Film Archive 1993
| GAS, FOOD, LODGING |
| 010193 |
 |
| Allison Anders’s GAS FOOD LODGING is a heartfelt, honest look at a teenage girl’s coming of age. Fairuza Balk stars, giving a tremendously sympathetic performance as Shade, a girl living in a trailer park with her mom, Nora (Brooke Adams), and doing her best to hold her volatile family together. While Shade’s older sister, Trudi (Ione Skye), sleeps around and is filled with rage at men, her mother, and the world in general, Shade is a compassionate, melancholy teen who spends time watching wildly romantic Mexican movies at the local cinema. She believes her mother will be happy if she can find her father, John Evans (a moving performance by James Brolin), and reunite her family. Though things don’t go quite so smoothly, the film maintains a hopeful tone. Anders’s second film, GAS FOOD LODGING put her on the indie film map, establishing her as sensitive director whose stories of struggling women, told in their own voices, are marked by emotional honesty and disarming humor. GAS FOOD LODGING is an intimate, well-wrought gem. |
| CANDY MAN |
| 010893 |
|
| Helen Lyle is writing a thesis on Candyman, a supposedly mythical killer who attacks his victims with a hooked hand when they say his name in front of a mirror. During her research, she meets up with the killer, who wants her to join him in his "mythic" world; when she refuses, he murders those in her wake, leaving her to be charged with the crimes. She tries to explain who the real culprit is, but her efforts fail, and authorities commit her to a mental hospital. Desperate to prove her sanity, she summons Candyman, who comes and helps her escape. But he has more murderous impulses to quell, and still wants her to join him in his parallel life. |
| PASSENGER 57 |
| 010897 |
|
| A crackerjack airplane security agent just happens to be sharing a plane ride with a captured airline terrorist. When the terrorist escapes and attempts a mid-flight takeover only John Cutter can stop him. Cutter finds more ways to hide and attack on the airliner than the terrorists or his band of henchmen ever imagined. |
| LAST OF THE MOHICANS |
| 011593 |
|
| Cora (Madeleine Stowe) and her younger sister, Alice (Jodhi May), both recent arrivals to the colonies, are being escorted to their father, Colonel Munro (Maurice Roeves), by a troop of British soldiers. Along the way they are ambushed by a Huron war party led by Magua (Wes Studi), a sinister warrior with a blood vendetta against Munro. Munro's soldiers are wiped out and Cora herself is nearly killed by Magua but is saved at the last moment by Hawkeye (Daniel Day-Lewis), a white trapper raised by the Mohican tribe. Hawkeye promises to take Cora and her sister safely to their father, and along the way Cora and the intense Hawkeye fall in love. Together they must survive wilderness, war, and the relentless pursuit of Magua. |
| FLIRTING |
| 011593 |
|
| This sequel to director John Duigan's poignant THE YEAR MY VOICE BROKE follows anti-hero Danny Embling (Noah Taylor) to the boy's boarding school in rural Australia. Danny is a clever misfit, teased by his schoolmates for his bizarre tastes and his shy stutter, and misunderstood by his cane-wielding teachers at the rigorous St. Albans. Danny's sense of humor and rebellious spirit attracts the attention of Thandiwe (Thandie Newton), a sophisticated African-English girl who attends the neighboring girl's boarding school across the river. Thandiwe is an outcast as well, ostracized for the color of her skin. The two loners find understanding in one another, defying the rules of their schools and society, to meet with one another and share secrets, stories, and heartache, as well as a burgeoning sense of desire. Nicole Kidman co-stars as Nicola Radcliffe, a snobbish upperclassman put in charge of looking after Thandiwe, who eventually grows to understand the young girl's affection for Danny. Duigan's keen sense of the poignant and realistic maturity of teenage rebels choosing to live life by their own terms delivers a touching and emotionally charged coming-of-age drama. |
| RESERVOIR DOGS |
| 011593 |
|
| Former video store clerk Quentin Tarantino’s directorial debut, RESERVOIR DOGS, is a brutally funny, supercharged introduction to his supremely distinct cinematic vision, which was later to become one of the most mimicked styles of the 1990s. Mastermind Joe Cabot (Lawrence Tierney) assembles a crew of top-notch criminals to pull off a jewelry store heist. As the film opens it becomes immediately clear that the plan backfired, forcing the survivors, who have gathered at an abandoned warehouse, to figure out if one of them is, in fact, a police informer. The crew--Mr. White (Harvey Keitel), an aged veteran; Mr. Orange (Tim Roth), a wounded newcomer; Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen), a psychopathic parolee; Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi), a bickering weasel; and Nice Guy Eddie (Chris Penn), Joe’s son--begin to unravel as the pressure becomes too much for them to handle. When Joe arrives, the truth becomes clear in a vicious Mexican standoff. |
| EFFICIENCY EXPERT |
011593 |
|
| During the Sixties, a troubled British efficiency expert travels to Spotswood, a suburban Australian town, in order to improve productivity at an ailing moccasin factory. The company is owned by a sweet-natured old man who values his workers' happiness over bottom line profits, and as a result, he's quickly going out of business; only by selling off pieces of property over the last few years has he been able to show a profit. After making his observations, the visiting expert recommends sacking a great many of the employees in order to keep the company afloat. The owner reluctantly agrees and starts filling out pink slips, but the outsider begins to doubt his evaluations as he gets better acquainted with the friendly, fun-loving workers. He comes to realize that his decisions may be based on the manipulation of cold, hard figures -- but they affect the everyday lives of real human beings. |
| TALE OF SPRINGTIME |
| 012293 |
|
| A charming, deliberately-paced tale about a shy teacher who becomes involved in the complex romantic and emotional machinations of a cast of characters including her young student, the student's amorous father, and the father's much-younger, naive lover. |
| THE TUNE |
| 012993 |
|
| Oscar nominated animator Bill Plympton takes you on a magical journey through a musical fantasy land with a cast of his hilariously contorted characters. |
| BOB MARLEY: TIME WILL TELL |
| 012993 |
|
| A program which celebrates the life and music of Bob Marley, one of the most legendary artists of our time. The musical genius and cultural hero, who is responsible for widely popularizing the reggae music of Jamaica, is captured in rare performances and interview footage together with rehearsal footage, newsreel and archival film clips. All of this gives a compelling portrait of a true icon. |
| DRACULA |
| 020593 |
|
| A seductive retelling of the legendary tale, BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA is Francis Ford Coppola's opulent, erotic, blood-filled feast. Count Dracula (played with irresistible intensity by Gary Oldman) reunites with his soul mate, Mina (Winona Ryder), after four centuries. Mina's friend Lucy (Sadie Frost) succumbs to the deadly bite of Dracula while Renfield (Tom Waits), locked in an asylum, eagerly waits for his master's return. Mina's fiancé, Jonathan Harker (Keanu Reeves), with the help of the eccentric Professor Van Helsing (Anthony Hopkins), attempts to save Mina's life and soul before she can become Dracula's eternal bride. |
| DAMNED IN THE U.S.A. |
| 020593 |
|
| This BBC-produced documentary, initially banned in the U.S., considers the threat of censorship to free speech and features interviews with such signficant personages in the censorship drama as 2 Live Crew, Madonna, Jesse Helms, Christie Hefner, and Andres Serrano. |
| THE CRYING GAME |
| 021293 |
|
| This highly original film put screenwriter-director Neil Jordan on the international map. The story begins at a carnival in Ireland with British soldier Jody (Forest Whitaker) kidnapped by IRA terrorists Jude (Miranda Richardson) and Fergus (Stephen Rea). Fergus is assigned to guard Jody, and they become friends. After the kidnapping goes horribly wrong, Fergus escapes to London to track down Jody's girlfriend, Dil (Jaye Davidson), to fulfill a promise to Jody and ends up falling in love with her. The only problem--well, it's not the only problem--is Jude has also come to London with news that the IRA is after Fergus and has a dangerous new mission in mind. |
| DANZON |
| 021293 |
|
| Julia, a single mother who works in an unsatisfying job as a switchboard operator, expresses herself only through danzon, a traditional Cuban ballroom dance. When Carmelo, her dance partner for over five years, suddenly disappears, Julia finds that much of her pleasure in danzon goes with him. Though she knew Carmelo only on the ballroom floor, Julia journeys to the seaport town of Vera Cruz in an attempt to find him and to recover the missing part of her life. There, in a world unlike any she has known, she encounters sailors and prostitutes and befriends them -- especially Susy, a good-hearted transvestite singer who tries to help her locate Carmelo. To her surprise, Julia's quest leads to an unexpected romance and to self-discovery. |
| PEKING OPERA BLUES |
| 021993 |
|
| After SHANGHAI BLUES, director Tsui Hark has said that he became interested in using women as the central characters in his film. In PEKING OPERA BLUES, he portrays the ambitions of three different women in late nineteenth century China. Tsao Wan (Brigitte Lin) wants political change, in defiance of her father, a powerful general. Sheung Heung (Cherie Chung) is an avaricious musician who just wants to steal a box of jewelry, while Pat Neil (Sally Yeh) is an aspiring actress who dreams of performing in the all-male Peking Opera of her father. Plots and counterplots interweave in this fast-paced dramedy that features a woman playing a man playing a woman. Anticipating such gender-bending films as FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE and SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE, PEKING OPERA BLUES is rich in slapstick humor and dazzling kung fu stunts. The film also has a serious underlying theme about the Chinese political landscape; in fact, the film was released just three years before the momentous events in Tiananmen Square in China. |
| HOWARD'S END |
| 021993 |
|
| E.M. Forster’s 1910 novel is adapted for the screen by Merchant Ivory Productions in this masterful Edwardian Age romance directed by James Ivory. The dying Ruth Wilcox (Vanessa Redgrave) wishes to leave her country home, Howards End, to Margaret Schlegel (Emma Thompson in an Academy Award-winning role), a modest woman of little means who will soon be forced out of her own home in London. But Ruth’s husband, Henry (Anthony Hopkins), an upper middle class businessman, keeps secret her desire even after he and Margaret become friends. However, after Henry and Margaret marry, their class differences and philosophies threaten to cause them unhappiness. Margaret’s sister, Helen (Helena Bonham Carter), is disgusted by the Wilcox's snobbish ways and is attracted to helping struggling clerk Leonard Bast (Sam West) improve his position. Merchant-Ivory screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala was the force behind adapting this Forster novel into a film, winning her second Academy Award for her screenplay; her first Oscar was for A ROOM WITH A VIEW. |
| THE BODYGUARD |
| 021993 |
|
| A former secret service agent is now a bodyguard for a pop superstar turned actress. In the course of protecting the unpredictable star from a homicidal fan, they develop a trust and love that is rare for both. Screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan. Academy Award Nominations: Best Song ("I Have Nothing"), Best Song ("Run To You"). |
| BROTHER'S KEEPER |
| 022693 |
|
| This acclaimed documentary explores the odd world of the four elderly Ward brothers--disheveled, illiterate farmers who have lived their entire lives in a dilapidated two room shack. When William Ward dies in the bed that he shared with his brother Delbert, police officers become suspicious. Citing motives ranging from sex crime to euthanasia, they arrest Delbert for murder, penetrating the isolated, antiquated world that left "the boys" forgotten eccentrics for so many years. As the hazy case against Delbert is investigated and brought to trial, the previously distant population of their idyllic New York town, Munnsville, warmly embrace the remaining Ward brothers, rallying in small town solidarity against the seemingly corrupt urban authorities. Though the film's raison d'être is the murder case, the Ward brothers' existence forms the riveting and intriguing crux of the film. Using their nearly unparalleled ability to gain the trust and affection of their subjects, Berlinger and Sinofsky open up a stunningly rich and complex world. This is anthropology at its most haunting; an in-depth look into an untouched slice of Americana that succeeds, as only the best documentary can, in capturing lives that are far too strange, beautiful, and elusive to be imagined. |
| ONE FALSE MOVE |
| 022693 |
|
| African-American director Carl Franklin’s ONE FALSE MOVE presents itself as a crime thriller, but upon deeper inspection reveals itself to be a thought-provoking drama concerning racism and racial identity. After stealing a large stash of cocaine and brutally murdering several people in the process, two Los Angeles outlaws--the intelligent Pludo (Michael Beach), an African-American, and the psychopathic redneck Ray (Billy Bob Thornton)--hit the road with Ray's biracial girlfriend Fantasia (Cynda Williams). Thinking that the killers might be headed to Ray and Fantasia’s hometown of Star City, Arkansas, two L.A.P.D. detectives travel there to await their arrival. They’re greeted by "Hurricane" Dixon (Bill Paxton), the town’s energetic police chief, who looks up to them as if they’re superheroes. When Pludo and Ray stop in Texas to sell their drugs, Fantasia continues on alone to Star City where she intends to reunite with her 5-year-old son. Once there, Hurricane tracks her down and she challenges him to confront the secret of their shared past, jeopardizing his marriage and career in the process. By the time Ray and Pludo arrive, a showdown forces Hurricane to draw his gun for the first time in his life. Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Epperson’s intelligent script makes ONE FALSE MOVE a superior and complex drama that works on many levels. |
| LEAP OF FAITH |
| 022693 |
|
| Jonas Nightengale, an evangelical huckster, decides to set up camp in Rustwater, Kansas, a small farming town hard-hit by drought, where one of his vans has broken down. Saying the people of Rustwater have no extra money to waste on phony miracles, the sheriff urges Jonas to move on; the minister, however, sees a town in trouble and he knows that means a quick profit from people desperate for hope. With the help of well-researched assistants, who have combed the town for information and gossip, and a manager who feeds him cues via a radio transmitter, he easily convinces people of his powers. But then, one night, Jonas Nightengale performs an actual miracle, and suddenly his world is turned upside down. |
| MALCOLM X |
| 030593 |
|
| Spike Lee brings the life of African-American leader Malcolm X (an intense Denzel Washington in an Oscar-nominated performance) to the big screen in this sprawling, epic biographical drama. Born Malcolm Little, son of a Nebraska preacher, on May 19, 1925, he became one of the most militant leaders and charismatic spokesmen of the black liberation movement before his assassination at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City on February 21, 1965. The film sweeps through his early life as a small-time hustler and thief with his friend Shorty (Lee), his conversion to Islam in jail, and his subsequent life as a controversial spiritual leader and husband of Betty Shabazz (Angela Bassett). Malcolm's tragic assassination is presented as a conspiracy of Nation of Islam leaders; the film shows how his philosophy has been realized in the lives of others who have been moved by his words. Filmed with great visual flair by Lee, the film is a work of entertainment as much as it is a historical artifact. Washington captures the spiritual conversion of the hero with a sincerity that is entirely as believable and ultimately moving as it was in the book that inspired the film, THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOLM X. |
| THE LOVER |
| 030593 |
|
| Indochina, 1929. On a ferry a 27-year-old Chinese man spots an alluring but poor French teenager. They soon begin a forbidden but fiercely passionate romance. While the man truly loves the girl, she remains aloof, for her involvement with him is more out of rebellion towards her family -- and for sexual excitement -- rather than love. However when the gentleman is forced to marry a woman chosen by his parents, the young girl realizes she may have lost the true love of her life... |
| VAN GOGH |
| 030593 |
|
| A surprisingly sensual and achingly beautiful film that depicts the life and art of this visionary genius. |
| DAMAGE (FATALE) |
| 031293 |
|
| In this gripping romantic thriller, a married and respected middle-aged MP (Member of Parliament) becomes romantically and obsessively involved with his son's fiancee, ultimately ruining his career. Willing to pay any price for his passion, he goes a step too far, and ultimately arranged his own tragic demise. Academy Award Nominations: Best Supporting Actress--Miranda Richardson. |
| FOREVER YOUNG |
| 031993 |
|
| In 1939, the longtime girlfriend of a daredevil Army Air Corps test pilot is in an accident that renders her comatose. Grief-stricken, he volunteers to be frozen alive for a year in a cryogenics experiment, in the hopes that she will have recovered by the time he is ready to be thawed out. But his body remains in a deep freeze for 50 years until two children accidentally revive him. As the pilot attempts to cope with all the technological and cultural developments that have occurred during his sleep, he hurriedly tries to find the scientist who froze him and the woman he left behind. |
| LOADED WEAPON |
| 031993 |
|
| In LOADED WEAPON 1, National Lampoon spoofs box office hits such as SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, BASIC INSTINCT, and, most obviously, the LETHAL WEAPON series. Emilio Estevez and Samuel L. Jackson head up a comic cast that also includes Jon Lovitz, William Shatner, Tim Curry, Denis Leary, and F. Murray Abraham. And watch for the Bruce Willis cameo. |
| PASSION FISH |
| 032693 |
|
| Mary McDonnell stars as May-Alice Culhane, a New York-based soap opera star who is paralyzed in a road accident. She returns to the Louisiana bayou where she grew up and becomes the patient from hell, discharging one caretaker after another. Then along comes Chantelle (Alfre Woodard), a take-no-sass nurse with her own issues to deal with. Together the women rediscover themselves and what it means to live within limitations. |
| AMOS & ANDREW |
| 032693 |
|
| This racially-charged farce stars Nicolas Cage and Samuel L. Jackson. When Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Andrew - who happens to be black - is seen entering a resort mansion by a bigoted police chief, the chief mistakenly assumes he is breaking in. Fearing Andrew has hostages, the chief calls out the cavalry. But the playwright actually owns the home. By the time the chief realizes his mistake, it's too late. A cast of characters, including a fire-and-brimstone breathing black preacher, a nosy couple, and a namby-pamby hostage negotiator, have already set up camp on the playwright's lawn. The chief compounds matters by ordering a jailbird car thief, Amos, to pretend to be the "real" menace in return for freedom. But Amos gets more than he bargained for when he's forced to match wits with the sophisticated Andrew for control of the mansion. |
| THE CRYING GAME |
| 040293 LATENITE |
|
| This highly original film put screenwriter-director Neil Jordan on the international map. The story begins at a carnival in Ireland with British soldier Jody (Forest Whitaker) kidnapped by IRA terrorists Jude (Miranda Richardson) and Fergus (Stephen Rea). Fergus is assigned to guard Jody, and they become friends. After the kidnapping goes horribly wrong, Fergus escapes to London to track down Jody's girlfriend, Dil (Jaye Davidson), to fulfill a promise to Jody and ends up falling in love with her. The only problem--well, it's not the only problem--is Jude has also come to London with news that the IRA is after Fergus and has a dangerous new mission in mind. |
| THE BAD LIEUTENANT |
| 040293 |
|
| Harvey Keitel stars as a nameless New York cop, hopelessy addicted to drugs, gambling, and sex, in this intense, hallucinatory portrait of sin and redemption by Abel Ferrara. The film follows the lieutenant as he makes his way to various crime scenes, concerned only with taking bets from his fellow cops on the outcome of the ongoing National League playoffs. As his bad decisions drive him deeper into debt, his life becomes a surreal hell, with a constant intake of crack, coke, heroin, and booze eroding what remains of his sanity. An investigation into the rape of a nun (Frankie Thorn) leads to his spiritual breakdown at the church crime scene, where he sees Jesus and the road to his salvation. This gutsy, highly original tale is one of Ferrara's most perfectly realized films and a pinnacle in the career of Keitel, whose performance transcends the screen in its sheer bravery. |
