Winterbottom, Michael

9 songs - Unrated Full Uncut Version

Maverick director Michael Winterbottom wondered about the double standard of why novels can have explicit sex scenes and be legit and films could not. So his short film of a relationship based solely on sex and a love for music is the result of that thought. If the definition of a porn film is to shoot actors performing graphic sex scenes for real, then 9 Songs qualifies. It certainly doesn't feel or look like your standard whoopdee-do XXX feature. It's as glossy and low-budget arty as Winterbottom's 24 Hour Party People or I Want You. But yeah, Matt and Lisa do everything to each other, and the actors are not "just acting" in some of the sex scenes. No matter how landmark the movie might be, there is not much story here (at least a book with hot sex often has a good story to it). Lisa is an American drifter in London who hooks up with Matt, a scientist who studies glaciers in Antarctica. They have sex and visit nine rock concerts including Franz Ferdinand and The Dandy Warhols. As advertised, you can't find these musical performances anywhere else, but we just see them from way back in the crowd. The film has an essence of how someone can find bliss in another person's body, and the emotional, magical weight that can hold over you. But that spell doesn't last. Since the sex is real, Winterbottom had to cast unknown actors, and they really don't make an impression, especially with the lack of story. --Doug Thomas

Matt, a young glaciologist, soars across the vast, silent, icebound immensities of the South Pole as he recalls his love affair with Lisa. They meet at a mobbed rock concert in a vast music hall - London's Brixton Academy. They are in bed at night's end. Together, over a period of several months, they pursue a mutual sexual passion whose stages unfold in counterpoint to nine live-concert songs. Featuring nine live concert performances not available anywhere else by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, The Von Bondies, Elbow, Primal Scream, The Dandy Warhols, Super Furry Animals, Franz Ferdinand and Michael Nyman. Special features include a Concert Performance-only option.

24 Hour Party People

An ingenious docudrama on the Manchester music scene of the 1980s and '90s. 24 Hour Party People traces the rise and fall of bands like Joy Division, New Order, and Happy Mondays--bands whose success in the U.S. was limited, but whose impact in Europe (and England in particular) was phenomenal. It all centers around the record label that spawned these bands, Factory Records, and its impresario Tony Wilson (Steve Coogan), a man both ludicrous in his self-absorption and brilliant in his willingness to go out on a limb for bands he likes. Coogan, a British comic, gives a remarkable and deeply funny performance that manages to be simultaneously sincere and ironic. The movie communicates what was great about this time without any false majesty--the squalor and disasters are as crucial to this portrait as the wild successes. The soundtrack, of course, is superb. --Bret Fetzer

"Magnificent" (The New York Times), "amazing" (Los Angeles Times) and "a blast" (Rolling Stone), this true story of the raucous anti-establishment explosion that revolutionized the music industry is "miraculous one of the smartest, liveliest, most engaging and involving works you're likely to see this year" (Premiere)! Blown away by an unknown local band called the Sex Pistols, TV personality Tony Wilson (Steve Coogan) is inspired to invent a uniquely anarchic record label. Soon he's promoting everyone from New Order to Happy Mondays on his newly formed Factory Records and partying like a rock star. From Tony's speedy rise to Factory's hedonistic fall, this "wonderful party of a movie stamps on a smiley face that will stay with you for hours" (New York Post)!

A Mighty Heart

A Mighty Heart comes at the murder of journalist Daniel Pearl with a de-glamorized intensity: it's not a melodrama about Pearl's kidnapping and killing at the hands of Islamic terrorists, but a near-documentary about the process of trying to find him. Thus the center of the film is not Pearl (Dan Futterman) but his wife Mariane (Angelina Jolie), a cool customer who manages--almost--to maintain her calm throughout the weeks-long ordeal. Director Michael Winterbottom is less overtly political here than in his Road to Guantanamo, although the reactions of various authorities, from U.S. officials to local Pakistani cops, give the flavor of different attitudes and approaches. Jolie, playing the Dutch-Afro-Cuban Mariane Pearl, does nicely at playing her character's control (others marvel at her sangfroid), yet she remains recognizably human throughout. By no means a star turn, the movie leaves Mariane for long stretches, and other actors shine: Irfan Khan as a detective, Denis O'Hare as Daniel Pearl's Washington Post editor, and Will Patton as a stymied diplomat. As engrossing as the movie generally is, the point of emphasizing the police-procedural method is sometimes obscure. Oddly enough, by rejecting the usual string-pulling of conventional Hollywood drama, A Mighty Heart ends up without a strong point of view--as good as its pieces are. --Robert Horton

