NEW FEATURES | CINECITY 2005 | THE BRIGHTON FILM FESTIVAL

CINECITY
THE BRIGHTON FILM FESTIVAL
17 NOVEMBER - 4 DECEMBER 2005

NEW FEATURES
Your chance to catch the latest titles before they go on release and to see others in special one-off UK screenings CINECITY returns to the city’s cinema screens with a packed programme highlighting the best in international cinema. CINECITY features a global mix of previews and premieres of new releases, treasures from the archive and classic reissues, the latest adventures with the digital moving image, film-maker and education events and much more

OPENING NIGHT FILM
a cock and bull story 15
thurs 17 NOV 7.15pm
CINEWORLD

Featuring what seems like a roll call of the cream of British comedy talent, Michael Winterbottom’s (24 HOUR PARTY PEOPLE) adaptation of the essentially unfilmable novel, ‘The Life And Opinions Of Tristram Shandy’ is a pure joy. Taking a somewhat anarchic approach to his material, Winterbottom’s film brings to mind Charlie Kaufman’s ADAPTATION, in that A COCK AND BULL STORY is really about the making of the film that you are watching. Steve Coogan plays both Tristram Shandy and his father Walter, with Rob Brydon cast as Shandy’s unfortunate uncle. As leading actors, Coogan and Brydon move in and out of the film-within-the-film preening and bickering on screen and off in a hugely enjoyable clash of egos. True to the spirit of the original text, Winterbottom holds a candle to the creative process and manages to lift the curtain on the movie-making business in all its self-important glory.

MAD HOT BALLROOM U
SAT 19 NOV 8.45PM
CINEWORLD

A funny and crowd-pleasing picture and one of this year’s unlikely success stories, Marilyn Agrelo’s charming documentary offers a look at a New York City dancing competition for 10 - and 11-year-old boys and girls. Told from their candid, sometimes hilarious perspectives, they are transformed from typical urban kids to “little ladies and gentlemen”, as one teacher puts it. Agrelo profiles several kids from three elementary schools who are at a dynamic age - when becoming a cool teenager vies with familiar innocence while learning the merengue, rumba, tango, foxtrot and swing. Perhaps inevitably described as this year’s SPELLBOUND, the comparison is not unfounded as this is another acutely observed and hugely entertaining documentary.

where the truth lies 18
sun 20 NOV 4.30PM
duke of york's

A young author, Karen O’Connor (Alison Lohman) is determined to discover the truth behind why 1950s comedy duo, Vince Collins (Colin Firth) and Lanny Morris (Kevin Bacon), abruptly split up at the height of their fame. Shot to resemble the melodramas of the era, Egoyan (ARARAT, FELICIA’S JOURNEY) characteristically moves the narrative back and forth across time, slowly unveiling the seamier side of showbiz life, unearthing Lanny’s womanizing and Vince’s violent tendencies. Both Bacon and Firth (playing against type), turn in convincing performances as O’Connor becomes embroiled in the distasteful revelations that her investigation reveals.

spice factory day
sun 20 nov
DUKE OF YORK's

Spice Factory was founded in Brighton in 1994 by Michael Cowan and Jason Piette and started life in a small attic room above D’Arcy’s Seafood Restaurant. They have gone on to produce and finance over 45 feature films, becoming one of the UK’s leading and most dynamic independent film production companies. Recent films include THE MERCHANT OF VENICE starring Al Pacino, Joseph Fiennes and Jeremy Irons and HEAD IN THE CLOUDS starring Charlize Theron and Penelope Cruz. Spice Factory have also produced a number of award winning features, such as the children’s time travel drama AN ANGEL FOR MAY and, more recently, André Téchiné’s STRAYED (Les Égarés) - screening Thurs 24th Nov - which was selected for competition at Cannes 2003.

