Photophobic Zano, arrives in the big city for the very first time. The year is 1984 and Athens beckons. A vampire and a fine dancer, Zano quickly gets devoured by the dark underbelly of the capital city.All he really wants is a “warm” girl. Strung out and down and out, he ends up at disco Zardoz, a hive of scum and villainy, where he meets Alice, a prostitute, and Peter, a Norwegian drug dealer. Lured into their shady shenanigans, the three of them will traverse mountains and descend into the core of the earth, all the way to the Kingdom of Mathousalas. Norway puts on shiny new shoes, dances the night away with colorful scoundrels and only bites when absolutely necessary. “Norway descends upon the Mediterranean”.
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All seems lost. And then, in an old, lonely and icy park two shadowy figures meet: those of Deus and a Messenger from God. The Messenger gives the crook (the temporary state of poor João de Deus) a suitcase stuffed with money. His mission accomplished, the Messenger leaves. João counts the bank notes. The silent waters of a nearby lake are disturbed when a heavy object plunges in. João goes to see what is happening. A young girl (Joana) is drowning. João throws himself into the water and carries the unconscious Joana off to a convent (Capucines?). How Responsible! João de Deus returns to the park to recover the case and its precious contents: happily, nothing has been touched…
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Creatures of the night find new prey on the scariest night of the year in this horror story. It’s Halloween night, and four friends – Allison (Vanessa Horneff), Elliott (Wil Horneff), Trevor (Karl Jacob), and Brian (Sean Reid) – are on a road trip en route to a friend’s wedding when their car breaks down after running into something. Looking for help, the four happen upon the farmhouse of an elderly couple, Elvin (Richard Little) and May (Barbara Wilhide), which is located next to a huge barn. Elvin and May have already become lost in the darkness of the barn, and soon two of the lost travelers are suffering the same fate as they search for friendly strangers. However, while they can barely see a hand in front of their face, they discover they’re not alone in the barn, which has become home to a huge swarm of bloodthirsty bats. The Roost is framed by an introduction and postscript from a television horror show host, played by Tom Noonan.
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After Michael Carter’s fiancée commits suicide, Michael vows to seek revenge on his wealthy family, who sabotaged their marriage. He drives across the country angrily, and lands up at a saloon, where he is shot by an Indian, Pete. Pete’s girlfriend, Tonita nurses Michael’s wound and falls in love with him. Michael realizes this, proposes marriage to Tonita – a perfect revenge for his prejudice family. They marry and he takes her to New York, in full Indian dress hoping to embarrass the family. The press and society mock the Carters – to Michael’s delight. Tonita’s confused as to why Michael doesn’t want to consummate their marriage. At a coming out party for Tonita, set up by Diana (Michael’s sister), Tonita’s a big hit. Michael becomes angry for his family has “won”. Tonita realizes the true reason for their marriage, and finds comfort with Bob, Diana’s lover. Diana catches Tonita and Bob together and kills Bob, but, Tonita takes the blame and is arrested, for this is the perfect …
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Angel Deverell comes of age in Edwardian Cheshire knowing she will be a great writer. Rising above her class (her widowed mother has a grocery shop), Angel finds a publisher and a wide audience for her frothy romances. With royalties, she buys an estate, then she’s smitten by Esme, a rake from local aristocracy and an artist of dark temperament. She hires Esme’s sister Nora, who dotes on her, as a personal assistant, and pursues Esme. Angel is grandly self-centered, coloring her world as if it were one of her novels. When the Great War breaks out and reality begins to trump her will, can Angel hold on to her man and her public?
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A ruthless real-estate tycoon sets his sights on a small fishing village, which he believes he can buy cheaply and turn into a profitable tourist destination. He hires a handsome young ladies’ man named Junpei to seduce the women of the village and persuade them to sign over their land to his boss. He succeeds, but when the ladies discover the mens’ real plans, things take a different turn.
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For a decade, the white settlers and the Apaches have been engaged in a bloody war with no peaceful end in sight. When a white scout, Tom Jeffords (James Stewart), has a dangerously close but enlightening encounter with the natives, he begins to see the humanity in these “enemies.” Entering the Apache territory seeking peace, Jeffords forms a friendship with the Apache leader Cochise (Jeff Chandler), although there are people on both sides who resist extending the olive branch.
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In 1999, Gregory Peck (1916-2003) visits the Barter Theatre, Abingdon, VA, where he had acted in 1940 and where this evening he tells stories and answers questions about his career. Interspersed are clips from Peck’s films and from interviews recorded over the years and vérité contemporary footage of visiting with his daughter Cecilia before and after the birth of her son, receiving the National Medal of Arts, chatting with Lauren Bacall and with Martin Scorsese, and dining with Jacques Chirac, always with his wife of forty-four years, Veronique Passani, beside him. Throughout, Peck is informal, candid, and wry.
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Jacques Demy followed up The Umbrellas of Cherbourg with another musical about missed connections and second chances, this one a more effervescent confection. Twins Delphine and Solange, a dance instructor and a music teacher (played by real-life sisters Catherine Deneuve and Françoise Dorléac), long for big-city life; when a fair comes through their quiet port town, so does the possibility of escape. With its jazzy Michel Legrand score, pastel paradise of costumes, and divine supporting cast (George Chakiris, Grover Dale, Danielle Darrieux, Michel Piccoli, and Gene Kelly), The Young Girls of Rochefort is a tribute to Hollywood optimism from sixties French cinema’s preeminent dreamer.
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