FILM
the plot or the acting. Edinburgh University Film Society. I om ol the P881 (15) (Jacques Tourneur. US, 1947) Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer. Kirk Douglas, Rhonda Fleming. Virginia Huston. 96 mins. Gripping, moody and expertly mounted flashback noir, starring Mitchum as the condemned man. a private detective whose investigation of Douglas's girlfriend Greer takes him to Mexico and eventually a confrontation with death. Classic B-movie with a hallucinatory. almost existentialist atmosphere. Edinburgh: University Film Society. I The Philadelphia Story (PG) (George Cukor. US. 1940) Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant. James Stewart. 112 mins. Splendidly sophisticated Hollywood comedy with Stewart as a scandalsheet reporter covering the society wedding of recently divorced Hepburn, ex-hubby Grant lurking in the wings, and romance recurdling despite itself. Sparkling dialogue and charismatic performances all round make this one of the best of its kind. Remade as the musical. High Society. Glasgow: GFT. I Pink Floyd The Wall (Alan Parker. UK. 1982) Bob Geldof. Christine Hargreaves. Bob Hoskins. 95 mins. An ambitious attempt by Parker and the Floyd’s Roger Waters to turn the band‘s album The Wall into a visual, almost dialogue-less story, in which a schoolboy named Pink grows up to be an isolated rock star. The result did not match the ambition. Edinburgh: Cameo. I Presumed Innocent (15) (Alan J. Pakula. US. 1990) Harrison Ford, Greta Scacchi. Bonnie Bedelia, Brian Dennehy, Raul Julia. 126 mins. Tense courtroom drama with Ford as the upright state prosecutor accused of the murder of his colleague, Scacchi. with whom he was having an affair. Julia shines as the brilliant defence lawyer determined to get him off. Ex-lawyer Scott Turow‘s bestseller gets the prestige big-screen treatment form veteran director Pakula. who returns to the themese of his 19705 movies The Parallax View and All the President’s Men in this thoughtful vision of corruption running through America‘s corridors of power. Strathclyde: MothcrwellTheatre. I A Private Function (15) (Malcolm Mowbray. UK. 1984) Maggie Smith. Michael Palin, Bill Paterson. 93 mins. Royal Wedding celebrations in ration-restricted post-war Yorkshire prove the ideal breeding ground for all-out class warfare. Engaging comic crossbreed combining the Ealing tradition with the cheerfully rude humour of writer Alan Bennett. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. I The Punisher ( 18) (Mark Goldblatt. US. 1990) Dolph Lundgrcn. Jeroen Krabbe. Louis Gossett Jnr. Kim Miyori. 90mins. Humourless cross between Mad Max and Death Wish has Lundgren as hero-cop-turned-mental-aftcr-the- murder-of-his-family Frank Castle. playing vigilante against the Italian and Japanese mafias. Macho nonsense. Edinburgh: Cameo. I lied Shoes (PG) (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburgcr, UK. 1948) Anton Wallbrook. Marius Goring. Moira Shearer. 133 mins. Ballerina Sheareris torn between an autocratic impressario and a starving young composer as she dances her way towards madness. Remarkably serious treatment ofthe subject matter is helped by superlative design and cinematography in this classic piece of Powell/Pressburgcr expressionism. Edinburgh University Film Society. I Repossessed ( 15) (Bob Logan. US. 1990) Linda Blair. Leslie Nielsen. Ned Beatty. Lana Schwab. 85 mins. Ms Blair made her name by vomiting copious green ectoplasm. rotating her head and growling obseenities in the voice of Satan. Now she returns in a silly send-up of The Exorcist which. despite the inclusion of a few nods to devotees ofthat still-popular barrelof fun. and a televised exorcism-athon , sets
NARROW MARGIN
Narrow Margin (15) (Peter Hyams, US, 1990) Gene Hackman, Anne Archer, James B. Sikking. 97 mins. Second class and second best. Back in 1952 there was an excellent little movie called The Narrow Margin, all about a cop escorting an important witness on a long train journey and coping with a bunch of bad guys out to get them at all costs. This is a remake of that film and, like almost all remakes, it isn’t hall as good as the original.
