FILM LIST
I Bye Bye Blues (15).(Anne Wheeler. Canada. 1989) Rebecca Jenkins. Luke Reilly. Stuart Margolin. 116mins. Warming tale of a housewife keeping up her spirits during the depressed WWII years by joining a touring dance band as singer and piano player. The film was a deserving audience winner at the 1989 London Film Festival and is further evidence of the breadth oftalent currently working in Canada. Glasgow: GFT.
I Casablanca (PG) (Michael Curtiz. US. 1942) Humphrey Bogart. Ingrid Bergman. Dooley Wilson. 102 mins. You must rememberthis. . . Bogart being impossibly noble. Bergman torn between two lovers. Claude Rains playing both ends against the middle. devious Nazis. a fogbound airport. a piano-player tinkling that tune . . . A wonderful hill ofbeans. Strathclyde: Paisley Arts Centre.
I Casualties of War ( 18) rt: (Brian De Palma. US. 1989) Michael J. Fox. Sean Penn. Thuy Thu Le. 12(1mins. See review. Glasgow: Cannon The Forge. Odeon. Edinburgh: ()dcon. Strathclyde: Kelburne. UCI Clydebank. UCI East Kilbride.
I The Conformist II Conformism (Bernardo Bertolucci. Italy/France/West Germany. 1969)Jcan-Louis Trintignant. Stefania Sandrelli. Gastone Moschin. 111 mins. Fascinating and distinctly Freudian re-working of Alberto Moravia‘s novel. in which a young man screwed up by childhood sexual abuse struggles to conform amid the confusing social and political currents during the rise of Fascism. Bertolucci‘s extraordinary psychological insight is matched here by a brilliantly evoked pre-war Italy. Edinburgh University Film Society.
I Conquest Of The South Pole ( 15 ) a (Gilles MacKinnon. UK. 1989) Steven Rimkus. Ewen Brcmner. Laura Girling. 9() mins. Manfred Karge‘s acclaimed German play is brought to the screen by this Scottish production. substantially rescripted and shot on location in Leith
. . N” ‘Q""'E . M HOME STREET TOLLCROSS -TEL.O3I 228 4141
Matt Dillon in
,0 Late Nights
1 at 11.15pm 22.80/22
Fri 26: BATMAN (12) '89 version & & BATMAN (15) '66 version
Sat 27:ANGEL HEART(18) & MIDNIGHT EXPRESS (18)
Fri 2: THE LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM (18) & SALOME’S LAST DANCE (18)
Sat3: LAST TANGO IN PARIS (18) & THE DECAMERON (18)
From Fri 26 Jan-Thurs 8 Feb ;
DRUGSTORE
cowaovus)
2.30, 4.40, 6.50 and 9pm
docklands. Five young men face soul-destroying tedium on the dole. and decide to escape through their imagination by mounting an expedition to the Antarctic wastes. Director MacKinnon. working with the slenderest of material resources. fuses cast and location into an inventive and unscntimcntal piece of cinema. Central: MacRobert Arts Centre. I The Cook, The Thief. His Wife and Her Lover(18) (Peter Grecnaway. UK. 1989) Richard Bohringer. Michael Gambon. Helen Mirren. Alan Howard. Tim Roth. 120 mins. Grecnaway 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. Central: MacRobert Arts Centre. I Les Cousins ( 15) (Claude Chabrol. France. 1959) Jean-Claude Brialy. Gerard Blain. Juliette Maynicl. 11() mins. Major early success for Chabrol (winner ofthe Best Film prize at Berlin) is a droll and cynical look at Parisian student life. Blain is the country cousin who comes to study at the Sorbonne. Brialy the cool townie who barely seems to study but ends up with scholastic and romantic success. Edinburgh: French Institute. I Crossing Delancey (PG) (Joan Micklin Silver. US. 1988) Amy Irving. Peter Ricgert. Jeroen Krabhe. 96 mins. Career woman Izzy (Irving) is happily single in New York when her grandmomma decides to take the matter of marriage in hand. and hires Ilannah the matchmaker to get her hitched. The proposed match of pickle vendor Sam (Riegert) does not at first appeal. but gradually hearts melt. and the film moves to a romantic conclusion which sidesteps schmaltz at every turn. Strong scripting and sympathetic performances make this a must for incurable romantics. Glasgow: GFI I Dead Poets Society (PG) (Peter Weir. US. 1989) Robin Williams. Robert Scan Leonard. Ethan Ilawke. 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 ofa cliche. Strathclyde: UCI Clydebank. I Daughter Of The Nl|e(15) (Hsiou Hsiao Hsien.1987. Taiwan) Yang Lin. GaoJie. Yang Fan. 91 mins. Moving from the gentle rural terrain ofA Summer/1! Grandpa's and Dust In The Wind to the mean neon-lit streets ofTaipei. Hsiao Hsien's story of a Taiwanese teen and her family problems still retains the spot-on observation of human foibles and relationships that informed his earlier work and keeps the painstakingly lucid visual style more than intact. Glasgow: GFT. I The Decameron ( l8) (Pier Paolo Pasolini. Italy. 1972) Ninetto Davoli. Franco Citti. 111 mins. Boccaccio according to Pasolini means visually extraordinary medieval production design and much naked romping. Edinburgh: Cameo. I The Delinquents ( 12) (Chris Thomson. Australia. 1989) Kylie Minogue. Charlie Schlatter. Angela Punch McGregor. 91) mins. ()ur Kylie gets a lot off her chest and gets away from her little Miss Ultraclean image in this powerful tale of Antipodean adolescent amour. Ilaving left Charlene back in Ramsey St. cuddly Kylie plays Lola Lovell. the girl who breaksthc
CASUALTIES OF WAR
Casualtie ofWar(18)(Brian De Palma, US, 1989) Sean Penn, Michael J. Fox, ThuyThu Lee.120 Min. Casualties of War may seem like the next contribution to the Vietnam ‘Hit-List’ currently headed by Platoon. Thankfully the film concentrates on the battlefield of the mind ratherthan the actual fighting and marks De Palma’s continuing eligibility as Movie Brat and talented film-maker. Certainly it isn't original, there's nothing here that might seem more than a collage of sequences from previous war dramas, but De Palma’s ability to consistently surprise, shock and shorten the length of one's fingernails adds a certain ‘charm’ that the others lacked.
The film concentrates on the activities of a small reconaissance squad sent to survey a suspected Viet-Cong river post, report back and take appropriate action. The squad leader Seargent Meserve (the brutally unpleasant Sean Penn) decides that since the death of his buddy Brown, a morale-raising exercise would be fitting, not onlyto avenge Brown’s death but to satisfy the group's sexual desires. This point of view isn’t shared by Eriksson (Michael J. Fox) a new ‘cherry’ recruit. Failing to prevent the kidnap of a young Vietnamese girl, he weakly protests against the imminent gang rape, setting himself apart from the group. Unclear about who the real enemy is, it is now up to him to prevent her death and bring the others to
justice.
The rape victim Oahn (a convincing debut by Thuy Thu Lee) isn’tthe only casualty of war. As the plot may suggest, everyone depicted in the film suffers for one reason or another. The deliberate ambiguity of many scenes underlines this point when many of the characters under pressure display confused anxieties and doubts.
Although this may seen untypically provocative for De Palma, the backdrop of the Vietnam War provides plenty of oppurtunities to display the trademarks that infect his work: bloody violence and technically superior suspense sequences foremost in emphasis, dominating the film as it did in The Untouchables. Sadly, despite this and a brilliant performance by Sean Penn, the film’s sugar-laden finale destroys the emotional impact and point of the film, almost as if Vietnam was merely a bad dream in the American conscience, neveractually happening. Casualties Of War is an affecting and accomplished film but, typically Hollywood, it is flawed with overdoses of sentimentality. The only film that gets the message ‘right’ is Oliver Stone's Salvador. Watch and compare. (Dylan Matthew)
From Fri 26: Glasgow: Cannon The Forge, Ddeon. Edinburgh: Ddeon. Strathclyde: UCl Clydebank, UCI East Kilbride.
From Fri 2: Strathclyde: Kelburne.
conventions of small town 1957 Australian life by running off with herboyfriend (Schlatter). Though beset by a high cliche quotient it is hardly the shocker it hasbeen painted. Glasgow: Cannon The Forge. Cannon Sauchiehall Street. Iidinburgh: Cannon. Central: Allanpark. ('aledonian. Strathclyde: ()dcon Ayr. La Scala. L'Cl Clydebank.UC1liastKiIbride.
I Distant Voices, Still Live5( 15 ) ('l‘erenee Davies. UK. 1988) Freda Dowie. Pete Postlethwaite, Angela Walsh. Dean Williams. 85 mins. In the Liverpool ofthe late Forties and early Fifties. a working class household pe rseveres 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 L'niversity Film Society.
I Do The Right Thing ( is) (Spike Lee. (is. 1989) Spike Lee. Danny Aicllo. ()ssie
Davis. John Turturro. 119 mins. New York's deprived Bedford-Stuyvesant district on the hottest day of the summer. and racial tension escalates between Italian-American Sal (Aiello). his two sons and the mainly black local community who make up the bulk ofhis customers. As the situation worsensand violence looks a possibility. Sal's black delivery boy Mookie (Lee) ponders how to do the right thing. A forceful exploration of the socio-economic and cultural causes behind white racism. Lee’s film also operates as a tightly controlled multi-character drama. Glasgow: (iF'I'. I Drugstore COWDDH IS) ((iUs Van Sant Jr.. LS. 1989) Matt Dillon. Kelly Lynch. James Remar.William S. Burroughs. 100 mins. See feature. Iidinburgh: Cameo.
I ErikThe Viking ( 12) (Terry Jones. L'K. 1989) Tim Robbins. Gary (‘adyfl'erry Jones. Iiarlha Kitt. Mickey Rooney. Antony Sher. John (‘leese. Imogen Stubbs. 1113 mins. Film adaptation of
18 The-List 26 January - 8 February 1990