FILM listings FILM LISTINGS continued
M (15) (Fritz Lang, Germany, 1931) mins. Peter Lorre, Otto Wemicke, Gustav Grundgens. An undoubted classic filled with stunning sequences that build to a harrowing climax. A child murderer (Lorre) evades the police only to be caught and tried by his fellow criminals. Sordid subject matter treated with stunning artistic vision, with Lorre at his most chilling, yet strangely sympathetic, best. Glasgow: GFI‘. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
Mamma Roma (18) (Pier Paolo Pasolini, Italy, 1962) Anna Magnani, Ettore Garofolo, Franco Citti. 110 mins. Pasolini’s superb second film - after the grimy, hoodlum tragedy Accatone - stars Magnani as a prostitute escaping a cycle of poverty and despair, only to have her past reappear in the shape of a blackmailing pimp. The film’ encapsulates a doomed human condition by marrying high art and then-influential Italian neo-realism. Edinburgh: Lumiere. Metropolis (PG) (Fritz Lang adapted by Giorgio Moroder, Germany/US, 1926) Gustav Frolich, Brigitte Helm. 93 mins. A re-edited and tinted version of Lang’s early futuristic political parable with a new electro-mulch soundtrack by Moroder. The original still retains a sense of Teutonic grandeur, with the love story now given greater emphasis than the theme of class struggle, but it’s a tough battle against the crushineg banal songs insistently warbling away in the background. Glasgow: GFT. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
Mifune (15) *it* (Scren Kragh- Jacobson, Denmark/Sweden, 1998) Anders W Berthelsen, Jesper Asholt, lben Hjejle. 98 mins. On the eve of his wedding, Copenhagen yuppie Kresten (Berthelsen) learns that his father has died and reluctantly returns to the remote, neglected family farm. Unable to cope with his mentally handicapped brother, Rud (Asholt), he advertises for a housekeeper, and is delighted when the beautiful Liva (Hjejle) arrives to take on the job. But Liva too has a secret. Kragh-Jacobsen’s film, the third made under the Dogma banner, distinguishes itself by not playing fast and loose with the rules, by telling a simple, linear story with a minimum of formal fussiness. So, ironically, while Mifune less ambitious and innovative than Festen and The Idiots, it is also the purest, most involving and most emotionally satisfying. Stirling: MacRobert.
Mon Oncle (PG) (Jacques Tati, France, 1958) Jacques Tati, Jean-Pierre Zola, Adrienne Servatie. 116 mins. Working in colour for the first time, Tati presents Monsieur Hulot befuddled by the modern factory where his brother-in-law has given him a job, and by the all-mod-cons apartment where he visits his young nephew. Superb catalogue of sight gags centring around the dehumanising effect of the new technology. Edinburgh: Lumiere.
Mr Death: The Rise And Fall Of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr (15) mun“ (Errol Morris, US, 1999) 90 mins. Execution technology expert Leuchter’s work began with the redesign of the electric chair, which he saw as inefiicient and therefore inhumane. Then, in 1988, Leuchter visited Germany for
Sun 6th Feb 5:00pm Buena Vista Social Club (U)
Sun 6th Feb 7:15pm Ride With the Devil (15)
Mon 21st Feb 7:30pm The War Zone (18)
Tues 8th Feb 7:30pm Afterlife (PG)
Tickets and further information from The Steeple Box office (Tel: 01324 506850)
or on the day from the hall
24 THE UST 3-17 Feb 2000
Canadian neo-Nazi Ernst Z,ndel to determine whether Auschwitz had housed gas chambers. He said they hadn’t. And then his life went down the tubes; everyone hated him. Morris’s ability to pick astounding subjects is exceeded only by that of eliciting extraordinarily candid interviews. Absolutely jaw dropping. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
Mr Magoo (PG) (Stanley Tong, US, 1997) Leslie Nielsen, Kelly Lynch, Matt Keeslar. 87 mins. When a priceless stolen gem falls into the hands of bumbling millionaire Quincy Magoo, who keeps on emerging unscathed as chaos ensues around him. This live action version of the short cartoons relies on broad physical slapstick for its comedy rather than verbal jokes. American critics slaughtered the film — ‘an atrocity’ (Boston Phoenix), ‘an insult to the intelligence of the entire human race’ (USA Today), ‘comy, inept script’ (San Francisco Chronicle). Glasgow: Grosvenor.
Muppets From Space (U) *Hr (Tim Hill, 1999, US) Dave Goelz, Steve Whitmire, Frank Oz. 88 mins. For their sixth big screen adventure, the focus of our Muppet attentions is Gonzo, that blue, hooked
nosed . . . thing. No one is really sure what Gonzo is, so when he gets a message which he believes is from space, the race is on to make contact with his extra terrestrial brethren. Muppets From Space captures the spirit of the first movie and the original TV series where the subsequent films never did. General release.
Mystery Men (PG) tit (Kinka Usher, US, 1999) Ben Stiller, William H. Macy, Janeane Garofalo. 122 mins. Although it’s a spoof, Mystery Men is more knowing about the conventions of American comic book superheroes than other comic adaptations — that's largely down to Mystery Men ’5 origins in Bob Burden’s Dark Horse Comic, Flaming Carrot. Caped crimefighter Captain Amazing has been kidnapped by super villain Casanova Frankenstein and it’s up to underachiever heroes: the Mystery Men to save the day. Paisley: Showcase.
Nights Of Cabiria (PG) tit (Federico Fellini, Italy/France, 1957) Giulietta Masina. 117 mins. Cabiria (Masina, collaborator and wife to Fellini) works the wastelands on the outskirts of Rome as a spunky, if soft-hearted whore. Her naiveté leads her to being dumped on and abandoned by every man she encounters. Masina is allowed to shout a little too much when sombre pain would have been better and the whole film is as annoying and masterly as Fellini could make it. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
Ninotchka (PG) (Ernst Lubitsch, US, 1939) Greta Garbo, Melvin Douglas, Bela Lugosi, Sig Ruman. 110 mins. ‘Garbo laughs!’ proclaimed the posters and indeed she does in this sparkling vintage Hollywood comedy romance, where she plays a stern Russian diplomat worn down by Melvyn Douglas’ inestimable charm and the attractions of Paris into an eventual, grudging, touching,
emotional submission. Acerbic one-liners betray the hand of the great Billy Wilder, who worked on the script. Edinburgh: Edinburgh Film Guild at the Filmhouse. Nora Prentiss (15) (Vincent Sherman, US, 1946) Ann Sheridan, Kent Smith, Bruce Bennett. 117 mins. A respectable doctor falls for a cafe singer and the minx ruins his life. Damn! it the film’s on the unremarkable side, the tag line’s great: ‘A mouth like hers isjust for kissing . . . not for telling!’ Edinburgh: St Bride’s.
October Sky (PG) (Joe Johnston, US, 1999) Jake Gyllenhaal, Chris Cooper, Laura Dem. 108 mins. Encouraged by their teacher, a miner’s son and his friends build miniature rockets for a science fair competition, but face opposition from the local authorities. Set in the working-class 505, this isn’t your typical Hollywood coming-of-age flick. Part of the London Film Festival on tour. Edinburgh: Lumiere. One More Kiss (12) **** (Vadim Jean, UK, 1999) Valerie Edmond, James Cosmo, Gerald Butler. 97 mins. Edmond plays the dynamic Sarah, whose cancer diagnosis drives her to rebuild burnt bridges. Returning to her hometown of Berwick- Upon-Weed, she attempts a reconciliation with both her distant father (Cosmo) and her first love, Sam (Butler). An emotional minefield for the characters, then, but also for the filmmakers. Thankfully, sentimentality is downplayed in favour of powerful characterisation and a genuinely affecting atmosphere of building tension and impending tragedy. Glasgow: GFT, Odeon At The Quay, UCl. Edinburgh: UCl, Virgin Megaplex. East Kilbride: UCl. Paisley: Showcase.
