Inflight Magazine of Brussels Airlines

FILM & MUSIC

IN SESSION

A round-up of the top films and tunes heading your way this month

The Departed
Director Martin Scorsese
Starring Leonardo Di Caprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson

Martin Scorsese returns to the mean streets of the gangster genre with this darkly complex crime drama. Based on the Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs, The Departed is the story of two undercover stooges; one gang member (Matt Damon) in the Boston State Police, and one cop (Di Caprio) in an Irish crime family. As each tries to protect his identity while smoking out the other, a catand-mouse narrative unfurls in a hail of violence, paranoia and the shifting sands of personal identity. It’s unusual to see a director of Scorsese’s stature directing a remake, and fans of the original may feel that The Departed lacks the vitality of vintage Marty. For everyone else, this is classic Scorsese: intimate, gritty, well-scored and expertly acted by a stellar cast.

Pan’s Labyrinth
Director Guillermo del Toro
Starring Ivana Baquero, Ariadna Gil, Sergi López

Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth is a pitch-black fable that mixes the whimsical fairies of fantasy cliché with the brutal realism of the Spanish civil war. The effect is devastating. Ofelia is a young girl who moves to the country with her frail mother and new father, a fascist colonel committed to Franco’s oppressive cause. Here, as her mum suffers in bed, and the colonel descends into dark brutality, Ofelia disappears into the labyrinth of her imagination; guided by a huge faun, she must complete a series of tasks to prove that she is the queen of the underworld. Though Ofelia will encounter hideous demons and malicious sprites, none of these beasts is half as terrifying as the colonel – a monster from the all-too-real world. The sense of impending doom is ubearable, and leads to a truly harrowing climax.

Babel
Director Alejandro González Iñárritu
Starring Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Gael García Bernal

Alejandro Iñárritu made his name with Amores Perros and 21 Grams, but Babel is surely his masterpiece – a riveting account of the war on terror viewed through the lens of local tragedy. In Morocco, a Japanese tourist leaves a high-powered hunting rifle in the hands of a guide, sparking a chain of events that touches people across the invisible barriers of continents and cultures. This is fiercely political filmmaking, but with the most effortless of touches. Inevitably, the West comes off worst – a brutalised society leaving a vapour trail of fear in places far beyond the gaze of CNN. But Iñárritu’s message is simple: that the choices we make every day – to be afraid, to mistrust, to misunderstand – have consequences that stretch beyond our imagining, and he delivers it in breathtaking fashion.

The music column

The Doors: Perception 40th Anniversary Box Set
Dust off the flairs and re-live the summer of love with this definitive Doors collection of over 60 tracks, demos, rarities and videos all spruced up for earth-shattering sound quality. See live footage from legendary gigs, and check out experimental oddities like a jazzed-up ‘Queen of the Highway’. If this doesn’t light your fire, you just don’t dig it, man.

Kanye West: Graduation
Kanye West anointed himself the ‘saviour of hip hop’, and he just might be right. In a world of puerile ‘gangsta’ rap, West’s first two albums, Late Registration and College Dropout, were rays of rare intelligence, taking on social injustice and the economic effects of rap’s bling lifestyle. Graduation is more of the same, but in a good way – all smart lyrics, huge beats and vintage samples. West has graduated with honours.

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