FILM INDEX
l I Cinderella (U) (Wilfred Jackson/Hamilton Luske/ Clyde
) Geronimi. USA. 1949) With the voices of
( Ilene Woods. Eleanor Audley. Verna
1 Felton. William Phipps. 75 mins. The
1 classic Disney version of one of the world's
1 most popular fairy tales makes for a
i welcome school holidays re-release.
. Treated as little more than a slave by her
cruel stepmother and stepsisters.
subject matter is at once bizarre. repulsive. romantic and compelling. Centring on Greenaway's obsessions with food. decay and infidelity. it's an unforgettany stylish tale of forbidden love and brutal revenge. Glasgow: Grosvenor. I Curly Sue (PG) (John Hughes. US. 1991) James Belushi. Kelly Lynch. Alisan Porter. John Gctz. 102 mins. See review. General release (from 27 Dec).
BILL & TED’S BOGUS JOURNEY
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aura Ted’s Bogus Journey (PG) (Peter Hewitt, US, 1991) Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, George Carlin, Joss Acitland. 93 mins. Those most excellent dudes Bill and Ted return in a triumphant, though not unprecedented, sequel to their earlier awesome adventure. This time, the talent-tree, air-guitar-playing metal heads are on their way to the battle of the bands, but before the Wild Stallyns can blast their competitors oh the stage, there are a few most atypical diversions. These include evil duplicates oi themselves (the ‘Evil Uses'), a trip to Hell (‘We were totally lied to by our album covers, man’), the heinous Grim Reaper dude, the Ugly Red Source at All Evil, and two most chaste princess babes irom Medieval England, iowa. Not necessarily in that, or any other, particular order.
Actually, Bogus Journey is slightly more coherent than the bodacious original, with something that, in Bill a. T ed terms, resembles a plot. Having
.. .‘ v; \a‘.\ Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey: ‘an outstanding amount oi gonzoid behaviour.‘
reached the second crucial turning
" point in their destiny, the guys board
theirtime-travelling, Tardis-style phone-box and seekto intervene in history as their previous, living selves. Meanwhile, the Evil Usses (Bill and Ted’s egregious alter-egos) swill beer, trash the chaste babes‘ apartment and attempt most heinoust to translorm them into non-chaste babes. Fortunately, Bill and Ted are able — Seventh Seal-style -to beat His Royal Deathness at Battleships, Cluedo and various other party games, thereby returning via Heaven to save the day. Frankly, who really cares about a plot when there's an outstanding amount of gonzoid behaviour, home-strung heavy metal philosophy and unprecedented slang, the most unbogus of which is undoubtedly ‘iull-on robot chubby’ - imagine a rather stimulated R202 and you’ve got the idea. (Nigel Floyd)
From 3 Jan: General release.
BILLY BATHGATE
Billy Bathgate (15) (Robert Benson, US, 1991) Dustin Hellman, Nicole Kidman, Lorin Dean, Bruce Willis. 107 mins. Depression Era hits Disneyville as this dull adaptation ol E.l.. Doctorow’s gangster best-seller linally plods onto the UK screens. Not only did arguments over creative control cause lead man Hellman to tail outwith the studio and lormer buddy Benson (the duo scored Oscar wins with 1979’s hanltle-sodden Kramerv Kramer), but the film ltsell is currently doing what shall hencelorth be known as a ‘Maxweli’ at the US box otllce.
Despite living in a genre that usually revels in snappy dialogue and violent blood-letting, these gangsters are played, perhaps too realistically, as businessmen. Tom Stoppard’s screenplay is certainly witty and literate, but there are more accountants on screen than tommy guns, and the whole thing setters from a terminal case of Grey Suit Syndrome. Even Hellman, as the Infamous Dutch Schultz, leaves It to the last to shitt up a gear and match flashes of angry psychosis with the trustratlon oi a backstreet Lear losing his kingdom.
In the title role newcomer Lorin Dean sellers from having to cover the same ground - local naive boy is seduced by glamourous but ultimately sordid
-- -J w, :"ts. , Billy Bathgate: ‘more accountants on screen than tommy guns.‘
Iilestyie —that was more ellective in the early stages of Goodtellas. At least Nicole Kidman, in her manipulation of the men around her, puts the ‘moll’ in ‘molllly', while Steven Hill, as Schultz’s right hand numbers wizard, rellects on the gang’s decline with a world-weary iatallsm. Dne imagines that the studio heads can empathise. (Alan Morrison)
From 10 Jan: General release.
Fairy Godmother grants her three wishes. Magical animation and fun songs make for a film to be enjoyed over and over again. Edinburgh; Filtnhouse.
I Cinema Paradiso (PG) (Giuseppe Tornatore. Italy/France.1988) Phillipe Noiret. Jacques Perrin. Salvatore Cascio. 123 mins. Tornatore‘s vision of his movie-mad childhood is a wonderful love
3 letter to the cinema itself. 'l'old largely in
flashback. it traces the young Salvatorc's infatuation with his village cinema. and his growing friendship with its projectionist (played to perfection by Noirei). Essentially. it's Tornatore's lament for the joyous movie-going experience of his youth and a recognition of the price we pay for our maturity. 1990 Oscar winner for Best Foreign Film. Glasgow: Grosvenor.
I Circle of Deceit( 18) (Volker Schlondorff. Germany/France. 1981) Bruno Ganl. Hanna Schygulla. Jerzy Skolimowski. 109 mins. Unlike most of the ‘journalist covering war in the front-line' genre — Under Fire. Salvador. etc — Schlondorff's
3 challenging movie was actually filmed in
Beirut. side by side with real carnage. Ganz is the war correspondant having a crisis of conscience over whether to remain passive observer or active participant. Authentic and occasionally harrowing. Glasgow: GF'I'.
