Christine Edzard Movies
- 1997
This 37-minute 3-D Imax film adaptation from E.T.A. Hoffman's story is a straight narrative fantasy rather than a ballet. Little Clara (Lotte Johnson) receives a Christmas gift of a nutcracker doll and that night witnesses toys expanding in size and coming to life. The Nutcracker Prince takes Clara to his enchanted sugar castle where she meets pastry chef Sugar Plum (Miriam Margolyes) who uses spun sugar to concoct the dancing Sugar Fairy (Tamara Rojo). ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Miriam Margolyes, Heathcote Williams, (more)
Racial conflicts provide the impetus for this heavy, socially conscious British drama. The film begins in North Carolina, 1652, as an Ibo family calmly walks into the sea to drown themselves. To them death was preferable to slavery. The film quickly shoots into a future time, not too distant from our own, where the incarnated family lives in the Terrordome, a rundown ghetto neighborhood. There viciously racist Anglo policemen continually spar with drug-dealing gangs. Spike, a black gangster, is in love with a white woman. She's pregnant and ends up having an abortion after her former boyfriend beats her. Black Rad gets revenge by taking over a TV station after his wife, one of Spike's relations, is killed by police. She had rampaging around with a gun. On TV, Black Rad reads his propaganda. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Valentine Nonyela, Saffron Burrows, (more)
- 1992
This is a modern-dress rendition of Shakespeare's famous "comedy," a semi-serious drama with a story featuring mistaken identities and confused declarations of love. Though it screens far more of the classic play's dialogue than the 1936 version featuring Laurence Olivier, some reviewers asserted that the movie's anachronistic modern settings and costumes made the play's references to ancient forms of clothing and customs confusing to those unfamiliar with the play, and irritating to those who are. Other viewers may find the amount of elaborate verbiage Shakespeare used to convey even the simplest sentiment tiresome. Despite these drawbacks, connoisseurs may enjoy the interpretations of these well-known roles by some of the better performers gracing the British stage in the 1990s, including Emma Croft, James Fox, Cyril Cusack and Celia Bannerman. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cyril Cusack, James Fox, (more)
- 1990
Husband and wife producers Richard Goodwin and Christine Edzard return to the same milieu as in their epic version of Little Dorrit in The Fool. This slight story stars Derek Jacobi as Mr. Frederick, a theatrical clerk in the London of 1857, who concocts a monetary scam to bilk the rich. In order to carry off this deception, Mr. Frederick passes himself off as the well-heeled Sir John. But problems arise after he is recognized by some theater people, and he begins to take his false identity a bit too seriously. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Derek Jacobi, Cyril Cusack, (more)
- 1988
Little Dorrit was intended as the cinematic equivalent to the mammoth, eight hour Royal Shakespeare Company's staging of Dickens' Nicholas Nickelby. The film was released to theatres in two parts, each running approximately three hours. The first part, subtitled "Nobody's Fault," introduced us to the seamstress title character (Sarah Pickering), who chooses to live in debtor's prison with her father (Alec Guinness). Good samaritan Derek Jacobi endeavors to help both father and daughter. The second part, also known as "Little Dorrit's Story," details Dorrit's escape from penury to lasting happiness. Eschewing the usual 19th century-style British music often heard in Dickensian adaptations, director Christine Edzard creatively-and effectively--opts for the strains of Giuseppe Verdi. Edzard's eye for period detail is also deserving of unbounded praise. Unfortunately, Part Two of Little Dorrit spends nearly half of its running time recapping Part One, utilizing much of the same footage. For those familiar with "Nobody's Fault," "Little Dorrit's Story" is more a redundancy than a continuation. Still, taken together, parts one and two all fully deserving of the enthusiastic critical commentary that greeted them upon their original release-not to mention the multiple Academy Award nominations bestowed upon the project and its participants. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alec Guinness, Derek Jacobi, (more)
- 1983
In this slow, melancholy film, Biddy (Celia Bannerman) is a wise and loving nanny, imparting the lessons of life to her charges through poetry and homily, but after she grows older, the children she nurtured do not write letters or visit, leaving her a lonely, elderly woman. Engrossing at the beginning as Biddy and the children interact in a bygone, late 19th-century world, interest starts to flag a little when the woman ages and is on her own. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Celia Bannerman, Patricia Napier, (more)
- 1979
Set in present-day London, this uneven children's film from director Christine Edzard is divided into three different stories. In the first tale the kitchen utensils and objects come alive and have their own discussion when the occupants of the house are gone. In the second, the Little Match Girl suffers an impecunious existence in London's East End. And in the last story, a love of dancing is embodied in the performances of two dancers from the Royal Ballet (Lesley Collier as a princess, and Graham Fletcher as Prince Potato). Other dancers take on the roles of garden variety vegetables in undoubtedly one of their more unusually costumed performances. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Murray Melvin, Ann Firbank, (more)
The Royal Ballet Company brings Squirrel Nutkin, Tom Thumb, Hunca Munca, Jemima Puddle-Duck, Jeremy Fisher, Pigling Bland, and Pigwig to the screen doing pirouettes and pas de deux in this filmed ballet production directed by Reginald Mills. The film more properly belongs, however, to choreographer Frederick Ashmore, composer John Lanchbery, and costume designer Rostislav Douboujinsky. This literal adaptation concerns the shy Beatrix Potter and how, when all of the toy animals in her room come to life, she emerges from her shell and begins to enjoy life. Sequences include a rowdy dance with Tom Thumb and Hunca Munca destroying a collection of plaster food, a midnight pas de deux between Pigling Bland and Pigwig, and a corps de ballet of dancing mice. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frederick Ashton, Alexander Grant, (more)
Director Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 version of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet was touted at the time of its release (successfully, if the box-office receipts are any indication), as something of a "youth trip" movie. This is because Zeffirelli broke the long-standing tradition of casting over-aged, sometimes grey-haired players in the title roles. Seventeen-year-old Leonard Whiting plays Romeo, with 15-year-old Olivia Hussey as Juliet. The youthfulness and inexperience of the leading players works beautifully in the more passionate sequences (some of these breaking further ground by being played in the nude). Among the younger players are Michael York as Tybalt and John McEnery as Mercutio. The duel between Romeo and Tybalt starts out as a harmless, frat-boy exchange of insults, then escalates into tragedy before any of the participants are fully aware of what has happened. Photographed by Pasqualino DeSantis on various locations in Italy, Romeo and Juliet was one of the most profitable film adaptations of Shakespeare ever produced. Its most lasting legacy is its popular main theme music, composed by Nino Rota. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Olivia Hussey, Leonard Whiting, (more)
