Henk Van Der Kolk Movies

This 1981 performance film embodies an act of speculative imagination: What thoughts ran through the mind of legendary country and western singer Hank Williams, Sr. (1923-53), as he lay dying in the backseat of his Cadillac, en route to a concert in Ohio, on December 31, 1952? Playwright Maynard Collins imagined that he fantasized about playing one last gig as an awareness of his impending death sunk in, and that concert - the one that never happened - gets a full visualization in this film of the popular Canadian cabaret show. Using the ride in the Cadillac as a narrative framing device, director David Acomba places his emphasis squarely on the stage fantasy, where Williams - here played by country singer "Sneezy" Waters - delivers a succession of the crooner's best known and loved songs, including "Kaw-Liga," "Lovesick Blues" and "Your Cheatin' Heart". Waters projects Williams's down-home charm, both backstage and in his interaction with the audience, and enables the audience to see directly into the soul of this self-destructive and emotionally beleaguered young man. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Director Jules Dassin, once shunned by Hollywood for being accused of "un-American activities," had already worked for nearly thirty years in Europe before making this Canadian drama about an elderly painter and a sixteen-year-old teen. Richard Burton delivers as a convincingly up-tight artist abandoned by his muse for the last ten years. After he meets Sarah (Tatum O'Neal on the wan from her 1973 Oscar as "Best Supporting Actress"), the muse begins to stir once more. The two disparate souls meet at a soft-core film (Sarah's friends dared her into seeing the flic), and an uneasy, non-sexual relationship starts. But even though the artist discovers that his muse is not totally defunct, that is a difficult trade-off for dealing with Sarah's romantic inclinations. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Two misfits find love and support in each other's company, in this show-business comedy with a twist. One of them, Robin Turner (Craig Russell), is a male hairdresser and a gifted female impersonator, who tries out his act in local gay nightclubs. His roommate is Liza Connors (Hollis McLaren), an old high-school friend who is now a mumblingly strange pregnant woman, recently released from a mental hospital where she was being treated for schizophrenia. She is determined never to return to the hospital again, and he wants to be a show-business success with his impressions. When Robin loses his job, the two determine to try their luck in New York. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi