FILM LIST
i timers enhance the cast. Edinburgh:
Edinburgh University Film Society. I Hamlet (PG) (Grigori Kosintsev. USSR. 1964) lnnokenti Smoktunovsky.
Mikhail Nazvanov. Elza
Radzin-Szolkonis. 15(lmins. To markthe 400th anniversary of Shakespeare‘s birth. Kosintsev cut the text and produced this muscular and volatile version ofthe
7 Danish tragedy. which interprets the play
as a exercise in the machinations ofstate
politics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh
: University Film Society.
: IAltandful OlDllsl(l’G)((‘harles
i Sturridge. LIK. 1987)James Wilby.
t Kirstyn Scott-Thomas. Rupert Graves.
118 mins. Living in splendour at the
ancestral seat. ill-matched upper class
i couple Wilby and Scott-Thomas find their
already deteriorating relationship nudged further along the road to ruin by the arrival of handsome ingenue Graves as a parasitical house guest.
Beautifully acted and crafted film version of the Evelyn Waugh novel captures the source‘s period detail with impeccable case. but the characterisation‘s genteel fair-mindedness fatally subdues the originals venomous note. Edinburgh: Cameo.
I Hardcore ( 18) (Paul Schrader. US. 1979) George C. Scott. Peter Boyle. Season Hubley. 108 mins. Scott is tremendous asa Calvinist mid-westerner who travels to LA to seek out his daughter. who now finds hcrselfenmeshed in the seedy world of porno flicks. Typical Schrader counterpointing of the d riy es of the flesh and those of the spirit makes this an intriguing piece. though the necessary
low-life detail is at times rather repellent.
Glasgow; (iFl'.
I Head 18) (Paul Morrissey. US. 1972) Sylvia Miles. Joe Dallcssandro. Andrea Feldman. 101) mins. Junkie stud Dallcssandro takes up with fading Hollywood actress Miles in this most accessible instalment ofthe Warhol-sponsored Morrissey sleaze cycle. notorious at the time for its explicit treatment of male sexuality. Edinburgh: Cameo.
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
PASCALI’S ISLAND
Pascali's Island (15) (James Dearden. UK. 1988) Ben Kingsley, Charles Dance, Helen Mirren, Stefan Gryft.104 mins. Atypically excellent Ben Kingsley stars as Basil Pascali, a meek but perceptive spy who, as 1908 wears
on, has been sending back to
Constantinople reports of Greek rebel activity on a small Turkish-held Aegean island for some twenty years. His life is soon disrupted by the arrival of enigmatic English archaeologist Anthony Bowles (Charles Dance), who sets about swindling the local authorities out of a valuable ancient statue he discovers during his excavations, and who also finds romance with beautiful Venetian artist Lydia Neuman (Helen Mirren), the alluring painterwith whom Pascali himself has long been besotted. As the spy begins to suspect that his lengthy
period of surveillance has barely been
? registered by the crumbling edifice of
i the Ottoman bureaucracy, his attempts to break free from lrustrated observation to a self-justifying action
Barker. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Film Society.
I High Spirits ( 15) (Neil Jordan. US/UK. 1988) Peter O‘Toole. Daryl Hannah. Steve Guttenberg. 92 mins. O‘Toole stars as the financially desperate owner ofa decaying lrish castle. Facing the prospect of coming up with some swift cash or accepting foreclosure. he cooks up a scheme to pass off Plunkett Castle asthe most haunted house in Ireland. When a
group of American tourists arrive.
however. the real ghosts eventually do
come out for them and a complicated 3 double supernatural romance is the result.
Lacklustre slapstick farce. with poor
timing and a cluttered narrative curtailing any interest in the sometimes charming special effects. Perhaps comedy isn't
' credit at all. Strathclyde: AMCClydebank '
Jordan‘s forte. or the compromises of
international production have spiked his authorial independence. but this load of mularkey does him and his stellar cast no
i 11). f I Ice Palace (Per Blom. Norway. 1987)
Line Storesund. Hilde Nyggen Martinsen. 78 mins. Haunting tale of friendship between two eleven year-old girls. using the frozen landscapes in which the
I characters wander as reflection ofthcir i feelings. which have not yet melted into
the torrent of adolescent sexuality. Restrained handling ofdifficult material. with fine playing from the two youngsters. Glasgow: GF'T.
I It's In The Air (PG) (Anthony Kimmins. UK. 1938) George Formby. Polly Ward.
' 86 mins. Our George makes a particularly
accident-prone recruit to the RAF. Simple-minded entertainment that pleased a huge British audience at the time. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Jagged Edge (18) (Richard Marquand. US. 1985) Glenn Close. JeffBridges. Robert Loggia. 109 mins. Bridges stands accused of the brutal slaying of his wealthy wife. Close is the defence lawyer whose involvement with her client dangerously mixes business with pleasure. Antiquated. unremarkable courtroom whodunnit. Glasgow: GFI‘.
I Jour De Fete (U) (Jacques Tati. France. 1948) Jacques Tati. Guy Decomblc. 87 mins. A rural French postie see a film about the efficiency of the American mail service and decides to smarten up his act. Charming debut feature by Tati. effortlessly building visual set-pieces and establishing the amiable duffer ofa central
are to ironically move events towards a tragic conclusion. A most agreeable step for
1 writer/director James Dearden after
the telegraphed excesses of Fatal Attraction is the way in which this elegant drama allows the audience the freedom to interpret the material for itself. The elusive nature of Charles Dance's role seems particularly well-handled, for one is torn between regarding him as cool con artiste or genuinely motivated archaeologist, and the way in which the subsidiary characters of the island's paranoid Turkish agents or a shady German
role that was later to metamorphose into the unforgettable M. Hulot. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I The L081 01 England (18) (Derek Jarman. UK. 1987) Tilda Swinton. Spencer Leigh. Spring. Derek Jannan. 90 mins. Part autobiographical study. part examination of pos-Empire Britain‘s decline and fall. this expressive vision of a country edging towards anarchy exudes a technical bravura placed wholly at the service of a singular painterly sensibility. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I The Last Temptation Of Christ ( 18) (Martin Scorsese. US. 1988) Willem Dafoe. Harvey Keitel. Barbara Hershey. Harry Dean Stanton. 163 mins. Controversial though hardly blasphemous Scorsese adaptation of the Nikos Kazantzakis novel has Christ tempted on the cross by the possibility of living out his life as an ordinary man. an avenue which serves only for him to realise the full significance of his divinity.
The central thesis aside. this is a fairly straightforward though rather overlong treatment of the ministry with Willem Dafoe making a rather conventional looking Christ. The rather reverent tone can seem a little numbing at times, with the result that the film lacks the edge ofthe director‘s earlier work on the mean streets of New York. Central: Regal.
I Life Of Brian (15)(Terry Jones. UK. 1979) Graham Chapman. Terry Jones. John Cleese. Michael Palin. Eric Idle. 93 mins. The Gospel According to Monty Python offended a whole host of religious dominations upon its initial release. which rather obscured the fact that behind the controversy lay what still remains their most sustained exercise in lunatic English humour. A host of very funny setpiece scenes and smart cameos from all the team climaxes in a rather fetching musical crucifixion. Glasgow: Grosvenor.
I Little Shop 0f Honors (PG) (Frank 02. US. 1986) Rick Moranis. Ellen Greene. Steve Martin. 94 mins. Deep in the florist something is stirring. as meek green-fingered type discovers that his favourite plant. Audrey. is actually a flesh-craving alien from outer space. Daft. enjoyable screen transcription of the stage musical. with funny foliage effects. and a beezer cameo from Steve Martin as a biker dentist. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Film Society.
I The Lodger (PG) (Alfred Hitchcock. UK. 1926) lvor Novello, Malcolm Keen.
businessman reflect the shifting imperial power bases in the period leading up to the First World War with a precise intelligence that is most commendable.
