®l?f Saily (Ear Hpfl
Depardieu Plays Same Old Game
In Beautiful 6 Le Colonel Chabert’
A friend told me that “Le Colonel
Chabert” was calculated to be a surefire hit
in France because the Balzac novel it’s
based on appears on every French student’s
high school exam reading list. I gave “Le
Colonel” a miss in AP French class many
years ago, and I can confidently assure the
teaching community that Patrick Bordier’s
movie gives away no secrets. It’s so de-
monically
sketchy, in fact,
it may inspire
viewers to read
the novel to
find out what
they missed.
MARYA DEVOTOI
Mgvm Rbvmw
'Le Colonel Chabert'
B
Gerard Depardieu and Fanny Ardant
are raggedly beautiful as the title character,
lost and certified dead at the Battle of
Eylauin 1807, andhis troubled wife, whose
precarious marriage depends on denying
the truth of his miraculous return almost
10 years later. They alternately spar, ex
change melting looks and negotiate fiercely
through most of the movie.
MOVIEGUIDE
OPENING FUMY
Bdle de Jour. Luis Bunuel’s 1967 clas
sic, starring Catherine Deneuve as an icy
housewife/prostitute. Rated R. Carolina,
933-8464.
The Net. A techno-thriller starring
Sandra Bullock. Rated PG-13. Movies at
Timberiyne, 933-8600.
Operation Dumbo Drop. A family com
edy, with Danny Glover and Ray Liotta,
about elephant airlifting. Really. Rated
PG. Plaza, 967-4737.
Waterworld. Will this epic from Kevin
Reynolds and Kevin Costner - at $166
million the most expensive movie ever
made - hold water? It has an undeniably
cool concept: thepolar ice caps have melted,
and humanity lives on the ocean, forever
searching for land. But will its well-publi
cized production disasters (a sunken mul
timillion-dollar set, a hurricane, a near
fatal diving accident, and the resignation
of director Reynolds during editing) spread
their bad luck to the film’s audience? If
nothing else, it’ll be a movie experience not
unlike slowing down fit 3 highway acci
dent to rubberneck: “Waterworld” could
gross as much domestically as “Forrest
Gump” and still not make a profit. With
Dennis Hopper, Jeanne Tripplehom, and
Tina Majorino. Rated PG-13. Movies at
Timberiyne, 933-8600.
NOW PLAYING
Apollo 13. Ron Howard’s film, starring
Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, Gary Sinise,
Kevin Bacon, and an excellent Ed Harris,
is a document of one of the few times
Americans have come together for a com
mongoal: the near-disasterofa 1970Ap0110
moon mission. Driven by great acting,
strong direction, and a pull-out-the-stops
script, it’s a great film. Rated PG. Grade:
A-(DH) Plaza, 967-4737.
Batman Forever. The third in this prof
itable series is definitely better than the
second and comes close to equalling the
extraordinary first film. Joel Schumacher
keeps Tim Burton’s dark aspects intact but
isn’t afraid to let the characters interact in
the daylight. With Val Kilmer, Tommy
Lee Jones, and Jim Carrey. Rated PG-13.
Grade: A- (DH) Movies at Timberiyne,
933-8600. Ends today.
The Bridges of Madison Connty. The
best film to hit theatres since “Driving Miss
Daisy.” Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep
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Recycle them at a Recycling Drop-off Site!
a Flatten the corrugated cardboard boxes. (Corru
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Since that’s about all the action there is
in this movie, the murky cloud that sur
rounds the characters’ motivation is frus
trating; dramatic crises arise out of no
where and disappear just as quickly.
The repeated lengthy closeups of
Depardieu and Ardant suggest psychologi
cal depth that the rest of the screenplay
doesn’t support. You’re left to wonder
whether a look at the novel might supply
what’s missing.
What works for Gerard Depardieu in
other movies comes off here as the Gerard
Depardieu schtick: he frowns, he roars, he
breaks into laughter at the human comedy.
Most of all, he looks battered. But then, he
doesn’t have too much else to do. There are
a lot of shots ofhim pacing in his long black
cloak, looking like a bad omen, or like
Salieri dressed up to haunt Mozart in
“Amadeus.”
In general, you won’t get bored looking
at “Le Colonel Chabert,” though. From
the opening shots of frozen corpses on the
field of Eylau to the creases in Ardant’s
DENNIS HOPPER plays another
malevolent maniac in "Waterworld.'
leave behind the cheesy love of the novel
and transform it into a believable and de
sirable whirlwind of romance. Rated PG
-13. Grade: A (DH) Chelsea, 968-3005.
Casper. Casper is a top-notch animated
ghost, from the creators of “Who Framed
Roger Rabbit” and “Jurassic Park”; infact,
he’s a lot more credible than his human co
stars, Bill Pullman and Christina Ricci.
Stinkie, Fatso, and Stretch, Casper’s uncles,
provide the only real spark to the film
Rated PG. Grade: C (DH) Movies at
Timberiyne, 933-8600. Ends today.
Clueless. See review on page 8.
PG-13. Grade: C (BS) Movies at
Timberiyne, 933-8600.
Colonel Chabert. See review on this
page. Grade: B (MD) Not rated. Chelsea,
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neck as she embraces her ambitious, faith
less second husband, le Comte de Ferraud
(Andre Dussollier, who played the suave
violin dealer in “Un Coeur en Hiver”), “Le
Colonel” is filled with poignant visual de
tail.
Fabrice Luchini is particularly vivid as
Derville, the lawyer whose passion for
legal innovation leads him to represent
both Chabert and his wife—he can’t bear
to give either of them up. Chabert’s flash
backs to Eylau also have a very French
kind of dispassionate passion about them.
You think they’re too purely visual to be
moving until you find your heart pounding
along with the horses’ hooves. And France,
as usual, looks great.
Still, it’s hard to help concluding, as
Gertrude Stein did about Oakland, that
there’sno there there, at least for those who
haven’t done their homework. Maybe the
appropriate accessory for “Le Colonel
Chabert” is not popcorn but a penlight.
You can use it to check your QiffNotes for
subtext during those long, long closeups.
968-3005.
The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill
But Came Down aMoun tain. Hugh Grant
is full of charm and cute smirks but that’s
about it. This romantic comedy, about an
English mapmaker in a Welsh town, is
cute, but tries too obviously to achieve that
effect. Also with Colm Meaney and Tara
Fitzgerald. Rated PG. Grade: C+ (DH)
Plaza, 967-4737. Ends today.
First Knight. Enjoyable and fun, but
while Julia Ormond, as Guinevere, does
an excellent job, Richard Gere seems far
too shallowtopulloffthedepth his Lancelot
requires. Sean Connery rounds out the cast
as an aging King Arthur. Rated PG-13.
Grade: B (NQ) Ram Triple, 967-8284.
Free Willy 2. This time the whale and
the kid find love. With Michael Madsen.
Rated PG. Movies at Timberiyne, 933-
8600.
Love and Humanßemains. See review
on page 7. Rated R. Grade: C+ (DM)
Tonight at the Carolina, 933-8464. Moves
friday to the Chelsea, 968-3005.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. See
review on this page. Rated PG. Grade: B
(MD) Movies at Timberiyne, 933-8600.
Ends today.
Nine Months. See review on page 6.
Rated PG-13. Grade: B- (DH) Varsity,
967-8665.
Pocahontas. How could Disney,
America’s candy store, pass up the campy
appeal of a legendary love story with maxi
mum P.C. power? On the other hand, why
would Disney take a story like that and
make it boring? This newest animated ex
travaganza removes someofthereal story’s
less “Disney” moments - like its disturbing
pedophilia, or Pocahontas’ early death from
yellow fever. The story has a double bind:
Disney can’t make either the nature-loving
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ARTS
Bad Guys Steal Show From ‘Rangers’
If you thought kids were evolving into a
remote, tech-literate species, “Mighty
Morphin Power Rangers” should reassure
you. “Morphin” may suggest a daunting
level of high-tech, but the futuristic termi
nology is window dressing.
Like the Super Friends, whose adven
tures this story most closely resemble, the
Power Rangers are regular kids with some
karate skills until they speak the word that
transforms
them into cos
tumed fighting
machines.
You’ll know
you’re in famil
iar territory
MARYA DHYOTO |
'Mighty Morphin
Power Rangers'
B
when you hear Alpha the Robot exclaim,
“a maximum surge of evil energy is over
loading our sensors!”
The plot, such as it is, is fairly basic: a
crystal egg containing a6,000-year-old evil
man has been dug up at a mid-town con
struction site. If the Power Rangers don’t
get him buried again fast, he will take over
the world.
The bad guy, Ivan Ooze (Paul Free
man), is a stylishly demonic fellow clearly
influenced by the Joker in “Batman,”
Beetlejuice in “Beetlejuice,” and Bela
Lugosi in everything.
m
■ i'siw' A
I J
JULIA ORMOND makes a lovely
Guinevere in 'First Knight.'
Native Americans or the fathers-of-our
country British settlers bad guys. This
makes “Pocahontas” bloodless; the only
thing that really stands out is its comic
book eroticism. Rated G. Grade: C (MD)
Plaza, 967-4737.
