FILM LIST
man‘s affection. Glossy. well-acted. misogynistic Hitchock-style thriller attracting more fuss and Oscar nominations than it merits. Glasgow: Cannon Sauchiehall Street.
I Flesh (18) (Andy Warhol/Paul Morrissey, US. 1968). Joe Dallessandro. 80 mins. Boasting more of a story line than many of the products of the warhol factory in the late 19605, Paul Morrissey‘s Flesh follows Joe Dallessandro as. um. Joe. in his weird and wonderful progress through the junk underworld. Part of the Prideand Prejudice season on the male body in the movies. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Flowers in the Attic (15) (Jeffrey Bloom. US. 1987) Louise Fletcher, Victoria Tennant, Kirsty Swanson. 92 mins. Locked in an attic by their down-atoheel widowed mother, two children are subjected to a reign of terror by their wicked granny. When their mama gains an inheritance the whole family should become fabulously rich. but will the kids live to see the money?
Absurd gothic farrago which incredibly botches Victoria Andrews’ already pretty hokcy bestseller. Glasgow: Cannon Sauchiehall Street. Grosvenor. Strathclyde: Odeon Hamilton. Odeon Ayr.
I Gallipoll (PG) (Peter Weir, Australia. 1981) Mark Lee, Mel Gibson, Bill Hunter. 111 mins. Peter Weir‘s epic account of the horrific massacre of ANZAC troops on the Turkish beach-head at Gallipoli during the first world war was cooly received on its initial release. but the film did achieve a certain emotional truth to flesh out its action sequences. The relationship between Lee and Gibson as two young men who journey on foot from Perth to join up is convincing, and stays the right side of sentimental. If its message on the waste of war is hardly new, it always bears re-stating. Part of the Desperately Seeking Cinema season. Glasgow: GFT. I Gardens at Stone (15) (Francis Coppola. US. 1987) James Caan. Angelica Huston , D.B.Sweeney. 111 mins. The Gardensof Stone are the headstones in the military cemetary at Arlington. Coppola‘s choice of location to make his second Vietnam movie. Caan is the hard-nosed Sargeant Hazard . who becomes the focus of a young soldier‘s admiration, but refuses to legitimise his desire for action in this particular war. Huston plays a journalist who becomes involved with Hazard. Disappointing from this director. Glasgow: GFT. I Hollywood Shuttle (15) (Robert Townsend. US, 1987). Robert Townsend. Anne-Marie Johnson. Starlette Dupois. 81 mins. Financed by Townsend‘s credit cards, the film stars the man himself as Bobby Taylor, a hot-dog vendor who dreams of stardom in Tinseltown, but in reality gets a role in the exploitative Jiveu'meJr'mmy's Revenge. Bobby finally has to face the choice of continuing to be a stereotype in the white dominated industry, or stand up for self-respect , in a film which confronts important issues with some wit. and. if far from perfect, one forgives its faults because it is pertinent. fresh, well-intentioned and frequently side-splitting. Glasgow: GFT. I Hour ol the Star (15) (Suzana Amarai. Brazil, 1985). 95 mins. An enigmatic and mysterious Brazilian film which reflects the tradition of magical realism prevalent in South American fiction and film-making. Edinburgh: EUFS. I Indie Song (15) (Marguerite Duras. France, 1974). Delphine Seyrig, Michael Lonsdale, Matthieu Carriere. 120 mins. Long. beautifully made, rather experimental adaptation of one of her own books by the noted French novelist , turned film-maker for the occasion. Edinburgh: French Institute. I The Last Emperor ( 15) (Bernardo Bertolucci, Italy/China, 1987) John Lone, Peter O’Toole. Joan Chen. 162 mins.
Peking, 1908, a three year-old boy ascends
ON THE BLACK HILL
On The Black Hill (15) (Andrew Grieve, UK, 1987) Mike Gwylim, Robert Gwyiim, Bob Peck, Gemma Jones. 117 mins. Andrew Grieve's visually rich adaptation ol Bruce Chatwin's novel about four generations of a Welsh larming lamily is a little too ambitious an undertaking to be judged a complete success. The vast narrative does not
condense well to the demands ol lilm, with the result that he is only able to sketch in the contours ol the complex story in a suggestive, episodic lashion, with little in the way of character development for all but the two figures at the heart at the lilm.
Those two, the twins Lewis and Benjamin Jones of The Vision, a hill
l farm on the Welsh-English border, are
the sons ol Amos and Mary Jones, and it is lundamentally their story. Their lather is an intelligent but sternly religious man. played rather unconvincineg by Bob Peck (although that may be partly the laull ol the synoptic narrative) who marries above his station, and dies embittered at the English and his neighbour, Watkins, with whom he has a senseless lite-long leud. The sons inherit and work the larm, and their intense relationship, at once sustaining and imprisoning, is portrayed in considerably more depth, and with greater conviction, than is allowed any other of the participants in this epic.
The symbiosis of their bond, which replaces marriage and children, is echoed in turn in their relationship with the land, and it is in Thaddeus O'Sullivan’s lustrous cinematography that the lilm linds its linest moments, and perhaps its genuine purpose. Unhappily, Grieve eventually seems to lose sight at that purpose, and the earlier locus on the importance of the land itsell is largely lorgotten in the human drama, as the twins lind an unexpected heir. Ordinarily, that should not be a criticism, but the lilm loses much of its momentum in the process. Nonetheless, although never quite seeming to resolve exactly what kind oi lilm it is trying to be, it throws up some splendid, memorable scenes, and is beautilully shot and constructed. (Kenny Mathieson)
to the Imperial Throne to become the ‘Lord of Ten Thousand Years’. A mere 59 years later, however. he dies a humble gardener in a China that is now the Maoist People‘s Republic.
