robert-bucknor's - FAVOURITES List

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"Amadeus" triumphs as gripping human drama, sumptuous period epic, glorious celebration of the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It's 1781 and Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham) is the competent court composer to Emperor Joseph II.

When Mozart (Tom Hulce) arrives at court, Salieri is horrified to discover that the godlike musical gifts he desires for himself have been bestowed on a bawdy, impish jokester. Mad with envy, he plots to destroy Mozart by any means. Perhaps, even murder.

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In 1981, disenchanted with what the communist ideal has become, KGB Colonel Grigoriev decides to change the world by passing on secret documents to Pierre, a French engineer working in Moscow.

With Pierre acting as a go-between, the valuable documents find their way into the hands of France's President Mitterrand and the French Secret Service, who give the Moscow source the codename 'Farewell'. Based on a true story, Farewell reveals one of the most astounding espionage cases to come out of the Cold War.

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A government satellite crashes outside a small town in New Mexico - and within minutes, every inhabitant of the town is dead, except for a crying baby and an elderly derelict The satellite and the two survivors are sentto Wildfire, a top-secret underground laboratory equipped with a nuclear

self-destruct mechanism to prevent the spread of infection in case of an outbreak. Realising that the satellite brought back a lethal organism from another world, a team of government scientists race against the clock to understand the extraterrestrial virus - codenamed "Andromeda" - before it can wipe out all life on the planet.

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Written and directed by Godard, 'Alphaville' is the strangely beautiful futuristic tale of Lemmy Caution (Eddie Constantine), an American private eye sent to a planet ruled by Von Braun (Anna Karina), a malevolent scientist who has outlawed human emotions in favour of logic.

The film deals with the fight between individualism in the face of inhumanity and blind conformity...

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While vacationing in Florida, Mr and Mrs Kendall and their 12-year-old daughter Marisa purchase a 10 inch long baby alligator. Upon their return home, the infant alligator proves to be a nuisance and Mr Kendall flushes it down the toilet.

It survives the journey through twisting pipes and emerges deep in the sewer system. Unknown to the public, secret hormone experiments are being conducted on dogs, and the dogs are disposed of by throwing their hormone filled corpses into the sewers inhabited by the now growing alligator. After twelve years of feeding on infected dogs, the hormonal chemistry of the alligator is affected and he grows to become a 36 foot long giant. After a series of harrowing experiences, the alligator is forced to break out of the sewer and smash onto the streets.

The Mutation finds a giant alligator on the loose, this time terrorizing some lakeshore property coveted by unscrupulous developer Vincent Brown. Brown's been pumping toxic waste into the sewers that feed into the lake, and the resulting mutation starts to munch on the locals. Investigating the carnage is cop David Hodges, who finds evidence that the malefactor is big and green.

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"All That Jazz" is actually a semi-autobiographical account of the life of its celebrated writer/director/choreographer, Bob Fosse. The multi-talented performer was an Oscar, Tony and Emmy Award winner who brought home a combined total of eight trophies.

Part tragic, part comic, this outrageous look at life in the fast lane is the Academy Award - winning musical about Bob Fosse's excessive life in show business, played by Roy Schneider. Dazzlingly presented, this electrifying story about the perils of pushing yourself too hard is filled with Fosse's legendary song-and-dance choreography.

The Collins sisters repeated the success with 'The Bitch', an even raunchier sequel that finds Khaled residing in a freewheeling world of fashionable clubs and expensive limos. A high-spirited divorcee whose sole aim in life is sexual pleasure, she has not acquired her ruthless moniker for nothing....

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It's a short journey from respectability to a life of crime. That's what architect Stephen Booker (Martin Sheen) learns when he loses his stake in the company he built and can't find any other projects to replace his once-stable income.

Much to his surprise, he begins to consider less legitimate ways to make ends meet. And nothing short of the spectacular - pulling a heist at one of London's best-known banks - will do.

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When rich, eccentric Edwina Cutwater (Lily Tomlin) died, a crazy guru tried to transport her soul into the body of a beautiful young woman. But the Guru goofed. And Edwina's soul has accidentally taken over the entire right side of her lawyer, Roger Cobb (Steve Martin).

He still control's what's left. Now, Edwina and Roger are living in the same body.

When "B" and his buddies can't get into college they fix the problem ... by inventing their own! Pretty soon it's a riot of babes in bikinis, parties by the pool and a big headache - how to convince the students and the authorities that the fake college is the real deal!!!

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In her remarkable portrayal that won her the 1974 Best Actress Academy Award, Ellen Burstyn stars as widow Alice Hyatt, travelling in a packed station wagon with her son along a bumpy road to a new life.

With Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, director Martin Scorsese is as much at home in the semi-rural Southwest as he is in the urban environs of his signature movies. He guides the "live a little, learn a lot" of Alice's odyssey with affection unmarred by sentiment and draws pitch-perfect performances from co-stars Kris Kristofferson, Alfred Lutter, Jodie Foster, Harvey Keitel, Vic Tayback and Oscar nominee Diane Ladd. It's a slice of life as real, funny and thought-provoking as any you've ever seen. Or lived.

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Jan Svankmajer's Alice is a creepy and disturbing adaptation of Lewis Carroll's original vision.

Combining a live-action Alice (Kristyna Kohoutova) with a stop-motion Wonderland filled with threatening, bizarre characters, the film brilliantly marries a sly visual wit with piercing psychological insight. Presented here fully uncut and in its original Czech-language version for the very first time, this comprehensive release also gathers together a selection of rare and fascinating Alice-related short films.

Throughout his life, Sheriff Wade Whitehouse (Nick Nolte) has been cowed and brutalised by his father, a venomous alcoholic. But a child never forgets a cruelty, and two suspicious deaths in their small New Hampshire town lead inexorably to a cataclysmic confrontation between father and son.

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Rose, an optometrist paralyzed by grief after the death of her infant, has built a wall around herself. When an elderly patient, a painter losing his eyesight, begins to visit her office unannounced, Rose registers hid loneliness and urges him to ask for help - something neither does easily.

Meanwhile Simon, a teenager with an overbearing mother, photographs people at a distance with a borrowed long lens. When Rose comes into his focus, he captures her on film, and the pictures he takes connects them, and provides a way out for each of them from their self-imposed exile.

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In America, can a man be guilty until proven innocent? Suppose you picked up this morning's newspaper and your life was a front page headline... and everything they said was accurate but not true. This is the dilemma that must be faced in this timely drama about the incredible power of the press.

Michael Gallagher (Paul Newman) reads in the paper that he is the subject of a criminal investigation. Suddenly, everything he has ever worked for is in jeopardy. He confronts the author, Megan Carter (Sally Field), a relentless investigative reporter. Together they learn that the story was purposely leaked to Carter as part of a plot by the chief investigator. Gallagher's life hangs in the balance as he and Carter try to uncover the truth.