Paramount A Mighty Heart (HD-DVD)Academy Award(R) winnerAngelina Jolie ("The Good Shepherd") "gives one the most commanding and moving performances of her career" (Richard Roeper Ebert & Roeper) in this shocking true story based on Mariane Pearl's best-selling memoir. After her husband Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl (Dan Futterman "Urbania") is kidnapped by terrorists Mariane (Jolie) heads a desperate search for clues in a frantic raceagainst time to locate her missing husband. Directed by maverick filmmaker Michael Winterbottom ("The Road To Guantanamo") "A Mighty Heart" is a gripping story of faith hope and courage in the faceof tragedy.System Requirements:Run Time: 108 minutes Genre: CHILDREN/FAMILY Rating: R UPC: 097363505242

Code 46

Like Gattaca did before it, Code 46 extrapolates from the present to posit a chilling, dystopian look at our genetically regimented future. In the corporate-controlled, near-future scenario presented by prolific director Michael Winterbottom and his regular screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce, nations and languages have merged to form a polyglot society in which genetic imperfections are avoided by the strict enforcement of Code 46, which prohibits sex between people who share 100%, 50%, or even 25% matching DNA. As an insurance-fraud investigator in Shanghai to investigate the issuance of forged passports (a major offense in an overcrowded world), Tim Robbins meets his prime suspect (Samantha Morton, echoing her role in Minority Report), and their violation of Code 46 has tragic and ultimately dehumanizing repercussions. Fascinating as a "what-if" scenario, Winterbottom's film is more successful as a melancholy mood-piece than a science-fiction tale. While the plot and characters suffer from occasionally vague definition, Code 46 offers a fascinating study of human longing in an age of oppressive globalization. --Jeff Shannon

What if the person you desired most was the one person you were forbidden to love? Oscar® winner* Tim Robbins and Oscar® nominee** Samantha Morton "make a sexy and moving pair of desperadoes" (Entertainment Weekly) in this "provocative quietly erotic" (Premiere) sci-fi thriller from the director of 24 Hour Party People.In the near future privileged classes live and work "inside" cities while non-citizens scratch out a miserable existence "outside" in a vast desert. People cannot leave their designated zones without special visas known as "papeles." When fraudulent papeles surface Seattle investigator William Geld (Robbins) travels to Shanghai to ferret out the culprit and meets Maria Gonzalez (Morton) a woman with whom he has a passionate affair but breaks one of society's harshest laws: Code 46.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: MYSTERY/SUSPENSE Rating: NR UPC: 027616914354 Manufacturer No: 1007344

Cracker - Series 2

Cracker: Series 1 was fine--a terrific premiere and two interesting sequels introduced freelance police psychologist Eddie "Fitz" Fitzgerald (Robbie Coltrane) and his family and colleagues—but series 2 is unexpectedly and vastly superior. The three miniseries included on these discs are exemplary thrillers (even better than the first trio), but the real leap forward is in the stories' deepening complexity and fascinating intertwining of Fitz's strained relationships and work.

"To Be a Somebody" begins where series 1 left off. Fitz and his wife, Judith (Barbara Flynn), and two kids are living together again, but the rotund profiler--still juggling multiple addictions to booze, gambling, nicotine, and overall self-destructiveness--is on a new, downward spiral. His name is also mud with Detective Chief Inspector Bilborough (Christopher Eccleston) and would-be lover and police detective Jane "Panhandle" Penhaligon (Geraldine Somerville). But a series of class-anger killings by a psychotic welder-turned-skinhead pulls Fitz into a case so disastrous that every major and minor character is profoundly affected. Portraying the murderer, Robert Carlyle (Trainspotting) is brilliant, as terrifying and sympathetic as Taxi Driver's Travis Bickle.

The emotional and dramatic fallout of "To Be Somebody" carries over to "The Big Crunch," in which Fitz's relationship with Jane intensifies while he pursues a religious cult that may be responsible for a girl's abduction. The final story, "Men Should Weep," concerns an investigation into an unnerving string of rapes by a masked, mutilated cab driver. More startling is a link between these crimes and eruptive events in the lives of Fitz, Judith, Jane, and thickheaded, thorn-in-the-side copper Jimmy Beck (Lorcan Cranitch). A breathtaking climax and shocking, cliffhanger ending make "Men Should Weep" a must-see for thriller fans. --Tom Keogh

Second in a series of three DVD releases of the popular PBS Mystery series; including 9 hours of programming. Robbie Coltrane's outstanding creation of 'Fitz' in the PBS series Cracker 1 continues his journey as a criminal psychologist in three more episodes: To be a Somebody The Big Crunch and Men Should Weep. 'Fitz' combats personal crises and professional challenges when racism religion and murder get in his way.Running Time: 468 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS UPC: 026359907722

