During the filming of Ragtime, the 81-year old Cagney talks about his career. Cagney tells us about becoming a dancer and meeting his wife, his route from Broadway to Hollywood, the emergence of his tough-guy persona, and his post-war creations of insane characters. Donald O’Connor, Pat O’Brien, Milos Forman and others also try to distill what it is Cagney brings to the screen. Clips from several of his films illustrate their points.
Category: Biography
Documentary of the life and music of Leon “Bix” Beiderbecke, considered to be the greatest jazz cornet player. Dead at 28 and still a legend. He and Louis Armstrong pioneered the playing of jazz solos. When it was made in 1981 there was no known video of Bix playing. But the documentary surmounted that limitation with the skillful use of music recordings, period stills and movies, Hopper paintings, and extensive interviews with musicians that played with him (e.g., Louis Armstrong, Artie Shaw, Hoagy Carmichael, and many others).
This story is based on the novel “Jo no mai” by Tomiko Miyao which is based on the life of painter Shōen Uemura (1875–1949), the first woman to be awarded the Order of Culture. The title refers to the masterpiece bijinga (“picture of a beautiful woman”) that Uemura painted at the age of 61. The main character, Tsuya Shimamura, is born in Kyoto as the second daughter of a tea trader who dies before her birth. Tsuya, who loves painting more than anything and is hopeless at housework, attends art school and at age 15 receives the name Shōsui (from the characters for “pine” and “green”) from her teacher. The crown prince of England purchases one of her works, propelling her to fame overnight.
Trying to shake his troubled past and start a new honest life, Floyd loses his job because of that past. With nowhere to go but back home in Oklahoma he gets news that his father’s been murdered and the local sheriff lets the killer off with a self-defense plea. Bent on revenge, Floyd does what he must which leads him down a dark road littered with robbing banks and loose women. Floyd’s final days are anything BUT pretty!
This film depicts the life of the 19th-century Portuguese writer Wenceslau De Moraes by means of nine ancient ballads from China. The writer married a Chinese woman after he left his wife and family to go live in Macao. Later, he moved to Japan where he fell in love with a Japanese woman, staying in Japan for the rest of his life. Mixed in with the career and loves of Moraes is the history of Portugal at home and in its colonies.
Two strangers knock on the door of Dr. Samuel Mudd. One has a broken leg. Mudd fixes it, and becomes an unwitting conspirator in the murder of Abraham Lincoln when his patient turns out to be a fleeing John Wilkes Booth. Railroaded by Lincoln’s secretary of war, Mudd is found guilty and sentenced to life in Fort Jefferson Prison. His wife, Frances, however, won’t rest until her husband’s wrongful conviction is overturned.
This documentary presents the story of Dorothy Stratten, who was Playboy magazine’s Playmate of the Year in 1980. Stratten was murdered by her husband, Paul Snider. The film investigates the playmate’s past, the dynamics of her relationship with her husband, and the events surrounding her violent demise.