Demeter Bitenc Movies
- 1995
In this Slovenian post-Cold War drama, a young woman tries to unravel the mystery of her father's death. He died in Communist Yugoslavia in 1970. Official reports listed it as a suicide, but Vesna disbelieves this and travels to modern Slovenia to see for herself. Disguised as a reporter she begins working at the radio station her father managed and sure enough, realizes her suspicions have merit. Next she finds her father's co-workers and friends. Within their close ranks, she finds much corruption as well as petty, and currently irrelevant, espionage. Unfortunately, the more she finds out about her father's execution, the more she is entangled in an ever-expanding web of lies, denial, guilt and intrigue leaving her with more questions than answers. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- 1992
- PG13
After a scientist creates superhuman warrior Red Skull for the Nazis during WW II, she defects and does the same for the U.S.-- injecting a polio victim to transform him into the titular heroic beefcake. Forty years after a confrontation which left Captain America frozen in Alaska, he is found and thawed and must take on Red Skull once again. ~ Kristie Hassen, Rovi
- Starring:
- Matt Salinger, Melinda Dillon, (more)
- 1991
- R
A priest discovers that being the leader of the Catholic Church can be hazardous to your health in this satiric comedy. Cardinal Rocco (Alex Rocco) and Monsignor Vitchie (Paul Bartel) are two high-ranking Vatican officials who have been using the church's business dealings to launder funds for Vittorio Corelli (Herbert Lom), a crime boss involved in illegal arms trading. After the death of the aging and infirm Pope, Rocco and Vitchie plan to nominate a successor who will go along with Corelli's schemes, but quite by accident, small town priest Giuseppe Albinizi (Robbie Coltrane) is named the new Pontiff. Albinizi is a reluctant spiritual leader who prefers cars, women, and rock & roll to church business, but when he discovers the level of Rocco's corruption, he has him removed from the Vatican. Rocco and Vitchie are not taking Albinizi's plans to clean up Vatican finances lying down, and they discover that the new Pope's has a not-so-little secret. Before he joined the priesthood, Albinizi fathered a son out of wedlock with Veronica Dante (Beverly D'Angelo); the boy grew up to be Joe Don Dante (Balthazar Getty), a rock star who's romancing Corelli's daughter. After complaints from Catholic groups in the U.S., the distributors of The Pope Must Die changed the title to The Pope Must Diet. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Robbie Coltrane, Beverly D'Angelo, (more)
Based on a novel by Jack Higgins, this WW-II thriller chronicles the daring rescue of a captured American officer who has vital information concerning the upcoming Normandy invasion. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- George Peppard, Michael York, (more)
- 1988
Originally shown on television in two parts, the second of which takes place after WWII. Surviving escapee Major John Dodge (Christopher Reeve) is sent back to Germany by Winston Churchill to capture the Gestapo officer who ordered the machine-gunning of 50 of the captured escapees, in direct defiance of the Geneva convention. Donald Pleasance, one of the "good guys" in the original, plays the Nazi villain in the new version. Filmed in Yugoslavia, Great Escape II: The Untold Story was originally telecast November 6 and 7, 1988. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1986
The story of the Partisans who braved death to undermine Nazi domination in World War II is explored in this wartime drama. Dr. Vladimir Kantet (Slavko Cerjak) is a key resistance fighter but is above suspicion from a Nazi point of view because his high-ranking position would presuppose political clearance. Divisions within Yugoslav society are shown as the occupying German army hobnobs with an elite citizenry, yet has no compunction about torturing or beating anyone they see as "subversive" or simply a nuisance. But sooner or later the Nazis must start wondering how certain information could have been passed on if the informer was not a high-placed bureaucrat. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Slavko Cerjak, Tea Glazar, (more)
- 1976
The tides of war sweep through the lives of some luckless peasants in this movie: first the Italians, then the Partisans, then the Chetniks and finally the Germans. Each group does its own form of damage and this story of murder, rape and betrayal is a sober reflection on the ugliness of war, no matter who the good guys are. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Boris Juh, Marjeta Gregorac, (more)
- 1975
