Samsara (12A)
HHHH
Dir: Ron Fricke
Running time: 102 minutes
IF Earth one day hosts the inter-galactic Olympics, this should be the opening film. Ron Fricke made his name as the maker of films with astonishing images, and his new documentary Samsara, filmed over five years in 27 countries, does not disappoint. The best, and worst, of life on this rainbow planet is captured as Fricke transports the audience from ancient temples to modern Xanadus, via prison yards, factory floors, deserts and disaster zones. Not everything is a pretty picture – the factory farming scenes are nauseating – but every image is astonishing. With no narration, just a fantastic soundtrack, the pictures are left to whisper and shout for themselves. Fricke's first film since 1992's Baraka, and worth the wait.
Shut Up and Play the Hits (15)
HHH
Dirs: Will Lovelace, Dylan Southern
Running time: 108 minutes
WITH three hit albums to their name, LCD Soundsystem were at the height of their hipness. While another frontman might have booked a stadium tour and watched the bucks roll in, James Murphy decided to pull the plug. Will Lovelace and Dylan Southern's film takes in the farewell gig at Madison Square Garden, and Murphy's attempts to fill the void after the last amp had cooled. You'll need to be a fan to sit through the 108 minutes without glancing at the clock, but Murphy at least has more to say for himself than the average rocker, and he has a very cute dog, too. The screenings on September 4 are followed by live by satellite Q&As with Murphy.
Glasgow Film Theatre, Cameo, Edinburgh, Belmont, Aberdeen, September 4. Then Cameo, September 5, and GFT, September 25.
Woman in a Dressing Gown R/I (PG)
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Dir: J Lee Thompson
With: Yvonne Mitchell, Anthony Quayle
Running time: 93 minutes
BEFORE John Lee Thompson moved to Hollywood to make The Guns of Navarone and Cape Fear he directed this best-of-British jewel. First released in 1957 and now spruced up for reissue, Thompson's film stars Yvonne Mitchell as Amy, a depressed London housewife whose husband (Anthony Quayle) is seeing someone else (a startlingly beautiful Sylvia Syms).
Mitchell is quietly magnificent as the woman not so much on the edge of a nervous breakdown as standing in the middle of a full-blown meltdown, trying to hold on to her dignity, her man and her sanity. A heartbreaker.
Filmhouse, Edinburgh, tomorrow-September 6; Glasgow Film Theatre, September 4-5.
Keith Lemon: The Film (15)
H
Dir: Paul Angunawela
With: Leigh Francis, Kelly Brook
Runming time: 85 minutes
KEITH Lemon, m'lud, is the comic creation of one Leigh Francis Esq (inset above). Mr Lemon's mixture of northern campness and world-beating vulgarity has earned him a dire programme on the telly, and now he is in an equally awful film with the likes of Kelly "Knickers" Brooks. Having been handed a dazzling new invention, Lemon lives it up in London making all his comedy northerner dreams come true, including a relationship with Kelly "Bra" Brooks.
Makes the worst of the Carry On films look like Woody Allen.
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