Films screening this fortnight are listed below with certificate. star rating. credits, brief review and venue details. Film index compiled by Miles Fielder.
Adelheid (nc) (Frantisek Vlacil, Czechoslovakia, 1969) 99 mins. Legendary Czech filmmaker Vlacil's tale of two young people thrown together after the end of the Second World War. The relationship they strike up provides a drama which unfolds alongthe lines of a classical Greek play. Part of the Czech Point season. Lumiere, Edinburgh.
The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert (18) intuit (Stephan Elliott, Australia, 1994) Terence Stamp, Hugo Weaving, Guy Pearce. 104 mins. 'I\vo transvestites and a trans-sexual team up for a trip across the Australian outback for a drag show in Alice Springs. Serious issues pop up from time to time, but the emphasis is on the camp humour of the in-bus bitchiness and outrageous musical set- pieces. Grosvenor, Glasgow.
The Age Of Innocence (U) ***** (Martin Scorsese, US, 1993) Daniel Day- Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer, Winona Ryder. 138 mins. Up-and-coming lawyer Newland Archer risks the wrath of 1870s New York society when he falls in love with the scandal-shrouded Countess Olenska, despite being already engaged. Scorsese is magnificently faithful to Edith Wharton's novel, while painting its troubled emotions with an eloquent camera. Opulent and richly detailed, with no release from the intemalised pain of passion. Filmhouse, Edinburgh.
All Night Halloween Horror (18) (Various) All Night Halloween special with screenings of: Book Of Shadows: Blair witch 2, Night Of The Living Dead (1993), The Thing, Army Of Darkness and Pitch Black. Odeon, Glasgow.
American Beauty (18) mutt (Sam Mendes, US, 1999) Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch. 121 mins. Suburban husband and father Lester Bumham (Spacey, giving a career best performance) hates his life, but a close encounter with his daughter's gorgeous school friend is the catalyst for big time self improvement: Lester quits his job, digs out his old rock albums and scores marijuana from the kid next door. And these teenage kicks return to Lester what’s been missing from his life for years: pleasure and happiness. Caustic, touching and hilarious in all the right places - a modern classic. Cameo, Edinburgh. American Movie (15) **** (Chris Smith, US, 2000) 104 mins. Smith and producer Sarah Price's documentation of oddball Wisconsin filmmaker Mark Borchardt‘s efforts to get his Great American Movie made is amusing and fascinating. Borchardt is more Ed Wood than Orson Welles, but American Movie’s makers admire his tenacity, and their non- judgmental approach has been rewarded with a strange and wonderful film. Cameo, Edinburgh.
Amor Vertical (Vertical Love) (tbc). Tum young lovers defy all odds - spatial, parental, political - to be together. lrreverant, entertaining look at Cuban life. Part of the Si Cuba! Season. GF'T, Glasgow. An American Tail (U) tit (Don Bluth, US, 1986) With the voices of Dom DeLuise, Madelaine Kahn, Christopher Plummer. 80 mins. The late 19th century. The Mousekewitz family make their way from trouble-tom Russia to a new life in America, but they find the streets of New York are not all paved with gold. A wealth of background detail displays Bluth’s admirably painstaking approach to animation, but the foreground narrative, often agreeably perilous, does occasionally reek of sentimentality. Odeon, Dunfennline.
Annie (U) tit (John Huston, US, 1981) Albert Finney, Aileen Quinn, Carol Burnett, Tim Curry. 128 mins. Feelgood musical schmaltz courtesy of the orphaned red-head who sings her way into the heart of hard- nosed businessman Daddy Warbucks (Finney). Carol Burnett was born to play
28 THE UST 19 Oct—2 Nov 2000
Thandie Newton comes home for the London-set crime drama It Was An Accident, a gangland tale which actually reflects the city's multi-cultural mix
evil orphanage boss Miss Hannigan and Tim Curry exudes just the right amount of slime as her money-grabbing brother. GFI‘, Glasgow.
Beau Travail (15) with (Claire Denis, France, 2000) Denis Lavant, Michel Subor, Gregoire Colin. 90 mins. An imaginative reworking of Herman Melville’s novella Billy Budd, Sailor, Beau Travail sees writer- director Denis relocating the source material from the 19th century British navy to the present-day French Foreign Legion. In Marseille, Sergeant Galoup (Denis Lavant) recalls the events that lead to him being forced to leave the corps after being posted to a remote outpost in Djibouti, East Africa. A work filled with beauty, sadness and mystery. Mesmcrising filmmaking. Cameo, Edinburgh. Adam Smith, Kirkcaldy. Beautiful Thing (15) (Hettie Macdonald, UK, 1996) Glen Berry, Linda Henry, Scott Neal. 90 mins. Jamie, a teenager having a hard time at the local comprehensive, falls for neighbour Ste, who himself is on the receiving end from his ex-boxer dad. First- timer Macdonald‘s direction is unflashy, but attuned to the inner lives of these motley individuals, and the cast work wonders. Bright, summery and full of life's possibilities. Grosvenor, Glasgow.
Beckett Progs 4 8: 5 (15) (Various, UK/lreland, 1965—96) 78, 110 mins. Programme 4 features three shorts, Footfalls starring Billie Whitelaw; Ghost Trio, directed by Beckett himself; and Film starring Buster Keaton. Programme 5 is Sean 0 Mordha‘s film exploring Beckett's formative years. GF'T, Glasgow.
Bedknobs and Broomsticks (PG) *vki (Robert Stevenson, US, 1971) Angela Lansbury, David Tomlinson, Roddy McDowall. 117 mins. An apprentice witch and three English kids make their contribution to the war effort via some enjoyable set pieces (the animals’ football match) and some less than wonderful songs. A chance to piece together the jigsaw segments from years of watching Holiday Disney Time. Grosvenor, Glasgow.
Being John Malkovich (15) ***** (Spike Jonze, US, 2000) John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, Catherine Keener, John Malkovich. 112 mins. Frustrated puppeteer Craig Schwartz (Cusack) takes a job as a filing clerk and discovers a portal into the actor John Malkovich's brain. What could have developed into a one-gag film, becomes a gender-bending extravaganza with a crazy network of love triangles, which climaxes with a lesbian relationship between two people of the opposite sex. A bewildering number of possibilities are added to the central premise and important questions about personal identity and self- fulfilment are raised. Cameo, Edinburgh. Ben llur (PG) **** (William Wyler, US, 1959) Charlton Heston, Jack Hawkins, Haya Haraeet, Stephen Boyd. 217 mins. Grand, lavish and massively long epic set in New Testament times. Sweating brows and rippling muscles a-plenty, plus of course the
unforgettable chariot race. Fine, upstanding entertainment, if you’ve got four hours to spare. Regal, Bathgate.
Billy Elliot (15) **** (Stephen Daldry, Uk, 2000) Jamie Bell, Julie Walters, Gary Lewis. 111 mins. Billy (superb newcomer Bell) finds release from life’s daily drudgery, and ultimately self-fulfilment, through ballet dancing. As unlikely a leisure pursuit as that might be for a teenage boy growing up in the recession-hit Yorkshire of the 805 (and that's the point), it becomes young Billy's ticket out of hard times. Making his film debut, theatre director Daldry handles the political backdrop and dramatic foreground with equal assurance. The dance routines provide much of the film’s humour and quite overwhelming feelgood factor. General release.
Blade Runner: The Director's Cut (15) ***** (Ridley Scott, US, 1982) 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. Carlton, Stirling.
Blade (18) *** (Stephen Norrington, US, 1998) Wesley Snipes, Stephen Dorff, Kris Kristofferson. 121 mins. Young Brit director Norrington's techno-vampire movie — based on the Marvel Comics character — is marred by weak storytelling and flashy computer- game visuals. One hoped for sustained atmospherics and coherent mythology: instead, this fashionably updated take on vampire lore squanders its innovative ideas on a series of disjointed set-pieces. Cameo, Edinburgh.
Blair Witch 2: The Book of Shadows (l8) ** (Joe Berlinger, US, 2000) Jeff Donovan, Erica Leerhsen, Stephen Barker Turner. 90 mins. Veteran documentary filmmaker Berlinger's sequel to the enormously successful mock documentary horror movie begins with the film phenomenon, including real (yes, really real) interviews with residents of Burkittsville, Maryland (where The Blair Witch Project was filmed). What follows is a ‘dramatic reconstruction of the events' (i.e. not shakey cam) following an oddball group of film fans and occultists who go into the Black Hills woods in search of the Blair Witch. But though Berlinger boldly attempts to confound expectations, Book ()fS/iatlows swiftly degenerates into the kind of predictable supernatural thriller you would expect to be released straight-to-video. See review. General release.
The Blair Witch Project (15) *thhk (Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez, US, 1999) Heather Donahue, Josh Leonard, Michael Williams. 90 mins. Terrifying docu- horror movie that purports to be an edited version of the film and video footage that Donahue, Leonard and Williams shot in the days before they disappeared in the woods around Burkittsville, Maryland. While
you're watching you’re too sacred to think about the clever tricks with your mind. Cameo, Edinburgh.
Blue Planet (U) An awesome trip around, above and beyond our planet on the lMAX giant screen which prompted the Washington Post to write: ‘If a picture is worth a thousand words, one image from Blue Planet is worth a zillion’. IMAX, Glasgow.
Breathless (A Bout de Souffle) (15) ***** (Jean-Luc Godard, France, 1959) Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg. 90 mins. A chic Parisian petty criminal (Belmondo) and his American ex-patriate girlfriend (Seberg) drift through a world of stolen cars and aimless romance towards an inexorable downbeat finale. Godard’s debut feature provoked quite a stir in its day for its carefree arrogance with the conventions of filmic grammar, but today it stands as a casual love letter to the American B-movie crime picture. Lumiere, Edinburgh.
Bring It On (12) *** (Peyton Reed, US, 2000) Kirsten Dunst, Eliza Dushku, Jesse Bradford. 98 mins. The Toro cheerleading quad from Rancho Came High School, San Diego have won them the national championship trophy five years running. Nevertheless newly-elected team captain Torrance (Dunst) is pulling out all the stops for a sixth. But when Torrence discovers she's inherited a routine stolen by her predecessor from East Compton’s hip-hop cheerleading squad the Clovers, things begin to look bad for Toro. A spunky performance by Dunst lifts the film above the fairly conventional storyline about triumphing against the odds, and an even less imaginative message about the importance of participating rather than winning. See review. General release.
Burnt By The Sun (15) ***** (Nikita Mikhalkov, Russia, 1994) Nikita Mikhalkov, Oleg Menchikov, lngeborga Dapkounaite. 134 mins. Mikhalkov‘s Oscar-winner is a genuine masterpiece. The gradual slide from the glory of the Revolution into the terror of the Stalin dictatorship is concentrated into the events of a single summer‘s day in 305 Russia, as the country household of a popular Soviet officer is disrupted by the return of his wife's former lover, now a government informer. The sense of tragedy is immense, as the sunny, idyllic opening gives way to a darker, more uncertain reality. GilmorehillGlZ, Glasgow.
Cabaret (l8) *titi (Bob Fosse, US, 1972) Liza Minelli, Joel Grey, Michael York. 124 mins. ln divinely decadent early 19305 Berlin, singer Sally Bowles wows them at the notorious Kit Kat Klub, encounters the beginnings of Nazism and shares her pretty English boyfriend with a gay baron. Stylish and invigorating Broadway musical turned Oscar-winning cinematic landmark. Grosvenor, Glasgow. Cabin In The Sky (PG) (Vincente Minnelli, US, 1943) Eddie Anderson, Lena Horne, Louis Armstrong. 99 mins. lts political correctness or incorrectness aside, MGM's all-black musical wins you over with its gorgeous design, fun story, memorable songs and enthusiastic cast. Anderson is great as an idle husband, reformed by a dream of his death. Edinburgh Film Guild at the Filmhouse, Edinburgh.
Can't Stop The Music (PG) *** (Nancy Walker, US, 1980) 124 mins. A Greenwich Village, New York pop group hits the big time. Yes, it's those gay icons The Village People in their own shamelessly tacky musical biography. Of its time, though.
Grosvenor, Glasgow. ' Chicken Run (U) **** (Nick Park’Peter
Lord, UK, 2000) Voices of Mel Gibson, Julia Sawalha, Miranda Richardson. 85 mins. For their first feature Aardman studios have re-written the WWII P.O.W. experience as an Orwellian satire, albeit with laughs. So, Stalag 17 becomes a battery farm and the camp commandant farmer Tweedy 's domineering wife, while in the hutches, Ginger rallies her fellow hens to fly their coop. Though the characters aren't as established as Wallace and Gromit and the feature length running time slows the action, Aardman continue to work real wonders with their familiar Plasticine animation. General release.
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