FILM index

FILM INDEX continued

Lawrence Of Arabia (PG) *~k~k~k~k (David Lean, UK, 1962) Peter O’Toole, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, Omar Sharif. 222 mins. Lean's mammoth desert epic, restored to its director's original cut and the big screen, where film-making on this scale belongs. O‘Toole's debut as the enigmatic adventurer still impresses, but apart from the majestic action sequences, it's the disturbing sense of clinical and cold-blooded violence hanging over the highly literate characterisation that today seems especially striking. Falkirk: Fl‘ll Cinema.

Lies (l8) ***** (Jang Sun Woo, Korea, 2000) 112 mins. Art house smut or blatant pornography 7 Who cares? When movies are this ballsy, provocative and filthily erotic you know it‘s great to be alive. Y is a high school Iolita who finds herself in a sexual dance into oblivion with 38-year-old sculptor, J. While concentrating on the sadomasochistic progression of the lovers, the film allows essential truths about Korean society to seep through, but never overpower its lusty narrative. See review. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.

Limbo (15) **** (John Sayles, US, 1999) David Strathairn, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Vanessa Martinez. 128 mins. Sayles isn't a filmmaker to toe the line, so when he goes to Alaska to shoot a film in which three individuals become marooned in the wilderness, it's unsurprising than what he comes up with is a well-crafted, solidly told tale that's less action adventure and more psychological/sociological study of people and place. And Sayles takes his time, easing us into the environment and the lives of the principal characters, before the forces of nature give the plot its dramatic twist. Falkirk: 1"1'11 Cinema.

The Little Prince (U) it (Stanley Donen, UK, 1974) Richard Kiley, Bob l’osse, Gene Wilder. 88 mins. A young monarch leaves the asteroid he rules to learn about life on earth. Mistiring musical fantasy which doesn‘t do justice to Antoine de Saint Exupery‘s classic children's book.

Edinburgh: l.ttmiere.

Man On The Moon (15) ***** (Milos Forman, Us, 2000) Jim Carrey, Danny DeVito, Courtney love. 1 19 mins. Carrey was unfairly snubbed at the Oscars: as comedian Andy Kaufman (l,atka in Taxi), Carrey gives a career best performance. That Kaufman was best known in the UK as l.atka a and little known for his astonishing, often sadistic practical jokes works in the film's favour. Forman and his screenwriters from Larry Fly/it, Scott Alexander and larry Karaszewski, have crafted a film that plays as many tricks with its audience as Kaufman did with the American public. And that's the highest honour the film could have paid Kaufman. See review. (ieneral release. Marlene (PG) **** (Maximilian Schell, (iertrtany, 1983):\1tnie Albers, Bernard llall, Marta Rakosnik. 9-1 mitts. How do you make a film about a star who will talk but won't be filmed. Scliell illustrates his lengthy conversation with Dietrich with stock footage including sortie cruel film of her later stage performances, when the star was in decline. liascinatittg exercise in documentary filtrimaking. tilasgow: (ioethe lnstitut. Mitunet15)****iStitettKragh- Jacobsen. Denmark. Sweden, 1998) Anders W Berthelsen, Jesper Asholt, lben lljcjle. 98 mins. ()n the eve of his wedding, Copenhagen yuppie Kresten (Berthelsen) learns that his father has died and reluctantly returns to the remote. neglected family farm. Unable to cope with his mentally handicapped brother, Rud (Asholt), he advertises for a housekeeper, and is delighted when the beautiful liva (lljejle) arrives to take on the job. But l.iva too has a secret. Kragh-Jacobsen's film, the third made under the Dogma banner, distinguishes itself by not playing fast and loose with the rules. by telling a simple, linear story w ith a minimum of formal fussittcss. So, ironically, while .llifture less ambitious and innovative than listen and The Idiots, it is also the purest. tnost involving and most emotionally satisfying. Edinburgh: l-‘ilrrthouse.

.v‘; i , ..‘.‘"‘"‘T U!” ez57llelicinuslyii‘liiza new“ --

‘/ t'r ‘-‘,‘ VI /. iii! UdhtiUfial

“mum”! stirlnuutlu:

FROM THE AWAR r' DIRECTOR or BR ' A FILM BY ALEXEI BA

38 IHELISI 11—25 May 2000

12 ROSE STREET 0141 332 8128

AND SELECTED - CINEMAS NATIONWIDE

No ghosts, no monsters, no aliens, but plenty of chills in the supernatural thriller, Final Destination

The Million Dollar Hotel (15) it (Wim Wenders, US, 2000) Jeremy Davies, Milla Jovovich, Mel Gibson. 122 mins. Wenders focused shrewdly on character and landscape in his road movies,A1ice In The Cities and Paris, Texas. Here, with the characters holed up in the hotel of the title, Wenders‘ appears as hemmed in and listless as the various ‘losers’ he attempts to dignify. There is a plot of sorts: Gibson’s physically and psychologically scarred FBI agent determines to identify the killer of one of the hotel‘s inhabitants. "lite final diagnosis, then, is that this is Wenders' worst movie. Glasgow: Odeon At The Quay. Edinburgh: UGC.

Miracle Maker (U) ** (Stanislav Sokolov, Derek Hayes, UK, 2000) Ralph Ficnnes, Julie Christie, Richard E Grant. 91 mins. Miracles may never cease, undoubtedly the reasoning behind previous attempts to render the Easter Story palatable. The latest gimmick is to add puppets, which, although oddly dated, impresses on its own low tech level. Despite deftly tugging at the heartstrings, the puppetry can't disguise the fact that this is a Sunday school reading in a millennial medium. Glasgow: Odeon At The Quay. Greenock: Waterfront. Wishaw: Arrow Multiplex.

Mission To Mars (PG) ** (Brian De Palma, US, 2000) Gary Sinese, Tim Robbins, Connie Neilsen. 116 mins. The year is 2020 and NASA has landed on Mars, but a mysterious phenomenon wipes out the astronauts and a rescue mission is dispatched. Melodrama is prioritised over science fiction thrills and much of the blame lies in the appalling dialogue and gun-ho patriotism. Worse still, De Palma opts for stunningly obvious exposition; at his film‘s quasi-religious climax you‘ll think: ‘30 what'." Glasgow: Odeon. Edinburgh: UGC. Kilmarnock: Odeon. St Andrews: New Picture llouse.

Muppets From Space (U) *tt (Tim Hill, 1999, US) Dave Goelz, Steve Whitmire, Frank 02. 88 mins. For their sixth big screen adventure, the focus of our Muppet attentions is Gonzo, that blue, hooked nosed . . . thing. No one is really sure what Gonzo is, so when he gets a message which he believes is from space, the race is on to make contact with his extra terrestrial brethren. Mappers From Space captures the spirit of the first movie and the original TV series where the subsequent films never did. Glasgow: Grosvenor.

My Life So Far (12) it (Hugh Hudson, UK, 2000) Robert Norman, Rosemary

Harris, Malcolm McDowell, Colin Firth. 98 mins. Everything in l-lugh Hudson's film is about to change. Fraser Pettigrew (Norman) is about to go from childhood innocence to sexualised adolescence. The Scottish estate of the elderly matriarch Gamma (Harris) is about to be passed onto a new generation, either her go-ahead capitalist son (McDowell) or her dithering romantic nephew Edward (Firth). Genteel affluence is about to give way to wartime hardship. Loosely based on the memoirs of Sir Denis Forman, My Life So Far would love to be a play by Chekhov. lnstead it's a mushy piece of nostalgic whimsy. See preview and review. General release.

Mystery Men (PG) *** (Kinka Usher, US, 1999) Ben Stiller, William 11. Macy, Janeane Garofalo. 122 mins. Although it‘s a spoof, Mystery Men is more knowing about the conventions of American comic book superheroes than other comic adaptations that's largely down to Mystery M en 's origins in Bob Burden's Dark Horse Comic, Flaming Carrot. Caped crimetighter Captain Amazing has been kidnapped by super villain Casanova Frankenstein and it’s up to

'underachiever heroes: the Mystery Men to

save the day. Stirling: Carlton.

Nora (18) iii (Pat Murphy, Uk, 2000) Susan Lynch, Ewan McGregor. 106 mins. A period drama recounting the early struggles of modernist and post-modernist literary genius, James Joyce, Nora is more interesting as a study of Nora Barnacle, a free-spirited and highly courageous young woman. Murphy's film, adapted from Brenda Maddox's acclaimed book about their lifelong love affair, follows the early years of their tempestuous relationship, made so by Joyce's unrelenting jealousy and Nora's submissive dotage. Excellent performances from the leads make this worth watching. See review. Glasgow: 0131’. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.

Of Freaks And Men ('18) Monti (Alexei Balabanov, Russia, 1998) Sergei Makovetsky, Victor Sukhorukov, Dinara Drukarova. 93 mins. A frontage to early cinema in its use of silent film plot aids and sepia-tinted monochrome cinematography, the story follows the predatory exploits of Johann, a fiendish purveyor of early pornography set in turn of the century St Petersburg. With the aid of his grinning idiot henchman, Victor, the porn ring widens to engulf the lives of two noble families, exposing the humorous and startling underbelly of depravity beneath the austere trappings of the Russian bourgeoisie. l’art