THESKINNY.CO.UK/CINESKINNY SATURDAY 25 FEBRUARY THE CINESKINNY 1

FREE SATURDAY 25 FEBRUARY THE OFFICAL GFF DAILY GUIDE THESKINNY.CO.UK/CINESKINNY

WHAT’S INSIDE?2 — TODAY’S PICKS

What’s happening at GFF today

2 — INTERVIEW: FIELDING HOPE

The CineSkinny meets with the Cry Parrot member to discuss his collaboration with Umberto

3 — REVIEWSOnce Upon a Time in Anatolia ★★★

The Raid ★★★★

Vivienne Westwood: Do It Yourself! ★

4 — WHAT’S NEW ONLINEThe latest news, comments and pictures from the festival

4 — COMPETITIONWin tickets to see Black Pond by answering one simple question

GFF BOX OFFICE

Order tickets from the box office atglasgowfilm.org/festivalor call0141 332 6535or visitGlasgow Film Theatre12 Rose Street, Glasgow, G3 6RB

Produced by The Skinny magazine in association with the Glasgow Film Festival

EditorDesignerSubeditors

Jamie DunnSean AndersonBecky BartlettDavid McGinty

As the long forgotten DEATH WATCH returns to the big screen at GFF, we examine its connection with Glasgow

URBAN DECAY

WORDS: ALAN BETT

SOMETIMES IT is not the pioneers who are most lauded. They take the first tentative step forward before being trampled. This seems to be the case with Death Watch, Bertrand Tavernier’s Glasgow-set nightmare. In 1980 he predated Videodrome and The Truman Show with this futuristic tale of a dark, manipulative media feeding its voyeuristic public. The film was quietly and criminally forgotten until now.

Harvey Keitel stars as a reporter working for a sinister TV company who implant a camera in his eye. His task is to film the final days of a dying woman (Romy Schneider) for an audience far removed from mortality because of medical advances. Her rare journey towards death seems to invoke thanatos, Freud’s death instinct. Their emotionally-starved lives yearn for the hurtful reality of her passing. From behind a two-way mirror Roddy (Keitel) and Vincent (Harry Dean Stanton)

delight in the fact that she has clear, honest features, her expressions easy to read.

There was no narrative need for Death Watch to be filmed in Glasgow; it seems to be a decision made purely on visual merit. The city in the late 1970s fits the story, where desolation of the soul was made tangible through a mixture of cold Gothic eloquence and urban decay. Just as New York in the 80s made a cheap post-apocalyptic set for The Bronx Warriors features, and whose reality shocked further in the 1979 documentary 80 Blocks from Tiffany’s, the industrially broken Glasgow of the 70s needed little make-up to become a futuristic state of perdition.

Tavernier provides an interesting commentary on human emotion sculpt-ed by science and technology. The public are fed processed pain through the cathode tube of television. The

terminal Katherine even programmes computers to simulate passion. Anthony Burgess cast his eye upon this conundrum even earlier. “Who ever heard of a clockwork orange?” asked Alex in the dystopian 1962 novel. Death Watch predicted a future where we are all such mechanical fruit.

GFF provides a great opportunity to watch a film that has laid dormant under our noses for so long. It is both poetic and punishing, challenging the viewer with more subtlety than a Haneke or Noé. The film’s Glasgow-based distributor Park Circus explained their wish to support a rich legacy of Scottish film. They see Death Watch as “one of those mad, rare and brilliant cult sci-fi films that people who have seen it are not sure whether they actu-ally saw or just dreamt up...To premiere anywhere else but the Glasgow Film Festival would be a terrible faux pas.”SCREENING 26 FEB AT GFT

2 THE CINESKINNY SATURDAY 25 FEBRUARY THESKINNY.CO.UK/CINESKINNY

EVIDENCE11.00 @ GFTAnyone who thinks the ‘found footage’ genre is dead, think again. This UK premiere first thing in the morning sets the tone for the rest of FrightFest’s Saturday line-up: terrifying.

RITES OF SPRING15.30 @ GFTAlso showing as part of FrightFest is this horror, weaving two seemingly unrelated stories together. First time director Padraig Reynolds will be in attendance.

Be the star in your own movie

Let Stow College play a supporting role T: 0844 249 8585

WWW.STOW.AC.UK

CREATIVE INDUSTRIESSCIENCE, HEALTH & CAREENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGYBUSINESS & CONTINUING EDUCATION

TODAY’SPICKSSATURDAY 25

DON OF THE DREAD

GENE CEILIDH KELLY

RITES OF SPRING

DREILEBEN

INTERVIEW: CHRIS BUCKLE

EVIDENCE

LAST SUMMER, Fielding Hope of Glasgow-based DIY promoters Cry Parrot found himself discussing horror film music with instrumentalist Umberto, over from Kansas City for a sold-out show at the 13th Note. Um-berto, real name Matt Hill, is something of an aficionado: both his albums to date, From the Grave and Prophecy of the Dark Widow, slice up and can-nibalise the synth-heavy soundtrack stylings of niche icons like Lucio Fulci and Dario Argento, to electrifyingly creepy effect. “For some of Umberto’s performances in the States he would use cut-up footage of vintage horror flicks,” says Hope, “but when he told me he hadn’t actually composed any specific film soundtrack before, I asked him what his feelings were on doing something as part of the Glasgow Music and Film Festival… Personally I think he’s got lots of potential doing this sort of thing.”

