The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 66

MONDAY OCTOBER 27 PREVIEW GUIDE i mm i ROBIN OLIVER SBS, 8.30pm (mmm Pwddp wmh I I yW VS- a THE GIFT: Nine, 4pm. Pleasing twist on the old if genie and magic lamp trick JI by writer David Ogilvy (Crocadoo, Return to Jupiter) as a battered old red suitcase is passed from hand to hand. Inside is a gift which, when opened, enables the recipient to reach full potential. In the first handover, Henry, 13, only a so-so saxophone player, suddenly gains unexpected musical talent. Peter Rowsthom and Kate Beaham keep the suitcase moving.

Monday to Thursday for the next six weeks. MURDER CALL: Nine, 830pm. What was a preg-f nant nun in red high heels tkmJ doing in a hotel frequented by prostitutes? And why is she now dead? Pleasingly brisk mystery. FOUR CORNERS Battle rfl Royal: ABC, 8.30pm. The jjS former Governor General Sir Zelmah Cowan is not the only distinguished knight of the realm who believes Australia should become a republic.

Four Corners has found at least one other, but is keeping the surprise outing to itself until this report by Liz Jackson on the national campaigns for the Constitutional Convention vote. Newcastle footy hero Steve Crow, a republican candidate, looks forward to a time when somebody from his neck of the woods will be Head of State. President Crow? Perhaps not yet and maybe never. "Sir Zelman has sold his soul to the devil," says a pro-monarchy candidate. the eight young racers, pictured above, find out who wins the prizes.

mention Ben, Scott, Claudia and, of course, John. Naughty John, who streaked in Israel, who paid an African magician to put a curse on an ex-girlfriend, whose film roadtesting priests in the confessional was disqualified. Many of the racers' films improved as they progressed, learning not to cram too much into their four minutes. Rubbo is confident we shall see most of them again, in some guise. "What I like about it is they have discovered the charm and the power of documentaries, as has the audience," he says.

Now Rubbo is looking for another team for next year's series. This is one race that might never end. Jenny Tabakoff THIS documentary concerns" a mural completed in 1995 by Rob Scholte, Holland's Andy Warhol. We follow the progress of the doodle in a Dutch theme park in Nagasaki, hardly believing the bad taste of the maritime apocalypse Scholte chooses as his theme. Seventeenth-century man-of-wars confront helicopter gunships against a backdrop of mushrooming clouds and imperilled humanity.

The opening establishes all too well the deranged post-modernity of this freakish work, sited in a replica of a Dutch royal palace, as well as Scholte's approval of the architectural Hollandaise around it Things go radically off the rails and the emotional temperature soars when a Japanese photographer peels back Scholte's trouser legs to get a clearer shot of his amputee's stumps. The artist responds with a stream of bitter, and wholly justified, invective. Instantly darker, the film departs the theme park for the scene of the unsolved crime that robbed Scholte of his legs in 1994. We leam something of his gadfly role in Dutch art and of his militancy for artistic freedom in the face of anonymous, but clearly genuine, threats to life. Uncomfortable viewing ensues as the artist and his wife pick over a bomb-wrecked car, looking for a pregnancy test-kit their last link to the child she was carrying at the time of the blast Bad art; good story.

Bruce James your lounge room your bedroom. frQCKD QQGQQ QQQG DOUG ANDERSON from people under 30 eager to spend 100 days globe-trotting and filming. Since going to air in June, the series has rated "very nice double figures" and attracted lots of young viewers, says executive producer Mike Rubbo. The success has been deserved. The eight racers have turned in some terrific four-minute films and even the lesser ones have at least been different from anything else on our screens.

Rubbo says that he "cast" the racers as though he were casting a film -eight different but complementary characters. There was Olivia, "the super-reporter girl who's got a Kim, "the perpetual Daniel, "the lovable big not to OQQOGQ QQ Put this Bose And we'll 'if 1 I 1 The big moment tonight ABC, 9.30pm RACE Around the World makes its last stop tonight when, after 20 weeks, the winners are revealed. It's a special one-hour edition, with four documentaries (from Olivia Rousset, Kim Traill, John Safran and Daniel Marsden) followed by the presentation of prizes. And, no, I can't tell you who wins Race Around the World has been a resounding success ever since the ABC received 18,000 applications FOLLOW YOUR HEART (1991) On Seven at noon AN ex-marine, stranded in a sleepy but sinister flyspeck town, finds himself embroiled in curious relationships seething below the surface. The machinations of the town's main eccentric family draw him in a position as invidious as that facing any unwary viewer watching this lunchtime todge.

