Dog Days End with a Bite

the Arts The Cannes winner's skills should not be undervalued- he deserved that prize, writes Philip Fren ch ! Truly, madly, ;S\fi]-B]--adi ike liar's films are so promiscuity fa-nich produced Rox- and humour helps Hortense over- good that you have to anne) was a search for love and come her grief, and this new:found see them a second acceptance, and that Roxanne's daughter encourages Cynthia to time to realise how rebellion( she has dropped out of achieve a dignity and self-respect well they work- The first time college to work as a road sweeper) that have been denied her. The around you are so emotionally is directed at both her mother for movie can switch from laughter to involved with the characters that begetting her, and at her aunt and tears and back in a second, but itis you think you have encountered unde for attempting to ownher. about the painfulh uman comedy. unvarnished life, almost artlessly Hortense's role crystallises in a It isn't satirical in intent, though conveyed You don't go away with beauiftulfyplayedscenewitha per- there are some sharp scenes of mind or ceptive social worker (Lesley Maurice at work with a succession an image planted in your " with memories of a grand land.?, Manvifle).W e discover that she was of sitt ers, whom he coaxes into scape.or full of admiration for a adopted and has decided to find laughter. And unlike earlier Leigh graceful crane shot her biological mother (her "birth films there are no malevolent char- Thishasledto L eighbeing under- mother' as the social worker calls acters. The nearest tmngto men- valueda s a film-maker and to his her),w ho aims outto be white, and ace occurs in a slightly puzzling fans almost apologising for there is- indeed Cynthia. What we have scene in whicht he former owner of being something, uncinematic here, in effect, is a mixture-ofI bsen Maurice's studio, an Ibsenesque about his pictures. This is far from and Sophocles, of a dangerous figure from the past, returns from the case, though I could not have Oedipus-like search and of the Australia a drunken malcontent, written this reviewo f his Secrets & exposure of the eponymous secrets and when he departs, Mauirce Ues (winner of the Palme d'Orat and lies.As M auricet ells Hortense remarks: There butforthe grace of Cannes last Monday, see below), towards the end: Tou were deter- God' Maurice, the embodimento f vdiichlthinkis as fine as anything mined to find out the truth and decency.can also be sententious. hehas done,afterasinglevie\ving. were prepared to take the conse- But Leigh's skilll iesnot merefyli- Watc h the birdie: Timoth y Spall as the photographer in Mike Leigh' s Secrets & Lies The film's first 20-odd rninutes the lines he and his cast write or in puzzle the^spectator.W e ask ourr the performances he elicits; The tables around them in a drab Hol- ups and shots in which a fore- ering in die outstanding TV series die bullet) and his incorrigibly selves who are mis battling work- Most important, extended sequence of Maurice at bom cafe. At the next encounter, ground figure is in focus and a sec- Murder Qne. unfaithful wife (Emmanuelle Beart). ing-class mother and daughter, work is a masterlyc omicm ontage. however, they're more relaxed, fac- ond person behind them slightly Spy Hard is a laboured spoof of The film lacks a historical sense, Cynthia (BrendaBlethyn)a ndRox- perhaps/is Leigh's The visual details of dressa nd decor ing each other over the table in an out of focus. This is masterly Bond movies starring Leslie Nielsen and a couple of clips from Battle anne (Claire Rushbrook)?H ow are are impeccable down to the clumsy Italian restaurant. Likewise, at the mov iemaking diat never draws that along the wayt hrowsi n expen- Hymn and Written on the.Wind they related to the kindlyl ower unerring sense white phone that Cynthia clutches brilliantly orchestrated family gath- attehdon to itself. sively staged pastiches of In tlie Line suggest that Wargnier's aim is psy- middleHdass portrait photograph- of where to and the neat black phone Hortense ering , when Hortense comes to There is not much to be said for of Fire, Pulp Fiction, Speed,B utch chological melodrama in the style erMaurice (TimothySpall)a ndhis so deftly holds as they converse. meether new relatives at a twenty- the week's other films. Gregory Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Sis- of Douglas Sirk. But as these films embittered Scottish wife, Monica place his camera The over-furnished home Monica first birthday party Maurice is giv- Hobli t's courtroom drama Primal ter Act, Home Alone, Jurassic