THE BODY POLITIC

'Politician' once meant a scheming intriguer. The word has supposedly changed to mean an expert practitioner of politics ... yet politicians remain the same everywhere. As Kruschev once said, 'They promise to build a bridge, even when there is no river.' If we took all the nonsense out of what politicians say, they would never say anything at all. The recent cinema revival of political comedy suggests the solution lies in unpolitical men. Although this sweet idealism ignores the fact that politics makes politicians, it does also make for entertainment.

DAVE (laser/video, 110 minutes, 1993) 'THIS country is sick, and you are going to get it to the hospital.' So, wickedly ambitious chief of staff, Frank Langella, persuades an unassuming and ordinary guy to stand in for the President of the United States. He looks exactly like him - probably because both parts are played by Kevin Kline - he does impersonations at charity events and we first see him riding a pig, pretending to be the president. Then the real pig of a president (surprise - he's called Bill) has a massive stroke while servicing a secretary.

This is The Prince and the Pauper go to Washington. Nice guy Kline puts his humanity to the fore and starts cleaning up in a commonsense manner. He brings in buddy accountant (the excellent Charles Grodin) and they calmly knock US$650 million off the federal budget to help the homeless. He instigates a full employment programme, transforms the dreary White House and melts the heart of the ice-cold first lady, played by Sigourney Weaver.

Director Ivan Reitman plays up every cynical expectation in the book, but it's an assured and appealing film. Kline is convincing in both roles and Reitman directs with warm-spirited fun. Dave is charming because it does not try to be anything more.

GABRIEL OVER THE WHITE HOUSE (video, 87 minutes, 1933) GREGORY La Cava directed this earlier and tougher populist fantasy in which another US President (Walter Huston, Anjelica's grandfather) has an apparent change of heart. President Hammond is a fat cats' stooge elected in the 1930s, who is dismissive of theDepression and installs his mistress in a cushy secretarial job. During a car accident, the Angel Gabriel snatches the chance to take over and address the country's problems.

The new-look president instigates extraordinary no-nonsense measures. He fires the cabinet, creates an army of construction workers, puts the gangsters in front of firing squads, repeals Prohibition and insists upon world disarmament.

Astonishingly, this film was produced by the most conservative of studios - MGM - but Louis B. Meyer saw it as an insult to Hoover. The film retains a hard-edged urgency which gives it relevance in the Bush/Clinton era.