FiLM LIST
cross-generational drama featuring some captivating performances. Glasgow; OFF
0 Hellraiser(18) (Clive Barker. UK. 1987) Andy Robinson. Claire Higgins. Ashley Laurence. 92 mins. A horror picture with a well-contructed plot. strong characters. haunting images and special effects that actually serve the storyline. Minor blemishes along the way. but an auspicious debut from horror writer Clive Barker. Lothian; Cannon. Strathclyde; Cannon. Odeon Ayr
o The Holy Innocents ( 15 ) (Mario
Camus. Spain. 1984) Alfredo Landa.
Terele Avez. 105 mins. In a remote and impoverished corner of south-western Spain in the 1960s. two poor farmworkers struggle to bring up their four children. with a mentally-retarded baby girl and a backward eldest son proving especially trying.
An uneven but scathing indictment ofthe Franco regime. Glasgow; GET
0 Hope and Glory ( 15) a (John Boorman. UK. 1987) Sarah Miles. David Hayman. lan Bannen. 112 mins. See panel. Edinburgh; Odeon o Intolerance ( l5) (D.w. Griffith. US. 1916) Lillian Gish. Mae Marsh. Bessie Love. 160mins. Griffith‘s dauntingly ambitious silent epic. sub-titled ‘Love's Struggle Through the Ages‘. delivers a sentimental. moralising sermon on man‘s inhumanity to man by breathtakingly interlocking four stories ofintolerance from Biblical times to the present century. A commercial failure in its day. the dazzling editing techniques and monumental Babylonian sets still impress. Glasgow; GFI‘
0 Jean de Florette (PG) a (Claude Berri. France. 1986) Yves Montand. Gerard Depardieu. Daniel Auteuil. Elisabeth Depardieu. 122 mins. See panel. Glasgow; GFI‘
O The Jerk ( 15) (Carl Reiner. US. 1979) Steve Martin. Bernadette Peters. 94 mins. Martin's feature debut is really for diehard fans only as he portrays a simple country boy made good through an amazingly successful invention. Glasgow; GFT
0 Jewel of the Nile (PG) (Lewis Teague. US. 1985) Kathleen Turner. Michael Douglas. Danny de Vito. 108 mins. ()verlong. mechanical sequel-by-numbers to the altogether more enjoyable Romancing the Stone. De Vito supplies the lame comic reliefand even the considerable charisma and chemistry of the Turner-Douglas double-act cannot overcome the deadening obstacles of a tired and contrived narrative and lazy direction. Edinburgh; Filmhouse
0 Key Largo (PG) (John Huston. US. 1948) Humphrey Bogart. Lauren Bacall. Edward G. Robinson. 101 mins. A group ofdisparate individuals are trapped by a once-powerful gangster in an isolated hotel on a Florida Key. First-rate meolodrama. tautly directed by Huston and made memorable by a gallery of skilfully—etched characters — Claire Trevor‘s alcoholic moll. capable of
— THE NIGHT IS YOUNG
The Night Is Young (Mauvais Sang) (15) (Leos Carax, France, 1986) With only his second feature film. 26 year-old Leos Carax eloquently confirms the potential glimpsed in his moody directorial debut Boy Meets Girl. The Night is Young, winner of several European prizes, is a stunningly crafted work in which his skills explode in firework letters across the screen.
The plot is not one of the film‘s great strengths and Carax clearly places greater emphasis on qualities other than traditional. clean cut narrative drive. Alex is an elf-like. wild child of the streets. a petty thief who prefers his own company and owes the world nothing. When his father dies under the wheels of the Paris Metro, Alex finds sanctuary with two of his criminal associates. Hans and Marc are plotting the theft of a serum that combats STBO. a virulentAlDS-like virus that strikes down insincere lovers. A rival gang. led by a sinister American dowager, are also in pursuit of the serum. Alex is caught in the middle oftheir machinations but his real interest lies in Anna, Marc’s hauntingly beautiful girlfriend.
Whilst never directly mimicking voices from the past, The Night is Young evokes little pieces of time and mood from our collective cinema legacy. The tenor ofthe film is reminiscent of the dour romanticism of pre-war French cinema. the dazzling virtuosity and abandon of Carax's framing and pellucid imagery recalls the New Wave of the 60s and specifically Godard whilst the film‘s emotional purity and intensity dates back to the silent era of Buster Keaton and Lillian Gish.
