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| Exam | Film review This clever, low-budget British movie, reminiscent of the Canadian Cube and the Spanish Fermat's Room, is a ludic thriller in which four ambitious young women and four ruthless young men, strangers to one another, find themselves behind gun-metal desks in an austerely elegant grey bunker sitting an examination to get a top job for a prestigious, anonymous corporation. They have numbers but no names, there are strict rules that could lead to their expulsion, and each is given a pencil and a sheet of paper to answer a single question within the next 80 minutes. But they don't know the question and the sheet is blank. The tale is ingeniously developed, the suspense well maintained, and you'll think more highly of it if you have to leave five minutes before the disappointing pay-off.ThrillerPhilip Frenchguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
James Cameron rejects Avatar plagiarism claims Director James Cameron is facing claims that his 3D blockbuster Avatar owes an unacknowledged debt to the popular Soviet fantasy writers Arkady and Boris StrugatskyIt has grossed more than $1.3bn (£800m) worldwide, wowed the critics, and spawned a new generation of fans, the so-called Avatards, who have taken to painting their faces blue.But the film director James Cameron was facing claims today that his 3D blockbuster Avatar owes an unacknowledged debt to the popular Soviet fantasy writers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky.Cinema audiences in Russia have been quick to point out that Avatar has elements in common with The World of Noon, or Noon Universe, a cycle of 10 bestselling science fiction novels written by the Strugatskys in the mid-1960s.It was the Strugatskys who came up with the planet Pandora – the same name chosen by Cameron for the similarly green and lushly forested planet used as the spectacular backdrop to Avatar. The Noon Universe takes place in the 22nd century. So does Avatar, critics have noticed.And while there are clear differences between the two Pandoras, both are home to a similarly named bunch of humanoids – the Na'vi in Cameron's epic, and the Nave in Strugatskys' novels, read by generations of Soviet teenagers and space-loving scientists and intellectuals.Arkady Strugatsky died in 1991. Last week Boris, the surviving brother, said he had not yet seen Avatar, which – only four weekends after its release – has become the second-highest grossing film after Cameron's Titanic.Strugatsky, 76, appears to have shrugged off suggestions of similarities between Avatar and his Noon Universe, and denied reports circulated last week that he was accusing Cameron of plagiarism. On Monday, however, the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper devoted an entire page to the affair, and carried out its own close comparison of Avatar with the World of Noon.Both Pandoras were "warm and humid", and densely covered in trees, the paper remarked. It conceded that in the Strugatsky books two humanoid species live on Pandora, a health resort. In Avatar there is only one species.Writing on Monday in Russia's leading liberal newspaper Novaya Gazeta, the author and journalist Dmitry Bykov pointed out there were a lot of similarities. St Petersburg's communists, meanwhile, have condemned Avatar as a gung-ho rip-off of Soviet science fiction."The Na'vi are unequivocally reminiscent of the [Strugatskys'] Nave,' Bykov wrote. Speaking to the Guardian, though, Bykov said: "My point is that the film is harmful for western civilisation."Cameron has defended himself from accusations that he has borrowed from other writers in the past, a claim made after the release of his Terminator films and Titanic. He insists the idea for Avatar is an original one. He wrote an 80-page screenplay for the film back in 1994.Today one film critic said there would inevitably be similarities between Avatar and the Strugatskys' intellectually demanding novels as both were anti-utopian fantasies. The brothers' work sold millions of copies, with many reading their intricate fantasies as a thinly disguised satire on the KGB communist system."Avatar is a great technological leap forward. It's a very clever, multi-layered film, and politically highly relevant," a film critic, Yuri Gladilshikov, said. "It depicts the fate of indigenous minorities in countries such as Peru or Venezuela. And there are associations with Vietnam and the war in the jungle."Asked about the Noon Universe cycle, he said: "In any genre you can find plenty of parallels. Of course there are similarities between the Strugatskys and Cameron. But I think in this case the parallels are marginal."The Strugatskys' science fiction has inspired several high-profile movies – notably Andrei Tarkovsky's 1977 Stalker, loosely based on the brothers' novel Roadside Picnic. Another Strugastky work, The Inhabited Island – in which a 22nd-century space pilot crashes on an unknown planet, was made into a two-part film in 2008.There was no comment today from 20th Century Fox, the UK distributors.This week the film became the first since The Dark Knight two summers ago to hold on to the top spot in the US film charts for four consecutive weekends. It grossed an estimated $48.5m to boost its running total to $429m, putting it at No 7 in America's all-time box-office hits.It continues to do well around the world. After taking $143m in ticket sales last week it has grossed $906.2m internationally and has also topped the international film charts for the fourth weekend in a row. It is now in second place to Titanic in the all-time overseas chart and second in the global hall of fame with international and North American tallies combined.James CameronScience fiction and fantasyRussiaLuke Hardingguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Golden Globes bestow top honours on Avatar Avatar, which has earned $1.5bn globally, claimed best film drama and best director for James Cameron, with Meryl Streep, Robert Downey Jr, Jeff Bridges, Sandra Bullock and Martin Scorsese also picking up prizes guardian.co.uk |
Saoirse Ronan: A name to reckon with Saoirse Ronan stole the film in Atonement, and now she's at it again with The Lovely Bones. Not bad for a 15-year-old who likes to hang out with her family dog and eat crispsSaoirse Ronan turned 15 last April and runs on a different clock from the rest of us. She says she's glad she didn't start acting young, because it might have screwed her up and burnt her out. It's not as if she began acting at, say, three or something. She waited Âuntil she was eight, which was more sensible, because when you reach "our age" (she includes me in this) you at least know what you're doing, and in any case, things didn't start getting weird until a few years ago, with the Oscar nomination. "So I'm glad I'm only really starting now," she says firmly. "Because it means I can be seen as an actor as opposed to a child Âactor." With that, she wriggles forward on the couch and begins eating her spaghetti bolognese lunch.Ronan has a roiling Irish accent, gangly adolescent limbs and long, shampoo-ad hair that falls across her face. From time to time, mid-mouthful, she will refer to friends – Susan, Keira, ÂVanessa – and it takes a moment to realise that she means Sarandon, Knightley and Redgrave, all of whom she has worked with and grown close to. She was knee-high to a grasshopper when she landed a role in an Irish soap (The Clinic), and this led to her breakthrough performance as Âmeddling Briony Tallis in Atonement, which in turn carried her to within touching distance of an Academy Award. Away from the cameras, she likes to sit around, watch the telly, maybe eat a bag of crisps. There is a river at the bottom of her Âgarden where she swims in Âsummer, and a family dog, ÂSassie, with which she plays all the time. ÂSometimes she hangs out with her mates; sometimes she plays basketball. "You know," she says, "normal things."In her latest film, as luck would have it, she plays a girl similarly torn between the real world and a gaudy paradise. The Lovely Bones is based on the 2002 bestseller by Alice Sebold and spotÂlights 14-year-old Susie Salmon, a kid in 1970s Pennsylvania who is killed by the local pervert, then looks down on her family from limbo. "Susie's in the In-Between," explains her soulful little brother, and what an In-Between it is. The film is directed by Peter ÂJackson, of Lord Of The Rings fame, who goes to town on the blue-screen effects and frames Susie's afterlife as a schoolgirl fantasy, flushed and florid; a land of blooming rose Âpetals and sunflower fields; cascading waterfalls and Âgiant turntables that you ride like a carousel. For good measure, Jackson also crops up for a Hitchcockian cameo as a hirsute customer in the local camera store. "I think Pete wants to be an actor," Ronan says. "He wants to be famous!" But she's only teasing.Ronan was so good in Atonement, arguably the best thing in it, because she gave us the sort of child rarely seen in films. Her Briony Tallis was neither a bad seed nor a clamouring cutey-pie. Instead, she was pensive, watchful and complicated; wise beyond her years, though crucially not quite wise enough to read the nuances of adult sexuality. Some viewers found her unsympathetic, which annoyed the actor, who insists she is an innocent who waded out of her depth. "People say Briony's a bitch, and she's not. She's not vindictive or spiteful. It's just that she doesn't express her Âemotions; she just sits and observes everything, whereas Susie is much more out there. She's more your typical teenager, running about in the world, disgusted when she sees her parents kissing." On balance, Ronan is probably more like Susie than Briony. "It wouldn't be healthy if I were like Briony."Ronan's background proves quite the mish-mash. I've read that she was born in New York to an actor father who carried her, as a babe in arms, to the set of The Devil's Own, where she met Brad Pitt. The bald biography makes her sound like a dyed-in-the-wool showbiz brat. But in converÂsation there is something rough-edged about her; an unschooled, irrepressible quality that doesn't go with the script. Besides, she was born in the Bronx, not the Upper East Side, and moved to County Carlow when she was three. Inevitably, her memories of those early years are sketchy. "Unimportant things. I remember my dad's friend showing me a little spider in a box that shook its legs, and me getting scared. That, and going to Toys R Us. My mam used to drive me to this huge Toys R Us store outside town. Not to buy anything, but just as an outing, to look at things." She has no memory of meeting Brad Pitt.Ronan explains that her parents, Paul and ÂMonica, had moved to New York because things were bad at home in Ireland. He worked in Âconstruction and then as a barman, she as a nanny. I tell her this all sounds like some 19th-century novel about immigrants coming to ÂAmerica. "I know!" she says, and maps out the opening lines. "He was a barman and she was a nanny! And times were tough!"Anyway, she continues, what happened was that her dad was tending bar when he met an old Irish actor called Chris O'Neill ("He's not here any more") who convinced him to audition for some stage roles, and one thing led to another until the bar's owner said, "You've got to decide. Do you want to be a barman or do you want the acting shit?" Paul Ronan replied, "The acting shit.""I don't come from a family that has money," she says. "Maybe that's why this stuff doesn't bother me. They had to struggle for a long time, and then this happened and things are Âbetter." She gestures vaguely at the hotel room, but I think she is referring to the broader picture; the "acting shit". The TV gigs, movie roles and Oscar nomination that brought her to Hollywood, even though she knew she wasn't going to win. She was just too young; it wasn't her time.From the outside, Ronan's life looks to me Âalmost as Âunreal as Susie Salmon's afterlife. But, she insists, it doesn't feel that way to her. Of course it has its oddball aspects. She is not keen on press conferences and premieres, especially the first one in Venice, for Atonement, when Âeveryone was screaming for Knightley and she feared they might get lynched. Neither is she Âespecially Âcomfortable being recognised in the street, which happens a lot in Ireland. "I find that hard to deal with, though I don't have it as bad as the Twilight people or the Harry Potter kids. But it is weird, Âespecially after doing a film like this one. If I Ânotice that a guy is looking at me – a man – I think, 'Is this a really weird guy staring at me, or does he just recognise me from a film?' "Until recently she attended Kilkenny College, a Protestant boarding school in the south-east of Ireland. Now she is home-schooled. "The reason was teachers giving me a hard time. Teachers and students." She pulls a face. "Some of the students were, you know, mean. But I only stayed a while. It wasn't really working out. You know, the school is a good school and the people who go there are good people. But when your schoolmates Ârecognise you before they've met you, and the teachers do, too, it can make things very awkward and Âdifficult." She shrugs it off. "It's a shame."I suspect she'll be OK, if only because she is too likable not to find a world that suits her. In any case, she is not prepared to give up on formal Âeducation yet. Her mum left school at 15 ("Trouble with the nuns") and her dad didn't last much longer. Their daughter, by contrast, has plans to study film at NYU. "ÂCollege is different from school. Isn't it?" I assure her that it is, or at least it was for me. "That's right. People are there because they want to be, and you can choose what you want to study. So it's very different."In the meantime, there are busy months ahead. Ronan recently Âcompleted work on The Way Back, a war drama by Peter Weir, and is due to shoot a new movie in the spring that she would love to tell me about but can't, even though she is clearly itching to, because it isn't finalised. On top of that, there's the long round of promotion for The Lovely Bones, which will take her to Tokyo and then America; a necessary part of the Oscar campaign. Ideally, of course, she'd like a bit more time at home, to watch TV, read her book (The Diary Of Anne Frank) or hang with friends. Plus, Sassie is getting to be an old dog – he's pushing 12 – and time is precious.Our own time, it transpires, is almost up. I Âconfess I have a silly question to end on and she groans because she thinks she knows what it is. "Do you have a boyfriend?" she flutes in a coy Âfalsetto. "Do you have a boyfriend? Ah God, don't ask me that. It's so annoying when people ask me that."No, that wasn't it. Never ask a 15-year-old whether they have a boyfriend or girlfriend; it's mortifying for all concerned. Instead, my dumb question is about the pronunciation of her name, Saoirse, and all the garbled variations she must have heard. Oh right, she says, a little deflated. Well, she has been called Cerise and Sor-cha, and Seraki, too. "You actually say it Â'Sairsha'," she adds helpfully. "But you can also say it ÂSersha, or Seersha – both are OK." She rolls her eyes heavenÂward. "But, yeah, it happens all the time. They even spelled it wrong on the Golden Globes poster for ÂAtonement. On the Golden Globes poster they got it wrong! ÂSarise Ronan, they called me." Next time, I think, they'll get it right.• The Lovely Bones is released on 19 February.Peter JacksonOscarsKeira KnightleyTelevisionLord of the RingsXan Brooksguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Mel Gibson returns to screen after 71/2 years LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The last time Mel Gibson starred in a movie, he was grappling with alien invaders and a misplaced faith in the sci-fi thriller "Signs."... hosted.ap.org |