FILM LIST
were longer. Glasgow: GFT. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp ( U) (Michael Powell. Emeric Pressburger. UK. 1943) Roger Livesey. Deborah Kerr. Anton Walbrook. 163 mins. ()ne ofthc great British films this is an ecstatic. uplifting celebration and. paradoxically. critique of the essence of Britishness. Outwitted through ‘cheating‘ in a 1942 Home Guard exercise. General Clive Wynne-Candy reflects on his life. military career and love of a special woman. concluding that his gentlemanly notionsof ‘fair play' have become out-moded. Magnificent. Glasgow: Gl’l‘.
I The Living Daylights (PG) (John Glen. UK. 1987) Timothy Dalton. Jeroen Krabbe. Maryam D'Abo. 130 mins. Highly creditable ()(17 with Dalton‘s slightly humourless presence serving to reinvigorate the series and bring Bond back to basics. Glasgow: Grosvenor.
I Lolita ( 18) (Stanley Kubrick. UK. 1961) Peter Sellers. Sue Lyon. James Mason. Shelley Winters. 153 mins. Mason plays Humbert Humbert. a professor maddenineg attracted to his landlady's young daughter. so much so that he is content to marry the mother in order to be closer to the daughter. ()verlong adaptation of Nabokov's classic novel. with the central character aged fourteen instead of the original twelve. but a zesty black humour still intact thanksto Mason‘s excellent performance. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I The Milagro Beanlield War ( 15 ) ( Robert Redford. US. 1988) Sonia Braga. John Heard. Ruben Blades. Melanie Griffith. 117 mins. See caption review. Glasgow: Cannon Sauchiehall Street. Edinburgh: Cannon.
I My Girlfriend's Boyfriend (PG) ( Eric Rohmer. France. 1987)Emmanue11e Chaulet. Sophie Renoir. Eric Viellard. 102 mins. The sixth and final offering in Rohmer's series of Comedies And Proverbs focusses on the relationship between computer programmer Renoir and shy civil servant Chaulet as their search for love results in a sreies of embarassing romantic entanglements.
Typically perceptive and self-assured work from the Gallic master. as usual apparent spontaneity of performance and naturalness of observation creates a deft investigation of life‘s emotional complexities. Glasgow: G171".
I NoiretBlanc(18) xi? (Claire Devers. France. 1986) Francis Frappat.Jacques Martial. Josephine Fresson. 81) mins. A mild-mannered accountant secures temporary employment at a health club where he forms a bizarre and increasingly hazardous sado-masochistic relationship with a burly masseur.
Devers original aim was to make a documentary about health centres. Finding that her researches provoked only distaste she decides to amalgamate the idea with the basic premise of a short story by Tennessee Williams entitled Desire and the Black Masseur. The result is aspare. claustrophobically intense study ofpain and pleasure. desire and brutalisation. Uncomfortable and disturbing. Glasgow: GF'T.
I No Way Out (15) (Roger Donaldson. US. 1987) Kevin Costner. Sean Young. Gene Hackman. 114 mins. Resourcefulnaval hero Costner. now a liaison officer between Secretary of Defense Hackman and the CIA. is asked to lead an investigation into the murder ofa Washington socialite. However. he knows that Hackman was the accidental killer and that the finger of suspicion is being falsely pointed towards another man who shared the girl‘s bed. namely himself. ..
Beautifully paced conspiracy yarn with fine performances all round. Highly recommended. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. I On The Black I'llll (15) (Andrew Grieve. UK. 1987) Mike Gwylim. Robert. Gwylim. Bob Peck, Gemma Jones. 117
BILOXI BLUES
Biloi Blues (15) (Mike Nichols, US, 1988) Matthew Broderick, Christopher Walken, Corey Parker. 107 mins. In recent years Neil Simon on film has not travelled well. Original scripts like Matt Dugan Returns (1982) and the wretched Slugger’s Wile (1985) have only been allowed out on video here whilst the adaptation of Brighton Beach Memoirs, the first play in his smash hit autobiographical trilogy, scarcely surfaced in British cinemas.
Hopes therefore were not lofty for the late of the second play Biloxi Blues which deals with the young Simon’s misadventures as an army rookie during the dying days of World War Two. How heartening to have one’s apprehensions completely allayed by a smashing comic delight of wit, observation and outstanding
mins. Visually rich adaptation of Bruce Chatwin’s novel following four generationsofa Welsh farming family. in particular the bond that develops between the twin brothers at the centre ofthc narrative.
Grieve‘s synoptic approach leaves the characterisation a little on the sketchy side. but fine cinematography and a few memorable scenes make this ambitious British film one to commend. Glasgow: GET.
I A Prayerlorthe Dying ( 15) (Mike Hodges. UK. 1987) Mickey Rourke. Alan Bates. Bob Hoskins. 108 mins. Uneven but not uninteresting thriller with Rourke as an IRA gunman who decides that for him. at least. the killing must stop. Unfortunately. his passport to freedom involves a ganland assassination that is witnessed by lloskins unlike priest. ..
Although occasionally unnecessarily violent and a little meandering. this is still a thought-provoking exercise in morals and murder that may not work on every level but is certainly undeserving ofits reputation as an unmitigated failure. Glasgow: GFT. Edinburgh: Cameo.
I Predator( 18) (John McTiernan. US. 1987) Arnold Schwarzenegger. Carl Weathers. Elpidia Carillo. 107 mins. Arnie and his dirty half-dozen are hired to enter a dense South American jungle to free a kidnapped cabinet minister. but lurking unseen in the foliage is a chameleon-like being waiting to skin alive any unsuspecting human to cross its path.
Slow to build. but ultimately gripping macho mayhem with a real sense ofthreat. Glasgow: GET.
I Prince of Darkness ( 18) gr (John Carpenter. US. 1987) Donald Pleasencc. Jameson Parker. Victor Wong. 101 mins.
performances that is the best Simon on screen since The Goodbye Girl over a decade ago.
it is 1945 when Brooklyn-born Eugene Morris Jerome (Broderick) is uprooted from the confines of his Brooklyn home and transported, aong with dozens of hapless contemporaries, to the sweltering confines of boot camp in the deep south of Biloxi, Mississippi. He is less than overjoyed at the prospects of army basic training and even more dismayed by the calibre of his comrades. The ten weeks, however, will shape his adult world and change the rest of his life. In the camp he falls foul of the eccentric and unpredictable drill sergeant Toomey (Walken), a veteran with a steel plate in his head, who wages a subtle form of psychological warfare; instead of directly punishing Jerome he asks him to choose a fellow recruit to perform
A Catholic priest convenes a group of scientists in an abandoned church to assist him in a race against time to discoverthe secret of a sinister canister believed to contain the spirit of Satan. As they fight against the purest form ofevil. their numbers are systematically depleted and their mission becomes a simple one of survival.
Perfunctory. low-budget shocker with little ofthc imagination or sense of menace that the director once seemed adept at conjuring. Edinburgh: Cameo. I Bambolll(18) (Peter MacDonald. US. 1988) Sylvester Stallone. Richard Crenna. Marc DeJonge. 101 mins. Third instalment in an increasingly resistible series has Sly leaving his life of contemplation in a Tibetan monastery to rescue his mentor Col. Troutman from the clutches of the evil Soviets in Afghanistan.
Expensive riot of explosions. bombing and killing. the cartoon violence matching the cartoon politieking. Glasgow: Cannon Clarkston Road. Odeon. Salon. Edinburgh: Odeon. Central: Cannon. Strathclyde: Cannon. Kelburne. La Scala. Odeon Ayr. Odeon Hamilton. Rialto.
I Rouge Baiser ( 15) (Vera Belmont. France/W. Germany. 1985) Charlotte Valandrey. Lambert Wilson. Marthe Keller. 112 mins. Paris. 1952. 15 year-old Nadia divides her time between the movies and the Communist Party. But an affair with a hunky Paris Match photographer incurs the party‘s wrath. whilst the arrival of an old friend of her mother‘s from a Russian labour camp forces her to question the Stalinist legacy.
Wonderful recreation ofperiod ambience (clothes. jazz clubs etc) in this likeable tale of adolescence. which is not unlike the earlier Diane Kurys picture
the task in his place.
Eugene's wry humour and ability to step out of the moment and observe it from a distance help sustain him through selected ordeals and clearly mark him out as an embryonic writer. There are also good times; particularly the day he manages to lose his vlrglnlty and tall in love, although not with the same woman.
It Biloxi Blues sounds like the oldest recipe in the book, then it is, but what director Mike Nichols has done is to bake it with tender loving care as if for the first time and the result is fresh and extremely tasty.
Simon’s script is smart and sassy, conveying an earlier age not with nostalgic sentimentality, butwith a clear head and a light heart that suggest, with some acuity, that emotionally this is the way we really were.
Nichols makes maximum use of the wide screen to present the piece in appealing cinematic terms and he inspires ecxellent work from Broderick and Walken who have rarely, if ever, been this good; deftly transforming potential cliches into living, breathing, human moments. Walken offers an intelligently modulated depiction of the softly menacing martinet whilst Broderick confirms that he may prove to be one of the most talented of the Brat Pack generation.
Biloxi Blues may not sound your type of film; too slick, too conventional, too familiar, but buy a ticket and you will be handsomely entertained by an American comedy that is funny, touching and perceptive. (George Bailey)
[)iabolo Merit/re and none the worse for it. Valandrey does make an attractive heroine. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Sacrificed Youth (PG ) (Zhang Luanxin. China. 1985) 96 mins. Special preview of an excellent Chinese film now picked up for British distribution by Artificial Eye. Sensitively directed by a woman film-maker. Zhang Luanxin. it focusses on the period during the Cultural Revolution when young people from the cities were transported to rural work-camps. and in particular follows the moving story ofa young Bejing girl's gradual acceptance by the Dai people of the South-West. Glasgow: GET.
I Shag (15) if? (Zelda Barron. US. 1988) Phobe Cates. Bidget Fonda. Scott Coffey. 100 mins.Sec caption review. Glasgow: Odeon. Edinburgh: Odeon.
I Someone to Watch Over Me (15) (Ridley Scott. US. 1987) Tom Berenger. Mimi Rogers. Lorraine Bracco. 1()6mins. Watchable. glossy thriller in which Berenger‘s recently promoted Queens detective falls in love with a trial witness and her seductive lifestyle. Although sluggisth paced in places and slightly overlong. the film delivers a few crispjolts and is held together by Scott‘s wallow in Manhattan chic and the very creditable central performances. Tentative proof that a human heart can beat beneaththis director‘s hi-tech glitz. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Suspect ( 15) (Peter Yates. US. 1987) Cher. Dennis Quaid. Liam Neeson. 106 mins. Work-weary public defender Cher is dumped with the case of an apparently barbaric down and out Vietnam veteran on a murder charge over the savage killing of a young woman for a pathetic sum of money. Needless to say. all is not quite
The List 2 — 15 September 1988 27