FILM LIST
o This section aims to provide a review oi every tilm to be seen in central Scotland over the next iortnight. For programme times see individual cinema listings.
U - Universal, suitable tor all ages.
PG - Parental Guidance suggested as some scenes may be unsuitable tor younger children.
15 - No-one under the age oi 15 admitted.
18 - No-one under the age oi 18 admitted.
o Bayan Ko (18) (Lina Brocka. Philipines/France. 1984) Philip Salvador. Gina Alajar. 108 mins. A young print worker is forced to opt out of a strike when his boss pays him to sign a non-union agreement because he must pay the hospital bills for his wife and their new baby. Later. after unfair dismissal from his post. he is drawn into a life of crime to find the money, thus heaping further disaster upon himself. A moving indictment ofsocial and political injustice in the Philipines. attacking a legal system heavily weighted against striking workers and a mercenary. uncaring hospital service. Its outspoken nature left the director in a prison cell. and even though it must be less meaningful abroad it is still a heart-rending drama. agonisingly acted. Glasgow: GET.
0 Biographies (PG) (Winifred Junge. East Germany. 198(1) 257 mins. Dauntingly thorough documentary tracing the lives of nine school pupils born in 1954/5 in the district of Frankfurt-on-the~0der. Starting in 1961 the filmmakers have captured biographies of individuals over two decades as they meet birth. marriage and death in a socialist state. Hailed elsewhere as an ‘illuminating and very frank look at everyday life in a society of which we know too little.‘ Members of the production will be present at this screening. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
o The Blues Brothers (15) (John Landis. US, 1980) John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Carrie Fisher, Cab Calloway. 133 mins. Bloated, self-indulgent anarchic comedy-adventure. Belushi and Aykroyd, the Abbott and Costello of the 805. strike up their band to raise $5,000 for a children‘s orphange and wind up destroying most of Chicago. Obnoxious, overlong and hardly funny. Edinburgh: Playhouse.
o Brewster‘s Millions ( PU) (Walter Hill. US. 1985) Richard Pryor. John Candy. Lonette McKee. 101 mins. Serviceablc. if unnecessary. inflationary remake of this comic standby. Pryor is a pitcher for the Hackensack Bulls who strikes it rich when an aged relative bequeaths him $300 million. The catch is that in order to inherit the larger sum he must spend $30 million in 30 days and have nothing to show for this proiligate extravagance.
Everyone enters into the spirit of a jolly romp but precious few laughs result and the paucity of the material only serves to expose the weakness in Pryor's over-used box of mannerisms.
Strathclyde; Greenock; Hamilton. 0 Bringing Up Baby (U) (Howard Hawks. US. 1938) Cary Grant. Katharine Hepburn. 102 mins. Spunky little rich girl falls in love
Dim Sum — A Little Bit at Heart (U) (Wayne Wang, 1985, US) Laureen and Kim Chew, Victor Wong. 87 mins. When i met Wayne Wang at the Edinburgh Film Festival l was torced to admit my ignorance at Chinese cuisine and ask him just what Dim Sum was? ‘lt's a variety oi hors d'oeuvre eaten beiore Iunch,‘ he explained, ‘but it can also be literally translated as “touching the heart" or “a little bit at heart”.' Which is oi course appropriate to the illm’s delicate approach to a touching emotional contlict.
Set in San Fransisco, Dim Sum revolves around the plight oi a young Chinese/American woman and the dilemma she laces in her relationship with her more conservative mother— whether to move out, or stay with the old woman, who is convinced that she is close to death atter meeting a lortune tellerwho told herthat she would not live another year. A situation rendered all the more atiecting because the pair are played by real-lite mother and daughter, Kim and Laureen Chow, and the writer adapted a certain amount oi biographical detail into the script- the story is almost their story.
