It’s not all that easy to work out what’s going in in this disjointed movie, apart from in the numerous sex scenes of course, where there’s little doubt.

I think it’s got something to do with one or two shapeshifting humans with animalistic urges running riot in a small town, and it stars Lost favourite Naveen Andrews. However, I’m afraid I didn’t stick it out long enough to figure out any more of the plot.  Sorry.

Animals is showing on Zone Horror on Saturday 20th March at 10.55pm

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Our competition to win a Blu-ray copy of fairytale comedy adventure Stardust is now closed. Thanks to Paramount Home Entertainment for supplying the prizes and well done to all the entrants who answered correctly that the other fantasy film based on a tale by Neil Gaiman which came out last year was called Coraline.

The first three names to be drawn from all the winning entries are:

1. Sarah Elsdon from Lowestoft
2. Faiza Osman from South Harrow
3. Kathryn Beer from Selsey, Chichester

Well done folks, enjoy your prizes!

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We’ve been fans of silent-movie-soundtrack specialists Minima here at Movie Talk since witnessing their bold rescoring of Germaine Dulac’s 1928 surrealist oddity The Seashell and the Clergyman in the dank and gloomy railway arches beneath London Bridge Station a couple of years ago.

So it’s good news to learn that the enterprising four-piece band are going on the road this month performing live to 1920 silent classic The Cabinet of Dr Caligari on a tour of Picturehouse Cinemas across London and the South West.

If your only experience of live musical accompaniment for silent movies is of a solo pianist tinkling the ivories (great though that often is), then prepare to open your eyes and ears to the daring collision of image and sound when Minima work their magic on this bizarre and hypnotic German Expressionist classic of the silent era.

Here’s how the band describe their dramatic Dr Caligari rescore:
“Minima’s original soundtrack strikes up an unexpected relationship with the images on screen, teasing out the film’s melancholy and grim humour. The four-piece ensemble of drums, bass, guitar and cello stalk the film, while their unique sonic palette provides an intensity to complement the film’s unsettling experience of mistrust and madness.”

“Silent films like this were meant to be screened with a live musical accompaniment because it adds so much to the experience,” says Alex Hogg, Minima’s guitarist. “It is particularly evocative with Dr Caligari because the film is so haunting.”

Minima’s Dr Caligari tour kicks off their tour at Bath’s Little Theatre Cinema on Sunday 21 March. See below for the full tour list and go to the Picturehouse website for further details.

March 2010
21 March, 4:45pm The Little Theatre Cinema, St Michael’s Place, Bath, BA1 1SF
28 March, 4:45pm Exeter Picturehouse, 51 Bartholomew Street West, EX4 3AJ
31 March, 9.15pm The Ritzy, Brixton, London, Brixton Oval, Coldharbour Lane, SW2 1JG

April 2010
7 April, 9:15pm The Gate, Notting Hill, London, 87 Notting Hill Gate, W11 3JZ
11 April, 4:15pm Phoenix Picturehouse, Oxford, 57 Walton Street, OX2 6AE
12 April, 8.30pm Regal Picturehouse, Henley, 2 Boroma Way, RG9 2BZ
14 April, 9.15pm Clapham Picturehouse, London, 76 Venn Street, SW4 0AT
21 April, 9:00pm Duke of York’s Picturehouse, Brighton, Preston Circus, BN1 4NA
25 April, 4.00pm Harbour Lights Picturehouse, Southampton, Ocean Village, SO14 3TL
28 April, 9.15pm Greenwich Picturehouse, 180 Greenwich High Road, SE10 8NN

May 2010
9 May, 8:45pm Stratford-upon-Avon Picturehouse, Windsor Street, CV37 6NL

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We’ve just learned that comic-book heroes Mark Millar and John Romita Jr - the creators of the series on which new superhero movie Kick-Ass is based - will be signing copies of their graphic novel and the movie companion book Kick-Ass: Creating the Comic, Making the Movie at Forbidden Planet Megastore, 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London WC2h 8JR on Sunday March 22nd 2 – 3pm.

The first seventy five customers at this event will receive two tickets to the star-studded 22nd March premiere of Kick Ass, which stars Aaron Johnson, Nicolas Cage, Chloe Moretz and Mark Strong.

Kick-Ass goes on general release from 26th March.

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.

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Our competition to win a Blu-ray disc of wickedly comic high-school horror comedy Jennifer’s Body is now closed.  Thanks to Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment for supplying the prizes and well done to all the entrants who answered correctly that Jennifer’s Body screenwriter Diablo Cody won an Oscar for Juno.

The first five names to be drawn from all the winning entries are:

1. Diana Storrie from Ayr
2. Rachael Smith from Bristol
3. Clare Finning from Honiton
4. Nige Owen from Glamorgan
5. Cath Rutter from Newport

Well done folks, enjoy your prizes!

