FILM listings
GLASGOW FILM continued
Romuald and Juliette (Coline Serreau. France. I989) Daniel Auteuil. Firmine Richard. I I8 mins. Winning serio-comic love story in which hard-nosed business exec falls for his black cleaning lady. As their affair breaks down both class and racial barriers. her shrewd insight into the absurdity of corporate power-broking helps him to discover a new set of more worthwhile values. Serreau comes up with an insightful and funny examination of the way we live now. though it does bear a highly coincidental resemblance to the outline of Pretty Woman. Glasgow: Gilrnorehill.
Seven Samurai (PG) (Akira Kurosawa. Japan. I954) 'I‘oshiro Mifune. Takahashi Simura. 200 mins. A group of timid villagers seek protection against the excesses of a brutal warlord by hiring seven heroic samurai. Seminal Japanese action picture. with a slow-building dignity matching the best ofJohn Ford. and in its stylishly aesthetic handling of screen violence a profound influence on the likes of Sam Peckinpah. Highly recommended. Edinburgh: Cameo.
Shirley Valentine ()5) (Lewis Gilbert. UK. I989) Pauline Collins. Bernard Hill. Tom Conti. IIO mins. Gilbert's screen version of the celebrated Willy Russell play. now expanded from a monologue to include Hill as the insensitive hubby and Conti as the Greek bit of stuff Shirley meets on a Mediterranean holiday that turns into a voyage of self-(re)discovery. Collins is outstanding in the title role of frustrated Liverpudlian housewife. Edinburgh: St Bride's.
Smilla's Feeling For Snow ( l 5) (Bille August. Germany/Denmark/Sweden. I997) Julia ()rmond. Gabriel Byrne. Richard Harris. 120 mins. When Greenland native Smilla (Julia Ormond) investigates the death of her neighbour's child in a fall. her highly developed ‘sense of snow' convinces her it was murder. An Arctic conspiracy of iceberg-sized prOportions unravels in
student and youth travel...
.Look around..
ampus Travel makes sense (ow Ertn
~12 65 90 I67 AUCKLAND 408 6-12 AUSTRALIA HI S94 BANGKOK 200 160 BEIJING 2|! 3-18 BUDAPEST 93 I63 BUENOS AIRES 330 620 CAPE TOWN III 398 CHICAGO 232 COPENHAGEN‘ I58 DUBLIN 4| 70 HONG KONG 263 338 IO'BURG I98 382 LA SAN FRAN 264 LISBON II6 HARSEILLE 79 I55 MEXICO _ 402 MILAN IN NEW YORK' lhaunt" rtnj PRAGUE RIO ROME ST PETERSBURG 203 ' Departs Scothnd
Fares INCLUDE all pro-paid taxes as of 26 Ian 98
New
Campus Travel are now offering exerting new Work Abroad Programmes. Contact your local branch {Or mOre details
New low cost comprehensive travel insurance available at all branches
0l4l SS3 |8l8
0l4l 357 0608
58 THE lI8T 23 Jan-5 Feb I998
Wet kisses: Helena Bonham Carter and Linus Roache in The Wings Of The Dove
August‘s version of Peter Hoeg‘s bestseller. Stark blue photography captures the landscape so effectively it makes you shiver. but doesn't stop the film from being any more than a bland thriller. Glasgow: Gl’l‘. Some Like It Hot (PG) (Billy Wilder. US. I959) Tony Curtis. Jack Lemrnon. Marilyn Monroe. I20 mins. Two impecunious male musicians inadvertently witness the St Valentine's Day Massacre and take refuge in Florida with Sweet Sue and her Society Syncopators. an all-female band. Brilliant. brittle. crackerjack farce with all concerned at a peak in their careers. Edinburgh: Cameo. Stirling: MacRobert.
Space Jam (U) (Joe Pytka. US. I996) Michael Jordan. Bugs Bunny. Wayne Knight. 87 mins. Nasty alien cartoons have captured Bugs Bunny and are going to enslave the Looney Tunes in their amusement park on Moron Mountain. but Bugs has the brainwave of challenging them to a basketball game and enlisting the talents of Michael Jordan for his team. Lacking the class of Who Framed Roger Rabbit." and the pace of a real basketball game. Space Jam should divert the kids on Saturday mornings. even though the jokes and effects are tired from over-use. Edinburgh: ABC City Centre. Falkirk: ABC. Stirling: Carlton. SpiceWorld: The Movie (PG) (Bob Spiers. UK. I997) The Spice Girls. Richard E. Grant. Alan Cumming. 93 mins. ‘A 90s Hard Day's Night. with a pinch of Spinal Tap and a little Speed thrown in.‘ says the publicity material. The story chronicles the hectic five days in the lead-up to the girls' first live concert at the Royal Albert Hall and. on the way. crarns in so many celebrity cameos. you get the sense this could be the big screen equivalent of Noe/Ts Home Party. Of course. plenty of hit songs are included too. General release.
Starship Troopers ( l5) (Paul Verhoeven. US. I997) Casper Van Dien. Dina Meyer. Denise Richards. I29 mins. Way in the future. Farth is run by a crypto-fascist regime. and the members of the Galactic Armed Forces are sent into space to fight a race of alien bugs hell-bent on wiping out humanity. The computer animation work is first rate and. despite its gory slice 'n' dice violence. one reading of the movie‘s sub- text is decidedly anti-militaristic. Glasgow: ABC Film Centre. Odeon Quay. Showcase. UCI Clydebank. Edinburgh: UCI. Largs: Barrfields. Paisley: Showcase.
Stella Does Tricks ( l8) (Coky Giedroyc. UK. I996) Kelly Macdonald. Hans Mathieson. James Bolam. 97 mins. Kelly Macdonald takes on her first leading role after Trainsjmtting. and proves to be the film's driving force. As one of a group of school—age prostitutes working in London. fuelling themselves with drugs and fantasies to keep the harshness of their situation at bay. she colours her character's toughness withjust enough loneliness and fragility. A.L. Kennedy's screenplay voices the despair of a generation. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
Swingers (l5) (Doug Liman. US. I996) Vince Vaughn. John Favreau. Ron Livingston. 96 mins. A wannabe actor Mike and his pal Trent drive to Vegas to play the tables and pick up some babes. Later. in LA. the boys hang out with their friends. wandering the trendy bars. generally being young. single and without love. Which isjust about all there is to Swingers — a heap of talking. the odd homage (Scorsese and 'l'arantinol and lots of male bonding. A highly watchable. very funny and entertaining piece of low-budget filmmaking. Glasgow: Gilmorehill.
Taxi Driver ( I 8) (Martin Scorsese. US. I976) Robert De Niro. Cybill Shepherd. Jodie l-‘Oster. I I4 mins. An alienated taxi driver in New York is so repelled by the squalor and the moral decay around him that he is driven to terrible violence. One of the key films of the Seventies with the Scorsese- De Niro partnership at its peak. Glasgow: Grosvenor.
The Threepenny Opera (PG) (OW. Pabst. Germany. I93l) Rudolf l-‘orster. Carola ‘ Neher. Reinhold Shunzel. “3 mins. Brecht and Weill's musical play is shifted to Victorian London. where gentleman thief Mack The Knife makes his way between the social classes. The satire remains strong and the songs are excellent. Watch out for Lotte Lenya as the prostitute Jenny. decades before she tried to poison James Bond with her secret knife-shoe in From Russia With Love. Glasgow: GFI‘. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. Titanic (12) (James Cameron. US. I997) leonardo DiCaprio. Kate Winslet. Billy Zane. I94 mins. Cameron tackles the story of the doomed ocean liner through a touching love story that isn't overwhelmed by the awesome special effects. Rich girl Rose (Winslet) is unhappily engaged to arrogant ('al (Zane) but falls for third-class passenger Jack (DiCaprio): love blossoms as the ship hits an iceberg in the North Atlantic. In all its on-screen glory. 'Ii/onie does indeed look like the most expensive film ever made. conveying both the scale of the disaster and the feeling of claustrophobia as the water rises. General release.
Tomorrow Never Dies (l2) (Roger Spottiswoode. UK. I997) Pierce Brosnan. Jonathan Pryce. Michelle Yeoh. I I9 mins. Media mogul Elliot Carver (Pryce) is manipulating events to bring the planet to the brink of World War Three. but James Bond is on hand to break a few skulls and save the planet. Some of the stunts inspire more admiration than excitement. but. on the plus side. Brosnan has added a more dangerous edge to the charm and Yeob. doyenne of Hong Kong action films. is a Bond girl who brings a lithe grace to her fight scenes. Glasgow: Odeon Quay. Showcase. UCI Clydebank. Edinburgh: Dominion. UCI. East Kilbride: UCI. Galashiels: Pavilion. Motherwell: Moviehouse.
Up 'N' Under (12) (John Godber. UK. I997) Gary Olsen. Samantha Janus. Neil Morrissey. 98 mins. Combining comic
realism with the age old triumph-over- adversity formula. Godber's stageplay is an uplifting tale similar in style and structure to Brassed Ofi’ and The F all Monty. A middle- aged rugby ex-professional (Olsen) makes winners out of the lazy pub team with the help of sexy blonde gym instructor Hazel (Janus). The amusineg self-satirising approach holds an appeal for men and women alike. General release.
The Way We Live: Shorts (15) no mins. Karl Heinz Gruber. director of Munich‘s ‘The Way We Live' festival. which screens short films on the subject of disability. introduces this one-off screening. Films include The Wasp (a comedy in sign language) and a documentary about an American stand-up comedian with spina bifida. Glasgow: GFT.
Welcome To Sarajevo (IS) (Michael Winterbottom. UK. I997) Steven Dillane. Woody Harrelson. Emira Nusevic. l07 mins. The horror of the conflict in Bosnia breaks down the professional detachment of reporter Michael Henderson (Dillane) who decides to smuggle an orphan out of the country. Based on the true story of [TN journalist Michael Nicholson. Winterbottom's film gains further authenticity by being shot on location. An angry. polemical film that barely manages to contain its makers’ shame and righteous fury at the West‘s complacent response to Bosnia's suffering. Kirkcaldy: Adam Smith. Wilde (IS) (Brian Gilbert. UK. I997) Stephen Fry. Jude Law. Vanessa Redgrave.
I I7 mins. The casting of Fry as Victorian wit. novelist and playwright Oscar Wilde seems almost inevitable. and it pays off. with the actor getting beyond surface details to the intelligent. kind man beneath. Gilbert's film is gritty in its portrayal of homosexual relationships than most Bn'tish period dramas. but first and foremost it is a moving story of tragic. obsessive love. Edinburgh: Cameo.
The Wings Of The Dove (IS) (Iain Softley. UK. I997) Helena Bonham Carter. Linus Roache. Alison Elliott. l08 mins. An intelligent. emotionally devastating adaptation of Henry James's novel that confidently side-steps the pitfalls of stuffy costume drama. Prevented from marrying her humble lover. Kate (Bonham Carter) plots to pair him off with a rich. sickly American. Everything about this film emphasises quality. including the costumes. photography. use of Venice as a setting and - above all — the peerless performances. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
The Winter Guest (15) (Alan Rickman. UK. I997) Phyllida Law. Emma Thompson. Gary Hollywood. I l0 mins. There's something about the way Rickman's directorial debut moves from one pair of characters to the next that suggests it's based on a play. but that's not a criticism. The film works out themes of loss and emotional dependency against a snow-covered Scottish landscape. weaving its icy metaphor through the characters' inner lives and the film's computer-enhanced images. The cast is excellent. with Law proving herselfone of the country‘s hidden treasures. Edinburgh: Odeon. Kirkcaldy: Adam Smith.
The Woodlanders (PG) (Phil Agland. UK. I997) Emily Woof. Rufus Sewell. Cal MacAninch. 97 mins. Bleak. rainy countryside and frustrated love — this latest Thomas Hardy adaptation revolves around the effects of social snobbery on a small rural community when educated Grace (Wool) is unhappily hitched to cold Dr Fitzpiers (MacAninch) and not her cider- brewer childhood love (Sewell). Using the rural landscapes to exploit the 'bitter-sweet' nature of the story. the film moves through magical summer evenings to black. relentless rain. See review. Glasgow: City Centre Odeon.
Written on the Wind (PG) (Douglas Sirk. US. I956) Lauren Bacall. Robert Stack. Dorothy Malone. Rock Hudson. 99 mins. A fine film and one of Hollywood‘s best ever melodramas. Four characters connected to a Texan oil family act on their passions rather than their intellects as love and desire concoct a ternpestuous mix leading to tragedy. A prototype soap opera. but incisive in its criticism on the middle-class and notions of masculinity. See Sirk review. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.