In this experimental play, first produced in 1928, Eugene O’Neill bares the inner souls of his characters by having them speak their thoughts as well as their dialog. Nins Leeds, the daughter of an Ivy League professor, is devastated by the loss of her fiance in World War I. Ignoring the unconditional love of the novelist Charlie Marsden, she rebounds by marrying an amiable fool, Sam Evans, in the hope that a child will give meaning to the marriage. Nina is thus devastated when she learns a secret know only to Sam’s mother- insanity runs in the family and could be inherited by any child of Sam’s…
Tag: 1980s
A runaway cat-loving girl begins a love triangle with a reckless older man and a young biker in high school. The film follows their subsequent chaotic relationships.
On a dirty grey street in Berlin, a crowd gathers round an eccentric old woman who is performing a strip-tease. Dragged off to a psychiatric hospital, she demands cocaine instead of thorazine, tries to seduce everyone in sight, and insists that she is the legendary dancer Anita Berber, darling of the decadent ’20s. Suddenly, in true Wizard of Oz style, the film departs from monochrome reality into the colour-drenched world of the woman’s fantasies, a wildly exaggerated evocation of Weimar Berlin filmed in full-blown expressionist style.
A portrait of Raymond Francombe, jobbing gardener and composer. Ray is a familiar figure around the centre of Bristol. What will not be known by most of those who pass him every day is that for years he has been composing sacred music – and, until this programme was made, he had never actually heard a note of it performed. In this film Derek Jones gets to know Ray, and attempts to have his music professionally assessed.
Set over a single early-1960s summer in one of Sarajevo’s mahalas, the plot follows the fortunes of a school boy nicknamed Dino. Simultaneous to being enthralled with a life that flashes before his eyes and ears in the local cinema and youth centre (where, among other things, he watches Alessandro Blasetti’s Europa di notte and listens to Adriano Celentano’s 24 Mila Baci), Dino gets a taste of the world inhabited by local thugs and petty criminals. However, when he is rewarded via a liaison for providing a hiding place for prostitute “Dolly Bell”, his world is turned upside down as he falls in love with her.
This entertaining animated film surveys the history of machines, showing how the discovery of primitive tools led to the development of today’s space age technology. A tribute to human ingenuity and creative genius.
William Nicholson’s dramatization based on the true story of the race to solve the riddle of DNA. The film reveals how Crick and Watson’s success depended on personality, friendships, emotional conflict and enmity fuelled by wild guesses, some borrowing and sheer luck.
The life and work of writer James Agee provides the substance of this engrossing documentary by Ross Spears. Spears put together a portrait of Agee with excerpts from his prose and interviews with the people who either worked with him or provided material for his books. Among those interviewed are President Jimmy Carter, critic Dwight Macdonald, historian and writer Robert Fitzgerald, and John Huston, who worked with Agee on The African Queen. Agee’s three former wives, his priest (Father James Frye), and other personal friends round out the picture of this hard-drinking, chain-smoking, intense writer who died as a result of a heart attack at the age of 45.