the attention of Gough Lewis who spent the next year filming Chong as she came to terms with overnight celebrity status. A truly depressing picture of the human condition in which even Chong is not afi‘orded the luxury of a sympathetic light. Yet despite the depressing tone, it is impossible not to be enthralled. See feature and review. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
Shorts Programmes 1 (15) (1998/99) 90 mins approx. Spot the talents of tomorrow in this showcase devoted to short films. Details of the titles to be screened in each programme will be available from the respective cinema nearer the time and all titles are listed in the Italian Film Festival brochure. Part of the ltalian Film Festival. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
The Sixth Sense (15) **** (M. Night Shyamalan, US, 1999) Bruce Willis, Haley Joel Osment, Olivia Williams, Toni Collette. 107 mins. Nine-year-old Cole Sear (Osment) has a terrible secret. He can see the dead walking the earth; they’re around him all the time and it’s scary as hell. Child psychologist Malcolm Crowe (Willis) takes his case and spends all of his time, at the expense of his marriage to Anna (Olivia Williams), attempting to help the boy. Shyamalan’s clever script suggests much and explains little, keeping the audience guessing. Glasgow: Showcase. Edinburgh: UCl. Paisley: Showcase.
Smilla's Feeling For Snow (15) *** (Bille August, Germany/Denmark/Sweden, 1997) Julia Orrnond, Gabriel Byrne, Richard Harris. 120 mins. When Greenland native Smilla (Julia Orrnond) investigates the death of her neighbour’s child in a fall, her highly developed ‘sense of snow’ convinces her it was murder. An Arctic conspiracy of iceberg-sized proportions unravels in August’s version of Peter Hoeg’s bestseller. Stark blue photography captures the landscape so effectively it makes you shiver, but doesn’t stop the film from being any more than a bland thriller. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
Snow Day (PG) tank (Chris Kock, US, 2000) Chevy Chase, Pam Grier, John Schneider. 90 mins. Weatherman Tom Brandston’s (Chase) ratings are sliding as the public reject his traditional routine in favour of slick network rival Chad Symmonz (Schneider). His network manager Tina (Grier) orders Tom to spice up his act by wearing comic book costumes, all of which troubles pale in comparison to family man Tom’s domestic stresses. Chase confounds expectations to appear, for the first time in years, in a movie that is actually funny. General release.
The Story Of Us (15) ** (Rob Reiner. US, 2000) Bruce Willis, Michelle Pfeiffer, Rob Reiner. 95 mins. Willis and Pfeiffer’s Ben and Katie Jordan are a couple whose relationship has grown stale. After 15 years of marriage, their once attractive quirks have hardened into irritations. Despairing of their future together, they pack their kids off to summer camp and agree to a trial separation. But is there any juice left in the marriage? Maybe, but there ’5 little in this risible romantic comedy. General release. Sunshine (15) iii (lstvan Szabo, Hungary/Gcrmany/Canada/Austria/UK, 2000) Ralph Fiennes, Jennifer Ehle and William Hurt. 179 mins. Great big pan of goulash of a movie from former European cinema darling Szabo (Mephisto, Colonel Redl). Focusing on lives defined and broken by history and politics, Sunshine tells the stories of three generations of Hungarian Jews living in the 201h century. But it’s predictable, clumsy and ultimately manipulative; a modern audience does not need themes of bigotry, family and patriotism so obviously and chronologically underlined. See review. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. Sweet Emma. Dear Bobe (18) *bH: (lstvan Szabo, Hungary, 1992) Johanna Ter Steege, Eniko Borcsok, Peter Andorai. 81 mins. A deeply-felt, authentic portrait of Szabo’s homeland ’s post-Communist period of adjustment, seen through the eyes of two former Russian teachers trying to master enough English to keep ahead of the students they’re instructing. Made compelling by its central performances. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
The Talented Mr Ripley (15) *iti (Anthony Minghella, US/UK, 2000) Matt Damon, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow. 139
mins. Tom Ripley (Damon) befriends then adopts the life of rich kid Dickie Greenleaf (Law). Ripley being an infamous literary murderer, it’s no surprise how he goes about claiming Dickie’s ex pat lifestyle in late 503 Italy, but Minghella’s film - and Highsmith’s novel — is so much more than a tale of murder; it’s also about lust, love and the interchangeability of identities. Classy all the way. Glasgow: Odeon At The Quay. Edinburgh: Odeon.
