A family of gnomes preparing for the wedding of their oldest son must engage in a battle of wits with an enemy family of vicious trolls.
Category: Television
Vladimir Nabokov, widely considered one of the world’s great writers, was also a remarkable professor at Cornell University. Here, we have Christopher Plummer as witty Nabokov, providing entertaining insight into “The Metamorphosis,” Kafka’s perplexing story of a man who woke up one morning to discover that he has turned into an insect. One of the most widely read and studied short stories of all time, Kafka’s surreal gem is humorously and intensely brought to life in this adaptation.
On Aug. 19, 1991 in Crown Heights (Brooklyn, N.Y.) a Hasidic man accidentally runs over a Black boy (Gavin Cato). Three hours later a young Jewish scholar (Yankel Rosenbaum) was murdered by Black youths. Four days of fire-bombing and riots ensued. Anna Deavere-Smith acts out the roles of these 18 persons involved in the racial conflict, trying to present the differing views of this serious problem. Includes actual film footage of the riots and violence.
As part of a television series devoted to Europe’s major cities, Angelopoulos was commissioned to make this film about Athens. Although much of Angelopoulos’ cinema is set among the villages of the northern countryside, he was born and raised in the city, so this film finds the director musing on an Athenian past that is variously ancient, national and personal, as well as clips from the “history” films The Travelling Players, The Hunters and Alexander the Great.
Krzysztof Kieslowski is the foremost director to have emerged in Poland since Andrzej Wadja. His two most recent features, A Short Film About Killing and A Short Film About Love, shocked Western audiences and critics with their pessimism and brutality. Shot during the final months of communist rule, they are actually two in an extraordinary cycle of films made for Polish television. Each uses one of the Ten Commandments to explore the morality of Polish society; their subjects range from suicide to stamp-collecting, from incest to home computers. Arena talks to Kieslowski about these parables of contemporary life, and his role as a modern-day Moses.
An animated story derived from a Chinese folk tale. Follows the magical journey of a sister and brother as they travel with their grandmother to a mystical world. In this world, they confront a talking frog, a fierce dragon, a wicked witch, etc. Protecting them during their travels is a bright, white pearl that possesses extraordinary powers.
The changing America of the 60s examined by Simon and Garfunkel through footage of their 1969 tour, intimate backstage conversation and newsreels.
In 1951, scientists removed cancerous cells from American Henrietta Lacks just before she died in the hope that they held the secret of how to conquer cancer. The cells have been growing ever since and there are now billions in laboratories all over the world. This film tells how many believe they hold the key to conquering cancer.