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’.
Category: 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.
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.”
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.
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.
The story of nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu, an Israeli pacifist and government employee, who committed an act of treason in 1986 by informing the British press that his country is working on a nuclear bomb.
From 1769 to 1821, Napoléon Bonaparte’s life, loves and exceptional destiny but as seen through the eyes of Talleyrand, the cynic and ironic politician, who once was the Emperor of France’s Minister of Foreign Affairs.