To celebrate the release of the new Martin Scorcese / Leonardo DiCaprio psychological thriller, Shutter Island, we count down the top 5 movies featuring the clinically insane!
5. Girl Interrupted (1991)
Set in the sixties, Girl Interrupted is a somber drama about Susanna Kaysen (Winona Ryder) – who ‘voluntarily’ checks into Claymoore Hospital after a failed suicide attempt. She befriends some genuinely afflicted patients, amongst them is a pathological liar, an anorexic and a self-harmer. However, it’s Angelina Jolie as the diagnosed sociopath, Lisa Rowe, that Susanna finds herself drawn to. Together they upset their fellow patients by getting into all sorts of trouble. The film was criticized for its sappy delivery of a clichéd female coming-of-age story, which was more about misunderstood teenage angst and less about the complicated inner lives young people face with mental illness. Nevertheless, Jolie won an Oscar for best supporting actress portraying the rebellious and abusive playmate.
Memorable Quote: “Have you ever confused a dream with life? Or stolen something when you have the cash? Have you ever been blue? Or thought your train moving while sitting still? Maybe I was just crazy. Maybe it was the 60’s. Or maybe I was just a girl… interrupted.”
4. Session 9 (2001)
Session 9 is an intelligent take on the horror genre that doesn’t rely on cheap shocks or gruesome special effects to create a deeply disturbing and slow burning psychological thriller.
The film is set in the Danvers State Hospital, Massachusetts. An unashamedly Scottish Peter Mullan leads his crew of hazmat workers to clear the aforementioned condemned building of asbestos. After they stumble upon a collection of sinister taped interviews from former patients, the claustrophobic and dark rooms of the asylum begin to take on a life of their own. Sporting a great cast that includes David Caruso, Paul Guilfoyle and Josh Lucas, the scenery is truly chewed to pieces as the tension ratchets and an unseen assailant starts picking-off the crew one by one. Most critics at the time rightly praised the film’s dark and creepy atmosphere that was low on gore and high on bum-hole-tightening tension.
Memorable Quote: “Satanic Ritual Abuse Syndrome. It was big in the ’80s.”
3. 12 Monkeys (1995)
Terry Gilliam dazzles us with this bat-shit-crazy story of time travel, terrorism and world-ending flu pandemics. Inspired by the French short film La Jetée, 12 Monkeys depicts the world in 2035 devastated by a disease that forced the surviving human population to live underground.
Convict James Cole (Bruce Willis) volunteers for time travel duty to gather information and when he first arrives in the past, Cole is arrested and understandably locked up in a psychiatric hospital. Here he meets Jeffrey Goines, the insane son of a world-renowned virologist and certified loon, played with twitch-perfect eccentricity by Brad Pitt. Cole’s sanity is truly tested while incarcerated and the poor bastard has to deal with a WWII bullet in the leg, telephone calls to the future, Jeffery’s insane and psychotic ramblings and the need to eat live spiders for ‘evidence’. Visually arresting, satisfyingly sci-fi and with neat logic to the madness, this film stands out as Gilliam’s finest work to date.
Memorable Quote: “…and if you forget one thing, I will have you shaved, sterilized, and destroyed!”
2. Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Deep breath…
Young Girl has nightmares about lambs. Girl trains with FBI and joins a specialist unit for studying fruit cakes. Girl interviews serial killer in an asylum who is the fruitiest of all the cakes. Fruit Cake discusses eating people and the joys of fine wine. Girl cons Fruit Cake to help catch a Cowboy serial killer who has kidnapped a Senator’s daughter. Cowboy likes to wear dresses made of human skin. Fruit Cake isn’t stupid, begins a game of “quid pro quo” and starts to use Girl for his own amusement. The analyst becomes the analysed and the Fruit Cake enjoys messing with the Girl’s head. Fruit Cake reveals the identity of the Cowboy before eating someone’s face and escaping with an improvised disguise. Girl tracks down Cowboy at his creepy residence complete with hidden dungeon. Girl faces off with Cowboy in the dark and shoots him. Fruit Cake phones girl for a quick gloat before walking off into the sunset. The End.
Memorable Quote: “A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.”
1. One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest (1975)
Oh come on, what else were you expecting?! An undeniable classic. Simply put, this is a timeless, culturally important and down right entertaining piece of movie history. If you didn’t know, Jack Nicholson plays McMurphy: a sane, if not naive, rebellious recidivist who charms his way into a mental asylum for an easy life where he can live out his sentence for statutory rape. He soon finds living in the hospital difficult and frustrating being surrounded by the genuinely odd and disturbed patients. Match him off against one of celluloid’s all time great antagonists, Nurse Ratchett (Oscar winner Louise Fletcher), and you’ve got a captivating tale that culminates in an attempted escape to Canada. With too many classic scenes to mention (the impromptu boat trip being a particular highlight) the success of this film is thanks to a fantastic script, great direction and an outstanding supporting cast.
Memorable Quote: “In one week, I can put a bug so far up her ass, she don’t know whether to shit or wind her wristwatch.”
Andrew Moore reports from the Belfast Film Festival press launch as the critically acclaimed festival returns to the city…
As the home grown stars and press descend upon Belfast’s Black Box to witness the launch of the city’s 10th Film Festival, running from 15th – 30th April, as a genuine lover of all things cinema, you can’t help but be elated how the event has transformed over the past decade.
Starting originally as a small element within the west of the city the has now become a main cultural fixture in the Northern Ireland calendar. Belfast might be an ever changing city, but what has not changed is its everlasting love affair with the cinema.
Lord Mayor of Belfast, Naomi Long, commented: “The Belfast Film Festival has grown to become a flagship annual event in the city’s calendar. It promotes our city and its people on both an international and national stage, and its reputation for innovation and creativity is widely regarded. The city of Belfast is extremely proud of these achievements and we look forward to the 20th, 30th and 40th birthday celebrations and beyond.”
The BFF once again continues to showcase the filmmaking talent coming out of Northern Ireland, with world premieres of locally made productions such as Empire – a film set in Belfast, shot over three years on a zero budget and loosely based on the Greek myth of Orpheus.
Other premieres include Five Day Shelter, starring BAFTA nominated John Lynch, a highly visual drama interweaving the lives of several characters in a contemporary urban setting over five days.
While indie cinema fans, of the weird and wonderful, are bound to be excited by Colin McIvor’s directorial debut, Cupcake, which tells the tale of a man who inherits his parent’s bakery which promises to be a visual feast for all the senses.
Serving as a reminder to the past is the imaginative Mickey B, a feature film adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, made with serving prisoners as cast, in Northern Ireland’s infamous maximum security prison HMP Maghaberry.
An eccentric range of innovative filmic events once again dominate the programme, including a screening of Stephen Sommers’ modern B-Movie hit, Deep Rising, while the audience sail down the River Lagan. The John Hughes 80s masterpiece, Pretty in Pink, shown in Belfast nightclub Slide. A workshop presented by BBC presenter, William Crawley, dissecting the ‘anatomy’ of the legendary 1957 courtroom epic, 12 Angry Men directed by Sidney Lumet, as well as, screening an episode from the cult 60s TV show, The Prisoner, inside the First Church of Christ which will be followed by a discussion on the importance of architectural heritage in Belfast.
Opening the BFF will be the UK/Irish premiere of Triage, starring Colin Farrell as war photographer Mark Walsh while closing this year’s festivities is the UK premiere of Tetro, the latest film from the institutional Francis Ford Coppola – also his first original screenplay since The Conversation.
In partnership with the Shruti Foundation and Lady Rana, the BFF will also have in attendance, Shyam Benegal – one of India’s most highly regarded filmmakers – who will give a public lecture at the Great Hall in Queen’s University on 22nd April. Two of his films Zubeidaa and The Making of the Mahatma are set to be screened.
Greenberg starring Ben Stiller will also be shown at the festival...
One of the most appealing prospects of the festival, for most of the public, is the vast range of high profile productions set to screen over the 16 day programme including Noah Baumbach’s – screenwriter of The Life Aquatic, Fantastic Mr Fox and The Squid and the Whale - Greenberg, starring Ben Stiller, the Russian made Tsar – a film about the 16th Century Ivan the Terrible – as well a showing of Paul Schrader’s – screenwriter of Taxi Driver – Adam Resurrected, the quirky black comedy Dogtooth, the powerful Vincere – based on the life of Bentio Mussolini’s first wife, Ida Dalsar – the visually spectacular Japanese feature Symbol amongst many others.
The BFF also hopes to break the boundaries of offering audiences some visual treats mixing the sights of modern and classic cinema with contemporary sounds of performers such as Denmark’s Efterklang and the USA’s Wooden Shjips.
As a way to support the increasing numbers of aspiring filmmakers, writers and producers in Northern Ireland and their thirst to know more about ‘the business’. Organisers have set up a two day seminar called Northern Exposure = Deal Closure. The event will bring in key London sales agents, distributors, producers and literary talent agents for a series of four industry-focused panel sessions and discussion groups. Confirmed panellists include BAFTA nominee Tony Grisoni (Red Riding Trilogy), Robin Gutch (producer Warp X), Hilary Davis (Banksdale Films), Stephen Murphy (Optimum Releasing) and Nick Marston (Curtis Brown Agency) plus more.
Full information on tickets and the programme in its entirety is now available on the official Belfast Film Festival website at http://www.belfastfilmfestival.org.
The PACIFIC
STARTS 5TH APRIL 2010 AT 9pm ON SKY MOVIES PREMiERE HD
Executive producers Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg and Gary Goetzman are the creative team behind the Emmy-winning 2001 HBO miniseries Band of Brothers. Clearly a winning combination. They’re back with another epic war television series. The Pacific has all been filmed using HD and special attention has been given to it to give it a Hollywood theatrical feel.
I’m loving that the series will be shown on Sky Movies Premiere HD, no averts and so it will be viewed in all its glory!
With The Hurt Locker being the first war film to be awarded the Best Picture Oscar in nearly 25 years (the last war film to earn the academy’s top honour was Platoon in 1986) we count down the top 5 war films to have been overlooked and forgotten about in recent years. Read More
QFT will host an exhibition of new work by Belfast artist Kev Largey, to coincide with exclusive screenings of Banksy’s new film Exit Through the Gift Shop from Friday 12th – Thursday 25th March.
The Hurt Locker has really made something of itself this year, two awards from the academy are firsts, see if you can guess which! Mostly expected, but Jeff Bridges…about time don’t you think?
Actress in a supporting role
- Mo’Nique in Precious
- Vera Farmiga in Up in the Air
- Penélope Cruz in Nine
- Anna Kendrick in Up in the Air
- Maggie Gyllenhaal in Crazy Heart Read More
Triangle
On paper, Triangle is an interesting proposition. The film is British director Christopher Smith’s adaptation of the story of Sisyphus who’s fate is to push a rock up a mountain. Once at the top, the rock rolls down again and he must repeat this cycle for eternity.
Melissa George plays single Mother Jess. She has an autistic son, Tommy, who suffers from recurring nightmares. She’s encouraged to take a sailing trip by her friend Greg (Michael Dorman). She reluctantly joins Greg and his friends but their boat is caught in a freak storm and capsized. They are rescued by a passing ocean liner, however, once on board Jess feels she has been there before.
So where does Sisyphus come into all this then? Without giving the whole plot away, it transpires that there seems to be many copies of Jess on board and that she has, indeed, been on this ship before. She’s depserate to get back to her son and the clues she acquires lead to the conclusion she must kill her friends in order to survive, however, the cycle starts over again and it’s up to Jess to try and break this eternal cycle of blood and despair.
The film starts well. You get a glimpse of Jess’ seemingly hard life raising her autistic son as a single parent and then straight to her getaway with Greg and his friends, no lingering about – straight to the action. Melissa George plays the weak, broken woman quite well but you never really know why she’s so distant until the end. However, after the killing spree starts, you begin to wonder whether Jess is really that “weak”. She flits between fragile Mother and tough survivor and back again quicker than you can say “oh my God, I’m so fed-up with mediocre horror films, why won’t they just stop and make something better for us to watch.”
How to direct a horror: Get your crazy murderer to wear a weird mask, works every time...
The characters in the film are generally predictable and flimsy. Jess’ friend and suggested potential love interest – Greg – is the “earnest” type, then there’s the annoying couple who don’t have a clue what’s going, the slightly more buff and less understanding one – Victor – and then Jess, the flimsy, disheveled heroine.
Whilst the story intrigues for the first 40-minutes of the film, the rest leaves you a little flat. As it unfolds, you’re already guessing what’s going to happen next, what Jess’ next moves will be and the possible outcome and you’ll probably mostly be right. This is definitely a departure for Christopher Smith, who directed the underground tube-story horror Creep. However, it’s only a departure because it’s not a total gore-fest. Smith has tried to inject a little intelligence into the story with the mention of Sisyphus as the group enter the ocean liner but it’s so quick and never mentioned again that this theme is never really embedded into your psyche quite enough and the never-ending killing cycle on the ship gets a little boring after a while.
It’s very difficult to get the horror genre just right; there needs to be a clever and considered balance of actual “horror”, an intriguing story-line and at least one character the viewer can relate to or empathise with in some way. The only character we’re forced to connect with is Jess, who’s weak, whispering voice and terror-ridden Bambi-eyes become boring very quickly. The story itself never allows itself to be truly immersed in the mythology that the plot was inspired by.
The result is a film that promises so much but just fails to deliver. Unfortunately, the mistake of many directors in the horror genre is to keep making the same boring, no-brainer movies full of clichés and shallow characters. It’s easy to see what Christopher Smith was trying to achieve and he gets some pity points for trying, however this just fails to hit the mark and this leaves you feeling flat and lifeless, much like the film itself.
Triangle never truly delivers the “horror”, in which the genre it was cast and never really brings the depth you require without these shocks to distract you. And hence, unfortunately, this film stinks of “straight to the bargain bin” along with the rest of the dregs of the horror genre.
By Wee Claire
Rating: 
3 of Panic Dots fab film team Ross, Laura and Andrew huddle around the mics for some film chat. This month they chat about bio-pics, two in pirticular, the very resent Crazy Heart & the not so recent Walk The Line!
Check it out on iTUNES or just use the player below.
Episode 02 – Bio
This looks pretty funny! Don’t really think it’s coming out in the UK, but you could download it if it doesn’t. Out in cinemas on April 2nd in USA. Anyone remember Wimpy? Like the burger place? Yum!
