Results tagged “stevemcqueen”

SO HUNGRY: Head to the Northwest Film Forum for Steve McQueen (not to be confused with Steve McQueen) and his first feature Hunger (not to be confused with The Hunger). Instead of sexy vampires, the film's about the true-life hunger strike undertaken by jailed members of the Irish Republican Army, who just wanted to be treated as political prisoners rather than common criminals. While the politics of the film--does it glorify terrorists?--are debatable, McQueen's skills as a director are not; he's got a fine eye and a commendable patience with the camera. There's not much talking in the film, which leaves plenty of time for surprisingly lovely images (see the lonely inmate making friends with the fly in his cell), except for one virtuoso seventeen-minute single-take conversation/debate between a prisoner and a priest, which could've used subtitles, as we don't speak Leprechaun. Hunger runs through Thursday.

There's just a little bit of time left before SIFF 2008's opening night, and in between now and then, SIFF Cinema is hosting the United Artists 90th Anniversary film series. To celebrate the studio's 90th birthday next year, the touring tribute covers films from the mid-'50s to 1980, the decades when UA was at the height of its powers. Not like right now, when the relaunched studio's attempt at a comeback (Tom Cruise's Hitler-killing Nazi drama Valkyrie) has just been delayed for the second time, which has everyone in the industry proclaiming UA 2.0, the film, and the couch-jumper himself all but dead.