FILM LIST
second-lieutenant is bewilderingly caught I in the middle wondering exactly what his ' patriotic duty might be especially as he favours laying down arms and heading for home. Reputedly a sharper. darker form of humour from the maker ofthe Bread. 1 Loveund. . . series. Edinburgh: ‘ Filmhouse IThe Exorcist ( 18) (William Friedkin. US) 1973) Ellen Burstyn. Max Von Sydow. Linda Blair. llllmins. Earnestpricst Von i Sydow steps in to save poor little 3 possessed girl Blair in this hugely convincing and effective scarefest that has ’ stood the test of time. Glasgow: GFT
I Fatal Attraction ( 18) (Adrian Lyne. US. 1987) Glenn Close. Michael Douglas. Anne Archer. 119 mins. Happilymarried lawyer Douglas discovers the high price of infidelity when his casual one night stand turns out to be a dangerously psychotic woman who will stop at nothing to gain her man’s affection. Glossy. well-acted misogynistic Hitchock-style thriller attracting more fuss and ()scar nominations than it merits. Glasgow: Cannon Sauchiehall Street. Strathclyde: Cannon Kilmarnock
I The Glass Menagerie ( PU) (Paul Newman. L38. 1987) Joanne Woodward. John Malkovich. Karen Allen. 135 mins. Definitive screen translation of one of Tennessee Williams' most tender and acutely autobiographical plays. dealing with his love for a sister lost tomental illness and his own guilty homosexuality.
Woodward is the dominant matriarch. a fluttering Southern belle with ever-ready memories of her glorious youth. Allen is the crippled daughter retreating into her own world of old phonograph records and a collection of fragile glassanimals. Malkovich the restless son eager for life to begin. His invitation to dinner brings a gentleman caller to the table and reality intrudes into this delicately perched nest of fantasy and selfdclusion.
The intelligence of Newman's guiding hand is evident throughout as he respects the text. adopts a fluid cinematic style and captures some outstanding performances for posterity. Edinburgh: Filmhouse I Hellraiser ( l8) (Clive Barker. UK.
1987) Andy Robinson. Claire Higgins. Ashley Laurence. 92 mins. A horror picture with a well-constructed plot. strong characters. haunting images and special effects that actually serve the storyline. Minor blemishes along the way. but an auspicious debut from writer Clive Barker. Glasgow: Grosvenor
I Hello Again (PG) a? (Frank Perry. US. 1987) Shelley Long. Gabriel Byrne. Judith Ivey. Corbin Bernsen. 96 mins. Dithery housewife Long chokes to death on a Korean chicken ball at one of her husband's interminable charity dinners. One year later her sister has finally worked out how to revive her from the dead. Allis well except Long has no recollection that she ever died and finds it difficult to cope with a number ofdomestic changes. particularly her husband's speedy remarriage.
Average suburban comedy. mildly reminsicent of Coward‘s Blithe Spirit and heavily dependent on the appeal ofLong‘s flustered klutz. Edinburgh: ()deon I Hollywood Shufer ( 15) (Robert Townsend. US. 1987). RobertTownsend. Anne-Marie Johnson. Starlette Dupois. 81 mins. Financed by Townsend‘s credit cards. the film stars the man himselfas Bobby Taylor. a hot-dog vendor who dreams of stardom in Tinseltown. but in reality gets a role in the exploitative lit-crime Jimmy 's Revenge. Bobby finally has to face the choice ofcontinuing 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 Housekeeping (PG) (Bill Forsyth.
Ironweed (15) (Hector Babenco, US, 1987) Jack Nicholson, Meryl Streep, Michael O'Keefe, Carroll Baker. 143 mins. Albany, New York, 1938. Former baseball player Francis Phelan returns to his home town after an absence of twenty-two years on the road. However, there are no tickertape parades to herald his arrival, no brass band at the station, just a biting cold wind and the perennial problem of finding food and shelter forfhe night. Phelan is a drunken hobo who left Albany after accidentally and fatally dropping his infant son Gerald. Unable to handle the remorse and recriminations he fled, abandoning his family. lntimations of his own mortality and the need to make peace with the ghosts of his past have driven him back.
As the film unfolds, we encounter several of those ghosts, including a scab driver he had killed in a trolleycar strike at the turn of the century. We learn something of his life in the intervening years; his circumstances, his friends, his companion Helen Archer (Streep), who had once held the promise of a distinguished musical career before tumbling into dereliction, hertatty sense of propriety still intact. We are also present at an emotionally-charged reunion with his wife and family when he is met not with venomous hostility but compassion, longing and regret. As his ghosts are laid to rest, we have witnessed the struggle for a man‘s soul and come to respect his victory over the past and
Canada. 1987) Christine Lahti. Sara Walker. Andrea Burchill. 1 16mins. Scrupulously faithful to the Marilynne Robinson novel. Forsyth' s film tellsof two orphaned sisters who are entrusted to the custody of a succession ofgeriatric relatives before the arrival oftheir eccentric aunt Sylvie . . .
Literately scripted. confidently directed. beautifully photographed and performed with sensitive insight. Highly recommended to the discerning palate. Edinburgh: Filmhouse I Ironweed (15) 1k (Hector Babenco. L'S. 1987) Jack Nicholson. Meryl Streep. Carroll Baker. Diane Venora. 135 mins. See Panel. Glasgow: Odeon. Edinburgh: Odeon.
