Stan & Ollie
Open the pod bay doors, Hal, and make way for Stanley Kubrick to jump into the primordial muck of man’s bloodlust. His Full Metal Jacket falls shy of the book’s absurdist savagery, says Richard Lacayo. Then Richard Corliss salutes that semper fi big guy, Oliver North, whose Buck-Stops-at-the-Shredder charge up Capitol Hill failed to survive Warhol’s 15 minutes. Another fine mess we’ve gotten you into . . .
Review: NYFF at 25
Seventeen days that shake the world? Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and all that? You bet. For 25 years, the New York Film Festival has paraded its auteurs before the cinemaphiles of The City. Fest director Richard Roud relates how we got here (Jackie Chan) from there (Luis Buñuel). Major Inside Poop! And Matt Groening provides a handy guide to the festival we’d like to see.
Huston & Co
By the time he died in August at 81, John Huston had simply outrun his critics. When he acted, or especially directed, Huston did the extraordinary: He made the hunter beloved. Wieland Schulz-Kiel, who produced his final film, The Dead, saw him at the last for what he was: filmmaker. And our Beverly Walker draws out daughter Anjelica on the art that would be king.
Preview: Princes of the City
Princely Rob Reiner is sick of being you know who’s kid. With The Princess Bride, Rob beats him with a shtick and tells Harlan Jacobson how. Then brothers Mikhalkov of Moscow and Konchalovsky of Hollywood bring their Dark Eyes and Shy People to light for Karen Jaehne. And Dancers principals Ross and Baryshnikov cop pliés to Marcia Pally.
Journals
Star What? Luke Who? C3PO Box? Uh . . . they showed up long ago in a galaxy far away and in a hotel a coupla months ago. But Marc Mancini found more than George Whatzizname at Stouffer’s. And Pat Aufderheide bugged everybody’s conversations in Moscow.
‘Manon’s’ Man Montand
He could be the next dauphin of France, as Yves Montand spars doucement with Harlan Jacobson over Manon des Sources, the second half of Claude Berri’s Jean de Florette.
Script by Kureishi
Ever since My Beautiful Laundrette, Hanif Kureishi fans have been in a spin. With Sammy and Rosie Get Laid, they clean up. We steal a few scenes.
Diane Turns Up the Heat
A Man in Love came and went, but director Diane Kurys drops the veil on how to shoot a sex scene that makes sense. Marcia Pally is all ears.
TV: Fair Is Foul
Why is it that the FCC scraps the Fairness Doctrine but regulates broadcasters for “decency”? Lois P. Sheinfeld catches a censor by its tale.
Orbits: Fred Astaire
Was he lighter than air? There will never be Fred Astaire’s like again, writes Harold Meyerson.
Back Page: Quiz #27
