FILM LIST
_ PSYCHO Ill
Psycho Ill (18) (Anthony Perkins, US, 1986) Anthony Perkins, Diana Scarwid. Jeff Fahey. 93 mins. By the time you reach the third entry in any series there is the inevitable problem of deadening familiarity; anyone contemplating a visit to Psycho III will have a reasonable idea of what to expect. The challenge therefore is to ring the changes on the previous ingredients and entertainineg fill the gaps between the obligatory brutal slayings. Debutant director Anthony Perkins pertorms this task with relish, some style and a wicked sense of humour.
In Psycho ll Norman had returned to the Bates motel and won the respect of his neighbours as a completely rehabilitated former offender. The troubles began again when he was systematically persecuted by the distraught relatives of his first victime. ln Psycho lll Norman falls in love, putting an unbearable strain on his relations with a strongly disapproving mother (now an embalmed, sawdust-stuffed corpse). The girl in question is a runaway nun, suffering a crisis of faith. She arrives at the motel and promptly attempts suicide. Rescued by Norman, she recognises a kindred, lost spirit and they embark upon a tentative romance. Norman's interest, of course, proves to be a fatal attraction. Torn between his love for the woman and his alter ego’s disgust at the temptations of the flesh, Norman is confused, tormented and desperately losing his self-control. Belore too long it’s time for another night of the long knives.
That Psycho Ill succeeds as well as it does is a tribute to Perkins'
that has been stranded on our planet in one of the irresistible movie phenomena ofour age. Edinburgh; Odeon o Elvira Madigan ( 15) (Bo Widerberg. Seden. 1967) Thommy Berggren, Pia Degermark. 91 mins. Ravishingly romantic drama set in turn of the century Sweden when two young. hopelessly enamoured lovers chose to starve rather than face the prospect of living without each other. Gorgeous soft-focus photography but a bit too chocolate-boxy. Edinburgh; Filmhouse o Extremities(18) if: (Robert M. Young. US. 1986) Farrah Fawcett, James Russo, Diana Scarwid. 90 mins. See Caption Review and Feature. Glasgow; Odeon. Edinburgh; Odeon o The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T(U) (Roy Rowland, US, 1953) Peter Lind Hayes, Mary Healy. Tommy Rettig. 88 mins. Memorable fantasy detailing a child’s nightmare in whicl he envisages a land ruled by his cruel piano teacher where all the children are forced to tinkle the ivories. A rare and welcome screening. Edinburgh; EU FS 0 From Here to Posterity Janet McBain presents an evening of vintage material to celebrate the tenth anniversary ofthe Scottish Film Archive. Among the items — St Kilda prior to the evacuation and the
conscientious concern for his work and the talents of his chosen collaborators. Charles Pogue's script is a wily mixture of old and new, integrating references to Hitchcock, devious plot twists and a liberal lacing of black humour. Cameraman Bruce Surtees evokes the rainswept terrain of the Gothic romance that Perkins envisaged and invests some scenes with a luridness reminiscent of Crimes of Passion (Perkins’ most recent film as an actor). Perkins directs with economy, stage-managing some bravura jolts. Hitchcock created a special nightmare niche for the everyday shower, Perkins may well have doen the same for the telephone box and the loo (is nowhere safe?)
Above all, dammit, Norman's dilemma is affecting. The love that can never be, between Norman and Maureen, is one of the most poignant
Oscar-winning Seawards the Great Ships. Silent films are accompanied on the piano by Pat Cresswell. Glasgow; GET 0 FX— Murder by Illusion (15) (Robert Mandel, US, 1985) Bryan Brown, Brian Dennehy. 109 mins. Special-effects wizard Rolie Tyler is contacted by Justice Department agents to fake the assassination of a star witness in a Mafia trial (purely for his own safety) and becomes an unwitting pawn in a high-powered political conspiracy.
A thriller worthy of the moniker: ingenious, humorous, and intriguing Strathclyde; La Scala
o The Good Father( 15) (Mike Newell. UK. 1986) Anthony Hopkins, Jim Broadbent, Harriet Walter. 90 mins. Hopkins is the middle-class, middle-management male who once made all the concessions deemed necessary to the worthy women‘s movement by a caringliberal. Now he is separated from his wife and growing apart from his young son. Seething with rage he wants bloody-minded revenge on all womenkind and finds his outlet via another father trying to gain custody of his son from his wife and her lesbian lover.
An abrasive, thought-provoking assault course through the post-feminist battleground with a monstrously compelling
beauty and the beast variations since King Kong and Bride of Frankenstein.
