The Independent from London, Greater London, England • 25

THE INDEPENDENT THURSDAY IS FEBRUARY 1916 FILM 25 A simple bear necessity Tigers, borsrs, arsis, children and other animals: you know that it must be half-term again. One can understand why animals figure so large in fiction for chfldrn both birairihaljit spsrsllei universe ia Close prox-uniry to, but separate from, the sduft world. I'm not ccartptain-ing: these days, when actors are more likely than animals to have a rrrsnnsl trainer (and trankry more likely to need it), sndwrien the words put in their nsouths are rarely worth hear-mg, it Ti a pleasure to spend a lit-bc quality time in the bestiary. TWjissstli llnnk, artew live-action version of Kipling's storks, boasts a small army of animal wranglers. The impressive results are on view in Ihe The Jiugle Book (PG) Dir.

Stephen Sommen Black Btwite(U) Dir. Caroline: Thompson AawJrc(U) Dir. George Miller Osaka Story (no cert) Dir.TokhiNakata Camilla (PG) Dir. Deepa Mekta Holy rVbtrijasoarj (PG) Leonard Nimoy Esster Pussycat! (no cert) Dir Russell Meyer carry scenes. the child Mowgli under the benign and monkeys.

Soon, however, he sprouts into Jason Scott Lecanddiscoverethegraiideur and foUy of the British Raj: jonn uceee piays inc luun-who initiates him into the absurdities of hue 19th-cen tury etiquette (teaspoons aJHwvr to be stirred clockwise). IxeiajVpurpcexiijc looks have landed him a range of feicky parts (the title role 77 Asssr Let Story, a Rrynesian prince in Rapt Nui. an Eskimo In Map of me Human Heart) from which he has. mostly emerged with honour. He's an ingenuous, usxaoie Mowpi.

Stephen Sommers, the director. nude last years ihe Aaven- name to his traditional Japan-tms of Hack Four, like that esc family. The serenity of the The revenger's tragedy Adam Mars-Jones on Bandit Queen and The Shawshank Redemption movie, the new fihn is good- numuurea ami way wujkjul (at least until the final reels, wtiich sink into a sub-iKuana Jonei romp) turning tacctious. Black Beauty also has the ad- source text and the dilemma of whether to tailor a century -old story lo modern senst-tdkies. The Jungle Book performs slcignl of Kobe's hook into an anlj-colonialist latter plays it straight, going all-out for htnKlodrama.

The film is a the image and uses stow-rnotioo to suggest that she is overwhelmed by memories ofgang rape. This may be true of Phoolan, but it can't be true of her gang, who commit mass murder without, apparently, any word of whole village, at another it becomes almost a sadistic ritual. AflcTwards. at any rate, Vikram sayc "I haven't seen that side of you." And doesnl sound like a reproach. It's" also a problem thai Vikram (Nirmal Pandey), Clyde to Phoolan's Bonnie, handsome, tender and, for a bandit, ptotn-feminist don't buy people, I win their respect, even is so ideal as to seem lata? a parody of a wish-fullihnent fantasy.

When her gang undertakes a raid. Phoolan seems to go into a sort of trance. She may Heal a necklace from a jeweller's, ask a passing girl her name and whether she'd like to join Ihe played by Tan Retains, is raped many times in the eariy part of his incarceration by a group of inmates Irnown as "the The flm is dear that these are not homosexuals expressing their bsredessfes but saiajy rsanrs trying bp break the isrwixsiif inspire in a specialised way, but the end rcsukn that there are no eay people in Shawshank, nor there acydung you could cal sex. When not beau brutally sodonused, the convicts content themselves by looking at posters of -as the decades turn Rita Hayworlh, Marilyn Monroe. Raouef Welch.

