming technical tour-de- for the vulnerable and unfortunate. Yet there is force thanks to the work of debut director Barras. ANTICIPATION. no direct political commentary about decimating Yet it also displays the distinctive paw-prints of its What is up with that title? services or lack of resources. The film offers a screenwriter, Céline Sciamma. Her abiding interest unique and energising take on life as experienced in growing pains among disenfranchised, desperate through the guileless eyes of a displaced child. It youths continues, although it has found a perfect takes a long hard look at the concept of innocence, new conduit in the form of day-glow, bobble-headed a state of mind that both protects and ferments the stop-motion figurines. Indeed, the visual style of ENJOYMENT. ritual horrors of existence. the film and the colourful design of the characters Okay, forget the title. That ker-azy title should be explained. resembles discarded ’90s toys – there’s ample detail Courgette is the nickname of wide-eyed pipsqueak to make them expressive, but with enough worn Icare who is spirited away to a rural orphanage edges to suggest that they were once loved, way back when an everyday accident causes the death of his when. It has been a gigantic hit in its native France alcoholic mother – a sequence handled square-on, and deserves to do big business all over the globe. IN RETROSPECT. but with an abundance of sensitivity and poise. It’s Take kids to see this worldly, outspoken film, and A superlative family film, and a change of scenery for Courgette and it has the expect it to become their new favourite. And, very one that dares to be different. potential to be great fun. He is placed among a probably, yours too. DAVID JENKINS

080 REVIEWS Jawbone

Directed by reat boxing movies are often stories of Although Ian McShane slithers by for an THOMAS Q NAPPER broken dreams, missed opportunities and oleaginous one-scene cameo, Jawbone is primarily Starring G the long road back to redemption, and a film about the relationship between three men. JOHNNY HARRIS Jawbone adheres to this classic template. An amateur Like Michael Smiley’s Eddie, gym owner Bill RAY WINSTONE champion at 16, Jimmy McCabe (Johnny Harris) (Ray Winstone) looks at Jimmy with a mixture of IAN MCSHANE coulda been a contender, he coulda been somebody, anger, disappointment and paternal affection. He Released instead of being, “just another boring drunk who has dedicated his life to helping young boys get 17 MARCH had it all in the palm of his hand and pissed it up off the streets, pushing them to make something against a wall,” as his trainer Eddie bluntly puts it. of themselves, and through Winstone’s tender When we’re introduced to Jimmy he is at his lowest performance we understand how Jimmy’s continued ebb. Homeless after being evicted from his flat, he lapses have wounded him deeply. Winstone and spends his nights drinking by the Thames, gazing Harris share a scene halfway through the picture that into the deep waters. The despairing look in his is both unexpected and moving, with the emotional eyes suggests he has considered jumping in more impact being amplified by the skilful underplaying of ANTICIPATION. than once. both actors. Another film about a boxing We shouldn’t be surprised that Harris conveys Jawbone is an impressive and powerful film about comeback. Surely we’ve seen it Jimmy’s pain with such searing authenticity. He has alcoholism, and a pretty good one about boxing. The all before? often been capable of finding a note of sadness or narrative develops towards a final unlicensed fight that vulnerability in even his most despicable characters Jimmy hopes will dig him out of a financial hole, and – think of his vivid turn as a pimp in London to the filmmakers make an effort to minimise the number Brighton – and here he has the added benefit of of standard training montages and familiar story beats knowing exactly what his character is going through. as he gradually rebuilds himself. When this bout does ENJOYMENT. Harris wrote Jawbone based on his own experiences, finally come around, Napper and his cinematographer Not your standard boxing and the film’s most resonant moments capture Tat Radcliffe put us inside the ring, getting their film, this is a wrenching intimate details of the alcoholic’s plight: waking up cameras as close as possible to the two sluggers and portrait of an addict. bleary-eyed and in need of a sustaining drink; striving capturing the impact of their blows. It’s intense and to hide his desperation behind a brave public face; frenetic, but it’s also strangely anti-climactic, which experiencing a deep flush of shame as he tells lies to seems to be the point. Jawbone is a film about a man cover his tracks. Director Thomas Q Napper likes to who knows that his real fight will begin the moment he get uncomfortably close to Jimmy or frame him in a steps outside the ring, and when he finally faces up to IN RETROSPECT. way that emphasises his isolation, and we often see that fact in the film’s shattering final scene it feels like Packs a surprisingly him alone at night, wandering the dark empty streets a bigger victory than any he could have managed with powerful punch. as he tries to keep his demons at bay. his gloves on. PHIL CONCANNON

