FILM INDEX
FILM .m-
Films screening this iortnight are listed below, with certificate. credits. brief review and venue details. Full-length reviews oi selected new releases can be found closeto ttte appropriate entry. Programme details appear in the Listings section which follows. Film Index compiled by Alan Morrison.
I The Addams Family (PG) (Barry Sonnenfeld. US. 1991) Anjelica Huston. RaulJulia. Christopher Lloyd. Dan Hedaya. 100 mins. When long-lost Uncle Fester returns from 25 years in the Bermuda Triangle. it disrupts the idyllic lifestyle ofthe Addams clan. But is this Fester a fortune-grabbing imposter'.’ Big budget movie has all of the macabre sense of fun of the TV series and the original New Yorker cartoons. as well as sets and design that any self-respecting ghoulish household would die for. Literally. Edinburgh: UC1.Strathclyde:Odeon Ayr.
IAIice(12) (Woody Allen. US. 1990)Mia Farrow. Joe Mantegna. William Hurt. Keye Luke. 105 mins. Despite living in a designer paradise. Alice (Farrow) has an eye for a fellow parent at her children's school and a backache her therapists are at a loss to ease. Cue Doctor Chang‘s mystical. medical herbs and hidden aspects of her personality shine through. Another gem from Mr Allen. Edinburgh: Cameo.
I An American Tail 2: Flevel Goes West (U)(Phil Nibbelinlo’Simon Wells. US. 1991) With the voices of Phillip Glasser. Dom DeLuise. James Stewart. John Cleese. 75 mins. Disillusioned with their New York tenement. the Mousekewitcz family head out to the Wild West. where Fievel teams up with Sheriff Wylie Burp and his friend Tiger in order to clean up the town run by evilCat R. Waul. Not really up to the standard ofthe original. Strathclyde: Magnum.
I Barton Fink (15) (Joel Coen. US. 1991)John Turturro. John Goodman. Judy Davis. Michael Lerner. 117 mins. When socially-committed playwright Barton Fink (Turturro) is consigned by the Hollywood machine to write wrestling films. he slumps into a writer‘s block as large as his mysterious next-door neighbour (John Goodman). Unprecedented winner of best film. actor and direction awards at 1991‘s Cannes Film Festival shows the Coen‘s at their most hilarious. menacing and absurd best. Glasgow: GET. Edinburgh: Cameo.
I eetty elue ( 18) (Jean-Jacques Beineix. France. 1986) Jean Hughes Angladc. Beatrice Dalic. 120 mins. Tempestuous love gone mad as an older handyman and a free-spirited woman embark on a passionate. peripatctic fling that ends in tragedy. Filmed with a dazzling technique and an irritating emptiness by the maker of Diva. Edinburgh: Cameo.
I aigioot and the Hendersons ( PG) (William Dear. US. 1987) John Lithgow. Melinda Dillon. Don Ameche. 111 mins. Disneyesque family adventure in which the all-American Henderson family crash into the legendary Bigfoot and adopt the suprisingly genial beastie as a domestic pet. Predictable complications ensue. involving the neighbours and blood-hungry hunters. Strathclyde: UCl East Kilbride.
I Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (PG) (Peter Hewitt. US. 1991) Keanu Reeves. Alex Winter. George Carlin. Joss Ackland. 93 mins. Evil robot versions of that most excellent duo totally kill our heroes. causing them to take on the Grim Reaper at party games. make a quick visit to Heaven and eventually win the day. A triumphant sequel. slightly more coherent than the bodacious original - in Bill and Ted terms. at least. General release. I eiact Robe ( 15) (Bruce Bercsford. US. 1991) Lothaire Bluteau. Aden Young. Sandrine Holt. Stirring version of Brian Moore‘s tale of a 17th century Jesuit priest travelling across North America to a remote mission takes a realistic view ofthe savagery of the Indian tribes. Nevertheless. their philosophies and way of life are treated with the same respect as those of the Christians. Bluteau's anguished looks are perfect for the conscience-stricken priest who gradually comes to terms with the harsh landscapes and opposing
cultures. Glasgow: Cannon Sauchiehall Street. Grosvenor. Edinburgh: UCl.
I am Velvet (18) (David Lynch. US. 1986) Kyle MacLachlan. Dennis Hopper. Isabella Rossellini. 120 mins. 1n small-town Middle America. would-be boy detective MacLachlan finds a severed car on some waste ground. When the police shoo him away he decides to do some investigating of his own. A singular fusion of the cosy and the terrifying which blends kitsch and nightmare. B-movie detection and brutal sex to L__
18 The List 13 — 26 March 1992
deconstruct our complacent vision of normal
_ society. This is film-making of remarkable imagination and skill. Edinburgh: Cameo.
