FILM LIST
Harry Dean Stanton. Enfili?) Estevez. Vonetta McGee. 92 mins. Cult fave blend of social satire and offhand sci-fi. as naive punk Estevez gets a job repossessing cars and old hand Stanton shows him the ropes. Great stuff, only it makes you wonder whatever happened to Alex Cox. Edinburgh University Film Society. I Road House (18) (Rowdy Herrington, US, 1989) Patrick Swayze. Ben Gauara, Kelly Lynch. 114 mins. Swayze moves from Dirty Dancing to dirty dunting when he becomes bounce r-in-chief at the savage Double Deuce nightclub. Utterly execrable macho nonsense, but full of satisfying cheap thrills if you take it in the right spirit. Edinburgh: Odeon. I The Rocky Hon'or Picture Show ( 18) (Jim Sharman, UK, 1975)Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon. Barry Bostwick. Meat Loaf. 100 mins. The cult film to end all others. this rock spoof on old horror movies has created a breed of Rocky Horror crazies. and packs them in at late shows everywhere. The film has its moments. and Curry is splendidly camp as the bisexual Frank N. Furter. Edinburgh: Odeon. I Rosalie Goes Shopping (15) (Percy Aldon, France, 1989) Marieanne Sagebrecht. Brad Davis. Judge Reinhold. 94 mins. Third and apparently final film in the Percy Aldon/Marianne Sagebrecht series which also boasts Sugarbaby and Bagdad Cafe. has the hefty hausfrau offon a credit card spree as she tries to cope with the temptations of the States‘ consumer paradise. In the same spirit she gets herself a computer and hacks into a local bank to clear her debts. This may be your last chance to catch the celebrated team in action. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. I La Rupture The Breakup (18) (Claude Chabrol, France. 1970) Stephane Audran. Jean-Claude Drouot. Michel Bouquet. 120 mins. While on acid. Drouot attacks his wife Audran and their child. but when she retaliates and puts him in hospital. it‘s time for her father-in-law to hire aprivatc eye to checkthem out. Anotherjourney with Chabrol through the misdemeanours of the perils bourgeois. and on this occasion it‘s a bitter and suspenseful one. Edinburgh: French Institute. I The Sacrifice (15) (AndreiTarkovsky. Sweden. 1986) Erland Josephson. Susan Fleetwood. Allan Edwall. 149 mins. Set on a remote island and focusing on a 24-hour period of action . Tarkovsky's final film concerns itself with one man‘s response to the oncoming apocalypse. as Josephson offers his life in a supreme act of atonement that the world be restored. An overwhelmingly poetic experience that forms a fitting testament to a remarkable career. Glasgow: GF'I. I Scarface ( 18) (Brian De Palma. US. 1983) Al Pacino. Steven Bauer, Michelle Pfeiffer. 169 mins. Cuban emigrant Pacino builds a vast Miami crime empire on foundations of cocaine. but his life is destroyed when he loses control of his own indulgence. Overbearing moralising dominates this sweeping gangster saga. with stylish violent highlights the De Palma trademark as ever. Glasgow: Cannon The Forge. I Scenes From The Class Struggle In Beverly Hills (18) Paul Bartel. US. 1989) Jacqueline Bisset. Ray Sharkey. Robert Beltran. Mary Woronov. 104 mins. Years after the splendid Eating Raoul. director and actor Paul Bartel attempts another blend of the urbane and the grossly vulgar with this pervy variant on Renoir and Marivaux. Bisset is an ex-TV soap star attempting a comeback and. as friends and relattions gather in her Hollywood mansion for the weekend the scene is set for all manner of sexual entanglements between masters and servants. The intention is obviously to leaven the comedy of manners with a modicum of low humour, but sadly the jokes aren't fast and funny enough. All round a bit of a misfire. Edinburgh: Odeon. I Sea Of Love (18) (Harold Becker, US,
The House of Bernarda Alba(15) (Mario Camus, Spain, 1989) Irene Caba, Ana Belen, Florinda Chico. 104 mins. Termed ‘a photographic document’ by Lorca himself, The House of Bernarda Alba transfers relatively painlessly to cinema, in Mario Camus’ finely polished film version. Shot with painstaking attention to detail and rich texturality, Camus conscientiously works his way towards an acolytish rendering of the play’s text.
