FILM LlSI‘ I
l l l l
passages and only the ever wonderful Connery has the requisite style for the kitsch Scottish scenes. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I The Hidden ( 18) (Jack Sholden. US. 1987) Michael Nouri. Kyle MacLachlan. Claudia Christian. 96mins. LA cop Nouri tackles the unappealing task oftracking down a nasty alien entity possessed ofthe alarming capacity to implant itself into the bodies of victims. whereupon they commit vicious crimes. MacLachlan gets another wierdo role as a rather more benevolent alien who lends Nouri a helping hand. Ambitious combination of high-concept horror and the city-as-jungle movie styles that becomes increasingly impausible and only marginally entertaining. (‘entralz Mac Robert Centre.
I The House of Bernarda Alba ( 15) (Mario Camus. Spain. 1987) 102 mins. Special preview screening of this stirring Lorca adaptation to tie in with the Glasgowlazz Festival performances by percussionist Josefino (‘upido and keyboardist Steve Lodder. whose work is inspired by the Andalusian gypsy singing featured in the film. Glasgow: Glasgow: (iFT‘.
I Innerspace (PG) (Joe Dante. L's. 1987) Dennis Quaid. Meg Ryan. Martin Short. 119 mins. Miniaturized and accidentally injected into Short's bum. maverick pilot Quaid has a mere twenty-four hours to alert the hapless victim to his presence. effect an escape and evade the wicked clutches of various industrial spies.()vcrplotted but engagingly ramshackle cartoonish adventure frolic. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I The January Man ( 15) (Pat ()'('onnor. LS. 1988) Kevin Kline. Susan Sarandon. Harvey Keitel. Rod Steiger. 96 mins. New York. a serial killer has murdered eleven women in eleven months. and special investigator Keitel is forced to bring his estranged brother Kline. an eccentric sleuth. in on the case. Yet. the moveopens old romantic wounds for Sarandon. formerly Kline's girlfriend but whowent on to marry his older brother instead. (‘omplex and ambitious attempt by screenwriter John Patrick Shanley Unfortunately. it really doesn't come off at all. Edinburgh: Dominion.
I Jean 0e Florette (PU) ((‘Iaude Berri. France. 1986) (ierard Depardieu. Yves .‘slontand. Daniel Auteuil. 121 mins. Provence. during the 1920s. Depardieu's indomitable hunchback struggles against impossible odds to make a success ofhis inherited farmland unaware that his apparently friendly neighbours are secretly planning to drive him from his land. Beautifully photographed with flawless performances. this is a towering tribute to the highest aspirationsof
traditional French storytelling. A BAI’IA
winner for the film of the year. (ilasgow: (if’l‘.
I The Journey ( l8) (Markus lrnhoff. West (iermany Switzerland. 1986). Markus Boysen. llflmins. Intelligent and clear-eyed exploration of the effect of
MARRIED TO THE MOB
Married To The Mob (15) it (Jonathan Demme, US, 1988) Michelle Pfeiffer, Dean Stockwell, Matthew Modine. 104 mins. Demme’s last picture
‘Something Wild’ was quite splendid, a
yuppie-in-peril comedy drama that careered through several shifts in tone to create a wholly disarming sense of surprise. With this current offering one looked forward to seeing if he could again balance tension and laughter to such genuinenly invigorating ends, but the end result shows that this is not quite to be.
At first the material seems promising. Angela De Marco (Pfeiffer) is, as the title suggests, married to the mob, at home in a plush residence crammed with stolen goods while her husband plies his trade as a mafia hitman. He commits something of an error of judgement however, when he casually shares a jacuzzi with a favourite waitress of Tony ‘The Tiger' Russo (Dean Stockwell) and consequently makes his wife a widow. She now seems ready to begin anew, but even though she moves to a downhome neighbourhood to escape her shady past, unfortunately for her
Tony ‘The Tiger' is only too keen to help
out. Before long FBI agent Mike Downey (Matthew Modine) is on the case, as is Tony's spouse Connie
J (Mercedes Ruehl), who rightly suspects that her hubby is aiming his affections elsewhere.
About thirty minutes in you realise that it’s not working. There are problems with the somewhat lackadaisical pacing, but it's the grinding predictability of the plotting that’s the most obvious difficulty. While the soundtrack fizzes with typical eclecticism, and the engagineg eccentric locations plus pure kitsch set decorations keep the backgrounds consistently absorbing, as befits the
yawnsville. Matthew Modine does his Mr Balsa impression, while Pfeitfer resorts to merely flaunting her big-eyed vulnerability. Only Slockwell survives by reworking the dapper psycho dandy mode that made such an impression in Lynch's ‘Blue Velvet'. As we dawdle to a ho-hum finale, perhaps it's just that the Demme trademarks are too neatly laid out, as if someone else were trying to copy his bag, and the result is mechanical when it really should have been quirky. (Trevor Johnston)
Demme style, in the foreground it's I
Nazi heritage on the succeding generation. Based on an autobiographical novel by Bernard Vesper. a Nazi poet who broke with the terrorist movement in (iermany. it tells of a young father who kidnaps his son rather than have the mother ship him off to a P1 .()camp. 'l'reading the difficult territory in which one generation's guilt transforms into the guerilla violence of another. the film encapsulates the disillusionment of a country which has continually struggled to break free from the shackles of its past, iidinburgh: l-'ilniliotise.
I The Kreutzer Sonata ( 15 ) ( Mikhail Schweitzer (k Sofia .‘slilkina. L'SSR. 1987) ()Ieg Yankovsky. Aleksander 'l‘rofimov. Irina Selezny'ova. 135 mins. A husband confesses to a fellow traveller on a train journey how he murdered his w ifc. and he at length recalls the shattered illusionsaud infidelitiesthat eventually lead to violence. Well-acted Tolstoy adaptation that sometimes suffers from the over-obtrusive framing device of the rail journey. (ilasgow: (ii-'1'.
I Lady And The Tramp ( l ' ) ( l larnilton [.uske. IS. 1935) With the voices ofPeggv
MEET
BOOKERFWHZEVWNNER
P E T E R
Who wrll read from and sign copies of
OSCAR AND LUCINDA
(Faber pbk. £4.99)
Ice and Bill Thompson. 75 mins. Disney's first animated feature in cinemascope has
mongrel Tramp helping pedigree pooch lady out of a sticky situation and fallingin lurve along the way. Richly drawn with hummable tunes and endearing characterisations. this is the classic Disney mix as before. lovely spaghetti-eating 1
sequence (ilasgow: (‘annon The Forge,
I The Lair Of The White Worm ( 1811 Ken
Rtissell. l’K. 1988) Amanda l)onohoc. Hugh ( irant. ('atherine ()xenberg. Peter
(’apaldi 93 mins. The Peak District. and
the legend of the monstrous D'Ampton Worm turns out to perhaps be more than that when l ady Sy lvia Marsh ( l)onohoe) turnsout to be none other than thew hite worm‘s immortal snake-priestess. her need for plentiful suppliesol virgin blood explaining a spate of disappeaiances in the area. Mad Ken Rtisscll appears to have set out to make a piece of sehlock. and here he more than succeeds. although the icy erish sexuality of the dream sequences come across much better than his lacklustre attemptsat tension Iidinburgh; l-ilmhouse.
I Lawrence 01Arabia ( l’( i) i [)av n1
I.ean. l'K. 1962) Peter O'Toole. Alec (iuiness. Jack Hawkins. ()mar Sharif. 222 mins. Lean‘s mammoth desert epic is at last restored to its director's original cut and back on the big screen where
film-making on this scale belongs. ()"I'oole's debut as engirnatie adventurer still impresses. but apart from the majestic action sequences. it's the disturbing sense of clinical and cold-blooded violence hanging over the highly literate characterisation that today seems especially striking. See Competition. (ilasgow : ()deon. Iidinburgh: ()dcon.
I LetThe People Sing (.lohn Baxter. th. 1942) Alistair Sim. iidward Riuky . fired limny . Patricia Roe. 1(14mins. Stiffly didactic entertainment from the popular 40s filinaker based on JB Priestly"s novel in w hieh a ('zeeh professor and a music
hall comedian make tip an unlikey duoand help the people of [)unbury regain control of their market hall. Stolid celebrationof upright British values relieved by music hall-style humour and a rousing filial sequence of the populace in a triumphal
march. (ilasgow: (ii-'1‘. I The Lonely Passion OfJudith Hearne( 15) (Jack Clayton. IfK. 1988) Maggie Smith.
WATERSTON E’." B()()KSF.1.1.I~‘.RS
THURS 22nd JUNE
7.30 pm
i For FREE tickets telephone 041- ‘ 221 0890. We are happy to accept telephone orders for signed copies.
.. .- ~"- 132 UNION ST.GLASGOW Aim 2
TEL. (041) 221 0890
24 The List 16 — 29 June 1989