| THE LIVING END |
| 040993 |
|
| A picaresque tale of two HIV-positive gay men -- one a writer, the other a studly, gun-toting drifter -- who hit the road after the drifter shoots a cop. Taking "until death due us part" as their motto (literally), this pair of outlaw lovers with nothing left to lose embark on an anarchic car trip across California financed with stolen credit cards and punctuated by shoot-outs and hot sex. |
| INDOCHINE |
| 041693 |
|
| Romantic melodrama set during French colonial rule in Vietnam from 1930-1954. French national Eliane thinks of Vietnam as home: she owns a rubber plantation there, and has adopted Camille, the Vietnamese child of Eliane's deceased friends. But mother and daughter are soon at odds over both romance and politics: Camille has fallen for French naval officer Jean-Baptiste, who was once Eliane's lover, and has also become a revolutionary determined to destroy the French-run government. Tensions deepen when authorities sentence Camille to a French labor camp, and Eliane takes charge of Jean-Baptiste and Camille's baby. As time passes, it becomes clear that France's reign in Vietnam will soon end -- leaving mother, daughter and grandchild on different sides of the ideological issue... |
| STRICTLY BALLROOM |
| 041693 |
|
| Super-hunk Scott Hastings is an ambitious, athletic dancer eager to break with the Australian Dance Federation's stodgy traditions and choreograph his own steps for the upcoming Ballroom Dancing Championship. Scott's mother Shirley, his prissy partner Liz and coach Les are up in arms over his brash attitude towards ballroom conventions. Angry at Scott's new passionate refusal to follow the rules, Liz quits, leaving him without a partner. When Fran, a klutzy beginner, approaches him, Scott doesn't believe she can make the grade. But once Fran and her family introduce Scott to the vivacious Spanish rhythms and sharply sensuous moves that are part of their culture, he realizes this is the very outlet he's needed for his talents. Together, Fran and Scott boldly challenge the Federation's provincial attitudes, making everyone green with envy. |
| SNIPER |
| 041693 LATENITE |
|
| When the American government launches a covert operation to depose an opposition leader in Panama, they team a veteran army marksman with a greenhorn sniper who is unproven on the battlefield to do the dirty work. The kid is arrogant at first, and virtually ignored by the jaded older soldier who's seen-it-all-before. But the stark reality of murder, even at a distance, is too much for the young man to bear. His fear and uncertainty end up putting the entire mission in jeopardy -- and his veteran partner may be the one who pays the greatest price. |
| ALIVE |
| 042393 LATENITE |
|
| In October 1972, a plane chartered by the Uruguayan rugby team crashed in to the snow-covered Andes. Many passengers were killed on contact, but several people survived. They only had rations for a short time. When they learned through their transistor radio that the search effort for their plane had been aborted, two team members tried to cross the Andes in search of civilization. A young medical student warned them that if they wanted to survive until help arrived they must eat the flesh of their dead compatriots. When the trekkers who succeeded in reaching Chile returned with help some time later, 16 had been kept alive through cannibalism, and 29 had died from the accident, the avalanche, and the cruelty of the weather. |
| FALLING DOWN |
| 042393 LATENITE |
|
| A laid-off defense worker, kept from seeing his child on her birthday by a restraining order, looks at the landscape of moral decay in Los Angeles on one hot, congested day and, after being mugged, snaps. What follows is his bitter and pathetic mission of justice, vengeance and vindication that reads uncomfortably like too many news stories. Michael Douglas is identified only by his character's license plate, D-FENS, in this attack on social ills, a film originally seen as the displacement of power felt by many white American males. |
| MAD DOG AND GLORY |
| 043093 LATENITE |
|
| MAD DOG AND GLORY is a hilarious take on a bizarre love triangle between three vastly contrasting individuals. Robert De Niro stars as Wayne "Mad Dog" Dobie, a cop who wants desperately to be an artist. After interrupting a holdup and saving the life of mobster Frank Milo (Bill Murray), his life takes a dramatic turn. Milo, a gangster with the desire (if not the talent) to become a stand-up comic, rewards Wayne by lending him his girlfriend, Glory (Uma Thurman), for one week, a week in which Mad Dog, initially repulsed by the idea of Milo's gift, gradually begins to fall in love with Glory. |
| ARMY OF DARKNESS |
| 040793 |
|
| Through a magic spell, Ash, a modern-day discount-store employee, finds himself back in the middle ages. Given the key to return home by an alchemist, he bungles the incantation and, instead, releases the forces of darkness. Now Ash has one job to do before transporting to the future: defeat the army of the evil dead... if they don't defeat him first. |
| ETHAN FROME |
| 050793 |
|
| Based on Edith Wharton's 1911 novel detailing a forbidden love triangle, Ethan Frome (Liam Neeson) is torn between his joyless marriage to Zenobia (Joan Allen, Oscar nominated for NIXON and THE CRUCIBLE) and his longing for cousin and housekeeper Mattie Silver (Patricia Arquette). The film, by director John Madden would later direct the multi-Oscar winning SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE, features a rare screen appearance by Katherine Houghton (GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER). |
| TOUS LES MATINS DU MONDE |
| 050793 |
|
| A stately period drama about the relationship between an ascetic 17th-century French composer, Monsieur de Sainte Colombe, and Marin Marais, the ambitious young musician who seeks out his tutelage. Monsieur de Sainte Colombe is a reclusive master of the viol who turned his back on society after the death of his beloved wife. Living only for his music and her memory, Sainte Colombe spends almost every waking hour playing his viol or instructing his two daughters on the instrument. This strictly circumscribed universe is disrupted by the arrival of Marais, a musical prodigy whom Sainte Colombe considers facile and condemns for his worldly ambitions. Marais wins the love of Sainte Colombe's emotionally fragile daughter, but as the aspiring young man strives to establish himself as a court musician at Versailles, the rift between student and master deepens. |
| CB4 |
| 050793 |
|
| Chris Rock stars in this rap version of THIS IS SPINAL TAP as Albert, a suburban wannabe rap star who, along with two friends, has tried everything to break into the music business. However, when Albert is mistakes for an undercover cop by a nasty thug named Murphy, he adopts the newly incarcerated Murphy's persona and christens his rap group CB4, after Murphy's cell block address. Vowing to glorify violence and disparage women, CB4 are quickly signed to a lucrative record contract. Soon, the band is selling out concerts, and attracts a nerdy documentary filmmaker (Elliott) to chronicle their rise to the top of the charts among the protests of outraged parents and politicians. Fitfully funny and possessing a fine cast of SNL alums as well as cameos from real life rappers like Flavor Flav, Ice Cube, and Ice-T, CB4 is an excellent spoof of the rap music industry. |
| MAC |
| 051493 |
|
| This film is based on the life of the director's father, Niccolo "Mac" Turturro, a dedicated artisan who built houses and a successful carpentry business from the ground up. When their father dies, brothers Mac and Vito Vitelli continue to work side by side on a construction site and to live at home with their mother and younger brother Bruno. At work, Mac's a fastidious craftsman, but his painstaking efforts put him at odds with the foreman, Polowski, a quick and careless builder. Disgruntled, the Vitelli brothers go into business for themselves. But it isn't long before Mac starts working his brothers too hard, becoming an exacting, inflexible foreman. Yet Mac refuses to compromise his high standards as he struggles to fend off debt and complete his company's first set of row houses. But it may cost him more than he ever bargained for. |
| BLADE RUNNER |
| 051493 |
|
| Director Ridley Scott's hauntingly prescient vision of the not-too-distant future stars Harrison Ford as Rick Deckard, a retired police assassin, or "blade runner." The Los Angeles of 2019 is a dark, polluted, overcrowded dystopia dominated by cloud-piercing buildings and looming neon billboards, the air dense with acid rain and flying traffic. World-weary Deckard has been called out of retirement to liquidate four escaped "replicants"--genetically derived androids of great strength, intelligence, and nearly-human emotion who serve as slaves and prostitutes in the off-planet colonies. Led by Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer), they've come to Los Angeles to confront their designer, Eldon Tyrell (Joe Turkel), with their unhappiness about the brevity of their four-year life span. In the course of his search, Deckard becomes romantically entwined with Tyrell's lovely assistant, Rachael (Sean Young), and must eventually confront Batty in an unforgettable rain-soaked sequence. |
| JUST ANOTHER GIRL ON THE I.R.T. |
| 051493 |
|
| 17-year old Chantel Mitchell has dreams: she wants to graduate from high school early and go to college. She wants to become a doctor. And she wants to escape the poor Brooklyn neighborhood where she's grown up. Nothing scares her. She knows that she won't make the same mistakes that have sidelined so many of her friends. Then Chantel discovers she's pregnant. And for the first time in her life she just doesn't know what to do. |
| LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE |
| 052193 |
|
| Tita, as the youngest of three daughters, is condemned by family tradition never to marry, but to spend her life caring for her mother. However, Tita has fallen in love with a young man and he with her. When Tita's mother refuses to let them wed, and suggests that he marry her other daughter instead, Tita takes revenge: by allowing her passions to surface through her cooking, she manipulates the emotions of all who eat her food -- with some very strange and magical results. |
