Michaél Shillo Movies

Three older Jewish women deal with issues in their families and the long shadow of the Holocaust in this episodic drama. In the film's first segment, Rivka (Shulamit Adar) is on a bus tour of Poland with her husband and is accidentally left behind after a stop at a cemetery. She is furious with her husband, who didn't notice that she was missing; she's felt neglected by him for years, but she doesn't have the strength to leave him. The second story moves to Paris, where Regine (Liliane Rovere) receives startling news: her father, who supposedly died in a concentration camp during World War II, is actually alive in Lithuania. When she arrives in Lithuania, she's startled by the sight of her father, a very old man who doesn't quite recognize her, as well as his story: after the liberation of his camp, he made his way on foot and ended up behind the Iron Curtain, from where he was unable to return to Europe. In the final story, Vera (Esther Gorintin) and her neighbors travels from Moscow to Tel Aviv, hoping to visit a cousin who is now in a rest home. She eventually gets lost and is befriended by Rivka, from the first episode. Voyages is the directorial debut for Emmanuel Finkiel, who previously worked as an assistant director for Krzysztof Kieslowski and made a short film that won a César award in France. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Jessica Lange plays an attorney whose affable Hungarian-immigrant father Armin Mueller-Stahl is arrested. He is threatened with deportation for lying about his activities during World War II; part of the charge is that Mueller-Stahl was a Nazi collaborationist, guilty of wartime atrocities. Absolutely convinced that her father is being railroaded by a revenge-seeking Hungarian communist government, Lange handles Mueller-Stahl's defense, expertly blowing huge holes in prosecuting attorney Frederic Forrest's case. But in doing her own research, Lange discovers that her father has spent a lifetime paying off a blackmailer. Why? In contrast to the fervency of his earlier Z, Costa-Gavras refuses to make things easy by proselytizing in The Music Box (nor does screenwriter Joe Esterhas indulge in his usual right-between-the-eyes fervency). Everything in the film is offered on the same calm, collected level, making the ultimate horror of the story all the more effective. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A young boy is lonely when his family moves into a Jewish settlement in what will one day become Israel. His only playmate is his sister, as the two attend a small school set up for the children of the settlers. The community votes to bring in a doctor instead of another teacher for the older children, and the boy's parents send him to a Christian school run by missionaries. The move causes the neighbors to shun the family and accuse the couple of turning their backs on their heritage and religion. The boy returns home, but his mother is sick with typhoid fever and he runs away. He is befriended by children his own age at an agricultural school before his is discovered and returned to his family. The boy pleads to return to the farming school where he has finally made friends in this feature specially made for children and those who have not forgotten what it was like to be one. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

In Roman Polanski's first American film, adapted from Ira Levin's horror bestseller, a young wife comes to believe that her offspring is not of this world. Waifish Rosemary Woodhouse (Mia Farrow) and her struggling actor husband, Guy (John Cassavetes), move into the Bramford, an old New York City apartment building with an ominous reputation and only elderly residents. Neighbors Roman and Minnie Castevet (Sidney Blackmer and Ruth Gordon) soon come nosing around to welcome the Woodhouses to the building; despite Rosemary's reservations about their eccentricity and the weird noises that she keeps hearing, Guy starts spending time with the Castevets. Shortly after Guy lands a plum Broadway role, Minnie starts showing up with homemade chocolate mousse for Rosemary. When Rosemary becomes pregnant after a mousse-provoked nightmare of being raped by a beast, the Castevets take a special interest in her welfare. As the sickened Rosemary becomes increasingly isolated, she begins to suspect that the Castevets' circle is not what it seems. The diabolical truth is revealed only after Rosemary gives birth, and the baby is taken away from her. Polanski's camerawork and Richard Sylbert's production design transform the realistic setting (shot on-location in Manhattan's Dakota apartment building) into a sinister projection of Rosemary's fears, chillingly locating supernatural horror in the familiar by leaving the most grotesque frights to the viewer's imagination. This apocalyptic yet darkly comic paranoia about the hallowed institution of childbirth touched a nerve with late-'60s audiences feeling uneasy about traditional norms. Produced by B-horror maestro William Castle, Rosemary's Baby became a critically praised hit, winning Gordon an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Inspiring a wave of satanic horror from The Exorcist (1973) to The Omen (1976), Rosemary's Baby helped usher in the genre's modern era by combining a supernatural story with Alfred Hitchcock's propensity for finding normality horrific. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

15 years after defecting to the Communists, disillusioned American atomic scientist John Streyer (Richard Kiley) secretly returns to the United States. Not surprisingly, Streyer's homecoming is greeted with outright hostility by former friends and loved ones--and worse, a Red assassin has surfaced with orders to kill him. Arthur Ward (Philip Abbott), the boss of FBI inspector Lew Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.), makes it his personal mission to locate Streyer before the killer does. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Cast a Giant Shadow is a big-budget, glossy action/adventure story set at the time that Israel became a nation. American Army officer Colonel David Marcus is recruited by the yet-to-exist Israel to help form an army. Marcus is conflicted because of his sudden appreciation for his Jewish heritage. Realizing that each of Israel's Arab nations has vowed to invade the poorly prepared country once the partition has been made, Marcus is made commander of the Israeli forces just before the war begins. The all-star cast includes Kirk Douglas, Senta Berger and Angie Dickinson. Aldo Tonti provides the beautiful photography by Aldo Tonti, and Melville Shavelson directs. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide

In this mystery, a movie producer gets bored with his wife and begins an affair with a fiery actress. In the end, he jilts his mistress and returns to his wife. The trouble begins when someone stabs the actress and he is labelled the prime suspect by a detective. Later the producer discovers that the actress is still alive, and that the detective was her husband. A real murder follows and the producer is arrested. His loyal wife launches her own investigation and proves that her husband was innocent. The real killer, the husband of the actress, ends up killed in a car wreck. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The first Israeli film to enjoy success outside its borders, Hill 24 Doesn't Answer is set during the war of 1948. As the Arabs endeavor to gain control of the Holy Land, we concentrate on four people who've cast their lot with the Jews: Irishman Edward Mulhare, American Michael Wager, Palestinian Arieh Lavi and Yemenite girl Margalet Ovid. As the foursome holds tenuously onto the militarily crucial Hill 24, the film flashes back to show why and how these disparate souls have come together for this undertaking. Haya Harareet, who later co-starred with Charlton Heston in Ben-Hur, plays the underground worker who galvanizes Mulhare into joining the Israelis. While each actor speaks his or her native language, Hill 24 Doesn't Answer is generally shown on TV in an English-dubbed version. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide