FILM .m-
Flims screening this fortnight are listed below, with certificate, credits, brief review and venue details. Full-length reviews at selected new releases can be tound closeto the appropriate entry. Programme details appear in the Listings section which tollows. Film Index compiled by Alan Morrison.
I Arsenic And Old Lace (PG) (Frank Capra, US, 1942) Cary Grant, Raymond Massey, Peter Lorre, Josephine Hull. Jean Adair. 118 mins. Priceless black comedy has Grant upping the double-take factor when sinister criminals Massey and Lorre come to stay with his two sweet aunts, a double-act who ofcourse are just as murderous themselves. Glasgow: GFT. I Asterix and The Big Fight (U) (Keith Ingham, UK, 1989) With the voices ofBill Oddie, Michael Elphick, Andrew Sachs. 82 mins. Asterix celebrates his thirtieth anniversary with this new animated feature in which he and his band ofplucky Gallic mates take on the might ofthe Roman army. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. IBackdralt (15) (Ron Howard, US, 1991) William Baldwin, Kurt Russell. Scott Glenn, Robert De Niro, Donald Sutherland. 136 mins. Chicago‘s finest firefighting men receive the Hollywood treatment in the film that burned up the US box office charts. Baldwin and Russell‘s sibling rivalry plays against a backdrop of stunning fire effects and big screen action as the Fire Department and De Niro‘s arson investigator search for clues amongst the charred remains of several victims with links to the forthcoming civic elections. Glasgow: Cannon Clarkston Road, Cannon The Forge, Cannon Sauehiehall Street. Edinburgh: Cannon, Dominion. UCl. Central: Cannon. Strathclyde: Cannon. UCl Clydebank, UCI East Kilbride. I Betty Blue ( 18) (Jean-Jacques Beineix, France, 1986) Jean Hughes Anglade, Beatrice Dalle. 120 mins. Tempestuous love gone mad as an older handyman and a free-spirited woman embark on a passionate, peripatetic fling that ends in tragedy. Filmed with a dazzling technique and an irritating emptiness by the maker of Diva. Glasgow: GFI‘. I The Blues Brothers (15) (John Landis, US, 1980) John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd. Carrie Fisher. 130 mins. Bloated. overlong anarchic Chicago comedy with the two stars on a mission from God to salvage the imperilled fortunes ofan orphanage. Lots of guest stars, musical numbers and automotive destruction in a typical product of over-emphatic contemporary American humour. Strathclyde: UCI East Kilbride. I Le Chateau 0e Ma Mere (U) (Yves Robert, France, 1990) Philippe Caubere, Nathalie Roussel, Didier Pain.Therese Liotard. 98 mins. The second instalment of Marcel Pagnol‘s Memories of Childhood picks up from where La Gloire
RETURN TO THE BLUE LAGOON
Return To The Blue Lagoon (12) (William A. Graham, US, 1991) Lisa Pelikan, Brian Krause, Milla Jovovich. 100 mins. Although held to be a disease oi modern cinema, sequelmania has an auspicious literary tradition. Having touched a popular voyeuristic nerve with The Blue Lagoon, novelist Henry de Vere Stacpoole promptly banged out a few follow-ups, one oi which (The Garden of God) inspires this sequel to Randal Kleiser’s tacky 1980 movie. With one hand down his trousers and the other on his wallet, director William Graham puts strapping teenage stars Brian Krause and Milla Jovovich through their pubescent paces, exploiting a spectacularly contrived plot which allows him simply to re-run all the sexy set-pieces for which Kleiser’s second-hand original was tamed. When the child oi the recently deceased castaway couple is rescued from the ocean, the ship in which he is saved tails ioul oi cholera. Fearing infection, resourceiul passenger Sarah Hargrave bundles her baby daughter
and newly adopted son into a iragile iiieboat which is miraculously swept back to the island home where Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins lormerly trolicked. Here, Sarah raises the children to puberty beiore dying of pneumonia, leaving the kids alone to discovertheir dawning sexuality. . . etc, etc.
Things begin boldly, with the bloody evidence oi menstruation and talk of masturbation and copulation, but when mating time arrives the pair merely snog, simper, iall writhing to the iloor, then proceed directly to an impromptu wedding ceremony, perpetuating the myth that babies come lrom marriage. Like a sex education lilm made by semi-liberated nuns, Return To The Blue Lagoon keeps its sticky truths beneath a veneer oi Ieering cleanliness. Sterile stutt. (Mark Kermode)
From Fri 9 Aug. Glasgow: Cannon The Forge, Odeon. Edinburgh: Odeon, UCI. Strathclyde: Odeon Ayr, UCI Clydebank, UCI East Kilbride.
de mon I’ere left off. The plot, ifthat‘s what it is. concerns a key the family is given to allow ashort cut to their mountain holiday home. but which a jobsworth type
confiscates, claiming they are trespassing. For the most part, it has all the emotional resonance of a picture postcard. Glasgow: GFT.
