Tony Lyons
In this tribute to James Joyce, Fionnula Flanagan gives a tour-de-force performance as a half-dozen or so women in Joyce's real and fictional worlds. When she portrays his wife Nora remembering their time together, Flanagan captures the era and the author in lyrical detail. As Sylvia Beach, the woman who first published Ulysses, new dimensions concerning the importance of Nora in Joyce's literary visions of women emerge, and when Flanagan interprets Joyce characters like Molly Bloom or a washerwoman from Finnegan's Wake, the beauty of Joyce's language shines through the melodious words.
A group of schoolchildren come upon an alien from Venus, and help him against a gang of criminals who are trying to kidnap him. The recipe for a successful Children's Film Foundation production: take a peaceful rural setting and fill with an equal mix of boys and girls (two of each will suffice). Add a bunch of crooks, a gentle moral, and a chase. For added flavour, director Tom Wells (son of H.G. Wells) spices up an old formula with a sprinkling of science-fiction in the form of a friendly alien creature. Enjoy!
A man who works for 'The Party' (an all powerful empire led by a man known only as 'Big Brother') begins to have thoughts of rebellion and love for a fellow member. Together they look to help bring down the party.
On Christmas Eve, an old miser named Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by the spirit of his former partner, Jacob Marley. The deceased partner was in his lifetime as mean and miserly as Scrooge is now and he warns him to change his ways or face the consequences in the afterlife.
