Category: Biography

October 21, 2019 / Biography
October 9, 2019 / Arthouse

The last decade (1937-47) of the poet Hans Fallada’s life. He lives with his family in Carwitz. His craving for harmony collides with the circumstances of the times and his own inner turmoil. He writes already anything of note, drinks and takes pills. His wife Anna sees him through his times of darkest depression, tolerating his overt aggression and his affair with the house maid Anneliese. But once he begins a relationships with the manufacturer’s widow Ursula Losch, Anna finally calls for a divorce. His love for the pretty, young Ursula delivers him a new thirst for life, but only for a brief time.

October 9, 2019 / Biography

The story of Buzz Aldrin, the second astronaut to walk on the moon, and the problems he had after his return to Earth, including the breakup of his marriage, a nervous breakdown and his hospitalization for psychiatric problems.

September 24, 2019 / Biography

Flying from his enemies in the Catholic Church, the free thinking philosopher, poet and scientist Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) has found some protection in Venice. But the Roman Inquisition, fearing his influence in Europe, wants to bring him on trial for ‘heresy’.

September 5, 2019 / Biography

The acclaimed Tony Palmer helmed this 1984 biopic on 19th and early 20th century Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, here portrayed by Robert Stephens. Palmer opts to focus not on the whole gestalt of Puccini’s life, but on a devastating scandal that transpired in 1909, when Giacomo’s wife, Elvira Puccini, accused maid Doria Manfredi of bedding her husband. The unfounded allegations prompted a massive lawsuit from the maid’s family, and nearly toppled Giacomo’s illustrious career.

August 21, 2019 / Biography

A young songwriter leaves his Kentucky home to try to make it in New Orleans. Eventually he winds up in New York, where he sells his songs to a music publisher, but refuses to sell his most treasured composition: “Dixie.” The film is based on the life of Daniel Decatur Emmett, who wrote the classic song “Dixie.”

July 28, 2019 / Biography

A dramatization of the life of Albert Speer, Adolf Hitler’s young architect and one-time confidant, and his meteoric rise into the Nazi hierarchy. This movie is based on Speer’s autobiography of the same name.

July 18, 2019 / Biography

Jean Benoit-Lévy’s silent documentary detailing chronologically Pasteur’s life, directed by Jean Epstein and based on a screenplay by Edmond Epardaud, with most of the story taken from “La Vie de Pasteur” by René Vallery Radot, adapted by Edmond Floury. Intertitles tell us of his discovery of microbes. Scenes filmed on location where he lived and reconstructed sets alternate between informational intertitles.