| VISIONS OF LIGHT |
| 052193 |
|
| An exceptional documentary about the craft of cinematography, featuring behind the scenes looks at some of the greatest films down through the decades in Hollywood, with secrets and insight into the look of great films such as CITIZEN KANE, THE GODFATHER, film noir, and much more. The film received very high critical praise for its comprehensive look at the art of filmmaking and the unapologetic love of the form. |
| OLIVIER OLIVIER |
| 052893 |
|
| Polish director Agnieszka Holland’s OLIVIER OLIVIER is a deeply haunting mystery that resonates long after the movie has ended. When nine-year-old Olivier disappears, his mother, Elisabeth Duval (Brigitte Rouan), who dotes on him to the exclusion of her husband, Serge (Francois Cluzet), and 11-year-old daughter, Nadine (Faye Gatteau), is beside herself with grief. Enlisting the help of police inspector Druot (Jean-Francois Stevenin) to find her son, she refuses to admit the possibility that he might be dead. Six years later the inspector discovers an adolescent male prostitute whom he believes to be the missing Olivier (Gregoire Colin), and the boy is "reunited" with his family. The mother is ecstatic, but the husband and daughter, always jealous of the attention paid to Olivier, have reservations. Taking her cue from the theory that the truth is stranger than fiction, Holland based her mystery on a real story from a French newspaper, consciously leaving it ambiguous in the film. She succeeds in maintaining an almost unbearably eerie level of mystery that is masterful and truly unsettling. |
| GUNCRAZY |
| 060493 |
|
| Video director Tamra Davis makes her feature-length debut with this crime drama. Anita (Drew Barrymore), abandoned by her mother and living with her mother's alcoholic, rapist ex-boyfriend, fulfills her geography class assignment by finding her pen-pal Howard (James LeGros), not in Japan or Brazil, but in the Chino, California prison yard. As their letter writing blossoms, so does their love, and the time for his parole is shortly due. They make plans to meet in person; when they do, she finds him a job, they draw closer physically and psychologically, and decide to cement their union by embarking on a crime spree. |
| A FEW GOOD MEN |
| 060493 |
|
| When two marines are charged with murdering a member of their platoon during an unsanctioned disciplinary action in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the armed forces hire a lieutenant they believe is a lightweight defense attorney. Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee (Tom Cruise) prides himself in having successfully plea-bargained every one of his 44 cases and would just as well make this one his 45th. However, ambitious internal affairs officer Lieutenant Commander Jo Ann Galloway (Demi Moore) smells a rat in the form of a hushed-up practice known as Code Red and, furious at Kaffee’s halfhearted efforts, gets hired as the younger cadet’s defender. Aided by Lt. Com. Galloway’s prodding, Lt. Kaffee begins to realize the rottenness of the whole affair and sets to take on the whole Guantanamo Bay marine corps and its codes, a decision that makes inevitable a ferocious head-to-head showdown with an immovable force. Irascible Colonel Nathan Jessup (Jack Nicholson, in one of the most striking performances of his fabled career) heads the Cuban marine base and is on the cusp of appointment to the National Security Council. Jessup embodies both the necessity and the evil in necessary evil and does not take lightly to anyone questioning his or his corps’ methods. Aaron Sorkin's script is adapted from his own gripping award-winning Broadway play and is skillfully brought to the screen by director Rob Reiner. |
| STOLEN CHILDREN (IL LADRA DI BAMBINI) |
| 061193 |
|
Antonio, a policeman (carabiniere), has an order to take two children (Rosetta and her brother Luciano) from Milan to Sicily to an orphanage. Their mother has been arrested for forcing Rosetta (11 years old) to work as a prostitute. First the relation between Antonio and the children is tough, but it relaxes so they become temporary friends. |
| GROUNDHOG DAY |
| 061193 |
|
| Once again, for the fifth year in a row, TV weatherman Phil Connors (Bill Murray) is forced to cover the Groundhog Day ceremonies in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, an assignment he truly despises. But this year something truly bizarre happens after he finishes the report: When he wakes up the next morning, ready to leave, he discovers it's February 2 all over again. He tries to tell his producer, Rita (Andie MacDowell), what's happening, but neither she nor anyone else understands; only he remembers that they've already lived through Groundhog Day. When the same thing happens the next morning, he thinks he's going insane and wreaks havoc all through the town. More and more mornings pass, all of them February 2, and all of them with an ever angrier Phil. Desperate to escape, he even tries suicide, but still another February 2 dawns. As he starts realizing that his exploits are not making time march on any quicker, Phil begins to change his behavior, performing a series of lifesaving tasks until he becomes a model citizen, hoping it will be enough to get him out of Punxsutawney forever. Along the way he learns more about the people around him--and himself--than he ever thought possible. The film is extremely well put together by director Harold Ramis, and the script by Danny Rubin and Ramis is sharp and clever. The actors--many of whom have to perform essentially the same scene over and over again, with only subtle differences--is a riot. |
| THREE OF HEARTS |
| 061893 |
|
| When Connie is dumped by her girlfriend Ellen, she hires a handsome, charismatic escort named Joe to break Ellen's heart. Joe is a smooth-talking Don Juan who goes by the motto "any woman, any time, guaranteed." Once Joe rejects Ellen, Connie is certain she'll come running back into her loving arms. But sometimes even the best-laid plans don't work out quite the way you expect. |
| LAST DAYS OF CHEZ NOUS |
| 061893 |
|
| Beth, a successful writer and mother, knows that her marriage to her French husband J. P. is dissolving -- and the arrival of her younger sister Vicki to her Sydney household (known as Chez Nous) only exacerbates the problems. Beth's ability to take charge of any situation and provide emotional support at first draw free-spirited people to her, but they later come to resent these very qualities, and find her competence more domineering than helpful. This seems to be the case with both J. P. and Vicki, and when Beth goes on a vacation with her father in an attempt to repair their contentious relationship, Vicki befriends Beth's daughter Annie and wins over the household with her easy-going manner. Upon her return, Beth quickly realizes that changes have taken place and new alliances have formed and that life at Chez Nous will never be the same. |
| POSSE |
| 062593 |
|
| This shoot-'em-up revisionist Western traces the little-known legend of black cowboys in the Old West, who participated in settling the frontier and played an unrecognized role in U.S. history. During the Spanish-American War, a multiracial group of U.S. soldiers go on a dangerous mission under the orders of the despicable Colonel Graham, who is white. They succeed, returning with the booty from the battle only to find that Graham has betrayed them. After fighting Graham off, the soldiers escape with their cache. Thus begins a chase through Cuba and back into the U.S. as the group struggles with the law, the Ku Klux Klan, and big business in an effort to protect the land and rights of African American settlers. Directed by and starring Mario Van Peebles, POSSE also features terrific turns by the likes of Tiny Lister, Tone Loc, Pam Grier, Isaac Hayes, Nipsey Russell, Aaron Neville, Stephen Baldwin, Billy Zane, and more. |
| BENNY & JOON |
| 062593 |
|
| Joon, a mentally disturbed young woman, lives with her older (and over-protective) brother Benny. He puts up with the untenable situation because of his love for her and his dislike of institutions. Just when their relationship reaches a point where things have to change, the soft-spoken Sam enters their lives and slowly begins a romance with the fragile Joon. His love proves to be just the therapy she needs -- and it finally gives the reclusive Benny, who hasn't even been able to commit to a second date, the chance to start a romance of his own. |
| RIFF RAFF |
| 062593 |
|
| Director Ken Loach's concern for the plight of the working man takes a comic turn in this gritty film starring Robert Carlyle (TRAINSPOTTING) as Stevie, a young Scotsman who finds a construction job in the north of London turning an old hospital into luxury condos. Like most of the largely non-English crew, he's forced to live in a "squat," an abandoned building whose doors can be opened only with a crowbar. Despite their differences, the laborers are bound by the difficulty of their work and their shared hatred of the bosses and contractors who constantly threaten to fire them and endanger their lives by cutting corners on safety. Loach's camera follows the workers unobtrusively as they relax in the squats and pubs, revealing, in their gallows humor, the fatalism of men who feel they've been forgotten by the society they inhabit. Stevie tries moving in for a time with Susan (Emer McCourt), a slightly dim, aspiring singer, but as is often the case for these men, things don't quite work out they way he hopes. Although Loach worked from a script, he used only actors who had construction experience and encouraged them to improvise their dialogue, making RIFF RAFF an utterly absorbing experience. The music for the film, like RAINING STONES, is scored by Stewart Copeland of the Police. |
| EL MARIACHI |
| 070293 |
|
| While earning room and board for a song, a down-on-his-luck musician gets into deep hot water when he's mistaken for a guitar case-toting hitman in a small Mexican town. EL MARIACHI was produced by do-it-yourself Austin, Texas auteur Robert Rodriguez (FROM DUSK TILL DAWN, SPY KIDS) on a shoe-string budget for the Mexican video market but earned a major studio release. Winner of the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival. |
| BODIES, REST & MOTION |
| 070293 |
|
| Four twenty-something American adults try to sort out their feelings about life and love in this offbeat generational comedy. |
| MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING |
| 070993 |
|
| When gallant Don Pedro (Denzel Washington), his nefarious brother Don John (Keanu Reeves), and close confidantes Claudio (Robert Sean Leonard) and Benedick (Kenneth Branagh) ride thunderously into the Sicilian village of Messina, romance, gaiety, and suspicion abound. The men have returned safely from a war, and soon everyone in the sun-drenched villa is abuzz with thoughts of love. Claudio, enamored of the purity of the nubile Hero (Kate Beckinsale), entreats Don Pedro to woo the maiden on his behalf that evening at a masked ball. Once he's managed the successful betrothal of Hero to Claudio, Don Pedro has another plot in mind: he plans to trick Hero's bantering cousin Beatrice (Emma Thompson) and sworn bachelor Benedick into acknowledging they've fallen in love. Meanwhile, the villainous Don John, driven by contempt for his compatriots, has hatched a plot of his own: to fool Claudio and Don Pedro into believing Hero is unchaste. The plot works perfectly: sensitive but volatile Claudio denounces her publicly on their wedding day. All seems lost, and soon the attempts to set things right include a formal duel, a scheming friar, a mock memorial and a gaggle of bumbling constables. With its excellent cast and beautiful Tuscan backdrop, director Kenneth Branagh's film is a light-hearted adaptation of yet another of Shakespeare's great plays. |
| SOMMERSBY |
| 070993 |
|
| A remake of the French film, "The Return of Martin Guerre" takes place in the post-Civil War south. Sommersby is presumed dead, returning to his family two years after the war's end. But the once selfish man who went to battle is now a loving husband and father. His wife falls in love with him anew; townspeople are suspicious, especially one man who is in love with Laurel Sommersby. Can this man really be Sommersby? Or is he an imposter? |
| MENACE II SOCIETY |
| 071693 |
|
| When Caine and O-Dog, two handsome boyz-from-the-hood, breeze into a Korean grocery, the anxious grocer and his watchful wife find their imposing presence troubling. Resentful of the sharp-eyed survelliance and air of suspicion around them, Caine and O-Dog yell epithets at the mom-and-pop owners. Angered by the shouting match and a remark about his mother, trigger-happy O-Dog shoots the grocers. On his way out, Caine grabs the videotape from the store's security camera. Back in the 'hood, O-Dog makes a boastful ritual of showing the tape to friends who find his recklessness funnier than amateur night at the Apollo. But it's just a matter of time before the cops catch up with Caine and O-Dog, especially since Caine's fingerprints were on the 40-ounce bottle he dropped at the scene of the crime. |
| HOT SHOTS PART DEUX |
| 071693 |
|
| In this sequel to "Hot Shots," Topper Harley is recruited by the military and the CIA to go into Iraq and rescue US soldiers taken hostage during the Persian Gulf War, and also to rescue the soldiers sent into to rescue them, and the soldiers sent in to rescue them... |
| LEOLO |
| 072393 |
|
| A dreamlike, hypnotic film, in which fantasy and reality inextricably merge, examines an unhappy child's desperate efforts to create an alternative, pleasurable world through his imagination and creativity. A young boy, stuck in an unbelievably neurotic and dysfunctional family, fills notebooks with his fantasies to escape the harsh reality of his life. In the key fantasy, Léolo (his made-up name) imagines he is the offspring of an Italian peasant and a particularly "fertile" tomato brought to Canada in a grocery shipment. These writings provide Leolo with a safe haven where he can forget his painful existence, but this ends when his notebooks are discovered by a local academic who unsuccessfully tries to convince his family and teachers of Leolo's talents. Leolo retreats from writing, and gradually loses himself in a world of his own imaginings. He is hospitalized, but steadfastly impervious to the proddings of the mental health professionals, he sinks further into his imagination, creating for himself a slightly more functional -- and beautiful -- reality than the one his family has provided. |
| DRAGON: THE BRUCE LEE STORY |
| 072393 |
|
| A biographical film of the adored movie star and martial arts idol, Bruce Lee. The story follows Lee from his childhood in Hong Kong, where he began training in martial arts, to his arrival in the United States, where he tried to build an acting career despite the prevalent racism. Upon his return to his homeland, he gradually became famous, thanks to a series of kung fu films. But despite his success, he never stopped battling a family "demon," who allegedly killed Bruce's brother and whose presence continually haunted Bruce. In 1970, Lee died under mysterious circumstances. |
| CLOSE TO EDEN |
| 073093 |
|
| Nominated for a Best Foreign Film Oscar in 1992, CLOSE TO EDEN is a comedy about a cross-cultural friendship between a Mongolian shepherd named Gombo and a Russian road builder named Sergei. Gombo has been living peacefully with his family living the way his ancestors have been for generations. When Sergei drives his truck into the local lake, Gombo helps him get his truck out, and accompanies him to the city where he's never been. His mission is to buy a television set, and some condoms, which his wife asks him for. A friendship develops and Gombo learns that progress in the modern world may not be all it's cracked up to be. |
| DAVE |
| 073093 |
|
| Judging by their looks, conservative United States President Bill Mitchell and liberal minded temp-agency owner Dave Kovic could be identical twins separated at birth. When two Secret Service agents, at Chief-of-Staff Bob Alexander's request, clandestinely draft Dave into servicing his country by temporarily standing-in for President Mitchell, the carefree humanitarian gladly answers his call to duty. After all, as the President's look-alike Dave has aped austere Mitchell before. Luckily, the plan goes off without a hitch. But in an ironic twist of fate, President Mitchell is incapacitated, leaving Dave in a political hot-spot. Once Dave takes the extraordinary opportunity to implement progressive programs, reduce the national deficit and significantly effect social change, he nearly overturns Mitchell's reactionary administration, even as the very handlers begin conspiring against him. |
| CLIFFHANGER |
| 080693 |
|
| Gabe Walker is a lean, musclebound Rocky Mountain rescue professional trying to live with the memory of his unsuccessful attempt to rescue his partner's girlfriend. The partner, Hal, holds Gabe responsible for her death; with the friendship ruined and a blemished career, Gabe leaves Colorado, retreating from his home and his close friends. A year later, Gabe returns to Colorado in hopes of convincing his girlfriend Jessie to move away with him. But when a small jet crashes in the mountains, Gabe and Hal are forced to go to the aid of the survivors -- including a psychopathic British thief who has stolen $100 million in Treasury Department money. Together, Gabe, Hal and Jessie lead the group through the rough terrain on foot, protecting one another, fighting the bad guys and rebuilding their friendship along the way. |
| MANUFACTURING CONSENT |
| 080693 |
|
| A two-part documentary chronicling the development of noted dissident Noam Chomsky and his dissection of the media and its often deceptive role in modern culture. Features appearances by such journalists and critics as William F. Buckley, Jr., Bill Moyers, and Peter Jennings. |
| INDECENT PROPOSAL |
| 080693 |
|
| Longtime sweethearts David (Woody Harrelson), an architect, and Diana (Demi Moore), a real estate agent, find themselves on hard times when financial troubles bring them to the verge of losing their house, which David designed. Taking their last $5,000, they go to Vegas in hopes of multiplying their money. Luck fails them, but they are faced with a major moral dilemma when billionaire John Gage (Robert Redford) spots Diana in the casino and offers her $1,000,000 to spend the night with him. What ensues causes them to question their relationship more than anything they've ever encountered. Based on the novel by Jack Engelhard. |
| ALADDIN |
| 081393 |
|
| This funny, romantic tale about a spunky orphan and a smart princess won the hearts of children and adults alike. Poor Aladdin looks longingly at the Sultan's luxurious castle, and dreams of living inside, but Princess Jasmine wants only to escape that pampered life. Finally, she does run away, only to discover how hard life on the streets can be -- especially when a vendor accuses you of thievery. Aladdin comes to her rescue, and soon the two have fallen in love. But how can a beggar marry the sultan's daughter? His only hope lies in a magic lamp from the Cave of Wonders and a wisecracking genie who can grant wishes. But Jafar, the Sultan's evil advisor, desires that lamp himself, so he can rule the kingdom and possess Jasmine. Soon the handsome young boy and the cruel Jafar are locked in a battle of wits -- and unleashing magic the likes of which no one has seen before. |
| MADE IN AMERICA |
| 081393 |
|
| Sarah is an African-American single parent raising Zora, a bright high-schooler. When Zora discovers that her mom conceived her through artificial insemination, Zora sets out to discover her father's identity. However, Zora is stunned, and Sarah is alarmed, when the sperm donor turns out to be a very shallow, smarmy, fast-talking car dealer named Hal Jackson -- who's white! Zora wants to get to know her dad better; unfortunately her mother and Hal mix worse than oil and water. But as Sarah and Hal come to accept each other's race and their situation, they begin to see one another in a new light. |
| DEEP BLUES |
| 081393 |
|
| Director Mugge and Robert Palmer (not that Robert Palmer) travel deep into the Delta to find the best blues acts in the country. From juke joints to front porches, this intrepid pair go off to find some bluesmen and end up documenting a musical history of the land and some important regional performers. |
| LAST ACTION HERO |
| 082093 |
|
| Arnold Schwarzenegger and director John McTiernan join forces again in, THE LAST ACTION HERO, a heart racing thriller in which a young boy uses a magical ticket to infiltrate his favorite movie. Danny (Austin O’Brien) passes through the movie screen and into the whirlwind life of crusader Jack Slater (Arnold Schwarzenegger) becoming his sidekick. But when the villains learn that they too can travel back and forth between cinema and reality, it’s up to Jack Slater to put a stop their havoc wreaking. |
| UN COEUR EN HIVER |
| 082093 |
|
