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. industrial town in mid-Germany too many solo dances and cabaret tions ofthet radem agazines, once ganceand aspiration. . Uncomfor tably close to Rain where her Tanztheater company turns. fat with advertising, haveb ecome Before that it had been an odd Man, The Eighth Dayc oncerns the has been based for 23 years, are It is fascinating to watch a anorexic or expired; most critics festival/There were few7 peaks, no transformation of a workaholic largel y inured to the surreal Bausch work in progress, before have flown home, reelingwthi cel- deep troughs and after the screen- Belgian banker through a chance goings-on in their theatres - her sure sense of theatrical timing luloid fatigue- But this year things ing of Mike Leigh's Secrets & Lies meeting with a sweet-natured though I heard some 'Oohla las' has pulled it into shape. Already, suddenlyperked up with nvo scin- on the second evening there was Down's syndrome patient Auteuil from French visitors at last week- by the second time I sa.f through tillating pictures that provided little doubt which moview ould win ends by getitng out ofthe fast lane end's performances other latest the three-and-a-half hours of Nur balm to thej aded palate. the Palme d'Or. So, Francis Cop- and quite literally hugging a tree; piece. Nur Du (Only You) was Du last weekend, the first half was On Sunday morning, Raul Ruiz, pola, the President ofthe 1996 jury, it was one of half a dozen films in Chromium kicks ; James Spader, Deborah Unger in Crash previewing in Wuppertal before tauter, the themes clearer. Instead the 54:year-old Chileane xpatriate was merely confirming a near competition offering New Age its official opening on the West of giving a glib take on urban known for - obscure movies, unanimous view with his uplift. In Julio Medem 's sluggish marriage to the beautiful car- films in competition , Aki Kauns- coast of the United States in Octo- 'civilisation ', Bausch places her brought the competition to an end announcement last Monday. The Tierra, for instance, an angel called fixated Deborah Unger depends maki's Drifting Clouds and ber. (In between, the Tanztheater polyglot cast in a primeval setting withh is first truly accessible film, only serious rival was Lars von Angel arrives in a Spanish wine- on outside stimuli. He becomes Stephen Frears's The Van, and one Wuppertal visits Paris, Copen- - a forest floor, an ocean bed. The Trois Vies et Une Seule Mort And Tirer's Breaking The Waves, an growing region to fumiga te the the lover of Holly Hunter when in the Directors' Fortnight, Steve hagen and . this summer 's place becomes littered with plas- that afternoon the76-year-oldEric odd tale of a Scottish lass (Emily infected vineyards, to conduct they survive a car crash in which Buscemi's Trees Lounge, deal with Edinburgh Festival, performing tic packaging and discarded water Rohmer 's delightful Conte d'Ete Watson) from the Highlands with healing affairs with two abused her husband is killed, and they're the worldwide problem of unem- other works from the repertoire.) bottles; graver damage is inflicted concluded "the non-competitive a direct line to God undergoing women, and to dispense cosmic all drawn into the circle of the ployment. In each case the central Six American arts bodies, on one of the trees, which has a Certain Eegard section. Both sexual degradation to effect the philosophy. In Sunchaser, charismatic Vaughan (Ellas characters first take to drink before including four Western universi- gash in it big enough to house a movies star theyoungFrench actor miarculous recovery of her Scan- Michael Cimino's first movie in six Koteas) who re^stages famous road trj-niing to the cheap food business. ties, have clubbed together to man Uan Minarik). Meryfl PoupaucL dinavian husband who's been years , Woo dy Harrelson plays a accidents (the deaths of James Three final points. First, one of fund the first work Bausch has cre- Paper models of cosy homes are Ruiz rakes as his point of depar- paralysed from the neck down in highflying Los Angeles cancer spe- Dean, Jayne Mansfield, Albert the best films I saw, Mark Rappa- ated outside Europe. Nur Du was destroyed by fire or earthquake; a ture "the NathanielH awthorne tale an oil-rig accident I thought the cialist who's kidnapped by a ter- Camus, for example) the way more port'.s riveting cinematic essay, inspired by the company's three- smirking man in dark glasses and *Wakefield' in which a man sud- movie an unhappy marriage of minally ill Hispanic teenage mur- conventional folk re-enact Civil From The Journals of Jean Seberg, week residency in Los Angeles in a trilby (Dominique Mercy) seems denly leaves home only to live in Ryans DaughtervncXL 'Histoire d'O derer and taken at gunpoint on an War batdes. As with his movie of is unlik ely to be shown publicly in February. The piece was then a rip-off realtor flogging dispos- secretforZ Oyearsm a housea cross solemnised by von Trier's idol Carl increasingly ludicrous search for a Burroughs 's Naked Lunch , Cro- Bri tain because the direc tor assembled in Wupper tal, where able easdes. As well as fire, there the street Three more stories fol- Dreyer. But many found it a pro- mystic Navajo medicine man. To nenberg has attempted to bring to. apparently hasn't cleared the sev- the set, designed by Bausch's reg- is a preoccupation with wafer, ice, low, wittilyn arrated by a French found experience and everyone a soaring Mauirce jane score and the screen a seemingly unfilma ble eral dozen clips he so artfully uses. ular collaborator, Peter Pabst, was sand and leaves - all of which have radio raconteur, about chance, agreed that Watson, in her first against the background of cult book. Second, Mercedes-Benz put on constructed. The setting is a for- appeared in earlier pieces. So has manipulation, identity and split movie, gave a remarkable perfor- America's most breathtaking land- Shiny and chill y as a strip of a neat exhibition about the use of est of gigantic redwood tree the clothing: evening dress and personality, featuring a wonder- mance and was a serious con- scap es, Harrelson is spiri tually chrome, Crashis a daring, disturb- their cars in movies (mosuy by rich trunks, among which the dancers, stiletto heels for the women , suits fulfy.droll MarcelloM astroianni in tender as Best Actress. transformed as his belief in ratio- ing, unsentimental film that risks characters and Nazis) over the past dwarfed, enact their rituals. The for the men - with the addition of a variety of guises, one of them a Breaking Vie Waves won the nal science is eroded. appear ing ridic ulous. It received 70 years (the drunken Gary Grant artificial trees are cumbersome: a ballgown for Mercy as a Holly- Professor of Negative -Anthro- Grand Prix de Cannes (as the Spe- A less roseate viewof the irra- the minor lury Prize, an award drives a Cabriol et 220 Pontih in instead ofthe two containers the wood movie star and a live- pology at the Sorbonne. The movie cial Jury Prize is now called) but the tional future is to be found in the from which several unnamed North By Northwest, the Von promoters were expecting to ship mouse-bra for Minarik (don't ask). is a constant delight and a key to Best Actress award went to Brenda festival's most controversial pic- jurors dissociated themselves. One Trapps escape in a Cabriolet 320 through the Panama Canal, there There are constant reminders that one of its meanings is the fact that Blethyn in Leigh's movie and her ture, David Cronenberg'sCrash, a assumes that its most vociferous Type W142), and the day after I will be seven, doubling the million underneath our outfits, we are the characters' paths cross in the co-star Timothy Spall would prob- faithful version ofthe J. G. Ballard supporter on the jury was Atom visited it, the Competition featured dollar-plus budget.. * . indeed naked; back to the trees, Rue Maastricht. ably have been named Best Actor novel in which people are eroti- Egoyan, who along with Cronen- Andre Techirid's Les Voleurs in But the can-do Americans, bit- deeper into die woods. In Come d'Ete, a young aca- were it not for the recendy intro- cally turned on by automo biles , berg and Denys Arcand has helped which a gang of car thieves set out ing the bullet, are confident they Although there is desola tion in demic, torn between composing duced rule that no film, should get car crashes and the injuries they gain the Canadian cinema a repu- to steal a truck load of Mercedes can cope with die extra cost, and NurDu , with music diat includes folk songs and teaching,s pends the more than two prizes. In conse- cause. A cool, whispering James tation for the serious study ofthe 320S from the Lyon marshallin g wi th , inevitable right-wing fatalistic/arfosand mourn ful tan- summer vacation at Dinard on the quence a somewhat sentimental Spader plays a Toro nto adman psycho pathol ogy of everyday life. yards. protests about nudi ty, left-wing gos, along with rhythm and blues, coast of Brittany awaiting the decision was made to award the called JamesB allard, whose failing On a more mundane level, two Third , all but two of the j ury's objections to political incorrect- rock V roll, it is a lighter piece awards went to English-language ness and animal lovers' concerns than most. Cheerfulness keeps movies. One of them , the Palme about white mice. The.presenters breaking out - including a cheer- d'Or for best short , was won by have taken on an internati onal leader 's routine and a Texan line- S3-H-J---B_____MBB__k<^ Lynne Ramsay of our National cultural icon , and they'lliobby, dance. In the end. it is a celebra- nSEa Film and Television School for her market and educate their audi- tion of human diversity, of'hope ^ tough little triptych of life on a Glas- enc es into accepting Bausch as in our fate and someone who 'M m "Pure sensuous immediacy " ,,. gow housing estate, Small Deaths. she is. Her com pany hasn 't been loves us! (the lyric of the final am^^^ uk m\ It was one of the few shorts that seen on die West coast since the recorded song) - the theme of wasn 't about the movies, though 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, mos t of Pina's pieces. mW WmW^ Ends SVaitCu rBdoax y 1 Jiirii (ESS she was lucky that Nanni Moretti's although it has appeared Ling 0171 928 11G iorno Delia Prima Di Close Up, frequentiy in New York. It hasn 't Pina Bausch Tanztheater Wup ! YO Office/cc a witty seven-minute picture of a been to London since 1982. pertalpelfonnlphigenieaufTau ^t\W^ *f 6363 day at his own Roman cinema, was Nur bit is the piece she wanted ris at the Edinburg h Festiva l, 29 shown out of competition. to make, witiiout concessions to 31 August (0131-225 575b)