Mia Fothergill Movies
In this whimsical adventure for the family, Stanley Katz (Judd Trichter) is a boy who is spelunking with his friends when a sudden rockslide reveals an unusual egg. Stanley and his colleagues bring the egg back with them, keeping it warm. They're surprised when it hatches, and even more surprised when a dragon pops out. While Stanley loves the dragon and wants to watch over it himself, the powers that be want to take the dragon away and put it in a zoo -- which Stanley believes would be certain death for his new friend. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Judd Trichter, Mia Fothergill, (more)
- 1993
It is the 19th century in Italy, and Maria (Angela Bettis) has joined a convent in order to explore her strong feeling that she has a calling to become a nun. She has adapted to live at the convent quite nicely, and is relatively untroubled, but a cholera outbreak sends her back to be with her family for a while, near the steaming peak of Mount Etna. She enjoys her freedom to move around the countryside, and is wooed (unsuccessfully, it seems) by a charming young man named Nico, but returns to the convent when the danger is past. There, she is troubled by the thought that she truly loved Nico, and that her calling may not be as firm as she thought. When she learns that Nico has married her sister, she nearly goes mad with self-recrimination, but eventually weathers the storm. All the dialog in this Italian-made film by Franco Zeffirelli is in English. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Angela Bettis, Johnathon Schaech, (more)
This British Merchant-Ivory look-alike was adapted from a novel by Isabel Colgate. In the summer before World War I, British nobleman James Mason invites an assorted group of acquaintances for a weekend shooting party on his huge estate. Among the participants are longtime rivals Edward Fox and Rupert Frazer, Fox's occasionally unfaithful wife Cheryl Campbell, and staunch anti-hunting advocate John Gielgud. The film unfolds in a carefully calculated but seemingly spontaneous fashion, in the manner of its 1938 ancestor Rules of the Game. Also like the earlier film, The Shooting Party casts a jaundiced eye towards class consciousness--and ends with a sudden, senseless but not altogether unexpected tragedy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edward Fox, Cheryl Campbell, (more)
Adapted by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala from the novel by E.M. Forster, A Room with a View is a shining example of Merchant-Ivory's ability to achieve maximum quality and opulence at minimum cost. Set during the Edwardian Era, the film stars Helena Bonham Carter as Lucy Honeychurch, who like all proper young British ladies is compelled to tour Europe in the company of an older chaperone -- in this instance, her spinster cousin Charlotte Bartlett (Maggie Smith). While in Italy, the ladies make the acquaintance of a wide variety of personalities; the most fascinating of their fellow tourists -- at least in Lucy's eyes -- is free-spirited George Emerson (Julian Sands). Aware that her cousin is becoming too familiar with Emerson, Charlotte demands that Lucy return to England posthaste. Lucy complacently settles for the tiresomely traditional courtship of nerdish Cecil Vyse (Daniel Day-Lewis) -- and then Mr. Emerson moves into the neighborhood. Lucy now finds herself on the horns of a dilemma: Should she opt for a safe, proper marriage to Cecil, or the bohemian unpredictability of the charismatic Emerson? A winner of three Academy Awards, A Room with a View is not what one could call fast-moving, but fans of the Merchant-Ivory team will enjoy luxuriating in the film's leisurely pace and stimulating cast of characters. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maggie Smith, Helena Bonham Carter, (more)