| Stephane (Daniel Auteuil) and Maxime (Andre Dussollier) are partners in a respectable violin making and repair business. One day a beautiful violinist named Camille (Gallic beauty Emmanuelle Beart) enters their shoppe and their lives, immediately striking up an affair with the outgoing Maxime. But Camille finds herself unexpectedly drawn to the enigmatic Stephane, an extremely withdrawn individual incapable of expressing emotion yet completely comfortable with his own passionless solitude. Convinced she can break through Stephane's cold exterior, Camille travels further and further into the realms of obsession until her unrequited love reaches its inevitable and dangerous conclusion. |
| WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT |
| 082793 |
|
| 17-year old Anna Mae leaves the backwoods of Tennessee for St. Louis to be reunited with her stern mother and elder sister, Alline. One evening, Alline brings Anna Mae to the night club where a group led by singer-hearthrob Ike Turner plays. Ike makes a nightly ritual of passing the microphone around the dance hall and on one visit to the club Anna Mae grabs it and belts out a song. Soon Anna's whole life is in Ike's hands: he's changed her name to Tina and taken total control of her singing career. Though he's paternalistic and artistically demanding, she's fascinated by his forceful masculinity, stylistic charisma and creative vision. But not long after their quickie Mexican marriage, things turn sour. Ike viciously abuses Tina, who, eventually struggles to free herself of his psychotic reign of terror. |
| THE STORY OF QIU JU |
| 082793 |
|
| The wife of a chili farmer becomes involved in a one-woman crusade against the Chinese bureaucracy in Zhang Yimou's fable of contemporary China. When farmer Wan Qinglai gets into a violent argument with village head Wang Shantang and is hospitalized with groin injuries, his hugely pregnant wife Qiuju demands justice. Humiliated by Wang Shantang, Qiuju rejects his cash compensation and travels instead to the provincial capital. There the indomitable peasant woman undertakes the daunting task of extracting a simple apology from the labyrinthine bureaucracy. |
| JASON GOES TO HELL: THE FINAL FRIDAY |
| 090393 |
|
Jason Voorhees, the living, breathing essence of evil, is back for one fierce, final fling. Tracked down and blown to bits by a special FBI task force, everyone now assumes that he's finally dead. But everyone assumes wrong. Jason has been reborn with the bone-chilling ability to assume the identity of anyone he touches. The terrifying truth is he could be anywhere. Or anybody. In this shocking, blood-soaked finale to Jason's carnage-ridden of terror, the horrible secret of his unstoppable killing instinct is finally revealed. |
| NAKED LUNCH |
| 090393 |
|
| The dry wit of William S. Burroughs transfers surprisingly well to the screen, where a pest-control man seeking escape from his troubled existence flees to Interzone, a hallucinatory version of Tangiers, where reality and fantasy have merged. Peter Weller does a dead-on Burroughs impression, and the film follows a bizarre logic and has a dark, rich look that help make it one of Cronenberg's more satisfying works. It's not exactly Burroughs, but it is a strange, surreal landscape inhabited by half-alien, half-insect creatures and bizarre humans. And, like all other Cronenberg films it's a bit squishy; it is full of the biological dread that pervades all his films. Make no mistake, this film is not exactly faithful to the novel, and Cronenberg provides it with a neat framework, beginning and ending with Benway accidentally(?) killing his wife during their William Tell routine, just as Burroughs did in real life. |
| WIDE SARGASSO SEA |
| 090393 |
|
| WIDE SARGASSO SEA is based on Jean Rhys' feminist "prequel" to Charlotte Bronte's classic novel, JANE EYRE. Rhys' novel took JANE EYRE as its inspiration, and imagined a history for the mysterious first Mrs. Rochester. The novel is considered both a feminist masterpiece, and insightful in terms of its exploration of the European attitude toward race. On the island of Jamaica in 1844, amidst the political upheaval brought about by slavery's abolition, Antoinette Cosway (Karina Lombard), a free-spirited Creole, is forced to enter into an arranged marriage in order to inherit her dilapidated family's estate. At first she resents Rochester (Nathaniel Parker), her new husband; then, gradually, she falls in love with him. But Antoinette has many secrets that she cannot keep her husband from discovering. Soon the disturbed and suspicious Rochester, affected by the spell of Jamaica's "exotic atmosphere," brings the story to its tragic, and inevitable, conclusion. |
| SON IN LAW |
| 091093 |
|
| It's initially a culture clash of cataclysmic proportions when wild-man Crawl visits the rural midwestern family of his new friend Rebecca. But soon Crawl has become best of friends with Rebecca's family and is right at home on the farm. But Rebecca's old boyfriend Travis is none too pleased with this out-of-town invader, and he's got a few plans that just might spoil Rebecca and Crawl's vacation. |
| AMERICAN HEART |
| 091093 |
|
| A boy longing for a relationship with his newly-released ex-convict dad, tracks him down and begs to stay with him. Grudgingly, the father agrees and they set up house in a residential hotel. Jobs are hard to come by for ex-cons "who can't do nothin'," but the father finally gets work washing windows, and instructs his son to go find a school to attend. As the father and son struggle to become a family, the father tries to resist the temptation to return to the streets and slip back into his old ways. They plan to fulfill the father's dreams of resettling in Alaska, but a feud between the two has dire consequences, leading to a tragic ending. |
| TONGUES TIED |
| 091093 |
|
| Marlon Riggs's controversial, brilliant and highly political look at racism and homophobia in the United States. Availing himself of a plethora of artistic forms -- including poetry, music, and oral history -- "Tongues Untied" unravels and reveals the dual prejudices that African-American gays must deal with on an everyday basis. This was originally aired on PBS, where it stirred extremely strong reaction throughout the nation. A spellbinding and provocative film. |
| STOP THE CHURCH |
| 091093 |
|
| This film gives us a behind the scenes look at the AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power's protest at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City. ACT-UP noteworthys such as Larry Kramer, Anne Northrop, Michael Petrellis, and David Robinson make appearances. We see the combination of research, rage, and fun that went into the action which disrupted services inside the Catholic church, as angry gay and lesbian demonstrators yelled at Archbishop O'Connor: "You're killing us! Stop what you're doing!" Powerful stuff! |
| DEAD ALIVE |
| 091793 |
|
| Peter Jackson's third feature-length film is a bizarre black comedy--sort of a screwball NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, with plenty of graphic violence thrown in for good measure. While spying on her son and his date on a trip to the zoo, Lionel's domineering mother (Elizabeth Moody) is bitten by a vicious Sumatran rat monkey and consequently starts manifesting some rather peculiar behavior, attacking all those unfortunate enough to get in her way and turning them into zombies. Poor Lionel (Timothy Balme) is forced to hide her victims in his basement in order to conceal his mother's grotesque affliction from his love interest, Paquita (Diana Peñalver). But soon his mom's zombified entourage starts to rebel and becomes too much for Lionel to handle. In the raucous finale, Lionel takes on a whole army of the undead (plus the occasional unruly bodily organ) with his trusty lawnmower and finally confronts his mother in an all-out Oedipal extravaganza. Though so over the top that it's often classified as a comedy rather than a fright film, DEAD ALIVE has also been touted as one of the goriest horror movies ever made--so be warned: It's not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach. |
| MAN BITES DOG |
| 091793 |
|
| A mock black comic documentary that spoofs reality TV, and questions the media's role in perpetuating and abetting violence. A homicidal maniac, serial-killer, Ben Patard, is accompanied on his killing sprees by a film crew who document, then later participate in, even as they question, his activities. |
| THE WEDDING BANQUET |
| 091793 |
|
| Gao Wai-Tung (Winston Chao) lives the good life: He runs a successful real-estate business in New York and has a wonderful relationship with his lover, Simon (Mitchell Lichtenstein). The only problem is that his elderly parents in Taiwan don't know he's gay--and they're pushing him to get married and present them with a grandchild. So, with Simon's approval, Wai-Tung strikes a bargain with Wei-Wei (May Chin), a charming young Chinese woman who is one of his tenants. If she'll marry him, he'll help her get a green card so she can stay in the United States. The charade culiminates in an elaborate Chinese banquet that no one will soon forget. |
| ORLANDO |
| 092493 |
|
| Tilda Swinton is Orlando, the melancholy, fiercely independent, and always humanistic poet whose story begins when Queen Elizabeth I--wonderfully played by Quentin Crisp--takes a shine to the beautiful boy. There are several amazing things about Orlando, not the least of which is that he is immortal, has the tendency to slip into death-like sleeps for long periods of time and, halfway through the 18th century, changes into a woman. Based on the novel by Virginia Woolf, the author's wit is deftly matched by director Sally Potter's translation of it to the screen. With spectacular sets and costumes, ORLANDO is lush to look at while retaining a charming intimacy. Spanning four centuries to the present, ORLANDO mixes history with dramatized events--such as a great freeze during the 17th century that encases England in ice--resulting in fairy-tale enchantment and witty metaphor. Potter's signature vignette style takes Orlando on journeys both locational and emotional--as a patron to a mooching poet (Heathcote Williams), an ambassador to the Middle East, and a lover of an American explorer (Billy Zane)--in which he learns about all varieties of life, society, and gender in all of their complexities. |
| SALT OF THE EARTH |
| 092493 |
|
| In New Mexico, Mexican zinc miners, fed up with the life-threatening conditions under which they work, organize a walk-out. The racist management of the company tries to end the strike, with a variety of extremely violent and cruel tactics. |
| RISING SUN |
| 100193 |
|
| Amid distrust and uncertainty, two detectives from Los Angeles investigate the murder of a young woman. The story is set in and around a Japanese corporation based in Los Angeles and the detectives bring their differing viewpoints about Japanese corporate society into the murder investigation. |
