Cyril Shaps Movies

The Lost Son brings together talented British director Chris Menges with a well-known face of French cinema, Daniel Auteuil, who plays a detective in self-exile in London who deals mostly with cases of adultery. At the same time, he is trying to come to terms with the ghosts of his past. While trying to locate the brother-in-law of an old friend who once saved his life, he finds himself in the middle of a network of pedophiles. The director tries to avoid voyeurism or over-simplification in dealing with such a sensitive issue. The tone is not judgmental. One memorable image sums up the thrust of the film: a silent boy urinating on the corpse of one of his torturers. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide

Director of award-winning short films Ben Hopkins embarked on this ambitious feature project with Robert Jones, the producer of The Usual Suspects. The screenplay is inspired by Central European folklore, spaghetti Westerns and industrial history. But the film, which runs like a fable, has its roots in folktales rather than history. It is the end of the 19th century and progress has arrived in Silesia. Travelers do not stop at the town anymore because the railway track is laid past the small settlement. Incomes have dropped, and so has the number of inhabitants. Noah Taylor plays Simon, a 'holy fool' of sorts, persecuted by fellow villagers who hold him responsible for everything from the failure of the crops to the milk going sour. Simon, who resembles a scarecrow, lives in a hut outside the village. He earns his living emptying the sewers, existing on dry bread and the occasional herring or pickle given by the wife of a rabbi. He knows how to entertain the village children with his magic tricks and devilish masks. At the same time, he feels he actually is pursued by the devil, which makes him do all kinds of evil things, only increasing his isolation. There is also the poor but good-looking Jew, Dovid, who keeps proposing to the beautiful widow Leah, who rejects him. Dovid devises a plan to build the village economy, and in the process gain her affection. He pays a visit to the eccentric poet esquire and agrees to a business deal which entails the esquire allowing a new railway station to be built on his property in return for Dovid reading his newly published anthology. Unfortunately, Hase Sean McGinley, a wealthy Christian merchant with more money and little respect for the Jewish villagers, is also interested in the railway project. Simon Magus is the story of a village caught between two worlds -- the new industrial order and the old, rural world of tradition and superstition. The camera work of Nic Knowland is outstanding, as is the confident performance by Noah Taylor, the teenage David Helfgott of Shine. The rest of the cast is quite international as well -- Irishman Stuart Townsend as Dovid, the merchant; South African-born Embeth Davidtz as Leah, the widow and Dutch star Rutger Hauer cast against type as the gentle poet squire. Various subplots, however, often carry the story in directions which distracts audience attention. Simon Magus competed at the 49th International Berlin Film Festival in 1999. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide

Scottish comedian Alan Cumming stars in this Dutch psychological drama, set in Vienna but mainly filmed in Budapest. Crazed stand-up comedian Daniel (Cumming) pleases his hospitalized mother (Hedi Temessy) by dressing to resemble his sister Hannah, who died in a Nazi concentration camp. After his girlfriend (Serena Gordon) drops him, he takes up with naive Texan Lilian (Juliet Aubrey), who is attempting to solve the mystery of her Nazi father's link to chemical businessman Wittfogel (Frank Finlay). Shown at the 1997 Nederlands Film Festival/Holland Film Meeting. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

