Armstrong, Gillian

Little Women (Collector's Edition)

The flaws are easily forgiven in this beautiful version of Louisa May Alcott's novel. A stirring look at life in New England during the Civil War, Little Women is a triumph for all involved. We follow one family as they split into the world, ending up with the most independent, the outspoken Jo (Winona Ryder). This time around, the dramatics and conclusions fall into place a little too well, instead of finding life's little accidents along the way. Everyone now looks a bit too cute and oh, so nice. As the matron, Marmee, Susan Sarandon kicks the film into a modern tone, creating a movie alive with a great feminine sprit. Kirsten Dunst (Interview with the Vampire) has another showy role. The young ensemble cast cannot be faulted, with Ryder beginning the movie in a role akin to light comedy and crescendoing to a triumphant end worthy of an Oscar. --Doug Thomas

Winona Ryder (in an Oscar-nominated role) and Academy Award winner Susan Sarandon (1995 Best Actress Dead Man Walking) star in this "affectionate superbly acted" (Los Angeles Times) family favorite.With her husband off at war Marmee (Sarandon) is left alone to raise their four daughters her "little women." There is the spirited Jo (Winona Ryder) conservative Meg (Trini Alvarado - Paulie) fragile Beth (Claire Danes - William Shakespeare s Romeo & Juliet) and romantic Amy (played at different ages by Kirsten Dunst [Wag The Dog] and Samantha Mathis [Broken Arrow]).As the years pass the sisters share some of the most cherished and painful memories of self-discovery as Marmee and Aunt March (Mary Wickes - The Man Who Came To Dinner) guide them through issues of independence romance and virtue.Gabriel Byrne (End Of Days) Eric Stoltz (TV s Chicago Hope) and Christian Bale (The Portrait Of A Lady) co-star in this "handcrafted valentine" (Newsweek) of a film.System Requirements:Starring: Winona Ryder John Neville Mary Wickes Claire Danes Susan Sarandon Kirsten Dunst Gabriel Byrne Trini Alvarado Samantha Mathis Christian Bale and Eric Stoltz. Directed By: Gillian Armstrong. Running Time: 118 Min. Color. This film is presented in "Widescreen" format. Copyright 2000 Columbia TriStar Home Video.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: PG UPC: 043396050440 Manufacturer No: 05044

Charlotte Gray

Charlotte Gray does little to tarnish Cate Blanchett's rising-star status but misfires badly as a moralistic World War II drama. The title character of the film, which is based on a popular novel of the same name by Sebastian Faulks, is a young Scottish woman (Blanchett) who has come to London to help with the war effort. After quickly falling in love with a dashing pilot who is summarily shot down in southwest France, the intensely patriotic Charlotte joins a special operations outfit in order to find him. Competent melodrama to this point, the film goes astray from here. Since repeated references are made to Charlotte's fluent French, it is hard to maintain any suspension of disbelief when she parachutes into Lezignac and we discover that the French resistance fighters she works with speak English with alternately French or British accents (while the Nazis continue to speak German without subtitles). A similarly perfunctory schema of good versus evil among the citizenry is soon laid out as collaborators and patriots are painted with equally simplistic strokes. Blanchett, along with Billy Crudup and Michael Gambon, gives a lively performance despite a shoddy script, but director Gillian Armstrong's conceits to a mainstream audience seem jumbled and not a little condescending. --Fionn Meade

Oscar & Lucinda

Oscar (Fiennes) is a priest who gambles discreetly and donates his winnings to help the poor. Lucinda (Blanchett) is an Australian businesswoman who boldly defies society's rules. When they meet over an innocent game of cards, their lives are changed forever.

My Brilliant Career

The acclaimed debut of Judy Davis is the best reason to see My Brilliant Career, and the award-winning film is highly recommended as the feature debut of director Gillian Armstrong. This was an early entry in the magnificent "New Australian Cinema" movement that yielded such classics as Picnic at Hanging Rock, Gallipoli, and Breaker Morant, and 27-year-old Armstrong (who would later direct the popular 1994 version of Little Women) brought just the right feminist touch to this stately adaptation of the 1901 semi-autobiographical novel by Miles Franklin. Davis (who was 23 at the time) plays 16-year-old Sybylla Melvyn, on the verge of womanhood in turn-of-the-century Australia and determined to have a "brilliant career" as an independent writer and lover of life, but her attraction to a wealthy bachelor (Sam Neill, charming as always), and the pressures of her family to lead a conventional life of devoted domesticity, turn this into a romantic and highly observant drama of personal dilemma and free-spirited conviction. It's no surprise that Davis and Armstrong went on to brilliant careers themselves (Davis starred in David Lean's A Passage to India just a few years later). --Jeff Shannon

Winner of Six Australian Academy Awards, Including Best Picture and Best Director.

Exquisite 2-Disc Special Edition

This is the film that became a worldwide sensation and remains perhaps the most beloved and acclaimed romantic epic of all time. Oscar -nominee Judy Davis (Passage To India, Husbands and Wives) made her international debut as Sybylla Melvyn, a free spirited young writer who refues to conform to society's expectations of how a 'proper woman' should live her life. Sam Neill (Jurassic Park, The Piano) co-stars as the wealthy suitor who tries to win her restless heart in this Oscar nominated classic by Gillian Armstrong (Little Women, Starstruck). Long unavailable in America, My Brilliant Career has been fully restored and remastered in High Definition from the original negative, under the supervision of Academy Award nominated Director of Photography Donald McAlpine.