No homosexuality, no homo-phobia and no racism in this ideal uur. Morgan Freeman plays the prison fixer. Red, who is never made to fed a second-class citizen as a black man by his fellow inmates or by the staff. It would he churlish lo object to anyUiing that brings us a performance as likeable as Freeman's, but it would be nice lo supplement the colour-bund casting (of a part that is Irish in the book) with just a lillle rewriting, to reflect what would have been like lo be black in that place and that time the historical reality, rather than the universal truths of the This week's subject in die cinema the lime Re RqK.rcvi.iiB: and rchab-ililalkwi. In Shckhar Kapur's Batata1 Qaeea.

a kiw-camc Indian wanan-acniaayhutalHedsnee her marriage at the age of 11 -turn im her tsjinrcssiirs. while in Frank Draivnli 77 Smmnk Redemptkm. a rugb-castc Amer-ican hanker in pram ft murder survives the sexual assaults of tcikw prisMKTS and rises show the torments of incarccralkin. Band- Queen, written by Mala Sen, linens with the hakl stalc-meol "This Hue none uf the leeway that "tiaaed on" would aOuw. StaL true or not and the person whose history it purports to lell.

Phoolan Den. rejects it the story hard to tol-kw. In me scene, for instance. Phoolan's lover. Vikram, is wounded in the river ChamhaL Ills a wound thai will need a city doctor, hut we don't see how the couple travel.

There's simply a oil lo Kaipur city and a doctor examining Vikram wound. But then the doctor leaves the flat we see is not his hut Phoolan's and Vikram's. So what are we supposed lo imagine? Apparently, that Phoolan and Vikram travel by some dreamlike means to the city, find themselves DickcHian roller- loTIIMjassgle Jasoa auumuiiudalion and then locale a doctor who makes house calk -ahintnehohnand approach lo emergency medical treatment. Other scenes are easy lo follow as narratives, biapuzding in their point of view. Phoolan and Vikram.

in whose company she has learnt lo overcome the trauma of abuse, track down her husband of long ago and take revenge on him. Are' we sup-poscdlo notice that this is not a deep-laid plan, but an irnpukive response? When Phoolan visits her parents and introduces them to Vikram. her rather should be with your husband." Her reptys in effect lYninm' hushtndaU right, kwf She is taking revenge in a displaced wiy on her lather, who, sncr all, agreed to the arranged marriage. The psychological muddying of this scene is the more damaging saice il ntarks Ihe poim where Phoolan Devi stops being a stan-dard bandit, remarltahle for her gender, and becomes an equivocal avenger of her caste and her sex. The punishing of the husband nians drawn-out and perhaps udal: at one point it seems lo tie carried out sa view of the isnX at 143 minutes, a short fUm.Thesiii4ikJl liissnalionof the great leisure of the proceedings is that the director (Frank Darationt.

in Ins first venture for ihe big screen), is pushing the material towards being a fihn rather than a movie. A movie is plot-driven, fits neatly into a genre and lasts less thsn 1QU minutes. A film seeks to make general statemenls about life, and there is no upper limit of length. The prison that gives the film its title, and where almost all Ihe action is set. comes perilously ckac lo hecoirrav a inctanhor for the human concwon.

and people say things like "Hope is a food thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies. The sad thing is that The Shawshank Redemption, a so-ao film, would have made a terrific little movie. A pacier project would have given us less time to notice sentimentalities: very few of the convicts can be desenbed as bad people, while almost all the villains are on the staff. The treatment of sex in prison is notably stranded between genre conventions and a more serious spproach. The hero, coaster ride Scott as through the late Victorian caste system: Beauty begins life well, falls into bad bands (Eleanor Brim and the late Feter Cook as two cruel snobs), then good ones (David Thewlis as a rxxw-bul-honesl cabbie) bciorc namwty esoiping the knacker yard.

Cjuoline Trunnion tells her story from the horse's point of view (his voice is by Alan Cum- mints), which nukes for some slriking effects everyday sounds prcternaturaHy magni- fled as they grate on Ihe sack Beauty: a shot which lingers on the gentleness of a friendly handT At times, though, also slows down the movie: this is for viewers who like lo waleh hri- cal footage, lots and kits of it. of horses canterini Ihrouch But at least Ihe animals arc treated with respect, wruch can't be said of Andre, by a good way the worst of the week's three a national hero. The end titles ran over a rap song which goes: "When you hear that tunny sound You know Andre around." Basta. The cinema documentary is by the American Acidenry, rarely allowed out on the big screen. A few years back, Michael Moore's commercial hit Ajsxt and Me was snubbed at the Oscars; this year it's the critically lauded Hoop Dreams (ihe Feature Film Company is bravely giving il a UK cinema outing next month).

Osaka Story Isn't nearly in the same' class, but welcome snyway-to ening scenes cracn. to reveal licamous falher. a ijrofoundlv unhannv mother and a son steeling himself la confess thai he's gay. A little overstretched, out a warm ana liuiriane IjUle fihn. The best thing in CaasUla, a rather dull road-movie about the friendship between an elderly musician and a much younger one (Bridget Fonda), is the hue Jetties Tandy whose radiant beauty and aimmanding presence carries all before her.

One would have lo be churlish not to melt to the love scenes between MawgU her character and Hume (lierliustiandmrealliie)-arare example uf older characters alkiwed a sexual tenderness, Holy Malisssuaj is a dud Patricia Arquelle reprises her 7hir Romance role as a floozie on the run. In bUing in a strict Anabaptist community, she is married off. for reasons too silly and irnplausible to go into here, lo a ll-ycar-old boy. The film dwells on her ritual humil- utlion at his hands (at root, this is another Macau lay Culkin-itc paean to brat power) and skirts unhappily around the perverse implicatkuis of the union. The week's real booby-prize goes lo Russell Meyer, breast fetishist and cult director exlra- ordiriaire.

who is being: hon- ourcd with a retrosncctivc. Il mcuioes tne sunimeiy titiea Faster Passycatl Kill! Kill! (1966) (see listings far reps. below), wherein three toughgo-ro dancers rio tliroujdi the Cal- cornpAtd fcv Screen International CURRENT RELEASES 9BAPTA NOMINATIONS INCLUDING BEST RLM Is thst because the before hand, or was atrocity? By leaving these ques-tions open. Batik Queen comes closer to having no point of view than to having a complex one which could contain both heroism and its opposite. The film leaves only incidental satisfactions in the memory.

The bleached ravines mind the river ChanbaL and the music of Nusrat Fatea AH Khan, equally, stark in its beauty, an unfamiliar expletive that the But riles; and a tbuchingry human moment in Seema Bst- was's pnfaiiamuc as Phoolan, where she tfiesio share Vikram a pleasure in music by rnknicking the Utile snakes of the head thai in him arc spontaneous. The Sltswstssak Btttesastfka is drawn from short novel by Stephen King, but it ccrtaauy FILM: -tux AWBxnsxBi or raaniLLA. atsssKornBrsnsBRiisii'taMW mm mmm. JKitl ftwSSr I JU JUS. H.W.

SA (mmm Hammw 2A I A US. AMATOI () Ka Wkt mmm tat. UtM Mia Hm XI km! tmrnm fcf l.m a-iu Ms XI KM Titt 4 Cm Omrn IJU 4A'UK Stt fla MS. AWL SA MaiaiwstrriwMiiissijfti-irfsw hi SfriL nil Itw Ikmr S. 7m lUm lajiita l.

4jn.S3.SJi lUmm ISUHi IM. iX. e. Utai RaM SM 1IJ. 7 JU.

UXt SJtk (IM SinIM immmuL VBC COSrCBSU GST ms BLCBSI kusja. rcraiPiuitarsswi IIS) MlHI (IMItaiaSt SinJit iX.im.VB: I I 2DS. SJB. Kmrnm JSf JSSIf I A 4A III UC JSa faniii2ju sa sat Stmm Kmm-a US. 4JI (IS)E i.iiiWJirii.in tMllTowClwM UtCmpmmrtmm.

Ill IA4.laS4. ua aalr a mm im sm. an im, IKIMl3ktm.MiVKtru1mmlUIKai Luissantisaiikiaaiui 4AS, 445. UTS: MUST ThwwVn 12.IS.X1S, S.IS. Sjifc Ntm fsw isin.sja.sjBi immmrtimX3a.ua.moauiittkm OJS.iB.Ua.USi Wkmj WtmCHi BM.

mm mm or mm fci.li mmm aifntiiMi fSi) JMrMnk! SSSSUN SM MnwTV iiMiiH nlHa mmm Dmnm urn mmm km nracr IS lia iiiiiiIm of Mi mm mmm fmmrn fmrntm! OK Om (Sm SXfm mmm mmm mim ml tm mmi Sm mm NFT. LnMa (mmm mm Htm Cmm M-7t JS77) ijunuy iriovies. Il spins the most lfomian desert, abducting a threadbare of storylines: animal flufty little teenager for pur-enters dysfunctional family and poses left unexplained (Meyer's sets everyone lo rights (animals film is surprisingly discreet on are the shrinks of poor Amer- matters erotic), ica). Andre it a seal, impcraon- Technically impressive -aled in the fihn by a sea lkm. much more elegant than the ahhough that's the least of the drive-in trash it was meant to he indignities he has to suffer oth- lampooning nwctongry funny, en include getting togged up in it still looks suspiciously like a sfcM a beanie kat and one-ioke movie.

Hawaiian shirt. His main. BAB films open tomorrow indeed his only party trick is blowing raspberries, a social Sheila Johnston and then, when the child's starts to snatch her awav. her the necklace to wear on wedding day. Public law- brcakirtg seems to be a form of regression therapy far her.

creating a space where she can repair the past fantasy. The director. Shckhar Kaipur, tries to put us inside Ptioouint head when, in a sense, we least need to be there. When he shows ushLTmaiainlamouscsisoa.the Behind massacre, he bleaches YOU NOW BOX-OFFICE CHART Both JUns open tomorrow 1JH.4JU.7JU.A HSJIMIII5IBMJ ill tmrnm mm. 1111 SHI IIFCHLmi ifasrm imi uk S11A1I5.4JI1.S Sakr.il WJVIJI fin.

sa mm mm i.ia us. sas. VA JtfriAf IMkv I2A JUB. SJ5. SA UnSShtji IIJUM.

l4S.4Ak5S.SJS. maMom cKi) jm mi ml CmmmmmiMiSASMAmmim-mmm I2A1ASA.15!(ISM SM 2A SJS. SA UCI BSSmb 1 A US. SA LKt KMr Wot Sml I A 4A SA SA lC0r ll Fm am MhSKUrUtlsailJl rjlItMalKU nxncMa- mhm urSfctu2jqMi mm tMIMi 'H III 705. TRUB LOBS (15) Imm 11A SA TnjXnC0WK3I(llqjlClMaUtl CiMiMl In, I ill a VMiumi).

TAXYAOKIMUSlSJUtTIUlSMPW-tmrnm mmm hr lo IHt Tka JSMfe IUS. 3.15. 545. 115. II )i JKV I7m Qoa mjamm mt 172k CMBtSMMJStl7KBMfcGMa7l JOS EM Ljk Si ItMmmll: Cmm Nok-mm rnmmmt KA Omrn SSI JSC! Lt-mim Slim MM4T7S7J7! BMSM mmmm IStt UGSI IMa tSf UJ: MOM WinSS) 4T7JBif: MOM fcSM Ammm UCml TiaMaa CM BMSllsmiSIlMIMMSSSt'rkf 2B 42S NMa HB Om 727 iMiiBiiaMMssswrisii il tfii rr rrmi nim i imi iii i St JUS OAn Umtm mmt MS4V4W: OSM IIbmSm.

IMM Bmb aos- sfssss sm osm osm soisissn -run ni i iiiiim Tamil nrr rrt im oms must ask im as immm (IomMi B4SHQ, JSmjmbV (M mlSmilmmm(MuiyfammlmlMmm mfOmmmm (Sua SJSmj. Mmmrnrn Mm Ami smm mmtssTimmmsai) mmm to ax plMHMB BsaarTVOlM bjm) fiiaiiiTiB iMafcsnsW) osuai SlMlBlOa SIMMS SMI aUTOBE (IS) Dm SMBk. KA Ornmm 4AS4S.SA tsdoss coloub sb (is) man ri iiiitMsMMftiiSMJSiai Ami SM 110, 4A 7JB. SA Ik mmt-m JA5A7ASA nsssnor iuu vm im JULES ST JDI tfOI raaUkM JKurna- MSMUS.4ja.sja. 4rxmn imi iipr i IIisSi I inai Tpim umJimisw KiLixac BOC (SS) Ktovabiiwajs.

UEOX (IH A IwaM tjri wmhr mm wmm. Cmtmmn Am Tm.JS:IKaiTmOlMmilJS.US.3S. Ok fkkm MsS Jfiw 1HU 4JS. 7.UI, US. SlU im Olim WtnM IJKSm ljt3JHU8.Jlt KT Mm? I Utmn.

1 JO. 4JH. US. UL TBI tstH ITXC IUI Kmmmotmm- VCI SMrta I14SL IMMALA(l5)ALltii lMnL(1 JS.US.tM.t3ialmm Irnta Km US. 4JU.7JK.SJtt Smtm Om Omrn US.

US, sjatnrjjtoataWi.i5.3Jri.s.ns4): UC7 HMtkm Omtm. 2JS. JUS. 7J0. S4B, FtlLP I1CTI0M IMA EUndk TMkv asfar.rii miuiiMijSutaiir- mmmn 1.15.

4ja UBt JJritf JSahAvr mm I 445. SOk HI SJS: Vmmr mm CW ISl J.IS. SJDL LA BtSjTjas SUasiOT (IS) tmmmal Cm. mmt wSl CknNH tmfm 2JU, 5JSX SJXIi Omrn mk Stmt SMww 2JB, SIB. HI Tir-i nimii i it itt ItSMataKjISSllULUIW SSlllinW aUTI (IS) Skit mmmh.

asm mmt km wwiant mm nil LAsausasat mm mifni in i it it mm rrir mm im UU 7A SJS Sm Smwm 1M. 4A 43D. SSk LCI Wmmm Ilmmm. 4JS, 4ft Wmmm mm fmt 12.15. JJS.

4JS 7.13, svai SOUTAtSS! sons 115) Oii i kMast SM a ask fet kms mmisf tjoHTiiitmi izsmntja. TASJEiOSMISstSIM lJS.4Jl.7jai SJS: SM Om Oh Oil. US. lA 14St Hat 1 A lAsMO. SJOt Ho mm Dm iA3ja.iis.a4s.

REPS Mi JM Mi sat tmrnm M. S.TTM, rtlmm. Mm U0mm fsMM MJJ-J3I JSSS) IJWaOM SM IBM llasi.las IVISstj ilkm ij aar II In IiSii Mi amm. trnmrnm laa Smm mmtll m714M MM MBMflWiTll- MlSjinBalBMIMSwlSFT imDmm ii4.U(SsiiSiSl xcarnLuxutLS i TdK Myn tkkm US. KM.

immMM iBaasag tht US chart: a MsaSssn, asrraaasta iisiss, Jmsst ssilsiaWBIB fatM listtsg ingh ta Bfth ptaca), afs aaorktr ctrntiy whIessllH the esutsilBtlltaasl stars Adasa SaadirrPaaaNiiioiBn has Jaat Ban Osiar aailnatil fcr hk kauicstafTS pirtarasanrt as aa hitipsaiMi law laaar hi Jwjes.fr i litl (above). I (-) BfflyMadlsasi US 1 (-) TlaQBneksadiatDssHJ i US 3 (1) Ugeaaltaf the Fall US 4 (2) Bays as tk Sid. US 3 (5) IkaaBhasmDssssber i US (6) Nateslylhet US 7 (4) la tWMtasthafMadarii US I (9) MsutBthaFlrit US 9 (3) TkJrrkyBtM US II (7) IllgMaaalrr 3i The Stwesrer US AT A CINEMA NEAR Chan mmmy I4IU SSIJJ,.