THREESOME (1994) On Ten at 830pm THE university's computer has been programmed to specify Alex as male. Perhaps Alexandria (Lara Flynn Boyle) should have put her full name down on the form. For reasons known only to computer science and romantic sitcom, Alex finds herself designated a room in the college's male dorm with Eddy and Stuart They're mates, but how do they cope with their attraction to the beautiful newcomer? Party of Three stuff, with Stuart majoring in Bozo Sexism and Advanced Inebriation, Eddy not quite sure of his sexuality and all the signs of a razor-edged triangle emerging from the menage a trois. Not as awful as it sounds. AMELIA LOPES O'NEILL (1991) On SBS at 1230pm AMELIA and her sister Anna live in a magnificent villa overlooking the harbour in Valparaiso.

They are a beautiful pair and suitably played by yummy Laura de Sol and Laura Benson. When, one evening, the virtuous Amelia encounters a doctor who mistakes her for a prostitute, she inexplicably pretends she is going with him and giving up her virginity for a cash payment Some doctor! These encounters continue (does she bonk and bulk-bill but when her sister is taken ill and the doctor attends her, Amelia goes full-tilt, full-time only to be murdered by a client Sounds like melodrama and, despite its many attractions, it is. sound system in put one in this KILL ME AGAIN (1989) On Seven at 830pm A CHEERFULLY irreverent road movie in which private eye Val Kilmer and Joanne Whalley-Kilmer fang through Nevada's scenic desert and assorted big cities trying to make off with $750,000 of stolen gangland swag. Concerned that her psycho ex-boyfriend, Vince, might care to hasten her demise, Fay Forrester asks her detective buddy, Jack, to fake her death. Which he does, with radical repercussions leading to more twists than Chubby Checker's intestines.

BORIS GOOUNOV (1989) On SBS at 12.40am (Tuesday) OPERAS seldom translate to the screen decently one of the most impressive, they say, being a silent version of Carmen. Bergman's Magic Flute was pretty amazing, Losey's Don Giovanni pretty unamazing and Saura's Carmen an improvement on Carmen Jones. Only The Marx Bros A Night at The Opera has managed to make milage from the innate theatricality of the art form. This film stands almost alone as a triumph of cross-pollination. Immense care was taken to get the sound resonances and spatial relationships right in a work from Andrzej Zulawski (a protege of Wajda) which comes highly recommended.

Boris Godunov, a kind of Russian Macbeth, arranges the murder of Tsarevich Dimitri, younger brother of Tsar Feodor and heir of Ivan The Terrible. Boris accepts the throne, but he is racked with fear of the masses and retribution from God. As his court descends into decadence, Boris sinks into insanity. The Boyars waste little time in offing him. The people rise up, the Kremlin is set afire and a new contender, backed by the Pope, sweeps in from Poland.

Once again an Imperial Court will hold sway and the people will, once more, be crushed. Yeltsin would adore this with a chilled Gagarin's Underpants Style Imperial vodka. I certainly will. Bose has long raised expectations of home music systems. Now they're redefining value at Valtel.

Purchase a Bose Lifestyle 20 music system from Valtel between October 1st and December 23rd and receive a BoseWave radio, valued at $649, absolutely free of charge. Because Bose believes the quality of your music shouldn't change when you change rooms. The Bose Lif estyleO music system breaks the mould for hi-fi. The cube speakers are so small you can hold them easily between your thumb and first finger. The music centre is so slim, it's hard to believe it contains a six-CD changer and AMFM tuner.

You have never heard such concert-like clarity from such tiny technology. The Bose Wave radio is yet another small breakthrough. Popular Science magazine elected it to its "Best of What's New" list The Chicago Tribune said, "If you listen with your eyes closed, it sounds like a small stereo component At Valtel we think it's simply amazing and we'll gladly demonstrate it to you in our sound lounges. This is also no mere clock radio. Even though it will wake you to your favourite AM or FM station.

The difference is, full, lifelike, room-filling sound. So good you'll want to connect your portable CD, cassette player or VCR to enhance the sound of your favourite music. (Connections to your Lifestyle20 are already included). So, join the thousands who are enjoying music as they have never heard it before, just pop into your nearest Valtel store for a listen and a very pleasant wake up call. seniiZrL We're your Home Entertainment Store In the Hills District Upper North Shore "ornsby 9482 3577 North Rocks 3873 3475 WestReld SHOPPINGTOWNS' SMH The Guide, October 27-November 2, 1997.