Reviews: DVD

Charlotte's Web

Directed by Gary Winick, starring Dakota Fanning, Julia Roberts

The latest rendition of American writer E. B. White's 1952 novel is a big success, as was the 1973 animation directed by Disney veteran Charles Nichols.

With real animals as its stars, the new film is laced with touches of reality and reveals something deeper, such as Fern's mother's concern over her daughter's friendship with animals and lack of contact with humans.

Julia Roberts may be the voice of Charlotte the spider but the appearance of the eight-legged lead is less appealing than the older animated versions: Nichols' 1973 adaptation and 2003's Charlotte's Web 2: Wilbur's Great Adventure, directed by Mario Piluso.

Piluso's version features the cutest animals and has more fun as Wilbur the pig tries to save a lamb from the cunning fox. Both animated adaptations have better music than the new film. Nevertheless, the latest attempt offers a glimpse of the real bustling lives led by those on a farm.

Liu Jun

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia

Directed by Sam Peckinpah, starring Warren Oates, Islea Vega

Not many filmmakers could get away with something like this. But somehow director Peckinpah, that dynamo of machismo, pulls it off. It's a testament to Peckinpah's habit of producing poetic, violent ballets that he can turn a storyline straight out of exploitation cinema into something resembling high art.

And that storyline is this: A Mexican landowner offers a large sum for the head of Alfredo Garcia, the man who impregnated his daughter. Hitmen then approach bar owner, Bennie (Oates), who says he knows the wanted man's whereabouts. Bennie's prostitute girlfriend, Elita (Vega), says Garcia is already dead and so the pair hit the road to claim the cranium and the cash. All that stands in their way are rapist bikies and bounty hunters.

It sounds smutty but it's really a tale of redemption. The most memorable scenes involve Bennie pouring his heart out to the severed head, which comes to represent his own holy grail. This is a gruesome, glorious beast from American cinema's greatest outlaw.

Ben Davey

Profession: Reporter

Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, starring Jack Nicholson, Maria Schneider

Lavish and contemplative, Profession: Reporter (also titled The Passenger) teamed arguably America's most idiosyncratic film star with one of modern cinema's most influential directors.

David Locke (Nicholson), a weathered journalist, chases a story about African guerillas. After his research hits a dead end he discovers that a fellow hotel guest, who looks a lot like him, has died. In a bid to start a new life Locke steals his identity and turns up to appointments listed in the dead man's schedule, only to find out he was a gunrunner.

Maria Schneider also stars as a girl that becomes the object of Locke's affections; someone who lives the same free-spirited lifestyle that Locke wants to lead.

A visual feast, the movie ends with a seven-minute long single shot that is a remarkable technical and artistic achievement. Made in a decade of notable screen artistic liberty, this is a beguiling study of identity and detachment.

BD

(China Daily 03/02/2007 page20)