Films screening this fortnight are listed below with certificate. credits. brief review and venue details. Film index compiled by Alan Morrison.
Alexander Nevsky (U) (Sergei Eisenstein. USSR. I938) Nikolai Okhlopkov. Alexander Abrikossov. Dmitri Orlov. I 12 mins. With music by Prokofiev. Eisenstein re-enacts splendidly the medieval routing of the Germans. drawing powerful comparisons with the USSR's contemporary threat from the Nazis. A thrilling. patriotic epic. Glasgow: GFT.
Arnistad (15) (Steven Spielberg. US. 1997) Anthony Hopkins. Morgan Freeman. Djimon Hounsou. 152 mins. After a revolt on a ship off the coast of Cuba in 1839. a group of slaves are captured by an American naval cutter and put on trial for piracy and murder. Spielberg botches this fascinating tale not because of historical inaccuracy. but through nanative incompetence — the film falls apart in the courtroom. where scenes come across as L4 Law done in period costume. See review. General release. Amphitryon (I2) (Reinhold Schiinzel. Germany. 1935) Willy Fritsch. Kathe Gold. Paul Kemp. 103 mins. Jupiter disguises himself as Amphitryon in order to seduce the mortal man‘s wife in this charming blend of Operetta and classical myth. Comic confusion and sly anachronisms abound. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
Andre (U) (George Miller. US. I994)Tina Majorino. Keith Carradine. Chelsea Field. 94 mins. This time it's the turn of a seal to keep the kids oohing and aahing. as the true story ofAndre unfolds. Set during the early 60s in a small fishing town in Maine. the film has all the necessary elements - cute kid bonding with cute animal — and with a few adventure sequences in the plot that puts this flippered hero in the Skippy/Champion/Rin Tin Tin class. Stirling: Carlton.
Battleship Potemlrin (PG) (Sergei Eisenstein. USSR. 1925) A. Antonov. Vladimir Barski. Grigori Alexandrov. 75 mins. Made for the 20th anniversary of the 1905 revolution. Eisenstein's all-time classic follows the mutiny by the crew of the Prince Potemkin and the support given by the local civilian population. who are mown down by the Czar‘s troops in the famous Odessa Steps sequence. Expressive camera technique and a grasp of editing that wrote the textbooks are just some of the innovations that put Eisenstein and Russian film firmly on the cinematic map. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
Boogie Nights (18) (Paul Thomas Anderson. US. 1997) Mark Wahlberg. Burt Reynolds. Julianne Moore. 152 mins. Doing for porn filmmaking what Goodfellas did for gangsters. Boogie Nights charts the rise. fall and redemption of a fictional porn superstar (Wahlberg) against the enormous changes wrought in the industry between the 70s and 80s. Large-scale social commentary and small-scale human dramas account for the film's epic feel. while the kitsch fashions and funky disco soundtrack create a film that is as ambitious as it is entertaining. Glasgow: Grosvenor. Odeons. Showcase. UCI Clydebank. Edinburgh: Cameo. UCI. The Borrowers (U) (Peter Hewitt. UK. 1997) John Goodman. Jim Broadbent. Celia Imrie. 86 mins. At a height of only four inches. the Borrowers hide in wall cavities and living beneath the floorboards of the Lender household. When a nasty lawyer tries to swindle the humans out of their inheritance. families big and small join forces. The design and efi'ects create a strangely familiar. oddly unplaceable world. and children will have little difficulty suspending enough disbelief to be spellbound by the magic of the film. Glasgow: Showcase. UCI Clydebank. Falkirk: Town Hall. Galashiels: Pavilion. Largs: Barrfields. Paisley: Showcase.
The Boxer (15) (Jim Sheridan. UK/US. 1997) Daniel Day-Lewis. Emily Watson. Brian Cox. I 12 mins. Sheridan's follow-up to In The Name Of The Father brings the current drive towards a peaceful settlement
30 TIIELIST 20 Feb—S Mar 1998
right up to date. Day-Lewis is perfect as the slow-buming ex-IRA man trying to rebuild his life and rekindle love with his childhood sweetheart despite resistance in his neighbours. The boxing scenes have a hard. realistic aggression. while the political perspective allows us to understand the demands that peace makes on a divided Republican community. See fature and review. General release.
