FILM

Rip It Up, Issue 62, 1 September 1982, Page 26

FILM

Bad Blood Director: Mike Newell When script-writer Andrew Brown read Willis' 1979 Manhunt,' an account of the 1941 Stanley Graham murders, he sensed that an exciting movie could lie in this tale of a simple dairy farmer whose paranoia caused a bloodbath.' Set around Hokitika with two leading players from across the Tasman and English-based production and direction. Bad Blood is a smooth and well-paced piece of film-making geared to the international market. But such considerations don't detract from the essentially New Zealand flavour of the proceedings. Gary Hansen's evocative camerawork catches this mood with some stunning landscapes and dazzling night scenes. Set pieces like the rural dances are superbly handled and throughout, period details such as the bus-stop and the shop scene are so well caught that one becomes aware that one is being cheated a little in the church sequence by being given only a glimpse through the window. At the centre of the film are two mighty performances by Jack Thompson and Carol Burns as Stanley Graham and his wife Dorothy, but, as always, it is in the growing number of assured performances by local actors such as Pat Evison, Donna Akersten, Phillip Holder, Kelly Johnson and David Copeland that one can see the new maturity of New Zealand cinema. Poltergeist Director: Tobe Hooper We may not be able to see Hooper's Texas Chainsaw Massacre (thanks to the censor) and his second film, the splendid Fun House, has disappeared into the Sunday night horror circuit, but at least Poltergeist with its Steven Spielberg associations (he cowrote and produced it) seems to be getting to a wider audience. Spielberg didn't direct it himself because he was occupied with his other film E. T. and I suspect it would be most interesting to see Poltergeist alongside this film. But Hooper's film is a delightfully quirky and offbeat horror film, an allegory on bourgeois greed and rapaciousness which only makes its full impact in the final moments of the film where coffins are shooting out of the ground like surrealist rockets. The bourgeois family of Poltergeist inhabits a characterless "clone

home" in the middle-American equivalent of Pakuranga, their lives a succession of trivial events. And of course the initial catalyst in the drama is the übiquitous television as the young girl sits in front of the set communicating with the spirits within. The success of the film lies in its elegant visual style, crisp, wellpointed script and laconic humour, but Beatrice Straight (the only name' in the film) provides a suitably flamboyant supporting role and there is one wondrous sequence involving airborne objects in the haunted bedroom which, to New Zealanders anyway, is the nearest thing to a Paul Hartigan painting on film. Making Love Director: Arthur Hiller ... or, Hollywood makes a gay Love Story. Scriptwriter Barry Sandler may have poured his heart and soul into his script but it hasn't made the voyage to celluloid very successfully. To some degree the blame can be laid at Sandler's feet. To start with the three main characters at the centre of the film are such lifeless stereotypes. There is Kate Jackson (Charlie's Angels) now relegated to a role as an up and coming television executive set on

bringing culture to the American television audience. Add to this Michael Ontkean as a notably wimpish doctor and Harry Hamlin as a cynical young novelist either prowling after a casual pick-up or relaxing over old movies on his VHS, and the conflicts of this unholy triangle are pretty predictable. It's indicative of the movie that it all creaks along at such an elephantine pace that it takes at least 45 minutes before its gay theme becomes apparent. Perhaps the makers viewed it as a middleclass antidote to Cruising but it all seems hopelessly old-fashioned without the style to compensate. The theme song was written by Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager and sung by Roberta Flack which just about sums the whole thing up. Evil Under the Sun Director: Guy Hamilton It started with Murder on the Orient Express, it resurfaced as Death on the Nile, suddenly there was The Mirror Cracked and now the latest Agatha Christie star spectacular is Evil Under the Sun. Guy Hamilton offers a promising opening scene on the Yorkshire moors but after that it is all disappointingly routine. Just as

Elizabeth Taylor and Kim Novak proved amusing sparring partners in The Mirror Cracked, Maggie Smith and Diana. Rigg make the most of Anthony Shaffer's script. But with stunning Christopher Challis camerawork, a score from Cole Porter and a cast list that includes Roddy McDowall, Jane Birkin, Colin Blakely, James Mason, Nicholas Clay and the wonderful Sylvia Miles, is one wrong to expect more? Grease 2 Director: Patricia Birch ■ The main culprit in this leaden sequel would seem to be the totally unmemorable collection of songs which form the core of the film. The first Grease did at least benefit from a ready succession of fairly catchy numbers, thanks to its Broadway origins. Two other grave mistakes involve Patricia Birch's unadventurous filming of her own, fairly pedestrian, dance sequences and, as in Grease 1, the producers repeat their folly, of giving performers of the stature of Eve Arden, Sid Caesar, Connie Stevens and Tab Hunter so little to do. Stevens, looking like a bizarrely ageing Barbie Doll, seems ripe for a new career as a John Waters star. Tab Hunter certainly had the pluck to be Divine's leading man in Polyester (a brilliant film that must come to Kiwiland) and maybe Stevens should investigate something in the same line. They say Divine's a nice girl to work with ... William Dart Steven Speilberg, who's currently raking in the dollars with ET: The Extraterrestrial, recently paid $60,500 to purchase a balsa wood version of the famous Rosebud sled from Orson Welles' 1941 film Citizen Kane ... Francis Ford Coppola has put his American Zoetrope Studios on the market.

The studios, which Coppola bought in 1980, are for sale at a price of $26 million. Coppola is currently at-work on his next feature, The Outsiders ... Halloween 111 is now in production ... Sam Peckinpah is to direct his first film in four years. The film is based on the Robert Ludlum novel The Osterman Weekend ... Italian director Sergio Leone is to film Once Upon A Time In America, a gangster sequel to his Once Upon A Time. In The West. Robert De Niro takes the leading role ... the Beatles' A Hard Days J Night has been re-released overseas in Dolby stereo ... Blake Edwards is at work on two further Pink Panther films The Trail of the Pink Panther and The Curse of the Pink Panther. The Curse will introduce one Ted Wass as the successor to Inspector Clouseau ... Dustin Hoffman, Jessica Lange and Terri Garr are the leading players in the Sidney Pollack produced and directed Tootsie, ... newest Ridley Scott (Alien) film, Blade Runner, is another sci-fi flick. This one's based on a Philip K. Dick novel ... Alan Parker's Pink Floyd: The Wall has opened overseas to favourable reviews. The London Guardian described it as "a considerable achievement: 95 minutes of not playing safe" ... Geoff Murphy is at work on postproduction .on Utu at Waimarama in Hawkes Bay ... Alan J. Pakula is filming William Styron's novel Sophie's Choice with Meryl Streep ... Olivia Newton-John and Bryan Brown are. the lead players in Undercover, a musical comedy to be filmed in Sydney about the beginnings of the Berlei undergarment empire. FORTHCOMING FILMS Bad Blood ... grim story of Stan Graham, West Coast farmer who went mad and shot several people during WWII. Stars Jack Thompson (Breaker Morant, Claytons'

ad, etc), Carol Burns and Dennis Lill. .Written and produced by expatriot Kiwi Andrew Brown, filmed in Hokitika. Starts Auckland, Wellington, ChCh Sept 24. Neighbours ... the last film made by John Belushi before his death, teaming .up again with fellow Blues Brother Dan Aykroyd, along with Cathy Moriarty and Kathryn Walker; Based on Thomas Berger's novel, it's a comedy about the upheaval in a very average suburban household, caused by the arrival of zany new neighbours. John G. Avildsen (Rocky) directs. Starts Oct 22. Time Bandits ... Surreal semicartoon fantasy, the work of ace Monty Python illustrator Terry Gillam. John Cleese and Michael Palin are in there somewhere, along with Sean Connery, Shelley Duval and Ralph Richardson. Python fans will need no further persuading. Auckland Sept 17. Prince of the City ... lengthy, complex story of a man who tried to take on the powers that be and the disasters that resulted. A true story, starring Treat Williams (Hair) and directed by Sidney Lumet (Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, Network). Starts Oct 15. Victor Victoria ... Julie Andrews breaking further out of the mould, playing a man playing a woman playing a man ... er ... Blake Edwards directs. Evilspeak ... horror movie with black magic overtones, made by and starring nobody of any particular significance. Starts Oct 10. Death Wish II ... Charles Bronson on the prowl again as the one-man crusade against crime. Wife Jill Ireland co-stars, along with Vincent Gardenia. Starts Sept 10. Union City ... Debbie Harry apparently makes a better effort with this than in Roadie. Murder and paranoia in a 50s setting with an industrial backdrop. Pat Benatar makes her screen debut, Chris Stein writes the music.