Park were not released until 1957 and (Phyllis Logan), and what Is wrong has created to make up forthe chil- ing for Roxanne , there is another Fear is the slick, none-too-plausi- and Ranibo. A half-term treat for Beart is seeing them in Paris while with, their marriage? And where dren she cannothave is contrasted five-minute take. A static camera ble movie debut of a director who 10-year-old movie buffs. hub by is fighting in Indo-China does the27-year-oldblacko ptom- quences, and 1 admire you for that' with Cynthia's cluttered house in frames six people at a garden table has done good TV work on Hill Patrick Read Johnson's Angus is (that is, before May 1954),' they etirst Horterise (Marianne Jean- As an optometrist, Hortense's job which Maurice was raised. so that no one is especially favoured Street Blues and NYPD Blue. a thin high school comedy abou t a don't add to the general credibility. Bapfiste), lhingaJonej her parents is to help people see clearly; as a Most important, perhaps, is and we see them socially interact. Richard Gere plays a hot-shot, tormented overweight lad torn rec£ntrydead,irrin?As"wec ome to photographer Maurice's role is to Leigh's unerring sense of where to The cinematographer Dick Pope grandstanding Chicago defence between nonconformity and want- Secrets & Lies (140 mins, 15) Lum- knowthesep eople oyeraperiod of putthe best face on life. place his camera. When Hortense uses deep focus so that Maurice, attorney who takes on the case of a ingadate with Melissa, the blonde iere and general release; Primal seyer^siimmermonthsm, e pieces These richly three-dimensional and Cynthia first meet they sit who is at the barbecue behind teenage boy accused of brutally cheerieader. Poor as it is, it's better Fear (130mins, 18) Empireandgen- fall into place. We first come to characters, so perfectly conceived beside each other uneasily,f ramed them, is vividly of the group yet murdering a Catholic archbishop. than Regis Waigriier's Une Femme erqlrelease;Spy Hard (90 mins, PG) realisethatmesal rr£nifyCynt_m and played,b ecome intensely real in a two-shot that is held for about standing apart. After that long take, Loose ends and red herrings Francaise, a dire drama charting Odeon West Endandg eneralr elease; Maurice's unmarried sister, who for us, and we observe them change five minutes. They talk uneasily, we cut to the inside ofthe house for abound and the end result is feeble thel ives between 1938 and the late Angu(s90 mins, 12) Plaza andgen- raised him after their mother's and develop as-they confront their rarelym akingeyec ontact, theiriso- trum-tellingandb lood-letting,a nd stuff compared to what Hoblit's for- 1950s of a long-suffering French eral release; lineF emmeF ran caise death; that Cvnthia's youthful real serves. CNTithia's good nature lation emphasised by the empty here Leigh cuts between big close- mer associates are curientiy deliv- army officer (Daniel Auteuil biting (98mins, 18) CurzonMayfair Dog days end with a bite JANN PARRY The usually sleepy final weekend is transformed by two superb movies Of mice and men / T^V id you know - beneath American sensibilities. Seen in a I lour clo thes we are all Euro pean con text, it looks echt- JL/ naked. I' m sorry ,' gig- Bausc h, ful l of her usual obses- gles a'blonde vamp in a white sions, filtered through a Fifties PHILIP FRENCH satin slip, loung ing on the backs time warp, with American popu- of seven men in suits. She isn 't lar music that she might have second weekend of the arrival of his wilful girlfriend and male acting prize to Daniel Auteuil sorry at all. Pina Bausch's dancers heard in.her youth. The work will TheCa nnes Festival, before die striking up friendships with two and Pascal D.uquenne (a Belgian are used.to baring their bodies be, in part, restructured before jury retires to the hills to highly articulate girls, one of them with Down's syndrome), the.twin and souls in her extraordinary being exported to the US: the reach the verdicts delivered on a student of Breton culture. It 's a leads in The Eighth Day, the sec- 'pieces ', for which they supp ly the fibreglass whale, for example, has Monday evening, is usually a list- touching, funny, civilised work illu- ond movie by Jaco Van Dormael, raw material. yet to find its place - and an less time. The movies are sparse minated by Rohmer's unexasper- who made his name five years ago The burghers of Wupper tal, the excess of egalitarianism results'in and unimportant; the daily edi- ated affection for youthful arro- with Toto the Hero.

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