FILM LIST
A Strange Place To Meet (15) (Francois Duperyon, France, 1988) Catherine Deneuve, Gerard Depardieu. 97 mins. In the annals of lilm history, romances have taken place in just about every conceivable location, from the obvious to the spectacularly unlikely, but debut director Francois Duperyon may well have added another to that long list. In that sense, A Strange Place To Meet lives up to the promise of its title, but its rather appealing quirkiness does not end there.
A couple are speeding along a French motorway, glimpsed silently arguing from outside the car; suddenly, the driver swerves to avoid a woman walking along the road. The dispute continues; the car pulls into a lay-by, the driverthrows his woman passenger out, and roars off into the night. Thereafter, the lilm takes place entirely in the lay-by and in an adjacent motorway cale, another of those marginal territories which so appeals to the contemporary imagination.
The woman, played by Catherine Deneuve, is certain that her husband will return for her, and is obsessively determined to remain exactly where he left her. That does not suit the purposes of the lay-by’s other resident, Depardieu, a doctor seeking shelter trom the woes of life by dismantling his
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car engine in the protected, isolated space. His initial hostility gives way to attraction and ultimately desperation, complicated by the enforced move along the road to the cale, where the desires of others come into play. Deneuve, all lrosty vulnerability, and the clumsily impulsive Depardieu are
GE PLACE TO MEET
old hands at this kind of thing, and bring a genuine credibility to their decidedly odd roles. A Strange Place To Meet is simultaneously emotionally intense and curiously distanced, a very French combination that will doubtless lnturlate as many as it pleases. (Kenny Mathieson)
performances. which is ultimately a celebration of a remarkable person. Glasgow: GET. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. IThe Navigator ( 15) (Vincent Ward. NZ. 1988) Bruce Lyons. Chris Haywood. Hamish McFarlane. Marshall Napier. 92 mins. ln medieval Cumbria. a lad named Griffin dreams up a mysterious mission to save his fellow villagers front the Plague. The answer is simple: dig a hole to New Zealand. On arrival on the other side of the world, the bewildered villagers find themselves in the present day, and must confront a nightmare world ofcars. televisions and post-industrial cynicism. Ward‘s extravagant imagination will not please everyone. but for those willing to suspend beliefand accept this film's ambiguity. it is a delightful tour de force. Edinburgh: Cameo.
I The Never Ending Story (PG) (Wolfgang Petersen. US/W. Germany. 1985) Barret Oliver. Gerald McRaney. Drum Garret. 94 mins. Lonely young boy Bastian starts to read a mysterious book. and is miraculously drawn into the pages to undergo an exciting and dangeroUs
adventure in a land of fantasy. Passable adaptation of the Michael Ende bestseller, with plenty ofcute furry folk to engage the kiddies. Central: Caledonian.
I The Night of The Hunter (PG) (Charles Laughton. US, 1955) Robert Mitchum. Shelley Winters. Lilian Gish. 93 mins. Mitchum is unforgettable in this atmospeheric tale (sadly Laughton‘s only film as director) where he playsa psychotic priest chasing two children for the money stolen by their father. James Agee's script and Laughton’s stark monochrome visuals mark out an allegorical conflict between good and evil but there‘s haunting imagery a-plenty to make this a mesmerising cinematic experience. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I North By Northwest (PG) (Alfred Hitchcock. US. 1959) Cary Grant. Eve Marie Saint. James Mason, Martin Landau. 136 mins. Quintessential Hitchcock comedy-actioner with Grant perfect as the everyday adman pitched into a freewheeling espionage adventure. where nobody believes his innocence but he finds self-worth and romance along the
way. Classic sequences abound, including the crop-dusting routine and the Mount Rushmore climax. Brilliant entertainment. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Film Society.
I Outrageous Fortune (PG) (Arthur Hillcr, US. 1987) Bette Midler. Shelley Long, Peter Coyote. 100 mins. Ill-matched females Midler and Long discover they‘ve both been having affairs with the same man, and after his mysterious death in an explosion. the unlikely duo get drawn into a tense espionage plot. Okay-ish comedy-drama which at least moves along quite briskly, and has a tailor-made part for La Midler (i.e. she gets to shout at the top of her voice a lot). Glasgow: Grosvenor I Pat Garrett & Billythe Kid (18) (Sam Peckinpah, US, 1973) James Coburn. Kris Kristofferson, Jason Robards. Bob Dylan. 121 mins (revised version). Originally released by MGM in a shortened cut disowned by Peckinpah, original editor Roger Spotiswoode has worked from the late director‘s own notes to piece together something like the work that was originally intended. The story now focuses
on the tragic aspects of Garrett’s (Coburn) relentles pursuit of Billy (Kris Kristofferson), exploring writer Rudy Wurlitzer and Peckinpah‘s vision ofthe existential stagnation of the dying frontier. One of the last great westerns. Glasgow: GFT. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. I Patty Hearst (18) (Paul Schrader, US, 1988) Natasha Richardson, William Forsythe. Ving Rhames, Frances Fisher. 108 mins. Schrader probes the life story of little-rich-girl-turned-urban-guerilla Hearst with characteristic intensity, offering few answers and leaving many questions open. Hearst‘s own account may arouse some doubts in terms ofcredibility, but Schrader‘s approach to her abduction and confinement in a cupboard during the first part of the film leaves no doubts asto his cinematic skill and psychological insight. Central: MacRobert 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 of increasingly 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. Predictable and sentimental Odd Couple on the road which is genuinely funny. Edinburgh: Cameo. I Resurrected (15) fi (Paul Greengrass, UK, 1989) David Thewlis, Tom Bell, Rita Tushingham. 96 mins. Based on real incidents, Paul Greengrass‘s film (he co-authored Spycarcher) looks at the experiences of a young Falklands soldier on the missing list and presumed dead, who confounds everyone and is the victim of a brutal betrayal when he returns home alive. Sec feature. Glasgow: Grosvenor. I Salaam Bombay! (15) (Mira Nair, lndia/France/UK. 1988) Shafiq Syed, Raghubir Yadev, Aneeta Kanwar. 95 mins. Shot on location on the streets of Bombay. the film records the lives ofthe city‘s thronging street urchins. focusing on young Krishna's (Syed) descent into a seedy underworld of prostitution and narcotics as he tries to earn enough money to return home to his native village. This auspicious debut from Indian woman film-maker Nair manages to avoid the obvious. and makes its moral points through its sympathy for the remarkable children whose indomitable spirit is convincingly captured by the former documentarist‘s camera. Edinburgh: Film Guild. Central: MacRobert Arts Centre. I The Secret Of My Success (PG) (Herbert
MEET THE AUTHOR
DAME EDNA
Willi be signing copies
" of her autobiography MY GORGEOUS LIFE (Macmillan £12.95) Tuesday 10th October
at 1.00pm
LENNY HENRY
Will be signing
° WELL HARD
at 5.30pm
132 UNION STREET GLASGOW
Tel (041) 221 0890
copies of his book
(W. H. Allen £4.99) Friday 13th October
24 The List 29 September— 12 October 1989