FILM LIST
revenge. In part one Depardieu’s indomitable hunchback struggles against impossible odds to make a success ofhis inherited farmland unaware that his apparently friendly neighbours are secretly planning to drive him from his land and acqure the rights to a valuable source of water.
Beautifully photographed with flawless performances. a towering tribute to the highest aspirations of traditional French storytelling. Glasgow: GFT. Edinburgh; Filmhouse o The Killers (15) (Don Siegel. US. 1964) Lee Marvin. Ronald Reagan. Angie Dickinson. 95 mins. Routine remake of the classic 40s' film noir in which two inquisitive hit men piece together the past life of their current victim and try to comprehend why he was to resigned to the inevitability of death. Ronnie as a brutal criminal mastermind gives his last film performance to date. Edinburgh; Cameo 0 La Bamba ( 15) (Luis Valdez. US. 1987) Lou Diamond Phillips. Esai Morales. Rosana de Soto. 110 mins. Conventional but winning biography ofmigrant fruitpicker Ricardo Valenzuela who strapped on a guitar and found briefrock ‘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 Sauchiehall Street. Edinburgh; Odeon. Lothian; Cannon. Strathclyde; Cannon. Odeon Hamilton
0 The Lacemaker (PG) (Claude Goretta. France. 1977) Isabelle Huppert. Yves Bencyton. 110 mins. Tender. exquisite portrait ofa sensitive young woman‘s exposure to the pain and heartbreak ofan unsuccessful romance. Edinburgh; EUFS
o The Leopard (PG) ( Luchino Visconti. US-Italy. 1963) Burt Lancaster. Alain Delon. Claudia Cardinale. 185 mins. Beautiful grandiloquent family saga set against the unification of Italy in the 1860s. Lancaster is one of the old nobility. wearied by age and the changing world. testin adapting to the new era. Edinburgh; Cameo
O Mala Noche(18) fr (Gus Van Sant, US. 1985) Tim Streeter. Doug Cooeyate. Ray Monge. 78 mins. Dingy. dismal feature set in a rain sodden Portland. Oregon. detailing a young man‘s dangerous infatuation with a sixteen year-old illegal immigrant from Mexico. The young lad is definitely not interested but the pursuit continues. . . Glasgow; GET
0 The Man From Majorca (!5) (Bo Widerberg. Sweden-Denmark, 1984) Sven Wollter. Tomas von Bromssen. Hakan Serber. 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, serviceable direction and a good eye for detail. Edinburgh; Filmhouse
The Horse Thief (15) (Tian Zhuangzhuang, China, 1986). 88 mins. The latest offering from China’s growing film industry to reach these parts is set in Tibet in 1923, and follows the fortunes of Norbu and his family against the bleak, wind-swept backdrop of that mountainous province. The film has been likened to the Western in general, and the work of John Ford in particular, in the way that landscape itself becomes an integral element of the film, a character in the ongoing drama.
Where it departs from that surface familiarity, at least for an audience reared on the Hollywood genre, is in its palpable lack of not only action, but even any very clearly defined plot lines. Norbu rides out at night with his friend Nowre to steal horses from wandering nomads in order to maintain his wife and child in their poverty stricken village; his stealing earns him the contempt of the village and ultimately, after they rob temple
0 Mannequin (PG) (Michael Gottlieb, US, 1987) Andrew McCarthy, Kim Cattrall. 90 mins. lnane screwball comedy with window dresser McCarthy in lurve with a beautiful dummy who comes alive for his eyes only. Corny or what? Edinburgh; Odeon
o Mosquito Coast (PG) (Peter Weir. US, 1986) Harrison Ford. Helen Mirren, River Phoenix. 119 mins. A black-edged reworking of the Swiss Family Robinson as Ford‘s know-it-all inventor forsakes the decline ofWestern civilisation for the jungles of South America. Intermittently fascinating utopian parable. Edinburgh; Cameo
o The Never Ending Story (U) (Wolfgang Petersen. W. Germany, 1984) Noah Hathaway. Patricia Hayes. 92 mins. Ten year—old Bastian, an inveterate dayreamer and bookworm, uncovers a special volume that allows him to escape from all his problems in a flight of fantasy. Edinburgh; Filmhouse
o The Night Is Young (15) (Leos Carax. France. 1986) Denis Lavant, Juliette Binoche, Michel Piccoli. 109 mins. Never mind the rather silly