Mrs. Soffel

An air of gothic romanticism pervades every aspect of this remarkable film, based on a true story from the turn of the 20th century. In its torrid plot, one can hear the icy restraints of the Victorian era cracking. Diane Keaton is uncannily perfect as Kate Soffel, wife of a priggish prison warden (Edward Herrmann). She's funny and touching playing what used to be called a "neurasthenic"--a nervous, depressed woman with mysterious physical ailments. When the film opens, Kate is just recovering from a three-month-long spell, and back at work preaching to the inmates in her husband's prison. Whom should she encounter but dangerous death row inmate Ed Biddle, in the irresistible person of Mel Gibson. The forbidden affair that blossoms between them is feverishly exciting, but the film operates on myriad other levels. Director Gillian Armstrong (My Brilliant Career) and screenwriter Ron Nyswaner (Philadelphia) have much to say about capital punishment, and about the miserable fate of women in this repressive society who dare to act on their passions. There's nothing morally clear-cut in this movie, which is what makes it consistently fascinating. Kate and Ed's romance is as right as it is wrong; we never really know how to feel about either of them. The film's stunning cinematography and superb period details are exhilarating, from the towering, bleak beauty of the prison to the gorgeous panoramic chase scenes of horse-drawn sleighs in the snow. --Laura Mirsky

Starstruck (2-Disc Special Edition)

Director Gillian Armstrong (My Brilliant Career, Little Women) is behind this absolute gem of a movie. Though the soundtrack is pure New Wave, Starstruck has a surprisingly traditional plot. Jackie Mullins (Jo Kennedy, doing her own singing) has just gotta sing! And her cousin Angus is determined to make her famous. The two team up with local band The Wombats to take their shot at stardom and try to save the family pub. Starstruck's buoyant spirit will remind viewers of fellow Aussie films The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and Strictly Ballroom, but it has a charming quirkiness all its own. Armstrong fills the background with sly sight gags and throwaway lines ("I'm looking for something good for the cat." "How about a brick and a bag?"), and the choreography has a real sense of humor, right down to the water ballet number with inflatable sharks. But for all its deliberate silliness, Starstruck is a musical with real heart; the 1980s hairdos and giant kangaroo costumes can't cover up the movie's deep central conviction that dreams really can come true. --Ali Davis

From the Director of MY BRILLIANT CAREER - A Totally New Kind of Musical!

Three years after she rocked the movie industry with MY BRILLIANT CAREER, director Gillian Armstrong again brought the world to its feet with this unexpected musical comedy smash. Jo Kennedy stars as quirky young singer Jackie Mullens, who along with her 14-year-old manager/songwriter/ cousin Angus (Ross O'Donovan) will go to any outrageous lengths to chase their dreams of pop stardom. Oscar® winner Geoffrey Rush (SHINE, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN) makes one of his very first screen appearances in this acclaimed combination of delightful old-school story and explosive new wave musical that was nominated for three Australian Academy Awards - including Best Original Music Score - and features songs by Tim Finn and Phil Judd of legendary pop-rock band Split Enz.

Fires Within

From the director of My Brilliant Career comes this "sizzling romance" (Los Angeles Times) featuring Jimmy Smits ("NYPD Blue"), Greta Scacchi (Jefferson in Paris) and Vincent D'Onofrio (Full Metal Jacket) in "a classic romantic triangle [with] emotional impact" (Variety). When her journalist husband Nestor (Smits) is imprisoned in Cuba for his politicalbeliefs, Isabel (Scacchi) flees the country with her daughter. Saved off the shores of Miami by a fisherman (D'Onofrio), she soon falls deeply in love with her rescuer. But just as she's on the vergeof building a life with him, Nestor unexpectedly appears, released from the torturous Cuban prison and determined to win his wife and daughter back. Torn between the passion of her present and the love of her past, Isabel must now choose which man will be her future

Little Women (Classic Masterpiece Book & DVD Set)

The flaws are easily forgiven in this beautiful version of Louisa May Alcott's novel. A stirring look at life in New England during the Civil War, Little Women is a triumph for all involved. We follow one family as they split into the world, ending up with the most independent, the outspoken Jo (Winona Ryder). This time around, the dramatics and conclusions fall into place a little too well, instead of finding life's little accidents along the way. Everyone now looks a bit too cute and oh, so nice. As the matron, Marmee, Susan Sarandon kicks the film into a modern tone, creating a movie alive with a great feminine sprit. Kirsten Dunst (Interview with the Vampire) has another showy role. The young ensemble cast cannot be faulted, with Ryder beginning the movie in a role akin to light comedy and crescendoing to a triumphant end worthy of an Oscar. --Doug Thomas

Little Women

The flaws are easily forgiven in this beautiful version of Louisa May Alcott's novel. A stirring look at life in New England during the Civil War, Little Women is a triumph for all involved. We follow one family as they split into the world, ending up with the most independent, the outspoken Jo (Winona Ryder). This time around, the dramatics and conclusions fall into place a little too well, instead of finding life's little accidents along the way. Everyone now looks a bit too cute and oh, so nice. As the matron, Marmee, Susan Sarandon kicks the film into a modern tone, creating a movie alive with a great feminine sprit. Kirsten Dunst (Interview with the Vampire) has another showy role. The young ensemble cast cannot be faulted, with Ryder beginning the movie in a role akin to light comedy and crescendoing to a triumphant end worthy of an Oscar. --Doug Thomas

Little Havana [Region 2]