Limelight
Free Fire Ben Wheatley
United Kingdom, 2016, colour, DCP, 90', English Prod: Andrew Starke Prod Comp: Film4 Sc: Amy Jump, Ben Wheatley Cam: Laurie Rose Ed: Amy Jump, Ben Wheatley Prod des: Paki Smith Sound des: Martin Pavey Music: Geoff Barrow, Ben Salisbury With: Brie Larson, Sharlto Copley, Armie Hammer, Cillian Murphy, Jack Reynor Sales: Protagonist Pictures Distr NL: Splendid Film Sat 28-1 21:45 Cinerama 1 d.s. Mon 30-1 18:30 Schouwburg GZ d.s. Wed 1-2 22:00 KINO 1 d.s. Sat 4-2 19:30 Schouwburg GZ d.s.
Anyone who deals in weapons knows it’s a risky business. Particularly when it becomes apparent both buyers and sellers are a bunch of hotheads with itchy trigger fingers. In Boston in 1978, two groups of criminals meet in a remote factory to complete an arms deal. They hope for a smooth transfer, but the moment two freaked-out brawlers from rival groups get into a quarrel, everyone starts shooting. In the chaotic hail of bullets, curses and one-liners, all the gangsters do their best to survive the night, including a beautiful young woman who at first tried to calm everyone down. Those still standing after this retro shoot-out try to escape with the money. After the alienating crime comedy Sightseers (2012) and his famed film version of J.G. Ballard’s dystopian novel High-Rise (2015), British cult filmmaker Ben Wheatley returns with a criminally good action film.
Night of a 1000 Hours Die Nacht der 1000 Stunden Virgil Widrich
Austria/Belgium/Netherlands/ Luxembourg, 2016, colour, DCP, 92', German Prod: Alexander Dumreicher Ivanceanu, Bady Minck, Raphael Barth Prod Comp: Amour Fou, Minotaurus Film, Golden Girls Filmproduktion & Filmservices, KeyFilm Sc: Virgil Widrich Cam: Christian Berger Ed: Pia Dumont Prod des: Christina Schaffer Sound des: Michel Schillings Music: Siegfried Friedrich With: Laurence Rupp, Amira Casar, Barbara Petritsch, Elisabeth Rath, Linde Prelog, Johann Adam Oest, Lukas Miko Sales: Picture Tree International Distr NL: September Film Thu 26-1 18:30 Pathé 6 Fri 27-1 21:45 LantarenVenster 1 Sun 29-1 13:00 Doelen JZ d.s. Wed 1-2 13:30 Schouwburg GZ d.s. Press & Industry Fri 3-2 10:15 Cinerama 4
Just before mother is to transfer the family business and the accompanying imposing mansion to her son, she collapses. This is fortunate for her other son because he is in danger of losing out owing to his far-right sympathies. Yet her death turns out to be not as final as hoped; as she signs her will a little later, other dead relatives appear. Everyone apart from Hermann Ullich, the head of the family, who died in 1945 in Vienna in a bombing raid. At least, that’s what people thought. During a long night, more and more indications emerge that history actually took a very different course. Virgil Widrich, whose previous feature Heller als der Mond (2000) had its premiere in Rotterdam competing for a Tiger Award, does not allow himself to be hemmed in by something as banal as reality in this lighthearted murder mystery. Dead people walk into the room as if they have never been away. How passé is the past?, the film seems to ask. There are certainly a couple of old political ghosts that have certainly not yet come to rest.
25 January – 5 February 2017
127