I City Slickers ( 12) (Ron Underwood. US. 1991) Billy Crystal. Daniel Stern. Bruno Kirby. Helen Slater. Jack Palance. 114 mins. Funny man Crystal stars as a fortysomething advertising salesman who faces up to the mid-life crisis by joining a two-week cattle drive with his pals. Moderately amusing second feature from the director of Tremors. Strathclyde: 17C] Clydebank.
I Colonel Redl (15) (lstvan Svabo, Hungary/Germany/Austria. 1984) Klaus Maria Brandauer. Hans-Christian Blech.
Armin Muller-Stahl. 149 mins. A man
from a poor background rises through the ranks of the Hapsburg limpire's army. but is treated as an outsider and persecutes himself for his class. his Jewishness and his homosexuality. Brandauer's towering performance is set in the midst of some wonderful visuals. Glasgow: Gl’l‘.
I The Commitments ( 15) (Alan Parker. l'K.
1991) Robert Arkins. Michael Alierne. Angeline Ball. Maria Doyle. 118 mins. Sod UZ — when would-be manager Jimmy Rabbitte (Arkins) puts together The Commitments. soul comes to Dublin and
the band become the force to really put
Irish music on the map. Alan Parker delivers a hilarious. down-to-earth. close-to-home movie. stuffed full of good music and with sortie relevent social comment to boot. Easily one of the best on your local screens. General release.
I The Company of Strangers (PG) (Cynthia Scott. Canada. 1990) 100 mins. Scott's experimental film is set on a broken-down bus where seven old ladies and a young gospel singer. Michelle. respond to their collective isolation by opening up to each other. The dialogue is based on hours of conversation. and the director has allowed her actors to steer the movie. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I The Cook, The Thief, His Wile And Her Lover (18) (Peter Greenaway. UK. 1989) Michael Gambon. Helen Mirren. Alan Howard. Richard Bohringer. Tim Roth. 121) mins. A superb film which nonetheless contains something to offend everybody. Beautifully photographed, directed. written. acted and art-directed (with lavish costumes by Jean Paul Gaultier), its
I Cyrano De Bergerac (U) (Jean-Paul Rappeneau. France. 199(1) Gerard Depardieu. Jacques Weber. Anne Brochet. Vincent Pere’l. 135 mins. A stirring adaptation of Rostand's classic. 2 romantic tragi-comedy. Full of grandly mounted. bustling crowd scenes. it revolves around typically superb performance from Depardieu as the
large-nosed hero. Although performed in
rhyming verse throughout (with subtitles by Anthony Burgess). and a touch overlong. the film's dramatic and cinematic qualities are outstanding. Glasgow: (ii-'1". lidinburgh: Filmhouse. I Dance Of The Vampires The Fearless Vampire Killers (15) (Rotnan Polanski. US. 1967) Jack MacGowran. Roman
spoof horror. with MaeGowran as the eccentic professor and Polanski as his
Furopean castle infested with vampires. Though there are moments of pure Polanski genius. most of the movie
‘ tnisfires. and it's remarkable mainly as an
oddity. Fdinburgh: Cameo.
(IS. 199(1) Kevin Costner. Mary McDonnell. Graham Greene. Rodney Grant. 179 mins. Costner's debut as
its epic scale and its sympathetic depiction of Red Indian culture in the lh’bfls. 11 won seven ()sears including Best Film and Best ; Director. with no less than twelve
: nominations. Set at a remote outpost
‘violcnt struggle between pioneering
| Yankees and Sioux Indians. it offers a lsensitive and intense analysis of both
i factions. and of a man caught between two (different cultures. Edinburgh: Catnco.
j I Dead Again ( 15) (Kenneth Branagh. US, i 1991) Kenneth Branagh. fimma g'l‘homson. Andy Garcia. 101 mins. A (notable shift away from the Bard for the golden boy of British theatre in his first ;Hollywood outing. Branagh plays cynical. 51.os Angeles-bascd private detective Mike xChurch. an expert at tracing heirs and (missing persons. His latest case involves ldiseovering the identity of a beautiful 'young woman who has no memory of her lown. but relives the nightmares of a jmurdered woman. Old-fashioned gHitchcoekian thriller. carried off with lmuch style. Glasgow: Cannon Sauchiehall Street. Fdinburgh: Cannon.
1. Diva ( 15) (Jean-Jacques Beineix. France. 1981) Frederic Andrei. Roland Berlin. Richard Bohringer. 117 mins. The twisted fate of two tapes. one an illegal recording of an American opera star. the other exposing a crime ring. is the central strand of this daffy Gallic cult favourite. Style exudes from every sprocket hole. Glasgow: (if’l‘.
I Drop Dead Fred (12) (Ate de Jong. US. 1991) Rik Mayall. Phoebe Cates. Marsha Mason. Carrie Fisher. 99 mins. When she isn‘t seeing Gremlins. it seems that Ms Caies is conjuring up her imaginary childhood friend Drop Dead Fred (Mayall in his Stateside debut) despite the fact that she's now well into adulthood. Puerile comedy that fails to be enlivened even by Mayall‘s manic performance. Central: ('aledonian.
I Empire of the Sun (PG) (Steven Spielberg. US. 1987) Christian Bale. John Malkovitch, Miranda Richardson. 152 mins. J.G. Ballard's bestseller through the eyes of Spielberg becomes a long. sentimental account of a young boy‘s
Polanski. Alfie Bass. Sharon Tate. Ferdy Mayne. 107 mins. Peculiar Hammer-type
assistant. both staying in an isolated. cast
I Dances With Wolves ( 12) (Kevin Costner.
director and eo-producer. in which he also stars. has already been widely praised for
,during the American Civil War. a time of
26 The List 20 December 1991 — 16 January 1992