FILM LIST
Edinburgh: Filmhouse. Strathclyde: UCl East Kilbride.
I Manon Des Sources (PG) (Claude Berri . France/Italy, 1986) Yves Montand, Daniel Auteuil, Emmanuellc Beart. 114 mins. Ten years after the demise of Jean de Florette, the Soubeyrans run a prosperous carnation farm. Jean‘s daughter has grown into an alluring young woman and sets out to wreak her revenge. Steering this epic rural saga towards the realms of Greek tragedy, this is a fulland satisfying second half that explores the suffering of the guilty as they pay a crippling penance for man‘s greed and envy. The production values are as high as ever and Auteuil assumes Depardieu‘s mantle in his development from glaikit idiot to broken-hearted suitor. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Monsieur Hire (15) (Patrice Leconte. France, 1989) Michel Blanc, Sandrine Bonnairc. 82 mins. An elusive neighbourhood recluse (Blanc), whiles away his evenings spying on his alluring neighbour Alice (Bonnaire). Gradually, he becomes entangled in an unsolved murder and a passionate romance. Based on a Simenon novel this sensitive and enthralling film, which was almost overlooked in Britain, received its first screening in this country at the Filmhouse last month. Glasgow: GFT.
I My Lett Foot (15) (Jim Sheridan. Eire/UK, 1989) Daniel Day Lewis. Ray McAnally, Brenda Fricker. 90 mins. The life story of paralysed painter and writer Christy Brown, lovingly adapted from his autobiography of the same name. Sheridan and screenplay writer Shane Connaughton have portrayed Brown warts and all to create a funny, touching and thoroughly absorbing movie with four quite excellent central performances. and a celebration of a remarkable person. Glasgow: Salon.
I MysteryTrain (15) (Jim Jarmusch, US. 1989) Masatoshi Nagase. Nicoletta Braschi, Screamin‘ Jay Hawkins. Joe Strummer. 113 mins. Jarmusch‘s first colour feature, like his earlier films, draws heavily on a beat-inspired road-movie genre. Three seperate groups ofill assorted people drift through Memphis, in a trio of interlocking vignettes that examined their various experiences in the city that boasts of the blues and Graceland. Edinburgh: Cameo, Filmhouse.
I The Name of the Rose (18) (Jean~Jacques Annaud, W. Germany/France/ltaly, 1986) Sean Connery, F. Murray Abraham, Christian Slater. 131 mins. Marvellous medieval mystery with the masterful Connery as a Sherlock Holmes-like sleuth on the trail ofa murderer in the monastery. Adapted from Umberto Eco‘s best-selling novel. the film overlooks its questing, intellectual elements. Nonetheless, a convincing historical atmosphere and a BAFTA-winning performance from Sean. Central: MacRobert Arts Centre.
TORRENTS
Torrents of Spring (PG) a (Jerzy Sltolimowslti, Italy/France, 1989) Timothy Hutton, Nastassia Kinski, Valeria Golino. 101 mins. The combination ot masterly Russian novelist Turgenev as source material and acclaimed Polish directorJerzy Skolimowski behind the camera seems to indicate Torrents of Spring as a
. would-be masterpiece, but
unfortunately a dearth ol interesting characters or narrative involvement soon scuppers that one.
At the end of the last century, Russian aristocrat Dimitri Sanin (played by Timothy Hutton) returns home lrom a tour of Germany. 0n the way home,
0F SPRING
however, he's overcome by what appears to be restrained lust iorthe simple, attractive qualities in Valeria Golino's Gemma Hoselti, but a few thunderclaps and a potentially erotic rainstorm later, he surrenders his lite to her happiness. So tar so good, we can, atter all, swallow the irrationality of love at first sight, but both characters remain frustratingly underdeveloped. Before long, in tact, Dimitri's animal instincts are to again prove his undoing with the appearance of Nastassia Kinsiti’s sensual, carefree Maria. Yet despite an afternoon at spontaneously irenetic (but apparently fully-clothed) sexual passion, he remains torn between the two women. His inexperience and indecision are only to lead to tragedy.
.A handsome-looking period piece, one oi the problems with Skolimowslri’s tilm is that its fussy approach to the camerawork and over-reliance on the niceties ot fixtures and trappings can become overbearing. Indeed, the highlights occur when the plodding narrative slides oil at a tangent, in the passage when Hutton and Kinski ilirt in a gypsy camp for instance, tiro upper-class builoons who seem as children in the midst of the worldly-wise environment. The point is underscored by the similarly inventive linat sequence, a kind of surreal synopsis of what’s gone before which has Dimitri as a court jester parading through the chambers at his unconscious while the exuberance ol the Venice iestival explodes around him.
