FILM INDEX
FILM .m-
Flllns screening this fortnight are listed below with certificate, credits, brief review and venue details. Full length reviews of new releases can be found in the listings section wich follows. Film index compiled by Alan Morrison.
I Accidental llero (15) (Stephen Frears. US. 1992) Dustin Hoffman. Geena Davis. Andy Garcia. 117 mins. Professional loser Bernie LaPlante (Hoffman) becomes a national hero when his fuzzy image is captured on TV while saving lives (and picking pockets) after a plane crash. But it's fellow bum John Bubber (Garcia) who finds fame. fortune and a guilty conscience. Consistently funny satire on heroism with a stand-out performance by Hoffman. Strathclyde: Magnum.
I An Actor’s Revenge (PG) (Kon lchikawa. Japan. 1963) Kazuo Hasegawa. Fujiko Yamamoto. Ayako Wakao. 113 mins. Hasegawa revives the dual roles he first played in the 30s. as a kabuki female impersonator and a Robin Hood-like thief. The revenge plot takes forever to unravel. the acting is as camp as a row of tents. but lchikawa's Scope framing is immaculate and this new colour print makes the most of the film's undoubted visual splendour. Glasgow: GFT. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Alive (15) (Frank Marshall. US. 1992) Ethan Hawke. Vincent Spano. Josh Hamilton. 126 mins. Based on the true story of a Uraguayan rugby team who survived a plane crash in the Andes by eating the ice-packed corpses of their fellow travellers. After a hair-raising crash sequence. the film loses its way with with too much 'triumph of the spirit‘ TV movie stuff. Come back Cannibal Ilolrx‘ausr. all is forgiven. General release.
I Alpirie Fire Hohenfeaer ( 15) (Fredi M. Murer. Switzerland. 1985) Thomas Nock. Johanna Lier. Dorothea Moritz. Rolf lllig. Tilli Breidenback. 117 mins. Closely observed naturalism warps gently into surrealistic psychodrama in this superbly understated tale of an isolated farming family's internal tensions. High on the Alpine slopes. the deaf son begins a troubled journey through puberty. with alarming repercussions. Glasgow: GET.
I Ana (15) (Kwate Nee-Owoo/Kwesi Owusu. Ghana/UK. 1991) Georgina Ackerman. Anima Misa. Thomas Baptiste. 100 mins. A twelve- year-old girl searches for her African roots in the busy heart of London and discovers she is the reincarnation of an ancestral spirit. Despite being undeniably impressive in its freeform blending of myth and musical rhythm to create a unique narrative style. one can't help but think that. if all the black characters were white and vice versa. this would be branded as openly racist. African Film Festival. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I lee M H MM (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. Fife: Adam Smith.
I III! of MOS) (Sam Raimi. US. 1992) Bruce Campbell. Embeth Davidtz. Marcus Gilbert. 109 mins. First the definitive video nasty. then the definite slapstick horror comedy.
now the definitive disappornunent. Picking up from where Evil Dead 2 left off. with Ash (Campbell) and chainsaw arm in the Middle Ages. it all runs out of steam as it tries its best to please. See review. Glasgow: MGMs. Edinburgh: MGM. All UCls.
I Bad BehaviorfliS) (Les Blair. UK. 1993) Stephen Rea. Sinead Cusack. Philip Jackson. 104 mins. North London life for an Irish family and their friends is not exactly domestic bliss. but it brings to the surface gentle humour and genuine intimacy. An improvised drama with an intelligent eye for detail and a refreshingly relaxed viewpoint on the chaos of real life. See preview and review. Glasgow: Odeon. Edinburgh: Odeon.
I Bad Lieutenant ( 18) (Abel Ferrara. US. 1992) Harvey Keitel. Frankie Thome. Zoe Lund. 96 mins. A return to urban sleaze by master of the genre Abel Ferrara. A NYPD cop (Keitel). in debt due to drugs. alcohol and gambling addiction. is intrigued by a big money reward in the case of a raped nun. Harsh. powerful. but filled with a religious orthodoxy. this is a reminder of the director at his best (Angel of Vengeance. Driller Killer) and should be picked up by Reservoir Dogs fans. Fife: Adam Smith. I Beethoven (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. Central: Caledonian. Strathclyde: Kelbume.
