FILM REVIEW
I 1492: Conquest of Paradise By far the bestof the Columbus epics: this time Gerard Depardieu sets sail with Ridley Scott at the helm. A visual masterpiece that pits the Italian sailor‘s integrity against the harsher Spanish imperialists. See feature. page 6.
I Glengany Glen Ross James Foley glides his camera around David Mamet‘s verbal assault in this hard-hitting tale of real estate agents struggling to keep their heads above water. Pacino, Lemmon, Arkin, Harris. Spacey, Baldwin. Pryce: you won‘t see a better group of actors on top form for quite some
One minute he’s-conquering the New World, the next he’s sunning himself on a Mauritian beach with a French nymphette. Who’d be Gerard Depardieu, eh? Meanwhile, The List offers a review spread of all films opening in Central Scotland over the next fortnight.
time. See preview, page 15.
I Othello At last. Orson Welles‘ masterpiece is restored to its full glory, and shows that the actor/director‘s talent did not disappear in a puffof cigar smoke once Citizen Kane was out of the way. Jealousy. revenge and deceit as only The Bard knows how. See preview, page 15.
ITrlbulaton 99m: cinematic equivalent of fine arts‘ ‘found objects‘. Craig Baldwin‘s bold and inventive movie slaps political info into aeult sci-fi pastiche. All the populist post-war paranoias rolled into one.
I Boomerang New York City high-flyer Eddie Murphy enjoys the pleasures of the flesh without any notion of commitment until he falls head over heels with Robin Givens. the only woman who can beat him at his own game. Basically a combination of romantic comedy and role reversal. it‘s custom-made for Murphy‘s suave and
smoothly confident screen persona.
After a succession of films that give the word ‘turkey' a bad name, he badly needs a hit: in the States, Boomerang did the business, but putting the brakes on his downward descent this side of the Atlantic might not prove so easy. For a start, he‘s not allowed to dominate the movie as much as before; this may, on one hand, give the film as a whole a bit more balance, but several paying punters may think he lacks the outrageousness of old. Ultimately. however, it is good to see Murphy the actor as well as the comedian, even if the film‘s sexist tendencies do tarnish the surface gloss.
I Mon Pare, Ce Hero: The latest addition to that enduring ‘older man, younger girl at the beach‘ sub-genre of French cinema, Gerard Lauzier‘s film would be absolutely unmemorable if it wasn‘t for the presence of Gerard Depardieu. Here he is Andre. father to Vero, on holiday in Mauritius and going along with her tall tales wherein he is her smuggler-lover in order to
help her win over the affections of the local beach bum. While the Lolita Revisited feel is at times cringeworthy, Depardieu‘s easy comic timing and expressiver lumpy face do create some funny moments. As light as a feather, but without the same tickle, it is indeed his one-man effort that makes it watchable. (AM)
_ HUSBANDS AND
Husbands and Wives: “complex ensemblepiece'
Academic and novelist Gabe
(Woody Allen) and his wife Judy (Mia
Both
Farrow) are a comfortable couple
whose settled life together is rocked by
the news that their friends Jack (director Sidney Pollack) and Sally
(Judy Davis, last seen shooting up bug powder in Cronenberg’s Naked Lunch) have decided to split up. As Jack goes
on to have an ill-fated fling with hippy-ish aerobics teacher Sam
(Lysette Anthony), and Judy tries to get 3
Sally set up with architect Michael (Liam Heeson), the Hoths find
themselves questioning the very basis of their own marriage. This process of self-doubt and recrimination is far from g
helped by Gabe’s only half-innocent
dalliance with bright creative writing
student Rain (Cape Fear nymphette Juliette Lewis) and Judy’s growing realisation of her own inner feelings
towards lrishman in New York, the aforementioned Michael.