| HEAVY METAL |
| 100193 |
|
| This unique collection of six animated stories combines science fiction with fantasy, horror, comedy, sex and rock music. The segments include "Harry Canyon" and "Den." In the first, a New York City cab driver gets mixed up with a beautiful femme fatale. Although he's become so hardened that he keeps a death ray in his car to kill troublesome riders, he lets his guard down long enough to fall for his latest passenger... and it could cost him his life. In "Den," a nerdy student travels to another planet and transforms into a macho stud with incredible strength. While fighting villains, beautiful women throw themselves at him. Other stories in this anthology feature the exploits of a beautiful female warrior, pilots fighting off a creature from another world, and a Pentagon secretary who gets captured by an alien. There's also one off-the-wall segment played purely for comic effect. The stories are all linked by sequences featuring a fiendish green meteorite that claims to be the cause of evil throughout the world. |
| HARD TARGET |
| 100893 |
|
| A young woman searching for her missing and homeless father in a seamy section of New Orleans is saved by a martial arts fighter, sometime merchant seaman, when a gang of thugs try to rob her. She hires the man to help track down the lost parent, and they both end up being the targets for a vicious gang of "human" hunters. Chance Boudreaux, a brawny merchant sailor who has come up on hard times saves doe-eyed Natasha Binder from a gang of thugs and she offers him a proposition; she'll pay him well if he'll help find her missing father in New Orleans. But her father may already have been killed by wealthy thrill-seeking businessmen who have made a sport of hunting forgotten, homeless, veterans, and if Chance and Natasha discover this deadly scheme, they just might, be the next victims. |
| SOFIE |
| 100893 |
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| "Sofie" is a study of one woman's great disappointments and small pleasures in late 19th-century Denmark. Bound by her family and by Jewish culture, Sofie is poised at the edge of spinsterhood. She yearns for the kind of happy marriage her mother and father enjoy, but when she begins a romance with a gentile painter her parents steadfastly forbid the union. As an alternative, they suggest she wed a distant relative. Unwilling to go against tradition and family, Sofie ends the affair. Her marriage, however, proves loveless, and the once-hopeful Sofie fulfills herself by doting on her son and trifling with her brother-in-law. But after much tragedy and heartache, Sofie will discover that her son has the strength to do what she herself could not: break with the past and find his own form of happiness. |
| ROMPER STOMPER |
| 101593 |
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| ROMPER STOMPER is a morally ambiguous look at a group of neo-Nazis raising hell in Melbourne, Australia. A gang of vacant, brutish young thugs headed by a terrifying but charismatic MEIN KAMPF-quoting skinhead named Hando declares war on a community of Vietnamese immigrants. In between bouts of vicious racial violence, Hando picks up a drug-addicted rich girl in a bar and adopts her as his lover. When Hando's second-in-command, the more sensitive, semihumane Davey, falls for Hando's new girlfriend, the stage is set for a potentially explosive love triangle. |
| IN THE LINE OF FIRE |
| 101593 |
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| Aging secret service agent Frank Horrigan (Clint Eastwood), on duty the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, is still unable to forget his failure on that fateful day, even as he nears retirement in 1993. When Mitch Leary (John Malkovich), a psychotic man calling himself Booth, threatens to kill the current president, Horrigan is the only one who takes the threat seriously. Over time, a cat-and-mouse game develops between the potential assassin and the agent; Horrigan sees the game as a chance to redeem his earlier failure and escape a life that has fallen into alcoholism and self-pity. With his only allies his partner (Dylan McDermott), who realizes he can't handle being a secret service agent and wants to resign, and a female agent (Rene Russo) whom he alternately annoys and attracts, Horrigan takes on Leary one-on-one in a fight to save the president, his job, and his self-respect. Directed with panache and precision by Wolfgang Petersen, IN THE LINE OF FIRE is an expertly crafted thriller that features spectacular performances by Eastwood and Malkovich. |
| HOLD ME, KISS ME, THRILL ME |
| 102293 |
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| After a bride groom leaves his bride at the altar with a bullet in her designer gown he hides out with a stripper in a trailer park full of crazed characters. There he waits for a mysterious stranger (played by Leary) to bring him an airline ticket and a false passport. But he falls in love with the stripper's naive sister while waiting. |
| TOKYO DECADENCE |
| 102993 |
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| A high-priced call girl catering to Yakuza captains and ostensibly "respectable" heads of industry makes her way through the smutty sex underground of the titular city, witnessing and experiencing sexual degradation, confusion, and despair. A searing, disturbing, and extremely graphic indictment of the twin hypocrisies of excessive materialism and sexual puritanism, which combine to create an exploited underclass of sex merchants forced to feed the perversions of their powerful tormentors. |
| INTO THE WEST |
| 102993 |
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| After his wife's death, an alcoholic father, who once lived a gypsylike existence as part of a people known as the travellers, retires with his two sons to a dreary Dublin tenement. But the atmosphere brightens considerably when the children's grandfather, who remains a traveller and does not approve of their city life, brings them a white stallion named Tir na nOg whom he has found near the Irish Sea. For a while, they all live happily in the flat, but when annoyed neighbors complain about the presence of a horse in an apartment building, police intervene and take Tir na nOg away. When an unethical cop illegally sells the stallion to a breeder who plans to train him as a racehorse, the boys, desperate to get him back, come to the animal's rescue and free him. Tir na nOg then leads the children on an adventure through the Irish countryside, as their father, helped by some friends, tries to track them down. When the family is finally reunited, a magical event occurs that makes them realize the mystical powers that the animal possesses. |
| ROAD SCHOLAR |
| 102993 |
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| Inspired by Jack Kerouac's "On the Road," Romanian-born radio commentator Andrei Codrescu takes a cross-country trip in a huge, 1968 red Cadillac convertible to discover all that is eccentric about America. In further homage to the Beats, Codrescu meets up with the poet Allen Ginsberg, who takes him to Walt Whitman's home in Camden, N.J., and later on visits the City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco. In between, Codrescu marvels at the multitude of lifestyles that Americans of all ethnic backgrounds feel free to pursue. |
| KING OF THE HILL |
| 110593 |
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| For Steven Soderbergh’s third feature film, the acclaimed director adapts A.E. Hotchner’s 1972 memoir. Set in 1933 St. Louis, KING OF THE HILL follows 12-year-old Aaron Kurlander (a magnetic Jesse Bradford), a bright, affable boy coming of age during the heart of the American depression. His financially troubled family consists of a salesman father (Jeroen Krabbe) who must leave home to search for employment, a chronically ill mother (Lisa Eichhorn), and a younger brother (Cameron Boyd) who has been sent away to live with relatives. Their home in a poverty-stricken neighborhood is the dank Empire Hotel, where Aaron befriends hotel guests and management, including Lester (Adrien Brody) and Mr. Munco (Spalding Gray). When Aaron's not at school--where he's an honor student and master marble player--he's at the hotel trying to cope with the familial and economic adversities that consume his world and keep his stomach growling. Eventually, the broken family is reunited when Mr. Kurlander secures a job as a clerk, but it is up to Aaron to forgive his father for abandonment if they're to become a family again. Soderbergh films KING OF THE HILL with colorful photography, adding optimism even when things are at their most hopeless. |
| GIFT |
| 110593 |
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What would you do if you came home and found your wife dead? Do you call the cops? Her parents? That's where the true nightmare begins. A story of love. A man and a woman's final night together. |
| STEPPING RAZOR: RED X |
| 110593 |
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| Packed with rare concert footage, interviews and narration by Tosh himself, this video uncovers the visionary that was Peter Tosh. This film traces Tosh from his early rise from the slums of Kingston to international super stardom, and probes the unanswered questions surrounding his brutal death. |
| DAZED AND CONFUSED |
| 111293 |
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| Richard Linklater's DAZED AND CONFUSED takes a hysterical, nostalgic cross-clique look at high school social development. On the last day of school in May 1976, students at a suburban Texas high school wait, lackadaisically, for classes to end. The restless almost-seniors--an eclectic group of stone-heads, fraternal jocks, and snobby sorority girls--can't wait to haze the incoming freshman, an annual event as harrowing for freshman boys as it is humiliating for girls. Amidst this teenage wasteland of drugs, partying, and rock and roll is football star Pink (Jason London), who saves scrawny pre-frosh Mitch (Wiley Wiggins) from being paddled to oblivion by upper-classmates. But Pink has his own battles: he's struggling over the head coach's demand that football players sign a pledge to abstain from sex and all psychoactive substances. When a wild end-of-the-year party is cancelled, the students end up congregating at a beer-blast in the back woods, organized by aging hang-about Wooderson (Matthew McConaughey). In the same way that George Lucas assembled a cast of fresh young faces for AMERICAN GRAFFITI, Linklater here creates an unforgettable cast of characters that are immediately familiar to anyone who has ever been through high school. |
