Library
To Kill a King
Drama/ War
Producers: Jeff Abberley, Kathy Sykes,
John Chambers
Director: Mike Barker
Cast: Tim Roth, Dougray Scott, Rupert Everett,
Olivia Williams,
British filmmaker Mike Barker directs the political costume-drama To Kill a King. Set in 1645 at the end of the English Civil War, General Thomas Fairfax (Dougray Scott) celebrates the victory with his right-hand man Oliver Cromwell (Tim Roth). While, King Charles I (Rupert Everett) is held prisoner, he appeals to the sensibilities of Fairfax's wife, Lady Anne (Olivia Williams). The old friends disagree over what to do about the king; Fairfax is willing to compromise and Cromwell is far more strict. The Speaker of the House, Denzil Holles (James Bolam), leads a group of conspirators to make an illegal deal with the king, but they are discovered and subsequently punished. The king is put on trial and executed, making Cromwell in charge. The conclusion involves a reunion between Fairfax and a dying Cromwell. (Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide)
Bright Young Things
United Kingdom, 2003
Drama/ War
Producers: Gina Carter,
Mirando Davis
Director: Stephen Fry
Cast: James McAvoy, Emily Mortimer, Michael Sheen,
Stockard Channing, Simon McBurney, Dan Aykroyd
A fool and his money. In the 1930s, Adam Fenwick-Symes is part of the English idle class, wanting to marry the flighty Nina Blount. He's a novelist with a hundred-pound advance for a manuscript confiscated by English customs. He spends the next several years trying to get money and to set a wedding date: he trades in gossip, wins money on wagers then gives it to a drunken major who's suggested he bet on a horse in an upcoming race. Adam tries to get the money back, but can't find the major. Meanwhile, Nina needs security, friends drink too much, and general unhappiness spoils the party. Then war breaks out. Is Adam's bright youth dimming with the fall of an empire?
Koenig's Sphere
The German Sculptor Fritz Koenig in Ground Zero
USA / Germany 2001
Edited by Jochen Künstler & Percy Adlon
Produced by Eleonore Adlon
TV producer (Bayerischer Rundfunk) Sabine Scharnagl
Filmed, written and directed by Percy Adlon
The only work of art in or around the World Trade Center that miraculously survived the inferno of September 11, 2001, is the monumental fountain sculpture “The Sphere”. Created and built by the German sculptor Fritz Koenig. It had been in the center of the World Trade Center Plaza for three decades. Millions of people had met in it’s shadow, towering over a cool table of water.
Koenig, born in 1924 in Würzburg, Germany, is one of the most important and prominent German sculptors after world war II. His work was shown in exhibitions all over the world. He calls “The Sphere” his biggest child. It is 25 feet high, cast in 52 bronze segments, put together in Bremen, and shipped as a whole to Lower Manhattan. It was commissioned by the Port Authority in the late sixties. Originally, Henry Moore was supposed to create the fountain. But the twin towers’ architect Minoru Yamasaki, who had seen Koenig’s work at the Staempfli Gallery in Manhattan, decided for the German sculptor. “I was in my mid forties at that time” says Koenig , “ not too young and not too old to tackle the enormous endeavor.”
In a Savage Land
Australia, 1999
Drama/ Romance
Producers: Hollywood Partners
Director: Bill Bennett
Cast: Rufus Sewell, Maya Stange,
Martin Donovan, Max Cullen, John Howard
Australian director Bill Bennett sets this exploration of sexual politics and cultural differences against the stunning vistas of the Trobriand Islands. In it, two anthropologists travel to a remote island in the South Pacific to study its culture in the 1930s. Evelyn (Maya Stange) is an adventurous free thinker, while her husband Phillip (Martin Donovan) is a rigid scholar bound to convention and propriety. Tension develops between the couple when Phillip fails to acknowledge what Evelyn sees as obvious: that women run this lusty culture. Tensions are upped another notch when Evelyn falls for Mick (Rufus Sewell), a macho American pearl merchant. As Evelyn's life begins to crash in around her, the Japanese army invades her island paradise and tragedy strikes her priggish husband.
Doctor Sleep
United Kingdom, 2002
Drama
Producers: David M. Thompson, Mike Phillips
Director: Nick Willing
Cast: Goran Visnjic, Shirley Handerson,
Miranda Otto, Paddy Considine
Policewoman Janet Losey goes to Michael Strother, an American hypnotherapist living in England, who advertises that he can cure people of smoking and is amazed after he does so for her in only a single session. She then forcibly requests Strother’s aid on a case – in helping with the young girl Heather who has been left catatonically mute after escaping from a serial killer that is plaguing London. Strother hypnotizes Heather and is successful in getting her to speak. He and Losey are drawn together in an effort to understand the killer’s fascination with the occult, including their apparent adherence to the beliefs of Francis Paladine, a philosopher who 500 years earlier believed in the ability to transplant minds between bodies.
