VIDEOS
RENTAL I Want You (18) 84 mins :t i.» .4: a
All the ClaSSlC film noir elements are here: stylish photography, bleak landscapes, moody music, mysterious 'foreigners' and a self-destructive love affair between a yOung woman and her psychotic boyfriend — or is that femme fatale and spurned lover? Except this isn’t New York or LA, it’s the prownCial south coast of England. Taking his title from Elvis Costello's creepy song, Michael Welcome To Sarajevo/Jude Winterbottom, one of Britain's most idiosyncratic directors, has created a 'seaside noir'. Eerie, erotic and excellent. (PolyGram) (MF)
Le Bossu
(15) 124 mins v r.- ‘t
This rollicking 19th century adventure in the tradition of Dumas' Musketeer tales but adapted from a novel by Paul Feval, gallops thrOugh its plot. A giddy multitude of duels, assassinations, betrayals, intrigues and loves are endured by the dashing heroes, disfigured Villains and heaVing- bosomed heromes. All this cliched swashbuckling unfolds with many a sly wink to the audience, indicating Le Bossu aspires to nothing more than pure spectacle. And happily, it IS. (Twentieth Century Fox, also available to buy at £15.99) (MF)
When Trumpets Fade (15) 88 mins a: tr v
The largely-forgotten World War II battle of Hurtgen Forest was among the most brutal and senseless carnage of that conflict, leaVing around 24,000 American troops dead or wounded, to say nothing of German losses. JD Salinger fought there, and the experience is believed to have contributed to his deCision to retire from sooety. Set among the Hurtgen trees and composed in muted, greying greens and muddied browns, this is a tightly constructed allegory. Closer to Sam Fuller than Spielberg, but not as nuts. (Columbia Tristar) (DL)
Les Miserables
(12) 130 mins 41— rt. fir
An ex-con (Liam Neeson), imprisoned over a stolen loaf, reinvents himself as a respected but reclusive mayor. He even takes in a dying prostitute (Uma Thurman) and promises to look after her daughter. But he reckons without the obsessive zeal of his former Jailer (the terrific Geoffrey Rush), who now heads the town police and is determined to unmask him. There have been many attempts to film Victor Hugo's epic and this one plays like a good TV mov1e, (Entertainment) (PR)
Still Crazy
(15) 90 mins 1‘: x
Oh dear. The problem with rock moVies is that rock stars’ lives are frequently so hilarious as to be beyond comedic treatment. The truth really is stranger, more narcotic and tighter trousered than the fiction. Even if that fiction is dreamed up by the gifted team of Clement and La Frenais. CraZy? Well, kind of, but even \vith Billy Connolly playing the ham and an appearance from the wonderfully wasted Bruce Withnai/And / Robinson, this is Just not worthy of Spinal Tap. (Columbia Ti'istar) (RE)
Woo
Jada Pinkett is cast as a modern day Holly Golightly and like Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast/1t Tiffany’s, this saSSy lady teases, temps and drives her object of desire Wild — not George Peppard this time but young professional Tommy DaVidson. But where Peppard was laid-back making him the ideal 'straight man’ co-star, DaVidson is merely an irritating clown. Nor does Pinkett command Hepburn’s sweetness or chic, and only LL Cool J’s smooth cameo as a Valentino-style lover impresses. (Entertainment) (MF)
The Revenant
(18) 95 mins tr
The world's hippest vampires are enjoying LA's S&M nightclubs, contemporary art scene and tasty
Glam Jock: Ewan McGregor expecting to fly in Velvet Goldmine (Film Four, 18, 123 mins, tit). Available to rent from Mon 19 Apr
RENTAL
*1 (9 OH, ,I' .3
The Exorcist (18) 122 mins t 1» air at 7.:
About time, too. William Friedkin's masterpiece is finally available to watch in the comfort of your own home. Although ’comfort' may be the wrong word, since The Exorcist remains a disturbing mixture of the sacred and profane and features the most shockingly memorable scenes in cinema.
