FILM LIST
Gypsy Trev Johnston peers Into his crystal orb once more to torecast the coming lortnight's new lilm releases and tells at some illm education courses lor the iuture.
I KENNETH ANGER FILMS (15) Three programmes bringing together Kenneth Anger’s highly imaginative, ritualistic and iniluential underground Iilms will also include material by Jean Genet. Sergei Eisensein and Derek Jarman that place his work in context. See leature. The iirst instalment is at Edinburgh Filmhouse on Mon 5 and Tue 8 Feb.
I BLACK RAIN (18) Latest opus irom ilashy Brit director Ridley Scott has Michael Douglas as an omery New York cop on the trail at an escaped Japanese killer in the uniamiliarterrain at downtown Osaka. See review. Cannons Glasgow and Edinburgh Irom Fri 25 Jan.
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I CASUALTIES OF WAR (18) Brian De Palma’s long-cherished Vietnam project has Michael J. Fox as an iniantryman with a conscience in conllict with sergeant Sean Penn over the brutal gang rape ola young Vietnamese girl. See review. Odeons Glasgow. and Edinburgh, Cannon Parkhead and UCIs trom Fri 26Jan.
I DAUGHTER OF THE NILE (15) Best known lor his sensitive rural pictures Summer at Grandpa’s and Dust In The Wind. acclaimed Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-Hsien moves to the urban setting oi neon-lit Taipei tor a lilm that blends domestic drama with underworld thriller. Glasgow Film Theatre Tue 30 Jan.
I DRUGSTORE COWBOY (18) Matt Dillon gives his best perlormance so iar in Gus Van Sanl's recreation at 1971 Oregon and the exploits at a gang otdope liends blithely ripping oil a series ol drugstores (that’s chemists’ shops to you or me). See leature.
I LOCKUP (18) Sly Stallone returns as Frank Leone. put away ior beating up some
There’s a current vogue in Hollywood ior shooting movies in Toronto or Vancouver because it’s cheaper than LA or New York; just one instance at the way the Canadian iilm industry continues to be dominated by the American giant across the border. Although the good work done by the National Film Board oi Canada (iounded by Scot, John Grierson) has won an international reputation ior years oi excellent work in the iields oi documentary and animation (most notably by another Scot expat, Norman McLaren), Canadian leature lilm output, even with an enlightened regional Iunding policy, has tailed to make a sustained international impact in the manner oi the New German Cinema orAustralian new wave oi the Seventies.
The widespread acclaim ior Ouebecquois director Denys Arcand’s Jesus oi Montreal, his second and even more substantial hit alter The Decline at The American Empire on the arthouse circuit that also took Patricia
Rozema’s I've Heard The Mermaids Singing, is a pointer that in a limited way the situation is beginning to change. A recent series oi iilms on Channel 4 showcased the diversity oi Canadian talent currently working, but in Scotland the Glasgow Film Theatre has been liying the maple leai llag and iollows last year’s Ouebec event with a short season at Canadian movies playing throughout February in support at the new Arcand.
Opening the quartet is a Scottish premiere in Anne Wheeler’s 1989 London Film Festival hit Bye Bye Blues
' (Tue 8 Feb), an endearing tale about a
housewile and mother who iollows her heartto become a vocalist and pianist with a touring dance band. A dillerent take on lemale emancipation is A WinterTan (Tue, Wed 27 8 28 Feb) which is based on the sexual experiences in Mexico at leminist writer Maryse Holder and iealuring a dedicated periormance by co-director Jackie Burroughs. There's another chance to catch up on Atom Egoyam‘s Speaking Parts (Mon 12 Feb), an enthralling third entry in his own sex, lies and videotape trilogy irom an undeniably majortalent. It's succeeded by a repeat screening tor The Top at His Head (Mon 19 Feb), an ollbeat romance that's the debut leature irom Egoyam’s cameraman Pierre Mettler and which gained a screening during last year’s Jazz Festival on the strength at its score by oddball muso Fred Frith.
New Canadian Cinema is at the Glasgow Film Theatre throughout February. See listings ior iurlher details.
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While coming to prominence in the Fillies with the Cahiers Du Cinema clan oi Godard, Trullaut, Rivette and Rohmer, Claude Chabroi has subsequently achieved a wholly individual canon (though admittedly variable in quality) oi work that has seen him mark out the manners and hypocrises oi the small-town middle classes as his own cinematic territory. Still a proliiic lilm-maker, Chabroi has in recent years been best-known tor the deliciously cynical lnspecteur Lavardin iilms starring the acerbic Jean Poiret. A iorthcoming season at Edinburgh’s Frenchlnstitute, however, iealures his output irom the Sixties, a decade which
produced much at his most singular
material.
Oiten working within a thriller iormat, nodding like Truiiaut to Hitchcock, iilms like 19688’ Les Biches (Thurs 15 Feb), which looks at the disastrous iniringement oi a male upon a passionate lesbian aillair, and the lollowing year’s Le Boucher (Thur 22 Feb), where a rural village is the setting tor a strange relationship between a prim schoolteacher and the local butcher, both seethe with murderous tension and analyse the linally unhealthy repressiveness oi bourgeois society’s conlormism. While he eschewed the more dynamic iormal experimentation oi Godard, Chabrol’s iilms, more olten than not iealuring his wile Stephane Audran, at their most extreme, as in La Rupture (Thurl Mar) explored the wider reaches oi psychological perversity, all part oi his avowed intention ‘to dismantle the mechanisms which constitute reality, to eschew ialse ieelings and show that the degradation oi iundamental values is the attribute at an alienated society.’ The Chabroi season begins at Edinburgh's French Institute, Randolph Crescent, on Thur 8 Feb with 1959’s Les Cousins. See index and Listings lor iurlher details.
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burglars but now only six months awayirom his release irom prison. Unlortunater Sly had made the mistake ol rubbing evil warden Donald Sutherland the wrong way, and our hero suddenlylinds himseli translerred to the nearby Gatewood pen. aliectionately known as ’the worst shithole in the system’. See review. Wide Ddeon and UCl releaselrom Fri 2 Feb. I STIRLING FILM FESTIVAL Now in lull swing at the MacRobert Arts Centre. Stirling's annual binge oi top quality international cinema includes previews oi Philip Saville’s blacklist drama Fellow Traveller, the new Bertrand Blier Trop Bell PourToi with Gerard Depardieu, and a special screening oi Gilles McKinnon’s Leith-set Conquest oi The South Pole.
I UNE FEMME EST UNE FEMME (15) Sublime Sixties Godard has histhen wile Anna Karina ilanked by Jean-Claude Brialy and Jean-Paul Belmondo in a lightly romantic tale that pays homage to the MGM musical while llourishing all manner oliormal guerilla tactics. Raoul Coutard's colour scope photography is especially luminescent in this new 35mm print. Edinburgh Filmhouse Fri 26 and Sat27 Jan.
FILM EDUCATION
I ANIMATION CLASSES Edinburgh Film Workshop Trust otters animation classes ior adults and young people which will provide the opportunilyto storyboard and produce your own short cartoon. Both classes begin on Mon 29 and Tue 30 Jan. Further details irom EFTW. 29 Albany Street. EH13ON (031 557 5242).
I EIGHTIES CINEMA IN PERSPECTIVE Running Ior live weeks at Edinburh Filmhouse irom 13 Feb isa lilm course entitled Exploitation or Representation: The Eighties Cinema In Perspective. Organised by Harold Toberrnann and Della Penny. who previously ran the successiul Cinema Today series, the course will include live weekly iilms at Filmhouse and a combination oi talks, discussion groups and video extracts. Forlurther inlorrnation send an SAEto Dept. E. Filmhouse, Lothian
_ Road. EH3 982.
16 The List 26 January — 8 February 1990