FILM INDEX
BACARDI BLACK
residents. PEG set about discovering the reason for the serious pollution problem that resulted in the ‘Granton smell‘. which often causes headaches. nausea and breathing difficulties. This video documentary follows their efforts as they meet with a chemical company on the Forth. the District Council's Environmental Health Department and the media. Followed by an audience discussion which will also embrace the benefits and difficulties of using video in a community setting. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Police Academy: Mission To Moscow (PG) (Alan Metter. I'S. I994) George Gaynes. Ron Perlman. Michael Winslow. lnstalment seven. even if they've dropped the numeral from the title. takes the buffoonish bobbies eastwards to stop a Russian mafia chief taking over the world. Being caught naked in a Siberian snowstontt is funnier. General release.
I Reality Bites ( )2) (Ben Stiller. US. I994) Winona Ryder. lithan Hawkc. Ben Stiller. 99 mins. Soon after graduation. Lelaina (Ryder) loses her 'l'V job (and the chance to complete her autobiographical documentary). and so has to buy food for her Generation X flatmates on the credit card daddy gave her. Self-indulgent. middle-class American problems that are hard to relate to and impossible to sytnpathise with fill this movie. If this is reality. it sucks rather than bites. See fcatttre and review. Glasgow: MGMs. Edinburgh: MGM. I'(‘I. Strathclyde: l‘(‘ls.
I Reservoir Dogs ( 18) (Quentin Tarantino. (:8. I992) Harvey Keitel. Tim Roth. Michael Madsen. IOO mins. A gang of hoods. known only to each other by colour-aided nicknames. meets at an abandoned warehouse to figure how out their rigorously planned heist went so
touching. emotional submission. Acerbic one- liners betray the hand of the great Billy Wilder. who worked on the script. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I lie 5m (15) (Martin Campbell. US. I994) Ray Liotta. Lance Henriksen. Stuart Wilson. II8 mins. It's the future. and troublesome prisoners have been placed on a remote jungle island where they‘ve split into two groups: land-loving hippie types and belligerent Mad Max clones. Cue some testosterone-fuelled violence. a rising bodycount and a loner with a dark and shady past. A get-the-boys-round kind of thing. Edinburgh: UCI.
I The Pelican Brief (12) (Alan J. Pakula. t’S. I993) Julia Roberts. Denzel Washington. Sam Shepard. Ml mins. Another adaptation of a John (Tlte Firm) Giisham novel: another over-long. flabby thriller. Law student Roberts finds herself on the run from killers when her speculative brief on the murder of two Supreme (‘otirt judges hits a raw nerve. Instantly disposable stuff. with Washington as solid as ever in his beefed-up role. Glasgow: GFI'. Fife: Adam Smith.
I Philadelphia ( l2) (Jonathan Demme. I‘S. I993) Tom Hanks. [)enzel Washington. Jason Robards. I25 mins. A lawyer takes his former employers to court. convinced that he has been sacked because he is suffering from AIDS. Demme's film goes as far as any mainstream Ilollywood movie on this subject could in the current climate. bttt for all its compromises. it should be applauded for avoiding any notion of manipulative death-bed sensationalism. Ilanks. for once. is allowed to break free from lightweight comic roles. and delivers a moving performance. Glasgow: Odeon. Edinburgh: drastically wrong. The best debut in years from Cameo. Fife: Adam Smith. Strathclyde: WMR. writer-director 'I‘arantino. whose stylish violence I The Piano (IS) (Jane Campion. Australia/New L seduces the audience into complicity. Brilliant in Zealand. I993) Holly Hunter. Sam Neill. Harvey every sense of the word. All Odeons. Edinburgh: Kcitel. 120 mins. Jane ("ampion's masterpiece I'CI. Strathclyde: L'(‘l C‘lydebank. WMR. follows mute Scotswornan Ada (Hunter) as she I Bobocop 3 ( 15) (Fred Dekker. US. I994) travels to l9th century New Zealand with her Robert Burke. Nancy Allen. Rip Tom. 104 mins. piano and daughter to enter into an arranged A more tongue-in-cheek approach than before marriage. Soon she begins a passionate and finds [)etroit's hardware cop rebelling against erotic affair with her illiterate neighbour as the his ()(‘P masters. who want to sweep the
means of regaining her treasured instrument. homeless from the steets in order to build a lmpeccable perfomtances lift this highly charged luxury appartment complex. Reasonable action piece to the realms of classic cinema. scenes. btit more like a TV pilot than a film in its undoubtedly one of the best films of the 90s. own tight. See review. Glasgow: ()deon. MGM Glas ow: GF'I". . Parkhead. Edinburgh: ()dcon. I‘CI. Strathclyde: I PI n Environment Group Fomied by local ()deon Ayr. I'(‘ls.
1.,AFTER 'THREE COLOURS BLUE'
“BRILLIANT...BLACK HUMOUR, :.. RAZOR—SHARP IMAGERY... THE MASTER IS RIGHT BACK
ON FORM”
Goo" Brown, THE TIMES
“ENTERTAINING, INVOLVING, BITTERSWEET...”
VARIETY
“VERY FUNNY...BRACING LY BLACK”
Nigel Andrews. FINANCIAL nurse
ZBIGNIEW or'sr-brttscron ZAMAC HOWSKI
JULIE DELPY THREE COLOURS
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A FILM BY
KRZYSZTOF KIESLOWSKI
®
English Subtitles An Artificial E e Release [1] ""‘ ""“”- Distribution supperted by p (in - A prolect of the MEDIA Programme of the European Community
FROM FRIDAY 24 JUNE EDINBURGH FILMHOUSE
I Rookie 0' The Year (PG) (Daniel Stern. US. I993) Thomas Ian Nicholas. Gary Busey. Dan Iledaya. Daniel Stern. Having survived as one of the City Sliekers trio. Stern now gets to try his hand behind the camera with that genre that always strikes out on UK turf — the baseball movie. This is very much a kid's movie. a modem fairytale about a l2-year-old boy whose clumsiness on the field turns around when he breaks his arm. only to recover as a top pitcher. Really. why bother? General release. I The Scent (It Green Papaya (U) (Tran Anh Ilung. France. I993) Yen-Khe Tran Nu. Man San Lu. Thi Loc Truong. 101 mins. A young girl arrives in Saigon to become servant to a middle- class family whose house is filled with undercurrents of tension. Likewise. beneath the film‘s cloak of shimmering beauty lie valleys of emotion: this is definitely one worth slowing down for. Glasgow: GF'I". I Schindler's list (IS) (Steven Spielberg. US. I993) Liam Neeson. Ralph Fiennes. Ben Kingsley. I95 mins. During WW2. German industrialist and Nazi Party member Oskar Schindler saved the lives of over a thousand Jewish employees by demanding they work in his factory rather than be sent to Auschwitz. Spielberg‘s magnificent movie and Neeson's performance capture this enigmatic brand of heroism. while depicting traumatic events in documentary-like black-and-white images. Psychologically complex. emotionally devastating and artistically impeachable. this is one of the best films ever made. General release. I The Secret Rapture (IS) (Howard Davies. IJK. I993) Juliet Stephenson. Joanne Whalley- Kilrner. Neal Pearson. 96mins. An embarrassineg inept exercise in Brit Lit psycho- drama. adapted from David Hare's much- trumpeted play. with Whalley-Kilmer abysmally overwrought as a young widow whose stepdaughter (Stevenson) brings her into her graphic design business. The melodrama rises. but you're hard pressed to care. Edinburgh: Cameo. I Serial More (l8) (John Waters. US. I994) Kathleen Turner. Sam Waterston. Ricki Lake. 93 mins. Undemeath the apple-pie ideals of the Sutphins' model suburban borne. mom Beverly is going to deadly extremes to keep her family nest feathered. The sickest. funniest American comedy to hop the Atlantic for ages. Waters latest adds a zesty twist of crtielty to satire on fatnin values. political correctness and America‘s adulation of criminals in the media.
Glasgow: MGMs. Edinburgh: Cameo. UCI. Fife:
Robin's. Strathclyde: UCls.
I Strapping (l8) (Paul Anderson. UK. I994) Sadie Frost. Jude Law. Sean Pertwee. 107 mins. Just out ofjail. Billy meets up with girlfriend Jo and resumes joyriding and ram-raiding — crashing into shop windows and helping himself to the goods. High-speed police chases and brushes with local crooks keep up the violence quota in Anderson's successful attempt to hit the British MTV generation of filmgoers with slick. commercial fare. See feature. Edinburgh: UCI. I Short Cuts ( I 8) (Robert Altman. US. I993) Andie MacDowell. Tim Robbins. Lily Tomlin. Tom Waits. et al. 187 mins. Long and absorbing.
. Altman's patchwork approach shifts Raymond
Carver's short stories to Los Angeles. a city socially and geologically on the point of falling apart. The stories cross over. character‘s lives rub together. threads are picked up after receeding for a while - this is classy soap opera at its best. with flawless acting and construction. Edinburgh: UCI.
I Stagecoach (PG) (John Ford. US. 1939) (‘laire Trevor. John Wayne. Thomas Mitchell. 99 mins. John Wayne become an A-list western star following his appearance as The Ringo Kid. who holds up a stagecoach containing a prostitute. alcoholic doctor. cynical gambler. timid salesman. crooked banker and pregnant lady. Civilisation meets the wildemess as the Indians start closing in. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Tales Front The Cities 2 80mins. A programme of sassy urban boys' tales. including Todd (Poison) Haynes's Dorrie Gets Spanked. Jean Marc Prouveur's elegaic Dance Macabre and Alex Bisticas's The Clearing. Glasgow: GFT.
I Taxi Driver (I8) (Martin Scorsese. US. I976) Robert De Niro. Cybill Shepherd. Jodie Foster. 114 mins. An alienated taxi driver in New York is so repelled by the squalor and the moral decay around him that he is driven to tenible violence. ()ne of the key films of the Seventies with the Sc0rsese-De Niro partnership at its peak. Glasgow: GFT.