Breakdown (15) (Jonathan Mosiow. US. 1997) Kurt Russell. Kathleen Quinlan. J.'I‘. Walsh. 93 mins. When their car breaks down in the desert. a nightmare begins for yuppie Russell after his wife accepts a lift from truck driver Walsh. then disappears off the face of the earth. A solid. silly. amiany suspenseful romp that‘s stuck firmly within its particular comer of the suspense genre and is on first name terms with every cliche in the immediate vicinity. If you can bear the familiarity of the journey. then sit back and enjoy the ride. See review. Glasgow: Grosvenor.
Bringing Up Baby (PG) (Howard Hawks. US. 1938) Cary Grant. Katharine Hepburn. Charles Ruggles. 102 mins. Zany gal Hepburn causes timid zoology professor Grant to lose a valuable dinosaur bone and mislay a pet leopard within the course of one screwball evening. Archetypal 30s crazy comedy with one outlandishly hilarious scene following another within the progression of an unerrineg logical narrative. Both stars at their charismatic best. Glasgow: GFT.
The Butcher Boy (15) (Neil Jordan. UK. 1997) Stephen Rea. Earnonn Owens. Aisling O'Sullivan. 108 mins. Jordan fuses an oblique. nightmarish view of Iifein a small rual Irish town during the early 60s with a brutally honest. painfully funny coming-of- age story. Everything is seen through the eyes of twelve-year-old Francie (Owens). who blots out the cruel reality of his home life with increasingly ferocious flights of fancy. Extraordinary. See preview and review. Glasgow: Odeon. Edinburgh: Odeon.
Cabaret (18) (Bob Fosse. US. 1972)1.iza Minnelli. Joel Grey. Michael York. 124 mins. In divinely decadent early'l 930s Berlin. singer Sally Bowles wows them at the notorious Kit Kat Klub. encounters the beginnings of Nazism and shares her pretty English boyfriend with a gay baron. Stylish and invigorating Broadway musical turned Oscarowinning cinematic landmark. Glasgow: GFT. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. Caravaggio (18) (Derek Jarman. UK. 1986) Nigel Teny. Sean Bean. Tilda Swinton. 90 mins. Jarman's biographical study of the brilliant Italian Renaissance painter centres on the artist's triangular relationship with a low-life gambler and his prostitute lover. a passion that is to result in murder. Ambitious and accessible work that finds a delicate. cinematic equivalent for the subtle shadings of in Caravaggio‘s brushwork. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
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The Crucible ( 12) (Nicholas Hytner. US. 1996) Daniel Day Lewis. Winona Ryder. Paul Scofield. 124 mins. Arthur Miller adapts his classic stage play based on the 17th century Salem witch trials and. although the relevance to the McCarthy hearings has drifted into history. it still questions many of today's irrational and hysterical belief systems. The finger- pointing is done by a spurned young woman. who accuses her ex-lover's wife of witchcraft. and soon an all-consuming tide of evil and hypocrisy is devastating their village. Deception becomes a stronger force than the truth in a truly compelling and important film. Edinburgh: Cameo.
The Day The Sun Turned Cold (12) (Yim Ho. Hong Kong. 1994) Siqin Gowa. Tuo Thong Hua. Ma Jing Wu. 99 mins. A young man presents police with the evidence that his mother killed his father a decade ago in this highly accomplished study ofjealousy. murder and filial turmoil. Sympathies shift from character to character as director Yim Ho deals impassively with the unfolding plot. Edinburgh: Film Guild.
Deep Crimson (18) (Arturo Ripstein. Mexico. 1996) Regina Orozco. Daniel Giminez Cacho. 114 mins. Two social and physical misfits — fat Coral and bald Nicolas — forge a murderous alliance to marry and rip off rich women. This remake of 60s thriller The Honeymoon Killers is warmly hued and darkly humourous. but bleak remains the over-riding adjective. Glasgow: Gilmorehill.
Desperate Measures ( 18) (Barbet Schroeder. US. 1997) Michael Keaton. Andy Garcia. Brian Cox. 100 mins. A desperate cor) with a sick son needs an urgent bone marrow donor. but the only person with a compatible match is an imprisoned psychopath. This silly scenario gets more uptight when said psycho escapes and the cop has to go all out to keep him alive. If you want the suspense of this unusual situation. then you have to deal quite quickly with the idiocy of the premise. If you can‘t. then avoid this film. See review. General release.
The Devil's Advocate (18) (Taylor Hackford. US. 1997) Al Pacino. Keanu Reeves. Charlize Theron. 145 mins. Hot shot lawyer Kevin Lomax (Reeves) is recruited by a New York firm. but comes to realise its founder. John Milton (Pacino). is head of something a lot more scary than the legal industry. This modem-day morality play allows Pacino to grandstand in a pan that‘s plainly absurd. while Reeves is too wooden for his supposedly charismatic role. General release.
The Edge (15) (Lee Tamahori. US. 1997) Anthony Hopkins. Alec Baldwin. Elle Macpherson. 118 mins. Hopkins and Baldwin respectively play an intellectual billionaire and a brash fashion photographer who end up stranded miles from nowhere in the midst of brutal weather conditions. Clichéd Iron John bonding gives way to
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In the name of the son: Andy Garcia in Desperate Measures
rivalry over Hopkins's lovely young wife (Macpherson). however. The characters are wafer-thin. the narrative ludicrous and the action laughable. See review. Glasgow: UCI Clydebank. Edinburgh: UCI. Ayr: Odeon. Elvis Lives Project Ability's artist and animator lain Piercey spent six months collaborating with a group of ten people to produce a series of personal responses to the theme of ‘Elvis — a 20th century icon'. These resulting short animations make an original. funny and heartfelt tribute to an enduring legend. Glasgow: (1171‘.
The English Patient(15) (Anthony Minghella. UK/US. 1996) Ralph Fiennes. Juliette Binoche. Kristin Scott Thomas. 162 mins. A mysterious stranger. suffering from honific bums. is cared for by a Canadian nurse during the final days of WWII. ln flashback. we discover more about the great romantic affair whose tragic climax brought him to this state. Anthony Minghella alters the focus of Michael Ondaatje's Booker Prize-winning novel to concentrate more on boiling passions in the North African desen. Spectacularly filmed on location. the film boasts magnificent perfomiances from each and every one of the leads. Edinburgh: St Bride's.
Face (18) (Antonia Bird. UK. 1997) Robert Carlyle. Ray Winstone. Stephen Waddington. 100 mins. Think The Long Good Friday. think Get Carter. Ray (Carlyle) and his gang of East End criminals pull off an armed robbery. but when the loot goes missing. it becomes obvious they have been stitched up by one of their own. Face tackles the spectre of the Thatcher years within the framework of a crime thriller. and the results are hit and miss. Blur's Damon Albarn acquits himself well in a small role as a wannabe crook. Glasgow: City Centre Odeon. OFT. Gilmorehill.
Fairytale: A True Story (U) (Charles Sturridge. UK. 1997) Florence Hoath. Elizabeth Earl. Paul McGann. 98 mins. 1n telling the story of two Edwardian girls who cause a sensation when they capture a photographic image of fairies. Fairytale manages to be more coherent and less downbeat than the similar Photographing Fairies. A carefully judged film that provides moving entertainment for the fatnin audience. General release.
Fallen Angels (15) (Wong Kar-Wai. Hong Kong. 1995) Leon Lai. Takeshi Kaneshiro. Michele Reis. 94 mins. Similar in setting and style to arthouse hit Chung/ting Express. this tale of love and death in the neon- soaked nights of Hong Kong is much darker in tone. with characters that seem just a little more psychologically disturbed. Overlapping lives of a hitman. his female boss. a petty thief and a distraught woman are filmed in a distinctive style that skewers both the frame and the emotions. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
Fame (15) (Alan Parker. US. 1980) Irene Cara. Lee Curueri. Laura Dean. 133 mins. Forget the TV tosh. Parker's NYC musical