FILM INDEX
by a tacky and distracting love subplot. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. I Ilaeryus) (Rob Reiner. US. 1991) Kathy Bates. James Caan. Frances Sternhagen. Richard Famsworth. Lauren Bacall. 107 mins. Adapted from Stephen King‘s novel. this psychological chiller centres on a popular author with literary aspirations (Caan) who finds himself trapped. following a nasty car accident. with his psychotic ‘number one fan‘ (Bates. who won the Best Actress Oscar for the role). The talents of all concerned are employed to superb effect. to produce a movie of great originality. subtlety and entertainment value. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. I HyGiri (PG) (Howard Zieff. US. 1991) Macaulay Culkin. Dan Aykroyd. Jamie Lee Curtis. Anna Chlumsky. 102 mins. A millionaire and not yet in his teens — don‘t you just love Macaulay Culkin (he said through clenched teeth). This time he's sorting out the lives ofhis tomboy neighbour and her widowed mortician dad. A kiddies‘ romance with a (literal) stingin the tail. Also with the best character name in recent months (can you imagine admittingto knowing someone called Vada Sultcnfuss?) General release. I My Glrlrrlend'a Boyfriend L 'Ami De Mon Amie (PG) (Eric Rohmer. France. 1987) Emmanuelle Chaulet. Sophie Renoir. Eric Vieillard. 102 mins. The sixth and final offering in Rohmer's seriesof Comedies et Proverbes examines the relationship between computer programmer Renoir and shy civil servant Chaulet and their awkward search for love. Typically perceptive and self-assured work from the Gallic master. with the usual apparently spontaneous performances. Edinburgh: French Institute. I My Night With Haud (PG) (Eric Rohmer. France. 1969) Jean-Louis Trintignant. Francois Fabian. Marie-Christine Barrault. 101 mins. The first of Rohmer‘s Comedies et Proverbes is perhaps the most stimulating and satisfying ofthe sextet. Using a remark of Lenin‘s that it is better to take a chance in a million than no chance atall. the film focuses on lonely a Catholic engineer (Trintignant) who is infatuated with a woman completely unlike himself. Glasgow: GET. I The ltaked Klee ( 18) (Samuel Fuller. US. 1964) Constance Towers. Anthony Eisley. Michael Dante. Virginia Grey. 93 mins. Towers plays a city prostitute turned small-town children‘s nurse in Fuller‘s unlikely but gripping thriller. Tenderness and violence make uneasy bedfellows here. but Fuller‘s skill and determination to develop his theme produce some truly unforgettable scenes. Glasgow: GF’T. IhllghiAiThe Opera (PG) (Sam Wood. US. 1935)The Marx Brothers. Margaret Dumont. Kitty Carlisle. Allan Jones. Walter Woolf King. 90 mins. The Brothers (minus Zeppo) were at the height of their comic powers when they made this masterpiece. This time they‘re helping an opera company get back on its feet. but not before they've had a hand in wrecking it in the first place. Edinburgh: Cameo. I lllghttireed (18) (Clive Barker. US. 1989)Craig Scheffer. Anne Bobby. David Cronenberg. 99 mins. Honor maestro Clive Barker‘s ambitious. flawed tale of monsters mythic cities (in Alberta) and psycho doctors which ran foul of the American censors. Though the sheer scale ofthe attempted horrorfest appears to have overwhelmed the narrative thread. it does boast an impressive array of effects and a disarming acting debut by director C ronenberg. Glasgow: GET. Edinburgh: Cameo. I November Days ( 12) (Marcel Ophuls. Germany. 1990) 130 mins. Ophuls. director of Hotel Terminus. brings a more erotic slant to the common images of the destruction of the Berlin Wall. A homage to freedom. here shown as a video presentation. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. I Perla Trout(18) (Stephen Gyllenhaal.US.1991) Dennis Hopper. Barbara Hershey. Ed Harris. Tina Lifford. 99 mins. Hopper is on trademark psychotic form. this time in the Deep South during the late 19405. When a young black man fails to keep up the payments on a car he bought from shady businessman Paris Trout. the latter assumes white superiority and kills his client‘s sister. But this drives his wife into the arms of a local lawyer. albeit after an unbelievably gratuitous sex scene that goes well beyond anything Frank even imagined in Blue Velvet. Interesting. but by no means stunning. Glasgow: GF'T. I Pelle The Conqueror ( 15) (Billie August. Denmark/Sweden. 1988) Max Von Sydow. Pelle Hvengaard. 150 mins. Bleak. moving Scandinavian saga that follows a young boy and his grandfather as they emigrate from poverty-stricken turn of the century Sweden to what they hope will be a better life in Denmark. The film won the Cannes Palme d‘Or and the Oscar for Best Foreign Film. Glasgow: GET. I Predator(l8) (John McTieman. 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
20'I he List 13— 26 March 1992
' unsuspecting human to cross its path. Slow to build. but ultimately gripping macho mayhem
I with a real sense ofthreat. Edinburgh: Cameo.
