Michaël Pas Movies

Based on the true story of a priest who risked his life in order to help people no one else would touch (a wager he would eventually lose), Father Damien stars David Wenham as the titular Belgian saint. In 1872, Damien, a young Catholic priest serving as a missionary near Hawaii, volunteers to spend three months working in a colony for victims of leprosy on the island of Molokai. When he arrives, he discovers the lepers have been herded to a barely inhabitable part of the island where they're treated like animals. Damien is shocked, and makes it his crusade to improve the lives of the lepers, planting trees to help buffer the island's strong winds and building huts to house the sicker members of the tribe. Damien also concerns himself with their spiritual needs, restoring a sense of dignity and self-respect among the diseased and urging them away from drinking, sex, and other sinful behavior. At first, Damien's pleas to the mainland for medicine, supplies, and medical help fall on deaf ears, but soon the press picks up on Damien's story -- which only angers the Hawaiian government, who would prefer the plight of the lepers be forgotten. Damien is destined to spend the last years of his life on Molokai when he contacts the disease himself, working to ease the pain of his fellow victims to his last breath. Father Damien boasts a star-studded supporting cast, including Sam Neill, Peter O'Toole, Leo McKern, Kris Kristofferson, and Derek Jacobi. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Brylcream Boulevard is the second in Belgian filmmaker Robbe De Hert's uncompleted "Belgian Graffiti" trilogy. The first installment, Blueberry Hill was set in the mid '50s and chronicled the lives and adventures of a group of high school students. This episode begins five years later in the early '60s and looks at how adulthood has changed them. Robin De Hert, the former rebel returns home after a stint in the Navy and discovers his old nemesis Mr. Verbiest, the crooked teacher he oust, has become a corrupt politician. This particularly galls Robin, who still blames Verbiest for the death of his best friend in high school. Enlisting the aid of his ex-girl friend and high school buddies, Robin devises an ingenious scheme for revenge. Unfortunately, his elaborate sexual entrapment plan (the results of which he will broadcast on television) seems dicey to the others, so he prepares a plan B. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In the fourteenth century, few options were open to women, and anyone showing the slightest degree of independence was likely to be denounced as a witch and summarily burned. In this story, young Christine (Natalie Morse) has a strong devotion to the Virgin Mary, and has asked to be walled up in the church as an anchorite for the rest of her life. This suits her ambitious parish priest (Christopher Eccleston) perfectly, and she is forthwith walled up. Her mother (Toyah Wilcox), an herbalist, midwife and wise-woman, is not of the same mind, but she is not only ignored, but soon runs afoul of the local authorities. Meanwhile, Christine is adapting to her new life in strange ways, and finds ways to transcend her imprisonment through making good use of the completely unusual privacy it affords. In one erotic scene, she even manages to find a physical expression for her mystical marriage. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

If you like the title of this Belgian production, you'll love its source, a story by Charles Bukowski titled The Copulating Mermaid of Venice, Calif. Actually the film draws material from three different Bukowski stories to outline three crucial stages in a man's life. The hero begins as a 12-year old naif, "develops" into a miserable pimply adolescent who yearns for the girls who laugh in his face, and "matures" into an alcoholic, drug-addicted bum with a predilection for necrophilia. Amazingly, the material is handled with subtlety and sensitivity--the trick is to get through the film's first painful moments. The episodic nature of Love is a Dog From Hell is due to the fact that the film began as a 30-minute short subject, then was expanded into a feature when a distributor evinced interest. For its grindhouse playoffs, Love is a Dog From Hell was retitled Crazy Love. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi