FILM LIST
stomach-wrenchineg portrays the
' protagonists‘ struggle to kick the habit whilst steadfastly refusing to
over-dramatise or sensationalise the
situation. Glasgow; OFF
0 Clockwise (PG) (Christoper
Morahan. UK. 1985) John Cleese.
Alison Steadman, Penelope Wilton.
97 mins. A pathologically punctual
headmaster is chronically late for an
: important conference. Basically a
one-joke farce this is an enervated
vehicle for Cleese‘s incisive comic timing- the film‘s raison d‘étre and saving grace. Edinburgh; ABC Glasgow; ABC Clarkston Road. ABC Sauchiehall Street. Lothian; Regal. o Commando (18) (Mark L. Lester, US, 1985) Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rae Dawn Chong. 90 mins. Big Arnie races against the clock to free his kidnapped daughter from the clutches ofsome wicked men. A pure action adventure told with zest and the saving grace ofgallows humour. Glasgow; ABC Clarkston Road, Salon. Lothian; ABC. Strathclyde; ABC Greenock, ABC Kilmarnock, Kelburne. Odeon Hamilton, Rialto. 0 Crimes ofPassion (18) 1} (Ken Russell. US. 1984) Kathleen Turner. Anthony Perkins. 107 mins. See
3 Caption Review. Edinburgh; ()deon
O Cutter's Way ( 18) (Ivan Passer. US. 1981 ) Jeff Bridges. John Heard. Lisa Eichhorn. 109 mins. Bridges witnesses a murder and is pushed into exploiting this information to his advantage. However. a straightforward revenge scheme has unexpected repercussions. Absorbing adaptation of the
Newton ’I‘hornburg novel Cutter and
Bone in which a B-movie plot is
given added resonance by the depth
ofcharacterisation. Edinburgh; EU
. Filmsoc
o Defence of the Realm ( 15) (David Drury, UK. 1985) Gabriel Byrne,
Denholm Elliott. 96 mins. A Fleet
Street hack stumbles onto a far-reaching conspiracy of murder
and deceit that stretches to the heart
of the Government. Incisive political thriller that both stimulates and
entertains. Glasgow; Salon. Strathclyde; Kelburne. . 0 Le Doulosi15)(Jean-Pierre
Melville. France. 1963) Jean-Paul Belmondo. Michel Picoli. 108 mins. The title translated means ‘police informer' and the story concerns an informant torn between his ‘profession‘ and loyalty to a friend who has just murdered at Police Inspector. Part of the French Institute‘s Film Noir season (see
' panel). this is a typical Melville tale
of the underworld combining an American ambienee with thorny ethical questions. Edinburgh; French Institute
0 Echo Park ( 15) i3 (Robert Dornheim. Austria. 1985) Susan Dey.'1‘om l-lulce. Michael Bowen. 89mins. See Caption Review. Edinburgh: Filmhouse
0 Eureka ( l8) (Nic Roeg. UK/US. 1982) Gene Hackman) A gold prospector made fabulously wealthy by a lucky strike twenty years before. resents his daughter's marriage to a
List 18April— 1 May
| l g
wealthy French playboy. and suffers the unwelcome attentions ofa crime syndicate who wish to transform his
island into a casino. Extraordinarily intricate and complex Roeg film.
both psychological and metaphysical
' thriller. executed with his customary : bravura. Strathclyde; Haldane Film
Society
0 Finyé (Souleymane Cisse. Mali. 1982) Fousseyni Sissoko. 105 mins. A dissection ofthe cultural conflicts at work today in West Africa which focuses on student revolt. political repression. and the old ways of village life to show some of the adverse effects Westernisation can
bring. Oneofthe few African films
to make it into UK distribution. this uses personal tensions to express the turmoils of a nation in a generally skilful manner. Edinburgh; Filmhouse
0 Forbidden (PG) 11? (Anthony Page, UK/W Germany, 1984) Jacqueline
ECHO PARK
Echo Park (15) (Robert Dornhelm. US, 1985) Susan Dey, Tom Hulce, Michael Bowen, Christopher Walker. 90 mins. Echo Park, the place, is a run down neighbourhood of Los Angeles; the studios have departed, leaving only inner-city decay and hopeful dreamers. Echo Park, the film, is centrally concerned with the nature of these dreams and the three characters who dream them; it begins with a nightmare, and ends on a fantasy, a neat polarisation of the film‘s implicit tensions between the reality of their lives and the projection of their desires.
May (Dey) is a waitress who is ‘really' am actress; her lodger, Jonathon (Hulce), is a pizza delivery man who would like to be a songwriter; August(Bowen), her neighbour, is an Austrian ‘body sculptor‘ (like Schwarzenegger) who works at the local gym and nurtures a scheme to electronically harness the power of stars (movie, not astral) and store it in batteries (well, this is LA). The three are involved in a bizarre ménage of sorts, around which hovers May‘s young son Henry (Walker), detached from all this ersatz reality the adults fabricate for themselves, concerned with more fundamental issues of identity like his relationship with his mother and herfriends; his only
verdict on this diffuse WW2 television production. Glasgow; ; Grosvenor
0 Full Moon in Paris ( 15) (Eric
- ()gier. 'l‘cheky Karyo. Fabice
g Luchini. 101 mins. A youngtrainee textile designer finds her fondness
for socialising causestension
between herself and her lugubrious ‘ lover. Edinburgh; Filmhouse
j 0 Goodbye, Mr Chips ( U) (Sam
; Wood. UK. 1939) Robert Donat.
; GreerGarsonJohn Mills. 114mins. : Magnificentlysentimentalscreen
Bisset, Jiirgen Prochnow. 114 mins. True story of an endlessly self-sacrificing German countess and her wartime experiences resisting the Nazis. assisting an escape organisation run by the pastor of a ‘ Swedish Church and falling in love with a high-ranking Jew.
Worthy but dull seems to be the
Rohmer. France. 1984) Pascale
is;
%
concession to an invented life is preferring to be called Hank;
May becomes a strippergram girl (‘at least it’s showbiz, right?‘), and comes in for some censorious treatment from the director; she is confused, misguided, unwilling to acknowledge the real nature of her occupation or its effect on her relationship with her son or herwould-be lover, Jonathon. ln argument they represent opposite poles: he is sick of all the alleged actors, writers and directors in LA who are really all just delivering pizzas; she thinks waitresses are all really actresses and writers (‘dream on, right?) In forcing the issues to a conclusion, when Jonathon and Hank deliver pizzas to a party where May is : stripping, Dornhelm reveals his hand: : Echo Park is actually an old-fashioned morality movie. May is forced to face up to the actuality of her life, while August, also of the fantasy party, has his dream farcically shattered; all this is then hopelessly compromised in an improbably and contradictory happy ending. lntermittently funny and touching, Echo Park seems ultimately synthetic, a false concoction of unresolved issues and half-baked conclusions; then again, maybe that is the only truthful way to deal with Tinseltown.
(Kenny Mathieson)
OCINEMA TIMES AND DATES PAGE 26.
version of the James Hilton story covering the career of a gentle schoolmaster who devotes a lifetime to his ‘boys‘ and cherishes the memory of Garson. his one true love. In his Oscar-winning performance Donat is completely captivating and almost unbearably poignant. Edinburgh: EU Filmsoc o The Grapes ofWrath (U) (John Ford. US. 194(1) Henry Fonda. Jane Darwell. John (‘arradine 129 mins. Beaten by the elements and evicted
; by the banks a family ofOklahoma
farmers strike out for the promised land ofCalifornia only to suffer further privations and humiliations at the hands ofthose willing to capitalise on the unhappy lot of the masses. However. their spirit is not broken.
Exemplary adaptation of the Steinbeck novel with memorable contributions from all concerned. Fonda never bettercd his portrait of Tom Joad: rebel with a cause. eloquent and indefatigable spokesman for common decency and justice. Super. unforgettable film for which no slick superlative is adequate. Edinburgh: EU Filmsoc o The Hidden Fortress (PG) (Akira Kurosawa. Japan. 1959) Roshiro Mifune. Misa Uehara. 122 mins. Mifune leads an autocratic young princess across dangerous terrain to their homeland assisted only by two bumbling servants who have designs on the royal booty. Lighthearted adventure inspired by John Ford and in turn (partially) inspiring George Lucas to make Star Wars. Glasgow: GFl‘
o Jagged Edge ( is) a (Richard Marquand. US. 1985) Glenn Close. Jeff Bridges. Robert Loggia. 109 mins. See Caption Review. Edinburgh; ()deon. Glasgow: Odeon
o The Killing Fields ( 15) (Roland Joffe. UK. 1984) Sam Waterston. Doctor Haing S. Ngor. 142 mins. Powerful. Oscar-winning true life story ofa deep friendship that survives the horrors ofwar in Cambodia. Edinburgh; EU Filmsoc 0 Kiss of the Spiderwoman(15) (Hector Babenco, Brazil-US. 1985) William Hurt. Raul Julia, Sonia Braga. 121 mins. Two men share a prison cell. victims in their differing ways. ofan unspecified fascist regime. One is a flamboyant homosexual. the other a macho revolutionary. The pain of their confinement ultimately brings mutual understanding. love and a moving exchange of roles. Glasgow; GFI'
0 Ladies on the Rock3( 18) (Christian Braad 'l'homsen. Denmark. 1984) Helle Ryslinge. Anne Marie llelger.
llflmins. Life on tour fora couple of 9
female cabaret artistes taking their shim: a risque satire on sexual stereotypes. around Denmark. A Danish feminist road movie. no less. But one which. with its acute observation. works much better in the road movie than the feminist department. as the two heroines are crudely drawn and the male director‘s grip on the women‘s issues at hand somewhat less than firm. Glasgow: 0171‘