ABRAHAM meandered too much, and Jacob fell completely flat. Things started looking up with the epic Joseph, and now, with the brisk Moses under its belt, it would appear that ‘The Bible Collection’ has finally hit its stride. And what a fast pace it is, too: Moses opens with a quick montage to show how this Hebrew came to grow up in the Egyptian palace and then it squeezes Exodus and Numbers into a mere three hours while skipping Leviticus... Read more
Mike Leigh’s films are a paradoxical mix of tight directorial control and letting the chips fall where they may. He begins each film by gathering a cast around a basic premise, then getting the actors to improvise a storyline. But once a character’s next move has been determined, everything is scripted, rehearsed and executed with exacting precision. The result is an extremely professional work in which neither you nor the filmmakers ever quite know what’s going to happen next. (more…) Read more
Date: October 8, 1996Place: Hotel Vancouver, Vancouver International Film Festival Peter T. Chattaway: You seem to have a great sense of humour, and there is precious little of it in the film. Would you say the film [Battle for the Minds] is characteristic of you in some way? Steven Lipscomb: It’s really funny that you say that, because I think there’s actually humour all the way through this film. It’s very subtle, because of the nature of the material we’re... Read more
“I think all minority audiences watch movies with hope. They hope they will see what they want to see. That’s why nobody really sees the same movie.” — screenwriter Arthur Laurents As a Christian and a film critic, I am often frustrated by the misunderstanding that exists between filmmakers and Christian watchdog organizations such as Movieguide. Yes, it is true that Christians often don’t get a fair shake in the mass media. But Christians have not done a particularly good... Read more
• Abraham, Warner Alliance, 1993, dir. Joseph Sargent. • Jacob, Warner Alliance, 1994, dir. Peter Hall. • Joseph, Warner Alliance, 1995, dir. Roger Young. BIBLE MOVIES refer so often to “the God of our fathers” it’s surprising at first to discover just how little attention films have paid to the patriarchs. There are several reasons for this. Most biblical life stories are made up of disconnected episodes that do not easily conform to the structure of a two- or three-hour... Read more
PTC: Just so you know, I write for both the UBC student paper and a Christian paper as well, so I’m something of a journalistic double agent. MS: Oh good! The more the merrier! PTC: I saw you perform at Greenbelt in 1994. How did you find the experience? MS: I enjoyed it. I played there because I know a guy named Martin Wroe, he’s one of the organizers. He and I are both lovers of the island Iona, and... Read more
FILM 432 February 27, 1996 Robert Amram’s film Read more
On paper, it looked like such a good idea. Back when they were still unknown, four independent directors — Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez (El Mariachi), Allison Anders (Gas Food Lodging) and Alexandre Rockwell (In the Soup) — agreed to tell four different stories set in a hotel on New Year’s Eve, with a bellboy (Tim Roth) as their only link. With the one-two punch success of Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, Four Rooms became an opportunity for the others to... Read more
At first From Dusk Till Dawn looks like it might strike a balance between Quentin Tarantino’s savvy scriptwriting and the kinetic camerawork and adrenaline editing that are Robert Rodriguez’s forte. Indeed, the opening shoot-out, which segues smoothly from snappy dialogue to airborne hemoglobin, is a masterful fusion of talents. But after that, their styles prove to be as insoluble as oil and water. This is not one movie but two half-movies; one might call it Two Rooms. The defining moment... Read more
THE MAKERS of Priest claim that their film is meant to be a catalyst for change within the Catholic church, but their confrontational approach does more harm than good to their cause. Worse, they have mounted the assault on too many fronts at once. In the space of 100 minutes, Priest tries to address issues as diverse as homosexuality, celibacy, the secrecy of the confessional, child abuse, liberation theology, the problem of evil … even a pinch of animal rights.... Read more
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