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Jacques Brel – Infiniment

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On the 25th anniversary of the death of Belgium's most famous son comes a 40-track double album of the existential Gallic cool that influenced David Bowie, Ray Davies, Leonard Cohen and Scott Walker, among others. Such masterpieces as "Amsterdam", "Ne Me Quitte Pas" and "Le Moribond" (later reinvent...

On the 25th anniversary of the death of Belgium’s most famous son comes a 40-track double album of the existential Gallic cool that influenced David Bowie, Ray Davies, Leonard Cohen and Scott Walker, among others. Such masterpieces as “Amsterdam”, “Ne Me Quitte Pas” and “Le Moribond” (later reinvented as “Seasons In The Sun”) are all present. But the selling point?and cause of some controversy?is five previously unreleased tracks. A letter from Brel shortly before his death asked for them not to be released. Why is unclear?this blatant disregard of his wishes reveals at least two of them, “L’Amour Est Mort” and “La Cath

Ronnie Lane – Ain’T No One Like

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Terrific to see the old Track logo resurrected and equally good to hear Ronnie "Plonk" Lane again. In 1973, he boldly left The Faces two years before Rod Stewart to pursue his interest in rural blues, folk and jug band music. To be frank, a single album without the live tracks probably would have sufficed. But there's no denying the unassuming bonhomie of most of these 36 songs, kazoo solos and all. The hits "How Come" and "The Poacher" are here, but even better are a fantastic version of Derroll Adams' "Roll On Babe" and Plonk's own, lovely "Tell Everyone".

Terrific to see the old Track logo resurrected and equally good to hear Ronnie “Plonk” Lane again. In 1973, he boldly left The Faces two years before Rod Stewart to pursue his interest in rural blues, folk and jug band music. To be frank, a single album without the live tracks probably would have sufficed. But there’s no denying the unassuming bonhomie of most of these 36 songs, kazoo solos and all. The hits “How Come” and “The Poacher” are here, but even better are a fantastic version of Derroll Adams’ “Roll On Babe” and Plonk’s own, lovely “Tell Everyone”.

Reasons To Believe

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HIS HUGE, MOURNFUL, WOUNDED bear of a voice is so effective and emotive when placed against fresh backdrops that it remains a pity Springsteen doesn't musically branch out more often. As this three-CD set (there's also a two-CD version, excluding the rarities disc) tries to fairly represent each of his albums, there's too much communal air-punching, too little gentle introspection. Too much c'mon everybody, not enough leave me alone everybody. The anthems surge past anonymously, intimate as juggernauts. But when he gets quiet, gets home after crowded nights and faces solitary dawns, he's an extraordinary artist with a spooky, magical gift:the ghost of Orbison, the patron saint of the wilfully lonely. A career-spanning retrospective, this obviously contains many absolutely storming songs, while begging you to question the omissions. It'd've been braver to offer one of the extended mood-pieces from the second album, or the thrilling, atypical "Candy's Room", or the underrated "Secret Garden". The acoustic albums are given short shrift; allocations roughly tying in with commercial success. But we're quibbling against a tidal wave. There's a preposterous wealth of greatness here. The early songs babble and spit with verbose poetry ("For You"), then hunch and stalk ("4th Of July"), then explode into the crystallised crescendo that was "Born To Run". "Jungleland" is more exhilaratingly imaginative than most rock messiahs' entire output. We move through Springsteen's noble attempts to keep it real while suddenly famous?Darkness On The Edge Of Town, The River, Nebraska (and the sublime "Atlantic City")?before the downswing of the Born In The USA era. On "Tunnel Of Love" the visionary within still breathes (and can document the demise of love-as-hope), but it's patchy from there. "Streets Of Philadelphia" is a gem, again freeing the great bear from his musical cage. For "The Rising" (to which opus critics were unfathomably generous), he's back behind safety bars. The third disc of rarities and lives proves how exciting a soul man he can be when off the four-by-four leash. Fans already owning the greatest hits stuff six times will covet it. Previously unreleased are a nifty "None But The Brave" (a Born In The USA outtake); home recordings of "County Fair" and "Big Payback" (shortly after the Nebraska sessions); and the rocky "From Small Things". From films, there are "Lift Me Up" (from Limbo), "Dead Man Walking" and the beautiful "Missing" (from The Crossing Guard). There's the acoustic "Countin' On A Miracle" (as played at the end of every show on the Rising tour), a jocular "Viva Las Vegas", and a live "Held Up Without A Gun" from 1980, which burns, hellbent on exhaustion or ascension. Still the standout (ever since The River tour) is an astoundingly in-the-moment live version of Jimmy Cliff's "Trapped". Rarely has anyone made another's song so their own. It emerges bruised, Bruce-d, not so much a torch ballad as a forest fire, a heart (and larynx) ablaze. The wordy babbling beatnik became The Boss then became understandably cautious, but when he loses himself and lets rip, to this day, thunder and lightning back off warily. Looking again at the track listing, this is a crazily great thing.

HIS HUGE, MOURNFUL, WOUNDED bear of a voice is so effective and emotive when placed against fresh backdrops that it remains a pity Springsteen doesn’t musically branch out more often. As this three-CD set (there’s also a two-CD version, excluding the rarities disc) tries to fairly represent each of his albums, there’s too much communal air-punching, too little gentle introspection. Too much c’mon everybody, not enough leave me alone everybody. The anthems surge past anonymously, intimate as juggernauts. But when he gets quiet, gets home after crowded nights and faces solitary dawns, he’s an extraordinary artist with a spooky, magical gift:the ghost of Orbison, the patron saint of the wilfully lonely.

A career-spanning retrospective, this obviously contains many absolutely storming songs, while begging you to question the omissions. It’d’ve been braver to offer one of the extended mood-pieces from the second album, or the thrilling, atypical “Candy’s Room”, or the underrated “Secret Garden”. The acoustic albums are given short shrift; allocations roughly tying in with commercial success.

But we’re quibbling against a tidal wave. There’s a preposterous wealth of greatness here. The early songs babble and spit with verbose poetry (“For You”), then hunch and stalk (“4th Of July”), then explode into the crystallised crescendo that was “Born To Run”. “Jungleland” is more exhilaratingly imaginative than most rock messiahs’ entire output. We move through Springsteen’s noble attempts to keep it real while suddenly famous?Darkness On The Edge Of Town, The River, Nebraska (and the sublime “Atlantic City”)?before the downswing of the Born In The USA era. On “Tunnel Of Love” the visionary within still breathes (and can document the demise of love-as-hope), but it’s patchy from there. “Streets Of Philadelphia” is a gem, again freeing the great bear from his musical cage. For “The Rising” (to which opus critics were unfathomably generous), he’s back behind safety bars.

The third disc of rarities and lives proves how exciting a soul man he can be when off the four-by-four leash. Fans already owning the greatest hits stuff six times will covet it. Previously unreleased are a nifty “None But The Brave” (a Born In The USA outtake); home recordings of “County Fair” and “Big Payback” (shortly after the Nebraska sessions); and the rocky “From Small Things”. From films, there are “Lift Me Up” (from Limbo), “Dead Man Walking” and the beautiful “Missing” (from The Crossing Guard). There’s the acoustic “Countin’ On A Miracle” (as played at the end of every show on the Rising tour), a jocular “Viva Las Vegas”, and a live “Held Up Without A Gun” from 1980, which burns, hellbent on exhaustion or ascension. Still the standout (ever since The River tour) is an astoundingly in-the-moment live version of Jimmy Cliff’s “Trapped”. Rarely has anyone made another’s song so their own. It emerges bruised, Bruce-d, not so much a torch ballad as a forest fire, a heart (and larynx) ablaze. The wordy babbling beatnik became The Boss then became understandably cautious, but when he loses himself and lets rip, to this day, thunder and lightning back off warily. Looking again at the track listing, this is a crazily great thing.

The Ones We Love

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This collection spans the past 15 years and features songs covered extensively in the November issue of Uncut (Take 78). There are few surprises, not least the omission of the unloved "Shiny Happy People". However, the now-common device of a non-chronological arrangement here serves to emphasise both R.E.M.'s consistency and constancy, in quality and recurring themes. The publicity blitz surrounding this album has had the welcome effect of returning to the centre stage a band who have gradually (wllfully?) slid into a twilight zone since the mid-'90s. Of the two brand new tracks; the jaunty but scabrous "Bad Day"is outdone by "Animal", In part a pastiche of the Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows", which sees R.E.M. make a pugnacious return to their best traditions?wild, frolicsome, iridescent neo psychedelia. Disc one also contains "All The Right Friends", a callow offering from the Murmur session's It's the limited edition two-disc set that offers devotees something to tuck in to?a second CD of rarities and B-sides represents a mixed but generally worthwhile package. An acoustic version of "Pop Song'89" is surprisingly effective, lending some timbre and urgency to a track that in its original form was a bit skippy and sing-song. A live version of "Turn You inside Out" sees R.E.M competing scabrously with the resurgent guitar bands of the late. '80s?pixles Husker Du, etc, "Fretless" is an outtake from Out Of Time, the exclusion of which Buck regrets in The sleevenotes it's Impassioned ("Don't talk to me about alone" sparls stipe), but it doesn't quite go off at the exquisite tangents you hope for from R.E.M Buck also describes "Chance (Dub)" as an" atrocity it' certainly disposable, flickering boisterously like an old, short Super-8 film of a party discovered in the attic. "It's A Free World Baby was first heard in the 1993 film Coneheads, and it's a pleasant delicately arranged piece with flavours of. Strawberry Fields ields Forever", An accelerated, funned-up "Drive" doesn't make any sense and is scant consolation for the original's omission on the hits disc. A version of "Star Me Kitten" ensues, the lyric intoned with debatable degree of empathy and comprehension by William Burroughs. A re-recorded, rearrange "Leave" is more lushly cinematic than the version on New Adventures In Hi-Fi. An acoustic "Beat A Drum" from Reveal meanwhile, demonstrates that R.E.M. songs are offen as enhanced when they're pared down as when they're embellished "2IN" is Buck's personal tribute to the late producer lack Nitzsche, and is cheesy but reverential, Finally come two elevating live favourites. "The One I Love", recorded acoustically in 2001 for a radio show, benefits from a softening of the melody on the part of an older, wiser stipe, while "Country Feedback", always a favourite of 'true' fans, is rendered here in all its half-spoken, ragged glory, pure spilt essence of R.E.M. Plenty here, then, for the uninitated (ie, the clueless Coldplay fans) who need in introduction to R.P.M. as well as the hiding faithful.

This collection spans the past 15 years and features songs covered extensively in the November issue of Uncut (Take 78). There are few surprises, not least the omission of the unloved “Shiny Happy People”. However, the now-common device of a non-chronological arrangement here serves to emphasise both R.E.M.’s consistency and constancy, in quality and recurring themes. The publicity blitz surrounding this album has had the welcome effect of returning to the centre stage a band who have gradually (wllfully?) slid into a twilight zone since the mid-’90s.

Of the two brand new tracks; the jaunty but scabrous “Bad Day”is outdone by “Animal”, In part a pastiche of the Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows”, which sees R.E.M. make a pugnacious return to their best traditions?wild, frolicsome, iridescent neo psychedelia. Disc one also contains “All The Right Friends”, a callow offering from the Murmur session’s

It’s the limited edition two-disc set that offers devotees something to tuck in to?a second CD of rarities and B-sides represents a mixed but generally worthwhile package. An acoustic version of “Pop Song’89” is surprisingly effective, lending some timbre and urgency to a track that in its original form was a bit skippy and sing-song. A live version of “Turn You inside Out” sees R.E.M competing scabrously with the resurgent guitar bands of the late. ’80s?pixles Husker Du, etc, “Fretless” is an outtake from Out Of Time, the exclusion of which Buck regrets in The sleevenotes it’s Impassioned (“Don’t talk to me about alone” sparls stipe), but it doesn’t quite go off at the exquisite tangents you hope for from R.E.M

Buck also describes “Chance (Dub)” as an” atrocity it’ certainly disposable, flickering boisterously like an old, short Super-8 film of a party discovered in the attic. “It’s A Free World Baby was first heard in the 1993 film Coneheads, and it’s a pleasant delicately arranged piece with flavours of. Strawberry Fields ields Forever”, An accelerated, funned-up “Drive” doesn’t make any sense and is scant consolation for the original’s omission on the hits disc. A version of “Star Me Kitten” ensues, the lyric intoned with debatable degree of empathy and comprehension by William Burroughs.

A re-recorded, rearrange “Leave” is more lushly cinematic than the version on New Adventures In Hi-Fi. An acoustic “Beat A Drum” from Reveal meanwhile, demonstrates that R.E.M. songs are offen as enhanced when they’re pared down as when they’re embellished “2IN” is Buck’s personal tribute to the late producer lack Nitzsche, and is cheesy but reverential, Finally come two elevating live favourites. “The One I Love”, recorded acoustically in 2001 for a radio show, benefits from a softening of the melody on the part of an older, wiser stipe, while “Country Feedback”, always a favourite of ‘true’ fans, is rendered here in all its half-spoken, ragged glory, pure spilt essence of R.E.M.

Plenty here, then, for the uninitated (ie, the clueless Coldplay fans) who need in introduction to R.P.M. as well as the hiding faithful.

Elvis Costello – Singles: Volumes 1,2 & 3

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Elvis Costello's been discredited these days, like that other '77-emerging nerd genius David Byrne guilty of releasing too much adequate fare for too long, but for sustained invention he's up there with Bowie. His run of form lasted 10 years?the period covered by these sets. The first box goes from "Less Than Zero" to "I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down", the second from "High Fidelity" to "Pills And Soap" while the third ranges from "Everyday I Write The Book" to "A Town Called Nothing (Really Big Nothing)". Within the 35 facsimile sleeves?works of art in themselves?lie all the original B-sides, plus no fewer than 20 tracks that have never before been released on disc?even on the expansive two-CD Deluxe Edition reissues of Costello's albums. And they call Ryan Adams prolific.

Elvis Costello’s been discredited these days, like that other ’77-emerging nerd genius David Byrne guilty of releasing too much adequate fare for too long, but for sustained invention he’s up there with Bowie. His run of form lasted 10 years?the period covered by these sets.

The first box goes from “Less Than Zero” to “I Can’t Stand Up For Falling Down”, the second from “High Fidelity” to “Pills And Soap” while the third ranges from “Everyday I Write The Book” to “A Town Called Nothing (Really Big Nothing)”.