Intelligent epic following the self-delusion and re-education of a man shaped by a superseded power structure. A little cold perhaps. but the production and cinematography are ofsuch exquisitness that one only wishes the film were longer. Glasgow: Odeon. Cannon Clarkston Road. Strathclyde: Odeon Ayr. Odeon Hamilton.
I Let's Hope lt'sAGirl (PG) (Mario Monicelli. Italy. 1986) Liv Ullmann. Phillipe Noiret. Catherine Deneuve. 121 mins. A delightful recent contribution to the Italian comedy season. in which a household of redoutable ladies. headed by Ullmann and Deneuve in uncharacteristically comic vein. prove that they don’t need a man in the house while fending off a procession of characters who would like to be just that. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Made in Heaven (PG) (Alan Rudolph. US. 1987) Timothy Hutton. Kelly McGillis. Debra Winger. 102 mins. Pennsylvania, 1948. Ex-serviceman Hutton is drowned whilst trying to rescue the victims of a car crash. Arriving in a cosy afterworld he learns that reincarnation awaits him as part ofthe natural cycle. Idling away the time. he meets McGillis and they fall helplesst in love. When she is dispatched to be reborn as the daughter of an Air Force sergeant-cum-toy manufacturer. he begs to follow her. A benevolent organiser permits him a new human frame and thirty years of life in which to track down histrue love, if she recognises him . . .
Charming. offbeat fantasy romance from a consistently underrated director. as a sympathetic cast enact a thoughtful and witty story about the pursuit of love and happiness. Glasgow: Film Theatre
I Manon Des Sources (PG) (Claude Berri. France/Italy. 1986) Yves Montand. Daniel Auteuil. Emmanuelle Beart. 114 mins. Ten years after the demise ofJean De Florette. the Soubeyrans now run a prosperous carnation farm. However. Jean's daughter has now grown into an alluring young woman and. through the twists of unpredictable fate. is able to wreak her revenge.
Steering this epic rural saga towards the realms of Greek tragedy. Manon is a full and satisfying second half that explores the suffering of the guilty as they paya crippling penance for man’s greed and envy. The production values are as high as ever and Auteuil assumes Depardicu‘s mantle as the human soul of this episode in his tragi-comic development from glaikit idiot to broken-hearted suitor. A stirring achievement. Glasgow: GFI‘.
I Midnight Express (18) (Alan Parker. UK. 1978) Brad Davis. Randy Quaid. John Hurt. 121 mins. Overlong but undeniably powerful catalogue of horrors from Alan Parker. Brad Davis plays Billy Hayes. an American student convicted of possession of drugs in Turkey. and jailed in the brutalising, inhuman prison system. Not for those oftender sensibilities. Edinburgh: Cameo.
I Moonstruck (PG) (Norman Jewison. US. 1987) Cher. Nicolas Cage. Olympia Dukakis. 1(Ximins. Thoroughly winning romantic comedy with Cher on Oscar-winning form as a dowdy young widow who accepts a proposal ofmarriage from a man she does not love in rcturnfor a safe and secure future. Asked to clear up some bad blood with his young brother it is love at first sight when they meet; she undergoes a Cinderella-like transformation and is torn between the conflicting demands of her head and heart. Meanwhile. other members ofher closeknit Italian-American family are similarly thrown into amorous turmoil by the influence of a mischievous moon.
Combining humour and poignancy with
a charming eccentricity. Moonslruck isa delightful story. engagingly told. Oscars also went to Dukakis and John Patrick Shanley's rich. tutti fruti script. Edinburgh: Cannon
I The Music Lovers ( 18) (Ken Russell. UK. 1971) Richard Chamberlain. Glenda Jackson. Max Adrian. 122 mins. Russell plays fast and loose with the facts in his initimable manner in this baroque bio-pic purporting to be about Tchaikovsky. As usual. it's actually about Ken Russell. and your reaction is likely to depend on your feelings about our most irritating. but one of our most adventurous. film-makers. Either way. Richard Chamberlain makes an awful composer. Strathclyde: Odeon
Ayr.
I Hewslront (PG) (Philip Noyce. Australia. 1978) Bill Hunter. Wendy Hughes. Gerard Kennedy. 110 mins. Bill Hunter plays a newsreel cameraman in Philip Noyce‘s film. which illuminates the wider history of the nation as well as the personal history of the protagonists in the years between 1948 and 1956. Beautifully made. low-key drama from a productive period in Australian film-making. which lingers in the mind long after more spectacular productions have gone. Part of the Desperately Seeking Cinema season. Glasgow: GFT.
I Night of the Demon ( 18) (Jacques Tourneur. UK. 1957) Dana Andrews, Niall MacGinnis, Athene Seylcr. 87 mins. Screen-writers Charles Bennett and Hal E. Chester are the real stars ofthis compariTVe rarity. an intelligent horror film. Adapted from a story by MR. James in which an occulist wreaks vengeance on his enemies by summouning up a giant medieval devil, the film achievesa sustained level of suspense, with several genuinely frightening sequences. Glasgow: GFT.
I No Way Out ( 1 5) (Roger Donaldson, US. 1987) Kevin Costner, Sean Young, Gene
The List 27 May- 9 June 198813