Chance to see unusual films

Press, 25 September 1989, Page 5

Chance to see unusual films

By

HANS PETROVIC

So called “film festivals” are becoming more numerous in Christchurch each year, yet there never seems to be a lack of interesting material to show at them. These local fortnights are not to be confused, however, with the prestigious European festivals of Cannes, Venice and Berlin, at which totally new material is screened and where coveted awards are presented. Instead, our festivals act mainly as a rare opportunity to see first-rate movies, or give us the chance to see important films several months before their general release. The most important local annual event is the Christchurch International Film Festival, which was held at the Regent from July 28 to August 13. It sometimes provides the only opportunity to catch up with the best of new award-winning film from around the world.

In April, Pacer Kerridge gave us a two-week programme of interesting films many of which might otherwise not have been screened here for fear of not being commercially successful, as well as providing previews of outstanding features like “Dangerous Liaisons” and “The Accidental Tourist." The current Canterbury Film Festival, at the Midcity, is Hoyts Amalgamated’s chance to offer us a similar selection of oddities: movies that have been advertised for months, but never made it for general release (“Madame Sousatzka,” “Tucker — The Man and His Dream,” “Moon Over Parador”); arty films (Mikhail Baryshnikov in “Dancers”), first-rate foreign-language fare (“The Assault,” “Au Revoir Les Enfants,” “As Thick As Thieves”), controversial new releases

(“Wired — The Laughs and Times of John Belushi”), plus little-known material that may include a few gems (“Belizaire the Cajun,” Argentina’s "Man Facing Southeast”). Any film festival is usually pot luck, for it usually means paying to see movies about which very little is known, and one can usually only be guided to a good choice by checking the names of notable directors, whether their work has won any awards, or gained some other notoriety. On that basis, however, festivals also provide some wonderful surprises, making it truly worth while studying the festival guide and venturing out on cold nights in the hope of discovering a littleknown delight.

The four films screened during the first two days of the current festival certainly show the amazing variety of material that is being offered:— “As Thick as Thieves” is a light-hearted French comedy about white-col-lar crime written and directed by Claude Zidi, the maker of “Les Ripoux.” Although not quite as cheerfully irreverent as the latter was about corruption in the police force, “Thieves” takes a cynical look at a group of successful businessmen who decide to get even with a greedy loan shark. The dubious moral message is that crime is all right so long as you are breaking the law to correct an injustice. Francois Cluzet, who played the friend of the black saxophone player in “Round Midnight,” stars as one of the dashing businessmen. “Eat the Rich!” is by The Comic Strip, the team that indulges in gross comic excesses like TV’s “Young Ones/’ The story is roughly about an Indian transexual (Lanah Pellay) who forms a People’s Revolutionary Movement to overthrow anyone with

power and money. They open a yuppie restaurant at which they serve minced-up rich people. The English Establishment wanted this film banned, and I can just see the Home Secretary denying that he is anything like the character portraying him. The message seems to be that Britain is a nation intent on cannibalising itself. Very funny if you have a strong stomach. “Oliver and Company” is the best animated feature film to come from the Walt Disney Company since the founder’s death

in 1966. The story is a dog’s-life version of Charles Dickens’s “Oliver Twist,” with Oliver portrayed as a lost kitten that is befriended by Dodger, an artful mutt who belongs to a den of canine thieves working for a shifty human named Fagin. Not much else is similar to the novel and the setting has been translated from the slums of Victorian London to their modern-day equivalent in New York. The art work is not as lush or detailed as in most of Disney’s work and is more in the style of Ralph Bakshi’s

“Fritz the Cat.” Enjoyable, it falls half way between the delightful “Lady and the Tramp” and the less ambitious “101 Dalmatians.” “Madame Sousatzka” present Shirley MacLaine in one of her most colourful performances for many years. She plays an ageing piano teacher who takes on a gifted Indian lad (Navin Chowdhry) to show him not only how to play the piano, but also how to dress, eat and live life in style. The setting is madame’s flat — and the whole film is somewhat cluttered and frayed at the edges, but it still

maintains an old-world charm that we rarely see in films these days. The carefully detailed direction of England’s John Schlesinger is also a surprise for we have come to associate him more with his American hits, “Midnight Cowboy” and “Marathon Man.” First-rate over-acting and luscious classical music.

For readers interested by the above reviews, I can only say that I believe all four films will be returning to Christchurch for a longer run at a later date. However, not all the other films being screened during this fortnight will make it back.

For this reason, it may be best to take this as the only opportunity to see some of the following films: “Dancers,” Baryshnikov in a modern-day version of “Giselle”; “The Rosary Murders,” with Donald Sutherland investigating the murder of priests and nuns in Detroit; “Man Facing Southeast,” an intriguing science-fiction film from Argentina about a man in a mental home who may be Christ; “The Boost,” with James Woods in a frightening fable about What people will do for money; "Belizaire the Cajun,” the first authentic Cajun picture to reach New Zealand; “Memories of Me,” a sentimental comedy with Billy Crystal and Alan King; “Vroom,” by the makers of “My Beautiful Laundrette”; “Stormy Monday,” with Melanie Griffith, Sting and Tommy Lee Jones in an English thriller, “Hawks,” set in a hospital ward for the terminally ill; and “Mortuary Academy,” a sick comedy set in a college for morticians.