robert-bucknor's - FAVOURITES List

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N., an entity, a way of life, that consumes the life forces of other beings in order to further its own life. Told without dialogue, narration, cast or characters, 'Powaqqatsi' is a dizzying, hypnotic example of cinema set to an extraordinary score by Philip Glass.

Godfrey Reggio's remarkable sequel to 'Koyaanisqatsi', his previous collaboration with Glass, focuses on the Southern hemisphere and witnesses ancient cultures and traditions slowly eroding away as the modern world takes over.

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Double bill featuring two of the films produced by the acclaimed partnership of composer Philip Glass and filmmaker Godfrey Reggio.

Koyaanisqatsi (1983)

Prepare to experience a truly remarkable film - a cinematic masterpiece so extraordinary that it regales the senses, stimulates the mind and actually redefines the potential of filmmaking. Celebrated director Godfrey Reggio, innovative cinematographer Ron Fricke and Golden Globe-winning composer Philip Glass have created a spellbinding film so rich in beauty and detail that with each viewing it becomes a new and different film. Unique, profound, mesmerizing, and thought-provoking, Koyaanisqatsi contrasts the tranquil beauty of nature with the frenzied hum of contemporary urban society. Uniting breathtaking imagery with a hauntingly evocative, award-winning score, it is original and fascinating.
Powaqqatsi (1988)
Hailed by audiences and critics around the world as mesmerizing, this second instalment of writer/director Godfrey Reggio's apocalyptic "qatsi" trilogy is quite simply one of the most magnificent visual and aural spectacles ever made. Combining stunning cinematography with the exquisite music of award-winning composer Philip Glass, Powaqqatsi is a breathtaking experience working on many levels - emotional, spiritual, intellectual and aesthetic! Bold, haunting and epic in scale, this extraordinary film calls into question everything we think we know about contemporary society. By juxtaposing images of ancient cultures with those of modern life, Powaqqatsi masterfully portrays the human cost of progress. It is a film that engages the soul as well as the mind - it is truly an absorbing experience.

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Meet a dewy-eyed ingenue, a gee-whiz tenor, stuck-up stars, hard-up producers, brassy blondes and "shady ladies from the 80s". They're all denizens of '42nd Street', belting out ageless Harry Warren/Al Dubin songs and tapping out Busby Berkeley's sensational Depression - lifting production numbers.

The put-on-a-show plot spins merrily, full of snappy banter and new faces Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell and Ginger Rogers. The show-stopping numbers (Shuffle off to Buffalo, You're Getting to Be a Habit with Me and the title tune) still dazzle. Looking and sounding its best in years via this new digital transfer from the restored original camera negative and optical audio tracks, '42nd Street' shows good times never go out of style.

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Divorced and disillusioned, Roslyn Tabor (Marilyn Monroe) befriends a group of "misfits", including an ageing cowboy (Clark Gable), a heartbroken mechanic (Eli Wallach) and a worn-out rodeo rider (Montgomery Clift).

Through their live-for-the-moment lifestyle, Roslyn experiences her first taste of freedom, exhilaration and passion. But when her innocent idealism clashes with their hard-edged practicality, Roslyn must risk losing their friendship... and the only true love she's ever known.

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Los Angeles, city of angels. Amnesiac and wounded, a mysterious femme fatale wanders on the sinuous road of Mulholland Drive. She finds a shelter at Betty's house (Naomi Watts). an aspiring actress just arrived from her hometown and in search of stardom in Hollywood.

First of all intrigued by the stranger who calls herself Rita (Laura Elena Harring), Betty discovers that her handbag is dull of dollar bundles. The two women get to know each other better and decide to investigate in order to discover Rita's true identity....

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In 1988, Mike Figgis made his feature directorial debut with 'Stormy Monday', a taut, noir-influenced gangster movie that drew on his key formative influences, including his youth in the Newcastle of the late '50s and early '60s, and the city's vibrant jazz scene.

Sean Bean plays Brendan, a young loafer taken under the wing of jazz club owner Finney (Sting), who's under pressure from American mobster Cosmo (Tommy Lee Jones) to sell up in exchange for a cut of a local land development deal. Brendan just wants to earn an honest crust, but his burgeoning relationship with Cosmo's ex-lover Kate (Melanie Griffith) threatens to drag him into the middle of the impending showdown...

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Returning from the war to discover his father has been crippled in an altercation with a brutish mob-connected kingpin, Nick Garcos (Richard Conte) puts aside thoughts of settling down and instead focuses them on revenge.

He buys an old army surplus truck and hits the road - a 36-hour non-stop drive to San Francisco and, he hopes, a little justice...

A powerful front line cast, including Sean Penn, Nick Nolte, Woody Harrelson, and George Clooney, explodes into action in this hauntingly realistic view of military and moral chaos in the Pacific during World War II.

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This Is England tells the story of Shaun (Thomas Turgoose), an 11 year old kid growing up in the North of England.

Set during the summer holidays of 1983, it follows his journey from a shaggy haired ruffian grieving the loss of his father into a shaven headed thug whose anger and pain are embraced by the local skinhead fraternity. Largely based on Meadows' own personal experience, This Is England not only captures a specific point in British history, but also beautifully articulates the allure of being part of a gang. Brilliantly charting a course from the joyous early passages to darker territory, Meadows also skilfully and with great sensitivity deals with the complexities of rage, race and masculinity.

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Three different time periods, 1966, 1911 & 2005. Three different Stories. Two amazing performances as Asia's brightest new stars, Shu Qi & Chang Chen, play out three enrapturing tales of unfinished love...

1966, a time for love.

A young man enlisted for military service falls for a beautiful girl in a 1960's pool hall. But will she wait for him?

1911, a time for freedom.
A courtesan in a brothel falls in love with one of her clients, a political activist on the brink of joining the Chinese revolution.

2005, a time for youth.
Hidden passions arise when a beautiful bisexual singer becomes involved in a tangled affair with a photographer.

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The very rich and extremely greedy Duke Brothers (Don Ameche and Ralph Bellamy) wager a bet over whether "born-loser" Billy Ray Valentine (Eddie Murphy) could become as successful as the priggish Louis Winthorpe III (Dan Aykroyd) if circumstances were reversed.

So begins one of the funniest, most outrageous comedies of the '80s, cementing Eddie Murphy's superstar status. Alongside the street-smarts of Ophelia (Jamie Lee Curtis), Winthorpe and Valentine are a trio ready for a riotous revenge that culminates on the commodities trading floor in New York City.

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It's the high-stakes, high-risk world of the drug trade as seen through a well-blended mix of interrelated stories: a Mexican policeman (Benicio Del Toro) finds himself and his partner caught in an often deadly web of corruption; a pair of DEA agents (Don Cheadle and Luis Guzman) work undercover in

a sordid and dangerous part of San Diego; a wealthy drug baron living in upscale, suburban America is arrested and learns how quickly his unknowing and pampered wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones) takes over his business; and the U.S. President's new drug czar (Michael Douglas) must deal with his increasingly drug-addicted teenage daughter.

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For thirteen extroardinary days in October 1962, the world stood on the brink of an unthinkable catastrophe.

Across the globe, people anxiously awaited the outcome of a harrowing political, diplomatic and military confrontation that had threatened to end in apocalyptic nuclear exchange between the United States and the Soviet Union. In Thirteen Days, the power and the peril of the American presidency is dramatically explored by director Roger Donaldson, who captures the urgency, suspense and paralysing chaos of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The alarming escalation of events during those fateful days brought to the fore such public figures as Robert McNamara, Adlai Stevenson, Theodore Sorenson, Andrei Gromyko, Anatoly Dobrynin, McGeorge Bundy, Dean Acheson, Dean Rusk, and General Curtis LeMay. In addition, many others - politicians, diplomats and soldiers were on the front line of the showdown. In Thirteen Days, we see all of these people, and, above all, President John F. Kennedy and his brother Bobby, through the eyes of a trusted presidential aide and confidante, Kenneth P. O'Donnell (Kevin Costner).

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Screen legends Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw team up with Martin Balsam and Hector Elizondo to deliver a sure-fire entertainment that's gripping and exciting from beginning to end and is guaranteed to give you the ride of your life.

A gang of armed professionals hijack a New York subway train somewhere outside the Pelham station threatening to kill one hostage per minute unless their demands are met. Forced to stall these unknown assailants until a ransom is delivered or a rescue is made, transit chief Lt. Garber (Matthau) must shrewdly outmaneuver one of the craftiest and cruelest villains (Shaw) in a battle of wits that will either end heroically or tragically.

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Man has split the atom and ushered in a new era. But how could he know he would also create Them!? A landmark movie about giant radiation-mutated ants that gets better with age and boasts remarkable Academy Award - nominated special effects.

Starring James Whitmore, James Arness and Edmund Gwenn, Them! begins in New Mexico with a child wondering in shock, a ransacked general store - and a battered corpse full of enough formic acid to kill 20 men. It ends with an epic struggle in the 700 miles of storm drains under Los Angeles, where the insect hordes are beaten. But they're not conquered because they spawned a generation of films about radioactive creatures. Some approximate the terror but few have equaled the artistry of Them!