Britain’s first musical shot in colour and widescreen (a process called Cosmoscope) is a cabaret-style featurette centred on a group of young people in Chelsea lodgings, watched over by a fatherly caretaker. Eight specially written songs are performed by stage stars of the day – most notably Georgia Brown, who later created the role of Nancy in Oliver!
Tag: UK
A well-worn maxim suggests that it’s always best to create stories about ‘what you know’, and Yousaf Ali Khan’s accomplished short Talking with Angels goes a long way to show why this is advice best followed. Based on Khan’s own childhood and created with the intention of bucking the social ideals of what constitutes a ‘normal’ family, the film tells the story of the struggle faced by a poor family as they make their way through 1970s run-down Salford to a clinic for their schizophrenic mum’s regular injection of Largactil, a drug to dampen the voices and visions that plague her and those around her. Viewed as spacs and weirdos by the people they encounter on the journey, it’s 10- year-old Alan who takes charge and must battle with the shame imposed on him by the outside world for the family he loves and belongs to.
Bob is an aging thief who has seen better days and is battling both an addiction to heroin and a growing gambling problem. But he still thinks he has one more big score in him and plots a massive heist of a Monte Carlo casino. In order to pull off the theft, he’ll need an amazing team of accomplices and will have to outwit his nemesis, the local police chief. The chief knows that Bob is up to something, but can he figure it out before Bob makes off with millions?
This film celebrates the life and work of one of Cornwall’s best-loved artists, Alfred Wallis (1855-1942). We’re invited to look afresh at his paintings in light of the land and seascapes that inspired him. Reminiscences by friends and relatives are the focus rather than appraisal of his work by an authoritative art critic – aptly enough for an artist who worked outside the ‘establishment’.
In London’s Soho, Johnny Solo runs the Pink Flamingo Club. He’s tough to intimidate. So when he starts getting threats and demands for protection, he fights back. Behind the takeover plot is a competitor, Diamonds Dielli. Midnight Franklin, who’s Johnny’s girlfriend and one of the club’s headliners, wants to get Johnny out of the business. In the background are a sadistic client, an underage chorus girl, a wisecracking siren who’s not averse to rough trade, a visiting journalist, and a dancer who guards her past. Can Johnny win the struggle with Diamonds, and can Midnight get him out of harm’s way?
Roger Graef and The Thaldomide Society’s groundbreaking film about Brett, a boy born without arms, introduced the plight of Thalidomide children to the world. We see touching and personal scenes from his home life – rough and tumble with his brothers, meal times and other practical activities, revealing Brett’s extraordinary dexterity with his feet and his determination. Brett’s mother’s deeply personal narration describes how family life has been affected and how hurtful people’s comments can be – both to her, as a mother who took thalidomide, and in relation to Brett’s physical appearance.
Leading statesmen, generals, terrorists and others who made the headlines in one of history’s most bitter and enduring struggles tell the story of the Arab-Israeli conflict in The 50 Years War: Israel and the Arabs. Opening with the U.N decision to partition Palestine in 1947, the program charts the ensuing half-century of enmity, warfare, mediation and negotiation.
A man and a woman meet in Vienna in 1970 and remember together the events of 1919, when they were separate patients of Sigmund Freud. One was suicidal after a lesbian affair, the other unable to love except without sex. They discuss their memories of Freud and his analysis of their problems. These memories from 1919 are shown in flashbacks.