Onegin (12) *iii (Martha Fiennes, UK, 1999) Ralph Fiennes, Liv Tyler. 106 mins. Alexander Pushkin’s epic poem, Evgeny Onegin, is the source of Fiennes’s impressive debut film, which hurls its characters through an intensity of passion, betrayal and unbearable loss within the thoroughly elegant and codified context of the Russian aristocracy of the 18205. Ralph Fiennes’s Onegin is an initially arrogant, cynical man who learns his own heart when tragic circumstances force him to re- evaluate his feelings for a woman. Stirling: MacRobert.
Oscar And Lucinda (15) (Gillian Armstrong, US/Australia, 1997) Ralph Fiennes, Cate Blanchett, Ciaran Hinds. 132 mins. Adapted from Peter Carey’s Booker Prize-winning novel, this tale of passion and unconsummated love falls short of its shimmering goals. Fiennes is a 19th century man of the cloth obsessed with gambling who bets he can transport the glass church designed by an Australian heiress across the treacherous outback. Fiennes animates Oscar with a nervous, crow-like intensity, but there is a definite sense of some vital element missing. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
Pi (15) *itit (Darren Aronofsky, US, 1997) Sean Gullette, Mark Margolis, Ben Shenkman. 84 mins. The science fiction of
Strife during wartime: Ralph Fiennes and Julianne Moore in The End Of The
Pi is more Stephen Hawking than Star Trek; its conspiracy theory plot makes most episodes of The X—Files seem like children’s fairytales. Obsessed with discovering numerical patterns in life and nature, mathematical genius Max comes across a 216 digit sequence that precedes a stock market crash and reveals the hidden name of God. Look no further for pre-millennium tension in its purest cinematic form. Edinburgh: Cameo.
A La Place Du Coeur (15) *ttt (Robert Guediguian, France, 1999) Ariane Ascaride, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Gerard Meylan. 112 mins. Gucdiguian's follow- up to Marius Et Jeanette once again focuses on Marseilles’ underclass. Childhood sweethearts Clim and Bébc' live out a blissful existence until a racist policeman imprisons Bébé — because he's black — on a trumped-up rape charge, at which point two families unite in their efforts to free him. What ties these folk together is their beautiful humanity and it’s this that provides Guediguian’s film with its feelgood factor. Who said social realism has to be all doom and gloom? Glasgow: GFI‘.
Place Vendome (15) **** (Nicole Garcia, France, 1999) Catherine Deneuve, Jean-Pierre Bacri, Jacques Dutronc. 118 mins. This sleek thriller has some of the same pleasures as last year’s L'Appartement: an intricate narrative, criss-crossing relationships and an iconographic use of Paris. Garcia’s film, though, has a bit more emotional resonance, courtesy, perhaps, of the characters’ seniority here — Deneuve as a woman in her fifties whose life has fallen apart; whose husband is suicidal. There ’s plot enough here for Garcia to rollercoast, but the director’s more interested in character study. Kirkcaldy: Adam Smith. Point Break (15) (Kathryn Bigelow, US, 1991) Keanu Reeves, Patrick Swayze, Gary Busey, Lori Petty. 120 mins. Director Bigelow (Blue Steel, Near Dark) takes on Hollywood’s action/adventure big boys at their own game and comes out on top. Reeves is the eager young FBI recruit on the trail of a group of latex-masked bank robbers who are known to be surfers. Bigelow tackles cliches of buddy partnerships, macho bullshit and thriller shoot-outs with fresh energy, creating a terrific movie that has one foot in reality, the other in an absurdist world. Edinburgh: Cameo.
Rancho Notorious (PG) (Fritz Lang, US, 1952) Marlene Dietrich, Arthur Kennedy, Mel Ferrer. 89 mins. Another of Lang’s heroes who’s lives are arbitrarily transformed by fate, Vern Haskell is a cowhand who sets out to revenge the murder (and likely rape) of his fiancee. His best clue to their whereabouts is a ranch run by former barroom singer Altar Keane. Performances are excellent, particularly Dietrich who copes admirably with a more mature role. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
Rancid Aluminium (18) (Edward Thomas,