FILM INDEX
Convincing and disturbing adult thriller with effortlessly stylish use of the wide screen. Edinburgh: Cameo. I March Caresses (15) (Radoslaw Piwowarski, Poland. 1989) 88 mins. The effects of Israel's Six Day War spill over into a small Polish community. when an anti-Zionist purge disturbs the sleepy lifestyle of two high school boys. both of whom are in love with the moody daughter of the local police commissioner. A sex-spiced movie about teen alienation. Glasgow: GFT. I MlsterJohnson ( 12) (Bruce Beresford. US. 1990) Pierce Brosnan. Edward Woodward. Maynard Eziashi. Dennis Quilley. 100 mins. Set in 1920s colonial West Africa, Bruce Beresford‘s follow-up to Oscar-winner Driving Miss Daisy again brings up questions of racial conflict and again fails to address them satisfactorily. Newcomer Eziashi - surprise winner ofa Golden Bear at the 1991 Berlin Film Festival - is the native Nigerian who goes out of his way to affect the manner ofa British civil servant. eager to help his colonialist heroes build a road in a remote region of the country. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. I Mortal Thoughts ( 18) (Alan Rudolph. US. 1991) Demi Moore. Glenne Headly. Bruce Willis. Harvey Keitel. 102 mins. See review. Edinburgh: UCI. Strathclyde: UCl Clydebank. UCI East Kilbride. I The Muppet Movie (U) (James Frawley. UK. 1979) Charles Durning. Steve Martin. Bob Hope. Kermit, Fozzie. Miss Piggy. 97 mins. Numerous guest stars appear on the way as Kermit heads offto Hollywood and stardom. Plenty slapstick for the kids and movie in-jokes forthe parents. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. I A Page of Madness ( 15) (Teinosuke Kinugasa. Japan, 1926) 60 mins. Stylish account of an old sailor who gets a job as janitor in an asylum to stay close to his insane wife. A challenging avant-gardc piece that uses a wealth ofexpressionist distortions to create a succession ofvisual shocks. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. I Poison (18) (Todd Haynes. US. 1991) Edith Meeks. Larry Maxwell. Scott Renderer. James Lyons. 90mins. The latest target for the venom ofAmerican morality groups, Haynes' low-budget triptych pulls together three separate stories with ‘deviance‘ as the linking theme. The Jean Genet-influenced third section, ‘Homo‘. has attracted most flak over is lurid depiction of prison love. Glasgow: GFT. I Predator ( 18) (John McTiernan, US. 1987) Arnold Schwarzenegger. Carl Weathers. Elpidia Carillo. 107 mins. Arnie and his dirty half-dozen are hired to enter a dense South American jungle to free a hostage. but lurking unseen in the foliage is a chameleon-like being waiting to skin alive any unsuspecting human to cross its path. Slow to build. but ultimately gripping macho mayhem with a real sense of threat. Edinburgh: Cameo. I Predatorz (18) (Stephen Hopkins. US. 1990) Danny Glover. Kevin Peter Hall, Gary Busey, Maria Conchita Alonso. Ruben Blades. 108 mins. The chameleon-like monster first encountered by Arnie in the Vietnam jungle is back. but this time its hunger for human flesh has brought it to Los Angeles, where the Police Department begins to receive unexpected assistance in its struggle against the gangleaders. Glover is the new star, a cop who finds his new ally to be even more dangerous than his old enemies. and the cat ‘n‘ mouse gore-chase which (let's face it) was good fun in part one is soon to follow. Competent and sporadicallythrilling sequel. Edinburgh: Cameo. I The Profound Desire of the Gods ( 18) (Shohei lmamura.Japan. 1968) 175 mins. When a research engineer comes to the island of Kuragejima, he finds a strange. primitive society Oppressed by local superstitions. As he becomes more and
Mortal Thoughts (15) (Alan Rudolph, US, 1991) Demi Moore, Glenne Headly, Harvey Keitel, Bruce Willis. 102 mins. Co-producer Demi Moore may well be the key name on the credits here, her search for the next big role after Ghost ending in this intriguing tableau of blue-collar buddydom and duplicity.
