INDEX FILM
One to warm even the most glacial heart.
Glasgow: GFT.
I Jacob‘s Ladder ( 18) (Adrian Lync, US, 1990)Tim Robbins. Elizabeth Pena, Danny Aiello. 113 mins. Vietnam vet Jacob Singer is seeing some very strange things. like nurses with demons‘ horns and people with faces straight out of a Francis Bacon painting. As his grip on the reality of his present life begins to slip. he has recurring flashbacks to the night his platoon was wiped out during the war. The director of Fara! A (fraction and the writer of Ghost combine to pull off one ofthe most terrifying. yet ultimately moving. paranoia thrillers of recent years. Strathclyde: OdeonAyr.
IJungle Fever (18) (Spike Lee. US. 1991) Wesley Snipes. Annabella Sciorra.John Turturro. Spike Lee. Anthony Quinn. 132 mins. Black yuppie Flipper Purify (Snipes) launches into an ill-fated affair with his Italian-American secretary (Sciorra) and adds fuel to the fire of inter-racial tensions. Spike Lee‘s latest controversial work also includes a major subplot on drug addiction, which leaves the audience wondering if he has tackled too many ‘big' issues at once. Still. it'sa stylish piece with some good performances. even ifthe director‘s message is not exactly positive. Glasgow: GFT. Edinburgh: Cameo.
I The Leopard (15) (Luchino Visconti. Italy. 1963) Burt Lancaster. Claudia Cardinale. Alain Delon. 205 mins. Characteristically lavish Visconti adaptation of Giuseppe Dc Lampedusa‘s classic novel of the Italian Risorgimento has a splendid Burt Lancaster as the Prince of Salina reflecting mournfully-on the rise of the bourgeoisie when his nephew Delon marries merchant’s daughter Cardinale. Undeniany overlong and rather slow-moving. Visconti‘s handling of the epic final ball sequence isa further demonstration of his mastery of composition for the wide screen and his later conception of film-as-opcra. Glasgow: GFT.
I The Lord of the Rings (PG) (Ralph Bakshi. US, 1982) With the voices of Christopher Guard. William Squire. Michael Scholes, John Hurt. 133 mins. Successful animated version ofthe Tolkien epic covers the first two books of the trilogy only. Sticking closely to the textl and using live action tracings to give authenticity to the animation, it manages to avoid Disney cuteness and creates an exciting and enjoyable mythical adventure that only the Tolkien purist will find fault with. Glasgow: GFT.
I Mannequin On The Move (PG) (Stewart Raffill. US. 1991) Kristy Swanson. William Ragsdalc. Terry Kiser. Meshach Taylor. 95 mins. The sequel to the 1987 hit 2 Mannequin brings in new characters and abandons the original‘s teen-oriented fantasy. opting instead for an updated fairytale. A new employee at a department store brings a mannequin to life when he removes her necklace, and discovers that she is a peasant girl who has been under a curse for 1000 years. Simple and enjoyable. but less sure of its audience. Strathclyde: Odeon Ayr.
I Mortal Thoughts ( 18) (Alan Rudolph. US. 1991) Demi Moore. Glenne Headly. Bruce Willis. Harvey Keitel. 102 mins. When pill-popping slob Bruce Willis is bumped off, family friend Demi Moore voluntarily gives evidence to the police. But is her involvement really so straightforward? Co-producer Moore is obviously looking for the next big thing after Ghost, and the risk seems to have paid off with this intriguing tableau of blue-collar buddydom and duplicity. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I 9% Weeks(18) (Adrian Lyne, US. 1985) Mickey Rourke, Kim Basingcr. 113 mins. Divorcee Basinger becomes a slave to love and lust when she succumbs to the stubbly charms of commodities broker Rourke. Empty-headed and disturbing designer
3).
Proof (15) (Jocelyn Moorhouse, Australia, 1991) Hugo Weaving, Genevieve Picot, Russell Crowe. 90 mins. Jocelyn Moorhouse's excellent debut feature shows how the subject of blindness— often deployed as an easy facilitator of terror or farce - makes for a rather ironic point of entry to the cinema’s ongoing obsession with the act of vision itself. Martin (Weaving) copes with his disability by taking photographs, his instinctive snapping away a sign of his refusal to be denied access to the visual world that all sighted people take for granted. Striking up a friendship with easygoing kitchen-hand Andy (Growe), he asks his new-found buddy to describe these pictures to him, providing confirmation that the environment he senses is out there, matches the surroundings experienced by the rest of society.
For Martin’s mind to be set at rest, he needs to totally trust that Andy is telling him the truth, for in his memories of childhood he is torn by the suspicion that his mother was lying to him with her description of the view from their windows. She talked of a man raking leaves, but as a boy he never heard the sounds that would prove it. Years later, and Martin remains wary of others, most particularly his enigmatic housekeeper Celia (Genevieve Picot), whose continually rebuffed affection for her unsighted employer results in a spikin hurtful relationship between them. The arrival of the third party,
Proof: excellent debut feature on blindness and emotional insecurities
however, is to add a new element to the :
equation, and by setting out to seduce
Martin’s pal, she disrupts the friendship formed by the two men. To shield Martin from intimations of a bizarre menage a trois, Andy lies for the first time about one of the photos, but his breach of trust is less a betrayal than an acknowledgement of the many grey areas to be confronted in our dealings with other human beings.
It’s Andy’s purposely misleading description of the photo in question that’s one of the key issues here. Akin to David Hemmings’s finally frustrating efforts at solving the crime (possibly) captured by his camera in Antonioni’s Blow Up, it indicates that the connection between object and image is not as straightforward as we would like to think. Moorhouse's film, however, with its stabs of dark humour and tense undercurrent of controlled longing is no dry exercise in theorising, and the longer it goes on the more one comes to realise that it’s not blindness perse, but the emotional insecurities we all face that form the film’s most potent area of scrutiny. Like Martin, we can never truly know that the feelings of our loved ones match our own emotional requirements from them. Like Martin, the shattering of an assumed trust can be devastating for us, but Moorhouse touchingly puts the case that the acceptance of another's weaknesses is only the beginning of a deeper bond. Proof is one of the year's best. (TrevorJohnston)
From 8 Dec: Edinburgh Filmhouse. From 9 Dec: Glasgow Film Theatre.
bonking. Glasgow: Grosvenor.
I Omen IV: The Awakening ( 15) (Jorge Montesi/Dominique Othenin-Gerard. US. 1990) Faye Grant. Michael Woods. Asia Vieira. 97 mins. Don‘t be fooled by
the certificate - there is absolutely nothing
gory or even scary in this dreadfully inadequate American TV movie that is trying to make a fast buck offoverscas cinema audiences. A couple adopt a little girl who turns out to be the daughterof Anti-Christ Damien Thorn and a series of mysterious (but tedious) events follow. An insult to fans of the original trilogy. Edinburgh: UCl. Strathclyde: UCl Clydebank.
I Other People's Money (15) (Norman Jewison. US. 1991) Danny DeVito. Gregory Peck. Penelope Ann Miller.
Piper Laurie. 101 mins. A little too lateto catch the ‘greed is good‘ zeitgeist ofthe late 80s. Jewison‘s latest has DeVito as a predatory moneyman out to gain control ofa New England wire works. lmplausible romance begins between the diminutive corporate raider and his lawyer adversary (Miller). while the script tries to draw attention to the outmoded Major Statement but succeeds only in becominga dubious celebration ofthe joys of capitalism. Glasgow: Grosvenor. Strathclyde: Odeon Ayr.
I Parslfal (PG) (Hans Jurgen Syberberg. France/Germany. 1982) Michael Kutter. Karin Krick, Edith Clever. Armin Jordan. 225 mins. lnventively filmed in a studio setting. Syberberg’s visually stunning version of Wagner‘s last opera plays down
the composer‘s Christian theme and focuses instead on a decaying Europe. Far and beyond the typically static ‘opera on film' , it captures Wagner's sense of the dramatic and becomes an important cinematic event in its own right. If audience numbers are encouraging, this could be the first in a series ofopera matinees at the Cameo. Edinburgh: Cameo. I Point Break ( 15) (Kathryn Bigelow, US, 1991) Keanu Reeves, Patrick Swayze. Gary Busey, Lori Petty. 120 mins. Director Bigelow (Blue Steel, Near Dark) takes on Hollywood's action/adventure big boys at their own game and comes out on top. Reeves is the eager young FBl recruit on the trail ofa group of latex-masked bank robbers who are known to be surfers. Board under arm, he heads for the waves. Bigelow tackles cliches of buddy partnerships. macho bullshit and thriller shoot-outs with fresh energy. creating a terrific movie that has one foot in reality. the other in an absurdist world. General release. I Proof ( 15) (Jocelyn Moorhouse. Australia, 1991) Hugo Williams. Genevieve Picot. Russell Crowe. 90mins. See review. Glasgow: GFl". Edinburgh: Filmhouse. I Ouai Des Brumes (PG) (Marcel Carne. France. 1938) Jean Gabin. Michele Morgan. Michel Simon. Pierre Brasseur. 91 mins. A cynical army deserter fallsin love with a young idealist. and tries to wrench her from her crooked guardian. A wonderfully pessimistic piece of romantic cinema that echoes the political clouds hanging over France at the time. while setting the course for Hollywood‘s forthcoming preoccupation with doomed love affairs. Glasgow: GFl". I Raging Bull (18) (Martin Scorsese. US. 1980) Robert de Niro. Cathy Moriarty. Joe Pesci. 129 mins. Middleweight boxing champ Jake La Motta finds it difficult to sustain his early success and as his career fades. he declines into a travesty ofhis former self. De Niro‘s stunning physical presence dominates Scorsese's savagely bleak study of self-destructive machismo. Edinburgh: Cameo. I Rambling Rose (15) (Martha Coolidge. US. 1991) Laura Dern. Robert Duvall, Diane Ladd. Lukas Haas. John Heard. 110 mins. Sleepy Georgia of 1935 isthe setting for this coming-of-age period piece in which a barefoot farm girl is taken in by a more prosperous family. Rose (Dern) is a naive temptress and among those who fall for her simple charms are thirteen-year-old Buddy (Lukas Haas of Witness fame). A delicately handled. finely balanced movie that oozes with nostalgia. Edinburgh: Cameo. 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 Hollywood acting. Mike Nichols glibly directs a script that is far too black and white and takes too many predictable turns. Central: Cannon. I Rescuers Down Under (U) (Hendel Butoy/Mike Gabriel. US. 1990) Withthe voices of Bob Newhart. Eva Gabor. John Candy. George C. Scott. 77 mins. 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 ofan action/adventure slant to this sequel to 1977's The Rescuers. which is still a favourite of Disney fans ofall ages. General release.
The List6—- 1—9—o—ecerhber 199121