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This week at YSC, we have two exciting and very different releases; first, a modern adult retelling of Red Riding Hood, then a superior sci-fi Source Code, in a very different race against time. Tonight meanwhile, there’s a chance to catch Rope, a dark, early Hitchcock film, and one of the director’s less-well known works.
Having inspired everything from children’s animation to The Silence of the Lambs, it seemed about time we had a fresh retelling of the old fable. Created and presented in style by Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke, Red Riding Hood stars Amanda Seyfried (Mamma Mia) and Gary Oldman (The Dark Knight) in a new gripping version. How will our titular heroine uncover her village’s dark secret and deal with the terrifying truth regarding the wolf?
The acclaimed second feature from Duncan Jones is a return to intelligent sci-fi. Here Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) must discover who was responsible for a terrorist bombing by re-living the last eight minutes of another man’s life repeatedly before they strike again. From this we enter a strange race against time, during which he struggles to come to terms with what happens on the train, and attempts to alter the tragic fate he witnesses time and again.
Released in 1948, several years before the likes of Rear Window, Vertigo and Psycho, Rope is both an intriguing and disturbing foray into the minds of two cold-blooded murderers, and foreshadows the kind of perverse subject matter an older Hitchcock would make his speciality. Shot in what seems to be just a single shot, some consider Rope to be not much more than gimmicky technical achievement, but the film remains tense throughout its brief 1 ½ hours running time, and makes a satisfying thriller.
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