Tarzan (U) ##ka (Kevin Lima and Chris Buck, US, 1999) Minnie Driver, Glenn Close, Nigel Hawthorne. 88 mins. Disney has finally turned its attention to the second most filmed character in Western cinema (Dracula is the first) and has created some astonishing images. Storytelling-wise, Tarzan remains reasonably faithfully to Edgar Rice Burrough’s original. Shipwrecked on a tropical island, baby Tarzan looses his human parents to a terrifying tiger and is adopted by an ape clan. All grown up, the Ape Man is reunited with man and womankind when a trophy hunting/ anthropological expedition arrives and Tarzan meets Jane. Kilmarnock: Odeon.
Taxi Driver (18) ***** (Martin Scorsese, US, 1976) Robert De Niro, Cybill Shepherd, Jodie Foster. 114 mins. An alienated taxi driver in New York is so repelled by the squalor and the moral decay around him that he is driven to terrible violence. One of the key films of the seventies with the Scorsese-De Niro partnership at its peak. Edinburgh: UGC Cinemas.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (18) **** (Tobe Hooper, US, 1974) Marilyn Burns, Gunnar Hansen, Allen Danziger. 84 mins. A group of kids travel to a broken- down house in the middle of nowhere and meet cannibalistic degenerates who pick off the cast one by one. Perhaps the most relentless slice of terror ever put on screen Edinburgh: Cameo.
That's It (Ecco Fatto) (15) (Gabriele Muccino, 1998) Giorgio Pasotti, Barbara Bobulova, Claudio Santamaria. 90 mins. A young student, Matteo, falls in love with an older Slavic woman, Margherita. However, Matteo’s insecurity ruins this potentially beautiful love story, as his jealousy transforms itself into morbid obsession and the story slides towards a tragic epilogue. Part of the ltalian Film Festival. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
The Thing (18) *tiit (John Carpenter, US, 1982) Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, David Clennon. 109 mins. Scientists on an Antarctic research station thaw out an alien creature able to change its shape and horribly murder humans. Extraordinary effects in this tense shocker, which utilises the central gimmick from the original short story in a way the 1951 version did not. Edinburgh: UGC Cinemas.
Three Kings (15) ***** (David 0. Russell, US, 2000) George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, lce Cube. 114 mins. At the butt end of the Gulf War, four US soldiers who have seen no action whatsoever and don't even understand what the war is about, follow a treasure map to where Saddam Hussein has hidden stolen Kuwati gold. A masterpiece of inhumanity, Russell's witty script and super sharp direction captures the futility of the situation. This film begs some of the most pertinent political questions ever asked in an American movie — it’s amazing it got passed congress. Glasgow: Showcase, UCl. Edinburgh: UCl. East Kilbride: UCl. Paisley: Showcase.
Three Seasons (12) int (Tony Bui, UK/ Vietnam, 1999) Nguyen Ngoc Hiep, Tran Manh Cuong, Don Duong. 108 mins. The feature debut of Bui, a Vietnamese-born and American-raised writer-director, the film consists of a series of intersecting stories, set against the backdrop of contemporary Vietnamese society. Three Seasons offers up a portrait of a country in a process of transition, where Western values hold sway, but where economic ‘progress’ and modernisation have come at a substantial price for many of the inhabitants. Although exquisitely photographed, as a piece of drama Three Season ’s is curiously unfulfilling. Edinburgh: Lumiere.
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index FILM
Q musir . ‘=*«‘°*‘“°“‘°"° The Futile-i: _ r/ - J ’11. . ___r/. .
Tue 2 May
SEAN KEANE
with his band
Excellent Irish singer-songwriter
The original 705 hitmakers... Fri I2 May
THE STRAWBS
The classic Arthur Miller play... ' 5 - '1 May
Death or A Salesman
Highly-rated Celtic band.... Fri I9 May
IONA
Only Scottish gigs for top US singer... 25 8. 26 May
JANIS IAN
in conrert
Tickets from Ticketlink - O I 4| 287 55 I I Cottier Theatre - 0141 357 3868 (4.3 - 8pm)
HYNDLAND'STREET GLASGOW
publicity distribution in Edinburgh and nationwide
Tel 0131 555 1897 www.eae.co.uk
27 Apr—11 May 2000 THE LIST”