personalised life games for its clients. Soon Douglas finds himself being sucked deeper into a vortex of fear as every certainty in his life is stripped away. An intriguing Chinese puzzle of a movie that teases and taunts the viewer almost as much as its hapless hero. General release.
Go Fish (I8) (Rose Troche. US. I993) Guinevere Turner. V.S. Brodie. Anastasia Sharp. 89 mins. Twentysomething would-be author Max is pushed by her wise owl flatmate towards vet's assistant Ely. but the two girls' shyness could prove an unassailablc obstacle. Troche‘s film bustles with visual invention. deliciously catty dialogue and natural performances. These are people. not issues. and even if Spike Lee was a romantic and a lesbian. he couldn‘t make a movie as fresh. funny and openly entertaining as this. Glasgow: GFT. Hercules (U) (John Musker & Ron Clements. US. I997) With the voices of Tate Donovan. James Woods. Danny DeVito. 9| mins. Bn'tish cartoonist Gerald Scarfe's designs marry his customary grotesquery with Uncle Walt's softer characterisations. Hades (a magnificently splenetic James Woods) wants to exact revenge on Zeus by destroying his son Hercules. but luckily our hero has Pegasus as his steed and Phil the grumpy satyr (Danny DeVito) as his coach. Classical purists might grumble. but this is one of the studio‘s most dynamic and entertaining features. General release. House Of America (15) (Marc Evans. UK. I997) Stephen Mackintosh. Lisa Palfrey. Sian Phillips. 96 mins. Welsh brother and sister Sid and Gwennie are obsessed by America. convinced their errant father is waiting for them across the Atlantic. As they retreat further into an increasingly incestuous fantasy. the film avoids obvious kitchen sink realism and in its place finds a sour poetry. powered by potent performances. A little too claustrophobic. however. See preview and review. Glasgow: Grosvenor.
I Know Where I'm Going! (U) (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger. UK. I945) Wendy Hiller. Roger Livesey. Finlay Currie. 91 mins. Beautifully shot in black and white. this is an intriguing comedy romance with dark undertones. in which the young. confident Ms HiIIer sets out to marry her rich but elderly fiance in the Hebrides. but falls instead for Livesey‘s sexy young naval officer. The visual symbols. all drawn from the islands' natural landscape. underline the story‘s deeper resonances. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
lf(l8) (Lindsay Anderson. UK. I968) Malcolm McDowell. David Wood. Richard Warwick. I l I mins. The kids are alright as anarchy and rebellion erupt with all the passion of an explosion at a stuffy English public school. Symbolic. allegorical stuff about the breakdown of society which didn't seem that far off twenty years ago. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
In a Lonely Place (PG) (Nicholas Ray. US. I950) Humphrey Bogart. Gloria Grahame. Martha Stewart. 9] mins. Bogart is on peak form as the self~destructive Hollywood hack suspected of murder in this tart and cynical mystery. Grahame is an appropriate foil as the woman in the opposite bungalow who offers a shoulder to cry on. Edinburgh: Cameo.
Jour De Fete (U) (Jacques Tali. France. 1948) Jacques 'l'ati. Guy Decomble. 87 mins. A rural French postie sees a film about the efficiency of the American mail service and decides to smarten up his act. Charming debut feature by 'l‘ati. effortlessly building visual set-pieces and establishing the amiable duffer of a central role that was later to become the unforgettable M. Hulot. Re-rcleased in the colour version. as was Tati's ori inal desire. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. LA. Con idential ( l8) (Curtis Hanson. US. I997) Kevin Spacey. Guy Pearce. Russell Crowe. Kim Basinger. I35 mins. Adapted front James Ellroy's neo-noir novel. the best American film of I997 evokes a glitzy post- WW2 Los Angeles underpinned by an all- pervasive. festering corruption. An intricate. drop-dead brilliant plot links bent cops. good cops. Hollywood star lookalike prostitutes and the mob. The dialogue crackles and the actors burn tip the screen: one of the few films one would dare mention in the same breath as the definitive
Chinatown. See feature and review. General release.
Lawrence Of Arabia (PG) (David Lean. UK. I962) Peter O'Toole. Alec Guinness. Jack Hawkins. Omar Sharif. 222 mins. Lean‘s mammoth desert epic. restored to its director's original cut and the big screen. where film-making on this scale belongs. O‘Toole‘s debut as the enigmatic adventurer still impresses. but apart from the majestic action sequences. it's the disturbing sense of clinical and cold-blooded violence hanging over the highly literate characterisation that today seems especially striking. Glasgow: Grosvenor.
A life Less Ordinary ( I 5) (Danny Boyle. UK. I997) Ewan McGregor. Cameron Diaz. Ian Holm. IOI mins. The follow-up to Trainspotting is something else entirely — an original script that boldly plays with the conventions of the romantic comedy. McGregor is a young Scot who kidnaps his boss's daughter when he gets the sack, only to find his hostage turns the tables and uses events to get back at her dad. Not everything works — Holly Hunter and Dclroy Lindo as bounty hunters/angels are misconceived — but it's brilliantly designed. funny. romantic and more inventive titan most of Hollywood's output combined. See feature and review. General release.
Lost Highway (I8) (David Lynch. US. I996) Bill Pullman. Patricia Arquette. Robert Loggia. I35 mins. Further out than even the celluloid version of Twin Peaks: Fire Walks With Me. Lynch's latest radicalisation of thefilm noir traditions concerns jazz saxman Pulltnan. his wife (Arquctte). a mystery man (Robert Blake). :1 garage mechanic (Balthazar Getty) and a crime kingpin (Loggia) — but in typically Lynchian non-linear plotlines that exist within the logic of dreams. Hattnting. provocative. and a genuinely personal undertaking. Glasgow: Gilmorehill.
The Lost World: Jurassic Park (PG) (Steven Spielberg. US. I997) Jeff Goldblum. Julianne Moore. Pete Postlethwaite. I29 mins. Goldblutn and Co drop onto a second dinosaur-filled island. which is disrupted by a mixed bunch of capitalists and safari hunters. sending the carnavores on a rampage. The story is far better than Jurassic Park. making for a thrilling adventure with impeccible effects that renders the original as good as extinct. Glasgow: Odeon Quay. Edinburgh: Odeon. Ma Vie En Rose (l2) (Alain Berliner. France/Belgium/UK. I997) Georges Du Fresne. Michele Laroque. Jean-Philippe Ecoffey. 93 mins. Happy seven-year-old Ludovic loves cross-dressing and is convinced he will grow up to become a girl. His parents hope it's a passing phase. but hostility from their neighbours causes problems. The child's eye world is visually striking. the message of accepting the ‘difference' of others worth repeating. the performances by all trememdous. A refreshingly honest look at a complex subject. See preview and review. Glasgow: GF'T. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
Ma Vie Sexuelle ( l5) (Arnaud Desplechin. France. I996) Mathieu Amalric. Emmanuelle Devos. Emmanuel Salinger. I80 mins. Philosophy lecturer Paul (Amalric) is stuck in a rut with both his doctorate thesis and his love life. which is over-complicated by his desires for this best friend’s girlfriend. 'lhere is strength in the ensemble around him. but entire scenes could rest on the cutting-room floor and we wouldn't miss them. It has an air of self- importance that comes from its extended. dialogue-heavy running time. but we know that size doesn‘t matter. Glasgow: (iFl‘. Madame Butterfly (PG) (Frederic Mitterand. France. I996) Ying Huang. Richard Troxell. Richard Cowan. I35 mins. Even those with only the skimpiest knowledge of opera will be familiar with Puccini's tragic love story between philandering American sailor Pinkerton and ill-fated Japanese siren Cio-Cio San. so it's disappointing Mitterand didn‘t take a more radical approach to the piece. What we get is a realist. meat~and-two-veg rendition in picture postcard Japanese settings. liven beginners would be better off seeing a live production. Glasgow: Gl-‘l'.
Continued over page
index FILM
presents
GILDED BALL?
SUNDAY 16TH NOVEMBER TRON THEATRE 63 TRONGATE, GLASGOW G1 TICKETS FROM BOX OFFICE 0141 552 4267
presents
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"one of the sharpest comedians" on tho curcuut" THE GUARDIAN
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