We present some of the highlights of Spice Factory’s prolific output
complete with special guests, introductions and Q&A’s.

an angel for mayadv pg
sun 20 NOV 4PM
duke of york's

Award winning lyrical fantasy-adventure for all ages. Twelve-year-old schoolboy Tom (Matthew Beard) and his dog Tess are transported from present time Yorkshire to the early 1940s and the Second World War through the fireplace of an old abandoned farmhouse. The farm is thriving, run by a gruff but warm-hearted farmer (Tom Wilkinson) who is also looking after an orphaned evacuee May (Charlotte Wakefield). Tom and May soon become friends. Back in the present after being 'missing' for three days, Tom is shocked to hear that the friends he made in the '40s died in a bombing raid soon after he returned home. He rushes back to the magical fireplace and searches for Tess. He's desperate to get back to the past to see if he can prevent the tragedy. But what happens when he gets back there has consequences in the present that he couldn't imagine.
Followed by Q&A with Director Harley Cokeliss

SURPRISE MOVIE
MR INBETWEEN 6.30PM 15
sun 20 NOV 6.30PM
duke of york's

Mr In-Between is a chilling love story with a difference - the story of a
hardened man who discovers for the first time his capacity to love. Unique and uncompromising, it is gripping from the start and cranks up the tension to a shocking and haunting conclusion.

http://www.mr-in-between.com

THE MERCHANT OF VENICE pg
sun 20 NOV 8.30PM
duke of york's

Set in 16thcentury Venice, William Shakespeare’s enduring comedy/drama follows the fate and fortune of a group of young Christian noblemen and their interactions with the Jewish moneylender Shylock (Al Pacino). Written and directed by BAFTA winning director Michael Radford, THE MERCHANT OF VENICE is a handsomely mounted adaptation of one of Shakespeare’s most popular plays. Radford’s stellar cast, including a brilliant turn from Pacino as Shylock and Jeremy Irons as Antonio, is uniformly excellent, capturing both the nuance and grandeur of Shakespeare’s richly detailed text. Shot largely on location in Venice, this cinematically stunning, riveting version of the classic is set to become the definitive screen version.

lower city 18
mon 21 NOV 8.45PM
CINEWORLD

One of the hottest titles to come out of the 2005 Cannes Film Festival, Sergio Machado’s directorial debut may well be the most sensual and erotically charged film you’ll see this year. Life-long friends Deco and Naldhino co-own a small boat. On a trip down the river they pick up a young prostitute, Karinna and are willing pay for her services. However, as Karinna moves between the two friends a steamy love triangle emerges fuelled by a passion, obsession and jealousy that threatens to tear the friendship apart. With an emphasis on character to drive the film, Machado elicits scintillating performances from his three leads who keep passion and rage just bubbling beneath the surface. Inevitably compared to other recent Latin American successes – CITY OF GOD, AMORES PERROS and Y TU MAMÁ TAMBIÉN – LOWER CITY has an energy and passion all of its own.

THE DEVIL AND DANIEL JOHNSTON 12A
TUES 22 NOV 8.45PM
CINEWORLD

Daniel Johnston is a singer-songwriter from Austin, Texas and an icon of the lo-fi music scene. His fans include Simpsons creator Matt Groening, Sonic Youth, David Bowie and the late Curt Cobain although a whole host of music talent praises his unique style. A recent tribute compilation saw the likes of Tom Waits, Mercury Rev and Beck performing his songs. However, dogged by manic depression throughout his life Johnston’s music has not reached the wider audience it undoubtedly deserves. Jeff Feuerzeig’s Sundance award-winning documentary trawls through Johnston’s home movies, drawings, writings and audio recordings to present an affectionate and heartbreaking story of the man and his music. Feuerzeig finds the drama in Johnston’s troubled life, assessing his erratic career through the use of the archive material as well as interviews with Johnston’s friends and incredibly devoted family.

GYPO ADV 15
wed 23 NOV 6.30PM
duke of york's

The UK’s first official Dogme film, director Jan Dunn uses that movement’s ‘vow of chastity’ – no music, no artificial lighting, real locations - to deliver a powerful drama with a documentary feel. Despite the official Dogme certificate from Copenhagen, GYPO – shot in Margate - has a clear affinity with the British realist cinema of Loach and Pawel Pawlikowski’s LAST RESORT. A story told three times from three different perspectives, GYPO is a study of crumbling family relationships and prejudice. Helen (Pauline McLynn), a forty-something housewife, feels her life is slipping away with a teenage daughter who no longer needs her and a husband (Paul McGann) who no longer wants her. However, when her daughter befriends a Czech refugee Tasha (Chloe Sirene) the whole family’s life starts to change.

We are delighted to welcome the director Jan Dunn for a Q&A after
the screening.

the hidden blade 15
wed 23 NOV 8.30PM
CINEWORLD

A mesmerising samurai drama from Yoji Yamada (TWILIGHT SAMURAI). Katagiri (the impressive Nagese, whom many will recall from Jim Jarmusch’s MYSTERY TRAIN), a Samurai in Edo-era Japan, maintains a quiet and ordinary life. Unremarkable except for his inappropriate feelings for his family’s maid Kai, whom he rescues from her abusive husband but is unable to love himself because of the strict social code. When an order comes for him to kill his old friend imprisoned for plotting against the Shogunate, he faces a moral dilemma which eventually leads him to a violent rebellion. Turning again to the work of Shuhei Fujisawa for his second period drama, Yamada reunites many of his TWILIGHT SAMURAI crew: highlights include the sublime cinematography of Mutsuo Naganuma and the affecting score by legendary Isao Tomita.

detroit: ruin of a city adv 15
thurs 24 NOV 8.45PM
CINEWORLD

A documentary road movie about the Motor City and the social system known as Fordism and also a documentary about making documentaries. With the participation of Detroit artist Tyree Guyton, French sociologist Loic Wacquant, Detroit-born writer Dan Georgakas, Detroit photographer Lowell Boileau and a variety of local residents. The story is traced through a rich variety of archive footage – of the Ford plants, mass protests of the Depression years, Diego Rivera painting his famous mural ‘Detroit Industry’, the struggle for trade union rights, the riots of 1943 and 1967 – through which the film charts both the city’s history and the battle over its image that began when the Ford Motor Company started making its own films back in 1914.

Introduced by director Michael Chanan.

strayed adv 15
thurs 24 NOV 8.45PM
CINEWORLD

France, June 1940. With the German army advancing on Paris, widowed teacher Odile (played by stunning Emmanuelle Béart) and her two children are part of a large stream of refugees escaping the city and heading south. When a German plane attacks the crowd, Odile and her children lose all their possessions. Rescued by 17-year-old adventurer Yvan, they join him in the confined and hidden quarters of an abandoned house where war and bombs have no meaning. However, the idyll does not last for long as deep human desires rise to the surface. Despite the war-time setting, Téchiné achieves a rather timeless piece – with echoes of The ENGLISH PATIENT - portraying universal human truths acted out by an impressive cast.

tickets 15
fri 25 NOV 6.30PM
duke of york's

A truly remarkable project and one to get all cineastes watering at the mouth, TICKETS combines the film-making talents of three of the world’s most respected and acclaimed directors. Kiarostami (THE WIND WILL CARRY US, TEN) first came up with the idea of making a trilogy of films by three different directors naming Olmi (SINGING BEHIND SCREENS) and Loach (SWEET SIXTEEN) as his preferred collaborators. The result is TICKETS, three interwoven stories all taking place on a train journey from Central Europe to Rome. Disparate characters make connections through a series of chance encounters setting forth a story of love, chance and sacrifice. A businessman finds solace and new insight when he is forced to wait at a train station; a young man is reminded of life’s obligations but is also introduced to love; three Scottish football fans (Loach reuniting three of the cast from SWEET SIXTEEN) head for a Champions League match in Rome but get caught up with a family of Albanian refugees and a stolen train ticket.

