Pianist David Helfgott, driven by his father and teachers, has a breakdown. Years later he returns to the piano, to popular if not critical acclaim.
Tag: biography
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Basquiat
The brief life of Jean Michel Basquiat, a world renowned New York street artist struggling with fame, drugs and his identity.
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The Art of Stanley Kubrick: From Short Films to Strangelove
A documentary about the making of Stanley Kubricks 1964 film Dr Strangelove Or: How I Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb and his career leading up to this film.
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Eisenstein
A glimpse at the life of legendary Soviet filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein.
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Markova: Comfort Gay
Escaping the torment of growing up with an abusive older brother, he and his friends found further suffering at the hands of Japanese soldiers, forced into sex work to survive. But even after the war, Markova’s struggle continued.
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As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty
A compilation of over 30 years of private home movie footage shot by Lithuanian-American avant-garde director Jonas Mekas, assembled by Mekas “purely by chance”, without concern for chronological order.
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The Filth and the Fury
Julien Temple’s second documentary profiling punk rock pioneers the Sex Pistols is an enlightening, entertaining trip back to a time when the punk movement was just discovering itself. Featuring archival footage, never-before-seen performances, rehearsals, and recording sessions as well as interviews with group members who lived to tell the tale–including the one and only John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten).
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By Player
The film is a series of vignettes from Taiji Tonoyama’s life and film clips, interspersed with a dialogue to camera by Nobuko Otowa, addressing the camera as if she is addressing Tonoyama himself, recollecting events in his life. The film focuses on Tonoyama’s alcohol dependence and his various sexual relationships, as well as his film work with Shindo.
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Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the Power of Women in Hollywood
From 1915-1939, Frances Marion was one of the most powerful talents in the movie industry. In one of the most liberating eras for women in film, she wrote more than 200 movies and was the world’s highest paid screenwriter – man or woman. Kathy Bates gives voice to Marion’s words from her letters, diaries, and memoirs. Includes commentary by silent film historian Kevin Brownlow, critic Leonard Maltin, and Marion’s celebrated biographer Cari Beauchamp. Current women filmmakers reflect on the legacy left to them by Marion and the pioneering women of early Hollywood.