FILM LIST
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: Cameo.
I La Boheme (PG) (Luigi Comenchini, France/Italy, 1987) Barbara Hendricks. Jose Carreras, Luca Canonici. 106 mins. Puccini’s celebrated opera is set in a wintry Paris in 1910, and follows the fortunes of a group of young artists asthey freeze in their garret, with only the thought of romance to warm their hearts. Fine opera movie that works on its own terms as well as remaining faithful to the text, because the artificiality ofthe original perfectly matches Commenchini‘s melodramatic, studio-based style. Edinburgh: Filmhousc.
I Born On The Fourth Of July ( 15) (Oliver Stone, US, 1989) Tom Cruise, Willem Dafoe, Raymond J. Barry, Kyra Sedgwick. 144 mins. See feature. Glasgow: Cannon The Forge, Cannon Sauchiehall Street, Salon. Edinburgh: Cannon. Central: Cannon. Strathclyde: Cannon, UCI Clydcbank, UCl East Kilbride.
I Casualties of War (18) (Brian De Paima, US, 1989) Michael J. Fox, Sean Penn. Thuy Thu Le. 120 mins. De Palma‘s contribution to the ever increasing pile of ’nam films concentrates on the dilemma of the new ‘aacherry‘ recruit (Fox) when confronted with his comrades‘ gang-rape ofa Vietnamese girl. The candy coated finale somewhat destroys the film‘s impact. as if it were merely a bad dream in the American conscience. An intriguing contribution to the pile, even if it doesn‘t make it to the top. Strathclyde: Cannon. I College (U) (James W. Horne, US, 1927) Buster Keaton, Ann Cornwall, Harold Goodwin. 70mins. Cherishable
Keaton feature which borrows the plot from Harold Lloyd‘s The Freshman to chart the progress of wimpy Buster as he competes with the college jocks to win the hand of his sweetheart. The sports field sequences are ample display of Keaton‘s unparallelled comic grace. Edinburgh Film Guild. I Crimes of Passion ( 18) (Ken Russell, US, 1984) Kathleen Turner, Anthony Perkins, John Laughlin. 107 mins. Russell‘s debunking of the American way of sex is an uproariously black satire where moonlighting whore meets dildo-packing clergyman meets Human Penis. A strident and courageous piece of filmmaking in that it casts the men asthe oppressors. Russell‘s best in years. Glasgow: GFI‘. I Cry Freedom (PG) (Richard Attenborough, US, 1987) Denzel Washington, Kevin Kline, John Thaw. 158 mins. Although not without its flaws, Attenborough‘s biographical rc-crcation of the friendship between black civil rights activist Steve Biko and white liberal newspaperman Donald Woods is his best film to date; an epic, moving drama that also stands as a vigorous condemnation of apartheid. Strathclyde: UCI East Kilbride. 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 ultraclean image in this powerful tale of Antipodcan adolescent amour. Cuddly Kylie plays Lola Lovell, the girl who breaks the conventions of small town 1957 Australian life by running offwith her boyfriend (Schlatter). Beset by a high cliche quotient, it is hardly the shocker it has been painted. Central: Caledonian. Strathclyde: Odeon Hamilton. WMR Film Centre. I Directed By Andrei Tarkovsky ( 15) (Michal Leszczylowski, Sweden. 1988) 101 mins. Fascinating portrait ofthe late Andrei Tarkovsky at work on his final film
18 The List 23 February — 8 March 1990
BORN ON THE FOURTH or JULY
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Born On The Fourth Of July (18) (Oliver Stone, US, 1989) Tom Cruise, Willem Dafoe, Kyra Sedgwick. 144 mins. Oliver Stone’s second Vietnam movie, following on from Platoon, this is also his most ambitious work. Based on the 1976 autobiography of the disabled Vietnam veteran lion Kovic, and co-scripted by Kovic and Stone, the film came within an ace of being made in 1978 with Al Pacino in the lead role. Twelve years later, and following a whole spate of 'Nam films, one would think that the impact of this latest would be lessened. The fact that the film still manages to work with a savage, bitter power is due to a number of mutually supporting lactors.
Firstly, there is the basic strength and significance of what happened to Kovic. A ‘Yankee Doodle Boy’ who shared his birthday with his country, Kovic was a confirmed patriot who grew up in an almost idealistically average 1950s manner, watching television and playing soldiers. Volunteering for service in the US Marines, he was wounded on his second tour of duty and left paralysed from the waist down. This, and his subsequent experiences back in the States, first in the squalor of a veterans' hospital and then as a leading figure in the anti-war protest movement, form the substance of the story.
Secondly, there is Cruise, giving easily the deepest and most affecting performance of his career.
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lmportantly, Cruise’s track record of high-achieving characters makes him the perfect choice to recreate Kovic's personal catastrophe. Reduced to a wheelchair, helplessness and despair, Cruise has an impact which no other actor of his generation could have brought to the role.
Thirdly, there is the sweep of Stone’s direction, which manages to take in 20 years of American history, fashions, music, and social and political upheaval. Beginning in the mid-’50s and carrying on through to 1976, the film presents a wistful chronicle of an era which saw disintegration and rebirth of American society and national identity. Typically lorthis director, Kovic’s physical and spiritual hurt is made to symbolise that of his country overthls period. Crucially, though, it all works. This is a big movie with a big performance at its heart which achieves all its ambitions. The ending may seem a little upbeat and pat, and Stone is certainly the last director one could accuse of understatement, but this is much more than merely another Vietnam film. By turns lyrical, moving and filled with anger, despair and momentous happenings, it’s a genuine epic. (Tom Tunney)
From Fri 2. Glasgow: Cannon The Forge, Cannon Sauchiehall Street, Salon. Edinburgh: Cannon. Central: Cannon. Strathclyde: Cannon, UCl Clydebank, 061 East Kilbride.
The Sacrifice, assembled from some fifty hours of behind-the-scenes footage by his editor Leszczylowski. In the midst ofa serum of interpreters and technicians. his methods of marshalling actors and creating the magic we see in the end result IS shown to be a mysteriously intuitive process. Glasgow: GFT.
I Dirty Dancing (15) (Emile Ardolino. US. 1987) Jennifer Grey. Patrick Swavzc. Jerry Orbach. 100 mins. Remarkably ordinary but staggeringly popular girl-meets-boy-from-thc-wrong-side- of-the-tracks musical set in an American
summer camp in the year 1963. Glasgow: Grosvenor.
I Diva (15) (Jean-Jacques Beincix, France. 1981) Frederic Andrei, Roland Bertin, Richard Bohringcr. 117 mins. The twisted fate of two tapes. one an illegal recording of an American opera star, the other exposing a crime ring, is the central strand of this daffy Gallic cult favourite. Style exudes from every sprocket hole. Glasgow: GET.
I Do The Right Thing ( 18) (Spike Lee, US. 1989) Spike Lee, Danny Aiello, Ossie 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 (Aieilo), histwo sons and the mainly black local community who make up the bulk ofhis customers. As the situation worsens and violence looks a possibility, Sal’s black delivery boy Mookic (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. Edinburgh: Filmhousc. Edinburgh University Film Society.
-I Driving Miss Daisy (U) r: (Bruce Beresford. US. 1989) Jessica Tandy, Morgan Freeman, Dan Aykroyd. 99 mins. Sec feature. Glasgow: Cannon The Forge, Odeon. Strathclyde: UCl Clydebank, UCI East Kilbride.
I Drugstore Cowboy (18) (Gus Van Sant Jr. , US, 1989) Matt Dillon, Kelly Lynch, James Remar. William S. Burroughs. 100 mins. A gang of dope fiends blithely ripoff a series of drugstores headed by our Matt who gives his best performance to date in Gus Van Sant‘s recreation of 1971 Oregon. Complete with its halucinatory visions of flying cows the film created astir stateside for presenting the theft and use of narcotics as an alluring pastime. it marks a new and more creditable milestone in Hollywood drug movies. Edinburgh: Filmhousc.
I A Dry White Season (15) (Euzhan Palcy, US, 1989) Donald Sutherland, Janet Suzman, Jurgen Prochnow, Marlon Brando. 107 mins. Andre Brink‘s novel about the white South African conscience brought Marlon back to the screen for his first cameo in years. As Ben Du Toit (Sutherland) investigates the death ofhis black gardener’s son he becomes increasingly aware of the true nature of the system that he is living in. Though criticised for simplifying the novel, notably by balloon-man Brando, the film both engages the viewer and enrages their sympathies. Glasgow: Cannon Sauchiehall Street. Edinburgh: Cameo.
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. However his son finds, to his surprise, that he is 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 of his new wife‘s desire, as a consequence she takes a sleazy lover. His last hope lies in a traditional oriental herbal cure. Wang 'makcs subtle and very funny play with the social and sexual mores of the old world and the new in this delightful dark comedy. Glasgow; GFT. I 8% (Federico Fellini, Italy, 1963) Marcello Mastroianni, Claudia Cardinale. Anouk Aimee. 138 mins. Showing in a pristine new 35mm print. Many regard this moody magnum opus as the Italian maestro's finest hour. Following a scenario not unlike the one that faced Fellini himselfwhen he was under pressure to come up with a sequel to the massive international success of La Dolce Vita. Mastroianni plays a film-maker plagued by intellectual insecurity and Catholic guilt as a weird selection of actresses, financiers, writers and huckstcrs dog his every move. As ever with Fellini, it‘s all about spectacle rather than ideas, but the show is a sparklingone. Glasgow: GFT. 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. Dead good, dead scarey. dead priest. Glasgow: Grosvenor. Strathclyde: Odeon Ayr.