l I Predatorz ( 18) (Stephen Hopkins. US. 1990)
Danny Glover. Kevin Peter Hall. Gary Busey.
Maria Conchita Alonso. Ruben Blades. 108mins.
The chameleon-like monster first encountered by Arnie in the Vietnam jungle is back. but thistime its hunger for human flesh has brought it to Los
Angeles' gangsterland. Glover is the new star. a
cop who finds his alien ally to be even more
dangerous than his enemies. and the cat ‘n' mouse
gore-chase which (let‘s face it) was good fun in
‘ part one is soon to follow . . .Competentand
sporadically thrilling sequel. Edinburgh: Cameo. I Prince olTIdea (15) (Barbra Streisand. US. 1991 ) Nick Nolte. Barbra Streisand. Kate Nelligan. Jeroen Krabbe. 131 mins. Glossy. romantic tale ofa Southern boy in New York. falling in love with his sister‘s psychiatrist while revealing his traumatic childhood in order to help
bring his twin back to health. While Streisand‘s
direction is sometimes shaky and her own performance is a little too self-conscious. there is no doubt that she encourages career-best performances from her co-stars. Nolte. in particular. is worth the price of admission on his own. General release.
I The Princess Bride (PG) (Rob Reiner. US. 1987). Cary Elwes. Robin Wright. Mandy Patinkin. Billy Crystal. 99 mins. The princess in question is one Buttercup. chosen by the nasty Prince Humperdinck to be his bride. Her heart. however. belongs to Westley. a farm boy who has disappeared. The princess‘ kidnapping prompts the return of Westley. who has become a pirate. and launches a series of swashbuckling adventures. after which true love can prevail. William Goldman‘s heavily ironic fairytale is given a spirited treatment by the director ofStand By Me and an enthusiastic troupe. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Problem Child 2 (PG) (Brian Levant. US. 1991) John Ritter. Michael Oliver. Laraine Newman. lvyann Schwan. Ho hum. No sooner have we got over suffering the stomach-churning sweetness of My Girl and Curly Sue than it‘s time for the return of the pre-pubescent. bow tie-clad Junior (Oliver) from 1990‘s Problem Child. This time he and his surrogate father are trying to come to terms with the excess of single women in their new home town. As if we cared. Glasgow: Cannon Sauchiehall Street. All UCIs.
I Prooi (15) (Jocelyn Moorhouse. Australia. 1991) Hugo Williams. Genevieve Picot. Russell Crowe. 90mins. A young blind man copes with his disability by taking photographs; he asks his new friend to describe them to him. confirmingthat the world he imagines matches that experienced by the rest of society. But when hisjealous housekeeper intervenes. power games and deceit knock his life out of balance. Moorhouse‘s excellent debut feature examines emotional insecurities that affect us all. Glasgow: GET. Central: MacRobert Arts Centre.
