Trevor Griffiths Movies
- 2002
Erotic Tales offers three short films with strong sexual content. Dito Tsintsadze's An Erotic Tale is about a writer attempting to pick up a still-attached woman. Bob Rafelson's Porn.com is about a struggling filmmaker who is hired to make a Nazi-themed pornographic film. Fridrik Thor Fridriksson's dialogue-free On Top Down Under intercuts a woman using an icicle for erotic release while her lover plans an icy death for himself. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi
- Starring:
- Silvina Buchbauer, Lasha Bakradze, (more)
- 1993
In 1948, novelist Hella Haasse published a novel based on her experiences in growing up in Dutch Indonesia. Oeroeg captures the dilemma of those caught between the pretensions and culture of their Dutch homeland and their respect and affection for the native people of the colonies, and it has became a classic, with many editions printed. In this story, Johan (Rik Launspach), a European boy grows up on a plantation running and playing with his best friend, the son of the foreman, a native boy called Oeroeg (Martin Schwab). He is only barely aware of the gulf that divides them, but gradually becomes more aware of it as he leaves to study back in the Netherlands. When he comes home, it is as a soldier in the army, who are in Indonesia to put down the local independence movement. Not only is Johan grieved to be taking arms against Indonesians in general, and distressed at the racism of his colleagues, but he has reason to believe that his old friend is now a leader in the forces he is obliged to fight. He goes on a mission into the jungle to find him. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Rik Launspach, Martin Schwab, (more)
- 1986
A drama about personal conflicts and the political biases of the East and West German governments in the mid-'80s, this story focuses on the defection of a talented singer. Klaus (Gerulf Pannach) is finally granted permission to leave East Germany where he is no longer allowed to perform. But after arriving in the West he decides that he does not like being treated as the latest hot commodity; he appears to be no more comfortable in his new environment than in his previous one. While being hyped and promoted, he goes looking for his father, who had left nearly 30 years before to pursue his career as a musician in Cambridge. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Gerulf Pannach, Fabienne Babe, (more)
- 1981
D.H. Lawrence's semi-autobiographical novel Sons and Lovers was filmed in 1960, and suffered from the censorial dictates of the period. One would assume that the BBC2 TV miniseries version of the same property, produced in 1981, would be a bit less inhibited. While the basic story, that of a young Nottingham miner who yearned to become a renowned artist, was harmless enough, the sexual trimmings of the tale were fairly steamy -- but not so much so that a TV adaptation was impossible. In typical fashion, the BBC producers tended to bury the source material in lavish production values and flashy directorial touches, causing some critics to complain that the treatment was a betrayal of Lawrence's famed "naturalism." Unfortunately, contemporary viewers may never get the chance to judge for themselves, since the seven-part TV version of Sons and Lovers can be seen only if one has access to a private film archive. Fortunately, Trevor Griffiths' teleplay has been published and widely circulated in the British public library system. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Few filmmakers other than Warren Beatty would have had the courage and vision to fashion an epic film from the life of famed American Communist John Reed (who is the only US citizen buried in the Kremlin). The film is an effort to humanize a political movement that has previously been depicted on screen in a series of unsubtle and prejudicial broad strokes. The film begins in 1915, when Reed (Beatty) makes the acquaintance of married Portland journalist Louise Bryant (Diane Keaton). So persuasive is Reed's point of view--and so charismatic is Reed himself-- that Bryant kicks over the traces and joins Reed and his fellow radicals. Among the famous personages depicted herein are Emma Goldman (Maureen Stapleton), Eugene O'Neill (Jack Nicholson) and Max Eastman (Richard Herrmann). The second half of this nearly-200-minute film skims through the years when Reed, now a Russian resident, becomes disillusioned by the harsh realities of Bolshevism. Despite the celebrity line-up of real-life "witnesses" to the events depicted in the film (ranging from novelist Henry Miller to comedian George Jessel!), historians took Reds to task for its oversimplification of events and its laundering of the notoriously promiscuous Louise Bryant. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton, (more)
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