contents Issue Eleven.

November/December 2010
Features
INEM 06 0 6 | Spotlight
Street Spirit:
Prejudice, Class Divide
and Life on the Skids

1 4 | Art & Film

City of Industry:
Film Poster Designers
AllCity Media

24 | Widescreen
Directory of World Cinema: Russia Directory of World Cinema:
Edited by Birgit Beumers American Independent Mobile Network:
ISBN 9781841503721 | £16, $25 Edited by John Berra Scotland's Screen
ISBN 9781841503684 | £16, $25 Machine Hits the Road

3 0 | 1000 Words
Sweet Relief:
Melvin Peebles, Black
directory of Power and the Birth of
Blaxploitation

world Regulars
0 4 | Reel World

cinema
Cold Comfort

1 8 | One Sheet
Gimme Shelter
‘He's staying as long
as he likes. And if 3 4 | On Location
the doggy doesn't Beverly Hills, Ca.
like it, then the doggy 3 8 | Screengem
can find other living The Coke Bottle
Directory of World Cinema: Directory of World Cinema: Japan arrangements.'
Australia & New Zealand Edited by John Berra Dave Whiteman 4 2 | Parting Shot
Edited by Ben Goldsmith ISBN 9781841503356 | £16, $25 Over The Moon

cover image boudu saved from drowning (Courtesy Park Circus)

and Geoff Lealand
ISBN 9781841503738 | £16, $25 4 4 | Go Further
The Big Picture online

The Directory of World Cinema aims to play a part in moving intelligent, 4 6 | Listings
scholarly criticism beyond the academy by building a forum for the
study of film that relies on a disciplined theoretical base. Each volume
34 A roundup of this issue's
featured films

of the Directory will take the form of a collection of reviews, longer
essays and research resources, accompanied by film stills highlighting
significant films and players. Free downloads available from the website.
The Big Picture ISSN 1759-0922 © 2010 intellect Ltd. Published by Intellect Ltd. The Mill, Parnall Road. Bristol BS16 3JG / www.intellectbooks.com
Editorial office Tel. 0117 9589910 / E: info@thebigpicturemagazine.com Publisher Masoud Yazdani Editor-in-chief & Layout Gabriel Solomons Editor Scott Jordan Harris
Contributors Jez Conolly, Nicholas Page, Emma Simmonds, Daniel Steadman, Scott Jordan Harris, Neil Mitchell, Charlie Loft, Ron Inglis, Gabriel Solomons
Special thanks to John Letham, Sara Carlsson and all at Park Circus, Michael Eckhardt, Michael Pierce at Curzon Cinemas and Gabriel Swartland at City Screen
Please send all email enquiries to: info@thebigpicturemagazine.com / www.thebigpicturemagazine.com l The Big Picture magazine is published six times a year

intellect
www . worldcinemadirectory. org
Published by | Produced in partnership with www.parkcircus.com

November/December 2010 3
 reel world
f i l m b e yo n d t h e b o r d e r s o f t h e s c r e e n

Cold
Comfort
In one of the most incredible crossovers
between film and the real world, Disney’s
Mighty Ducks skated off cinema screens and
into the NHL. neil mitchell forms a Flying V.

F o r t h ose o f us old enough

to remember reading Roy of the
Rovers on a weekly basis the
possibility of an actual team
called Melchester Rovers being
established and going on to
win the Premier League is a
delightful but absurd notion.
Well, in the good ol’ US of A,
something very much along
those lines did indeed occur,
with Disney's The Mighty
Ducks (1992) being the
catalyst for a real life trophy-
winning NHL team.
The film is a tale of sporting
underdogs defying the odds,
as the bedraggled, under-
funded and technically inept
members of a kids’ ice hockey
team are transformed into
title-winners by new coach
Gordon Bombay (Emilio
Estevez). A hard-nosed lawyer
on community service for a
drink driving misdemeanour,
Bombay changes the fortunes
of his under-privileged
charges, naturally hearing
some much0needed home
truths and learning lessons in
love and life along the way.
Spawning three sequels
(two live-action and one
animated), an animated
series and a spoof on South
Park, the most extraordinary
legacy of this family favourite
was in the formation of The
Mighty Ducks of Anaheim
ice hockey team by The Walt
Disney Company in 1993.
In their 17-year existence
the Ducks, now known as
The Anaheim Ducks, have
won a division title, two
conference championships
and the National Hockey
League’s highest honour,
the Stanley Cup, as well as
making the play-offs seven
times. It’s a classic example
of life mirroring art that
raises eyebrows and spirits in
equal measure. All together
now: quack, quack, quack... go
Ducks! [tbp]

left the anaheim ducks winning the nhl stanley cup in 2007 / above sign of things to come: The Mighty Ducks: D2

gofurther [sport ] www.ducks.hnl.com [web ] Read 'Reel World: Love Potion No. 1' online

4 www.thebigpicturemagazine.com November/December 2010 5

 cover
feature
Y spotlight
c i n e m a ' s t h e m at i c s t r a n d s

Boudu Saved From

Drowning (1932)
Dir. Jean Renoir

Through Boudu’s This terrific farce tells the story of

prosperous bookseller, Edouard Lestingois
anarchic actions (Charles Granval), whose life is drastically
changed when he rescues Boudu (Michel
director Jean Renoir Simon) from a suicidal dive into the Seine.
On first spotting the dishevelled character
deftly and hilariously – about to take the plunge – Lestingois
remarks with undisguised relish, ‘I’ve never
exposes the hypocrisy seen such a perfect tramp.’ He rushes to save
this sorry character from a watery end and
of the bourgeoisie. even goes so far as to welcome him into his
home. Unfortunately, Boudu reveals himself

Street
to be an irrepressible ingrate who unleashes
a storm of mischievous meddling. He has
left an energetic disregard for polite society and
From an adorable tramp to a feral kung fu Michel Simon and (another) love interest is lusty and ill-mannered on an epic scale,
quickly making a move on both Lestingois’s
expert, cinema has shown many savages,
above

Spirit
Michel Simon as Priape Boudu charming the locals
wife and his housemaid lover. Through
noble and ignoble, entering civilised society. Boudu’s anarchic actions director Jean
We shine our spotlight on six classic examples. Renoir deftly and hilariously exposes the
hypocrisy of the bourgeoisie. ES ➜
Words by E mma Simmonds, Jez conolly
Images Courtesy Park Circus

and nathan francis Boudu Saved From Drowning is back in

UK cinemas from 17 December. For more
details see page 46.

6 www.thebigpicturemagazine.com November/December 2010 7

Kobal (2)
spotlight street spirit

The Hunchback of City Lights (1931)

Notre Dame (1939) Dir. Charlie Chaplin
Dir. William Dieterle

Charlie Chaplin’s comedy

RKO’s adaptation of the Victor romance is perhaps his most
Hugo classic is widely regarded emotionally resonant film. Its
as the finest screen version. Al- The schism between opening sequence has Charlie
(in the iconic, recurring role
though it is faithful to the source
material it strayed into the the haves and have- of The Tramp) ceremonially
politics of its time: the schism
between the haves and have-nots nots in the walled city unveiled, as he sleeps coiled
in the lap of a statue, to the
in the walled city of 15th Cen-
tury Paris is paralleled with the of 15th Century Paris considerable irritation of the
assembled dignitaries and
politics of 20th century Europe
in the run-up to war. Dieterle, is paralleled with crowd. In a reversal of the
premise of Boudu Saved From
a German Jewish émigré, and
screenwriters Sonya Levien and
the politics of 20th Drowning, The Tramp has
rescued a wealthy drunkard
Bruno Frank altered the rela-
tionship of Quasimodo (Charles
century Europe in the from a death bid, instructing
him, ‘Be brave. Face life!’ He is
Laughton) and his mentor
Frollo (Cedric Hardwicke) by
run-up to war. intermittently embraced by his
new friend, who only recalls
emphasizing Frollo’s fascistic the debt he owes the virtuous
above
qualities – he plots the persecu-
tion and destruction of the ‘un-
charlie chaplin as the tramp
top left
In a reversal of the premise vagrant when he’s inebriated.
Throughout, The Tramp
desirable’ gypsies – and convert-
ing Quasimodo into a Christ-like
charles laughton as the hunchback
of Boudu Saved From displays remarkable pluck
and decency, thus challenging
figure. Dieterle regarded the
character as a victim of tyranny. Drowning, The Tramp has what it is to be a gentleman.
He later becomes a mysterious
Of the famous flogging scene he
commented, ‘When Laughton
rescued a wealthy drunkard benefactor to Virginia Cher-
rill’s blind flower girl, and the
acted that scene … he was
not the poor crippled creature
from a death bid, instructing film’s tender finale – when she
finally recognises him as such
expecting compassion from the
mob, but rather oppressed and
him, ‘Be brave. Face life!’ – is one of the most poignant
sequences in film history.
enslaved mankind, suffering the
most awful injustice’. JC

8 www.thebigpicturemagazine.com November/December 2010 9

Image courtesy Park Circus
An anthropological drama
focussing on the barriers
to human communication,
the eponymous heroine of
Nell is Rousseau’s noble
savage incarnate.
10 www.thebigpicturemagazine.com
Nell (1994)
Dir. Michael Apted
An anthropological drama
focussing on the barriers to
human communication, the
eponymous heroine of Nell
is Rousseau’s noble savage
incarnate. Raised in North
Carolina backwoods far from
social interaction by a partially
paralysed hermitic mother, Nell
is an untainted child of nature
who has developed her own
language, rituals and individuality
in near-solitary independence.
When Nell’s mother dies the
outside world encroaches in the
form of romantic doctor Jerome
Lovell (Liam Neeson) and rigidly
scientific psychologist Paula
Olsen (Natasha Richardson),
who compete professionally
over their prized specimen,
while personally wresting with
protective feelings toward their
wild child. Apted strikes a strong
contrast between the impulsive
freedom of Nell’s natural state
and the constrictive conventions
of the town. Institutionalised to
protect her from prying media,
Nell is robbed of her humanity,
and rendered catatonic when
confined. A courtroom finale
contests the dichotomy of the
artificial civilised world and
natural instinctual world, until
largely ruling in favour of the
pure innocence of the latter. NF
spotlight street spirit
Through its comedic
format, what Trading
Places presented
was a contemporary
trading depiction of the
places (1983) collapse of rank
Dir. John Landis dictated by class
and➜race.
Eddie Murphy’s down-at-heel
con artist Billy Ray Valentine
is a pawn, along with aristo-
cratic yuppie Louis Winthorpe
III (Dan Aykroyd), in a wager
devised by the obscenely
wealthy Duke brothers (Ralph
Bellamy and Don Ameche)
who are seeking to discover if
it’s nature or nurture that lies
behind success in the world of
high finance. Valentine, guided
to success by the Dukes and
Winthorpe’s kindly butler
(Denholm Elliott), reveals
an uncanny talent for stock
prediction that’s so accurate, he
becomes the company’s leading
commodities authority. Role
reversal narratives involving the
poor or dispossessed are quite
commonplace; in literature
Mark Twain explored this ter-
ritory with The Prince and the
Pauper, and Chaplin’s The Idle
Class (1921) was probably the
first significant film to introduce
the notion of mixed identities.
Through its comedic format,
what Trading Places presented
was a contemporary depiction
of the collapse of rank dictated
by class and race. JC
above left
jodie foster and liam neeson
opposite
eddie murphy
November/December 2010 11
 spotlight
c i n e m a ' s t h e m at i c s t r a n d s
Kobal

Kobal
Near mute, Danny
unleashed (2005)
is kept caged until
Dir. Louis Leterrier
unleashed (from
a metal collar)
A Luc Besson-scribed martial upon debtors or
arts melodrama seeking to
blend combat and compassion,
rival pit fighters,
Unleashed tells the Glasgow- destroying all
based tale of ‘Danny the with dazzling
Dog’ (Jet Li), an adopted agility.
orphan raised in captivity by
loathsome loan shark Bart
(Bob Hoskins) to be his
personal debt collecting attack
dog. Near mute, Danny is kept
caged until unleashed (from a
metal collar) upon debtors or
rival pit fighters, destroying all
with dazzling agility.
Set free when Bart is left
comatose in a car crash,
Danny finds sanctuary in the
nurturing home of blind piano
tuner Sam (Morgan Freeman)
and his young stepdaughter,
Victoria (Kerry Condon),
whose music and kindness
expose the vulnerability behind
his vicious veneer. However,
when Danny’s former master
awakens and calls him to heel,
his domestication places him
in danger from his savage past,
forcing him to revert to his
fighting instincts to protect his
new family. NF [tbp]

right
jet li opens a can of whupass

also see... [web ] Read 'Back In Cinemas: Boudu Saved From Drowning’ on www.TheBigPictureMagazine.com [dvd ] City Lights is available to buy on dual format (DVD/Bluray) from www.parkcircus.com/uk-releases

12 www.thebigpicturemagazine.com November/December 2010 13

 art&film
visual art inspired by film
City of
Industry
The Movie Poster Art of AllCity Media
interview b y g a b r i e l s o lo m o n s
above
poster art for moon with Sam drawn by
Martin Ansin (in collaboration with Mondo)
14 www.thebigpicturemagazine.com
You may not recognise the name
AllCity Media but chances are
you've come across their film
posters on more than one occasion.
The prolific studio is responsible To some graphic designers,
doing artwork for movie
for some of the most eye catching posters is a dream job. Is it
posters of recent years and have as enjoyable as one would
imagine?
notched up a whole raft of awards The creative process is always
enjoyable, but designing for
for their efforts. We spoke to film has all of the same issues
creative director Charlie Loft about as designing for any other
industry. At the end of the day
collaboration, inspiration and the we all want to create pieces of
future of the one sheet. art but as designers we need
to understand the needs of
the client and advise them as
much on a creative level as we
can to get the best results for
us and them.
As a company Allcity seem
to pride yourselves on the
collaborative nature of much
of your output – using gifted
illustrators, photographers
and designers to help
create final artwork.
Why is collaboration so
important and is there
anything in particular that
you look for when recruiting
collaborators?
We have a core team at AllCity
that consistently deliver great
creative ideas and design but
we are aware that we are not
a jack of all trades and that
when a brief requires a certain
look it's better to get the right
person to do that part of
the process. Collaboration is
important because we then
get the best of both worlds
- we get to work with some
amazing talents and then turn
their images into memorable
film campaigns. It’s one
thing being an artist, its quite
another delivering a coherent
marketing campaign.
Is there a particular creative
philosophy behind the way
you work or is it simply a case
of adjusting your style to fit
the demands of the client?
We believe that behind every
top
i am love which was voted screen
international poster of the year 2010
campaign there needs to be a
concept or idea that can run
throughout, that is why we
work from sketches first and
then deliver worked up visuals.
If the idea is strong enough it
can be delivered in a variety of
visual styles so we are instantly
able to adjust to the clients
requests and needs.
Can you tell us a bit about
the graphic approach and
concept you settled on for
Stieg Larsson's Millenium
trilogy of films?
The Millennium trilogy was a
great brief from Momentum
Pictures. To come up with the
branding for such a well loved
story is something that we
could really sink our teeth into.
We needed to create a motif
that could adapt and become
the identifier for the trilogy
as well as be able to give ‘The
Girl’ herself the main shout
as this was the first time she
was going to be revealed. This
was a particular challenge as
Noomi Rapace (The Girl) was
relatively unknown in the UK
and yet we needed her to take
centre stage.
The Dragon motif was
designed to act as a distraction
or decoy to allow us to put an
unknown face behind it, this in
turn enabled us to create the
overall feeling of intrigue and
mystery. The Girl is there but
she is slightly hidden by her
own Dragon Tattoo (this is the
reason for the swirling ink at ➜
the base of the dragon's tail)
meaning that we could add
a level of depth to the poster
and subsequent online and
advertising campaigns.
The branding of the trilogy
continues with what we have
November/December 2010 15
affectionately called ‘The
Flaming Dragon’ for The Girl art&film left
let the right one in
redrawn by Tyler stout
Who Played With Fire. Again visual art inspired by film bottom
the motif acts as a distraction spirited away redrawn by
and gives extra impact and marcus walters
relevance to the title. The last
stage was developing The Girl
instances as you’re dealing line up of actors and a glossy Why do you think the
Who Kicked The Hornets’ Nest
with a lot of opinions. We like finish. It goes without saying printed film poster still
which will be in cinemas this
November.
to work closely with our clients
to ensure that we get as much
'...to come up with the that a ‘big’ film needs a ‘big’
look but that’s not to say that
matters in this ever
expanding digital age?
Each one of the dragon
motifs has been lovingly crafted
information out of them up
front, that way there is less
branding for such a well there can’t be a clever idea or
twist to the artwork, and that’s
I don’t think the desire to own
a film poster will ever die out,
by one of our collaborators,
Sean Freeman, who under our
margin for error and even less
questions marks over a chosen
loved story was something where we like to come in - the
alternative thinkers in film
there is just something special
about owning an original that
art direction has helped create
some beautiful work. This is
concept when it is presented. that we could really sink campaign design. just can’t be captured with
a screen saver or a motion
another good example of using
someones purest skill and then
Are there particular
designers or certain
our teeth into.' Are there any film posters
(past or present) that you
poster. Film posters are pieces
of art and if designed well are
making it work for film.
periods of art that you draw would say are a prime timeless, look at Clockwork
inspiration from? example of what a film Orange for instance, it still
You include ‘designer’s
Advertising campaigns that poster should do? looks amazing today, so simple
cuts’ for many of the poster
add a different angle but at There are so many great and effective, why wouldn’t
campaigns featured on your
the same time are accesible film posters but Brazil is a you want one on your wall?
website. Is it often the case
to everyone. Graphically brilliant example, it brands The problem with the digital
that your least favoured
we are influenced by many the film in one arresting age is that design is seen as
design gets chosen - and
individuals throughout the visual and simultaneously almost throw away and easy,
how do you deal with the
decades that we always come creates a window into another so when a piece of good
issue of compromise when
back to, Reid Miles of blue fascinating world. design gets through people
things go against your own
note records fame, Niko appreciate it even more.
better judgement?
Cuban - a revolutionary Has the film marketing There is an unhealthy
It is frustrating when a client
poster artist. Andrei industry changed much in amount of ‘garnish’ attached
decides to go against our
Tarkowsky, Wiktor Sadowski, the 10 years since you’ve to many film posters, so
judgement but we aren’t in the
contemporary rock posters been in business? If yes, when you see a poster by
habit of presenting things that
and the art of the fillmore. All how so? Olly Moss for instance it’s
we wouldn't be proud to see
are part of time where idea It seems to be more biased refreshing to see a piece
out in the street. Ultimately
was king, less was more, it towards appealing to everyone of work at its cleverest and
some of our favourite posters
was less about churning out rather than to a core audience simplest. It’s always good to
will never see the light of day
transient visuals and more of opinion leaders and then see other peoples take on a
but that is why we like to show
about the idea. filter through to the masses. film and recently we held an
our designers cuts as it gives an
Blander, less challenging ideas exhibition at AllCity where
insight into the creative process
What is your opinion about are more common place now we asked various well known
and ‘what could have been’.
the state of film poster art but this may be because there illustrators to re-imagine their
There seems to be quite a
generally these days? Are
there any designers/studios
'It’s always good to see is less gestation time and less
budget. Films need to be
favourite film poster from
our portfolio of work. Each
healthy balance between the
work you do for the big stu-
out there that you feel are
contributing something
other people's take on a an instant success whereas
previously you could exploit
artist did an incredible job and
their passion and enthusiasm
dios and smaller independent
films. What is the difference
special (apart from
yourselves of course!)?
film and recently we held an a longer lead time than the
market place now allows.
towards the project was
amazing, which just goes to
– if any – in the working
relationship you have with
There are alot of generic
film posters out there at the
exhibition at AllCity where However there are many
more mediums and formats
show how important film
posters are to many people.
‘big’ and ‘small’ clients?
There isn’t a great deal
moment but there is also a we asked various well known than ever. It's no longer about
healthy mix of creative talent just a visual - the campaign And finally…
of difference between our
working relationships with the
being used. Neil Kellerhouse illustrators to re-imagine needs to span social media Why does film matter?
independents and the bigger
studios. There is an element of
(featured in The Big Picture
issue 11) has done some their favourite film poster to street level advertising to
cinema, which is great when
It is pure escapism, when
you’re watching a film it
design by committee in both
incredible design work, but not
just for film. Empire, without
above
poster art for the millenium trilogy's
from our portfolio of work.' you have the budget to exploit
these areas.
doesn’t matter what else is
going on in your world, you
doubt, have had a massive the girl who kicked the hornet's nest can just let go and enter into
influence on the look of someone else’s. [tbp]
modern film posters. It would
be interesting to see some of
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets
their designers cuts.
Nest is released 26 November
There is of course the
need in film marketing to get
bums on seats but we think
that the audience needs to
be engaged with more then a
seemore... [web ] See more from AllCity Media: www.allcitymedia.com [web ] www.thereis.co.uk

16 www.thebigpicturemagazine.com November/December 2010 17

 one sheet
deconstructing film posters

Gimme
Shelter Life on the streets is something few of us are
accustomed to, so it has often been the focus of
film plots. Belongings hoisted over his shoulder in
a red bundle, nichol as page takes a trip through
posters inspired by such stories. Images courtesy
of The Reel Poster Gallery, London.

The creation o f believable Midnight Cowboy (1969)

and layered characters has Original Danish
always been an important Art by Jouineau Bourduge
part of cinema. In general,
One of the more successful
characters are both categorised
films about life on the edges
and identified by their role in
of society, John Schlesinger’s
society: their profession, social
Midnight Cowboy stars Dustin
status or even the clothes they
Hoffman and Jon Voight as
wear. These days, this can
two hustlers living on the
be taken even further to say
streets of New York City. The
that characters in commercial
posters created for the film’s
cinema are replicated rather
Western release show a photo
than created: cut using the
of these two main characters
same rusty cutter and from
standing on a run-down
the same over-kneaded dough.
street corner, smoking and
What happens, then, when a
sheltering against the cold.
character has no particular
This Danish poster, created
role in society? What if he is
by the successful French
unable to or simple refuses
designer Jouineau Bourduge,
to be a part of society as we
alters this general idea by
know it? Is he even aware such
placing the two characters on
a society exists?
a cityscape backdrop instead,
perhaps alluding to the big
city dreams of the film’s
protagonists.

18 www.thebigpicturemagazine.com November/December 2010 19

one sheet gimme shelter
Just as with Chaplin’s movies,
the topic of homelessness
arises in comedic form,
illustrated by this particularly
colourful Belgian poster.
20 www.thebigpicturemagazine.com
Sullivan’s Travels (1941)
Original Belgian
Charlie Chaplin may have
been waddling around town
as his famous Tramp for
decades, but homelessness
was still something of
an untouched topic in
Hollywood by the time
Preston Sturges made
Sullivan’s Travels in 1941. The
film, with a title that refers
to Jonathan Swift’s satire
of self-discovery Gulliver’s
Travels, concerns a young and
successful film director who
decides to experience street
life first-hand as inspiration
for his new project. Just as
with Chaplin’s movies, the
topic of homelessness arises
in comedic form, illustrated
by this particularly colourful
Belgian poster.
The Man Who Fell
to Earth (1976)
Original German
Nicolas Roeg’s The Man Who
Fell to Earth, while existing
as a mere vehicle for the
branching career of singer
David Bowie during the
seventies, is a good example
of what became a well-used
narrative template in later
years: the idea of taking
an alien being (sometimes
metaphorically, but in this
case literally) and dropping
him into civilised society
before documenting the
results. It may have become
a cult favourite in recent
years thanks to Roeg’s use
of surreal imagery, but this
rather striking German
poster for the movie shows
us exactly what the chief
attraction was at the time:
Bowie’s sex appeal.
one sheet gimme shelter

celebrates 45 years of cinema coverage

The Wild Child (1970)
Original French
Art by Jouineau Bourduge Published bi-monthly by the internationally
Jouineau Bourduge, perhaps
best known for his stunning
black and white poster for
renowned film society of lincoln center,
Barry Lyndon worked on
many French films in the film comment provides global coverage
1970s and ‘80s and should
perhaps be described as
a designer rather than an
in cinema including exclusive interviews,
artist. His poster for François
Truffaut’s The Wild Child does in-depth reviews, discussions on new releases
an excellent job illustrating
the savage nature of the and classic films, authoritative profiles on
film’s titular character, using
a beautiful grass-green
background to symbolise
the wilderness from which
he comes. Through this
’’ !
luminaries in the industry, and developments
in the art of filmmaking.
character, Truffaut shows
the small margin between

’’
’’
rough but civilised life on the
streets of Paris and the laws of
nature. [tbp] I love every aspect of motion pictures, and I’m committed to it for life.
film comment has that same commitment when it comes to

’’
writing about motion pictures.

’’
— Clint Eastwood film comment connects me to a time when films and filmmakers
actually mattered and were treated as being worthy of serious discussion.
There’s no other cinema magazine remotely like it.

’’
— stEvEn sodE rbErgh

film comment regularly publishes some of the best film writers in the
world, and they probe and parse cinema in a way that deepen our experience of it.
— utn E indEpE ndEnt pr Ess award b Est arts CovEragE
Jouineau Bourduge's vivid
poster does an excellent job of
illustrating the savage nature F ilmCommEnt.Com subsCrib E:
of the film’s titular character 1.888.313.6085 US 1 yr (6 issues) save 10% of our standard rate
1.973.627.5162 International us $27 /canada&mexico $36 /international
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Denville NJ 07834 USA

go further [web ] Look out for ‘Poster Boy: One Sheets of Distinction' on TheBigPictureMagazine.com

22 www.thebigpicturemagazine.com
 widescreen
seeing film in a wider context 'Screen Machine provides
state-of-the-art cinema a state-of-the-art cinema
experience to the remote
communities of the west experience to the remote
Highlands and Islands. So the
programme is predominately communities of the west
mainstream new releases such
as Avatar, Alice in Wonderland, Highlands and Islands.'
Toy Story 3, and Inception.
However each tour, which
covers 23 communities
and takes about 6 weeks to
complete, includes a film
suitable for younger children
and families as well as films
for older audiences. Generally
we tour 3-4 titles but we have
been adding more specialised
films recently, for example
The Girl With The Dragon
Tattoo and The Illusionist.
The programme varies
slightly according to the
community we are visiting.
Some places are comparatively

Images Courtesy Regional Screen Scotland

close to a city multiplex - in
our case this means within
a 2 hour drive! - and so the
major blockbusters don't
always perform well when we
tour them because the target
audience have already chosen

Mobile
to make a special visit to a city
Could you briefly tell us was a fragile, labour intensive cinema.
the history of the Screen vehicle and a second mobile

Network
For five years now Scotland's Screen
Machine has been making a night at the
movies a regular event in communities
where a trip to the cinema was previously
a major undertaking. Ron Inglis, Director
of Regional Screen Scotland tells the story
of this one of a kind mobile cinema.
Interview by gabriel solomons
Machine initiative and its
relationship to Regional
Screen Scotland.
The original concept in the
mid-1990s was to develop
a rural, mainstream cinema
service similar to what
was operating in France.
HI~Arts, the arts and cultural
development agency for
the Highlands and Islands
of Scotland undertook the
project with the backing of
the Scottish film Council
and Highlands and Islands
Enterprise.
Although the idea was to
purchase a similar mobile
cinema "off the shelf" from
the French manufacturer,
Toutenkamion, there were
difficulties getting their design
to work with Highlands
roads and especially the
ferries. Consequently a
custom designed and built
cinema was constructed in
Manchester and this toured
up until 2005. However it
cinema was purchased, this
time from Toutenkamion who
had now supplied a similar
cinema to Ireland and were by
now able to adapt their design
to suit the Scottish routes.
The current Screen
Machine has been operating
for 6 years, initially with
35mm projection but since
January 2010 as a purely
digital cinema operation
complete with 3D capabilities.
Regional Screen Scotland
is a development agency
established in 2008 to develop
cinema and cinemagoing
in remote, rural and under-
provided areas of Scotland.
The company took over
ownership and operation of
Screen Machine in 2009.
What factors determine
your programming choices
for films?
The principal purpose of
Screen Machine is to provide
a mainstream, contemporary,
There seems to be a bit
of a resurgence of these
mobile cinemas of late. Why
do you think the response
to these mobile cinemas
- and the Screen Machine
in particular - has been so
positive?
It is important to distinguish
between mobile cinemas such
as Screen Machine, which is
a complete touring cinema
auditorium, and the equally
important operations which
take equipment into existing
venues and provide a cinema
service to local communities.
Screen Machine, and similar
vehicles in Ireland and France,
aim first and foremost to
deliver an experience that
equals, perhaps surpasses, a
modern city cinema. Cinema
screenings in community
halls are usually more
social occasions where it is
understood that the screening
will be different from visiting
a multiplex - and more
enjoyable for some audiences.
Screen Machine is a
very special case. It looks
impressive in the photographs (top) NOOMI RAPACE as Lisbeth Salander
but nearly everyone who visits (above) MICHAEL NYQVIST as Mikael Blomkvist
it and watches a film is amazed
that it "really does feel like a
modern city cinema". There
is a Tardis-like feeling when
you go into the auditorium
and find a comfortable,
airconditioned cinema with top
audiences prepare to
Dolby Digital sound, full 2k board the 'tardis'
digital projection and, for above
some films, XpanD 3D. the cinemas surprisingly
spacious interior
What is it that the Screen
Machine offers that perhaps
static cinemas don't? For
example, do you feel there ➜

24 www.thebigpicturemagazine.com November/December 2010 25

 ADVERTISEMENT
below and bottom
there's even a red carpet treatment
for some events

have been any spin-off

effects of community-

Your New
building simply due to the
presence of the cinema at
certain remote locations?
The main distinguishing

Mobile Cinema
feature of Screen Machine,
apart from the lack of a
concession counter and
toilets, is the location where
the screenings take place.
Many of the Highland and
Island locations are set
against breathtaking scenery.
Because we don't have
any room for food and
drink sales areas, we often
collaborate with local hotels,
bars or community centres
who do good trade before
or after screenings. We also
employ a local usher at each
of our tour locations and
the driver/projectionists are
well known personalities survey in 2009 and received
to the local communities. a considerable amount of
Equally we often know most useful and encouraging
of the audience so if anyone information which we are
misbehaves we can find out using to adapt the programme
who the culprits are! and the way we operate to suit
these communities better. A
Are there particular single screen 80-seat cinema
challenges you now face due operating in rural and remote
to the cut in arts spending areas faces many unusual
and spending in general that difficulties which often require
may endanger the existence really innovative solutions
of the Screen Machine? but secure funding is a
The Screen Machine service straighforward necessity for us.
depends on ticket income, a
small but important amount of And lastly, why does film
sponsorship, and funding from matter?
Creative Scotland, Highlands
& Islands Enterprise and two
Films matter because they
can provide compelling 'A single screen 80-seat
local authorities. Overall about
half the income comes from
and creative artistic and
entertainment experiences
cinema operating in rural and
public funding and that is
clearly at risk in the present
for audiences. Some films are
just fleeting entertainment
remote areas faces many
circumstances. But Screen
Machine provides a well liked
but others are magnificent,
wonderous, thought
unusual difficulties... but secure
and well supported service
for some of the most fragile
provoking works of art - from
7 minute Warner Brothers
funding is a straighforward
communities in Scotland. We
carried out a large audience
cartoons to highly personal
non-fiction films to dramatic
necessity for us.'
features and musicals - and The Big Picture Issue 12
from all parts of the world.
In the age of the laptop and Available on The iPad January 15th, 2011
mobile smartphone, "film"
is everywhere but cinematic
film is still, at its best, www.thebigpicturemagazine.com
extraordinary. [tbp]

go further... [web] Find out more about the Screen Machine at www.screenmachine.co.uk

26 www.thebigpicturemagazine.com
 four frames
t h e a r t o f a b b r e v i at e d s t o r y t e l l i n g

The Red Knight In the fisher king Dir. Terry Gilliam, 1991

1 2 The Red Knight leaps

from the damaged mind
of Robin Williams’s
character in The Fisher
King. Jez Conolly looks
at four frames that reveal
the fearful centre of Terry
Gilliam’s urban fantasy.

i n t e r r y g i ll i a m ' s The Fisher

3 4
King (1991) disgraced and washed up
shock jock Jack Lucas (Jeff Bridges) falls
into the company of the bedraggled and
unstable Parry (Robin Williams) and
discovers curious images of a red knight in
Parry’s cluttered underground lair. Parry
is driven to discover a holy grail and save
a damsel in distress. Jack initially writes
this off as the Arthurian delusions of a
madman but when Parry begins seeing a
physical manifestation of the red knight
erupting onto the streets of New York Jack
is compelled to help him find his grail, get
the girl and vanquish his demon.
The red knight seems to represent
Parry’s fears from his former life as a
medieval history professor, his time in a
mental hospital and his current homeless
existence, thoughts of which send him into
a catatonic state. It is ultimately revealed
to be a terrible echo of the actions of a
gunman, prompted to attack a bar in the
city by one of Jack’s anti-yuppie rants on
air. Parry’s wife was a victim that night, the
bloody results of the shooting being seen
in flashback. The incident destroyed Jack’s
career and Parry’s life, and when the two
come together they ultimately find a future
through acts of redemption and salvation.

Read More f o u r f r a m e s online at

www.thebigpicturemagazine.com

Screengrabs © 1991 Columbia Pictures

28 www.thebigpicturemagazine.com November/December 2010 29

 1000 words
m o m e n t s t h at c h a n g e d c i n e m a f o r e v e r

‘Dedicated to all the Brothers and Sisters

who had enough of the Man’, Sweet
Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song called
for, and inspired, changes both social
and cinematic. s c o t t jo r da n h a r r i s
examines a countercultural classic.

sweetrelief
Melvin Van Peebles, Black Power
and the Birth of Blaxploitation.
left
melvin van peebles
photo: Melvin Van Peebles/
Breakfast at Noho
above
A scene from Sweetback's
Badaaasssss Song
I
’m called the
godfather of black
movies,’ says Melvin
Van Peebles –
who is always an
unassuming sort – in
his documentary
The Real Deal. ‘The
truth of the matter is I’m the
godfather of independent
films’. When Van Peebles
could, perhaps unsurprisingly,
not secure funding for a film
he conceived in order ‘to get
the Man’s foot out of my ass
… [and] … make him eat
shit’, he decided to make it
alone – and, with the aid of a
$50 000 loan from Bill Cosby,
bankrolled, wrote, directed,
produced, edited, starred in,
scored and marketed the film
that began blaxploitation.
But Sweetback’s Baadasssss
Song is not an exploitation
picture: it’s a protest picture.
It wasn’t the first film in the
blaxploitation genre: it was
the catalyst for it. The classics
of blaxploitation – Shaft
(1971), Super Fly (1972),
Coffy (1973), Cleopatra Jones
(1973), Foxy Brown (1974) …
– shared much with Sweetback.
They were populated by
powerful black characters; set
in black urban communities;
embraced contemporary
black music; and showed their
heroes and heroines sticking
it to the Man (that is, the
white society responsible for
their oppression) through
their intelligence, guts, and
irrepressible sexuality. But,
though they were apparently
aimed at black audiences,
these blaxploitation films
also attracted, and proved
unchallenging for, white
audiences.
Indeed, today a teenager
with a limited understanding
of the Civil Rights movement ➜
could probably watch Shaft,
the most famous of all
blaxploitation pictures, and
think it simply an enjoyable
crime film that just happens
to have a black hero. No white

30 www.thebigpicturemagazine.com November/December 2010 31

 1000 words sweet relief
left
melvin van peebles on the set of
sweet sweetback's badaasssss song
below
pam grier in coffy
opposite
butch cassidy and the sundance kid
photo:Melvin Van Peebles/Breakfast at Noho

actions, his lack of speech

Sweetback’s Baadasssss person, however uneducated
in the evolution of black
Song is not exploitation experience in America, can
watch Sweet Sweetback and feel
they want to look like they are
demonstrated that the black
struggle had reached a point
at which words achieved
nothing: only through violence,
argued Van Peebles, could
change be achieved. (Chester
Himes, the pioneering black
novelist whose work obviously
influenced Sweetback and
who, like Van Peebles, found a
home and an audience in Paris,
reached a similar conclusion.)
The blaxploitation films that
followed (the financial success
of) Sweet Sweetback (costing
half a million dollars to shoot,
great anti-establishment
films of the time: Bonnie and
Clyde (1967), The Graduate
(1967), Butch Cassidy and
the Sundance Kid (1969),
Midnight Cowboy (1969), etc.
It is not generally grouped
with them because they are,
of course, very much white
films. But Sweetback channels
the same countercultural
spirit they do, and refracts it
through the prism of black
experience. The result is a raw,

picture: it’s a protest picture. entirely comfortable. The film

It wasn’t the first film in the
blaxploitation genre: it was
the catalyst for it.
is a sustained assault on white
complacency, a challenge to
white society to re-examine
itself and to black society to
overthrow it.
The titular Sweet Sweetback
(played as an adult by Van
Peebles and, as a child, by his
son, Mario, later the director
of New Jack City [1991]), is
adopted by a madam and, after
amazing a prostitute with his
sexual prowess while only a
boy (in scenes censored in the
British release of the film), he
grows up to become a famed
performer in her brothel’s sex
shows. Audience members both
black and white assemble to
be astounded by his attributes.
After one of his performances
(from which a white woman
is barred from participating),
two white police officers ask to
take Sweetback into custody,
with the promise to release him
later, because a crime has been
committed by a black man and
rounding up suspects.
Alongside Sweetback, the
policemen also arrest a Black
Panther – and soon begin to
beat him mercilessly. Unable to
stomach this injustice, Sweet-
back overpowers the officers
and leaves them unconscious.
He spends the rest of the film
on the run, relentlessly pur-
sued by (white) lawmen. He
becomes a savage: living first
rough, and then wild, forced to
eat a lizard as he wanders the
desert. Here is a black man as
the worst of the white world
would imagine him: a savage.
But he is not savage by nature
or inclination: he has been
forced to become one by white
society because he took the
stand of a civilised man and
rebelled against its savagery.
Like a savage, Sweetback
barely speaks and, within
the militant philosophy of
the film, his silence had
two connotations. Firstly, it
represented how white society
the film grossed thirty times
that in the USA) capitalised
on – or rather, exploited – the
appetite it had identified for
films with powerful, angry
black characters. But while
those movies – which were
generally lurid and shallow
entertainments – dealt with
angry characters they were
not angry films. There is
still some social comment
to be discerned in almost
all blaxploitation pictures,
but to see the cartoonish
exaggerations of Cleopatra
Jones or Coffy (both directed
by white men) as belonging
to the same kind of film as
Sweetback is to misunderstand
both types of movie.
Sweetback led as directly to
the explosion of blaxploitation
films as Halloween (1978) led
to the explosion in slasher
movies, but it cannot be
considered one of them.
If Sweetback belongs to an
identifiable category of films
challenging, enraging and, for
white audiences, unsettling
film that cannot be forgotten
or dismissed. By categorising
Sweetback as a blaxploitation
picture, or by considering it
simply as the film that led to
the blaxploitation picture, we
criminally diminish both its
aims and its achievements.
Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss
Song changed film forever by
thrusting black issues, black
characters, black aesthetics and
black militancy into cinemas,
and by doing so without
white money. Subsequently, it
created a genre that thrived by
diluting its more contentious
aspects while expanding its
entertaining ones. But this
is not the chief reason to
remember it. Decades from
now, when Sweet Sweetback’s
influence is calculated – and
its importance as a model
for independent filmmakers, GLASGOW
for political filmmakers, and MARGARET TAIT 
political activists can be fully AWARD

had robbed the black man
of his voice. Secondly, in
the way it was coupled with
Sweetback’s decisive violent
it is to that loose group of
considered – that it led to
the birth of blaxploitation
may be seen as the least of its GLASGOW
BEST INTERNATIONAL
accomplishments. [tbp] SHORT FILM AWARD

go further... [watch] BAADASSSSS!, Mario Van Peebles’s 2003 biopic of his father that focuses on the making of Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song

32 www.thebigpicturemagazine.com
 on location
t h e p l a c e s t h at m a k e t h e m o v i e s below
While globally recognised for its

Beverly Hills
pacino and deniro square off
bottom right
nick nolte and friend
affluence, celebrity style and permanent
sunshine, this trend-setting district
of Los Angeles, a stone’s throw from
Hollywood, has offered more varied
settings on-screen. s i m o n k i n n e a r
mixes with the chic and the freaks.

heat (1995) Down and Out in

Dir. Michael Mann
USA, 170 minutes
Starring Al Pacino, Robert
De Niro, Val Kilmer
Mann’s epic crime saga,
an expansion of his 1989
TV movie L.A. Takedown,
pits philosophical thief Neil
McCauley (De Niro) against
equally capable cop nemesis
Vincent Hanna (Pacino).
Mann shoots entirely on
location as McCauley and
Hanna’s high-stakes game of
cat-and-mouse crosses LA,
from an explosive street battle
downtown to their late-night
meeting in a Beverly Hills
diner – famously, the first time
these screen legends shared
the screen, having previously
appeared in separate sections
of The Godfather Part II. The
location is the prestigious Kate
Mantilini restaurant, which is
still inundated with requests
from diners to sit at the De
Niro / Pacino table, despite a
‘no reservations’ policy.
Beverly Hills (1986)
Dir. Paul Mazursky
USA, 103 minutes
Starring Nick Nolte, Bette
Midler, Richard Dreyfuss
Adapted from Jean Renoir’s
Boudu Saved From Drowning,
Mazursky’s class satire sees
vulgar Beverly Hills socialites
Barbara and Dave Whiteman
(Midler and Dreyfuss) take
on more than they can handle
when they decide to adopt
disheveled bum Jerry Baskin
(Nolte). The film taps into
the mid-1980s penchant for
dissecting the social divide
and was a huge hit, despite
the unusual distinction of
being the first R-rated movie
ever released by Disney.
The film makes good use of
Beverley Hills’ palatial homes,
with the Whitemans’ estate
being a real-life home found
at 802 N. Bedford Drive, off
Sunset Boulevard.
➜

34 www.thebigpicturemagazine.com November/December 2010 35

 on location left
t h e p l a c e s t h at m a k e t h e m o v i e s the darkness within: eraserhead
below
ALICIA SILVERSTONE's HAPPY SHOPPER

eraserhead (1976)
Dir. David Lynch
USA, 89 minutes
Starring Jack Nance, Jeanne
Bates, Charlotte Stewart

As the centre of the

filmmaking world, Beverly
Hills provides the backdrop
to art-house experiments
as well as mainstream hits.
Lynch’s debut, funded by
the American Film Institute,
weaved the nightmarish
story of Henry Spencer (Jack
Nance), whose ‘vacation’ in a
strange industrial world tips
into nightmare when he’s
forced to raise his hideously
deformed baby. Lynch took
advantage of the Gothic
interiors of the AFI’s Beverly
Hills headquarters, Greystone
Mansion, to provide the film’s
distinctive look – although
the building is usually
synonymous with Californian Clueless (1995)
wealth. Coen Brothers fans
will recognise Greystone’s
Filmed at Beverly Hills High Dir. Amy Heckerling
exteriors as the home of
Jeffrey ‘The Big’ Lebowski.
School, the producers of USA, 97 minutes
Starring Alicia Silverstone,
Clueless sat in on classes Stacey Dash, Brittany Murphy

to perfect the characters’ Beverly Hills would appear

distinctive Valspeak cadences.
go further... [web ] Read ‘The Beast Within: The Devil and the Coen Brothers’ on www.thebigpicturemagazine.com
to be an incongruous setting
for a Jane Austen adaptation,
but Heckerling’s transplant of
Emma to high school proves
an astute rendering of the
novelist’s social observations.
Silverstone’s popular
fashionista Cher has made it
her duty to play matchmaker
for her classmates, notably
ugly duckling Tai (Brittany
Murphy), little realizing she’s
falling in love herself. Filmed
at Beverly Hills High School,
the producers sat in on classes
to perfect the characters’
distinctive Valspeak cadences.
The same school’s famous
‘Swim Gym’, meanwhile, is
perhaps more familiar for its
cameo in It’s A Wonderful Life.

36 www.thebigpicturemagazine.com November/December 2010 37

 screengem
e vo c at i v e o b j e c t s o n s c r e e n

TheCoke
Bottle
The Gods Must Be Crazy (1980)

In Jamie Uys’s African comedy, a glass Coke

bottle draws a noble savage, played by real-life
tribesman N!xau, into society. s c o t t j o r da n
h a r r i s follows it to the ends of the Earth.

t h e p lot i s p e r f ec t. The iconic Coke bottle is the

An empty Coca-Cola bottle,
thrown from a light aircraft,
is discovered by a band of
Kalihari Bushmen. Unable
to imagine that such an
object has an earthly origin,
they assume it to be a gift
from the Heavens. When
the bottle causes arguments
over ownership – a concept
previously unknown to the
tribe – one of their number
resolves to take the only
sensible course: he will walk
to the edge of the world and
throw the bottle off it, thereby
returning it to the gods. His
trek brings him into contact
with civilisation for the first
time, and that brings him to
the inevitable conclusion: the
gods must be crazy.
perfect emblem of Western
society. It is so elegant and
functional that, to an outsider,
it seems divine and yet to
those for whom it was made
it is utterly disposable. Its
appearance represents the
encroachment of modern
commerce into an unspoilt
world. The mission to fling
the bottle from the planet
represents not just a rejection
of capitalism’s attendant
evils (inequality, envy,
dissatisfaction, greed…) but
a resolution to ensure there
is no chance of them ever
returning. No onscreen object
has ever exposed the savagery
in civilisation, or the civility in
a savage, as succinctly as this
discarded Coke bottle. [tbp]

KOBAL
seemore [web] Read ‘Screengem: Charlie’s Golden Ticket’ on TheBigPictureMagazine.com

38 www.thebigpicturemagazine.com November/December 2010 39

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 parting shot
i m i tat i o n i s t h e s i n c e r e s t f o r m o f f l at t e r y

Over
The
Moon
E.T. and Elliot weren’t the first film characters to fly
across the moon. da n i e l s t e a d m a n jumps on his flying
bicycle to examine one of cinema’s most imitated images.

1 9 24 ' s t h e t h i e f o f Thief of Bagdad image,

'Happiness Must
Be Earned...'
clockwise from top
ET: the extra terrestrial
the thief of bagdad (1924)
the absent minded professor
b a g d a d established the moon
as a back-drop for flight.
The iconic sight of Douglas
Fairbanks and Julanne
Johnston soaring on a magic
carpet, silhouetted against a
massively expensive, studio-
set orb set a precedent. When
filmmakers needed to create
the illusion of fantastical
aviation – whether to convey
romance, magic or simply
grandeur – they had their
reference.
Any act of homage to a
film icon leaves room for
innovation, and the biggest
variation between nearly
ninety years of moon
silhouette movie moments
is the mode of transport
used in them. The silliest
example comes in 1961’s The
Absent-Minded Professor, in
which Professor Brainhard’s
Flubber-powered Model T
Ford neatly reinvents The
go further... [watch ] George Melies’s A Trip to The Moon (1902)
eschewing mystery and
splendour and recasting the
shot as a comedic device.
The most familiar example
of the shot is Elliot and E.T.
cycling triumphantly in front
of the lunar light. As with so
much of Steven Spielberg’s
work, the image of a boy on
a BMX, guarding an alien in
the basket levitating above
the trees is both entirely his
own, and yet also the result of
an encyclopaedic knowledge
of film history. Such was
the image’s subsequent
fame, it became the logo for
the director’s monstrously
successful Amblin production
company and is spoofed in
everything from Naked Gun
2½ to Cars.
So, while Spielberg opened
the floodgates – training
the eyes of a generation of
cinemagoers – E.T. and
Elliott’s moment of ecstasy
is part of a long tradition:
the grandiose, whimsical and
absurd vision of the rider, the
silhouette and the moon. [tbp]

42 www.thebigpicturemagazine.com November/December 2010 43

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COLUMBIA PICTURES presents

Film Index Back in Cinemas

So you’ve read about the films, now go watch them! Putting the movies back where they belong...

The Mighty Ducks: D2 (1994)

Dir. Sam Weisman
Butch Cassidy and
the Sundance Kid (1969)
This edition of The Big Picture has been
g see page 4/5 Dir. George Roy Hill produced in partnership with Park Circus,
Boudu Saved From Drowning (1932)
g see page 33
who are committed to bringing classic
Dir. Jean Renoir Heat (1995)
g see page 6/7 Dir. Michael Mann films back to the big screen.
g see page 34
Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)
Dir. William Dieterle Down and Out in Beverly Hills
g see page 8 (1986)
Dir. Paul Mazursky
coming coming coming A Film by Jean Renoir

BOUDU
City Lights (1931) g see page 35
soon soon soon
Dir. Charlie Chaplin
g see page 9 Eraserhead (1976)
Dir. David Lynch
Nell (1994)
Dir. Michael Apted
g see page 36 The fully restored version of Jean Renoir's 1932
g see page 10 Clueless (1995) classic BOUDU SAVED FROM DROWNING will be
Dir. Amy Heckerling
Trading Places (1983)
back in cinemas from 17 December, opening at
g see page 37
Dir. John Landis Curzon Renoir Cinema, Filmhouse Edinburgh, Irish
The Gods Must Be Crazy (1980)
g see page 11
Film Institute and key cities. The film is about a
Dir. Jamie Uys
Back In Cinemas
Unleashed (2005)
Dir. Andrea Arnold
g see page 12/13
g see page 38/39

ET: The Extra Terrestrial (1982)

Dir. Steven Spielberg
Parisian bookseller, Lestingois, who fishes Boudu,
a vagrant, out of the river Seine. He befriends the
tramp and puts him up at home, where Boudu
SAVED FROM DROWNING From 17 December
The Fisher King (1991) g see page 42/43
Dir. Terry Gilliam causes nothing but trouble. However, events take
The Absent Minded Professor (1961)
g see page 28/29
Dir. Robert Stevenson a different turn when Boudu wins the lottery…
Sweet Sweetback's g see page 42
Badaaasssss Song (1971)
Dir. Melvin Van Peebles The Thief of Bagdad (1924)
Having undergone an amazing $600,000
g see page 30/31 Dir. Jody Hill restoration, THE AFRICAN QUEEN will be back
Coffy (1973)
g see page 43 in cinemas from March 2011. Three movie giants
Dir. Jack Hill come together in this Academy Award-winning
g see page 32
romantic adventure from 1951, combining the
masterful direction of John Huston with the
fabulous chemistry of its lead actors Humphrey
The Big Picture Issue 12 Bogart and Katharine Hepburn.

Available 15 January 2011 More details of cinema screenings of these

and other classic movies from the Park Circus
catalogue can be accessed via:
www.backincinemas.com
DVD DVD DUAL FORMAT EDITION- DUAL FORMAT EDITION- BLU-RAY
CONTAINS BOTH DVD CONTAINS BOTH DVD
thebigpicture disclaimer AND BLU-RAY VERSIONS AND BLU-RAY VERSIONS

The views and opinions of all texts, including

editorial and regular columns, are those of the
CLASSIC FILMS TO ENJOY AT HOME
The Big Society? authors and do not necessarily represent or
reflect those of the editors or publishers.
AVAILABLE FROM ALL GOOD RETAILERS
46 www.thebigpicturemagazine.com
www.parkcircus.com