The Englishman

In 1958, a boy from Scotland goes to Germany to visit his grandmother. As they tentatively come closer, facts begin to overwhelm fiction, forcing the boy to destroy his fantasies.

This ambitious overview of the history of Prague provides a wealth of information about the city, both visual and verbal, but suffers from a one-note presentation. One note dominates the narration, that of continuity between past and present, and also the camerawork -- contrived to be as artful and art filled as the narration. Modern and ancient architecture and other cultural attributes of Prague, including scenes from the stage play Amadeus serve as a backdrop to the lecture on the nature of Prague history -- a non-stop "continuity of consciousness."

Produced for Scottish television, Venus Peter was financed by the Orkney Islands Council. The title character is transformed into a "sea child" when he is baptized with salt water. Though his family tries hard to accustom him to life on land, Peter (Gordon R. Strachan) yearns to go to sea -- or, at the very least, to escape his cloistered community. He finds a kindred spirit in Princess Paloma (Juliet Cadzow), the village "looney," who, alas, is eventually carted away to an institution. Briefly fascinated by poetry and music, thanks to his lovely teacher Miss Balsibie (Sinead Cusack), Peter is disillusioned when he finds his teacher in the arms of her lover (and out of her clothing). The final blow to Peter's idealism comes when his grandfather's ship is repossessed. Despite the bleakness of his surroundings and his seemingly dead-end existence, however, Peter never completely lets go of his dreams, and the film ends on a positive note.