The son of Emperor Franz Josef of Austria, Crown Prince Rudolf, is believed to have shot his female lover and himself in a tragic suicide pact in 1882 in Mayerling. Due to Imperial cover-ups, the full story may never be known. This story has been filmed several times, in French in 1935 and in English in 1968. Hungarian director Miklos Jancso recreates those events for his own purposes, continuing his favored theme of the rejection of paternal authority. In the film, which has very little dialog, Rudolf is a good-natured pan-sexual golden boy, who cavorts on his rural estate with a host of beautiful, aristocratic lovers and friends of both sexes. He refuses to leave his country idyll even though he has been ordered to by the Emperor, his father. Despite the fact that for a large part of the film, attractive young people go about unclothed and engaging in erotic encounters, the mood is one of melancholy rather than prurience. The Prince is a political liberal who wishes to arrange things so that the Emperor will arrest him, creating a public scandal which will provide a rallying point for the opposition. Instead, when the expected troops come, Rudolf's sensuous friends loyally ward off the Imperial officers, humiliating them in the process. The result is that the guests, the Prince and a hermaphrodite friend are killed by newly arrived Imperial reinforcements, and the now-familiar official story of murder and suicide is concocted for public consumption. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Lajos Balazsovits, Pamela Villoresi, (more)
- 1973
Based on a novel by Graham Greene that uses the rise of Nazi Germany as its backdrop, this drama stars Michael York as Anthony Farrant, an idealistic young British businessman. On his way home after a trip to the Far East, Anthony takes a friend up on her advice and makes a stop in Germany, where he calls upon Erich Krogh (Peter Finch), a highly successful financier. While Anthony was taught to value fairness and decency, he soon falls under Erich's spell, in which opportunism, corruption, and decadence hold sway. England Made Me was filmed in Yugoslavia, doubling for both Germany and France; Tony Wollard's art direction was nominated for a British BAFTA Award. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Peter Finch, Michael York, (more)
- 1967
In this provocative Yugoslavian animated film, a girl and boy with differing racial backgrounds go to a deserted island to create a nonracist society. There many children come to dwell in happy harmony. Later the children return to the adults to help them see the light. When they fail miserably, the kids return to their peaceful paradise. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- 1965
This British programmer was filmed on the cheap in Yugoslavia, with an American star, Robert Ryan, to secure U.S. playdates. Ryan plays an American journalist who views with alarm as a dictator (Stewart Granger) runs roughshod over the citizens of an unnamed Balkan country. The news hound puts together enough incriminating evidence to topple the dictator from power. The problem for Ryan lies with staying alive long enough to make his findings public--a chancy prospect once the powers-that-be frame the journalist for murder. The Crooked Road was adapted from The Big Story, a novel by Morris West. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1963
Apache Gold was a German/French/Yugoslav coproduction, originally titled Winnetou I. Teil (British title: Winnetou the Warrior). It was one of a series of European Technicolor westerns based on the "Winnetou" stories of German author Karl May. As in most of these films, French actor Pierre Brice stars as Winnetou, here dedicated to halting the activities of gold raiders in Apache territory. Apache Gold was released on a limited basis in the US by Columbia Pictures; in some cities, the film went directly to television. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Lex Barker, Pierre Brice, (more)
- 1963
A plane headed for Venezuela crash lands on an uncharted desert isle stranding the surviving passengers. They are a diverse lot. Almost immediately a leadership struggle ensues between a good priest and an evil convict. Both try to win the allegiance of the others. After a chaotic battle good finally overcomes evil and the castaways are saved. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- 1962
In this adventure, seven women graduate from a ritzy Swiss boarding school and decide to board a cargo boat for a little cruise. They end up partying with the ship's crew. They are docked in South America when the women encounter a young man in charge of a meteorological station on a remote Amazon island. There his father located a downed plane carrying gold bars. The son goes to the mainland to report the find, but unfortunately a mobster overhears his conversation, rushes out to the island and kills the father. The son escapes, but the crook captures some of the young women who fight both for their lives and for their virtue. Fortunately, they are saved by the young man and the rest of the women. In the ensuing struggle, the gangster escapes, but he is then killed by the police. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
