COURT JESTER
i
Producer-director lvan Reitman is a man with his finger up the pulse of American taste in humour. In 1978 he produced National Lampoon’s Animal House, which swiftly became the top-grossing comedy film ever. He followed this little effort with the high-earning Meatballs and Stripes (both 1981 ). Bigger and betterfollowed in 1984 with Ghostbusters, one of the most commercially successful films of all time. Now he has graduated to the more refined comic capers of the romantic thriller Legal Eagles co-starring Robert Redford and Debra Winger.
A native Czech whose family fled to Canada when he was four, Reitman admits to having felt some trepidation at the prospect of working with Redford. ‘The film was created with Dustin Hoffman and Bill Murray in mind. Dustin suggested the film because he had enjoyed working with Bill so much on Tootsie. At the first draft stage he jumped into Ishtar with Warren Beatty and asked if I would wait. I was concerned about how long that film might take and then Bill went off to live in Paris and l thoughtthe film was dead. Redford phoned me up about another project and we talked about Legal Eagles. He didn’t like the idea of a buddy comedy and wanted a lady
co-star so we re-worked the storyline
with a romantic triangle at the centre. It was a very fortunate change. He is an intelligent person with a real sharp point ofview and I was apprehensive about working with someone who had won an Oscar for direction.’
The film cannily exploits the insouciant charm of the Redford persona, showcasing his too rarely
slave to love when she succumbs to the rampant charms of smug commodoties broker Rourke. Lovely to look at empty handed 'designer bonking‘.
Strathclyde; ABC Greenock. ABC Kilmarnock
o The Dyster Princess (PG) (Ernst Lubitsch. Germany. 1919) 7(1mins. Earliest offering in the ‘7 Decades. 7 Films' German season is one ofthe first films from the master oflight. risque comedy Ernst Lubitsch. The plot concerns the daughter ofa merchant prince. an unscrupulous servant. and a handsome but penniless Prince. so one can anticipate a whiffof social satire. Glasgow: GFI‘
o Nous Ne Vieillirons Pas Ensemble (PG) (Maurice Pialat. France. 1972) Marlene Jobert. Jean Yanne. We Will Not Grow Old Together is a prize-winning study of a couple‘s painful relationship. Glasgow: French Cine-Club
0 Once Upon a Time in America (18) (Sergio Leone. US. 1983) Robert De Niro. James Woods. Tuesday Weld.
' 228 mins. The story of two childhood
. friends and their early
entrepreneurialactivities which
blossom into careers in organised
| crime and politics. Leone‘s epic gangster chronicle scrutinises. in an uneven and gratuitously bloody
12 The List 17 — 30 October
glimpsed comedy skills. The man even tap dances. ‘He didn’t want to do that because he though itwould look silly but we persuaded him and it has become a favourite scene with audiences.’ Filming with one of the world’s most recognisable sex symbols on the streets of New York presented obvious problems. ‘lt was an adventure,’ Reitman drin states. ‘He literally stopped traffic. We only had time for one take because everything stopped. His stand-in for many years looks a lot like him and we would set up a camera with him a block away to try and take away the crowds, but it was a bit of a nightmare.’
After the dubioustaste of Meatballs and Animal House, Legal Eagles has been perceived as a welcome move up-market. ‘It seems to remind people of the more old-fashioned Hepbum-Tracy comedies. It wasn’t a conscious decision but those are
manner. the emergent American society of the early part of the century through the aspirations of the mob. Edinburgh; Fiimhouse
o Pinocchio (U) (Walt Disney Production. US. 194(1) 77 mins. Disney‘s painstaking craftsmanship reached an unrivalled peak with this utterly charming feature that hasn‘t aged a jot in 46 years.
Glasgow: ABC Clarkston Road, Cinema. Grosvenor. Edinburgh; Dominion. Lothian; ABC. Strathclyde: ABC Greenock, ABC Kilmarnock. Odeon Ayr, Odeon Hamilton. Rialto
o Poltergeist ll-The Other Side (15) (Brian Gibson. US, 1986) JoBeth Williams. Craig T. Nelson. 93 mins.
FILM.
wonderful, charming films and it’s nice to be compared. The National Lampoon -Saturday Night Live type of comedy is something that I like and helped to develop. Every generation finds its own rhythm—the Marx Brothers, Abbott and Costello in the Forties, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis were as hip as you could get in the Fifties. Saturday Night Live is just the voice of the baby-boom generation.’
Legal Eagles cost $31 million, according to Reitman, and has been a relative disappointment at the US box-office. He laments the rising costs of film production and has no fixed plans forthe future, although the possibility of a Ghostbusters sequel is still tempting. ‘There is some difficulty in finding a screenplay but we all want to do a lollow-up-we just needto find a story that is as surprising and fun as the original.“ (Allan Hunter)
McCarthy the ‘richie‘ she really lusts after.
Glasgow; ABC Clarkston Road. Cinema. Strathclyde; Odeon Hamilton
0 The Purple Rose of Cairo (PG) (Woody Allen. US. 1985) Mia Farrow. JeffDanieis. Van Johnson. 85 mins. Unhappy waitress Mia Farrow relies on the exotic escapism ofthe Hollywood Dreamj Factory to survive the daily grind of Depression-ridden America. ()ne day an ardent suitor steps down from the silver screen and totally transforms her life with a touch of romance. Poignant comical love
story from the maestro. Glasgow:
The long-suffering family fromTobe I
Hooper’s 1982 oroginal are again buried by a plethora of increasingly risible special effects in this turgid sequel. Dog of the Year.
Glasgow; ABC Clarkston Road,
ABC Sauehiehall Street. Edinburgh;
ABC. Strathclyde; Odeon Ayr, Odeon Hamilton 0 Pretty in Pink ( 15) (John Hughes, US, 1986) Molly Ringwald, Harry Dean Stanton. Jon Cryer. 98 mins. Molly is the girl from the wrong side of the tracks forced to choose between two men; Cryer the
| idolising ‘zoid‘ and Andrew
OFF
0 The Return of Martin Guerre (15) (Daniel Vignc. France. 1982) Gerard Depardieu. Nathalie Baye. 111mins.Depardieu returns to his wife and family after a seven year absence. He appears to have changed beyond all recognition which leads to claims that he is an imposter. A true story from the 16th century. solidly re-enacted. Edinburgh: EUFS
o A Room With a View (PG) (James Ivory. UK. 1985) Helena Bonham Carter, Maggie Smith. Daniel Day Lewis. 117 mins. Elegantly mounted with an agreeable lightness of touch. this is a near perfect screen version of
0'" I" 1.5; 4 i . t.
the Forster novel with sortie dandi acting. Civilised entertainment at its best. Edinburgh: Dominion
0 Rumble Fish ( 18) (Francis Ford Coppola. US. 1983) Mickey Rourke. Matt Dillon. Diane Lane. 94 mins.
{ Electrifyingexpressionist monochrome visuals grace an existentialist parable about the need
" to forge one‘s own identity. and the
alienation it can bring. Edinburgh; Filrnhouse
O S.A.A.C. Show ( If) A collection of goodies from among the past prizewinners at the Scottish international Amateur Film Festival. The programme includes drama. documentary and animated
films and is expected to include work 3
from [an Rintoul. Norman Pollock
. and Robert Zemeckis. All seats are
a ; bookable.priced£1.Edinburgh;
Film house
0 The Searchers ( LI) (John Ford. US. ;
195(3) John Wayne. Jeffrey Hunter. Natalie Wood. 119 mins. Confederate veteran Wayne undertakes a dogged. unrelenting quest for the Indians who murdered his brother and abducted his niece. Splendid. sober western classic: much imitated but seldom rivalled. Edinburgh; Fiimhouse
0 Shakespeare Wallah (U ) (.lames
ivory. India. 1965) Shashi Kapoor. Geoffrey Kendall. Felicity Kendall. 125 mins. A touring company of Shakespearean actors find it increasingly difficult to secure audiences or employment as India emerges from its imperial heritage.
Edinburgh; EUFS O The Shining ( 18) (Stanley Kubrick.
US. 198(1) Jack Nicholson. Shelley
Duvaii. 144 mins. Kubrick's
overwrought horror film dispenses with much of the psychic apparatus ofStephen King‘s novel to
concentrate on the deeper terror of a
family turning in on itself.
3 Nicholson. with all the stops out. is
bug-eyed and demonic as the father
bringing much aggression to bear
against his son and the final scenes
are.literally.chilling. Edinburgh; Fiimhouse
0 Sid and Nancy ( 18) (Alex Cos. UK. 1986) Gary ()ldman. Chloe Webb. David llayrnan. 111) mins. The story
i of Sex Pistols bassist and his
American girlfriend Nancy Spungen from their gung-ho days as puppy
superstars and future rock legends to
their final hours in New York‘s
Chelsea Hotel and losing battle with
the big 1 I. For the most part a breathlessly enjoyable bio-pic. Cox‘s follow-up to Repo Man gets bogged down in an interminable last half-hour.
Edinburgh; Cameo
0 Solaris ( 15) (Andrei 'I'arkovsky. USSR. 1972) 165 mins. (‘osmonauts
on a space station orbiting a distant planet find that it has a strange power to fathom their deepest fears
and neuroses and transform them into living entities. Not so much a sci-fi extravaganza
‘ as an anguished autobiographical text.'l‘arkovskyusesthesettingasan i almost abstract background to a
i l
dissection ofour most painful
emotions. Glasgow: GFI‘ o Spellbound (PG) (Alfred Hitchcock. us. 1945) Ingrid ‘J