I Terminator 2: Judge-em Day (15) (James Cameron. US. I991) Arnold Swarzenegger. Linda Hamilton. Edward Furlong. Robert Patrick. I36 mins. The most expensive film ever made. In a reprogrammed role that says much about his changed image since the first movie.
Arnie becomes the underdog fighting to protect mother and child from another more advanced cyborg. With an element of uncontrived human compassion lurking throughout the gloriously expensive action sequences. Edinburgh: MGM. I The Third Man (PG) (Carol Reed. UK. I949) Joseph Cotten. Alida Valli. Trevor Howard. Orson Welles. 104 mins. Post-war Vienna and pulp writer Joseph Cotten moves through . corruption on every comer to try to find his old mate Harry Lime. who turns out to be not everything his friend expected. Nigli-perfect screen experience with strong plotting and characterisation from Graham Greene‘s screenplay. Anton Karas' memorable zither music and. of course. the truly electrifying presence of Welles at his peak as the enigmatic Lime. Look out for the famous ‘cuckoo clock‘ speech which the big man wrote for himself. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. I Three Colours: Blue (15) (Krzysztof Kieslowski. France. 1993) Juliette Binoche. Benoit Regent. Charlotte Very. IOO mins. A young woman tries to isolate herself ftorn friends and any notion of affection following the death of her composer husband and child in a car crash. but she cannot escape from the fragments of his unfinished composition. in which she played a major part. An expressive and symbolic film that is also emotionally satisfying. Binoche's award-winning performance. in a filtn of profound beauty. is the best of her career. Glasgow: Odeon. I Three Colours: White (15) (Krzysztof Kieslowski. France/Switz/Poland. I993) Zbigniew Zamachowski. Julie Delpy. Janusz Gajos. 91 mins. Another masterful piece of cinema by Kieslowski. much less lyrical and visually poetic than his most recent works. This time the theme of the trilogy is ‘equality'. as a Polish hairdresser sets out to get revenge on his French ex-wife. See preview. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. I Tombstone (15) (George P. (‘osmatos. US. I993) Kurt Russell. Val Kilmer. Sam Elliott. Bill Paxton. l29 mins. Events before. during and after the legendary gunfight at the ()K Corral with a reasonably big name cast depicting the actions of the Earp brothers. Doc llolliday et al. Old-fashioned style western with familiar story and style places the emphasis on ()K. Glasgow: GFI'. I A Touch [It Fever ( I8) (Ryostike Hashiguchi. Japan. I993) ll~l mins. A Japanese economics student sells his body in the evenings. although he considers himself straight and his refusing the advances of male and female friends. Ilashigttchi examines the uncertainties of lonliness and love for a group of young Tokyo friends. and delivers an important addition to the new gay Japanese cinema. Glasgow: GI-‘I‘. Edinburgh: l‘ilmhouse. I Unforgiven ( I5) ((‘lint Eastwood. 1992) Clint Eastwood. Gene Hacktnan. Morgan Freeman. l23 mins. Clint returns to the saddle as a fomier killer. tamed by his late wife. but pressed intojoining a bounty hunt which takes him to the town of Big Whiskey and into the presence of its sadistic sheriff (Ilackman). A darkly disturbing western which destroys the genre's traditional notions ofclear-cttt good and evil. instead presenting violent acts as physically arid psychologically painful for \ ictim and perpetrator alike. Glasgow: Gl-‘l'. I The Wedding Banquet ( l5) (Ang Lee. liS/I‘aiwan. I993) Winston Chat). May ('hitt. Sihung Lung. Ali-Lea Gua. I()7 mins. A successful naturalised American lives happily with his gay lover in Manhattan until pressure front his parents in Taiwan forces hint to marry a young Chinese artist in need of a greet) card. But when mum and dad jump on the next plane for the wedding celebrations. a farcical situation becomes emotionally tense. Funny and serious in perfectly balanced measure. (.‘entral: MacRobert. I What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? (12) (Lasse Hallstrom. LTS. I993) Johnny Depp. Juliette Lewis. Leonardo Di ('aprio. 1 l8 mins. For once. Depp is the sole figure of calm in an oddball world. the oldest son in a dysfunctional family who live in a neurotic Iowa backwater. ()nly when holiday-maker Lewis arrives does he begin to consider his own feelings. With one eye on detail. the other on the absurd. director Lasse (My Life As A Dog) Hallstrom delivers a sympathetic romance surrounded by American foibles. The acting is superb from all concerned. A low-key wonder. one of the films of the year. Glasgow: MGM Film Centre. I Vltrthering Height: (U) (William Wyler. US. I939) Lawrence Olivier. Merle Oberon. David Niven. l03 mins. The film that more than anything is responsible for misrepresentation of Bronte‘s novel. it‘s still a cracking good romance in its own right. The full passion of melodrama is unleashed in powerfully elemental surroundings. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
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24 The List I7—3() June I994