John Boorman
In 1963, Sean Connery bursts onto the screen as James Bond in 'Dr. No', the first episode of a saga that is destined to become legendary. With the secret agent tuxedo, the poor kid from the streets of Edinburgh becomes a global star. The role of James Bond brings Sean Connery fame and fortune. It also becomes his burden. For a long time, the actor seeks to break away from his image of 007, to play more cerebral characters. A slow and difficult emancipation, which he lives as a real quest for himself.
This retrospective documentary looks back on the making of director John Boorman's 1981 movie, Excalibur. Self-described as the toughest film he ever made, Excalibur told the tale of King Arthur and the Sword in the Stone and helped start the careers of actors Liam Neeson, Gabriel Byrne, Helen Mirren and Patrick Stewart. In this one hour film, they join other cast and crew to share their memories from the filming of this Arthurian masterpiece.
Professor James Murray begins work compiling words for the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary in the mid 19th century, and receives over 10,000 entries from a patient at Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum, Dr. William Minor.
Pauline Kael (1919–2001) was undoubtedly one of the greatest names in film criticism. A Californian native, she wrote her first review in 1953 and joined ‘The New Yorker’ in 1968. Praised for her highly opinionated and feisty writing style and criticised for her subjective and sometimes ruthless reviews, Kael’s writing was refreshingly and intensely rooted in her experience of watching a film as a member of the audience. Loved and hated in equal measure – loved by other critics for whom she was immensely influential, and hated by filmmakers whose films she trashed - Kael destroyed films that have since become classics such as The Sound of Music and raved about others such as Bonnie and Clyde. She was also aware of the perennial difficulties for women working in the movies and in film criticism, and fiercely fought sexism, both in her reviews and in her media appearances.
A very special encounter between legendary American cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond and young French director Pierre Filmon. A personal journey with the brightest shadowmaker and his friends.
Discussion about Carol Reed's 1947 film ODD MAN OUT.
An Englishman who grew up in London during World War II joins the military to fight in the Korean War.
An intimate portrait about the iconic filmmaker John Boorman directed by his daughter Katrine. The story is told through the relationship of father and daughter, it is a journey about film making, family conflict, love and reconciliation.
After a chance encounter, a Dubliner (Gleeson) is stalked by a murderous facsimile of himself.
What is the state of cinema and what being a filmmaker means? What are the measures taken to protect authors' copyright? What is their legal status in different countries? (Sequel to “Filmmakers vs. Tycoons.”)
The film director, Carol Reed, is the subject of this documentary short. The illegitimate son of the famous stage actor, 'Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree' , Reed was brilliant with actors, especially child actors, making him the perfect person to bring Oliver! to the screen. Reed is best known for three films he made in the late 1940s, and the documentary offers generous clips from Odd Man Out, The Fallen Idol, and the most famous of all, The Third Man. The film director, John Boorman, the assistant director, Guy Hamilton, the actors, Ron Moody and Bryan Forbes and the cinematographer, Oswald Morris, are among the interviewees.
Feature-lenght documentary, divided in three episodes (Storm rising, Storm chaser and Eye of the storm), describing the making of Ryan's Daughter as well as the critical reaction to it.
An American reporter and an Afrikaans poet meet and fall in love while covering South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings.
A British spy is banished to Panama after having an affair with an ambassador's mistress. Once there he makes connection with a local tailor with a nefarious past and connections to all of the top political and gangster figures in Panama. The tailor also has a wife, who works for the Panamanian president and a huge debt. The mission is to learn what the President intends to do with the Canal.
A documentary chronicling the making of Kubrick's final film, 'Eyes Wide Shut', and his legacy.
John Boorman met Lee Marvin in London when the latter was making The Dirty Dozen and immediately they struck up a friendship. Shortly afterwards they made two films together, the first of which was Point Blank, during which Boorman found that he learnt a lot about screen acting and how to direct from the contributions and support from Marvin. Later they worked together on Hell in the Pacific. With his friendship providing an insightful collection of memories of Marvin, Boorman leads this intimate documentary on the life of Lee Marvin.
In a twenty-year career marked by obsessive secrecy, brutality and meticulous planning, Cahill netted over £40 million. He was untouchable - until a bullet from an IRA hitman ended it all.
40 international directors were asked to make a short film using the original Cinematographe invented by the Lumière Brothers, working under conditions similar to those of 1895. There were three rules: (1) The film could be no longer than 52 seconds, (2) no synchronized sound was permitted, and (3) no more than three takes. The results run the gamut from Zhang Yimou's convention-thwarting joke to David Lynch's bizarre miniature epic.
Originally produced for the Showtime anthology series Picture Windows and screened at the Cannes Film Festival, this whimsical British short speculates upon the origins of the anonymous painting, Two Nudes Bathing, which hangs in the Louvre. The painting depicts two beautiful, naked young women engaged in a tender act. The result is the notorious painting in which the nude girls are depicted with one of them daintily holding the nipple of the other. Naturally, the finished work causes quite a stir in Comte's prudish household. Though rumors persist of a feature-length version of this film, they are unfounded: it was originally shot and produced as a 35-minute short, and that was the version that ran and was reviewed at Cannes.
From his quirky compositions for the spaghetti Westerns of Sergio Leone to his sublime musical contributions to director Roland Joffé's acclaimed 1986 drama The Mission, film composer Ennio Morricone has crafted more than 500 scores over the course of his enduring career in film. Now fans can take a look back at the life and career of one of cinema's most prolific composers through interviews with both the composer himself and many of his longtime collaborators. From his Italian efforts to his work in America, this documentary covers every aspect of Morricone's career as few have, offering insight into his childhood, his longtime association with Leone, and his ultimate disenchantment with the American studio system.
Patricia Arquette stars as American widow Laura Bowman, a young doctor who's unwittingly drawn into political turmoil while vacationing in Burma in the late 1980s, in this fictionalized drama based on actual events. Bowman initially left San Francisco with her sister (Frances McDormand) in an attempt to escape painful memories of her husband and son's violent deaths. But her fight to escape to Thailand could prove just as harrowing.
Film about the influences in director John Boorman's life and work, including family and neighbors and the landscape of the Wicklow mountains surrounding his home in Ireland.
A wealthy businessman shows his young adult kids how tough life can be.
Director John Boorman drew from his own childhood experiences for this coming-of-age tale about a boy growing up in and around London during World War II. For young Billy Rowan, the nightly bombings provide a frightening show, but they include opportunities to rummage through the rubble with friends in the mornings. As Billy plays, his family struggles to remain intact as they suffer through the anguish and losses of wartime.
For ten years, engineer Bill Markham has searched tirelessly for his son Tommy who disappeared from the edge of the Brazilian rainforest. Miraculously, he finds the boy living among the reclusive Amazon tribe who adopted him. And that's when Bill's adventure truly begins. For his son is now a grown tribesman who moves skillfully through this beautiful-but-dangerous terrain, fearful only of those who would exploit it. And as Bill attempts to "rescue" him from the savagery of the untamed jungle, Tommy challenges Bill's idea of true civilization and his notions about who needs rescuing.
A budding Scottish film producer tries to get his ambitious Aberdeen-set western financed, and while he attracts some major stars and directors to the film he finds that with their support come more and more script changes... Filmed around the 1977 Edinburgh Film Festival, Long Shot is a deadpan satire about the trials and tribulations of British independent filmmaking, with terrific cameos from Wim Wenders, Susannah York, Stephen Frears, Alan Bennett and John Boorman.
Bizarre nightmares plague Regan MacNeil four years after her possession and exorcism. Has the demon returned? And if so, can the combined faith and knowledge of a Vatican investigator and a hypnotic research specialist free her from its grasp?
Intent on seeing the Cahulawassee River before it's turned into one huge lake, outdoor fanatic Lewis Medlock takes his friends on a river-rafting trip they'll never forget into the dangerous American back-country.
Prince Leo, last in the line of rulers of a long-deposed monarchy on continental Europe and jaded with the frenetic search for kicks with the European jet-set, returns to his father's London town house for rest.
During World War II, a shot-down American pilot and a marooned Japanese navy captain find themselves stranded on the same small uninhabited island in the Pacific Ocean. Following war logic, each time the crafty Japanese devises something useful, he guards it to deny its use to the Yank, who then steals it, its proceeds or the idea and/or ruins it. Yet each gets his chance to kill and/or capture the other, but neither pushes this to the end. After a while of this pointless pestering, they end up joining forces to build and man a raft...
After being double-crossed and left for dead, a mysterious man named Walker single-mindedly tries to retrieve the rather inconsequential sum of money that was stolen from him.
Dinah (Barbara Ferris) is a famous model and actress who is getting tired of life in the limelight and wants to take a break. While shooting a commercial spot for meat, she meets Steve (Dave Clark), a stuntman. Dinah and Steve hit it off and decide to head to an island to get away from it all (bringing along four of Steve's friends, Mike Smith, Lenny Davidson, Denis West Payton, and Rick Huxley, who -- surprise! -- play music with him). Before long, Dinah is reported missing and everyone is looking for her, making their getaway anything but tranquil.
The story of one week in the lives of a professional football team - Swindon Town F.C.
