New films: reviews

BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN

(PG) HHHH

Director: Sergei Eisenstein

Starring: Aleksandr Antonov, Vladimir Barsky, Levshin, Grigori Aleksandrov, Mikhail Gomorov

A new print of Sergei Eisenstein's masterpiece, which provides text- book lessons in pace and structure. If nothing else, this re-release should demonstrate that precocious young bucks who think that cinema began with Tarantino should go right back to the source if they want to grasp the dynamics of film-making. The film is a masterful fusion of fact and fiction, documentary and hyperbole, of which the Odessa Steps sequence is only the most famous part. It chronicles a true-life incident which took place during the days of the Tsar, in which a group of sailors mutinied over the appalling rations they were being asked to consume.

DEVIL'S ISLAND

(15) HHH

Director: Fridrik Thor Fridriksson

Starring: Baltasar Kormakur, Gisli Halldorsson, Sigurveig Jonsdottir

A poignant and often hilarious comedy from Fridrik Thor Fridriksson, the Icelandic director of Cult Fever. Set in the Fifties among the poor inhabitants of Reykjavik, who live in the barracks deserted by American troops, the film simply observes the families drifting aimlessly through their own lives, with occasional emphasis on a young hotshot who returns to Iceland from an American holiday embellished with mannerisms and ideals that he's picked up from the movies

The Independent film guide

HHHH excellent HHH good HH average H poor