ITlie Purple RoseOlCalro (PG) (Woody Allen. US. 1985) Mia Farrow. Jeff Daniels. 84 mins. A dowdy waitress meets the man of her dreams when a matinee idol steps down off the movie screen and into her life. Unfortunately. the studio bosses are not amused as the character involved is their property. and the actor who played the role worries about the possibility ofa paternity suit. Basically a one-joke movie. it‘s admirably worked out. offering a few barbs of wisdom on the illusory nature of romance. Edinburgh: Cameo.
I Ralae The Red Lantern (PG) (ZhangYimou. China/Japan. 1991)Gong Li. Ma Jingwa. He Caifei. Cao Cuifeng. 125 mins. Zhang. director of J u Dou and Red Sorghum. again combines exquisitely beautiful photography with formalised melodrama. but this time creates one of the most moving films to appear anywhere on the world circuit in recent years. Essentially the tale ofa young girl forced to become a concubine and the jealousies she encounters in her fortress home. it also acts as a metaphor for the repression of individual passions in post-Tiananmen China. Glasgow: GF'I'.
I flamollng nose ( 15) (Martha Coolidge. US. 1991) Laura Dern. Robert Duvall. Diane Ladd. Lukas Haas. John Heard. 110 mins. Sleepy Georgia of 1935 is the 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 amongthose 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. Strathclyde: Magnum.
I Romuald and Juliette (Coline Serreau. France. 1989) Daniel Auteuil. Firmine Richard. 118 mins. Winning serio-comic love story in which hard-nosed business exec falls for his black cleaning lady. As their affair breaks down both class and racial barriers. her shrewd insight into the absurdity of corporate power-broking helps him to discover a new set of more worthwhile values. Serreau comes up with an insightful and
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funny examination of the way we live now. though it does bear a highly coincidental resemblance to the outline of Pretty Woman! Glasgow: OH“. I The Seventh Seal (PG) (Ingmar Bergman . Sweden. 1957) Max Von Sydow. Gunnar Bjornstrand. Bibi Andersson. 90 mins. Knight Von Sydow returns from the Crusades tothe brutal horrors of medieval Sweden. and plays chess with Death as the plague rages around him. Powerful morality tale. with a profound sense of historical cruelty. which was one of the director's biggest early successes. Glasgow: GF’T. I Shadows ( 12) (John Cassavetes. US. 1959) Leila Goldoni. Hugh Hurd. Ben Carruthers. 87 mins. Cassavetes‘s first film concerns two brothers and their sister who attempt to work out the various tensions they feel within different relationships. Winner of five awards at the Venice Film Festival and possibly the most influential independent American film of the decade. its electric atmosphere. free-focus camerawork and jumpy editing are reminiscent of Godard's Breathless (made the same year). Edinburgh: Filmhouse. I Slilnlnu Through (15) (David Seltzer. US. 1991) Melanie Griffith. Michael Douglas. Liam Neeson. John Gielgud. 132 mins. Plucky. half-Jewish secretary Linda Voss (Griffith) replaces a key spy in Berlin and finds herself passing secret documents to US Intelligence. In no other respect does intelligence . let alone plausibility. enter into this lavish. old-fashioned and ludicrous World War II melodrama. Its only hope is to become one of those late-night camp classics where the audience chant along with the deliciously daft dialogue. See review. General release. I Shock Conldor(18) (Samuel Fuller. US. 1963) Peter Breck. Constance Towers. Gene Evans. James Best. Hari Rhodes. 101 mins. Breck‘s heroic reporter allows himself to be committed to an asylum in order to investigate the murder ofan inmate. As the slow process of obtaining reliable information from the deranged witnesses frustrates him. so the surroundings begin to wear down his own sanity. and his latent neuroses arise to speed his descent into madness. Slightly hard to believe . but it‘s an enthralling and stunningly photographed ride. Glasgow: GET. I Sllenee 0"” Lamb: ( 18) (Jonathan Demme. US. 1991) Jodie Foster. Anthony Hopkins. Scott Glenn. 