ALLAN HUNTER at the Movies THE IRAQ WAR has inspired a collection of films steeped in moral uncertainty and soul-searching reflection. Films like Redacted, Battle For Haditha and In The Valley Of Elah that have been praised by some and seen by very few. The Hurt Locker takes a different approach to events, placing the […]

ALLAN HUNTER at the Movies QUENTIN TARANTINO is the ultimate movie buff. He probably has celluloid in his veins. His long-awaited World War Two epic Inglourious Basterds is a lurid tribute to the likes of The Dirty Dozen and Where Eagles Dare. It is steeped in movie references, from a borrowed soundtrack of evocative old […]

ALLAN HUNTER at the Movies THE SUCCESS of a film often has little to do with the size of its budget. Hollywood can spend literally hundreds of millions of dollars on a Summer blockbuster that feels as soulless as a computer game. Mid-August Lunch is a modest, minimalist tale, but it has the kind of […]

An Lanntair, Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, 10 August 2009

Various locations around the Highlands, 3-9 August 2009

ALLAN HUNTER at the Movies IN 1970S France one man stole all the headlines. Jacques Mesrine was a self-confessed killer, notorious bank robber and insatiable self-publicist. Some saw him as the embodiment of evil. Others regarded him as an irrepressible folk hero in the Robin Hood tradition. The facts of his life are stranger than […]

ALLAN HUNTER at the Movies THE OSCAR-winning success of La Vie En Rose has sent European filmmakers scurrying in search of similar true-life stories filled with drama and passion. We’ve already seen films about the lives of novelist Francoise Sagan and actress Hildegarde Neff. Now, Coco Before Chanel charts the early years of the woman […]

ALLAN HUNTER at the Movies LARS VON TRIER is no stranger to controversy. Films like Breaking The Waves, The Idiots and Dogville have all been attacked for their artistic pretensions, twisted view of religion and rampant misogyny. In the past, it has always been possible to defend Von Trier, but Antichrist crosses a boundary where […]

ALLAN HUNTER at the Movies THE SCIENCE fiction fantasy has been hijacked by the special-effects wizards. Ever since the success of Star Wars, we have come to expect epic battles, gruesome alien creatures and space craft the size of a skyscraper. Moon is a smart, intriguing attempt to take the genre back to its roots […]

ALLAN HUNTER at the Movies IN THE middle of the silly Summer blockbuster season it is a particular joy to comes across a film like 35 Shots Of Rum. The latest tale from French writer/director Claire Denis is told with such grace and tenderness that it is a total pleasure. Inspired by the Ozu classic […]