FILM
I CYRAND DE DERGERAC(U) Lavish, much-praised, award-winning story of unrequited love, starring Gerard Depardieu as the unhappy long-nosed soldier. Filmmaking on the grand scale, a cast at thousands, high-calibre acting- sit back and enioy. See review. Edinburgh Fllmhouse Sun 13 Jan-Sat 2 Feb; Glasgow Film Theatre Sun 20 Jan-Sat 2 Feb. I AlR AMERICA(15) Light-hearted action-adventure complete with thumping rock soundtrack attempting to squeeze yet more mileage out of the Vietnam story. Mel Gibson and Robert Downey Jr star as pilots lor the CIA-run Air America in neighbouring Laos- good ol’ hard-drinking madcap flying aces combining airborne acrobatics with covert gun- and dnig-running operations and- lust occasionally- wondering about the ethics of it all. See review. Odeons Glasgow and Edinburgh, llCls lrom Fri 11 Jan. I CHILD'S PLAY 2(15) Just when you thought it was sale to go back to the toyshop. . . Chucky, the doll with a cute smile and a killer’s soul is back, upto his old games of trying to kill and/or drive insane the maximum number oi people before they catch on that he really isn't suitable lor children. With Alex Vincent, Jenny Agutter. Brad Douril. See review. Cannons Glasgow and Edinburgh, UCls irom Fri 11 Jan. I COME SEE THE PARADISEilS) Well crafted Alan Parker epic examining the lntemment ol Japanese-Americans during World War Two. A mixed-race love story provides the locus (and the pathos) against a background ol wartime xenophobia. With Dennis Duaid. Tamiyn Tomita. Ddeons Glasgow and Edinburgh, UCl Craig Park from Fri 11 Jan. I HIDDEN AGEHDAUS) Controversial Ken Loach feature examining the murky world ol the British security lorces in Northern lreland. Centred on the (fictional) killing at an American lawyer. the lilm raises disturbing questions about government policies in the province. See preview. Edinburgh Cameo from Fri 18 Jan.
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: WEEK ONE 27 WEEK TWO 29
23 LISTINGS
PREVIEW "‘0‘"
Paradise Regained
Has Alan Parker gone soft? The director of dark, dangerous and deadly films like Birdy, Angel Heart, and Midnight Express discusses his new love story Come See the Paradise with hardened hack Kenny Mathieson.
As someone who has regularly been castigated for the explicit level of both physical and emotional violence in his films, Alan Parker looked more than a little amused at being accused of making a film which was insufficiently violent at the press conference following the Cannes screening of Come See the Paradise.
The occasion was all the more ironic for the setting, which has been the scene of just such accusations of too much violence in the past. This was the director’s fourth crack at the Official Competition — he claimed to be chasing the record for most selections and fewest prizes — but the bluff and down-to-earth North Londoner did not look entirely comfortable amid the opulent splendours of the Carlton Hotel.
The film in question is something of a departure from Parker‘s usual mould. A rather elegaic account of an inter-racial love story between an Irish—American socialist and a Japanese girl, set against the political background of the internment camps in which J apanese-Americans were confined during the Second World War, it is conspicuously less harrowing than films like Midnight Express, Angel Heart or Mississippi Burning.
‘Yeah, I had to laugh when the guy asked that question,‘ Parker grins, ‘but I can’t deny that it is a softer film. Maybe I am just getting older and more subtle, I don’t know, but I
Diabolical Robert De Hire in Parker's last lilm Angel Heart
believe that the subject matter should dictate how you make a film, and this was basically a love story. The violence perpetrated on the Japanese in the camps was not really physical, it was economic, but it crushed a very successful community at that time.
‘This story has never really been told before, and the treatment of the J apanese-American people in the film is as historically accurate as I could possibly make it. The official reason for the camps was to remove enemy aliens from a war zone, but I believe there was also an underlying resentment at the financial power of the Japanese-American community, and some people have suggested a parallel with fear ofJapanese economic power in the present day,
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Iamlyn Tomita, Elizabeth Gilliam and Dennis Duaid in ome See the Paradise
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but that was not really in my mind.
‘I did a lot of research and I talked to a lot of people in that community, and I believe they were the victims of governmental racism. The film is biased toward that vieWpoint, although I accept there was a war on, and I try to articulate the other point of view through the American Army officer who tries to explain to Dennis Quaid’s character that the hatred of the Japanese is because of the war, but I am quite happy for my film to be single-minded in its approach.‘
Newcomer Tamlyn Tomita makes a favourable impression as the Japanese girl who falls in love with and marries an Irish-American socialist, played by Dennis Quaid. When writing the role, Parker had Jack Nicholson in mind, although he knew he was too old for the part, but cast Quaid in what was an unusual role for him.
‘I cast Dennis for what I felt he could bring to the part, rather than for anything that I had seen him do in other people’s movies, and that is always my approach to casting any role. In this case, I wanted someone who could convey that sense of inner anger at the beginning of the film, but who is rendered almost impotent as it goes on.
‘His being a socialist in American society makes him an outcast in a similar way to the Japanese. There were very few marriages made outside the Japanese community, but the handful of examples that I came across were often with people on the left wing, maybe because the individuals concerned were a bit freer in their thinking.’
Come See the Paradise opens on Fri 11 at Glasgow Odeon, Edinburgh Odeon and Edinburgh UCI.
22The List 1 I — 24 January 1991