Martin Scorsese World Cinema Foundation Volume 1 To Get A Masters Of Cinema Release

Rating:
PG
DVD/BD Release Date:
25th November 2013 (UK)
Distributor:
Eureka! Entertainment
Pre-Order/Buy:
Martin Scorsese Presents: World Cinema Foundation: Volume One - Dual Format (Blu-ray & DVD) [Masters of Cinema]
Eureka! Entertainment have announced the release of MARTIN SCORSESE PRESENTS: WORLD CINEMA FOUNDATION: VOLUME ONE ( Three films preserved, restored, and re-presented by the efforts of the World Cinema Foundation: DRY SUMMER / TRANCES / REVENGE). This is the first release from the official partnership between Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Foundation and The Masters of Cinema Series, and will be released in a Dual Format (Blu-ray & DVD) box set edition on 25 November 2013.

Founded in 2007 and overseen by Martin Scorsese, the World Cinema Foundation (WCF) has spearheaded efforts to preserve, restore, and annually re-present neglected masterpieces of world cinema, particularly those from areas of the globe that have not traditionally been highlighted in prevailing evaluations of film, or which have lacked the financial, technical, or governmental infrastructure to ensure their preservation.

As the WCF's mission statement announces: "Cinema is an international language, an international art, but, above all, it is a source of enlightenment. There are wonderful, remarkable films, past and present, from Mexico, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, and Central Asia that deserve to be known and seen. Composed of filmmakers from every continent, the World Cinema Foundation breathes life into the idea that when a cultural patrimony is lost, no matter how small or supposedly 'marginal' the country might be, we are all poorer for it."

The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to act as the official partner of the World Cinema Foundation for the UK region. In this first in a regular series of Blu-ray box sets, we present the WCF's restorations of masterpieces from Turkey (Erksan's Dry Summer), Morocco (El Maanouni's Trances), and Kazakhstan (Shinarbaev's Revenge), with exclusive introductions by Martin Scorsese for each film in this set.

DRY SUMMER [ SUSUZ YAZ ] | A film by Metin Erksan | 1964 | Turkey | 75 minutes | 1.37:1 original aspect ratio

A brutal naturalist melodrama, Metin Erksan's masterful Dry Summer [Susuz yaz], which won the Golden Bear at the 1964 Berlin Film Festival, returns to the spotlight in a new restoration after decades of suppression by Turkish authorities: an arid fate for one of the most exciting films of the 1960s. Viscerally tactile, unsparing, and even on occasion outright lurid, Dry Summer has been described by filmmaker Fatih Akin as "one of the most important legacies of Turkish cinema."

During a particularly dry rural Turkish summer, a group of local workers enter into a dispute with a landowner when he decides the construction of new irrigation infrastructure must first and foremost service his own property. Wholly rapacious, the landowner foments a private war with his own kin after the brother takes a bewitching young wife. The battle between the factions plays out in stunning set-pieces: a pursuit with pistols amidst grass-stalks and dam-water before the setting sun evokes elements of Renoir (Toni), Ford (The World Moves On), Bergman (The Virgin Spring), and Shindô (Onibaba), while a scene set in a brush thicket wherein the landowner and his aggressors fight it out hatchet-and-club provides drama at least as exciting and gasp-inducing as the climax of Seven Samurai.

Dry Summer's sweat-dappled tone and baked images of promenade and labour recall Mexican-period Buñuel as much as aspects of mid-'50s Italian commercial melodrama and, via the film's backdrop of agrarian agitation and its low angles – which effect a figural relief against blazing, albeit greyish mid-contrast summer skies – post-montage Soviet agitprop. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present the World Cinema Foundation's restoration of Metin Erksan's classic on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK.



TRANCES [ TRANSES ] | A film by Ahmed El Maanouni | 1981 | Morocco | 87 minutes | 1.85:1 original aspect ratio

The inaugural film of the World Cinema Foundation's efforts, Trances [Transes] is a picture unlike any other: a poetic, roving documentary-portrait performance-film based around the Moroccan band Nass El Ghiwane.

In this rare, transformational work, Nass El Ghiwane perform their music at concerts at once fervidly rally-like and suffused with the spontaneity of a mass happening; recount their time working alongside the great chaâbi musician Boudjemaâ El Ankis in the 1970s; and generally philosophise and reflect upon life. As Martin Scorsese expressed at the time of the film's re-presentation in 2007: "I became passionate about this music that I heard and I saw also the way the film was made, the concert that was photographed and the effect of the music on the audience at the concert. I tracked down the music and eventually it became my inspiration for many of the designs and construction of my film The Last Temptation of Christ. [...] And I think the group was singing damnation: their people, their beliefs, their sufferings, and their prayers all came through their singing. And I think the film is beautifully made by Ahmed El Maanouni; it's been an obsession of mine since 1981."

True to its title, Trances is an hypnotic, exhilarating masterwork. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Ahmed El Maanouni's film, restored from the original 16mm camera and sound negatives, on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK.


REVENGE [ MEST' ] | A film by Ermek Shinarbaev | 1989 | Kazakhstan | 96 minutes | 1.37:1 original aspect ratio

Set largely in Korea and China, and spanning the 1910s to 1940s, Ermek Shinarbaev's epic masterpiece unites the resonant pictoriality of certain Far Eastern cinema with a mysticism rooted in the Russian tradition: a fitting and harmonic convergence for this collaboration (one of three) between the Kazakh director and Korean-Russian writer Anatoli Kim.

A rural schoolteacher, Jan, murders a pupil, the young daughter of a family under whom he had previously been a tenant. The father, Caj [pronounced "Tsaiya"], tracks him to China to exact revenge – but at at the moment of vengeance, Caj cannot act. He returns home only to take a concubine, who in turn bears him a son: Sungu, a prodigious composer of verse. At Caj's deathbed, the boy is informed he has been brought into the world purely for the sake of vengeance; he takes an oath to annihilate Jan.

Tonally, Revenge exhibits an extraordinary use of natural light that lends the figures an almost ethereal incandescence in the picture's first half; the second half of the film shifts into a no-less-impressive palate that is ally to late-Tarkovskyan naturalism. A narrative broken into seven chapters, and constructed in a full-circle that creates a visual and spoken summary of Sungu's poetic universe, Revenge is, to quote the critic Kent Jones, "a true odyssey, geographically and psychologically. One of the greatest films to emerge from the Kazakh New Wave, and also one of the toughest." The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Revenge, restored from the original camera negative with the involvement of Ermek Shinarbaev, on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK.


SPECIAL FEATURES:

• Glorious new restorations of three neglected masterworks of world cinema, all presented in 1080p HD
• Exclusive video introductions to each film by Martin Scorsese
• 80-page book featuring writing by Kent Jones on Revenge, Bilge Ebiri on Trances, archival documentation and imagery, and more to be announced
• Optional English subtitles on each film
• More features to be announced closer to release date

Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon - TIFF 2013 Review

Rating:
15
Release Date:
7,8,14th September 2013 (TIFF)
Director:
Mike Myers
Cast:
Shep Gordon,Alice Cooper, Michael Douglas,Tom Arnold, Anne Murray, Sylvester Stallone
Mike Myers’ directorial debut is proof not only that he’s a skilled director and impressive documenter, but the subject of his film is probably one of the coolest men to ever live. Shep Gordon, manager extraordinaire, is a power house of productivity, a messiah of good times, and an all-round nice guy. He’s managed Alice Cooper since the beginning of his career, practically invented the concept of the celebrity chef, and has managed to intertwine his existence with the mint of Hollywood and rock royalty by being one of the world’s greatest hosts. So says Supermensch; The Legend of Shep Gordon.

The key to Myers’ film is that he has a genuine respect for Gordon, like the rest of the stars who pop up through this charming - often hilarious - exploration of Gordon’s career. Michael Douglas, Sylvester Stallone, Myers himself, Alice Cooper, Willie Nelson, to name a few, all jump at the opportunity to give candid tales of Gordon’s frankly mindboggling life. From his humble, drug fuelled beginnings hanging out with the likes of Hendrix and Joplin, onwards through his fast-paced career in music and film. His legendary appetite for good times and women are here exceeded only by his love for seemingly everyone he meets.

