FILM INDEX
FILM mm:-
Fllms screening this fortnight are listed below. with certificate, credits, briet review and venue details. Full-length reviews oi selected new releases can be found close to the appropriate entry. Programme details appear in the listings section which follows. Film Index compiled by Alan Morrison.
Inge! Heart ( 18) (Alan Parker. US. 1987) Mickey Rourke. Robert de Niro. Charlotte Rampling. 113 mins. Scruffy. unshaven private eye HarTy Angel is hired by the mysterious Louis Cyphre to track down a missing Forties crooner who has reneged on a life -or-death deal. Uncomfortable mating of visceral gore and moody film noir. with some ingenious if nasty twists in the plot. Edinburgh: Cameo. I Astoria in Britain (U) (Pino Van Lamsweerdc. France. 1986) With the voices of Jack Beaber. Bill Keams. Graham Bushnell. 89 mins. The Romans have invaded Britain and only one village refuses to surrender. Their chief sends a message to his distant cousin Asterix the Gaul. who rushes to the rescue with his sizeable colleague Obelix and a bottle of secret potion. Edinburgh: F ilmhouse. IAI liode Pore at dtl Fits (15) (Patrice Noia. France. 1991) Patrice Noia. J udicael Noia. Carolina Rosi. 80 mins. Inspired by the murder of his father some fourteen years ago. Noia explores a father/son relationship during a journey from Italy to France. A very moving account of filial love. French Film Festival. Glasgow: GFT. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. IW (15) (Eric Rochant. France. 1991) Yvan Attal. Kristen Scott-Thomas. Marc Berman. 95 mins. A young man (Attal) hijacks a school bus in order to visit the woman he fell in love with while on holiday. On one level. an accessible and exciting heist picture done in a fairly Hollywood manner; on another. it manages to create genuine audience sympathy for its gun-toting protagonist. Central: MacRobert. Ilame Fiak(15) (JoelCoen. US. 1991)John Turturro. John Goodman. Judy Davis. Michael Lerner. 117 mins. When socially-committed playwright Barton Fink (Turturro) is consigned by the Hollywood machine to write wrestling films. he slumps into a writer's block as large as his mysterious next-door neighbour (John Goodman). The Coen‘s at their most menacing and absurd best. Edinburgh: Cameo. I last: lestiact(18) (Paul Verhoeven. US. 1992) Michael Douglas. Sharon Stone. George Dzundza. Jeanne Tripplehom. 128 mins. On-the-edge ‘Frisco cop Nick Curran (Douglas) becomes embroiled with a successful novelist and murder suspect (Stone); she , in turn. treats him to a series of psychological fomications while going along a similar path with his body. Easily the best. ice-pick-sharp thriller for several years. with steamy sex scenes that leave the screen dripping with sweat. Edinburgh: UCI. Strathclyde: Odeon Ayr. I Beauty and the least (U) (Gary Trousedale/Kirk Wise. US, 1991) With the voices of Paige O’Hara. Robby Benson. Richard White. 84 mins. tThe first animated film ever to get an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. and a classic by anyone‘s standards. The familiar story is supplemented by terrific songs. a host of comic characters and a breathtaking combination of traditional and computer animation techniques. General release. I um (U) (Brian Levant. US. 1992) Charles Grodin. Bonnie Hunt. Dean Jones. 87 mins. A small St Bernard pup escapes from an evil vet and attaches itself to the Newton family. Soon it grows to enormous proportions and begins to wreck domestic havoc. Endless visual gags and good timing. particularly from Grodin. enliven what might have been a run-of-the-mill mutt movie. General release. I lift! Icon (18) (Roman Polanski. UK/France. 1992) Peter Coyote. Hugh Grant. Emmanuelle Seigner. 134 mins. A wheelchair-bound novelist (Coyote) tells a tale of lust and perversion while on board a luxury liner. Polanski's dissection of the darker side of desire may not be to everyone's taste. but it certainly has its moments of outrageously black comedy. Edinburgh: Odeon. I "OI-Up (15) (Michelangelo Antonioni, UK. 1966) David Hemmings. Vanessa Redgrave, Sarah Miles. 110 mins. A dashing young Swinging Sixties photographer may or may not have captured evidence of a murder on film. Dated but intriguing backgrounds of decadent London are overshadowed by a sensitively evoked exploration of vision and truth. Strathclyde: Paisley.
I Bob Roberts (15) (Tim Robbins. US. l992)Tim Robbins. Alan Rickman. Giancario Esposito. Gore Vidal. 103 mins. Man-of-the-moment Robbins takes over as director. writer and star of this wonderfully sharp satire on contemporary American politics. The eponymous Roberts is a right-wing folk singer with senatorial ambitions. appearing here in a mocked-up Spinal Tap type documentary. Glasgow: Odeon. Edinburgh: Cameo.
I Boomerang (15) (Reginald Hudlin. US. 1992)
Eddie Murphy. Robin Givens. Martin Lawrence.
120 mins. Eddie Murphy stops the downward spiral of his career with this slick tale of a notorious womaniser who meets his match when he finally falls in love. Not the continually outrageous Murphy ofold. but all the better for it. General release.
I Bully The Vampire Slayer ( 12) (Fran Rubcl Kuzui. US. 1992) Kristy Swanson. Luke Perry. Rutger Hauer. 94 mins. Highschool cheerleader becomes vampire slayer in this insult to the intelligence horror-comedy that is neither funny nor scarey. With its dialogue slapped together from hip-for-fifteen-minutes phrases overheard in a shopping mail. it should have been staked at birth. See review. Glasgow: MGM. All UCIs.
I The Butcher's Wile ( 12) (Terry Hughes. US. 1991) Demi Moore. Jeff Daniels. Mary Steenburgen. 104 mins. A lonely lass marries a New York butcher and starts doling out clairvoyant advice with the pork chops to local lovelorn women. Aiming for the gentle tone ofa contemporary fairy tale. director Hughes overdoes the whimsicality to a degree that some might enjoy but others find irritating. Fife: Adam Smith.
I Calllomla Man (PG) (Les Mayfield. US. 1992) Sean Astin. Pauly Shore. Brendan Fraser. 88 mins. College loser and spaced-out buddy dig up a prehistoric caveman. tidy him up a bit and pass him off as an Estonian exchange student as a means ofwowing the babes. Substandard Billet: Ted fare that adds even more loopy teen vocabulary to the Wayne's World dictionary. General release.
I Carry On Columbus (PG) (Gerald Thomas. UK. 1992) Jim Dale. Maureen Lipman. Alexei Sayle. 91 mins. Map shop proprietor Chris C gets an expedition command and takes off across the Atlantic pursued by Ahmed the Turkish spy. Without the effortlessly zany presences ofSid James. Kenneth Williams et al. this new generation Carry On is noticabiy hollow. Sadly unfunny. General release.
I Cinema Paradiso (PG) (Giuseppe Tornatore. Italy/France. 1988) Phillipe Noiret. Jacques Perrin. Salvatore Cascio. 123 mins. Told largely in flashback. the film traces young Salvatore‘s infatuation with his village cinema. and his growing friendship with its projectionist (played to perfection by Noiret). Edinburgh: Filmhouse. I City DtJoy ( 15) (Roland Joffe. UK/France. 1992) Patrick Swayze. Pauline Collins. Om Puri. 135 mins. Surgeon Patrick Swayze agrees to help Pauline Collins run a school and medical dispensary in the poorest area of Calcutta. but is intimidated by the local gang chief. Roland (Killing Fields) Joffe‘s latest offering is another attempt to create a feelgood epic from a situation of incalculable suffering. but despite being well made and acted. its didacticism smothers any ability to respond. Cannons: Sauchiehall Street. Falkirk. Kirkcaidy. UCIs: Edinburgh. Clydebank.
I lie Coeur Ottl Dat(15) (Francois Dupeyron. France. 1991) Dominique Faysse. Thierry Fortineau. Jean-Marie Winiing. 100 mins. The wife of an antique dealer is still in love with her husband. but begins an affair nonetheless. The emotional starkness of the content. coupled with the atmospheric Parisian setting. make this more than your average 10ve story. French Film Festival. Glasgow: GFT. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. I The Commitments ( 15) (Alan Parker. UK. 1991) Robert Arkins. Michael Aheme. Angeline Ball. Maria Doyle. 118 mins. Sod U2 — 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 some relevent social comment to boot. Strathclyde: UC I Clydebank.
I The Creature From The Black Lagoon (18) (Jack Arnold. US. 1954) Richard Carlson. Julia Adams. Ricou Browning. 79 mins. Fifties‘ monster movie classic has a party of scientists on an Amazon expedition discovering a strange amphibious creature. the gill man. who proceeds tothreaten the safety of the entire group. Impressive underwater camerawork and some sympathy for the big green fella mark this out as far superiorto most of the genre. Edinburgh: Cameo.
I Damn (15) (Maria Novaro. Mexico. 1991) Maria Rojo. Carmen Salinas. Bianca Guerra. 96 mins. Twice a week for ten years. Julia has met her mysterious partner Carmelo to dance the ‘danzon‘. the Mexican dance of seduction. When
i Leading i ladies
3 Jean Harlow: An Intimate Biography (Warner £5.99) is exactly what the title claims. Written by Hollywood
scriptwriter Irving Shulman and based on a series oi conversations with Harlow's agent Arthur Landau, it spends as much time in the star's bedroom as it does on the movie sets. First published in America in 1964, but not seen here until this year, it reads like a piece oi fiction and, as such, it is lilting that this all-American tragedy plays out within the coniines oi the studios in their heyday.
Marilyn Monroe initially styled herself as the new Harlow and, interestingly enough, Schulman produced an early story outline for Monroe’s last, uncompleted movie, Something’s Got To Give. In Marilyn: The Last Take (Heinemann £17.50), Peter Brown and Patio Barham take a journalistic- and almost apologist— approach to the last few months ol her lite. Recent TV documentaries have implicated Robert Kennedy, her death and used unseen ioolage oi Something's Got To Give to show that she was not the incapable actress on set that the studio claimed at the time. Marilyn: The Last Take puts both oi these arguments in writing and, while thorough, does not really add much to either or any conspiracy theory.
PETER BROWN 8: PATTE BARHAM
One of Monroe’s more iamous llings was with French actor Yves Montand, the husband of actress and writer Simone Signoret. The book Simone Signoret (Bloomsbury £17.99) by Catherine David is a very personal account at the lite oi a strong and admirable woman, which eschews the genre’s typical “hallowed saint’ approach. Signoret, of course, wrote her own autobiography, but David places herwriting, acting and left-wing political commitment in a wider, more objective context. This is not a ieminist book: it clearly shows Signoret as a woman determined, above all, to be Montand's wile. it is, however, a fascinating portrait of one of the century's most remarkable woman, and a tremendous piece of writing in ltseli. (Alan Morrison)
he disappears. she sets out to find him. A powerful exploration of suppressed desires. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Death In Brunswick ( 15) (John Ruanc. Australia. 1991)Sam Neill. Zoe Carides.John Clarke. 105 mins. Cari. a cook in a sleazy Melbourne dive. gets involved in a crazy mix of sex'n‘drugs‘n‘rock'n‘roll when he falls for a fellow waitress. The strangest. blackcst. most hilarious oddity to come from Down Under in recent years. Glasgow: Grosvenor.
I Delicatessen (15) (Jean-PierreJeunet/Marc Caro. France. 1991) Dominique Pinon. Marie-Laure Dougnac. Jean-Claude Dreyfus. 99 mins. in a sepia wasteland somewhere in the future. a butcher feeds his neighbours with the juicy joints of his lodgers. Hilarious blend of bizarre characters. slapstick and comic tension makes for the first true cult item of the ‘90s. Edinburgh: Cameo. Strathclyde: UCI Clydebank.
