Laila Robins. 114 mins. This further instalment in a long line ofmisfiring Selleck big screen offerings has ourTom on the wrong end of rough justice as an unwitting innocent sent to prison by a pair of bungling and corrupt narcotics cops. Helping him adjust to the brutalities oflife on the inside is hardened fellow con F. Murray Abraham. and so Selleck emerges from his stretch made ofconsiderably sterner stuff and looking for revenge on the crooked duo who sent him down. Prime-time Don Siegel and Clint Eastwood might have been able to carry this one off. but Selleek is unfortunately lacking in the steely resolve to pull it off. Glasgow: Cannon The Forge. Odeon. Edinburgh: UCI Craig Park. Strathclyde: UCl Clydebank. UCl East Kilbride. IThe lntnider(18) (Roger Corman. US. l961) William Shatner. Frank Maxwell. Beverly Lunsford. 84 mins. Roger Corman‘s most serious film (and apparently his favourite of hisow n pictures) has a pre-Kirk Shatner in blistering form as an unscrupulous agitator who arrives in a small Southern States town on the eve of the integration of the local school. his sole purpose to stir up racial hatred. Taut. passionate and effective message picture based on actual events, it was Corman‘s only commercial failure even when reissued under the rather more tabloid title of I Hate Your Guts. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Jean De Florette (PG) (Claude Berri. France. 1986) Gerard Depardieu. Yves Montand. Daniel Auteuil. 121mins. Provence. during the 1920s. Depardieu's indomitable hunchback struggles against impossible odds to make a success ofhis inherited farmland. unaware that his neighbours are plotting to drive him from his land. Beautifully photographed. with flawless performances. this is a towering tribute to the highest aspirations ofFrench storytelling. A BAFI‘A winner for the film ofthc year. Glasgow: GET.
FILM
I Joe Versus The Volcano (PG) (John Patrick Shanley. US. 1990) Tom Hanks. Meg Ryan. Lloyd Bridges. 102 mins. In John Patrick Shanley's multi-coloured. adventurous. ifsometimes ill-judged. fable Hanks stars as a hypochondriac office worker for a rectal probe manufacturer who‘s given six months to live and makes a deal to help out eccentric magnate Lloyd Bridges by jumping into a volcano on a remote Polynesian island. Along the way. he falls in love with three-role Meg Ryan and discovers much about the true quality of life. Visually stimulating eccentricity with a plot that defies belief. but its joy in its own unpredictability proves cumulatively winning. Glasgow: Cannon Clarkston Road. Cannon The Forge. Cannon Sauchiehall Street. Salon. Edinburgh: Cannon. [7Cl Craig Park. Central: Allanpark. Caledonian. Cannon. Strathclyde: Cannon. Kclburne. ()deon Ayr. La Scala. UCl (‘lydebank. L'Cl East Kilbride.
I The Kill-Ofl(18) (Maggie (ireenwald. US. 1989) Loretta Gross. Jackson Sims. Steve Monroe. 92 mins. Maggie Greenwald‘s second feature stays relatively faithful to Jim Thompson's typically downbeat novel. In a dying beach resort. life is made hell by the bed-ridden demon Luane Devore. whose control over people‘s lives turns her into a telephone torturer. Influenced by Scorsese and the Coen Brothers' Blood Simple. the film's unconventional storytelling is emphasised by stark photography and makes for hypnotic viewing. Glasgow: GET.
I Kukurantumi: The Road To Accra (King Ampaw. Ghana. 1983) A Ghanain bus driver operating a vehicle between the village of Kukurantumi and the capital Accra dreams of running his own service. and plans to finance his ambitions by promising his daughter to a wealthy businessman. Cautionary tale of small-town naivety versus the corruption
living proof there is no such thing as intelligent life in space...
. """“““ lea-mam. AT A CINEMA NEAR YOU FROM JULY 20
TIE ME UP! TIE ME DOWN!
Tle Me Up! Tie Me Down! (18) (Pedro Almodovar, Spain, 1990) Antonio Banderas, Victoria Abril, Francesco Rahal. 101 mins. It's women on the verge of exploitation time as Almodovar reveals his most provocative confection to date. Get this for a plot: sexy (male) loony is released from the institution and heads straight forthe set where his favourite porn actress is making a new movie, kidnaps her, bashes her about the head, ties her up, pumps herfull of drugs, and . . . you guessed it, she falls in love with him. A brief synopsis like this suggests that the wonderful world of the sexual revolution has yet to clutter up ol’ Pedro's creative consciousness. How else can we explain pointless shots of women taking a leak, or one bath-time sequence that defies description? Not good, not good at all.
