FILM index
the
picture Show
S S
DOMINIC SNYDER
(1' [1001's ul'Sr'nllhlr Ar! - am] it 3‘ .I
:31 January - 14 March
Monday - Saturday: loam - 5pm City Art Centre 0 2 Market Street 0 Edinburgh
Gallery talks each Thursday lunchtime Tel: 0131 529 3993
“1.33" :I a . . o ._ ~1- O I 0 $ r r; .15, I1. 6 s“ J ’1... .lo’i‘ t’ I .5.J,._,\». 4?, " v s ‘1; *W *J‘ r IN?“ 7 . r o _ - . . A . . A . o o O - O I l ' O C O .
34 THE LIST 23 Jan—S Feb 1998
{DINIWRQI i-
FILM INDEX continued
Home Alone 3 (PG) (Raja (iosnell. US. I997) Alex D. Linz. ()lek Krupa. Rya Kihlstedt. 95 mins. Instead of Macaulay Culkin. here comes Alex D. Linz (Michelle Pfeiffer's kid in One Fine Day ). but this film is not a patch on the un-PC slapstick and reckless stunting of the original. Stuck at home with the chicken pox. Ales discovers a gang of Iii-tech international criminals trying to locate a top secret microchip. so he sets up increasineg elaborate and sadistic traps. General release.
The Horseman On The Roof (15) (Jean- Paul Rappeneau. France. I995) Juliette Binoche. Olivier Martinez. Jean Yanne. 130 mins. Rappeneau's follow-up to Cyrano De Bergerac lacks the verve of that modern arthouse blockbuster. An Italian hussar evades Hapsburg agents and crosses cholera-ravished 19th century France. meeting up with a beautiful young woman. Emotions are repressed to the extent that it actually hinders audience involvement. and we're left just looking at pictures — which are spectacular. admittedly. Glasgow: (iilmorehill.
I Know What You Did Last Summer ( IS) (Jim Gillespie. US. I997) Jennifer Love Hewitt. Sarah Michelle (iellar. Ryan Phillippe. I()l mins. Writer Kevin Williamson broke new horror ground with Scream. but this effort is the sort of stalk 'ii‘ slash flick that's lucky not to go straight to video. The story follows four high school friends plagued by a murderer exactly one year after they accidentally ran over a man and ditched the seemingly dead body. Scottish first-time director Jim (lillespie joins the dots and piles on the horror cliches. (ilasgow: ()deons. Edinburgh: UCI.
I Went Down ( l 5) (Paddy Breathnach. Ireland. I997) Brendan (ileeson. Peter McDonald. Peter Caffey. l()8 mins. Recently out of choky. (iit falls in with Dublin's finest hoods. btit when he is assigned to cow boy-novel consuming crook Bunny. things go downhill quickly and
comically. The film's glories are many. chief
among them the interplay of the leads. an eclectic soundtrack and the odd moment of slapstick surrealism. A gem. Iidinburgh: Cameo.
The Ice Storm (15) (Ang Lee. US. 1997) Kevin Kline. Joan Allen. Sigourney Weaver. I 12 mins. In Nixon era Connecticut. Kline‘s dying affair with neighbour W -aver pushes wife Allen further into a numbed frigidity. just as both families‘ teenage children are making their first sexual forays. lee‘s satiric eye may be acute but he has a compassionate vision of human weakness. and beneath the humour is a sense of profound unease. Scene after scene. deftly directed and beautifully acted by the cast. sends a chill into the heart. See feature. preview and review. (ilasgow: (ll-'I‘. Showcase. Iidinburgh; (.‘aiiieo. Paisley, Showcase. .
In And Out ( l 2) (Frank ()1. US. I997) Kevin Kline. Matt Dillon. Tom Selleck. 9! mins. When an es-student seemingly ‘outs' him during an Oscar speech. Midwestern teacher Howard Brackctt (Kline) has to reassess his life and sexuality — just days
Too many crooks: Brendan Gleeson and Peter McDonald in I Went Down
I
before his wedding. A fuiitiy. feelgood movie that is aimed squarely at a mainstream audience. In And ()it! contains nothing to startle Middle America. Kline turns in a delightful comic performance. Sec preview and review. (ieneral release. It's A Wonderful Life (U) (Frank Capra. US. I946) James Stewart. Donna Reed. Henry Travers. l29 mins. On its release. Capra's salute to small town values was overlooked at the ()scars and only scraped by at the box office; 50 years down the line. however. it‘s as much a part of Christmas as Bing (‘rosby's crooning. Stewart plays dispairing family man (ieorge Bailey. saved at the point of suicide by a caring angel. Sentiment wins the day. but that doesn't outweigh the film's genuine warmth and hint of darkness. Kirkcaldy. Adam Smith. Ivan The Terrible (Parts 1 and 2)(12) (Sergei liisenstein. L‘SSR. I‘M-U46) Nikolai (‘herkassovz I.udmil.i 'I‘selikovskaya. 99 nuns/88 mins. Russia in the Ibth century. and 'l‘sar Ivaii IV finds himself in conflict with the Boyars and the Church. A classic piece of cinema. with the oppressive atmosphere being built from a succession of melodramatic close-ups. stylised gestures and finely composed visuals. (ilasgow: (ill The Jackal ( IS) (Michael ('aton-Jones. US. I997) Bruce Willis. Richard (ierc. Sidney Poitier. IZS mins. Scottish director ('aton- Jones gives 70s thriller 'I'lu' Dav U; The .lut'lui/ a contemporary makeover and etids up instead vs itli a meandering wigfest low on thrills and Iiigli iii tourist information. Willis plays a top liitiiiaii hired by the Russian Mafia to kill someone high tip in the US (ioveriinietit. but only (iere's loveable IRA terrorist knows what the assassin really looks like. ()verlong and overblown. (lencral release. Jeffrey ( l8) (Christopher Ashley. llS. I995) Steven Weber. Michael I. Weiss. Patrick Stewart. 94 mins. Single New Yorker Jeffrey decides that AIDS has made ses too risky. so he goes celibate — just as he meets Mr Right. Cinematic style is cast aside for moment-to-moment entertainment in a punchy. witty film that uses its lead character as an amalgam of AIDS era hang- ups. Resoluter upbeat and celebiatory. (ilasgow: (iilmorehill. Jour De Fete (U) (Jacques 'I'ati. I‘rance. I948) Jacques 'I‘ati. (iuy Deconible. 87 mins. A rural French postie sees a film about the efficiency of the American mail service and decides to siiiarteii tip his act. Charming debut feature by 'l‘ati. effortlesst building visual set-pieces and establishing the amiable duffer of a central role that was later to become the unforgettable M. Htilot. Iidinburgh: I-‘ilm (iiiild. Keep The Aspidistra Flying ( I 2) (Robert Ilierman. UK. I997) Richard Ii. (irant. Helena lloiiham ('artcr. Julian Wadliaiii. l()| iiiins Advertising copywriter (iordon ('omstock ((iraiit) feels stifled by the bourgeois nature of his job and impulsively decides to quit and follow his own poetic muse amongst the working class. A cosy. comfortable film that works as a whimsical romantic comedy. although any ()rwellian satire on the iiiiquities of the class system is lost. Stirling: MacRobert.
“ it!"
W