Cinema

New Films
Spring Breakers
Fri 19 – Thu 25 April
Boundary-pushing American writer and director
Harmony Korine (Gummo, Julien Donkey-Boy)
returns with Spring Breakers. In it he not only taps
into the undercurrent of modern day society’s
idea of the American Dream, but also lets his
audience experience the wildest, most extreme
spring break of their fantasies.
Four experimental college girls – Brit (Ashley
Benson), Candy (Vanessa Hudgens), Cotty
(Rachel Korine) and Faith (Selena Gomez, former
Disney sweetheart) – steal from their local
chicken shop and embark on the ultimate spring
break in Florida. After a heavy night of alcohol
and drugs sends them to prison, they’re bailed
out by local gangster-cum-rapper Alien (James
Franco), who promises them a trip they’ll never
forget.
Light on narrative but full of visual excess and
substance abuse (there’s no wonder it’s an 18
certificate), Spring Breakers finds Korine
constantly pushing and pulling his audience into
uncomfortable areas by blurring the boundaries
between what’s fun and what’s damaging. It’s an
insight into the dark side of a party-hard, sex
obsessed youth generation.
Yet it’s not to be taken too seriously, and
continually mocks itself. If you’re willing to throw
caution to the wind and put yourself under
Korine’s hypnotic spell, then Spring Breakers
is ludicrously entertaining 94 minute party.
It’s one not to be missed.
Dir: Harmony Korine
USA 2012 / 1h34m / Digital / 18
10 www.dca.org.uk
Rebellion
L’ordre et la morale
Fri 26 April – Thu 2 May
Just as he did with his debut film La Haine, Mathieu Kassovitz
has once again produced a strong, hard-hitting film which
sheds light on a controversial subject in France today. This
time his focus is on the role and responsibilities of the military
in former colonial states. Rebellion is based on a book by
one of the soldiers at the heart of the story: its French title
translates as Order and Morality and makes ironic reference
to the part played by powerful nations in unknown wars.
In 1988, a group of indigenous Kanaks storms a police station
on Ouvea, one of the Pacific islands that make up New
Caledonia, officially a French territory. They kill four gendarmes
and take 20 hostages. A team of elite police from the GIGN
Intervention Group, led by specialist negotiator Capitaine
Legorjus (Kassovitz), flies to the islands. However, by the time
they arrive the mission has been given to the army, who
have orders to end the uprising quickly, using any means
necessary. The French presidential elections are underway
and neither of the competing candidates, Jaques Chirac
and Francois Mitterand, wants to look weak.
A deeply personal project for Kassovitz, who spent years
gaining consent from the families of those killed in the
operation, Rebellion is a superb film. Thought-provoking and
unforgettable, it exposes the lack of respect and concern
shown by those in power for the lives affected by political
decisions made on distant shores.
Dir: Mathieu Kassovitz
France 2013 / 2h16m / Digital / 15
French with English subtitles