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- An opera by Benjamin Britten, on a libretto by E.M. Forster and Eric Crozier, adapted from the story by Herman Melville. Billy Budd is a young sailor aboard a British man-o'-war, persecuted by his master-at-arms, Claggart. Accused of mutiny, Budd accidently strikes Claggart dead, leaving Captain Vere with no choice but to hang him.
- A biopic about the eminent composer Sir Arnold Bax.
- Set in a British pub, eight men have their night out. Blokish fun is balanced on a knife-edge of tension, where weakness is exploited and violence covers up vulnerability. Originally created for the stage by DV8 Physical Theatre.
- This documentary series uses drama and commentary to shed light on the lives and works of Joseph Conrad, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, T. S. Eliot, Henrik Ibsen, James Joyce, Franz Kafka, Thomas Mann, Luigi Pirandello, Marcel Proust and Virginia Woolf.
- A historical adaptation of John Gay's 18th Century ballad opera, exuberantly performed for BBC television. With its story of a condemned highwayman, it brings to life the greed, lust and corruption of low-life London.
- Looks at our quest for someone to love and something, or someone, to believe in. The tyranny of couples and groups, the pain of not belonging and the fear of being alone are all laid bare in a series of powerful images.
- The opera tells the story of the downfall of Don José, a naïve soldier who is seduced by the wiles of the fiery gypsy Carmen.
- The French philosopher, writer and Nobel Prize winner died in a car crash in 1960, at the age of forty-six. Despite the unremitting seriousness of his intellectual stance as an Existentialist and his concern for the human condition, Camus had a zest for life and was a notorious womaniser. Jack Bonds fully dramatised film, a dreamlike vision set in the moment between life and death itself, evokes the man and his ideas.
- Human, All Too Human is a three-part 1999 documentary television series co-produced by the BBC and RM Arts.[1] It follows the lives of three prominent European philosophers: Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger and Jean-Paul Sartre.[1] The theme revolves heavily around the school of philosophical thought known as Existentialism, although the term had not been coined at the time of Nietzsche's writing and Heidegger declaimed the label. The documentary is named after the 1878 book written by Nietzsche, titled Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits (in German: Menschliches, Allzumenschliches: Ein Buch für freie Geister).[2]
- Ken Russell's film about the composer Bruckner, spending time at a sanatorium because of his obsessional counting.
- Frida Kahlo: declared a symbol of Mexican national heritage, made into a cult figure by the women's movement, praised by the likes of Picasso and Breton, this film uses images and music to reveal the soul of an icon. At the age of 18 she suffered an accident that would forever change her life, resulting in pain, numerous operations and childlessnesss. Insdie you will visit the Blue House in Coyoacan, the place of her birth and the last years of her life. Today, the house serves as a museum dedicated to the charismatic artist. Haunting self-portraits and a stirring world of images tell of her life and passions, her thoughts and feelings, her exhausting love for Diego Rivera and her deep connection to Mexico.
- When Sir John Falstaff decides that he wants to have a little fun he writes two letters to a pair of Window wives: Mistress Ford and Mistress Page. When they put their heads together and compare missives, they plan a practical joke or two to teach the knight a lesson. But Mistress Ford's husband is a very jealous man and is pumping Falstaff for information of the affair. Meanwhile the Pages' daughter Anne is besieged by suitors.
- This opera is set in Persia (present day Iran) in 480 BC and is very loosely based upon Xerxes I of Persia. Apart from the reported infatuation of King Xerxes with a plane tree and his reported construction of a bridge, this tale is pure supposition. Xerxes is engaged to Amatris, but wishes to marry Romilda, the daughter of his successful general. Romilda wants to marry Arsamenes, the brother of the King, but Atalanta - Romilda's sister - wants Arsamenes to be her husband.
- Ken Russell's biopic on his own life and career.
- A collection of 220 ten-minute programs, each one focusing on a painting, appraising its character and content. Host Edwin Mullins examines works in some of the world's finest art collections, galleries and museums, per 20 thematic groups.
- Her position at the side of her husband, Emperor Claudius, is not enough to satisfy the ambition of Agrippina, Empress of Rome. She schemes to elevate her son by her first marriage, Nero, to the throne. Then she will need only Nero to accomplish and acquire everything she dreams of.
- The widow, Anna Glawari, faces a dilemma. Pontevedro, her native country, will be left bankrupt if she weds a foreigner. An Embassy plot to marry her off to the debonair Count Danilo Danilovitch is complicated by the secret affair which has developed between the French attaché, Camille de Rosillon, and the Ambassador's wife, Valencienne. This light-hearted tale of political and amorous intrigue unfolds amidst the gaiety of high society in turn-of-the-century Paris.
- Filmed a year before the author's death in 1989, these special studio recordings of Eh Joe, Footfalls, and Rockaby are brief, concentrated, and pared down to the absolute essentials, even to the exclusion of colour are the definitive productions, made in close collaboration with the Nobel Laureate himself and featuring his favourite and most-trusted actress, Billie Whitelaw. Together these plays explore the themes of consciousness and self-image in Beckett's inimitable style.
