The Vancouver Sun from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada • 37

The Vancouver Sun, Thursday, October 10, 1991 CS FESTIVAL REVIEWS FEATURES Taste of relationship hell in a dark, bitter brew vC says when Fernand tries to reach out to him. With dad away, mother and son have a good bottle of wine, fresh avocado salad and a cozy fire. They have something else, too, which isn't too clear. The movie loses its way a little when Michel comes home from hospital. All of a sudden we get a more detailed look at his drinking than we expect or even want at this point.

surface of their characters, and turn in pretty good supporting performances. The problem with this movie is hard to pinpoint, but something is rattling all the way through. This movie looks like the '50s kind of. It sounds like the '50s kind of. But True Confections doesn't belong to the era, nor does it really succeed in evoking it Writer-director Singer has written a human story about a young woman coming of age.

She seems to have set it back in time to make the struggle for female independence a little easier to grasp as though the era would flesh out dilemmas not immediately evident in the script. But the age and the story is forced, and all the beehive hair-dos in the world can't save it. KM. OOP r-jL. ALL KIDS DESIGNER WEAR Starting TRUE CONFECTIONS: Verna (Leslie Hope) and her Oxford-educated fiancee Martin (Kyle McCulloch) in Gail Singer's nostalgic comedy-drama PANTS SKIRTS SWEATS SKI JACKETS SWEATERS DRESSES NORD Directed France.

by Xavier Beauvois. Today, 9:45 p.m. Subtitled. Vancouver Centre. ORD, A FIRST feature from 25-year-old French director Xavier Beauvois, is a quiet, painful study of a horribly dysfunctional family.

The family is being destroyed by an alcoholic father. He's Michel, a desperately unhappy, pig-eyed man who trudges to work as a pharmacist every day. At home, looking after their severely disabled daughter is his sad-eyed wife (Bulle Ogier), who can barely stand to look at him. His son Fernand (Xavier Beauvois) desperately wants to escape. Things are awful to start with, but they only get worse.

The family sits glumly at the dinner, table night after night, turning up the racket of a TV no one watches. The disabled daughter is the barometer of family tension when Michel starts abusing his wife and son, she starts to pant and moan. Finally, Michel's boss demands he take the cure or else. Even in the treatment centre, getting dry, Michel manages to push Fernand away. "Don't kiss me.

I stink," he LONELY HEARTS Starring Beverly D'Angelo, Eric Roberts and Joanna Cassidy. Directed by Andrew Lane. U.S. Today, 4 p.m Vancouver Centre 1. LONELY HEARTS IS the story of a slimy conman, Frank (Roberts), and his newly found tag-along gal, Alma Bates (D'Angelo).

Alma is an obsessive-compulsive civil servant who just kicked a food addiction and is now looking for love. She finds it in the lean, muscular form of Frank. Frank smiles, says nice things, asks Alma her after-tax income, kisses her on the hand, drives a red Camaro with personalized plates. What more could a single woman ask for? Hey, wait a minute after tax-income? By the time Alma realizes her new beau is a grifter, she's into him like a vat of hot toffee she's addicted. Alma becomes a slave to love.

She watches Frank come home with other women. She helps him on the job. Mentally and physically abused, Alma remains in the relationship. The only person who can save Alma from herself is a private investigator, Erin Randall (Cassidy). But Alma isn't sure she wants to be saved.

She's on a high. She's lived a caged life in the pink-collar ghetto. She can only ask herself: what's worse a life of impersonal oppression or a life of passionate abuse? Doom looms, pushing the plot onwards in stops and starts. Every sequence ends in a fade-to-black, then slowly re-emerges from the depths, a little grimmer than before. The effect is a slow descent into relationship hell.

While it's not brilliant, Lonely Hearts has a strange enough beat to keep it interesting. Roberts and D'Angelo pull silent truth from their characters using their bodies and facial expression. Not a lot happens on the outside, but something is percolating inside something dark, strong and bitter. Unfortunately, after brewing for the length of the movie, the ending suffers a major script problem: it spits, sputters and vaporizes into the ether. Too bad, but it's still better than instant.

Katherine Monk TRUE CONFECTIONS Starring Leslie Hope, Jill Riley, Kyle McCulloch. Directed by Gail Singer. Canada. Today, 7 p.m. Starlight; Tuesday, Oct.

15, Starlight. HOW ABOUT THOSE zany '50s? Remember going to Klesmer camp, listening to beat poetry and almost getting raped by the boy next door? No? Well you wouldn't have a lot to say to Verna Miller (Hope), the lead character in True Confections. Verna is an 18-year-old Winnipeg-ger who wants to escape from the flat life of the Prairies. Her slightly mVilMIliillil 0 0 0 0 OOOOO OOOOOOOQ nil i mi i 'ii i in '-r-- Sfr'ffi I 1 ALL DRESSES IN STORE 0 DRESSES FOR frrmim ALL occasions ry Eg mfJMw-m A far below v-': Smn WHOLESALE Sale Ends Sunday! 0 It's as if the first half of the movie" is the son, the second the father. In the end, they come together in tragedy.

Michel can always find ways to destroy his son. This is a restrained, subtle movie, and the performances are wonderful. Beauvois is a big talent; to make a first feature this finely tuned, and act in it as well, is quite a feat for a guy only halfway through his 20s. Elizabeth Aird SLASHED Sale Ends Sunday! P.JM;-. They re coming to a theatre near you VANCOUVER FILM FESTIVAL stereotypical Jewish family (how many times do we have to see a Jew ish aunt wearing leopard-print dresses, recognizing her rebellious streak, wants to marry her off in a hurry.

But Verna is just beginning to see the great big world around her. She goes to Beat poetry readings, dreams of travelling to New York, and wears her clothes a little baggier than the rest. Before you get your hopes up, remember: she's from Winnipeg, FRIDAY 10 a.m. Words and Silk (Cinematheque); Little Rabbits (Vancouver Centre). 10:30 a.m.

Diplomatic Immunity (Vancouver Centre). Noon Peter Ibbets'on (UBC). 1 p.m. On the Waves of the Adriatic (Cinematheque); Highway 61 (Vancouver Centre). 1:30 p.m.

Journey of Hope (Vancouver Centre). 2 p.m. Our Blood Won't Allow It (UBC): 4 p.m. One Generation of Tattoos (Cinematheque); I Can No Longer Hear the Guitar (Vancouver Centre). 4:30 p.m.

Island of Lost Souls (UBC), By the Sword (Vancouver Centre). 7 p.m. Crossed Lines (Hollywood); The Man From Island West (Cinematheque); Sneak Preview (Ridge); The Bewildered King (Starlight); My Father Is Coming (UBC); Nelligan (Vancouver Centre). 7:15 p.m. Berlin Report (Vancouver Centre).

9:30 p.m. Boiling Point (Hollywood); Yumeji (Cinematheque); The Fall of Otrar (Ridge); Delicatessen (Starlight); My Love, My Bride (UBC); The Pianist (Vancouver Centre). 9:45 p.m. Dance on the Dump (Vancouver Centre). Midnight Blood and Concrete (Cinematheque).

i WOOL AND BLENDS she's 18, she has the intelligence of a potato. Whether Verna has the chutzpah to cast off her family's expectations and make her own way is the sedate engine in this Edsel. The movie revs in a couple of places, but coasts for most of the trip. Hope hands in a good performance as the doe-eyed, dough-brained kid-come-woman. She also has enough on-screen presence to keep the film interesting.

Another bright spot is Riley, who plays Verna best friend Norma. Riley, and Doreen Brownstone, who plays Verna's granny, get past the "fi my 'xxxxiXXSxsx rOOT-I ofcl ji.i.mii Tr' -v 'I xx' fe xi TODAY 10 a.m. Lenin, the Lord and Mother (Cinematheque); Adam's Rib (Vancouver Centre). 10:30 p.m. Skinless Night (Vancouver Centre).

Noon The Duration ot Lite (UBC). 1 p.m. Stranger (Cinematheque); TBA (Vancouver Centre). 1:30 p.m. Holidays on the River Yarra (Vancouver Centre).

2 p.m. Gate ot Flesh (UBC). 4 p.m. Story ot a Prostitute (Cinematheque); Lonely Hearts (Vancouver Centre). 4:30 p.m.

Close Up (UBC); The Station (Vancouver Centre). 7 p.m. The Appointed (Hollywood), Swordsman in Double-Flag Town (Cinematheque); Flirting (Ridge): True Confections (Starlight); All Of Me (UBC); Don't Disturb (Vancouver Centre). 7:15 p.m. Stan and George's New Life (Vancouver Centre).

9:30 p.m. Black Republic (Hollywood); The Last Dreamers (Cinematheque); Devils, Devils (Ridge); Entre la Langue et I'Ocean (Starlight); Marriage of the Blessed (UBC); Delusion (Vancouver Centre). 9:45 p.m. Nord (Vancouver Centre). Worsted CashmereMohairGarbardineMohairPolv-Wooll, lUCGITiC TOPIJNE, OUR NTAXST a SorT Si fQES CAS RLlE1! YOUR need a And you don't even (aiUfiBDflnKniD NATURALIZE SHOES THAT DON'T CRAMP YOUR STYLE.

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