November Film News

Jonathan Melville takes a look at some of the films screening away from the multiplexes this month.

Feature by Jonathan Melville | 31 Oct 2008

Edinburgh Filmhouse

Skinny favourite The Fall, the visually stunning fantasy epic from director Tarsem Singh, runs until Thursday 6 Nov at the Filmhouse. Set in 1915 Los Angeles, the film starts off low key before exploding with life, defying easy categorisation.

On the top ten lists of many film critics, this month also sees a classic re-release of Italian film, The Bicycle Thieves (1948) which tells the story of a poor man searching the streets of Rome for his stolen bicycle, which he needs to be able to work.

Ending on Sunday 2 Nov, the Africa in Motion Festival screens eight films over the weekend. With 1992 horror film Dust Devil (including a discussion with director Richard Stanley) and two documentaries under the title Voices of the Bushmen showing on Saturday 1, plus dramas Barakat! and Clouds over Conakry on Sunday, there’s still time to see some much celebrated, rarely screened films.

Glasgow Film Theatre

A retrospective of acclaimed Italian director Valerio Zurlini takes place this month at the GFT (and across at the Filmhouse in Edinburgh). Zurlini collaborated with some of the biggest names in European cinema, such as Marcello Mastroianni, Claudia Cardinale and Alain Delon. There are six films being shown here, including Family Diary (9 Nov) and Black Jesus (16 Nov). The latter centres around three prisoners thrown together in jail who must endure torture in the Congo, one of whom could become a martyr if he dies.

Cameo Cinema, Edinburgh

At the Cameo there’s French film Let's Talk About the Rain, a drama revolving around Agathe Villanova (Agnes Jaoui), who returns to her home in the South of France where she is filmed as part of a new documentary…with unexpected consequences. There’s also the acclaimed biopic Hunger from artist-turned-director Steve McQueen, based on the last six weeks in the life of Irish republican hunger striker Bobby Sands. One of the more intriguing films out this month is Der Bader-Meinhoff Komplex, a look at Germany’s terrorist group The Red Army Faction (RAF).

Aberdeen Belmont Cinema

With a similar line-up to its cousin, the Cameo, Aberdeen’s Belmont will have all the above along with possible break-out hit Waltz with Bashir from 21 Nov. It’s an animated Israeli film detailing events leading up to the 1982 atrocities in Lebanon. There will also be regular screenings of new Bond flick, Quantum of Solace.

Dundee Contemporary Arts Centre

Typically eclectic in its programming mix, the DCA will be showing a number of new films you might struggle to see anywhere else. Summer of the Flying Saucer is set in Ireland in 1967 and asks what's a good catholic boy to do when the love of his life turns out to be an alien from another planet? A coming of age story about 15 year-old Danny, director Martin Duffy appears at the screening on Sat 1 Nov. Other films include Italian film Red Like the Sky and Mickybo and Me.