REVIEWS 081 Aquarius

are disseminated, and the personal histories that references are shrewd: Aquarius is specifically Directed by figure within, are felt. concerned with how physical spaces and material KLEBER MENDONÇA FILHO That woman with the radio is Clara, played possessions act as portals to another time, but Starring in the prelude by Barbara Colen and then in the more generally, with the sway the past holds over SONIA BRAGA present day as a 65-year-old by the extraordinary us. A lesser filmmaker might have repeatedly MAEVE JINKINGS Sonia Braga. She’s an actress with film and cut to scenes from Clara’s twenties and thirties, IRANDHIR SANTOS television credits spanning nearly 50 years but Filho’s stylistic evocation of this era of Released (including Sex and the City and Kiss of the Spider cinema suggests the more insidious, intangible 24 MARCH Woman), but she rarely secures the kind of juicy ways that memory seeps into our experience leading role that Brazilian writer/director Kleber of the present (incidentally, its prelude takes Mendonça Filho offers her here. His stunningly place in 1980, the same year that Michael confident 2012 debut, Neighboring Sounds, is a Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate was released, whose nervy, stylish ensemble piece in the digressive vein financial failure is commonly recognised as the ANTICIPATION. of Robert Altman’s Short Cuts, a film that explores death knell of this epochal era). Looking forward to fun-time larks. class and racial tensions between the tenants of That Clara happens to be quite affluent So clever, so witty, so true. So clever, a Recife apartment complex. Those anticipating might initially make her predicament seem less Aquarius as a follow-up to that film may be slightly sympathetic, but that’s only part of the complexity let down by its relative straightforwardness. Yet it of her characterisation. She is a widowed breast speaks to his generosity as a filmmaker that he’s cancer survivor and former music critic with a willing to cede to the power of his leading lady. brashly combative streak, yet her righteousness ENJOYMENT. Which isn’t to say that Aquarius – which is never a source of easy identification. Often she’s Looking forward to fun-time larks. again concerns the goings-on in and around as delusional and self-centred as her developer So clever, so witty, so true. an apartment block in Recife – is a staid, actor- adversaries are unctuous and venal, particularly driven film, even though it’s ostensibly a piece chief-designer Diego (Humberto Carrão). In one of contemporary social realism. Depicting the scene she’s being interviewed for the release of a city’s gentrification through the prism of a heated collection of her music criticism, and bristles with skirmish between property developers and the barely concealed antipathy at her interlocutor’s IN RETROSPECT. stubborn Clara as she refuses to accept their question about whether she prefers physical Looking forward to fun-time larks. buyout offer, the film is rife with dreamy stylistic records to MP3s. Clearly, Clara resents adaptation, So clever, so witty, so true. So clever, flourishes rather than urgent, handheld-camera and Braga channels her ferocity with impeccable naturalism. One of the walls in her apartment is savvy. Yet the real testament to her skill is how emphatically adorned with an original three-sheet she evokes the pull of Clara’s memories using n a beachside at night, a woman pops a poster for Barry Lyndon, another tale of privilege body language; whether dancing alone in her cassette into a car stereo, and her face and the (literal) duels taken to preserve status. apartment, or in her tentative gait as she explores O beams with the anticipation of her The poster is also a souvenir from the New the spaces to which she’s profoundly attached. three friends’ reaction to Queen’s ‘Another One Hollywood era that began in the late 1960s, At nearly two-and-a-half hours in length, Bites the Dust’. The speaker-rattling bassline, significant to members of the boomer generation Aquarius might indulge Clara, and the film’s instantly recognisable within a split second, to which Clara loosely belongs. Filho doesn’t inventorying tendencies do at times make it feel offers a rude interruption to the peaceful sound dwell on her relationship to cinema, but he does like an elongated, adult-contemporary cover of of lapping waves. Slowly their heads start bobbing adopt many of the formal tics often associated James Franco’s “look at my shit” speech from in awkward unison as they make nervous, slightly with this era of filmmaking in order to bring us Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers. Still, it embarrassed glances at one another. Here, the closer to her point-of-view, including slow zooms, ends powerfully on an ambivalent note that best-selling single of one of the world’s most cross-fades, and even a split-diopter shot that offers both a sense of catharsis and futility. And popular bands is made to seem small and personal. could be straight out of a Brian De Palma film. frankly, being too invested in the life of a central An awareness of both the material presence Nostalgically evoking this oft-fetishised era character is the kind of “flaw” that more films through which such looming cultural touchstones of cinema can often be a crutch, but here the could benefit from. IAN BARR

082 REVIEW REVIEW 083 FIRST PERSON... Interview by DAVID JENKINS Illustration by NICK TAYLOR

Kleber Mendonça Filho

about life in the big city, and it is all tremendous. of life and it’s really up to you to analyse and To this day it keeps coming back to me whenever see how you deal with all that information The brilliant I’m writing. Even though there are no guns in which is emotional, it’s factual and it’s personal my films, it keeps coming back. In Aquarius, the and it’s very moving and it can be disturbing. Brazilian director of flat itself is like the police station and there are It’s vital for you to live your own life and try people outside trying to force their way in. Not as to understand life, but in my case, because I Aquarius talks about aggressively, or course, but a it’s a different type of write and I try to sift through interesting ideas aggression. It’s fascinating when you’re thinking and maybe use them in some film that people why he keeps coming about a film and the general outline is still very might want to see, nostalgia sometimes has a back to Assault on familiar in terms of that film that you have in your bad reputation because it feels like some kind mind. Assault is always a reference point for me, of sickness. Too much nostalgia is bad because Precinct 13. and I’m afraid it’s going to be coming back in my nostalgia rhymes with depression. There is a third film. healthy amount of nostalgia that you can go for “I also watched Rio Bravo back when I in your life and I am somebody who respects was writing the script, which is interesting. the past, my mother was a historian dan I’m razil’s Kleber Mendonça Filho used to When you watch stuff, it’s all about scale – that’s fascinated by the past. I find that a lot of people be a film critic, but his move into the the inspiring thing. Hitchcock has that effect. despise the past. I’m not one of these people, B director’s chair has been specucularly Those films are still inspiring. It’s not like they’re I’m interested in the past and I love elements successful. Aquarius, about an ageing female easy to remake. You look at something like Rear in the past, you know objects memories, piece music journalist being terorised by property Window and in terms of scale, you think, ‘Fuck, of paper, documents and that’s what I think developers, is his follow-up to 2012’s aria of that’s doable!’ With something like Star Wars, Aquarius is about. It’s about documents and urban paranoia, Neighbouring Sounds. it’s fun, but I always think, ‘I can’t do that, it’s too archives. It doesn’t really come out in film much!’. I appreciate scope, but I also appreciate reviews over the past 8 months. Most of what “Some things make you happy about the idea craft. Die Hard is one I love. I saw it when I was comes out is the resistance and the politics. of cinema, and you remember them. Cinema 19 and was really inspired by it because it was just “Talking of nostalgia, Cinema Paradiso is a creates fond memories, like when you first saw a fucking really great movie experience. I still strange film. One half is built on true feelings of Raiders of the Lost Ark, for example. But Raiders remember the screening of that. A supposedly nostalgia and the other is built on cheap feelings never inspired me to make film. I didn’t see it at stupid action movie I picked to see turned out to of nostalgia. That is confusing, but you usually 13 and think, ‘Oh, I really want to be a filmmaker be very strange and special. get either a masterpiece with heartfelt feelings so I can do something like this!’ For me, Raiders is “I am 48 now. I have two kids and it’s almost about the past and observations on time, or you just a happy memory, and nothing more. But John impossible not to have to deal with nostalgia get some cheap knock off evoking memories like Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13 is something in your everyday life. When you have kids its one of these cheap Christmas cards that you that actually told me, ‘You can do something like a lot of memories and feelings that were buy with cheap thoughts about the past. I don’t like this.’ It’s very well made and very precise, buried inside you self start to come back. They know why I mentioned Cinema Paradiso but but the scale is modest. It looks doable. On top are recycled because now you’re looking at it’s a film that brings me some good ideas about of that it’s the perfect mix of different elements. someone’s childhood and memories of your nostalgia and manipulations about memory and It’s partly Hollywood, partly western, partly own childhood come back and that’s just part the past also.”

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Belladonna of Sadness

Directed by Starring EIICHI YAMAMOTO AIKO NAGAYAMA, Released 13 MARCH Blu-ray TATSUYA NAKADAI, 1973 KATSUTAKA ITO

