Rochelle Oliver Movies
Born Rochelle Olshever. Supporting actress, onscreen from the '70s. ~ All Movie Guide
A down-on-his luck auteur gets one more chance at the big time -- provided his neuroses don't swallow him whole -- in Woody Allen's 33rd feature release, Hollywood Ending. Allen plays Val Waxman, a one-time cinematic genius who's resorted to taking advertisement work to pay the bills for himself and his airhead live-in girlfriend, Lori (Debra Messing). Val finds his luck is about to change, however, when he receives the script for The City Never Sleeps, a period noir set against the backdrop of 1940s New York City. It seems his ex-wife, Ellie (Tea Leoni), now an executive at Galaxy Pictures, has been pulling for him to direct the picture, claiming he's the only man who can do justice to the script. She even manages to convince her boyfriend, Hal (Treat Williams), Galaxy's high-powered studio head, to take a chance on Val's "unique vision." Just when the cameras are ready to roll, however, Val finds that unique vision in jeopardy -- literally -- as he's struck with a psychosomatic case of blindness. When physicians and psychiatrists fail to cure him, Val contrives a scheme to forge ahead with the picture, for fear of blowing his one last chance at greatness. Hollywood Ending co-stars George Hamilton and Mark Rydell. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Woody Allen, Téa Leoni, (more)
- 1998
The prosecution of a Mafia murder faces a stumbling block in the form of a Mr. Dobbs (Philip Bosco), the lawyer of an elderly mob don. Dobbs argues that his client is mentally and physically unfit to stand trial -- and all evidence suggests that the attorney is telling the truth. Adding to the intrigue is the dead witness, and the all-too-eager confession of a two-bit hoodlum. The D.A.'s office arrives at the truth through the "magic" of videotape -- and a steady finger on the slow-motion button. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1996
The detectives investigate when Richard Spiegel, chief financial officer for an upscale family owned department store, is found murdered. As usual, the case is top-heavy with likely suspects. Eventually the field narrows to two women, the dead man's widow (Anne Twomey) and his possible mistress (Jean de Baer) -- both of whom are daughters of the store's owner Seymour Bergreen (Joseph Wiseman). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1995
After a coed is murdered, a detailed description of the crime appears online. Once again, detective Briscoe (Jerry Orbach) must rely upon the computer savvy of his partner Curtis (Benjamin Bratt) to track down the perp. Once the accused is in custody, Assistant D.A. McCoy (Sam Waterston) must deal with the stonewall tactics of the defense attorney. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1994
The focus in this episode is on Lt. Anita Van Buren (S. Epatha Merkerson), the boss of detectives Briscoe (Jerry Orbach) and Logan (Chris Noth). During an attempted holdup, Van Buren shoots and kills one of her teenaged assailants. Already racked with guilt, Van Buren must also endure the ordeal of an investigation from the D.A.'s office when evidence indicates that she might have shot an unarmed youth in the back. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1994
A woman is the seemingly random victim of a letter bomb. As the detectives and the D.A.'s office pursue their investigation, it becomes painfully apparent that the killing was no accident of fate. It seems that the dead woman was the estranged wife of scientist Edward Manning (Harris Yulin), and she had driven him to distraction by delaying their divorce proceedings. This episode was directed by former Law & Order regular Dann Florek. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1993
A highly decorated police officer is killed in a shootout with a drug dealer. In his statement to the police, the dealer indicates that the dead cop's fellow officers failed to provide proper backup. When it is revealed that the victim was gay, the staff of the DA's office grimly prepare to charge three of the cop's homophobic colleagues with hatching a criminal conspiracy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Driven by an extravagant, tour-de-force performance by Al Pacino, Scent of a Woman is the story of Frank Slade (Pacino), a blind, retired army colonel who hires Charlie Simms (Chris O'Donnell), a poor college student on the verge of expulsion, to take care of him over Thanksgiving weekend. At the beginning of the weekend, Frank takes Charlie to New York, where he reveals to the student that he intends to visit his family, have a few terrific meals, sleep with a beautiful woman and, finally, commit suicide. The film follows the mis-matched pair over the course of the weekend, as they learn about life through their series of adventures. Though the story is a little contrived and predictable, it pulls all the right strings, thanks to O'Donnell's sympathetic supporting role and Pacino's powerful lead performance, for which he won his first Academy Award. Scent of a Woman is based on the 1975 Italian film Profumo Di Donna. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Al Pacino, Chris O'Donnell, (more)
- 1989
- PG
In this film, sisters Frances and Evelyn McEllany (Patricia Neal and Shelley Winters) are two older women who have put aside their differences to set up a comfortable life together. However, when shy, retiring Frances falls in love with an Asian mechanic (Mako), her stuffy, intolerant sister falls into a rage that threatens to destroy their relationship. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patricia Neal, Shelley Winters, (more)