The strangetriumph of the film i though, isthatwhile on the most immediate of levels it comes across as i mere sexist trash, there is in fact much '2 to admire it the viewer can get beyond the bare unsavoury details. Antonio 3 Banderas plays the protagonist as an innocent whose many years in care have left him untainted by the cynical ways of the world, so if he’s fallen in love with the picture on his wall he sees no reason why he shouldn‘t pursue the object of his affections, marry herand go off to a cottage in the country somewhere. Victoria Abril's dodgy movie star spends her life being treated as an object by a mad porn auteur (Pedro sending himself up?) or bossed around by her sister, picking up a drug habit along the way. Yet the young madman who assails her provides the kind of devotion that‘s been lacking in her life since she began to drift away from the care of her mother (they share a phone call of some poignancy).
So, ifyou're prepared to stick with it, Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! does begin to create its own moral logic based on mutual need between these two very damaged characters. He may lie her to the bed every time he goes out, but that begins to be both a prison and a shelter from the demands of the world beyond. Maybe it’s 8&M, maybe it's a metaphor for all relationships, Pedro lets you mull overthat one foryourself. In the end, he manages to wring moments of real emotional resonance from the most unpromising of material. Forthat, and for the delicious way his camera prowls through a variety of sumptuously stylish Madrid settings, f we should give him a little credit. But ‘ as another woman whips down her knickers and sits on the throne, your doubts have to remain as well. (Trevor Johnston) 3
Fri 13—Mon 23. Edinburgh: Filmhoused
of the big smoke. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. I Last Tango in Paris ( 18) (Bernardo Bertolucci. France! Italy. 1973) Marlon Brando. Maria Schneider. 130 mins. A young Parisienne meets a middle-aged man with whom she develops an increasingly violent and purely sexual relationship. One of the key films ofits decade. Bertolucci‘s powerful drama is a meditation on the expression and communication of personal identity through intense sexual contact. Edinburgh: ()deon. Filmhouse.
I Lawrence OfArabia (PG) (David Lean. UK. 1962) Peter O'Toole. Alec Guinness. Jack Hawkins. Omar Sharif. 222 mins. Lean’s mammoth desert epic. restored to its director‘s original cut and the big screen. where film-making on this scale belongs. O‘Toole's debut as the enigmatic adventurer still impresses. but apart from the majestic action sequences. it's the disturbing sense of clinical and cold-blooded violence hanging over the highly literate characterisation that today seems especially striking. Glasgow: GET. I Life Is A Long Quiet River( 15) (Etienne Chatiliez. France. 1988) Benoit Maginel. Patrick Gelin. Andre Wilms. 99mins. Embittered nurse exchanges the offspring of two very different families. Trouble results when she reveals her trick twelve years later. and the richer Le Quesnoys learn they are nurturing one of the sleazy
(iroseillesand y ice versa. Based on the Mark Twain novel l’iu/rf'nlir'ud ll'ilwn. its humour relies on eharacterisation rather than on the slick sight gags a l lolly-wood film-maker would wring from it. Maginel and Wilms are outstanding. lidinburgh: l’ilmhouse.
I Lolita ( 15) (Stanley Kubrick. PK. 1963) James Mason. Shelley Winters. Sue l.yon. 153 mins. (ilum version ofthc Vladimir Nabokov novel in which hapless. middle-aged professor Mason becomes besotted by the charms of precocious nymphet Lyon. A strange blendof murder. lust and obsession with impressive moments and fine acting. Glasgow: (il’l'.
I Look Who's Talking ( 12 l ( Amy- lleckerling.l'S.1989)John'l‘ravolta. Kirstie Alley. ()lympia Dukakis. 97 mins. In Travolta‘s much-hyped comeback he plays stand-in papa to .-\lley‘s first baby. but is quicker to meet approval from the little brat. via the voiced-over musingsof one Bruce Willis. than he is fromits ( confused and binkered mama. Crass. lowbrow and thus extremely popular comedy whose sole redeeming feature is the natural charm of the trtisty 'l‘ray olta. But any movie w hose idea of a comic l setpiece means filmimg a foetus inside the womb with the dreary Willis intoning on l
the soundtrack just doesn't come near the ballpark. Glasgow: ('annon'l'hel“orge.
20 The List 13 — ZoJuly l99ll