Boxoffice-July.1997

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BULL'S-EYEl 

DISNEY GETS BACK' 

ON TARGET WITH 

HERCULES 

EUROP 

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T\ND: INSIDE THE NEW GERMAN CINEMA 

• A HISTORY OF IRISH MULTIPLICITY 

• DOING THE FRANCO-U.S. SHUFFLE I 

• HOLLAND'S TUSCHINSKI THEATER

THE CHRISTIE REFERENCE CONSOLE 

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COrLECTIONS

DEPARTMENTS 

JULY, 1997 VOL. 133 HO. 7 

UNQUOTE: Understanding the difference between celebrity and heroism 

is good for kids today—iWXi MUSKER 

SPECIAL REPORT: GIANTS OF EUROPEAN EXHIBITION 

Our annual in-depth look at European exhibition, Including our FIRST 

ANNUAL GIANTS OF EUROPEAN EXHIBITION directory with FULL 

CORPORATE ROSTERS for 20 TOP EUROPEAN COMPANIES! 

PART I: JULY CONTENTS 

1 2 COVER: DISNEY'S "HERCULES" By Joseph McBride 

Inside Disney's "HERCULES," an instant animated classic! 

18 THE BIG PICTURE: UNLIMITED ANIMATION By Ray Greene 

Remembering the golden era of UFA animation. 

20 SNEAK PREVIEW: "EVENT HORIZON" By Bridget Byrne 

Actress Kathleen Quinlan on Paramount's sci-fi extravaganza. 

22 SNEAK PREVIEW: "MR. MAGOO" By Wade Major 

Hong Kong action director Stanley Tong's live-action "Mr. Magoo." 

32 THE 1 997 BOXOFFICE PROMO GUIDE By Christine James 

Movie tie-in promotions coming this summer. 

34 INTERNATIONAL PROFILE: BIG IN JAPAN By Christine James 

Kobe's MOVIX Rokko kicks off Cinemark's pact with Shochiku. 

36 INTERNATIONAL PROFILE: PLEX-MEX By Jose Martinez 

With 100 screens in two years, Cinemex heats up Mexico's market. 

74 SPECIAL REPORT: CINEMA SOUND 0y John Allen 

"If They Knew What You Were Missing," part two. 

PART II: EUROPE '97 

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AMSTERDAM: PATHE'S TUSCHINSKI THEATER By Ray Greene 

Going to Amsterdam's Cinema Expo this summer? Here's a 

preliminary tour of one of the finest theatres in Europe. 

ITALY: CECCHI GORI GOES HOLLYWOOD By Pat Kramer 

The Italian circuit fights prevailing trends with an American 

beachhead in Beverly Hills. 

GERMANY: DOMESTIC PRODUCTION TRENDS ByPkayKrieg 

German films stage a comeback in the homeland. 

MARKET OVERVIEW: EUROPE AT A GLANCE By Melissa Morrison 

Market by market breakdowns of European exhibition players! 

EXCLUSIVE! 1997 GIANTS OF EUROPEAN EXHIBITION DIRECTORY 

FULL CORPORATE ROSTERS and contact info on 20 of 

Europe's biggest circuits! PLUS:Trade organizations. 

FRANCE: PAS DE DEUX By Karen Achenbach 

French film luminaries on troubled French/U.S. product relations. 

CINEMA EXPO '97 SCHEDULE OF EVENTS 

EXPO PROFILE: EXHIBITOR OF THE YEAR ALBERT BERT 

EXPO PROFILE: DISTRIBUTOR OF THE YEAR JIM GIANDPULOS 

EXPO PROFILE: CREATIVE ACHIEVEMENT AWARDEE PETER SCHNEIDER 

EXPO PROFILE: FILMMAKER OF THE YEAR LUC BESSON 

IRELAND: MULTIPLEX MULTIPLICITY By TonyDeane 

A brief history of Irish exhibition, from the birth of the Republic to 

1997. PLUS; Meet Albert Kelly, Irish Exhibition's local hero. 

EAST EUROPE: BIZ 101 By Norm Schneider 

Exhibition sound entrepreneur Norm Schneider of SMART Theatre 

Systems on doing business in the former Soviet bloc, 

EUROPEAN INDIE SHOWCASE: BERLIN'S SPUTNIK By Melissa Morrison 

The Sputnik Theatre used to be up against the (Berlin) wall. 

Today, it's a living symbol of German re-unification. 

BOXOFFICE (ISSN 0006-8527). Published monthly by RLD Communications, Inc., 203 N. Wabash 

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O Copyright 1997 RLD Communications, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction In whole or pari 

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HOLLYWOOD 

UPDATES 

Three lawsuits have been filed against the 

filmmakers of TriStar's "Apt Pupil" for allegedly 

filming minors as young as 1 4 in the nude 

without prior notification or parental consent. 

Devin St. Albin, David Stocl

'1I^

8 BrixomcE 

HOLLYWOOD 

REPORT 

NICOLAS CAGE 

"Detective" Find 

WILL SMITH 

"Wild" Man 

LAUREN HOLLY 

Something "New" 

"WHAT DREAMS MAY 

COME" Robin Williams will 

headline this romantic drama 

about a man who dies but 

whose spirit remains earthbound, 

as he can't bear the 

thought of leaving his wife. His 

wife is then trapped in Hell, and 

Williams' character must team 

with a tracker ("Jerry Maguire's" 

Cuba Gooding Jr.) to save her. 

Vincent Ward {"Map of the 

Human Heart") will helm; Ron 

Bass ("The Joy Luck Club") 

scripts. (Distribution to be set) 

"IT'S A DOG'S LIFE" Chris Farley 

("Beverly Hills Ninja") will 

star in this fantasy/comedy 

about household pets magically 

transformed into human beings. 

As a pup-turned-person, Farley 

must win over the lady of the 

house before she is seduced by 

a transmogrified pet snake (possibly 

to be played by Alec Baldwin). 

(Warner Bros.) 

"DEFECTIVE DETECTIVE" 

Terry Gilliam ("12 Monkeys") 

will direct Nicolas Cage ("Con 

Air") in this comedy/drama 

whose plot is in the vein of 

Gilliam's 1981 film "Time Bandits." 

Cage will play a detective 

who's searching for a lost girl in 

New York and ends up on a 

fantastic adventure. Gilliam coscripts 

with Richard LaGravenese, 

his "The Fisher King" 

collaborator. (Universal) 

"BELOVED" TV talk show host 

Oprah Winfrey ("The Color Purple") 

returns to the silver screen 

alongside Thandie Newton 

("Gridlock'd") in this period 

drama about a slave haunted by 

the ghost of the baby daughter 

she'd killed years before. Jonathan 

Demme ("Philadelphia") is 

in talks to helm. This adaptation 

of Toni Morrison's novel will be 

produced through Winfrey's 

Harpo Prods. (Buena Vista) 

"WILD, WILD WEST" This adaptation 

of the '60s TV series will 

reteam "Men In Black" star Will 

Smith and "MIB" director Barry 

Sonnenfeld. Smith will play 

James T. West (originally portrayed 

by Robert Conrad). 

Johnny Depp and George 

Clooney are possible contenders 

for the part of sidekick Artemus 

Cordon. (Warner Bros.) 

NOTHING 

"LONG TIME, 

NEW" A small-town woman 

("A Smile Like Yours'" Lauren 

Holly) must find the courage to 

forget her past and move forward 

with her life in this drama 

scripted and directed by Edward 

Burns ("She's the One"), who 

also co-stars. (Gramercy) 

"SIMPLE SIMON" In this drama 

helmed by Harold Becker ("City 

Hall"), Bruce Willis will play an 

FBI agent on the run from the 

government. With him is an autistic 

boy who has inadvertently 

broken into secret databases. 

Alec Baldwin ("Ghosts of Mississippi"), 

who worked with Becker 

for 1993's "Malice," co-stars as 

their nemesis. (Universal) 

"DOGMA" Kevin Smith ("Chasing 

Amy") next tells the story of a 

woman chosen by renegade angels 

to save humanity. Smith will 

play a role alongside "Chasing 

Amy" stars Ben Affleck and Joey 

Lauren Adams. Jason Scott Lee 

("Jungle Book") is in talks to play 

the angel of death. (Miramax) 

"IN TOO DEEP" In this black 

comedy, a man (not yet cast) 

learns his best friend ("Inventing 

the Abbotts'" Joaquin Phoenix) is 

sleeping with his wife ("An Awfully 

Big Adventure's" Georgina 

Gates). He then plots to fake his 

own death and frame the friend 

for murder. Vince Vaughn 

("Swingers") and Janeane Garofalo 

("Romy & Michele's High 

School Reunion") co-star. David 

Dobkin will direct. (Gramercy) 

"KNOCK OFF" Jean-Claude 

Van Damme and director Tsui 

Hark, who joined for "Double 

Team," reteam in this terrorist 

actioner scripted by Steven de 

Souza ("Die Hard"). Leia 

Rochon ("Waiting to Exhale") 

will play a CIA operative who 

helps him in his plan to take 

down the terrorist conspiracy. 

(Distribution to be set) 

"TARZAN AND JANE" The 

Edgar Rice Burroughs character 

leaves civilization to return to 

Africa to save his homeland. 

Casper Van Dien ("Starship 

Troopers") will play the famed 

jungle man, and jane March 

("Colorof Night") will play Jane. 


"BODY COUNT" A "Jade" reteaming, 

Linda Fiorentino and 

David Caruso will star in this film 

about an art heist gone wrong. 

Co-starring are Ving Rhames 

("Rosewood"), Forest Whitaker 

("Species"), John Leguizamo 

("The Pest") and Donnie 

Wahlberg ("Ransom"). Robert 

Spruill ("The Squeeze") will 

helm. (Distribution is to be set) 

"BEGIN THE BEGUINE" Elijah 

Wood ("Flipper") and Anna 

Paquin ("Fly Away Home") will 

star in this coming-of-age love 

story scripted by Raymond De 

Felitta ("Cafe Society"). (Distribution 

to be set) 

"KISS OR KILL" Down Under 

helmer Bill Bennett ("Two If By 

Sea") will direct "Love and Other 

Catastrophes'" Frances O'Connor 

and Matt Day in this dramatic 

thriller about a couple running 

from police across Australia's 

Nullarbor desert. When a series 

of murders occur along their 

route, each suspects the other. 

Bennett also scripts and produces. 


"THE RISE AND FALL OF LIT- 

TLE VOICE" This adaptation of 

the hit British play will star 

"Trainspotting's" Ewan McGregor 

and Jane Horrocks ("Life Is 

Sweet"). Horrocks also starred 

in the original play in Lancashire. 

Sam Mendes directs. (Distribution 

to be set) 

"THE ROAD TO GRACE- 

LAND" Jonathon Schaech 

("That Thing You Do!") will play 

a man whose life is shattered 

when his wife is killed in a car 

accident, but he's helped 

through this trying time by a 

man (Harvey Keitel) who he 

thinks is Elvis Presley. Bridget 

Fonda is in talks to play Marilyn 

Monroe. David Winkler, son of 

director/producer Irwin Winkler 

("The Net"), will direct and 

script. (Distribution to be set) 

"THE FAMILY BLOOM" In this 

drama, Penelope Ann Miller 

("The Shadow") will play a 

woman who gives up her own 

life to take care of her widowed 

brother and his children. But that 

life to which she's become accustomed 

falls apart when the 

brother decides to remarry. Newcomer 

Craig Saavedra directs; 

Eric Tuchman ("Anastasia") 

scripts. (Distribution to be set) 

ET CETERA: "Volcano's" Anne 

Heche has been cast opposite 

Harrison Ford in Buena Vista's 

romantic comedy "6 Days, 7 

Nights". ..Harry Connick Jr. will 

take his first romantic lead in 

Fox's "Hope Floats," which 

stars Sandra Bullock and is 

being helmed by Forest Whitaker 

("Waiting to Exhale"). ..Gena 

Rowlands, Gillian Anderson 

and Harry Dean Stanton have 

joined Sharon Stone in 

Miramax's "Freak the Mighty" 

...Chris Columbus ("Nine 

Months") will direct Julia Roberts 

and Susan Sarandon in 

TriStar's "Stepmom," about a 

dying woman who befriends 

her husband's new girlfriend... 

Lending their voices to Fox's 

Eddie Murphy starrer "Dr. 

Dollttle" are Ving Rhames as a 

tiger, Chris Rock as a guinea pig, 

John Leguizamo as a rat and 

Paul Reubens as a raccoon.

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10 BOXOfKICE 

EXPO EXTRA: Amsterdam 

BEST BET: THE PATHE 

TUSCHINSKI THEA TER 

Going to Cinema Expo '97? Treat Yourself to an 

Afternoon at Amsterdam's Finest Movie Palace 

by Ray Greene 

INTERIOR DECO-RATING: This plush, luxuriant cx>ncessions area in Amsterdam's Tuschinski Theater 

demonstrates the unique design concepts Abram Tuschinski and his designers brought to life. 

Amsterdam 

is an easy city to fall in love 

with. Like many modem European cities 

with a long history extending back 

to a pre-industrial era, it is comfortably configured 

for those who like a brisk walk, and that 

walk is made all the more satisfying by a 

gorgeous architectural landscape that makes 

almost every building, from the extraordinarily 

grand Royal Palace in Dam Square to the 

random pub or restaurant aniund any given 

comer, a feast for the eyes, and just as often a 

feast for the mind. 

The "feast for the eyes" aspect of Amsterdam 

is easy to discern—every street comer has 

its own sUuctural ofl'ering to make to the attentive 

visitor, and the famed canals which bind 

it all together are not only a marveloas way to 

get a quick, thumbnail tour of the whole local 

topography, they more than live up to their 

reputation for tranquil beauty and splendor. 

Unlike, for example, most American places of 

interest, Amsterdam has the virtue of being a 

place where almost nothing has been fabricated 

for the tourist's benefit. The canals, for 

all the tour boats plying their waters, are a real 

and thriving |>art of the economic and social 

life of the city. The many museums are a 

cultural shrine to Ami;terdam's (and Europe's) 

rich artistic tradition—the Dutch are just good 

enough to share them with you, too. From the 

notorious "red light" district to the shopping 

areas to the local bars and restaurants, the 

"tourist" elements which greet a visitor are not 

separated from the way the natives lead their 

lives, and there's an extra thrill in knowing that, 

with every experience had in Amsterdam, one 

is 

shoulder to shoulder with average people, 

going about the business of their daily lives. 

How 

Amsterdam also manages to be a 

"feast for the mind" is well demonstrated, 

especially for the theatre professional, 

by the splendor of what may be its 

grandest commercial building: the historic 

Tuschinski Theater, the Dutch flagship of the 

Pathe circuit and the largest cinema in all of 

Amsterdam. Currently celebrating its 76th 

year of operation, the Tuschinski is a living 

example of a uniquely European approach to 

the "movie palace" architecture that flourished 

in a brassier and more hyperbolic form across 

the Atlantic in the U.S.A. during the same 

period as the Tuschinski's construction. Where 

a definitive American palace of the '20s like 

Sid Grauman's Hollywood-based Chinese 

Theatre can be read as a reflection of America's 

fascination with the grandiose, tlie Tuschinski 

offers a more stately vision of luxuriousness. 

Lush hardwood surfaces in a variety of 

wtxxlfaces are perhaps the most defining architectural 

feature of this wonderful building—one 

of the few examples of architecture 

from Amsterdam's immediate post-WWI era 

to have survived with both exterior and interior 

intact. Where an exhibitor like Sid Grauman 

used his theaUies to define Hollywood chutzpah 

and showmanship, it could be argued that 

Abram Tuschinski, the Polish exhibitor who

.lulv. 1997 11 

LOOK MA—NO HANDS!: The seemingly support-less twin balconies of the Tuschinski's main auditorium, created to 

ensure excellent sightlines for all patrons, are an architectural demonstration ofAbram Tuschinski's egalitarian outlook. 

built the Dutch theatre that bears his name, was 

in part a philosophical reflection of the democratization 

movement that swept through Europe 

after the downfall of the German Kaiser 

and Russia's Czar. 

Tuschinski's quite noble stated aim in building 

the Tuschinski was to bring the luxury of 

the upper classes to within easy reach of the 

common man, and virtually every design feature 

of the theatre he left behind triumphantly 

proclaims the success of his venture. The Art 

Deco influence of which the wealthier classes 

were so enamored during the 1920s is prevalent—so 

much so that the Tuschinski is often 

cited as a prime example of that architectural 

school. Deco fans will love the clean, rounded 

lines of the Tuschinski's hundreds of light 

fixtures, the sheer marbleized surfaces of its 

concessions counter spaces and its imposing, 

slighdy rococo stairwells and balustrades. 

B 

ut though the Deco school is amply and 

gorgeously represented throughout the 

Tuschinski's grand design, Tuschinski 

and his architects took a more playful and 

eclectic approach to their task in creating the 

theatre. There is a Mighty Wurlitzer organ 

dating back to the '20s made and shipped to 

the house from the Wurlitzer plant in Tonawanda, 

U.S.A. which is used today mainly for 

concerts and which is considered such a priceless 

national treasure that it is actually protected 

by government statute. There's a touch 

of Sid Grauman's taste for the exotic in the 

theatre's many bos reliefmurals and its sculptures, 

most of which are Far Eastem in influence, 

some even resembling the work of the 

pre- and early-Christian Arab icon artists. 

Uniquely Dutch motifs are also present 

throughout the theatre, reflecting two discrete 

architectural movements: the "Jugendstil," 

which is an ancient building approach, and the 

more modem Amsterdam school, derived in 

part from some of the theories on ftinctionalism 

of the Bauhaus group. 

Aside from beautiful pine and mahogany 

flooring, virtually every covered inch of the 

Tuschinski is swathed in specially-created 

hand-woven Persian carpets, created according 

to a unique design scheme which enhances 

and unifies the Middle Eiastem with the Art 

Deco components of the theatre's grand style. 

An 

In many ways it's the floor coverings 

which serve to bridge the 

dilTering visual approaches manifested 

by the Tuschinski's architecture—the 

place where 

divergent influences meet, mingle 

and give birth to the new. 

Ifthere is any one feature ofthe 

Tuschinski which perhaps best 

embodies the democratic spirit of 

Abram Tuschinski's original 

ideal, it is the relationship of its 

two main balconies to the largest 

of the Tuschinski's six auditoriums. 

Here, where the attractions 

which would draw audience's to 

the house would be displayed, 

Tuschinski and his builders 

struggled to ensure that virtually 

every moviegoer's experience 

would be identical, and of the 

highest order. 

Sighthnes were the principal 

problem in designing the ultimate 

viewing place. What 

Tuschinski and his collaborators 

came up with was a stunning and 

unheard of design allowing for 

two enormous balconies spanning 

the entire rear section of the 

main auditorium to hang in the air 

without the use of even a single 

column for support. It's a breathtaking 

sight, and little short of 

miraculous given the building 

materials of the day; in their successful 

quest to ensure that every 

seat in the Tuschinski had a clear 

view of the screen, Tuschinski's 

team created an architectural 

miracle that seems to defy gravity. 

While the entire theatre is 

filled with inspired touches, the 

main auditorium is, appropriately 

enough, the cuhnination. 

m.sterdam is a city of wonders, many of 

which—from the Van Gogh Museum 

Uo I the Anne Frankhuis to the 

Rijksmuseum—are justiy world-famous. The 

beauty of its cinematic wonders is by no means 

Umited to the Tuschinski—there are many fine 

theatres in and about the city proper, a wide 

range of which are within easy walking distance 

of Dam Square. But for anyone who 

loves the architectural possibilities inherent in 

the moviehouse and who is looking for something 

special to do while at the Cinema Expo 

this year, you could do worse than to spend an 

afternoon at the Tuschinski. And while you're 

at it, take in a movie. After all, when it's all said 

and done, that's really what it's all about. |H 

75-mirmte guided tours of the Tuschinski 

Theater are available during the months of 

July and August every Sunday and Monday 

morning at 10:30. Groups are welcome year 

round, but should apply in writingfor a reservation 

at least one week in advance. For tour 

info (in Amsterdam): 020-623-1510. Fax: 020- 

625-3199.

kV/\I.*L-t/'K.* 

Cover 

;v*Sfea^' 

DISNEY ANIMATION Gets Back on Track With "HERCULES," 

an Animated Epic for tlie Gods by Joseph McBride 

the relatively lukewarm public reception for Disney's last 

While 

animated feature, "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," perhaps 

stemmed in part from the liberties it took with its classic Victor 

Hugo text, Disney is not backpedaling into reverence with its new 

animated film, "Hercules." The studio's brashly irreverent take on the 

classical Greek legend is satirical and anachronistic, replete with contemporary 

gags about f)op culture and the commercialization of heroism. 

That hip comedic approach is the trademark of writer/ 

director/producers John Musker and Ron Clements, whose previous 

Disney features have included 'The Great Mouse Detective," "The 

Little Mermaid" and "Aladdin." 

Following the triumphant release of "Aladdin" in 1992, Disney held 

brainstorming sessions to help Musker and Clements choose their next 

project. In recent years, with such animated films as "The Lion King," 

"Aladdin" and "Pocahontas," the studio has been expanding its cultural 

horizons beyond its traditional reliance on European fairy tales. Currently 

in the works are such animated features as 

'Tarzan"; "Mulan" (formerly "The Legend of Fa 

Mulan"), set in China; and "Children ofthe Sun," 

which takes place in Peru. Greek mythology 

seemed an exciting stylistic and narrative option 

for Disney's 35th full-length animated feature. 

"Aside from the 'Pastoral' sequence in 'Fantasia,' 

Disney has generally avoided dealing widi classical 

mythology," Clements says. "But for an 

artist it's fun to do different things. Mythology 

seems a bigger canvas, dealing with bigger issues. 

"We were considering 'The Odyssey.' It 

scared us a little bit—it seemed too sacred, not 

something we could have fun with. Hercules was 

the Capra hero of his time, the common-man 

hero, a meat-and-potatoes kind of hero." 

Sharing a disdain for the starchy movie conventions 

of sword-and-sandal epics, the directors 

had no desire to treat Hercules as the stodgy, 

standard-issue superhero familiar from the 1959 

Steve Reeves movie "Hercules" or the current 

live-action TV series "Hercules: The Legendary 

Journeys." They decided to "adopt a humorous 

tone" toward their title character because "anachronistic humor would 

give more of an entry into the film," Mu.sker explains. 

Not only would a more modem approach to Hercules appeal to 

animation's youthful target audience, but it was also a natural fit for 

the two filmmakers, whose work always has been replete with 

jocular references to other movies and pop-cultural artifacts. "We're 

trying to make movies for ourselves first and foremost," Musker 

admits. "We're our own audience." 

Purists might object to the film's downplaying orjettisoning of some 

"In becoming 

sort of the 

Michael Jordan 

of his day, 

Hercules learns 

there is 

of the elements of cla.ssical mythology, including such venerable standbys 

as the Twelve Labors of Hercules. And, in line with Disney's 

always-conservative approach to touchy sexual issues, Hercules is 

no longer the illegitimate son of a god (Zeus) and a human mother 

(Hera). Hera has been elevated to goddess status in the movie, and 

Hercules's half-human nature now results from a magical potion 

imperfectly administered by minions of the villainous Hades, Lord 

of the Underworld. 

But Musker and Clements (along with co-writers Bob Shaw, Don 

McEnery and Irene Mecchi) have used those narrative metamorphoses 

as the springboard for much of the film's drama and advenUire, with the 

youthful Hercules growing up conflicted about his identity and determined 

to prove himself a "true hero" in the eyes of both his fellow 

Greeks and his Olympian father. Tate Donovan ("Eiquinox") does the 

voice of the young-adult Hercules; Joshua Keaton and Roger Bart 

provide the character's adolescent speaking and singing voices. 

more 

to being a hero 

than being an 

action hero." 

— John Musker 

Uescribing Hercules as "Jimmy Stewart in 

the body of Arnold Schwarzenegger," 

Clements says the film has a strong Frank 

Capra influence diroughout both in plot and 

characterizations. On a bulletin board in the 

filmmakers' production office, the storylines of 

such Capra classics as "Mr. Deeds Goes to 

Town," "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" and 

"Meet John Doe" are prominently displayed on 

index cards as aide-memoire. 

Like the naive young senator so memorably 

played by Stewart in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," 

Disney's "Hercules" is an idealistic 

country boy who ventures into the big city (in 

this case Thebes, aka "The Big Olive") and finds 

himself surrounded by voracious, worldly-wise 

cynics. Eventually, as in a Capra movie, idealism 

narrowly triumphs over the forces of darkness. 

"All the former cynics," Musker says, "become 

rallying people" to help Hercules prove his 

heroism. Among them is the gnomish satyr 

Philoctetes (voiced by Danny DeVito), an athletic 

trainer whose f)ersonality the directors describe 

as part William Demarest part Burgess Meredith via "Rocky." 

The film's heroine. Megara is modeled after the characters played 

by Jean Arthur and Barbara Stanwyck in the Capra classics. A cynical, 

fast-talking city dame who's been kicked around, Meg serves as Hades' 

moll until she rediscovers her romantic idealism under the purifying 

influence of the good-hearted hero she has set out to exploit and betray. 

This brassy, experienced heroine breaks the wholesome mold of 

Disney's animated leading ladies, even though she has the voice of 

Su.san Egan, a Tony nominee on Broadway for playing Belle in the stage 

version of Disney's "Beauty and the Beast." 

THE BOXOFFICE 

INTERVIEW 

STRENGTH

u n< i\ # II. 1. t/'L' 

a 

Qjmposer Alan Menken, the eight-time 

Oscar winner whose Disney credits have included 

"Beauty and the Beast," "The Hunchback 

of Notre Dame," "The Little Mermaid" 

and "Aladdin," says Egan brought a "wonderful 

wry quality" to the role of Meg. "She's 

tough and yet vulnerable." Menken's coUabothing 

in this show has a twist Nothing is quite 

straight on, except for the emotions." 

Danny DeVito's big musical number, "One 

Last Hope," is played as a flamboyant pastiche 

of vaudeville and Broadway show tunes. 

Menken urged him to "think Jimmy Durante." 

But, recalls the composer, DeVito "didn't do 

Hercules" 

also pokes sly, self-referential 

fun at Disney merchandising tie-ins by 

showcasing "Hercules Stores" peddling 

hero-worshipping souvenir products, including 

such items as vases featuring Here's 

valiant visage. There's a certain eternal verity 

to such gags, the filmmakers believe, because 

LABORERS OF "HERCULES": (left to right) Helmers Ron Clements and John Musker recently signed exclusive pacts with Disney: 

Tate Donovan takes inspiration from a likeness of the film's hero; and James Woods gets down as the god Hades. 

rator on "Hercules" was lyricist David Zippel, 

a Tony winner for "City of Angels" and a 

newcomer to Disney animation. 

Working with Musker and Clements is "a 

riot," Menken says, "because each song becomes 

a standout song. You have less of the 

kinds of songs that are built 

in and forwarding plot in a 

compUcated way. The songs 

they like me to write and that 

make them really fun are 

production numbers, comedy 

numbers, and heavily 

stylized numbers. 'Hercules' 

is just so funny, so fastpaced, 

so entertaining." 

of the most daring 

Oneaspects of "Hercules" 

is its incorporation of 

African-American 

musical 

idioms to convey hope, idealism 

and soulfulness, a suggestion 

by the directors that 

Menken and Zippel eagerly 

embraced. The five Muses 

making up the film's Greek 

chorus—Calliope, 

Thalia, 

Clio, Meljxjmene and Terpsichore, 

sung by Lillias 

White, Vaneese Thomas, 

Cheryl Freeman, LaChanze 

and Roz Ryan—v(x;alize in 

a style Menken describes as 

"sort of New Orieans funk," a blend of gospel 

with rhythm and blues. 

That element was added to give the film "a 

styli.stic twist that you wouldn't normally expect" 

says lyricist Zippel. "Becaase cvery- 

Jimmy Durante. It sounded like Danny DeVito 

singing, and it really worked." 

Another example of the film's incessant 

stream of showbiz in-jokery is James Woods' 

motor-mouthed portrayal of Hades as what 

Clements calls "the hippest villain we've ever 

HERC" JERK: Hades is a blue-haired fast talker with teeth as sharp as a talent agent 

had, a Hollywood-agent type of personality. 

When [fonner agent) Michael Ovitz was here 

|as president of the Walt Disney Co. until his 

departure last December], we couldn't say that. 

Now wc can." 

the Greek gods filled a function in their society 

much like that now performed by movie stars 

or the British royal family in today's mediasaturated 

culture. 

By offering this "gende parody" of the machinery 

by which heroes are created, Musker 

and Clements have a lowkey 

moral message in mind 

for the young among their 

family audiences. "In becoming 

sort of the Michael 

Jordan of his day, Hercules 

learns there is more to being 

a hero than being an action 

hero," Musker says. "Understanding 

the difference 

between celebrityhood and 

genuine heroism is good for 

kids today." 

The movie's bustling city 

of Thebes, beset by myriad 

nauiral disasters, is meant to 

evoke contemporary New 

York or Los Angeles— 

plijce in which, as Clements 

puts it, "they need a hero but 

ihey don't believe in heroes. 

I lercules finally attains heroism 

when he's not trying 

to. That's when he letuns a 

self-sacrificing attitude. He 

finds that heroism has to 

come from the heart." 

j^^, .^^ ^^ ^^y^^.^^ i^y. 

of "Aladdin" was influenced 

by Persian art. the ancient Greek setting 

of "Hercules" inspired its own offbeat style of 

animation, evoking the art of Attic pottery. 

"'Hercules' has a two-dimensional quality, 

more stylized. less representational, and more

' 

digital sound? 

Digital sound is more realistic, more dynamic, more spectacular— 

d a powerful audience attraction. Without it, any exhibitor today 

at a big disadvantage. 

y Dolby Digital? 

There are far more Dolby Digital titles (900 released and annoui r . d) 

an any other digital fomiat—and every print has a digital soundck. 

If you book a Dolby Digital title, you get a print with a Dolby 

r 

gital soundtrack—no exceptions, no excuses. And when it comes to 

sound, no name is more familiar to audiences than "Dolby." 

't it expensive? 

Dolby Digital is remarkably affordable today. The price of 

ocessors has come down significantly, and projector manufao 

ers now offer cost-effective soundheads integrating both 

digital and analog readers. 

What support does Dolby provide? 

Only Dolby offers a choice of exciting digital traOers, plus 

marketing aids from window signs to lobby posters. What's 

more, as improvements to the Dolby Digital process are 

developed, they are included right on Dolby Digital prints 

as software that automatically loads into your theatre's 

processor to update it. 

ow can I find out about upcoming Dolby 

Igital titles? 

A regularly updated list of Dolby Digital films, both 

leased and announced, is posted at www.dolby.cotfi; 

e Dolby web site. You can also contact Dolby 

iboratories directly for the list. 

t should I do when I'm ready to 

Dolby Digital? 

Call Dolby Laboratories "r your Dolby thcc. 

. 

equipment supplier. 

. e 

Z'; 

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and ihc doubtc-D symbol are [mdcmarlcs i >lby Laboratories 

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decorative" than the traditional Disney animated 

film, Musker notes. "But at the same 

time we're still trying to work in three dimensions, 

with the Disney illusion of moving in 

deep space." 

So that the creative team could absorb authentic 

location atmosphere, Musker and 

Clements took key department heads on a trip 

to Greece and Turkey in summer 1994. Shooting 

video footage and still photographs for 

reference, they discovered unexpected details 

they later incorporated into the film's visual 

texture. "All the sites were overrun with goats," 

Musker recalls with amusement "Throughout 

the film we sprinkled a more liberal dose of 

goats. That helped give it a life, a certain color." 

The noted British artist and political cartoonist 

Gerald Scarfe, whose distinctive style 

relies on bold caricature and finely filigreed 

calligraphy, also came on board the 

"Hercules" production, aiding with character 

designs. Scarfe, whose conceptual drawings 

flowed from England to Buifcank for three 

years, "was basically our graphic designer," 

Clements says, although Andy Gaskill served 

as art director. 

On "Aladdin," the filmmakers employed 

artist Al Hirschfeld in a similar capacity to 

Scarfe's on "Hercules." In both films, animation 

buffs also can detect the uncredited 

influence of the boldly stylized UFA cartoons 

that challenged Disney's hegemony in 

the 1950s. "Hercules" makes intermittent 

use of CGI techniques as well, for sequences 

involving morphing clouds and a thirtyheaded 

monster, the Hydra. 

ting-edge animation directors. 

Not only are 

they "well-known around Disney for being 

adventurous when it comes to technology," 

says their fellow "Hercules" producer Alice 

'-ith animation profits soaring over the 

past few years, the competition 

T T among Hollywood studios for animation 

artists 

and directors has become in- 

MOM & POP OUTFIT: Hera specializes in ambrosia batches, Zeus in ligtitning bolts. 

Dewey, "they are unique because they are 

writer/directors, so they have a very careful 

sense of what their movie is and have thought 

it through from the genesis. 

creasingly feverish. Keeping Musker and 

Clements on the lot has been a high priority for 

Disney. When animation honcho Jeffrey 

Katzenberg left as chairman of Walt Disney 

Studios in 1994 and became a partner with 

Steven Spielberg and David Geffen in 

DreamWorks SKG, Musker wrote a memo to 

his Disney colleagues declaring, "Well, guys, 

I think everybody's salary just went up." 

Musker and Clements held talks with 

DreamWorks and Warner Bros., but last year 

they decided to sign exclusive new agreements 

with Disney. 'There were long-term projects 

we wanted to do, and there are good people 

here," Musker explains. The newly competitive 

atmosphere is "good for artists, because 

it's not so monolithic. It helped us when we did 

'The Little Mermaid" that Spielberg [and Don 

Bluth] had done 'An American Tail.'We talked 

to Jeff and said, 'We've got to do the storm at 

sea better. We've got to top them.'" 

The next project for Musker and Qements is 

another stylistic challenge, an aninwted sci-fi 

feature titled 'Treasure Planet" A futuristic version 

of 'Treasure Island," populated with robots 

and cyborgs, it is being planned for release in 

either the year 2000 or 200 1 . "It has to be at least 

one ofthose dates," Qements explaias, "because 

those are good graphic numbeni." 

Hi 

EARLYWORK: Musker and Clements ' 

The unusual blend of influences on Musker 

and Clements, and their willingness to experiment 

with diverse styles of animation, helps 

account for their status as Disney's most cut- 

T/ie Little Mermaid" swims back into ttieatres this Thanksgiving. 

"Because this is their fourth picture," 

Dewey continues, "they have a tremendous 

amount ofexperience, not only with animation 

but with each other." 

"Hercules. " Vaces by Tate Donovan, Janes 

Wix)ds, Rip Tom and Danny DeVito. Dimctedhy 

Jdim Musker cmd Ron CUimtUs. Written by Ron 

ClemeiUs & Mm Musker, Bol) Slum' & Don 

McEnery and Irene MecchL Pnxlmed by Alice 

Deyvey, John MuskeratuiRon ClenwiUs. A Buena 

Vfaw release. Anitiuited Oikhs wide June 27.

*iei.DonseNo. 49 , 

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'**

The Big Picture 

UNLIMITED 

ANIMATION 

Remembering tlie Golden Era of UPA, tlie Little 

Animation Studio tliat Could by Ray Greene 

A 

funny thing happened on 

the way to our nostalgic Big 

Picture feature this month. 

As a magazinefortunate enough to 

call Oscar-winning animator Ernest 

Pintoff a friend, we came up 

with an idea we thought might complement 

our cover story, then told 

Ernie what we had in mind. Original 

art seemed not onlypossible but 

calledfor, andErnie saidhe thought 

he had something on hand that 

might help us out. 

What he came up with was something 

so special we felt a black-andwhite 

page couldn 't do it justice. In 

the meantime, the subject selected 

for consideration proved vast 

enough to require more than our 

usual page space. 

The solution was easy: move the 

Big Pictureforward into afullfourcolor 

double spread that would 

meet the visual and narrative possibilities 

facilitated by the art 

Ernie managed to supply. Continuity 

fans will find the Big Picture 

back where it belongs next month. 

In the meantime, we hope you'll 

enjoy this rareformat departurefor 

the little .summertime gift it is meant 

to provide. 

Caricature has always been a 

served for illustrations in the slick magazines 

of the 4()s and "SOs, and which survives in part 

in the recent feature film work of "Aladdin" 

and "Hercules" co-directors John Musker and 

Ron GemenLs—really only found its way into 

theatrical animation in the eariy 1950s, thanks 

influence of the Walt Disney Studios during 

the '30s and '40s. Though the stories were 

fanciful, the visual aesthetic behind such signature 

works as "Snow White," "Pinocchio" 

and even "Fantasia" was grounded in the concept 

of ever more convincing dimensionality 

and realism. Under the guidance of 

foundere Walt and Roy Disney, the 

Disney Studios became famous for 

the rigorous discipline they subjected 

their artists to, which embraced 

art classes and movement 

studies with one goal in mind: to 

replace the amorphous and inconsistent 

motion which virtually all 

early cartoons suffered from with 

something approaching the real 

thing. 

Disney's success at re-inventing 

the way animation looked is apparent 

not only in its own work from 

the period but in that of all its significant 

competitors of the early 

sound era. Original Mickey Mouse 

animator Iwerks foundered when 

he started his own snidio, in laiê 

part because ofmisguided attempts 

to match the production value of 

the Disney short subjects division 

which he himself had helped create. 

At Paramount, Max and Dave 

Fleischer, who were arguably 

Disney's closest and most imaginative 

rivals throughout the 

'30s, were forced by the studio into 

feature animation production in the 

aftermath of "Snow White's" stunning 

boxoffice achievement, overextending 

and eventually 

bankrupting theraselves in the pro- 

part of the animator's art. CAUSE.. . Gerald McBoing Boing, titular star of ttie 1951 UPA short that cess. At MOM, the Tom and Jerry 

From the earliest Mickey grabbed an Oscar and marked an early example of the studio's graphic style. series put the slapstick energy of 

Mouse cartoons to Felix the Cat to 

to a then-Columbia based animation studio 

"Steamboat Willie" together with 

Betty Boop and Ub Iwerks' Flip the Frog, the called United Productions of America, aka a lush pictorial style to create one of 

pioneers of film animation took a wicked delight 

in presenting exaggerated and at times 

UPA. 

There was a reason why it took so long for 

animation's longest running success stories, 

while at Warner Bros., awareness ofthe Disney 

grotesque images of the popular figures oftheir what should have seemed a natural marriage hou.se style contributed in the margins to the 

day. But "ftxmal" caricature—the kind re- 

to take place: the unprecedented success and evolution ofan increasingly three-dimensional 

approach to the medium. 

PA was the one cartixm studio that was 

founded upon a specific mandate to 

reject the influential Disney hou.se style 

in favor of a more eclectic approach, embrac-

,; 

' 

' 

' 

in a surreal, first-person style derived 

ing fine artists as disparate as Lautrec and 

rtuous seven-minute nightmare rendered cartoon short, and UPA's two attempts at fea- 

Daumier as well as contemporary mannerists equally from Dali, expressionist theatre 

from Thurber to Hirschfeld. The brainchild of 

a generation of Disney animators who had 

been hired out of the art schools as opposed to 

being brought up within Disney itself, UPA 

was bom out of an eclectic group of artists' 

and UPA's own evocative house style. 

By 1953, the somewhat pejorative term 

"limited animation" had been applied to 

the UPA technique (some insiders blame 

Disney for the term) owing to UPA's interdesire 

to expand the 

graphic boundaries of animation 

into realms that 

had been largely off-limits 

at Disney, but which were 

the bread and butter of 

modem art. 

A bitter labor strike at 

Disney in 1941 pitted the 

younger, more sociallyconscious 

generation 

against the more established 

Disney loyalists, 

and many of the new 

breed went to work for director 

Frank Tashlin at the 

upstart animation studio 

Screen Gems. From there, 

members of this breakaway 

unit formed their 

own company, run originally 

by Steve Bosustow, 

Zack Schwartz and Dave 

Hilberman, with a stellar 

animation team including 

at various times the likes 

of John Hubley, Bobe 

Cannon, Bill Hurtz, Bill 

Melendez and Ernest 

Pintoff— all legends 

within the animation field, 

and each of whom continued 

to work out ideas fu^t 

expressed at UPA in subsequent 

work of groundbreaking 

achievement. 

Though most famous 

for its enduring "serial" 

character, Mr. Magoo, 

UPA's output was as varied 

as the visual sources it 

drew upon. "Gerald McBoing Boing" (1951) 

was only the eleventh UPA cartoon produced 

and IS widely beUeved to be the first full articulation 

est in stylization. To aficionados, the term is a 

misnomer; in its audacious and restive desire 

to re-invent animation with each new cartoon, 

of the UPA house style . In an irony that UPA's output of theatrical cartoons was as 

probably wasn't lost on Walt Disney, it boundlessly adventurous—as unlimited, if 

grabbed the Academy Award for Best Animated 

you wUl—âs any body ofcinematic work ever 

Short Subject, which created the un- 

created. 

likely Oscar spectacle of UPA's Bosustow 

standing shoulder to shoulder with Walt Disney 

himself, who was accepting an Oscar for 

uch a group of free spirits was bound to 

waft apart over time. There were man- 

'agement difficulties which resulted in 

"Madeline," the popular French children's Bosustow taking full control ofthe studio; over 

book series, made it to the screen in a Bobe the course of the 1950s, key creative talent 

Cannon-directed short from 1952 that flaw- drifted, often into the then-nascent field ofTV 

work (where UPA itself was a pioneer). The 

TV medium was uniquely configured to take 

unique vision of New Yorker cartoonist James advantage of UPA's ability to make arresting 

Thurber to life in his 1953 adaptation of visual material out of fixed resources; as a 

Thurber's "A Unicom in the Garden." The result, the UPA approach defined a whole generation 

of TV's animation style, even when 

1953) was a UPA highpoint—an aerie 

UPA itself wasn't directly involved. 

and But TV soon ended the era of the theatrical 

' !j( "Beaver Valley," 1 95 1 's best live action short. 

, 

lessly replicated Ludwig Bemebnan's singular 

, .; 

graphic style, while Bill Hurtz helped bring the 

James Mason-narrated rendering of Poe's 

J , 'Tell-Tale Heart" (directed by Ted Parmelee in 

AND EFFECT: Oscar-winning animator Ernest Pintoff got his start at UPA. His later, highly 

personal works reflect the UPA influence. ABOVE: Study based on Pintoffs 'Flebus, " made 

at Terrytoons. TOP: Study based on Pintoff's self-produced 'The Violinist. 

ture length animation (the 

Magoo-starring "1001 

Arabian Nights" and "Gay 

Pur-ee," based on a story 

co-authored by Chuck 

Jones) were boxoffice 

flops. Core UPA personnel 

continued to flourish elsewhere; 

such veterans as 

Parmelee and Hurtz helped 

create Jay Ward's popular 

"Rocky and Bullwinkle" 

cartoons, while Bill 

Melendez went on to become 

the producer behind 

such seasonal TV favorites 

as "A Charlie Brown 

Christmas" and "It's the 

Great Pumpkin, Charlie 

Brown" — part of a series 

of "Peanuts"-derived cartoons 

which, in their flawless 

emulation of the 

Charles Schulz originals, 

were pure UPA. Ernie 

Pintoff followed perhaps 

the most exceptional trajectory 

of all, going against 

the pattern for animators in 

the '50s and '60s by getting 

his first break as an animator 

in UPA's TV division 

and then moving into theatrical 

cartoons, where his 

Mel Brooks-narrated "The Critic" eventually 

won him an Oscar as producer/director of the 

best animated short of 1%3. 

Though UPA survives as a company, its 

days in the artistic vanguard are a distant memory 

today, and the company's achievement is 

all but forgotten except among professional 

animators and animation devotees. UPA's influence, 

however, is as available as the latest 

"Ren and Stimpy" or 'T)r. Katz" cablecast, and 

can even be said to be reflected in part in 

Musker and Clements' recent Disney efforts. 

It's startling to look back and see just how far 

one small studio managed to expand the visual 

possibilities of the American cartoon. In this 

era, when more and more money is being 

invested by a variety of studios in animated 

features designed to look as much as possible 

as if they were made by Disney in its "golden 

era" prime, the UPA paradigm may be not just 

worth celebrating, but worth revisiting, as a 

model for the unlimited possibilities of color 

and line. 

^B

" 

Sneak Preview 

ON HER "HORIZON" 

Kathleen Quinlan heads into action 

with Paramount's ''Event Horizon " 

by Bridget Byrne 

Kathleen Quinlan (center) with co-stars Jason Isaacs andJoety Richardson 

in a scene from Paramount's August release, "Event Horizon. 

I 

took this because there are not 

many roles where women are 

really active," says actress 

Kathleen Quinlan, explaining 

why she'll be seen charging about 

in a spacesuit in "Event Horizon," 

an outer-space adventure that 

Paramount opens this August. 

Recently, Quinlan has been in 

two films in which the do-or-die 

stuffwaslefttoaman. Earlier this 

summer, she was the wife who 

went missing in "Breakdown," a 

highway horror movie headUned 

by Kurt Russell. And she was 

Oscar nominated as best supporting 

actress for her turn as Marilyn 

Lovell, the wife who had to keep 

her feet on the ground, literally as 

well as figuratively, when her astronaut 

husband Jim, played by 

Tom Hanks, soared off into destiny 

in the drama "Apollo 1 3." 

Qiuckling, Quinlan acknowledges 

that the choice to portray a 

medical technician on a space exploration 

team could well have 

been a .subconscious reaction to 

her previous groundings. And, 

furthermore, she never set out in 

life to be a sit-it-out. Quinlan, now 

turned 40, excelled at gymnastics 

and diving a.s a teen. But in those 

days, before the influx of endorsement 

dollars for lop athletes, 

she couldn't "figure out how you 

made a living doing that." 

There was a gym for the actors 

at the Pinewood Studios in England, 

where "Event Horizon" 

was filmed. "We used it not because 

of wanting to look good, but 

because of the need to be in good 

shape to wear the heavy spacesuits. 

They are spectacular to look 

at but very hot. Putting one on was 

like going from chilly London 

winter weather to the Bahamas in 

just minutes," Quinlan says. 

A search-and-rescue-mission 

movie, which also stars Laurence 

Fishbume, Sam Neill and Joely 

Richardson, "Event Horizon" 

is set in the confines of a huge 

and ghostly spacecraft that 

has mysteriously reappeared 

after being lost for years. 

Quinlan plays Peters, a single 

mother with a child back on 

earth; she's one of the space 

team struggling to cop)e in a 

ghastly atmosphere haunted 

by many things, including, 

says director Paul Anderson 

("Mortal Kombat"), "the demons 

they bring with them." 

Quinlan says that Ander- 

.son took the time to provide rehearsal 

interaction and clear storyboarded 

images of how the 

finished scenes would look—essential 

aids for the cast, who often 

found themselves emoting in a 

lonely void that would later he 

linked to special effects or the 

work ofother actors. "A lot of time 

I was acting to nobcxly," says 

Quinlun, who rarely worked on 

the same days as did Fishbume, 

even though most of her scenes 

are actually with him. 

Ahhough Quinlan admits to 

never having had a deep-rooted 

interest in space, she feels that 

working on this sci-fi film and the 

reality-based "Apollo I?" has 

given her "moic 

ofa universal per 

spective." She 

says, "It's just too 

egotistical to think 

that we are the 

only lifeform in 

the universe," 

though the actress 

doesn't buy into 

any of the perceived 

images of 

aliens, which she 

believes are bom 

out of the sort of fear and prejudice 

usually directed by humans 

toward anything unknown. 

uinlan, 

who grew up in 

|Mill Valley, Calif., came to 

professional acting by 

when she was picked out 

ofa "cattle call" at her high school. 

Billed as Kathy Quinlan, she was 

given the role of Peg, who appears 

at the sockhop in George Lucas' 

1973 nostalgia piece, "American 

Graffiti." In 1977, her performance 

as a teenager being treated 

for schizophrenia in "I Never 

FVomised You a Rose Garden" 

seemed to mark her out for major 

stardom. But since then Quinlan 

has favored lower-key films dom- 

^^Putting [on the 

spacesuit] was 

like goingfrom 

chilly London 

winter weather 

to the Bahamas. " 

inated by character work, such as 

I983's "Independence Day" and 

I988's "Clara's Heart." 

In conversation, Quinlan comes 

across as .someone who thinks 

thnxigh her answers to questions; 

she's not glib or polished, just 

straightforwiird. On this day, she's 

biick home in Mulibu with her actor 

husband, Bruce Abbott and their 

six-year-old son, Tyler, after a New 

York trip to promote "Breakdown." 

That film, she says, had 

even an industry 

audience "yelling 

and carrying on, peitiaps because 

it taps into some unconscious 

fear we can all identify with." 

Quinlan says she's happy now 

with her career, but she admits 

there were times 

when she 

questioned 

her choice. 

"When not much 

is happening and 

there seems to be 

nothing you can 

do to change that, 

you do wonder 

But it just kept 

coming up that T 

am an actor, like 

it or not.' I stuck 

with it and took 

what was offered." Those offerings 

have also included "Hanky 

Panky," 'Twilight Zone—The 

Movie" and "The Doors." 

She says she is still a little surprised 

that she got the role in 

"Apollo 1 3," which reminded everyone 

of her talents. The film's 

director was, of course, Ron Howard, 

also an "American Graffiti" 

alumnus, which undoubtedly 

helped. But she feels that "some 

of the newer folks in the industry" 

too often cast for personality 

rather than character "I'm not really 

sure they are familiar with the 

term 'acting.' They don't understand 

what it means to play a character 

rather than just be a personality," 

Quinlan muses. 

Whatever the future holds, 

she says, "my dream job has 

already happened." Earlier 

this year, she starred in the 

MGM release "Zeus and Roxanne," 

a family comedy atx>ut 

a dog and dolphin that would 

be suitable for her son to see. 

During filming, she got to 

swim, and swim, and .swim, in 

the open ocean with the dolphins. 

It was her idea of bliss 

because, this one-time divci 

and gymnast avers, "I am re 

ally a sea creature. Jusl 

mammal that lost its fins." 

"Event Horizon. " Slarhiiy 

Laurence Fishbume, Kathleci 

Quinlan, Sam Neill and Joeh 

Richardson. Directed hy Pan 

Anderson. Written hy Philip l-js 

ner Produced by Lawrena 

Gordon, Uoyd Levin and Jcr 

emy Bolt. A Paramount relea.se 

Sci-fi. Opens August L

\u 

^ 

1 

h

11 BoxomcF. 

Sneak Preview 

LENSING "MAGOO" 

Hong Kong director Stanley Tong 

goes Disney with ''Mr. Magoo " 

by Wade Major 

For his Hollywood debut, director Stanley Tong (above) is 

transforming cartoon character Mr Magoo (right) to live-action. 

Live-action adaptations of 

famous cartoons are hot. 

Hong Kong directors are 

hot. But only in Hollywood would 

anyone have dared think of pairing 

the two. Oddly enough, in the 

case of Disney's "Mr. Magoo," 

forthcoming this fall, the strange 

pairing seems inspired. 

"They want me to make it more 

international," says director Stanley 

Tong, "because the 

original 

cartoon is so American. A lot of 

the verbal jokes don't translate. 

When you go to Europe and Asia 

and put on subtides, you don't get 

the joke. What Disney liked about 

my work in 'First Strike' and 

'Rumble in the Bronx' was that so 

much of the humor was visual." 

Best known for his three epics 

— with Jackie Chan "Supercop," 

"Rumble in the Bronx" and "First 

Strike"—^Tong is the latest Hong 

Kong action super-director to 

make the jump to America, right 

on the heels of John Woo, Ringo 

Lam and Tsui Hark. Unlike those 

of his cohorts, however, Tong's 

Hollywood debut will not feature 

action star Jean-Claude Van 

Damme. What's more, it won't 

even be an action film. It's a family 

comedy, which suits him fine. 

"I don't really like my movies 

to be violent," he says. "Too much 

gunplay or too many explosions 

would kill the female audience, 

and parents might not want their 

children to see it. The reason I put 

so much comedy in my films is 

because I want to dilute the action 

element, not make it so much a 

'hot' action picture. I'll have 'hot' 

action in it, but I try to interpret it 

in a comic way so all audiences 

will enjoy it and so they won't see 

it as a straight action picture." 

O; 

riginally characterized by 

|Jim Backus in a series of 

theatrical animated shorts 

beginning in 1949 and again on 

TVduringthe 1960sand'70s, 

the myopic Magoo has a predilection 

for unwittingly slipping 

in and out of hair-raising 

situations—a scenario that 

would seem tailor-made for 

Tong's unique blending of 

comic slapstick and complex 

action choreography. 

That Tong has always handled 

the bulk of the action 

directing and stunt coordination 

himself (most Hong 

Kong directors hire dedicated 

action directors to handle 

complicated sequences) 

makes his accomplishments that 

much more impressive. Tong's 

work on "First Strike." in fact, 

earned him a 1996 Taiwanese 

Golden Horse award for best action 

direction. Tong, though, sees 

his diverse involvements as simply 

a logical extension of the work 

he began while still a stuntman. 

"Jackie and I come from similar 

backgrounds," he says. "I started 

as a stuntman too, and after three 

years and hundreds of stunts I had 

broken my shoulder, my ribs and 

my knees and even gotten a gunshot 

wound on my right arm. I felt 

that, if I went on doing stunts, I'd 

soon kill 

— 

myself. 

So I started working 

as an assistant 

director so I could 

learn more about 

production and 

the process of 

making a movie." 

Like Chan, Tong 

quickly worked 

his way through 

the ranks, holding 

a variety ofjobs 

camera operator, 

stunt coordinator, production 

manager—before segueing into 

directing with his acclaimed 1989 

debut film "Stone Age Warriors." 