Within the 35 facsimile sleeves?works of art in themselves?lie all the original B-sides, plus no fewer than 20 tracks that have never before been released on disc?even on the expansive two-CD Deluxe Edition reissues of Costello’s albums. And they call Ryan Adams prolific.

Bow Wow Wow – I Want Candy: The Anthology

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Formed around the original Ants, Bow Wow Wow were often dismissed as a cheap and nasty imitation of Adam's tribal formula. If anything, they were bolder, singing about tape piracy ("C30, C60, C90, Go!") and satanism ("Prince Of Darkness") while their Burundi-Drummers-meets-Ennio-Morricone interface often left the Ants trailing. The somewhat dubious exploitation of teenage singer Annabella Lu Win aside (itself predictive of today's media perviness in the age of t.A.t.U.), this double CD shows them to be a great deal more imaginative than their '80s two-hit wonder status might suggest.

Formed around the original Ants, Bow Wow Wow were often dismissed as a cheap and nasty imitation of Adam’s tribal formula. If anything, they were bolder, singing about tape piracy (“C30, C60, C90, Go!”) and satanism (“Prince Of Darkness”) while their Burundi-Drummers-meets-Ennio-Morricone interface often left the Ants trailing. The somewhat dubious exploitation of teenage singer Annabella Lu Win aside (itself predictive of today’s media perviness in the age of t.A.t.U.), this double CD shows them to be a great deal more imaginative than their ’80s two-hit wonder status might suggest.

Madness – The Singles Box Vol 1

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Self-styled jokers of the 2-Tone crop, Madness' "nutty boys" facade often belied the arch pop intellect working underneath. Take 1980's "Embarrassment"?a Top Five hit about the social bigotry surrounding a mixed-race pregnancy, or 1982's grim satire of executive stress, "Cardiac Arrest". These, along with their more rambunctious early hits ("Baggy Trousers", Prince Buster's "One Step Beyond") rank alongside those of The Kinks, The Jam and even The Smiths as English working-class pop at its most ingenious.

Self-styled jokers of the 2-Tone crop, Madness’ “nutty boys” facade often belied the arch pop intellect working underneath. Take 1980’s “Embarrassment”?a Top Five hit about the social bigotry surrounding a mixed-race pregnancy, or 1982’s grim satire of executive stress, “Cardiac Arrest”. These, along with their more rambunctious early hits (“Baggy Trousers”, Prince Buster’s “One Step Beyond”) rank alongside those of The Kinks, The Jam and even The Smiths as English working-class pop at its most ingenious.

Liaisons Dangereuses

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If you like the brutalist proto-electro of German duo Deutsche Amerikanische Freundschaft, you'll love Liaisons Dangereuses, whose one and only album, mixed in legendary producer Conny Plank's studio in June 1981, finally makes it onto CD. This primitive electronic body music, performed by Chrislo Haas (ex-DAF), barked in Spanish, French and German by Beate Bartel (from Mania D) and with shrieks courtesy of Krishna Goineau, would have featured alongside Soft Cell's "Memorabilia" and Japan's "Art Of Parties" in all the best clubs that summer, but my God if it doesn't totally chime with today's electroclash, especially Miss Kittin and The Hacker's pervy synth-pop and Felix Da Housecat's Kittenz And Thee Glitz. Liaisons' "Peut Etre...Pas" appears on A Secret History and Serie Noire 2. The latter makes connections between early-'80s and early-'00s underground dance, from Savage Process to Green Velvet, but also includes examples of micro-genres in between:punk-funk, dub-rock, Hi-NRG, new beat, acid house and EBM. A Secret History sees Throbbing Gristle rub up alongside Visage, Telex, Riuchi Sakamoto... Oh, and Paul McCartney's "Temporary Secretary".

If you like the brutalist proto-electro of German duo Deutsche Amerikanische Freundschaft, you’ll love Liaisons Dangereuses, whose one and only album, mixed in legendary producer Conny Plank’s studio in June 1981, finally makes it onto CD. This primitive electronic body music, performed by Chrislo Haas (ex-DAF), barked in Spanish, French and German by Beate Bartel (from Mania D) and with shrieks courtesy of Krishna Goineau, would have featured alongside Soft Cell’s “Memorabilia” and Japan’s “Art Of Parties” in all the best clubs that summer, but my God if it doesn’t totally chime with today’s electroclash, especially Miss Kittin and The Hacker’s pervy synth-pop and Felix Da Housecat’s Kittenz And Thee Glitz.

Liaisons’ “Peut Etre…Pas” appears on A Secret History and Serie Noire 2. The latter makes connections between early-’80s and early-’00s underground dance, from Savage Process to Green Velvet, but also includes examples of micro-genres in between:punk-funk, dub-rock, Hi-NRG, new beat, acid house and EBM.

A Secret History sees Throbbing Gristle rub up alongside Visage, Telex, Riuchi Sakamoto… Oh, and Paul McCartney’s “Temporary Secretary”.

Road To Nowhere

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If ever a pop group was destined to be boxed for posterity, it's Talking Heads. It's no surprise that Once In A Lifetime arrives spiffed up in hardback, warm with the words of novelists and academics, and augmented by DVD like some handsome Upper East Side gallery catalogue. Greil Marcus once wrote,...

If ever a pop group was destined to be boxed for posterity, it’s Talking Heads. It’s no surprise that Once In A Lifetime arrives spiffed up in hardback, warm with the words of novelists and academics, and augmented by DVD like some handsome Upper East Side gallery catalogue. Greil Marcus once wrote, disapprovingly, that in New York “most punks seemed to be auditioning for careers as something else”. Talking Heads, n

Rock’n’Roll Hearts

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DIRECTED BY Lisa Cholodenko STARRING Frances McDormand, Kate Beckinsale, Christian Bale, Alessandro Nivola Opens November 28, Cert 15tbc, 107 mins A clever, compassionate and original relationships study which uses the mellower side of the LA rock'n'roll world as its backcloth, Cholodenko's follo...

DIRECTED BY Lisa Cholodenko

STARRING Frances McDormand, Kate Beckinsale, Christian Bale, Alessandro Nivola

Opens November 28, Cert 15tbc, 107 mins

A clever, compassionate and original relationships study which uses the mellower side of the LA rock’n’roll world as its backcloth, Cholodenko’s follow-up to the acclaimed High Art is funny, wry and astute. It allows you to feel for its lost boys and girls as they feel their way towards honesty and a variation on fulfilment. Music weaves its merry or melancholy way around their moral mistakes.

Thus much fun can be had spotting Lou Barlow and Folk Implosion as the band who back Britpop star Ian (Nivola). Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse, Daniel Lanois and Beck’s bassist also feature. But Cholodenko’s story first arose as she gazed at Joni Mitchell’s painting on the cover of the Ladies Of The Canyon album. She imagined the lives of the people living in that picture. Laurel Canyon’s like no other quarter of Los Angeles?she’s said it has a hippie, boho, timeless quality. (In truth it’s only recently been reclaimed by the music industry from that other industry lovingly described in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights).

Serious young couple Sam (Bale) and fianc

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

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Not exactly a sequel (there's already been four), but not exactly a remake either?at least not in the way Gus Van Sant remade Psycho. This hybrid only makes sense when you remember your average mall rat would rather stick pins in his eyes than watch anything made in the dark ages before T2. That puts the original Massacre off-menu, so here's a modern version with all the pert titties, CGI slayings and MTV-style edits teens of today claim as their birthright. The new plot: our vanful of teens (principal shrieker Jessica Biel and four expendables) pick up a massacre survivor and go to the local sherrif (Full Metal Jacket's R Lee Ermey), only to find the whole town's in the massacring business. They try to escape, but die instead, and it all builds to a decent crescendo as Biel faces off against Leatherface?in this version, a standard bogeyman with a daft back-story. But nothing can change the fact the original was terrifying, groundbreaking and notorious?and this isn't.

Not exactly a sequel (there’s already been four), but not exactly a remake either?at least not in the way Gus Van Sant remade Psycho. This hybrid only makes sense when you remember your average mall rat would rather stick pins in his eyes than watch anything made in the dark ages before T2. That puts the original Massacre off-menu, so here’s a modern version with all the pert titties, CGI slayings and MTV-style edits teens of today claim as their birthright.

The new plot: our vanful of teens (principal shrieker Jessica Biel and four expendables) pick up a massacre survivor and go to the local sherrif (Full Metal Jacket’s R Lee Ermey), only to find the whole town’s in the massacring business. They try to escape, but die instead, and it all builds to a decent crescendo as Biel faces off against Leatherface?in this version, a standard bogeyman with a daft back-story. But nothing can change the fact the original was terrifying, groundbreaking and notorious?and this isn’t.

L’Afrance

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OPENS NOVEMBER 14, CERT 15, 90 MINS The alienating isolationism of the immigration debate' is the context for this Kafka-esque tale of Paris-based Senegalese student El Hadj (Djolof Mbengue), and how an innocuous lapse on his visa thrusts him into a cycle of detention centres, court appearances and deportation proceedings. Not quite as keen to eviscerate the state apparatus as the likes of Michael Winterbottom's In This World, debut director Alain Gomis instead focuses on his tortured protagonist, shooting his expressive face in oppressive close-up while the intransigent Western World hovers uneasily behind. Mbengue, for his part, clearly relishes El Hadj's transition from a naive espouser of post-colonial theory to a spirit-broken statistic, cracking his fists in rage against a shower wall. The scenes with El Hadj's Parisian girlfriend and the repetitive discussions on the nature of national identity become tiresome, but Gomis and Mbengue are generally skilful enough to fix a tough subject with a hefty emotional hook.

OPENS NOVEMBER 14, CERT 15, 90 MINS

The alienating isolationism of the immigration debate’ is the context for this Kafka-esque tale of Paris-based Senegalese student El Hadj (Djolof Mbengue), and how an innocuous lapse on his visa thrusts him into a cycle of detention centres, court appearances and deportation proceedings.