Wang explained what attracted him to such a personal subject; ‘ A woman oi her age, because oi her relationship with her mother, iinds it very ditiicult to get out at the house or get married as it would mean leaving her mother. . . I ilnd that very touching, especially in a Western society, where the sign oi maturity is that you can move out oi the house.’ However, the tact that the two were wary oi the camera penetrating too deeply, allied with their non-protessionai acting status did
with staid archeologist and is determined to get her man. This being 305 crazy comedy the course of true love does not run smoothly. taking in a missing dinosaur bone and an escaped leopard along the way. (,‘ustomarily gutsy Hawks film barely stopping for breath reminds us how great comedy used to be — reliant on situation rather than the
prurient display of female flesh - and 1
makes one yearn for its return. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
o Budapesl(15)(MiklosJancso. Hungary. 1984). 58 mins. A personal tribute to a city of music. Glasgow; Glasgow Film Theatre.
0 Cal ( 15) ( l’at O'Connor. UK. l984) Helen Mirren. John Lynch. Donal Mc(‘ann. 102 mins. A futile hope of impossible love between librarian Mirren and callow youth Lynch provides the focus to explore the confusion and moral ambiguities of day-to-day living for ordinary people in a troubled land. (,‘al is a
commendable small-scale attempt to : deal with the Irish troubles in human '
terms. although more a romantic film than a Northern Ireland film. It benefits from two fine central performances; Mirren‘s tentative warmth contrasting well with the anguish of Lynch. an impressive newcomer. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. o The Care Bears Movie (U) (Arna Selznick. US. 1985) Mickey Rooney. Jackie Burroughs. Harry Dean Stanton. 7o mitts. The little bears
make shooting traught with diitlculty. ‘The daughter, Laureen, was worried about it being her own lite, and was also concerned because her own image at herselt is somewhat ditterent- in real lite she has purple hair, she’s really much more rebellious than the character she plays on screen. The mother, on the other hand did everything very easily. By the end oi the movie we were calling her “One-take Mama")
This personal drama is set against the larger issue at the cultural contllct, which is bound to be ieit in the Chinese/American community, between the older, more conservative Chinese-born and the young people who have grown up in America. Wang picks out detail here and there to highlight the dltterences, coming back again and again to a telling shot oi
shoes leti in the hall, where the
from the land ofCare-a-Lot and their cousins. the good-natured animals ofthe Forest of Feelings. journey hither and thither to foster friendship amid the brotherhood of man.
Cute. cuddly and extremely nauseating cartoon feature designed to stimulate toy sales throughout the land. Edinburgh: Dominion.(ilasgim' ABC. Sauchiehall St. Lothian: Falkirk. Strathclyde: Ayr. Greenock. Hamilton. Kilmarnock. Paisley.
0 Carmen (PG) (Francesco Rosi. France-Italy. 1984)Julia Migenes-Johnson. Placido Domingo. Ruggero Raimondi. 152 mins. Splendid screen version oi the Bizet opera. Migenes-Johnson makes an earthy and sensuous spitfire Carmen swaggering with the panache and fire ofJames Cagney. A magnificent musical spectacle full of vim and vigour with an appeal far beyond that of the mere opera buff. Glasgow: Glasgow Film Theatre.
0 Citizen Kane ( PG) (Orson Welles. US. 1941 ) Orson Welles. Joseph Cotten. Agnes Moorhead. li‘) mins. A newspaper tycoon dies mumbling the single word Rosebud. A reporter interviews his friends and associates to uncover the significance of the remark and unlocks a kaleidoscopic mosaic ofone man's life and times.
Brilliant. seminal film that tingles with the raw energy of a cinema novice reinventing screen grammar
“it i" see-
mother's orthopaedic shoes sit beside the daughter’s day-glo sandals, the old and the new side by side.
The blend oi the two cultures also extends to Wang's own cinematic roots. His first name, Wayne, comes irom John Wayne, who must have made a big impression on his movie-mad lather. Dim Sum, however, is described by its director as ‘Frank Capra meets Dzu’, while others have seen elements oi Bill Forsyth's wistiul comedy in its gently amusing yet emotionally perceptive tone. Personally, lteltthat Wang's subtler oriental sensibility has relined the often cloying sentimentality at American domestic drama and added its own distinctive ironic humour, the result being a iilm oi slow-burning charm, and relaxed pace. I was very pleasantly surprised, perhaps you will be too. (Trevor Johnston)
The List 18—31 October 23