The legendary director Ruth Berghaus created this staging of Carl Maria von Weber’s Der Freischütz as a gripping theatrical experience for the Zurich Opera in 1993. Its revival in 1999 was a roaring success. With sets by Hartmut Meyer and costumes by Marie-Louise Strandt, Berghaus’ staging avoids the local peasant colour conventionally associated with Weber’s opera. Chorus and orchestra of the Zurich Opera House are conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt, universally celebrated for the structural transparency of his interpretations, his intellectual penetration and his emotional understanding of both music and opera plot. And last but not least an all-star cast made this production a highly memorable event: the dramatic soprano Inga Nielsen as Agathe, one of her best roles, the Swedish soprano Malin Hartelius as Ännchen, the sought-after Heldentenor Peter Seiffert, who gives a convincing passionate Max, and many others.
A social drama about a man with an inferiority complex to his wife. When he seeks consolation in an extramarital affair, his mistress and wife conspire to set up a plan for sharing him
An abstract crime thriller set against the backdrop of a brutalist villa. Six characters, the set, the music, the foley, the special effects, the narrator and the author battle one another for control of the film as it unfolds on screen. The film explores the relationships between these characters as they emerge and unfold: grappling, wrestling, and dreaming with one another. The film's production elements were produced - employing the character-driven improvisational score The Tiger's Mind, by Cornelius Cardew - by Alex Waterman as Tree (foley), Jesse Ash as Wind (special effects), John Tilbury as Mind (soundtrack), Celine Condorelli as Tiger (props), Will Holder as Amy (narrator) and Beatrice Gibson as the Circle (author).
A truly major work, I Don’t Know observes the relationship between a lesbian and a transgender person who prefers to be identified somewhere in between male and female, in an expression of personal ambiguity suggested by the film’s title. This nonfiction film – an unusual, partly staged work of semi-verité – is the first of Spheeris’s films to fully embrace what would become her characteristic documentary style: probing, intimate, uncompromising. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2014.
A woman just out of prison gets a job in a nursing home and tries, unsuccessfully, to put her life back together.
The parents of five sisters have been married for forty years; the daughters have gathered in the family beach house to make a video for them. The encounter is marked by many confrontations as well as cheerful moments. Reminiscent of the sweet children's poems that mother recited are countered by Elsschot's Marriage: 'He thought: I'll kill her and set light to the house...' It also turns out that father had once disappeared for eighteen months, a 'secret' that the daughters have different ideas about. Brittle, an intimate film version of a play written and performed by the same actresses, is about rivalry in a family, the right to silence, but also about the need for solidarity. At the Netherlands Film Festival in 1997 the Golden Calf for Best Actress was awarded to the five actresses together.
On his first foray out onto London's thriving gay scene, newly single Adam meets Rocky, a handsome and mysterious drifter, with whom he shares an instant and undeniable chemistry. From the outset, Rocky is eager to reveal more of himself than Adam is ready for, and so the two maintain an uncomfortable pact of silence. As the pair grow closer, something has to give, and the truth about Rocky is explosively revealed. As the dust settles, the men are left to decide whether they can find acceptance in each other, by facing the truth about themselves.
In oPorto there is a club, Imperatriz, where everything is permitted. A moment in which all intersect in the dark night.
El secreto de la abuela
Trash is a coming of age drama set amongst the poverty stricken trailer parks of the deep South. In a spiraling tale of hatred, love and loyalty, two teenage friends realize that the only way for each of them to escape their miserable futures is by forever sacrificing the other.
Veera loves Aarti but his marriage is fixed to the daughter of powerful don Bakka Reddy. When Bakka learns about Veera's intentions, he orders his men to kill Aarti.
Amiko, a high school girl, adores Aomi to the point of nearly worshipping him. But one day, he runs away from home. Amiko's sometimes cynical, sometimes self-deprecating inner monologue goes off like vibrant stand-up comedy.
Joy Brown (Billie Dean) is a 40-something woman with little confidence, less self-esteem and a burning desire to realise her dream of being a singer/songwriter. But she cant sing. When Joy takes in a stray dog, Raffi, her life immediately changes. Her best friend, the tarot card reading Tessa (Janet Watson Kruse), moves in, Joy changes her name to Luna Starr, and she meets Peter Wolfman (Andrew Einspruch). When Peter encourages her to perform with him at the local pizzerias folk music nights, Joy sings sort of hiding behind masks of wigs and silliness. Despite the singing, Peter and Joys relationship blossoms. But there are lots of hiccups along the way -- ex-wives, ex-husbands, frightening performances, and bucket loads of doubt. Set to the backdrop of the folk music scene in an arty country town, the film celebrates universal themes of friendship, low self-esteem, love relationships, and the joy of dogs.
Thomas Wilkins has faithfully worked his entire life on Saville Row. Suddenly he is fired by his boss Mr Gerald, who wants a younger man with new ideas. Thomas advertise under "Lonely Hearts" and receives an answer.
A unique anthology of six short vignettes on the subject of love, all of them written, directed and produced by women.
A wide variety of Iraqis in exile meet at Café Abu Nawas in London, including the architect Amal, the poet Taufiq and the gay IT specialist Muhannad. They all want to finally feel free in London - something that was denied them in their homeland. But adversity threatens...
A working artist begins to lose her mind while stuck at home with an illness.
Upon their release from prison twenty years earlier, Gérard, Ary and Philippe asked themselves if honesty was not the best racket of them all. Today, they are inseparable and scrupulously above board. But Gérard learns he is terminally ill. Their friend’s days being numbered, Ary and Philippe want to offer him one last love story… because, as Gérard likes to say : love is better than life.
Sonali, a spunky self-made internet operator, proudly runs a small outfit along with her band of ghetto boys catering to a sprawling Mumbai suburb. Complications arise when Sonali's childhood sweetheart, Raghu returns from the United States and helps bring her small enterprise into the 21st century. But not all forces of modernization are as kind and as loving as Raghu. SHINING INC, a huge corporation wants her out to complete their monopoly of Shining Broadband in the city. Sonali refuses... and it's war! This is a character driven, edgy survival drama of an ordinary girl, a sizzling love interest and her rag-tag family of internet cable technicians for whom Sonali Cable Centre is more than a livelihood... it's their home.
In 1945, in the train station of Bogota, Colombia, a dead girl is found in a trunk. The case is assigned to Detective Mariano Corzo, he has to deal with an inquisitive journalist Hipólito Mosquera while trying to solve the mysterious case. Nobody knows who the girl is, or who put her in the trunk. The things turn bad when Mosquera publish the news in the local newspaper. With the help of a bartender Martina Quijano, Corzo will find an answer for the question: Who killed the girl and why?