Choosing to place the action in a setting roughly contemporary to its writing—electric light and high Edwardian costuming-Camus develops Lorca’s exploration of the oppressive matriarchy of Bernarda Alba in its attempt to contain the smouldering eroticism of her daughters by forcible separation from men. From the opening sequences of a funeral mass, the screen is crowded with women -the males are disembodied cinematically, reduced to a shadowy figure astride a horse, a bum disappearing out of an upstairs window.
Emotional dignity and schoolgirl triviality stand side by side, the whole knitted together by Lorca’s exposition of power relationships — both inside the
HE HOUE 0F BERIIARDA ALB
house and towards the outside world. A splendid performance from Florinda Chico as the pragmatic house-servant Poncia is central in developing a feeling for Bernarda’s (Irene Caba) intense social and moral consciousness, while the calculated grotesque that is Bernarda’s mother (Hosaria Garcia-Ortega) seeps into a shockingly lifelike portrayal of Barbara Cartland.
Lorca’s symbolic naturalism is given gentle release: the five daughters gaze plaintiver from barred windows, watching cavorting stallions and the like. Despite the undoubted beauty of the film’s imagery, its workings remain a little too deliberate, a little too sober. to generate the sustained sense of oppression, of confinement and claustrophobia that would seem to be demanded. Except for the very final sequence where a burst of drumming heralds a shattering climax, the few ballad songs of Fernanda de Utrera take most of the expressive burden. In the end though, Camus’ sheer professionalism wins through. (Andrew Pulver)
Sun 4- Sat 10 Mar. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
1989) Al Pacino. Ellen Barkin.John Goodman. 118 mins. Pacino. a homicide detective in search of a murderer whose crimes seem to be connected with the personal ads. sets up a date with single mother Barkin, and. although attracted to her, begins to suspect that she is the killer. The plot may be on the creaky side. but the performances from both leads are spot-on, the dialogue and the sex scenes are remarkably realistic. and the haunting title tune. left playing by the murderer at the scene of the killings, is worth the price of admission on its own. Glasgow: Cannon Clarkston Road, Cannon The Forge. Cannon Sauchiehall Street. Grosvenor. Edinburgh: Cannon. Central: Allanpark. Cannon. Strathclyde: Cannon. Kelburne. Odeon Hamilton, UCI Clydebank. UCI East Kilbride.
I Serpico (18) (Sidney Lumet. US. 1973) Al Pacino. John Randolph, Jack Kehoe. Biff McGuire. 130 mins. Overlong. rambling companion piece to Sea OfLove features an early session of Pacino cop-paranoia. when he uncovers corruption in the upper echelons ofthe New York Police Department and ends up having to leave the country. As the plot suggests. there‘s nothing too remarkable here. despite the credentials ofthose
involved. Glasgow: Cannon The Forge. I The Seventh Seal (PG) (Ingmar Bergman. Sweden, 1957) Max Von Sydow. Gunnar Bjornstrand, Bibi Andersson. 90 mins. Knight Von Sydow returns from the Crusades to the brutal horrors of medieval Sweden. and plays chess with Death as the plague rages around him. Powerful morality tale. with a profound sense of historical cruelty. which was one of the director’s biggest early successes. Edinburgh University Film Society.
I Shirley Valentine (15) (Lewis Gilbert. UK. 1989) Pauline Collins, Bernard Hill, Tom Conti. 110 mins. Gilbert‘s screen version of the celebrated Willy Russell play. now expanded from a monologue to include Hill as the insensitive hubby and Conti as the Greek bit of stuffShirley meets on a Mediterranean holiday that turns into a voyage ofself-(re)discovery. Collins is outstanding in the title role of frustrated Liverpudlian housewife. Glasgow: Cannon Sauchiehall Street. Edinburgh: Dominion. Central: Allanpark.Strathc1yde: UCI Clydebank. UCI East Kilbride.