Not quite as keen to eviscerate the state apparatus as the likes of Michael Winterbottom’s In This World, debut director Alain Gomis instead focuses on his tortured protagonist, shooting his expressive face in oppressive close-up while the intransigent Western World hovers uneasily behind. Mbengue, for his part, clearly relishes El Hadj’s transition from a naive espouser of post-colonial theory to a spirit-broken statistic, cracking his fists in rage against a shower wall.

The scenes with El Hadj’s Parisian girlfriend and the repetitive discussions on the nature of national identity become tiresome, but Gomis and Mbengue are generally skilful enough to fix a tough subject with a hefty emotional hook.

Alien—The Director’s Cut

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DIRECTED BY Ridley Scott STARRING Sigourney Weaver, John Hurt, Ian Holm, Yaphet Kotto, Hatry Dean Stanton Opened October 31, Cert 15, 115 mins Scott's franchise-launching 1979 future-shocker is one of those rare, pure, primal films that works as both highbrow modern myth and trouser-soiling midnight movie. Combining elements of horror, stalk'n'slash chase movie and sci-fi into one impeccably orchestrated space-age nightmare, Alien is a symphony in terror. Scott's new edit keeps the basic plot intact: the crew of a space mining ship pick up a chillingly grotesque face-hugging parasite on a remote planet, kicking off a deadly search-and-destroy showdown with a killer alien. Echoing its loose genesis in co-writer Dan O'Bannon's script for John Carpenter's 1974 astro-satire Dark Star, the crew's semi-improvised dialogue establishes a mood of deceptively mundane realism before all hell breaks loose. Weaver's career-making role as Ripley was originally meant to be male but switched because, she claims, audiences would not expect a woman to survive. Remixing a near-perfect cult classic demands a light touch, as Scott learnt with his ponderous Blade Runner makeover. Aside from a little extra banter between Yaphet Kotto and Harry Dean Stanton, the sole significant plot change here is the notorious "cocoon scene", in which Ripley stumbles across several of the crew in alien gestation pods. Purists have protested that this addition screws with the hive logic of James Cameron's 1986 sequel, to which there are two possible answers: (a) not necessarily, as lone aliens may still be programmed to prepare hosts for possible fertilisation; and (b) get a life, you sad fucks. Any further changes are subtle technical tweaks sharpening up pace, image and sound. Minor stuff on paper, but on the big screen Alien is reborn as a pin-sharp composition. Especially well served are HR Giger's Oscar-winning production designs, a Freudian military-industrial-Oedipal complex of tumescent starships, penile-headed beasts and moist vaginal openings. Weaver once claimed Alien is all about heterosexual man's fear of penetration, and Giger's timeless, suggestive, unnervingly organic designs certainly add an extra layer of intriguing body horror. Scott initially wanted to end the film with Ripley being decapitated. Thankfully, wiser voices prevailed. Alien remains the Geordie director's most powerful, haunting, memorably understated masterpiece.

DIRECTED BY Ridley Scott

STARRING Sigourney Weaver, John Hurt, Ian Holm, Yaphet Kotto, Hatry Dean Stanton

Opened October 31, Cert 15, 115 mins

Scott’s franchise-launching 1979 future-shocker is one of those rare, pure, primal films that works as both highbrow modern myth and trouser-soiling midnight movie. Combining elements of horror, stalk’n’slash chase movie and sci-fi into one impeccably orchestrated space-age nightmare, Alien is a symphony in terror.

Scott’s new edit keeps the basic plot intact: the crew of a space mining ship pick up a chillingly grotesque face-hugging parasite on a remote planet, kicking off a deadly search-and-destroy showdown with a killer alien. Echoing its loose genesis in co-writer Dan O’Bannon’s script for John Carpenter’s 1974 astro-satire Dark Star, the crew’s semi-improvised dialogue establishes a mood of deceptively mundane realism before all hell breaks loose. Weaver’s career-making role as Ripley was originally meant to be male but switched because, she claims, audiences would not expect a woman to survive.

Remixing a near-perfect cult classic demands a light touch, as Scott learnt with his ponderous Blade Runner makeover. Aside from a little extra banter between Yaphet Kotto and Harry Dean Stanton, the sole significant plot change here is the notorious “cocoon scene”, in which Ripley stumbles across several of the crew in alien gestation pods. Purists have protested that this addition screws with the hive logic of James Cameron’s 1986 sequel, to which there are two possible answers: (a) not necessarily, as lone aliens may still be programmed to prepare hosts for possible fertilisation; and (b) get a life, you sad fucks.

Any further changes are subtle technical tweaks sharpening up pace, image and sound. Minor stuff on paper, but on the big screen Alien is reborn as a pin-sharp composition. Especially well served are HR Giger’s Oscar-winning production designs, a Freudian military-industrial-Oedipal complex of tumescent starships, penile-headed beasts and moist vaginal openings. Weaver once claimed Alien is all about heterosexual man’s fear of penetration, and Giger’s timeless, suggestive, unnervingly organic designs certainly add an extra layer of intriguing body horror.