I Cinderella (U) (Wilfred Jackson/Hamilton Luske/ Clyde Geronimi, USA. 1949) With the voices of llene Woods. Eleanor Audley. Verna Felton, William Phipps. 75 mins. iThe classic Disney version of one of the world‘s most popular fairy tales makes for a welcome school holidays re-release. Treated as little more than a slave by her cruel stepmother and stepsisters.
Cinderella's life is transformed when her Fairy Godmother grants her three wishes. Magical animation and fun songs make for a film to be enjoyed over and over again. Glasgow: Cannon The Forge. Edinburgh: UCI. Strathclyde: Odeon Ayr, UCI Clydebank, UCI East Kilbride.
I Citizen Kane (PG) (Orson Welles, US, 1941) Orson Welles. Joseph Cotten. Agnes Moorehead. 119 mins. Stunningly successful biographical mosaic centring on a Hearst-like media tycoon. Welles' first film remains scintillating viewing for its sheer technical verve, narrative confidence and spellbinding performances. The best film ever made? Who's arguing? Edinburgh: UCl.
I Cyrano De Bergerac (U) (Jean-Paul
i
Rappeneau. France. 1990) Gerard Depardieu. Jacques Weber, Anne Brochet. Vincent Perez. 135 mins. A stirring adaptation of Rostand‘s classic. romantic tragi-comedy. Full ofgrandly mounted. bustling crowd scenes (Ezio
: Frigerio and Franca Squarciapino won a
Felix for their production design), it revolves around typically superb performance from Depardieu as the large-nosed hero. Although performed in rhyming verse throughout (with somewhat dodgy subtitles by Anthony Burgess). and a touch overlong. the film's dramatic and cinematic qualities are outstanding. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Dances With Wolves ( 12) (Kevin Costner. US. 1990) Kevin Costner, Mary McDonnell, Graham Greene. Rodney Grant. 179 mins. Costner‘s debut as director and co-producer. in which he also stars, has already been widely praised for its epic scale and its sympathetic depiction of Red Indian culture in the 18605. ltwon seven Oscars including Best Film and Best Director. with no less than twelve nominations. Set at a remote outpost during the American Civil War. a time of violent struggle between pioneering Yankees and Sioux Indians. it offers a sensitive and intense analysis of both factions, and of a man caught between two different cultures. Edinburgh: UCI.
I Driving Miss Daisy (U) (Bruce Beresford. US. 1989) Jessica Tandy, Morgan Freeman. Dan Aykroyd. 99 mins. The winner of four Oscars. including Best Film and Best Actress for Jessica Tandy. This film adaptation of Alfred Uhry‘s Pulitzer-winning play, charts the . relationship between gentlewoman Tandy and her chauffeur Freeman. The narrative spans several decades of gradually shifting attitudes and developing racial consciousness. An affecting mosaic of everyday pride and prejuducc which reveals a deeply-laid insight into human behaviour. presented throughout with wonderful pacing. Glasgow: GF'T.
I Edward Scissorhands (PG) (Tim Burton, US. 1991) Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder, Dianne Wiest, Vincent Price. 105 mins. Burton follows up the excesses ofBarma/z with this fairy tale for the 90s, which works as a welcome return to the darker side of the genre. Depp is the unfinished creation ofThe lnventor (Price). who lives alone in a crumbling mansion, unable to even scratch his nose without needing stitches. Discoverd by a friendly Avon lady, his talent for coiffure and topiary makes him a neighbourhood favourite until tragedy strikes. Beautifully shot. tenderly acted and full of hidden depths. Glasgow: Cannon The Forge. Odeon, Grosvenor. Edinburgh: Odeon, UCl. Central: Allanpark, Caledonian, Cannon. Strathclyde: Cannon, Kclburne, Odeon Ayr, Odeon Hamilton, La Scala, UCl Clydebank, UCI East Kilbride.
I The Exorcist ( 18) (William Friedkin, US, 1973) Linda Blair, Ellen Burstyn, Max Von Sydow. 110 mins. Earnest priest Von Sydow steps in to save poor little
possessed girl in this hugely effective scarefest. Dead good, dead scarcy, dead priest. Strathclyde: Odeon Ayr.
I Green Card (12) (Peter Weir, US, 1991) Gerard Depardieu, Andie MacDowell,
74 The List 9- 15 August 1991