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INDEX FILM
FILM '
Films screening this fortnight are listed below with certificate. credits, brief review and venue details. Full length reviews of new releases can he found in the Listian section wich follows. Film index compiled by Alan Morrison.
I Accion Mutante (18) (Alex de la lglesia. Spain. 1993) Frederique Feder. Antonio Resines. Alex Angulo. 94 mins. A group of handicapped revolutionaries kidnap an heiress and head to an off-world mining planet for a bloody showdown. An instant sci-fi/horror cult classic let loose from the Almodovar experimental labs. Try to imagine Freaks meeting Barbarella at a party thrown by Mad Mar. See review. Glasgow: GET. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Anchotess (12) (Chris Newby. UK. 1993) Nathalie Morse. Christopher Eccleston. Toyah Willcox. 108 mins. After claiming to see visions of the Virgin Mary. a 14th Century teenage girl is scaled up in the walls of the local church. a move that soon causes turmoil in the village. Newby‘s beautiful black-and-white detailed images are a joy to look at. but this is an art movie that also has an engaging narrative and a strong emotional core. See preview. Glasgow: GFT. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
lArrnyoi DarkneSS(15)(SamRaimi.US. I 1992) Bruce Campbell. Embeth Davidtz. Marcus Gilbert. 109 mins. First the definitive video nasty. then the definite slapstick honor comedy. now the definitive disappointment. 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. Edinburgh: Cameo.
I Atlantis (PG) (Luc Besson. France. 1991) 76 mins. Ambient underwater antics from the man who brought you Nikita and The Big Blue. Besson and his small crew capture a subaquatic world that at times resembles documentary footage of another planet. No actors. no dialogue: just impressive photography and Eric Serra's score to guide you through the not-so- murky depths. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I The Baby of Macon ( 18) (Peter Greenaway. Europe. 1993) Julie Onnond. Ralph Fiennes. Philip Stone. 122 mins. More stylised. more controversial. more Greenaway. The story of a professed ‘child saint’ in 17th centry France is the means by which the director picks apart exploitation ofchildren. particularly by the Catholic church. and notions ofchild abuse. Images of rape and mutilation will undoubtedly appal most viewers. regardless of Greenaway's artistic intentions. Glasgow: Gi-‘l‘. Edinburgh: Cameo.
I Bad lieutenant (18) (Abel Ferrara. L75. 1992) Harvey Keitel. Frankie 'l‘home. Zoe Lund. 96 mins. A relum 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 [)0ng fans. Central: MacRobcrt. I Bambi (U) (David 1). Hand. CS. 1942) 69 mins. Disney at his cutest. purest best. A baby fawn enjoys life in the forest with his friends (Thumper the rabbit is surely one of Disney's most memorable creations). grows up. has a run- in with Man. and becomes Great Prince of the Forest. Nice animation. with touches of extreme tweeness. and a massive hankie count when Bambi's mum dies. General release.
I Banal Returns ( 12) (Tim Burton. US. 1992) Michael Keaton. Michelle Pfeiffer. Danny De Vito. Christopher Walken. 127 mins. Unpredictable violence and aberrant psychology parading in the form of popular family entertainment - yes. the Caped Crusader is back. brooding over the darkest recesses of Gotham City. De Vito‘s deformed penguin. Pfeiffer's whip mistress by night and Walken‘s cadaverous tycoon make it clear direct0r Button favours the complexity of his villains to his schizo hero. Bigger. better and blacker than the original. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Bettny's Video (18) (Michael Haneke. Austria. 1992) Arno Frisch. Angela Winkler. Ulrich Muhe. 105 mins. With wider social concerns than other films that link images and acts of violence. Bennyir Video tells of a teenage boy who has been emotionally de-sensitised by both his avid watching of violent videos and his
parents‘ obsession with social conformity. A
demanding film. but one which rewards one's
intellectual engagement with provocative images
i and telling insights. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Blood II. Blood Out ( 18) (Taylor Hackford. US. 1993) Jesse Borrego. Benjamin Bratt. Enrique Castillo. Damian Chapa. 181 mins. Three Latin friends — one who's just joined the LAPD. his artist step~brother and their half- Anglo cousin — form the basis of this sprawling
Chicano epic. The San Quentin scenes are the
best. convincingly portraying a world of shifting rivalries as a microcosm of American society.
btrt overall the style is unremittingly soapy. See
review. Glasgow: Odeon.
I Boiling PointtlS) (James B. Harris. US.
1993) Wesley Snipes. Dennis Hopper. Lolita Davidovich. 93 mins. When his partner is killed
on a routine bust. a cop goes on the trail of the
culprits. Boiling Point fizzles from one
hackneyed plot development to the next. wasting the potential of the actors. It can only be deemed a ‘suspense thriller‘ because. for its duration. all
thrills are suspended. See review. Glasgow:
MGM Film Centre. Edinburgh: Odeon.
I Boxing Helena ( 18) (Jennifer Chambers Lynch. US. 1992) Sherilyn Fenn. Julian Sands.
Bill Paxton. 105 mins. An obsessive young surgeon hides the object of his desires in his
house and dismembers her in an attempt to win
' her love. Bizarre subject matter. as you would
expect from the daughter of David. suffers from debut jitters and the ever-wooden Sands. but has some interesting things to say about male
fantasies and the power in sexual relationships.
Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Carnival of Souls (l8) (llerk Harvey. US.
1962) Candace llilligoss. Frances Feist. Sidney
combine seamlessly to form a quite hypnotic confrontation with mortality. Edinburgh: Cameo. I Details (PG) (Nick Castle. US. 1993) Mason Gamble. Walter Matthau. Joan Plowright. 98 mins. He‘s blond. he's cute. he's American. his dog isn‘t a fiuffball with teeth. At least the stripey jumper remains the same. But. then again. the Dennis of the US cartoon strip never was related to The Beano’s arch-menace. When Dennis's folks go off on business. the mischevious little brat is left in the hands of his elderly neighbours: Home Alone scenario from the John Hughes stable. General release.
I The Exorcist (18) (William Ftiedkin. US. 1973) Linda Blair. Ellen Burstyn. Max Von Sydow. 110 mins. Eamest priest Von Sydow steps in to save poor little possessed girl in this
5 hugely effective scarefest. Dead good. dead
scarey. dead priest. Edinburgh: Cameo. Fife: Robins. Strathclyde: UCl Clydebank.
I Exorcist 2: The lieretic (18) (John Boorman. US. 1977) Richard Bunon. 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
Berger. 81 mins. A genuine oddity that pre-dates :
Romero's ground-breaking Night ofthe Living Dead by several years. After a car crash into a river. Mary (Hilligoss) travels like a Sleepwalker
first to a church. then to an abandoned carnival.
all the time haunted by a white-faced man. As
close to Expressionism as American cinema ever got. this is memorable and nightmaristh disturbing. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Children of iiature ( 12) (Fridrick Thor Fridricksson. Iceland. 1991) 85 mins. An old
farmer moves to the city and in an old folks‘
home rediscovcrs the first love of his youth. In an attempt to regain their past. they steal ajeep and become a sort of geriatric Bonnie and Clyde. Fridricksson emphasises the mythical qualities of the Icelandic settings in this deservedly
Oscar-nominated meditation on old age.
Glasgow: GFT.
I A Chinese Ghost Story (15) (Chin Siu Tung. Hong Kong. 1987) Leslie Cheung. 98 mins. While visiting a haunted temple. :1 young debt
collector falls prey to the chamrs of a delightful young lady ghost. Engagingly over-the-top
commercial film-making from Hong Kong. with
Kung Fu. slapstick comedy. gruesome special effects and traditional supernatural elements
rolled together into one wild package. Watch out for the rapping monk and the killer tongue. Edinburgh: Cameo.
I Cliinianger(18) (Renny Harlin. US. 1993) Sylvester Stallone. John Lithgow. Michael Rooker. Stallone returns to top fomr as a guilt- ridden mountain rescue pro battling it out amongst the peaks in Colorado with a gang of hijackers. Spectacular vistas and stunt sequences ensure a white-knuckle. vertiginous experience from the comfort of your cinema seat. Edinburgh: UCl.
I Uh Coeur Eh lliver A Heart In Winter ( 12) (Claude Sautet. France. 1992) Daniel Auteuil. Emmanuelle Beart. Andre Dussolicr. 105 mins.
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: Filmhouse.
I The Commitments ( l 5) (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 lrish music on the map. Alan Parker delivers a hilarious. down-to-earth. close-to-home movie.
3 stuffed full of good music and with some
relevent social comment to boot. Glasgow:
' Odeon. Strathclyde: UCl East Kilbride.
I Cries and Whispers (18) lngmar Bergman. Sweeden. 1972) Harriet Anderson. Ingrid I Thulin. Liv Ullmann. 91 mins. At the turn of the century. a middle-aged spinster lies dying of cancer. Her two sisters. one frigid. one suicidal. come to watch over her. Mounted in the style of Edvard Munch. Bergman‘s bleak and harrowing -. vision of suffering and Sven Nykvist's Oscar winning photography in various tones of red
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hapless Ms Blair. Edinburgh: Cameo.
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I Falling down (18) (Joel Schumacher. US. 1992) Michael Douglas. Robert Duvall. Barbara
Hershey. 1 12 mins. A sacked defence worker
abandons his car in a traffic jam and goes on an
I escalating rampage across Los Angelcs. 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 1 and director Schumacher deliver their finest
work to date. Edinburgh: Cameo.
- I The Fencing [taster ( 12) (Pedro Oleo. Spain.
1993) Assumpta Sema. Omero Antonutti.
f Joaquim de Almeida. 88 mins. Madrid in the
1860s. and life is turbulent under the decadent Queen lsabella. particularly for swordsman Don Jaime de Astarloa. who is asked by the sultry Adela to be her teacher. A fully-fledged political thriller. with its romance and melodrama restrained by tnore elevated concerns. Highly
recommended. Fife: Adam Smith.
I The Fine (15) (Sydney Pollack. US. 1993)
Tom Cruise. Jeanne Tripplehom. Gene
‘ liackman. 155 mins. John Grisham's best-selling novel undergoes a few changes to become a star- studded. but somewhat overlong thriller. with
Cruise well cast and convincing as the young
i graduate lawyer. seduced by a less-than-legal
Memphis law firm. However. a uniformly
. excellent supporting cast can't hide the lapses in A withdrawn violin maker becomes the object of j
pace and implausible narrative jumps that are made in the name of compact plotting. General
. release. 3 I The Fugitive (15) (Andrew Davis. US. 1993) Harrison Ford. Tommy Lee Jones. Jeroen
Krabbe. 130 mins. Wrongly accused of murdering his wife. Dr Richard Kimble (Ford) goes on the run. trying to track down the one-
: armed man who is the real killer while being ; hunted by a US Deputy Marshal himself. Great
acting. but what could have been one of the best thrillers in recent years lacks edge-of—the-seat appeal as director Davis fails to light the fuse on a d namite plot. See preview. General release. I done With The Wind (PG) (Victor Fleming. US. 1939) Clark Gable. Vivien Leigh. Olivia de
I Havilland. Leslie Howard. 220 mins. This new
print has restored the original colour to the classic. fifty-three-year-old tale that brings alive the era of the civil war through gripping narrative and characterisation. remaining faithful to Margaret Mitchell‘s powerful novel. Glasgow: Odeon.
I liot Shots Pit lien: (12) (Jim Abrahams. US. 1993) Charlie Sheen. Lloyd Bridges. Valeria Golino. 87 mins. More cinema parody than Cinema Paradiso. this time it's boys' own action
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movies that are in the sights. as Charlie Sheen tries to rescue the POWs from the Gulf. The jokes race past so quickly that if one stumbles and falls. another hurdles it immediately. If you're familiar with the targets. it's a satisfying enough sitting. General release.
I iieeee of M05) (Colin Nutley. Sweden. 1992) Helena Bergstrom. Rickard Wolff. Sven Wolter. 126 mins. A rural community's suspicions are aroused when the hip grand- daughter of a deceased landowner arrives from the city with boyfriend and motorbike to take over his house. Englishman abroad Nutley effectively dissects the racism and bigotry of a small community with much humour. Glasgow: GF'T. Edinburgh: Cameo.