I La Strada (PG) (Federico Fellini. Italy. 1954) Anthony Quinn. Giuletta Masina. Richard Basehart. 115 mins. A deceptively simple and heartrending tale from the early days of Fellini‘s career with his wife Masina as a waif-like peasant girl who becomes the assistant to a brutish travelling strong man. The film recounts her pitiable existence and their encounters with a gentle acrobat. Stunning performances. fine camerawork and a haunting musical score by Nino Rota add up to a memorable Oscar winner as Best Foreign film. Glasgow: Gl7l'
I LOW Visibility ( 15) i? (Patricia Gruben. Canada. 1985). 80mins. A mysterious Mr Bones is dicovered near the remnants of an inexplicable plane crash. He refuses to speak to anyone.particularly those in the professions that could help him and the initial bafflement over his silence grows into disquiet as it persists. Intriguing thriller set on a remote British Columbia mountain highway and said to evokes shades of Herzog‘s The [ingima ofls’asper Hauser. Plus an 11 minute short.
search for salvation. Bedolent of The Grapes 0f Wrath and Bound For Glory, Ironweed is a remarkably engrossing examination of blighted lives and the underside of the American dream known as failure. Phelan, Archer and their compatriots are people whose dreams have imploded and been rendered useless by chance, ill-fortune and personal inadequacy. The Depression era and their lives comment eloquently on a more uncomfortany complex society than the image of opportunity, milk and honey that is so commonly portrayed. lmbuing his film with a muted spirituality, Babenco continuesto locus on society's outsiders and has found the perfect portayers of desperation seeking redemption in
Edinburgh: lr‘ilmhouse
I The Last Emperor( 15) (Bernardo Bertolucci. ltaly’China. 1987) John Lone. Peter O‘Toole. Joan Chen. 162 mins. Peking. 19118. a three year-old boy ascends to the Imperial Throne to beCome the ‘1.ord ofTen 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:Grosvenor I The Maxim Gorki Trilogy ( P(‘i)Three films. The Chi/(Ilium! ()fMa.x'inz (iorky. My A pprenficesllip and My Universities. all directed by Mark Donskoi. provide. in the words ofJohn McGrath ‘a real attempt to create epic from the lives ofthe people'. 317 minutes in all. Glasgow: GI'T I Moonstruck (PG) (Norman Jewison. US. 1987) Cher. Nicolas Cage. Olympia Dukakis. 1()(1mins. Thoroughlywinning romantic comedy with Cher on Oscar-winning form as a dowdy young widow who accepts a proposal ofmarraige from a man she does not love in return for a safe and secure future. Asked to clear up some had blood with his young brother it is love at first sight when they meetzshe 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 ofa mischievous moon.
Combining humour and poignancy with a charming eccentricity. Momisiruek is a delightful story. engagingly told. ()scars
Nicholson and Streep. The latter, in what amounts to a supporting role, is spirit in a rag-doll frame. Nicholson, in one of his more serious recent characterisations, is typically superb; a shuffling survivor unwilling to entertain sentimentality; cynical, sardonic, befuddled. A man who has had the rug torn out from under his feet so often that he is wary of standing upright.
With excellent featured performances from Tom Waits and a glowing Carroll Baker as Phelan’s wife, plus suitably moody camerawork and composition, Brazilaian Babenco has moulded his potentially dour drama of dereliction into a universal story with the feel of an American classic.
(Allan Hunter)
also went to [)ukakis and John Patrick Shanley's rich. tutti-frutti script. lidinburgh: Dominion
I Next 0f Kinl 15) 2'": (Atom Iigoyan. Canada. 1984) 72 mins. The disaffected son of an affluent suburban Toronto family is introduced to a splintering Armenian family and decides to surprise and alarm them with the news that he is their long-lost son. ‘An unusual and funny foray into questions of family bonds and social heritage‘. Plus a 28 minute short by Patricia Rozema. lidinburgh:1’ilmhouse I 90 Days ( l5) (Giles Walker. Canada. 1985)99 mins. ‘A gentle probing comedy of masculine manners' focusing on the contrasting personalities of friends Blue (shy. sincere. . . )and Alex(thoughtless. philandering. . . ). Reputedlycharming and performed with grace and modulation. Edinburgh: l-‘ilmhousc.
I Orchestra Rehearsal ( IS) (Federico Fellini. Italy. 1978) Baldwin Baas. Clara Colostrum. lilizabcth Lubi. 7llmins. Disappointing short film. made for Italian television. in which the petty complaints. jealousies and disputes within an orchestra are viewed as a microcosm of dissent and disorder in the w idcr world. Glasgow: GFI'
I The Outsiders (P( i) (Francis l-‘ord Coppola. CS. 1982) Matt Dillon. C. Thomas Howell. limilio listevez. 91 mins. A story of violent conflict between the poor kids (Greasers) and the rich kids (SoCs) in a middle American town based on Susie Hinton‘s million selling novel. Coppola's earnest. and some might say sentimental. treatment of his material isa return to the sort of movies you thought they didn't make anymore. Wonderful. in other words with a staggering cast of future teen idols. lidinburgh: Cameo
I Planes, Trains and Automobilesi 15)
The List 10— 23 June 198811