119 mins. Following a series ofhorrific 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 Manhunter Harris. Demme‘s film version is a subtle but scary suspense shocker. with two excellent performances and great narrative drive. Strathclyde: UCI East Kilbride. IA Small Piece ol Germany ( 15) (Joachim Tschirner/Lew Hohmann/Klaus Salge. Germany. 1991 ) The title refers to the death zone beside the Berlin Wall which kept the two Germanies apart for so many years. The directors present three case histories of people involved in escape attempts. with the cumulative effect of adding a human perspective to a physical and political barrier. Glasgow: GET. I Snow Vllilte and the Seven Deana (U) (Walt Disney. US. 1937) With the voices ofAdriana Caselotti. Harry Stockwell. Lucille La Verne. 83 mins. One of the most enchanting and influential of animated features. The central character isa mite wet but the individualistic dwarfs. memorable songs. superbly crafted backdrops and characters make this an essential cinematic experience. General release. I See: lea Tolls de Paris ( PG) (Rene Clair. France. 1930) Albert Prejean. Pola Illery. Gaston Modot. 92 mins. Clair's first talkie. ascvidenced by the scratchy soundtrack. walks the line between nostalgia and anachronism. A Parisian singer falls in love with a girl. but must battle to win her. Edinburgh: French Institute. I Star Trek V1: The Undiscovered Country(PG) (Nicholas Meyer. US. 1991) William Shatner. Leonard Nimoy. DeForrest Kelley. James Doohan. 109 mins. The usual bunch ofold codgers boldly go in search of new plotlines but instead come up with an intergalactic variation on our own superpower peace talks. Throw in a renegade Klingon or two and the old mutual mistrust and tacky dialogue hits ham factor eight. . . and rising. Forget the grandiose aspirations and enjoy as a piece of undemanding pantomime. General release. I State 01 Grace ( 18) (Phil Joanou. US. 1990)Sean Penn. Ed Harris. Gary Oldman. Robin Wright. 134 mins. Undercover cop Terry Noonan (Penn) returns to his old neighbourhood of New York‘s Hell‘s Kitchen to find that his Irish gangster chums have become more violent in his absence. Against a background of potentially bloody war with the Italian mafia. he fights his own inner battles between the loyalties of his youth and his higher sense of right and wrong. Director Joanou moves on from his concert days of UZ: Rattle and Hum ably assisted by the performances of his male leads. Edinburgh: Cameo. I Suburban Commando (PG) (Burt Kennedy. US. 1991) Hulk Hogan. Christopher Lloyd. Shelley
Duval. Larry Miller. 91 mins. Professional wrestler and over-the-top star Hulk Hogan is Shep Ramsey . an intergalactic crusader marooned on Earth. whose heroic deeds are threatened by the arrival of a pair of alien bounty hunters. Silly plot and cheapo special effects aside. enough laughs are milked out of the situation to make for a relatively painless cinema sitting. Strathclyde: Odeon Ayr. WMR Leisure Centre. I Superleena (18) (Russ Meyer. US. 1975) Shari Eubank. Charles Pitts. Uschi Digard. 105 mins. Breasterama time with Russ the sexist. The plot concerns our hero‘s flight from a trumped up murder charge and his dalliance with many a substantially-nourished young lady on his way across country. Technically Meyer‘s an accomplished film-maker and there‘s a lot ofnifty cutting around. not all of it by the censor. Wonder how many folks go to Russ Meyer movies to watch the editing technique. Glasgow: Grosvenor. I‘Ihelma & Loulae (15) (Ridley Scott. US. 1991) Susan Sarandon. Geena Davis. Harvey Keitel. Michael Madsen. 