t might come as a surprise to some, but Japanese animated cinema and generally reckoned the godfather of Japanese manga and anime, was did actually exist before Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli came also the moving force behind Belladonna of Sadness, this being the third, I along – it’s just that most Western audiences and distributors have last and most far-out title from the Animema project he initiated to take never ventured further beyond his 1979 first feature Castle of Cagliostro. animation in a new adult direction a few steps beyond the family-friendly As such, the upcoming blu-ray release of 1973’s Belladonna of Sadness, a fare with which his company Mushi had made its name. Somehow they harrowing anime tale of love, rape, pillage and black death in Medieval launched into this adaptation of an obscure 1860s French novel, tackling France, would be noteworthy just for allowing us to access this terra the story of Jeanne, a put-upon fair maiden whose virginity is taken incognita. What makes it a genuine filmic event, however, is that the in tribute by the local lord. Her suffering however, unleashes a fierce movie itself isn’t merely a fascinating artefact from another time, it’s so pent-up sexual energy which soon has her consorting with Satan and utterly out-there it could well have beamed in from another dimension – developing magical powers to threaten the status quo. Given that by this one far, far away from the familiar Studio Ghibli universe. time the company was in serious financial trouble, it’s as if all concerned Describing it is a bit of a challenge, frankly. After all, it’s hard to simply pushed the material to its very limits, sensing they’d never get to picture a combination of historical brutality, post-’60s dolly-bird kitsch, do another one. challenging sexual violence, watercolour tonalities, accompanying That indeed proved the case, which leaves Belladonna of Sadness as jazz-rock freak-outs, a feminist anti-establishment social agenda and the animated outlier, particularly distinctive for the way it collides with the exquisite line drawing of, say Egon Schiele or Aubrey Beardsley. What on robust sexual attitudes of 70s Japanese exploitation flicks (think the earth is that unlikely combo going to look like? But that’s Belladonna of Female Convict Scorpion series and the daunting Terrifying Girls’ High Sadness for you, something to be experienced, since reading about it, or School franchise). There’s a degree of visual metaphor involved, but the catching an online clip doesn’t really do it any sort of justice. degree and regularity of violation inflicted upon the sylph-like heroine, We’re getting it now thanks to the remarkable restoration project whose shock of hair gives her the look of a poster girl for Swinging undertaken by US distributors Cinelicious Pictures, who got their hands London fashion-house Biba, does not make for comfortable viewing, on the original Japanese camera negative to clean it up and transfer it even if her response is a super-energised sexuality which ultimately to 4k digital resolution. What’s revealed in the process is the startling destabilises the patriarchal establishment. hand-made quality of what you’re looking at. Visually, the film is primarily However much you take such feminist credentials on trust, or see the creation of artist Kuni Fukai, who worked with director Eiichi them as mere dressing for just so much roman-porno titillation, what’s Yamamoto in creating extraordinary painted tableaux for the camera undeniable is the film’s stunning artistry, both in graphic terms and to move across, taking in the actual brush strokes in watercolour and in Masahiko Satoh’s outstanding score – a potent fusion of baroque- acrylics with which he portrays an imagined medieval France. With a lot influenced early prog, and Miles Davis-inspired funked-up jazz less animated movement than you might expect, and a shifting stylistic blow-ups. There’s no doubting you’re in the presence of something profile that’s one minute a riot of colour on the verge of abstraction, before truly unique, even if it’s somewhat scrappy in narrative terms, and you erupting into pop-art modernity with echoes of George Dunning’s Yellow can certainly tell they were fighting a losing battle against a rapidly Submarine – the result is an animated feature that’s out there on its own, a evaporating budget. Still, this is an instance where you can definitely say specific creation of a very particular set of circumstances. you’re watching something which expands the possibilities of what you Curiously, the esteemed figure of Osamu Tezuka, creator of Astro Boy thought cinema was capable of. TREVOR JOHNSTON

FEATURE 087 Fright Night Mildred Pierce

Directed by 1985 Directed by 1956 TOM HOLLAND MICHAEL CURTIZ

Starring Released 27 MARCH Starring OUT NOW CHRIS SARANDON JOAN CRAWFORD WILLIAM RAGSDALE ANN BLYTH AMANDA BEARSE Blu-ray JACK CARSON Blu-ray