Here she plays a New Jersey hairdresser voluntarily giving evidence to decent copper Harvey Keitel (agreeably reprising his Thelma And Louise role) about the murder of slobby, cretinous, pill-popping Bruce Willis, the husband of her boss and best friend Glenne Headly. As the action progresses in flashback and detective Keitel puts her evidence under closer and closer scrutiny, questions begin to pile up. Is she an honest woman who’s come forward because she realises that helping her girlfriend cover up a killing was wrong? Dr is her‘version ol the truth a diversion from what really happened on the fateful night in question?
Right from the start, the problem with William Reilly and Claude Kerven’s screenplay is that there are only a couple of options. It simply has to be either Glenne or Demi who bumped olf dear Drucie, and the longerthe movie goes on, the more apparent the
MORTAL THOUGHTS
. ‘0 s. a 5‘
conclusion becomes. There are, however, other pleasures along the
way, largely in the performances, where the credibly restrained Moore is only just outshone by Headly’s genuinely troubling mounting hysteria, but (surprisingly) it's the usually loathsome Willis who steals the show as a slimebalf so unemcumbered with any notion ol taste that he croons ‘Kung Fu Fighting’, while practicing his Bruce Lee moves.
While it’s not one of his own projects, directorAlan Rudolph builds a recognisany gritty picture of proletarian USA, all marbled denim and dreadful Dynasty hairstyles, while injecting not a little tension into the most everyday domestic scenes as Moore tries to conceal the whole story from her hubby John Panltow. Still, even though the story structure militates against sustained suspense, Rudolph’s olten hamlisted camera moves end up working against the movie. Time perhaps to call a moratorium on tilt shots and slow-motion, which have now become just hackneyed devices and no longer a shortcut to audience unease. (Trevor Johnston)
From 25 Oct: Edinburgh: UCI.
Strathclyde: UCI Clydebank. UCI East Kilbride.
more disorientated. the film goes offinto surreal filghts of fantasy. Spectacular film-making. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Purple Rain (15) (Albert Magnoli. US. 1984) Prince. Apollonia Kotero. lllmins. Thinly-disguised Oscar-winning autobiographical drama on the life and hard times of His Purpleness. The music is all. Edinburgh: Cameo.
IA Rage In Harlem ( 18) (Bill Duke. US. 1991) Robin Givens. Forrest Whitaker. Gregory Hines. Danny Glover. 1 10mins. All the elements of Chester llimes‘ 50s pot-boiler are up on screen — stolen gold. hoods. harlots. cons. sexy women and a lovestruck undertaker. The cx-Mrs Tyson is in cracking form as the femme fatale who is duping the innocent Jackson (Whitaker) in order to escape the clutches of her vicious former partner in crime. Strathclyde: Odeon Ayr.
I Regarding Henry ( 12) (Mike Nichols. US. 1991) Harrison Ford. Annette Bening. Bill Nunn. Mikki Allen. Nancy Marchand. 107 mins. When lawyer and general bastard Henry Turner (Ford) nips out to the shop for a packet of fagsand accidently gets shot in a hold up. all memories of his life are wiped out. Now
begins a long period of rehabilitation of both mind and body. and. with it. the chance for Mr Ford to indulge in some serious l lollywood acting. Mike Nichols glibly directs a script that is far tooblack and white and takes too many predictable turns. Edinburgh: Dominion. UCI.
