FILM LIST
wom‘an’s politicisation amid the ruins ofthe military regime in Argentina. A powerful, deeply-felt drama. Strathclyde; Haldane Film Society. 0 Onibada (Kaneto Shindo, Japan, 1964) 105 mins. Allegedly a stylish medieval horror comic set entirely within a forest of tall reeds by a river where two penniless women murder strangers for their clothing. Their comeuppance arrives via lust and jealousy, you know the sort of thing. Edinburgh; Edinburgh Film Guild 0 Paris, Texas (15) (Wim Wenders. US/W Germany, 1984) Harry Dean Stanton, Nastassja Kinski, Hunter Carson. 144 mins. Missing for four years, middle-aged loner Travis turns up in the Texan outback, and is later reunited with his son. The two embark on a trek across America to find his estranged wife, the young boy’s mother. The coolly dislocating visual sense of Wim Wenders combines with playwright Sam Shepherd‘s version of America’s desolate and seedy heartlands to produce a fine story of personal alienation. Glasgow; GFT o Passing Glory (PG) (Gillies Mackinnon, UK, 1986) 40mins (approx) Acclaimed student film and winner of the first Scottish Film Prize, this centres on the funeral arrangements for a Spanish Civil War veteran. Everything about the event is a betrayal of her beliefs and life‘s work until her granddaughter intervenes to restore dignity and integrity. Part of an excellent double-bill. Edinburgh; Filmhouse 4» Peppermint Freedom(PG) (Martine Rosenbaum, W. Germany, 1982) Saskia Tyroller, Peter Fonda. 112 mins. Rosenbaum‘s award-winning debut offers a perceptive and entertaining child’s eye view of the world in Germany between 1943 and. 1950. Agreeably highlighting the absurdity of the adult world this emerges as a profound anti-war statement and charms the viewer into submission. Edinburgh; EUFS o Poltergeist II—The Other Side (15) (Brian Gibson, US, 1986) Jobeth Williams, Craig T. Nelson. 93 mins. The long-suffering family from Tobe Hooper’s spirited 1982 original are again buried by a plethora of special effects in this turgid sequel. Glasgow; Cinema. Strathclyde; Kelburne 0 Psycho III (18) 1‘: (Anthony Perkins, US, 1986) Anthony Perkins, Jeff Fahey, Diana Scarwid.
93 mins. See Caption Review. Glasgow; ABC Sauchiehall Street.
Lothian; ABC. Strathclyde; ABC Greenock. ABC Kilmarnock O Ran (15) (Akira Kurosawa. J apan-France. 1985) Tatsuya Nakadai, Meiko Harada. Peter. 162 mins. Kurosawa‘s King Lear is a bleak and despairing vision of mankind rent asunder by division. disunity. personal vengeances and family feuds that produce no honour. no victors, just victims. An accomplished fusion of Japanese history and blood-drenched Shakespearean drama, the film grows more impressive with repeated viewings. Glasgow;GF'l"
TROUBLE IN MIND
Trouble in Mind (15) (Allan Rudolph, US, 1986) Kris Kristotterson, Keith Carradine, Genevieve Buiold, Lori Singer, Divine. 112 mins. The most exhilarating lilms are always those which exceed your expectations and foster a sense of discovery. When the expectations themselves are high, aroused in this case by Rudolph’s last tilm the splendid yet underrated Choose Me, yet linally turn out to be dwarfed by the pleasure elicited by the final product, then you know you are in the presence oi a very special lilm-maker. Remember his name: Allan Rudolph.
His lilm’s strategy is to blend diverse genres or echoes of genres into something tresh and exciting. Hawk (Kristotlerson) evokes the displaced hero oi the post-Mann Western, a good man trying to exist in a centre of moral decay as he battles with the ghosts of his past (an ex-cop, he has just been released from prison alter shooting a local gangster; Coop and Georgia (Carradine and Singer) are the rural innocents at large in the big bad city oi many a road-to-ruin story; calé proprietress Wanda (Buiold) has the
O Repo Man (18) (Alex Cox, US. 1984) Emilio Estevez, Harry Dean Stanton. 92 mins. Bored LA punk takes up a job as a repo man (one who re-possesses cars for finance companies) and an old hand shows him the ropes. They find themselves on the trail of a vehicle with
something decidedly odd in the boot.