I Boudu Saved From Drowning (PG) (Jean Renoir. France. 1932) Michel Simon. Charles Gtandval. Marcelle Hainia. 87 mins. The extraordinary confrontation of moral outlook between a tramp saved from drowning. and his well-to-do rescuer who becomes his host is both charming and disturbing. as Renoir explores relationships between opposite sectors of a polarised community. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Boy: ii The Hood ( 15) (John Singleton. US. 1991) i
Cuba Gooding Jr. Larry Fishburne. ice Cube. Morris Chestnut. 112 mins. A poignant depiction of life in the rundown suburbia of South Central Los Angeles by debut director Singleton. A group
of teenage friends try to keep their heads above
the never-ending flood of reprisal killings. but find that it is all too easy to get sucked intothe violence. Ultimately moving and emotionally harrowing. Central: MacRobert Arts Centre.
I Brazil ( 15) (Terry Gilliam. US. 1985)Jonathan Pryce. Kim Griest. Robert De Niro. Peter Vaughan. 142 mins. Extravagantly designed and blackly humorous Orwellian vision of the future.
‘ as modest bureaucrat Pryce battles the forces of
totalitarianism and fights for his dream girl. feisty trucker Gtiest. Overlong and ramshackle fantasia. with moments of sheer creative
adrenalin and a classic ending. Edinburgh: Cameo.
I Cape Feat(18) (Martin SCorsese. US. 1991)
: Robert De Niro. Nick Nolte. Jessica Lange.
Juliette Lewis. 127 mins. Scorsese‘sstunning remake of the 1962 original leaves Silence ofthe Lambs pallid by comparison. De Niro is terrifying as white trash psycho Max Cady. out of prison and stalking the family of the lawyer who suppressed
i evidence to put him away. Disturbing sexual
undertones. centring on 15-year-old Danny (Lewis). make this an even more uncomfortable. but unmissable. top-notch scare-fest. General release.
I City Di Hope ( 15) (John Sayles. US. 1991) Vincent Spano. Tony 1.o Bianco. Joe Morton. 129 mins. Eleven years after The Return ofthe Secaucus Seven. John Sayles is still at the forefront ofthe American independent film movement. His latest work examines the urban dynamics ofa 1990s working-class community. centring on the civic corruption and old-style blue-collar honesty that surrounds the construction industry. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. Central: MacRobert Arts Centre.
I Close My Eyes ( 18) (Stephen Poliakoff. UK. 1991) Saskia Reeves. Clive Owens. Alan Rickman. 107 mins. During the long hot London summer of 1990. the affectionate familial bond of brother and sister Richard and Nathalie erupts into a passionate sexual liason. A calming shelter from a society on the verge of falling apart. their relationship is made more addictive by the taboo surrounding it. A troublingly effective and erotic drama. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I The Commitments (15) (Alan Parker. UK. 1991) Robert Atkins. Michael Aherne. Angeline Ball. Maria Doyle. 118 mins. Sod U2 — when would-be manager Jimmy Rabbitte (Atkins) puts together The Commitments. soul comes to Dublin and the band become the force to really put lrish musicon the map. Alan Parker delivers a hilarious. down-to-earth. close-to-home movie. stuffed full ofgood music and with some relevent social comment to boot. General release.
I Countdown ( 12) (Ulrike ()ttinger. Germany. 1990) 189 mins. The ten day lead-up to unification of German currencies — the first stage ofcomplete unification - is chronicled in detail. Not the most exciting premise for a three hour documentary perhaps. but ()ttinger manages to capture the other social changes happening at the same time. thus creating a wider framework for his central conceit. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I The Creature From The Black Lagoon ( 18) (Jack Arnold. US. 1954) Richard Carlson. Julia Adams. Ricou Browning. 79 mins. Fifties‘ monster movie classic has a party ofscientists on an Amazon expedition discovering a strange amphibious creature. the gill man. who proceeds to threaten
; the safety of the entire group. Impressive
'i underwater camerawork and some sympathy for the big green fella mark this out as far superiorto most ofthe genre. Strathclyde: UCl East
Kilbride.
I Criminal Law ( 18) (Martin Campbell. US. 1989) 1 Gary Oldman. Kevin Bacon. Karen Young. Joe
Don Baker. Tess Harper. 118 mins. ()ldman‘s lawyer faces a dilemma when he disCovers that the sickeningly wealthy client (Baker) he‘s just got acquitted of rape and murder is in fact guilty. Campbell. who directed Iidge ()fl)arkness (also starring Baker) for the BBC. maintains the tension throughout. though despite some first rate acting the intended analysis of greed and justice is somewhat simplistic. Edinburgh: ('ameo.
I Cross My Heart (Jacques Fansten. France. 1991) Sylvain (‘opans. Nicholas Parodi. (‘ecilia Rouaud. 100 mins. in a plot vaguely reminiscent of lain McEwan‘s novel The Cement (iarden . a
young French schoolboy lives at home with the body of his dead mother. afraid to tell anyone in case he is sent to an orphanage. Fansten squeezes an odd sense of humour out of the situation. particularly through the group of children who decide to ‘help' their friend in his predicament. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. I Curly Sue (PG) (John Hughes. US. 1991)James Belushi. Kelly Lynch. Alisan Porter. John Getz. 102 mins. Father and daughter con team (with hearts of gold. naturally) trick an uptight lady attorney into taking care of them and end up mending everybody‘s wicked ways. Towerineg predictable. with a leading lady who's the best advert for infant euthanasia since the good ship Lollipop weighed anchor in Peppermint Bay. Strathclyde: WMR Leisure Centre. IA DayAt The Races (PG) (Sain Wood. US. 1937) The Marx Brothers. Allan Jones. Maureen ()‘Sullivan. Margaret Dumont. 111 mins. Not the best of the Marx Brothers‘ films — the musical numbers and romantic subplots are a bit too plentiful - but it does have a fair quota ofclassic comedy set pieces and dialogue sequences. As for the plot. it has the Brothers' trying to help out a girl who owns a sanitorium and a racehorse. Edinburgh: Cameo. I Death in Brunswick ( 15) (John Ruane. Australia. 1991 ) Sam Neill. Zoe Carides. John Clarke. 105 mins. Carl. a cook in a sleazy Melbourne dive. gets involved in a crazy mix of sex'n'drugs‘n'rock‘n‘roll when he falls for a fellow waitress. Falsely suspected of murder and arson. he ends up on the run in what has to be the strangest. blackest. most hilarious oddity to come from Down Under in recent years. Glasgow: GET I Death Di A Salesman (PG) (Volker Schlondorff. US. 1986) Dustin Hoffman. 140mins. Originally made for American public television. this is an adequate record of an award-winning stage performance in a classic play. though Hoffman does look a little made-up on the cinema screen. Glasgow: GFT.
I Delicatessen ( 15) (Jean-PierreJeunet/Marc Caro. France. 1991) Dominique Pinon. Marie-Laure Dougnac. Jean-Claude Dreyfus. 99 mins. in a sepia wasteland somewhere in the future. a butcher feeds his neighbours with the juicy joints of his lodgers. But when former clown Louison (Pinon) arrives and falls for his daughter. an underground vegetarian resistance group come to the rescue. Hilarious blend of bizarre characters. slapstick and comic tension makes for the first true cult item of the Edinburgh: Cameo.
I Deutschland. Deutschland ( 15) (Peter Fleischmann. Germany. 1990) 90mins. Fleischmann travels through the united Germany. interviewing everyone from factory workers to pensioners in order to get some sort of social spectrum of reaction to the redefined country. The documentary also works on a personal level. as the filmmaker examines the locations of his own earlier works with newly opened eyes. Glasgow: GFT. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Double impact ( 18) (Sheldon Lettich. US. 1991) Jean-Claude Van Damme. Geoffrey Lewis. Alan Scarfe. Alonna Shaw. 108 mins. Our favourite kick boxer is back. this time as identical twins— one nice. one nasty — who team up after having been separated for 25 years in order to beat the living crap out of the killer of their parents. Highlight is a tightly edited sequence when Jean-Claude the First takes on Jean-Claude the Second. but even then it only amounts to a predictable whole interrupted by choreographed violence. Glasgow: Odeon. Edinburgh: UCI. Central: Regal. Strathclyde: UCl Clydebank.
I The Double Llie oi Veronique ( 15) ( Krzystof Kieslowski. Poland/France. 1991) lrene Jacob. Philippe Volter. Alexander Bardini. 110mins. Two girls — one Polish. the other French - are born at the same time on the same day and come to discover that their fates are bound up together. An eerily fascinating and disturbing erotic dance of love and death from the director of Dekalog (The Ten Commandments). with an extraordinary twin performance by Cannes award-winner Jacob. Glasgow: GFT. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Dream 0n(15) (Amber Collective. UK. 1991) Maureen Harold. Amber Styles. Anne-Marie Gascoigne. 115 mins. Gritty and authentic depiction of what it is like to be a woman livingon an unemployment-hit housing estate in the north
of England. Produced by Newcastle‘s
non-profit-making Amber Collective. it manages to get beyond the constraints of similarTV drama-documentaries. Edinburgh: Odeon.