Myers is an incredibly gifted filmmaker, fusing his zany wit and comic timing with Gordon’s own barmy life. His editing is sharp and gripping; snippets from movies and a great soundtrack make Supermensch nothing short of fascinating viewing. Perhaps Myers gets a bit caught up in his own love for the father-figure, at points making his documentary a kind of advertisement, but a keen sense of ‘the man’ Gordon as opposed to just ‘the legend’ maintains a suitably grounded and heartfelt film. The Alice Cooper chapter goes on a bit but Gordon’s input into Cooper’s vaudevillian act is vast and thus arguably important. Sure, near-ridiculous amount of good praise for Gordon gets silly at points, but only a cynical kind of tabloid gossip-craving would render this an actual fault. Take a page out of Gordon’s book and cheer the hell up.

No matter where your interests lie, Gordon’s life is at worst intriguing and at best mad. This is a highly impressive debut and a thrilling story of a loving friend, hedonist, innovator, and showman. The fifteen year old me wants another Austin Powers, whilst now I can’t help but hope Myers has another go in the director’s chair.

Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon is entirely watchable, vivid, and compulsive filmmaking punctuated by a host of celebrity guests, a great soundtrack, and some psychedelic editing. Myers’ debut film is an impressive exploration of a life well-lived: heart-warming, hilarious, but above all highly recommendable.

★★★★½

Scott Clark

TIFF 2013 Review - Thou Gild'st the Even

Rating:
12A
Release Date:
8th, 10th & 13th September 2013 (TIFF)
Director:
Onur Ünlü
Cast:
Derya Alabora, Ali Atay, Tansu Biçer

Undoubtedly one of the most bizarre features at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival is Turkish oddball drama Thou Gild’st the Even: a film that may strain the patience of some viewers but captivate others with its casual absurdity.

Onur Unlu’s film explores sorrow, hope, and the insanity of human nature through the life of a bored and depressed barber shop worker in a small Turkish town with two suns and three full moons. The people there have inherited extraordinary abilities. Cemal (Ali Atay) wanders through life despondent and unfulfilled whilst surrounded by an invisible teacher, an immortal doctor, and a beautiful girl who can stop time with a clap of her hands.

Beautifully shot in black and white with a kind of nonchalant regard for its weird moments, Onur Unlu’s film is startling in its lack of pretention, events just occur and no particular weight is put on them. The film would make a dull little study into the mind of a loner if it were not for its touches of surrealism which lace the feature like finely warped filigree. This doesn’t just apply to the characters and their behaviours but the bizarre scenes that spring up around them: the pill-fuelled flight, the brazen assassination in the night, a disturbed serenade totally lacking in romantic endeavour, all these fall awkwardly into place like some ill-constructed child’s toy. However Unlu eventually pulls off a successful illustration of life in all its nuts and sometimes heart-breaking entirety.

When the film starts to strain patience with its casual non-committal kind of narrative, it draws the viewer in by presenting yet another strange character whose bizarre ability has taught them some life lesson they can impart to a man truly lost in his own mundane existence. Excellent casting, beautiful scoring, and a fine eye for humour in a black and white world, definitely ease the passing of this often slow venture.

That’s the key to the film’s success: under the humour and weirdness there’s a story about a man’s life being told, a man who- for all intents and purposes- is totally ordinary besides his strange power. It’s a small town romance, a love story that documents jealousy and passion, family and friends, relationships and ultimately regret. Though time and again it finds such weird ways of relaying such everyday situations, the message will often pass by, only to be picked up later.

Though intriguing Thou Gildst the Even is at many points tiresome and not an easy pill to swallow. However, maybe a little alienation is obligatory as part of an absurdist drama with a Twin Peaks kind of logic to it. For a film lacking in true drama, there’s a lot of heart and poignancy to this truly strange and comical vignette into extraordinary lives.

★★★★☆

Scott Clark

Man of Tai Chi - TIFF 2013 Review

Rating:
18
Release Date:
10th & 11th September 2013 (TIFF)
Director:
Keanu Reeves
Cast:
Keanu Reeves, Tiger Chen, Karen Mok, Simon Yam, Iko Uwais
At one point in time many of us owed our teenage years to Keanu Reeves. Not only did the guy become a global star overnight thanks to The Matrix but he also put Kung-Fu back in vogue. Perhaps because of his affinity with martial arts Reeves has decided to make his directorial debut in Man of Tai Chi; a film based on the life and exploits of Tiger Chen, his coach on The Matrix.

