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).
Heathers ( Blu-ray ) (1988)
7.3/10
Director: Michael Lehmann
Starring: Christian Slater, Kim Walker, Shannen Doherty, Winona Ryder, Lisanne Falk
Welcome to Westerburg High, where Veronica Sawyer (Winona Ryder) is beginning to tire of her membership in the powerful yet cruel clique of 'Heathers'... Read more
Cinema Paradiso (Special Edition) (1988)
8.5/10
Director: Giuseppe Tornatore
Starring: Jacques Perrin, Philippe Noiret, Leopoldo Trieste
Winner of 1989's Best Foreign Film Academy Award this bittersweet drama sees a filmmaker returns to his hometown in Sicily for the first time in 30 ye... Read more
The Vanishing (1988)
7.8/10
Director: George Sluizer
Starring: Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu, Johanna Ter Steege
A sleek psycho-chiller with an absorbing plot about the vanishing without a trace of a young woman at a gas station, and the terrifying battle of wits... Read more
Heathers (1988)
7.3/10
Director: Michael Lehmann
Starring: Shannen Doherty, Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, Kim Walker, Lisanne Falk
Welcome to Westerburg High, where Veronica Sawyer (Winona Ryder) is beginning to tire of her membership in the powerful yet cruel clique of 'Heathers'... Read more
Vampire's Kiss (1988)
5.9/10
Director: Robert Bierman
Starring: Maria Conchita Alonso, Nicolas Cage, Kasi Lemmons, Jennifer Beals
A bizarre black comedy (from the writer of 'After Hours'), with a suitably demented Nicolas Cage ('Raising Arizona') playing an arrogant, pretentious... Read more
A Short Film About Love (1988)
8.3/10
Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski
Starring: Grazyna Szapolowska, Olaf Lubaszenko
A young man falls in love with an older woman who lives in the flats across the courtyard. He watches her and her succession of lovers until she becom... Read more
High Hopes (Blu-ray) (1988)
7.4/10
Director: Mike Leigh
Starring: Edna Dore, Philip Davis, Philip Jackson, Ruth Sheen
A provocative, original, slice-of-life Comedy-Drama about love, alienation and responsibility centred on a young laid-back working class couple, his a... Read more
Cinema Paradiso: Director's Cut (1988)
8.5/10
Director: Giuseppe Tornatore
Starring: Salvatore Cascio, Philippe Noiret, Jacques Perrin
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
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
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