International Contemporary Cinema
ADULTERE: MODE D'EMPLOI (ADULTERY: A USER'S GUIDE)
ALCHEMY
ANGELA
ANTONIA'S LINE
BLACK DAY/BLUE NIGHT
BLUSH
THE CITY OF LOST CHILDREN
COME DUE COCCODRILLI (LIKE TWO CROCODILES)
CRADLESONG
CROSSCUT
CUORE CATTIVO(HEARTLESS)
THE DAUGHTER-IN-LAW
FRANKIE STARLIGHT
GAZON MAUDIT
THE GRASS HARP
IL MONSTRO (THE MONSTER)
JOINT ADVENTURE
THE JOURNEY OF AUGUST KING
THE KINGDOM
LAST CALL
LAST SUMMER IN THE HAMPTONS
LIVE NUDE GIRLS
LO ZIO DI BROOKLYN
THE LOW LIFE
MERCY
THE MICHELLE APARTMENTS
MUSHROOMS
PIE IN THE SKY
THE POMPATUS OF LOVE
RED RIBBON BLUES
THE SADNESS OF SEX
SCORPION SPRING
SENZA PELLE (WITHOUT SKIN
SERPENT'S LAIR
SONG OF THE SIREN
SWEET NOTHING
TATTOO BOY
THROWING DOWN
TOO PURE
TWO CRIMES
A young married couple, both architects, are up for a prestigious, government sponsored award for a project they have designed jointly. On the day when the winner of the competition is to be announced, each of them leaves the house alone, determined to deal with the nerve-racking wait in their own way. The husband, a habitual philanderer, sets out for a local brothel, intent on pursuing the pleasures of the flesh; his wife, meanwhile, has her own long-supressed sexual liberation in mind. What follows is a revealing exploration of the ways in which anticipation and its reward are rarely synonymous. 95 min. SAT, 10/21, 3:00PM, UA1 & SUN, 10/22, 9:00PM, UA1
ALCHEMY
Director: Suzanne Myers, USA, 1995, World Premiere,
cast: Rya Kihistedt, D.V. de Vincentis, Jeff Webster, Erica Chahoy.
An exquisitely crafted story about a young woman's voyage of self-discovery
after the death of her longtime live-in lover, ALCHEMY introduces us to
Louisa, a sculptor whose art - pieced together from "found" objects
- bears more than a passing resemblance to her own fractured life. An auspicious
debut from writer/director Suzanne Myers. 94 min
SAT, 10/21, 6:30PM, UA5 & SUN, 10/22, 12:30PM, UA5
ANGELA
Director: Rebecca Miller, USA, 1994,
Cast: Anna Thomson, John Ventimiglia, Miranda Stuart Rhyne, Charlotte Blythe.
Winner of the Open Palm Award for Best New Director: at the recent Gotham
Awards as well as the Sundance Film Festival's Filmmakers Trophy in Drama,
writer/director Rebecca Miller has created an evocative tale of childhood
mystery set in a small rural village in the Hudson Valley. Ten-year-old
Angela is a troubled youth who is convinced that she and her younger sister
Ellie are to blame for her mother's manic-depressive emotional state. When
the girls' father takes them to church in hopes that some spiritual grounding
will provide solace from the troubles of the family, Angela instead becomes
obsessed with the story of God and Lucifer. What follows is an unsettling,
and deeply moving portrayal of innocence unprotected and childhood imagination
carried to extremes. 98 min
FRI, 10/20, 9:45AM, UA4 & SUN, 10/22, 7:00PM, UA5
ANTONIA'S LINE
Director: Marleen Gorris, Netherlands, 1995, US Premiere,
Cast: Willeke Van Ammelrooy, Jan Decleir.
Surprise winner of the Audience Award for Most Popular Film at the recent
Toronto International Film Festival, ANTONIA'S LINE spans five decades in
the life of a remarkable screen heroine who returns to her native village
with her 16-year-old daughter in tow at the close of World War II, and sets
about creating a home on her ramshackle farm for all the stray characters
she encounters in the course of her extraordinary life and times. Alternately
funny and profound, earthy and sublime, ANTONIA'S LINE is a brilliant and
highly original film from the director of A OUESTION OF SILENCE (1982) and
BROKEN MIRRORS (1985). 105 min
THU, 20/19, 4:00PM, UA2 & FRl, 10/20 6:l5PM, UAl
BLACK DAY/BLUE NIGHT
Director: /writer J. S. Cardone, USA 1995,
Cast: Gil Bellows, Michelle Forbes, Mia Sara, J.T. Walsh, Tim Guinee, John
Beck, F. J. Flynn.