I Being M Ilene With Claude (18) (Jean Beaudin. Canada. 1992) Roy Dupuis. Jacques Godin. Jean-Francois Pichette. 85 mins. Virtual twohander that pulsates with power. taking it well beyond its theatrical roots. A young gay hustler kills a lover. but hands himself in. and during the subsequent interrogation. reveals the emotional depths of love and desire. A film that refuses to be marginalised as New Queer Cinema. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Betty Blue:1he Complete Version ( 18) (Jean- Jacques Beineix. France. 1986) Jean-Hugues Anglade. Beatrice Dalle. Gerard Darmon. 180 mins. The story remains the same — boy meets girl. girl flips out — but the extra 60 mins of unseen footage is a mixed bag. Some new scenes help give a creditable timescale to Betty's descent into insanity. while others are distracting. the cinematic equivalent of monstrous carbuncles on the face of a well-loved friend. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I litter M (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. Glasgow: GFT.
I Ilaek llehe (15) (Bruce Beresford. US. 1991) Lothaire Bluteau. Aden Young. Sandrine Holt. Stining 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: Cameo.
I MI. (18) (Bernard Rose. US. i992) Virginia Madsen. Tony Todd. Kasi Lemmons. 93
mins. writer/director Rose (who brought us the
memorable Paperhouse) transplants Clive Barker‘s short story ‘The Forbidden' to a run- down Chicago housing block where a series of killings are blamed on Candyman. a hook- handed boogieman figure. The film's use of urban myth takes it well beyond the jumps and scares of the genre (although they aren‘t ignored either). to make it the most intelligent. disquieting horror film since Jacob is Ladder. Fife: Adam Smith. I Close To Eden (15) (Sidney Lumet. US. 1992) Melanie Griffith. Eric Thal. Tracy Pollan. 109 mins. Soft-focus thriller by Sidney Lumet as he places ‘streetwise' cop Melanie Griffith amongst New York's Hasidic community; she learns about their culture. while tracking down a killer. Interesting aspects. but it isn't Homicide or Witness. and will somebody please tell Hollywood that squeaky-voiced Griffith isn‘t cut out to be an action heroine? Edinburgh: UCl. I lie Cm Ell lilver A Heart In Winter (12) (Claude Sautet. France. 1992) Daniel Auteuil. Emmanuelle Beart. Andre Dussolier. 105 mins. A withdrawn violin maker becomes the object of desire for a young violinist who herself is the amour of the former's business partner. An elegantly trenchant chronicle of triangular relationships which moves with such graceful fluidity that it's easy to miss the toughness at its core. Edinburgh: Cameo. I Cop and a Ital! (PG) (Henry Winkler. US. 1993) Burt Reynolds. Normal D. Golden 11. Ruby Dec. 97 mins. A kid who's a material witness in an important case demands to live out his TV fantasies before he agrees to co-operatc. So give him a badge. cuffs and Reyolds as a partner. Soggy programme filler that. if anything. is worse than the synopsis sounds. General release. I Gillan (18) (Alison Maclean. New Zealand. 1992) Marcia Gay Harden. Caitlin Bossley. William Zappa. 97 mins. After trashing a car and placing literary critic Christine in a coma.femme farale Lane ends up in bed with an aspiring author by way of a manipulative friendship with his daughter. After an hour of disjointed set-up. Crush transforms into a ferocious. stricken drama that is. ultimately. absolutely compelling. Fife: Adam Smith. I Dances With Wolves: Special Edition ( 15) (Kevin Costner. US. 1991) Kevin Costner. Grahame Greene. Mary McDonnell. 235 mins. Costner's epic tale of a US soldier. coming to terms with the nobility of the native American tribes before their massacre by his people. regains the 52 minutes cut at the editing stage. New material adds surprisingly little to the overall impact of the story. although some more confusing issues — the abandonment of Fort Sedgewick — are cleared up. On the whole. however. it has nothing that the three-hour long Oscar winner didn‘t have already. Glasgow: GET. I Desperately Seeking Susan (15) (Susan Seidelman. US. 1985) Rosanna Arquctte. Madonna. Aidan Quinn. 104 mins. Fun and fizzy. role-swapping feminist fantasy comedy set in the Big Apple. ls Madonna a sleazy. streetwise version of Orson Welles. doing her best work first and going steadily downhill ever since? Edinburgh: Filmhouse. I ECI Videos A selection of graduation films from Edinburgh College of Art includes live action shorts and animated features. Films include Morag McKinnon's Diary ofa Madman. Kenneth Simpson‘s Buzz. and Emma Aylett‘s Miss Dobbelina. See them now before Hollywood beckons. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. I The Exorcist (18) (William Friedkin. 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 scarefest. Dead good. dead scarcy. dead priest. Edinburgh: Cameo.