Horton Foote is the author and his daughter Hallie Foote the star of The Courtship. Set in 1915, this minimalist character piece details the courting customs in the small Texas town of Harrison. Hallie, the daughter of a prosperous small-town family, is sought after by travelling salesman William Converse-Roberts, who must prove himself worthy of her hand. The emphasis is on Hallie, who sees marriage as the most expedient means of escaping the tyranny of her father (Michael Higgins). The Courtship was the first five nostalgic Horton Foote plays which originally aired on the PBS American Playhouse series from April 4 to May 1, 1987, under the umbrella title Story of A Marriage. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A prequel to Horton Foote's 1918, On Valentine's Day was filmed in 1984, then held back from release till 1986. On the titular day, Elizabeth Vaughn (Hallie Foote, Horton's daughter) and Horace Robedeaux (William Converse-Roberts) elope. Horace stubbornly refuses to ask for financial assistant from his parents or in-laws, so the penniless couple is compelled to live in an inexpensive boarding house. Their fellow tenants are the usual assortment of eccentrics, including alcoholic Bobby Pate (Richard Jenkins), spinster Miss Ruth (Carol Goodheart), heartbroken George Tyler (Steven Hill) and garrulous young Bessie (Jeanne McCarthy). After several months of enduring the woes of the other boarders, Horace swallows his pride and agrees to allow father-in-law Michael Higgins to support him and Elizabeth. There's a reconciliation, but one tinged with the premonition that Horace and Elizabeth aren't out of the woods yet. Together with Portrait of a Marriage (never released theatrically), On Valentine's Day and 1918 were later reedited and incorporated into a Horton Foote TV trilogy on the PBS network. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Converse-Roberts, Hallie Foote, (more)
Adapted by Horton Foote from his own play, 1918 focuses on a small Texas town beset by a major flue epidemic during World War I. In this slow-paced, melancholy story of internecine family strife, Horace Robedaux (William Converse-Roberts) comes from the poor side of the town's citizenry, but he married into the landed gentry when he wed Elizabeth (Hallie Foote), a change that bothers him constantly. His father-in-law is a rigid though well-intentioned patriarch, and his mother-in-law is often at odds with Elizabeth -- the seeds of that friction undoubtedly lie in the family's opposition to Elizabeth marrying Horace. Besides, these wealthy parents treat Elizabeth and Horace as though they were still children -- and they are now the proud parents of a baby boy. Changes occur when Horace makes a sudden decision to go off to war, after assurances from his father-in-law that he will care for Elizabeth in the meantime -- and the flu epidemic strikes much closer to the family than anyone would have imagined. The film was later telecast as part of a Horton Foote trilogy on PBS' American Playhouse. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Converse-Roberts, Hallie Foote, (more)
After helping to kick-start the independent film movement in America with The Return of the Secaucus Seven, John Sayles wrote, directed, and edited his second feature, about a woman who finds herself staring life over after coming out of the closet as a lesbian. Lianna (Linda Griffiths) is a woman in her early thirties who's married to Dick (Jon DeVries), who teaches film at a college in Boston. Lianna first met Dick when she was a student in his class, and while she's grown more assertive and independent with time, Dick has become bitter and difficult, though he tries to be patient with their two children, Spencer (Jesse Solomon) and Theda (Jessica Wight MacDonald). Lianna, who dropped out of college when she married Dick, has begun taking classes again, and strikes up a close friendship with one of her professors, Ruth (Jane Hallaren); Dick, however, would prefer that she spend her time helping him with research on his upcoming thesis. When Lianna discovers Dick has been having an affair with one of his students, she begins to wonder about her future with him as well as her own feelings, and one evening, after dinner and conversation with Ruth, Lianna discovers her new friend has romantic feelings toward her -- and that she feels the same way toward Ruth. When Lianna confronts Dick with the news of her relationship with Ruth, he's livid and makes her leave the house, forcing her to start a new life for herself as she comes to terms with her own sexuality. Comic actor Chris Elliott makes his screen debut in Lianna in a small role as a lighting technician for a dance troupe. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Linda Griffiths, Jane Hallaren, (more)
- 1982
Amy's angel is her guardian angel who, seeing her in a despondent state (from her parents' recent divorce and a painful lack of friends) shows Amy the bright side of her life, helping Amy understand the wonder that's waiting in this world, just for her. ~ All Movie Guide
An aspiring actor leaves his home in Brooklyn for adulthood in Manhattan in Paul Mazursky's loosely autobiographical comedy-drama. In 1953, would-be thesp Larry Lapinsky (Lenny Baker) flees his hysterically clinging mother (Shelley Winters) for a $25-a-month (!!) apartment in bohemian Greenwich Village. Between Method-like acting classes, a movie audition (where he meets a posturing actor played by Jeff Goldblum), and work at a juice bar, Larry hangs out with a circle of archetypal Village eccentrics, including suicidal Anita (Lois Smith), womanizing poet Robert (Christopher Walken), and flamboyantly un-closeted homosexual Bernstein (Antonio Fargas), as he negotiates the pitfalls of love and sex with liberated girlfriend Sarah (Ellen Greene). The fallout over the group's ill-fated love affairs, and the Lapinskys' inopportune surprise visits, finally lead Larry to make peace with his past as he contemplates his future in Hollywood. Mazursky looks back to the 1950s as in such other 1970s films as American Graffiti, Grease, and TV's Happy Days, but his Greenwich Village life is less a time of lost pre-'60s innocence than a precursor of things to come. Sex, Larry jokes, may be serious, but it is also an omnipresent fact of life rather than something to be feared or repressed; love is the real problem. Even as Larry's friends strike various poses, they are all out to do their own thing as best they can. Critical response to Mazursky's nostalgia trip was mixed when the film was released, but the performances, particularly Winters, were admired. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lenny Baker, Shelley Winters, (more)
- 1975
- R
Lynn Redgrave stars as New York madam Xaviera Hollander in this romp based on Hollander's rise to the top of the sex-for-hire industry. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lynn Redgrave, Jean-Pierre Aumont, (more)
