Eleanor David Movies

Screenwriter Hanif Kureishi marked his directorial debut in this slice-of-life chronicle about a collection of drug-dealing slackers in London. Centering on a band of delinquents calling themselves "the posse," the group is led by an ambitious male hustler named Muffdiver (Steven Mackintosh). His friend, Mr. Clint Eastwood (Justin Chadwick), begins to wonder about Muffdiver when he announces that he will no longer sell drugs for the gang. But soon Clint is wondering about himself, and after being beaten and stripped naked, he decides to go legitimate and look for a real job. He applies to a chic restaurant for a job as a waiter. The owner, Hemingway (Brad Dourif), promises to hire him if he comes back to the restaurant wearing a good pair of shoes. Obsessed with landing the job, he tries any way he can to get the pair of shoes. Impressed by the efforts of Clint and Muffdiver to get normal jobs, Sylvie (Emer McCourt), a drug addict who lives with the two, is inspired to leave the street life behind herself and pursue a more ordinary vocation. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Axel Corti directed this historical drama starring Timothy Dalton as King Vittorio Amadeo, a 17th-century Italian monarch who becomes obsessed with the wife of one of his courtiers (Valeria Golino). ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

In a post-apocalyptic world, a fugitive named Byron (Bob Peck) is captured by cop Will Tasker (Mark Hamill) and his beautiful partner Belitski (Kitty Aldridge). But when bounty hunter Matt Owens (Bill Paxton) learns that there is a price on Byron's head, he tricks the police and absconds with the prisoner. In order to escape detection, Matt flies off into the slipstream --an environmental curiosity of high and harsh winds treated by a local religious cult as a god. The religious cult captures them and holds them captive. Byron has healing powers and the cult decides to bind him up to a giant kite in order to determine whether he is a good or bad spirit. Tasker and Belitiski re-appear and they free Matt after he agrees to help them get the kite-born Byron back down to earth. Matt flies upward to free Byron, but Belitski, not trusting Matt, flies upward herself. A violent wind tosses all three into parts unknown, while Tasker is almost killed by the kite. Matt is found to have been poisoned by Tasker and seeks to accompany a cave dweller named Ariel (Eleanor David) to her homeland, where he can get an antidote to the poison in his veins. Meanwhile, Byron is revealed to be an android. The three journey to a settlement dedicated to sensual pleasure. While they partake of the services, Tasker and Belitski shoot their way into the settlement, looking for Byron. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Helene Hanff's book 84 Charing Cross Road had previously been a TV program and a stage play before it was converted into this 1986 film. The scene is New York, 1949: Anne Bancroft plays a struggling writer and passionate bibliophile, who answers an advertisement from a rare-volumes bookshop at 84 Charing Cross Road in London. Thus begins a two-decade romance by correspondence between Bancroft and Briton Anthony Hopkins, the man in charge of the overseas department of Marks and Company. Though several meetings are arranged, Bancroft and Hopkins never come face to face thanks to mitigating circumstances. But Anne finally makes it to London, and finds that much has changed. 84 Charing Cross Road was produced by Mel Brooks, the husband of star Anne Bancroft. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Writer/director Bill Forsyth's follow-up to his best film, Local Hero, is another comic exploration of a man undergoing a personal crisis. In Local Hero, the American played by Peter Riegert finds himself enchanted by the people and ambience of a Scottish village he has been dispatched to purchase for an oil company. In Comfort and Joy, Alan (Bill Paterson) is a Glasgow radio disc jockey whose air name is the chirpy Dickey Bird. After Maddy, his girlfriend (Eleanor David), walks out on him at Christmas, he's spurred to re-evaluate his life. Looking for more meaningful work than spinning pop tunes and offering inane chatter to his geriatric listeners, Alan decides to make a radio documentary. He chances upon a local rivalry between two ice cream companies, who are sabotaging each other's trucks in an effort to monopolize the market. Attracted to Charlotte (C.P. Grogan), the daughter of one of the company owners, Alan finds himself playing peacemaker rather than documentarian. That this cold war takes place in the dead of a bitter Scottish winter is only one of Forsyth's many sly touches. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide

Swordplay, secret messages, and the rustle of ballroom finery make this 1982 adaptation of The Scarlet Pimpernel a gala bash. Anthony Andrews heads the cast as English nobleman Sir Percy Blakeney, a conceited but amusing fop in the drawing rooms of British high society. But beneath his veneer of lacy impertinence is a man of bravado and derring-do. In disguise, he becomes the Pimpernel -- ta-da! -- and steals into France to rescue aristocrats condemned to the guillotine during the French Revolution. After each rescue, he leaves behind a scarlet pimpernel, a flower whose petals close at the approach of stormy weather. He also uses a signet ring engraved with a scarlet pimpernel to identify himself on the sealing wax of letters to compatriots. It is all jolly-good intrigue. Because he cloaks his schemes in great secrecy, not even his new wife Marguerite (Jane Seymour) realizes he is anything more than an innocuous dandy. Frustrated, the French send the ruthless Chauvelin (Ian McKellen) to England to serve as ambassador and ferret out the elusive Pimpernel. In a plot that ensnares Marguerite and closes the Pimpernel's petals, Chauvelin finally confronts his clever adversary, and it's en garde -- parry and thrust! ~ Mike Cummings, All Movie Guide