Chen stars as himself, a devout Tai Chi student struggling to make ends meet. His achievements at national championships attract the attentions of Dakata Mark (Reeves) a mysterious businessman who organises secret underground fights. Soon Chen’s control over his honourable craft gives way to a dark and violent nature, pushing him to the brink of self-control in Mark’s shadowy games.

Man of Tai Chi is a strange film. It dodges between great action adventure and corny throw-away trash with all the rapidity of its lead’s martial arts. At times the jet-setting and glorious backdrops look like Tekken cast-offs and at others it seems to be going for Fight Club by way of Fast and Furious. The inconsistency will be the most irritating feature for most people.

The fight sequences are great, well-shot and obviously well under Reeves’ control. But CGI effects and an unfortunate stroll into Kung-Fu magic really send the film wobbling on its axis. This is a shame when moments of dark genius punctuate this near-camp affair. The heart of a thriller erupts at moments to accentuate what the film could have been, leaving Reeve’s debut- for the most part- floating in anonymity

Chen makes a great leading man, mysterious and strong, wilful yet troubled, his drives and actions however get lost in translation leaving the audience bewildered at his often unfound actions. On the subject of unfound actions Reeves’ own performance is in keeping with his repertoire: a wee bit silly. Playing the omnipresent leader of the underground fight club, Dakata Mark, Reeves is partial to a bit of over-acting, under-acting, and utterly ludicrous dialogue. Most of the time you won’t know whether to laugh but there’s no denying the magnetism of his screen presence - in a Nicholas Cage way. That is in no way a negative comment by the way. There is however an unattractive masturbatory quality to his fast cars, big persona, and finely tailored suits. A kind of quality that salt-wraps his watchable manoeuvres.

For some people this could be the oddball-exploitation-action runaway of the year, for most it will be exploitation of the audience; a mess of different ideas with its head half screwed on. But there’s enough fun action to keep you distracted from the fact this is just a tad off-mark.

★★★☆☆

Scott Clark

John Wayne's Red River To Premier on Blu-Ray Via Masters of Cinema

Eureka! Entertainment have announced first UK Blu-ray appearance of the iconic classic Red River (1948). Voted the fifth greatest western of all time by the American Film Institute in June 2008, Red River was directed by the legendary Howard Hawks, one of the most influential American directors of all time, and stars John Wayne and Montgomery Clift in his debut film. Red River will be released in a Blu-ray edition on 28 October 2013 as part of Eureka! Entertainment’s award winning The Masters of Cinema Series.

“Immaculately shot by Russell Harlan, perfectly performed by a host of Hawks regulars, and shot through with dark comedy, it's probably the finest Western of the '40s." - Geoff Andrew, Time Out

One of Hollywood's most iconic westerns, Howard Hawks' Red River launches cinema's grandest cattle drive, and one of the screen's most powerful father-son dramas. One of John Wayne's most intense roles inspired one of his finest performances, and in his debut leading role, Montgomery Clift instantly leapt to the forefront of Hollywood's young actors.

After the Civil War, ranch owner Thomas Dunson (Wayne) leads a drive of ten thousand cattle out of an impoverished Texas to the richer markets of Missouri, alongside his adopted son Matthew Garth (Clift) and a team of ranch hands. As the conditions worsen, and Dunson's control over his cattlemen gets ever more merciless, a rebellion begins to grow within the travelling party.

Filmed among glorious expanses with no expense spared, and a roster of brilliant turns from greats including Joanne Dru, Walter Brennan, Harry Carey, John Ireland and Hank Worden, Red River is an all-American epic, a grand adventure yarn, and a profound psychological journey. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present its first UK release on Blu-ray.



SPECIAL FEATURES
- New high-definition 1080p presentation
- Original theatrical trailer
- Exclusive lengthy video conversation about Red River and Howard Hawks by filmmaker and critic Dan Sallitt, conducted by Jaime Christley, and shot by Dustin Guy Defa and James P. Gannon
- And more to be announced
- A booklet featuring the words of Howard Hawks, rare imagery, and more!

Buy Red River Starring JOHN WAYNE (Masters of Cinema) (Blu-ray)

Maurice Pialet's Van Gogh Masters Of Cinema Blu-Ray Review

Rating:
15
BD/DVD Release Date:
23rd September 2013 (UK)
Distributor:
Eureka! Video
Director:
Maurice Pialat
Cast:
Jacques Dutronc, Alexandra London, Bernard Le Coq
Buy:
2-Disc DVD or Blu-ray
Maurice Pialat’s Van Gogh is one of the reasons why I love Masters of Cinema. I was sort of dreading to watch a 2 hour and 40 minute French film on the last 60s days of the life of the artist Vincent Van Gogh but it was one of the most captivating films I’ve seen in a while. Pialet had been obsessed with Van Gogh for a very long time; he made a documentary about him in the 1966.

The film takes a very unsensationalistic take on Van Gogh’s last 60 days of his life till his inevitable suicide. The film for example doesn’t mention the fact he cut his ear off and in fact shows Van Gogh with two ears. It also doesn’t really go much into his art. Van Gogh does paint in the film naturally and you see him hand his physician Paul Gachet his famous portrait, which also happens to have the world record for most expensive painting at public auction in history. It most concerns his relationships with his physician and his daughter and his art dealer brother Theo, who disliked his brother’s paintings.

Jacques Dutronc is cast as the title character. Dutronc was one of the biggest French “Chanson” singers of the 1960s. His music dabbled in garage rock and psychedelic rock. Dutronc began acting in the mid 1970s but it wasn’t till his role in Jean Luc-Godard’s Slow Motion people really took him seriously as a real dramatic actor. Dutronc won a César (the French equivalent to the Oscars or Baftas) for his performance and rightfully so. Dutronc inhabits the role with his gaunt performance that is a transformation to behold.

The film is a naturalistic take on quite an extraordinary life and was real pleasure for beginning to end. The blu-ray release characteristically of Masters of Cinema includes over 2 hours of interviews, over half an hour of deleted scenes and Pialet’s original 60s documentary on Van Gogh. It’s a highly recommended release which should be added to any cinema lover’s collection.

★★★★1/2

Ian Schultz

A Time to Love and a Time to Die (1958) Masters Of Cinema Blu-Ray Review

Rating:
PG
BD Release Date:
23rd September 2013 (UK)
Distributor:
Eureka Video
Director:
Douglas Sirk
Cast:
John Gavin, Liselotte Pulver, Jock Mahoney
Buy:
A Time To Love And A Time To Die (Masters of Cinema) (Blu-ray)
A Time to Love and a Time to Die was previously released by Masters of Cinema on dvd but it’s a welcome blu-ray upgrade. That master of melodrama Douglas Sirk directs it and as far as I know Masters of Cinema are the only company to have released any of his films on blu-ray. The other film they released is The Tarnished Angels and both films give 2 different sides to Sirk. A Time to Love… is firstly in colour and his colour films have a very expressionistic use of colour. The Tarnished Angels on the other hand is black and white and is to an extent an even more pessimistic film, which is the norm with his black and white films.

A Time to Love… is firstly a surprising sympathetic film about a Nazi officer. The thing, which is most surprising, is Sirk who of course is German and Jewish himself and who also fled in the 1930s became of his political leanings and ethnicity would make such a sympathetic film about a Nazi officer. The film however is about an apolitical soldier who was literally just a hired hand, which was often the case at the time.

The film is a classic piece of Sirkian melodrama; the plot is basically the Nazi soldier who is stationed out on the Eastern Front finally gets his first furlough in 2 years. He arrives home and Allied bombing has destroyed his hometown and his parents are missing. He meets a girl who is the daughter of his family’s doctor but the Gestapo is holding him. They two of them fall in love and marry but in typical Sirkian style everything ends in tragedy.

The film was made near the end of his career in Hollywood he would later move back to his Native Germany to teach films. His last film was a collaborative short film with his greatest admirer Rainer Werner Fassbinder (who wrote extensively on Sirk and was one of the 1st to revaluate his films). It was the last film he made before his much-revered Imitation of Life (recently voted one of the 100 best films ever made in the Sight and Sound poll). It’s one of the first post-war films I can think of that doesn’t paint all Nazis are evil bastards which is why it’s so fascinating.