e definitely didn’t make a big deal out of it, but actor Chris hough director Michael Cutiz will be forever be known as The Dude H Sarandon featured in two of the greatest pantomime villain T Who Made Casablanca, this knotty, invigoratingly bleak women’s roles of the 1980s. The most well known was as gutless ninny picture-noir hybrid from 1945, adapted from a novel by the great crime Prince Humperdink in Rob Reiner’s The Princess Bride, a pouffy- writer James M Cain, remains his masterpiece. Ostensibly a classical haired exemplar of the vile fairytale monarch. In 1985, he tore up murder mystery, with the victim receiving four life-ending cartridges to the neon screen in the highly enjoyable teen horror runaround, the chest in the opening scene, the film switches back as suicidal single Fright Night, in which his character, Jerry Dandrige, answers the mother Mildred Pierce (Joan Crawford) offloads her earthly guilt into the question, what would the Fonz have been like if he was a sexually friendly ear of a police detective. Despite the film’s rigorously engineered voracious, conniving and irresistible vampire? William Ragsdale’s story mechanics, it’s packed with shocking swerves and surprises – to call gawping highschool douchebag Charley Brewster spends too much them “twists” would belie their sensitivity and their believability. It’s a time in his bedroom, attempting to get past first base with his chirpy tight genre film that manages to account for the rocky, unnavigable terrain girlfriend, Amy (Amanda Bearse). When the murder rate in his rinky- of real life. Pierce lives to serve her daughters, even though highly-strung dink town begins to shoot up, he suspects his dashing new neighbour. strumpet Veda (Ann Blythe) is nauseated by her mother’s stiff working Suspicion soon turns to certitude when he sees Jerry about to sink his class resolve. Though primarily interested in this combustible mother- jaws into the neck of a comely young maiden. Sarandon is superb as daughter dynamic, Cutiz also examines how jobs determine and define the hyper-confident, chiffon-clad bad boy, administering terrifying social status. He asks whether it’s possible, aside from amassing material smirks at the drop of a hat and slicing through his wannabe captors wealth, for a person to ever truly transcend their class. As various suitors with a rich repertoire of icy glares. This appealing genre effort from and dastardly bounders enter the fray, seeking affection, or maybe just writer/director Tom Holland is buoyed by its expert craftsmanship some play money, Mildred has to constantly keep rethinking her strategy – unlike a lot of low budget fare from the era, there’s a feeling that to win Veda’s respect. The film might also be considered an admonishment time was taken on the make-up effects character development and of capitalism, with characters quick to dissolve a fast friendship with the the emotional scope of the story. Indeed, it feels like an homage to the promise of a few easy bucks. Crawford plays it headstrong and serious, with great Joe Dante, particularly with the film-within-film references to minimal sass. Blyth excels as the devil incarnate, even if her acrimony is at crunky B movies as well as the inclusion of breadline ham actor, Peter time hard to palate. This new release from the Criterion Collection serves Vincent (gamely played by Roddy McDowall), who assists Charley in as a robust reminder of the film’s devastating brilliance, and the disc comes a mission to foil his murderous foe. DAVID JENKINS loaded up with all manner of classy extra bits and pieces. DAVID JENKINS

088 REVIEWS Two Films by Lino Brocka Ludwig

Directed by 1975-76Directed by 1973 LINO BROCKA LUCHINO VISCONTI

Starring Released 20 MARCH Starring Released 27 MARCH HILDA KORONEL HELMUT BERGER BEMBOL ROCO ROMY SCHNEIDER LOU SALVADOR JR Blu-ray TREVOR HOWARD Blu-ray

f there was any fibre in your being that thought Manila in the 1970s he Italian director Luchino Visconti was entering into his ITwas a groovy place to hang out, you’d do well to catch this ultra- ruminative twilight years when he came to make Ludwig, a maudlin twofer set in and around the decrepit, crud-caked Filipino film whose epic runtime and interest in the salacious court intrigues capital. The late Lino Brocka was long heralded as one of the region’s of Ludwig, the bisexual King of Bavaria, belie a bracing emotional foremost film auteurs, and he managed to punch out movies at a rate intimacy. The no-expense-spared opulence of a film like The Leopard of about four a year. This vital BFI release contains two early titles: is still here, but it’s muted and muffled – there is no joy to be taken 1975’s Manila in the Claws of Light and 1976’s Insiang, both depressive from physical trinkets, no tragic feeling that a way of life is being lost tales of extreme poverty and both having received the restoration spit- to the sands of time. Across nearly four hours, the actor Helmut Berger shine treatment care of Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Foundation. (in the role he’ll likely be remembered for) mutates from a whimsical The former concerns a displaced country boy just trying to make his dandy who exercises his total power with impunity, to a mad-eyed and way in the big city and who encounters exploitation, death and worse destructive libertine. at every juncture. Ludwig is shown as a modern-era Caligula, with little interest in Insiang depicts a love triangle that transforms into a hate triangle the lives of his subjects, and much focus on his sexuality. The film is not set against the backdrop of an ugly slum suburb. Both appear to push enjoyable in the conventional sense, but that is partly the point: it is about the agenda that human degradation knows no low bar and that if you’ve the tedium and claustrophobia of life within the monarchy. Sure, it’s tough got a shirt on your back, then someone will be ready to take a shot at to feel too much pity for a man born into the lap of luxury, but Visconti you. Brocka’s abrasive style strips the landscape of anything that might at least makes you consider it. With the help of Berger’s intense, pained be construed as picturesque. His films operate as tourist warnings performance, Ludwig is stripped of his aristocratic garlands and laid to the rich and inquisitive. It’s almost impressive how he is able to dangerously bare. Wagner’s prelude to Tristan and Isolde ripples on the expunge any scintilla of hope from the lives of his characters. Both soundtrack as Ludwig nurtures a fractious relationship with the lorded contain passages that are needlessly overstretched as well as scenes composer. Romy Schneider as Elizabeth Empress of Austria is a radiant of soupy melodrama, but both films are also put together with such sideline temptation whose delights confuse our antihero even further. technical verve and forceful commitment that it’s hard to dwell on the The film is a catalogue of excesses, but Visconti empathises with this mad faults. They make a wonderful entry point into Filipino cinema, and king, which itself is an unwise but brave gamble. Arrow release the film in you can definitely see what festival favourite, Brillante Mendoza, was suitably lavish, four-disc grandeur containing the truncated US cut of the poring over during his formative years. DAVID JENKINS film along with tonnes of extras. DAVID JENKINS

REVIEWS 089 The Story of Sin Cul-de-sac

Directed by 1975 Directed by 1966 WALERIAN BOROWCZYK ROMAN POLANSKI

Starring Released 13 MARCH Starring OUT NOW GRAZYNA DLUGOLECKA DONALD PLEASENCE JERZY ZELNIK FRANÇOISE DORLÉAC OLGIERD LUKASZEWICZ Blu-ray LIONEL STANDER Blu-ray

here is no woodland-based sexual congress between a renaissance- ick one of your all-time favourite directors, one whose films you tend TPera damsel and a horny man-beast. And the hoards of naked female to adore, and then go about selecting the one you would consider clergy are notably absent. In fact, Walerian Borowczyk’s The Story to be the worst. The flop. The runt. The stray piece of garbage. When it of Sin is one of the director’s most restrained and quietly harrowing comes to the Polish director Roman Polanski, it would obviously be 1986’s films, a last chance saloon before he went on to become a full-on erotic unwatchable high seas atrocity, Pirates, but running a close second would be connoisseur with titles such as 1980’s Lulu and 1987’s Emmanuelle his self-consciously wacky 1966 “comedy”, Cul-de-sac which, as a film, is a 5. The opening scene shows Grazyna Dlugolecka’s lovelorn Ewa in purposely tough pill to swallow. Hairless ex-businessman Donald Pleasence confession, complaining that she feels selfish when men on the street and Françoise Dorléac, as a woman who looks like she’s trapped in a Serge turn to ogle as she walks by. The priest instructs her to repent, before Gainsbourg pop video, star as a mis-matched couple living in a renovated himself getting a good gawp at her backside as she scurries away. 11th century castle on the Northumberland coastline. This is a story about the impossibility of living a life that is free of Their director has given them a mandate to be as nutty as they like, sin, in the religious sense of the term. Ewa falls in love with a mysterious and so conversations are strewn with sundry head-jerks, terrifying lodger who later admits that he is in Warsaw looking to get a divorce mid-distance stares and splenetic asides. Polanski and long-time from his wife. An affair ensues, but matters are complicated when he is collaborator Gérard Brach have the bickering pair besieged by Lionel unable to secure the separation, and so flits during the night. This kick Stander’s gruff, gun-toting mobster, who insists he must hide out with starts a chase around Europe. Ewa tries desperately to get her man, but them until he’s rescued by his boss. Alienation is the central theme, and finds herself stifled by slathering, pawing, domineering male interlopers personal connections are never more than purely physical. Pleasence’s who want nothing more than to tear off her bodice. Borowczyk frames hen-pecked, ritually humiliated George seems to be the butt of all the this tawdry tale of sexual obsession against a backdrop of high art, with (usually unfunny) pranking, and as social faux pas stack up like teetering, dialogue exchanges occurring in front of giant canvases depicting splayed misshapen crockery, his sanity is stretched to its limits. To make a film out nudes, and all overlaid with a soundtrack that heaves with baroque quite this intensely shrill is something of a coup in itself, but its heavy classical music. Formally speaking, it’s a thrilling work – the camera reliance on the gurning grotesque, redolent of the director’s celebrated encapsulates each new space by picking out a few colourful details early shorts, means that as a viewing experience, the pain far outweighs before shifting to the drama at hand. Let’s now hope that the director’s any sense of pleasure. If you do choose to see it (and it is a film well worth 1976 masterpiece, La Marge, is near the top of Arrow Film’s future making your own mind up on), then you could do a lot worse than scoop release schedule. DAVID JENKINS up this new Criterion Collection Blu-ray. DAVID JENKINS