frightfest 2005

Buy a ticket for all 3 films for
just £10/ £8 Duke of York’s members

The UK’s premier Fantasy, Sci-Fi and Horror Film Festival is in town with one of its famous roadshow events. Organisers Paul MacEvoy
and Ian Rattray will be in attendance to compere the evening’s proceedings with plenty of surprises, trailers and give-aways.
www.frightfest.co.uk

district 13 adv15
fri 25 NOV 9PM
duke of york's

Fast paced and super-cool action pic from the pen of Luc Besson and a huge hit in France. Set in a futuristic urban jungle, gangsters run the streets and a neutron bomb is set to blow. In a race against time to stop the explosion two men, experts in extreme jumping sport Parkour, literally hurl themselves from one building to another fusing martial arts to acrobatics with jaw-dropping effect. Edge of the seat enjoyment (note that the jumping is in the main effects-free) blended with Besson’s subtle humour making for a hugely entertaining white-knuckle ride.

jenifer adv 18
sat 26 NOV 10.45PM
duke of york's

Made for MASTERS OF HORROR for Showtime in the US. Based on the classic comic book written by Bruce Jones and illustrated by Bernie Wrightson, JENIFER is the shocking tale of a modern day Lolita who, through her Siren-like powers ultimately destroys the bodies and souls of all men unfortunate enough to cross her path. After police officer Frank saves her life, he adopts her, only to learn that no good deed goes unpunished. JENIFER is a twisted and terrifying tale with a horrific twist that warns us all to be careful of what we bring into our homes.

“I put most of my macabre and morbid imagination into this one hour film. Shooting JENIFER I tried to create a constant alternation of anxious moments and emotional stress for the audience. To me, it is the opposite of beauty and the beast. In that she was the beauty and he was the beast. In my movie it`s the other way round” Dario Argento.

boo! adv 18
sat 26 NOV 12PM
duke of york's

HALLOWEEN meets THE CHANGELING via GHOSTBUSTERS and IT in a jump-out-of-your-seat horror movie the way they used to make them! On Halloween night, four students go out to explore the supposedly haunted Santa Mira hospital. But why does the lift only go to floor 3, home of the once infamous J Ward for the mentally ill? And why can’t they ever escape the menacing maze of corridors infested with paranoid doppelgangers and exploding ghosts? BOO! Produced by David Allen of DOG SOLDIERS fame bursts with goo and gore and neat homage.

CROSSING THE BRIDGE: THE SOUND OF ISTANBUL ADV15
SUN 27 NOV 12NOON
duke of york's

A love letter to one of the world’s great cities: Turkish/German director Fatih Akin (HEAD ON) presents a fascinating portrait of Istanbul through its diverse music scene. CROSSING THE BRIDGE follows German avant-garde musician Alexander Hacke (of Einstüerzende Neubaten and composer for Akin’s partly Istanbul-set HEAD ON) on a musical journey through this most culturally diverse of cities; playing bass for neo-psychedelic band Baba Zula, and meeting up with rap, experimental, and street musicians. These encounters are intercut with bustling street scenes capturing the city by day and by night and revealing the unique status of Istanbul as the place where East and West really do meet.

WRONG SIDE UP ADV15
SUN 27 NOV 6.30PM
duke of york's

In his new dark comedy, Zelenka (BUTTONERS) dives into the common daily insanities of post-communist Czech life. Petr (Ivan Trojan), a truck-driver at the airport, watches as he loses his girlfriend to a richer rival. His mother is obsessed with collecting donations for victims of wars and natural catastrophes whilst his father, a former narrator of socialist newsreels, has entirely lost orientation in the new era of political and personal freedom. Madness does not spare Petr himself: to earn some extra cash he is soon spying on his neighbours’ intimate behaviour! Finally, a phone call and a touch of black magic sets the wheel of insanity into a final spin of uncontrollable comedy...

SCHIZO ADV15
SUN 28 NOV 6.30PM
duke of york's

Schizo is the nickname of 15-year-old Mustafa. Lonely and with few friends, he is expelled from school after his class mates play a cruel joke on him. Hired by his mother’s boyfriend, his introduction to the world of work is to provide fighters for illegal bare-knuckle boxing. His life is drastically changed when a young man is killed during a fight. He visits the man’s girlfriend to give her the money that the boxer had won. However when he sees the young woman he falls instantly in love.

SCHIZO, writer/director Guka Omarova: “Filming scenes with real free fighters is really difficult. They don’t know how to fake it, they fight with all their strength...” Though the fight scenes certainly have a raw intensity, this is not a Kazakh FIGHT CLUB but rather a poetic, tender and most convincing debut and further proof of the strength of recent
Central Asian cinema.

THE GREAT
ECSTASY OF ROBERT CARMICHAEL adv15
fri 2 DEC 6.30PM
duke of york's

One of the most controversial titles to screen at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, this film divided critics and audiences alike with its use of shocking ultra violence and rape scenes. Shot on location in Newhaven by Brighton-based film-makers, it is set in the run-up to the last Gulf War. Robert Carmichael, a socially awkward schoolboy, starts to miss school and hang out with a recently expelled thug Joe. At a party, Robert watches the start of the war on television as a deeply drugged girl is subjected to a rape in a neighbouring room. However, worse violence is yet to come. Made for a low budget, this does not affect the film’s visual splendour – it is brilliantly shot by Theo Angelopoulos cinematographer, Yorgos Arvanitis. Whether the film successfully justifies its use of violence as a comment on war will be a point of debate.

But be warned this is not for the faint hearted.
We are delighted to welcome director Thomas Clay for a Q&A after the screening.

ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM 15
SAT 3 DEC 1.30PM
duke of york's

Based on the book by journalists Bethany McLean and Peter Elkin exposing the truth behind the Enron bankruptcy scandal, ENRON:THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM has all the makings of a Hollywood corporate thriller rather than a straightforward documentary. What makes the film so utterly riveting is the amount of footage rescued by Mclean and Elkin from Enron itself exposing the philosophy of self-motivated greed. In one segment, major player Jeff Skilling appears in a video showcasing his brand of accounting to report imaginary profits as if they were real, while Enron traders working on the floor make Gordon Gekko look like a fair-trader.
A documentary with such rich source material could hardly fail and director Gibney utilises it brilliantly to deliver a powerful rebuke to corporate greed.

the proposition adv 18
sat 3 dec 6.30PM
duke of york's

Director John Hillcoat and musician and writer Nick Cave (GHOSTS...OF THE CIVIL DEAD) collaborate once again on this gritty, powerful and intelligent Australian Western. Set in the 1880s at the end of the bushranger era in a godforsaken corner of the outback, lawman Captain Stanley (Ray Winstone) attempts to bring an end to the cycle of violence by offering a proposition to outlaw Charlie Burns (Guy Pearce). Stanley proposes to pardon Burns’ younger brother Mikey as long as Burns kills his older brother Arthur, the true troublemaker in the family. But, Stanley’s desire to bring about civilization is doomed by the brutality that engulfs all the characters.Bloody and uncompromising, Hillcoat pictures the outback as a place of extreme cruelty and beauty, whilst strong performances from all the cast do justice to the elegance of Cave’s script, who also wrote the atmospheric score with Warren Ellis.
We are delighted that John Hillcoat and Nick Cave will take part in a Q&A after the screening

grizzly man adv 15
sun 4 dec 12noon
duke of york's

Werner Herzog’s fascination with men driven by obsession and living in defiance of nature (key to both factual and fictional works such as LA SOUFRIÈRE and AGUIRRE, WRATH OF GOD) is at the forefront of this documentary about Timothy Treadwell, a self-styled conservationist who spent his summers living amongst Alaskan grizzly bears until one turned on him and his girlfriend, mauling them to death. Much of the footage used comes from Treadwell’s own archive; shot over a five-year period it contains some breathtaking pictures of the bears in their habitats, although as Herzog is keen to point out Treadwell’s assertion that the bears are friends is foolhardy: “Treadwell seemed to ignore the fact that, in nature, there are predators. Whereas I believe that the common denominator of the universe is not harmony, but chaos, hostility and murder.” Herzog’s pragmatic take on the natural world contrasts with Treadwell’s more romantic view, and it is this contrast that fires GRIZZLY MAN.

Good night, and good luck 15
thurs 8 dec 6.15PM
duke of york's