FILM LIST
INDEX
I The Accidental Tourist ( 15) (Lawrence Kasdan. US. 1988) William Hurt. Geena Davis. Kathleen Turner. Amy Wright. 121 mins. Ilurt plays a successful writer of mollycoddling travel guides. whose placid home life is disturbed when his wife (Turner) walks out. Left to hisown devices. he falls for kooky dog trainer Davis. and begins to see that even the best prepared traveller must be ready for unexpected detours. Hurt'simpressive performance is at the centre of the film‘s quiet strengths and its absorbing depiction ofeveryday lives. Glasgow: GFI‘.
IAlien ( l8) (Ridley Scott. US. 1979) Sigourney Weaver. Ian Holm. John Hurt. 116 mins. Agatha Christie in outerspace as a freighter lands on a mysterious planet and is ingeniously invaded by a ravenous intruder which proceeds to chomp its way through the cast list. Edge-of-the-seat suspense thriller with a strong cast and ghastly special effects. Glasgow: GFT.
I Aliens ( 18) (James Cameron. L'S. 198(3) Sigourney Weaver. Michael Biehn. 137 mins. Revived from 2157-year snooze in deep space. Warrant Officer Weaver is cajoled into joining a marine rescue mission to the planet that is home forthe original alien beastie. L'nrelentingly paced with a terrifically gutsy performance from Weaver. this nerve-shredding sequel not only matches its predecessor but cannin surpasses it. An Oscar winner for special effects. Glasgow: GFI‘.
IAn American Tail (U) (Don Bluth. US. 1986) With the voices of Dom DeLuise. Madelaine Kahn. Christopher Plummer. 80mins. 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 ofN’ew 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: L'CI East Kilbride.
I Angel Heart ( 18) (Alan Parker. [58. 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 .
moody/ilm flair. with some ingenious if nasty twists in the plot. Edinburgh: Cameo.
I Kenneth Anger Films ( 15 ) 'l‘hr'ec programmes bringing together Anger's highly imaginative. ritualistic and influential underground films. which w ill also include material by Jean Gertet. Sergei Iiisensein and Derek Jarman to place his work in context. The first instalment includes his 1947 short. Fireworks. the charming 1953 effort Iiuux [IA ru'fr'ce and the current. 30-minute version of his arnbitiousCrowIcy-inspired Lucifer Rising. See feature. Iidinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Another Woman ( P( i) (woody Allen. US. 1988) Gena Rowlands. Mia Farrow, Ian 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 Row lands is forced to confront the emotional \ acuum of her life when she hears the revelations of a another woman (Farrow) unburdening her anxieties in the psychiatrist's office next door. Iidinburgh: Filmhouse. ‘
BLACK RAIN
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Black Rain (18) (Ridley Scott, US, 1989) Michael Douglas, Andy Garcia, Ken Takakura. Yasuka Matsuda. 125 mins. For all its megabucks’ vision of the future Blade Runner almost hinted at some Japanese metropolis, so there’s an ironic sense of familiarity as Ridley Scott returns with this buddy cop thrillerto the neon bustle of downtown Osaka. For adman extraodinaire Scott however, it’s not so much the Land of The Rising Sun as the Land of The Shiny Surfaces. Forget the boys’ own police procedural plot, what we have here is the reflected glow of nightlife on the rainswept streets orthe highly polished sheen of hi-tech nightclub interiors.
If you try hard enough you can give this visual glitz a kind of thematic justification. As with Scott’s previous pulp gloss opus Someone To Watch Over Me, much of the viewer’s interest (it any) lies in the tension between the protagonists (NYPD cop Berenger and NYPD cop Douglas respectively) and their environments (bewildering Japan, intimidating fashion snobland), but I wouldn‘t get too deep into the auteurtheory routine just yet. You could just as easily link them with the post-Beverly Hills Cop vogue for fish-out-ol-water ’tec tales (see
Witness for the best example), and Black Rain perhaps confirms Scott as a master decorator hired to tart up a very obvious formula.
True, the central McGuffin of yaltuza plot to counterfeit dollar bills can be seen as a kind of metaphor for the Japanese economic miracle, while the eponymous black rain is alluded to not so much as an indicator of the physical destruction unleashed by Hiroshima but as the openerto an onslaught of American cultural domination. But it’s a shame that these ideas are pushed to the sidelines by Douglas’s sour and rather uninspiring heroics. In the end, for all its motorbike chases, explosions, throat slashings and decapitations, the most profound effect it had on this viewer was the stirrings of desire forthe chief villain’s Rei Kawaltubo suits. All donations to the usual address, please. (Trevor Johnston)
From Fri 26: Glasgow: Cannon Clarkston Road, Cannon The Forge, Cannon Sauchiehall Street, Grosvenor. Edinburgh: Cannon. Central: Allanpark, Cannon. Strathclyde: Cannon, Odeon Hamilton, La Scala, UCI Clydebank, UCI East Kilbride. WMR Film Centre.
