INDEX FILM
Munchausen — is more restrained here. but the blend of myth. satire and romance is strong. Unfortunately, the wonderful central performances by Williams and Bridges are let down by a cop-out . up-beat ending. Glasgow: Cannon The Forge. Odeon. Edinburgh: Odeon. UCI. Strathclydc: Odeon Ayr. Odeon Hamilton. UCl Clydebank. UCl East Kilbride.
I Forever Activists ( 15) (Judy Montell.
US. 1990) ()0 mins. The GFT'sJewish Film Festival continues with this Oscar-nominated tribute to around 3.000 idealistic Americans who joined the Abraham Lincoln Brigade to fight in the Spanish Civil War. The film follows the survivors' return to Spain for the war‘s 50th anniversary in 1986. Also showingis Unknown Secrets. a short film about artistic reactions to the execution ofJulius and Ethel Rosenberg. the first victims of the Cold War. Glasgow: GFT.
I The Fountain (15) (Yuri Mamin. USSR. 1988) 101 mins. One ofthc first filmsto ‘ take full advantage of recent opportunities to speak freely about Soviet society, Mamin‘s satire uses an overcrowded tenement with bad plumbing as a metaphor for political decay. An elderly newcomer to the building is appointed maintenance engineer. but. as he is unable to speak the local language. chaos ensues. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Fringe Film And Video Festival The seventh festival of innovative and experimental film-making continues. with additional video screenings in the adjacent cafe-bar.
Escape It You Can A programme with the theme of ’outsiders‘. with individual
works ranging from the gentle powers of the imagination to dadaist animation. Watch out for the superbly named short, Puking Roses.
Sweaty Orange An intriguing selection of films from home and from North
America. l Breakfast Documentaries Next Stop Sovjel follows the experiences of 3.500 young Scandanavians on a visit to the USSR. while I Want To BeAnAstronauI demonstrates the freedom of self-expression in the video format for ' eight young girls from Leeds. , The Final Straight Central to this programme are Heather Banks‘ Just Like You Norma/Iv Do It. a look at Edinburgh‘s Blue Moon Cafe. and Running (in): a look at the problems faced by gayathletes. * Foundations of a Scottish Film School As the title suggests. a retrospective of work from Duncan ofJordanstone College ofArt. Dundee, and Napier Polytechnic. Edinburgh.
Animated or Insane? Thirteen animated shorts. including Geoffrey Holder‘s Garden ofI-Iden. which features children‘s toys in a plastic reworking of Biblical beginnings.
Sun, Sand and Sheep Emphasis on light. colour and movement in such exotic locales as Paris. California and
Portobello.
Oucking and Diving A bold and innovative programme which begins with Queen of Fruit. starring songstress from the punk era. Lcne Lovich.
The Ruritanian Quartet Produced as part of the second year Film and Television programme at Napier Polytechnic. this hour-long ‘serious comedy" includes such characters as George Orwell and Jean-Luc i Godard.
Travelling People Michael Quinn‘s documentary examines the culture. : language and battle for rights ofthe travelling people of Ireland.
Hidden Faces An award-winning documentary about issues confronting young Muslim women. including female etrcumcrston.
Shop Local A selection of work from the grant-aided (ie non-commercial) film and . video sector in Edinburgh.
Other People’s Money (15) (Norman Jewison, US, 1991) Danny OeVito, Penelope Ann Miller, Gregory Peck, Piper Laurie. 101 minutes. The big Off-Broadway hit of 1989, Jerry Sterner’s play Other People’s Money proved extremely popular with Wall Street fat cats who relished the exploits of corporate raider Larry ‘The Liquidator’ Garfield. Two years later and as Norman Jewison’s screen version hits the screen, one’s immdediate impression is that with the coming of the so-called caring, gentler 90s, it has arrived far too late to catch the ‘greed is good’ zeitgeist of late 808 predatory moneymen. True enough, the central conflict between unscrupulous fiscal power-mongering and the devastated family firms and industrial towns left in its wake all seems to have been rather more crisply delineated in Oliver Stone’s Wall Street, which remains unchallenged as the sharpest cinematic crystallisation of the whole sorry era.
With its grand, meaningful arguments suffering a severe case of the heard-it-alI-belore, Alvin Sargent’s adapted screenplay can only hope to take some consolation in functioning as a passable romantic comedy. While the climactic speechifying stand-off between DeVito’s Larry and Gregory
OTHER PEOPLE’S
Other People’s Money: highly competent yet overblown
MONEY
‘f-J FER
Peck’s cuddly but outmoded cable and wire magnate carries the thematic weight, It’s left to diminuative Danny’s efforts at wooing his opponent’s attractive lawyer (and daughter) Penelope Ann Miller to presumably keep the entertainment quotient on the up. Unfortunately, the complete lack of sexual chemistry between the two stars soon blows that little ploy out of the water and what you’re left with is a comedy that isn’t as funny as It thinks it is, and a Major Statement that’s never quite as important as it must have hoped it would be. In short, it’s a Norman Jewison movie, anothertablet of stone from Hollywood’s most consistently overrated filmmaker. Other People’s Money ioins Fiddler On The Roof, Rollerball, F.I.S.T., Moonstruck and In Country in a very long list of highly competent yet overblown movies whose predominant tone of self-satisfaction barely measures up to the modest rewards of their stullifyingly middlebrow mindset. (Trevor Johnston
From 15 Nov (Provisional): Glasgow: Cannon The Forge, Cannon Sauchiehall Street, Grosvenor. Edinburgh: Cannon, UCI. Strathclydc: UCI Clydebank, UCI East Kilbrlde.
Too Much Tabooboo A challenging programme that examines contemporary taboos surrounding sexuality. rape. murder and religion.
Abuse of Power Comes as No Surprise A selection of shorts on environmental issues. funded by Greenpeace.
The Very Best of . . . A second chance tosee the favourite short from each screening, as voted by the audiences themselves. and culminating in awards for Best Lighting
; and Camerawork, Best Art Direction and
Most Popular Short. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I The Godfather Ill ( 15) (Francis Ford Coppola. US. 1990) Al Pacino, Andy Garcia. Diane Keaton. Talia Shire. 160 mins. The final instalment. we‘re assured. of the Coppola/Puzo saga has Pacino‘s Michael Corleone struggling to keep the peace both within the family and throughout his Mafia contacts. 1n an bid for peace of mind and stability. he turns to the Church and away from organised crime. but the demons of his past are not so easily left behind. Painted on the same
L drama with a true note of tragedy. But
3 there's a faint odour of formulaic remake. Glasgow: GFT.
I The Neirdresser’s Husband (15) (Patrice
: Leconte. France. 1990) Jean Rochefort,
; of a young boy who resolves to marry a hairdresser. and — in eccentric middle age
Leconte. the film ‘is not autobiographical.
undercurrents from the director of
broad canvas as its two prequels. this isa lavish and beautifully played gangster
Anna Galiena. 90mins. The romantic tale
— does just that. According to director
although it really ought to have been'. since the boy‘s resolution is one he himself made. but failed to keep. A witty, sexy and eccentric movie with dark
‘ Monsieur Hire. Edinburgh: Cameo.
I Hamlet (U) (Franco Zeffirelli. US, 1990) Mel Gibson. Alan Bates. Glenn Close, Paul Scofield. Helena Bonham-Cartcr. lan Holm. 135 mins. A young man returns home from university to find his father dead and his mother marrying his uncle. Then Hamlet senior's ghost shows up. whispering to him of t
murder most foul, and it‘s all downhill after that. More than twenty years after Zeffirelli’s Romeo And Juliet mmes this colourful and lively production of Shakespeare‘s greatest play, with a very strong, mostly British cast and the best performance in years from Gibson in the title role. Glasgow: GFI‘. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. I Henry: Portrait 01A Serial Killer(18) (John McNaughton, US, 1986) Michael Rooker. Tom Towles, Tracey Arnold. 80 mins. Based loosely on the true life (and subsequently recanted) confessions of Henry Lee Lucas, McNaughton's exemplary film is a harrowing account of an amoral mass murderer. Scenes of rape and mutilation transcend the usual titillation of the genre and force the audience to question the use of murderas entertainment. Simultaneously one of the most important releases of recent years, and one recommended with caution. Glasgow: GFT. Central: MacRobert Arts Centre. I The lllder In The House (18) (Matthew Patrick, US, 1989) Gary Busey, Mimi Rogers, Michael McKean. 108 mins. Twenty years after murdering his sadistic parents, Tom Sykes (Busey) is released from an institution and constructs a secret room behind a false wall in the attic of a new house. Slowly he works his way into the affairs of the family who live there. A compelling psychological drama that dissects ideals of the perfect family and, in Busey, finds the modern equivalent of the threatening but vulnerable ’monster' of yore. Glasgow: GFT. I Home Alone (PG) (Chris Columbus, US, 1990) Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern, John Heard, Catherine O‘Hara. 103 mins. Peter and Kate McCallister (Heard and O’Hara) have an eight-year-old brat and wisely - albeit accidentally - leave him behind in Chicago when they go on holiday to Paris. Left to his own devices young Kevin (Culkin) has to deal with two bungling burglars (Pesci and Stern) who threaten to invade his peaceful haven. Jolly, if sadistic, scare-comedy antics produced by teenflick veteran John Hughes. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. Central: Cannon. I Homicide (15) (David Mamet, US, 1991 ) Joe Mantegna, William H. Macy, Natalija Nogulich, Rebbeca Pidgeon. 102 mins. Dedicated cop Bobby Gold (Mantegna) begins to struggle with his conscience and reflect on his Jewish background when a murder investigation puts him on the track of an anti-Semitic terrorist group and a counter-organisation of Zionist vigilantes. Mamet's third film is as much about faith in a lost society as racist tensions in New York. and is certainly head and shoulders above most conventional police procedurals. Glasgow: GF’I‘. I In Bed With Madonna (18)(A1ek Keshishian. US, 1991) Madonna, her dancers, the tour crew, a bottle ofmineral water. 119 mins. This behind the scenes look at the world‘s top pop icon may not be the candid revelation the hype would have us believe, but newcomer Keshishian provides a constantly entertaining portrait of the artist, as she switches from super-bitch to mother mode. Concert footage of the Blond Ambition tour is impressive and tightly edited, but the highlights have to be Beatty and Costner
2 making total prats ofthemselves.
Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I An Innocent Witch ( 15) (Heinosuke Gosho,Japan. 1965) 100 mins. A powerful depiction of the life of a young girl sold into prostitution and brutally exploited by her family as well as her clients. Glasgow: GFT.
I Jacob’s Ladder ( 18) (Adrian Lyne. US.
1990) Tim Robbins. Elizabeth Pena. Danny Aiello. 113 mins. Vietnam vet
Jacob Singer is seeing some very strange things. like nurses with demons“ horns and people with faces straight out ofa Francis Bacon painting. As his grip on the reality‘J
The List 8—21 November 1991 21