| John Woodward to join LoveFilm owner Woodward, who quit as council's chief executive last month, appointed managing director of venture capital firm Arts AllianceThe former head of the UK Film Council John Woodward is to join media venture capital company Arts Alliance as managing director.Woodward, who quit as chief executive following the coalition government's announcement that it was scrapping the council, becomes the top man at a firm that includes the LoveFilm online film service amongst its portfolios. It also founded the Met Film School, which offers film-related degree courses to students from around the world, and has backed companies such as City Screen, the UK's largest independent cinema operator.Woodward announced his resignation from the UK Film Council last month, in order, he said, to leave himself "unconflicted" in discussions over the future of British film following the organisation's abolition. "By choosing to make my position clear now, I can be objective and unconflicted throughout that process," he said at the time.Thomas Høegh, founder of Arts Alliance, said Woodward's industry experience – he was director of the British Film Institute from 1998 to 1999 – would help identify new investment and business development opportunities for the firm."John has helped to build a successful British film industry," said Høegh. "His deep understanding of the sector and his ability to nurture growth opportunities will enable Arts Alliance to build new companies and expand its media portfolio in the years ahead."Woodward said: "I am delighted to be joining the team at Arts Alliance, where Thomas has created one of Europe's most entrepreneurial investment houses in the rapidly changing media industry."UK Film CouncilFilm industryBen Childguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Have you heard the new Elgar? The miniature song Owls: An Epitaph – halting, dissonant, weird – is the most powerful corrective I know to the image of Elgar as moustachioed imperialist. Listen and tell me what you thinkA quick Elgar discovery for the weekend, after a sneak preview of John Bridcut's film about the composer, Elgar: The Man Behind the Mask, scheduled to be broadcast on BBC4 on 12 November. Bridcut creates some striking scenes with some great Elgarians – Colin Davis, Edward Gardner, Anthony Payne, Michael Kennedy, David Owen Norris – listening to their favourite Elgar works. A simple idea, but it's moving to see the sunlit magic of the soloist's first notes in the Violin Concerto reflected in Colin Davis's smile, or Michael Kennedy's rapt contemplation as he hears the raw melancolia of Sospiri. Most revelatory of all, at least for me, was watching Mark Elder listen to Elgar's Owls: An Epitaph (one of the Op 27 part-songs) for the first time. He thinks it's a practical joke, because the music is fragmentary, halting, dissonant and weird. It was the first time I'd heard this piece, too, and it's the strangest three minutes of Elgar I've ever heard. This miniature song is the most powerful corrective I know to the idea of Elgar as moustachioed imperialist, an image the composer himself was at such pains to promote for posterity, but has actually done such damage to his music's reputation. Such was Elgar's concern for his posthumous PR, he even asked to be photographed on his deathbed, a photograph of marmoreal monumentality. The text of Owls, a meditation on "nothing", is by Elgar himself. But nothing prepares you for the modernist shock of his music. The whole text of Owls: An Epitaph is here, along with a score of the piece for voice and piano; and here is a haunting performance of this visionary music, sung by the Cambridge University Chamber Choir.Classical musicDocumentaryTom Serviceguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Raiders of the Lost Ark: No 11 Steven Spielberg, 1981What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Raiders of the Lost Ark? The hat? The theme tune? The weird Chinese boy whose presence hasn't really dated very well? No, not that last one, he was in the next film. But the point is this: Raiders of the Lost Ark, the film that introduced Indiana Jones to a grateful planet, was born a fully formed classic. The film is almost perfect, right from its gloriously protracted opening all the way to its ironic, almost downbeat ending. Dreamed up in the all too brief post-Empire Strikes Back/pre-Howard the Duck golden era of George Lucas's career, Indiana Jones was envisioned as a freewheeling homage to pulpy wartime serials like The Lone Ranger and Hawk of the Wilderness. The casting of Harrison Ford was nothing short of a masterstroke – allowing him to play a more conventional hero than he'd been able to in Star Wars, but still leaving plenty of room for his world-weary cynicism. Raiders of the Lost Ark is a film from a different era; a Boys-Own era when you were still allowed to have cartoonish Nazis for villains and the phrase "produced by George Lucas" didn't inspire sleepless nights and palpitations. There's romance, there's adventure, there are world-class death scenes and there's definitely no sign of Shia LaBeouf getting chased about by some big ants in the jungle.Action and adventureSteven SpielbergHarrison FordGeorge LucasStuart Heritageguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
The greatest horror films of all time Horror crashes through boundaries and challenges the prohibitions of taste and thinkability in a way few other genres can matchHorror crashes through boundaries and challenges the prohibitions of taste and thinkability in a way few other genres can match. Classics of the genre were produced in cinema's very earliest days – the vampire nightmare Nosferatu and The Cabinet of Dr Caligari from the world of German Expressionism. Later, Universal Pictures had smash hits with iconic versions of Dracula, The Wolf Man and Frankenstein. Roger Corman's movies would demonstrate the sheer trashy power of horror, and Hitchcock tapped into this B-picture aesthetic with his own low-budget masterpiece, Psycho, which popularised the psychological horror film, taking the genre away from its supernatural roots – although William Friedkin's masterpiece, The Exorcist, took it right back there again. Horror has potently mixed with other genres and Halloween and Nightmare On Elm Street showed how horror can be a cash-cow franchise, a lesson demonstrated once again by the stomach-turning Saw series. Horror demonstrates the Guignol potential of cinema and the brutal way it can toy with the viewer.HorrorPeter Bradshawguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
The Human Centipede: the bottom line No time to watch Tom Six's stomach-turning tale of drugged tourists stitched mouth-to-anus? Paul MacInnes's condensed screenplay trims away the fatThe Human CentipedeBy Paul MacInnes, with apologies to Tom SixSCENE 1INT – The single-storey home of DR DIETER LASER. It's a typical German house: MODERNIST design, decent-sized garden, HIGH-SECURITY OPERATING THEATRE in the basement. DR LASER, a drawn, elderly surgeon is standing in his sitting room showing two lost American tourists, ASHLEY C WILLIAMS and ASHLYNN YENNIE, a presentation on his OVERHEAD PROJECTOR.DR LASER: Und this ist mich – ze most famous surgeon of Siamese twins in ze entire welt – mit my pet Muttie, playink in a park.ASHLEY C WILLIAMS: But that dog! It has [counts on her fingers] three heads!DR LASER: Oh, zat? Ist just a trick of ze light. [Dr Laser changes the slide] And hier ist mein dear dear kitten, Vati. As you can see, she is tryink to get her paws into ze cookie jar!ASHLYN YENNIE: But ... but ... she has sixteen paws!DR LASER: Und vot of it? [He quickly clicks on to the next slide, showing fifteen chimpanzees stitched together at the chest] Look! Monkey accordion!Dr Laser chuckles to HIMSELF. He turns to the girls expectantly. They both look afraid.DR LASER: Hey, why the long faces! Let's haf a drink. Rohypnols all round!YENNIE AND WILLIAMS [shocked]: Rohypnol?!DR LASER [innocent]: Ach, you must know. Ist ein sehr famous wine from das Rhine!YENNIE AND WILLIAMS [relieved]: Oh!DR LASER: FĂĽr sure after just ein glass, you'll never touch anozzer drink!SCENE 2EXT – Germany. The front garden of Dr Laser's home. Dr Laser, carrying a FLY SWATTER, is tottering across the lawn behind his latest BIOLOGICAL CUT'N'SHUT. Yes, it's THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE – which makes it sound more glamorous than what it is: essentially three people stitched together mouth-to-anus. Our American tourists form two-thirds of the centipede and probably regret asking for that SECOND ROHYPNOL.DR LASER: At last, mein dream hast come truelich! A creature mit eins shared alimentary tract! Why haf I invented it? I do not haf das foggiest, but ze Human Centipede is here! Now to get me ein big sponsorship deal mit Nike!The head of the centipede is a young Japanese man, AKIHIRO KITAMURA. It is fair to say he's not entirely happy with his lot.AKIHIRO KITAMURA [in Japanese]: You crazy Nazi!DR LASER: Ich really don't understand a word, mein Oriental freund. Would you like a biscuit? Put ein paw in the air fĂĽr yes, zwei fĂĽr no.Dr Laser bends towards Kitamura to get his answer. Kitamura BITES A CHUNK out of Dr Laser's foot.KITAMURA [to his fellow 'pedes, in Japanese]: Come on, let's run for it!The HUMAN CENTIPEDE rises and makes for the exit as fast as it can. However, their fast is everyone else's EXCRUCIATINGLY SLOW. Fortunately, Dr Laser is EVEN SLOWER.DR LASER [shuffling feebly]: Nein! Come back! Nein!SCENE 2INT – Dr Laser's indoor swimming pool. The slowest chase scene in the HISTORY OF CINEMA continues. It's like watching an episode of Benny Hill on HORSE TRANQUILISERS.DR LASER [out of breath]:When I get mein hands on you I vill ...KITAMURA: Just try it you Teuton! Oh, hang on. I think I've got a little wind.KITAMURA pulls a face that can only mean one thing: BOWEL MOVEMENT. The chase stops. DR LASER smiles. The girls' eyes widen, horribly.KITAMURA: Why oh why did I eat that chilli beef!Suddenly the pool doors smash open. In stride TWO POLICEMEN, both looking like they haven't slept since attending a HAWKWIND concert in 1974.POLICEMAN 1 [at DR LASER]: Putten sie down the fly swat, Dr Laser!DR LASER [still out of breath]: Nein! Du will never take ich alife!Dr Laser pulls a CONCEALED RIFLE out from under a sun lounger and shoots Policeman 1. But before he can fire again, Policeman 2 shoots Dr Laser dead. Laser sits there, immobile and grinning, like he's auditioning for a role in CONCEPTUAL VIDEO ART.POLICEMAN 2 [to the centipede]: At last, it's all over. Are you OK?KITAMURA: Do I look OK, kartoffeln-features?POLICEMAN 2 [patting Kitamura on the head like a dog]: Yes, yes, I know. Now, about the future. Have you ever heard of Britain's Got Talent?HorrorPaul MacInnesguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |