Boxoffice-November.2001

DISCO PIGS
EDINBURGH REVIEWS
***l/2
Starring Elaine Cassidy, Cillian Murphy,
Eleanor Methven and Geraldine O'Rawe.
Directed by Kirsten Sheridan. Written hy
Enda Walsh. Produced by Ed Guiney. No
distributor set. Drama. Not yet rated.
Running time: 91 min.
Boasting a dazzling screenplay, confident
performances and a fantastic soundtrack
featuring cuts from both Primal
Scream and Death In Vegas, Kirsten
Sheridan's feature debut "Disco Pigs,"
adapted by Enda Walsh from his own
award-winning play, is one of the most
unusual, affecting teen romances in recent
years.
A boy and a girl are born within seconds
of each other in the same hospital.
Laid side by side in their cots, they form an
instant bond and become inseparable from
that point onward. Growing up in adjoining
houses (they hold hands during the
night through a hole in the wall that
Elaine Cassidy and Cillian Murphy are joined at the hip
(and seemingly at the head in this photo) in "Disco Pigs:
divides them). Pig (Cillian Murphy) and
Runt (Elaine Cassidy) experience everything
together. They are partners in crime,
brother and sister, "King and Queen of
Pork City." They live for each other and
nothing—or no one—else. They even
share their own unique language. Days
before they turn 17, they kiss for the first
time, and then the unthinkable happens:
They are separated and forced to live life
on their own.
"Disco Pigs" is a distinctive debut, centred
around the hypnotic partnership of
the glassy-eyed Murphy (who played the
same role in the original stage version and
who also contributes a moving, selfpenned
song to the film's soundtrack) and
•**
SEANCE (KO-REI)
Starring Koji Yakusho, Jun Fubuki,
Teuyoshi Kusanagi and Ittoku Kishibe.
Directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa. Written by
Tetsuya Ohishi and Kiyoshi Kurosawa.
Produced by Atsuyuki Simoda. No distributor
set. DramalHorror. Japanese-language;
subtitled. Not yet rated. Running time: 95
the endearing Cassidy (previously seen in
Atom Egoyan's "Felicia's Journey," and
Nicole Kidman's co-star in Alejandro
SCRATCH
Starring Afrika Bambaataa, Jazzy Jay,
Amenabar's "The Others").
Mix Master Alike and Q-Bert. Directed by
The unique, obsessive relationship Doug Pray. Produced by Brad Blondhcim
depicted is at times touching, at others and Ernest Maza. No distributor set. Documentary.
I 'mated. Running time: SS min.
troubling, in its intensity. With this fine
balance between romance and danger. Give it up for Doug Pray's "Scratch,"
"Disco Pigs" gains an effective edge. Stars an enerj energizing, intoxicating documentary
Murphy and Cassidy should be watched charting
closelj and Sheridan's second movie is era] and
awaited with unusually high expectations. lism) in
— Chris Wiegand Gang's s
.ill "Rapper's Delight'
142 (R-130) BOXOFFICE
min.
—
"I can't shake this creepy feeling," murmurs
one of the leads during prolific
Japanese director and festival favorite
Kiyoshi Kurosawa's latest feature. Once
the credits role, you're likely to feel just the
same: "Seance" is a minimalist, measured
suspense with real spooky appeal.
The story comes from a novel written by
Mark McShane, which also inspired the
'60s feature "Seance On A Wet Afternoon."
Junco (Jun Fubuki) is a waitress with a special
gift for communicating with spirits. She
dreams of developing her talent and
becoming a famous medium, but her gift
has done a disservice to her
relationship with her husband,
Koji (Koji Yakusho), a
TV and film sound recordist.
When a young girl from their
town is kidnapped, a psychology
student requests
Junco's help. Incredibly, the
girl escapes her kidnapper
and, fleeing through the
woods, comes across Koji's
equipment case (he is at
work in the woods), which
provides the perfect hiding
later dis-
place. When she is
covered by the couple, ambition
rears its head and Junco
devises a plan that will bring
her recognition for her powers. But the
scheme falls apart and both she and Koji
soon find themselves increasingly involved
with a world neither can begin to fully
understand.
With a screenplay that was co-written
by Kurosawa and Tetsuya Ohishi,
"Seance" is a minor triumph—an intelligent,
mature thriller with sympathetically
drawn central characters. Displaying an
apparent debt to both Nic Roeg's "Don't
Look Now" and Hideo Nakata's "Ringu,"
"Seance" serves up some potent imagery.
Impressively, as it twists and turns towards
its painfully inevitable conclusion, it plays
as much as a marital drama as a horror
story. Chris Wiegand
**•
—
its starting point, Pray's film follows the
growing importance of the DJ at the tail
end of the 20th century, doing well to
place the expertise of luminaries like
Afrika Bambaataa, Mix Master Mike, DJ
Premier and Jazzy Jay within their proper
historical context.
Pray manages to maintain the pace of
the film's upbeat opening throughout its
full running time, intelligently using his
medium to underline the message, as the
scratching is married with some particularly
schizophrenic editing. Plenty of time is
devoted to the tricks of those DJs in the
know and it is during the footage of the
men at work (and particularly at competition
with each other in the famed DJ battles)
that the film really comes alive.
The DJs reflect on their dedication to
the art form, from their first mixing experiences
through to the hours of rehearsal
spent honing their craft on the wheels of
steel. For hip-hop lovers, appearances
from such a wide number of DJs (the
Filipino legend DJ Q-Bert and DJ
Shadow, the man behind the music for
Marc Singer's "Dark Days," also appear)
will no doubt be a selling point, but the
film is far more than a "rapper's delight."
For those more in tune with Classical or
Country & Western, "Scratch" is nevertheless
a fascinating portrait of an important
American art—and one that demystifies
the different roles played by the DJ and the
MC, as well as accompanying phenomena
such as graffiti art and break-dancing. In
short, Pray delivers everything you ever
wanted to know about scratching but were
perhaps afraid to ask. Chris Wiegand
THE STATE I AM IN (DIE INNERE
SICHERHEIT) ***i/2
Starring Julia Hummer, Barbara Alter,
Richy Mutter, Bilge Bingiil and Rogerio
Jaques. Directed by Christian Petzold.
Written by Christian Petzold and Harm
Farocki. Produced by Florian Koerner von
Gustorf. No distributor set. Drama.
German-language; subtitled. Not yet rated.
Running time: 106 min.
A tense, slow-burning drama steeped in
paranoia, Chritian Petzold's "The State I
Am In" covers similar territory to Sidney
Lumet's "Running On Empty." Like
Lumet's film, it features strong performances
from the younger cast members
and also has an honest, cliche-free script,
co-written by Petzold himself.
Jeanne (newcomer Julia Hummer) is
the 15-year-old daughter of two former
terrorists (played by Petzold regular Richy
Miiller, star of the director's previous features
"Cuba Libre" and "Die
Beischlafdiebin," and award-winning
actress Barbara Auer). Constantly on the
move, attempting to stay one step ahead of
the authorities. Jeanne's parents are forced
to deny her the kind of existence she
dreams of that of a normal teenage girl.
Their strict and distrusting nature leads
her to seek solace in smoking and shoplift-