Christopher Chaplin Movies
- 1995
This French film chronicles the amazing-but-true story of Lisa Alling who in 1928 successfully walked from New York City to Siberia via the Bering Straight by following telegraph poles. It was shot entirely in the Ukraine. Lisa, a chambermaid, has had enough of American life and wants go home to Siberia. Because she had no money, she decided it was better to walk than stay in the U.S. any longer. An opportunist, she takes whatever food, warmth and even romance that is offered along the way. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yelena Safonova, Christopher Chaplin, (more)
This historical drama, directed by Agnieszka Holland, focuses on the rocky relationship between the renowned 19th century French poets Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine. Rimbaud (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a teenage wunderkind known for his rebelliousness against conventional society and his surrealistic writing. He disrupts the life of Verlaine (David Thewlis), a more conventional writer who is older and married to a dutiful young wife, Mathilde (Romane Bohringer). The drunken Verlaine is unkind to Mathilde, even though her father is providing him with a house and an income to live on while he pursues his writing. Rimbaud overwhelms Verlaine, mocking his conventionality, constantly disrupting his domestic life, and somehow attracting the maniacal love of the older man. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leonardo DiCaprio, David Thewlis, (more)
- 1992
- PG13
John Glen directed this throwback to the costume dramas of the 1930s and 1940s, but without a smidgen of their energy and verve. George Corraface plays Christopher Columbus as a dynamic and muscular comic-book hero. He has a dream to set sail to find a new passageway to India, but he needs the backing of the Spanish government to do it. First, he must undergo a grilling by Tomas de Torquemada (Marlon Brando in, hands down, his worst performance). After passing muster with Torquemada, he gets the blessing of Queen Isabella (Rachel Ward) and King Ferdinand (Tom Selleck). Columbus then sets sail in a series of picture-postcard travelogue shots as he sails the ocean blue and discovers a new world of wonders -- particularly the Indian chief's well-endowed daughter. As a sop to revisionists, a rat is seen scampering down the plank as Columbus' vessel lands on "undiscovered" turf. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marlon Brando, Tom Selleck, (more)
- 1992
In order to properly convey the mood and qualities of the life of Franz Kafka in a movie he is making, Maximillian Schell (as himself) has taken an apartment in Prague overlooking a cemetery and has begun an intensive research program into Jewish history in Eastern Europe. This is especially necessary, since Schell is not Jewish. Parallels between historical episodes dating as far back as the 13th century, as well as customary rituals, are shown as being represented in moments of the life experience of members of Kafka's family. Then, in surrealistic fashion, episodes of Nazi questioning and torture are paralleled with passages from the author's works. These show him as a kind of "pre-witness" to the Holocaust which was to take place after his death. At the beginning and end of the film, the Nazi anti-Jewish legal statutes are recited. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maximilian Schell, Christopher Chaplin, (more)
- 1991
In Sarajevo, in the year 1914, a recently expelled seventeen-year-old Serbian schoolboy named Gavre Princip (Rueben Pillsbury) threw the bomb that killed the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. For reasons that are sometimes confusing even to scholars, the whole of Europe was soon embroiled in the conflict we now call World War I. This drama explores the life of the blond, blue-eyed "anarchist" and Serbian nationalist just before the fatal bombing, and it underscores not only the boy's motives for his deed, but the conditions endured by subjects of the empire. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christopher Chaplin, Robert Munic, (more)
- 1989
Originally titled Judith Krantz' Till We Meet Again, this two-part soaper covers forty-three years in the lives of three women. In 1913, French chanteuse Lucy Gutteridge embarks upon a successful showbiz career. She marries a champaigne heir and bears two daughters, played by Courtney Cox and Mia Sara. The story follows the trials and tribulations of mother and daughters through three wars and an infinite number of romances. A dash of adventure is provided by Courtney's activities as a stunt pilot, while there's glamour aplenty as Mia becomes a world-renowned movie star. The best scenes take place during World War 2, with the horrors of the battlefield running second place to the ladies' boudoir escapades. Barry Bostwick, who seems to have been in every Judith Krantz movie ever made (at least, that's what TV Guide told us back in 1989), costars as Courtney's erstwhile lover. Partly filmed in England, Till We Meet Again was first telecast November 19 and 21, 1989. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1984
Where Is Parsifal? -- he (Tony Curtis) is in a castle surrounded by nutcakes, himself a hypochondriac who has invented a laser skywriter and wants to sell the patent for his invention to millionaire Henry Board II (Erik Estrada) or to wealthy gypsy Klingsor (Orson Welles). The castle crew are in a frenzy because Mackintosh (Donald Pleasence) is trying to confiscate their belongings to get them out of debt, but Henry II is coming over for dinner, and they need their belongings to impress him, not to mention feed him. Frenetic as though running on amphetamines, this film has tried to replace funny with fast, but it just does not work. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tony Curtis, Cassandra Domenica, (more)
