‘Mona Lisa’ among films

Press, 10 September 1987, Page 20

‘Mona Lisa’ among films

“Mona Lisa,” a widely acclaimed British drama that won several international film awards for its star, Bob Hoskins, begins its Christchurch season at the Westend Cinema tomorrow. The film, written and directed by Neil Jordan, is a love story set in the sleazy underworld of London. Hoskins plays a former convict, released into a world very changed from that which he knew. He runs errands for his former boss and finds himself acting as chauffeur/minder for a highclass call girl. She asks him to help find a drug addict friend of hers who is now missing somewhere in the London gangland. Cathy Tyson co-stars as the prostitute who forms a love/hate relationship with her minder and Michael Caine guest stars as the evil London crime boss whose plotting brings the three together in a violent finale.

Hoskins has starred in several films and television series, most notably "Pennies From Heaven.” “Mona Lisa” has an Rl6 certificate with a censor’s caution that some content may offend. The short but spectacular life of 1950 s rock and roll idol Ritchie Valens is the subject of another new film in the city this week. “La Bamba" is screening at the Regent 2 Cinema. Lou Diamond Phillips stars as Valens, the 17-year-old Californian who in eight months during 1958 scored three pop chart hits, “Come On Let’s Go,” "Donna” and “La

Bamba” before dying in an air crash that also killed Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper. “La Bamba" is a story of teenagers realising their dreams and of the pressures that come with success. The pressure was emphasised for Valens, a Mexican-American labourer whose real name was Ricardo Valenzuela. The fusion of Latin American and rock and roll themes proved not only popular in 1958, but

continues today. Los Lobos’ version of “La Bamba" has just topped the New Zealand pop charts. The group performs Valens’ music in the film which has a GY (some content may offend) certificate. Hollywood’s favourite muscleman Arnold Schwarzenneger returns tomorrow in “Predator” screening at the Mid City Cinema. He plays yet another American tough guy taking on, of all things,

alien killers of the outer space species. “Predator” has an RPI6 (content may offend) certificate. A public preview to note is scheduled at the Regent 1 Cinema on Sunday when the new Stanley Kubrick film, “Full Metal Jacket,” screens a week ahead of its official season date. "Full Metal Jacket,” Kubrick’s study of American marines in the Vietnam war, carries an RPI3 certificate.