Whatever Works - Filmhouse Cinema Edinburgh

New releases5REVANCHEVINCEREEYES WIDE OPENNEWRELEASERevancheWed 12 to Sun 16 MayGötz Spielmann • Austria 2008 • 2h2m • Digital projectionGerman and Russian with English subtitles15 – Contains strong sex and sex referencesCast: Johannes Krisch, Irina Potapenko, Andreas Lust, UrsulaStrauss, Johannes Thanheiser.At once a gripping thriller and a tragic drama, Revancheis the stunning, Oscar–nominated, internationalbreakthrough film from Austrian filmmaker GötzSpielmann.In a ragged section of Vienna, hardened ex-con Alex(the mesmerising Johannes Krisch) works as an assistantin a brothel, where he falls for Ukrainian hooker Tamara(Irina Potapenko). Their desperate plans for escapeunexpectedly intersect with the lives of a rural cop(Andreas Lust) and his seemingly content wife (UrsulaStrauss).With meticulous, elegant direction, Spielmann creates atense, existential and surprising portrait of vengeance andredemption, and a journey into the darkest forest of humannature, in which violence and beauty exist side by side.NEWRELEASEVincereFri 14 to Thu 27 MayMarco Bellocchio • Italy/France 2009 • 2h5m • Digital projectionItalian and German with English subtitles15 – Contains strong sex and nudityCast: Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Filippo Timi, Corrado Invernizzi,Fausto Russo Alesi, Michela Cescon.Mussolini’s early life is the subject of Marco Bellocchio’stough-edged but brilliantly directed film. Choosing to focuson Mussolini as a young man, before he became Il Duce,allows Bellocchio to grapple with some little-known detailsabout the dictator’s life, indeed the great secret of his past:early on, he had a wife and a son, both written out of thehistorical record and denied recognition. She was the fiery,erotic Ida Dalser, a woman Mussolini met in 1907 whenhe was a young socialist provocateur. Seven years later,they became lovers, and her overwhelming passion for theyoung journalist helped him start his own newspaper, ‘IlPopolo d’Italia’. In 1915, she bore him a son, also namedBenito, and the couple married. But within a very shorttime, she discovered to her shock that her husband hadmarried another woman.Bellocchio superbly dramatises this story while skilfullyweaving astounding archival footage into his narrative, movingfrom the intimate, hot-blooded relationship between Idaand Mussolini to the stirring newsreels of the period as theirrelationship disintegrates. The film has been a revelation forItalians, not only confronting them with the image of the Duce– seen strutting in full-screen bravado – but also provokingcomparisons, vigorously denied by Bellocchio, betweenMussolini and Italy’s current prime minister, Berlusconi.NEWRELEASEEyes Wide Open Einaym PkuhotMon 24 to Sat 29 MayHaim Tabakman • Israel/Germany/France 2009 • 1h33mDigital projection • Hebrew and Yiddish with English subtitles • 15Cast: Zohar Strauss, Ran Danker, Tinkerbell, Tzahi Grad, Isaac Sharry.After the death of his father, Aaron, a respectably marriedbutcher working in Jerusalem’s Orthodox community, hiresa nomadic young student to assist with his business. Aaronteaches the handsome Ezri the rules of his trade, and letshim stay in the empty room at the back of his shop, but itis not long before the pair recognise that their relationshipis much more than simply master and apprentice, and theycautiously embark on a love affair which must be kepthidden at all costs.Delicately handled by first time director Haim Tabakman,Eyes Wide Open is at heart a beautifully affecting lovestory, which, despite the emotional intensity of the subjectmatter, remains impeccably restrained throughout.Matinee Special!If you’re a Senior Citizen you can now go to a matineescreening and get either soup of the day OR a cup oftea or coffee and a traycake for only £6!Offer runs from Mondays to Thursdays inclusive andonly applies to screenings starting before 5.00pm. Buyyour Matinee Special ticket at the box office and you’llreceive a voucher which can be exchanged in the cafébar between 1.30pm and 5.00pm that day only. Offer issubject to availability and only available in person.