- Modern adaptation of the classic operatic drama, with a few twists. Micaela, José's Mother, and Mörd (Death) are played by the same dancer. The action is reduced to a single act in 13 scenes. The love scenes are played to a minimum and the working women's fight is adjourned to the last scene [and cut from some DVD editions] that concentrates all the pathos announced throughout by the eerie music.
- This documentary details Roger Daltrey's background and years with the Who, and provides interviews and scenes from the BBC production of John Gay's Beggar's Opera.
- The first part of 'The Story of Fashion', with commentary from German fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld and British fashion/art journalist Meredith Etherington-Smith, analyzes the origins and current state of Twentieth Century fashion.
- Hungarian director Laszlo Kovacs (László Szabó) goes to Hollywood, where his compatriot Agi (Ágnes Bánfalvy) tries to get him started on a film document about the late movie director Orson Welles. She sends him the issue #82 of American Film magazine, November 1983, with several pages marked on controversial statements of Wells and other personalities. He gets curious, meets the young woman Agi, and she suggests a number of people to interview, who had known the late film director. Like his model, he is engulfed in the world of movies, alcohol, sex, film stardom and unfinished or inconclusive movies. A docudrama told in the style of Wells himself, with interviews presented and re-enacted so that ambivalence prevails over what is true and what is fake.
- In the 50s, Coco Chanel launched the suit that became her trademark. Using rare archival footage, this program explores the course of her career as well as the fascinating story of her personal life. Karl Lagerfeld is now heading the firm.
- Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka's magical masterpiece in its entirety, inspired by Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin's poem of a Russian tale. An evil sorcerer Chernomor casts a spell over wedding celebrations for Ruslan and Lyudmila at the court of Svetozar, the Prince of Kiev. Lyudmila vanishes and her father promises her hand and half his kingdom to the knight who rescues her. Ruslan on this quest of rescue encounters the knights Ratmir and Farlaf, the wise wizard Finn, the slave of Ratmir, Gorislava and sorceress Naina before confronting Chernomor in his magic garden. After all the challenges for Ruslan, true love prevails.
- Eugène Marais is Afrikaner intellectual, naturalist, poet, author, rebel and morphine addict who publicly attacked the repressive Transvaal Government. On a remote farm, trying to overcome his drug habit, Marais observes the animal world to understand the essence of dependency.
- The Earl of Essex, Robert Devereux, is hot-blooded and jealous of anyone who might win the Queen's favour. He provokes a fight with the tournament victor, Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy, but then the Queen and her entourage arrive. She orders the two men to make up, but later she discusses the rivalry of Mountjoy and Essex with her chief adviser, Sir Robert Cecil. She admires Essex, but Cecil warns her of the political dangers of showing affection for him. He also reports that a new Armada may be on the way. Essex comes in and requests permission to go to Ireland to suppress the Tyrone rebellion. He accuses Cecil and Sir Walter Raleigh of intriguing against him. The Queen resists and sends him away. Essex complains to his wife Frances about the way Elizabeth thwarts his desire to go to Ireland. Lady Essex gives a ball at which she dresses extravagantly and looks finer than her queen, but when the ladies return from changing their dresses after a dance, Lady Essex says that her dress was stolen, and it is clear that the larger woman, Queen Elizabeth, is wearing it. Essex is furious about his wife's humiliation, but the Queen says he will be appointed Lord Deputy in Ireland. In the final act, however, Essex has failed to put down the Irish rebellion. Though Elizabeth likes him, she cannot approve his failure or his paranoia and political battles at court. The Queen orders him imprisoned, and some citizens sympathize with Essex though others declare him a traitor and call for his death. Queen Elizabeth must now ponder her relationship with Essex in order to come to the best decision.
- Follows Shirley Verrett's professional and private life during the course of a year. Performance extracts show her in dramatic opera roles, performing blues numbers and spirituals interspersed with interviews.
- The second part of 'The Story of Fashion', with commentary from German fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld and British fashion/art journalist Meredith Etherington-Smith, analyzes the origins and current state of Twentieth Century fashion.
- Frans Hals (1582-1666) was a portrait painter with a unique style, admired for its originality and vivacity not only by the Impressionists but also by artists like van Gogh or Picasso. Very little documentation of his life exists today, so this film uses the thorough contemplation of his canvases as the key to his story. Works by the landscape artists and still-life painters of his time help to illustrate the age in which he lived. The film furthermore exemplifies the elaborate conventions of portraiture at the time.
- Norman Foster (b.1935) is widely considered to be one of the world's greatest living architects. He has offices in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Frankfurt, Berlin, Glasgow and London. While other international practices have succumbed to commercial pressures, Foster has retained a reputation for innovation and originality. He is also highly respected for his flair when adapting or converting older buildings to present-day needs. His designs are always rooted in his concern for minimal environmental damage and maximum technological efficiency. This film follows Foster at work in his office and on the site of some of his major new projects, including the Law Faculty at Cambridge University and the telecommunications tower in Santiago de Compostela. Foster is a man driven by his passion for architecture and his perfectionism. This portrait reveals not only his genius, but also his highly sensitive and artistic personality.