film

words by Richard Clayton

must see
in bruges

This debut feature from abrasive playwright Martin McDonagh finds Irish hitmen Ray and Ken (Colin Farrell and the lugubrious Brendan Gleeson) lying low among sightseers in the medieval Flemish town. Trouble flares when Harry (Ralph Fiennes, playing a similar hardnut to Ben Kingsley in Sexy Beast) arrives to pay the odd couple a house call. The gunplay and the goofing seem equally compelling – imagine a Tarantino movie scripted by Roddy Doyle.

In Bruges is only out in a few European countries this spring, so catch it while you’re travelling. Directed by Martin McDonagh In cinemas in UK, Belgium and Germany from 7 March

also out now

The Other Boleyn Girl – Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson are sisters competing to leap into King Henry VIII’s bed. There’s a lot at stake in this historical romp – not least several characters’ heads.
The Spiderwick Chronicles – This fantasy for kids sees Freddie Highmore (Finding Neverland) playing twins drawn into a parallel universe of fairies and ogres. The movie’s effects and script both look good.

who’s hot
martina gedeck

Two years on from The Lives of Others, Martina Gedeck is finally getting the big screen work she deserves. In Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s Oscar-winning film of love and loyalty under the Stasi, the 47-year-old Munich-born actress was superb as the scheming, seductive yet ultimately sympathetic Christa-Maria. A small part in Robert De Niro’s CIA saga, The Good Shepherd, was her Hollywood reward, but now Gedeck has real-life characters to get her teeth into. In Clara, currently in post-production, she plays the lead as the composer wife of 19th-century maestro Robert Schumann; and she stars as Ulrike Meinhof in Uli Edel’s film about the Red Army Faction, the terrorist group that caused mayhem in the 1970s Bundesrepublik. Der Baader-Meinhof Komplex has just finished filming and co-stars Moritz Bleibtreu as Andreas Baader. There’s a prominent role for the brilliant Bruno Ganz (Downfall), yet most eyes will be on Gedeck – to see how she gets inside the mind of a woman who turned from aspirant radical journalist to bomb-planting bank robber.

Have you been watching Sterling’s inflight movies? Test your knowledge here!
Throughout March and April, Ratatouille and Enchanted are being shown on selected Sterling flights (see page 105 for full details).	1. In Ratatouille, which kitchen hand has the same name as a type of pasta? a. Tagliatelle b. Agnelli c. Linguini	2. In one Enchanted scene, the bus driver’s hair is made to look like… a. An ice-cream cone b. Mickey Mouse’s ears c. The Empire State Building