Beeban Kidron Movies
British filmmaker Beeban Kidron began directing feature films in the late 1980s. While still a teen, she earned a prize for her photography. Following studies at the national Film and Television School, she directed documentaries and went on to make films for the BBC. Kidron first attracted notice with her award-winning TV movie Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (1990), the story of a young lesbian's acceptance of her sexuality. Later it played on the festival circuit and won a British Academy Award. Her next feature film was Antonia & Jane (1991). Most of Kidron's films are about off-beat relationships. In 1992, she made a respectable Hollywood debut with the comedy-drama Used People. In 1995, Kidron had her first U.S. hit with the flamboyant road-comedy To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide- 2009
- R
The landmark obscenity trial surrounding a satirical Australian magazine becomes a metaphor for a wild ride through swinging 1960s-era London in director Beeban Kidron's adaptation of Richard Neville's memoir Hippie Hippie Shake: The Dreams, the Trips, the Trials, the Love-ins, the Screw Ups: The Sixties. Cillian Murphy stars as Neville in a film that follows the editors of Oz as they relocate to London and are forced to defend a sexually explicit issue of their irreverent magazine after it raises the eyebrows of the Obscene Publications Squad. The resulting legal battle would become the longest obscenity trial in the history of English law. Though the publishers of Oz were initially sentenced to hard labor, a subsequent appeal would find their sentences commuted under the agreement that they cease publication of the controversial magazine. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cillian Murphy, Sienna Miller, (more)
- 2004
- R
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Based on author Helen Fielding's sequel to Bridget Jones's Diary, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason picks up four weeks after the original film left off, with Bridget (Renée Zellweger) emotionally satisfied at long last with Mark Darcy (Colin Firth), her barrister boyfriend. Stability in Bridget's life, however, quickly becomes a contradiction in terms. Though Mark is openly supportive of Bridget's eccentricities -- and there are many -- she is nonetheless threatened by Mark's young, nubile intern, not to mention irked at finding out that he is, among other less desirable qualities in her eyes, a conservative voter. Complicating issues further is the reentrance of her ex-lover, Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant), whom Jones, perhaps mistakenly, thought she had finally gotten over. Before long, the situation escalates into another series of embarrassing circumstances for Bridget, who is faced once again with a crippling feeling of self-doubt and has only her diary and friends to combat it. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Renée Zellweger, Hugh Grant, (more)
- 1999
This offbeat retelling of the classic fairy tale is set on the British Isle of Man in the 1950s, with the three wicked stepsisters portrayed as a trio of annoying social climbers doted upon by their mother Claudette (Kathleen Turner). Cinderella stars Marcella Plunkett in the title role, with Gideon Turner as Prince Valiant and David Warner as Martin. Produced for British television, Cinderella was first aired on New Year's Day, 2000. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kathleen Turner, David Warner, (more)
Swept From the Sea was inspired by a short story by Joseph Conrad. Set in late 19th-century Cornwall England in a small farming community, the story is told via flashback in a conversation between Dr. James Kennedy (Ian McKellen) and his patient Miss Swaffer (Kathy Bates). Dr. Kennedy despises indentured servant Amy Foster (Rachel Weisz). Miss Swaffer asks why, and so he recounts the love that blossomed between Amy and Yanko Goorall (Vincent Perez), a shipwrecked Russian who was trying to get to America. Born prior to her parent's wedding, Amy was relegated to a servant's life by rigid British society. Yanko was the sole survivor of a Russian shipwreck and he met Amy when he wandered onto her master's farm looking for food and shelter. Frightened and suspicious, no one but Amy is willing to help the bedraggled foreigner. Yanko eventually becomes a laborer for the Swaffer family. As he could speak no English at first, they know nothing of his origins. It is Dr. Kennedy who deduces his nationality after Yanko proves his mettle at chess. Impressed, the doctor offers English lessons in exchange for chess tutorials. In time, Kennedy comes to regard Yanko as a son. As soon as Yanko is able to converse, he asks about the maid who saved him, Amy. A love blossoms between them, one that deeply disturbs Kennedy. Still, he cannot prevent Swaffer from setting them up with land and a home so they can marry. A son is born, but Yanko is unable to withstand the harshness of Cornwall life, and tragedy ensues. Kennedy blames Amy for the tragic turn of events, but Miss Swaffer intervenes and tells the doctor the heartbreaking true circumstances surrounding Yanko. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vincent Perez, Rachel Weisz, (more)
- 1995
- PG13