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I Exorcist 2: The lleretic (18) (John Boorman. US. 1977) Richard Burton. Louise Fletcher. Linda Blair. 110 mins. The horror film that once turned heads receives an unworthy sequel in this silly mumbo-jumbo about priest Burton trying to understand the demons still lurking within the hapless Ms Blair. Edinburgh: Cameo. I Falling Down ( 18) (Joel Schumacher. US. 1992) Michael Douglas. Robert Duvall. Barbara Hershey. 112 mins. A sacked defence worker abandons his car in a traffic jam and goes on an escalating rampage across Los Angeles. No mere Vigilante movie this. but the zeitgeist movie of the 90s. drinking deep of White Middle-Class America's fears about its future. Actor Douglas and director Schumacher deliver their finest work to date. See feature. General release. I A Few Good Men (15) (Rob Reiner. US. 1992) Tom Cruise. Jack Nicholson. Demi Moore. Keifer Sutherland. 138 mins. Navy lawyers Cruise and Moore are called upon to defend two suspected murders. but as the case develops. it becomes clear that their superior officers (Nicholson and Sutherland) may have had a role in the affair. A fine return to real acting for Nicholson and yet another engrossing piece of work from Reiner. Fife: New Picture House. I Frame (15) (Roman Polanski. US. 1988) Harrison Ford. Betty Buckley. Emmanuell Seigner. 120 mins. Cardiologist Ford and wife Buckley travel to Paris for a conference. but en route manage to exchange one of their cases for an electronic detonator. His wife‘s disappearance is soon to pitch Ford into a plot involving international espionage and the murky Parisian underworld. A partial return to form for Polanski after the soggy Pirates. But it is only partial. because this attempt at the Hitchcock genre is rather dog-cared and sluggish. though the cast is worth watching. Glasgow: GET. I Frauds (15) (Stephan Elliot. Australia. 1992) Phil Collins. Hugo Weaving. Josephine Bymes. 94 mins. A partially successful Aussie black comedy centring on a childisth malevolent insurance agent who plays blackmail uicks on clients he discovers to be committing fraud. A little too grotesque to hit the right note. and inuiguing rather than amusing. See preview. Glasgow: Odeon. Edinburgh: Odeon. All UCls. I The Glass “emerle (PG) (Paul Newman. US. 1987) Joanne Woodward. John Malkovich. Karen Allen. James Naughton. 135 mins. Definitive and tender screen translation of Tennessee Williams' acutely autobiographical play. dealing with his love for a mentally ill sister and his own guilty homosexuality. Woodward plays the fluttering Southern belle matriarch with her golden memories of youth. Allen the crippled daughter retreating into herself and her collection of fragile glass animals. Malkovich the restless son eager for life. Edinburgh: Cameo. I Elm Glen Ross (15) (James Foley. US. 1992) Al Pacino. Jack Lemmon. Ed Harris. Alan Arkin. 100 mins. The combination of Foley's camera and Mamet's dialogue makes for verbal choreography in this hard-hitting. word-heavy account of the bonding and back-stabbing in a US real estate office. The cast are magnificent. Pacino and Lemmon outstanding. Underrated director Foley does wonders to break out of the stageplay format. Not easy going. but an unforgetable achievement. Glasgow: GF'T. I The Godfather (18) (Francis Ford Coppola. US. 1971) Marlon Brando. Al Pacino. James Caan. 175 mins. Mafia epic that follows the collapse of the Corleone empire under the old Don (Brando) and the sU'uggle for power this causes between rival families and his own sons. Al Pacino is magnificent as the good son who has to turn bad in order to regain family honour. Hugely enjoyable. violent movie is a landmark in American filmmaking. Edinburgh: Cameo.
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20 The List 4-17 June 1993