The List: 5 May 1989 (45/96)

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Crazy Love (18) (Dominique Deruddere,Belgium,1987)Josse De Pauw, Geert Hunaerts, Michael Pas. 90 mins. 0n the face of it, Crazy Love didn’t have a lot going for it. Belgium Is not known as a vital hub oi film-making; It was an adaptation oi | three stories by Charles Bukowski, I whose work is notoriously difficult to film; the final story, Love is A Dog From Hell, ended in an act of necrophilia when the protagonist, Harry Voss, found a peculiar kind of fulfilment in making love to a beautiful but undeniably dead girl he and his drunken buddy steal from a mortuary van.

In fact, though, it proved to be one of my favourite films from last year’s Edinburgh Film Festival, and something of a triumph for the young director Dominique Deruddere, who clearly signalled that he is a name to look out for. The tripartite structure oi the film works perfectly well, opening on Harry‘s first embarrassing sexual experience as a young child, moving onto a hilarious but moving account of his attempts to dance with the school belle at the end of term hop, his dreadful case oi acne swathed in toilet paper; and ending with that strange love, which is handled with great skill, sensitivity and compassion.

Previous Bukowski adaptations have tended to focus with almost unremitting gloom on the more

Would-be blockbusting fairytale epic offers producer George Lucas another opportunity to refashion the Star Wars narrative in a setting straight out of Tolkien. The result is not unentertaining, but we've all been here too many times before. Central: Caledonian.

I Without A Clue (PG) it (Thom Eberhardt. US, 1988) Michael Caine, Ben Kingsley, Jeffrey Jones, Paul Freeman. 107 mins. Reversal of the Conan Doyle tradition has Kingsley‘s Dr Watson as the smart Alec while Caine‘s Sherlock Holmes is actually an unemployed actor hired to maintain Watson‘s position as a responsible member of the medical profession. The plot concerns Moriarty‘s theft of the Treasury’s £5 notes, but the ﬁlm really revolves around the spirited interplay between the two stars. Old-fashioned fun. but Michael Caine as an unemployed actor? That‘s a hard one to swallow. Glasgow: Odeon.

I Working Girl (15) (Mike Nichols, US. 1988) Melanie Grifﬁth. Harrison Ford. Sigoumey Weaver, Joan Cusack. 114 mins. Bubbly, ambitious secretary Tess McGill (Grifﬁth) ﬁnds life tough as just another Manhattan secretary, but bitchy female boss Katharine Parker (Weaver) teaches her the art of self-conﬁdence. So much so that when the exec is laid up after a ski-ing accident, the working girltakes her place, tackles the ﬁnancial world head-on , and romances hunky investment broker Jack Trainer (Ford).

Supremely entertaining escapist ﬂuff that takes the old Frank Capra routine and gives it a contemporary sheen. The cast have a tremendous time. notably Griffith, who even gets away with lines like ‘1‘ve got a head for business and a body for sin‘. Glasgow: Cannon Clarkston Road. Cannon The Forge. Odeon. Edinburgh: Dominion. Odeon. Central: Caledonian. Strathclyde: AMC Clydebank 10.

I A World Aolrl(15) (Chris Menges. UK.

1988) Barbara Hershey, Jodhi May, Linda

barbarous and tawdry aspects of his down-at-heel fictional world, but Crazy Love takes a more trenchantly funny, and at the same time tender and genuinely moving slant on the weird goings-on. It is beautifully shot and splendidly played by the Belgian cast, with Josse De Pauw especially good as the slightly bewildered, greatly pained, but ultimately strangely dignified adult Harry. Don’t let the story line put you off; this is a notable success, and the best attempt yet at transforming Bukowskl's sleazy but sentimental fiction on screen. (Kenny Mathieson)

Mvusi, David Suchet. 112 mins. Based on the experiences of screenwriter Shawn Siovo's teenage years in the South Africa of the early Sixties. the film follows the arrest of her political activist mother and the resultant tensions this brings to bear on their relationship. However, the young girl‘s growing personal awareness ofthe injustices of apartheid lead her towards some sense of solidarity with her mum.

Well~handled and brilliantly acted domestic treatment of the moral evils of the Johannesburg regime, which never opts for preachiness but offers an honest complexity that makes its powerful tale of learning and commitment all the more engrossing. Glasgow: GFT. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. Central: Regal.

I Yeelen (PG) (Soulemanye Cisse. Mali. 1987) lssiaka Kane. Aouta Sangarc. Ballamoussa Keita. 105 mins. A young Bambarra boy steals a sacred object from the tribe and runs off, an act which breaks centuries old tradition and leaves the father carrying the burden-rod of atonement. By way of escape. the boy goes off on a wild goose chase to find a missing uncle, but the totem oftribal shame still hangs over him.

Completely enthralling African film. whose framework of tribal rituals and mythologies provides an innocent and magical alternative universe that even outsiders like ourselves have little difﬁculty penetrating. It's an enchanting trip through the epic narrative style ofa remote but not inhospitable culture. See it and wonder. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Film Society.

MuﬂcNen Issue:

REM and Elvis Cosnnni

LISTINGS WEEK ONE

Friday 5—Thursday 11

This section gives details of programmes showing at cinemas in central Scotland over the next week. Readers are advised that programmes may be subject to late change at anytime.

Cinemas operating a family discount scheme allow an adult accompanying a child to ‘U' and ‘PG' certificate programmes to gain admission for the same price as the child up to 6pm.

GLASGOW CINEMAS

I CANNON Clarkston Road. Muirend. 637 2641 . £2.30 (Child/GAP £1.20). Family discount scheme operates.

1. Working Girl (15) 2. 10pm (Sat only). 5.10pm, 8.10pm.

2. Rain Man(15) 5pm.8pm.

Lady And The Tramp (U) (Sat only) 2.30pm. 3. Dig (PG) 2.30pm (Sat only). 5.30pm, 8.30pm.

I CANNON The Forge. Parkhead. 556 4282/4343. £2.80 (Child £1.75). [D] (please telephone beforehand). [E] (screens 1. 3 and 5).

1. A Nightmare On Elm Street IV ( 18) 1.30pm, 3.55pm. 6.45pm, 9.25pm. 2.January Man (15) 1.25pm.3.50pm. 6.15pm, 8.55pm.

3. Twins (PG) 10. 15am (Sat only), 1.10pm. 3.45pm. 6.20pm, 9pm.

4. Rain Man (15) 2.15pm. 5.35pm.8.40pm. 5. My Stepmother Is An Allen (15) 1.05pm. 3.30pm, 6.05pm. 8.50pm.

B.Worklng Girl (15) l.lOpm,3.45pm. 6.25pm, 9.05pm.

7. The Dead Pool (18) 1.40pm,4pm. 6.40pm, 9.25pm.

The List: 5 May 1989 (Issue 93)