Fermat’s Room is a stunning award-winning Spanish thriller which comes out on DVD on 7 September. Four mathematicians are invited to spend a weekend together by a mysterious host known only as Fermat, where they will be challenged to solve a great enigma.
But the room in which they find themselves turns out to be a death-trap that will crush them if they do not discover – in time – what connects them all and why someone might wish to murder them…
We have three copies of the DVD to give away, courtesy of Revolver Entertainment. To be in with a chance of winning, simply answer the following question:
Which of the following is an official language spoken in Spain?
1) Catalan
2) Corsican
3) Croatian
4) Celtic
Send your answer, clearly marked Fermat’s Room DVD Competition in the subject line, to movietalk@ipcmedia.com. The closing date for entries is Friday 4th September 2009.
Please note: we will collect your personal email data solely to process your competition entry. Prizes will be awarded to the first three correct entries drawn at random under independent supervision after the competition closes at midnight on 4 September 2009. We will notify the winner by email within 21 days of this closing date. The prize consists of a copy of the DVD of Fermat’s Room. Promoter: IPC Media. Prize Supplier: Revolver Entertainment. For full terms and conditions, see here.
Pedro Almodóvar reunites with favourite leading lady Penélope Cruz for the first time since their triumph with 2006’s tragic-comic melodrama Volver. Broken Embraces, their new movie, doesn’t scale its predecessor’s heights but still contains much to delight fans of both director and star.
As with Volver, Bad Education and so many of Almodóvar’s other films, Broken Embraces boasts a complicated narrative structure that flashes back and forth between past and present – in this case, between contemporary Madrid and the Spain of the mid-1990s.
In the present, we encounter a blind screenwriter, played by Lluís Homar, who goes by the pseudonym ‘Harry Caine’. Learning of the death of powerful industrialist Ernesto Martel (José Luis Gómez), Harry recalls the period when he was a successful director working under his real name of Mateo Blanco. Back then, Martel bankrolled Mateo’s latest film as a vehicle for his mistress, aspiring actress Lena (Cruz), but when director and star fell in love, the industrialist’s jealous wrath triggered a fateful chain of events…
Broken Embraces shows Almodóvar at his most self-indulgent and self-referential: the film within the film, Blanco’s ‘Girls and Suitcases’ is quite clearly a version of Almodóvar’s first big international hit, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, with Cruz in the role originally played by Carmen Maura. Even if these references remind us how far short Broken Embraces falls from Almodóvar’s peak, the film’s sumptuous cinematography is bewitching and Cruz has never been more incandescently gorgeous.
Released 28th August.
To activate the sound in the trailer: hold your cursor over the screen to reveal the control panel and click on the volume control in the bottom right-hand corner.
Picking up the story of iconic French gangster Jacques Mesrine five years on from Mesrine: Killer Instinct (released in UK cinemas three weeks ago), Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1, the second half of director Jean-François Richet’s epic two-part crime biopic, finds Vincent Cassel’s crook revelling in his public notoriety. He’s paunchier than when we last saw him (Cassel put on 40lbs for the film), but no less adept at wriggling free of the law’s clutches and even slicker at getting on the front pages of newspapers and magazines. He escapes from court by kidnapping the judge at his own trial and cheekily welcomes a police commissioner with cigars and champagne when the cop lays siege to his flat to arrest him. It can’t last, of course, as we’ve known from the opening moments of the first film, which showed Mesrine’s bloody end in 1979 at the hands of a police hit squad, the event to which all the high jinks and high living in part two inevitably leads.
Released 28th August.
To activate the sound in the trailer: hold your cursor over the screen to reveal the control panel and click on the volume control in the bottom right-hand corner.
Sports biopic The Damned United starring Michael Sheen as legendary English football manager Brian Clough comes out on DVD on Monday 31st August. To celebrate the film’s release we’re giving you the chance to win one of 3 copies of the film on DVD.
Adapted for the screen by Peter Morgan (writer of The Queen and Frost/Nixon) from the critically acclaimed novel by David Peace, the film shows what happened when the young Clough takes the plum job of managing reigning League champions Leeds United in 1974. Cocky and ambitious, he is determined to outdo the achievements of his predecessor in the post, his bitter rival Don Revie. Instead, his period in charge lasts a doomed 44 days.
To win a copy of The Damned United on DVD, courtesy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, all you have to do is answer the following question:
Which of these famous people has Michael Sheen NOT played on screen?
A) Tony Blair
B) Richard Nixon
C) Kenneth Williams
Send your answer, clearly marked The Damned United DVD Competition in the subject line, to movietalk@ipcmedia.com. The closing date for entries is Thursday 17th September 2009.
Please note: we will collect your personal email data solely to process your competition entry. Prizes will be awarded to the first three correct entries drawn at random under independent supervision after the competition closes at midnight on 17 September. We will notify the winner by email within 21 days of this closing date. The prize consists of a copy of the DVD of The Damned United. Promoter: IPC Media. Prize Supplier: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. For full terms and conditions, see here.
People often make a fuss about Kathryn Bigelow’s status as a female director of action movies as if it’s her gender that makes her special. Yet the remarkable thing about Bigelow isn’t that she’s an action director with breasts, it’s that she’s an action director with brains.
In a summer that’s seen the latest testosterone-fuelled efforts from Hollywood’s big swinging dick directors Michael Bay (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen) and McG (Terminator: Salvation), Bigelow’s gripping Iraq war drama The Hurt Locker comes as welcome relief.
Bigelow – maker of the cult vampire movie Near Dark, the surfing-‘n’-sky-diving crime adventure Point Break and the underrated sci-fi thriller Strange Days – can convey macho heroics and combustive violence as well as anyone, but in her hands the mayhem is never mindless: you always get the sense of a keen intelligence at work.
Machismo and intelligence are the signature traits of Bigelow’s latest protagonist, a redneck US army sergeant who takes over a three-man bomb-disposal team in Baghdad in 2004. Fearless to the point of recklessness, Jeremy Renner’s William James dismays his new colleagues, Sandborn and Eldridge (played by Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty), with his gung-ho approach to the job. With 38 days left in their tour of duty, the pair simply want to get home in one piece, yet their new leader thrives on the danger. And as the team goes about its task of defusing improvised explosive devices in conditions of searing heat and constant threat, James’s risky methods put all their lives on the line.
Written by American journalist Mark Boal, who spent time embedded with a bomb disposal unit in Iraq in 2004, The Hurt Locker ignores the bigger picture of US military involvement in Iraq to focus instead on the soldiers in the field. Some people may find the film’s exclusion of the wider context a flaw, yet Bigelow puts across the reality of the US occupation - unwelcome for occupied and occupiers alike – in a way that puts the earnest hand-wringing of such films as Robert Redford’s Lion for Lambs to shame.
Bigelow’s sympathies lie with the ordinary soldiers, but the ones who clearly fascinate her are the ones for whom “the rush of battle is a potent and often lethal addiction, for war is a drug.” (The quote, which introduces the movie, is by American war correspondent Chris Hedges.) Renner’s James is just such a junkie.
For me, he resembles French tightrope walker Philippe Petit, whose daring high-wire walk between the twin towers of New York’s World Trade Center in 1974 was the subject of last year’s Oscar-winning documentary Man on Wire. Both share a single-minded intensity of focus and a seemingly insane bravado; and both clearly get a rush from danger but must remain absolutely calm to perform their literally death-defying feats.
These feats are heart-stopping to watch, but it’s impossible to look away. With cinematographer Barry Ackroyd deploying jittery hand-helm cameras to stunning effect, Bigelow puts us right there alongside James as he puzzles over the intricate mechanics of the latest IED, and right there alongside Sandborn and Eldridge too as they scan a hostile environment in which a figure on a balcony might be a sniper and a bystander with a mobile phone could be an insurgent about to trigger a bomb. Switching effortlessly between passages of nerve-shredding suspense and ones of adrenalin-charged excitement, The Hurt Locker blows away the competition.
Released 28th August.
To activate the sound in the trailer: hold your cursor over the screen to reveal the control panel and click on the volume control in the bottom right-hand corner.
Fancy getting down to The Harder They Come, Kingston-reggae stylee, in the Elephant and Castle?
Do ya wanna call the Ghostbusters to the hallowed halls of the Royal Horticultural Society in Westminster?
Or imbibe tea and vodka with your upper classmates at Dulwich College for the anti-establishment rant If..?
These are just a few of the cinematic experiences extraordinare pulled off by an exclusive and very secretive (until now) bunch called Secret Cinema. Every month they alert their members to a screening somewhere in London. You don’t know what you’re going to see until the credits roll.
It could be a cult classic, an exclusive preview or a golden oldie. But one thing you do know, it’ll be a lot more stimulating — and involving — than a visit to your dull old local multi-plex and (possibly) more comfortable than joining the Climate Campers.
Just sign up on the Secret Cinema website to hear about the location of the next event… And prepare to be surprised and amazed and thoroughly entertained.
Fusing Fatal Attraction with Cape Fear, this tense little edge-of-your-seat Aussie thriller should have been called Cradle Rock.
With her biological clock ticking away, Jess wants a kid, but her fisherman husband Rob is not so sure. Enter unhinged Irishman Evan, who wants Jess to be his and his alone. When Jess and Rob come to blows over their baby making, Evan gets his chance to have sex with a drunken Jess.
Moving swiftly into Fatal Attraction territory, Evan starts stalking Jess, when he (and the whole town) learns she has fallen pregnant. But who’s the father? Jess is too afraid to tell Rob her fears, and Rob is too afraid to find out the results of his sperm count test. Meanwhile, Evan will stop at nothing to make Jess love him.
