FILM LIST
INDEX
I Abba The Movie (U) (Lasse Halstrom. Swe/Australia. 1977) ABBA. Robert Hughes. Tom Oliver. Bruce Barry. 95 min. Made at the height oftheir populatrity. the wafer thin plotline consists of the four Swedes being pursued across Oz by a Sydney DJ. Dancing Queen. Waterloo. S. ().S. . etc. Takes you back eh? No. Edinburgh: Cameo.
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 ofplots 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 achievement. its pushing back the boundaries of the possible in the movie-making world means it won‘t sink without a trace. Edinburgh: Cameo.
I The African Queen (PG) (John Huston. UK. 1951) Humphrey Bogart. Katharine Hepburn. Robert Morley. 105 mins. Splendid WW1 adventure has the marvellous pairing of grizzled Bogey and spinsterish Hepburn as they make their way up the Congo fighting swamps. the Hun. and each other to quite thrilling effect. Great character interplay courtesy of film critic James Agee‘s gritty dialogue. Edinburgh University Film Society. IAngel Heart ( 18) (Alan Parker. US. 1987) Mickey Rourke. Robert de Niro. Charlotte Rampling. 113 mins. Scruffy. unshaven private eye Harry Angel is hired by the mysterious Louis Cyphre to track down a missing Forties crooner who has reneged on a life-or-death deal. His investigations lead him to a seedy New Orleans dominated by voodoo cults and extremely dead bodies in this uncomfortable mating of visceral gore and moodyfilm noir. with some ingenious if nasty twists in the plot. Glasgow: GFT.
I Kenneth Anger Lecture Author of the scandalous megastar revelations Hollywood Babylon and leading light in American underground film. Anger will discuss his life and career. Curtain-raiser for a touring retrospective of his work which will include a new print of the gay leather classic Scorpio Rising. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Animal Farm (U) (John Halas & Joy Batchelor. UK. 1955) With the voice of Maurice Denham. 75 mins. Reasonable attempt to translate Orwell‘s classic into cartoon form. which is too earnest to reproduce the novel‘s zest in a satisfactory way. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Apocalypse Now ( 18) (Francis Coppola. US. 1980) Martin Sheen. Marlon Brando. Robert Duvall. Dennis Hopper. 153 mins. Vietnam as The Ultimate Trip. We follow US Army assassin Sheen downriver and deeper into the Heart ofDarkness ruled over by Brando's mad Colonel Kurtz. Alternately pretentious and visually overpowering (the Valkyries helicopter attack. for example). its grandiloquent folly somehow pierces right to the bone of the conflict. Edinburgh University Film Society.
I Back To The Future Part 2 (PG ) ( Robert Zemeckis. US. 1989) Michael]. Fox. Christopher Lloyd. Thomas F. Wilson. 108 mins. Finishing with a big tease sequence of highlights for the mid- 1990 scheduled Back to the Future Part 3. this could be the longest movie trailer in Hollywood history. Once again Michael has to outfox Biff. this time zooming forwards as well as backwards in the time machine. Directed and played with terrific verve. BTFZ moves so fast from one
set-piece to the next that there‘s no time to reflect on the basic ridiculousness ofthe plot. Glasgow: Cannon The Forge. Cannon Sauchiehall Street. Edinburgh: Cannon. Central: Caledonian. Strathclyde: UCl Clydebank. UCI East Kilbride.
I Bagdad Cale (PG) (Percy Adlon. US/W. Germany. 1988). Marianne Sagebrecht. C.C.H. Pounder. Jack Palance. 108 mins. The wonderful Sagebrecht stars as a redoubtable German lady who leaves her husband in the middle of the desert and settles down with the folks at a run-down motel. where proprietress Pounder has also recently lost a spouse. The two women re-invent themselves through their friendship. and transform the place into the bargain. Adlon displays a warm and charming sympathy with the quirks ofhis oddball but convincing characters. and shapes a beguiling tale from the most basic of materials. Edinburgh University Film Society.
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 zanier than ever; but the real triumph is Keaton‘s. With less screen time than the Great Upstager. he produces a performance of memorable subtlety 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 terrific score by Danny Elfman. a suitably wacky script and a strong supporting cast. Strathclyde: UCl East Kilbride.
I Betty Blue ( l8) (Jean-Jacques Beineix. France. 1986) Jean HughesAnglade. Beatrice Dalle. 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 dazzlingtechnique and an irritating emptiness by the maker of Diva. Edinburgh: Cameo.
I Birdy (Alan Parker. US. 1984) Matthew Modine. Nicholas Cage. John Harkins. 120 mins. Atmospheric adaptation of William Wharton‘s novel about a boy passionately enthralled by birds. and his beefcake high school buddy. who form an unlikely teenage bond. Birdy (Modine) is so traumatised in Vietnam that he retreats into bird behaviour. and the military psychiatrist calls in Cage to sort himout. Trouble is. he ain't come through ‘Nam so good himself. Superny acted. with some exhilarating ‘flight‘ sequences. this is a daring. witty. moving and largely successful film. Glasgow: GET.
I Blade Runner ( 15) (Ridley Scott. US. 1982) Harrison Ford. Rutger Hauer. Sean Young. 117 mins. A tough cop tracks down a group of malfunctioning androids in this gritty hi-tech retread of Raymond Chandler. executed with Scott‘s customary visual flair. and with strong performances. especially from Ford and Hauer. But try following the confusing plot first time around. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Blazing Saddles (15) (Mel Brooks. US. 1974)C1eavon Little. Gene Wilder. Slim Pickens. Harvey Korman. 93 mins. More banal schoolboy humour from Brooks and a clutch of other writers. A railway company is thwarted in its plans by a motley crew ofwestern folk. There are a few genuine comic touches but this is far from being a work ofgenius. Glasgow: Grosvenor.
I Blue Velvet ( 18) (David Lynch, US, 1986) Kyle MacLachlan. DennisHopper, Isabella Rossellini. 120 mins. ln small-town Middle America. would-be boy detective MacLachlan finds a severed car on some waste ground. When the police shoo him away he decides to do some investigating of his own. A singular fusion of the cosy and the terrifying which
blends kitsch and nightmare. B-movie detection and brutal sexual perversion to deconstruct our complacent vision ofwhat passes for normal society. This is filmmaking of remarkable imagination and skill. Edinburgh: Cameo. Strathclyde UCI Clydebank. I Brazil (15) (Terry Gilliam. US. 1985) Jonathan Pryce. Kim Griest. Robert de Niro. Peter Vaughan. 142 mins. Extravagantly designed and blackly humorous Orwellian vision of the future. as modest bureaucrat Pryce battles the forces of totalitarianism and fights for his dream girl. feisty trucker Griest. Overlong and ramshackle fantasia. with moments of sheer creative adrenalin and a classic ending. Strathclyde: UCl Clydebank. I Checking Dut(15) (David Leland. UK. 1988) Jeff Daniels. Melanie Mayron. Michael Tucker. 95 mins. Daniels plays Ray Macklin. an advertising exec for Californian airline Bon-Aire. increasingly and hysterically health-conscious in the wake of the sudden fatal coronaries suffered by a number of his colleagues. His mental disintegration is brought to a head when he's sent to reassure press and public at the site of a crash-landed plane. Uncertain and barely released would-be satire on midlife crisis and American health nuts. an awful warningofwhat happens when a British director goes to the States and tries to deal with unfamiliar material. Edinburgh: Cameo. I Commando ( 18) (Mark L. Lester. US. 1985) Arnold Schwarzenegger. Rae Dawn Chong. 90mins. When his beloved daughter Jenny is kidnapped. retired colonel Schwarzenegger springs back into action. In a matter of hours he must locate and rescue the girl. beat the bad guysand settle an old score. Hardly enough bother to work up a sweat really. A pure action adventure told with zest and the saving grace ofgallows humour. The pace rarely flags and Chong is a treat as the innocent bystander along for the ride. Patently preposterous but persuasively packaged. Strathclyde: Odeon Ayr. I The Cook. The Thiel. His Wile and lie: Lover(18) (Peter Greenaway. UK. 1989) Richard Bohringer. Michael Gambon. Helen Mirren. Alan Howard. Tim Roth. 120 mins. Greenaway has made a film guaranteed to offend everybody. Though beautifully art-directed. photographed. produced and acted it nevertheless deals with the type of subject matter normally only found under the counter at your local video nasty store. Compulsive and unforgettable but you‘d be hard pressed to like the thing. Glasgow: GET. I Dangerous Liaisons ( 15) (Stephen Frears. US. 1988) Glenn Close. John Malkovich. Michelle Pfeiffer. Keanu Reeves. 120 mins. Madame deTourvel and the Vicomte de Valmont (Close and Malkovich) are treacherous 18th century aristocrats weaving a web oferotic duplicity around one another. Frears makes a notable Hollywood debut. guiding his east through a difficult set of narrative pirouettes. Yet for all the pent-up emotion on screen. little fervour seeps through. and the result is rather cold and calculatingEdinburgh University Film Society. I Dead Poets Society (PO) (Peter Weir. US. 1989) Robin Williams. Robert Sean Leonard. Ethan Hawke. 129 mins. lna staid private boys‘ school in Fifties New England. an unconventional teacher (Williams) interests his charges in literature and philosophy to such an extent that they form a secret club to investigate them (along with booze and girls) further. Though Williams is on good form. the film focuses mainly on the boys‘ emotional development and crises. and on the mystery and beauty surrounding their midnight meetings. A sensitive. tense and moving study of the conflict between passion and authority. even if the plot is something of a cliche. Glasgow: ()deon.
