Cinema

Something in the Air
Après mai
Fri 7 – Thu 13 June
Olivier Assayas (Summer Hours, Carlos)
explores a period of contemporary French
history rich with dramatic content: the years
following the summer of 1968, when student
uprisings took the nation by storm. Something
in the Air centres on Gilles, who in 1971 is still
committed to the cause and actively involved
in local demonstrations. When a security guard
is injured by his group, they break apart for a
while and Gilles travels to Italy where he
encounters conflicting ideologies and is
eventually forced to choose between his
political ideals and his ever growing artistic
ambitions.
In a loosely autobiographical story, Assayas
captures the excitement and idealism of a
generation who felt that they could (and in
some cases did) evoke real societal reform.
While some criticisms have been levelled at
the film for being overly optimistic, it is certainly
free of nostalgia and paints an accurate portrait
of a time of youth, turbulence and change in
France.
Dir: Olivier Assayas
France 2012 / 2h02m / Digital / cert tbc
French with English subtitles
Beware of Mr. Baker
Fri 7 – Thu 13 June
Long before the supergroup or fabricated pop star was invented
there was Ginger Baker, a true original. An extraordinarily gifted
artist, he has lived life on his own terms and is still a legend
amongst his peers. Born in South East London the same week
the Nazis began bombing, Baker’s first memories were of the
sound of explosions. Intense and angry as a young man, he was
always drumming. When jazz great Phil Seaman introduced him
the sounds of African drumming (as well as heroin), Baker's
unique sound took off. Success came quickly, but Baker
chucked it all in in 1972 to drive the first Range Rover ever
produced from London to Nigeria in pursuit of the African
rhythms of musical icon Fela Kuti. There he found his Mecca of
drumming and introduced African beats and world music to the
West, years before any other musicians in the field.
Unfortunately Baker’s African glory days were short-lived as he
found himself looking down the barrel of a Nigerian officer’s
machine gun. Leaving the continent significantly poorer, he
returned to England where a pattern of divorces, self-destruction
and countless groundbreaking musical works continued.
Featuring testimonials from Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, Stuart
Copeland, Nick Mason, Johnny Rotten and Baker too, this
documentary is a marriage of the film and music worlds through
the life of an unforgettable and controversial musician. He shared
the drugs, the music, the names, the groups, while stripping
away the other voices as the conductor, time keeper, the master
drummer of our time. Beware of Mr. Baker catapults the viewer
into his beat – with every smash of the bass drum there is a man
behind it smashing his way through life.
Dir: Jay Bulger
USA 2012 / 1h40m / Digital / cert tbc
Bring a Baby screening Thu 13 June, 10:30
Tickets 01382 909 900 11