Paul Kelman Movies
- 2003
Director Paul Middleditch's third feature finds the humanistic filmmaker experimenting with a unique approach while attempting to explore means of overcoming grief and reforging lost human connections. Improvised by the actors, shot on video, and later transcribed into a screenplay and shot on film, A Cold Summer finds three damaged souls in need of companionship. Bobby (Teo Gebert) is a charismatic advertising executive with a drinking problem who lives in his BMW. When jazz singer and compulsive liar Tia (Olivia Pigeot) has her bag stolen, the two meet by chance and forge a tentative connection. Tia later runs into old friend Phaedra (Susan Prior) a "semi-artistic" florist who also dabbles in poetry and songwriting and is still recovering from her boyfriend's drug related death four years earlier. As each character attempts to deal with their own hardships, their relationships with one another prove to be key components in helping them to pick up the pieces and find a new approach to facing life. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Teo Gebert, Olivia Pigeot, (more)
- 1998
Based on a true story, this drama is set in a ramshackle Australian seaside boarding house inhabited by a disparate group of social misfits and centers on the attempts of its newest residents, a troubled New Zealander and her 5-year-old daughter, to begin a new life. Before moving into Terra Nova, Ruth (Jeanette Cronin) and her daughter Tuesday (Eloise Etherington) lived with her parents. Ruth has psychological problems, but their exact nature and scope remain undefined in the film. The idiosyncratic Margie (Angela Punch McGregor) runs the rooming house. Ruth's fellow tenants include neo-Nazi skinhead Warren (Teo Gerbert); Dud (Trent Atkinson, who becomes friends with Tuesday; Rob, an astrologer; and Dud's strange older brother Simon (Paul Kelman), who is Margie's sometime lover. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeanette Cronin, Paul Kelman, (more)
- 1989
Debuting in May 1989, the Australian TV soap opera E Street was designed as a "hip," youth-oriented variation of the long-running continuing drama A Country Practice, featuring one of the stars of the earlier series, Penny Cook. Set in the inner-city community of Westside, the daily 50-minute series cast Cook as dedicated general practitioner Dr. Ellie Fielding. Other regulars included beat cop George Sullivan (Les Dayman); George's rebellious teenaged daughter Alice (Marianne Howard); feisty legal-aid lawyer Sarah McKillop (Katrina Sedgwick), who was abruptly killed off six months into the series; Sarah's rather sexier replacement, Jennifer St. James (Virginia Hey); social worker Martha O'Dare (Cecily Polson); pub keeper Ernie Patchett (Vic Rooney) and his hotheaded son Chris (Paul Kelman), who was forced via an unwanted pregnancy to wed snooty socialite Megan Bromley (Lisabeth Kennaly); and the series' most popular character, "cool" Reverend Bob Brown (Tony Martin), who like most of the adults on the program was saddled with a contentious offspring, namely his son Harley (Malcolm Kennard). Whenever the ratings flagged -- as they did when Ellie Fielding was written off the series -- the producers hauled in another Country Practice alumnus, notably Kate Raison as rich-bitch dowager Sheridan Sturges and Joan Sydney as Ernie Patchett's sister Mary. The series also indulged in the time-honored practice of sweeping the boards clean by having several characters killed off at once in a single tragedy (an explosion, an auto accident, etc.) so that a whole new flock of younger, prettier regulars could be introduced. By the time the series entered the home stretch, most of the stories focused on a crippled rock singer named Wheels (Marcus Graham) and his entourage. Created by Forrest Redlich, E Street chalked up 404 episodes before its cancellation in 1993. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
It's Valentine's Day in the tiny mining town of Valentine's Bluff, Nova Scotia, and for the first time in two decades the residents are planning a holiday dance. The long hiatus is due to the tragic events of 20 years earlier, when a pair of mining supervisors were too busy enjoying themselves at the dance to prevent an accident from killing a large contingent of their workers. The lone survivor, Harry Warden, took his revenge the next year by removing the hearts of his bosses and promising similar carnage if ever another Valentine's dance were held. Unfortunately, the town's horny early-'80s youngsters aren't big on tradition, especially since Warden is locked up in an insane asylum. They go ahead with plans to celebrate the holiday -- even after a heart in a candy box shows up and beloved biddy Mabel (Patricia Hamilton) ends up enduring an involuntary tumble dry. Soon, bodies begin piling up, setting the stage for a climactic trawl through the mines and surprise revelations about the fate of Harry Warden. Shortly after the death of John Lennon, the MPAA made an example of this Canadian slasher film, forcing much of its gore to be excised. Nevertheless, My Bloody Valentine provided inspiration for Kevin Shields' influential band of the same name, which helped establish England's late-'80s shoegazer sound and paved the way for the post-rock of the 1990s. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Kelman, Lori Hallier, (more)
- 1981
- R
When the money-hungry Duke Stuyvesant (Sterling Hayden) orchestrates a phony gas shortage, chaos ensues in a small Midwestern town. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Donald Sutherland, Susan Anspach, (more)