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Calling all movie-loving Londoners! Are you going to the exciting film festival that’s opening on the South Bank today?

Taking place at the BFI Southbank, this colourful movie gala, apparently the UK’s third largest film festival, will be showcasing hundreds of films and featuring numerous special themed events.

There are opportunities to see new films from all over the world, plus a whole load of  vintage movies and there will also be screenings of some recently released big titles including the Bafta-winning A Single Man and the latest Ang Lee offering Taking Woodstock.

And that’s not all - the festival programme also includes special events such as filmmaking workshops, club nights and a 60s-inspired retro disco. It’s also supported by numerous big names including Lord of the Rings favourite Sir Ian McKellen and everybody’s dream dinner party guest Stephen Fry.

Many of the screenings are sold out already, it’s that popular, but the festival continues until the end of the month so you’re still in with a chance of some tickets if you book now.

I bet you can’t wait to find out more can you?

So here you go - check out all you need to know about this year’s BFI London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival here.

What? You’ve suddenly lost interest?

Hmm, you see, no matter how gay-friendly you are, let’s face it, if you’re heterosexual, you’re probably going to feel alienated by an event that calls itself the ‘London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival.’ I don’t expect that’s because you’re narrow-minded or anti-gay. It’s simply because this title sounds exclusive.

I personally spend most of my film and TV-viewing time watching stories that feature largely heterosexual characters, but even though I’m not heterosexual I don’t give it that much thought. I’d love to see more diverse representation, but as far as I’m concerned, people are essentially the same and should be able to relate to any human story.

However, I have to say that if I found myself presented with a ‘London Heterosexual Film Festival’ I’d feel a slightly alienated thanks to that exclusive title.

I tried a little experiment over the past week. I asked each one of my movie buff heterosexual London friends if they were going to see anything at this year’s Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. It was interesting. Unsurprisingly, none of them were planning to attend, and some seemed utterly bewildered that I’d even asked the question.

These aren’t the types of people to shy away from gay-themed films when they’re integrated with other mainstream film releases, but it seems to be a different matter if a movie is flagged up as ‘gay’ or ‘lesbian’.

This is why I have mixed feelings about the LLGFF.

Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s fantastic that gay and lesbian filmmakers, screenwriters and actors get a platform to showcase their talent and I’m happy that it exists and happy to give it my support – I’ve been a fan on Facebook for a while.

This film festival is hugely popular, the third largest in the UK. Why? Because most movies made available to Londoners across the average year don’t even feature gay characters or storylines, so this festival makes up that shortfall. Gay and lesbian audiences, eager to see themselves represented on screen for a change, buy up tickets way in advance.

But why is it that I don’t see that many of these gay or lesbian-themed movies getting mainstream releases?

Surely something needs to change?

As A Single Man star Colin Firth recently pointed out – Hollywood is reluctant to recognise the talent of the gay and lesbian community and continues to favour heterosexual actors, heterosexual storylines, and insists on watering down the ‘gayness’ of the two or three gay-themed films it handles each year by placing well-known heterosexual actors into the roles.

You may have heard about the Jim Carrey film I Love You Phillip Morris? It stars big heterosexual filmstar Carrey as a gay con man and co-stars Ewan McGregor as his lover. It premiered to rave reviews at Sundance. Yet, despite the rave reviews and the big stars, this movie struggled to get a US distributor for ages. In this day and age, how can this be? (I love You Phillip Morris is not showing at the LLGFF, but it is released in cinemas in the UK today).

With this anti-gay Hollywood issue achieving increased prominence this year, I can’t help but think that this would have been the perfect time for the BFI and the LLGFF programmers to jump onto the bandwagon to push for change and raise awareness further.

In fact, I wish we’d seen the festival programmers send out a different message this year.  It surely would have been forward-thinking to extend a welcome to the wider London community to come and check out a programme of the great films that don’t make it into the mainstream because distributors are too scared to take them.

I’d love to see steps being taken towards a more inclusive film industry across the board. I’d love to see UK distributors releasing more gay and lesbian themed movies. I’d love to see some sort of lobbying for change.

And, I’d also love to see more big filmstars (including those across the pond) raising awareness over gay issues, just as Colin Firth, Ian McKellen and Daniel Radcliffe have done recently.

As you can see from my heated ramblings, this film festival has provided much food for thought.

In fact, this one is a great topic for a lively dinner party discussion. You’re welcome any time Stephen.

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Swedish writer Stieg Larsson’s posthumously published Millennium trilogy of crime thrillers has won millions of fans around the world – all of them waiting to pounce on any missteps made by the makers of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: the screen adaptation of the first instalment.

