David Byrne Movies

An offbeat Australian comedy filmed in that country and in Canada, this is not the documentary its title suggests. Its unlikely protagonist is a mild-mannered window peeper named Dead-Eye Dick (Max Gillies). Dick spies on a Mexican couple. The husband is very jealous and is about to discover that his wife has a lover when Dead-Eye Dick rescues the lover, whose moniker is Mexico Pete (Serge Lazareff). The worldly Pete counsels the shy Dick on his problems approaching women. Dick claims that he's waiting for an Alaskan Eskimo named Nell. Pete and Dick decide to travel to Alaska to find this fantasy woman, and they have several wacky misadventures along the way. This mostly overlooked ripple in the Australian New Wave was produced, directed, and written by Richard Franklin. ~ Michael Betzold, Rovi

This musical performance video features the music of David Byrne, the leadman for Talking Heads. He recieved high acclaim for this effort. ~ Rovi

A wildly inventive and entertaining comic nightmare from former Roger Corman prodigy Jonathan Demme (The Silence of the Lambs), this screwball odyssey is a ride to remember. Jeff Daniels plays clean-cut New York bond trader Charlie Driggs, who accepts a ride home from a strange but attractive lower-class woman named Lulu (Melanie Griffith). The sexy Louise Brooks lookalike doesn't take him home, but shanghais him for a bizarre roadtrip to Virginia that includes kinky bondage sex, destruction of property, and robbery. Things get stranger when Lulu tells Charlie that her real name is Audrey and takes him home to meet her mother, asking him to pose as her husband. The charade continues until her high-school reunion, where the roadtrip (and the entire film) takes a sharp U-turn into psycho-thriller territory. Audrey's dangerously psychotic ex-con husband, Ray Sinclair (Ray Liotta), shows up. What had been a liberating fling for Charlie turns into a bloody and vicious battle for survival. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi

Rob Nilsson both directed and starred in Heat and Sunlight. Nilsson plays a San Francisco photographer who has trouble curbing his obsessions. He falls in love with dancer Consuelo Faust, then is unable to shake off his violently jealous impulses when the ardor cools. The musical score by David Byrne and Brian Eno successfully conveys the seismic disturbances in Nilsson's troubled psyche. The film itself lacks cohesiveness, though the individual sequences are for the most part worthwhile. Heat and Sunlight has enough exposed skin and profanity to fully warrant its R rating. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The Last Emperor is the true story of Aisin-Gioro Pu Yi, the last ruler of the Chinese Ching Dynasty. Told in flashback, the film covers the years 1908 to 1967. We first see the three-year-old Pu Yi being installed in the Forbidden City by ruthless, dying dowager Empress Tzu-Hsui (Lisa Lu). Though he'd prefer to lark about like other boys, the infant emperor is cossetted and cajoled into accepting the responsibilities and privileges of his office. In 1912, the young emperor (Tijer Tsou) forced to abdicate when China is declared a republic, is a prisoner in his own palace, "protected" from the outside world. Fascinated by the worldliness of his Scottish tutor (Peter O'Toole), Pu Yi plots an escape from his cocoon by means of marriage. He selects Manchu descendant Wan Jung (Joan Chen), who likewise is anxious to experience the 20th century rather than be locked into the past by tradition. Played as an adult by John Lone, Pu Yi puts into effect several social reforms, and also clears the palace of the corrupt eunuchs who've been shielding him from life. In 1924, an invading warlord expels the denizens of the Forbidden City, allowing Pu Yi to "westernize" himself by embracing popular music and the latest dances as a guest of the Japanese Concession in Tientsin. Six years later, his power all but gone, Pu Yi escapes to Manchuria, where he unwittingly becomes a political pawn for the now-militant Japanese government. Humiliating his faithful wife, Pu Yi falls into bad romantic company, carrying on affairs with a variety of parasitic females. During World War II, the Japanese force Pu Yi to sign a series of documents which endorse their despotic military activities. At war's end, the emperor is taken prisoner by the Russians; while incarcerated, he is forced to fend for himself without servants at his beck and call for the first time. He is finally released in 1959 and displayed publicly as proof of the efficacy of Communist re-education. We last see him in 1967, the year of his death; now employed by the State as a gardener, Pu Yi makes one last visit to the Forbidden City...as a tourist. Bernardo Bertolucci's first film after a six-year self-imposed exile, The Last Emperor was released in two separate versions: the 160-minute theatrical release, and a 4-hour TV miniseries. Lensed on location, the film won nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Michelle Pfeiffer is Married to the Mob in this comedy. The wife of Mafia hitman Alec Baldwin, Pfeiffer regularly chastizes her husband for his underhanded line of work. Baldwin refuses to entertain any thoughts of quitting the mob-and besides, he's got a good thing going with Nancy Travis, the promiscuous girl friend of gang boss Dean Stockwell. When Stockwell catches on to Travis' peccadilloes, he murders both his mistress and the unlucky Baldwin. At Baldwin's funeral, Stockwell is overwhelmed by Pfeiffer's beauty, and immediately begins plying her with expensive gifts. But Pfeiffer is through with this sort of thing, and with her young son in tow, she leaves town, hoping to start life anew. Upon making the acquaintance of bumbling, seemingly sincere Matthew Modine, Pfeiffer is convinced that Modine is just another mob flunkey. But it's even worse: Modine is an FBI agent, ordered to get to Stockwell by using Pfeiffer as bait. Reluctantly (he's grown quite fond of her himself), Modine blackmails Pfeiffer into setting up a rendezvous with Stockwell. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Musician and filmmaker David Byrne travels to the Bahia region of Brazil to explore the African Spirit Cult of the Candomblè in this impressionistic documentary that seeks to explore the ways in which the Candomblè have influenced Brazilian culture. As the rhythms of sacred drums and bells permeate the music, art, dance, religion, and poetry of the people, the divination rites of the Candomblè invite Orishás (deities) to visit the living and bless the planet. In addition to offering authentic ritual music recorded during actual Candomblè ceremonies, this release also features music performed by Byrne in collaboration with a variety of Brazilian musicians. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Jeff Daniels stars in this tedious situation comedy concerning the middle-aged terror of illness and mortality. Scripted by Joe Eszterhas, Daniels plays Southern Californian Ray Macklin, who thinks he will live forever but realizes the fallacy of his idea when his best friend drops dead in front of him after issuing the set-up to the old joke, "Why don't Italians like barbecues?" (Which begs the question, "Why can't Joe Eszterhas write funny scripts?" The answer: "He did. Showgirls.") Anyway, after that shock trauma, Macklin becomes convinced that he is set to suffer the same fate and, as a result, becomes a raving hypochondriac. As Macklin continually clutches his chest and checks his heart monitor, he sinks himself deeper and deeper into the mindset that he is doomed, even though his tests turn out fine. All of this comes to a head in a bizarre dream sequence in which Macklin imagines Heaven as a Hawaiian resort populated by extras from a Federico Fellini picture. At that point, he wills himself to return to consciousness after surgery to remove his appendix. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

In this documentary, commissioned by the Centre George Pompidou of France, filmmaker Philip Haas explores the religious and artistic activity of four of the world's indigenous peoples. In the first segment, he follows the work of aborigines as they enact a vision from the dreamtime in an earth-painting entitled "The Giant Woman Dreaming." In the next, he goes to another part of Australia to film the making of another aboriginal sacred exertion in the form of a tree-bark painting entitled "The Lightening Man." The third segment takes him to Madagascar to film the messenger sculptures which the local people put on the tombs of relatives, which are said to carry messages back and forth. It is entitled "Young Man's Dream." The last segment explores the significance of images painted in the house of a man living in Papua, New Guinea. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Marking Natalie Merchant's last performance with Ten Thousand Maniacs before going on to pursue a solo career, this episode of MTV: Unplugged serves as a greatest hits album of sorts. Featuring fan favorites like "Like the Weather", "Trouble Me", and "These Are the Days", this 14-song compilation serves as a comprehensive guide to Ten Thousand Maniacs' success with both pop culture and the indie rock scene. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi

The title of this riotous exploration of philandering has no apparent bearing on the actual story that takes place in Melbourne, Florida, a small town near Cape Canaveral and centers on an abusive husband who beats up his wife Karen and then leaves her to burn to death in a fire. The husband, Josh is a photographer and after leaving, he soon hooks up with the insatiably sexy Angela. She is fleeing her crazed husband. The two click sexually and go at it at every opportunity. Both of them have fantasies about the same beautiful woman. Later, Josh encounters Angela's husband Dennis, who swears he will kill Josh. That is not the couple's only worry, as Karen and her lesbian biker-chick lover have just showed up for vengeance. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi