Yvonne Bryceland Movies
- 1992
In this unusual drama, set in a tiny South African town, an odd widow has a spiritual revelation that causes her to create a large model of Mecca in her yard. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kathy Bates, Yvonne Bryceland, (more)
Small-time crook Mickey Rourke is mockingly named Johnny Handsome because of his grotesquely deformed face. While in stir on a robbery rap, Rourke is knifed by convicts in the employ of his former partner--and now bitter enemy--Lance Henriksen. While in the prison hospital, Rourke is cared for by a kindly doctor (Forrest Whitaker), who believes that the key to Rourke's rehabilitation might be a literal change of face. Undergoing plastic surgery, Rourke emerges as virtually unrecognizable to everyone but the audience. Paroled, Rourke seems to be willing to follow a straight and narrow path. Seems to be. Only Morgan Freeman, playing a hard-bitten law officer, sees through Rourke's "new leaf." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mickey Rourke, Ellen Barkin, (more)
- 1988
- R
Based on the novel by Marion Meade, this costume drama retelling of the doomed 12th century romance of Abelard and Heloise was directed by Clive Donner. Abelard (Derek de Lint) is a philosophy professor at the cathedral school of Notre Dame. Considered the greatest teacher in Paris at a time when professors of philosophy are required to be chaste, Abelard is a champion of reason and a man of the people. Despite what it could mean to his career and standing, however, Abelard falls in love with a student, Heloise (Kim Thomson), an upper class teenage girl raised in a convent and possessing an insatiably curious intellect, along with a rebellious attitude toward the second-class status of women in her society. When word of the relationship begins to filter out, Heloise's ambitious uncle Fulbert (Denholm Elliott), who had hoped to marry her off to a wealthy gentlemen, schemes to end the romance, as does the bishop of Paris (Bernard Hepton). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Derek de Lint, Kim Thomson, (more)
Cinematographer Chris Menges' first directorial effort, A World Apart was inspired by the lives of South African journalist Ruth First and her daughter Shawn Slovo (who wrote the film's screenplay). Barbara Hershey plays the fictional counterpart to Ms. First, Diana Roth, with Jodhi May as her daughter. Told from the daughter's viewpoint, the film shows us that Diana and her husband Jeroen Krabbe are so busy with their anti-Apartheid political activism that they totally shut May out of their lives. In 1963, Hershey is arrested by the South African police, becoming the first white woman to be held under the infamous 90-day-detention act. Left despondent and suicidal by two separate arrests and by constant harassment from the police, Diana still won't include her daughter in her life until the girl presses the issue in a climactic confrontation. Some critics felt that Shawn Slovo was using A World Apart to settle unresolved issues in her own life: Ruth First was killed under suspicious circumstances in 1982, without ever reconciling with her daughter. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbara Hershey, Jodhi May, (more)
- 1976
South African poet/political activist Athol Fugard is the star of Boesman and Lena. Directed by the still underappreciated Ross Devenish, the film translates South Africa's apartheid policies into purely personal terms. Emphasis is placed upon an American couple, whose life is thrown into despair when they come up against the rigidity of government-sanctioned racism. Supporting Fugard are actors Yvonne Bryceland and Sandy Tube. Not surprisingly, Boesman and Lena was not released in South Africa: it also was barely shown in the U.S., though its TV exposure on the Arts & Entertainment cable service later prompted theatrical engagements in several American cities ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
