FILM LIST
THE MODERNS
The Modems (15) (Alan Rudolph, US,
19881Kelth Carradlne. Linda Florentino, John Lone, Genevieve
Buiold, Geraldine Chaplin. 126 mins. Paris, 1926; or rather 1988 Montreal, where the tilm was shot. Rudolph manages to give us a leel tor the city at ex-pat Hemmingway and Stein's artistic circle by stressing the artitice involved in such a notion. His expressionist backdrop ol the Eitlel tower stands in lor the real thing and makes us realise that the cinema is above the medium ol lakery.
For here, twirled around the roots ol those American modernists, is a playful cine-essay on the crisis at meaning from which the European modernist movement burst lorth. One ot its major ideas was that our values are not intrinsic nor absolute but relative and imposed by our perception, and it is this kind of notion that Rudolph most engagineg applies to human relationships and the art market.
The centre ol the lilm is the beautitul Rachel (Fiorentino) and hertriangular atlair with both estranged husband Nick Hart (Carradine), a moderately talented American painter, and more recent lover Bertram Stone (Lone), an acquisitive millionaire art dealer. Stone’s need lor her may appear to be the desire to own her like another
expensive work at art, but why should his teelings really appear to be of less worth than Nick’s uncompieted amour lou, tor perhaps that too is just another lorm ol possession. Each 01 the men justities his passion lrom his own point oi view, but the woman walks out on both at them.
Rudolph's halt-satiric look at the art world poses the same questions. Nick turns out to be an expert copyist, producing three lake paintings torthe wealthy Nathalie de Ville (Chaplin). However, Hart’s versions ol Cezanne, Matisse and Modigliani get switched with the originals, so that the lakes are
exhibited in the New York Metropolitan Museum ot Art and the masterpieces are destroyed as poor copies by a humiliated Stone who is mocked when he shows them at one at his prestigious parties. Great art seems therelore to lie in the preconceptions ol the beholder. Yet, The Modems, with its excellent Altman/Rudolph rep company pertormances and genuinely risk-taking directorial llair, works these themes into a plot at delirious complexity that works as a drama yet retains an enjoyable intellectual combativeness. One ol the year's best, without doubt. (Trevor Johnston)
latterday Lean seriously fudges the crucial scene in the Malabar Caves. A disappointment. Strathclyde: Paisley Arts Centre.
I Planes, Trains and Automobiles ( 15) (John Hughes. US, 1987) Steve Martin. John Candy. Laila Robbins. 92 mins. Hughes relinquishes his position as the most pertinent commentator on teenage woes and graduates with honours in the side-splitting adult comedy stakes. Martin is a harrassed Chicago businessman desperate to return home from New York for the Thanksgiving celebrations. After a frenzied attempt to catch the last flight home he undergoes a series ofincreasingly fraught misadventures. Along the way he meets Candy‘s accident prone shower curtain salesman and they inadvertently become travelling companions through treacherous snow, hell. high water and mutual incompatibility. Edinburgh: Cameo.
I Police Academy V: Assignment Miami Beach (PG) (Alan Myerson. US. 1988) Bubba Smith. David Eraf. Michael Winslow. 90mins. Latest execrable dollop of comic ineptitude has as its ingredients a Police Chiefs‘ convention. a stolen bag of diamonds. and our lovable academy graduates on the loose in Miami. God help us all. Glasgow: Cannon Clarkston Road. I Rain Man(15) 1? (Barry Levinson. US. 1988) Dustin Hoffman. Tom Cruise. Valeria Golino. 133 mins. See panel and feature. Glasgow: Odeon. Salon. Edinburgh: Odeon. Central: Allanpark. Caledonian. Cannon. Strathclyde: AMC Clydebank 10. Cannon. Kelburne. Odeon Ayr. ()deon Hamilton. Rialto.
I Bobocop ( 18) (Paul Verhoeven. US. 1987) Peter Weller. Nancy Allen. Ronny Cox. 103 mins. Slick and stomach-churningly violent futuristic thriller blending elements of Dirty Harry. Frankenstein and The Six Million Dollar Man. When diligent policeman Murphy is shot to pieces by vicious thugs. his remains are mechanically reconstructed into a hi-tech law enforcement officer but the human desire for revenge still beats
beneath his mechanical exterior. Glasgow: GET.
I Scandal ( 18) (Michael Caton-Jones. UK. 1989) John Hurt.Joanne Whalley-Kilmer. Ian McKellen. Bridget Fonda. 114 mins. Stylish and involving treatment of the 1963 Profumoaffair. which looks at the the tangled love life of Christine Keeler (Whalley-Kilmer) who numbers War Minister John Profumo (McKellen) and Russian agent Eugene lvanov (Jeroen Krabbe) among her sexual partners. and exposes the establishment‘s hypocritical treatment of her mentor Stephen Ward (Hurt) when the scandal broke.
Assured debut for young Scots director Caton-Jones combines story-telling poise and emotional punch with a knowing sexuality of flip entertainment value. Glasgow: Cannon Clarkston Road. Grosvenor. ()deon. Edinburgh: Odeon. Strathclyde: AMC Clydebank 10. Odeon Ayr. Odeon Hamilton.
I Shadows at Our Forgotten Ancestors ( 15) (Sergei Paradjanov. USSR. 1964) Ivan Nikolaychuk. Larisa Kadochnilova. 100 mins. In a primitive Carpathian rural community at the turn ofthe century a young peasant marries a sorceress. Intriguing but not entirely successful example of Paradjanov‘s capacity for lyrical extravagance. which was much better suited to the free-forrn structure of his 1969 masterpiece The Colour of Pomegranates. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. I Short Circuit 11 (PG) (Kenneth Johnson. US. 1988) Fisher Stevens. Michael McKean. Cynthia Gibb. 110mins. lnnocuous sequel to a charming original has anthropomorphic android Number 5 trying to make it in the big city and coming into contact with would-be toymaker McKean. who's interested in the marketing potential ofthe robot‘s engaging capabilities. Passing character actor Jack Weston supplies the comic book villainy.
Formula fodder aimed purely at the children‘s holiday market. but by no means the worst of its kind. Central:
16 The List 24 March—6 April 1989
Allanpark. Strathclyde: AMCClydebank 10. I Slipstream (PG) (Steve Lisberger. UK. 1988) Mark Hamill. Bob Peck. Bill Paxton. 108 mins. In the aftermath ofa nuclear catastrophe, isolated communities eke out a primitive living in the wasteland that remains. The only means oflong distance travel is the slipstream. a powerful wind strong enough to carry light aircraft, which becomes the route taken by a trio of adventurers as they try to catcha wanted murderer with a price on his head. Curious blend of straight sci-fi adventure and metaphysical philosophising, with the film stoppping to examine the beliefs and lifestyles ofthe various isolated communities (led by cameos from the likes of Ben Kingsley and F. Murray Abraham). with the result never quite adding up to the sum ofits parts. Glasgow: Odeon. Edinburgh: Odeon. Strathclyde: AMC Clydebank 10. Odeon Ayr, Odeon Hamilton. WMR Film Centre. I Stop Making Sense (PG) (Jonathan Demme. US. 1984)Ta1king Heads. 88 mins. Dynamic concert movie with David Byrne and Co. ‘3 arresting live show brought to the screen intact by Demme‘s fluid camerawork. Edinburgh: Cameo. I Stories From Guscatlan (PG) (Peter Chapell & Jane Ryder. UK. 1989) Shot over six months in El Salvador and Honduras. this powerful documentary depicts the day-to-day lives under oppression of three families. and places their experiences within the wider context of street protest. This screening will be followed by a discussion with El Salvador‘s leading novelist. Manilo Argueta. Glasgow: GFT. I Suspect(15) (Peter Yates. US. 1987) Cher. Dennis Quaid, Liam Neeson. 106 mins. Work-weary public defender Cher is dumped with the case of an apparently barbaric down-and-out Vietnam veteran on a murder charge over the savage killing of a young woman for a pathetic sum of money. Needless to say. all is not quite what it seems. and the death of a Supreme
Court Justice could, in some strange way, be related to the murder. a fact uncovered by Quaid's reluctant jury member.
An old-fashioned. wintry thriller that really thrills with Cher and Ouaid bringing much needed conviction to their roles and screen partnership and Yates confidently adding a cold. bleak feel to the proceedings. suggesting a sense not ofthe aberration ofcrime but its comrronplacc frequency. Strathclyde: Paisley Arts
Centre.
I Tequila Sunrise (15) (Robert Towne. US. 1988) Mel Gibson. Kurt Russell. Michelle Pfeiffer. See panel. Glasgow: Cannon Sauchiehall Street. Edinburgh: Cannon.
I The Terminator (James Cameron. US. 1984) Arnold Schwarzenegger. Michael Biehn. Linda Hamilton. Slickly paced, violent thriller about a killing machine sent back in time to murder the motherof a future liberator ofthe embattled planet earth. Arnie is perfect as the emotionless cyborg terminator. and Cameron handles the action with real flair and aslightly disturbing zest for carnage. also evident in his subsequent Aliens. Glasgow: GFT.
I The Thin Blue Line ( 15) a (Errol Morris. US. 1988) Randall Adams. Davidllarris. 95 mins. 1n the tradition ofTruman Capote's In Cold Blood comes this astonishing effort from documentary film-maker Errol Morris. who while researching a project in Dallas came across prisoner Randall Adams. sentenced to death for the 1976 murderof a policeman. However. the director-detective became convinced that the case against him had been a tissue of lies. and he set out to track down the man he believed to be the real killer. one David Harris now serving life for another murder.
Combining a number ofshocking interviews with haunting reconstructions ofthe crime and intriguing fictive elements. Morris has created an innovative and completely compelling piece of work that has already proved instrumental in re-opening the case. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I The Tin Drum (18) (Volker Sehlondorff. W.Germany. 1979) David Bennet. Mario Adorf, Charles Aznavour. 141 mins. Compelling screen version of the Gunter Grass novel about a young boy who ceases to grow physically as the Nazis rise to power in Germany. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Tucker: The Man And His Dream (PG) (Francis Coppola. US. 1988) JeffBridges, Martin Landau, Joan Allen. 110mins. Based on a true story. Coppola‘s best film in years charts the rise and fall ofPreston Tucker, a naive but ingenious engineer who in 1948 managed to produce a car so technically advanced that it scared the Detroit majors into action. Before long their ties with the political powers-that-be created a set of trumped-up fraud charges that were to dissolve Tucker‘s dream of affordable. safe motoring in a welterof litigation.
Coppola at last re-unites his stylish technique with a grasp of narrative control in a manner that brings back memories of the great Hollywood productions ofold. Glasgow: GFT.
ITwins(15) (lvan Reitman. US. 1988) Danny De Vito. Arnold Scwarzenegger, Kelly Preston. Chloe Webb. 107 mins. In an effort to create the perfect human (male, natch) scientists impregnate a beautiful woman artist with the sperm of six diversely distinguished men. and the resulting offspring grows up in an isolated research station to be our man Arnie. However. an unexpected side-effect is runty brother De Vito, and when the two finally meet up many years later. their search to find their mother is the catalyst for an unlikely family relationship.
Even if the plot does bear a strong resemeblance to Rain Man. this is an amiably silly farce with Schwarzenegger