I Do The HightThlng (18) (Spike Lee. US. 1989) Spike Lee. Danny Aiello. John Turturro. 119 mins. New York‘s deprived Bedford-Stuyvesant district on the hottest day of the summer. and racial tension escalates between Italian-Americans and the mainly black local community. A forceful exploration ofthe socio-economic and cultural causes behind white racism. Lee‘s film also operates as a tightly controlled multi-character drama. Glasgow: GFT.
I Down By Law ( 15) (Jim Jarmusch. US. 1986). John Lurie. Roberto Benigni. Tom Waits. Three petty crooks in New Orleans find themselves framed (‘down by law‘) and imprisoned in the heart of the Louisiana swamps. The crux ofthe film lies in the relationship between the three men as they make their hazardous escape across an alien environment. Edinburgh: Cameo.
I Eating Haoul (18) (Paul Bartel. US. 1982) Paul Bartel. Mary Woronov. Robert Beltran. 83 mins. Excellent. deadpan black comedy. incorporating a wide range of themes to do with materialism, sex and bourgeois fastidiousncss. as ordinary Paul and Mary Bland (Bartel and Womonov) are distracted from their plans to escape L.A.‘s madness by a scheme which combines catering with homicide. Edinburgh: Cameo.
I El Cid (PG) (Anthony Mann. US/Spain.1961) Charlton Heston. Sophia Loren. Raf Vallone. 184 mins. Spectacular 11th century epic with Heston
in fine form as a Spanish patriot fighting to rid his
country of the Moors. All the better for avoiding the more obvious over-the-top finale. Edinburgh: St Bride‘s. I Une Epocha Forrnldable (PG) (Gerard Jugnot. France. 1991) Gerard Jugnot. Richard Bohringer. Victoria Abril. 96 mins. One of France's most popular films of the past year. this is a perceptive comedy set amongst the down-and-outs of Paris. The terrific cast are as at home with laughter as tears. French Film Festival. Glasgow: GFT. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. I The Exorcist (18) (William Fricdkin. US. 1973) Linda Blair. Ellen Burstyn. Max Von Sydow. 110 mins. Earnest priest Von Sydow steps in to save poor little possessed girl in this hugely effective scarefcst. Dead good. dead scarey. dead priest. Strathclyde: Cannon. UCIs. I 1492: Conquest oi Paradise (15) (Ridley Scott. US. 1992) Gerard Dcpardieu. Sigourney Weaver. Armand Assante. 150 mins. The best ofthe Columbus fleet casts its protagonist in tragic idealist mode. a man whose dream ofa egalitarian paradise is set against the harsher dictates of the Spanish imperialists. A visual masterpiece by Scott; a performance of truly heroic proportions by Dcpardieu. See feature. Glasgow: Cannon Sauchiehall Street. MGM. Edinburgh: Cannon. All UCIs. I Frankie and Johnny ( 15) (Garry Marshall. US. 1991 ) Al Pacino. Michelle Pfeiffer. Hector Elizondo. Kate Neliigan. 117 mins. Despite some feminine resistance . love begins to sizzle between disillusioned waitress Frankie (Pfeiffer) and short order cook Johnny (Pacino). Warm-hearted romance. with side orders of cliche and diner realism. from the man who brought you Pretty Woman. Glasgow: Grosvenor. I Gas Food Lodging (15) (Allison Anders. USA. 1991) Fairuza Balk. lone Skye. Brooke Adams. 102 mins. A waitress mother and her two teenage daughters suffer family upsets while being continually charmed and disappointed by the men in their lives. A world away from the typical Hollywood attempt to make a women‘s issues movie. Anders debut is as full of humour as it is integrity. with characters who have a resonance far beyond their screen lives. See review. Glasgow: GFT. I Gladiator ( 15) (Rowdy Herrington. US. 1992) James Marshall. Cuba Gooding Jr. Brian Dennehy. 98 mins. In order to repay his father‘s gambling debts. Tommy Reilly climbs into the boxing ring. only to find that he must knock the
18 The List 23 October - 5 November 1992