THE LIST
1! "4n? « 15’ 311,! 2’9 --
‘. .. my . t7, “1‘33,
13.- , a“ ‘ the ,t I , . -, rs ,~j/:‘1e;;t‘i. is» (*5
- it t. j tie-tenet; t.” . h e, H t . '1" ._t -.:t '.'.. v . . ‘ ~- . filter??? R‘t v . a l t t “‘7‘ I I he eve he t e! V t e e. e literally with a climax. as Beatrice Dalle and Jean-Hughes Anglade
movie-producing territory. grunted their merry way through a
t t t t . t . . . Australia. Bill Bennett’s drama I revor JOhnhton at thls year S Fllm Fesuval most vigourous boutofsingle-take centred around an aboriginalgirl
vi:
As the 40th Edinburgh International treatment of the romance of Sex honking in Ram-"dailies. Bum”? bcmg escorted by 'd Ponccman and Film Festival reaches its last few Pistol‘s bassist Sid Vicious and his Belly'Blua the PTOVOCtalWCiOPcmng Poncewoman bad ‘0 a Small town to days. movie ftths thee the prOSpeet of t American ghttttehd Nahey gala. I‘he Beneix mov1e at times i face murder charges. and.
the customarily exciting Spungen. which documents the rise SlimPlY Igusetd ‘0 gclb bl". the t remarkf‘bl)“ featured dlaloguc t programming Chosen t0 round Off t and hi“ of the punk empire from the director is flair for contrivmg : improvised by an excellent cast With the final weekend into an explosive l early days of anarchic outrage to the electrifying Visuals and the adept i' an instinctive feel for their characters ehmttx rttthet than a sad hideout. ; Couples tormentedt drug_ttddeh handling of the film s progression to make even Pialat or Cassavetes The films. in a wav. offer a final hours in New York‘s Chelsea from My love Story ‘0 dismrbmg i Icak’us- only 3" ObVIOUS ‘ShOCk‘ microcosm of the two weeks, with ? Hotel. Cox attempts to tomahttctse . tragedy ensured a warm reception. ending marred a confident and foreign language hmttuettonS of t the tth_t0mahttetsabtet whilst And it was good to see film-making i well-observed 90 minutes: considerable merit meetthg i delivering an authentically of realtrisk-taking verve which In the past few years Edinburgh unetimpmmihihe he“. British and ' hattowing Cautionary tale of the doesn tsurrender to blandness. ; has established itself as a reliable American work meeting rediscovery ? dangers of heroin, Nor. it seems. is surrender an 1 source for the best in American
option for John McGrath whose film of Blood Red Roses from his 7:84 Scotland play, demonstrated that
independent cinema. and this year proved no exception. Jim Jarmusch's Down By Law turned out to be the
ofthe past. Edinburgh is that sort of ? Film Festival: there‘s always something on the menu to appeal to
tttt ttdmittthh. hide varietv titttthtee commmitted left-wing film-making ; delight we all hoped it would be. but ()ne of the-most critically lauded has not died in this country A f the surprise was that the mOVic' an American films of the year is Oliver triumph for the Scottish film ’ unlikely yarn about three escaped Stone's Salvador ( Fri 2:2. Filmhousc. industry, the wealth of sympathetic. convicts. was stolen from John Lurie hetthm ti Stttitihe James Wood tts affectionate detail and recognisany t and Tom Waits by Italian comic phttttiititttttttiiet Riehttttt Boyle. the human characters ensured that this : Roberto Benigni and his priceless titm tittieeetiS With tin impassioned domestic epic. treating the life of a ' English phrase book. Spike Lee‘s sense of outrage at the injustices of plucky Scots woman from fiery She’s Gotta Have It showed its the US_htteked Sithttdtitetth regime schoolgirl to industrial militant. Jarmusch influences (monochrome tie the titehehehe Bette heeine to i nevertdeteriorated into a dry t photography. static camera. great teehee the hi“ extent tit the etitinttyis t exercise in agit-prop butremained a jazz score). and its freewheeling tragedy. Former screenwriter Stone wmnmg family drama With both cavalier style. matching the attitude thh teehtmhihie hit the SetihtS of t emotional and political punch._The to sextof its female protagonist. Mtthtie/tt [it/trees. tthti Stuffed, and : same, in my view. cannot be said of combined With a script ofslantgy the ettme tietee energy Simply bums gt the other major Scottish offering. credibility resulted inia touching. hit. the eereen here. i t CherieS Gettttiey~S Heavenly. t good-humoured mOVlC. spOiled a The ttiiitittihg eeehing htihgS a i f , t M i gt Pursuits. with the entirely resistible little by a hinttotfexploitation. etimhtete etmtittet With the new I Completing the Festivatts i Tom Cotiti inta dated and rather too Another sensitively handled piece Andrei .thrhtweht, fitm Thesaerift-ee, minhtour 0t Edinbuteh Citiemas iS inoffenSIve piece ofwhimsy about benefitting from a script With a fine (Sttt 23‘ Fihhhtitieet 8.30pm)‘ Whieh the Pteyhoueet host to the screening miracles in a Glasgow school. _ ear for the way people actually talk iettetet) mtteha mattemtmanie t etahrehd new printot Erieh Von However.the audience on the night to each other was Bill Sherwood’s energy as meditative intensity, Wtth StttiheimtS butchered 1924 adored it. and almost everyone Parting Glances. which portrayed Erland Josephson one of a small i masterpiece Greed (Sun 24 8.30pm; (extccl’t me) found it hugely: the break'up Ofa gay couple and emup of people tin ti remote island Men 25 3pm), presented with a live enjoyable and qUite charming. soi(as tackledtthe problem of AIDS in a titeed With the onCOmihe apocalypse oreheetreteeere composed and lseem to be ina minorityofone) it is refreshineg down-to-earth and and ttiteed to rethintt thc Spitittttti i eendueted he Catt Davie, Whieh pleasant to report that Scotland unmelodramatic manner. The best WtitteS he hits held throughout hiS t premises to he even, hit as might just have a box-office success American film so far however must life. As always. 'I‘arkovsk)’ couches i memorable as the 1981 triumphant 0" its hands‘ be Alan RUdOPh‘S Trouble In Mimj' the eenttttt metaphysical ditemma in t showing (it Ahet Geneee Napoleon. t From Irelandcamc a rather more avclvety. many-tectured and ti eittemtttie style thttt has heeome i Beeed on the hy_n0w etassiC hovel i successful filmtin a gentle vein in irresistibly playful follow-up to the tttiititiehv hiS own. A MeTeeeue by Frank Norrie the film i Peter Ormrod s agreeable Eat the luscious Choose Me. with Kris And thereh thiet time to eteeeet tip t te a tate Otepte reehem focusing on Peach, based on a true story of a man Kristofferson. Keith Carradine (and the mad t0 the ABC for the a love and dettth in arid Arizona, in an Irish border village who beat haircut). Genevieve Bujold and htte_hieht ettht tit Dtteid Bethe:e which was hacked by an the redundancy blues by building a Divine (l) in an original and dehut teetute Tritthtterietttt1pm). t uneemptehehdine and indifferent motorcycle wall ofdeath in his back unpredictable story ofdesperate thC Wtitid premiere of the Talking I MGM from Von Stmheim.s 0rigitiai yard. It captures the shambolic characters in unlikely situations so ttettde tmhtmehh titet eitvet eereen : tit/ethoer eut to a release print of nature of Irish life. with its inept brilliantly amd memorably bizarre. hitting. one tittttitS With eager t amend 21/2 home (a version of Whieh schemers and ever-present priests yet with an emotional udertow. that tintieihtttitm ttihee it-the i iete be Shewnttwhethen ptoeeeoett and politicians. and was much. onlythe adjective‘Rudolphian‘ etehitteehtiee Mt Bethe eah make i to hem the negative to Obtain the appreCiated by the Irish CXIICS in the could describe it. the transition from videos ofquirky ' small amount titVttttttthie hittttte audience (like myself). While Eat the Last year the haunting films from hettittS t0 the more demanding t then present in him eteeh Even so, Peach was an accomplished first the Orient were Mitsuo etthttts tit the ethemtt seteeh Wtth this,~ ; the film retttin8 sequences of major feature made and financed in Yanagimachi‘s Fire Festival and Offering inspired by newspaper I considerable power, particularly the Ireland, BaCklash came from an Chen Kaigc‘s Yellow E‘mh‘ this year cuttings he began collecting Whilst on t {that section Shot in Death Valley - t e ~ « t tour with the band. Possibly Jim 3 where MeTeague murders his wife‘s . Hickey. the Festival Director. i lover but remains handcuffed to him ‘ h should strike a special medal for . in the blazing heat. As the end ‘ y K ‘ i ‘ if anyone who survives both films t credits to” on the Monday afternoon ' fl mentally intact. t the audience, and the organisers, can Another pairofdccidCdly ; begin to ponder what the41st Film a: contrasting productions can be seen Festival will bring, as we start ‘1 ‘ at the welcome and luxurious looking forward to next year’s i newcomer the (‘ameo cinema the cinematic binge, next day. Carlos Saura‘s most recent 5 But before theht what of this year's adaptation 0f flamenco themes A 1 event? were [he Lore Bewitched (3pm) completes a impressed in the Film Festival’s 40th h : "HOEY “gun by 3100‘] Wedding and year? Unfortunately, the time of g t continued by the exhilarating going to press enables your reviewer 2 i Cannen . and is discussed more fully merely to reflect on the highlights of a ‘ in an accompanying feature; while the fit-st week. But what a week of " '5 belex Cox‘s Sid and Nancy (8pm) 15 a varied delights it was; starting 5
18T.h_e-I-.ist 22 Aug— 4 Sept