Film Festivals 1990
This punter believes this was the best film festival ever to grace Christchurch's screens (in this case the old Regent Theatre). The entire line-up had absolutely no deadwood. A few of the great many highlights included Jane Campion's "An Angel At My Table" and "Sweetie", Akira Kurosawa's "Dreams", Hal Hartley's "The Unbelievable Truth" the acclaimed "Cinema Paradiso", the marvellous "Jesus of Montreal", from the Netherlands came the sleek psycho-chiller "The Vanishing" and from Mexico came Alex Jodorowsky's unforgettable "Santa Sangre" (right).
Black Narcissus ( Blu-ray ) (1947)
8/10
Director: Emeric Pressburger, Michael Powell
Starring: David Farrar, Deborah Kerr, Jean Simmons, Sabu
Plagued by uncertainties and worldly desires, five Protestant missionary nuns, led by Deborah Kerr's Sister Clodagh, struggle to establish a school in... Read more
Paperhouse (1988)
6.8/10
Director: Bernard Rose
Starring: Glenne Headly, Ben Cross, Charlotte Burke
Little Anna has a very active imagination and a talent for drawing, but that does not explain quite everything in this eerie, psychological thriller.... Read more
Earth Girls Are Easy (1988)
5.3/10
Director: Julien Temple
Starring: Geena Davis, Jeff Goldblum, Jim Carrey, Damon Wayans
A dizzy, glitzy, fish out of water farce about three horny aliens on the make in L.A. Saturated with clever ideas, splashy visuals and enough bawdy en... Read more
Comic Book Confidential (1988)
7.1/10
Director: Ron Mann
Starring: Lynda Barry, Charles Burns, Robert Crumb, Stan Lee
A spirited introduction to the wider spectrum of American Comics intercut with hysterical archive footage. Congression hearings, lurid anti-comic prop... Read more
Testimony (1987)
7.1/10
Director: Tony Palmer
Starring: Ben Kingsley, Terence Rigby, Ronald Pickup
The enthralling study of the life and times, the artistry and the anguish of the Russian composer Dimitri Shostakovich - a Russian who fell from grace... Read more
A Dry White Season (1989)
7/10
Director: Euzhan Palcy
Starring: Donald Sutherland, Janet Suzman, Zakes Mokae, Jurgen Prochnow, Susan Sarandon, M...
Donald Sutherland is South African school teacher Ben du Toit, someone who has remained isolated from the racial violence in his country until his bla... Read more
Da (1988)
6.4/10
Director: Matt Clark
Starring: Karl Hayden, Barnard Hughes, Martin Sheen, Doreen Hepburn, William Hickey
Hugh Leonard's autobiographical play of growing up adopted in a small sea-coast town in Ireland. The film version is directed by character actor Matt... Read more
Cinema Paradiso ( Blu-ray ) (1988)
8.5/10
Director: Giuseppe Tornatore
Starring: Jacques Perrin, Leopoldo Trieste, Philippe Noiret, Salvatore Cascio
A charming, bittersweet tribute to the power of movies which won 1989's Best Foreign Film Academy Award. A filmmaker returns to his Sicilian hometown... Read more
Drugstore Cowboy (1989)
7.4/10
Director: Gus Van Sant
Starring: Matt Dillon, James LeGros, Kelly Lynch, Heather Graham, James Remar, William Bur...
An electrifying movie about two couples who live together and travel around robbing hospitals and pharmacies, grabbing fistfuls of pills and capsules.... Read more
Red Riding Hood (1988)
5.7/10
Director: Adam Brooks
Starring: Isabella Rossellini, Amelia Shankley, Rocco Sisto, Craig T Nelson
Craig T Nelson, Isabella Rossellini and Amelia Shankley star in this tale of the faithful little girl who must brave the forest and the big bad wolf t... Read more