FILM INDEX
' FILM .113:-
ilms screenin this lortnight are listed :elow with certificate. credits, briel review and venue details. Full length reviews oi new releases can be tound in Screen Test: Programme details appear in the Listings section which follows. Film Index compiled
bv Alan Morrison. I Aliens (18) (James Cameron, US.1986) Sigourney Weaver. Michael Biehn. 137 mins. Revived from a 57-year snooze in deep space. Warrant Officer Weaver is ca joled into joining a marine rescue mission to the planet that is home for the original alien beastie. Unrelentingly paced with a terrifically gutsy performance from Weaver, this nerve-shredding sequel not only matches its predecessor but cannin surpasses it. An Oscar winner for special effects. Edinburgh: Cameo. I Allen 3 ( 18) (David Fincher, US. 1992) Sigourney Weaver, Charles Dutton. Charles Dance. 114 mins. Forget the backlash and the woeful tales of production difficulties — pop promo wunderkind Fincher makes a brave attempt to bring something new to the series by placing a shaven-headed Ripley plus monster companion on a prison planet filled with religious nutcases. Okay, it’s not Ridley Scott's classic sci-fi horror or James Cameron's Rambo In Space, but it is very dark. very atmospheric and very nearly worth the wait. Edinburgh: Cameo. I Lee Meets de Poet-leer ( 18) (Leos Carax, France. 1991) Juliette Binoche, Denis Lavant. 127 mins. An artist with a degenerative eye disease meets a fire-eating down-and-out , and they fall in love against the backdrop of Paris's Pont-Neuf. A stunningly visual movie , the most expensive ever to come out of France. Glasgow: GFT. I An American Tell (U) (Don Bluth, US.1986) With the voices of Dom DeLuise. Madelaine Kahn, Christopher Plummer. 80 mins. The late 19th century. The Mousekewitz family make their way from trouble-tom Russia to a new life in America. but they find the streets of New York are not all paved with gold. A wealth of background detail displays Bluth's admirably painstaking approach to animation. but the foreground narrative. often agreeably perilous, does occasionally reek of sentimentality. Central: MacRobert. IAsYoelee ll(U) (Christine Edzard. UK, 1992) Emma Croft. Andrew Tieman . Griff Rhys Jones. 114 mins. Taking the opposite direction from the period feel of her earlier works (Little Dorrit. The Fool). Edzard updates Shakespeare‘s tale of troubled young lovers to contemporary London Docklands. complete with a cardboard city Forest of Arden. A depressing backdrop perhaps for one of the bard’s brightest comedies, and a production for the arthouse audience. not the masses of the malls. Glasgow: GFT. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. I lame Pink (15) (Joel Coen, 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). Unprecedented winner of best film. actor and direction awards at 1991‘s Cannes Film Festival shows the Coen’s at their most menacing and absurd best. Glasgow: GFI‘. I eeeety end the least (U) (Gary Trousedale/Kirk Wise, US, 1991) With the voices of Paige O'Hara. Robby Benson. Richard White. 84 mins. The first animated film ever to get an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. the 30th Walt Disney feature-length cartoon is a classic by anyone ‘5 standards. The familiar story is supplemented by terrific songs. a host of comic characters and a breathtaking combination of traditional and computer animation techniques. Glasgow: MGM Parkhead. Edinburgh: Odeon. Strathclyde: Odeon Ayr. All UCls. I Ieelhovee (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. Strathclyde: Odeon Ayr. I let" live (18) (Jean-Jacques Beineix, France. 1986) Jean Hughes Anglade, Beatrice Dalle. 120 mins. Tempestuous love gone mad as an older handyman and a free-spirited woman embark on a passionate . peripatetic fling that ends in tragedy. Filmed with a danling technique and an irritating emptines by the maker of Diva. Fife: Adam Smith.
Men at work
Al Pacino is currently enjoying the most productive period of his acting career and seems. at 52, to have exorcised the demons ol the past. Those demons are trotted out in Andrew Yule’s extremely readable Al Pacino: A Lite on the Wire (Warner £5.99) - heavy drinking, guilt over his mother's death, some dodgy creative decisions. As well as laying open the inner lite 01 this most private man, Yule examines the nature 01 modern American acting. discussing relevant Method techniques and Pacino’s distinguished stage worlt.
Like Pacino, the late Yves Montand spent a lifetime with one toot on the tiim set, the other on the stage, although his was as a singer rather than theatre actor. You See, I Haven’t Forgotten (Cbatto a Windus, £111) is more than a biography, less than an autobiography: writers Herve llamon and Patrick Holman use excerpts lrom over 200 hours ol interviews with Montand to spice their meticulously detailed (olten tussin so) research. It reveals the important positions held by the women in his lite (Edith Pial. Simone Signoret, Marilyn Monroe) and how they connect with Montand the music hall artist. tilm actor and political player.
