politics and Bosnia in this set of four connected short films. As iconoclastic as ever. Godard's latest questions our relationship to cinematic images and world history. French Filtn Festival. Glasgow: GFI‘. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
Free Willy 3: the Rescue (U) (Sam Pillsbury. US. I997) Jason James Richter. August Schellenberg. Annie Corley. 86 mins. Boy and killer whale team up again to drive home an environmental message for the 90s when Willy the orca and family are threatened by the hunters on a whaling boat. Better than its bland predecessor. Free Willy 3 develops the usual formula. and benefits from moulding the character of the main antagonist as an old-style hunter rather than the corporate villains of previous instalments. General release.
The Full Monty (l5) (Peter Cattaneo. UK. I997) Robert Carlyle. Tom Wilkinson. Mark Addy. 92 mins. Carlyle plays Gary. an unemployed Sheffield steelworker who. along with an odd mix of former colleagues. decides to go one better than the Chippendale troupes that fill the local halls. Cattaneo’s laugh-out-loud film comes front the same tradition as Brussed Off. mixing comedy with a strong social conscience and showing unemployment as an emasculating experience. General release.
Fuzzy Logic 8| mins. The contemporary club scene meets the wired-up world of smart technology in a selection of music- based shorts. Front lo-fi to sci-fi. the programme includes work by ambient master (ieorge Barber. design group tomato and Eric Saks. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. Genealogies D'Un Crime (15) (Raoul Ruiz. France. I997) Catherine Deneuve. Michel Piccoli. Melvil Poupaud. III mins. In this psychological murder mystery. Deneuve plays a psychiatrist studying killer tendancies in her nephew and also a lawyer defending him on a murder charge. An elegant Chinese puzzle of a movie. French Film Festival. Glasgow: GFI‘. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
G.I. Jane (l5) (Ridley Scott. US. I997) Demi Moore. Viggo Mortensett. Anne Bancroft. I25 mins. Tough. smart Jordan O'Neil (Moore) becomes the first woman to be accepted for training by the US military's elite commando unit. the Navy SEALs. but her arrival at camp is met with barely concealed hostility. Scott's overwrought movie purports to show that women have as much right as men to be dehumanised by the military and turned into killing machines. What it doesn‘t question is why anyone — male or female — should want to do so. General release.
Great Expectations (PG) (David Lean. UK. 1946) John Mills. Bernard Miles. Finlay Currie. 118 mins. Iean‘s adaptation of the Dickens novel remains cinema‘s definitive version even after half a century. An orphan meets an escaped convict and is introduced into a new world of adventures and finely observed characters. Photography and design at its best. Edinburgh: St Bride's. Hercules (U) (John Musker & Ron Clements. US. I997) With the voices of'I‘ate Donovan. James Woods. Danny DeVito. 91 mins. British cartoonist Gerald Scarfe‘s designs marry his customary grotesquery with Uncle Walt‘s softer characterisations. Hades (a magnificently splenetic James Woods) wants to exact revenge on Zeus by
In at the deep end: Demi Moore in G.l. Jane
destroying his son Hercules. but luckily our hero has Pegasus as his steed and Phil the grumpy satyr (Danny DeVito) as his coach. General release.
House Of America (I5) (Marc Evans. UK. I997) Stephen Mackintosh. Lisa Palfrey. Sian Phillips. 96 mins. Welsh brother and sister Sid and Gwennie are obsessed by America. convinced their errant father is waiting for them across the Atlantic. As they retreat further into an increasingly incestuous fantasy. the film avoids obvious kitchen sink realism and in its place finds a sour poetry. powered by potent performances. A little too claustrophobic. however. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. Inventing The Abbotts (15) (Pat O'Connor. US. I997) Liv Tyler. Joaquin Phoenix. Jennifer Connelly. I06 mins. It‘s I957. and the two working-class Holt boys are caught up with the daughters of the grandest family in Haley. Illinois. Circle Of Friends director O‘Connor’s solid drama. which grapples with small town hypocrisy. has an impressive. lived-in period setting. As it drifts into teen romance territory. however. a couple of awkward plot contrivances and an embarrassing Waltons- style voiceover almost destroy the preceding goodwill. See review. Glasgow: ABC Film Centre. Showcase. Edinburgh: ABC Wester Hailes. UCI. Paisley: Showcase.
J'Ai Horreur De L'Amour ( I 5) (Laurence Ferreira Barbosa. France. I997) Jeanne Balibar. Jean Quentin Chatelain. Laurent Lucas. I33 mins. In a Woody Allen-like way. this angst-ridden comedy of manners follows a female doctor who meets an actor at a Parisian party. Funny and touching. French Film Festival. Glasgow: (iFf. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
Jacob The Liar ( I5) (Frank Beyer. East Germany. 1974) Vlastimil Brodsky. Erwin Geschonneck. Manuela Simon. I00 mins. A Jew. living in a Polish ghetto during WW2. is summoned to the Nazi guardhouse. but emerges a hero after he spreads news of the Russian advance. Unfortunately. he does not really own the radio he claims to have. and so each day he has to fabricate more and more reports. Poignant and. surprisingly given the context. funny take on survival in the most dangerous and absurd of situations. Glasgow: Goethe lnstitut.
Le Jaguar (l2) (Francis Veber. France. I996) Jean Reno. Patrick Bruel. Harrison Lowe. I30 mins. A debt-ridden playboy is hired by an Amazon-Indian interpreter to save the soul of a native leader in an enjoyable comedy adventure that jumps from the streets of Pans to South America's rain forests. A sizeable box office hit. French Film Festival. Glasgow: GI’I‘. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
Jude (I8) (Michael Winterbottom. L'K. I996) Christopher Iiccleston. Kate Winslet. Rachel Griffiths. I20 mins. Based on Thomas Hardy‘s uncompromisingly bitter final novel. Determined and honest Jude (Iiccleston) is snubbed by Victorian society as he strives for a university education. but worse is in store when he falls in love with his cousin (Winslet). Hard-hitting acting. a director and writer who truly understand Hardy's themes. and stunning photography elevate this to classic status. Edinburgh: Film Guild.
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