We prefer the original release title of Disney's A Spaceman in King Arthur's Court: Unidentified Flying Oddball. In this new twist on an old Mark Twain yarn, NASA scientist Dennis Dugan and his robot clone are whisked back in time to the days of King Arthur (Kenneth More). After performing several acts of "sorcery" with the state-of-the-art paraphernalia at his disposal, Dugan incurs the wrath of in-house magician Merlin (Ron Moody). Jim Dale costars as the most hyperkinetic Sir Mordred that you're ever likely too see. Previous versions of Twain's Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court were filmed in 1921, 1931 and 1948; Spaceman in King Arthur's Court would be followed by an early-1990s TV adaptation of Connecticut Yankee starring The Cosby Show's Keshia Knight Pulliam, and by Disney's 1995 theatrical feature, A Kid in King Arthur's Court. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the conclusion of the four-part story "The Androids of Tara," the Doctor (Tom Baker) and Romana (Mary Tamm) are still mired in a medieval power struggle on the arborial planet Tara. Hoping to arrange a wedding between Prince Reynart (Neville Jason) and Princess Strella, then kill Reynart and wed the Princess himself in order to ascend to the royal throne, Count Grendel of Gracht (Peter Jeffrey) has forced Romana to pose as Strella, her exact double (both roles are played by Mary Tamm). As intrigue piles upon intrigue, the Doctor wonders if he will ever be able to retrieve the fourth segment of the Key to Time, thereby restoring the balance between Good and Evil throughout the universe. Written by David Fisher, "The Androids of Tara, Episode 2" first aired on December 16, 1978. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Though not Ian Fleming's most famous James Bond novel, 1962's The Spy Who Loved Me was distinguished by the unique device of telling the story from the heroine's point of view; in fact, Bond doesn't make an appearance until the book is two-thirds over. This would hardly work in the film world's Bond franchise, so the original austere plotline of the novel was eschewed altogether in favor of a labyrinthine story involving outer-space extortion. The leading lady, a "hard-luck kid" in the original, is now sexy Russian secret agent Barbara Bach, who joins forces with Bond (Roger Moore, making his third appearance as 007) to foil yet another megalomaniac villain (Curt Jurgens), who plans to threaten New York City with nuclear weaponry. Beyond the eye-popping opening ski-jump sequence, the film's best scenes involve seven-foot-two Richard Kiel as steel-toothed henchman Jaws. Fifteen scriptwriters worked on The Spy Who Loved Me; only two were credited, including Bond-film veteran Richard Maibaum. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Season 11 of Doctor Who came to a spectacular end with the six-part adventure "Planet of the Spiders." Written by Robert Sloman, this adventure finds the Doctor (Jon Pertwee) suffering the consequences of stealing a powerful blue crystal from the planet Meteblis 3 in the previous story arc "The Green Death." In episode one, which originally aired on May 4, 1974, the Doctor's traveling companion, Sarah (Elisabeth Sladen), is summoned by her boss, Mike Yates (Richard Franklin), to investigate a suspicious transcendental meditation group. This assignment turns out to be a direct link to sinister intrigues on Metebelis 3 and the first step towards a profound epiphany for the Doctor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Odessa File is set in Hamburg in the winter of 1963. Jon Voight plays Peter Miller, a German reporter who is investigating the whereabouts of missing Nazi war criminals. After reading the diary of a Holocaust survivor who has recently committed suicide, Miller goes on the trail of in-hiding SS officer Eduard Roschmann (Maximilian Schell). The reporter finds his investigation blocked by members of a secretive group called Odessa. With the help of Israeli activists, Miller persists in his search. Schell's sister Maria also appears in The Odessa File as Miller's mother, the widow of a German soldier. Based on a nailbiting novel by Frederick Forsyth, The Odessa File is highlighted by the exquisitely Teutonic score of Andrew Lloyd Webber. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When American agents in Moscow try to recover a stolen letter implicating America in an anti-Red China plot, they discover a hornet's nest of treason, double agents, murder, and betrayal. The plot has as many switchbacks as a Formula One racetrack, and a pad and paper to keep track of the agents and their code names wouldn't hurt. Still, The Kremlin Letter is an interesting espionage movie with some good performances. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide

In the fourth episode of the seven-part story "The Ambassadors of Death," Liz (Caroline John) is kidnapped and forced to conduct experiments on the astronauts who have returned from Mars Probe 7. Conducting his own investigation in space, the Doctor (Jon Pertwee) discovers that the "astronauts" are actually alien duplicates -- but he still doesn't know who is behind the mystery, nor can he figure out the unknown villain's motivation. Written by Don Houghton, "The Ambassadors of Death, Episode 4" originally aired on April 11, 1970. Filmed in color, this episode presently exists in black-and-white only. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this Cold War espionage-thriller, adapted from the novel of John Le Carre, two veteran British intelligence operatives, Leclerc (Ralph Richardson) and Haldane (Paul Rogers), recruit a young Polish defector (Christopher Jones) to check on some missiles in East Germany. Avery (Anthony Hopkins) is the British agent assigned to help him to cross the East German border. Once behind the Iron Curtain, the recruit meets a sympathetic German girl (Pia Degermark) who tries to help him to evade the East German secret police and to complete his assignment. ~ Yuri German, All Movie Guide