"When you see my films, I'm 

more Americanized than other 

Hong Kong directors," Tong says. 

"I do storyboards and preproduction 

very carefully. That system 

has been here for so many years, 

there must be a reason. 

"In Hong Kong, it's true that I 

can do whatever I want to do— 

can shoot for another day and not 

have to ask anyone. If I want to 

change a Une in the script, I can do 

it 

on-set. In a way, that system is 

practical, but it also results in directors 

waiting until the last minute 

to do things. And that's not a 

good habit for a director." 

a What Disney liked 

about my work in 

^First Strike^ and 

^Rumble in the 

Bronx was ^ that so 

much of the humor 

was visual, " 

For "Mr. Magoo." Disney has 

provided Tong with the best of 

both worids: Hollywood professionalism 

and a level of creative 

freedom that's all but 

unheard of for a Hong Kong 

director. "They've even allowed 

me to bring in my crew," 

he says, "which is the first time 

I 

that's happened to a Hong Kong 

director. Even John Woo can't 

bring over his assistant director 

and stunt coordinator. But I'm 

bringing over my assistant director, 

my director of photography, 

my stunt team. It's a package." 

ihe one element 

missing 

from T? 

Tong's package, 

ironically, is the 

one that has 

proven most crucial 

to his success: 

Jackie Chan. But, 

with Leslie Nielsen 

starring as 

the mis-ocular 

Magoo, and 

a 

sohd supporting 

cast that includes 

Kelly Lynch, Tong appears ready 

for a substantial Hollywood bow. 

"I'm just working on designing 

the signaaire action set pieces," 

Tong says. The story: Evildoers 

are after an oblivious-as-always 

Quincy Magoo, a nearsighted 

millionaire into whose possession 

a stolen gem has fallen. "The 

challenge is to put in the signature 

action sequences while keeping 

them funny and humorous in a 

way that's true to the original." 

Though he admits to feeling at 

home in the sftidio system. Tong 

stops short of committing himself 

to Hollywood for the long haul, as 

he's looking forward to yet another 

collaboration with Chan, 

this to be shot in India. "Whether 

I stay in America or in Hong 

Kong, I want to make international 

movies," he says. 

"If there is a good story in 

Hong Kong with a Hong 

Kong actor, I would love to do 

it. But I have to take risks. If 1 

don't take risks, then 1 do only 

things that I'm comfortable 

shooting. I believe that in 

order to have success as a director 

you have to have the 

guts to try something new. and 

you have to have tlie patience 

to make it hapjien." 

"Mr. Magoo. " Starring Leslie 

Nielsen, Kelly Lynch. Matt Keeslar, 

Nick Chinlimd. Ernie Hudson 

and Malcolm McDowell. Directed 

by Stanley Tong. Written h\ 

Pat Proft, Tom Sherohnum emu 

Jeff Berry. Produced by Ben My 

ron. A Buena Vista release. Liveaction 

comedy. Opens thisfall.

. CA 

very Day Millions of People 

ookDownonUs 

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) 

AUGUST 

TRAILERS 

Will there be hot August nights 

at the multiplex turnstiles? 

which exhibitors usually suffer the 

For a month in 

Awful August Blues trying to sell tickets to the dogs of 

summer, this year's eighth frame holds augurs ofpron 

ise. There's no new "Men In Black"-type dreadnougi 

coming a-calling (unless the TBA "Titanic" sets sail), but 

U^WimmimmflmiMmmmMmMfim 

it proved) "Chain Reaction" and "Virtuosity." 

That's partly because August 1 997 is front-loaded by 

distributors trying to eke out as much summer playina 

time for their titles 

as they can. Fortunately, although 

four major films bow 8/1, most lack direct competition. 

Paramount's "Event Horizon" will play to tr' 

— '- 

r-T*S?* 

'f"^^demo, 

Universal's "Leave It to Beaver" to families and 

Fox 's "Picture Perfect" to the distaff draw. The real clash, 

for serious-minded moviegoers, is between Miramax's 

"Copland" and Warner's "1§7." The 8/8 weekend is a 

bit more dicey, with Warner's "Free Willy 3" going 

Measures " trying to outbreed New Line 's "Spawn. " 

The big mid-month arrivals— Paramount's "A Smile 

Like Yours," Columbia's Alicia Silverstone-starring "Excess 

Baggage" (see photo above) and Warner's 

"Steel"—nicely share the generational pie chart, skewing 

from mature to young adults to children. The final 

frames are the more usual August grab berg (a trait the 

Miramax's "Operation Condor" and Universal's "Kull 

the Conqueror" intended treats for the action/comedy/urban 

demos. Still, all in all, it looks to be a month 

the industry won't get left on hold. 

AUGUST 1 

Event Horizon 

In 2046, a prototype spaceship 

named the Event Horizon missing 

for seven years is found by a rescue 

team traveling the solar system. 

Led by Laurence Fishburne 

(also in "Hoodlum"), they discover 

that terrifying secrets lie 

within. This sci-fi thriller also stars 

Sam Neill ("Jurassic Park"), Kathleen 

Quinlan ("Breakdown") and 

Joely Richardson ("101 Dalmatians"). 

Paul Anderson ("Mortal 

Kombat") directs; Philip Eisner 

scripts; Lawrence Gordon ("Die 

Hard"), Lloyd Levin ("The Rocketeer") 

and Jeremy Bolt produce. 

5ee our Sneak Preview in this 

issue. (Paramount, 8/1 

Exploitips: Unless the likes of 

"Lost World" and "Men In Black" 

have sated the teen and 

twentysomething males, expect a 

hot August night at this boxoffice. 

For that demo, which supported 

Anderson's previous, the "Mortal 

Kombat" credit will be an attractant, 

as will the genre. 

Leave It to Beaver 

The Cleavers are back and living 

in the '90s. Based on the classic 

TV series, this family comedy 

features the same wholesome 

characters: wise father Ward 

("Happy Gilmore's" Christopher 

McDonald), wholesome mom 

June ("Cliffhanger's" Janine 

Turner), big brother Wally (Erik 

Von Detten) and, of course, the 

Beaver (newcomer Cameron 

Finley). Andy Cadiff (TV's "Home 

Improvement") tiirects; Brian Levant 

("Jingle All the Way") and Lon 

Diamond script; Levant produces 

with Robert Simonds (also "Happy 

Gilmore"). (Universal, 8/1) 

Exploitips: Universal has had 

success and failure with TV reprises; 

think "The Flintstones" 

and "McHale's Navy." The plus 

here is that this is its date's only 

family flick. Play up the nostalgia 

factor to pull the thirty- and 

fortysomething parents who 

would make the moviegoing 

choice here for their brood. 

Picture Perfect 

Jennifer Aniston ("She's the 

rie") stars in this romantic comdy 

about a woman who uses a 

ndom photo to i nvent a fictional 

Dyfriend to help boost her caer. 

Complications ensue when 

\ actually meets the man in the 

photo and falls in love. Kevin 

Bacon, comic Jay Mohr and llleana 

Douglas ("Wedding Bell 

Blues") co-star. Glenn Gordon 

Caron ("Love Affair") directs, and 

Caron scripts with Arlene Sorkin, 

Paul Slansky and Jeffrey Abrams; 

Erwin Stoff and Molly Madden 

produce. (Fox, 8/1) 

Exploitips: Audiences will 

likely hope this is bounder than 

Caron's turgid "Love Affair," but 

"Picture Perfect"— given the presence 

of Aniston, a TV superstar 

via "Friends"— will pull much 

younger. Despite the title-heavy 

weekend, this is 8/1 's big romance, 

so the distaff and datenight 

demos are the likely targets. 

187 

Director Kevin Reynolds 

("Waterworld") goes intimate 

with this dramatic thriller about a 

deeply committed high-school 

teacher ("ATimeto Kill's" Samuel 

L. Jackson) who returns to the 

classroom a changed man after a 

long recuperation from a student 

attack. John Heard ("My Fellow 

Americans") and Kelly Rowan 

("Candyman; Farewell to the 

Flesh") co-star. Former teacher 

Scott Yagemann scripts; "Braveheart's" 

Bruce Davey and Steve 

McEveety produce for Mel Gibson's 

Icon. (Warner, 7/30 wide) 

Exploitips: Opening on a 

Wednesday, "1 87" has a two-day 

weekend's competi- 

lead on its 

tion— and it might need that edge. 

The 8/1 slot is filled to overflowing, 

with key competition being 

"CopLand," also a drama, and 

"Event Horizon, " which also will 

pull male. Warner's decision to 

go wide right away makes it a 

make-or-break debut. 

Paperbacic Romance 

A shy writer of erotica ("Two If 

By Sea's" Gia Carides) who's crippled 

breaks her leg. Provided the 

perfect "disguise," she goes after 

her dream man—a handsome but 

engaged jeweler ("Trees Lounge's" 

Anthony LaPaglia). Rom/com catastrophe 

follows. Formerly 

known as "Lucky Break." Ben 

Lewin ("The Favor, the Watch and 

the Very Big Fish") directs and 

scripts; Bob Weis ("Heartbreakers") 

produces. (Goldwyn, 8/1 

ltd) 

Exploitips: The name change 

works, as the demo here (women) 

read paperback romances. Try a 

catchline like "She wrote tales of 

love and lust— and then began to 

live one herself " Our critic (see 

our May 1997 issue) gave this 2 

1/2 stars, calling it a "modestly 

charismatic" film. Expect the older 

female demo to opt for this over 

competitor "Picture Perfect." 

Hamsun 

Based on a book by Thorkild 

Hansen, this Norwegian drama 

follows the last 1 7 years of the life 

of Nobel-winning Norwegian 

writer Knut Hamsun (Max Von 

Sydow), whose questionable sup-

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Exploitlps: Although not a critical failure, 

part 2 didn 't generate much audience enthusiasm 

(just $30. 1 million), so this has a hill to 

cHmb--and "Air Bud" might seem like a fresh 

alternative to a well-worn tale. Also, as Richter 

and his original "Free Willy" audience 

ages, the latter will be less interested in such 

a homespun narrative, and the single-digit set 

might see this as a tale for teenagers. But there 

can be presold strength in such a brand name. 

Copland 

Sylvester Stallone stars in this drama about a hearing-impaired sheriff who keeps 

the peace in a small New Jersey burg where many New York police officers live. 

When a criminal investigation points toward his own town, the sheriff must decide 

whether to protect the NyPD officers he idolizes or uphold the law. Harvey Keitel, 

Ray Liotta and Robert De Niro star with Peter Berg ("the Last Seduction"), Janeane 

GarofaloJ'The Truth About Cats and Dogs"), Michael Rapaport ("Metro"), Robert 

Patrick ("T2") and Annabella Sciorra ("The Funeral"). James Mcnaold ("Heavy'l 

directs and scripts; Cary Woods ("Citizen Ruth"), Cathy Konrad ("Beautiful Girls") 

and Ezra Sweolow ("Waiting to Exhale") produces. (Miramax, 8/1) 

Exploitlps: A Cannes debut was nixed, because (per Miramax] the film wasn't 

ready. Some Hollywood scuttlebutt hasn't been all positive, but the heavyweight 

cast here should make weekend # 1 a solid bet. The key competition for the likely 

male demo is "Event Horizon"; expect this to skew slightly older, with the teens 

and twenties heading for the sci-fi flick. 

port of the Nazis during WWII made him a 

controversial figure. The film tracks his turbulent 

family life and unusual persona. Chita 

Norby co-stars; Jan Troell ("The Emigrants") 

directs; Per Olov Enquist scripts; Erik Crone 

produces. (First Run, 8/6 NY) 

Exploitlps: Our Montreal critic (March 

1 997 issue) gave this Norwegian- and Cerman-language 

effort 3 1/2 stars, citing its top 

performances and atmospheric richness. It's 

the week's only foreign-language fare. 

AUGUSTS 

Desperate Measures 

In this suspense thriller, police officer Frank 

Conner ("Night Falls on Manhattan's" Andy 

Garcia) must find a bone marrow donor for his 

dying son. The only match is a vicious murderer 

("Multiplicity's" Michael Keaton, in a 

change-of-pace role) who plans to use the 

hospital setting to escape. Connor must both 

protect and contain the killer. Barbet Schroeder 

("Single White Female") directs; David 

Klass, Henry Bean ("Internal Affairs") and Neal 

Jimenez ("Anaconda") script; Schroeder produces 

with Susan Hoffman (also "SWF"), Lee 

Rich and Gary Foster ("Tin Cup"). (TriStar, 8/8) 

Exploitlps: Scbroeder's recent efforts 

haven't been blockbusters—a commodity 

that the talented Garcia still lacks. The family/peril 

narrative, as variously used in the 

likes of "Ransom," "Cape Fear" and "The 

Hand That Rocks the Cradle," can be the 

genre's strongest, however, and as such those 

elements in the storyline should be played up 

here— especially given that the least familyoriented 

demo, male youths, will likely be out 

to "Spawn," so this one will trend older. 

Spawn 

Six years after his murder, government 

agent Al Simmons (Michael Jai White) returns 

to Earth as Spawn, a man with supernatural 

powers. Though he longs to avenge his own 

death. Spawn must choose between revenge 

or saving his loved ones from the menacing 

Violator ("The Pest's" John Leguizamo). Mark 

Dippe directs this adaptation of Todd 

McFarlane's comic book; Clint Goldman and 

Steve Williams produce. (New Line, 8/8) 

Exploitlps: fxpecf "Mortal Kombat"-like 

numbers dnd gender— i.e., youthful males 

who read comic books and love sci-fi. This is 

the genre fare at which New Line excels, so 

expect assured distributor support. Prize 

drawings for comic books would nab interest. 

Free Willy 3 

In this third go about a boy and his whale, 

Jesse (again Jason James Richter) is a 1 7-yearold 

whale tracker. When illegal whaling operations 

threaten the lives of orca pal Willy and 

his family, Jesse teams with the 10-year-old 

son of the illegal whaler to save the day. August 

Schellenberg and Annie Corley again co-star. 

Sam Pillsbury ("Starlight Hotel") directs; John 

Mattson ("Milk Money") scripts; Jennie Lew 

Tugcnd again produces. (Warner, 8/8) 

Air Bud 

Twelve-year-old Josh (Kevin Zegers) is the 

shy, sad new kid in town whose father has 

recently died. Buddy is the runaway golden 

retriever with an incredible hook shot. The 

two meet, become fast friends and join the 

school basketball team. But Buddy's extraordinary 

ability causes a media frenzy that leads 

his nasty former owner, Norm Snively ("The 

Fisher King's" Michael Jeter), to come looking 

for him. Wendy Makkena ("Sister Act"), Eric 

Christmas and Bill Cobbs co-star. Charles 

Martin Smith directs; Paul Tamasy and Aaron 

Mendelsohn script; Robe rtVinceand William 

Vince produce. (Buena Vista, 8/8) 

Exploitlps: The plus here is the Disney 

imprimatur, the closest thing to a sure thing 

in kids flickery. But a tale ofa basketball-playing 

dog sounds like Flubber-era Disney live 

action, hijinkery that'll play these days only 

to early preteeners. 

Parents are unlikely to 

attend, instead opting to take kith and kin to 

a title more age-malleable. That could be 

"Free Willy 3" or "Napolean," but the real 

advantage could go to weekend #2 of "Leave 

It to Beaver," absent critical skinning. 

Napolean 

This live-action film about a golden retriever 

puppy is set in the Australian wilderness, 

where the curious Napolean (voiced by 

"The Doctor's" Adam Wylie) is taken when 

he slips into a hot-air balloon. There, he befriends 

a parrot named Birdo ("Courage 

Under Fire's" Bronson Pinchot), who helps 

guide him in the right direction. Wendy 

Makkena (also "Air Bud") voices Napolean's 

mom; David Ogden Stiers ("The Hunchback 

of Notre Dame") voices characters cal led Owl 

and Koala; and Joan Rivers does Mother Penguin. 

Mario Andreacchio directs, scripts (with 

Mark Saltzman and producer Michael 

Bourchier) and produces. (Goldwyn, 8/8 ltd) 

Exploitlps: Any voiceover live-action pet 

film will hdve to compete in audience minds 

with "Babe. " This film, two years on the Goldwyn 

slate, is of the traditional, unlipsynched 

variety. Still, one can expect that a Goldwyn 

children's film would be different than a Disney 

children's film, and if so critical response 

could aid this release's later expansion. A 

careful adoption/pet care tie-in with the local 

SPCA could generate stronger family turnout. 

Career Girls 

(Jsi.ir-nominated writer/director Mike 

Leigh ("Secrets & Lies") turns to lighter, comic 

territory in a film he says is "about love and 

youth and sex and memories." Set in London 

over the course of a weekend, the film follows 

two young career women as they encounter 

many of their old college friends 1 5 years after 

graduation and examine how all their lives 

have changed. Katrin Cartlidge (the female 

lead in Leign's "Naked") and Lynda Steadman

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star. Simon Channing-Williams produces. 

(October, 8/8 NY/LA, 8/1 5 exp) 

Exploitips: The Oscar attention given 

Leigh's most recent credit will give this a leg 

up in the arthouse marketplace, in which it 

faces "In the Company of Men," "Soul in the 

Hole"andtheLAexpansionofTrimark's"Box 

of Moonlight" (see our June issue Trailers), 

and as such the Leigh name is the salemaker. 

In the Company of Men 

This blacl< comedy examines the brutalities 

of '90s corporate culture and love. Chad and 

Howard are two frustrated white-collar execs 

who formulate a plan to make themselves feel 

better: date and dump a young woman who'll 

never get over it. The frat-style prank soon 

becomes a serious struggle of hatred, love and 

manipulation. Aaron Eckhart, Stacy Edwards 

and Matt Malloy star. Neil LaBute directs and 

scripts; Mark Archer and Steven Pevner produce. 

(Sony Classics, 8/8 NY/LA) 

Exploitips: This was named best dramatic 

feature at Sundance and screened in Un Certain 

Regard at Cannes, two promotable venues. 

Our Sundance critic wasn't totally 

persuaded, however; a 2 1/2-star review (see 

our April 1997 issue) found fault with the 

film's morality ("not one ounce of moral restitution 

can be found in the climax"), inconsistent 

acting and poor production values. Yet 

the controversy that erupted at Sundance if 

replicated on release could make this mustsee 

fare for the arthouse-engaged. 

Shooting porn 

A look at Hollywood's gay porn industry, 

this Ronnie Larsen documentary is the 

playwright's first film. It visits two sets, one 

of director Gino Colbert, the other of Chi 

Chi LaRue. Porn actors Blue Blake, Bryan 

Kidd and Adam Rom appear, as do porn 

reviewers Mickey Skee and David Widmer. 

Caryn Horwitz and Doua Lindeman 

produces. (Horwitz, 7/1 1 NV) 

Exploitips: Although our reviewer gave 

it only one star (see our May 1 997 issue), 

"Shooting Porn" generatea interest at the 

London Lesbian & Gay Film Fest and at 

Berlin 's European Film Market and has an 

attention-grabbing salaciousness built into 

its title. The film will play 6/27 at the San 

Francisco Lesbian & Gay Film Fest and 

7/l8atLA'sOutfest'97. 

Mrs. Brown 

This romantic drama talis of the unusual 

relationship between Queen Victoria 

("Hamlet's" Judi Denchj and John Brown 

("Indecent Proposal's" Billy Connolly), a 

Highlander summoned from Balmoral to 

walk the Queen's pony as she rides in the 

hope that exercise will help Her Highness 

LATE MOVIE MOVES... 

Billy Zone ("The Phantom") and Gina 

Gershon ("Bound") star with Rue 

McClanahan, Sheryl Lee ("Bliss") and Seymour 

Cassel. Michael Oblowitz directs; 

Larry Gross ("48HRS.") scripts, and he 

produces with Chris Hanley and Brad 

Wyman for Largo. (Orion Classics, 7/1 8) 

Exploitips: The film adapts a 1 955 short 

story of crime writer Jim Thompson that 

went unpublished until 1 983 and the pulp 

fictioneer's name is revered by the genre's 

enthusiasts. The eroticism of the material is 

likely to draw critical and moviegoer attention, 

rarely a bad thing (Gershon's "Showgirls" 

being an exception). The film arrives 

bearing a Sundance imprimatur. 

Soul In the Hole 

Set in the subculture of NYC street basketball, 

"Soul in the Hole" follows one squad, 

the Bed-Stuy "Dream Team" called Kenny's 

Kings, as it plays through a lot hot summer on 

Brooklyn's asphalt playgrounds. Danielle 

Gardner directs; Lilibet Foster produces. 

(Northern Arts, 8/8 NY/LA, wider Sept & Oct) 

Exploitips: Loud Records will release the 

film's soundtrack. More "Hoop Dreams" than 

"The Mighty Ducks," the film has an emotional 

focus— the relationship between star 

point guard Ed "Booger" Smith, thrown out by 

his mother, and his surrogate father, coach 

Kenny Jones— that could grab audiences. 

Excess Baggage 

AUGUST 15 

In this action/adventure, Alicia Silverstone 

("Batman & Robin") is a lonely rich girl who 

plans her own kidnapping. She involves an 

unwitting car thief ("The Usual Suspects'" 

Benicio del Toro), but her scheme gets out of 

control and she finds herself on the run from an 

ex-CIA assassin (Christopher Walken). Harry 

Connick )r. ("Copycat"), jack Thompson ("The 

Sum of Us") and Nicholas Turturro ("Mac") 

co-star. Marco Brambilla ("Demolition Man") 

directs; Max Adams, Dick Clement ("The Commitments") 

and Ian LaFrenais script; Silverstone 

produces with former A&M Films exec Bill 

Borden and Carolyn Kessler. (Columbia, 8/1 5) 

Exploitips: Will Silverstone deliver on her 

multi-pic pact with Sony? Here's the first test, 

with the actress far from the comic turf of her 

fame-making "Clueless. " Del Toro is a coming 

name that could further draw the distaff 

recover from the death of Prince Albert. 

John Madden ("Ethan Frome") directs; Jeremy 

Brock scripts; Sarah Curtis ("The Englishman 

Who Went Up a Hill But Came 

Down a Mountain") produces for Ecosse 

Films/BBC Scotland with Masterpiece Theatre 

and Irish Screen. (Miramax, 7/1 8) 

Exploitips: Acquired by Miramax before 

Cannes, this arrives stateside with thai 

fest's famed invprimatur. For arthouse audiences, 

the "Ethan Frome" and "The Englishman..." 

credits of the filmmakers will 

also be a pull, and it being a period piece 

won't hinder turnout. Calling 'Mrs. 

Brown" "a beautiful film," Miramax cohead 

Harvey Weinstein bought both 

North American and most world rights, so 

expect solid distributor support. 

This World, Then the Fireworks 

After OS children seeing their father commit 

a love-triongle killing that left physical 

and emotional scars on their mother, 

Marty and Carol Lakewood devotedly protect 

eocli other from what Marty calls "a 

broken world." Grown to adulthood in the 

late '50s, the two live in a small coastal 

town, partners in grift end murder, and 

their mutual devotion ftos turned erotic. 

Latin Boys Go to Hell 

Set in working-class Brooklyn, this gay 

fest entry tells the story of a shy 20-year-old 

(Irwin Ossa) and a savvy Latino charmer 

(John Bryant Davila). Jenifer Lee Simard 

and Guinevere Turner ("Go Fish") co-star. 

Ela Troyano directs, and scripts with Andre 

Solos; Jurgen Bruning ("Hustler White") 

produces. IStrand, 7/25 NY/LA) 

Exploitips: This will attract a similar 

demo as "Shooting Porn " and if boasts a 

similarly salacious title that will attract attention. 

Positive reviews from the film's fest 

runs should be pushed. 

Wedding Bell Blues 

Three women ("Female Perversions'" 

Paulina Porizkova, "Grace of My HeartV^ 

llleano Douglas and "Doc Hollywood's" 

Julie Warner) ore turning 30 unmarried. 

They decide to head to Los Veaas, find 

husbands, get marled and get divorced, 

all in 24 hours — 

just so they can say they 

weren't spinsters. Dana Lustig mokes her 

directing debut; Annette GoTlti-Gutierrez 

scripts; Ram Bergman & Dana Lustig and 

Mike Curb & Carole Curb Nemov produce 

the BMG acquisition. (Legacy, o/l3 ltd) 

Exploitips: Our Seattle/Women in Cinema 

critic gives this three stars, citing a 

narrative with "an engaging momentum" 

and a cast that provides 'superb performances" 

in "an above-average romantic 

comedy laden with well-delivered yuks that 

also has something smart to say about 

aging, relationships and the pressure on 

women to marry young. " The obvious demo: 

twenty- and thirtysomething females, so play 

up the leads and the storyline.

demo— and most guys will be happy to watch 

Silverstone for two hours. Expect this to be the 

date-night choice for the weekend. 

A Smile Like Yours 

This romantic comedy stars "Dear God's" 

Greg Kinnear and "Turbulence's" Lauren 

Holly as a young married couple struggling to 

juggle their careers and have a baby. But a 

beauty (Jill Hennessy) and a tycoon (Christopher 

McDonald, also in "Leave It to Beaver") 

bring outside pressures to the duo's happy 

marriage. Joan Cusack ("Crosse Pointe 

Blank") and Jay Thomas co-star. Rysher CEO 

Keith Samples makes his directing debut, and 

he scripts with Kevin Meyer; David Kirkpatrick 

("The Evening Star") and Tony Amatullo 

produce. (Paramount, 8/1 5) 

Exploitips: Even if Samples as a director 

proves to be a good CEO, "ASmileLike Yours" 

has engaging leads that could provide older 

couples a weekend alternative to the youngerskewing 

"Excess Baggage. " (It also has a more 

attractive title.) But August, not April, can be 

exhibition's cruelest month, and the key is 

to 

attract the parent-age demo otherwise busy 

with family vacations. Try a contest awarding 

the couple with the best smiles. 

Steel 

NBA phenomShaquille O'Neal ("Kazaam") 

stars as metals specialist John Henry Irons, who 

develops a top-secret weapon. But his duplicitous 

nemesis, Nathaniel Burke ("New Jack 

City's" Judd Nelson), uses it to arm street thugs, 

and he plans to sell the weapon to international 

terrorists. Aided by friends and family, 

Irons creates an alter-ego superhero; Steel. 

Annabeth Gish ("The Last Supper"), Richard 

Roundtree and Irma P. Hall co-star. Kenneth 

Johnson ("Short Circuit II") directs and scripts; 

music maven Quincy Jones produces with 

David Salzman and Joel Simon ("Hard to 

Kill"). (Warner, 8/15) 

Exploitips: At $18 million in boxoffice, 

O'Neal's "Kazaam" didn't overfill Disney's 

coffers, and Warner must hope that "Steel" 

has more legs than the Lakers did in the 

playoffs. "Steel" seems aimed a little higher in 

age bracket, and though little kids idolize 

Shaq that could lend this project more consideration 

from moviegoers. Still, the likely 

attendees will be dad and son— hardcore action 

fans are unlikely to buy in here— so tout 

the O'Neal name to draw his NBA watchers. 

She's So Lovely 

"Dead Man Walking's" Sean Penn and 

"Moll Flanders'" Robin Wright co-star as 

crazy-in-love Eddie and Maureen. When a 

neighbor attacks Maureen, Eddie's response 

lands him in jail for 10 years. On his return, 

he finds Maureen is now remarried to the 

affectionate Joey (John Travolta), leaving 

Maureen torn between past and present, passion 

and love. Gena Rowlands co-stars. Nick 

Cassavetes ("Unhook the Stars") directs a 

script written by his father, the legendary John 

Cassavetes; Rene Cleitman (also "Unhook the 

Stars") produces. (Miramax, 8/1 5) 

Exploitips: Aka "She's De Lovely, " the film 

has a publicity-attracting duo in the married 

Penn and Wright, and the narrative favors 

them. But the celebrity here is Travolta, returning 

to the MiramaxLand that relaunched 

his career with "Pulp Fiction." And, however 

compassionate his role is, he's the interloper. 

The casting would be stronger in the Hollywood 

sense if the boys had switched their 

parts. Butsobeit;afterall, it's John Cassavetes 

material. One can expect mano-a-mano 

sparks from Penn and Travolta in any case. 

How to Be a Player 

Philandering ladies man Dray Jackson (Bill 

Bellamy, best known from the cable show 

"MTV Jams") has his playboy lifedisrupted by, 

of all things, the anthropology project of his 

sister ("B.A.P.S.'" Natalie Desselle), who sets 

out to break the predatory habits of the male. 

Pierre Edwards, Lark Voorhies and Mari Morrow 

("Virtuosity") co-star. Lionel C. Martin 

directs; Mark Brown and Demetria Johnson 

script; Mark Burg, Todd Baker, Preston 

Holmes, Stan Lathan and Russell Simmons 

produce. (Gramercy, 8/1 5) 

Exploitips: Despite the comeuppance 

storyline, "How to Be a Player" is likely to draw 

the urban male demo; if the Showest trailer 

emphasized any studies, it was only the Book 

of Love, as written by horny males at that 

The Full Monty 

Strapped for cash, six out-of-work steelworkers 

form a ragtag band of strippers to 

make ends meet. Robert Carlyle ("Trainspotting") 

stars as Gaz, a wild card who persuades 

best friend Dave and a former foreman to be 

part of an act that culminates with "the full 

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Response No. 114 

.Tulv. 1997 29

" 

" 

" 

monty"—baring it all. Mark Addy, William 

Snape, Steve Huison, Tom Wilkinson, Paul 

Barber and Hugo Speer co-star. Peter 

Cattaneo directs; Simon Beaufoy scripts; 

Uberto Pasolini ("Palookaville") produces. 

(Fox Searchlight, 8/1 5 NY/LA, 8/29 exp) 

Exploitips: Our critic accorded tliis a fourstar 

review (see our April 1 997 issue), calling 

it "a gender-reversed 'Striptease' with the 

comedy intact" and praising the cast for "performances 

with admirable charisma and pathos." 

Although Miramax co-head Harvey 

Weinstein recently characterized Fox Searchlight 

as "10 disasters in a row," this — like its 

Cannes-praised "Ice Storm"— is likely to put 

the gleam back into Searchlight. 

Different for Girls 

in this romantic comedy (held from June), 

when childhood best friends Paul and Karl 

meet 20 years later, the heterosexual Paul is 

sexually attracted to his old pal—because Karl 

has become Kim. When Paul learns Kim's 

identity, he decides to wreck Kim's life. Rupert 

Graves ("Intimate Relations"), Steven 

Mackintosh ("London Kills Me") and Saskia 

Reeves ("Butterfly Kiss") star. Richard Spence 

directs; Tony Marchant scripts; John Chapman 

produces. (First Look, 8/1 5 ltd) 

Exploitips: 

The gender-bender storyline 

isn't new, but it continues to draw. "Different 

for Girls" received the Montreal fest's Grand 

Prix of the Americas award for best film, a 

citable award for arthouse auds. 

Bandwagon 

Four kids form a rock band and hit the road 

in this slacker rock comedy. Kevin Corrigan 

("Walking and Talking"), Steve Parlavecchio, 

Lee Holmes, Matthew Hennesey and Doug 

MacMillan star. John Schultz ("The Making of 

Jurassic Park") directs and scripts, and he 

produces with Alyson Poole. (CFP, 8/15 ltd) 

Exploitips: Our Ft. Lauderdale critic in a 3 

1/2-star review (see our April 1997 issue) 

citably called this "a fresh, witty road movie. 

AUGUST 22 

IMoney Tallcs 

A small-time con artist ("The Fifth Element's" 

Chris Tucker) is wrongly blamed for a police 

killing. Suddenly notorious, he can rely only 

on the help of an annoying reporter ("Shadow 

Conspiracy's" Charlie Sheen). Brett Ratner 

directs; "Toy Story" co-writers Joel Cohen and 

Alec Sokolow script this action comedy with 

Vince McKewin; Walter Coblenz ("The 

Babe") produces. See our Sneak Preview in 

the June 1997 issue. (New Line, 8/22)' 

Exploitips: Bouncing around on the NLC 

slate (first 7/1 8, then 10/1, now 8/22), "Money 

Talks" has had its salability hefted a notch by 

Tucker's attention-grabbing turn in "The Fifth 

Element. " The presence of the "Toy Story" 

scenarists could portend a decent comedy. 

Sunday 

Struggling, middle-aged actress Madeleine 

mistakes Oliver, a homeless casualty of corporate 

downsizing, for an acclaimed art-film 

director. Oliver grabs the opportunity to 

reinvent himself, even if only for one day. 

David Suchet ("Executive Decision") and Lisa 

Harrow ("The Last Days of Chez Nous") star 

with Jared Harris ("I Shot Andy Warhol") and 

Larry Pine. Jonathan Nossiter directs, and he 

scripts with James Lasdun; Nossiter and Aliz 

Madigan produce. (CFP, 8/22 NY/LA) 

Exploitips: Yet another sign of the ascendance 

of CFP, "Sunday" won the grand jury 

prize at Sundance. Our Cannes critic rated it 

at four stars, saying the two leads give "powerfully 

honest and risky performances. 

Hoodlum 

AUGUST 29 

This gritty crime drama stars Laurence 

Fishburne (also in this month's "Event Horizon") 

as upstart gangster Bumpy Johnson, 

who faces off with the famed Dutch Schultz 

("Rob Roy's" Tim Roth) for control of Harlem 

in the '30s. Andy Garcia (also in "Desperate 

Measures") stars as Lucky Luciano. Vanessa 

Williams ("Eraser"), Clarence Williams III, 

William Atherton, Queen Latifah and Cicely 

Tyson co-star. Bill Duke ("A Rage in Harlem") 

directs; Chris Brancato scripts; Frank 

Mancuso, Jr. ("Species") produces. (LIA, 8/29) 

Exploitips: Because ofNew Line's move of 

"Boogie Nights," "Hoodlum" faces some 

male-demo and urban-aud competition. This 

UA project has a higher-profile cast, however, 

and its wide break means the promotional 

push will be more intensive this weekend. 

Dead Man On Campus 

The second MTV film (the first was "Beavis 

and Butt-head Do America" finds two freshmen 

resorting to arcana to win good grades. 

Tom Everett Scott ("That Thing You Do!") and 

Mark-Paul Gosselaar star. Alan Cohn directs; 

Michael Traeger and Michael White script; 

and Gale Anne Hurd produces for her Pacific 

Western Prods. (Paramount, 8/29) 

Exploitips: The scenario could seem a salve 

to Ivy-returning students, and one can expect 

wall-to-wall promotion on MTV. 

Boogie Nights 

rhis dark comedy follows a group of 

filmmakers hopingto revamp the XXX industry. 

Mark Wahlberg, Julianne Moore, Burt Reynolds, 

Don Cheadle, William H. Macy, 

Heather Graham and John C. Reilly star. Paul 

Thomas Anderson ("Hard Eight") directs, scripts 

and produces. (New Line, 8/29 ltd, 9/5 wide) 

Exploitips: As it did for "The People vs. 

Larry Flynt" (for good or ill), 

the XXX setting 

will draw this extra attention, but the cast 

talents are also salable. New Line moved this 

from an early summer bow. 

Operation Condor 

In this comic adventure (aka "Armor of God 

2"), Hong Kong superstar Jackie Chan races 

mercenaries across three continents to a trove 

of gold hidden by the Nazis during WWII. A 

wind tunnel fight sequence is a comic masterpiece. 

Carol Cheng, Eva Cobo De Garcia 

and Ikeda Shoko co-star; Chan and Edward 

Tang ("Rumble in the Bronx") script; Leonard 

Ho ("Supercop") produces. (Miramax, 8/29) 

Exploitips: 

The more recent "First Strike" 

"Supercop" $15 million; 

made $14 million, 

early 1996's "Rumble in the Bronx" did $30 

million. To reverse that trend, position this as 

an exotic "Raiders ofthe Lost Ark. " Emphasize 

Chan's directing and co-scripting roles to lend 

this film event status for the already converted. 

Miramax moved this from May. 

Kull the Conqueror 

Based on Robert E. Howard's '30s pulp 

fiction hero, "Kull the Conqueror" follows the 

adventures of a slave soldier (Kevin Sorbo of 

the syndication smash "Hercules: The Legendary 

Journeys") turned king. Tia Carrere ("High 

School High"), Thomas Ian Griffith ("Excessive 

Force"), Karina Lombard ("Legends of the 

Fall"), Litefoot ("The Indian in the Cupboard") 

and Harvey Fierstein ("Independence Day") 

co-star. John Nicollela ("The Fan", 1981) directs; 

Charles Edward Pogue ("Dragonheart") 

and Don Mancini (the "Child's Play" series) 

script; Raffaella De Laurentiis (also 

"Dragonheart") produces. (LIniversal, 8/29) 

Exploitips: The similar role for Sorbo 

means this could pull his TV legions; the 

Howard name retains a young-male following. 

The PG-13 rating is demo-friendly. 

AUGUST UNDATED 

Masterminds 

After being expelled from the Shady Glen 

School by the principal ("A Time to Kill's" 

Brenda Fricker), 14-year-old Ozzie 

("Alaska's" Vincent Kartheiser) decides to 

play one more practical joke. But, when he 

ventures into the school basement to do the 

deed, he learns the security guard ("Star Trek: 

First Contact's" Patrick Stewart) has taken all 

the students hostage. That leaves just Ozzie 

and his penchant for pranks to lead the kids 

to triumph. Roger Christian ("The Sender") 

directs; Floyd Byars ("Mindwalk"), Alex Siskin 

and Chris Black script; Byars produces with 

Robert Dudelson. (Triumph, August) 

Exploitips: Held from late May, "Masterminds" 

now lands just before classes begin 

again— perhaps not as propitious timing, student 

psychology wise. New catchline: "Got 

school? Here's your hero. 

Dirty Dancing 

Patrick Swayze stars in this reissue of the 

1 987 hit as the dance instructor who makes the 

Catskills summer of a coming-of-age girl Oennifer 

Grey) into the time of her life. Jerry Orbach, 

Cynthia Rhodes and Jack Weston co-star; 

the late Emile Ardolino directs. (Live, August) 

Exploitips: Aside from "Star Wars, " reprises 

draw only limited attendance. Emphasize the 

vacation element to interest young females. 

Gravesend 

This lovv-l)udget drama traces the events In 

the lives of four teenage friends over the 

course of one tragic night. Sal Stabile makes 

his feature directing debut. (Manga, August) 

Exploitips: The odd title and under-20 

storyline could capture the interest ofout-ofschool 

young males looking for escape from 

hot August nights. 

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Response No 2

" 

SUMMER '97 PROMO GUIDE 

Promotional tie-ins to the biggest summer movies 

Here and Megara from Buena Vista's "Hercules." 

BUENA VISTA 

Buena Vista has launched another of its 

famed Mega Mall tours to tout "Hercules," 

Disney's summer animation event for '97. The 

five-month, 20-city tour highlights the art of 

animation through live demonstrations, stage 

performances and interactive games. There's a 

live stage show; a miniature carousel themed 

to Baby Pegasus; a workshop where particip)ants 

can draw Hercules; and Hercules-themed 

game booths and prizes. Sponsored by Chevy 

Venture, the event also includes a Chevy Venture 

minivan giveaway in each market. Mattel 

is manufacturing such action figures as Hydra- 

Slaying Hercules; Head-Butting Phil; Lightning 

Bolt Zeus; Fireball-Shooting Hades; a 

Cyclops; and a Hydra that sprouts new heads 

when you chop one off. "Hercules" will also 

be promoted from here to Mt. Olympus 

through a tie-in with McDonald's, with the 

fast-food chain offering figurines of the heroic 

demigod, his cohorts and his nemeses. 

McDonald's will also promote Buena 

Vista's "George of the Jungle," a live-action 

version of Jay Ward's '60s cartoon parody of 

Tarzan. Customers will be invited to "Swing 

into McDonald's and Watch Out For That 

Treeeeat...". The merchandise safari also includes 

children's apparel from Allison Manufacturing; 

sportswear from Jerry Leigh; 

neckwear and boxers from MJC; trading cards 

fiiom Upper Deck; T-shirts from Stanley De 

Santis; footwear from Pagoda; and jungle 

blankets and throws from Beacon Manufacturing. 

COLUMBIA 

"ID4" star Will Smith will again tussle with 

aliens this fourth of July weekend, this time in 

"Men In Black," in which he co-stars as J 

opposite Tommy Lee Jones, who plays K. 

They're both MIBs-special agents who monitor 

extraterrestrial activity and keep it under 

control-which isn't always easy, judging from 

some ofthe toys being offered by Galoob. First 

there's Alien Ambush J vs. Tree Tmnk Alien. 

"There's a secret alien hidden inside the tree 

tmnk.. .Pose J to blast 'em out!" Then there's 

Slime Fighting K vs. Edgar. "K's being slimed 

by the hidden alien!" And Steel Striker K vs. 

Manhole Cover Alien-well, that doesn't even 

require an explanation, does it? Galoob will 

also release MIB Micro Machine scale miniatures. 

Over 30 other licensees are on board for 

this event picture, including Aladdin Industries 

(lunch boxes); American Needle (baseball 

Slippers featuring characters from 

Buena Vista's "George of the Jungle." 

Slime-Fighting K of Columbia's "Men In Black. 

caps); Changes Inc. (T-shirts, sweatshirts and 

tank tops); Disguise Inc. (costumes, masks, 

make-up and Halloween accessories); Ero Industries 

Inc. (sleeping bags and play tents); 

Foot-Tec Industries Inc. (children's footwear); 

GTE Entertainment (CD-ROM games); Impact 

(backpacks and wallets); Inkworks (trading 

cards and stickers); Jay Franco & Soas Inc. 

(beach towels); Marvel Comics (comic 

books); Microgames of America (walkie-talkies); 

OSP Publishing Inc. (posters); Party Professionals 

(masks); Revell-Monograin (model 

kits); and Tiger Electronics (LCD hand-held 

games). For MIB wanna-bes, there will be an 

"Official Men In Black Agent's Manual" 

from Newmarket Press. 

FOX 

20th Centiuy Fox will be pulling out all the 

stops to promote "Ana.stasia" the first film 

from the studio's new animation division. Meg 

Ryan voices the tide character in this animated 

musical about an amnesiac girl who might be 

the daughter of Russia's last czar. Galoob Toys 

has designed a fashion doll with a rags-toriches 

wardrobe, from a tattered blouse and 

skirt outfit to a gorgeously ornate ball 

gown. Burger King will offer premiums 

based on the film's characters, and Pizza 

Hut, Nabisco, Kraft Foods, PepsiCo and 

Coca-Cola will also have tie-ins. Other companies 

Fox has pacted with for "Anastasia" 

include Applause (plush dolls); Disguise Inc. 

(costumes and masks); ERO Industries Inc. 

(sleeping bags and play tents); Fruit of the 

Loom (children's underwear); Harper Collins 

(storybooks); Kid Duds (sleepwear); Tiger 

Electronics (hand-held games); Tyco/ 

ViewMaster(3-D ViewMaster reel cards); and 

Warren Industries (board games and jigsaw 

puzzles). And the music box Anastasia treasures 

will be recreated in several sizes by SF 

Music Box, and will play the film's haunting 

melody "Once Upon a Etecember." 

NEW LINE 

"Spawn," a sci-fi action film based on the 

popular Image Comics superhero, will be promoted 

by a Sony Playstation tie-in and a 

sweepstakes in Wizard Magazine. Starring 

Martin Sheen, John Leguizamo and 

Michael Jai White, "Spawn" is "the story 

of the ultimate war between good and 

evil." McFarlane Toys is the toy licensee. 

The heroine of Fox's "Anastasia" in her tmll gown.

.lulv. 1997 33 

PARAMOUNT 

Playmates Toys will manufacture a line of 

fairy doUs for Paramount's "Fairy Tale...A 

True Story." Ruble's Costume Company will 

create Halloween costumes, make-up, masks, 

boxed costume sets, jewelry, wings and accessories. 

Rawcliffe Corp. will produce resin and 

pewter figurines. Gilbertie's Natural Fragrances 

will offer aromatherapy and beauty 

care products, and the Signature Group will 

provide women's embroidered denim shirts. 

T-shirts, baseball caps, nightshirts and mugs. 

TRISTAR 

An intergalactic battle with aUen insects-it 

has all the elements for a winning promotional 

smorgasbord. Galoob Toys wiU manufacture 

action figures of "Starship Troopers'" heroes 

and villains, and their futuristic weapons and 

combat vehicles. GB Posters & Publications 

will offer posters of the film, and Spectrum 

Holobyte will develop interactive CD-ROM 

entertainment software that will mirror the 

atmosphere and action of the movie. 

UNIVERSAL 

Judging ft'om "Jurassic Park's" boxoffice 

receipts, its sequel, "The Lost World," should 

be the "monster" hit of the summer. And more 

than two dozen toy licensees will contribute to 

the film's Dino-Might performance. Promotional 

partners include Kenner (action figures), 

Parker Bros, (board games), Laramie (Super 

Soaker guns), Tyco (radio controlled cars), 

DreamWorks Interactive (CD-ROMs), Sega 

of America (electronic games). Fruit of the 

Loom (children's underwear) and MCI (prepaid 

phone cards). Burger King will be the 

exclusive restaurant promotional tie-in partner, 

offering merchandise based on the dinosaurs 

and their human adversaries. 

Mercedes-Benz is also on board, promoting 

their new M-Class All-Activity vehicle, which 

is featured in the film. And General Mills 

cereals such as Trix, Cocoa Puffs, Golden 

Grahams and Cinnamon Toast Crunch make 

this offer: "If you hear this box ROAR, you 

could win a Lost World Adventure!" A mechanical 

device that makes a roaring sound, 

activated when a winning box is opened, indicates 

that the boxholder is the recipient of the 

grand prize-a trip to New Zealand and Australia 

for eight people and up to $24,000 in 

cash-or one of 10,(XX) first prizes, including 

Lost World backpacks, waUde-talkies and binoculars. 

General Mills has also introduced a 

"Collector's Edition" cereal called Jurassic 

Park Crunch, complete with mini-marshmallows 

shaped like Raptors and hatching eggs. 

WARNER BROS. 

With a cast of megastars including George 

Clooney, Chris O'Donnell, Arnold 

Schwarzenegger, Uma Thurman and Alicia 

Silverstone, "Batman and Robin" hardly 

needs promoting. But that won't stop 

Warner Bros., which has teamed with numerous 

companies to drive consumers batty. 

More than 100 million boxes of Kellogg's 

cereal will feature commemorative boxes 

and giveaways. Taco Bell will offer premiums; 

Frito-Lay will have "Bat"-themed bags 

and a sweepstakes game; Kraft will ice the 

popsicle competition with Mr. Freeze juice 

bars; and Brach will sell candy in the shape 

ofthe movie's characters. Kenner is the master 

toy licensee. 

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Response No. 274

International Exhibition Profile 

I 

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companies are reputable? Who produces 

the best-quaUty products ? And 

aesthetics. What architecture, environments, 

styles and colors appeal to 

this population? Even food. Will 

salted popcorn go over here, or is 

pickled squid the cinematic delicacy 

of this particular region? 

The answer, most circuits have 

found, is to team up with a strategic 

partner that has the contacts and 

I 

knows the ins and outs. That's what 

Cinemark International, Cinemark's transcontinentally-focused 

subsidiary, decided to 

do when the company set its sights on Japan. 

Cinemark International's president, Tim 

Warner, ultimately chose Shochiku, a 103- 

year-old entertainment company that's the 

lai^gest in Japan. And one of its holdings is 

Shochiku Multiplex Theatres, the second largest 

exhibition company in Japan. Under the 

pact, Shochiku Cinemaric Thea&es (SCT) plans 

to build 100 screens in Jân by the year 2000. 

"I knew [Shochiku president and CEO] 

Toru Okuyama for a number of years through 

my involvement with NATO/ShoWest, and 

was aware of both the quality and status of his 

company in Japan," says Wamer, who resigned 

fk)m his position as general chairman 

of NATO/ShoWest last year to join Cinemark. 

"And I suggested to him when I took my 

current position as the president of Cinemark 

International that he might want to consider 

doing a joint venture." 

Wamer points out that while their competitors 

in Japan—AMC, UCI (a partnership between 

Paramount and Universal), and Time 

Warner-owned Wamer International—have 

LIKE TO MOVIX: The exterior of the complex in which Shochiku Cinemarii Theatres' MOVtX Rokko is housed. 

local joint venture partners, they're not with 

companies in the entertainment or exhibition 

business. "I think the advantage for us 

is having a joint venture partner that is in 

day-to-day exhibition," he notes. "They have 

excellent knowledge and relationships in the 

marketplace, and I think it will enable us to 

build our circuit much faster than the other 

competing circuits." 

"There's nothing like having someone that 

knows the market well, and they do," says 

Cinemark's director ofcorporate development 

Randy Hester. "It's a unique market, it's a huge 

market. And it's always advantageous to have 

someone that knows it." 

Of course, Cinemark brings something to 

the table too. "We bring our knowledge ofboth 

the domestic and international marketplace, 

technology, and experti.se," says Wamer, who 

adds that SCT management will be trained in 

Dallas, where Cinemark is based. 

"We've got some experience that they don't 

have," comments Hester. "We've grown our 

company from a pretty small regional operation 

to a nationwide and intemational company. 

And we've got some unique ideas about 

theatre design and about operations and customer 

service that they saw and they liked." 

Shochiku and Cinemark together have 53 

percent interest in SCT (meaning each has 26.5 

percent). The remaining 47 percent is held by 

"large, prominent Japanese corporations, 

which will also assist to move the development 

forward," according to Wamer. 

Rather than use the cumbersome company 

name of Shochiku Cinemark Theatres, the 

theatres themselves will be called MOVIX. 

"Shochiku has had that name for their drive-in 

theatres, so the name has been in Japan, linked 

with the exhibition business, for a number of 

years," says Wamer. 

MOVIX intends to provide Japan's theatregoers 

with the state-of-the-art multiplexes 

that are so prevalent in America. The first 

theatre under Cinemark and Shochiku's partnership 

was the seven-plex MOVIX Rokko in 

Kobe, which opened its doors March 20. "It's 

been doing very well, and it was extremely 

well-received by the community. Business has 

been very, very good," says Wamer. 

"The theatre is built in a spectacular new 

mall development on Rokko Fashion Island,"

— 

Tiilv. ^^)

International Exhibition Profile 

PLEX-MEX 

From 

to 100 Screens in Less Than Two Years, 

Cinemex Heats Up the Mexican IVIaricet 

by Jose Martinez 

POLISHED PRESENTATION: The entrance to Cinemex's Santa Fe 14-plex. 

Stadium-style 

theatre seats, digital sound, 

fully-automated telephone ticketing and 

information services, and world class 

acoustical standards are taken for granted in 

the United States. But these innovations have 

been taking Mexico City by storm—ever since 

Cinemex opened the doors of its first theatre 

in August 1995. 

Founded in January 1994, Cinemex is a 

first-run multiplex theatrical exhibitor focasing 

on the movie marketplace in 

Mexico's 

capital city. Cinemex originated as a business 

project for three Harvard students whose formula 

went on to win Harvard Business 

School's two business plan awards in 1993. 

The company, which employs a staff of 45 at 

its head office and 485 at its cinemas, was 

formed by managing partners Miguel Angel 

Davila (age 31), director of operations and 

finance; Adolfo Fa.stlicht (30), director of real 

estate development and new projects; and 

Matthew Heyman (35), director of programming 

and sU~alegic planning. (Of the three 

young entrepreneurs. Heyman is the only one 

with prior experience in the exhibition industry, 

having formerly served as vice president 

of bu.siness affairs at Toronto-based Cineplex 

Odeon). 

Already Mexico's second-largest 

cinema 

operator in terms of boxoflRce, Cinemex represents 

22 percent and 30 percent of the 

region's attendance and boxofflce, respectively. 

Ramirez is currently the largest chain in 

Mexico, and Cinemark is the second largest by 

screen count. UA has also recently entered the 

newly-hot market, and others are circling. But 

Heyman's not worried. "People used to say to 

Ramirez, 'Who do you think is your competitor?' 

And 1 think he u-sed to say Cinemark. I 

think that everyb(xly now looks more to us." 

By the year 2(XX), Cinemex plans to have 

ftom 350 to 380 screens throughout Mexico

Ifi 

R/IVr\L'L-ff'L- 

THE ART OF THE DEAL: Cinemex has risen in the ranks of exhibition by bringing state-of-the-art technology and design to fAexico City, as exemplified 

by the spacious lobby of the Cinemex Loreto, which features neon-framed poster cases and a ceiling-mounted multi-screen video wall. 

City. "The plan is to build as many screens as 

we can in Mexico City. Focus, focus, focus," 

says Heyman. "Keep our eye on the ball, 

understanding that half the economy takes 

place in Mexico City. One-quarter of the population 

lives in Mexico City and the cosmopolitan 

area." 

The company's plan is not to have the finest 

theatres in Mexico, but the finest anywhere. 

"Every theatre we're building now is 100 

percent digital. We're going back and retrofitting 

a lot of theatres to make them digital. 

We have only one goal—to be the best in the 

world. We're not here to be the best in Mexico. 

We're here to set the standard for everything." 

The company has achieved the iridastry's 

highest average ticket price by developing 

state-of-the-art multiplexes and exceeding 

cu.stomers' theatregoing expectations. "The 

quality of theatres was so poor (before 

Cinemex entered the market] that it was easy 

to raise the bar," Heyman explains. "The relative 

comparison was really fast. IPeople] came 

in and said, 'We've never seen anything like 

this except in the U.S.'" 

And the public is willing to pay for quality. 

Regarding customers' reaction to Cinemex's 

higher ticket prices, Heyman says, "We have 

really incredible, committed, and loyal customers. 

They never complained once." 

Heyman knows the ingredients that go into 

a successful theatre. "I look for good sight 

hnes, clean service. The big thing for me is the 

quality of the presentation, the sound, and the 

cleanliness of the building. Those are the 

things you notice first. The decor package 

and the way the theatre looks are fundamental 

to the whole thing." 

The company's multiplex philosophy incorporates 

the industry's highest technological 

standards and 

first-class 

service 

to create 

Mexico's premier 

moviegoing experience—a 

concept 

Cinemex 

calls La Magia 

del Cine (The 

Magic of Cinema). 

They also 

have developed 

their own acoustical 

standard, Sonido Cinemex, in an effort 

to further differentiate its cinemas from new 

and existing competitors. "Sonido Cinemex is 

our own aLX)U.stical standard," says Heyman. 

"We match THX standard in every single theatre." 

Cinemex also utilizes a phone service, 

Linea Cinemex, dirough which customers can 

reserve their tickets in advance. Some sites 

offer patrons a liquor bar with draft beer and 

a coffee bar, as well as the standard assortment 

of movie food, and a special pick-'n'- 

mix bulk candy setup called La 

Locura—which means "The Craziness." In 

keeping with the philosophy that the partners 

have created a brand name, all 

Cinemex innovations are trademarked. 

The company 

was fomied at a 

time when people 

predicted Mexico 

was on the verge 

of becoming a 

first-world country. 

Instead, what 

occurred was a 

meltdown of the 

Mexican economy. 

"We opened 

all 

our buildings 

during the worst lime. The devaluation hit 

and saved our ass," Heyman recounts. "We 

couldn't compete because we had no 

buildings. We opened .seven buildings in 14

nionthsbecause everyone else was scared. We 

opened some great theatres." 

At present, Cinemex has 10 multiplexes 

with 101 screens. Currently open are the AltaVista 

6; the Santa Fe 14; the Manacar 9; the 

Los Reyes 10; the Loreto 10; the Perinorte 12; 

and the Masaryk 4. (The last is also known as 

the Casa de Arte, and is one of Mexico's few 

art-houses.) Coming up are the Cinemex 

Galerias 14; the Toluca 14; the San Mateo 12; 

the Villa Coapa 11 and the Universidad 14. 

Heyman and his partners are already working 

on expanding Cinemex's scope. "I think the 

second phase of Cinemex will be an acquisition 

phase that will not necessarily occur in 

Mexico City. It could occur in Latin America. 

The goal is to create an incredible market 

share in Mexico City and then leverage that 

market share elsewhere." 

One aspect Cinemex prides itself on is the 

fact that it is a Mexican company. All three 

partners reside in Mexico City, where the 

company is headquartered. Heyman is the lone 

American employee. (The company's investors 

are 50 percent American, 35 percent Austrahan 

and 15 percent Mexican. AustraUa's 

Hoyts Corp. invested USS22 milhon in November 

1 996, and J.P. Morgan Capital was one 

of the first investors to come on board, putting 

several million dollars into the company back 

in October 1993.) According to Heyman, 

"We're a Mexican company with an American 

flair—and I'm the flair." 

Heyman is quick to mention the importance 

of his two partners. "My two Mexican partners 

are an incredible advantage in this mariceL They 

know how to operate in the culture, because 

they're from the culture. They can operate 

with the govenmient, with the real estate community, 

and with any area that is indigenous 

to Mexico. 

"Cinemex's huge competitive advantage in 

Mexico is that we are extremely Mexican, but 

we have the benefit of the U.S. experience." 

// 

We're not here to be 

the best in Mexico. 

We're here to 

set the standard 

for everything." 

Ultimately, the secret of success is creating 

audience demand, and Cinemex knows how 

to keep the momenuim going. "We'd rather 

have fewer prints and move them around to all 

our buildings. The history has always been 

releasing 60 prints on one picture and then it's 

dead in one week." Cinemex theatres play 

approximately 94 percent American films, although 

"the rest is not Mexican; [the remaining 

percentage] includes French, Italian and Spanish 

[films]." 

Predicting what will be a hit is an art form 

unto itself Converse to American performance, 

"Dante's Peak" was a huge hit in Mexico 

City, while "Star Wars" proved to be a 

disappointment, according to Heyman,. But 

Heyman says that Mexico City does not generally 

receive science-fiction well—demonstrating 

the importance of knowing your 

market. 

Even Heyman, a juggernaut of excitement 

and business savvy, has been surprised by 

Cinemex's growth and success in such a 

short period of time. "I'm quite surprised at 

oiu" success—that we've achieved so much 

market share so fast, that we' ve beat so many 

other exhibitors to locations. The amount of 

respect we've achieved fix)m the exhibition 

community has been really nice." 

Although Cinemex is relatively new to the 

market, Heyman and his partners know that 

this is not the time to look back and admire 

their accomphshments. Instead, this is the 

time to act on their strategies. "The company 

has a long way to go. We're going to do a lot 

of great things. We're the second largest chain 

in the country, in terms of boxoffice, but we 

have a long way to go. We're far from Mission 

Accomplished. This is a very aggressive strategy 

that requires a lot of capital and a lot of 

work. 

"For us, the biggest challenge we have is to 

maintain ourselves as the best. The next 

challenge is to continue to get locations, making 

sure they are supreme locations, and keeping 

the money flowing. The trick is to 

minimize what's not going to work and maximize 

what's going to woric." 

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Exhibition Profile 

THE ITALIAN 

CONNECTION 

Cecclii Gori Finds Success On U.S. Soil With 

Beverly Hills' Fine Arts Theatre by Pat Kramer 

Even 

as European exhibitors continue to 

joint-venture or compete with American 

circuits looking to expand overseas, one 

Continental company is contentedly selling 

movie tickets in Beverly Hills, 

Calif. Six years ago, Italy's Cecchi 

Gori Group bought and completely 

renovated the Fine Arts 

Theatre, a historic single-screen 

moviehouse built in 1936. 

Since the 1991 purchase (originally 

via PentAmerica, the now 

dissolved American venture between 

the Cecchi Gori Group and 

Berlusconi Communications), 

programming plans have been 

modified; the intent had been to 

provide a showcase for European 

films—especially, if not exclusively, 

Italian-language fare—for 

American audiences. "Because 

[company owner Vittorio] Cecchi 

Gori owns the largest theatre circuit 

in Italy, he wanted to have a 

presence in [U.S.] exhibition, and 

the hope was to primarily show 

European films," says Cecch 

Gori vice president of production 

Anna Gross, who is based in West 

Los Angeles. "Unfortunately, especially 

being a supplier of European 

films, we know that market 

seems to be shrinking. We make 

less than 30 movies a year in Italy." 

The Fine Arts does provide extended 

runs for Cecchi Gori productions; 

for example, the 

company's Academy Awardnominated 

"II Postino," distributed 

by Miramax, ran for 1 7 weeks 

there. But, as under previous operator 

Laemmle Theauxjs. programming 

covers the entire art-house genre, both 

foreign and domestic. That's not surpri.sing, 

given that Miramax provides a substantial 

amount of the theatre's bookings. 

The first-run theatre is one of only two 

moviehouses remaining in Beverly Hills. (The 

THE ITALIANS ARE COMING: A refurbished Fine Arts 

opened in December 1993 with "Shadowiands. 

grams specialized fare.) The Fine Arts additionally 

serves as a screening facility for the 

entertainment industry thanks to its state-ofthe-art 

projection and sound equipment, all of 

other, Laemmle's nearby Music HaU, was recently 

converted into a triplex and also prowhich 

was installed during an eight-month 

renovation project in 1 993 that restored the site 

to its art-deco glory. 

For the Italian media magnate, owning a 

historic theatre—one of the Hollywood 

community's last single 

screens—îsjustanotherfeatherin 

his cap. Although the son of legendary 

Italian producer Mario 

Cecchi Gori doesn't plan further 

stateside expansion, Vittorio is 

one of Italy's most prominent 

businessmen. The Senator of 

Florence and owner of the 

Fiorentina soccer team, he also 

runs the continuously expanding 

Cecchi Gori exhibition circuit, 

two TV networks, a record label, 

;i host ofcommunications-related 

industries, and the largest production/distribution 

company in his 

homeland. In addition to "II 

Postino," his production credits in 

I he 1990s include such notable 

iiles as Gabriele Salvatore's 

Oscar-winning "Mediterraneo," 

Gianni Amelio's "Lamerica," 

,ina WertmuUer's "Ciao Pro- 

I'essore!." Guiseppe Tomatore's 

"The Star Maker" and Roberto 

Benigni's "Johnny Stecchino." 

o: 

ver the theatre's 

lifetime 

(its doors first opened in 

937), it has passed fiiom 

Fox Theatres to Mann Theatres to 

I ^lemmle, with each organization 

adding its own touch to the site's 

look. Designed by renowned theatre 

architect B. Marcus Pritica 

(who also designed Hollywood's 

Pantages Theatre), the moviehoase—then 

called the Regina—was initially 

a Fox property. During the 1940s, Fox gave it 

its first and most pronounced facelift, overseen 

by designer Charles P. Skouras; it was he who

; 

greets 

— 

Iiilv 1007 ±\ 

provided the theatre with an art deco flair by 

installing hammered-metal wall sconces, three 

omamental chandeliers, quilted walls with 

brass buttons, etched metal doors, and a polished-metal 

concessions stand. 

With Skouras' work completed. Fox renamed 

the theatre the Fine Arts and ran it until 

1973, when Mann 

moved in. In the early 

'80s, Laemmle took 

over the theatre, programming 

specialized 

films. When Cecchi 

Gori came on the scene, 

the theatre was closed 

for its most recent renovation, 

which was 

completed in time for a 

December 29, 1993 

opening with Savoy's 

"Shadowlands." Gross, 

who directed the renovation 

process, used 

the theatre's glory days 

as her polestar. 

To aid her quest, she 

hired designer Joe 

Musil, whose refurbishment 

efforts for Pacific 

Theatres at the 

NOW 

circuit's El Capitan 

carries 

Theatre in Hollywood 

and its Crest Theatre in 

Westwood Village 

both of them singlescreen 

halls— had 

gained well-deserved 

acclaim. Musil was 

able to salvage many of 

the Fine Arts' most intriguing 

features: He 

recast the hammeredmetal 

wall sconces and 

restored the quilted 

wall coverings and the 

proscenium, which 

now displays Skouras' 

signature 1940s look 

with swags and tassels. 

The brass buttons 

were removed and 

made gleaming again; 

new carpeting was installed; 

and walls were 

painted to depict the post-World War n period. 

The restrooms and the concessions stand were 

modernized with an art deco motif, the original 

vintage seats were restored (the theatre now 

has several fewer rows, allowing for greater 

legroom throughout the auditorium), armrest 

cupholders were installed and the marquee 

was relit to beckon in passersby. letting them 

know that the "grand old lady" had returned. 

As at Musil's redone El Capitan and Crest, 

a glorious new feature of the vintage look is 

the Fine Arts' gUttering velvet curtain, which 

audiences in a dramatic way. Says 

Gross. "When people round that bend, they 

1 gasp because you don't see theatres like that 

Lanymore." All told, the renovations ran into the 

f says. long with upgrading its look, Cecchi 

Gori wanted his theatre to provide out- 

LStanding capabilities in sight and 

sound. "As a production executive, I know 

how hard you work on a film. I know what you 

go through—ând then it goes into a theatre and 

you don't even recognize your own film," says 

AND THEN: The Fine Arts concessions stand now 

items favored by American art-house audiences. 

Gross, who made sure that the vision here was 

attained. To revitaUze the technical systems at 

the Fine Arts, Gross hired Tony Francis of Los 

Angeles-based Theatre Products International. 

Francis designed a version of the THX sound 

system, building a wall directly behind the 

screen and instaUing loudspeakers in it, and he 

created a bi-ampUfied sound system with JBL 

speakers. The end resuh is a sound system that 

is almost identical to what some consider 

Hollywood's premier screening room, the 

Samuel Goldwyn Theatre at the Academy of 

Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Says Francis, 

"It's a terrific sounding theatre. When 

Turner Entertainment came out with its restored 

'Dr. Zhivago,' it screened at the Fine 

Arts." Although the original sound installed 

was analog, the system has since been \vpgraded 

with SDDS digital soimd. 

The projection system is designed to accommodate 

both commercial films and 

screenings of dailies for the studios. To allow 

for flexibiUty, Francis installed two projectors—one 

for 70mm films, the other for 

35mm — plus a platter system. 

"The platter worics 

both ways," Francis says, 

"so that they can use either 

projector and the platter, 

or they can do a changeover 

where they could use 

both projectors as 35mm." 

To accommodate the 

showing of dailies, for 

which the soundtrack 

isn't always on the film, a 

dual dubber (a magnetic 

sound reproducer) was installed 

to handle separate 

picture and track. Both 

projectors can be interlocked 

to the dubber to 

maximize the sound. 

With the renovation 

well underway. Gross 

began looking for a company 

to manage the Fine 

Arts. As part of her dehberations, 

she traveled to a 

number of L.A.-area theatres 

to inspect them for 

cleanliness as well as to 

judge the staff's courtesy 

and knowledgeability. 

Based on a belief that its 

management philosophy 

was similar to hers. Gross 

chose AMC, which has 

found great success with 

its nearby Century City 

AMC 14 and its sevenscreener 

in Santa Monica. 

She had evidence her 

belief was correct barely a 

month after the theatre's 

reopening— specifically, 

on the morning of January 

17, 1994—when a phone 

call arrived from the Fine 

Arts manager 40 minutes 

after the predawn Northridge 

earthquake. "She had come in the dark 

during the aftershocks to make sure the theatre 

was okay," Gross recalls. 'That's when I knew 

we had great management." Although the 

temblor did inflict a certain amount of damage—some 

cracking along the roofline and 

some broken mirrors inside—the theatre was 

able to re-reopen three weeks later 

Dashwood, AMC's vice president 

Nora 

ofoperations ofthe West Division, says 

the Fine Arts has given AMC the opportunity 

to display its abilities in a new area. 

The Fine Arts is one of two single-screeners 

(the other is in San Jose) that AMC manages, 

an interesting sideUne for the company commonly 

credited with giving birth to the con-

— 

temporary multiplex. "What attracted AMC to 

the job," Dashwood says, "was the phenomenal 

job [Cecchi Gori] did with the theatre. It's 

an absolute jewel, and customers are very 

pleased to have seen it renovated back to 

even better than—its former 

glory. Being in Beverly 

Hills, where the film community 

is, the producers and 

stars, we felt it would give 

AMC a chance to showcase 

our operational expertise, as 

well as to be able to run a 

beautiful theatre." 

Now in its fourth year run 

under the Cecchi Gori flag. 

the Fine Arts provides a 

quality of viewing a cut 

above some local theatres—and 

certainly several 

cuts 

above many theatres 

that make their living on 

foreign films. As Gross puts 

it, "It's a place for those who 

want to enjoy foreign films 

inatheatrethatdoesn'thave 

sticky floors." Indeed, 

keeping the theatre clean is 

one of the priorities at the 

Fine Arts; another is serving 

_^ 

!;,DEi!|S 

high-quality beverages and food. At the concessions 

counter, patrons can choose from the 

likes of cappuccino, espresso, fresh-baked 

pretzels, Snapple drinks, and dried fiuits, in 

addition to the customary popcorn and soft 

drinks. As with all the features at the Fine Arts, 

everything is artfully displayed on polished 

counters. And, with a theatre capacity that tops 

out at 500, the lines are never very long. 

With its subtitled films, which show more 

fi^quently at the Fine Arts than in main.stream 

Then called the Reglna, the theatre drew a crowd 

with a Lugosi/Karloff scarefest in 1942. 

houses, the theatre .sees a higher percentage of 

deaf viewers. To expand the viewing opportunities 

for that audience segment, the Fine Arts 

made an agreement with the Tripod School for 

the Deaf and the Deaf Entertainment Foundation 

(DEF) and is showing English-language 

films for the hearing impaired. The program 

launched in summer 1995 with a special 

screening of Warner Bros.' "The Bridges of 

Madison County," complete with open-captioned 

subtitles and special captioning indicating 

musical song lyrics and 

sound effects. Holding 

more of such screenings 

for the deaf, Gross says, 

remains a key goal. 

Whether it's providing a 

more comfortable sancmary 

for art-house lovers and 

its many celebrity patrons, 

or whether it's serving as 

one of the most "authentic" 

old theatres now operating 

with modem sight and 

sound quality, the Fine Arts 

provides new-Hollywood 

fare in an early-Hollywood 

setting. It also represents a 

coming-together of two 

cultures, with Italian 

ownerCecchi Gori providing 

the expertise in foreign 

and AMC, one of 

films, 

America's top circuits, 

providing the management. 

Say AMC's Dashwood, 

"It's a bit of a throwback to the past, 

restoring some of Hollywood's glory. TTiere 

are not a lot of theatres in L.A., where Hollywood 

started. Most of the old beautiful single 

screens have gone by the wayside. I think the 

theatre is appreciated for that." 

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SPECIAL REPORT: Europe 1997 

KNOCKIN' ON THE 

BOXOFFICE DOOR 

A German-made blockbuster may serve as a blueprint 

for the European production and exhibition 

"You've never seen the ocean? Don't you 

know what happens when you get to heaven? 

In heaven, all they talk about is the ocean. How 

gorgeously beautiful it is. And all the sunsets 

that they saw. How you couldfeel the sun lose 

its strength. And how the cool water splashed 

forwardand the onlyfire left was thefire in their 

souls. And you ? You can 't say a thing, because 

you've never been there. Up there, you'll be 

" 

nothing but af-— d up outsider 

— from "Knockin ' on Heaven 's Door" 

The 

German film industry 

is celebrating its 

strongest period since 

the 1950s, when domesti 

cally-made German product 

dominated theatre screens. In 

first-quarter 1997, German 

features accounted for 37 percent 

of the national boxofficc. 

More than 1 1 .6 million filmgoers 

viewed German features 

at moviehouses. In 

comparison, American films 

counted 

19.3 million admissions 

in the same period. This 

is a-stounding, considering the 

very large amount of Amen 

can film being shown on Ck i 

man screens. During 1997 

first three months, 3,0'-' 1 

prints of locally-made films 

were delivered to German 

theatres—a third more than 

during an entire year jast half 

a decade ago. 

"We want to concentrate on producing German 

films in Germany for the German public." 

That was how Wolfgang Braun, vice president 

of Buena Vista International Germany, 

summed up his company's domestic business 

strategy two years ago at the Buena Vista 

International trade fair. And he wa.stcd no time 

in putting this credo into action. Buena Vista 

Germany's first German production, 

by PKay Krieg 

"Knockin' on Heaven's Door," a dramedy in 

road-movie style, is already setting industry 

standards on how German product will be 

viewed internationally and how it will be produced 

in the years to come. Among other 

things, the Buena Vista production shows how 

capital from a U.S.-based company can be 

used to reinvigorate a European market, as 

opposed to siphoning local resources, which 

divisions of Hollywood studios are occasionally 

accused of doing. 

DOORWAY: T/ie story of two men who w, ml 

"Knockin' on Heaven's Door" has opened new wiij. 

Buena Vista Germany risked plunging into 

new territory by working with a dynamic 

young German production company called 

Mr. Brown Entertainment. The result of this 

cooperative effort is a road movie about two 

terminally ill men, Martin and Rudi, who meet 

in the hospital. After realizing that one of them 

has never seen the ocean, they steal a car. 

planning on driving north to the sea before one 

of them dies. It turns out that the car belongs 

to Frankie Boy, whose hitmen, Henk and 

Abdul, were supposed to transport it (and the 

million German marks in the trunk) to 

Frankie's boss, Curtiz. Now millionaires, Rudi 

and Martin go on shopping sprees, order nx»m 

service in the best hotels, and set about making 

their foremost wishes come true, determined 

to get to the ocean before fate overtakes them. 

"Knockin' on Heaven's Door" was an instant 

commercial smash for Buena Vista. 

sea, 

:man film. 

Within just eight weeks it garnered the coveted 

Golden Screen Award (Goldene 

Leinwand) for more than 

three million admissions sold 

(a feat that typically takes up 

to 18 months in release). The 

film could be seen in almost 

every theatre complex in Germany 

during February and 

March 1997, and it received 

two prestigious German Film 

Award nominations: for Best 

Film and Best Supporting 

Actor. Buena Vista Germany 

and Mr. Brown Entertainment 

touched the pulse of the nation 

with their first try, which 

makes the details of this intriguing 

partnership worth noting 

as a possible production 

mcxlel for the shape of German 

things to come. 

•t all began rather harmlessly 

two years ago in a 

.bookstore in Cologne. 

There, Thomas Jahn bumped 

into Til Schweiger. Schweigerat that time was 

regarded as a major up-and-coming star in 

Germany. (He's since gained that reputation 

.stateside, having become hot in Hollywood.) 

He was basking in the success of "Der 

Bewegte Mann" ("Maybe, Maybe Not"), another 

huge domestic hit, which was released 

on October 13, 1994. Pnxluced by Bemd 

Eichingcr (head of Coastantin Film), "Maybe,

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" 

Maybe Not" is currently the second most popular 

German film of the past 16 years, having 

earned the Golden Screen with Star award (a 

distinction rarely achieved) for amassing more 

than six million domestic admissions (to be 

exact, "Maybe, Maybe Not" pulled in 

6,510,213 moviegoers during its first run). 

That hit catapulted Schweiger into the high- 

GERMAN PRODUCTION'S SECOND COMING 

If current trends continue, 1997 should be a big yearfor Germanproduced 

cinema at the German boxoffice. In addition to the numerous 

smaller domestic films which will be in play, here are a 

few of the higher-profile features that are either currently in the 

editing room or 

else in production 

forprospective release 

this year (all 

release dates are 

tentative): 

A CO-VENTURE ADVENTURE: Wolfgang Braun ofBVI Germany (I.) says the Disney subsidiary took a chance on firsttime 

director Thomas Jahn (r.) because the studio wanted "to offer the German audience a new domestic type of film. 

est echelons of the country's talent. For ^ . . „• ., 

i , 

Thomas Jahn, meeting Schweiger was Gamier starrmg Katja Riemann, Nicolette Krebitz, 

therefore 

a moment of destiny. Jahn is 

a self-described 

movie freak: "When I was 1 2 or so, all 

I did was go to the movies," he says, "or watch 

them on TV. I ingested everything I could get 

my hands on—classics from Howard Hawks 

or John FonJ, American cult movies like 'Midnight 

Run,' action flicks, just about everything." 

Tlie reference to "Midnight Run"—another 

odd-couple road movie—is no coincidence. In 

Jahn's film, "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," 

Schweiger's character is named Martin Brest, 

after "Midnight Run's" U.S. director. His 

partner's character is named after Rudolph 

Wurlitzer, the screenwriter for Sam 

Peckinpah's cult western "Pat Garrett and 

Billy the Kid." And it's the Bob Dylan tune 

used as the musical motif in "Pat Garrett" that 

eventually gave Jahn's breakthrough feature 

its title: "Knockin' on Heaven's Door." 

So when Jahn, who was moonlighting at 

that time as a taxi driver, saw Schweiger leafing 

through film books, he had to go up and 

talk with him. They discussed "Der bewegte 

Mann," Schweiger's growing interest in creating 

and producing his own films, and Jahn's 

stash of unrealized screenplays sitting in his 

closet One thing led to another, and within a 

week of this initial meeting Schweiger's mailbox 

was busting at the seams:-Jahn had sent 

him a potpourri of possible film ideas. In that 

stack of scripts was a first draft of "Knockin' 

on Heaven's Doot." 

"What bothers me /.? that death is such an 

uncomfortable way to live. 

—from "Knockin ' on Heaven 's Door" 

Schweiger was automatically drawn to the 

story and knew he wanted to film it. He 

and Jahn worked on the script for about 

• Buena Vista International 

Germany 

is the number one 

major involved in 

domestic production, 

with a handful 

of German co-pro- 

comedy about 

ductions, including: 

"Bandits" is a musical 

an all-girl prison 

band from Katja von 

asmin Tabatabai and 

Hannes Jaen-nicke. (German release date: July 3j; 

"Hunger: To Yearn for Love," a dramatic love story about the effects that 

bulimia can have on one's life, is Dana Vavrova's directorial debut and 

stars Catherine Flemming, Kai Wiesinger and Christiane Horbiger. The 

film is produced together with Perathon Film, the production company of 

German filmmaker Joseph Vilsmaier (Vavrova's husband). (Sept. 4); 

"2 Frauen, 2 Manner" ("Two Women, Two Men"), a comedy about 

infidelity by Vivian Naefe from Olga Film, stars Heino Firch, Aglaia 

Szyszkowitz and Gedeon Burkhard. (Oct. 16); 

"Widows" stars Uwe Ochsenknecht, Heino Firch, Huub Stapel, Thomas 

Heinze and Eva Mattes. Sherry Hermann is at the helm. (Early 1998). 

• Bernd Eichinger's Constantin Film is another company hard at work on 

delivering high-quality German product. Its slate includes: 

"Die 3 Madels von der Tankstelle" ("Three Girls at the Gas Station") is a 

comedy starring Wigald Boning, Axel Milberg and Franka Potentc from 

Peter Brinkmann. Boning is the star of Germany's answer to "Saturday 

Night Live"; this film marks his feature debut. (June 12). 

"Prince Valiant," a fantasy-adventure film based on the comic series, 

marks another international production for Constantin (following "Smilla's 

Sense of Snow"). Anthony Hickox directs an international cast including 

Stephen Moyer, Katherine Heigl, Edward Fox, Ron Perlman, Udo Kier and 

Thomas Kretschmann. The film will be shot in English. (July 3). 

• Concorde-Castle Rock/Turner is also entering the ring and will be 

promoting Paul Harather's newest release, a holiday comedy entitled 

"Weihnachtsfieber" ("Christmas Fever"). (Nov. 13). 

• Warner Bros. Germany has quite a few projects in the development and 

discussion stage. Two that will definitely be released this year are: 

"Die Furchtlosen Vier" ("The Fearless Four") is an animation comedy 

based on the classic fairy tale about the Bremer Town Musicians. Currently, 

it is set to open just before the fall school vacations on Oct. 2. 

"Das Trio" ("The Three") is a crime drama starring Christian Redl and Felix 

Eisner from Hermine Hundgeburth. This debut film from Next Film in 

Hamburg boasts a five million mark budget and is slated for release on 

Dec. 4.—PKay Krieg

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a year until they had the story honed. After 

investing so much in their endeavor, Schweiger 

was afraid of losing creative control over 

the project. Thus, in the spring of 1996, he 

formed Mr. Brown Entertainment (a name 

taken fix)m Quentin Tarantino's "Reservoir 

Dogs") together with Thomas Zickler, an independent 

short 

film and commercial pro- 

ON THE ROAD: Jan Josef Liefers and Til Schweiger are the terminally ill 

believe that a 

adventurers in "Knockin' on Heaven's Door. " 

major studio 

ducer, and with Andre Hennicke, a screenwriter 

and actor. 

till then I had made only a few Super-8 and 

would trust a no-name with such a project. ' 'Up 

Mr. Brown immediately began developing video fihns. I never dreamed anyone would 

its first feature, and a positive buzz echoed 

through the German industry. The fact that 

Germany's answer to Brad Pitt was personally 

involved in the creative and financial p'ocess 

sparked interest at the offices of domestic distribution. 

Buena Vista Germany was one ofthe 

first local distributors to make inquiries. 

Schweiger didn't trust the postal service to 

make the sale. "I just didn't want to send them 

a script," he explains. "I wanted the chance to 

personally introduce the film and all the ideas 

behind it" 

Amutual friend introduced Schweiger to 

Christoph Ott, executive director of 

distribution at Buena Vista Germany. 

"We didn't reahze that this meeting would 

prove to be so important," Schweiger reflects. 

"After this initial meeting, we met for another 

two or three hours. I read him through the entire 

film and even played out some of the scenes." 

Schweiger's performance must have been 

very convincing. Buena Vista Germany not 

only became co-producer of "Knockin' on 

Heaven's Door," it also distributed the film in 

German-spwaking territories (Germany, Austria 

and Switzerland). By teaming with Buena 

Vista International, 

"Knockin' on Heaven's 

Dooi'' profited from high-quality PR attuned 

to the likes and dislikes of the German public. 

The entire BVI marketing department knew 

exactly how to position the film with audiences 

and exhibitors alike. 

"A crucial factor in our decision to become 

involved in the project was Til Schweiger's 

enthusiastic dedication to it," says BVI's 

Braun. "After studying the material, we knew 

it would make a first-class film. But we decided 

to go about the production our way. Of 

course, we could have hired a well-known TV 

director to take the helm. But then the film 

would have had that certain old-fashioned 

look. We wanted to offer the German audience 

a new domestic type of film, and Schweiger's 

enthusiasm 

and professional 

way of 

doing business 

made that 

decision 

easier." 

"When 

even 

found out that 

the film was 

really greenlighted, 

I was 

ecstatic," Jahn 

recalls. "But 

when Til kept 

talking and 

told me that I 

was going to 

direct it, well, 

that was too 

much." Jahn 

could hardly 

give someone like myselfthe reins of a million 

mark film project." This faith in his capabilities 

proved to be that extra incentive Jahn needed. 

"Til and all the others had so much trust in me. 

I 

didn't want to let them down and did all I 

could to make [the film] a success." 

Once the crew was set, it was time to focus 

on the talent in front of the camera. Not only 

the main characters but the cameo appearances 

read like a who's who of young German and 

European cinema. Jan Josef Liefers took the 

second main role of the melancholic Rudi 

Wurlitzer against Schweiger's more dynamic 

and extroverted main character The film received 

a touch of Hollywood by enlisting Rutger 

Hauer to play the role of Curtiz, the mini 

Mafia boss in charge of the whole operation. 

And Holland's best known export, Huub 

Stapel, took the role of Frankie Boy. 

The secret stars ofthe film, though, are Henk 

and Abdul—two hitmen with very limited 

intelligence. Moritz Bleibtreu received a German 

Film Award nomination for his portrayal 

of Abdul, and the best-known star in Luxembourg, 

Thierry van Werveke, took the role of 

Henk. The scenes with those two characters 

were so popular that project talks are currently 

underway to develop a spin-off .sequel: "Henk 

& Abdul: The Boys are Back in Town." 

Schweiger was even able to convince his 

mentor Bemd Eichingcr, the innovator of 

modem German film production, to take a 

small cameo role—no easy task. 

I 

Eichinger 

judges himselfa miserable actor, and considers 

his forte to be behind-the-scenes work. "I 

didn't let loose until he said yes," Schweiger 

says. The cameo appearance—shot with another 

German household name, Hannes 

Jaennicke—comes right before the end credits 

and was an immediate hit with the audience. 

"Knockin' on Heaven's Door" opened in 

Germany on Febmary 20 of this year and 

promptly became the number one movie in the 

nation, a status it maintained the following 

weekend. It went on to become the second 

most popular German film of the first quarter 

of 1 997. The arrival of "Das kleine Arschloch" 

("The Little Bastard"), a domestic adult animation 

comedy, pushed "Knockin"' to number 

two on its third weekend. 

On the live-action side, however, not even 

Buena Vista's own high-powered U.S. -produced 

competition could hurt Jahn's debut 

film. "101 Dalmatians" ojjened against "Das 

kleine Arschloch" and landed at number three 

on its first weekend, behind those two German 

productions. 

"Good work, Keller. Thinking always 

helps!" 

—from "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" 

Both 

"Knockin'" and the social satire 

"Rossini" (another Eichinger production, 

which has also received the 

Golden Screen Award and is the top-grossing 

domestic release of this year) prove that the 

German and European publics are ready to 

embrace well-made domestic fare. And there 

is no shortage of creative talent ready to follow 

in Schweiger's footsteps, either in front of the 

camera or behind the scenes [see sidebar, 

p.46]. Not only Buena Vista but also other 

majors and domestic distributors are eager to 

help finance and distribute German film. 

The success of this latest slew of German 

product has proven to even the toughest 

naysayers that there is indeed a financial future 

for domestic product. "Knockin' on Heaven's 

Dooi^' offers vindication for the commercial 

style ofmoviemaking as it applies in Germany, 

inasmuch as it is a departure from the artistic 

and cultural German fihns of the 1960s and 

'70s, which focused on high-brow, sometimes 

grim subjects appeaUng primarily to specialized 

audiences. Where those esoteric efforts 

always seemed to project a "message," 

"Knockin' on Heaven's Door'' succeeds first 

and foremost as entertainment. 

Undeniably, serious and "art" films are still 

important and will continue to fill a global 

niche. But from a purely pragmatic standpoint 

they have limited commercial appeal. And 

what's wrong with just wanting to be entertained? 

Apparently nothing, as "Knockin' on 

Heaven's E)oor" demonstrates. It is proving to 

the German film industry that domestically 

created "entertainment" can indeed be popular 

and acceptable—not to mention profitable. 

"Our fihn is one giant pioneering effort and 

we are proud of it," sums up producer/ 

actor/screenwriter and risk taker Schweiger. 

"It was done in true team spirit." A team that 

was courageous and daring enough to go 

where not many German films have gone 

before—and, quite possibly, to take the rest of 

the German film industry along with it: straight 

into boxoffice heaven. 

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OVERVIEW; EUROPE 

ATA GLANCE 

A country-by-country examination of 

European Exhibition by Melissa Morrison 

The European 

Continent is 

currently in 

the midst of sweeping 

changes where 

exhibition is concerned. 

It's a big and 

rapidly changing 

picture, one which 

can be difficult to get 

a handle on. Butfear 

not: BOXOFnCE 

European correspondent 

Melissa 

Morrison knows the 

terrain and was willing 

to do the necessary 

legwork to get 

the pertinent info in 

each market. 

We can think ofno 

better starting point 

for an exhibition 

professional trying 

to get a feel for Europe 

than the 

data 

which has been arranged 

here in tabularformfor 

your easy reference. A companion 

table, listingfull corporate rostersforlO ofthe 

biggest players on the European exhibition 

scene, begins on page 52. All screen counts are 

as of 1 996, except where noted; an asterisk ( *) 

indicates 1995 figures. 

TOTAL NUMBER OF EUROPEAN SCREENS: 

25,636 

UNITED KINGDOM/IREUUID 

MAJOR EXHIBITORS: Rank-Odeon; UCI; 

Virgin; ABC; Cine-UK; National 

Amusements' Showcase; Warner Bros. International 

TheatresA'illage Roadshow; Ward- 

Anderson; Apollo Cinemas 

MAJOR DISTRIBUTORS: UIP; Buena 

Vista International; 2()th Century Fox; Rank; 

Warner Bros.; Columbia TriStar Films; Entertainment 

Film Distributors; Guild Pathe; Artificial 

Eye; PolyGram; First Independent 

SCREENS: U.K.: 2,222; Ireland: 197* 

PERCENT OF EUROPEAN MARKET: 

U.K.: 8.7; Ireland: 1 

PLANNED BUILDS: Major exhibitors have 

plans to build a total 400-plus new screens in 

1 997 and 1 998; Australia's Village Roadshow 

joins the act in partnership with Warner Bros. 

INDUSTRY EVENTS: BAFTA Awards 

(April); Eklinbuigh International Film Festival 

(August); Pre-MIFED Screenings (October); 

London International Film Festival & Market 

(October); London Film Festival (November) 

GERMANY/AUSTRIA 

MAJOR EXHIBITORS: UFA Theatre; 

Rebbe; Kieft und Kieft; Omniplex Group; 

Rolf Theile; Georg Reiss; Bofi-Gruppe; UCI; 

Warner Bros. International Theatres/Village 

Roadshow; Constantin Film 

MAJOR DISTRIBUTORS: UIP; Buena 

Vista; 20th Century Fox; Constantin; Warner 

Bros.; 

TriStar; 

Columbia 

Concorde- 

Castle Rock; Delphi; 

Pandora; 

FPV 

Filmwelt-Prokino; 

K i n o w e 1 t ; 

Jugendfilm 

SCREENS: Germany: 

4,0(X); Austria: 

382* 

PERCENT 

MARKET: 

OF 

Germany: 

15.7; Austria: 

1.5 

BUILDS: (jermany 

anticipates about 

1,000 new screens 

by the end of the century; 

UCI beginning 

aggressive building 

campaigns; Warner 

Bros, and Village 

Roadshow to build 

multiplexes in Germany; 

Omniplex 

Group plans to build 

six multiplexes 

''-^'''^^^^^'^-'^ 

through '97; Bemd 

Eichinger's Constantin Group planning $209 

million cinema complex in Munich; U.S.'s 

UCI and Germany's UFA plan separate projects 

in the eastern German city of Gera 

INDUSTRY EVENTS: Beriin Film Festival 

(February); Filmfest Munchen (June); Filmfest 

Hamburg (September) 

FRANCE/SWinERLANO 

MAJOR EXlllimORS: Gaumont, UGC, 

Showcase; Padie 

MAJOR DISTRIBUTORS: GaumonU 

Buena Vista International; AMLF; UIP; U.S. 

studio offshocMs 

SCREENS: France: 4,365*; Switzerland: 

488* 

PERCENT OF MARKED France: 17.2; 

Switzeriand: 1.9 

PLANNED BUILDS: Heron 

International 

(UK) is planning five new complexes in 

France and Spain at a total cost of $223 million

INDUSTRY EVENTS: Cannes International 

Film Festival and Market (May); Deauville 

Festival of American Films (September); Festival 

of European Cinema (November) 

ITALY 

MAJOR EXHIBITORS: Cecchi Gori Group; 

Cinema 5; Village Roadshow 

MAJOR DISTRIBUTORS: Medusa; Buena 

Vista; Warner Bros.; Cecchi Gori; UIP; 

FilmAuro; Columbia TriStar; OF; Aitisti Associati; 

Lucky Red 

SCREENS: 4.(XX) 

PERCENT OF MARKET: 15.7 

PLANNED BUILDS: Warner Bros and Village 

Roadshow have formed a joint venture to 

build 20 multiplexes throughout Italy; UCI is 

planning 15 multiplexes 

INDUSTRY EVENTS: MIFED (October); 

Venice Film Festival (August/September) 

SPAIH/PORTUGAL 

MAJOR EXHIBITORS: Lauren Films; Alta 

Films; Wamer-Lusomundo; Yelmo Films; 

UGC (France); Cinesa; UCI 

MAJOR DISTRIBUTORS: Lauren Fihns; 

Sogepaq Distribucion 

SCREENS: Spain: 2,090*; Portugal: 282* 

PERCENTOF MARKET: Spain: 8.2; Portugal: 

1.1 

PLANNED BUILDS: Lauien to build 72 

screens by end of '97: Warner Bros., Spanish 

multimedia giant PRISA and Portuguese 

major Lusomundo to develop 20 multiplexes 

in Spain; Heron Intemational (UK) planning 

five cinemas in France and Spain at a total cost 

of $223 million; AMC targeting the Iberian 

Peninsula for development, scheduling a multiplex 

to open in Barcelona this fall, with a 

second under construction, as well as a 20- 

screen multiplex in Porto, Portugal 

INDUSTRY EVENTS: San Sebastian International 

Film Festival (September) 

BENELUX (BELGIUM, NETHERLANDS, 

LUXEMBOURG) 

MAJOR EXHIBITORS: Pathe; Decatron/Kinepolis 

Group; Gaumont; UGC 

Belgique; Decatron: Jogchem's Theatres; 

Minerva; Cine Utopia 

MAJOR DISTRIBUTORS: Concorde Film; 

PolyGram; RCV 

SCREENS: Belgium: 447*; Netherlands: 

446; Luxembourg: 17* 

PERCENT OF MARKET: Belgium: 1.8; 

Netherlands: 1.8; Luxembourg: < 1 

PLANNED BUILDS: Belgium's Decatron 

and Holland's Cinema Groep plan to build 10 

cinemas and will begin with an eight-screen 

theatre in the Dutch city ofFlushing; Pathe will 

build 27 screens in .Amsterdam in 1998 

INDUSTRY EVENTS: Bnissels International 

Film Festival (January); Film Festival 

Rotterdam/CineMart (January/February); 

Brussels Cartoon & Animated Film Festival 

(February); European Children's Film Festival 

Antwerp (March/April); Holland Animation 

Film Festival (spring); Holland Film Meeting 

(September/October); Randers Intemational 

Film Festival (October); Intemational Documentary 

Film Festival & Market (November/December) 

SCANDINAVIA 

MAJOR EXHIBITORS: Finnkino (Finland); 

Camera Film, Nordisk, Metronome 

(Denmark); Svensk and Sandrew 

Film (Sweden); Skifan, Samfilm (Iceland) 

MAJOR DISTRIBUTORS: Finnkino; 

Scanbox; Svensk FUmindustri; Nordisk 

FUm; Metronome; Buena Vista Intemational; 

UIP; Camera Fihn; All Right Film 

SCREENS: Denmark: 313*; Norway: 

250; Finland: 330*; Sweden: 1,168*; 

Iceland: 23* 

PERCENT OF MARKET: Denmark: 

1.2; Norway: 1; Finland: 1.3; Sweden: 

4.6 

PLANNED BUILDS: Metronome with 

Warner to build multiplex in Denmark; 

Finland to get three Helsinki multiplexes 

constructed by Kino-Palatsi-Sandrews- 

Metronome, a collaboration among a 

Swedish-Danish exhibition partnership 

and a pair of Finnish producers ; Finnkino 

to build the world's first 40-plex in 

Helsinki, scheduled to open in October 1998; 

Oslo's first private cinema, with six screens, 

scheduled for completion by year's end; 14 

more private cinemas planned for the Oslo area 

in Norway; AMC plans a 5,0(X)-seat multiplex 

in a Stockholm suburb; Skifan planning a 

multiplex in Iceland in 1997 

INDUSTRY EVENTS: Gothenburg Film 

Festival (January/February); Norwegian International 

Film Festival (August); Umea Film 

Festival (September); Uppsala Film Festival 

(October); Stockholm Intemational Film Festival 

(November) 

RUSSIA 

MAJOR EXHIBITORS: Golden Ring; Eastman 

Kodak 

MAJOR DISTRIBUTORS: East West Creative 

Association; Kino Video Service 

SCREENS: 1,468* 


PLANNED BUILDS: Golden Ring plans to 

build chain of multiplexes across the country 

INDUSTRY EVENTS: Open Russian and 

Intemational Film Festival (May/June); St. Petersburg 

Film Festival (June); Moscow International 

Film Festival (July); Open Festival of 

as and Baltic States (September) 

HUNGARY 

MAJOR EXHIBITORS: Budapest Film; Village 

Roadshow Intemational: InterCom 

MAJOR DISTRIBUTORS: InterCom 

SCREENS: 470 


PLANNED BUILDS: Village Roadshow Intemational 

has three multiplexes planned for 

Hungary in the next two years 

CZECH REPUBLIC AND SLOVAKIA 

MAJOR EXHIBITOR: Multikino 

MAJOR DISTRIBUTORS: Bonton Alpha 

and Beta; Space Films; Barradov Biografia 

SCREEN COUNTS/MARKET SHARES:V

f? RfixnmfF 

1 

1 

GIANTS OF EUROPEAN EXHIBITION 

A Directory of 20 Top European Circuits 

Here it is— a compilation of 20 of Europe's top exhibition circuits and supporting trade organizations. 

Alttiougli some companies didn't respond to multiple faxes and phone calls (you know who you are), we 

believe this to be the most useful directory of its type. Enjoy! And for those European circuits that didn't 

make the list—there's always next year. Call, fax or e-mail us with your comments or corrections. 

I.UFA Theater AG 

Grof-Adlolf-StT. 96 

40210 Dusseldorf Germany 

PHONE: (49-211) 169-0650 

FAX: (49-211) 169-0633 

EXECUTIVE ROSTER: 

Volker Riech, board chairman 

YEAR FOUNDED: 1917 

TOTAL SITES (6/31/97): 150 

TOTAL SCREENS (6/31/97): 470 

AVE. SCREENS PER SITE; 3 

PROJECTED SITES, 12/97: 150 

PROJECTED SCREENS, 12/97: 470 

THEATRE EMPLOYEES: 3,000 

CORPORATE EMPLOYEES: 200 

THEATRE LOCATIONS: Germany 

2. United Cinemas 

International 

Lee House 

Great Bridgewater St. 

Manchester Ml 5JW England 

PHONE; (44) 161-455-4000 

FAX: (44) 161-4554076 

EXECUTIVE ROSTER; 

(currently vacant), CEO 

AlanMcNair,CFO 


TOTAL SITES (6/31/97): 61 

TOTAL SCREENS (6/31 /97): 438 

EUROPEAN SITES: 60 

EUROPEAN SCREENS; 431 

AVE. EUROPEAN SCREENS/SITE: 7 



PROJECTED EUROPEAN SITES, 

12/97; 73 

PROJECTED EUROPEAN 

SCREENS, 12/97; 522 

THEATRE LOCATIONS; United 

Kingdom, Germany, Ireland, Spain, 

Austria, Japan, Brazil (12/97) 

UCI GSemiany (Multiplex GMBH) 

Oskar-Hoffmann-str. 156 

44789 Bochum Germany 

PHONE; (49) 234-937-190 

CONTACT; Ray Smith, vice 

president 

UCI Spain (CInesa) 

Floridablanca 135 

0801 1 Barcelona Spain 

PHONE: (343) 228-9600 

CONTACT; Jose Batlle, vice 

president 

UCI UK Ltd. 

Lee House 

Great Bridgewater St. 

Manchester Ml 5JW England 

PHONE: (44) 161-455-4(X)0 

FAX;(44)161-455-t076 

CONTACT: Steve Knibbs, vice 

president 

3. Gaumont Cinemas 

30 Av. Charles de Gaulle 

Neuilly, Seine 92220, France 

PHONE: (33) 1-46-43-2400 

FAX: (33) 1-46-43-2428 


Jean Louis Renoux, director 

Stephane Parthenay, programming 

director 

YEAR FOUNDED; 1895 

TOTAL SITES (6/31 /97): 41 

TOTAL SCREENS (6/31/97); 372 

AVE. EUROPEAN SCREENS/SITE; 9 

THEATRE LOCATIONS; France 

4. Odeon Cinemas 

54 Whitcomb Street 

London, U.K. WC2H 7DN 

PHONE: (71) 18-39-6373 

FAX: (71) 13-21-0357 


Richard Segal, managing director 

B.J. Keward, operations director 

M.G. Walker, finance director 


TOTAL SITES (6/31 /97): 75 


AVE. SCREENS/SITE: 4.5 

THEATRE EMPLOYEES; 2,500 

CORPORATE EMPLOYEES; 200 

THEATRE LOCATIONS: United 

Kingdom 

5. Pathe Cinemas 

5 Boulevard Malsherbes 

75008 Paris France 

PHONE; (33-1) 49-244086 

FAX; (33-1) 49-24-4089 


Mr. L. Nielsen, Managing Director 

Mr. J. 

Seydoux, Chairman/CEO 


TOTAL SITES (6/31 /97): 76 



THEATRE LOCATIONS: the 

Netherlands, France 

Path^ Cinemas Netherlands 

• 

P.O. Box 75948 

1070 AX Amsterdam 

The Netherlands 

PHONE: (31-20) 575 1751 

FAX: (31-20) 662 2085 

6. Warner Bros. 

International Theatres 

mw vVdiiK-i liiv J. 

Bridge BIdg. South, 5th fl. 

Burbank, Calif. 91522 

PHONE: (818)954-6278 

FAX; (818) 954-6047 


Millard L. Ochs, President 

C. Christopher Adelmann, Sr. VP 

David Bent, VP Theatrical Exhibition 

Glenn Finch, VP Finance & Strategic 

Planning 

Chris Sanders, Director, Worldwide 

Concessions 

Peter Dobson, Director, Worldwide 

Film-buying 


TOTAL SITES (6/31 /97); 59 





PROJECTED SCREENS, 12/97; 550 


THEATRE LOCATIONS: Australia, 

United Kingdom, Denmark, 

Germany, Portugal, Spain, Japan 

(Italy and Taiwan by 12/97) 

Warner Village Cinemas 

Wells Point, 3rd fl. 

79 Wells St. 

London WIP, England 

PHONE: (44) 171 4654090 

FAX; (44) 171 4654998 

CONTACT; Rafael BadUlo, 

Managing Director 

Warner Lusomundo Cines de 

Espana S.A. 

Minipark 1 - Edificio B-1 Planta 

c/ Azalea N 

Urbanizacion el Soto de la Moraleja 

28109 Madrid, Spain 

PHONE: (34-1) 658-5358 

FAX; (34-1) 658-5356 

CONTACT; Tomas Naranjo, 


Warner Lusomundo 

Sociedade Iberica de 

Cinemas, LDA 

Rua Luciano Cordeiro, 113, 

1150 Lisboa, Portugal 

PHONE: (351-1) 315-0806 

FAX; (351-1) 355-7784 

CONTACT; Miguel Teceidero, 


Warner Village Italia 

Piazza Augusto Imperatore, 3 

Scala C/2nd Piano 

00186 Rome, Italy 

PHONE; (39-6) 68-8111 

FAX: (39-6) 68-80-8578 

CONTACT: Antonio Maldonado, 


7. Village Roadshow Ltd. 

206BourkeSt. 

Melbourne VIC 3000 

Australia 

PHONE; (61-3)96-67-6666 

FAX; (61-3)96-63-1972 


Graham Burke, Managing Director 

Robert Kirby, Chairman 

John Kirby, Deputy Chairman 

Peter Foo, Group General Manager 


TOTAL SITES (6/31 /97): 122 




AVERAGE SCREENS/SITE: 6.4 

PROJECTED SCREENS, 12/97; 1,082 

PROJECTED SITES, 12/97; 154 



THEATRE LOCATIONS; Australia, 

New Zealand, Fiji, Thailand, 

Malaysia, Singapore, Argentina, 

Hungary, United Kingdom, 

Germany, India, Greece 

Village Roadshow 

International (Europe) 

Wells Point 

79 Wells St. 

London WIP 3RD, United Kingdom 

PHONE; (44) 171- 465-4090 

FAX: (44) 171-4654998 

CONTACT; John Crawford 

8. AB Svensk Filmindustri 

127 83 Stockholm, Sweden 

PHONE: (46-8) 680-3500 

FAX; (46-8) 7104460 

E-MAIL: stefan.kIockby@sf.se 

URL: http:www.sf.se 


Mr. Torsten Larsson, President/CEO 

Mr. Raoul Lindqvist, VP and COO 

Mr. Jan Bemhardsson, CFO 

Mr. Stefan Klockby, Corporate info 


TOTAL SITES (6/31 /97): 37 

TOTAL SCREENS (6/31 /97); 180 

AVE. SITES/SCREEN: 4.9 





THEATRE LOCATIONS: Sweden 

9. National Amusements 

(UK) Ltd. 

2(X) lilni Si. 

Dedham, Mass. 02026 

PHONE: (617) 461-1600 x300 


Sumner Redstone, Chairman & 

President 

Shari E. Redstone, Exec. VP 

Jerome Magner, Sr. VP, Finance & 

Treasurer 

William J. Towey, Sr. VP, Operations 

Fxigar A. Knudson, Sr. VP, Adv. & Pub 

George Levitt, Sr. VP, Film Booking 


TOTAL SITES (6/31 /97): 116

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TOTAL SCREENS (6/31/97): 1,072 


EUROPEAN SCREENS: 169 

AVE. EUROPEAN SCREENS/SITE: 

13 

PROJECTED EUROPEAN SITES, 

12/97: 15 

PROJECTED EUROPEAN 

SCREENS, 12/97: 197 




Kingdom, United States, Chile, 

Argentina (planned 

10. KieftundKieft 

Filmtheater GMBH 

Mnehlenbruccke 11 

D-23552 Luebeck, Germany 

PHONE: (49-451) 703-0200 

FAX: (49-451) 703-0222 


Marlis Kieft and Heiner Kieft, 

Presidents 


TOTAL SITES (6/31/97): 36 






11. Kinepolis Group 

Eeuwfeest Laan 1 

1020 Brussels, Belgium 

PHONE: (32-2) 474-2600 

¥AX: (32-2) 474-2606 


Albert Bert, Rose Claeys, Presidents 

Joost Bert, CEO 

Jan Staelens, Firwncial Manager 

Boudewyn Muts and Florent 

Geybels, VP, Theatre Operations 

Koen Bert, Booking 


TOTAL SITES (6/31 /97): 9 


AVE. SCREENS/SITE: 14 



THEATRE LOCATIONS: Belgium, 

France 

12. Flebbe 

Filmtheaterbetriesse 

GMBH & Co. KG (Cinemaxx) 

Mittelweg 176 

20148 Hamburg Germany 

PHONE: (49-40) 45-06-80 

FAX: (49-40) 45-06-8204 


Hans-Joachim Flebbe, Michal 

Pawlowski, Presidents 

Emst-Guenther Surkus, 

CFO/Treasurer 

Wolf-Dieter Hahne, VP Personnel 

Chris Koppelmeier, Meinolf Thies, 

VPs, TTieatrc Operations 


TOTAL SITES (6/31 /97): 32 








13. Sandrew Film AB 

Box 5612 I Uiragatan 4 

1 14 32 Stotkholm Sweden 

PHONE: (46-8) 762-1700 

FAX; (46-8) 10-38-50 


Klas Olofsson, President/CEO 

Bertil Sandgren, COO 

Ulf Djure, CFO/Treasureer 

Bo Nilsson, Theatre Operations 


TOTAL SITES (6/31/97): 31 




THEATRE EMPLOYEES: 300 


THEATRE LOCATIONS: Sweden, 

Denmark, Finland (planned) 

14. Yelmo Films SA 

Jacometrezo 4, Floor 7 

Madrid 28013 Spain 

PHONE: (34-1) 523-1560 

FAX: (34-1) 523-1658 

E-MAIL: yelmo@info4.com 


Ricardo Evole Martil, President/CEO 

Angel Poveda Gallego, 

CFO/Treasurer 

Enrique Vinas, VP, Booking and 

Equipment 


TOTAL SITES (6/31/97): 12 







THEATRE LOCATIONS: Spain 

15. Jogchem's Theaters B.V. 

Veenestraat 31 

3751 GE Bunschoten, 

The Netherlands 

PHONE: (31-33) 298-4884 

FAX: (31-33) 298-4908 


J. 

van Dommelen and W. van 

Dommelen, Presidents 


TOTAL SITES (6/31 /97): 27 




PROJECTED SCREENS, 12/97: to 

be determined 

THEATRE EMPLOYEES; 300 


THEATRE LOCATIONS: The 

Netherlands 

le.FinnkinoOY 

Koivuvaarankuja 2 

01640 Vantaa Finland 

PHONE: (358-9) 13-11-91 

FAX: (358-9) 13-11-9300 


Timo Manty, President 


TOTAL SITES (6/31/97): 30 

TOTAL SCREENS (6/31 /97); 81 

PER SITE: 3.9 



THEATRE EMPLOYEES; 400 


THEATRE LOCATIONS; Finland 

17. Alta Films 

Martin do Ins Heros 12 

28008 Madrid, Spain 

PHONE: (34-1) 542-2702 

FAX: (34-1)542-8777 


Enrique Gonzales, President 

TOTAL SITES (6/31/97): 11 



PROJECTED STTES, 12/97: 11 

PROJECTED SCREENS 12/97: 54 


18. Grupo Lauren 

Exhibicion 

Balmes 87 

08008 Barcelona Spain 

PHONE: (34-3) 451-6679 

FAX: (34-3) 323-6155 


Antonio Llorens Olive, CEO 

Joan Herbera, Theatre Operations 

Xavier Villarroya, Equipment Buyer 

Irene Rabar, Advertising 

TOTAL SITES (6/31/97): 6 






Emp. Central de 

Espectiaculos 

Teturon, 29 

28013 Madrid Spain 

PHONE: (34-1) 521-5694 

FAX: (34-1) 521-3743 

CONTACT: Jose Arias 

Grupo Immoblliarlo Mar 

Balmes 98 

08008 Barcelona Spain 

PHONE: (34-3) 451-6679 

FAX: (34-3) 451-6980 

CONTACT: Joan Herbera 

Los CInes de Zaragoza, S.A. 

Francisco Vitoria, 30 

50003 Zaragoza Spain 

PHONE: (34-76) 23-20-18 

FAX: (34-76) 32-82-94 

CONTACT: Juana Mendizabal 

Emp. Control Y Sam. 

Catalonia 

Rietla, 

07003 Palma de Mallorca, Spain 

PHONE: (34-71) 72-60-74 

FAX: (34-71) 71-86-50 

CONTACT: Antonio Roca 

19. Cinema 5 

via Aurelia Antica 422 

Rome Italy 

PHONE; (39-6) 66-39-01 

FAX: (39-6) 66-39-0440 


Gian-Luigi Delia Casa, President 


TOTAL SITES (6/31 /97): 12 


AVE. SCREENS/SITE; 2.4 


PROJECTED SCREENS, 12/97; 32 



THEATRE LOCATIONS: Italy 

20. Cine-UK Ltd. 

Sutherland I louse 

5/6 Argyll St. 

London WIV IAD 

PHONE: (44) 171-494-1394 

FAX: (44) 171-734-1443 


Stephen M. Wiener, CEO 

Ian Johnston, COO 

Paul Stefka, VP, Design and 

Construction 

Al Alvarez, VP, Operations 

Richard Jones, VP, Finance 

Sabine Khan, Marketing & PR. 


TOTAL SITES (6/31/97): 2 








Kingdom 

EUROPEAN TRADE 

ORGANIZATIONS 

Cinema Exhibitors 

Association (CEA) 

John Wilkinson, Exec. Director 

22 Golden Square 

London WIR 3PA 

PHONE: (44-171) 734-9551 

FAX; (44-171) 734-6147 

Europe Cinemas 

Claude-Eric Poiroux 

rue Beaubourg 54 

75003 Paris, France 

PHONE: (33-1) 4271 5370 

FAX: (33-1) 4271 4755 

Encourages the wider exhibition 

and circulation of European films 

IVIEDIA Salles/Euro Kids 

Netork 

EUsabetta Brunella 

via Soperga 2.1 

1-20127 Milan, Italy 

PHONE: (39-2) 6698 4405 8 digits 

FAX: (39-2) 669 1574 7 digits 

Encourages the wider exhibition 

and circulation of European films 

MEDIA 

Jacques Delmoly, program head 

200 rue de la Loi 

B-1049 Brussels, Belgium 

PHONE: (32-2) 299 9147 

FAX: (32-2) 299 9214 

Web Site: 

http://europa.eu.int/en/comm/ 

glO/avpolicy/media/en/home-i 

2.html 

European Union program 

administers audio-visual funding 

for the 18 EU-member states and 

six associate states. 

Hauptverband Deutsche 

Filmtheater 

Stefen Kuchenreuther, president 

Wiesbaden 

PHONE; (49-61 1)778-920 

FAX: (49-611) 723-403 

Association of German exhibitors 

National Association of 

Municipal Cinemas, Norwa; 

Kongensgt. 23 0153 

Oslo 1, Norway 

Besoksadresse Nedre Stottsgt. 8 

PHONE: (47) 22-33-0530 

FAX: (47) 22-42-8949 

Netherlands Federation for 

Cinema 

PHONE: (31-20)6799261 

FAX: (31-20) 675 0398 

Irish CEA (same as 

Ward-Anderson) 

PHONE: (353-1)872 3922 

FAX: (353-1) 872 3687 

Spanish CEA 

Jose del Villa, president 

PHONE: (34-1) 576 9913 

FAX: (34-1)5762774

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56 Boxoffice 


Pas de DEUX 

French film luminaries on the uneasy truce 

between France and the U.S. by Karen Achenbach 

More 

than 102 years ago, the 

United States and France 

began separate but equal 

paths in the creation of motion pictures. 

Today they remain cinema 

equals, though in very different 

ways. The U.S. increasingly dominates 

the global market (most commonly 

with technically brilliant, 

language-recessive action spectacles) 

to such an extent that fihri production 

in many countries is 

disappearing. 

But France's use of 

legislation to keep its film culture 

healthy makes the French film industry 

a unique example of the pros 

and cons of a protectionist approach 

to the film marketplace. 

As far back in cinema history as 

the late 

1950s, Andre Mahaux, the 

first French minister of culture, established 

the now famous advance 

on receipts ("Avance sur recettes"), 

a tax on movie tickets to help finance 

independent films, administered by 

the Centre National de la Cinematographie 

(CNC). The bigger the 

boxoffice, the more ftinds there are to distribute 

back to the fihnmakers. Considering that, 

in France, boxoffice is measured by admissions 

(by the number of people who come, 

rather than the dollars they hold), this assigns 

a deep and (typically French) nationalistic significance 

to overall attendance. And attendance 

has been rising. According to Laurent 

Danielou, of the French Consulate in Los Angeles, 

in 19% moviegoing was up from each 

of the past three years: 1 40 million admissions 

in 1996, 1 25 million admissions in 1993. 

"Protectionism" and "subsidy" are somewhat 

dirty words to U.S. producers, but it's 

hard to deny the impact of these French measures. 

As a result of all these steps, France is 

holding its own in the face of a global system 

that threatens to over-simplify the market, and 

France remains the European maiicet where 

North American cinema gathers the smallest 

market share. It was also the French who 

spearheaded an action to exclude cinema (culture) 

from the GATT (General Agreement on 

Tariffs and Trade) treaty, fearing in part that, 

under the general agreement, France's elaborate 

system of subsidies would be dismantled. 

GOING WITH THE FLOW: Alice Hourias Nenette in Claire Denis' "Nenette andBoni." 

Stateside, 

there are problems for French 

product. Of the 500 or so movies released 

in North America last year, only 20 were 

French. Motivated by the decreasing U.S. market 

for French films, a Franco-American cultural 

fund was created from blank videocassette 

tax monies to support the promotion 

of French films in the United States. To this 

end, a stellar panel of representatives from 

the French industry recently came to America 

to plead the French case. The seriousness 

with which the French view the situation is 

apparent in that the delegation included two 

of the most internationally successful 

French directors, both of whom brought 

prints of their latest films: Claude Lelouch 

("A Man and A Woman," "Bolero," "Les 

Miserables"), whose most recent effort is 

entitled "Men, Women: User's Manual," 

and Bertrand Tavemier ("Round Midnight," 

" A Sunday in the Country"), whose "Captain 

Conan" offered a portrait of a sub-group 

of warriors within an army. 

Both of the.se veteran filmmakers agree the 

state of the French film industry is healthy, yet 

challenged. "For a hundred years French cinema 

has been in crisis," says Lelouch. "But it 

is easier nonetheless to make a film in France 

than in most other countries. The authorities 

like cinema. There are internal rules which 

allow us to use money that is 

earned by the 

cinema. All the successes of films play a part 

in the production of film. So I think the French 

cinema is very resilient—in a permanent state 

of crisis, but it can defend itself" 

For Tavemier, alive means aware. 'Today, 

the French cinema is very much alive, with a 

lot of ideas. One proof of this life is that 66 

French directors decided to fight a shameful 

French law against immigration. More than 

100,(X)0 people were in the street [to protest 

the law]. And it was the young [generation] of 

film directors who startai this." 

One of the more successful young producers, 

Georges Benayoun ("Wild Reeds, "Mina 

Tannenbaum" and the current U.S. release 

"Irma Vep," out via Zeitgeist), believes things 

are looking better and better, particularly on 

France's domestic side. 'Today, the French 

cinema is very alive. Six years ago we got 29 

percent of the share of the market, and now it's 

around 38 percent. You have to understand that

Julv. 1997 57 

France is the only country [in Eurojje] with a 

national market like that. Even in the United 

Kingdom, British films have only seven percent 

OT eight percent of the market" 

Producer Benayoun has several recent titles 

that he is currently shopping in the 

international market: "The Apartment,'" 

a sUck exercise in architecture and cinematography 

by first-timer GiUes Mimouni; and 

"Nenette and Boni", a stunningly intimate film 

by Claire Denis ("Chocolat," "I Can't Sleep"). 

there are 1 60. There are more American fihns, 

they stay less time on the screen, and it's 

always new films." 

French wariness of an unbridled free- 

approach to cinema is also 

Themarket affecting 

French exhibition. Multiplexes, 

new to France, are encountering legislation to 

limit their growth, in order to protect the arthouse 

cinemas of the cities and to defend 

against the practice of using many screens for 

few movies. Despite the success his own fihns 

NEW DIRECTIONS: "Captain Conan" director Bertrand Tavernier feels 

French films might be too complex for U.S. audiences. 

Recent events in Benayoun's career prove 

that Hollywood and French talent are not mutually 

exclusive corKcpts. Earber this year, 

"The Apartment" screened at Park City's Sundance 

Film Festival. Soon after, Benayoun and 

Mimouni were both signed by CAA; U.S. 

distribution for "The Apartment" and a possible 

remake are in the woiks. Meanwhile, 

"Nenette and Boni" has been picked up by San 

Francisco-based Strand Releasing for a 1997 

release ui the States. 

Benayoun asserts that the French are now 

competing for market shares and producing 

many different types of films, even science 

-fiction (Uke 'The Fifth Element," an $80+ 

million, French-financed extravaganza from 

the "Gallic Spielberg," Luc Besson). Among 

young filmmakers, it appears that ultra-realism 

is popular, as in debut filmmaker Sandrine 

Veysset's "Will It Snow for Christmas." 

As for trends, Benayoun believes the major 

trend in French cinema is toward more audience-friendly, 

less speciaUzed fare. "The only 

trend I see is [that] the writer and the director 

are more wilUng to have success. They want 

the audiences now, and they are talking about 

how to attract the audience and yet not lose 

their authenticity." 

And attract an audience they must, not only 

abroad but at home. Despite pro-French cinema 

initiatives, Hollywood has an overwhelming 

presence on French screens. "You 

have to understand that 10 years ago we received 

about 80 or 90 American films," explains 

Benayoun. "This year, for instance, 

have had in the U.S., Tavernier articulates the 

fear many French film professionals feel about 

changing France's exhibition infrastructure. 

"In Germany," he claims, "where the number 

of screens devoted to the American cinema is 

much larger than in France, they release less 

[domestic product]." [For a counter opinion, 

see our article on the German market, p. 44.] 

"Nenette and Boni" director Denis agrees. 

"American cinema is dear to every single 

French director. But we don't Uke the American 

emphasis on economics, and we don't Uke 

the way that emphasis is taking hold in world 

cinema. We consider cinema not only merchandise 

but also art." 

As to breaking into the U.S. market, 

"maybe we have to make better movies," 

asserts Mimouni. But Mimouni also turns the 

"protectionist" argument on its head, saying, 

"In America, your cinema is incredibly protected. 

It's quite impossible for a foreign 

movie to be released, and if it is released it's 

a very small release." 

Demonstrably, the U.S. market for foreign 

product is still shrinking. In 1970 there were 

52 French movies distributed stateside, while 

in 1990 there were only 25. Denis, who had 

stateside success with her 1988 film "Chocolat," 

describes the difference in her past and 

current experiences. "My experience here with 

'Chocolat' was great because I had a great 

distributor—Orion before it became Sony 

Qassics—and the film really met the audience. 

[Getting] 'Nenette and Boni' a U.S. release 

was much more difficult, but now I have 

a good distributor [Strand Releasing] though 

the deal is modest." 

Lelouch has had American distribution for 

only 10 of his 35 films in the 40 years of his 

career. At press time, liis latest, "Men, Women: 

User's Manual" was being considered for release 

by the specialty arm of a major studio. 

"The companies that could distribute our films, 

that is to say the majors, are not interested in 

our fiUns," says Lelouch. "So we have to 

absolutely encourage the small distributors. 

The only thing that really can make a success 

of a French film here now is word of mouth." 

of mouth takes time, and there is 

Wordso much product out tiiere that the 

market has become very swift and 

often very deadly. Paradoxically, the rise of 

American independent film, as assisted by the 

rise of Disney-owned Miramax, has hurt foreign 

product by claiming for American-made 

tides a greater portion of the boxoffice shared 

by independent and foreign titles. Miramax 

also dominates many ofthe art-houses, leaving 

smaUer distributors without screens. 

According to Jon Gerrins, co-president of 

Strand Releasing, Strand recoups its investment 

on EngUsh-language tides with video 

and cable sales, "and that's where our foreignlanguage 

films are having a problem. HBO 

won't buy foreign-language films [unless diey 

are Academy Award winners], and I can't get 

the same amount of dollars for these pictures 

as I can get for an average EngUsh-language 

picture that can play on a Saturday night." 

Subtitles are accused of ruining die market 

for foreign-language product. Americans 

seem unwiUing to read language onscreen, 

whereas in Europe people not only read but 

speak several languages, and subtitiing is the 

norm. But 'the problem is more than just the 

subtitles," says Tavernier. "The problem for 

French films in the U.S. is that they do not 

bring easy answers. There is not an easy way 

out. In a country where there is a lot of unemployment, 

where there are poUtical problems, 

and where the people feel insecure, where 

there is a lot of fear, films that are easy to watch 

are popular. They bring easy answers. You 

have a problem with the Middle East, you 

send Schwarzenegger. No more problems. 

The kids go and see those films. French films 

are not built that way." 

The French wiU continue trying to find an 

audience in die U.S. "America is the mecca of 

film, so you always feel very good when you 

have your film seen here," Benayoun confirms. 

The hope for the future "depends on the 

American audience," asserts Lelouch. "I am 

optimistic because it is my nature. If I wasn't 

optimistic I wouldn't try to make my 36th fiUn. 

And therefore if my films are not distributed 

immediately they wiU be distnbuted another 

day. They are immortal. And diey'U wait for 

their audience to be ready for them." 

BOXOFnCE would like to thank Florence 

Dauman of the Directors Guild of 

America for her heroic assistance in the 

assembling of this article.

1 

CINEMA EXPO INTERNATIONAL '97 

RAI INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION AND CONGRESS CENTRE 

AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS • JUNE 29 -JULY 2, 1997 

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS 

SATURDAY, JUNE 28 

20.00-21.30 

9.00-17.00* Trade Show Registration Holland Hall #11** 

SUNDAY, JUNE 29 

8.00- 1 8.00 Trade Show Registtation 

Holland Hall #1 1 

8.00-20.00 Convention Registration 

Onyx Lounge 

10.30-12.00 Seminar. Sponsor: Media Salles 

12.00-13.30 Buffet Lunch. Sponsor: Media Salles 

Auditorium 

Auditorium Lounge 

13.30-15.30 Screening: Media Salles 

Auditorium 

15.30-17.00 Technical Seminar 

Auditorium 

17.00-19.00 Screening: Buena Vista 

International's "Face/Off' 

Auditorium 

19.00-20.00 EDI Awards 

20.00-21.30 Opening Night Dinner. 

Sponsor: Polygram Film International 

Auditorium 

West Hall #3 

21.30-23.30 Product Reel aiid Screening: 

Polygram Intl.'s "Bean" 

Auditorium 

MONDAY, JUNE 30 

8.00-18.00 Convention Registration Onyx Lounge 

8.00-18.00 Trade Show Registration Holland Hall #1 

8.15-8.45 Continental Breakfast Auditorium Lounge 

8.45-10.15 Concessions Seminar Auditorium 

10.30-12.30 Product Reel and Screening: Auditorium 

UIP's "The Lost World" 

1 2.45- 1 4.30 Opening Day Luncheon. Sponsor: UIP West Hall #3 

14.30-18.00 Trade Show and Cocktail Party. Holland Hall #11 

Sponsor: Dolby Laboratories 

18.00-20.00 Screening: 20th Century Auditorium 

Fox International's "Volcano" 

* All times arc local Amsterdam. 

** All locations are at the RAI complex unles.s .specitled.

Z— 

^8gr

iU^ 

XllWlWEll'V 

1 

SPECIAL REPORT: Cinema Expo 1997 

MULTIPLEX MAVEN 

Founder ofDecatron and Kinepolis andfather of the European 

multiplex, Albert Bert is Cinema Expo's Exhibitor of the Year 

by Pat Kramer 

Albeit 

Bert, founder of the Belgium-based 

Decatron N.V. and 

co-founder of its sister company, 

the Kinepolis Group, is Cinema Expo's 

Exhibitor of the Year. Bert's exhibition 

circuit is Belgium's largest, and it's making 

inroads into the Dutch and French 

markets due to the company's unique 

qualifications in building multiplexes. 

Widely regarded as the man who 

launched Europe's multiplex boom in the 

1980s, Bert's companies now operate 1 

multiplexes (including two in France) 

with 100 screens. Bom into a family 

whose heritage was exhibition, Bert followed 

the example of his grandfather, 

Charles Bert, a forerunner in early exhibition. 

The elder Bert established Harelbeke's 

first cinema in 1927, running 

silents at the Hotel de Flandres, while 

Albert's father, Alfred, debuted 

Harelbeke's Theatre Majestic in 1941. 

Starting out as a ticket seller, Albert 

later became involved in the singlescreen 

theatre's renovation into a twinscreen 

cinema, providing Belgium with 

its first multiplex. Joining forces with his 

sister-in-law. Rose Qaeys, Bert built a threescreen 

theatre called Trioscoop in 1972 as a 

sort of test case to see if attendance would 

increase when a greater choice of films was 

provided. Located in Hasselt, a small provincial 

town with only two screens at the time, 

Trioscoop was a perfect place to begin proving 

this theory. The success of Trioscoop quickly 

demonstrated that multi-screen cinemas were 

the way to go in Belgium. Bert later added four 

more screens to the theatre. 

However, as Bert recalls, other exhibitors 

were not quite ready to accept the concept back 

then. "When my family first started multiplexing 

in Belgium, 25 to 30 years ago, attendance 

was down very low. Most of my colleagues 

thought, 'Yes, he's lucky. Each time it's a 

bull.s-eye, but it will not continue.'" 

Pentascoop, a five-screen cinema, followed 

in 1975 in Kortrijk. In 1981, the 12-screen 

Decascoop was built in Ghent. Setting a new 

standard for the whole of Europe, Decascoop's 

dozen halls and stadium seating for 3,500 

made it one of the first modem multiplexes. 

"That was the first very big multiplex," Bert 

SPECIAL REPORT: 

CINEMA 

EXPO 

1997 

recollects. "It had 12 screens, but only one 

projection booth!" 

Having established expertise in multiplexes, 

Bert in 1 987 founded Decatron, owned 

by the Bert family. The Kinepolis Group, a 

partnership between Bert and Claeys, was inaugurated 

the following year with the opening 

in Brussels in 1988 of Kinepolis, then the 

world's largest multiplex. With 

Kinepolis, featuring 24 screens plus an 

IMAX theatre, Bert continued to set the 

trend for European exhibition. 

Since that time, the Kinepolis Group 

has added three additional multiplexes. 

The 24-screen, 8,500-seat Metropolis is 

in Antwerp, and there are two multiplexes 

in France: Kinepolis's 14-screen 

complex at St. Juhen-les-Metz and the 

23-screen Le Chateau du Cinema at 

Lomme (Lille). This September, another 

multiplex will open in Belgium, a 10- 

screen complex in Kortrijk. 

With the Belgian exhibition market 

now reaching its saturation point, Bert 

says plans are to expand into new markets. 

One such venture includes the 

freshly inked partnership between Decatron 

managing director Joost Bert (Bert's 

eldest son) and A.J. Weststrate of 

Holland's Cinema Groep for an eightscreen 

multiplex in Vlissingen (see our 

report in the May 1 997 issue). This partnership 

is expected to yield at least 10 

exhibition outlets in the Netherlands over 

the next few years. 

Given such burgeoning growth, Bert relies 

on sons Joost, Koen, Geert and Peter to help 

with management and planning. (There are also 

1 3 grandchildren to carry on the family tradition.) 

Although he acknowledges his role in 

bringing about European multiplexing, he says 

there are always new challenges in exhibition. 

"1 am always busy. I just received a call from 

my son, Joost, who has been [in France] in 

Nancy to talk with city authorities. Yesterday, he 

was in Reims, about 200 kilometers from here. 

In every city in which we go, we have competition. 

We're in competition with French companies 

that started five or six years ago in 

multiplexing. They don't have the same experience 

as us, but I still have to plead for my project" 

Commenting on his Exhibitor of the Year 

award, Bert comments wryly, "It's better than 

the Lifetime Achievement Award. 1 am only 

69 years old—I'm not done yet!" Saying he's 

inspired by his father and grandfather in 

heaven, Bert continues to greet the new 

challenges with the same perseverance and 

vision that has won him acclaim for nearly 

three decades in exhibition. 

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MULTI-MEDIA MAN 

Fox Intemationial president Jim Gianopulos, a seasoned 

entertainment veteran, is Cinema Expo 's Distributor of the Year 

by Pat Kramer 

becoming president of Twentieth 

Century Fox International, Jim 

Since 

Gianopulos has seen his company's 

boxoffice tallies double each year. Having 

foreign rights to the likes of the Oscarwinning 

"Braveheart" (earning more than 

$140 million overseas), "Independence 

Day" (more than $500 million) and the 

redone "Star Wars" trilogy (expected to 

generate $250 million) didn't hurt, but he 

credits his staff — "a tighdy knit team, dedicated 

to making the most of all our films 

in the international marketplace while 

working closely with our exhibition partners 

to do so"—^for much of the success. 

A 15-year veteran of international di.stribution, 

Gianopulos has a strong background 

in 

emerging entertainment technologies 

(video, pay TV and satellite)—experience 

that has helped him better understand the 

exhibition marketplace, he says. As senior 

vice president of business affairs/international 

for RCA/Columbia Pictures International 

Video from 1 982 to 1 986, Gianopulos 

woriced to establish the company's worldwide 

video operations. He moved to a similar 

slot at Paramount Pictures in 1986, 

building the studio's overseas video and pay 

TV businesses. "Those were great times and 

times of rapid growth and excitement," he 

recalls. "Being a part of it was very gratifying 

and rewarding." During a nine-month stint as 

executive vice president, international at Carokx) 

Pictures, Gianopulos boosted revenues 

handling films like 'Terminalor 2," "Qiffhanger" 

and "Basic lastinct" 

He joined Fox in 1992 as president of international 

and pay TV and took his current post 

in 1994. Gianopulos has spearheaded the development 

of the studio's regional offrces in 

Europe, Latin America and Asia. 

He's also 

responsible for overseeing foreign marketing 

and distribution for all of Fox's theatrical releases 

and overseas acquisitions. 

"It's interesting to find myself in the theatrical 

side of the business," he says, "becau.se I 

spent so much of my career in video, pay TV 

and satellite distribution. But what I learned in 

this pnx;ess is that, ultimately, the beginning 

of the lifepsan of any film—and the most 

innovative point in its existence—is at its initiation, 

its first release in theatres." 


CINEMA 

EXPO 

1997 

Rather than thinking of alternatives like pay 

TV and video as threats, Gianopulos believes 

each medium has its place. "It's not about 

trying to diminish those businesses," he says, 

"It's quite the opposite. Ultimately, a studio 

succeeds because it lives in harmony with the 

various media and distribution windows. It's 

not about trying to pretend TV or video will go 

away. It's about heightening the experience 

and the value perceived and the 

importance of the media we're in." 

Comparing the 1980s trend toward 

home video to that of consumer response 

to color TV and even radio at their inceptions, 

Gianopulos says, "What we 

leam from all these cycles of new media 

is that, ultimately, people's desire to see 

film increases overall. And they reali2e 

that the most exciting and newest place 

to see films is at a theatre on a big screen." 

Gianopulos has a bullish outlook for 

foreign returns. "If you look at East Germany, 

there's been a very severe economic 

recession—and yet attendance is 

up almost 20 percent, largely due to the 

improvements of the cinema infrastructure." 

Similar scenarios are occurring in 

Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic, 

where revenues are hitting records as 

screens are improved, and in Spain and 

Germany, where rapid screen growth has 

led to admissions gains despite recessionary 

conditions. "With Greece, Italy and 

Portugal's cinema expansion," he says, 

"the potential in Europe and the international 

marketplace is tremendous." 

Another plus is the longer playing season. 

"Typically, summer has not been the most 

active cinemagoing season. But then you look 

at a place like Germany, where admissions last 

ye£U" were up 60 percent, in part due to the 

generic campaign we did. In Italy, the expansion 

of the season into May and an earlier 

opening in August and September are leading 

to increased revenues. I think people are finding 

that the better the theatfes, the better the 

experience, the more likely they are to go 

and go more often during the entire year, as 

opposed to ju.st at Christmas in years past." 

Acknowledging his Cinema Expo Distributor 

of the Year award, Gianopulos says, "It's 

an honor to win the award, but it's really an 

award that reflects the enormous success that 

Fox International has had. particularly in the 

past year, and in rebuilding an organization 

over the past couple of years. And, while I get 

to make the speeches, that success belongs to 

a team of almost 500 people spread across the 

world. And Ishared with them their hard work 

and dedication that made it possible." H

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CELSMANSHIP 

Disney Animation president Peter Schneider is honored with 

Cinema Expo's International Creative Achievement Award 

by Pat Kramer 

Peter Schneiderjoined Disney 

Since 

12 years ago, the company has 

achieved phenomenal commercial 

and artistic success with such animated 

fare as "The Lion King," 'Toy Story," 

"Beauty and the Beast," "Aladdin" and 

"The Little Mermaid." Under the generalship 

of Schneider and Disney Co. vice 

chairman Roy Disney, the studio has continued 

its long distinction of being the 

world's animation leader It's deserved, 

then, that Schneider — president of Walt 

Disney Feature Animation and Walt Disney 

Theatrical Productions—is this year's 

recipient of Cinema Expo's International 

Creative Achievement Award. 

Schneider insists that the glory is not all 

his. "This award is not for me, per se," he 

says, "but is symbolic of [the wori;] diat 

both Roy Disney and I have overseen." 

Schneider says he's less excited about his 

name being on the award than by the fact 

diat animation is finally being honored 

globally. "I'm thriUed for the artists being 

recognized by the international community. 

I feel animation is a very collective 

art form in many, many ways. These artists 

are truly spectacular in what they've 

done. I'm proud of all of them." 

Under Schneider's leadership, the animation 

division has grown tenfold in size, produced 

12 features and received 10 Academy 

Awards. Commercially, those animated films 

have generated more than $2.5 billion in 

boxoffice. Disney's first animated feature 

under Schneider, 1986's "The Great Mouse 

Detective," earned $25 million; 1 988's "Oliver 

& Company" did $53 million. Through "The 

Lion King," each successive film beat (he past 

record: 1989's "The Little Mermaid" did $84 

million, 1 991*8 "Beauty and the Beast" $146 

million, 1992's "Aladdin" $217 million and 

1994's "The Lion King" $313 million. 

Those results, Schneider says, comes from 

a collaboration among the wizards of illustration, 

writing, technology and song. "Animation 

is a visual medium first—it's the written 

word and the visual word, in a sort of marriage," 

Schneider says. "But it's the animation 

artist, the animator, who knows how to make 

things move and give the perception of movement. 

[Even] if you have great stories, great 


CINEMA 

EXPO 

1997 

characters, great music and great technology, 

it takes great artists to do that. When you have 

a combination of all these things, I think you 

ultimately make successful movies." 

Schneider comes fiiom a strong theatrical 

backgniund, having spent 

15 years cTeating 

theatrical productions. A graduate of Purdue 

University, where he majored in theatre 

directing, Schneider earned his credentials 

doing plays at New York's The 

WPA, Playwrights Horizon and Circle 

Repertory. From 1976 through 1980, he 

served as managing director for 

Chicago's renowned St. Nicholas Theatre, 

where he produced and managed 

more than 60 dramas and musicals. 

Schneider next moved to London to 

serveasgeneral manager for Apollo Theatre 

Productions. In that capacity, he was 

involved with a number of notable productions 

on the West End. In 1983, he 

headed to Los Angeles to direct the 1984 

Olympic Arts Festival. The following 

year, he was named president of Walt 

Disney Feature Animation; in 19%, he 

took on the additional role of president of 

Walt Disney Theatrical Productions. 

Crediting that background for his success 

at Disney, Schneider cites the similarities 

that exist between live theatre and 

feature animation. "In animation, which 

I feel is more analogous to running a 

theatre company than running a movie 

business, a lot of things I learned in the 

theatre business are being applied," he 

says. "It's very much like running a repertory 

theatre—the actors, the whole thing. And 

we've been very successful at developing new 

material, whether it be 'The Lion King," 

'Beauty and the Beast' or 'The Little Mermaid.' 

And that's using the same skills one has 

to have to be successflil in theatre: the ability 

to develop materials with a collective process." 

Looking back on the changes that have 

taken place in the animation industry over the 

past decade, Schneider says animation has 

again become a legitimate business. "At Disney 

[in the early '80sl, no one cared about 

animation. There were only 150 to 200 artists 

working in animation. Today, there are more 

than 2,200. Clearly, the movies were not grossing 

any money, maybe $10 million or $20 

million. 

Now they're grossing hundreds of 

millioas of dollars." 

One can expect more of the 

same fiwrn 

Schneider in the ftjture. Even as "Hercules" is 

beginning its global release, Disney has eight 

animated features currently in production. 

Walt's grand tradition lives on.

. 

— 

.Tulv. 1997 65 


IMBESSONISM 

Luc Besson, creator of "The Fifth Elemenf'and ''La Femme Nikita, " 

gamers Cinema Expo 's Award of Excellence in Filmmaking 

by Kim Williamson 

I'm 

a fan of French cinema. I like the 

fact that they have 'freedom in their 

heads'—they're very free." 

On a warm spring day, working inside 

the cool confines of James Cameron's 

Digital Domain facility in Venice, CaUf 

38-year-old French filmmaker Luc Besson 

is defending the industry and countrv 

in which he gave birth to "Le Demier 

Combat," "Subway," "The Big Blue" and 

"La Femme Nikita," the 1990 film whose 

global success established his reputation 

beyond Gaul's boundaries. 

Back in fall 1 994, as his first English-language 

and studio production, "The Professional," 

was about to hit theatres, Besson 

seemed to have less fondness for his French 

fellows, busy militating against Hollywood 

moviemaking. "I would love for the French 

to stop talking and woik more. At 4 in the 

morning they're still in bed discussing the 

cinema. They should wake up at 8, take the 

pen, and work," Besson said then. Instead. 

the French "spend their time discussing, 

disagreeing.... And during this time the 

Americans make 200 movies." 

But Besson, whose 'The Fifth Element" 

(like 'The Professional") is a 

French/American/Japanese co-production 

among Gaumont, Columbia and JVC, today 

praises French filmmakers as "artists. They 

take risks. They are visionary also. Since the 

beginning, since Cocteau and all those guys, 

it's always been very visionary." 

As to why local European moviemaking 

seems to be flourishing these days, Besson 

says, "I think because the artist drives the 

movie, not the producer, not the money. When 

the movie is bom in an office, something is 

wrong already. A movie needs to come fix)m 

the heart. It can't be bom between numbers." 

Besson has had confUcts with the industry's 

business folks before— particularly during the 

stateside release of "The Big Blue" via the 

now-defunct Weintraub Entertainment Group, 

which recut the film to disastrous boxoffice 

but he seems very happy with his 

current 

corporate partners. (In fact, on the day he 

speaks with BOXOFFICE, he is filming a commercial 

for JVC's diamond anniversary.) "Everybody 

was happy [with "The Professional"], 

so we do it again," Besson says. "And I have 

Luc Besson (center) on the set of the 

Gaumont production 'The Fifth Element." 


CINEMA 

EXPO 

1997 

a special relationship with Gaumont because 

we try through the years to make everything as 

simple as we can. Which is: 

1 write the script, 

I come, if they like it they say 'yes,' if they 

don't they say 'no.' And if they say 'yes,' it's 

because tfiey have a good reason. 

"And I respect them—I never throw 

money through the window, never With 

the first movie I did, 1 had no money, and 

I know the price of everything. I have no 

pleasure in spending for nothing." 

"The Fifth Element," which at $80 

million is the most expensive French production 

ever, is a fivefold increase over 

Besson's previous budget high. But Besson 

remained calm during production 

("If something costs $10, why pay $15? 

And if something costs $1 million because 

it costs $ 1 million, then let's spend 

S 1 

million"), and he remains calm as the 

film begins its worldwide rollout. "Why 

should I feel pressure? My work is fmished 

when the film is finished. There's 

nothing I can do after that. I can give my 

blood for two years for the movie, but 

\s hen the credits end and the movie is 

finished and it's over, that's it" 

Asked why his films translate so well 

around the globe, Besson says, "Maybe 

because I feel as a human being. I don't 

think as a Froichman, or a Parisian, or a 

South Parisian. [Besson was bom in Paris 

in 1959.] I grew up in Greece and Yugoslavia, 

then I spent time in Paris, then I 

spent time in Tunisia with my father, and 

Rome, then in America, then in London. 

"Art is the only country that is without a flag. 

Take a Picasso painting: No matter if you see 

the painting at the Guggenheim or the Louvre, 

it's a Picasso. It doesn't matter if Picasso was 

Spanish or French—ît's a Picasso. I love this 

world of art, because it's the last safe country, 

where you don't need to be white or black or 

speak any EngUsh or French. All the people 

involved in an artistic process should be more 

aware of that: That we are lucky that we still 

have a country that's really free, with no fix)ntier, 

and we can go fixjm the future to the past. 

We can invent everything." 

Regarding his Cinema Expo award, Besson 

says, "The only thing I understand is, a group 

of people somewhere love my work, and I'm 

happy. So it's great—it just gives me a little 

more pressure to make my movie better, and 

to open my eyes more and open my ears more, 

and be better on the script and things. 

"My only goal if I do another one is, to make


MULTIPLICITY 

As in much of Europe, Irish exhibition is changing 

dramatically. BOXOFHCE talks to some of today's 

movers & shakers, and looks back at a fabled past. 

by Tony Deane 

STOMPIN' AT THE SAVOY: The beautiful Savoy Cinema in Dublin is one of tfie last survivors from the early days of Irish exhibition. 

T\he Internet. What a wonderful vehicle 

for bringing people together Case in 

point: our new Irish correspondent, 

DMiner Tony Deane. Tonyfound us through 

BOXOmCE ONLINE (for those of you 

who 've been dead these last three years, that 's 

http://www.boxoff.com) am/ i/rwcA: up such an 

interesting and in.îghtful electronic correspondence 

that it was inevitable BOXOFFICE 

would make him our man on the Iri.sh .scene. 

We didn 't make it easyfor him— no sir, not 

us. 

Tony's first assignment was nothing less 

than a thumbnail sketch of Irish exhibition's 

entire history. We couldn 't be more delighted 

with the results. 

Here then is an Irishman 's view ofexhibition 

in his own home country. We 're proud to bring 

it to you, and we can promise you thi.s: you 'II 

he hearing more from Tony Deane in the very 

near future.— Ray Greene, Editor-in-Chief, 

BOXOFnCE 

THE HISTORY 

been called the land of saint-s and schol- 

It's 

ars, which is ok if you're living in acountry 

that still holds on to its old ways. The 

Ireland of today is lightyears away from all of 

tho.se old fashioned customs people love to 

hear about. It's the most westerly island in 

Europe, the next stop being the states, and 

while some foreigners often mistake it for part 

ofmainline Britain it's as faraway from Britain 

culturally as it could possibly be. 

The Irish Republic has a population of between 

three and four million, and research 

shows that it has the youngest population in 

Europe, each average member coming 

equipped with his or her own vast amount of 

disposable income. This is spent mostly on 

entertainment of some sort, and the cinema 

comes high among entertainment priorities. 

When Giuseppe Tomatore was writing the 

script for his film "Cinema Paradiso," he, like 

all Europeans of a certain age, he could draw 

on memories of a childhood when the local

Irish Extra: 

With Albert Kelly, Irish 

Exhibition Legend 

President 

of Ireland's 

Independent Cineina Owners Society, 

Albert Kelly is 

came up in what he considers to have been more fiercely 

a soft-spoken, hard-hitting business man who 

competitive Irish times. "When I started there was a cinema on almost 

every block," he says. "Now you can see the same movie in every 

multiplex, while back then, with the same amount of screens and all 

playing different films, I feel competition was stiffer" As one of the 

foremost figures in Irish exhibition, his over five decades plying the 

screen trade make him a sort of pocket history of growth and changes 

within the industry. 

In 1940, Albert, who had started life in the cinema business as a 

projectionist, bought some 16mm soccer coaching films and offered 

to show them to local football clubs. He would show them for a fee, 

and some clubs who loved the 

idea of seeing the top players of 

the S[X)rt giving instruction put 

the word out about him. 

Due to the club by-laws, Albert 

was not allowed to show the 

films to members of the general 

public or to advertise his product, 

but word got out and he 

soon had packed houses. Ironically 

for a future exhibitor, 

"This was not what I wanted," 

says Albert, "and on arriving at 

the town I was amazed to see 

posters stuck up [by the club 

members] on every tree." So 

successful was this operation 

that Albert went to the Nation;il 

Film Institute and hired out additional 

films for golf societies 

and other special occasions. 

Inevitably, Kelly took to 

; 

cial ftinctions, which proved to 

[be very popular. This gave him 

an insight into how to book 

product, which was to be useful 

screening feature films for spe- 

at a later stage in his Life. He went back and worked in several cinemas 

before getting an opportunity to work for a company called Sundrive 

Cinemas Ltd. The proud owners of three suburban cinemas, Sundrive 

had 18 members on its board and a managing director who hated 

managers (he thought them an unnecessary e.xjjense, being an exjTOJectionist 

himself). One day he offered Albert the job of manager 

in one of the cinemas and it took him four weeks to decide ifhe would 

take it or not. "As far as I was concerned," Albert says wryly, "this 

was the nearest position to the door." 

Because Sundrive was closing one of its cinemas and Albert saw 

this as a potential threat to continuing job stability, he took the 

managing job. The Kenilworth was a cinema that held 1 , 1 1 5 patrons. 

Under Albert Kelly's stewardship, Sundrive was able to keep the 

house almost full most of the time. 

One day Albert found Sundrive's managing director dead in the 

chair in his office, hiunediately, his circumstances changed. "This 

was not the ideal way to get a promotion, but while I knew there were 

a lot of directors in the head office, not one of them knew how to 

book a film." 

The years Albert .spent hawking films around the clubs and 

booking feanires and shorts sto

68 BOXOFFICE 

A TRUE "CLASSIC:" Irish exhibitor Albert Kelly (see sidebar) stands before his Dublin moviehouse. 

"flea pit," as Irish moviehouses were called, 

was a way of life. Children of all ages went to 

their local cinemas, which were in abundance 

if you lived in the city, and movies provided a 

central meeting place for those who lived in 

the country. In the '50s, the island had at least 

300 exhibition sites, each with a single screen, 

and only about three prints of any given film 

to divide between them. This caused a lot of 

delay for the less populated areas, as all the 

inventory would play in each of the cities for 

at least three to four weeks, with the country 

houses restricted from playing them until later 

on. By the time they got to the "sticks," the 

prints were in bad shape, but they would stay 

in rural circulation anyway for as much as the 

next three years. 

Back then, there was a "barring order," 

which made sure films were not available to 

country cinemas because the distributors 

"barred" them until titles ran their course in the 

city. This gave city cincmagoers a guaranteed 

prime choice, and cinema owners everywhere 

else high blood pressure. The most popular 

genre was the western, which the Irish people 

went to in droves because they had an affinity 

for the giieat outdoors and the easy pace of 

"frontier" life. The Screen cinema (then called 

the Corinthian) in the heart of Dublin was 

nicknamed "the Ranch," because the staple 

diet on offer each week was the old "B" westems. 

As the capital city, Dublin held at least a 

third of the Irish Republic's population, and it 

was therefore the place where all the major 

exhibition and distribution companies had 

their offices. The largest Dublin moviehouse 

was the Royal, which held almost 4,000 people 

in one auditorium and showed a mixture of 

cinema and stage productions. The more sophisticated 

Metropole showed what would 

now be called "art-house" fare. 

The '(Ah saw a change in the mood of the 

cinemagoing public, with the likes of Doris 

Day and Rock Hudson grabbing the 

attention. As in the states, the Irish 

exhibition industry was rocked by the 

advent of a new technology; 

a tiny 

httle box called "television." 

The opening of the National Television 

Station on New Year's Eve 

1%] was almost the end for most rural 

cinemas, which had made due with 

inferior presentation conditions for 

decades. People liked what they could 

see for nothing, especially since many 

rural theatres had been restricted by 

the "barring" regulations into giving 

second-rate service. Almost 160 sites 

closed in the space of eight years, 

leaving only about 120 houses by 

1%9 to cater to the small trickle of 

available moviegoers. Double features 

became things of the past; the 

audience's attention span had shortened 

due to TV, and a two-hour program 

with trailers was all the public 

could take. 

Things looked bad for the moment. 

But Irish exhibitors, like their American 

cousins, found a way out of the 

abyss: the "twinning" of the Savoy 

theatre marked a monumental occasion 

for Irish exhibition. 

TWINNING 

n the early '70s, Dublin's second 

largest cinema, the Savoy, was 

rXtiturned into a twin. Originally, the 

Savoy held over 2,000 patrons; when 

it was split, it held 800 downstairs and 

1 ,000 upstairs. The first films shown 

on the "twinned" Savoy's screens 

were "Anne of A Thousand Days' and 

"Airport," both of which tumed out to 

be Irish blockbusters. The Savoy also 

held a restaurant (as did most cinemas 

of the day). This was later tumed into 

a 200-seat cinema, much to the horror 

of other exhibitors. 

Brendan McCaul, vice 

president 

and general manager for Buena Vista 

International (U.K.) Ltd., recalls his 

days with Rank Cinemas, which owned the 

Savoy. "At the time we had committed both 

cinemas to two films, 'Eye Of the Needle' and 

'The French Lieutenant's Woman.' We had no 

place foralittle movie called 'Bugsy Malone,' 

so we put it into the 200 seater. It filled the 

cinema ftx)m the afternoon until late evening, 

seven days a week," The trade was startled at 

what had happened at the Savoy, and by 1978 

most of the surviving larger cinemas were 

being split into some sort of extra capacity. 

Gone was the 4,(XX)-seat Royal which, like 

the Regal Rooms, had been sold to make way 

for an office building. Gone too were many of 

Dublin's fine central cinemas: The Capital was 

converted firom an opera house to a shopping 

center; the Metropole also was converted to 

retail space. 

Meanwhile, the 

Savoy kept subdividing, 

eventually growing to house six theatres. 

Across the road, its competition at the Carlton 

grew to five screens, while the Carlton's sister

cinema, the Adelphi around the 

comer, enlarged to six. But the 

city still retained some singlescreen 

cinemas which showed 

art-house and indep)endent movies; 

in total, 24 E)ublin screens 

were available to the public by 

the '80s. 

The advent in the 1980s of 

home video created an unexpected 

problem for Irish exhibitors. 

A flood of pirated U.S. 

videotapes showed up in pubs 

and local hostehies, some located 

almost on the doorstep of the big 

urban houses. So called "arthouse" 

cinemas, which showed 

foreign films with some sort of 

nudity, suffered most because the 

videos showed everything, 

which was against the censorship 

laws applied to the local cinema 

The fact that you could see a 

first-run film in a public bar before 

a cinema got a chance to 

book it caused its own form of 

havoc. 

In the suburbs, things were 

also changing. The local cinema 

was vanishing, replaced by supermarkets 

in most instances. 

Other exhibitors attempted to 

keep up with the public's appetite 

for entertainment by aiming their 

houses into bowling alleys, skating 

rinks and bingo parlors. The 

one plus for those exhibitors who 

stayed the course was that public 

transport improvements and the 

fact that more people had motor 

cars were making it easier to get 

into the city to see the wide range 

of films on offer there. 

UCI AND THE RISE OF 

THE IRISH MULTIPLEX 

successful years after 

Fifteen 

existing cinemas began in 

earnest to split their large 

auditoriums into several screens, 

Ireland's first custom-built, dedicated 

multiplex was erected on 

the south side of Dublin in a place 

called Tallaght by European 

powerhouse UCI, and Ireland entered 

the modem exhibition age. 

Despite intensifying competition, 

the theatre is still one of the 

most important in Ireland. "It has 

had a tremendous effect," says 

Buena Vista's Brendan McCaul. 

"because it has become our number 

one grossing hall. It's also in 

the top three in Europe for UCI 

Cinemas. They were turning over 

one to two million admissions 

per year, and as a mean average 

[for Tallaght] you could multiply 

that by three. Take 40 percent of 

that figure and it gives you an idea 

of the [volume of] craicession 

sales." 

Adisparaging comment circulated 

when the Tallaght cinema 

opened was that because of high 

unemployment in the area people 

had nothing better to do than to 

go to the movies. McCaul scoffs 

at such an idea. "The fact of the 

matter is that more people are 

travelling from surrounding 

country areas to shop in [the surrounding 

shopping] complexes, 

and while there they take in a 

movie. This is good for the shopper 

and for the owners of the sites 

that are adjacent to the cinemas, 

because both benefit." 

UCI next opened a ninescreen 

complex on the north side 

of the city. While this second 

build didn't quite equal 

Tallaght' s success thanks to 

steeper competition, it still captured 

the public's imagination 

with its state-of-the-art facilities. 

Several months ago, UCI opened 

yet another nine-screen complex 

in the southwest part of the city. 

Opened in the off-season, the 

new build has yet to catch on, 

even though it contains a wine 

bar. But Buena Vista's McCaul is 

optimistic fortius new cinema. "I 

believe we have not seen the best 

of it yet," he says. "When the 

summer comes along, the likes of 

'Batman,' 'Con Air,' 'Men In 

Black' and 'Jurassic Park 2' will 

bring people out in their droves 

to the cinema" 

UCI's ambitious building 

spree changed the math dramatically 

for other Dublin exhibitors. 

Cinemas in the city were hard hit; 

in less than two years, they had 

new competition from three 

state-of-the-art multiplexes 

housing 27 new screens. Rumors 

abounded in the trade about the 

impending closure of the Carlton 

and the Adelphi— by this time 

national institutions—which 

shared management as part of 

what was then MGM's European 

circuit. The Carlton/Adelphi 

ownership reported that it had 

been impacted by the new multiplexes, 

but it intended to open a 

muUiplex of its own, which 

would bring people back. 

True to their word, they 

opened a nine-screen complex in 

the heart of the city, which was to 

have been called the MGM Multiplex. 

Right from the start, the 

MGM was dogged by all sorts of 

trouble. Owing to a variety of 

snafus at the corp

' 

Mann 

70 RnvnnnrF 

a 

the complex had changed hands along with all 

the other MGM cinemas in Europe. When it 

finally opened its doors, the MGM Multiplex 

had a new name reflecting its changed status: 

it was now The Virgin Multiplex. 

WARD-ANDERSON AND 

ABBEY FILMS 

The 

new complex was up against the 

very well known and reliable Savoy's 

six cinemas, which include the largest 

screen in the country (four stories high and 

60 feet in width) and the latest in digital 

sound. The Savoy was by now a flagship 

for the Ward-Anderson group, which runs 

it under the company's exhibition arm. 

Abbey Films. With over 100 screens around 

the country, Ward-Anderson represents a 

force to be reckoned with. Its history in 

Ireland offers a unique view of the Irish 

approach to the medium. 

Leo Ward, who was a footballer of note 

in the late '40s, went into distribution with 

a film called "The Hills of Donegal"— 

risky venture that paid off, according to his 

son Paul Ward, director of Abbey Films. 

"No one wanted to know about this movie, 

so my father took it to Cork [the second 

laigest city in Ireland] and it ran for over three 

weeks. Suddenly, everyone wanted it." 

Leo made several visits to London and 

picked up the rights to show a few older films. 

When the popular British "Carry On" comedies 

and the Chinese-made Bruce Lee features 

came out, Leo went into distribution in a big 

way. But the Ward family's exhibition roots 

went even deeper. 

"The first cinema the family got involved in 

was in the mid-'50s in Lucan," Paul Ward 

Paul Ward, Director, Abbey Films, Dublin. 

remembers. "The previous owner wanted to 

leave the country. He had debts of £8,000 

[US$12,000], and my father took over the 

debts and gave him £10,000 [US$15,000]." 

From then on, Lee Ward and his partner 

Kevin Anderson took partial interests in local 

cinemas. They had a good working relationship 

with the local owners, who continued to 

mn the cinemas for the sake of the local 

townfolk. In Cork city, Ward-Anderson took 

over the Pavilion Cinema, which then took 

over the Capital and the Lee. For the first time. 

Ward-Anderson assumed 100 percent of 

each business, and an exhibition empire 

began to spread. "I came into the business in 

the '70s," says Paul Ward, "when we had 

about 20 cinemas and solid 

distribution 

deals. But because there was a glut of films, 

not all of them were good." 

Leo Ward had a cinema outside Dublin 

called the Green. Because it was not in the 

exact city center but about a mile away, it was 

classed as a second-run cinema and could not 

get first-run films. Necessity being the 

mother of invention, Leo again went to London, 

this time buying rights to the first seven 

Bond movies for about £500 [$750] each. 

He ran them from week to week and took 

in 1 times their cost. To put a bit of icing on 

the cake, he then double-featured them and 

made yet another killing. The distributors 

saw the potential of the Green and allowed 

Ward first-run movies. Leo Ward was no 

longer out in the cold. 

The day after Ward-Anderson took over the 

Savoy they reduced admissions for the day to 

£1 [US$ 1 .50], and five thousand people turned 

up at the cinema. 'We realized [from that] that 

there was a pricing problem," says Paul Ward, 

' 

'and reduced the afternoon performances to £2 

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[US$3], which was half the price of the evening 

performance." Again the public came, 

and the other cinemas followed by reducing 

their prices. 

With a £40 million [US$60 million] turnover, 

the Ward-Anderson group employs almost 

1 ,000 people. They are at the moment 

putting multiplexes up in several Irish cities. 

One plan for next year is to have a 1 2-screen 

state-of-the-art cinema in the south of Dublin, 

where there are now some pre-existing 

family dwelhngs. "I expect there to be some 

objections to the plan," says Paul Ward, "but 

this will be our flagship cinema, with as 

much attention as possible to what the public 

wants. We intend to have everything you 

could want in a cinema complex." 

Unlike the mighty UCI operation. Abbey 

Films does not have large amounts of cash 

to invest in cinema complexes, so it finds 

other methods. When the builders of a north 

urban market, according to Paul Ward. "They 

don't buy, they rent. It's possible that they will 

rent the new 18-cinema complex which is 

going up in Quarry Vale, which is not too far 

away from UCI's Blanchardstown cinemas." 

ITie north of Ireland has always been seen 

city shopping center which included a multiplex 

in its design offered the site to Abbey, 

a deal was struck between the two companies, 

which saw the builders getting 50 

percent of the boxoffice after the Abbey 

group equipped the nine-cinema complex—a 

"win-win" for all the parties involved. 

Brendan McCaul, V.P./Gen. Mgr, Buena Vista Int'l (U.I 

In the rural parts of the island, where as a place that has a lot of troubles, but Abbey 

constmction costs are far lower than in the has seven cinemas there too. "The north was a 

cities. Abbey took another route, building its 

own cinemas. 

While UCI remains a formidable competitor, 

"Virgin is the company to watch" in the 

natural progression for us because this is an 

island and the distance is not that far," says 

Ward. "If it had been England, it would have 

not been as easy for us to defend our market." 

Both Paul Ward and Buena Vista's 

McCaul agree that multiplexes have put 

new life into cinemagoing. "People in 

'30s and '40s who have not visited a 

their 

cinema in years are coming back," states Ward, 

"and I'm sure this will also extend to the older 

bracket." 

Last year alone there were over 12 million 

admissions to cinemas on the small Irish 

island. Since the average ticket price runs at 

around £5 [US$8], aknost twice the U.S. 

figure, Irish exhibition is looking up. Several 

factors point toward an even greater upsurge 

and a booming industry, which looks as if it 

is going to continue to grow well into the next 

century. Chief among these is the expanding 

economy in the Irish south, which has made 

Ireland one of the most economically desirable 

of all the European destinations. 

American architects are now planning the 

next generation of Irish cinemas from their 

New York offices. The door into Europe 

begins in this small country, which is why 

there are so many computer companies setting 

up here, and so many Irish who emigrated 

to the European continent and the U.S. 

during leaner economic times returning 

home. 

For the returnees and the general population, 

a changed moviegoing experience is what's 

waiting on the Irish isle. To be able to sit in an 

Irish cinema that is the equal of any other 

theatre in the world is a unique pleasure, all its 

.JA»SkÛSAM 

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"FROM WHERE I SIT... 

Our Forum For Readers Just Like You 

When 

1 

stepped off the airplane in 

Moscow for the first time, I knew the 

trip would be exciting. Like any 

other country, Russia proved to possess some 

things that were familiar and others that were 

very different from what I had expected. 

There's also anticipation in visiting a country 

rich in culture and history that I had read about 

and enjoyed in music, art, films and literature. 

You know that you are in one of the world's 

most important cities. 

hy Norm Schneider 

EAST 

EURO 

BIZ 101 

99 

opening in large numbers. This energy is apparent 

in most of the ex-Soviet countries. But 

the change is causing some problems. 

The economy ofmany Eastern countries has 

been hard hit by the transition, and capital is 

hard to obtain. Cinemas in the large cities are 

mostly historic buildings that are single-house 

theatres that hold from 750 to 1 ,500 patrons. 

Multiplexes are starting to pop up with the aid 

of foreign investors that can finance such ventures 

and bring expertise in the operation of this 

manufactured in the Soviet countries, most of 

the systems were monaural, and installation 

expertise was not generally available. That is 

all changing! 

With the expanded travel firom East to 

West, theatre owners are building state-of-theart 

cinemas with the latest technology in pic- 

Cinemas in the large 

cities are mostly 

historic buildings 

that are single-house 

theatres that hold 

from 750 to 1,500 

patrons. Multiplexes 

are starting to pop 

up with the aid of 

foreign investors. 

ture and sound. Renovation of existing cinemas 

is increasing as private and governmentowned 

cinemas try to attract customers with 

first-classpresentations. 

Some areas of Eastern Europe are more 

progressive in their plans and progress than 

EAST SIDE THEATRE, WEST SIDE SOUND: Moscow's Cinema Khudojestvenny, 

one of Russia's moviehouses to have received Western sound upgrades. 

With the change of government to democratic 

policies, there is a hu.stle and bastic to 

adapt to the new cnvin)nment of free enterprise 

and entrepreneurship in basincss. Construction 

is everywhere, and new businesses arc 

foim of cinemas. Stereo sound systems were 

rare until recently, and they have been sold and 

installed primarily by Western companies 

from Germany, America and others. Because 

very few products for stereo systems were 

others. Countries like Hungary, Poland and 

Slovakia are moving along much faster than 

are Bulgaria, Romania and others in terms of 

the renovation and upgrading of existing sites 

and in the construction of new cinemas. This

is partly due to the stronger support 

of the government in countries 

where culture is considered to be as 

important as industry. 

Progressive governments understand 

that culture is a continuing 

priority, and they do 

not limit their resources to basic 

needs such as highways, schools, 

transportation and services. Some 

governments will participate in the 

cost of renovation in order to privatize 

former govemment-owned 

facilities or to help theatre owners 

update to current technology. The 

amount of support varies from 

country to country. 

Western movies are quite popular 

in the East where home video is 

king. Major film producers are establishing 

new distribution channels 

to expand their market. This 

creates a greater need for stereo 

sound equipment and for local 

movie studios to offer stereo 

soundtracks for the theatres that 

have stereo playback capability. 

Many theatres now have one or 

more of the digital playback systems 

to present their movies in digital 

sound. Adding digital means a 

complete upgrade of the supporting 

components because the few, 

older systems cannot handle the 

dynamics of digital sound. 

The people of the Eastern 

countries are optimistic and excited 

about the future of cinemas 

in their homelands. I have made 

many trips to this region and 

have developed great friendships 

and strong business relationships 

with my new contacts. I was delighted 

to discover the warm, 

hospitable and friendly nature of 

people in the East. It's easy to see 

the problems they face in trying to 

transition to a new way of doing 

business, and it makes one want to 

"pitch in" and help. 

Hi 

Ga.- 

based SMART Devices, Inc., a 

Norm Schneider is the chiefexecutive 

officer of Norcross, 

manufacturer of cinema sound 

products and systems. Schneider 

recently oversaw the installation of 

smart's "Total Support" sound 

system in the Cinema Khudojestvenny, 

the premier (and Premier!) 

moviehouse— six blocks 

from the Kremlin— at which the 

Moscow Film Festival is held. 

A NOTE TO OUR READERS: Our "From Where 

1 Sit" section is designed to provide professionals 

working in the motion picture business and related 

industries a forum for tlie exchange of ideas. Think of 

it 

as a space where you can unveil a new idea or approach, 

or discuss how traditional methods might best 

evolve as moviemaking and moviegoing change. 

Those who would like to contribute essays of up io 

1,000 words for publication in BOXOFFICE should 

write to the magazine at 6640 Sunset Blvd., Suite 100, 

Hollywood CA 90028, or fax us at (213) 465-5049, or 

send via E-mail to boxoffice@earthlink.net. Also, mail 

a black-and-white photograph and a short biography 

when you make your submission. 

As the production and exhibition industries move 

into their second century, and the modem world prepares 

for its 21st, there are plenty of issues facing the 

business. Some have been with us since the dawn of 

the movie theatre: 

For example, how can exhibitors 

attract more patrons more frequently, and how can they 

make moviegoers' stays more exciting—and how can 

they grow profits at the same time? Others are moic 

specific to our era: E.g., As megaplex operators build 

out America, will neighborhood competition increase .' 

Sound, picture, projection!, seating, architecture, zoning, 

concessions, legal and soCial issues, even the movies 

themselves—these and more are all 

Let's hear from you on one.of them! 

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Response No. 72

74 RfiVfifFU-F. 

— 

SPECIAL REPORT: Sound 

Motion 

IF THEY KNEW WHAT 

YOU WERE MISSING: 

Part Two 

WHY TODAY'S MOTION PICTURE SOUND 

SYSTEMS FAIL TO MAKE THE GRADE 

AND WHY THEY CAN'T SOUND BETTER 

picture sound is critically important in setting the emotional atmosphere of a Him. 

Sauna alone is often the determining factor in an audience knowing W a scene is a comedy 

or tragedy. Obviously, Hie better the theatre's sound presentation, the better the film works. 

If sound is, as some insist, fully half the show, how can exhibitors best exploit its potential? 

BOXOFFICE contributing writer John F. Allen continues his important series of articles exploring the 

current state of movie theatre sound and providing some valuable auidance. Part one vâs 

published in the April 1997 issue of BOXOFFICE/ parts three and four will follow later this year. 

Part 

one of this 

series was devoted to a 

detailed analysis of the current state of 

the sound systems in today's movie theatres 

and some of the many complex reasons 

that preclude them from being able to reproduce 

digital soimdtracks. Much of the article 

covered speakers used behind motion picture 

screens and explained why the 

majority of 

these loudspeakers are simply too small. Although 

all the visual action takes place on the 

screen, the sound system is installed throughout 

the theatre. The all-important surround 

speakers are often overlooked as one of the 

most vital components of the experience that 

attending a theatre is suppxjsed to be. In 

this installment, I shall explain why the 

surrounds usually fail to deliver what 

they should, as well as discuss subwooferand 

power amplifier deficiencies that 

audiences are also to likely to endure. 

WHAT IS BAD SOUND? 

Perhaps 1 should once again state 

what 1 believe should qualify as "bad 

sound." Understandable dialogue is cef: 

tainly essential for telling a story, but it 

is hardly enough. Any sound reproduction 

that is unnatural or colored in tone, 

or is lacking in fullness or dynamic range, or 

that is unfaithful to the recording in any way, 

should not be regarded as acceptable. Pre,sentations 

often encountered in which music or 

background sounds are ttxj loud, too dull or 

altogether inaudible should not be regarded as 

acceptable. Phony, distorted and inadequate 

bass is widely prevalent in this industry. (Just 

think of all the subwoofers that have failed.) 

Finally, it must be undersiotxl that the typical 

"honky" dialogue sound so prominent in 

movie theatres for so many years is bad sound. 

Voices simply don't sound that way unless 

someone is speaking through a hose. 

SURROUND SPEAKERS 

It's hard to imagine a mistake one could make 

in designing or installing a surround array or 

sunound speakei^ that is not commonplace in 

today's movie theatres. Many—âll too many 

surround speakers have required replacement, 

sometimes repeatedly, over the years. It would 

almost seem that we are now quite accustomed 

There ought to be no 

debate that a safety 

margin of some amount is 

mandatory. But there is 

debate as to how much the 

safety margin should be. 

to hearing of such failures with virtually every 

opening of a new action picture, particularly 

those with a digital stereo track. 

Surround speakers serve a critical role by 

bringing the audience into the film. Surrounds 

create the atmosphere. In addition, films like 

"Twister" 

and "Independence Day" use the 

surrounds for some enormous sound effects. 

These effects can demand bass levels that exceed 

those pixxluced at the same lime by the 

subwoofers. Yet surround speakers typically 

fail to produce anything beyond some kind of 

noise during the loudest scenes. The rest of the 

time they hardly sound like they're on at all, 

even though they are supposed to be. (How 

often has that complaint been heard?) The 

sound ofthe surrounds should match the sound 

from the screen. 

Of course, the final issue that must be faced 

is that, due to poor placement among other 

things, most surround systems don' t ultimately 

surround anything. Listeners all too often localize 

to, and can even feel attacked by, the 

surround speaker or group of speakers to 

which they're closest. (See "Why Surround 

Systems Don't Usually Work," 

BOXOFFICE, March 1983, p. 68.) 

Returning to the theme that most theatre 

speakers are too small, the vast majority 

of surround systems installed 

today are also lacking in size and performance. 

For theatres equipped for either 

Dolby SR or digital, 1 would advise that 

surround speakers with anything smaller 

than a 12-inch woofer should not be 

considered. Beyond that, surround presentations 

cannot improve until far more 

attention is paid to speaker placement 

The goal should be that no locali?.ation 

to individual speakers or wall of speakers 

should occur finom any seat in the house. 

Due to their height restrictions, theatres with 

stadium seating and balconies require a far 

greater level of skill and understanding of 

coverage geometries than is generally available 

to this industry at this time. The usual 

practice of locating surround speakers in theatres 

by habit and mere guessing needs to go the 

way of the hand-cranked projector. The bottom

Tiilv. 1997 75 

OR 

equaUzations cannot be ignored. So, 

when designing a sound system, one 

must factor in the typical amount of 

equalization anticipated by the speakers 

employed and increase the ampUfier 

power accordingly. 

SO HOW LOUD DO 

MOVIES GET? 

TOTAL LOW FREQUENCY 

RADIATING AREA = 16 SQ FT 

MAXIMUM OUTPUT AT 50 FT / 16.5 M = 121 

line is this: If you're in a theatre where you can 

"feel surrounded" only in the center seats, the 

surround system in that theatre, by definition, 

fails to surround everyone not seated in the center. 

This is, of course, virtually the entire audience for 

every show, every day, week after week. 

Surround speakers of sufficient size, output 

and quality, properly placed for zero localization, 

can and do significantly—almost magically—enhance 

the motion picture experience 

for all films, large and small. 

SUBWOOFERS 

As noted earUer, the number of subwoofer 

failures this industry has experienced is very 

high indeed. Frankly, there is no excuse for 

this. If a sound system is properly designed and 

equipped, its loudspeakers should never fail. I 

repeat, never. As with both the screen and 

surround speakers, most theatres are presently 

outfitted with terribly inadequate subwoofer 

systems—how inadequate depends on the theatre. 

We do know that subwoofers are required 

to deliver peak levels of at least 1 1 5 dB sound 

pressure level (SPL) in the center of a theatre. 

To do this in, say, a 100-foot-long theatre, the 

subwoofer system must be able to deliver 139 

dB SPL at 1 meter, according to the inverse 

square law and actual measurements done in a 

theatre. Adding a 6 dB safety maiîn is a good 

design practice. This protects the drivers from 

damaging overloads and also allows for realworld 

signal conditions that wiU actually push 

the subwoofer higher than the theoretical peak 

levels. This brings the total output requirement 

at one meter to 145 dB SPL in a theatre 1(X) 

feet long. Subwoofer ampUfiers must also be 

equipped with cUpping protection or limiting 

for those occasions when even this isn't 

enough. BeUeve me, it does happen. 

Because typical subwoofers quit at around 

124 dB, theatres need more than one or two to 

do the job. In fact, a 500-seat, 100-foot-long 

theatre requires 10 standard subwoofers or two 

high-efficiency subwoofers. Either approach 

will provide the power output required. The 

radiating area of 10 standard subwoofers is 16 

square feet vs. more than 20 for the two highefficiency 

units, but they are at least closer. 

Figure 1 

TOTAL LOW FREQUENCY 

RADIATING AREA = 20.5 SQ 

dB SPL 

(See Figure 1, above.) If one is using direct 

radiator subwoofers, systems with 18-inch 

drivers would make a better choice. Most theatres 

are equipped with only one or two standard 

subwoofers if they have them at all, so the 

shortfall in subwoofer power in these theatres 

is truly severe. (See "Digital Subwoofers," 

BOXOinCE, June 1995, p. 48.) 

If a sound system is properly designed and 

equipped, its loudspeakers should never fail. I 

repeat again: Never! 

AMPLIFIERS 

Another of the more important factors contributing 

to the lack of performance in motion 

picture theatre sound systems is the pwwer 

ampUfiers. As with most of the installed loudspeakers, 

the amplifiers often found driving 

them are too small for their task. Determining 

the power required for any channel in any 

sound system is a very straightforward exercise. 

Using the speaker's one watt, one meter 

sensitivity, the maximum peak SPL of the 

program material involved and the distance at 

which that level must be deUvered, we can 

quickly calculate the power in watts required. 

We then add 6 dB, or multiply the watts by 

four; this adds a safety margin so that the 

ampUfiers never run out of power and cUp. 

This is critically important in assuring a long 

Ufe for the speakers as well as, obviously, 

keeping the sound clean. 

There ought to be no debate that a safety 

margin of some amount is mandatory. But 

there is debate as to how much that safety 

margin should be. Some have said it can be as 

Uttle as 3 dB, which is twice the power demanded 

by the peak levels. In the real world, 

however, this is not enough, for at least two 

good reasons. The first is that, due to its complex 

nature, real program material can frequently 

use more power than theoretical 

calculations indicate. Second, and just as important, 

is that we are dealing with equalized 

sound systems. If the equaUzation requires the 

bass control to be turned upjust 3 dB, as is often 

the case, that 3 dB immediately doubles the 

amplifier power required. Some common surround 

speakers need a 6 dB bass boost. These 

Peak levels for digital motion picture 

soundtracks are 105 dB SPL for each 

screen channel, 102 dB SPL for each 

surround channel and, as stated earUer, 

II 5 dB SPL for the subwoofer channel. 

Adding 6 dB brings the design critaia 

up to 111 dB SPL, 108 dB SPL and 121 

dB SPLrespectively, as measured in the 

center of the theatre. Sound systems 

built to these specifications will not clip 

and can be considered reUable. 

Unfortunately, these common-sense practices 

are seldom foUowed. As an example, one 

500-seat theatre I visited advertised its sound 

as "state-of-the-art." In some sense, I suppose, 

you could say it was, as it just poured out 

distortion with films Uke "Twister" and "Independence 

Day." Doing the math, I calculated 

that the cUpping levels for this sound system 

were 102 dB SPL for the screen channels, 99 

dB SPL for the surround channels and 103 dB 

SPL for the subwoofer. At a minimum, this 

meant that the screen and surround channels 

were 50 percent too smaU. The subwoofer 

channel was a whopping 94 percent too smaU. 

If one were to include a 6 dB safety margin, 

these shortfalls become four times worse. 

Clearly, it is an appalling situation for this 

industry when such a system can be sold as a 

quaUty digital-ready package. One reason this 

continues to happen has been a reluctance on 

the part of some to own up to the real power 

demands of digital stereo—even though anyone 

with a calculator could figure it out for 

themselves. On separate occasions, two manufacturers 

have stated to me their feeUng that 

if they told the truth "no one would buy" their 

processors. I strongly disagree. The industry is 

far better served by the most honest and forthcoming 

advice. Without it, everyone on both 

sides of the boxoffice loses out. 

The 

following text is offered as a readyto-use 

amplifier power specification for 

exhibitors and odiers responsible for instaUing 

motion picture sound systems. And, 

pubhshed for the first time anywhere. Tables 

1, 2 and 3 provide a quick reference for the 

minimum amplifier fX)wer requirements for 

cinema sound systems. 

AMPLIFIER POWER 

SPECIFICATION 

The power ampUfier requirements in [name 

of theatre circuit] 's sound systems shall be 

calculated solely using the inverse square law. 

Tests have shown that, in the center of the 

theatre, the peak sound pressure level (SPL) 

for a single screen channel is 105 dB SPL, 102

RECOMMENDED STAGE SPEAKER 

POWER REQUIREMENTS 

(6 dB HEADROOM, SPEAKERS AND 

AMPLIFIERS SAFE) 

RECOMMENDED SURROUND 

CHANNEL POWER REQUIREMENTS 



120W 

200W 320W saow 

108 

loe 

SPEAKER'S t02 

SENSITIVITY 

SPL 1 W/1M 

100

NUMBER OF UNITS 

UTUALLY COUPLED 

MINIMUM SUBWOOFER 

POWER REQUIREMENTS 



9 32W 44W BOW 120W 180W 320W SOOW 720W 

/ 

SOW TOW 125W 200W 2aOW SOOW 800W 1.1KW 

OOW 140W 250W 400W SOOW lOOOW 1 .SKW 2.3KW - 

200W 280W SOOW BOOW 1120W 2000W 3.2KW4.SKW 

SPEAKER'S 

SENSITIVITY 102 

SPL @ 1 W/1M

International Indie Showcase 

OUT OF THIS WORLD 

Berlin Movie Fans See Films Via 'Satellite' 

at tlie Sputnik by Melissa Monison 

THEATRE TO THE REUNIFIED : The entrance to Berlin, Germany's Sputnik Theatre which is neighbor to the infamous, and now defunct, Berlin Wall. 

the early '60s, the Sputnik Theatre's own- 

faced a unique and traumatic marketing 

Iners 

problem: Somebody built a huge wall 

through the cinema's Berlin, Germany neighborhood, 

and half of the Sputnik's patroas were 

threatened with death if they tried to cross it. 

Needless to say, admissions suffered. 

Eight years ago, however, revolution lore 

the Berlin Wall down, and Sputnik's owners, 

Filme-X, faced another challenge: how to run 

a profitable cinema for two distinct communities—one 

rich, the other poor; one worldly, the 

other starving for Western entertainment. 

The resulting sU'ategy, implemented by 

Filmc-X's young managers, seems one more 

of ad hoc tinkering than textbook formula. 

When Filme-X took over Sputnik in 1984, 

it programmed art films. When that didn't fly, 

the program changed more successfully to 

mainstream movies, with special programs 

highlighting, for example, children's films 

and German films. 

The new approach seems to be working. 

The Sputnik has broken even for the last 

three years, says Martin Protze-Zwick, a 

deputy director at Filme-X. And despite the 

fact that it's not exactly raking in the 

Deutsche marks yet, the company is in no 

hurry to unload the theatre, which is a beloved 

fixture of the neighborhood and of 

architectural aficionados. 

Built in 1954 in the north Berlin region of 

Wedding, the 3(X)-seat cinema was first named 

the Clou and outfitted with early Cinemascope 

technology, as well as one of the first wide 

screens. It had a simple and elegant design that 

writers praise as a perfect example of '50s 

architecture, including kidney-shaped motifs 

and a quilted diamond pattem on the auditorium 

walls. When the pharmaceutical company 

Schering paid for a DM 500,000 

(US$335,000) renovation in the early '90s (as 

an act of charity to preserve a valuable landmark), 

it didn't change a facet of what a government 

official, in a 1992 article in the 

newspaper Der Tagesspeigel, called "one of 

the last preserved creations of a cinema culture 

which has already been forgotten." 

Before the Wall was built, 

the Clou was 

popular with East Germans, who could pay 

East German marks to see Western films. The

theatre was considered one of the "capitalist 

propaganda weapons at that time," according 

to the 1992 Der Tagesspeigel article. 

After the Berlin Wall was constructed 

about a mile away, the theatre went into a 

tailspin. It changed its identity several times, 

including stints as a pom house and a Turkish 

cinema, and it had a succession of owners. 

"We know of about 11," says 

Protze-Zwick. "We're the longest owners in 

30 years." Somewhere along the way, the 

theatre's name was changed to Sputnik. 

flaring white eaves over its glass- 

entrance, the Sputnik 

Withwall somehow 

evokes the flying nun. Inside, the 

pale-yellow lobby is spacious, with rounded 

comers instead of hard edges. Sinuous brasscolored 

railings lead the few steps up to the 

auditorium's two entrances. 

On a winter weekday evening, the lobby is 

dead. "This is normal," shrugs an overall-clad 

projectionist before returning to her booth 

fiom the snack bar, where she's been chatting 

with the concession attendant. 

Like classic movie houses everywhere, 

the Sputnik has had to adjust to changes in 

the neighborhood. Today, the area is tidy and 

quiet and home to many Turkish families. 

Across the street from the Sputnik is a wedding-dress 

shop that features in its window 

an elaborate pink creation with a Muslimstyle 

headdress. 

"It's very difficult, because it's in a quarter 

of Berlin that doesn't have a lot of businesses 

around the cinema," says Cordula 

Bester, a distributor liaison. "People live 

there but don't shop there. They go to the 

Ku'damm." The Ku'damm is named for 

Kurfurstendamm street, the area's major artery 

through what is the center of former West 

Berlin. In Berlin, the Ku'damm is cinema 

central, and is where East BerUners first went 

when the Wall came down to see all the gUtzy 

capitalist propaganda denied them under 

communism. 

Bester says the public's initial enthusiasm 

for the Ku'damm has waned a bit since then, 

but they haven't necessarily transferred 

their moviegoing to the more convenientlylocated 

Sputnik. "It takes time for people to 

[discover the Sputnik] again," she says. 

"The young people don't know to go there." 

Reunification isn't complete in other aspects 

as well. Ticket prices are still lower in the 

former East BerUn, around 9 marks (US$6), 

while in former West BerUn they're 10 to 12 

marks, and 1 5 to 1 6 marks at Zoo Palast. (The 

Sputnik charges 10 marks.) 

theatre is grappling with other forces 

Thebesides reunification. The Wall fell 

about the same time the multiplex arrived 

in Europe. "You can't tell the effects 

apart," says Protre-Zwick. 

Filme-X is soon to join the multiplex wave. 

The company, which currently operates seven 

cinemas—five in Berlin, one in the East 

Berlin suburb of Potsdam, and one in Hamburg—is 

working with a partner to convert 

an East Berlin two-screen cinema called 

the Coliseum to a 10-screen that's scheduled 

to open in October. 

E)espite the company's plans, both Protze- 

Zwick and Bester betray some suspicion of the 

multiplex phenomenon. Twenty-five multiplexes 

are planned for Berlin by UCI, Warner, 

German companies and other industry leaders, 

Protze-Zwick says. 

"If all those are realized," he says, "many 

will go broke because you can imagine if there 

are about 50,000 seats in Berlin, every BerUner 

has to go 10 times a year to the cinema. Currendy, 

it's three times a year." 

"It's crazy," Bester says. 

FUme-X sees a future for single-screen cinemas 

like Sputnik. A recent German government 

study found that for older cinemas to 

survive the advent of the multiplex, they have 

to be kept technologically up-to-date and carve 

out audience niches with specied programs. 

That pretty much sums up what Filme-X is 

doing. 

"We have to think about the program and 

perhaps schedule special events to draw the 

people, such as music," Protze-Zwick says. 

"We tried, but we have to do it more." 

The Sputnik's made it this far, and plans 

to get through the next few years while the 

two parts of Berlin complete the process of 

fusing into one and the local cinema industry 

adjusts. The Sputnik survived the Cold 

War and the Berlin Wall. Filme-X is confident 

it can survive the invasion of the 

multiplex as well. 

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Response No. 1 62 

.lulv. 1997 79

80 (R-94) BoxomcE 

— 

— 

I Love 

. 

FESTIVAL REVIEWS 

GOOD AS GOLD 

BOXOFFICE covers the Cannes 

festival's 50th anniversary 

(CANNES)—Although it didn 't take the Palme d'Or (which was shared by 

Abbas Kiarostami's "The Taste of Cherries" and Shohei Imamura's "The 

Eel, " reviewed below), Atom Egoyan 's "The Sweet Hereafter" emergedfrom 

Cannes bearing the most prizes. 

The Canadian production garnered the 

Grand Prix, the Ecumenical Jury Prize and the Fipresci critics nods. Although 

Johnny Depp's directing debut, "The Brave," fared poorly with 

audiences, actor-tumed-fdmmaker Gary Oldman saw his "Nil By Mouth " 

bring Kathy Burke a best actress win. Other key prizes: Sean Penn, best actor 

for Nick Cassavetes' "She's So Lovely"; Wong Kar-wai, best director for 

"Happy Together"; James Schamus, best screenplay for "The Ice Storm, " 

reviewed on P. 81 ; filmmaker Manuel Poirier, the Jury Prizefor "Western"; 

and cinematographe r Thierry Arbogast, the Technical Prize for "She's So 

Lovely" and "The Fifth Element, " reviewed on P. 91. 

SUNDAY iîîrir 

Starring David Sachet, Lisa Harrow and 

Jared Harris. Directed by Jonathan Nossiter. 

Written by James Lasdun and Jonathan 

Nossiter. Produced by Jonathan 

Nossiterand Alix Madigan. A CFPrelease. 

Drama. Unrated. Running time: 92 min. 

Sunday is a day of rest, generally the least 

eventful day of the week. But filmmaker Jonathan 

Nossiter has constructed a Sunday of a 

very different stripe, one on which people 

collide in intriguing and unexpected ways. 

Sundays hold little significance for 

Olive (David Suchet); a former IBM employee 

left homeless by a layoff, he finds 

It just another day to kill until returning to 

the shelter where he sleeps. But when he 

crosses paths with Madeleine (Lisa Harrow), 

a high-strung actress who is no 

longer young, she mistakes him for a famous 

cfirector. Attracted to her and flattered, 

Oliver plays along; he becomes 

"Matthew Delacorta" and spends the day 

with her. Together, these two slightly offkilter 

people develop a fantasy—or is it a 

folie a deux?— in which both can hope for 

career and personal redemption. But 

Madeleine's estranged husband (Larry 

Pine) and the other men who share Oliver's 

shelter present forces of reality that 

threaten to sour this fragile accord. 

One of "Sunday's" strengths is that the 

audience can never tell whether Madeleine 

and Oliver are doing something healthy or 

dangerous together; one is constantly unsure 

of what will happen next. Powerfully 

honest and risky performances from 

Suchet and Harrow propel the film, which 

provides as bleak a view of the streets and 

row houses of Queens as may be imagined. 

Writer/director Nossiter, in his debut feature 

film (he previously helmed the wellreceived 

documentary "Resident Aliens"), 

shows a deft touch with suspense, character 

and milieu. "Sunday" is a film filled with 

small pleasures: a lovely scene in a Greek 

Orthodox church; an exchange of stories 

between the leads in which truth takes on 

the power of fiction. Ultimately, this 

thought-provoking work adds up to a 

unique and memorable experience, one 

well worthy of the two awards it took at 

Sundance. Cathy Thompson-Georges 

THE EEL (UNAGI) ••1/2 

Starring Koji Yakusho and Misa Shimizu. 

Directed by Shohei Iniamura. Written by 

Motofumi Tomikawa, Daisuke Tengan arid 

Shohei Imamura. Produced by Hisa lino. 

No stateside distributor set Drama. Japanese-language; 

subtitled. Running time: 117 

min. Shared the Palme d'Or. 

The eel is the beloved pet of Takuro (Koji 

Yakusho), who's been paroled after spending 

eight years in prison for stabbing his 

unfaithful wife and her lover to death. Outside, 

he saves a young woman (Misa Shimizu) 

who has attempted suicide; she is 

hired to work at his shop and they predictably 

fall in love. Both of their pasts threaten 

to destroy the relationship. 

Yakusho gives a good performance in the 

lead role, but the screenplay doesn't go beneath 

the surface of the cnaracters. Writer/director 

Shohei Imamura more deservedly won 

the Palme d'Or in 1983 for "The Ballad of 

Narayama." Here, however, he tries unsuccessfully 

to mix different styles. Fantasy 

scenes (oddly remini.scent of'Trainspotting") 

in which Takuro imagines him.self swimming 

with his pet are an imaginative contrast to 

his daily routine. But scenes in which a 

neighbor makes elaborate plans to greet an 

alien spaceship and a climatic slapstick fight 

with police rum the serious mix)d set by the 

main love story. Ed Scheid 

if-kiririf 

OUTSTANDING 

**•• VERY GOOD 

••• GOOD 

•* FAIR 

• POOR 

(no stars) BOMB 

FEST REVIEWS 

Accidental Legend R-97 

Another Mother R-96 

The Blackout R-95 

The Butterfly Lifts the Cat R-97 

The Delta R-98 

Dog Run R-98 

The Eel R-94 

Fire R-98 

Floating Life R-98 

Goodbye R-97 

The Ice Storm R-95 

You. ..Don't Touch Me .... R-96 

Long Day's Journey Into Night . . 

R-98 

Private Confessions R-95 

Sunday R-94 

The Truce R-95 

Wedding Bell Blues R-96 

Welcome to Sarajevo R-96 

The Well R-95 

The Wonderful Years That Sucked R-96 

REVIEWS 

Addicted to Love R-103 

Alive and Kicking R-102 

Amazon Warrior R-1 10 

Austin Powers: Int'l Man of Mystery R-1 07 

Boys Life 2 R-109 

Breakdovifn R-106 

Buddy R-103 

Fare Games R-1 10 

Fathers' Day R-106 

The Fifth Element R-105 

Grind R-104 

La Promesse R-104 

The Lost World: Jurassic Park . . . R-103 

Night Falls on Manhattan R-102 

The Real Thing R-1 10 

Riding the Ralls R-109 

Romyand Michele's 

High School Reunion R-1 08 

Rudyard Kipling's The Second 

Jungle Book: Mowgli & Baloo .... R-104 

'Til There Was You R-102 

Unforgotten R-109 

Warriors of Virtue R-108 

FLASHBACK: 1959 

A Night to Remember R-108 

SPECIAL FORMATS 

Ace Ventura R-101 

Disney's StoryBook: Toy Story . 

. . R-99 

Forrest J. Ackerman's Museum of 

Science Ftetran. Horror and Fantasy R-99 

Four Million Houseguests R-106 

Mexico R-106 

Muppet Treasure Island R-1 00 

Sci Fi Movie Machine R-101 

Space Jam R-100 

The Ultimate James Bond R-100

— 

— 

— 

— 

July, 1997 (R-95) 81 


THE ICE STORM ^^1/2 

Starring Kevin Kline, Sigourney 

Weaver, Joan Allen, Christina Ricci and 

Elijah Wood. Directed by Ang Lee. Written 

and produced by James Schamus. A Fox 

Searchlight release. Drama. Rated R for 

sexuality and drug use, including scenes 

involving children, and for language. 

Running time: 112 min. Won the best 

screenplay prize at Cannes. 

A cold, somewhat distant yet oddly intrifjing 

film fk)m director Ang Lee, "The Ice 

torm" is aptly named. Based on Rick 

Moody ' s satiricaJ novel and set on Thanksgiving 

weekend of 1973, the film portrays two 

suburban American families who, despite 

smiley-faced exteriors, are emotionally frigid. 

Living comfortably in New England, Ben 

Hood (Kevin Kline) and his wife Elena 

(Joan Allen) are raising two teenagers. They 

are good friends with their neighbors Janey 

and Jim Carver (Sigourney Weaver and 

Jamey Sheridan)—although, unbeknownst 

to Elena, Ben is sleeping with Janey. Meanwhile, 

hormones rage through the Carver 

and Hood children alike: Wendy Hood 

(Christina Ricci), buzzing at the prospect of 

sexual discovery, has set out to seduce both 

Mikey Carver (Elijah Wood) and his younger 

brother, while Paul Hood (Tobey Maguire) 

lusts after a prep school co-ed. Their 

lies and indiscretions are all revealed one 

freezing night on which their region is hit by 

the worst ice storm in 30 years. 

"The Ice Storm" has several redeeming 

features: the performances are uniformly 

solid, the production design and costumes 

impressively authentic, and the direction 

aptly understated. Ang Lee, who turned his 

lens on Taiwanese family matters in the 

comedy "The Wedding Banquet" and British 

domestic ways in "Sense and Sensibility," 

shows an astute eye for American 

family politics. Rather than self-consciously 

announcing its evocation of the 

'70s, the details of the era come through 

piecemeal: in conversation (couple-swapping 

is trendy), on TV (Nixon insists that he 

IS not a crook), in their furniture (the Carvers 

have a waterbed). The cinematography 

- by Frederick Elmes ("Blue Velvet") is appropriately 

crisp and clean, lit in a way that 

effectively conveys glacial familial relations. 

Unfortunately, however, the film has 

the same effect on the viewer. Rather than 

being moved or transfixed, one feels frozen 

and impartial, almost as disengaged as the 

characters themselves. Lael Loewenstein 

THE BLACKOUT 1/2 

Starring Matthew Modine, Dennis Hopper, 

Claudia Schiffer and Beatrice Dalle. 

Directed by Abel Ferrara. Written by 

Maria Hanson, Christ Zois and Abel 

Ferrara. Produced by Edward R. Pressman 

and Clayton Townsend. No stateside 

distributor set. Drama. Notyet rated. Running 

time: 97 min. 

For "The Blackout," Abel Ferrara has 

moved from the dark New York streets of 

"King of New York" and "Bad Lieutenant" 

to the bright colors of Miami. Judging from 

the disappointing results of the film, the trip 

was not a success. Matty (Matthew Modine) 

is a famous movie star addicted to 

drugs and alcohol. Modine is not believable 

as an addict; he has too amiable a screen 

persona to be convincing as someone deep 

in the depths of drug and alcohol dependency. 

Beatrice Dalle ("Betty Blue") and 

supermodel Claudia Schiffer (in her feature 

debut) are adequate as the one-dimensional 

women in Matty's life. 

Dennis Hopper plays a sleazy filmmaker 

who has videotaped many of Matty's activities. 

Matty's decadent lifestyle is too much, 

even for his uninhibited girlfriend Annie 

(Dalle). Matty is so devastated by a revelation 

from Annie that he uses even more 

drugs and blacks out. Eighteen months later, 

Matty is amazingly clean and sober and 

living in New York with Susan (Schiffer), 

who doesn't get high or drink. But Matty 

begins to have nightmares that he might 

have committed a murder; he returns to 

Miami to learn whether he is indeed a killer. 

In previous films, Ferrara used his 

characters' dissipation to explore their 

emotional torment and provided strong 

roles for many actors, including Harvey 

Keitel, Christopher Walken and Chris 

Penn. In his latest, the characters and situations 

are superficially developed. The dialogue 

is insipid and at times is almost 

drowned out by throbbing music. 'The 

Blackout" has uncharacteristically slack 

pacing for a Ferrara work, and the film is 

further spoiled by pretentious ranting by 

Hopper's character. Many scenes are so 

melodramafic and overdone that the film 

becomes unintentionally funny, especially 

in the ludicrous ending borrowed from a 

Hollywood classic. Ed Scheid 

PRIVATE CONFESSIONS 

(ENSKILDA SAMTAL) ^^^^1/2 

Starring Pernilla August, Max von 

Sydow and Samuel Froler. Directed by Liv 

Ullmann. Written by Ingmar Bergman. 

Produced by Ingrid Dahlberg. No stateside 

distributor set. Drama. Swedish-language; 

English subtitles. Not yet rated. 

Running time: 135 min. 

Liv Ullmann, who acted in nine films of 

Ingmar Bergman, is now the director of 

Bergman's script for "Private Confessions." 

(Ullmann has cut the film from a longer 

version that appeared on Swedish TV.) "Private 

Confessions" continues Bergman's exploration 

of his parents' troubled marriage 

that began in "The Best Intentions," which 

won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1992. 

The film begins in 1925. Anna (Pernilla 

August) feels stifled in her marriage to 

Henrik (Samuel Froler), a minister. (Both 

August and Froler played the characters in 

"The Best Intentions.") Now, Anna has a 

younger lover (Tomas Hanzon). The film is 

structured on conversations about the relationships 

Anna has with her confirmation 

priest (Bergman regular Max von Sydow), 

her husband, her lover and a female friend. 

The last conversation is a flashback between 

the 18-year-old Anna and the priest. 

The perceptive script continues 

Bergman's probing into the complexities 

and frequent deceptions involved in relationships. 

A scene in which Anna confesses 

the affair to her husband is particularly 

strong: A calm conversation gradually explodes 

into anger and violence. Ullmann's 

direction (this is her third turn behind the 

camera) is superb. As in her films with 

Bergman, the lens explores what Ullmann 

calls the "geography of faces" to subtly 

reveal a character. The impeccable images 

are from Sven Nykvist, Bergman's longtime 

cinematographer. 

August's performance is extraordinary, 

showing the wide range of Anna's passionate 

feelings; her work surpasses even her tum in 

"The Best Intentions," which won her the Best 

Actress prize at Cannes. Von Sydow gives his 

character a warm compassion—his final reunion 

with Anna as he is dying is particularly 

affecting—and Froler is impressive as the 

volatile husband. Ed Scheul 

THE TRUCE (LA TREGUA) ^^1/2 

Turturro and Rade 

Starring John 

Serbedzija. Directed by Francesco Rosi. 

Written by Francesco Rosi, Stefano Rulli 

and Sandro Petraglia. Produced by Leo 

Pescarolo and Guido De Laurentis. No 

stateside distributor set. Drama. Shown in 

English- and Italian-language versions. 


"The Truce" is an adaptation of the memoirs 

of Primo Levi, an Italian chemist who 

was imprisoned in Auschwitz. The film follows 

Levi ("Quiz Show's" John Turturro) 

through the chaotic times after Auschwitz 

is liberated in 1945. Levi lives in a Soviet 

resettlement camp and follows a labyrinthine 

journey through Eastern Europe to 

return to his home in Italy. He begins to 

reconnect to his emofions, which he had 

kept dormant during his time in Auschwitz. 

With his gaunt appearance, Turturro is convincing 

as a concentration camp inmate. He 

expertly conveys both Levi's pain and the 

strength to survive as a witness to the suffering. 

A weakness of the screenplay keeps Levi 

a passive observer reacting to other characters, 

including a Greek prisoner played with 

vitality by Rade Serbedzija ('The Saint"). The 

most successful scenes are large-scale, like 

the opening in which the gates of Auschwitz 

are pulled down, or when the euphoric former 

prisoners begin their train ride home. But 

'The Truce" contains too many characters 

and scenes that are familiar from other films 

set in the same period. Ed Scheid 

THE WELL iririrM2 

Starring Pamela Rabe and Miranda 

Otto. Directed by Satnantha Lang. Written 

by Laura Jones. Produced by Sandra Levy. 

No stateside distributor set. Suspense/ 

drama. Not yet rated. Run time: 101 min. 

Based on a novel by Elizabeth Jolley, 

"The Well" is a notable feature debut for 

Australian director Samantha Lang. The 

film shows the chilling consequences when 

a car driven by a young woman ("Love and 

Other Catastrophes'" Miranda Otto) runs 

over a man on a deserted road. 

Hester ("Paradise Road's" Pamela 

Rabe), a middle-aged woman, has hired the

Kl rR.4fi) Rnvrifinfir 

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much younger Catherine (Otto) to help with 

the work on her isolated farm. A surprisingly 

close friendship develops. After the 

car accident, Hester hides the body in an 

unused well; they later discover that money 

they had hidden is missing and believe that 

the dead man was the thief. One of them 

must go down the well to retrieve their cash. 

Jones has shot striking scenes set in a staik 

Down Under landscape that is an effective 

reflection of Hester's repression. Rabe and 

Otto are a potent combination as the possessive 

Hester and the uninhibited Cathenne, and 

the film becomes an absorbing story ofdependence 

and manipulation that takes some very 

clever and unexpected turns. Ed Scheid 

WELCOME TO SARAJEVO ^^^1/2 

Starring Stephen Dillane, Woody 

Harrelson and Marisa Tomei Directed by 

Michael Winterbottom. Written by Frank 

Cottrell Boyce. Produced by Graham 

Broadbent and Damian Jones. A Miramax 

release. Documentary/drama. Not yet 

rated. English- and Bosnian-language; 

English subtitles. Running time: 100 min. 

One of the most acclaimed films at 

Cannes, "Welcome to Sarajevo" is a complex, 

deeply moving story of Ufe in Sarajevo 

during the Bosnian war. As told from the 

perspective of several English-speaking 

journalists stationed in Sarajevo, and with 

the help of actual news footage, the war is 

portrayed in its unrelenting and inexplicable 

violence. Yet the film never feels like a 

documentary; as directed by Michael 

Winterbottom ("Jude"), it's an extraordinarily 

affecting, personal, at times uplifting tale. 

The choice to have the story unfold through 

the British and American journalists' eyes is 

especially effective; they serve as the 

audience's surrogates and interpreters. Not 

only do they help to render understandable 

much of the Bosnian political situation, they 

also draw us into the tale. A motley crew 

comprised of seasoned news correspondent 

Michael Henderson (stage actor Stephen Dillane), 

hard-working producer Jane Carson 

("Shallow Grave's' Kerry Fox), novice reporter 

Annie McGee ("The River Runs 

Through It's" Emily Lloyd) and jaded, cynical 

correspondent Flynn (\yoody Harrelson), 

the firess corps strive to maintain their objectivity. 

When Henderson begins to broadcast 

daily from a local orphanage, however, it soon 

becomes clear that objectivity is impossible. 

And when a young American aici worker 

("The Perez Family's" Marisa Tomei) arrives 

to help some of the children escape, Henderson 

decides to smuggle out a girl to whom he 

has become attached. 

"Welcome to Sarajevo" is a flawed but 

potent film. At times iLs emotional pull (desperation 

etched on the orphans' faces) is so 

strong it threatens to overwhelm you, vet 

Winterbottom maintains a careful balance between 

sentiment and fact. And there's a powerful 

lesson here. The news footage of the 

wounded Sarajevans is bmtally shocking, but 

perhaps no more sh(x;king than the fcwtage of 

actual politicians and diplomats, showing the 

blind eye turned on Bosnia by a world too 

basy to help.— Lael Loewenstein 

DAYS OF EUROPEAN 

FILM FESTIVAL 

THE WONDERFUL YEARS 

THAT SUCKED ^^1/2 

Starring Libuse Safrankova and Ondrej 

Vetchy. Directed by Petr Nikolaev. Written 

by Jan Novak. Produced by Jiri Jezek. A 

Space Films production; no stateside distributor 

set. Comedy. Czech-language; 

English subtitles. Not yet rated. Running 

time: 109 min. 

This film ("Bajecna Leta Pod Psa") is 

based on a popular Czech novel by writer 

Michal Viewegh, and something was lost in 

the translation from book to screen. It's 

about a family trying to keep it together 

despite the indignities and absurdities of life 

in communist Czechoslovakia. The movie 

covers three decades, which perhaps accounts 

for its choppiness: Events occur 

whose impacts aren t felt in the next scene; 

characters disappear abruptly; chunks of 

time elapse at hyperspeed. 

The major pleasure is its quirky family 

members. Dad (Ondrej Vetchy), a happy-golucky 

economist, eventually cracks under the 

strain of being "poUtically visible." His modest 

wife ("Kolya's" Libuse Safrankova) 

schedules herself to give birth on a day she 

knows no male doctors are on duty. And son 

Kvido (played as a child by Jan Zahalka, as a 

teen by Jakub Wehrenberg) uses his preternatural 

vocabulary to comment perceptively on 

his parents' struggles, even as he's befuddled 

by his own life's events. 

Melissa Morrison 

ANOTHER MOTHER •• 

Starring Janis Reinis and Arys Adamsons. 

Directed by Paula van der Oest. 

Written by Paula van der Oest and Stan 

Lapinski. Produced by Rene Scholten. A 

Studio Nieuwe Gronden production; no 

stateside distributor set. Drama. Dutchand 

Latvian-language; English subtitles. 

Not yet rated. Running time: 96 min. 

The symbolism isn't exactly subtle in 

"Another Mother" ("De Nieuwe Moeder"), 

which contrasts life in Western and Eastern 

Europe. Such crudeness can be forgiven as 

long as characters remain flesh and blood, 

which they do here until the last fifth of the 

movie. But the ending is groan-inducing 

mush—which is a shame, because the film 

is a Kleenex-clutcher till that point. 

Fed up with post-Communist Latvia's scarcities, 

a father. Juris, takes off with his mute 

young son, Elvis. The two travel to Holland 

Juris being fueled by decades-old correspondence 

with a Dutch penpal, Marie, who has 

told of a country of opportunity. As the pair 

draw closer, voiceovers of her letters describe 

her life's trajectory. Along the way. Juris and 

Elvis encounter Western Values, as embodied 

by a .sociali.st hippie, neofa.scists and, finally, 

Marie's materialistic family. It's in Juris' 

encounter with Marie's Lolita-esque 

daughter—those dam sexually rapacious 

15-year-olds!—in the inevitable seduction" 

of the East by the West that 

flees the movie. Melissa Morrison 

reality 

SEATTLE/WOMEN IN 

CINEMA FESTIVAL 

WEDDING BELL BLUES ••• 

Starring Illeana Douglas, Paulina 

Porizkova and Julie Warner. Directed by 

Dana Lustig. Written by Annete Goliti- 

Gutierrez. Produced by Ram Bergman, 

Dana Lustig, Carole Curb Nemoy and 

Mike Curb. A Legacy release. Romantic 

comedy. Rated R for sex-related content. 


"I didn't know turning 30 was terminal," 

declares single, commitment-phobic Jasmine 

("Grace of My Heart's" Illeana Douglas), 

thus summarizing the impetus for 

"Wedding Bell Blues." This first flick from 

director Dana Lustig is an above-average 

romantic comedy laden with well-delivered 

yuks that also has something smart to say 

about aging, relationships and the pressure 

on women to marry young. Fed up with 

men. Jasmine and her two roommates 

Micki ("Doc Hollywood's" Julie Warner) 

and Tanya (supermodel/actress Paulina 

Porizkova, currently in "Female Perversions")—embark 

on a road trip to Las 

Vegas. Their mission: to find husbands, 

marry, and quickly divorce. Their fast-approaching 

thirtieth birthdays will be easier 

to stomach, they reckon, as glamorous divorcees 

than old maids. 

"Wedding Bell Blues" owes much to a 

ingenious script by Annete Goliti- 

Gutierrez. She builds the story not only 

upon the protagonists' relationships with 

their male counterparts but also upon their 

relationships with each another. The benefit 

is a fool-proof framework from which to 

pull genuine laughs and character development. 

Lustig' s direction remains focused on 

resolving the women's issues, and her film 

generates an engaging momentum; the distaff 

demo is likely to chuckle knowingly 

about such common topics as bridesmaid 

dresses, pregnancy tests, and men. 

Also to Lustig' s credit, even such seenit-before 

moments as cruising the Vegas 

Strip seem fresh rather than cliched, and she 

extracts suf)erb performances from the entire 

cast. Leading the pack is Douglas, 

who's never been saucier, with Warner and 

Porizkova not far behind. Each actress slips 

with ease into a character she clearly under- 

.stands. Rounding out the ensemble is a fine 

supporting cast. 

Ian Hodder 

I LOVE YOU... DON'T 

TOUCH ME •••1/2 

Starring Maria Schaffel, Mitchell 

Whitfield and Meredith Scott Lynn. Directedand 

written by Julie Davis. Produced 

by Julie Davis and Jennifer Cliaiken. A 

Goldwyn release. Romantic comedy. Not 

yet rated. Running lime: 87 min. 

Surprise reigned at a festival screening 

when Julie Davis revealed that she made "1 

Love You, Don't Touch Me" for less than 

$200,000. Davis, a 28-year-old director/editor/screenwriter/producer, 

is a Hollywood 

hyphenate who handles each of her

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subtitles. 

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FEST REVIEWS 

cinematic duties with the utmost 

competence and economy. 

This most auspicious 

cinematic debut is about the 

sexual awakening of Katie 

(Maria Schaffel). a mid-twenties 

virgin with a defeatist 

attitude toward romance. Beside 

Katie stand her unrequited 

"best friend." Ben (Mitchell 

Whitfield), and Ubidinous crony 

Janet (Meredith Scott Lynn). 

What unfolds is a fresh perspective 

on contemporary relationships 

that is bursting with 

stellar performances, smart dialogue 

and well-crafted chuckles. 

Davis draws laughs not only 

from words but also with clever, 

low-tech special effects—for 

example, the lone bed at an unexpected 

sleepover jumps from 

the screen. Davis maintains a 

brisk pace even as she packs her 

film with perfect measures of 

emotional heft and light-hearted 

giggles. Constructed with an appealing 

slickness, "I Love 

You. ..Don't Touch Me" is a 

laugh-out-loud romantic com- 

leaves one breathless 

edy that 

with anticipation for Julie Davis 

films to come. 

Ian Hodder 

ACCIDENTAL L£GEND^1/2 

Starring Niu Cheng-tse and 

Chang Shih. Directed and 

written by Wang Shau-di. Produced 

by Hsu Li-kong and 

Huang Li-ming. No stateside 

distributor set. Drama. Taiwanese-language; 

English 

subtitles. Not yet rated. Running 


A Taiwanese film based on 

an episode of Chinese history, 

"Accidental Legend" is a difficult 

film for unilingual American 

moviegoers. Even the most 

Anglophone will be 

half, viewers are eager to 

what's going on—apparently, 

two sticky-fingered 

lads from a paupers' village 

anger the local nobility, who are 

obsessed with apprehending the 

region's fabled trickster—but, 

as "Accidental Legend" enters 

its second hour, this once-engaging 

fairy tale begins to bore. 

The key problems are directorial 

restraint and pacing. Director/writer 

Wang Shau-di 

jams the plot into the first and 

final 15 minutes, which means 

the movie's remainder works 

like undisciplined filler. In 

translation, the acting and dialogue 

seem crude replicas of 

what are probably satisfactory 

performances. But "Accidental 

Legend" is not without merit 

including snatches of fine cinematography 

and a smattering of 

intriguing dramatic snippets 

but one suspects that "Accidental 

Legend" is too long in any 

language. Ian Hodder 

THE BUTTERFLY LIFTS 

THE CAT •••1/2 

Starring Arjan Kindermanns, 

Marjolein Beumer and Rik 

Launspach. Directed by Willeke 

Van Ammelrooy. Written by 

Corel Donck, Sander Vos and 

Willeke Van Ammelrooy. Produced 

by Stichting De Vlinder. 

No stateside distributor set. 

Drama. Notyet rated. Running 


Dutch actress Willeke Van 

Ammelrooy, best known in 

America as the titular heroine of 

the Oscar-winning "Antonia's 

Line," steps behind the camera 

for "The Butterfly Lifts the Cat." 

Crammed with complexities, it's 

a tough assignment for a firsttime 

director, but Van Ammelrooy 

meets the challenge. 

That's fitting, because this film is 

about overcoming life's unpredictable 

obstacles. It concerns, 

specifically, thirtyish David 

(Arjan Kindermanns) and his relationships 

with ex-girlfriend 

Linda (Marjolein Beumer) and 

brother Anton (Rik Launspach). 

David and Linda reunite 10 

years after a sudden break-up, 

and both have a surprise for 

each other: David is stricken 

with multiple sclerosis; Linda 

has an adolescent son, who 

wants to meet his father. Mercifully, 

Van Ammelrooy avoids 

milking audience emotions, 

trusting instead her skillful cast 

and script to unfold the drama 

in a wholly realistic manner. 

Were it not for its often wonderful 

cinematography, "The Butterfly 

Lifts the Cat" could pass 

as a gripping documentary 

about a rough period in the life 

of three friends. Every scene 

rings true. Ian Hodder 

GOODBYE ir-kir 

Starring Johanna Ter Steege 

and Guy Van Sonde. Directed 

by Heddy Honigmann. Written 

by Helena Van DerMeulen and 

Heddy Honigmann. Produced 

by Suzanne Van Voorst. No 

stateside distributor set. Drama. 

Not rated. Run time: 113 min. 

The opening sequence of 

"Goodbye"— in which Jan 

(Guy Van Sande) encounters, 

follows home, and makes love 

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to Laura ("Wyatt Earp's" Johanna Ter 

Steege)—is so original and exuberant that 

the whole film warrants recommendation 

for its beginning alone. After Jan and Laura 

consummate their unspoken courtship, they 

introduce themselves, and Jan reveals, "I'm 

married." What follows is the mother of all 

on-again/off-again relationships, as the forbidden 

lovers grapple with a passion that 

neither of them understands. 

