Frances Barber Movies

This twisted black comedy is obsessed in turn with swans, twins, and decay. Alba Bewick (Andréa Ferréol) is involved in a swan-related car accident near the zoo. The accident kills two other women, the wives of two twin zoologists, Oliver and Oswald Deuce (Brian and Eric Deacon). Alba is lucky enough to escape with one leg. Eventually her doctor also removes the other "because it was dangerous for the spine." Meanwhile, the Deuce brothers, as a result of losing their wives, have become fascinated with the decay of corpses, and they start making rather gruesome time-lapse films to examine the process more thoroughly. Both brothers become involved with Alba. Needless to say, this film may not appeal to everybody. ~ John Voorhees, All Movie Guide

Based on a novel by Catherine Heath, the four-part British miniseries Behaving Badly starred Judi Dench as Bridget, a typically dutiful upper middle-class wife and mother. Upon learning that her husband is a philanderer, Bridget is shocked but willing to forgive. But when hubby walks out, she decides to kick over the traces and have some fun of her own, which -- in time-honored "double standard" fashion -- thoroughly scandalizes her family and friends. Behaving Badly first aired in 1988 over Britain's Channel 4. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The English-language debut of French director Arnaud Desplechin, Esther Kahn charts the ascension of a lower-class Jewish girl from a turn-of-the-century London ghetto to one of the stage's leading actresses. Esther (Summer Phoenix) feels set apart from her large, raucous family, who are all employed in the garment business. Her life is changed when she attends a Yiddish theatre performance, and she is suddenly determined to become an actress. After joining a small theatre company, she becomes the protégé of Nathan (Ian Holm), a stage veteran who instructs her in her chosen craft. Esther gradually works her way up in the ranks -- taking a lover, brainy French theatre critic Philippe (Fabrice Desplechin), along the way -- until she is cast in the title role of Hedda Gabler, which she performs to great acclaim. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide

This lush French melodrama set in post World War I Europe was filmed on location in remote areas of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The film is set in October 1918 and follows the return of Giorgino, a French lieutenant, as he searches a strange and spooky village for the retarded children he looked after before the war. The children have mysteriously disappeared and the only suspect is an enigmatic, but beautiful redhead. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Stan (Eric Richard), Gordon (Timothy Spall), and Harold (Tim Barker) are postmen who work together as they sort the mail each morning before they go on their rounds. They chat a little about their home lives, and Harold tells terrible riddles and recites song lyrics in a monotone. Harold dotes on his wife, June (Su Elliot), but she's clearly an unhappy woman, and is constantly telling him to leave her alone. Gordon's house is on Stan's route, so Gordon tells his wife, Hazel (Kay Stonham), to invite Stan in for tea when he comes around. She does, but the vivacious woman seems to have more than tea on her mind as she gives Stan a tour of the house, with an emphasis on the bedroom. She suggests that Stan come by for Sunday dinner some time. An overbearingly cheerful social worker, Melody (Frances Barber of Sammy and Rosie Get Laid), shows up at Stan's door and harangues him into spending more time with his estranged teenage daughter, Tina (Lorraine Brunning). Tina's been in foster care for years, ever since Stan's wife ran off. Stan is a busy man, chatting up his co-workers' wives and picking up women at the launderette, but eventually he makes time for a visit. Encouraged by this progress, Melody coerces Stan into bringing Tina home for a weekend. He decides to bring her over to dinner at Gordon and Hazel's, and it soon devolves into a horrific evening, made all the more awkward by an unexpected visit from June. Home Sweet Home, "devised" and directed by Mike Leigh, was originally shown as part of the BBC's Play for Today series. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

Featuring neat special effects, this romantic fantasy is loosely based on the story of the Cottingley Fairies, a tale of two cousins who, in 1917, swore that they had photographed the magical wee folk dancing in their garden. The story the girls told captured the war-weary imagination of Britishers everywhere. That the girls later admitted it was all a hoax, didn't matter much to "true believers" of fairy and magic books. This tale, like the original story, is set in the British countryside but centers on a jaded WW I photographer who makes a living in 1918 London debunking phony pictures of ghosts and other supernatural phenomenon -- that is until one day a woman brings him a picture of a fairy that defies explanation.

Charles Castle didn't set out to be a hard case towards humanity, It just happened. Shortly after his wedding day, his new bride Anne-Marie died after falling down a suddenly appearing ice fissure on a Swiss Alp. He has never gotten over his grief and desperately wants to see and speak to her again. Charles spends the war on battlefields photographing the dead. The photo that changes his life is given to him by the enigmatic Bea Templeton who claims that her daughters took the picture outside their country home. Unable to restrain his curiosity, Charles visits the area. Soon after, Bea dies mysteriously, and Charles becomes obsessed with the idea that talking to the fairies will somehow allow him the chance to contact his late wife. A magic white flower provides the key to his happiness and helps lead into the story's beautifully done climax. Parents may want to know that some of the fairies appear in various states of undress. This is one of two 1997 films based on the same true story. The other film is titled Fairy Tale: A True Story. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This unadorned biography of playwright Joe Orton (Gary Oldman) charts his bawdy, dangerous relationships. Alfred Molina plays Orton's brutish lover, Kenneth Halliwell, a pathetic figure who becomes horrific and then tragic before the film is over. The hilarity of scenes from such Orton plays as Loot and What the Butler Saw is evenly balanced by the bleakness of the playwright's tormented (and tormenting) off-stage existence, which ended suddenly at age 34 with half a dozen blows to the head from a hammer. Prick Up Your Ears is based on the book by theater critic John Lahr, who is played in the film by Wallace Shawn. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Oliver Megaton's action thriller Red Siren, an adaptation of Maurice G. Dantec's La Sirene Rouge, concerns the unusual friendship that develops between a 12-year-old girl, Alice (Alexandra Negrao) and a jaded, 40-year-old hired killer, Hugo (Jean-Marc Barr), who finds, in her, a new lease on life. A group of bad guys are hunting the girl because of her evil mother - relentlessly trying to track her down. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

