FILM
Bernard. Georges Marchal. 112 mins. Co-written by the French surrealist poet Jacques Prevert. Gremillion‘s classic skirts the prevailing issue ofthe Occupation to focus instead on the class divides in French society. Melodrama brews as the privileged guests at a mountain hotel find their lives unavoidably affected by those ofthe labourers who are building a dam in the valley below. Edinburgh Film Guild.
I Manon Des Sources (PG) (Claude Berri. France/Italy. 1986) Yves Montand. Daniel Auteuil. Emmanuelle Beart. 114 mins. Ten years after the demise ofJean de Florette. the Soubeyrans run a prosperous carnation farm. Jean‘s daughter has grown into an alluringyoung woman and sets out to wreak her revenge. Steering this epic rural saga towards the realms of Greek tragedy. this is a full and satisfying second halfthat exploresthe 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 Depardicu‘s mantle in his development from glaikit idiot to broken-hearted suitor. Edinburgh: Cameo.
I The Match Factory Girl (15) (Aki Kaursimaki. Finland. 1990) Kati Outinen. Vesa Vierikko. 69 mins. Superny understated and precisely organised black comedy by the Finnish master has Outinen in the title role as a glum factoryworker abused by her boss. her parents and the man to whom she gives her all. only to be dumped. pregnant. the following day. At last. she has the motivation to take matters into her own hands. Tender. bleak and very funny. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Men At Work (12) (Emilio Estevez. US. 1990) Emilio Estevez. Charlie Sheen. Leslie llope. Keith David. John Getz. 98 mins. Clumsy attempt at a stiff-on-our-hands comedy. written and directed by Estevez. who stars with his brother Sheen. They play practical joking Californian dustbin men whose jollyjapes are brought to an abrupt end by the discovery that one of their victims has died. In the ensuing chaos. the boys escape arrest. and the audience escapes without a laugh. Embarrassing. Glasgow: Cannon The Forge. Cannon Sauchiehall Street. Edinburgh: UCI. Strathclyde: UCI Clydebank. UCI East Kilbride.
I Midnight Express ( 18) (Alan Parker. UK. 1978) Brad Davis. John Hurt. Mike Kellin. 121 mins. Dealing economically with the truth this is still a riveting story of the nightmare that befell American Billy llayes when he was incarcerated in a hellish Turkish jail on a charge of drug-smuggling. Brutal. viscerally powerful filmmaking that won an Oscar for Oliver Stone's script. Edinburgh: Cameo.
I Music Box ( 15) (Costa-Gavras. US. 199(1) Jessica Lange. Armin Mueller Stahl. Frederic Forrest. 126 mins. Lange plays a successful Chicago lawyer whose Hungarian immigrant father (Armin Mueller Stahl) is threatened with the loss of his American citizenship when he is suspected of collaborating in wartime atrocities against Budapest Jews. Believing unswervingly in her dad's innocence she takes on the task of defending him herself. yet asthe courtroom testimonies pile up heinous accusations. the jury‘s growing doubts are matched only by her ownfears. Stimulating and finally moving Combination of 1 lollywood familydrama and the director's customary politicised
- grit. Glasgow: (EFT. Edinburgh:
Filmhouse.
I My Life AS A Dog (PCr) ( Lasse l lalstrom. Sweden. 1985) AntonGlanzelius. Manfred Server. Anki Lidcn. llll mins. Wholly captivating rite of passage tale set in Sweden duringthe 195ils.
'l wclve-year-old lngemar copes with his mother‘s terminal illness and his family's general indifference to him by indulgingin
I
POSTCARDS
Postcards From The Edge (15) (Mike Nichols, US, 1990) Meryl Streep, Shirley MacLaine, Dennis Ouaid. 101 mins. In a way, this film has won its audience over even before it starts: celebrated for an honesty and perceptiveness rare by the jaded standards of the Hollywood gossip-scene. Revelations of drink and drugs are no big deal these days, but Postcards, adapted from Carrie ‘Princess Leia’ Fisher’s account of her own downfall and subsequent rehabilitation, sets out its stall with a neat wit and a sharp eye for behavioural nuance as it charts the fluctuating fortunes of a lightly fictionalised actress (Streep) and her alcholic mother (MacLaine). America’s finest queue up for the chance to show their faces: lhronging behind Meryl Streep’s typically strong performance (and splendid singing) are Gene Hackman, Richard Dreyfuss (no strangerto cocaine abuse), Dennis Duaid, Rob Heiner, and the grand old
' trouper herself, Shirley MacLaine,
whose portrayal of a faded star must touch many raw nerves. It is a work in danger of self-adulation but rescued by a playful self-consciousness of the
FROM THE EDGE 4.. v
synthetic nature of the film medium itself. Traps are laid everywhere, and are fun to fall into.
As a result, the overbearing Hollywood environment is put to work in the best way: the succession of sets and studios allow for plenty of gags exploiting the film’s visual trickery, reflecting the uncertain moralities at stake; this is focused in a truly extraordinary scene where Streep literally constructs MacLaine’s face while the paparazzi wait outside. This surely is the perspective Fisher was trying to establish- how stardom abolishes the ordinary, makes it unattainable. That this is all big-screen propaganda shouldn’t be in doubt: with little resolved, Streep, MacLaine and all of Hollywood trundle off into the sunset on a rousing blast of sentimentality and country and western. It's only a movie after all. (Andrew Pulver).
