Co-stars and celebrity admirers go through Benny’s entire career
Category: History
History
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The Leaving of Liverpool
A poignant and forceful saga which traces the fortunes of two English children uprooted from their beloved Liverpool dockside to the alien environment of Australia in the years following World War Two.
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The Dream of Russia
Sumptuous filming of the journey of a shipwrecked Japanese expedition from the Pacific Ocean across Siberia to the court of Catherine the Great of Russia. A Russo-Japanese co-production of a unique event in history which was the hit of Cannes and other film festivals but did not receive wide distribution despite its huge scope, high production values, and very human story of culture clash.
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Hoffa
A portrait of union leader James R. Hoffa, as seen through the eyes of his friend, Bobby Ciaro. The film follows Hoffa through his countless battles with the RTA and President Roosevelt.
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Stalin
The life and career of the brutal Soviet dictator, Josef Stalin. Through the eyes and memories of Anna Aliluyeva, Stalin’s granddaughter, the film traces the rise of the Bolshevik tyrant from Lenin’s return from exile to his brutal struggle with Trotsky, the creation of his feared secret police and the merciless inner workings of his regime. As Anna recounts her grandfather’s life, viewers gain an intimate, personal perspective on the paranoia and purges that left even his closest circles living in constant fear.
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Schtonk!
Schtonk! is a farce of the actual events of 1983, when Germany’s Stern magazine published, with great fanfare, 60 volumes of the alleged diaries of Adolf Hitler – which two weeks later turned out to be entirely fake. Fritz Knobel (based on real-life forger Konrad Kujau) supports himself by faking and selling Nazi memorabilia. When Knobel writes and sells a volume of Hitler’s (nonexistent) diaries, he thinks it’s just another job. When sleazy journalist Hermann Willié learns of the diaries, however, he quickly realizes their potential value… and Knobel is quickly in over his head. As the pressure builds and Knobel is forced to deliver more and more volumes of the fake diaries, he finds himself acting increasingly like the man whose life he is rewriting. The film is a romping and hilarious satire, poking fun not only at the events and characters involved in the hoax (who are only thinly disguised in the film), but at the discomfort Germany has with its difficult past.
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The Waltz on the Petschora
Set in 1937 Stalinist Georgia, the film traces the parallel destinies of a mother, condemned by the government as “an enemy of the people” and exiled to a work camp in Siberia, and her daughter, who meanwhile is sent to an orphanage. Arriving at the overcrowded work camp, the mother and other women who are not considered strong enough to be labourers, must journey still farther, crossing the icy Siberian landscape in search of food and shelter. At the same time, the daughter escapes the orphanage and returns to her former home, where she finds that a KGB officer has taken up residence. He protects her and an uneasy rapport between them develops—one of abhorrence and attraction, need and suspicion.
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A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia
In 1919, the great English military man T. E. Lawrence tries to help Emir Feisal, ruler of Arabia, retain his political power during the Conference of Peace in Paris.
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Zhou Enlai
An biography of Zhou Enlai through the Cultural Revolution.
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Aqui D’El Rei!
At the end of the nineteenth century, an army force led by Major Mouzinho de Albuquerque, a cavalry officer, imprisoned in Mozambique the tribal chief Gungunhana, who had rebelled against Portuguese government and sovereignty.
Mouzinho instantly becomes a national hero but his raising popularity worries the State.