FILM LIST
mins. Aspiring comedian and hopeful primetime star De Niro will stop at nothing to claim his fifteen minutes ofcelebrity. including kidnapping a Johnny Carson-style chat show host.
Devastating showbiz black comedy with superlatively contrasted performances from De Niro as the creepy no-hoper and an awesomely restrained Lewis as the Carson figure who is definitely not amused. Criminally undervalued on its initial release. Edinburgh: Filmhouse O Labyrinth (U) (Jim Henson. US. 1986) Jennifer Connelly. David Bowie. 101 mins. Angst-ridden teenage girl asks the Goblins to take away her babay brother. The Goblins duly oblige. but she has second thoughts and makes her way through Demon Dave‘s mysterious labyrinth to fetch the little brat back.
Occasionally inventive and fairly charming family film will please the kiddies. but parents will squirm at Bowie‘s haircut and his cataclysmically inept performance. Not as bad as one fears. though. Glasgow; Cinema. ()deon. Salon. Edinburgh; Odeon. Lothian; ABC. Strathclydc; ABC Greenock. ABC Kilmarnock. Kelburne. La Scala. Odeon Ayr. Odeon Hamilton
0 Legend (PG) (Ridley Scott. LJK. 1985) Tom Cruise. Mia Sara. Tim Curry. 93 mins. Wildly self-indulgent fairytale in which Good and Evil clash once more. Pretty pictures help to distract the eye but nothing can stop the mind picking over the bare bones of a shambolic narrative. Crlasgow: GET 0 The Magic Donkey ( I’euu 1) Hire) (U) (Jacques Demy. France. I97l) Catherine Deneuve. Jean Marais. Delphine Seyrig. 90 mins. ()pulent adaptation ofthe Perrault fairytale in which a widowed King vows to marry a beautiful Princess who also happens to be his daughter. A Fairy Godmother and a handsome Prince are around to ensure a happy ending. A little slow moving but quite charming and ideal Christmas viewing. Edinburgh: French Institute 0 The Magic Box (U) (John Boulting. UK. 1951) Robert Donat. Laurence Olivier. Michael Redgrave etc. 118 mins Festival of Britain-inspired biography of forgotten cinema pioneer William Friese-(ireene. A star-spotter‘s paradise as a host of British worthies line up for their cough and spit contributions bttt the wonderfully mellifluous Donat gives the piece conviction attd cohesion and Jack Cardiff‘s photography adds distinction. Asentimental pageant-like tribute with the odd truly magical moment. Edinburgh; Filmhouse o The Man With Two Brains ( 15) (Carl Reiner. US. 1983) Steve Martin. Kathleen Turner. David Warner. 93 mins. Zany Martin-Reiner romp in which the great man plays a brilliant brain surgeon driven to the depths of frustrated despair when he weds Turner. a man-hungry murderess with a penchant for driving elderly husbands to early graves attd ’pocketing their legacies. Deliriously delightful. Glasgow; GF'I‘
0 Mean Streetst 18) (Martin Scorsese. CS. 1973) Ilarvey Keitel. Robert De Niro. David I’roval. 111) mins. 'I'ony‘s Bar is the base for fottr young Italian Americans. whose increasingly illegal activities lead to tragic events. Vividly observed character study which combines breathtaking technique with a pervasive sense of corruption. Keitel and De .\'iro excel. Edinburgh: Filmhouse
0 Men ( 15) (Doris Dorrie. West (iermany. I985) lleiner Lauetrbach. L'we ()chsenknecht. Ulrike Kriener. 99 mitts. Droll (ierman production 111 which a complacent. philandering middle-class businessman reacts to his wife’s infidelity by secretly moving in with her hippy lover and attempting to transform the man ittto a carbon copy of himself.
A mildly mirthful. entertainingly
performed comedy of manners.
Glasgow: (iFI'
0 Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence ( 15) (Nagisa ()shima. UK-Japan. 1982) David Bowie. Ryuchi Sakamoto. 'I'om Conti. 123 mins. Bowie. in one of his better cinema incarnations. is the British soldier trying to find sotne common humanin with his captors in a World War Two .lapanese prison catttp. (ilasgow; (iI’I'
0 Mirror ( U) (Andrei 'I'arkovsky. USSR. 1975) 'I'arkivsky‘s‘ most impenetrable riddle thus far. an elegiac meditation on memory and childhood sedulously pieced together in fragmentary style. I lard going at times. but moments of sheerly poetic pictorial intensity show one of the cinema‘s great artists at work. (ilasgow; (iI’l~
0 The Mission (PG) :1: (Roland Joffe. L'K. 198(1) Robert De Niro. Jeremy Irons. Ray McAnally. 125 mins. See Caption Review. (ilasgow: ABC
THE MISSION
The Mission (PG) (Roland Joffé, UK, 1986) Jeremy Irons, Robert De Niro, Ray McAnally. 125 mins. Atterwhat seems an age, this year's winner of the Palme d’0r at Cannes is finally with us. A British film to rank with the best of Europe, or rather, given its operatic nature. beating them attheir own game, and one which trumpets the arrival of an accomplished director at the vanguard of European film making. Essentially a portrayal of the clash betwen the spiritual and the temporal, between the politics of the church and the state, it shows the damage done to the individuals caught up in the struggle. In 18th century South
America, Irons and De him play Jesuit -
priests, the latter a reformed mercenary, involved in setting up a mission in the depths ofthe Amazon jungle. Unfortunately, its location is on territory disputed over by Portugal and Spain, so Papal Prelate Ray McAnally travels to the area to pass judgement. His decision though, has already been formed by the pressures of European power politics, and the ramifications do not look good for the committed
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; :1 ‘ priests and the natives in their care.
At once a study of male friendship and an exploration of man's capability for the noblest altruism and the most treacherous selfishness it’s a film on a huge canvas which takes in both private intimacies and polticaf and spiritual conflicts. Director Roland Joflé displays an unerring eye for a resonant image (the crucified missionary descending the great waterfall (in the opening sequence) and a telling detail such as the look of shamed anguish on McAnally’s face afterthe final credits.
Blessed with a quite overpowering Ennio Morlcone score and the delicately entrancing views of Chris Menges‘ photography, with Robert Bolt’s assured and compactly articulate screenplay flawlessly delivered by a capable cast, particularlythe lugubriously tortured McAnally, our complete involvement is ensured all the way through as the film builds to a spectacular and vastly affecting climax. A grand film of depth and force, it is quite essential viewing. (Trevor Johnston)
Sauchiehall Street. Edinburgh; ABCl o Mona Lisa ( 18) (Neil Jordan. UK. 1986) Bob Hoskins. Cathy Tyson, Michael Caine. 104 mins. The excellent Bob Hoskins is a naive ex-con charging through Soho to rescue a damsel in distress. Brilliantly acted British poetic realism with an affecting emotional punch. Glasgow; ABC Clarkston. Lothian; ABC. Strathclyde; ABC (ireenock 0 Murder by Contract (PG) (Irving Lerner. US. 1958) Vince Edwards. Philip Pine. 81 mins. A hired killer is unable to go through with one of his contracts and is shot down by police. Stylish. low-budget suspenser with expressive street atmosphere. Cited by Martin Scorsese as a major influence and shown as part of the Scorsese season. Edinburgh; Filmhouse 0 New YorkNew York(P(i) (Martin Scorsese. CS. 1977) Robert De Niro. Liza Minnelli. 163 mins. Scorsese revisits the golden age of the studio musical with this elaborate personal drama. The seductive surface is redolent of the A Star is Born era. bttt underneath the Big Band nostalgia there lurks a characteristically bitter struggle between ill-matched individuals as saxophonist De Niro and torchsinger Minnelli slug it out through a marriage doomed to failure by conflicting demands. clashing egos and the perils of unshared celebrity. The Happy Endings number is a show-stopper in the old tradition. Edinburgh; Filmhouse o Parting Glances ( 15) it» (Bill Sherwood. US. 1985) Richard (ianoung. John Bolger. Steve Buscemi. Adatn Nathan. 90 mins. See Caption Review. Glasgow; GET 0 Peeping Tom (18) (Michael Powell. UK. 1961)) Carl Boehm. Moira Shearer. Anna Massey. 109 mins. Reviled on its initial release. this Michael Powell film about a young man who kills women with a camera is now regarded as one of the most adult works ever to come out of the English film industry. A brilliant dissection of the cinema as voyeurism and an exploration of the aggressive implications of the act of looking. Recommended. Edinburgh; Filmhouse 0 Pirates (PG) fir (Roman Polanski. France. 1986) Walter Matthau. Cris Campion. 124 mins. Two buccaneers marooned in mid-ocean come across a Spanish galleon which they proceed to capture by stirring up a mutiny. and then carry on a life of kidnapping on the high seas. Polanski‘s first film since Tess is a real disappointment. A much too frenetic chain of episodic piratical events and grossly enthusiastic over-acting ends up alienating the rather overpowered viewer. Presumably Polanski thinks it’s funny even if nobody else does. 0 The Quiet Earth ( 15) (Geoff Murphy. New Zealand. 1985) Bruno Lawrence. 91 mins. A scientist wakes up one morning to find himself the last man on Earth after the science project on which he had been working has gone disastrously wrong.
“The List 12 Dec— 8Jan