Director and co-writer Heddy Honigmann 

reveals a wonderful intuition for complementing 

her characters' emotions with camera 

motion—variously caressing, running and 

staring. And it's unimaginable that 

Honigmann could have picked more controlled 

yet emotive leads than Van Sande and 

Ter Steege. "Goodbye" would have benefited 

from one less breakup and reunification, regardless 

of how true-to-life this drawn-out 

pattern is. It's a rare film, however, that can 

reaUstically portray all-consuming passion 

without descending into absurdity or going 

straight over the top. Ian Hodder 

(TORONTO 

FILM FESTIVAL 

•••1/2 

FIRE 

Starring Shabana Azmi, Nandita Das 

and RanjitChowdhry. Directedand written 

by Deepa Mehta. Produced by Bobby Bedi 

and Deepa Mehta. A Zeitgeist release. 


Deepa Mehta rebounds from her last misfire, 

the little-seen Jessica Tandy/Bridget 

Fonda starrer "Camilla," with a much better 

take on a friendship between two women. 

Set in contemporary Bombay, "Fire" is a 

probing and sensitive look at the continuing 

clash between traditional and modem Indian 

values, typified by the strong relationship 

between Radha (Shabana Azmi), an 

unhappily married older woman, and Sita 

(Nandita Das), a young and vibrant addition 

to the household who stirs her in ways she 

has not experienced before. 

Unlike Mira Nair's "Kama Sutra," "Fire" 

is imbued with real passion and conviction. 

Though shot in English, it never feels stilted; 

Mehta' s direction and plotting are pleasingly 

subtle. She even throws in some effective 

comic bits featuring Ranjit Chowdhry as a 

perf)etually homy boarder. The other men in 

the film, such as Sita's faithless husband 

Jatin (Jaaved Jaaferi), are given their due, 

too. In its quiet way, "Fire' pacLs an emotional 

wallop. Shlomo Schwartzberg 

THE DELTA • 

Starring Shane Gray and Thang Chan. 

Directed and written hy Ira Sachs. Produced 

by Margot Bridger. A Charlie Guidanceproduction; 

no stateside distributor set. Drama. 

Not yet rated. Running time: HO min. 

Set in the new Soutn, this pedestrian and 

amateurish drama lcx)ks at the gay life of 

two individuals in the Mississippi Delta. 

One, a white suburban teen (Shane Gray) 

who has a girlfriend, is given to sneaking 

off to pick up male hustlers. A Vietnamese 

84 (K-98) KoxoKFKK 

man (Thang Chan) with whom he gets involved 

at the film's beginning falls in love 

with him, and the two undertake an odd, 

uncertain relationship that ends in tragedy. 

The American South remains an underused 

subject of stateside film, and its gay 

aspects have remained almost completely 

untouched. But "The Delta" is such a flat, 

slow and uninflected movie that it undermines 

any provocative observations it 

would like to make. Shot in 16mm, with 

nonpros as actors (writer/director Ira Sachs 

met his leads in a pool hall), "The Delta" 

leaves no impression at all, so its interest to 

audiences, whether straight or gay, is likely 

to be negligible. Shlomo Schwartzberg 

DOG RUN ••1/2 

Starring Brian Marc, Craig DuPlessis 

and Lisa Ristorucci. Directed by D. Ze 'ev 

Gilad. Written by Brian Marc andD. Ze 'ev 

Gilad. Produced by Jeffrey Feldman, 

Brian Marc and D. Ze 'ev Gilad. No stateside 

distributor set Drama. Not yet rated. 


Stuck working in New Orleans for a dmg 

dealer, teenagers Eddie (Brian Marc) and 

Miles (Craig DuPlessis) leap at the chance 

when their boss orders them to transport 

some heroin to Manhattan. Once there, 

they're left stranded with no place to go. 

"Dog Run" is an authentic-looking movie, 

a warts-and-all depiction ofthe squatters, drug 

addicts and homeless kids fending for themselves 

on the streets of New York. But director/co-scripter 

D. Ze'ev Gilad is on shakier 

ground when he tries to dramatize the situation. 

As Eddie and Miles become involved 

with two women, drug addict Tara (Lisa 

Ristorucci) and college student Rachel (EUzabeth 

Horsburgh), the film becomes less realistic 

and more contrived. The relationship 

between Miles and Rachel is especially unbelievable, 

a fake "West Side Story" for the '90s. 

A first-time helmer. Gilad demonstrates a 

talent for atmosphere, but he'll need a better 

screenplay next time around if he expects his 

film to score. Shlomo Schwartzberg 

FLOATING LIFE ••• 

Starring Annette Shun Wah, Annie Yip 

and Anthony Wong. Directed by Clara 

Law. Written by Eddie L.C. Fon^ and 

Clara Law. Produced by Bridget Ikin. No 

stateside distributor set. Drama. Chineselanguage; 

English subtitles. Not yet rated. 


An aptly titled, uneven yet emotionally 

affecting work that deals with areas of the 

immigrant experience seldom explored in 

contemporary films, "Floating Life" was 

shot mostly in Australia (where director 

Clara Law and her husband/co-writer, 

Eddie Fong, now reside). The film chronicles 

a Chinese family from Hong Kong that 

has scattered to the winds on the eve of 

reunification with mainland China. 

Eldest daughter Yen settles in Germany 

with her husband and daughter; youngest 

sibling Bing obtains a huge house Down 

Under with her husband, and there the rest 

of the family—including a crop of teenagers—turns 

up (however uncomfortably) to 

live; oldest son Gar Ming stays in Hong 

Kong at the old family home awaiting his 

own immigration papers. Law shifts her 

story from house to house to explore the 

dislocations, tensions and longing for a 

sense of home. Placed in a suburb that's 

stuck in endless space with all that harsh 

light, the levels of that displacement are 

obvious, and it's both funny and sad, especially 

when contrasted with Gar Ming's 

loneliness in Hong Kong's teeming crowds 

and Yen in Germany's darker shadows. 

What most makes "Floating Life" refreshing 

is the way it tackles the subject of 

emigration. Rather than making the family into 

victims of racist rejection at die hands of the 

Aussies, the fihn—as did Paul Mazursky's 

"Moscow on the Hudson"—looks deeper into 

a more complex type of homesickness 

brought on by leaving one's cultural roots 

behind. Law's work occasionally lapses into 

melodrama (as in Bing's battles with her family), 

but it reaches incongruently comic 

heights also (as when Pa confronts a kangaroo 

on his street). Kevin Courrier 

LONG DAY'S JOURNEY 

INTO NIGHT ••• 

Starring William Hutt, Martha Henry, 

Peter Donaldson and Tom McCamus. Directed 

by David Wellington. Written by Eugene 

O'Neill Produced by Daniel Iron and 

Niv Fichman. No stateside distributor set 

Drama. Notyet rated Running time: 173 min. 

Probably the greatest of all American 

plays, Eugene O'Neill's autobiographical 

Irish-American saga "Long Day's Journey 

Into Night" has been made into a handsome 

and faitnilil work by Canadian helmer David 

Wellington ("A Man in Uniform"). Based 

on the 1994 Stratford Theatre Festival production, 

Wellington has shot this "Long 

Day's Joumey" in autumnal colors and in 

Panavision; meanwhile, a lonely, spacious 

family home itself becomes a character. 

William Hutt, as miserly patriarch James 

Tyrone, gives a sturdy and powerful performance 

as a man who cloaks his despair in a 

haze of alcohol and blarney. As Mary, the 

morphine addict who opens the spiritual 

wounds that lay the family bare, Martha 

Henry is better here than she was in the 

stage version (though she still exhibits the 

kind of technical brilliance that reminds 

audiences they're watching a f)erformance). 

Tom McCamus, as younger brother Edmund, 

a struggling writer who is ill with 

consumption, conveys his brooding and 

melancholic humor with true lyricism. But 

Peter Donaldson (as older brother Jamie, a 

man who has failed to live up to his 

father's—and his own—expectations) in 

the final act, when he confronts Edmund 

with his darkest secret, plays so inebriated 

that it slurs the potency of O'NeiU's prose. 

This take might not have the sweeping 

power of the onUf other theatrical film version, 

the great 1962 interpretation directed 

by Sidney Lumet and starring the amazing 

ensemble of Katharine Hepburn, Ralph 

Richardson, Jason Robaras and Dean 

Stockwell. But it still stands on its own as a 

fine adaptation. Kevin Courrier

" 

— 

July, 1997 (R-99) 85 

SPECIAL FORMAT REVIEWS 

CINEMA OF CD 

by Ann Kwinn 

Now that the marriage between Hollywood and Silicon Valley is no longerfront-page news and the couple are not 

quite newlyweds, some behavior patterns have emerged in the relationship. In the case ofCD-ROMs based on movies, 

studios have become much more cautious, not viewing as many titles as appropriate for the conversion. Some 

interactive departments have come and gone. 

The way the interactive medium is being used— the approaches, models and paradigm — is narrowing. There are 

fewer cinematic or narrative titles, such as "Johnny Mnemonic. " There are fewer adult edutainment titles like the 

"Braveheart" CD-ROM, which gave information about medieval Scotland and background information about the 

film. Instead, the studios have largely pointed their efforts toward creating true games. And most studios have given 

game-making back to the professionals: top performers such as Activision, 7th Level andAcclaim Entertainment. This 

trend is so strong that some titles, such as "Space Jam, " are createdfor proprietary game hardware such as the Sony 

PlayStation or the Sega Saturn as well as for CD-ROM use. 

Still, movie-based CD-ROMs haven't vanished. Following are reviews of some recent titlesfrom the genre. 

DISNEY'S ANIMATED STQRYDOOK: 

TOY STORY ••••1/2 

Disney Interactive and Pixar Animation 

Studios; Windows and Macintosh; $35-$40. 

Wow. Pixar Animation Studios (whose 

CEO and main stockholder is Apple Computer 

co-founder Steve Jobs) introduced 3- 

D animation to animation festgoers with 

"Luxo," a short subject about the relationship 

between a high-intensity desk lamp 

and a rubber ball. Pixar later created the 

hilarious "Tin Toy," in which 

toys cower in the shadow of a 

drooling, bumbling baby who 

doesn't really mean to toss 

them around and in the end 

wants to play only with the 

packaging. And the first completely 

computer-generated 

feature film, Pixar' s "Toy 

Story," delivered stunning images, 

humor and excitement. 

That means the bar has been 

raised for children's CD- 

ROM titles. Yet Pixar amazes 

the eyes again with a wonderfully 

choreographed dance of 

light on the CRT with its Disney 

Animated StoryBook version 

of 'Toy Story." On an 

average multimedia computer, 

this title seamlessly animates 

3-D characters on 

many areas of the screen. 

Designed for children ages 

three through nine, "Toy 

Story" is the fourth in Disney 

Interactive' s 

Animated StoryBook series 

and features the talents of Annie Potts, Jim 

Vamey, Wallace Shawn and Don Rickles, 

who voice the same characters they played 

in the movie—the toys of a six-year-old boy 

named Andy. But the CD-ROM also features 

new animation and content, especially 

in the form of activities. 

The Broderbund Living Books format 

has been improved upon with integrated 

puzzles throughout the (toy) storybook. For 

example, youngsters can click on Buzz 

Lightyear's buttons to see what they do. 

Selecting Buzz at various points makes the 

spaceman catch Dance Fever or lift into the 

Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies. 

Scenes from the movie are reworked 

into activities. For example, in the 

movie's final scene. Buzz and Woody 

chase the moving van that is transporting 

CD SENTINELS: Woody and Buzz stand ready 

to entertain again, this time via Disney/Pixar's 

"Animated StoryBook: Toy Story. 

Andy's family to a new home. Here, in an 

effort to bring the two on board, all the toys 

have to help. If you choose the wobbly little 

Fisher Price people to help, they say, "Get 

real. We have no arms." This product is very 

well done—although a title about toys can 

give you the sneaking suspicion that you are 

being marketed to! 

FORREST J. ACKERMAN'S 

MUSEUM OF SCIENCE FICTION, 

HORROR AND FANTASY ^^^1/2 

Marlin Software; Windows and Macintosh; 

$42.95. 

For starters, Forrest Ackerman's apparent 

unconcern for what others think of him 

and his simultaneous desire to be known 

and liked make him an interesting character. 

Add to that his having edited 190 issues 

of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine 

plus other fanzines, won six Hugo awards 

and two Gold Satums, acted in 52 sci-fi, 

horror and fantasy films, and been a literary 

agent for more than 200 writers, including 

Ray Bradbury—and you have an icon. 

Ackerman is known to such movie 

megafigures as Steven Spielberg, John Landis, 

George Lucas, Joe Dante and Stephen 

King, some of whom have put him in bit 

parts in their movies. A fan of wordplay, he 

coined the expression "sci-fi," and he can 

be seen on the sci-fi convention circuit, 

gracious to new fans and old, no matter how 

freakish, showing them his mummy ring 

a prop from an old B&W horror flick. 

Ackerman has one of the world's largest 

collections of sci-fi movie memorabilia, 

certainly risen in value since the days when 

Forry hung with Vincent Price and Bela 

Lugosi. Housed in his home, the Ackermansion, 

are 300,000 items, including 100,000 

photos, 50,000 books, and original artwork 

by sci-fi artists. He's guided 25,000 fans on 

tours through this private showroom. 

The collection is the basis for this CD- 

ROM program. It includes interviews, 

video clips, artwork, rare photos, seven fulllength 

novels, and props and miscellany 

from seven decades of collecting. The four- 

CD set is grouped by three areas—science 

fiction, fantasy, and horror—and presents 

the material in a virtual museum something 

like the original. A whole room is devoted 

to Ackerman's fave flick, "Metropolis."

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This CD and its subject seem well 

matched to a target audience; among the 

ranks of high-level computer users are 

many sci-fi fans. The media richness of the 

CD format and its common "searching 

through space" metaphor are much like 

searching a museum. Because the museum 

in question is a media one, cataloging the 

fields of comic books, novels, film, etc., 

multimedia is the perfect vehicle. 

This product features 3-D animation and 

Apple's QuickTime VR (virtual reality) 

technology, but the real beauty the Marlin 

Software developers have added to the artifacts 

are 2-D collages surrounding them. 

THE ULTIMATE JAMES BOND: AN 

INTERACTIVE DOSSIER ^V^^1/2 

MGM Interactive; Windows; $39.95 

(includes "GoldenEye" videocassette). 

This product is simple, slick, well-organized 

and informative. A sort of interactive 

version of a Bond encyclopedia, like Steven 

Jay Rubin's "The Complete James Bond 

Movie Encyclopedia," it uses video footage 

from the movies and hyperlinks users to 

textual information from basic categories in 

the main menu, such as Missions, Women, 

Allies, Villians, Q-Branch, Vehicles, and 

HMSS Trivia Challenge. There is some 

minimal animation for panache. Imposed 

limitations set a focused tone and purpose 

to this title: Access the data quickly and 

tastefully— just as James would like it. 

The interface is a fantasy image of what 

one might conjure if asked to think of "spy 

software," and it leads to information about 

the characters more than the films' actors or 

creators. It is the proverbial "must have" for 

Bond fans. There is new footage of Desmond 

Llewelyn, the actor who played Q in 

almost all of the Bond movies. The actor 

speaks directly to the user to explain how to 

use the software. The Q-Branch section 

gives the specs of such items as an exploding 

gas keychain, exploding milk bottles, 

and a KGB panic watch (and those are all 

from one movie, "The Living Daylights"). 

The material was compiled by two Bond 

experts who went into the United Artists 

vaults to find more than 200 behind-thescenes 

production stills and more than a 

thousand photographs. (The cover photos 

prove that, without a doubt, all the Bonds 

after Sean Connery had clefts in their chins.) 

SPACE JAM iririr 

Acclaim I'.ntertainment; Windows (also 

Sony PlayStation, Sega Saturn); $39.99. 

Creating another basketball CD-ROM 

title was a good play for Acclaim Entertainment. 

Its NBA "Jam" series is the best-selling 

sports video game franchise of all time. 

The Warner Bros, film, "Space Jam," 

stars basketball superstar Michael Jordan, 

who can Hy through the air like a huge 

predatory bird, ana just about any of the 

Looney Tunes characters one can think of: 

Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Elmer 

Fudd, the Tasmanian Devil, Marvin the 

Martian, Foghorn Leghorn, Wiley Coyote 

and the Roadrunner, Michigan J. Frog, Sylvester 

and Tweety, and Yosemite Sam. The 

Chicken Hawk wasn't on the court, but he 

might have been in the stands. It's a virtual 

curtain call for the entire collection of characters 

and feels like a stroll through a 

Warner Bros, store. The movie also introduces 

a new character, Lola Bunny, who is 

sexy and athletic and doesn't like to be 

called "Doll." This means, of course, that 

Bugs doesn't have to dress up in drag to 

advance the plot. Yet all this didn't make 

the movie the "license to print money" 

some thought the expensive film would be. 

The CD-ROM version consists of a basketball 

game interspersed with side games 

and puzzles at the quarters, with names like: 

Space Race, Locker Room Challenge and 

the Trophy Room, which hearken back to 

the movie. On the court, you can run, pass, 

shoot, jump or switch in a three-on-three 

against either the Looney Tunes characters 

(The Tune Squad) or the Monstars, evil alien 

creatures (from the movie) who have stolen 

the talent of professional players. In individual 

play, the basketball ball pretty much 

always goes into the basket. One just presses 

the arrow key to move down the court, and 

then the alt key to shoot. Alternatively, one 

can use game peripherals such as a joypad, 

which is a joystick with buttons at the base, 

or a Gravis Grip, a pad with buttons. Like 

basketball itself, it' s for youngsters or adults. 

Before the basketball game starts, the 

players come onto the court with characteristic 

flourishes. For example. Daffy pulls 

out a sign from behind his back that reads, 

"I'm available for endorsements." As in the 

movie, it's hilarious to see Elmer Fudd, in 

shorts and headband, flying toward the 

baseboard with a look of murder on his face. 

A lumpy witch and a bespectacled granny 

serve an cheerleaders, leaping high with 

huge smiles on their faces. The audio is 

perfect: The sound effects and voiceover 

announcer are as real as in a real game. 

At installation, a user has the option of 

installing 4, 55 or 147 MB of data onto the 

hard drive. The game runs fine with only a 

minimum installation. Many bosses will be 

"overwhelmed" to know that the CD also 

offers PC-networked play for up to six players. 

On those nights when the staff seems to 

be really motivated to work late, they may 

just be playing "Space Jam." 

MUPPET TREASURE ISLAND •• 

Activision; \MihIiihs, Macintosh; $39.95. 

This title stars the muppet (a cross between 

a marionette and a puppet) species 

made popular on "Sesame Street," a TV 

show big kids pretended not to be watching 

when their younger siblings had it on. Like 

Colm Meaney, who moved from one "Star 

Trek" series to another, Kermit the Frog was 

the only muppet to make the leap to "The 

Muppet Show," which aired on prime time 

with star (human) guests and a less educational 

mission. "Muppet Treasure Island" 

the movie, like the other muppet films, is 

based on the "Muppet Show" characters. 

The "Muppet Treasure Island" CD-ROM 

is an example of great material in search of 

a treasure: an appropriate interactive model,


The Buyers Guide 

w inch is never quite found. The developers 

were probably striving to create a title that 

would appeal to young kids and adolescents, 

like the movie did. One failing is that 

the game doesn't make much sense to people 

who did not see the movie, which explains, 

for example, that if a pirate receives 

a paper with a "black spot" on it he will be 

killed in the night. 

Users are dropped into the — Benbow Inn, 

where they hear a cry "the black 

spot!"—without being told at the outset 

the goal one is to accomplish. This makes 

it hard for young children to figure out the 

program. One good feature is the constant 

presence of Stevenson the Parrot, who 

will give some help when clicked on. The 

muppets race around attractive, off-kilter 

backgrounds with multiple perspectives, 

like a Grandma Moses painting. The title 

is technically advanced, so much so that 

some computers may have trouble displaying 

all the images and synching up 

the sound and picture. 

Thankfully, the movie's silly humor is 

here. Click on a portrait of a motherly 

type, and one hears: "Billy, did you remember 

to say 'thank you' after stealing 

the treasure map?" Some actions move 

the story along, while others are diversions. 

The format is more involved than 

an electronic book but is more frustrating. 

For example, a hint in the jewel-case 

booklet reads: "In order to get aboard the 

ship, you need to acquire the Seal of Passage 

from Squire Trelawney, son of the 

Bnstol's master shipbuilder. Before the 

butler will let you in to see the Squire, you 

must be dressed in a 'Monsieur Edouard' 

original. In order to buy a Monsieur 

Edouard original, you need to earn some 

money. And the only way you can earn 

some money is by helping Pops shoot pies 

at pirates at Pops' Potpourri." Finding a 

hidden treasure sure is hard work! 

SCI Fl MOVIE MACHINE ^^1/2 

TDC Interactive; Windows and Macintosh; 

$34.95. 

Computer users like to be active, at least 

at the wrist. They don't like to watch long 

expository segments—or at least that is the 

accepted wisdom. Some developers have 

found success in providing material or 

structures that users can more freely manipulate. 

For example, Davidson and 

Associates' "Kid Works" series lets children 

create their own stories and draw their 

own pictures. A spate of music video CD- 

ROMs have come out on various proprietary 

platforms that let users assemble 

video clips in time to a song. And "Steven 

Spielberg's Director's Chair" (see our Oct. 

'96 issue) lets CD-ROM users piece together 

their own "movies." 

"Sci Fi Movie Machine" is TDC 

Interactive' s first title in its Cinemaker 

CD-ROM series, which also includes 

"Bimbo Movie Bash." The "Sci Fi Movie 

Machine" has an attractive interface and 

gives instruction, in the sci-fi theme of the 

program, on how to use it. (The program 

warns: "Online help android now activated. 

Click here to annihilate sequence.") 

Users just have to choose clips from within 

the "preview bay" and drop them into the 

"sequencer" in any desired order and then 

watch the assemblage. 

The CD includes hundreds of digitized 

film snippets from actual sci-fi movies, 

including footage of rockets, robots, dinosaurs, 

aliens, scientists and spaceships. 

There is no limit on the length or number 

of movies someone can create. And, once 

they are strung together, they can be 

watched over and over again. Youngsters 

will probably enjoy this title, especially 

the feature that lets them speed up or slow 

down the movie, but it's likely too simplistic 

for adults, who won't feel they 

have really created something but have 

merely rearranged it. 

ACE VENTURA ^^^1/2 

7th Level and Morgan Creek Interactive; 

Windows; $39.99. 

Ace is back. Love him or hate him, the 

Ace Ventura character has been transferred 

intact from the movies "Ace Ventura: Pet 

Detective" and "Ace Ventura: When Nature 

Calls" to a CD-ROM game, complete 

with a loud Hawaiian shirt, pompadour, 

swagger and adolescent humor. Those who 

love Ace have helped the Jim Carrey-starring 

films to gross more than $300 million 

worldwide. The "Ace Ventura" CBS Saturday-morning 

cartoon series consistently 

ranks high in the ratings. 

Likewise, the CD-ROM "Ace Ventura" 

is animated, not live action. But the development 

company, 7th Level, is about the 

best in the business when it comes to creating 

humorous two-dimensional animation 

for CD-ROMs. The color, speed and quality 

of movement and expression of character 

are excellent. The voice actor is not Jim 

Carrey, but Michael Hall (who plays the 

character on the TV show) mimics Carrey's 

vocal style to a T. 

The program does a good job of maintaining 

the childishly irreverent humor of 

the movies and keeping the action simple. 

To move forward, players must do such 

things as chcking on Ace to get a rope for 

climbing down a mountain or click on 

him for a key so that an apartment door 

can be unlocked. It's quite do-able for 

children or teenagers. 

Although obnoxious. Ace has a good 

heart and does his best to protect the furry, 

four-legged and finned creatures of the 

earth in brand-new scenarios. One can 

travel to an underground Alaskan factory 

on Ace's monster snowmobile to solve a 

case of missing Huskies, or engage a deranged 

whalenapper in an underwater 

chase, swimming to avoid floating garbage. 

The four villains (one is named 

Phatteus Lardus) are all animal haters. 

All told, butt-yodeling Ace and a monkey 

named Spike take players through 

three investigative cases comprising 34 

complex scenarios in which one must collect 

items and clues to crack the case. 

Mazes must be navigated and puzzles 

solved along the way as well. 

I Ca// 1-800-972-6468 

Willming Reams 

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Willming Reams Animation, Inc. 

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for Exfiibition 

Response No, 46

88 (R.in2) Rnxoi.i.u'i.' 

—' 

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Hir^8!3?Si 

REVIEWS 

July 1997 

DAY AND DATE: JULY 25 

ALIVE AND KICKING iî^m 

Starring Jason Flemyng and 

Anthony Sber. Directed by 

Nancy Meckler. Written by Martin 

Sherman. Produced by Martin 

Pope. A First Look release. 

Drama/romance. Rated R for 

some strong sexuality, and for 

nudity ana language. Running 

110 min. Opens 7/25 ltd. 

thony Sher as Jack, a plain therapBf 

give lively, starry performances in 

which their indulgences are more 

often entertainingly surprising rather 

than merely showoff turns. As they try 

to bring the surface and interior of 

their couple's lives into harmony, they 

prove a discordant but compelling 

couple in a love story that's appealing 

in its awkward intensity. 

Playwright 

Martin 

tirne: 

"Indian Summer," 

this film's 

original title, is 

more evocative 

and better 

suited to the 

mood here 

than the more 

jaunty "Alive 

and Nicking" 

moniker under 

which the film 

is now being 

released. Despite 

the provocative 

energies 

of its leading 

couple, this 

story of love in 

the face of illness 

needs its 

sense of melarv 

Jason Flemyng stars in 

choly transience 

to reso- 

First Look's "Alive and Kicking. 

nate in order to affect audiences fully. 

Sometimes it succeeds, but at other times 

the deeper feelings twirl away in teasing 

superficiality, much in the way Jason 

Flemyng's character leads his life before 

he meets his match. 

Both Flemyng ("Stealing Beauty") as 

Tonio, a glamor boy dancer, and An- touching wit. 

Sherman 

("Ber !nt"l 

has creat 3ted 

well-etched, 

multi-layered 

characters. It's 

easy to envision 

the love 

story of Tonio 

anci Jack just 

being played 

out duet style 

on stage, without 

any need 

for the scenic 

backdrops that 

a film work demands. 

But the 

issue of AIDS, 

which underlies 

their life 

choices, and 

the milieu of the 

English dance world, around which the 

story is set, are not as fully realized as 

the lead roles. Also, little new terrain is 

covered, though both Anthony Higains 

as a dying superstar and DorothyTutin 

OS an addled prima donna catch their 

own brief spotlig_hts with bright and 

Bridget Byrne 

'TIL THERE WAS YOU • 

Starring Jeanne Tripplehorn, Dylan 

McDermott and Sarah Jessica Parker. Directed 

by Scott Winant. Written by Winnie 

Holzman. Produced by Penney Finkelman 

Cox, Tom Rosenberg and Alan Poul 

A Paramount release. Romance. Rated 

PG-13 for sensuality, language and drug 

references. Running time: 113 min. 

Any romantic movie that chooses to incorporate 

a cHp of "Brief Encounter" into 

its storyline must be very sure about what 

it's domg. '"Til There Was You" is not. 

This attempt at a modem-day love story is 

a mushy and ill-formed mess, uncomfortably 

inept whether trying to be sentimental 

or satiric. Combining ideas and themes 

much better explored in films as diverse as 

Claude Lelouch's "And Now My Love" 

and Steve Martin's "L.A. Story," the script 

fails to weave together its myriad threads 

into anything other than a tangled lump. 

A jerky plotline follows an intended couple 

as chance, circumstance and plot contrivance 

keep them apart as they grow into 

trendy Los Angeles adults. The characters 

are weakly drawn and the symbolic landscape 

of their lives heavy-handedly conceived. 

Jeanne Tripplehorn, as struggling 

writer Gwen, and Dylan McDermott, as 

aspiring architect Nick, both lack oomph, so 

the movie clings to other surfaces. This is a 

movie in which the back history is a collection 

of hairstyles and the future, presumably, a 

smoke-tree zone. In between is just thirtysomething 

delusion. 

Bridget Byrne 

NIGHT FALLS DN 

MANHATTAN ^^1/2 

Starring Andy Garcia, Richard Dreyfuss 

and Lena Olin. Directed and written 

by Sidney Lumet. Produced by Thorn 

Mount and Josh Kramer. A Paramount 

release. Drama. Rated R for violence and 

language. Running time: 110 min. 

Corruption, within both the police department 

and the legal system, has provided 

fertile ground for Sidney Lumet in the past; 

witness "Seipico," "Prince of the City" and 

"Verdict." With "Night Falls on Manhattan," 

Lumet again sets out to explore issues 

of personal and public responsibility, moral 

compromise, culpability and the nature of 

justice. But this time he stumbles. 

This Spelling production concerns an 

idealistic young street cop turned Manhattan 

district attorney (Andy Garcia) whose 

moral principles are tested during an investigation 

into police corruption. The fact that 

Garcia's character goes from being a wetbehind-the-ears 

lawyer to DA so quickly is 

only one of many implausible plot points 

upon which the story rests. Also thrown 

into the mix is a romantic subplot involving 

a civil rights attorney (Lena Olin); not only 

is the romance pointless, there is zero chemistry 

between Garcia and Olin. 

Heavy on melodrama and scenery-chewing 

performances (especially by Ron Liebman 

as a DA overseeing Garcia's fast rise), 

the film at least tries to tackle important 

issues: the collapse of traditional morality 

in America, the nature ofjustice in a corrupt 

world, the conflict between the greater good 

and the moral infractions sometimes necessary 

to achieve it, and the price to both the 

public and the individual of making those 

compromises. Jean Oppenheimer

— 

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/D 1A'2\ 

REVIEWS 

BUDDY •• 

Starring Rene Russo, Robbie Coltrane and 

Alan Cumming. Directedand written by Caroline 

Thompson. Produced by Steve Nicolaides 

and Fred Fuchs. A Columbia release. 

Comedy/drama. RatedPGforsome threatening 

animal action. Running time: 84min. 

"Buddy" is a difficult—even painful 

film to watch, which is most certainly not 

what the folks behind the project intended. 

Based on a true story, as recounted in Gertrude 

Linz's book, "Animals Are My 

Hobby," this first feature from Jim Henson 

Productions concerns an eccentric socialite 

in 1920s New York who surrounded herself 

with animals she raised as children. 

Gertrude "Trudy" Lintz (Rene Russo, 

poorly served by Caroline Thompson's 

script) is a wealthy, generous woman whose 

achilles heel is that she thinks she knows 

what is best for everyone 

including Buddy, a sickly 

baby gorilla she nurses to 

health. She attires Buddy in 

human clothes, forces him to 

walk upright, makes him 

sleep in a bed and generally 

sets out to civilize him, blind 

to how unhappy and lonely 

the growing ape is becoming 

and failing to recognize his 

child-like attachment to her. 

Well-intentioned though 

Trudy might be, her insensitivity 

comes across as cruelty. 

and that proves an insurmountable 

problem in the 

film. Thompson, who wrote 

Tim Burton's "Edward 

Scissorhands" and "The 

Nightmare Before Christmas" and adapted 

and directed "Black Beauty," is drawn to 

creatures who are outsiders, which is perhaps 

why Buddy and fellow chimpanzees 

are the most developed, empathetic characters 

here. Scottish actor Alan Cumming is 

the only human to bring any depth to his 

role, and the normally lovable Robbie Coltrane, 

as Trudy's extraordinarily tolerant 

husband, is flat and dull. Although beautifully 

shot and bearing first-rate production 

design, this Henson effort proves to be a sad 

disappointment. Jean Oppenheimer 

THE LOST WORLD: 

JURASSIC PARK •••^ 

Starring Jeff Goldblum, Julianne 

Moore, Pete Postlethwaite, Arliss Howard 

and Richard Attenborough. Directed by 

Steven Spielberg. Written by David Koepp. 

Produced by Gerald R. Molen and Colin 

Wilson. A Universal release. Fantasy/adventure. 

Rated PG-I3for intense sci-fi terror 

and violence. Running time: 129 min. 

After "Jaws," Steven Spielberg publicly 

scorned the making of sequels as a "cheap 

camy trick." His decision to direct the inevitable 

"Jurassic Park" sequel himself, rather 

than assigning it to another filmmaker, was 

partly a protection against a cheesy followup 

to what is the biggest global blockbuster 

in movie history. Spielberg amply 

delivers the goods with Amblin 

Entertainment's "The Lost World: Jurassic 

Park," a beautifully crafted series of nightmarish 

set pieces with no other goal in mind 

than to scare and delight the audience. If the 

film ultimately seems more efficient than 

inspired, with less emotional and visceral 

impact than such classic Spielberg suspensers 

as "Duel" and "Jaws," its popular 

appeal vindicates his return to escapist entertainment 

following "Schindler's List." 

Perhaps it's a spillover effect of "Schindler's 

List" that makes this dinosaur movie much 

darker in look and feel than "Jura-ssic Park." 

"Schindler's List" cinematographer Janusz 

Kaminski gives 'The Lost World's" jungle 

scenes the subtly fantastic haze of Corot paintings. 

Spielberg makes no attempt to replicate 

"Jurassic Park's" awestruck contemplation of 

the majesty of prehistoric beasts, concentrating 

LOST WORLDS: The 1 925 silent version of 

Arthur Conon Doyle's tale fabovej, and Steven 

Spielberg's latest via Michael Crichton. 

inslcaU on unrcleiiiingly creepy and horrific 

images of genetic engineering gone awry. 

The unruly dinosaurs on Site B, the island 

where the beasts of Jurassic Park were 

bred, have far more interaction with the 

human characters than did their predecessors. 

Dinosaur creators Dennis Muren, 

Stan Winston and Michael Lantieri outdo 

themselves with astonishingly believable 

creatures moving and breathing with utter 

physical dexterity and abandon. 

The dialogue and structure by screenwriter 

David Koepp ("Mission: Impossible") 

substantially improve on Michael 

Crichton' s dull and perfunctoiy source 

novel. But, with the exception of the edgily 

heroic Malcolm (a returning Jeff Goldblum) 

and an enigmatic big-game hunter 

("Dragonheart's" Pete Postlethwaite), the 

characterizations remain stubbornly twodimensional. 

The film occasionally exhibits 

a winning strain of self-satire, as in 

Malcolm's running stream of ironic 

asides and an uproarious finale in San 

Diego that plays like a spoof of a 1950s 

monster movie. Joseph McBride 

ADDICTED TO LOVE ^^^ 

Meg 

Starring Matthew Broderick, 

Ryan, Tcheky Karyo and Kelly Preston. 

Directed by Griffin Dunne. Written by 

Robert Gordon. Produced by Jeffrey Silver 

and Bobby Newmyer. A Warner Bros, release. 

Romantic comedy. Rated Rfor sexual 

content. Running time: 100 min. 

Revenge is Sweet and Hell Hath No Fury 

Like a Woman Scorned are popular cinematic 

themes these days. (See 'The First Wives 

Club" and "Waiting to Exhale" for other recent 

movies that would be apt to elicit an 

exuberant cry of "you go, girl!" from some of 

the more overenthusiastic audience members.) 

"Addicted to Love's" Maggie (Meg 

Ryan), the former fiancee of an exploitive, 

arrogant French waiter-tumed-restaurateur 

named Anton ("La Femme Nikita's" Tcheky 

Karyo), adds another colorfully vengeful archetype 

to film's pantheon ofjilted Jills. And 

Matthew Broderick plays simpy Sam, whose 

love of his Ufe, Laura ("Jerry Maguire's" 

Kelly Preston), left him for Maggie's Anton. 

Sam moves into an abandoned apartment 

next door to the paramours' residence 

to spy. On her quest to decimate 

her ex, the intimidatlA 

ing Maggie moves into 

Tj, Sam's spy hovel against his 

wishes but soon persuades 

him to join her in her devious 

plot to break up the happy 

couple. Wacky schemes 

ensue, and Sam and Maggie 

begin to bond while reveling 

in conspiratorial glee. Eventually, 

though, they must 

come to terms with the fact 

that what they thought 

would make them happy 

doesn't seem to be doing so. 

Ryan takes a refreshing 

90-degree turn from her 

usual screen persona as the 

aggressive yet cool, eclectically 

garbed, tough-as-nails Maggie 

(though there's sensitivity beneath), while 

Broderick' s perennial puppy-dog appeal 

and subtle sardonic delivery fit him perfectly 

into the role of Sam. And Karyo as 

Anton delves with relish into his role as an 

egomaniacal dictator-type who, through ascendingly 

outrageous humiliations, is reduced 

to being a painfully pathetic loser. 

Although ultimately predictable and in 

need of a wider array ofînventive revenges, 

"Addicted to Love" is fun, spirited and frequently 

clever. Christine James

on CD.KU^ RftVf»'i.-ir-i.' 

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REVIEWS 

LA PROMESSE •^^^ 

Starring Jeremie Renter, Olivier Gourmet 

and Assta Ouedraogo. Directed and 

written by Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc 

Dardenne. Produced by Luc Dardenne 

and Hassen Daldoul. A New Yorker release. 

Drama. French-language; English 

subtitles. Unrated. Running time: 93 min. 

For more than 20 years, Belgian brothers 

Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne have been 

making documentaries together. Their subject 

matter has usually centered on the Leftist 

worker movements of the 1960s, their 

preference a directorial style admittedly 

"theatrical" and subjective. Now, moving 

away from the constraints of "reality, to 

which we were accountable," the duo has 

turned to fiction features. With "La Promesse," 

their third, they've created a work 

of great emotional depth and impact that 

ironically draws much of its power from 

low-key, naturalistic performances captured 

with a shooting style more often associated 

with traditional documentary making. 

Set in the post-industrial limbo of a dead 

factory town, "La Promesse" follows 15- 

year-old Igor, a boy learning how to be a 

small-time hustler from his father Roger. 

Together they toil in the town ' s only growth 

industry: the exploitation of illegal immigrants 

by providing them with false papers, 

flophouses and off-the-books 

construction work. Igor's moral awakening 

comes with a covered-up accidental death 

of an African illegal. Igor must either betray 

his father or the promise he made to the 

dying man to look after his wife and infant. 

The Dardennes have written a compelling, 

believable script and have drawn excellent 

performances from mostly unknown 

or inexperienced actors. But the truly wonderful 

thing about "La Promesse" is how the 

film's style and structure seem spontaneous, 

almost casual, obscuring all the 

thought and work necessary to achieve that 

effect. The camera is always in just the right 

place, with many scenes shot in continuous 

handheld takes that move with and pan 

between actors in place of cutting. And the 

brothers have the courage to allow emotionally 

significant events to transpire in wide 

unbroken shots, often with a major character's 

back to camera. This type of approach 

could easily seem gimmicky in less skillful 

hands, but here it's an integral part of a 

remarkable achievement. Alex Albanese 

GRIND ^1/2 

Starring Billy Crudup and Adrienne 

Shelley. Directed by Chris Mentis. Written 

by Laura Lau and Chris Kentis. Produced 

by Laura Lau. A Castle Hill release. 


A worthless effort displaying egotism 

rather than talent, "Grind" is indeed a 

grind—torpid, bland, lifeless and hollow. 

PREVIOUSLY REVIEWED: JUNE. JULY AND AUGUST RELEASES 

In light of our continuing commitment to bring you reynews as early 

as possible, we now^ provide a reader guide to upcoming releases 

we've already critiqued. The alphabetical list below notes Hie issue 

of BoxoFFKE in vi/hicn the review appeared, gives its star rating, and 

provides updated distributor and release date informaHon. 

"Bandwagon" -k -kit 111: CFP, 8/15 ltd; see April 1997. 

"Bliss" ••••: Triumph, 6/6 ltd; see May 1997. 

"Box of Moonlight" **U2: rrimark, 7/25 NY, 8/8 LA; see Nov. 1996. 

"Brilliant Ues" •••: Castle Hill, 7/11 NY; see April 1997. 

"Differentfor Girls" ••: First Look, 8/15; see March 1997. 

"Dream With the Fishes" ••1/2: Sony Classics, 6/20 NY; see June 1997. 

"Fall" •••: Orion, 6/20; see April 1997. 

"Forever MoTjart" ••••: New Yorker, 7/4; see Jan. 1997. 

"For Roseanna" -kick: Fine Line, 6/18 NY; see March 1997. 

"The Full Monty" ie*kk: Fox Searchlight, 8/15; see April 1997. 

"Gabbeh"kkk: New Yorker, 6/25 NY; see Feb. 1997. 

"Guantanamera" •••1/2: CFP, 7/2; see April 1997. 

"Hamsun" if^ki/2: First Run. 8/6; see March 1997. 

"The Innocent Sleep" ••1/2: Castle Hill, 6/27; see June 1996. 

"In the Company of Men" ••1/2: Sony Classics, 8/8; see April 1997. 

"La Rencontre" ••: Artistic License, July; see March 1997. 

"Love Serenade" -k-kl/l: Miramax, 6/20 NY/IJi; see Aug. 1996. 

"Mon Homme" •••: Artificial Eye, August; see March 1997. 

"Mouth to Mouth" •••1/2: Miramax, 6/6 NY/IA; see Sept. 1996. 

"Paperback Romance" kkl/l: Goldwvn, 8/1; see May 1997. 

"The Pillow Book" •••: CFP, 6/6; see July 1996. 

"Shall We Dance?" kkkMl: Miramax, 6/27 NY/IA; see May 1997. 

"Temptress Moon" kkk 1/2: Miramax, 6/13; see May 1997. 

"Timothy Uary's Dead" ••: Strand, 6/6 lA; see May 1997. 

"Vlee's Gold" ••••: Orion, 6/13 NY/IA; see April 1997. 

"When the Cat's Away" ••••: Sony Classics, 6/20 NY; see Feb. 1997. 

Its worst aspect is the pretentious sensibility 

of writer/director Chris Kentis, who makes 

labored attempts to integrate existential elements 

in a simple film noir character study. 

Billy Crudup ("Sleepers") tries mightily 

to overcome the colorless role the script 

provides him, and he nearly succeeds. He 

plays an ex-con who moves in with his older 

brother (a one-note Paul Schulze) after 

being released from prison. Predictably, the 

parolee falls for his brother's wife (a pretty 

but vapid Adrienne Shelley) as he toils in a 

monotonous factory job when he's not drag 

racing. He gets into even more trouble when 

he partners with his brother and a crooked 

boss in a car insurance scam that goes awry. 

Already cursory narrative exposition is 

further damaged by a lack of character development 

and motivation and by a lack of 

chemistry between Crudup and Shelley. 

Kentis' helming is long on amateurish staging 

and slack pacing—and long on pauses 

that are supposed to be pregnant with meaning. 

His idea of alienation and ennui is to 

have the actors stare into space or to have 

scenes suddenly fade out, condemnably 

faux artistic daring. Dale Winogura 

RUDYARD KIPLING'S THE SECOND 

JONGL£ BOOK: MOWGLI & BALOO ir 

Starring Jamie Williams, Bill Campbell 

and Roddy McDowall. Directed by Duncan 

McLachlan. Written by Bayard Johnson 

and Matthew Horton. Produced by Raju 

Patel A TriStar release. Adventure. Rated 

PG for some mild adventure violence attd 

briefmild language. Running time: 90 min. 

In the past, Disney has released two versions 

of the Rudyard Kipling classic "Jungle 

Book." The first was animated, the latter 

five-action. But this live-action film is really 

more a prequel to the animated work, 

albeit without songs and talking animals. 

Set in the 1890s, this latest Kipling reworking 

opens with Mowgli (newcomer 

Jamie WiUiams) as a 10-year-old wild boy 

living with his wildlife family in thejungles 

of India. In a pitiful performance, Roddy 

McDowall ("Planet of the Apes") takes the 

pre-King Louie throne as King Murphy. 

Mowgli s jungle teacher, Baloo the bear, 

and his protector, Bagheera the panther, are 

back, but the filmmakers seem to overlook 

the fact that, as characters in a prequel, they 

need introduction. A supposition triat audiences 

will already be familiar with Mowgli 

& CO., given that this film is aimed at single-digit 

ages, is probably unwarranted. 

A simple plotline has two monkeys trying 

to kidnap Mowgli and bring him back 

to their king. A circus talent scout ('The 

Rocketeer's" Bill Campbell) also wants 

Mowgli, but the scout's quest requires the 

aid of Mowgli's uncle, who has his own 

hidden agenda. None of this has any dramatic 

zest; if not for the bumbling antics of 

the monkeys, there would be no relief from 

a long and lingering boredom the film endengers. 

Any adults along to accompany 

the kids will be put off bv the film's lowbudget 

low-techery, in which the closeups 

of actors and animals are superimposed or 

spliced together.— Dwayne E. Leslie

— 

REVIEWS 

THE FIFTH ELEMENT iîc* 

Starring Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman, 

Ian Holm, Milla Jovovich and Chris 

Tucker. Directed by Luc Besson. Written 

by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen. 

Produced by Patrice Ledoux. A Columbia 

release. SF. Rated PG- 13for intense sci-fi 

violence, some sexuality and brief nudity. 


— In his most recent films "La Femme 

Nikita," "The Professional" and now "The 

Fifth Element"—an index of filmmaker 

Luc Besson's artistic success has been the 

amount of romantic frisson generated by his 

story. In his newest, in which a 23rd century 

taxi driver (Bruce Willis) must protect a 

young/old gamine (Milla Jovovich) who as 

the eternal and DNA-reincamated perfection 

of life is the world's only hope against 

an evil force, that success is more modest. 

Fortunately, a concomitant success index 

of Besson's ability to dazzle audiences with 

action pyrotechnics—has not lessened. 

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FARE "FIFTH": Luc Besson transports 

audiences to a 23rd

" 

1 

— 

would 

— 

— 

' 


REVIEWS 

FOUR MILLION 

HOUSEGUESTS •••1/2 

Starring Charlotte Sullivan and 

C. David Johnson. Voice work by 

James Garner. Directed by Paul 

Cox. Produced by Mitey Cinema, 

Sally Dundas, Barbara Kerr and 

Lome Orleans. An Imax Corp. release. 

Documentary/drama. Unrated. 


Format: IMAX 3-D. 

JUMPIN' JIMINY: A leaping spider 

(viewed via electron microscope) in 

IMAX's "Four Million Houseguests. 

Four million houseguests sounds like the 

kind of intrusion that could occur before a 

wedding or during a natural disaster. In 

this case, it's a new IMAX 3-D offering. 

This kind of movie can deliver at least two 

things: eye strain and hat hair. Its images 

are made three-dimensional via a relatively 

new technique: An infrared light is sent from 

36 transmitters at the top of the giant screen 

to sensors on audience members' 3-D 

gbsses. This sets off the "opening" and 

closing" of left and then right virtual shutters 

in the glasses. The shutter effect is created 

by liquid crystal lenses that become black 

and clear. Tnis, of course, all happens very 

quickly: 95 times per second. 

At a recent California screening at the 

Edwards IMAX 3-D Theatre at its Irvine 2 

Megaplex, director Paul Cox was on 

hand to answer the important questions of 

children in the audience, such as, "Where 

did you get oil that stuff?" 

"All that stuff" includes time-lapse photography 

of molding fruit, Schlieren photography 

revealing patterns of heat in the 

reptiles and insects changing color, 

air, 

and the star of the show: fantastic riigh (up 

to 40,000x) magnification, high-contrast 

black-and-white images from an electron 

microscope that made moths and spiders 

kjok like film noir actors. But the film conveys 

great sense of wonder and whimsy. 

Through the use of high-tech microscopes 

and low-tech mechanical toys, it encourages 

children and adolescents to explore. 

C^x reminds that "3-D goes in, not just 

out. It embraces you, brings you in." 

This movie deserves a tremendous 

kudos for its heavy use of synch sound 

and an emphasis on character over scenery. 

The director describes it as "a small 

film on a very large screen." The tone is 

purposeful, the movement unhurried. The 

movie's personae ore calm and caring. 

Contrasting his characters with others. 

Cox states, "So many people in films are 

not the kind of people I like to 

spend my life with." This is true enough. 

You just wish that one of these nice people 

would toss you on aspirin. 

Ann K'wmn 

MEXICO ••• 

Narrated by Martin Sheen (in English) 

and Enrique Rocha (in Spanish). 

Directed and produced by 

Lorena M. Parlee. Written by Carlos 

Fuentes, Carlos Blanco Aguinaga 

and Lorena M. Parlee. A Sol films 

production. Documentary. Unrated. 


Format: IMAX. 

Vivid and fast-moving, "Mexico" is a 

colorful montage exploding with color, 

music and legend. From the tall, futuristic 

skyscrapers in its modern cities to the 

3,000-year-old ruins of its ancient civilizations, 

"Mexico" weaves together the 

country's many diverse cultural aspects in 

presenting an elaborate 70mm mosaic. It 

was selected for Oscar consideration in 

1 995, and it was the first IMAX film chosen 

to screen at the annual Montreal fest. 

Technically, the film is a visual masterpiece: 

Award-winning documentary producer/director 

Lorena M. Parlee (who 

made Showscan's "Concerto for the 

Earth" and the Emmy- and CINE Golden 

Eagle-winning documentary "Ballad of an 

Unsung Hero") has assembled on impressive, 

internationally recognized team 

of feature and documentary filmmakers. 

Three cinemotogrophers contribute bold 

shots—veteran tMAX DP David Douglas 

("Blue Planet," "Rolling Stones: At the 

Max"), Oscar winner Haskell Wexler 

("One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," 

'Bound for Glory") and Ariel-winning 

Mexican cinematographer Alex Phillips 

("Evito," "Murphy s Law")—and James 

Neihouse provides beautiful, sweeping 

aerial photography. To that, composer 

Daniel Voldez {''la Bombo," "Zoot Suit") 

odds an original score of music integrating 

ancient rhythms with modern life 

sounds. Actor Martin Sheen provides a 

poetic recitation of Mexican novelist Carlos 

Fuentes' inspiring text. 

The result: "Mexico" is a gorgeous film 

to watch. For those unfamiliar with the 

country's sights, however, it falls short by 

failing to idientify many locations it fleetingly 

visits. In creating an aura of mystique 

about the country, "Mexico" has 

inadvertently contributed to keeping it in 

the dark. With the simple addition of titles, 

this film could be a useful vehicle in 

promoting the many resources that Mexico 

has to offer.—Pof Kramer 

His music here—as always, rather like assembly-line 

machinery come to life after 

hours and riffmg the night away—is so 

integral to the progression of each scene 

that one could imagine the script and the 

score being written at the same time, note 

after word, note after word. As for Besson, 

the talented Frenchman here stripmines 

rather than excavates his usual dark concerns. 

In "The Fifth Element," the blackest 

he gets is beige. Kim Williamson 

FATHERS' DAY ••l/Z 

Starring Robin Williams, Billy Crystal, 

Charlie Hojheimer, Julia Louis-Dreyfus 

and Nastassja Kinski. Directed by Ivan 

Reitman. Written by Lowell Ganz and 

Babaloo Mandel. Produced by Joel Silver 

and Ivan Reitman. A Warner Bros, release. 

Comedy. Rated PG-13for some sexrelated 

humor and drug references. 


This farcical comedy, based on the 

French film "Les Comperes," is really — just 

a set-up for two star comedians "The 

Birdcage's" Robin Williams and "Forget 

Paris"" Billy Crystal—to riff and roll off 

each other while they steer moviegoers 

through a simple story about two very different 

men on the road together searching 

for a teenage runaway, Scott ("Boys' 

Charlie Hofheimer), who one of them might 

or might not have sired 17 years earlier. 

This is not the successful translation that 

"The Birdcage" (based on French film "La 

Cage aux Folles") was for Williams. 

"Fathers" Day" lacks the unique and classy 

mix of hilarious physical comedy churned 

with charmingly emotional sentiment. Williams 

and Crystal are funny, but the sheer 

nature of their personalities overwhelms 

this mild-mannered movie, and neither ever 

completely settle into his role. 

Director Ivan Reitman ("Junior") gets 

sidetracked by his stars and forgets to make 

the story believable, real or understandable. 

Nastassja Kinski ("Faraway, So Close!") is 

wasted in an inexplicable role as Collette, 

the former amour who sets the wheels in 

motion. Apparently, this mom is able to 

track down two long-lost lovers and set 

them on the trail of Scott, but she's completely 

incapable of even trying to find her 

son on her own; that's some kind of maternal 

parenting. No wonder "Fathers' Day" 

opened on Mother's Day. Susan Lambert 

BREAKDOWN •••1/2 

Starring Kurt Russell, J.T. Walsh and 

Kathleen Quinlan. Directed by Jonathan 

Mostow. Written by Jonathan Mostowand 

Sam Montgomery. Produced by Martha 

De iMurentiis and Dino De iMurentiis. A 

Paramount release. Thriller. Rated Rfor 

strong violence and terror, and for language. 


The gutsv. cathartic "Breakdown" mercifully 

avoids the smug, arch quirkiness of 

such pseudo-thrillers as "Fargo" and "Lost 

Highway." As did such makers of classic 

"B^' movies of the 1950s like Phil Karlson 

and Don Siegel, writer/director Jonathan

— 

. 

Miami 

REVIEWS 

Mostow builds dramatic intensity and visceral 

suspense that plugs into contemporary 

paranoia over personal isolation and victimization. 

Allowing a bare minimum of 

genre hokum, he creates a nightmarish reality 

that grips even as it chills. 

In perhaps his finest f)erformance yet, 

Kurt Russell keenly expresses a range of 

emotion and involvement as Jeff Taylor, a 

caring husband driving through the American 

Southwest desert with his wife Amy (an 

assured turn by Kathleen Quinlan) one hot 

day. When their car suffers a breakdown 

miles from nowhere, a kind-seeming truck 

driver. Red Barr ("Sling Blade's" J.T. 

Walsh), offers to take Amy to the nearest 

diner so she can call for a tow. After they 

leave, Jeff manages to start the car again and 

drives to the diner, yet on arrival his wife is 

nowhere to be found. Found on the road 

ahead. Red denies ever seeing her. 

That's but the beginning of a cataclysmic 

series of ingeniously integrated plot twists. 

Aided by co-writer Sam Montgomery, 

Mostow maintains tension and terror within 

the banal yet bizarre scenario. Even though 

the film uses a conventional story structure, 

and some later contrivances are a bit too 

neat to believe, Mostow' s direction delivers 

every action setpiece and startling shock 

with finesse. 

Dale Winogura 

AUSTIN POWERS: INTERNATIONAL 

MAN OF MYSTERY iridic 

Starring Mike Myers and Elizabeth 

Hurley. Directed by Jay Roach. Written by 

Mike Myers. Produced by Suzanne Todd, 

Demi Moore, Jennifer Todd and Mike 

Myers. A New Line release. Comedy. 

Rated PG-13 for nudity, sex-related dialogue 

and humor. Running time: 89 min. 

Skewering Bond films and '60s sensibilities 

seemed like the perfect construct for 

the talented and oft-anglophilic comic 

actor/scripter Mike Myers ("Wayne's 

World"). The high-energy film opens three 

decades ago, with Myers decked out as the 

ostentatiously garbed Austin Powers, a hipster 

superspy. Living out the sort of scene 

that exists only in musical films of the 

flower-power era. Powers and the youths of 

London spontaneously engage in a groovy 

dance number. This deliciously over-thetop 

send-up promises a high level of hilarity 

What follows falls short of that mark. The 

story: Dr. Evil (also Myers) escapes capture 

by having himself cryogenically frozen and 

shot into space; our champion altruistically 

has himself frozen as well, to protect a future 

generation from the villain's tyranny. Thirty 

years later. Evil returns, plotting to steal a 

nuclear weapon and hold the world hostage. 

For all of Myers' exuberance, masterful 

cheek and funny delivery of outdated vernacular, 

his writing just isn't up to the possibilities. 

Elizabeth Hurley ("Dangerous 

Ground") is cringingly unappealing as 

Myers' sidekick Vanessa; and Mimi Rogers 

as Powers' former partner (now Vanessa's 

mother) might look great in a leather Emma 

Peel bodysuit, but she can't maintain the 

English accent even for the few lines she 

has. The movie also doesn't go far enough 

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— 

— 

FLASHBACK: JAA^f/A/JF 5, 1959 

What BOXOFFICE said about... 

A NIGHT TO REMEMBER 

[Because it looks unlikely James Cameron's "Titanic" will sail this summer, we 

thought we'd at least bring our readers a look at a four-decade-old retelling of the 

sea disaster itself then four decades past. In February 1959, Rank brought Walter 

Lord's book to the big screen memorably with "A Night to Remember." Notably, 

exhibitors were already worrying about another see disaster: TV.] 

One of the greatest catastrophes of modern 

times—the sinking of the "unsinkable" Titanic 

after it struck an iceberg in the Atlantic in 

1912—has been superbly recreated on film in 

almost documentary fashion by the Rank Organization. 

If heavily exploited, this two-hour feature 

should do fine business, particularly in key 

cities. Although Walter Lord's best-seller was the 

basis for an outstanding live TV show, plus a live 

repeat, a few seasons ago. Rank producer William 

MacQuitty maintains that these merely 

serve as trailers for this far more complete and 

frighteningly realistic film. After 40-odd years, 

this astonishing tale still has tremendous impact, 

especially for patrons who remember or had read 

or heard about the events of that awful night. The 

picture is splendidly directed by Roy Baker, and 

Eric Ambler's screenplay evenly divides the 

screen footage between the nautical side of the 

disaster and the human angle. The technical 

credits, including the sharp black-and-white 

photography and the special effects, could 

scarcely be surpassed. Kenneth More, who plays 

the heroic second officer, is the best-known player, but Laurence Naismith (as 

the Titanic's captain), Michael Goodliffe, Anthony Bushell and John Merivale 

all makes their scenes count. Frank Lawton and Harriette Johns co-star. 

EXPLOITIPS 

For local engagements, advertise for Titanic survivors, who could be honored guests 

and give interviews about that tragic night Bookshops will cooperate with window 

displays of Walter Lord's best-seller, and fashion shops might display ladies' styles of 

that era along with copy for the picture. Kenneth More starred in "Genevieve" and 

"Doctor in the Hoase" and is in the forthcoming "The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw." 

CATCHLINES 

A Picture You'll Never Forget..The True Story of the World's Great Sea Disaster—Brilliantly 

Told by Walter Lord in His Best-Selling Novel—Now Comes to the 

Screen...The Full, Fantastic Storj' of the Night the Titanic Went Down in an Icy Sea. 

with its fish-out-of-water time-waip mayhem, 

and though there are many hilarious 

moments (esjjecially those that parody the 

cheesier aspects of '60s spy flicks) just as 

many miss the mark. Christine James 

WARRIORS OF VIRTUE 

••• 

Starring Angus Macfadyen, Mario 

Yedidia, Marley Shelton and Chao-Li Chi. 

Directed by Ronny Yu. Written by Michael 

Vickerman and Hugh Kelley. Produced by 

Dennis Imw, Ronald Law, Christopher 

Law, Jeremy Imw and Patricia Ruben. An 

MGM release. Fantasy. Rated PGforfantasy 

action violence and some language. 


Essentially a cross between "The 

Neverending Story" and "Teenage Mutant 

Ninja Turtles," "Warriors of Virtue" could 

be the most impressive Hollywood debut 

yet for a Hong Kong director, although 

lackluster writing and a needlessly muddled 

storyline somewhat tarnish the effort. Talented 

newcomer Mario Yedidia stars as 

Ryan, a standard-issue misfit adolescent 

whose fertile imagination propels him into 

a mystical world of martial arts and magic 

known only as the land of Tao. The once 

tranquil paradise, however, is threatened by 

an evil tyrant named Komodo (Angus 

Macfadyen) who supports his power by 

draining Tao's Lifespnngs to mine an element 

called Zubrium. Only one Lifespring 

remains, ju.st outside Komodo' s reach and 

guarded by the amazing Warriors of Virtue, 

aka Roo-Warriors. Nonetheless, the balance 

of power in Tao lies neither with the 

Roo-Warriors or Komodo, but with Ryan. 

Skillfully blending popular motifs from 

both Hong Kong and Hollywood fantasy 

films, director Ronny Yu ("The Bride Witn 

REVIEWS 

White Hair") and his mostly Hong Kong 

crew lend "Warriors of Virtue" an exquisite 

look and feel. Expert martial arts action in 

the best Hong Kong tradition and first-rate 

Hollywood special effects and makeup 

work together to create a magical adventure. 

Although the Warriors themselves 

lack the strong personality 

traits and humor of 

the Ninja Turtles, they 

make for more compelling 

onscreen characij 

ters, helping to divert 

attention from a surprisingly 

amateurish and 

cliched script. Occasional 

lapses into overly 

technical Chinese philosophical 

jargon, though 

distracting, are forgivable 

in view of the overall 

theme. 

Wade Major 

ROMY AND 

MICHELE'S HIGH 

SCHOOL REUNION 

•••* 

Starring Mira Sorvino, 

Lisa Kudrow, 

Janeane Garofalo and Alan Camming. 

Directed by David Mirkin. Written by 

Robin Schiff. Producedby Laurence Mark. 

A Buena Vista release. Comedy. Rated R 

for language. Running time: 91 min. 

Buena Vista's second high school reunion 

film in as many weeks, "Romy and 

Michele" is just as charming and quirky as 

"Grosse Pointe Blank," with a lighter yet 

equally witty script. Fun and funny are the 

adjectives that characterize the mood of the 

film (based on the stage work "The Ladies' 

Room," adapted by the playwright, Robin 

Schiff), with hilariously wmsome performances 

by Mira Sorvino and Lisa Kudrow 

as the titular dimwit duet. Sorvino' s talent 

for amusingly odd vocal inflections (which 

helped get her that Oscar for "Mighty 

Aphrodite") is key to Romy's Valley Girl 

appeal; Kudrow's Michele may be 

"Friends'" Phoebe redux, but it works well 

in this tale of two nonconformist but 

slackerly misfits who fabricate glamorous 

lives to impress their former school nemeses. 

"Romy and Michele' s High School Reunion" 

is replete with audiovisual delights; 

with our heroines' outrageous fashion 

sense and a soundtrack jam-packed with 

'80s hits, the film captures much of the 

glamor and glitter indigenous to Me Generation-era 

offspring. Yet, in addition to 

bubbly baubles, there are some real gems 

in the script, and in the performances as 

well. With clever flashbacks and wacky 

dream sequences, there's never a lag in the 

movie's humor or its pace. 

If the film wants anything, it's probably 

more allusions to the last decade to sate the 

nostalgia of the target audience; more investigation 

into how everyone else's lives 

turned out; and more inventiveness regarding 

payback and karma. Christine James

— 

— 

— 

I 

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I 

I 

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iniv 10Q7 rR.ino^ q^ 

REVIEWS IN BRIEF 

UNFORGOTTEN ••^^ 

Narrated by Danny 

Aiello. Directed by Jack 

Fisher. Written by Stuart 

Warmflash. Proauced by 

Danny Fisher. A Castle Hnl 

release. Documentary. 

Unrated. Run time: 57 mm. 

A generation ago, before 

Special Olympics and community 

group homes, huge state-run 

institutions were society's way to 

core for, and deal with, the mentally 

retarded. In the massive 

buaget

Review Digest 

Genre key: (Ac) Action; (Ad) Adventure; (An) Animated; (C) Comedy: 

(D) Drama; (Doc) Documentary; (F) Fantasy; (Hor) Horror; 

(M) Musical; (My) Mystery; (R) Romance; (Sat) Satire; 

(SF) Science Fiction; (Sus) Suspense; (Th) Thriller; (W) Western. 

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QSC Audio Products, Inc. 

Congratulates 

Shochiku Cinemark Theatres Ltd. on the 

Grand Opening of the Movix Rokko In Kobe Japan! 

U D I 

The World's Largest Supplier ofProfessmal Power Amplifiers to the Theatre Market 

The Power Behind the Pictures" 

www.qscaudio.com 

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From Your Friends T^t 

WTERNATTONAL 

TM 1 997 Strong International is a division of Ballantyne of Omaha, Inc.

BOXOFFICE 

June 

JULY 

(Current) 

Buena Vista 

(818)567-5000 

(212)593-8900 

Grosse Pointe Blank, 4/1 1, Com. R. 107 min, 

Dolby SR. SR-D, SDDS, Rat. John Cusack, 

Minnie Driver. Dan Aykroyd. Joan Cusack, 

Din George Armitage, 

Romy and Michele's High Sctiool Reunion. 

4/25. Com. R. 91 min, Dolby SR, SR-D. SDDS. 

Rat. Mira Sorvino, Lisa Kudrow, Janeane 

Garofalo. Elaine Hendrix. 

Din David Mirkin. 

Gone FIshIn', 5/30. Com. PG. 94 min. Dolby 

SR. SR-D. Rat. Joe Pesci. Danny Glover. Lynn 

Whitfield. Rosanna Arquette. 

Dir: Christopher Cain. 

Con Air. 6/6. Act/Adv. R. -112 min. Anamorphic. 

Nicolas Cage. John Malkovich. John 

Cusack. Steve Buscemi, Ving Rhames. Colm 

Meaney. Dir: Simon West. 

Hercules, 6/14 excl. NY. 6/20 Chicago. 6/27 

wide. Ani. G. -91 min. Rat. Voices: James 

Woods, Danny DeVito. Tate Donovan. Susan 

Egan. Matt Frewer, Bobcat Goldthwait, Paul 

Shaffer. Dirs: Ron Clements, John Musker. 

Nothing to Lose. 7/16. Com. R. Flat Martin 

Lawrence. Tim Robbins. John C. McGinley. 

Glancarlo Esposito. Kelly Preston. 

Dir: Steve Oedekerk. 

George ol the Jungle. 7/18. Live Act. PG, Fla 

Brendan Fraser. Leslie Mann. Thomas Hayde 

Church. Dir: Sam Weisman. 

Columbia 

(310)280-8000 

Das Boot (1981 German reissue), 4/4, Dra, 

R, Jurgen Prochnow. Dir: Wolfgang Petersen. 

Doul)le Team (formerly The Colony), 4/4, 

Act, R, 93 min. Dolby A. SR, SDDS, Jean- 

Claude Van Damme, Dennis Rodman, 

Mickey Rourke. Dir: Tsui Hark. 

The Filth Element. 5/9, SF, PG-13, 127 min, 

Dobly A. SR. SDDS. Anamorphic. Bmce Willis. 

Gaiy Oldman. Ian Holm, Milla Jovovich. Dir Luc 

Besson. 

Buddy, 6/6, Com, PG, -90min. SDDS, Anamorphic. 

Rene Russo, Robbie Coltrane. Paul Reubens, 

Irma P. Hall. Dir: Caroline Thompson. 

Men in Black, 7/2. SF. PG-13. DoDy A. SR, 

SDDS. Hat Tommy Lee Jones, wai Smith. 

Linda Rorentino. Rip Torn, Dir: Bany Sonnenfel 

Air Force One (formerly AFO), 7/25. Act Dolbv 

A. SR. SDDS, Harrison Ford. Gary Otdman. 

(212)833-8500 

Anaconda, 4/1 1. Adv. PG-13. 90 min. Dolby A, 

SR. SDDS. Jon Voight. Jennifer Lopez, Ice 

Glenn Close 

Din Wolfgang Peterson. 

Cube. Eric Stoltz, Kan Wuhrer. Dir: Luis Llosa. 

MGIVI/UA 

(310)449-3000 

Warriors of Virtue, 5/2, Act/Adv, PG. 1 04 

min. DTS. Angus MacFadyen, Mario Yedidia. 

Marley Shetton. Chao-Li Chi. Dir: Ronny Yu. 

(212)708-0300 

Miramax 

(212)941-3800 

(213)951-4200 

Cos!, Com, 4/11 NY, LA. 100 min. Toni Collette. 

Barry Otto, Ben Mendlesohn. Ractiel 

Griffittis. Pamela Rabe. Dir Mark Joffe. 

Nlghtwatdi. 4/25 wide, Dra/Thr. Nick Nolle. 

Ewan McGregor, Patricia Arquette. Josti 

Brolin. Dir: Ole Bornedal. 

Chlldi«n of the Revolution. 5/1 NY/LA, Com. R. 

102 min. Rat. Judy Davis. Geoffrey Rush. Sam 

Neill. 

Din Peter Duncan. 

Brassed Off. 5/23 NY LA. Dra.R, 107 min, 

Dolby SR, Rat. Pete Postlethwaite. Tara Fitzgerald. 

Ewan McGregor. Dir: Mark Herman. 

Mouth to Mouth (Spain). 6/6, Com, R, Dolby 

SRD. Anamorphic. 110 min. Javier Bardem. 

Dir: Manuel Gomez Pereira. Squeeze. 6/13. 

Thr, R. Dir: Robert Patton-Spruill. Temptress 

Moon. 6/13. Dra. R, 115 min Gong Li. Din 

Chen Kaige. Love Serenade (Australia). 6/20. 

Com/Dra. R. 101 min. Miranda Otto. Dir: Shirley 

Barrett. Shall We Dani» (Japan), 6/27, 

Com. PG. Koji Yasuyo. Dir: Masayuki Suo. 

Mimic, 7/18 wide, SF/Thr. Mira Sorvino. 

Josh Brolin, Jeremy Northam, Charles 

Dutton 

Dir: Guillermo del Tore. 

Mrs. Brown, 7/18. Dra, PG. Judi Dench, Billi 

Connolly. Dir: John Madden. 

Seven Notes In Black (1 978 release as The 

Psychic, Italy), 7/25 NY/LA. Jennifer O'Neill 

Olr: Lucio Fulci, 

Austin Powers: International Man of 

New Line 

Mystery. 5/2. Com. PG-13. 88 min, Dolby SR, 

SR-D, SDDS, Anamorphic. Mike Myeis, Elizabetti 

Hurley. Mimi Rogers. Michael Yortt 

(310)854-5811 

Dir: Jay Roach. 

Trial and Error. 5/30. Com. PG-13. Dolby SR, 

(212)649-4900 

SR-D, SDDS, Anamorphic. Michael Richards, 

Jeff Daniels, Rip Torn. Charlize Theron. Dir: 

Jonathan Lynn. 

Paramount 

(213) 956-5000 

(212)373-7000 

Ttio SaM. 4/4, Act/Adv, PG-13, 117 min. 

Dolby SR-D. DTS, Anamorphic, Val Kilmer, 

Elisabetfi Shue, Rade Serbedaja. 

Dir: Pliillip Noyce. 

Breakdown. 5/2. R. 95 min. Dolby SR-D, Anamorphic. 

Kurt Russell. Kathleen Quinlan, J.T. 

Walsh. Dir: Jonathan Moslow. 

Night Falls on Manhattan. 5/16. Dra. R. 

Andy Garcia. Richaiti Dreyfuss. Lena Olin. Ian Holm 

Din Sidney Lumet. Til Tliere WasYoo, 5/30. 

Rom/Com, PG-13, 1 14 min. Jeanne Tripplehom. 

Dylan McDermott, Sarah Jessica Parker, Jennifer 

Aniston. Dir: Scott Winant. 

Face/Of, 6/27. Act. Dolby SR-D. SDDS. John 

Travolta, Nicolas Cage, Joan Allen, GIna 

Gershon. 

Dir: John Woo. 

Titanic. RonVAdv Leonardo DiCaprio. Kate 

Winslet. Bill 

Gloria Siuan. Suzy Amis. 

Paxton. Billy Zane. Kathy Bates. 

Dir: James Cameron, 

Good Burger, 7/25, Com. Kel Mitchell. Kenan 

Thompson, Abe Vigoda. Din Brian Robbins 

TriStar 

(310)280-8000 

Jungle Book2. 5/2 ltd. Bill Campbell. Jamie 

Williams. Roddy McDowall. Dir: Duncan 

McLachlan. 

My Best Friend's Wedding, 6/27, Rom/Com, 

R, Dolby A, SR, SDDS Julia Roberts, 

Dermot Mulroney, Cameron Diaz, Rupert 

EveretL Philip Bosco, Olr: P,J, Hogan, 

(212)833-8500 

Inverting Die Mbals. 4/4, Dra, R, -120 min. 

Dolby SR. SDDS. Anamorphic. Liv Tyler, Joa- 

Sfiaail II: Cnilsa Control. 6/13. Act PG-13, 135 

- 

Out to Sea. 7/2. Com. PG-13, Dolby SR Flat 

(310)369-1000 

(212)556-2400 

quin Phoenix, Billy Cradup, Jenniter Connelly. 

Dir: Pat O'Comer. 

Volcano. 4/25. Act/Adv. PG13, -105 min. 

Doby SR. SRD. SDDS. DTS, Anamorphic. 

Tortimy Lee Jones, Anne Heche, Gaby 

Hodmann. Don Cheadte, John Coitietl. 

KeUhDavld.DlrMtekJaclsan. 

min, Dolby SR. SDDS. DTS. Anairmrphic. 

Sandra Bulock, Jason Patric. Willem Dafoe. 

Glenn Plummer. Temeura Morrison, Brian 

McCardle. RoyaleWatkins. 

Dir Jan De Boot. 

Walter Matthau. Jack Lemnx)n. Brent Spiner. 

Dvan Caimon. Elaine Stntcti. Hal Linden. Oonal 

O'Connen Alexandra Powers. 

Dir: Martha Coolidge. 

Universal 

(818)777-1000 

(212)759-7500 

That Old Feallng. 4/4. Com, PG-13, 103 

min. DTS. Bette Midler. Dennis Farina. Danny 

Nucci. Paula Marshall. Gall O'Giady. 

Dir Carl Reiner. 

McHale't Ni»y. 4/18. Com. PG, -101 min. 

DTS Tom Arnold. David Alan Grier, Dean 

Stockwell. Tim Cuny. 

Dir Bryan Sfiicer. 

The Lou WotU. 5/23. Adv. PG-13. -130 

min. DTS. Rat. Jeff Goldblum. Jullanne 

Moore. Vince Vaughn. Pete Postlethwaite. 

Artiss Howard. Richard Schiff. Peter 

Stormare. Vanessa Lee Chester. 

Dir: Steven Spielberg. 

A Simple Wish (lormerlv The Fairy Godmother). 

7/1 1 lent. Com, PG Mara Wilson, 

Martin Short, Kathleen Turner, Robert 

Pastorelli. Dir: Michael Ritchie 

Warner Bros. 

(818)954-6000 

(212)484-8000 

LnT(IM|riMMKMlln.«4 W. Ore. 

P613, 105 min. DTS. SopNe Mnwi. Sew 

Beaa Ma KirKlinar, Mhed Mom Or Btiran) 

Rose 

Mirtar « lan. 4/18. Thr. R. 106 min. DTS. 

Wesley Snipes. Diane Lane, Daniel Bnnjall. 

Olr 

Dwight H Little. 

FNw'iDay . b/9. Com. 101 min. Anamorphic 

Robin Williams. Billy Crystal. Natassja 

KinsW. Julia Louis-Dreyfuss. 

Dir Inn Reitman. 

MdkMloUM. S/23. Rom^m. R. 101 mia 

Doljy SR-0, DTS. FU Meg Ryan. Matthew 

BfDdeitck. Olr: Gilffln Dunne 

I RoMn, 6/20, Act/Adv. PQ-13, 

DTS. George Clooney, Chris O'Donnell, Alicia 

Sllverstone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Uma 

Thurman. Olr: Joel Schumacher. 

WM America. 7,'2. Adv. PG, 1 07 min. Dolby SB, 

SW). Joreflian Taylor llxinns, Dir: BUI Dean 

Comm. 7/11. Thr. DTS. Jodie Foster. Matthew 

McOonaughey. John Hurt Dir. Robert Zemedds. 

Conspiracy Dieoiy. 7/25. Ttir. DTS Mel Gith 

son. Julia Roberts. Patrick Stewart. 

Dir: Richard Donner 

187. 7/30. Dra. R. DTS Samuel L. Jackson. 

Kelly Rowan, John Heard. Dir: Kevin Reynolll

August September Forthcoming 

FEATURE CHART — JULY 1 997

KM) 

BOXOFUCE 

3 

3 

5 

7 

BOXOFFICE Independent Feature Chart JULY 1997 

JUNE 

Castle Hill 

212-888-0080 

End of Summer, Dra, Jaqueline 

Bisset. Dir: Linda Yellen. 6/1 3 NY 

Innocent Sleep. 6/27 

CFP 

212-995-9662 

The Pillow Book, Dra, 1 26 min. 

Vivian Wu, Ewan McGregor. Dir: 

Peter Greenaway. 6/6 

Cinema Parallel 

410-442-1752 

To Have (Or Not), Dra, NR, 93 

min. Dir: Laetitia Masson. 

Cinema Village Features 

212-431-5119 

Mondo Plympton, Ani. Dir: Bill 

Plympton. 

Fine Line 

212-649-4800 

For Roseanna, Com, PG-13, 99 

min. Jean Reno, Mercedes Ruehl. 

Dir:PaulWeiland. 6/18NY 

Head Above Water, Dra/Com, 

PG-13, 92 min. Harvey Keitel. 

Dir:Jim Wilson. 6/20 ltd 

Kino Intl. 

212-629-6880 

M (1931 German re-issue), Dra, 

99 min. Dir; FriU Lang. 6/13 

Legacy 

213-467-3700 

Wedding Bell Blues, Com. 

Paulina Porizkova, llleana Douglas. 

Dir: Dana Lustig. 6/1 

Leisure Time Features 

212-267-4501 

Twisted, Dra, 100 min. Dir: Seth 

Michael Donsky. 

Manga 

415-975-5405 

Tetsuo: Body Hammer. Dir: 

Shinya Tsukamoto. 

New Yorker Films 

212-247-6110 

Gabbeh, Dra, 75 min. Abbas 

Sayahi, Hossein Moharami. Dir: 

Mohsen Makhmalbas. 6/25 NY 

Orion Classics 

310-282-0550 

Ulee's Cold, Dra, R, 1 1 3 min. 

Peter Fonda, Patricia Richardson. 

Dir: Victor Nunez. 6/1 

Orion Pictures 

310-282-0550 

Fall, Rom/Com. Star/Dir: Eric 

Schaeffer, 6/20 

Roxie Releasing 

415-431-3611 

The Last Time I Commited Suicide, 

Dra, 92 min. Thomas Jane, 

Keanu Reeves. Dir: Stephen Kay. 

Sony Classics 

212-833-8851 

Dream With the Fishes, Dra, R, 96 

min. David Arquette. Dir: Finn 

Taylor. 6/20 

when the Cat's Away (France), 

Dra/Com, R, 95 min. Garance 

Clavel. Dir: Cedric Kapisch. 6/20 

Strand 

310-395-5002 

Timothy Leary's Dead, Doc, 80 

min. Dir: Paul Davids. 6/5 LA 

Contempt (1963 reissue). Dir: 

)ean-Luc Godard. 6/27 NY, 7/4 LA 

Late Bloomers, Rom/Dra, 1 04 min. 

Dir: Julia and Gretchen Dyer. 6/27 

LA, Houston, 7/18 NY 

JULY 

Artistic License 

212-265-9119 

La Renconter (France), Dra, 80 

min. Dir: Alain Cavalier. 

Castle Hill 

Brilliant Lies. 7/1 1 NY 

CFP 

Guantanamera, Com, NR, 124 

min. Dirs: Thomas Gutierrez Alea 

and Juan Carlos Tabio Rey. 7/2 

First Look 

310-855-1199 

Alive and Kicking (aka Indian 

Summer). Jason Flemyng, Antony 

Sher. Dir: Nancy Meckler. 7/25 

Fox Searchlight 

310-369-4402 

Star Maps, Dra, 90 min, R, Dolby 

SR. Dir: Miguel Arteta. 7/23 ltd 

International Pictures 

212-925-0404 

Love's Debris, Doc, 120 min. 

Featuring Anita Cerquetti. Dir: 

Werner Schroetrer. 7/23 NY 

Live 

818-778-3174 

The Winner, Thr, 89 min. Rebecca 

DeMornay, Frank Whaley. 

Dir: Alex Cox. 


Forever Mozart, Dra, NR, 84 

min. Madeleine Assas, Frederic 

Pierrot. Dir: Jean-Luc Godard. 7/4 


This World, Then the Fireworks. 

BillyZane, GinaGershon. Dir: Michael 

Oblowitz. 7/1 8 NY, LA 

Strand 

Latin Boys Go To Hell. Irwin 

Ossa, John Bryant Davila. Dir: Ela 

Troyano. 7/25 NY, LA 

Theafilm 

213-368-1778 

Dirty Weekend. Lia Williams, 

Sylvia Syms. Dir: Michael Winner. 

7/1 1 ltd 

Trimark 

310-314-3040 

Box of Moonlight, 107 min. John 

Turturro, Sam Rockwell. Dir: Tom 

DiCillo. 7/25 NY, 8/8 LA 

Triumph 

310-280-8059 

Masterminds (formerly Smart 

Alec), Act/Com. Patrick Stewart. 

Dir: Roger Christian. 

AUGUST 

Artificial Eye 

212-255-1922 

Mon Homme (France), Com/Dra, 

95 min. Anouk Grinberg. Dir: 

Bertrand Blier. 

CFP 

Bandwagon, Com/Mus, NR, 103 

min. Kevin Corrigna, Lee Holmes. 

Dir: John Schultz. 8/15 ltd. 

Sunday, Dra, 93 min. David 

Suchet, Lisa Harrow, Jared Harris. 

Dir: Jonathan Nossiter. 8/22 

Cinema Parallel 

Talking To Strangers (reissue). 8/2 

First Look 

Different for Girls, Rom/Com, 97 

min. Rupert Graves. Dir: Richard 

Spence. 8/1 

First Run 

212-243-0600 

Hamsun (Norway). 1 60 min. Max 

Von Sydow. Dir: Jan Troell 8/6 


The Full Monte, Com, -95 min, 

R, Dolby SR, Flat. Robert Carlyle. 

Dir: Peter Cattaneo. 8/15 

Goldwyn 

310-282-0550 

Paperback Romance (formerly 

Lucky Break), Rom/Com. Anthony 

LaPaglia. Dir: Ben Lewin. 8/1 

Napoleon, Ani, G, 82 min. Voices: 

Adam Wylie, Bronson Pinchot. Dir: 

Mario Andreacchio. 8/8 

Gramercy 

310-777-1960 

How To Be a Player, Com. Bill 

Belamy, Lark Voorhies. Dir: Lionel 

Martin. 8/15 

Kit Parker 

800-538-5838 

Coffy (1973 reissue), Dra, R, 91 

min. Pam Grier, Booker 

Bradshaw. Dir: Jack Hill. 8/29 NY 

Live 

Dirty Dancing (1987 reissue), 97 

min. Patrick Swayze Dir: Emile 

Ardolino. 

Northern Arts 

413-268-9301 

Soul in the Hole, Doc. Dir: Danielle 

Gardner. 8/8 NY,LA, Sept 

exp 

October 

212-539-4000 

Career Girls, Dra. Katrin Cartlidge, 

Lynda Steadman. Dir: 

Mike Leigh. 

Sony Classics 

In the Company of Men, Dra. 

Aaron Eckhart, Matt Malloy. Dir: 

Neil La Bute. 8/8 

Strand 

Nights of Cabiria (1957 Italian 

reissue), Dra, 110 min. Giulietta 

Masina. Dir: Federico Fellini. 

SEPTEMBER 

CFP 

Dra, 94 min. Andrew Mc- 

Stag, 

Carthy, Mario Van Peebles. Dir: 

Gavin Wilding. 

Dreamworks SKG 

818-733-7000 

The Peacemaker, Act/Adv. 

George Clooney, Nicole Kidman. 

Dir: Mimi Leder. 9/26 


Intimate Relations, Dra, 99 min, 

R, Dolby SR, Flat. Dir: Philip 

Goodhew. 9/5 

Ice Storm, Dra, Dolby SR, Flat. 

Kevin Kline, Joan Allen. Dir: Ang 

Lee. 9/27 

Cousin Bette, Dra. Jessica Lange, 

Bob Hoskins. Dir: Des McAnuff. 

Gramercy 

Going All the Way, Dra. Jeremy 

Davies, Ben Affleck. Dir: Mart 

Pellington. 9/19 

The Matchmaker, Com. Janeane 

Garofalo. Dir: Mark Joffe. 

Greycat 

702-737-0670 

David Searching, Com/Dra, 1 03 

min. Anthony Rapp. Dir: Leslie 

Smith. 

Live 

Suicide Kings (formerly Boys 

Night Out), Thr. Christopher 

Walken, Sean Patrick Flanery. 

Dir: Peter O'Fallow. 

Manga 

Gravesend, Dra. Dir: Sal Stabile. 

Northern Arts 

Withnail and I tl')87 British reissue). 

Com, 105 min. Richard E. 

Grant. Dir: Bruce Robinson. 

October 

Kicked in the Head. Linda 

Fiorentino, Michael Rapaport. 

Dir: Matthew Harrison. 


The Locusts, Dra. Kate Capshaw, 

Ashley Judd. Dir: John Patrick 

Kelley. 9/12 

Crimmal Intent (formerly Gang 

Related), Dra, R. Tupac Shakur, 

Jim Belushi. Dir: )lm Kous. 9/1

BOXOFFICE Independent Feature Chart JULY 1997 

Sony Classics 

The Myth of Fingerprints, Dra. 

Noah VVyle, Julianne Moore, Roy 

Schneider. Dir: B. Freundlich. 9/9 NY 

OCTOBER 

Fine Line 

Gummo, Dra. Chloe Sevigny. Dir: 

Harmony Korine. 1 0/3 

Goldwyn 

Welcome to Wood Woop (formerly 

The Big Red), Com. Jonathan 

Schaech, Rod Taylor. Dir: 

Stephan Elliott. 10/3 

Gramercy 

Bean, Com. Rowan Atkinson. 

10/24 

Live 

Wishmaster, Hor. Dir: Robert 

Kurtzman. 

IVIanga 

Tokyo Fist, Act. Dir: Shinya 

Tsukamoto. 

New Xorket Films 

Deep Crimson, Dra, 114 min. 

Daniel Gimenez, Marisa Paredes. 

Dir: Arturo Ripstein. 10/6 

Northern Arts 

MIdaq Alley (Mexico), Dra, 1 40 

min. Salma Hayek, Ernesto 

Gomez. Dir: Jorge Pons. 


Best Men (formerly Independence), 

Dra. Dean Cain, Drew 

Barrymore, Luke Wilson. Dir: 

Tamra Davis. 1 0/24 

Sony Classics 

Fast, Cheap & Out of Control, 

Doc, 79 min. Dir: Errol Morris. 

Ttieafilm 

James Dean: Race With Destiny. 

Casper Van Dien, Robert 

Mitchum. Dir: Mardi Rustam. 

10/3 

Trimaric 

Eve's Bayou, Dra. Samuel L. Jackson, 

Lynn Whitfield. Dir: Kasi 

Lemmons. 10/17 

Chairman of the Board, Com. 

Carrot Top. 10/24 

FORTHCOMING 

Artificial Eye 

The Mother and the Whore 

(France, 1973), Dra, 210 min. 

Dir: Jean Eustache. Fall 

Happiness (France), Com, 1 02 

min. Michel Serrault. Dir: Etienne 

Chatiliez. 

Artistic License 

Riding the Rails, Doc. Dirs: Michael 

Uys, Lexy Lovell. 

Cabin Fever 

203-622-3449 

The Elevator, Com. Martin Sheen. 

The Secret Agent Club, Act. 

Cinema Village Features 

Cartoon Noir, Ani. Fall 

Dove 

310-786-1600 

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, 

CorrVSF, 92 min. Douglas Adams. 

Dir: Neil Davies. 

Dreamworks SKG 

Mousehunt, Com,/Ani. Nathan 

Lane, Lee Evans, Christopher 

Walken, Vicki Lewis. Dir: Gore 

Verbinski 11/14 

Amistad (formerly Mutiny), Dra. 

Matthew McConaughey, Anthony 

Hopkins, Morgan Freeman. Dir: 

Steven Spielberg. 12/12 ltd, 12/19 

exp 

Ants, Ani. Voice: Woody Allen 

Blue Vision. Dir: Neil Jordan. 

Deep Impact. Tea Leoni, Elijah 

Wood. Dir: Mimi Leder. 

El Dorado: City of Gold, Ani. Dir: 

Will Finn. 

Paulle: A Parrot's Tale. Dir: John 

Roberts. 

The Prince of Egypt, Ani. Voices; 

Val Kilmer, Steve Martin, Martin 

Short. Dirs: Simon Wells, Steve 

Hicker and Brenda Chapman. '98 

Saving Private Ryan, Dra. Tom 

Hanks, Ed Burns. Dir: Steven 

Spielberg. '98 

Filmopolis 

310-914-1776 

In a Strange City. Winston Chao, 

Kuei-mai Yang. Dir: Chi Yin. 

Fine Line 

Winter Guest, Dra. Emma 

Thompson, Phylidda Law. Dir: 

Alan Rickman. Fall 

Deconstructing Harry, Com. 

Woody Allen, Kirstie Alley. Dir: 

Woody Allen. 

Didier (France). Alain Chabat. 

Dir: Alain Chabat. 

Girl Talk, Dra/Com. Troy Beyer, 

Rand! Ingerman. Dir: Troy Beyer. 

The Legend of the Pianist on the 

Ocean, Dra. Tim Roth. Dir: 

Giuseppe Tornatore. 

Letters of Love (Japan) (formerly 

Love Letters), Dra, 1 1 6 min. Miho 

Nakyama. Dir: Shunji Iwai. 

The Sweet Hereafter, Dra. Ian 

Holm. Dir: Atom Egoyan. 

Tears of Julian Po, Dra. Christian 

Slater, Robin Tunney. Dir: Alan 

Wade. 

First Look 

Mrs. Dalloway, Dra. Vanessa 

Redgrave, Rupert Graves. Dir: 

Marleen Gorris. Fall 

Slaves to the Underground, Dra, 

92 min. Marisa Ryan, Jason Bortz. 

Dir: Kristine Petersen. Fall 

Keep the Aspidistra Flying, 

Dra/Com. Richard E. Grant, Helena 

Bonham Carter. Dir: Robert 

Bierman. 

The Other Side of Sunday (Norway), 

Dra. Bjorn Sundquist. Dir: 

Berit Nesheim. 

First Run 

Forgotten Silver. Mock Doc. 

Dirs; Peter Jackson, Costa Botes. 

Project Grizzly, Doc. Dir: Peter 

Lynch. 

Six O'clock News, Doc. Dir; Ross 

McElwee. 


Oscar & Lucinda. Ralph Fiennes. 

Dir: Gillian Armstrong. Nov 

Hard Men (UK), Dra. Vincent 

Regan. Dir: J. K. Amalou. '97 

Polish Wedding. Claire Danes, 

Gabriel Byrne, Lena Olin. Dir: 

Theresa Connelly. '98 

Goldwyn 

1 Love You... Don't Touch Me, 

Com, 86 min. Maria Schaffel. Dir; 

Julie Davis. 

Gramercy 

The Big Lebowski. leff Bridges, 

John Goodman, Steve Buscemi. 

Dirs: Joel and Ethan Coen. Nov 

Body Count, Act. Ving Rhames, 

Forest Whitaker, David Caruso. 

Dir: Robert Patton Spruill. '98 

Land Girls. Gwyneth Paltrow, 

Catherine McCormack. Dir: 

David Leland. 

Shakespeare's Sister. Kenneth 

Branagh, Madeleine Stowe. 

Gurney Releasing 

212-838-2929 

Follow the Bitch, Com. Melissa 

Lechner. Dir: Julian Stone. 

International Pictures 

The Knowledge of Healing, Doc, 

90 min. Dir: Franz Reichley. 

Legacy 

Leading Man. ]on Bon Jovi. 

Live 

Critical Care, Dra/Thr. James 

Spader, Albert Brooks. Dir: Sydney 

Lumet. Nov 

No Way Home, Dra. Tim Roth. 

Dir: Buddy Gioviazzo. '98 

iVIovleworid Ent. 

510-244-5590 

The Killing Kind, Dra. Kirk Harris 

The Lost Woman. Jennifer Rubin 


Beaumarchais (France), Com, 

100 min. Fabrice Luchini. Dir; 

Edouardo Molinaro. 12/19 

October 

Year of the Horse, Doc. Featuring 

Neil Young and Crazy Horse. Dir; 

Jim Jarmusch. Fall 

Condo Painting, Doc. Featuring 

George Condo. Dir; John Mc- 

Naughton. '98 

Hearts and Minds, Thr, R, 105 

min. Danny Keogh, Patrick Shai. 

Dir: Ralph Ziman. '98 

Three Seasons, Dra. Harvey Keitel. 

Dir; Tony Bui. '98 


Storefront Hitchcock, Concert 

Doc. Robyn Hitchcock. Dir: Jonathan 

Demme. '98 


Best Men (formerly Independence), 

Dra. Dean Cain, C)rew 

Barrymore, Luke Wilson. Dir: 

Tamra Davis. 1 0/24 

Music From Another Room, 

Com. Brenda Blethyn, Jennifer 

Tilly, Martha Plimpton, Jeremy 

Piven. Dir; Charles Peters 

Stella Does Tricks. Kelly Macdonald. 

Dir: Coky Giedroy. 

Seventh Art Releasing 

213-845-1455 

The Long Way Home, Doc. Dir; 

Mark Jonathan Harris. 

Things I Never Told You, 

Rom/Com. Lili Taylor, Andrew 

McCarthy. Dir: Isabel Coixet. 

Shadow Distribution 

La Petite Apocalypse (France), 

Com/Dra, 110 min. Pierre Arditi. 

Dir:Costa-Gavras. 

Sony Classics 

Men With Guns, Dra. Federico 

Luppi, Mandy Patinkin, Kathryn 

Grody. Dir: John Sayles. 

Tango Lesson. Dir: Sally Potter. 

Strand 

Full Speed, Dra, 85 min. Elodie 

Bouchez. Dir: Gael Murel. Fall 

La Sentinelle (France), Thr, 144 

min. Emmanuel Salinger. Dir: 

Arnaud Desplechin. Fall 

Self-Made Hero (France), Dra. 

Matthieu Kassovitz. Dir: Jacques 

Audiard. Fall 

The Tit and the Moon (Spain), 

Com, 92 min. Biel Duran. Dir: 

Bigas Lunas. Fall 

Tara Releasing 

415-454-5838 

Mushrooms (Australia), Com, 93 

min. Julia Blake, Simon Chilvers, 

Lynette Curran. Dir: Alan Madden. 

Theafilm 

Madam, the Grass Is High. Dir: 

Delbert Mann. Nov ltd 

Trimark 

Bombshell, Thr. Henry Thomas, 

Frank Whaley. Dir: Paul Wynne. 

Prairie Fire, (vlatasha Henstridge. 

Warrior of Waverly Street, SF. 

Joseph Mazzello. Dir: Manny 

Coto. 

Zeitgeist 

212-274-1989 

Anthem, Doc. Dir:ShaineeGabe! 

and Kristin Hahn. 

Conspi rators of Pleasu re ( 

Czech), 

Com. Dir: Jan Svankmajer. Fall 

Fire (India), Dra. Shabani Azmi. 

Dir: Deepa Mehta. 

My Sex Life... or How I Got Into 

An Argument (France), Com. Dir: 

Arnaud Desplechin. 

July, 1997 101

THE BOXOFFICE 

HOME RELEASE CHART 

JULY 1997 

HOME VIDEO 

RQfASEDATE

) 

1 

. 

Boxoffice Magazine 

presents 

NovieRme's Noviegoer Activity Report 

Forthe Month of April 1997 

MovieFone® (777-FILM^) and its sister service, MovieLink" Online, are now the single largest source ofmovie showtime information in the country, 

providing information to over 12 million moviegoers each month. ThefoUowing information represents the most reque.^ted theatres and exhibitors on MovieFone. 

Top 10 Exhibitors & Theatres 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

Ejdklbitor 

Most Requested Exhibitors 

United Artists 

Sony 

Cineplex Odeon 

AMC 

General Cinema 

Century 

Cinemark 

CinAmerica 

National Amusements 

Regal 

Total Requests 

676,325 

584,914 

565.844 

539,183 

360,439 

208,517 

165.298 

138,520 

134,185 

111,202 

Last HoBlb's 

Rank 

1 

3 

2 

4 

5 

6 

7 

9 

8 

10 

Most Requested Tlieatres 

, .„ ^, 

Last Month's 

Rank Market Theatre TMalReguttls Rank 

1 NY Sony Lincoln Square 47,395 1 

2 BO SonyCheri 31,337 2 

3 NY Sony 19tti St. East 30.229 9 

4 BO Sony Assembly Square 29,559 6 

5 LA AMC Century 14 26,197 3 

6 BO Sony Copley Place 26,023 8 

7 LA GCC Beverly Connection 25,099 25 

8 PH UA Riverview Plaza 24,088 4 

9 NY Sony Village 7 24,059 16 

10 NY CO Worldwide 23,797 13 

IMal 

Requests 

New York 

1,113,744 

Los Angeles 

587,949 

Dallas 

508,017 

San Francisco 

312,709 

Miami 

281,533 

Boston 

263,332 

Philadelphia 

261,321 

Chicago 

205,547 

Phoenix 

196,975 

Toronto 

159,837 

Houston 

149,361 

San Diego 

117,215 

Rank 

Theatre (# screens) 

Most Requested Theatres Per Screen 

Total 

RequM^ 

1 CityCin 86th St. East (2) 14,081 

2 UAEast(1) 6.547 

3 COZiegfeld(l) 6,360 

1 GCC Avco (3) 20,753 

2 CinAm Bruin (1) 6,891 

3 GCC Beverly Connect. (6) 25.099 

1 AMC Highland Pk (4) 7,079 

2 Granada Movie Grill (1 

1 ,747 

3 GCC Northpark 1 & 2 (2) 3,207 

1 BIm Regency I 

(1) 5,385 

2 BIm Regency II (1) 4.994 

3 Century Geneva D-l (4) 12.442 

1 Cobb Kendall (9) 14,667 

2 Cobb Miami Lakes (10) 16,143 

,^,„ GCC Riviera (4) 6,223 

1 SonyCheri (4) 31,337 

2 FEI Somerville(l) 3,821 

3 Sony Nickelodeon (5) 17,699 

1 UASameric(4) 16,171 

2 Cinemagic 3 at Penn (3) 10,494 

3 UA Cheltenham (8) 22,063 

1 Village North (1) 2,393 

2 Sony Webster Place (8) 12.333 

3 Sony Pipers Alley (4) 5.695 

1 Century Glendale 9 D-l (9) 17,723 

2 Hark Cine Capri (1) 1,710 

UA Christown Mall (6) 8,028 

1 Famous Uptown (3) 7,043 

2 Famous Eglinton (1) 1,984 

3 Famous Plaza (2) 3.768 

1 CO River Oaks Plaza (12) 12,267 

2 Landmk River Oaks (3) 3,052 

3 CO Spectrum (9) 9,014 

1 Pacific Grcssmont Trolley (8) 5,393 

2 Pacific Cinerama (6) 3,916 

3 UAHorton Plaza (14) 7,821 

Top 3 Actively* Requested Theatres: 

'Caller specifically requested theatre 

Exhibitors »m BhmanMdTheams 

Carmiu Cannice Onentas. be 

CmAffl 

Q»fQxi 

Cd 

CfMnsnca TY«aB«s, LP 

OtyOrmnas 

Qrwflto Oaeon Qxp 

Cote 

Dksn 

Ftmoutt 

FEl 

GCC 

Qeneni 

Hark 

W^MOOO 

Cot»'nie^«s 

OcKnson T))uires 

Famous Ptay«n 

FQTheaVM 

QensmOn* 

Qei 

HadonsTTwans 

Ho*y»wo(lThMtfBa 

Last Month's 

Rank 

35 

2 

1 

4 

13 

8 

7 

5 

13 

28 

23 

7 

1 

3 

1 

6 

5 

2 

6 

3 

2 

6 

7 

2 

1 

7 

4 

5 

1 

2 

3 

12 

14 

11 

Total 

Requesb 

Denver 

94,903 

Kansas City 

93.845 

Atlanta 

92,950 

Seattle 

80.442 

Minneapolis 

75,555 

Cleveland 

64,667 

San Antonio 

51,589 

Las Vegas 

51,043 

Rank 

1 

2 

.§.- 

Washington, D.C. 1 

46,529 

Sacramento 

41,104 

Detroit 

40,803 

Tampa 

31,252 

CO Worldwide 

New York, NY 

Undnic 

InnmlW 

1 

2 

3 

1 

2 

3 

1 

2 

3 

1 

2 

3 

1 

2 

3 

1 

2 

3 

1 

2 

3 

Thealre (# screens) 

AMC Tiffany Plaza (6) 

UA Continental (6) 

CinAm Olde Town (14) 

Dksn Cinema (6) 

Dksn Glenwood (4) 

AMC Oak Park Plaza (6) 

UATara(4) 

Carmike Exchange (3) 

AMC Galleria (8) 

COSouthcenter(l) 

Landmk Metro (10) 

CONorthgate (1) 

UA St. Anthony Main (5) 

Landmk Uptown (1) 

Mann MN Highland (2) 

Sony Cedar (2) 

GCC Ridge Park Sq. (8) 

GCC Parmatown (5) 

Total 

Requests 

Last Month's 

Rank 

Act III Westlakes (9) 

Act 111 Bandera (6) 

Act III Rolling Oaks (6) 

Century Las Vegas D-l 

UA Showcase (8) 

Century Cinedome (12) 

CO Uptown (1) 

CO Embassy (1) 

COAvalon(2) 

Century Century 21 (2) 

Century Complex (12) 

Century Sacramento D-l 

MJR Main Art (3) 

Star Lincoln Park (8) 

AMC Southland (4) 

Carmike Univ. Collect. 

Muvico Palm Hartxjr (10) 

AMC Horizon Park (4) 

2,630 

3.852 

7,826 

6.251 

4.059 

5.609 

2,414 

1.313 

3,214 

777 

7.598 

716 

2,774 

511 

996 

1,387 

5,494 

3,092 

5,053 

3,253 

3,089 

4,832 

4,474 

6,158 

1,256 

734 

1 , 

55j5,«a;fejL«4i»Bi 

1,282 

7,330 

2,999 

931 

2,415 

1,194 

1,954 

3,091 

1,199 

5 

11 

4 

4 

1 

2 

1 

9 

3 

18 

10 

4 

2 

1 

1 

2 

8 

4 

1 

7 

12 

7 

6 

2 

3 

1 

7 

2 

9 

2 

20 

2 

4 

' 

(6) 

(6) 

(6) 

Sony Lincoln Sq. 

New York, NY 

landoHih TtaMM Corp. 

Hatin Ukimipais 

3. UASheepshead Bay 

Brooklyn, NY 

PxSk 

Reg* 

Sony 

Sbr 

SvpSsv 

UA 

Pac^K Theatres 

RegiOcfnas 

Sony Theatres 

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UnMdJMmThattreCRUt

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NATIONAL 

NEWS 

MO' MONEY FOR THE MOVIES 

The first quarter profits for 1 997 are in and 

the results, with the exception of Viacom, 

look good across the board, making it official 

that this was one banner first quarter for the 

movies. Sony Corp. increased revenues more 

than 1 ,000 percent over last year's disappointing 

first quarter returns, posting $99.5 

million in profit, thanks to strong boxoffice 

from "Jerry Maguire," "Anaconda" and "The 

Fifth Element." Sony Pictures Releasing continues 

to look strong with the upcoming "Men 

In Black," "My Best Friend's Wedding" and 

"Air Force One." News Corp.'s profits were 

up 38 percent for the quarter ending March 

31 with $291 million profit, which is credited 

to the boxoffice success of subsidiary 20th 

Century Fox's reissue of the "Star Wars" trilogy. 

It was the weakest quarter for the Walt 

Disney Company, who still exceeded many 

analysts' estimates and rose 63 percent over 

last year's first quarter results to earn $333 

million in profit, with the help of "Ransom," 

subsidiary Miramax's "The English Patient" 

and the home video release of "Toy Story." 

Time Warner Inc. posted $35 million in profit 

despite its heavy debt. Viacom Inc. showed a 

net loss of $ 1 8.7 mi II ion, brought down by the 

Blockbuster Entertainment unit and a less than 

blockbuster performance from Paramount, 

which showed a cash flow decline of 25 

percent. Seagram Co.'s corporate earnings for 

the quarter more than doubled, posting $27 

million in profits despite the fact that 

Universal's hit "Liar, Liar" was released too 

late in the quarter to help, though it will 

certainly boost next quarter's profits. 

Among exhibitors, first quarter profits were 

well up from last year which is due, insiders 

say, to the industry becoming a 12-month 

business instead of a seasonal one. Regal 

Cinemas Inc. posted a $8.5 million profit, up 

85 percent from last year. AMC Entertainment 

Inc.'s earnings were up 1 7 percent to $8.2 

million. Cineplex Odeon Corp. showed $2.1 

million profits against last year's $7.2 million 

in losses. Cinemark USA Inc.'s first quarter 

profits more than doubled from last year's 

$2.5 million up to $5.1 million, thanks in part 

to the addition of just over 220 screens added 

last year. 

GIANT-SCREEN GIANTS SETTLE 

OUT OF COURT 

Large-format companies, Imax and 

Showscan ceased rattling sabers at each other 

in May when they agreed to settled all 

litigation 

between them, one month before the first 

lawsuit was scheduled to begin. The settlement, 

which remains undisclosed, is not expected 

to have a financial effect on either 

company. The string of lawsuits first began in 

February 1996 when Imax filed suit against 

Showscan, charging copyright infringement 

over similarities between Showscan's 

Showmax and Imax's own large-format camera 

and projection systems. 

Showscan, in turn, filed their own complaint 

against Imax for violation of Federal 

anti-trust laws. Then again this February, 

Showscan filed suit in U.S. District Court, 

seeking to have the trademark of Imax Corp. 

canceled because "Imax" had become a generic 

term. Showscan's newly appointed 

CEO, Dennis Pope, was said to be instrumental 

in negotiating the settlement between the 

two large-format companies. 

POLYGRAM'S GAME FOR A NEW 

DISTRIBUTION COMPANY 

They've been working on the move for 

years, but finally. Polygram Filmed Entertainment 

unveiled a new film distribution company. 

Polygram Filmed Entertainment 

Distribution, that would work alongside PFE's 

Gramercy Pictures to release motion pictures. 

Andy Fogelson was named president of the 

new unit by PFE president Michael Kuhn. 

William Soady has been named president of 

distribution and Peter Graves comes in as 

president of marketing. Kuhn looks for 

Polygram's distribution entity to emulate the 

success of such distribution companies as 

Miramax or October. 

Polygram already distributes its own films in 

foreign markets, including France, Australia 

and Canada. Company sources say the $900 

million in annual revenues from its 400-title 

film library should maintain more than enough 

financial strength to carry a domestic distribution 

division, but industry insiders say it would 

take several years of releasing 10-12 wide release 

pictures before the new distributor wou Id 

have a shot at the majors. Gramercy Pictures, 

which released last year's "Fargo," will continue 

under president Russell Schwartz as an 

autonomous entity. The first release for Polygram 

Distribution will be "The Game," a 

David Fincher ("Seven") helmed thriller starring 

Michael Douglas and Sean Penn. 

