LISTINGS TELEVISION
Our regular guide to the latest \lIlS releases hitting your shop shelves round about novr.
Rental
3r
I Beyond Control: The Amy Fisher Story (15) An American TV smash based on the obligatory true story of a child prostitute. Drew Barrymore (‘no stranger to drinks and drug addiction herself‘ as the publicity tactfully mentions) stars as Amy. the ‘Long Island Lolita‘. a sexually precocious teenager who shot the wife of the man she loved and became a media superstar as film companies vied for the rights to her story. These are the people who won. and they‘ve made a decent job of it. striking just the right balance between sleaze and sympathy. (Odyssey)
I White Men Can’t Jump (15) Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson co-star in a routine buddy~buddy basketball movie. They start as rivals but team up as hustlers for easy cash. The themes of race and male ego are submerged by the tedious slow-mo shots of basketball action filmed with a lingering care verging on the homoerotic. (Fox)
I City OlJoy ( l5) Unlikely casting (Patrick Swayze? Pauline Collins??) for Roland Joffe's controversial tale of a hospital in Calcutta threatened by a local gang chief. Making vividly visual cinema out of sub- continental misery is Joffe's speciality but this is a little too simplistic. (Warner)
I Final Pulse (15) (Warner)
I The President’s Child (PG) (Fox)
I Just Like A Woman (15) (Columbia Tristar) I Angel or Fury ( l5) (Columbia Tristar)
I Alan And llaomi (PG)
(Columbia Tristar)
Sell-through
I Oliver! (U) You gotta pick a pocket or two. and Columbia Tristar reckon they can make a few bob out of the punters with a widescreen version of the classic musical. Great songs and wonderful
performances from Ron Moody. Oliver Reed and Jack Wild. (Columbia Tristar £10.99)
I Banth (PG) More widescrecn British cinema in Richard Attenborough‘s Oscar-grabbing biopic with Ben Kingsley as the be-loinclothed one. Worthy and dull in equal measures. (Columbia Tristar £10.99)
I Vampire’s Kiss ()8) Nicolas Cage in typically outlandish mode as a failed vampire prone to delusions. A wacky comedy thriller that isn‘t quite as awful as that description sounds. (Columbia Tristar £7.99) I Trust (15) Hal Hartley‘s provocative cornedy of American suburbia starring newcomer Adrienne Shelly as a rebellious brat. pregnant by her uncaring boyfriend. trying to sort herself out. Kind of Stateside Mike Leigh without the regional accents. (Tartan £15.99) I About Last llight(l8) Thirtysomething-esque tale of relationships and sex. in that order. Rob Lowe is a stud-about-town falling for independent- minded Demi Moore. moving in. and discovering that the path of true Iurrve runs exceedingly unsmooth. (Columbia Tristar £7.99) I Oiva (15) Jean-Jacques Beineix‘s accomplished feature that started the trend for style above substance that he himself capped with Betty Blue. Jules. a young opera fan. bootlegs a reclusive singer's concert. The tape becomes confused with another which incriminates a drugs ring. and a chase with a difference ensues. Very watchable if rarely involving. (Electric £15.99)
I Torch Song Trilogy ( l5) (Columbia Tristar £7.99) I Who’s llarry Crumb? (PD) (Columbia Tristar 27.99)
I Switched At Birth (PG) (Odyssey £10.99)
I An Inconvenient Woman (15) (Odyssey £10.99)
I Who Will Love My Children? (PG) Not me missus. Appallingly melodramatic true-life story of a tenninally-ill woman refusing to leave her children in the care of her arthritic and alcoholic husband. (Odyssey
£ 10.99)
I The llours' And n (18) (ICA Projects £10.99)
I Ju Oou (15) (ICA Projects £12.99)
I To Catch A killer (15) (Odyssey £10.99)
I 3 x 3 Eyes Part One (PG) (Manga £10.99)
I lloce Blanche (PG) (Tartan £15.99)
I Bomuald And Juliette (PG) (Tartan £15.99)
I The oouble Lite Of Veronique ( IS) Krzysztof Kieslowski’s acclaimed and original drama stars Irene Jacob as the two Veroniques born in Poland and France living parallel lives tinged with tragedy and an obsession with music. Dark and disturbing. (Tartan £15.99)
I These Foolish Things (PG) (Tartan £15.99)
I retsuo: The Iron Man (18) (ICA Projects £10.99)
I Marquis ( I8) (ICA Projects £12.99)
I liaise The Bed Lantern (PG) (Electric £15.99)
I The Simpsons Family (PG) Another collection of tales with Homer. Bart and the family. (Fox £8.99)
I The Simpsons (U) (Fox £8.99)
I Only The Lonely ( 15) (Fox £10.99)
I Peter Pan And The Pirates: A Wee Problem/heasure Hunt/Wendy e The Crocodile (Fox £8.99)
I Peter Pan And The Pirates: Eternal Youth/The llook e The flat/Elementary My Dear Pan (Fox £8.99)
I Michael Jordan’s Airtime (Fox £10.99)
I Frankie lloiverd - Titter Ye llot (PC) And ye probably won't as one of those painfully overrated dead comedians runs through his limited repertoire of grimaces. gestures and catchphrases. (Polygram £10.99)
TELEVISION
A selection of television highlights. listed by day, In chronological order. Television Listings compiled by Tom
Lappln.
FRIDAY 26
I Or Finlay (Scottish) 9-10pm. A smallpox scare triggers an emergency vaccination programme. while Dr Neil becomes intrigued by the case of Mary Thomson.
I Only A Game (BBC 1) 9.30—1().20pm. William Mcllvanney looks at the loneliest and most fragile job in sport. that of a soccer manager. Includes quotes from legends Matt Busby. Jock Stein and Bill Shankly.
I Arena: Only The llames Have Been Changed (BBC2) 9.30—l().30pm. An investigation of where writers draw the line between reality and fiction in using real persons as inspiration for their characters. Writers interviewed include Josephine Hart. Malcolm Bradbury and Melvyn Bragg. and some ‘victims‘ are offered the opportunity to answer back. I Cheers (Channel 4) 9.30—10pm. The mighty Norm faces a moral dilemma when his tax auditor demands he sleep with her or she will shop him for false tax declaration.
I Roseanne (Channel 4) l()—10.30pm. Another Hallowe'en classic in the Conner household when Roseanne refuses to take part in the annual horrific festivities.
I Whose Line ls It (Channel 4) 1030—1 1.05pm. To be this extemporaneously unfunny takes skill. Clive Anderson introduces the usual batch of show-off Brits and feeble Yanks.
SATURDAY 27
I Sounds or The Seventies (BBC2) 6.40—7. 15pm. Classic American punk and New Wave revisited with clips of the New York Dolls. Blondie. Talking Heads and Iggy Pop- I The Three Amigos (BBCI) 7—8.40pm. Dreadfully obvious comedy with Steve Martin. Chevy Chase and Martin Short as three fading silent screen stars called on (in one of those irritating comedy of errors devices) to rescue a Mexican village terrorised by a bandit. I Adventures: Bismarck - lip Close And Personal (Channel 4) 8—9pm. Dr Robert Ballard. the man who brought the world pictures of the sunken Titanic. now goes in search of the German battleship sunk in 1941. I Porterhouse Blue (Channel 4) 9—10pm. The concluding part of Malcolm Bradbury's Tom Sharpe adaptation. Cornelius Carrington (Griff Rhys-Jones) is preparing his TV expose’. and Skullion (David Jason) is plotting revenge for his dismissal. I Fine Cut: Titlcut Follies (BBC2) 9. 10—10.35pm. The premiere of Frederick Wiseman‘s 1966 film. banned at the time and described by the judge as ‘a nightmare of ghoulish obscenities‘. Filmed at the Massachusetts Correctional Institute for the criminally insane. it's a shocking depiction of systematic ill- treatment and cruelty towards prisoners. I llariem llights (BBCI) 10.10pm—12.05am. Eddie Murphy directs and stars in a flop comedy set in 30s Harlem. Richard Pryor plays a nightclub owner who decides to face up to local mobster Michael Lerner. Hackneyed stuff. I A Day In The Lite Oi Joe Egg (Channel 4) 12.3()—2.30am. Peter Medak's powerful adaptation of Peter Nichols‘s black comedy stars Alan Bates and Janet Suzman as a couple trying to cope with their severely diasbled daughter.
SUNDAY 28
I Movletvatch (Channel 4) 6—6.30pm. The cinema review programme where the reviews are provided by punters. Tonight's show visits the Empire. Leicester Square to review Derek Jarman's Wittgenstein. the re-make of Night Of The Living Dead and Used People.
I The lllneties: And They Sailed Avray (BBCZ) 7.40-8.20pm. The latest in BBC Bristol's oral history projects gathers accounts from people in their nineties. beginning with the Summerhayes sisters. four of whom travelled the world as missionaries. while the fifth stayed home and cared for their children.
I Gimme Shelter: liaising The Boot (Channel 4) 8—8.30pm. Channel 4‘s homelessness season opens with a programme following the progress of people who have chosen to battle red tape and attempt to build their own homes. There will be daily live updates on their progress over the following two weeks. I Every Picture Tells A Story (BBCZ) 8.20—9pm. A new series looking at the stories behind great paintings. The first programme examines the dispute over the Da Vinci painting ‘I.a Belle Ferroniere‘ of which there appear to be two versions. See preview.
I Lipstick On Your Collar (Channel 4) 9—l().2()pm. Dennis Potter‘s eminently watchable period piece reaches a climax of sorts. as Francis (Giles Thomas) makes a confession to his horrified aunt Vicky (Maggie Steed). Forget the banal criticisms about the lack of action. and revel in the crackling dialogue and the look of the thing. In Ewan McGregor it has also discovered a future star.
I You Me And It (BBCl ) 9. l()—l().()5pm. James Wilby and Suzanne Burden star in a new three-part drama serial looking at the problem of childlessness. They play Charlie and Barbara Henderson. a happily-married couple in their mid-30s who have everything they want . . . except a baby.
I Chicago Joe And The Showgirl (Channel 4) l().2()pm—l2. 15am. Directed by Bernard Rose who's attracting attention at the moment for the meatier Candymun. This is a routine sub-Bonnie And Clyde tale of crime and murder starring Emily Lloyd and Kiefer Sutherland.
MONDAY 29
I Gimme Shelter: Down And Out in Paris And London (Channel 4) 9— 10pm. Photo- joumalist Nick Danziger retraces the steps of Orwell’s classic expose. finding that in many cases nothing has changed since Orwell‘s day.
I Northern Exposure (Channel 4)
10—1 1pm. More outlandish adventures from Cicely. Alaska. Chris is into performance art which means propelling cows through the air by means of a giant medieval siege machine. My quota of addictive American imports is currently full. but this is at the front of the waiting list.
The List 26 March-8 April 1993 C3