the highways and by-ways of America. Dated, low-budget feature with Nicholson memorable as a booze-drenched, straitlaced lawyer who is persuaded to join the trip. Glasgow; Grosvenor
0 Eureka (18) (Nicolas Roeg, UK-US, 1982) Gene Hackman. Theresa Russell, Mickey Rourke. 129 mins. Citizen Kane-style melodrama as prospector Hackman discovers gold in the frozen wastes of Canada and lives to rue the day. A labyrinthine saga of flamboyant brilliance. Glasgow; Grosvenor
0 Falling in Love (PG) (Ula Grosbard, US, 1984) Robert De Niro, Meryl Streep, Harvey Kietel. 106 mins. De Niro and Streep are the suburban couple whose chance brief encounter leads to romance. Both are already married and a genuine infatuation leaves them unable to cheat on their legal partner nor to dismiss their attraction as a passing fancy.
Gentle, old-fashioned romance
given stature by the potent chemistry 0f the Stars. Edinburgh; Filmhouse
o Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (PG) (Howard Hawks, US. 1953) Jane Russell. Marilyn Monroe. Charles Coburn. 91 mins. Two girls from Little Rock make it big in Paris. lnconsequential musical-comedy from the Anita Loos yarn made memorable by the star team and the number ‘Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend‘. Glasgow; GFT o The Glenn Miller Story (PG) (Anthony Mann. US. 1953)James Stewart. June Allyson. Harry Morgan. 113 mins. Engaging sentimental biopic of the big band leader and his quest for that distinctive ‘sound‘. Stewart offers a well-modulated impersonation of Miller and there is a relaxed confidence and easy warmth in his relationship with screen wife Allyson. Dolby stereo enhances this particular reissue. Edinburgh: Filmhouse o The Goonies (PG) (Richard Donner, US. 1985) Sean Astin, Josh Brolin, Jeff Cohen. 114 mins. A group of all—American kids discover a treasure map, and undergo a perilous subterranean journey to discover a lost pirate galleon. A Spielberg turkey. This exasperatingly juvenile effort is far too sanitized to ever work up much sense of danger. peopled by a cast of unnecessarily obnoxious pre-pubescents and ineffectually mugging baddies, and topped with some unpalatably gooey sentimentality. For those with a mental age of seven and under (ie kiddies will enjoy it, but their parents will not). Edinburgh; ABC. Glasgow; ABC (Clarkston Road). ABC (Sauchiehall Street), Cinema, Rio. Lothian; ABC, Regal. Strathclyde; ABC (Greenock), ABC (Kilmarnock). Kelburne, Odeon (Hamilton), La Scala O Gorky Park (15) (Michael Apted, UK, 1983) William Hurt, Lee Marvin, Joanna Pacula. 128 mins. Investigating the discovery of three faceless corpses in Gorky Park, Moscow Militiaman Hurt stumbles
FILM LIST
Backto the Future provided a vastly entertaining curtain-raiser to the Edinburgh Film Festival in August. Since then it has gone on to outstrip Rambo as the top box-office success of the year in America and now returns to our shores as the prime cinema attraction for Christmas.
For its personable young star Michael J. Fox, Bacho the Future has capped a year of unparalleled achievement. His television series Family Ties, seen here on Channel 4, continues to figure prominently in the American ratings and, for several weeks, when Back to the Future reigned as box-office champ,comfortably ensconced in the number two position was the low-budget comedy Teen Wolf starring - guess who? - Michael J. Fox. It comes as little surprise that the National Association of Theatre Owners recently named him ‘iiew Star of the Decade.’
Born in Vancouver the diminutive Fox is 24, although he scarcely appears old enough to shave. The fourth of live children, his lather spent 25 years In the army and another 13 as a policeman. Fox claims that his brother at 5’9” is ‘the giant oi the family’, he himself is 5’4” and his real middle name is Andrew. The J was adopted to satisfy actors’ union requirements and as a mark of deference to one of his favourite actors Michael J. Pollard. ‘He's an actor I admire because he has real presence and charisma and showed that you don’t have to be a leading man to have impact. His appearance in Bonnie and Clyde is a good example of that. I guess I always envisaged myself as a character actor. Maybe I just have an affinity for underdogs.’
In seeking a career Fox wanted something ‘that didn't have any ruies’. Initially he hoped to be a musician and was gratified at being able to play the guitar In a rock’n’roll sequence for Back to the Future. However he began to earn money from acting and, by the age of 15, was appearing in the Canadian television series Leo and Me, as well as a highly successful stage production of The Shadow Box. Despite or, rather, because of, this characteristic whirl of activity he failed drama in high schooi.‘lt was
on an international sable-smuggling operation implicating his KGB bosses and a wealthy American businessman. Proficient if disappointingly characterless screen version of the airport bestseller. Glasgow; Glasgow Film Theatre
0 The Gospel According to St Matthew (U) (Pier Paolo Pasolini, Italy/France, 1964) Enrique lrazoqui. 142 mins. The best-selling story of a humble carpenter’s son and his rise to fame, before betrayal leads to execution by the authorities. The Gospel according to Italian Marxist poet-film-maker Pasolini sounds an interesting prospect, but unfortunately it turns out like any other Jesus flick, but on a lower budget and in grainy black and white. More’s the pity. Glasgow;
FOXING THE FUTURE
feign-r , _ . absenteeism really,’ be explains.‘l was doing television during the day and theatre at night, so I wasn’t there one day to put a bag over my eyes and crawl around the room backwards. So I failed.’
He moved to Los Angeles int 979 and secured a variety of television parts including appearances in Lou Grant and Trapper John MD. before being cast in Family Ties in 1982. His commitment to a weekly series has inhibited opportunities to pursue a film career and almost prevented his participation in Back to the Future. Eric Stolz, the star of Mask, had been cast as Marty McFIy, a typical American teenager of the eighties who is catapulted thirty years Into the past via a nuclear powered De Lorean car. Six weeks into filming executive producer Steven Spielberg and director Robert Zemeckis took the painful and expensive decision to replace Stolz, and Fox received a call to start work the following Monday. An exhausting schedule permitted him to make Family Ties during the day and Back to the Future at night. ‘It was tough to keep track of three characters - Alex, Marty and myself—and I wound up in a comatosed lump on the bed. I don’t know if I’d do It again.’
Despite a trip to the White House to meet the Beagans, Fox has had little chance to enjoy the fruits of his prodigious labours. During the summer he was in London filming a two-hour opening segment for the 1985-6 series of Family Ties. Since then any free time
GET
0 The Harder They Come ( 18) (Perry Henzell, Jamaica, 1973) Jimmy Cliff, Janet Barkley, Carl Bradshaw. 98 mins. Rough-edged cult film about aspiring musician Cliff. Edinburgh; Classic
0 Insignificance (15) (Nicolas Roeg, 1985, UK) Theresa Russell, Tony Curtis, Gary Busey, Michael Emil. 108 mins. New York, 1954. A quartet of mid-century icons congregate in a hotel one night, the fictionalised intertwining of their lives allowing for speculation on the private concerns of some very public figures. Any resemblance to Marilyn Monroe, husband Joe di Maggio, Einstein and Commie-hater J 0e McCarthy is purely intentional.
has been spent promoting Back to the Future in Paris, Venice,Tokyo and now London. Film offers are beginning to crowd the horizon and already he has been forced to turn down Pretty in Pink by John Hughes, the director of The Breakfast Club, along with‘a couple of otherthings thatcame up.’ During his 1986 break from Family Ties he will make Born in the USA for Paul Schrader, a dramatic contemporary story of ‘rock’n'roii and families’ set onthe industrial East coast. Fox will play a character nearer his own age and Bruce Springsteen has agreed to write additional material fora film that Fox jokingly refers to as a ‘mono employment situation.’ Looking further Into the future, there is the seemingly inevitable Back to the Future sequel.
Protesting that he has had little time of late for any social life, Fox is still an avid hockey player and American National Chairman for Public Awareness of Spina Bifida.‘That's because of a family connection. It’s amazing how little is known about it considering it’s such a prevalent birth defect. 1 said to the organistaion. “Use me. Exploit me.”So if I'm on talk shows and I’m given the opportunity to talk about it, ldo.’
He has recently purchased a house in Laurel Canyon in Los Angeles and is under contract to Family Ties for another two years. Clearly the man is a workaholic, but undoubtedly a happy one. ‘I may be dead by the time I'm thirty, but I’m having a good time.’ (Allan Hunter)
Terry Johnson‘s stage-play presents ideal material for Roeg‘s characteristically dense explosion of ideas in this examination of personal identity
Glasgow; GFT
O Ivanhoe (U) (Richard Thorpe. US. 1952) Robert Taylor. Elizabeth Taylor. George Sanders. 106 mins. Acceptable film version ofthe Walter Scott novel. overlong and unexcitingly scripted but technically admirable and Liz dazzles as always. Edinburgh; Filmhouse
0 Jubilee ( 18) (Derek Jarman. UK, 1978) Jenny Runacre. Little Nell, Toyah Wilcox. 104 mins. Queen Elizabeth I is transported to Britain in the late 1970s by her astrologer and is not amused by what she sees.
' The‘List 8&5?an 31