An appreciation of Psycho III will depend on your response to the genre of slasher movies and the many subtle nuances that Perkins has injected into his story. Certainly, the film is a cut above the intelligence-insulting Friday The 13th series and their ilk. The conclusion of the film could almost have provided a satisfactory solution to the whole series with its bittersweet, emotional climax. Had it done so Perkins' guiding influence would have been even more commendable. Instead, commercial dictates have prevailed and the way is left clear for Psycho IV, as Norman and Perkins hold one last trick up their sleeve. Shame, considering what has gone before. (Allan Hunter)
performance from Hopkins and a well chosen supporting cast. Worth seeing. Edinburgh; Cameo
0 Gone 10 Earth (PG) (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, Uk, 1950) Jennifer Jones, David Farrar, Cyril Cusack. 111 mins. Set in the Shropshire of 1897 Gone to Earth features Jones as a tempestuous country girl Hazel Woodus whose life is almost centred on the fox cub she adores. Courted by the local squire and a baptist minister she marries the latter but is still passionately pursued by the former. . .
Until recently only the truncated American version, The Wild Heart, has been available in Britain. Now, Powell claims that the National Film Archive has produced a version that even improves on the Technicolour glories oftheir original Victorian melodrama.
Powell will be present after the screening to answer questions from the audience and will no doubt inscribe a few copies of his recent splendid autobiography Glasgow; GFT 0 Half Life (PG) (Denis O’Rourke, Australia, 1985) 84 mins. In 1954 fallout from the American A-bomb testings at Bikini Atoll drifted onto the Marshallese islands of Rongeiap and Utirik. At the time officials blamed an unexpected change in wind direction. Thirty years later
O’Rourke’s damning documentary shows otherwise. Using contemporary newsreels, recently declassified US Defense film and testimony from the Marshallese, he sets out to prove that the actions were premeditated; deliberately designed to study the effects of radiation on the human body. Glasgow; GET
0 The Hard Cell (PG) Irresistible-sounding programme looking at animation, politics and propaganda over the past seventy years. Among the promised goodies — Red Tap Farm (1927) a looney Conservative Party Campaign film and Plane Daffy (1944) in which the Duck faces ‘Nazi se-duck-tress Hata Mari‘. Edinburgh; Filmhouse
o Heavenly Pursuits ( 15) (Charles Gormley, UK, 1986) Tom Conti, Helen Mirren, David Hayman. 92 mins. Conti is the caring teacher caught up in his remedial school‘s miracle fever, who must dtermine the plausibility ofdivine interventior in contemporary Glasgow.
An engaging, lightweight comedy-drama told with a modicum ofwit and charm Glasgow; ABC Sauchiehall Street. Edinburgh; Dominion. Strathclyde; Kelburne O Highlander (15) (Russell Mulcahy, UK, 1986) Christopher Lambert, Sean Connery. Beatie Edney. 116 mins. A handful ofimmortals battle through the centuries to win a mythical prize. Inelegant, often ludicrous, but enjoyable daffy fantasy adventure.
Glasgow; ABC Sauchiehall Street. Edinburgh; ABC. Strathclyde; Rialto
0 Hugo the Hippo (U) (William Feigenbaum, US, 1975) With the voices of Burl Ives, Robert Morley, Marie and Jimmy Osmond. 78 mins. Acceptable animated musical in which a young boy saves the life of a friendly Hippo in ancient Zanzibar. Edinburgh; Filmhouse
O Hunger (15) (Henning Carlsen, Denmark, 1966) Per Oscarsson,
Gunnel Lindblom. 112 mins. Oscarsson on strong form as the
impecunious would-be novelist bordering on the brink ofinsanity as poverty and failure reduce him to the status of a derelict chewing on paper and staggering through the streets of Kristiana. Impressive film version of the Knut Hamsun novel. Edinburgh;
Filmhouse
0 An lmpudent Girl(15) (Claude Miller, France, 1985) Charlotte Gainsbourg, Bernadette Lafont, Jean—Claude Brialy. 97 mins. An unofficial remake of Carson McCuller‘s A Member of the Wedding, this is an acutely observed and evocatively rounded portrait of all the awkwardness and self-inflicted agonies of female adolescence. A modest work of genuine charm with a smashing performance from Charlotte Gainsbourg. Glasgow; GFT
O lnteriors(15) (Woody Allen, US, 1978) Diane Keaton, Geraldine Page, Maureen Stapleton. 91mins. Husband leaves his wife of many years for another woman causing untold anguish for his nearest and dearest. Allen’s austere portrait of
10 The List 14- 27 November