Fisher, a fine art dealer, goes to Prague after the death of a friend, the Baron von Utz, to see if he can obtain some of the pieces of the Baron’s priceless Meissen porcelain collection. He meets up with an old mutual friend, Orlik, who tells him about the Baron’s past, his struggle to keep his collection intact, while Fisher struggles to discover what happened to the collection.
Month: August 2022
A sweet reminiscence about a family of four children and their RAF-veteran dad, who knows the timetable of every bus in London, but realizes his large family needs a car. He buys a Peugeot station wagon – license plate GFP831E, and the family sets off for annual holidays exploring every corner of Europe – “adopting local customs but never forgetting who won the war.” The narrator is one of the children who, as he ages, sees things he missed as a lad – the car no rocket, dad no speedster. As the years wear on, and the car sits in the driveway, dad keeps it ready for the next great summer holiday.
Woody Allen talks about his life and work as a writer, dramatist and film-maker and discusses his creative sources, theoretical approaches and working methods. Shows scenes from some of his major films including “Annie Hall”, “Love and Death”, “Sleep”, “The Night Club Years” and “Take the Money and Run”.
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., discusses his development as a writer, including reference to some of his major novels, his themes and their meaning, his relationship to other writers, problems in sustaining his special vision of American life, and his future. Accompanied by photographs which chronicle the author’s life and selections from home movies taken during his youth.
Hollywood producer Duncan DeGrasse is preparing for the debut of his anti-Nazi motion picture, ‘The Earth is in Flames.’ To generate hype, his press agents create elaborate events for the premiere. One of these stunts involves hiring phony spies to make the audience think they’re in real danger. However, among the fake spies are German and Italian operatives.
Rags to riches to rags comedy loosely based on the director Steve Burrows’ actual experiences while writing screenplays in Los Angeles. Burrows (aka “Milwaukee Steve”) finally makes it big as “The Crotch Fresh” commercial guy, but then can’t catch another break — not even when he auditions for a new Crotch Fresh commercial! He decides the only way to make a comeback as an actor is to fake his own death, then make a glorious return.
Flame was the first Zimbabwean film since independence and is a tribute to the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army’s female guerrillas. In the 1970s in former Rhodesia, the people stand up against the oppressors. As war reaches rural villages, friends Florence and Nyasha run away from home to join the fighters in Mozambican training camps. Both adopt revolutionary identities: Nyasha becomes Liberty, while Florence brands herself Flame. Flame created controversy in Zimbabwe, as the realistic depiction of the treatment of women in the liberation army was seen as anti-nationalist. The film also serves as a critique for post-independence Zimbabwe, and Mugabe’s rule.
——UPGRADED——
Mambéty describes what would be his final film as “a hymn to the courage of street children,” but like all of his works, it is also a hymn to Senegal, to post-colonial Africa and to resourceful visionaries like the courageous girl of the title. Undaunted by poverty or handicap, the young Sili Laam leaves her blind grandmother begging in the street to seek out a better existence for them both. As the only female newspaper seller, she encounters constant obstacles along the way, yet reacts by simply standing up for herself and others. Nonchalantly fighting for equality and justice, Sili’s courage and resilience are depicted with a mix of joy and hardship, but no saccharine.