Lisa Chappell and Rob Taylor fit comfortably in their roles as the married couple undergoing a domestic crisis, while rising star Sam Parsonson gives his all as psycho Evan – though his character is just too disturbed to sympathise with (especially when he kills a baby kangaroo).
And spare a thought for poor cocky fisherman Benny (Joseph De Re). Watching him get beaten up, burnt, poked in the eye and thrown off a cliff had me feeling very sorry for him by the end of the movie.
Thumbs up to the newly formed Screen Australia in supporting emerging talent like first-time director Rupert Glasson, and giving David Lightfoot the chance to show off his producing skills once again. Lightfoot successfully oversaw the 2005 chiller Wolf Creek – despite it being rejected by ScreenWest, Western Australia’s impotent film funding body.
For film fans that like solid story telling with a good scare, Coffin Rock is a very grown-up thriller from such a young director – and it’s nice to see the dark side of Oz for a change.
Catch the World Premiere at Film4’s FrightFest in London on Sunday 30 August.
This violent thriller, in the tradition of revenge classics like Straw Dogs and Death Wish, is not for the faint-hearted. After the body of his daughter Jessica is found dumped in a Brisbane industrial area following a heroin overdose, Christian (Peter Marshall) is mysteriously sent a porn video of what may have been Jessica’s last hours alive. This leads him to track down those involved in the film and exact bloody retribution.
Never before has the average toolbox provided such a deadly arsenal. In meting out his justice, Christian uses a knife, hammer and crowbar to slay his victims. And, as the body count rises, so does his inventiveness: petrol, gym weight, football pump, even a nasal spray and a garden hose are turned into terrifying weapons.
These scenes are truly discomforting, but Marshall is so good in the role, you find yourself rooting for him with each and every brutal blow. Marshall’s Christian is a father not only wanting revenge over his daughter’s death, but is also seeking absolution for failing as a parent.
Along for the ride is hitchhiker Alice (Caroline Marohasy), a teen herself, who is unaware of his vigilante mission. It is in these touching scenes that we see Christian’s humanity, and his need to make peace with himself. But this is no joyride, and what follows is a brilliant, terrifying twist that will have you guessing right up to the rain-and-mud-soaked bloodbath of a climax.
The Horseman is an unforgettable, extreme experience, and a great debut from first-time director Steven Kastissios.
Or ‘Grattis på födelsedagen!’ as they say in Sweden.
Peter Stormare, who turns 56 today, is certainly one of my favourite (supporting) actors just because he embodies ‘weird’ nearly as convincingly as the amazing Giovanni Ribisi. I guess with that rather frightening paralysed hound dog face of his and the accent, it’s hard not to be typecast as the *insert any non-English nationality* badguy.
For me, Stormare’s most memorable role has got to be psycho Gaear Grimsrud in Fargo:
Although his version of Satan in Constantine scares me into wanting to be good forever:
And this Swede is showing no signs of slowing down. He currently has no less than seven films in completion-/pre- and post-production stages. So expect to see a lot more of this fella in the near future.
Here are 10 things you perhaps didn’t know about Peter Stormare:
1. Peter Ingvar Rolf Storm was born in Kumla, Sweden, which is mainly known for its prison - the largest in the country.
2. He started out at the Swedish Royal Dramatic Theatre where he changed his name from Storm to Stormare because there was another actor called Peter Storm.
3. He was discovered by Ingmar Bergman and began his film career with a brief appearance in Bergman’s 1982 masterpiece Fanny och Alexander.
7. Stormare is an accomplished playwright and musician. He’s even got his own record label.
8. He plays in the band Blonde From Fargo - Bono is a fan of his music.
9. In 2007, he turned down an offer to appear in Lost because he had already done a 20-episode stint on Prison Break and actually prefers acting in movies.
10. He is now an American citizen (deserter!) and lives in sunny L.A. (who wouldn’t?).
Young at heart… Thirtysomething Mike (Matthew Perry) is stuck in a rut. Then, one morning, he wakes up as a 17-year-old version of himself (Zak Efron) and gets to change the course of his life. Who says you’re only young once?
Power struggle… Based on the iconic comic book series of the same name, this fantasy thriller sees a ragtag group of costumed vigilantes coming together under threat from an unseen enemy.
Pain in the neck… Teenager Bella Swann moves to a small town in Washington and falls for her mysterious classmate, Edward Cullen, who turns out to be a 108-year-old vampire. Typical.
Bump in the night… Gavin & Stacey’s James Corden and Matthew Horne play two down-on-their-luck slackers, who escape to a remote village in Wales only to discover the local women have been enslaved by lesbian vampires.
1. Avatar
2. The Lovely Bones
3. The Crazies
4. The Princess and the Frog
5. Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
6. Valentines Day
7. Leap Year
8. From Paris with Love
9. A Single Man
10. Invictus
1. This is It
2. The Hurt Locker
3. Jennifer’s Body
4. The Time Traveler’s Wife
5. 9
6. Terminator Salvation
7. Pandorum
8. The Hangover
9. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
10. District 9
