Film Festivals 2000
A broad spectrum of films this year offered up Miyazaki's beautiful anime 'Princess Mononoke', kiwi comedy 'Magik and Rose', and also from a New Zealand director, Alison McLean's wonderful 'Jesus' Son'. Eric Bana piled on the pounds for his role as 'Chopper' and Christian Bale played a different kind of maniac in 'American Psycho'. The Dogme team brought us the deliciously disturbing 'Celebration' and from China came the sumptuous historical epic 'The Emperor and the Assassin'.
Rear Window (1954)
8.5/10
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Grace Kelly, James Stewart, Raymond Burr, Thelma Ritter, Wendell Corey
An injured magazine photographer, confined to his apartment because of a broken leg, suspects a murder has been committed in a neighbouring flat. Conf... Read more
Rear Window ( Blu-ray ) (1954)
8.5/10
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Grace Kelly, James Stewart, Raymond Burr, Thelma Ritter, Wendell Corey
An injured magazine photographer, confined to his apartment because of a broken leg, suspects a murder has been committed in a neighbouring flat. Conf... Read more
Rosetta / La Promesse (1999)
Director: Luc Dardenne, Jean-Pierre Dardenne
Starring: Emilie Dequenne, Fabrizio Rongione, Anne Yernaux, Jeremie Renier, Olivier Gourme...
'Rosetta' (1999, 90 mins) Winner of the 1999 Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and widely hailed as a masterpiece, 'Rosetta' is an extraordinary... Read more
Saving Grace (1999)
6.9/10
Director: Nigel Cole
Starring: Brenda Blethyn, Craig Ferguson, Martin Clunes, Tcheky Karyo
On discovering she is left penniless after her husband's death, Grace turns for comfort to the one thing she loves - her greenhouse. But even Grace's... Read more
Show Me Love (1998)
7.6/10
Director: Lukas Moodysson
Starring: Rebecca Liljeberg, Erica Carlon, Alexandra Dahlstrom
Aka 'Fucking Amal'. Elin and Agnes are two teenage girls growing up in a small Swedish town. Elin is bored with her life in a community where things a... Read more
Shower (1999)
7.5/10
Director: Zhang Yang
Starring: Zhu Xu, Pu Cun Xin, Jiang Wu
This acclaimed drama from Zhang Yang is set in and around a Beijing bathhouse run by its elderly owner and his slow witted son. The proprietor's older... Read more
Soft Fruit (1999)
6.6/10
Director: Christina Andreff
Starring: Russell Dykstra, Linal Haft, Genevieve Lemon, Jeanie Drynan
Following an auspicious career in short films, New Zealander Christina Andreff dives headfirst into the realm of family dysfunction in this brilliant... Read more
Songcatcher (2000)
7.2/10
Director: Maggie Greenwald
Starring: Janet McTeer, Aidan Quinn, Jane Adams, Pat Carroll
A film about a woman whose drive to pursue the things she believes in leads her on an unexpected path to self-discovery. It is 1907, and musicologist... Read more
Tadpole (2002)
6.2/10
Director: Gary Winick
Starring: Sigourney Weaver, John Ritter, Bebe Neuwirth, Robert Iler, Aaron Stanford
Returning home from his posh boarding school for Thanksgiving, intellectual 15-year old Oscar Grubman intends to declare his love for his stepmother,... Read more
The Book of Life (1998)
6.7/10
Director: Hal Hartley
Starring: Martin Donovan, Thomas Jay Ryan, P J Harvey
This French produced quirky offering tells of the Second Coming of Christ. Jesus (Martin Donovan) and his assistant Magdalena (P J Harvey) are sent b... Read more