From there, plans were made to bring the ‘don of the dread’ back to Glasgow for a very special perfor-mance: a newly-composed score for

a secret film of his choice, to take place in a no-doubt fog-filled SWG3 (the 13th Note show was apparently “a little damaging on everybody’s lungs, what with the amount of smoke machine abuse that was going on”). The show is one of several horror-related events at this year’s GMFF, and with the festival’s 2011 edition similarly nightmarish thanks to Italian giallo soundtrack titans Goblin, we ask Hope whether he thinks the genre naturally lends itself to music/film crossover events. “There’s no doubt the horror genre can raise some interesting dis-cussions in terms of its connection with music,” agrees Hope. “As part of my dissertation in university I researched the psychological effect of sound, and how certain volumes, frequencies and timbres can have a profound impact on viewers. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why horror works so well in a live environment; its dynamics can keep an audience stimulated, excited and of course, scared!”

While Umberto is uniquely qualified for scoring old-school horror, we

ask Hope who else he’d love to hear take on the task. “I think my favourite horror film ever has to be Halloween,” he says, “but personally I wouldn’t want to hear a single change to the soundtrack! In a dream-world, if Demdike Stare and Lightning Bolt were somehow able to collaborate, I’d love to hear what they’d come up with for Evil Dead 2.” Even in concept form, the combination is nerve-shredding.

Tonight marks Cry Parrot’s second collaboration with the GMFF, and it’s a partnership Hope is keen to continue, citing the organisers’ open-minded approach, which permits “free reign to be as creative as possible” with programming. “It’s a brilliant platform for interesting smaller acts to attract a completely different audience and to try something refreshing and new,” he says of the festival’s potential for boundary-crossing. “And,” he hints promisingly, “I’ve still got lots of fairly ambitious ideas for the festival that I’d like to carry through with in the future.” Anyone got Lightning Bolt’s number?SCREENING 25 FEB AT SWG3

FILMG14.45 @ CCAA sneak peek at some of the short-listed films of the Gaelic short film competition in advance of the awards ceremony in March. Several film-makers, as yet unnanounced, will be attending.

GENE KELLY CEILIDH & BRIGADOON19.00 @ ST ANDREWS IN THE SQUAREGrab a whisky, watch a movie, eat some food and dance the night away at this ceilidh, featuring a live band. Novices need not fear, a caller will also be on hand.

With the content of UMBERTO’s special performance still shrouded in mystery, we talk to CRY PARROT’s FIELDING HOPE about their collaboration for GMFF

THESKINNY.CO.UK/CINESKINNY SATURDAY 25 FEBRUARY THE CINESKINNY 3

WWW.UBIQUITOUSCHIP.CO.UK12 ASHTON LANE, GLASGOW

0141 334 5007

Excellent food andimpeccable service

“

Download your free Glasgow Guide App

www.seeGlAsGow.com

ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIADIRECTOR: NURI BILGE CEYLANSTARRING: MUHAMMET UZUNER, YILMAZ ERDOGAN, TANER BIRSEL, AHMET MÜMTAZ TAYLAN, FIRAT TANIS

★★★

VIVIENNE WESTWOOD: DO IT YOURSELF!DIRECTOR: LETMIYA SZTALRYDSTARRING: VIVIENNE WESTWOOD

★

“I love crap” is a phrase splashed across Vivienne Westwood’s baby grows and kids t-shirts, aiming to raise awareness of the dangers of consumer culture. In that case, she’d love this film. The primary downfall of Do It Yourself! is the filmmaker’s obvious awe of her subject matter. Following the ‘British Queen of Fashion’ for a

year – or, more accurately, during the preparation of two shows and one diabolical live performance – one is not given insight into Westwood’s life or work, but rather subjected to it. Early scenes of the designer at work provide a nice tableau, but behind the carefully set scene her assistant director, Andreas, organises the chaos

she leaves behind. The selection of behind-the-scenes footage is choppy and little is shown of the fashion shows themselves, making for a disappointing lack of action disguised by a loud array of clashing musical refrains.

[Nicola Balkind]SCREENED 24 FEB AT CCA

REVIEWS

THE RAIDDIRECTOR: GARETH EVANSSTARRING: IKO UWAIS, DONI ALAMSYAH, YAYAN RUHAIN

★★★★

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia is a film of two halves, and regrettably, one half is so much richer than the other, which leaves Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s latest picture feeling rather unbalanced. The first half of this unusual procedural is rapturous filmmaking, as a group of police of-ficers, a doctor and a murder suspect search for a body that is buried some-where in the Anatolian mountains. The arduous night-time search is rendered hypnotic by Ceylan’s immaculate fram-ing and Gökhan Tiryaki’s breathtaking use of light, and also by the witty,

perceptive script, which is brought to life by a cluster of neatly underplayed performances. The film reaches its apotheosis in a magical sequence, in which the men are served tea by a beautiful woman who appears like an angel, but the film never really recovers from this astonishing high. As the sun rises on Ceylan’s film, it seems to lose its way, and the climactic hour is a deflating slog that fails to build upon what went before. [Philip Concannon]SCREENING 25 FEB AT GFT

Unlikely pairings can be perfect. Indo-nesian film The Raid centres around a police bust in a large tower block filled with criminals, guns, and machetes; unlikely fare from a Welsh director. Though its opening action sequences are dangerously close to Zack Snyder’s brand of super-slo-mo gun porn, as the regression of weaponry continues from bullets to blades, each impersonal gunshot becomes as intimate as a knife wound. Once this seemingly end-less array of arsenal is finally depleted, then the fun really begins.

Ostensibly SWAT training in Jakarta must include a course in silat, the In-donesian martial art, or perhaps these bobbies just got lucky when they hired some of its deadliest practitioners. For the sake of balance the criminals have a few strong combatants of their own: one in particular, known as ‘Mad Dog’ (Yayan Ruhian), is like a pint-sized Goro from Mortal Kombat, but deadlier and with less arms. A surreal, gritty, ultra-violent treat sure to have FrightFest fans salivating and high kicking in the aisles.

[David McGinty] SCREENING 25 FEB AT GFT AS PART OF FRIGHTFEST

4 THE CINESKINNY SATURDAY 25 FEBRUARY THESKINNY.CO.UK/CINESKINNY

ELECTRIC MANIan Sandwell of Screen Daily reports on the screening of “charmingly witty” low-budget film Electric Man and the Q&A featuring director David Barras and several cast-members.http://bit.ly/ElectricMan PSYCHOCINEMATICSTV meets with members of OV and the Psychogeographical Commission to discuss their special live perfor-mance as part of GMFF, inspired by magick and the occult.http://bit.ly/Psychocinematic UP THEREMilo, of the Clear Minded Creative, in-terviews Zam Salim, director of offbeat comedy Up There, to discuss Kafka, YouTube and whether a film about the

afterlife has to be morbid.http://bit.ly/ClearMindedCreative NIGHT IS DAYGFF blogger Sean Welsh talks to Fraser Coull, director of ultra-low-budget local film Night is Day, on the controversy surrounding his film’s inclusion in the programme.http://bit.ly/zVR7s3

CINESKINNYtheskinny.co.uk/cineskinny

Win Tickets to Black Pond

Accusations of murder are the least of the worries facing a dysfunctional, disconnected family in the haunting, drily witty dark comedy Black Pond, an acclaimed debut feature from the excit-ing new team of Will Sharpe and Tom Kingsley. There are elements of Beckett and Buñuel in this inventive, acerbic original that has surfed waves of rave reviews to win the attention it deserves.

Eccentric, unpredictable, BAFTA-nominated and brimming with pathos. A real discovery.

We have a pair of tickets to giveaway to the 16.30 screening on Sunday 26 Feb at GFT.

To enter, head to theskinny.co.uk/competitions and answer the following question:

What was the name of Chris Langham’s character in The Thick of It?

Competition closes: 10am Sunday 26 Feb. Winners will be notified on Sunday morning. For full terms and conditions, go to theskinny.co.uk/about/terms

QUIZ TIMEWHAT’S NEW ONLINE

CORINNE OH @MISSCORINNEOHAbout to watch my first film @glasgowfilmfest - Into the Abyss. Hope I can stop cough-ing long enough to enjoy/con-centrate! #herzog #GFF12

GLASGOW FILM FEST @GLASGOWFILMFEST@refuseliam We can take no responsibility for Mountain Dew and sweeties overdos-es... #GFF12 @Film4FrightFest

AMBER WILKINSON @NINJAWORRIERGoing to see Arrugas (Wrinkes) a #GFF12 tonight. After hype from @peterbrad-shaw1 @jigsawlounge and @Filmfan1971 at San Seb, expectation high

JEN DAVIES @JENDAVIESEnjoyed Wrinkles tonight - and it got a round of applause at @cineworld. #gff12

MARTY RENNIE @SHENGISKHANReady, Set, FrightFest here I come!

GAIL TOLLEY @GAILTOLLEYWatching Spanish animation Wrinkles this evening made me quite sad about how we treat our elderly. Really nicely done picture though.

WHAT DIDYOU THINK?

SIX OF THE BEST FROM TWITTERTWEET US @SKINNYFILM❝

❞

SIMON ARTHUR AT THE GLASGOW FILM FESTIVALPHOTO: STAURT CRAWFORD