Singer Rice’s out- of-body vocals are just the icing on a very rich cake
Singer Rice’s out- of-body vocals are just the icing on a very rich cake. The film tells the story of a Glaswegian bus driver who falls for a young Nicaraguan woman and travels back to her home country with her. Currently shooting in Glasgow and Nicaragua, the film should see Laverty attract the success that his talent and commitment deserve.If you were unlucky enough to see Cocktail you’ll recognise Elisabeth Shue, but nothing can prepare you for her performance as a Vegas prostitute who falls for suicidal alcoholic Nicholas Cage in Mike Figgis’s new film Leaving Las Vegas. She has already won the Los Angeles Film Critics’ Award for Best Actress, and an Oscar must surely be within sniffing distance.POPRaissa (above) haven’t released a thing yet, but their debut gig in darkest Harlow in early 1995 was a stark, urgent affair which proved they could carry off their sparky melodies on stage. Shue is raw and moving; the film feels like an announcement of her arrival. She survived a ropey script for Silent Fall, came into her own in Heavy (released yesterday), and will next be seen in Bertolucci’s Stealing Beauty alongside Jeremy Irons. In between fielding business offers from Woody Allen and Tom Hanks (who wants her to appear in his directorial debut), she should find time for more performances as dazzling as Heavy.Michael Winterbottom (pictured) is hardly a new face to television viewers – having directed Cracker and Roddy Doyle’s Family – but now this one- time apprentice to Lindsay Anderson is proving himself capable of setting cinema screens alight, too.
He directed Butterfly Kiss this year, eliciting Saskia Reeves’s most fearless performance yet, and his version of Jude the Obscure, starring Christopher Eccleston, will be with us in the new year.The screenplay that Paul Laverty has written for Ken Loach’s new film (provisionally called Carla’s Song) is drawn from what he saw as a human rights lawyer and investigator in Nicaragua, a post he held for two and a half years. At 34, he’s been around, but the CD issue of his 1992 Prom premiere Byrnan Wood should perk up his profile while Sinfonietta and BBC commissions come down the pipeline.FILMLiv Tyler is a safe bet as a face of 1996, during which she will become more famous for acting than for being the daughter of Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler. After the success of The Dearly Beloved and this year’s emotionally eloquent What I Did In the Holidays, next year’s Flesh and Blood will be his third play for Mike Alfreds and will tour the country hot on the heels of The Undertaking, another new play for Gay Sweatshop, which should lift that company’s recent mixed fortunes.Alexandra Gilbreath is also going places in more ways than one. In the mid-Eighties he turned into a playwright with Gay Sweatshop’s runaway success This Island’s Mine. Under Osment’s own direction, the 45 speaking parts – played by a cast of seven – highlighted his gift for beautifully dovetailed structure and subtle characterisation. Her work goes on show at the Tate’s new Art Now space in February, which should place her firmly on the art map.THEATREIn a former life, Philip Osment (right) was an actor with Shared Experience for Mike Alfreds.
She also works in multi-media, with photographs, tape and video, while the complex narratives in her work have meant her art appeals widely. “Visit to a Small Planet”, currently touring in the British Art Show, recaptures what it’s like to be a pre-adolescent. Their figures are playful, their humour very boys-own variant. All their art bears witness to their obsession with mixing up periods and genres, and displays incredible craft skills – using sculpture and film – mixed with their particular brand of prurient imagery.
