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Whittaker’s WayMichael Gillespie had a right old natter with one of West-Yorkshire’s finest exports, Jodie Whittaker. The actress was in Glasgow to talk about her new film Good, a dark drama about compromise. The actress, however, has chosen projects carefully and was more than happy to share her feelings with us.

as the object of Peter O’Toole’s septugenarian salivation, Jodie Whit-taker made her feature film debut in Venus. It wasn’t just the veteran actor’s heart she won: since then, the Huddersfield born actress has gone to become one of the true rising stars of British cinema. Her remarkable range and refusal to compromise are evidenced by this week’s gala pick, Good. Adapted from Glaswegian CP Taylor’s award-winning play, Good tells the story of a Weimar era litera-ture professor (Viggo Mortensen) drawn through his own weakness and naivete into the Nazi regime, at the expense of his principles and his Jewish best friend (Jason Isaacs). The actress plays Anne, young mistress of our protaganist and a character, Whittaker says, “women who see the film always tell me they hated!”. It’s a difficult story and a tough role, but one the actress was passionate about. “If my character belonged to any other party she’d have been the best thing that ever happened to him (Mortensen)”. “It’s a great story because the characters don’t have the benefit of hindsight. It’s easy for us to say we wouldn’t have done that, but at the time were dealing with domestic issues, they could have lost their jobs, everything. Obviously, that’s nothing compared

to what happened to millions of people”. What does the story have to say for us today, then? “I think human beings are essentially selfish, even though we say we’re not. We never think about the repercussions of small decisions. In that way, I think it’s really modern. The amount of countries that are in that situation now. Even here, everybody’s always complaining about the government but nobody’s doing anything”.

Good was a project Whittaker actively pursued, describing it as “one of those auditions you really work hard at”. Much of that was to do with the cast, but also because “it’s independent, it’s made with passion. I’m not really into the big budget thing”.

The big budget offers have come in, but Whittaker, unlike Anne, refuses to make any concessions: “I drive my agent mad. She’s saying “No one’s gonna see it”, but when I see who’s involved and where I’ll get to go. I could have gotten a main-stream ITV job and been a regular on something. I’d have a mortgage by now! But I’ve not been boxed in, and if you’re lucky enough to be given these amazing opportunities I’ve had after Venus, then you’ve a great environment to learn in”.

WhaT’S inSiDe?

Gff bOx OfficeOrder tickets from the box office at

www.glasgowfilmfestival.org.uk

or call 0141 332 6535

or visitGlasgow Film Theatre

12 Rose Street, Glasgow, G3 6RB

info@glasgowfilmfestival.org.uk

2 » TOMORROW’S pickSOur highlights of tomorrow’s films and events

2 » Shhh! Tyler Parks on a night of (not so) silent movies

3 » RevieWSThe Infinite Frontier Bart Got a RoomBlue Eyelids

4 » WhaT’S neW OnlineUpdating you on new online content FOR GFF

4 » blOODy binGe- DRinkeRS

Michael Gillespie gets his teeth into a worrying new trend

4 » Win TickeTS!Enter our quiz and win 2 tickets to see The Wrecking Crew

The cineSkinny

Produced by The Skinny magazine in association with the Glasgow Film Festival

eDiTORS Gail Tolley Michael GillespielayOuT Eve McConnachie

2 the CineSkinny SATURDAY 21 FEBRUARY www.theSkinny.Co.uk

SHHH! An Evening of (Not so) Silent Movies

The relationship between film and music is cause for joy and scepticism. It was the norm for narrative films during the silent era of the early 20th century to be accompanied by live music. This facilitated the immersion of the spectator in the images upon the screen, a fact that could not be lost on anyone who has ever seen a feature length silent film in a cinema without auditory accom-paniment. The incidental sounds of people packed into a darkened room tend to disrupt the suspen-sion of disbelief that accounts for one of film’s primary pleasures. On the other hand, many an experi-mental filmmaker (Stan Brakhage comes most immediately to mind) has been fanatical in asserting that the absence of sound is a condition necessary to heighten the viewer’s visual concentration.

Music always adds new meanings to the unspooling images of a film. These can be unpredictable and dy-namic, flowing out of associations and emotions that would never emerge from the images or the music alone. The interplay of the two mediums can become the very

centre of the work. Or, as is the case in many a big budget blockbuster, the music can be used to enforce programmatic responses from an audience. The sombre music lets one know that she should be feel-ing sombre.

SHHH! An Evening of (Not so) Silent Movies is part of the Glasgow Music and Film Festival, itself a new strand of the Glasgow Film Festival. It is an event which will explore the more fugitive and experimental interaction between music and image. A room at The Arches will be made over in imita-tion of the ambiance of a 1920s film theatre and an eclectic group of musicians will be playing con-ceptual pieces that link their music to a segment of film. Among those performing will be the winsomely charming Zoey Van Goey and the more epically-oriented Bella Union act, My Latest Novel. Dolby Anol will provide some Technicolor maximal electro, while Ben Brother & Mouse Pad will dish out some Vangelis-inflected variations on proggy disco. Finally, Holy Moun-tain will enrage and engage with their particular brand of noise.

In addition, there will be theatre artists accompanied by the films that have inspired the works they will perform, and students from across Scotland will be working with the Glasgow based video production company Forest of Black - specialists in creating visual content for music promotion - to concoct moving image accompani-ment to songs by the evening’s musical guests. The unexpected is to be expected.

Tyler parks takes a look at an event that fuses sound and vision at the Glasgow Music and Film Festival.

TOMORROW’S

pickS

My faiR laDy13.00 @ GfTIt’ll have you dancing all night…or all afternoon anyway.

laST chance haRvey19.00 @ GfTGFF Closing Gala performance featuring Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson

MuSic anD MOvieS Quiz15.00 @ kinG TuT’STest your knowledge against our esteemed team.

The aGe Of STupiD16.00 @ GfTEco-drama-doc featuring Pete Postlethwaite

eveRlaSTinG MOMenTS16.15 @GfTGolden Globe nominated historical drama by Swedish director Jan Troell

Shhh! an eveninG Of (nOT SO) SilenT MOvieS 19:30 @aRcheSTyler Parks takes a look at an event that fuses sound and vision at the Glasgow Music and Film Festival.

SATURDAY 21 FEBRUARY the CineSkinny 3 www.theSkinny.Co.uk

ReviewsThe infiniTe bORDeR (La Frontera InFInIta)Director: Juan Manuel Sepulveda

Despite what could be an interesting topic - immigration between the Mexican and American borders - La Frontera Infinita has little sense of place, time or purpose. Juan Manuel Sepulveda does not offer much to viewers unfamiliar with the situation. His eloquent yet sparse narration poses questions rather than providing explanations or insight, while his slow panoramas of people-covered trains stretching into the distance reflect the pace of both the film and the migrants’ movement. It is contradictory

that this is a film about people’s journeys yet no one is given a name, so they become merely individual representations of one mass desire to leave their homeland, for reasons unknown. Consequently, it is hard to empathise or understand the journey of these people. In fact, the film’s most revealing moment is the director’s reply to a woman who asks “why are you so interested in immigrants?” His response is silence.

Becky Bartlett

baRT GOT a ROOMDirector: Brian Hecker

brian hecker’s semi-autobi-ographical indie debut Bart Got a Room plays on the seemingly uni-versal prom-night angst of a genera-tion of geeky American teenagers. As nerdy protagonist Danny Stein (Steven Kaplan) struggles patheti-cally with finding a date, his parents Ernie and Beth (William H. Macy and Cheryl Hines) are coming to terms with their divorce and are in search of new partners of their own. Like Bart Got a Room’s mainstream forebears, the film fluctuates from grossly corny to just plain gross, al-beit with a greater level of subtlety than usual. There are undeniably funny moments: Danny’s divorced father’s prolific yet unsuccessful dating cycle uncovers some suitably grotesque suitors, and his attempts to aid his son’s equally fruitless search raises a laugh or two. Yet, Hecker ultimately struggles with self-contradiction, sentimentalis-ing the life lessons Danny learns on his road to the “big day”, whilst simultaneously trying to critique the mystifying hold of “the prom” on American popular culture. But if Hecker did indeed learn from these experiences himself, at least that’s something.

Stephen Mitchell

blue eyeliDS Director: Ernesto Contreras

Mid-way through Contreras’ beautifully photographed Mexican drama Blue Eyelids the two central protagonists, both awkward and ac-customed to their individual lives of solitude, go on a date to the cinema. Projected onto the big screen are a mirror couple, who in contrast to our characters are decisive and empow-ered. Unsurprisingly the post-movie experience fails to play out like the film that the pair have just

watched. These scenes perfectly embody the ideas behind the film. Whereas a typical romantic story is concerned with the connections forged between people Blue Eyelids explores quite the opposite; the lack of connection and the shortfall that exists between ideas of love and ac-tual experiences. Using stationary shots that capture the monotony of everyday life, accompanied with sparse dialogue, Contreras paints

a picture of quiet melancholy. This visual style recalls Coppola’s Lost in Translation and the films of Jim Jarmusch (albeit with far less irony), and whilst it is nothing new, it is fitting for the message that is being conveyed. The ending may not be as surprising as it initially appears; it speaks far more of compromise and disappointment than of love.

Gail Tolley

www.theSkinny.Co.uk4 the CineSkinny SATURDAY 21 FEBRUARY

blOODy binGe-

DRinkeRSWith the success of Let The Right One In at this year’s festival and the Twilight sequel already in the works, it seems there is a genu-ine thirst (wha-hey!) for all things vampiric. What’s astonishing, how-ever, is just how young these blood bingers are. Which raises a ques-tion: do vampire movies encourage binge drinking? Well, we decided to consult Marius Von Trapp, a known authority on vampirism (well, he’s read I Am Legend a few times). His findings were, shall we say, grave (wha-hey!). Here, he highlights some of his findings:

“When I remember my youth…well, I REMEMBER my youth, which is more than many of today’s generation of vampires. A recent survey showed that 1 in 5 vampires had already started drinking blood at the age of 1200. That is 15% more than 200 years ago, and 27% more than 201 years ago, when prohibition had taken hold. “I find these results upsetting. Like many young people, these poor,misguided vampires believe they will live forever.”

One worrying trend amongst vampires is their complete lack of shame about their binge-drinking. I spoke to several, who cannot be named due to a mix-up with their birth certificates. One, whom we shall refer to as Ploppy, claimed to have drank the blood of SEVEN people in one night, none of whom were wearing Burberry. When I asked his reasons for doing so, he laughed “God does everything in sevens, so why can’t I?”

The most horrifying testimony was that of Baggy, who drank so many people in one weekend he began to resemble an infant Su Pollard: “It was tough. But I work all week and feel I have the right to do what I want with my weekend.” The effects of binge-drinking can be devastating to a vampire. Ac-cording to one consultant, many of the vampires she has treated have shown symptoms of binge-drink-ing: “What these vampires do not realise is the effect this can have on their livelihood, as well as their health. One man had begun to re-gress to the state of a foetus. The long term effects are horrendous: a vampire can become so young looking they may find it difficult to ever gain access to a Bauhaus gig after spending so much time coaxing an innocent virgin to that domain”.

WORRYING STUFF indeed, Mr Von Trapp. Maybe the problem then is that vampires are just simply too sexy. Isn’t it time we saw a new, gawkier nosferatu? One who likes Heartbeat, for instance.

Michael Gillespie

Win TickeTS!We have two tickets for the 20.30 screening of The Wrecking Crew on Sunday at GFT. Director Denny Tedesco profiles his father’s band and highlights their musical achievements. These were the musicians, after all, who played on the hits of The Beach Boys, The Monkees and Phil Spector, while they would record more number 1 singles than The Beatles! To win, answer this question:

The recent documentary End of the Century profiled which band?

email michael@theskinny.co.uk by 10am 21 Feb to enter

What’s new online?Comment online at the GFF site, MySpace, Facebook and on The Skinny’s web forums.

viDeOWe’ve uploaded the Q&A with to-day’s cover star, Jodie Whittaker. Go to www.glasgowfilmfesti-val.org.uk/video to see it!

phOTOSCharlie Levi came to GFF with his first film, Childless. There are plenty of images in our gallereies. Keep checking, as we’re always uploading new stuff! www.glas-gowfilmfestival.org.uk/gallery

blOGAllison Young has posted an interview with the director Am I Black Enough For You? Check it out here: www.glasgowfilm-festival.org.uk

infOKeep checking out our Face-book, Myspace, Bebo and The Skinny’s forums.

pic Of The DayPHOTO: anDrEW GrEErDirector Charlie Levi discussing his latest film Childless at the GFT yesterday.