Maurice Jarre Movies

It was the fire that sparked reform; after 146 people -- mostly women and girls -- died in the ferocious 1911 blaze that gutted the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, it was discovered that the exits had been locked by the management to prevent theft by the workers. At the time, there were no fire laws in the city, and few laws protecting workers. As this fourth episode in the PBS documentary series about New York reveals, citizen anger at the tragedy led to public hearings and a state commission recommending safety reforms such as automatic sprinklers in buildings over seven stories high, more frequent fire inspections, and a shorter, 54-hour week for women. Also covered in this episode is the fledgling motion picture industry led by companies such as Biograph, for which D.W. Griffith shot hundreds of short films; the continued problem of overcrowded slums, a blight exacerbated by the arrival of 10 million new immigrants in just a couple of decades; and the building of modern urban emblems: the subway system and skyscrapers. Highlights include archival motion picture footage, period photographs, archival paintings, and engravings, as well as commentary by numerous guests including Academy award-winning director Martin Scorcese; Ruth J. Abram, founder of the Lower East Side Tenement Museum; novelist Caleb Carr (The Alienist); architect Robert A. M. Stern; writer Jean Strouse; and historian John Kuo Wei Tchen. Other features include dramatic readings by guests including Robert Sean Leonard, Frances Sternhagen, Eli Wallach, and George Plimpton. Directed by Ric Burns and narrated by David Ogden Stiers. ~ Steve Blackburn, All Movie Guide

New York of the 19th century was already a haven of celebrities; showman P.T. Barnum's museum drew crowds on Broadway, and up the street the great photographer Mathew Brady stayed busy taking "likenesses" of the rich and famous. However, when British author Charles Dickens visited New York in 1842, the poverty and squalor he witnessed in New York appalled him; he noted that it was worse than any of London's. Indeed, as revealed in the second episode of this epic PBS documentary series, New York's rapid growth didn't come without a human cost. Gangs as bad or worse than any in the 20th century roamed the harsh tenement slums. Disparity between rich and poor, American-born and immigrant, culminated in the draft riots during the sweltering summer of July 1863. Angry over the unfairness of the newly instituted Civil War draft (rich men could buy their way out of the military), mobs of men, women, and children rampaged through the streets causing millions of dollars in damage. Several blacks got lynched during the riots, and federal troops had to be called back from the still-smoking battlefields of Gettysburg to restore the peace. Highlights include archival daguerreotypes, paintings, and engravings, as well as commentary by numerous guests including historian Thomas Bender, poet Allen Ginsberg, architect Robert A. M. Stern, and historian Gretchen Sullivan Sorin. Other features include dramatic readings by various people including Frances Sternhagen, Keith David, Spalding Gray, Philip Bosco, Eli Wallach, and George Plimpton. Directed by Ric Burns and narrated by David Ogden Stiers. ~ Steve Blackburn, All Movie Guide

Ten years ago, distinguished French author Alexandre (Alain Delon) exchanged his stressful, hectic life in Paris for a more peaceful existence upon a Mexican hacienda with his wife Ariane (Marianne Denicourt). Lucien (Jean-Pierre Kalfon) also accompanies them. There, Alexandre meets the strange lady-oracle Sonia (Lauren Bacall). As the film opens, the melancholy Alexandre is visited by the sensuous actress Laure (Arielle Dombasle) and her producer Raoul Fillipi (Karl Zero) who is going to make a movie of one of Alexandre's best-loved books. Laure is determined to play the part of the heroine and is willing to resort to seduction to get it. At the same time, Ariane is involved in a passionate affair with French-Mexican seismologist Carlo (Xavier Beauvois). While all of these characters wrangle and tangle with their different agendas, the local residents prepare for a violent revolution. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This homage to the cinema by venerated movie-maker Agnes Varda, often dubbed the "grandmother" of the French New Wave, features an all-star international cast. The story is based upon the memories and insights of the 100-year old Mr. Simon Cinema. He lives in a magnificent house filled with movie memorabilia. To help him remember the important details of his career he hires Camille, a film student to write down his remembrances and experiences which have involved all areas of movie-making. Camille comes once a day for 101 days. Film clips, photographs and actual visitors highlight his stories. As he continues to spin his yarns, the imagery in the film smoothly morph into other images. Camille, when not recording, is involved in other exploits including a romance with a production assistant, Mica who aspires to becoming a director. She also begins plotting a way to get to Mr. Cinema's fortune by having a friend pose as his long lost heir. Many other characters are peripherally involved including Death, an Italian seeking the rights to his film catalogue, and a memory specialist. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Directed by Akira Tomono, this lavish historical epic was a celebration of Nikkatsu studio's 80th year anniversary. Set during the run up to World War II, the film centers on Tatsuma Kaya (Masaya Kato), a brooding secret agent for the Japanese Imperial Army. His mission is to gather funds for Japan's impending invasion of Manchuria by any means necessary. That includes robbing a Chinese bank and selling salt in the Manchurian countryside at ludicrously inflated prices. Kaya's life gets ever more complicated when he runs into an old lover, a Chinese cabaret singer and cat burglar named Lian (played by Diane Lane). Later, Kaya is forced to start selling opium when his superiors threaten Lian's life. This ultimately leads to an ugly confrontation with ruthless gang boss (played by Hong Kong martial arts icon Yuen Biao). Donald Sutherland also appears as a rapacious Hong Kong bureaucrat. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

