Runacre, Jenny

The Witches

This splendid adventure-fantasy from 1990 was adapted from Roald Dahl's book and directed by maverick British filmmaker Nicolas Roeg, who turned out to be a perfect (if seemingly unlikely) interpreter of Dahl's fiendishly clever tale of witchcraft in contemporary England. Scary, funny, and wildly entertaining, it's all about a young boy named Luke (Jasen Fisher) whose parents have died in a tragic accident, and whose grandmother (Mai Zetterling) takes him to a posh hotel in England, where a secret coven of witches is holding its annual convention. The Grand High Witch (Anjelica Huston, in a scene-stealing performance) has decreed that all children in England be turned into mice, and Luke and his pal Bruno (Charles Potter) are the first victims on the list. That's when the movie magicians from Jim Henson's creature shop have their work cut out for them, turning Luke and Bruno into clever little rodents and The Witches into a dazzling display of imaginative special effects, using a seamless combination of real mice and superb animatronic puppets. Director Roeg doesn't compromise the sinister edge of Dahl's story, but comedy gets equal time from the brilliant cast including Brenda Blethyn (from Secrets and Lies and Little Voice), Rowan Atkinson (of Black Adder and Mr. Bean fame), and Jane Horrocks (Little Voice) as the Grand High Witch's beleaguered assistant. Although it was largely neglected during its brief theatrical release, this wonderful movie has since enjoyed a thriving appreciation on video--see it and you'll understand why. --Jeff Shannon

From the great Muppet creator Jim Henson comes this classic bursting with enchantment and adventure. Academy Award winner Anjelica Huston stars as the Grand High Witch in this exhilarating tale.Year: 1990

The Passenger

Originally released in 1975 Sony Pictures Classics re-releases Antonioni's suspenseful and haunting portrait of a drained journalist whose deliverance is an identity exchange with a dead man. He embarks on a treacherous journey through Africa Spain Germany England Spain.System Requirements:Run Time: 126 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: PG-13 UPC: 043396126541 Manufacturer No: 12654

The Passenger is one of those movies that is all about the vision of the director, in this case, screen legend Michelangelo Antonioni. Starring none other than Jack Nicholson, and featuring a plot billed as an international romantic thriller, The Passenger defies expectations by turning the genre on its head, making the characters and the story secondary to theme and tone. London-based Journalist David Locke (Nicholson) is working in North Africa when a fellow traveler by the name of David Robertson, who looks remarkably like him, happens to die suddenly. Burned out and depleted, Locke decides to assume the dead man's identity, drops everything, and starts again as a new man with a new life. With no idea of who Robertson was or what he did for a living, Locke uses Robertson's datebook as a guide as he travels through Europe and Africa, takes meetings with people he finds out are gun runners, and ends up falling for a beautiful young woman (Maria Schneider). As Robertson, David Locke thinks he has found an exhilirating new freedom, but the fact is he's in over his head: there are people looking for him and his life could be in danger.

The movie is a thriller in structure only. While designed for suspense, it's just a premise for Antonioni to explore on themes of identity, humankind's seemingly futile relationship to the world around us, and isolation. For Antonioni, the action is the means by which the image unfolds, and not the other way around. The actors and the plot are set pieces, simply smaller means to a larger end, and the image and atmosphere supersede all else. A slow pace, long, lingering shots, a focus on emptiness, and a detached, almost brutally objective point of view are the trademarks on full display here. Especially notable is the stunning seven-minute long shot in the final scene, one of the most famous in cinema history, which Nicholson, in his commentary, tags as an "Antonioni joke." It caps a crowning achievement by one of the big screen's most visionary directors.

On the DVD:
The commentaries are most definitely welcome guides, and those looking for a way into the movie and into Antonioni's head will really enjoy them. Jack Nicholson provides one commentary track where he generously shares his memories of the shoot, his thoughts on the movie thirty years on, and lets out the secret of how they managed to get the camera through the bars on the window for that seven-minute shot in the last scene. On the second commentary track, journalist Aurora Irvine and screenwriter Mark Peploe offer more of a wide-angle lens view of the movie and its place in history. Both are insightful narratives—Nicholson's is particularly enjoyable--and make excellent additions to the DVD. --Daniel Vancini

The Duellists

First film by director Ridley Scott barely got released in this country in the mid-1970s, but stands up, despite the rather noticeable accents of its stars. That's because Brooklynite Harvey Keitel and Westerner Keith Carradine are playing a pair of officers in Napoleon's army--oops! The plot centers on Carradine insulting Keitel and Keitel demanding vengeance. But every time they get into the middle of one of their duels, war breaks out or something else happens to interrupt. Keitel, however, is too pig-headed to let it drop and dogs Carradine over the course of 20 years. Strong performances otherwise and amazing cinematography, as well as a cast that includes Albert Finney, Edward Fox, and Tom Conti. --Marshall Fine

The Creeping Flesh

The Hammeresque Creeping Flesh is a creepy thriller mixing one part Cain and Abel, a dash of Frankenstein, and a pinch of the Re-Animator with the best elements that '70s U.K. horror has to offer. Is evil a sickness that mankind can be cured of? Dr. Emmanuel Hildern (Peter Cushing) seems to think so. After returning from New Guinea with the ultimate skeletal specimen of evil it becomes his life's obsession. While Dr. Hildern closes in on the serum, James (Christopher Lee), his half-brother and rival, looks on with envy from behind the mental asylum he runs. He too is dabbling in science to find the cure of madness. However, with less of a success rate. After Dr. Hildern tests his evil serum on his daughter Penelope, she of course goes mad, goes on a killing spree, and ends up in Uncle James's asylum. Immediately recognizing his new inmate, Uncle James brings Penelope back home, only to find his brother's work and progress. In a fit of jealousy he steals the valuable skeleton which, unbeknownst to him, is slowly growing flesh and developing into an evil, uncontrollable monster. --Rob Bracco

Hussy

Helen Mirren's career spans four decades and includes starring roles in the long-running series Prime Suspect, the recent HBO miniseries 'Elizabeth I', and such films as 'Gosford Park'; 'The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, & Her Lover'; 'Excalibur'; 'The Mosquito Coast'; and 'The Long Good Friday'.

Twice an Academy Award nominee, Mirren also has received The American Society of Film Critics Award, BAFTA awards, Emmy awards, Golden Globe awards and many others.

In HUSSY Mirren gives a smoldering performance as Beaty, a hostess and prostitute in a posh London nightclub working to support her young son. Beaty falls for Emory, a mysterious American (John Shea) who works at the club and who has a "murkier past than his guileless looks suggest" (VARIETY). Although Beaty finds herself brought deep into the criminal underworld, she realizes Emory may be her best chance to escape her destiny.

Shot in London in 1980, HUSSY features cabaret and dance club scenes that "re-create well the seedy, druggy atmosphere of British nightclubs of the period" (RADIO TIMES UK).

Jubilee - Criterion Collection

Avant-garde spirit and punk-rock attitude combine with iconoclastic results in Derek Jarman's defiantly uncommercial Jubilee. Filmed in 1977--the silver jubilee year of England's Queen Elizabeth II--this fascinating hodgepodge of political dissent and audiovisual experimentation now stands as a vibrant document of its time, both immediate and enduring in its bold rejection of all things conventional. (Compared to this, the quasi-punk Repo Man and angst-ridden Sid & Nancy seem positively tame.) Jarman's film deserved its mixed reviews; like the films of Andy Warhol, it's a slapdash affair, cobbled together by Jarman and his fringe-dwelling friends, ostensibly designed as a kaleidoscopic glimpse of London's future, infused with apocalyptic nihilism and populated by proto-punks (including Adam Ant and Rocky Horror's Little Nell) in an anarchic orgy of gay and straight sex, music, violence, and (in retrospect) astonishingly accurate pop-cultural prophesy. It's the pioneering, angry/funny work of a genuine artist, as essential to punk film as the Sex Pistols were to music in the dreadful days of disco. --Jeff Shannon

When Queen Elizabeth I asks her court alchemist to show her England in the future, she's transported 400 years to a post-apocalyptic wasteland of roving girl gangs, an all-powerful media mogul, fascistic police, scattered filth, and twisted sex. With Jubilee, legendary British filmmaker Derek Jarman channeled political dissent and artistic daring into a revolutionary blend of history and fantasy, musical and cinematic experimentation, satire and anger, fashion and philosophy. With its uninhibited punk petulance and sloganeering, Jubilee, brings together many cultural and musical icons of the time, including Jordan, Toyah Willcox, Little Nell, Wayne County, Adam Ant, and Brian Eno (with his first original film score), to create a genuinely unique, unforgettable vision. Ahead of its time and often frighteningly accurate in its predictions, it is a fascinating historical document and a gorgeous work of film art.

The Final Programme

All Creatures Great and Small [Region 2]

This television film based on the autobiographical novels of country veterinarian James Herriot predates the popular British TV series of the same name by several years. Shot on location in the picturesque Yorkshire countryside, it is utterly charming and features quite an illustrious cast. Academy Award-winning actor Sir Anthony Hopkins is terrific as the dedicated, exasperating Dr. Siegfried Farnon, who takes young Herriot, fresh out of a London veterinary college, on as his assistant. Herriot is appealingly played by Simon Ward (perhaps best known as the Duke of Buckingham in The Three Musketeers). The movie opens as Herriot arrives for an interview with Farnon. Dressed in his spotless Saville Row suit, Herriot is immediately swept along on a "horse call" and finds himself treating a messy injury. This is the life that Herriot always dreamed of! Like the series, the movie is a must for animal lovers. (Yes, Mrs. Pumphrey is here with her pampered lap dog, Tricky Woo.) It's also delightfully romantic, as it follows the courtship between Herriot and his bride-to-be, Helen (lovely Lisa Harrow). Droll British humor and authentic period detail cap off a thoroughly satisfying production. --Laura Mirsky

Goodbye, Mr. Chips

Robert Donat won an Oscar for his portrayal of the humble British don in the 1939 film Goodbye, Mr. Chips--and Peter O'Toole was nominated for his version of the role in this lackluster musical (he, along with Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight of Midnight Cowboy, lost to John Wayne in True Grit). O'Toole is affecting as the shy English schoolteacher at a private boys' school who is brought out of his shell by the love of a good woman, then goes on to become a teaching legend after her tragic death. But the idea of turning this touching tale into a musical (with totally forgettable songs by John Williams and Leslie Bricusse) was almost as wrong-headed as having O'Toole do his own singing--or as casting singer Petula Clark as his wife. --Marshall Fine

The Duellists [Region 2]

First film by director Ridley Scott barely got released in this country in the mid-1970s, but stands up, despite the rather noticeable accents of its stars. That's because Brooklynite Harvey Keitel and Westerner Keith Carradine are playing a pair of officers in Napoleon's army--oops! The plot centers on Carradine insulting Keitel and Keitel demanding vengeance. But every time they get into the middle of one of their duels, war breaks out or something else happens to interrupt. Keitel, however, is too pig-headed to let it drop and dogs Carradine over the course of 20 years. Strong performances otherwise and amazing cinematography, as well as a cast that includes Albert Finney, Edward Fox, and Tom Conti. --Marshall Fine