FILM index
FILM INDEX continued
Hamam: Turkish Bath (15) *ttt (Ferzan Ozpetek, ltaly/Spain/Turkey, 1997) Alessandro Gassman, Francesca d’Aloja, Carlo Cecchi. 101 mins. Intelligent, perfectly realised tale of cultures clashing in Istanbul. Unhappy in his marriage an Italian designer moves to Turkey after inheriting a Turkish bath and becomes involved with the local community. Grosvenor, Glasgow. High Fidelity (15) **** (Stephen Frears, US, 2000) John Cusack, lben Hjejle, Jack Black. 113 mins. Nick Hornby’s story of a vinyl junkie who‘s more interested in his music collection than his relationships with women is practically a British institution. Yet, Cusack - and co-writer/producer pals D.V. DeVincentis and Steve Pink — have drawn on their own pasts to make a film that's as funny and profound as the book. But the great script, cast and music wouldn’t have meant a thing without a filmmaker of Frears' calibre taking charge. Lumiere, Edinburgh. Carnegie Hall, Dunferrnline. MacRobert, Stirling. Hindel Wakes (PG) (Maurice Elvey, UK, 1927) 115 mins. See Rough cuts. Filmhouse, Edinburgh.
Hollow Man (18) tint (Paul Verhoeven, US, 2000) Kevin Bacon, Elisabeth Shue, Josh Brolin. 114 mins. Verhoeven takes another foray into adult sci-fi with this loose adaptation of HG. Welles‘ The Invisible Man in which Bacon plays an egotistical genius leading a team of scientists involved in government/military-sponsored experiments with invisibility. Andrew W. Marlowe ’s screenplay subscribes to some fascinating Platonic ideas about morality and culpability, which, unfortunately, is abandoned around the half way mark for straightforward action thrills. Still, the special effects are groundbreaking, particularly the scenes in which lab animals, and later Bacon, are injected with a radioactive serum causing them to vanish and reappear in layers: skin, muscle, organs, skeleton. General release.
Home Game (Heimspiel) (15) (Pepe Danquart, Germany, 1999) 97 mins. Life
Masterly low-key pastoral drama in The Wind Will Carry Us
after the Wall as seen through the experiences of former East German ice hockey club the Polar Bears.A snappy, humourous modem-day fairy tale. Part of the Zeitgeist: New German Documentary season. GFI‘, Glasgow. Filmhouse, Edinburgh.
The House Of Mirth (PG) *ttt (Terence Davies, UK, 2000) Gillian
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32 THE LIST 19 Oct—2 Nov 2000
Anderson, Eric Stoltz, Anthony LaPaglia. 140 mins. Davies‘ superb screen adaptation of Edith Wharton's novel, filmed in Glasgow, makes it clear that beneath the well-bred skin of New York society at the turn of the century lurks a remorseless savagery. Socialite Lily Bart (the excellent Anderson) would appear to be a natural survivor, but through a combination of naivety, folly and bad timing she is brought low. Davies charts Lily's tragic descent with formal rigour, framing scenes with self- consciously painterly tableaux that evoke the era's fashionable artists. But, as with his other work, aesthetic control goes hand in glove with a deep compassion. General release.
The Housewife's Flower (Die Blume Der Hausfrau) (PG) (Dominik Wessely, Germany, 1998) 92 mins. Hilarious expose of the German obsession with cleanliness, which follows a team of door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesmen as they charm housewives in Stuttgart. Part of the Zeitgeist: New German Documentary season. GFI‘, Glasgow. Filmhouse, Edinburgh.
The Ice Storm (15) *ittt (Ang Lee, US, 1997) Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, Sigoumey Weaver. 112 mins. In Nixon era Connecticut, Kline 's dying affair with neighbour Weaver 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. Cameo, Edinburgh.
In The Mood For Love (PG) *tttt (Wong Kar-Wai, Hong Kong, 2000) Maggie Cheung, Tong Leung. 97 mins. ln Kar-Wai‘s new film, set in 605 Hong Kong, an adulterous romance is happening elsewhere - between the husband of secretary Cheung and the wife of Leung’sjoumalist. Kar- Wai's interest lies with the cuckolded, and the way that something even more intense, personal and fortuitous develops out of their shared ‘adulteree' status. With Nat King Cole on the soundtrack, regular Chris Doyle behind the camera and beguiling wardrobe design, Kar-Wai offers a seductive surface texture that's undercut by the director's trademark emphasis of the accidental over the clearly intentional. Subtly stunning filmmaking. See review. GF'I‘, Glasgow. The Italian Job (PG) tits: (Peter A Collinson, UK, 1969) Michael Caine, Noll
Coward, Benny Hill. 100 mins. Re-released for its 30th anniversary, this larf-a-minute caper movie ties in nicely with the sixties cockney kitsch sensibility that's been infusing fashion, pop and film ever since Blur put out Park Life. Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels paid homage to The Italian Job with its scaled down cliffhanger ending, but the Michael Caine film is the grandaddy of caper movies. The centrepiece remains the mini cooper car chase across, atop and under the streets of Turin, while Caine's closing line is top: "Ang on a minute lads, I've got a great idea.‘ Grosvenor, Glasgow. It's A Wonderful Life (PG) thud (Frank Capra, US, 1946) James Stewart, Donna Reed, Henry Travers, Thomas Mitchell. 129 mins. Small-town boy Stewart runs into financial difficulties and is on the brink of suicide when an elderly angel descends to earth to show him all the good his life has done for those around him. Archetypal Capra sentimentality with a superbly detailed fantasy framework and one of Stewart's most lovable performances. One to warm even the most glacial heart. Lumiere, Edinburghe.
It Was An Accident (18) iii (Metin Huseyin, UK, 2000) Chiwetel Ejiofor, Thandie Newton, James Bolam. 100 mins. After four years inside, Nicky (Ejiofor) returns to his old London manor, where he's determined to go straight and hook up with the beautiful Noreen (Newton). However, an inadvertent piece of bravery in a post-office robbery ensures that Nicky gets noticed by all sorts of local criminals. This Lottery- funded adaptation of Jeremy Cameron's novel, has several assets: a distinctive vernacular, an unusual setting in the mean streets of Walthamstow, and the fact that this is a gangland tale which actually reflects London's multi-cultural mix. Ejiofor is a real find and Courtney Pine's jazz score lends extra class. See review. Selected release. Johnny Belinda (PG) time (Jean Negulesco, US, 1948) Jane Wyman. 101 mins. Powerful adaptation of Elmer Harris‘ play, in which Wyman‘s deaf mute girl lives with her father and resentful aunt on a bleak Nova Scotia farm. After the girl is raped by a local boy, a series of events lead to her being put on trial for murder. Happily, the staging isn t too theatrical, nor the proceedings too melodramatic. St Bride‘s, Edinburgh.
Khroustaliov, My Carl (the) (Russia, 1997) Y. Tsourilo, N. Rouslanova, Y. Tarvet. 137 mins. Youri Glinski is both head surgeon and brain specialist in a Moscow hospital and a general in the Red Army. But in 1953 his life begins to topple when Stalin‘s antisemitic initiative sees the KGB set up Glinski for a fall. Filmhouse, Edinburgh.
La Veuve de Saint-Pierre (15) iii (Patrice Leconte, France, 2000) Juliette Binoche, Daniel Auteil, Emir Kusturica. 112 mins. The ever-versatile Leconte follows the fairytale playfulness of The Girl On The Bridge with this mournful period melodrama. Partly an examination of the iniquity of the death penalty and partly a portrait of the harshness of life in a godforsaken 19th century colonial outpost, La Veuve is above all a fatalistic love story, in which l'amour, in both the physical and platonic senses, leads to such tragic consequences. Lumiere, Edinburgh.
The Last September (15) it (Deborah Warner, UK, 2000) Keeley Hawes, Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon. 104 mins. Adapted by John Banville from Elizabeth Bowen's novel, the film charts the end of British rule in lreland through the eyes of the aristocratic Naylor family. There the conflict between the IRA and the Army creates a stifling atmosphere for budding debutante Lois (Hawes). Bowen's vision is awkwardly realised in celluloid. As costume dramas go, it’s respectable enough, but given Warner's reputation for innovative spin on canonical works, it's something of a disappointment. FTH, Falkirk.
The Last Waltz (U) **** (Martin Scorsese, USA. 1978) 117 mins. Scorsese's dynamic documentation of The Band's last concert, packedwith seminal 705 musicians including Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and Van Morrison. Lumiere, Edinburgh.
Limbo (15) *iii (John Sayles, US, 1999) David Strathairn, Mary Elizabeth