LEED ON AT TRISTAR AS 

COLUMBIA LOSES JOSEPHSON 

ExM VP Chris Lee's move up to president 

of production at TriStar Pictures makes him 

the first Asian American to ever hold that high 

a rank at a major studio. As the top executive 

at TriStar, Lee is effectively replacing the former 

president of TriStar Pictures, Robert Cooper, 

who resigned in May after less than a year 

on the job. 

Lee oversaw "Jerry Maguire" said he will 

continue to oversee TriStar's "Godzilla" and 

"Starship Troopers" even as he takes on his 

new responsibilities. Lee started as a script 

reader and worked his way through the ranks. 

He was also the executive on "The Fisher 

King," "Philadelphia" and "Legends of the 

Fall." The installment of Lee ends speculation 

that Sony Pictures Entertainment was planning 

to merge Columbia and TriStar into one 

entity, since SPE president and COO John 

Calley had already integrated the story and 

business affairs units into one entity. 

Insiders say Calley never got along with 

Cooper, who was brought in by former SPE 

head Mark Canton to TriStar last summer from 

HBO Pictures. When Canton left last year and 

Calley was appointed in November, Cooper 

became frustrated with Galley's very handson 

approach that didn't allow Cooper to operate 

autonomously. Rumors say Cooper may 

land at PolyGram or DreamWorks. 

Meanwhile, Columbia Pictures president 

of production Barry Josephson, who was rumored 

to be a likely candidate to replace 

Cooper, will leave before his contract is up 

October 1 . He may end up with a producing 

deal at Sony. His position will not be filled, as 

Columbia Pictures president Amy Pascal will 

take over Josephson's responsibilities. Josephson 

was considered one of the last executives 

with strong ties to the former Canton regime, 

as he was the first hire by Canton. Josephson 

was responsible for overseeing such big-budget 

action films as "Bad Boys," Money Train," 

"Anaconda," The Devil's Own" as well as this 

month's "Men In Black" and "Air Force One." 

UNIVERSAL'S BACK TO THE BANK 

Universal Studios Inc. recently sealed a 

$1.1 billion, biggest-deal-of-its-kind, threeyear 

film financing agreement with Citibank 

j 

(Citicorp Securities), the very financial institu- ! 

tion that structured a similar $1 

billion deal 

last year with 20th Century Fox. The money 

will go to financing 1 2-20 films per year (up 

to 60 films overall). Since the financing facility 

will be an "off-balance sheet" for Universal, 

the debt won't show up on parent company 

Seagram Co. Ltd.'s balance sheet. 

Universal is just one of many major studios 

looking for ways to pay for the high cost of 

filmmaking without having to delve into the 

pockets of its parent company. The off-balance-sheet 

financing uses the anticipated 

value of the future films, packaged together, 

as a kind of bond or stock offering. The bank(s) 

or investors buy into units of the entire group 

of films rather than any one film. This way the 

studio doesn't have to go to the parent company 

but still gets to make movies, and the 

investors share in the film's profits but don't 

need to put all their eggs in one film basket. 

The off-balance-sheet financing is becoming 

a popular strategy that many studios are looking 

into for possible financing. Time Warner Inc. 

may line up a similar deal with Chase Securities 

to provide funds to its New Line Cinema. 

IS POPCORN INCLUDED?—MOVIE 

THEATRE ADMISSIONS RISE TO $9 

They say if it happens in New York, it's only 

a matter of time before it happens everywhere 

else in the country. If that's true, then moviegoers 

across the U .S. wi 1 saddened to hear 

the price of an evening at the movies is on its 

way up. The Sony Lincoln Square multiplex 

in New York City recently upped their prices 

to an all-time high of nine dollars per ticket, 

a cost that is more than twice the national 

average for a trip to the silver screen. 

Of course. New York is still better off than 

Japan, where a movie ticket goes for the 

equivalant of $ 1 5, but for American exhibitors 

three questions come to mind: Is it a sign of 

times to come? How much of that nine smackers 

do the exhibitors get to keep? And, most 

importantly, for that price, who can afford a 

night at the movies? But not all is lost—while 

New Yorkers may have to shell out the big 

bucks for their trip to "The Lost World," the 

price for a movie ticket in America still averages 

out to a mere $4.41 .

EXHIBITION PIONEER PASSES AWAY 

James Edwards Sr. dies at age 90 

Edwards Sr., founder and chairman 

James 

of the nation's 13th-largest theatre chain, 

passed away at his Newport Beach, Calif, 

home on April 26, 1997, at the age of 90. 

Emblematic of the dynamic personality that 

characterized his career, he was launching a 

boat into thechannel water behind his Newport 

Island home when he was felled by a heart attack. 

It all began in 1930. With America in the 

Depression, Edwards reopened a bankrupt 

moviehouse, the Monterey in Monterey Park, a 

town in which he resided near Los Angeles. "I 

paid 20 percent of the gross for the lease, which 

was pretty stiff," he recalled to BOXOFFICE for 

our Edwards 65th anniversary story (Nov. 1995 

issue). Always an innovator, Edwards set an 

audience conduct code ("We had a choice to 

make; keep the kids, or make the theatre a place 

that families would enjoy") and built a cry room 

for mothers and infants. 

The circuit grew; by yearend 

1 996, Edwards Theatres 

Circuit—now based 

in Newport Beach—had 

527 screens at 90 sites, 

with a year-end 1998 

forecast for 750 screens. 

"Maybe it was just plain 

stubbornness" is how Edwards 

explained his suc- 

"When [my wife] 

cess. 

Bernice and I didn't even 

have money to buy food, 

we kept hanging on. We 

both felt the movies were 

just the greatest source of 

entertainment." 

Born November 23, 

1 906, in downtown L.A.'s 

'T'^-t. 

Boyle Heights section, Edwards was raised in 

the San Gabriel Valley, attended Alhambra 

High and was running his first theatre at age 

23. His family was always a key component in 

the Edwards equation. Today, four generations 

of Edwards are involved in the business. Bernice, 

his wife of 64 years, was his partner at 

home and at work, and his children now head 

the company. Son James Edwards III is president 

and chief operating officer; daughter Joan 

Edwards Randolph is senior executive vice 

president and chief financial officer; another 

daughter, Carole Ann Ruoff, is assistant treasurer; 

grandson Don Barton is vice president 

and general sales manager; and great-grandson 

Brian Barton checks theatre operations. 

"This is a family business," says Marcella 

Sheldon, James Edwards Sr.'s secretary almost 

from day one. (Sheldon joined the company in 

1 932; she describes that time this way: "I was 

the only employee he had." The company now 

has 2,400 staffers.) "He has established a 

strong foundation that will live on." 

Edwards created his chain based on a philosophy 

of making people happy and having 

fun doing it. "He stood at the door and greeted 

people when they came in, and he asked them 

on the way out how they'd liked the picture," 

Sheldon says. But he was also a sawy businessman. 

In a move predating the modern multiplex 

era, Edwards put two screens into a single theatre 

in Alhambra in 1939. "He had a little storeroom 

there," Sheldon recalls, and after its 

transformation the Alhambra became a "Dual

; 

EXHIBITION 

BRIEFINGS 

CINEMARK'S FIRST BRAZIL SITE 

Cinemark International, a subsidiary of 

Cinemark USA Inc., opened its first Brazilian 

multiplex. The Cinemark 12 Shopping Collnas 

in Sao Jose dos Campos opened its doors 

in May. Cinemark plans to build a total of 1 70 

screens in 1 5 theatres in Brazil by the end of 

1998. Newly announced are the Cinemark 1 

Tambore in Sao Paulo; the Maxi Shopping 1 

in Jundiai; the Novo Shopping 1 5 in Ribeirao 

Preto; the Shopping Uberlandia 10 in 

Uberlandia; and the Central Plaza 15 in Sao 

Paulo. In the Sao Paulo Metropolitan area, 

Cinemark is also building the SP Market 1 1 

the Santo Andre ABC Plaza 1 0; the Interlagos 

10; the Tatuape 8; the Aricanduva Shopping 

Leste 14; the Eldorado Jardins 5; and the 

Panamby 16; and in Rio de Janeiro, the Barra 

da Tijuca 1 2. Several of these theatres will have 

stadium seating, which will be a first for Brazil. 

EDWARDS TO BUILD 

18NEWMEGAPLEXES 

Edwards Theatres Circuit Inc., which 

opened three new megaplexes in April, has 

unvei led plans for construction to begin on 1 

new megaplexes in Southern California 

within the next 1 2 months. Each will offer DTS, 

Dolby and SDDS sound systems; high-back 

chairs; stadium-style seating; and loveseats. 

Edwards currently operates 560 screens in 89 

SoCal locations. The chain is projected to 

have 750 screens by the end of 1 998. 

MARCUS EXPANDS GROWTH PLAN 

Milwaukee-based Marcus Theatres plans 

to accelerate its growth plan in Wisconsin, 

Illinois and Michigan. "Two years ago we 

announced plans to double the size of our 

circuit from 200 to 400 screens by the year 

2000," says Bruce J. Olson, president of Marcus 

Theatres. "After a 32 percent expansion 

In our screen count last year, which was far 

and away the largest in company history and 

the second highest growth rate among the top 

40 theatre circuits in the country, we're confidently 

raising our goal for the year 2000 to 

500 screens." The initial goal of 400 is anticipated 

to be met by the end of 1 998. Marcus 

currently operates 297 screens in Wisconsin 

and Illinois, and has begun retrofittingexisting 

theatres with stadium seating. 

AMC COLONIZES IN TEXAS 

AMC will build a 24-screen, 5,000-seat 

megaplex, due to open in December, at the 

First Colony Mall in Sugar Land, Texas. Its 

"enhanced moviegoing environment" will 

offer stadium-style seating with 46-inch spacing 

between rows; loveseats with extra-wide 

retractable cushion cupholders; and AMC's 

exclusive High Impact Theater Systems 

(HITS), including Torus compound curved 

wall-to-wall screens and SDDS sound systems. 

81 

SHOWMANDISER PROMOTION OF THE MONTH 

Extraterrestrial personages were out in 'force' to promote the re-release of "Star 

Wars" at Cortland, N.Y.'s Plaza Theatres. Plaza owner Sam Mitchell of SjM 

Entertainment and manager Dave Wayman convinced local businessmen Bill 

Cleary and Joe Balas to dress up as Darth Vader and the iarge-craniumed creature 

pictured above, respectively, to celebrate the intergalactic festivities. The Force was 

truly with the Plaza on opening night, when the theatre sold out every single 

showing of the sci-fi classic. 

REGAL'S NET INCOME 

INCREASES 78 PERCENT 

Regal Cinemas president and chief executiveofficer 

Michael Campbell announced that 

the company's net income increased 78 percent 

for the quarter ending April 3, 1997, with 

total revenues increasing 40.6 percent. "Regal 

had an outstanding start to 1997, producing 

financial results for the first quarter than exceed 

expectations," says Campbell. "In addition 

to the continued substantial expansion of 

screens in operation and increased operating 

efficiencies, our results benefitted from a 

strong slate of films, which generated record 

first quarter results for the industry. "Campbell 

adds that Regal's screen count grew 26.6 

percent to 1 ,325 screensat 1 59 locations from 

1 ,047 in 1 35 locations at the same time last 

year. 

Regal recently announced several new upcoming 

builds, including a 22-plex in 

Warrington, Pa.; a 16-plex in Willoughby, 

Ohio; a 1 2-plex in Hampton, Va.; an 1 8-plex 

in Henrietta, N.Y.; and an 8-plex in Morganville, 

N.J. 

LOEWS OPENS 1 8-PLEX 

IN STAFFORD, TEXAS 

Loews Theatres (formerly Sony) has opened 

an all-stadium seating 1 8-plex, the Loews 

FountainsTheatre, in Stafford, Texas. Referred 

to by Loews as a "modern-day movie palace," 

the Loews Fountain combines the grandeur of 

"golden era" moviehouses with the latest in 

technologies and amenities. The theatre 

showcases the Loews "Star" design, featuring 

a huge art deco-styled lobby with a dramatic 

arched glass atrium ceiling. Each auditorium 

will range from 200 to 700 seats, with total 

seating for 4,800. The Fountain will anchor 

Stafford's Fountains On The Lake retail center, 

located on Fountain Lake Drive. 

CINEPLEX BREAKS GROUND 

ON CHICAGO PLEXES 

Toronto-based Cineplex Odeon and its 

Chicago-based development Inner City Entertainment 

broke ground on the first of three 

new multiplexes to be located in Chicago's 

inner-city communities. The theatres mark the 

continuation of Cineplex's plans to build 

state-of-the-art complexes in urban areas 

across the United States. "(We're makingj a 

pledge to not only bring entertainment to the 

community, but also to provide employment 

for its residents," says Allen Karp, president 

and CEO of Cineplex. Over 400 permanent 

and part-time jobs will be available through 

the three developments. All three sites will 

open in late November. 

CENTURY BITES INTO 

ORANGE MARKET 

Century Theatres, headquartered in San 

Francisco, has broken ground in on its Stadium 

Promenade 25 in Orange, Calif. The 

multiplex will anchor a 1 79,000-square-foot 

retail entertainment center developed by 

Syufy Enterprises (Century's parent company). 

The theatre will be all-stadium seating, with 

the latest in sound and presentation technologies. 

Its architectural character is described 

as being reminiscent of the art deco style of 

the '30s and '40s, with dramatic lighting and 

tall vertical palm trees gracing the facade. The 

Stadium Promenade is slated for a Thanksgiving 

opening.

7 

— 

— 

GOODRICH: BAY CITY ROLLERS 

Goodrich Quality Theaters Inc., which 

operates 136 screens in Michigan, Indiana 

and Illinois, will add two screens to the Bay 

City 6 Theatre located in Grand Rapids, 

MIch.'s Bay City Mall. According to Carrie 

Suntken, Goodrich's marketing manager, 

the theatre is being expanded due to an 

increasing demand for more first-run films. 

"With the expansion, we will bring an even 

greater opportunity for the Bay City area to 

see hit films at a convenient location," says 

Suntken. The Bay City 8 is scheduled to 

re-open this fall. Other Goodrich theatres 

currently being built include the Kalamazoo 

10 in Oshtemo, Mich.; the Portage 

9 in Portage, Ind.; and the 

Kendall 10 in Oswego, III, 

MUVICO GOES TO TOWN 

WITH RENOVATIONS 

Muvico Town Center, located 

in Boca Raton, Fla., has reopened 

after undergoing major 

renovations. Thechanges include 

a brand new facade, lobby, concessions 

stand, state-of-the-art 

boxoffice, and new restrooms. 

The re-openi ng weekend celebrations 

included live music in the 

lobby and face painting and balloon art for 

kids. Also recently renovated was Muvico's 

Hialeah 14, which received a new art deco 

facade, as well as upgrades throughout the 

lobby area. Ft. Lauderdale-based Muvico 

has 61 screens throughout Florida, with 1 1 

screens being built in the Southeastern United 

States, the Caribbean and South America. 

ONE BILLION PEOPLE DISCOVER 

"HIDDEN CITY" 

An estimated one billion people will see 

"Hidden City," a two-minute trailer that its 

producers hope will promote awareness and 

inspire action to protect the world's coral 

reefs. The trailer premiered at the AMC Century 

14 in Los Angeles, and will be shown 

on more than 5,000 screens in the U.S. and 

Canada. The trailer was produced by Earth 

Communications Office (ECO), a non-profit 

coalition of organizations and individuals 

within the entertainment industry working 

'together to promote environmental awareness 

and responsible action. Kodak was one 

of ECO's initial sponsors in 1 991 when they 

created their first environmental awareness 

trailer, "Wonderful World," and since then 

Kodak has donated all of the film each year 

to produce thousands of prints. 

SHOWMINDER 

Remember to save the following dates: 

Cinema Expo, June 29-July 2, RAl, Amsterdam. 

Call 21 2-246-6460. ..Mid-Atlantic 

NATO Seminar-Reunion, July 10-11, Harbor 

Court Hotel, Baltimore, Md. Call (757) 

722-5275. .Australian Movie Convention, 

Aug. 1 3-1 6, Royal Pines Resort, Cold Coast, 

Australia. Call 011-617-33-56-5671... 

ShowSouth, Aug. 19-20, Callaway Gardens 

and Resort, Pine Mountain, Ga. Call (770) 

455-8988... ShowEast, Oct. 20-23, Trump 

Taj Mahal, Atlantic City, N.J. Call 21 2-246- 

6460... CineAsia, Dec. 3-5, Singapore International 

Convention and Exhibition Centre. 

Call 212-246-6460. 

Q&A 

DREAMWORKS 

DATABASE ANALYZES 

PLAY PATTERNS 

entertainment industry moguls Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenbergand David 

WithCeffen at the helm, it's no wonder that DreamWorks is already known for being 

a studio that pushes the envelope, even before it's released its first film (which 

will be "The Peacemaker" this September). Mark Christiansen, who beads up DreamWorks' 

distribution operations, tells Boxoffice about the company's latest innovation: a computer 

program that can instantly analyze how a genre of film performs in a given region, state, city 

or theatre. 

BoxoFFrcE: Describe the electronic delivery system that you're involved 

with pertaining to boxoffice figures. 

MARK CHRISTIANSEN: We do receive electronic boxoffice feeds— 

everyone does, of their own numbers, from EDI. It's much easier to sort 

through the data when it's on a computer as opposed to when it's on a 

couple hundred pages of paper. The electronic delivery of the figures is 

not a new technology. We have put in some new systems which use that 

electronic feed much more than anyone's used before. 

Boxoffice: Can you tell me about the system? 

CHRISTIANSEN: It's a system (that DreamWorks designed] which 

allows the salespeople to use historical data to see how theatres play 

certain types of films. So you can look up and see how a particular theatre 

plays action films, or how they play animated films, so that you can make 

a decision as to which theatre you might want to play on a particular kind 

of film you have for sale. 

Boxoffice: Regarding the small mom-and-pop theatres that may not 

have great clout or draw, do you make any provisions for them? 

CHRISTIANSEN: This [program] does show what the theatre can do dollar-wise, but we 

don't look at it that way on a particular genre. It shows how a theatre performs percentage-wise. 

So whether we're looking at a very high-grossing theatre or a very low-grossing theatre, it will 

still show whether that theatre tends to over-perform [or under-perform] for its own level on 

a particular genre. So if it's a guy who generally grosses $1 ,000 a week, but when he plays 

animated films, he grosses $2,000 a week, it'll show that this guy's over-performing on 

animated film by 100 percent. 

Boxoffice: Is this an example of how DreamWorks plans to re-invent industry standards? 

CHRISTIANSEN: (Laughs] I don't think we're trying to re-invent industry standards. Historically, 

the distribution companies all had local branches, and in each local branch, the local 

branch manager knew about the theatres. He'd been to the theatres, he knew the people who 

owned the theatres, he—he or she—knew how that particular theatre might pert'orm on a given 

product. Now, we only have two offices. We have New York and Los Angeles. And we may 

not have anyone in this office who's ever been to Billings, Montana. So what we're trying to 

do is to find a way to get an insight into markets that we don't [otherwise] have, because we 

don't have someone who's physically in that area to go see that theatre. We're trying to give 

ourselves more information about a market, so that we can target our movies to the theatres 

that it makes the most sense for them to play. And this is something that's good for both the 

distributor and the exhibitor. It certainly doesn't make sense for an exhibitor to play films that 

don't tend to pert'orm well in their theatre. And conversely, it doesn't help us to place our film 

into a theatre that will under-perform on a product if there's another theatre available that 

tends to over-perform on the product. 

Boxoffice: What are some of the other innovations that you're involved with? 

CHRISTIANSEN: DreamWorks was envisioned from the very beginning as a company that 

would make maximum use of all new technologies, and that goes from production to 

distribution to accounting—anything you want to look at within DreamWorks. We're definitely 

trying to use the latest technology to push forward what's currently being done. 

Boxoffice: What are some other things DreamWorks does differently as a studio? 

CHRISTIANSEN:There's a genuine teamwork philosophy at DreamWorks, and I would say 

that the boundaries between departments are less defined at DreamWorks than they are at 

some other companies. 

Boxoffice: There aren't official job titles at DreamWorks. What is that meant to convey? 

CHRISTIANSEN: What it's meant to convey is that anyone within this company can have 

something to say, and it shouldn't matter what their rank is within the company. That shouldn't 

dictate how much weight we give to a particular idea. Where I've seen that really come into 

play is when you're in a meeting, anyone at that meeting can put an idea out on the table, and 

since they are not a senior vice president or a director or a manager—they don't have a title 

no one says, "Well, I think we should really pay attention to that, because that person has a 

high rank," or "That person is an assistant—we don't care what they have to say." 

Boxoffice: And it's not confusing? 

CHRISTIANSEN: No, I don't think it's confusing at all. The way that we say what jobs we 

have is that we define what we do. So I don't have a title, but when anyone asks me what I 

do, I say I'm the head of operations for distribution. 

Boxoffice: What would you say is your main focus at present? 

CHRISTIANSEN: We're trying to put together a good system to support the sales department 

in their efforts to get the DreamWorks films out into the market. Christine James 

Iiilv 1007 in7

INTERNATIONAL NEWS BRIEFS 

EUROVIEWS 

European News Notes by Melissa Morrison 

LEAD STORY: ITALY'S QUALITY QUOTAS 

ROME—Two major Italian movie funders, Mediaset and RAI, have announced 

plans to up their respective budgets for film production. Mediaset, the media group 

of business kingpin (and former Italian Prime Minister) Silvio Berlusconi, said that it 

will dedicate 10 percent of its advertising revenues to boosting its own film and TV 

production. The announcement by one of Italy's most powerful private media enterprises 

is welcome news in a country where film production is suffering from the 

withdrawal of traditional state subsidies. In 1995, production fell to a postwar low of 

75 films, totaling investments worth $153.5 million. Mediaset's contribution is expected 

to total $150 million annually, about two-fifths of which would goto cinema 

productions. The announcement could pave the way for similar commitments from 

the private sector, which is regarded as the Italian industry's savior, and was welcomed 

by the country's deputy prime minister, Walter Veltroni. Veltroni is regarded 

as a cinema supporter who wants to boost private investment with tax breaks as a 

replacement for government subsidies. Mediaset's announcement comes as the Italian 

Parliament considers a law that would require national TV networks to allot 30 

percent of their production and acquisition budgets for European movies and programs. 

Mediaset's Managing Director Carlo Bernasconi criticized government-imposed 

quotas, saying they would drive down the quality of productions. State 

broadcaster RAi announced a few weeks later that it would increase its budget for the 

production of films and TV programs, tipping the balance of its resources away from 

the acquisition of outside productions. A spokesman said the broadcaster would do 

so with the intention of replacing American fare with Italian and European programs. 

Like Mediaset's proclamation, RAI's announcement was also seen as an attempt by 

a media company to avoid government controls by setting its own guidelines. 

POLYGRAM GRABS LOAN, CARLTON REORGANIZES 

CANNES—There were deals aplenty at the recent Cannes Film 

Festival as it' s considered the place for companies to announce their 

latest goings-on. In an agreement that marks a first for the European 

Investment Bank (EIB), PolyGram has been granted an $80 million 

loan to partially finance films produced under the PolyGram Filmed 

Entertainment label. According to EIB's statement, the financed 

films will be "targeted to the general-interest and family entertainment 

market" and will be lensed primarily in the European Union. 

It is the first loan of its kind to the film indu.stry . Brian Unwin, EIB 

president, said the aid was to promote Europe's entertainment 

mdustry and "enhance its international competitiveness." Poly- 

Gram recently scored big with the Oscar-winning "Fargo." Upcoming 

titles include "Welcome to Sarajevo" and the next Coen 

brothers' film, "The Big Lebowski." 

Meanwhile, Carlton Film Distributors (CFD), which was formeriy 

Rank Film Distributors (RED) before Carlton Communications 

paid out $ 107 million for the distribution arm, cut back a third 

of its staff—some 20 jobs off the roster. George Helyer, CFD' s new 

managing director, who used to be the number two man at RED, 

said he was happv with the changes. Insiders say Carlton Communications 

is now looking to acquire Rank's Pinewood Studios. 

GROWTH SPURTS 

BUDAPEST—Cinema-expansion news from opposite sides of 

the continent: Hungary's lead as the former East Bloc country with 

the most multiplexes widens with the announcement that major 

distributor/exhibitor Budapest Film plans two more like its pioneering 

Corvin cinema. A new, private offshoot of the formerly 

state-owned company has been set up to attract foreign investment 

to finance the new complexes. Budapest 

Film invested $3.6 million 

into the Corvin last September, 

converting an existing theatre from 

1,100 seats to 1,500 and outfitting 

it with six screens and Dolby 

sound. As a result, admissions in 

the Hungarian capital have risen 25 

percent since 1995 to 125,000. The 

Corvin was the first of a string of 

multiplexes, including one by Intercom 

(the country's largest distributor), 

Australia's Village 

Roadshow and Canada's Cineplex 

Odeon. The latter two companies 

have announced plans to build additional 

cinemas in the country. 

(Budapest Film itself will undergo 

a transformation: In January, its 

distribution wing, which is municipally 

owned, will become a 

wholly private company.) 

Over in London, Virgin Cinemas 

has announced it will accelerate its 

expansion plans in 1997, devoting 

$54.9 million to fixing up and 

building new theatres, rather than 

the $31 million it had originally 

intended to spend. The change was 

inspired by an especially good 

1996, in which the company reported a 90 percent increase in 

operating profits, for a total of $21.5 million. Virgin plans to build 

20 new multiplexes by 2000. 

CLEAN CARS AND DIRTY DEALINGS 

ST. PETERSBURG—Victor Sergeyev, the new head of renowned 

Russian studio Lenfilm, is trying to scrub up business by 

launching (of all things) a chain of car washes, while stunning the 

country with his film about government corruption. The car-wash 

business is meant to restore income to the studio, which hit its 

financial and creative nadir last year, producing a single film. State 

funding has been slashed, and Lenfilm' s production services for 

foreign productions (the bread-and-butter of post-communist studios) 

have been usurped by such foreign competitors as the Czech 

Republic's Barrandov Studios. Lenfilm will build 20 car-wash 

machines on St. Petersburg's outskirts, and should attract a lot of 

business since the city's governor announced that driving a dirty 

car within the city would now be against the law. The State Auto 

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Inspectorate, GAI, will receive a portion of 

the profits in return for its officers directing 

dirty cars to the machines. The studio hopes 

to earn $2 million annually—same as its 

current budget—from the side business, for 

which it took out a $3 million loan. Some 

would argue that Russia's government 

should devote itself to cleaning up its politicians 

rather than its cars. Sergeyev's justreleased 

film "Schizophrenia" draws a 

startlingly bleak picture of the new Russia 

with its story of a former KGB officer who 

carries out hits on prominent figures. The 

film's veracity has been ensured by its main 

consultant, Alexander Korzhakov, himself 

a former KGB officer as well as President 

Boris Yeltsin's former bodyguard. The plot 

is reportedly based on a true account by a 

Russian mafia godfather. 

SAVED BY THE BELL 

MADRID—Spain is another European 

country grappling with the threat of reduced 

government funding for film productions. 

Most recently, the Culture Ministry narrowed 

the subsidies available to movies by 

requiring that a film generate at least 

$350,000 in boxoffice receipts before it can 

qualify for a subsidy, up 67 percent from the 

former requirement. The plan also lowers 

the ceiling for subsidies, which can compose 

no more than one-third of a film's 

budget, from $ 1 .4 million to a little over $ 1 

million. 

Some good news, however: The 

country's telecom behemoth, Telefonica, is 

considering investing in local productions 

as a way of smoothing the film sectors' 

opposition to the perceived competition of 

digital TV, which should be launched in 

Spain by the summer. Telefonica, which is 

a semi-public company, has had discussions 

with producer Andres Vincente 

Gomez's Lola Films, as well as other companies. 

Telefonica's representative in the 

talks is producer Pedro Perez, a former head 

of the Spanish producers federation, 

FAPAE. According to Telefonica, the 

telecom would create a financing and sales 

operation similar to that operated by the 

media group Prisa. And on the wholly private 

end of the spectrum, at least one production 

and financing company, Sogetel, 

has pumped up its commitment to films. So 

far this year, Sogetel has co-production 

plans with six different entities, as well as a 

commitment from broadcaster Tele 5 to 

fund three of its films in the next two years. 

SHORT TAKE 

HAMBURG—Ten European countries 

will band together to promote their films 

around Europe, an example of lightweights 

and middleweights teaming up to battle a 

champion heavyweight—America. Film 

export federations from the United Kingdom, 

Austria, Germany, France, Switzerland, 

the Flanders half of Belgium, the 

Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, and Italy 

have establishecl the European Film Promotion. 

The organization will be based in 

Hamburg and its board will consist of president 

Claudia Landsberger of Holland Film, 

Bruno Barthemy of Unifrance, and Christian 

Dorsch of the German Export Union. 

The union seeks to promote members' films 

collectively at international festivals. 

Q&A: 

ANICA'S ALBERTO 

FIORETTI ON 

ITALIAN CINEMA 

Italy's ANICA (National Association for the Cinematography and Audiovisual 

Industry) has a challenge tougher than a two-day-old biscotti 

ahead of it. 

The trade association for movie producers and distributors, 

as well as others in the audiovisual industry, is facing one of the bleakest 

periods for Italian cinema. Production in 7 995 reached a postwar low of 75 

films. Although that number improved by 24 films in 1 996, domestic films 

got only 20 percent of Italy's market. Abroad, the figures are even worse. 

Italian exports are below 2 percent elsewhere in Europe and even lower in 

the United States, according to a 1996 study. The slashing of government 

funds for promotion abroad is one reason. Others say that, except for the 

occasional "11 Postino, " the Italian industry hasn 't returned to the days when 

lira rained down upon the glory of Federico Fellini and Michelangelo 

Antonioni. Alberto Fioretti, ANICA's foreign-department representative, 

discusses what his organization intends to do about it. 

That's why we are 

now discussing a 

joint promotion 

between Italy and 

France. That could he 

a good idea, because 

in some countries 

if you go alone, 

you are lost. 

not the minister for 

Boxoffice: How is ANICA dealing with Italian cinema's low period? 

ALBERTO FIORETTI: ANICA works with the government department for 

movies and discusses from the point of view of the producer how to improve the new 

low. As you know, we have some problems selling Italian films abroad, because, as 

everywhere, the Americans are powerful in distribution. So we try to improve 

distribution abroad. Our minister 

now is 

money, he's the minister for the 

culture, Mr. (Walter) Veltroni, 

and he's starting a new formula 

for promoting Italian film 

abroad. That's why we are now 

discussing a joint promotion between 

Italy and France. That 

could be a good idea, because in 

some countries if you go alone, 

you are lost. 

Boxoffice: You say the 

American distribution machine 

is the reason Italian 

films have trouble with distribution 

abroad? 

FIORETTI: They make a lot 

of good pictures, and the people 

are used to the American style. 

So every country—like France, 

like us. like Germany—finds 

some difficulties in promoting 

and distributing film in foreign 

countries. Even in markets where we're usually successful, like South America 

[because of similarities in language], we have some problems now, because even 

these countries are used to American films. 

Boxoffice: How else do you plan to improve distribution abroad? 

FIORETTI: We .still continue to attend all the festivals—Beriin. Cannes. Moscow—and 

make a couple of Italian promotions. Maybe we have to use more media 

promotion, to do something in television, to improve the forum for promotion. 

Boxoffice: Italian film has a good reputation in the United States. What 

caused the decline of popularity of Italian films in the United States and 

elsewhere? 

FIORETTI: I read something in the States where they say there is no more Fellini. 

But that's not true. The problem is to educate the audience to go to see an Italian film. 

Maybe there is a chance, because the people are grow ing tired of the usual American 

film with the violence. I don't say that all the American pictures are like that, becau.se 

many are very good, but the people now maybe would like to go see more European 

film. That's important also for the country identity, the cultural identity. 

Boxoffice: How Mould you characterize Italian cinema right now? 

FIORETTI: From the cultural point of view, it is good. It starts again in a new 

direction. The number of films is down from before. Before we made 100, 150 

features. Now we are making 65 or 70 features. So the quantity is down, but the qualitv 

is good. The last success is "II Ciclone" [directed by Leonardo Pieraccioni]. which 

made probably 50 billion lira in our state. 

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PACIFIC OVERTURES 

NOTES FROM THE PACIFIC RIM by Susan Lambert 

LEAD STORY: 

FUNDING AND OTHER (NARROWLY AVOIDED) CATASTROPHES 

SYDNEY—^The Australian film industr)' breathed a collective sigh of relief when the new 

federal budget was unveiled in May and. despite rumors of impending cuts, the funding for film 

held strong. The budget for the 1997-1998 fiscal year allocates AU$1 15 million (S89.7 million) 

for the film and television production industry which is under current subsidy levels of AUS 1 40 

million (US$109 million), but the majority of the cuts affect television and not film subsidies. 

Concern over potential budget cuts was so high that the Australian film industry was fighting 

back well before the budget was due. A group of Australia's key industry leaders and top talent 

wrote a letter to Prime Mmister John Howard in April to lobby in support of funding for the film 

industry. Signatories to the letter included notable actors, actresses, producers and directors as 

well as representatives from the directors, writers, editors, composers and cinematography guilds. 

Then a delegation, which included director Gillian Armstrong, actress Judy Davis and producer 

Jan Chapman, among others, met with Sen. Richard Alston, federal arts minister, to lobby for 

support of the industry. 

The lobbying seemed to do its job. Australia's main funding agency. Film Finance Corp., will 

maintain a budget of AU$48 million (US$37.4 million) until 2001 . Outgoing FFC chief executive 

John Morris was pleased with the stability four years of committed funding would bring. The 

Australian Film Commission will receive AU$1 1.5 million and Film Australia, a documentary 

producer, will receive a guaranteed AU$5 million per year until 1999. when the government hopes 

to privatize the organization. 

Meanwhile, exhibition in the land down under is also holding strong. Village Roadshow 

upgraded its popular Frankston, Victoria fourplex to an eight-screen theatre for a cost of AU$6 

million (US$4.7 million). Competitor Hoyts Cinemas opened an eight-screen complex in 

Booragoon, near Perth, on June 17. and announced a 12-screen (to be expanded to 16 screens) build 

in Wettierill Park (the western district of Sydney), which Hoyts expects to open in July of 1998. 

Boxoffice revenues seem to be 

on the rise, at least in China's two 

largest markets: Shanghai reported 

$31 million in boxoffice revenues 

last year, and Beijing reported receipts 

totalling $14 million. And 

the domestic film industry has received 

a great shot in the arm with 

the success of "Days Without the 

Hero," a drama about a martyred 

soldier, which earned record 

boxoffice (4.4 million yuan/ 

US$530,000) for a domestic fihn. 

Meanwhile, Shanghai-based 

consortium Smile—a partnership 

with local Chinese investors, Kuala 

Lumpur-based South Malaysian 

Industries and UCI—opened its 

first mulitplex in Chuongquing. 

The five-screen, 1,218-seat, stateof-the-art 

complex premiered with 

"Dante's Peak" and features a 

Showscan Dynamic Motion Simulator. 

And this month, the venture 

expects to open a six-screen, 1,500 

seat cinema in Wuhan. Next up will 

be the refurbishing of a Huxi entertainment 

center in Shanghai. 

MOVIES R US 

TOKYO—Businessman Den Fujita (chairman of toy retailer 

Toys R Us Japan) has teamed up with United Cinemas International 

(UCI—the Paramount/Universal international joint venture) in a 

partnership to develop and operate multiplex theatres in Japan. The 

first project is scheduled to open next February in Sapporo, Japan' 

northernmost major city. The 12-screen, 2,987-seat Sapporo Factory 

Cinema will be built around an existing screen that was part of 

an IMAX theatre. UCI and Fujita (who also holds a 50 percent stake 

in Blockbuster Japan's video store chain and 2,()00 Japanese 

McDonald's franchises) are reportedly each investing $2 billion 

yen ($16.7 million). The Fujita/UCI venture hopes to develop 20 

multiplexes with 200 screens in Japan over the next five years. 

Separate from the Fujita deal, UCI (one of four foreign multiplex 

companies operating in Japan) has plans to open a 2,456-seat 

nine-plex in Kanazawa in September. They have had record attendance 

at Otsu in western Japan where they opened a multiplex last 

November. The boom of multiplex building in Japan is expected to 

boost the number of screens from approximately 1 ,800 to well over 

2,000 by the year 2000. 

CHINA MOVING INTO MODERN AGE 

SHANGHAI—Jiangsu-based Yangtze Film Co. recently acquired 

rights for computer ticketing software from film importer 

China Film for 300,000 yuan (US$37,500). The move ushers 

theatres in China's Jiangsu province into the modem-day. The 

system will be installed in 50 theatres by the end of this month, with 

plans for 100 theatres to be outfitted by the end of 1997. The 

ticketing software will enable moviegoers to purchase tickets for 

shows at any of the networked theatres and allow accurate and 

timely boxoffice revenue figures—which is often difficult to come 

by in China where underreporting to avoid taxation is rampant. 

HARLEY'S HIGH HOPES FOR NEW ZEALAND FILM 

WELLINGTON—Ruth Hariey, the new CEO of the New Zealand 

Film Commission, says New Zealand, which produced such 

filmmakers as Jane Campion ("The Piano"), Peter Jackson ("Heavenly 

Creatures") and Lee Tamahori ("Once Were Warriors"), 

should try to increase its film output to six titles per year with help 

from foreign investments of both money and market endorsements. 

The local film industry currently gets about US$6 million annually 

in public funding, which is divided up between usually three to four 

features. Since the breakaway successes of the early '90s, few New 

Zealand films have followed the critical and commercial results of 

"The Piano," Heavenly Creatures" and "Once Were Warriors." 

Hariey, who was appointed to head New Zealand's chief funding 

agency in April, hopes that their two new films at Cannes can help 

turn that around: "The Ugly," a thriller about a serial killer by Scott 

Reynolds who just completed a second New Zealand feature, 

"Heaven" (Miramax is distributing in the United States), and a 

twisted twentysomthing comedy, "Topless Women Talk About 

Their Lives," by Harry Sinclair. What can also help the local 

filmmakers is the good news that New Zealand boxoffice is on the 

rise. For the first quarter of '97 (ending April 30), boxoffice results 

are reported at NZ$38.7 million (US$26.7 million) which is a 31 

percent increase over the same period from last year. 1996 first 

quarter results were NZ$29.5 million (US$20 million). 

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competitive salaries and opportunities for professional 

growth. Join our team as we expand in California, 

Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and beyond. If you 

are looking for growth and opportunity, have the ability 

to prepare, monitor and achieve budgetary goals, and 

have the enthusiasm and the ability to manage/motivate 

people, now is the time to let us hear from you! Theatre/Swap 

or other management experience required 

and some college helpful. Send your resume and salary 

requirements to Century Theatres and Swaps, Attn; 

Human Resources—Job Code lutGR1096, 150 Golden 

Gate Ave., San Francisco, CA 94102. No faxes or 

phone calls please. 

\ikr

San 

. 

FAX 

., 

Y..I., inn-T 

. 

ADVERTISER INDEX 

Action Lighting 113 

Automaticket/Hurley Screen Corp. . 91 

Caddy Products 70 

Christie Incorporated C-2 

Cinema Cleaning Systems 83 

Cinema Consultants & Services ... 69 

Cinema Film Systems Inc 33 

Cinema Supply Co 93 

Cinevision Corp 61 

Cy Young Industries Inc 95 

Deep Vision 3-D 105 

Dolby Laboratories Inc 15 

EIMS Inc 27 

Electronic Creations Inc 113 

Equipment, Etc 105 

Glassform 91 

Gold Medal Products Co 29 

Hadden Theatre Supply Co 73 

International Cinema Equip. Co. ... 53 

JBL Professional 5 

Kinetronics Corp. (USA) 95 

Kneisley Electric Co 79 

Largo Construction Inc 79 

Lavi Industries 23 

Manutech 77 

Maroevich, O'Shea & Coghlan Ins. . 93 

Mars Theatre Mgmt. Systems 47 

National Cinema Service Corp 76 

National Cinema Supply Corp 39 

National Ticket Co 73 

ORC Lighting Products 37 

OSRAM SYLVANIA 25 

Odell's 86 

Odyssey Products Inc 55 

Peavey Electronics Corp 21 

Permlight Technology 63 

Pike Productions 42 

QSC Audio Products Inc C-3 

Ready Theatre Systems 91 

Ricos Manufacturing Co 17 

Robert L. Potts Enterprises 112 

Sega GameWorks L.L.C 3 

Shovi/South 71 

Smart Theatre Systems 7, 43, 45 

Soundfold International 83 

Stein Industries Inc C-4 

Strong International 59 

TSM Trade Show Marketing 49 

TWI 110 

Ultra-Stereo Labs Inc 31 

Unique Screen Ad Productions .... 9 

Willming Reams Animation Inc. ... 87 

Windjammer Barefoot Cruises .... 93 

soundheads, new two-year warranty—in stock. Westar 

precision projector parts for Westar, Century, Westrex, 

Cinecita, RCA, Simplex or Monee projectors. Free catalog. 

Trades accepted. International Cinema Equipment. 

Internet: tittpV/www.iceco.com. Ptione (305) 573-7339; 

fax (305) 573-8101. Email: ICECO@aol.com. 

EQUIPMENT WANTED 

VINTAGE TUBE TYPE AMPS, woofers, drivers, tioms, 

parts, from Western Electric, Westrex, Altec. Jensen, JBL, 

EV, Tannoy, Mcintosh, Marantz. Phone David at (818) 

441 -3942, P.O. Box 80371 , IVIarino. CA 91 1 18-8371 

WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE: We will purchase Century 

projectors or soundheads, new or old, complete or incomplete, 

for cash. Also interested in XL and SH-1000. Call 

(502) 499-0050. Fax (502) 499-0052, Hadden Theatre 

Supply Co., attn. Louis. 

We will buy or trade for used/new equipment on any 

projector/soundhead/platter/lamphouse/console/speake 

rs/lens and concession equipment. We can remove or 

pick up anywhere in the U.S. or overseas. Call us at (303) 

298-8077 or fax (303) 296-4080. Tankersley Enterprises, 

P.O. Box 2039, Denver, CO 80201. 

WE WILL PURCHASE used theatre equipment. Consignments, 

outright purchases, trades, what have you? There 

is only one INTERNATIONAL CINEIVIA EQUIPMENT 

COMPANY at one location in the USA. International Cinema 

Equipment Co., (305) 573-7339, fax (305) 573-81 01 

Email ICECO@aol.com. 

THEATRES FOR SALE/LEASE 

COUNT YOUR MONEY ON THE BEACH!! Award-winning 

Florida Gulf Coast theatre now for sale. Serving an 

affluent, year-round, niche market, theatre has virtually no 

competition. An area landmark for over 50 years, located 

on valuable beach area property, theatre is a mix of classic 

architecture and backstage modernization. Call orfax now 

for fact sheet. Ask for Ms. Cruz at (813) 360-6697, or fax 

(813)360-5154. 

San Diego. CA. Well-established discount theatre. Twin 

screens. Contact Jill Thompson, CCIM, (619) 621 -9052. 

THEATRES WANTED 

Several of our clients are seeking to buy or lease multiscreen 

theatres in the eastern U.S. Call toll free: Theatre 

Confections Inc.. (888) 271-0858. 

DRIVE-IN CONSTRUCTION 

DRIVE-IN SCREEN TOWERS Since 1945 Selby Products, 

Inc., P.O. Box 267. Richfield. Ohio 44286 (216) 

659-6631 . 

800-647-6224. 

SCREEN TOWERS INTERNATIONAL New, used, transplanted, 

complete tower service. Box 399, Rogers, TX 

76569. Phone: 800-642-3591. 

THEATRE SEATING 

8,000 USED IRWIN Citations from $25, American Stellar 

M35s from $20, American highback deluxe rockers from 

$27.50, Wakefield self risers from $20, thousands of 

bargains. Photos available. International Cinema Equipment, 

(305) 573-7339, fax (305) 573-8101. 

"ALL AMERICAN SEATING" by the EXPERTS! Used 

seats of quality. Various makes, American Bodiform and 

Stellars from $12.50 to $32.50. Inwins from $12.50 to 

$30.00. Heywood & Massey rockers from $25.00. Full 

rebuilding available. New Hussey chairs from $70.00. All 

types theatre projection and sound equipment. New and 

used. We ship and install all makes. Try us! We sell no 

Junk! TANKERSLEY ENTERPRISES P.O. BOX 2039. 

2100 Stout Street, Denver, CO 80201 Phone: 303-298- 

8077 Fax: 303-296-4080. 

ALLSTATE SEATING is a company that is specializing 

in refurtjishing, complete painting, molded foam, tailormade 

seat covers, installations, removals. Please call for 

pricing and spare parts for all types of theatre seating. 

Boston, MA. Phone (61 7) 268-2221 , (617) 268-701 1 

"BOOSTER B. SAURUS" Child booster seats. Call Cy 

Young Industries Inc. at 800-729-2610. 

CHAIRS—NEW & USED. 3000 used chairs in stock, 

$7.50 and up. Seat covers, $3.50 and up. Foam pads. 

Cupholder annrests. HAYES EQUIP & SUPPLY, P.O. 

Box 593866, Orlando, FL 32859. (407) 857-6810. 

ON-SITE UPHOLSTERY and replacement covers. Parts 

available for many chairs. Our "Bakers Dozen" gives you 

13 covers for the cost of 12. Nationwide service. Free 

samples made up. Call Complete Industries for pricing. 

(800) 252-6837. 

SEAT AND BACK COVERS: tvlost fabrics in stock. 

Molded cushions. Cy Young Industries, 800-729-2610. 

SEATS CLEANED on site, $1.56-$2.36 per seat (coast 

to coast). Call (800) 879-231 1 , 24 hours, for brochure and 

informatbn. The Carpet Cleaner, P.O. Box 1 54, Osceola, 

MO 64776. 

USED AUDITORIUM CHAIRS: Choose from a large selection 

of different makes and models and colors, American 

Stellars and ln«in Citations competitively priced, 

shipped and installed. ACOUSTIC SOUND PANELS AND 

CUSTOM WALL DRAPERIES available in flameproofed 

colors and fabrics, artistic or plain. CINEMA CONSUL- 

TANTS & SERVICES INTERNATIONAL, Inc. P.O. Box 

9672, Pittsburgh, PA. 15226. Phone (412) 343-3900. Fax 

(412)343-2992. 

SERVICES 

ALTEC, JBL, E.V. SPEAKER RECONING: Factory authorized 

service, fast turnaround. We stock diaphragms 

for popular theatre drivers. Cardinal Sound & Motion 

Picture Systems Inc. Dealer inquiries welcome. (301) 

595-8811. 

FRONT END INSTALLATION with frames, motors and 

masking tracks. Call Cy Young Industries, 800-729-2610. 

SOUND/DRAPING FABRICS IN STOCK. All new selection 

of fabrics. Installation on brackets available, or sewn 

in pleated drapes. Call Cy Young Industries Inc., 800-729- 

2610. 

DIRECT IMPORTERS MANUFACTURERS 

ACTION 

TOLL FRtb "^ 

CANADA & LS.aI 

800-248-0076 

Response IMo. 

: Box Office "97 

I 

Ticketing & More... 

Windows '95 Based 

Microsoft Access Database 

Concession Sales & Inventory 

State Of the Art -Reliable 

18 Years Experience 

Custom Developnnent 

Satisfaction Guaranteed 

Electronic Creations, Inc. 

, Ph (61 9) 480-1 002 Fax (619) 480-6830 


SOUNDFOLDS & CURTAINS cleaned and fireproofed on 

site $.20-$.40 per hung sq. ft. (coast to coast). Call (800) 

879-2311, 24 hours, for brochure and information. The 

Carpet Cleaner. P.O. Box 154. Osceola, MO 64776. 

ULTRAFLAT. REFLECTORS: Why buy new when you 

can have it restored? "Hopeless" cases restored to brightriess. 

Call your dealer or ULTRAFLAT, 20306 Shennan 

Way, Winnetka, CA 91306. (818) 884-0184. 

http://www.cris.com~Ultraflt 

WE REPAIR AND SUPPORT the most widely used ticketing 

and concession systems. Our prices are approximately 

50% less than our competitors. Our customers 

include 30% of the top 50 circuits and many independents. 

Ask about our themial printer service. System Operating 

Solutions. Call (800) 434-3098. 

"WHILE THE THEATRE SLEEPS" On-site reupholstery. 

Top fabrics, molded seat cushions and "State of the Art' 

Cy Young cuphoWers. Cy Young Industries, 800-729-2610. 

MISCELLANEOUS 

8 to 35MM EDUCATIONAL, Adult, Exploitation—all subjects. 

Features, shorts. Buy/sell any size collection. Archives, 

Box 10672, Oakland, CA 94610. Phone/fax 

510-268-0811. 

BUYING ACADEMY AWARD OSCARS. We sell, too. 

We're a top source for collectors of rare Academy Award 

statues—the ultimate Hollywood collector item. Our free 

report explains the Oscar market and the investment potential 

of this fiekJ. Call (423) 265-5515, or write Jon Warren, 

2401 Broad St., Dept. B., Chattanooga, TN 37408. 

MOVIE POSTERS BOUGHT AND SOLD, All eras, types 

wanted. Paying top dollar or will take on consignment. 

Free search service locates posters you want. Sample 

catalog $5. Collecting Hollywood, 2401 Broad St., Dept. 

B, Chattanooga, TN 37408. Phone (4223) 265-5515 to 

discuss your needs. 

MOVIE POSTERS WANTED: HIGHEST PRICES PAID 

FOR LOBBY CARDS, 1-, 3- AND 6-SHEETS, WINDOW 

CARDS, BANNERS, GLASS SLIDES. Dwight Cleveland, 

P.O. Box 1 0922, Chicago, IL 6061 0-0922. (312) 525-91 52 

or fax (312) 525-2969. 

MOVIE POSTERS WANTED! I pay top dollar for vintage 

material. John Hazelton. 235 Horton Highway, Mineola, 

NY 1 1 501 

. 

Call toll-free 1 -800-CAGNEY4. 

MOVIE POSTERS WANTED: No collection too large or 

too small! Immediate cash payments! Top prices for vintage 

material! Call toll free: 1 -800-213-8431 

WE NEED YOUR HELP!! TOP. (Theatre Operating Procedures) 

newsletter. Our goal is to unite, inform, entertain 

and educate all theatre management worldwkle. Only with 

your help can we make this happen! We need your input on 

operation tips, good and bad customer experiences, inspiring 

stories, funny stories, why you are proud of your tfieatre, 

or any stories related to our profession. Fax it all to our 

special 24-hour fax idea hotline: (248) 738-1672. For subscription 

informatksn, please fax your name and address to 

the number above, or write to T.O.P. Entertainment, 4217 

Highland Rd., Suite 188, Waterford, Ml 48238-2165.

IN ANY LANGUAGE, IT'S 

KNOWLEBGE YOU CAN USE 

BULK RATES AVAILABLE! SUBSCRIPTION INQUIRIES: CALL 

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QbC Professional Amplifiers supply power 

to the tiottest screens in the country. 

In fact, QSC Audio is the largest supplier of professional 

amplifiers and accessories to the cinema 

industry, Legendary reliabilrty, awesome performance, 

versatile features and outstanding value have made 

QSC the industry standard. Fourteen amplifier models 

are currently approved for THX® cinema installations, 

with more on the way! Each model carries a commercial 

UL listing, as well as TUV and CSA approval for 

safety. Opfonal QSC 

plug-in accessories are 

available to meet the 

specific signal processing 

requirements of digital 

cinema sound systems. 

Opiional aaeisay apabitity optimizes amps 

ror fc-ompfcotion otscreen channek, protects 

smomJspeakers and equalizes the response 

ofpopular cinema subwoolers. 

Audiences demand the most powerful 

presentation of everything that digital soundtracks 

have to offer. Because power amplifiers ore critical 

to the digital sound chain, QSC powers todays biggest 

Screen Stars, Stars demand the best, Shouldn't you? 

Coll 714-754-6175 for valuable details, 

A tew of the oilier theoter chains teotiiring QSC Power Amplifiers: Allen Theolres, Asso(ioted Theatres, 

Budget Cnemas, Central States Theotres, Cinema World, Cineplei Odeon Theatres, Classir Gnemas, Dickinson 

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Cinemos, Loew's Theatres, Mnlco Theatres, Mann Theotres, Manes Theatres, Marcus Theaters, Mulone Theatres, 

Muvico Theatres, Nationol Theatres, Neighborhood Cinemas, Pacific Theatres, Plitt Theotres, Rhyon Theatres, 

SoCal Qnemas, U.CI. Theotres, Worner International Theotres, Western NTS Cnemas, ond many, mony more.. 

The Powef Behind The Pictufes, 

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"QSC" and the QSC logo are registered with the U.S. Patent Office. 

QSC Audio Products, Inc. 1675 MacArlhur Blvd., Costa Mesa. CA 92626-144 

PH (714) 754-6175 FAX (714)754-6174 E-mail: into@qscaudio.com 

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We wfll custom design and build your concession stand to your special requirements. 

We combine state-of-the-art technology with professional craftmanship, incorporating all 

the clearly received ideas of the clients. Every feature is designed with a concept towards 

practical performance... controls devised for easy, fast operation. 

Concession Stands. Box Offices, Popcorn Poppers, Butter Dispensers. Popcorn Warmers, 

Nacho Warmers, and any related theatre lobby fixtures. 

V. 

M DK]©QD©ulI]DB©-DK]© 

CALL: 516-789-2222 • FAX: 516-789-8888

Boxoffice-July.1997

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