A portrait of film critic Manny Farber, featuring interviews with Farber and art critic Dave Hickey, as well as inventively displayed clips of the films that Farber discusses.
Tag: UK
Documentary about the influential pop composer and record producer Joe Meek, who died in dramatic circumstances in 1967 after a bizarre childhood and a career, often controversial, which spanned the period from the mid-50s to the rise of the Beatles in the 60s. At the end of his life he was suffering from paranoid delusions that people were watching him through walls. Alan Lewens’ film charts an Ortonesque tale of post-war Britain.
This densely-packed film is based on a book by Tom Hart about the struggles of a young Yorkshire boy trying to come to grips with squabbling parents, a doctor who wants to institutionalize him because of his epilepsy, and a mother who refuses to accept that he is different in any way.
This satirical fantasy is based upon an Elmer Rice play from 1923. A hard-working office employee is rewarded for his years of slavish devotion to the company by getting fired just prior to retirement and being replaced with an adding machine. Now, with only his nagging wife waiting at home to add more misery to his dreary life, the man has nothing left and goes over the edge.
Filmed in India, Rumer Godden’s story has been adapted and directed by the Jewel in the Crown team. Two English schoolgirls arrive in New Delhi, 1959. Their diplomat father has secured them a beautiful Eurasian governess. 15-year-old Una suspects an ulterior motive. But her father’s affairs take second place to her own when she has a secret affair with the Indian gardener.
Shortly after the start of World War II, a ukulele player takes the wrong boat and finds himself in (still uninvaded) Norway. He is mistaken for a fellow British intelligence agent by a woman and becomes involved in trying to defeat Nazi agents.
In a small English coal town, aspiring artist Paul Morel sets out to break free of the difficult mining life that has hardened his father, Walter, and killed his brother. His wishes appear to come true when local art lover Henry Hadlock offers to send him to art school in London. However, Paul’s deep love for his kind but possessive mother, Gertrude, threatens to keep him from abandoning his old life.
Karl is a young Austrian boy growing up in the Tyrol. His authoritarian father is too busy to pay him much attention, and his mother is preoccupied with caring for her other children. Karl seeks the companionship of Rudi, his dog, but when a trader from the black market offers to buy Rudi, Karl’s father agrees. Hearing the news, Karl is horrified and decides to hide the dog. A compelling study of the warmth of youth and the deep-rooted need for love in many adults.