Fortunately, director Niels Arden Oplev has got things right – starting with the casting of the series’ hero and heroine: idealistic campaigning journalist Mikael Blomkvist, played with battered integrity by Michael Nyqvist, and punk-Goth computer hacker Lisbeth Salander, the eponymous tattooed girl  - an astonishing incarnation by Noomi Rapace of a character who has become an instant 21st-century icon.

Oplev and his writers also prove sure-footed with the plotting, which is a strikingly faithful, adroitly streamlined version of the book.  Over 500 pages long, Larsson’s story is a locked-room mystery thriller set on an island – as is Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island, coincidentally released in the UK on the same day as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Hedeby Island is home to the wealthy Vanger family, a warring clan of industrialists with Nazi skeletons in the closet. Smarting from a libel defeat and in disgrace, Blomkvist comes here at the behest of the head of the Vanger family, elderly recluse Henrik Vanger, who wants Blomkvist to investigate the mysterious disappearance 40 years earlier of his great-niece.

Blomkvist’s probing into the case leads to him into an unlikely partnership with the remarkable Lisbeth, a spiky, damaged, semi-autistic computer genius with multiple piercings and a photographic memory. Together, they sift through seemingly baffling clues and unearth a series of appalling crimes against women.

Be warned: the scenes of sexual violence are extremely distressing. The original Swedish title of book and film is Män som hatar kvinnor: Men Who Hate Women, and Oplev pulls few punches in showing what Larsson describes. It’s probably his only major faux pas: what is implicit on the page becomes disturbingly explicit on screen.

If you wanted to, you could find other points to cavil. Feminist avenging angel Lisbeth bears marks of a male author’s fantasy, as does, in a different but complementary way, the heroic Blomkvist. You’re unlikely to care too much, however, when their dogged investigation gets you in its grip.

On general release from 12th March.

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.

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Following a sensational surprise appearance at last year’s Halloween BUG music-video special, John Landis returns to the BFI Southbank stage to discuss his work on such modern-day classics as The Blues Brothers, Animal House and An American Werewolf In London.

Tickets are scarce, but call the box-office now… you just never know your luck.

John Landis in Conversation, Tue 16 Mar, 20:15pm, NFT1

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That’s right, The Human Rights Watch Film Festival is back for its 14th year, with 28 films from 20 countries showing from tomorrow until 26 March.

Highlights include The Balibo Conspiracy starring Anthony LaPaglia, an engaging thriller about five Australian journalists who go missing during Indonesia’s invasion of Timor in 1975; Raoul Peck’s Haiti-set Shakespearan tragedy Moloch Tropical; and the thought-provoking The Sun Behind the Clouds - Tibet’s Struggle for Freedom.

Closed Societies: Iran and North Korea, Accountability and Justice, and Development and Migration are the main themes explored by this year’s selection.

Showing 17-26 March at The Ritzy, ICA, Curzon Soho and Curzon Mayfair.

For more information, go to the Human Rights website.

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Matt Damon teams up again with Paul Greengrass – his director in the last two Bourne movies - for Green Zone, a frenetic conspiracy thriller set in post-invasion Iraq.

The film is inspired by Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s highly acclaimed non-fiction book Imperial Life in the Emerald City, a clear-eyed, darkly comic account of the breathtaking arrogance, ignorance and incompetence of US-led rule in occupied Iraq.

Though grounded in fact, Green Zone is, however, very much a made-up story: a “Bourne goes to Baghdad” adventure, as Damon’s doughty US army officer Roy Miller goes on the hunt for Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction in the immediate aftermath of the invasion.

He can’t understand why he and his team are coming up empty-handed at every supposed WMD site they visit, but as he digs deeper he discovers that the intel has been fabricated. Can he stay ahead of Greg Kinnear’s slippery Pentagon agent and Jason Isaacs’ Special Forces officer and expose the truth before Iraq falls into anarchy and civil war?

With Greengrass at the helm, deploying his trademark, Bourne-style shaky camerawork and rapid-fire cutting, Green Zone is as fast-paced as you’d expect, but the uneasy mix of fact and fiction ultimately works against the film.

The viewer does get to share the outrage of Damon’s character as he realises that the invasion rested on lies – as if we didn’t know already - but the attempt to shape the chaos of Iraq into a Bourne-shaped plot is eventually self-defeating.

The last word, though, belongs to the character of the Iraqi who is pressed into service as Miller’s interpreter. After all the machinations and mayhem, Khalid Abdalla’s Freddy, an Iraqi army veteran who lost a leg in the Iran-Iraq war, delivers a curt reprimand to the Americans’ meddling in his country, telling Miller: “It isn’t for you to decide what happens here.”

On general release from 12th March.

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.

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