FILM
Video reviews twist in this black indie comedy, filled
with bizarre but sharply drawn RENTAL
characters. If the response to their questions isn’t PC enough, then a group of American grad students decide their guests are for the chop — a
The Cable Guy course of events that escalates to the (12) 92 min; * point where the joke has an uneasy
edge. Bunuel would approve. (20:20 Over-paid, over-hyped, over-the-top Vision)
Jim Carrey finally has his bubble burst with this misjudged comedy which pits Eye FOI’ An Eye
his tediousfacial contortions against (18) 101 mins ** unnecessarily nasty humour. Carrey is a cable TV installer who'll go to Contemporary Hollywood’s outrageous lengths to win the somewhat unnerving approval of friendship of newly batchelorised vigilante action (see also A Time To architect Matthew Broderick, but the Kill, Sleepers and even Ransom) gets character is too desperate and its clearest thumbs up in this revenge threatening to raise easy laughs. thriller by veteran director John (Columbia Tristar) Schlesinger. Sally Field is improbably
_ cast as the mother of a murder Victim Nothing Personal who enrols on a martial arts course (15) 85 mins * * it * then takes the law into her own Two of a kind: Guillaume Depardieu and Francois Cluzet Les Apprentis
hands when the killer is allowed to Thaddeus O'Sullivan allows us to focus walk free. Straightforward drama laid
French Cinema
the troubles in Northern Ireland on a dubious foundation. (ClC) Likened to a Gallic Withnail & I. Les Apprentis (15, Tartan, rental and retail without recent baggage by placing his £15.99, tint) follows depressive Antoine and no-hoper Fred as they drift story back twenty years, during a Return swamp haplessly into petty crime when evicted from their rent-free flat. The duo shaky ceasefire in 1975, and bicker constantly and their personal lives are romantic dead-ends, but when reinforcing the family lives of the , Antoine suffers a breakdown. an unexpectedly pure sense of friendship innocent characters caught in the (15) 88 mms ** * emerges. midst of sectarian violence. Ian Hart Half-man, half-plant Dr Alec Holland — Beaumarchais (1S, Artificial Eye. £15.99, kirk) takes place at roughly the gives a magnificent performance as a alias Swamp Thing — returns to thwart same period as current critics’ favourite Ridicule, and offers similarly plush Loyalist loose cannon, but it’s the the plans of a meglomaniac scientist costumes and settings. Based on the life of the titular playwright. secret quieter acting work by paramilitary intent on zapping his stepdaughter’s agent, gun-runner and permanent thorn in the side of the ruling class, the James Frain and Catholic dad John vitality in a quest for eternal life. No, film is driven by the charisma of Fabrice Luchini. In Beaumarchais we witness Lynch that really draws the issues into it's not Shakespeare — there's some the seeds of the forthcoming French Revolution, and this is indeed a the viewer's emotions. (Film Four) terrible acting, some crunching lines production that revels in the spirit of the age. and a daft love story. But it is a film Made during the final days of the German Occupation, Les Dames Du Bois Jane Eyre that embraces the silliness of its comic De Boulogne (PG, Connoisseur. £15.99, ****) boasts a perfect script by book roots and is never too proud to Jean Cocteau. Maria Casarés is brilliantly cold-blooded as a spurned woman
PG 113 mins *** . . . . . ( ) draw on any source for entertainment who tries to wreak revenge on her lover by causmg him to fall in love With a William Hurt seems rather disinterested value — even if that means ripping off girl who, unknown to him, has a past so tainted that it will ruin his social
as Mr Rochester in Franco Zeffirelli’s Godzilla for the tacky ’men in green standing. In only his second feature, director Robert Bresson's precision version of the Charlotte Bronte novel, rubber suits' fight scenes. (Imagine; keeps the material from sliding into melodrama. (Alan Morrison) with Charlotte Gainsbourg also a bit also retail, £12.99)
dull as the eponymous heroine. The
atmosphere is, however, spot on: a BETA“- a diplomatic bag seems to be connected Stephen Frears refutes FrancOis
brooding, gothic depression lies over . with a meteor that fell in Georgia early Truffaut's allegation that ’British' and the romantic plot, legacies of the dark X FIIES: Tunguska this century. Cue a rekindling of the 'Cinema' were incompatible terms. and tragic elements from the past that (12) 91 mins **** Cold War, RusSian gulags, murder, However, his personal trek through pave the way for the present story. allegations of bacteriological warfare school scenes, train Journeys, war (Fox Guild) Not yet broadcast on terrestrial or and other scary plot bits that ensnare dramas, Ealing comedies and TV- satellite telly, this feature-length case even casual X Files viewers. Throw in the influenced post-60s styles does reveal The Last Supper study for Mulder and Scully pulls out return of Mulder's nemosis, Alex Krycek, a tradition mm on theatrical and - the stops with a global conspiracy and it’s even got new tWists for the literary roots. Even the two 'interview' (15) 87 nuns the , . . . . _ theory that spins out in all directions. An most hardened fans. (Twentieth Century sections resemble polite tea parties. The concept of clever-clever after- alien, coma-enducing substance in a Fox, £14.99) Donald Taylor Black, on the other dinner conversation is given a daring rock brought to America from Russia in , hand, looks at screen portraits of Bflt Awards Ireland from outside and within, using (E) 118 mins *** * a more standard documentary format of talking heads and CIlpS. Great use of After last year's Britpoppy prevalence, archive material, though, (Academy,
there's more of a dance balance in what £15.99) must now be the music Video that best
sums up a year in the British music Madre Muerta
scene. Pulp aren’t invited to this party 18 107 mins **** for ‘97, but there are another 30 top ( )
names to shake your burn at, from the Years after the event, a criminal meets
Manics and Oasis, to newcomers Kula a traumatised woman who, as a child, Shaker, The Longpigs and Mansun. witnessed him murder her mother. Songs aside, you can also appreciate With a strange mix of gth and desire, the pinnacle of music-Video-as-artform he kidnaps her, but is unable to kill her in Ash's ’Oh Yeah’, Dodgy’s ’Good or even hold her for ransom, despite Enough' and, best of all, Orbital’s 'The his girlfriend’s protests. This disturbing Box'. (Wienerworld, £12.99) psychological thriller from Spain
. . . emphasises its clash of opposites: the Typically BrltISh/ criminal’s brutality and the girl's mute Ourse|ves Alone? innocence, the claustrophobic
. narrative and the expansive widescreen (E) 124 mms *** photography. An adult fairytale in Look at the size of my weapon: Arnold Schwarzenegger gets ready for action as an Here. On One tape. are the BritiSh and WhiCh the Shadows 0“ Screen him at agent helping identities under wraps in the US Government's Witness Protection Irish contributions to the BFI/Channel A deeper ones within the human soul. System in Eraser (18. Warner rental. Mir) ’Century Of Cinema’ series. First up, (Tartan, £15.99)
26 TIIELIST 21 Feb—6 Mar 1997