FILM LIST
Trevor Johnston otters a brlel look at the lortnight’s new releases.
I ERIK THE VIKING (12) Sensitive Norseman Tim Robbins teams the gentle skills ol rape and pillage as his longship heads torthe edge at the world in Python Terry Jones' latest action romp. See review. Cannons Glasgow and Edinburgh irom 29 Sept.
WEEK ONE 27 WEEKTWO 28
INDEX21 llSTINGS
I THE IRON TRIANGLE (18) Eric Weston's Vietnam pic attempts to understand both Yankee soldier Beau Bridges and Viet Cong guerilla llaing Ngor. but it's the extremely bloody battle sequences that make the most immediate impact. Glasgow Cannon Sauchiehall Street irom 29 Sept.
[FILM PREVIEW
I DEAD POETS SOCIETY (PG) Change oi role tor Robin Williams as he plays an unconventional Eng Lit master at an exclusive boys school guiding his young charges along the rocky path to maturity. Fine perlormances all round in this attecting drama helmed by Aussie Peter ‘Witness‘ Weir. See review. Glasgow Grosvenor and Odeon. Edinburgh Odeon irom 29 Sept
I A STRANGE PLACE TO MEET (15) Catherine Deneuve and Gerard Depardleu in an unusual romance that takes place over the course at one night in a motorway layby. Unlikely but ellectlve. See review. Edinburgh Filmhouse 1-7 Oct.
I JACKNIFE (15) De Niro has anothershot at playing a Vietnam vet, here tinding it diiticult to adjust to lite back home. Ed Harris isthe understanding buddy. whilst Englishman David Jones makes his stateside debut. See review. Glasgow Cannon Sauchiehall Street Irom 6 Oct.
Kenny Mathieson reports on the 37th San Sebastian Film Festival
The broad. beautifully clean sweep of beach. handsome architecture. and splendid food are reasons enough to visit the Basque city of San Sebastian (or Donostia. its Basque name in an area where everything is labelled in both languages). but the Film Festival eventually unearthed a few more.
Batmania is still bubbling in Spain (it opens there on Friday). and the presence of Michael Keaton had the photographers scuttling for all they were worth. The film screened out of competition. along with the Jerry Lee Lewis biopic Great Balls ofFire. James Cameron‘s undersea thriller-with-friendly-aliens The Abyss. both due here soon. and Edinburgh favourite Sam Fuller‘s stylish but over-wrought thriller Street ofNo Return. Jon Amiel’s Queen ofHearts closed the festival. also on a non-competitive basis.
San Sebastian has only recently been restored to the A-list of European Festivals, but the competition itselfstruggles in the wake ofthe Venice Festival. which creams off the best available films. The ones I saw ranged from the quirkily attractive (Nancy Savoka’s gritty debut) True Love. which won the New Director‘s prize, and the highly eccentric Eversmile New
Daniel Day Lewis brings dental awareness to Patagonia in ‘Eversmiie NewJersey'
Jim Belushi and Whoopi Goldberg cross America in Andrei Konchalovsky's ‘Romer and Eddie'
Jersey, which picked-up the San Sebastian Prize and a Best Actress award for Mirjana Jokovic. with last issue‘s cover star Daniel Day-Lewis making the most ofhis newly-acquired Irish accent to the god-awful (the laborious Spanish drama The Best of Times. and Andrei Konchalevsky‘s hysterical Homer and Eddie. which defied logic by sharing the main prize. the Golden Shell. with the Bolivian drama The Clandestine Nation).
For the movie fan. though. much of the real interest in the Festival lies in the extensive retrospectives. ranging this year from the Hollywood films ofJames Whale. director of Frankenstein . its sequel The Bride of Frankenstein. and The In visible Man. to the complete work of Polish director Krzsysztof Kieslowski. My colleague Allan Hunter saw more of the Whale films than I did. and concluded that his reputation will rest on those named. while the latter were screened without benefit of English translation. 3 problem which the organisers need to address next year.
An imaginative homage to Stagecoach. now fifty years old. brought actress Claire Trevor to town. but the inimitable Bette Davis caused an even bigger stir when she arrived to receive a life-time achievement award. When asked if she had been more naughty in her life or on film. the octogenarian actress. now a brittle shadow of her old self. but still feisty enough. paused momentarily to consider, and decided ‘about fifty-fifty. . .’
FILM SPECIAL NEXT ISSUE
I K-B (PG) Jerry Leethe 7 German Shepherd steals the acting honours Irom Jim Belushi in this buddy cop movie where narcotics tec Nlr B tinds himsell partnered with a drugs snitting alsatian. The humour is every bit as broad as one might expect. Cannons Glasgow and Edinburgh Irom 6 Oct.
I THE LEGEND OF THE HOLY DRINKER (PG) Guinness guatter Rutger Hauer is decidedly ironic casting lor Ermano Dlmi's version at the Joseph Roth Novella about a drunk searching Ior salvation on the streets oi Paris. Glasgow Film Theatre 5 G 6 Oct only.
I PAT GARRETT 8 BILLY THE KID (18) Originally released in a studio-shortened cut, this reassembled print is closer to director Sam Peckinpah's intentions. Messrs Coburn and Kristotterson star in a brooding, elegaic and violent western. with Bob Dylan providing the score. Edinburgh Filmhouse 8-10 Oct. Glasgow Film Theatre 11 Oct only.
I RESURRECTED (15) Controversial story ot a young Falklands soldier. who's initially acclaimed a war hero when it is believed he is missing in action, but whose surprise return home is the catalyst to both embarrassment and betrayal. See ieature. Glasgow Grosvenor irom 29 Sept.
I COOKIE (15) Emily Lloyd makes herAmerican debut in matia/parental relationship comedy-drama with Peter Folk and Diane Wiest as heriolks. Susan Seidelman directs. See review. Cannons Glasgow and Edinburgh irom 6 Oct.
I WIRED (18) From the contentious book by Bob Woodward comes this controversial tilm biopic oI drug blowout Hollywood comic John Belushi, remarkably impersonated by newcomer Michael Chiklis. See ieature. Glasgow The Forge. Grosvenor and UCI Clydebank Irom Oct 6.
16The List 29 September— 12 October 1989