FILM LIST
INDEX
I The Abyss ( 15) (James Cameron. US. 1989) Ed Harris. Michael Biehn. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. 140 mins. An estranged couple get caught up in a tense drama on a marooned sea floor oil rig. in this movie made almost entirely underwater. Though Cameron has opted for a more contemplative exercise in tension. the intertwining of plots beneath the ocean waves leads one to feel that he's crammed too much into the film‘s length. Whilst it may not go down in film history as a great artistic achievements. it‘s pushing back the boundaries ofthe possible in the movie-making world means it won‘t sink without a trace. Glasgow: Odeon. Edinburgh: Odeon. Central: Caledonian. Regal. Strathclyde: UCl Clydebank 10.
I Amadeus (PG) (Milos Forman. US. 1984) Tom llulce. F.Murray Abraham. 160 mins. A risible title fight for a place in posterity between a God-fearing but mediocre talent and a musical genius. Unconvincing but redeemed by strong visuals and a sumptuous soundtrack. Strathclyde: Odeon Ayr.
I An American Tail (U) (Don Bluth. US. 1986) With the voices of Dom DeLuise. Madelaine Kahn. Christopher Plummer. 80 mins. The late 19th century. The Mousekewitz family make their way from trouble-torn Russia to a new life in America. but they find the streets ofNew York are not all paved with gold. A wealth of background detail displays Bluth‘s admirably painstaking approach to animation. but the foreground narrative. often agreeably perilous. does occasionally reek ofsentimentality. Strathclyde: UCl Clydebank if).
I Au Bevoir Les Enfants ( PG) (Louis Malle, Frande/W. Germany. 1987) Gaspard Manesse. Raphael Fejito. Philippe Morier-Genoud. 113 mins. Low-key. cinema-verite influenced screen portrayal of autobiographical incidents from Malle‘s boyhood. Set duringthe German occupation. the film follows the developing friendship between two boys at a small provincial school run by monks. one of whose closely-guarded Jewish identity is to prove dangerous to both boys as the Nazi presence looms alarmingly close. Simple. subtle. and very moving film. which avoids the cliches ofthe coming-of-age genre. and makes its larger political points firmly but unobtrusively. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Baltic/Scottish Film Forum As part ofthc New Beginnings cinema season. film-makers from Estonia. Lithuania. Latvia and Scotland will be present to compare the difficulties of working from a regional production base in the Soviet Union and the UK. Several shorts and feature extracts will be screened. Glasgow: GFT.
I The Bear (PG) (Jean-Jacques Annaud. France, 1988) Bart. Douce. Jack Wallace. Tcheky Karyo. 98 mins. Simple. unsentimental narrative follows the experiences of two bears. a big adult kodiak and a young orphan cub. as they are pursued by two hunters. Cleverly filmed to capture the bears acting naturally. this insight into their point of view makes a moving plea for the integrity of all animals and is highly entertaining as it goes about it. Glasgow: Cannon Clarkston Road. Cannon The Forge. Grosvenor. Odeon. Edinburgh: Dominion. Odeon. Central: Allanpark. Strathclyde: Cannon. La Scala. Odeon Hamilton.
I Before Stonewall (15) (Greta Schiller & Robert Rosenberg. US. 1984) 87mins. Valuable archive footage ofgay lifestyles
in San Francisco as filtered through a contemporary politicised perspective. Edinburgh Film Guild.
I The Belly OfAn Architect ( 15) (Peter Greenaway.UK/1taly. 1987) Brian Dennehy. Chloe Webb. Lambert Wilson. 118 mins. Distinguished American architect Stourley Kracklite arrives in Rome to mount an exhibition in memory of his 18th century predecessor Etienne Louis Boulee. Gradually. as his health deteriorates. he becomes convinced that his faithless. pregnant wife is tryingto poison him. A majestic performance by burly Dennehy adds a brutal emotional streak to this typically elegant Greenaway maze. which makes excellent use of sumptuous Roman locations. Glasgow: GFT.
I Betty Blue (18) (Jean-Jacques Beineix. France. 1986) Jean llughesAngladc. Beatrice Dallc. 120 mins. Tempestuous love gone mad as an older handyman and a free-spirited woman embark on a passionate. peripatetic fling that ends in tragedy. Filmed with a dazzlingtechniquc and an irritating emptiness by the maker of Diva. Edinburgh: Cameo.
I The Big Blue ( 15) (Luc Besson. France. 1988) Rosanna Arquette.]ean-Marc
Barr. Jean Reno. 120 mins. Barr and Reno. friends since they were children. are divers competing to reach the most profound depths without the aid of breathing equipment. and also rivals for the romantic attentions of Ms Arquette. A commercial smash in its native France. Besson‘s film is a stunningly photographed visual experience in various shades of blue. Even if the plot is a load of tosh. the dolphins are nice. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I The Big Parade (15) (Chen Kaigc. China. 1986) Wang Xueqi. Sun Chun. Lu Lei. 94 mins. Kaige‘s long-delayed second feature is a contemporary drama following the fate of four hundred volunteers embarking on one year's gruelling. intensive training to win a place in the troop parade across Peking‘sTiananmen Square on National Day in 1984. Although altered to comply with PLA concern at its less than flattering image of the army. this has still been hailed as an ironic commentary on the issue of how far the long march of Chinese history has actually progressed. and is a visually arresting and stirring slice of cinema to boot that more than confirms the promise of Yellow Earth. Edinburgh University
PATTI ROCKS
Patti Rocks (David Burton Morris, US, 1989) Chris lVlulkey, John Jenkins, Karen Landry. 85 mins. Two blue collar buddies Billy and Eddie (Mulkey and Jenkins) make a long overnight drive to visit the farmer’s girlfriend Patti (Laundry) who lives some way down the highway from their home town of St Paul, Minnesota. Patti is pregnant by Billy, he’s already married and the purpose of the journey is for his far more intelligent and sensitive friend to talk her out of having the child.
With Billy obsessed with a below-the-waist world view and insistently retailing his sexual escapades, the drive is really no more than a litany of the kind of locker-room banter fostered by almost every exclusively male environment.
Anxieties are layered over with fantasies of prowess, women are reduced to the status of ‘pussy’ and Billy just talks and talks, about ‘iammlng’ this, fucking that and
‘chopping’ the otherto the extreme extent that Patti Rocks probably contains more four letter word descriptions of sex than any other film. It's a revealing journey then, but not so much lorlhe language, all of which is in common currency, as for the way in which it works on the audience from
this tightly controlled dramatic environment. Pin-pointing and exposing a specifically male delusion of superiority, the sequence continues at such length, in such energetic spirit and in such a graphic foul-mouthed detail that it’s probably impossible if you're a man not to feel at least some reluctant recognition of yourself in Billy’s shallow egotlsm. If you’re a woman on the other hand you just might want to walk, the film inevitably blurring the line between Billy as a blue humorist and as a literal ‘dickhead’.
Of course, the somewhat predictable pay off to all of this is the very together and Independent Patti that the pair eventually confront; a charismatic personality much more than the mere sum of four letter words that the immature Billy lmagines herto be. Easily capable of organising her life without his help, perhaps she is a somewhat idealised figure, but this is still a healthily honest look at the least attractive side of macho posturing offering three fine performance, a neatly droll second half and one of the most rudely unusual of references to ‘Star Trek'. (Tom Tunney)
From Wed 15. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
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The List 10— 23 November 198915