FILM LIST
lNDEX
I The Accused ( 18) (Jonathan Kaplan. US. 1988) Kelly McGillis. Jodie Foster. Berni Coulson. 111 mins. Sarah Tobias (Jodie Foster) is raped on a pinball machine by three men. yet when the assailants are taken to court. a plea bargain with Sarah's lawyer Kathryn Murphy (Kelly McGillis) reducestheir charges. When both women realise this is a sell-out. they decide to bring charges against the men in the bar who cheered on the attack and offered encouragement to the rapists. Standout performance from Foster in this sympathetic and responsible treatment ofdifficult subject matter. whose firm grasp of character and honest intentions help allay one‘s reservations about the content. Central: MacRobert Arts Centre. I Another Woman (PG) a (Woody Allen. US. 1988) Gena Rowlands. Mia Farrow, lan Holm. Gene Hackman. 81 mins. Woody Allen continues in the serious vein of his last picture September with another probing exploration of emotional and familial relationships. Here successful scholar Rowlands is forced to confront the emotional vaccuum of her life when she hears the revelations of another woman (Farrow) unburdening her anxieties in the psychiatrist's office next door. Reviewed in full next issue. Edinburgh: Filmhousc. I Bad Timing ( l8) (Nicolas Rocg. UK. 1979) Art Garfunkel. Theresa Russell. Harvey Keitel. 123 mins. As surgeons fight for the life ofa young Americanin Vienna. we learn of a university lecturer‘s obsessive and often violent relationship with her. Director Roeg is here at perhaps his most typically Roegian (elliptical editing. an explosion of ideas) and the result is extraordinarily powerful. Edinburgh: Cameo. I Batman (Tim Burton. US. 1989)Jack Nicholson. Michael Keaton. Kim Bassinger. 120 mins. in which Burton achieves the impossible by creating a product which lives up to possibly the biggest hype job this century. Nicholson is on top form: psychotic. witty and zany like you‘ve never seen him before: but the real triumph is Kcaton‘s. With less screen time than the Great Upstager. he producesa performance of unforgetablc sublety and power. which gives a new credibility to the Bruce Wayne Batman character. While remaining true to the comic strip. With eerie angular design by Anton Furst. a terrrific score by Danny Effman. a suitably wacky script and a strong supporting cast. this is a long movie which you won‘t want to end. Glasgow: Cannon Clarkston Road. Cannon The Forge. Cannon Sauchiehall Street. Grosvenor. Edinburgh: Cannon. Dominion. Central: Allanpark. Caledonian. Cannon. Regal. Strathclyde: Cannon. Kelburne. La Scala. Odeon Ayr. Odeon Hamilton. UCI Clydebank 10. I Beaches ( 15) (Gary Marshall US. 1988) Bette Midler. Barbara Hershey. John Heard. Spalding Gray. 124 mins. Two eleven year old girls meet on a beach in Atlantic City and become lifelong friends despite jealous arguments and diverse lifestyles. CC. Bloom is a loudmouthed actress 'singer bound for stardom (not a very taxing role for Midler). while Hershey‘s Hilary Whitney is a prim moneyed beauty trying hard to resist conformity. Midler makes good work of the star-vehicle script and is ably supported by Hershey. But make no mistake. this overlong female buddy movie is the schmalzicst tearjerker you’ll see in awhile. Glasgow: Odeon. I Bear Ye One Another's Burdens ( 15) (Lothar Warneke. E. Germany. 1988) 118 mins. The battle of ideologies at the inception of the new East German state is
represented by two men languishing in a private sanatorium. One is an inspector in the People‘s Police. the other a Protestant minister; both are in love with the same nurse. Discursive look at personal morality and the tensions between Christian and socialist teachings. Glasgow: GFT.
I Betrayed (15) (Costa-Gavras, US, 1988)Debra Winger. Tom Berenger, John Heard. 127mins. Winger is an FBI agent investigating Midwestern farmer Berenger. who at first seems such a nice guy that the two fall in love but whoturns out to have a more sinister side to his character. Glasgow: GFT.
I Bull Durham (15) (Ron Shelton. US, 1988) Kevin Costner. Susan Sarandon. Tim Robbins. 108 mins. A surprisingly intelligent and absorbing baseball flick. whose real focus is on the emotional triangle between baseball groupie Sarandon and players Robbins and Costner. the former a halfwitted pitcher, the latter an aging catcher who this time lets it slip between his fingers. Strong playing all round and inspired leadership from Shelton of Under Fire fame make for a winning team. Glasgow: Cannon Sauchiehall Street. Edinburgh:
— SEE ND EVIL, HEAR ND EVIL
See No Evil, Hear No Evil (18) (Arthur Hiller, US, 1989) Richard Pryor, Gene Wilder. 107mins. Neither beyond or below our expectations, the latest instalment of the Pryor-Wilder comic double-act is a familiar combination of farce, sentimentality and arrogant self-righteousness. Again, it centres on two likeable heroes entangled in the workings of a criminal underworld. Like ‘Silver Streak’, the action embodies elements of the chase movie, but replaces tension with slap-stick. Like ‘Stlr Crazy’, the heroes possess highly different personalities which are brought together by a significant shared experience.
Wally (Pryor) and Dave (Wilder) are respectively blind and deal, and become the prime suspects for a murderthat takes place immedietly in front of their New York news-stand. If this is the film’s first joke, then the second and last is the one about how they manage to outwit the entire police force, and the real, ruthless criminals who are chasing them because they believe Wally and Dave are in possession of some valuable coin.
Of course, the plot is irrelevant compared to the genre’s demands on comic invention and electrifying performance. Yet only occasionally are either of these given the opportunity to take hold, for the film’s pool of writers
(which incudes Wilder himself) are too often concerned to make some
statement or other about the heroes’ handicaps and our patronising attitude
Filmhousc. Strathclyde: UCI Clydebank 10.
I The tBurbs (PG) (Joe Dante, US,1989) Tom Hanks. Bruce Dem, Carrie Fisher, Rick Ducommun. 102 mins. When Ray
Petersen (Hanks) takes a week off work to pester his wife (Fisher), he and his buddies
Ducommun and Dern become obssessed with the activities of his new neighbours, the mysterious Klopeks, whom they hound mercilessly.
Dante‘s offbeat anti-racist satire is spoiled by overacting and underwriting. but Hanks‘ ability with slim material is undeniable, and lends the movie a certain light-hearted charm. Glasgow: Cannon Sauchiehall Street.
I Camille Claudel (PG) (Bruno Nuytten, France, 1988) Isabelle Adjani, Gerard Depardieu. Laurent Grevil. 175 mins. Despite its slightly forbidding length, this account of the troubled and eventually tragic life of French sculptress Camille Claudel (Adjani), and her relationship as both pupil and lover with Auguste Rodin (Dcpardieu) boasts a feast of memorable images and goes to prove that France's biggest stars are also two of her best actors. Edinburgh: Filmhousc.
I Chocolat (15) (Claire Denis, France,
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to them. This would be acceptable it ‘See No Evil, Hear No Evil’ were witty enough, or if the serious undertones were handled with care rather than the wretched self-satisfied tone that prevails.
Both stars have their moments when they are genuinely funny, but there is little evidence to suggest that this Is due to the to and fro banter of a comic partnership. Gene Wilder is best when he is simply being Gene Wilder, the kind of restrained comic actor who need only raise an eyebrow to bring down a house. Pryor is black, blind and brash, and his behaviour sometimes acts as a splendid antithesis to Wilder’s dead-pan performance. But there is too little of this; and too strong a feeling that Hiller is using the magic of the fantasy medium to let the handicapped underdogs win. it is not enough to insert a handful of dealing moments into a laboured and undeveloped moral canvas, and it only goes to show how absurdly low our expectations are in the first place when we allow these moments to authorise our enjoyment of the whole movie. When the distributor's blurb claims that this is ‘the first drop-dead comedy of the summer’, we are inclined to read it two ways. (Douglas McCabe)
From Fri 1. Glasgow: Cannon Clarkston Road, Cannon The Forge, Cannon Sauchiehall Street, Grosvenor. Edinburgh: Cannon. Central: Allanpark, Caledonian, Cannon. Strathclyde: Cannon, UCI Clydebank 10.
1988) Mireille Perrier. Isaach de Bankole. Giulia Boschi. Francois Cluzet. 105 mins. Returning to the remote part of the Cameroons where she spent the greater part of her childhood. France. the daughter of a former French colonial civil servant, recalls scenes from those early years, including the attraction between her mother and their native manservant. This accomplished debut feature is a nostalgic and gentle mosaic of colonial life, offering a perceptive look at the Europeans‘ varying attitudes towards the Africans. Glasgow: GFT. I Colors (18) (Dennis Hopper. US, 1988) Robert Duvall, Sean Penn. Maria Conchita Alonso. 121 mins. Buddy cop movie set amongst the drug-related gang warfare of L.A.‘s ethnic street gangs has old hand Duvall and greenhorn Penn. differing in their approaches to law enforcement in an almost impossible situation. Benefitting from a steely documentary approach that captures with disturbing authenticity every aspect ofa brutal street culture, Hopper‘s return to Hollywood credibility finds his bleak world-view of non-communication somewhat deadened by formulaic narrative excitements. Central: MacRobert Arts Centre. I Crimes of Passion (18) (Ken Russell. US, 1984) Kathleen Turner. Anthony Perkins, John Laughlin. 107 mins. Russell‘s debunking of the American way ofsex is an uproariously black satire where moonlighting whore meets dildo-packing clergyman meets Human Penis. A strident and courageous piece of filmmaking in that it casts the men asthe oppressors. Russell's best in years. Edinburgh: Cameo. I Dangerous Liaisons (15) (Stephen Frears, US, 1988) Glenn Close, John Malkovich. Michelle Pfeiffer. Keanu Reeves. 120 mins. Christopher Hampton adapts his stage version of Choderlos dc Laclos‘ novel for the screen, with Americans Close and Malkovich starring as the central pairing of Madame de Tourvel and the Vicomte dc Valmont, two treacherous 18th century aristocrats weaving a web of erotic duplicity around one another. British director Stephen Frears makes a notable Hollywood debut by guiding his east through a difficult set of narrative pirouettes. and the criSp dialogue is handled with a certain asperity. Yet for all the pent-up emotion on screen. little fervour seeps through to the audience and the result is a rather cold and calculating piece of work. Edinburgh: Filmhousc. I Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (PG) (Frank Oz. US, 1988) Steve Martin. Michael Caine, Glenne Headly. 110 mins. In this remake of Bedtime Story, which starred Niven and Brando in 1964, Caine is the sophisticated con-man, elegantly separating the rich from their wealth, and Martin plays the interloper who invades his patch in the Sud de France. The two become allies. then rivals, and finally agree to settle their differences with a con-men’s wager. Despite the obvious skill of its stars. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels fails to stretch them or to take itselfseriously enough, and thus does not fulfil its full potential. It‘s an amusing and enjoyable. but ultimately bloodless entertainment. Glasgow: Odeon. Edinburgh: Dominion. Strathclyde: Odeon Ayr. Odeon Hamilton. UCI Clydebank 10. I Dive (15) (Jean-Jacques Beineix. France, 1981) Frederic Andrei. Roland Bertin. Richard Bohringer. 117 mins. The twisted fate of two tapes. one an illegal recording of an American opera star. the other exposing a crime ring. is the central strand of this daffy Gallic cult favourite. Style exudes from every sprocket hole. Edinburgh: Cameo. I La Dolce Vita (18) (Federico Fellini. Italy/France. 1960) Marcello Mastroianni. Anita Ekberg. Anouk Aimee. 173 mins. Paparazzi journo-type Mastroianni mixes
The List 1—14 September 1989 27