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.
Tag: UK
Set in 1884, and based on the assumption that Britain is one of the Baltic states between Russia and Latvia, making it part of Europe instead of an off-shore island. It is winter 1884. To gain access to the sea, England has declared war on Latvia and believes herself to be winning. But Russia has sided with Latvia and England is doomed. The action takes place on New Year’s Eve in a country house on the Anglo-Latvian border. The guests are a cross section of the ruling classes.
A Russian ballet dancer defects from the USSR, emigrates to England, and joins a ballet company run by a powerful, wealthy lady.
An egocentric artillery captain and his venomous wife engage in savage unremitting battles in their isolated island fortress of the coast of Sweden at the turn of the century. Alice, a former actress who sacrificed her career for secluded military life with Edgar, reveals on the occasion of their 25th wedding anniversary, the veritable hell their marriage has been. Edgar, an aging schizoid who refuses to acknowledge his severe illness, struggles to sustain his ferocity and arrogance with an animal disregard for other people. Sensing that Alice together with her cousin and would-be lover, Kurt, may ally against him , retaliates with vicious force. Alice lures Kurt into the illusion of sharing a passionate assignation and recruits him in a plot to destroy Edgar.
A musical adaptation of Charles Dickens’ “The Old Curiosity Shop,” the film tells the story of Little Nell and her feckless grandfather who, in hopes of leaving Nell a sizable inheritance, has run up huge gambling debts to a heartless moneylender named Daniel Quilp. Quilp eventually seizes the old man’s junk shop, forcing Nell and her grandfather to eke out a miserable existence as paupers in the Midlands.
A dangerous prisoner, Jacko Thomas, overpowers his police guard and jumps from a speeding train in the Dartmoor countryside. In the ensuing fight Jacko kills the guard and makes his way to a secluded hotel on the moors where Tredgar is being paid to arrange a safe transit for Jacko and his sister Jean. But Jean as no idea of Jacko’s murderous character, and when an ex-policeman and a famous novelist book into the isolated hotel, the scene is set for a series of murders and a shocking climax.
Duke Turnbeau has come to England, in the 1930s, as a way to improve his fortunes. For some reason, he believes that his larcenous ways will bring him prosperity in the country which at one time or another has had rulership over a large portion of the globe. While there, he meets Rosie McCratchit, a lovely Irish gal who could do with some improvement in her fortunes as well. Together, they have a series of legal, quasi-legal and definitely illegal adventures, including Duke’s cow-roping and Rosie’s response to the mud-wrestling challenge of the Amazon Lady, as well as an attempted armored-car robbery.