I Drowning By Numbers (18) (Peter Greenaway. UK. 1988) Joan Plowright. Bernard Hill. Joely Richardson. 118 mins. In a narrative as straightforward and complicated as the title. three generations of women. all of them called Cissie Colpitts. dispose of their husbands in a series of aquatic murders. whilst the numbers 1 to 100 run through the film in the backgrounds. Besides the enjoyable pastime of number spotting. this is among G reenaway‘s most accessible and pleasurable films. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Edward actuate-es (PG) (Tim Burton. US. 1991 ) Johnny Depp. Winona Ryder. Dianne Wiest. Vincent Price. 105 mins. Burton followsup the excesses of Batman with this fairy tale for the 905. which works as a welcome return to the darker side of the genre. Depp is the unfinished creation of The lnventor (Price). who lives alone in a crumbling mansion. unable to even scratch his nose without needing stitches. Discoverd bya friendly Avon lady. his talent for coiffure and topiary makes him a neighbourhood favourite until tragedy strikes. Beautifully shot. tenderly acted and full of hidden depths. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Emile Films By Women (18) Three films presented in association with the London Filmmakers‘ Co-op. which examine sexuality on film. Claudia Schillinger‘s Between looks at male and female sides of sexuality. Barbara Theil's Blues Transit explores the whole body as an erogenous zone and Mano Destra by Cleo Uebeimann places S&M bondage in a new light. Provocative blend of art and eroticism. Glasgow: GFT.
I The Exorcist ( 18) (William Ftiedkin. US. 1973) Linda Blair. Ellen Burstyn. Max Von Sydow. 110 mins. Earnest priest Von Sydow steps in to save poor little possessed girl in this hugely effective scarefest. Dead good. dead scarey. dead priest. Glasgow: Grosvenor. Strathclyde: UCls.
I Father oi the Bride (PG) (Charles Shyer. US. 1991) Steve Martin. Diane Keaton. Kimberly Williams. Martin Short. 105 mins. Steppinginto the shoes worn by Spencer Tracy in the 1950 original. Steve Martin is nauseating as the over-protective father. unwilling to accept that his baby girl is all grown up. Slushy and barelyfunny. it‘s another step by Martin along the caring comic route of Parenthood rather than the inspired madness of his early days. General release.
I The Fisher Klng ( 15) (Terry Gilliam. US. 1991) Robin Williams. Jeff Bridges. Amanda Plummer. Mercedes Ruehl. 137 mins. A suicidal former radio DJ (Bridges) and a drop-out former professor of medieval history go in search of the Holy Grail in contemporary New York. The visual splendour of Gilliam‘s previous movies — Time Bandits and Baron 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. Edinburgh: Cameo. Central: MacRobert Arts Centre.
I Flirting (12) (John Duigan. Australia. 1991) Noah Taylor. Thandie Newton. Nicole Kidman. 100 mins. The second part of writer/director Duigan‘s trilogy. which began with 1987‘s The Year My Voice Broke. relates the continuinglife of Danny Embling (Taylor). now at a remote Australian boys‘ boarding school. Wonderfully evocative writing and characterisations lift this gem above other. more slushy. tales of first love. Central: MacRobert Arts Centre.
I Frankie andJoheny ( 15) (Garry Marshall. US. 1991) Al Pacino. Michelle Pfeiffer. Hector Elizondo. Kate Nelligan. 117 mins. Despite some feminine resistance. love begins to sizzle between disillusioned waitress Frankie (Pfeiffer) and short order cook Johnny (Pacino). Warm-hearted romance. with side orders of cliche and diner realism. from the man who brought you Pretty Woman. General release.
I Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cate (12) (Jon Avnet. US. 1991) Kathy Bates. Jessica Tandy. Mary Stuart Masterson. Mary-Louise Parker. 130 mins. After the local Ku Klux Klan threatens the busy cafe in Whistle Stop. Alabama for serving coloured customers. the female owner and her black handyman find themselves on trial for an unsolved murder. A chronicle ofcourage and ingenuity that avoids becoming as overwhelmingly heart-warming as one might have feared. Not the most tantalising item on the menu. but a flavoursome little dish nonetheless. See review. General release.
I Friedrichstrasse atauoe.aeriie1aN(12)85 mins. The station. situated on the eastern side of the Wall. provided the main gateway for travellers to pass from east to west until 9 November 1990. Four women collaborated on the film. talking to the people most directly affected by the changes which returned the station to normal commuter use. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I BoodFeiias ( 18) (Martin Scorsese. US. 1990) Robert De Niro. Ray Liotta. Joe Pesci. Lorraine Braco. Paul Sorvino. 145 mins. Liotta plays Henry Hill. a real-life mafloso. with De Niro as his mentor in crime. And while the bullets. fists and carving knives fly. Scorsese brings us back to that unavoidable question — yes. it‘s glamorous and lucrative to live this way. but can anyone really live with the consequences? Winner of BAFTA awards for best film. director and screenplay. and a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Joe Pesci. Glasgow: Grosvenor.
I Gremlins 2: The iiew latch (12) (Joe Dante. US. 1990) Zach Galligan. Phoebe Cates. Christopher Lee. 107 mins. For once a sequel that matchesthe original. This time the scaly mini-monsters