l
l l
l
I DEATH WAHHAHTUB) Good clean tun with macho beelcake Jean-Claude Van l Damme as a tough cop posing as a convicted armed robber to investigate a series at mysterious prison deaths. Having discovered a macabre transplant trade in convicts’ innards, he suddenly laces the slab himseli when the psychotic slasher-killerwho was his last bustgets transterred to the same jail
and blows his cover. UCls i from Fri 7 Dec.
3 IHOMEALDHE(PG)
: An everyday story at child 5 neglect teaturing a small
boy whose parents target to take him along on their Christmas holidays.
T Macaulay Culkin oozes
tactoryworker. maltreated by heremployer. hertamily ; and herlover,who
resisthertate. Seereview. Glasgow GFT Fri 7. Sun
cuteness as he pluckily tends oit a pair at burglars who discover his solitary state. Family entertainment otthe implausible kind. See
review. Cannons. Odeons
and UCls irom Fri 14 Dec. I THE HOT SPDT(18) SmallTexas Towns(l): Dennis Hopperdirects a tale olsmouldering passions and dirty deeds set in this iortnight‘s l tavourite location. Don Johnson stars as an enigmatic driiter whose arrival intown stirs upa ( hornet's nest oisex and ' violence. See ieature. Cannon. The Forge. and Odeons Glasgow and Edinburgh lrom Fri 7 Dec.
i t I, ‘
I THE MATCH FACTORY I mama)
Finnish iilmmaking at its linesl: an austere. deceptively simple story abouta downtrodden
nevertheless linds a way to
9—Wed 12 Dec.
rr' , 3“” rs‘. m
I MIAMI BLUES(18)
. Action-comedy-drama l 2 starring Alec Baldwin as a t
j silver-tongued conman
' arriving in Miami to start a
newlite otcrime. ltdoesn't pay inthe end. ol course.
but he has a lot oi tun betore
getting hisjustdeserts. With JennilerJason Leigh. Fred Ward; Jonathan Demme co-produces. See review. Cannon, The Forge, Glasgow Ddeon and Edinburgh UCl lrom Fri 14 Dec.
18 The List 7 20 December 19‘)”
__ FILM“
: Aginoourt 2: TheAwards
audible groans laterto be handily
discussion sessions had done much to
about jingoism and the divides 1 between nations honoured by an event ‘ designed to knit the European cinema
ldon't know it anyone has yet come up ' directors actually look like their iilms,
. Dario Argento shuttle into the room I
'. shockers, each oithem dotted with moments at quite iiendish . carnage. old Dario himseli looks more
. '-, ' "My While the staging oi the ceremony itselt was hailed a hitch-tree success.
A the most unbearable aspect at this
year's Euopean Film Awards Ceremony -
' tor many Scots in the audience was the
tact that Kenneth Branagh picked up both the European Actor oi the Year and 3 the Young European Film at the Year Felixes tor Henry V, both announcements met on the night with
excised lorthe television broadcast. In 5 every other respect however, the Scottish iilm community had every right to go home happy, lorthe weekend'stlurry oiseminars and
up the international prolile oi the native . iilmmaking community. while the smooth running at the awards bash itselt can have retlected nothing but credit on the City at Culture.
ironic though it was to see a iilm
tamin ever closertogether, the
selection at Gianni Amelio‘s Open Doors as European Film oi the Year illustrates both the advantages and the drawbacks oi the event as it currently
stands within the context oi our
distribution network. Although Amelio’s winner, which also clinched a Special Jury prize tor remarkable leading man Gian Maria Volonte, has
i already been bought by the BBC. like so
many of the other Felix contenders this thoughttul portrayal oi Sicilian justice under the Fascists has yet to gain a theatrical release in this country. Simply put. it's problematic lorthe majority oi the UK press and public to torm any judgement on its EFA honours it they haven’t yet seen a substantial number at the iilms involved.
Before the European Film Awards can
gain tarwider credibility as an
alternative to the American Academy's
5 annual orgy oi sell~congratulation, a . greater proportion otthe European
public will have to ieel thatthey too can
sitinjudgementontheiilmsvyingtor
the statuettes. With many oi the relevant productions only getting the most minor oi arthouse releases, and a
5 distribution system that has to operate
on the tightest oi economies, the European Film Awards might have a long way to go betore its target audience out there in pancontinental
TV-land can generate much excitement
over the event. It’s a thorny issue that brings to light both the ongoing diiticulties involved in sustaining such an institution and the crucial need to do so. (TrevorJohnston)
‘ Dne Evil Auteur
tootball, lthink.‘ All this is not quite the
’5
with a theory to suggest that movie but watching Italian horror maestro
could be on to a starting point. Renowned overthe past two decades tor a string at elaborately wrought
like one at the living dead than any other lilmmaker you'll ever come across. He looks lairly miserable
‘ even when he laughs.
Which he does with suprising irequency, ldiscoverto my suprise. Still gripped by ltalia ‘90 lever, he describes in charmingly idiosyncratic
English the ingredients at a typical Argento ollering as ‘lots oi goals, some ‘ loul play. the crowd cheers, there is
much tension. Yes, Argento movie is
sort oi thing you‘d expect trom a man who’s irequently claimed that ‘there is nothing more erotic than the death at a beautiiul woman' and who's brutally slain both his actress wile and daughteron screen in the past. His crime thrillerwork, most notably Deep Red (1975) and the chic slasher epic Tenebrae (1982). pictures a world at
uncertainty trequently punctured by random, inexplicable violence. it’s ‘ iilm as maudit as it comes.
Perhaps it's not so suprising then that his latest piece to reach these shores is I one hall at a loose tribute to Edgar 5 Allan Poe, the genre diptych Two Evil 9 Eyes, which reunites him with zombie master George A. Romero lorthe iirst time since 1980's splatter classic ’ Dawn oi the Dead. Argento
has gone tor one at Poe’s most
: haunting tales oi dread, ‘The Black
Cat'. Helped no end by a nervin committed performance by Harvey ‘ Keitel as a police photographer driven towards mania by his wile's mysterious : leline, its obsessive gloom obviously stands close to the iilmmaker's heart. ‘When I‘m making lilms,’ he
explains, ‘I realise that my vision has a l
lot in common with Poe. They say i am
: cruel, you know. but it’s just my soul.‘
Two Evil Eyes (18) is released on video rental through Medusa on Fri 7 Dec.
Dec.
j , ab’.
ITHE NEVERENDING STDHYII: THE NEXT CHAPTER(U)
Special eitects abound as our hero Jonathan Brandis re—enters the magic world at Fantasia lormorelairytale lights between good and evil. ieaturing giants. dragons. beautiiul princesses. wicked witches and lots more. Cannons and UCls trom Fri 14 Dec.
I TEXASVILLE (15) SmallTexas Towns(ll): Twenty years on. director Peter Bogdanovich returns to the scene oi The Last Picture Showto discover howtime hastreatedthe inhabitants oiAnarene. The mixed—up kids are now mixed—up adults struggling with marriages and mortgages as well asthe same old problems oi love and lust. With JeltBridges, Cybill Shepherd, Cloris Leachman. See preview. Edinburgh Cameo trom PM Nov.
I TIME OF THE GYPSlES(15)
Based on the true stories oi Yugoslavian gypsy children sentto ltaly to beg, steal and pimp ioradultbosses. thistale oia gypsyiamily struggling with poverty. betrayal and disillusionment ottersa rare insight intoa little-known culture, in which the mystical and the supernatural are part at everyday lite. See review. Edinburgh Filmhouse 9—15
IVAMPIRE'S KlSS(18) Woman bites sex symbol horror— Nicolas Cage as a discontented literary agent convinced he's turning into avampire alter getting itin the neck trom Jenniler Deals. See review. Edinburgh UCl Craig Park
trom Fri7Dec. i
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