Evening Standard from London, Greater London, England • 20

fj- Uh'sV THE BTAND4RD THURSDAY DECEMBER 1S198 MILTON SHULMAN in London i THE STANDARD THURSDAY DECEMBER 13 1984-21 2-: V4t lit OF the three films an release in London this week none has Its -feet on the ground They are all space-bound and preoccupied with rivalry and violence on worlds combusted out of the imagination of science-fiction writers They make our earth look a peaceful dingy and rather pathetic place By far the most ambitious la Done (PG: 2 hours 18 mins: Empire) which la based ou Frank Herbert's novel and whose vision of the universe around the year 11000 has fascinated over 12 million readers So complex are the dynastic comers through India like a glow-worm Inching across the vastness of the plains He draws foreboding from the glassy blackness of The waters below the bridge It passes over He insinuates the unseen cruelty that can surface amid the beauty in the shape of the crocodile momentarily breaking the moonlit surface of the Ganges And he fuses all of this to gether Into a powerful sequence of ominous sensuality as Judy bicycle ride in the countryside leads her into groupings the military manoeuvres and the jargon of the period that Dino de who produced this epic mi: be relying on Dune fanatics familiar with names and places like Bene Gesserlt Kwisats HaderaCh Alam Al-Mithal and Gomjabbar to make up a large reliance on seml-godlike figures battling against horrendous monsters and super -minds through the vast realms of A- achieve the over terror Because the events fin novel are so crammed with weird characters and supernatural incidents the aawasac nate the universe waged by societies with more technology than brains On the desert planet of Arrakls exists the spice known -as melange which among other things provides prophetic powers enables one to travel without moving and turns the eyes of addicts deep blue whoever controls the spice can rule the universe it is -Paul Atreldes who has been chosen for the task of preventing the spice from ending up in the possession of proportion of the audiences for thisgiganti ils gigantic film Stripped of Its linguistic sbbledegook tl gobbledegook the picture has a fll relatively straightforward story to telL It Is that familiar theme of a struggle to domi Phillips (left) Raacceea Axmls and Silvana Mangswo Ashcroft double triumph (he Hartonnens whoro forces on Arrakls are led by the dreaded Baron with an ability etite for to levitate and an appetite xor wrtwwer the spice also complicated toy the existence ol mile-long worms whose caver-nous mouths make the shark in Jaws look like a minnow and who devour any luckless workers trying to harvest the mystic substance The story owes its inspiration to the Odyssey with its and let us exdte you vth niocfestfy priced don't hwe to be wealthy vvw 'f 4 ALEXANDER WALKER in New York where billiards halt In English Club for the national anthem and ruled The applause after the film but re-were achievement when India was dominating our thoughts and sympathies But achievement it Is The finest Jewel In this cinema crown Dame Peggy performance Bhe keeps her acting senses open to every subtlety in her role the way that other pores are open to the heat Dame Peggy exudes the truth of the film about the mystery and menace of India Explosive She plays the venerable English matron whose young travelling companion (Judy Davis) escorts her to the town of Chandrapore where her jjglsson '(Nigel Havers) Is magistrate Inflicting the British Law on hapless Indians to impress this Sri he is set to make his wife ut India as one character sas frees you to discover about yourself And on a picnic to the nearby Marabar Caves arranged by the nervously worshipfulDr Aziz (Victor Bannerjee) who would give his back couaratud to be an English gentleman the repressed sexuality of the demure girl and the hidden sensuality of the correct and charming doctor are brought into explosive scene of potent which still leaves us arguing over what actually between the two: v- lead-up to this enigmatic climax showed he has no equal In the cinema In manipulating the pictures tn front of our eyes to Implant the thoughts in our heads He evokes inexorable destiny In the train carrying the It turns out that the planet of Rylos Is desperately In need of men with the combat skills to