| SPIKE AND MIKE'S FESTIVAL OF ANIMATION |
| 111293 |
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| HARD BOILED |
| 111993 |
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| After a deadly shoot-out with a ruthless band of gunrunners, Inspector "Tequila" Yuen (Yun Fat) is reprimanded by the police brass for excessive use of force. He soon gets himself into even more trouble by trying to arrest a gangster who is actually an undercover agent. But Yuen gets one last chance to redeem himself in the film's blood-soaked finale. Teaming up with the undercover cop, Yuen battles the mob in an apocalyptic gunfight at the city hospital. In addition to subduing the criminals, he also has to rescue a newborn baby mistakenly left behind in the flames of the burning nursery. |
| BOXING HELENA |
| 112693 |
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| Dr. Nick Cavanaugh grew up at the mercy of his mocking, sensual, and neglectful mother. As an adult, he fantasizes about women who entice, taunt, and reject him and finds the epitome of cold calculation in Helena, a one-night stand who wants nothing more to do with him. When a serious car accident leaves Helena unconscious, he takes advantage of the situation by bringing her into his home--and using his surgical skills to amputate her arms and legs. Then Nick sets her up in a box as an object of his adoration. But even boxing Helena won't get Nick Cavanaugh what he wants...and he has to keep upping the ante in a cruel psychological and physical battle. |
| SHORT CUTS |
| 112693 |
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| Using the short stories of Raymond Carver as a jumping-off point, American maverick director Robert Altman weaves a tapestry of interlocking tales set against the seedy backdrop of contemporary middle-class Los Angeles. Tracking the various stages of denial, rage, and despair in the lives of several couples--a philandering cop and his masochistic spouse (Tim Robbins and Madeline Stowe); a helicopter pilot who gets revenge on his ex by trashing her house (Peter Gallagher and Frances McDormand); a man and woman whose perfect life falls apart when they lose their son in a hit-and-run accident (Bruce Davison and Andie MacDowell); a pool cleaner who listens in mounting frustration to his wife performing phone sex each day while tending her brood of children (Chris Penn and Jennifer Jason Leigh); a wealthy couple who are haunted by an incident from the past (Matthew Modine and Julianne Moore); an aging jazz singer and her suicidal daughter (Annie Ross and Lori Singer); an alcoholic limo driver and his waitress wife (Tom Waits and Lily Tomlin)--Altman reveals their common threads of family dysfunction and marital discord in the unforgiving glare of the Southern California sunlight. The result is a sweeping motion picture that also stands as an important sociological artifact of late 20th century Los Angeles life. |
| THE CURE SHOW |
| 112693 |
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| Gothic popsters The Cure have had a long and prosperous career; since 1985 they've consistently produced unique songs that are marked with their signature mixture of twangy guitar pop and moody lyrics. The two-hour long concert video SHOW, filmed live at Detroit, Michigan's Palace Of Auburn Hills, features the Cure on their "Wish" tour. Robert Smith is at his dramatic best as the band performs many of their classics, including "Just Like Heaven," "Trust," "Fascination Street," and "Boys Don't Cry." |
| SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE |
| 120393 |
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| Sam Baldwin (Tom Hanks) is a good father and a successful architect. But he's also a lonely widower. One night his precocious 8-year-old son Jonah calls a late-night radio talk show seeking a cure for his father's despondency. When Sam hesitantly takes the phone and discloses the story of his magic-filled marriage, he proves to be a deeply feeling and gentle man. His plight profoundly moves the program's sympathetic female listeners, and thousands of women write in offering to help him `recover' from his mournful insomnia. Recently betrothed Annie Reed (Meg Ryan) is one of the many listeners touched by Sam's story. To complicate matters, she's afraid her upcoming marriage promises stability and security but no excitement. Although Annie's supposed to be driving to her future in-laws' house for the holidays, she knows that she's already fallen in love with Sam and is on the road to destiny. Academy Award Nominations: Best (Original) Screenplay, Best Song ("A Wink and a Smile"). |
| BALLAD OF LITTLE JO |
| 120393 |
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| A feminist western based on a true story. In the 1800's, Josephine Monaghan, a young woman from a wealthy Eastern family, finds herself pregnant and unwed. Disowned by her parents, and without a home, Jo deposits her child with her sister and heads westward. Almost immediately she discovers the many dangers the newly settled frontier holds for an unaccompanied female. In desperation, Jo makes a risky -- and illegal -- decision: she shears her hair, scars her face and puts on trousers... becoming, in the eyes of the world, a man. |
| A BRONX TALE |
| 120393 |
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| Robert DeNiro stars in his directorial debut as Lorenzo Anello, a dutiful father and blue-collar bus driver from the harsh New York City borough of the Bronx whom tries desperately to keep his son Calogero from surrendering to the temptation of organized crime. When Calogero witnesses Mafia kingpin Sonny (Chaz Palminteri) commit murder, he decides to honor the "code of the streets" and offers no information to the cops when interrogated. Consequently, a friendship is forged between Sonny and Calogero, and--against his father's wishes--the young man joins the Mafia. Calogero respects his father, though can not seem to shake his new lifestyle, but when push comes to shove it is his father who must confront the mob and save his son's life, leaving Calogero to re-examine the magnitude of his father's honest work ethics. |
| LAST CALL AT MAUD'S |
| 121093 |
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| A look at the world's longest-running lesbian bar and its colorful and sometimes tragic past, from the the underground days of the 40's to 1989, when it closed its doors for good. |
| HOUSE OF ANGELS |
| 121093 |
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| A seductive nightclub singer turns a small town upside down when she inherits her grandfather's rural estate. Winner of nine major international awards. |
| EQUINOX |
| 121793 |
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| This quirky comic drama from writer-director Alan Rudolph stars Matthew Modine in a dual role as twins separated from their parents and each other at birth. Both live in a violent, retro-futuristc city called Empire. One brother, Frankie Ace, an ice-cool gangster, while the other, Henry, is a clumsy, insecure nobody working at the garage of his adopted father (M. Emmett Walsh). When Sonya (Tyra Ferrell), a nurse with aspirations to be a writer finds a mysterious note in the hand of a dead woman, she begins setting the wheels in motion for a reconciliation between these two distinctly opposite versions of the same person, with unforeseeably catastrophic results. |
| ESPECIALLY ON SUNDAY |
| 121793 |
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| no synopsis available at the moment. |
| DEMOLITION MAN |
| 121793 |
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| In the 1990s, urban terrorist Simon Phoenix is imprisoned in ice for the protection of society. His arch-nemesis, police officer John Spartan, also suffers the same fate after Phoenix frames him for the deaths of a busload of innocent bystanders. In 2032, in the renamed city of San Angeles, Phoenix is accidentally freed and begins a new crime spree on a now violence-free populace. Spartan is released to capture the one-man wrecking crew; in the process, he discovers the corruption beneath San Angeles' pristine surface. Through non-stop jokes and action, Spartan shows the docile, futuristic police force that the old ways are sometimes the best ways. |
| THE PIANO |
| 122493 |
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| This controversially erotic film from New Zealand established screenwriter-director Jane Campion as a universally recognized talent. Holly Hunter stars as Ada, a mute 19th-century woman sent to New Zealand in an arranged marriage with a patriarchal landowner (Sam Neill). She brings along her daughter, Flora (Anna Paquin), and tries to also bring her beloved piano, much to the consternation of her new husband, who abandons the piano on a beach. Artistically and emotionally frustrated, Ada finds herself experiencing an erotic awakening when Baines (Harvey Keitel), an illiterate settler covered with Maori tattoos, rescues her piano, buys it from her husband, then strikes a strange bargain with Ada that gradually leads to her sexual awakening--and to an explosive confrontation. |
| FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE |
| 122493 |
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| In Chen Kaige's adaptation of the Lilian Lee novel, Cheng Dieyi (Leslie Cheung) and Duan Xiaolou (Fengyi Zhang) grow up enduring the harsh training of the Peking Opera Academy, where instructors regularly beat the children as a means of instilling in them the discipline needed to master the complex physical and vocal technique. As the two boys mature, they develop complementary talents: Dieyi, with his fine, delicate features, assumes the female roles while the burlier Xiaolou plays masculine warlords. Their dramatic identities become real for Dieyi when he falls in love with Xiaolou; the resolutely heterosexual Xiaolou, however, marries a courtesan, Juxian (Gong Li), creating a dangerous, jealousy-filled romantic triangle. Spanning 50 years from the early part of the 20th century to the tumultuous Cultural Revolution, Kaige's passionate, exquisitely shot film captures the vast historical scope of a changing world (and the mesmerizing pageantry of the opera) while also providing the intimate and touching details of a unique, tender, heartrending love story. |
| MALICE |
| 123193 |
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| Andy Safian and his new wife, Tracy, reside in a quiet pastoral town where he's a well-respected professor and college dean. To offset the financial costs of renovations to their home, Andy and Tracy take in a boarder--Dr. Jed Hill, a brilliant young physician who's somewhat reckless and pleasure-driven. |