In this alternately comic and grave reflection on the effects of Thatcherism on polyethnic England, middle-class liberals Rosie (Frances Barber) and Sammy (Ayub Khan Din) engage in an openly adulterous marriage while living in a lower-class neighborhood in London. When they're not hiding their troubled marriage behind a series of "enlightened" affairs, the couple associates with a social circle that ranges from leftist to radical and includes enigmatic street philosopher Victoria (Roland Gift). Sammy's long-lost father, Rafi (Shashi Kapoor), a South Asian politician, arrives for a visit just as rioting erupts in response to the killing of an innocent black woman by British police. Rafi decries not only the social upheaval that has transformed the country where he spent his halcyon university years, but also the lack of propriety on display in his son's marriage. Admitting that he's on the run for allegedly corrupt and violent political activities, the well-mannered yet manipulative Rafi uses his wealth to try to reign in what he sees as Sammy and Rosie's sexual and political excesses. Meanwhile, he tries to court Alice (Claire Bloom), the proper British lady he deserted decades earlier. The messy whirl of desire, resentment, and dogma that alternately throws these characters together and rips them apart ultimately reflects the confused and confusing society in which Sammy and Rosie live; soon even the unassailable Rafi must question his beliefs about life after empire. Sammy and Rosie Get Laid marked the second collaboration between director Stephen Frears and writer Hanif Kureishi; star Ayub Khan Din would go on to write another Anglo-Asian culture-clash comedy, 1998's East Is East. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

A minor-league criminal suddenly finds himself in deep trouble in this thriller. Billy "Shiner" Simpson (Michael Caine) is a man who has spent much of his life making a living by skirting the law, but he thinks he may finally have a legitimate path to the big time managing his son Eddie (Matthew Marsden), an up-and-coming boxer nicknamed "Golden Boy." Eddie is set to fight an American champion in a prizefight, and Billy is convinced Eddie can't lose. Even after Billy's daughter Georgie (Frances Barber) tips off the cops that he has been staging illegal underground brawls, Billy is able to convince the police not to arrest him until after Eddie's big bout. But Eddie loses in the second round, and Billy flees the arena with his son in tow. Billy and Eddie are followed by a gunman who shoots and kills the young fighter, and a distraught Billy becomes convinced someone got to Eddie and forced him to take a dive. As Billy tries to avoid both the law and the bookies with money on Eddie, he challenges a number of people he believes might know what really happened, including Eddie's coach Vic (Gary Lewis), the down-on-his-luck American promoter Frank Speeding (Martin Landau), Mel (Andy Serkis), one of Billy's henchmen (who can't say where he was when Eddie was killed), and Georgie and her husband. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Still Crazy is a film that looks back at the "rock band" era of the 1970s. Brian Gibson, who has directed musical biographies on Josephine Baker and Tina Turner, sets his narrative on a rock group, Strange Fruit, who are attempting a comeback twenty years after a bolt of lightening literally ended their career in the late 1970's. When keyboard player Tony (Stephan Rea) runs into the son of their old festival promoter, he gets the idea he could perhaps bring the aging musicians together for a revival. He goes off to search for Karen (Juliet Aubre), the band's Girl Friday and often the butt of their various ego trips. Karen, who now lives alone with her daughter, thinks it's a great idea and they set off to locate the other members. Beano (Timothy Spall), the drummer, has barricaded himself away in a trailer in his mother's garden for fear of being caught by the taxman. Ray (Bill Nighy), the lead singer, lives in a luxurious country house (beyond his means) with his second wife; he's still in the music business and has released a solo record. Les (Jimmy Nail), a great bass guitarist, is happily married, and his only regret is that his music never found the following he would have liked. As for ex-roadie Hughie (Billy Connolly), the Fruits were always his boys, and he's ready to give up his stall at Camden market and follow the dream. He would also love to see guitarist Brian again, but Brian is nowhere to be found. Karen decides to hire a much younger musician, Luke, to replace him. The re-formed band go to Holland to play a few clubs on a warm-up tour. However, the youngest member of the band is stealing the show, particularly with the members of the opposite sex. Despite efforts to stay calm and professional, the band is falling into the old routine of bickering day by day as they get close to the big reunion concert. Still Crazy was screened as part of the Panorama during the 49th International Berlin Film Festival, 1999. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide