REVIEW FILM
SHAKESPEARE iii: it: 75:32 if :fiil:::lfl’:stii?teease DRAMA A MIDSUMMEH NIGHT’S transcending the limits of theatre with DON’T FORGET
computer-generated special effects, 3 DREAM the cinematic impact is spoilt through I‘I'JIIEE GOING
After Richard III and Twelfth Night, the use of minimalist wooden stage and with Hamlefand Romeo And Juliet sets, light bulbs artificially suspended on the way, big screen Shakespeare from the sky and a static pace. adaptations are becoming a Besides Barry lynch’s enigmatic Puck directorial trend. The latest to jump on and Desmond Barrit’s grotesquely
the bandwagon is the Royal comic Bottom, it is also disappointing Shakespeare Company’s Adrian liable, to find an absence of notable
whose film of A Midsummer Night’s performances, especially since lloble
Dream follows his stage version, seen is the man responsible for launching »
at the Edinburgh Festival Theatre in Kenneth Branagh. ‘ , H
llovember. The result, therefore, is a frustrating no" t rm” ' ' " 9m”: , half stoned sex scenes
The most fantastical of two hours of watching - rather than
Shakespeare’s comedies, it offers sharing - the excitement of the young Benoit. played by writer'-
endless scope for cinematic imagery. boy as he experiences his dream. If he dttt‘t'tt’t‘ Xiwwr Beauvois
lloble introduces an additional is ever going to project his creative “WW”- '-*‘ ‘1 i‘t’tmg "it!"
who‘s just had a bolt from the blue. An art-history lecturer specialising in the
character into the story, expressing magic onto the big screen, lloble the dream through the eyes of a young would do well to first move his
boy (OStIOBII Jones)- III a royal court sfiotugm "om the Stage' (Beth great Romantics. he's just
one moment, falling through space at Williams) rccctmt his an"). C“111m,
another, this child is a wide-eyed A Midsummer Night’s Dream (P6) tlndcr i-‘rttnee‘s national
witness to love affairs, an amateur (Adrian Noble, UK, 1996) Lyndsay service regime. Anything
dramatic rehearsal and a great deal of Duncan, Desmond Barrit, Alex has to be better than doing A Mldsummer itlgiit’s Dream: ‘unease wlth fairy mischief. Jennings. 105 mins. From Fri 3 Jan. "'5 (tut)? 1"“ it Stttc't't‘
attempt at the induction session gets him off. btit also brings a medical
a game of hide the salami. V, v . g . Ct‘t‘t‘lk'ttp ittlttt “'10. Although Acts Of Love boasts a raft of ~ WW" '{HLNH'UH ( ‘ u k 8 5‘“ e I X "‘ “ r t - excellent i’crfomtanccS from a Strong i ~ . ‘ V"""”v "fl ‘ ‘ With his future r'lpidlv cast — which also includes Gary Busey ‘ ‘ closing in on him. he turns
and Hal Holbrook — and offers a whatever time is left into
the cameta’ However, although expert at handling Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
[1‘s rare to see Dennis Hopper in a worthy twist to the rites-of-passage a journey of discovery. movie where he isn‘t holding a bomb plot. it is strangely unengaging. Joseph hooking tip witlt Arab or a gun to someone‘s head. Yet in Acts is simply too mundane a character to be “mm” ROSCMY 73'" t” ofLove it is his character, Joseph, 3 heroically changed by his new-found CTN”??? “whim” ' high school teacher in small-town passion. The affair is sexy. rejuvenating 133:5?i:2t62;‘rgét.:::§2‘l"d Texasv Who is being held to ransom. and fun for both panics' but by havmg chance encounter with The unstable element is the over- the 00"“th t0 'CaVC it at that malt-“tic French-Italian tourist developed libido of seventeen-year-old level. director Bruno Barrcto has Chiara Mastroiamii gives pupil, Catherine (Amy Locane), denied the movie a mood of tension him cause to reconsider As he nears retirement age. crippled and HOPPCF the 30" 0t meaty P3” "is p“”‘.“’“"""“ 5°”; Joseph is quietly getting on with his enjoyed by Pacino in Scent ()fA (ics‘f'UCW’iT; . . . unremarkable life. after Woman Of Hopkins in Silt’lltl’ The ‘us dying mother (Julie Harris) and Lambs. NO drama-by-numbers angst-ridden it’hiic L screwing his childhood sweetheart. appearances 0f SymbOliC beams 0r Freiich, bourgeois iiialc
fellow teacher Rosealee (Amy trying), explosions of teenage tantrums is going in the dark. But when Catherine’s dad to illth that taCt- (Thom Dtbdin) asks Joseph to stable her horse in his Acts 0f [1W8 ( l8) (Bruno Barrett). US.
working out his existential tensions by hanging otit on the wild side. and it's
barn. before he can ask ‘how’s your 1996) Dennis Hopper. Amy Irving. Amy t'tfti' kcc” t0 "ittttt‘t‘hcctt
father?’. she has whipped her clothes Locime. [08 mins. From Fri I3 Dec. Dennis hopper in Acts Of Love; Ettlnb‘ttutt‘ Bin"- . .
off and enticed him into the hayloft for Glasgow: Showcase. ‘foo mundane a character’ ujtttginfiiizi mum“ d) m
Basically. it's an HORROR individuals caught up in an impending ‘1d0't‘sccnt “""it‘y “T” - large. but what makes the cataclysm that is way beyond their
. ' V F ' ‘l 2 THE DAY OF THE BEAST understanding. Responding well to the {gilzr‘é'lglsrnkmg
mbufl human! and undetlymg is that it really does have Spanish director Alex de la lglesia’s setttltlSttBSS 0t ttle settllt. Attilth the courage of its oloyoyoy, mm assuyod “flow-up to brings an engaging subtlety to his hedonistic convictions. his ramshackle Accion Mufanfe is a theo'otltcallt tnSPifett madman; The Wm} ttmEjU-‘t‘ "In", hon“, comedy in segum’s heavy meta| tan is [ikewise masz [ruins/rotting look
which a west (Alex Ammo) becomes utterly bonkers and yet oddly lovable. “kc “ tw't’myt “"‘tlc the
' ‘tor-director shows no Sadl de Ial elsia’s neanderthal “K . . convinced, through his researches V. 9 . qualms about Iwmg H
into St John’s writings about the comic-strip portrayal of women Is no hm, cu, m, “and u t
g t y. p > Macaw, that tho antifihflst better here than ill ACCIOII Mufanfe. in [he grungy. halpsmncd b0 IIDTII in Madrid on Christmas Day. “‘9 imp'ied links between saw" and sex scenes. All this is shot Howey." “can” hers not sum 01 the the city’s vagrant-torching, right-wing in long takes with the and spot, h. ymmm himself in vigilantes is barely sketched in, and dedication and ‘t‘ccl' of :1 'evll, searching for vital clues among the Stt'ttlttte meanders bat"! after Kc“ mac“ "‘OV'C' 3"“
’ bout an h ur ut th uild-u to the WM?“ “tht‘ttt‘c of it the city s human detritus and in the a o , b e b p gcnumc realm [mm
mm or town. "my song; Late” final confrontation with the cloven- Once he gets the teenage with the help of gonzoid heavy metal "00th 9'19 t3 frighteningly depression out Ot- his fan Santiago Segura, Angqu kidnaps a cothttc'tjflo Ftttttttet and "to"! system. that is. (Trevor famous TV parapsychologlst (Armando imaginative than most recent Johnston)
no ham) who insists that his act is American horror offerings, this brings Don 't Forget You 're
hm showbiz, Moanwhllo, somon a distinctive Spanish piquancy to the Game 7?) Die (/8) (Xavier
. .. . out there in the city, El Dlablo is nonre- (llttiol Floyd) Metre“ "‘rfmfjt’v ’ 92/5), . “ "‘ «minimum- Mmmmwwm'mm 22::"22:31?iiztfixrgizz \ “though momd In seams.“ and Iglula’ Spain’ 1995) Alex Manla’ [/8 mins. Subtitles. From
“ ‘ forebodings 0t 8'", this IS essentially Amanda 4'9 my swung" sagum- 5w 2 1. Edinburgh; The 081 Of The Beast: ‘devlllshly funny' 3 Mock oomody about two haolos; 110 mins. From Fri 13. 6/8390” EFT. Film/muse.
The List 13 Dec 1996-9 Jan I997 29