(www.moria.co.nz)
Love's Brother
Australia/ United Kingdom, 2004
Comedy/ Romance
Producers: Jane Scott, Sarah Radclyffe
Director: Jan Sardi
Cast: Giovanni Ribisi, Adam Garcia,
Silvia de Santis, Eleanor Bron,
Amelia Warner
In despair of ever finding love, the insecure Angelo uses a photo of his handsome brother Gino to convince a beautiful Italian girl across the sea to marry him. Gino's delighted for Angelo, but when he lays eyes on his brother's betrothed, it's love at first sight. Touching and funny, sentimental and heart-warming, this is a magical, sweetly nostalgic journey about roots, family, sacrifice and the power of true love.
Superstition
United Kingdom, 2001
Horror/ Thriller
Producers: Bob Hubar, Denis Wigman
Director: Kenneth Hope
Cast: Sienna Guilloy, Charlotte Rampling,
Mark Strong
19 year old babysitter au pair Julie is accused of murder when the bed of the sheltered baby inflames. It seems as if Julie possesses rare telepathic skills, that she can not control. Her young lawyer fights for her in court and against the public opinion in Italy, who take her for a witch".
(www.imdb.com)
Officer Factory
Drama / War
Written and directed by Wolf Vollmar
Novel: Hans Hellmut Kirst
With Manfred Zapatka, Karl Walter Diess,
Thomas Holtzmann, Sigmar Solbach, Harald Dietl
Produced by Mondada
This is the story of a single Lt., Karl Krafft in the year 1944, when the war was already
lost He was sent to the Officer Factory, the No. 5 Training School at Wildingen-am-
Main, where the cream of Germany's Youth were molded into soldiers ready to fight for
the Fatherland. At the time of his arrival, the court of inquiry found that the premature
explosion which killed another Lt during a field exercise was only an accident. The
Commandant of the school, General Modersohn, strongly believed it was murder and
ordered Lt. Krafft to find the truth. From this beginning, and as character after character
is drawn into the scope of his investigation, the school becomes a place of high tension.
At the same time it is evident that this is not at all the only plot line. The unfolding drama
at the training school is an incomparable picture of the conflict between the honorable
officers and the barbaric Hitler regime in wartime Germany. The General, the Lt., and
their kind are seeking to assert authority over unscrupulous fanatics to whom their
country is but a means to the realization of Hitler’s crazy dreams of power. Clearly, this
is the heart of the matter: the responsibility of the German High Command and their
officers. Who gives orders and who is responsible for the consequences? In the tragic
ending of OFFICER FACTORY, General Modersohn. before his execution says: "All for
Germany", but he says it much too late. Captain Feders dies with the question "What
has become of the 6th Army?". Lieutenant Krafft dies with the one clear remark "All for a
new Germany", meaning a better Germany.
Camouflage
Action
Producers: Patrick D. Choi, Anthony Esposito,
Mark Malis, Nile Niami, Karl Schanzer
Director: James Keach
Cast: Leslie Nielson, Lochlyn Munro, Vanessa Angel
Marty Mackenzie (Munro) is an successful stage actor who takes an interest in private investigating. He takes a job working with Jack Potter (Nielsen) a crusty private eye. They both take a case in Beaver Ridge, a seedy small town where a murder is being planned against a rich gravel pit owner. Marty realizes that private investigating is not as it seemed to be.
Grey Owl
1999, Canada/ UK
Drama
Producer: Jack Eberts, Richard Attenborough
Director: Richard Attenborough
Cast: Pierce Brosnan, Stewart Bick,
Vlasta Vrana
Archie Grey Owl is a trapper in Canada in the early 1930s when a young Iroquois woman from town asks him to teach her Indian ways. They live in the woods, where she is appalled at how trapped animals die. She adopts two orphaned beaver kits and helps Archie see his way to stop trapping. Instead, he works as a guide, a naturalist writer, and then the Canadian government hires him to save the beaver in a conserve by Lake Ajawaan in Prince Albert National Park. He writes a biography, which brings him attention in Canada and invitations to lecture in England. Before he leaves, he and Anahareo (Pony) marry. In England, his secret is revealed. Will Anahareo continue to love him?
The Whole Shebang
Comedy/ Romance
Producer: Nick Gillott, Paul E. Harvey, David Kirkpatrick
Director: George Zaloom
Cast: Bridget Fonda, Stanley Tucci, Giancarlo Gianinni
Giovanni (Tucci), a down-on-his-luck violinist who gets dumped by the love of his life. He hears about a job proposition from his family in the United States and takes the first plane out in hopes that he can turn a new leaf. He meets Val (Fonda), who has recently lost her husband in an explosion and they share an admiration for one another.