Film Festivals 1999
1999's festivals were categorised by a stand-out crop of documentaries, 'Ghengis Blues', Werner Herzog's 'Little Dieter Needs to Fly', Ken Burns' 'Frank Lloyd Wright', Cuban music legends 'Buena Vista Social Club' and the hilariously insightful 'American Movie'. And along with these some highly imaginative and challenging features such as Lars von Trier's 'Idiots', Darren Aronofsky's 'Pi', Todd Solondz's 'Happiness', Tom Tykwer's 'Run, Lola, Run' and low-budget sci-fi hit, 'Cube' (pictured).
It All Starts Today (1999)
7.5/10
Director: Bertrand Tavernier
Starring: Philippe Torreton, Maria Pitarresi, Nadia Kaci
Daniel Lefebvre (Philippe Torreton), a director of a kindergarten in a poor area of Northern France is appalled by the deprivation that his pupils mus... Read more
Better Than Chocolate (1999)
6.1/10
Director: Anne Wheeler
Starring: Karyn Dwyer, Christina Cox, Wendy Crewson
Karyn Dwyer and Christina Cox star as Maggie and Kim in this sweet and energetic lesbian love story. Maggie has flunked out of law school and is worki... Read more
SLC Punk (1999)
7.5/10
Director: James Merendino
Starring: Matthew Lillard, Michael Goorjian, Annabeth Gish, Jennifer Lien
In this energetic comedy set in 1985 Salt Lake City, college-age best buddies Stevo (Matthew Lillard) and Heroin Bob (Michael Goorjian) try spiked hai... Read more
Buena Vista Social Club (1999)
7.6/10
Director: Wim Wenders
Starring: Ry Cooder, Ibrahim Ferrer, Ruben Gonzalez, Eliades Ochoa
German filmmaker Wim Wenders' documentary counterpart to the Grammy-winning album follows guitarist/musicoligist Ry Cooder on a trip to Havana and an... Read more
Genghis Blues (1999)
8/10
Director: Roko Belic
Starring: Paul Pena, Kongar-Ol, Richard Feynman
This captivating, Oscar-nominated offering centers on blind San Francisco blues musician Paul Pena, who taught himself the unusual art of 'throat sing... Read more
All About My Mother (1999)
7.9/10
Director: Pedro Almodovar
Starring: Cecilia Roth, Penelope Cruz, Antonia San Juan
When her teenage son is killed, Madrid nurse Cecilia Roth sets out to fulfill the boy's wish to find the father he never knew. Roth's quest to locate... Read more
eXistenZ (1999)
6.8/10
Director: David Cronenberg
Starring: Willem Dafoe, Ian Holm, Jude Law, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Christopher Eccleston, D...
Playstation it ain't. This 'video game' has a latexy pod, made from the intestines of mutant amphibians, that plugs directly into the user's spinal c... Read more
The Winslow Boy (1999)
7.4/10
Director: David Mamet
Starring: Gemma Jones, Nigel Hawthorne, Jeremy Northam, Rebecca Pidgeon
From the celebrated play by Terence Rattigan comes this moving representation of "The Winslow Boy", an exquisite new film by acclaimed director and pl... Read more
Limbo (1999)
7.1/10
Director: John Sayles
Starring: Vanessa Martinez, Astra, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, David Strathairn
Set in the rugged Alaskan wilderness, this intricate drama stars Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio as a singer living with her daughter, who starts a relati... Read more
Three Seasons (1999)
7.3/10
Director: Tony Bui
Starring: Don Duong, Nguyen Ngoc Hiep, Tran Manh Cuong, Harvey Keitel
This haunting drama from director Tony Bui is the first American film shot in Vietnam since the war and was a top winner at the Sundance Film Festival... Read more