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Patrick Swayze plays Vida Boheme, a classy and long-reigning drag queen. With his understudy Noxeema Jackson (Wesley Snipes), Vida wins a New York drag stage contest and an all-expenses-paid trip to Hollywood. But when Miss Chi Chi Rodriguez (John Leguizamo) cries at having lost the contest, soft-hearted Vida cashes in the airline tickets so the three of them can take a car out West. The film becomes a strange sort of buddy road movie, with the three cross-dressers traveling across the American heartland in a shiny yellow Cadillac. First they tangle with Sheriff Dollard (Chris Penn). He stops them for a minor traffic violation, puts the moves on Vida, and Vida knocks him out, so they flee. Later, they are stranded by car problems in a small town in Nebraska. Renting a room in a hotel, they put some life into the town and its annual strawberry festival. They provide a mousy local woman, Carol Ann (Stockard Channing), with new role models of assertiveness. They also insist on chivalrous treatment from the local good old boys and give lessons on courting to a teenage girl. This film was released on the heels of the more outrageous Australian film The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, which featured Terence Stamp as a drag queen. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wesley Snipes, Patrick Swayze, (more)
This British romantic comedy follows the exploits of a young woman determined to become an aviator in the 1950's. The story begins in the West Indies as plucky Gabriel Angel prepares to board a ship home to England to achieve her dreams of flying. Due to a reservations glitch, Gabriel must share her cabin with Duncan Stewart, a Scottish fellow. The two are attracted to each other. Obstacles are presented by the sleazy Rex Goodyear, an art historian who claims "Stewart" is the art thief who swiped one of his paintings after murdering his wife. Two lesbian missionaries also returning to England round out the cast. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vanessa Redgrave, John Hurt, (more)
- 1992
- PG13
Todd Graff wrote the screenplay for this eccentric romantic comedy in the spirit of Moonstruck that exchanges pasta for matzo balls. The film takes place in Queens in 1969, where Pearl Berman (Shirley MacLaine) has just arrived back from the funeral of her husband. As her dysfunctional family kvetches in the living room, the dapper Joe Meledandri (Marcello Mastroianni) arrives. It seems that Joe has admired Pearl from afar for a number of years, ever since he met her husband in a bar and persuaded him to return to his wife. He invites Pearl for coffee, provoking the wisecrack from her mother (Jessica Tandy): "She got picked up at her own husband's funeral." As Pearl is wooed by Joe, she has to deal with her lonely, overweight daughter Bibby (Kathy Bates) and her prettier daughter Norma (Marcia Gay Harden), who suffers from such a lack of self esteem that she assumes the personalities of Marilyn Monroe, Jackie Kennedy, and Bonnie Parker. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shirley MacLaine, Kathy Bates, (more)
- 1991
From director Beeban Kidron, Antonia & Jane is a look at an enduring friendship between a pair of decidedly opposite people. Beautiful, sophisticated, and self-assured, Antonia (Saskia Reeves) has it all -- or so it seems to the pudgy wallflower Jane (Imelda Staunton), who secretly resents the fact that her own inner light is invariably extinguished whenever her glamorous friend enters a room. The fact that Antonia stole and married Jane's first lover only makes matters worse. While Jane vents her feelings in her therapist's office, Antonia herself secretly longs to be more like Jane, who is always off in search of new adventures and experiences. Petricia Leventon and Alfred Hoffman also star. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Saskia Reeves, Imelda Staunton, (more)
- 1989
Filmed in Britain, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit stars Charlotte Coleman as a champing-at-the-bit teenager named Jess. The girl's domineering mother (Geraldine McEwan), a religious fanatic, wants Jess to become a missionary; to that end, she refuses to allow the girl any friends her own age. Jess' father has nothing to say in the matter--indeed, he has had nothing to say to anyone for years. The girl's growing awareness of her own sexuality (depicted in steamy detail) flies in the face of her mother's carefully orchestrated plans. Funny in a dark sort of way, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit was first seen in America over the Arts and Entertainment cable service in late 1990. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1988
Jake (Clive Owen) and Ringe (David Thewlis) keep a 1950s American car under wraps in hopes of someday escaping their drab town. When Jake falls for divorcee Susan (Diana Quick), she joins Jake and Ringe on a joyride, but the excitement of their initial freedom is short-lived, as they are soon bilked of all their money. Jake realizes his two companions do not share in his idea of carefree motoring, and he brings the two back home. Jake symbolically flies in his vehicle over the town he left behind. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Diana Quick, Clive Owen, (more)
- 1984
Shot in 1983 by two women just out of film school, Carry Greenham Home is a documentary on the protest at the Greenham Common military base which began in 1981. The protest was organized and maintained by women, and rather than focus on the pro-peace message of the demonstrators themselves, the two directors highlight the role the women have played as a group, setting examples for other feminists. While much of the chanting and communal spirit, and many of the hardships are recorded on film, there remains a need to get farther below the surface than the sound of chants or examples of camaraderie. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