John Gavin stars as the Nazi soldier and in many ways he is Rock Hudson’s replacement (who Sirk cast in the majority of his key films). He is a handsome black haired masculine actor very much in the build of Hudson and was groomed to be like him by Universal Studios so the similarity obviously appealed to Sirk who also casted him in Imitation of Life. However interestingly is actually of Latin descent and not gay. Hudson’s closeted homosexuality always brought interested subtext to many of his roles especially his work with Sirk and Seconds. John Gavin would later star in Spartacus, Psycho and was even cast as James Bond before Roger Moore. The film also features a absurdly young Klaus Kinski in a small role.

The film is very typical of Sirk with its lush CinemaScope photography and Sirk’s films were certainly made for that format. It also has that characteristic irony that runs though all his work especially with the film’s ending. It’s not his greatest film but it’s a fascinating one.

★★★★☆

Ian Schultz

La Notte (The Night) Masters Of Cinema Blu-Ray Review (1961)

Rating:
12
BD/DVD Release Date:
23rd September 2013 (UK)
Distributor:
Eureka Video
Director:
Michelangelo Antonioni
Cast:
Jeanne Moreau, Marcello Mastroianni, Monica Vitti
Buy La Notte:
(Blu-ray) / [DVD]

La Notte is a classic slice of Antonioni. It was made in his native Italy before he later came west and made films such as Blow-Up, Zabriskie Point and The Passenger. It was made at the height of the Italian art films of the early with other films such 8 ½, The Leopard and Accattone. These filmmakers were influenced by or either had their start in the Italian neo-realist movement of the 40s and early 50s. The films instead being about social issues become increasing more internalised and dealt with much more existential themes about alienation and men’s role in modern society.

The film is set during the course of one day not unlike Antonioni’s Blow-Up. La Notte is about a upper middle class married couple, the man Giovanni Pontano (Marcello Mastroianni) and his wife Lidia (Jeanne Moreau). Giovanni is a writer and his latest book La stagine (The Season) has been recently published. They film starts with them visiting a friend in hospital who is terminally ill. Lidia is so upset by the state of her friend she leaves early but Giovanni stays on. On his way out he is almost seduced by a crazy young woman but the nurses pull them apart.

During the course of the day the couple head off to the writer’s book launch party. His wife wonders off from the party but they meet up again in their old neighbourhood, they lived there when they were newly wed. They decide to go to a nightclub and later a party. Over the course of the day their marriage and communication is tested to its limits.

The film is noted for its use of landscape that is empty and barren much like the film’s main protagonists. The film’s credits are over an astonishing shot of city of the Milan from a skyscraper as the camera slowing descends. The film is deliberately made so it bores you at times just like how the married couple is bored of each other.

The film boosts 2 outstanding performances from Mastroianni and Moreau who were really at the top of their game. The character Giovanni is too involved in his narcissistic and needs to plan things. Lidia is the opposite she is too involved in the real word cause she just wonders and distracted by things in the sky and so on.

La Notte is well remembered for it’s stunning cinematography by Gianni Di Venanzo who also shoot 8 ½ starring Mastroianni. Gianni shot the majority of Antonioni’s Italian films. La Notte uses lots of high contrast black and white photography especially at the party segment of the film that is simply breaktaking as is the lighting.

The film was a favourite of Stanley Kubrick, Ingmar Bergman and Andrei Tarkovsky. All these filmmakers had a similar detached view or even cold aesthetic so it’s no surprise that they found a kindred spirit in Antonioni even though Bergman did have a real love/hate thing with his films. It’s a fascinating film with gorgeous cinematography, great performances and a perfect blend of a passion, emotion but also emotional coldness.

★★★★1/2

Ian Schultz

TIFF 2013 Review - Devil's Knot

Rating:
15
Release Date (TIFF):
8th & 9th September 2013
Director:
Atom Eyogan
Cast:
Colin Firth, Reese Witherspoon, Dane DeHaan, Mireille Enos, Bruce Greenwood, Elias Koteas, Stephen Moyer,
Back in 1993, 3 boys wandered into the woods of a small Arkansas town and never came out alive, their bodies were found hog-tied and dumped in the river, apparent victims to a satanic murder. Quickly, but with little actual evidence, the crimes were pinned on three teens aptly labelled ‘The West Memphis Three’.  The media circus that erupted around this small-town murder escalated to a witch hunt which called for the boys to be charged and punished as quickly as possible. Suitable doubt has been raised in recent years as to the validity of the prosecution and a frankly unsettling question as to who the real murderers are. The case has been the subject of numerous documentaries and novels, Atom Egoyan’s feature Devil's Knot  is in fact based on one such novel of the same title by Mara Leveritt and partly adapted by Scott Derrickson (Sinister) and Paul Harris Boardman (The Exorcism of Emily Rose).