129 mins. The buddy/road movie genres are turned on their heads as Sarandon and Davis grasp the steering wheel and head off leaving a trail of murder and mayhem in their wake. On one level. the film is the critical catalyst that had the feminists cheering and put the stars on the cover of Time magazine; just as importantly. it‘s an accessible piece of entertainment with excellent central performances. Edinburgh: Cameo. I Toto The Hero (15) (Jaco Van Dormael . Belgium. 1991) Michel Bouquet. Mireille Perrier. Jo De Backer. 90 mins. Elderly Thomas believes that his rescue as a baby from a hospital fire caused him to be mixed up with another child. with the result that he feels that he should be enjoying the comfortable existence of rich neighbour Alfred. Past and present. childhood and adulthood. are edited together to create a wonderfully absorbing whole. Van Dormael‘s debut scooped several of 1991‘s film awards around Europe. Central: MacRobert Arts Centre. I Trash (12) (Helke Misselwitz. Germany. 1990) 80 mins. Four seventeen-year-old boys. who live ' in the inner city ghettos. show typical teenage frustration. but are here placed in the lead-upto the destruction of the Berlin Wall. The film shows how trivial individual lives can be when caught up in the sweep of history. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. I Vixen (18) (Russ Meyer. US. 1968) Erica Gavin. Harrison Page. Garth Pillsbury. 71 mins. Russ Meyer and his bosom buddies play around in another mammary-infested movie. Vixens fills a pivotal position in Meyer‘s career. when he graduated from fringe exploitation to . . .ehm. mainstream exploitation. Glasgow: Grosvenor. I Weekend (18) (Jean-Luc Godard. France. 1967) Mireille Darc. Jean Yanne. Jean-Pierre Kalfon. 103 mins. A married couple leave consumer society behind them when they head off for a weekend only to encounter a landscape strewn with burning cars. bloody corpses and savage Maoist revolutionaries. An interesting piece considering its time — just before the anarchic scenes of Paris 1968 — and the fact that it preceded Godard‘s rejection of commercial cinema before moving to a more ideological approach to film. Glasgow: GF'I'. I Wlld Al lleart (18) (David Lynch. US. 1990) Nicholas Cage. Laura Dern. Diane Ladd. Willem Dafoe. 127 mins. Lynch's much-hyped Cannes prize-winner turns out to be weird and wondrous in its own way. if not quite as cohesive asthe earlier Blue Velvet. Cage and Dem are the energetic young lovers on the run. pursued by ultrastrange hitman Dafoe on a sometimes comic. sometimes disturbing. trail towards the ultimate rende2vous with Elvis and the Wizard of ()z. Strathclyde: Paisley Arts Centre. I A Woman Under the Influence ( 15) (John Cassavetes. US. 1975) Gena Rowlands. Peter Falk. Matthew Cassel. 146 mins. Domestic drama centring on a married couple very much in love but unable to communicate. When outside confusions intensify. inner emotions escalate to the level of madness. Restrained and closely focussed filmmaking that brought Oscar nominations for Cassevetes and Rowlands. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. I Year ofthe Gun (15) (John Frankenheimer. US. 1991) Andrew McCarthy. Sharon Stone. Valeria Golino. John Pankow. 111 mins. American-born journalist David Rayboume (McCarthy) is working in Rome amidst of the murders and terrorist acts commited by the Red Brigade. while trying to pass off his fictional. ‘from the inside' book on the organisation as fact. A tight political thriller from one of the masters (The Manchurian Candidate. Seven Days In May) of the genre. Edinburgh: Cameo. I Zero de ConddilefJean Vigo. France. 1933) Louis Lefevre. Gilbert Pluchon . Gerard dc Bedarieux. 44 mins. Hugely influencial piece which remained banned until 1945 due to its anarchistic view of boarding school life. Always seen through the boys‘ eyes. it attacks mindless discipline head on. Filled with a subversive charm. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.