Scott initially wanted to end the film with Ripley being decapitated. Thankfully, wiser voices prevailed. Alien remains the Geordie director’s most powerful, haunting, memorably understated masterpiece.

My Life Without Me

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OPENS NOVEMBER 14, CERT 15, 102 MINS Ann (Sarah Polley) is 23 and works as a night cleaner. She lives in a trailer home in her mother's backyard, along with two young daughters and an unemployed husband. She also, it turns out, has inoperable cancer, and a matter of months to live. And while on pap...

OPENS NOVEMBER 14, CERT 15, 102 MINS

Ann (Sarah Polley) is 23 and works as a night cleaner. She lives in a trailer home in her mother’s backyard, along with two young daughters and an unemployed husband. She also, it turns out, has inoperable cancer, and a matter of months to live. And while on paper that might sound like Terms Of Endearment on a budget, this beautifully judged Canadian picture (produced by Pedro and Agustin Almod

Full Speed Ahead

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DIRECTED BY Jonas...

DIRECTED BY Jonas

La Trilogie

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FIRST PART OPENS NOVEMBER 14, CERT 15, 113 MINS An ambitious undertaking from actor/director Lucas Belvaux, comprising three features that together form a complete, multi-dimensional picture. Although they can be viewed in any order, the way they'll be appearing in cinemas tells the story best?crime thriller On The Run on November 14, marital comedy An Amazing Couple on November 28, and melodrama After Life on December 5. The cycle rigorously explores narrative possibilities; characters in one film are supporting players in another, while scenes recur from different perspectives. Set in the city of Grenoble, the action centres on a tight ensemble of characters whose lives are affected by the escape from prison of anarcho-terrorist Bruno (Belvaux). The tense, terse On The Run focuses solely on Bruno; After Life has a similar force but is more emotional; and the sombre screwball of An Amazing Couple is less successful but remains crucial to the complete story. Compelling and unpredictable, this amply rewards six hours of your attention.

FIRST PART OPENS NOVEMBER 14, CERT 15, 113 MINS

An ambitious undertaking from actor/director Lucas Belvaux, comprising three features that together form a complete, multi-dimensional picture. Although they can be viewed in any order, the way they’ll be appearing in cinemas tells the story best?crime thriller On The Run on November 14, marital comedy An Amazing Couple on November 28, and melodrama After Life on December 5.

The cycle rigorously explores narrative possibilities; characters in one film are supporting players in another, while scenes recur from different perspectives. Set in the city of Grenoble, the action centres on a tight ensemble of characters whose lives are affected by the escape from prison of anarcho-terrorist Bruno (Belvaux). The tense, terse On The Run focuses solely on Bruno; After Life has a similar force but is more emotional; and the sombre screwball of An Amazing Couple is less successful but remains crucial to the complete story. Compelling and unpredictable, this amply rewards six hours of your attention.

Nói Albinói

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OPENS NOVEMBER 14, CERT 15, 93 MINS In the spirit of The 400 Blows, This Boy's Life and all heartfelt, quasi-autobiographical coming-of-age tales, we have Dagur K...

OPENS NOVEMBER 14, CERT 15, 93 MINS

In the spirit of The 400 Blows, This Boy’s Life and all heartfelt, quasi-autobiographical coming-of-age tales, we have Dagur K

The Singing Detective

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OPENS NOVEMBER 14, CERT 15, 104 MINS Director Keith Gordon (and producer Mel Gibson) keenly clarify that this is not their remake, as such, of Dennis Potter's iconic 1986 TV series. Potter adapted the screenplay himself, condensing its nine hours and changing '40s Britain into '50s America. Thus the music becomes doo wop rock'n'roll (of the "At The Hop" and "Three Steps To Heaven" ilk), though the psychological traumas, flashback structure and fleeting hallucinations remain. It's an intriguing, brisk effort, but in truth Potter's writing hasn't aged well: his shock tactics have long become standard and his insights are now about as hip as Freud. Gordon seems intent on not treading on fans' toes, so while pushing things along efficiently, he's loath to bring anything fresh to the operating theatre. If this bursts into song, it's down to the cast?chiefly that man Robert Downey Jr. Though mostly hidden under layers of psorias is as Dan Dark, Downey suggests more turbulence with his eyes than Michael Gambon did. And as his all-singing alter ego, he's a vital force. Robin Wright Penn counters him perfectly as Dark's wife, Katie Holmes could never top Joanne Whalley's finest hour, and Jeremy Northam is surprisingly vicious as the cad. Brief cameos from Gibson and Adrien Brody barely register. In tune, if quietly.

OPENS NOVEMBER 14, CERT 15, 104 MINS

Director Keith Gordon (and producer Mel Gibson) keenly clarify that this is not their remake, as such, of Dennis Potter’s iconic 1986 TV series. Potter adapted the screenplay himself, condensing its nine hours and changing ’40s Britain into ’50s America. Thus the music becomes doo wop rock’n’roll (of the “At The Hop” and “Three Steps To Heaven” ilk), though the psychological traumas, flashback structure and fleeting hallucinations remain.

It’s an intriguing, brisk effort, but in truth Potter’s writing hasn’t aged well: his shock tactics have long become standard and his insights are now about as hip as Freud. Gordon seems intent on not treading on fans’ toes, so while pushing things along efficiently, he’s loath to bring anything fresh to the operating theatre. If this bursts into song, it’s down to the cast?chiefly that man Robert Downey Jr. Though mostly hidden under layers of psorias is as Dan Dark, Downey suggests more turbulence with his eyes than Michael Gambon did. And as his all-singing alter ego, he’s a vital force.

Robin Wright Penn counters him perfectly as Dark’s wife, Katie Holmes could never top Joanne Whalley’s finest hour, and Jeremy Northam is surprisingly vicious as the cad. Brief cameos from Gibson and Adrien Brody barely register. In tune, if quietly.

Cuckoo

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OPENS NOVEMBER 28, CERT 12A, 99 MINS It sounds like the first line of a national-stereotype joke: a young Finnish sniper, a weary Russian soldier and a Lapp woman are thrown together in a remote corner of Lapland just as WWII is winding down. The punchline is that none of them speak a word of the others' languages, yet somehow they forge a precarious harmony that transcends cultures and nations as they attempt to survive the coming winter. Writer-director Aleksandr Rogozhkin's nimble script generates honest comedy out of the trio's mutual misunderstandings. Occasionally the peace fractures and the Russian tries to kill the "fascist" Finn (actually a peace-loving conscript left to die by his own army). Somehow he's always saved by the Lapp's feminine intervention, which reveals its mystical powers at the end. Despite it being a three-hander set almost entirely in the Lapp's aboriginal compound beside a stunning lake, Rogozhkin generates taut drama simply out of the combustible characters themselves. Also, watch closely and you'll learn how to make handy things with twigs and cured reindeer hides.

OPENS NOVEMBER 28, CERT 12A, 99 MINS

It sounds like the first line of a national-stereotype joke: a young Finnish sniper, a weary Russian soldier and a Lapp woman are thrown together in a remote corner of Lapland just as WWII is winding down. The punchline is that none of them speak a word of the others’ languages, yet somehow they forge a precarious harmony that transcends cultures and nations as they attempt to survive the coming winter.

Writer-director Aleksandr Rogozhkin’s nimble script generates honest comedy out of the trio’s mutual misunderstandings. Occasionally the peace fractures and the Russian tries to kill the “fascist” Finn (actually a peace-loving conscript left to die by his own army). Somehow he’s always saved by the Lapp’s feminine intervention, which reveals its mystical powers at the end. Despite it being a three-hander set almost entirely in the Lapp’s aboriginal compound beside a stunning lake, Rogozhkin generates taut drama simply out of the combustible characters themselves. Also, watch closely and you’ll learn how to make handy things with twigs and cured reindeer hides.

The Mother

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OPENS NOVEMBER 14, CERT 15, 111 MINS This has had more than its share of notoriety thanks to the graphic sex scenes between sixtyish Anne Reid and Daniel Craig. But this has obscured Kureishi's real interests?the unfairness of age, and the evils family can visit on one another. When her husband dies on a trip to see their children, something snaps in May (Reid), and she insists on staying with them. She's treated as an emotional (and eventually literal) punchbag by her resentful daughter, who obsessively chases strapping builder Darren (Craig). The discovery of May's tea-and-blowjob sessions with the pliant Darren blows the family apart. Reid's shags are more appealing than anything Clint or Connery have managed lately, shattering gender prejudices. But the real shock is in the stale poisons her family have stored: director Roger Michell makes May's first visit to her son's home more hostile than the punch her daughter later unloads. It's just a shame such energy doesn't sustain longueurs elsewhere.

OPENS NOVEMBER 14, CERT 15, 111 MINS

This has had more than its share of notoriety thanks to the graphic sex scenes between sixtyish Anne Reid and Daniel Craig. But this has obscured Kureishi’s real interests?the unfairness of age, and the evils family can visit on one another.

When her husband dies on a trip to see their children, something snaps in May (Reid), and she insists on staying with them. She’s treated as an emotional (and eventually literal) punchbag by her resentful daughter, who obsessively chases strapping builder Darren (Craig). The discovery of May’s tea-and-blowjob sessions with the pliant Darren blows the family apart.

Reid’s shags are more appealing than anything Clint or Connery have managed lately, shattering gender prejudices. But the real shock is in the stale poisons her family have stored: director Roger Michell makes May’s first visit to her son’s home more hostile than the punch her daughter later unloads. It’s just a shame such energy doesn’t sustain longueurs elsewhere.

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