Between the iinale and an impressive opening shot of a horse and cart on a raft. Torrents of Spring only disappoints. The easily pleased may enjoy it, but it's an empty experience nonetheless. (Dylan Matthew)
From Fri 18. Glasgow: Cannon Sauchiehall Street. Edinburgh: Ddeon.
I National Lampoon’s Winter Holiday (PG)
(John Hughes, US, 1990) Chevy Chase. Beverley D‘Angelo, Randy Quaid. 93 mins. Wacko winter japes. The same old crew with the same ol‘ sense of humor. if not the same ol' gags. In thename ofthe good Lord will they never stop'.’ Central: Caledonian.
I Next at Kin (15) (John lrvin, US, 1989) Patrick Swayze. Liam Neeson, Adam Baldwin. 109 mins. Familiar shoot-em-up
fluff has Patrick Swayze as an Appalachian backwoods boy now plying his trade as a cop in Chicago, butwho’s spurred on to revenge when his kid brother is murdered on the city streets by district crime king Adam Baldwin. Before long hick sibling Liam Neeson has hitched a ride to the big smoke to join in a bloody hillbilly feud with the mob. Dog-cared plot and characterisations are only slightly
offset by the always reliable Irishman Neeson's endearing stab at an American country bumpkin. Central: Allanpark. Caledonian. Regal. l A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 5: The Dream Child ( 18) (Stephen Hopkins, US, 1989) Robert Englund, Lisa Wilcox. Danny Hassel. 90 mins. Latest instalment of the interminable Nightmare series doesn't quite sink to the level of the truly dreary Part Two: Freddy 's Revenge but has little to recommend it. The plot, such as it is, centres on Freddy Krueger‘s appearances in the dreams on an unborn child as the means to slicing up much ofrhc cast in the usual lavish manner. Thistime even the fearsome post-slaughter wisecracks are down in number, as ifthe film-makers themselves were too aware of flogging a dead horse. Glasgow: Cannon The Forge. Strathclyde: UCl Clydebank. UCl East Kilbride. I Nuns On The Run (12) fi' (Jonathan Lynn. US, 1989) Eric Idle. Robbie Coltrane. Janet Suzman. 95 mins. See review. Glasgow: Odeon. Edinburgh: Odeon. Strathclyde: UCl Clydebank, UCl East Kilbride. I Pretty Women ( 15) (Garry Marshall, US, 1990) Richard Gere, Julia Roberts, Ralph Bellamy. 120 mins. in this hugely succesful comedy-romance, described by one studio exec as ‘Wall Street meets My Fair Lady‘, Richard Gere stars as an unfeeling financial wheeler-dealer discovering that he is a human being after all when he spends a week in the company ofJulia Roberts’ downhome goodtime girl. She, on the other hand, rediscovers her self-esteem by flawlessly carrying off the role of his high society companion, so the audience can feel happy for both of them. The outline might be as hackneyed as they come, but television veteran Marshall has just the right lightness of touch, and the performers are so sympathetic that even the most austere socio-political theorist will be won over. Glasgow: Cannon Clarkston Road, Cannon The Forge, Odeon. Salon. Edinburgh: Odeon. Central: Allanpark, Cannon. Strathclyde: Cannon, Kelburne, Odeon Ayr, Odeon Hamilton, UCl Clydebank, UCI East Kilbride. I Pull My Dalsy(15) (Robert Frank, US. 1959) Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Larry Rivers. 28 mins. Ramshackle evocation of The Beat Generation asthe likes of Ginsberg and Ferlinghetti,or painters Alfred Leslie and Larry Rivers. fool around on sofas or pose with the American flag, whilst Kerouac‘s voiceover regales us with the usual inflated. devil-may-care poetic prose. Lots of famous folk in it, so it gets called a classic. Glasgow: GF'T. I Repentance (PG) (Tengiz Abuladze. USSR, 1984) Avtandil Makharadze, lya Ninidze, Merab Ninidze. 150 mins. The mysterious movements of a deceased pillar of society symbolise a town‘s failure to overcome its small-mindedness in the face of repression. Perhaps the greatest virtue of Abuladze‘s lengthy. static and
BERNARD MacLAVERTY
Reading from & signing copies of his new paperback "The Great Proiundo & other Stories"
at 6.30 pm. on Thursday 31 May in John Smith & Son, 252 Byres Road, Glasgow
Please telephone if you wish to reserve a signed copy
Wine
Meet
(Penguin £3.99)
36The List 18—31 May 1990