The Postman. A simple Italian post
man is in love with the most beautiful
woman in town, but needs the poetry of
Pablo Neruda to win her heart. There are a
lot of pleasures in this movie; one of them
is its refusal to make a pleasantly sappy
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Ivan Ooze is a shapechanger who cre
ates creatures powered by slimy purple
goo. The same goo, marketed to kids like
the once-popular jars of green slime, turns
their parents into Stepford parents who toil
in the ooze industry like blue-smocked
cartoon Communists with flashing purple
eyes.
Naturally, the Power Rangers hit a snag;
I van Ooze beats up their mentor and drains
their power source, leaving them with noth
ing to fall back on except their excellent
karate skills.
This necessitates an interplanetary quest
for a mystic monolith, complete with epic
battles and a goofy ceremony where the
Power Rangers acquire new animal to
tems.
KidsandnostalgicGeneration-Xerslove
this stuff. Arne Oleson, who wrote the
screenplay, seems to be aware that the
audience is likely to consist of ardent fans
and martyred parents.
The screenplay has a great number of
amusing wisecracks in between the obliga
tory cries of “activate power beam!” and
such.
Ivan Ooze has most of the best lines,
like when he exclaims nostalgically, “Oh,
the things that I’ve missed! The Black
Plague... the Spanish Inquisition... the
story any sappier. A lovely, poignant film.
With Massimo Troisi and Phillips Noiret
Not rated. Grade: A- (MD) Varsity, 967-
8665.
Search and Destroy. With the creepy
cast of the century: Christopher Walken,
Griffin Dunne, Dennis Hopper, John
Turturro, Ethan Hawke, and Patricia
Arquette. Rated R. Chelsea, 968-3005.
Smoke. A rare and welcome example
of symbiosis between a writer and a direc
tor, this drama is set in and around a
Brooklyn cigar shop. Paul Auster (who
wrote the minimal “The Music of Chance”)
and Wayne Wang (who directed the over
wrought “The Joy Luck Club”) reach a
perfect balance. The film is a quiet and
fascinating study of fatherhood, friend
ship, conversation, and art. With a hatful
of great performances, including Harvey
Keitel, William Hurt, Stockard Charming,
Harold Penineau, Jr., Forest Whitaker,
and Ashley Judd - the last three of whom
deliver Oscar-caliber supporting work.
Rated R. Grade: A- (DK) Varsity, 967-
8665.
Species. A lack of exposition and char
acter definition make this anew kind of
film: the straight-up, shameless science fic
tion flick. The cast, including Ben Kingsley,
Alfred Molina, Forest Whitaker, and
Michael Madsen, does everything it can
with such bloodless material. Natassia
Henstridge adds her “talents” as the sexy
alien beast. It’s everything a thriller should
be- just don’t expect any complexities.
Rated R. Grade: B+ (BS) Movies at
Thursday, July 27,1995
Brady Bunch Reunion.”
All in all, the bad guys are the most fun
here. The costume designer, Joseph Porro,
hasn’t bothered to make a matched set, but
seems to draw on everything from Japa
nese animation to Tenniel’s “Alice in
Wonderiand” illustrations for inspiration.
One villainess appears to be costumed to
play the Queen of the Night at the Metro
politan Opera.
The bad guys’ squabbling is livelier than
the Power Ranger’s squeaky-clean fellow
ship. The Power Rangers, no doubt for
political reasons, comprise ofboth genders
and several races.
The Pink and White Power Rangers (a
Caucasian girl in a bare-midriff top and the
tallest guy, respectively) get the lion’sshare
of the lines and camera time, however,
suggesting that some Power Rangers are
cuter and on a more equal level than oth
ers.
The female Rangers scream for help a
lot; the males never do. Otherwise, the
Power Rangers seem to be relatively good
role models for the 90’s.
They never kill anything human, they
stick together and they rattle off terms like
“plasmatic morphing gem” without blink
ing. Adults who find them insipid might
try silently rooting for the other team.
JAR
ASHLEY JUDD plays a junkie
daughter in 'Smoke.'
Timberiyne, 933-8600.
Through the Olive Trees. An Iranian
drama by celebrated director Abbas
Kiarostami. Rated G. Carolina, 933-8464.
Ends today.
Under Siege 2. See review on page 6.
Rated R. Grade: D+ (BS) Ram Triple,
967-8284.
Reviews by Marya DeVoto, Dean Hair, Daniel
Kois, Daniel Maidman, Nicole Quinelle, and
Brent Simon.
9