I Aparaiito The Un vanquished ( I’G) (Satyajit Ray. India. 1956) I’inaki Sen Gupta. Karuna Bannerjee. Kanu Bannerjee. 127 mins. The boy Apu travels to the city of Bennares with his mother before returning borne to his village. The second part of Ray‘s famous Apu trilogy effectively contrasts town and country. and shows how the protagonist gradually becomes distanced from his parents and background. Edinburgh University Film Society.
I Back To The Future Part 2 ( P(i) ( Robert Zemeckis. LS. 1989) Michael J. Fox. Christopher Lloyd. Thomas F. Wilson. 1118 mins. Finishing with a bigtease sequence of highlights for the mid-199i) 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. III/’2 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. Strathclyde: L'Cl Clydebank. L'CI East Kilbride.
I Batman (PG) (Leslie 11. Martinson. US. 1966) Adam West. Burt Ward. Burgess Meredith. 105 mins. Holy Bat-originals!
This big screen version of the Sixties TV Bat-capers piles on the Bat-camp and Bat-innuendo and sports wonderful
Tl IWOK! effects for the fight sequences. and the fact that there is indeed a (gasp!) plot is one thing it has over the darker. more expensive 1989 incarnation. Edinburgh: Cameo.
I Batman (Tim Burton. US. 1989)Jack Nicholson. Michael Keaton. Kim Bassinger. 121) 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 L'pstager. 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 Iilfman. a suitably wacky script and a strong supporting cast. Edinburgh: Cameo.
I The Battleship Potemkin ( P0 ) (Sergei Eisenstein. L'SSR. 1925) A. Antonov. Vladimir Barski. Grigori Alexandrov. 75 mins. Made for the 211th anniversary ofthe 1905 revolution. Iiisenstein‘s all-time cinema classic follows the mutiny by the
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crew ofthe Prince Potemkin and the support given by the local civilian population. who are mown down by the Czar‘s troops in the famous Odessa Steps sequence. Expressive camera technique and a grasp of editing that wrote the textbooks are just some of the innovations that put Eisenstein and Russian film firmly on the cinematic map. Edinburgh Film Guild.
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. He turnsout however. to be involved in organising guerilla activities in the cause ofwhite supremacy. which makes their relationship somewhat tricky. The implausible plot tends to undermine the ideological credibility of the film. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Bigfoot and the Hendersons (PG) (William Dear. US. 1987) John Lithgow, Melinda Dillon. Don Ameche. 111 mins. Disneyesque family adventure in which the all-American Henderson family crash into the legendary Bigfoot and adopt the suprisingly genial beastie as a domestic pet. Predictable complications ensue. involving the neighbours and blood-hungry hunters. Strathclyde: UCI Clydebank.
I Black Rain ( 18) c: (Ridley Scott. US. 1989) Michael Douglas. Andy Garcia. Ken Takakura. 125 mins. See review. Glasgow: Cannon Clarkston Road. Cannon The Forge. Cannon Sauchiehall Street. Grosvenor. Edinburgh: Cannon. Central: Allanpark. Cannon. Strathclyde: Cannon. Odeon Hamilton. La Scala, UCI Clydebank. UCI East Kilbride. WMR Film Centre.
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 retrcad 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. Glasgow: Grosvenor.
I Blue Velvet ( 18) (David Lynch. US. 1986) Kyle MacLachlan. Dennisllopper. Isabella Rossellini. 120 mins. Middle America. and young 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 sex to deconstruct our complacent vision of normal society. This is film-making of remarkable imagination and skill. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Breathless ( 18) (Jim McBride. US. 1983) Richard Gere. Valerie Kaprisky. 101 mins. Handsome streetwise hustleron the run from the LA police attemptsto escape to Mexico with his girlfriend. a French student. Forget the fact that thisis a remake of the sacred 1959 Godard classic and enjoy it on its own terms. for it‘s a fine. American love-on-the-run movie. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Breathless :1 Hull! (14' Snuff/M 15) (Jean-Luc Godard. France. 1959) Jean-Paul Belmondo. Jean Seberg. 911 mins. A chic Parisian pettycriminal (Belmondo) and his American ex-patriate girlfriend (Seberg) drift through a world of stolen cars and aimless romance towards an inexorable downbeat finale. Godard‘s debut feature provoked quite a stir in its day for its carefree arrogance with the conventions of filrnic grammar. but today it stands as a casual love letter to the American B-movie crime picture. brimming with the kind of'cinematic freshness and charisma that the director seemed to lose during his later Marxist period. And the two stars are well iconic.
Iidinburgh Film Guild.
The List 26 January -- 8 February 1991) 17