There's the bit where possessed heroine Regan projectile vomits over a priest. The bit where she masturbates with a crucifix. The bit where she tells the aforementioned priest ‘your mother sucks cocks in hell.’ And the bit where her head turns 360 degrees.
These moments alone would
reviews VIDEOS
Linda Blair: Beelzebub had a devil put aside for her
guarantee the film notoriety, but it owes its position as classic cinema and social phenomenon to other factors. Most crucially, it treats evil seriously - an attitude even more effective in today's postmodern in-joke horror climate than it was at the time of the film's 1973 release.
Oscar-winning screenwriter William Peter Blatty may have been a hack novelist who fancied himself as a moral philosopher, but he somehow tapped into the most primal of human fears. Friedkin too, brought his own considerable creative powers to bear, drawing committed performances from unglamorous movie actors, thus adding to the film's realism. He can also take credit for the atmosphere of dread in the early scenes, paving the way for the pyrotechnics of the exorcism itself.
Critic and occasional List contributor Mark Kermode has called this the greatest movie of all time. If he’s wrong, he's not far wrong. (Rob Fraser)
)5: The Exorcist is available to rent from Warner on Mon 26 Apr.
human blood until their cosy existence iS disrupted when Dr Van Helsing recruits some black gang members to hammer home the stakes. The actors struggle to speak without spitting out their clumsy fanged dentures and adopt ridiculous accents (Scottish comedian Craig Ferguson affects a bloodsucking Terry-Thomas tone, while Rod Steiger 50unds like something out of a Mel Brooks NaZi parody). Not sexy, not scary, not funny. Just crap. (PolyGram) (AM)
RETAIL
The Real Blonde
(15) 110 mins a a: tr fir
A canine kidnapping, the surreal on-set politics of a Madonna Video and the machinations of soap opera baddie Dirk Diggler. Director Tom DiCillo, once an employee of Jim Jarmusch, is back and in barking fine form. If you were smitten by the satire of B-list celebrity in Living In Oblivion, y0u'll be delighted to know The Real Blonde has even more fun, A tale of ambition, superficiality, and Steve Buscemi being, well, you know, that funny looking guy. (Metrodome £14.99) (RE)
Kundun
(12) 129 mins 1* it it rt
Martin Scorsese in 12 certificate shocker! Not that such an apparent impediment has blunted his sense of drama. There are some astonishing moments here ~ the slow unfolding of the mass grave, for one — in the tale of the Dalai Lama and his struggle to free his peOple from oppression without resorting to a clenched fist. Slow but asSured film-making with the only loser being the rainbow who must have felt somewhat drained after this. (Buena Vista £14 99) (BD)
Girls Town (18) 89 mins r w a:
A trio of girls (including the great Lili Taylor) work through the fall-out from their close friend's SUiCide during the last days of high school in a grainy, satisfyineg inconsequential teen drama. The film evolved through improwsational workshops between cast and neophyte director Jim McKay. It shows, though mostly in good ways with exceptional performances all round. In the best moments — the final scene With the girls waiting for summer and life to move on — flicker an almost Jarmuschian serenity. (Metrodome £14.99) (DL)
Rien Ne Va Plus
(15) 103 mins it a): t
Claude Chabrol’s 50th film is best described as typically Chabrolian. A cautionary tale of what happens when you try to get more than you need, it stars Isabelle Huppert as a smalltime thief whose deSire to go beyond the petty gets herself and her co-crook, played by Michel Serrault, in a hole. It’s a warme amusing French farce with the leads haying a whale of a time. Above all, Rien Ne Va Plus is, as Homer J Simpson wOuId have it, ’classy'. (ArtifiCial Eye £15.99) (BD)
CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE:
Brian Donaldson, Rodger Evans, Miles Fielder, Damien Love, Alan MOrrisOn, Peter Ross
STAR RATING-S
* w w k t Unmissable
1* vi fi- Very good
if k i Worth a shot
it * Below average
w You've been warned
15—29 Apr 1999 THE IJST 99