Film Festivals 1995
What an eclectic line-up this year. Seemed most major film making nations had an entry - from Cuba came the Oscar Winning "Strawberries and Chocolate", from Spain, the twisted treat that was "Accion Mutante", Russia produced the Academy Award winner "Burnt By The Sun", France gave us a taste of gypsy life in "Latcho Drom" while Belgium fronted with the sumptuous "Farinelli", Taiwan entered the charming "Eat Drink Man Woman" and from Hong Kong came the erotically charged "Sex and Zen". Denmark's Lars Von Trier introduced his darkly humourous soap "The Kingdom" (pictured).
Una Pura Formalita ( A Pure Formality ) (1996)
7.8/10
Director: Giuseppe Tornatore
Starring: Gerard Depardieu, Roman Polanski, Sergio Rubini
Gerard Depardieu plays a man accused of a murder he doesn't remember committing. He and Roman Polanski play a deadly game of deceptions, distortions a... Read more
Funny Bones (1995)
7/10
Director: Peter Chelsom
Starring: Leslie Caron, Lee Evans, Jerry Lewis, Oliver Platt, Richard Griffiths, Oliver Re...
Jerry Lewis is the famous father of struggling comedian (Oliver Platt) desperate to make his own name in the business. He is not making it in Las Veg... Read more
When Night Is Falling (1995)
6.7/10
Director: Patricia Rozema
Starring: Pascale Bussieres, Rachael Crawford, Henry Czerny, Don McKellar
From the director of 'I've Heard the Mermaids Singing' comes this refreshingly liberating tale of lesbian love. Camille (Pascale Bussieres) is a Chris... Read more
Carrington (1995)
6.9/10
Director: Christopher Hampton
Starring: Emma Thompson, Jonathan Pryce, Steven Waddington
Set between WWI and the early 1930's and based on the life of British artist Dora Carrington, played by Emma Thompson, whose painting took second plac... Read more
Farinelli (1995)
6.9/10
Director: Gerard Corbiau
Starring: Stefano Dionisi, Enrico Lo Verso, Jeroen Krabbe
'Farinelli il Castrato'. A sumptuously filmed saga of two brothers in 18th century Europe, one a composer and the other a castrato opera singer. (Fari... Read more
Latcho Drom (1995)
8.2/10
Director: Tony Gatlif
Ecstatically celebrates the gypsy experience through eight countries on three separate continents. Beginning in Northern India and proceeding through... Read more
The Promise (1995)
6.1/10
Director: Margarethe von Trotta
Starring: Corinna Harfouch, Meret Becker, Anian Zollner
A pointed account of star-crossed German lovers, covering a 30 year timespan, beginning with their separation while trying to escape from East to West... Read more
Eat Drink Man Woman (1994)
7.8/10
Director: Ang Lee
Starring: Sihung Lung, Kuei-Mei Yang, Yu-Wen Wang
Acclaimed comedy-drama from Ang Lee ("The Wedding Banquet") about Chu, a widowed master chef facing such problems as losing his sense of taste, his th... Read more
Burnt by the Sun (1994)
8/10
Director: Nikita Mikhalkov
Starring: Oleg Menshikov, Nikita Mikhalkov, Ingeborga Dapkunaite
One of the first Russian films to deal openly with the Stalin purges, and a mesmerisingly beautiful chronicle of love, family, and the intrusion of po... Read more
Chungking Express (1994)
8.1/10
Director: Wong Kar-wai
Starring: Tony Leung (Chiu Wai), Faye Wong, Brigitte Lin, Valerie Chow
This intoxicating slice of Hong Kong romance noir is split into two stories: A cop gets dumped by his Girlfriend and tries to fall in love with the ne... Read more