Fighter (DVD)
FIGHTER follows two friends, Jan Wiener, to whom the title refers, and Arnost Lustig, a writer--both in their seventies, and both exiles from Communist Czechoslovakia now living in America--as they retrace Wiener`s escape from Prague after the Nazi takeover in the 1930s. Wiener`s trek took him via Yugoslavia and Italy to London, where he joined the British Royal Air Force as a fighter pilot. Upon returning to Prague after the war, he was falsely accused of being a spy by the Communist regime, and spent five years in a labor camp. Incorporating rare archival footage from Nazi and Communist propaganda films, the documentary focuses on the interaction between Wiener and Lustig as they retrace Wiener`s steps and track down some of the individuals connected with his journey. Although they are linked by their similar personal histories surrounding the war, the two friends are eventually driven apart by their conflicting interpretations of the past and their fundamental philosophical differences. Director Amir Bar-Lev`s unusual and vastly inquisitive documentary was an acclaimed hit at film festivals as well as in its theatrical release.NR"
Director: Amir Bar-Lev
Madame Bovary (DVD)
Claude Chabrols lifelong interest in the psychological lives of women finds a perfect vehicle in Gustave Flauberts 1856 novel, MADAME BOVARY. Isabelle Hupert, Chabrols frequent collaborator and muse, brings a detached and icy intensity to her portrayal of Emma, an ambitious farmers daughter suffocated by her own life. When Emma meets meek country doctor Charles Bovary (Jean-Frangois Balmer), she sees a ticket out of her meager existence. However, the lure of marriage and motherhood is short-lived, and soon Emma senses a new set of ever-encroaching snares and limits preventing her from fulfilling the fanciful destiny she constructs for herself out of her own desires and the romance novels that fuel them. When her outlets of novels and the odd ball at the local chbteau cease to satisfy Emmas ravenous hunger for passion and luxury, she takes matters into her own hands, embarking on a double life of domesticity and adultery. Chabrol injects the film with his patented dark humor while remaining faithful to Flauberts stinging depiction of the narrow world of 19th-century provincial life and its clash with female desires as fleshed out by the tragic figure of Hupperts immensely complicated but very real Emma.PG-13"
Director: Claude Chabrol
ACTORS: Isabelle Huppert, Jean-Frangois Balmer, Christopher Malavoy, Jean Yanne, Lucas Belvaux
Le Coup De Grace (DVD)
Set in Russia in 1919, shortly after the fall of the Czar, this allegorical love story tells the tale of an affair against the backdrop of a civil war. Magarethe von Trotta stars as a young woman who becomes involved with a sexually repressed Prussian soldier. When the soldier refuses her, the woman spirals into a psychosexual depression and begins sleeping with numerous men and championing the cause of the revolutionaries.
Volker Schlondorff (THE TIN DRUM) directed this 1976 feature ripe with sexuality, the brutality of war, and even witchcraft. The ending of this heartbreaking work is unforgettable and unrelenting.NR"
Director: Volker Schlvndorff
ACTORS: Margarethe Von Trotta, Mathieu Carriere
Michael Jackson - A Remarkable Life (DVD)
Michael Jackson has been immensely famous for most of his life, and the self-styled Prince of Pop has lead an amazing career. This look inside his world traces his evolution as a worldwide superstar, tracking back to his youth, and then letting his story arc unfold over the subsequent decades. Extensive interview footage with those closest to Jackson is included, as well as some candid footage of the man himself.NR"
ACTORS: Michael Jackson
Gimme Shelter (DVD) Criterion Collection This documentary of the Rolling Stones` 1969 U.S. tour was unexpectedly transformed into a legendary, harrowing document near the end of the Peace and Love era. After a successful tour across the country, the band ...
This documentary of the Rolling Stones` 1969 U.S. tour was unexpectedly transformed into a legendary, harrowing document near the end of the Peace and Love era. After a successful tour across the country, the band gave a free December concert at Altamont Speedway in California with the Grateful Dead (not seen performing), Ike and Tina Turner, Jefferson Airplane, and the Flying Burrito Brothers (all seen performing one song each). The poorly planned show was fraught with problems from its inception. The band unwisely selected the Hells Angels motorcycle club to provide security, and after the pre-existing chaos was fueled by very visible alcohol and drug abuse, the bikers resorted to violence to keep the stoned, restless, and often-naked crowd in line. The result: dozens of injuries and the on-screen stabbing of a young African American man (during Sympathy for the Devil ) by one of the security staff.
In a manipulative but effective move, the Maysles brothers and Charlotte Zwerin filmed Mick Jagger in the editing room witnessing the on-camera murder for the first time. The film also captured the band at their most relaxed, intoxicated, and electrifying--performing some of their greatest tracks in a raw, stripped-down style.
PG"
Director: David Maysles|Albert Maysles|Charlotte Zwerin
ACTORS: Jefferson Airplane, Ike Turner, Tina Turner, Marty Balin, Melvin Belli
