1971-1980

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An adaptation of an HE Bates story, set in an isolated Wiltshire farm in 1942. With her husband a prisoner-of-war, lonely wife (Jackson) strikes up an intimate relationship with a young soldier (Deacon), a farmer’s boy who hates the army. When he impulsively deserts, she hides him, disguised in drag as her sister. The inevitable tensions of their life are increased when two soldiers from the nearby camp discover ‘the girls’, and the lecherous sergeant (Reed) takes a fancy to the one in drag. The relationship between the wife and the deserter is built carefully and convincingly, but in going for laughs as the bullish sergeant, Oliver Reed lets some of the potential tension slip away. As with many of Bates’ stories, the plot is in any case resolved suddenly and melodramatically.Read More »

“Before Michael Mann set the big screen alight with the brilliant, epic Heat, he rehearsed the story in this made-for-TV version. Heat was a tour de force, with the scuzzy, spacey metropolis of LA as backdrop to a titanic battle between charismatic cop (Pacino) and taciturn tough guy robber (Pacino. This dynamic is hardly replicated in this earlier TV version – and if LA Takedown shows anything, it’s that a compelling story and talented director really do require stellar talent to generate the requisite screen effect. Intended as the pilot for a TV series, this tough and energetic story went straight to video in the UK, but achieved minor cult status, and is well worth watching for the differences to the remake, as well as the similarities. The central cop character Vincent Hanna (Plank) is retained, and the emphasis is on him as he pursues the bank robber. What is lacking is the density of characterisation and the myriad subplots. Still, it would be unfair to dismiss the film. Judged as a TV movie, it has merit, it’s just that the other elements are more modest.” – Channel4Read More »

An unidentified flying object crash-lands on Earth and is taken into custody by the United States government. The occupant of the “flying saucer” turns out to be a cat-like alien named Jake. Using a special collar, he is able to communicate with humans. The cat tries to have American scientists help him find some Org 12 so that his ship may rendezvous with his fleet. After determining that “Org 12” is gold, Jake uses his collar’s powers to affect the outcome of various sporting events, including horse races and pool games, to win money to buy the needed gold and repair his saucer.Read More »

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An alien virus’s brief pit stop in the new American West, starkly documented by Michael Crichton and Robert Wise. A satellite crashes in a New Mexico burg, soon the place is filled with bodies whose circulatory systems have turned to powder — these are the best sequences, full of hushed dread and unnerving use of widescreen dead spaces (the camera focuses on the placid, dusty face of a fallen villager, then tilts up to frame a couple of researchers approaching in hazmat suits and a helicopter whirring against a cobalt sky). The scientific team is rounded up: Exposition-dispenser Arthur Hill, surgeon James Olson (who gets a crush on the computer’s female voice), splenetic researcher Kate Reid, and veteran doctor David Wayne (“A hippie! He’s going to a love-in,” his suspicious wife cries as he packs for the secret mission).Read More »

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I haven’t watched it yet and there seems to be very little information available, but from what I understand, it’s a bleak story of two alienated youths (Morishita Aiko and Nagashima Toshiyuki) preoccupied with entrance exams and suicide. In short, the kind of thing one might expect from Nakagami and Fujita Toshiya.Read More »

Synopsis
Documentary-fiction about the director and his family’s holiday in his homeland. The journey is a means to confront the past, memories, one’s own origins, but it is also the radiography of an era.
A semi-unknown masterpiece by Marco BellocchioRead More »

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At noon on October 25th, the Transcontinental Express left Geneva Station with almost one thousand people aboard. Their destination: Basel, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and Stockholm. No one arrived.

“Outbreak” meets “The Runaway Train” as a motley group of passengers are quarantined on a train destined to prevent the spread of the disease at the cost of their lives. Government intrigue, international smuggling, and the legend of the Cassandra Crossing add to the suspense.Read More »

Synopsis:
Fontaine is a woman who always gets what she wants – they call her The Bitch. Now a divorcee and whilst she still leads an extravagant jet-set lifestyle, she no longer has the financial security of being a billionaire’s wife and her once-successful London nightclub, “Hobo”, is now failing. While on a flight returning to London from New York, she meets handsome Italian gambler Nico. In order to impress her, he pretends he is a wealthy businessman, though he is actually a conman who owes money to the mafia and he covertly uses her to smuggle a stolen diamond ring through customs which he intends to sell in London to pay off his debts. With the mafia now pursuing both Fontaine and Nico, they find themselves falling deeper and deeper into danger but she is not ready to give up her life and sets out to prove that she can beat anyone at his or her own game.Read More »

Synopsis
A movie about making a movie. A young, idealistic director arrives in a village to make a picture set during the Great Bengal Famine. It’s a film that he hopes will reveal the problems and privations still current in rural India.

Awards:
National Award 1981 – Golden Lotus (Best Film)
Berlin Film Festival 1981 – Silver Bear.Read More »