FILM LIST
I This section aims to provide a review at every film to be seen in central Scotland over the next lortnight. For programme times see individual cinema listings.
(U)- Universal, suitable torall ages.
(PG) - Parental Guidance suggested as some scenes may be unsuitable toryounger children.
(15)- No one underthe age ol15admitted. (18)- No one underthe age oi18admitted. a. New Release.
IAlmost You ( 15) (Adam Brooks. US. 1984) Brooke Adams. Griffin Dunne. Karen Young. 97 mins. Mild. muddled yuppie romantic comedy with Dunne using his wife‘s hospitalization to sort out his priorities. both romantic and professional. Rather underwhelming. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I The Arabian Nights ( 18) (Pier Paolo Pasolini. Italy. 1974) Ninetto Davoli. Ines Pellegrini. France Citti. 130 mins. The last of Pasolini‘s medieval trilogy recounts several of the Thousand and ()ne nights stories framed by the tale of a slave girl who becomes ‘king‘ of a great city. Liberal doses ofsex, violence and anti-establishment blasphemy. Edinburgh: Cameo.
I Baby Boom (PG) (Charles Shyer. US. 1987) Diane Keaton. Sam Shepard. Harold Ramis. 111 mins. Fast rising. single-minded career woman Keaton is stopped in her tracks by the inheritance of a bouncing baby through the unfortunate demise of a cousin. Choosing to mother the little mite. she ditches job and lovcrto move to the dubious delights ofrustic contentment in Vermont. Brought down to earth by boredom and sexual frustration. her capitalistic juices flow again with the development ofgourmet baby food and she tries anew to have a career. child and lover.
An intriguing premise for a modern feminist reworking of Frank Capra is largely squandered in this thoroughly predictable and rather icky damp squib of acomedy. Central: Cannon. Strathclyde: Odeon Ayr. Rialto.
I Babette's Feast (L') a (Gabriel Axel. Denmark. 1987) Stephane Audran. Jean-Philippe Lafont. Gudmar Wivesson. 103 mins. See panel. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Back to the Future (PG) (Robert Zemeckis. US. 1985) Michael J. Fox. Lea Thompson. Crispin Glover. 116 mins. Deservedly popular time-travelling fantasy adventure with streetsmart 8(ls‘ teenager whisked back in time for a little chicanery with his future parents. Strathclyde: Rialto.
I Batteries Not Included (PG) (Matthew Robbins. US. 1987) llume (‘ronyn. Jessica 'I‘andy. Frank McRae. lilomins. Only one tenement stands between a
businessman and the construction ofhis latest brainchild. The desperate tenants having withstood bribes and threats of violence are now at the end of theirtether. One elderly couple pray for a miracle and are rewarded with the visit offriendly alien creatures who help them resist the menace of the property developers. Lacklustre Spielberg-produced adventure lacking imagination and originality. The visual effects are occasionally attractive and amusing but children are likely to grow restless pretty quickly. Glasgow: Cannon Sauchiehall Street. Edinburgh: Cannon. Central: Cannon. Strathclyde: Cannon. La Scala.
I The Believers ( 18) it (John Schlesinger. US. 1987) Martin Sheen. Ilelen Shaver. Robert Loggia. 113 mins. Followingthe death of his wife. psychiatrist Sheen and his son move to New York. Employed asa counsellor to unstable police officers. he becomes involved in a series ofchild murders that appear to be the work ofa modern-day religious sect practising voodoo and black magic.
Generally disparaged horror thriller that has been received by gaping mouths at the thought that talents like Sheen and Schlesinger could be involved in its perpetration. Others however. have found it ‘effectively scary and genuinely thought-provoking. Glasgow: Odeon.
I Betty Blue ( l8) (Jean-JacquesBeineix. France. 1986) Jean llughesAnglade.
Beatrice Dalle. 120 mins. Tempestuous love gone mad as an older handyman and a free spirited woman embark on a passionate. peripatetic fling that ends in tragedy. Filmed with a dazzling technique and an irritating emptiness by the maker of Diva. Glasgow: GFT. I The Big Chill (15) (Lawrence Kasdan. US. 1983) Glenn Close. Kevin Kline. William Hurt. 105 mins. A group of college friends from the Sixtiesare unexpectedly reunited at the funeral of one of their number who has committed suicide. During the weekend of friendship. fun and sex they reflect that yesterday all their troubles seemed so far away. Short on plot. the film is rich in sardonic humour. pertinent music and expert ensemble acting. Glasgow: Grosvenor. I The Big Parade is (15) (Chen Kiage. China. 1986) Wang Xueqi. Sun Chun. Lu Lei. 94 mins. Kaige's long-delayed second feature is a contemporary drama following the fate of four hundred volunteers embarking on one year‘s gruelling. intensive training to win a place in the troop parade across Peking'sTiananmen Square on National Day in 1984. Although altered to comply with PLA concern at its less than flattering image of the army. this has still been hailed as an ironic commentary on the issue of how far the ‘long march of Chinese history has actually progressed‘ and is a visually
THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING
The Unbearable Lightness ot Being (18) (Philip Kaufman, US, 1987) Daniel Day-Lewis, Juliette Binoche, Lena Olin. 180 mins. Perhaps the most remarkable aspect at this remarkable film is that anyone should have been loolhardy enough to attempt a cinema adaptation of Milan Kundera‘s complex novel in the tlrst place. That it should have come lrom Hollywood tends toward the surreal . . .
In the event, Philip Kaufman, whose equally mammoth The Right Stutt (also adapted irom a ‘ditticult' book) was one at the most undervalued iilms oi the decade, has pulled oil the teat triumphantly, aided by an excellent young cast. Daniel Day Lewis manages yet another seemingly complete physical transtormation tor the part oi Tomas, a womanising Czech surgeon who believes in the detachment of the physical and emotional aspects at his sexual relationships. He has a sympathetic occasional partner in Sabina (Dlin), a beautilul painter, but his tile is irrevocably altered when he goes to pertorm an operation in a small spa town, and meets Tereza (Binoche).
Their subsequent relationship, in
k which Tomas has to learn to abandon his treewheeling lormer existence, is set against the background of the crushing ot the Prague Spring by the Russian invasion ol1968, and the film makes a timely appearance lor the twentieth anniversary oi those events. Unusually tor an American production, Kautman makes no concessions to the demands at commercial cinema, caretully untolding his complex narrative at a pace more suited to a
European sensibility. The link between sex and power is implicit in the subtle merging of personal and political, but the film lingers in the memory lor its over-whelming eroticism (which is not the same as sex, although there is quite a lot of that), and its beautilully judged evocation ol Prague (gorgeously shot by Sven Nykvist, lngemar Bergman's cinematographer, in Lyon) at a crucial historical moment. (Kenny Mathieson)
The List 15-28 April 198813