Blue Velvet is a 1986 American neo-noir mystery thriller film written and directed by David Lynch. Blending psychological horror with film noir, the film stars Kyle MacLachlan, Isabella Rossellini, Dennis Hopper, and Laura Dern, and is named after the 1951 song of the same name. The film concerns a young college student who, returning home to visit his ill father, discovers a severed human ear in a field. The ear then leads him to uncover a vast criminal conspiracy and enter into a romantic relationship with a troubled lounge singer.
Easy Rider is a 1969 American road drama film written by Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Terry Southern, produced by Fonda, and directed by Hopper. Fonda and Hopper play two bikers who travel through the American Southwest and South, carrying the proceeds from a cocaine deal. Other actors in the film include Jack Nicholson, Karen Black and Toni Basil. The success of Easy Rider helped spark the New Hollywood era of filmmaking during the early 1970s.
Bruce Almighty is a 2003 American fantasy comedy film directed by Tom Shadyac and written by Steve Koren, Mark O'Keefe and Steve Oedekerk. The film stars Jim Carrey as Bruce Nolan, a down-on-his-luck television reporter who complains to God that he is not doing his job correctly and is offered the chance to try being God himself for one week. It co-stars Jennifer Aniston, Philip Baker Hall and Catherine Bell. The film is Shadyac and Carrey's third collaboration, after Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994) and Liar Liar (1997).
A test screening, or test audience, is a preview screening of a film or television series before its general release to gauge audience reaction. Preview audiences are selected from a cross-section of the population and are usually asked to complete a questionnaire or provide feedback in some form. Harold Lloyd is credited with inventing the concept, having used it as early as 1928. Test screenings have been recommended for starting filmmakers "even if a film festival is fast approaching".
The Opening of Misty Beethoven is an American pornographic comedy film released in 1976. It was produced with a relatively high budget and filmed on elaborate locations in Paris, New York City and Rome with a musical score, and owes much to its director Radley Metzger. According to author Toni Bentley, The Opening of Misty Beethoven is considered the "crown jewel" of the Golden Age of Porn (1969–1984).
Bruce Allen Davison is an American actor who has appeared in more than 270 films, television and stage productions since his debut in 1968. His breakthrough role was as Willard Stiles in the 1971 cult horror film Willard. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, and won a Golden Globe Award and an Independent Spirit Award for his performance in Longtime Companion (1989).
Ruthless People is a 1986 American black comedy film directed by David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker and written by Dale Launer. It stars Danny DeVito, Bette Midler, Judge Reinhold, Anita Morris, and Helen Slater, with Bill Pullman in a supporting role in his film debut. The film is the story of a couple who kidnap their ex-boss's wife to get revenge and extort money from him. They soon realize he does not want her back and was planning to kill her himself. Meanwhile, the boss's mistress plans a blackmail attempt on him, which also fails to go as planned.
The Entity is a 1982 American supernatural horror film directed by Sidney J. Furie, and starring Barbara Hershey, Ron Silver, David Labiosa, Maggie Blye, Jacqueline Brookes, and Alex Rocco. The film follows a single mother in Los Angeles who is raped and tormented by an invisible poltergeist-like entity in her home. It was adapted for the screen by Frank De Felitta from his 1978 novel of the same name, which was based on the 1974 case of Doris Bither, a woman who claimed to have been repeatedly sexually assaulted by an invisible assailant, and who underwent observation by doctoral students at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Barbara Lynn Herzstein, better known as Barbara Hershey, is an American actress. In a career spanning more than 50 years, she has played a variety of roles on television and in cinema in several genres, including westerns and comedies. She began acting at age 17 in 1965 but did not achieve widespread critical acclaim until the 1980s. By that time, the Chicago Tribune referred to her as "one of America's finest actresses".
Down and Out in Beverly Hills is a 1986 American comedy film co-written and directed by Paul Mazursky, based on the 1919 French play Boudu sauvé des eaux, which was later adapted into the 1932 film Boudu sauvé des eaux by Jean Renoir. The film stars Nick Nolte, Bette Midler, and Richard Dreyfuss. The plot follows a rich but dysfunctional family who save the life of a suicidal homeless man. Musician Little Richard appears as a neighbor, and performs "Great Gosh A'Mighty" during a party scene.
Boxcar Bertha is a 1972 American romantic crime drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and produced by Roger Corman, from a screenplay by Joyce H. Corrington and John William Corrington. Made on a low budget, the film is a loose adaptation of Sister of the Road, a pseudo-autobiographical account of the fictional character Bertha Thompson. It was Scorsese's second feature film.
Tune in Tomorrow is a 1990 American comedy film directed by Jon Amiel. It is based on the 1977 Mario Vargas Llosa novel Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, and was released under that same title in many countries. Relocated from the novel's setting in 1950s-era Lima, Peru to New Orleans, Louisiana that same decade, it stars Peter Falk, Keanu Reeves and Barbara Hershey in a story surrounding a radio drama. The soundtrack for the film was composed by Wynton Marsalis, who makes a cameo appearance with various members of his band.
Che! is a 1969 American biographical film directed by Richard Fleischer and starring Omar Sharif as Marxist revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara. It follows Guevara from when he first landed in Cuba in 1956 to his death in Bolivia in 1967, although the film does not portray the formative pre-Cuban revolution sections of Che's life as described in the autobiographical book The Motorcycle Diaries (1993).
Chelsea Girls is a 1966 American experimental underground film directed by Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey. The film was Warhol's first major commercial success after a long line of avant-garde art films. It was shot at the Hotel Chelsea and other locations in New York City, and follows the lives of several of the young women living there, and stars many of Warhol's superstars. The film is presented in a split screen, accompanied by alternating soundtracks attached to each scene and an alternation between black-and-white and color photography. The original cut runs at just over three hours long.
Shy People is a 1987 American drama film directed by Andrei Konchalovsky, from a script by Konchalovsky, Marjorie David and Gérard Brach. It stars Barbara Hershey, Jill Clayburgh, and Martha Plimpton, and features music by the German electronic music group Tangerine Dream. The film is about the culture clash that takes place between Diana, a Manhattan writer, her wayward teenage daughter Grace, and their long-distant relatives in the bayous of Louisiana.
The Last Temptation of Christ is a 1988 epic religious drama film directed by Martin Scorsese. Written by Paul Schrader with uncredited rewrites from Scorsese and Jay Cocks, it is an adaptation of Nikos Kazantzakis' controversial 1955 novel of the same name. The film, starring Willem Dafoe, Harvey Keitel, Barbara Hershey, Andre Gregory, Harry Dean Stanton and David Bowie, was shot entirely in Morocco.
The Cinematheque, founded in 1972, is a Canadian charity and non-profit film institute, media education centre, and film exhibitor based in Vancouver, British Columbia.
"The Boiler" is a single by Rhoda Dakar with the Special AKA. It was released in January 1982 on 2 Tone Records.
Bridge and Tunnel is a 2014 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Jason Michael Brescia and released by Glacier Road Productions. The film stars Ryan Metcalf, Mary Kate Wiles and Annet Mahendru and tells the story of a group of twentysomething millennials coming of age in Long Island, New York. The film highlights the psychological impact of the September 11 attacks on the generation that grew up in the early part of the twenty-first century, the effects of the great recession on America's youth, and the destruction caused by Hurricane Sandy.
Last Summer is a 1968 American coming-of-age psychological thriller novel by Evan Hunter. The book loosely chronicles a summer on Fire Island shared by three affluent but troubled adolescents who become increasingly cruel and hedonistic as they experiment with drugs, sex, bizarre social pranks and alcohol, leading them to eventually commit a heinous act against a companion of theirs. The book was adapted into a film by the same title in 1969, and was followed by a sequel, Come Winter, in 1973. The character David's name is changed to Dan in the film adaptation.