Deserved cult favourite. Edinburgh; Filmhouse
0 The Riveter (PG) (Michael Caton Jones. UK. 1986) 40 mins (approx) Bittersweet. insightful drama about the relationship between a teenage boy and his father, an unemployed shipyard worker. Highly praised student work from Caton-Jones currently filming Brand in Glasgow. Edinburgh; Filmhouse
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 version of Forster‘s sunny comedy of manners. Edinburgh; DOminion. Strathclyde; ABC Kilmarnock
0 Rumble Fish ( 18) (Francrs Ford Coppola, US, 1983) Mickey Rourke,
... t. It
".5. Ls
fr
endearingly gritty strength of character of a ‘woman’s picture' heroine; and Hilly Blue (Divine), Rain City’s King of Crime, is an adorable Sydney Greenstreel parody. Together these characters whip up a sherbety mixture that one minute resonates with the romantic pessimism oi Forties Film Hoir and the next shines with the high-tech gloss at a sparsely ultra-modernist thriller, while always retaining the poetic of an unclassiliable yet deliantly coherent whole.
It’s visual jazz. A constantly roving camera prowls around, stalking beautifully composed and choreographed tableaux which buzz with the cinematic joy in orchestrating colour and movement that is the mark of a born movie director. A spiralling storyline twists and turns, threatens at any moment to fall apart, yet surprises itself and the viewer with its own giddy dexterity. For the way in which it continually avoids cliche whilst teasingly awakening memories ot past pleasures, it’s a dream of a lllm. Probably the year's best, lcan’t wait to see it again. (TrevorJohnston)
Matt Dillon, Diane Lane. 94 mins. Electrifying expressionist monochrome visuals grace an existensialist parable about the need to forge one‘s own identity and the alienation it can bring.
Glasgow: GET
0 Running Scared ( 15) 15! (Peter Hyams. US, 1986) Gregory Hines. Billy Crystal. Steven Bauer. 107 mins. Very familiar. buddy-buddy cop caper strongly reminiscent ofan old Starsky and Hutch episode. Our two heroes are Chicago cops whose greatest weapons are a hip sense of humour and the desire not to get hurt. After sixteen years on the force they are tempted by the prospect of retirement to the sunny climes of Florida’s Key West. However. they decide to bow out in a moment of glory.
Overlong and unexcitingly scripted, Running Scared is efficiently directed, makes some nice use of locations and does boast the infectious camaraderie of the Hines-Crystal partnership who do their best to enliven the proceedings. Otherwise this is factory-fodder. leave your brain at home escapism.
Glasgow; ABC Sauchiehall Street. Edinburgh; Odeon. Lothian; ABC. Strathclyde; ABC Greenock. ABC Kilmarnock
o Ruthless People (18) (Jim Abrahams. David and Jerry Zucker. US. 1986) Danny De Vito, Bette Midler. Judge Reinhold. 94 mins. Insultineg unfunny satire on contemporary greed. or something. has spandex mini-skirt king De Vito lose his wife Midler to inept kidnappers. which is just what he has been planning anyway. lrritatingly acted, sluggishly directed celluloid atrocity with an inert and wearisome scn'pt. Witless People might be a better description for the brain-death brigade involved — both film-makers and audience.
Glasgow: Odeon. Edinburgh; Odeon. Lothian; ABC. Strathclyde; ABC Greenock. ABC Kilmarnock, La Scala, ()deon Ayr
0 Sid and Nancy (18) (Alex Coz, UK. 1986) Gary Oldman, Chloe Webb, David Hayman. 110 mins. The story 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 days in New York’s Chelsea Hotel and a losing battle with the big H.
For the most part a breathlessly enjoyable biopic. Sid and Nancy gets bogged down in an interminable last half-hour. Great performances though. Edinburgh; Cameo
O Stalker (PG) (Andrei Tarkovsky, USSRm 1979) Aleksandr Kaidanovsky, Anatoly Solonitsin. 161 mins. Somewhere in the future, The Zone is a vast rural area prohibited to the public. at the centre ofwhich is The Room. where visitors have revealed to them the path to their innermost desires. Three intrepid pilgrims investigate. Another reflective sci-fi movie in the manner of his earlier Solaris, Tarkovsky‘s bleached-out quest for enlightenment proves hollow in its result and so offers a victory for reassuring rationalism. Glasgow; GET 0 Stardust Memories( 15) (Woody Allen, US, 1980) Woody Allen, Charlotte Rampling, Jessica Harper. 88 mins. Allen strays into Fellini territory as a world famous filmmaker intent on more serious work but unable to disassociate himself from the frivolous comedies that made his reputation. Very personal and rather bitter this is hardly an endearing film but probably a necessary conduit to later glories and thus a pardonable offence. Glasgow; GET 0 Static (15) i? (Mark Romanek, US, 1985) Keith Gordon, Amanda Plummer. 88 mins. An alienated young man is fired from his job at a religious artefacts factory and spends his time working on a revolutionary invention — a TV screen which will show a live picture of heaven. Strange and beguiling American Independent with a great eye for bizarre detail (the deformed plastic crucifixes which populate the protagonist’s walls, for example) and a splendidly deranged performance from co-scenarist Keith Gordon
12 The List 14- 27 November