090 REVIEWS Alice Doesn’t Live Two Rode Together Here Anymore

Directed by 1975Directed by 1961 MARTIN SCORSESE JOHN FORD

Starring Released 20 MARCH Starring Released 13 MARCH ELLEN BURSTYN JAMES STEWART KRIS KRISTOFFERSON RICHARD WIDMARK ALFRED LUTTER III DVD LINDA CRISTAL Blu-ray

artin Scorsese isn’t a director known for his love of light comedy. ames “Jimmy” Stewart is the actor synonymous with demure, good- MJAnd it would perhaps be disingenuous to refer to Alice Doesn’t Live humoured affability – a shining mantle that has been transferred Here Anymore as such, even though it is lighter and definitely funnier over in modern times to Tom Hanks. It means that when he goes dark, than, say, Taxi Driver. His early days saw him studying at the Roger even just a tiny amount, the noxious effect is emphasised ten fold. In this Corman school of the genre quickie, but this charming 1974 feature great, late-period John Ford film, he plays a complete bastard, but a lovable feels like his attempt to forge a bond with the more loose-heeled New one. As docile town marshall Guthrie McCabe, who skims cash from locals Hollywood school. The story of a single mother deciding she wants for protection, he sits on his porch, supping a chalice of beer, happy as a to follow her dream of becoming a cabaret singer is built around the clam. His old cavalry buddy Jim Gary (Richard Widmark) rides into town extraordinary central relationship between Ellen Burstyn’s Alice and and convinces him to come and help with a diplomatic bind: rescuing her gawky screen son, Tommy, played by Alfred Lutter III. kidnapped and indoctrinated children from the Comanche hoards. God knows how Scorsese does it, but it’s hard to recall a more What initially appears like a cut-and-dried humanist rescue mission is authentic mother-son pairing. It’s even hard to fully accept that they’re soured when McCabe slides his fee for services across the table. The very not actually related. Colourful scenes with the couple driving across notion that he wouldn’t be willing to help out for free nurtures animosity country, the suspension of their overloaded town car feeling the strain, between the two pals, as they grudgingly head off into hostile territory with are extraordinary. They joke and bicker and Alice delivers various life the same objectives but a vastly differing methodology. Stewart is excellent lessons, and it’s just wonderful to think that two actors could build such as the money-grabbing, cigar-chomping tracker who is vile and amoral in a loving connection. Alice remains one of Scorsese’s most fleshed-out one scene, and entirely reasonable in the next. The film works as a latter- and complex female characters in an oeuvre dominated by male brutes. day response to Ford’s 1952 masterpiece, The Searchers, suggesting that The film, based on a script by Robert Getchell, isn’t just a celebration even since that film, the world has become a far more complex and hostile of female empowerment, but it captures the life an of independently- place. It lures you in with light comedy and jocular banter, but then gets minded woman who makes a variety of decisions for a variety of different very serious, very quickly. Eventually, the haunting question of whether reasons. There is no moralising. There are no lessons. The film is, as the those who have allowed themselves to be racially reorientated (and not cliché goes, a slice of life, and it only gets better when Kris Kristofferson killed themselves in shame) should live on as a social outcast, hovers into pulls up as an affable good-ol’-boy with his own daddy issues. It may not view. This very handsome new Blu-ray edition from Masters of Cinema be one of the director’s most well known films, but it could certainly be offers more proof (were it needed) that Ford’s twilight years as a director considered as one of his best. DAVID JENKINS resulted in a cornucopia of major works. DAVID JENKINS

REVIEWS 091 PRESENTS Words by ADAM LEE DAVIES

Money Train

- DIRECTED BY - - STARRING -

Wesley Snipes Joseph Ruben Woody Harrelson Jennifer Lopez

- TRAILERS - - CHERRYPICK - Æroflot Blues, The Pollen “When I left home this morning Count, Shotgun Divorce, I had a pocketful of crackers Mark Thatcher’s Revs, and asswhoopins. And I’m all Technical College! out of crackers.”

