The Gazette from Montreal, Quebec, Canada • 100

it 10J The GAZETTE, Montreal, Saturday, November 22, 1980 FILM MQV8E HQUkDU? i 'Idolmaker' takes a trip to early days of rock excellent, the script Is a nicely understated working-out of Laingian psychological theories and Robert Redford makes an impressive directorial debut. Stardust Memories (Place Ville-Marle) This is not among Woody Aden's best movies even though it's amusing fairly frequently. Allen Is rather more sell-Indulgent than usual and implies hia unwarranted contempt for his fans in this semi-autobiographical comic romance about a filmmaker at a festival of his own Hu.i,uiiiy.iMi.ij.yiiKJ jf m-i 4m Immsmm St i pjtm IliiiliiiMft -f reeoie plot ts FINAL ASSIGNMENT La Cite, Dorval, Snowdon A Lawranca HartzocPsfsaphona production; diractad by Paul Almond; acraanplay by Marc Rosan from a atory by Gail Thornton; atarring Genaviava Bujold, Michael York, Burgaaa Mara-dilh and Collaan DawhuraL By BRUCE BAILEY of The Gazette If you can accept all the premises of Final Assignment, you probably also believe in Santa Claus. The plot of this Canadian-made product, filmed in Montreal, is almost as leaky as the sinking Titanic. It was, however, a fairly good attempt at being American-slick.

There's nothing really wrong with the acting of Genevieve Bujold, Michael York, Burgess Meredith and Colleen Dewhurst. And director Paul Almond seems to have abandoned the offbeat style of his Journey and settled instead for nondescript cinematography and cutting. The direction should offend nobody except those expecting more than something off the commercial assembly-line. This time around, Bujold plays Nicole, a Canadian television reporter on assignment with the prime minister's entourage in Moscow. Though obsessed with her job, Nicole gets romantically involved with Soviet press liaison Lyosha (Michael York).

Personal and political loyalties cross swords, however, when Nicole meets with Russian scientist Dr. Ulanova (Colleen Dewhurst). hur Final I 'j Tha Idolmaker (York) This nostalgia trip to tha late 1950a and early 1960s features soma fine acting by Ray Sharkey as a promoter intent on making rock stars out of two young punks. However, the drama's conflicts seem-rather diffusa and the film's energy sags from time to time. The Awakening (Loews, Fairvlew) Chart-ton est on stars as an archaeologist who stumbles across the tomb of an ancient Egyptian queen whose spirit eventually possesses Heston's daughter.

Shocks are few and far between In this silly, lacklustre thriller. Ratataplan (Berrl) This Is a weird, surreal comedy from Italy featuring the mostly-mimed adventures of a loopy Inventor and his odd assortment of slum-dwelling friends. The bizarre situations, rather loosely tacked together, are sometimes delightfully funny and not the sort of episodes you're ever likely to see on TV. Jeaua (La Cite) It may be ust fine as a visual aid for Sunday school classes, but this tracing of the entire life of Chirst doesn't stand up particularly well as a film. The voice-overs from the "Good New Bible" are often unnecessary, and the film seema to be plodding through a checklist of Incidents.

The Immortal Bachelor (Place Vllle-Marle) Claudia Cardinals plays a woman called to Jury duty for the trial of another, woman (Monica Vltti) accused of murdering her "macho" husband (Qlancarlo Glannlnl). Feminists may well be upset by this film aa It Impllclty condones a double standard and suggests that women secretly like being slapped. Good News (Atwater) Glancario Glannlnl plays television executive whose marriage la a mess and who is contacted by an old friend convinced (for no good reason) that he's going to be killed. This Italian drama (subtitled in English) Is marked by off-beat, unexplained Incidents adding up to a show that should be of some Interest to fans of European "fringe" cinema. Private Benjamin (Loews, Van Home, Dorval) Goldle Hawn, a spoiled girl-woman, Joins the army after her second husband 1 dies on their wedding night.

The film Is often hilarious as It follows Goldle from rW weeks as an Incompetent recruit through her pcst-graduatlon romance with a rich French doctor. It's My Turn (Oecarle Square, Place du Canada) Director Claudia Weill, who made the stunningly effective "Girlfriends," returns with a hard-to-beileve product. Jill Clayburgh plays a mathematics professor who gets romantically Involved with an ex-baseball player (Michael Douglas) and ends up re-ordering her life rather sudden-ry. Kegemueha (Kent) This co-winner of this year's Cannea festival Is rather long-winded, even In thla shortened "International version." Nevertheless, veteran director Akira Kurosawa tells a powerful atory of a man acting aa the double "shadow warrior" of a 16th-century Japanese warlord. Subtitles are in French at Le Parisian.

Fantastic (Qerrl) Quebecola vedettes Lewis Furey and Carole Laura star In this rather silly, chopplty-cut story about a couple In a travelling stage show. The "plot" of this French-language, disappointing film centers around an attempt by Laura and Monica Vitti Claudia CardinaJe I IB 7 VITT nUHMII I TrJitu VA if Dewhurst In 'Assignment' Several of the minor, details don't hang together either. It's hard to explain, for example, why Lyosha doesn't do an advance check on the material about to be broadcast to the West by a radio correspondent He shouldn't have to resort to interfering with the transmission at the last minute. Be that as it may, local audiences might still get a kick out of spotting all the Old Montreal locations which are used to represent Moscow. There's so much blood in this film, the producer probably had to hire a bucket brigade to keep up the supply on the set That's almost standard practice, perhaps, but unlike most shockers, this film doesn't bother to mess around with motives for all the gore.

Bruce Bailey Michelle Mcstovoy, Colleen The doctor asks Nicole to smuggle out both contraband and Ulanova's sick daughter. The film gets downright ridiculous when Nicole considers hiding the child in a movie camera case (perhaps airtight, and certainly one of the first things the customs officers would check). The final sequence also is untenable. It involves an escape plan which is Insulting to Russian counter-espionage. As well, Lyosha manages to spot the escape vehicle in the dark from the air.

their rather kinky mom gets her kicks by making love to a man with her stocking pulled over his head. This same guy ties up and gags Willy while the lovers go off into another room. But Lacey cuts Willy free and Willy goes into his mother's bedroom and stabs the boyfriend to death. PETER GALLAGHER Star in 'Idolmaker' the locals to save land threatened by development as a paper mill. The Elephant Man (Avenue, La Cite, Dorval) Thla unusually jolting and emotlon-lally-drainlng film etches the tragic story of John Merrick, a man whose mind remained Intact while hia body and face grew hideously distortud.

Anthony Hopkins turns In a fine performance as a physician whose remarkable kindness brought some pleasure to the Elephant Man's last years. The Stunt Man (Wesmount Square) A co-winner of thla year's Montreal World Film Festival, this film is a fascinating, whimsical exploration of paranoia and the thin line between Illusion and reality. It tells the story of an escaped convict (Steve Rallsback) who Is given the cover Identity of a stunt man by film director (Peter 'Toole) but who eventually suspects that the director la trying to kill Loving Couples (Bonaventure) Shirley MacLaine and Donald Sutherland portray a pair of married California doctors who get mixed up In romantic affairs with a real estate salesman and hia girlfriend, TV weatherghl. The film's occasionally amusing, but generally predictable and boring. Motel Hell (Loews) This Is a drawn-out, not-too-funny sick joke.

A brother-sister team (Rory Calhoun and Nancy Parsons) makes a living mainly by selling apparently delicious sausages blended from the flesh of people they've ambushed In or near their farm-motel. C'eat paa moL Cast lui (Laval, Versailles) French director-creator Pierre Richard stars In this atory about a ghost-writer who Is mistaken for a famous screenwriter and ends up In Tunisia with an Italian actor and his mistress. It's all utterly simple-minded, but sprinkled with a few pretty funny slapstick routines. Ordinary People (Claremont) Mary Tyler Moore and Donald Sutherland star in this story of a suicidal adolescent boy trying to cope with the hypocrisies, emotional sterility and lack of communication within a fairly "ordinary" suburban family. The acting is 3rd WEEK! AKAVf lV UMITtO THlATRiS Don't bother with 'BoogeyMan' This film is so sick, it ought to be hospitalized permanently.

The Boogey Man mixes a bit of sex with standard shock devices, primordial fears and Freudian jealousies. And it blends them into something which is tawdry, rather than a good old-fashioned spine-tingler. And that's a shame because it does use scare tactics that could have been effective. Indeed, its fundamental premise plays on the probably valid notion that many people's first encounters with fear and guilt followed on the heels of a parent's warning that "The Boogey Man will get you if you don't behave." The misbehaving kids in this case are Willy and Lacey. They watch as l' I OnKMWAI mLIAMVfHSIOH- "rip-roaring comedy EC PASSIONATE DREAMS in TOOR TX TURN Y00 Cfi wtTH ADULT MOVIE VtOiO CASSETTES ipu).

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