FILM / Rushes

The Baby of Macon continues to attract controversy. While Elizabeth Draper, the film's distributor, doesn't dispute that three London cinemas dropped Peter Greenaway's film after a one-week run, she does point out that the figures used in Rushes last Friday were for opening weekend, not for the full week. The seven day take at the Lumiere was pounds 10,353, the Gate pounds 4,470, MGM Fulham Road pounds 2,710 and Camden Plaza pounds 3,637 - the Plaza's figures distorted by a Saturday night power cut.

Still, the figures reflect a devastating, and surprising, critical backlash against one of Britain's leading directors. 'I think critical reaction has been clever and may have gotten the film taken off in London,' Greenaway says. 'But the actual why I don't know. Have I been too successful? Is that it?

'The film is deliberately provocative. The themes of voyeurism, prurience, vulgarity, the humilation of women, exploitation of children and the manipulative power of cinema makes critics uncomfortable. And as the audience is also there on the screen, taking part in the process, they are uncomfortable too. The film pushes them in directions they don't want to go. Which is the point.

'I've been travelling with The Baby of Macon doing Q & A sessions at the end of screenings and it's clear audiences feel the critical attacks are unwarranted. These are all themes I've dealt with before, so why are there objections now?'

Poster of the hour: the billboard for forthcoming erotic thriller spoof Fatal Instinct, which shows a blonde Sherilyn Fenn, legs crossed, wearing the white dress and sitting in the interrogation chair once favoured by a certain Sharon Stone. And the deadpan slogan under the image? 'Opening Soon.'

In the same vein: German porn star Teresa Orlowski has angered distributors UIP by unleashing Jurassic Fuck upon the world. UIP say that the 'special effects erotic comedy', subtitled 'Attack of the Pornosaurs', infringes their copyright protection by employing the word 'jurassic'. They are not so concerned about the image accompanying JF; a silhouette of a T Rex with its tongue hanging out.