The story itself is compelling in the most disturbing way, so the film has a great base to work from; a haunting tale of savage murder and hysteria shrouded in a dense mystery wrapped in incompetence and small-town politics. Egoyan has a keen eye for tone and mood, setting both with a masterful control over colour, image, and creeping camera movements. But under its pretty thriller façade, there’s not a huge amount to bolster this as anything more than a visual representation of a well-written book.

Reece Witherspoon stars as one of the murdered boys mothers and spends all of her time doing just that; sobbing and looking panicked, whilst Colin Firth is perhaps a little more grabbing as the inquisitive George Lux, but not much more. There’s a superb supporting cast here, but not enough solid story to work from. Sure the courtroom sequences are great in their totally maddening lack of reason; the hysteria of a community demanding blood over-takes the true desire for justice. And there are a few scenes that are truly distressing, but again that’s down to the subject matter and rarely the way it’s relayed, bar a grim and cruel first twenty minutes that are deeply upsetting. The strongest element of Egoyan’s feature is its ability to present a mystery without spoon-feeding, thus allowing the audience to do a bit of the work and realise just how shoddily the case was handled.

Devil’s Knot is grim and torturous, dark and cynical. It skips the happy ending, start and middle, instead grappling with concrete mystery. At its heart it’s a court drama thriller, but the story surpasses the execution rendering this a dubious venture. If you've read the book or seen one of the documentaries, there’s little need to watch the film.

★★★☆☆

Scott Clark

TIFF 2013 Review - Cold Eyes (Gam si ja deul)

Rating:
15
Release Date:
13th, 14th, 15th September 2013 (TIFF)
Director:
Ui-seok Jo, Byung-seo Kim
Cast:
Hyo-ju Han, Woo-sung Jung, Jun-Ho Lee

One of the most accomplished and stand-out features at Toronto International Film festival this year is the slick, fierce, and ingenious Korean thriller

A bank robbery and the induction of a fresh faced operative to a shadowy police surveillance team, I’m a sucker for a concise, fast-paced opening and Cold Eyes has a great one in the vein of Heat and The Dark Knight... Actually Cold Eyes emulates a hundred films like these in its consistently thrilling flow of events, its use of characters who are at the top of their game, and its beautifully shot sprawling urban space. The film flits from point to point pulling at the quickly unravelling thread of a ensemble of bank robbers until things explode with dangerous enthusiasm. This is a crime film with a difference though, it’s all told from the point of view of an elite surveillance squad whose sole purpose is to track and remain covert. Considering the film’s head villain is just as desperate to remain behind the scenes, this makes for tense viewing.

One of the most striking features of the film is the Holmes/Moriarty relationship that plays out between Sol Kyung-gu’s seasoned Chief Detective Wang and Jung Woo-sung’s James, the shadowy leader of the criminal gang. Whilst Wang’s powers of deduction set him in a race against time to halt the next theft, James’ meticulous planning and dangerously efficient lack of empathy keep him a step ahead of the police. Its’ a pleasure to watch two fantastic actors settle so well into two wonderfully written parts. Woo-sung makes an absorbing and unstoppable force of nature in his turn as a genuinely fantastic villain; cold, calculating, and highly dangerous- as he proves on many occasions. On the other hand, Kyung-gu displays perfect comic timing, a fierce and fascinating intellect, and a fatherly kind of support for his group of young surveillance experts, ensuring that the good guys don’t become an irritating distraction from those blessed scenes where we see the inner workings of James’ plans.

Not an out –and- out action film, Cold Eyes favours use of action only when it is required, directors Jo Ui-seok and Kim Byung-seo are as apt at relaying fight sequences as they are with the often complex workings of criminal gangs and police squads. A lesson could be learnt here in regards to action in thrillers: less is more. A Bourne-type brutality surprises and shocks in its pace and edge, ensuring violence doesn’t become filler.

With an impeccable control over pace and action, Cold Eyes is a highly impressive thriller from its explosive start to epic finale. Here is gipping viewing that’s entirely worth your time.

★★★★★

Scott Clark