first Oscar nomination for her tour de force performance in this durable soap opera based on a 1922 novel. Edinburgh; ELI Filmsoc
0 Stop Making Sense (PG) (Jonathan Dcmme. US. 1984) Talking Heads. 88 mins. A dynamic cinema version ofTalking Heads‘ live show. Edinburgh; Filmhouse
o The Stranger ( PG) (Orson Welles. US. 1946) Edward (3. Robinson. Orson Welles. Loretta Young. 95 mins. FBI agent goes to small Connecticut town to track down Wellcs’ escaped Nazi criminal. who has married an American woman and taken up a teaching post. Rarely seen Welles‘ film relies on his customarily shadowy style and sense of the absurd to prop tip a pretty unconvincing drama. The climax atop a Church clock tower is a real humdinger though.
Edinburgh; Filmhouse
0 The Tempest ( 15) (Derek Jarman. UK. 1979) Karl Johnson. Toyah Wilcox. ()rlando. ()6 mins. Jarman’s playful version of the Bard's last work replaces the island setting of the original with a decaying (iothic mansion in the country. The gleeful avoidance of Bardolatry will offend the purists. as Jarman switches the stress from the Text to the visuals. which feature a luxuriatingly gold-hued wedding masque and an all-out camp finale. (ireat fun. Edinburgh
0 Tess (PG) (Roman Polanski. UK-Francc. 1979) Nastassja Kinski. Peter Firth. Leigh Lawson. 170 mins. A tragic story of ill-fated love set in Victorian England where social circumstances conspire with unforeseeable misfortunes to break the spirit ofan innocent heroine. Handsome. evocative and absorbing. Part of a Polanski season. Glasgow; UFI’
0 Three Women ( 15) (Robert Altman. US. 1977) Shelley Duvall. Sissy Spacek. Janice Rule. 1 1(lmins. Ina hot springs community two female nursing assistants at a clinic move in together. A pregnant artist silently paints frescoes in their apartment house. Eventually the three become entwined in a bizarre relationship. 'I‘riumphantly peculiar Altman work concerned with role-playing and personal psychology (perhaps). Whatever one makes ofit. it is filmed with his usual graceful dexterity and Spacek and Duvall are a treat.
Edinburgh: Filmhouse
o Underthe Volcano ( 15) (John Huston. US. 1984) Albert Finney. Jacqueline Bisset. Anthony Andrews. 111 mins. Mexico. 1938. The Day of the Dead dawns as a day of reckoning for terminally alcoholic British consul Finney when the disparate elements of his dissolute life come together with a promise of tragic resolution. A towering performance from Finney but otherwise a lamentable aberration. Edinburgh; EU Filrnsoc
0 La Vie est a Nous (PG) (Jean Renoir. France. 1936) Max Dalban. Madeleine Sologne. Roger Blin. Known abroad as People of France this was a propaganda film ordered from Renoir by the French
FILM LIST
Communist Party. Edinburgh: French Institute
0 AView to a Kill( PG )(John (ilen.UK. 1985) Roger Moore. (irace Jones. Christopher Walken. 131 mins. Walken is the egomaniac bent on world domination in this predictably professional latterday Bond. where the stuntmen do most of the work. and contribute the best acting.
Moore now faces the dilemma of starting a new Bond this year or accepting a lucrative starring role as J.R.‘s riy'al in Dallas. We know which option we would prefer. . . Strathclyde; Kelburne.
0 Witness ( 15) (Peter Weir. US. 1985) Harrison Ford. Kelly MC (iillis. Alexander Godunov. 112 mins. A young Amish boy is a witness to murder. The investigation leads a cop into a brush with another culture. a little romance and the expected police corruption. Atmospheric. impeccably acted and beautifully constructed. ()ne ofthe best films ofthe 1980s.
Edinburgh; Dominion.
0 Year ofthe Dragon ( 18) (Michael Cimino. US. 1985) Mickey Rourke. Ariane. John Lone. 13-1 mins. See caption review.
Edinburgh: ABC.
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YEAR OF THE DRAGON
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Yearof the Dragon (18) (Michael Cimino, US, 1985) Mickey Rourke, John Lone, Ariane. 134 mins
Chinatown, New York. With the assassination ofthe community's respected leader, the situation is tense. Joey Tai (John Lone) a young and ambitious member of the crime families who virtually run the area, sees an opportunity to grasp power. Enter highly decorated Police Capt. Stanley White (Mickey Rourke) tough, uncompromising and thoroughly obnoxious, his task - to clean up the area. Enlisting the help of glamorous (ie she takes herclothes oft) Chinese TV reporterTracy Tzu (Ariane), he is determined to eradicate organised crime no matter how many people get wasted in the process. Because that’s the sort of wacky guy he is.
Easy to see why the American print had to have a disclaimer denying charges of racism against the Chinese community for the protagonist here, Rourke‘s bastard cop, just hates dem Gooks. Subtlety is not this film's strong point. He’s called White (geddit?) and he has been to a little place called Vietnam (suprise, suprise). One supposes that he has been deeply affected by these experiences because he talks about them every twenty minutes. Ala Rambo, he is lighting the Vietnam war all over again, only this time it's the return leg at home in New York.
The racism angle however, is only
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one of the disparate elements in this unpleasant ragbag of a film. The script seems to be an obvious compromise between Oliver ‘Four-Letter‘ Stone's search for another ethnic group on which to hang a neo-Godtatherish crime family saga in the manner of his earlier Scarface and Cimino’s obsession with the position of the immigrant in the broad spectrum of American culture. Here White is convinced that those clever little yellow people are just not all-American boys. Thrown into this morass is a little domestic drama, as White breaks up with his wife to the strains of an insistently lachrymose score, a little tortured romance with Chinese TV
journalist and lartoo much ridiculously 5
agonised Method from Rourke.
Now we all know The Deer Hunter is a fine film and I think Heaven's Gate has much to recommend it, so it's saddening to report that Cimino has now come up with this turkey as his comeback picture; proof thatyou can’t survive on gorgeous photography and a great eye for composition alone. The movie has to hang together, dammit. You could say that The Year of the Dragon is stunning, but then so is being indiscriminately beaten over the head with a brick. We should not mistake this for powerful film-making when it seems that the film-maker is not altogether in control of his material. (Trevor Johnston)
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Glasgow; ABC (Sauchiehall Street)
oYour Contemporary( 15) (Yuli Raizman. USSR. 1968) Igor Vladimirov. Nikolai Plotnikov. Tatiana Nadezhdina. 140 mins. The
personal and political intermingle in this story of an engineer who journeys to Moscow to put the case against the closure of a coal-processing plant and is met by the disregard of unheeding bureaucrats. Meanwhile the man‘s son expresses a wish to marry an unwed mother and the man's own unyielding views are challenged. Edinburgh; Filmhouse
LISTINGS
liltisseclion g‘l\c\t1el;lll\ttl programmesslioyying at cinemas in central Scotland oy er the uni lortniglit. Readersare ady ised that many cinemas in the Stratliclyde and l,otllian regions are unable to proyide The list yy itli details ol their programming for both \y eeks
coy cred by each issue. as these may not be ay ailable at the little ol‘going topless. l'liese listings lltelclol‘e proy ide an accurate gtilde to programmes lorone yycck only. unless lurtlierdatesare specilied. Readers are ady isetl lllal programmes may be subject to late change at any time. ('inemasoperating a lamin discount scheme allow an adult accompany ing a cltild to ‘l U and ‘1’( i. certificate programmes to gain admission for the same price as the child up to (rpm. .-\11 programme times are pm unless UlliL‘lMlSL‘ stated.
EDINBURGH
0 ABC l.olllian Road. 33‘13'1311. Bar: 1 lam 3..‘~l)pm.5 lllpm (.‘ylon Thurs). 11am 11pm
(Fri Sat l. 5 lllpm (Sun). [1)] cinemas 3 ck 3 prior notification advisable. £3.71. L3..ill('lii|d 1.1.41), £l._‘sll().-\l’ 1.1 (before bpni). l-‘amily discount scheme operates.
1.Backto the Future( i’( i)
_ ’.55.Stii15.".55.
2.Plenty( 15):. 15.5. 15.8. 15. Sun 5.15.8. l5.
3.Yearolthe Dragont IS) 311551155 Sun 5.1155.
0 CLASSIC Nlctilsttlt Street (\(37 1S3”. [1)] (’inema closed Sunday. £3. ( )AI’ Ll.
t'niil 311.1an College Girls olSext l.s’l H.355. ltl. World oiSex Dnet IS) loss French NaughtieS( lS‘) 3.311.658
From 31 .lan Queen ofthe Bluest lt\‘) l2.3n.4.7.35. Mary Millington‘s True Blue Confession5( ls) 135515541). Playbirdsljnfifin,
O DOMINION Newbattle 'l‘erracc. 4-17 Boon. Rest lllam-metkb-l1pm (Mon-I’ri). Warn 1 1pm (Sat ). Bar 12—2.3llpm.b~» lllpinlhlon Sat). ('inema closed Sun. £35”. £3.21). Child £1.2(l().-\l’ £1 I'BJH Students £1.31). (all perfs except ey'ng perfs in cinema 3).
1.Back to the Future( l’( i) 3.1(1,5.lll.S.lll
2. Limit 30 Jan National Lampoon‘s European Vacationt 15)
‘5.
The List 24 Jan —
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