A film of many influences that some will unhesitatingly label pretentious nonsense. The Night is Young shines with the director's instinctive deployment of the grammar and composition of a truly cinematic vocabulary. His sense of colour and movement, affection for his ragamuffin characters and sheer exuberant belief in the power of visual imagery are both exhilarating and intoxicating. The vigorous splendours of his youthful vision make you forgive the film's flaws and underlines once more his status as one of the French cinema‘s most promising directors. (Allan Hunter)
any degradation for the promise of a drink. Robinson‘s brutal bigshot and Bogart‘s disillusioned war veteran who can only be pushed so far. A classic. Edinburgh; Cameo
0 La Bamba(15)(l.uis Valdez. US. 1987) Lou Diamond Phillips. lisai Morales. Rosano de Soto. 110 mins.
Conventional but winning biography
ofmigrant fruit-picker Ricardo Valenzuela who strapped on a guitar and found brief rock ‘n‘ roll fame as Ritchie Valens. Events appear to have been romanticised but the conviction of the enterprise is unmistakeable and the Los Lobos soundtrack is stunning. Glasgow; Cannon Clarkston Road. Cannon Sauchiehall Street. Lothian; Cannon. Strathclyde; Cannon. ()deon Hamilton
0 Labyrinth (PG) (Jim Henson. US. 1986) David Bowie. Jennifer Connelly. 101 mins. Angst-ridden teenage girl asks the goblins to make off with her baby brother. The Goblins duly oblige but she has second thoughts and makes her way through Demon Dave‘s mysterious
I !
labyrinth to fetch the little brat back. ()ccasionally inventive and fairly charming family film will please the kiddies. but parents will squirm at Bowie's haricut and his cataclysmically inept performance. Not as bad as one fears though. Edinburgh; Filmhouse o The Last Metro (PG) (Francois Truffaut. France. 1980) Catherine Deneuve. Gerard Depardieu. 131 mins. Elegant. romantic-hued
nostalgia as actress Deneuve decides
that the show must go on for her husband's plucky troupe of thespians despite the occupation of Paris by
the Nazis. Charming. stylish but very '.
slight. Edinburgh; Filmhouse
0 Lethal Weapon ( 18) (Richard [)onner. US. 1987) Mel Gibson. Danny Glover. Gary Busey. 109 mins. Gibson is a young widower whose grief has turned him virtually psycotic. Now intent on cleaning the streets ofscum regardless of the personal hazards he is almost as dangerous as the bad guys. Glover. middle-aged. middle-class and a father of three. treads a mite more
conservatively. Together they warily join forces to fight a drugs ring run by ex-Vietnam mercenaries. Slick. violent formulaic buddy-cop adventure with a touch of humanity and sound performances. Glasgow; Cannon Sauchiehall Street. Edinburgh; Cannon
0 Liquid Sky( 18) (Slava Tsukerman. US. 1983) Susan Doukas. Anne Carlisle. Bob Brady. 112 mins. Bizarre. tacky underground feature in which a lesbian punk finds her Manhattan apartment invaded by UFOs. Wonderful if you happened to be stoned out of your mind at the time otherwise find any excuse not to go. Edinburgh; EUFS
o The Living Daylights (PG) (John Glen. UK. 1987) Timothy Dalton. Maryam d'Abo. Jeroen Krabbe. 130 mins. llighlycreditable 007 adventure with Dalton‘s slightly humourless presence serving to reinvigorate the series and bring Bond back to basics as he combats an unholy alliance between a Russian traitor. a ruthless assassin and a power-crazed arms dealer. Edinburgh; Dominion
o Lumiere d’Eté (PG) (Jean Gremillon. France. 1942) Paul Bernard. Pierre Brasseur. Madeleine Renaud. 108 mins. The second in this rare Gremillon season concerns a member of the aristocracy enslaved by his own wilful passions. Edinburgh; French Institute
0 The Maltese Falcon (PG) (John Huston. US. 1941) Humphrey Bogart. Mary Astor. Sidney Greenstreet. Peter Lorre. 100 mins. Bogey in peak form as Dashiell Hammett‘s gumshoe Sam Spade. unwittingly involved with an alluring but treacherous redhead and a rum cove ofcharacters in search of the elusive jewel-encrusted blackbird containing the kind ofwealth that dreams are made on. Cracking. peerless detective classic. Huston‘s unforgettable directorial debut. Edinburgh; Cameo
o The Man from Maiorca(15) a (Bo Widerberg. Sweden/Denmark. 1984) Sven Wollter. Tomas von Bromssen. HakanSerber. 105 mins. Investigating a particularly audacious post office robbery. two plainclothes detectives find the trail leads them into an intricate expose of criminal activity at the heart oftheir own government. Routine but effective thriller with a political dimension. fine direction and a good eye for detail. Edinburgh; Filmhouse
o The Man With Two Brains (15) (Carl Reiner. US. 1983) Steve Martin. Katheleen Turner. David Warner. 93 mins. Zany Martin-Reiner romp in which the great man plays a brilliant brain surgeon driven to the depths of despair when he weds Turner. a man-hungry murderess with a penchant for driving elderly husbands to early graves and pocketing their legacies. Deliriously delightful. Glasgow; GET
0 Manhattan ( 15) (Woody Allen. US. 1979) Woody Allen. Diane Keaton. Mariel Hemingway. 96 mins. Woody wanders through the female jungle of New York in search of a perfect J
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