FILM
Don't know much about history, don’t know much biology, don't know much about a science book, but here's the newtiim releases opening throughout the coming lortnlght In tho wondertul world they're calling Control Scotland.
PARTS (PG) Third and dellniter linal instalment ot the saga has Michael J. Fox returning to the Wild Wostol 1885 to coma tothe aid ol Chrlstophor Lloyd’s crazy Doc. Except that he's latien in love with local lass Mary Stoenburgon and is quite happy where he is, to very much. See review. Wlde Cannons and UCis
I Bl.iND FURY (18) You vanttastoiess, tasteless vo got. Very blind martial arts export Rutgor ‘mlno's a pint, begorrah' Hauer hasto rotum a brattlsh youngster to his dad. but there are corrupt hltmen a-pionty setting out to stop him and many a natl sight-gag along the way. See review. UCls Edinburgh, Ciydebank and East Klibrlde lrom13Juiy.
I DARK ANGEL (18) Action man Dolph Lundgron rotums as Houston cop Jack Calno whose narcotics duties put him on tho trail ol deadly drug dealers lrom outer space, who dispatch their victims with a killer compact disc. A bit like Dixon ot Dock Groon really. Glasgow Cannon Sauchiehail Street, UCls trom 13 July.
release trom 13 July.
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When Harry Met Sally One at the more immediate by-products ol Paula Visocchi’s appointment as Education Olllcer at the Glasgow Fllm Theatre is a special season at popular lilms lor the Glasgow Fair which demonstrate the cinema’s broadest programming possibilities. Stemming lrom the GFT’s major sponsorship deal with British Telecom, who intended that their linanciai injection be directed towards a locus on education, the diverse series at liims lrom Crocodile Dundee to Trop Belle PourToi will be presented with complimentary programme notes encouraging audiences to rellect on the ways in which they derive pleasure lrom the movies they see.
’What we’re trying to do,’ Visocchi
Punter Apal
explains, ’is to promote the idea that the cinema has a part in education in the broadest sense, not just in terms at work with schools. We all come out ol a lilm discussing why we enjoyed it, so we’re using the programme notes to take that process a little bit lurther. We won’t be getting too heavy about it though, that’s a dillicult one to sell.’ Typical ol the approaches the season will be making is to draw links between, lor example, Shirley
; Valentine (Mon 17 & Tue 18 July) and 2 When Harry Met Sally (Mon 23-Wed 25
July), pondering the dillerences between Willy Russell‘s screenplay lor the lormer and writer Nora Ephron‘s work on the latter in their respective treatment at relationships between the sexes. A comparison between Maggie Greenwald’s The Kill-Oil (Thur 19 July) and Abel Ferrara's Cat Chaser (Thur 26 July), on the other hand, shows how both pieces modlly their roots in lilm noir and pulp liction, while the pairing ol Lasse Halstrom's My Lile As A Dog (Mon 16) and Anne Turner’s Celia (Mon 23) rellects the lilm-makers' varying responses to the tormatlve experiences at childhood. To llnd out more, you’ll have to go along to the screenings themselves, all at which are clearly marked in the July GFT programme. See also listings lor lurther details. (Trevor Johnston)
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Mllglenus Peter
There has long been a need tor a dellnitive study assessing both the cinematic endeavours ol the Scots and the way their nation has been treated on screen by the moviemakers ol Hollywood and elsewhere. Forsyth Hardy's Scotland in Film (Edinburgh University Press) seeks to llll that gap, and it’s a project lor which the author himsell is certainly well qualitied, having been The Scotsman’s lirst lilm critic as tar back as the 30s, a prime mover and shaker behind the country's lilm production in subsequent decades, and the biographer ol Scotland’s most influential lilm thinker, John Grierson.
Given his personal involvement in many at the events he's describing, Hardy is a valuable guide through, lor example, the tortuous history at Scottish Dttice lunding tor the
homegrown documentary movement. He's also a lirsthand witness iorthe many visits north, to scout tor or shoot on Scottish locations, by lilm-makers as diverse as Michael Powell, who made both Edge at The World and I Know Where I’m Going under treacherous conditions on the islands, and Arthur Freed, the producer ol MGM musicals who decided that Brigadoon should be shot in a studio to capture the story’s essential Scottishness.
There are times, in tact, when one wonders whether Hardy’s book might have been more suitably packaged as an autobiography. lt's perhaps not surprising that a lilm critic who started writing in the 30s should lind himselt a little overtaken by the demands ol contemporary lilm scholarship, but too much ol Hardy’s book is taken up by a succession ol bland plot synopses which are the stutl ol newspaper journalism. Although published by Edinburgh University Press, such is the work's paucity ol contextual analysis and provocative critical insight (What is a national cinema? How do its terms relate to he political and economic structures in which it is produced?) that one would be very wary in recommending the book to serious students at lilm. Certainly Hardy's chronological run-down and linal lilmography are a uselul cataloguing exercise, but the project at assembling the lull picture ol Scotland and lilm remains substantially incomplete. (Trevor Johnston)
Scotland in Film by Forsylh Hardy (Edinburgh University Press £8.95 paperback, £19.50 cased).
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I DICK TRACY (PG) He's been on his way tor a while, but now he's well andtruiy arrived. Warren Beatty resurrects Chester Gould's vintage comic strip with original primary colours intact, but Madonna's vampish Breathless Mahoney and a heavily rubberized set at villains shine pretty brightlytoo. See leature. Wide release from 20 July.
I FOOLS OF FORTUNE (15) Pat O'Connor directs this screen version olWilliam Trevor's Irish lamin saga. with Scots thespian supreme lain Glen as a man plagued by the ghosts ola turbulent personal and political past. Julie Christie makes a rare appearance as his alcoholic mum. See main preview. Ddeons Glasgow and Edinburgh lrom 13 July.
I SHE'S OUT OF CONTROL (12) Tony Danza mugs away as a concerned parent exercising too much care over his adolescent daughter Ami Doienz's growing lamiliarity with the opposite sex. The reliable Wallace Shawn pops up as his shrink and all-round guru. See review. Odoons and UCls release lrom 13 July.
I SPACED INVADERS (PG) Splendid slug-like extraterrestrials (see Hit List lor pic) begin their plan lorworld domination lrom the unlikely base at Big Bean, Illinois, and onlya pluckyteam ol locals can. errn, save the planet lrom theirsiimy clutches. Amiable sci-ii romp iorthe kids' holidays. Ddeons Glasgow and Edinburgh, UCIslrom13July.
I TIE ME UP! TIE ME DOWN! (18) Enchilada terrible at the Spanish cinema (Excuse me? Ed.) Pedro Almodovar returns with his most controversial ollerlng to date stoning released psychiatric patient Antonio Banderas and porno queen Victoria Abrli as the object olhis allections. So much so that he has to tie her down to the bed every night. Oh and, belore we lorget, yes it is a Iurvo story. See review. Edinburgh Fiimhouse 12-21 July. A
“The List l3—26July199i)