CS Lewis is the author of the Narnia books – The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. Known as Jack, he teaches at an Oxford College, during the 1930’s. An American fan, Joy Gresham, arrives to meet him for tea in Oxford. It is the beginning of a love affair. Tragically Joy becomes terminally unwell and their lives become complicated.Read More »
A ventriloquist is at the mercy of his vicious dummy while he tries to renew a romance with his high school sweetheart.Read More »
Nicol Williamson takes the lead role in this star-studded 1969 version of William Shakespeare’s tragedy. Prince Hamlet (Williamson) mourns his father’s death and his mother’s (Judy Parfitt’s) marriage to Claudius (Sir Anthony Hopkins). When the ghost of Hamlet’s father appears to him and tells him that Claudius has poisoned him, Hamlet swears revenge.Read More »
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Donaldson’s The Bounty was a strikingly solid adaptation of the tale of rebellious Fletcher Christian, stalwart Captain Bligh and the breadfruit and Tahitian beauty that inspired mutiny on the HMS Bounty. Unlike the rollicking 1935 classic that starred a dashing Clark Gable as the swashbuckling Christian and an imperious Charles Laughton as the evil Bligh, this is a revisionist tale that casts the Bounty captain in a more compassionate light. Hopkins’ Bligh is a usually fair and just leader who’s unprepared for the tropical lust that takes over his crew, and soon finds himself up against Gibson’s Christian, a man torn between his duty to his captain and the newfound love he has for the South Seas … Donaldson’s strength lies in keeping the audience sympathetic to both Hopkins and Gibson, making out neither to be a monster but rather men driven by their differing moral compasses. Donaldson further distinguished The Bounty from its predecessors with its attention to historical detail and sumptuous location photography, which seduced audiences as well as the crewmen of the ill-fated ship. – Mark Englehart, imdbRead More »
Criminal defense attorney Arthur Jamison wants to get a divorce from his wife Louise Jamison. He knows that the downside would be the hefty alimony payments his wife would receive from him. Instead of facing this monetary dilemma, he comes up with an imaginary alter ego to help him plan the perfect murder of his wife.Read More »
From IMDB
The opening moments in any production of Hamlet are critical because the audience, assuming they know the play fairly well, will already be asking the ‘How are they going to do…’ question. It’s the ghost. Hamlet senior. What is he going to look like? In a film, it’s an even bigger challenge, because some people watching might expect a special effect. The approach here is a shot of bright light across the young Dane’s face and his voice echoing through the frame. The style of the film is already crystallised. It’s not about the surroundings or set dressing. It’s about the emotion of the piece, the words. In this key moment we are looking in his eyes as he hear’s his fathers words, and that’s a device used throughout the piece.Read More »
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A graceful Russian ballerina falls in love with an American news correspondent in this comedy-drama. The KGB is most displeased and does everything it can to break them up and eventually, tragically, they succeed. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie GuideRead More »
Titus returns victorious from war, only to plant the seeds of future turmoil for himself and his family.Read More »
Quote:The pinnacle of the decades-long collaboration between producer Ismail Merchant and director James Ivory, Howards End is a luminous vision of E. M. Forster’s cutting 1910 novel about class divisions in Edwardian England. Emma Thompson won an Academy Award for her dynamic portrayal of Margaret Schlegel, a flighty yet compassionate middle-class intellectual whose friendship with the dying wife (Vanessa Redgrave) of rich capitalist Henry Wilcox (Anthony Hopkins) commences an intricately woven tale of money, love, and death that encompasses the country’s highest and lowest social echelons. With a brilliant, layered script by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (who also won an Oscar) and a roster of gripping performances, Howards End is a work of both great beauty and vivid darkness, and one of cinema’s best literary adaptations.Read More »