Austrian horror. Despite starting a new job, 17-year-old Jakob (Simon Fruhwirth)'s paralysing anxiety disorder threatens to prevent him from living a normal life. When he meets 26-year-old artist Kristjan (Paul Forman) in an adult chat room, Jakob finds himself embarking on an existential journey in which he begins to lose his grip on reality.
From acclaimed director Arthur Penn Target is an intense spy-thriller starring Gene Hackman and Matt Dillon as a father and son who attempt to rescue their estranged wife/mother who has been kidnapped in Paris. Chris Lloyd does not get along with his father. He is too cautious and never tries anything new and Chris had to live by the same standards when he was growing up. But when his mother is kidnapped Walter turns into a man of action. Suddenly Chris discovers something he nev
Whether or not you can sympathise with its fascistic/vigilante approach to law enforcement, Dirty Harry (directed by star Clint Eastwood's longtime friend and directorial mentor, Don Siegel) is one hell of an American cop thriller. The movie makes evocative use of its San Francisco locations as cop Harry Callahan (Eastwood) tracks the elusive "Scorpio killer" who has been terrorising the city by the Bay. As the psychopath's trail grows hotter, Harry becomes increasingly impatient and intolerant of the frustrating obstacles (departmental red tape, individuals' civil rights) that he feels are keeping him from doing his job. A characteristically taut and tense piece of filmmaking from Siegel (Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Shootist, Escape from Alcatraz), it also remains a fascinating slice of American pop culture. It was a big hit (followed by four sequels) that obviously reflected--or exploited--the almost obsessive or paranoid fears and frustrations many Americans felt about crime in the streets. At a time when "law and order" was a familiar slogan for political candidates, Harry Callahan may have represented neither, but from his point of view his job was simple: stop criminals. To him that end justified any means he deemed necessary. --Jim Emerson
When Samuel (Lukas Haas), a young Amish boy travelling with his mother Rachel (Kelly McGillis), witnesses the murder of a police officer in a public restroom, he and his mother become the temporary wards of John Book (Harrison Ford), a detective who's been assigned to solve the crime. After suspect line-ups and mug-shot books yield nothing, Samuel, in the most memorable scene of the film, recognizes the murderer as a narcotics agent whose picture he sees in the precinct. Once Book realizes that the police chief is in on it, too, he whisks Samuel and Rachel back home to Amish country, where he himself goes into hiding as a plain Amish man. Witness' juxtaposition of the life of the Amish and the violence of inner-city police corruption work surprisingly well for the story, and Kelly McGillis as the falling in love widow gives an almost perfect performance. Directed by Peter Weir, the film is extremely successful in drawing the viewer into its world and, accordingly, is immensely entertaining. The only thing that mars its polish is the one-dimensional, almost cartoonish handling of the upper-echelon police corruption--a subtler, more realistic treatment of this aspect of the story would have rendered the film near perfect. --James McGrath, Amazon.com
A minor Czech clan falls afoul of the King in medieval times against the backdrop of Christianity replacing Paganism.
A performance of the David McVicar production of Mozart's last opera. Colin Davis conducts the Royal Opera Chorus and Orchestra. Recorded at Covent Garden.
Anybody who has written him off because of his string of stinkers--or anybody who's too young to remember The Goodbye Girl --may be shocked at the accomplishment and nuance of Richard Dreyfuss's performance in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Here, he plays a man possessed; contacted by aliens, he (along with other members of the "chosen") is drawn toward the site of the incipient landing: Devil's Tower, in rural Wyoming. As in many Spielberg films, there are no personalized enemies; the struggle is between those who have been called and a scientific establishment that seeks to protect them by keeping them away from the arriving spacecraft. The ship, and the special effects in general, are every bit as jaw-dropping on the small screen as they were in the theater (well, almost). Released in 1977 as a cerebral alternative to the swashbuckling science fiction epics then in vogue, Close Encounters now seems almost wholesome in its representation of alien contact and interested less in philosophising about extra-terrestrials than it is in examining the nature of the inner "call." Ultimately a motion picture about the obsession of the driven artist or determined visionary, Close Encounters comes complete with the stock Spielberg wives and girlfriends who seek to tether the dreamy, possessed protagonists to the more mundane concerns of the everyday. So a spectacular, seminal motion picture indeed, but one with gender politics that are all too terrestrial. --Miles Bethany, Amazon.com
The time is the seventeenth century. The beggar Maryna Schuchová hides the Host in her scarf at the Communion. She admits to the parish priest Schmidt that she intended to give it to the midwife Groerová to heal her ailing cow. The young priest declares her a witch and convinces the Sumperk countess De Galle to summon the inquisitor Boblig from Edelstadt. This failed student of law sees the offer as a great opportunity. He uses torture and threats to force the women from the to testify to their meetings with the devil and learn by heart the lies he has made up for the inquisition tribunal. Boblig accuses the wealthy burghers of witchcraft as well, and so wants to seize their possessions.
Turn Of The Screw
James Cameron wrote the script for Strange Days, a not-so-futuristic science fiction tale about a former vice cop (Ralph Fiennes) who now sells addictive, virtual reality clips that allow a user to experience the recorded sensations of others. He becomes embroiled in a murder conspiracy, tries to save a former girlfriend (Juliette Lewis), and has a romance with his chauffeur and bodyguard (Angela Bassett). Cameron's ex-wife, director Kathryn Bigelow (Point Break), brought the whole, busy, violent enterprise to the screen, and while the film's socially relevant heart is in the right place, its excesses wear one out. Some of the casting doesn't quite click either: Fiennes isn't really right for his nervous role, and Lewis is annoying (and unbelievable as the hero's much-yearned-for former squeeze). Expect some ugly if daring moments with the virtual reality stuff. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com
Screen favourite Emilio Estevez stars in the hilarious comedy hit The Mighty Ducks are the Champions! Aggressive trial lawyer Gordon Bombay (Estevez) has never lost a case. But when he's sentenced to a community service assignment he must coach a ragtag team of Pee Wee Hockey players who can't skate can't score and can't win! First he teaches the hapless team everything about winning and then they teach him that winning isn't everything. Watch the pucks fly as they battle their w
United Kingdom released, Blu-Ray/Region A/B/C DVD: LANGUAGES: Czech ( Mono ), English ( Subtitles ), SPECIAL FEATURES: Black & White, Cast/Crew Interview(s), Interactive Menu, Remastered, Scene Access, SYNOPSIS: Shy teenage virgin Milo gets his first job as a railway dispatcher and is suddenly forced to confront the realities of the adult world, not least the temptations of the opposite sex. But they in turn are more attracted to his more experienced colleague Hubi ka and his distinctive way with an inkpad and rubber stamp... This could easily have fuelled a light comedy, but Ji í Menzel s bittersweet feature debut is set during World War II in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, and the various farcical goings-on threaten to distract attention from the far more pressing business of staying alive especially since German trains are being attacked by resistance fighters and everyone is under suspicion of collaboration. Co-written by the great Czech novelist Bohumil Hrabal (author of the classic source novella), Closely Observed Trains won Menzel a Best Foreign Film Oscar when he was still in his twenties, and it remains one of the best-loved of all Czech films. SCREENED/AWARDED AT: BAFTA Awards, Golden Globes, Oscar Academy Awards, ...Closely Observed Trains (1966) ( Closely Watched Trains ) (Blu-Ray)
Dr. Sir Leslie Colin Patterson KBE is sent to an oil-rich Gulf state to try to make peace after a United Nations blunder. While there he escapes from a firing squad and discovers a diabolical plan to hold the world to biological ransom. Meanwhile undercover CIA agent Dame Edna Everage arrives on a 'Possums For Peace' tour. On a visit to a local factory she also discovers the real truth.
The Fireman s Ball (DVD & BD)
With just 28 days until before his impending execution young attorney Adam Hall sets out to trace the events of a grisly event in an effort to prevent his grandfather from going to the gas chamber for a racist murder... Chris O'Donnell and Gene Hackman star in this electrifying thriller based on the novel by John Grisham with a screenplay from Oscar winner William Goldman.
Celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Steven Spielberg's scifi blockbuster, now fully restored in 4K. Richard Dreyfuss stars as cable worker Roy Neary, who experiences a close encounter of the first kind witnessing UFOs soaring across the sky. Meanwhile, government agents have close encounters of the second kind discovering physical evidence of extraterrestrial visitors in the form of a lost fighter aircraft from World War II and a stranded military ship that disappears decades earlier only to suddenly reappear in an unusual place. Roy and the agents follow the clues that have drawn them to reach a site where they will have a close encounter of the third kind contact. Includes All 3 Versions of the Film: Theatrical Version, Special Edition & Director's Cut - all restored in 4K.
Janacek's The Cunning Little Vixen is a real charmer of an opera, a tale that shows the natural world the composer had loved from childhood in its true colours: miraculous, beautiful, mysterious but also cruel. The inspiration came from a series of illustrated stories published in a Czech newspaper. The Vixen of the title is captured by a forester and taken home as a plaything for his children. She is soon thrown out of the house and has to make her own way in the world, encountering lust, stupidity, pride, love and ultimately death. This 1995 performance was taken from the Chatelet Theatre in Paris. Visually, Nicholas Hytner's production is a triumph, the animals wonderfully wittily wrought (the mosquito with its syringe for a nose, the mangey old dog, distasteful in baggy Y-fronts, the hideous, goggle-eyed frog). And it's also brilliantly cast: Eva Jenis's Vixen is funny, sexy, endearing and youthful enough in voice and figure to convince. Thomas Allen is a veteran of the role of the Forester, a huge presence and singing in impeccable Czech. In fact, there's not a weak performance here, and that goes for the dancers and instrumentalists as well as the singers. And at the helm, who better than Sir Charles Mackerras, arguably the greatest living interpreter of Janacek's music? This is in essence a grown-up fairy tale, ravishingly done and extremely highly recommended. On the DVD: The Cunning Little Vixen is presented on disc in vividly remastered PCM stereo, with 16:9 picture format that does full justice to the alluringly colourful designs. The disc is encoded for regions 2 and 5, and the menu and subtitle languages are English, German, French and Spanish. The useful booklet gives coherent background information and synopsis as well as full casting details. There's also a substantial (23-minute) trailer of other offerings from Arthaus Musik. --Harriet Smith
In the prelude to Code Unknown, we watch as a class of deaf children play a very sophisticated game of charades. In response to a blank-faced girl shrinking slowly against a wall, the children guess: is it sadness, isolation, loneliness? We are not told the answer before director Michael Haneke cuts to the extraordinary opening sequence of the film. This nine-minute tracking shot along a busy Parisian boulevard, introduces the film's central characters: Amadou, a first generation French boy of West African descent; Maria, a Romanian illegal immigrant; and Anne (Juliette Binoche), a French actress, trying to make the leap from theatre to film. However, this is the only time we will see these characters together in one place before the film fractures into a series of vignettes, which slowly describe their lives, their cultural isolation and their search for small moments of beauty within this alienation.Michael Haneke has been credited with reinvigorating and refreshing Austrian cinema with expectation-smashing early films such as Funny Games; if his newest pan-European films are anything to go by, he could be set to do the same for Euro cinema in general. Though Code Unknown is very different from Haneke's Benny's Video or Funny Games, like them this film also implicates and involves the viewer in the guilt of the on-screen characters. Its structure of intricately woven story strands is entirely provocative and stirring--politically, aesthetically and emotionally. It's exactly the type of film you want to watch again and again. As with the players of the opening game of charades, we won't be given any easy answers to questions about our collective guilt in the racism and alienation of an undeniably multicultural, multiethnic Europe. --Tricia Tuttle
After being commissioned by the 1936 Olympic Committee to create a feature film of the Berlin Olympics Riefenstahl shot a documentary that celebrates the human body by combining the poetry of bodies in motion with close-ups of athletes in the heat of competition. Includes the marathon men's diving and American track star Jesse Owens' sprint races at the 1936 Olympic Games. The production tends to glorify the young male body and some say expresses the Nazi attitude toward athletic prowess. Includes the lighting of the torch at the stadium and Adolf Hitler looking on in amazement as Jesse Owens wins an unprecedented four Gold Medals.
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