at the walter reade theater: contemporary films from britain april 13 - 26, 2001 photo: the darkest light

This selection of recent films from Britain, showcasing new, upcoming filmmaking and acting talent, reflects the shifting national mood since the filmmaking crop harvested in the afterglow of the New Labour’s 1997 landslide election victory. The unconventional filmmakers of the post-1997 generation are still struggling to get their follow-up films in the can. Meanwhile, they have been subsidized by commercial successes like Notting Hill and Billy Elliot and reinforced by new original voices, most notably Lynne Ramsay (Ratcatcher), Jamie Thraves (The Low Down), Jonathan Glazer (Sexy Beast) and Sara Sugarman, whose VERY ANNIE MARY is one of the highlights of this series. The films represented in the program perhaps reflect an impulse to consolidate the cinematic gains of the past four years, in many cases looking to the past for ways forward, and turning either to genre (the gangster film in GANGSTER NO. 1, the romantic comedy in THIS YEAR'S LOVE) or the cultural and regional specificities of Britain: Ireland in SALTWATER, Scotland in GREGORY'S TWO GIRLS and ONE LIFE STAND, Wales in VERY ANNIE MARY, football in THERE'S ONLY ONE JOHNNY GRIMBLE, bingo culture in HOUSE!). As a result, there’s a recurrent theme in films like HOUSE!, GREGORY'S TWO GIRLS, ONE LIFE STAND, GANGSTER NO. 1, THE DARKEST LIGHT – the decline of a recognizably human bt ineffectual traditional British culture and the unstoppable rise of modern ways and impersonal, commercial imperatives. That theme mirrors the current state of British film, mindful of its national film and cultural traditions and myths, but keenly aware of the necessity to move on to forge new visions and hold up a mirror to a changing society. Series programmed by Gavin Smith.

very annie-mary gangster number 1 one life stand house!

VERY ANNIE MARY Sara Sugarman, 2000; 104m Rachel Griffiths is absolutely wonderful as the title character of Sara Sugarman’s colorful Sound of Music-inspired Welsh slice of life/near-musical VERY ANNIE MARY. Though a grown adult, Annie-Mary is still hopelessly adolescent, unable to get over the death of her mother nor cope with the constant demands of her opera-singing, egomaniacal father (Jonathan Pryce). Like an older Anne of Green Gables, Annie Mary is imaginative but clumsy, and as she moves through her small town, dreaming of buying her own house and finding her own singing voice, she’s an outsider in her community, its residents put off by her constant mistakes and excessive enthusiasm. Buoyed along by its great sense of humor, which is grounded in Sugarman’s terrific eye for detail, and carried by Griffiths’ outstanding interpretation of her character, this film from one of Britain’s most talented new filmmakers is a complete joy to watch. Fri April 13: 1:45 & 6:15; Sat April 14: 9:15 Wed April 18: 3:15; Wed April 25: 7:10 GANGSTER NO. 1 Paul McGuigan, 2000; 105m With GANGSTER NO. 1, Paul McGuigan, director of The Acid House, provides a window onto the world of Sixties high-rise flats, Italian leather shoes and gangster sadism, all accompanied by veteran film composer John Dankworth’s jazz score. Malcolm McDowell stars as the simply-named Gangster 55, an aging crime boss who, upon learning of his nemesis’ release from jail, recounts, via flashback, his ruthless ascent through the ranks of the Sixties London underworld. Displaying a knack for colorful and inventive violence, Gangster 55 initially attracts the attention of the illustrious Butcher of Mayfair, Frankie Mays (David Thewlis), who unwisely takes him under his wing. Newcomer Paul Bettany gives a terrific performance as McDowell’s icy younger self in McGuigan’s particularly nasty take on the highs and lows of life as a career criminal. Fri April 13: 4 & 8:30; Sat April 14: 4:45 Tue April 17: 5; Wed April 25: 9:15 ONE LIFE STAND May Miles Thomas, 2000, video; 115m One of the most authentic and original evocations of life in modern Britain, the digitally shot ONE LIFE STAND is an involving, intimate drama set in Glasgow, about the complex emotional ties and conflicts between a mother and son. Trise, played with world-weary grace by Maureen Carr, a major new discovery, starts a new job working at a tarot reading phone service. Soon after, her narcissistic son John Paul, an aspiring model, interviews at a modeling agency. While Trise’s sympathetic human touch rapidly makes her the company’s most in-demand operator, John Paul embarks on a career as an escort for hire, all the while deceiving his mother into believing his modeling and acting career is taking off. Cool, acutely observed and unsentimental, ONE LIFE STAND discreetly dissects the modern service culture of illusion and fantasy for sale, exposing the denial, emotional isolation and melancholy reality that underwrite it. Making her debut film, May Miles Thomas is a writer-director to watch. Sat April 14: 7; Sun April 15: 4:45 & 9 HOUSE! Julian Kemp, 2000; 90m Bingo is less a pastime than a neglected branch of show business in this delightfully eccentric comedy starring Kelly McDonald, a ubiquitous and winningly down-to-earth presence in New British Cinema, best known for Trainspotting. McDonald plays Linda, who helps colorful old-time impresario Mr. Anzoni (veteran character actor Freddie Jones) run La Scala, a once-glorious bingo palace now crumbling into disrepair and insolvency. Linda and star bingo caller Gavin (Jason Hughes) have been avoiding professing their love for each other for years, but when he’s headhunted by the new high-tech Mega-Bingo about to open across town, and Linda discovers a mysterious gift for predicting bingo numbers inherited from her late mother, it’s time for drastic action. Both fond homage and playful spoof of tacky British leisure culture and its forgotten roots in distant music hall traditions, HOUSE! is a small gem with a cheeky sense of humor. Sun April 15: 7; Tue April 17: 1 & 9:20 THERE'S ONLY ONE JIMMY GRIMBLE John Hay, 2000; 110m Soccer – the dreams and aspirations it represents to boys and men alike – lies at the core of this sweet, big-hearted, nostalgic story with a touch of the fantastic about it. Jimmy, wonderfully played by Lewis McKenzie, dreams of football glory but must contend with hard reality: the new man in Mum (Gina McKee)’s life is a buffoon who pales as a father-figure next to her married ex-boyfriend (Ray Winstone); the school bullies won’t give him a break; and though he makes the soccer team, which competes in the Schools’ Cup league, the coach (Robert Carlyle) is demoralized and overruled by the school principal and the rich father of the team’s obnoxious star player. How this underdog comes into his own with help from an unlikely source – and gets the girl – is beautifully orchestrated against the backdrop of Manchester, where two teams, Manchester United and Manchester City, forever polarize the city’s population. Tue April 17: 2:50 & 7:10; Wed April 18: 1

dead babies this year's love gregory's two girls saltwater

THE CRIMINAL Julian Simpson, 1999; 95m In this twisty, efficient Hitchcockian Wrong Man thriller, an unemployed musician (sympathetically played by upcoming English actor Steven Macintosh) encounters an attractive young woman in a bar and gets more than he bargained for when his pickup lines prove improbably successful. In no time at all she’s been murdered and he’s sitting in a police interrogation room: released due to lack of evidence, he’s soon being pursued by the police and the men who framed him. Working with a low budget, promising 28-year-old director Julian Simpson makes effective use of his East London settings (never succumbing to the temptations of picture postcard locations) and of a fine cast, including Eddie Izzard and Bernard Hill, last seen as the Captain of James Cameron’s Titanic, in an amusing performance as a sardonic police inspector. Thurs April 19: 1, 5 & 9; Wed April 25: 3 DEAD BABIES William Marsh, 2000; 100m A post-millennial update of Martin Amis’ 1975 cult novel, this unapologetically crude ensemble satire on aimless youthful excess sets out to be the antithesis of the Notting Hill school of charming British comedy. Five twenty-something upper-class friends, plus their sexually frustrated "court dwarf", are joined by a trio of Americans for a weekend of sex, drugs, and decadence. But a shadow is cast over the proceedings by the specter of "Johnny," a member of the Conceptualists, an international anarchist terror group notorious for their acts of violence and mayhem. Wallowing in bad taste and obnoxious attitude, and featuring several memorable gross-out setpieces, this is a drug-warped gonzo treatment of the classic English country house weekend. Thurs April 19: 3 & 7; Wed April 25: 1 THIS YEAR'S LOVE David Kane, 1999; 108m Set predominantly in and around London’s Camden Town, THIS YEAR'S LOVE spends three years following the romantic travails of a group of twenty-something artists who unknowingly fall in and out of love with one another’s partners. Joining such recognizable faces as Dougray Scott, Ian Hart, and Douglas Henshall, comedian Kathy Burke gives a terrific performance as the tambourine-slapping backup singer for a local pub band. Throughout, funny moments punctuate the characters’ ultimately sad realization that long-term love never improves on new passion. Fri April 20: 1:30 & 6:15; Sun April 22: 4:10 Wed April 25: 5 GREGORY'S TWO GIRLS Bill Forsyth, 1999; 105m Twenty years later, the effortlessly charming, less-muddled-than-he-thinks-he-is Gregory (John Gordon Sinclair) is teaching in the same high school he attended as a teenager, and he’s still sitting on the fence: between his lusty friend Bel (Maria Doyle Kennedy) and Frances (Carly MacKinnon), the beautiful student with a starring role in his fantasy life; between the immediacy of love and the hopeless abstraction of politics. Scottish comic master Bill Forsyth’s return to the screen after a six-year hiatus is a welcome event, particularly since this is a sequel to the effervescent 1981 movie that made him a hit. Just as gracefully funny as Gregory’s Girl, but sadder, closer in tone to the director’s Comfort and Joy, with a refreshing undercurrent of anti-globalism. With Dougray Scott as Gregory’s old pal made good, a computer magnate poised to conquer the world. Fri April 20: 3:45 & 8:30; Sat April 21: 4:10 Tue April 24: 1 & 5:15; Thurs April 26: 3 THE DARKEST LIGHT Bille Eltringham and Simon Beaufoy, 1999; 94m Directed with spare grace and quiet intensity, and dominated by the landscape of the Yorkshire moors, this haunting, unexpectedly spiritual film depicts the hardships visited on a sheep and dairy farmer and his family from the point of view of his 11-year old daughter. As her younger brother endures leukemia treatment, Catherine, played with quiet conviction by Keri Arnold, explores the moor’s wilds with Uma (Kavita Sungha), an Indian girl whose family is new to the village. Together they witness a mysterious, perhaps paranormal event that becomes a pivot for the action. Imbued with the magical imagination and impressions of its young protagonist, the film connects the traditional (Catholicism, farming) and the modern (multiculturalism, technology) to subtly surreal effect, linking them in turn to unsettling intimations of apocalypse and blight. Anchored by impressive, understated performances from Stephen Dillane and Kerry Fox as the farmer and his wife, this impressive debut couldn’t be further from writer and co-director Simon Beaufoy’s script for The Full Monty. Sat April 21: 6:30; Sun April 22: 8:30 Mon April 23: 1; Tue April 24: 3:15 SALTWATER Conor McPherson, 2000; 92m Acclaimed Irish playwright Conor McPherson, author of the hit play The Weir, shows a deft, light touch in his directorial debut. A refreshingly offbeat, unpredictable comedy-drama, it juggles the emotional and moral dilemmas of three young men and their problematic relationships to women: Joe (Laurence Kinlan), youngest son of widowed Irish-Italian George Benevetti (Brian Cox), falls in with a troublemaking new boy at the local high school with dire consequences; his brother Frank (Peter McDonald) works in his father’s café and plans a holdup of the local loan shark (Brendan Gleeson) to whom dad owes a large sum, with comic results; and then there’s philosophy lecturer Ray (Conor Mullen), their big sister’s boyfriend, who’s sleeping with one of his students, and seems incapable of squaring his emotional and professional responsibilities. Ably balancing sharp comic observations and poignant emotional predicaments, McPherson gives us genuinely three-dimensional characters, in contrast to the usual blarney movie caricatures of troubled Irish masculinity; and he artfully weaves everything together while making it all seem effortless. Plus, hands down, he supplies one of the most outrageously funny gross-out setpieces you’ll see all year. Sat April 21: 8:30; Sun April 22: 6:30 Mon April 23: 3; Tues April 24: 7:30; Thurs April 26: 1