If you know the Clement Clark Moore poem, you'll know that Prancer is one of Santa Claus' "eight tiny reindeer." When 9-year-old Rebecca Harrell, who still believes in Santa despite the remonstrations of her parents and the taunts of her peers, stumbles across the selfsame Prancer in a remote part of the forest, no one will believe the girl. Later on, Harrell's no-nonsense father Sam Elliot comes across a wounded reindeer, he feels it his duty to put the suffering animal out of his misery. The deer, of course, is Prancer, and it magically vanishes before Elliot's startled eyes. Harrell nurses the deer back to health in secret, with the help of kindly doctor Abe Vigoda and her troublesome older brother John Joseph Duda. Harrell is determined to contact Santa and let him know where Prancer is, but her efforts only result in public humiliation for her father. But this is a Christmas film, and the spirit of goodwill is contagious by fadeout time, even transforming town-recluse Cloris Leachman into a warm-hearted social animal. Filmed in Indiana, Prancer isn't quite a classic, but it's perfect midwinter videocassette entertainment. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the tradition of classic Japanese monster movies of the 1950s, a mysterious cloud has settled over Tokyo and the surrounding region, entrapping twenty million people (and the entire government) within a mysterious force field. As the rest of the world looks on with concern, and the U.S. is pressuring the U.N. to be the overseer of a provisional government, Japanese scientists and journalists frantically work to end the mysterious blockade. In the end, a flexible-minded journalist succeeds where the country's best scientists have failed. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Apology stars Lesley Anne Warren (with a Stefanie Powers hairdo) as a Manhattan-based sculptor/performance artist. To enhance her latest project, Warren invites the participation of anonymous phone callers, whose voices she records. One of her unseen "collaborators" calls her up to confess to a murder--several murders, in fact. Warren strongly suspects that the mystery caller may be intending a little "performance" involving her own demise. Peter Weller co-stars as a sympathetic detective who ends up Warren's lover--but can he be trusted? Made for HBO, Apology was originally telecast July 27, 1986. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Unfortunately bound by clichés and stereotypes rather than original insights and new viewpoints, this condensed movie version of an 8-hour television series does not do complete justice to its noble topic of courage in the face of the World War II holocaust. The story is based on the memoirs of Martin Gray (Michael York plays the older Gray and Jacques Penot the younger), a Polish Jew who survived the Warsaw Ghetto and escaped Treblinka, the Nazi death camp where his mother and brothers died. After leaving Treblinka, Martin returns to Warsaw in time to join the Jewish insurrection at the Warsaw ghetto. In 1943, thousands of Jews in the walled ghetto revolted and fought the German occupation forces for six weeks, killing 5,000 Germans but losing their heroic struggle -- that six-week battle is a major focus of the film. Miraculously, Gray survives the war and moves to France where he meets and falls in love with Dina (Brigitte Fossey) -- and then has a major second tragic episode in his life that opens this film, and in the story and in real life it inspires him to write his memoirs. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Coming Out of the Ice stars John Savage as the real-life Victor Herman, an American athlete born to Ukrainian immigrants. In 1931, when Herman was sixteen, he and his family moved to the Soviet Union when his father was transferred there for his job with Ford Motor Company. Four years later, Victor won the world parachute jump competition, but refused to accept an award bestowed by Josef Stalin or to renounce his American citizenship. Presumably as a result, Herman was sentenced to hard labor and then exile in Siberia; he would not be cleared of "counterrevolutionary" charges until 1955. He eventually returned to the United States nearly 45 years after he was first imprisoned. Filmed in Finland, Coming Out the Ice was first telecast on May 23, 1982. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on the epic novel by James Clavell, Shogun originated as an epic five-part television miniseries, filmed on location in Japan. Richard Chamberlain stars as John Blackthorne, a 17th century British sea pilot in charge of a Dutch vessel. Shipwrecked off the coast of Japan, Blackthorne is in danger of being executed by the suspicious, reclusive Japanese hierarchy, but before long he has been accepted into the local culture. Accordingly, he begins to think of himself as Japanese, adopting the nation's customs and, while wearing the robes of a Samurai warrior, helping to defend the land against its enemies. The arrival of Blackthorne unfortunately arouses the interest of European empire-builders, who hope to add Japan to their holdings. Toshiro Mifune costars as Toranaga, a warlord who befriends Blackthorne, and Yoko Shimada appears as Mariko, the interpreter who eventually falls in love with the Englishman. When it first aired in September of 1980, Shogun caused eyebrows to raise with its seemingly reckless disregard of certain TV taboos: for example, one man is beheaded in full view of the audience, while another relieves himself on the body of an enemy. Most of the early dialogue sequence are in Japanese, which resulted in complaints from many monolingual viewers. As a result, the 1983 rebroadcast of Shogun included English narration by Orson Welles. The 125-minute feature version of Shogun, prepared for home video, includes English subtitles--as well as several originally excised scenes of nudity and excessive violence. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Adapted for the screen by novelist Joseph Wambaugh himself, The Black Marble stars Robert Foxworth as a burned-out, hard-drinking cop who is teamed with idealistic lady officer Paula Prentiss. These two polar opposites wade their way through a seamy urban world of corruption and hopelessness. The film is peppered with supporting players, of which include Harry Dean Stanton, James Woods, John Hancock and Barbara Babcock. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide