Boule de suif

The story is set in the Franco-Prussian War and follows a group of French residents of Rouen, recently occupied by the Prussian army. The ten travellers decide for various reasons, to leave Rouen and flee to Le Havre in a stagecoach. Sharing the carriage are Boule de Suif or "Butterball" (lit.suet dumpling, also translated as ball of fat), a prostitute whose real name is Elisabeth Rousset; the strict Democrat Cornudet; a shop-owning couple from the petty bourgeoisie, M. and Mme. Loiseau; a wealthy upper-bourgeoisie factory-owner and his wife, M. and Mme. Carré-Lamadon; the Comte and Comtesse of Bréville; and two nuns. Thus, the carriage constitutes a microcosm of French society, representing different parts of the French population during the late 19th century.
Due to the terrible weather, the coach moves very slowly and by midday has only covered a few miles. The occupants initially snub Boule de Suif but their attitudes change when she produces a picnic basket full of lovely food and offers to share its contents with the hungry travellers.
At the village of Tôtes, the carriage stops at the local coaching inn, and the occupants, hearing a German voice, realise they have blundered into Prussian-held territory. A Prussian officer detains the party at the inn indefinitely without telling them why. Over the next two days, the travellers become increasingly impatient, and are finally told by Boule de Suif that they are being detained until she agrees to sleep with the officer. She is repeatedly called before the officer, and always returns in a heightened state of agitation. Initially, the travellers support her and are furious at the officer's arrogance, but their indignation soon disappears as they grow angry at Boule de Suif for not sleeping with the officer so that they can leave. Over the course of the next two days, the travelers use various examples of logic and morality to convince her it is the right thing to do; she finally gives in and sleeps with the officer, who allows them to leave the next morning.
As they continue on their way to Le Havre, these "representatives of Virtue" ignore Boule de Suif and turn to polite topics of conversation, glancing scathingly at the young woman while refusing to even acknowledge her, and refusing to share their food with her the way that she did with them earlier. As the coach travels on into the night, Cornudet starts whistling the Marseillaise while Boule de Suif seethes with rage against the other passengers, and finally weeps for her lost dignity.

A company of French bourgeois travel through the territories occupied by Germans in a stagecoach accompanied by a woman of the oldest profession.

The Far Horizons

An ambitious, historic attempt to explore and document an untamed American frontier unfolds in this rousing adventure drama. In 1803, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, with President Thomas Jefferson's blessing, embarked on the government-sponsored Lewis & Clark Expedition – an attempt to discover a water route connecting St. Louis, Missouri, with the Pacific Ocean. Their trek takes them through the magnificent, danger-filled territory of the Pacific Northwest, with guidance from the Shoshone woman Sacagawea.

United States has just acquired Louisiana from France. An expedition led by Lewis and Clark is sent to survey the territory and go where no white man has gone before. Are they able to ...

Dangerous Exile

The Duke Philippe de Beauvais smuggles his own son into the prison cell where Louis XVII is kept. Thus Louis XVII can escape unnoticed to England. Unfortunately the aerostat, steered by Duke Philippe de Beauvais, lands accidentally on a remote island. There an American spinster, Virginia Traill, takes care of the strange child. She finds the dauphin profoundly traumatised and not interested in becoming a king. Meanwhile, Louis' uncle in Vienna has declared himself the new French king. In order to safeguard his claim on the throne, he sends assassins who shall murder the dauphin. Being unaware of the exchange, he has Richard de Beauvais killed. But now the dauphin's torturers recognise they have been deceived. Informed by a message of an English spy they send a ship to the island where the real dauphin hides. They attack the house of Virginia Traill and stop at nothing to detect the dauphin's hiding-place.

During the French Revolution, a French nobleman saves the 10-year-old son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette from the guillotine with the help of an English woman.

Year Zero: Black Country

Harry Baldwin (Ray Milland), his wife Ann (Jean Hagen), their son Rick (Frankie Avalon), and daughter Karen (Mary Mitchell) leave suburban Los Angeles on a camping trip. The Baldwins notice unusually bright light flashes coming from a great distance. Sporadic news reports broadcast on CONELRAD hint at the start of an atomic war, later confirmed when the Baldwins see a large mushroom cloud over what was Los Angeles.
The family initially attempts to return to rescue Ann's mother, who lives near Los Angeles, but soon abandons these plans as panicked refugees climb over one another to escape the fallout from multiple nuclear explosions. Witnessing the threads of society being torn apart, Harry decides the family must find refuge at their secluded vacation spot.
Along the way, they stop to buy supplies, or, in the case of hardware store owner Ed Johnson (Richard Garland), take them by force when he won't accept a check. They also encounter three threatening young hoodlums, Carl (Richard Bakalyan), Mickey (Rex Holman), and Andy (Neil Nephew), on the road, but manage to drive them off.
After a harrowing journey, the Baldwins reach their destination and find shelter in a cave, while they wait for order to be restored. On their portable radio they listen to war news and learn that what is left of the United Nations has declared this to be "Year Zero". They find that Johnson and his wife are their neighbors, but not for long. The three thugs appear and shoot them. A farming couple suffers the same fate, and their teenage daughter, Marilyn (Joan Freeman), is kept as a sex slave. Karen is also raped when Mickey and Andy happen upon her. With guns in hand, the Baldwin men fight back, killing the two murderers and freeing Marilyn. Marilyn returns with them back to camp. Some time later Rick is out with Marilyn chopping wood. Carl sneaks up behind Marilyn and forces her to drop the rifle she is holding, and begins to question her about what happened to his friends. Rick tells him to back off and throws a piece of wood at him while at the same time Marilyn breaks away and grabs the rifle and shoots Carl dead, but at the same time Carl fires a shot off hitting Rick in the leg.
With Marilyn's help, they look for a doctor she knows of in Paxton. On the drive there they hear that "the enemy" has asked for a truce and Year Zero is ending. They find Doctor Strong (Willis Bouchey, billed as Willis Buchet). The doctor does what he can, but the boy needs a blood transfusion and must be taken to an army hospital more than a 100 miles (160 km) away, or he will die. Along the way they encounter a military patrol scouting for the army that is reestablishing order. After a tense meeting, the group is allowed to continue. Watching them depart, the soldiers note that they're among the "good ones" who escaped radiation sickness by being in the mountains when the bombs exploded. As the family drives on, a closing title card states: "There must be no end – only a new beginning".

In the 1960s thousands of economic migrants from the former colonies came to the railway town of Smethwick in the industrial heartlands of England. Nearly all the newly arrived were illiterate and unskilled with high hopes, in search of a promised land to make a small fortune. Using archives and filmed scenes, the psychology and sensations of this epic upheaval are the focus of Year Zero: Black Country.

The God King

King Kasyapa (Leigh Lawson) is the son of King Dhatusena (Geoffrey Russell). Kasyapa murdered his father by walling him alive and then usurping the throne which rightfully belonged to his brother Mogallana (Ravindra Randeniya), Dhatusena's son by the true queen. Mogallana fled to India to escape being assassinated by Kasyapa but vowed revenge. In India he raised an army with the intention of returning and retaking the throne of Sri Lanka which was rightfully his. Knowing the inevitable return of Mogallana, Kasyapa is said to have built his palace on the summit of Sigiriya as a fortress and pleasure palace.

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Anne of the Thousand Days

The film begins in 1536 when Henry VIII (Richard Burton) considers whether or not he should sign the warrant for the execution of his second wife, Anne Boleyn: then, in a long flashback which takes up virtually the entire film, the whole truth is revealed. Starting in 1527, Henry has a problem: he reveals his dissatisfaction with his wife, Catherine of Aragon (Irene Papas). He is currently enjoying a discreet affair with Mary Boleyn, a daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn who is one of his courtiers; but the King is bored with her too. At a court ball, he notices Mary's 18-year-old sister Anne (Geneviève Bujold), who has just returned from her education in France. She is engaged to the son of the Earl of Northumberland and they have received their parents' permission to marry. The King, however, is enraptured with Anne's beauty and orders his Lord Chancellor, Cardinal Wolsey, to break up the engagement.
When news of this decision is carried to Anne, she reacts furiously. She blames the Cardinal and the King for ruining her happiness. When Henry makes a rather clumsy attempt to seduce her, Anne bluntly informs him how she finds him: "I've heard what your courtiers say and I've seen what you are. You're spoiled and vengeful and bloody. Your poetry is sour and your music is worse. You make love as you eat—with a good deal of noise and no subtlety."
Henry brings her back to Court with him, whilst she continues to resist his advances out of a mixture of repugnance for Henry and her lingering anger over her broken engagement. However, she becomes intoxicated with the power that the King's love gives her. "Power is as exciting as love," she tells her brother George Boleyn, "and who has more of it than the king?" Using this power, she continually undermines Cardinal Wolsey (Anthony Quayle), who at first sees Anne as just a passing love interest for the King.
When Henry again presses Anne to become his mistress, she repeats that she will never give birth to a child who is illegitimate. Desperate to have a son, Henry suddenly comes up with the idea of marrying Anne in Catherine's place. Anne is stunned, but she agrees. Wolsey begs the King to abandon the idea because of the political consequences of divorcing Catherine. Henry refuses to listen.
When Wolsey fails to persuade the Pope to give Henry his divorce, Anne points out this failing to an enraged Henry. Wolsey is dismissed from office and his magnificent palace in London is given as a present to Anne. In this splendour, Anne realises that she has finally fallen in love with Henry. They sleep together and, after discovering that she is pregnant, they are secretly married. Anne is given a splendid coronation, but the people jeer at her in disgust as "the King's whore".
Months later, Anne gives birth to a daughter: Princess Elizabeth. Henry is displeased since he was hoping for a boy, and their marital relationship begins to cool. His attentions are soon diverted to Lady Jane Seymour, one of Anne's maids. Once she discovers this liaison, Anne banishes Jane from court. "She has the face of a simpering sheep," she informs Henry, "and the manners, but not the morals. I don't want her near me."
During a row over Sir Thomas More's opposition to Anne's queenship, Anne refuses to sleep with her husband unless More is put to death. "It's his blood, or else it's my blood and Elizabeth's!" she cries hysterically. More is put to death, but Anne's subsequent pregnancy ends, resulting in a stillborn boy.
Henry demands that his new minister, Thomas Cromwell, find a way to get rid of Anne. Cromwell tortures a servant in her household into confessing to adultery with the Queen; he then arrests four other courtiers who are also accused of being Anne's lovers. Anne is taken to the Tower and placed under arrest. When she is told that she has been accused of adultery, she laughs. "I thought you were serious!" she says, before being informed that it is deadly serious. When she sees her brother being brought into the Tower, Anne asks why he has been arrested. "He too is accused of being your lover," mutters her embarrassed uncle. Anne's face shudders with horror before she whispers, "Incest?... Oh, God help me, the King is mad. I am doomed."
At Anne's trial, she manages to cross-question Mark Smeaton, the tortured servant who finally admits that the charges against Anne are lies. Henry makes an appearance, before visiting Anne in her chambers that night. He offers her freedom if she will agree to annul their marriage and make their daughter illegitimate. Anne refuses, saying that she would rather die than betray their daughter. Henry slaps her before telling her that her disobedience will mean her death.
Moving back to 1536, Henry decides to execute Anne. A few days later, Anne is taken to the scaffold and beheaded by a French swordsman. Henry rides off to marry Jane Seymour and the film's final shot is of their young daughter, Elizabeth (Amanda Jane Smythe), toddling alone in the garden as she hears the cannon firing to announce her mother's death. Before the credits roll in this scene, Anne's voice is heard reciting a prophecy she spoke to Henry in the Tower: "Elizabeth shall be a greater queen than any king of yours. She shall rule a greater England than you could ever have built. My Elizabeth shall be queen, and my blood will have been well spent."

Henry VIII of England discards one wife Katharine of Aragon, who has failed to produce a male heir, in favor of a young and beautiful woman, Anne Boleyn, whose one-thousand-day reign as Queen of England ends with the loss of her head on the block. Henry weds Ann and soon she gives him a child. The girl, Elizabeth, is a bitter disappointment to Henry, who desperately wants an heir. Anne promises Henry a son "next time," but Henry is doubtful. Shortly thereafter, rumors begin that the King's eye has already wandered. One Jane Seymour is at court for a moment. The Queen has her sent away, but, if Anne will bring Jane back to court, the King promises to sign the Act of Succession to insure that Elizabeth will be Queen.

The Tavern Knight

As summarized in a film publication, The Tavern Knight (Norwood), known for his handling of his sword, is really Roland Marleigh, lord of Marleigh Castle. Gregory Ashburn (Croker-King) and his brother Joseph (Humphreys) long ago had caused the death of the Knight's wife and taken his young son, now known as their ward Kenneth (Anderson). Cynthia (Stuart), a niece, was also a member of the household, and the Knight believes that she loves Kenneth. The forces of Charles Stuart (Wickers) and Oliver Cromwell (Conway) are about to fight with The Tavern Knight leading the Stuart forces. Kenneth, fighting for the King, was under the Knight's leadership. When Stuart's forces retreated, the Knight and Kenneth are captured but later escape. The Knight learns that Kenneth is of the house of Marleigh, now in the possession of the Ashburns. Kenneth takes the Knight to Marleigh Castle, where the Knight reveals his identity and a sword fight begins. One of the Ashburns escapes with his life when he promises to tell the Knight news of his son. Complications follow, and the Knight kills Kenneth, which leaves the Knight free to acknowledge his love for Cynthia, who also loves him.

A Royalist and his unknown son seek vengeance on his murdered wife's brothers.

Macbeth


Macbeth, the Thane of Glamis, receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders his king and takes the throne for himself.

Jane Eyre


After a bleak childhood, Jane Eyre goes out into the world to become a governess. As she lives happily in her new position at Thornfield Hall, she meets the dark, cold, and abrupt master of the house, Mr. Rochester. Jane and her employer grow close in friendship and she soon finds herself falling in love with him. Happiness seems to have found Jane at last, but could Mr. Rochester's terrible secret be about to destroy it forever?

A Dangerous Method

Sabina Spielrein arrives at the Burghölzli, the pre-eminent psychiatric hospital in Zurich, suffering from hysteria and begins a new course of treatment with the young Swiss doctor, Carl Jung. He uses word association and dream interpretation as part of his approach to psychoanalysis, and finds that Spielrein's condition was triggered by the humiliation and sexual arousal she felt as a child when her father spanked her naked.
Jung and chief of medicine Eugen Bleuler recognize Spielrein's intelligence and energy, and allow her to assist them in their experiments. She measures the physical reactions of subjects during word association, to provide empirical data as a scientific basis for psychoanalysis. She soon learns that much of this new science is founded on the doctors' observations of themselves, each other, and their families, not just their patients. The doctors correspond at length before they meet, and begin sharing their dreams and analysing each other, and Freud himself soon adopts Jung as his heir and agent.
Jung finds in Spielrein a kindred spirit, and their attraction deepens due to transference. Jung resists the idea of cheating on his wife, Emma, and breaking the taboo of sex with a patient, but his resolve is weakened by the wild and unrepentant confidences of his new patient Otto Gross, a brilliant, philandering, unstable psychoanalyst. Gross decries monogamy in general and suggests that resistance to transference is symptomatic of the repression of normal, healthy sexual impulses, exhorting Jung to indulge himself with abandon.
Jung finally begins an affair with Spelrein, including rudimentary bondage and spanking. Things become even more tangled as he becomes her advisor to her dissertation; he publishes not only his studies of her as a patient but eventually her treatise as well. Spelrein wants to conceive a child with Jung, but he refuses. After his attempt to confine their relationship again to doctor and patient, she appeals to Freud for his professional help, and forces Jung to tell Freud the truth about their relationship, reminding him that she could have publicly damaged him but did not want to.
Jung and Freud journey to America. However, cracks appear in their friendship as they begin to disagree more frequently on matters of psychoanalysis. Jung and Spielrein meet to work on her dissertation in Switzerland, and begin their sexual relationship once more. However, after Jung refuses to leave his wife for her, Spelrein decides to go to Vienna. She meets Freud, and says that although she sides with him, she believes he and Jung need to reconcile for psychoanalysis to continue to develop.
Following Freud's collapse at an academic conference, he and Jung continue correspondence via letters. They decide to end their relationship after increasing hostilities and accusations regarding the differences in their conceptualisation of psychoanalysis. Spielrein marries a Russian doctor and, while pregnant, visits Jung and his wife. They discuss psychoanalysis and Jung's new mistress. Jung confides that his love for Spielrein made him a better person.
The film's footnote reveals the eventual fates of the four analysts. Gross starved to death in Berlin in 1919. Freud died of cancer in London in 1939 after being driven out of Vienna by the Nazis. Spielrein trained a number of analysts in the Soviet Union, before she, along with her two daughters, was shot by Nazis in 1942. Jung emerged from a nervous breakdown to become the world's leading psychologist before dying in 1961.

Suffering from hysteria, Sabina Spielrein is hospitalized under the care of Dr. Carl Jung who has begun using Dr. Sigmund Freud's talking cure with some of his patients. Spielrain's psychological problems are deeply rooted in her childhood and violent father. She is highly intelligent however and hopes to be a doctor, eventually becoming a psychiatrist in her own right. The married Jung and Spielrein eventually become lovers. Jung and Freud develop an almost father-son relationship with Freud seeing the young Jung as his likely successor as the standard-bearer of his beliefs. A deep rift develops between them when Jung diverges from Freud's belief that while psychoanalysis can reveal the cause of psychological problems it cannot cure the patient.

A Field in England

During a battle of the English Civil War, an alchemist's assistant named Whitehead flees from the strict Commander Trower. Whitehead is saved by a rough soldier named Cutler, who kills Trower before he can apprehend Whitehead. Whitehead then meets two army deserters, the alcoholic Jacob and the witless Friend. The four leave the battleground in search of a promised ale house that Cutler knows of. Cutler instead leads them to a field encircled by mushrooms, where he cooks the mushrooms and forces the others to eat, to make them more obedient; save for Whitehead. There, they haul the Irishman O'Neill seemingly out of the ground from a wooden pike buried in the ground. O'Neill is a rival alchemist for whom Cutler works; and who stole documents from Whitehead's master. He quickly asserts authority over the group and tells them of a treasure hidden somewhere in a nearby field.
The group finds a deserted army camp, where O'Neill tortures Whitehead into a gleeful and hypnotised human divining rod. After using Whitehead to locate the treasure, which is near the camp, O'Neill orders Jacob and Friend to dig for it while he leaves Cutler to supervise, and goes to sleep in a tent. Jacob soon succumbs to the influence of the hallucinogenic mushrooms, and after several hours of digging he attacks Friend. Cutler laughs and urinates on them, and when Jacob attempts to attack him, Cutler accidentally shoots Friend. Whitehead is unable to save him, and Friend dies, telling Jacob to deliver a message to his wife, telling that he hates her. Cutler is forced to finish digging by himself, while Jacob slips away from the camp to deliver Friend's message, and Whitehead deposits Friend's corpse in a thicket.
Cutler eventually nears reaching the treasure, attracting the attention of O'Neill, who discovers Jacob and Whitehead gone. Reaching where Friend's corpse is, O'Neill pursues Whitehead, who ingests a part of the circle of mushrooms, heightening his awareness but suffering a hallucinatory experience, wherein he conjures a violent wind to blow away the camp's tent. Cutler discovers that the "treasure" is just a skull, which he shoots in anger. Jacob comes back to join Whitehead in fighting O'Neill.
Cutler angrily berates O'Neill, blaming him for trusting Whitehead and lying to him about the alehouse, which was to simply entice Jacob and Friend. O'Neill promptly kills him and then pursues Whitehead and Jacob, who scavenge Cutler's weapons and return to the overturned army camp. As they are preparing for an attack, Friend appears alive and reveals their location to O'Neill. As Jacob throws Friend to the ground to stop him, O'Neill shoots Jacob in the gut, but Jacob returns fire and ruins O'Neill's leg. Jacob dies from his injuries, after he and Whitehead surmise that the treasure was the friendship they shared. Friend brandishes Cutler's pike and charges O'Neill, but O'Neill kills him with his last shot. Whitehead takes advantage of the situation to finally kill O'Neill by shooting him in the back of the head.
Whitehead buries his friend's corpses in the hole and leaves the field. Wearing O'Neill's clothes, he gathers his master's stolen documents and returns to the hedgerow where he first met Cutler, Jacob and Friend, from which battle sounds are rising. After he wades through the hedge, he sees Friend, Jacob and himself standing together, implying he is still under the effects of the mushrooms in the field behind him.

Fleeing for their lives, a small party abandon their Civil War confederates and escape through an overgrown field. Thinking only of what lay behind, they are ambushed by two dangerous men and made to search the field. Psychedelia, madness and chaotic forces slowly overtake the group as they question what treasure lies within the malignant field.

Berberian Sound Studio

British sound engineer Gilderoy (Toby Jones) arrives at the Berberian film studio in Italy to work on what he believes is a film about horses. During a surreal meeting with Francesco, the film's producer, Gilderoy is shocked to find the film is actually an Italian giallo film, The Equestrian Vortex. He nonetheless begins work in the studio, at one point made to do Foley work, using vegetables to create sound effects for the film's increasingly gory torture sequences, and mixing voiceovers from session artists, Silvia and Claudia, into the score.
As time passes, and Gilderoy feels more and more disconnected from his mother at home, he begins to fear he's out of his depth. His colleagues seem increasingly rude – to both himself and to each other. The horror sequences grow ever more shocking, yet Santini, the director, refuses to admit they are working on a horror film. And, after a long passage through the bureaucracy of the film studio's accounts department, it turns out the plane ticket Gilderoy submitted for a refund can't be processed because the flight didn't actually exist.
The plot, from here on in, grows increasingly erratic. Gilderoy hears and sees things in the night. He discovers Silvia, the voiceover artist, was molested by Santini. She storms out, destroying much of their work, forcing Gilderoy to re-record the dialogue with a new actress, Elisa. As Silvia's recording sequences are revisited again, and tension grows between Gilderoy and the others, the boundaries between the blood-drenched giallo thriller and real life begin to erode. Gilderoy imagines he himself is in a film about his life – suddenly fluent in Italian and increasingly detached and vicious. After he and Francesco essentially torture Elisa during a recording session, she walks out, leaving history to repeat itself yet again, and Gilderoy to contemplate the monster he has become.

A sound engineer's work for an Italian horror studio becomes a terrifying case of life imitating art.

Mrs. Fitzherbert

The Prince Regent falls in love with Mrs. Fitzherbert, a Catholic widow, but because of their great social divide, she laughs at his advances. The distraught prince responds with a suicide attempt. Mrs. Fitzherbert feels compassion, and the couple are secretly married. Unfortunately, their secret soon becomes the stuff of gossip and rumour, and when this threatens the relationship between the prince and the king, the prince denies his marriage. The jilted Mrs. Fitzherbert then runs away, and the prince marries the woman to whom he was originally betrothed.

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The Adventures of Quentin Durward

In 1465, honorable but penniless Scottish knight Quentin Durward (Robert Taylor) agrees to go to France to find out if the beautiful young heiress, Isabelle, Countess of Marcroy (Kay Kendall), would be a suitable wife for his aged uncle (that is, if she is as rich as is claimed). The marriage has been arranged by Charles, Duke of Burgundy (Alec Clunes) for his ward to cement an alliance with Scotland, but she wants nothing to do with it, so she runs away and seeks the protection of Charles' great rival, Louis XI (Robert Morley), King of France. Quentin pursues and manages to foil an attempted robbery by brigands under the command of Count William de La Marck (Duncan Lamont), though Isabelle continues on her way unaware of her protector's identity.
Nearing the court of King Louis, Quentin tries, but fails, to save the life of a gypsy. However, the dead man's brother, Hayraddin (George Cole), is grateful for his efforts. Louis, who had ordered the man's hanging as a Burgundian spy, and distrusts such honest men as Quentin, orders him to leave France. However, the Scotsman is not easily deterred. He sneaks into the heavily guarded castle and awakens the King in his bed with a dagger at his throat. Louis is impressed and enlists Quentin in his service.
Upon the unexpected arrival of Count Phillip de Creville (Marius Goring), a Burgundian ambassador seeking Isabelle, Louis orders Quentin to guard her and to keep her presence secret. During the time they spend together, she and Quentin begin to fall in love.
Having lied about Isabelle being there, Louis commands her to depart. She tells him that she will seek sanctuary with an old friend, the Bishop of Liege (Harcourt Williams). Louis concocts a plan to have De la Marck kidnap and forcibly marry Isabelle to keep her strategically important lands out of Burgundian hands. He has Hayraddin, who is a spy in his employ, take the information and a large bribe to De la Marck. Louis provides Isabelle with a detailed itinerary (the better for De la Marck to find her). He also lends her a few guards, including Quentin, so that when they are killed, it will divert any suspicion away from him. Hayraddin is also sent as a guide. However, when he discovers that Quentin is to be one of the victims, he warns the Scotsman. The three manage to escape the trap and reach Liège, though Quentin is wounded.
When he has recovered, he finally tells Isabelle of his obligation to his uncle, which prevents him from courting her himself, and leaves. De la Marck attacks the castle, captures Isabelle, and kills the bishop when he refuses to marry them. Hearing the sounds of battle, Quentin rescues his love. He slays De la Marck in an unusual duel involving the combatants in the burning bell tower, swinging from the ropes used to ring the church bells.
Meanwhile, the Duke of Burgundy arrests Louis when he comes to continue peace negotiations, accusing him of orchestrating the murder of the bishop. However, Quentin arrives and exonerates the King, providing as proof De la Marck's severed head. Out of gratitude (and in France's best interests), Louis tricks Charles into letting Isabelle decide whom she will marry. Quentin has received news that his uncle has died, so he is free to follow his heart.

Goltzius and the Pelican Company

The film is based on the life of Hendrik Goltzius, a late 16th-century Dutch printer and engraver of erotic prints. He seduces the Margrave of Alsace into paying for a printing press to make and publish illustrated books. Goltzius promises him an extraordinary book of pictures of the Old Testament Biblical stories. Erotic tales of the temptation of Adam and Eve, Lot and his daughters, David and Bathsheba, Joseph and Potiphar's wife, Samson and Delilah, and John the Baptist and Salome. To tempt the Margrave further, Goltzius and his printing company will offer to perform dramatizations of these erotic stories for his court.
Goltzius and the Pelican Company is the second feature in Greenaway's film series "Dutch Masters", which includes the previous film Nightwatching. The third entry in the series will focus on Hieronymus Bosch, and its release is planned to coincide with the 500th anniversary of Bosch's death in 2016.

Hendrik Goltzius, a late sixteenth-century Dutch printer and engraver of erotic prints, seduces the Margrave of Alsace into paying for a printing press to make and publish illustrated books.

Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain

In 1984, a few months before the disaster, Dilip (Rajpal Yadav), a rickshaw driver, loses his pay source as his rickshaw breaks down while transporting an employee to the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal. Dilip lives in the slums around the plant with his wife, a son and his sister. He gets a job in the plant as a labourer, and is happy since his daily wage is restored.
The plant witnesses a drop in its revenue due to lower sales of pesticides, and in order to reduce the loss the officials neglect safety and maintenance. Questioning the chemicals used in the plant, Motwani (Kal Penn), a tabloid reporter publishes reports in his makeshift printing press which are disregarded by most of the officials and workers. Roy (Joy Sengupta), the in-charge for the safety of the plant expresses his concerns. The officials however ignore his warnings, and a worker is killed when a drop of methyl isocyanate leaking from a pipeline lands on his arm. The officials deem the worker's irresponsibility as the cause of the accident and the plant continues to function. Dilip is given a better-paying vacant job in the plant despite lacking the skill to operate machinery. A gas leak is prevented by Roy when water is mixed with methyl isocyanate, and in an attempt to stop people from panicking, the official in the plant sabotages the warning siren.
Warren Anderson (Martin Sheen), the CEO of Union Carbide, visits the plant to inspect its functionality, where he is briefed about a plan to connect two additional tanks for storage of methyl isocyanate to increase the output of the plant, ignoring the deteriorated condition of the tanks. Motwani meanwhile meets Eva Gascon (Mischa Barton), a reporter in the Paris Match, and persuades her to get an interview of Anderson. She impersonates the identity of an Associated Press reporter, but fails as her true identity is exposed in between the interview. Motwani convinces Dilip of the danger posed by the chemicals.
As the date of the disaster nears, Dilip arranges a loan for the wedding of his sister. Roy later explains how the company is ignoring safety standards, and that how a future leak might become uncontrolled as the officials had turned off safety measures to reduce the maintenance costs. Roy gives his resignation to the company and advises Dilip not to talk about the plant's safety if he wishes to retain his job. Dilip makes a phone call to Motwani describing what Roy just said, and expresses his fear about the plant's safety, saying he will return to the rickshaw-pulling business as soon as his sister is married.
In order to overcome the increasing revenue loss, the officials shut down the plant, firing most of the workers, including Dilip. The plant officials then order the usage of the remaining methyl isocyanate as soon as possible. Meanwhile, Dilip is busy with the wedding of his sister, and Roy has a final look of the control room. The safety measures fail and a runaway reaction follows. The faulty tanks cause the gas to start leaking, and an attempt to contain the leak fails. The gas escapes to the surroundings and is carried east by the wind. Motwani rushes to alert the people in the vicinity of the plant to vacate and head west, since the warning sirens were previously sabotaged. He meets Dilip, who ignores the warning and asks Motwani to leave the area without causing any hindrance to the wedding. Meanwhile, the guests experience irritation in the eyes and discomfort in breathing. Dilip senses the danger and visits the plant, realising that the plant had been compromised. He rushes back to his residence where he finds his family and relatives dying from acute exposure to the toxic gas. He carries away his son, paying farewell to his wife's corpse and flees the slum.
As the gas shows its effects, a nearby hospital is filled with hundreds of patients reporting cyanide poisoning, and the lack of antidote results in most of the patients' death. Dilip, on his deathbed, and using the last of his strength, rips off his Union Carbide identity badge and after flinging it away, rests his dead son on the ground. He eventually accepts his fate to die in the highly toxic gas cloud and succumbs to the toxic gas, dying by his son's side. The story jumps to the present day, where a blind boy is holding Dilip's identity badge, and the film ends with Motwani narrating the words "Whatever may be the cause of the disaster, Carbide never left Bhopal". A photo montage depicts the aftermath of the disaster, and pictures of the characters and their real-life counterparts

The story follows a young rickshaw-puller in Bhopal who gets a menial job at a chemical plant, but in December of 1984 a chemical spill in India takes the lives of almost 15,000 people and injuring more than 100,000. The film follows how the industrial disaster in the city changes his life and those of others.

The Brylcreem Boys

In World War II all Allied and Axis service personnel that end up in Ireland are to be interned for the duration of the conflict. Two pilots, Canadian Billy Campbell and Angus Macfadyen of the Luftwaffe, both fall in love with local Irish girl, Jean Butler. The relationship is further complicated by Gabriel Byrne, who plays the unceasingly vigilant internment camp commander.

In 1941, as part of an effort to remain strictly neutral, the Dublin government made a deal with both Berlin and London whereby any soldier, sailor or pilot captured on Irish soil, whether ...

The Passion of Joan of Arc

After having led numerous military battles against the English during the Hundred Years' War, Joan of Arc is captured near Compiegne and eventually brought to Rouen, Normandy to stand trial for heresy by French clergymen loyal to the English.
On 30 May 1431, Joan is interrogated by the French clerical court. Her judges try to make her say something that will discredit her claim or shake her belief that she has been given a mission by God to drive the English from France, but she remains steadfast. One or two of them, believing that she is indeed a saint, support her. The authorities then resort to deception. A priest reads a false letter to the illiterate prisoner supposedly from King Charles VII of France, telling her to trust in the bearer. When that too fails, Joan is taken to view the torture chamber, but the sight, though it causes her to faint, does not intimidate her.
When she is threatened with burning at the stake, she finally breaks and allows a priest to guide her hand in signing a confession. However, the judge then condemns her to life imprisonment.
As the jailer shaves her head, she realises she has been unfaithful to God. She demands that the judges return and she recants her confession.
As more and more around her begin to recognise her true faith and calling she is permitted a final communion mass. She is then dressed in sack-cloth and taken to the place of execution. She helps the executioner tie her bonds. The crowds gather and the fire is lit. As the flames rise the women weep and a man cries out "you have burned a saint". The troops prepare for a riot. As the flames consume Joan the troops and crowd clash and people are killed. Joan is consumed by the flames but they protect her soul as it rises to heaven.

The sufferings of a martyr, Jeanne D'Arc (1412-1431). Jeanne appears in court where Cauchon questions her and d'Estivet spits on her. She predicts her rescue, is taken to her cell, and judges forge evidence against her. In her cell, priests interrogate her and judges deny her the Mass. Threatened first in a torture chamber and then offered communion if she will recant, she refuses. At a cemetery, in front of a crowd, a priest and supporters urge her to recant; she does, and Cauchon announces her sentence. In her cell, she explains her change of mind and receives communion. In the courtyard at Rouen castle, she burns at the stake; the soldiers turn on the protesting crowd.

The Black Tulip

The story begins with a historical event — the 1672 lynching of the Dutch Grand Pensionary (roughly equivalent to a modern Prime Minister) Johan de Witt and his brother Cornelis, by a wild mob of their own countrymen — considered by many as one of the most painful episodes in Dutch history, described by Dumas with a dramatic intensity.
The main plot line, involving fictional characters, takes place in the following eighteen months; only gradually does the reader understand its connection with the killing of the de Witt brothers.
The city of Haarlem, Netherlands, has set a prize of ƒ100,000 to the person who can grow a black tulip, sparking competition between the country's best gardeners to win the money, honour and fame. Only the city's oldest citizens remember the Tulip Mania thirty years prior, and the citizens throw themselves into the competition. The young and bourgeois Cornelius van Baerle has almost succeeded but is suddenly thrown into the Loevestein prison. There he meets the prison guard's beautiful daughter Rosa, who will be his comfort and help, and eventually become his rescuer.
The novel was originally published in three volumes in 1850 as La Tulipe Noire by Baudry (Paris).

In 1789, when the Revolution went on, a bandit named "Black Tulip" held the surroundings of village Roussillon in fear. The poor people respected him as Robin Hood, who declare himself a revolutioner but Count Guillaume de Saint Preux "plays" this benefactor. When he fought with Mouche, the policeman he was wounded ...

The First Gentleman

The film traces the reign of the Prince Regent following the Napoleonic wars, and the Prince's attempts to marry off his unruly daughter Charlotte to a number of acceptable nobles, but to no avail because she falls for Leopold, a poverty-stricken German prince. Charlotte's marriage to Leopold is a happy one until the birth of their child.

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Dream of Love

Adrienne, a Gypsy girl performing in a traveling carnival, is unable to find true love for herself until she makes the acquaintance of Prince Maurice. They fall in love, but must part when, for diplomatic reasons, the prince is called upon to make love to the rich wife of an influential duke. Adrienne later becomes a popular stage actress and again meets the prince. Coincidentally, she is appearing in a play which resembles the sad story of her earlier relationship with the prince. Maurice is struggling to win his throne from a usurping dictator. With Adrienne's help, he dodges an assassination attempt and becomes king.

A duke has deposed Prince Mauritz's father, so Mauritz spends his time in affairs with a countess, the duke's wife and a gypsy girl Adrienne. Years later she is a famous actress in a play resembling the sad story of their earlier relationship. He falls in love with her again. The jealous duchess and the duke arrange to have him shot by firing squad but revolutionaries save him and make him King.

The Prisoner of Corbal

The aristocrat Cleonie is the object of affection for both the Marquis of Corbal and Citizen-Deputy of the revolution, Varennes. The latter saves Cleonie from the guillotine by disguising her as his nephew and smuggling her out of France.

During the French Revolution a young woman is saved from the guillotine by an insurrectionist (Asther). Also called The Prisoner of Corbal.

The Private Life of Henry VIII


This movie tells the story of King Henry VIII and the last five of his six wives. Set almost entirely within the royal castle, it begins just before the death of his second wife (Anne Boleyn) and ends just after his sixth wedding (to Catherine or Katherine Parr).

FairyTale: A True Story

Early 20th-century Europe was a time and a place rife with conflicting forces, from the battlefields of World War I to the peaceful countryside of rural England. Scientific advances such as electric light and photography appeared magical to some; spiritualism was championed by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle while his friend Harry Houdini decried false mediums who prey upon grieving families. J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan charmed theatergoers of all ages. Young Frances Griffiths, whose father is missing in action, arrives by train to stay with her cousin Elsie Wright in rural Yorkshire.
Polly Wright, Elsie's mother, is deep in mourning for her son Joseph, a gifted artist who died at the age of ten, and she keeps Joseph's room and art works intact. Elsie is not allowed to wear colours or to play with his toys, but she has taken the unfinished fairy-house he built up to her garret bedroom where her doting father, Arthur, regales her with fairy tales. He is a bit of a local wunderkind, responsible for the electrification of the local mill, where children as young as Elsie go to work. He is also an amateur photographer and chess player. When Frances arrives she and Elsie discover a shared fascination with fairies, whom they encounter down at the "beck", a nearby brook. They abscond with Arthur's camera one afternoon to take pictures of the fairies, hoping to give Polly something to believe in. When she comes home after attending a meeting of the Theosophical Society, where she hears stories of angels and all sorts of ethereal beings, she finds Arthur reviewing the prints in disbelief, but she thinks they are real. She takes them to Theosophist lecturer E.L. Gardner, who has them analysed by a professional and then brings them to the attention of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The photos are pronounced genuine, or at least devoid of trickery.
No one except Houdini believes that young children could be capable of photographic fraud, and Conan Doyle himself arrives at the girls' home with Houdini, Gardner and two new cameras. Arthur catches Houdini poking around and tells him point-blank that he doesn't believe that the fairies are real, but that no trickery took place in his darkroom either. Abetted by the buffoonish Gardner, Elsie and Frances soon come up with two more photos and Conan Doyle has the story published in The Strand Magazine, promising everyone's names will be changed. But a newsman soon identifies the beck near Cottingley, tracing the girls through the local school and besieging the family. Hundreds of people invade the village in automobiles and on foot, and the fairies flee the obstreperous mobs. By way of apology to the fairies, the girls finish Joseph's fairy-house and leave it in the forest as a gift.
The girls are invited to London by Conan Doyle, where they embrace their celebrity and see Houdini perform. In a quiet moment backstage Houdini asks Elsie if she wants to know how he does his tricks, and she wisely declines. And when a reporter asks, he declaims, "Masters of illusion never reveal their secrets!" Back in Yorkshire, while the girls and Polly are away, Arthur has a chess match with a local champion reputed to be mute, and the newsman breaks into their house. He discovers a cache of paper dolls in the form of fairies in a portfolio in Joseph's room, but he is frightened away by the apparition of a young boy, leaving the evidence behind. Arthur wins his match, wringing a shout from his opponent, and another myth is debunked. After the children return home, the fairies reappear, and finally, Frances' father comes home as well.

Based on factual accounts, this is the story of two young girls that, somehow, have the ability to take pictures of winged beings... which certainly causes quite a stir throughout England during the time of the first World War. Everyone, except the girls who think it's quite normal, are excited about this "photographic proof" that fairies exist... even the great Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini pay the girls a visit.

The Scarlet Empress

Sophia Frederica (Dietrich) is the daughter of a minor German prince and an ambitious mother. She is brought to Russia by Count Alexei (Lodge) at the behest of Empress Elizabeth (Dresser) to marry her nephew, Grand Duke Peter (played as a half-wit by Jaffe in his film debut). The overbearing Elizabeth renames her Catherine and reinforces the demand the new bride issue an heir to the throne.
Unhappy in her marriage, Catherine finds solace with the womanizing Alexei, first and foremost a paramour of the much-older Elizabeth. Rebuffed at this discovery, she takes lovers among the Russian Army to court its favor. When the old Empress dies seventeen years into their marriage, Peter ascends to the Russian throne and takes steps against his wife. Soon Catherine plots and exercises a coup, beginning a reign as Empress that will leave her known to history as Catherine the Great.

Young Princess Sophia of Germany is taken to Russia to marry the half-wit Grand Duke Peter, son of the Empress. The domineering Empress hopes to improve the royal blood line. Sophia doesn't like her husband, but she likes Russia, and is very fond of Russian soldiers. She dutifully produces a son -- of questionable fatherhood, but no one seems to mind that. After the old empress dies, Sophia engineers a coup d'etat with the aid of the military, does away with Peter, and becomes Catherine the Great.

That Hamilton Woman

The story begins with an ageing, alcoholic woman (Vivien Leigh) being clapped into debtors' prison in the slums of Calais. In a husky, despairing, whiskey-soaked voice, the former Lady Hamilton narrates the story of her life to her skeptical fellow inmates. In one of the early scenes that launches the flashback, Emma, well past her prime, looks into a mirror and remembers "the face I knew before," the face of the young, lovely girl who captured the imagination of artists - most notably George Romney and Joshua Reynolds.
Emma Hart's early life as the mistress of the charming but unreliable Charles Francis Greville leads to her meeting with his wealthy uncle Sir William Hamilton (Alan Mowbray), the British ambassador to Naples.

Sir William Hamilton, a widower of mature years, is British ambassador to the Court of Naples. Emma who comes for a visit with her mother wouldn't cut the grade with London society but she gets along well with the Queen of Naples. Emma likes being Lady Hamilton and life goes smoothly until Lord Nelson pays a visit. Sir William decides at first to let his young wife have her fling and pretends not to know what is going on. But the real life lovers, whose first screen romance was in "Fire Over England" (1937) have an even more burning passion for each other in this film.

Captain from Castile

In the spring of 1518, near Jaén, Spain, Pedro de Vargas (Tyrone Power), a Castilian caballero, helps a runaway Aztec slave, Coatl (Jay Silverheels), escape his cruel master, Diego de Silva (John Sutton). De Silva is el supremo of the Santa Hermandad, charged with enforcing the Inquisition, and Pedro's rival for the affections of the beautiful Lady Luisa de Carvajal (Barbara Lawrence). Later, Pedro rescues barefoot barmaid Catana Pérez (Jean Peters) from de Silva's men. At the inn where Catana works, Pedro becomes acquainted with Juan García (Lee J. Cobb), an adventurer just returned from the New World to see his mother.
Suspecting Pedro of aiding Coatl, and aware that Pedro's influential father Don Francisco de Vargas (Antonio Moreno) opposes the abuses of the Santa Hermandad, de Silva imprisons Pedro and his family on the charge of heresy. Pedro's young sister dies under torture. Meanwhile, Juan becomes a prison guard to help his mother, also a prisoner. He kills her to spare her further torture. Juan frees Pedro's hands and gives him a sword.
When de Silva enters Pedro's cell, Pedro disarms him in a sword fight, then forces him to renounce God before stabbing him. The trio flee with Pedro's parents. Forced by their pursuers to split up, instead of going to Italy to be reunited with his family, Pedro is persuaded by Juan and Catana to journey to Cuba to seek his fortune.
The three sign up with Hernán Cortes (Cesar Romero) on his expedition to Mexico. Pedro confides in Father Bartolomé (Thomas Gomez), the spiritual adviser to the expedition, about what occurred in Spain. The priest had already received an order to arrest him, but tears it up and gives Pedro a penance in praying for the soul of de Silva, neither aware that de Silva survived.
The expedition lands at Villa Rica in Mexico. Cortez is greeted by emissaries of Emperor Montezuma, along with a bribe to leave Mexico. Against the opposition of one of his captains, Cortez persuades his men to join him in his plan for conquest and riches.
Catana seeks the aid of charlatan and doctor Botello (Alan Mowbray). Botello tries to dissuade her, but in the end gives her a ring, supposedly with the power to make Pedro fall in love with her, despite their vast difference in social status. When Pedro kisses her, she rejects him, believing he is under the ring's spell, but he convinces her otherwise and marries her that very night.
Cortez marches inland to Cempoala, where he receives a bribe of gems from another Aztec delegation. He places Pedro in charge of the detail guarding the gems in a teocalli. Pedro leaves his post, however, to calm down a drunk and menacing Juan. When he returns, the gems are gone. Cortez accuses Pedro of theft. When Pedro finds a hidden door into the teocalli, Cortez gives him 24 hours to redeem himself. Pedro tracks the thieves, the captains opposing Cortez, back to Villa Rica, where they have incited mutiny. With the aid of Corio (Marc Lawrence), a loyal crewman, he recovers the gems, although he is seriously wounded in the head by a crossbow bolt during their escape.
Cortez promotes Pedro to captain. Then, to remove the temptation of retreat, he orders their ships burned. They march on to Cholula, where they are met by another delegation, led by Montezuma's nephew, who threatens the expedition with annihilation unless they leave. When Cortez protests that he has no ships, the prince reveals that more have arrived. Cortez realizes that his rival, Cuban Governor Velázquez, has sent a force to usurp his command. Cortez takes half his men to attack Villa Rica, leaving Pedro in command of the rest.
Cortez returns victorious, bringing with him reinforcements and Diego de Silva, the King's emissary. De Silva is there to impose the Santa Hermandad on Mexico. Juan challenges de Silva to a duel, but is turned down. Father Bartolomé reminds Pedro of his vow, and Cortez holds him personally responsible for de Silva's safety. When de Silva is strangled that night, Pedro is sentenced to death for the murder. Just before the execution, Coatl confesses to Father Bartolomé that he killed de Silva. Before Pedro can be notified, Catana stabs him with a knife to spare him the degradation of being hanged. Fortunately, Pedro recovers. Cortez and his followers march on the Aztec island capital.

Spain, 1518: young caballero Pedro De Vargas offends his sadistic neighbor De Silva, who just happens to be an officer of the Inquisition. Forced to flee, Pedro, friend Juan Garcia, and adoring servant girl Catana join Cortez' first expedition to Mexico. Arriving in the rich new land, Cortez decides to switch from exploration to conquest...with only 500 men. Embroiled in continuous adventures and a romantic interlude, Pedro almost forgets he has a deadly enemy...

The Assassination of Trotsky

Exiled from the Soviet Union in 1929, Leon Trotsky travels from Turkey to France to Norway, before arriving in Mexico in January 1937. The film begins in Mexico City in 1940, during a May Day celebration. Trotsky has not escaped the attention of the Soviet ruler of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin, who sends out an assassin named Frank Jacson. The killer decides to infiltrate Trotsky's house by befriending one of the young communists in Trotsky's circle.

After having been forced to leave the Soviet Union 1929 Trotsky has ended up in Mexico 1940. He is still busy with politics, promoting socialism to the world. Stalin has sent out an assassin, Frank Jackson. Jackson befriends a young communist and gets an invitation to Trotsky's house.

The Black Rose


In the 13th century, Walter of Gurnie, a disinherited Saxon youth, is forced to flee England. With his friend, the master archer Tris, he falls in with the army of the fierce but avuncular General Bayan, and journeys all the way to China, where both men become involved in intrigues in the court of Kublai Khan.

Gallant Journey

When Father Dick Ball (Charles Kemper) in San Diego, California, recalls his childhood friend, John Joseph Montgomery (Glenn Ford), he recounts the story of the first American to ever fly a glider in 1883. As early as 1879, John told his girlfriend Regina Cleary (Janet Blair) about his dreams of flying, although his family was very much opposed to this idea and considered him a fool. Regina believed in him, and secretly supported his work, until the first test flight in 1883, which was successful. John named his flying machine, an "aeroplane".
John's prominent father, Zachary Montgomery, who had become Assistant Attorney General of the United States was keen on keeping his reputation intact. When he received news of his son's endeavors, he told him to stop his foolishness and continue his clergy studies instead.
Father Ball became interested in John's work and supported his research and experiments. Another priest, Father Kenton (Arthur Shields), turned out to be an aviation enthusiast, and helped John with his inventions, arranging a job for him at a Santa Clara workshop.
John continued his work for a few years, and built several model aircraft, preparing for a full-scale test flight. The only thing standing in his way is a medical condition making him dizzy and causing him to collapse. He is told by a doctor that he will never be able to fly safely suffering from this illness. John is disappointed, but his confidence is renewed when he encounters the parachute enthusiast and performer Dan Mahoney, who offers to pull the glider up in the air with his hot air balloon. The two fathers help John to complete a successful test flight with his new glider. Unfortunately his poor finances prevent him from pursuing his passion for flying any longer, even though many people show their interest in his work.
A series of misfortunes and unfortunate events serve as additional discouragement for John, when Dan crashes and dies during a test flight, and an earthquake destroys his glider. Still John manages to scrape together $25,000 by selling his valuable belongings. He marries Regina, but is later dragged into court by a man who claims to be the rightful owner of an object John sold to get his money. The lengthy trial consumes all of John's money, but the judge rules in his favor at the end.
John decides to give flying one more go and builds his own new glider design. He decides to fly it himself. In mid-air he gets a dizzy spell, loses control and crashes to the ground. He dies from his injuries a few hours later.

Director William A. Wellman adds another to his long line of salutes-to-aviation films in this bio of an aviation pioneer, John Montgomery (Glenn Ford.) In 1883 he built a practical glider despite the opposition of his friends, who thought he was crazy, and of his family, who were afraid that his dreams of flying would hurt his father's political ambitions. He pursues his education at Santa Clara University where the Jesuits lend a helping and understanding hand. An earthquake destroys what appears to be a working model for an airplane, but a gold-sorting machine Montgomery invented, and then neglected, promises to provide for his financial needs to keep working on his aircraft until he gets involved in costly lawsuits defending his invention.

Oedipus the King


This classic (Greek) tale tells how a noble youth accidentally marries his own mother, kills his own father (deliberately) and ends up paying a terrible price for invoking the wrath of the Gods.

When a Man Loves

Chevalier Fabien des Grieux, who has forsworn the world for the church, falls passionately in love with young Manon Lescaut when he encounters her en route to a convent with her brother André. The lustful Comte Guillot de Morfontaine offers André a tempting sum for Manon, and learning of their bargain, Fabien takes her to Paris, where they spend an idyllic week in a garret. André finds her, persuades her to leave Fabien, and tries to force her into an alliance with Morfontaine—then rescues Manon from the advances of a brutal Apache. Fabien, crushed to believe that Manon has become Morfontaine's mistress, is about to take his vows but is deterred by her love for him. King Louis sees Manon in Richelieu's drawing room and wins her. The rejected Morfontaine orders her arrest and deportation, but he is killed by Fabien, who joins Manon on a convict ship bound for America. After inciting the convicts to mutiny, he escapes with her in a small boat.

Fabien des Grieux, a divinity student, comes to the rescue of a beautiful girl, Manon Lescaut, when her brother tries to "sell" her to the lecherous Comte Guillot de Morfontaine. Fabien and Manon fall in love and he abandons his priestly ambitions. But de Morfontaine has no intention of giving up his desire to possess Manon. She again falls into his clutches. Fabien, borrowing on his father's wealth, transforms himself into a gentleman gambler and moves into court society. But there he discovers that Manon is endangered not only by the cruel de Morfontaine, but by the King of France himself.

The Mystery of Dante

The film investigates the life and philosophy of Dante Alighieri through a series of interviews with intellectuals, artists, masons and men of faith who guide the viewer in discovering a little-known side of the man considered the father of the Italian language. This includes analysis of the cardinal points of The Divine Comedy and references to the Western tradition of initiation, secret lodges, membership or not, which accompany the viewer in a different approach to the study of Dante Alighieri. The film's first ten minutes are presented in a found footage format, before seguing into a series of interviews interspersed with occasional animations.

Hitler: The Last Ten Days

The film opens with Hitler's 56th birthday, on 20 April 1945, and ends 10 days later with his suicide, on 30 April.

A dramatization based on eye witness accounts of Hitler's final days in an underground bunker, his military henchmen, and his stormy relationship with Eva Braun.

The Cardinal


Stephen Fermoyle has grown up in Boston at the turn of the twentieth century knowing that his destiny lies with the Catholic priesthood. Finally finishing his studies in Rome, he returns to America full of certitude and ambition to one day join the College of Cardinals. But his road to that office is a long one, paved with crises. In Boston, he must decide whether to save the life of his sister or her unborn child, conceived out of wedlock. In Austria, he confronts the question of whether to remain with the priesthood or abandon his oath so that he can be with the woman he loves. In Georgia, he contends with Rome's indifference in the face of racial bigotry. And in Austria, he finds himself personally involved in the church's dealings with the Third Reich.

Nicholas and Alexandra

Tsarevich Alexei is born in 1904 during the Russo-Japanese War. Tsar Nicholas is warned by the Prime Minister Count Witte and his cousin Grand Duke Nicholas that the war is futile and costing too many lives. They tell him the Russian people want representative government, health care, voting and workers' rights, but Nicholas wants to maintain the autocracy. Meanwhile, underground political parties led by Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky have formed.
Alexei is diagnosed with hemophilia. The Tsarina Alexandra, a German princess, is disliked by the Russian royal court. She befriends Rasputin, a Siberian peasant passing as a holy man, hoping he will heal Alexei.
Working under appalling conditions, the factory workers are encouraged by Father Georgy Gapon to take part in a peaceful procession to the Winter Palace to present a petition to the Tsar. However, hundreds of soldiers standing in front of the palace fire into the crowd. Nicholas hears of the Bloody Sunday massacre and is horrified.
In 1913 the family holidays at the Livadia Palace in the Crimea. Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin has preserved the Russian Empire. He presents Nicholas with police reports about Rasputin's dissolute behaviour, which is damaging the Tsar's reputation. Nicholas dismisses Rasputin from the court. Alexandra demands his return, as she believes only Rasputin can stop the bleeding attacks, but Nicholas stands firm in his decision.
The Tercentenary celebrations occur and a lavish Royal Tour across Imperial Russia ensues, but crowds are thin. Other national festivities and Church celebrations go ahead, but an event at the Kiev Opera House ends horribly when Prime Minister Stolypin is assassinated. Nicholas executes the killers and closes the Duma, allowing police to terrorise the peasants.
Alexei falls at the Spała Hunting Lodge, which leads to another bleeding attack. It is presumed he will die. The Tsarina writes to Rasputin, who responds with words of comfort. The Tsarevich recovers and Rasputin returns.
World War I begins a few weeks after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, part of Austria-Hungary. Nicholas orders a full mobilization of the Russian army on the German border and as a result Germany declares war, activating a series of alliances that enlarges the war. He decides to command the troops in 1915 and leaves for the front, taking over from the experienced Grand Duke Nicholas. Meanwhile Alexandra is left charge at home, and under Rasputin's influence, she makes poor decisions. The Tsarina is losing control and Rasputin's behavior has not changed. Nicholas is visited by his mother Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, who is critical of his incompetence. She scolds him about avoiding domestic issues and implores him to eliminate Rasputin and to send Alexandra to Livadia in the Crimea. Concerned about Rasputin's influence, Grand Duke Dmitri and Prince Felix Yusupov, invite Rasputin to a party and murder him in December, 1916.
Despite Rasputin's death, Alexandra continues her misrule. The army is ill supplied, and starving and freezing workers revolt in St. Petersburg in March 1917. Nicholas decides to return to Tsarskoye Selo too late and is forced to abdicate in his train at Mogilev.
The family with Dr. Botkin and attendants leave Tsarskoye Selo and are exiled by Kerensky to Tobolsk in Siberia in August 1917. They live guarded under less grand conditions. In October 1917, Russia falls to the Bolsheviks. The family is transferred to the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg. Under harsher conditions they are guarded by the cold-blooded Yakov Yurovsky. One of the guards attempts to steal Alexei's gold chain and Nagorny leaps to his defence. Nagorny is taken away and shot. In a near-final scene, the family are laughing as they read withheld letters from friends and relatives. In the early hours of 17 July 1918, the Bolsheviks awaken the Romanov family and Dr. Botkin telling them they must leave. They wait in the cellar. Yurovsky and his assistants enter the room and open fire.

The tragic story of Nicholas II, the last Czar of Russia, set against the backdrop of the Russian Revolution. It is an inside look into the private lives of Nicholas and his wife Alexandra, their daughters, their only son and the painful secret about their son and heir apparent which bound the Imperial Couple to the mystical Rasputin, and the eventual execution of the entire family.

The Loves of Joanna Godden

In Edwardian Britain, a young woman has three suitors who seek her hand in marriage.
When Joanna Godden's father died, he bequeathed her a farm on the Romney Marsh in Kent. Joanna is determined to run the farm herself. Her neighbour Arthur Alce (John McCallum), laughs at her ambitions, but loves her. Choosing a new shepherd, she allows physical attraction to a man to overcome her judgment as a farmer and her scheme for cross-breeding sheep is unsuccessful. Her wealth gone, she turns to Arthur Alce for help - but not love. That she accepts from Martin Trevor (Derek Bond), a visitor from the world beyond the Marsh. But on the eve of their marriage Martin dies.

On Romney Marsh at the turn of the century, a woman farmer has three suitors.

The Homesman

Mary Bee Cuddy (Hilary Swank) is a 31-year-old spinster from New York, a former teacher who journeyed to the Midwest for more opportunity. She is an active member of the small farming community of Loup in the Nebraska Territory, and has significant financial prospects and sizable land ownership. She seems strong and independent, but suffers from depression and isolation. She makes dinner for her neighbor Bob Giffen (Evan Jones), and sings to him, but when she proposes he turns her down saying she is "plain, and too bossy"; he then leaves to find a wife back east.
After a harsh winter, three women from the community begin to show signs of mental instability due to the hardships they have faced. Arabella Sours (Grace Gummer) has lost three children to diphtheria, Theoline Belknap (Miranda Otto) kills her own child after a poor harvest puts her family at risk of starvation, and Gro Svendsen (Sonja Richter), a Danish immigrant, is shown to be in an abusive relationship with her husband and suffers a breakdown after her mother dies. Reverend Dowd (John Lithgow) calls upon one of their husbands to escort the women eastward to a church in Hebron, Iowa that cares for the mentally ill. One of the men refuses to participate in the lottery to determine who will escort the women; Cuddy takes his place, and the lot falls on her.
While preparing for her journey, Cuddy encounters George Briggs (Tommy Lee Jones), a claim jumper, who is about to be lynched for stealing Bob Giffen's land while he is away. Briggs begs Cuddy for help. Scared to make the trip alone, she frees him, and in return demands his help escorting the women. He immediately casts doubt on the job and insists he be free to abandon her at any time. To persuade him, Cuddy tells him that she is mailing $300 to await his arrival in Iowa, but secretly keeps it with her.
Briggs's experience comes in handy when the group crosses paths with hostile natives, and he is able to bribe them by giving up one of their horses. Later, when Arabella is kidnapped by a freighter (Tim Blake Nelson), Briggs gives chase, and the two men have a violent scuffle before Arabella kills her kidnapper. Eventually the caravan comes across the grave of an eleven-year-old girl that has been desecrated by Indians, and Cuddy insists they stop and restore it. Briggs vows to push on, so Cuddy stays behind and agrees to catch up with him. After restoring the grave, Cuddy sets out on horseback. However, she loses her way, and after riding all night discovers that she has gone in a circle and her horse has led her back to the grave.
Finally catching up to Briggs after another night of riding, Cuddy, distraught over having to wander the desert, suggests they marry. Briggs, like all the previous men, rejects Cuddy saying he "aint no farmer", and is only along for the promised reward. Later that night, a naked Cuddy propositions him, and despite his initial protestations, the two have sex. Rising late the next morning, Briggs finds that Cuddy has hanged herself. Briggs chastises Sours, Belknapp, and Svendsen, blaming their illness for Cuddy's death as he buries her body. He discovers that she had kept the $300 with her the entire time, and so takes a horse and abandons the three women. However, the trio surprisingly follow him on foot, and Arabella almost drowns while chasing him across a river. Briggs saves her and decides to continue taking them to Iowa instead.
Briggs seeks food and shelter at an empty hotel belonging to Aloysius Duffy (James Spader), who informs him that they have no rooms available for the caravan as a group of 16 investors are expected shortly, and the women would sour the establishment. Briggs lashes out at Duffy, whose men pull out guns of their own, resulting in a brief stand-off. Briggs leaves, but returns that night alone on horseback. He sends away the young cook, instructing her not to look back, and sets the hotel on fire, and shoots Duffy in the foot. Briggs takes a roasted pig to feed himself and the women and exits the hotel, leaving all inside to be burned alive.
Briggs reaches Hebron, passing the women into the care of Altha Carter (Meryl Streep), the wife of the church's reverend. He informs her of Cuddy's death but does not disclose the true cause. Guilty about having rejected Mary Bee's proposal, he has a wooden slab engraved with her name and plans to mark her grave with it. He gives a pair of shoes to Tabitha Hutchinson (Hailee Steinfeld), a hard-working young maid at the hotel he is staying at, and then proposes to her, after advising her not to marry some young man going west, but to stay in town. She replies by telling him "maybe". He then boards the river ferry heading back west, and starts to sing a rowdy song with two musicians onboard. When asked to stop, he chastises the people at the pier for wanting to go to the western territories, calling the west a "goddamn devil". Briggs returns to singing, and as the ferry departs, one of the bargemen kicks Mary Bee's marker into the river.

Three women who have been driven mad by pioneer life are to be transported across the country by covered wagon by the pious, independent-minded Mary Bee Cuddy, who in turn employs low-life drifter George Briggs to assist her.

Rob Roy, the Highland Rogue

The film begins in the early 18th century with Rob Roy leading his McGregor clansmen against King George I's forces commanded by the Scottish Duke of Argyll. While determined to establish order in the Highlands, Argyll is sympathetic to "the bonny blue bonnets" whom he is fighting, even refusing to unleash German mercenaries against them. A final charge by royal dragoons scatters the clansmen but honour appears satisfied and Rob Roy returns to his village to wed his beloved Helen. The wedding celebrations are interrupted by fencibles – the private army of the Duke of Montrose who has been appointed as the King's Secretary of State for Scotland and who lacks Argyll's regard for the highlanders. All clans involved in the rising of 1715 are pardoned except for the McGregors.
Rob Roy is arrested and the Clan McGregor is deprived of the right to use its name. Rob Roy escapes, leaping a waterfall and subsequently leads McGregor opposition to the increasingly repressive regime imposed by Montrose through his agent Killearn. A fort is stormed by the clan and its garrison of English soldiers taken prisoner.
The Duke of Argyll goes to King George to plead the case for leniency for the Clan McGregor, who have been forced into rebellion. At a crucial point Rob Roy appears at the royal court, heralded by a piper. Rob Roy's self-evident qualities quickly convince the king to pardon him and his clan. After an exchange of compliments: "Rob Roy – you are a great rogue"; "and you sire are a great king", the McGregor returns to his people and his wife.

After the 1715 defeat of the clans, one of the highland leaders, Rob Roy MacGregor escapes, has lots of adventures, gets married, and eventually becomes enough of a nuisance to George I to be outlawed, and hunted by the English.

Half of a Yellow Sun

The novel takes place in Nigeria prior to and during the Nigerian Civil War (1967–70). The effect of the war is shown through the dynamic relationships of five people’s lives including twin daughters of an influential businessman, a professor, a British citizen, and a houseboy. After Biafra's declaration of secession, the lives of the main characters drastically changed and were torn apart by the brutality of the civil war and decisions in their personal lives.
The book jumps between events that took place during the early and late 1960s, when the war took place, and extends until the end of the war. In the early 1960s, the main characters are introduced: Ugwu, a 13-year-old village boy who moves in with Odenigbo, to work as his houseboy. Odenigbo frequently entertains intellectuals to discuss the political turmoil in Nigeria. Life changes for Ugwu when Odenigbo’s girlfriend, Olanna, moves in with them. Ugwu forms a strong bond with both of them, and is very loyal. Olanna has a twin sister, Kainene, a woman with a dry sense of humor, tired by the pompous company she runs for her father. Her lover Richard is an Englishman who has come to Nigeria to explore Igbo-Ukwu art.
Jumping four years ahead, trouble is brewing between the Hausa and the Igbo people and hundreds of people die in massacres, including Olanna's beloved auntie and uncle. A new republic, called Biafra, is created by the Igbo. As a result of the conflict, Olanna, Odenigbo, their infant daughter, whom they refer to only as "Baby", and Ugwu are forced to flee Nsukka, which is the university town and the major intellectual hub of the new nation. They finally end up in the refugee town of Umuahia, where they suffer as a result of food shortages and the constant air raids and paranoid atmosphere. There are also allusions to a conflict between Olanna and Kainene, Richard and Kainene and Olanna and Odenigbo.
When the novel jumps back to the early 1960s, we learn that Odenigbo slept with a village girl, who then had his baby. Olanna is furious at his betrayal, and sleeps with Richard in a moment of liberation. She goes back to Odenigbo and when they later learn that Amala refused to keep her newborn daughter, Olanna decides that they would keep her.
Back during the war Olanna, Odenigbo, Baby, and Ugwu were living with Kainene and Richard where Kainene was running a refugee camp. The situation is hopeless as they have no food or medicine. Kainene decides to trade across enemy lines, but does not return, even after the end of the war a few weeks later. The book ends ambiguously, with the reader not knowing if Kainene lives.

Sisters Olanna and Kainene return home to 1960s Nigeria, where they soon diverge on different paths. As civil war breaks out, political events loom larger than their differences as they join the fight to establish an independent republic.

The Madness of King George

The film depicts the ordeal of King George III whose bout of madness in 1788 touched off the Regency Crisis, triggering a power struggle between factions of parliament under the conservative William Pitt the Younger and the reform-minded Charles James Fox.
At first, the King's habits appear mildly eccentric, and are purposely ignored for reasons of state. The King is seen as being highly concerned with the wellbeing and productivity of England, and continually exhibits an encyclopedic knowledge of the families of even the most obscure royal appointments. In fact, the King is growing more unsettled, largely over the loss of America. George, his oldest son, aggravates the situation, knowing that he would be named regent in the event the King was found incapacitated. George chafes under his father's repeated criticism, but also hopes for regency to allow him greater freedom to marry his Catholic mistress. George also knows that he has the moral support of Charles Fox, who is eager to put across an agenda unlikely to pass under the current administration, including abolition of the slave trade and friendlier relations with America. Knowing that the King’s behavior is exacerbated in public, the Prince arranges for a concert playing the music of Handel. The King reacts as expected, interrupting the musicians, acting inappropriately towards Lady Pembroke, attendant to the Queen, and finally assaulting his son.
The King's madness is treated using the relatively primitive medical practices of the time, which include blistering and purges, led on particularly by the Prince of Wales' personal physician, Dr. Warren. Eventually, Lady Pembroke recommends Dr Willis, an ex-minister who attempts to cure the insane through new procedures, and who begins his restoration of the King's mental state by enforcing a strict regime of strapping the King into a waistcoat and restraining him whenever he shows signs of his insanity or otherwise resists recovery.
Meanwhile, the opposition led by Charles James Fox, confronts Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger's increasingly unpopular government with a bill that would give the Prince powers of regency. Meanwhile, Baron Thurlow, the Chancellor, discovers that the Prince was secretly and illegally married to his Catholic mistress. Thurlow pays the minister to keep his mouth shut, and himself tears out a record of the marriage from church rolls.
The King soon shows signs of recovery, becoming less eccentric and arrives in Parliament in time to thwart passage of the Regency bill. Restored, the King asserts control over his family, forcing the Prince to “put away” his mistress. With the crisis averted, those who had been closest to the king are summarily dismissed from service, including Dr Willis. During conversations with Pitt, the King appears more at ease and in control of himself. He is less antagonized by America, but also shows signs that his insanity remains.

A meditation on power and the metaphor of the body of state, based on the real episode of dementia experienced by George III [now suspected a victim of porphyria, a blood disorder]. As he loses his senses, he becomes both more alive and more politically marginalized; neither effect desirable to his lieutenants, who jimmy the rules to avoid a challenge to regal authority, raising the question of who is really in charge.

The Scarlet Coat

In 1780 General Benedict Arnold commands the Continental Army defences at West Point, New York. Major John Bolton (Cornel Wilde), a dragoon officer assigned to counter-intelligence, intercepts and kills a British spy leaving the Storm King Tavern, and captures a letter found on his body. He reports to Gen. Robert Howe (John McIntire), that the coded message was from the British spy calling himself "Gustavus" to "James Osborn", in care of Dr. Jonathan Odell of New York, stating that Arnold has taken command at West Point. The secret knowledge indicates that the spy is a "highly placed person". Bolton returns to the tavern, where one of his contacts, stable boy Ben Potter (Bobby Driscoll), tells him that the Tory wife of a redcoat, Mrs. Sally Cameron (Anne Francis), is traveling under a flag of truce possibly carrying information to the enemy. She catches them searching her room, where Bolton takes her safe conduct pass after verbally sparring with her. Mrs. Cameron tries to seduce Bolton to obtain its return, but he rebuffs her. A messenger arrives with a package for "Mr. Moody", but when no one by that name can be found, another traveler, Col. Winfield, offers to deliver the package. Bolton recognizes that Winfield is an imposter, and in a struggle over the package, kills him. Other American officers arrest Bolton for murder and deliver him to Howe.
A pass through the lines found hidden in Winfield's boot reveals that the impostor was actually Moody, a spy, who had another coded letter from "Gustavus" to "Osborn" in his possession. The package, a ream of blank paper, concealed a message from "Osborn" written in invisible ink requesting an urgent meeting to finalize an unknown arrangement. Howe proposes that Bolton feign desertion to the British. Bolton agrees, aware that he could be hanged if the British discover his mission. With Moody's pass, Bolton passes through the British lines, but the British lieutenant on duty recognizes that he is not the same man who previously used the pass and follows him. In New York, Bolton calls upon Dr. Odell (George Sanders), trying to deliver the letter. The lieutenant bursts in to arrest Bolton, but when he addresses him as "Mr. Moody", Odell takes Bolton and the letter to British Army Major John André (Michael Wilding) for deciphering, using a pair of spectacles to isolate key words. Bolton claims that he was Moody's source of information. He offers to continue working for the British. Odell bluntly tells Bolton that he thinks his story is too neat and believes him to be a Rebel spy. But André takes an immediate liking to Bolton. He invites him to a dinner party that evening, where Bolton suffers an anxious moment when Sally Cameron (unmarried and André's mistress) is present. Bolton's explanation corroborates information about the murder that André had checked, and Sally provides the perfect eyewitness.
Bolton is sent with two Tory agents to sabotage the chain barrier across the Hudson River before a British attack on the American position at Verplanck, so that British warships can pass. André gives one a letter to deliver afterwards at the Storm King Tavern. Bolton drowns one agent, but when he tries to arrest the other, is confronted by an armed Ben Potter, who still thinks that Bolton is a murderer and deserter. The agent disarms Ben and nearly kills Bolton. Ben finds his gun and shoots the agent. At a secret meeting with Howe, Bolton uses spectacles to decipher the letter, which points to Gustavus as someone at West Point with authority. Bolton volunteers to return to New York to identify the mysterious "James Osborn". Odell more than ever believes Bolton is a spy, but Bolton convinces André that the British agents completed their mission.
To trap him, Odell writes a false dispatch from "Mr. Osborn" for Bolton to steal. At another dinner, Bolton notices that Sally Cameron only pretends to toast the King. She has also fallen in love with him and warns Bolton about Odell's trap. The British attack on Verplanck is crushed and results in Bolton's arrest as a Rebel spy. He is saved from hanging by André, who intervenes for him after Sally confesses her feelings for Bolton and begs him to vouch on Bolton's behalf. He does so, despite her refusal of his marriage proposal. Putting duty before personal considerations, André asks Bolton to accompany him to a meeting between "Gustavus" and "Osborn" aboard the sloop Vulture. André assures Bolton that "Gustavus" and "Osborn" have conjured a quick end to the war. The wily "Gustavus" changes the meeting at the last moment to the house of a Tory sympathizer and orders André to come alone. Bolton persuades André to go in uniform, and not in civilian clothing, lest he be captured as a spy. Soon after, Odell detects Bolton warning American shore batteries of the British presence, but Bolton escapes by swimming ashore to the American garrison. The American commander, Col. Jameson (James Westerfield), is skeptical of Bolton's loyalties and stubbornly holds him until Howe can vouch for him. "Gustavus" escapes. "Osborn" is captured and Bolton realizes that Benedict Arnold is "Gustavus". To his horror, Bolton learns that "Osborn" is André, and worse, that he changed into civilian clothes trying to escape.
At André's court-martial, Bolton testifies that André entered the lines in uniform and changed into civilian clothing only at Arnold's treacherous orders. The court reluctantly sentences André to be executed as a spy. André pledges his continuing friendship with Bolton and asks him to protect Sally from any retribution. Bolton brokers a last-minute deal to exchange André for Arnold, but André considers the suggestion a taint on his honor and declines.

In 1780 Major John Boulton is recruited by Colonial intelligence as a counterspy who will feign desertion to the British forces. His mission is to discover the identity of an American traitor with the code name Gustavus. Although prominent Tory Dr. Odell suspects Boulton of being a double agent, the spy wins the friendship and respect of British spymaster Major John Andre and, in doing so, discovers that the traitor is none other than American hero, General Benedict Arnold, who is planning to surrender the key colonial position of West Point to the English.

Hyde Park on Hudson

In spring 1939, Sara Delano, the mother of Franklin D. Roosevelt, asks his sixth cousin Margaret "Daisy" Suckley to visit the ill President of the United States at their country estate in Hyde Park, New York. Although Daisy and Roosevelt had not seen each other for years, the distant relatives form a romantic relationship, and Roosevelt often asks Daisy to visit Hyde Park when he stays with his mother. Daisy becomes one of the several women close to Roosevelt, including Sara; Missy LeHand, the president's secretary; and Eleanor, the president's wife. Despite his power, the president is often unable to control the other women; the quiet, shy Daisy is his confidante, and he tells her that Top Cottage will be their shared refuge after his presidency.
In June 1939, King George VI and his wife, Queen Elizabeth, visit the United States, during which they stay with the Roosevelts at Hyde Park. The British hope that the visit will improve the chances of American support during the future war with Germany. George—who is king because his brother Edward VIII abdicated—is nervous, because of the importance of the visit, because he stutters, and because of having to eat a hot dog for the first time at a picnic in his honor. Roosevelt reassures George by citing his own inability to walk, and observes that others do not see their handicaps because "it's not what they want to see". The president tells the king that he hopes to overcome Americans' reluctance to help Britain.
The night the king and queen arrive, Daisy discovers LeHand is having an affair with Roosevelt. LeHand tells a shocked Daisy that their respective relationships with the president are not his only ones, mentioning Dorothy Schiff and Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd, and that Daisy must accept sharing Roosevelt with other women. At the picnic the next day the king successfully eats a hot dog for a photo op, and Daisy, in a voiceover, states that the visit helped the two countries form a Special Relationship. Daisy rejects Roosevelt's requests to see her until he calls on her in person; they reconcile, and Daisy accepts her role as one of the president's mistresses. As years pass, Daisy watches Roosevelt become frail as a wartime leader; nonetheless everyone, she says, "still [looked] to him, still seeing whatever it was they wanted to see".

In 1930s Hudson Valley, Margaret "Daisy" Suckley is reacquainted with her distant cousin, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, to help him relax at his family estate. That aid soon develops into much more as they become lovers. That puts Daisy in a unique position as Roosevelt receives the King and Queen of Britain in 1939 for a visit. As the Royal couple copes with the President's oddly plebeian arrangements, Daisy learns that there is far more to Roosevelt's life than she realized. With the world about to be set ablaze by war, friendships are struck and perspectives are gained on that special weekend that would make all the difference with a great, but very human, president.

Murder in the Cathedral

The action occurs between 2 and 29 December 1170, chronicling the days leading up to the martyrdom of Thomas Becket following his absence of seven years in France. Becket's internal struggle is the main focus of the play.
The book is divided into two parts. Part one takes place in the Archbishop Thomas Becket's hall on 2 December 1170. The play begins with a Chorus singing, foreshadowing the coming violence. The Chorus is a key part of the drama, with its voice changing and developing during the play, offering comments about the action and providing a link between the audience and the characters and action, as in Greek drama. Three priests are present, and they reflect on the absence of Becket and the rise of temporal power. A herald announces Becket’s arrival. Becket is immediately reflective about his coming martyrdom, which he embraces, and which is understood to be a sign of his own selfishness—his fatal weakness. The tempters arrive, three of whom parallel the Temptations of Christ.
The first tempter offers the prospect of physical safety.
Take a friend's advice. Leave well alone,
Or your goose may be cooked and eaten to the bone.
The second offers power, riches and fame in serving the King.
To set down the great, protect the poor,
Beneath the throne of God can man do more?
The third tempter suggests a coalition with the barons and a chance to resist the King.
For us, Church favour would be an advantage,
Blessing of Pope powerful protection
In the fight for liberty. You, my Lord,
In being with us, would fight a good stroke
Finally, a fourth tempter urges him to seek the glory of martyrdom.
You hold the keys of heaven and hell.
Power to bind and loose: bind, Thomas, bind,
King and bishop under your heel.
King, emperor, bishop, baron, king:
Becket responds to all of the tempters and specifically addresses the immoral suggestions of the fourth tempter at the end of the first act:
Now is my way clear, now is the meaning plain:
Temptation shall not come in this kind again.
The last temptation is the greatest treason:
To do the right deed for the wrong reason.
The Interlude of the play is a sermon given by Becket on Christmas morning 1170. It is about the strange contradiction that Christmas is a day both of mourning and rejoicing, which Christians also do for martyrs. He announces at the end of his sermon, "it is possible that in a short time you may have yet another martyr". We see in the sermon something of Becket's ultimate peace of mind, as he elects not to seek sainthood, but to accept his death as inevitable and part of a better whole.
Part II of the play takes place in the Archbishop's Hall and in the Cathedral, 29 December 1170. Four knights arrive with "Urgent business" from the king. These knights had heard the king speak of his frustration with Becket, and had interpreted this as an order to kill Becket. They accuse him of betrayal, and he claims to be loyal. He tells them to accuse him in public, and they make to attack him, but priests intervene. The priests insist that he leave and protect himself, but he refuses. The knights leave and Becket again says he is ready to die. The chorus sings that they knew this conflict was coming, that it had long been in the fabric of their lives, both temporal and spiritual. The chorus again reflects on the coming devastation. Thomas is taken to the Cathedral, where the knights break in and kill him. The chorus laments: “Clean the air! Clean the sky!", and "The land is foul, the water is foul, our beasts and ourselves defiled with blood." At the close of the play, the knights step up, address the audience, and defend their actions. The murder was all right and for the best: it was in the right spirit, sober, and justified so that the church's power would not undermine stability and state power.

The tape version, if one exists, may be 114 minutes but the film, on original release, ran the same 140 minutes in the USA as it did in England. It is an experimental transposition of the ...

X-Men: First Class

In 1944, in a Nazi death camp, Nazi scientist Klaus Schmidt witnesses a young Erik Lehnsherr bend a metal gate with his mind when he is separated from his mother. In his office, Schmidt orders Lehnsherr to move a coin on his desk, and kills the boy's mother when Lehnsherr cannot. In grief and anger, Lehnsherr's magnetic power manifests, killing two guards and destroying the room. Meanwhile, at a mansion in Westchester County, New York, child telepath Charles Xavier meets young shapeshifter Raven, whose natural form is blue-skinned and scaly. Overjoyed to meet someone "different", like himself, he invites her to live with his family as his foster sister.
In 1962, Lehnsherr is tracking down Schmidt, while Xavier graduates from the University of Oxford. In Las Vegas, CIA officer Moira MacTaggert follows U.S. Army Colonel Hendry into the Hellfire Club, where she sees Schmidt (now known as Sebastian Shaw), with mutant telepath Emma Frost, cyclone-producing Riptide, and teleporter Azazel. Threatened by Shaw and teleported by Azazel to the Joint War Room, Hendry advocates deployment of nuclear missiles in Turkey. Shaw, an energy-absorbing mutant whose powers have de-aged him, later kills Hendry.
MacTaggert, seeking Xavier's advice on mutation, takes him and Raven to the CIA, where they convince Director McCone that mutants exist and Shaw is a threat. Another CIA officer sponsors the mutants and invites them to the secret "Division X" facility. MacTaggert and Xavier find Shaw as Lehnsherr is attacking him, and rescue Lehnsherr from drowning, while Shaw escapes. Xavier brings Lehnsherr to Division X, where they meet young scientist Hank McCoy, a mutant with prehensile feet, who believes Raven's DNA may provide a "cure" for their appearance. Xavier uses McCoy's mutant-locating device Cerebro to seek recruits against Shaw. Xavier and Lehnsherr recruit stripper Angel Salvadore, cabbie Armando Muñoz, Army prisoner Alex Summers, and runaway Sean Cassidy. They all create nicknames, and Raven dubs herself "Mystique".
When Frost meets with a Soviet general in the USSR, and uses her telepathic powers to pretend to have sex with him, Xavier and Lehnsherr capture Frost and discover that Shaw intends to start World War III and trigger mutant ascendency. Azazel, Riptide and Shaw attack Division X, killing everyone but the mutants, whom Shaw invites to join him. Salvadore accepts; when Summers and Muñoz retaliate, Shaw kills Muñoz. In Moscow, Shaw compels the general to have the USSR install missiles in Cuba. Wearing a helmet that blocks telepathy, Shaw follows the Soviet fleet in a submarine to ensure the missiles break a US blockade.
Raven, thinking McCoy is attracted to her in her natural form, tells him not to use the cure. When she later attempts to seduce Lehnsherr by taking the forms of various women, Lehnsherr tells her she is beautiful as she is, in her natural mutant form. McCoy uses the cure on himself but it backfires, giving him blue fur and leonine aspects. With McCoy piloting, the mutants and MacTaggert take a jet to the blockade line, where Xavier uses his telepathy to influence a Soviet sailor to destroy the ship carrying the missiles, and Lehnsherr uses his magnetic power to lift Shaw's submarine from the water and deposit it on land. During the ensuing battle, Lehnsherr seizes Shaw's helmet, allowing Xavier to immobilize Shaw. Lehnsherr tells Shaw he shares Shaw's exclusivist view of mutants but, to avenge his mother, kills Shaw—over Xavier's objections—by forcing the Nazi coin from his childhood through Shaw's brain.
Fearing the mutants, both fleets fire missiles at them, which Lehnsherr turns back in mid-flight. MacTaggert tries to stop Lehnsherr by shooting him but he deflects the bullets, one of which hits Xavier in the spine. Lehnsherr rushes to help Xavier and, distracted, allows the missiles to fall harmlessly into the ocean. Parting with Xavier over their differing views on the relationship between mutants and humans, Lehnsherr leaves with Salvadore, Azazel, Riptide and Mystique. Later, a wheelchair-bound Xavier and his mutants are at the mansion, where he intends to open a school. MacTaggert promises never to reveal his location and they kiss; later at a CIA debriefing, she says she has no memory of recent events. Elsewhere Lehnsherr, now calling himself "Magneto", frees Frost from confinement.

Before Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr took the names Professor X and Magneto, they were two young men discovering their powers for the first time. Before they were archenemies, they were closest of friends, working together, with other Mutants (some familiar, some new), to stop the greatest threat the world has ever known. In the process, a rift between them opened, which began the eternal war between Magneto's Brotherhood and Professor X's X-MEN.

Stanley and Livingstone

Henry Stanley is a fearless newspaper reporter ready to do whatever it takes to get a story, regardless of any danger to his life. Colonel Grimes tells two peace commissioners sent from Washington DC that he cannot permit them to try to contact the Indians of the Wyoming Territory of 1870, as it would be suicidal, only to have Stanley emerge from the wilderness, escorted by a band of the natives and his guide, Jeff Slocum (Walter Brennan).
When Stanley returns to New York City, his employer, New York Herald publisher James Gordon Bennett, Jr., gives him another near-impossible assignment. The London Globe has announced that an expedition headed by Gareth Tyce (Richard Greene), the son of the Globe's publisher, Lord Tyce (Charles Coburn), has verified that world-renowned missionary David Livingstone is dead. Bennett does not believe it, and would relish embarrassing his rival by proving the story wrong. It is a daunting task, searching the mostly unmapped interior of the "dark continent" for one man, but Stanley accepts the challenge.
On the boat trip to Zanzibar, Stanley makes a very unfavorable impression on fellow passenger Lord Tyce. Stanley meets Eve Kingsley (Nancy Kelly) and her father, John Kingsley (Henry Travers), the temporary head of the British authorities in Zanzibar. Eve has been seeing Gareth Tyce, recovering from his ordeal, in the hope of getting him to persuade his father to use his influence to have her father reassigned to a more healthy posting back in England. Eve warns Stanley about the dangers of Africa, but he is undeterred.
He, Slocum and a band of native bearers set out into uncharted territory. Months pass with no sign of hope, and Stanley's resolve begins to waver. He also realizes he is in love with Eve. Finally, however, two hunters tell him of a white man they call "doctor" in a village beside Lake Tanganyika. Though feverish, Stanley gets them to guide him there. He sees a white man waiting to greet him. "Dr. Livingstone ... I presume", Stanley hesitantly inquires. It is indeed he.
For several months, Stanley recuperates and follows Livingstone (Cedric Hardwicke) around on his work. The cynical reporter is greatly changed by the experience. Finally, though, he returns to England, bearing Livingstone's plea for assistance. Upon his arrival in London, he is met by Eve, only to discover she is now happily married to Gareth.
When Lord Tyce openly suggests that Stanley fabricated everything, Stanley presents Livingstone's maps and documents to the British Geographical Society for examination and judgment. Despite his heartfelt speech, it is clear to Stanley that too few of the members believe him. As he is leaving the hall, a messenger arrives with news that another expedition has recovered Livingstone's body, as well as the man's last written message, in which he talks glowingly of Stanley. Vindicated, Stanley decides to return to Africa to carry on the great man's work.

When American newspaperman and adventurer Henry M. Stanley comes back from the western Indian wars, his editor James Gordon Bennett sends him to Africa to find Dr. David Livingstone, the missing Scottish missionary. Stanley finds Livingstone ("Dr. Livingstone, I presume.") blissfully doling out medicine and religion to the happy natives. His story is at first disbelieved. When Livingstone later dies, Stanley returns to continue the good doctor's work (which, of course, never really happened).

Man to Men

The film depicts Henri Dunant and the founding of the Red Cross.

The story of the Swiss soldier, Henri Dunant (Jean-Louis Barrault), who was responsible for the founding of the Red Cross, and who was offered the first Nobel Peace Prize.

Dear Caroline

France, July 1782. During her birthday, the beautiful young Marchioness Caroline meets the attractive soldier Gaston. It's love at first sight but Gaston does not wish to make a commitment because a military career waits for him. Caroline marries then a politician but the French Revolution bursts and Caroline has to run away to escape the guillotine. By running away she meets Gaston again who decides to help her.

14th July 1782. While the wedding of her older unprepossessing sister Louise to a wealthy aristocrat is being celebrated, sixteen-year old beauty Caroline falls in love with an attractive young libertine. But Gaston won't hear of marriage and out of spite she weds Georges Berthier, a politician. Two years later she meets Gaston again and once again it is love at first sight. But her husband being declared an outlaw Caroline must go into hiding.Gaston gives her a helping hand but someone gives her away and she gets arrested. Miraculously saved she must hide again and tries to flee to England. But it is now the Chouans who arrest her...

Janice Meredith

Following a disappointment in love, Lord Brereton assumes the name of Charles Fownes, arranges passage to the American Colonies as a bondservant, and finds a place with Squire Meredith, a wealthy New Jersey landowner. When Charles falls in love with the squire's daughter, Janice, she is sent to live with an aunt in Boston. Janice learns of the planned British troop movement to the Lexington arsenal and gives the warning that results in Paul Revere's ride. Charles reveals his true station and becomes an aide to Washington. When he is captured by the British, Janice arranges his escape and later helps him learn the disposition of the British troops at Trenton. Janice returns to her home and agrees to marry Philemon Hennion, an aristocrat of her father's choosing. Charles and some Continental troops halt the wedding and confiscate the Meredith lands. Janice flees to Philadelphia, and Charles follows her. He is arrested but is freed when the British general, Howe, recognizes Charles as his old friend, Lord Brereton. Janice and her father retire with the British to Yorktown. During the bombardment by Washington's forces, Lord Clowes binds Janice and abducts her in his coach. Charles rescues her. With peace restored, Janice and Charles meet at Mount Vernon, where they are to be married in the presence of President Washington.

It is 1774, the eve of the American War of Independence. Janice comes from a Tory household. She cavorts with American and British alike, is pursued by Charles Fownes, patriot and friend of...

Saving Mr. Banks

In 1961, the financially strapped author Pamela "P. L." Travers reluctantly travels from her home in London to Los Angeles to work with Walt Disney at the urging of her agent, Diarmuid Russell. Disney has pursued the film rights to her Mary Poppins stories for twenty years, having promised his daughters that he would produce a film based on them. Travers has steadfastly resisted Disney's efforts because she fears what he would do to her character. However, she has not written anything in a while and her book royalties have dwindled to nothing, so she risks losing her house. Still, Russell has to remind her that Disney has agreed to two major stipulations—no animation and unprecedented script approval—before she agrees to go.
Travers' difficult childhood in Allora, Queensland, Australia, is depicted through flashbacks, and is the inspiration for much of Mary Poppins. Travers idolized her loving, imaginative father, Travers Robert Goff, but his chronic alcoholism resulted in his repeated firings, strained her parents' marriage, and caused her distressed mother to attempt suicide. Goff died at an early age from tuberculosis when Travers was seven years old.
In Los Angeles, Travers is irritated by what she perceives as the city's unreality and the inhabitants' intrusive friendliness, personified by her limousine driver, Ralph. At the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, Travers meets the creative team that are developing Mary Poppins for the screen: screenwriter Don DaGradi, and music composers Richard and Robert Sherman. She finds their presumptions and casual manners highly improper, a view she also holds of the jocular Disney.
Travers' working relationship with Disney and his team is difficult from the outset, with her insistence that Mary Poppins is the enemy of sentiment and whimsy. Disney and his people are puzzled by Travers' disdain for fantasy, given the nature of the Mary Poppins story, as well as Travers' own rich imagination. She particularly objects to how the character George Banks, the estranged father of the children in Mary Poppins' charge, is depicted, insisting that he is neither cold nor cruel. Gradually, they grasp how deeply personal the Mary Poppins stories are to her and how many of the characters were inspired by her past.
The team realize Travers has valid criticisms and make changes, though she becomes increasingly disengaged as painful childhood memories resurface. Seeking to understand what troubles her, Disney invites Travers to Disneyland, which, along with her developing friendship with Ralph, the creative team's revisions to the George Banks character, and the addition of a new song and a different ending, help dissolve Travers' opposition. Her creativity reawakens, and she begins working with the team; however, when Travers discovers that there is to be an animation sequence, she confronts Disney over his broken promise and returns home.
Disney learns that Travers is actually her pen name, taken from her father's given name. Her real name is Helen Goff, and she's actually Australian, not British. This gives Disney new insight into Travers, and he follows her to London. Arriving unexpectedly at her door, Disney tells her that he also had a less-than-ideal childhood, but stresses the healing value of his art. He urges Travers to not let deeply-rooted past disappointments dictate the present. Travers relents and grants Disney the film rights.
Three years later, in 1964, Mary Poppins is to have its world premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. Disney has not invited Travers, fearing how she might react with the press watching. Prompted by Russell, Travers shows up unannounced at Disney's office; he reluctantly issues her an invitation. Initially, she watches Mary Poppins with a lack of enthusiasm, particularly during the animated sequences. She gradually warms to the rest of the film, however, becoming deeply moved by the depiction of George Banks' personal crisis and redemption.

When Walt Disney's daughters begged him to make a movie of their favorite book, P.L. Travers' Mary Poppins (1964), he made them a promise - one that he didn't realize would take 20 years to keep. In his quest to obtain the rights, Walt comes up against a curmudgeonly, uncompromising writer who has absolutely no intention of letting her beloved magical nanny get mauled by the Hollywood machine. But, as the books stop selling and money grows short, Travers reluctantly agrees to go to Los Angeles to hear Disney's plans for the adaptation. For those two short weeks in 1961, Walt Disney pulls out all the stops. Armed with imaginative storyboards and chirpy songs from the talented Sherman brothers, Walt launches an all-out onslaught on P.L. Travers, but the prickly author doesn't budge. He soon begins to watch helplessly as Travers becomes increasingly immovable and the rights begin to move further away from his grasp. It is only when he reaches into his own childhood that Walt discovers the truth about the ghosts that haunt her, and together they set Mary Poppins free to ultimately make one of the most endearing films in cinematic history.

Flame in the Heather

During the Jacobite Rebellion, an English spy infiltrates the Clan Cameron, but falls in love with the chief's daughter.

Clifton is an English spy in Scotland during the Jacobite Rebellion. He is taken in by the Cameron Clan, and falls in love with the master's daughter. And he saves her life, they return to England.

The Trojan Women


Hecuba and the other women of Troy rise to find their city in ruins and their cause lost. The city has fallen into Greek hands and it is likely their lot to become slaves of Greek soldiers. A messenger approaches to inform them that the lots have been drawn and each woman will be taken to the man who drew for her. Of particular interest is Hecuba's daughter, Cassandra, who is chosen for the Greek kings bedchamber. She has received word of this news already and is in hiding because she has sworn an oath to the gods that she will live as a virgin. When she is found she has some particularly nasty things to say about treatment at Greek hands.

Viva Zapata!

Emiliano Zapata (Marlon Brando) is part of a delegation sent to complain about injustices to corrupt longtime President Porfirio Díaz (Fay Roope), but Díaz dismisses their concerns, and tries to bribe their leader, offering him some land which Zapata rejects. As a result, Zapata is driven to open rebellion, along with his brother Eufemio (Anthony Quinn). He in the south and Pancho Villa (Alan Reed) in the north unite under the leadership of naive reformer Francisco Madero (Harold Gordon).
Díaz is finally toppled and Madero takes his place, but Zapata is dismayed to find that nothing is changed. The new regime is no less corrupt and self-serving than the one it replaced. His own brother sets himself up as a petty dictator, taking what he wants without regard for the law. The ineffectual but well-meaning Madero puts his trust in treacherous General Victoriano Huerta (Frank Silvera). Huerta first takes Madero captive and then has him murdered. Zapata himself is lured into an ambush and killed.
Zapata is depicted in the film as a rebel leader of high integrity. He is guided by his desire to return the peasants their recently robbed lands, while forsaking his personal interest, even Josefa Zapata, his newly wed wife. Steinbeck meditates in the film on the tempting military force and political might, which corrupts men.

In 1909, Emiliano Zapata, a well-born but penniless Mexican Mestizo from the southern state of Morelos, comes to Mexico City to complain that their arable land has been enclosed, leaving them only in the barren hills. His expressed dissatisfaction with the response of the President Diaz puts him in danger, and when he rashly rescues a prisoner from the local militia he becomes an outlaw. Urged on by a strolling intellectual, Fernando, he supports the exiled Don Francisco Madero against Diaz, and becomes the leader of his forces in the South as Francisco 'Pancho' Villa is in the North. Diaz flees, and Madero takes his place; but he is a puppet president, in the hands of the leader of the army, Huerta, who has him assassinated when he tries to express solidarity for the men who fought for him. Zapata and Villa return to arms, and, successful in victory, seek to find a leader for the country. Unwillingly, Zapata takes the job, but, a while later, he responds to some petitioners from his own village with no more reassurance than had Diaz years before. Realizing that with power his idealism has gone, he returns with them to Morelos - specifically to investigate their complaints against his brother Eufemio. New leaders take his place, and, egged on by the always surviving Fernando, they decide that Zapata is a threat to their regime.

The War Lord

Chrysagon de la Cruex (Heston) is a Norman knight charged with defending a Druid village. At the heart of the story is a doomed romance which defies the social norms and sparks a growing confrontation with Chrysagon's brother, Draco (Stockwell).
Chrysagon encounters Bronwyn (Forsyth), his future love, as she is harassed by his own men. Gradually he finds himself falling for the girl he's rescued. Bronwyn's father, the village chief, Odins, later asks Chrysagon's permission for Bronwyn to marry Marc, her betrothed. Chrysagon approves, but soon regrets the decision. He wants Bronwyn for himself.
He later learns of "Droit du seigneur", a right which permits the Lord of the Domain to sleep with any virgin woman on her wedding night. But custom demands Bronwyn be given up by dawn. The following day, Bronwyn is not returned and Marc demands justice. What the village doesn't realize is that she's chosen to stay of her own free will.
All of this takes place against the background of war against Frisian raiders who plague the Norman coast.

A knight in the service of a duke goes to a coastal villiage where an earlier attempt to build a defensive castle has failed. He begins to rebuild the duke's authority in the face of the barbarians at the border and is making progress until he falls in love with one of the local women.