I Something Wild (18) (Jonathan Demme. US, 1986) Jeff Daniels. Melanie Griffith, Ray Liotta. 113 mins. Best ofthe
burgeoning yuppie-in-peril genre as business executive Daniels is willingly led astray by the irresistible charms of Griffith only to find himself involved with genuine love and the frightening possessiveness of a psychotic ex-beau. Kooky comedy and genuine thrills are artfully blended with a non-stop soundtrack of eclectic treats. Not to be missed. Glasgow: GFI‘. Edinburgh: Cameo.
I Star Trek 5: The Final Frontier(PG) (William Shatner. US, 1989) William Shatner. Leonard Nimoy. DeForest Kelley, James Doohan. 107 mins. In which James Tiberius Kirk makes his directorial debut. On the plus side most of the characters are as well written and credible as they were in the television series. albeit with rather more grey hairs. But the plot turns out to be the normal formula hokum. Strathclyde: WMR Film Centre.
I Taxi Driver (18) (Martin Scorsese, US, 1976) Robert dc Niro, Cybill Shepherd, Jodie Foster. 114 mins. An alienated taxi driver in New York is so repelled bythe squalor and the moral decay around him that he is driven to terrible violence. One of the key films of the Seventies with the Scorsese-dc Niro partnership at its peak. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Throne of Blood (15) (Akira Kurosawa, Japan, 1957) Toshiro Mifune. Isuzu Yamada. Minoru Chiaki. 110 mins. It‘s Shakespeare's Scottish play, Japanese-style (l). as samurai Mifune is spurred on by his wife and the spiritsto murder his best friend and then his master. Although the barest plot and striking images remain from the original. Kurosawa‘s atmospheric settings in mist-shrouded forests give the film a brooding power. Edinburgh Film Guild. I Throw Momma From The Train ( 15) (Danny De Vito. US, 1987) Danny De Vito. Billy Crystal. Anne Ramsey. 87 mins. Would-be author De Vito (making his debut as director) wants to rid himself of his grotesquely domineering mother. while his creative writing tutor Crystal bears a bitter grudge against his ex-wife. who has plagiarised his work in her own bestseller and left him with a numbing creative block. De Vito believes the answer lies in an exchange deal inspired by Hitchcock‘s Strangers On A Train. The rich potential for dark laughter is largely thrown away in this rather overstrctched if enjoyable black comedy. Glasgow: Grosvenor.
I Thunderbird Six (David Lane. UK, 1968) 90 mins. Scott. Virgil. Lady Penelope etal. Calling lntemational Rescue! Black Phantom back shock horror! Only Gerry and Sylvia Anderson can save us now! Just as well they can spin a decent yarn. Shame they treat the actors like puppets though .. .Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Top Hat (U) (Mark Sandrich. US, 1935) Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers. Edward Everett Horton. 100 mins. A bout of mistaken identity makes Fred and Ginger‘s path to true love via London and Venice a little more circuitous than they might have liked. but there are plenty of classic Irving Berlin numbers along the way to help them keep their spirits up. Splendid stuff. Edinburgh University Film Society.
I Touch of Evil (18) (Orson Welles, US. 1958) Orson Welles, Charlton Heston. Marlene Dietrich, Janet Leigh. 108 mins. Welles made a return to Hollywood studio employment after a decade in the wilderness with this classic baroque thriller. In a sleazy border town, the murder ofa Mexican bigwig causes friction between corrupt local detective Hank Quinlan (Welles himself) and upright Mexican narcotics agent Vargas (Heston). Amidst a gallery of Wellesian grotesques and expressionist camerawork the dialogue between truth andjustice becomes progressively more garbled. Don't be late or you‘ll miss one of cinema's most famous opening shots. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
The List 23 February — 8 March 199021