FILMWL‘IST

Mouse stands between her and a fate worse than death. . . Edinburgh: Filmhouse

0 My Beautiful Laundrefte ( 15) (Stephen Frears. UK, 1985) Gordon Warneeke, Daniel Day-Lewis. 97 mins. Conspiring to turn a rundown business into the ritziest laundrette in town young Asian Omar and his

3 white schoolfriend-lover Johnny

5 encounter all the pressures of Thatcher‘s Britain where the only victors are those left standing at the end ofthe day. Richly textured,

- original and provocative British

triumph. Glasgow; Cinema 0 Once Bitten (15) e: (Howard Storm.

E US. 1985) Lauren Hutton. Jim

E Carrey. Cleavon Little. 92 mins. Hutton plays a beautiful 400 year-old

vampire who retains her eternal youth by extracting blood from

; young male virgins. Given that her

3 domicile is contemporary Los

E Angeles the available supply ofsuch beings might cause the odd wrinkle but high school teenager Carrey is still eligible and Miss Hutton

; certainly wants to get her teeth into

§ him.

A comedy ‘fangtasy‘ To be

3 reviewed. Edinburgh; ABC. Glasgow; ABC Sauchiehall Street. Rio. Lothian; ABC, Regal. Strathelyde; ABC Greenock. ABC Kilmarnock,

é Kelburne. Odeon Hamilton

0 Once Upon a Time in America ( is) (Sergio Leone. US. 1984) Robert De . Viro.James Woods. Elizabeth McGovern. 228 mins. The story of

two childhood friends and their early

, entrepreneurial activities which

i blossom into careers in organised

i crime and politics. Leone'scpic

i gangster chronicle scrutinizes the

i emergent American society of the

1 early part of the century through the

1 aspirations ofthe mob. its massive

I structure held together by a quietly

: intense De Niro. some hideously

L effective violence. and a good deal of

skilful film-making. Glasgow; GFI‘

: 0 Out olAlrica (PG) (Sydney Pollack.

US. 1985) Meryl Streep. Robert

' Redford. 161 mins. Acarefully

; measured tragic romance suffused

with images of awe-inspiring beauty

and topped by another flawless performance from Streep. Edinburgh; ABC. Dominion.

Glasgow: ABC (Sauchiehall Street) 0 Peeping Tom ( 18) (Michael Powell.

UK. 1961)) Karl Bochm. Moira

7 Shearer. Anna Massey. 109 mins. A

; focus puller in a film studio equips

r his camera with a spike and sets out

. to murder young women while

; photographing the fear on their

‘; faces. Utterly reviled on its first

1 release. Michael Powell‘s daring

i examination of perverted voyeurism

i_ as a metaphor for the cinema itselfis

now regarded as one of the most

' adult and intelligent British films

g ever made. Strikingand

thought-provoking. Glasgow: GET 0 Peppermint Freedom (PG) or (Martine Rosenbaum. W Germany. 1982) Saskia Tyroller. Peter Fonda. 112 mins. In Germany over the period 1943 to 195.021 Child (Saskia Tyroller) growing up tries to piece

Ltogether and understand the world

zirs‘am 18April— 1 May

around her. During the war j however. and later when the family move to the American occupied zone. her parents are tight-lipped about current events. and they frown Q upon herfriendsbip with an American Gl. who gives her gum. Martinc Rosenbaum‘s

award-winning debut feature offers a

perceptive and entertaining child's eye view of things. which agreeably v highlightsthe absurdityoftlie adult world. and comes out as a profound anti-war statement into the bargain. The kids are handled in a skilfully unpatronising fashion which cannot fail to charm the viewer into submission. Edinburgh; Filmhouse 0 Places in the Heart (PG) (Robert Benton. US. 1984) Sally Field. Ed Harris. Amy Madigan. 111 mins. Our gal Sal. whom we all really. really love. is a poor widow forced to go it alone after the untimely demise of her husband at the height ofthe Great Depression. Struggling against every adversity known to man and scriptwriter (foreclosure. typhoon etc) she somehow manages to keep kith and kin together with assistance from a coloured handyman. a blind lodger and a little

help from the good Lord. Ahmen. Edinburgh; EU Filmsoc

0 Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment (PG) (Jerry Paris, US

; 1985) Steve Guttenberg. 87 mins.

3 More moronic mayhem with the

mindless boys in blue. Strathelyde; Kelburne

0 A Private Function ( 15) (MaJcolm

1 Mowbray. UK. 1984) Michael Palin.

Maggie Smith. Bill Paterson. 93 mins. Royal Wedding celebrations in ration-restricted post-war Yorkshire provide the ideal breeding ground forall-out class warfare. Engaging comic crossbrecd combining the Ealing tradition with the bizarre and cheerfully rude humour ofwn'ter Alan Bennett. Great performances. especially from the selfless Palin. Edinburgh; Filmhouse

O Prizzi’s Honour ( 15) (John Huston. US. 1985) Jack Nicholson. Kathleen Turner. 129 mins. Skilful black comedy directed with assurance by veteran Huston and graced by a rogues‘ gallery of performances. Glasgow; Rio. Strathelyde; Rialto 0 Ran (15) (Akira Kurosawa. Japan-France. 1985) Tatsuya Nakadai. Mieko llarada. Peter. 162

Running from April to June at the lnstitut Francais d’Ecosse, Randolph Crescent, Edinburgh, each Friday evening at 6pm is a remarkably enterprising season of crime thrillers from France. The term ‘film noir' was originally coined by the French critics to describe the moody chronicles of underworld duplicity which proliferated in the Hollywood of the 19403, creating their own cinematic landscape of seedy bars at night, and rain-lashed, dark, mean streets in classics like The Big Sleep and Build My Gallows High. These films had a strong influence on the new wave of cinephile French directors who were keen to produce their own versions, hence Godard’s Breathless, and Truffaut’s Shoot The Pianist. The

: current season however begins by

: focusing on Jean-Pierre Melville,

slightly lesser know, but probably the

: country’slinest film noir exponent,

3 who, during the 60s in films including

Le Doulos (Fri 18) and Le Samourai (Fri 1

25), brought a typically European

concern with the ethical implications of his characters' convoluted situations to the rather American ambience of the visuals; indeed, the sets in the former are actually copied from Rouben Mamoulian’s City Streets!

The series then continues with a chronological survey of crime films in the French commercial cinema through the 703 to the 80:, especially welcome as few, if any, ofthe films featured are in UK distribution. if you recently enjoyed Bob Swaim’s La Balance, or Chabrol's Cop Au Vin, then you'll find that these are in similar vein, and come complete with subtitles. Highlights of this part of the season include Claude (Un Homme et une Femme) Lelouch's Le Chat et La Souris, a detailed study of an investigation, and Nicholas Robowski's Une Affaire d’liommes,in which a police inspector suspects his best friend may be a multiple murderer. Further details may be had from the French Institute. (Trevor Johnston).

OCINEMA TIMES AND DATES PAGE 260

mins. Kurosawa‘s King Lear is a bleak and despairing vision of mankind rent asunder by division. disunity. personal vengeances and family feuds that produce no honour. no victors. just victims.

An accomplished fusion of Japanese history and blood- drenched Shakespearean drama the film grows more impressive with repeated viewings. Edinburgh; Filmhouse O Rashomon (PG) (Akira Kirosawa. Japan. 195(1) Toshiro Mifune. Machiko Kyo. 88 mins. Four ofthe people involved in rape-murder give varying acounts of the events that transpired. Potent. Oscar-winning study oftruth. falsehood and human nature. Edinburgh; EU Filmsoc 0 Rear Window (PG) (Alfred Hitchcock. US. 1954) James Stewart. Grace Kelly. Raymond Burr. 112 mins. Confined to his

Manhattan apartment with his leg in plaster, photojournalist Stewart takes an insatiable interest in the lives of his neighbours and slowly realises that the man opposite has murdered his wife. His conjecture is dismissed as the working of an over-active imagination until girlfriend Kelly risks her life to seek corroborating evidence.

A superbly crafted. tense thriller with a fecund sub-text on voyeurism and eroticism. Stewart subtly shades the nuances of his character‘s behaviour and Kelly brings a strong sexual charge to her role as the ice-cool blonde in search of love and a murderer in the steamy New York summer. Unmissable. Edinburgh;

EU Filmsoc

0 Return of the Living Dead ( 18) av (Dan ()‘Bannon. US. 1985) Clu Gulager. James Karen. 91 mins. See Caption Review.

Edinburgh; ABC. Glasgow; ABC Clarkston Road, ABC Sauchiehall Street. Cinema, Grosvenor, Rialto. Lothian; ABC. Strathelyde; ABC Greenock, ABC Kilmarnock. Kelburne, Odeon Hamilton

La Scala

o The Rocky Horror Picture Show ( 15) (Jim Sharman. UK. 1975) Tim

Curry. 100 mins. Cult musical horror '

spoof. Appealingly perverse. Edinburgh; Classic

0 A Room With A View (PG) 1? (James lvory, UK. 1985) Helena Bonham Carter. Julian Sands. Maggie Smith. Denholm Elliott. Judi Dench. Simon Callow. 117 mins. Lucy. a young English rose. and her solicitous

chaperone arrive at a pensione in the

Florence of 1907. During their stay a combination of foreign climes and

awakening passion involves her in an ;

indiscreet act hardly becoming to a proper English lady abroad. Returning to England she subsequently accepts a marriage proposal from the priggish Cecil Vyse. They seem an ill-matched couple and their incompatability is shown in the sharp light oftrue love when her erstwhile suitor conveniently reappears in the parish ofSummer Street. Will she be able to follow the dictates of her hearts or will the confines ofclass and

propriety stifle her true desires?