FILM INDEX
FILM
Fliers screening this fortnight are listed below with certificate. credits, brief review and venue details. Full length reviews of new releases can be found in the Listian section wich follows. Film index compiled by Alan Morrison.
I flew lien (15) (Stephen Frears. US. 1992) Dustin Hoffman. Geena Davis. Andy Garcia. 117 mins. Professional loser Bernie LaPlante (Hoffman) becomes a national hero when his fuzzy image is captured on TV while saving lives (and picking pockets) after a plane crash. But it's fellow bum John Bubbcr (Garcia) who finds fame. fortune and a guilty conscience. Consistently funny satire on heroism with a stand-out performance by Hoffman. Glasgow: Odeon. Edinburgh: Odeon. All UCls. I All Actor‘s Hm (PG) (Kon lchikawa. Japan. 1963) Kazuo Hasegawa. Fujiko Yamamoto. Ayako Wakao. 113 mins. Hasegawa revives the dual roles he first played in the 30s. as a kabuki female impersonator and a Robin Hood—like thief. The revenge plot takes forever to unravel. the acting is as camp as a row of tents. but lchikawa's Scope framing is immaculate and this new colour print makes the most of the film‘s undoubted visual splendour. See review. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. I Alive (15) (Frank Marshall. US. 1992) Ethan Hawke. Vincent Spano. Josh Hamilton. 126 mins. Based on the true story of a Uraguayan rugby team who survived a plane crash in the Andes by eating the ice-packed corpses of their fellow travellers. After a hair-raising crash sequence. the film loses its way with with too much ‘triumph of the spirit‘ TV movie stuff. Come back Cannibal Holocaust. all is forgiven. Glasgow: MGMs. Edinburgh: MGM. Central: Cannon. Strathclyde Cannon. All UCls. I A m MUS) (Chris Menges. UK. 1988) Barbara Hershey. Jodhi May. Linda Mvusi. David Suchet. 112 mins. Based on the experiences of screenwriter Shawn Slovo's teenage years in the South Africa of the early Sixties. the film follows the arrest of her political activist mother and her own growing awareness of the injustices of apartheid. Brilliantly acted treatment of the evils of the Johannesburg regime. which never opts for preachiness but offers an honest complexity that makes it all the more engrossing. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. I We (PG) (Ron Fricke. US. 1992) 96 mins. As impossible to put into words as Koyaanisqatsi. which director/cameraman .Fricke also shot. The images and soundtrack stress man's interrelation with nature and its frequent tearing. City. sea. landscapes. outer space - man is connected to all. and it is celebrated in this breathtaking movie. European premiere. Sun 23 only. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. I TH Battle of Billy’s m (U) 60 mins. A Children's Film Foundation movie about the adventures of two boys who investigate the source of poisonous dumping that causes the death of the fish in a local pond. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. I loom (U) (Brian Levant. US. 1992) Charles Grodin. Bonnie Hunt. Dean Jones. 87 mins. A small St Bernard pup escapes from an evil vet and attaches itself to the Newton family. Soon it grows to enormous proportions and begins to wreck domestic havoc. Endless visual gags and good timing. particularly from Grodin. enliven what might have been a run-of—the-mill mutt movie. Central: Regal.
Assembly Direct presents
BRILLIANT [All PAPER SCULPTURES GLOBAL RHYTHMS FRENCH CUISINE & IUCGLERS
Saturday Hay. 7.30pm.
Assembly Rooms. £7.50 ((5)
Tickets: (031) 668 2019. (031) 220 4349 For more info see page 35
I Betty Blue: The (lo-piste Version (18) (Jean- Jacques Beineix. France. 1986) Jean-Hugues Anglade. Beatrice Daile. Gerard Darrnon. 180 mins. The story remains the same - boy meets girl. girl flips out - but the extra 60 mins of unseen footage is a mixed bag. Some new scenes help give a creditable timescale to Betty‘s descent into insanity. while others are distracting. the cinematic equivalent of e monstrous carbuncles on the face of a well-loved friend. Central: MacRobert. I The Big Chill (15) (Lawrence Kasdan. US. 1983) Glenn Close. Kevin Kline. William Hurt. 105 mins. A group of college friends from the 19605 are unexpectedly reunited at the funeral of one of their number who has committed suicide. During the weekend of friendship. fun and sex they reflect that yesterday all their troubles seemed so far away. Short on plot. the film is rich in sardonic humour. pertinent music and expert ensemble acting. Edinburgh: Cameo. I the Bitteri’earsOf Petra VonKantUS) (Rainer Werner Fassbinder. W. Germany. 1972) Margit Carstensen. Hanna Schygulla. lrm Hermann. 124 mins. in a sumptuous apartment lives a fashion designer. slavishiy attended by her assistant. but the arrival of an attractive young woman whom the former wishes to use as a model changes the domestic power set-up. One of the great Fassbinder films. incisiver examining the way in which social positions influence romantic relationships. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. I Blade limiter: The liirector's But (15) (Ridley Scott. US. 1982/92) Harrison Ford. Sean Young. Rutger Hauer. 116 mins. Out go the pseudo-noir narration and the tacked-on happy ending; in comes a more defined sense that Deckard himself may be a replicant. The look and feel remain as powerful. and the acting is superb. A flawed masterpiece is now a restored masterpiece. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. Fife: Adam Smith. I Blue Black Permanent (PG) (Margaret Tait. Scotland. 1992) Gerda Stevenson. Celia lmrie. Jack Shepherd. 86 mins. Poetic but painfully obscure portrait of three generations of women. tied over the decades by love and death. As an art movie. 74-year-old Tait‘s feature debut has some beautiful images. based around water. sea and rain; but its muddled narrative is so distracting that much of the impact is lost. Central: MacRobert. I Bob lioberts (15) (Tim Robbins. US. 1992) Tim Robbins. Alan Rickman. Giancarlo Esposito. Gore Vidal. 103 mins. Man-of-the- moment Robbins takes over as director. writer and star of this wonderfully sharp satire on contemporary American politics. The eponymous Roberts is a right-wing folk singer with senatorial ambitions. appearing here in a mocked-up Spinal Tap type documentary. Funny and pertinent. Strathclyde: UCl Clydebank. I Body of Evidence (18) (Uii Edel. US. 1993) Madonna. Willem Dafoe. Joe Mantegna. 100 mins. in her latest bad career move. Madonna is a woman accused of using her body as the lethal weapon that killed her wealthy lover. Dafoe is the lawyer trying to prove her innocence. but soon he‘s more interested in her areolae than her alibis and the only legal loopholes necessary are the ones she uses for bondage. The camera does not fall under Ms Ciccone‘s spell. her acting is terrible. and the movie seems destined to become a risible cut classic. Edinburgh: UCl. Borders: Kingsway. I Braindead (18) (Peter Jackson. New Zealand. 1992) Timothy Balme. Diana Penalver. Elizabeth Moody. 104 mins. You won't believe the fun that can be had with a rotary blade lawnmower. a cast of slobbering zombies and several hundred gallons of blood. Peter (Bad Taste) Jackson wrenches the King of Gore title away from Sam Raimi with this outrageous slapstick classic in which our nerdy heroes battles it out with the undead population of Wellington. Tremendous. Edinburgh: UCl. Strathclyde: UCl Clydebank. I I Irldrter SI.“ liay (15) (Edward Yang. Taiwan. 1991) 237 mins. Wildly acclaimed and deserving to be called ‘epic'. Yang‘s tale of Taiwan in the 60s has at its heart a poweful romance. See Screen Test. Glasgow: GFl‘. I Win (12) (Richard Attenborough. UK/US. 1992) Robert Downey Jr. Moira Kelly. Geraldine Chaplin. 144 mins. Attenborough‘s craftsmanlike biopic of the cane-twirling celluloid clown skims most surfaces. but there are rewards to be found in the acting department. Cameos are uniformly good. but Downey towers above them all. The mass youth market may not give a toss who the Little Tramp was. but the lead helps make this a much more approachable prospect for regular movie-goer than you'd ex t. Central: MacRobert. I gm En lllver A Heart In Winter (12) (Claude Sautet. France. 1992) Daniel Auteuil. Ernmanuelle Bean. Andre Dussolier. 105 mins. A withdrawn violin maker becomes the object of desire for a young violinist who herself is the amour of the former‘s business partner. An
elegantly trenchant chronicle of triangular relationships which moves with such graceful fluidity that it's easy to miss the toughness at its core. Edinburgh: Cameo.
I Clip and a llaif (PG) (Henry Winkler. US. 1993) Burt Reynolds. Normal D. Golden 11. Ruby Dec. 97 mins. A kid who‘s a material witness in an important case demands to live out his TV fantasies before he agrees to co-operate. So give him a badge. cuffs and Reyolds as a partner. Soggy programme filler that. if anything. is worse than the synopsis sounds. See review. Strathclyde: Cannon. All MGMs. All UCls.
I The Crying Game (15) (Neil Jordan. UK. 1992) Stephen Rea. Forest Whitaker. Jaye Davidson. 112 mins. A disillusioned lRA terrorist strikes up a friendship with the black British soldier he has kidnapped. and subsequently finds himself in London and in love with the latter's girlfriend. A bold. unpredictable film that has plenty to say about notions of personal and sexual identity. if only all British movies were as good as this. Glasgow: Grosvenor.
I liarlt Crystal (PG) (Jim Henson. Frank 02. UK. 1982) 94 mins. The Muppet men branch out with this unoriginal children‘s fantasy surrounding the quest for a missing shard from the all-powerful dark crystal which must be retrieved to prevent evil consuming the known world. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Delicath (15) (Jean-Pierre Jeunet/Marc Caro. France. 1991) Dominique Pinon. Marie- Laurc 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 Glasgow: Grosvenor.
I The Double life of veronica: (15) (Krzystof Kieslowski. Poland/France. 1991) 1rene Jacob. Philippe Voltcr. Alexander Bardini. 110 mins. 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. Edinburgh: Cameo. Filmhouse.
I Dracula. Prince of Darkness (18) (Terence Fisher. UK. 1965) Christopher Lee. Andrew Keir. Barbara Shelley. 90 mins. Picks up from where the Hammer original left off. with unwitting travellers providing the necessary blood to bring the Count back to un-life. A worthy successor. made when the company was at its height. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I The Exorcist ( l 8) (William Friedkin. 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: WMR.
I Faust (PG) (F.W. Mumau. Germany. 1926) Emil Jannings. Gosta Ekman. Camilla Horn. 92 mins. Made when Mumau was at his artistic and expressionist height. this has all of the visual splendour of his greatest movies. but seems to deflate the drama inherent in the material. With live piano accompaniment. Wed 26 only. Glasgow: GET.
I Fear Eats The Soul (15) (Rainer Werner Fassbinder. W. Germany. 1974) E1 Hedi Ben Salem. Brigitte Mira. 93 mins. A middle-aged charwoman who used to be a Nazi Party member. takes up with a young Arab immigrant worker. much to the consternation of her friends and neighbours. Typically melodramatic Fassbinder study of a disintegrating relationship. which also examines the problems of racism in West German society. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I A Few Good Men (15) (Rob Reiner. US. 1992) Tom Cruise. Jack Nicholson. Demi Moore. Keifer Sutherland. 138 mins. Navy lawyers Cruise and Moore are called upon to defend two suspected murders. but as the case develops. it becomes clear that their superior officers (Nicholson and Sutherland) may have had a role in the affair. A fine return to real acting for Nicholson and yet another engrossing piece of work from Reiner. Central: MacRobert.
I The F1eld(12) (Jim Sheridan. Eire. 1990) Richard Harris. John Hurt. Tom Berenger. Brenda Flicker. 110 mins. Based on John B. Keane's stage play. Sheridan's follow-up to the immensely successful My Left Foot is a rural tragedy set in 1939. Harris stars as The Bull. an Irish farmer in competition with an American for the purchase of the field he's worked for years. As their struggle intensifies. so violence and revelations are unleashed which draw him inexorably to an awful fate. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
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 Bmke. relates the continuing life 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. Edinburgh: Cameo.
I For All Mind (U) (A1 Reinert. US. 1989) 80 mins. The Earth and its nearest neighbours as you‘ve never seen them before — via the collected footage from all nine NASA Apollo missions that blasted off between 1968 and 1972. Six million feet of film and 90 hours of interviews have been whittled down to an enthralling. humbling experience. Atmospheric soundtrack by Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Forever Young (PG) (Steve Miner. US. 1992) Mel Gibson. Elijah Wood. Jamie Lee Curtis. 102 mins. A 8-52 test pilot volunteers for cryogenic experiments. gets frozen. then thaws out in 1992. After befriending a young boy. off he goes to find his lost love. Escapist twaddle this may be. but it is a shimmering example of the Hollywood weepie machine at its best. Three packs of Kleenex and a box of chocs. Glasgow: MGM Sauchiehail street. All UCls.
I olenoarry Glen lioss (15) (James Foley. US. 1992) Al Pacino. Jack Lemmon. Ed Hanis. Alan Arkin. 100 mins. The combination of Foley‘s camera and Mamet's dialogue makes for verbal choreography in this hard-hitting. word-heavy account of the bonding and back-stabbing in a US real estate office. The cast are magnificent. Pacino and Lemmon outstanding. Underrated director Foley does wonders to break out of the stageplay format. Not easy going. but an unforgetable achievement. Glasgow: GFT.
I [as Grandes Manoeuvres Summer Manoeuvres (PG) (Rene Clair. France. 1955) Gerard Philipe. Michele Morgan. Yves Robert. 106 mins. A dragoon who fancies himself as a bit of a Don Juan makes a bet he can seduce a divorcee. but ends up failing in love with her. An ironic comedy with more emotional commitment than much of Clair's work. Edinburgh: French Institute.
I Gregory's Girl (PG) (Bill Forsyth. UK. 1981) Gordon John Sinclair. Dee Hepbum. Clare Grogan. 91 mins. Winning comedy from Cumbemauld with Sinclair eventually finding romance after his heart is set aflame by the latest recruit to the school football team. Seminal piece of Scottish cinema. its universal appeal demonstrating that homegrown talent can compete with Hollywood‘s finest in the entertainment stakes. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Groundhog 081 (PG) (Harold Ramis. us. 1993) Bill Murray. Andie MacDowell. Chris Elliot. TV weathemran Phil Conners (Murray) finds himself in the back of beyond. trapped in an ever-repeating single day. Partying and babe- chasing leads to serious romancing as he goes after his producer (MacDoweil). Murray‘s cuddly sarcasm stops the movie from becoming the kind of moralising mush that surrounds so many of his contemporaries. At last. a Hollywood comedy that is really funny. General release.
I lienry And .iune ( 18) (Philip Kaufman. US. 1990) Fred Ward. Uma Thurman. Maria de Maderios. Richard E. Grant. 137 mins. The triangular relationship between the erotic writers Henry Miller and Anais Nin and Miller's wife June is the backbone of this well mounted biopic. which suffers from the slightly incongruous explicitness of Kaufman's previous Unbearable Liglttness OfBeing and the same uncomfortably slow pace. Edinburgh: Cameo.
I liole Alone 2: Lost in liew York (U) (Chris Columbus. US. 1992) Macaulay Culkin. Joe Pesci. Daniel Stern. The McCallister family head off on holiday and leave little Kevin behind. Sounds familiar? More remake than sequel to the 1990 box office sensation. this time the brat ends up battling with his favourite burglars in New York City. Crass slapstick. uninspired writing. if you loved/hated the first one. you'll love/hate this one. Glasgow: Cannon.
I lioney. I Blew lb The Kid (U) (Randal Kleiser. US. 1992) Rick Moranis. Marcia Strassman. Robert Oliveri. 90 mins. This time accident- prone scientist Moranis changes the size of his beloved offspring in the opposite direction. with the effect that baby Adam becomes a titanic tot terrorising Las Vegas. Very much aimed at the young children's market. and brought to you by the man who directed Grease. Edinburgh: UCl. I lioney 181m The Kids (U) (Joe Johnston. US. 1989) Rick Moranis. Matt Frewer. Thomas Brown. Amy O‘Neill. Robert Oliveri. Jared Rushton. 92 mins. Hapless father and would-be inventor (Moranis) does just what the title suggests. The kids find themselves cut down to size (a quarter of an inch) and swept out with the trash. Their mission: to escape from the garbage bag and somehow attract their father's attention to their height problem. Well. we might think it's
18 The List 21 May—3 June 1993