Steve Mason Movies
- 1993
In an extrapolation of current trends, independent filmmaker Deborah Magocsi has set this futurist drama in a time when sex with love is illegal, and anyone who fails to have sex in public is subject to arrest. In the story, Love Patrols ensure that everyone obeys the law, and Mia has a problem on her hands, because her father has just used her apartment for an illegal assignation with his girlfriend; while he is being carted off, he tells his daughter that they were in love. She doesn't know what that word means (it has been removed from the official vocabulary) and begins a mission to find out. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
Bille August directed this film version of the Isabel Allende novel, featuring a cast that includes Jeremy Irons, Meryl Streep, and Glenn Close. The story is a sweeping and brooding melodrama, spanning generations and filled with violence, revenge, and telekinesis. The tale begins in South America in 1926, when a young man, Esteban (Jeremy Irons), falls in love with the daughter of a rich man, Rosa Del Valle (Teri Polo). He vows to become rich enough to make her his wife and spends months of toil in the gold fields to earn enough money to do just that. Before the two marry, however, Rosa is killed by poison meant for her father. After the tragedy, Esteban moves to Trés Marias, an abandoned ranch, and spends 20 years of his life turning the ranch into a thriving estate, exploiting the labor of the poor who live off the land. When he returns to the city, he comes across Rosa's younger sister Clara (Meryl Streep), now a woman with telekinetic abilities. Clara took a vow of silence years before, but upon the arrival of Esteban, she speaks for the first time in years -- "You have come to propose marriage to me," she says. Esteban and Clara marry, and Esteban takes her back to the ranch, where they have a daughter, Blanca (Winona Ryder). Their daughter falls in love with the son of one of Esteban's foremen, a hot-headed revolutionary named Pedro (Antonio Banderas). Now, the country is in the throes of revolution. Esteban banishes his sister Ferula (Glenn Close) from the ranch, beats his wife, and rapes a peasant woman. The product of Esteban's rape (Joaquin Martinez) grows into an angry young man who convinces Esteban to send him away to military school. When there is a military coup, the illegitimate son returns to Trés Marias with revenge and torture on his mind. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeremy Irons, Meryl Streep, (more)
- 1991
- R
Set in New South Wales, Australia, a local hairdresser falls in love with an enigmatic wanderer and leaves her tiny hometown behind to travel along with him. She is madly in love with him, but eventually comes to question her infatuation when she begins suspecting him of being a killer, a hunch fueled by the corpses that seem to follow them wherever they go. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Linda Blair, Jerome Ehlers, (more)
- 1939
A singing waiter with a wonderful operatic voice finds himself in the squared circle facing heavyweight boxers after he gets involved with crooked fight promoters who want him to both win the world heavyweight championship and attract more female fans with his post bout crooning. The promoters gull the waiter into his bizarre gig with the bogus promise that boxing will improve his singing. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Payne, Jane Wyman, (more)
