FILM INDEX
King's novel, this psychological chiller centres on a popular author with literary aspirations (Caan) who finds himself trapped, following a nasty car accident, with his ‘number one fan‘ (Bates, who won the Best Actress Oscar for the role). Gradually, he becomes aware of her psychosis, and is forced to bide his time until he can contrive an escape. More than a whiff of Scorsese‘s excellent King Of Comedy about this project, but the talents of all concerned are employed to superb effect, to produce a movie of great originality, subtlety and entertainment value. Glasgow: Cannon The Forge, Odeon. Edinburgh: UCI. Strathclyde: UCI Clydebank.
I Monsieur Hire ( 15) (Patrice Leconte, France, 1989) Michel Blanc, Sandrine Bonnaire. 82 mins. An elusive neighbourhood recluse (Blane), whiles away his evenings spying on his alluring neighbour Alice (Bonnaire). Gradually. he becomes entangled in an unsolved murder and a passionate romance. Based on a Simenon novel this sensitive and enthralling film, which was‘almost overlooked in Britain. Glasgow: OFT.
I Mr And Mrs Bridge (PG) (James Ivory, UK, 1990) Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Blythe Danner, Simon Callow, Kyra Sedgwick. 124 mins. Based on two novels by Evan S. Connell.the latest ivory/Merchant drama centres on middle-class American family life in the 1930s and 405. Beautifully acted by real-life couple Newman and Woodward. it details happy days at the heyday oftheir marriage, when their three children are beginning to grow up, and the decline of their relationship in later life. A glossy but subtle period saga, mounted with the production team‘s customary panache. Glasgow: GF'I'.
I The Naked Gun 2% (12) (David Zucker, USA 1991) Leslie Nielsen, Priscilla Presley, Robert Goulet, George Kennedy. 95 mins. The nasty leaders of the coal, oil and nuclear industries have hatched a fiendish plot to trick President Bush into carrying out an extremely unsound energy policy. But they hadn‘t reckoned on the inimitable abilities of Lieutenant Frank Drebin. Leslie Nielsen is back on top form as he bunglesthrough lame jokes, bizarre sight gags and lust for Priscilla Presley with a Clouseau-like efficency. Glasgow: Cannon Clarkston Road, Cannon The Forge, Cannon Sauchiehall Street. Grosvenor. Edinburgh: Cannon, Dominion, UCI. Central: Caledonian. Cannon. Strathclyde: Cannon. Odeon Ayr, Odeon Hamilton, UCI Clydebank. UCl East Kilbride.
I The Nasty Girl Das Schrecklich Madchen
(PG) (Michael Verhoeven, Germany, 1990) Lena Stolze, Monika Baumgartncr, Michael Gahr, Hans-Reinhard Muller Fred Stillkrauth. 93 mins. Superb satire on modern Germany which draws its barbs from the country‘s shameful past. The objectionable young woman in question is based on Anja Rosmus who, as a teenager in Bavaria, won local acclaim for her essay writing, and at once embarked upon a project called ’My Town In The Third Reich‘. The film's charm lies not just in the ghastly embarrassment her subsequent research evokes, but in the way Verhoeven continually undermines the audience's expectations, and never allows the seriousness of his subject to cloud his sense of humour. Glasgow: OFT.
I Navy Seal: (15) (Lewis Teague, USA. 1991) Charlie Sheen, Michael Biehn, Joanne Whalley-Kilmer. Bill Paxton. 113 mins. Poor excuse for post-Gulf celebrations has the US Navy’s elite commando unit recovering American
3 missiles from Beirut before nasty Arab
terrorists get their hands on them. Questionable in the extreme. Edinburgh: UCl.
f I NightSun(12) (Paolo and Vittorio
l
Taviani. ltaly/France/Germany, 1990)
24 The List 12— 25 July 1991
« and a narrative that swings lrom . implausibilily to unexpected coup, the
strange acts ofself mutilation, his
KILL ME AGAIN
Kill Me Again (18) (John Dahl, US, 1989) Val Kilmer, Joanne ; Whalley-Kilmer, Michael Madsen. 96 mins. Initially due tor release last year j but held up due to apparent legal dililculties, John Dahi’s exercise in ‘ nouveau noir brings the kind at genre ; accoutrements we’ve come to expect ‘ lrom a wetter ol 40s classics—the suitcases lull oi illicit cash, the ; predatory lemme latale, the much-harassed private investigator- but places them against the bright sun . and neon-washed desert landscapes ol 80s Nevada. With its second-rank stars
result still manages to play with all the ’ leisty punch ol the B-plctures ol yore. ‘ Parting a number at maliosl from the caselul ol cash they’ve just collected lrom a casino, errant couple Fay Forrester (Whaliey-Kilmer) and Vince Miller (Madsen) soon come to a a
l l
disagreement that leaves him lying in a ,
pool oi blood and her on the road to Reno with the stolen swagbag. Looking to put the irate Mlllerotl the trail, she contacts down-at-heel private dick Jack Andrews (Kilmer) with a view to taking her death. Having lost his own wile in a tragic boating accident, he’s not too keen on the idea, but the hetty tee his prospective client is prepared to otter should stop his creditors lrom .
exacting their debts in broken limbs. Faking the murder at a local motel however, Fay subsequently disappears
. without completing the payment, while
news reports at the incident set her ex and the mob back on the trail. Obviously relishing a larger-than-lile bad girl role, Joanne Whalley-Kllmer plays her penetrating gaze and a selection oi low-cut gowns to the hilt, her llashy, dangerous sexuality providing a convincing loundation for much at the motivation of the two contesting men in her life. Although Val Kllmer is no Bogart or Mitchum and doesn’t really make all that much ol the
standard death-haunted past, Michael Madsen (also seen in Thelma and Louise as Susan Sarandon’s muso boyirlend) carries oil a very nice line in psychotic rage. ‘l'm luckin’ nuts,’ he observes as the screenwriters’ machinations approach their culmination, and one can barely raise a word in argument. Such moments add a dash ol spice to a passable double-cross special that should keep crime thriller addicts more than amused. (TrevorJohnston)
From Friday 12 July. Glasgow: Cannon the Forge.
Julian Sands, Nastassja Kinski, Charlotte ' Gainsbourg. 112 mins. The Taviani brothers follow up K005 and Good Morning Babylon with an adaptation of a story by Tolstoy. Shocked by the discovery on his wedding night that his fiancee had been the King‘s mistress, Baron Sergio Giuramondo (Sands) sets out to become a monk. and subsequently a'hermit. After
reputation as a saint spreads throughout the land. Highly intellectual in theory, the film is however surprisingly shallow in delivery. Glasgow: GF'T.
I Not Without My Daughter ( 12) (Brian Gilbert. US, 1990) Sally Field, Alfred Molina, Sheila Rosenthal, Roshan Seth. 115 mins. Following the emergence of Ayatollah Khomeini, Iranian-born Moody (Molina) decides to take his ‘ American wife and daughter on holiday to his homeland. Despite the obvious dangers. Betty (Field) eventually agrees. But once in Iran, her husband re-converts to Islam fundamentalism and insists that his family do not return home. Trapped in a country where Americans are hated, she has only one way out. Straightforward xenophobia, with as much narrative drive as a Sinclair C5. Glasgow: Cannon Sauchiehall Street.
I Ohayo (15) (Yasujiro Ozu, Japan, 1959) 94 mins. A father’s refusal to enterthe technological age by buying his family a
. television set is met with an oath ofsilence 'i from his sons. Juvenile rebellion on the level of social small talk, the film builds into a witty portrait ofsnburban Tokyo. Glasgow: GFT.
I Open Doors Porre Aperre (15) (Gianni Amelio. Italy, 1990) Gian Maria Volonte, Ennio Fantastichini, Renzo Giovampietro. 108 mins. When Tommaso Scalia (Fantastichini) commits three murders in the space of one morning, the death sentence seems to be the natural punishment until substitute judge Di
Francesco (Volonte) decides to take it on himself to save the assassin. A compelling film that raises the courtroom battle formula to a committed examination of the death penalty and pre-war fascist Sicily. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Pink Narcissus(18) (US, 1971) 70mins. A swooning homo-erotic fantasy in tie-dyed psychedelic colours, unavailable for over a decade until recently rediscovered in a New Jersey attic. What more need we add? Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Plalil (PG) (Juan Carlos Tabio. Cuba, 1988) Daisy Granados. Thais Valdes, Luis Alberto Garcia. 110 mins. The title refers to the noise made by eggs hitting walls and there's a subheading Too Afraid OfLife, so the omens are good for this Cuban portrait of racial, sexual and class struggles within a paranoid and gossip-ridden community. A lightly comical treat that parodies any number of film cliches and sends up the movie-making process itself. Glasgow: GF'T.
I The Pope Must Die (Peter Richardson, US, 1990) Robbie Coltrane, Beverly D‘Angelo, Herbert Lom, Ade Edmonson. 97 mins. Big Robbie swaps his habit for a cassock as he is elevated from a mere nun on the run to the supreme position of Pope Dave 1. Another offering from the unsubtle school of the Comic Strip, but too many subplots and too few jokes let down a superb title and fun central performance with the result that The Pope Must Die is unlikely to find ehm mass appeal. Glasgow: Odeon. Edinburgh: Odeon,UCl.Strathc1yde: UCI Clydebank. UCI East Kilbride.
l Postcards From The Edge (15) (Mike Nichols, US, 1990) Meryl Streep. Shirley MacLaine, Dennis Quaid, Gene Hackman, Richard Dreyfuss. 101 mins. Glossy but honest adaptation of Carrie Fisher’s largely autobiographical novel of
Hollywood hell: cocaine addiction. waking up with strangers. a plummeting reputation and the degradation ofthe detox clinic. In this case, the young star. played with gusto by Streep. facesthe additional tribulation ofan alcoholic mum u (MacLaine), but can country ‘n‘ western save the day? Sensitively assembled with an admirable lightness oftouch. this isa reasonably honest and generally charming i movie. Central: MacRobert Arts Centre. I Powaqqatsi (PG) (Godfrey Reggio, US. f 1988) 97 mins. Follow-up to Koyaanisqaisi I is another visual collage, thistime l examining how Third World societies have been exploited. Once more the result is beautifully photographed, and Philip Glass again provides the impressive . soundtrack, but somehow the impact of the original has been lost. Edinburgh: Cameo. I Pretty Woman (15) (Garry Marshall, US. 1 1990) Richard Gere, Julia Roberts. Ralph Bellamy. 120 mins. In this hugely succesful comedy-romance, Gere stars as j an unfeeling financial wheeler-dealer discovering he is human after all when he spends a week in the company of Roberts' downhome goodtime girl. Conversely. she . rediscovers her self-esteem by flawlessly carrying off the role of his high society I companion, so the audience can feel i happy for both of them. The outline might i be as hackneyed asthey come, but television veteran Marshall has just the right lightness oftouch. Central: l MacRobert Arts Centre. I Problem Child (PG) (Dennis Dugan. US, 1990) John Ritter, Michael Oliver, Michael Richards, Gilbert Gottfried. Amy Yasbeck. 81 mins. Adopted and returned thirty times to the orphanage. Junior is a troublesome child. a monster for foster parents. Now yet another hapless couple (Ritter and Yasbeck) have taken him into their home, and all hell is going to descend upon them. Flippant - if