FILM LIST
more to this than meets the eye? Glasgow: GFT.
I Drowning By Numbers ( 18) (Peter Greenaway. UK. 1988) Joan Plowright. Bernard Hill. Joely Richardson. 1 18mins. In a narrative as straightforward and complicated as the title. three generations of women. all of them called Cissie Colpitts. dispose of their husbands in a series of aquatic murders. whilst the numbers 1 to 100 run through the filmin the-backgrounds. Full ofthe usual ravishing visual symmetries and a highly developed sense of the incongruous. Greenaway's latest sports a number of highly polished and sympathetic performances. that along with the enjoyable pastime of number spotting. makes this current effort his most accessible and pleasurable to date. Glasgow: OFT. I Dumbo (U) (Ben Sharpsteen. US. 1941) ()4 mins. The rest ofthe circusanimals make fun ofthe little elephant with the huge ears. but he discovers they have a use after all. Classic Disney animated feature. timeless entertainment. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. I Ernest Saves Christmas (PG) (John Cherry. US. 1988) Jim Varney. Douglas Scale. Oliver Clarke. Noelle Parker. 92 mins. Santa. now aged 151 . is gettinga little long in the tooth. and arrives in Florida to pass the job on to achildren's television presenter. but the accident-prone Ernest P. Worrell is driving the cab so complications can't be too far away. Glasgow: Odeon. Strathclyde: Odeon Ayr.UC1Clydebank If). I ET(Steven Spielberg. US. 1982). 115 mins. An alien creature gets stranded on earth (the opening sequence of threatening legs and flashing torches is beautifully done). where he is adopted by some kids. who help him construct a communication device to summon back his spaceship. All the little guy wantedto do was go home. but Spielberg made sure he had lots of cute and agreeable adventures first. and slipped in the most tear-jerking psuedo-death since Baloo the Bear in The Jungle Book for good measure. Edinburgh: Cameo. Central: MacRobert Arts Centre. I The Exorcist ( 18) (William Friedkin. US. 1973) Linda Blair. Ellen Burstyn. Max Von Sydow. 110 mins. Earnest priest Von Sydow steps in to save poor little obsessed girl in this hugely effective scarefest. Deac good. dead scarey. dead priest. Strathclyde: WMR Film Centre. I Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!( 18) (Russ Meyer. US. 1966) Turana Satana. 83 mins. Three go-go dancers release their tensions by driving sportscars through the desert and behaving aggressively towards men. Edinburgh University Film Society. I Fletch (PG) (Michael Ritchie. US. 1985) Chevy Chase. Dana Wheeler-Nicholson. Tim Matheson. 96 mins. Our Chevy is a newspaper columnis with a penchant for dressing up in silly disguises who is trying to track down a vilainous conman. With Chevy on the casc we can all sleep peacefully in our seats. or beds. Strathclyde: Odeon Ayr. I Fletch Lives (PG) (Michael Richie. US. 1989) Chevy Chase. Patricia Kalember. Cleavon Little. Hal Holbrook. Julianne Phillips. 95 mins. Fletch the would-be investigative journalist inherits an 80 acre Southern Plantation from an ex-aunt. However life as a Southern gentleman is not quite what he had hoped for. The estate it turns out. makes the Bates' Motel look like the palace of Versailles and. as with most old houses in the moviestherc are some strange goings on. When the lovely local lawyer is murdered Chevy takes up the chase with his usual gamut of gags and guises. Strathclyde: Odeon Ayr. I Frantic (15) (Harrison Ford. US. 1988) Harrison Ford. Betty Buckley. Emmanuel|Seigner. 12()mins. Cardiologist Ford and wife Buckley travel
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Pet Sematary (18) (Mary Lambert, US, 1989) Dale Mldkelf, Denise Crosby, Fred Gwynne, 102 mins. Stephen King's novel, ‘Pet Sematary', is one of his most personal books, an attempt to come to terms with death and disease through contemplating a parent’s worst nightmare, the death of a child. As a screen project, it has been nurtured for some years by George Romero, but it has sadly fallen out of his hands into those of Mary Lambert, whose disastrous ‘Siesla' hardly seemed to qualify herfor everworking again, let alone taking on such a promising project. If the results aren’t as bad as could have been feared-the film will at least prod you into arguing about what precisely is wrong with it in a way that a superficially ‘better’ but empty horror movie like ‘Child's Play’ won’t— then ‘Pet Sematary’ must still count as a major missed opportunity and, as usual, King himself must take an equal share of the blame for boiling down his ambitious, iiilawed, novel into a hokey, annoying, predictable screenplay.
It opens TV style with an ideal family moving into an old dark house in Maine, then laboriously establishes
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that the Old Indian Burial Gro it up yonder can bring the dead back to life. The trouble is, as a zombie cat testifies, they’re not quite the same when they do get resurrected. Dur everyman hero, Dr Louis Creed (Mldkiff), is so shattered when his two year-old son Gage is run over by a
passing truck that he ignores the advice
oi folksy old neighbour (Gwynne) and tries to bring the kid back, with a predictable bloodbath result as the monster child terrorises everyone within reach with kitchen knives.
Clumsin structured, with lots of flashback anecdotes and a very confusing view of life-after-death, this is at least well-acted and occasionally scary but almost everything is telegraphed. I also found deeply offensive the throwaway depiction of the heroine’s terminally ill sister as a green-faced monster. Like all Stephen King's books ‘Pet Sematary’ could probably make a great movie, and like most Stephen King films, this sadly isn’t it. (Kim Newman)
From Fri 17. Glasgow: Cannon The Forge, Cannon Sauchiehall Street.
to Paris for a conference. but en route manage to exchange one of their cases for a high precision electronic detonator. The sudden disappearance of his wife in a foreign city where he doesn‘t speak the language. is soon to pitch Ford into a plot that involves international espionage and the murky Parisian underworld. Good to see Polanski partially redeeming himself after the soggy Pirates. But it is only partially. because this attempt at a Hitchcockian thriller is really rather dog-cared in conception and sluggish of execution. though the cast are worth watching. Edinburgh: Broughton Film Society.
I Full Moon in Paris Les Nails De La Pleine Lune ( 15) (Eric Rohmer. France. 1984) Pascale Ogier. Tcheky Karyo. Fabrice Luchini. 101 mins. A young trainee textile designer finds her fondness for socialising causes tension between herself and her lugubrious lover. Rohmcr‘s typical finesse infuse a great deal of charm in the production. Edinburgh: French Institute.
I Games ForTeenagers ( 15) (Leida Lauis & Arvo lho. Estonia, 1985) MonicaJarv. 90 mins. Prolific film music composer Leo
Sumera will be in Glasgow to talk about his work on this sensitive study of life in an orphanage; which examines the emotional turmoil created by the young charges‘ separation from their largely delinquent or alcoholic parents. Glasgow: GF'I‘.
I Getting Ii Bight ( 15) {I (Randal Kleiser. US. 1989) Jesse Birdsall. Lynne Redgrave. Jane Horrocks. Helena Bonham-Carter. 102 mins. Jesse B. plays a horny but shy twentysomthing hairdresser anxious to escape from his dreary existence and learn something of women. love and the mysteries oflife. Enter a trio of prospective lovers in older woman Redgrave. scatty aristo-punk Bonham-Carter. and downhome girl-next-door type Horrocks. Horrendous caricatures the lot ofthem in a film that‘s very obviously made by an American (Randal Grease Kleiser) whose view of British society seems to have been formed largely from Swinging Sixties movies like Alfie. Lots of red buses and dated sexual politics in other words. Glasgow: Cannon The Forge. Grosvenor. Strathclyde: UCI Clydebank If).
