FILM REVIEW
This issue The List introduces a comprehensive. at-a-glance review spread of all new films opening this
fortnight in Central Scotland.
I Barton Fink(15) In their latest outing. which took last year‘s (‘annes Film Festival by storm. the (‘oen Brothers cast an absurdist slant on Hollywood. Well-meaning playwright Barton Fink finds himself in a personal hell w hen commissioned to write low-budget wrestling movies. Stealing dark laughs from darker menance. this is one weird but unmissable movie.
I Black Robel 15) A faithful rendering of Brian Moore’s story of a 17th century Jesuit priest travelling hundreds of miles across North America to reach an isolated mission. Lothaire Bluteau's magnificent performance captures the priest‘s inner turmoil and gradual understanding of the brutal. beautiful philosophy of the native Indians.
I Dream On ( 15) (iritty
and authentic depiction of what it is like tobea
. woman living on an
unemployment-hit
housing estate in the north of lingland. Produced by g Newcastle'snon-
14 The List ZH l-ebruary
profit-making Amber collective. it manages to get beyond the constraints ofsimilar'l'V drama-documentarics. l-‘ull marks to lidinburgh and (ilasgow ()deons for giving it a mainstream screening.
I Music For The Movies
(li),\ unique
collaboration between the (WT and the 3(‘() using a programme ofsilent films
. fromthe Scottish Film
Archive. Twenty composers of all ages and backgrounds worked on
the scores. with S(‘()
associate composer James McMillan keeping an eye on things. One screening only on Tue 3 March at 8pm. so advance booking is recommended.
I A One Night Stand With Sean Connery lidinburgli ()deon hosts a quadruple
; bill of Bond movies ~ Dr
.\'o. Diamonds A re I’ort’l't’r. (io/dflngr’r and You ()nltv Live Twice-- with proceeds going
towards the work of Lcith
(‘ommunity l’layschemes. Doorsopen at l lpm on Fri 28 Feb. and tickets
(£5jare available now at
the box office.
’ IPrinceofTidest 15)
Barbra Streisand's version of Pat ('onroy‘s tale ofa Southerner confronting the traumas of his
: childhood is an adult
romance every bit as powerful and visually
sentimentalas.
respectively. Kramer 118'
Kramer and ()n (jolt/en I’oml. While her direction is sometimesshaky.it
cannot be denied that she encourages her fellow actors. particularly Nick Nolte. to bring true emotional depth to their characters.
—~ 12 March Ni):
THE LAST BOY SCOUT
Bruce Willis’s scuzzball private eye
and Damon Wayans’s disgraced sports
idol are the typically ill-matched buddy
duo seeking to restore tarnished pride
and avenge the respective deaths of
boss and girlfriend by tracing the trail
of destruction back to a familiar Mr Big
type. Following up a bracing opening
sequence in which (for reasons which
become clearer later on) a drug-crazed
1 football player blasts his way to a
; touchdown with the help of a handgun,
the plucky twosome's path is littered
! with explosions, blatantly disposable
i babes, screamineg offensive homosexual villains, bone-crunching
7 violence and.- yes! - more explosions,
but the pin-sharp dialogue in Shane
Black‘s million-dollar plus screenplay
is more than diverting enough to keep you chuckling throughout.
While Brucie's out to redeem himself after the Hudson Hawk debacle and director Tony (Top Gun) Scott gets in
the oddtrademarkllutterofpigeon
leathers, the real guiding hand here rests with producerJoel Silver, doyen of the actionfest and all-round Selznick of schlock. His nose for a winning formula has seen the Lethal Weapon and Die Hard movies rake in squillions at the box office, even though the mix of wisecracks, loud bangs and reprehensible stereotyping is pretty
much the same every time.
Here Willis gets cuffed a lot, but keeps the snide retort factor on an upward curve, and Wayans gets enough of the funnies to make you wonder whetherthe part wasn’t written for Eddie Murphy. Highly typical ofthe female roles on offer in a Joel Silver
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'. ‘ C- out: ‘bone-crunchingviolence'
The Last Boy Sc
picture is the 90-90 dancer who gets machine-gunned just a few minutes altershe does her bump‘n’grind routine. Stale-of-the-art fluff, it's like a good dirty joke — shameful but kind of fun. (TrevorJohnston)
The Last Boy Scout (18) (Tony Scott, US, 1991) Bruce Willis, Damon Wayans, Chelsea Field. 105 mins. From Fri 28: all Cannons. All UCls. Central: Allanpark. Strathclyde: Kelburne, Ddeon Ayr.
THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VERONIOUE
Twenty years ago, on the same day, at the same time, Veronika was born in Poland and Veronique in France. Entirely unrelated, they do however have an uncanny amount in common: both have widowed fathers, both are left-handed. both have a slight heart murmur, both have a beautiful singing voice. Most curious of all, however, is the way in which both girls share a sense that they are not alone in life, for both have strange visions indicating that their individual fates are bound up with the presence of another. More than this, it‘s probably unwise to give away, suffice to say that one of the two dies young, while the otherfalls passionately for an enigmatic suitor before she too edges closer to the revelation of herstrange destiny.
In director Kieslowski‘s monumental Dekalog, it was the play between the certainties of the Ten Commandments and the ambiguities of everyday life decisions that made forcompelling viewing. But this latest offering moves on to startling new terrain where the mystic and the supernatural intertwine in an eerily fascinating and disturbingly erotic celluloid dance of love and death.
Teasing the viewerthroughout, the
film typically resists easy definition, its surface abstruseness less significant
i than the chilling sense of mystery it
| manages to convey. While the score is
The Double Life of Veronique: “chilling sense ofmystery'
in itself enough to send a shiver down the spine, there's a genuine other-worldliness here that is obviously the work of a great filmmaker. The most uneasy two hours you’ll have spent in a cinema since Don't Look Now, Irene Jacob’s prize-winning, extraordinary twin performance is not the least of its marvels. (TrevorJohnston)
The Double Life of Veronique (15) (Krzystof Kieslowski, Poland/France, 1991) Irene Jacob, Philippe Volter, AlexanderBardini.110 mins. From Sun
8 Mar: Glasgow Film Theatre,
Edinburgh Fflmhouse.
\s 3 \
State-ol-the-art fluff, it’s like a good dirty joke - shameful but kind of fun.
An eerily fascinating and disturbing erotic celluloid dance of love and death.
l l l J