REVIEW FILM
' PERIOD THEME" tinitiates“?artist's... DRAMA THE GHOST AND THE hunter) are seen to do alone what a lOAnEu
couple of hundred Africans couldn’t
DARKNESS do together. It is also absurd and offensive that the only black man What an unpalatable film this is. attributed a personality should emerge
Young colonial type Val Kilmer arrives as a fawning clown hallway through in Africa all fired up on ambition. He is the film. there to build bridges, and various Great racist films have been made - natives and immigrant Asian workers . The Deer Hunter perhaps - but The are employed to help him. But then Ghost And The Darkness is not great. two particularly vicious lions get a Actually, it’s boring. The climactic taste for human meat, and everyone struggle between the two heroes and gets scared except for Kilmer, who the malevolent lions is managed determines to kill the beasts. without intelligence, humour or Loaded; time (n (he (,3, or Eventually, many grisly deaths later, emotion, and even the staples of the tension, horror or humout' we all realise what the Africans knew action genre - like suspense and . all along: that these are no mere lions threat - are pretty absent. The film’s Ni“ (1)0 Story 9' a day in. but evil spirits, or ‘ghosts’ out of the i most thrilling moments occur when "k: '3’? "t “ ""dd'f'Shcfl ‘darkness’. ’ the lions chomp on frightened natives, at?! {midi}‘31".‘1‘fv‘f::“' 'y The idea of Africa as a dark place is but then the silly animals decide that push yn‘un‘u tun“):le one that has fascinated Westerners Kilmer is a worthier target. The man is filmmaker; gallivmmng ever since they set about colonising patently invincible, the lions lose their off to a deserted tnansion
the continent and Joseph Conrad menace and the film goes off the boil. to make a crass horror wrote Heart Of Darkness. So it should (Hannah Fries) flick While the C (thinn- be no surprise that the heroes of this The chest And The Darkness (15) “is 01's? Wk Patrick) film are white men. And yet it is I (stephert napkins, us, 1996) Michael [Ni-“19‘”? "' "36 "We" Will While "lime" MIChael Douglas in surprising, to say the least, that a ‘ Douglas, Val Kilmer, Bernard Hill. From “93ml?” “1",‘1 ""1"" , The Ghost And The Darkness clean-cut bo like Kilm r and an l Fri 17. General release. pawn-“mi “m”, (D‘umy y e Cunningham) — .t I deadringer for Garza — . . . . suggests taking acid attd PERIOD DRAMA Morricone score are the directorial having the crew reveal trademarks characterising both their true selves. STABMAKER Cinema Paradise and Stannaker. In Not that Neil. Plfi‘YCd by Following in the sentimental footsteps “‘9'” "WW"! "'9 “"0 mms 3'9 V9" $93,313,);“pmffi . . of his award-winning Cinema di"°’°."'- mm“! 9"“ We“. artll‘ic‘ial itteiii'seiiiti 5 any Paradisa’ Guiseppe Tomammts new Paradrso’s celebration of cinematic deviccs_ He mm. and film tells the charming tale of a small "'"3'0" a “fiscal “"9 “"9 films his shrink — a community transformed by the arrival co'olfl'flll characters (many played by surrogate mother -- 10 try of a glamomus smug”. non-professronal actors) step forward. and get over the drowning It “1953, and conman Joe Mmem to form a dehcate and comica| portrait of his brother and to come
to terttts with ltis own psychic power. Before you can say Doll 7 Look Now. tlte group begins rupturing and collapsing ittto their own secret lives with inevitable disaster
(Sergio castettitto), armed with an old 0' smalliovin innocgnce- Although cine camera and an enterprising idea, PV°"V_5°""'“°"W "‘ Pans, and arrives in Sicily from llome. Setting up '"clud'ng ""99 0' "3|" 80"!!!" tests his (em in the mm. square, he too many, Stannaker nevertheless
promises local townlolk the possibility 9mm a magical” reiteshinq insight of fame and fortune for the price of a ""0 “'9 “mains and dlsalllmnhnents
1500 me semen test. aroused by the promise of fame. (Beth just around the corner. Very soon, a stream of individuals w'mamsl , Dircf‘c“ by A'm.“
are crawling out of the woodwork to s'a’make’ (75) (6"‘591’1’9 “mam”: campm” “mm 19"“
take M, chance a, mum. Italy, 1995) sergio caster/mo, Tiziana ’{mf’tfid “wk.” WW)? A simple plot. coloured with tender “‘3'”! rm“ 5‘3"” "3 """s- ' ' ‘ iii-57;”3:35.33 :iiifre
attention to data", beaumul From Fr! 17. Glasgow: 6H: Edinburgh: Starmaker: the latest from the director of ldccp. [yhnu‘gms mfd
cinematography and a magical Ennio WWW“- c'm’ma 93'3"“ ‘wise' words into its 9o
ntinutes than all the kids- . stuck-in-a-scar I-forest represented by watk-on parts here. _ ) . . . genie put together. The weren t so hardy. Mad wrfe Olga (Jane
otin monst as are the ones Lapomim) rams in the Street; DOW leaping aroiind their heads
. Mill" (JUllaiinC MOOI'C) is trapped in rather than from behind ; Surviving Picasso opens in occupied neurotic misery; bovine Marie-Therese the curtains. l Paris in I943. with the artist giving a Walter (Susannah Harker) faithfully l While “W selling the quick lesson in cubism to a German keeps Picasso's toenail clippings; hard. I '0‘V'l7Ude’Cl {Cd and [he ‘ soldier. but Merchant-lvory’s new film V brittle Jacqueline Roque (Diane “yawng handheld
camera ntay be a nod to
‘l is less interested in the secrets of Venora) abases herself absolutely to The [in] Dmd n [he Picasso’s craft than itt his seduction become Picasso's second wife. Clonal [racking Sm)l is a techniques. This is a portrait of Picasso The film suggests that the chauvinism positive headbang towards the lover. rather than Picasso the artist. and selfishness that destroyed these Raimi's classic — there is
We hear his chat-up lines before we women was necessary to Picasso‘s little in the way of its see him in the studio. How long will it functioning as an attist. but makes no Wit-“Ont “0m” 0" humour- be before he offers to show his etchings effort to engage with Picasso's an and '“dcc‘l‘ 5")“ “WM
happily drive this awful lot to the house aitd destroy the bridge which
to some game gamine? The come-on is offers no insight into his creativity. not long in coming. lts recipient is 22- What almost rcdeems the film is
year-old art student Francoise Gilot Anthony Hopkins‘s astonishing wuuld "up (hem allowing (Natascha McElhone). who promptly performance: he conveys the artist‘s (hem m devour each other leaves her domineering father (Bob bullying charm and ruthless self- lit the privacy of their own Peck with a frightful accent) to move in absorption. but it is his physical fantasies. (Brian
with the equally tyrannical 62-year-old transformation into the squat, bald, Donaldson)
PiCiLQSO. sixtysomething Picasso - Welsh boyo 1“”“1‘7/(“7 MW“
Cant/non. UK/Nt'it' Zea/and. [994) Oliver Mil/turn. Catherine
But Francoise survives Picasso. The into Mediterranean bull — that is most only woman in his life who found the impressive. (Jason Best)
strength to leave hint. she decamps Surviving Picasso ( 15) (James Ivory. Mvcrnrmmk' Thump-L,
with her two children after ten years - UK. I 996) Alli/lml)‘ Hopkins. Naraselta ,\t(.,,-,,,,,_ 96 mm; Mun
the period covered by the film. Mali/hone. Julianne Moore. I22 rnt'ns. l3—ch/ l5. Edinburgh: Hansel“ “CHM” I" SWIM“ “03330 Picasso’s other wives and mistresses. From Fri [0. Edinburgh: Film/rouse. It‘t‘lnrltousc.
The List lO-23 Jan I997 33