FEATURES 54 Geena Soars
BY RACHEL ABRAMOWITZ
As Callie Khouri says, Geena Davis is "a feminist spirit trapped in the body
of a goddess." (Even her new husband, director Renny Harlin, looks like a
Norse god.) The star of Angie coos about her domestic bliss—yes, there is
a marital tattoo—and weighs her image ("When did I become the female
Rip Taylor?") against Hollywood's sexual politics. So what if she wears froufrou
to the Academy Awards? "I can't be a feminist and be sexy?" she groans.
"Oh, please, that's so '80s."
62 The End of the World
BY ELIZA BERGMAN KRAUSE
There's on location, there's remote location, and then there is Kevin Reynolds
and the cast and crew of Rapa Nui on Easter Island, the most isolated inhabited
place in the world. "It was a nightmare," the director admits.
70 Dust Busters
BY MARTHA SOUTHGATE
When Donna Summer sang about "Bad Girls," she could have meant these
pistol-packin' sirens of the West. Here' a look at four cowgirls who don't have
the blues. Drew Barrymore (right), Mary Stuart Masterson, Madeleine Stowe, and
Andie MacDowell.
72 Anthony Hopkins, for Your Approval
BY ELIZABeth KAYE
There was a time, before the Hannibal Lecter and Merchant Ivory accolades, when
Anthony Hopkins found himself to be both a perfectly adjusted Welshman (a chip
on both shoulders) and a mere tumbler away from the self-destructive drunk-genius
scenario that plagued his idol, Richard Burton. "I was crazy and tired and
frightened," says the star of Shadowlands, "and my wife was frightened
of me." He didn't need an Oscar to redeem himself, but it helped.
80 Have Hoop, Will Travel
BY KITTY BOWE HEARTY
Nigeria gave basketball Olajuwon; the Sudan produced Bol; and now ... from Kenya,
meet the latest jump shot from the Dark Continent! He's Charles Gitonga Maina,
star (with Kevin Bacon) of The Air up There, the story of a college coach's far-flung
search for the next big man.
85 Wrap Party
Wrap it up; we'll take it. Here's our season-ending potpourri of hits, misses,
and madness. And—surprise!—only one mention of Heidi Fleiss! DEPARTMENTS
23 In the Works
BY ELIZA BERGMAN KRAUSE Robin Williams is not starring in Corrina, Corrina, a story about a man who falls
in love with his housekeeper. (Try Ray Liotta and Whoopi Goldberg.) Meanwhile,
Penny Marshall's Renaissance Man stars DeVito, not da Vinci.
29 Rushes
EDITED BY HOLLY MILLEA
The return of a former Hitchcock scribe, one (large) man's tattooed ode to Walt
Disney, and a look ahead to Sundance, the snowiest and showiest of the indie
film fests.
40 Breaking the Board
BY CORIE BROWN
It wasn't quite the legislation of morality, but the taxpayer-supported film board
in Dallas was the last bastion of local censorship
44 Cinemascoping
BY MARCELLE CLEMENTS
The raw power of Mike Leigh's Naked brilliantly redefines the "English grimness
genre."
46 Independents
BY J. HOBERMAN
Following the breakup of the U.S.S.R., the latest attempts to define post-Soviet
cinema find an odd focus: the era of the czars.
49 If You Ask Me
BY LIBBY GELMANWAXNER
After seeing Robin Williams drag out Mrs. Doubtfire, Libby sticks a fork in Mork.
93 Home Guide
The best movies about spies, the sounds of sci-fi, and Disney disses Madonna to
Ted Casablanca. OTHER
16 LETTERS
20 CALENDAR
101 CLASSIFIEDS
104 FILMOGRAPHIES
SILENCE = DEATH
IN MEMORY OF THOSE WHO DIED OF AIDS LAST YEAR
LIKE THE NEW ADMINISTRATION in Washington, Hollywood in 1993 said all the right
things and decorated itself with red ribbons that stood for good intentions. TriStar
released Jonathan Demme's Philadelphia, the first major studio film to deal with
AIDS, which, though praised for its groundbreaking efforts, was criticized for
playing it safe. This paradox tugged at an underlying question: Are entertainments
about AIDS what people really need? Could the goal of all the protest of the past
few years have been to get Tom Hanks nominated for an Oscar? The painful truth
is that good intentions won't stop this disease. Bush has been ousted, and with
the crucial support of Hollywood, an infinitely more sympathetic president has
been elected. But AIDS keeps winning, as our annual list of people in the filmed-entertainment
industry whom it has killed proves once again. (The names, culled from obituaries
in Daily Variety and elsewhere dated November 1992 through November 1993, represent
only a fraction of likely AIDS deaths.) Somehow we thought Barbra Streisand having
sleep-overt at the White House was a signal that something new was about to happen.
But when the problem is essentially biological, the concept of influence is meaningless.
For many in Hollywood, their recent heady flirtation with power has only served
to demonstrate their ultimate powerlessness. The enemies have retired, but the
war is still being lost.
JESSE GREEN
Robert Decker, 30, public relations executive
Gary Abrahams, 48, festival executive
G. Luther Whitington, 35, entertainment journalist Michael Firmature, 36, publicist
Jeffrey Earl Goodman, 36, stage manager
Jay Garvin, 55, set decorator
Robert Tanella, 42, costumer
Gary Essert, 54, festival executive
Alan Peterson, 54, dancer-choreographer
Stephen Harvey, 43, film curator
John Dorr, 48, video artist David Harnish, 38, set designer
Rudolf Nureyev, 54, dancer
Leslie Raddatz, 81, entertainment journalist
Kenneth Cory, 51, actor
Norman West, 31, set decorator
Dudley Stevens, 57, actor-director
Steve Merritt, 48, director-choreographer
Art BaUmma-porn-star">Uman, 53, dancer-choreographer
Douglas Edwards, 44,
AMPAS administrator
Axel Vera, 41, actor
Robert Edmonds, 42, actor David Gallegly, 42, actor
Donald Phelps, 61, actor
Jim Lamb, 29,actor
Stephen Sapuppo, 33, actor
Gerald Grant, 52, actor
Timothy Proser, 37, casting director
Carl Sautter, 44, screenwriter
Robert Arch Braithwaite, 46, producer
Cyril Collard, 35, actor-director
John Outlaw, 37, actor
Adam Corey Balzano, 29, actor
Anthony Cortino, 44, hairstylist
Kenneth Siminski, 41, stage manager
Louis Falco, 50, choreographer
Douglas Leopold, 49, entertainment journalist
Richard Schmiechen, 45, filmmaker
Richard Rothenstein, 35, publicity director
Anthony Sabatino, 48, art director
Bruce Fiigen, 39, entertainment lawyer
Thomas Aguilar, 41, actor
Daniel Paredes, 46, costume designer
Ronald Haver, 54, film historian
Howard Goldberg, 40, agent
Merritt Sticker, 53, studio executive
Ray Sharkey, 40, actor
Milton Tatelman, 50, ad consultant-critic
Greg Auer, 53, special-effects manager
Don Maderich, 52, actor
Thomas Lindsay Fleming, 40, story editor
Donald Havens, 43, producer
Swen Swenson, 61, dancer
Eric Steiner, 47, director
Robert Currie, 45, set designer
Richard Rorke, 40, actor
John Falabella, 40, set designer
John Beaird, 40, screenwriter
Donald Dudley, 40, production supervisor
Patrick Lippert, 35, political organizer
John West, 37, publicist
Nephi Jay Wimmer, 33, actor
Jay Scott, 43, entertainment journalist
B.J. Turner, 44, actor
Leo Murphy III, 36, propman
Roy London, 50, acting coach
Larry St. John, 52, branch manager
Tom Fuccello, 55, actor
Alf Bold, 47, festival programmer
Dorian Corey, 56, drag performer
Peter Schifter, 44, director
Charles Washabaugh, 33, production manager
Kenneth Nelson, 63, actor-singer
Robert Krueger, 36, production coordinator
Steven Pezza, 37, studio executive
Thomas Mark Fortuin, 48, studio executive
Bruce Seaboch, 43, buyer
Mark Hayden, 37, actor
Marc Berman, 39, entertainment journalist
Spencer B. Henderson III, 44, dancer-choreographer
Richard B. Kaplan, 50, entertainment lawyer
Richard DeFabees, 46, actor
Emile Ardolino, 50, director
