Joey Deacon, born in 1920 with brain damage, grew up with severe cerebral palsy, unable to talk or walk. When, in 1928, his mother died, he was sent to an institution where he lived for years, quite unable to make himself understood. Then, in 1941, he met Ernie Roberts who had one remarkable skill – he could understand Joey. This led to a new and richer life, and this film tells Joey’s remarkable story. Based on Joey Deacon’s book “Tongue tied”.
Tag: UK
Set in 1894, when Oscar Wilde’s close friendship with Bosie Douglas provokes a quarrel with Bosie’s father, Lord Queensberry. Oscar eventually charges Lord Queensberry with criminal libel. However, the libel suit spectacularly backfires. This BBC miniseries charts the steady slide into disrepute of the notable author and playwright, and stars (a very young) Michael Gambon in the title role.
While on a train, a teenage boy thinks about his life and the flamboyant aunt whose friendship acted as an emotional shield from his troubled family. This film evokes the haunting quality of memory while creating a heartfelt portrait of a boy’s life in a rural 1940s Southern town.
Up close and personal BBC hour-long documentary. The camera follows Clint Eastwood around his home town of Carmel, before launching into a retrospective of Clint’s career, speaking to the man himself and those who’ve worked with him, such as Sergio Leonie and Richard Burton.
Jacqueline, a London gutter-snipe is “befriended” by Marius Andreani, a diplomat known for being a rounder with the ladies, but he goes pure with Jacqueline, resolved to help her to the heights of Terpsichore, for which she has a talent. But the friend of his, an elderly benefactor who secretly advanced the funds, through a priest, makes a play for her while she is climbing the ladder to success. He also has Marius appointed to a diplomatic post in Shanghai.
A rich and challenging account of the experiences of a German Jewish musician who settled in Britain to escape Nazi persecution. Two of his friends are being sued by a former SS Kommandant, who denies their accusation that he was responsible for the genocide of 300 Belgians. Documentary interviews and archive footage merge with dramatised scenes to create a new way of representing history and memory.
A look at the lives of several struggling L.A. musicians. Gwen, a singer-songwriter, is on a quest for the big-time. Working as an assistant to a film production designer, Gwen tries to steal her boss’ boyfriend, a veteran rock producer. The producer, meanwhile, is trying to orchestrate a comeback for an ’80s band.
A first film made almost single-handedly on a tiny budget, this is an admirably ambitious stab at the documentary-essay form familiar from films like Chris Marker’s Sunless. A brazenly personal response to Calcutta, it attempts to delve beyond the facile notions the West entertains about the city (‘an example of wretched over-population’), and combines vivid visuals with a narration that plunges fearlessly into economics, politics, religion, sociology and philosophy. Adverts, movie clips, comic strips, stills of the director’s mother, footage of religious ritual and street life merge into a complex web of ideas that are neither hackneyed nor obvious. A tantalising effort.