Substituting stunts and scenery lor the genuine claustrophobic suspense ol the earlier lilm, the new Narrow Margin always looks good, but never overcomes the lact that it is basically an exercise in contrlvance, keeping the protagonists on rails at all expense to credibility in an age when Big Country trains are much more lortourism than long-distance transpot.
Anne Archer is the key witness in question, a Los Angeles editor whose night out ends unusually with her blind data being bumped oil by mobsters while she looks on from behind the bathroom door. To get her on the train means having her llee to the Canadian hinterland, where deputy district attorney Hackman tracks her down.
Following him is the obligatory helicopter which rapidly leads into a lot of badly aimed bullets and a quick chase down to the local station where the story proper begins.
From then on it rolls on painlessly enough. Archer is confined within her compartment and does a lot ol complaining; liackman sneaks around in the corridor and says sarcastic things to the bad guys who've tailed them onto the train but still don’t know what their prime target looks like. The plotting is always visible and obvious and Archer has very little to do, but the lilm does score with some very conlident stuntwork and an agreeable sense of humour. Hackman’s standard brand of moral porcupine is well served by a good succession 01 funny lines, while the lact that writer/director Hyams has substantially revised the original’s plot at least means that knowing the ending ol that lilm won’t give this one's away. (Tom Tunney)
From Fri 25 Jan. Glasgow: Cannon The Forge, Cannon Sauchiehall Street. Edinburgh: Cannon, UCI. Strathclyde: UCI Clydebank, UCI East Kilbride.
the sights of its humour far too low and leaves the intelligent moviegoer feeling a bit cheated. Strathclyde: WMR Film Centre.
I Reversal at Fortune ( 15) (Barbet Schroeder. US. 1990) Jeremy Irons. Glenn Close. Ron Silver. 1 11 mins. Dramatic reconstruction. via Jewish American defence lawyer Alan Dershowitz' book. of the famous Von Bulow case. in which the European aristocrat (played with typical detachment by Irons) was convicted of attempting to murder his fantastically rich wife (Close). The film follows his appeal. led by the exaggeratedly flamboyant Silver as Dershowitz, but for legal reasons is unable to offer any judgement on his guilt or innocence. and does little more than intrigue and eventually frustrate the audience. Glasgow: ()deon. Edinburgh: UCI. Strathclyde: UCI Clydebank.
I Robocop ( 18) (Paul Verhoeven. US. 1987) Peter Weller. Nancy Allen. Ronny Cox. 103 mins. Slick and stomach-churnineg violent futuristic thriller blending elements of Dirty Harry. Frankenstein and The Six Million Dollar Man. When diligent policeman Weller is
shot to pieces by vicious hoods. his remains are mechanically reconstructed into a hi-tech law enforcement officer. but the human desire for revenge still beats beneath his mechanical exterior. Edinburgh: Cameo.
I Robocop 2 ( 18) (Irvin Kershner. LS. 1990) Peter Weller. Nancy Allen.Tom Noonan. Dan O'l lerlihy. 116 mins. With a bigger budget to play with. this sequel to Paul V’erhoeven‘s sardonic original puts more emphasis on mindless action as another tale ofcorporate corruption in 21st century Detroit violently unfolds. This time Robocop is caught up in the drug wars precipitated by the popularity ofa new designer narcotic Nuke and faces an imposing robotic foe cooked up by the unscrupulous muIti-national ()mni Consumer Products. Edinburgh: Cameo. I Rocky V: 60 For It (PG) (John (‘3. Avildsen. US. 1990) Sylvester Stallone. Talia Shire. Burt Young. Richard Gant. Burgess Meredith. Sage Stallone. See review. Glasgow: Cannon Clarkston Road. Cannon The Forge. ()deon. Salon. Edinburgh: ()deon. UCI. Central: Allanpark. Cannon. Strathclyde: Cannon. ()deon Ayr. ()deon IIamiIton. La Scala.
UCI Clydebank. UCI East Kilbride. I Romuald and Juliette (Coline Serreau.
France. 1989) Daniel Auteuil, Firminc Richard. 118 mins. Winning serio-comic
i love story in which hard-nosed business
exec falls for his black cleaning lady Richard and as their affair breaks down both class and racial barriers. her shrewd insight into the absurdity of corporate power-broking helps him to discover a new set of more worthwhile values. Following on from her huge French hit Trois Hommes Et Un Coaffin (successfully Americanised as Three Men And/1 Baby) Scrreau comes tip with another insightful and funny examination ofthe way we live now. though it doesbear a highly coincidental resemblance to the outline of Pretty Woman! Edinburgh: Filmhouse. I The Rookie (15) (Clint Eastwood. US. 1990) Clint Eastwood. Charlie Sheen. Raul Julia. Sonia Braga. 107 mins. Weather-beaten L.A. cop Eastwood gets a sensitive new boy to break in after his previous partner‘s killing. Though initially mistrustful ofone another. their exposure to common dangers. . . hey. waida minnit . . .ain't we hoid this befawsomewhere'.’ Um — yes. actually. Glasgow: Cannon The Forge. Cannon Sauchichall Street. Grosvenor. Edinburgh: Cannon. UCI. Central: Allanpark. Caledonian. Cannon. Regal. Strathclyde: Cannon. Odcon Ayr. UCI Clydebank. UCI East Kilbride. I Roxanne (PG) (Fred Schepisi. US. 1987) Steve Martin. Daryl Hannah. Shelley Duvall. 107 mins. Witty. tender and charming reworking of Cyrano (1e Bergerac which deploys a range of comedy techniques as fire chiefMartin ofthe enormous proboscis copes with life and lovestruck romance. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. I The Sheltering Sky (18) (Bernardo Bertolucci. UK/Italy. 1990) Debra Winger. John Malkovich. Campbell Scott. Jill Bennett. 138 mins. The much-publicised criticism of Bertolucci‘s cherished adaptation ofthe psychologically complex Paul Bowles novel is only partly fair. Although the book’s subtlety is seldom fully communicated. and Bertolucci‘s alterations have been frowned upon. it is ironically his departures from the letter of the text which produce the most intense cinematic images. And Winger's portrayal of Kit. the female halfof the doomed American couple seeking adventure. meaning and one another's souls in the north African desert. may be flawed. but Malkovich's Port is a superbly intuitive characterisation. Glasgow: ()deon. Edinburgh: ()deon. I Strike (U) (Sergei Eisenstein. USSR. 1924) Maxim Straukh. Grigori Alexandrov. Mikhail Gomorov. 70mins. The Russian master's debut feature isa searing. epic account of the eternal struggle between proletariat and bourgeoisie. in which the hero is the
masses: a potent symbol ofeollectivism. : The editingis superb andthcimagery. g
though crude (the slaughter ofinnocent workers cut with footage from an abattoir). has a stark beauty which transcendsthe ugliness it depicts. A ' rousing celebration of human strength and Russian stoicism. Edinburgh: Film Guild. I Superman (PG) (Richard Lester. US. 1980) Christopher Reeve. Marlon Brando. Mrgot Kidder. Gene Hackman. Susannah York. 142 mins. Patchin realised film version of the famous all-American super-hero. Spawner oftoo many sequels. Glasgow: Grosvenor.
I Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ( PU) (Steve Barron. US. 1990) Judith lloag. Elias Koteas. Josh Pais. Michelan Sisti. LeifTilden. David Forman. 93 mins. You‘ve read the hype. played the video game. seen the trailers. used the toothpaste. played with the toys. eaten the pizza. What the hell — go treat yourseIfto the real garbage. Made cheaply. made
24 The List 25 January - 7 February 1991