- TAGLINE - - RELEASED -

‘If you’re a criminal, stay on the train!’ 1995

iscovered in the Stubbie Mountains of New Zealand during It’s a newly-minted park ‘n’ ride retail park multiplex development the 1760 South Seas expedition of Captain Daniel Bowskills, with sixteen screens to fill. And a TGI Fridays. Who’s for Laser Quest? D the Blue-ringed Chiffchaff (Falco ficticius) lives the strangest Let’s bowl 32oz cups filled with nacho cheese, Ben & Jerry’s Dave life known to nature. In its seventh year, the adult ‘chaff migrates Matthews Band ‘Magic Brownies’ Encore Edition and wade through not – as in previous years – to the lush wetlands of Bhutan, but to a the salad bar of a Harry Ramsden’s! remote Welsh cliff. There it attaches itself to the underside of a sheep Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes are brothers. Why wouldn’t and gorges on ovine urine for three days before finding a fissure in they be? It’s Hammer Time! Critical Bill’s in the White House! And the cliff-face in which it breaks both of its own legs. It then makes its sixteen screens are gnawing at each other. They’re also New York way to Iceland where it swoops through the Kúkalabbi geyser three transit cops working on the subway, and there’s a big ol’ train full of loot times and then lays an egg deep in the folds of an adult yak’s scrotum. that shuttles its way though town and mows down anyone who happens Then, at daybreak on the summer solstice, it stabs out its eyes on the to be in its merry way. Jennifer Lopez dances a listless annulus around thorn bushes found on the southern slopes of Mount Rassgat and flies a retail park gyratory, the trains circle the tracks and the multiplex eats directly into the sun until it loses both oxygen and consciousness. its own tail. A vast, gaudily-carpeted ouroboros staffed by jittery teens The precise location of these bushes and the angle of the dawning sun and glassy-eyed pensioners devouring itself. “No, I don’t want to see means that the birds all die at exactly the same point in space and fall Timecop again!” Or a film about two bickering ponces defrauding the into the fiery embrace of the Typpið Ostur volcano. beleaguered New York Transit Authority out of three million dollars. Boiled in Welsh piss, covered in yak pubes, blind, self-mutilated and Or Tank Girl. – finally – burnt alive, the Chiffchaff’s frankly bonkers life cycle may Like your first day at school, Money Train (aka Cash Thing) is a half- be nature’s least understood enigma, but (here it comes) it still makes imagined brume of hot tears, intemperate shame and lost innocence. more sense than the motion picture Money Train. You recall only vague, atomless impressions of a peculiar new confusion Money Train (working title: Gravy Boat) isn’t really a film, it’s more overtaking your reality. The train has left the station, but you don’t of a feeling. Like a dream of disappearing. Like diamonds on the roof remember buying a ticket. These are the things of deathbed dreams. of your mouth. It’s the Proustian, vanilla scent of gorse, or the cold- Ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. An inconsequential summer pink-iron smell of snow. It’s that summer you were into Afrobeat. It’s evening’s walk to the pub. That punch-up you “never talk about”. the keening panic of waking up in your own bed and not knowing where Memories forming and reforming, slipping away like greasy mindfarts. you are. Or that moment when you’re fully three-quarters through Was any of it real? Did it happen? Did it ever belong to this world? Or a book and realise you’ve read it before. It’s a sticky-floored 1995 was it, like the Blue-ringed Chiffchaff, Shia LaBeouf or Money Train haze of Congo, Judge Dredd, Hackers, Jumanji and Johnny Mnemonic. (UK title: Loot Chute), nothing more than a cheerful lie?

092 REVIEW

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LWLies:

What do you love about movies?

ben wheatley:

As an art form, the idea that you can have a collection of dreams with a group of 300 people in the dark… it doesn’t get any better than that. That moment of just being completely subsumed into a world of VRXQGDQGLPDJH)URPDºOPPDNLQJSRLQW of view, it’s an extreme thrill to see an audience wrapped up in something that you’ve made. To watch people in that environment, when you’re in control and only you know where they’re going. That’s what it would be.

Ben Wheatley Quiz Answers:

1.B, 2.D, 3.A, 4.C, 5.C, 6.A, 7.C, 8.D, 9.D, 10.B, 11.D 12.B, 13.C, 14.B, 15.A, 16.B, 17.A, 18.C, 19.D, 20.C

SHARLTO ARMIE BRIE CILLIAN JACK COPLEY HAMMER LARSON MURPHY REYNOR

“EXPLOSIVE & ADRENALINE-PACKED” SHORTLIST ++++ ++++ ++++ ++++ ++++ TOTAL FILM TIME OUT METRO EMPIRE THE TELEGRAPH “HILARIOUS” ++++ “UNBEATABLE” COLLIDER LITTLE WHITE LIES METRO “WICKEDLY FUNNY” LITTLE WHITE LIES

FREE FIREFIRE

A Film by BEN WHEATLEY

From Executive Producer MARTIN SCORSESE IN CINEMAS MARCH 31