Cracker: Series 1

Hot on the heels of PRIME SUSPECT came Robbie Coltrane's (Hagrid in the Harry Potter movies) outstanding creation of "Fitz" in the PBS series CRACKER. Fitz is an addicted gambler a heavy drinker and a brilliant if deeply flawed criminal psychologist. He is to the working mind of a killer what CSI is to a trace of blood or a single hair. For Fitz murder is just the beginning. Three stories follow Fitz as he investigates an accused commuter train killer with amnesia a couple who share love and murder and the killing of a young boy that shakes a community to its core.Running Time: 420 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS UPC: 026359924422

The compelling Cracker is among the more exciting British mystery series from the 1990s, featuring a hero so flawed he's just as likely to end up inside a jail cell as outside chasing bad guys. Robbie Coltrane, perhaps best known for playing Rubeus Hagrid in the Harry Potter movies, is unconventional psychologist Eddie "Fitz" Fitzgerald, a rotund teacher who exhorts students to look within their dark hearts and who gleefully embraces his own addictions to gambling, booze, and nicotine.

Caught in a downward spiral, Fitz sneers as his debts mount and his wife (Barbara Flynn) leaves him, but he rallies when a favorite student is slashed to death on a train in series debut "The Mad Woman in the Attic." The suspect, a longtime amnesiac, is put through grueling police torments, but Fitz believes in the man's innocence, thus establishing his ambivalent relationship with Detective Chief Inspector Bilborough (Christopher Eccleston) and a quasi-romantic alliance with another detective, Jane "Panhandle" Penhaligon (Geraldine Somerville, also from the Potter films). Michael Winterbottom, now a renowned feature filmmaker (Welcome to Sarajevo), provides admirable direction.

Fitz's interest in obsessive behavior and his talent for spinning out instant psychological profiles makes him invaluable to Bilborough in subsequent episode "To Say I Love You," in which a rage-filled young man and his scheming girlfriend kill a loan shark. Though the story is less interesting than the Cracker pilot, Fitz's slow crawl back to self-respect and resentful cooperation with his estranged wife's therapist are irresistible entertainment. Finally, "One Day a Lemming Will Fly," in which the murder of a 13-year-old boy sparks a lynch-mob mentality among the public, is a strong two-parter that raises some interesting crises for Fitz. Does he belong with his wife and kids or with Panhandle? Is he better at his job when his personal life is a disaster? The provocative final scenes make one hunger to see more of Cracker. --Tom Keogh

Tristram Shandy - A Cock and Bull Story

Michael Winterbottom is no stranger to literary adaptation. Both Jude and The Claim were drawn from works by Thomas Hardy. Nor is the versatile filmmaker a stranger to the post-modern romp, like 24 Hour Party People. In that paean to Manchester's music scene, Steve Coogan was Factory honcho Tony Wilson. In Winterbottom's take on Laurence Sterne's digressive The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, the prolific helmer combines literature with lunacy and brings Coogan back as the titular character--and then some. Coogan doesn't just portray the 18th century squire, but his father Walter and insecure actor "Steve Coogan." It's a film about the making of a film, effortlessly shifting between Tristram's tumultuous birth and his frustrated adulthood--bogged down in the writing of his life story--and between fiction and (what appears to be) fact. There are no end to the worries on and off the set: Coogan worries his heels aren't high enough, Rob Brydon worries his teeth are too yellow, and Coogan's girlfriend (Kelly Macdonald) worries she isn't seeing enough of him. It may sound like Spike Jonze's Adaptation, but in spirit, it more closely resembles Tony Richardson's Tom Jones. Coogan and his co-stars, particularly Naomie Harris as the ultimate film nut, Gillian Anderson as the American brought in to boost the project's profile, and Brydon as Tristram's Uncle Toby are as game for the challenge as their fearless leader. Consequently, Tristram Shandy isn't just one of Winterbottom's best films--it's one of the year's best. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Michael Winterbottom's TRISTRAM SHANDY: A COCK AND BULL STORY is a rollicking inventive adaptation of the notoriously unfilmable British comic novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy Gentleman written by Laurence Sterne. Crammed with literary jokes and dark humor and aided by stellar performances by Jeremy Northam Rob Brydon and Naomie Harris Shandy's warped tales reveal far more about himself than any conventional autobiography.Running Time: 94 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 026359328329 Manufacturer No: 93283