Pascali himself also remains an absorbing figure, with Kingsley's perceptive playing managing to suggest the intense inner life of a genuinely gifted man trapped by his status of permanent observer. Distanced from those around him, he is also frustrated in his attempts at communicating with the masters who refuse to recognise his existence, his situation mirroring that of the artist in a universe of godless absurdity.
Yet for all the abundant pleasures that the film has to offer, Dearden has not quite managed to bring the same kind of narrative fluency to the screen that Barry Unsworth displays in the superb original novel. With awkward shifts in rhythm, and a transition to an ’ uneasy would-be elegiac coda that doesn't quite come off, the end result is that one is unfortunately not quite as moved as one would like to be. (Trevor Johnston)
l _
75 mins. Hitchcock‘s first suspenser has mysterious lodger Novello suspected by a jealous detective of being Jack The Ripper. and who is eventually chased through the streets by an angry mob in one of the master‘s most powerful early sequences. Showing here in a new tinted print. and with a new score by exciting young composer/multi-instrumentalist Adrian Johnston. Glasgow: GFT. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I The Lonely Passion Of Judith Heame ( 15) (Jack Clayton. UK. 1988) Maggie Smith, Bob Hoskins. Marie Kean. [an McNeice. 104 mins. Judith Heame is a middle-aged Dubliner of modest means. whose dreams of a secure marriage she believes are about to be answered in the shape of James Madden (Hoskins). herlandlady's brother recently returned from the hotel trade in New York. However. their relationship is actually founded on a mutual misunderstanding. and the realisation that her loneliness is going to continue drives Judith into an alcohol-fuelled spiral of spiritual doubt.
Generally adequate screen version of Brian Moore‘s wonderful first novel. with the sterling efforts of Smith and Hoskins splendidly offset by an engaging set of boarding house grotesques. Glasgow: Grosvenor. Edinburgh: Dominion.
I The Man With Two Brains ( 15) (Carl Reiner. US. 1983) Steve Martin. Kathleen 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. Edinburgh: Cameo.
I Mean Streets (18) (Martin Scorsese, US. 1973) Harvey Keitel. Robert DeNiro. David Proval. 110 mins. Tony‘s Bar is the base for four young Italian-Americans, whose increasingly illegal activities lead to tragedy. Vividly observed character study which combines breathtaking technique with a pervasive sense ofcorruption. Keitel and DeNiro give of their very best. Glasgow: GFT.
I Midnight Rtll‘l ( 15) (Martin Brest. US. 1988) Robert De Niro. Charles Grodin. Yaphet Kotto. John Ashton. 122 mins. De Niro is charming and surprisingly straightforward as an honest ex-cop turned bounty hunter. crossing the country to bring crooked accountant Grodin back from New York to LA sothat he can face charges of embezzling Mafia money. The only problem being that the FBI. the mob. the cops. and another bounty hunter all want their hands on the suspect too.
Focusing on the growing friendship between the two leads as they become reliant on each other in their efforts to escape their pursuers. this is an amiable buddy movie that‘s also a consistently unpredictable road movie. that just happens to be a quite smart cop movie. Superior Hollywood entertainment. very capably served up and performed. Glasgow: GFT.
I Monsieur Hulot's Holiday (PG) (Jacques Tati. France. 1953) Jacques Tati. Nathalie Pascaud. Michelle Rolla. 91 mins. M. Hulot. a bachelor with the accident-prone touch. arrives at a jaunty coastal resort and devastation very soon ensues. Comic timing at its most irresistible is on view here. as Tati gets away with a numberof slowburning. memorable gags. all undercut by the stabbing notion that we all have an uncle exactly like Hulot. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Moonstruck (PG) (Norman Jewison. US. 1987) Cher. Nicolas Cage. Olympia Dukakis. 100 mins. Thoroughly winning 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
14The List 10— 23 February