Shaun De Waal

<b>ART MOVIE OF THE WEEK</b>

In a way, Herman Charles Bosman is the Elvis of South African literature, writes Shaun de Waal.

<b>REVIEW:</b> Jonathan Franzen’s <i>The Corrections</i> (Fourth Estate)

<b>MOVIE OF THE WEEK</b>

The soundtrack for Patrice Chéreau’s film <i>Intimacy</i> harks back to the long-time interests of Hanif Kureishi, upon whose short story the movie is based. Kureishi’s first novel, <i>The Buddha of Suburbia</i>, was obsessed with David Bowie in his glam-rock years and Bowie pops up on the <i>Intimacy</i> soundtrack.

<b>Grown-up’s movie of the week:</b> Patrice Chéreau’s film asks the same question that <i>Last Tango in Paris</i> asks: is it possible for two people to have a purely sexual relationship? By Shaun de Waal.

<b>Kids’ movie of the week</b>. The film has less of the book’s jolly-hockey-sticks tone, but also fewer laughs. It flows along smoothly, from one episode to the next, without much rhythm, and some of the more hair-raising sequences seem curiously underplayed, writes Shaun de Waal.

I didn’t think I’d ever see a movie in which the highlight was an appearance by Neil Diamond as his own wooden self, but <i>Evil Woman</i> is it, writes Shaun de Waal.

The importance of sex in the movies would be impossible to overstate. So many plots have turned on it; it has supplied so much motivation to so many characters, writes Shaun de Waal.

Like the face of Greta Garbo, the Marquis de Sade increasingly appears to be a screen on to which we can project our own fears and desires. Whatever the historical facts of the misdemeanours of the "Divine Marquis" who gave his name to the vice of sadism, he has become a figure who accommodates a variety of readings.

<b>Movie of the week:</b> I found <i>Panic</i> entertaining though unsettling, and thought at first it might be a rather slight piece, but it stayed with me, and its images kept resonating in my head, writes Shaun de Waal.

oë Wicomb, the South African writer now resident in Scotland, won the 2001 M-Net Book Prize in the English category (worth R50 000) for her novel <i>David’s Story</i>, writes Shaun de Waal.

Achmat Dangor, whose new novel has just come out, speaks to Shaun de Waal.

<b>Musical of the week:</b> <i>Moulin Rouge!</i> is entertainment of the most dazzling variety, a whirlwind collage of music and movement to which, like an out-of-control acid (or absinthe) trip, one simply has to succumb, writes Shaun de Waal.

<b>Thriller of the week:</b> <i>15 Minutes</i> is a tense, well-made thriller that never flags or falters and doesn’t sacrifice realism on the altar of effect, writes Shaun de Waal.

<b>Thai movie of the week:</b> <i>The Iron Ladies</i> doesn’t always get this delicate balance between humour and empathy right, but overall it works well enough, writes Shaun de Waal.

Costume drama of the week:</b> In <i>The King Is Dancing</i>, Corbiau leaps from one scene to the next, without much bridging or build-up, and keeps the emotional temperature high. He all but dispenses with the recitative; the film is all arias, writes Shaun de Waal.

Argentinian-born film producer Fernando Sulichin will be in Durban during the city’s International Film Festival to conduct several workshops and to introduce the South African prèmiere of the Sulichin-produced <i>Bully</i>, the new film by Larry Clark — a frank and explicit portrait of the violent, nihilistic youth of the United States, based on a real-life murder in Florida.

Bob Dylan: Love and Theft; The Essential Bob Dylan.

<b>Review: American Psycho</b>

A Knight’s Tale</i> is a load of preposterous bollocks. It is also highly enjoyable, writes Shaun de Waal.

<b>Review: Hollow Man</b>

Just as <i>Big Brother</i> mania takes hold in South Africa, <i>Series 7: The Contenders</i>, an American satire of "reality TV" shows, comes to the big screen, writes Shaun de Waal.

From its great opening credits on, Wayne Wang’s movie <i>The Center of the World</i> is a meticulous dissection of love, sex, power and the uneasy relationship between the sexes in today’s United States, writes Shaun de Waal.

The colonial belief that Africa was a continent without a history has given way, in some quarters, to the contention that it once harboured technologically advanced cultures aplenty. While there is still puzzlement about how the pyramids were built there is, in parallel, argument about exactly how African the ancient Egyptians were.

By comparison with that other recent historical (melo)drama <i>Thirteen Days</i> is scrupulously accurate and commendably intelligent, conveying very well the almost claustrophobic urgency of the situation, writes Shaun de Waal.

The depiction of the siege is a masterpiece of cinematic versimilitude, all grey mud and shattered buildings, highlighted now and again by a red flag — or a splash of blood, writes Shaun de Waal.

In his new CD, Zim Ngqawana, perhaps our leading new jazz composer, continues to meld tradition and innovation to create a specifically South African sound. As he notes in the booklet, among other "aphorizims", <i>Zimphonic Suites</i> (Sheer Sound) is about "harmony between antiquity and modernity".

This is a powerful but gruelling film, one willing to make considerable demands of the viewer writes, Shaun de Waal.

Between true life and cinema,” said the late Senegalese director Djibril Diop Mambety, “there is only one step.” Then he added, wryly, “As for me, I’m not sure in which direction that step must be taken.” There seems little that is uncertain, however, about his last film, The Little Girl Who Sold The Sun. And, […]

Transsexuals, lesbians and a kidnapped child — and it’s a comedy. Shaun de Waal speaks to the makers of <i>Gaudí Afternoon</i>

<b>Gaudí Afternoon</b> is a charming little movie filled with the quirky humour that is director Susan Seidelman’s trademark. Like the film that made her famous, <i>Desperately Seeking Susan</i>, it has to do with searching for self and others, finding the journey a learning experience.