FILM LIST
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First there was ‘The Bad and The Beautiful’. Then there was ‘Two Weeks In Another Town‘. Now there is ‘Two Weeks In AnotherTwo Towns (And The Bits |n-between)'. A torrid tale of bright new movies and the wonderful people who goto see them, ofthe fearsomer talented critics who try to warn them about the new Eddie Murphy picture, and otthe tragedy that ensues when their words go unheeded. A Trevor J. Johnston production.
I AKIRA KURDSAWA'S DREAMS (15) Veteran Japanese maestro offers up a portmanteau of eight personal fantasies with something to say aboutthe state of the world etc. The opening film at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. See feature. Edinburgh Cameo from Fri 25 May.
I ENEMIES. A LOVE STORY (15) Paul Mazursky comes up with his best movie in years with this Isaac Bashevis Singer adaptation, a wonderfully absorbing tragi-comedy about one man, the Holocaust and histhree wives. Ron Silver stars. See review. Glasgow Odeon from Fri 18 May.
I HARLEM NIGHTS (15) This one had such a poor reception from the US critics and public that it's not actually being screened for the UK press before it opens. We point the finger at writer/producer/director/ star Eddie Murphy. the man solely responsible torthe woeful lack of laffs. Richard Pryor co-stars in a sorrytale of Twenties nightclub chicanery. Wide Cannons and UCI release from Fri 25 May.
I KING OF THE WIND (U) Engaging, rather British film for children has dashing young stablegroom Navin Chowdray and his beloved Arabian steed whisked from the deserts of Tunisia to the court of Louis XV before ending up on the English racing circuit. Jenny Agutter and Frank Finlay also appear. Odeons Glasgow and Edinburgh from Fri 25 May.
I LEVIATHAN (18) Fairly shameless deep-sea copy of ‘Alien' as the crew ofan underwater mining installation are picked off one at a time by a monstrous gloppytish-type thing. There’s even a rootin' tootin' heroine in white underwear. but hell it worked the first time, didn't it? Wide Odeons and UCI release from Fri 18 May.
WEEK ONE 39 WEEK TWO 40
32 LISTINGS
INDEX
[3111] PREVIEW
! I All Dogs Go to Heaven (U) (Don Bluth.
( US. 1989) With the voiccsofBurt Reynolds. Loni Anderson and Dom DeLuise. 84 mins. In Bluth‘slatest animated feature, likeable Alsatian Charlie Barkin is killed by his partnerin small-time crime, but manages to trick his way out of the Afterlife to face earthbound adventure with cute orphan Anne-Marie as he seeks revenge on his double-crossing buddy. Occasionally sloppy animation is more than made up for by the inventive story-line and an allusive sense ofhumour that should even have adults suppressing the odd guffaw. Glasgow: Odeon, Cannon The Forge. Strathclyde: Odeon Ayr, UCI Clydcbank, UCI East Kilbride.
I Asterix and The Big Fight (U) (Keith lngham, UK, 1989) With the voices ofBill Oddie, Michael Elphick. Andrew Sachs. 82 mins. Asterix celebrates his thirtieth anniversary with this new animated feature in which he and his band ofplucky Gallic mates take on the might ofthe Roman army. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Betty Blue ( 18) (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, pcripatetic fling that ends in tragedy. Filmed with a dazzling technique and an irritating emptiness by the maker of Diva. Edinburgh: Cameo.
I Black Rain ( 18) (Ridlcy Scott, US, 1989) Michael Douglas. Andy Garcia, Ken Takakura. 125 mins. Not so much the land of the Rising Sun as the land ofShiny Surfaces as adman extraordinaire returns to a set not unlike Blade Runner. However, some promising ideas are shunted to the sidelines by Douglas‘s sour and rather uninspiring heroics as the New York cop sent to Osaka to countera counterfeiting ring. The whole perhaps confirms Scott as a master decorator hired to tart up a very obvious formula. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Blue Mountains (PG) (Eldar Shengelaya, USSR, 1983) R. Giorgobiani. V. Kakhniashvili, T. (‘hirgadze 97 mins. Engaging iflaboured Georgian farce of gentle humour and obvious metaphor set in a crumbling publishing house. where a promising writer finds his manuscript clogged in a system of bureaucratic inefficiency as the seasons casually float by and no progress is made. Glasgow: GFT.
I Blue Velvet ( 18) (David Lynch. US. 1986) Kyle MacLachlan. Dennis Hopper, Isabella Rossellini. 120 mins. In 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 todo some investigating of his own. Asingular fusion of the cosy and the terrifying which blends kitsch and nightmare. B-movie detection and brutal sex to deconstruct out complacent vision of normal society. This is film-making of remarkable imagination and skill. Edinburgh: Cameo.
