This 13-episode miniseries was adapted from the book by Robert Graves, which chronicles the tumultuous life and times of Claudius (Derek Jacobi), who despite a deformed leg and a speech impediment through prophecy becomes the Roman Empire. An aging Claudius looks back at the bizarre and treacherous times through which he's lived and sets them down ...
The two-part TV movie Inside the Third Reich was based on the extraordinary revelatory (if self-serving) autobiographical book by Albert Speer. Played herein by Rutger Hauer, Speer is a young man of privilege in pre-Hitler Germany who happens to be a brilliant architect. Becoming a member of Hitler's inner circle, Speer is appointed the Nazi ...
This routine espionage drama is based on a novel by Graham Greene about a low-level British informant who is caught in a trap. Castle (Nicol Williamson) has a desk job in British intelligence. Around him are heavyweights like Col. Daintry (Richard Attenborough), Sir John Hargreaves (Richard Vernon), and Percival (Robert Morley) who will cold ...
Set in contemporary Los Angeles as well as the Los Angeles of the 1940s, Dead Again explores a romance between two star-crossed lovers -- and the doomed passion they shared in their last lifetime. Los Angeles detective Mike Church (Kenneth Branagh) comes to the aid of mute, amnesia-victim Grace (Emma Thompson) and falls in love with her. He sets ...
A man robbed of his name and his dignity strives to win them back, and gain the freedom of his people, in this epic historical drama from director Ridley Scott. In the year 180, the death of emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris) throws the Roman Empire into chaos. Maximus (Russell Crowe) is one of the Roman army's most capable and trusted ...
This two-part British miniseries was based on a classic gothic novel by Sheridan J. LeFanu. Having inadvertently caused the death of one of his tenants, wicked Squire Fairfield (Derek Jacobi) adopted the dead man's daughter Alice (Naomi Watts). No sooner had Alice grown to womanhood that the satyr-like squire attempted to "have his way" with her. ...
The 1965 Othello is literally a photographed stage play: a filmed record of the National Theatre Production of 1964, as staged by John Dexter and starring Laurence Olivier. As the easily led, fatally jealous Moor of Venice, Olivier wears thick black-faced makeup and speaks in an uncharacteristically deep, bellow-like voice. Some considered his ...
Tribes of vampires and werewolves battle for supremacy among the undead in this follow-up to the horror hit Underworld. Tracing the bloody history of the ongoing war between the Death Dealers, a gang of upper-crust vampires, and the Lycans, a pack of scruffy werewolves, Underworld: Evolution finds beautiful Death Dealer Selene (Kate Beckinsale) ...
Revenge, obsession, and the morally ambiguous aristocracy are targets of this adaptation by director Alex Cox of the 17th century dark comic play Revengers Tragedy, written by Shakespeare contemporary Thomas Middleton. The vindictive and mentally unstable Vindici (Christopher Eccleston) has returned to the grimy streets of a post-apocalyptic ...
Frustrated with the Walt Disney studio's reluctance to produce full-length animated films, Don Bluth and a number of animators left the studio in the early '80s with the intent of creating movies in the style of Disney's classics. The Secret of NIMH is the first film Bluth produced after leaving the studio. Adapted from Robert C. O'Brien's ...
Kenneth Branagh makes his feature film directorial debut with this adaptation of William Shakespeare's Henry V. After the Chorus (Derek Jacobi) introduces the play, young king of England Henry V (Kenneth Branagh) begins an angry dialogue with King Charles of France (Paul Scofield). The king's son, Dauphin (Michael Maloney), insults Henry and the ...
At least the 22nd time William Shakespeare's most famous tragedy has been brought to the screen, Kenneth Branagh's film adaptation of Hamlet was the first to preserve Shakespeare's entire text, uncut and unabridged. Moving the action into the 19th century, Branagh cast himself in the title role and, as in his adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing, ...
Based on the true story of a priest who risked his life in order to help people no one else would touch (a wager he would eventually lose), Father Damien stars David Wenham as the titular Belgian saint. In 1872, Damien, a young Catholic priest serving as a missionary near Hawaii, volunteers to spend three months working in a colony for victims of ...
Brother Cadfael and his fellow 12th Century holy men at Shrewsbury Abbey return in this mystery based on the novel by Ellis Peters. The festivities of the annual Shrewsbury Fair are spoiled when a travelling merchant is murdered; his harsh personality earned him few friends among the local salespeople, but Brother Cadfael (Derek Jacobi) believes ...
Derek Jacobi stars in this 12th century drama as Brother Cadfael, a former soldier in the Crusades who has become a monk but occasionally pauses in doing the Lord's work to solve the occasional mystery. In this story, Oswin, a novice under Cadfael, confesses to the rape and murder of a young nun whose body is found in a nearby stream. Convinced ...
Adapted for television by Russell Lewis from the novel by Ellis Peters, "Monk's Hood" was the fourth in a series of 90-minute Cadfael mysteries. In 12th century Shrewsbury, a young man is murdered, apparently so that the killer can get his or her hands on the victim's inheritance. Investigating the case, warrior-turned-monk Brother Cadfael (Derek ...
Based on the novel by Ellis Peters, "One Corpse Too Many" was the first of thirteen 90-minute Cadfael mysteries, focusing on the exploits of a murder-solving monk in 12th century Shrewsbury. While sifting through the bodies of rebels recently executed on the orders of King Stephan (Michael Grandage), Brother Cadfael (Derek Jacobi stumbles across a ...
First telecast in the U.K. on February 17, 2002, the five-part British miniseries The Jury probes the workings of justice from the viewpoint of the 12 men and women chosen to determine the fate of a Sikh teenager, accused of murdering a white classmate with a ceremonial sword. This racially volatile situation is first placed in the hands of ...
Anders Ronnow Klarlund's fantasy-action film Strings tells the tale of Hal Tara, the son of a slain ruler who sets out to settle the score with those who dispatched his father. Interestingly, all of the characters in the film are marionettes, explaining the title of the film to some degree. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
Directed by TV-anthology veteran Jeannot Szwarc, Enigma has a certain small-screen "feel" to it. Adopting a musical-comedy foreign accent, Martin Sheen plays Alex Holbeck, an Iron Curtain defector who returns to East Germany at the behest of the CIA. His mission is to save five political "undesirables" from the communists. Holbeck runs up against ...
This made-for-TV adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden stars Gennie James as spoiled-rotten Mary Lennox. When her parents die of cholera, Mary is whisked from her home in India to live in the forbidding Victorian mansion of her flint-hearted uncle (Derek Jacobi). Thanks to the friendship--and vivid imagination--of gardener's ...
The Odessa File is set in Hamburg in the winter of 1963. Jon Voight plays Peter Miller, a German reporter who is investigating the whereabouts of missing Nazi war criminals. After reading the diary of a Holocaust survivor who has recently committed suicide, Miller goes on the trail of in-hiding SS officer Eduard Roschmann (Maximilian Schell). The ...
The lavishly produced British historical series The Strauss Family chronicled the lives of rival "Waltz Kings" Johann Strauss -- both senior and junior -- in 19th century Vienna. Though initially forbidden to study music, Johann Strauss Jr. (Stuart Wilson) eventually became a celebrated composer, much to the chagrin of his more celebrated (and ...
In this religious drama concerning the struggle between science and faith, Olivia Williams plays Sharon Golban, an Israeli archeologist who discovers a skeleton within a tomb in Jerusalem. After an intensive study and the accumulation of more information, the bones begin to resemble the remains of Jesus Christ. At this news, the Vatican decides to ...
A farm pup that longs for the day she will become a genuine sheepdog attempts to prove herself to her demanding master while contending with some particularly troublesome rams in this family friendly tale from director Richard Overall. Mist was born one of three tiny pups on the serine grounds of Borough Farm. From the moment she was born Mist ...
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