NZ Film Festivals
Throughout the year two major Film Festivals circuit New Zealand. The years listed to the left are an amalgam of the offerings that have made it to Video or DVD from the World Cinema Showcase (a.k.a. The Canterbury Film Festival) and The International Film Festival.
Right: Scene from the extraordinary "Osama"
Christ Stopped at Eboli (1979)
7.8/10
Director: Francesco Rosi
Starring: Gian Maria Volonte, Paolo Bonacelli, Alain Cuny
Rosi's BAFTA-winning epic stars Gian Maria Volonte as Carlo Levi, an artist and political exile banished to a southern Italian village by Mussolini's... Read more
Laura (1979)
5.9/10
Director: David Hamilton
Starring: Maud Adams, Dawn Dunlap, James Mitchell
"The sensually provocative images of internationally acclaimed photographer David Hamilton again move and breathe in 'Laura'. A gossamer journey throu... Read more
Diva (1981)
7.3/10
Director: Jean-Jacques Beineix
Starring: Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez, Frederic Andrei
A breathtaking series of visual images in this stylish romantic thriller; at the heart of the film is an opera-intoxicated 18-year old mail carrier wh... Read more
Mephisto (1981)
7.9/10
Director: Istvan Szabo
Starring: Klaus Maria Brandauer, Krystyna Janda
Istvan Szabo's powerful, Academy-Award winning film stars Klaus Maria Brandauer as an actor in pre-war Germany whose quest for success leads him to su... Read more
Diner (1982)
7.2/10
Director: Barry Levinson
Starring: Steve Guttenberg, Mickey Rourke, Daniel Stern, Kevin Bacon, Timothy Daly, Ellen...
Nostalgic, funny, personal memoir of a group of young men in their early 20's, hanging out at their favourite diner in Baltimore, 1959. This was the t... Read more
Cousins (2021)
7/10
Director: Ainsley Gardiner, Briar Grace Smith
Starring: Rachel House, Chelsie Preston Crayford, Cohen Holloway, Miriama Smith, Kirk Torr...
Mata, Missy and Makareta. Three cousins. Three lives. Separated by circumstances, yet bound together by blood. Orphaned Mata believes she has no whana... Read more
Creepshow (1982)
6.9/10
Director: George A Romero
Starring: Adrienne Barbeau, E G Marshall, Fritz Weaver, Hal Holbrook, Leslie Nielsen
George A Romero directs a screenplay by Stephen King that is a ghoulish comic tribute to EC Comics. Five tales of the macabre are offered. E.G. Marsha... Read more
Melvin and Howard (1980)
6.9/10
Director: Jonathan Demme
Starring: Jason Robards, Paul Le Mat, Mary Steenburgen
This gem tells the offbeat true story of a chance encounter between eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes and an unsuspecting labourer named Melvin Dumm... Read more
My Dinner with Andre (1981)
7.8/10
Director: Louis Malle
Starring: Andre Gregory, Wallace Shawn
Nearly two hours of dinner conversation between New York avant-garde theatre director Andre Gregory and playwright Wallace Shawn becomes a fascinating... Read more
Hammett (1982)
6.5/10
Director: Wim Wenders
Starring: Frederic Forrest, Peter Boyle, Marilu Henner
The atmospheric and exciting tale of young Dashiell Hammett, who really lives the hard-boiled life he writes about. Wenders explores the central tensi... Read more