I Body Heat ( 18) (Lawrence Kasdan. US. 1981 ) William Hurt. Kathleen Turner. Richard Crenna. "6 mins. Ilurt has the bots for Turner so her hubby Crenna is set for an early grave and the insurance company for a big pay-out. Splendid update of Double Indemnity with a drenchineg sweaty atmosphere (the sex has a lot to do with it) and a script that leaves teethmarks. Glasgow: Grosvenor. 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. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Buffet Froid (15) (Bertrand Blier. France, 1979) Bernard Blier, Gerard Depardieu. Micehl Serrault. 93 mins. Crooked police inspector Blierpere, a man with an alarming tendency to shoot suspects on sight, suspects Depardieu of an unsolved murder and thus a blackly comic chase begins. Freewheeling post-Bunuel caper in the best Blier (fils) style, which should be eagerly sought out by those who know him only forthe arthouse smash Trop Belle Pour 'I‘oi. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Celfa(18) (Anne Turner, Australia, 1989) Rebecca Smart, Nicholas Eadie. Maryanne Fahey. 103 mins. Set in the 1950s in Australian suburbia, Turner‘s excellent debut feature (similar in spirit to My Life as a Dog) follows the bitter rites of passage of nine-year-old Celia from the death of relatives and pets to doling out cruelty and violence on ‘Communist‘ neighbours. A unique blend ofchildhood paranoia and political nous. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (U) (Ken Hughes, UK, 1968) Sally Anne Howes. Dick Van Dyke, Lionel Jeffrics. 145 mins. Lengthy, effects-filled children‘s adventure conceived in the wake of Mary Poppins’ huge commercial succes but with a charm (and great songs) all of itsown. Dick Van Dyke is the mad inventor whose flying car propels his children and romantic interest Howes to a far-offland of adventure. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Clnema Paradiso (PG) (Giuseppe Tornatore. Italy/Francc,1988) Phillipe Noiret, Jacques Perrin, Salvatore Caseio. 123 mins. Tornatore‘s vision ofhis movie-mad childhood is a wonderful love letter to the cinema itself. Told largely in flashback, it traces the young Salvatore's infatuation with his village cinema. and his growing friendship with its projectionist (played to perfection by Noiret ). Essentially, it‘s Tornatore's lament forthe joyous movie-going experience of his youth and a recognition of the price we pay for our maturity. 1990 Oscar winner for Best Foreign Film. Glasgow: Grosvenor.
I The Citadel (15) (Mohamed Chouikh . Algeria. 1988) Khalcd Brakhat, Djilali Ain-Tedeles. Fettouma Ousliha. 95 mins. Set in a sun-baked North African village. Chouikh‘s feature sets out to to examine the exploitative nature of polygamy and the absurd network oftraditional marriage customs. The narrative follows Sidi. a rich merchant who sets turmoil in motion when his decision to take a fourth wife has his three existing spouses up in arms. Meanwhile, his adopted son Kaddour has fallen in love. and to save the family name, Sidi has to find him asuitable high-born virgin bride within 24 hours. A shocking and farcical final sequence wherein the old man resolves his problems in one fell swoop rounds off an absorbing document of another culture. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Courage Mountain (U) (Christopher Leitch. US. 1990) Charlie Sheen. Leslie Caron. 98 mins. In this revision ofthe Heidi saga. Juliette Caton plays the young damsel in distress as her life with grandad is threatened by both an impending war and the bureaucratic talons oforphanage director Yorgo Voyagis. Sheen plays Peter,the dashing soldier hero struggling to maintain his dignity in the face ofsome truly cringeworthy dialogue. Adequate matinee material for the unfussy kids‘ audience , but parents with a sense ofthe absurd might get into it. Glasgow: Cannon The Forge.
I Dead Poets Society (PO) (Peter Weir. US, 1989) Robin Williams, Robert Sean Leonard, Ethan l-lawke. 129 mins. In a staid private boys‘ school in Fifties New England, an unconventional teacher
I. ‘1 I NUNS ON THE RUN (12)
Eric Idle and Robbie Coltrane play a pair of small-time crooks on the run from gangland'sfinest with some stolen loot artfully concealed ’neath the requisite habits, finding refuge in a conventschool. Handsome returns at the American box office have been the result. See review. Odeons Glasgow and Edinburgh, UCIs from Fri 25 May.
I SHE DEVIL (15) Director Susan Seidelman transforms Fay Weldon's novel and classic Beeb serialisation to cartoonish ends as Roseanne Barr gets her own back on hubby Ed Begleyfordallying with affected romantic novelist Meryl Streep. See review. Odeons Glasgow and Edinburgh. UCls from Fri 25 May.
I SOFT ON THE INSIDE (PG) Atmospheric and beautifully observed portrait of splendid British saxophonist Andy Sheppard‘s fifteen-piece big band on the road and in the studio. See preview. Don't miss this one-off cinema screening at Edinburgh Filmhouse on Sun 20 May.
I TORRENTS OF SPRING (PG) Good-looking but rather uninvolving adaptation of Turgenev’s novel by Polish exile Jerzy Skolimowski. At the end of the 19th century, Timothy Hutton is a Russian nobleman torn between the charms of Valeria Golino and the attractions of Nastassia Kinski. See review. Glasgow Cannon Sauchiehall Street and Edinburgh Odeon from Fri
I THE WITCHES (PG) Roald Dahl's children’s classic finds its way to the big screen via the unlikely partnership of director Nic Roeg and Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. Anielica Huston enjoys herself as the diabolical villain. while the young hero gets himself turned into a mouse after the first half-hour. See review. Cannons Glasgow and Edinburgh, UCls from Fri 25 May.
32 The List-18:31 May 1990