BACARDI BLACK PREVIEW FILM
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length by the realisation that they can be but fleeting moments in the melancholy carnival of life.
As in The Hairdresser’s Husband, Leconte’s film enjoys its fair share of sunny reminiscence before tightening its grip and darkening into a mode of existential tragedy. The material may be thin as a matchbook, but the technique is quintessentially cinematic: succinct in its expression, relishing the widescreen format, it’s all about shifting moods, the colour of light, half-remembered afternoons of love in hotel bedrooms. For some, it i all might be too unambiguously ,-; centred around the male gaze, but -
q :- ; BEYOND ‘ ; BEDLAM
_ LE PARFUM D’YVONNE
Lake Geneva in the late 50$ finds llippolyte Girardot’s young Frenchman Victor Ghmara seeking refuge on the Swiss side of the water, a fugitive from conscription and the Algerian War. Amid the holiday atmosphere of the local resort towns, this would-be writer awaits a ripe romantic adventure, yet he gets more than he bargained for when into his life wanders the beautiful yet enigmatic Yvonne (Dutch model Sandra Malani),
.\ Beyond Bedlam: ‘skllfully shot'
Pitched somewhere between a psychological thriller and an out-and-out horror movie, Vadim
her large, spotty Great Dane, and mm qccond feature mysterious associate Dr Meinthe . there’s a heady scent of real pleasure I 1‘ /" ,,,;,k‘, ‘a radical Change of (Jean-Pierre Marielle, previously seen 1 to be experienced in their trip down ' ' dirccim am, Lem, The as the stern violist in Tous Les Matins ! Pig Farmer. However.
the byways of memory. (TJ) / Le Parfum d’Yvonne (18) (Patrice i .» ,: leconte, France, 1994) llippolyte f Girardot, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Sandra Maiani, Richard Bohringer. 89 mins. 5 From Fri 26: Glasgow Film Theatre. 3 l From Fri 23: Edinburgh Cameo.
:_ (Pueuc AGGESS
Du Monde), a fez-wearing, socially gregarious gentleman of uncertain calling. Saturated in erotic fascination and a whirl of partying among the lakeside set, the next few weeks are halcyon days indeed, tempered at
despite its genre trappings. Jean’s use of the conventions is sparing. avoxding the nudge-nudge knowingness that afflicts so many modern horror movies. However. this being so. it may disappoint genre fans looking for a more thoroughly worked through supernatural underpinning.
in his Hannibal Lecter- like cell. stroking his close-cropped pate a la
\\
Le Parfum d’Yvonne: ‘shifting moods’
and limbs that don’t become recognisable for a few seconds, a i soundtrack of fragmented and
| dislocated noises, the impassive face ~ : when Jesus descends ‘0' The second T of devil/angel Whiley - all contribute
Goming, chances are he’ll preach his , to a ow " I ‘ mat gospel on cable television. Until then, i p e. " sense 0 “9"?” we and the inhabitants o, the ma" : makes this a truly electrifying cinema
.town of Brewster will have to make do I
3 experience. Throughout the slow
‘ i with TV messiah Whiley Pritcher (Ron
build-up, there is a tangible feeling of ‘ something close to eruption and, sure
Brando in A pacalypse Now. Keith Allen enjoys himself immensely as a
4’ lie and Unemployment Reach Recm,
lMar uette ,an eni matic, clean-cut, , , " chasm“ guangefwho appears out 0' ' enough, Pritcher IS the catalyst who
W . ‘3 gnowhere to hosta local public access 5 :fizflg:ggfx:;firmed ' :P'W'amme- °“'T°“"‘ ’ 35"” “W's ? Given the film’s visual polish and
‘s . i called, asks "3 View" 0"” °"° ‘ strong sense of pacing "’3
l ' . s r -
33:22::bmguxgsg green remarkable that this is 27-year-old lparks, m}, unempmymeat, low crime _ i Bryan Singer’s feature debut (producer ‘surely nothing is wrong in this Eden of I 23""? Kokhi" '5 :6 andhco'l’mduce' Middle America. But one by one the a 3'“ 9"” ° “3 V °“ 9 WC" at 'cauers phone in and’fesemment; ’ 25). A vrdeo release is imminent, and begin to creep out mm under me i the film will certainly work well in the carpet i claustrophobia of your living room, but
Several US independent movies have i :5 “Ch”ifaLs"“°t"'l?9t':3"Y covered similar ground - unearthing ’ 958"” ° ° 399'“ a 9 0" a
3 bigger and louder scale. A surprising
the iealousies and anxieties beneath . the surface of the perfect town — but 3 “BMW” l" m'“ 0' "‘9 Veal (ml
. . . ‘ Public Access (18) (Bryan Singer, 08, this IS Lynch without Jung and Freud 993 . doing the script rewrites. Public 1 ) no" "a'quwe’ “ma Brad‘s’
. w H .. :Access is genuinely unsettling, and 3"" Williams' 90 mins' Fm“ “'9
- . - - - 30: Glasgow Film Theatre. ttsdtflrcult to ut ourfin or on how ,. . . Public Access: ‘electrifying’ Ithis is achieve: Clzsempsgof obiefls i rrom Tue 6: Edinburgh Filmhouse.
dream-invading serial killer known as the Bone Man. Ambitious doctor Elisabeth Hurley‘s experiments with mind- controlling drugs have invested Allen with the power to invade other‘s minds and. alerted by a string of suicides at the block of flats where Hurley lives. cynical cop Craig Fairbrass soon realises she has also been experimenting on herself. Sucked into a dream world where reality and illusion are blurred. he must confront not only his old criminal nemesis. but also the guilty memories lurking in the dark corners of his unconscious.
The early scenes establish a genuinely unsettling ambience. which in the middle section develops along more conventional horror lines; more disappointing is the brutally physical punch-up during which Fairbrass finally confronts the seemingly indestructable Allen. Like ( everything else. it is ' skilfully shot. creatively
designed and well edited. but it also undermines the film's basic premise — that Allen's power now lies in his ability to manipulate the unconscious mind rather than punish the physical body. (Nigel Floyd) Beyond Bedlam ( I 8) (ch/imJean, UK, [994) I
the flitmustet’ Dam"
lBreyer Run for Senate?
But Roland’s lust for life also gets
him into serious hassle. llis slingshots
sell like hot cakes, but his mother
freaks when she finds out he’s put her illicit contraceptive business in
jeopardy. llis innocent foray into the
black market economy of stolen goods i ends in disaster and his investigations 5 into the emotionally complicated domain of women and sex leave him dazed, confused, but ultimately undaunted.
Ake Sandgren’s film is funny and . unsentimental in its portrayal of a l ‘ g youthful pursuit of experience. A i : charming rites of passage movie, even ; if some of the observations are a bit ‘ T predictable and a little too knowing in
his gift for creating toys from bits of the" “3'” m be “99" "WW"! 3""
iunk, which earns him money, respect ‘ maul sallflllnfl- (Gill Roth)
and status. His best invention is the "‘9 5""93lm (12) (“‘9 safldflm"
slingshot he made out of a couple of l 8‘9"”! 1993) 3939" 53'9": 5‘8"“ |
[— THE SLINGSHOT
Set in 1920s Stockholm, The Slingshot centres on twelve-year-old Roland (Jesper Salen), the son of a Russian Jewish mother and a Socialist father. Living in a society that considers his father’s politics to be treason and his mother’s religion blasphemy, Roland has to deal with ceaseless prejudice from all sides.
His older brother, an aspiring boxer, continually biffs him on the nose, the sadistic teachers abuse him, and the neighbourhood boys taunt him. But Roland is no victim. Lacking the muscle power of his brother, he uses
Keir/t Allen, Craig
F ai rhrasx, Elizabeth Hurley. 96 mins. Sim 14/M()Il I 5 (ml): Glagsow.‘ GF7I
“ea d“ condoms and some Id ' Skarsgard, Basia Frydman. 100 mins. ' ,.,,'_' ” ° From Fri 2. Edinburgh: cameo. g
The Slingshot: ‘lunny and misontluental'
Sponsored by BACARDI BLAC K
The List 26 August—8 September 1994 67