Peter Lawlord also had a slgniticant role to play in the world 01 politics. namely as the glamorous Hollywood
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brother-in-Iaw of John F. Kennedy at the time ol his presidency. James Spada’s The Man Who Kept The Secrets (Bantam, £5.99) is TV mini-series stuti- a boy born out ol wedlock to an aristocratic English family, who takes Tinseltown by storm, hangs out with Sinatra and Monroe, marries into the US’s tirst lamily, is destroyed by his involvement in scandal and murder. Here, truth is certainly more gripping than tiction, and Spada manages to win some sympathy tor his subject, undoubtedly the loser in all of the power games being played around him. (Alan Morrison)
I Bill 8 Ted’s bogus Joereey (PG) (Peter Hewitt. US. 1991) Keanu Reeves. Alex Winter. George Carlin, Joss Ackland. 93 mins. Evil robot versions of that most excellent duo totally kill our heroes. causing them to take on the Grim Reaper at party games. make a quick visit to Heaven and eventually win the day. A triumphant sequel, slightly more coherent than the bodacious original — in Bill and Ted terms. at least. Edinburgh: Cameo. I litter Moon (18) (Roman Polanski, UK/France, 1992) Peter Coyote, Hugh Grant. Emmanuelle Seigner. 134 mins. A wheelchair-bound novelist (Coyote) entraps a young Englishman (Grant) with his 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. Central: MacRobert. I elect Robe (15) (Bruce Beresford. US.1991) Lothaire Bluteau. Aden Young. Sandrine Holt. Stirring version of Brian Moore's tale of a 17th century Jesuit priest travelling across North America to a remote mission takes a realistic view of the savagery of the Indian tribes. Nevertheless. their philosophies and way of life are treated with the same respect as those of the Christians. Bluteau's anguished looks are perfect for the conscience-stricken priest who gradually comes to terms with the harsh landscapes and opposing cultures. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. I blade lleeeer: The Director's Cut ( 15) (Ridley Scott. US. 1982/92) Harrison Ford. Scan Young. Rutger Hauer. 116 mins. Out go the pseudo-noir narration and the tacked-on happy ending; in comes a more defined sense that Deckard himself may be a replicant. The look and feel remain as powerful, and the acting is superb. A flawed masterpiece is now a restored masterpiece. See review. Glasgow: GFT. tEdinburgh: Cameo. Strathclyde: UC1 Ciydebank. I lob Roberts (15) (Tim Robbins. US. 1992)Tim Robbins. Alan Rickman. Giancarlo 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. Funny and pertinent. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. Central: MacRobert. I M lleet (18) (Lawrence Kasdan. US. 1981) William Hurt. Kathleen Turner. Richard Crenna.
[16 mins. Hurt has the hots for Turner so her hubby Crenna is set for an early grave and the insurance company for a big pay-out. Splendid update of Double Indemnity with a drenchingly sweaty atmosphere (the sex has a lot to do with it) and a script that leaves teethmarks. Edinburgh: Cameo. I The Bodyguard (15) (Mick Jackson, US,1992) Kevin Costner. Whitney Houston, Gary Kemp. 130 mins. Costner tries dubious tough guy mode as the personal minder of pop icon Rachel Marron (a good debut by singer Houston), when she is threatened by an obsessive fan. Lawrence Kasdan‘s script is a complete mess from beginning to end, and the film as a whole is a piece of Hollywood excrement sugared by a topping of romance and chart songs. Avoid. General release. I Bringing Up Baby (PG) (Howard Hawks. US, 1938) Cary Grant , Katharine Hepburn. Charles Ruggies. 102 mins. Zany gal Hepburn causes timid zoology professor Grant to lose a valuable dinosaur bone and mislay a pet leopard within the course of one screwball evening. Archetypal Thirties crazy comedy with one outlandishiy hilarious scene following another within the progression of an unerringly logical narrative. Both stars at their charismatic best. Glasgow:
I Celllornie Men (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 of wowing the babes. Substandard Bill & Ted fare that adds even more loopy teen vocabulary to the Wayne '5 World dictionary. Strathclyde: Odeon Ayr.
I Casablanca (U) (Michael Curtiz. US, 1942) Humphrey Bogart. lngrid Bergman. Dooley Wilson. 102 mins. You fnust remember this . . . Bogart being impossibly noble . Bergman torn between two lovers. Claude Rains playing both ends against the middle. devious Nazis. a fogbound airport. a piano«player tinkling that tune . . . A wonderful hill of beans. Strathclyde: UCl Ciydebank.
I chaplln (12) (Richard Attenborough, UK/U S. 1992) Robert Downey Jr. Moira Kelly, Geraldine Chaplin. 144 mins. Attenborough‘s craftsmanlike biopic of the cane-twirling celluloid clown skims most surfaces. but there are rewards to be found in the acting department. Cameos are uniformly good. but D0wney towers above them all. The mass youth market may not give a toss whothe
Little Tramp was. but the lead helps make thtsa much more approachable prospect for regular movie-goer than you'd expect. See review. Odeons: Glasgow. Edinburgh. Ayr. Hamilton. Glasgow: MGM Parkhead. All UCls.
I City OlJoy ( 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. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I The Cook. The Tblet. ills Wile And ller Lover( 18) (Peter Greenaway. UK. 1989) Michael Gambon. Helen Mirren. Alan Howard. Richard Bohringer. Tim Roth. 120 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 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. Edinburgh: Cameo.
I The Crying Game (15) (Neil Jordan. UK. 1992) Stephen Rea. Forest Whitaker. Jaye Davidson. 112 mins. A disillusioned lRA terrorist strikes up a friendship with the black British soldier he has kidnapped, and subsequently finds himself in London and in love with the latter's girlfriend. A bold, unpredictable film that has plenty to say about notions of personal and sexual identity. if only all British movies were as good as this. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. Fife: Adam Smith.
I Death Becomes ller (PG) (Robert Zemeckis. US. 1992) Meryl Streep. Goldie Hawn. Bruce Willis. 103 mins. An actress in decline and a frumpy author discover the secret of eternal life. and so are able to carry their mutual jealousy to outrageous extremes. A comedy that is surprisingly black. given the stars involved and the pressures on its $40 million budget. but which tends to get carried away with its distractingly impressive special effects. General release.
I Deep Cover (18) (Bill Duke. US. 1992) Larry Fishburne. Jeff Goldblum. Victoria Dillard. 1 12 mins. An undercover cop (Fishburne) trying to infiltrate LA‘s major cocaine cartel finds his very integrity threatened as he is seduced by a life of crime. A highly recommended. uncompromising urban thriller. penned by Michael (The Player) Tolkin and featuring a disturbingly outstanding performance from Goldblum. See preview and review. Glasgow: MGMs. Edinburgh: UCl. Strathclyde: UCI Ciydebank.
I Do The Rigthlllllg (18) (Spike Lee. US. 1989) Spike Lee. Danny Aiello. Ossie Davis, John Turturro. 119 mins. New York‘s deprived Bedford-Stuyvesant district on the hottest day of the summer. and racial tension escalates between ltalian-American Sal (Aiello). his two sons and the mainly black local community who make up the bulk of his customers. A forceful exploration of the socio-economic and cultural causes behind white racism. Lee‘s film also operates as a tightly controlled multi-character drama. Edinburgh: Cameo.
I Drole de Drama (PG) (Marcel Carne. France. 1937) Louis Jouvet. Michel Simon. Francoise Rosay. 97 mins. A shy botanist. secretly the author of murder stories. is accused of murdering his wife by the would-be detective Bishop of Beckford. London-set farce, scripted by Jacques Prevert. with some appealing absurdities. First of a Carne season. Edinburgh: French institute.
I Drowning By Numbers ( 18) (Peter Greenaway. UK. 1988) Joan Plowright. Bernard Hill. Joely Richardson. 118 mins. ln a narrative as straightforward and complicated as the title. three generations of women, all of them called Cissic Colpitts. dispose of their husbands in a series of aquatic murders. whilst the numbers 1 to 100 run through the film in the backgrounds. Besides the enjoyable pastime of number spotting. this is among Greenaway's most accessible and pleasurable films. Edinburgh: Cameo.
I Electric Moon ( 15) (Pradip Krishen. UK. 1992) Roshan Seth, Naseeruddin Shah. Leela Naidu. 103 mins. The hard-up family of a former Maharajah cash in on the tourist trade by recreating the old days of the Raj on their plantation home. This comic twist on culture clashes suffers a bit from overly stereotyping the European visitors and going too often for crude laughs. but its cynical view on mutual exploitation is refreshingly witty. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Elenye (PG) (Steve Gough. UK. 1992) Pascale Delafouge Jones. Klaus Behrendt. Sue Jones Davies. 81 mins. A young girl living in rural Wales during World War 11 discovers a wounded German airman in the woods and decides to hide him in a ruined cottage. Despite language difficulties. the two loners strike up a fragile relationship. Slightly confusing due to the way the narrative is edited. it has touches of the childhood
22 The List 15 — 28 January 1993