I The Delinquents ( 12) (ChrisThomson. Australia. 1989) Kylie Minogue. Charlie Schlatter. Angela Punch McGregor. 90 mins. Our Kylie gets a lot off her chest and gets away from her little Miss Ultraclean image in this powerful tale of Antipodean adolescent amour. Having left Charlene back in Ramsey St. cuddly Kylie plays Lola Lovell. the girl who breaksthe conventions of small town 1957 Australian life by running off with her boyfriend (Schlattcr). Though beset by a high cliche quotient it is hardly the shocker it hasbeen painted. Glasgow: Cannon The Forge. Cannon Sauchiehall Street. Edinburgh: Cannon. Central: Cannon. Strathclyde: UCl Clydebank. UCl East Kilbride.
I Desire ( 15) (Stuart Marshall. UK. 1989) 90mins. An examination ofhomosexual expression in pre-war Germany and its gradual sublimation into the Thirties body culture. before German homosexuals faced the horrors of the concentration camp. Glasgow: GFT.
I Distant Voices, Slill Lives (15) (Terence Davies. UK. 1988) Freda Dowie. Pete Postlethwaite. Angela Walsh. Dean Williams. 85 mins. 1n the Liverpool ofthe late Forties and early Fifties. a working class household perseveres through domestic violence. death and marriage. A brilliantly made tribute to the Davies family's experience. and a requiem for a way of life now past. by one of the most gifted cinematic artists this country now possesses. Edinburgh: Film Guild.
I Dim Sum (U) (Wayne Wang. US. 1985) Laureen Chew. Kim Chew. Victor Wong. 87 mins. A young Chinese-American woman is torn between moving out to get married and staying with her possessive mother. a tale rendered all the more touching because it draws on the actresses‘ real-life relationship. With a title literally translated as ‘a little bit of heart'. this isan affecting. wistful study of emotional and cultural conflict. handled with admirable restraint. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (PG) (Frank ()2. US. 1988) Steve Martin. Michael Caine. Glenne Headly. 110 mins. In this remake of 1964‘s Bedtime Story. Caine is the sophisticated con-man. and Martin 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 wager. Despite the obvious skill of its stars. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels fails to stretch them or to take itselfseriously enough. Glasgow: GFT.
I The Dream Team (15) (Howard Zeiff. US. 1989) Michael Keaton. Christopher Lloyd. Peter Boyle. 113 mins. Although the film admirably explores the character ofits four psychiatric leads it failsoverall to create concern for any of them. leaving us with a tired. dilapidated piece of film-making. Dr Weitzman takes a group of four resident patients for a day out ata baseball game. However. the trip getsout of hand and the four embark on ajourney into inner city corruption and violence as they uncover a world crazier than themselves. which proves to be the film's saving grace: it constantly underlines the fact that they are emotional and intelligent human beings. Strathclyde: UCl Clydebank.
I Eat A Bowl of Tea ( 12) (Wayne Wang. US. 1989) Russell Wong. Cora Miao. Victor Wong. 104 mins. Set in New York in 1949. the film sends up the masculine mystique of the Chinese community. Successful gambler Wah Gay (Wong) decides his son should marry a native Chinese girl in the traditional manner. To his son‘s surprise he finds he finds himself quite happy with the choice made for him. Until. that is. he returns to the Big Apple and finds he is impotent in the face ofhis new wife's desire. as a consequence she takes a sleazy lover. His last hope lies in a traditional oriental herbal cure. Wang makes subtle and very funny play with the sociual and sexual mores of the old world and the new in this delightful dark
The List 12 — 25 Januarv 199021