Cracker: A New Terror

The brilliant but self-destructive psychologist Dr. Edward "Fitz" Fitzgerald returns for a final, feature-length, and satisfying mystery in Cracker: A New Terror. Having spent a decade in Australia with his wife and youngest son, Fitz (Robbie Coltrane) returns to Manchester, England for his daughter's wedding, instantly demonstrating--by humiliating her at the reception--that he hasn't altered his old, abrasive ways. Despite that, Fitz's family seems finally resigned to his difficult personality and constant boozing, but far less so to his willingness to help the police solve baffling murder cases. Cracker: A New Terror finds Fitz caught up in the investigation of two killings of Americans, a case that points to a Manchester cop (Anthony Flanagan) as a likely suspect. As usual in Cracker adventures, the insightful script by Jimmy McGovern identifies the killer right away for viewers, the better to set up Fitz's psychological challenge in breaking through a killer's resistance. Directed by Antonia Bird (Priest), Cracker: A New Terror portrays Fitz as a man encountering a new, post-9/1l England, afraid of a new breed of terrorism but hardly over the psychological scars of enduring decades of terror inflicted by the Irish Republican Army. Provocative, tense, and inspired, and featuring another remarkable performance by Coltrane in his best role, Cracker: A New Terror is a great way to close out the series. --Tom Keogh

The Claim

Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge has been transplanted to the edge of the American frontier in this vivid drama that didn't receive the theatrical exposure it deserved. Although top young actors adorn the movie's ads, the central character--Daniel Dillon, a man who runs the gold rush town of Kingdom Come--is played by little-known Peter Mullen. In the dead of winter in 1849, three people arrive in town, changing irrevocably Dillon's life. One is Donald Dalglish (Wes Bentley), the clear-thinking leader of a railroad prospect crew who will determine where the railroad line--and a new line of wealth--will be built. The others are a mother and daughter (Nastassja Kinski, Sarah Polley) who have a past connection to Dillon and the knowledge of how he became rich. As events unfold--in pure Hardy fashion--Dillon finds himself facing a crossroads, with one path leading to redemption. The cast is uniformly brilliant, but special praise must go to Mullen, who carries the film's dramatic weight, and to Bentley, who is so composed in a role completely dissimilar to his breakthrough work in American Beauty. Director Michael Winterbottom (who adapted another Hardy piece with his film Jude) and cinematographer Alwin H. Kuchler have fashioned their film after Robert Altman's landmark McCabe and Mrs. Miller in the natural, earthy feel of a frontier town. The film opened in 2000 and deservedly appeared on a few top 10 lists, then was rereleased the following year. --Doug Thomas

Against the dramatic backdrop of the rugged Sierra Nevada mountains, The Claim's richly textured story of love, betrayal, loss and redemption unfolds. This "beautifully acted" (Premiere) tale strikes pure gold with an all-star cast featuring Wes Bentley (American Beauty), MillaJovovich (The Fifth Element), Peter Mullan (Miss Julie), Sarah Polley (Go) andNastassja Kinski (Tess) and is "one of the best movies in recent memory" (Elle). It's 1869 and Daniel Dillon (Mullan) has made a fortune off his claim to gold-rich property in California. He knows that if his prosperity is to continue, he must convince a railroad planner (Bentley) to connect the new line through his town. But the plans to bring the train are derailed when, on a cold, wintry day, a mother (Kinski) and daughter (Polley) mysteriously arrive, revealing a shocking connection to Dillon one that could devastate his town, his life and his empire.

Welcome to Sarajevo

Nothing that British filmmaker Michael Winterbottom made before Welcome to Sarajevo (including Butterfly Kiss and Jude) suggested the clarifying rage of this 1997 film, which is based on the experiences of British journalist Michael Nicholson while on assignment in Bosnia. Made emotionally numb by the savagery and insanity of Serbian aggression on Sarajevo and surrounding towns and countryside, reporter Michael Henderson (Stephen Dillane in a remarkable performance) awakens to the plight of one orphanage and particularly to that of a girl whom he promises to rescue. Henderson's efforts lead to a harrowing bus journey to (temporary) protection for some of the kids (others, quite shockingly, are carried off en route by Serb marauders), and then a second, even more dangerous good deed to finish what he started. The film's dimensions go well beyond that story line, however, as Winterbottom re-creates the gallows-humor culture of international correspondents in a blighted region, as well as the nightmare of the Sarajevo siege. Most savage of all, however, is the director's use of news clips in a pointed attack on the West's refusal to deal with the slaughter and outrages in Bosnia at their peak. The supporting cast might look like a bunch of famous names (Kerry Fox, Marisa Tomei) used decorously to attract attention to the film, but in fact everyone is very good, especially Woody Harrelson as an American journalist whose entrance in the story is one of the most memorable in recent history. --Tom Keogh

An offbeat band of TV journalists report from a devastated war-torn country. One of the journalists risks his life to smuggle an orphaned girl to safety.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: R
Release Date: 5-APR-2005
Media Type: DVD