Hush released in Britain ahead oi Allen’s previous offering, the misjudged expressionist pastiche Shadows and Fog, presumably to cash in on the recent rumpus surrounding the bespectacled one’s private life, Husbands and Wives ls thankfully strong enough to survive the crass life-lmltatlng-art assumptions that will undoubtedly be heaped upon it. Blending soul-searching and Incisive character comedy in the manner of Hannah and Her Sisters, this complex ensemble piece is a model of perceptiveness, picking outwith delicacy and trademark Allen wit the litany of compromises, disappointments and sheer unthinking habit that goes to make up any long-running relationship, successful or not. Packed with memorable performances and towerineg awkward 5' situations, one's only quibble is with E the would-be ‘fly on the wall'
i documentary fashion in which it’s shot. The handheld cameras and visible microphones are doubtless intended to i be a distancing device, but somehow
j there’s little chance of that when recent events have made our interest in the material so much keener. (Trevor Johnston)
Husbands and Wives (15) (Woody
; Allen, US, 1992) Woody Allen, Mia
i Farrow, Sidney Pollack, Judy Davis.
g 107 mins. Glasgow: Odeon. Edinburgh: ; Odeon. Strathclyde: UBI Clydebank.
STRICTLY BALLROOM
8
The toast of Cannes, Paris, the
Edinburgh Film Festival — in
fact,
everywhere it has already added its sparkle to the big screen — Baz
Luhrmann’s directorial debut Strictly Ballroom finally takes a twirl around
the UK. Its simplicity is its success: danceiloor hopeful Scott Hastings incurs the wrath of the Australian Dance Federation by using his own
steps in competition, loses his partner
and his friends, but finds love and artistic integrity with the local
wallllower.
Luhrmann crams each frame with
colour, glitter, music, spectacle. He
balances the narrative’s fairytale
sweetness with some dressing room back-stabbing, Aussie style. He leads
the audience through an emotional
A L. i x
Strictly Ballroom: ‘colour, glitter, music, spectacle
I talrground and lets them back out onto
. the streets revelling in the movie’s ' feelgood buzz. The casting is perfect: the dance-orientated younger leads are surrounded by a supporting cast of veteran character actors who are obviously having great fun playing with their stereotypes. There is no great thesis on offer here, no attempt to solve the problems of the world in an hour l and a half. This is a movie unashamed to be treated as pure entertainment. Laugh, cheer, cry and clap -you'll do it all and shout for more. (Alan Morrison)
Strictly Ballroom (PG) (Baz Luhrmann, Australia, 1991) Paul Mercurio, Tara Morice, Bill Hunter. 94 mins. Glasgow: Ddceon, MGM. Edinburgh: Odeon. All
U ls.
; one-liners.
‘ Move. and her acting
_ BUFFY THE ' VAMPIRE SLAYER
Buffy The Vampire Slayer: ‘an insult to the intelligence’
The vampire has risen from his celluloid grave, but he‘ll need to have sharper fangs than this sad sucker ifhe wants to take a bite of the box office. Kristy Swanson is Buffy, a high-school cheerleader casually informed by Donald Sutherland that she is the latest in along line of specially chosen vampire slayers. Hence the title. When herfriends start turning up dead with a couple of holes where their jugulars used to be, it‘s time to break out the stakes, the dodgy make-up and the crap
Swanson appeared in Mannequin 2: On The
hasn‘t progressed much since being a showroom dummy. She and her female friends resemble a poor man‘s version ofthe Heathers troupe, while Beverly Hills 90210‘5
Luke Perry is a scuzzy shadow ofChristian Slater. For years, the vampire aficionados amongst us have waited for Rutger Hauer to don the black cape and pointed canines, only for him to pop up in this rubbish. And then there's the dialogue, which sounds like it‘s been thrown together from a bag of‘hip for fifteen minutes‘ phrases overheard in a shopping mall. Disconcerting jumps in the film make you think this is a 15 certificate cut down to a 12, and as such, the whole mess is an insult to the intelligence ofan audience of any age. It‘s not scary, it‘s not funny, it‘s not worth the effort. I‘d rather have been staked at the door. (Alan Morrison)
Buffy The Vampire Slayer (12) (Fran Rubel Kuzui, US, 1992) Kristy Swanson, Luke Perry, Rutger Hauer. 94 mins. Glasgow: MGM. All UCls.
16 The List 23 October— 5 November 1992