I Gone With The Wind (PG) (Victor Fleming. US. 1939) Clark Gable.Vivien
Leigh. Olivia de Havilland. Lcslic Howard. 220 mins. This new print has restored the original colour to the classic. fifty-year-old tale that brings alive the era of the civil war through gripping narrative and characterisation. remaining faithful to Mitchell‘s powerful novel. Glasgow: Cannon Sauchiehall Street. I Halloween 4 (18) (Dwight “Link. us. 1989) Donald Pleasance. Ellie Cornell. Danielle Harris. George P.Wilbur. 1()() mins. Seasonal return for slice‘n’dice enthusiast Michael Myers (Wilbur). whose hospital transfer due to a legal technicality affords an opportunity to escape. Blade at the ready. he hotfootsit to 1 Iaddowfield to do away with his neicc (Harris). with his psychiatrist ofold (Pleasance ) on his heels. Run-of-the-mill sequel carnage. with little more than fresh flesh for the gore-hungry US meat market. Strathclyde: UCI Clydebank 10. I Heat and DDS! (PG) (James ivory. UK. 1982) Julie Christie. Christopher Cazenove. Shashi Kapoor. Greta Scacchi. 130 mins. Opulent adaptation by the Merchant Ivory crew sees a young woman discovering something of the historyof India. Scripted from her own novel by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala the production is lavish and worth seeing though the complex plot structure could do with a good dusting down. Glasgow: Grosvenor. I Heathers (15) 1? (Michael Lehman. US. 1989) Wynona Ryder. Christian Slater. Lisannc Falk. 102 mins. See feature. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. I Hellbound: Hellraiserll (18) (Tony Randel. UK. 1988) Ashley Laurence. Kenneth Cranham. Claire Higgins. 93 mins. After the events of Hellraiser Kirsty (Laurence) is detained in Dr Channard‘s psychiatric hospital. but hell is soon unleashed once more and as the Cenobites and the now skinless Julia (Higgins) return to prey on our heroine. However. she is under just as much threat from the good doctor who suddenly finds his most sadistic fantasies are coming true. Redundant sequel that never recaptures the verve of the original because it fails to develop the characters or find much more for them to do. The result is a poorly directed effort that for all the blood spilt. remains tedious in the extreme. Glasgow: Cannon The Forge. I Hellraiser(18) (Clive Barker. UK. 1987) Andy Robinson. Claire Higgins. Ashley Laurence. 92 mins. A horror picture with a well-constructed plot. strong characters. haunting images and special effects that actually serve the storyline. Minor blemishes along the way. but an auspicious debut from writer Clive Barker. Glasgow: Cannon The Forge. I Henry V (PG) (Kenneth Branagh. UK. 1989) Kenneth Branagh. DerekJacobi. Paul Scofield. Judi Dench. 137 mins. There are undoubted associations with Olivier in K.B.‘s choice offirst feature. but he emerges with some credit as both director and performer. Branagh's is a much muddier version than its famous predecessor. both in the scrappy turmoil ofthe rainsodden battle scenes and in the tempering of zesty jingoism with an appreciation of the human cost ofconflict. Portraying the young king as a carcworn. rather sullen warrior. the film seems to offer a more complex reading ofthe text than before. even if Branagh's budgetary resources stint somewhat on the grandeur of Olivier‘s charging horses. Solid stuff. Glasgow: Odeon. Edinburgh: Odeon. I The Horse Thief (15) (Tian Zhuangzhuang, China. 1986)Tsehang Rigzin. Dan Jiji. 88 mins. Tibet. 1923. To provide for his poverty-stricken family. Norbu steals horses from wandering nomads and offerings reserved for the Gods. His actions earn him the contempt of his village and ultimately. expulsion from his tribe. An episodic narrative. occasionally somewhat lacking in pace. The Horse 'I'hieflingers on the rites and rituals of the tribe with a steely gaze that
The List 10— 23 November 1989 21
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