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College Tribune | October 14th 2008
MUSIC FILM
5 films to... Improve your grasp of foreign languages
Mark
AMELIE (FRENCH) Romantically living in Paris, Amelie is a wide-eyed neurotic young woman who enjoys spying on her weird and wonderful neighbours. Being very shy, she commonly resorts to her own magical way of seeing the world. After returning a lost childhood treasure belonging to a former occupant of her apartment, she devotes her life to making others happy. While pursuing various altruistic missions, she encounters her love interest, an eccentric man who collects discarded passport photos. This is a film which can never been done justice with words but just has to be seen. It is rich, creative and fun and will undoubtedly charm anyone with its stylised yet simple story telling. rable turn from Keith Allen as their gruff landlord as well as David O’Doherty. “They are all individual and completely different and brilliant. David had little to do on paper, but has quite a presence. Dylan is Dylan. And Keith Allen is a very good, and technically brilliant, actor. He contributed a lot, and added some testosterone to a part that probably was quite weak and underdeveloped in the script.” The cynical and deadpan humour in A Film With Me In It is often evident in the way Doherty answers questions. When asked about any
other career aspirations Doherty may have had, he simply and honestly replies, “I have never had any career aspirations.” Concerning the difficult choice between acting and writing, he is in no rush to limit himself. “I’m happy doing both. I have never had a preference, or a plan. When somebody with a unique style and voice and far from anything I could write or imagine offers me a gig, then of course I jump at it. Other times, often during periods of unemployment, I come upon a little writing idea that I know could be funny and try to follow that through.”
PICK OF THE WEEK
Bloody hilarious Plot: Mark (Mark Doherty), A struggling actor trying to find his feet, clearly has nothing going his way. He has to endure humiliating casting meetings, is behind on the rent for his dingy basement flat and his relationship with girlfriend, Sally (Amy Huberman), is crumbling around him. Isolated and despairing, Mark seeks refuge in the company of his friend and neighbour Pierce (Dylan Moran), a writer/waiter who spends his time in the pub chasing creative inspiration. Bleak as things appear to be, things are about to get a whole lot worse. A string of fantas-
tic accidents combines with a whole shower of implausible twists and all of a sudden these two friends have a lot more than money or relationship problems to deal with. Like a dead body ...or three... and a whole lot of blood in the kitchen. Verdict: A Film With Me in It is an absolute gem. Darkly comic from the opening shot, this film finds its humour in awkward silences and delights in exploring quirky aspects of the Irish psyche. The film hinges on the relationship between Mark and Pierce, and even as we are presented with numerous gruesome
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As for the ultimate highlight of his career, the writer claims there’s far too many to choose from. “I don’t know,” he says “There’s loads of highlights, and loads of nightmares like being onstage with an actor who had been on the lock for 24 hours, and getting through the play by feeding him all his lines under my breath and getting away with it! But can’t mention the production, or the actor,” Doherty concludes mysteriously.
» A Film with Me in it will be released in Ireland on Friday, October 17th
A FILM WITH ME IN IT ★★★★★ deaths and colourful characters, their friendship offers a source of continuity. Mark Doherty and Dylan Moran are on the ball the whole way through the film, both turning in impressive performances. Moran is particularly hilarious as the droll Pierce who is always brilliantly inappropriate. This is the kind of film that sticks in your head and has you sniggering to yourself on the Dart a week after you’ve seen it. Irish film making at its best. ORLA KENNY
PAN’S LABYRINTH (SPANISH) It is in 1940’s fascist Spain that we meet the imaginative and dreamy girl, Ofelia. With her heavily pregnant mother, she is moving to live with her new step-father, a sadistic military captain. While civil war rebels are hiding in the mountains, waiting to ambush the fascist troops, Ofelia is discovering a whimsical labyrinth. Here, she meets an ancient faun who promises to tell Ofelia her destiny if she completes three difficult, gruesome and sometimes terrifying tasks. This delightfully dark film is a fairy-tale for adults. The allegorical way the horrors and monsters of reality and fantasy are blended together create an absolutely spellbinding tale. BLACK BOOK (DUTCH) Black Book, set during the Second World War, tells the story of a Jewish Dutch woman, Rachel Stein, living in Nazi occupied Hol-
land. When she and her family are trying to escape to reach allied ground by boat, they are ambushed and her whole family is brutally shot. She seeks revenge by joining the resistance and using her beauty to seduce senior officer Muntze and penetrate German security. However, when she begins to have feelings for the man she is betraying she becomes embroiled in a web of double-dealing. Although evidently over the top, its many intriguing twists keep viewer interest and make a thoroughly engrossing espionage thriller. BATTLE ROYAL (JAPANESE) Set in the near future when Japan’s society is crumbling due to uncontrollable youth hooliganism, legislation is passed to send 42 delinquent Japanese school students to a deserted island, each with a bag of randomly selected weapons. They have to fight to the death until only one is left standing three days later. They’re also forced to wear a special collar that will explode if they break a rule. Sound brutal? It is. The film is disturbing to say the least but the transfixing subject matter and the focus on how the children cope make for a gripping watch. APOCALYPTO (YUCATEC MAYAN) Set in ancient Maya, we come across Jaguar Paw, an indigenous man acting the lad with a few of his fellow tribesmen. Their peaceful tribe is later brutally pillaged by a powerful invading civilization that wants slaves and humans for sacrifice. Jaguar Paw hides his heavily pregnant wife and their son in a nearby hole. Soon after, he is captured himself and saving his family is looking evermore impossible. Despite the over the top gore and Mel Gibson’s involvement, Apocalypto is a surprisingly engaging and heart-pounding watch and who doesn’t need to brush up on their ancient Mayan?
CATHY BUCKMASTER