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attendants, expulsion from the tribe. His child dies; another is born; the region’s livestock is visited by plague; Norbu eventually slaughters a sacred ram and is hunted by the outraged villagers, when he makes a final, hopeless sacrifice to save his family. This episodic narrative unfolds its strange journey at a deliberate pace, allowing the real focus of the film to emerge. It is the rites and rituals of the people - prayer drums, ‘sky burials’, sacred burial grounds, religious observances-which lie at the heart of the film, an almost anthropological lingering over the specifics of the culture (seen as a political statement in China, where it has had only limited exposure) which is foreign to the demands of the genre it ostensibly resembles. Tibet itself proves to be the real star of the film, and it is the constant struggle for survival with the inhospitable, unforgiving land which provides whatever dramatic impetus it possesses. (Kenny Mathieson)
plot (rival gangs in pursuit of the serum to an AIDS-like virus) but delight in the young director‘s exuberant sense ofcinema. His feeling for colour and movement, affection for his ragamuffin lovers and sheer belief in the power of visual imagery to captivate the audience are both exilarating and intoxicating. Pretentious maybe but here‘s one promising director who announces his talent in firework letters. Edinburgh; Filmhouse
0 Nightmare on Elm Street ( 18) (Wes Craven. US. 1984) John Saxon, Ronee Blakely. 92 mins. Best ofthe series as nasty Freddy rips his way into teenagers’ dreams and disturbs their slumber with threats of death and mutilation. Edinburgh; Cannon 0 Nightmare on Elm Street ll: Freddy’s Revenge (18) (Jack Sholder, US. 1985) Mark Patton, Kim Myers. 85 mins. Unnecessary follow-up with new tenants in 1428 Elm Street once more prey to the long arm of Freddy‘s feelers. Edinburgh; Cannon
0 9% Weeks ( 18) (Adrian Lyne, US, 1985) Mickey Rourke, Kim Basinger. 113 mins. Divorcée
Basinger becomes a slave to love when she succumbs to the (well-disguised) charms of smug commodities broker Rourke. Empty-headed designer bonking. Glasgow; Grosvenor. Edinburgh; Cameo O The Offence ( 18) (Sidney Lumet, UK, 1972) Sean Connery. Ian Bannen, Trevor Howard. 112 mins. Connery in riveting form as an overworkd. sock-to-the-stomach policeman who finally cracks, mercilessly taunting and beating a suspected child molester. Intense, provocative drama with excellent work from Bannen as the suspect. Glasgow; GFT 0 Once Upon A Time In America (18) (Sergio Leone, US, 1983) Robert De Niro, James Woods, Tuesday Weld. 228 mins. Mammoth, vicious and lyrical gangster chronicle charing two childhood friends and their careers in organised crime. Strathclyde; Kelburne o Outland (15) (Peter Hyams, US, 1981) Sean Connery, Frances Sternhagen, Peter Boyle. 109 mins. High Noon in outer space as solitary incorruptible space marshal Sean discovers corruption on an outer space mining camp and decides to act. Glasgow; GET 0 Outrageous Fortune (15) (Arthur Hiller, US. 1987) Bette Midler. Peter Coyote. Shelley Long. 99 'mins. Feuding. fussing thespians Long and Midler team up to exact revenge on the boyfriend that done them both wrong only to discover that the jerk is a CIA turncoat holding the country to ransom with the stolen prototype of a deadly virus that could destroy all of California. Chased by the CIA, the KGB. the boyfriend, Indians etc. our intrepid gals ultimately wind up the best of chums.
Dumb, bland horribly overplotted cartoon ofa farce that even Midler lovers may find hard to endure. Glasgow; Odeon. Edinburgh; Odeon. Strathclyde; Odeon Hamilton 0 A Passage to India (PG) (David Lean, UK. 1984) Judy Davis, Peggy Ashcroft, James Fox. 163 mins. Characteristically overblown latterday Lean as a young English girl in search ofthe ‘real India’ finds her life in turmoil. Strathclyde; Odeon Ayr 0 Pee Wee’s Big Adventure (U ) (Tim Burton. US, 1985) Pee Wee Herman, Morgan Fairchild, James Brolin. 92 mins. Enjoyable puerile comic cuts as cult comedian Pee Wee crosses America in search of his
stolen bicycle. Somehow more appealing to knowing adults than the kids though. Edinburgh; Filmhouse
o Pennies from Heaven (15) (Herbert Ross, US. 1981) Steve Martin, Bernadette Peters, Jessica Harper. 108 mins. Dennis Potter’s acclaimed BBC series becomes a big budget spectacular with Steve Martin as a sheet music salesman in Depression-era Chicago searching for sexual and spiritual silver linings. Stodgy patches are more than made up for by some breathtaking Thirties-style production numbers
14 The List 16 — 29 October