Rinda Wooley (Michelle Forbes) and Hallie Schrag (Mia Sara), each betrayed
by Hallie's deceitful husband, abruptly exit their small town house for
the uncertainty and excitement of a new future. Along the way, a captivating,
mysterious drifter named Dodge (Gil Bellows) intrigues them into joining
him on an odyssey to a beautiful wilderness hot springs. Unknown to Rinda,
or Hallie, who has fallen in love with the handsome loner, is that Dodge
is the prime suspect in police lieutenant John Ouinn's (J. T. Walsh) investigation
of a fatal robbery. Quinn's ruthless manhunt leads him to Dodge's remote
destination, and to a deadly confrontation that exposes dark secrets about
them all. 96 min
FRI, 10/20, 12: 15PM, UA3 & SUN, 10/22, 9:15PM, UA5
BLUSH
Director: Ll Shaohong, China, 1995,
Cast: Wang Ji, Wang Zhiwen, He Saifei, Zhang Liwei.
Winner of the Silver Bear at this year's Berlin Film Festival, BLUSH describes
the contrasting but interwoven fates of two prostitutes who are forced to
adjust to new lifestyles after the Communist takeover of China in 1949.
Set in the picturesque canal city of Suzhou (called China's Venice), the
film is an exotic, visually ravishing portrayal of the changes wrought on
individual lives by the larger upheaval taking place in Chinese society
during an era of turmoil and "reeducation."
119 min FRI, 10/20, 8:30PM, UA6 & SUN, 10/22, 1:00PM, UA3
THE CITY OF LOST CHILDREN
Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Mare Caro, France, 1995, US Premiere.
Cast: Ron Perlman, Daniel Emilfork, Judith Vittet.
Another visually dazzling portrayal of a distorted parallel universe by
the directors of "Delicatessen" (1991 ), this wild futuristic
fantasy follows the adventures of a gentle giant who teams up with a resourceful,
nine-year-old "femme fatale" in a frantic eflort to save his adopted
younger brother from the clutches of an evil scientist intent upon stealing
the boy's dreams. Eye-popping sets, ingenious special effects and costumes
by Jean-Paul Gaultier combine to make CITY OF LOST CHILDREN the most astonishing
visual feast since Terry Gilliam's "Brazil". 112 min.
SAT, 10/21, 9:00PM, UA1 & SUN, 10/r22, 12: 15PM, UA1
COME DUE COCCODRILLI (LIKE TWO CROCODILES).
Director: Giacomo Campiottl, ITALY, 1995,
US PREMIERE,
Cast: Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Giancarlo Giannini, Valeria Golino, Sandrine
Dumas, Ignazio Oliva, Angela Baraldi.
Seamlessly blending past and present, this haunting story of a wealthy young
antiques dealer coming to grips with his childhood is a resonant, highly
original example of the new Italian cinema. Gabriele is successful at business
but less than a whiz at romance. His lover, Claire, is frustrated by his
lack of emotion and his lack of openness about his upbringing. When a brochure
comes to his Parisian office informing him of a sale of antiques at his
family home in Italy, he leaps at the opportunity to return to the scene
of his childhood. But his motives are clearly not entirely innocent. In
an exquisite series of flashbacks, we learn that Gabriele and his brother
Martino are illegitimate children, part of a second family that their sometime-father
(Giancarlo Giannini) secreted away in a country home with their beloved,
high-spirited mother (Valerie Golino). A tragedy changes their lives forever,
and they are moved to their father's villa to live with his official family.
The uneasy union of this extended family sows the seeds for Gabriele's adult
actions. 100 min.
SAT, 10/21, 12:45PM, UA3
CRADLESONG
Director: Jose Luis Garci, Spain, 1994,
Cast: Fiorella Faitoyano, Maribel Verdu.
In a quiet Spanish village, toward the end of the 19th Century, a new-born
baby girl is abandoned at the imposing door of a cloistered convent. This
simple act causes a rebirth of the maternal instinct in each of the nuns
inside the convent, and they lavish the child with attention. The village
doctor, Don Jose, is - due to his profession - the only man allowed regular
visits to the convent. Arriving after the child is found, he senses that
the baby's presence has upset the sheltered emotional states and simple
lives of the women who dwell within the hallowed walls. Generously, he offers
the nuns a solution to their dilemma: he'll adopt the baby so that they
may raise and educate her. Now, eighteen years have gone by, and the foundling
is ail grown up... 100 min.
THU, 10/19, 12:45PM, UA1 & FRI, 10/20, 12:30PM, UA5
CROSSCUT
Director: Paul Raimondi, USA, 1995, World Premiere.
Cast: Costas Mandylor, Megan Gallagher, Casey Sander, Allen Cutler.
On the run after shooting the son of a mafia don in the heat of a bar room brawl, mob bag man Martin heads for a small California logging town hoping to lay low until things cool down. Once there, he meets Anna, a young single mother whose simple rural lifestyle offers an escape from the life he's come to dread. Getting away from the clutches of his mob bosses, however, proves to be much more difficult than the hero has anticipated in writer/director Paul Raimondi's accomplished first feature. 96 min. THU, 10/19, 3:15PM, UA3 # FRt, 10r20, 6:00PM, UA3
CUORE CATTIVO(HEARTLESS)
Director: Umberto Marino.
Cast: Kim Rossi Stuart, Massimo Ghini, Massimo Wertmuller, Cecilia Genovisi.
This taut thriller from new italian director Umberto Marino centers on a
desperate small-time thief who, after an aborted robbery attempt, breaks
into the apartment of a young, disabled woman and takes her hostage in a
bid to avoid being captured by pursuing police. While the resourceful young
woman does everything in her power to diffuse the situation she find herself
trapped in, overeager policemen and meddling TV and newspaper reporters
turn up the heat, leading to an explosive and unexpected denouement.
SAT, 10/21, 6:15PM, UA3 & SUN, 10r22, 12:00PM, UA3
THE DAUGHTER-IN-LAW
Director: Steve Wang, Taiwan, 1995, US Premiere,
Cast: Lee Li-Chun, Fang Reh-Chun, Kuo Zi-Chien.
This compelling rural drama, set in the misty bamboo forests of mountainous
central Taiwan, combines elements of melodrama, comedy and ghost story to
vivid effect in telling its story of a young woman left in the care of her
doting father-in-law while her ambitious husband is away serving a term
with the Taiwanese army. First-time director Steve Wang, who received his
film training at NYU, has crafted a stirring tale of passion and betrayal,
utilizing traditional forms to illuminate a story at once contemporary and
timeless. 102 min
FRI, 10/20, 7:00PM, UA5 & SAT, 10/21, 10:00AM, UA2
FRANKIE STARLIGHT
Director: Michael Linsay-Hogg, USA/Ireland,
Cast: Malt Dillon, Anne Parillaud, Gabriel Byrne, Rudi Davies, Corban Walker.
Anne Parillaud (Le Femme Nikita) stars as Bernadette, an enigmatic young
woman who flees Continental Europe at the end of the war in hopes of starting
a new life for herself in Ireland. Smuggled aboard an American troopship,
the young woman grants sexual favors to the American GI's in return for
her safe passage and soon after arriving in Ireland gives birth to a son,
Frank, who is born a dwarf. Now, some thirty-five years later, Frank appears
in a publisher's office with a manuscript under his arm; the manuscript
tells the story of Frank's life with his mother in a small Irish fishing
village where he grew up. It's a a remarkable story, indeed, told with much
charm and great affection by Lindsay-Hogg, best know for "Brideshead
Revisited" and "Nasty Habits". 101 min
FRI, 10/20, 1:00PM, UA2 & SAT, 10/21, 6:00PM, UA1
GAZON MAUDIT
Director: Josiane Balasko, France, 1995,
Cast: Victoria Abril, Josiane Balasko, Alain Chabat, Ticky Holgado.
The comedic story of a love triangle with a delightful ironic twist, GAZON
MAUDIT introduces us to Laurent and Loli, a happily married couple with
two beautiful children. Laurent is a successful businessman who runs a real
estate agency in the South of France, while his wife Loli spends her days
as a housewife. Unbeknownst to his adoring wife, Laurent is an avid philander
with a long line of extra-marital affairs that he has managed to keep from
her. One day Laurent and Loli's seemingly harmonious lifestyle is disrupted
when a woman's camper breaks down in front of their house; the womnan, named
Marijo, shares only one thing in common with Laurent: They both like women...
" 105 min.
THU, 10/19, 9:15PM, UA2 & SUN, 10/22, 4:00PM, UA2
THE GRASS HARP
Director: Charles Matthau, USA, 1995,
Cast: Piper Laurie, Sissy Spacek, Walter Matthau, Edward Furlong, Nell Carter,
Jack Lemmon, Mary Steenburgen.
Truman Capote's eponymous autobiographical novel enjoys a superb screen
translation thanks to astute direction by Matthau fils and highly enjoyable
performances by a wonderful ensemble cast. The episodic story focuses on
young Collin Fenwick (Furlong), an 11 -year-old boy who is forced to move
in with his two maiden aunts following the death of his mother. The two
women are as different as night and day: Collin learns much about the world
and its ways from each of them. The film traces his coming-of-age in the
course of his time spent in their care; its haunting story of youthful discovery,
loss and transformation resonates long beyond the final credits." 107
min.
FRI, 10/20, 6:45PM, UA2 & SAT, 10R1, 12:15PM, UA1
IL MONSTRO (THE MONSTER)
Director/Screenwriter: Roberto Benigni, Italy, 1995, US Premiere,
Cast: Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, Michel Blanc, Jean-Claude Brialy,
Dominique Lavanant, Franco Mescollini, Ivano Marescotti, Laurent Spielvogel,
Massimo Girotti.
The biggest box office smash of the year in Italy, this bawdy, comic farce
tells the story of a harmless, but by no means innocent, social misfit who
gets mistaken for a serial murderer through a series of bizarre mishaps.
Benigni plays Loris, a shifty, sexually-overwrought, pettyshyster who will
do anything to get the upper hand in his various dealings with the people
and situations around him. One night at a party, he gets a tip-off about
a supposed nymphomaniac, but soon stumbles into disaster involving an outraged
victim and a berserk chainsaw when he pursues the wrong woman. When the
terrified subject of his advances reports Loris to the police, Inspector
Frustalupi becomes convinced that the man is the "Mozart of Vice",
the serial sex-murderer he's been chasing for twelve years. Thus begins
a manic and inventive send-up by Italy's leading comedy star, Roberto Benignl.
SAT, 10/21, 8:45PM, UA3 & SUN, 10/22, 9:45AM, UA1
JOINT ADVENTURE
Director: John Foran, USA, 1995, World Premiere,
Cast: James Brinkley, David Haley, Biz Lyon, Paul Moore.
A very funny story about very little at all, JOINT ADVENTURE follows the
odyssey of three penniless friends without prospects - Pete, Zack and Claudia
- on a mission to find some grass in order to help out Pete's uncle, a cancer
patient suffering intense nausea from his chemotherapy. While this quest
merely provides the rationale for why these three hedonistic friends should
get ambitious enough to go anywhere at all, the lead characters, along with
all the people they encounter along the way provide the most engaging and
amusing collection of souls we've seen on screen since Richard Linklater's
SLACKER. Chock-full of ascerbic dialogue and delirious incidents, JOINT
ADVENTURE is a true delight. 90 min.
FRl, 10/20, 9:15PM, UA3 & SAT, 10R1, 9:30AM, UA1
THE JOURNEY OF AUGUST KING
Director: John Duigan, USA, 1995,
Cast: Jason Patric, Thandie Newton, Larry Drake, Sam Waterston.
Set in the lush mountain landscapes of North Carolina, John Duigan's masterful
rendering of the classic eponymous novel by John Ehle is a stunning evocation
of a time when runaway slaves were considered no better than runaway cattle,
to be hunted down, trapped and brought back to the plantation. The story
centers on August (Patric), a simple, young homesteader who finds himself
caught up in tha plight of a resourceful young black woman intent upon escaping
the wealthy and vengeful plantation owner who wants her back. 95 min.
THU, 10/19, 1:00PM, UA2 & SAT, 10/21, 9:30PM, UA2
THE KINGDOM
Director: Lars von Trier, Denmark, 1994,
Cast: Ernst-Hugo Jaregaard, Kirsten Rollfes, Soren Pilgaard, Udo Kier.
This disturbing, darkly hilarious epic from the audacious Lars von Trier
(Zentropa) is set in a giant, Copenhagen hospital built on a marshy medieval
burial ground. The film opens by informing us that "cracks are starting
to appear in the building's edifice", and it soon becomes clear that
these 'cracks' are allowing the spirit world entree into the modern-day
medical center, as well as the lives of the building's denizans. What follows
is an outrageously entenaining soap opera that plays like a madcap mating
of TWIN PEAKS and E.R., with a touch of THE EXORCIST thrown in for good
measure. 279 min.
SAT, 10/21, 1:00PM, UA2
LAST CALL
Director: Rich Wilkes, USA, 1995, World Premiere.
Five unlikely college housemates approach the end of their senior year with
more than a liti1a trepidation in this seriocomic rendering of the classic
boys-growing-up story set in the artistic netherworld of Santa Cruz, California.
Each of the five, who occupy a legendary party house known as El Rancho
Grande, is being forced to confront the end of their party days as graduation
and the real world approaches for handsome but tormented sculptor Jack,
the recent loss of his long-time girlfriend, Dina, makes the pain of leaving
the security of campus life all the more acute. 98 min.
THU, 10/19, 12:30PM, UA5 & FRl, 10/20, 10:00PM, UA5
LAST SUMMER IN THE HAMPTONS
Director: Henry Jaglom, USA, 1995, US Premiere,
Cast: Victoria Foyt, Viveca Lindfors, Jon Robin Baitz, Melissa Leo, Martha
Plimpton, Andre Gregory, Holland Taylor, Ron Rifkin, Brooke Smith, Roddy
McDowall, Rosco Lee Brown.
A spirited Checovian romp through a large extended family's final summer
spent at the family estate in East Hampton, Henry Jaglom's engaging dramedy
of manners boasts splendid performances by a large ensemble of gifted actors.
When Oona, a rising but insecure Hollywood star, decides to hone her talent
by attending an acting school run by the renowned Helena Mora, she has little
idea of the eccentric group of family and longtime friends Helena has gathered
around her to share this last summar before she sells the sprawling property.
105 min.
THU, 10/19, 6:45PM, UA2 & FRI, 10/20, 10:00AM, UA2
LIVE NUDE GIRLS
Director: Julianna Lavin, USA, 1995,
Cast: Dana Delany, Kim Cattrall, Cynthia Stevanson, Olivia D'Abo, Laila
Robins, Lora Zane.
Five lifelong girlfriends come togethar at the house that one of them shares with her moody, lesbian lover for a slumber party in honor of pal Jamie, a well-known soap opera star who's about to embark on her third attempt at marriage. Over the course of the ensuing afternoon and evening, they dish the dirt about each other, the men in their lives, and everything else under the sun in a series of steadily escalating revelations that are alternately intimate, touching and hilariously bawdy: for each of the women it is a cathartic, much needed experience which serves to bring them closer together than they've felt in years. Watching this film is like being a fly on the wall at a deliciously entertaining real-life soap opera. 93 min. THU, 10/19, 6:00PM, UA1 & SUN, 10/22, 10:00AM, UA2
LO ZIO DI BROOKLYN,
Director: (not mentionned) Italy, 1995, US Premiere.
The movie is simply a pretext for portraying the end of the world - the
Apocalypse that is - with surreal characters. The Gemelli family is made
up of Gaetano the father, his three sons, and a nephew who is paralysed
from the waist down, and a bit crazy. They live in abject poverty in "postmodern',
Palermo, where the world actually seems to have ended. On their way back
from Gaetano's funeral, the three brothers meet two midgets - Mafia bosses
- who inform them that they have to take in, and hide, for a few days a
mysterious character - Uncle from Brooklyn - who "comes from the other
side of the world." The Gemelli family obviously cannot refuse to grant
this 'favor,' and so their 'guest' moves in. The days go by without anyone
coming to collect this Uncle from Brooklyn who doesn't eat, doesn't sleep,
and doesn't talk.
SAT, 10/21, 3:15PM, UA3 & SUN, 10/22, 3:45PM, UA3
THE LOW LIFE
Director: George Hickenlooper, USA, 1995,
Cast: Rory Cockrane, Sean Astin, Kyra Sedgwick, Ron Livingston, James LeGros,
J.T. Walsh.
Terrific performances by an attractive cast of young, very talented actors
inform this thoughtful story about a group of frustrated dreamers whose
reach seems to exceed their grasp in modern-day Los Angeles. The story centers
upon John (Rory Cochrane), an aspiring writer who moves to Hollywood to
join his old Yale buddies in a quest to grab the brass ring. The only thing
John manages to grab, however, is an endlessly repetative temp job sorting
credit card receipts and a gig on the side fronting for a sleazy landlord.
When a repressed, small town hayseed (brilliantly portrayed by the underrated
Sean Astin) answers his ad for a roommate, John jumps at the chance to have
someone else pay the bills; what he does not anticipate is the way in which
his new roommate's fragile psyche will come to have an all-encompassing
effect on his own life. 96 min.
THU, 10/19, 8:30PM, UA6 & FRI, 10/20, 9:15AM, UA5
MERCY
Director: Richard Shepard, USA, 1995, World Premiere,
Cast: John Rubinstein, Amber Kain, Sam Rockwell, Jane Lanier, Novella Nelson.
An arrogant, aggressive New York lawyer finds himself in a situation far
beyond his control or his resources when his young daughter, Nicole, is
kidnapped by a pair of desperate strangers who are after much more than
money. in the course of this gripping, expertly crafted odyssey through
the mean streets of comtemporary New York, attorney Frank Marshall finds
layer upon layer of the impervious shell he's built around his life stripped
away, as his desperate race to save his daughter from her captors slowly
makes it clear to him that the motive for Nicole's kidnapping has much more
to do with revenge than financial gain. 82 min.
THU, 10/19, 7:00PM, UA5 & FRI, 10/20, 3:l5PM, UA3
THE MICHELLE APARTMENTS
Director: John Pozer, Canada, 1995, US Premiere,
Cast: Henry Czerny, Mary Elizabeth Rubens, Daniel Kash.
Henry Czerny (rThe Boys of St. Vincent) is a seriocomic delight as Alex
Hartwell, a government tax auditor who is sent to the small, decaying rust
bowl town of Welcum to investigate the books of Turnbull Chemicals, the
town's onerous and corrupt employer of note. Forced to take up residence
at the endlessly bizarre Michelle Apartments, Hartwell soon finds himself
caught up in a tangled web of libidinous intrigue and macabre menace. A
seriously twisted new comedy from the director of "The Grocer's Wife".
91 min.
SAT, 10/21, 8:30PM, UA6 & SUN, 10/22, 9:15AM, UA3
MUSHROOMS
Director: Alan Madden, Australia, 1995,
Cast: Julia Blake, Lynette Curran, Simon Chilvers.
Two eccentric, elderly women come up with an altogether unexpected solution
to the ages-old problem of how to dispose of an unwanted corpse in Alan
Madden's charming, comedic first feature. Long-time pals Minnie and Flo
are left with a very inconvenient corpse on their hands when a fleeing criminal
drops dead after busting in to their pawnshop-cum-boarding house, leaving
behind a sack full of stolen loot, and a nosy, if attractive, older police
inspector. 93 min.
FRI, 10/20, 9:00AM, UA3 & SUN, 10/22, 9:45PM, UA2
PIE IN THE SKY
Director: Bryan Gordon, USA, 1995,
Cast: Josh Charles, Anne Heche, Peter Riegert, Christine Lahti, Bob Balaban.
A whimsical romantic comedy from Oscar winner Brian Gordon (RAY'S MALE HETEROSEXUAL
DANCE HALL), PIE IN THE SKY traces the ups and downs in the unlikely relationship
between a sweet, obsessive young man (Josh Charles) and a neurotic, wildly
impulsive young dancer (Anne Hecht) over the course of twenty years, from
their budding courtship as small-town schoolmates through their subsequent
re-encounter as struggling singles in modern day L.A. A terrific cast of
supporting actors add greatly to this quirky story's charms.
SAT, 10/21, 9:15PM, UA4 & SUN, 10/22, 3:l5PM, UA4
THE POMPATUS OF LOVE
Director: Richard Schenkman, USA 1995, US Premiere,
Cast: John Cryer, Mia Sara, Adrian Pasdar, Jennifer Tilly, Tim Guinee, Kristin
Scott Thomas.
THE POMPATUS OF LOVE is a high-octane, romantic romp that charts four tumultuous days in the love lives of four close friends as they wrestle with relationships, fear, yearning and temptation. In trying to find out what makes women and men tick, they ask the age old questions: "What is love?", "What do women really want?", and just what, exactly, did Steve Miller mean by the term "the pompatus of love" in his famous song "The Joker". Runyon, the poet in the group, longs for Kathryn, the girl who let him behind - especially after he flieys across country with ditzy seatmate Tarzaan (Tilly); good friend Josh (Pasdar) is a womanizer who finally gets his comeupance when he blows it with cerebral Cynthia; Mark (Cryer) analyzes his relationship with Tasha into oblivion; and Phil, the plumber, flirts with Caroline and extramarital disaster. Through it all, the four friends' lives fall apart and are put back together, as this witty, ascerbically scripted story edges closer to the answers to life's burning questions. 99 min. THU, 10/19, 3:00PM, UA1 & SAT, 10/21, 9:45PM, UA5
RED RIBBON BLUES
Director: Charles Winkler, USA, 1995, US Premiere
Cast: Paul Mercurio, Debi Mazar, RuPaul, John Epperson (Lypsinka).
A Robin Hood-style trio of friends from an AIDS support group take on the
profit-motivated drug industry in this uplifting, humanistic comedy marking
the directorial and screenwriting debut of producer-director Irwin Winkler's
son, Charlie. Narrated in flashback form by struggling, HIV-positive painter
Troy (Mercurio), the film begins with the announcement of the discovery
of a new breakthrough drug which can stave of the onset of full-blown AIDS
in HIV-positive patients for up to ten years. The cost of the drug is, however,
prohibitively high, and Troy - along with 200,000 other applicants - vies
through a lottery for a rare spot in an experimental test of the drug set
up for indigents. Frustrated at the absurdity of the situation, Troy enlists
the help of his friends in the support group to attempt a guerilla-style
hijacking of the drug from local drugstore shipments; what follows leads
the group of friends into uncharted territory. 99 min.
FRI, 10/20, 9:45PM, UA2
THE SADNESS OF SEX
Director: Rupert Wainwright, USA, 1995, World Premiere,
Cast: Barry Yourgrau.
This deliciously scathing performance piece is a poignant comedy about love:
the cycle of passion, romance, laughter and the seemingly inevitable, heart-wrenching
breakup at the end of love's twisted road. Interweaving dream logic with
everyday reality, the film takes the form of fifteen wry vignettes in a
surreal blend which dives headfirst into the craziness and contradictions
of sexual relations between men and women. Wholly original, THE SADNESS
OF SEX boasts a brilliant script. astonishing visuals and an outrageously
camp performance by co-writer Barry Yourgrau (whose eponymous book forms
the basis for the film) to create a performance piece quite unlike anything
you've seen or heard before... "as if shot by Jean-Luc Goddard for
MTV". 87 min.
THU, 10/19, 9:00PM, UA1 & SAT, 10/21, 12:30PM, UA5
SCORPION SPRING
Director: Brian Cox, USA, 1995, World Premiere,
Cast: Alfred Molina, Esai Morales, Ruben Blades, Patrick McCaw, Angel Aviles,
Kevin Tighe, Richard Edson, John Doe.
This comtemporary, neo-noir thriller plays like a cross between RESERVOIR
DOGS and a spaghetti western, marking his debuting writer/director Brian
Cox as one of the hottest new talents on the independent American film scene.
As the film starts, a young, sensitive drifter is mugged when he comes to
the aid of a young prostitute and finds himself stranded in a small desert
diner with no money and few resources save for his beat-up Buick convertible.
Sensing an opportunity when another customer of the diner (Molina) gets
ditched by his irate mistress and let to walk to Los Angeles, he offers
the displaced Frenchman a ride in return for gas and food money. Together
the two hit the road heading for the big city, but stop to help a man and
woman they find stumbling out of the desert along the way. Thus begins a
seriously twisted thriller, shot through with dark comic undertones. 92
min.
FRI, 10/20, 9:00PM, UA1 & SUN, 10/22, 3:00PM, UA1
SENZA PELLE (WITHOUT SKIN).
Director/Screenwriter: Alessandro D'Alatri, Italy 1994,
Cast: Anna Galiena, Massimo Ghini, Kim Rorri Stuart, Maria Grazia Grassini.
Gina (Anna Galiena) and Riccardo (Massimo Ghini) have a very normal relationship,
almost too normal. Although they are not legally married, they might as
well be. One day Gina receives a letter that is a wild, passionate declaration
of love from an anonymous admirer. As more letters arrive, Gina makes a
point to keep them hidden from Riccardo, until one day he finds them and
all hell breaks loose. Obsessed with finding out who is sending his woman
these letters, Riccardo finally tracks down the culprit. He is a beautiful
young man, Saverio (Kim Rossi Stuart), who suffers from jealousy, but he
also begins to feel a strange compassion toward his competition, and the
plot thickens... 105 min.
SAT, 10/21, 9:45AM, UA3
SERPENT'S LAIR
Director: Jeffrey Reiner, USA 1995, Worid Premiere,
Cast: Jeff Fahey, Lisa B., Patrick Bauchau, Kathleen Noone.
A young couple buying their first home in an idiosyncratic apartment building
get far more than they bargained for in Jeff Reiner's suspenseful thriller,
set in contemporary Los Angeles. Despite the news that the previous owner
died a horrible death in the apartment, Tom and Alex fall instantly in love
with the charming, ornate building. They set about moving in immediately;
Alex spends most of her time decorating their new home, save for one upstairs
bedroom which is being used to store the previous owner's personal belongings
until his sister shows up to cart them away. All seems well, until a strangely
aggressive stray cat shows up at their door and Tom and Alex decide to take
the animal in. Before long, Tom begins having vivid and unsettling dreams,
while Alex finds herself increasingly irritated by the seemingly vicious
actions directed at her by their mysterious newfound pets 90 min.
THU, 10/19, 9:30PM, UA4 & FRI, 10/20, 9:30AM, UA1
SONG OF THE SIREN
Director: Eytan Fox, Israel, 1995,
Cast: Dalit Kahn, Boaz Gur-lavi, Yair Lapid.
Based on a hugely popular Israeli novel, SONG OF THE SIREN is set in modern-day
Tel Aviv during the height of the Gulf War. The film introduces us to Talila,
a smart, sexy advertising executive who has been without a mate since the
breakup of her relationship with her iongtime live-in lover, who's since
moved on to a much younger woman. Listening to the news reports of impending
Iraqi missile attacks, Talila isn't really worried about such things; she's
much more concerned about finding the right man - or at least someone with
whom she can spend New Year's Eve. This refreshing, unexpected comedy posits
a heroine who is not ducking for cover, but looking for romance among the
scud missiles rained on Tel Aviv by Saddam Hussein. 91 min.
THU, 10/19, 9:30PM, UA5 & SUN, 10/22, 6:15PM, UA3
SWEET NOTHING
Director: Gary Winick, USA 1995,
Cast: Michael Imperioli, Mira Sorvino, Paul Calderon, Patrick Breen, Richard
Bright.
Based on the found diaries of a New York City crack addict, SWEET NOTHING
paints an affecting portrait of vice and attempted virtue among the victims
of the contemporary drug scene. Centering on the story of an average guy
and his family caught in a steady downward spiral by his attraction to "the
life", the film introduces us to Angel (Imperioli) and Monica (the
brilliant Mira Sorvino), who enjoy a seemingly happy existence with their
children in a respectable section of the Bronx. Though there's a smattering
of drug dealing evident in the streets around their tenement, the family
remains for the most part unaffected. Then one day Angel's best friend,
Raymond, turns his pal on to some crack; it's no big deal, it just happens.
Time passes, and Angel finds himself drawn back to the drug, though at first
it seems to present no problem to his family or his job. Eventually, as
Angel's using escalates, he and his family are swept into a bitter cycle
of pain followed by fresh promises of redemption. 90 min.
THU, 10/19, 9:45PM, UA5 & SAT, 10/21, 10:15AM, UA5
TATTOO BOY
Director: Larry Turner, USA, 1995, World Premiere,
Cast: C.J. Barkus, Amanda Drey, Mathew James, Howard Shook.
A startling and accomplished feature film debut by 21-year-old Larry Turner,
TATTOO BOY covers similar territory to such acclaimed stories about street
life as STREETWISE and KIDS. The difference here is that the young people
involved have innocent aspirations and the story carries hope for redemption.
The film introduces us to Sam and Rebecca, two aging child prostitutes who
protect each other's interests on the cold city streets where they ply their
trade. Rebecca, who calls herself 'Arizona' (after the state her father
moved to when he left her mother years before) is trying to save enough
money from her work to buy a car and head west in search of her father.
Sam, meanwhile, has grown tired of the life, and aspires to leave with Arizona
so he can make a fresh start somewhere far from here. Into their laps falls
a 14-year-old boy, who's desperate to avoid being placed in an orphanage
after the death of his parents. In the course of the week that foliows,
the three hard-pressed teenagers struggle against the labyrinthine obstacles
that stand between them and their road to a better life. 72 min.
THU, 10/19, 1:45PM, UA4 & FRI, 10/20, 5:30PM, UA4
THROWING DOWN
Director: Lawrence O'Neil, USA, 1995, US Premiere,
Cast: Jeffrey Donovan, Kevin Pinassi, Colleen Werthman, Timothy Wheeler.
THROWING DOWN has to rate as the most weirdly entertaining film of this
year's Festival; its darkly comic story of two small-time scam artists who
get much more than they bargained for when they seize on the chance to make
a huge, unexpected score combines pitch-black humor, an eccentrically convoluted
plot, a bizarre cast of characters and razor-sharp dialogue that rings too
true to be made up. The story concerns two young con artists, A.J. and Pete,
who always seem one step ahead of looming disaster. A.J.'s philosophy involves
seizing on the "split second window of opportunity" that life
occasionally offers, though this invariably involves something illegal.
After ripping off a car full of young Virginians who have come to New York
City to score some drugs, A.J. is off to put the finishing touches on a
scam he's been working on for weeks. Pete, meanwhile, is supposed to be
watching A.J's back, but instead stumbles upon the chance to hijack a large
shipment of drugs being sent by a mob functionary through the mail to a
waiting mob customer. This 'golden opportunity' will end up involving both
young men in a surrealistic nightmare beyond their wildest imaginings. 89
min.
THU, 10/19, 8:45PM, UA3 & FRI, 10/20, 12:00PM, UA1
TOO PURE
Director: Etienne Sauret, USA, 1995, World Premiere,
Cast: Doug Conners, Tasha K. Lawrence, Mark Grayson, Lorne Hughes.
Loosely based upon the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, TOO PURE unfolds over
the course of a single night in New York, as a young limo driver named Luke
finds himself stymied at every turn in his attempt to keep a prearranged
liaison with Elyse, the woman who broke up with him six months before and
who he still longs for constantly. Elyse had left him because of her frustration
at the futility of trying to maintain a relationship largely through electronic
communications on this night of all nights, when he is desperate to rekindle
the love between them, Luke runs through a never-ending technological maze
of telephones, fax machines, pagers and answering machines, all of which
seem to conspire against the lovers. Graced with gorgeous impressionnistic
camerawork and a haunting electronic score, TOO PURE is the work of a gifted
and highly original directorial sensibility. 82 min.
THU, 10/19, 5:15PM, UA3 & FRI, 10/20, 3:30PM, UA5
TWO CRIMES
Director: Roberto Sneider, Mexico, 1994,
Cast: Damian Alcazar, Jose Carlos Ruiz.
A wry and elegant tale of deception set in contemporary Mexico, TWO CRIMES
tells the story of Marcos Gonzales, a likable young man who flees his home
in Mexico City when he's falsely accused of a crime, ending up at the country
home of his wealthy, elderly uncle Ramon. Sickly and childless, Ramon takes
a shine to his long-lost nephew and welcomes him into his home; the local
relatives, meanwhile, are less than enchanted with the young man, and fearful
for their own inheritances, soon begin conspiring against him. Thus begins
an engaging story filled with labyrinthine plot twists and sly humor. 105
min.
SUN, 10/22, 8:45 PM, UA3
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