I it The line 0i File (15) (Wolfgang Petersen. US. 1993) Clint Eastwood. John Malkovich. Rene Russo. 128 mins. A Secret Service veteran in the twilight of his career is haunted by the Kennedy assassination. so when a former government killer threatens the life of the current President. he vows now ensure history won't repeat itself. Lavish action scenes don't detract
Petersen delivers the best mainstream Hollywood movie in years. General release.
I Indochina (12) (Regis Wargnier. France. 1992) Catherine Deneuve. Vincent Perez. Lihn Dan Pharn. 156 mins. Lush. irresistably romantic tale of a French colonial (Deneuve) running a rubber plantation in 19305 Vietnam. who falls in love with a naval officer while the country borders on rebellion. Reminiscent of Gone With The Wind and the great epics of David Lean. its music is by Glasgow-bom composer Patrick Doyle (Henry V). Glasgow: GFT.
I .lacoo's ladderttS) (Adrian Lyne. US. 1990) Tim Robbins. Elizabeth Pena. Danny Aiello. 113 mins. Vietnam vet Jacob Singer is seeing some very strange things. like nurses with demons' horns and people with faces straight out of a Francis Bacon painting. As his grip on the reality of his present life begins to slip. he has recurring flashbacks to the night his platoon was wiped out during the war. The director of Fatal Attraction and the writer of Ghost combine to pull off one of the most tenifying. yet ultimately moving. paranoia thrillers of recent years. Edinburgh: Cameo. IJhinltThehieMWUS) (Murray Lerner. UK. 1990) The Jimi Hendrix Experience. 55 mins. Filmed just two weeks before Jimi's death in 1970. this unique footage reveals evidence of the great man in decline: confused. irritable and struggling to keep a grip on himself. A depressing testimony to the destructive effect of rock 'n‘ roll excesses. Edinburgh: Cameo.
I Jimi m: Plays “caterer (15) (DA. Pennebaker. US. 1967) The Jimi Hendrix Experience. 49 mins. The concert which really put Jimi into the big time. faithfully recorded to show the man at the peak of his powers: sexual charisma. technical brilliance. wild aggression and that unique inventiveness that - for the few years until his untimely demise - made him indisputed king of rock 'n' roll. Edinburgh: Cameo.
I Music M (PG) (Steven Spielberg. US. 1993) Sam Neill. Laura Dem. Jeff Goldblum. A group of scientists are invited to give their . approval to a theme park filled with genetically engineered dinosaurs. but the giant reptiles are soon running amok. Unsurpassed computer effects ensure that the dinosaurs themselves are terrifyineg believable (moreso than the PG certificate would suggest). but by the halfway point. it's more or less a chase movie with superior technology. Glasgow: MGMs. Edinburgh: MGM. Strathclyde: Odeon Ayr. All UCls.
I The last Action lien (15) (John McTieman. US. 1993) Arnold Schwarzenegger. Austin O'Brien. Charles Dance. 122 mins. Young Danny gets a magical movie ticket which catapults him into a screen world of villains and heroes. the world of Jack Slater. But when the ticket falls into the wrong hands. the real world comes under threat. A feisty parody of Amie‘s all-action heroics and self-referential as hell. this has summer blockbuster written all over it. Fife: New Picture House.
I loan The Pig Farmer ( 15) (Vadim Jean/Gary Sinyor. UK. 1992) Mark Frankel. Brian Glover. Janet Suzman. 96 mins. A highly kosher comedy in which young Leon (Frankel) discovers that he‘s not the Nice Jewish Boy he thought he was. but the result of a botched artificial insemination experiment. His real daddy is a Yorkshire pig breeder. Funny independent British movie from a determined cast and crew. which picked up some decent festival awards last year. Glasgow: Grosvenor.
I Had Beg M Glory (15) (John McNaughton. US. 1992) Robert De Niro. Bill Murray. Uma Thurman. 97 mins. After saving the life of a loan
from the film's crucial emotional core as ,
The List 24 September-7 October 1993 21