WILLIAM DART BEST OF 83

Rip It Up, Issue 77, 1 December 1983, Page 4

WILLIAM DART BEST OF 83

A' MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S SEX COMEDY Woody Allen is in ■ Bergman territory once again as he presents a gently ironic comedy of manners set in a New York country house at the turn of the century. Immaculately played by the three couples, with Mia Farrow and Mary Steenburgen particularly impressive, Allen's film manages to encompass everything from a Mendelssohn score to an unexpected reference to Spielberg's E. T. The only question is: How long do we have to wait for Allen's Zeligl CREEPSHOW v George A Romero takes time off from his Living Dead trilogy (the Zombie equivalent of Lucas' Star Wars!). to make this portmanteau of grim tales. A clever script from Stephen King and some marvellously broad performances (most notably from John Carpenter's wife Adrienne Barbeau) underline the edge humour of the piece. ATOMIC CAFE Atomic Cafe is a documentary collage of propaganda footage from, the 50s and 60s about the atom bomb. It's the blackest of comedies one alternately chuckles/squirms and shivers at the film's mixture of the naive and the horrific. The soundtrack is a gem. Where else could you hear Lowell Blanchard's 'Jesus Hits like an Atom Bomb' or Jackie Doll and his Pickled Peppers singing 'When they Drop the Bomb'. HEAT AND DUST Heat and Dust seems to be James Ivory's most successful film to date in portraying the delicate inter-relationship between British and Indian cultures in colonial India. The film has a precision and sense of balance that is unerring from Ivory's handling of the different chronological strands of the plot , to the beautifully observed performances of Julie Christie and Greta Scacchi.

BEST FRIENDS Norman Jewison's film is a unexpectedly literate comedy in the same genre as Hawks' Bringing up Baby or Cukor's Pate and Mike. Goldie Hawn and Burt Reynolds banter stylishly, while Jessica Tandy and Audra Lindley provide sharp cameos as the eccentric mothers-in-law.

PATU For all its unavoidable inconsistency of film quality and occasionally cavalierish disconcern for identifying its protagonists; Merata Mita's film has already earned a place as a historical document. But Patu has a fervency that goes beyond such literal significance the director catches on to a New Zealand ethos and crystallises it in a vision that is disturbing at times, yet not without some feeling of hope for the future. ONE FROM THE HEART One from the Heart is Francis Coppola's heady celebration of the supremacy of style. A tale of love lost and gained in the glitter city of Las Vegas (all magically recreated in Coppola's Zoetrope studios) it can even boast its origins in Goethe's novel, Elective Affinities. Add to this a fine score by Tom Waits (with assistance by Crystal Gayle), and you certainly have one of the quirkiest films of the year. MERRY CHRISTMAS MR LAWRENCE It's cultural conflict time again, but this time around it's in a Japanese Prisoner-of-War camp, fastidiously directed by Nagisa Oshima. The film showcases two accomplished performances by David Bowie and Tom Conti, as well as a splendidly theatrical one by Ryuichi Sakamoto, in a manner half-way between Bette Davis in her heyday and traditional Kabuki theatre. Sakamoto wrote the score too and it ties with Tom Waits's One from the Heart as being the best of the t year.