From Fri 22 Feb. Glasgow: Cannon the Forge, Odeon. Edinburgh: Dominion, Odeon, UCI. Strathclyde: UCI Clydebank. UCI East Kilbride.
a high fantasy life. including the pretence that he is a dog. Terrible title. wonderful. unmissable film. Edinburgh: Cameo.
I The Naked Kiss ( 15) (Samuel Fuller. US. 196-1) Constance Towers. Anthony Eisley.
Michael Dante. Virginia Grey. 93 mins. Towers plays a city prostitute turned small-town children‘s nurse in Fuller's unlikely but gripping thriller. Tenderness and violence make uneasy bedfellows here. but Fuller‘s skill and determination to develop his theme produce some truly unforgettable scenes. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Pacific Heights(15) (John Schlesinger. US. 199()) Melanie Griffith. Matthew Modine. Michael Keaton. 102 mins. See review. Glasgow: Cannon Clarkston Road. Cannon The Forge. Grosvenor. ()deon. Edinburgh: ()deon.UC1. Central: Cannon. Strathclyde: Cannon. ()deon Ayr. ()deon Hamilton. La Scala. lfCl Clydebank. UCI East Kilbride.
WMR Film Centre.
I Painted Faces (15) (Alex Law. llong Long. 1988) Samo Hung. 1(X1mins. llung stars in an uncharacteristically subtle role as his former teacher and mentor Yu Tsim-yuen. who struggled throughout the 1960s against changing fashions. and singlehandedly provided traditional. acrobatic training for actors including Hung at the now-defunct Peking Opera School. By turns funny and touching. this is both an explanation and an example of llong Kong‘s minor nouvelle vague. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Parents ( 18) (Bob Balaban. US. 1988) Randy Ouaid. Mary Beth llurt.Sandy Dennis. 90 mins. An imaginative blend of Hairspray. Happy Days and the Hills Have Eyes. this is the assured directing debut from Close Encounters actor Balaban. Set in 1958. it followsthe suburban lives of two couples. the son of one pair suspecting the other couple of
fl
cannibalism. After an hour ofincreasinglv weird sitcom antics. the film changes gear for a distinctly grim ending. Formica fear was never more functional or so much fun. Glasgow: GFT.
I Paris, Texas ( 15) (Wim Wenders. US/W. Germany. 1984) Harry Dean Stanton. Natassja Kinski. Hunter Carson. 144 mins. Missing for four years.
middle-aged loner Stanton turns up in the Texan outback. and is later reunited with
his son. The two embark on a trek across America to find his estranged wife. the young boy's mother. Wenders‘ coolly dislocating visual sense of combines with writer Sam Shepard's version of America's desolate heartlands to produce a moving story of personal alienation. Glasgow: GF'T.
I Pink Floyd The Wall ( 15) (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 University Film Society.
I Pinocchio And The Emperor 01 The Night (U) (Hal Sutherland. US. 1987)87 mins. With the voices of Ed Asner. Tom Bosley James Earl Jones and Rickie Lee Jones. The return of the stringless wooden wonderboy. sans Jiminy Crickett and in deep shit again. coming under the thrall of the quasi-vampiric Emperor. whose continued existence depends on living puppets. Carlo Collodi’s original story Wits an early example of the ‘circuses-are-sinister‘ sub-genre. and the theme continues here on board the Emperor's carnival ship. With music aplenty to lighten the mood. Strathclyde: UCI East Kilbride.
I Piravi The Birth (15) (Shaji. India. 1988) Premji. Archana. CV. Sreeraman. Mullene. Krishna Moorty. ll()mins.
When a young engineering student fails to
turn up for his father’s birthday celebrations. his family begins an obsessive quest to find out what has happened to him. Based on real events which took place in Northern India during Indira Ghandi‘s Emergency Rule.
cinematographer Shaji‘s debut as director
focuses on the family unit rather than the broader political issues. and makes expert use of the disorienting possibilities ofthe lndian climate. Edinburgh Film Guild.
I Police (15) (Maurice Pialat. France. 1985) Gerard Depardieu. Sophie Marceau. Richard Anconina. 113 mins. Tough Parisian narcotics cop Depardieu sets about breaking up an Arab drug ring. but the real tension in his life isan unrequited passion with theft suspect Marceau. Bruisingthrillerthat'salsoa pained examination ofthe non-communication between the sexes and the despair of failed middle-age. Glasgow: GF'T.
I Postcards From the Edge( 15) (Mike Nichols. US. 1990) Meryl Streep. Shirley MacLaine. Dennis Quaid. 101 mins. See review. Glasgow: Cannon The Forge. Odeon. Edinburgh: Dominion. Odeon. UCl. Strathclyde: UCl Clydebank.UC1 East Kilbride.
I Pretty Woman ( 15) (Garry Marshall. L'S. 199(1) Richard Gere. Julia Roberts. Ralph Bellamy. 120 mins. lnthis hugely succesful comedy-romance. Gere stars as an unfeeling financial wheeler-dealer discovering he is human after all when he
I
spends a week in the company of Roberts' 5
downhome goodtime girl. Conversely. shc ' rediscovers her self-esteem by flawlessly carrying offthe role ofhis high society companion. so the audience can feel happy for both ofthem. The outline might I be as hackneyed as they come. but 1 television veteran Marshall has just the right lightness of touch. Edinburgh: Cameo.
20 The List 22 February — 7 March 1991