Focusing on the character that started creator Geoff Johns' career in comic books, the new DC drama series, STARGIRL follows high school sophomore Courtney Whitmore (Brec Bassinger) as she inspires an unlikely group of young heroes to take up the legacy of a long-lost superhero team The Justice Society of America and stop the villains of the past.
Jane Campion's The Piano struck a deep chord (if you'll excuse the expression) with audiences in 1993, who were mesmerised by the film's rich, dreamlike imagery. It is the story of a Scottish woman named Ada (Holly Hunter), who has been mute since age 6 because she simply chose not to speak. Ada travels with her daughter Flora (Anna Paquin) and her beloved piano to a remote spot on the coast of New Zealand for an arranged marriage to a farmer (Sam Neill). She gives piano lessons to a gruff neighbor (Harvey Keitel) who has Maori tattoos on his face, and, well, things develop from there. The picture takes on a powerful dream logic that simply defies synopsis. It's a breathtakingly beautiful and original achievement from Campion, a unique stylist. The Piano won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and Oscars for Hunt, Paquin and Campion's screenplay. --Jim Emerson
Ada her nine-year-old daughter and her piano arrive to an arranged marriage in the remote bush of nineteenth century New Zealand. Of all her belongings her husband refuses to transport the piano and it is left behind on the beach. Unable to bear its certain destruction Ada strikes a bargain with an illiterate tattooed neighbour. She may earn her piano back if she allows him to do certain things while she plays; one black key for a lesson. The arrangement draws all three deeper in
Ada her nine-year-old daughter and her piano arrive to an arranged marriage in the remote bush of nineteenth century New Zealand. Of all her belongings her husband refuses to transport the piano and it is left behind on the beach. Unable to bear its certain destruction Ada strikes a bargain with an illiterate tattooed neighbour. She may earn her piano back if she allows him to do certain things while she plays; one black key for a lesson. The arrangement draws all three deeper into a complex emotional sexual bond remarkable for its nave passion and frightening disregard for limits... Winner of 3 Oscars for Best Screenplay (Jane Campion) Best Actress (Holly Hunter) and Best Suporting Actress (Anna Paquin) and 11 awards from the Australian Film Institiute.
Focusing on the character that started creator Geoff Johns' career in comic books, the new DC drama series, STARGIRL follows high school sophomore Courtney Whitmore (Brec Bassinger) as she inspires an unlikely group of young heroes to take up the legacy of a long-lost superhero team The Justice Society of America and stop the villains of the past.
This Ophuls film noir classic is rich in suspense strikingly photographed and features career best performances from Joan Bennett and James Mason. Based on the story 'The Blank Wall' by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding.
Ada mute since birth her nine year old daughter and her piano arrive to an arranged marriage in the remote bush of nineteenth century New Zealand. Of all her belongings her husband refuses to transport the piano and it is left behind on the beach. Unable to bear its certain destruction, Ada strikes a bargain with an illiterate tattooed neighbour. She may earn her piano back if she allows him to do certain things while she plays; one black key for every lesson. Winner of three Academy Awards® The Piano is an extremely evocative portrayal of repression and desire, universally acclaimed, it is still as powerful and resolute now as it was when first released.
Life is Sweet, Mike Leigh's 1990 snapshot of the suburban family condition at the tail end of the Thatcher era, is often depressing and occasionally harrowing. It is also ultimately joyous, not just for the sharpness of Leigh's satire--the script was improvised with and by the cast--but also for the real affection that binds the family together. Through a series of minor crises, channels of communication silted up by the daily grind and terminal self-absorption are gradually eased open and the film ends on a note of genuine hope. As parents Wendy and Andy, Alison Steadman and Jim Broadbent give virtuoso performances: two adults who use fantasy, mundane work and a stream of banal chatter to keep reality at bay before a freak kitchen accident forces them to stop and take stock. They have two daughters to perplex them: one a plumber (Claire Skinner) and the other an angry anorexic (Jane Horrocks, unsparing in a gut-wrenching bulimic scene). Timothy Spall is hilarious as family friend Aubrey, a would-be restaurateur whose efforts to establish a gourmet eatery in Enfield collapse in hopeless, drunken farce. This is not an overtly political film, but the sense of a stake being driven through the heart of the 1980s enterprise culture is unmistakeable. Inspiring. --Piers Ford
A man searches for the truth about his son's death in Northern Ireland.
Injected with an experimental drug the research chemist Ryan leaves a mysterious rural health farm and drives to the outer city suburb of Homesville. As Ryan's body starts to deteriorate and his driving becomes more erratic a cruising police car starts to chase him. Charging towards a group of houses in Pebble Court Ryan leaves a cryptic message on his dicataphone: 'The first phase is hallucination. The second phase is glandular. The third phase is...' Before he can finish the sent
One of the most controversial serial killers of all time returns in Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer 2 which picks up Henry's trail soon after the horrific events of John McNaughton's classic thriller. Henry (Neil Giuntoli) is broke and homeless but happens to stumble on a job and a home with Kai and Cricket a married couple with whom he works and their shy schoolteacher niece Louisa. It's not long before Henry finds himself involved in the seedy life of insurance scams burni
The Net (Dir. Irwin Winkler 1995): Angela Bennett (Sandra Bullock) is a freelance computer analyst who spends her days tracking down computer viruses and her nights at home 'chatting' to other Internet users. She is content with her reclusive existence until her life is turned upside down when she is sent a top-secret disc. Caught up in a murderous web of corruption and conspiracy and pursued by a force that will stop at nothing including deleting all traces of her existenc
With Willard White in the title role, this very well-sung production of Falstaff from the Aix-en-Provence festival, set in the 1950s, makes for a radical yet plausibly alternative view to the traditional setting in "Merrie England". By casting Jamaican-born baritone White in the title role, director Herbert Wernicke has emphasised Falstaff's role as an outsider, spurned by the community on account of his success as a local businessman and here with the added burden of being black. White engages our sympathy for Falstaff's plight, notably in the last act where he finally turns the table on his adversary, Ford. Yet in his world-weary sophisticated persona this Falstaff seems at odds with the farce unfolding about him; he's been there, done that. There are, nevertheless, key moments to relish: his flicker of the eye as he dismisses Pistol and Bardolph with his letters to the Misses Ford and Page; the duet he shares with Ford on the trials and tribulations of love; and the return of his self-esteem as he pulls himself up to full height following his ducking in the Thames. His face in the final act, shot in close-up, white beard illuminated by moonlight, framed by Herne's horns, is unforgettable. The supporting cast are uniformly excellent as singers and actors, a joy to watch and hear. The main set consists of a polished wooden floor with walls of wooden slatted flaps that open and shut as characters drop in and out of the action. White linen on washing lines, sheets tumbling out of drawers, or, somewhat incongruously, neatly folded on the bed that Falstaff rolls out of after his dip in the Thames, make welcome visual diversions. The Orchestre de Paris play brilliantly under maestro Enrique Mazzola who captures the ebb and flow of Verdi's fast moving score to perfection. On the DVD: Falstaff on disc has subtitles in Italian, English, German, French and Spanish. The picture quality has a real three-dimensional feel to it and the soundtrack likewise. --Adrian Edwards
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