I Rescuers Down Under ( l; ) ( l lendel Butoy Mike Gabriel. US. 1990) With the voices of Bob Newhart. Eva Gabor. John Candy. George C. Scott. 77mins. Miss Bianca and Bernard. the two top mouse agents from the International Rescue Aid Society. this time journey tothe Australian outback in order to help an eight-year-old boy protect an endangered eagle from a ruthless poacher. Disney's 29th full-length animated feature uses state-of—the-art animation techniques to give more of an action ’adventure slant to this sequel to 1977's The li’esrtwrs. which is still a favourite of Disney fans ofallages. Glasgow: Cannon Clarkston Road. Cannon The Forge. ()deon. Salon. Edinburgh: Dominion. ()deon. UCI. Central: Allanpark. Caledonian. Cannon. Strathclyde: Cannon. ()deon Ayr. ()deon Hamilton. L'Cl Clydebank. UCI East Kilbride.
I Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves ( 12) (Kevin Reynolds. US. 199] ) Kevin Costner. Morgan Freeman.Christian Slater. Alan Rickman. 147 mins. Second outing of the year for the Nottingham legend. this time with llollywood‘sgolden boy in the title role. Costner‘s Robin slips into Indiana Jones mode as he setsabout undoing the wrongs of Rickman‘s scene-stealing Sheriff in a way that is wonderfully reminiscent of the best Saturday matinee swashbucklers. Glasgow: Cannon The Forge. Cannon Sauchiehall Street. Edinburgh: Cannon. Dominion. UCl. Central: Caledonian. Strathclyde: Odeon Ayr. UCl Clydebank. UCI East Kilbride. I Robocop ( 18) (Paul Verhoeven. US. 1987) Peter Weller. Nancy Allen. Ronny Cox. 103 mins. Slick and stomach-churningly 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. Glasgow: (il’l‘. I Robocop 2 ( 18) (lrvin Kershner. US. I990) Peter Weller. Nancy Allen.Tom Noonan. Dan ()‘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 of Corporate corruption in let century Detroit violently unfolds. This time Roboeop 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 multi-national ()mni Consumer Products. Glasgow: GFT. I Rosencrantz And Guildenstem Are Dead (PG) (Tom‘ Stoppard. UK. 1991 )Tim Roth. Gary Oldman. Richard Dreyfuss. lain Glen. “7 mins. Stoppard‘s own screen version of his first play. premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe in 1966. Set inthe world of Hamlet. but with a new and highly quirky perspective on events. it presents Shakespeare's peripheral characters as existential fall-guys tryingto work out how the situation brewing around them might relate to theirfuture. Witty and very clever. but probably better on the stage. Central: MacRobert Arts Centre. I Seven Samurai (PG) (Akira Kurosawa. Japan. 1954) Toshiro Mifune.Takahashi Simura. 2le mins. A groupoftimid villagers seek protection against the excesses of a brutal warlord by hiring seven heroic samurai. Seminal Japanese action picture. with a slow-building dignity matching the best ofJohn Ford, and in its stylishly aesthetic handlingof screen violence a profound influence on the likes of Sam Peekinpah. Highly recommended. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. I Sign ‘D’ The Times ( 15) (Prince. US. 1987) Prince. Sheila E. . Sheena Easton. 85 mins. Capturing one of today's most extravagantly talented pop composers live in action in Rotterdam. this is a superior concert movie because Prince‘s stage performance is a superior entertainment. With a harder. even funkier sound than on record. and the imposing sexual presence of dancer Cat and drummer Sheila E. . this is hot stuff for the eyes and the ears. Edinburgh: Cameo. I Silence Of The Lambs ( 18) (Jonathan Demmc. US. 1991)Jodie Foster. Anthony Hopkins. Scott Glenn. 1 19mins. Following a series of horrific serial murders. imprisoned psycho-killer Hopkins is released to help Foster and Glenn‘s FBI agents track down the culprit. Adapted from a novel by Thomas Munhumer l larris. Demme‘s film version is a subtle but searey suspense shocker. with two excellent performances and great narrative drive. Glasgow: GET. Edinburgh: Cameo. Central: MacRobert Arts Centre.
18 The List 25 October- 7 November 1991