defeat the efforts of Xur and the Ko-Dan armada' to conquer the galaxy The video game was planted by the stranger as a test to discover if there was anyone on earth that might be recruited as a starfighter prowess at -destroying Images on the computer screen gets him rocketed to a world made familiar to us by filmy like Star Wars Unfortunately the sight of Spaceships hurtling through tunnels of glittering stars and regularly blown to ereens has with familiar- Sian the acne problems of eneb youth Sting as a hatchet man has a small part rippling bis muscles and looking sinister -tM- Annfe an ethereaMgality to theroie of me a The Last Starfighter CPQ 100 mins Leicester Square) to an attempt to blend the attrac- tlons of the video game with that of the science fiction flim-Llvlng with his Mum In a caravan park Alex yearns to travel and get away from his humdrum existence When he manages to knock up a record score on a video game a mysterious stranger (Robert Preston) turns up to recruit him for an inter-galactic war in outer apace MISSION: TO THE wm tfsm mm f'-vrVS7 i i IKph -f a i' soa 1'- i 1 fcjbj iij 'V i i 00pi- a iKfras SSspj! jl 4) jt A'fJ i iiVi '( -XHW mM 1 A 1 i ivgj hv jfvJ -r ysi r-y-t-j TO GIVE THE CONRAN TREATMENT Peggy ttty acquired the excitement of a potato sack race The direction by Nick Castle provides enough stellar viol- ence to satisfy addicts of video but the ge romance between games but teenaL Lance Guest as Alex and Catherine Mary Stewart as his girlfriend might be considered rather soppy for likely patrons of this film Caravan of Courage (Ut 97 mins Odeon Marble Arch) can only be recommended to parents searching for suitable Christmas entertainment for the under-lOs This time the-Towani family crash their family starcruiser on the moon of Endor which Is inhabited by large amiable WOMEN i 3vk Jr Came dong to tfie Rich Ftr Salon bur wfcfe iange offur coats and Jacket jpdravagantly styted and proving you tolxiyRfch ONCE again the British have come to conquer the American screen with the old-fashioned virtues of film-snaking on the epic scale After -Chariots of Fire and Gandhi Sir David Lean's first film in 14 years A Passage to India has its US this week It is already the front runner for- next Royal Film Performance It has everything its 76-year-old directors admirers could ask: size story characters human passion and a sense of awesome destiny at work Indeed the only thing that could mar what eeems an assured box office and critical success In America Is the cruel coincidence of opening In virtually the same week as a real life tragedy also in India that Is so much more horrifying than the literary riddle set in Forster's classic whether the Indian Doctor Aziz attempted to rape an English maiden in the gloom of the Marabar Caves I saw A Passage to India at a preview on the same da as The New York Times printed an unbelievably harrowing report of the terrible deaths and living agonies of the thousands of Indians killed or blinded by the worst Industrial disaster history As one American colleague lf-lnr it seemed almost se dulgent to be spectators of brilliantly re-created 1920s India of the viceroys doon and refuse to turn up the oentral heating (even if we have it) so that we can Up Into something loose Perhaps the look of the country Is a total one the climate that goes with the food that goes with the buildings that goes With the art In France no one goes to a chain store for domes There are hardly' any chain stores You have a seamstress or a little woman in the corner shop who buys with you in mind British women are there must he a life before and after clothes and British men reinforce them In this attitude by disapproving of anything too flashy and competitive British style is the best in the world This is the last remaining couni where you can get a pair of handmade Influence Anne thinks It Is from the' world of fashion that help is at hand The- quality 'of their wools their darting' their seorlsland cottons their small patterns are already' influencing women style It Is oxter to extend the style of the top designers for -women here to those who: afford Jean Muir You can rally teach people they wantjbo she If says they only know they want to learn by being told what there la out there Would they have bought the Japanese look if we had told them with wall posters with advertising? America In a store like Bloomlngdales they think nothing of spending 10000 dollars cn a promotion in a tiny part of will test all of a week But te is obviously worth it British Telecom showed what advertising can do here Having moved in on your kitchen your wine cellar and our garden the Conran look i about to take over your wardrobe If it is individualism that makes the British woman resist fStbiosw Mm has been warned WORST-DRESSED (( flifn by trying to stuff in most of them lent leaves behind a whole host of unresolved story lines And confuses an audience with Its baffling time leaps But even if the plot has aJ serpentine complexity the visual Impact of David Lynch direction is' never less than dazzling Hanging from sartorial elegance reminiscent of an Austro-Hungarian court to the weaponry the photography of Freddie Francis and the production of Anthony Masters constantly Intrigue and excite the eye Against (he competition of so much spectacle the actors Inevitably nave a rough time Kyle MacLachlan as the man born to triumph over more frightening obstacles than lumph over cfatecteff faded Ulysses Is too conven- tionally boyish-looking for a job that needed the combined efforts of Burt Lancaster Kirk Douglas and Charlton Heston Kenneth McMillan Is gorgeously evil as the Baron whose face is a terrible reminder of IS THE English woman In the street the worst dressed In the world With her preference for muddy colours and a hemline exactly on the knee whatever year It is the answer would appear to beyeS That Is the opinion of Anne Wade newly appointed by Terence Conran to start the fashion side of his design group and by now an expert observer of these things In 12 years travelling all over the world a fashion buver for Marks Spencer she had the perfect oppor-tunity to study the differences between the English Europeans and her native AmprireiTu Her conclusions What-ever we liberated British women may as teenagers once we are married or settled Into a career we out on a uniform i of respectability which ren- den us just about as invisible Greek matron in ae any ureex matron in permanent Mack or Indeed roe Arab behind the veU Humour Anne is an outspokm girl from the dauahter of a shipper and ahe was eduotted Stanford University and at TiuaTiTif On her way back home she off in London to see boyfriend and stayed That 20 yean ago The banker was soon forgotten and roorotiordst to0? Unfair tailor where the transformed herself through a lusty sense-ox humour Into an essential such rners as Ken Akm who dreamed up the James Bond When die went to -this background naturally made her ambitious for her wider market and diue -was credited with the Introduction Anne took i sr 5 jT 5 a ruined temple on every stone block of which are carved erotic couplings that stimulate her as much as they (and a fierce jabbering horde of mon keys) repel her ror the central act of passion between the girl and the doctor the cinema itself turns Into one of the Marabar cav erns where sounds are eerily all land stereophonically) ampl fled and we strain our eyes desperately to guess what Is happening The effect Is all the more shocking when the solar topee goes bouncing down the hillside like the first bit of damning evidence that will dislodge an avalanche of courtroom accusations and bring social ruin to the wretched Indian physician All the performances are like a string of beautifully graduated pearls Sir Alec Professor Godbole the Brahmin mystic looks literally a little made-up beside Victor fine and faithful picture -of a man who learns through painful experience to be true to and damn his Anglo-Indian pretensions But Guinness makes an amusing prof who fusses over trifles while letting Fate take care of larger matters James Fox Is the sturdy English liberal who puts friendship before club membership and suffers for it But it is Peggy Ashcroft who seems to live a life not confined to the pages of English literature or the scenes of a British film Since The Jewel In the Crown also begins its TV run In America this week tiie looks set to enjoy a double triumph on big screen and and then next year a third one too For I predict this remarkable 163-minute film wm be Peggy passage to an Oscar JtA- fp to f- si E-'V y'V PREVIOUSiy SW95 £2295 £375 £995 £2295 'Mb' teddy bears who speak what sounds like Hungarian and ar too nice to be true When they learn that the four-year-old Oindel and hex teenage brother Mace have been separated from their parents the Ewoks set out on a hunt to find them and then battle with a huge King Kong Isonea creature who has lmprlsox the Towani parents The Intrusion of a magio stick and a sparkling tlnkerbell character the romplngs of the Ewoks as they displayed their rabbit teeth and glass eyes and the constant pleading of the tear-stained Cindel for her Mummy made me feel that I had Just been Injected with an overdose of saccharine chronological 1981 1982 11 order circa 1983 I could have sat down and Bx They Just why are the Brifuh so conservative 7 They buy anything before they buy says Anne "We do surveys all over the country We know that they spend a tremendous amount of money on hedidays In the North they qiend money going out to Pubs and discotheques but there is no emphasis on beauty number of women who are pedicured manicured and massaged la in the minority compared to the United States for instance That is not to say that middle America dresses well Some of the fashions are grotesque Most normal people are always underdressea in Los Angeles or In Dallas 1 there is an awareness along with dieting and Jogging BOkay wear- the grey flannel suit but -how about trying It with same' punchy accessory 7 4 The British womah is terrified that she will look outrageous It is not Just a question of money either I go to Glynde-bourne or the Opera HOuse where you have to have some a ticket and the money to buy at story is Just the same AH you see is acres of drab women In traditional velvet -British women seem to think it Is a straight choice between drab or tarty you have to be con-Mdouous to have style In France even the little working in the factories Anne reasons that the puritanical imperative is still strong here Women will three-quarters of a look rij and then blow it almost purpose by wearing the wrong r-roe right ones with shoes or the right ones scuffed heels as if to say that perfection is frivolous' People might say she Is too much of an -extrovert or she is a clothes There are also historical and climatic reasons which make us put on layers of clothing fiVCD la MSnklaclfds hill Length Mini Coats BlueFonJndrets SSverFon Jadets Full Length Female by GLENYS ROBERTO RanchMmkCoats flr995 Female Mmlt Jackels £995 Musquash Jackets £675 £550 ConeyJackets' from only Interest Ree Cretfe Available 10 months Interest Ftee Credit available iniviclud kems of £100 and cvec NOW £795 0695 £299 £695 £l850 SiusimtiiyfliUN 'Wade: eosld have JanPiefikowski the well-known author and illustrator of bools for younger readers will be in our ChildrerfsBook Dqtartmenti 1 'Second Fbcu 'VT roSaturday l5th December hetneenlL30amaod 1pm to hpchildiea create their own greetiiscardsandsignaiesofhis latest Irok'Christmaf published tyHidhemann at £595 PnmaIibcjpmonliiL Wftten details onrequed 0 t' to now Mae 1 who not- more than 5ft SrJS5wlglm'9t 111b taste 14come5i? rnen rationing ceased Tkke a recent the iia WrwSaTh" be continent have thought the youw have SHrF'CSas Anne CtfcriSMt 0W29 B80a VbeJGnwv 01-089 31 we all rfiould have been waiting Anne tried a version of It for the mass market one wants to dress in early Hiro- shlma but you would have thought they wanted the com- they all bought it two sizes smaller ire women walking around out there in the hiuOring Jacket look which went out ten yean ago They think they will always be well-dressed but Is It classic or is it old-fashioned 7" At a recent business convention nearly every woman was wearing the same standard grey flannel suit Tragic Anne told one of the union editors It was a perfectly good suit I know becausel bought it But to be aide to look round' and tick ted ito versions In Cfcftomm ShOBcLmBtHMa -Hair until Silny1ay22vtTWmiiff Moods7Slbeidaj3 Thursdays Itidqv and Saturday 9omto6fmL' to7pm Christmas Eve 9am to 5in alike I was worttog Mayfair each piece of every stitch In tile market the man-made faw were I5p a mile Buttbey tMM into their own Deoww of easy care No one robe full of silk tfiW-practically have to trw investment clothing You win SM a tiendMw towards natural we have learned mwe aoow we ivc Mmtboe their cara In tiro we did a good Joh th crous sizing giving a qus considering the ments of the woman who used to t-'1 44.